South Africa: Umalusi mourns Professor Dan Kgwadi's passing

The Umalusi Council has extended its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Professor Daniel Kgwadi, the Vaal University of Technology (VUT) Vice Chancellor, who passed away on Sunday.

Kgwadi was a former member of the Umalusi Council. He was appointed by the Minister of Basic Education to serve two terms on the Umalusi Council, with his first term having started in 2010 and ending in 2014. His second term was from 2014 to 2018.

During his tenure, Kgwadi was assigned various roles, including being Deputy Chairperson of Council, Member of Executive Committee of Council (EXCO), and Chairperson of Assessment Standards Committee (ASC) of Council.

Umalusi said the general and further education and training, as well as higher education sectors have lost a transformative leader.

The Council said Kgwadis term in office helped to transform the shape and form of Umalusi, as the body benefited immensely from his broad understanding of education, appreciation of the challenges that plague the South African education system and willingness to engage in robust discussion.

It was during his tenure that Umalusi Council responded to the evolving NQF (National Qualifications Framework) landscape through the development of its sub-framework of qualifications and re-conceptualising existing quality assurance approaches and processes.

As the Chairperson of the ASC, Professor Kgwadi presided over deliberations with distinction, facilitating robust discussions and accommodating divergent views. Professor Kgwadi, as Deputy Chairperson of Council, participated actively and led discussions which resulted in the attainment of important milestones, Umalusi said in a statement.

Shining legacy

Also paying tribute to Kgwadi, the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Innovation, said the higher education sector acknowledges the meaningful contribution, which he has made to the entire sector.

Committee Chairperson, Nompendulo Mkhatshwa, noted that before his appointment as Vice Chancellor of the VUT, Kgwadi was the Vice Chancellor of the North West University.

He served on the Umalusi Council and on other various professional bodies where he left a shining legacy, Mkhatshwa said.

Mkhatshwa said the committee last interacted directly with Kgwadi on 30 November 2022 in Parliament.

He engaged the committee on the importance of stabilising management and governance at VUT to ensure that the university performed well in its core business, which is the academic programme, to provide university students with sound university education, knowledge and skills that are responsive to the South African industry and in the world.

The committee is behind the Kgwadi family during this very difficult time of grief and mourning, and extends its heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, colleagues of Professor Kgwadi and the entire VUT community. May his soul rest in eternal peace, Mkhatshwa said in a statement.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2023-05-03. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
UNITED NATIONS, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The UN relief chief said on Wednesday his colleagues are ready to distribute aid supplies in Sudan but need firm commitments of protection from hostilities.

"We have a plan for where we would deploy," UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths told reporters in a briefing from Port Sudan. "We have a plan for how we get supplies to these places. Medical first, obviously in Khartoum, safe water there as well. Supplies of a range of things to Darfur. And we know how we can do this and we will start doing it."

However, the UN relief coordinator said he has to have commitments publicly and clearly from the two clashing militaries, to protect humanitarian assistance and to deliver on the obligation to allow supplies for people to move. "We should do that... even when there is no formal natural ceasefire. We will still require agreements and arrangements to allow for movements of staff and supplies."

Griffiths and Volker Perthes, the Special Representative for the Secretary-General in Sudan, had telephone calls with the opposing military leaders, Generals Abdelfattah Al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and with civil society leaders, where he sought protection, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, visiting Nairobi, reiterated the immediate need for Sudan aid with secure and quick access. Noting the turmoil and the violence, he called for an immediate stop to the fighting.

"All parties must put the interests of the Sudanese people first - that means peace, prosperity and a return to civilian rule," the UN chief said.

The World Health Organization said it has 80 metric tons of emergency medical supplies awaiting customs clearance in Port Sudan. The shipment includes nearly 60 metric tons of IV fluids, eight metric tons of trauma kits and more than 12 metric tons of kits to treat severe acute malnutrition. Officials expedited customs clearance to ensure the quick release of these supplies.

The World Food Programme (WFP) plans food assistance for 384,000 people who were already refugees, newly displaced people, and host communities in the Sudan states of Gedaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile.

In Port Sudan, WFP has at least 8,000 metric tons of food ready to dispatch as soon as possible, OCHA said. Before the fighting, the agency had more than 80,000 metric tons of food in Sudan. Nearly 17,000 metric tons were looted. The WFP is trying to determine what remains. 
Peter Thiels Palantir Proposes GPT-based AI To Generate and Conduct Military Attacks

May 2, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)The high-tech company Palantir, founded by billionaire Peter Thiel with initial CIA funding, is making moves to expand its reach beyond domestic surveillance services for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Thiel is not only a pioneer in the funding of the legal cannabis operation. The company has released a video demo of its latest offering, the Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), which is designed to integrate large language models (LLMs) like OpenAIs GPT-4 and Googles BERT into privately-operated networks.

In the video, says an April 27 article published by Metaverse Post, Palantir showcased how its software could be used by the military in modern warfare scenarios. An operator could use a ChatGPT-style chatbot to order drone reconnaissance, generate attack plans, and coordinate the jamming of enemy communications. Therefore, The launch of Palantirs AIP is sure to raise questions about the ethical implications of Palantirs involvement in military operations.

(Already in February, Palantir CEO Alex Karp told CIA-affinity Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, in an interview, how Palantirs AI capabilities had been provided to the Ukrainian military, implyingto Ignatius at leastthat Palantir AI was winning the war for Ukraine.)

AIP generates a secure digital record of the entire operation, which the video claims is crucial in mitigating significant legal, regulatory, and ethical risks in sensitive and classified settings, and AIP has industry-leading guardrails in place to prevent unauthorized actions, thus ensuring the safe use of the system.

The military operator featured in the video demonstrates the practical application of Palantirs scenario in responding to a potential threat in Eastern Europe. By using AIP, the operator could efficiently and effectively gather more information about the enemys military equipment. With the help of the AIPs large language models, the operator was also able to quickly ask questions and obtain accurate answers.

Although the AIPs abilities were showcased effectively, Palantir recognizes the importance of governing the application of LLMs and algorithms in sensitive situations, particularly in military endeavors. There are also concerns about the reliability and effectiveness of the technology, particularly about preventing LLMs from generating false facts and details.

It is quite probable that the call for a six-month moratorium of GPT applications, signed by many prominent figures in the AI industry, came as a response to Palantirs announcement. Members of the U.S. Congress introduced a bill to prevent the use of artificial intelligence in making the decision as to whether to launch nuclear weapons.
The American Library Association (ALA) reported in March that attempts to ban books in libraries and schools in the United States set a record last year.

The group said there were 1,269 attempts to censor library books and resources in 2022. That is almost double the number of attempts from the year before. And it is the highest number reached in more than 20 years.

The ALA reported that a record 2,571 books were targeted. The large majority of those books were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color, the report says.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone is head of the ALAs Office for Intellectual Freedom. She said, "The choice of what to read must be left to the reader or, in the case of children, to parents. That choice does not belong to self-appointed book police.

But conservative lawmakers and supporters say they want to ban some books to protect children from harmful materials.

A new law in the midwestern state of Missouri has resulted in several books being removed from libraries. In the state of Florida, lawmakers recently passed three new laws related to controlling reading material.

In the northwestern state of Idaho, Republican lawmakers have proposed legislation that would ban public libraries from holding material judged harmful to minors.

And one town in the state of Texas is considering going a step further  closing the public library.

'A book's never hurt anybody'

Llano is a rural town 120 kilometers from Austin, the state capital. There, officials proposed closing the library system after a federal judge ruled against the local lawmakers' decision to remove some books.

"A book's never hurt anybody," said J.R. Decker, who noted that his family has lived in Llano for generations. "My government's telling me the only thing they can protect my child from is books. They should be worried about gun violence and school safety."

Decker was among the people who protested at a recent meeting regarding the attempt to close the library.

Among those who spoke was Suzette Baker, a former Llano County librarian who says she was fired after refusing to remove some books.

"I would like to know how the 'History of the KKK' is pornographic? 'How to be an Anti-Racist,' how is that pornographic? It's not," Baker said at the hearing.

"This is not about taking away rights. This is not a communist nation. This is not a Nazi nation. You do not get to pick our reading material, it is ours."

Book-ban supporter Rhonda Schneider defended the effort. She listed a number of books in the Llano library that she said contain graphic sexuality.

"It is not a safe space for kids, Schneider argued.

Emmett McPherson did not get called to speak at the hearing. But he said he agreed that the librarys books are unsafe for children. "I am willing to close the whole library to keep them out of my children's hands," he said.

Shirley Robinson leads the Texas Library Association. She said while some of the books cited at the meeting may be objectionable to some, they are not pornographic.

"So first of all, there is a legal definition of pornography," said Robinson. "And there are never any materials in any library  school, public or academic  that would meet that legal definition of pornography."

Texas book ban efforts

Robinson said attempts to ban some books in Texas began in 2021. A lawmaker contacted libraries asking if they had any books among a list of nearly 850 titles. Many of the titles were LGBTQ-related or were written by or about people of color, she added.

Robinson said there are 40 proposed bills relating to libraries in the state legislature at the moment. Some of the bills open the possibility of criminal charges against librarians.

"Librarians are leaving the profession because there is this threat of potential criminal prosecution or just harassment within their communities," Robinson said.

One librarian who quit is Lee Glover, who was an elementary school librarian in the Houston, Texas, area.

She said there was a process in place to follow before she could put a book into the library. "But now they want me to have parents come and review them before I order them?"

The students are the losers in the book-banning battle, Glover added. "We are the lifeline for so many kids.

For now, the Llano County library system remains open. At its recent meeting, county leaders voted to delay the decision while they appeal the federal order to return the books to the local library. That decision is expected in autumn.

I'm Caty Weaver.

Deana Mitchell reported this story for VOA News. Hai Do adapted the story for Learning English.

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Words in This Story

censor - v. to examine books, movies, etc... in order to remove things considered harmful, offensive or immoral

pornographic - adj. showing or describing naked people or sex in the open

graphic - adj. show or describe in a very clear way

title - n. the name give to something like a book or movie

potential - adj. capable of becoming real, possible

prosecution - n. the act or process of holding atrial against a person accused of a crime to see if that person is guilty

harassment - n. the act of annoying someone repeatedly

review - v. to study and examine something again
The United Nations announced on Tuesday that its prize for press freedom has been awarded to three imprisoned Iranian female journalists for their commitment to truth and accountability.

The winners are Niloufar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohammadi and Narges Mohammadi.

Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi covered the story of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died while being held by Irans morality police last September. She had been accused of wearing her head covering too loosely.

Hamedi broke the news of Aminis death and Elaheh Mohammadi wrote about her funeral. Both women were arrested for their reporting work.

The news of Aminis death led to months of protests in many cities across Iran. One of the media professionals who chose the winners, Zainab Salbi, said the brave work of the winners led to a historical women-led revolution.

The third prize winner, Narges Mohammadi, has worked for many years as a journalist and is one of Irans most well-known activists. She has won numerous international awards for her activism against the death penalty in Iran. She has been repeatedly detained and imprisoned for her work. The UNs cultural organization, UNESCO, says Mohammadi is currently serving a 16-year prison term in Irans Evin Prison.

Audrey Azoulay is the director-general of UNESCO. At an award ceremony in New York on Tuesday, Azoulay said: Now more than ever, it is important to pay tribute to all women journalists who are prevented from doing their jobs and who face threats and attacks on their personal safety.

The prize is officially known as the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. It is named for Guillermo Cano, a Colombian journalist who was killed in front of his newspapers office in 1986.

The prize is given each year on May 3, World Press Freedom Day.

Im Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on a report by the Associated Press.

__________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

journalist n. a person who works to collect and write, tell and edit stories for newspapers, magazines, television or radio

commitment n. a promise to do something or the feeling of someone who works very hard to do something

funeral n. the ceremony held for person who has died

tribute n. an honor or appreciation

__________________________________________________________________

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When asked about his origin story, John Damon always told his family he was an orphan from Chicago. Which was true, in a way.

In 1958, the 16-year-old Omaha boy indeed became an orphan  when he shot his parents to death.

And nine years later, after he sawed through prison bars and escaped the Nebraska State Penitentiary, the fugitive did flee to Chicago to launch his new life.

But back in those days, Damon was known by a different name: William Leslie Arnold.

After more than half a century, the mystery of Leslie Arnold has been solved.

U.S. marshals in Omaha recently through DNA evidence determined a career salesman under the alias John Damon who died in Australia in 2010 was actually Arnold, the long-lost convicted killer who escaped the state penitentiary in 1967 and vanished without a trace.

The 67-year-old Arnold left behind a wife and two children in Australia  as well as three surviving stepdaughters from a previous marriage here in the United States  all of whom were oblivious to his dark, secretive past.

Its a total shock, said Arnold's stepdaughter Kelly, who like her sisters requested that her last name not be used, citing privacy concerns. Mind blowing.

The jaw-dropping revelation has his family rethinking the entirety of the life of the man they thought they knew. Where they previously saw a loner who didnt keep a lot of friends and valued his privacy, they now see a man who, of necessity, mostly kept a low profile.

In fact, Arnold, who was known as a talented saxophone player both at Omahas Central High School and in prison, went so far to hide his true identity late in life that even after his own son took up the instrument, the father never once touched it.

Thats part of the mystery of my dad, his son said. As a function of his past, he had to live his life in a certain way.

The resolution of the case comes five years after The World-Herald published The Mystery of Leslie Arnold, a series of stories detailing the captivating Arnold saga.

The smart but troubled teen shocked Omaha in 1958 by killing his mother and father in their Aksarben-area home, burying the bodies in the backyard, and then continuing to attend school for two weeks before his grim crimes were discovered.

Sentenced to life in prison, the boy served for almost a decade as a model prisoner. Prison officials felt he was likely within just a few years of an official pardon for his youthful crimes and ultimate release.

But in July 1967, the enigmatic Arnold shocked everyone again. The then 24-year-old pulled off an escape worthy of a movie script and disappeared. Hes still the last man to successfully escape the penitentiary.

Now the final chapters of Arnold's astounding story can be written.

Through numerous interviews with family members and others, public records and information from law enforcement sources, The World-Herald has pieced together an extensive picture of Arnolds 43-year life as a fugitive.

While Arnold eventually died half a world away, for the first 25 years, he was essentially hiding out in plain sight right here in America.

Just four months after the escape, he married a divorced mother of four, a woman who waited tables at the same restaurant on Chicagos South Side where he had landed a job as a cook.

With the instant cover provided by his Damon alias and big new family, Arnold became an independent traveling salesman. After two years in Chicago, the family moved to Cincinnati in 1969, and then two years later settled in Miami.

Estranged from his wife, Arnold then moved to Los Angeles around 1977, divorced, remarried, and fathered his own children relatively late in life  while in his late 40s.

Then in the early 1990s, something appeared to spook Arnold. He cut ties to his stepdaughters, had a distinctive mole removed from his face, and moved with his second family overseas, first to New Zealand in 1992, and then to Australia in 1997.

Living in Australia, Arnold passed away at home on Aug. 6, 2010, due to complications from blood clots  ending his life a free man.

His son described Arnold as a charismatic and patriotic man who loved science and technology, and as a doting father who raised his kids with a love of music.

My dads legacy is a lot more than the initial crime and escape, his son said.

His stepdaughters have a more mixed memory of the man who stepped in as their father for a decade.

Theyre grateful for the smart and hardworking man who rescued them from a life in the projects. They also described their stepfather as demanding and strict  ironically, similar to how Arnold had described his own treatment at the hands of his mother.

A lot of things that didnt make sense or were uncomfortable now make sense, said another stepdaughter, Shawn. We all need to work our way through it, and thats what were doing.

Besides his resourcefulness, there was another key to Arnolds success in avoiding recapture: It appears he never seriously ran afoul of the law again.

Beyond some normal traffic stops, authorities have found no criminal record under the Damon name  such slip-ups often becoming the downfall of fugitives.

Innumerable questions remain surrounding Arnold and his life. And with his death, the answers to many may never be known.

That includes why an immigration card, bearing Arnolds real name, was issued to someone in Brazil a year and a half after his escape  a fact first revealed by The World-Herald in its 2017 series.

Did Arnold or a stand-in travel to Brazil under his real name in an effort to throw U.S. authorities off his trail? Thats plausible, especially given that we now know Arnold by that time had already established his new John Damon identity.

Even though its solved, its still a mystery, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Matt Westover, the Omaha-based law enforcement officer who cracked the 55-year-old cold case. You want to fill in the other pieces of the puzzle.

It's a puzzle that began with a stunning crime in Omaha in the fall of 1958.

THE CRIME AND ESCAPE

On a crisp October afternoon, the boyish-faced Leslie Arnold betrayed little emotion as he led Omaha police officers into the backyard of his home at 66th Street and Poppleton Avenue. He pointed to a spot beneath a lilac bush. Thats where he told them to dig.

A uniformed cop had turned up only a few shovelfuls of black dirt before he revealed the first sign of the truth: a human hand. The bodies of the boys parents, Opal and William Arnold, were soon unearthed.

To believe the news reports from 1958, Arnold shot his parents to death simply because they wouldnt let him use the family car to take his girlfriend on a date.

But digging deeper into the case decades later, The World-Herald revealed there was a lot more going on in the Arnolds' Aksarben neighborhood home.

Arnold played in the marching band, dance band and ROTC band at Central and was a good student. But he was also high-strung and carried some deep anger and resentments, most of those feelings revolving around his relationship with his 40-year-old mother.

Leslie Arnold would later tell psychiatrists that his mother ruled over him in a domineering and arbitrary fashion. It seemed there was nothing he could do to satisfy her. Others observed similar things.

It seemed to me his mother was excessively and compulsively hard on him, said childhood friend Jim Child.

Arnold would later tell evaluators there may have been underlying reasons for his mothers erratic behavior. She was twice hospitalized after nervous breakdowns''  the common term at the time for episodes of mental illness.

A big source of recent conflict between mother and son had been Leslies girlfriend, a North High student named Crystal who Leslie had been dating for a year. His mother was dead-set against the relationship, objecting to the girls working-class upbringing.

The only thing I knew was she did not approve of me  and not just me, my whole family, she told The World-Herald in an interview. We werent good enough for her son.

As one psychiatrist who later examined Arnold later put it, the way Leslies mother treated the boy, and her attempts to keep him away from his girlfriend, represented a challenge to the boys very manhood.

The emasculating influence of mother-dominance, plus being treated as a child rather than a growing young man, could only serve to produce hidden resentments and antagonism towards his parents which could be classified as a smoldering volcano, the psychiatrist wrote.

On Sept. 27, 1958, the volcano blew.

Leslie and his mother were having another bitter argument over his plans to go to the drive-in with Crystal. Thats when, he would later tell detectives, I got a crazy idea in my head.

He retrieved a .22-caliber rifle from his parents closet. He later said he just wanted to show his mom he was serious about going out with his girlfriend.

When his mother laughed at him and told him to put the gun away, he said, he suddenly raised the weapon and pulled the trigger. The boy then stood over his mother and fired five more shots into her chest.

I cant explain it, she seemed in pain, and I didnt want to hurt her anymore, but I just kept shooting, he later told investigators.

It was right at that moment, he said, that his father came through the door. Enraged at the sight of his wifes body, William Arnold went after the boy.

After ducking a wild swing, Leslie shot his father six times, too. He fell dead in the dining room beside his wife.

Arnold later said he curled up on the couch and cried, not knowing what to do. But within an hour, he had hatched a plan.

He told everyone his parents had suddenly left town to find a senile grandfather who had wandered off in Wyoming. He arranged for his brother to stay with the family.

The boy then felt the need to see his girlfriend, taking her to the drive-in after all. Arnold later described it as a horrible night, the boy tortured by his guilty conscience.

The next night, under the cover of darkness, he dragged both of his parents bodies to the backyard and buried them. And for the next two weeks, Arnold settled into a routine, opening his fathers downtown business before going to school.

But a week into his ruse, he was startled to return home to find his grandfather  the same one he had been telling people was missing. Not satisfied with the boys evasive answers, his family five days later went to police.

On Saturday morning Oct. 11, he was taken in for questioning and copped to his crimes. Months later, he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in the state penitentiary.

While Arnold faced at least 10 years of incarceration, at the time, the states Pardons Board commonly commuted the life sentences of killers to a set number of years, allowing them to be released on parole.

Prison officials found the boy industrious and earnest, and the model prisoner also pursued his love of music by playing in the prison band.

We all just kind of felt he would ultimately make parole and make a success out of himself, one prison official said.

But at some point, Arnold soured on prison life. And in 1967, he conspired with fellow convicted killer James Harding to break out of the trusty dorm, a secure facility within penitentiary grounds for lower-risk inmates who were nearing possible release.

Arnold and Harding convinced a recent parolee to toss a tube containing saw blades and a pair of rubber masks into the prison yard, where the conspiring cons retrieved it.

Arnold and Harding then hid away inside the music practice room and sawed through the bars that covered a window, holding them in place with chewing gum.

On the appointed night of July 14, 1967, they used the rubber masks and fashioned dummies in their beds to confuse the overnight guards.

They then made their way down to the music room, jumped out the window, scrambled over a barbed-wire fence and ran to a clearing, where the new parolee waited in a car.

He drove the escapees to Omaha, where Arnold's childhood friend Child got them clothes, money and tickets on a 3 a.m. bus bound for Chicago.

The escape was so clean, they were already halfway to Chicago by the time they were discovered missing.

Harding, who was recaptured less than a year after the escape and later paroled, told The World-Herald in an exclusive interview before his 2008 death that the last time he saw Arnold was just days after they landed in Chicago.

Arnold informed Harding he had already found a job, as a cook at a restaurant in a Polish neighborhood. He had also hooked up with a girl, an older woman.

I got mine, Arnold told Harding the last time they spoke. You get yours.

MARRIAGE TO JEANNE BOUVIA

Kelly still remembers her first impressions of the slender, fresh-faced young man her mother brought home to dinner one night in 1967.

He didnt eat much, like one pea and a little mashed potatoes, she said. He seemed nice enough. He didnt talk much. He didnt talk about himself at all.

Kellys mother, Jeanne Bouvia, had recently met this new man named John Damon at Davids, a restaurant at 31st and South Halsted in Chicago. The divorced mother of four worked there as a waitress. Damon had just taken a job there as a line cook  a skill hed actually picked up in prison.

Davids was known for its ice cream sundaes, and it indeed was located in a heavily Polish neighborhood.

The couples courtship became a quick one. Arnold soon after moved in. Then Cook County records show Damon married Bouvia in a civil ceremony on November 25, 1967  just 134 days after Arnold escaped.

Bouvias daughters dont remember a proposal or a ceremony or even a ring.

Next thing I knew, they were married, Kelly said.

At 34, Bouvia was older than Arnold, who was 25. She was an attractive woman, too.

The Chicago native was a little glamorous, with a trim figure, a blonde beehive hairdo and her nails and makeup done up just so. She also possessed a sassy personality and enjoyed the company of men.

Its easy to see why shed catch the eye of a young man who had been locked up since age 16.

But both also gained much from their hasty union.

For Bouvia, a survivor who always found a way, it meant stability for her family. After meeting Arnold, the new family moved from the public housing projects near the restaurant where theyd been living to a much nicer place on West Race Avenue.

For Arnold, the marriage provided instant cover, helping him quickly blend into society. He overnight went from Nebraska prison escapee to the married father of four daughters, ages 14, 12, 9 and 5.

I told my mom he was either ignorant or brave to marry a woman with four girls, said Shawn, the then-12-year-old. Now I think John took it on because he needed to. What a perfect cover.

The girls were told by their mother that their new father had grown up in an orphanage. But Deb, the oldest of the girls, said she now has to wonder whether her mother  who died in 2000  knew something more about Arnolds past than she ever let on.

It was a tough go for a single mom, and I could see why she would want someone who could support us, she said. Maybe she had an inkling of what was going on. But well never know.

Along with his new family, another key to Arnold establishing his new identity was an official-looking-but-forged Illinois birth certificate he had somehow obtained under his chosen John Damon alias.

It listed his birth year as 1941 rather than 1942, and his mother as Jeanne Stanley, which was actually Bouvias maiden name. The fake document enabled him to get official identification during his life, like drivers licenses and a Social Security card.

So within weeks of his escape, Arnold had a new name, a new life and the tools to support himself.

As he settled into married life, Arnold and his bride shared some things in common, including a love of movies and music. He bought himself a saxophone, sitting in the corner of the living room on Race Avenue to play. He sometimes had a drummer and guitar player come over to play with him.

They would jam out and scat and all kinds of stuff, Deb said.

Shawn even remembered him playing a few public gigs years later when they lived in Miami, producing an early 1970s family picture of a tuxedo-clad Arnold holding his sax.

But overall, Arnolds stepdaughters said it was rare for their father to socialize with anyone outside of home. He kept to himself.

One time, their mother had invited a bunch of neighbors over to throw Arnold a surprise birthday party.

He threw a fit, Kelly said. He hated it.

At some point early, Arnold transitioned occupations from cook to salesman.

He worked as an independent sales representative, a middle man between distributors and potential customers.

His stepdaughters recall him selling lots of different things over the years: linens, vending machines, chemicals, even musical instruments.

He worked hard, often traveling all week. He was always wearing a suit and tie, looking clean cut. He was a strong communicator and speaker. And he seemed good at his job, making good money.

His sales work also may have been why the family in 1969 moved to Cincinnati. There, they settled into a tidy, two-story wood-frame house, with a yard of their own and a piano in the dining room.

For the girls, it was the first time in their lives theyd lived in a real house  not to mention Arnolds first since Poppleton Avenue in Omaha.

In Chicago, we were poor, from the other side of the tracks, Deb said. Here was this savior who pulled us out of this rough life.

To Deb, Shawn and Kelly (Dawn, the youngest, died in 1998), it seemed their stepfather was always working. But today, they hold some nice memories of Arnold  the only man they ever called Dad.

They appreciate the love of music he instilled in them, particularly for jazz.

Deb remembers him teaching her piano.

Kelly fondly recalls him taking her to a Henry Mancini concert.

But the sisters also describe Arnold as demanding, strict and unforgiving  much like they now understand him to have been treated by his own mother.

Before he left on business, he would give them lists of chores they needed to perform while he was gone. They had to get jobs by age 13.

He didnt tolerate back talk. Given that the girls possessed their mothers spunky spirit, they often did.

If they failed to do as they were told, they were put on restriction, their stepfathers word for being grounded. They recalled at times being grounded for a month or more.

The term sounds as if it was rooted in Arnolds penitentiary days. In fact, the girls daily life under their father had a regimental quality much akin to prison life. It's what he knew.

Basically, we got the brunt of him being in a penitentiary and being bullied by his mom, Shawn said. It definitely could have been done with a way different way of discipline.

Cest la vie, its in the past, Deb said. But he was very, very difficult sometimes, and very hard on us.

There are some other intriguing stories from the familys early life together.

Deb recalled that one night on Race Avenue they were awakened by Arnold moaning and crying, like he was having a nightmare. Their mother explained it was a result of their father once contracting malaria. Now Deb wonders if he was tormented by memories of killing his parents.

In 1971, the family moved on to Miami, under circumstances both unusual and suspicious.

Kelly recalls their parents took a vacation trip to the Bahamas by way of Miami. Their mother never came back to Cincinnati, instead staying behind to find a new home while Arnold came back to move the family.

Deb was a senior in high school then and decided not to move.

One day not long after, an FBI agent flashed a badge at her door and asked about John Damon. Deb said she told him she didnt know where he was  as her mother had earlier instructed her.

FBI records from the time offer no evidence that the agency ever linked Damon and Arnold. Deb still has no idea what the visit was about.

In Miami, the creative Arnold gave the living room of the familys new home a 1970s-style makeover. He put a plaster mosaic with colorful inlaid smoked mirrors on the walls and bright two-tone carpet with a slate walking path on the floor. He also installed a quad stereo system.

I remember when he first put it up, he put me in the middle of it, and we were listening to Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Shawn said. He was very excited about that.

He made himself over, too, now wearing his hair a bit longer and donning leisure suits.

After about three or four years in Miami, the restless Arnold started talking about moving the family again, this time to Costa Rica.

He said it was due to the countrys low cost of living. Now his family has to wonder whether there were other motives at work.

Regardless, his family told him they had no desire to move. Arnold instead convinced his wife to buy some land in Hawaii during a trip to the islands, with the idea of one day settling there.

But Bouvia remained opposed to moving  which may have been a factor in their subsequent breakup.

That was the deal breaker, Deb recalled.

It wasnt obvious at first. But Arnolds absences for his work became longer and more frequent.

After a while, Kelly said, he just stopped coming home on the weekends.

By 1977, with most of the girls now out of the house, Arnold had settled into an apartment in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank.

Serving as his own lawyer, on July 27, 1977  just days after the 10th anniversary of his prison escape  Arnold filed for divorce.

Bouvia did not contest or even respond to it, and it was granted in February 1978. But the parting was not amicable.

They had privately agreed to split the familys assets outside of the legal system, and she felt he did not keep his end of the bargain.

In response, Bouvia mailed Arnolds saxophone out to him in California  after first smashing it.

She later summed up her ex this way: He was a great provider, but a lousy husband.

Even after the divorce, Arnold would maintain contact with the girls, calling and visiting from time to time. He attended Debs graduation from nursing school. He sent a birth announcement when his own daughter was born.

Then in 1992, the 50-year-old Arnold asked to meet with them personally. The girls had earlier heard he was again talking about leaving the country, so they knew this might be goodbye.

As the 34-year-old Kelly sat with her stepdad in a booth at Red Lobster in Miami, she offered him some parenting advice.

Now that you have your own daughter, shes going to need to hear shes a good kid now and then instead of just Do this and do that,  she bluntly told him.

She was later proud of herself for telling him that. Those also were among the last words he would ever hear from her. He never contacted any of the girls ever again.

Looking back now, its clear Leslie Arnold was again making a clean break from his past  embarking on what became the third and final act of his life.

THE FINAL ACT

John Damon was a big Clint Eastwood fan. But as his son thinks back on it now, hes amazed about the Eastwood movie his dad had the family sit down to watch at home one evening about two decades ago.

Escape from Alcatraz.

The 1979 prison breakout film even features a scene where the escapees fashion dummies to make their bunks appear occupied.

In hindsight, its so strange to think what was going through his mind when he watched that, the son said in an interview.

The son has recently pondered countless such questions.

Arnolds son was willing to share his fathers life story, but only on condition that neither he, his mother nor sister, nor the town in Australia where they have lived, be identified. The World-Herald agreed to the conditions to obtain critical insights into the last years of Arnolds life that would otherwise not be possible.

A few years after his divorce, Arnold began dating the woman who would become his second wife, a foreign exchange student in Los Angeles.

The two were married in 1983. And in 1986, Arnold at age 44 became a biological father for the first time with the birth of a baby girl. His son was born five years later.

The family shared a number of Los Angeles-area addresses, including in Long Beach, Torrance and Glendale, as Arnold continued his work in sales. By then, he had incorporated his own sales company called Damonico, taken from his alias last name.

Then in 1992, Arnold rather suddenly decided he and his family needed to leave the country.

After the riots in Los Angeles in the wake of the police beating of Rodney King, Arnold told his family that the country had changed and that the United States, or at least Los Angeles, was not a good place to raise a family, his son said.

His wife was firmly opposed to the move but eventually went along. Arnolds family now believes he may have had different motives for leaving the country.

I wonder if there was an evolution of his understanding of his vulnerability to being found, his son said.

Indeed, with the 1990s rise of the internet, law enforcement now had much better tools to track peoples movement and share digital fingerprints, driver's license photos and other information.

The planned move was also not the only twist suggesting Arnold had grown concerned about recapture: Around that same time, he had a doctor remove a mole from his cheek.

The mole had been a distinctive feature on Arnolds face since boyhood  always mentioned in FBI postings about the fugitive. He told his family he removed the mole because he was tired of cutting it while shaving.

Throw in the fact that he said goodbye to his stepdaughters at that time and abruptly cut off all future contact and ties, and theres reason to believe that something had spooked Arnold.

The family first flew to New Zealand. They lived as Kiwis for five years before moving on to Australia.

Even while living overseas, Arnold for nearly a decade continued to at times travel back to the United States for his work. But it seemed the work that had long been the center of his life became secondary once Arnold had children of his own.

He often expressed to his children how profoundly their births had changed him. They had given him new purpose, hed tell them, altering his perspective on what was important and teaching him a life lesson.

His son and daughter knew him as a loving, doting and lighthearted dad who wanted the best for them  making it all the more surprising when they later learned how he had parented his stepdaughters.

Like his first family, Arnolds second was raised amidst his love of music. His son developed his own passion for music, having no doubt he chose to take up the saxophone due to his fathers influence.

But while Arnold told his son he used to play the saxophone, he never picked up his sons instrument to display that skill. In fact, his son only once in his life saw Arnold display any musical talent at all.

As the son struggled one day to play a complicated jazz riff on the piano, his dad sat down on the bench beside him. Why dont you try it this way, he said. Then he proceeded to play the riff perfectly.

The son never thought much of it at the time, miffed and feeling his father had showed him up.

Now he sees it as evidence his father was suppressing his musical talent  yet another sign Arnold was now intentional in concealing his past.

You give up the things you loved so nothing links back to you, his son said.

The past in general was something his father never talked about much.

He repeated to his second family the story of growing up in a Chicago orphanage. When pressed for details, he said it had been a difficult life he didn't want to revisit, and that he felt neither the need nor desire to learn any more about his birth parents.

To his family, the orphanage story seemed to explain not only his reluctance to discuss the past, but also his private, withdrawn personality.

Arnold would sometimes anchor his life story to bits of truth. For example, he once told his family he had worked as a dental technician. He didn't mention he had done so in the penitentiary.

A lot of what we knew and had been told were partial truths, his son said. He did not open up, and I did not ask questions.

In the end, Arnold took his secrets to the grave.

Arnold had been on an extended business trip to California at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He returned to Australia and did not travel overseas after that, doing most of his sales work online and by phone.

Then not long afterward, he began dealing with blood clots. The condition may have related to a heart attack he had suffered in the late 1990s, or even his frequent long sits during air travel. He was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis.

As the clotting issues became more severe, his general health rapidly declined. It reached the point he frequently had difficulty breathing.

On Aug. 6, 2010, he collapsed at home and died.

His obituary said he was 69. In reality, he was just days short of his 68th birthday. If Arnold had spent the past 43 years looking over his shoulder, he was finally now at peace.

UNEXPECTED DNA MATCH

John Damons son was only 19 when his father died. Immediately after the funeral, the son decided he wanted to learn more about his personal legacy.

That pursuit of his roots even took the driven young man to Chicago in 2018. He had no luck finding the orphanage his father had spoken of.

He went to the vital records department and showed officials there his dads birth certificate. Thats when he was surprised to learn the document was fake.

The trip ended up raising as many questions as it answered.

He also reached out to his fathers stepdaughters to see what they knew. They also only knew the orphanage story.

Then last year, the son decided to have his own DNA analyzed.

He posted the results on a public DNA registry, hoping someone from his fathers biological family had also put their DNA into the bank. A match could help connect him with his lost family.

They dont put any warning out there that maybe you wont like what you find, the son said.

In August, the son was excited to be alerted to a close DNA match.

But he soon was communicating not with a close relative of his father, but Westover, the deputy U.S. marshal from Omaha.

Its known that law enforcement officials nationally have used public DNA registries to solve criminal cases. It was how authorities in California in 2018 identified the notorious Golden State Killer.

Westover last month traveled to Australia to meet with the son and collect further evidence from Arnolds family. Last week, the marshals officially closed the case of missing fugitive William Leslie Arnold.

PROCESSING THE TRUTH

Arnolds son says he and his family have had a lot to process in recent weeks.

He spoke for five hours with the reporter who wrote it, doing more listening than talking as he heard an even more detailed account of his fathers early years and crimes. He shed a lot of tears, too.

I feel I have a pretty good picture and understanding of it, he said that day.

Arnolds son does not minimize the crimes his father committed as a 16-year-old, which he called truly horrific. But he also felt good when he read the words of those who have expressed sympathy for Arnold and the difficult position he was thrust into at a very young age.

He has shared Zoom conversations with Kelly, Deb and Shawn, swapping intimate stories about their childhood experiences with Arnold.

The stepdaughters were happy to learn that Arnold seemed to have altered his harsh parenting style when it came to his second family. Parenting changed a lot between the 1960s and 1990s, but Kelly hopes her final conversation with him had an impact in some way, too.

The stepdaughters love Arnolds son, whom theyve found to be sweet and sincere. And the son has shown off to them his own recently born son  Leslie Arnolds first biological grandchild.

They all now collectively refer to themselves as our new dysfunctional family.

His son said hes largely come to grips with his fathers long-hidden past. In fact, he says he has no regrets about taking that DNA test.

The truth hes gained and new human connections its created with Arnolds stepdaughters and others have been cathartic.

Ultimately, I just wanted to know more about my fathers life and legacy, and thats what I got, he said.

None of what he has learned has altered the affection he feels for his father, or how he views himself.

Im comfortable with who I am, he said. He was a good father who committed his entire life to my sister and I, and I pretty much owe him everything.

The family also believes Arnold deep inside truly regretted and repented for his murderous past.

His family recently thumbed through their fathers old leather-bound Bible. They believe the book dates to his Chicago days, and theyve known him to read it several times front to back.

In those aging pages, they found a common theme to the passages Arnold had noted and highlighted.

Sin and forgiveness.

As they think back on the thousands of conversations they had with their father, both the son and daughter have memories of Arnold lamenting at times that he wished there was more he could say about his past.

Theres so much more I wish I could tell, hed say.

At the time, they thought he was referring to his traumatic childhood back in the United States. And, in effect, he was.

Now, Arnolds son said, we can see how the truth was weighing on his chest.

Photos: Leslie Arnold's crime
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Osamu Furukawa has driven lots of Japanese cars for his business converting classic gasoline-powered models to electric. But his favorite ride is an import: A battery-powered SUV from Chinas BYD Auto.

BYD Auto is part of a wave of Chinese electric car exporters that are starting to compete with Western and Japanese brands in their home markets. They bring fast-developing technology and low prices that Tesla Inc.s chief financial officer says are scary.

Furukawa said he ordered an ATTO 3 when it went on sale Jan. 31, for its user-friendly features and appealing price of 4.4 million yen ($33,000)  or about one-quarter less than a Tesla.

Its perfect, Furukawa said in his office in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo.

Other ambitious Chinese EV exporters include NIO, Geely Groups Zeekr and Ora, a unit of SUV maker Great Wall Motors.

Some compete on price. Others emphasize performance and features, putting pressure on Western and Japanese premium brands.

NIO Inc., which has persuaded buyers in China to pay Tesla-level sticker prices of up to 555,000 yuan ($80,000), says its latest SUV goes on sale this year in Europe. The ES6 boasts voice-activated controls and a range of 610 kilometers (380 miles) on a charge.

We are very confident the ES6 will compete in this premium SUV market, NIOs founder and CEO, William Li, said in an interview at the Shanghai auto show.

Sales of battery-powered vehicles and gasoline-electric hybrids in China almost doubled last year to 6.9 million vehicles, or half the global total.

That was supported by multibillion-dollar subsidies from the ruling Communist Party, which is trying to make China a creator of clean energy and other technologies. That rattles U.S. and European leaders who see China as a strategic and industrial competitor.

Chinese brands are serious competition, according to David Leah, an analyst for GlobalData.

They have more competitive battery technology and can achieve greater economies of scale, Leah said in an email.

BYD Auto, owned by battery maker BYD Co., edged ahead of Tesla in total 2022 sales at 1.9 million vehicles. Half were gasoline-electric hybrids, while Teslas fleet is pure electric.

We have a lot of respect for the car companies in China, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a Jan. 25 conference call with financial analysts. They work the hardest and they work the smartest.

Chinese brands are developing EVs to compete without subsidies as Beijing shifts the burden to the industry by requiring them to earn credits for selling electrics. Prices start as low as 100,000 yuan ($14,500) for a compact SUV with a 400-kilometer (250-mile) range on one charge.

The Chinese are scary, Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said on the analyst call.

Chinese EV brands mix research and design centers in the United States and Europe with factories in China.

Geelys Zeekr plans to launch an all-electric sedan and an SUV this year in the Netherlands and Sweden. Its mini-United Nations of Chinese and European designers is in Gothenberg, Sweden, adjacent to Volvo Cars, another Geely brand, while its factories are in China.

Our ambition is to be a key player in electrified mobility in Europe within this decade, said Zeekr CEO Spiros Fotinos, a Toyota and Lexus veteran. With a clear global ambition, he said, were looking at the opportunities and right timing for other markets.

CEO Carlos Tavares of Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Peugeot and FIAT, warned in January that Europe needs a strategy to compete with Chinas lower prices. European-made electrics cost 40% more than Chinese models, according to Tavares.

Its a very bleak scenario, Tavares told German magazine Automobilwoche. But it doesnt have to go that way.

BYD Autos exports quadrupled last year to 55,916 sedans, SUVs and hatchbacks. Most went to India, Thailand, Brazil and other developing markets. BYD announced a 1,000-vehicle sale last year to Mexicos VEMO for the biggest EV taxi fleet outside China.

State-owned BAIC, headquartered in Beijing, said a dealer in Jordan ordered 1,000 units of its compact EU5 sedan in January. The company said it plans to launch two to three more electric vehicles in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Europe.

What about the United States, the biggest, richest market?

Chinese EV brands are skittish about a sprawling country that demands big investments in dealerships and charging networks, especially while Washington and Beijing are feuding over security, technology and human rights.

This is not an easy task, said NIOs Li. Our products and services need to be prepared.

BYD Auto has been in the U.S. market for a decade selling battery-powered transit buses assembled at a factory northeast of Los Angeles. It is still in the process of deciding whether to sell SUVs and sedans to Americans, the company said in a written response to questions.

Political tensions make it difficult for a Chinese company to launch, EV or otherwise, in the United States, Leah said.

In Europe, Great Walls Ora sells its 03 model starting at 140,000 yuan ($20,000). Ora tries to stand out among dozens of fledgling brands by marketing its cars as being designed for women, their body sizes and daily needs.

This is a second or third car for a household. It can be used by a wife or daughter to commute to work, to go out with friends or to go shopping, said Oras deputy general manager, Tan Jian.

In Europe, BYD Auto has partnerships with dealership chains in Britain, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands. The company says it also has delivered cars in Belgium, Denmark and Austria. It has a deal with European rental company SIXT that BYD says will lead to sales of up to 100,000 vehicles over the next six years.

In Japan, BYD Auto plans to have 100 showrooms by the end of 2025. Its Dolphin hatchback and Seal sedan are due to hit the Japanese market this year. The company says it also has exported some 4,000 ATTO 3s to Australia.

Furukawas OZ Co. converts Volkswagen Beetles and other classic models by replacing gasoline engines with batteries and electric motors. Furukawa said he drives his ATTO 3 every day and has gone as far as Osaka, 400 kilometers (250 miles) away.

BYD Autos Yokohama showroom, which opened Feb. 2, is surrounded by dealerships for established brands including Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Volkswagen and Chevrolet.

JOE McDONALD & YURI KAGEYAMA, YOKOHAMA, MDT/AP
Chinese authorities were, apparently preparing on Labor Day to release a man who disappeared three years ago after publicizing videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the COVID-19 outbreak, a relative and another person familiar with his case said.

Fang Bin and other members of the public who were dubbed citizen journalists posted details of the pandemic in early 2020 on the internet and social media, embarrassing Chinese officials who faced criticism for failing to control the outbreak.

The last video Fang, a seller of traditional Chinese clothing, posted on Twitter was of a piece of paper reading, All citizens resist, hand power back to the people.

Fangs case is part of Beijings crackdown on criticism of Chinas early handling of the pandemic, as the ruling Communist Party seeks to control the narrative of the country.

He was scheduled to be released over the long weekend, according to two people who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution. One of them said Fang was sentenced to three years in prison for picking quarrels and provoking trouble, a vague charge traditionally used against political dissidents.

The Associated Press could not independently confirm his release and could not confirm the details with the authorities.

Two offices of Wuhans public security bureau did not provide a phone number of their information office or answer any questions. Phone calls to a court that reportedly sentenced Fang rang unanswered on Sunday afternoon.

A woman from another court that had reportedly handled Fangs appeal said she was not authorized to answer questions.

In early 2020, the initial COVID outbreak devastated the city of Wuhan, home to 11 million residents, in central Chinas Hubei province. Under a 76-day lockdown, its streets were deserted for months, apart from ambulances and security personnel.

At that time, a small number of citizen-reporters tried to tell their stories and those of others with smart phones and social media accounts, defying the Communist Partys monopoly on information.

Although their movement was small, the scale was unprecedented in any previous major disease outbreak or disaster in China.

But the information they posed soon got them into trouble. Fang and another citizen journalist, Chen Qiushi, disappeared in February.

Chen in September 2021 resurfaced on his friends live video feed on YouTube, saying he had suffered from depression. But he did not provide details about his disappearance.

Another citizen journalist, Zhang Zhan, who also had reported on the early stage of the outbreak, was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of picking fights and provoking trouble in December 2020. About eight months later, her lawyer said she was in ill health after staging a long-running hunger strike. MDT/AP
Foreign tourists who are currently visiting Macau during the Golden Week have expressed their satisfaction in the citys offerings.

Amid the Golden Week, over 430,000 tourists have visited Macau, most of them from the mainland.

Some foreigners answered the call and visited the city, including 39-year-old tourist Marc who comes every year to visit his friends. During the May Golden Week, they have holidays, so its easier for me to see them, the tourist, who decline to provide his last name, explained.

There are many events and so many people during this period. It makes the trip great because there is always something to do, new places to visit, events to attend, he said. Marc has been visiting Macau for seven years and is still inspired by the place. As a journalist, it also gives me story ideas. Macau is definitely a good place for it, he added.

Macau is really a unique place in the world and a good destination to holiday, said Kerwin, a 21-year-old tourist from Australia. This is really different from where I live and there are so many things to do. Its really interesting to be here, visit museums and see the Ruins of Saint Pauls for example.

Recently, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) publicized its desire to attract more international tourists and to diversify its tourism market.

The government has launched its buy-one-get-one-free campaign to lure tourists to visit the city. The See you in Macao campaign was launched last month by the international one-stop travel service provider Trip.com in co-ordination with MGTO, highlighting Macau as a destination of choice for leisure and business and offering numerous advantages to international tourists.

I heard that governments wanted to attract more foreign tourists, Marc said, but Im not sure those efforts have been successful because I mainly see tourists who come from the mainland. I think there were more international tourists before the pandemic.

For her part, Kerwin was not aware of MGTOs goal. I didnt know that the government wanted to attract more foreigners; I suppose I have not seen one yet. I mostly just came here because I have been wanting to for a few years.

The Golden Week has attracted many visitors, but perhaps not of the kind expected by the MGTO. Still, Marc remains confident, saying, I really recommend those who have never been to Macau to try, because this blend of Chinese and Portuguese, and others, is fascinating. Staff Reporter
Chinas foreign minister Qin Gang called for stability and a crackdown on cross-border criminal activity along the countrys border with Myanmar, during an unusual visit to the volatile region yesterday.

The 2,129-kilometer border runs through densely forested mountains and has long been notorious for drug smuggling into China from the Golden Triangle region where the borders of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet.

The United Nations says the production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military seized power in 2021, with the cultivation of poppies up by a third in the past year as eradication efforts have dropped off and the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade.

During his visit, Foreign Minister Qin Gang said local Communist Party and government departments, the Peoples Liberation Army, police and civilian bodies should join in strengthening the border defense system.

Qin called for improvements in maintaining distinct and stable borders, and severely cracking down on cross-border criminal activities.

It is necessary to coordinate border management, border trade development, and bilateral relations, he was quoted as saying in a ministry news release.

Fighting between Myanmars military and ethnic armed groups has also occasionally flared along the border, sending refugees and sometimes mortar fire into China.

China has sought to maintain contacts with all sides, although it has been criticized for expressing unequivocal support for the junta after it said it would back Myanmar no matter how the situation changes.

Myanmar has been wracked by violence since the armys overthrow of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The takeover was met with massive public opposition, which security forces quashed with deadly force, in turn triggering widespread armed resistance.

Despite the security challenges, China has sought to encourage legal trade between the sides and recently reopened border crossings after closing them for more than 1,000 days as part of strict COVID-19 control measures.

During his visit to the Wanding-Ruili crossing point, Qin promoted the concept of a China-Myanmar economic corridor to aid business and other development on both sides, the Foreign Ministry said. MDT/AP
The second phase of the construction of box culverts to prevent and reduce flooding in the Inner Harbour area will commence Thursday (May 4), the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) and the Transport Bureau (DSAT) announced in a press statement.

In this second phase of the project, which is mainly aimed at reducing flooding caused by excessive rainwater, the box culvert drainage system that links to the lift station will pump water into the Inner Harbour channel. It will be installed at the southern section of the Rua do Almirante Sergio.

Due to the works, traffic arrangements are being made in that area, including halting traffic in the Rua do Dr. Lourenco Pereira Marques and re-routing it through the former bus stop area of the Riviera building.

Additionally, the traffic separator in the Rua do Almirante Sergio has been removed and traffic lanes have been narrowed to allow traffic to continue to circulate in two lanes in the South to North direction and one lane in the opposite direction in the area of construction.

In the same statement, DSAT asked citizens to note the traffic arrangements and, if possible, avoid the area under construction.

Concurrently and related to the same works, roadworks will commence at the Avenida Panoramica do Lago Sai Van, with traffic changes to be implemented from 10 a.m. on the section of Avenida Panoramica do Lago Sai Van located next to the entrance and exit of the Sai Van Bridge on the Barra side.

As previously announced by DSOP, this will be the second of three phases. The last phase will include the construction of a lift station  this time for wastewater  at the leisure area between the Rua do Dr. Lourenco Pereira Marques and Rua das Lorchas, as well as another box culvert for both rainwater and wastewater at the crossroad between the Rua das Lorchas and the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro.
Equating the existence of a May 1 protest to a free Macau is illogical, Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak said on the sidelines of an event over the weekend.

He was questioned if the absence of a protest on May 1 would impact Macaus image as a free city.

He answered by referring to the vitality of the city, pointing out that the existence of political protests is irrelevant to evaluating the citys vitality. Vitality in the economy, in the people and in mentality is a crucial element in societys constant development, Wong commented.

Last week, Radio Macaus Chinese Channel reported that the Public Security Police Force (PSP) had received a declaration that a protest would take place on May 1. However, the initiator later withdrew the declaration.

Wong disclosed that the declaration had been withdrawn prior to the first official meeting with the PSP. Procedurally, upon receiving a declaration for protest, the PSP is to meet with the declarant to discuss arrangements such as the expected scale, among other elements.

In Macau, protests are declared and technically the authorities have no legal ability to prevent them.

It is unquestionable that the right to protest is protected by the Basic Law, Wong underlined.

He added that residents have the right to organize marches or protests. The government has no right to prevent residents from protesting, he said. If you want to stage a protest, declare one. It is as simple as this.

When asked if the police are less busy this year because there was no protest, Wong questioned what the journalist was implying.

Wong emphasized that the police are often busy because they are responsible for ensuring the orderly development and prosperity of society.

He added that under the circumstances of social development, the police will ensure smooth progress of legal protests.
Taiwans head of government Tsai Ing-wen told visiting ex-U.S. national security adviser John Bolton this week that the island is willing to deepen cooperation with the U.S. and other like-minded partners to safeguard peace, as the self-governed island faces increasing military threats from China.

Tsai also expressed hopes to Bolton, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, for more military and security exchanges and economic cooperation between the two sides, her office said in a statement.

Bolton began his weeklong visit to Taiwan last Wednesday and has called for deeper interaction between the two sides national security teams. His visit reflects the importance of the democratic island as an issue in the U.S. presidential election amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Later Monday, Tsai said at a separate event that Chinas military exercises have affected the stability and peace of the Indo-Pacific region.

But we will stay calm and firmly safeguard peace across the Taiwan Strait, she said.

The U.S. remains Taiwans closest military and political ally despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between them. U.S. law requires Washington to treat all threats to the island as matters of grave concern, though it remains ambiguous over whether American forces would be dispatched to help defend it. MDT/AP
President Joe Biden reiterated U.S. commitment to the Philippines security and noted the deep friendship of the two nations as he hosted Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for White House talks yesterday [Macau time] as concerns grow about the Chinese navys harassment of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea.

Marcos visit to Washington comes after the U.S. and the Philippines last week completed their largest war drills ever and as the two countries air forces will hold their first joint fighter jet training in the Philippines since 1990. The Philippines this year agreed to give the U.S. access to four more bases on the islands as the U.S. looks to deter Chinas increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea.

Meanwhile, China has angered the Philippines by repeatedly harassing its navy and coast guard patrols and chasing away fishermen in waters that are close to Philippine shores but that Beijing claims as its own.

But as Biden sat down with Marcos, the U.S. president went out of his way to note the progress in the U.S.-Philippine relationshipone that has had ups and downs over the years and was in a difficult place when Marcos took office less than a year ago.

We are facing new challenges and I couldnt think of a better partner to have than you. Biden told Marcos at the start of their Oval Office meeting. The United States also remains ironclad in our commitment to the defense of the Philippines, including in the South China Sea, and we will continue to support the Philippines military modernization.

Marcos said the relationship was essential as Philippines and the Pacific finds itself in possibly the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now.

The Oval Office meeting is the latest high-level diplomacy with Pacific leaders by Biden as his administration contends with increased military and economic assertiveness by China and worries about North Koreas nuclear program. Marcos official visit to Washington is the first by a Philippine president in more than 10 years.

The U.S. president last week hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for a state visit during which the two leaders introduced new steps aimed at deterring North Korea from launching an attack on its neighbors. Biden is scheduled to travel to Japan and Australia in May.

Following the meeting, the White House announced the transfer of three C-130 aircraft and two coastal patrol vessels to the Philippines. The two countries also said they adopted defense guidelines aimed at deepening cooperation and interoperability between the two nations militaries across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace.

The administration also said it is launching a new trade mission focused on increasing American investment in the Philippines innovation economy, new educational programing and more.

Increased Chinese pressure on vessels in the South China Sea has added another dimension to the visit. On April 23, journalists from The Associated Press and other outlets were aboard the Philippine coast guards BRP Malapascua near Second Thomas Shoal when a Chinese coast guard ship blocked the Philippine patrol vessel steaming into the disputed shoal. The Philippines has filed more than 200 diplomatic protests against China since last year, at least 77 since Marcos took office in June.

U.S. and Taiwanese officials have also been unnerved by recent critical comments by Chinas ambassador to the Philippines, Huang Xilian, over the Philippines granting the U.S. military increased access to bases.

Huang at an April forum reportedly said the Philippines should oppose Taiwans independence if you care genuinely about the 150,000 OFWs in Taiwan, using the acronym for overseas Filipino workers.

China claims the self-ruled island as its own. The Philippines, like the U.S., has a One China policy that recognizes Beijing as the government of China but allows informal relations with Taiwan. Marcos has not explicitly said that his country would assist the United States in any armed contingency in Taiwan.

The officials described Huangs comments as one of many recent provocative actions by the Chinese to put pressure on the Philippines.

One official said that Marcos still desires to work closely with both Washington and Beijing but that he finds himself in a situation in which the steps that China is taking are deeply concerning.

Close U.S.-Philippines relations were not a given when Marcos took office. The son and namesake of the late Philippines strongman had seemed intent on following the path of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who pursued closer ties with China.

Marcos noted that he last visited the White House when his father was in power.

Biden and Marcos met in September during the U.N. General Assembly, where the U.S. president acknowledged the two countries sometimes rocky past.

During their private meeting at the UN, Biden, a Democrat, stressed to Marcos his desire to improve relations and asked Marcos how the administration could fulfill your dreams and hopes to do that, a senior administration official told the Associated Press.

Marcos is also slated to visit the Pentagon, meet Cabinet members and business leaders and make remarks at a Washington think tank during his visit. AAMER MADHANI & JIM GOMEZ, WASHINGTON, MDT/AP
The number of tourists entering Macau during the so-called Labor Day Holidays, which comprise five days between April 29 and May 3, started to drop on the fourth day after three days of well over 100,000, official statistics show.

On Tuesday, which is the fourth day out of the five-day holiday period, the number of entries registered at the lowest since the May 1 holidays started, with only 81,878 visitors until 9 p.m.

In the previous days, the daily figure was well above 100,000, breaking a yearly record in two consecutive days.

On the third day (May 1) the number of entries reached some 110,823. The current record for the year occurred on April 30, with 133,911 visitor entries.

In total, a total of 435,808 tourists arrived in Macau in the first four days, a figure that represents an average of 108,952 per day, well above the 70,000 per day figure forecasted by the Macao Government Tourism Office or even the 90,000 per day estimate predicted by the tourism industry.

Taking into account the current figures, it is unlikely that the five-day holiday period  already coined the Labor Day Golden Week  will deliver final numbers below the half-a-million entries mark.

Despite the significant drop in the number of visitors from the third to fourth day, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) continued to enforce crowd control measures in the surroundings of the Ruins of Saint Pauls and the citys historical center.

According to the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, the high influx of tourists did not at all compromise the safety of the city and population.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a public event on Monday (May 1), Wong said that traffic at border crossing checkpoints had flowed in a smooth and orderly manner without any issues.

The Secretary also noted that on Sunday (April 30), an aggregate of more than 570,000 movements inbound and outbound were recorded at the borders, representing the highest daily number since the Covid-19 pandemic.

While the Border Gate checkpoint received the greater share of visitors, the nearby Qingmao Port had played an important role in diverting visitor traffic, the security chief noted, adding that the police had increased their patrolling at popular tourist attractions, and had been enforcing crowd-control management in those areas in a way that proved to be effective.

Wong also spoke of the efforts used to prevent cross-border parallel trading, although he did not disclose the outcomes of operations during this period.
A citizen of Ghana pled not guilty in federal court on Wednesday to having a role in a complex wire fraud scheme that siphoned about $2.4 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party in 2020.

Paul Williams Anti, 59, appeared in a Western District of Wisconsin courtroom for the first time on Wednesday on a bank embezzlement charge filed against him in February.

In October 2020, scammers manipulated the email accounts of Republican Party employees in order to get funds meant for vendors into the scammers bank accounts, two of which were allegedly controlled by Williams Anti.

Court documents do not name the Wisconsin GOP as the victim in the case, but a spokesperson on Wednesday confirmed the political partys involvement.

We are grateful for the outstanding work of federal law enforcement and their efforts to bring a cyber-criminal to justice, said Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state party.

More charges are expected to be brought against Williams Anti, Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Duchemin said Wednesday.

Federal Judge Stephen Crocker ordered that Williams Anti remain in custody because of his ability to hide money within phony bank accounts and his apparent access to someone who can forge documentation for him, which make him a flight risk.

When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security arrested Williams Anti in New York City in February, he had 30 identification documents under nine different names, Duchemin said.

His web of bank accounts was difficult for authorities to track down, Duchemin said. Federal authorities also remain concerned that he could have money hidden away that they have not located.

Williams Anti has family in the United Kingdom and Ghana, too, Crocker noted.

If I let him out, hed be gone in 60 seconds, Crocker said.

A cybersecurity firm hired by the GOP to investigate the fraud found that an employees email account had been altered so that any message with the words invoice, wire transfer or bank would be automatically moved to an email folder that the scammers had access to.

The scammers then changed the amount and the payee bank account information on the invoices and sent them to another GOP employee.

Since the emails appeared to be from another colleague, that employee authorized them, which sent the money to the scammers bank accounts.

Williams Anti allegedly opened the accounts under the name of an elderly resident at an assisted living home in Connecticut where he worked under an assumed name.

If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

On board a Philippine patrol in contested South China Sea
A Madison man was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for receiving a stolen gun in 2022.

Aidan Johnson, 20, was arrested along with two other men last June, three months after police say he a Glock 19X from another person. On March 14, Johnson pleaded guilty to the offense.

In the time between the theft and his arrest, Johnson allegedly posted photos and videos of himself with the 9mm gun on social media.

The criminal complaint states that Johnson received and possessed the Glock 19x "knowing and having reasonable cause to believe that the firearm was stolen, and such firearm having previously been shipped or transported in interstate and foreign commerce."

According to a release from the United States Attorney's Office, Western District of Wisconsin Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson "balanced Johnsons youth and potential with the dangers he posed to the community" in delivering the sentence. Judge Peterson added that Johnson's social media presented a "fantasy life of dealing drugs" and "being a gangster."

Johnson's prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.
When it was Idaho Sen. Jim Rischs turn to address Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Tuesday during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, he raised a singular talking point.

Im going to focus on one thing today. One thing, and one thing only: The Lava Ridge Wind Turbine Project in Idaho, Risch said.

Quote There is near unanimous opposition to this project, and its astounding that she doesnt seem to understand even basic information about the communities that it would impact. Idaho Sen. Jim Risch

He found himself in a mostly one-sided conversation, however, with Haaland seemingly unprepared to answer questions about the scope of a project that, if approved, would place up to 400 turbines across nearly 230 square miles of public lands in Jerome, Lincoln and Minidoka counties, and she was equally unaware of the near-total opposition in Idaho and across the Magic Valley.

The tense exchange, which lasted about seven minutes, ended with Risch informing Haaland of her own resource advisory committees unanimous recommendation against a project that has also garnered opposition from Idahos federal delegation, Gov. Brad Little, Attorney General Raul Labrador, the Idaho Legislature, the state Republican and Democratic parties, and multiple county commissions in south-central Idaho.

I was disappointed the Secretary still couldnt provide reasonable information about this project her agency is responsible for permitting, especially given the entire Idaho delegation has raised this issue multiple times, Risch told the Times-News in a statement via email. There is near unanimous opposition to this project, and its astounding that she doesnt seem to understand even basic information about the communities that it would impact.

Less than 100 seconds into their exchange, after Haaland read from a prepared statement about the Bureau of Land Managements coordination efforts with state and local stakeholders, Risch asked, Thats great. What did you find out, with all of this coordination and discussion and meetings?

Were going to continue to engage  Haaland answered, stumbling multiple times over her words.

No, no. What did you find out?

Well, I think the conversations are ongoing, senator.

Well, what did you find out so far? Nothing?

When Haaland again responded with the same answer, Risch cut her off and again asked, What did you find out so far?

I dont have a complete readout of all of the meetings.

Give me an incomplete readout. What did you find out so far?

Well, I think theyre gaining insight into how the community feels and what they have to say.

OUR VIEW: Theres nothing left to say about Lava Ridge. Now we wait. OUR VIEW: You've said your piece on the proposed Lava Ridge Wind Project and, safe to say, the federal government will know how you feel. Now take a breath.

It was then that Risch summarized the project, including the proposed acreage and size of the turbines, he asked aides to pass a photo to Haaland that showed a rendering of what the Lava Ridge project would look like from the Minidoka National Historic Site and then repeatedly pushed her to share her vision for public lands.

Look at the horizon. Is that your vision for what public lands should look like? the Republican senator asked.

Senator, I think theres a lot of visions for public lands across the country.

Nah, no, no, no, no. Dont give me that.

Is that your vision for what public lands should look like in America?

Senator, we have millions of acres of public lands all over the country and they all look different.

Do you like that? Risch asked, motioning to the rendering.

Senator, I understand what youre saying. I want you to know that we care deeply  we listen to people, we get their input, Haaland responded.

Im glad youre listening to people, because let me tell you who you should be listening to, Risch said. First of all, you have a resource advisory council  do you know what theyve said about this?

Following a few moments of silence, Risch spoke again, Your council. You know what they said, unanimously, about this?

Please tell me, senator, Haaland answered.

Dont do it! he said in a raised voice.

The 90-day public comment period for the Lava Ridge draft environment impact statement ended last month and the BLM is in the process of reviewing, cataloging and recording thousands of comments.

A timeline for any decision on the future of the project is unknown.
The Honor Flight Network transports thousands of American veterans to Washington, D.C., each year for a day of honor at the nations memorials.

Vietnam veteran Kendal Francis Egbert of Twin Falls was there on Wednesday, and he got a surprise visit from U.S. Sen. Jim Risch.

Risch met up with Egbert at the World War II memorial to shake hands and thank him for his service, according to his office.

Americas veterans gave so much to serve our nation and protect our freedoms, Risch told the Times-News in a statement via email. It was a tremendous honor to meet with Idahoan and Vietnam veteran Kendal Francis Egbert on his Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C. I am grateful for his service and that of all of our veterans. I would encourage all Idahoans who served to look into joining an Honor Flight  they more than deserve it.

The Honor Flight, a nonprofit organization that seeks to honor military veterans for their service and sacrifice, transported 21,800 veterans to D.C. last year, according to its website. More than 273,000 veterans have made the trip to the nations capital since 2005.
Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad announced a truce around Gaza Wednesday, after militants traded fire with Israel following the death in Israeli custody of a hunger striker from its ranks.

Mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations intervened to broker a return to calm from 4 am (0100 GMT), sources in Islamic Jihad and fellow militant group Hamas told AFP.

Israel did not immediately confirm the agreement.

The Israeli army said the last warning sirens sounded near the Gaza border at around 5:30 am (0230 GMT).

Witnesses in the blockaded Palestinian territory told AFP that several rockets were fired at Israel around this time.

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One round of confrontation has ended, but the march of resistance continues and will not stop, said Tariq Salmi, a spokesperson for Islamic Jihad in a statement.

Our brave fighters have proven their loyalty and commitment to defending their people, he added.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh demanded that Israel return the hunger strikers body to his family.

We stressand as we have informed all the mediators who intervenedthe necessity of handing over the body of the martyr Khader Adnan to his patient family, Haniyeh said in a statement.

Adnan, 45, from Jenin in the occupied West Bank, died early Tuesday after an 87-day hunger strike following his arrest by Israel over ties to Islamic Jihad.

A string of high-profile hunger strikes during at least 13 stints in Israeli custody had turned Adnan into a national hero, and revitalized hunger striking as a form of protest among Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli jails.

From Tuesday morning, around 100 rockets were fired by militant groups from Gaza towards Israel, according to Islamic Jihad.

In response, the Israeli army said it carried out a number of air strikes on Gaza early Wednesday, targeting weapons manufacturing sites, outposts, military complexes and an underground terror tunnel belonging to Hamas.

It (Hamas) will face the consequences, the army added.

Israel generally holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire from Gaza, regardless of which militant group launched it. The Islamist group has controlled the territory since ousting loyalists of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in 2007.

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Members of the Philippines National Defense delegation met with their Cambodian counterparts as the two countries signed a pact to pursue a stronger defense partnership in the 3rd Joint Defense Cooperation Committee (JDCC) Meeting in Phnom Penh.

Department of National Defense Acting Undersecretary Angelito De Leon co-chaired the JDCC meeting with Cambodias Minister Delegate Attached to the Prime Minister and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of National Defence, General Neang Phat.

De Leon and Phat signed the Terms of Reference of the committee, detailing the functions, procedures, and other arrangements for the JDCC assembly.

Both officials ensured their commitment to the 2017 Philippines-Cambodia Memorandum of Understanding on Defense Cooperation and highlighted the importance of JDCC as a high-level dialogue mechanism to strengthen defense and military partnerships.

The two countries exchanged views on the regional security challenges, as well as discussed updates on military operations that were postponed due to the pandemic, multilateral cooperation, especially under the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting, and bilateral cooperative activities; such as high-level visits, capacity-building assistance, and educational exchanges.

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De Leon shared the DNDs 10-Point Defense Agenda, while General Neang Phat explained Cambodias 2022 Defence White Paper (DWP). The two

officials explained the significance and priorities and identified possible areas of cooperation between the Philippines and Cambodia.

De Leon also invited the Cambodian delegation to the Philippines for the 4th iteration of the JDCC meeting next year, while hailing and

expressing support for Cambodias hosting of the 32nd Southeast Asian Games that will start on Friday, May 5.

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A Henry County native is back from Seattle, Washington, making the rounds soliciting money for a charity he says he runs.

Adrian Mease registered Fentanyl Awareness with the State of Washington in July. He said he arrived in Martinsville on April 18 and plans to return to Seattle on May 9, but eventually Im going to have an office up here.

It was his experiences with illegal drugs that made him aware of the problems they cause and sparked his interest and warning people of their dangers, he said.

Being from the streets, I used to be a drug dealer in Henry County, all over the city, the 31-year-old said. Then my homies got caught. That gave me a wakeup call. It put my mindset in a different direction  Hey, that couldve been me.

As well seeing legal troubles caused by drugs, he also saw the health problems they created, he said: My homies started dying of that, and he saw people die from overdoses on city buses in Seattle as well.

He said he was inspired to write childrens books on drugs by two separate cases of children dying of drugs in October 2022. He said he knew both children and their parents but could not remember their names.

Mease is a 2010 graduate of Magna Vista High School and attended Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC) and studied electrical engineering at Seattle Central College. He said he is a journeyman flagger, a journeyman skilled laborer and a supervisor at Pier 66 in Seattle and a part of Local 77.

He moved to Seattle after some time at PHCC, he said, because he wanted union work, and his father, Rodney Streader, who lived in Seattle, recommended he go there for it. His father originally is from Danville, and his mother, Loresa Hunter, lives in Martinsville.

When Mease first arrived to stay at a shelter in Seattle, he met caterer LaToia Miller, whom he said is Fentanyl Awarenesss secretary.

She was one of the first to help me out, he said.

In Seattle, he said, he volunteered with a food bank, two centers and an organization.

In July 2022, he filed the Articles of Incorporation for Fentanyl Awareness with the State of Washington. Those Articles list Miller, Mease, Hunter and Carolyn Moore as members. They list the organizations purpose as to keep people aware of the dangers of fentanyl & getting fentanyl off the street.

Moore, his grandmother, is the groups receptionist, Mease said. She lives in Martinsville. The organization uses a mailing address of 1143 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Seattle, mail service business. They got a mail space there and we work from home, he said.

In Seattle, Fentanyl Awareness gives out test strips, coats, clothing and resources, Mease said, but did not provide documentation. It gives people the phone number 2-1-1, to a helpline, and they [2-1-1] also give out a book, he said.

We partner with 2-1-1 and Urban League, Mease said.

Messages left from calls and emails to Washington 2-1-1- made April 21 and after, asking for confirmation of a partnership, have not been returned. A spokesperson from Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle on April 21 asked for more information on how Mease is affiliated with that organization to help them find a connection, but then Urban League did not respond to the reply.

Grant Proposal

The Bulletin received 2022 Grant Proposal for Fentanyl Awareness from an email address using Millers name and signed with Meases name. The 8-page document starts, Fentanyl Awareness is a frontline result driven and goal oriented non-profit organization in USA that was established with the mission to educate and inform people  about the drug. The end of the document lists a fundraising goal of $250,000.

Traditionally, a grant application is specific to each funding source and is a long and detailed application requiring documentation and other information. Mease said his Grant Proposal is not specific to any funding body but rather We got Kick Starter, GoFundMe, old school way to get out and get to it [fundraising] which will include start a tour.

When asked in what manner Fentanyl Awareness helped the over 100 individuals and families, as stated in the Grant Proposal, Mease replied, We gave out 200 plates [of food] in Memphis and plan to cook a meal in Martinsville one day. They also passed out 1,000 flyers in Seattle, gave test strips and went on [a radio station]. They gave us a shout-out.

The management consists of a team of highly trained and professional workers and specialists, the document states. Mease described that team: LaToia Miller is a world-class chef and wrote a cookbook; a politician names Ratio who is running for Birmingham mayor though he lives in Washington D.C., and Ocean. He is a promoter and has a non-profit  he works on prison reform.

The organization uses extensive research and strategic planning, the document states. Mease explained: I research the area, per capita, morgue, how many people have died on fentanyl, using sources Google and sometimes I use Microsoft, and another book that I use as far as getting the numbers right. He looked up the name on his phone, then said, Extra Intoxicants, and also Fentanyl Incorporated, something like that.

Under Organizational Objectives is listed Secure Angel or Venture Capital Funding and/or Grants. Mease said he didnt know what was meant by Angel, but that Venture Capital Funding refers to what you are trying to get.

Mease said he sent requests for funding to Walmart and Starbucks a few months ago, and theres also a $25 million grant hes optimistic about.

He talked about media and organizations in Martinsville he has approached to get the name out for asking for donations  as many as possible.

Shortly after Mease made an appointment with the Bulletin for an interview about Fentanyl Awareness, a reporter scheduled to interview him received by email a letter requesting a $20,000 donation. The letter had her name and address in the recipient line and her name in the salutation.

When asked during about that letter, Mease said that was a mistake; it was supposed to be for the Bill Gates Foundation.

The Bulletin also received by email a two-page letter to announce our intention to apply for the FENTANYL AWARENESS GRANT. FENTANYL AWARENESS is a non profit organization focuses on Our mission is to education and inform people such as older, younger, man women and child on the dangers of fentanyl.

No specific grant nor funding body was named in the letter.

Local coordinator

Mease said when Fentanyl Awareness opens a branch in Martinsville, Christopher Hairston would be its coordinator.

Hairston said he is a 1984 graduate of Laurel Park High School and attended Patrick Henry Community College and St. Pauls College in Lawrenceville.

I had a rough start when I came out of college, Hairston said. I was incarcerated a few years for conspiracy to sell.

Virginia Judicial System records show convictions for sale of cocaine and probation violations in the 1990s, as well as various traffic infractions.

Hairston has worked with train cars and at Eastman and has been disabled, he said.

He became involved with ministry, including with Newness to Life, doing evangelism in jails and drug institutes, he said, and thats how I got hooked up with Adrian. He knew I had experience in that side of the tracks. Ive been clean since 2004.

Hairston said he also is the assistant pastor of Burning Bush Holiness Church in Stoneville, N.C.

Hairston said he and Mease plan to have a rally in Martinsville before summertime, and the end game is to have a day recovery center.

He knows how to start a center, he said, because Ive been to quite a few of the ones around here and I took part of building quite a few centers.

Hairston said he was on the board of directors of the former WeCare for 2 or 3 years. He tried to help start Eastern Shepherds in Fieldale, but they never did get to that point of opening it. He has conducted Bible studies at one down there in Irisburg  whats the name of it? Lord have mercy, and I was actually in the one in Murphy [North Carolina], an attendee, in 2004 or 2005.

Hairston said his role with the recovery center Mease hopes to open in Martinsville would be whatever you need and also as a fisher of men, and he also is a court-certified anger-management.  Were going to outsource those positions as far as clinical, Hairston said.

In the meantime, the two are making the rounds of Martinsville businesses and organizations to get our name out there.

When asked if they were taking donations yet, he replied, Yes, maam, as many as possible.
The National Agency of Petroleum (ANPG), Gas and Biofuels, TotalEnergies EP Angola and Sonangol Pesquisa e Producao S.A, signed this Tuesday, an agreement of principles that allows the first development and exploration project in the Kwanza Basin.

According to the official note, the project to develop Blocks 20 and 21, located about 150 kilometers southwest of Luanda, will include a floating FPSO-type platform, TotalEnergies seventh in Angola, anchored at a depth of 1,700 meters of water and connected to an underwater production network.

For the General Director of TotalEnergies, Martin Deffontaines, this project will represent a new technological investment in the field of energy efficiency and decarbonization of energy, not least because it will include from its conception the electric generation from a combined cycle turbine and zero gas burning, which will allow it to lower the intensity of carbon emissions.

The Chairman of the ANPG Board of Directors, Paulino Jeronimo, believes that this agreement will allow the first production in the Kwanza maritime area and may come to contribute decisively to the consummation of the national production goals.
At least 131 people have died since September due to cholera in Mozambique and another 19,934 have been hospitalized in the country, indicates the Ministry of Healths daily bulletin.

At least 131 people have died since September due to cholera in Mozambique and another 19,934 have been hospitalized in the country, indicates the daily bulletin of the Ministry of Health (Misau).

In the countrys hospitals, 141 patients are currently hospitalized, with 90 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the update from the National Directorate of Public Health.

Mozambique has a cumulative 29,370 cases of cholera and a lethality rate of 0.4%. This is the biggest epidemic of this disease in the last 20 years, said the Minister of Health, Armindo Tiago, during the opening of a meeting on the subject, today, in Maputo.

He also said that the number of cases tends to decrease at the same time that vaccination advances. According to the Mozambican Health Minister, from a total of 40 affected districts, at least 18 had declared the end of the epidemic by Monday. Cholera is a disease that causes severe diarrhea, which is treatable, but can cause death by dehydration if not promptly combated  being caused, in large part, by the ingestion of food and water contaminated by lack of sanitation networks.

Mozambique, considered one of the countries most severely affected by climate change in the world, has only a few days left until the rainy and cyclonic season, which occurs annually between the months of October and April and is conducive to the spread of cholera.
In Juba, the capital of South Sudan, an announcement was made Tuesday, May 2, regarding President Salva Kiirs mediation of the crisis that has entered its third week in Sudan. In a call to General al-Burhan, who heads the Sudanese Armed Forces, and General Hemedti, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, he secured their agreement to a seven-day truce and the appointment of representatives for talks.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was keen to announce progress in the mediation effort on Tuesday, May 2. According to a statement by Pauline Adhong Malok, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, the South Sudanese head of state spoke by phone on Tuesday with the two generals fighting in Sudan. During these calls, they both agreed to a truce that will begin on May 4 and end on May 11.

The warring parties also agreed to appoint their representatives for peace talks to be held at a venue of their choice. President Salva Kiir stressed in his discussions with the warring generals that the humanitarian situation was deteriorating rapidly and that de-escalation was imperative. He also urged them to set a date for the start of talks.

The government continues to engage in discussions with the leadership of the Republic of Sudan to explore the chances of narrowing the gap between the two sides in the hope of achieving a durable ceasefire that can pave the way for an amicable political settlement, said Pauline Adhong Malok.
Several people have been slain in the town of Kerou, north of Benin, in a fresh attack by unidentified armed men.

The attack, local media Banouto notes, occurred in Kouabagou village on May 1st. The assailants reportedly assaulted the village and slaughtered a dozen of people. Several other people have been reported unaccounted for.

The army has been deployed to the scene to comb the area, Banouto notes. Benin like its neighbors Burkina Faso, Togo and Niger, is haggling with terrorism activities in the north  an undeveloped region.

The country has suffered similar attacks in the past. Kalale, Tanguieta, and Materi were also targeted by terrorists.
King Mohammed VI has instructed to add the Amazigh New Year to the list of national holidays in Morocco.

In a statement from the Royal Court, Moroccos King Mohammed VI has approved the celebration of the Amazigh New Year as an official national holiday.

Instructions were sent to the Head of the Government Aziz Akhannouch, to take the necessary steps to implement the decision.

This move reflects the kings commitment to the Berber language, a fundamental part of Moroccos authentic identity and a shared asset for all Moroccans, the statement explains.

The constitutional recognition of the Amazigh language as an official language of the country, alongside Arabic, further underscores the significance of this decision. Its a historic step thats expected to deepen national unity and further promote the countrys diverse cultural heritage.

Activists in Morocco have long been campaigning for the Amazigh New Year to be recognized as an official national holiday. The Amazigh New Year, also known as Yennayer, marks the beginning of the agricultural calendar and is celebrated by the countrys Amazigh people, who make up around 40% of the population.

While the Moroccan government recognized the holiday, it was not an official national holiday with paid time off work. Activists argued that granting the holiday official status would be a significant step towards recognizing and celebrating the countrys diverse cultural heritage.
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Pictured from left to right:: Medical University of South Carolina Hollings Cancer Center community health van team members Mina Platt, Dr. Marvella Ford, Melanie Slan and Joan McLauren. Credit: Medical University of South Carolina

In a joint initiative that includes Hollings Cancer Center and the Department of Pediatrics, MUSC researchers launched a community mobile health van in 2021 to help to increase access to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in underserved communities.

HPV is linked to six different kinds of cancer, including cervical, throat, anal, penile, vaginal and vulvar, and almost 40,000 new cancer cases each year in the U.S. Fortunately, a safe and effective vaccine is available for those between the ages of 9 and 45 to help to prevent these cancers.

"This is one of the few opportunities where we can prevent cancer with a vaccine," said Hollings Cancer Center researcher Marvella Ford, Ph.D., associate director of Population Science and Community Outreach and Engagement.

In 2016, South Carolina ranked last in the U.S. in HPV vaccination rates. This alarming statistic led to an initiative by pediatricians from across the state and MUSC Hollings Cancer Center to increase access to and uptake of the vaccine.

"The fact that South Carolina was the last in the country for HPV vaccination prompted a lot of effort among a lot of South Carolina pediatric practices to improve the HPV vaccination rate," said MUSC Children's Health pediatrician James Roberts, M.D.

To complement those efforts, Ford and Roberts teamed up to launch the MUSC Hollings community health van in October of 2021 with funding from Healthy Me-Healthy South Carolina and the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute. Ford and Roberts had noted that some of the lowest rates of vaccination were seen in the state's underserved and rural communities. The community health van travels to these communities, providing access to the HPV vaccine and other childhood vaccines. The MUSC team reports encouraging data from the first year of the program in a recent article in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.

Although the vaccine can be given between the ages of 9 and 45, the community health van focuses on vaccinating children between the ages of 9 and 18 because the vaccine is more effective when given at an earlier age, and medically underserved children in this age group are covered by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Vaccines for Children Program. Both girls and boys are vaccinated.

"People sometimes think this vaccine is only for girls and women, but it is important for everyone to receive the vaccine," said Ford.

Roberts points out that the vaccine is extremely safe because it contains no actual virus, only virus-like particles, meaning there is no chance of infection from the vaccine. These virus-like particles trigger the body's defense, or immune system, and readies it to fight against future HPV infection.

In its first year, the community health van reached children in 21 of South Carolina's 46 counties. The initiative began at a town hall meeting in Cherokee County, which had the lowest HPV vaccination rate in the state. Local community members gave testimonials about the importance of HPV vaccination, and the MUSC team answered questions. A video of this townhall event was made available to many other school districts across the state and has been watched more than 6,000 times.

Building on these early successes, Ford and Roberts hope to continue to expand the initiative to other counties in the state by partnering with school districts and community champions. The initiative includes educational sessions with parents of children eligible to receive the vaccine. During these sessions, researchers will evaluate parents' perceptions, attitudes and beliefs about the HPV vaccine as well as their intentions to get their children vaccinated.

The community health van team also hopes to build on existing partnerships, such as that of MUSC and South Carolina State University, a historically Black university. The institutions jointly run the South Carolina Cancer Disparities Research Center (SC CADRE), which aims to build cancer health equity through research. SC CADRE provides selected SCSU students, known as scholars, the opportunity to join research teams at MUSC during the summer. One of those scholars, I'Ayana Sanders, is a co-author of the article and will help to enter and analyze data from the pre- and post-HPV educational sessions with parents to analyze the efficacy of the intervention.

Thanks to the combined efforts of pediatricians across the state and MUSC initiatives like the community health van, HPV vaccination rates in South Carolina are now on par with those of other states.

More information: Marvella E. Ford et al, Evaluation of the First-Year Data from an HPV Vaccination Van Program in South Carolina, U.S., Journal of Clinical Medicine (2023). DOI: 10.3390/jcm12041362
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Credit: Lightspring/Shutterstock

According to some estimates, there is more than a one in four chance in the next decade of another global pandemic. We don't know whether this will be influenza, a coronavirus (like SARS and COVID), or something completely new. The World Health Organization refers to this unknown future threat as "Disease X."

Scientists are busy preparing. For example, the "100 day mission" involves the aim to develop a vaccine within 100 days of a new pandemic.

But we also need to be ethically prepared, say medical ethicists Professor Dominic Wilkinson, from the University of Oxford, and Professor Julian Savulescu, from the National University of Singapore, in a newly published book with Oxford University Press titled "Pandemic Ethics: From COVID-19 to Disease X."

"Pandemics are fraught with ethical landmines," writes Professor Wilkinson. "The scale of a pandemic means that we face awful choices. Many, many people become unwell, or vulnerable to illness at the same time. As we saw in COVID, we may not be able to treat everyone who needs a hospital bed, oxygen, a ventilator or a vaccine. We need to prioritize."

"What is more, we may have to choose between the needs of those in our own country, and those overseas. Some of our deepest values conflict, for example our desire for personal freedom and need to protect the vulnerable."

"During the COVID 19 pandemic, politicians said, "We need to follow the science." But science can't tell us whether we should have a lockdown, or mandatory vaccination. For that we need thoughtful, careful ethical analysis," says Professor Wilkinson.

"Pandemics raise the deepest ethical questions about the value of life, and how to weigh health against liberty. There is no simple formula.

"Modeling and policy aimed at one value in the current pandemic: minimizing death from COVID-19. But there are many values: avoid death from other causes, well-being and autonomy. How should these be calculated and weighed against each other?

"The risks presented by pandemics also affect different people differently. And policies place more burdens on some groups. How should the benefits and burdens be distributed, when they cannot be distributed equally? We were told, 'We are all in this together' and 'No one is safe until everyone is safe.' These slogans obscure difficult ethical decisions which must be made and ought to be made transparently, ethically and responsibly."

Professor Savulescu adds, "This book arms policy makers with some of the tools to make better decisions in the future."

Savulescu and Wilkinson have assembled a group of international experts in philosophy, ethics, law and economics to review lessons from COVID-19 for future pandemics.

Some highlights:

In the book, Professor Larry Gostin from Georgetown University criticizes the way that global solidarity apparently collapsed during COVID-19 as countries prioritized their own citizens over all others. This contributed to the catastrophic global failure in vaccine roll-out with poorer countries experiencing prolonged delays in access.

Philosopher Frances Kamm (Harvard) develops 12 proposals that may help debates about personal liberty in a future pandemic. She argues that even those with libertarian views should accept that relatively small harms can be imposed in order to save others lives.

A group of economists and philosophers from the US and UK (including the London School of Economics) tackle the difficult trade-off between limiting the health impacts of a virus and maintaining economic activity.

Authors from Brazil, Japan and India examine the intersection between politics and social inequality and identify some of the troubling consequences of decisions made during the COVID-19 outbreak.

More information: Pandemic Ethics: From COVID-19 to Disease X: global.oup.com/academic/produc  71688?cc=gb&lang=en&
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Roughly one in six couples in Canada experiences infertility, a figure that has doubled since the 1980s. Many of these couples are turning to assisted reproduction technology (ART) for help with conceiving.

Now, a new method developed by University of Saskatchewan (USask) researcher Dr. Roger Pierson (Ph.D.) and his team, including his daughter, first author and alumna Dr. Hannah Pierson (Ph.D."13), to statistically assess the quality of human embryos for transplant success promises to revolutionize the field of ART.

In a paper published in the journal Reproductive BioMedicine Online, the researchers explain the formula they developed to convert the currently used qualitative method of grading embryo quality into a quantitative ranking.

"It's a revolutionary approach to understanding the contribution of the embryo in assisted reproduction therapies, and how to use the indicator embryo quality in statistical analyzes to improve therapy," he said. "Solving this problem has opened up a whole new world for us and everyone in embryology. It's a very exciting development."

The team developed the algorithm to tease out the relative contributions of the embryo, the endometrium and embryo transfer efficiency. They validated the NEQsi system with a detailed clinical analysis of more than 1,700 in vitro fertilization cycles at a single Canadian fertility center. The results showed that NEQsi score was a significant predictor of pregnancy.

The currently used Gardner grading system assigns qualitative scores to an embryo based on three visual factors: the expansion of the blastocyst (the space inside the fertilized egg); inner cell mass (cells that grow into a fetus); trophectoderm quality (cells become the placenta and membranes). Given the possible grade combinations, that works out to an unwieldy 54 possible embryo grades which combine quantitative and qualitative indicators. These broad categories obscure useful data.

Respecting the Gardner system's strength in yielding a high-quality assessment of embryo quality in the lab, Pierson's group developed an equation, called the numeric embryo quality scoring index (NEQsi), that mathematically condenses the 54 Gardner grades to a linear scoring system ranging from 2-11 that better represents the embryo grade. This enables researchers to incorporate embryo quality into their statistical analyzes of other factors in ART.

Pierson's group is making the algorithm public and providing a NEQsi calculator so that clinics and embryologists everywhere can use it. Even patients will be able to access it to help understand where their embryos fit onto the scale and have informed conversations with their care providers about how best to proceed.

"It's a part of being a small piece of the university that the world needsbuilding collaborations with new university technologies and commercial entities to bring new technology to the marketplaceand we also hope to demonstrate how businesses and academia can work well together," Pierson said.

He connects the great potential of the NEQsi equation to another of his research successes at USaska non-invasive, ultrasound-based endometrial receptivity (usER) system. His Synergyne Group of Companies reached an agreement with USask to secure the rights to the technology in 2012, and Synergyne's trademarked Matris system is used in ART clinics across Canada. Trials in clinics around the world will be initiated in the coming weeks.

Matris uses mathematical algorithms and specialized visualization technologies to assess and interpret ultrasonographic images and assigns a numeric score based on what the results predict will be the quality of the endometrial lining at the time of embryo transfer.

"It's a very important tool in helping patients increase the probability of pregnancy at each transfer, decrease the time it takes to become pregnant, decrease the cost, and to support women through this process because they often feel personally responsible for the quality of the uterus," said Pierson.

The higher the Matris score, the higher the probability of pregnancy. Pierson said Matris has successfully raised the likelihood of pregnancy by 20 percent for fresh embryo transfer cycles and 10 percent for frozen embryos in some clinics.

"Matris is revolutionary in understanding the contribution of the endometrium. This new NEQsi system is allowing us to analyze the contribution of the embryo on a transfer-by-transfer basis. The next step is to put those two pieces together," said Pierson.

Matching all the patient parameters, embryo parameters and endometrial parameters to assess the success of the innovative approach is expected to take between 12,000 to 20,000 fertilization cycles at large ART clinics in Europe and North America, he said.

"The combination of these two technologies incorporated into leading assisted reproduction clinics will represent a highly significant improvement to the care of women globally."

More information: Hannah E. Pierson et al, A novel system for rapid conversion of Gardner embryo grades to linear scale numeric variables, Reproductive BioMedicine Online (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.rbmo.2023.01.008 Journal information: Reproductive Biomedicine Online
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The French government may ban disposable electronic cigarettes popular in particular among teenagers by the end of this year, Health Minister Francois Braun said Wednesday.

"I'm in favor of a ban," Braun told broadcaster France Inter, adding that the devices "lead some of our young people towards using tobacco".

"Smoking is a scourge, it kills 75,000 people per year" in France, he said.

Although President Emmanuel Macron's government has no majority in parliament, ministers would "work with lawmakers" to reach a deal on a ban, Braun said.

It could be enacted "before the end of this year," he added.

The ban may form part of a new anti-smoking plan the health ministry is working on for the coming five years.

Sweet and fruit-flavored one-use electronic cigarettesknown as "puffs" in Franceare sold in brightly colored packaging at prices within reach of teenagers, at eight to 12 euros ($8.80-13.25) for 500 inhalations.

The roughly 20 brands selling the products in France are accused by critics of targeting adolescents despite existing rules barring sale of electronic cigarettes to minors.

Disposable devices are "increasingly popular on social media and have a mostly positive and harmless image among young people," anti-smoking group ACT said late last year.

But the one-use cigarettes can contain up to 20 milligrams per milliliter of highly addictive nicotine, making them a potential "on-ramp" to smoking, ACT added.

 2023 AFP
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UC Senior Lecturer in Public Health Dr Matt Hobbs newly published study demonstrates a link between environmental factors, and youth mental health. Credit: University of Canterbury

Global statistics on youth mental health make for sobering reading, with depression a leading cause of adolescent illness, and suicide estimated as the third most common cause of death among 15- to 19-year-olds. A recent study co-led by University of Canterbury (UC) Senior Lecturer in Public Health Dr. Matt Hobbs and Dr. Nick Bowden from the University of Otago, adds to the body of research investigating the complexities behind these stark figures.

Published in the journal Social Science & Medicine the study, a collaboration between researchers from UC, Otago, and Auckland, is part of a wider project. The research investigated a range of protective and detrimental environmental factors that may influence youth mental health. The team used the Healthy Location Index, a tool developed by UC's GeoHealth Laboratory, in conjunction with population-level mental health data contained in the Integrated Data Infrastructure.

"We'd previously developed a nationwide geographical measure of how healthy or unhealthy your neighborhood is," explains Dr. Hobbs. "This was based on access to five health-promoting features, including fruit and vegetable outlets and greenspaces, and five health-constraining environmental features, including liquor stores and gambling venues."

The results of the study showed that young people living in health-constraining environments were more likely to experience poorer emotional and mental health. Young people living in health-promoting environments were less likely to have problems with substance-abuse. While Dr. Hobbs acknowledges that environmental factors are only one of the complex influences impacting youth mental health, he hopes the study's findings could help to inform practical interventions by policy makers.

"While we know there are many influences on mental health, it's possible that small changes in upstream factors, such as environment, may result in large improvements in the mental health of a population, because of a population-level shift in the distribution of risks, exposures and resources."

Having seen the limitations of less nuanced public health interventions, Dr. Hobbs is committed to research that takes multiple factorsincluding environmental influencesinto account. He believes a focus on the lived experiences of individuals and communities is key.

"Previously, I was involved in public health interventions with children and their families which aimed to improve their physical activity. I quickly realized that, although they were coming to these interventions, when they went back out into the real world, the environments around them weren't helping them make healthy decisions."

Dr. Hobbs, who has worked at UC since 2018, is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in medical geography. This specialty involves mapping public health issues by specific location, down to the level of individual neighborhoods.

"Every project I do aims to influence positive environmental or social change," he says. "It needs to have a real-world impact, although sometimes it can take a long time for our research findings to filter through into policy."

Dr. Hobbs hopes to extend his current research to a longitudinal model that would track the environments study participants were exposed to over time.

More information: Hobbs M et al, The environment a young person grows up in is associated with their mental health: A nationwide geospatial study using the integrated data infrastructure, New Zealand, Social Science & Medicine (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115893 Journal information: Social Science & Medicine
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Graphical abstract. Credit: Cancer Cell (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2023.04.002

An international team of researchers led by the Netherlands Cancer Institute developed a method to better predict the outgrowth of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a possible precursor of breast cancer, into invasive breast cancer. Using mice into which cells from women with DCIS were inserted, researchers can better identify which DCIS patients are at risk for breast cancer.

The study was published in Cancer Cell and is part of PRECISION, a major international research project on DCIS.

DCIS consists of aberrant cells in the milk ducts of the breast. In the Netherlands, it is found in about 2,300 women a year, about 80% of them detected at breast cancer screening. This is because calcium splashes can be seen on the X-ray of the breast (the mammogram), which may indicate DCIS.

Preventing overtreatment

To this day, however, it is not possible to predict which DCIS will progress to breast cancer and which will not. Therefore, virtually all women with DCIS are treated preventively through mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery followed by radiation and, in some countries, hormone therapy.

As a result, tens of thousands of women around the world undergo intensive treatment without any benefit, but suffer the disadvantages. To prevent overtreatment in the future, researchers at The Netherlands Cancer Institute and the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology developed a "living biobank" of DCIS cells to better understand their progression to cancer.

Following the 'live' process from DCIS to breast cancer

The development from DCIS to breast cancer in humans usually takes 10 to 20 years. In the new mouse models, in which human DCIS cells are inserted, this takes only one year. Also, it is difficult to study DCIS in patients themselves because DCIS is surgically removed fairly soon after diagnosis.

Researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute developed more than 100 different DCIS mouse models that allow them to accurately follow the process from DCIS to breast cancer. DCIS cells from surgical tissue were introduced into the milk ducts of mice under anesthesia, using a very thin needle.

The growth of the different DCIS cells was then followed over a period of one year, with just under half of the mice developing invasive breast tumors. Thanks to this time saving, this study allowed scientists to better understand why DCIS does or, more importantly, does not grow into breast cancer.

Research leader Jos Jonkers of the Netherlands Cancer Institute says, "Thanks to our mouse models, we were able to study DCIS live for the first time. This yielded a wealth of information. We hereby bridge a gap of several decades between preclinical research and the clinic."

Molecular similarities between humans and mice

While transferring tissue from women with DCIS to mice was quite an achievement in itself, the results of the study are even more interesting. Thanks to the new mouse models, researchers have gained important information about breast cancer risk factors in DCIS.

For example, molecular studies showed that the presence of the HER2 protein increases the risk of breast cancer. In contrast, presence of the protein to which the hormone estrogen can bind breast cancer meant a lower risk.

3D Microscopy detects different growth patterns

After a year, half of the mouse models with DCIS were found not to have developed breast cancer while the other half did. To study what factors had led to this distinction, the mouse models were also examined with three-dimensional microscopy by the research group of Colinda Scheele of the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology.

By mapping the DCIS tissue cell-by-cell, the research group discovered that human DCIS cells exhibit two different three-dimensional growth patterns that can predict breast cancer risk. For example, they found that in most mice where breast cancer did not develop, the DCIS cells had replaced the mouse cells in the milk ducts ("replacement growth"), while if breast cancer did develop, the milk ducts were expanded by the DCIS cells ("expansive growth").

Colinda Scheele, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology says, "Thanks to the work of our colleagues at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, we were able to examine more than 700 samples. That we were able to discover from the growth pattern which DCIS do or do not lead to breast cancer is promising. If in the future we can also demonstrate in human patients which DCIS cells will not evolve into cancer, we can potentially save them a lot of physical and mental suffering."

The mouse models have provided a better understanding of the biology of DCIS. This information may help to better distinguish in the future between DCIS abnormalities that are very likely to be harmless and those DCIS abnormalities that may well grow into breast cancer.

"In the first case, we could then consider not treating these women and only screening them regularly. In the second case, treatment is probably necessary to protect these women from breast cancer in time," says Jelle Wesseling, pathologist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and team lead for the Cancer Grand Challenges PRECISION consortium.

Some of the mouse models now form a unique biobank and can be used by scientists around the world to gather new information. The DCIS cells from these models can be frozen after outgrowth in the mouse and later reintroduced into mice. Even after three generations of mice, the molecular properties of the DCIS cells appear to be remarkably stable. Ph.D. student Stefan Hutten, who conducted the research, said, "We now have a unique collection of nineteen distributable models representing all molecular subtypes of DCIS."

More information: Stefan J. Hutten et al, A living biobank of patient-derived ductal carcinoma in situ mouse-intraductal xenografts identifies risk factors for invasive progression, Cancer Cell (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2023.04.002 Journal information: Cancer Cell
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A youth gets a shot of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine during a vaccination drive at University Stadium in Mexico City, Friday, July 23, 2021. Mexican officials celebrated Wednesday, May 3, 2023, the announcement that the country finally developed its own COVID-19 vaccine, more than two years after inoculations from the U.S., Europe and China were rolled out. Credit: AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File

Mexican officials celebrated Wednesday the announcement that the country finally developed its own COVID-19 vaccine, more than two years after inoculations from the U.S., Europe and China were rolled out.

It was unclear what use would be made of the vaccine, named "Patria" or "Motherland," developed in a joint effort between the government and a Mexican company, Avimex, which previously did work on animal vaccines.

Vaccine uptake in Mexico dropped precipitously in late 2022 and 2023, and Mexico still has millions of doses of the Abdala vaccine it bought from Cuba.

Maria Elena Alvarez-Buylla, the head of Mexico's government commission for science and technology, said the new vaccine would be approved for use as a booster shot. She did not say whether the government medical approval agency had formally authorized the Patria vaccine.

Dr. Fidel Alejandro Sanchez, who sits on the council of researchers in charge of following virus variants in Mexico, said he had doubts about using a vaccine designed two years ago as a booster to protect against currently circulating strains.

"It is like reading yesterday's newspaper," Sanchez said. "It makes no sense to use it as a booster when it wasn't designed for that."

Mexico started developing the Patria vaccine in March 2020. But testing was slow, and the country wound up importing 225 million doses, mainly Astra-Zeneca and Pfizer, and some Chinese vaccines.

Mexico bought 9 million doses of the Cuban-made Abdala vaccine in September 2022, even though it was designed for coronavirus variants circulating in 2020 or 2021, not current variants. Few Mexicans have shown up to get the Cuban booster shots.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has made a point of trying to make Mexico self-sufficient in many industries, while at the same time supporting Cuba however he can.

"This opens the door to recovering vaccine sovereignty," Alvarez-Buylla said.

Mexico's official death toll of test-confirmed COVID-19 deaths stands at almost 334,000, but testing was scarce in the early days of the pandemic and the government's own review of death certificates shows more than 505,000 deaths where COVID-19 was listed as a cause of contributing cause of death.

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Concerns continue to grow about the impact social media use has on the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. According to a new national survey conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of The On Our Sleeves Movement For Children's Mental Health, half (50%) of parents of children younger than 18 feel their child(ren)'s mental health has suffered during the past 12 months because of social media use.

To best understand how social media is impacting their children's mental health, On Our Sleeves encourages parents and caregivers to sit down and have regular conversations with their children about how using certain social media platforms can make them feel.

Protecting the mental health of children online has also become a conversation outside of the home and on the national level. Between April 2022 and April 2023, platforms like TikTok have introduced new safety measures, and lawmakers have discussed bills that would limit user access to social media.

"This is a positive step, but parents can't trust that this is enough," said Dr. Ariana Hoet, clinical director of On Our Sleeves and a pediatric psychologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital. "Social media has the ability to increase anxiety and depression in children when used inappropriately, as well as potentially open them up to inappropriate sharing, hurtful language, bullying and more."

Dr. Hoet says not all social media is bad. It can help in building a sense of community, relationships and self-understanding. Yet, during the past year, the survey shows the number of Americans who say children's use of social media has a positive influence on their mental health has fallen to just over one-third (35%), a drop from 43% in 2022. In an increasingly digital world, it's important for parents and caregivers to understand the pros and cons of social media use and work to maintain open communication about what children are experiencing online.

"Be curious about what your child is doing on social media. Taking an active role in their social media engagement, instead of simply limiting their exposure, can help them feel comfortable to ask questions, report concerns and seek help when they need it," Dr. Hoet said.

Unfortunately, fewer parents say they're comfortable having conversations with their kids about mental health, a drop of 5 percentage points from 91% in 2022 to 86% in 2023. To facilitate these conversations, consistent and open communication is essential. On Our Sleeves provides parents and caregivers with free, easy-to-follow guides and tools to start conversations about what's happening on social media and strategies on how to set boundaries and keep them safe. Experts recommend:

Asking kids to show you their favorite video, channel, or online influencer and following up with open-ended questions so you listen more than you speak.

Developing a family social media plan to minimize conflict, support good choices, and address misuse. On Our Sleeves has a template that can be modified to meet each family's needs.

Talking to your kids about how to seek help from a trusted adult if they feel like something unsafe is happening and discussing which parental controls and settings will be in place for social media use and why.

The balance between allowing children to explore social media while avoiding potentially dangerous aspects can be difficult. Through On Our Sleeves, parents can work to build trusting relationships that allow their children to reap the benefits of social media while minimizing the risk of negative outcomes.

For more information and resources to start conversations with children about safely using social media, visit OnOurSleeves.org.

Survey Method:

The 2023 survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of On Our Sleeves from March 30-April 3, 2023, among 2,035 U.S. adults ages 18+ among whom 711 are parents of kids younger than 18. The 2022 survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of On Our Sleeves from April 5-7, 2022 among 2,063 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, among whom 686 are parents of kids younger than 18. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For these studies, the sample data is accurate to within +/- 2.8 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodologies, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact Molly Devaney at 614-905-8318.
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People seeking medically assisted suicide from any state can now get it in Vermont.

The state is the first to allow those with terminal illnesses from out of state to end their lives within its borders, the Associated Press reported.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill Tuesday removing a requirement that those seeking medically assisted suicide in the state must be Vermont residents.

"We are grateful to Vermont lawmakers for recognizing that a state border shouldn't determine if you die peacefully or in agony," Kim Callinan, president and CEO of Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit advocacy organization, said in a statement. "Patients routinely travel to other states to utilize the best health care options. There is no rational reason they shouldn't be able to travel to another state to access medical aid in dying if the state they live in doesn't offer it."

Ten U.S. states allow medically assisted suicide, according to the AP.

Another state, Oregon, last year agreed to stop enforcing its residency requirement for the lethal medication. That was part of a court settlement in which the state also agreed to ask its legislature to remove the residency requirement, the AP reported.

Vermont had already settled with a Connecticut woman with terminal cancer who wanted to seek medically assisted suicide in the state, the AP reported.

More information: Brandeis University in Massachusetts has more on assisted suicide.

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Commencement 2023

Master of ceremonies Nicholas J. Silvestri, MD, addresses those in attendance at the Honors Convocation at UBs Center for the Arts.

Honors Convocation Fetes Awardees, Honors Daniels

STORY BY BILL BRUTON

Nicholas J. Silvestri, MD , clinical associate professor of neurology and associate dean for student and academic affairs, paid tribute to the late Jonathan D. Daniels, MD, during the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences annual Honors Convocation, which took place April 28 at UBs Center for the Arts.

Wears Air Jordans to Fulfill Promise to Friend

Silvestri, master of ceremonies for the event, honored Daniels by wearing distinctive retro Air Jordan shoes based off the original Jordans released in the 1980s. At last years Honors Convocation, he was sitting with Daniels, and commented to his friend on the excellent footwear all the inductees were wearing.

I said to Jonathan, next year, lets wear Jordans. Hes like youre not going to wear Jordans? And I said Jonathan, I will wear Jordans!

Daniels didnt get to see the tribute. He died tragically in an early morning fire last July 4 at his North Buffalo home, along with two of his adult daughters: Jordan, a 2022 graduate of the UB School of Management; and Jensen, a 2021 graduate of Buffalo State College.

Silvestri found out about Daniels death from David A. Milling, MD, executive director of the Office of Medical Education and senior associate dean for medical education.

When I received the call from Dr. Milling that Dr. Daniels had passed away, I went right out and bought these shoes and I said man I am wearing those to graduation for JD, Silvestri said.

Rather than lament his loss, lets celebrate his life, and lets remember him today. Hed be so proud of you, Silvestri added.


The Pattee Canyon Ladies Salon hadnt taken a break on its annual show for almost 30 years, until COVID struck.

This week, it returns, continuing a tradition that goes back decades for the Missoula artist collective.

It is a cooperative group, said Leslie Van Stavern Millar. They all help organize, hang and staff the show. The work on view, meanwhile, is a nice expression of where theyre at as individual artists.

The majority of the work is new, she said. The only criteria is that it needs to include a figure.

Millar said that by having it once a year, its an opportunity to expand or try things that are new, or get there and show things that are not part of a regular body of work.

Millar said that over the years, theyve consistently met together and been supportive and cooperate  I think thats pretty powerful.

The nine artists are Millar and the late Nancy Erickson, plus Stephanie Frostad, Kristi Hager, Becki Johnson, Beth Lo, Shari Montana, Linda Tawney and Janet Whaley.

Millar has continued her Burnt Offering series, depicting female figures in settings that allude to climate change; Frostad's include women wading into bodies of water, some of which have been seen recently; Lo's included a (literally) green fortune cookie with a child receiving a message about climate change.

Millar said Tawney has been painting the nude figure "with vigor and confidence" in textured pigment on panel; Johnson's working with gouache on small panels; and Whaley's ceramics "depict women as goddesses or enlightened beings in a celebratory manner."

It's a good model not just for artists but for humans, period. You get together and work for a common good, and it's great that it's around art, Millar said.

Millar bought the historic Brunswick Building decades ago, which is split up into rental studios for artists, plus a street-level gallery. The last group exhibition there was in 2019. (They held a show during COVID at Gallery 709 at Montana Art and Framing, which had more room.)

The collective, meanwhile, started more than 30 years ago. Over time, its membership has changed but solidified around a group of women artists who met regularly for figure-drawing sessions at Ericksons Pattee Canyon home.

In early 2022, Erickson, a founding member, died at age 86. Her importance to them was acknowledged by a museum exhibition that was already in planning: Focus on the Figure: The Pattee Canyon Ladies Salon, 1989-2022, at the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, which filled two galleries, a catalog and a day-long symposium.

With the Erickson familys blessing, theyve continued holding drawing sessions at the spacious studio.

Theyve been very, very kind; we have access to the room, Millar said.
WEDNESDAY, May 3, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- A patient-centered methodology (PCM) approach outperforms conventional analysis for predicting which melanoma patients would have a positive result on sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB), according to a study published online April 19 in JAMA Network Open.

James R. Miller III, Ph.D., from the California Pacific Medical Center and Research Institute in San Francisco, and colleagues conducted a hybrid prognostic study/decision analytical model among patients with melanoma who were eligible for SLNB at two melanoma centers in Australia and the United States. A comparison was conducted for the individualized probabilities of SLNB positivity generated by a PCM and those generated by conventional multiple logistic regression analysis examining 12 prognostic factors.

The simulation included 2,349 patients eligible for SLNB who did not undergo the procedure. The researchers found that the PCM-generated probabilities achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.803 and 0.826 for predicting SLNB positivity in the Australian and U.S. cohorts, respectively, which was higher than the corresponding AUROCs generated by conventional logistic regression analysis. A minimally acceptable PCM-generated probability of 8.7 percent elicited the same number of SLNBs as historically performed, with 29.3 percent positive, representing an improvement of 287 additional positive SLNBs (38.6 percent improvement). Adopting a PCM-generated minimum cutoff probability of 23.7 percent resulted in performing 1,815 fewer SLNBs than the actual experience (49.9 percent), yielding the same expected number of positive results, for a positivity rate of 42.7 percent.

"Beyond SLNB for melanoma, results of this hybrid prognostic study/decision analytical model study may have important implications for how guidelines are developed for selecting patients to undergo other useful medical procedures," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
WEDNESDAY, May 3, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Adults with cerebral palsy (CP) are more likely to be exposed to opioids and for a longer duration than adults without CP, according to a study published online March 10 in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy.

Daniel G. Whitney, Ph.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues assessed population- and individual-level opioid prescription patterns for 13,929 adults with CP versus 278,538 without CP from U.S. commercial claims data between Jan. 1, 2011, and Dec. 31, 2017.

The researchers found that adults with CP had a higher prevalence of opioid exposure (12 versus 8 percent) and days supplied monthly (median, 23 versus 17 monthly days) over seven years. At the individual level, the investigators identified six trajectory groups for CP and five for non-CP. Variably high monthly opioid volume for extended periods was seen for 14 percent of adults with CP (four distinct trajectory groups) and 8 percent of non-CP adults (three distinct groups), with higher exposure in the CP groups. Nearly absent exposure was seen for 55.7 percent with CP versus 63.3 percent of the non-CP group, while 30.4 and 28.9 percent, respectively, had consistently low exposure to opioids.

"The effects of greater opioid exposure for adults with CP is unknown, but may lead to adverse side effects in the short term or long term," the authors write. "Clinical care may need to consider history of opioid exposure when making current health assessments and developing preventive strategies to counterbalance potential adverse effects of greater opioid exposure."
May 5 is a national day of awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and there will be events across Montana all weekend to honor victims and their families.

May 5 is Hanna Harris birthday, and this year, she would have turned 31. But Harris, a Northern Cheyenne woman from Lame Deer, was raped and killed in 2013 when she was 21. Her son at the time was 10 months old. She is one of thousands of Native women who go missing or are killed each year.

Native Americans account for 6.7% of Montanas population, and yet they account for, on average, 26% of the states active missing persons cases. A 2016 National Institute of Justice report found that more than four in five Native men and women have experienced violence in their lifetime.

Events around the state, including rallies, vigils, walks, runs, art displays and more, aim to bring awareness to the crisis, foster community, honor victims and families and ultimately drive change.

Heres a look at some of the events happening around Montana this week and weekend.

Western Montana

Blackfeet Reservation

Run: On Sunday, the Blackfeet Tribal Health Improvement Program is hosting a run. The 5K starts at noon, and the one-mile race starts at 12:45 p.m., beginning at the Blackfeet Community College parking lot. The first 300 people to register will get a free T-shirt.

Bozeman

Documentary, speakers, dance and more: Montana State University Bozeman is hosting several events on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday at 6 p.m., there will be a documentary screening in the American Indian Hall of Who is She, followed by a panel Q&A. On Friday at 11:30 in the American Indian Hall, Rae Peppers will deliver a call to action speech. Vernon Sooktis will give a blessing and a prayer walk will leave from the Sunrise Plaza at 12:10 p.m. There will be a healing dance at 12:45 at the Sunrise Plaza, at 1 p.m., there will be a community feed and at 2 p.m., a talking circle.

Missoula

Documentary screening: On Thursday, May 4 at 6 p.m. in the University of Montana Campus UC theater, there will be a screening of Murder in Big Horn, a docuseries on the MMIW crisis in Montana. After the film, there will be a panel discussion with Montana journalist Luella Brien and filmmakers Ivy and Ivan McDonald.

Speakers: On Friday, May 5 at the UM campus Oval at 7 p.m., families affected by the MMIW crisis will speak and lead a candlelight vigil. The M and Main Hall will be lit with red lights, a color associated with the MMIW movement.

Theater: On Friday at 8:30 p.m., the ZACC is hosting a burlesque revue dedicated to Miranda Rose Kenmille, who went missing and was found dead in 2021.

Pablo

Walk/run: On Saturday at 10:30 a.m., there will be a walk/run calling for justice in MMIP cases. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., and there will be a welcome prayer and honor song as well as personal testimonials before the event. People should register at events.elitefeats.com/23justice and wear red.

Central Montana

Box Elder

Walk: On Friday at 3 p.m., people will walk from the blue water tower village to the construction corporation/plain green parking lot for a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People walk.

Great Falls

March: On Friday at Paris Gibson Park at 6 p.m., there will be speakers and a march to honor MMIW victims and families.

Helena

Display: On Friday, the Helena Indian Alliance will have a display of red dresses on a tree outside their building.

Eastern Montana

Billings

Food: On Friday at noon, #FoodForTheSoul will be grilling burgers and hot dogs at South Park. Attendees are encouraged to wear red, and there will be an open mic for whoever wants to talk.

Fort Belknap Reservation

Walk: On Friday at 10 a.m., people will gather at the Child Support Office parking lot for a remembrance walk. Participants are encouraged to bring posters. The walk honors Thomasine Walker, a 33-year-old woman from the reservation who was found dead in 2020.

Hardin

Rally: On Friday at 3 p.m., there will be a rally outside the courthouse calling for justice for Kaysera Stops Pretty Places. Stops Pretty Places, 18, was found dead in Hardin in 2019. The rally will also be streamed on Facebook on the Justice for Kaysera page.

Walk: On Friday at 1 p.m., Hardin High Schools Indian Club is leading a healing walk at Imer Field. Participants are encouraged to wear red.

Lame Deer

Walk and parade: On Friday at 8:30 a.m. in the Bureau of Indian Affairs parking lot in Lame Deer there will be a walk and parade honoring MMIP victims. This event is sponsored by the Harris family.
A Montana lawmaker tweeted on Tuesday that she received a threat targeting her home in Missoula.

Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender Montana legislator who was recently censured by Republicans, tweeted on Tuesday that her partner received swatting threats. On Tuesday evening Zephyr tweeted, Someone just attempted to swat me as well. I am fine.

An individual reported an anonymous tip targeting my home in Missoula, and the police recognized that it was likely a hoax and called me, she wrote. I will say again. We will not be deterred. The fight for trans rights goes on.

Swatting refers to a dangerous prank-call tactic where a caller falsely reports that a crime is happening at an area, usually someones house, with the intention to trigger a law enforcement response to the persons location.

This results in a forceful response from local police or SWAT teams, who have no way to know the call is a hoax, CNN reported. In 2017, a 28-year-old man was killed by police in Kansas from a swatting prank.

On Wednesday, Missoula Police said the department took the call seriously and quickly contacted Zephyr.

We confirmed everyone was safe. We determined the threat was from an FBI tip (not local) and it was unfounded, the department wrote in a statement. It wasnt made immediately clear if the person who called in the threat is facing any disciplinary action.

Zephyrs censure came after she told Republicans they would have blood on their hands for opposing gender-affirming health care for kids. She subsequently filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to stop Speaker of the House Matt Regier from blocking her from accessing the House floor. A judge rejected the order request just before the Legislature adjourned for the session on Tuesday.

In a statement earlier this week, Zephyr said she and her constituents were targeted because I dared to give voice to the values and needs of transgender people like myself.

AP reporting contributed to this story.
The Montana Senate adjourned ahead of the majority's plan Tuesday, with Democrats leveraging 10 Republican votes to curtain call the upper chamber's 2023 session.

The move left the state House scrambling late Tuesday night to wrap up critical work like passing the state budget and attempting to salvage as many of their bills as possible that were left hanging by the Senate's actions. The House had not completed its business as of press time.

Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, a Belgrade Democrat, made the motion to adjourn, or sine die, as soon as procedurally possible on Tuesday afternoon. Senate President Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, tried to call the motion out of order, but Flowers persisted the timing was proper.

The "sine die" motion passed 26-24. Cheers could be heard in the hallway outside the Senate as that chamber's Republicans settled into the reality that their work this session was done.

Democrats have been operating from a superminority, meaning Republicans could pass virtually anything by a two-thirds vote without any Democratic support.

Flowers on Tuesday said the motion was not meant to be retribution for a session of few opportunities, but said he enjoyed making the motion.

"I think any opportunity for us to direct opportunities rather than be directed is satisfying," Flowers said. "I just felt like we no longer had anything to gain for Montanans or for our constituents by being here any longer. We've already been here longer than any session I've served in and it was just time to go home and obviously a lot of Republicans felt the same way and voted with us on it."

House Bill 2, the state budget, has cleared the Senate but not yet been approved by the House of Representatives.

"Every two years we come here to pass a budget, and we did that," Flowers told reporters as senators began clearing their desks. "We felt at this point there wasn't any more work that could be done that would be to the advantage of Montanans and it was time to leave here."

Senate GOP leadership declined to speak with press Tuesday, but planned to speak with reporters Wednesday.

On the Senate floor after the adjournment motion passed, Majority Leader Sen. Steve Fitzpatrick, of Great Falls, rolled out a list of the supermajority's accomplishments, from rebates to changes to education and the judicial branch.

"We probably passed some of the most substantive laws I think in terms of the last 14 years I've been here," he said. "Last session was very easy, we had a lot of low-hanging fruit after 16 years of Democratic governors.  This session was harder, but it was more difficult and hopefully I think it was more rewarding, I think we did a great job here."

Lawmakers this session had extensive untangling to do with a massive budget surplus. Several bills that aimed to spend some of that surplus, such as House Bill 816 to send back another $100 million in surplus dollars to Montanans in the form of income and property tax rebates, had to be saved through a series of procedural amendments so it was not trapped in limbo because the Senate adjourned.

Several other bills, such as House Bill 37, a major revision to child protective services laws, appears to be in limbo. The governor issued amendatory vetoes but the House cannot act on them alone, meaning the bill returns to Gianforte to either sign or veto.

Bills that are vetoed after both chambers adjourn can be overridden through a poll of lawmakers.

In action late Tuesday, some representatives in the House voted to kill off Senate bills or not consider them at all, a move one lawmaker acknowledged on the floor was retaliatory.

I dont care about the Senate or what you think they did, said Rep. Denly Loge, R-St. Regis, as he worked to save a study of the wine industry in Montana.
The horse race between two bills to determine how marijuana tax revenues are spent was decided Monday, although the winner remains under the threat of veto.

Senate Bill 442, from Malta Republican Mike Lang, emerged from the Senate on a 48-1 vote Monday, passing the Legislature with only 18 of 150 votes tallied against it across both chambers.

The bill maintains the funding for habitat conservation sought by outdoor recreation groups, as well as county road repair and veteran services that drew in 93 separate outfits to support the bill.

Senate GOP leadership has said the Governor's Office plans to veto the bill, which was at odds with Gov. Greg Gianforte's vision for marijuana tax revenue spending.

Asked Monday, a spokesperson for the Governor's Office said Gianforte "has substantial concerns" about SB 442 but did not respond to a follow-up email asking for more details.

Before the session even got underway, the Gianforte administration laid out plans to rearrange how those tax revenues are spent, doing away with habitat purchases by the state and spending instead on law enforcement resources the office said were tied to marijuana legalization.

That philosophy manifested in two bills this session: House Bill 462, which failed to pass out of its first committee, and Senate Bill 536, which began as a small policy bill but was later amended to include a new special revenue account for state law enforcement resources.

When the two still existed Monday, SB 442 supporters gathered in the Capitol to rally support for the bill's last reading in the Senate.

"I appreciate the county road part of it because I live on a ranch and we need to get our products to market, and we need to get our kids to school," Denny Iverson, a Blackfoot River Valley rancher, said during the rally. "And I'm an EMT, so I need to get to people's houses when they're having a bad day."

Sen. Ken Bogner, R-Miles City, also supported the bill.

"As a marine who served in Iraq, I believe we have a duty to care for our men and women when they return home from service," Bogner said. The bill expands veterans services and helps pay property taxes for disabled veterans and surviving spouses.

Roughly an hour later, SB 442 passed the Senate 48-1.

In the House, Senate Bill 538 had a more tangled downturn. In an effort to advance the bill through a jungle of procedures and deadlines, Rep. Mike Hopkins, R-Missoula, proposed an amendment to strip the bill of its revenue implications, essentially restoring the bill back to its original form in hopes that its policy provisions would survive.

As the votes came in on the board, it appeared the motion would die on a 48-50 vote. As Speaker Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, called for the absentee votes, the board suddenly went blank and the House got a second vote on Hopkins' amendment. That time the motion passed with all votes accounted for, 55-45.

A spokesperson for the House Republicans did not respond to a text asking how the second vote occurred.

Because no one objected during the proceedings, the second vote stands.

With SB 538 back in its original form, Rep. Katie Sullivan, D-Missoula, said "shenanigans" in recent weeks had made the bill too clouded to support.

"Maybe we're nervous because we realize something bad is happening and there are shenanigans afoot," she said during the floor debate. "I think we have other marijuana policy bills we can use  I feel like this is a vehicle for dishonest dealings, I'm sorry, I'm just going to say this out loud."

Rep. Tanner Smith, R-Lakeside, is a freshman lawmaker this session, but on Monday was familiar with the "shenanigans" that held up the end of the 2021 Legislature.

At this point last session, last-minute attempts to introduce priorities into the new recreational marijuana regulatory framework threatened to derail the legislation and leave the state with the language from the citizen ballot initiative.

"This is kind of the same stuff that was afoot back then," he said. "These last-minute bills that no one understands as sneaky nefarious stuff could be passed through."

After it was amended, the House rejected SB 538 on a 38-62 vote. Because it has already died and been revived once, it cannot be revived again.
The U.S. Senate voted 49-45 Monday to confirm University of Montana law professor Anthony Devos Johnstone to serve as a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

Johnstone was nominated by President Joe Biden for the judgeship in September 2022, and had his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 12, 2022.

He will occupy a seat made vacant by Chief Judge Emeritus Sidney R. Thomas assumption of senior status. Johnstone will maintain chambers in Missoula.

Montanas Republican Sen. Steve Daines voted against the nomination and Democratic Sen. Jon Tester voted for it.

Mr. Johnstones record proves that rather than upholding the rule of law and protecting Montana values, he supports President Bidens wide-open southern border and undercutting Montanans Second Amendment rights, Daines stated in an email.

Tester said Johnstone has applied the law without bias, in a common sense way.

He has an outstanding record of service to the people of Montana, and I have no doubt that he will serve the American people well on the 9th Circuit bench, he said in an email. He said he was proud to have helped push this Montanans confirmation through the Senate.

Johnstone has served as the Helen and David Mason Professor of Law and an affiliated Professor of Public Administration at the University of Montana, Alexander Blewett III School of Law in Missoula since 2011.

He taught federal and state constitutional law and legislation, as well as a federal judicial clinic. Johnstone also has served as trial and appellate counsel in federal and state courts, including the 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.

He served the Montana Department of Justice as state solicitor from 2008 to 2011 and assistant attorney general from 2004 to 2008.

The Senate wisely confirmed Anthony Johnstone on a 49-45 vote, because the appointee is a well qualified, mainstream, intelligent, ethical individual, who has measured judicial temperament, said Carl Tobias, a Virginia-based law professor whos been following Johnstones nomination for several months.

In his hearing, Johnstone responded clearly and comprehensively to numerous questions, Tobias continued.

He pointed to Second Amendment questions from Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the former Judiciary Committee chair and ranking member. Grassley, Tobias said, wasnt satisfied with Johnstones answers and voted no on the nomination in committee.

Democratic and Independent senators voted for Johnstone, while only a few Republicans voted in favor of him, according to Tobias.

Johnstone will be sworn in and begin judicial service very soon and he promises to be a valuable addition to the storied court which covers the West, he said.

The 9th Circuit encompasses Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington state, the U.S. Territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Federal circuit judges serve lifetime appointments upon good behavior.

Missoulian reporter Zoe Buchli contributed to this story.
A Helena judge on Tuesday afternoon denied the request from Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, to gain access to the House floor as the Montana legislative session nears its end.

Zephyr had sought a temporary restraining order to stop Speaker of the House Matt Regier from blocking her from accessing the House floor. The Senate voted to sine die, or end the session, Tuesday afternoon and the House now must finish the business left before that chamber.

Zephyr was still allowed to vote remotely, but has been forbidden from accessing the House chamber since last week. Republicans, who voted in lockstep to keep her out of the House, argued it was necessary following her support for protesters who had disrupted the chambers proceedings earlier that week. Seven were arrested after the protest on misdemeanor charges; law enforcement has said they are not aware of damage or violence during the event.

Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Mike Menahan wrote that the plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed on the merits of the case and that they sought "injunctive relief which far outpaces the facts at issue here."

Menahan also cited the separation of powers between the judicial and legislative branch in his order.

"Because the constitution explicitly reserves this power for the Legislature, the courts powers are conversely limited," he wrote.

Menahan continued that even if the court were to find the House of Representatives, Regier or the Sergeant at Arms named in the lawsuit acted unlawfully, it "does not have the authority to issue a broad permanent injunction to effectively remove all legislative authority under Article V Section 10 in relation to a single member."

The complaint was filed by the Montana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union in Lewis and Clark County District Court on Monday. It alleges that the ban violated Zephyrs rights to free speech under the state and federal constitutions, and her right to equal protection under the state constitution.

Earlier in the day the state attorney general told the court in filings that the state constitution dictates that each chamber of the Legislature is the sole body that sets rules for and governs its own members and the request from plaintiffs would violate the separation of powers between branches of government.

During the protest, Zephyr stood at her desk on the House floor with her microphone raised and engaged with the crowd.

The rally and subsequent protest were held in response to Republicans in the House preventing Zephyr from speaking on the House floor for several days, after comments she made two weeks ago. The freshman lawmaker had told representatives a week ago they should be ashamed for voting in favor of a bill that would ban some gender-affirming care for transgender minors. She also told them they would have blood on your hands for doing so.

Republicans have advanced several bills affecting trans people this session. Regier had been adamant that Zephyr would again be recognized should she apologize  something she declined to do.

Regier made the motion to ban Zephyr under a provision of the Montana Constitution that allows each house to expel or punish a member for good cause shown with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its members.

In a statement late Tuesday, Regier welcomed the order.

The Montana courts have recognized that the judicial branch has no power to revise or overrule the power expressly held by the Montana state Legislature to conduct its business. The House is continuing its work for the people of Montana," Regier said in an emailed statement.

 Reporter Sam Wilson contributed to this story.
Georgia Hall and Charley Hull at the 2021 Solheim Cup

Charley Hull and Georgia Hall have pulled out of this week's Hanwha Lifeplus International Crown team event at Harding Park in San Francisco.

The duo were listed in the field for the biennial LPGA match play tournament that sees eight four-person international teams compete in a round-robin group stage, with the top two from each qualifying for the semi-finals.

Hull and Hall were part of the English team alongside Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Bronte Law before withdrawing due to illness and injury respectively and will now be replaced by Alice Hewson and Liz Young.

Hull, the World No. 18, said: "I've been quite sick the past couple of weeks with stomach issues. I was hoping I could play through it but it seems not and I'm going to need to seek some help.

"I'm really sorry to let the tournament down and of course my team-mates."

Hall added: "I've been struggling with my foot for the past few weeks and in spite of daily physio treatment it's not improving, so I've been advised to take a week off. I'm really sorry not to be able to play and wish my England team-mates the best of luck."

England start the fourth edition of the International Crown tournament as the fifth seeds and have been drawn in Group A with the United States, Sweden and China, while Group B is made up of South Korea, Japan, Thailand and Australia.

Each country will play two four-ball matches against the other three countries in their pool across the first three days to determine who advances, with the semi-finals and final consisting of two singles ties and one foursomes match.
SHEBOYGAN FALLS - Two brothers ignited the cheese industry in Sheboygan County with a farm factory and stand-alone operations in the 19th century.

Before the advent of a cheese factory, cheese was made in farm kitchens. That early cheese product was infrequently sold at market. It had several problems, which included, collecting, temperature control, rennet enzyme application, sanitation, refrigeration and aging.

The northwest corner of county Highway C and Sunset Road, as seen, Tuesday, April 11, 2023, in Sheboygan Falls, Wis., which is said to be the farm where John J. Smith began the first cheese factory in Sheboygan County.

John J. Smith started his cheese "factory" in 1858 by taking in gathering curd produced by his neighbors. Quality control was lacking as every curd-maker did things something slightly different and not to a uniform standard. The individual farmers' wives many times were responsible for curd production, according to information from Katie Riley of the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center.

Smith, after collecting the curds, would finish the cheese-making process. It was said that he had improvised facilities in his house, an existing shed or a corner in his barn. He packed the cheese in barrels for shipment.

John J. Smith has been said to run the first cheese factory at his Sheboygan Falls farm back in 1858.

Making cheese was one thing, but selling that early Sheboygan County cheese met stiff resistance in Chicago. In fall 1858, Smith barreled cheese and took the barrels to Chicago to sell. Because early Wisconsin cheese was of poor quality and with the superior quality of New York cheese, dealers refused to buy his cheese until Smith paid one of them to sample his cheeses. That entire lot was then sold for 8 cents a pound.

Cheese made in Sheboygan County was starting to mean something.

Smith's brother, Hiram Smith, started a bit later in the cheese business when in 1870 he bought the McKinnon Cheese factory from A.D DeLand and Manning McKinnon, who had built that factory in 1867. Smith would only own own the factory for six years when he sold it in 1876 to brothers Ferdinand and Frank Mathers.

Hiram Smith, known as one of the early cheese makers in Sheboygan County, was a member of the Board of Regents with the University of Wisconsin and was known for urging improvements in agricultural education opportunities.

The Mathers brothers, who would be two of the first in the county to join the Sheboygan Falls Dairy Board of Trade in 1878, would crank up the reputation for Sheboygan County cheese. They won a gold medal as first prize for their cheese entry at the Wisconsin State Fair in 1879.

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The word was getting around that Sheboygan County cheese was something special.

Hiram Smith was a large figure in Sheboygan County and the dairy industry. He was a member of the State Board of Regents for the University of Wisconsin and constantly advocated improvements in the agriculture programs at that institution. Many felt his contributions helped accelerate the growth of the dairy industry in Wisconsin in the 19th century.

This northeast corner of county Highway C and Sunset Road, as seen, Tuesday April 11, 2023, in Sheboygan Falls, Wis., is said to be the building where the first cheese factory was built in 1867 by L.P. Fischer and Manning McKinnn.

With the early groundwork made by these cheese-making pioneers, Sheboygan County became so well known in cheese circles that Plymouth was picked as the location of the National Cheese Exchange, which set the commodity price of bulk cheese, a big deal at the time. The Exchange itself would move to Green Bay and in 1997 left to go to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Despite the departure of the Exchange, Plymouth would become known as a truly big cheese.

Today, Plymouth is home to cheese giants such as Sargento Foods, Inc., Sartori, Inc., Masters Gallery Foods, Inc., and Great Lakes Cheese Company, Inc.

RELATED - Sheboygan Countys early settlers flirted with Fourierism

RELATED - Sheboygan Falls site, today a bed and breakfast, was built in 1848

RELATED - Sheboygan County Fair was at one time in Sheboygan Falls

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Wisconsin cheese got boost past New York from Sheboygan cheesemakers
Burke County Public Health Director Danny Scalise was one of 28 county leaders across the U.S. selected for a two-day peer exchange on fighting opioid abuse. The conference was held in Durham, with visits to Granville and Vance counties, and hosted by the National Association of Counties (NACo), in partnership with Vital Strategies, according to Scalise and a release from NACo and the Burke County Health Department.

The meeting marks the first of two in-person meetings this year for the county leaders named to NACos Opioid Solutions Leadership Network. The Opioid Solutions Leadership Network assists counties in effectively investing opioid settlement funds to save lives and address the needs of people with substance use disorders, the release said.

Scalise said it was a chance for he and the other participants to learn from each other and from some of the experts with NACo.

Being able to connect with people all across the country, I think, is whats going to help us here, he said.

Scalise said he was able to connect and network with people working in the field, as well as peers and others. One of the people he met is a researcher in the Bloomberg Overdose Prevention Initiative at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who is originally from North Carolina and who knows Morganton, Scalise said.

That kind of network is so valuable, especially to a place like us, Scalise said.

One of his peers he met is the director and the health officer for Baltimore.

Having people that can help is just as extremely valuable to people in a position like mine, Scalise said.

And it didnt cost Burke County anything. NACo picked up the cost of travel, accommodations and meals for Scalise and the other participants, he said.

Through events like the peer exchange, the network provides a platform for county leaders to share knowledge and examine potential solutions to achieve local goals, the release said.

Opportunities like this come once in a lifetime. This settlement can make a great difference in Burke County, but we must be mindful of the limits and use the funds to build a sustainable program Scalise said.

The release said the peer exchange focused on three primary themes:

Delivering evidence-based treatment in rural communities

Coordinating services to create a comprehensive system of care, and

Utilizing opioid settlement funds to implement sustainable improvements.

Participants engaged with national thought leaders and local practitioners. With a vision toward efficient investment of settlement resources, participants discussed pathways to overcome obstacles and pursue new opportunities.

Scalise said they went to Granville and Vance counties and talked with law enforcement, social workers and county leaders to see what is going on there to combat addiction.

Burke County was one of numerous counties and cities in the nation to file a lawsuit and win against manufacturers and distributors of opioid painkillers. Of the $26 billion settlement, the state received $750 million. Burke County is expected to receive more than $13 million over an 18-year period from the lawsuit settlement. The county also recently joined a second-wave opioid lawsuit and settlement that could see another $11 million to $13 million for Burke, according to officials. The second wave of the lawsuit is against Walgreens, CVS, Allergan, Teva and Walmart.

Burke County officials have plans to renovate the former Burke-Catawba District Confinement Facility for a long-term rehabilitation center. The county received $3.25 million from the state for the renovations.

Overdoses deaths in North Carolina rose 22% in North Carolina in 2021, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said earlier this year.

For more information about the Opioid Solutions Leadership Network, visit https://bit.ly/41QbtWH. To visit NACos Opioid Solutions Center, visit https://bit.ly/428bULK.
Editors note: Calendar items must be submitted at least five days before an event. Email all items to news@morganton.com.

THURSDAY, MAY 4

NAACP meeting

The Burke County NAACP will meet at the Mountain View Recreation Center, 645 1st St., Morganton, at 6:30 p.m. All members are invited to attend, and all COVID-19 protocols will be followed.

Republican Party meeting

The Burke County Republican Party will meet at Granny's Country Kitchen, 3448 Miller Bridge Road, Connelly Springs. The Dutch treat dinner will begin at 6 p.m., with the program starting at 7 p.m. Guest speakers are to be announced. Fellow republicans and conservatives are invited to attend.

BCPS listening session

Burke County Public Schools will host a community listening session at 6 p.m. at Mountain View Elementary School. The topic will be "School Finance and Legislative Impacts on Public Schools."

FRIDAY, MAY 5

Clothing sale

The ladies of Morganton First Baptist Church will hold their 12th annual Ladies Clothing Sale for U.S. Missions on May 5 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Donations will be accepted on May 3 and 4 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Swap meet

The Valley Hills Antique Power Club will hold its swap meet at Catawba Meadows Park. Vendor spaces are $10. Free admission. The event will feature antique tractors and farm equipment, steam engines, lawn mowers and more. For more information, call 828-438-5354.

SATURDAY, MAY 6

Free Comics

Timmy Mac's Comics and Games, 902 W. Union St., Morganton, will participate in Free Comic Book Day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Multiple sales will be going on in the store during the event. For information on which publishers and comics will be participating this year, visit www.freecomicbookday.com. Anyone with questions can call 828-391-8162.

Clothing Sale

The ladies of Morganton First Baptist Church will hold their 12th annual Ladies Clothing Sale for U.S. Missions from 8 a.m. to noon. All items will be 1/2 price. Donations will be accepted on May 3 and 4 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Yard sale

Quaker Meadows Presbyterian Church will hold a yard sale from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Call Mary Lou at 443-5569 to rent a table for $10 or space for $5. A full breakfast will be available at $10 a plate.

Hamburger, hot dog and bake sale

Nebo First Baptist Church, at the intersection of U.S. 70 and Harmony Grove Road, Nebo, is hosting a hamburger, hot dog and bake sale starting at 11 a.m. The sale is dine in or takeout, and funds raised will go toward medical expenses.

Swap meet

The Valley Hills Antique Power Club will hold its swap meet at Catawba Meadows Park. Vendor spaces are $10. Free admission. The event will feature antique tractors and farm equipment, steam engines, lawn mowers and more. For more information, call 828-438-5354.

Kinderpalooza and ChildFest

Kinderpalooza and ChildFest will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at Drexel Elementary School, 100 Alta Vista St., Morganton. There will be 100 free backpacks distributed for rising kindergarteners, free hearing and vision screenings and door prizes will be given out. Cookie Monster will be flying into the event from New York City.

THURSDAY, MAY 11

The NC Pre-K Committee of Burke County Smart Start Inc., will meet Thursday, May 11 at 8:30 a.m. in person at the Partnership office located at 304 W. Union St. NC Pre-K Meetings are open to the public and are held in handicapped accessible facilities. COVID, flu, and other health restrictions will be observed for in-person attendance. For anyone with a hearing impairment who may require the assistance of an interpreter or have other special needs, please call the Partnership at 439-2326 or use the NC Relay System at 1-800-735-8262.

SATURDAY, MAY 13

Wreath-making workshop

The Mountain Gateway Museum & Heritage Museum, 24 Water St., Old Fort, will host a spring wreath-making workshop at 11 a.m. The workshop, led by Toni Jo McCoart, will cost $15 per wreath, and registration and pre-payment are required by May 10. For more information, call the museum at 828-668-9259 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, or email brittany.bennett@ncdcr.gov.

Glen Alpine UMC breakfast

The second Saturday Breakfast will be held on May 13 from 7-10 a.m. at Glen Alpine United Methodist Church, 410 Linville St., Glen Alpine. The second Saturday Breakfast is a popular fundraising mission by the GA United Methodist Men's group. Cost is by donation.

Run as One 5K

The third annual Run as One 5K will be held at Catawba Meadows Greenway. The event starts at 9 a.m. and is being held to support Mental Health Awareness Month. Entry fee for runners or walkers is $25 which includes a commemorative T-shirt, and medals for first, second, and third place in age divisions. After the race, there will be refreshments, a celebration, music and giveaways. For more information or to register, go to https://bit.ly/3ANchzO.

MONDAY, MAY 15

ABC Board meeting

The Valdese ABC Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Valdese ABC Store at 1018 W. Main St. in Valdese.

THURSDAY, MAY 18

Sons of the American Revolution meeting

The Col. Alexander Erwin Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution will meet at 6 p.m. at the Morganton Community House, 120 N. King St., Morganton. William Caldwell will present a program titled "Rogues, Banditti & Crackers: 'The Southern Backcountry by the time of the American Revolution.'" The chapter also will recognize its youth middle school brochure and elementary school poster contest winners. The meeting is open to the public, but those who wish to attend must RSVP by contacting Robert Patton at 828-443-3720 or robert.patton1@icloud.com. Dinner is $13 per person.

Fundraiser

Carolina Caring will host the fundraiser Flights & Bites at the Morganton Community House, 120 S. King St., from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Cost is $75 per person and will include wine by Silver Fork Winery paired with food by chef Nathan Cromwell. Tickets should be purchased by May 8 but calling 828-466-0466.

Board meeting

New Dimensions will hold its monthly board meeting on at 4 p.m. in person on campus as well as via Zoom. Contact ckinard@ndschool.org for link information.

SATURDAY, MAY 20

Wilson Creek Cleanup

The Wilson Creek Faithful will be organizing a cleanup on Wilson Creek on Saturday, May 20 from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Trash bags and beverages will be provided. For more information, contact David Benner at 828-433-7932 or Leonard Baker at 252-289-0211.

Cow patty bingo

The bands of Draughn and East Burke high schools will host a cow patty bingo event at 10 a.m. at Draughn High School. The prize is up to $5,000 with donations of $20 per section or $100 per square. The event also will include concessions, face painting, music, raffle prizes and the Chick-fil-A Cow. Call 828-334-1756 for more information.

Support group

The Survivors of Loss to Suicide Hickory NC Support Group will meet from 9-10 a.m. at St Stephens Library 3225 Springs Road NE, Hickory. The group offers support for the families and friends who have lost a loved one to suicide. Each session will focus on a different topic on the complicated grief that comes from losing someone to suicide. The group is open to teens and adults. For more information, contact Leisa Bentley at leisabentley@charter.net or call 828-234-5822

MONDAY, MAY 22

Business marketing class

The Morganton Downtown Development Association, in collaboration with the Small Business Center at Western Piedmont Community College, will offer a business marketing training session on Finding Your Customers and Creating a Marketing Plan from 4-6 p.m. at the Morganton Community House at 120 N. King St. in Morganton. A second session will take place from 8-10 a.m. Tuesday, May 23, at the Community House called Dynamite Marketing for Small Businesses. The sessions are free to attend, but those interested must register in advance. To register for the first session, visit https://bit.ly/3ZTIPml. To register for the second session, visit https://bit.ly/3Fw3Hbb.

Remembering Our Parents event

Carolina Caring will hold a Remembering our Parents event on from 6-7:30 p.m. at the organizations Newton campus located at 3975 Robinson Road in Newton to honor the memory of our parents. Participants are asked to bring a picture that can be used in an activity. Registration is required. To register, visit CarolinaCaring.org/support, contact wspurling@carolinacaring.org or call 828-466-0466, ext. 3201.

TUESDAY, MAY 30 - JUNE 1

Bus driver class

Burke County Public Schools will host a bus driver class from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, May 30, Wednesday, May 31 and June 1 at Central Office located at 700 E. Parker Road. Contact the transportation department at 828-437-4770 for more information.

MONDAY, JUNE 19

ABC Board meeting

The Valdese ABC Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Valdese ABC Store at 1018 W. Main St. in Valdese.

MONDAY, JULY 17

ABC Board meeting

The Valdese ABC Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Valdese ABC Store at 1018 W. Main St. in Valdese.

MONDAY, AUG. 21

ABC Board meeting

The Valdese ABC Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Valdese ABC Store at 1018 W. Main St. in Valdese.

MONDAY, SEPT. 18

ABC Board meeting

The Valdese ABC Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Valdese ABC Store at 1018 W. Main St. in Valdese.

TUESDAY, OCT. 10

ABC Board meeting

The Valdese ABC Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Valdese ABC Store at 1018 W. Main St. in Valdese.

TUESDAY, NOV. 21

ABC Board meeting

The Valdese ABC Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Valdese ABC Store at 1018 W. Main St. in Valdese.

MONDAY, DEC. 18

ABC Board meeting

The Valdese ABC Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Valdese ABC Store at 1018 W. Main St. in Valdese.
RALEIGH  The North Carolina Notary Association presented three new scholarships at its 2023 Conference, including an academic scholarship in Secretary of State Elaine Marshalls name for active NCNA members attending college.

The NCNA awarded three $500 academic scholarships: the Elaine F. Marshall Academic Scholarship for Active NCNA Members, the Dennis W. "Bud" Cameron Merit Scholarship, and the Woodrow W. "Jack" Penny Need Scholarship.

NCNA President Judy Chapman said the associations executive committee and scholarship committee wanted to honor Marshalls commitment to North Carolinas notary community.

Secretary Marshall is a Notary Pioneer who has not only worked to continuously improve the states Notary Educational Program, but has made North Carolina a leader in implementing electronic notarization," Chapman said. "Having an academic scholarship in her name that will help notaries pursue their educational and career goals for years to come seemed like a perfect form of recognition for her leadership.

Marshall said she was honored by the scholarship.

Its so important that North Carolina notaries public are empowered to pursue higher education and advance their careers, so Im thrilled to see these new scholarships  and of course its an honor that one has been created in my name," Marshall said. "As a former teacher, I cant imagine a better living legacy."

Association member Brandon Crump from Union County was chosen as the recipient of the inaugural Elaine F. Marshall Academic Scholarship Award. Crump joined the NCNA at 19 and is pursuing his degree at Western Carolina University.
The Montana Supreme Court has agreed with a judicial board and ordered that District Judge Ray Dayton be suspended without pay for one month for making inappropriate sexual comments about a witness in a pending case.

In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the justices also ordered Dayton to appear before them on May 11 for a public reprimand.

The ruling written by Chief Justice Mike McGrath backs recommendations made last month by the Judicial Standards Commission.

The commission said Dayton made the comments in the hallway of the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Courthouse sometime in August 2022 and they were overheard by courthouse employees. The case involved a witness who alleged a defendant stalked her.

We accept and adopt the recommendations of the Commission and declare that Judge Daytons actions were unacceptable and constitute grounds for discipline as a violation of the provisions of the Code of Judicial Conduct, the high courts ruling said.

Dayton acknowledged to the commission that his conduct violated standards and agreed with the recommended sanctions.

He issued the following statement to The Montana Standard when contacted about the commissions findings and recommendations:

This matter has to do with a comment that I made, in jest, in what I thought was a private conversation with a colleague, he said. I was unaware that others were listening. The matter was reported to the powers that be who have decided to punish me.

I have decided to accept their punishment. Otherwise, I will continue to endeavor to perform my duties to the best of my ability as I have during my 40-year career in the law. I do not intend to comment on the matter further.

The judicial conduct rule violated says, A judge shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.

Under the Montana Supreme Courts order, Dayton will be suspended without pay from May 13 through June 11. He must also appear before the justices at 1 p.m. May 11 in their courtroom in Helena for the public reprimand.

Such judicial disciplinary cases are rare. In the last one in 2020, the court suspended a Yellowstone County judge for one month for not being truthful under oath and for actions she took during a 2018 campaign.

Dayton has been a judge in Montanas Third Judicial District covering Anaconda-Deer Lodge, Granite and Powell counties since he won a contested race for the seat in 2006. He won re-elections in 2012 and 2018 without opposition.
A Helena judge on Tuesday afternoon denied the request from Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, to gain access to the House floor as the Montana legislative session nears its end.

Zephyr had sought a temporary restraining order to stop Speaker of the House Matt Regier from blocking her from accessing the House floor. The Senate voted to sine die, or end the session, Tuesday afternoon and the House now must finish the business left before that chamber.

Zephyr was still allowed to vote remotely, but has been forbidden from accessing the House chamber since last week. Republicans, who voted in lockstep to keep her out of the House, argued it was necessary following her support for protesters who had disrupted the chambers proceedings earlier that week. Seven were arrested after the protest on misdemeanor charges; law enforcement has said they are not aware of damage or violence during the event.

Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Mike Menahan wrote that the plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed on the merits of the case and that they sought "injunctive relief which far outpaces the facts at issue here."

Menahan also cited the separation of powers between the judicial and legislative branch in his order.

"Because the constitution explicitly reserves this power for the Legislature, the courts powers are conversely limited," he wrote.

Menahan continued that even if the court were to find the House of Representatives, Regier or the Sergeant at Arms named in the lawsuit acted unlawfully, it "does not have the authority to issue a broad permanent injunction to effectively remove all legislative authority under Article V Section 10 in relation to a single member."

Zephyr released a statement Tuesday calling the ruling "dangerous and undemocratic."

"What this ruling implies is that the Legislature isn't beholden to the Constitution  that there is no right to free speech in the face of the supermajority," Zephyr wrote.

In a statement late Tuesday, Regier welcomed the order.

The Montana courts have recognized that the judicial branch has no power to revise or overrule the power expressly held by the Montana state Legislature to conduct its business. The House is continuing its work for the people of Montana," Regier said in an emailed statement.

The complaint was filed by the Montana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union in Lewis and Clark County District Court on Monday. It alleges that the ban violated Zephyrs rights to free speech under the state and federal constitutions, and her right to equal protection under the state constitution.

Earlier in the day the state attorney general told the court in filings that the state constitution dictates that each chamber of the Legislature is the sole body that sets rules for and governs its own members and the request from plaintiffs would violate the separation of powers between branches of government.

During the protest, Zephyr stood at her desk on the House floor with her microphone raised and engaged with the crowd.

The rally and subsequent protest were held in response to Republicans in the House preventing Zephyr from speaking on the House floor for several days, after comments she made two weeks ago. The freshman lawmaker had told representatives a week ago they should be ashamed for voting in favor of a bill that would ban some gender-affirming care for transgender minors. She also told them they would have blood on your hands for doing so.

Republicans have advanced several bills affecting trans people this session. Regier had been adamant that Zephyr would again be recognized should she apologize  something she declined to do.

Regier made the motion to ban Zephyr under a provision of the Montana Constitution that allows each house to expel or punish a member for good cause shown with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its members.

 Reporter Sam Wilson contributed to this story.
Who should decide whats in the best interests of transgendered youth in Montana: medical professionals and transgendered individuals themselves, or a bunch of far-right Republican politicians largely motivated by a desire for partisan gain?

Our state has made the national news, but not for reasons that should please fair-minded Montanans. Instead, the rest of the country is riveted on the latest brouhaha rocking the Republican-controlled Helena legislature. The conflict ensued after state legislator Zooey Zephyr, who is herself transgendered, was banned from the House chamber for the rest of the legislative session after she criticized a bill pushed by Republicans, which would prohibit gender-affirming care for transgendered youth. Zephyr was elected from Missoula as a Democrat with 80% of the vote.

Montana Republicans argue that this care is dangerous to Montana youth. But such treatment is endorsed by the American Academy for Pediatrics, the largest pediatric medical organization in the country, which claims that banning the care poses serious mental health risks to young people. In America, transgendered teens have a suicide rate three times the average for other teenagers, and suicide is the second leading cause of death for American adolescents.

Without question, passage of this bill will increase suicides among transgendered teens in Montana, once they are prevented from embracing the gender identity they recognize as correct. Contrary to the views of Montana Republicans, gender-affirming care doesnt threaten Montana youth. But prohibiting it does.

As the AAP knows, nature occasionally makes mistakes. Throughout history, some children have been born into the wrong gender identity, something they recognize from an early age. Gender-affirming care is a long, gradual process in which the parents of transgendered youth are intimately involved.

Why are Montana Republicans targeting transgendered youth, a vulnerable minority that pose no threat to other Montanans? Hasnt Montana always upheld a live and let live attitude, enshrined in the belief that how Montanans conduct their private lives, so long as they arent harming anyone else, is their own business?

No doubt some of the Republican legislators pushing this bill  along with other proposed anti-trans legislation that would ban children from attending drag shows and prevent nonbinary students from adopting plural pronouns without parental approval  are true believers. But the majority, I suspect, are opportunists who recognize that scapegoating a minority whose gender identity makes many tradition-bound Montanans uncomfortable is a great way to raise money and ensure that the Republican base turns out at the ballot box. This is an amoral but shrewd strategy, now that Montana is turning from a purple state (which in the past has elected Democrats like Pat Williams, Brian Schweitzer, Steve Bullock and Jon Tester) to a bright red state with a Republican supermajority in Helena  a shift due in good part to right-wing transplants moving in from blue states like California.

An interesting twist to this story is that Gov. Greg Gianfortes own son, David Gianforte, age 32, identifies as gender fluid, and has publicly criticized the Republican anti-trans bill as immoral and unjust. He stated in an interview with the Montana Free Press that hes expressed the opinion to his father that the bills the governor supports endanger the Montana LGBTQ community with whom he identifies.

While the discussion was apparently cordial, the governor has called gender-affirming care Orwellian Newspeak. In the interview, his son responded that his fathers views are bizarre since he talks about compassion toward children, while simultaneously taking away health care from the youth in Montana. Its basically a contradiction in my mind.

The governor should listen to his son, who knows a lot more about the transgendered than he does.
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Tens of millions of Americans use menstrual products, and while manufacturers contend they are safe, most disclose little about the chemicals they contain. Now, amid calls for more disclosure and research into the health effects of these products, some states require more transparency.

The manufacture and sale of period and related products is a big business, with revenue expected to top $4.5 billion in the United States this year. On average, a person uses up to 17,000 tampons or pads in their lifetime, and they might also use rubber or silicone cups, or absorbent period underwear.

The FDA regulates and classifies menstrual products as medical devices, meaning they are not subject to the same labeling laws as other consumer items. But companies can voluntarily disclose whats in their products.

Now, some states are stepping into the breach. In 2021, New York became the first state to enact a menstrual product disclosure law requiring companies to list all intentionally added ingredients on packaging. Californias governor signed a similar law that took effect this year, but it gives manufacturers trade secret protections, so not all ingredients are necessarily disclosed. At least six other states have introduced legislation to address safety and disclosure of ingredients in these products.

Advocacy groups studying the effects of the New York law say the new labels have revealed commonly found ingredients in menstrual products that may contain carcinogens, reproductive toxicants, endocrine disruptors, and allergens.

Shruthi Mahalingaiah, an assistant professor of environmental, reproductive, and womens health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, evaluates endocrine disruptors in personal care products and studies menstrual health. She said the health risk depends on the dose, duration, and sensitivity of a person to the ingredients and their mixtures.

Harmful chemicals could come from manufacturing processes, through materials and shipping, from equipment cleaners, from contact with contaminants, or from companies adding them intentionally, said Alexandra Scranton, director of science and research for Womens Voices for the Earth, a Montana-based nonprofit focused on eliminating toxic chemicals that affect womens health.

Vaginal and vulvar tissues are capable of absorbing fluids at a higher rate than skin, which can lead to rapid chemical exposure. Scranton said scarcity of clinical studies and funding for vaginal health research limits understanding about the long-term effects of the ingredients and additives in period products.

We think manufacturers should do better and be more careful with the ingredients they choose to use, Scranton said. The presence of toxic and hormone-disrupting chemicals in menstrual products is unsettling. We know that chemicals can cause disease, and exposures do add up over time.

Scrantons organization advocates for labels to include the chemical name of the ingredient, the component in which the ingredient is used, and the function of the ingredient.

K. Malaika Walton, operations director for the Center for Baby and Adult Hygiene Products, a trade industry group, said in an email, BAHP supports accurate and transparent information for users of period products and many of our member companies list ingredients on their packages and websites.

In a written statement, Procter & Gamble, a major manufacturer of menstrual products, said that ingredients it uses go through rigorous safety evaluations and are continuously tested, and that all fragrance components are added at levels the industry considers safe.

Even though manufacturing of scented tampons for the U.S. market has mostly stopped, companies still use fragrances in other menstrual products. Laws protecting trade secrets keep details about fragrances in pads and tampons confidential so competitors cant copy the formulas. The Childrens Environmental Health Network lists phthalates, a group of chemicals commonly called plasticizers that are suspected hormone disruptors, as an ingredient found in fragrances.

Manufacturers follow regulatory guidance issued in 2005 by registering with the FDA and submitting a detailed risk assessment of their products components and design, and a safety profile, before being cleared to sell in the U.S.

Pads and menstrual cups are considered exempt from regulatory guidance and do not require premarket review, according to FDA spokesperson Carly Kempler. While tampons do require review, the FDA does not clear or approve individual materials that are used in the fabrication of medical devices.

Theres an understanding that the FDA is regulating these products, and they are; its just not very adequate, said Laura Strausfeld, an attorney and a co-founder of Period Law, an organization working to advance state and federal period-equity policies that would stop taxation of products and make them freely available in places like schools and prisons. The consumer is supposed to trust that when these products are put on shelves theyve been vetted by the government. But its basically a rubber stamp.

In a 2022 report, a congressional committee directed the FDA to update its guidance for menstrual products to recommend that labels disclose intentionally added ingredients, such as fragrances, and test for contaminants. The FDA is reviewing the directives outlined by the House Appropriations Committee and will update the 2005 guidance as soon as possible, Kempler said. We will share additional details when we are able to.

At least one period product company makes disclosure of its ingredients a selling point. Alex Friedman, co-founder of Lola, said a lack of knowledge is a problem, and more action and awareness are needed to keep people safe.

The hardest part to swallow is why this is even up for debate. We should all know whats in these products, Friedman said.

New Yorks law requires companies to disclose all intentionally added ingredients no matter how much is used, with no trade secret protections for fragrances. Though it applies only to products sold in that state, similar detailed labeling is appearing elsewhere, advocates said.

Were also seeing similar or identical disclosure on packaging in other states outside of New York, which is a testament to the power of the law, said Jamie McConnell, deputy director of Womens Voices for the Earth.

Manufacturers have 18 months from the passage of the New York law to comply, and some products on shelves in New York still list few ingredients other than absorbent material, surfactant, ink, and adhesive.

Were like, OK, what is that exactly? McConnell said.

Her organization is calling for a federal law at least as strong as New Yorks. Previous federal legislation failed to advance, including the most recent, the Menstrual Products Right to Know Act, introduced in 2022.

BAHP, the trade group, supported the federal legislation and the California law. McConnell said she opposed both bills because they didnt require companies to list all fragrance ingredients.

I think what it boiled down to at the federal level was the support of corporate interests over public health, she said.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFFan independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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Well, its been north of 20 years and my opinion of Kewanee, Ill. hasnt changed.

A friend of mine is planning to buy a house, for the first time in his life. Over the last few months he has been pouring over the listings online and considering some of the houses available.

On Sunday we were out checking out some houses, when he commented that we should go to Kewanee and see the offerings there. I made the comment that the last time I had been to Kewanee  sometime in the mid-1990s  I had not been impressed with the town. I could not explain the reasons why I had not liked the area, but the impression I remembered from that far back was that I hadnt liked it.

Well, we were in the area and had nothing else to do. We turned my truck toward Kewanee to see if the town had improved since the last time I had been there.

A quick word here  when we go examine things like houses, we normally scout the area to see what kind of community it is. We look at things such as how close grocery stores or restaurants are, as well as what the business base is like. The big thing I knew about Kewanee is it houses a large furniture store called Goods. Other than that, I remembered very little.

As we came into town the back way, we couldnt help but notice the roads were in severe disrepair. I personally consider this common for Illinois, but this was worse. It wasnt long before we saw overgrown lawns and houses in various states of disrepair. Even the more expensive looking areas still showed signs of neglect.

The business district wasnt much better. I lost count of the number of empty storefronts. Goods was definitely the main business in town, and there were several other nice businesses. Still, for a town off the beaten path with little around, the stores seemed kind of sparse. The nearest town of any size is Princeton, which is about 20 miles away or so. Usually cities that far from other areas tend to be a little more self-sufficient.

After checking out several houses, we stopped for some lunch. While there we took the time to ask people about the area. Getting them to even acknowledge our existence was a chore, much less answer questions.

As we left, my friend commented that he planned to keep looking. On the strength of what we had seen, he had decided the area was not for him. As we left the town in the rear view mirror, I had a sudden new appreciation of what I have in Muscatine.

I can always tell areas that are going steadily downhill. People can give a million different reasons for towns degrading but to me it always comes down to one thing  apathy. In Kewanee I was seeing people who had no pride in their town. I was seeing people who constantly complain about everything but refuse to even lift a finger to help, waiting instead for someone else to do it.

In Muscatine, as a flood was bearing down on us, Mayor Brad Bark reported getting messages from people who wanted to be put on a volunteer list so they could help the community. These are people who are proud of their town and want to see it thrive. Likewise, there are plenty of people waiting to see what they can do to help when RAGBRAI comes through later this summer. People who know Mayor Bark know how excited he is to see people willing to step up and help. Why? Because that is a sign of a community that is succeeding.

Peoples interest in making a town a better place is one of the biggest keys to a towns success in the future. I would urge people in Muscatine to continue working forward. Remember, the work you do today is the reward you will see in a year or so.

Also, if someone is in town and asks what the community is like, it would probably be a good idea to visit with them for a while. You never know who they are and just a quick conversation could make the difference between someone locating in town or them seeing what else is out there.

Close Louisa-Muscatine's Jersey Lessenger rolls a strike during the Al Jordan Louisa-Muscatine Invitational on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Muscatine. Louisa-Muscatine's Dalton Cromer rolls a strike during the Al Jordan Louisa-Muscatine Invitational on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Muscatine. Louisa-Muscatine's Kamryn Taylor walks back to her teammates after rolling a strike during the Al Jordan Louisa-Muscatine Invitational on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Muscatine. Muscatine bowling Louisa-Muscatine's Jersey Lessenger rolls a strike during the Al Jordan Louisa-Muscatine Invitational on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Muscatine. Louisa-Muscatine's Dalton Cromer rolls a strike during the Al Jordan Louisa-Muscatine Invitational on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Muscatine. Louisa-Muscatine's Kamryn Taylor walks back to her teammates after rolling a strike during the Al Jordan Louisa-Muscatine Invitational on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Muscatine.
Welcome back to Late Edition Crime Beat Chronicles, a Lee Enterprises podcast with host Nat Cardona. On this podcast, youll hear true crime stories as told by journalists from regional newspapers across the country.

For the next series of episodes, we will be diving into the 1990 cold case murder of Susan Negersmith in Wildwood, New Jersey. Youll hear from reporters, past and present, who covered the case as it has unfolded throughout the years and the many twists and turns along the way.

Susan Negersmith was a 20 year-old woman from Carmel, New York. She was visiting Wildwood, New Jersey, on Memorial Day Weekend with friends in 1990. She said goodbye to her friends in the evening of Saturday, May 26, and by the early hours of Sunday morning, Susans partially clothed body was found behind a dumpster near a Wildwood restaurant. Her death was originally ruled accidental, although there were signs of a struggle.

An important thing to note about Susan Negersmiths weekend trip with friends to Wildwood: this area is a destination for a debaucherously good time. Tourists flock there in the warm weather months to party hard. Theres a boardwalk packed with restaurants and bars packed with people from all over. Drinking heavily is a main activity. The reputation of the area for all of these things quickly comes into play in the early days of the investigation ... at the expense of solving Susans case in a timely fashion.

And for more on that, we are joined by Bill Barrow, a reporter at the Press of Atlantic City who has largely taken on following the case in recent years following Yvette Craig. Bill talks about how the case evolved in recent years and where the case stands now folling the 2022 arrest of Jerry Rosado, a Millville, New Jersey, man accused of sexually assaulting Negersmith.

However, a motion for dismissal was made on Rosados behalf on the grounds that his sexual assault charge exceeded the statute of limitations governing crimes in 1990, when Negersmiths body was found.

Rosado was released from the Cape May County jail March 30, a day after an appellate panel published their opinion siding with the defense. We'll have more details on that in the fourth episode.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Read more about the case

Past seasons and episodes
The German-American Heritage Center in downtown Davenport will host two outdoor events this weekend.

The first event will be the popular Bi-State VW Car Show featuring a fun-filled day of classic Beetles, Westfalia vans, kit cars and more.

From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, participants can come and see the history of one of Germany's most iconic car brands.

This is a "shine only" event.

Then on Sunday, the center will host Traces, "BUS-eum," from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the parking lot with a presentation and discussion with the students who worked on the exterior project at 11a.m. And at 2 p.m. there will be a "Bootleggers in Iowa," presentation and discussion with Michael Luick-Thrams of TRACES.

From April to July 2023, some two dozen European students will crisscross the Midwest in a retrofitted school bus featuring two mobile exhibits. The non-profit, educational, "BUS-eum," will bring regional history alive and engage the public in discussions, with related films, presentations and publications.

The main exhibit is inside a retrofitted school bus turned into a museum, which has toured the Midwest since 2003 with relevant but often overlooked aspects of history and culture. This mobile format has made topics accessible to audiences in a variety of settings and hundreds of communities across the region.

This year, an all-new exhibit focuses on the environmental shifts and extremes of today. Students from the University of Erfurt, Thuringia, as well as American students and other volunteers will accompany the bus, hoping to find common ground on this often-times divisive subject by providing new insights and interactive presentations about possible, simple and cost-effective solutions.

Parking is limited. Visitors are encouraged to utilize street parking on 3rd Street or surrounding streets. There also may be spaces off of 2nd Street and Western Avenue where the old YMCA used to be.

Admission to both events and the museum will be free both days, with the museum open extended hours on Sunday for the duration of the Bus-eum's visit.

For more information, visit gahc.org/events.

Photos: American Melody makes first stop of 2022 riverboat cruise season in the Quad-Cities (June 26, 2022) Am Mel DSC_1744.JPG Am Mel DSC_1745.JPG Am Mel DSC_1746.JPG Am Mel DSC_1750.JPG Am Mel DSC_1754.JPG Am Mel DSC_1765.JPG Am Mel DSC_1776.JPG Am Mel DSC_1790.JPG Am Mel DSC_1793.JPG Am Mel DSC_1797.JPG Am Mel DSC_1800.JPG Am Mel DSC_1802.JPG Am Mel DSC_1808.JPG Am Mel DSC_1809.JPG Am Mel DSC_1815.JPG Am Mel DSC_1831.JPG Am Mel DSC_1835.JPG Am Mel DSC_1842.JPG Am Mel DSC_1858.JPG Am Mel DSC_1861.JPG Am Mel DSC_1873.JPG Am Mel DSC_1876.JPG Am Mel DSC_1882.JPG Am Mel DSC_1891.JPG Am Mel DSC_1895.JPG Am Mel DSC_1903.JPG Am Mel DSC_1916.JPG Am Mel DSC_1923.JPG Am Mel DSC_1934.JPG Am Mel DSC_1945.JPG Am Mel DSC_1946.JPG Am Mel DSC_1947.JPG Am Mel DSC_1948.JPG Am Mel DSC_1955.JPG Am Mel DSC_1962.JPG Am Mel DSC_1969.JPG Am Mel DSC_1977.JPG Am Mel DSC_1983.JPG Am Mel DSC_1985.JPG Am Mel DSC_2004.JPG Am Mel DSC_2015.JPG Am Mel DSC_2023.JPG Am Mel DSC_2029.JPG Am Mel DSC_2032.JPG Am Mel DSC_2033.JPG Am Mel DSC_2038.JPG Am Mel DSC_2052.JPG Watch now: American Melody is first ship to visit in 2022 cruise season
When firefighters show up to a blaze or medical emergency across much of the United States, they most likely are volunteers. Its also likely the department is understaffed, struggling to replace old equipment and facing uncertainty about its next generation of firefighters.

So much of our country relies on the volunteer fire service, said Kimberly Quiros, chief of communications with the National Volunteer Fire Council, a nonprofit advocacy organization. Right now, were seeing less volunteers and more calls (for emergency response), but a lot of communities don't have the tax base and support to switch to a career staffing model.

More than 80% of the nations fire departments are made up entirely or mostly of volunteers, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Volunteers comprise 65% of U.S. firefighters overall but participation has dwindled, from nearly 900,000 volunteers in 1984 to a low of 677,000 in 2020. Meanwhile, fire departments responded to more than triple the number of calls over that same period.

With volunteer departments stretched thin, some states began their own response. Lawmakers from both parties advanced bills to provide financial benefits or tax breaks for volunteers or funding for new equipment, in hopes of incentivizing firefighters to join up or stay in service. Without state investments to keep volunteer agencies afloat, the lawmakers say, taxpayers would have to support full-time firefighters or face public safety risks.

While some departments brought on full-time paid firefighters to fill the gaps volunteers cant cover, many communities, especially in rural areas, cant afford the cost of a professional fire service. The National Fire Protection Association estimates that the time donated by volunteer firefighters saves communities nearly $47 billion each year.

Counties would have to increase taxes to have paid departments out there, or insurance premiums would go up substantially, said Mississippi state Rep. Donnie Scoggin, a Republican. The amount of money volunteers save us makes a huge difference for the taxpayer, and right now we are not able to recruit and retain enough firemen.

Scoggin sponsored a bill, passed unanimously this session and signed into law, that will establish a Length of Service Award Program for volunteer firefighters in Mississippi. For every year of service, they will receive $500 placed in an investment fund, eligible to be withdrawn with interest when they retire from the department.

We see this as a means to recruit new firefighters and encourage retention of the valuable firefighters we already have, said John Pope, president of the Mississippi Firefighters Association and chief of the Collins Fire Department. Its going to save lives.

Fire agency leaders say the reasons for volunteer departments struggles are myriad. Many young people are leaving rural areas, which are more likely to rely on volunteer service. The rise in two-income households means fewer people have available time to volunteer. Most states now have extensive training requirements, which can be a time-consuming and costly barrier for new recruits.

At the same time, many fire departments now are expected to respond to medical emergencies, hazmat incidents, active shooter situations and other scenarios that drastically increased call volumes.

It seems like theres more and more runs every year, theyre almost full-time, said Michigan state Sen. Jon Bumstead, a Republican and former volunteer firefighter. Theres no health care, no retirement. If we're going to fully man these departments, we've got to start offering more than what we are now.

Bumstead sponsored a bill that would expand worker compensation benefits to volunteer firefighters and part-time police officers. He noted that volunteer firefighters face risks even while training and shouldnt have to pay out of pocket if theyre injured or develop a health issue. He also called for future legislation requiring the state to cover the costs of the extensive training programs it requires volunteers to undertake.

The Pennsylvania Senate voted unanimously earlier this year to establish three pilot programs at community colleges and universities to offer fire training to interested high school students.

In South Dakota, lawmakers voted this year to allocate $5 million to help volunteer fire departments cover equipment costs.

To equip one firefighter can cost anywhere from $6,000 to $10,000, state Rep. Kevin Jensen, the bills Republican sponsor, said. Over 99% of the landmass in South Dakota is covered by volunteer fire departments that get no formal funding. Some departments are using outdated equipment but don't have the money to do anything about it.

The COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for fire departments to conduct the pancake and chili fundraisers that traditionally propped up their budgets, Jensen said, setting them back further. He said some fire agencies had to turn away volunteers because they cant equip them.

Last year, New York lawmakers unanimously passed a measure enabling municipalities to enact property tax breaks of up to 10% for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers.

Meanwhile, Wyoming lawmakers enacted a law last month to allocate $9 million to the states volunteer firefighter pension fund, replacing money that had been diverted to keep a fund for paid firefighters solvent.

5 most common causes of reported house fires 5 most common causes of reported house fires #5. Smoking materials #4. Intentional #3. Electrical distribution and lighting equipment #2. Heating equipment #1. Cooking
If asked to identify my core values, I would make reference to two complementary sets of values. One is the affirmation of individual rights given eloquent expression in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and specified in greater detail in the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution (often referred to as the U.S. Bill of Rights). Values that include freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

The other set of values stems from my Christian upbringing. The Love Commandment, which has roots in Judaism, instructs, You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31.) What this entails is given further explanation by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians, where he states that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22.)

Taken together, these twin pillars provide an inspiring vision of what we might be. Thats the good news. The bad news is that what has transpired both in the history of Christianity and in the history of our country has often been at odds with these ideals.

In a previous column, I noted that both Thomas Jefferson, the prime author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, the prime author of the U.S. Constitution and the first 10 amendments to the constitution, were slave owners. While both of them knew that slavery was wrong, they let their economic interests as plantation owners push aside their ethical scruples.

The history of Christianity, which is far longer and more complicated than that of the United States, is a story that involves a good deal of violence. In a previous column, I noted that self-righteousness often becomes cruelty when those who think that they have a Gods eye view of the truth piously cause their opponents to perish. Consider the following:

 Historian Ralph Martin Novak, Jr., notes that in the 75 years that followed the Council of Nicaea, which in 325 defined Christian orthodoxy, more Christians died at the hands of other Christians than were killed during almost 300 years of Roman persecution.

 Charlemagne (747-814), who is honored by a gleaming white marble equestrian statue in the portico of St. Peters Basilica in Rome, conquered much of Western Europe for Christianity, beheading those who refused to convert to Christianity.

 In the 15th century, the fires of the inquisition burned brightly as thousands were burned at the stake for espousing what inquisitors viewed as heresy; in Spain alone, during Tomas Torquemadas 15-year tenure as grand inquisitor (1483-1498) somewhere between two and three thousand unfortunate souls are believed to have been burned at the stake.

 The 16th century brought the persecution of Anabaptists by Catholics and Protestants alike. The Anabaptists (who were the forebears of todays Amish and Mennonites) rejected the practice of infant baptism and instead practiced (and continue to practice) adult baptism when those who wish to be baptized are old enough to request it. That was anathema to the Catholic Church and the established Protestant state churches (including those that were Lutheran.) In Catholic countries, Anabaptists were usually executed by burning at the stake. In Protestant states, they were usually executed by beheading or drowning. Thousands were put to death.

 The poignant story of Dirk Willems of Holland, who was an Anabaptist, illustrates how vicious this practice was. An officer came to arrest him in the village in which he lived. Running for his life, he made his way across a frozen pond. When he looked back, he saw that his pursuer had fallen through the ice. He went back to rescue the drowning officer and dragged him to safety. The officer wanted to release Willems for saving his life. The local burgomaster, who had arrived on the scene, reminded the officer that Willems was under arrest. He was taken into custody and after having been tried for his heretical views, was burned at the stake.

So where does this leave us? Some reject Christianity because of this ugly history. Similarly, there are some who see the American story only through the lens of the history of slavery and bigotry.

This, however, is to lose sight of the exemplary ideals and ethical values that are part both of Christianity (and other religions) and the American experience. While acknowledging the ugliness of what has happened and in no way excusing it, we would do well to look beyond the ugliness and be inspired by American ideals of liberty and justice and by the ethical ideals of Christianity and other religions.
By DPPS

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has asked the Maasai Community to withdraw their support to Azimio leader Raila Odinga because he is anti-development.

Speaking in Narok West, Narok County, when he distributed over 6,000 title deeds to residents of Naikarra Ward, the Deputy President said Mr Odinga likes anarchy and violence, which cannot allow for development.

During the August 2022 General Election, you gave us half of your votes. Some of you voted for him(Mr Odinga); he is now leading violence. I urge you to abandon him; he is destructive, Mr Gachagua said.

Mr Gachagua said the opposition, which has resumed violent protests despite President William Ruto inviting them for talks under the bi-partisan approach, is pursuing selfish interest disguised in the public agenda.

When you elected us, we promised to deliver. Seven months into office, we have delivered 6,000 title deeds. President William Ruto also promised to revive the agriculture sector. He has delivered subsidised fertiliser for farmers across the country and am glad to know it was received here at Sh3,500 instead of Sh7,000. With the ongoing rains, you will harvest more. Our competitor has done nothing. Join President Ruto to benefit more, he said.

The Deputy President added that Mr Odinga has been defeated five times and it is time for him to retire.

Speaking earlier in Sagoo, Narok South when he launched the upgrading of 18km of Bokoiyot-Marinwak-Kipkurkuret Sogoo-Tengecha Road in Narok South Constituency, Mr Gachagua asked Mr Odinga to wait for 2027, when he can seek the peoples mandate to lead Kenya.

While in Narok South, the Deputy President said the government is keen on protecting the water towers across the country, including the Mau forest.

The government will avail money to help in relocating those who are inside the forest in a humane manner.
Kenya and the African Export-Import Bank (afreximbank) have signed a three-year Ksh400 billion financing programme anchored on the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndungu signed for Kenya while AfriExim President Benedict Oramah did for the bank.

President William Ruto witnessed the signing.

Prof Oramah said the programme will support the Governments priorities in enhancing capacity of critical commodities, agriculture, water harvesting, construction of industrial parks and investment in the digital superhighway.

AfriExim came in handy and supported our recently concluded fuel importation deal; this eased pressure on our foreign reserves, the President said.

He explained the facility will also strengthen the capacity of Kenya National Trading Corporation to meet its obligations to import affordable fertiliser, dry commodities and edible oil.

This support in importations has been critical in helping us reduce the cost of basic foods, including unga, President Ruto said.

In the programme, Ksh110 billion will be spent in the construction of 200 dams to provide water for irrigation, domestic use and livestock.

With the deteriorating water levels due to climate change, it is important that we maximize in water harvesting, he said.

The programme will also support the governments industrialisation efforts, especially the development of Industrial Parks and five special economic zones in Nakuru, Busia, Kirinyaga, Thika, and Eldoret.

It will also support priorities such as SMEs and the digital superhighway as well as calming the market.

President Ruto welcomed the Banks initiative on Pan African payment systems. This initiative will enhance Africas contribution to global trade which has been stagnant at less than 3% for some time.

Prof Oramah praised President Ruto for his passion for country and clarity of thought.
Martha Karua claims the Kenya Kwanza government is setting the stage for an assassination plot against Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka after withdrawing their security.

Speaking at a presser in Nairobi Tuesday, the Narc Kenya party leader said the government withdrew the Azimio leaders security detail Monday night.

She said the move was illegal and claimed it was planned so that Trade CS Moses Kuria can make good on his alleged death threats.

Last night, Azimio leaders including Prime Minister and our leader Raila Odinga and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka had their security withdrawn, Karua said.

This is suspending the Constitution illegally, engaging in intimidation and blackmail. They are also setting the stage for assassinations promised by Moses Kuria on his social media and on his public pronouncement, she added.

Karua argued that the constitution guarantees the offices of the former Prime Minister and that of the former Vice President of security.

It is not gratuitous. This is illegal, Karua stated.

She added that all MPs championing Azimios cause through mass protests also had their security detail withdrawn.
By PCS

President William Ruto has asked African countries to eliminate barriers and integrate for their prosperity.

He said the continent must remove barriers to movement of people, services and goods.

The President observed that political boundaries are old-fashioned, hamper development and only aid division in the region.

We must bring down these barriers, convert them to stepping stones and build bridges of friendship.

Through this, the President explained, factors of production can move freely within the Continent.

That is how we can integrate and exploit our socio-economic diversity for our success.

President Ruto spoke during the launch of the IOM Report on the Status of Migration in East and the Horn of Africa at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, Nairobi.

The unrestricted movement across borders, he added, will expand intra-African trade and services, thereby facilitating wealth creation.

He said the management of migration issues in the continent is inevitable.

It helps us to take care of the needs of migrants and integrate gender inclusion in order to promote equality and empower women.
Controversial preacher Eliud Wekesa otherwise known as Yesu wa Tongaren has condemned pastor Paul Mackenzie in the wake of the Shakahola cult deaths.

The leader of the New Jerusalem sect claimed Mackenzie is an agent of the devil and he should carry his own cross over the deaths of more than 100 people found buried in his land that houses the Good News International Church.

Paul Mackenzie should carry his own cross. I cannot refer to him as a pastor because an ordained man of God is incapable of murder. Mackenzie has been used by the devil to ensure that Gods Word is despised by Kenyans, said the preacher.

As Jesus of Tongaren my message is and I repeat, Mackenzie should carry his own cross just as he was found committing evil and he will not be the only one, all these things will be uncovered across the world, he added.

Yesu wa Tongaren at the same time said the Shakahola mass deaths do not warrant an arrest or investigation into his religious practices as he is a Saviour.

This is after Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka called for his arrest.

I call upon security agencies within Bungoma county to move with speed and investigate the character of Jehovah Wanyonyi and Yesu wa Tongaren so as to establish if there are any atrocities being committed against humanity, Lusaka said.

Adding: Bungoma is a home of the men of God such as Bishop Philip Anyolo, Bishop Eliud Wabukala, and Cardinal Otunga, just to name a few, we cannot allow few people to taint the name of Bungoma.

In response, Yesu wa Tongaren said he should be celebrated for being the son of God instead of being demonised.

Bungoma and Kenya should be celebrated for having the son of God closer to them rather than plotting a witch hunt against me, Wekesa said.
The next time you visit Baldwin Park, have a seat on the new picnic tables and tip your cap to Ewan Oliver, another St. Helena Eagle Scout in the making.

Just two months shy of his 18th birthday, Oliver organized a team that built three redwood picnic tables on April 22, replacing two tables that had rotted.

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Oliver recalled St. Helenas Jim Sweeney mentioning to him that Baldwin Park, a verdant and dog-friendly park on Spring Street, could use some work. The park happens to be just around the corner from Olivers house, so it was a natural choice for his Eagle Scout project.

Ive been coming here since I was a kid, so I wanted to help out, he said.

Few Boy Scouts attain Scoutings highest honor before they turn 18, but St. Helenas Troop 1 has a venerable tradition of producing more than its share of Eagle Scouts. To make Eagle, a Scout has to plan and execute a service project that benefits the community.

Leadership is an important part of every Eagle Scout project, so Oliver recruited fellow Scouts, coordinated with city officials like Parks and Recreation Director Dave Jahns, presented his plan to the Parks and Recreation Commission, enlisted the professional expertise of Trainor Builders, and arranged to get the lumber from Central Valley.

Most of an Eagle Scout project isnt actually doing the labor on the work day, Oliver said. Its going to meetings, calling people, getting signatures, and doing all that stuff beforehand.

After two or three months of planning, carpenters cut the lumber to Olivers specifications on the morning of April 22 and delivered it to the park, where Oliver and his team spent most of the day assembling the tables.

Oliver also recruited Jodie Nieman of Jodies Designs to create an informational sign about Baldwin Park, which is named after the longtime St. Helena Star editor Starr Baldwin.

Photos: Adventuring with St. Helena's Troop One Boy Scouts St. Helena's Troop One working together to make lunch at Scout Hall St. Helena's Troop One Boy Scouts during Coastal Cleanup Day St. Helena Boy Scout Troop One, practicing canoeing on the Russian River Setting up "Catan" during a lull at Troop One's Open House in St. Helena St. Helena's Troop One Boy Scouts camping along the Eel River St. Helena Troop One's Eel River Trip in May, 2017 Troop One in the Marble Mountains St. Helena's Scout Hall in the old California Olive Oil Factory St. Helena's Troop One Boy Scouts climbing in Bear Valley Keeping track of rank at St. Helena's Scout Hall Making a cobbler at St. Helena's Scout Hall St. Helena Scout Hall -- Ready for outings
St. Helena is preparing its 2023-24 budget at a time when the citys financial troubles have captured the publics attention.

The first public step in the budget process will be on May 9, when the City Council will discuss its goals and priorities and hear presentations from each city department.

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The council will follow up with a pair of study sessions on May 23 and June 13 before adopting a budget on June 27. The city will also hold a community budget open house at 9 a.m. May 31 at City Hall.

The annual budget sessions usually attract only a sparse crowd of diehard local government buffs, but the process might attract more interest this year. About 100 people attended Spotlight St. Helenas March presentation on city finances at the Cameo Cinema featuring Mayor Paul Dohring and City Manager Anil Comelo.

In an interview last week, Comelo delivered the same message he gave the Cameo audience: The citys not broke, but it cant complete projects and provide the high level of service people have come to expect without new revenue sources like hotels or new taxes.

We dont have the capacity to meet current expectations, Comelo said. Budget, staffing and compensation are all interrelated.

Departmental budget requests are usually granted or rejected inside City Hall before staff members present a balanced budget to the council. Expect this years process to be more transparent.

Im going to share with council some of the internal needs that have not been communicated to the community, Comelo said.

Employee compensation is one factor. The city of St. Helena often has trouble filling open positions, especially ones that require technical expertise, because competing agencies like the city of Napa are willing to pay more for those same jobs.

If we dont pay people a fair wage, theyre not going to work for us, Comelo said. Were asking people to get paid less to drive farther. Thats not rational.

The citys Who We Are workshops, tentatively scheduled for May 24 and June 7, will also inform the budget process by clarifying the communitys values and sense of identity.

The council has already set five broad goals:

- Fiscal sustainability

- Infrastructure and environmental sustainability

- Water security

- Community information and engagement

- Quality of life

Photos: Napa Valley community members work on quilt squares for Hilos Visibles/Visible Threads exhibit Hilos Visibles/Visible Threads 4 Hilos Visibles/Visible Threads 5 Hilos Visibles/Visible Threads 6 Hilos Visibles/Visible Threads 3 Hilos Visibles/Visible Threads 1 Hilos Visibles/Visible Threads 2 Hilos Visibles Hilos Visibles Margarita Garcia Hilos Visibles Hilos Visibles Hilos Visibles Hilos Visibles Hilos Visibles Hilos Visibles Hilos Visibles Hilos Visibles Hilos Visibles Napa New Tech students make heritage quilt squares Napa New Tech students make heritage quilt squares Napa New Tech students make heritage quilt squares Napa New Tech students make heritage quilt squares Napa New Tech students make heritage quilt squares Napa New Tech students make heritage quilt squares Napa New Tech students make heritage quilt squares Napa New Tech students make heritage quilt squares Napa New Tech students make heritage quilt squares
With the Hunter Project application, the city of St. Helena appears anxious to appease the ever-increasing demands of the state of California to build more housing under the Regional Housing Needs Allocation RHNA goals set forth under the Housing Element.

The purpose of the HE and the RHNA allocations as legislated and regulated by the state of California is an attempt to equitably distribute the anticipated population growth of California to all the counties and municipalities of the state. The HE process however does not greatly distinguish the unique challenges of every community in California. In the case of St. Helena and other desirable second-home communities, the Housing Element and RHNA processes severely miss the objective in the allocation of target numbers for the "above moderate" (i.e. over 120% of average medium income) or "market rate" category of housing. In many communities of California, a new single family subdivision serving "market rate" would solve both work force housing needs and RHNA goals. In St. Helena this is just not so.

Placing goals on St. Helena to build more market-rate housing without capping average medium income restrictions regarding the market rate development (e.g. 200%, 300% ... ?) serves little purpose other than to open St. Helena up for speculative development for more second homes. By one account we are closing in on about 60% second homes within the city limits. The Hunter project as proposed will only grow that number. The price of these homes will not be listed below $2 million, and more likely closer to $3 million or more. A family with even an income of 300% Napa County AMI (around $300,000 a year) under affordability guidelines would, at best, be able to afford a $1.5 million home. And that would be a stretch.

It is particularly concerning that some members of both the Planning Commission and City Council, when considering approval of the tentative map for the Hunter subdivision, make comments to the effect that this project helps achieve RHNA goals both for both market and below-market, and to the effect that "all housing is good housing." In St. Helena that is simply not true, and is a dangerous way to look at our unique challenges and finite resources. We will gain little benefit from developing a subdivision that will be predominantly targeted to second-home buyers. That would be just filling a sieve. The city of St. Helena, and other like communities, should be pushing back on the state to either eliminate or AMI-cap the "above market" category of RHNA.

As to the Star editorial comment of April 27 that "beggars cannot be choosers," we need to do better than beg.

The environmental impact report contains an "unmitigated significant impact" on traffic from the project that must be met with a "statement of overriding consideration" where such an impact can be overlooked if the project provides sufficient benefit to the community. Staff and council should use that leverage to work constructively with the developer to form a project that better serves the needs of the community.

Joe McGrath

St. Helena
Mondays public hearing on the Hunter project presents the City Council with two bad options.

Option 1: Approve a tentative map and environmental impact report for the 87-unit development behind the levee and trigger a lawsuit from opponents who are poised to challenge the EIR.

Outcome: The developers would pay for the citys legal costs and the fate of the project would rest in the hands of a judge.

Option 2: Deny the project and trigger a lawsuit from the developer and possible punitive action from the state, which could sue the city or at least declare us out of compliance with our housing element, in which weve pledged to accommodate 256 housing units by 2031.

Outcome: The city would pay for its own legal costs, the fate of the project would rest in the hands of a judge, and we might lose what little control we have left over local housing development.

If theres a third option, weve yet to hear about it. The council could postpone action to a subsequent hearing, but state law limits the number of public hearings for projects like this, so they'll need to vote eventually.

The most comforting point raised by planning commissioners at their Feb. 7 hearing was that this is a tentative map, and the developer cant put shovels in the ground pending further entitlements that would flesh out crucial elements like affordable housing and water.

Lets review the lessons weve learned from the Hunter project.

First, when were presented with a good housing project, we need to support it. The Mercy Housing proposal to build 98 units off Pope Street was  in contrast to the Hunter project  a sensitive and attractive plan that was tailored to address neighbors concerns while providing St. Helena with reasonably priced housing we desperately need.

It got the cold shoulder, and the nonprofit developers gave up in 2011. Since then the pressure to build housing has grown even more intense. Going forward we need to have a bias toward housing.

Second, dont declare an application complete until its complete. Thats what prior city staff did prematurely in 2011. That closed off legal avenues to push the developer for more details about the projects affordable housing component and water-neutrality measures, legitimate concerns that linger to this day.

Third, encourage developers to consult in good faith with neighbors before presenting a final plan. There might not be any legal mechanism to force developers to do that, but its in their own best interests to blunt some of the intense public criticism that has dogged this project.

Many of those criticisms are valid. Project opponents Maria Villegas, Elizabeth Green and John Milliken met with us last week and pointed out the lack of specificity about the projects affordable housing and the impact of increased traffic on emergency evacuation routes used by Vineyard Valley.

Their point about affordable housing is well-taken. As Milliken noted, the applicants have had 13 years to provide those details, and theyve chosen not to do so. Thats presumably because the city deemed their application complete, so all the city can do is require an affordable housing agreement to be hammered out later.

We find other criticisms of the projects EIR somewhat less persuasive. City staff signed off on the documents technical details, and were inclined to trust their expertise, even if critics dont. (That said, the city should prioritize levee maintenance, all the more so if the Hunter project goes ahead.)

Regardless of the projects flaws, broader historical and legal forces work in its favor.

St. Helena has been notoriously unfriendly to housing projects, even ones that  like Hunter  comply with our zoning code and General Plan. That has weakened our negotiating position with the state, which is putting unprecedented pressure on local jurisdictions to allow for new housing.

Were concerned that turning down Hunter, even for reasons that seem legitimate, will put the city at great risk of losing its authority over what gets built in the city limits. The scariest scenario, and one that's more plausible than ever, is the builders remedy, in which developers force through projects that flout local density restrictions.

Even if we avoid the states scrutiny, rejecting the Hunter project would surely invite an expensive lawsuit from the developer that we can ill afford.

Theres also the raw truth that we need housing. This isnt the best project we could hope for, but its the one we have. You know what they say about beggars and choosers.

We have a strong council. We leave it to them to make the best decision for St. Helenas future  no matter how agonizing that decision may be.
The Napa County Emergency Preparedness Resource Fairs will be held on May 12 and 19 in downtown Napa and Upvalley. The events aim to educate the community about emergency preparedness, county programs and other services.

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The first event will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. on May 12 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Napa County Administration Building parking lot, 1195 Third St. in Napa. A second event will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. May 19 at the Napa Valley College Upper Valley Campus, 1088 College Ave. in St. Helena.

Family activities will include scavenger hunts, giveaways, raffles and a childrens coloring table, among others.

Staff from county departments, cities and partnering organizations will be on hand to provide resources and educate the community. The countys Office of Emergency Services will also promote emergency preparedness, including the new Alert Napa County, and help residents sign up for the new emergency notification system.

Food truck vendors will be present at both fairs. Admission is free and no RSVP is required.

For more information, contact emergencyservices@countyofnapa.org.

Photos: Napa Valley Faces and Places, April 30, 2023
Napa Valley Presents, a nonprofit organization that seeks to support the performing arts across Napa County, announced this week it has awarded its inaugural set of grants, totaling over $150,000, to 15 people and organizations.

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The nonprofit was created last year from the former Napa Valley Opera House board. The organization is working to invest the $4.2 million from the sale of the historic opera house in downtown Napa into an endowment, which will be used to create grants that support programs that create, present, and connect people with performing arts," according to the Napa Valley Presents website.

This first set of grants includes four Headliner Grants and 11 Community Access Grants. The Headliner Grants were awarded to local hip-hop performing artist Oke Junior, as well as the Napa Parks and Recreation Foundation, Shakespeare Napa Valley and The White Barn.

The grant award will support Oke Junior in headlining a concert for all ages that features a live band and additional hip-hop talent, the press release says.

"Im honored to receive such a prestigious grant award. Napa is a place that changed my life for the better when I moved here from Oakland at the age of 12," said Oke Junior in a news release from Napa Valley Presents. "I'm super excited to put together my first ever headlining show with you all as partners and look forward to working together to elevate the artistic culture in the Napa Valley!"

Funds that go to the Parks and Recreation foundation will be used for a Dia de los Muertos event, which will feature an exciting lineup of touring and local Spanish-language performers in a variety of genres.

Shakespeare Napa Valley will present two free public shows  Shakespeare Summer Stroll and Es Una Vida Maravillosa. And The White Barn will, with the help of the grant funds, stage the inaugural Napa Valley Puppet Festival, a two-day event that features professional puppetry performances ranging from classic childrens tales to avant-garde theater for adults, the press release says.

Community Access grants  which aim to widen access to performing arts  were given to the Napa Valley Education Foundation, the Napa High School Music Boosters, the Mike Greensill Orchestra, Napa Valley Youth Symphony, the Valley Players, the Vintage High School Music Boosters, the American Canyon Arts Foundation, E&M Presents, Cafeteria Kids Theater, American Canyon classical pianist Jennifer Pan and Lucky Penny Productions.

The awards will support musical camps for over 600 youth from kindergarten to 12th grade, the Napa High School Choral Program, touring musical shows, the 17th Annual A Cappella Extravaganza, a community theater season, a fully staged Vintage High School musical, expanded Napa Valley Youth Symphony programming, performances, two classical musical concerts by Pan, and a full-scale youth musical production of "The Wizard of Oz."

We were very happy with the variety of requests we received for our initial grant cycle, and encouraged by the diversity of the projects, said Napa Valley Presents' board chair Gordon Huether in a statement. We are thrilled to support the work of these innovative performers and their unique voices and are excited to spotlight the talent in our region.

Most of the grantees  or representatives of the various groups receiving grants  showed up at a Monday celebration of the grant awards at Feast It Forward in Napa. Olivia Dodd, executive director of Napa Valley Presents, called it a dream come true while thanking the organizations board members who had selected the grantees, and named each of the recipients.

Ive wanted to see a fund dedicated to performing arts, to arts, for a long time, and its really, really wonderful that theres now an organization that can be dedicated to making that happen, Dodd said.

Photos: Earth Day cleanup, celebration in Napa Earth Day cleanup 3 Earth Day cleanup 2 Earth Day cleanup 1 Earth Day cleanup 4 Earth Day cleanup 5 Earth Day cleanup 6 Earth Day cleanup 7 Earth Day cleanup 8 Earth Day cleanup 9 Earth Day cleanup 10 Earth Day cleanup Earth Day cleanup Earth Day cleanup Earth Day cleanup Earth Day cleanup Earth Day cleanup Earth Day Celebration 1 Earth Day Celebration 2 Earth Day Celebration 3 Earth Day Celebration 4 Earth Day Celebration 6 Earth Day Celebration 5 Earth Day Celebration 7 Earth Day Celebration 8 Earth Day Celebration 9 Earth Day Celebration 10 Earth Day Celebration 11 Earth Day Celebration 12 Earth Day Celebration 13
Unincorporated Napa County outside of cities saw little change in 2022 for total crimes in seven key categories, with only a slight uptick.

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Reported crimes in the unincorporated county rose from 393 in 2021 to 401, the county sheriffs office said. The categories are homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny/theft and stolen vehicles.

Sheriff Oscar Ortiz described the crime rate as flatline, with a little blip here and there.

For example, the unincorporated county from 2021 to 2022 saw burglaries rise from 67 to 80 and stolen vehicles rise from three to seven, but larceny/theft fall from 171 to 142 and rapes fall from 22 to 19. Homicides remained at zero.

We know that Napa County continues to be a safe place to live, work and visit, he said.

Ortiz on Tuesday gave a 2022 sheriffs office report to the county Board of Supervisors. He mentioned various cases, such as a series of burglaries in the western hills. Detectives lifted a partial fingerprint, leading a July 1, 2022 arrest and later a conviction.

The thing about residential burglary is, its an incredibly traumatizing and invasive thing to happen to somebody, to have their home broken into, their things gone through, Ortiz said.

Napa County has the resources to investigate and do more than just produce a case number for insurance purposes, he said.

He also talked about the efforts of individual officers. One example occurred on Dec. 21, 2022 when, around 11 a.m., a woman jumped off the Maxwell Bridge that carries Imola Avenue over the Napa River. Ortiz said the woman intended to take her own life.

Sgt. Osvaldo Hernandez and Deputy Marcus Solis happened to be in the area and responded. They reached the Napa River near the Napa Valley Vine Trail segment and saw an empty canoe along the shore in a place where one would seldom find a canoe.

Hernandez and Solis got into the canoe, rowed across the river, found the woman, pulled her into the canoe and gave her CPR. An ambulance took her to the hospital. She survived.

Later, when Hernandez and Solis were recognized at a ceremony for their efforts, the woman and her family were there, Ortiz said.

Their comments and the hug and embrace that that patient had with Sgt. Hernandez specifically is I will remember long into my elder years, Ortiz said.

The statistics went beyond crimes. For example, the sheriffs office completed 220 evictions in 2022, compared to 92 in 2021.

Ortiz said evictions stopped in 2020 by order of Gov. Gavin Newsom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Going into 2021, pandemic-era programs brought $12 million to assist families with back rents.

What were seeing in 2022, that jump, actually its kind of returning to the normal, Ortiz said. Pre-COVID numbers were in the 230s.

Ortiz talked about recruitment efforts at a time when various law enforcement agencies are vying for a shrinking pool of candidates. The sheriffs office hired 13 people for sworn positions and lost 11.

A full staff would be 111 people, though the sheriffs office actually recruits to have 114 because of attrition. There are about five vacancies. But four of the recruits are in the academy and four in training, so they dont provide immediate help, Ortiz said.

Shameless plug  if you know anybody who wants to go into law enforcement, we are hiring all the time, Ortiz said.

Dont think it will be easy, though. The sheriffs office does extensive background checks, in-depth interviews and medical and psychological evaluations.

The one thing we wont do is lower our hiring standards, Ortiz said.

Also on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors after asking questions approved allowing the sheriffs office to continue using what the state considers military equipment. California law requires annual approval for such use from governing bodies.

A 2021 state bill authored by Assemblymember David Chiu, D-San Francisco, states various reasons for the requirement.

The acquisition of military equipment and its deployment in our communities adversely impacts the publics safety and welfare, including increased risk of civilian deaths, significant risks to civil rights, civil liberties, and physical and psychological well-being, and incurment of significant financial costs, the law says.

The sheriffs office over-reports the equipment that might be considered military to be transparent. But it doesnt participate in a Department of Defense program to transfer military equipment to non-military law enforcement agencies, a sheriffs memo said.

On one hand, we would say none of our equipment is military equipment, Ortiz said. Its law enforcement equipment.

Napa Countys list includes such things as armor-piercing projectiles for the SWAT team, a Lenco BearCat G3 armored vehicle, and a tactical robot for audio and video reconnaissance. The list also describes such things as training requirements and protocols.

Some items can be used for crowd control and to control riots, such as grenades that can deliver chemical agents and a Stinger grenade with a blast that produces light and a loud sound and can project rubber pellets or chemicals.

No Napa County demonstrations have become riots, with buildings burned and projectiles thrown at officers or violent behavior, Ortiz said. That said, the sheriffs office is required to have the ability to respond to riots, should they happen, he added.

Supervisor Joelle Gallagher asked that the crowd control policies be available to the public. Ortiz directed people to the sheriffs website at https://www.countyofnapa.org/sheriff/. Among other things, the department posts its 692-page policy manual.

By the numbers Sheriffs statistics for unincorporated Napa County Crime reports  1,743 in 2022, 1,756 in 2021

Arrests  708 in 2022, 619 in 2021

Vandalism reports  68 in 2022, 72 in 2021

Homicides  0 in 2022, 0 in 2021

Rape  19 in 2022, 22 in 2021

Robbery  6 in 2022, 6 in 2021

Assault  146 in 2022, 124 in 2021

Burglary  80 in 2022, 67 in 2021

Larceny/theft  142 in 2022, 171 in 2021

Stolen vehicles  7 in 2022, 3 in 2021

Total crimes  401 in 2022, 393 in 2021

Evictions completed  220 in 2022, 92 in 2021

Use of drones  80 events, 126 flights, 24.1 hours for 2022 (Source: Napa County Sheriffs Office)

Photos: Anniversaries for a Napa church, and its bell First Presbyterian 2 First Presbyterian 3 First Presbyterian 1 First Presbyterian 4 First Presbyterian 5 First Presbyterian 6 First Presbyterian 7 First Presbyterian 8 First Presbyterian 9 First Presbyterian 10 First Presbyterian 11 First Presbyterian 12 First Presbyterian 13
Zach Didier, a senior at Rocklin High School, was a straight-A student, athlete, star of his school musical and Eagle Scout. Two nights after Christmas 2020, he took what he thought was a Percocet pill that he bought through Snapchat, an out-of-character move for a student with no history of drug use.

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The pill contained the opioid fentanyl, and by the time Zachs father found him the next morning, the 17-year-old was dead.

Now Didier's parents are among those pushing for legislation requiring drug education and naloxone in Californias public schools, in order to stem the soaring number of young people dying of fentanyl overdoses.

In 2021, more than 800 Californians under age 25 died of fentanyl poisoning  an 18-fold increase from five years ago. Fentanyl accounted for one in five deaths of California young people ages 15 to 24 in 2021.

I firmly believe that if Zach had been aware of fentanyl and other fake pills he would have made a different choice, his mother, Laura Didier, said in a recent interview with EdSource. Its incredibly important for every kid and every parent to understand whats out there.

A slew of new bipartisan bills in the California Legislature seeks to address this. Most would stock public schools with naloxone, a nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose. But one bill goes a step further by requiring schools to offer drug education  something thats part of Californias K-12 health education standards but is currently not required, and often not taught at all.

Senate Bill 10, introduced by state Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, would create a working group to draw up opioid education materials for students in grades 7-12 and their parents. It would also require school site councils  groups of parents, teachers and administrators who oversee campus improvements and safety measures  to include drug education in safety plans.

Lastly, SB 10 encourages schools to refer students who use drugs to counseling and treatment, instead of discipline or law enforcement.

Cortese said he decided to broaden his bill beyond naloxone during another Senate hearing on fentanyl last year. Listening to parents testimony about their childrens deaths made him realize that naloxone is not enough. To really address the fentanyl crisis, legislation would have to include a comprehensive approach to the problem: education for students, staff and parents, and counseling and treatment  instead of discipline  for students who are already struggling with drug use.

Its beyond tragic, how readily illicit drugs move around the community, Cortese said. And the lack of accountability and awareness is a tragedy within a tragedy.  We cant let another session go by without addressing it.

SB 10 has a local backer in Mona Leonardi, who with her husband Mark co-founded the Michael Leonardi Foundation and named it after their son. The Napa nonprofit educates local teenagers and young adults about the dangers of fentanyl, from which Michael Leonardi died in February 2020 when the 20-year-old college student swallowed what he thought was a Percocet pill purchased through Snapchat.

I feel it should be mandatory in all schools, Mona Leonardi said Tuesday of both on-campus Narcan supplies and wider drug education. Whats driving overdoses today is fentanyl; its everywhere right now. The only way we can start saving the lives of youth is to go directly to them, educate them and let them know whats actually happening out there.

Most young people think that what theyre getting hold of are real prescription pills, but theyre getting fake pills and they dont know that theyre getting it, she said, adding that greater awareness about such illicit drugs would have saved her sons life.

Although it doesnt require drug education, the California Department of Education has been strongly encouraging schools to teach it. The state includes drug, alcohol and tobacco education in its K-12 health standards, and lately, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has been urging schools to stock naloxone and take other steps to protect students from fentanyl and other dangerous drugs.

Education is a critical piece of any effort to curb adolescent drug use and save young people from overdoses, said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of the Los Angeles Trust for Childrens Health, which operates health clinics in 19 middle and high schools in Los Angeles Unified.

Ideally, drug education in schools should not be limited to a single health class or assembly, she said. It should include after-school programs and other places students congregate, and be presented by students themselves. Students are far more likely to listen to their peers than well-meaning adults, she noted.

It should also include parents, who often arent aware of the risks associated with street drugs. Schools should offer materials as well as town-hall events on weekends and in the evenings, when parents can attend.

When fentanyl deaths started happening, students were terrified. Its killing their peers, Puffer said. Theyve already suffered during COVID  now this. Its time for adults to step up and be protective and get this legislation passed.

For Jack Rojas, a senior at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, the reality hit when he saw a TV news report about a girl in Hollywood who died of a fentanyl overdose at her school. The girl, 15-year-old Melanie Ramos, had purchased what she thought was a Percocet (oxycodone and acetaminophen) at a nearby park.

I was shocked. I had never seen anything like that. She had her whole life ahead of her, Rojas said.

The incident inspired him to work on a presentation for his school on fentanyl  what it is, how it affects the body, why its so dangerous. It also prompted him to support SB 10 and other efforts to increase drug education in schools.

We hear about fentanyl, but were not really informed about what it is, he said. Students want to stay away from it, but they need more information.

Ramos' death also inspired Cortese to author SB 10, dubbing it Melanies Law. Her family has testified on behalf of the bill in Sacramento and has been outspoken proponents of fentanyl education in schools.

Charlie Ternan, a student at Santa Clara University, actually did know about the risks of drugs and alcohol. He was in a fraternity, had two older siblings and had talked many times about the dangers with his parents. He knew about the risks of addiction, but he didnt know about fake pills, his father, Ed Ternan said.

So on May 14, 2020, three weeks before he was slated to graduate, he had no reason to doubt that the pill he took for back pain was, in fact, a Percocet. It wasnt. His friends found him dead in his bedroom a few hours later. He was 22.

Ternan's parents now run a nonprofit that promotes fentanyl education for adolescents via social media. Theyre also working on a fentanyl awareness website for the California Department of Public Health aimed at parents.

Naloxone is helpful, Ed Ternan said, but any meaningful effort at curbing fentanyl deaths must include education.

Narcan is a last-ditch effort to save someone. Its not a solution, he said, noting that relatively few fentanyl overdoses occur on school campuses. Young people urgently need to know whats going on. No hyperbole, no scare tactics, no judgment. Just give them the information, so theyre empowered to make their own decisions.

The nature of fentanyl and fake pills has changed the drug landscape, and schools need to quickly adapt, he said. Drug education is often focused on the risks associated with addiction and long-term use, when fentanyl can be fatal with just one pill.

We used to understand drugs as a potential pathway to addiction, Ed Ternan said. But now, there is no pathway  its a minefield. The risk has changed from eventual death to immediate death.  Its extremely urgent that young people understand this.

In Rocklin, Zach Didier had recently been accepted to UCLA and was excited about his future. Like Charlie Ternan, he had talked to his parents about the risks of drugs and alcohol and was not a regular drug user. His mother doesnt know why he chose to buy a pill online, except perhaps he was bored or anxious about college choices.

Regardless, shes convinced he never would have taken the pill had he known the risks.

My son did not know what was going on with fentanyl in our community, and I didnt know to warn him, she said. Nobody should think, This cant happen to my kid. Thats why this is so urgent. We cant wait any longer.

Napa Valley Register city editor Howard Yune contributed to this report.

Photos: Advocates boost opioid rescue drug access to save lives
DAVIS  With three stabbings, two of which were fatal, within five days and no suspect in custody as of Tuesday morning, a tense atmosphere hung over the city of Davis and the UC Davis community.

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Police launched an overnight manhunt to search for the assailant in the latest stabbing, reported around 11:45 p.m. Monday at a homeless encampment near Second and L streets, but were unsuccessful. Authorities lifted a shelter-in-place order for downtown Davis around 5 a.m.

Stabbings last Thursday at Central Park and Saturday night at Sycamore Park killed 50-year-old David Henry Breaux and 20-year-old UC Davis senior Karim Abou Najm, respectively. Police said Monday nights victim, a homeless woman stabbed multiple times through her tent, was hospitalized in critical condition.

Davis residents and university students were going about their business Tuesday morning, but anxiety and trepidation prevailed.

I am freaked out about it

Nikki Moreno, a UC Davis student, uses her bike to get around town. Fellow students have sent her emails offering her rides. Three stabbings and no suspect caught has her feeling on edge.

I am freaked out about it, Moreno said Tuesday morning as she locked her bike not far from where the first stabbing occurred last Thursday. I think after this third one, I am more fearful. It doesnt seem like this is a person whos targeting people.

She speculated that whoever this assailant is could be someone suffering from mental illness who needs help and would continue these attacks.

Moreno lives on campus in transfer student housing. Shes supposed to graduate with a bachelors degree in genetics and genomes this June, but shes worried these attacks will make it difficult for students to focus on their studies.

Moreno said some professors have extended deadlines for schoolwork as news reports of the attacks filtered through campus over the past several days. But her midterm hasnt been delayed.

Shes mainly worried about her fellow students, especially those who commute from other cities in the region and have to walk from the Amtrak station, which is about a half-mile from campus.

She said she longs for the days of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, when students were in hybrid classes and could do some of the work from home. But she said students are looking out for each other, because at the end, thats all we can do.

On Tuesday morning, UC Davis Police Chief Joseph Farrow told NBC affiliate KCRA-TV of Sacramento that school leaders were discussing the possibility of moving evening classes online to limit the number of students on campus after dark.

University officials said they expected an update around 2 p.m. Tuesday but there were no changes to instruction and administrative operations during the day.

Campus buildings are open, administrative support continues and all instruction continues as normal, UC Davis officials said.

A decision on moving or canceling classes would need to be made by the academic senate, along with university officials.

Maggie Garza, a third-year linguistics major, had considered not coming to campus Tuesday morning but felt a responsibility to do so.

Im just being a bit more hesitant, Garza said, before riding away on a bike.

Residents discuss safety on social media

Minji Kim, a UC Davis researcher, was walking downtown to get coffee Tuesday. Like many, she was awakened around 1 a.m. by alerts of the third stabbing.

Im really shocked and scared, said Kim, who has lived in Davis for 10 years. Im not sure if this (assailant) is one person or more.

After receiving the alert, she logged onto the Nextdoor app, a social media site for residents to share information with their neighbors. Kim said Davis residents were frantically sharing what they knew about the latest stabbing.

I got up and checked all my windows and made sure they were locked, Kim said. I need to be secure.

Shes exchanged a lot of text messages with her friends over the past several days. Theyre warning each other about not going out at night and looking for anything suspicious in their surroundings. Kim said the fear is elevated just knowing that police have not captured a suspect.

As officials scrambled to keep the campus safe  extending Safe Ride services, as well as escorts to walk student around campus  some said they had only received scant information on how to handle the situation.

Zack Scovel, 33, walked through campus Tuesday morning as a light rain fell.

The graduate student, studying French, said he wished the university would provide more information to instructors, like himself, about how to accommodate students needs during the tense time.

How do we go on with normal if that guy is still out there? Scovel said.

The university said in a letter to students and faculty Monday that officials shared concerns over safety in our community, urging everyone to be aware of their surroundings and call campus or city police should they have any information to help solve these crimes.

It couldve been any one of us

The spate of violence is unusual for the placid college town 15 miles west of Sacramento. Davis Police reported only one homicide in 2022 in the city of nearly 70,000 people.

City and campus police in statements have urged people to travel in groups if they must venture out at night.

Rex Pyles of Davis knew Breaux, the man who was stabbed to death early Thursday at Central Park and a well-known figure known locally as the Compassion Guy. Pyles was out for his morning walk Tuesday around the downtown park.

He said news of the third stabbing is shocking, but that residents were already gripped by fear.

Its shaken us up, Pyles said, emphasizing what appear to be victims randomly attacked. It couldve been any one of us.

Police still searching for attacker

Davis Police spokesman Lt. Dan Beckwith called the investigations extremely preliminary, but said that the suspect descriptions in Saturdays Sycamore Park stabbing and Mondays incident at the homeless encampment were similar.

An emergency alert from authorities sent just before 1 a.m. Tuesday said officers were looking for a suspect described as a light-complected male, between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-9. Police said the man had a thin build wearing a black or blue sweatshirt, black Adidas pants with white stripes, black shoes carrying a brown backpack.

The suspect was last seen running westbound on Third Street from L Street, police said.

In Saturdays stabbing, which took place near Sycamore Lane and Colby Drive just after 9 p.m., police said they were looking for a man between the ages of 19 and 23 and 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-8, describing him as a light-skinned male, possibly Hispanic, with long curly loose hair.

Photos: Napa Valley Faces and Places, April 30, 2023
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Congo floods: death toll hits 176

13-year-old boy hit by car

All units stopped at Zaporizhzhia NPP

Man hit by car dies in hospital

US F-16 fighter jet crashes in South Korea

Artsakh State Minister: Azerbaijan disrupts electricity supply from Armenia to Artsakh

Iranian destroyers equipped with missiles

Casualties after road accident in Armavir Province

Israeli raid kills two Palestinians in West Bank

Fastex Named General Broadcast Sponsor of Armenia at Eurovision 2023

NATO supports normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations

"Albanization" of Armenian churches is cultural genocide

Iran and Syria agree to increase direct flights

Toivo Klaar: Progress can only be made through dialogue

Armenian MPs in Ankara speak openly

Japan earthquake kills 1, injures over 20

Turkish airspace closed for Armenian PM's plane

Armenia and US ambassadors discuss Artsakh in Moscow

Russia and Turkey FMs meet in Moscow

Armenia PM: The monument was a wrong decision

Russia MoD: No ceasefire regime violations recorded

Azerbaijan shoots a civilian in Artsakh

During the blockade, the economy of Artsakh suffered 276 million US dollars in loss

Akar: Zangezur corridor not threat to any other country

Turkey defense minister: Threat of falling back into hostilities between Azerbaijan, Armenia grows

Armenia premier briefs Czech Republic Senate speaker on crisis caused by Lachin corridor closure

Hulusi Akar: Preparations underway to open Turkey-Armenia border gate

France FM calls Karabakh an enclave inside Azerbaijan
From Tuesday to Friday, the European Commission banned the delivery of wheat, maize, rapeseed, and sunflower seed from Ukraine to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, RFE/RL reported.

The transit of Ukrainian agricultural products through the aforesaid countries remains resolved, and the products can be supplied to all other member countries of the European Union as well.

"In parallel, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have committed to lift their unilateral measures on wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed and any other products coming from Ukraine," the European Commission said in a press release Tuesday.

On April 28, it became known that the European Commission reached an agreement with Central European countries on the restriction of the import of Ukrainian wheat and other food products. It was reported that the European Union will take urgent measures to remove the Ukrainian wheat stored in warehouses from those countries, as well as allocate 100 million euros to support their own agriculture.
Mher Margaryan, Permanent Representative of Armenia to the UN, on Tuesday delivered remarks at the UN Security Council Arria-formula meeting on the protection of cultural heritage in armed conflict, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informs Armenian News-NEWS.am. Margaryan spoke as follows:

Mr. Chair,

I thank the Permanent Missions of France and the United Arab Emirates and the cosponsors for convening todays meeting, as well as the distinguished briefers for their valuable remarks and welcome the participation of Director-General Azoulay. The UNESCO has an important mandate in protecting cultural heritage at risk, and I would like to acknowledge the critical role of the Orga[n]ization in this regard.

Armed conflicts and military actions can have devastating impact on objects of cultural heritage, which are of irreplaceable value to the entire mankind as unique expressions of history, identity and cultural memory. As such, their integrity and preservation must be upheld at all times.

In our region, we have first-hand experience going through the devastating loss of cultural property. The Armenian heritage was under heavy attack during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh launched by Azerbaijan in 2020. The Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral of Shushi, for example, was deliberately shelled, twice within a few hours, resulting in the partial destruction of the Church.

Today, the millennia-old Christian Armenian sites in Nagorno-Karabakh are on the verge of total extermination, targeted to promote the distorted narrative that the Armenian people are alien in the region. Armenias deep concern in relation to the fate of the cultural property in Nagorno-Karabakh is also based on the previous history of total and intentional eradication of the Armenian heritage by Azerbaijan. In Nakhijevan, for example, thousands of monuments, including 89 medieval churches and more than 5,000 cross-stones were annihilated, in an effort to remove traces of the Armenian civilizational presence.

Azerbaijan is yet to commit, in good faith, to the implementation of the Order on Provisional Measures issued by the International Court of Justice at the request of Armenia in December 2021, according to which Azerbaijan shall take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artefacts.

Dear Colleagues,

Armenia has consistently requested that a UNESCO fact-finding mission be deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent areas in order to help preserve the vast and unique cultural heritage of the region, yet, Azerbaijan continues to obstruct efforts of the international organizations for independent and impartial assessment of the facts on the ground, having opted, instead, for the policy of systematic erasure of the Armenian traces, putting into practice a pseudoscientific theory that denies the historical sites of their Armenian origin. Only today, the chairman of what is called the State Committee for Work with religious Organizations of Azerbaijan went on record saying that the Medieval Armenian Dadivank monastery belongs to Caucasian Albania and sooner or later it will be controlled by the Albanian-Udi religious community.

Destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage continues to be extensively monitored and reported, including through the use of modern technologies. I would like to recall, in this regard, that on 28 April, last Friday, Armenia hosted a panel discussion at the UN, which looked into the role of new technologies in preventing genocidal acts, such as cultural heritage destruction. The event featured a research project at the Cornell University entitled Caucasus Heritage Watch, which relies on digital satellite technologies to monitor and document cultural heritage in the region, revealing large-scale damage and destruction in the territories under Azerbaijans control.

I would like to conclude my intervention by encouraging UNESCO to also utilize digital technologies to identify, monitor and act upon the facts of destruction of cultural heritage in any part of the world, and in our region in particular.

Thank you.
During his visit to Turkey, speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, will meet with the speaker of the Turkish parliament. Tsovinar Khachatryan, spokesperson of the NA speaker, told this to Armenian News- NEWS.am.

"Alen Simonyan will give a speech, reflecting on the current situation in Armenia. A meeting with the president of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mustafa Sentop, is also planned," Khachatryan said.

In Turkish capital Ankara, the Armenian delegationled by Simonyanwill attend the summit of the heads of parliaments of the member states dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and the plenary session of its General Assembly.
Peter Michalko, the EU ambassador in Baku, does not see the massive violations of human rights by Azerbaijan.

Speaking at an event on World Press Freedom Day, the Head of the Delegation of the EU to Azerbaijan said that "the opening of the communications in the region will contribute to the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

According to him, opening of communications will undoubtedly serve to strengthen trade relations between Azerbaijan and the EU in the future.

As per Michalko, this is also significant for connecting Europe and Asia, and it is reflected in the tripartite statement.

"The EU is a supporter of maintaining peace and stability and developing relations everywhere," the EU diplomat stressed.

But the European official did not say a word about the fact that Azerbaijan, in violation of the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020, keeps the 120,000 residents of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) under complete blockade, manipulates the facts, and does not return the Armenian detainees.
The Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia has not received an official message from the Turkish side about the closure of its airspace. Lilit Aghabekyan, assistant to the head of the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia, told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

As reported earlier, on April 29, the Turkish aviation authorities canceled, without prior notice, the permission previously granted to FlyOne Armenia airline to operate flights to Europe through Turkish airspace. As a result, FlyOne Armenias Paris-Yerevan flight on that day had to land in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. And on Tuesday, FlyOne Armenias Yerevan-Paris-Yerevan flight was cancelled due to the aforesaid Turkish ban.

Turkey has banned FlyOne Armenia from using Turkish airspace when flying to other countries only. This Armenian airlines direct flights to Turkey have not been prohibited.

Turkey has banned going to other countries only through its airspace. Direct flights to Turkey are not prohibited.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu explained the closure of the Turkish airspace by the opening of a monument in Yerevan to the members of Operation Nemesis.

"We will permit the planes [flying to and from Armenia] to our country if necessary. But we will not allow the flight of airplanes and private jets [flying to and from Armenia] through the airspace of our country as long as the provocations [by Armenia against Turkey and Azerbaijan] continue. If they [i.e., Armenia] don't stop them, we will resort to other means," said the Turkish FM.

The fountain-memorial dedicated to Operation Nemesis members, who organized the assassination of the Turkish ringleaders who carried out the Armenian Genocide, was opened on April 25 in downtown Yerevan.
The negotiations are not taking place with the participation of Russia, but with the participation of other countries; accordingly, the process should be inquire about from the direct participants. Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian foreign ministry, said this in Wednesdays press briefing, responding to the request to comment on the meeting between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington through the mediation of the United States.

"According to the results, when relevant statements are made, each of the parties will express themselves, it will be possible to create an impression and, possibly, this will give us the right to comment; it will happen later," added the official representative of the Russian foreign ministry.
Moscow remains committed to the implementation of the tripartite statements made by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, from 2020 to 2022. Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian foreign ministry, announced this at Wednesdays press briefing.

Reflecting on the prospects for a Moscow meeting between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Zakharova recalled that she had already talked about it before and announced this meeting.

"Yerevan and Baku have confirmed their readiness. The dates will be announced later," added the official representative of the Russian foreign ministry.
The president of Azerbaijan has presented another set of demands to Armenia at an event held in the Azerbaijani-occupied Armenian city of Shushi in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

"Armenians can delay the process, use the negotiation format, which was started not to reach an agreement, but to delay the process to infinity, waiting for something, waiting for a miracle, waiting for changes. I believe they will miss the opportunity because almost thirty years of occupation did not give Armenia any advantage. On the contrary, they have been isolated from the regional development," Ilham Aliyev said, P reports.

According to him, Armenia has lost the chance to become a really independent country.

"Not formally but in fact [independent]. And now they are looking now for the new master or masters. But the history, the recent history should teach them a lesson. So, we hope that they will understand it," added the president of Azerbaijan.
The Azerbaijani president refuses to even discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

"Any attempt to put so-called Nagorno-Karabakh, which does not exist, into the text of the peace treaty is counterproductive," Ilham Aliyev said during an event held in the Azerbaijani-occupied Armenian city of Shushi in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

Noting that Azerbaijan hopes that Armenia will show constructiveness, Aliyev said: "However, we do not plan to take any other measures, except for diplomatic measures. If there is no peace, if there is no communication, they [i.e., Armenia] will be isolated again," reports APA.

At the same time, Aliyev complained about the inaction of the OSCE Minsk Group. In his opinion, the Minsk Group has not done anything fruitful throughout its existence.

"The main reason was that Armenia did not want to give up the territories. Now that it has actually given up, we will not talk much about it. But the main reason why we could not find the peaceful settlement of the conflict was because Armenia didn't want it," the president of Azerbaijan said.
Prime Minister of Luxembourg begins official visit to Vietnam

Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and a high-ranking delegation of Luxembourg arrived at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on May 3 morning, starting an official visit to Vietnam from May 3-5 at the invitation of PM Pham Minh Chinh.









Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien (front, left) welcomes Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (front, right) at the Noi Bai International Airport on May 3 morning. (Photo: VNA)



After landing at the Noi Bai Airport, the Luxembourg delegation left for a trip to Ha Long Bay in northeastern Quang Ninh province.



On May 4, PM Bettel is scheduled to attend an official welcome ceremony and hold talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh. The two PMs will witness the signing of some cooperation agreements between their countries ministries and sectors and meet with the press to inform about their talks outcomes.



Prior to the welcome ceremony, the Luxembourg leader will pay respect to late Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh and visit the monument to Vietnamese heroes and martyrs and the memorial site dedicated to President Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi.



He and PM Chinh will also visit the Temple of Literature and the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum.



In addition, PM Bettel will meet with National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and take part in some activities in Ho Chi Minh City, including a Vietnam - Luxembourg business forum and a meeting with the citys leaders.



Vietnam and Luxembourg set up diplomatic ties on November 15, 1973. As of March 2023, Luxembourg had invested 2.6 billion USD in 64 projects in Vietnam, ranking third among 24 EU members and 17th among 139 countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian nation.



In 2022, bilateral trade stood at 187.1 million USD, rising 69% year on year. The figure included 130.14 million USD worth of Vietnams exports and 56.96 million USD worth of imports from Luxembourg.



During PM Chinhs official visit to Luxembourg in December last year, the two sides inked a memorandum of understanding on promoting trade and business dialogue between the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, along with a cooperation deal between the Vietnam Stock Exchange and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey explained the reason for closing the countrys airspace for Armenian aircraft.

Mevlut Cavusoglu has stated that it is unacceptable for Turkey that those who killed Turks and Azerbaijanis in the 1920s are honored in Armenia and a monument is erected to them, Haberturk reported.

He warned that if such things continue, in addition to closing the Turkish airspace, several other measures will be taken against Armenia.

"We have allowed only the flight of the plane of the president of the National Assembly of Armenia as an exception, as he has to attend the Black Sea Economic Cooperation event. If Armenia continues in this way, does not remove the monument, we will take additional steps," Cavusoglu said.

A monument dedicated to Operation Nemesis members, who exacted revenge on the organizers of the Armenian Genocide, was opened on April 25 in downtown Yerevan.

The names Operation Nemesis members are engraved on this monument.

The decision to install this monument was made on September 14, 2021 at the meeting of the Yerevan Council of Elders.
Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Ghazaryan on Tuesday received, at the Artsakh permanent representation to Armenia, a delegation headed by Xavier Bertrand, President of the French Regional Council of Hauts-de-France.

The sides touched upon the post-war situation in and around Artsakh, as well as the establishment by Azerbaijan a few days earlier of an illegal checkpoint in the Lachin corridor. Issues related to the expansion of cooperation and humanitarian programs were also discussed.

At the end of the meeting, Sergey Ghazaryan and Xavier Bertrand signed, as a sign of mutual respect and friendship, a joint statement addressed to the international community in support of the full realization of the fundamental rights of the people of Artsakh; in particular, their right to self-determination.

On the same day, Bertrand met with a group of Artsakh residents who were forcibly displaced as a result of the 44-day war in 2020 and found shelter in Armenia.
The extradition of the two Azerbaijanis who penetrated into Bnunis village of Armenias Syunik Province cannot and will not happen during the pretrial proceedings. Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan on Wednesday told this to reporters at the National Assembly of Armenia.

"It [i.e., the extradition] can only happen in the conditions of legally enforced judicial acts against convicted persons. Extraditions are regulated by a number of conventions. In the case of Azerbaijan, they are the 1998 Moscow and the Strasbourg conventions," added Vardapetyan.

She noted that the proceedings against one of these two Azerbaijanis have been completed and his case has been sent to court. As for the other, the investigation is ongoing. He is charged with murder committed under aggravating circumstances, as well as with arms smuggling, illegal border crossing, and carrying weapons in Armenia.

On April 10, it became known that two Azerbaijanis were seen in Bnunis village of Sisian city of Armenias Syunik Province the day before. On April 17, the prosecutor's office reported that two Azerbaijani servicemen who had ended up in the territory of Armenia were charged and both were arrested. Moreover, one of them is accused of killing a man guarding the guard post of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine.
Hraparak daily of Armenia writes: Colonel General Aleksandr Lentsov, the newly appointed commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent [in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)], will leave for [Azerbaijani capital] Baku tomorrow. According to our information, he announced this on May 1, during a meeting with Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan and Minister of State Gurgen Nersisyan.

It is noteworthy that this is the second meeting; it took place at the headquarters of the peacekeeping contingent, and not at the presidential office, like the first meeting, which means that the Artsakh officials showed interest in the meeting, for whom, it can be said, General Lentsov has remained the last hope.

Our sources say that Lentsov said that as if an undesirable situation has been created for them [i.e., the Russians] as well, but he can answer all questions only after returning from Baku.
Brazilian police swoop on Bolsonaro

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro speaks to the press outside his house after it was searched by police. Photo: AP

Police in Brazil searched ex-president Jair Bolsonaro's home and seized his cell phone on Wednesday in an investigation into allegations of falsifying Covid-19 vaccination records, an allegation the far-right vaccine skeptic denied.



Bolsonaro, who faced widespread criticism for his unorthodox handling of the pandemic, denied wrongdoing in comments to journalists after the operation, accusing the authorities of trying to "fabricate a case" against him.



"I repeat: I have not been vaccinated," he told reporters clustered in the garage of his home in Brasilia.



"There was no falsification on my part," said Bolsonaro, 68.



"I'm surprised... by the search and seizure operation in an ex-president's home, trying to fabricate a case."



The former president, who led Brazil from 2019 to 2022, defied expert advice on managing the pandemic and joked the vaccine could "turn you into an alligator."



He faced widespread criticism over his handling of Covid-19, which has claimed more than 700,000 lives in Brazil.



Federal police confirmed they were investigating "the insertion of falsified Covid-19 vaccination data" into the health ministry's electronic vaccination records system, but did not mention Bolsonaro by name.



"The falsified entries, which occurred between November 2021 and December 2022, resulted in the alteration of the true Covid-19 vaccination status of the individuals in question," police said in a statement.



"As a result, the individuals were able to emit vaccination certificates and use them to evade health restrictions put in place by authorities in Brazil and the United States."



Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States in December, after losing his re-election bid to veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva -- a bitterly divisive election fought largely over the far-right incumbent's controversial management of Covid-19.



The US requires international air travellers to present proof of vaccination against Covid-19, a requirement the White House announced on Monday would end on May 11.



The requirement does not apply to foreign government officials -- which was Bolsonaro's case when he arrived there on December 30 last year, the second-to-last day of his presidency.



Police said they were carrying out 16 search and seizure orders and executing six arrest warrants as part of the operation. (AFP)
Continuing the mission: Ryan Taylor, center, with daughter, Abigail, left, and wife, Laura, are all SIU Carbondale students. Ryan Taylor will graduate from the SIU School of Law on May 12; while Abigail and Laura Taylor are both students in the Fashion Studies program. (Photo by Russell Bailey)

Mission continues: Veteran earns SIU law degree to better help fellow vets

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Earning his law degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondales School of Law on May 12 is the completion of one mission for U.S. Army and Iraq War veteran Ryan Taylor and the start of another.

Although his active military duty has ended, Taylor, who lost a lung and suffered a traumatic brain injury from the war, is looking to the next chapter with the same focus he carried while serving his country.

While Taylor plans to pursue a personal injury practice after passing the bar exam, a primary focus will be to continue helping veterans with Department of Veterans Affairs benefit claims and to continue work with Freedom Sings USA, a nonprofit organization that pairs professional songwriters with veterans, military personnel and their families to help them tell their stories through song.

Taylor, 44, his wife Laura, and their children moved to Carbondale from Lewisburg, Tennessee in 2020 so Ryan could pursue his law degree. With a degree in business administration from Middle Tennessee State University, Taylor said a primary reason he came to the SIU School of Law is its Veterans Legal Assistance Program (VLAP). The program offers law students an opportunity to help veterans and surviving spouses in appealing denials of VA disability benefit claims. Other factors for selecting SIU included the law schools tuition, housing costs in Carbondale and the proximity to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where their daughter, Rebekah, 23, lives.

SIU checked every box for the close-knit family. Laura Taylor and daughter Abigail, who graduated from Carbondale Community High School last year, are in SIUs Fashion Studies program. A son, Benjamin, 21, attended SIU last year in the criminal justice program but is serving in the U.S. Navy.

We just knew that we were coming here. I knew that this was a place that was going to show me how I could do what it was that I wanted to do. Before law school, I was already helping my friends get their veterans benefits, and I was pretty good at it, Ryan Taylor said. Now I wanted to get to where I was legally good at it to where people can call me and say, Can you help me get my benefits? and I can say, Ive gotcha.

There was nobody else out there I saw that was an affordable school and offering anything that was directly focused on how to help veterans with their benefits. We didnt apply anywhere else.

Injured twice while in Iraq

Taylor served nearly five years with the 82nd Airborne Division, including two years in Iraq from 2006 to 2008, before he received a medical retirement due to his injuries. Taylors left lung needed to be removed several months after a cannister rigged with Q fever, an infectious bacteria caused by Coxiella burnetii (COX-ee-ELL-ah burn-ETT-eye), exploded and sprayed troops as they kicked in a door. The bacteria stayed stagnant for several months, but doctors were forced to remove the lung before it spread to Taylors other lung and heart. The traumatic brain injury was the result of a remote controlled IED (improvised explosive device) that was placed in trees and detonated while soldiers were walking past.

I really want to be back holding the big machine gun in the group making sure that everybody is still making it through whatever tough times they have, he said. But they told me I had to come home because of my injuries. I still want to be fighting with my guys, and this is my way to keep fighting. Im very passionate about it.

Looking out for others remains Taylors focus. Taylor earned academic credit in the VLAP program his second year in law school, and he volunteered there afterward.

Ryan's prior experience and passion for helping his brothers- and sisters-in-arms were invaluable in the clinic, said Martin Parsons, a clinical assistant professor of law who directed the VLAP program and is now an adjunct faculty member. His hard work and advocacy were instrumental in securing VA disability and education benefits for several veterans.

While several law firms and clinics do similar work, Parsons said, there are not enough lawyers with Ryan's passion, enthusiasm and determination to advocate on their behalf. Ryan will be an invaluable addition to the field of VA disability claims appeals.

A song to help veterans

Taylor acknowledges his difficulties once he returned home. At one point, a counselor suggested that he connect with the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Freedom Sings USA, where songwriters visit veterans, listen to their experiences and put those to lyrics and music. The veterans receive a CD of the song to help with healing. The program has expanded to Arkansas and Colorado, and Taylors hope is to start classes in Southern Illinois.

Taylor told them of a 2010 song he wrote about combat-related trauma and trying to figure out how to cope. Nashville songwriter Don Goodman, who co-wrote Ol Red, urged that Taylors Some Days be recorded, and it is the fourth track on the Freedom Sings USA Volume II album.

Taylor said several combat veterans have contacted him through the years to tell him the song saved their lives because they realized they were not the only one going through this intense, insane struggle. It also helped many veterans spouses better understand their loved ones issues.

Being able to help other people became my therapy, Taylor said. Ive gotten to be alongside some real heroes in life who didnt make it, and now I get to be alongside some other heroes who are on the verge of not making it who I get to help.

An SIU family connection

The Taylors expect to stay in Carbondale for several years. Abigail is a freshman in the fashion design program while her mother, Laura, is a junior specializing in fashion styling. Daughter Mycah, 15, is a homeschooled freshman. The couples oldest son, Bishop, 22, lives in Benton.

There was no hesitation we were going to do this as a team, Laura Taylor said. Were here to conquer.

Abigail Taylor likes the diversity found on campus and the varied activities at the Student Center. Because she always has loved clothes, selecting a major was kind of an easy choice for me, she said.

Living in the dorms is a good experience because my roommate isnt like me, but we still do things and I learn different things and find new experiences through my roommate, Abigail said.

Laura and Abigail have one class together this semester. Abigail smiled when noting she doesnt have to walk to class because her parents pick her up. Her mother, meanwhile, pointed out that her daughter doesnt have to buy supplies.

We are great study buddies, said Laura Taylor said, adding that she is also interested in art history after taking a couple of classes.

Thankful for SIU

Taylor emphasized hes grateful to the law school faculty and his classmates, several of whom, like him, are nontraditional students. Through the military and raising a family, he understood the need for discipline when approaching law school.

Even though I was the older guy, they were all very welcoming, Taylor said. The faculty goes above and beyond to make sure that we know the material.

While Taylor started law school during the pandemic, Angela Upchurch, law professor and associate dean for academic affairs and curriculum development, said that didnt deter him from fully engaging with class and with course materials.

Ryan is a focused student who brings his discipline and professional work ethic to his studies, she said. I enjoyed having Ryan as a student in my classes because he was always interested in learning why the law dictated a particular outcome and examining the law as a social science.

I know that Ryan will combine his experiences prior to law school with his legal training to meet the needs of his clients, and he will serve our region well.
Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI)'s President Jyoti Mayal has expressed concern over the sudden cancellation of all flights by Go First Airlines on May 3 and 4, stating that it has put the aviation industry in shock. Go First has filed an application for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before National Company Law Tribunal. Mayal in a statement on Wednesday commented on the struggles faced by the industry regarding correct procedures and protocols, stating it is surprising that a country, considered a power centre, faces such challenges again and again, pertaining to the aviation sector. The cancellations and refunds of tickets to its members and consumers have raised concerns at TAAI, which fear that travel agents will be adversely affected, presenting a significant financial blow as they struggle to revive post-covid19. TAAI said it has been advocating to the government, the ministry of aviation, the ministry of tourism, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself to ensure the security of the travel industry and consumers, and address airlines' defaults. The association has been advocating for protection through insurance on tickets or placing monies in an escrow account with the government as protection for the entire ecosystem and most importantly, the service provider. As the president of the largest and oldest premier body, Mayal expressed concern that the government is refusing to hear them and implement better policies. It said the government, along with the ministry of aviation and tourism, needs to bring policies to safeguard consumer's and service provider's money. TAAI has been promised by the ministry of aviation to establish a National Task Force with airlines and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), but weak policies and governance will impact the opening of multiple airports and make the aviation industry fragile. Mayal stressed that travel and tourism service providers are a vital part of the growth of this country and the responsibility of the government. "The vision of a trillion-dollar economy cannot be achieved with such setbacks," Mayal said. Mayal requested once again that Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks into their woes and finds a solution with their support to make them a part of the growth and save them from being crippled. (ANI)
Pune (Maharashtra) [India], May 3 (ANI/SRV): Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune, a renowned Indian B-school, collaborated with Swansea University, United Kingdom (UK) and has been running the third edition of an online seminar series titled "The Digital Future for Business & Society." The current edition of the series is centred around "Emerging perspectives on the Metaverse." The fifth seminar in the series took place in April, featuring three distinguished thought leaders, Prof. Samuel Fosso Wamba, Dr Maciel M. Queiroz, and Dr Anuragini Shirish, sharing their insights on the topic: 'Unlocking the metaverse in manufacturing and operations management.' Dr Samuel Fosso Wamba is a Full Professor in Information Systems and Data Science and the Associated Dean of Research at TBS Education, France. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at The University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and at the UCSI Graduate Business School, UCSI University, Malaysia. Dr Maciel M. Queiroz is an Associate Professor and Researcher of Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) at FGV EAESP, Brazil and Latin/South America Regional Ambassador of the Academy of Management, Operations and Supply Chain Management Division. Dr Anuragini Shirish is an Associate Professor at Institut Mines-Telecom Business School, France. She is an elected member from her institution for the governance of the LITEM (Laboratoire Innovation Technologies Economie et Management) (EA 7363), a joint research laboratory under the University of Paris-Saclay, France. During the seminar, Prof. Samuel Fosso Wamba discussed that the metaverse has the potential to revolutionize manufacturing and supply chain management industries by utilizing advanced technologies such as 3D modelling, augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality. He also highlighted the metaverse's ability to create simulated environments for product testing, worker training, and real-time collaboration with unlimited capabilities. Dr Anuragini Sirish shared her perspective on how the metaverse could be integrated into manufacturing, operations, and supply chain management to bring about significant benefits. Dr Maciel M. Queiroz addressed the challenges of adopting the metaverse in operations and supply chain management. The speakers also discussed the opportunities the metaverse presents in industries like automobiles, aviation, tourism, courier services, etc. Additionally, the seminar brought attention to emerging issues and challenges in metaverse implementation, such as ethical and legal concerns related to virtual environments. In conclusion, the discussion ended on a positive note, stating that the metaverse presents exciting opportunities for the future of manufacturing and supply chain management. This seminar can be watched on this YouTube link: https://youtu.be/v9jyCBMW8wQ. Speaking more about the seminar series and the session Dr Ramakrishnan Raman, Director SIBM Pune shared, "The objective of this seminar series is to offer a timely and thought-provoking insight to the Metaverse, its impact on the future of business, management and societal factors impacted by the growth, direction, and widespread adoption of this new immersive technology. This seminar series is intended to present various perspectives from a number of leading global expert speakers to highlight the opportunities and challenges posed by the rapid emergence of the Metaverse." He also added that the sixth seminar of the series is scheduled on 17th May 2023 where Professor Nir Kshetri from the University of North Carolina, USA will join to touch upon a very interesting topic, "Pollution reducing and pollution generating effects of the metaverse". This seminar is jointly organized by Professor Yogesh K Dwivedi, who is a Professor of Digital Marketing and Innovation, the School of Management, Swansea University, Wales, UK; Dr Laurie Hughes, who is a Senior Lecturer within the Strategic Operations Group, School of Management, Swansea University. Wales, UK; and, Prof. Dr Ramakrishnan Raman who is Director of SIBM-Pune, Dean of Faculty of Management, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) and Director - Strategy and Development, Symbiosis. This seminar series is jointly Supported by Digital Marketing and Analytics SIG Academy of Marketing, Grenoble IAE-Graduate School of Management - a Grenoble INP school of the University of Grenoble Alpes, The e-Business and e-Government SIG British Academy of Management and The UK Academy for Information Systems (UKAIS). The seminar is moderated by Dr Vinod Kumar, Associate Professor, SIBM Pune and Dr Anabel Gutierrez Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing at Royal Holloway, University of London. This story has been provided by SRV. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 3 (ANI/PRNewswire): Blis is further expanding its operations in India with two strategic roles, growing its headcount across Asia by 30% in the last 6 months. Blis has added to the investment in regional roles to drive growth and meet advertiser demand, now offering a truly national sales representation across India. Blis welcomes new Head of Sales, Nabajit Nath, based out of Mumbai to lead the sales efforts across the region. Nabajit joins the team with more than a decade of experience in digital advertising and technology sales, including Paytm, Flipkart and Network 18. Most recently, at Paytm, Nabajit led the foundation sales team, driving growth and success for the business across a number of years. On his appointment, Nabajit said; "I was drawn to the role due to the company's strong people focus, and I'm determined to contribute to this dynamic, innovative, and fast-paced organization which pioneered location-powered advertising solutions.". Supporting Nabajit in Mumbai is Ishika Sharma, who has recently been promoted to Associate Director West, and in the south, Sales Lead, Lloyd Joseph, who joined the Blis business in Bangalore last year. Blis also welcomes Associate Group Head, Nived Kansal to the team, who will lead the Delhi region for Blis. Nived comes to Blis with over 10 years' media experience across India, working at major global and local companies such as Google, LinkedIn and most recently mobile ads provider Inmobi, where he was the Brand Solutions Expert across telco, consumer durables, OEM and auto. Commenting on the announcements, Emma-Jayne Owens, Managing Director, APAC at Blis, said, "We've driven significant growth across the APAC region over the past few years and I'm delighted to be building further momentum with our new hires. They join Blis to drive our ambition for an even stronger team across more regions in India, where their combined local knowledge, expertise and seniority in digital advertising and technology allows us to support market leading solutions and our clients' businesses growth." Blis is the audience-first platform that doesn't rely on personal data. We're an integrated planning and buying platform that delivers scaled, relevant and high-performing audiences, helping the world's largest brands and media agencies achieve their goals. Over the past years, Blis has built its reputation on delivering award-winning location-powered advertising solutions. In today's consumer-centric landscape, Blis is transforming the role of location data by combining it with a broad range of rich and powerful datasets to give our clients the deepest audience understanding available. Our unique approach to integrated planning and buying provides personalised targeting and performance without reliance on personal data. We serve relevant ads to the highest-value addressable audiences across any channel and deliver our clients' campaign outcomes every time, from brand awareness and engagement through to store/site visits and sales. Established in the UK in 2004, Blis now operates in more than 40 offices across five continents. Working with the world's largest and most customer-driven companies across all verticals including Unilever, Samsung, McDonald's, HSBC, Mercedes Benz and Peugeot, as well as every major media agency. To learn more, visit blis.com. This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)
'Yellowstone' star Kevin Costner and his wife Christine Baumgartner are separating. Baumgarten has filed for divorce after 18 years of marriage. As reported by People, Costner's representative said, "It is with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action." "We ask that his, Christine's, and their children's privacy be respected as they navigate this difficult time," the representative added. In November, Costner spoke fondly of his wife, "My wife does things that just completely... It just helps. The house is prettier because of her. Everything is warmer because of her. There's these little things that she does and I think it's the power of love, but that she makes her home that way," reported People. The pair tied the knot in September 2004 and have three children together, sons Cayden, 15, and Hayes, 14, daughter Grace, 12. Costner, 68, also has four older children from previous relationships-daughters Annie and Lily and sons Joe and Liam. Baumgartner was always keen to start a family with Costner. The actor revealed to Extra that on day one of their relationship, Baumgartner told him, "If you're going to be with me, you need to know that kids are at the end of the road for me with you, if that's going to happen." "Our house is like a river: You've just got to get into the flow of it," he added. "And whatever you thought it was going to be, maybe it still can, but it's going to have to work with what the day brings." This is Costner's second marriage after his 16-year marriage to Cindy Silva, which ended in divorce in 1994. The Field of Dreams actor has starred in 'Yellowstone' for five seasons as the powerful Montana patriarch John Dutton. (ANI)
The incident happened on Monday, close to the Indo-Pak border, about 10 km north of Munabao, Rajasthan. The operation was carried out by a patrol party of 13 battalions of BSF.

The BSF said that, during their duty on Monday at around 9:00 pm, some suspicious movements were observed near the border security fence on the international border, and immediately took positions.

When the intruders kept on moving close to the border fence, the troops fired upon them.

While conducting searches after some time, two bodies of Pak intruders and three packets of suspected drugs/heroin were recovered from their possession. (ANI)
New Delhi [India], May 2 (ANI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday conducted searches at 12 locations in Jammu and Kashmir in the Pakistan-backed terrorist conspiracy case. The raids were continuing till late in the evening, said the NIA.While 11 of these locations were located in the Kashmir valley (eight in Pulwama district, one each in Kulgam, Anantnag and Budgam districts), one was underway in Poonch district in Jammu. The case was related to the hatching of a conspiracy, both physical and in cyberspace, and plans by proscribed terrorist organisations to execute violent terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir with sticky bombs, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and small arms, said the agency. "The plans are part of a larger conspiracy by the terrorist groups to commit terror acts in association with local youths and overground workers in order to create communal disharmony in Jammu and Kaahmir," said the NIA. The terrorist outfits involved in the conspiracy were identified as Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr, Al-Qaeda, besides others, it said. Searches were also being carried out in the premises of cadres and hybrid overground workers linked with the affiliates and offshoots of these organisations, operating under pseudo names such as 'The Resistance Front (TRF)', 'United Liberation Front Jammu and Kashmir (UL J-K)', 'Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind (MGH)', 'Jammu and Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF)', Kashmir Tigers, PAAF and others. Initial investigations by the NIA indicated that these workers and cadres were involved in collection and distribution of sticky bombs or magnetic bombs, IEDs, cash, narcotics and small weapons. "These weapons, bombs, narcotics etc were being pushed on to the Indian soil by PaK-based handlers and commanders of proscribed terrorist organisations using drones to the terrorists active in the Kashmir valley," the agency stated. The NIA had conducted similar multiple searches in the terror conspiracy case at 14 locations in Jammu and Kashmir on June 24 last year. The searches, conducted then in the districts of Srinagar, Baramula, Pulwama, Anantnag Budgam and Kathua, had led to the seizure of incriminating material and digital devices. The NIA had registered a suo motu case on June 21 last year about the terrorist conspiracy. (ANI)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Tuesday that it has attached 12 immovable properties, located in Nagpur, Pune, Ratnagiri and Goa, worth Rs 12.80 crore in the money laundering investigation against bank loan fraud by the Varron Group of Industries. The ED initiated the money laundering investigation on the basis of three FIRs registered by the CBI against the Varron Group and its promoter, late S.P. Sawaikar, in a loan fraud case amounting to more than Rs 3,000 crore. The ED investigation revealed that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by S.P. Sawaikar with bank officials to fraudulently discount 246 forged bills backed by the letter of credit (LC) of Rs 300 crore opened by Canara Bank, Deccan Gymkhana Branch, Pune, on behalf of Varron Aluminium Pvt Ltd (VAPL). "However, there was no real movement of the goods and the amounts were diverted to pay off older loans and the LCs were devolved later causing loss to the Bank of India. The earlier loan accounts were not serviced regularly and the loan proceeds were diverted for other than the stated purposes and amounts were utilised to create landed assets in the name of the promoters and also to create benami assets," said the ED. Earlier, the ED had attached proceeds of crime worth Rs 166.47 crore in the same matter. On February 6, the ED had also filed a prosecution complaint before a PMLA court in Mumbai. The total attachment in this fraud has reached Rs 179.27 crore. --IANS atk/arm ( 265 Words) 2023-05-02-22:34:03 (IANS)
The Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking a halt of the newly-launched Vande Bharat train at Tirur railway station in Malappuram district. Dismissing the plea, the division bench said that halting points of a train are determined by the Railways and no one has a vested right to demand which station a particular train should stop at. "Moreover, like the petitioner, if every individual or public-spirited person in every district starts clamoring or demanding a stop to be provided at a railway station of his/her choice, the purpose of setting up high-speed trains would itself be lost. Railway stops are not to be provided on demands based on personal or vested interests, especially for high-speed express trains like Vande Bharat. "We find no reason to entertain this writ petition and the same is dismissed," said the court, adding that the courts cannot interfere in the matter of providing stops for trains, as that is a matter purely within the discretion and jurisdiction of the Railways. The petitioner pointed out that the failure to allot a stop at Tirur is an injustice to the people of Malappuram, causing great prejudice by ignoring their requests and demands. However, the court dismissed the plea stating that it cannot interfere in the matter of providing stops for trains. Incidentally, when the Kasargod-Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat train was passing through Tirur, it was pelted with sones. The matter is being probed by the railway police. --IANS sg/arm ( 259 Words) 2023-05-02-22:44:06 (IANS)
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea filed by Vishal Yadav, convicted in the Nitish Katara murder case, seeking regular parole to file a special leave petition (SLP) in the apex court against the order passed by the high court. Katara was murdered in Ghaziabad on February 17, 2002. In March last year, Yadav had moved the high court. Listed before Justice Anish Dayal's bench, the plea was dismissed after hearing the matter at lenght. In order to pursue the filing of an SPL before the top court against the judgement delivered by the high court in a criminal appeal against the judgement in a case titled 'Vishal Yadav vs State Government of UP', Yadav had sought an order directing the authorities to release him on regular parole for a period of four weeks. The FIR under different sections of the Indian Penal Code was registered at the Kavi Nagar police station. The high court upheld the conviction and enhancement of sentences. He also sought to set aside the order of November 26, 2021, passed by the competent authority rejecting regular parole to the petitioner. According to the senior counsel for the petitioner, one of the grounds for parole can be sought on the basis that the petitioner intends to file his SLP before the Supreme Court and that, in accordance with the 2010 parole guidelines, the petitioner has met the requirements for parole. However, the additional standing counsel (ASC) denied this by claiming that the opportunity to file an SLP was granted even earlier and had been taken into account by this court through two orders dated May 30, 2014, and April 20, 2018. The counsel representing the petitioner rejected the argument that parole could not be granted to him, citing earlier judgements of the court and the fact that the petitioner had been sentenced without remission. Vishal's cousin Vikas Yadav, along with others, were also convicted in the same case. The high court pointed out that Vishal was granted custody parole in 2015 but he did not avail it. Justice Dayal said Vishal's contention of denial of a constitutional right in the context of the plea for parole, therefore, has to be appreciated, viewed, weighed, sifted and winnowed in this light and not viewed in isolation. "The petitioner (Vishal) is not precluded from pursuing his remedy to file an SLP before the Supreme Court, irrespective that it is eight years after the decision that he wishes to assail," the high court said. Another co-convict, Sukhdev Pehalwan, was also handed down a 20-year jail term. Prior to this, the Delhi High Court, while upholding the life imprisonment awarded to Vikas and Vishal Yadav by a trial court, specified a 30-year sentence, without any remission, to both of them. It awarded a 25-year jail term to Pehalwan. All three were convicted and sentenced for kidnapping Katara from a marriage party in February 2002 and then killing him for his alleged affair with Vikas' sister Bharti Yadav. Bharti is the daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician D.P. Yadav who is in jail in connection with another murder case. Katara was murdered as Vishal and Vikas Yadav did not approve of his affair with Bharti because they belonged to different castes, the lower court said in its verdict. --IANS spr/arm ( 569 Words) 2023-05-02-22:52:03 (IANS)
The Telangana government will procure every grain of the damaged paddy due to untimely rains, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday gave this assurance to farmers. KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, appealed to the farmers to not worry about the paddy which got wet due to rain. The Chief Minister made it clear that the state government will pay the same price for the damaged paddy which it is paying for normal paddy during the procurement. He reiterated that the Telangana government's aim is to protect agriculture and rescue the farmers from hardships. In the wake of incessant untimely rains in recent times, KCR directed the Agriculture Department to study what policies should be adopted so that Yasangi paddy harvesting can be completed before March, and take appropriate measures to sensitise the farmers in this direction. Rao also suggested the farmers to postpone harvesting for another three to four days. The Chief Minister held a high-level review meeting on the procurement of Yasangi paddy and wet paddy, measures to ensure early harvesting of Yasangi paddy in future, activities of the agriculture department etc., at B.R. Ambedkar Telangana Secretariat. KCR said: "It is unfortunate that the state is receiving unabated untimely hailstorms and rain. There is no control on natural calamities. However, the state government did not keep silent. It is already supporting the farmers who have lost crops due to hail storms by providing Rs 10,000 per acre despite heavy burden on the state exchequer." Officials told KCR that some difficulties are being faced in the procurement of paddy due to untimely rains. As the state is likely to witness rains for another three to four days, the CM advised the farmers to stop harvesting the paddy so that the grain does not get wet. The CM requested the farmers to take up paddy plantation in advance and ensure the Yasangi paddy harvesting is completed by March-end, every year. The Chief Minister said that it is good to complete the harvesting before March as there are chances of untimely rains. KCR also directed the Agriculture Department to conduct more scientific studies in this direction and sensitise the farmers. Farmers should also be made aware of the use of fertilisers, the Chief Minister said. --IANS ms/pgh ( 390 Words) 2023-05-02-23:04:02 (IANS)
Additional Director General of Police, Crime Dinesh M.N. said that Buta Singh, a most wanted smuggler of heroin, has also been arrested.

A team of CID Crime Branch Jaipur was keeping an eye on these smugglers for about two months. On receiving a tip-off, a team was sent to Ganganagar, Bikaner and Hanumangarh for intelligence collection.

Later, another team was sent to Bikaner to gather more information about the activities of the smugglers. On Monday, after getting reliable information, teams were formed by the headquarters and sent to the vicinity of Bikaner.

Based on the intelligence gathered, Khet Singh and Sunil Kumar were arrested with 450 grams of heroin from Suratgarh Police Station area of Sriganganagar district.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Crime, Rahul Prakash said that during the campaign, Crime Branch also arrested the main supplier of heroin Buta Singh who smuggled heroin worth Rs 35 crore on Pak border of Jaisalmer on April 10.

It is noteworthy that on April 10, the Crime Branch had seized heroin worth about Rs 35 crores brought from Pakistan through drones at Pak border with Jaisalmer. Four smugglers were arrested at that time. But the main kingpin Buta Singh was absconding.

--IANS arc/sha

( 243 Words)

2023-05-02-23:10:04 (IANS)
The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that while undertaking the exercise to ascertain whether the convict has fair chance of acquittal, what is to be looked into is something palpable - the appellate court should not reappreciate the evidence and try to pick up few lacunas or loopholes here or there in the case of the prosecution. A bench comprising justices M.R. Shah and J.B. Pardiwala said the endeavour on the part of the court should be to see as to whether the case presented by the prosecution and accepted by the trial court can be said to be a case in which ultimately the convict stands fair chances of acquittal. Justice Pardiwala, who authored the judgment on behalf of the bench, said if the answer to the above question is to be in the affirmative, as a necessary corollary, "we shall have to say that, if ultimately the convict appears to be entitled to have an acquittal at the hands of this court, he should not be kept behind bars for a pretty long time till the conclusion of the appeal, which usually takes very long for decision and disposal". The bench, however, said that while undertaking the exercise to ascertain whether the convict has fair chance of acquittal, what is to be looked into is something palpable. "To put it in other words, something which is very apparent or gross on the face of the record, on the basis of which the court can arrive at a prima facie satisfaction that the conviction may not be sustainable. The appellate court should not reappreciate the evidence at the stage of Section 389 of the CrPC and try to pick up few lacunas or loopholes here or there in the case of the prosecution. Such would not be a correct approach," said Justice Pardiwala. The bench noted that in the case on hand, what the high court has done is something impermissible and it has gone into the issues like political rivalry, delay in lodging the FIR, some over-writings in the FIR etc. "All these aspects will have to be looked into at the time of the final hearing of the appeals filed by the convicts," the bench noted. The top court made these observations while setting aside a Patna High Court order, which suspended the substantive order of sentence of life imprisonment imposed by the trial court on three accused in a murder case and ordered their release on bail pending the final disposal of the two criminal appeals. The brother of the deceased had moved the apex court against the high court order. The top court said that upon cursory scanning of the evidence on record, "we are unable to agree with the contentions coming from the learned senior counsel for the convicts that, either there is absolutely no case against the convicts or that the evidence against them is so weak and feeble in nature, that, ultimately in all probabilities the proceedings would terminate in their favour." Justice Pardiwala said: "In the overall view of the matter, we are convinced that the high court committed a serious error in suspending the substantive order of sentence of the convicts and their release on bail pending the final disposal of their criminal appeals." The bench said, "In fact, it was expected of the state as the prosecuting agency to challenge the order passed by the high court, but for some reason or the other, the state thought fit not to do anything further. Ultimately, it is the original first informant (brother of the deceased) who had to come before this court." Justice Pardiwala said the order passed by the high court is set aside and the convicts are ordered to surrender before the trial court within a period of three days from Tuesday. --IANS ss/arm ( 654 Words) 2023-05-02-23:24:02 (IANS)
Bajrang Dal workers staged a protest near the Congress office and burned the party manifesto released for the upcoming Karnataka elections. This comes after the Congress on Tuesday in their Karnataka election manifesto said it will take "decisive action" as per law including banning organisations like Bajrang Dal, the Popular Front of India and others. "We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on any such organisations, read the Congress manifesto released by the party president Mallikarjun Kharge here. "The Congress party is committed to taking firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred against communities on the grounds of caste and religion," read the Congress manifesto. "We believe that law and Constitution are sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and Organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities," it added. The manifesto was released in the presence of former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, the KPCC President DK Shivakumar and Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera. Meanwhile, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) International Joint General Secretary Surendra Jain hit out at the Congress party for comparing VHP with Popular Front of India (PFI) in its Karnataka Assembly election manifesto and said the move is 'highly objectionable.' "Comparing VHP with anti-national, terrorist and banned organization PFI is highly objectionable", Jain said. VHP Leader further told ANI that the way Congress and PFI have formed an alliance, Bajrang Dal has become an eyesore of the Congress. "Sonia Gandhi cannot cheat the people of the country. The way Congress has wrongly tried to defame Bajrang Dal, the country's people will not accept it and Bajrang Dal workers are taking it as a challenge. We will answer that too and will not let your plans succeed." "Congress Party talk about banning Bajrang Dal but forget that they were the ones who opposed the banning of anti-national organizations like 'SIMMI' and they even protested on the streets against the ban", he added Jain further added that by the Congress party demanding to ban Bajrang Dal, the party's agenda has come out in public. Karnataka will go to Assembly polls on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13. (ANI)
Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president Srinivas BV has filed a plea for anticipatory bail before the Gauhati High Court. Hearing the pre-arrest bail petition of Srinivas BV (case no - AB/1556/2023) on Tuesday, Justice Ajit Borthakur said in his order that, the instant pre-arrest bail application is fixed on May 4 at 12.30 pm. Srinivas BV filed the plea for anticipatory bail at the Gauhati High Court apprehending arrest in connection with Dispur Police Station case no. 692/2023 under Sections 509/294/341/352/354/354A(iv)/506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. "D. Saikia, learned Advocate General, Assam at this stage, submits that the learned Public Prosecutor, M. Phukan, who is presently away at Bengaluru in connection with another petition of the petitioner filed under Section 438 Cr.P.C., shall appear and plead on behalf of the State in the instant petition copy of which is also not available with him and on the other hand, as the case diary is also not received by him, the matter can be heard day after tomorrow, that is on 04-05-2023," said in the order copy of the Gauhati High Court. The court directed the Public Prosecutor to produce the case diary on May 4. Earlier, the Court of Learned City Civil and Sessions Judge No. LXXI, Bengaluru City (CCH-72) by an order on April 28 this year dismissed the petition of Srinivas BV filed under Section 438 Cr.P.C. in connection with a case registered at Dispur Police Station following the complaint filed by Dr Angkita Dutta, former president of Assam Youth Congress. On the other hand, hearing another case (no. Crl.Pet./377/2023) filed by Srinivas BV, Justice Ajit Borthakur has fixed May 4 as the next hearing date. Devajit Lon Saikia, Advocate General of Assam told ANI that, the court listed the matter for hearing on May 4. "On May 4, we will submit the case diary before the court," Devajit Lon Saikia said. On April 23, a five-member team of Guwahati City Police went to Bengaluru and pasted a notice at the residence of Srinivas BV and asked him to appear at Dispur police station on May 2, but Srinivas BV not appeared at Dispur police station today. (ANI)
Revolutionary Socialist Party MP NK Premachandran has demanded that the ruling CPI(M) make a public statement clarifying the statement of its leader V S Achuthanathan quoted in the controversial film "The Kerala Story," which is scheduled for release on May 5. In a trailer released by the film's makers, a character is heard saying that Kerala's former chief minister, in a reference to Achuthananthan, had said that the radical Popular Front of India is aiming to turn Kerala into an Islamic state by 2030. Both Kerala's ruling Left Democratic Front(LDF) and its main opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) are opposed the film alleging that it is propaganda aimed at denigrating Kerala and is targeting a particular community. Controversy erupted after the trailer of the movie stated that 32,000 women from Kerala were converted to Islam and recruited by the terrorist organisation Islamic State. After the backlash, makers subsequently modified the trailer to state that the movie was based "on true stories of three young girls from different parts of Kerala." Accusing the film of aiming to create a communal divide the RSP leader Premachanthran on Tuesday said that "The Kerala Story" was premised on Achuthanathan 's comment that certain people want to make Kerala an Islamic state by 2030. "The movie is based on former chief minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member V S Achuthanathan's statement that certain sects in the State are trying to make Kerala an Islamic state by 2030. So they have to come out with an open statement clarifying the context of the statement " said Premachanthran while speaking to mediapersons here. "In the trailer of the film, it is clear that it is trying to create a communal division in Kerala, the makers of the movie claim that the story is based on facts even though it is admitted by the Central government in Parliament that there is no love jihad in the country," the RSP leader said. Premachanthran accused CPI(M) of playing both minority communal politics and majority communal politics. "In the name of social engineering, they (CPIM) always use the majority community as well as the minority communities. Back then they wanted to appease the majority and now they want the Muslim community to align with them. Unfortunately, they are wooing the communal forces and that is why these forces are gaining strength in the state," Premachndran said. Helmed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, 'The Kerala Story' has raked up a controversy with its claim that 32,000 girls from the state went missing and later joined the terrorist group, ISIS. The film stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani in the lead roles Leader of Opposition in Kerala Legislative Assembly VD Satheesan recently said that the film 'The Kerala Story' should not be granted permission for screening. "The film 'The Kerala Story' which falsely claims that 32,000 women in Kerala converted and became members of the Islamic State, should not be granted permission for screening. The trailer clearly shows what the film intends to say", Satheesan had said in a Facebook post. He also alleged that the film is part of an attempt to implement Sangh Parivar's agenda and create a social divide by casting a shadow of doubt over the minority groups. "This is not an issue of freedom of expression but part of an attempt to implement the Sangh Parivar agenda to create a divide in the society by casting a shadow of doubt over the minority groups", he said. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also called the film as a "misrepresentation of the state's reality." "Let me stress, I am not calling for a ban on the film. Freedom of expression does not cease to be valuable just because it can be misused. But Keralites have every right to say loud and clear that this is a misrepresentation of our reality," Tharoor tweeted. Earlier he had shared a poster of the film and written, "It may be *your* Kerala story. It is not *our* Kerala story." (ANI)
This comes a day after gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was killed in Tihar jail on Tuesday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police M Harshawardhan said, "Dwarka Police has raided the hideouts of gangsters and their associates sitting abroad. Raids have been conducted at some locations in Delhi including Sonipat and Jhajjar."

"About 20 lakhs have been recovered from a place from Delhi, apart from this weapons have been recovered from Jhajjar and other places in Haryana," DCP Harshawardhan said.

According to official sources, some people have also been detained during the action.

"Search operation is underway. Delhi Police is collecting details of recoveries from other states," DCP added.

Gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was killed allegedly by rival gang members in Tihar jail on Tuesday.

Preliminary results of an autopsy conducted on the body of Tillu Tajpuriya after his death suggested that the jailed gangster was attacked over 45 times, with over two dozen injuries found on his head.

According to hospital sources, in the initial post-mortem report, it was found that Tillu Tajpuriya was given 45 wounds. Five were found on his waist, while around seven wounds were on the head portion.

Earlier on Tuesday, Delhi Police Special Cell arrested two criminals belonging to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang following an encounter between the criminals and the police team in the Rohini area.

They were nabbed after an exchange of fire.

According to Delhi Police, the arrested persons Rajat and Habib were involved in the Surendra Matiala murder case.

They were affiliated with the Kapil Sangwan Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Police seized two pistols and six live bullets from their possession. (ANI)
Tripura has signed a total of Rs 312.38 crore memorandum of understanding (MoUs) for investment in different sectors including healthcare, bamboo, tourism, rubber, food, milk and agro-processing, Chief Minister Manik Saha said. Addressing a state-level investment round table meeting at Pragna Bhawan on Tuesday, Saha said that the MoUs were signed with the aim of boosting investment and generating employment in the State. Saha said that the Tripura government decided to provide State capital investment subsidy, industrial promotion subsidy, power subsidy, employment cost subsidy, state transport subsidy and etc to the investors. "From different states of the country, they have come. I am very happy that eight industrialists have come here and already signed MoUs with the government of Tripura with an amount of Rs 312.38 crores. When I heard that they are coming here to sign the MoU, I was very much eager to see and was very happy", said Saha. As many 141 investors participated in the one day long North-East Global Investors summit. Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's special efforts in developing Tripura, Chief Minister said, "For any development of the State or country the connectivity is very important. Particularly for Tripura, connectivity is important. ...now we have seven national highways and more highways are coming up. By the grace of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are blessed that he has given us HIRA Model". Addressing the investors, the chief minister said, "Tripura is the third strongest gateway in India in the internet facility. In Delhi, you will not get very good internet connectivity but in Tripura, the connectivity is very good. We have already 12 Express trains running from Agartala or from Sabroom to different states of the country which we never imagined. All these happened because of the grace of PM Modi". The Maitri Setu in Sabroom will be opened in the future and the investors would be benefitted as Tripura would be the gateway of South East Asia, he informed. "So when Maitri Setu would be opened we have easy access to Mongla Port, Chittagong Port, and Matarbari Port. All the investors who have come here will get all the facilities. Tripura has a very good future for this infrastructure. We are ready to help you", said CM. Dayton Natural Resources Private Limited invested Rs 247 crore for setting up another medical college in Dhalai district under Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), Northeast Veneers and Plywood would invest Rs 13.88 crore, Rs 5 crore for Operating raw materials bank to support 200 mechanized agarbatti rolling units on PPP Mode. In the hospitality sector, Galaxy Inn invest Rs 4 crore, Chowdhury warehouse invested Rs 3 crore, Rs 30 crore for setting up surgical gloves, in agro-processing Rs 4 crore, and Rs 5.50 for Milk processing. Meanwhile, investors praised and lauded the role of the State government and the role of Chief Minister Manik Saha in Investment Friendly Policy. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to grant relief to Balwant Singh Rajoana, awarded the death sentence for the assassination of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995, and asked the Centre to take a call at an appropriate time on his mercy petition. A bench of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath, and Sanjay Karol asked the competent authority of the Centre to decide Rajoana's mercy plea as and when it deems appropriate. "The competent authority, as an when they deem necessary may deal with the mercy petition and take a further decision. Petition disposed accordingly," the bench said in its verdict. Rajoana had approached the top court seeking to commute his death penalty for delay in considering his mercy plea. Earlier, the apex court had questioned the Central government for not taking any decision so far on the mercy petition of Rajoana. Last year, the apex court had directed the Centre to decide within two months mercy petition of Rajoana seeking to commute to life imprisonment the death sentence on the ground of his long incarceration of 26 years. The top court had said it can't tell the Centre what decision has to be taken but the government certainly should take a decision in the matter. Before that, it had asked the Centre to decide Rajoana's plea without being influenced by the fact that the appeals filed by other convicts in the case are pending in the top court. Rajoana had moved the top court seeking implementation of a decision taken by the Union Ministry of home affairs (MHA) in September 2019 to commute his death sentence to life. He had said that the Central government had 2019 announced its decision to commute his death penalty and grant remission to eight other convicts to mark the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. He had sought the implementation of that decision and alternately prayed to commute his death sentence on the ground of the long delay in considering the mercy petition. The top court had said that it is untenable on the part of the Centre to take a stand that the proposal for commutation of the death sentence of Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was not processed because of the pendency of appeals of co-accused in Beant Singh killing case. The bench had said once the government has decided to recommend a Presidential pardon for a condemned man, the pendency of appeals in the Supreme Court of his co-accused cannot delay the process initiated under Article 72. The convict, Balwant Singh Rajoana, was sentenced to death for the murder of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh who died in a bomb explosion in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. The Centre had decided on September 27, 2019, to commute the death penalty of Rajoana to a life sentence on the special occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. More than two years have passed but the decision is yet to be implemented. A Chandigarh court had, on July 27, 2007, awarded a death sentence to Rajoana which was upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on October 12, 2010. Rajoana has not filed an appeal against the decision and instead filed a mercy petition before the President. (ANI)
The Centre on Wednesday apprised the Supreme Court that they will constitute a committee headed by the Union Cabinet Secretary to look into the issues faced by the LGBTQIA+ community. This was informed to a Five-judge Constitution Bench by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who was appearing for Centre. The five-judge Constitution Bench comprising of the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice S Ravindra Bhat, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice PS Narasimha is dealing with a batch of petitions pertaining to 'marriage equality rights for LGBTQIA+ community. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta apprised the Supreme Court that a committee headed by the cabinet secretary will be formed to look into the issues faced by the same-sex couple. SG Mehta further submitted that petitioners can submit suggestions so that the committee can apply their minds to it. The bench observed that it appears that the Centre is accepting that people do have a right to co-habit and basis of that there may be certain incidents of that cohabitation like bank accounts and insurance policies. SG Mehta submitted before the Supreme Court that the government is positive about the concerns raised by the top court for giving some social benefits to same-sex couples. He further said that this would need coordination between more than one ministry. In the last hearing on April 27, the Supreme Court asked the government to give a response on social benefits that can be given to same-sex couples even without legal recognition of their marital status. CJI DY Chandrachud has suggested that there are ministries dedicated to this purpose like social justice and empowerment such as Ministry for Women and Child Development. The court has asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to see if there can be separate legislation taken which would protect the rights of same-sex couples. Solicitor General had expressed his acknowledgement that concerns such as having a joint bank account, nomination in insurance, etc are all human concerns and there can be deliberation to find a solution. Solicitor General had indicated that he could attempt to undertake this exercise since the suggestion has come from the Bench. The top court in its last hearing remarked that the government must recognise and secure cohabitor relationships. "When the bench says recognition, it may not always be recognition of marriage. Recognition must be something which gives them benefits", the court added. The Supreme Court is hearing several petitions seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriage. One of the petitions earlier raised the absence of a legal framework which allowed members of the LGBTQIA+ community to marry any person of their choice. In one of the petitions, the couple sought to enforce the fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ individuals to marry any person of their choice. It said, "The exercise of which ought to be insulated from the disdain of legislative and popular majorities." The petitioners, further, asserted their fundamental right to marry each other and prayed for appropriate directions from this Court allowing and enabling them to do so. (ANI)
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad on Wednesday submitted his resignation from his post as the party's general secretary, a day after party supremo Sharad Pawar announced his decision to step down as its president. "I have resigned from my post of National General Secretary and I have sent my resignation to Sharad Pawar Saheb. All office bearers of Thane NCP have also resigned after Pawar Saheb's announcement", Jitendra Awhad told ANI. On Tuesday, Pawar had said that he is stepping down as party chief, with the surprise announcement drawing emotional reactions from thousands of NCP leaders, workers and supporters who urged him to reconsider. Amom those who urged Pawar to reconsider included Chhagan Bhujbal, Jitendra Awhad and Dilip Walse Patil. Pawar, a former Maharashtra Chief Minister and union minister was seen as a key architect of moves towards opposition unity ahead of the 2024 electoral battle. Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar, who had earlier said that "Pawar Saheb himself had said about the necessity of change in guard a few days back" later said that the NCP veteran would take two to three days to rethink his decision. Sharad Pawar, who founded the NCP in 1999, has held the post of party chief for the past 24 years. The veteran politician while announcing his decision, said he will not contest elections and had also recommended constitution of a committee of senior NCP leaders to decide on the future course of action. The committee will include Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, PC Chacko, Narhari Zirwal, Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujabl, Dilip Walse-Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, Jitendra Awhad, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Jaydev Gaikwad and chiefs of party frontal cells, he said. "I have three-year tenure remaining in Rajya Sabha. I will not contest elections henceforth. In these three years, I will concentrate more on issues concerning to state and the country. I will not take any additional responsibilities. I started my political career on May 1, 1960. Yesterday we celebrated May Day. After this prolonged political career, one must think about stopping somewhere. One must not be greedy. I will never take the position of sticking to a post after so many years. Therefore, you might feel uneasy. But I have decided to retire from the post of the NCP chief", Pawar said. Speaking after the release of his autobiography, Pawar said that it was time for a new generation to guide the party and the direction it intends to take. The NCP leader, however, said that he would not take retirement from public life even after resigning from the party post. "Even though I am stepping down from the post of president, I am not retiring from public life. Constant travel has become an integral part of my life. I will continue attending public events, and meetings. Whether in Pune, Mumbai, Baramati, Delhi or any other part of India, I will be available to all of you as usual. I will continue to work round the clock to solve the people's problems," he said. Moments after senior NCP leader Sharad Pawar announced his resignation from the party president's post, Ajit Pawar supported the decision saying that the next party chief will work under Sharad Pawar only. "Pawar Saheb (Sharad Pawar) will always be the head of the NCP family. Whoever will be the new President will work only under Pawar Saheb's guidance," Ajit Pawar told the party cadre who were protesting against Sharad Pawar's decision urging him to withdraw it. Party workers and leaders, however, demanded that Sharad Pawar withdraw his decision. Ajit Pawar asked the party workers and leaders not to become emotional. "Pawar Saheb himself had said about the necessity of change in guard a few days back. We should see his decision in the light of his age and health also. Everyone has to take a decision according to time, Pawar Saheb has decided and will not take it back." Ajit Pawar said the members of the committee suggested by Sharad Pawar to elect the next party President are "not from outside, but are from within the NCP family itself". Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule along with several other party leaders held talks with protesting party workers. Ajit Pawar assured the protesting workers that the prominent leaders are going to meet Sharad Pawar, and urged the workers to go back home. He later said that they conveyed to Sharad Pawar that workers want him to remain the party president. "We told him (Sharad Pawar) that the workers are quite upset. We also told him that party workers want him to remain the party president along with having a working president. He said he will rethink his decision and needs 2-3 days..." NCP leader Ajit Pawar told reporters as he held talks with protesting party workers in Mumbai. The development has come amid some recent reports that Ajit Pawar may be warming up to BJP amid his ambitions to be chief minister. Ajit Pawar, a former state Deputy Chief Minister, has denied these reports. (ANI)
The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the names of three advocates for appointment as judges of the Bombay High Court. The Collegium, headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, proposed the names of lawyers Shailesh Pramod Brahme, Firdosh Phiroze Pooniwalla and Jitendra Shantilal Jain for the appointment. The Collegium, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph passed the resolution for appointment of three judges to the Bombay High Court on Tuesday. On September 26, 2022, the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court made the recommendations in consultation with his two seniormost colleagues and the file was forwarded by the Department of Justice to the Supreme Court on April 26, 2023, the top court Collegium said. The resolution stated, "The Chief Ministers and Governors of the States of Maharashtra and Goa have concurred with the recommendation. In terms of the memorandum of procedure, with a view to ascertaining the fitness and suitability of the candidates for elevation to the High Court, judges of the Supreme Court conversant with the affairs of the High Court of Bombay were consulted." The Collegium has scrutinised and evaluated the material placed on record for the purpose of assessing the merit and suitability of the candidates for elevation to the High Court. It said, "In view of the above, the Collegium resolves to recommend that Shailesh Pramod Brahme, Firdosh Phiroze Pooniwalla and Jitendra Shantilal Jain, advocates, be appointed as judges of the High Court of Bombay. Their inter se seniority be fixed as per the existing practice." In the resolution, the Collegium stated that with regard to Pooniwalla's name, the consultee-judges have opined that he is suitable for elevation and the Intelligence Bureau has stated in its report that he has a good personal and professional image and that nothing adverse has come to notice regarding his integrity and that he is not associated with any political party. "The Intelligence Bureau has, however, flagged that Pooniwalla had earlier worked under an advocate. It is reported that the said advocate has written an article in a publication in 2020 expressing concerns over the alleged lack of freedom of speech/expression in the country in the last five-six years. The views expressed by a former senior of Pooniwalla have no bearing on his own competence, ability or credentials for appointment as a judge of the High Court of Bombay. Moreover, the collegium notes that Pooniwalla and his former senior practise on the original side of the High Court of Bombay," it said. The Collegium said the junior counsel associated with the chamber of a senior on the original side is not engaged in a relationship of employer-employee with their senior. It added, "While juniors are associated with the chamber, they are free to do their own work and for all the intents and purposes, are entitled to independent legal practice. No adverse comments reflecting on the suitability of the candidate for elevation have been made in the file. The candidate has extensive practice at the Bar and is specialised in commercial law." The Collegium further said that Pooniwalla belongs to a minority community and keeping in mind overall consideration, he is suitable for appointment as a judge if the High Court. "The candidate professes Parsi Zoroastrianism and belongs to a minority community. Keeping in mind the above aspects and on an overall consideration of the proposal for his elevation, the Collegium is of the considered opinion that Firdosh Phiroze Pooniwalla is suitable for appointment as a judge of the High Court of Bombay," it added. In another resolution, the Collegium recommended the name of Additional Judge Robin Phukan for appointment as a permanent judge of the Gauhati High Court. "The Chief Ministers of the states of Assam, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh and the Governors of the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have concurred with the recommendation. We have considered the view of the judges of the Supreme Court conversant with the affairs of the Gauhati High Court who were consulted, in terms of the memorandum of procedure, with a view to ascertaining the fitness and suitability of Justice Robin Phukan for being appointed as a permanent judge," the Collegium stated. (ANI)
An Egyptian artist performs a traditional folk dance to welcome Chinese tourists at the Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 20, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

"The Chinese tourists are back," said Suchart, who has spent nearly 10 years working in a small shop on Pattaya Beach, a popular tourist destination in southern Thailand.

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand in early 2020, Chinese tourists accounted for the majority of the shop's customers. But the pandemic-induced closure of the beach dealt a heavy blow to the small businesses that rent out beach chairs and speedboats.

Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, president of the Thai Hotels Association, told Xinhua that Thailand's inbound tourism has recovered faster than expected thanks to the return of Chinese visitors.

From January 1 to April 23, more than 737,000 Chinese tourists visited Thailand, marking a 30-fold increase from the same period last year, according to Kevalin Wangpichayasuk, assistant managing director of Kasikorn Research Center, a research company that publishes financial research reports.

Long-awaited Chinese tourists

China was the largest contributor to outbound tourism, with 170 million trips, bringing in 253 billion U.S. dollars for the global economy in 2019, according to a report by Forbes. But Chinese tourists' spending fell sharply after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

China relaxed travel restrictions earlier this year and resumed group tours to up to 60 countries. The May Day holiday, the first extended holiday that features a five-day break, will serve as a barometer of the recovery of Chinese outbound travel, analysts say.

Bookings for overseas tours from the Chinese mainland increased by more than 18 times year-on-year, and the number of applications for overseas group tours in early May increased by 157 percent month-on-month, according to a May Day holiday travel forecast released in early April by Ctrip, a major Chinese travel service provider.

"The return of Chinese tourists has been long-awaited here in Italy, and they are bringing huge benefits to our tourism industry," said Cristiano Varotti, chief representative of the Italian National Tourist Board (ENIT) in China.

An average of around 10,000 Chinese tourists arrive in Thailand on a daily basis currently, and the number is expected to grow, said Wangpichayasuk from Thailand's Kasikorn Research Center in a recent written interview with Xinhua.

She predicted that Chinese tourists will outnumber those from other countries in 2023, just as they did in the years before the pandemic.

Despite the rise in the number of Chinese tourists to nearby destinations such as Thailand, a significant increase of Chinese tourists has yet to be registered in less-frequented tourist spots.

Antonija Buntaj, a tourist guide in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, has received two Chinese tourist groups so far this year, with each group consisting of about 35 visitors.

"I fully believe that this year or next year, we could see a new record number of Chinese tourists in Croatia, which means that there could be more than 300,000 Chinese visitors per year, as there were before the pandemic," said Buntaj.

Boon to local economic development

Prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, the average occupancy rate of Thai hotels stood at 71 percent in 2019, and then plummeted to as low as 9 percent during the pandemic.

With the expected influx of Chinese tourists this year, Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, president of the Thai Hotels Association, predicted that the figure is expected to reach 60-65 percent this year.

Abbas Sayed, 38, who has been busy preparing trips for Chinese tourists to the Pyramids of Giza and Abu Simbel temples in the southern Egyptian province of Aswan, said that the "strong return" of Chinese tourists to Egypt had "positive influence" on his income so far this year.

"We especially like to pick up the Chinese groups, because the relationship between our two countries is very good ... and the Chinese like to take part in many different activities, which increase our income," said Amr Titi, an Egyptian tour guide who accompanied a tour group from the southern Chinese province of Guangzhou to the Pyramids of Giza, on Monday.

As more Chinese tourists are expected to travel to overseas destinations, local governments and businesses are gearing up for their arrivals.

"China is one of the most important markets that Egypt can rely on to increase the number of tourists," said Mohamed A. Salama, head of the International Tourism Offices Sector at the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, the promotion arm of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

A growing number of Egyptian tour operators have submitted applications to the promotion authority to work in the Chinese market, according to Salama.

To get ready for the return of Chinese tourists to Italy, Varotti, the ENIT chief representative, said he and his colleagues had been working incredibly hard.

"We've been investing a lot of time and resources in the Chinese digital ecosystem and social media platforms to promote Italy and cooperating with the online travel agencies ... we also support the Chinese travel agencies in developing a better product and introducing new Italian destinations in the catalogs," said Varotti.
In a purported video, cabinet minister Agrawal could be seen thrashing a youth in Rishikesh on Tuesday.

After the video went viral on social media platforms, Dehradun police authorities were instructed to conduct an inquiry into the incident on the basis of evidence.

"Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Daleep Singh Kunwar has been instructed to conduct an impartial inquiry into the matter," a statement from Uttarakhand Police Headquarters read.

According to the sources, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami summoned the cabinet minister after seeing the matter catching up.

Meanwhile, the state's opposition parties have also attacked the state government in the Rishikesh incident. (ANI)
Appreciating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to ban import of toys from China, Channapatna's toy makers say that the government's move has helped in increasing their profits. Channapattana, a city and taluk headquarter in the Ramanagara district of Karnataka, just 500 metres away from the gleaming Bangalore-Mysore Highway, is a paradise for handmade lacquer wooden toys for kids. Although these wooden toys are inanimate, they definitely bring happiness to the faces of children. And when it comes to their price, it's interesting that these are available only for Rs 50, Rs 100, Rs 150 and Rs 200. For centuries, the toy industry of Channapatna has provided large-scale employment to the people living here. Channapatna's toy makers had a difficult time running their business. Toy makers however said that their profits increased after the government banned the import of toys from China. Toy makers, Mohammad Aadil and Mohammad Aarif said that the ban on the import of Chinese toys has helped them generate more profits. "The demand for Channapatna's toys increased after the government imposed a ban on the import of toys from China. We are earning good profits," Arif said while speaking to ANI. Adil and Arif are the third generation of their family indulged in toy-making work. Apart from earning money, the artisans are emotionally attached to toy-making work. Mohammad Arif was working in Dubai-Qatar for nine years and was missing his country India. He returned to India leaving his job in Dubai and Qatar to continue his traditional - ancestral work in Channapattana. "The government's decision gave me the confidence to come back to India and run my own family's business here. I will not go back to Dubai-Qatar," said Arif. Adil mentioned that there is a need to promote Channapatna's toys through branding and promotion. People here need modern machines and special training to produce toys at a larger scale with more profit. "The government should support Channapatna's toy makers in promoting their business, as well as in branding and e-marketing at the global level. We also need modern machines to produce toys at a larger scale, and artisans need special training to earn more profit," said Aadil. Adil further highlighted the profits made in the Dussehra festival celebrated at Channapatna, also known as Gombe Habba. "The 10-day Dussehra festival, also known as Gombe Habba or Gudiya Utsav, is special for the toy makers of Channapatna as a large number of buyers come to buy the toys. The festival helps toymakers to earn more profits," he said. He also added that the toymakers at Channapatna are appealing to the government to promote the sale of toys online and appreciated the Toy Festival which helped him in boosting sales. "We appeal to the government to promote the sale of toys online. The government had organised a Toy Festival a few years back which helped in boosting the sales," said Aadil. Adil also expressed concern over the loss caused to the toy business due to the construction of the Bangalore Mysore National Highway. He said, "Earlier people used to travel from Bangalore to Mysore and vice versa via Channapatna but now due to the construction of the National Highway the movement of people through Channapatna is decreased, affecting the business of toys in the area." He further appreciated campaigns such as Make in India and Local for Vocal led by PM Modi. "PM mentioned the beautiful toys of Chinnapatna in his Mann Ki Baat program, due to which people's attention was drawn towards us leading to the increase in the sale of toys here," he added. (ANI)
Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs Department seized 3038.79 grams of gold worth Rs 1.4 crores at Kochi airport in two instances, said a statement on Wednesday. In the first instance, on the basis of specific information, DRI and AIU, a passenger coming from Malaysia to Kochi Airport by flight AK 039 was intercepted at the green channel by the officers of the Kochi Customs batch, added the statement. During the examination of the said passenger, four capsule-shaped packets of gold in paste form totally weighing 1199.34 grams concealed inside his body and 584.75 grams of gold in paste form concealed in the specially stitched cavity of the waist portion of jeans worn by him were recovered and seized. The accused has been identified as Mohammed Shameer, a native of Palakkad. He has been taken into custody. Further investigations are going on. In the second instance, on the basis of profiling done by the officers of Kochi Customs AIU batch, a passenger coming from Dubai to Kochi Airport by flight EK532 was intercepted at the green channel. During the examination of the said passenger, 4 capsules of gold in a compound form totally weighing 1254.70 grams concealed inside his body were recovered and seized. The accused has been identified as Shereef, a native of Malappuram district. He has been taken into custody. Further investigations are underway. (ANI)
Kerala General Secretary of Muslim Youth League, PK Firos on Wednesday said that the film 'The Kerala Story' should not be screened as it is "insulting to Muslims, Kerala and girls." "This film should not be screened. This movie is about the hatred of others towards a particular religion or community. You can be critical and sarcastic. But don't be a hater. It is insulting to Muslims, Kerala and girls", Firos said. Firos further said, "Our intention is to expose the hypocrisy of the film. We have now partially succeeded in that. Because earlier the makers of the movie claimed that 32000 girls from Kerala were converted. Now they have revised it and made it a story of three girls. People of Kerala, India and around the world are convinced this is fake propaganda. They had to turn away from insulting Kerala." Firos alleged that the film would create a communal divide within religious groups and inciting hatred and fear in a section is an offence under the Indian Penal Code. "We are not of the opinion that the film should be banned. The question is can anything be showcased in the name of a film and creative expression? This film intends to create a competition between different religious groups. When a non-Muslim watches a movie, he/she will naturally grow a fear of associating with Muslims. Thus inciting hatred and fear amongst a section is an offence under the Indian Penal Code. If it is called a movie, can anything be screened even if it spreads hatred? This movie is not within the scope of a film. It is a matter of competition between different religious groups", Firos added. He further said, "Unfortunately, the Censor Board which is under the central government granted permission for screening the film. So we do not expect any further action from the Censor Board or other agencies against this. We will raise this issue politically." Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain pleas seeking a stay on the release of the movie 'The Kerala Story' in theatres and OTT platforms and allowed the petitioners to approach the Kerala High Court. A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha said a similar plea is pending before the Kerala High Court and asked them to move the High Court with their pleas. The high court is scheduled to hear the case against the film on May 5. Advocate Vrinda Grover mentioned the petition before the bench seeking urgent listing tomorrow saying the film is getting released on May 5. The petition mentioned by Grover sought a modification in the disclaimer of the film to state that it is wholly fictional.The bench, however, asked them to approach the High Court where a similar petition is pending. On Tuesday, Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the release of the movie in theatres and OTT platforms saying the movie was likely to cause hatred and enmity between different sections of society in India. The plea said the film demeans the entire Muslim community and it will result in endangering the life and livelihood of the entire Muslim community. Seeking direction to not allow the release of the movie, the plea also sought direction that its trailer be removed from the internet. Alternatively, it sought direction that the movie 'The Kerala Story' be released with a disclaimer stating that it is a work of fiction and the characters in the movie bear no resemblance to any person living or dead. However, an investigation by the State police carried out in 2009 revealed that there was no evidence of "love jihad" in the State of Kerala, it further said. The movie may adversely impact social relations between communities as well as individuals belonging to different communities by spreading enmity, hatred and suspicion, the plea stated.Another plea was also filed on May 2 seeking a stay on the release of the film saying it allegedly promotes hate speech. "The film claims to be "inspired by many true stories". The story-line of the said film as seen from the trailer is how thousands of Hindu and Christian women are being lured and brainwashed by Muslim men pursuant to an international conspiracy, converted to Islam, turned into radicals and trafficked to become part of ISIS where they are kept against their will, abused and exploited," the plea has stated. Senior Congress leader MM Hassan on Tuesday called for a ban on the movie 'The Kerala Story' and claimed that it would create communal divisions in society. "The movie 'The Kerala Story' is produced as part of a Sangh Parivar propaganda. Its impression is to create communal divisions in society. This movie will destroy the secular image of Kerala in the world. So we call for a ban on 'The Kerala Story'. The producer and the director are claiming that it is their creative freedom and justifying this. But it doesn't mean that in that name they will spread lies and communalise society", Hassan said. Amid the ongoing controversy over the 'The Kerala Story' film, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor stressed that he wasn't calling for a ban on the film but it is a misrepresentation of the state's reality. This comes on the heels of his remark that the film may be "your" Kerala story but not "our" Kerala story. "Let me stress, I am not calling for a ban on the film. Freedom of expression does not cease to be valuable just because it can be misused. But Keralites have every right to say loud and clear that this is a misrepresentation of our reality," Tharoor tweeted. While Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a statement on Sunday that the movie was deliberately made with the aim of communal polarisation and to spread hate propaganda against Kerala. 'The Kerala Story' has become a topic for discussion around the numbers being exaggerated in the trailer of the film. Helmed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the film is all set to hit the theatres on May 5, 2023. 'The Kerala Story' stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani in the lead roles. The trailer of Sen's film 'The Kerala Story' came under fire as it claimed that 32,000 girls from the state went missing and later joined the terrorist group, ISIS. (ANI)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat Jugal Thakor Lokhandwala on Wednesday slammed Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee for her "Jhoot ki baat" comment and said that she should be "ashamed" for making such a statement. Banerjee on Tuesday called for opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, saying it will be an election for change. TMC supremo took a swipe at the BJP's Mann Ki Baat program, calling it "Jhoot ki Baat." Speaking to ANI Lokhandwala, he said, "I would like to say Mamta Banerjee that she should be ashamed for commenting on the 'Mann Ki Baat' program. There is no such leader in the world today who can be compared with Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi." "'Mann Ki Baat' program is the 'Mann Ki Baat' of the Country where Prime Minister Modi Ji talks about the progress and development of the country so first of all, she should focus and handle the situation of West Bengal and she should not talk outside of the state, " he told ANI Hitting out at Banerjee, Lokhandwala told ANI that the way she discriminated the society and created communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims instigated Hindus and Muslims to fight among each other. "The West Bengal CM should stop and she should understand the 'Mann Ki Baat' of West Bengal. She should also establish the rule of law in the state otherwise in the coming days the people of the state will uproot her democratically, he added. Banerjee called for opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, saying it will be an election for change. She took a swipe at the BJP's Mann Ki Baat program, calling it "Jhoot ki Baat". (ANI)
A large number of BJP supporters surrounded JP Nadda's procession.

People also showered flowers and waved BJP flags along the route as an expression of support.

Riding on the top of a truck, Nadda was seen waving at people, who were standing at the balconies of their houses.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also in the poll-bound State, addressed a public gathering.

While addressing an election rally at Mudbidri in Dakshina Kannada district PM Modi made a stinging jibe at the Congress party and alleged that the grand old party wants to make Karnataka as "number-1 ATM" for serving "shahi family" sitting in the national capital.

"Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to make Karnataka the Number-1 State in each and every field of Development, whereas Congress wants to make Karnataka the Number-1 ATM for serving its 'Shahi family' in Delhi," PM Modi had said.

The BJP has pulled out all its top guns and heavyweights in Karnataka in bid to retain the only southern state it rules. Apart from Prime Minister Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda have also been making frequent campaign visits to the state and taking out massive rallies in the state ahead of the May 10 polls.

The saffron party, which is seeking a second term in the state, has exuded confidence about returning to power with a full majority.

The counting of votes for the Karnataka Assembly will take place on May 13. (ANI)
The protestors in huge numbers shouted slogans against the government's move to privatise the steel plant in Vishakapatnam.

Earlier Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao said that BRS would oppose the Central Government's move to privatise the steel plant.

In an open letter to the Union Government, KTR said that the Narendra Modi government's "evil plans" to sell off the VSP to private players, the reasons for the steel plant's losses, and ways in which the plant could be revived.

Earlier in the month of April, Andhra Pradesh Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief Thota Chandrasekhar met Steel Plant Workers Union leaders and extended the party's support to the union's relay hunger strike against the privatization of Vizag Steel Plant.

"BRS is opposing privatization of Vizag steel plant. In 2021, the Government of India decided to privatize the Vizag steel plant. This steel plant provides livelihood to lakhs of people including its 30,000 employees. Not just this steel plant, the BRS party will oppose the privatization of any company," he told ANI.

The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) in the year 2021 approved 100 per cent disinvestment in Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL)- Vizag Steel Plant. (ANI)
A 21-year-old man wanted for firing on a realtor was arrested by Delhi Police near Azadpur Commercial Complex, an official statement said on Wednesday. The accused has been identified as Gaurav who was listed as wanted by Delhi police in multiple cases of murder and robbery. "The team of Special Cell has arrested a notorious criminal namely Gaurav (21). One semi-automatic pistol of .32 bore with two live cartridges was recovered from him. Gaurav was wanted in three cases of murder, attempt to murder and robbery. He and Ranjeet Jha and two other associates had fired nine rounds targeting one Sonu Kumar Dubey, a real estate agent in broad daylight near Azadpur Commercial Complex on April 30," an official said. Delhi Police further mentioned that they had laid an operation after receiving specific input that the accused Gaurav would be travelling near Outer Ring road. "On the basis of information provided by Ranjeet Jha (earlier arrested in Meerut on April 30 after an exchange of fire), efforts were being made to trace other perpetrators of the aforesaid firing incident. Meanwhile, specific information was received that Ranjeet Jha's associate Gaurav would come near Mukundpur Flyover at Outer Ring Road between 4 pm to 5 pm on May 1 on a Splendor bike. Accordingly, a team was formed and a trap was laid near the flyover," the statement said. "At about 4.45 pm, Gaurav was spotted coming towards the flyover from Burari's side on a bike. He was forced to stop, overpowered and nabbed by the police team," it added. On April 30, Gaurav along with Ranjeet Jha and two other associates fired nine rounds targeting one realtor. The motive of this shootout was to settle a money dispute in a real estate matter. After the shootout, Gaurav and Ranjeet Jha fled away to Meerut to avoid arrest, the police said. Delhi Police further mentioned that the other accused Ranjeet Jha was arrested on April 30 in a joint operation with Meerut Police. The arrest of Ranjeet Jha prompted Gaurav to return to Delhi the next day. The recovered Splendor bike was used by the accused persons in Azadpur Complex firing incident and it was robbed by them from Loni on April 28 In this regard, PS Special Cell has registered a case under appropriate sections of law. Police also mentioned that the accused Gaurav and Ranjeet were involved in a murder case in the year 2020 which was executed by another accused Mukesh through Gaurav and Ranjeet to avenge the killing of his two associates Raja in 2020 in the Adarsh Nagar area. A case under sections 302/307/34 IPC and 25/27 Arms Act was registered at PS Burari, Delhi in this regard. Mukesh was arrested in this case, but Gaurav and Ranjeet Jha could not be apprehended at that time, it mentioned. (ANI)
A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar resigned from his post, party vice president Praful Patel on Wednesday said that the NCP veteran is in favour of the new generation to step forward. Adressing the media persons, Patel said, "Sharad Pawar, yesterday, said again and again that there should be a generational change. Maybe he wanted a new generation to step forward. None of us knew about it beforehand...He has asked for some time and we should grant him that. Some of our workers wanted him to withdraw his resignation. Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, I, Chhagan Bhujbal and others - we tried to speak to him today. We requested him again. But as I said, we should give him a day or two." Asked if Sharad Pawar announced his resignation as NCP's national president due to the party's internal politics, Patel said the party is united. "Everyone stands together under the leadership of Pawar Sahab. NCP, as a party, will remain united. No factions will appear..." he said. NCP vice president Praful Patel stressed that he has no interest in becoming the national president of the party. "No such question arises unless a final decision on the resignation of Sharad Pawar is taken. Personally, I am not ready to take up this responsibility. I am already the national vice president of the party, it is a glorious post. I already have a lot of responsibilities. So, I have no interest in becoming the party's national president," he said. In a major political development, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar on Tuesday announced that he has decided to step down as party chief drawing emotional reactions from thousands of NCP leaders, workers and supporters who urged him to reconsider the decision.The move also came as a surprise in political circles with Pawar, a former Maharashtra Chief Minister and union minister, seen as a key architect of moves towards opposition unity ahead of the 2024 electoral battle. Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar, who had earlier said that "Pawar Saheb himself had said about the necessity of change in guard a few days back" later said that the NCP veteran would take two to three days to rethink his decision. Pawar, who founded the NCP in 1999, has held the post of party chief for the past 24 years.Sharad Pawar, while announcing his decision, said he will not contest elections. He recommended a committee of senior NCP leaders to decide on the future course of action. The committee will include Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, PC Chacko, Narhari Zirwal, Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujabl, Dilip Walse-Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, Jitendra Awhad, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Jaydev Gaikwad and chiefs of party frontal cells, he said. "Since the formation of the Nationalist Congress Party in 1999, I have had the privilege of being elected as its President, which today is in its 24th year. This entire journey of being in public life, which began on May 1, 1960, has continued unabated for the past 63 years, having served Maharashtra and India in various capacities during this period," Pawar said. "I have three-year tenure remaining in Rajya Sabha. I will not contest elections henceforth. In these three years, I will concentrate more on issues concerning to state and the country. I will not take any additional responsibilities. I started my political career on May 1, 1960. Yesterday we celebrated May Day. After this prolonged political career, one must think about stopping somewhere. One must not be greedy. I will never take the position of sticking to a post after so many years. Therefore, you might feel uneasy. But I have decided to retire from the post of the NCP chief, " Pawar added. Pawar, 82, became an MLA for the first time at the young age of 27, before becoming the youngest Chief Minister of the state, at the age of 38, in 1978. The four-time chief minister of Maharashtra has also served as Defence Minister. He was Agriculture Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He was the first and former president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which was founded in 1999, after separating from the Indian National Congress. Sharad Pawar had founded NCP after his ouster from Congress. He, Tariq Anwar and PA Sangma had raised a revolt in the Congress Working Committee on the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin leading to a split in the party. NCP soon earned the recognition of a national party, after registering its presence in the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Meghalaya and Manipur. However, it lost the tag this year. Pawar belongs to rural Maharashtra and is sometimes referred to as 'Chanakya' in political circles. He played a crucial role in the formation of Maha Vikas Aghadi, the alliance between Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP. Speaking after the release of his autobiography, Pawar said that it was time for a new generation to guide the party and the direction it intends to take. The NCP leader, however, said that he would not take retirement from public life even after resigning from the party post. "Even though I am stepping down from the post of president, I am not retiring from public life. Constant travel has become an integral part of my life. I will continue attending public events, and meetings. Whether in Pune, Mumbai, Baramati, Delhi or any other part of India, I will be available to all of you as usual. I will continue to work round the clock to solve the people's problems," he said. Moments after senior NCP leader Sharad Pawar announced his resignation from the party president's post, Ajit Pawar supported the decision saying that the next party chief will work under Sharad Pawar only. "Pawar Saheb (Sharad Pawar) will always be the head of the NCP family. Whoever will be the new President will work only under Pawar Saheb's guidance," Ajit Pawar told the party cadre who were protesting against Sharad Pawar's decision urging him to withdraw it.Party workers and leaders, however, demanded that Sharad Pawar withdraw his decision."We are not ready to accept your decision of resigning from the post of NCP president. We want you to reconsider your decision," said an NCP leader. Those urging Pawar to reconsider his decision included Chhagan Bhujbal, Jitendra Awhad and Dilip Walse Patil. Several leaders including Jayant Patil broke down after the Veteran politician's announcement.NCP workers protested outside Mumbai's YB Chavan Centre, urging Pawar to take his decision back. Ajit Pawar asked the party workers and leaders not to become emotional. "Pawar Saheb himself had said about the necessity of change in guard a few days back. We should see his decision in the light of his age and health also. Everyone has to take a decision according to time, Pawar Saheb has decided and will not take it back." Ajit Pawar said the members of the committee suggested by Sharad Pawar to elect the next party President are "not from outside, but are from within the NCP family itself". Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule along with several other party leaders held talks with protesting party workers. Ajit Pawar assured the protesting workers that the prominent leaders are going to meet Sharad Pawar, and urged the workers to go back home.He later said that they conveyed to Sharad Pawar that workers want him to remain the party president. "We told him (Sharad Pawar) that the workers are quite upset. We also told him that party workers want him to remain the party president along with having a working president. He said he will rethink his decision and needs 2-3 days..." NCP leader Ajit Pawar told reporters as he held talks with protesting party workers in Mumbai. Party MP Praful Patel said they have requested Sharad Pawar with folded hand to withdraw the decision. "I request him to withdraw the decision on behalf of all. The state and the country need his leadership." "In an attempt to pacify agitated party workers, Patel said, "Repeating the same thing won't solve any purpose and its meaningless. We senior leaders will talk to Pawar Saheb."Reacting to Pawar's decision, Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said Pawar's decision is NCP's internal matter. "It is his personal decision. He is a senior leader and he has decided something. Brainstorming over several issues is going on within his party. So, it will not be right for us to react on this. We will keep an eye on the situation and react after a day or two". The development has come amid some recent reports that Ajit Pawar may be warming up to BJP amid his ambitions to be chief minister. Ajit Pawar, a former state Deputy Chief Minister, has denied these reports. (ANI)
Reliance MET City, North India's fastest-growing integrated smart city in Haryana, had "a successful FY 2022-23 with several new companies setting shop and 1,200 new residential customers buying plots. The year saw the city emerging as home to over 450 companies, with multiple brands from seven different nations, along with more than 2,000 residential plots sold for individual homes. MET City has been developed by Model Economic Township Limited (METL), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, as an integrated smart city. Its infrastructure is on a par with global standards and offers 'Walk to Work' advantage to customers, the company said in a release. "The industrial segment of MET City saw an addition of 76 new companies, bringing in an investment of close to Rs 1,200 crore and generating an employment potential for about 8,000. Notable among the global companies setting shops are Hamdard, Boditech from South Korea, Nihon Kohden from Japan, etc.," the release said. It said that in the residential segment, plotted development of three phases was successfully launched. "More than 1,200 new residential customers bought plots, taking the total number to more than 2,000," the release said. The year also saw MET City winning the coveted 'Best Integrated Business City Award' by NAREDCO and the 'Most Trusted Brand of the Year award by Team Marksmen. "These awards are testimony to the trust stakeholders have in the brand," the release said. It said METL is developing a world-class Greenfield Smart city on over 8,000 acres of land in the district of Jhajjar near Gurugram in Haryana. MET City has obtained licenses for 1900 acres in phase 1 of its development and has already invested about Rs 8800 crores on land and infrastructure works. It has launched five industrial sectors, three pockets of affordable residential plotted development, and two projects for SCO. "Till Date Reliance MET City has attracted huge investments from various companies located in the project," the release said. The company said the project offers excellent connectivity to Delhi as the KMP Expressway passes through the project and is well connected to NH-9, NH-48, NH-71, and NH-10 in the NCR. Once Dwarka Expressway is fully operational, it will provide excellent connectivity to the international airport in Delhi. It is also close to the rail freight terminal and DFC corridor. 'Located on SH 15-A, the project is one of the most strategically located integrated parks in the national capital region," it said. The release said more than 450 companies including some of the best national and international corporates have set up their bases in MET City due to world--class plug-n-play infrastructure. The project has seen the completion of trunk infrastructure comprising of power infrastructure including 220 KV substation developed by MET City, water treatment plant, water distribution network, wide road network and extensive landscaping. "It is already adding a lot of momentum to the economic development of the state and region with more than 30,000 people currently employed in the 30 operational and 70 under-construction companies," the release said. (ANI)
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The second charter flight carrying more than 140 Chinese nationals evacuated from conflict-hit Sudan arrived around 9:10 pm at Beijing Capital International Airport after a nearly 10-hour flight from Saudi Arabia, China Media Group reported on Tuesday.

There were more than 140 passengers on board, all Chinese nationals, including employees of Chinese companies and students studying abroad.

On April 29, the first charter flight carrying more than 340 Chinese nationals evacuated from conflict-hit Sudan arrived in Beijing.

So far, the vast majority of Chinese nationals have been evacuated from Sudan. China is also the country with the largest number of organized evacuees since the outbreak of the internal conflict in Sudan.
Attacking Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) ahead of the Karnataka assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said people of the state must be careful about 'shortcut politics' of the Congress and JDS. Addressing an election rally in Bailhongal, Prime Minister said, "The people of Karnataka have to be careful of the shortcut politics of the Congress and JDS. This shortcut governance gave birth to the vote-bank politics in the country. Whenever a party does this sort of politics, they think of dividing society, just like Congress. The youth who are born in the 21st century do not want to be cut short by leaving their future in the hands of shortcut people." Due to this very shortcut politics, PM Modi said thousands of villages did not have electricity after so many years of independence. Likewise, crores of Indians did not have a roof over their head, bank accounts and tap water connections. "However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is working to get rid of shortcut governance," he said. The accountability of the Congress leaders, PM Modi said is towards the royal family in Delhi. "The royal family controls the leaders through its remote control. JDS is a private limited company. Its accountability is towards the owner of the family. However, for the BJP, every family in Karnataka is our family and we have accountability towards the people," he said. He further said, "For whom the glorification of their family is the only agenda, they cannot worry about the sacrifices of the ordinary family and their sorrows and happiness. That is why they repeatedly abuse Veer Savarkar ji and spreads lies against him. When Baba Saheb Ambedkar was alive, he was insulted repeatedly." PM Modi said Congress and JDS have been rejected everywhere. "Congress-led government is only present in three states of the country. In the 2018 elections, more than half of the MLAs of JDS hailed from only three districts and these districts have also decided to get rid of these parties," he said. Prime Minister said Karnataka has decided to give an absolute majority to the BJP and it can be attributed to the trust of the youth, marginalized and women in the party. Almost every family in Karnataka has benefitted from the welfare scheme of the government, he said. "Unity is the biggest formula for the development of Karnataka. The kind of conspiracy being hatched against Karnataka today, efforts are being made to change the identity of Karnataka... The way Congress has made it the biggest base for appeasement. The people of Karnataka have to be careful about this. Only the solidarity of your people will defeat the Congress and its like-minded people," added PM Modi. In 2009, he said the Congress government gave a guarantee that they would connect all villages of the country with broadband internet. "In three years, broadband internet was provided to less than 100 Gram Panchayats. This is what their guarantee is. We have provided connectivity to more than 2 lakh gram panchayats. It is for you to decide which kind of government you want," PM Modi said. Giving a major boost to the BJP's election campaign in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held massive roadshows and public meetings in the poll-bound state over the past few days. The BJP has pulled out all its top guns and heavyweights in Karnataka in a bid to retain the only southern state it rules. Apart from Prime Minister Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda have also been making frequent campaign visits to the state and taking out massive rallies in the state ahead of the May 10 polls. The saffron party, which is seeking a second term in the state, has exuded confidence about returning to power with a full majority. Counting votes for the Karnataka Assembly will occur on May 13. (ANI)
Assam Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Diganta Kalita on Wednesday launched a strong attack on Congress saying that the grand old party is anti-Hindu. The BJP leader's remarks came in the wake of Congress' manifesto for the May 10 Assembly elections in Karnataka, wherein the party bracketed outlawed Popular Front of India (PFI) and Bajrang Dal together and stated it would ban the organisations once it is voted to power. Taking note of this, Kalita said, "In past times they [Congress] banned Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), now [they are] announcing a ban on Bajrang Dal. We can't accept this. Hindu Sanatani civilisation is 5,000 years old." "I appeal to all Hindus of the country to come out and oppose it," he added. He further said that Congress has always taken a pro-Minority and anti-Hindu stand. The Congress in their Karnataka election manifesto, released last week, said it will take "decisive action" as per law including banning organisations like Bajrang Dal, the Popular Front of India and others. "The Congress party is committed to taking firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred against communities on the grounds of caste and religion," read the Congress manifesto. "We believe that law and Constitution are sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and Organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities," it added. Notably, this has triggered outrage against the party, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on Tuesday said that this "decisive" decision by the party was an attempt to lock up those who worship Lord Hanuman. Karnataka will go to Assembly polls on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13. (ANI)
A 59-year-old brain-dead man, who had suffered fatal injuries in a road accident, has donated his organs at AIIMS, Delhi and saved the lives of five people after his family gave consent. The man donated a liver, kidneys, heart, and corneas. Rupchandra Singh met with an accident on April 30, while he was on a motorcycle along with his son. He was brought to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma Centre with a severe head injury and was declared brain dead on Tuesday. The AIIMS staff said that the family agreed to organ donation after the Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation (ORBO) Transplant Counsellors and Coordinators held counselling with them. "Initially, the family was not aware of organ donation. But, as the ORBO Transplant Counsellors and Coordinators had multiple counselling sessions with the family regarding the organ donation, they agreed to it." "Surya Pratap Singh, brother of another multi-organ donor, who donated his organs in March this year, at AIIMS, also shared his family's experience of organ donation. In a subsequent counselling session, Rupachandra Singh's family unanimously agreed in favour of organ donation," the AIIMS added. Dr Aarti Vij, Head of ORBO AIIMS, said, "It is very tough for the family to decide on organ donation. Especially in unfortunate incidents like Road Traffic Accidents, wherein the family is in a state of shock. However, when a family takes this brave decision, then all the stakeholder groups, like treating doctors, transplant coordinators, the organ transplant team, the forensic department, the police, and all support departments, work very swiftly to coordinate the process and ease the family from any further procedural constraints." Nagender, son of the 59-year-old, said, "My father was a very kind-hearted and social human being. We lost him in a very unfortunate way, and it's our wish that his organs impart life to others who are ailing." "He helped everyone when he was alive, and he is doing the same when he is parting," he added. Rupchandra Singh's organs were allocated to recipients through National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO). His heart was allocated to Apollo Hospital, Delhi. The liver was allocated to Army Hospital (Research And Referral), and the kidneys were allocated to two hospitals at AIIMS and RML Hospital. While his corneas have been banked at the National Eye Bank at AIIMS. "It is crucial that the retrieved organs reach the recipients in various hospitals safely within the time frame. The ORBO has reached out to Delhi Traffic Control Room for creating the green corridor, which ensured rapid transit of organs to various hospitals in different parts of Delhi during the peak traffic hours of the morning," said Dr Vij. (ANI)
Three people extorting money from the public and claiming themselves to be Maoists were arrested on Tuesday, police said. Police said that a contractor in the area had registered a complaint with them where he mentioned that he is getting death threats from this gang. While addressing the press conference, ASR Superintendent of Police Tuhin Sinha said, " "After the complaint of a contractor at G Madugula police station, the area sub-inspector along with his staff went to Alagam Bridge and traced out these five fake Maoists. Among the five fake Maoists, we were able to nab three persons. Two others escaped but we will trace them out. "From the captured fake Maoists, we recovered Rs 45000 in cash, firearms, 3 mobile phones, 3 olive green dresses, 1 Airpistol,3 Walkie Talkies and 2 two-wheelers were seized from them," he added. Police further mentioned that the contractor is living under fear for his life had paid some amount of demanded ransom. "The contractor paid five lakh rupees on April 30. The fake Maoists threatened him to pay the full amount of 30 lakhs. In fear for his life, the contractor approached the police station on May 1 and registered a complaint," he said. Police further mentioned that the case has been registered under the relevant sections of the IPC and further investigation is underway in this matter. (ANI)
Home Minister Amit Shah distributed regularization letters to 4400 New Delhi Municipal Committee (NDMC) employees at Talkatora Stadium on Wednesday who have spent 20-25 years of their lives working in the department. "This is a happy moment for me as Divyangjans, SC, ST employees & oppressed people of the society today received glory, honour & a secure future," said Home Minister while speaking at the event. "I would like to tell you that PM Modi himself has stressed upon in making necessary timely changes in recruitment policies under all the ministries of government of India and because of that today you people are getting regularization letters," he added. Shah said the process of regularisation was completed with the creation of 900 additional posts in the NDMC to accommodate all the 4,400 muster role workers. He said the NDMC needed to be strengthened in the coming days with a focus on service delivery and sanitation wherein the employees have a crucial role to play. Union Minister and New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi, Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena, Union Home Secretary AK Bhalla and Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar also attended the function. Earlier in February, the Home Minister had written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal informing him about the regularisation of 4,500 Regular Muster Roll (RMR) employees of the NDMC. In 2019, under Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is an ex officio member of NDMC by virtue of being the MLA of the New Delhi assembly constituency, the civic body approved the regularisation of these RMR employees. In February this year, Kejriwal had also written to the Home Minister to regularise the RMR employees. Kejriwal pointed out that the proposal for the approval of draft recruitment rules for Group 'C' posts was sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs in September 2020 after it was approved by the council. The RMR employees of NDMC had met the Delhi Chief Minister several times in the recent past demanding regularisation of their services. As per officials, RMR employees or daily wagers, who are given preference when there is work, have been waiting for many years for their regularisation against the existing vacancies in NDMC. (ANI)
One of the accused in the murder of Tillu Tajpuria in Tihar Jail was already punished by the Tihar administration in the past for possessing prohibited articles, official sources from Tihar Jail said. "A prohibited article was recovered from Deepak, who was among killers of Tillu Tajpuria, some time ago, after which punitive action was also taken against him. Such items were found during the search from Deepak. Prohibited items include sharp weapons, narcotics, mobiles etc," the senior jail official said. "Out of the four accused who killed Tillu Tajpuria, 2 were shifted to Kohi Tihar jail number 8 and 9 on March 30. Earlier he was lodged in other jails, the sources said. The sources said that the jail authorities have been reviewing the security of the prisoners from time to time and location of the prisoners were changed in view of their safety. Following all the security manuals, Tillu Tajpuria was shifted to this jail 15 days ago, When he reached the jail, all the four accused were already there on the first floor," the official added. Yogesh alias Tunda, who killed Tillu Tajpuria, had reached Tihar Jail on January 6 and then on March 30, he was shifted to Jail No. 8 and 9. Another criminal Rajesh is also in Tihar's records since 2007 and was also brought to this jail on March 30. Deepak, a criminal involved in murder, has reached Tihar many times in different cases since 2012 and this time on January 24, he was shifted to Jail No. 8 and 9 of Tihar, official said. Riyaz, who was involved in this entire incident, is lodged in this jail number 8 and 9 since October last year. Delhi Police on Tuesday booked four persons on murder charges in connection with the killing of jailed gangster Tillu Tajpuriya. The Tihar Jail inmate was killed allegedly by rival gang members in Tihar jail, prison officials said on Tuesday. Officials say that after the murder of Tillu Tajpuria, the investigation of the police and the magistrate is going on. Apart from this, the Tihar administration has also started an internal inquiry to find out whether there was any laxity on the part of their staff or whether it should be considered a case of a lapse in security. (ANI)
The operation was carried out by a combined team of Serchhip Battalion of 23 Sector Assam Rifles under the aegis of Inspector General Assam Rifles (East) Customs Department, Champhai based on specific information, Said the release further.

The seized consignment was handed over to Customs Department, Champhai and further legal actions are underway. Ongoing smuggling of illegal 'Areca Nuts' a major cause of concern for the state of Mizoram. Assam Rifles, rightly christened as the 'Sentinels of Northeast' have been successful in launching such operations against the smuggling and illegal activities in Mizoram.

On Monday, getting a major success Assam Rifles apprehended five cadres of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) (Niki Sumi) from Zunheboto.

The apprehended individuals include the Town Commander of NSCN (Niki Sumi), three military wing cadres and a civil wing cadre. They were apprehended in an operation by Assam Rifles based on a specific input. The cadres were in possession of two point 32 pistols, ten live rounds and contraband and extortion receipts. (ANI)
The members of Bajrang Dal were detained by the Police in Hyderabad for staging protest against the Congress for promising to ban Bajrang Dal on the lines of the Popular Front of India in Karnataka as proposed in party's election manifesto if the grand old party is voted to power. Bajrang Dal protestors raised slogans against the Congress party in front of their party office against this announcement. The Congress party on Tuesday in its manifesto for the upcoming May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections said it will take "decisive action" as per law including banning organisations like Bajrang Dal, the Popular Front of India and others. "We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on any such organisations, read the Congress manifesto released by the party president Mallikarjun Kharge here. "The Congress party is committed to taking firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred against communities on the grounds of caste and religion," read the Congress manifesto. In this regard, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday slammed Congress over the talks of banning Bajrang Dal and said the party was attempting to lock up those who worship Lord Hanuman. "It is the misfortune of the country that the Congress had problems even with Lord Shri Ram and now it also has problems with those who say Jai Bajrangbali," PM Modi said in a public meeting. Also, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that Congress has lost its senses after making this announcement. "The Congress has lost its senses. They are talking about banning the Bajrang Dal, which is a strong nationalist organisation, opposes terrorism and opposes Love Jihad. Bajrang Dal creates a sense of patriotism, including social service, and develops self-respect towards its religion and culture. They are comparing it with PFI, a terrorist organisation," Chouhan said. The Karnataka assembly elections will be held in a single phase on May 10, with the counting of votes scheduled on May 13. (ANI)
The Attorney General of India informed the Supreme Court that the Special Marriage Act deals with inter-faith, inter-caste heterosexual marriages. The five-judge Constitution Bench comprising of the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice S Ravindra Bhat, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice PS Narasimha is dealing with a batch of petitions pertaining to 'marriage equality rights for LGBTQIA+ community. Attorney General of India R Venkataramani submitted before a five-judge Constitution bench that the multifaceted dimensions of the issues, though rooted in the conception of marriage, are not to be addressed only through the prism of the Special Marriage Act, but by a comprehensive stand-alone law, that may deal with the multi-dimensional issues arising out of the claim of persons other than heterosexuals. The issues relating to transgender persons arising out of The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 stand on a different footing and can be addressed without reference to the Special Marriage Act, the Attorney general said. Attorney-General for India while advancing his submissions, said that "The court cannot fundamentally alter the basic text of the statute, thus the question of reading down the SMA does not arise for same-sex relations". Special Marriage Act is a law in relation to the conventional institution of marriage of heterosexual relations only. A hidden provision cannot be retrieved if it never existed, he said further. AG submitted that challenge to the Special Marriage Act is misconceived and said the law is a species of the general laws relating to marriages applicable to different faiths, religions, or sections of the community. He said that marriage as a union of heterosexuals has always been rooted in the family as a social unit. Special Marriage Act is only a law in relation to the institution of marriage. It is a law conceived in aid of such class of persons who may be otherwise disabled or obstructed in accessing the institution of marriage, AG said. When the matters were called out, Solicitor General apprised the top court about the constitution of a bench headed by the Cabinet Secretary of the Government of India to redress the issues of same-sex couples. Solicitor General, while concluding his arguments, submitted that the statutory law of any country does not regulate all human relationships, sans legitimate state interest, which in this case he said very much exists. Arguing on behalf of the State of Madhya Pradesh, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, submitted that there is an omnibus demand of equation with heterosexual marriage by amending SMA and this demand is not simpliciter right to marriage, but marriage at par with heterosexuals. He submitted that there is no fundamental right to marry and/or recognition of marriage. There is no fundamental right to equation or equality in the matter of marriage with heterosexuals, he said. Various petitions are being dealt with by Supreme Court seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriage. One of the petitions earlier raised the absence of a legal framework which allowed members of the LGBTQIA+ community to marry any person of their choice. (ANI)
Amid the row over Congress's promise to ban Bajrang Dal in its manifesto for Karnataka elections, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje said the ruling party will recite Hanuman Chalisa across Karnataka on Thursday evening. "Randeep Singh Surjewala has stated that BJP workers do not know how to sing Hanuman Chalisa. I hereby extend an invitation to Randeep Singh Surjewala, Hanuman Chalisa will be recited at 7 pm tomorrow in all parts of the state. Come, listen and see how we recite the Hanuman Chalisa. I request all the people of the state to participate in this program," Karandlaje said. "Congress earlier fought against Ram Temple. They are saying they will ban Bajrang Dal in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka. They did not leave Ram that is why they are not even left as official Opposition in Parliament," she said. The Minister's remarks came in the wake of Congress' manifesto for the May 10 Assembly elections in Karnataka, wherein the party bracketed outlawed Popular Front of India (PFI) and Bajrang Dal together and stated it would ban the organisations once it is voted to power. In its Karnataka election manifesto, released last week, the Congress said it will take "decisive action" as per law, including banning organisations like Bajrang Dal, the Popular Front of India and others. "The Congress party is committed to taking firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred against communities on the grounds of caste and religion," read the Congress manifesto. "We believe that law and Constitution are sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and Organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities," it added. Notably, this has triggered outrage against the party, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on Tuesday said that this "decisive" decision by the party was an attempt to lock up those who worship Lord Hanuman. Karnataka will go to Assembly polls on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13. (ANI)
Chinese President Xi Jinping has replied to a letter from students participating in a program at the China Agricultural University that dispatches students to the frontlines of agricultural production.

In the letter, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, encouraged the students to make greater contributions to rural revitalization. He also extended festival greetings to China's young people as Youth Day falls on May 4.

Xi said he was gratified to know that the students went deep into the fields and villages to get to know about people's wellbeing and gain knowledge through serving rural revitalization.

Replying to the students' remarks that they had learned to seek truth from facts and maintain close ties with the people only when they went deep into China's rural areas, Xi said that this is the spirit that Chinese youth in the new era should have.

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has made plans for building up China's strength in agriculture, Xi said, hoping the students will closely integrate textbooks with practices in rural areas, and devote their youth and strength to speeding up rural and agricultural modernization and the construction of a modern socialist country.

The program, known as "science and technology backyards," was started in 2009, aiming to study and solve practical problems in the development of agriculture and rural areas, train high-level agricultural talents, and serve rural and agricultural modernization.

So far, the university has established 139 "science and technology backyards" in 24 provincial-level regions.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said that the town of Maghar, which had virtually become a hell has been turned into heaven by the double-engine government. While addressing a public meeting, CM Yogi said, "The town of Maghar which had become hell has become heaven under our double-engine government. Death in Maghar used to mean direct hell during those days, but Saint Kabir changed that notion. The double-engine government has set up Saint Kabir Academy to promote research on his values and ideals, including social equality and harmony". Six years back, animals used to die after swallowing the water of the Aami River, today it is clean, pure, and uninterrupted, stated CM Yogi. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the current state government does not discriminate between people. "We did not discriminate among people when it came to development. We did not look at one's caste or religion to provide the benefits of the government's schemes. The previous governments allowed firing at farmers and shut down the Munderwa Sugar Mill. We reopened it and it has become a medium of respect for the farmers here", CM Yogi remarked. Speaking about infrastructural development, CM Yogi said, "The Link Expressway of Purvanchal Expressway goes to Gorakhpur via Sant Kabir Nagar. An industrial corridor will be built here with the setting of plants new employment opportunities will also be created". CM Yogi said that Uttar Pradesh in the last six years and India in the last nine years, have witnessed exponential changes. India under the leadership of PM Modi has got the ability to lead on the global stage, pointed out CM Yogi. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath added further, "People will feel that the CM himself is coming to campaign in the municipal elections. Yes, I am coming because the money will be sent from Delhi and Lucknow and we want the money to be put to the best use in the interest of the public. There was money even before 2017, but the poor did not get houses. Money was squandered. It went to the pockets of a few for 70 years. Otherwise, every poor person would have had a toilet and a house by now. There would have been proper arrangements for drainage in urban areas." Launching an attack on the previous government, the CM said, "Before 2017, people belonging to a particular party used to demand extortion from traders at gunpoint. We give a security insurance cover of Rs 10 lakhs by forming a Traders Welfare Board. Today no goon has a pistol in his hand rather the youths of the state carry a tablet in their hand". The first phase of municipal elections in the state will be held on May 4. (ANI)
The Border Security Force (BSF) on Wednesday said that the force has been successful in stopping drone incursions by either forcing them to retreat or shooting them down. While talking to ANI, Additional Director General, BSF (Western command) PV Rama Shastri said, "BSF has always worked well. That has been maintained this year too. BSF jawans have not missed even one incursion in the past few years. It is important not to miss any drones - we are forcing them to retreat or shooting them down. We have recovered more than 600 kgs of drugs, not only through drones but overall." "We see around 20-25 (drone incursions) every month. But 70 per cent of them are forced to retreat and the remaining are shot down," he added. On cross-border drone incursions, PV Rama Shastri said, "It will not be right to speak in detail, but be it detection or jamming, new techniques are being invented and the success rate is going up day after day." BSF troops on Sunday late night recovered 2.5 kg of heroin dropped by a Pakistani drone, which had entered the Indian territory near Setha Wala village in Punjab's Ferozepur district. In a statement, BSF informed that on Sunday at about 11:55 PM, Border Security Force troops deployed at the border heard the buzzing sound of a suspected flying object (drone) entering from Pakistan to Indian territory in the area near Village -Setha Wala in Ferozepur district. The troops deployed in the depth area observed a blinking light and heard the sound of a drone. Depth parties also heard the sound of something dropped in the farming field on the outskirts of the Village, it reads. During the initial search of the area, BSF troops recovered a big packet wrapped with yellow adhesive tape containing three packets of heroin, two sparkling balls and a luminous blue LED bulb with a battery, which was also found attached to the consignment. The Gross weight of the three packets of heroin is appx 2.5 Kg, it further reads. "We have foiled another nefarious attempt of drug smuggling from Pakistan side foiled by vigilant BSF troops," said a senior BSF officer. (ANI)
Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, hearing a petition filed by a group of 67 students, dismissed the plea urging that it should be made possible for them to retake the engineering entrance exam as technical issues plagued both JEE Main 2022 sessions, which were held in June and July last year.

These errors prevented the candidates from giving the exam a fair shot, which led to significant decreases in many candidates' scores and percentiles.

Last year, there were a number of technological issues with the JEE exams, including frequent computer crashes, a frozen screen for many minutes, questions that took too long to load, unfinished questions, and more.

Some students had claimed that they were unable to take the exam because their centres were abruptly relocated without intimation. Some candidates encountered mistakes in their results as well as differences in their response sheet.

Students encountered similar technical issues during JEE Advanced 2022. For many of the students who experienced technical difficulties, it was their final try.

It was the final JEE Main test for students who finished Class 12 in 2020, and the final JEE Advanced attempt for students who passed Class 12 in 2021.

It is argued that the deadly delta Covid wave of 2021 caused the Class 12 students of that year to experience extreme mental stress, anxiety, sadness, and other compensable damages, ranging from financial hardship to family member loss.

This was after the Covid outbreak in 2020 had already affected their education for more than a year.

--IANS spr/uk/

( 287 Words)

2023-05-03-19:20:05 (IANS)
While the BJP leaders are advocating a Yogi Adityanath style of governance in Bihar, state Law Minister Shamim Ahmed has said that first it needs to close all the courts and then think of governance like Uttar Pradesh has at present. "When BJP is in power, Bihar is having Mangal Raj and when it goes out of power, Jungle Raj comes in Bihar. Go to Uttar Pradesh and experience the governance there. If you want Uttar Pradesh like governance in Bihar, first it needs to close all the courts," Ahmed said while interacting with media persons in Motihari. "If all the decisions have to be taken by the chief minister, what is the need for courts," he said. "We have Nitish Kumar style of governance in Bihar. I admit that the crime graph has increased in Bihar but that is only due to population growth. Our DGP has taken an initiative to deploy two SHOs in one police station to check the crime graph in Bihar," Ahmed said. Shamim Ahmed went to Motihari to console the family members of the person who lost his life during indiscriminate firing on May 1. During the firing, four persons were also injured and are currently admitted in a hospital in Motihari. The deceased was identified as Prince Kumar who came to Motihari to his sister's house to attend a marriage on May 1. He was having a soft drink when three assailants opened fire on the Deva gang members who were also present at that tea stall. Prince was caught in the firing and died on the spot while Deva Kumar, Raja Kumar alias Virat, Meraj and Yash Prakash were injured in the attack. --IANS ajk/bg ( 301 Words) 2023-05-03-20:16:03 (IANS)
"These recruitments were mainly for the primary and upper primary sections in the state-run schools in West Bengal," the ED counsel told the court.

He also informed the court that Bandopadhyay had misled a number of daily-wage earners associated with a construction company to channelise the scam proceeds.

"First, he used to get signatures from these daily wage earners on the cheques of their bank accounts. Then he used to deposit some amounts in their bank accounts and immediately withdrew them using their signed cheques. These daily wage earners were associated with a company called Lotus Constructions, which was an empaneled construction contractor with a number of panchayats in the state," the ED counsel told the court.

Bandopadhyay's counsel claimed that the ED had not substantiated the charges it levelled against his client with supporting documents. He also claimed that the event of recovery of OMR sheets and admit cards from the residence of his client might not be true.

After hearing both sides, the court extended Bandopadhyay's judicial custody till May 17.

--IANS src/arm

( 223 Words)

2023-05-03-20:20:05 (IANS)
London-based consumer electronics company Nothing on Wednesday announced that the company will be releasing the Phone (2) this British summer. The company said that the Nothing Phone (2) will be powered by Snapdragon's 8 Series processor and will be a more "premium" offering. Moreover, it added that the second smartphone will also be available to purchase in the US for the first time. Earlier, Manu Sharma, Vice President and General Manager, Nothing India, told IANS that they have learnt their lessons with the first smartphone and when they launch their second offering in India soon, it will be an industry-leading device. "On Flipkart, we now have a rating of 4.4 for Nothing Phone (1) from an earlier 4.2 rating after improving user experience. When we launched Android 13 on Phone (1), the users' response was fantastic. We would carry our learnings to Phone (2) which will be an industry-first with our iconic design philosophy," Sharma elaborated. "We now have a presence in 2,000 offline stores in India. We are likely to foray into launching our own retail store in India next year as we expand product portfolio," he added. The company's first product, Ear (1), was received well. Following its success, the company's smartphone product Phone (1) was launched in July 2022. --IANS shs/pgh ( 226 Words) 2023-05-03-19:52:03 (IANS)
Taking to Twitter, MEA official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "#OperationKaveri 11th outbound flight Jeddah to New Delhi 328 passengers."

The flight is carrying Indian evacuees from Jeddah to New Delhi under Operation Kaveri. Sudan is currently reeling under the conflict between rival factions of military and para-military forces.

Meanwhile, an Indian Air Force (IAF) C-130J aircraft carrying the 18th batch of 135 Indian evacuees from Port Sudan has reached Jeddah.

Embassy of India, Riyadh tweeted, "#OperationKaveri IAF C-130J aircraft carrying 18th batch of Indian evacuees reached Jeddah evacuating 135 passengers. @MEAIndia."

Earlier, as the flight flew from Jeddah, Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, India, tweeted, "IAF C-130J aircraft carrying 18th batch of Indian evacuees departs from Port Sudan. !35 passengers are on their way to Jeddah. #OperationKaveri."

Another 'Operation Kaveri' flight carrying 231 Indian evacuees reached Gujarat's Ahmedabad on Tuesday from Saudi Arabia's Jeddah, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said.

"Another #OperationKaveri flight lands in Ahmedabad. 231 more passengers have reached home safely," the EAM tweeted.

Under Operation Kaveri, the 10th flight carrying Indian nationals left Jeddah earlier on Tuesday.

The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Sudan has warned that the humanitarian crisis in the country is turning into a "full flown catastrophe" and that the risk of spillover into neighbouring countries was worrisome.

"It has been more than two weeks of devastating fighting in Sudan, a conflict that is turning Sudan's humanitarian crisis into a full-blown catastrophe," Abdou Dieng, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, told a briefing of member states via video link.

Fighting is underway in Khartoum as the UN warns that Sudan is at a humanitarian "breaking point".

Rival military forces accuse each other of new violations of a ceasefire that they had just agreed to extend as their devastating conflict enters a third week.

Sudan continues to face bloodshed as a result of clashes between the army and paramilitary forces.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Sunday said that nearly 2300 evacuee Indians have reached the country. (ANI)
The Indian Air Force's Rafale fighters participated in the ongoing Exercise Orion in France, an international military exercise in France, marking their first participation in an overseas drill. Shivangi Singh, the Indian Air Force's first woman Rafale pilot is part of the Indian team that is participating in the Exercise Orion, they said. The IAF had sent a woman fighter pilot for the first time to an international exercise in January this year when Squadron Leader Avni Chaturvedi went to Japan for the exercise Dharma Guardian. Shivangi Singh joined the Indian Air Force in 2017 and was commissioned in the IAF's second batch of women fighter pilots. France and India began a military exercise 'Orion' at Mont-de-Marsan, an Air Force base of the French Air and Space Force (FASF) on April 17. Taking to Twitter, France Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain earlier said, "France warmly welcomes the @IAF_MCC contingent that will take part in exercise #Orion2023 from today! French & Indian #Rafale jets will soon fly together in the skies of France." The exercise is being conducted from April 17 to May 5, 2023, with the IAF Contingent comprising four Rafale, two C-17, two ll-78 aircraft and 165 air warriors. This is the first overseas exercise for the IAF's Rafale aircraft, according to the statement released by Defence Ministry. "Besides the IAF and the FASF, Air Forces from Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States would also be flying in this multilateral exercise. Participation in this exercise would further enrich the employment philosophy of the India Air Force, by imbibing the best practices from other Air Forces," the statement read. Earlier, defence officials told ANI that Indian Rafale combat aircraft are likely to participate in a multinational wargame codenamed Orion which is being hosted by France and involving many of its NATO and other important allies. "Indian Air Force Rafale fighter jets are likely to fly to France to participate in Exercise Orion being held at a French air base there. The wargames are planned to be held from the third week of April to May 5," defence officials told ANI. Orion is reportedly the largest ever multinational exercise being carried out by the French defence forces which have involved their Army, Navy and Air Force along with their allies the US and the UK. Over 7,000 NATO troops have reportedly taken part in the drill involving the land forces of their NATO allies. Recently, Exercise Cope India, in which The Indian Air Force and the United States Air Force (USAF) took part from April 10, culminated on April 25 at Kalaikunda, West Bengal. The Rafale aircraft are the latest fighters to have been inducted into the Indian Air Force and are considered to be the most potent in the entire Asian region. The 36 Rafales have been completely inducted and they have played a significant role in improving the country's operational preparedness along both the borders with Pakistan and China. (ANI)
"20th batch of evacuees arrives in Jeddah from Port Sudan. IAF C-130J flight brings 116 evacuees," the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia said in the tweet.

Sudan is currently reeling under the conflict between rival factions of military and para-military forces.

Meanwhile, in India, at least 328 more passengers have landed in New Delhi.

"328 more passengers have landed in New Delhi. #OperationKaveri moving steadily forward as around 3000 have reached India now," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted.

Another 'Operation Kaveri' flight carrying 231 Indian evacuees reached Gujarat's Ahmedabad on Tuesday from Saudi Arabia's Jeddah, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said.

"Another #OperationKaveri flight lands in Ahmedabad. 231 more passengers have reached home safely," the EAM tweeted.

Under Operation Kaveri, the 10th flight carrying Indian nationals left Jeddah earlier on Tuesday.

The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Sudan has warned that the humanitarian crisis in the country is turning into a "full flown catastrophe" and that the risk of spillover into neighbouring countries was worrisome.

"It has been more than two weeks of devastating fighting in Sudan, a conflict that is turning Sudan's humanitarian crisis into a full-blown catastrophe," Abdou Dieng, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, told a briefing of member states via video link.

Fighting is underway in Khartoum as the UN warns that Sudan is at a humanitarian "breaking point".

Rival military forces accuse each other of new violations of a ceasefire that they had just agreed to extend as their devastating conflict enters a third week.

Sudan continues to face bloodshed as a result of clashes between the army and paramilitary forces.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Sunday said that nearly 2300 evacuee Indians have reached the country. (ANI)
"Secy (East) @AmbSaurabhKumar met Assistant Deputy Ministers in the Canadian Foreign Ministry, Weldon Epp & Alexandre Leveque. Discussed ways to strengthen India-Canada relations & our shared vision for a peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific region," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted.

Last month, on April 11, India-Canada Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) on April 11 in Ottawa during which both sides discussed contemporary regional issues including the Indo-Pacific region and cooperation in multilateral organizations a statement by the MEA read.

The Indian delegation was led by Saurabh Kumar, Secretary (East) in the MEA while the Canadian side was headed by David Morrison, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Global Affairs Canada.

"They welcomed regular dialogue and meetings of bilateral mechanisms, including upcoming Ministerial visits which would help broaden the bilateral agenda," the MEA said.

"In the context of India's ongoing G20 Presidency, Canada expressed support for India's leadership. Both sides will work together to ensure G20's success," it added.

The last FOCs were held in March 2022 and according to the official statement, the next FOC will take place in India. Before that the FOCs were held in March 2021 in a virtual mode.

India and Canada share warm relations. In February, Canada's External Affairs Minister Melanie Joly visited India and met her Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar.

During the India-Canada Strategic Dialogue, both ministers expressed interest in deepening collaboration across domains and looking forward to the Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA).

Canada and India have deep ties built on shared democratic values and a long-standing friendship. The wide-ranging bilateral cooperation between Canada and India spans the fields of science and technology, finance, education, defence, and security.The deep people-to-people connections between Canada and India are at the heart of our relationship. There are 1.8 million Canadians of Indian origin in Canada, and India is the primary source of new immigrants to Canada, the release said.

India and Canada are engaged in technical negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) including trade in goods, services, investment, trade facilitation etc. Separate MOUs exist with implementation mechanisms to advance relations in the fields of energy, mining, agriculture etc. (ANI)
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Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing (R) shakes hands with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang during their meeting in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, on May 2, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

China and Myanmar agreed on Tuesday to further promote comprehensive strategic cooperation between the two countries.

At a meeting with Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing in the Myanmar capital, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said China has attached great importance to its relations with Myanmar as the two neighbors share "Paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship.

China is ready to join hands with Myanmar to build a China-Myanmar community with a shared future and take the lead to implement the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, Qin said.

China sincerely hopes Myanmar will achieve stability and national development, he said, adding that China supports Myanmar in exploring a development path with Myanmar characteristics that suits to its national conditions.

China supports Myanmar in advancing its political transition process and backs relevant parties in the country to properly address differences and seek national reconciliation under the constitutional and legal framework, Qin said.

The international community should respect Myanmar's sovereignty and play a constructive role in helping Myanmar achieve peace and reconciliation, he added.

The Chinese side will continue to do what is in its power to help Myanmar in its development efforts, accelerate key cooperation projects of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, and implement projects on agriculture, education and health care, among others, for the benefit of the Myanmar people, said the Chinese foreign minister.

Qin said China supports Myanmar improving its relations with Bangladesh, with related issues to be resolved through consultation, adding that China is willing to work with the two countries to expand China-Myanmar-Bangladesh pragmatic cooperation.

For his part, Min Aung Hlaing said that in the nearly 70 years since Myanmar and China established diplomatic relations, the two countries have always maintained the momentum of development and achieved fruitful results.

Myanmar is willing to work with China to further enhance Myanmar-China friendship and cooperation, and actively build a Myanmar-China community with a shared future, he said.

He added that Myanmar appreciates China's objective and impartial position on Myanmar-related issues, where China is welcome to play a greater role.

The Myanmar leader noted that Myanmar attaches great importance to protecting the safety of Chinese nationals and institutions in the country, and is always ready to cooperate with the Chinese side to maintain tranquility in the border areas of the two countries.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang (R) shakes hands with Myanmar's Union Minister for Foreign Affairs Than Swe during their meeting in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, on May 2, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

During his visit, Qin also met with former Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Than Shwe and Union Minister for Foreign Affairs Than Swe.
An explosion in Russia's western Bryansk region derailed a goods train for the second day in a row, knocking the locomotive and some cars off the rails. However no casualties have been reported as of yet, authorities stated, according to Al Jazeera. Notably, the Bryansk region, where the blast occurred borders both Ukraine and Belarus. "An unidentified explosive device went off near the Snezhetskaya railway station. There were no casualties," Alexander Bogomaz, Bryansk regional governor wrote on the messaging app Telegram. He said, "As a result of the incident, a locomotive and several waggons of a goods train derailed," without identifying the culprit, Al Jazeera reported. The incident came as Kyiv claims to be preparing for a counteroffensive, and as the Ukrainian military has vowed to continue defending Bakhmut, a city in the country's east. Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began, there have been several accusations of sabotage on Russian trains, but this week is the first time authorities have acknowledged strikes of this magnitude. The earlier derailment was on Monday, as a freight train from Belarus was transiting the Bryansk region near the town of Unecha, roughly 60 miles east of the Ukrainian border, New York Times reported Meanwhile, a Russian missile attack that occurred overnight in Pavlohrad, a city and railway hub in eastern Ukraine, resulted in at least two fatalities, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine. Martial law in Ukraine was extended on Tuesday by a decision of the parliament, and it will now last until August 18, reported AL Jazeera. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February of last year, Zelenskyy introduced the bill. Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not permitted to leave the country and could be drafted into the military under martial law, Al Jazeera. (ANI)
During his visit, the IAF Chief also met the island nation's State Minister of Defence, National Security Advisor as well as the Commanders of the Sri Lankan Air Force and Navy, the Indian Air Force said.

"As part of his ongoing visit to Sri Lanka, the CAS Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari met the Honourable President, the State Minister of Defence, the National Security Advisor as well as the Commanders of Sri Lankan Air Force and Navy," the Indian Air Force tweeted.

The bilateral talks between the leaders assured IAF's steadfast commitment to Sri Lanka at all times when India is called upon.

Furthermore, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) also gave a talk at the prestigious Sri Lankan National Defence College.

The IAF Chief Chaudhari is currently on a 4-day official visit to Sri Lanka at the invitation of the Commander of Sri Lankan Air Force, Air Marshal SK Pathirana.

The visit will enhance the existing professional ties and bonds of mutual cooperation between both Nations, the Ministry of Defence said in an official release. (ANI)
The plight of journalists in Afghanistan is deteriorating with every passing day as the violence against the community has increased manifold in the nation under Taliban rule. According to Khaama Press, the Afghanistan Journalists Centre (AFJC) released a study on the deteriorating state of the media in Afghanistan, noting that violence cases against journalists have climbed by 64 in the previous year. The report was released on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. The majority of violent incidents, including threats against and arrests of journalists and media personnel, have been conducted by Taliban government agencies, according to the AFJC. One person was killed, 21 people were hurt, six people were physically harassed, 115 people were threatened, and 70 journalists were detained, of which at least two (Murtaza Behbudi and Khairullah Parhar) are still in Taliban custody, Khaama Press reported. According to the Afghan news agency, the centre has also stated that the media environment in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime has been unfavourable, adding that after the previous government was overthrown in August 2021. About half of Afghanistan's 600 media outlets ceased operations because of financial difficulties and restrictions put in place by the ruling regime, according to Khaama Press. Earlier in April, journalists in Afghanistan once again denounced the lack of access to information under the Taliban regime in the country and said that it results in their loss of timely coverage. They also said that the de-facto authorities are not cooperating with them in any manner. Lack of access to information has been one of the main challenges for journalists in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021. The ever-increasing restrictions against media in Afghanistan have also drawn widespread criticism globally with the United Nations (UN) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) decrying the arrests, demanding the Taliban stop harassing local journalists and stifling freedom of speech through continued detentions and threats. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in mid-August last year, it rolled back women's rights advances and media freedom revoking the efforts on gender equality and freedom of speech in the country. (ANI)
An UN-proscribed global terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), openly sought funds for jihad in Peshawar and other cities during the Eid celebrations. By letting this happen, Pakistan has violated a key redline set by the global anti-terrorist financing watchdog, FATF, in letting the country off the greylist last year, European Times reported. According to local residents, members of JeM were reportedly seeking funds for carrying out jihad in Kashmir and Palestine in Bagh-e-Naran, a suburb on the outskirts of Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in April this year. Several Pakistani Twitter users have since pointed out that similar fundraising activities by extremist groups were happening in other areas as well. Many of them said these fund-raisings had been a regular feature at many mosques, sometimes under the protection of security personnel. There were other Twitter statements showing terrorist groups openly seeking funds in mosques in Karachi, European Times reported. The Eid fundraising by JeM clearly proves that Pakistan has failed to keep its promise to FATF to curtail terrorist funding. According to European Times, in June 2021, FATF declined to let off Pakistan from the greylist citing laxity in taking action against proscribed terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), JeM and similar entities. The FATF said that despite completing 26 of the 27 tasks it had been handed, Pakistan's failure to complete the last task on convicting terrorists and terror entities meant it would not be delisted for now. The same group is now freely seeking funds for terrorist activities. In fact, JeM had been active even as Pakistan was freed of sanctions by FATF last year. European Times reported that the JeM carried out large-scale construction at its sprawling Jama-e-Masjid Subhanallah headquarters in Bahawalpur. Pakistan had claimed in its testimonies before FATF that JeM had been banned since 2002, within months of the group's attack on the Parliament House in New Delhi in 2001. The group, with the aid of the Pakistan Army, had moved to Afghanistan to supplement the Afghan Taliban fighting the US-led forces. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) monitors reporting in May 2022 stated that JeM operated eight training camps in Nangarhar, three under Taliban control. The JeM has a long tie-up with the Afghan Taliban. When JeM leader, Masood Azhar, was freed after the Indian Airlines hijacking incident in December 1999, he was welcomed and given shelter by the Afghan Taliban leadership in Kandahar, European Times reported. Fundraising by jihadi groups during Eid was a common practice in the recent past. Since greater scrutiny came to bear on such terrorist fundraising, Pakistan had restricted such events but never stopped. Terrorist groups have been using devious methods to carry out such activities recently, European Times reported. (ANI)
A day before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers' meeting, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived at Dabolim international airport in Goa on Wednesday. Jaishankar reached here to inspect the preparations for India's presidency of the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting. India took over the rotating presidency of the SCO at the Samarkand SCO Summit in 2022. This year India is hosting several important SCO meetings including the Foreign Ministers' meeting in Goa from May 4-5. India had sent formal invitations to all SCO members and the foreign ministers of China, Pakistan and Russia have confirmed their participation in the meeting. On its Foreign Minister's visit to India, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday that at the meeting Qin Gang will exchange views with other SCO member states' foreign ministers on the international and regional situation. "At the meeting, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang will exchange views with other SCO member states' foreign ministers on the international and regional situation and SCO cooperation in various fields, among other topics, to make full preparation for this year's SCO summit," the spokesperson said. Meanwhile, Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov will also take part in the SCO Foreign Ministers' Meeting on May 4. Regarding the same, the Russian Embassy in India said, "On May 4-5, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states in India." A Russian official release said that deliberation over "topical issues of the international and regional agenda" will also be raised by Foreign Minister Lavrov. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is also elated to attend the SCO foreign ministers' meeting in Goa. On this, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said that Bhutto-Zardari will lead the Pakistani delegation to the meeting of SCO foreign ministers in Goa. Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch during a weekly presser on Thursday stated that Bhutto-Zardari is attending the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting at the invitation of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. "Our participation at the meeting reflects Pakistan's continued commitment to the SCO charter and process and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities," the spokesperson said. Bilawal will be the first foreign minister to visit India after a gap of nearly 12 years, reported Business Recorder. In 2011, then Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar visited India. Founded in 2001, the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) include Russia, India, China, Pakistan, and four central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. (ANI)
China's top leader in Xinjiang urged visiting diplomats from pro-China countries to support Beijing with "a strong voice" in the face of condemnation from the United States and other Western countries over the repression of Muslim Uyghurs, Radio Free Asia reported. On April 27, Ma Xingrui, the Communist party secretary for the Xinjiang region, met with consul generals from Brazil, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Turkey in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, on a visit to the invitation of the Chinese government. "Some anti-China forces in the Western countries led by the US are destroying the progress of human rights in Xinjiang by spreading numerous anti-China fake news and defaming China's image," Ma said during his welcome speech. He called on the diplomats to raise "their just voices" in support of Beijing by speaking out on behalf of China in the international arena, Radio Free Asia reported. Ma also told them that the overall social situation in Xinjiang was stable with ethnic unity, religious harmony and economic and social development. The visit came at a time when Uyghur rights groups demanded that the international community take concrete actions to hold China accountable for severe rights abuses against the mostly Muslim Uyghurs. The US government and the parliaments of several Western counties also have declared that the Chinese government's repression of Uyghurs amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity. Some have sanctioned Chinese officials and companies deemed to be involved in the rights abuses and forbade the importation of products made with Uyghur forced labour, Radio Free Asia reported. As international condemnation of Beijing mounts, the Chinese government has been inviting representatives of pro-China countries to visit Xinjiang to see what officials say is the region's achievements in economic and social development and the improvement of people's livelihoods. Many of the diplomats who have visited Xinjiang hailed from autocratic, developing countries that are highly dependent on China for trade and infrastructure investment under the Belt and Road Initiative, Radio Free Asia reported. Ilshat Hesen, a US-based Uyghur activist and a vice chairman of the executive committee of the World Uyghur Congress, said the Chinese government has invited foreign delegations to visit Xinjiang in recent years to try to counter the effect of economic sanctions imposed by Western nations. (ANI)
Sindh Police chief has acknowledged that the criminal system is failing in the province, adding that the police are responsible for the crippling system, The News International reported. Speaking to the media in Larkana on Monday, IGP Sindh Ghulam Nabi Memon said things are getting worse due to an ineffective judicial system. Memon further said the Sindh Police were focusing on bolstering the investigation system. According to the Sindh IGP, 30 dacoits have been killed and 231 others arrested during the ongoing operation in the riverine regions of Sindh. The Sindh IGP further said that 165 people have been protected from becoming prey of honey traps, as per The News International report. Ghulam Nabi Memon said the Sindh government had given clear orders to eliminate outlaws in the riverine regions and establish peace, as per the news report. He said the writ of law will be established in the troubled districts of Sindh, including Kashmore, Shikarpur, Ghotki and Jacobabad. Memon stressed that Punjab and Balochistan police are also facing issues like the Sindh police. He added that the police of these provinces are creating a policy against criminals, as per the news report. IGP Sindh presided over a meeting on the law and order. During the meeting, the police officers of the Larkana and Sukkur divisions briefed the participants regarding the law and order situation, The News International reported. Earlier, in April, two police personnel were killed and four others were injured after "dacoits" opened fire on under-construction checkposts in the Kutcha area of Ghailpur near Sindh's Kashmore district, Dawn reported citing police. According to the Kashmore-Kandhkot Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Irfan Ali Sammo, new police check posts were being established when the "dacoits" opened fire at police on April 15, according to Dawn report. Sammo said that police officials Sabir Ali and Ahad Ali Domki were killed while four others, including Bakhshapur Station House Officer (SHO) Gul Muhammad Mehr, were injured after the attack, as per the news report. The SSP said that the injured were taken to a hospital in Rahim Yar Khan while the deceased officials' bodies were shifted to Civil Hospital Kashmore. (ANI)
The 21st batch of 137 Indians, who were stranded in Sudan, arrived in Jeddah from Port Sudan in an IAF C-130J aircraft on Wednesday. As fighting continues in the strife-torn African country, India has intensified its Operation Kaveri to rescue all the Indians from Sudan. Apprising of a fresh batch of Indians reaching Jeddah, The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday tweeted, "#OperationKaveri IAF C-130J aircraft with 21st batch of evacuees brings 137 Indians from Port Sudan to Jeddah." Earlier, under Operation Kaveri, the 21st batch of 137 Indians was taken in an IAF C-130J aircraft from Port Sudan to Jeddah. Informing about the same, the official spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi tweeted, "#OperationKaveri IAF C-130J aircraft with 21st batch of evacuees leaves Port Sudan. 137 passengers are on their way to Jeddah." The two warring factions in Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to a seven-day ceasefire, according to a statement of the foreign ministry of South Sudan on Tuesday, reported CNN. The statement added that the two sides also said that they would send representatives for peace talks "to be held at an agreed venue of their choice." Neither SAF nor RSF commented on the report on their official channels. Previous ceasefires haven't been able to put an end to the violence between the opposing factions across the nation. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the commander of the Sudanese army, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of the RSF, failed to reach an agreement, and in the middle of April, there were violent skirmishes between the two sides that resulted in at least 528 deaths and large-scale migration of refugees from the country, CNN reported. Tuesday's announcement came after the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) warned that more than 800,000 people may migrate to other nations as continuous violence impedes convoys to evacuate people from Sudan's major ports. (ANI)
Following the overnight "drone attacks" on the Kremlin residence of President Vladimir Putin, the office of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia is preparing for a "large-scale terrorist attack." Advisor to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Mykhailo Podolyak, in a tweet, has said that the drone attacks on the Kremlin were not from Ukraine. Russia on Wednesday alleged that there were attempts by Ukraine to assassinate President Putin and also called it a "terrorist attack." Russia also said that it has the "right to retaliate" in a manner, place and time of its choosing. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not get injured in the overnight drone attacks, President's press service announced on Wednesday, Russia Today reported. Mykhailo Podolyak, in a tweet, said, "As for the drones over the Kremlin, it's all predictable....Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist attack. That's why it first detains a large allegedly subversive group in Crimea. And then it demonstrates "drones over the Kremlin". First of all, Ukraine wages an exclusively defensive war and does not attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation. What for? This does not solve any military issue. But it gives RF grounds to justify its attacks on civilians..." Podolak also noted that Ukraine was monitoring the mishaps and incidents that were taking place in different parts of Russian Federation and also clarified that even though something was happening in RF but the drones did not belong to Ukraine. He also tweeted, "Secondly, we are watching with interest the growing number of mishaps and incidents that are taking place in different parts of RF. The emergence of unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles at energy facilities or on Kremlin's territory can only indicate the guerilla activities of local resistance forces. As you know, drones can be bought at any military store... The loss of power control over the country by Putin's clan is obvious. But on the other hand, Russia has repeatedly talked about its total control over the air. In a word, something is happening in RF, but definitely without Ukraine's drones over the Kremlin..." On social media, several viral videos purportedly show a plummet of smoke rising against the night cityscape from the territory of the former Russian capital on Wednesday. The Kremlin press service also said, "Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services using radar warfare systems, the devices were disabled." According to Putin's staff, Ukraine launched two drone attacks overnight with the intention of hitting his apartment in the Kremlin. "The head of State was not in the Kremlin at the time of 'Ukrainian UAV attack' on Tuesday night," Kremlin's Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. He also said that President Putin is currently working from his residence near Moscow and that his schedule remains unchanged. The drones were destroyed using electronic warfare measures and caused no casualties or damage, the press service added. According to a report in Russia Today, the message said, "As a result of this terrorist act, the President of the Russian Federation was not injured. His work schedule has not changed, it continues as usual." The Kremlin also noted that the Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures as it sees fit, reported Russia Today. Peskov added that the incident won't interfere with the Victory Day parade that is scheduled to take place on May 9 on Red Square. (ANI)
People associated with the tourism industry in Pakistan are facing loss of millions of rupees due to lack of tourists in the valley. Those involved in hotels, restaurants and jeep businesses have been badly affected by the floods caused by the recent rains, reported The News on Sunday (TNS). The tourism sector of Swat Valley took a hit at the very beginning of the business season this year due to flooding caused by heavy rains. On April 18, a heavy downpour caused flooding in the Swat River's Daral Khwar stream and affected business of hotels and shops in the Bahrain Bazaar, reported TNS. Swat Valley is one of the major tourist attractions in Pakistan. It is known as the Switzerland of Pakistan, it has one of the oldest civilizations in history and one of the most beautiful scenery one could ever see. The weather patterns and recent rain spells indicate that climate change is among the major challenges the tourism sector will have to adapt to. Swat, Dir and Chitral are three districts particularly vulnerable to climate change. Nestled in the Hindu Kush mountain range, these areas are regularly struck by flash floods, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) and land sliding, reported TNS. Last year's devastating floods had already washed away the bridge on Daral Khwar, Bahrain, which was a vital link that provided travellers access to the picturesque Kalam Valley, a major tourist attraction in Swat. The bridge has still to be repaired. The other route, a road link from Bahrain to Kalam was lost in the recent rains. Many tourists who had come to Upper Swat to celebrate Eid with their families were stuck in the area as were the residents of Upper Swat. The residents of Swat recorded a protest in Mingora City to express their dismay over the situation. They demanded that the authorities step in to clear the roads and repair the bridge. The protesters stressed the need to expedite work on the Bahrain-Kalam road, reported TNS. The tourism season started early this year because of the Eid holidays. Many people, however, cancelled their plans to visit Swat Valley following the rain-induced floods. Uzma, a 21-year-old from Peshawar, said she and her family cancelled their plans to visit Swat over the Eid holidays after she received a text message on the situation from the government. "Recent heavy rains, in upper Swat. The Kalam road is closed due to floods in Bahrain. Avoid travelling on the Swat River route," read the cautionary message. Rooh-ul Amin, a resident of Charsadda had to cancel the plans after the locals confirmed that the road to Kalam was not in a good condition. Syed Niaz Ali, the owner of a hotel in Kalam, estimates that compared to last year the number of tourists has dropped by at least 80 per cent, reported TNS. "Reconstruction of the hotels damaged by floods last year has been started. The main problem is that the Bahrain-Kalam road is in a state of disrepair. That discourages tourists from visiting," said Ali. The setback is felt, not just by the hotel owners but also by other people associated with Swat's hospitality sector. Service providers, drivers, tourist guides, porters, local handicrafts industry, trout fishermen and small business owners are just some of the people whose livelihoods are at stake. The tourism industry in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa received its first shock during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was still reeling from the aftermath when floods inundated the province, last year and caused large-scale devastation. (ANI)
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Tourists pose for photos at the Auckland International Airport in Auckland, New Zealand, May 2, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

The direct flights between Beijing and Auckland in New Zealand officially resumed on Tuesday as an Air China aircraft carrying over 200 Chinese tourists landed at the Auckland International Airport.

The services had been suspended for more than three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions.

The Chinese tourists were welcome by a special ceremony featured with traditional Maori dance and singing at the airport on Tuesday afternoon.

The restart of Beijing-Auckland flights was a "big happy event" for both countries, said Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand Wang Xiaolong, who was present at the ceremony, adding that New Zealand was one of the top destinations for Chinese students and tourists before the pandemic.

The resumption of flights has provided more convenience for the exchange of people and goods between the two countries and will inject new impetus into the development of bilateral relations, he said.

"It inspires me tremendously that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, our cooperation remains robust and dynamic. China is by far New Zealand's biggest trading partner and our bilateral trade hit a record high of 40 billion New Zealand dollars (248 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022," he said.

Scott Tasker, Chief Customer Officer of Auckland International Airport, said that the people-to-people connection is an important part of China-New Zealand relations, and the resumption of air routes will strengthen the connection between the two countries.

Currently, direct flights are conducted between Beijing and Auckland four times every week, according to Air China.

Xue Jun, general manager of Air China's Asia-Pacific headquarters, said that "I believe that with the continued support of our travel partners, passenger traffic between New Zealand and China will rebound and the air transportation bridge between our two countries will be even stronger."

Liu Yang, chairman of a travel agency in Beijing who was on board the Air China flight, said that the resumption of flights is very convenient for tourists in China, and many of his customers are looking forward to visiting New Zealand.

Dave Smith, a tourism practitioner in Auckland, also welcomed the resumption of direct flights between China's capital and Auckland.

The move will facilitate personnel exchanges, bring more tourists, and promote the recovery of New Zealand's tourism industry and economy, he said.
The Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday decided to recommend to the President to convene the Parliament session.

"The meeting of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly has been called to be held at 4 pm on May 7, 2023," a release from the Office of the President states. Earlier, the Parliament session ended on April 28.

As per the Constitution of Nepal 2072, the budget of the Himalayan Nation must be presented on mid of Jestha (The second month as per the Lunar Calendar). A House session is called in for pre-budget discussions which are held for about a fortnight.

This year's budget comes at the helm of a looming recession which has hit Nepal forcing the authorities to downgrade the growth projection. The lack of sound policy and prolonged instability has taken a toll on the economy.

The Government of Nepal at the start of the current fiscal year 2079/2080 (2022/23) declared the economic growth would meet 8 per cent.

It was slashed to half to 4 per cent during the mid-term review which further has shrunken to 1.86 per cent as per the latest projection of the National Statistics Office. (ANI)
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday called for greater digital integration of economies. Speaking at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Governors' seminar on the theme 'Policies to Support Asia's Rebound' in Incheon, South Korea, Sitharaman said that there will be reglobalization and underscored the need to re-energize globalization. Nirmala Sitharaman said that the repatriations have helped economies sustain themselves. She further said that the cross border transfers should become simplified and called for more democratizing of enterprise. Ministry of Finance in a tweet stated, "Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman, Governor for India in @ADB_HQ, participated as a panelist in the Governors' Seminar on the theme 'Policies to Support Asia's Rebound', held as part of 56th #ADBAnnualMeeting, in Incheon, South Korea, today." It further said, "Besides FM Smt. @nsitharaman representing as Governor for India, Ms Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia; Mr Niels Annen, Germany; Mr Changyong Rhee, Republic of Korea; & @ADBPresident and Chairperson of the Board of Directors also participated." "I would think there should be greater digital integration of economies. We saw a globalization phase. Now there is going to be a reglobalization. It's not as if we are going back on globalization. We need to re energize globalization, which slightly different terminology, but at the same time there has to be digital globalization. Unless countries and their systems talk with each other and the neighbouring countries, for instance, to start with, talk to each other's digital platforms," Nirmala Sitharaman said. "The benefits of technology making life easy for citizens, particularly common citizens will never be achieved. Now you have a lot of migration of labour. People move to different parts of the country, but still they keep their roots intact," she added. Nirmala Sitharaman noted that technology has made cross-border transfers easier. She said, "I can speak for India. And I can speak for Philippines. I'm sure the ministers here so repatriations have helped economies sustain themselves. Now, it is becoming even more expensive nowadays to repatriate. But what technology has done to us is that cross-border transfers are becoming easier. And with that economies survive and prosper, just as this labour who is gone or the specialist who has gone abroad is serving that economy as well. Cross-border should become simplified. Second, within a country at least, there should be a lot more democratizing of enterprise. The entrepreneurial skills will have to be alot more widespread spread within the country. No scaling up for some, few to become big and the others not conscious of time." Sitharaman stressed that the protection of vulnerable sections has been India's prime focus as the government charted its course towards recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Ministry of Finance's tweet. She highlighted India's focus on MSMEs and added that ensuring food security has been instrumental in the Indian economy's successful recovery from the pandemic. Ministry of Finance in a tweet said, "FM Smt. @nsitharaman laid out the elements in the form of four 'I's that are essential for long-term sustainable growth for both Advanced and Developing economies: Infrastructure Investment Innovation Inclusivity." She stressed on the need to upskill labour as a pre-requisite to achieve industry 4.0 in full measure. Responding to questions regarding how countries can support workers who will lose their jobs in the shift to net zero, Sitharaman said, "It is always a balancing act, particularly for a country like India where the population is very high and the youth component of our population is even better in favour of the country. So, you have to constantly keep balancing on your priorities for greening your economy." She noted that the fear that technology will replace the human hand is "real and live." She called it "important" to equally see both the benefits of technology and transition to the greening. Sitharaman stressed that industries in India are very rapidly resetting themselves to bring in Web three to shift over to Industry 4.0. "It is important for us to equally as much as we see the benefits of technology, as much as we see the transition to the greening is important. We also have to design some economy, some layers in the economy which will be labour intensive and provide them that skills. Even at this stage as I'm talking, industries in India are very rapidly resetting themselves to bring in the web three to move over to industry 4.0," Nirmala Sitharaman said. "Now if the existing labour remains where they are, they are not going to be up-skilled to meet up with these technology infusions. There will be a crisis even for the manufacturer, so will be his next generation of workers. So, governments of the day together with industry will have to constantly, even as they balance this climate versus productivity move and invest more towards greening. You have to on the other side bring in skill sets which are required for more technology-driven society and that is where you will bring this work," she added. Nirmala Sitharaman said, "Global North South politics, since I think the time when WTO was founded has had this little grievance that export of agricultural produce and also generally the trade, the voice of the south or voice of the emerging markets has not been heard at par with the voice of the developed countries." She noted that subsidies for agriculture becomes critical for many of the economies. However, she stressed that these subsidies did not count at all. She further stated that the world has started feeling very sensitive in context of Russia-Ukraine conflict and COVID-19 pandemic. "Why is fertilizer security important? Because it feeds into food security will all have to be talked again in the WTO with a rather open mind. Otherwise, even with food security completely well established in developed countries, many parts of the world even today are not sure will they get their stock of wheat coming next, even if they are willing to pay for it. The transit of goods from one part of the world itself has become difficult to the other part of the world. So insecurity leading towards starvation is not something which the world would have thought about in the last century," Nirmala Sitharaman said. "We thought we had milk mountains. Milk rivers or butter mountains and granary of wheat. The lopsided way in which trade agreements have come about. And the World Trade Organization is trying to grapple with this situation, but sooner the solution is found, better it is for the global food sector," she added. During the seminar, Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted India's systemic reforms facilitated by Digital Public Infrastructure, enabling timely conditional cash transfers when it was most needed. Responding to a question whether conditional cash transfers will help the poor, Sitharaman said, "It has helped in India, at least during the COVID because, like the initial part of the discussion placed a lot of emphasis on system reforms. We did not just talk about short-term monetary policy, fiscal policy, long term, but we also placed a lot of emphasis on system reforms, the long-term reforms that you require in India. Luckily, because we had these reforms undertaken, we had this digital economy boom and also we facilitated with digital identity markers for people, as a result of which during the pandemic, even when economies were writing checks and posting it by the mail, we were able to transfer money directlyinto the accounts of the poor." She called for making efforts for revenue moving to capital expenditure. She further said, "There should be an emphasis on capital expenditure to widen. You spend through the government for creating assets. When you do that, you immediately benefit the labour, benefit those who depend on semi-skills that they have. They're not fully skilled. So you're able to pump in wages through that route one, and by creating assets, you are also creating a better multiplier for the money that you're spending on these issues. But, larger debate remains, and it is applicable even to developed countries is that every attempt will have to be made to widen your GDP with newer areas of activity for which you need to give support." (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday thanked Japan's Ambassador to India, Hiroshi Suzuki for "the kind words and for also remembering my friend, late Mr Shinzo Abe." The Japanese embassy in India tweeted about the 100th episode of Mann ki Baat. Wishing on the occasion, the embassy recalled a message by the Late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the preface to the book 'Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio,' stated a press release from tkhe Prime Minister's office. Earlier, Suzuki had congratulated PM Modi on the 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat and remembered late Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's preface to the book 'Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio.' "Congratulations on the 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat, PM @narendramodi. The program, as our late Japanese PM Shinzo Abe wrote in the preface to the book 'Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio', reflects PM Modi's "strong passion for dialogue". #MannKiBaat100," tweeted Suzuki. In his preface, Shinzo wrote, "This book is filled with Prime Minister Modi's enthusiasm for interacting with the people of India, particularly with the youth. Talking on a one-hour radio show once a month, while addressing challenging tasks as prime minister, requires tremendous effort, and I cannot but feel his strong passion for dialogue with his people. Having met a number of leaders in the international society, I found Prime Minister Modi comes next to nobody in caring for the development of his own country from a strategic and long-term perspective. Japan and India are the two major democracies in Asia, having a special mission to join hands in leading the peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region. I hope this book will inspire many Indian youths, who will contribute to further development of India." The Japanese envoy also remembered 89th episode of Mann ki Baat, where PM Modi lauded the India-Japan cultural ties while citing Japanese artists, who have been staging Mahabharat and Ramayana in Asian countries. "I specially appreciate the 89th episode of Mann ki Baat, where PM Modi lauded the India-Japan cultural ties while citing Japanese artists, who have been staging Mahabharat and Ramayana in Asian countries. #MannKiBaat100," tweeted Suzuki. "As PM Modi rightly said, Mann Ki Baat is a unique festival of goodness and positivity that comes every month. And it's an inspiration to all of us. Charaiveti Charaiveti #Charaiveti India-Japan #MannKiBaat100," he added. PM Modi's Mann Ki Baat, which turned 100 on Sunday, saw very wide public engagement with more than 11 lakh people posting photos while listening to Mann Ki Baat in India and abroad. The broadcast of the 100th episode was a huge success in India and abroad, officials said. Around nine lakh tweets with billions of impressions were registered on social media. The programme, which started on October 3, 2014, has become a key pillar of the government's citizen-outreach programme addressing multiple social groups such as women, youth, and farmers and has spurred community action. According to a study, over 100 crore people have connected to Mann Ki Baat at least once, it speaks directly to people, celebrates grassroots-level changemakers and achievements of people and has influenced people towards positive actions. The 30-minute programme was also broadcast at the United Nations headquarters in New York. (ANI)
Defence expert Dhruv Katoch on Wednesday said that the visit of Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to India, for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers' meeting, won't be productive as "he lacks the depth of wisdom" but he may make some statements to earn some brownie points in Pakistan. However, in an exclusive interview with ANI, defence expert Dhruv Katoch on Wednesday said, "Very frankly, I don't think this visit is going to be very productive. He doesn't really have that maturity and depth of wisdom to be a statesman and to sort of conduct himself with a level of maturity." The upcoming visit of Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to India to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers' meeting to be held in Goa from May 4-5 has garnered a lot of traction in the media. As the current Chair, India will host the next Summit of the Council of Heads of State this year. The SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting is scheduled to take place in Goa on May 4-5. Bhutto-Zardari will lead the Pakistani delegation to the meeting of SCO Foreign Ministers (CFM), according to Pakistan's Foreign Ministry. Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov are also likely to participate in the meeting. Katoch further said that this is an SCO visit, so, as per the protocol only matters pertaining to SCO will be discussed. "It will be inappropriate for Mr Bhutto to raise bilateral issues. I don't see this happening during the course of the conference. However, after the conference is over, I am quite certain that Indian journalists will interview Mr Bhutto and I think in that interview whatever Mr Bhutto has to speak -- he will actually speak there, that will be designed for both the Indian and Pakistani audience. I am certain, during that interaction with the media, he is going to raise bilateral issues, especially Kashmir," he said. Notably, Bhutto-Zardari's visit comes after the Poonch attack. On April 20, an Army vehicle passing Bhimber Gali and Poonch in the Rajouri sector was fired upon by unidentified terrorists, through grenades, which lead to the death of five soldiers. "When we are looking at the ground situation, I think that the Indian stand is very clear now. We are not going to carry out any bilateral engagement or talks with Pakistan till such time that terrorism stops and we have to have visible proof of that terrorism, so, when India says, talks and terrorism cannot go together, we mean it. I don't think there is going to have any breakthrough just because Mr Bhutto has come and he is a young man and he is 30+ years and he is a foreign minister -- any earth-shaking event is going to take place. This person, very frankly in Pakistani politics is quite inconsequential -- he is coming here and making some statements to earn some brownie points in Pakistan. I think that is what will actually happen," Katoch told ANI. He also lambasted Pakistani FM for making "derogatory" remarks at Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a press conference at the United Nations in New York in December 2022. "The statement made by Mr Bhutto -- he is a young man and he comes from a very long line of diplomats. For him to make such a statement against PM Modi -- spoke of a very low calibre. He should have not done it. I think it will behove him and his country when he comes to India to apologize for that statement. I don't think he will do it, but, if he does it, I think, he can regain some stature, otherwise, he has reduced himself to a very low level by a statement which should not have been uttered by a foreign minister," said Katoch. BJP leader from Jammu, Kavinder Gupta also stressed that terrorism and diplomacy cannot go hand-in-hand over Bhutto-Zardari's visit to India. "India has made relations with every country through diplomacy, but Pakistan has always back-stabbed us. Many times they were taught lessons. This is a good initiative, but they have to understand. India's diplomacy today under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has achieved a lot. Pakistan needs to learn from it, there are many things which can be sorted by talking with each other, but Pakistan is away from it. I think that such an initiative is a start, Pakistan should think over it as a way forward," Gupta told ANI. This will be the first high-level visit in seven years when Pakistan's Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz visited India in December 2016. Also, Bilawal will be the first foreign minister to visit India after a gap of nearly 12 years, reported Business Recorder. In 2011, then Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar visited India. Meanwhile, Captain Anil Gaur, a defence expert said that it was a "welcome step" and Pakistan finally has "mustered the courage to come to India." "Very welcome step, finally Pakistan FM has mustered the courage to come to India because of the way he has been talking against India and PM Modi at United Nations and other forums also," Gaur told ANI. Gaur also praised External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and said that he is "capable and competent." "EAM Jaishankar is capable and competent to put across to Bilawal Bhutto that what Pakistan has to do in case it wants to normalize relations with India. Without normalizing relations with India, there is no future for Pakistan also, because the entire trade that is going on now is routed to Dubai, making everything more expensive. So to get cheaper things from India, they have to mend their ways, stop exporting terrorism and all and fine-tune their own army and their attitude towards India, then only Pakistan can s. Without India's help - trade and other things Pakistan will not be able to survive. This will be put across to Bilawal Bhutto by our Foreign Minister Jaishankar," he added. Gaur said that Pakistan is on the edge of a financial crisis and if they have good trade relations with India then they can come out of this devastating situation, but this can happen only if Pakistan stop terrorism. Meanwhile, ex-diplomat Sudhir Devre highlighted India's prominence in the backdrop of the G20 presidency and SCO Chairship. "India has good relations with Eurasia - Russia and 4 members of SCO have close ties with India. China has played a key role in SCO as China and Russia started this organisation. As India is neutral, it will play a significant role this time. India is bullish on the economic front, have helped many countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, India is respected worldwide," told Devre to ANI. India will host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in New Delhi On July 3-4, which will be Russian President Vladimir Putin's first visit to the country since the conflict in Ukraine. The agenda for the Summit, which is anticipated to centre on counter-terror, Afghan stability, inclusive connectivity efforts including Chabahar Port & INSTC, aside from India's extensive outreach to Eurasia, will be finalised at the SCO Foreign Ministers meeting in Goa on May 4-5 (ANI)
Indian nationals who were evacuated from Sudan expressed gratitude to the Government of India after landing in Delhi on Wednesday evening. Another group of 62 Indian nationals that departed from Jeddah has arrived in Delhi. Sanjay Singh resident of Dewaria said, "I was stranded in Sudan amid the firing and bombing. I felt like we will not be able to return home, however, with the cooperation of the Government of India and Modiji it feels as if we have returned to earth once again." Another man, Surya Vishwakarma, a resident of Uttar Pradesh said," Operation Kaveri is successful. We feel so safe here." To ensure no Indian is left behind, the Government of India has intensified its Operation Kaveri. Earlier, a batch of 137 Indians was brought from Port Sudan to Jeddah on Wednesday. Apprising of more Indians reaching Jeddah, the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday tweeted, "#OperationKaveri IAF C-130J aircraft with 21st batch of evacuees brings 137 Indians from Port Sudan to Jeddah." The two warring factions in Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to a seven-day ceasefire, according to a statement of the foreign ministry of South Sudan on Tuesday, reported CNN. The statement added that the two sides also said that they would send representatives for peace talks "to be held at an agreed venue of their choice." Neither SAF nor RSF commented on the report on their official channels. Previous ceasefires haven't been able to put an end to the violence between the opposing factions across the nation. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the commander of the Sudanese army, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of the RSF, failed to reach an agreement, and in the middle of April, there were violent skirmishes between the two sides that resulted in at least 528 deaths and large-scale migration of refugees from the country, CNN reported. Tuesday's announcement came after the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) warned that more than 800,000 people may migrate to other nations as continuous violence impedes convoys to evacuate people from Sudan's major ports. (ANI)
[Source]

An alarming one in two Asian Americans feel unsafe in the U.S., according to this years Social Tracking of Asian Americans in the U.S. (STAATUS) Index, the leading study examining attitudes and stereotypes toward AAPIs in the country.

Conducted by The Asian American Foundation (TAAF), the study, now in its third year, surveyed 5,235 respondents aged 16 and above between Feb. 9 and March 13.

Among Asian American respondents, 52% reported feeling unsafe due to their race and ethnicity. They felt the least safe on public transportation (29%), followed by in their own neighborhood (19%), school (19%), workplace (17%), local market (17%) and voting location (12%).

The survey also found that 78%  about four in five  of Asian Americans, especially young, Asian American women, do not completely feel they belong and are accepted.

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TAAF CEO Norman Chen described the findings as a continuing and alarming trend.

Anti-Asian violence threatens our community and takes a toll in every part of our lives, from riding a public bus to attending school, Chen said. We can't blame political rhetoric and the COVID-19 pandemic alone for anti-Asian sentiment. Historic stereotypes and prejudices towards our communities are persistent and deeply entrenched.

Chen said the study also shows that geopolitics may affect anti-Asian sentiment.

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Of the total respondents, a whopping 83% see China as a military or national security threat; 74% as an economic threat and 44% as a health threat.

Meanwhile, more than one in four respondents believe Asian Americans are more loyal to their country of origin than the U.S. About a third believe Asian Americans should be subjected to greater scrutiny if they work in areas that are considered critical to U.S. global strategic competitiveness.

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These unfortunate and enduring misperceptions erode our sense of belonging and safety as AAPIs. By tracking these perceptions, we want to draw attention and implement solutions to the very real and persistent problems impacting the daily lives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Chen said.

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Still, the survey reveals more promising trends.

An overwhelming majority of 87% think Asian Americans should be employed in jobs that involve national security, while 79% do not see people of Chinese descent as a threat.

The inaugural STAATUS Index, released in 2021, was among the first national studies of its kind in 20 years. It found that 11% of Americans saw Asian Americans as at least partly responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic  a figure that has grown to about 1 in 5 this year.

More from NextShark: Miss 2022? Buy last years air online from Japan

Check out the full survey here.
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff on a tour of the Denver Mint on March 11, 2022 in Denver, Colorado. Jason Connolly-Pool/Getty Images

The government could run out of money to pay its debts as soon as June 1, and Congress hasn't acted.

One potential solution: Minting a trillion dollar platinum coin to pay off debts and avert disaster.

The coin is unlikely to fly, but Biden aides are looking at other legal workarounds.

The US is hurtling towards an entirely preventable economic crisis, and a trillion-dollar coin could solve all of its problems  if the Biden administration decides to take it seriously.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the government could run out of money to pay its debts as soon as June 1, triggering a never-before-seen debt-ceiling crisis. Even a short default could cost the country almost a million jobs and trigger a recession.

But Republicans and Democrats are still waiting for the other to blink. The House GOP narrowly passed a bill last week that would tie massive budget cuts to a one-year increase, which Senate Democrats have proclaimed dead on arrival. President Joe Biden said he would veto that legislation, and continues to insist upon a clean raise.

Some economists say that means it's time for a break-the-glass option: a trillion-dollar coin.

The coin  which wouldn't need to be bigger than an average coin, and can be made quickly  is part of a potential debt-ceiling loophole. The Treasury Department can mint platinum coins of any denomination. That's led to a school of thought that says Yellen should simply mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin and deposit it to pay off the debts until a more permanent solution can be found.

"At this point, if any of the other solutions, the so-called more serious solutions would work, then they would've been used by now. But they keep not actually being strong enough. The coin's the only one that's strong enough," Rohan Grey, an assistant professor at Willamette University College of Law, told Insider.

To be sure, Biden's administration has not been so accepting of using a $1 trillion platinum coin to avoid an economically catastrophic default. Yellen, for example, dismissed the idea back in January, saying that it "is not by any means to be taken as a given that the Fed would do it, and I think especially with something that's a gimmick."

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"The Fed is not required to accept it, there's no requirement on the part of the Fed," she added. "It's up to them what to do."

Brian Riedl, a senior fellow and economist at the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, told Insider that "the first problem with the trillion-dollar coin is they would have to get past their own Treasury Secretary."

"There is a large chance the courts would shoot it down," Riedl said. "There's a large chance the Treasury Secretary would not be on board. The Federal Reserve may not be willing to accept the trillion-dollar coin."

Grey said that the coin is a type of "messaging symbol." At the end of the day, he argued, it helps break through the noise, and show that a simple solution can be the best one. Yes, a trillion-dollar coin is silly, but would Biden "rather not look silly and hurt seniors and hurt Medicare than the other way around?"

A constitutional workaround could also solve the problem

Calls for the coin come as Biden aides look into whether the debt limit itself is constitutional, according to The New York Times.

Even if the coin isn't on the table, there could be yet another way to avoid a default while avoiding congressional drama. The Times reported on Tuesday that, according to people familiar with the discussions, officials in the White House, Treasury, and Justice Departments have floated invoking a clause in the 14th Amendment that could take care of the debt ceiling without lawmakers' approval.

The clause states that "the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned." Some experts suggest that this could mean a default  and thus the debt ceiling  would be unconstitutional.

"Of course, the Biden administration is not only going to look into these constitutional options, but more importantly they're gonna signify to Republicans that they're looking at these extralegal and constitutional options as a threat to undercut the legitimacy of the Republican position," Riedl said.

Yellen has been critical of that route as well, telling ABC's "This Week" in 2021 that she believes it is Congress' job to raise the debt ceiling.

"It's Congress's responsibility to show that they have the determination to pay the bills that the government amasses," she said. "We shouldn't be in a position where we need to consider whether or not the 14th Amendment applies. That's a disastrous situation that the country shouldn't be in."

And yet, here we are. Biden is meeting with McCarthy, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on May 9 to discuss raising the debt ceiling. A White House official told Insider in a statement that Biden "will stress that Congress must take action to avoid default without conditions."

With just 12 legislative days left in the House before June 1, the clock is ticking.

"I think in this instance there probably will be a deal," Riedl said. "It will probably come from a few scraps of the House-passed plan and no one will come away happy, but everyone will come away thinking they got something that they can sell back home."

Read the original article on Business Insider
May 3 is the #FreedomtoLearn National Day of Action. Heres everything you need to know about the fight for inclusive education.

May 3, 2023, is the #FreedomtoLearn National Day of Action. In response to the growing threat of censorship within the American education system, the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) and organizations nationwide, like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), are coming together to defend truth and protect the freedom to learn.

May 3, 2023, is the Freedom to Learn National Day of Action (Photo: Freedom To Learn)

It is not simply a debate about curriculum, said Dr. Karsonya Kaye Wise Whitehead, Ph.D., host of Today With Dr. Kaye and an associate professor for Communications and African and African American Studies, on a segment of her show. What we are talking about is a fight about the direction of this country. [] We are standing up and saying that our classrooms  this nations heart and soul  are not up for debate; they are not up for discussion. You are not going to whitewash us out of history.

Over the past few years, there have been increasingly heated debates over what should and shouldnt be taught in the classroom. From banning books to attempts at watering down African American history curriculums to state legislatures introducing bills restricting teachers from discussing specific topics like race, gender, sexuality, and inequality, the discourse has become more of a threat nationwide, especially for marginalized communities.

Unfortunately, the battle for equal and inclusive education far pre-dates the anti-woke and dont say gay bills we see today. Dr. Kaye explains how this fight goes as far back as the year 1740, when southern slave states enacted anti-literacy laws which prevented anyone from teaching enslaved and free people of color to read and write. However, currently, Black scholars and educators are particularly concerned about the removal of critical concepts like intersectionality, Black feminism/womanism, and institutional/structural racism from the 2023 AP African American studies course. While the College Board has announced a review of this new curriculum, activists are still concerned with the influence political opinions can have on these issues.

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At this very moment, 21 states have enacted measures that censor the honest examination of racism and race in this society, a measure that has already impacted millions of K-12 and college students. Those who promote this extremist agenda of anti-wokeness are undermining not only public education but diversity and inclusion practices throughout government, the military, and corporate America. Vulnerable, marginalized, and historically oppressed communities are merely pawns in their game of extreme partisan politics, read a press release.

The Freedom to Learn campaign is a movement confronting the growing disinformation campaign against the erasure of history and lived experiences of marginalized communities, critical race theory, and equitable legislation, as a press release describes. Having gained the endorsement of the nations Black-led legacy civil rights organizations, the Freedom to Learn campaign launched the day of action to spotlight the attack on inclusive education, which is ultimately a lethal assault on democracy.

Today, the campaign and partnering organizations are hosting rallies in D.C. and New York City, live lectures defending Black studies, virtual discussions, and banned book read-ins, where they will be handing out free banned books and more.

Partnering with communities to fight censorship matters more than ever as efforts intensify to erase stories of difference and diversity from our schools and public discourse, said Margaret Huang, SPLC president and CEO. Difficult but essential conversations about racial justice and confronting our collective past must continue in classrooms. Nothing should stop that  not hate groups or anti-democracy extremists, not unrepresentative school boards, and not authoritarian governors.

According to PEN Americas index of school book bans, 1,477 books were banned within the first half of the 2022-2023 school year; 30% of those books discussed race, racism, or featured characters of color. In honor of the movement to preserve Black history and literature within the education system, here is a list of books by Black authors who have been banned or challenged because they include themes related to race and sexuality:

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

by Mildred D. Taylor

The 1619 Project

by Nikole Hannah-Jones

"The Hate U Give"

by Angie Thomas

"The Stars and the Blackness Between Them"

by Junauda Petrus

"All American Boys"

by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

"Hood Feminism"

by Mikki Kendall

The New Kid  and Class Act

by Jerry Craft

"All Boys Aren't Blue"

by George M. Johnson

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

by Maya Angelou

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

by Mildred D. Taylor

Haniyah Philogene is a multimedia storyteller and Lifestyle reporter covering all things culture. With a passion for digital media, she goes above and beyond to find new ways to tell and share stories.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. TheGrios Black Podcast Network is free too. Download theGrio mobile apps today! Listen to Writing Black with Maiysha Kai.

The post 10 books to read in honor of Freedom to Learn National Day of Action appeared first on TheGrio.
Ten days after a search began for a missing Florida man in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, officials say they are scaling back what had grown into a massive operation.

"Rangers and search teams will begin to reduce the scale of the search for Gordon Kaye," read a May 3 news statement from the National Park Service.

Kaye, 69, of Tampa, Florida, was reported missing on April 26. He was last seen on April 23 near a backcountry campsite in the Deep Creek area of the national park near Bryson City.

Previous coverage: Great Smoky Mountains search for missing man intensifies near Deep Creek

The search will continue with fewer people assigned to the team. To date, 288 people from 51 agencies and four states have helped with the search, according to the news release. This week, approximately 10 searchers per day will continue efforts by foot, on horseback, and with dog teams.

"The search area is steep, slippery, and covered in dense vegetation. NPS rangers are also using an unmanned aircraft system (also called UAS, or drone) to search in areas where vegetation cover allows."

Great Smoky Mountains National Park rangers are searching for Gordon Kaye, 69, in the Deep Creek section of the park.

Kaye is described as a white male with brown hair and blue eyes. He is 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs about 200 pounds.

Park rangers are asking anyone who may have seen or talked to Gordon Kaye to call the park dispatch center at 865-436-1230 or Swain County Dispatch at 828-488-2196.

The Smokies, which sprawls across a half-million acres of rugged, forested terrain in Western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, is the most-visited national park, with some 12.9 million visitors in 2022.

Related story Great Smoky Mountains National Park among top parks in the country for search and rescues

Answer Woman: How many died in Great Smokies, Blue Ridge Parkway in 2022?

Park spokesperson Emily Davis said there are about 100 search and rescue operations in the park each year, one of the highest numbers across all national parks.

"All searches are different because of terrain, weather, temperatures, and amount of gear and food the person has with them," Davis told the Citizen Times.

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She said there have been at least four significant searches in the park since 2017, all of which lasted more than five days, including the search for Austin Bohanan, an 18-year-old from Blount County, Tennessee, who had been hiking with his father off-trail when the two became separated, the Citizen Times previously reported.

Bohanan was missing for 11 days. But on Aug. 21, 2017, he emerged hungry, but safely, from the woods in the Shope Creek area of the park. He survived mostly on water and by following creeks. He was finally able to wave down a boat on Abrams Creek, which picked him up and gave him a ride back to his family.

Karen Chavez is Interim Executive Editor for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Tips? Call 828-712-6316, email, KChavez@CitizenTimes.com or follow on Twitter @KarenChavezACT. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Great Smoky Mountains National Park missing man search scaled back
The Labor Department found two 10-year-olds among more than 300 minors working at numerous McDonalds locations in four states.

The department said in a Tuesday release that its Wage and Hour Division found the two 10-year-olds working at a location in Louisville, Ky. The division found that three franchisees  Bauer Food LLC, Archways Richwood LLC and Bell Restaurant Group I LLC  employed 305 children to work more hours than legally permitted and perform tasks that federal law prohibits.

The children were found to be working in 62 locations operated by the three franchisees in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio. The franchisees were fined more than $212,000 in total.

Too often, employers fail to follow the child labor laws that protect young workers, said Karen Garnett-Civils, the Labor divisions district director in Louisville. Under no circumstances should there ever be a 10-year-old child working in a fast-food kitchen around hot grills, ovens and deep fryers.

The division found that Bauer Food employed 24 minors under 16 years old to work more than legally allowed. This included the two 10-year-olds who were employed but not paid and worked as late as 2 a.m.

One of the two was allowed to operate a deep fryer, which workers under 16 are prohibited from doing. Bauer was fined almost $40,000 for its violations.

Bauer Food denied that that 10-year-olds were approved by its organization management to work for the restaurant. It said that they were the children of a night manager who were visiting their parent at work.

The franchisee said any work done was at the parents direction and in their presence without any management or leadership member authorizing it. It added that it has taken steps to ensure its policy on children visiting a parent or guardian at work is clear to all its employees.

The Labor Department release states that Archways Richwood let 242 minors between ages 14 and 15 work longer than legally permitted, causing a fine of more than $140,000.

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Bell Restaurant Group I allowed 39 minors between 14 and 15 to work more hours than legally allowed, and two were allowed to work during school hours. The franchisee was fined about $29,000 for the violations.

An employer who hires young workers must know the rules. An employer, parent or young worker with questions can contact us for help understanding their obligations and rights under the law, Garnett-Civils said.

Tiffanie Boyd, the senior vice president and chief people officer of McDonalds USA, told The Hill in a statement that the reports are unacceptable, deeply troubling and run afoul of the expectations that the company has for its entire brand. She said the company is committed to ensuring franchisees have the resources they need to foster safe workplaces and comply with all labor laws.

It is not lost on us the significant responsibility we carry to ensure a positive and safe experience for everyone under the Arches. I know how important it is that every restaurant fosters a culture of safety. As a mother whose teenage son proudly worked at our local McDonalds, I feel this on a very personal level, Boyd said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
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During coronation week, the British Emporium in Grapevine will be selling a variety of souvenirs in honor of the new king.

The coronation of King Charles III will be at Westminster Abbey on Saturday, May 6. North Texas Brits and Anglophiles will be able to celebrate the historic occasion with an event hosted by the British Emporium, located at 140 N. Main. Starting at 4 a.m. on Coronation Day, a Coronation Watch Party will be held in the car park.

British royalty have visited Texas before, most notably the kings late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, visiting Austin, Dallas and San Antonio in 1991. Photos from the visit were published in the Star-Telegram including several of the queen with Dallas Mayor Annette Strauss and spectators decked out in attire adorned with the union jack.

For over 30 years, the British grocery and gift store has been the most British spot in the Metroplex and a gathering spot for royal celebrations and events, Doctor Who parties and meet-and-greets with visitors from Great Britain. The store is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m.  6 p.m. and Sunday from noon  5 p.m.

The coronation will start at 11 a.m. in London, which will be 5 a.m. in North Texas, preceded by the Kings procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey. Watch party attendees are encouraged to arrive by 5 a.m., bring their own chairs and dress in their favorite attire as if they were at Westminster Abbey. Fascinators (a formal headpiece) are also encouraged, per a news release. The store will be decorated in festive Coronation decorations.

This is such a special celebration for His Majesty, for all of the UK, and for Brits and Anglophiles across the globe, said Sheela K. Bailey, owner of the British Emporium, in the press release. For most of us, this is the first Coronation of our lifetime. We all want the week to be a fun, memorable celebration fit for a King!

Souvenirs in Texas to mark the coronation of a king

The Coronation Watch Party event will end after 7 a.m., when the store will be open for those wanting to purchase commemorative Coronation items. There is a wide variety of commemorative Coronation merchandise at the store, the British Emporium spokesperson Barry Lewis says. Here are the top 10:
King Charles has already been U.K.'s monarch for more than seven months  but his name became an even bigger talker Saturday when he was officially crowned king at a highly-televised coronation packed with pomp and circumstance.

Known as Prince Charles of Wales for years before ascending the throne, the son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip waited 70 years to become king. He sat next in the line of succession since he was 3 years old, making him the longest-serving and the most-prepared heir to the throne in British history. When the queen died Sept. 8, 2022, Charles immediately became king.

Here are 10 things to know about the king.

WATCH LIVE: King Charles III's coronation live updates

He was crowned at his coronation on May 6

King Charles was formally crowded during a solemn religious ceremony, known as Operation Golden Orb, on May 6.

Following tradition, Charles was crowned with St. Edward's crown. The crown was made for King Charles II in 1661 as a replacement for a medieval crown that melted down in 1649. Charles' mother, Queen Elizabeth, wore the same crown at her 1953 coronation.

Queen Consort Camilla was also crowned in a shorter and simpler ceremony. She was crowned with Queen Mary's crown, marking the first time an existing crown was used for the queen consort's coronation.

King Charles III formally crowned A recap of the monarch's coronation day

King Charles III waves to the crowd during a visit to Germany in March 2023.

Charles became king immediately upon Queen Elizabeth IIs death

Born Nov. 14, 1948, Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor is the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, who died April 9, 2021.

Charles became king the moment his mother died in September, meaning he immediately became head of state for the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a dozen other countries. He's also the titular head of the Church of England and head of the military and the judiciary, and he carries a host of other royal titles and duties.

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The name he chose as his regnal, or reign, name is his own first name, Charles, and it is followed by the Roman numeral III because he is the third king Charles in British history.

He is the oldest monarch to ever take the British throne

Charles, now 74, was 73 when he became king, making him the oldest monarch to ever take the British throne. In comparison, Elizabeth was 25 when she became queen and reigned until her death at 96. She was the U.K.'s oldest monarch ever, and the longest-serving, surpassing her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who reigned 63 years and died in 1901.

His eldest son Prince William is next in line for the throne

Prince William is next in line for the throne under the British line of succession, followed by his children with Princess Kate: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Prince Harry falls fifth in line after them.

Prince William and Princess Kate and their kids, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, attend an Easter service in April 2023.

He was previously married to Princess Diana

Charles was first married to Lady Diana Spencer, later known as Princess Diana. They were married for 15 years from 1981 to 1996. Diana was 20 and Charles was 32 at the time of their nuptials. The wedding was billed as a fairy tale, but their married life was not.

Britain's Prince Charles kisses his bride, Princess Diana, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London, after their wedding on July 29, 1981.

As the public would learn later, Charles had always been in love with Camilla, a woman hed met over a decade prior in 1970. During the marriage of Charles and Diana, there were affairs on both sides.

The royal couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996 before Diana's death in 1997.

He married Camilla in 2005

Charles married the former Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005 in two ceremonies in Windsor. She became known as Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. She is now the queen consort and will be crowned alongside her husband on coronation day.

Legally, Camilla was the Princess of Wales when she married Charles in 2005 but it was decided at the time she would assume one of the Charles' lesser titles instead. Princess Diana long blamed Camilla for the breakup of her marriage to Charles (even though that wasn't all Camilla's doing) and public fury remained when Camilla and Charles married eight years after Diana's death in a car crash in Paris.

Prince Charles and Camilla speak in the garden of Clarence House in London in February 2005.

Because of the controversy, few Brits thought the wedding would actually happen. Plus, a future king had never married a divorced woman. But by the couple's 10th wedding anniversary, public perception of Camilla began to change as the royal family, including the queen, embraced her. Charles once said she would never be called Queen Camilla when he assumed the throne. His wishes on that later changed, and Queen Elizabeth II made it official in February 2022 when she announced she wanted her heir's second wife to be known as queen consort.

Charles has three siblings

King Charles has a sister and two brothers. From oldest to youngest, they are Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, 72; Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, 62; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, 58. They are all children of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

Princess Anne is a full-time working royal, currently 16th in line for the throne. She appears in line after her younger brothers because she was born before the Succession to the Crown Act of 2013, which ended the system of male primogeniture.

Before the rules changed, younger sons would displace an elder daughter in the line of succession. Now the succession is based on birth order, not gender: Thus, Princess Charlotte, 7, is now third in line and ahead of her younger brother Prince Louis, 4, who is fourth.

From left, King Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, with Prince William and Prince Harry behind them, in procession during the state funeral Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle on Sept. 19, 2022 in Windsor.

Prince Andrew is eighth in line for the throne despite his scandal-ridden history. He's been under fire in Britain since at least 2011 for his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted American sex offender who died in jail in 2019. After a disastrous 2019 TV interview about his relationship with Epstein, Andrew officially stepped back from public duties and as a senior working royal.

Earlier this year, Andrew settled a lawsuit with an American sexual assault accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who had been airing allegations against him publicly since 2015.

Charles' youngest brother, Prince Edward, is a full-time working royal and is 13th in line for the throne.

He was previously known as Prince of Wales

Charles is known for his long and steady service as the Prince of Wales, a role he carried out for nearly 60 years. He participated in official and ceremonial duties and established more than 20 charities, including The Prince's Trust, The Prince's Foundation and The Prince of Waless Charitable Fund.

As Queen Elizabeth's mobility waned in the months before her death, Charles stepped in for the monarch, including standing in for her for the first time at the state opening of Parliament, when he delivered what has long been called "the Queen's Speech." Now it will be called "the King's Speech."

He is interested in environmental causes

King Charles has shown keen interest in environmental causes including organic farming, architecture and urban planning and fighting climate change.

As the Prince of Wales, he attended the COP26 in 2021 and warned that the conference was "quite literally" the last chance to save the planet from the ravages of climate change.

"As the future of humanity and nature herself are at stake, it is surely time to set aside our differences and grasp this unique opportunity to launch a sustainable green recovery," Charles said.

However, Charles opted to skip COP27 in 2022 after becoming king, fueling speculation that he will have to rein in his environmental activism now that he has ascended the throne.

He served in the military

He served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy in the 1970s, and he will no doubt be on hand for many military parades and events during his reign.

As king, Charles is expected to "slim down" the monarchy  reduce the number of working senior royals supported by taxpayers  and reduce the overall multimillion-pound annual cost of the royal show.

Read all our King Charles coronation coverage:

Biggest moments: Charles and Camilla crowned, royal family appears on balcony

The balcony: See who greeted the crowd with Charles and Camilla (not Harry)

King Charles III formally crowned: A recap of the monarch's coronation day

Queen Camilla looks regal: She is also crowned at King Charles III coronation

Prince Harry: Royal attends but misses balcony palace moment

Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis: See the royal grandchildren on coronation day

Prince Harry and Prince William: Look back their complicated relationship

Coronation photos: See all the best photos from the ceremony and procession

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: King Charles III: The UK monarch's age, spouse, everything to know
An artist stands in front of an artwork at an exhibition in San Francisco on 9 March, 2023, aimed at helping visitors think about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence (Getty Images)

Some of the worlds leading AI researchers are calling for a moratorium on research into artificial intelligence, claiming that safety issues must first be urgently addressed. If not, the outcomes could be devastating for humanity.

Others say any pause in development would not only be impractical to enforce on a global scale, but may also stand in the way of advances that could both improve and save lives.

The AI that is currently available already has the power to radically alter society, in new ways that we are seeing every day. So how might it progress over the coming years? Heres five ways it could make the world better  and five ways it might go horribly wrong.

Automate jobs

Technology has been automating jobs since the Industrial Revolution, though never before has it happened on this scale. Everyone from truck drivers to voice over artists are at risk of being replaced by AI.

A recent study conducted by OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, found that just over 30 jobs are considered safe from automation in the near future. They range from mechanics to athletes, though they represent just a sliver of the current labour market.

Self-driving cars could make taxi drivers redundant (The Associated Press)

While new jobs will be created, there is a significant chance that the majority of the population will be left jobless. This could either lead to:

Utopia: A new leisure class emerges, living off a universal basic income funded by taxes on robots and the companies that operate them.

Dystopia: Mass unemployment results in social unrest, similar to the way laid off factory workers trashed the machines that replaced them. With so many jobs at risk and the potential for huge wealth inequality, some fear it could ultimately result in societal collapse.

Scientific discoveries

Artificial intelligence is already contributing to major scientific advances, dramatically accelerating the time it takes to make discoveries.

It has been used to invent millions of materials that did not previously exist, find potential drug molecules 1,000 times faster than previous state-of-the-art methods, and improve our understanding of the universe. These are the best and worst outcomes:

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Utopia: Cancer and all other life-threatening diseases are cured, leading to a new age of health and prosperity. Scientists are already using AI tools to make breakthroughs in longevity medicine , which aims to end or even reverse ageing.

Dystopia: The same AI-enabled technology could be used for malevolent purposes, creating entirely new diseases and viruses. These could be used as bioweapons, capable of devastating populations that dont have access to cures or the tech needed to develop them.

AI-powered robots

Machines fitted with AI brains can go places and do things that would be physically impossible for humans.

Not limited by the need for oxygen, nutrients, or even a limited lifespan, smart robots could go on missions to outer space or perform dangerous tasks without risking human life.

Robots like those developed by Boston Dynamics are already to physically outperform most humans (Boston Dynamics)

Two extreme outcomes of this could be:

Utopia: AI robots help humans explore and colonise parts of the universe in order to transform us into a multi-planetary species. This would ensure the survival of humanity for millions of years, potentially even longer than the Sun.

Dystopia: AI robots form their own societies on other planets, or maybe even just inhospitable regions like Antarctica or beneath the ocean. As their civilization advances and thrives, ours disintegrates.

AI-powered humans

Dozens of startups are currently working on ways to integrate computers into our brains, some of them with the explicit intention to help us compete with advanced AI.

Elon Musk claims Neuralinks chip will give users enhanced abilities' like streaming music directly to the brain (Neuralink)

Elon Musks Neuralink has already tested the technology on pigs and monkeys, allowing them to play video games with their minds.

Others have tested them on humans with paralysis to translate thoughts directly into text. Heres how it could improve or ruin lives:

Utopia: AI brain chips allow us to progress at an unimaginable technological rate as a society. Combined with advances in healthcare, it could lead to a new post-human, cyborg era.

People of the future will go to the app store and search "drugs" and a bunch of drug experience apps will show up. They'll tap one for a 30-second sample and the brain-machine interface in their head will give them that experience. If they like it, they can pay for a full hour or  Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy) May 2, 2023

Dystopia: If brain-machine interface technology is not available to  or accepted by  everyone, then it could quickly lead to a two-tiered society of the AI-enabled and the AI-disabled.

AI surpasses human intelligence

The so-called technological singularity is anywhere from a few years to a few decades away, depending on who you listen to.

Once an artificial general intelligence, or superintelligence, surpasses the smartest human, its rate of progress will be impossible for us to follow, and technological growth will become uncontrollable and irreversible. Heres how that could pan out:

Utopia: We live in a world where all our needs and desires are met by AI servants and interfaces, allowing us to follow our passions in the real-world without worrying about mundane work or tasks, or plug in to a personalised virtual heaven where we exist in a Soma-like state of bliss.

Dystopia: We quickly become surplus to AIs requirements, seen as a parasite on resources and wiped from the face of the Earth.
Stockbridge police have arrested two suspects believed to have been involved in a recent rash of thefts, including one where more than 130 vehicles were broken into on Sunday.

Police arrested 19-year-old Jordan Kelley and 20-year-old Tavari Reid on Tuesday morning.

Officers responded to a report of suspicious activity in the area of Clifford Court and Old Atlanta Road around 4:30 a.m. in Stockbridge. When they arrived, officers found Kelley and Reid and determined they had broken into several cars nearby.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Officers said that evidence they discovered at the scene suggests that Kelley and Reid are connected to these recent break-ins across metro Atlanta.

Channel 2 Action News Sunday AM reported live from Abbey at Eagles Landing and North Park at Eagles Landing apartments. Channel 2s Justin Carter saw many cars that were ransacked and had plastic covering broken windows.

TRENDING STORIES:

Kelley is charged with seven counts of entering auto, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and financial transaction card theft.

Reid is charged with seven counts of entering auto, obstruction, giving a false name to law enforcement, and financial transaction card theft.

Police said they are reviewing evidence and working with other law enforcement agencies to determine the additional charges each man will face.

Kelley and Reid were taken to the Henry County Jail.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
SeaWorld Orlando guests can now catch a glimpse of two endangered great hammerhead sharks during their next visit.

The pair of sharks, named Dutch and Dillon, were transferred from Georgia Aquarium as part of shark conservation programs across accredited zoos and aquariums.

The pair joins five other shark species on display in the 700,000-gallon aquarium at Shark Encounter at SeaWorld Orlando.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists great hammerhead sharks as critically endangered. SeaWorld officials said their very large dorsal fin makes them very valuable on the shark fin market, which is the biggest threat to all shark species.

Read: SeaWorld teases opening time frame for new Pipeline roller coaster

Experts estimate great hammerhead shark populations have declined 50-80 percent.

Great hammerhead sharks are the largest of the nine species of hammerhead sharks. SeaWorld officials said the young males are about 7 feet long and expected to reach 10-15 feet long.

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.
Ohio officials are taking part in a dayslong search effort for a man who went missing after a boating accident.

A motorized canoe capsized in the Maumee River on April 30, sending three people into the water, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources told McClatchy News.

Two boaters safely made it to shore, while the third remains missing, the spokesperson said.

The missing person was identified as Jesse Babiuch, a 21-year-old father of two daughters, who had been boating with friends near downtown Toledo, according to WTOL. His children are 2 years old and 6 months old.

State and local officials, including the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department, were still actively searching for Babiuch as of May 3, three days after he disappeared, the spokesperson said.

Friends and family members have also organized their own search efforts, scouring the river banks for signs of him, according to posts on social media.

If anyone wants to come help and search, one friend wrote on Facebook, adding We cant give up.

Family members have been meeting at a park near the river before beginning their daily search and plan to meet there every day until Babiuch is located, according to WTOL.

Jesse Babiuch is too young, too sweet, and has a baby that needs her daddy, a friend wrote on Facebook. If you have time please help find him, even just 3 seconds to share this post and get the word out there. Hes out there somewhere and needs to be found.

Babiuch, a Toledo resident, is a fisherman and auto mechanic, according to WTVG.

The official search for him transitioned into a recovery mission on May 1, according to the Toledo Blade.

This is honestly crazy that all of this is happening, a friend wrote on Facebook, adding Ive enjoyed all the days going fishing with you. (...) Ive been crying all day...

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A manhunt for a 23-year-old woman reported missing ended with her being found safe, but now Pennsylvania authorities say her disappearance was a hoax.

Chloe Stein was located safely at an acquaintances home Tuesday, May 2, one night after she had last been seen, Pennsylvania State Police said.

At 10:30 p.m. Monday, Stein left a Sonic restaurant in Hempfield Township where she works, Trooper Steve Limani said in a news briefing streamed by a KDKA reporter. On her drive home, she texted her boyfriend to say she was being pulled over, according to state police.

When her Volkswagen Beetle was found abandoned along the road, Stein was reported as missing by a family member, according to state police.

Limani said in a news briefing posted by Neighborhood Crime Watch that police spent tens of thousands of dollars in their search for Stein, which ended with her being found alive and well at a home in Jeannette, troopers said.

Stein, according to state police, was never in any danger. Troopers received a tip she was at the home in Jeannette, a neighboring town of Hempfield Township.

State police said Stein was not pulled over. She ditched her car and walked 3 or 4 miles to stay at the acquaintances home for nearly a full day, WPXI reported.

She was at a residence. She knew people were looking for her, Limani said. She knew that the way she described the event ... would cause alarm.

Before Stein was found, workers at the college where Stein said she attended called state police. They said she had not been attending college for nearly two years, according to Limani.

Stein had claimed she was supposed to be graduating from Penn State University this weekend, according to WTAE.

Limani said Stein maybe disappointing people about her not attending college was the reasoning behind her hoax disappearance.

You cant wrap your head around some peoples decisions, said Limani. I think the thing that was the most alarming was that the rest of the community was scared, and the rest of the community was concerned.

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Stein was arrested and charged with misdemeanor charges of making false reports, false alarm to agencies of public safety, obstruction of the administration of law and disorderly conduct, according to the Tribune-Review.

Hempfield Township is about 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

Help me please, man pleads on Facebook. But his alleged kidnapping was fake, cops say

Woman arrested after pretending to be kidnapped for a TikTok video, TN police say
A collage of cut outs of different characters from popular Netflix shows

Credit - Netflix (12)

Netflix may not be the very first online streaming service (iTV, based out of Hong Hong, came before it), but it sure might feel like it. The old faithful of the streamers dates back to 1997, and since then, it has amassed an impressive supply of fan favorite shows. This is by no means an exhaustive listnor a purely objective onebut it focuses largely on original content created for Netflix (no, we didnt forget about The Sopranos!). Tentpole shows include the 80s-infused sci-fi smash hit Stranger Things; Netflixs most-watched series, the South Korean survival drama Squid Game; and the well-pressed historical drama The Crown. Read on for our picks from Netflix.

BoJack Horseman

On paper, BoJack Horseman seems like an odd premise: the titular BoJack (voiced by Will Arnett) is an anthropomorphic horseand the washed-up star of a 90s sitcom. On screen, though, the acclaimed animated black comedy works, and it works well. Hilarious and unexpectedly relatable, BoJack Horseman is a smart take on the human condition in an anthropomorphic world.

Orange Is the New Black

Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) did a bad thing. Ten years ago, she transported a suitcase full of drug money for her then-girlfriend, Alex Vause (Laura Prepon). Now her world looks entirely differentshes happily engaged to Larry Bloom (Jason Biggsbut everything changes when the crime comes to light. Piper goes to prison, so does Alex, and we meet a whole oddball cast of prison regulars.

The Crown

Theres something about the concept of monarchyperhaps its privilege, power, or wealththat fascinates and enthralls the rest of us. Peter Morgan knows that well, and has drawn from his 2006 film The Queen and his 2013 play The Audience to create and principally write The Crown, which will ultimately span six seasons, and portrays the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II through the years.

Russian Doll

In the same camp as Groundhog Day and Palm Springs, there is Russian Doll, another time loop storybut this time infused with Natasha Lyonnes trademark offbeat charm. Lyonne stars as Nadia Vulvokov, who finds herself ceaselessly reliving the night of her 36th birthday party. Season 2 sees Nadia shunted even farther into the past, with serious implications for her family.

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Stranger Things

Mix investigative drama with supernatural elements, add a dash of horror and childlike worldview, drizzle that with 80s pop culture references, throw in an ensemble cast, and youve got yourself one of Netflixs flagship shows. A human experimentation facility near the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana rips open a portal to the Upside Down, a dark alternate dimension, and otherworldly chaos ensues.

When They See Us

In 1989, a white woman jogger was assaulted and raped in Central Park. Five innocent young men of color were convicted and sentenced. In 2003, the Central Park Five filed a suit against New York City for wrongful conviction, and in 2014, they were awarded a settlement. Ava DuVernay created, co-wrote, and directed this acclaimed crime drama miniseries that tells their stories.

Unbelievable

Based on a string of serial rape cases between 2008 and 2011 in Colorado and Washington, Unbelievable grounds its story around Marie (Kaitlyn Dever), a teenager who was charged with lying about having been raped. Two detectives, Grace (Toni Collette) and Karen (Merritt Wever), connect dots between cases across the map to uncover the truth.

Unorthodox

Inspired by Deborah Feldmans 2012 autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, Unorthodox follows Esty Shapiro (Shira Haas), a 19-year-old member of the Satmar sect of the ultra-Orthodox community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But when she flees to Berlin to escape an arranged marriage and an unhappy life, her past follows her.

GLOW

GLOW, or the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, is a fledgling professional wrestling promotion that consists of a dozen or so unconventional womenincluding Ruth Zoya the Destroya Wilder (Alison Brie) and Debbie Liberty Belle Eagan (Betty Gilpin). Ruth and Debbie, former best friends, have a rocky past, and the tension between them continues into the ring.

I Think You Should Leave

The official name of this show is I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinsonwhich makes sense, given that Robinson created the sketch comedy show (alongside Zach Kanin), and stars in most of its sketches. Sketches often consist of a character making a mistake, then doubling down and trying to convince the room that they are right and everyone else is wrong.

The Queens Gambit

Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a chess prodigy whose rising star just keeps climbing higher and higher. She beats everyone she plays, evenand especiallythe men. But Beth has a troubled past: shes an orphan who develops an addiction to the tranquilizer pills that the orphanage dispenses daily. But that wont stop her on her way to a major international chess tournament.

The Haunting of Hill House

Horror icon Mike Flanagan created and directed this eerie and perhaps surprisingly affecting supernatural drama, loosely based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson. 26 years after Hugh and Olivia Crain and their five childrenSteven, Shirley, Theo, Luke, and Nellmove into Hill House, they must reunite to reconcile with a past that wont leave them.

Maid

Alex (Margaret Qualley) lives for her two-year-old daughter, Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet). Together, the pair escape from Alexs abusive boyfriend, Sean (Nick Robinson), and set out to build a life of their ownbuilt on the job Alex gets, cleaning houses for Value Maids. Inspired by Stephanie Lands memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mothers Will to Survive, Maid is a poignant portrait of a woman enduring.

You

Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) has a problem. Well, he has a lot of problems. The New York bookstore manager doesnt just fall in lovehe gets absolutely, head-over-heels obsessed. In the first season of this popular psychological thriller, that obsession hinges on Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Beck), an aspiring writer who Joe tracks, stalks, and tries to ensnare.

Mo

Mo Najjar is a character, but Mo Amer is a real-life comedianand both are achingly funny. Mo is loosely based on Amers life as a Palestinian refugee living in Houston, Texas, with a few embellishments for style and flair. The comedy-drama, co-created by Ramy Youssef, reps Burin, Palestine and its olive oil just as hard as it goes for Alief, the Houston suburb once home to Beyonce and Lizzo.

Squid Game

In Netflixs most-watched series, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a.k.a. Player 456, is flat broke and desperate for money. Desperate enough to kill. Gi-hun is one of 456 players who attempt increasingly perturbing versions of classic Korean childrens games for a chance at $35 million. The catch? Losing a game means death.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper) is one of the Indiana mole women. That is to say, Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne (Jon Hamm) kidnapped her 15 years ago, put her and three others in an underground bunker, and convinced them that they alone had survived the nuclear apocalypse. Newly rescued, Kimmy is on her own in New York City, hilariously discovering what she missed.

American Vandal

Dylan Maxwell (Jimmy Tatro) says hes innocent. He did not vandalize 27 teacher and faculty cars in his high school parking lot with phallic images. This laugh-out-loud mockumentary follows two friends, Peter (Tyler Alvarez) and Sam (Griffin Gluck), as they launch an investigation into the crime, trying to exonerate Dylan.

Heartstopper

Boy meets boy. Boy one joins the rugby team to spend time with boy two. Boy two comes to the realization that maybe, just maybe, he likes boy one. Maybe he likes boys in general. This coming-of-age rom-com/drama is adapted from the webcomic and graphic novel of the same name by Alice Oseman, who wrote the show as well. Osemans hand drawn motifs pepper the show, epitomizing its warm charm.

Queer Eye

Antoni Porowski tackles food and wine. Tan France is in charge of fashion. Karamo Brown teaches culture. Bobby Berk leads interior design. And Jonathan Van Ness takes care of grooming. Together, these five queer people help reboot and refresh the lives of individuals around the country to heighten their lifestylesand their love lives.

The Great British Bake Off

A group of amateur bakersrelatable and easy to cheer forcompete (politely, in their British way) to wow the judges with their baking skills. Each round, a contestant is eliminated, until a winner is selected from those who reach the final round. Thirteen seasons later, The Great British Bake Off is delicious escapism at its finest.

Derry Girls

Derry, Northern Ireland in the 1990sthe tail end of the Troubleswasnt necessarily a picturesque place. But to four girlsErin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), Orla (Louisa Harland), Clare (Nicola Coughlan), and Michelle (Jamie-Lee ODonnell)its home. The group of highschoolers, plus Michelles British cousin, James (Dylan Llewellyn), grow up together in this side-splitting teen sitcom full of Catholic school hijinks and teenage mischief.

Sex Education

Imagine your mother is a sex therapist. Now imagine that youre a teenage boy in high school and your mom is overly involved in your life. Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) is a socially awkward guy who knows more about the mechanics of sex than most of his peers. So he starts a sex therapy clinicalongside edgy Maeve Wiley (Emma Mackey)from inside his schools bathroom stalls.

Money Heist (La Casa de Papel)

The Professor (Alvaro Morte) is a mysterious man. He recruits eight strangersrunaways, jewel thieves, miners, counterfeiters, hackersto carry out his brilliant plot: rob the Royal Mint of Spain. With painstaking detail, the heist unfolds episode by episode, as viewers hold their breath. Will this ragtag group of lovable criminals get away with the crime of the century?

Bridgerton

This wildly popular fantastical period piece is dripping in glamor, intrigue, and secret affairs of the heart. In its first season, Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) is named by Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) as the diamond of the seasonthat is, the social season in Regency era London, when upper-class youth enter society and search for perfect pairings.
Four men are now facing charges in connection to an eastern Sioux Falls 2022 homicide, according to officials with the Sioux Falls Police Department.

The men were tied to the death of Tunis Sando Lomax, 36, from Sioux Falls, who was killed on Aug. 20, 2022, Sioux Falls Police Lt. Nick Butler said during an update on the case Wednesday morning during a press conference.

According to court records, the following charges have been filed against the four individuals in connection to the incident:

Salim Khalid Mohammed, 18, first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, receiving or possession of a stolen vehicle and grand theft.

Mohamed Hassan, 19, first-degree manslaughter, receiving or possession of a stolen motor vehicle and grand theft.

Mustefa Sahle, 20, first-degree manslaughter, receiving or possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

Hamza Aboulkader Hassan, 19, first-degree manslaughter, receiving or possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

In an affidavit, officers arrived at about 2 a.m. to the 1800 block of South Stephen Avenue to respond to a report of an adult male with a gunshot wound. At the scene, officers located a .40 caliber shell casing and several reports were received that a white car was seen leaving the area after the shooting. Lomax was found at the scene with a single gunshot wound, Sioux Falls police spokesman Clemens said at the time. Lomax was taken to a Sioux Falls hospital where he later died during the day.

Weeks later, on Sept. 9, 2022, officers responded to an address on East 10th Street for a report of a shooting where they found a group of subjects burglarizing vehicles. One of male suspects shot a gun at one of the vehicle owners, who took a photograph of the suspect's vehicle, according to an affidavit. A day later, that suspect was arrested. When arrested, officers located the handgun believed to have been used in the homicide, according to court documents and Butler.

Throughout the course of the investigation, investigators discovered the firearm used in both shootings had been purchased from Mohammed two weeks after the August shooting, Butler said. According to court documents, the gun owner reported the gun stolen and believed it was stolen just days before the shooting. The South Dakota Forensic Laboratory tested the firearm and confirmed a match to the one used in the fatal August shooting, according to an affidavit.

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During the investigation, two stolen vehicles were seen in the area at the time the incident took place. Police were able to track occupants of the vehicles with DNA swabs and security cameras.

Butler said there's no apparent motive, as the investigation continues, despite arrests having been made.

"This investigation has taken quite some time and there's some people that need to be recognized including the family of Mr. Lomax who has remained devoted ... And has been patient as can possibly be expected, given the circumstances," Butler said. "The detectives that have spent the last eight months every single day putting time and effort and their heart into this investigation."

Butler also recognized patrol officers and the Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office for their roles into the investigation.

More: Sioux Falls police identify Saturday's homicide victim, no arrests made

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls police arrest 4 people in connection to 2022 murder case
Four people were shot to death in a recreational vehicle on this property on H Street in Mojave late Sunday night. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Authorities on Wednesday identified the three women and one man who were shot to death in an RV in Mojave, Calif., this week, but after more than two days, not much else is known about the mass shooting that rattled this tiny desert community.

Anna Marie Hester, 34, Darius Travon Canada, 31, and Martina Barraza, 33, all of Mojave, and California City resident Faith Leighanne Rose Asbury, 20, were killed Sunday evening, according to the Kern County coroner's office.

Asbury was taken to a hospital Sunday night and died Monday, according to officials.

What was the nation's 185th mass shooting of 2023, according to the independent research group Gun Violence Archive, has received little media coverage in this remote desert area about 60 miles east of Bakersfield, and very little information has been provided by law enforcement.

Lori Meza, a spokesperson for the Kern County Sheriff's Office, said evidence was being processed. Homicide investigators have not disclosed a possible motive or any details about a suspect, but several hours after the shooting, sheriff's officials said the community was not under any immediate threat.

The Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to a request for an interview Wednesday and in a statement said the investigation was in a "preliminary status" and there were currently no suspects.

"Kern County Sheriffs Office Homicide Detectives are diligently working this case, actively pursuing leads, and conducting investigative follow up as well as working to ensure the investigation is thorough, lawful, and factual," the statement from the Sheriff's Office said.

A spokesperson for Kern County Supervisor Zack Scrivner, who represents the Mojave area, declined to comment on the killings and deferred all questions to the Sheriff's Office.

Investigators are asking anyone who spotted suspicious activity in the area to come forward, Meza said.

If an agency notifies the community that there is no cause for alarm after a quadruple homicide, then law enforcement authorities probably have a good idea who their suspect is based on the evidence at the crime scene, said Joseph Giacalone, adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired New York Police Department sergeant who directed that agencys Homicide School and Cold Case Squad.

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If that's not the case, Giacalone said, then investigators will need to rely on the public to help solve their investigation and get information out to the public.

"Getting it out into the media is an important step in solving these cases," he said. "I don't think there's a reluctance on that part, and if it is, it's foolish."

Kern County sheriffs deputies were called to a barren dirt lot on H Street in Mojave around 11:20 p.m. Sunday. Inside an RV, police found four people shot: a man and two women who were already dead, and a third woman who would die at a hospital, Meza said.

Investigators said they knew what caliber gun was used in the killing but did not find a weapon at the scene.

Kenny Heller, 62, whose property abuts the lot, heard the shots through a back window hed left open to catch the night breeze: four in quick succession, he said.

The first RV showed up on the lot on H Street about a year and a half ago, Heller said. The grandmother of the RVs occupant once lived in a house next to the lot. But she fell behind on taxes and lost the house, Heller said. The home has since been fenced off, its windows and doors covered with plywood.

Police would come every once in a while and red-tag the RVs that gathered there, Heller said. People from the real estate company that owned the lot told the occupants to leave. But they stayed, the mounds of junk growing, syringes cast off in the dirt, he said.

Another resident said the victims were homeless and spent most of their time in the area, which includes a vacant lot west of Highway 14 separated from the center of town by railroad tracks.

In 2021, Kern County had the highest homicide rate in California with 13.7 killings per 100,000 residents, according to a report from Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta. The statewide rate was 6 people killed per 100,000.

After Sunday's mass killing, residents and groups that provide homeless services to the rural community were unsettled.

Anna Saavedra, who supervises the East Kern Family Resource Center in Mojave, said she and others were still uneasy.

"We're open, but we locked our doors," Saavedra said of the center, which offers a food pantry, emergency clothing services and parenting training.

The day after the shooting, there was no heavy media presence in Mojave.

Giacalone said it was possible that there is fatigue among the public when it comes to mass shootings.

On April 15, he noted, four people were killed and 32 injured when a gunman opened fire at a 16th birthday party in Dadeville, Ala. To Giacalone, coverage of the shooting did not last very long in the news cycle.

"I think the American people have kind of gotten desensitized to mass shootings," he said. "It's up to the news media to also pick up on these stories."

Anyone with information about the homicide investigation in Mojave is urged to contact the Kern County Sheriffs Office at (661) 861-3110, or they can leave an anonymous tip at (661) 322-4040.

Los Angeles Times staff reporter Matthew Ormseth contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg (C) attends a press conference in Sanaa, Yemen, on May 3, 2023. The United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg announced on Wednesday that he had "positive engagements" with Houthi authorities in Sanaa, calling on concerning parties to take bold steps to end the years-long war in the country. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)

ADEN, Yemen, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg announced on Wednesday that he had "positive engagements" with Houthi authorities in Yemen's capital Sanaa, calling on concerning parties to take bold steps to end the years-long war in the country.

Speaking to reporters after concluding his two-day talks with Houthi leaders in the Houthis-held Sanaa, Grundberg said the discussions were "frank, detailed and constructive."

He said he was encouraged by the "positive and constructive atmosphere" and looked forward to holding further talks with the Houthis, Yemen's internationally recognized government, as well as Saudi Arabia and Oman.

"Moving forward, any agreement needs to deliver tangible benefits for all Yemenis. It should durably stop the violence through a cease-fire that ensures the safety of the Yemeni people," Grundberg said, adding that any agreement should pave the way for an "inclusive, Yemeni-owned political process under the United Nations' auspices."

The UN envoy called for increasing aid access through the Sanaa airport and Hodeidah ports, resuming oil exports, and opening key roads.

After a year of relative calm in Yemen, Grundberg urged all sides to take "bold steps" to end the conflict that has ravaged the country for over eight years.

Grundberg arrived in Sanaa on Monday to meet with high-ranking leaders of the Houthi group.

The envoy's visit comes after two diplomatic delegations from Oman and Saudi Arabia visited the city in early April and held direct talks with Houthi representatives, which the Houthi group described as "serious and positive" and made progress on some issues.

Yemen has been embroiled in a years-long military conflict after the Houthi militia took control of several northern cities and ousted the Yemeni government from Sanaa in 2014.

The ongoing conflict has resulted in a staggering number of casualties and has plunged the Arab world's poorest country into humanitarian crises, including widespread famine. 
A 5-year-old girl will have surgery to remove her eye after a shooting sent a stray bullet through a window at her dance class, hitting her in the face, her mother said.

Nevaeh Brown was one of two children shot when gunfire erupted near a dance studio in Athens, Georgia, on April 26, according to Athens-Clarke County police and news outlets. A 14-year-old girl was also hit in the arm.

Both were taken to a hospital for treatment, police said.

It was traumatic, NeVaehs mom, Brittanie Wright, told WXIA in the wake of the shooting. To see the injury, the blood, to see everything I didnt know what to do or what to think. I didnt know where the bullet was at, or if it was still in her eye.

In an update, Wright said doctors werent able to save her daughters eye. Now shes focused solely on her childs recovery as they navigate her new reality.

NeVaeh will be having another surgery May 11th to get her eye removed bc there is no vision in it at all an she will get a prosthetic within 2 months after surgery, she wrote in a Facebook post May 2. Thanks for all the support an prayers as it is still needed.

A witness told officers he heard three gunshots and saw two cars drive off, the Athens Banner-Herald reported, citing a police report.

Officers arrived and saw a woman cradling a child who had blood on her face and (was) holding a wad of papers over her left eye, which appeared a grievous injury, according to the newspaper. Authorities said another child suffered a gunshot to her arm and was bleeding excessively, the Banner-Herald reported.

Officers arrested 38-year-old Rasheed Scott of Atlanta one day after the shooting, according to a police news release. He was charged with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

The condition of the 14-year-old wasnt known as of May 3.

Police said the shooting remains under investigation.

Athens is about 70 miles east of downtown Atlanta.

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Dont blame us if you start putting cookie butter on everything.

Trader Joe's

If youve ever found yourself eating a heaping spoonful of Speculoos Trader Joes Cookie Butter while standing in your kitchen, then you already know how irresistibly addicting this spread is. And if you havent yet had the pleasure of indulging, this is your reminder to grab a jar or two on your next Trader Joe's run. This iconic TJ's product is imported from the Netherlands, and is inspired by a classic treat called Speculaas, or Dutch windmill cookie.

Though we do, admittedly, love eating it straight from the jar, Trader Joes Cookie Butter can be added to almost any type of dessert recipe for cookies, brownies, and even cakes. If youre a devoted cookie butter lover, here are a few sweet treat recipes youre going to swoon over.

Related:15 Trader Joe's Shopping Mistakes You Should Avoid at All Costs

Pistachio-Walnut Cheesecake

Greg DuPree

This cheesecake uses Biscoff cookies instead of graham crackers for a buttery, crumbly crust, and its absolutely divine. But if you want to take this heavenly cheesecake recipe up a notch, a little Trader Joes Cookie Butter will go a long way. While your cheesecake is cooling, add 1/4 cup of cookie butter to a pan on low heat. Watch it closely and stir often until it melts (this should take just a few minutes). When ready, drizzle the cookie butter onto the cheesecake; making sure that every slice has the perfect amount!



:get the recipe

Break-and-Bake Kitchen Sink Cookies

Trader Joes Cookie Butter simply belongs in cookiesits a no-brainer. While you can add it to basically any cookie recipe, we really recommend trying it in these Kitchen Sink cookies. You can either add about 2 to 3 tablespoons of cookie butter to the batter, or you can drizzle it on top of your baked treats once theyve completely cooled.



:get the recipe

Related:4 Easy Recipes That Start With Trader Joes Pizza Dough

Chewy Chocolate Brownies

Caitlin Bensel

What goes together better than chocolate and Trader Joes Cookie Butter? The answer is nothing. Theres just something so satisfying about a gooey chocolate brownie with ribbons of buttery TJ's CB woven throughout each piece. There are a few ways you can incorporate cookie butter into this recipe; you can add a few tablespoons to the batter itself, or you can drizzle some on top of the batter before you bake the brownies. If you choose to go with the drizzle, use a toothpick to delicately swirl the cookie butter so it creates a marble effect.



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:get the recipe

Peanut Blondies

Antonis Achilleos

If were being honest, blondies dont typically get the love they deserve. These Peanut Blondies are soft, chewy, and packed with delicious peanut butter and caramel flavor. But you know what would make these even more scrumptious? Well, Trader Joes Cookie Butter, of course. Drizzle some on top and swirl it around with a toothpick until every area has the perfect amount of cookie butter.



:get the recipe

Ice Cream Sundaes

Picalotta/Getty Images

When was the last time you indulged in an oversized ice cream sundae with all the fixings? Everyone has their favorite toppings, but were highly encouraging you to swap the hot fudge for Trader Joes Cookie Butter. You can also mix in a spoonful with your favorite flavor of ice cream. Its especially delectable in vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, or cookie dough.



:get the recipe

Challah Cinnamon French Toast

Cookie butter and French toast are another match made in heaven. While you can simply slather some Trader Joes Cookie Butter over the top of your breakfast, we recommend using it to stuff your French toast instead. Simply make a cookie butter sandwich with your French toast bread before dredging it in the egg mixture, and then cook it in the pan as you normally would. This way, each bite is sweet, cinnamon-y, and filled with cookie butter.

:get the recipe

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Read the original article on Real Simple.
A retired Seattle doctor has died while climbing Mt. Everest.

According to Outside Magazine, 69-year-old Johnathan Sugarman died while ascending the worlds highest peak. He was the first American to die on Everest this year. Four people have died during climbs this year.

Sugarman was part of a group led by Pierce County-based International Mountain Guides (IMG). They were at Camp 2 at 21,000 feet when he was reportedly not feeling well.

His cause of death is currently unknown as of this reporting.

How does WA mountain snowpack water supply look this year?

Sugarman was an experienced mountaineer who successfully ascended Aconcagua in Argentina, Denali in Alaska, and Cotopaxi in Ecuador. This was his second attempt at Everest after turning back at 24,000 feet last year.

I climbed when I was in college, but quit cold turkey when I found myself doing something that had resulted in recent deaths. I realized that I was not appropriately concerned, Sugarman said in an interview years ago. I dragged around a climbing rope, harness, and rack for years, though.

After giving up the sport for decades, he had recently taken it up again and officials said he was well prepared for the climb.

IMG founder Eric Simonson said the death was not caused by a climbing accident or route conditions that could impact the safety of other climbers.

The rest of the IMG climbing team is all doing as well as can be expected given the circumstances, Simonson said.

Sugarman and fellow climbers arrived at base camp on April 10, according to the guiding companys website. They began moving up the 30,000-foot mountain on April 29.

The deadliest avalanche in U.S. history occurred at Stevens Pass

Last September, Seattle native ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson died after she fell into a crevasse during an expedition in Nepal.

She had reached the top of Manaslu, the eighth tallest mountain in the world at 26,781 feet. An avalanche reportedly swept her off a cliff onto the south face of the mountain.

This story was originally published on MyNorthwest
UPDATE, 3 p.m. Wednesday IMPD detectives released video Wednesday of a woman they believe is connected to a car theft that resulted in the abduction of 7-month-old Jackson Shugars. The infant was found Tuesday evening unharmed. Detectives are asking for the public's help in identifying the suspect, described as a white woman who was wearing a black and white jacket with black leggings. Those with information are encouraged to call missing persons detectives at 317-327-6160, or remain anonymous by dialing 317-262-TIPS

UPDATE-Regarding the incident yesterday involving infant Jackson Shugars, detectives have provided video of the suspect. If anyone has any information on the suspect please call missing persons detectives at 317.327.6160 or you can remain anonymous by dialing 317-262-TIPS https://t.co/8n64QshduK pic.twitter.com/HKVliAy871  IMPD (@IMPDnews) May 3, 2023

UPDATE, 11:40 p.m. Tuesday Jackson Shugars and the vehicle have been located, according to IMPD, who said in a Tweet the baby appears to be fine but will be checked out by medics as a precaution. IMPD thanked the community for the information shared with the department. The investigation remains ongoing.

EARLIER STORY: The family of a missing 7-month-old is pleading for the infant's safe return after police say an unknown woman took the mother's car and drove off Tuesday evening with the baby in the back seat.

Indianapolis police are now frantically searching the west side of Indianapolis for Jackson Shugars, who disappeared about 7:30 Tuesday evening.

"Just bring my grandbaby home, that's all we ask. ... You can have everything else," begged Betty Spurlin, adding the child has health problems and requires special formula. "The baby is all we care about right now."

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The baby, Jackson Shugars, a white male with blond hair weighing about 15 pounds, was last seen wearing a brown and blue onesie, according to the Amber Alert, and is believed to be in "extreme danger."

Jackson Shugars was in a car Indianapolis police said was stolen near West Washington and Holt Road.

Police are searching for a woman who is white and wearing a black and white jacket and black leggings, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, who said officials have issued an Amber Alert.

The car is a tan 2003 Ford Taurus with Indiana license plate number TUN805. The car was last seen headed eastbound on West Washington Street, Officer William Young said. The car was reported stolen from the 4000 block of West Washington Street near Holt Road at about 8:35 p.m.

This tan Ford passenger car was reported stolen the evening of May 2, 2023 and Indianapolis police believe 7-month-old Jackson Shugars was inside.

"Business owners and residents near the 4000 block of West Washington Street are asked to check their cameras for the vehicle. Officers were called at about 7:45 pm but there was a possible delay in reporting the vehicle missing so checking before then is appreciated," the department tweeted.

Officers ask anyone who sees the vehicle or who has any information about the incident to call 911 or 317-327-6540.

Shugars "has a 4-year-old sister and a 2-year-old brother counting on him to come home and they need him," Spurlin said. "We all need him. He's the highlight of our life."

John Tufts covers evening breaking and trending news for the Indianapolis Star. Send him a news tip at JTufts@Gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Video shows woman tied to Indianapolis amber alert; baby found safe
A crash between a SUV and tractor-trailer crash ended with a driver and 8-year-old girl injured in Habersham County.

Georgia State Patrol confirmed to Channel 2 Action News that the girl had to be airlifted to Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The crash happened on Ga. 365 at Alto-Mud Creek Road around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. Troopers said the driver of a 2012 Kia Soul crashed into a tractor-trailer carrying logs.

Crash investigators said they determined the Kia Soul driver had been following the truck too closely.

Troopers said the Kia Soul driver was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center with minor injuries. The 8-year-old had serious injuries, but is stable. The tractor-trailer driver was not injured.

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IN OTHER NEWS
We went pretty quick after I asked! jokes the elder McCarthy, whose latest book, Walking with Sam, out May 9, chronicles the journey he went on with his son

Allison Michael Orenstein

After walking the Camino de Santiago across Spain some 25 years ago, Andrew McCarthy  known best for his roles in beloved 80s hits such as St. Elmo's Fire and Pretty in Pink  wanted to pass that experience on to his son, Sam, as he took his first steps into adulthood (both literally and figuratively).

"Sammy totally walked into his strength without question, emotionally and physically," recalls Andrew of the 32-day trip the pair took across the Spanish country. "Where, that's the difference between 19, and what was I? 58?" he says with a laugh.

Now 60, Andrew is a well-established travel writer, having penned The Longest Way Home and even serving as an editor for National Geographic. And, though this latest book may have started the way all his books do ("Being a travel writer, I always take notes and know that I'm going to write about something in some form," says Andrew), Walking with Sam is inherently unique.

"The Camino's a totally different thing," says Sam, now 21, who enjoyed the experience so much he even walked an extra two days beyond Santiago, Spain, to Finisterre. His father explains how that decision helped cement the concept for the book.

"After Santiago, there's Finisterre, which is the end. So, the metaphor of that, of the next generation going beyond, was so easy for me to latch on to that I said, 'There's a book then,'" Andrew jokes.

Related:Pretty in Pink Star Turned Director Andrew McCarthy Revisits the '80s with Memoir 'Brat'

Sam has both walked the walk with his father and talked the talk: he read all of his own dialogue for the audiobook, but he hasn't actually been exposed to the book in its entirety.

"He may be surprised at some things along the way, when he finally listens to it," says Andrew with a knowing laugh  one that every parent will recognize when they're perfectly tee'd up to inevitably embarrass their child.

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Throughout the book, Andrew details his complicated relationship with his own father, Stephen, whom he loved deeply, but who also had an explosive temper.

"My dad, he was a very charming, gregarious man who just I think ultimately had a lot of fear in the world that he couldn't acknowledge, and so that manifested as anger with him," explains Andrew. "I wanted to have an active relationship with my son."

Sam, like his father, is an actor in his own right: he starred on Netflix's Dead to Me as Christina Applegate's son, Charlie Harding. Though, it wasn't until after walking the Camino, Sam says, that he consciously decided to pursue acting as his full-time career.

Courtesy Andrew McCarthy

"It gave me really just time to think and breathe, 'cause I don't really think before I had much time to figure out what I wanted to do," Sam explains. "And when I allowed myself to be like, 'do I really want to act?' And then breathed on that, it gave me the freedom to come back and say, 'oh, I really do.'"

Related:Andrew McCarthy on His Memoir and Truth About the Infamous Brat Pack: 'I Recoiled from It'

Andrew never wanted any of his three children (he shares Sam with his first wife, Carol Schneider, and has two children, a daughter Willow, 16, and son Rowan, 9, with his second wife, Dolores Rice) to take up what he now calls "the family business," but he, too, came around to the idea after the Camino.

"The Camino brings you home to yourself. And so if that's what [Sam] said to himself, then so be it. Acting saved my life when I was 15, so who am I to say what?" asks Andrew. "I was flailing around. And teenagers have to find something or else they get lost. It gave me a foothold in my life."

Andrew has been open about his struggles with drugs and alcohol after his rise to fame in 80s Hollywood  he entered a rehab in 1992 and has been sober ever since.

On their month-long walk, the father and son duo covered nearly every topic one could think of talking about drugs, alcohol, sex, love, and especially heartbreak, as Sam was in the midst of his first major one.

"There's a great deal of trust on my end towards him because I spent a lot of the time the first few weeks just talking about absolute nonsense that was bothering me," Sam says of how his father handled his emotions. "He had the patience and the grace and the love to just listen to it."

"Well, I had the luxury that you'd never get with adult children, which is time," Andrew volleys. "I didn't have to have answers or solutions or fixes. I just listened."

The pain of heartbreak aside, the duo do admit that there were portions of the walk when they both questioned whether or not they were going to make it all 500 miles.

They would stop to rest at night in different hotels along the pilgrimage, eat food at local spots and bandage their blisters whenever possible.

"It's the best thing I've ever done twice, but there were certainly days, particularly in the end where I'd go, 'I'm never doing this again. I'm wrecked,'" says Andrew.

"I totally disagree. I felt that in the beginning, not towards the end. By week three, I would've done another one right away," says Sam, full of confidence.

"I mean, I was starting to wear down. When Sam's asking me on day two, 'Where's the airport?' I was quietly going, 'I don't know if we're going to make it,'" admits Andrew with a laugh.

Courtesy Andrew McCarthy

But, with 32 days in the rearview, the father and son successfully made it to Santiago.

"I'll remember it my whole life. I hope that he will, too. It's a thing that's hard to forget," muses Andrew. "I have to give a lot of credit to Sam for being willing to do that with his father. When we were walking, we were having a big dinner with a bunch of other walkers one night, and we all went around the table, impromptu. Every one of them said, 'I would never have done this with my father, ever.' And that Sammy did? It was such a"

Sam chimes in.

"More of a testament to you, Dad, than me."

Andrew pauses, his voice breaking for just one single moment.

"Well, maybe to us. It's a great gift to me," he says. "It was a great gift."

For more on the McCarthys, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE.

Walking With Sam: A Father, A Son, and 500 Miles Across Spain will be in bookstores May 9.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.
The ACLU of Kentucky has filed a legal challenge against Senate Bill 150, an omnibus bill seen by many opponents as one of the most severe pieces of anti-trans legislation in the United States.

The legal advocacy group filed the suit on behalf of seven unnamed Kentucky families, along with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the law firm Morgan Lewis. It argues that the new law, which is only partially in effect, threatens to violate both plaintiffs individual protected rights and their parents protected rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Kentucky is one of several states whose General Assembly recently enacted a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. In a legislative session marked by a Republican-led effort to combat woke ideology they say is infiltrating school classrooms and doctors offices, Senate Bill 150, targeting LGBTQ youth, was among the most controversial.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, takes issue with the portion of the Republican-backed Senate Bill 150 that bans gender transition health care services for youth living with gender dysphoria, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones such as testosterone and estrogen.

Gender dysphoria refers to the psychological distress that results from an incongruence between ones sex assigned at birth and ones gender identity, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Gender-affirming care to treat this type of dysphoria is any care administered by a provider to reduce an individuals clinically significant distress by permitting them to live in alignment with their gender identity, the lawsuit explains.

The medical prohibitions in the new ban impacting this population are not slated to take effect until June 29. As that day nears, the ACLU will file a motion for preliminary injunction, asking a lower court to temporarily block enforcement of the law, ACLU Legal Director Corey Shapiro said Thursday in a news conference.

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Currently in Kentucky, this type of health care is provided to minors only with a parents or guardians permission. Gender-affirming care, even for youth, is considered the standard of care by major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association.

Though the lawsuit challenges SB 150s medical prohibitions for trans youth, it notably does not seek to block the part of the law that bans gender transition surgery.

While S.B. 150 also governs bathroom policies and sexual education in schools, Plaintiffs claims here relate solely to Section 4(2)(a) and (b) of S.B. 150, which bans the prescription and/or administration of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender adolescents, a footnote in the lawsuit reads.

The seven unnamed trans plaintiffs who filed with their families are between the ages of 9 and 16. Three live in Jefferson County, one lives in in the Western District of Kentucky and three live in the Eastern District.

Each plaintiff is currently receiving or will need gender-affirming medical care that will be illegal and inaccessible in Kentucky once the ban takes effect this summer, care that their parents and doctors agree is medically necessary, the lawsuit states.

Most of the plaintiffs socially transitioned at a young age, meaning they began wearing clothes and expressing themselves differently from their gender assigned at birth.

One of the plaintiffs, a trans girl whos 14, has always known she is a girl. She was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at a young age, and now, with her parents consent, shes prescribed estrogen. This treatment significantly reduced JM Doe 4s gender dysphoria and helped her feel more comfortable in her body, according to the lawsuit. It has provided (her) with a level of comfort and joy that her parents had never seen before.

The lawsuit also claims SB 150 violates the Fourteenth Amendments clause protecting the rights of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children.

The ban violates this fundamental right by preventing parent plaintiffs from obtaining established, medically necessary care for their minor children, the lawsuit says.

Though gender dysphoria is highly treatable, the lawsuit explains, untreated gender dysphoria is associated with severe psychological and emotional harm, including anxiety, depression, and suicidality.

The youngest plaintiff, a nine-year-old trans girl, was diagnosed with gender dysphoria when she was seven. Since then, her parents have taken her to an endocrinologist, a social worker and other health care providers to receive affirming care. She has socially transitioned, but she hasnt gone through puberty yet and hasnt begun taking any medication for her dysphoria. Once the law takes effect, her parents worry the ban will cause their daughter irreparable harm by preventing her doctors from providing the medical care they may need when she begins puberty, according to the lawsuit.

Disrupting or denying medically needed care will inevitably cause plaintiffs and other vulnerable adolescents significant, irreparable harm, it says.

Senate Bill 150 was sponsored by Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, who initially filed a version that narrowly dealt with parental rights issues and transgender pronoun use by school employees. The scope of the bill drastically widened in the waning days of the legislature. Nearly all of the state legislatures elected Democrats opposed the bill, while nearly all the Republicans supported it.

Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed the measure, but his veto was overriden by the Republican-controlled House and Senate. Hundreds gathered at the capitol to protest the legislature when it took votes on the bill.

After filing on Tuesday, the ACLU of Kentucky tweeted, To trans youth in Kentucky: you belong here. Well continue to fight for your right to equal protection under the law & freedom to access the things you need to live full & authentic lives. To the commonwealth: well see you in court.

Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, an LGBTQ rights advocacy group, said they were working with other attorneys to file a separate lawsuit against the bill, potentially on different provisions.

The lawsuit wisely doesnt include the likely unconstitutional provisions concerning parental rights and student rights that likely conflict with federal education law, including FERPA and Title IX, Rebecca Blankenship, Executive Director of Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, said in a statement. The provisions, respectively, that remain unchallenged concern bathroom privacy, freedom of association, Dont Say Gay or Trans, and adult-on-kid harassment, issues already identified by the Kentucky Department of Education.
Yhe ACLU of Kentucky has sued to block Kentucky's ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.

The nonprofit joined the National Center for Lesbian Rights and law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius to file suit Wednesday afternoon in federal court, asking a judge to block the piece of Senate Bill 150 that impacts gender-affirming care.

They argue SB 150, which passed into law in late March over protests and a veto from Gov. Andy Beshear, unconstitutionally singles out trans kids by blocking their access to health care cisgender kids can receive. They also argue that it stifles parents' rights to make medical decisions for their children.

Under the Constitution, trans youth in Kentucky have the right to medically necessary care," Corey Shapiro, the legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said in a press release. We look forward to ensuring health care providers can continue to provide transgender Kentuckians with health care consistent with the standards of medicine adopted by leading medical authorities, not radical politicians.

The lawsuit was filed against state medical leaders, who would be tasked with enforcing SB 150, on the behalf of seven transgender children and their parents. Attorneys have asked the court to use pseudonyms for both the children and parents to protect the children's trans status and medical history.

According to the initial complaint, the lawsuit only challenges the sections of SB 150 that would ban puberty blockers and hormone therapy for trans youths. Bans on gender-affirming surgeries on minors, which weren't happening in Kentucky to begin with, are not being challenged.

Other pieces of SB 150 dealing with school bathroom policies, guidance for teachers around student pronouns and rules around teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation are not part of the lawsuit. Those pieces of the law are already in effect.

We strongly support all efforts to protect Kentuckys kids, especially Kentuckys most vulnerable: LGBTQ kids," Rebecca Blankenship, the executive director of Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, said in a statement. "We greatly appreciate ACLU-KY and NCLR in their efforts to overturn the most nefarious section within the most anti-transgender bill in the United States, S.B. 150."

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Blankenship said her group is working on filing a separate suit regarding SB 150.

"To all of Kentuckys transgender kids: Like the 6th Circuit, we see you. We will fight to ensure the courts continue to see and protect you," Blankenship said.

The ACLU has been expected to challenge SB 150 in court for more than a month.

"To all the trans youth who may be affected by this legislation: we stand by you, and we will not stop fighting. You are cherished. You are loved. You belong," the group said in a statement in late March, following SB 150's passage. "To the commonwealth: we will see you in court."

Unlike the rest of SB 150, the section of the law involved in the new legal challenge is set to go into effect at the end of June.

In a press release announcing the lawsuit, the ACLU noted that bills like SB 150 "are not based on science or best practices and are not supported or endorsed by the leading major medical groups."

"These unconstitutional measures are political attacks from groups with a fundamental opposition to transgender people being able to live openly, freely, and affirmed as who they really are," the release said.

From March: Kentucky's anti-trans bill SB 150 is now law: Here's what happens next

This story will be updated.

Reach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: ACLU of Kentucky sues to block anti-trans measure in Senate Bill 150
Videos tagged with ADHD have had billions of views on TikTok

ADHD is massive on TikTok.

Creators who've taken the hashtag to more than 20 billion views say they've helped to spread awareness and normalise the condition.

But some worry that the flood of content on our feeds and For You pages is also perpetuating stereotypes and encouraging potentially inaccurate self-diagnosis.

BBC Asian Network spoke to people with ADHD, a TikToker who makes videos about it, and a doctor to find out more.

What is ADHD?

ADHD, or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, is a complex condition thought to start in childhood that can affect people in different ways.

According to the NHS, ADHD symptoms fall into two categories - inattentiveness, and hyperactivity and impulsiveness.

These can include things like trouble concentrating, constant fidgeting and excessive talking.

To formally diagnose ADHD, a specialist will assess you against a strict checklist of symptoms and the length of time you've had them.

So having one or two traits doesn't necessarily mean you have it.

But many content creators use their platform to share their experiences, and believe they're helping others by doing so.

Humz says his content has made others question whether they might have ADHD too

Humz, 24, from Manchester, says he started his TikTok channel because he "wanted to educate people on ADHD because it usually goes undiagnosed, especially in girls".

"There are so many kids suffering," he says. "I had to speak up and I'm glad I did because of lot people in my comments started to question whether they have it."

Humz was diagnosed while he was at university.

"Before that, there were a lot of signs that I had ADHD, like recklessness - a lot of thrill-seeking like driving incidents and partying," he says.

Humz now shares self-care advice which he feels works for him, such as meditation, visualisation, and cold water therapy with his 160,000 followers.

Some of the treatments he talks about don't have much scientific research to back them up, and he says he's faced backlash for his content.

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People have accused Humz of spreading misinformation and he says he's "also had a lot of comments saying now everyone is diagnosing themselves".

"However, I don't see anything wrong with someone learning symptoms about ADHD from my TikTok."

Aish thinks social media can be good for raising awareness but people should be careful

Aish, 22, who was also diagnosed with ADHD at university, believes social media can be harmful.

"When I joined TikTok my feed was flooded with ADHD content and it got overwhelming," she says.

"I deleted TikTok six months ago and I haven't been on it since."

Aish understands social media can also open up the conversation around ADHD, but thinks more needs to be done to prevent misinformation spreading.

"It's really good for raising awareness but I've seen posts where people say if you have ADHD you cry all the time, and I don't think that's personally true," she says.

"Speaking to a professional is the best thing you can do."

Dr Saadia Arshad says self-diagnosing can be harmful

One professional with over 15 years of experience is Dr Saadia Arshad - a consultant psychiatrist practising in London.

She specialises in treating people with ADHD and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

"Social media is brilliant in spreading the word and it's good to openly talk about ADHD," says Dr Arshad.

"But it is harmful to self-diagnose.

"When someone convinces themselves that they have ADHD without seeking professional health it can be dangerous."

Dr Arshad says people should seek out real-life support where possible from properly qualified medics.

"If you think you have ADHD you should speak to your GP, and it is a good idea to keep a diary of your symptoms and feelings," she says.

"It is exceptionally dangerous to ignore your symptoms and to misdiagnose yourself because you could be missing out on appropriate help."

Tik Tok's Community Guidelines say it wants all users "to feel confident that they can access reliable information, discover original content, and engage with people who are authentic".

It adds: "This is foundational to building a community of trust and accountability both on TikTok and off-platform."

Listen to the full interview on Asian Network News Presents on BBC Sounds.

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Wandering around in southern Australia, a spiky white creature minded its own business, but the unusual-colored animal quickly drew local attention.

The rare albino echidna was spotted around the Bathurst region, the Bathurst Regional Council said in a May 2 Facebook post.

Echidnas, also called spiny anteaters, are an unusual animal found in Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, according to the San Diego Zoo. They are spiny, egg-laying mammals that rely on their hearing and sense of smell. Echidna tend to be solitary and can be seen during the day or night, depending on seasonal temperatures and food availability.

Albino echidnas are particularly rare with only a handful of the mammals ever sighted in Australia, the council said. Echidnas usually have a brown and black coloring.

A staff member spotted the rare echidna, named Raffie, the post said. Photos show the animal sniffing and digging in the rocky soil.

We thought he is just too beautiful not to share, the council said.

The albino echidna seen digging in rocky soil.

Several people commented on the post calling Raffie adorable, a stunner and a treasure.

Another Bathrust local, Geoff Hadley, also spotted Raffie recently. He was in the middle of the road on a corner I parked my car with hazards and made sure he was safe, Hadley commented on the Facebook post.

I thought it had been hit by a car originally because it just wasnt walking, Hadley told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, describing it as a once in a lifetime experience.

Ive seen hundreds of echidnas but Ive never, ever seen a white one  it was just crazy, he told the outlet.

The council urged people not to touch or approach the rare animal. It is important to leave wildlife alone, as you could risk them losing their scent trail or leaving young unattended in the burrow, the post said.

John Grant with WIRES wildlife rescue organization told Australian Broadcasting Corporation that although its unclear how rare albino echidnas are, theyre not common, thats for sure.

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I think in all the time Ive been here, which is  10 years, weve seen three, maybe four, Grant said of the unusual animal.

Bathurst is about 125 miles northwest of Sydney.

Cryptic creatures lurking in underground wells discovered to be new species in India

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Watch playful baby polar bear test its wobbly legs and explore new home at German zoo
Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel to begin Vietnam visit today

Xavier Bettel, prime minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is scheduled to arrive in Hanoi on May 3, beginning a three-day official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart.









Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel (Photo: VNA)

The visit, the first by a Luxembourg PM to Vietnam in over the past 20 years, is expected to promote the friendship and partnership between the two countries in a deeper and more substantive manner.



Vietnam and Luxembourg established diplomatic relations on November 15, 1973, and over the past five decades bilateral relations have developed positively. The two sides have maintained regular reciprocal visit exchanges to outline orientation for future cooperation.



Most recently, in December 2022, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh paid an official visit to Luxembourg, during which the two sides agreed to set up a strategic partnership in green finance at an early date.



Luxembourg agreed to support the development of a new financial hub in Ho Chi Minh City and strengthen cooperation with Vietnam in trade, investment, education-training, science-technology, and stock market.



Economic-trade-investment cooperation is an important pillar in bilateral relations. Two-way trade turnover between the two countries has increased over the years, from US$96 million in 2019 to US$181.6 million in 20021 and US$187.1 million in 2022.



As of March 2023, Luxembourg had invested in 64 projects worth US$2.6 billion in Vietnam, ranking third among 24 EU countries and 17th out of 139 foreign investors in the country.



The two countries are currently working together towards establishing a bilateral strategic partnership in green finance, aiming for sustainable and inclusive development, and implementing circular economy towards green growth.



The two sides have also agreed to expand their collaboration in other fields such as climate change response, environment, culture, and education and training.



Vietnam and Luxembourg have also maintained close coordination and cooperation at multilateral forums such as the Asia  Europe Meeting (ASEM) and within the framework of ASEAN-EU relations and the United Nations.
The new landlord of a Northeast apartment complex, laden with ownership controversies and city code violations, had threatened the disabled and immigrant tenants with mass eviction.

But thanks to a new deal just inked, the tenants will not be leaving.

In a first for the metro, Kansas City leaders intervened after two months of resident protests to stabilize the housing of eight households, about 22 people, through an agreement with city-wide tenant union KC Tenants and the landlords, real estate company ERA Holdings.

The union referred to it as a precedent setting agreement when it comes to the citys role in stopping displacement, in the May 1 announcement.

As part of the agreement, the city will subsidize the rents of tenants with $450 per month in public money  allowing each household to pay $400 monthly. Unlike other rental assistance deals, this agreement comes with strings attached for the landlord, according to KC Tenants Director Tara Raghuveer.

This type of agreement is not something that the city has engaged in before, she said.

The agreement, set to last for the next two years, guarantees tenants mail service, health code inspections and formal notices in their native language. Their rent will not increase and evictions are only possible under extreme circumstances. No tenant will be retaliated against for reporting a maintenance issue and late fees will not surpass $40.

Each of the eight households formerly facing eviction will instead be moved into a comparably-sized, rehabilitated unit, for which they will not have to submit a new housing application or security deposit, according to the KC Tenants release.

Its a property that has had dozens of city code violations, property violations, healthy homes violations for years. Its been on the citys radar for years, Raghuveer said.

Poor conditions

The North Lawn and Scarritt Avenue property was owned by local real estate company FTW Investments until late January 2023, around the same time a fire broke out in one of the apartment units.

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When firefighters arrived, they discovered rows of broken windows and doors repaired with wood planks and scraps of cardboard. Ceilings sagged, and extension cords ran from apartment to apartment.

Conditions were so dire, crews determined it would be dangerous to turn the gas back on, according to a prior Star report.

Chaw Noud, a resident, said the Lawn Avenue apartment complex has several leaks throughout.

City inspectors arrived following reports of the run-down conditions

City records for the property showed seven code cases since July 2022, with complaints ranging from overflowing dumpsters to broken windows. A written complaint from October reads, The property manager is doing NOTHING to keep the tenants safe. Two break ins, two fires within 5 days of each other and winter has not even come yet  A tenant went to court last week to press charges against a houseless man who masturbated in front of her while squatting in a vacant apartment.

The complex also failed an inspection of the buildings structure in November.

An KC Tenant petition signed by more than 400 people lamented the business model of former owners Parker Webb and Logan Freeman of FTW Investments, and referred to them as slumlords.

Several of the complexs vacant units have been overtaken by squatters.

Shortly after, the pair left the board of directors for the nonprofit reStart, which works to prevent homelessness in the metro area.

Under new ownership, ERA Holdings, and managers tasked with rehabilitating the property, Rubicon Realty, tenants learned in mid-February that their leases would not be renewed, according to Raghuveer.

By March, the tenants sent demands to the landlord, with no response. A call to action issued by KC Tenants in April led to hundreds of people texting the landlord, pressuring them to respond.

Then negotiations between the landlord, KC Tenants and the city began.

The property on Lawn Avenue has boarded-up windows from repeated break-ins.

There was a lot of back and forth about every element of the agreement, Raghuveer said.

Instead of throwing their hands up the city decided... to be proactive in ensuring that tenants could stay in their longtime homes.

She explained that the deal also sets a precedent for collaboration between the union and the city on keeping vulnerable tenants from eviction. The majority of residents living at the complex are non-native English speakers, immigrants and seniors with health conditions.

Often, Raghuveer said, the union encounters highly vulnerable tenants facing rent hikes, leading to profits for real estate companies and displacement for community members.

Every dollar of public resourcing that goes into a private pockets, especially the pocket of a landlord that lives in New Jersey, should come with really strong protections.

While she believes that old norm sets the city  and tenents  up for failure; Raghuveer is hopeful this agreement haralds a new chapter for Kansas City tenants in precarious positions.

I think the political winds are finally changing.
(Bloomberg) -- Artificial intelligence will be dangerous in the hands of unscrupulous people, according to Microsoft Corp. Chief Economist Michael Schwarz.

Most Read from Bloomberg

I am confident AI will be used by bad actors, and yes it will cause real damage, Schwarz said during a World Economic Forum panel in Geneva on Wednesday. It can do a lot damage in the hands of spammers with elections and so on.

AI clearly must be regulated, he said, but lawmakers should be cautious and wait until the technology causes real harm.

Artificial intelligence tools have come under increased scrutiny as their use exploded in recent months following the debut of ChatGPT. Policymakers are trying to pressure companies to implement safeguards around the emerging technology.

Once we see real harm, we have to ask ourselves the simple question: Can we regulate that in a way where the good things that will be prevented by this regulation are less important? Schwarz said. The principles should be, the benefits from the regulation to our society should be greater than the cost to our society.

On Thursday, US Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with the chief executive officers from Microsoft, Alphabet Inc. and OpenAI Inc. to discuss ways to reduce the risk of harm from AI technologies.

Microsoft is working to erecting guardrails to help mitigate the potential danger from AI tools, Schwarz said. The company is already using OpenAIs ChatGPT in its Bing search product, and Google released its rival Bard chatbot in March.

Schwarz warned that policymakers should be careful not to directly regulate AI training sets. That would be pretty disastrous, he said. If Congress were to make those decisions about training sets, good luck to us.

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Despite the risks, AI can help make humans more productive, he said. We, as mankind, ought to be better off because we can produce more stuff with less work.

AI will revolutionize the way most businesses operate, he said, adding that it will take time.

I like to say AI changes nothing in the short run and it changes everything in the long run, Schwarz said. That is true for every single technology that came before.

AI is expected to be a key driver of turbulence in global labor markets and will play a role in changes for nearly a quarter of global jobs, according to a WEF report published this week.

--With assistance from Amy Thomson.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Abstract microscopic photography of a Graphics Processing Unit resembling a satellite image of a big city (Fritzchens Fritz / Better Images of AI / GPU shot etched 5 / CC-BY 4.0)

Fears about the future of artificial intelligence have been raised across the world  from Hollywood writers to the experts who helped create todays technology.

It comes amid increasingly impressive demonstrations of AI, including a new paper claiming to have used the technology to read peoples minds.

But despite those . Recent warnings have come from Geoffrey Hinton, often described as the godfather of AI, as well as Paul Christiano, one of the creators of ChatGPT.

They and others have warned that AI technology is being developed too quickly, without enough concern for its potential dangerous effects. They include the technology damaging the jobs market, being used in killer robots, and more.

Here is the latest on the ongoing and excitement about artificial intelligence and the future.

The drab reality of an AI apocalypse

11:20 , Andrew Griffin

My colleague Anthony Cuthbertson has written this weeks IndyTech newsletter about how the AI apocalypse might not be the grand, sci-fi armageddon we think. Instead, it might be a lot more boring than that.

You can read the full newsletter here. And you can subscribe to our newsletter (and others!) here.

ChatGPT now helps people search for houses to rent or buy

11:18 , Andrew Griffin

Real estate company Zillow has announced the launch of a ChatGPTplugin to help users search for a house to buy or rent.

The plugin will reportedly help users interact with the artificial intelligence chatbot about the kind of property theyre planning to purchase or rent as well as share with it their selection criteria such as location and price.

With these inputs, the chatbot will then look into Zillows database and provide users with options.

Citing an example, Zillow said if a user searches for townhouses with two bedrooms and two bathrooms under $800,000 in Seattle, the AI chatbot will return relevant information from Zillows database.

Read the full story here.

ChatGPT creator heads to White House to discuss AI dangers

11:17 , Andrew Griffin

Story continues

The head of OpenAI will join chief executives from major tech firms in a meeting at the White House on Thursday to discuss issues relating to the dangers posed by advanced artificial intelligence.

Sam Altman, whose firm created the hugely popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, will meet with US Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as other high-ranking government officials. Also present will be the chief executives of Google, Microsoft and AI firm Anthropic.

The invitation to the CEOs noted President Joe Bidens expectation that companies like yours must make sure their products are safe before making them available to the public.

Concerns about fast-growing AI technology include privacy violations, bias and worries it could proliferate scams and misinformation.

You can read the full story here.

Hello and welcome...

11:02 , Andrew Griffin

... to The Independents coverage of the latest in artificial intelligence, and how it is changing the world.
Air defence forces shot down four Russian drones in Ukraine's south on Wednesday, 3 May 2023.

Source: press service of the Air Force of Ukraine

Details: On 3 May 2023, four Russian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed by the air defence forces of Air Command Skhid (East) in Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts.

Two of them were Lancet attack UAVs, one was a Merlin-BP UAV, and one was an unidentified operational and tactical UAV.

Quote: "Excellent performance by the soldiers of mobile firing groups of the Radio Engineering Brigade named after Bohdan Khmelnytskyi and the Kherson-based Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade."

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
An air-raid warning was issued in the city of Kyiv and a number of oblasts of Ukraine.

Source: alerts.in.ua, Kyiv Oblast Military Administration on Telegram; Kyiv City Military Administration on Telegram; Andrii Yermak, Head of the Presidents Office of Ukraine, on Telegram

Details: An air-raid warning was issued in the city of Kyiv and in Kyiv Oblast at around 00:15.

Currently, the air-raid warning is ongoing in Chernihiv and Sumy oblasts.

Andrii Yermak, Head of the Presidents Office of Ukraine, urged citizens not to ignore the warnings.

Added at 00:40. Yermak reported on Telegram that the air defence forces were deployed.

Added at 00:55. Air defence systems are operating in the city of Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, as reported by Kyiv Oblast Military Administration and Kyiv City Military Administration.

Added at 01:01. An air-raid warning was issued at Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

Added at 01:17. Yermak reported that air defence forces continue to operate.

Added at 01:20. An air-raid warning was issued in Donetsk and Kharkiv oblasts.

Added at 01:30. An air-raid warning was issued in Poltava Oblast.

Added at 01:50. The Kyiv Oblast Military Administration reported that the threat of an air attack is still ongoing in Kyiv Oblast.

Added at 02:00. Suspilne reported about repeated sounds of explosions in the city of Kyiv.

Added at 02:05. An air-raid warning was issued in Kirovohrad and Cherkasy oblasts.

Added at 03:45. The all-clear was given in Kharkiv Oblast. Instead, an air-raid warning was issued in Mykolaiv Oblast.

Added at 04:52. The all-clear was given in the city of Kyiv and all oblasts.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
An Air India plane. SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images

An Air India pilot spent over an hour in the cockpit with a "female friend" on a flight to Dubai in February.

According to a complaint reported by Indian media, he asked cabin crew to serve her food and alcohol.

On Monday, Air India reminded its 1,800 pilots of the "sterile" cockpit rule, reports say.

Air India had to remind its pilots to keep cockpits "sterile" after being rebuked by regulators when a pilot let a friend onto the flight deck, the Hindustan Times reported.

The pilot from the national airline  which was state-owned until 2021  spent over an hour in the cockpit with the woman on a Delhi to Dubai flight, according to a complaint seen by the newspaper.

The captain also asked for the cockpit to "appear welcoming, warm and comfortable, as though he was preparing his living room for a lady friend," aviation news site SimpleFlying reported.

A cabin crew member filed the complaint with Air India four days after the February 27 incident, but the country's aviation watchdog wasn't involved until April 21.

According to the Times of India, the complaint also said that the pilot asked the crew member to bring his friend "drinks and snacks" and "serve her in the cockpit."

"I told him, 'Captain, I am not comfortable serving alcohol in the cockpit'," the complaint adds, saying that the pilot then became "snappy and rude" toward other the crew member.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation then issued notices to Air India CEO, Campbell Wilson, and its head of safety, for taking too long to report it, per the HT. It also took the whole crew off the flight roster pending investigation.

On Monday, Air India warned all its pilots  numbering over 1,800 per the Economic Times  reminding them of the sterile cockpit rule. It says that any non-essential activities are forbidden in the cockpit during the critical phases of flight, meaning when the plane is below 10,000 ft.

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"Recent incidents have highlighted that there have been instances of a lapse in maintaining a sterile cockpit, which resulted in avoidable errors posing flight safety hazards," Air India said, per the Hindustan Times.

The sterile cockpit rule was first adopted by the US's Federal Aviation Administration in 1981, after accidents like Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 were attributed to unnecessary conversation between pilots.

A spokesperson for Air India told Insider it is conducting an internal investigation into the incident alongside the regulator's independent inquiry.

"The pilot in command of the flight has been chargesheeted following an internal inquiry by Air India and the crew is off-rostered as instructed by DGCA," they added.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Ajay Banga has been confirmed as the next president of the World Bank Group

Ajay Banga, confirmed Wednesday as the World Bank's next president, is an Indian-born American executive who has been hailed by media in his birth country as the global development lender's "face of change."

His leadership for a five-year term comes as the bank pivots to face climate change, a crucial transition that the former Mastercard chief sees as closely tied to vanquishing inequality -- and he has big plans for the private sector's role in that task.

Banga, the first World Bank president from South Asia, takes over on June 2 from outgoing president David Malpass, who is stepping down early from a presidency clouded by questions over his climate stance.

Born into a Sikh family in the Indian city of Pune, in the state of Maharashtra, Banga is a naturalized US citizen.

The 63-year-old grew up in different parts of the country due to his father's job as an army officer, before starting out at the Indian subsidiary of Nestle in the early 1980s.

He went on to have a successful business career in India, and later relocated to the United States.

Banga ran the payments company Mastercard for more than a decade between 2010 and 2021, and has also served on the boards of the American Red Cross, Kraft Foods and Dow Inc.

More recently, he was vice chairman at private equity firm General Atlantic.

- Private financing for global problems -

Banga's expertise in finance and development will play a key role for the bank as it realigns to face the challenge of a warming planet.

He has said he wants to see greater private sector funding to help tackle financing for global problems.

"There is not enough money without the private sector," he told reporters in March.

As for climate change, he added that the issue goes far beyond greenhouse gases.

"My belief is that poverty alleviation or shared prosperity or all those words that essentially imply the idea of tackling inequality cannot be divorced from the challenges of managing nature," he said in the earlier interview.

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Under an unwritten arrangement, a US citizen has historically held the presidency of the Washington-based development lender -- a practice that has led to growing unease over America's grip on the bank from developing and emerging economies.

A growing number of countries have challenged the unwritten arrangement in recent years, but the sole nomination of Banga suggests the US still holds sway -- for now.

No women were nominated for the post, despite the World Bank "strongly" encouraging applications.

All of the presidents approved by the organization since its inception in the 1940s have been men.

da-bys/st/caw
Alex Jones' lawyer Andino Reynal gives his opening statement to the jury on July 26, 2022, at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas.

Alex Jones' lawyer Andino Reynal gives his opening statement to the jury on July 26, 2022, at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas.

An attorney who represented conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a defamation case has been ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in sanctions for his misconduct leading up to the trial he lost.

Texas attorney Andino Reynal was ordered to pay $97,169 last month to the parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting after Judge Maya Guerra Gamble determined in January that Reynal had violated court proceedings during his attempts to delay the trial by filing bankruptcy for Jones far-right misinformation site Infowars.

The new ruling, obtained by HuffPost, was filed on April 25. You can view the filing here.

Reynal made knowingly groundless statements, acted in bad faith, and significantly interfered with the Courts legitimate exercise of core functions, when he represented Jones throughout his July 2022 trial against Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, according to Gambles January order granting the motion to sanction Reynal.

The trial, held in Austin, Texas, where Infowars is based, focused on the lies Jones had spread about Lewis and Heslin over the years on his platform.

The two parents lost their son, 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, in the Connecticut school shooting that left 19other children and six adults dead. Jones used his platform on Infowars to spread lies that the shooting was fake, that the kids never died and that their parents were actors. The lies inspired Infowars followers to subject Sandy Hook families to near-constant abuse and harassment over the next decade. Meanwhile, Jones saw his profits go up on days he featured lies about the shooting.

Consequences finally caught up to Jones last year when he was hit with a $45 million ruling against him. Later that year, during a trial in Connecticut not far from where the shooting took place, a separate jury ordered Jones to pay an additional $1.4 billion to several other Sandy Hook families.

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Now, Jones own lawyer will have to answer for what Gamble called a deliberate effort to avoid trial by filing for bankruptcy for an abusive and improper purpose.

Reynal told HuffPost that he acted legitimately.

There was no bad faith here, Reynal said in an email. I am confident the appellate courts will see this for what it is and that we will get a reversal of this adverse ruling.

A Bad Faith Scheme

Just days before the first Sandy Hook defamation trial was set to begin in late April 2022, Infowars, one of two companies tied to Jones  filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas. The sudden filing caused the Sandy Hook trial to be delayed until July 2022, a move that lawyers representing the Sandy Hook parents called a bad faith scheme.

In her initial Jan. 13 ruling granting sanctions, Gamble agreed with Houston law firm Farrar & Ball that Reynal was attempting to delay the trial.

The Court finds Mr. Reynal acted without valid cause and for sole purpose of avoiding trial, the ruling said.

Morgan Stringer, a legal analyst and lawyer who has closely followed the Jones trials and bankruptcy cases, told HuffPost that filing for bankruptcy delayed not just the trial, but all of the legal proceedings against Infowars.

The bankruptcy filing was clearly an attempt to stall the litigation because Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows you to reorganize your finances, so any pending litigation against the company is then stayed, Stringer said. This was a stall tactic by [Free Speech Systems].

Alex Jones, shown shaking hands with his lawyer Andino Reynal, arrives at the Travis County Courthouse on July 26, 2022, with a piece of tape over his mouth that reads

Alex Jones, shown shaking hands with his lawyer Andino Reynal, arrives at the Travis County Courthouse on July 26, 2022, with a piece of tape over his mouth that reads "Save the 1st."

Gamble also sanctioned Reynal over a sudden change of ownership of Infowars, LLC, when former Infowars news director Rob Dew was signed over as its 100% equity holder, a fact which was not disclosed to the Plaintiffs, before trial, according to the filing.

If Rob Dew owns Infowars and not FSS or Alex, then that could potentially be used to hide assets in, so when it came time to enforce a judgment or even disclose finances in a bankruptcy, then Rob Dew would be the 100 percent equity owner, not FSS or Alex, Stringer said. Again, this feels like something that you would read in one of those 10 Tricks That Lawyers Dont Want You To Know articles that contain the worst legal advice ever.

Reynal should have told the plaintiffs when Dew was made equity holder of Infowars, Gamble wrote.

Mr. Reynal was obligated to supplement his clients discovery responses, the ruling said.

In a statement, Farrar & Ball attorney Mark Bankston said Reynals conduct during the case has been ridiculous.

Our clients are pleased that not only will there be consequences for Mr. Jones, but also for the lawyer who facilitated the ridiculous misconduct in this case, Bankston said. Hopefully, this will send a message to future attention-seeking attorneys that running cover for a willfully disobedient defendant like Jones is not the best career move.

The sanctions against Reynal might not be surprising for those who have followed him in the courtroom. In a November hearing discussing possible sanctions, Gamble made clear that her patience with Reynal had run thin.

Frankly, Mr. Reynal, Im not happy with much of your conduct during the trial, Gamble said during the hearing. Quite a bit of it.

The Worst Day Of My Legal Career

Though the sanctions against Reynal focus on his attempts to delay the trial, he made several other blunders that would make any other experienced lawyer cringe.

Just two days into the first Sandy Hook trial, Reynal was seen giving the middle finger to plaintiffs attorney Bankston after Reynal was blocked from submitting video evidence.

Gamble admonished both lawyers the following day.

The next time anyone wants to have an argument, you take it outside, she said at the time. You do not have it in here.

Reynals biggest embarrassment, however, came at the end of the trial in early August, when Bankston confronted Jones on the stand with Jones own text messages, which had been turned over to Bankston  accidentally  by none other than Jones own legal team.

Do you know what perjury is? pic.twitter.com/awbBpVf4Tl  Acyn (@Acyn) August 3, 2022

Did you know 12 days ago your attorneys messed up and sent me an entire digital copy of your entire cellphone, with every text message youve sent for the past two years? Bankston asked Jones on the stand. And when informed, did not take any steps to identify those texts as privileged?

The text messages included conversations between Jones and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. (HuffPost has published the full details of their conversation here.) The contents of his phone were also turned over to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Reynal blamed a paralegal for the massive blunder and later called it the worst day of my legal career. Whats more, the release of Jones phone records also revealed confidential documents that included medical records for some of the Sandy Hook families. Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis, who oversaw Jones second trial that ended in a more than $1 billion verdict, said during a disciplinary hearing in January that Reynal had violated ethics rules but declined to sanction him.

Stringer, the legal analyst, said Reynals nearly $100,000 sanction is a rarity in the legal world.

I would say its rare to see an attorney sanctioned in this manner and with that dollar amount, Stringer said. I have never seen that.

Stringer added that despite the rare sanction, the ruling is a fair one.

Free Speech Systems and Alex Jones have shown a pattern of bad faith and discovery abuse so large that you could make a quilt from it, and Reynal enabled them, Stringer said. In the context of this case, it is not a harsh ruling at all. This is completely fair.

Reynal told HuffPost he plans to appeal the ruling. However, the court ruling points out that should Reynal appeal and lose, he could end up owing an additional $55,000. And should Reynal choose to appeal to the Texas Supreme Court and lose, he would have to pay up to an additional $61,600.

Related...
Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh made up a story about dogs causing his former housekeeper's fatal fall on his property in 2018, his attorneys wrote in a Monday court filing.

Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family's housekeeper, died in what was described as a fall during a 911 call from Murdaugh's wife and younger son in October 2018.

Nautilus Insurance Co. sued Murdaugh for allegedly committing life insurance fraud after Satterfield's death, and attorneys for Murdaugh revealed in a May 1 filing that he "invented the critical facts" surrounding her death to receive a settlement from Nautilus.

Image: Alex Murdaugh (Joshua Boucher / The State via AP)

"No dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield on February 2, 2018," the filing said. "After Ms. Satterfield's death, (Murdaugh) invented Ms. Satterfields purported statement that dogs caused her fall to force his insurers to make a settlement payment, and he stated that she was not on the property to perform work."

Murdaugh also "acted to assist the Satterfield estate succeed in a claim on those facts, which the representatives of the Satterfield estate believed were true," his attorneys wrote in the filing.

However, according to the filing, Murdaugh did not act in concert with any co-conspirators for the purpose of causing Nautilus to pay a fraudulent claim.

Jim Griffin, an attorney for Murdaugh, said in a statement to NBC News the amended answer to the Nautilus complaint admitted "she was not pushed or knocked down stairs by dogs, the story was made up, and insurance claim fraud."

Griffin added the Satterfield family and their attorneys, Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, "should be added to case because they have ultimately recovered the fraudulent insurance proceeds."

Bland slammed Murdaugh's court admission in a series of tweets on Tuesday.

"Since when did Alex become the modicum of honesty and credibility," Bland asked, adding that a judge and jury in South Carolina have found he is not credible in relation to the murders of Murdaugh's wife Maggie Murdaugh and youngest son Paul Murdaugh

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He added the Satterfield family has not received any money from Nautilus, but they had recovered funds from other parties.

"These insurers had investigators investigate the claim thoroughly before they paid on the claim," he said. "This is nothing but noise. Just gutless people trying to continue to victimize Glorias siblings and children."

Attorneys for Satterfield's family alleged her sons never received any of the funds Murdaugh, a lawyer at the time, said he would help them obtain through a wrongful death settlement, since the incident occurred on his property.

Murdaugh admitted he owed the Satterfield family $4.3 million and asked the court to uphold a judgement ordering him to pay the amount in restitution, according to court documents obtained by NBC affiliate WCBD in June 2022.

Murdaugh has been indicted on 11 charges in connection with the Satterfield settlement: three counts of money laundering, three counts of computer crimes and five counts of obtaining signature or property by false pretenses, according to the South Carolina Attorney General's Office.

Including the 11 counts, he still faces nearly 100 charges stemming from financial crimes he allegedly committed for over a decade when he was still working as a lawyer. He has not entered a plea for any of the charges, South Carolina Attorney Generals Office Communications Director Robert Kittle told TODAY.com in March.

South Carolina authorities also announced the opening of a criminal investigation into Satterfield's death in September 2021.

Murdaugh is currently serving a life sentence after he was convicted of murdering his wife and son. His attorneys have appealed the sentence.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Alex Murdaugh is seen in March after being convicted of murdering his wife and son.

Alex Murdaugh is seen in March after being convicted of murdering his wife and son.

Alex Murdaughs attorneys claim in a new legal filing that the convicted murderer lied about how his familys dogs fatally tripped his housekeeper in 2018 as part of a bogus insurance claim, while suggesting that any insurance money stolen be repaid by her family and not him.

The disgraced former attorney, whos currently serving a life sentence for his wife and sons murders, invented the critical facts behind Gloria Satterfields fall at his South Carolina home in order to pocket insurance money that was intended for her family, Mondays filing states.

Defendant admits his actions were reprehensible in that he misused vulnerable persons who trusted him, the filing reads.

No dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield on February 2, 2018. After Ms. Satterfields death, Defendant invented Ms. Satterfields purported statement that dogs caused her fall to force his insurers to make a settlement payment, the filing continues while stopping short of explaining what actually happened to her at his familys property. It adds that no one else was involved in this lie.

Murdaugh said his familys dogs tripped Gloria Satterfield on some steps, causing her to suffer fatal injuries at his South Carolina property, pictured. His attorneys now say that story was a lie.

Murdaugh said his familys dogs tripped Gloria Satterfield on some steps, causing her to suffer fatal injuries at his South Carolina property, pictured. His attorneys now say that story was a lie.

The filing goes on to suggest that if his former insurance company, Nautilus, never should have made payments because of this new admission, then anyone who received the money should be legally required to return it.

An attorney for the Satterfield estate balked at this claim in a statement shared on Twitter Tuesday.

Since when did Alex become the modicum of honesty and credibility, wrote attorney Eric Bland, who argued that the Satterfield estate never received a dime from the insurance filing.

Technically the money that Nautilus paid never came to our clients. It was stolen by Alex so there is an argument that they still owe it to our clients by releases signed by the parties, he continued. This is nothing but noise. Just gutless people trying to continue to victimize Glorias siblings and children.

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Nautilus, in a lawsuit filed against Murdaugh last year over the insurance claim, said it paid more than $75,000 in claims related to Satterfields death. The 57-year-old womans death occurred just two months into the start of a $5 million umbrella coverage insurance policy that it said Murdaugh had taken out.

Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the murder of his wife and son.

Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the murder of his wife and son.

It was through settlements from other parties sued in connection with Satterfields death that her estate received about $7.5 million, Myrtle Beach station WPDE reported last year.

Attorneys for Nautilus did not immediately respond to HuffPosts requests for comment Wednesday.

Murdaughs wife, Maggie, and son Paul were the ones to call 911 to report that Satterfield had fallen and hit her head on steps at the familys home. She was described by them in the 911 call as barely conscious and bleeding badly from her head.

Murdaughs wife and son, who were later fatally shot by Murdaugh at the same property in 2021, never blamed dogs for causing her fall in their call.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), in the months after Maggie and Pauls deaths, announced that it had opened a criminal investigation into Satterfields death and the handling of her estate. This review followed a local county coroner raising concerns about the case to state police, Bluffton Today reported.

Hampton County Coroner Angie Topper said Satterfield suffered traumatic head injuries before undergoing cardiac arrest and a stroke while hospitalized in the days after. Her injuries were not natural, as her death certificate listed, Topper argued.

A SLED spokesperson did not immediately respond to HuffPosts request for comment on its investigation and Murdaughs latest alleged admissions about Satterfields death.

Related...
There is always a newly released Filipino book worth reading. 2022 in particular proved to be a consistently prolific year for many authors and publishers. Here are books from late last year, and a new one from the other month that we are reading at the moment.

Lahat ng B by Ricky Lee

In December 2020, National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Ricky Lee announced that he was in the process of writing the sequel to his 2008 novel Para Kay B, which tells five (slightly) inter-connected love stories and has since gone on to be one of the writers best known works.

The sequel, titled Lahat ng B, continues the stories of Irene, Sandra, Bessie, Erica, Lucas, and Ester, and as with the first book, the sequel is an exploration of and an ode to love and its different forms and faces. The language is simple and clever, the storytelling profound in its simplicity. Any reader will find something worthwhile in Lahat ng B, but I imagine that it might resonate a little differently, a little more deeply, with a certain kind of reader, someone who shares Lees romanticism (and even sentimentalism) about love, life, and art.

But in the end, as with almost all of Lees works, the (possibly reductive) thing to say is that it is unfailingly humanistic. Lee honors a range of different experiences, extending the kind of attention and generosity to his characters that is perhaps unparalleled in contemporary Filipino fiction.

An English translation of Para Kay B is also forthcoming this year.

Available on Shopee and Lazada.

Plus/+, at Iba Plus, Maramihan: New Philippine Nonfiction on Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities and Plus/+, at Iba Plus, Maramihan: New Philippine Fiction on Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities edited by Rolando B. Tolentino and Chuckberry J. Pascual (Ateneo Press, 2022)

Almost any book whose subject is queerness is a reason to celebrate. There is a lot of talk about eschewing labels, of shifting the focus on the universality of a love story and away from what makes it different from the default. Though there is something to be gained from that, inequality and invisibility still need to be named. Books like Plus/+, at Iba Plus, Maramihan: New Philippine Nonfiction on Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities are premised on this idea.

Edited by Rolando B. Tolentino and Chuckberry J. Pascual, the anthology is a subversive and unapologetic exploration of different ways of being and loving. The 15 pieces that comprise the non-fiction anthology are diverse in the stories they tell, not just in terms of voice alone but in their varying impacts/effects and the range of experiences that they cover: personal histories of queerness, navigating polyamorous relationships and family dynamics, and even meta exercises such as mapping ones writing in the Filipino queer tradition.

Some pieces are worth mentioning. Stefani J. Alvarezs sifr is a poignant story of forbidden love, the kind that only Alvarez can tell. Maynard Manansalas Third is exceptionally readable. One of the longer pieces in the book, this essay is buoyed by the authors wit and grace as he details his experiences of being in what many might consider an unconventional relationship. Adrian Joseph Villanuevas Ang (mga) lalaki sa buhay n(g) (ma-)elya recalls, in language so singular and self-assured I can guarantee youve never encountered in a literary collection before, how past loves have shaped how he now gives and receives love.

Plus/+, at Iba Plus, Maramihan has a fiction counterpart as well and it is as engaging as its nonfiction counterpart, featuring stories by George Deoso, Bernadette Villanueva Neri, and Edgar Calabia Samar, whose Taichikun may be one of the best short stories Ive read in a while.

The two anthologies are careful curations of compelling stories that occasionally suffer from unevenness (some pieces are noticeably better than others) and may possibly be critiqued for the absence of specific voices, but such may be the innate limitation of anthologies. If the point of such books is to respond to a lack, its very existence the response in itself, then Plus/+, at Iba Plus has succeeded in making a point: queering stories well beyond confession, and as its editors put it, towards bearing witness to and defending the many truths of being disadvantaged in a heterosexual world.

Available at Ateneo Press.

False Nostalgia: The Marcos Golden Age Myths and How to Debunk Them by JC Punongbayan (Ateneo Press, 2023)

Economist and assistant professor JC Punongbayan has put together seven years worth of research  a balance of economic analysis and historical fact  to debunk the lies about the first Marcos presidency that persist to this day (and which, in many ways were responsible for the second one). The essay collection is structured as fact-based takedowns of popular claims about the Marcos dictatorship, from the martial law era being a Golden Age of Infrastructure to how Marcos Sr. plundered in order to protect the Philippine economy.

Punongbayan writes in clear, accessible language to deconstruct these myths, applying intellectual rigor to his careful storytelling to properly lay down the economic and political climate of the time in order to provide much needed context.

Its a well-researched work that patiently lays down the facts, in particular on Marcosian economics, for anyone who might be willing to listen and reconsider what they have been told about the past. That said, I think this should be essential reading for every Filipino, if only because of its potential to counter historical erasure and revisionism  which is to say that we need more books like it.

Available at Ateneo Press.

Mga Munting Babae translated by Sophia Flor Perez and Rowena Festin, edited by Bibeth Orteza (Southern Voices Printing Press, 2021)

The story of the March family means a lot to readers around the world. Its one of those books that people find in their earlier, formative years of reading, and an encounter with the talented and determined young writer Jo March no doubt sparked in them a love for writing and reading stories. Written by the feminist and suffragette Louisa May Alcott during a time where women werent allowed to vote, Little Women is, among many things, a story of agency.

Putting writing at the heart of the story, in a sort of autobiographical turn as Little Women is in fact Alcott herself writing about her family, the book reads as an ode to literature as a means to independence.

The educator and womens rights advocate Sophia Flor Perez and award-winning poet and professor Rowena Festin took on the difficult task of translating this classic to Filipino, and with the writer and director Bibeth Orteza as editor and Southern Voices Printing Press as the publisher, the result is a loving rendition of the classic  both an introduction and a reintroduction to the March sisters.

Available through Southern Voices Printing Press and Fully Booked.

How to Tame Your Tikbalang Without Even Trying by Alma Anonas-Carpio (8Letters, 2023)

Its been almost 10 years since Alma Anonas-Carpios first novel was released in 2015, and there is still no Filipino book quite like it. At least in terms of its ambition to mix particularly overlooked genres. The new edition published by 8Letters remains a unique retelling of Philippine myth  its mytherotica that never once falters in its commitment to the books premise: Tala, an amateur Babaylan working in a Makati call center, meets Buhawi, an Adonis figure who happens to be a tikbalang working as a banker, who she must tame so he can take his place as the rightful heir to the Molave Throne. The graphic, racy content doesnt disappoint: theres enough of it to offend certain sensibilities, and the unflinching language with which it is rendered only strengthens Anonas-Carpios project as a welcome subversion of how our traditional stories are told.

Available at 8lettersbooks.com.

The Lost Cats of Maginhawa: Poetry from Filipino Suburbia (UP Press, 2022)

Where do cats go when they go missing? The disappearance often happens out of nowhere, which in itself is cruel, but is only made worse by the fact that their reappearance is just as unpredictable as their disappearance. They can return after days or years, but theres also the possibility that they never will. Arvin Abejo Mangohig, whos known to have written a few books on disappearance before, ponders human existence in poems inspired by a months-long search for a wounded cat named Chicken.

The oft-cited connection between decay and suburbia is invoked by the poet, who, through the quiet wisdom of animals, attempts to better understand our inner selves that have been rendered mute in the contemporary world. Accompanied by illustrations by Bicolana artist Sarah Redor, Filipino suburbia explored through feline mysticism is given another dimension in Mangohigs terse yet powerful lines.

Available at UP Press.
Alicia Mccarvell said her life changed five years ago with one bathing suit. (Instagram / @alicamccarvell

Alicia Mccarvell is reflecting on the bathing suit that changed her life.

The Halifax-based body-positivity advocate took to Instagram with a carousel of photos from a recent trip to Mexico with her husband Scott.

It began with a collage including a throwback photo to five years ago, when Mccarvell found herself "on a beach in a bathing suit for the first time in 12 years," she penned in the caption.

That collage also included text reading "five years ago this bathing suit changed my life," over the 2018 photo.

In the following six photos, from the couple's recent trip, Mccarvell is wearing a black one-piece suit with a leopard-print hot pink sarong around her waist. To match her cover-up, Scott was wearing hot pink trunks, paired with a light cowboy hat and Ray-Ban sunglasses.

Mccarvell wrote a touching note on confidence and body image in the caption, recalling the moment she decided to hit the beach five years ago.

"Choosing to wear the suit that day, uncomfortable, unsure, and scared forced me to face the reality  I was allowing how I felt about my body, impact the way I was living my life," she wrote.

"That day on the beach my husband and I played like we were kids," the 33-year-old influencer wrote.

In that 2018 trip to Florida, Mccarvell confessed, she only took two photos of herself in that bathing suit. But this time around, she wanted to "give it, myself and my husband the photos is deserved."

This bathing suit allowed her to live life differently, she continued, adding an encouraging note to others struggling with body image and self-love.

"You deserve the joy, the people you love deserve you present, and your body deserves your respect."

Her followers rushed to the comments to applaud Mccarvell's progress.

"I grieve everyday for the lost happy beach days I missed out on playing with my kids," one person wrote. "Im trying so hard now to make better choices for myself and my family."

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Alicia Mccarvell and her husband Scott recently took a couple's trip to Mexico. (Instagram / @alicamccarvell)

Another added, "I cannot even begin to tell you how beautiful this is! It is such a small concept but it has a large impact."

One person wrote: "I always love your content, but this specifically changed my outlook and in some ways how I live my life."

Some admired the loving energy between her and Scott in the photos.

"I will never get over the way he looks at you," one fan wrote.

"Even by just looking at this photo you can literally feel how in love he is with you," another chimed in.

Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
FBI

A New England man planted a fake bomb on the Harvard University campus last month as part of an attempt to extort a large amount of Bitcoin from the Ivy League school, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.

Problem is, he didnt do a very good job of covering his tracks.

William A. Giordani, 55, was arrested on Tuesday by federal agents and remains detained pending a Friday court hearing. He stands charged in Massachusetts federal court with conspiracy, along with aiding and abetting an extortionate threat.

It all began with a Craigslist ad.

On April 11, someone using the name Nguyen Mihn posted an adwhich is still livelooking for someone to do a small side job in Cambridge.

The poster said they would pay $300 to deliver supplies to the mans child and listed a Google Voice number with a New Jersey area code.

Shortly before 2:30 p.m. on April 13, the Harvard University Police Department received a call from what sounded like a computer-generated male voice, the complaint states, noting that it came from the same New Jersey number that placed the Craigslist ad.

There are three bombs planted around the Harvard Campus and we are ready to provide undeniable proof, the voice said.

Each device had an explosive yield of at least 80 megajoules and contain several pounds of metal shrapnel, the caller continued, saying that he estimated the force would kill at least 40 students and injure hundreds more.

The caller gave the Harvard police 100 minutes to meet his demands, according to the complaint.

In the meantime, you should begin preparing a large bitcoin transaction as soon as possible so that any technical difficulties can be resolved in the next 96 minutes, the caller continued. We also request that you send the bitcoin using the fastest available transaction speed because if we cannot completely confirm payment when 100 minutes is up we will detonate the bombs regardless of whether there is a transaction in progress.

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The caller said the amount would be supplied, along with instructions for the transfer, in a forthcoming text message, the complaint states.

Between 2:36 p.m. and 4:06 p.m., the Harvard cops received another six callsfive of them from the New Jersey numberwith demands for payment. During the fourth call, the mechanical-sounding voice said one of the devices was on the Science Center Plaza, in a red-and-black Husky tool bag located between food trucks, according to the complaint.

In the meantime, Harvard police officers went to the plaza and found the Husky tool bag on a bench, according to the complaint, which says they then cordoned off the area around the bag and cleared the adjacent buildings. The Cambridge Police Departments bomb disposal unit arrived shortly thereafter, and used a robot to execute a controlled destruction of the bag. (The complaint does not say what happened to the other two bombs the caller said were on campus, or if they existed in the first place.)

Inside the bag was a metal locking safe of the type normally found in hotel rooms, a package of wire, a bundle of fireworks, and a small rectangular box with wires attached to it, the complaint states. The package of wire had a yellow Home Depot sticker attached to it with the name Nguyen Minh on it, and the same New Jersey phone number the Craiglist poster and caller had used. It also included an order number, the store managers name, and the phone number of a Home Depot in Boston.

FBI

Investigators reviewed surveillance footage from the scene, and spotted a white male wearing a blue short sleeved shirt and shorts, carrying a red and black tool bag in his right hand walk onto the Science Center Plaza just after 2 p.m. and place the bag on a bench.

Agents spoke to the manager of the Home Depot where the wire, the safe, and the tool bag had been purchased. He said the order was placed online on April 13 at 6:52 a.m. under the name Minh Nguyen, for a total of $170.96. It was paid via a Home Depot gift card, according to the complaint. But the pickup, security video from the store showed, was made at about 11:45 a.m. that same day by Giordani, whom agents also identified as the man in the Science Center Plaza, the complaint states.

FBI

Investigators called Giordani, who was reluctant to speak with them but agreed to meet in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts on the morning of April 27. However, he never showed up.

Officers spoke with him on the telephone again and Giordani claimed that he was not comfortable meeting because he could not verify the fact that the officers were in fact who they said they were, the complaint goes on. Giordani suggested that officers speak with his mother which they did.

Giordanis mom promised to bring her son to the FBI office in Bedford, New Hampshire, on May 1. But again, Giordani refused to accompany her to the meeting, according to the complaint. The officers asked Giordanis mother to call him and encourage him to come to the FBI office, which she did on speakerphone.

When he answered, Giordani said he knew the FBI wanted to speak with him, but was afraid of getting arrested for transporting fireworks across state lines, the complaint continues.

Giordani claimed he went to Worcester to get paid, but that the person stood him up. He also said the person wasnt Asian (as claimed in the Craigslist ad), didnt have kids (as claimed in the ad), and started spouting off a bunch of racist things about blacks and Jews, the complaint says.

Still dragging his feet on speaking to investigators, Giordani asked his mom to pick him up in Nashua, New Hampshire. She drove there with agents and officers, who approached Giordani and introduced themselves.

Giordani was extremely displeased by [his moms] decision to bring officers with her to the meeting and berated her, according to the complaint. Officers sought to calm Giordani, and then requested to speak with Giordani about the Craigslist ad and the events at Harvard.

Giordani refused to let investigators search his phone or discuss the incident in detail, arguing that the device was his business phone and that it contained intimate photographs, the complaint concludes. While declining to show officers his mobile phone, Giordani admitted that he knew what he did was wrong and that he just put some fireworks in a safe and put them at Harvard.

Nguyens identity, if he is a real person, is unclear. Giordani appeared before a federal magistrate judge on Tuesday afternoon, and is scheduled to appear again on Friday, when a lawyer will be appointed to represent him, according to court records.

If convicted on both charges, Giordani faces a combined maximum of 25 years in prison.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Allison Holker revealed that she hasn't danced since the death of her husband Stephen "Twitch" Boss in a new interview published Tuesday. (Vince Bucci / Invision for the Television Academy)

Allison Holker Boss is opening up four months after her husband, Stephen Twitch Boss, died by suicide.

The professional dancer, who met her late husband through the dance competition franchise they both appeared on, So You Think You Can Dance, told People magazine in an interview published Tuesday: "Our love was so real and so loud. We always told people our house was like a choreographed dance.

No one had any inkling that he was low. He didnt want people to know, the 35-year-old dancer continued. He just wanted to be everyones Superman and protector.

Its been really hard because I cant understand what was happening in that moment [he died], she said, adding that, when talking to her husband since his death, she's looked to the stars.

Stars are so important to me because thats where we believe he is. I knew I wanted to have him find peace, she said. I was under the stars by myself and I told him, I forgive you, and I hope youre with us. Talking to him and expressing all those emotions of forgiveness and sadness but also love and joy was so healing.

Holker Boss, an Emmy-nominated choreographer and Dancing With the Stars" alum, told Dance Spirit in 2012 that she was the one who made the moves on Twitch: I didnt just make one move  I made, like, 10 moves and he wasnt seeing them, so I had to put myself out there even more. From the first week of SYTYCD as All-Stars, I thought he was the cutest guy ever. His personality was so fun.

Their love story sprang from their shared love of dance. Their first romantic encounter happened at the "SYTYCD" Season 7 wrap party, where they finally grooved together for hours after years of crushing on each other from afar.

When Twitch proposed in 2013, it was after the couple shot a Microsoft commercial together, and after the last dance of the day, he dropped to one knee with the cameras still rolling.

Throughout their marriage, the artistic duo posted choreographed dance videos on Instagram, often incorporating their three children, Weslie,14, Maddox, 7, and Zaia, 3, and writing that dance was their love language.

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Holker Boss told People that the trauma of her husbands sudden death took a physical toll. Youre trying to help yourself and help your children and friends and family, she said. Literally getting up in the morning was getting harder and harder.

She started cold-plunging at night to help her body release tension. Its now a part of my daily practice, she continued. Spiritually and mentally, its really helped as well.

But Holker Boss revealed that she still hadn't brought herself to dance without Twitch.

Dancing with him was so special, she said, I havent danced yet. Thats gonna be a big step for me, but I know that Ill get there. Hes guiding me on this path.

Shes also left his things in their home untouched, saying, There's so much of his love in this house."

The beloved Ellen DeGeneres Show DJ died on Dec. 13 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a motel in Encino. He left a note before he died, and the contents alluded to past challenges and led investigators to conclude Boss death was a suicide, according to people familiar with the investigation. He was 40 years old.

DeGeneres paid tribute to her sidekick after the news broke.

Im heartbroken, she wrote in the caption of an Instagram photo of her and Boss embracing on the "Ellen" set. tWitch was pure love and light. He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart. I will miss him. Please send your love and support to Allison and his beautiful children  Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia.

To say he left a legacy would be an understatement, and his positive impact will continue to be felt, Holker said in a statement provided to The Times.

I am certain there wont be a day that goes by that we wont honor his memory. We ask for privacy during this difficult time for myself and especially for our three children. Stephen, we love you, we miss you, and I will always save the last dance for you.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
In recent weeks LGBTQ Americans have been rocked by a slew of oppositional bills such as bans on gender affirming care for minors, bathroom regulations, and perhaps most arbitrarily, bans on drag performances.

In Tennessee, a newly passed law, currently challenged in court, characterizes drag as an adult cabaret performance and restricts its expression in public, in the presence of children, or within 1,000 feet of schools, public parks, or places of worship.

New anti-drag bills are rarely standalone pieces of legislation, and often accompany other attacks on transgender and gender nonconforming communities in the United States. However, anti-drag bills are uniquely flawed in that they fail to characterize the difference between performing and simply living as an LGBTQ+ American.

I am a nonbinary young person. I am AMAB, which means that my gender assigned at birth was male. Despite this, during my formative years in high school and college I came to realize that my gender identity did not align with the markings on my birth certificate. I often felt caught between the two ends of the gender identity spectrum, and struggled to find ways to externally express my lived experience in a way that felt authentic to my internal gender identity.

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There's a difference between performance and existence

Like many other nonbinary people, this means that my wardrobe includes a huge variety of clothing. On any given night I may wear a suit, a skirt, or a full length dress. For me, and many other gender nonconforming people, clothing is a rare outlet in which we have total control over our gender expression.

Nonbinary flag

For much of our lives we do not get to choose how the world perceives us, but by dressing in a particular manner we are able to dictate how the world around us understands our gender.

Where bills like the recent one passed in Tennessee fall short is that they fail to distinguish between gender nonconforming existence and performance.

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Often, assigned-male-at-birth trans and nonbinary people are asked if they are doing drag when they don a dress or skirt, and assigned-female-at-birth trans and nonbinary people are asked the same when wearing a suit or other mens dress wear.

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Mischaracterization of drag does a disservice

It is critical to realize that for these people, wearing clothes that reflect their gender identity is not doing drag but rather is simply an everyday act of wearing clothing that feels comfortable to them. Because of the way that drag has permeated into the American zeitgeist, politicians and others with cultural power have begun to label any non-conformity with their expected gender norms as doing drag.

It is not that gender nonconforming people are incapable of doing drag, but rather that for trans and nonbinary individuals, participating in drag is an act that has to be done with intentionality. Mischaracterizations of drag do a disservice to genuine expressions of gender identity, and also minimize the creativity, effort, and talent that honest drag performances require.

If GOP politicians want to ban drag, that is one agenda. However, if they want to use drag as an inroad to regulate the expression of all gender-nonconforming Americans, that is a goal that is much more insidious. As long as anti-drag bills continue to be unclear in their distinction of performance and reality, all gender non-conforming Americans are at constant risk.

Drag is an artform that can be creative, groundbreaking, and even revolutionary for queer people. However, what it is not, and can never be, is a false equivalent to the lived experiences of trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people throughout the United States.

CS Shushok is a writer and poet from the American South. Currently, they study at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. They can be found online on Instagram @C_Shushok.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: My dress is not drag: I am a nonbinary young person in Tennessee
Amazon Labor Union vice president Derrick Palmer stands at a bus stop in front of the Amazon warehouse he helped unionize in 2022. Erika Martinez/Insider

Police bodycam video shows Derrick Palmer, the vice president of the Amazon Labor Union, admitting to strangling his girlfriend.

If convicted, he could face the possibility of being barred from serving as a union officer.

The criminal case comes amid tumult and disputes within the union about its leadership.

The second-highest-ranking official in the Amazon Labor Union is facing felony charges over claims that he strangled his girlfriend last year, according to police records and body-cam video obtained by Insider.

Derrick Palmer, the union's vice president, was indicted in New Jersey in October on two counts of second-degree aggravated assault, according to previously unreported court documents from Union County Superior Court. The indictment accused him of strangling a domestic partner twice in the same evening in early May 2022.

If convicted, Palmer could be barred from union leadership roles under a 1959 federal law that prevents people convicted of certain violent offenses from serving as union officers for up to 13 years, though it's not clear whether that law will apply  or be enforced  in this specific scenario.

The charges against Palmer are the latest potentially damaging revelation about the leadership of the Amazon Labor Union, the only union to successfully organize an Amazon facility. The grassroots labor organization won a landmark vote at a Staten Island warehouse last year, vaulting Palmer and union president Chris Smalls to national fame.

Their unlikely victory over a company that has spent tens of millions of dollars on union-busting activities landed the "two best friends" on Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of 2022, with a profile written by Bernie Sanders.

But in recent months, cracks have begun to appear in the duo's image.

Last month, Insider reported that Smalls had been caught on video fighting an Amazon employee outside the Staten Island warehouse. The video also showed Palmer restraining the employee as Smalls hit him. Smalls was arrested last year on assault allegations unrelated to the fight outside the warehouse and taken to court over some $20,000 in overdue child support, which he eventually paid. Some core union members are questioning Smalls' leadership, saying he seems more focused on fame than a union contract.

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Insider's reporting also raised questions about how the union spent the more than $400,000 it raised on GoFundMe, more than half of which is not accounted for in the union's required financial disclosures. Smalls previously declined to comment to Insider on the record regarding his arrest and late child support payments, and said his fight outside the warehouse "isn't news for the public."

Palmer, who continues to work at Amazon's Staten Island fulfillment center, has a lower profile than Smalls. But Palmer, Smalls, and two other early Amazon Labor Union supporters launched a nonprofit that aims to start labor organizing workers at companies other than Amazon, according to an interview with one of its founders and the nonprofit's incorporating documents.

Amazon Labor Union vice president Derrick Palmer raises a t-shirt into the air during a rally in April 2022.

Palmer speaks at a union rally in April 2022.Seth Wenig/AP

When reached via email by Insider for comment on the charges against Palmer, Smalls responded: "Listen I'm so sick of your racism stop contacting me about nonsense." He added, "Stop attacking Black leaders because you have nothing better to write about for Christ sake and leave me the fuck alone."

Palmer's attorney, Pamela Brause, declined to comment. Palmer did not respond to questions.

Bodycam footage from a late-night domestic disturbance call

At about 1:30 a.m on May 4, 2022, police were called to an apartment complex in Elizabeth, New Jersey where Palmer lived with his girlfriend. Body camera footage obtained by Insider shows four officers entering a unit with broken glass on the floor and overturned furniture. Yelling can be heard in the background.

The video shows the officers encountering Palmer and his girlfriend arguing in a bedroom, at which point they separate them. Insider is not naming the woman because she is alleged to be a victim of domestic violence. She did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In the video, Palmer told the officers that his girlfriend pushed him, threw glass items at him, and kicked in the bedroom door during the course of their fight.

The woman told the officers that Palmer had repeatedly assaulted her. "He's constantly putting his hands on me, God as my witness," she said. "He grabs my neck sometimes, he pushes me to the fucking wall, I'm not even joking. He punches on me, like, this is not a joke."

On that night, she said, Palmer had strangled her for "a good 10 seconds," causing her to wave her arms to indicate that she couldn't breathe. She said she didn't pass out, but later told investigators she felt "dizzy" and "lightheaded."

The video shows Palmer acknowledging that he choked and pushed his girlfriend.

"Did you choke her? Did you push her back?" one officer asked.

"I did, I'm not gonna lie," Palmer replied. "But it's like yo, why you hitting me? Why you throwing stuff at me?"

On the body camera footage, police can be heard saying they didn't see marks on Palmer's girlfriend's neck. Their written report, however, says "red welts" eventually developed on her neck, and police took three photos of the marks. The city of Elizabeth refused to provide the photos to Insider, citing state law barring the release of investigative records.

Palmer was arrested shortly thereafter. The video doesn't show him being advised of his right to remain silent, which could render his statements inadmissible. His attorneys, in court papers, have indicated that they may raise that as an issue.

Palmer, left, and Amazon Labor Union president Chris Smalls arrive at an Ebony magazine gala in October 2022. Robin L Marshall/Getty Images

Prosecutors take strangulation seriously in New Jersey, said Andrew Olesnycky, a defense lawyer who previously supervised domestic violence cases as a Union County prosecutor. He noted that in 2021, the state made strangulation punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

"Strangulation has been identified as one of the greatest red flags of future serious harm, up to and including homicide," said Olesnycky, who clarified that he was speaking generally and not about the case against Palmer.

Federal law may prevent Palmer from leading the ALU

Prosecutors have offered Palmer a plea deal, according to court documents. If he accepts prosecutors' bargain, Palmer would plead guilty to third-degree aggravated assault with a domestic violence surcharge, spend up to 364 days in a Union County jail, and agree to attend a diversion program for perpetrators of domestic assault.

But the case might not end there for Palmer.

A 1959 law, passed amid a backlash to organized labor's rising influence, bars people who have been convicted of a range of criminal offenses from serving as a union officer. Among the criminal convictions that can result in union officers being removed from their roles are "assault which inflicts grievous bodily injury" and "assault with intent to kill."

It's not clear whether the initial charges against Palmer or the plea offer meet either of those standards. The Office of Labor-Management Standards, an agency within the Department of Labor, determines whether a criminal conviction meets the standards laid out in the law for the removal of a union officer. That ruling can also be appealed.

It is "really rare" for union officers to be removed due to an assault conviction, said John Logan, a professor at San Francisco State University's school of labor and employment studies. Historically, union officers removed under the law have been convicted of fraud, embezzlement, or extortion, Logan said.

If Palmer is convicted, and the government deems him ineligible for union leadership, it's not clear who could take his place. According to the ALU's constitution, board vacancies "shall be filled by appointment by the President," who is Smalls.

Do you have a tip or insight to share?

Contact reporter Jack Newsham via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-314-971-1627) or email (jnewsham@insider.com).

Contact reporter Katherine Long via Signal (+1-206-375-9280) or email (klong@insider.com).

Read the original article on Business Insider
Paul Belloisi used an empty tool bag to fit 10 bricks of cocaine in the plane, prosecutors said. Department of Justice

An American Airlines mechanic was convicted of smuggling cocaine, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Paul Belloisi kept 10 bricks of cocaine in a compartment underneath the plane's cockpit, they said.

The drugs were worth as much as $320,000, they added. Belloisi faces up to 20 years in prison.

An American Airlines mechanic was found guilty of trying to smuggle more than $300,000 worth of cocaine by stashing it in a hidden compartment in a plane's cockpit, prosecutors said in a press release on Tuesday.

Paul Belloisi, 55, who worked at John F. Kennedy Airport for around 3o years, was convicted of conspiring to possess cocaine, conspiring to import cocaine, and importing cocaine, the release said.

Prosecutors said that Belloisi tried to smuggle the drugs  worth as much as $320,000  on a flight that landed in New York from Jamaica on February 4.

Customs and Border Patrol officers first discovered 10 bricks of cocaine that weighed more than 25 pounds hidden inside an electronics compartment on the underside of the American Airlines plane, the press release said.

To find out who was smuggling the drugs, officers removed the bricks of cocaine and replaced them with fake bricks, which they then sprayed with a substance that, if touched, would illuminate under a certain type of light.

They placed the plane under surveillance until they saw Belloisi enter the electronics compartment. The gloves he was wearing were glowing under the black light, prosecutors said.

"This corrupt airline mechanic not only abused his position of trust and undermined the security of a vital border crossing in our district, but was also willing to potentially endanger the safety of travelers as well as the community," Breon Peace, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said, according to the press release.

American Airlines did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Prior to his conviction, Belloisi pleaded not guilty, with his attorney, David Besso, arguing that the mechanic had a "spotless" record and no criminal history, CNN reported at the time.

He now faces up to 20 years in prison.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The scores for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a standardized test referred to as the Nations Report Card, were released on Wednesday. Worryingly, civics scores for eighth-grade students fell to the lowest point since they were first administered in 1998.

Senior figures in the Biden administration blamed Republican state governments and the pandemic for the declining test scores. The latest data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress further affirms the profound impact the pandemic had on student learning in subjects beyond math and reading, Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona noted in an official statement.

It tells us that now is not the time for politicians to try to extract double-digit cuts to education funding, nor is it the time to limit what students learn in U.S. history and civics classes, Cardona added.

However, National Parents Union, an organization that advocates for better parental rights in schooling, condemned the state of education.

This morning, our Nations Report Card released the U.S. History and Civics results for 2022 and they are the LOWEST since 1994. This is unacceptable. The future of our democracy requires us getting this right, the group tweeted alongside the announcement.

These results are yet another red flag for lawmakers across the country about just how far behind our children are. This should be a call for them to GET FOCUSED on improving academic outcomes so that our children are prepared for the future.

This morning, our Nations Report Card released the U.S. History and Civics results for 2022 and they are the LOWEST since 1994. This is unacceptable. The future of our democracy requires us getting this right. See our full statement below. pic.twitter.com/X01c4OiiBY  National Parents Union (@NationalParents) May 3, 2023

American students, on average, also shed five points in history, marking the lowest point in nearly three decades of testing.

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Peggy Carr, the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a research arm within the Department of Education, said the findings left her very, very concerned, because its a decline that started in 2014 long before we even thought about Covid.

Teachers, practitioners need to get this content in front of students, Carr added. When you look at what they dont know, and its not just about reading, its about content, facts, information about our constitutional system. Students dont know this information. That is why theyre scoring so low on this assessment.

Nearly 40 percent of eighth-graders were deemed below basic in their knowledge of American history, an unwelcome increase from 29 percent in 2014. Meanwhile, barely over a fifth of test-takers were found to be proficient in civics, down two percentage points from 2018.

More from National Review
By Joey Roulette and Clark Mindock

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Elon Musk-led SpaceX has few alternative options for test-launching its giant Starship spacecraft in the near term if a newly-filed lawsuit disrupts the breakneck speed of development at its remote Texas launch site, legal and industry experts say.

Conservation groups sued the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Monday for approving SpaceX's rocket operations without conducting a deeper review of its environmental impact on land surrounding the Boca Chica, Texas, launchpad.

That lawsuit was filed 11 days after the debut Starship flight toward space showered sand and debris miles from the Texas launchpad, and hurled chunks of reinforced concrete and metal shrapnel thousands of feet from the site, adjacent to a national wildlife refuge.

Starship is SpaceX's next-generation rocket crucial for the company's commercial launch business and Musk's aim to start human colonies on Mars. And NASA is banking on SpaceX's quick development timelines to use Starship for landing humans on the moon by around 2026.

While the Texas site, named Starbase, is only intended for testing, and Starship will ultimately operate in Florida, a lengthy court battle or a ruling against the FAA could nix Musk's goal to try another test launch in as little as two months.

Legal experts with experience in the kinds of claims brought on Monday said the lawsuit could cause massive delays if a court tells the FAA to conduct a full environmental impact statement review.

"You could be looking at anywhere from two to five years," Penn State Law professor Jamison Colburn said.

Test sites suitable for massive prototype rockets like Starship require a narrow set of conditions.

Launching far from populated areas and near a coast - so the rocket can arc toward space over water rather than cities - are the most challenging conditions to meet, said Caryn Schenewerk, a former senior attorney for SpaceX who worked on selecting Starship's site.

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The U.S. offers few such options and export controls would make building a foreign launch site difficult.

"We did a thorough survey of possible U.S. locations and Starbase ended up being the ideal site," said Schenewerk, now an independent consultant.

SpaceX did not reply to requests for comment.

FLORIDA ALTERNATIVE

Musk in 2022 said SpaceX's flagship Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida was an alternative to Texas if a deeper environmental review of Starbase was triggered, adding the site would eventually become Starship's "main operational launch site."

But that site subject to its own environmental review. And NASA officials are concerned a Starship explosion on LC-39A, which SpaceX uses for Falcon 9 astronaut launches, could damage infrastructure used to send NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, Reuters reported last year.

SpaceX is equipping a different launchpad on U.S. Space Force property for astronaut launches to quell NASA's concerns.

SpaceX has eyed another Kennedy Space Center launch site for future Starship launches, LC-49, a few miles from LC-39A. But that location is in the midst of a lengthy environmental review that could take years. Kennedy Space Center did not reply to questions.

The U.S. Space Force's Vandenberg spaceport in California, where SpaceX has two Falcon launchpads, is limited to a specific launch trajectory unsuitable for Starship test launches, analysts said. The Space Force unit managing Vandenberg launches did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

And the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, likely too small for the Starship development program, would prompt additional environmental reviews if SpaceX opted to move there, analysts said, citing the surrounding protected lands.

The Virginia Spaceport Authority was not immediately available for comment.

"Unless there's some very specific environmental changes, or there's some population that really, really wants a spaceport in their backyard, we will never have another operational new spaceport in this country," said Michael Mealling, a Georgia-based investor who was involved in a bid to setup a spaceport in his home state.

Plans for that orbital launch site, Spaceport Camden, were nixed by a local referendum after a lawsuit raised concerns about its environmental impact.

SpaceX in 2020 acquired two offshore oil rigs that it planned to convert into "ocean spaceports" for Starship, Musk has said. In February, however, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the company sold the rigs because "they were not the right platform."

Murray Feldman, an attorney at the law firm Holland & Hart, said it was possible Congress could throw out the need for the environmental review if the project delays were deemed a national concern, given NASA's plans for a moon landing by 2026 - a deadline the agency's chief Bill Nelson has cast to lawmakers as an urgent race with China.

Feldman said Congress previously passed laws that override environmental review requirements, including last year when it mandated the Biden administration issue certain oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

"If the SpaceX efforts were truly important enough to the nation that Congress felt they needed to go forward and this delay would be too significant, there's always the possibility for something to happen," he said.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington and Clark Mindock in New York; Editing by Ben Klayman and Jamie Freed)
Arguing that greater publicity could harm his right to a fair trial, the defense attorney for Kansas City Northlander Andrew D. Lester, the 84-year-old white homeowner accused of shooting Ralph Yarl after the Black teenager rang his doorbell, wants a judge to prevent additional case information from being shared publicly.

Because of negative attention largely attributed to significant and sometimes inaccurate news coverage, Lester has been forced to leave his home, and his wife was harassed to the point that she needed to relocate from the nursing facility where she resided, his lawyer Steven Salmon said in a court motion filed Monday.

The 84-year-olds house has been defaced by eggs and graffiti, and he requires law enforcement protection to travel, the lawyer said. Allowing more information to reach the public could further jeopardize his case and his safety, Salmon said, by adding fodder to oftentimes inaccurate and speculative statements about the case.

This publicity in this case has already caused a widespread adverse and prejudicial reaction against the defendant and prejudice to his case, the lawyer said in the motion, adding: Further information placed in the public domain will continue to fuel speculation and taint Defendants ability to receive a fair and impartial trial by a jury of his peers.

Lester stands accused of first-degree assault, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, and armed criminal action for shooting Yarl. Lester has pleaded not guilty to those crimes, and his attorney signaled Monday that he will rely in part on self-defense laws, including those commonly known as Stand Your Ground and The Castle Doctrine.

The shooting of Yarl touched off a national conversation about racism and gun rights after the 16-year-old was hospitalized for three days and forced to recover from the physical and mental traumas that come with being shot. Civil rights activists and politicians, including prominent Black leaders in Kansas City, have pointed to the case as an example of how racial biases, whether implicit or explicit, can be fatal for Black Americans.

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On April 13, around 9:30 p.m., Yarl mistakenly parked in the driveway and rang the doorbell of Lesters home on Northeast 115th Street while looking for his younger brothers. But his siblings were actually waiting to be picked up from a house on 115th Terrace, one block north.

Ralph Yarl

The error nearly ended Yarls life. During a police interview, the teenager recalled ringing the doorbell, waiting patiently and being shot immediately once the older, white man saw him on the doorstep.

He was struck in the head by the first bullet as the glass storm door shattered. After falling to the ground, Yarl said he was shot a second time in the arm. And as he ran to seek help from neighbors, he heard Lester say: Dont come around here.

Lester was arrested by Kansas City police at his home that night. He told detectives he got out of bed to answer the doorbell, gun in hand, and fired a shot at a tall, Black stranger who he believed was breaking in.

Lester told police he was scared to death when he saw Yarl there, admitting he fired two shots within a few seconds of opening the door and without saying a word. He also accused Yarl of pulling on the door handle, a statement the teen and his family disputed.

Prior to interviewing Yarl, police booked Lester in city jail and then released him from custody, prompting public outrage directed at the Kansas City Police Department and the Clay County prosecutors office. Kansas Citians, inspired by public statements Yarls relatives made on social media, quickly organized a weekend demonstration outside of Lesters house.

16-year-old Ralph Yarl, was hospitalized Thursday night after he was shot while trying to pick up his younger twin brothers. Police said he went to the wrong house and was shot at that house. Hundreds of citizens attended a rally and march to the shooting location on Sunday, April 16.

The story received widespread attention, including from Hollywood celebrities. An online fundraiser generated nearly $3.5 million for Yarls medical recovery and other expenses, and President Joe Biden invited him to visit the White House.

Amid the mounting public pressure, Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson announced criminal charges four days after the shooting. During a news conference, where Thompson repeatedly declined to try the case in the press, the top prosecutor said there was a racial component to the shooting, but declined to elaborate.

Those charges were met with a measured sense of relief by Yarls family, and his lawyers  well-known civil rights attorneys Lee Merritt and Ben Crump. Alongside political figures and activists, theyve called on the Department of Justice to open a federal investigation to consider whether Lesters actions amounted to a hate crime.

Meanwhile, as Lester fights the criminal charges filed against him in Clay County, the 84-year-olds attorney is asking for a prohibition on information sharing to anyone who is not directly involved in the case. Those include materials possessed by prosecutors or police.

Salmon, the defense attorney, also said there is an assumption that Thompson will continue investigating and he believes dissemination of more information would be harmful to Lester while the case is active and ongoing.
The new laws are designed to stop Just Stop Oil-style protests (PA Media)

The Government has fast-tracked legislation to clamp down on protests before the coronation of King Charles III.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat has defended the new laws implemented to stop Just Stop Oil-style rallies, which have brought London to a standstill.

He spoke after a man carrying a knife was on Tuesday night arrested and detained after he threw items including gun cartridges towards Buckingham Palace from the gates.

Mr Tugendhat, the Tonbridge MP and former Tory leadership hopeful, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Wednesday: The coronation is a chance for the United Kingdom to showcase our liberty and democracy, thats what this security arrangement is doing.

Empowering people to come together, freely, openly and demonstrating security can be a liberator, not like in authoritarian states where it is a controller.

But what are the laws and why are they being enforced?

What are the new anti-protest laws?

Home Secretary Suella Braverman speaking in the House of Commons (PA Wire)

Suella Braverman has introduced laws involving tougher sentences being given to anyone participating in disruptive action at major events.

Under the home secretarys changes, anyone who blocks roads, airports and railways could be jailed for up to 12 months  while anyone who glues themself down could face up to six months behind bars or an unlimited fine.

Police will also be able to head off disruption by stopping and searching protesters for items such as padlocks, superglue and digging tools if they suspect they are intending to cause chaos, the Government has said. People caught with these items, with the intention of using them to cause disruption, will also face criminal charges.

Anti-monarchists have been sent warning letters before coronation on May 6.

What protests are the laws meant to prevent?

Just Stop Oil protesters take part in a slow march through London (PA Wire)

Protesters glueing themselves down has been a tactic of Just Stop Oil and their linked movement Insulate Britain  and it is speculated the powers have such groups in mind.

Just Stop Oil is set to complete a slow march from Londons Parliament Square every morning in the run-up to the coronation on Saturday.

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Ms Braverman said: The public shouldnt have their daily lives ruined by so called eco-warriors causing disruption and wasting millions of pounds of taxpayer money.

The selfish minority must not be allowed to get away with this. We are giving our police and courts the tools they need to stop this chaos and I back them in making full use of these powers.

The anti-monarchy group Republic has said it will not be encouraging members to glue themselves down but will be holding a peaceful rally in London on the coronation day.

Have the anti-protest laws been rushed through?

Tom Tugendhat has defended the Governments record (PA Wire)

The Government received Royal Assent for its Public Order Act on Tuesday (May 2), which means the new powers have come into force on Wednesday, May 3.

It is an amendment to the original 1986 act and has been adapted to help police stop disruptive protests as their tactics have changed.

These new measures are needed to bolster the polices powers to respond more effectively to disruptive and dangerous protests, the Government said.

The bill was put through the House of Lords last November, where it was given ascent to become law.

The Runnymede Trust, a race equality think tank, said it was being rushed through.

Jun Pang of Liberty, the UKs largest civil liberties organisation, said: The Public Order Bill will make it much harder for people at the sharp end of state violence  marginalised communities in particular  to protest against injustice.

The Government says it has followed all necessary processes to approve the bill. It says while it often takes a year for a bill to become law, it is not uncommon for it to be fast-tracked.

What have opposition parties said about the anti-protest laws?

People have a right to freely assemble and express their opposition to the monarchy.



The Government has no right to try and intimidate protesters who want to make their voices heard.



But they've passed Bill after Bill attacking the right to protest.https://t.co/iqJ35KfKDQ  Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (@BellRibeiroAddy) May 3, 2023

Labour has opposed the changes. Party leader Sir Keir Starmer told the Telegraph: I dont accept that if you are walking at a funeral pace that that is not obstructing the highway.

And I think if police were told, in terms, Yes, that is an offence, get on and do something about it, they could get on and do something about it tomorrow morning.

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy added: People have a right to freely assemble and express their opposition to the monarchy.

The Government has no right to try and intimidate protesters who want to make their voices heard.

Mr Tugendhat said in response: [People will] have the liberty to protest but they would not have the liberty to disrupt others. Thats where were drawing a difference.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  United States Vice President Kamala Harris said the relations between the Philippines and the US are stronger than ever when she met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday evening (Manila time).

I want to thank you because the strength of the alliance between the United States and the Philippines is probably stronger than ever, Harris said when she welcomed Marcos and his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos to her official residence at the Number One Observatory Circle in the US Naval Observatory.

She also said that under Marcos leadership, the US and the Philippines were able to work on strengthening their mutual prosperity and security.

Harris hosted a brunch where the leaders discussed ways on boosting the US-PH alliance, both on the economy and security front.

The US vice president then recalled her visit to the Philippines in November 2022 when she reiterated both countries commitment to pushing for a clean energy economy, food security, and digital inclusion. She also reaffirmed the United States promise to stand by the Philippines amid tensions in the contested waters.

And on the issue of security, of course, the work that our countries are doing together as it relates to the South China Sea, as it relates to what we must do in terms of continuing to work together through our coast guards, she added.

Marcos, on the other hand, said the countrys friendship with the US is on the upside after going through various cycles.

I was telling (State) Secretary (Antony) Blinken yesterday that, like any friendship, they go through  you go through many cycles. And I think this is an upside in that cycle, the Philippine president said.

Marcos had also a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday, where the latter said that he sees no better partner than the Philippine president.
A$AP Rocky has apologised to the woman whose shoulder he used to propel himself over a barricade outside of a New York City hotel ahead of the Met Gala.

On Monday 1 May, the rapper sparked confusion among fans when he was filmed jumping over a barricade set up outside the entrance of the Carlyle Hotel, where fans had gathered to spot their favourite stars as they set out for the annual fashion event.

In the video, which has been viewed more than nine million times, Rocky, who was dressed in a black hoodie and black sunglasses, placed his hand on the shoulder of Madelyn Llanes, a 21 year old from Long Island, New York, for support as he leaped over the barricade.

The move startled Llanes, who looked up in confusion. However, Rocky then lowered his hood, prompting the crowd to scream excitedly in recognition of the star.

Following the incident, Llanes shared a photo of herself after shed been knocked to the side by Rocky to Twitter, where she wrote: A$AP Rocky just literally jumped over me.

The tweet prompted a reply from the rapper himself, who used the opportunity to apologise for pushing past Llanes.

LOL MY FAULT $WEETHEART, he wrote, while also following the 21 year old on Twitter.

LOL MY FAULT $WEETHEART https://t.co/hrQmeHosBL  LORD FLACKO JODYE II (@asvpxrocky) May 2, 2023

The online exchange was met with amusement from Rockys fans, with the replies flooding with laughing face emojis.

Speaking to The Independent after the encounter, Llanes said that shed initially declined Rockys request to get through the crowd, as she noted there wasnt really anywhere to go.

So does anyone know why ASAP Rocky had to do this? #MetGala pic.twitter.com/cKVttaCfAY  philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 1, 2023

I went to The Carlyle early in the day just so Id be able to see everyones outfits up close as theyd head out. What happened with A$AP Rocky is that I had felt someone tapping my shoulder, so I turned around and saw that it was him but my brain didnt fully comprehend that it was him, she recalled. He said: Sweetheart I need to get through and I just told him no because the barricade was right in front of me, there wasnt really anywhere to go.

However, Llanes said Rocky didnt take the no for an answer, as she continued: He just pushed his way up and then hopped over and grabbed me and the guy next to me as he did. After he hopped over, he was like thank you and then just laughed and flipped me off and then he went inside and thats when I fully realised it was him.

The rappers surprising entrance came hours before he arrived late on the red carpet of the 2023 Met Gala with his girlfriend Rihanna.
Local Arizona officials welcomed President Joe Bidens decision to send 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday as migrant advocates blasted the move.

Bidens decision comes days before Title 42, the pandemic-era health rule thats been used to rapidly expel more than 2 million migrants, is expected to expire. Officials are preparing for an increase in migrant encounters when the restriction lifts May 11 and in the following days.

The troops will do ground detection, data entry, warehouse support and other administrative tasks so that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials can focus on fieldwork, U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials said.

Migrants and asylum seekers are detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing at Yuma County, Ariz., on Dec. 8, 2022.

State and local officials of border communities welcomed the move that they say will relieve the strain on Border Patrol and allow agents to better focus on their jobs. Bidens decision is part of an effort to mitigate overcrowding and facilitate asylum processing at the southern border after Title 42s expected expiration.

Migrant advocates in Yuma and Tucson, however, condemned the decision to further militarize the border, describing it as a huge mistake that will lead to further death, suffering and destruction.

The last thing we need is further militarization of the border, said Isabel Garcia, co-chair of the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, a Tucson-based immigrant advocacy group.

I'm outraged that this is the way (Biden) is planning to handle the mass migration flows that we see from areas of the world where people are fleeing really dire situations.

Isabel Garcia, left, co-chair of the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos leads a pilgrimage on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022, in Tucson to honor the thousands of migrants who have died attempting to cross the border, coinciding with Dia de los Muertos.

The troops will not do law enforcement work and will be sent down for roughly 90 days, though their presence can be extended if necessary, officials said.

Troops will begin to arrive as soon as May 10. The Army and Marine Corps will provide the troops.

There are 2,500 National Guard forces at the border. It is still unclear how many troops will be sent to each part of the border.

"People seeking protection in the United States should be met with humanitarian aid, medical and mental health professionals, social workers, and lawyers, not with soldiers and law enforcement agencies," Laura St. John, legal director for the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, said in a written statement.

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Fernando Quiroz, Yuma resident and director of the AZ-CA Humanitarian Coalition, drives toward the U.S.-Mexico border to hand water bottles and snacks to migrants and asylum seekers waiting to be processed after being detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents near San Luis, Ariz,, on July 28, 2022.

In Yuma, Fernando Quiroz, director of the AZ-CA Humanitarian Coalition, said that bringing the military to the border is not a solution. Quiroz and his organization help provide food, water and heat relief to migrants along the Yuma-Mexico border.

Our military is set up to do other things and it just saddens me that this administration has decided to take that step, Quiroz said. That's not who we are and that should never be the image of America.

Quiroz invoked the story of Vice President Kamala Harris parents who immigrated to the U.S. from India and Jamaica. Harris often talked about her immigrant parents during her presidential run in 2020.

How would it have been if (Harris) own parents would have been met, as they sought asylum, with military saying you're not welcome, Quiroz asked. That's the reality.

Fernando Quiroz, Yuma resident and director of the AZ-CA Humanitarian Coalition, hands water to migrants and asylum seekers detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Yuma County, near the Cocopah Indian Tribe's reservation, on July 28, 2022.

Local officials characterize deployment as 'step in the right direction'

Local elected officials spoke with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., on the morning of the announcement to discuss plans in place ahead of Title 42s potential lifting.

U.S. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., left, and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., right, visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Somerton, Ariz., near the Cocopah Indian Reservation boundary on Jan. 10, 2023.

Mobilizing active duty personnel to our Southern Border will provide some relief to the serious strain Arizona border communities face every day, Sinema, I-Ariz., said in a written statement. The Administration must do more to enact a real, workable plan to secure our border, keep Arizonans safe and secure, and ensure migrants are treated fairly and humanely.

Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines said the military deployment to the southern border is a step in the right direction.

Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines said the deployment is a step in the right direction and that any additional support is wonderful. Lines said he hopes the military presence will provide additional pressure and slow the process of people crossing the border without authorization.

We support the military and we're grateful that they'll be able to be here in a support role for the men and women in green and blue, Lines said.

U.S. immigration plans: Pandemic-era border rules end next month, but new US migrant plan hinges on Mexico

Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls echoed Lines by welcoming the military deployment as a move in the right direction. Nicholls also questioned how effective the troops would be at freeing Border Patrol agents up to focus on their duties.

Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls answers questions after a news conference in front of a border gap near the Morelos Dam covered by shipping containers on Sept. 8, 2022, near Yuma.

It's basically an acknowledgment that there's something that really needs get done on the border that's out of the ordinary, Nicholls said.

I'm sure it will help, to what degree, I'm not quite sure.

Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey dispatched the National Guard to the border after declaring a state of emergency in April 2021.

In February 2022, former Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued a legal opinion saying that Ducey would be authorized to use state military force against an invasion of drug cartels and criminal gangs.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey shakes hands with Arizona Adjutant General and Director of the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs Brigadier General Kerry L. Muehlenbeck on the U.S. and Mexico border outside of Yuma on April 21, 2021. Ducey toured the border and spoke during a press conference a day after issuing a Declaration of Emergency and deploying the Arizona National Guard to the border. Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers, center background, and Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls, background right, look on.

CBP and Border Patrol officials have not yet spoken with Nogales Mayor Jorge Maldonado about the military deployment, according to Maldonado. Maldonado said hes just trying to prepare the community before the sunset of Title 42.

It's nothing that we should fear, Maldonado said in regard to the military deployment.

More: Migrants don't have a right to an attorney in immigration court. Democrats want to change that

Douglas Mayor Donald Huish said the military deployment is a move in the right direction but maintained that there are many more aspects regarding the potential end of Title 42 that still worry the community.

If they're just going to handle administrative type things, that will be a help which hopefully will relieve the Border Patrol to be able to do the job that they've been hired to do, Huish said.

Nancy and Leo, along with their two children, Alexander, 3, and Gael, 1, speak with a Border Patrol agent while seeking asylum at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection-Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry on Nov. 8, 2021, in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. The family, which has faced threats and harassment in Guerrero, Mexico, asked to omit their last names.

Huish emphasized the need for transportation, temporary shelters and an overall plan for how the Biden administration plans to process people in an orderly fashion.

The small border community of Douglas has few resources and little infrastructure in place to help feed, house and transport migrants passing through the community toward their final destinations, Huish said.

There's no resources in Douglas itself to be able to help them, Huish said.

Critics of Bidens move have drawn comparisons to former President Donald Trump, who deployed active duty military personnel to help Border Patrol agents ahead of the arrival of a migrant caravan from Central America in 2018.

The troops only added to the National Guard forces already present.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Have a news tip or story idea about the border and its communities? Contact the reporter at josecastaneda@arizonarepublic.com or connect with him on Twitter @joseicastaneda.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona advocates blast Biden for sending troops to Mexico border
FORT BRAGG  Gunshots, followed by screams, rang out on Range 68 at Fort Bragg on last week.

A soldier shouted out in pain, while another pleaded for help. Other soldiers called for a medic, and another asked someone to check on his military working dog.

The soldiers were part of a training simulation during the U.S. Army Special Operations Commands annual capabilities exercise.

During the weeklong exercise, veterans, local and state elected officials, representatives of nonprofits and special operation forces were able to watch and participate in what organizers described as an immersive exercise that shows how special operation forces train and the potential scenarios they encounter when deployed.

After the exercise, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, told the spectators that while he acknowledged the mass casualty portion was emotional for some, its something leaders take seriously.

Braga and other soldiers during the exercise April 28 told the crowd that Army special operation forces soldiers are cross-trained to respond to crises to help medics.

Its real, Braga said. Its not a video game.

Army special operations community concludes first-ever Heritage Week

First-person experience

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis watched the exercise on April 23 with 80 congressional staffers, representatives and congressional members.

During an April 25 phone interview, Tillis said he thinks the men and women who participated in the exercise are proving the value of the investment Congress authorizes for special operations.

Theyre demonstrating something thats done in dangerous places in the world, more recently with whats been going on in Sudan, Tillis said. Everyone is moving. Theyre clearing buildings. There are live-fire demonstrations. Special operators are in extraordinarily hostile environments while maintaining relationships with partner forces. "

A Special Forces lieutenant colonel, who helped coordinate and plan the exercise and asked not to be named because of the nature of his job, said the intent of the exercise was to convey how special operation forces work together and with partner forces and the U.S. joint force, while being a first-person immersive experience, for those watching it.

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We wanted people to get a feeling of what its like to be in the boots of our soldiers  We didnt want bystanders, he said.

Cadets from North Carolina universities assist green berets assigned to 1st Special Forces Command during a trauma event as part of the annual US Army Special Operations Command Capabilities Exercise (CAPEX) at Fort Bragg, N.C. (Army)

A psychological operations master sergeant, whose name cant be used because of the nature of his job, said he thinks the exercise was a good example of how cross-functional teams, like civil affairs, psychological operations and Special Forces come together to meet national strategic objectives.

As far as the public (watching), I think it was a good introduction to the capabilities of special operations and how we can impact on a geopolitical sphere worldwide, he said.

Scenario and real-world experiences

The exercise last week featured a simulated scenario of a pro-Peoples Republic of China party running for national office in Tawain and alleging election fraud.

Spectators were able to listen and watch simulated command briefings involving civil affairs, psychological operations and Special Forces soldiers.

The exercise evolved from what it would look like if forces were to support a noncombatant evacuation of Americans from Tawain, to what a full-scale Chinese invasion of the island of Tawain would look like, while pro-Chinese propaganda circulated.

Soldiers part of a 75th Ranger Regiment platoon rappelled from two MH-47 Chinooks flown by members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

The Rangers moved into positions to show what it would look like to clear a building and evacuate civilians in the midst of a firefight.

This is actually a Ranger platoon and this is how we train, so this is exactly what youd get from any Ranger platoon anywhere in the world, a Ranger, whose name cant be used because of the nature of his job, told the audience.

Ahead of the April 28 exercise, Braga said elements of the 75th Ranger Regiment are currently deployed to Sudan along with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, civil affairs, psychological operations and Special Forces. The evacuations of Americans from the African nation come as the countrys military battles paramilitary forces for control.

The exercise continued with spectators being asked to volunteer to act as members of a partner force to simulate a partner-force-accompanied raid, while a military working dog with the 3rd Special Forces Group was also featured.

Exclusive: Inside the ongoing evolution of Army special operations

Irregular warfare and Russia and Ukraine

Ahead of the exercise, Braga said special operation forces are about irregular warfare, which is influencing relevant populations to change how they think.

He said the current Russian invasion of Ukraine is an example.

Were ultimately trying to change and contribute toward changing (Russian President Vladimir) Putins behavior, Braga said. Were trying to prevent that from escalating, stop the fighting and get him to the negotiating table.

Braga said the goal is to prevent World War III.

Braga and a Special Forces colonel currently deployed to Germany as part of a task force in support of Ukraine said China and the world is watching what is happening in Ukraine.

Everyone is watching lessons learned from Ukraine and saying, Well whats if its us next? Braga said.

He said that from the perspective of special operation forces, relationships with partner forces are key and started before Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea.

On any given day, Braga said, 3,000 special operation soldiers are deployed to 80 different counties and remain dedicated to working with international partners.

Thats an irregular approach... We invest partner forces and truly have generational relationships, he said.

Of the lessons being learned from Russia and Ukraine, Braga said, its an artillery war with drone use, but also information operations and messages from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are just as important.

The world, Braga said, is supporting Ukraine, with Switzerland giving weapons away, and Finland and Sweden wanting to join NATO.

The exact strategic objectives Putin was looking to avoid are happening, he said.
A girl who was rescued through a Project Dynamo evacuation mission in Sudan following weeks of civil war. (Project Dynamo)

When Bryan Stern launched a humanitarian effort to rescue Americans and other vulnerable people during the 2021 turmoil in Afghanistan, he didnt expect hed still be extracting people during a conflict two years later  only this time in Sudan.

As the East African nation falls into civil warfare, Sterns representatives confirmed that his nonprofit, Project Dynamo, rescued around 90 Americans, [U.S.] allies and their families over the weekend. The organization successfully landed a charter aircraft in Cairo with evacuees from Sudan, it said, arriving at Cairo International Airport at 6 a.m. on Monday.

The large-scale rescue operation, dubbed: RHINO RIVER, is focused on evacuating Americans and residents of other NATO and allied countries from the Sudan war zone to safety, Sterns press team said in an email. This is the second time Project DYNAMO [was] the first to land a charter plane in a conflict zone to rescue Americans, the first was in Afghanistan.

Bryan Stern, founder of Project Dynamo, holding flag at right, poses with Americans, U.S. allies and their families after his nonprofit rescued them from armed conflict in Sudan. (Project Dynamo)

Mohamed Mahgoubs wife, son and two daughters were visiting extended family in Sudan for about a year. After the school year, they were to return to the U.S. and rejoin him in San Leandro, Calif. He even had a flight on May 29 booked for them. But then the conflict erupted.

There was no way for me to fly in so I [could] live or die with my family, Mahgoub said. There [was] no way for me to get them out of there. I saw these things going on, and I saw other nations taking care of their citizens.

He added that he could hear bombs and bullets firing when talking to his family on the phone. Eventually, Mahgoub said a friend told him about Project Dynamo, so he filled out an application, and he said the organization responded within three or four minutes.

In the Rhino River operation, Stern and his crew were able to rescue Mahgoub's family.

Im happy for my kids to be safe, but at the same time, I feel like I have a responsibility to Project Dynamo, Mahgoub said. Because if that's what they are doing, everyone needs to jump in and help. It's like we cannot just leave them alone trying to save the entire world by themselves. So I feel gratitude, I really appreciate what they did for me. I owe them, I owe them my life.

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Mohamed Mahgoubs son, Abdullah, and wife, Lamees Babikar Mohamed, with Stern after he helped rescue them in Sudan. (Project Dynamo)

Stern founded Project Dynamo, which describes itself as a veteran-led, donor-funded, international rescue organization, in 2021 in Tampa. When the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan caused mayhem in Kabul, the capital city, his group evacuated Americans and American allies.

Now Sterns organization is helping people in Sudan, where a civil war has recently erupted between the army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces. The military factions, which are loyal to rival generals, are battling in the capital, Khartoum, and across the country. The death toll has exceeded more than 520, according to a recent report, with nearly 5,000 injured.

Our vehicles are on the street pulling Americans as we speak, as I'm talking to you right now, Stern told Yahoo News in an interview via Zoom on April 26.

Last week provided a critical opportunity for Project Dynamo, as both sides in Sudan agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire that was extended for an extra 72 hours through Sunday, although the Associated Press reported that gunfire and heavy artillery fire persisted over the weekend.

The ceasefire is only as good as the people who follow it, which is most, but not all, Stern said. A ceasefire is kind of like a speed limit. Most people follow it. Some people, a lot of people, break it every now and then. Then there are some people that look at that sign, and it's like, [they] don't care.

When violent conflict breaks out in a country, the American government will often evacuate its embassy, but many other Americans living there may be left to fend for themselves.

Smoke rises in Khartoum, Sudan, on April 29 as gunfire and heavy artillery fire continued despite a ceasefire. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)

Thats when private organizations like Project Dynamo step in. The group is funded by donations and is trying to execute exfiltration missions for the hundreds of people in Sudan who it says have reached out to it.

Withdrawal from Sudan

On April 15, conflict erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The U.S. sent special operations troops into Khartoum on April 22 to airlift embassy staffers and government personnel.

The White House said on April 24 that the U.S. would still try to help thousands of Americans left behind in Sudan who are seeking to escape the fighting.

In a press briefing last week, Jake Sullivan, President Bidens national security adviser, defended the decision for U.S. forces and personnel to depart Sudan, saying the U.S. was now remotely assisting Americans trying to flee the country by road.

However, following criticism about leaving Americans behind, the U.S. evacuated three groups of American citizens, as well as their immediate family members and nationals from allied and partner countries, on April 29, April 30 and May 1, according to State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel.

U.S. soldiers escort American nationals to a U.S. Navy ship in Port Sudan on April 30. (AP Photo/Smowal Abdalla)

The convoys transported more than 700 people to Port Sudan, a Sudanese city on the Red Sea, where they could be removed from the conflict. Tens of thousands of people in Sudan have arrived at border crossings into Chad and Egypt, and the U.N. projects that the number will eventually reach 800,000.

In response to a request for comment from Yahoo News before the weekend rescues, the State Department forwarded a previous briefing from Patel.

We remain dedicated to assisting U.S. citizens in Sudan. As Secretary [Antony] Blinken said, we are actively helping U.S. citizens who seek to depart Sudan to move overland to a location where they can more easily exit the country, Patel said in a prepared statement at the briefing.

He encouraged U.S. citizens in Sudan to complete the crisis intake form on the State Department website so department officials can contact them.

Patel added that fewer than 5,000 U.S. citizens have requested additional information from the State Department, and of those only a fraction have actively sought our assistance to depart Sudan.

Responding to a question from Yahoo News about thoughts on Project Dynamo's efforts, a department spokesperson reiterated Patels comments, adding, We have a team of consular officers in Washington, D.C., who are working around the clock to communicate directly with U.S. citizens.

Other missions Project Dynamo assisted in

Stern, who lives in Tampa, grew up in New York City. He initially enlisted in the Army and then became a naval officer, becoming a lieutenant commander and serving 25 years in special operations.

He also considered becoming a lawyer or joining the FBI. But now his full-time job is extracting people from conflict zones.

Stern at work for Project Dynamo. (Project Dynamo)

Project Dynamo now has thousands of donors and an average donation size of $217, he said, and is looking for corporate sponsors and major companies serve as donors. Right now it has about 17 volunteers, a number that ebbs and flows based on availability.

When rescuing people, the group typically charters an aircraft. For the first rescue in Kyiv on day one of the Russia-Ukraine war, Stern said he drove people to safety.

He originally expected Project Dynamo to be a three-month-long operation to help in Afghanistan.

When we started, it was really about honoring our promise to our partners that had fought with us for 20 years that we left behind, Stern said. Thats how it started: helping Afghans, Afghan commandos, Afghan judges, womens rights folks, translators, those kinds of people that have helped us out over Americas longest war. Then it turned into Holy cow, theres a whole bunch of Americans left behind.

Then Stern found himself helping out in Ukraine.

In January 2022, as the Russian invasion began to look more likely, we had a big donor that said ... I actually have an office in Ukraine. And I have a lot of Ukrainian friends. And I actually used to live in Ukraine, this donor told me. Is Dynamo going to Ukraine?

Inside a Project Dynamo refugee tent in Ukraine. This was more than 100 days into the Russian invasion into the country. (Project Dynamo)

In Ukraine, Stern said the group did the first rescue of Americans in the country. He said missiles dropped around 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2022, and Project Dynamo left Kyiv within an hour with a bus packed with 20 people. The organization is still helping out with withdrawals in Ukraine and Afghanistan, having carried out operations in those countries this week alone.

Project Dynamo has also helped out much closer to home, heading to Fort Myers, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

We were in the water, boats in the water conducting operations before the Coast Guard, before Sanibel Fire Department, before the Florida State Police, before Florida Fish & Wild, Stern said.

Serving the evacuees

A bus of Americans, U.S. allies and their families after being rescued from Sudan by Project Dynamo. (Project Dynamo)

By nature, Project Dynamo volunteers are put into dangerous and daring situations. Stern said they are not armed and often cant use every mode of transportation, depending on the nation and conflict.

Weve had a few sources that have been killed, and weve had a few people detained or arrested and interrogated over time, as recently as [April 25], he said. The people I serve are the [evacuees]. I dont have an ambassador to give me approval. I dont have a colonel to judge or to say thats too risky.
There will be police officers at Kettering Fairmont High School Thursday after threats were made against the LGBTQ+ community.

The goal is to make everyone feel safe.

Its so unfortunate, I dont know what kind of person can send a threat to children. What kind of person is that? Michael Knote said.

Knote is the executive director of Have a Gay Day.

Brandon Moore is currently booked into Kettering City Jail after he allegedly made threats against LGBTQ+ people at Kettering Fairmount High School Wednesday morning.

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Police said they tracked Moore down in Beavercreek and arrested him at his job.

They also said they will have extra patrol at the high school Thursday, something psychologist Adam Feiner thinks is a good idea.

To have a call like that come in where someones threatening harm to anyone and in particular, a specific group as well, in an environment that should be safe, where one has a right to feel safe, turns that on its head, Feiner said.

According to the Center for Disease Control, a study of youth in grades 7-12 found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide as their heterosexual peers. One factor is linked to a hostile environment.

Thats why Feiner said acceptance matters.

>> Area transgender HS student says he was not allowed to serve on prom king court

Make sure that we know we let people know they are accepted, and they should be free to be themselves. And even though there are people like this that will wish some groups harm, that is not the norm, Feiner said.

Knote agrees, and said now is the time to keep talking because hate keeps happening.

Theres a lot of conversation right now when it comes to the LGBTQ+ communities and theres a lot of misunderstanding, not as much education, and people are really emotional about it. Some people are trying to get reactions, some people are trying to be seen, and some people are just trying to keep their families safe and their kids safe from all of this, Knote said.

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News Center 7 reached out to the district who provided a statement that said in part:

In the wake of the threatening phone call today and the increased media coverage regarding Fairmonts 2023 Prom Court, KPD will continue to provide additional police officer coverage at the high school for the foreseeable future to assist SRO Spinks in assuring the safety of all. The safety and security of every one of our students and staff members are of paramount importance in the Kettering City Schools.

We will continue following this story and update when new information is available.












From left, clockwise: Asias first chief heat officer Bushra Afreen; Muslims offer special prayers for rains in Dhaka during an April heatwave; a man buys cool drinks from a street vendor amid soaring heat in the city (Getty)

When she was a child, Bushra Afreen would hear of people leaving her hometown of Dhaka for opportunities to study or work abroad.

Now, dangerous, suffocating heat is driving those who can afford it out of Bangladeshs capital city.

Dhaka is my home but its not a city that I recognise anymore because of the unbearable heat, Afreen told The Independent last week. Unlivable  thats the word which commonly gets associated with Dhaka now.

Bangladesh experiences some of the highest temperatures in Asia. The monthly average of 30C regularly feels even hotter when combined with the regions high humidity.

Dhaka hit 40.6C during a heatwave last month, its highest temperature in six decades. Rising global greenhouse gas emissions, from burning fossil fuels, will continue to make life there even hotter.

Bangladesh is moving towards an almost permanent state of heat wave, according to a 2021 World Bank report.

Its a crisis that Afreen is facing head-on after she was announced as Dhakas first chief heat officer on Wednesday. She is also the first CHO in Asia to join an all-female squad in cities around the world.

I want to push more engagement and work with all communities but especially those who are really vulnerable, Afreen said.

CHOs are already in place in Miami, Florida; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Athens, Greece; Santiago, Chile; Monterrey, Mexico; and Melbourne, Australia. (Los Angeles also has a CHO after the city took a liking to the idea and decided to fund the position for themselves.)

The roles have been created by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre, an international think-tank with a goal to make 1 billion people more resilient to extreme heat by 2030.

Heat is a silent and insidious killer that claims the lives of more people than any other climate disaster and is particularly dangerous for the elderly, young children, the poor, and those with existing health conditions.

Cities are chosen to be part of the Arsht-Rock pilot scheme not just because of their propensity for extreme heat but also because they have mayors and local governments receptive to innovative solutions.

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CHOs tailor their plans to best suit each individual place  whether that be farm workers in the US southeast; market traders in Sierra Leone; or pensioners in Greece.

Hundreds of Muslims congregated at an open field in central Dhaka in April to offer special prayers for rains as a heatwave swept the country (AFP/Getty)

Afreen says shes keen to learn from her fellow CHOs, noting the secret WhatsApp message group that the women share.

Im really looking forward to getting to know them and working with them, she said. They have so much experience that Im sure will help me work in a much more impactful way.

Women were deliberately selected for the roles because women are disproportionately impacted, Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of Arsht-Rock and the mastermind of the CHO programme, told The Independent.

The number of dangerously hot days is estimated to double by 2050, and the greatest burden will fall on women and girls.

Not only does extreme heat disproportionately impact womens health, but they are the backbone of the informal economy around the world  in piecework, domestic duties and care-taking for children and the elderly.

Having women leading the work, it makes sense, Baughman McLeod said. Its just a good investment.

Many major cities in poorer countries face overlapping climate and environmental threats and Dhaka, the worlds fourth-largest with more than 22 million people, falls firmly in that camp.

The city is fast-growing and densely populated with temperatures that can be more than 10C higher than rural areas.

Eugenia Kargbo, the chief heat officer in Freetown, Sierra Leone, speaks with market traders (Atlantic Council)

People really are at risk of dying, I dont know how else to say it, says Afreen, who has a background in the public and private sector across social welfare, government and micro-finance. You cant sweat enough to release all that heat from your body.

The recent heatwave led to large fires in Dhaka adding to its already dire air pollution.

It became a very hostile environment to even step outdoors in, she added.

More than 2,000 people are arriving in Dhaka every day with no choice but to live in informal settlements. Many are from rural farming and fishing communities forced to leave their homes because they have experienced other climate disasters, Afreen explained.

Two-thirds of Bangladesh is less than 15 feet above sea level and the rising ocean and heat-amped cyclones have claimed hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

Afreen describes a harm chain where people live largely without access to proper sanitation or drinking water. To survive, they must work with little protection in extreme temperatures.

The kicker is that these housing quarters are composed entirely of metal  the worst thing under heat, she said. During this [latest] heatwave, the thing I kept hearing was that no one was able sleep at night, the houses felt like ovens.

Only the wealthy can afford air conditioning and for many in informal dwellings, there are no cool showers for relief. Even the drinking water lines end up boiling hot.

Its a public health crisis, Afreen said. People dont have access to their basic human right to be able to cool themselves down.

Cristina Huidobro, the chief heat officer in Santiago, Chile, where the local mayor is backing a $2m urban reforestation plan to cool the city (Atlantic Council)

While long-term infrastructure changes take time, Baughman McLeod said, the first priority of CHOs is to raise public awareness. That's the quickest life-saving feature there is, she said.

In Miami, the worlds first-ever CHO Jane Gilbert worked with the city to designate May/October as official heat season, piggybacking on a public campaign already in place for hurricane preparedness.

In Florida, radio was discovered to be particularly popular in certain communities so multilingual public service announcements were broadcast on Haitian and farmworkers radio channels, Gilbert told Fast Company last year. In parts of town with the highest numbers of heat-related illnesses, billboards and bus shelter posters warned about heat exposure.

In Santiago, CHO Cristina Huidobro is overseeing a $2m urban tree-planting programme to help cool neighbourhoods after it was greenlit by the regions governor.

And Freetowns CHO Eugenia Kargbo found out from market traders that their greatest need was coverings for stalls. Its a relatively simple, rapidly-deployed solution that not only protects them but also the goods from which they earn a living.

With summer fast approaching, Afreen is similarly focused on public awareness in Dhaka and discussing with local groups how to rapidly reach the most vulnerable.

Im so grateful to work on heat, its high time honestly. Everyone is at risk, she said. I want to create a cooler, more equitable future not just for my own daughter but for all the other kids.
An active shooter situation in midtown Atlanta has left at least one person dead and four others injured.

Police have identified the suspect as Deion Patterson, 24. He was taken into custody at a Cobb County apartment complex on Wednesday evening.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Governor Brian Kemp released a statement on Wednesday night saying he was heartbroken for the families affected by the shooting.

Were also thanking God for the brave local and state law enforcement who responded forcefully and without hesitation. Thanks to their efforts, the shooter is now in custody and will face justice, he wrote.

Senator Raphael Warnock addressed the shooting from the floor of the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C.

Tragically, we act as if this is routine, Warnock said. None of us is safe, no matter where we are.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been briefed on the midtown Atlanta shooting.

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Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens joined Atlanta police in asking everyone to stay alert and contact 911 if you see anything.

Just finished briefing the press w/ APD. Gunman still at large but no longer in Midtown. Focus is in Cobb County.



Suspect is armed & dangerous. Do not approach. Call 911 if you have info.



APD is coordinating w/ regional agencies.



Follow @Atlanta_Police for updates.  Andre Dickens (@andreforatlanta) May 3, 2023

Northside Hospital is cooperating with law enforcement following the shooting at our midtown #Atlanta location earlier this afternoon. We urge people in the area to shelter in place and follow instructions from law enforcement on the scene. pic.twitter.com/52tRjmpqf7  Northside Hospital (@NorthsideHosp) May 3, 2023

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The Gulfport Police Department has identified a man who was shot by an officer on Tuesday afternoon.

Corwin Joshua Wilcher, 22, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was shot when two officers from the Gulfport Police Departments Anti-Crime Unit were attempting to conduct a traffic stop near U.S. 90 and Hewes Avenue, according to officials.

Wilcher showed the officer a gun before being shot, a press release said.

Wilcher was driving a white Hyundai Elantra with Pearl River County plates that said BONDSMN. At the scene, police officers could be seen placing evidence markers in the middle of Hewes Avenue.

It is unclear what time the incident occurred, as Gulfport Police Chief Adam Cooper said during an interview that the shooting took place around 2 p.m. but the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said the shooting took place around 4 p.m.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation says the victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital. However, Gulfport Police Chief Adam Cooper said the suspect was in critical condition.

The officers were not injured.

MBI is currently assessing the shooting and gathering evidence. Upon completing an investigation, agents will share their findings with the Attorney Generals Office.

If you have any information about the shooting, call the Gulfport Police Department.

Gulfport police investigate a shooting Tuesday at U.S. 90 and Hewes Avenue.

Gulfport police investigate a shooting Tuesday at U.S. 90 and Hewes Avenue.

Gulfport police investigate a shooting Tuesday at U.S. 90 and Hewes Avenue.
Carmakers are racing to counteract their inventory buildup in order to keep profits flowing. JD Adams for General Motors

Throughout the height of COVID, carmakers got used to getting high prices.

Now, that's not as much the case as shoppers become more price-sensitive.

But some carmakers might limit their inventory to keep supply down and prices up.

Car companies have a new way of keeping prices up: limiting options on the dealer lot.

Since recovering from COVID-related plant shutdowns and an extended shortage of chips required for today's tech-laden cars, companies like Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis have finally seen more cars head to dealer lots.

Each of the companies had 63, 47, and 69 days worth of vehicle inventory on dealership lots, respectively, at the end of March, according to Deutsche Bank analysts, substantially higher than the overall industry's average of 35 days supply.

But now, carmakers want to keep options slim for shoppers and are racing to counteract that inventory buildup in order to keep profits flowing.

"Some companies are looking to proactively manage inventory levels with planned downtime, as seen with GM's Fort Wayne and Silao production plants," Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in an April 27 note.

That's especially abnormal, particularly for the US car industry. Before, automakers here prioritized volume and market share  but they're swapping both for profits.

What car buyers are up against

Throughout the height of the pandemic, car companies and auto dealers couldn't get their hands on enough cars due to supply constraints like the chip shortage.

But they got used to selling vehicles for high prices with minimal inventory on their lots.

"The COVID experience showed both automakers and dealers the upsides related to higher margins and reduced sales," Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.com, told Insider. "I suspect there's a realization that having fewer, well-moneyed buyers has its advantages  at least in the near term."

Now, while more inventory hits the ground as the industry recovers from the chip crisis and consumer demand wanes amid macroeconomic concerns, intentionally shutting down factories for short periods of time could be a way to limit how many vehicles are sitting (and thus limit the real estate that dealers have to pay for). It could also send the message that buyers' options are somewhat limited.

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"We've also seen the cancellation of many base trims, and I'm seeing less effort put into the annual upgrades a given model receives to continue to draw in new buyers," Brauer said. "I think the attitude is that demand is strong enough to not sell lower margin base models, and to not spend as much improving the cars year-over-year. All of this saves the automakers money while simultaneously increasing margins."

It's true: Even though stock levels have increased notably in recent months, the average transaction price for new cars has remained relatively high, hitting $48,008 in March, according to Kelley Blue Book.

Shoppers shouldn't always be fooled by low inventory

Carmakers ultimately want to prioritize profits and that means buying is never going back to normal.

"Prior to the pandemic, many automakers really focused too much on filling production capacity, building as many units as they could, and in doing so, they often would build more vehicles than the market really wanted," Ed Kim, president and chief analyst at automotive research firm AutoPacific, said.

"They got a real taste of what it's like when you build to demand, or even build to less-than-demand, as opposed to the common practice of overproducing and then moving metal with rebates or incentives," Kim added.

But shoppers shouldn't necessarily see some automaker's low inventory as a signal of high demand for a vehicle that they'd have to pay big dollars to compete on. Having fewer vehicles available could be on purpose.

Certain segments, like compact and midsize SUVs, are always going to be popular regardless of the pandemic  and likely come with higher price tags. Others, like sedans, may be produced less as they're losing popularity  and it's possible there are deals to be had there.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Mississippi River floodwater. Illustrated | Gettyimages

The mighty Mississippi River, the longest waterway in North America and the fourth-largest in the world, is set to unleash floods in Iowa and Illinois this week after swift snow melting left water levels dangerously high.

Why is the river flooding?

There is one primary culprit for what is expected to be a serious flooding season on the Upper Mississippi (the part of the system between Minneapolis and Cairo, Illinois): rapid snow melt from Minnesota and Wisconsin. The region saw very heavy snowfall this winter followed by a cold March that locked a significant snowpack in place. The Upper Mississippi Valley then experienced a series of unseasonably warm days in April, which led to sudden and catastrophic melting. Another round of snowfall that melted quickly on April 16 and 17 didn't help.

Areas in Wisconsin and Minnesota have already seen significant flooding, and as the water moves south along the swollen river, it hit places like Davenport, Iowa, which is seeing the third serious flooding in a decade. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) issued a disaster declaration for a number of counties on April 24. Water levels on the river in Davenport peaked just below expectations, falling short of records and likely sparing the city widespread devastation. As National Weather Service meteorologist Steven Wilson told The Associated Press: "Everybody's plan along the river has been put to the test and everybody is passing right now." Still, the National Weather Service is reporting close to record water levels along the river in Iowa and Illinois, with "major" flooding, defined as "extensive inundation of structures and roads." Many towns in both states will see their forecast water level peaking ("cresting" in flood lingo) this week. The Lower Mississippi is not expected to experience major flooding this year due to lower-than-usual winter and spring precipitation.

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Several factors combined to limit the potential damage from this flooding season. Above-average temperatures in April ensured that the ground wasn't frozen, allowing some water to be absorbed rather than sent downstream to wreak havoc. The region also got lucky with the weather  no major rain or snow storms are predicted to hit the affected areas during the most vulnerable periods. Had that happened, the flooding may have overwhelmed defenses along the river and caused a much more grave crisis.

What preparations have been made?

States and municipalities have reacted to the threat of flooding in different ways. Some have reinforced levees and existing flood control infrastructure. Davenport, Iowa, for example, uses "temporary sand-filled barriers and allows the river to flood in riverfront parks" to control flooding. Dubuque, Iowa, built a flood wall in 1973 designed to prevent flooding with river levels up to 28 feet. Others have permanently located some residents away from flood plains to more secure locations, using what are known as "levee setbacks."

So far these adjustments seem to have helped Upper Mississippi communities avert greater calamity. But levee systems have costs too, and some argue that they increase flood risk downstream by raising water levels and speeds, and that they too will eventually be overwhelmed. As University of California, Davis, geologist Nicholas Pinter told NPR in 2018, "There are two types of levees: those that have failed and those that will fail." As climate change brings more rain and unpredictability to the region, the only long-term solution guaranteed to reduce property losses and deaths is to avoid intensive development on flood plains.

More than anything else, climate change brings unpredictability. While flooding is the more serious risk on the Upper Mississippi, flash droughts threaten the Lower Mississippi with lower water levels, a menace to the river's shipping industry and to that region's drinking water supplies and recreation. The different needs of communities along different parts of the Mississippi will require creative cooperation between state authorities seeking to manage disruption.

How do these floods compare to past incidents?

One of the worst floods ever to hit the Upper Mississippi region was the Great Flood of 1993, which caused $15 billion in property damage and killed 50 people. Some of the harder-hit areas experienced 200 days of flooding. Evacuations numbered in the tens of thousands, 10,000 homes were lost, and some towns never regained their pre-flood population levels. Grafton, Illinois, which had 195 consecutive days of flooding, lost almost half of its residents forever. The flooding paralyzed nearly the entire Mississippi River region for months. In the Upper Mississippi region, many water level records date to floods in the spring of 1965, which drove 40,000 people from their homes north of St. Louis, killed 19, and caused $200 billion in property losses.

Current flooding is not expected to approach these catastrophic numbers, either in terms of damage or loss of life. Mississippi River flooding hasn't yet caused any deaths, in part due to preventive road closures and other precautions that authorities have taken. So far, it looks more like the 2019 flooding season. Still, flood prevention preparations have brought life to a standstill in many cities like Davenport, and it is not yet clear what will happen as the surge makes its way south to Missouri.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said his meetings with the United States top leaders provided a very attractive opportunity for the Philippines to strengthen its ties with one of the most powerful nations.

During a meeting with US Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night (Manila Time), Marcos thanked her as she laid the groundwork for his meeting with US President Joe Biden.

I think that has given us the very, very, very attractive opportunity to continue to strengthen the relationship between our two countriesin the context of all of the difficulties and complexities, the rising tensions in our region and the world, the Philippine president said.

And, once again, we turn to our American partners. You are our only treaty partner in the world, he added.

On his way to have brunch with Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff in Washington D.C., a reporter asked Marcos how concerned he was about Chinas "continued provocation in the South China Sea."

As concerned as you could possibly be, Marcos said.

He also noted that it remains one of the major issues the Philippines is facing.

READ: Marcos as concerned as you could possibly be about Chinas provocation in WPS

Pressed if the Philippines relations with Americas top leaders would get you closer to protecting the region, Marcos said the Philippines continues to build its cooperation with the US, which is known for having a military and economic powerhouse.

At his earlier meeting with Biden, Marcos said the current issues hounding the region make it possibly, arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now.

Amid the tensions in the South China Sea, Marcos said it was only natural for the Philippines to look to its sole treaty partner in the world.

READ: Marcos tells Biden: Only natural for PH to look to US amid rising tensions in SCS, Taiwan

For his part, Biden reassured the Philippines of Americas ironclad commitment to defend the country in any armed attack.

In a joint statement, both leaders reaffirmed the need to keep the peace and stability over Taiwan, while pressing China to acknowledge the 2016 arbitral ruling backing the Philippines sovereign rights over the disputed waters.

Aside from talks on security, the Philippines also clinched some business deals on e-motorcycles and nuclear power.
Nature has a way of providing the perfect backdrop for social media posts, especially Instagram. There are so many beautiful pools around the world that are worth checking out, and were featuring just a fraction of them here.

For clarity, pools doesnt refer to chlorinated water in this case. Were focusing on waterfalls, boiling lakes, lagoons and the like. Most are great for a dip, others are safe for observation only. Theyre spread across the Americas, Europe, Africa and elsewhere.

Add life to your Instagram by taking pictures of these beautiful bodies of water.

Devils Pool  Zambia

Photo Credit: Mint Images

On the list of must see attractions in Zambia, Victoria Falls is probably number one. At the top of the mighty falls is Devils Pool, which is adjacent to Livingstone Island.

A rock lip works as a natural barrier that keeps you from being swept over the edge. Yep, thats it.

According to Safari Booking, the pool stands almost midway across the mile-wide waterfall. It is accessible only on guided boat tours.

It isnt required, but its helpful to know how to swim. If you cant, youll need to at least be comfortable standing in water that reaches your waist.

The best, and only time to get into Devils Pool safely, is from June to March. Outside of this period, the Zambezi water levels are dangerously high, and therefore, there are no tours.

Blue Grotto  Italy

Photo Credit: Maremagnum

The Blue Grotto on the Italian island of Capri is a sight to behold. Called Grotta Azzurra in Italian, this natural wonder can only be accessed via a tiny rowboat.

Each rowboat can fit about four people, and youll have to lay flat on your back or stomach as the skipper slowly guides the boat into the narrow cavern.

The grotto has legendary for years. Sightseeing Tours Italy explains, some locals believe it used to be the personal pool of Emperor Tiberius. Others believe it was a Roman marine temple adorned with statues of deities.

Whatever story you believe, one thing is for certainthe grotto is spectacular. The photos youll find online look liked theyve been doctored, but they havent. The water really is that electric.

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Youll only spend a few minutes in the grotto. But apparently, if you tip your skipper a little extra, he might stretch that a bit.

When the sea and winds are rough, the grotto is closed to visitors. Some people try to swim there after hours, but this is dangerous. Its not worth the risk of getting slammed against the rocks.

Pamukkale Hot Springs  Turkey

Photo Credit: Malcolm P. Chapman

In southwest Turkey are the Pamukkale hot springs. Locals and visitors alike have been drawn to the springs for ages, because the waters are believed to have healing properties. To beat the crowds, try to arrive early.

Nomad Flag explains, the water contains high levels of minerals such as calcium, and was used as a place of rest and recovery in ancient times.

Do you wonder what causes those cotton-like formations? These are called travertines. They come from the calcite-rich waters of the hot springs, which spill over the landscape.

Turkey Travel Planner explains, cooling in the open air, the calcium precipitates from the water, adheres to the soil, and forms white calcium cascades.

Blue Lagoon  Iceland

Photo Credit: Westend61

The waters of this geothermal spa have a frosted, milky look. The Blue Lagoon is about an hour from the city of Reykjavik, and youll want to make reservations in advance.

Is this lagoon an absolute must for your Iceland visit? That depends. For some, no trip to Iceland is complete without visiting at least once. For others, its an overpriced tourist trap.

Take these items with you: a waterproof cover for your camera, hair tie or bonnet, swimwear, water shoes and a dry change of clothes.

Entrance fees vary depending on time of day. If you have a child thats 13 and younger, entry is free.

Boiling Lake  Dominica

Photo Credit: Dumas

The Nature Island of Dominica is home to the worlds second-largest boiling lake. Its part of the Valley of Desolation, which looks like something straight out of Jurassic Park.

To get there, be sure to have a guide, and bring sunblock, water and snacks. The hike to get to the lake is demanding, and depending on your fitness, it can take hours.

Discover Dominica says: [the lake] is enveloped by swirling clouds of vapor, and resembles a cauldron of furiously bubbling greyish-blue water. [Its] super heated from the molten magma below the surface of the surrounding rock.

Las Estacas  Mexico

Photo Credit: Carlos Lara

This natural water park is in the heart of Morelos, Mexico. From Mexico City, its about a 3 hour drive, and from Cuernavaca, its 45 minutes to an hour, depending on traffic.

Las Estacas is wonderful place to take the family. Some of the activities on site include yoga, kayaking and snorkeling, which you can do at an extra cost. For a little thrill, you can jump from heights, or from swings, where the water is deeper.

While its nice to do these, relaxing in the crystal-clear water is perfect on its own. Thats what most people go to do. Whether you choose to swim laps, or just let the gentle current carry you where it wants, youll feel totally at peace.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group private military company, whose forces are fighting in eastern Ukraine, has claimed that Ukrainian forces launched an offensive. He believes the "active phase" of the Ukrainian counteroffensive is about to begin.

Source: Yevgeny Prigozhin on Telegram

Quote from Prigozhin: "I think that the Ukrainian armys offensive has already begun. We are seeing increased activity of enemy aircraft, increased activity around the perimeter of, and inside, our front.

Though we continue to control the inside of our front, the situation around the perimeter is unfortunately not looking so good. Our flankshow reliable are they? I will not say anything about that for now.

It has begun. When will the active phase begin? I think very soon. Maybe in the next few days."

Details: Prigozhin complained that "enemy forces are mobilising outside of Ukraines historic borders" and explained that he was referring to "the incidents involving drones and trains".

Read also: "Waiting for a counteroffensive. How the Ukrainian Armed Forces are preparing to liberate the territories and how the Pentagon document leak affects Ukraine's plans"

Background:

On 28 April, Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov claimed that Ukraine's preparations for the counter-offensive are almost over.

On 2 May, Mark Milley, the Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed that Ukrainan troops were ready for the offensive, thanks to the aid from Western governments.

On the afternoon of 3 May, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said offensive actions "would follow soon".

Previously:

On Wednesday, Prigozhin lied about the alleged death of Major General Ihor Tantsyura, the Commander of Territorial Defence Forces of Ukraine's Armed Forces.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Roman Protasevich

The prosecutor's office had requested 10 years in a maximum-security prison.

Read also: Belarusian opposition leader reacts to Putins plans to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus

Two other defendants in the case  Nexta founder Stepan Putilo and former channel editor Yan Rudyk  were sentenced in absentia to 20 and 19 years in prison, respectively.

The Lukashenko regime-controlled investigation stated that since 2020, the defendants had conspired to seize state power in Belarus by unconstitutional means," and had published "information materials with destructive goals" on the Nexta and Belarus Golovnogo Mozga Telegram channels.

Read also: Belarusian factories producing military equipment for Russian military, reports Belarusian Hajun

The court believes that the defendants called on "protest-minded citizens to commit acts of terrorism."

Protasevich is the only defendant in the case who has been detained and is being tried in person.

Read also: Belarusian partisans release video of their drone landing on Russian AWACS plane

Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, were taken off a Ryanair plane en route from Greece to Lithuania in May 2021 after the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk due to the actions of a Belarusian military aircraft.

Western countries view this emergency landing as a hijacking orchestrated by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko strictly to detain a member of the opposition.

Read also: Belarusian rail partisan sentenced to 13 years in prison

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
If you want to make a New Yorker weep  and who doesnt, really?  take them to Pastis.

The famous Parisian-style brasserie, an icon in Manhattans Meatpacking District for almost 15 years, has opened its first restaurant outside New York in Miami, and its resemblance to its beloved predecessor inspires surprise, delight and an almost bittersweet longing in the hearts of former (and possibly current) New Yorkers.

Chef Showdown: Were down to the Elite 8. Vote for your favorite chef in Miami

This does not mean, however, that you should discount Pastis if youve never been to the original. The restaurant, from Keith McNally and Stephen Starr, who revived the original Pastis is 2019 after it closed in 2014, have recreated the magic here in Wynwood.

Pastis Miami is designed by McNally and Ian McPheely of Paisley Design, and every touch  the long, curved bar, the white subway tiles, the painted mirrors, the deep crimson banquettes in the dining room  exudes approachable elegance.

Youll enter the restaurant, which is across the street from the Wynwood Garage, through an outdoor garden with a bar, an only-in-Miami addition. A pergola covered in black locust tree vines partially covers the courtyard, a feature inspired by McNallys home on Marthas Vineyard. The outdoor section seats 114 diners, while the inside seats 179.

The new Pastis features a reprise of the famous red banquettes in the New York location.

Inside is where the real magic happens. The menu is similar to the New York menu and includes some of the favorites that kept the hungry returning in Manhattan: French onion soup, escargot and the famous steak frites, which any long-time fan will tell you is a must.

New to the menu are dishes like snapper Provencal poached in tomato and fennel sauce; tuna carpaccio in leek vinaigrette; and chicken paillard with almonds and olives and Gruyere omelet with herbs. Theres also a raw bar for your oystering pleasure and as well as warm shrimp salad, sandwiches and pasta dishes.

At this time, Pastis Miami is only serving dinner, but weekday lunches and weekend brunch are on the horizon.

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Stephen Starr of Starr Restaurants, which also represents South Florida spots Makoto and Le Zoo in Bal Harbour and Steak 954 and El Vez in Fort Lauderdale, said he had been considering Wynwood as a possible location for awhile.

Ive witnessed the vibrant and artistic neighborhood transform into a booming cultural hub with an incredible dining scene, he said. Pastis Miami will be a perfect addition to the community.

The hospitality group plans to eventually open Pastis locations in Washington D.C. and Nashville.

The outdoor patio at Pastis Miami in Wynwood.

Pastis Miami

Where: 380 NW 26th St., Miami

Hours: 5-11 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday; 5 p.m.-midnight Thursday-Saturday. Pastis also plans to serve weekday lunch and weekend brunch soon.

Reservations: Resy

For more information: www.pastismiami.com or 305-686-3050
Gwyneth Paltrow recently discussed sex with her exes on an episode of "Call Her Daddy." (Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press)

Ever wonder what it's like to date Brad Pitt or Ben Affleck? Gwyneth Paltrow's got you covered.

On Wednesday's episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, the actor and Goop founder  who is married to TV producer Brad Falchuk  dished on her romantic experiences with multiple exes, including Pitt and Affleck.

Paltrow and Pitt began dating in 1994 after working together on the movie "Se7en" and separated in 1997 a few months after getting engaged, according to Us Weekly. The "Shakespeare in Love" star subsequently dated Affleck on and off from 1997 to 2000.

While playing a game of "Brad or Ben?" on "Call Her Daddy," Paltrow compared her former partners' personalities, fashion senses, kissing techniques and sexual abilities. At the start, though, Paltrow fundamentally misunderstood the concept and blurted out "Brad" before podcast host Alex Cooper even asked her the first question.

"Oh, I thought that was the question," Paltrow said matter-of-factly as Cooper burst into laughter. "Brad or Ben?"

Then came the real questions: Who had better style? ("Probably Brad.") Who was more romantic? ("Brad.") Who was more likely to make you laugh? ("Ben.") Who were you more likely to get into an argument with? ("Ben.")

After a series of rapid-fire answers, Paltrow had to think a little harder when asked which of her A-list exes was "more high maintenance."

"I'm not sure I would characterize either of them as high maintenance," she mused. "They were both pretty [chill]."

As for who cared more about their appearance, "neither of them were very vain like that," Paltrow said.

"I'm not attracted to guys who are looking in the mirror the whole time," she added. "Although Ben did have a mirror face that he would throw in the mirror. ... He had a funny mirror face. I think he was joking."

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Cooper saved the juiciest queries for last: Who was the better kisser? ("They were both good kissers.") And who was better in bed?

"That's really hard," Paltrow said after a long pause. "That is really hard because Brad was the sort of major chemistry, love of your life ... at the time. And then Ben was, like, technically excellent."

"I can't believe my daughter's listening to this," Paltrow added with a giggle.

Finally, Cooper asked, who is the better actor?

"I mean, they're both so talented," Paltrow said. "Ben is a great writer and director, but I guess I would probably have to say  acting alone  Brad. Like, if you think of all the really different roles he's done. ... Ben is great too. They're both great."

Despite her openness discussing her relationships with Affleck and Pitt, the Oscar winner refused to identify other major stars she's secretly smooched (though she promised to give Cooper at least one name off the record). She did confirm, however, that she never made out with co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio or Johnny Depp.

Later in the conversation, Paltrow got sentimental about her marriage to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, which ended in their "conscious uncoupling." She recalled her bond with the musician feeling "very different" from her other relationships and said she would do it "all again" to be united with her two true loves: their children, Apple and Moses.

"There are certain things that have felt preordained in my life, and my children feel to me like the whole reason I'm on this earth," she explained.

"And so when I met [Martin], there was a very deep thing there, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. ... And it's not so much that the relationship itself turned out to be healthier than my other relationships. It's just that I think I had this deep calling on some level. I knew he was going to be the father of my kids maybe, or something. ... It was a very strong feeling."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Howard University has officially named its next president.

According to The Washington Post, Ben Vinson III was appointed as the new leader of the Washington, D.C., HBCU (historically Black college or university).

At this time, Vinson is the provost at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. Prior to that, he also served as an administrator at various universities across Washington D.C. and Maryland.

A New Start

Set to begin on Sept. 1, Vinson will become Howards 18th president since its inception.

There are so many things about Howard right now that really distinguish it as what I would call a fast-moving locomotive train, Vinson told the outlet.

His first order of business will involve working with Congress to help maintain the schools annual appropriation of over $250 million. This funding stream is unique to the university, setting it apart from other HBCUs due to its current student body of over 12,800 students.

Vinson will take the place of current president Wayne A.I. Frederick who is stepping down from his position after serving for roughly 10 years.

A History of Greatness

Some distinguished individuals that are products of Howard include current Madam Vice President Kamala Harris, the late Chadwick Boseman, Taraji P. Henson, and many more. The school is often referred to as The Mecca, as its been the leading educational place where Black people have sought advanced degrees for decades.

Since 2018, enrollment at the school has grown by more than 40%, and it has become a hub for not only attendees but those who contribute monetary donations and seek to protest for social justice movements, including protests that followed the death of George Floyd in 2020.

As previously reported by AfroTech, in that same year, MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos, donated a total of $40 million to Howard, marking its largest gift to date.
Everyone needs a cellphone, but not everyone has the same cellphone needs. Many seniors, in particular, want a lifeline to loved ones and emergency services, to say nothing of apps for health, safety, entertainment and more. Their phone should also be easy to use, with a large, bright screen, a straightforward user experience, a simple interface and ideally some accessibility features for users with physical challenges (such as eyesight or motor-skill impairments). With that criteria in mind, I've identified six models that I consider the best cellphones for seniors in 2023.

Read more: If you're not seeking a senior-specific solution, here's our roundup of the best cellphones, period.

Best phone for seniors: Android, iPhone or something else?

Below you'll find two iPhones, two specialized phones, one Android phone and one tablet. Although the Android-versus-iPhone debate has been raging for years, the truth is that neither operating system is especially senior-friendly. One exception: Samsung's Galaxy A23 offers something called Easy Mode. When activated, the functionality makes the user interface (text, icons, onscreen keyboard, etc.) larger and simplifies the home screen. When you swipe to the left-most screen, for example, you'll see it's now populated with one-tap icons to call "favorited" contacts.

From left: The GrandPad tablet (which also has phone capabilities), Consumer Cellular Link II, Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy A23.

That's a great option, one that's available on all Samsung Galaxy phones (not just the A23). However, the Android operating system on the whole  navigation, settings, etc.  can be a little complicated. Overall, I find iPhones a bit easier to learn and use, and they offer an unrivaled selection of accessibility features and assistive technology. For example, users who suffer from low vision can enable "Speak Screen," which verbalizes the contents of whatever's currently showing. Those with hearing impairments can toggle the rear LED (normally used by the camera) to flash repeatedly when a call, text or other alert comes in. A triple-click of the side button can activate a camera-powered magnifier, and so on.

Newer iPhones also offer medical-alert-style safety features like crash detection and, when paired with a newer Apple Watch, fall detection. In the unfortunate event of a driving incident or a tumble, these helpers can notify family and even contact emergency services. (Worth noting: Google Pixel phones offer crash detection as well, and fall detection is coming to Google's Pixel Watch.)

Phones for seniors: Costs and other considerations

As with any phone you buy, there's the cost of the phone itself and the cost of service. Thankfully, while the hardware can range from a few hundred dollars to nearly $1,000 (or more!), you can often take advantage of zero-interest financing to make them more affordable. The iPhone SE below, for example, can be paid off over three years for just $5 per month. The Samsung A23 runs about $8.33 per month when financed through Samsung.

As for service, consider whether you really need an unlimited data plan. If you spend much of your time at home, connected to Wi-Fi, then you probably don't. By choosing an unlocked phone, you can get service from whichever carrier offers the best plan to meet your connectivity needs and budget. Consumer Cellular, for example, is widely regarded as the "senior-friendly" carrier, with excellent customer service and plans starting at $20 per month. Mint Mobile is another popular option, with plans as low as $15 (amortized) with a prepaid option for a year at a time.

Whatever phone and carrier you end up with, I strongly recommend buying a rugged case as well. Although phone durability has improved over the years, with screens that promise to withstand minor bumps and scratches, gravity is not your friend  and a cracked screen is no fun.

Speaking of accessories, consider keeping a mobile charger close at hand. Depending on how you use it, your phone's battery life might last a couple of days on a charge or it might expire by dinnertime. If you're near an outlet you can always plug it in, but a power bank like this one from Anker can help when you're out and about.

Now let's take a look at the best cellphones for seniors.

Lively Best overall phone for seniors Lively Jitterbug Smart3 Smartphone for Seniors Android phones and iPhones can be made senior-friendly, but the Smart3 arrives that way: It's a phone made specifically with seniors in mind. In place of a sea of cryptic icons, it offers a handful of core features (e.g., phone, text messages and email) represented by large, clearly labeled large buttons on a simple menu accessed through a touchscreen. And at the very top: an Urgent Response button for quick access to live humans who can assist with everything from rides to minor health issues to real emergencies. (It can also be set to notify friends and family if that emergency button gets tapped.) The senior cell phone itself is quite affordable, and service plans start at just $20 per month. While this is far from the most capable smartphone out there, it is without question the smartest option for seniors. $75 at Amazon

Consumer Cellular Best flip phone for seniors Consumer Cellular Link II For some seniors, a smartphone can seem like a Ferrari: too fast, too complicated. In that case, a simple flip phone might be the best bet, and it's hard to beat Consumer Cellular's Link II. Priced at just $49, it's the cheapest option here by far, and service is available for just $20 monthly. It doesn't have apps, of course, and texts are complicated to send with the keypad (remember: no keyboard here). But there's a front-facing camera and even support for Bluetooth headsets, in case hands-free calling is preferred. Although I definitely recommend a smartphone for seniors who can manage one, this is an easy and affordable way to enjoy basic phone service. $49 at Consumer Cellular

Samsung Best affordable Android phone Samsung Galaxy A23 5G It may be Samsung's entry-level Galaxy phone, but the A23 5G offers plenty of power, including the aforementioned Easy Mode, which helps simplify an interface some might find intimidating. Stocked with four camera lenses, the A23 is also great for photography. In fact, if you think you'll be shooting lots of photos and videos, you'll appreciate the expandable storage (up to 1 TB via microSD cards), a feature not found on any iPhone. The 6.6-inch large screen is also downright huge, great for seniors who have vision issues. And because this phone is unlocked for use with all phone carriers, it's easy to take it somewhere offering dirt-cheap monthly service. $300 at Amazon

Apple Best affordable iPhone Apple iPhone SE 3rd Generation (Verizon) An affordable iPhone? Sounds unlikely, but you can pay just $5 per month (for 36 months at 0% interest) to get Apple's baseline model, which packs plenty of power, a bright display and has excellent cameras. It also has a physical Home button, something tech-challenged seniors might appreciate. Take note, however, that the screen is on the smaller side, at 4.7 inches. Some actually prefer that because the phone fits more easily in a pocket, but it can be harder on the eyes. In any case, you'll need a Verizon service plan as well (starting at $30/month), though Walmart also offers the iPhone SE through AT&T. $180 at Walmart

Apple Best big-screen iPhone Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max (Verizon) This is Apple's flagship iPhone, and it's here for one main reason: the super-spacious 6.7-inch screen. That's a full 2 inches larger than the iPhone SE's screen, and trust me when I say bigger is better. Icons are easier to identify, text is easier to read and YouTube videos are just, well, bigger. The 14 Pro Max takes dazzling telephoto and close-up photos as well, great for birders and grandchildren-watchers. You can finance this phone for around $29 per month (for 36 months) with no interest, though remember that you'll need a service plan as well. (This link will lead you to Verizon, but Walmart offers the same model, with the same pricing, on AT&T.) $1,049 at Walmart

GrandPad Best phone that's also a tablet GrandPad Tablet for Seniors It may seem odd to include a tablet in this roundup, but the GrandPad is part phone: It includes 4G LTE service with its monthly subscription plan ($59). That means it can be used for email, phone calls and Zoom video calls. It also means it's not limited to home use; it works out and about as well, just like a phone (though not one you'd want to hold up to your head). In addition, there's baked-in live customer support that's available 24/7, which helps justify the somewhat pricey service plan. See below for my complete GrandPad review. $399 at Amazon

Read more: GrandPad review: A grand tablet for grandparents
Pappy's Smokehouse in St. Louis, Missouri, is famous for its ribs. Michael U./Yelp

Summer road trips are on the horizon, but fast food and bagged sandwiches might get old.

Yelp identified the best road-trip food stop in every state based on customer reviews.

It found restaurants with a large concentration of reviews mentioning "road trip" then ranked them on factors including ratings.

ALABAMA: Mary's Southern Cooking in Mobile

Mary's Southern Cooking. Michael B./Yelp

"We were on a road trip and happened to come across this place since it has some good reviews. It's a small place serving food in a buffet style. The chicken was tasty and very tender... The pork chop was very flavorous and tender as well. The only drawback would be that the restaurant is so generous that we couldn't finish the whole box of food. Glad that we stopped by at this place for some southern dishes," wrote Yelp user Kyle C.

Learn more about Mary's Southern Cooking here.

ALASKA: Moose's Tooth in Anchorage

Moose's Tooth. Christine N./Yelp

"Very popular and busy location. Good pizza and they offer a ton of interesting options. We ordered a couple of large pizzas and used them for road trip snacks as we toured the peninsula. When you visit Anchorage, do yourself a favor and stop in to get a pizza or three," wrote Yelp user Jeremy N.

Learn more about Moose's Tooth here.

ARIZONA: RelicRoad Brewing in Winslow

RelicRoad Brewing. Candice W./Yelp

"Absolutely amazing place if you are up for some good food and beer on your road trip!! The service is amazing as well," wrote Yelp user Mike L.

Learn more about RelicRoad Brewing here.

ARKANSAS: The Root Cafe in Little Rock

The Root Cafe. Samantha L./Yelp

"I got lucky enough to make a pit stop here on my road trip to Arizona and will be telling the world about this place! They have super friendly and helpful staff, the space is beautiful and inviting, and it seemed like every item on the menu was unique and tasty. Everything I ate was SO good if I had more time I'd go back in and order it again. I really enjoyed that you pour coffee into mugs that they've collected over time as well. Five stars, will recommend it to all others. Eat here," wrote Yelp user James E.

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Learn more about The Root Cafe here.

CALIFORNIA: Yaks on the 5 in Dunsmuir

Yaks on the 5. Jan T./Yelp

"The garlic burger was incredible and the wings were top-notch. The tater tots were a dream... this is roadside diner food at its best," wrote Yelp user ZumaJay Z.

Learn more about Yaks on the 5 here.

COLORADO: Bin 707 Foodbar in Grand Junction

Bin 707 Foodbar. Kai L./Yelp

"We were directed here for some last-minute lunch munchies before flying back home to the sunshine state after a road trip where we started in Denver, followed by Yellowstone then Grand Junction as our last destination. Wanting to end the trip with a 'foodie bang,' selecting this restaurant was a perfect choice," wrote Yelp user Christi S.

Learn more about Bin 707 Foodbar here.

CONNECTICUT: The Traveler Restaurant in Union

The Traveler Restaurant. Sara C./Yelp

"What a wonderful respite from our I-95 road trip. Well-made and fresh food, very friendly service, and clean facilities. A surprisingly peaceful environment for being right off the highway. And my wife and I loved looking through the stacks of books and puzzles as we waited for our to-go order. See you again on our next trip," wrote Yelp user Paul S.

Learn more about The Traveler Restaurant here.

DELAWARE: Jessop's Tavern in New Castle

Jessop's Tavern. Paul M./Yelp

"I am so thankful that we discovered this place! I am on a road trip with my husband and brother and we were just passing through the area and were looking for a bite to eat. Everything we ate was amazing. Among us, we ordered the lobster crab cake, the meatloaf sandwich, the chicken entree (it had a weird name), and the blackberry cider. All of the meals were absolutely phenomenal... every last bite was eaten," wrote Yelp user Kaela M.

Learn more about Jessop's Tavern here.

FLORIDA: Tom's Cuban On The Go! in Ocala

Tom's Cuban On The Go! Daniel M./Yelp

"A gem of a find! Very convenient stop for a long drive. The food was authentic & staff was friendly. I just marked it on my map for the next road trip," wrote Yelp user Brittney F.

Learn more about Tom's Cuban On The Go! here.

GEORGIA: Espresso 41 in Tifton

Espresso 41. Espresso 41/Yelp

"Quite possibly the very best coffee I've had!! The girl at the counter was so nice and recommended iced bourbon caramel espresso. So good that I wish I had bought a few more for my 8+ hours remaining on Florida road trip," wrote Yelp user Kirsten S.

Learn more about Espresso 41 here.

HAWAII: Tex Drive In in Honokaa

Tex Drive In. Jelene C./Yelp

"The place is amazing with breathtaking views of the ocean when sitting outside. Inside you are still able to see behind the glass window into the kitchen where they are proud to show you how [their doughnuts are] made. The bonus is that they appear to be constantly making them as they are always busy," wrote Yelp user Eric R.

Learn more about Tex Drive In here.

IDAHO: Scooter's Chillin'-N-Grillin' in Twin Falls

Scooter's Chillin'-N-Grillin'. Tommy J./Yelp

"This is our favorite stop in Twin Falls. Just traveling through on our road trip, but love the vibe in this place! They're known for their smoked brisket, it didn't disappoint. The brisket tacos were the best! Hubby had the brisket sandwich and garlic fries and were delicious. The staff is friendly, welcoming, and easy to talk to," wrote Yelp user Jolene W.

Learn more about Scooter's Chillin'-N-Grillin' here.

ILLINOIS: Firefly Grill in Effingham

Firefly Grill. Jamie W./Yelp

"We have never been through Effingham before, but we will be making this a regular stop on our road trips. This place did not disappoint. We sat outside and had the pleasure of chatting with Samuel, our server. The ambiance, food, drinks, setting, and service were a delightful and most welcome surprise! Our puppy was also warmly greeted which was sweet since he loves all people. Although they did not have the sticky toffee pudding (apparently it's a seasonal item), their strawberry rhubarb trifle was AMAZING! We both had their grilled salmon for dinner (yum!). We love farm-to-table restaurants and look forward to eating here on our next road trip," wrote Yelp user Catherine C.

Learn more about Firefly Grill here.

INDIANA: Payne's Restaurant in Gas City

Payne's Restaurant. Paynes Restaurant/Yelp

"We took a road trip with friends specifically to have lunch based on the Visit Indiana article. We all were not disappointed. The fish & chips were great - just like what we ate in York, England! The sticky toffee pudding is to die for - Wow!! We highly recommend a visit to Payne's," wrote Yelp user David C.

Learn more about Payne's Restaurant here.

IOWA: Zombie Burger + Drink Lab in Des Moines

Zombie Burger + Drink Lab. Jonathan E./Yelp

"Their burgers are awesome, and an order of fries is huge! As we are originally from Utah, seeing they had 'fry sauce' was an extra bonus. Their cereal shakes are also fun. We would definitely stop here again on our yearly road trips, just for fun," wrote Yelp user Joni C.

Learn more about Zombie Burger + Drink Lab here.

KANSAS: Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que in Kansas City

Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que. Lauren F/Yelp

"Oh my god. Saying this was the best barbecue I've ever had would be an understatement. I am the [pickiest] eater on the planet and one of my friends brought me here during a road trip because she wanted to eat it. I was hesitant. I have never liked barbecue sauce, in fact, I avoid all sauces and condiments like the PLAGUE. But this place had me slathering my sandwich with barbecue sauce and licking my fingers when I was done. I've been craving it ever since and I'm saddened that I don't live closer," wrote Yelp user Janie S.

Learn more about Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que here.

KENTUCKY: Royals Hot Chicken in Louisville

Royals Hot Chicken. Adityanarayan S./Yelp

"We loved their hot chicken sandwich. It was crunchy and spicy, not too greasy, well priced and if we weren't on a road trip we would have gotten one of the many beers they had on tap. It's counter service which I like for lunch on a road trip," wrote Yelp user Dna B.

Learn more about Royals Hot Chicken here.

LOUISIANA: Pamela's Bayou In A Bowl in Alexandria

Pamela's Bayou In A Bowl. Tina R./Yelp

"Holy moly! How did we get lucky enough to stumble into this place?! The food here is so good, we started planning future road trips through Louisiana. The food was all delicious, flavorful, and completely satisfying! I got the beans and sausage, greens, and mac and cheese. Once we started eating, we realized we must be at somebody's granny's house," wrote Yelp user Mary Beth C.

Learn more about Pamela's Bayou In A Bowl here.

MAINE: Red's Eats in Wiscasset

Red's Eats. EH C./Yelp

"The absolute best lobster roll we have ever tried! We stopped here while doing a road trip through Maine and someone had recommended this place along the way. We didn't think it looked that special or any different from the other 1,000 places that advertise their lobster rolls, but boy were we mistaken," wrote Yelp user Jessica K.

Learn more about Red's Eats here.

MARYLAND: Rik's Cafe in Hagerstown

Rik's Cafe. C. C./Yelp

"Would never have found this place without Yelp. So thank you Yelp. They will do take out so I was able to order it as we are traveling on our way home from a long road trip. Excellent food without any wait time was a wonderful way to have our supper. Crab cakes were incredible as was the very interesting mozzarella salad. I was impressed with the friendly waiter service in a restaurant that was full to capacity. We will be back," wrote Yelp user Julianna M.

Learn more about Rik's Cafe here.

MASSACHUSETTS: B.T.'s Smokehouse in Sturbridge

B.T.'s Smokehouse. Hardy L./Yelp

"We just stopped here on our road trip and had to write a review right away. The brisket burrito was smoky and delicious. The [Buffalo] fried chicken sandwich was delicately breaded, juicy, and moist. Pick-up was very organized and timely," wrote Yelp user Tess L.

Learn more about B.T.'s Smokehouse here.

MICHIGAN: The Mason Jar Cafe in Benton Harbor

The Mason Jar Cafe. Greg B./Yelp

"Hard to believe such a place exists in small-town Michigan after struggling to find healthy, fresh, and quality food choices on a road trip through rural Michigan. Friendly service, great coffee, diverse menu, fresh, healthy, and vegetarian friendly. Thumbs up, five stars, highly recommended," wrote Yelp user Camille M.

Learn more about The Mason Jar Cafe here.

MINNESOTA: The Taco King in Albert Lea

The Taco King. Michael D./Yelp

"We stopped while road tripping to Wisconsin Dells and were greatly surprised! Expecting fast-food type Mexican due to the location and were so happy to discover otherwise! The burritos were hot fresh and delicious, the al pastor was excellent and the service great! Will definitely be stopping again," wrote Yelp user Carrie F.

Learn more about The Taco King here.

MISSISSIPPI: The Pig & Pint in Jackson

The Pig & Pint. Stephen M./.Yelp

"We were so happy to stumble upon this place on our road trip to NOLA thanks to my trusty Yelp! We stopped here on a Thursday for lunch with our toddler. The girl at the register welcomed us for our first time and told us what their most popular dishes were... Our food came fairly quickly and the portions were huge! I didn't expect 'chicken fries' to be a glorious sloppy mess of BBQ chicken, beans, sauce, sour cream, and jalapenos. It was AMAZING! It was the best road trip stop we made all day! Definitely going to stop here on our way to NOLA every year," wrote Yelp user Haley S.

Learn more about The Pig & Pint here.

MISSOURI: Pappy's Smokehouse in St. Louis

Pappy's Smokehouse. John K./Yelp

"The best BBQ I've had. Our road trips following the Florida Gators have taken us all over the south and beyond. Had the 'que in Memphis, Birmingham, Lexington, Nashville, Knoxville, Atlanta and beyond. Pappys is the best," wrote Yelp user Craig J.

Learn more about Pappy's Smokehouse here.

MONTANA: Hummingbird Cafe in Butte

Hummingbird Cafe. Stephanie Y./Yelp

"Super delicious great little spot to stop. I was on a road trip and needed to grab a bite and let my baby out of the car seat. We sat on the patio and had a lovely coffee and lunch. Will definitely stop in again next time I drive through Butte," wrote Yelp user Sara H.

Learn more about Hummingbird Cafe here.

NEBRASKA: Open Range Grill in Ogallala

Open Range Grill. Lisa R./Yelp

"We stopped at the Open Range Grill on our drive from Denver, CO to Wisconsin, and were so happy that we did! This is a great, family-friendly spot with delicious, fresh food," wrote Yelp user Clare C.

Learn more about Open Range Grill here.

NEVADA: Odeh's Mediterranean Restaurant in Elko

Odeh's Mediterranean Restaurant. L T./Yelp

"My friends and I were on a road trip to Wisconsin so we randomly stumbled upon this cute little place. It was by far some of the best Mediterranean food I have ever had. Come and try it out, you won't be disappointed," wrote Yelp user Emilee K.

Learn more about Odeh's Mediterranean Restaurant here.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Four Aces Diner in West Lebanon

Four Aces Diner. Brittany B./Yelp

"Came here for brunch on our road trip! Really good diner food! The place is a little small though. We didn't have to wait long. We sat at the counter. The French onion soup was good. It was on the sweeter side, but that works for me. The scallop omelet was good! Definitely would recommend this place," wrote Yelp user Tina L.

Learn more about Four Aces Diner here.

NEW JERSEY: Tops Diner in East Newark

Tops Diner. F. H./Yelp

"We were on a road trip and stopped by this place and it was a great spot. The place was packed but they got us seated pretty fast. There's a lot to cover on the menu from burgers and steaks to seafood [...] give this place a try you won't be disappointed," wrote Yelp user Trisha M.

Learn more about Tops Diner here.

NEW MEXICO: Chico's Tortas y Pinas Lokas in Santa Rosa

Chico's Tortas y Pinas Lokas. Rok J./Yelp

"We found this while on a road trip and were blown away by the quality of the food. Their take on a Cubano is worth the stop. Excellent shrimp taco and quesadillas too! The atmosphere is also great with excellent decor and many items for sale," wrote Yelp user Amanda T.

Learn more about Chico's Tortas y Pinas Lokas here.

NEW YORK: Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Syracuse

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. Brandy S./Yelp

"Was looking for a spot to eat on our East Coast road trip. Stumble on this excellent BBQ place after hours of driving. Their BBQ was spot on, especially the pull pork and ribs. The biggest surprise was their fried catfish. It was one of the best fried catfish we've had in a long long time. Would have never thought we would find such a great dish in a BBQ restaurant," wrote Yelp user Raymond W.

Learn more about Dinosaur Bar-B-Que here.

NORTH CAROLINA: The Prime Smokehouse in Rocky Mount

The Prime Smokehouse. Patty R./Yelp

"Stopped toward the end of a long road trip. Absolutely fabulous smokehouse. Had the brisket, ribs, and chicken, which came with a side of cornbread. Everything we had was fabulous and full of flavor," wrote Yelp user Kevin S.

Learn more about The Prime Smokehouse here.

NORTH DAKOTA: Fireflour Pizza + Coffee Bar in Bismarck

Fireflour Pizza + Coffee Bar. Rhondel W./Yelp

"Stopped for a road trip lunch on our way through North Dakota. The staff was awesome, restaurant/bathroom was clean. The pizzaiola was skilled at her craft. The pizzas were thin, perfectly browned, with a beautiful crust. Topping to pizza ratio was perfection," wrote Yelp user Kiki C.

Learn more about Fireflour Pizza + Coffee Bar here.

OHIO: Lucky's Cafe in Cleveland

Lucky's Cafe. Lindsay T S./Yelp

"I visited Lucky's while on a road trip to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with my dad and my brother. I scoped out the place because I saw it on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and it looked like my cup of tea... I love how local the food is, and the quality shows! I had the Canoewreck. Curried tofu, hashbrowns, lots of veggies, toast, and fruit. It was so delicious! The dudes were happy with what they ordered as well. I'm sad I don't live near Cleveland because I'd eat here every day," wrote Yelp user Amanda A.

Learn more about Lucky's Cafe here.

OKLAHOMA: The Loaded Bowl in Oklahoma City

The Loaded Bowl. Mike W./Yelp

"Stopped here on a road trip to Phoenix, and the food was so good, we made a point of stopping again on the way back through. Our favorite was the ultimate in comfort food, the Mashed Potato Bowl. We also enjoyed the Mac + Greens bowl, and the CBD soda was refreshing. On our second visit, I went to pick up our order and noticed a fully stocked display case of sweet goodies, so ended up spending nearly as much again on those as for the original order. Worth it," wrote Yelp user Madeleine W.

Learn more about The Loaded Bowl here.

OREGON: Jack Sprats in Cottage Grove

Jack Sprats. Julie S./Yelp

"My husband and I enjoy visiting Cottage Grove on our yearly road trip to Oregon. We stopped at Jack Sprats two years ago and had a great experience, so decided to stop in again. My husband ordered the fish and chips and I ordered the Cuban sandwich. It did take a while for our food to come out this time, but we figured they had to wait for the oil to heat up as we came early for lunch, just as they were converting the kitchen over from breakfast. The potato salad was a good choice. My iced tea was really delicious. The portions were, once again, extremely generous. We ended up splitting the fish and chips and took the Cuban home for another meal. The menu is varied, and there are some gluten-free options, including some yummy homemade cookies. This place is definitely worth a stop," wrote Yelp user Shelly S.

Learn more about Jack Sprats here.

PENNSYLVANIA: J Zapata in Drums

J Zapata. Amanda B./Yelp

"A great pit stop for delicious lunch on a long road trip from Philadelphia! We ordered the chicken tacos Mexicanos and the chorizo plate. The chicken tacos were amazing with the perfect amount of spice and fresh flavors. The chorizo was pretty good as well and a great [complement] to the tacos. The horchata was also very tasty, with a little more vanilla flavor than we are used to, but nonetheless worth the money! Also, the refreshing milky drink helped cut some of the spice. Overall would recommend it for hungry travelers traveling up route 80," wrote Yelp user Mike N.

Learn more about J Zapata here.

RHODE ISLAND: Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant in Newport

Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant. Chanel H./Yelp

"Came into town and we were in a bind to get a good meal on a very long road trip. We were not at all disappointed with the meal. The staff was excellent and the food was also great! And so clean! Absolutely a great meal," wrote Yelp user Caroline D.

Learn more about Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant here.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Fletcher's Cafe & Catering in Yemassee

Fletcher's Cafe & Catering. Fletcher's Cafe & Catering/Yelp

"What a fun find! Friendly place with a great pimento cheese sandwich. Squash fritters were delish! Only a little off of the highway and a nice diversion on a long 95 road trip," wrote Yelp user Julie T.

Learn more about Fletcher's Cafe & Catering here.

SOUTH DAKOTA: Circle E Drive In in Murdo

Circle E Drive In. Sherri G./Yelp

"Just found this place on Yelp during our drive through SD to NE. Given the excellent ratings, we had to give it a try! As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by the friendly staff. They recommended a few items to us but said that given how fresh the beef was, we should go for the bacon cheeseburger. That is exactly what I did and could not have been happier with my choice! The beef tasted so fresh and juicy, the bun was toasted and crispy, and the veggies (lettuce, tomato, pickles) added a bit of freshness to it. Food is affordable. 100% recommend checking this place out if you're in the area/near the Badlands," wrote Yelp user Kaitlynn M.

Learn more about Circle E Drive In here.

TENNESSEE: Biscuit Love: Gulch in Nashville

Biscuit Love: Gulch. Alina M./Yelp

"Best food in Nashville! We ordered ahead via Yelp app as we were driving into Nashville on our road trip, we got to go right in and bypass the huge line outside to pick up our order! The East Nasty and Princess Buscuit Sandwiches were to die for!! Recommend 100%!! Along with the Bonuts," wrote Yelp user Molly E.

Learn more about Biscuit Love: Gulch here.

TEXAS: Tyler's Barbeque in Amarillo

Tyler's Barbeque. Cult L./Yelp

"My husband and I stopped in here on a whim on our cross country road trip to California. We were tired and hungry, and as soon as we walked in we were immediately salivating at the mouth. This place smells seriously amazing, so we had high expectations for the food. We were absolutely not disappointed... Upon recommendation from the owner, I got the brisket sandwich with a side of the jalapeno cream corn. I could honestly eat a bucket of that stuff, it's that good. My husband got the pulled pork sandwich with the potato salad and it was gone before I could blink, so needless to say his was great too! The food, service, and hospitality are all top-notch," wrote Yelp user Kaelee J.

Learn more about Tyler's Barbeque here.

UTAH: Centro Woodfired Pizzeria in Cedar City

Centro Woodfired Pizzeria. Sheri R./Yelp

"We were driving through town on a road trip and sick of diner and fast food. We found this place on yelp and I thought, If it's half as good as the reviews I will be shocked. Started with the meatballs and garlic bread, followed by the Brooklyn pepperoni pizza, and finished with the Nutella-baked pizza with whip cream! The food quality was excellent inline with what you would expect at a high-quality metropolitan Italian restaurant," wrote Yelp user Judi M.

Learn more about Centro Woodfired Pizzeria here.

VERMONT: Prohibition Pig in Waterbury

Prohibition Pig. G N./Yelp

"Was looking for some good BBQ while on a road trip through VT. Pro Pig did not disappoint. The Smoked Wings were some of the best I have ever had, even the pickled carrots served with them were great. The Chopped Whole Hog Sandwich was excellent. Others in my party were very pleased with the Brisket Sandwich and Sweet Tea Half Chicken. Next trip to Stowe, we will definitely be back," wrote Yelp user John D.

Learn more about Prohibition Pig here.

VIRGINIA: Angelle's Diner in Troutville

Angelle's Diner. Mr. Bill S./Yelp

"This diner was delightful. Such a pleasant surprise for me, my husband, and our kids ages 8 and 10 while traveling from DC. I am not usually a diner fan but Angelle's is not your average diner. It was nice and clean and lives up to its many good reviews," wrote Yelp user Amy B.

Learn more about Angelle's Diner here.

WASHINGTON: Frank's Diner in Spokane

Frank's Diner. Nataliya V./Yelp

"My friend and I are on a road trip from MN to OR and picked Frank's on the name alone. We had no idea that there was so much history behind the restaurant! The staff, so thoughtful, the atmosphere kept us wanting to know more and the food was more than amazing," wrote Yelp user Kim E.

Learn more about Frank's Diner here.

WEST VIRGINIA: Dem 2 Brothers And A Grill in Charleston

Dem 2 Brothers And A Grill. Jeff R./Yelp

"It wasn't the fastest road trip stop, but it was worth it. The barbecue and sides were great," wrote Yelp user David L.

Learn more about Dem 2 Brothers And A Grill here.

WISCONSIN: Baumgartner's Cheese Store & Tavern in Monroe

Baumgartner's Cheese Store & Tavern. Krishna C./Yelp

"This restaurant was the highlight of our Wisconsin road trip. I loved the place. It has such nostalgia to it. The food was freshly prepared. You could tell because it melted in our mouths! The desserts were amazing. Cheese as a topping was unique. I loved it," wrote Yelp user Krishna C.

Learn more about Baumgartner's Cheese Store & Tavern here.

WYOMING: Anong's Thai Cuisine in Rawlins

Anong's Thai Cuisine. Ophelia M./Yelp

"Some friends and I were road-tripping through Wyoming to Colorado and needed a place to stop for dinner. This place was one of the top-rated places and we all like Thai food so we thought 'what the heck.' We all wish we had this place back in Provo cause we would definitely stop again. The service was quick and helpful but also very personable. It was a great experience, and we didn't have to wait long for our food either! 10 out of 10 would recommend," wrote Yelp user Logan B.

Learn more about Anong's Thai Cuisine here.

Read the original article on Insider
The 2023 Kentucky Derby is Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, and the Herald-Leader has asked horse racing experts around the country for their top handicapping picks.

Florida Derby winner Forte is the morning-line favorite at 3-1 odds, with Tapit Trice (5-1), Angel of Empire (8-1) and Derma Sotogake (10-1) among the other top contenders for the roses.

Heres a look at our expert predictions, which included some long-shot bets. (Note: Practical Move was scratched from the race Thursday.)

John Clay

Herald-Leader

Win: Forte

Place: Tapit Trice

Show: Derma Sotogake

Comment: After last years aberration with Rich Strike, the Derby will return to form with the favorite hitting the wire first.

Mark Story

Herald-Leader

Win: Tapit Trice

Place: Confidence Game

Show: Two Phils

Comment: Having won four straight races at four different tracks, Tapit Trice seems a horse for any course.

Ben Roberts

Herald-Leader

Win: Derma Sotogake

Place: Angel of Empire

Show: Forte

Comment: Yes, hes up against history, but in a relatively lackluster Derby field, Derma Sotogake looks like a potential star.

Cameron Drummond

Herald-Leader

Win: Angel of Empire

Place: Forte

Show: Derma Sotogake

Comment: In what is a weak and deeply flawed Kentucky Derby field, the Arkansas Derby winner has the pedigree and past performances to give me the belief he will triumph over the morning-line favorite. Derma Sotogake makes history by becoming the first Japanese horse to finish in the money in the Derby.

Caroline Makauskas

Herald-Leader

Win: Tapit Trice

Place: Angel of Empire

Show: Practical Move

Comment: Tapit, who has sired four Belmont Stakes winners, has yet to sire a Kentucky Derby winner. Tapit Trice, ridden by experienced jockey Luis Saez, possesses the power  as well as the momentum granted by a four-race win streak  to break through and become the first.

The 149th Run for the Roses goes to post at 6:57 p.m. Saturday at Churchill Downs.

Frank Angst

BloodHorse

Win: Tapit Trice

Place: Angel of Empire

Show: Forte

Comment: Tapit Trice impressed me in his past two starts, and I think he gets even better as he stretches out to 1 miles Saturday.

Story continues

Rick Bozich

WDRB

Win: Tapit Trice

Place: Derma Sotogake

Show: Skinner

Comment: I decided to go with, The trainer of the favorite wins the Derby with another horse angle, especially after Tapit Trice overcame the No. 1 post position and a wide trip to win the Blue Grass in impressive fashion.

Steve Byk

At the Races (SiriusXM)

Win: Two Phils

Place: Angel of Empire

Show: Skinner

Comment: From small time connections, Two Phils may be too good a story to win, but hes got tactical speed and an explosive turn of foot that wins a lot of Derbys. He owns the juvenile stakes win over the track and at a $20 mutuel, is an ideal key horse.

John Cherwa

Los Angeles Times

Win: Skinner

Place: Forte

Show: Derma Sotogake

Comment: Skinner has won only once but has always been close. Remember Giacomo? Trainer John Shirreffs may be at it again.

Ed DeRosa

Horse Racing Nation

Win: Tapit Trice

Place: Skinner

Show: Disarm

Comment: Tapit Trice has done very little wrong in an exemplary career that has him coming into the Kentucky Derby off wins in the Tampa Bay Derby and the Blue Grass Stakes. In the former, he closed from dead last, while in the latter he made a sweet middle move, moving from off the rail and negotiating traffic to make a clear run to the wire. Thats the type of trip that wins Derbys, and he has already shown he is fast enough.

Tapit Trice will attempt to become the first winner of the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland since Strike the Gold in 1991 to also win the Kentucky Derby

Joe Drape

New York Times

Win: Skinner

Place: Verifying

Show: Forte

Comment: John Shirreffs only shows up when he thinks he can win. I like the rider change and preparation.

Bill Finley

National turf writer

Win: Tapit Trice

Place: Angel of Empire

Show: Skinner

Comment: He was a much-improved horse in the Blue Grass, and I dont think weve seen his very best yet. Can give Todd Pletcher his third Derby win.

Jason Frakes

Courier Journal

Win: Tapit Trice

Place: Practical Move

Show: Forte

Comment: As good as Forte is, Tapit Trice seems on the cusp of passing him as Todd Pletchers top contender. The Blue Grass victory was a big step, and Tapit Trice has seemed to like the going at Churchill Downs the past few weeks and will give Pletcher his third Kentucky Derby victory.

Mike Gandolfo

Horse Racing Happy Hour

Win: Forte

Place: Confidence Game

Show: Angel of Empire

Comment: Forte overcame a bad post, a tough trip, and a subpar ride in the Florida Derby. Amongst a group of pack animals, Forte is a horse born to break away and win.

Neil Greenberg

Washington Post

Win: Confidence Game

Place: Practical Move

Show: Derma Sotogake

Comment: Confidence Game has great speed and a solid pedigree for a 1-mile race. He earned career-best speed figures to the first and second call in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes on fast dirt and followed that up with a gutty win in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes over a sloppy track. Plus, he is an overachiever, winning at 18-1 and 11-1, with additional board hits at 6-1, 10-1 and 8-1.

Morning-line favorite Forte waits to get a bath after a workout at Churchill Downs. The race-time favorite historically wins the Kentucky Derby one-third of the time.

Steve Haskin

National turf writer

Win: Disarm

Place: Skinner

Show: Two Phils

Comment: Going all price horses. No one is doing any better than Disarm. Been a fan since day one.

Brooks Holton

Courier Journal

Win: Tapit Trice

Place: Practical Move

Show: Forte

Comment: Tapit Trice is coming off a strong showing at Keeneland, running 1 miles in 1:50 and will be starting in Post 5, which has produced more winners (10) and on-the-board finishers (25) than any other position since the race began using a gate in 1930.

Dan Issel

ESPN 680

Win: Angel of Empire

Place: Forte

Show: Mage

Comment: Brad Coxs best chance  loved his last race.

Tim Layden

NBC Sports

Win: Forte

Place: Derma Sotogake

Show: Skinner

Comment: Sometimes the most obvious pick is the right one. There could be some pace issues for Forte, but hes a tough, classy horse who will endure and give the superstar owner-trainer team of Mike Repole and Todd Pletcher their first Derby together.

Tom Leach

Keeneland

Win: Verifying

Place: Two Phils

Show: Tapit Trice

Comment: Verifying ran his lifetime best in the Blue Grass Stakes and is training like he can take another step forward.

Mike Penna

Horse Racing Radio Network

Win: Kingsbarns

Place: Forte

Show: Rocket Can

Comment: Kingsbarns will attempt to become the first Louisiana Derby winner to wear the roses since Grindstone in 1996. The task is less daunting considering he is trained by two-time Derby winner Todd Pletcher and seems to have the tactical speed necessary to stay out of trouble which should put him in a striking position turning for home.

Jennie Rees

HBPA Communications

Win: Tapit Trice

Place: Angel of Empire

Show: Forte

Comment: Todd Pletcher holds the cards, but giving a slight edge to his Blue Grass winner, Tapit Trice, who is on the upward trajectory. Angel of Empire offers value at 8-1  but they all have to knock off the champ.

Kenny Rice

NBC Sports

Win: Angel of Empire

Place: Tapit Trice

Show: Confidence Game

Comment: Brad Cox gets the roses while theyre still fresh this time.

Nicole Russo

Daily Racing Form

Win: Forte

Place: Tapit Trice

Show: Hit Show

Comment: Ive liked Forte quite a bit since last fall and see no reason to get off him now, following an educational run in his final prep, which he won on class. Stablemate Tapit Trice has thrived in his training in the weeks since the Blue Grass.

Tim Sullivan

LEO Weekly

Win: Angel of Empire

Place: Tapit Trice

Show: Derma Sotogake

Comment: Brad Cox wins his second Derby with a late charge and without litigation.

Childs Walker

Baltimore Sun

Win: Forte

Place: Verifying

Show: Skinner

Comment: You could make a compelling case for five or six potential winners, but Ill stick with the horse that hasnt put a foot wrong since last summer.

Tim Wilkin

National turf writer

Win: Forte

Place: Angel of Empire

Show: Rocket Can

Comment: Forte has been the best of the division all year long. He will prove that again on Derby Day.
The Senate on Wednesday voted 56-41 to override President Bidens two-year suspension of tariffs on solar imports from four Southeast Asia countries.

The resolution, sponsored by Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), is the Senate version of a measure that passed the House on Friday in a 221-202 vote. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the sole Republican to vote against the resolution in the upper chamber.

While Manchin has joined several Republican-led Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions on energy and environmental rules in the past, this resolution also drew the support of Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Bob Casey (Pa.), John Fetterman (Pa.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.).

Manchin, Tester and Brown are all red-state Democrats up for reelection next year. Wyden and Casey have generally been consistent votes for Bidens environmental agenda.

I support full enforcement of U.S laws that defend American workers and manufacturers against trade cheating, especially when it comes to clean energy, Wyden said in a statement to The Hill prior to the vote. Suspending tariffs on Chinese solar cells and modules that have been determined by the Department of Commerce to be circumventing U.S. trade laws will make America less competitive in the clean energy economy.

Meanwhile, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), one of the Senates most vocal proponents of the pause, spoke out against the resolution on the floor, calling the moratorium a bridge thats essential to the U.S. solar industry.

We cant cut off supply of imported solar panels by enacting massive, retroactive tariffs that will just kill solar projects; it will kill American jobs, and it will hurt American workers, Rosen said.

Enacting retroactive tariffs will even directly harm U.S. solar panel manufacturing businesses by cutting off their major source of solar cells  a key component in the panels  making it that much harder for them and us to compete with China, she added.

Story continues

A CRA resolution allows a simple majority of Congress to vote to override a federal rule. The White House has said Biden will veto the resolution, saying in a statement last week that the suspension is necessary to help the U.S. build out its solar capacity.

[T]hese investments will take time to ramp up production  which is why last spring, the President declared an emergency to ensure that Americans have access to reliable, affordable, and clean electricity, the White House said. This rule is necessary to satisfy the demand for reliable and clean energy while ensuring Commerce is able to rigorously enforce U.S. trade laws, hold trading partners accountable, and defend U.S. industries and workers from unfair trade actions.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he is as concerned as you could possibly be about Chinas actions in the West Philippine Sea, a part of the South China Sea that Manila and Beijing claim.

Marcos was on his way to have brunch with United States Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff in Washington D.C. when a reporter asked him how concerned he was about China's "continued provocation in the South China Sea."

As concerned as you could possibly be, he said. It is one of the major issues that we have to face back home.

When asked if he believes his cooperation with Harris and US President Joe Biden will bring him "closer to protecting the region," Marcos said the partnership with the US is "just something we have been building upon that has been going on for many, many, many decades."

Beijings aggressive tactics against Manila continued in disputed waters last week after the Philippine Coast Guard confirmed reports of a near-collision between a large Chinese Coast Guard ship and a Philippine patrol vessel at the Ayungin Shoal.

READ: PCG reports near-collision due to Chinese ships dangerous maneuvers in Ayungin Shoal

On Tuesday evening (morning in Washington D.C.), Harris welcomed Marcos and his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos to her official residence at the Number One Observatory Circle in the US Naval Observatory.

Harris hosted a brunch where they were expected to push the agenda for the US-Philippines alliance as well as celebrate both countries bilateral efforts to boost prosperity, security, and friendship.

Im looking forward to our time together this morning but I wanted to thank you because the strength of the alliance between the United States and the Philippines is probably stronger than ever, Harris said.

Under your leadership, we have been able to continue to do the work that we have that is a priority of our mutual prosperity and security, she added.

Marcos, in response, said Harris laid the groundwork for his visit to the United States and his meeting with Biden.

I think that has given us the very attractive opportunity to continue to strengthen the relations between the two countries in the face  in the context of all the difficulties, the complexities, the rising tensions in our region and the world, he said.

Biden earlier welcomed Marcos to the White House, where he told the Philippine president that there is no better partner than him as both countries face problems.
President Biden on Wednesday welcomed the approval of new World Bank President Ajay Banga by the organizations board of governors.

Ajay Banga will be a transformative leader, bringing expertise, experience, and innovation to the position of World Bank President, Biden said in a statement. And together with World Bank leadership and shareholders, he will help steer the institution as it evolves and expands to address global challenges that directly affect its core mission of poverty reductionincluding climate change.

Banga assumes what will be a key position in the global battle to alleviate poverty and address climate change.

The White House in February nominated Banga to replace David Malpass, a Trump administration appointee who announced last year he planned to step down.

Banga previously served as an executive at Mastercard and most recently worked at the equity firm General Atlantic.

Banga will serve a five-year term atop the World Bank.

The World Bank is made up of 189 nations and is tasked with providing loans and grants to low- and middle-income countries to pursue development projects.

I look forward to working with Ajay in his new role and to supporting his efforts to transform the World Bank, which remains one of humanitys most critical institutions to reduce poverty and expand prosperity around the globe, Biden said.

Updated at 4:56 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
One of President Joe Bidens nominees to a federal appeals court serves on the board of a free-market advocacy group that has opposed Bidens own positions on climate change, consumer protection and labor rights.

Michael Delaney, who is up for a seat on the Boston-based First Circuit Court of Appeals, has for the past five years been a board member of the New England Legal Foundation. Hes served on a committee that vets amicus briefs advancing the groups pro-business and deregulatory positions. In recent years, the group filed briefs supporting mandatory arbitration clauses, opposing the issuance of a New Hampshire clean-water regulation and challenging a California policy that gave union organizers the right to enter commercial farms.

Most notably, in a momentous case at the Supreme Court, the group supported coal companies and red states that successfully challenged the Environmental Protection Agencys power to combat climate change. The Biden administrations position in that case amounted to a vast and improper expansion of the EPAs authority, the group told the justices in a June 2021 brief.

Delaneys relationship with the organization, which has not been reported in the media until now, is just one of several aspects of his resume that causes concern among some progressives. He has already faced questions about his work defending an elite boarding school that was sued over sexual assault, and for signing a brief defending a state abortion restriction.

The White House continues to support Delaney, calling him extraordinarily qualified in a statement to POLITICO this week. The two senators from his home state of New Hampshire, both of whom are Democrats, are also standing behind him.

Delaney did not respond to a request for comment on this reporting. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to review his nomination at a markup on Thursday.

Delaney was New Hampshires attorney general from 2009 to 2013. He now heads the litigation department for McLane Middleton, a law firm with offices in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Story continues

In 2018, Delaney joined the board of the New England Legal Foundation, according to his Senate questionnaire. He is also on the foundations legal review committee. Daniel Winslow, the president of the foundation, told POLITICO that the committee members vet the foundations amicus briefs before they are filed.

Winslow added that he was not aware of Delaney weighing in on briefs since Winslow became the groups head in October 2021, likely because he expected to be nominated to the bench. Biden tapped Delaney in January of this year, and the Senate Judiciary Committee held his nomination hearing in February.

The New England Legal Foundations website touts its vigorous advocacy of free market principles and describes its mission as championing individual economic liberties, traditional property rights, properly limited government, and inclusive economic growth. Its About page features a quote from John W. Davis, the U.S. solicitor general under former President Woodrow Wilson: Property rights and civil rights are not essentially in conflict; they are two sides of the same coin. Late in his career, Davis defended school segregation and the separate but equal doctrine before the Supreme Court in a companion case to Brown v. Board of Education, representing the state of South Carolina for free.

NELFs June 2021 amicus brief in the climate change case urged the Supreme Court to take up the case and overrule a lower court that had sided with the EPA. After the justices agreed to hear the case, NELF filed another amicus brief in December 2021 opposing the administrations position. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled against the EPA in a June 2022 opinion that Biden called a devastating decision that aims to take our country backwards. In the coming weeks, the EPA is expected to release a new climate change rule.

Winslow said the groups work on the case was of a piece with its mission: Advocating for free enterprise, property rights, limited government and inclusive economic growth.

Consistent with the rule of law, if youre an agency, the boundaries of your conduct are set by the elected, accountable branch, Congress, he said. And when the administrative state goes beyond that boundary to the point of being unaccountable to the people directly  which Congress is  that violates our principle of rule of law, and thats why we were involved in that case.

Delaney graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1994, according to his law firm bio. Five years later, he was heading the homicide prosecution unit in the New Hampshire attorney generals office. He later served as counsel to the governor and then as the states attorney general before moving into private practice.

During Delaneys time on NELFs board, the group has filed amicus briefs siding with the Chamber of Commerce and a host of powerful companies, including Facebook, Uber and Deutsche Bank.

In the Uber case, NELF supported the company in a lawsuit brought by a blind man who alleged the rideshare app illegally discriminated against him by refusing to let him bring his guide dog on rides. Uber moved to force the resolution of the matter in arbitration rather than in court, citing its terms of service. NELF backed Uber, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court sided with the plaintiff.

That was just one of multiple cases where NELF worked to shore up companies rights to resolve disputes through mandatory arbitration. In its 2019/2020 report, the group detailed its work successfully defending arbitration before the Supreme Court in one case  known as Lamps Plus v. Varela  but noted that its efforts on another arbitration-related case  New Prime v. Oliveira  didnt prevail.

Mandatory arbitration clauses have long drawn condemnation from progressives, who argue they result in customers and employees unwittingly ceding their rights to go to court, as the liberal advocacy group Public Citizen has detailed.

Biden himself has also criticized mandatory arbitration. Last year, he signed legislation banning the requirement in cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment. At the signing ceremony, he assailed the practice more broadly.

Sixty million Americans are bound by forced arbitration clauses that were included in the fine print of their contracts, he said. And many dont even know they exist. You might have signed one without knowing it. I strongly believe no worker should have to make such a commitment.

NELF also filed a brief in an important 2021 Supreme Court case involving a clash between union organizers and private property rights. Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid involved a California regulation that gave labor organizers the right to enter the property of agricultural employers in order to speak with workers about joining a union. NELF sided with the companies challenging the regulation, and the high court ultimately found the regulation unconstitutional.

The Biden administration defended the California regulation in the case. So did a group of Democratic lawmakers: Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.)., Cory Booker (N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Alex Padilla (Calif.). In their brief, the senators listed NELF as one of several entities filing amicus briefs that are funded by industry-tied foundations and anonymous money groups.

NELFs most recent annual report listed dozens of corporations, law firms and individuals as contributors. The report said the group got 45 percent of its 2020 revenue from corporate sponsors.



NELF also weighed in on a case related to a New Hampshire regulators effort to reduce dangerous PFAS contaminants  known as forever chemicals  in drinking water. NELF sided with 3M Company in its effort to block a rule reducing the presence of those contaminants. The group argued that New Hampshires Department of Environmental Services hadnt done a proper cost-benefit analysis before tightening its regulations of the chemicals.

Our amicus brief said, Hey judges, let the legislature have the first crack at this issue, Winslow, the groups president, said. No, we dont favor PFAS.

PFAS contamination has been a major concern for the Biden administration, as the White House detailed in a fact sheet released this March.

Some advocates for liberal causes voiced concerns about Delaneys nomination after being informed by POLITICO of his connection to NELF.

Jeff Hauser, the head of the progressive watchdog group Revolving Door Project, told POLITICO that he found Delaneys nomination puzzling.

The Biden agenda on economic issues, such as protecting workers and the environment, faces a judicial headwind from the conservative legal movement of which NELF and Delaney is a part, Hauser wrote in an email. That tension between the Biden Administration's legal interests and Delaney's revealed preferences makes elevating Delaney to the bench a confoundingly counterproductive idea.

And Mike Kink, the head of the union-backed Strong Economy for All Coalition, said the Senate should seek more information about Delaneys role at the group.

Anyone who's concerned about economic justice should be concerned about this nominee's connections to the foundation, Kink said. The group Delaney helped head has shielded corporate polluters and fraudsters while fighting eviction protections for tenants and fair taxes on the wealthiest individuals and corporations. The Senate must closely question this nominee and assure Americans he'll work on the bench for regular people who need the law on their side, not just for the rich and powerful.

On the right, meanwhile, Delaneys link to NELF is the opposite of a red flag.

If in fact he is conservative-leaning, then perhaps it was not the best move for Republicans to oppose his nomination, said Josh Blackman, a conservative law professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston.

Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, said the presidents support for Delaney is unchanged. We are unmoved by an affiliation the Presidents extraordinarily qualified nominee disclosed to the public and the Senate months ago, in the most thorough and transparent way available, Bates said. This is also the first we have heard any concerns about this expressed at all; and we are skeptical of complaints that surface in the press before we have heard them privately.

At the Senate Judiciary Committees February nomination hearing, members pressed Delaney on his work for a boarding school that was sued over its handling of a sexual assault, as POLITICO has detailed.

Delaney has also taken some heat from the left for signing a brief defending a New Hampshire abortion restriction when he worked in the New Hampshire attorney generals office. The brief backed a New Hampshire law requiring minors to notify their parents before receiving abortions. The law has since been repealed.

But Delaney has received broad support from a host of other groups, including numerous former state attorneys general and the head of New Hampshires Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children.

His home state senators, Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, both strongly supported his nomination. Their spokespersons told POLITICO they still firmly back him.

Before considering Michael Delaneys nomination, Senator Shaheen reviewed his full record, which includes his fierce defense of LGBTQ rights, bringing criminals to justice and leading one of the most significant legal battles against a massive oil company in New Hampshire state history, said Sarah Weinstein, a spokesperson for Shaheen. Michael Delaneys wide scope of supporters includes individuals in the advocacy and legal sectors, as well as judges on the New Hampshire Supreme Court, which reaffirm his respected reputation as a public servant committed to seeking justice.

Laura Epstein, a spokesperson for Hassan, sent a similar statement. His background has been thoroughly vetted, and throughout his career, he has shown a strong commitment to justice, including supporting civil rights and the environment, Epstein said. His strong, bipartisan support from a wide cross-section of leaders  from public defenders to Attorneys General from 20 states across the country to the CEO of New Hampshire's Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)  underscores why he will make for an excellent First Circuit Judge.
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California walk down the House steps after attending an annual St. Patricks Day luncheon gathering on March 17, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. | Mariam Zuhaib, Associated Press

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has agreed to meet with President Joe Biden over debt ceiling negotiations with less than a month to strike a deal.

The California Republican is expected to meet with Biden at the White House on Friday, according to NBC News. The meeting comes after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday that the U.S. could run out of money to pay its bills by June 1.

In a letter to McCarthy, Yellen wrote, our best estimate is that we will be unable to continue to satisfy all of the governments obligations by early June, and potentially as early as June 1, if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit before that time.

McCarthy responded to Yellen, saying House Republicans had done their job by passing a bill that includes spending cuts to raise the debt ceiling. The speaker, who visited Israel this week as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation, said Biden and the Senate need to get to work  and soon.

House Republicans did their job and passed a responsible bill that raises the debt ceiling, avoids default, and tackles reckless spending, McCarthy said in a statement. Meanwhile, President Biden has refused to do his job  threatening to bumble our nation into its first ever default  and the clock is ticking.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that Biden is prepared to talk about budget and appropriations process but that raising the debt ceiling was not negotiable.

The president said hes happy to meet with McCarthy but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended, she said.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called negotiations a bit of a game of chicken to see, all right, whos going to blink to make sure that were able to get all the things we want to get done.

Romney told KSL he supported the Republican position to rein in spending and wanted Biden to agree to doing so before the debt ceiling would be raised.

Fortunately, the Republicans in the House have passed a measure, Romney said. It raises the debt ceiling, it calls for a reduction in spending as well and its time for the president to say, all right, lets sit down and negotiate. Because when you have divided government  Republicans have one branch, the White House, another  you have to have compromise.

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Romney said the U.S. not raising its debt ceiling is something which is very frightening to people in the world of commerce and frankly, our allies around the world.

It means at that point, the United States of America could no longer send out any checks, Romney said. That means Social Security checks could not be sent out after that date. It means checks to our soldiers that are defending our country would not be sent out.

On Tuesday, The New York Times reported on a secret plan initiated by House Democrats in January that would force a vote on raising the debt ceiling. It would need the support of at least five Republicans and all Democrats to pass.
Ajay Banga takes over the World Bank as it faces pressure to do more on climate change

Former Mastercard boss Ajay Banga has been elected to lead the World Bank as it strives to help low-income countries overcome debt and combat climate change.

Mr Banga, nominated by President Joe Biden for the post, is the first-ever Indian American to head the bank.

He will replace David Malpass, who had sparked outcry by appearing to question the role of humans in climate change.

He begins his five-year term on 2 June.

Now a US citizen, Mr Banga started his career in his native India, where his father was an officer in the army. He worked at Nestle and Citigroup before joining Mastercard where he stayed for more than a decade.

US President Joe Biden called him "a transformative leader" who had the experience to run the World Bank.

"He will help steer the institution as it evolves and expands to address global challenges that directly affect its core mission of poverty reduction  including climate change," Mr Biden said.

In announcing Mr Banga's confirmation, the bank's executive directors said in a statement that they looked forward to working with him "on all the World Bank Group's ambitions and efforts aimed at tackling the toughest development challenges facing developing countries."

The US, the World Bank's biggest shareholder, has traditionally been in charge of selecting the person to lead the institution, which lends billions of dollars to countries each year.

Developing countries have in the past complained about this, but Mr Banga was the only candidate for president.

"Ajay was elected with resounding approval from the executive directors, and will start his mandate with incredibly strong support from the membership of the World Bank," a senior US official said about the vote.

Mr Banga's appointment comes at a consequential moment for the development organisation.

The US and other wealthy nations have been pushing the bank to increase its lending to fight climate change. The bank's $100bn (80bn) per year or so of loans to help developing countries cope with climate change falls far short of the $1tn they say is needed.

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Many developing nations are worried the focus on climate change will divert attention away from its anti-poverty efforts.

Developing countries have been hard hit by the pandemic, rises in food and in energy prices, and unsustainable levels of debt.

As president of the World Bank, Mr Banga will have to address these issues - all without any clear additional money on the table.

In an interview with the BBC in in March, when Mr Banga was on a listening tour in Africa, he said he wanted the bank to be a "catalyst" and "thought leader" for action,

"We also need to bring in the private sector to be able to reach these ambitious targets that we all have," he said.
Amid fears of a migrant surge across the Mexican border as a Trump-era pandemic border policy ends next week, the Biden administration has ordered 1,500 troops to Texas.

U.S. officials are expecting illegal crossings to grow past 10,000 per day when the pandemic-era border policy known as Title 42 ends May 11.

Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, then President Donald J. Trump used an interpretation of a rarely used clause in the 1944 Public Health Service Act to speed up the return of migrants crossing the U.S. border with Mexico. Since then federal authorities have used the measures to carry out more than 2.6 million expulsions.

Military personnel will do data entry, warehouse support and other administrative tasks so that U.S. Customs and Border Protection can focus on fieldwork, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. The troops will not be performing law enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants, or migrants, Jean-Pierre said. This will free up Border Patrol agents to perform their critical law enforcement duties.

The troops are expected to be at the border next week, staying for 90 days, and will be pulled from the Army and Marine Corps. The U.S. military has long provided support to the Department of Homeland Security on the border and a surge of personnel to the area is not unprecedented. There are already 2,500 National Guard members at the border.

Immigrant advocates and some Democrats have urged President Biden to end restrictions and restore full access to the U.S. immigration system for asylum seekers. But previous moves by the Biden administration to lift Title 42 were blocked in court after Republican officials, citing a migrant surge would strain their budgets, sued the administration.

Standard immigration rules at the border will once more be in effect at midnight on May 12 barring a last-minute court order.
The Biden administration proposes bill to make crypto mining firms pay their fair share

The Biden Administration is proposing a bill to hold cryptocurrency mining companies accountable for the amount of energy costs they expel with a new 30% tax on their electricity costs. The Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax was announced on the White House website on Tuesday, explaining that cryptomining firms should be paying higher energy taxes for the exorbitant amount they consume.

According to the proposed legislation, cryptomining firms have a large impact on environmental pollution and generate high energy prices, and its time the companies pay for the full cost they impose on others.

Read more

Currently, cryptomining firms do not have to pay for the full cost they impose on others, in the form of local environmental pollution, higher energy prices, and the impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions on the climate. The DAME tax encourages firms to start taking better account of the harms they impose on society, the White House said on its site.

Crypto minings impact on the global climate is rising, according to Benjamin A. Jones, an economics associate professor at the University of New Mexico. Jones told the UNM newsroom late last year that the mining, or production, of Bitcoin is using tremendous amounts of electricity, mostly from fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas. This is causing huge amounts of air pollution and carbon emissions, which is negatively impacting our global climate and our health.

The White House is now working to push back against the effects of crypto mining with the DAME tax proposal which aims to combat its negative spillovers on the environment which generates pollution that falls disproportionately on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

According to the proposal, the tax increase is estimated to raise $3.5 billion in revenue over 10 years and would mean crypto mining firms couldnt just move from one locale to another to avoid increased fees.

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Crypto mining operations were primarily based out of China until 2021 when it moved to the U.S. following a blanket ban by Chinese regulators. Since then, the U.S. has become the leading country for crypto mining and has ballooned in some states like Texas, which now accounts for 2,100 megawatts of the states power supplies, Lee Bratcher, the president of industry group Texas Blockchain Council, recently told Reuters. Not only does crypto mining account for a large portion of Texas energy, but Bratcher told the outlet its usage rose 75% in 2022 and had nearly tripled its energy usage from the prior 12 months.

The rise in energy consumption from crypto miners means local residents end up paying more, leading to an unfair drain on the economy. But the new tax proposal aims to, in part, alleviate some of the resounding effects of crypto mining firms.

The White House concluded on its site, The primary goal of the DAME tax is to start having crypto miners pay their fair share of the costs imposed on local communities and the environment.

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President Biden on Wednesday marked World Press Freedom Day by acknowledging two American reporters who have been detained abroad and touted the free press as a pillar of democracy.

Biden in a statement highlighted the cases of Evan Gershkovich and Austin Tice. Gershkovich is a Wall Street Journal reporter who has been detained in Russia on espionage charges for more than a month. The administration has labeled Gershkovich as wrongfully detained.

Tice is a freelance journalist and veteran who was kidnapped in 2012 while reporting in Syria.

Journalism is not a crime  it is fundamental to a free society, Biden said in a statement.

Evan Gershkovich and Austin Tice weigh heavy on my mind today, he added. No family should have to endure the pain Ive seen their families bear. But in far too many places around the world, autocrats and their enablers continue to repress a free and independent media  through censorship, retribution, threats, lawsuits, harassment, disinformation, detention, and physical attacks.

The president said his administration is providing funding for the Promoting Information Integrity and Resilience Initiative, which aims to support independent media and strengthen global efforts to fight disinformation while helping journalists do their jobs safely.

Today  and every day  we must all stand with journalists around the world, Biden said. We must all speak out against those who wish to silence them.

And we must all continue to support a free press that is essential to our democracy and democracies everywhere, he added.

Bidens statement comes just days after the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner in Washington where the president also spoke about press freedom and the First Amendment. Family members of Gershkovich and Tice attended the dinner and were recognized with standing ovations.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
President Joe Bidens former executive assistant who helped pack up materials at his private office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington testified that she did not come across any documents marked classified, according to a memo released Wednesday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

The GOP-led Oversight Committee last month interviewed Kathy Chung, who worked for Biden when he was vice president and helped pack up the contents of his office in January 2017 during the transition, as part of its investigation into the discovery last year of classified documents in Bidens home and office.

In the memo, first reported by CNN, House Democrats said they felt compelled to release part of the transcript of Chungs testimony because committee chair James Comer, R-Ky., mischaracterized her testimony in a way that did not reflect what she shared in her transcribed interview.

Democrats raised concerns over Comers assertion in interviews with the media that Chung was given the job based on a recommendation from the presidents son Hunter Biden  a point Chung rebutted during her testimony. They claimed that Republican staff members on the committee admitted that Comers assertion was a mischaracterization in conversations with Chungs attorneys.

For you to say she got the job to help with the Biden family moving documents at the recommendation of Hunter Biden and further that you expect to pursue some bizarre notion that Hunter Biden recommended her because of a purported interest in documents indicates to us the real possibility that you do not intend to treat Ms. Chung fairly, the memo said.

Democrats contended that Comer "amplified baseless, xenophobic, and racist conspiracy theories" of Chung by trying to tie her to the Chinese Communist Party in interviews with Fox News and Newsmax in January. In the memo, they cited a part of Chung's transcribed interview in which she said she does not have any relationship with the party.

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Democrats also pushed back against Comers suggestion that Chung revealed startling information in the interview, citing a part of the transcript where Chung says she did not come across any classified documents.

Comer decided to "cherry-pick and misrepresent critical information in this investigation while refusing to publicly release the full interview transcripts," they said.

Republicans on the Oversight Committee defended Comer's claims and its decision not to release the full transcript in a statement Wednesday.

"Kathy Chung provided valuable information to the Oversight Committees investigation of President Bidens mishandling of classified documents. Kathy Chungs testimony undermines the White Houses narrative of the events, a spokesperson for Republicans on the committee said in a statement.

"We now know the classified documents were not kept in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center as the Biden team has asserted and the timeline for packing up these documents starts six months earlier," the spokesperson added. "We are not releasing the full transcript at this time as it contains sensitive information to this ongoing investigation.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the memo.

Comer launched the committee's investigation after it was revealed in January that a small number of classified documents from the Obama administration had been found in a closet at Bidens former office at the Penn Biden Center in November, just days before the midterm elections.

The Justice Department found additional documents with classified markings at Biden's Delaware home during a voluntary search.

Attorney General Merrick Garland in January appointed Robert Hur as a special counsel to review classified material found in Bidens possession.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Students in the U.S. scored an average of 258 on the history assessment, a 5-point decline from the 2018 results. (Getty Images)

American students are failing to learn basic facts about their own nations history or how its government works, according to a closely watched assessment whose results were released on Wednesday.

What you need to know

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, is a nationwide test known as the Nations Report Card for the sweeping view it provides to educators and policymakers of learning gains  or losses.

The history and civics tests were administered to eighth graders across the country in 2022. Eight thousand children took the test and were graded on a scale from 0 to 300.

On the history assessment, American students scored an average of 258, a 9-point drop from the 2014 test and a 5-point decline from the 2018 results. Students are now scoring, on average, a point lower than they did when the NAEP history test was first given in 1994.

Only 13% of students showed proficiency in knowledge of American history, a 5-point drop from 2014.

For civics, test scores fell from 150 to 153, the first decline registered by NAEP and a disheartening return to where American students were when the civics assessment began in 1998.

Only 22% of students showed civics proficiency, a worrying reality that could lead to further erosion of trust in democratic institutions.

Self-government depends on each generation of students leaving school with a complete understanding of the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship, Peggy G. Carr of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the NAEP test, said in a statement on Wednesday. But far too many of our students are struggling to understand and explain the importance of civic participation, how American government functions, and the historical significance of events. These results are a national concern.

The big picture

Studies have found that learning loss was sharpest in school districts where remote learning continued the longest. (Getty Images)

Pandemic learning loss appears to be real and, thus far, intractable.

Alarming as they are, Wednesdays results are hardly a surprise to educators. Last fall, NAEP results on math and reading tests given to 9-year-olds showed steep declines.

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Many experts will likely blame remote learning, which continued in some districts even after it became clear that children neither got seriously sick from nor vigorously transmitted the coronavirus.

Studies have found that learning loss was sharpest in districts that stayed remote the longest.

What educators are saying

The Biden administration has argued that it successfully and quickly reopened schools in 2021, but critics say the White House was overly differential to teachers unions that were reluctant to bring members back into the classroom.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement that Wednesdays news affirms the profound impact the pandemic had on student learning in subjects beyond math and reading.

But he also warned that proposed congressional cuts to the federal education budget were unproductive, as were efforts in Republican-led states to limit how students were learning history in the name of combating wokeness or critical race theory, a graduate-level discipline not taught explicitly in American schools.

We need to provide every student with rich opportunities to learn about Americas history and understand the U.S. Constitution and how our system of government works, he said. Banning history books and censoring educators from teaching these important subjects do our students a disservice and will move America in the wrong direction.

Dissenting opinions

Some educators have argued that the depth of learning loss due to the pandemic is not as extensive as some assessments suggest. (Getty Images)

Becky Pringle, head of the National Education Association, an influential teachers union, has previously downplayed the depth of learning loss from the pandemic, but that argument could become increasingly difficult to maintain.

A potentially more persuasive explanation of Wednesdays results may be that civics has long been neglected in American public education.

And for all the debate about which, and whose, history should be taught, recent pedagogical trends have favored mastery of skills over memorization of facts, potentially leading to lower test scores.

You need some basics to understand whats even verifiable, Tufts University researcher Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg told the New York Times.

The bottom line

This is bad news.

We are at a critical point in our countrys history. If you do not understand the complexities and promise of our past, you cannot imagine a better future, the celebrated documentarian Ken Burns wrote on Twitter. We either invest in the humanities, including history and civics, or we forfeit our democracy.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will be the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India since 2011

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is in Goa to participate in a conference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation - the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India since 2011.

Hina Rabbani Khar met her Indian counterpart SM Krishna in Delhi 12 years ago, but circumstances were different then. India and Pakistan were experiencing a limited thaw, and trying to boost trade. Pakistan's relationship with the US was in a crisis. "The diplomatic moment back then was ripe for attempts at rapprochement. It's a different story today," Michael Kugelman of The Wilson Centre, an American think-tank, says.

The countries have fought three wars since they became independent nations in 1947. All but one were over Kashmir. In 2019, India launched strikes in Pakistani territory following a militant attack on Indian troops in Kashmir. After the attacks, the two countries had come "close" to a nuclear war, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed in his recent memoir.

But a new border truce concluded in 2021 has kept things under control. When India accidentally fired a supersonic missile into Pakistan last year, Islamabad issued a statement condemning the launch, without escalating the incident into a serious crisis. "But this isn't to say the relationship is in a safe place. It's always on tenterhooks, even at the best of times," says Mr Kugelman. "Today, it would only take one trigger, one provocation, to take the two sides back up the escalatory ladder."

An Indian soldier on the de-facto India-Pakistan border - a 2021 truce has kept things under control

Not surprisingly, expectations from Mr Bhutto Zardari's visit to the popular beach destination of Goa are low. Before landing in India, he said his visit was "focussed exclusively on the SCO" and that he looked forward to "constructive discussions with my counterparts from friendly countries".

Mr Bhutto Zardari's visit underlines, "most of all that both India and Pakistan attach great significance to the interface with the Shanghai Cooperation Council (SCO)," says TCA Raghavan, a former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan.

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The SCO, founded in 2001 to discuss security and economic matters in Central Asia, is led by China, a key Pakistani ally, and Russia, an important emerging friend of Pakistan. It also includes four members from Central Asia, a region that Islamabad hopes to engage more for trade, connectivity and energy. "For Islamabad skipping the conference would raise the risk of Pakistan being isolated from an organisation that embraces its interests strongly," says Mr Kugelman.

No bilateral meetings are expected to take place between Mr Bhutto Zardari and his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar. "Apart from the fact that a Pakistani foreign minister has not visited India in a long time, this visit is pretty much inconsequential in the larger bilateral context," Happymon Jacob of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, says.

Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to America who is now at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC, echoes a similar sentiment: "The visit, per se, does not represent any thaw in the relationship."

Hina Rabbani Khar met her Indian counterpart SM Krishna in Delhi in 2011

It's best to look at the Pakistani foreign minister's visit through a "multilateral lens, not a bilateral one," says Mr Kugelman. "He's not going to pursue reconciliation with Delhi. He's going to participate in a conference of regional organisation that holds considerable importance for Pakistan's interests."

That leaves the two rivals frozen in what Prof Jacob describes as "cold peace". He says: "Neither side wants to rock the boat but has no appetite to make significant concessions to seek or begin a dialogue on the outstanding issues." Mr Raghavan believes the "relationship has been stable for the past two years or so but at a low plateau". Mr Haqqani likens the relationship to "being on a treadmill with periodic ups and downs".

The redeeming reality is that both countries have a strong interest in keeping tensions down. "Pakistan is facing an internal mess and can't afford a fresh crisis with India. And India is increasingly concerned about China, its biggest security challenge, and doesn't want to have additional trouble on its western front from Pakistan," says Mr Kugelman.

But if both sides have an interest in reducing tensions, why isn't the summit in India an opportunity to pursue long-lasting reconciliation? Clearly, politics stands in the way.

"There would be considerable public backlash in either country if efforts are made to pursue peace. This would be especially costly in Pakistan, where the government is already deeply unpopular and in over its head," says Mr Kugelman.

There were protests against Mr Bhutto Zardari in India in 2022 over his allegedly derogatory remarks against PM Modi

"At the end of the day, each country believes that its prime condition for formal dialogue hasn't been met: India wants to do more about terrorism, and Pakistan wants India to change its Kashmir policy." (India and Pakistan claim all of Kashmir, but control only parts of it.)

India-Pakistan relations are even at the "best of times remain precarious," says Hassan Abbas of the National Defense University in Washington DC. "Political polarisation, both in India and Pakistan, makes the situation even more vulnerable."

Recent unconfirmed media reports of backchannel talks between the two countries don't impress the pundits - such talks, says Prof Jacob, are more about "conflict management rather than conflict resolution."

Mr Haqqani offers a scintilla of hope. Meetings such as the one in Goa often "pave the way for a resumption of dialogue", he says. Others are not so hopeful. As Mr Abbas says: "Even in the best of times, Pakistan-India relations remain precarious. Under the circumstances, a 'peaceful limbo' is a good option. In the long run, anything short of a peace deal will be damaging."

BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and features.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  A number of flights will be affected by the scheduled airspace shutdown on May 17, but flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Wednesday assured its passengers that steps will be implemented to ensure they will be able to arrive at their destinations.

Under normal circumstances, we operate 18 international arrivals and departures. This does not include the domestic sector, so if you include the domestic sector, it would total around 38 to 40 flights, PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna told CNN Philippines The Source.

On Tuesday, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines announced that the countrys airspace will be closed from midnight to 6 a.m. on May 17 to upgrade the countrys air traffic management system, repair the automatic voltage regulator, and replace the uninterruptible power supply.

We will carry out steps to protect you either by rebooking you in the next available flight, giving you options or delaying the departures and delaying the arrivals, Villaluna said. We will make the announcements accordingly.

Prior to the May 17 plan, a shorter corrective maintenance activity was conducted 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Wednesday.

Villaluna said this affected 28 domestic and international flights.

So far, operations are ongoing, with 12 flights already completed, she noted.

The PAL spokesperson said the airline was able to inform affected passengers beforehand about adjustments to their flight schedules.

Issues encountered by PAL focused on passengers who arrived at the airport despite the delay in their flights, Villaluna said.

These customers are those who booked their flights via a third party who is responsible for informing those affected about the adjustments, she noted.

The maintenance activities come four months after the New Years Day mess and the recent power outage during the Labor Day long weekend which both happened at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3.
The North Carolina Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would significantly restructure how the North Carolina Community College System is governed.

But in its current version, the bill includes significantly less power for the systems president than legislators originally proposed to give that position.

Senate Bill 692 would give legislators more power over the states community college system and local campuses, increasing the appointments they can make to governing board at both levels, while stripping those powers from the governor and some local bodies.

As previously written, the bill also would have given the system president executive authority over the system, increasing the positions power  including over staff decisions and college courses.

But much of that authority was stripped in a new version of the bill introduced in a committee Monday by Sen. Amy Galey, a Burlington Republican who is a sponsor of the bill. The bill passed the Senate Wednesday by a vote of 31-19 and now heads to the House for consideration there.

New system president named last month

The move to scale back the bills proposed powers for the system president comes shortly after the selection of a new president for the system.

The State Board of Community Colleges on April 21 named Jeff Cox, president of Wilkes Community College and an educator of 30 years, as the systems president. He will start in the role July 1, and fills the spot held by Thomas Stith before his resignation last July.

SB 692 retains a provision that would require future system presidents selected by the state board to be confirmed by the General Assembly, but Galey said in committee that process would not be applied retroactively.

Speaking to The News & Observer Wednesday after the Senate vote, Galey said the selection of Cox prior to the bill passing did not affect, for her, the decision to walk back the powers the bill would have originally given the president.

I cant say whether it did for other members, Galey said.

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But Senate leader Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, told reporters after the Senate vote that because the legislature did not have the opportunity to vet Cox using the new confirmation process outlined in the bill, there were concerns as to whether or not we ought to give that additional power to that particular president.

I think over time we will continue to look at that and we may come back to that issue, Berger said.

Republicans previously wrote in a news release that the bill would empower the next Community Colleges System President to have a greater say in the administration of the System and allow the president to deploy resources more effectively across North Carolina and allows our community colleges to work together in a coordinated approach.

Speaking to The N&O after the state board announced him as system president, Cox said he viewed SB 692 as a debate over the balance of local autonomy with state control over the states community colleges.

So it sounds like our legislators are feeling like we might need to pull a little bit more of that authority to the state level, Cox said. And having been a community college president, still a community college president for another little while, I understand that delicate balance of accountability.

General Assembly would still gain appointments

The new version of SB 692 would  as in the original version  see the General Assembly gain more power in appointing members of the State Board of Community Colleges and local campus board of trustees.

At the state board level, the General Assembly would gain the authority to appoint 18 members, up from eight currently.

Appointments to local community college campus boards of trustees would also change under the bill, with the governor and local boards of education losing their ability to appoint four members each. The General Assembly would be able to appoint eight members to each board  it has none now  and local boards of county commissioners would continue appointing four members.

Its my belief that the legislature is in a good position to make those kinds of decisions, and I think the legislation that has passed this chamber is a part of what I think needs to be done as far as community colleges, Berger told reporters Wednesday. I also feel that the system itself needs to be reorganized in a certain way.

The bill includes provisions for trustees at community colleges that serve more than one county, allowing county commissioners in counties outside of the county where a colleges main campus is located to appoint two additional trustees to that colleges board of trustees.

One county commissioner in each county a college serves would be permitted to serve on the local campus boards of trustees under the new version of the bill.

Sen. Julie Mayfield, an Asheville Democrat voiced opposition to the bill in committee, citing the changes in the way that the local community college boards would be appointed under this.

Galey said after Wednesdays vote that she hoped the bill would help the community college system be more responsive, increasing its responsiveness to the needs of employers.

Its all about workforce development, and making sure that the needs of the students are met, she said.
Two private islands in the Caribbean, called Little St. James and Great St. James, that once belonged to Jeffrey Epstein first hit the market last March with an asking price of $125 million. Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images; REUTERS/Marco Bello

Jeffrey Epstein's two private islands in the Caribbean have sold for $60 million.

That's less than half the $125 million asking price the islands had when they hit the market last March.

Billionaire buyer Stephen Deckoff wants to develop a five-star luxury resort there.

Two private islands in the US Virgin Islands that belonged to Jeffrey Epstein just sold for less than half their initial asking price.

Stephen Deckoff, the billionaire founder of private equity firm Black Diamond Capital Management, bought the islands for $60 million, Forbes first reported Wednesday. He plans to "develop a state-of-the-art, five-star, world-class luxury 25-room resort" there, which is anticipated to open in 2025, according to a press release.

"I've been proud to call the U.S. Virgin Islands home for more than a decade and am tremendously pleased to be able to bring the area a world-class destination befitting its natural grace and beauty," Deckoff said in the release. "There is simply no place in the world as special as the U.S. Virgin Islands and I am humbled by the opportunity to share its splendor with visitors in a manner that will provide economic benefits to the region while respecting its culture, history and natural beauty."

Reuters

Deckoff told Forbes he'd never met Epstein and never been to the islands before they went on the market. The islands, called Little St. James and Great St. James, together listed for $125 million in March 2022.

Epstein bought the 72-acre Little St. James for $7.95 million in 1998. It has a villa-style compound, a library, a cinema, a detached bathhouse, and cabanas.

REUTERS/Marco Bello

REUTERS/Marco Bello

Epstein later bought the 160-acre Great St. James for nearly $20 million in 2016.

REUTERS/Marco Bello

The islands were a focal point in the sex-trafficking charges against the late financier and registered sex offender.

Prosecutors accused Epstein of bringing underage girls, some as young as 11 years old, to the islands, where they allege Epstein and his associates subjected the girls to sexual servitude, child abuse, and sexual assault. Epstein pled not guilty.

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He died of an apparent suicide in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell, where he was being held while awaiting trial on the sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. The FBI reportedly raided Little St. James, where Epstein was believed to have his primary residence, in the days after his death.

Prosecutors later accused Epstein's former girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, of facilitating and participating in Epstein's alleged abuse of young girls. She was found guilty on five of six sex-trafficking charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Bloomberg) -- A company co-owned by UK Conservative Party Senior Treasurer Mohamed Mansour is suspending its business activities in Russia after British media reported that the firm was supplying machinery to the Russian oil and gas industry.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Mansour, an Egyptian billionaire who Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed to his Tory Party role in December, is the chair and co-owner of Mantrac, a global Caterpillar equipment dealer that has been operating in Russia through a subsidiary.

A Mantrac spokesperson told Bloomberg that the unit, Mantrac Vostok Ltd., has scaled back its operations significantly and is now in the process of suspending all business activities in Russia, in compliance with applicable laws. The firm is working through the appropriate next steps, the spokesperson added.

The winding down of Mantracs Russian operations removes a potential source of embarrassment for Sunak, who while Chancellor of the Exchequer last year had urged companies to think very carefully about how their investments might help President Vladimir Putins regime. The Mirror reported earlier this year that Mansours company had made millions from its Russian operations.

A Conservative Party spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mantrac is one of the worlds biggest Caterpillar construction equipment dealerships. It forms part of the Mansour family conglomerate which originated as a cotton exporter in 1952 and has since diversified into real estate, technology, manufacturing and food services, including the franchise for all McDonalds Corp. restaurants in Egypt.

After Twitter Exit, Egyptian Billionaire Investor Plans EV Push

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Mansours family wealth was valued at $6.8 billion in November, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He has been running the conglomerate since his fathers death in 1976. The Mansours do much of their investing through a London-based family office, Man Capital.

His role with the Conservative Party is focused on fund-raising ahead of a general election due in Britain by January 2025. Mansour agreed to underwrite several millions of pounds of donations to help the party out of a funding black hole, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg earlier this year. He had previously donated some 600,000 ($750,000) to the party via his company Unatrac.

--With assistance from Mirette Magdy.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

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The stress of experiencing high levels of community violence harms entire families. skynesher/E+ via Getty Images

Black mothers are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to the mental and physical harms of stress from living with gun violence in America.

In the U.S., Black people are likelier than white people to reside in impoverished, racially segregated communities with high levels of gun violence. Research has suggested that living in violent and unsafe environments can result in continuous traumatic stress, a constant form of PTSD. Researchers have also linked experiences of violence and poverty to an increased risk of chronic disease such as cancer and cardiovascular, respiratory and neurodegenerative diseases.

We are Black women and public policy and sociology professors who study health inequities and sustainable policy solutions. Our research has found that Black mothers who feel trapped in neighborhoods they perceived as unsafe because of high levels of community violence are more likely to report elevated PTSD and depression symptoms, as well as elevated stress hormone levels.

The trauma of gun violence and systemic racism isnt simply a Black mothers story  its an American story.

Health effects of feeling trapped

Our research team sought to understand how stress from structural violence affects the body, specifically the immune system. We talked to 68 low-income single Black mothers living on the South Side of Chicago about how they deal with gun violence in their communities and how it affects their health.

We asked these Black mothers to complete surveys that measured depression and PTSD symptoms. We also asked them to provide blood samples to examine the effects of stress at the cellular level, measuring the activity of genes that code for the receptors for the stress hormone cortisol. Looking at cortisol receptors offers a more cumulative measure of cortisol levels over time.

We found that about 65% of the mothers wanted to move out of their neighborhoods but could not afford to do so. These mothers felt trapped in areas with high levels of gun violence that fostered a sense of not feeling safe for adults and children. One mother in our study, whom we will call Ellan, described her neighborhood as dangerous and wanted to leave as soon as she could. Im very terrified of my kids going out to the park, playing in front of the house, she said. And Im afraid that a car might come past shootin and one of my kids get hurt.

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Black mothers who feel trapped in their neighborhoods feel terrified for their children. Jose Luis Pelaez/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Another mother in our study, whom we will call Skylar, felt she couldnt escape to a safer community. I dont really want to raise my kids there, but I dont have a choice. You know, cause its what I can afford. But its real violent.

Mothers who felt trapped reported more symptoms of PTSD, like disturbing memories and dreams and reliving stressful experiences, than mothers who did not feel trapped. They also reported more depressive symptoms, such as feeling down and hopeless, taking little pleasure in doing things and having trouble sleeping.

Mothers unable to afford the move to safer neighborhoods had lower levels of glucocorticoid receptors. Having fewer glucocorticoid receptors helped protect their bodies from being overwhelmed by high cortisol levels caused by stress. Nevertheless, high cortisol levels from chronic stress are linked to a number of negative mental and physical health outcomes.

Environment determines health

Where someone lives, learns, works, plays and worships can determine their health and has the power to make them sick and cause premature death.

Researchers have estimated that around 83,570 Black people die prematurely each year in the U.S. because of health disparities, using 2002 data. Some scholars have previously described this as equivalent to a plane full of Black passengers falling out the sky every day every year.

It is important to note that it is not the racial makeup of where a person lives that shapes the significant disparities they face, but exposure to violence, poverty and lack of resources as a result of structural racism. Redlining, environmental contamination, food deserts and gun violence are a part of the racial capitalism, or exploitation of marginalized communities, that affect the health of Black women.

What we are learning about the constant threats to the safety of Black mothers and their families also applies to the general American public.

The rate of mass shootings is increasing. Firearm fatalities are a leading cause of death among children ages 1 to 19 in the U.S. Gun violence has harmed people while they are watching a parade, shopping at a store, worshipping, attending school and other ordinary events.

Increasing access to wellness

Understanding the complexity of the exposome  the word researchers use for environmental factors like gun violence that affect an individuals health and well-being  can help extend the years of healthy life of groups who typically experience premature death. Building this knowledge requires input from people of color and others who have traditionally been pushed to the margins of society.

We are currently creating a wellness store that places wellness tools and health knowledge at the fingertips of individuals, especially for those experiencing interlocking traumas such as racism, sexism, classism, incarceration, racial segregation and rural geographic isolation. These tools, co-created with community health workers and citizen scientists, range from phone apps to public policy designed to get stress out from under the skin. Our goal is to work with clinics, hospitals and community organizations to provide accessible tools to prevent illness.

Black communities are filled with resilient and vulnerable individuals who deserve urgent policy solutions that lead to societal change. We believe that more investment in disease prevention and health equity can help the U.S. use the knowledge, technology and finances that it already has to help people access its most precious resource: a healthy life and the ability to pursue wellness.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Like this article? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

It was written by: Loren Henderson, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Ruby Mendenhall, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Loren Henderson is affiliated with Association of Black Sociologists. I am the Executive Officer of the Association of Black Sociologists.

Ruby Mendenhall receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in regard to the Kremlins claim that Ukraine attempted a drone strike to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin that anything from the Russian government should be taken with a very large shaker of salt.

Blinken told The Washington Post on Wednesday that he cannot validate the reports of an attempted Ukrainian attack on the Kremlin, but observers should be skeptical of statements from the Russian government.

I cant in any way validate them, said Blinken, who was at an event with the Post to preview the 2023 World Press Freedom Index. We simply dont know. Second, I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.

Ukraine has denied the Kremlins claims that it sent drones to attack the president.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a tweet that Ukraine has fought an exclusively defensive war and has not targeted any territory inside Russia.

The Kremlin said the Russian military and special forces disabled the drones electronically and that it reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit.

Blinken also said that if Ukraine were to attack Russian territory, the U.S. would not denounce it, stating that these are decisions for Ukraine to make.

Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive soon to retake additional territory that Russia has captured during the war.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spent the past several decades in the political sphere and has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats despite telling Fox News Monday night that he doesnt "do politics."

During an appearance on "Special Report," Blinken said he doesnt "engage" in politics while denying having any role in the 2020 letter signed by 51 current and past intelligence officials that aimed to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop as part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

"One of the great benefits of this job is that I don't do politics and don't engage in it," Blinken told Fox News Benjamin Hall. "But with regard to that letter, I didn't  it wasn't my idea, didn't ask for it, didn't solicit it. And I think the testimony that the former deputy director of the CIA, Mike Morrell, put forward confirms that."

Last month, former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell testified to the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees that Blinken, as President Bidens then-campaign senior adviser, "played a role in the inception" of the public statement signed by intelligence officials claiming Hunters abandoned laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.

During an appearance on "Special Report" on May 1, 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he doesnt "engage" in politics while denying having any role in the 2020 letter signed by 51 current and past intelligence officials that aimed to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop as part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

BLINKEN AND WIFE EMAILED FREQUENTLY WITH HUNTER BIDEN, RAISING QUESTIONS ABOUT ROLE IN LAPTOP COVER STORY

Fox News Digital reported last week that emails from the infamous abandoned laptop that Blinken sought to discredit show that Hunter has ties to Blinken and his wife, Evan Ryan, dating back over a decade, having scheduled meetings with him while he was on the board of Burisma and Blinken was deputy secretary of state.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Despite saying he doesnt "do politics," the secretary has also donated almost $44,000 to Democrats over multiple decades. Most recently, he donated thousands to President Bidens 2020 campaign, according to FEC records. When he was serving as deputy secretary of state, he donated thousands to Hillary Clinton and Francis Person, another longtime Biden adviser who also has extensive ties to Hunter Biden.

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Evan Ryan has donated over $25,000 to Democrats, including thousands supporting Hillary Clinton and was a maxed out donor for Person's failed congressional campaign in South Carolina.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his wife Evan Ryan arrive for the White House state dinner for South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the White House on April 26, 2023, in Washington, D.C.

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, speaks with fellow guests during the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, April 29, 2023.

Blinken reportedly got his start in politics by helping his father raise funds for Michael Dukakis failed 1988 presidential campaign. FEC records show he donated $1,000 to Dukakis' campaign in 1987. He later filled several positions in the Bill Clinton administration, including serving as the senior director for speechwriting at the National Security Council.

In 2002, Blinken worked with then-Sen. Biden as the Democratic staff director for the Foreign Relations Committee. He then worked on Bidens failed 2008 presidential campaign.

During the Barack Obama administration, Blinken served as national security advisor to Biden and deputy assistant to Obama. He was eventually appointed by Obama as deputy secretary of state in 2015 and later by Biden as secretary of state in 2021 after serving as Biden's campaign adviser.

Multiple profiles pieces over the years said Blinken has advised Biden on more than just foreign policy in his decades-long friendship with the president and serving as a confidant. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., President Biden's reelection campaign co-chair, told CNN in 2021 that Blinken "has been a part of Joes evolution, learning, and changes as he has confronted challenge after challenge over decades" and that he is "an irreplaceable part of Joe Bidens inner core team."

"President Biden is personally close to both Tony Blinken and Evan Ryan and Tony has been an incredibly loyal, capable and effective adviser, staffer and personal friend of the sort that is rare in Washington," Coons added.

HUNTER BIDEN'S CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS DAD'S NEW CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR REVEALED IN LAPTOP EMAILS

Meanwhile, Blinkens wife, Evan Ryan, worked in the Bill Clinton White House as a scheduler to Hillary Clinton, before she went on to serve on the Hillary Clinton 2000 senatorial, John Kerry 2004 presidential and Biden 2008 presidential campaigns.

Under the Obama administration, Ryan served as Biden's assistant, the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, and special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement.

Now, Ryan serves as President Bidens White House cabinet secretary.

Fox News Digital previously reported that Ryan was in frequent contact with Hunter and his business partner Eric Schwerin when she was working in the State Department.

Blinken also held a meeting with Hunter at the State Department in July 2015 when he was serving as the deputy secretary of state and Hunter was on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on as President Joe Biden is greeted by Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at Farmleigh House, Phoenix Park on April 13, 2023, in Dublin, Ireland. Biden traveled to Northern Ireland and Ireland with his sister Valerie Biden Owens and son Hunter Biden to explore his family's Irish heritage and mark the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Peace Agreement.

Blinken was asked by Hall on Monday whether he now accepts that Hunter's abandoned laptop is not a case of Russian disinformation.

"Again, from my perspective, I'm not engaging in politics," Blinken responded. "I've got a lot on my agenda with the things that we've just talked about, trying to help the Ukrainians and the Russian aggression against them, engaging with allies and partners around the world, and dealing with some of the challenges posed by China. We have a situation now in Sudan that has fully occupied my time. So that's where my focus is."

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, sent Blinken a letter asking for information about the 2020 letters inception as well as people he communicated with about drafting it.

He has until May 4 to turn over any documents and communications.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

During an appearance on "Sunday Morning Futures" last week, Johnson said Blinken "lied boldface" to Congress, not just about his contact with Hunter, but "so much more."

"Antony Blinken finally did come in and sit down for a voluntary transcribed interview in December of 2020, because he wanted to be Secretary of State," Johnson said. "And now, because of more information that's come out, we know that he lied boldface to Congress about never emailing Hunter Biden. My guess is he told a bunch of other lies that hopefully we'll be able to bring him and his wife back in, tell them to preserve their records."

"He said he did not email Hunter Biden, and now we have those emails," the senator continued. "We also know that his wife, using her private email address when she was a[n] employee of the State Department, was basically a conduit between her husband and Hunter Biden as well. So, again, I think there's so much more to uncover here. There's so much more investigation. He needs to be subpoenaed. I don't have subpoena power. He got to come in just voluntarily."

The State Department declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday he was hopeful he could reschedule a visit to China this year after his planned trip in February was canceled following the appearance of a Chinese high altitude balloon over the United States.

"I am," Blinken said in an interview with the Washington Post. "And I think it's important ... that we re-establish regular lines of communication at all levels and across our government."

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Doina Chiacu)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said claims by Russia should be taken 'with a large shaker of salt'

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday he is highly skeptical of any allegations made by Russia, after Moscow claimed Kyiv had launched a drone attack on the Kremlin.

"I've seen the reports. I cannot validate them, we simply don't know," Blinken said at an event in Washington. "I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt."

Russia said Wednesday that two drones had targeted President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin residence overnight, describing it as a Ukrainian "terrorist attack" ahead of the important May 9 holiday, when Russians celebrate victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Kyiv denied the claim, suggesting the attack was "staged" by Moscow.

"Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin," presidential spokesman Mikhaylo Podolyak said.

Blinken, at the event hosted by the Washington Post for World Press Freedom Day, reiterated calls for the release of US journalist Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in Russia on charges of espionage and whom Washington considers a hostage.

Blinken said wrongful detentions of foreign citizens by Moscow only serve to further isolate it.

"Increasingly, the message is, don't come here, don't travel," Blinken said. "Whoever you are, you risk being pulled off the street, thrown in jail."

Blinken also discussed the recent embarrassing leak of top-secret US documents, which revealed Washington's unease about a coming Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian troops as well as concerns about the nation's air defenses.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky complained in a Washington Post interview published Tuesday that his government had not been warned about the leak, calling it "a bad story."

Blinken said he told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba at the time that "we very much regretted the unauthorized exposure of these documents, that we took very seriously our obligations and responsibility to protect information."

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The top US diplomat also spoke positively about last week's telephone call between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Zelensky.

"It's vitally important that China and other countries that have been seeking to advance peace hear from the victim, not just the aggressor," he said.

At one point during Blinken's appearance, activists briefly interrupted the discussion and called for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The Australian activist has been imprisoned for four years in London and is awaiting an appeals hearing against an order to extradite him to the United States.

The activists were promptly escorted from the room by security personnel.

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Newly released body camera footage shows the moments a Raleigh police officer shot a suspect fatally in the head.

On March 27, Raleigh police shot an killed a gunman they claim was shooting at police and into parked cars near Ligon Magnet Middle School.

On April 3, police released a 5-day report on the shooting and named Jorge Luis Vega-Lesama as the suspect who had been killed.

The newly released video show Sgt. R.A. Sirianna and Officers M.L. Adams and P.J. Fernstrum when they collectively fired seven shots at Vega-Lesama, one fatally striking him in the head.

Officers who fired at him as he shot at cars and police around 7 a.m. in the 700 block of Cumberland Street, just east of downtown, according to the report.

The video footage from Siriannas body camera shows him exiting his police vehicle with a rifle. He is repeatedly fired at, and cannot determine where the suspect is shooting from. Within a minute of the gunfire starting from the suspect, Sirianna fired four shots, killing the suspect.

In the video, he is heard breathing heavily as he and the other officers approach Vega-Lesama who is seen laying on his back, bleeding onto a driveway. Siranna kicks away Vega-Lesamas gun and continues to aim his weapon at him, accompanied by Adams and Fernstrum.

When Sirianna, Adams and Fernstrum arrived on the scene moments earlier, they identified a man matching the suspects description.

Vega-Lesama began firing at the officers as they got out of their cars, and they reported shots fired over their radios, the report states.

Adams fired at him three times, the report states before Siranna began firing.

Sirianna called for emergency medical services at 7:07 a.m.

EMS arrived roughly six minutes later and took Vega-Lesama to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the report states.
A 29-year-old womans body was found in an Arizona desert area, police said.

Now authorities are looking for a person seeing running in the area.

Lauren Heikes body was first found after 10:30 a.m. April 29 near 6500 E. Libby St. when someone reported an injured person, the Phoenix Police Department said in a news release.

Fire department personnel pronounced Heike dead at the scene, police said.

She was found with trauma to her body in a desert area, police said.

Police have not identified a suspect, but they are looking for a person who was seen running in the area.

NEW INFO ON HOMICIDE investigation. Police are hoping someone can help them identify the person in this short video who may have info on a homicide case from 6500 E Libby Street. Anyone with info call police or @SilentwitnessAZ

Original media advisory:https://t.co/8ITIbfihky pic.twitter.com/2vnwY840NC  Phoenix Police (@PhoenixPolice) May 3, 2023

Authorities released a six seconds video clip of a person who they said may have information on Heikes death.

The investigation is ongoing.

We would like to remind everyone to be aware of your surroundings. If a hike or walk is in your plans, do so with a partner, police said in the release. If you see something suspicious, call police and be a good witness.

Anyone with information can contact the Phoenix Police Department or Silent Witness at 480-948-6377, or 480-837-8446 for Spanish.

Man lay dead outside sheriffs office for days without anyone noticing, GA deputies say

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Remains found in scrap yard identified as man missing for weeks, Illinois cops say
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  The Philippines could receive up to $8 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as support for health security in the country.

"USAID will award an additional $8 million, pending Congressional notification, to support global health security in the Philippines and invest in the Philippines' biosafety and laboratory capacity, disease surveillance, risk communication, and emergency preparedness," according to a White House fact sheet released on May 1 (Washington time).

The Department of Health and USAID will also work together "to address the double burden of non-communicable diseases and tuberculosis."

The USAID said the $8 million is part of a $135-million assistance that will be given to the Philippines.

Among the programs to be supported by the assistance fund is the $30-million higher education partnership, sustainable infrastructure development, clean energy auctions, and climate-resilient water security.

"This new funding from USAID underscores the United States' commitment to the U.S.-Philippines alliance since 1951, and harnesses the momentum of our bilateral efforts to advance further our shared prosperity, security, and friendship among our peoples," the USAID added.
Boeing has unveiled its 2023 ecoDemonstrator program, which includes a new "Explorer" aircraft.

The first "Explorer" is a Boeing 787-10 that will fly to countries in Asia to test better route coordination.

The 787 joins Boeing's fleet of 10 ecoDemonstrators, like the flagship 777-200ER and the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9.

Boeing announced a new addition to its fleet of ecoDemonstrator aircraft on Thursday  a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner.

The jet is part of the manufacturer's 2023 flight testing program, which uses specially modified planes to assess new technologies to make flying safer, quieter, and more efficient.

Over the years, these flying labs have tested things like 3D-printed materials and a "self-disinfecting lavatory," among other experiments.

The addition of Boeing's new 787-10 ecoDemonstrator brings the total fleet of test beds to 10, but the aircraft is different from its predecessors.

According to the company, the Dreamliner is the first of several "Explorer" aircraft that will focus primarily on testing operational efficiency.

Specifically, Boeing wants to show how better route coordination across multiple international airspaces can "achieve the optimal flight path" and effectively decrease fuel burn by up to 10%.

To do this, the company has partnered with four nations to fly the 787 on long-haul missions from Seattle to Tokyo, Bangkok, and Singapore in June.

The plane will fly on the highest-possible blend of traditional jet fuel and sustainable aviation fuel, with factors like weather, airspace closures, and air traffic control taken into account.

"The industry will need continued fleet renewal, efficiency gains, renewable energy carriers such as sustainable aviation fuel and advanced technology to meet the civil aviation industry's commitment to achieve net zero carbon emission by 2050," Boeing chief sustainability officer Chris Raymond said in a press release.

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In addition to the new 787, Boeing will use its "flagship ecoDemonstrator"  a 777-200ER introduced in June 2022  to test 19 new technologies in 2023. According to Boeing, the aircraft's mission is to assess things like safer taxi operations and a new fuel sensor compatible with 100% SAF.

Inside the empty Boeing 777-200ER ecoDemonstrator during a June 2022 tour in Washington. Taylor Rains/Insider

Last year, which was the ecoDemonstrator program's 10-year anniversary, the plane assessed 30 technologies, including more durable tray tables and a hat-like pilot display system.

When conducting these tests, Boeing engineers will travel with the aircraft to monitor data and review data, as well as oversee the safety of the flight.

While not every experimental technology makes it onto a future Boeing jet, about a third actually have. Some of these include the V-shaped wingtips on the Boeing 737 MAX jets, the iPad app used by pilots for real-time information, and the camera system on the highly-anticipated 777X to help avoid ground obstacles.

According to the company, the other technologies were "discontinued after learnings were accomplished."

Take a look at the eight other ecoDemonstrator planes that Boeing has used to test over 230 technologies since the start of the decade-long program.

2012: Boeing 737-800NG

The Boeing 737-800NG ecoDemonstrator. Boeing

Unveiled in 2012, the company's first-ever ecoDemonstrator was a 737-800NG on loan from American Airlines. The plane jumpstarted the journey of increasing safety, reducing carbon emissions, and decreasing the industry's noise footprint.

Tests were done on things like fan nozzles and trajectory systems, as well as aspects of the "Advanced Technology Winglet" that eventually made its way onto the MAX fleet.

2014: Boeing 787

Boeing 787 ecoDemonstrator. Boeing

In 2014, the planemaker debuted its second ecoDemonstrator  a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The jet was actually the company's fourth in a series of six 787 test-planes built between 2009 and 2010.

The 787 ecoDemonstrator tested 35 projects, including a collaboration with Delta Air Lines to generate real-time turbulence reports. Boeing also assessed touch-screen cockpit displays and partnered with NASA to test aircraft spacing to improve landing efficiency.

2015: Boeing 757-200

Boeing 757-200 ecoDemonstrator. Boeing

The third aircraft in the ecoDemonstrator family was a Boeing 757-200 from the TUI Group, which is a leisure travel company with five European airlines under its brand. Flying the jet in 2015, Boeing worked with TUI to test new carbon-reducing technologies.

The planemaker also once again partnered with NASA to test two specific things: One was a "bug-phobic coating" on the right wing to help reduce drag, while the other assessed better airflow over the rudder to improve efficiency.

2016: Embraer 170

Embraer 170 ecoDemonstrator. Boeing

Boeing hasn't always used its own planes for the ecoDemonstrator program. In 2016, it opted for a Brazilian-made Embraer 170 regional jet to assess a series of technologies.

The company tested things like an "ice phobic" paint to reduce icing and the buildup of bugs, lasers to detect true airspeed, a new wing design to decrease noise, and a Brazilian-produced biofuel.

2018: Boeing 777-200F

Boeing 777F ecoDemonstrator. Boeing

The planemaker unveiled its first cargo ecoDemonstrator in 2018  a FedEx Boeing 777F that tested some 35 technologies over a remote landscape in Montana.

One unique project was a set of lasers equipped on the plane that could detect turbulence ahead, giving pilots time to get people seated. Boeing engineers also outfitted the jet with sensors and cameras to alert the crew of obstacles in its path.

2019: Boeing 777-200

Boeing 777-200 ecoDemonstrator. Boeing

In 2019, a Boeing 777-200 bought from Air China was used as the next ecoDemonstrator. The jet assessed over 50 projects, like a communication system that automatically provided rerouting information to pilots during bad weather, and an automated system that adjusted the cabin's temperature and humidity.

Boeing also tested external cameras to "provide more passengers with a view outside the airplane."

2020: Boeing 787-10

Boeing 787-10 ecoDemonstrator. Etihad Airways

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Boeing continued its ecoDemonstrator program in 2020 with a Boeing 787-10 from Etihad Airways. The project came shortly after the UAE-based carrier unveiled its Etihad "Greenliner" Program in 2019.

One experiment conducted on the ecoDemonstrator involved 1,200 microphones attached to the plane to collect noise data. Boeing hopes the information will help make aircraft quieter, especially over urban areas.

2021: Boeing 737 MAX 9

Boeing 737 MAX 9 ecoDemonstrator. Thomas Pallini/Insider

Boeing partnered with Alaska Airlines in 2021 to obtain a 737 MAX 9 ecoDemonstrator. Insider toured the jet and found the cabin full of seats, which the company said is done to simulate the weight of the jetliner and transport test engineers.

The MAX ecoDemonstrator project focused on things like single-engine taxi and lighter cabin materials to reduce the jet's weight  both to improve fuel efficiency.

Read the original article on Business Insider
As the Idaho Statesman reported Monday, 20 tenants of an apartment complex in Boises East End are suing Commercial Northwest Property Management, which manages the building.

The company has said that the situation, which housing advocates credibly characterize as a mass eviction, arose because it was impossible to fix the buildings heating system in a prompt manner.

No one is being forced to leave without suitable accommodations, the companys CEO insisted in a March 14 video.

But tenants had earlier received a 30-day non-negotiable notice to vacate, Statesman reporter Rachel Spacek reported. Then they were told they could stay. Then they were told they had three days to turn in their keys.

Mixed messages, to say the least.

The details of the particular case are complex, but they are also part of a broad pattern: The Idaho Legislature has for years decided to make life easier for landlords and harder for renters.

Lawmakers could do lots of things to make situations like the one at Cambridge Dorchester Apartments less common. The easiest would be to follow the large number of states that allow renters to legally withhold rent in certain circumstances until landlords complete necessary maintenance and repairs.

Oregon, Washington and many other states allow tenants to either withhold rent or make repairs themselves and then deduct the value of those repairs from their rent if the landlord wont fix problems. Idahos laws, which are stacked in favor of landlords, only allow withholding rent when there are no functional smoke detectors  a cost so minor that many tenants probably dont even bother.

Allowing rent withholding would drastically change the dynamic in cases like that at the Cambridge Dorchester Apartments. If tenants could all withhold their rent and legally remain in place until their apartments were rendered habitable, the landlord would have a much stronger financial incentive to make repairs fast.

And this isnt a one-off. Law student Nicolette Clark detailed the practices of informal eviction she experienced while a student at Northwest Nazarene University in a January column for the Idaho Capital Sun. Her landlord turned off the air conditioning when the heat topped 100 degrees, then turned off the heat in December, saying the bills were too high, Clark said.

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Landlords have power and when they abuse it, they create more housing insecurity and homelessness, Clark said. Without friends and family, I would have become homeless simply for asking for proper heat and air conditioning.

In that situation, Clark should have had the option to withhold rent until the unit was livable.

But dont count on any such actions by the Idaho Legislature. Despite some vague recent gestures toward some sort of right-wing populism, when the rubber meets the road, the groups with powerful lobbyists tend to win out there.

In recent years, the balance has generally tipped more, not less, in favor of landlords at the Legislature, including efforts to make it easier to physically remove tenants quickly after eviction proceedings.

The single recent exception was a bill authored by Sen. Ali Rabe, D-Boise, which added the requirement that late rent fees be reasonable  a term that is too vague to offer robust protection but may offer an avenue of challenge if landlords charge fees that are shockingly egregious. And amendments to the bill mean that it wont affect current leases, only leases entered into after July 1.

So long as there is no change at the Legislature, Idaho will have little hope for substantive rental regulatory reform. The landlords have nearly all the cards, and most lawmakers have no apparent desire to empower the ordinary people who have to deal with the consequences.

Bryan Clark is an opinion writer for the Idaho Statesman based in eastern Idaho.
Two restaurants and a hair salon will join Olde Mecklenburg Brewery opening at The Bowl at Ballantyne in South Charlotte.

Charlotte-owned Roosters Wood-Fired Kitchen, Honeysuckle Gelato, and Drybar will open next year in the retail portion of the Ballantyne Reimagined project, Northwood Investors LLC said in an exclusive with The Charlotte Observer.

Bowl at Ballantyne is a 20-acre project featuring more than 90,000 square feet of retail, a second apartment tower and new roads with a Main Street feel.

The Ballantyne project is transformational for South Charlotte from being known for corporate offices into a destination, Ward Kampf, president of Northwood Retail, told The Charlotte Observer.

Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, which was announced as the anchor tenant for The Bowl last year, expects to open early next year. The brewery will have 14,000 square feet of indoor space and a 7,000-square-foot patio.

The Bowl will mix local, regional and national retail serving nearby hotels, apartment residents and corporate employees, as well as drawing visitors from throughout the city and South Carolina.

Were not just adding more retail to Charlotte, were adding a place thats unique in nature and experiential, Ward said. We want this to feel like this is something that does not exist anywhere else in Charlotte.

About Bowl at Ballantyne businesses

The three new tenants opening at The Bowl at Ballantyne are:

 Roosters Wood-Fired Kitchen will open in a 7,498-square-foot space at 15110 Bowl Street, Suite 101. Owned by Charlotte restaurateur Jim Noble, Roosters is known for its wood-fired meat and vegetable dishes, and seasonally inspired lunch and dinner menu. There are three other locations in North Carolina, including South Park and Uptown. Noble Food and Pursuits group has several other restaurants: Bossy Beulahs, Copain, The Jimmy, The Kings Kitchen and Noble Smoke. Opening: Spring 2024.

Roosters Wood-Fired Kitchens chicken wings.

 Honeysuckle Gelato, based in Atlanta, will open in a 808-square-foot space at 15119 Bowl St. in Suite 102. What started as a food truck run by three friends in 2011 has expanded to four locations in Georgia and North Carolina, including Optimist Hall, which opened in 2019. Honeysuckle Gelato serves scoops, pints, gelato sandwiches and milkshakes in flavors inspired by Southern desserts such as Butter Pecan Blondie. Another location is at Optimist Hall in north Charlotte. Opening: Spring 2024.

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 Drybar, a hair salon chain based in California, will open in a 1,445-square-foot space at 14020 Stream Way. Drybar  with other local shops in South Park and Atherton Mill and another store opening this year at Birkdale Village in Huntersville  focuses on blowouts. Opening: Late 2024.

See renderings of the Bowl at Ballantyne, a 20-acre project bringing a main street feel

Other new restaurants in Ballantyne

Two more stores also are planning to open on the west Ballantyne campus, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.

Locally-owned Summit Coffee will open in July across from Ballantyne Hotel between Chase Bank and Bank of America.

First Watch breakfast and brunch chain based in Florida expects to open in the fall in a shared building with Summit Coffee.

Last month, Pittsburgh-based opened its 10th Walnut Grill location at 15719 Brixham Hill Ave. in Ballantyne. The American eatery bar and grill serves upscale fare in a casual setting.

Ruby Sunshine, a popular New Orleans-style brunch chain, will open its second Charlotte-area restaurant this summer at 12330 Johnston Road in Ballantyne, in the former Cantina 1511 space at Toringdon Circle Shopping Center. Ruby Slipper Restaurant Group said it pivoted from plans to open this summer in downtown Matthews to Ballantyne.

More about Ballantyne Reimagined

At Ballantyne, Northwood owns and manages 535 acres, 4.4 million square feet of office space, four hotels with nearly 600 rooms, a 212-unit luxury apartment building and 2.5 million square feet of LEED-certified space.

In 2017, Northwood Investors bought the Ballantyne corporate park for $1.2 billion from local developer the Bissell Cos. Dubbed Ballantyne Reimagined the project creates an urban, walkable community

The Bowl at Ballantyne will feature a six-acre park. Developer Northwood Investors LLC is also planning apartments and retail for the site.

A 6-acre stream park is expected to open by fall and The Amp Ballantyne, an outdoor amphitheater with a 3,500-person capacity, will debut Sept. 26 with its first live performance by All Time Low.

Ballantyne Reimagined creates a sense of community, Ward said. I think this is going to be the soul of south Charlotte.

Ballantyne lands New Orleans-style brunch restaurant as chain expands in Charlotte area

Olde Mecklenburg Brewery begins expansion, and will anchor new Ballantyne center
Sir Lenny Henry, who took part in a World Book Day event in Bradford in March, is set to return for the literature festival

Sir Lenny Henry, Sir Michael Palin and Lemn Sissay are among those heading to Bradford for its 2023 literature festival.

Now in its ninth year, the festival will see about 500 events in the district between 23 June and 2 July.

Sir Lenny will be in conversation with poet Sissay at St George's Hall, with Sir Michael sharing stories from his travels in Iraq.

Free family events will also take place over the weekends of the festival.

The event said it attracted audiences "more socio-economically and ethnically diverse than any other literature festival", with a policy to offer free tickets to anyone who couldn't otherwise attend.

Other events will see broadcaster Anita Rani, the chancellor of the University of Bradford, celebrating her debut fiction title and a "literary club night" will be hosted by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh.

The programme also features Booker-Prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka, Birdsong author Sebastian Faulks and Women's Prize for Fiction winner Kamila Shamsie.

Crime writer Val McDermid will headline the event's crime weekend, with This is Going to Hurt author Adam Kay discussing his time as a doctor.

Sir Lenny, who recently took part in a World Book Day event in Bradford, called it "truly a very special festival".

"I'm so proud to be working with Bradford Literature Festival for the second time this year and to be part of something that takes a bottom-up approach to creating genuine change," he said.

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.
(Bloomberg) -- Brazils former President Jair Bolsonaro denied wrongdoing after federal police searched his Brasilia home Wednesday morning in a case about alleged alteration of Covid-19 vaccination records.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Police said in a statement that they are investigating allegations that false data was entered into public health systems and vaccination cards were changed. The statement did not name Bolsonaro, but his records are among those police suspect were altered in order to meet requirements to enter other countries, including the US, according to a person familiar with the investigation who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Six people, including two close Bolsonaro aides, were arrested as part of the probe, the person said.

Bolsonaro, who said throughout his presidency that he had not been immunized, told reporters that he is not vaccinated and had not altered records to show otherwise.

I didnt take the vaccine, its my personal decision, he said from Brasilia. There is no tampering on my part. I didnt get the vaccine, period.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized the seizure of Bolsonaros passport, ammunition, weapons, computers and mobile devices as part of the search, according to official documents unsealed later on Wednesday.

Lt. Col. Mauro Cid Barbosa, who acted as Bolsonaros personal secretary, and Max Guilherme Machado de Moura, his personal security guard and friend, were among those arrested, according to the person familiar with the case.

Bolsonaro, who made baseless claims about the risks of vaccine side effects throughout his presidency, is expected to provide testimony to police, the person said. Fabio Wajngarten, one of Bolsonaros attorneys, told reporters that he will appear before the police after the defense gets access to the case.

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Bolsonaros phone was seized as part of the investigation. His wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, used a Twitter post to deny reports that her phone had also been taken, and Moraes order showed that he had rejected search and seizure requests related to the former first lady.

The police said in a statement that the falsified documents were meant to circumvent the current health restrictions imposed by public authorities in Brazil and the US. The alterations were made between November 2021 and December 2022, the police said. The investigation included 16 search warrants and six preventive arrest orders, according to police.

The unsealed documents included vaccine records that police suspect were altered. The records showed that Bolsonaro would have taken two shots in 2022 in Duque de Caixas, a city in the Rio de Janeiro state. But federal police said Bolsonaro was not present in the area on the first date on the document and spent only a short time in the city on the second date, without any indication that he visited a health facility, police said.

Read More: Bolsonaro Tells Police He Moved Beyond Election Before Riots

The probe is the latest source of legal scrutiny facing the former president since his March return from the US, where he spent three months in self-imposed exile following his October election defeat. He is also facing investigations into his potential links to Jan. 8 riots in Brasilia, his claims to foreign diplomats that Brazils election machines were vulnerable to fraud and $3 million of jewelry allegedly gifted to him by the government of Saudi Arabia.

Bolsonaro, who last week testified as part of the probe into the January insurrection attempt his supporters carried out in the capital, has denied wrongdoing in each of the various investigations he is facing.

--With assistance from Bruna Lessa.

(Updates with details from judicial order)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro outside his home after the police search - ERALDO PERES/AP

Police in Brazil searched former president Jair Bolsonaro's home and seized his phone as part of an investigation into allegations Covid-19 vaccination certificates were falsified to permit overseas travel.

Mr Bolsonaro, who faced widespread criticism for his unorthodox handling of the pandemic, has repeatedly said he is not vaccinated against Covid-19.

Federal police confirmed they were investigating "the insertion of falsified Covid-19 vaccination data" into the health ministry's electronic vaccination records system, but did not mention Mr Bolsonaro by name.

Police said they were carrying out 16 search and seizure orders and executing six arrest warrants as part of the operation.

Police reportedly arrested top Bolsonaro aide, army officer Mauro Cid.

Mr Bolsonaro confirmed police had searched his home and seized his phone.

The far-Right ex-president said "there was no falsification on my part", accusing the authorities of seeking to "fabricate a case".

An officer stands guard near Mr Bolsonaro's mansion during the search operation - ADRIANO MACHADO/REUTERS

Mr Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States in December, after losing his re-election bid to veteran Leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - a bitterly divisive election fought largely over the far-Right incumbent's widely criticised management of Covid-19, which has claimed more than 700,000 lives in Brazil.

The US requires international air travellers to present proof of vaccination against Covid-19, a requirement the White House announced on Monday would end on May 11.

Mr Bolsonaro, who defied expert advice on managing the pandemic and joked the vaccine could "turn you into an alligator", remained in Orlando, Florida, until March 30, when he returned to Brazil.

"The falsified entries, which occurred between November 2021 and December 2022, resulted in the alteration of the true Covid-19 vaccination status of the individuals in question," police said in a statement.

"As a result, the individuals were able to emit vaccination certificates and use them to evade health restrictions put in place by authorities in Brazil and the United States."

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Brazilian steakhouse Galpao Gaucho opened its Roseville restaurant last week near the Westfield Galleria.

The restaurant offers a casual fine dining experience of unlimited menu offerings, it said in a news release. Guests can choose from 17 unlimited cuts of meat such as beef, seafood, pork, chicken and lamb, as well as a gourmet salad bar with more than 45 options.

More than 40 side dishes are served up including garlic mashed potatoes, sweet caramelized bananas, homemade chimichurri sauce and cheese bread.

Prices start at $48 per person for lunch service and $69 per person during dinner.

Brazilian steakhouse Galpao Gaucho has opened its sixth restaurant in Roseville near the Westfield Galleria. Prices start at $48 per person for lunch service and $69 per person during dinner. Galpao Gaucho

Brazilian steakhouse Galpao Gaucho has opened its sixth restaurant in Roseville near the Westfield Galleria. Prices start at $48 per person for lunch service and $69 per person during dinner. Galpao Gaucho

Brazilian steakhouse Galpao Gaucho has opened its sixth restaurant in Roseville near the Westfield Galleria. Prices start at $48 per person for lunch service and $69 per person during dinner. Galpao Gaucho

Residents and visitors of Roseville are in for a special treat with our traditional Brazilian rodizio dining experience, said Sidinaldo Silva, regional manager of Galpao Gaucho. Were grateful and excited for the opportunity to expand the Galpao Gaucho brand and share Brazilian culture, cuisine and hospitality.

Its the six location for Galpao after launching in Bay Area cities including Cupertino, Walnut Creek and Napa. They also have locations in Las Vegas and Charleston, South Carolina, and are planting their flag next in San Diego.

Reservations in Roseville can be made by visiting the restaurants website.

Galpao Gaucho, which is located at 1400 Eureka Road, is open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The restaurant is open for dinner from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday. On weekends, they are open from 1 to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday.
Brent Faiyaz

Brent Faiyaz finally announced dates for his highly anticipated tour nearly a year after his sophomore album, Wasteland, catapulted him to new heights in his career.

Last summer, the Columbia, Maryland native released his second solo project, Wasteland, which included hit singles All Mine and Wasting Time, the latter of which features Drake. According to Billboard, the LP debuted at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart, a first-time accolade for the rising R&B artist.

Since then, his fans have eagerly awaited for the Grammy nominee to announce a tour, especially after learning hes headlining Sol Blume and Broccoli City music festivals. Well, the wait is officially over!

On May 2, the independent artist announced his new 2023 tour, F*ck The World, Its A Wasteland Tour, across his social media platforms, including Instagram. The tour kicks off in the U.S. in July before heading overseas to the U.K. to wrap up in November.

This marks a monumental time in the 27-year-old stars life as he just secured a deal with United Masters, an American music distributor. The collaboration includes a recording partnership and offers Faiyaz a new creative agency for his entrepreneurial ventures, reported Variety. Steve Stout, CEO and founder of UM, shared his enthusiasm to work with Faiyaz in a press release on UMs site.

Per Billboard, the deal is rumored to be valued around $50 million.

Brent Faiyaz is one of the most prolific independent artists today and we are extremely excited to embark on this new partnership with him, he wrote. Its been inspiring to watch his journey as an artist over the years and with this partnership we look to further amplify his creative vision and support his entrepreneurial ambitions.

To top it off, Faiyaz dropped the music video for Rolling Stone, a fan favorite of Wasteland.

Tickets for F*ck The World, Its A Wasteland Tour will go on sale on Friday, May 5; to see if Faiyaz is coming to a city near you, check out the dates below.
Democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai in 2020

Journalism is not a crime, yet too often it is a dangerous occupation. Today is World Press Freedom Day, but in too many parts of the world press freedom is non-existent or severely threatened.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 363 journalists are in jail today, and this year alone at least nine have been killed and 65 gone missing. In the past thirty years, a minimum of 2,196 journalists have been killed. Reporters Without Borders, in their 2023 Press Freedom Index released today, indicate that the environment for journalism is bad in seven out of ten countries.

Many regimes deny press freedom and threaten journalists. In Myanmar all independent media has been shut down since the coup two years ago, and 42 journalists are in prison. Vladimir Putin has jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerhkovich, the first American journalist to be detained in Russia since the Cold War. But among the worst is China, only outranked by North Korea in Reporters Without Borders index.

Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan is one of several individuals jailed for reporting on the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, Dong Yuyu is in jail for the crime of meeting a Japanese diplomat, and Taiwanese publisher and radio broadcaster Li Yanhe has been arrested in China. Tibet is one of the most closed countries in the world, with the Dalai Lama  whom I met recently in Dharamsala  subjected to a relentless campaign of lies by Beijing and access for foreign reporters almost completely denied. There are more foreign journalists in North Korea than in Tibet.

But nowhere has the crackdown on media freedom been more rapid, dramatic and comprehensive as Hong Kong. For the first five years after the handover of Hong Kong to China, I worked in the city as a journalist. At the time, Hong Kongs media was vibrant, noisy, bold and free. It remained so until three years ago. But since the imposition by Beijing of a draconian national security law in July 2020, Hong Kongs independent media has been strangled with alarming speed. Last year Hong Kong fell to 148th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders index, from 18th place twenty years ago.

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The most symbolic and severe example of this crackdown is the forced closure of Apple Daily, the largest mass circulation Chinese language pro-democracy newspaper, and the imprisonment of its founder Jimmy Lai.

In June 2021, over 300 police officers raided the newspapers newsroom and arrested its editor and five other executives, and the Hong Kong government froze the publishers assets, effectively choking the newspaper to death financially. Even though it had enough funds to survive at least another 18 months, with its bank accounts frozen it was unable to pay staff, printers and electricity bills. Earlier this year, the Hong Kong government delisted Mr Lais company, Next Digital, from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Mr Lai, now aged 75, was arrested the year before his newspaper was shut down and has spent the past two-and-a-half years behind bars on multiple trumped-up charges. Among his crimes are lighting a candle and saying a prayer at a vigil to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre, participating in peaceful protests in 2019 and, most absurdly, a sentence of five years and nine months for using an office in the Apple Daily building for his personal use. One would have thought a newspaper proprietor could use an office in his own publications building, but even if it was  as the government alleged  a lease violation, it should have been a civil dispute resulting in a fine, not a criminal charge resulting in a nearly six-year sentence. It is clear that Beijings quislings in Hong Kong want to keep Mr Lai locked up for as long as possible and tarnish his reputation with a false fraud charge.

And this is by no means the end of the persecution of Mr Lai. Later this year, his biggest trial will begin, on charges of violating the national security law. If convicted, he could face a minimum of ten years and potentially a life sentence. It is highly likely that he will die in jail.

Mr Lai has been denied his choice of lawyer, as British barrister Tim Owen KC was refused permission to represent him by the Hong Kong government. The head of his international legal team, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, has received disgraceful death and rape threats. The likelihood of anything resembling a fair trial is slim, especially as the Hong Kong government boasts of a 100 per cent conviction rate in national security cases.

Mr Lai is a British citizen, as is his son Sebastien, yet the British governments efforts to help him have been paltry. Sebastien has made repeated requests to meet the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, to no avail. Indeed, for two years the government said nothing about the case. James Cleverly did mention Mr Lais plight at the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year, and Foreign Office Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has met Sebastien twice, which is progress, but why will Rishi Sunak not speak out publicly?

Last week the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong published a detailed report on the crackdown on media freedom in Hong Kong, and called on the government to make Mr Lais case a political priority. World Press Freedom Day provides the perfect opportunity for the Prime Minister to respond positively to that call.

So too does the Coronation on Saturday. In a blatant insult to the King, this country and Hong Kongers, China is sending vice-president Han Zheng, the architect of the crackdown on Hong Kong. This is a man who ought to be sanctioned, not welcomed to Westminster Abbey. However, if his visit does go ahead Rishi Sunak and James Cleverly should raise, publicly and pointedly, the case of Mr Lai and the assault on Hong Kongs press with him and leave him in no doubt that the British government will speak up for British citizens. Failure to do so will simply embolden the Chinese Communist Partys brutal repression and leave Mr Lai and other journalists in jail in Hong Kong and China even more vulnerable.

Some in government may believe that speaking out for Mr Lai could make things worse. In some cases that can be a valid concern, but Mr Lai has already served prison sentences for peaceful protest, and now faces the rest of his life in prison, following a wholly unfair trial. His son has made it clear he wants the British governments support. At the very least, Rishi Sunak and James Cleverly should meet Sebastien at the earliest opportunity, so they can hear first-hand about his fathers case and then act accordingly.

On World Press Freedom Day, Britain must defend this basic human right and its citizens jailed for exercising it.

Benedict Rogers is co-founder and Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch and author of The China Nexus: Thirty Years In and Around the Chinese Communist Partys Tyranny (Optimum Publishing International, 2022).

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
Time to Pay Up

As the saying goes, the bill always comes  and as it stands, it's unclear whether Twitter CEO Elon Musk can afford to pay up. According to Bloomberg, Twitter is behind on paying over $10 million in various bills to a wide range of vendors, many of them small businesses that rely on the revenue. Four vendors filed a joint lawsuit in April over a breach of contract regarding unpaid bills, according to the report. Since December alone, at least ten other vendors have sued Twitter on similar grounds. And that kind of financial mismanagement has some very real consequences for some of the company's contractors, who are arguing that it's ridiculous the second richest man in the world is stiffing them. "It is nontrivial, $42,000 for a small company like mine," Norma Miller, CEO of a closed captioning services company, told Bloomberg. "This is about what he pays when he takes his jet from LA to San Francisco for a lunch meeting."

Rough Few Months

Miller, one of the four plaintiffs in the April case, claims that Twitter stopped paying up roughly two weeks before Musk officially took over the platform in October. Her firm was in the middle of a major project, but her point of contact disappeared as Musk started laying off employees, only to be replaced by an automated system. "Eventually, it was clearly just a bot answering us with the same answer over and over again," Miller told Bloomberg. Others echoed similar frustration with Twitter's post-layoff confusion. "We were then advised on several occasions that they were experiencing reorganization and delays," Naomi Newton, managing partner at Miami-based PR firm Cancomm, told Bloomberg. Cancomm is also suing Twitter, alleging that Musk owes it roughly $140,000. "We were also passed around to several different people within the organization," Newton continued, adding that Twitter's failure to pay up has created an "enormous cash-flow burden." Given that Musk won't even pay to clean Twitter's bathrooms, it's not terribly surprising behavior on his behalf. Meanwhile, Musk reportedly told employees in March that Twitter had lost more than half of its valuation ever since he took over, but promised that Twitter will "break even in Q2." But whether that means Musk will still have plenty of outstanding bills to pay at that point remains to be seen. Maybe instead of paying for dead celebrities' blue checkmarks out-of-pocket, he should send some checks to Twitter's vendors he slighted first. More on Musk's Twitter: Twitter Landlord Unhappy with Elon's Naughty Change to Company Sign
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  American companies are looking to hire 75,000 Filipino seafarers in the next three to four years, the Palace announced on Wednesday.

In a statement, Malacanang said that during a meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Washington, John Padget, president and CEO of Carnival Corp., disclosed that his group of companies is set to hire Filipino seafarers to support their operations.

It doesnt matter whether its the marine, deck, hospitality, restauranteverything is based on the happiness, the smile, and the greatness of the Filipino employees, said Padget, who also represents Carnival Cruise Line, Holland American Airlines and Seaborn.

Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople, who was also at the meeting, presented to the US firms the interest of 200,000 Filipinos, assuring them that they adhere to fair and ethical standards and principles.

Marcos, meanwhile, lauded the US employers for their continued confidence in Filipino workers.

When you say that the ladies and gentlemen that we have here today represent 200,000, you do not represent 200,000 employees, you represent 200,000 families and you represent 200,000 communities in the Philippines, he told the employers

According to Malacanang, over 4 million Filipino immigrants are residing in the United States.

When Marcos visited the Filipino-American community in Washington earlier, he said overseas Filipino workers' remittances had kept the Philippines afloat during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anheuser-Busch is giving out free beer to its distributors' employees to make up for backlash from a promotion featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, WSJ reports. Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press and Rob Kim/Getty Images

Anheuser-Busch is trying to smooth over tensions with its wholesale distributors, WSJ reports.

Bud Light has reportedly seen dips in sales since a promotion that featured a transgender influencer.

Amid the backlash, the company is giving out free cases of beer to employees of its wholesalers.

The company behind Bud Light is hoping some free beer will help smooth over any tensions with its distributors, some of whom told The Wall Street Journal they've faced backlash and sagging sales after the brand's promotion featured a transgender influencer.

Anheuser-Busch, the company that owns Bud Light, is gifting a case of Bud Light to all employees who work with the company's wholesale distributors, the Journal reported. The company has also promised new ads are on the way that the beermaker will increase marketing spending on Bud Light to alleviate any impacts to sales, distributors told the Journal.

These changes follow a month-long controversy that led to a reported dip in sales for the beer brand. On April 1, transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted a video on Instagram that featured Bud Light cans designed with a picture of her face. Backlash among some of its customers followed, including a conservative-led boycott toward the brand. Later, the Journal reported that Bud Light Sales dropped by 17% by mid-April, per data created by Bump Williams Consulting and analyzed by Nielsen.

In comparison, Bud Light's competitors, including Coors Light and Miller Light, saw sales jump by nearly 18%, per the same data analyzed by Nielsen.

Mulvaney previously spoke out about the criticism she faced on the podcast "Onward with Rosie O'Donnell."

"I think it comes back to the fact that these people, they don't understand me, and anything that I do or say somehow gets taken out of context and is used against me," Mulvaney said.

In a TikTok she posted last week, Mulvaney spoke about how she's been offline for a few weeks, and indirectly referred to the recent controversy. She told her followers, "I think it's okay to be frustrated with someone or confused, but what I'm struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel."

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A representative for Dylan Mulvaney did not respond to Insider's request for comment ahead of publication.

Anheuser-Busch's wholesaler distributors, many of which the Journal reported are family-owned businesses, have also dealt with some of the fallout. By April 22, Bud Light sales in US stores dropped 21% compared to the previous year, per the sales data analysis reported on by the Journal. Distributors told the Journal that following the promotion, they dealt with backlash from people in their stores, bars, and over the phone.

Anheuser-Busch did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

In a statement the company released on April 14, Anheuser-Busch CEO of the North America Zone Brendan Whitworth said "We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer."

Shortly after the backlash, Bud Light Vice President of Marketing Alissa Heinerscheid, and Daniel Blake, the vice president of marketing for Anheuser-Busch's mainstream brands, both took leaves of absence, the Journal reported. A spokesperson confirmed to Insider that Heinerscheid would be replaced with with Todd Allen, the global vice president of Budweiser.

The statement also said has 47,000 distributors, and more than 18,000 employees.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A photo of a brown Build-A-Bear. Build-A-Bear

A family accidentally donated a 4-year-old girl's bear with a recording of her dead mom's heartbeat.

Build-A-Bear replaced the bear with the recording after hearing about the story, WVLT reported.

"It is our sincere wish that this new teddy bear will provide a bit of comfort," the company said in a statement.

Build-a-Bear gave a 4-year-old girl who lost her bear that had a recording of her dead mother's heartbeat inside it a replacement bear.

The girl's father, Tylor Kennedy, of Knoxville, Tennessee, said the bear was accidentally donated to a Goodwill store in Tazewell, Tennessee, around 45 miles north, WATE reported.

Kennedy pleaded for help from the public to return the stuffed bear for weeks after it was donated in early April.

"Please, if y'all find it or see anybody that has one, just check or turn it in and I believe that somebody will get a reward if they dropped it off," Kennedy told the station in April. "I mean I know they'll get their money back for sure."

A Build-A-Bear spokesperson told Insider that the company reached out to a local radio station, which put them in touch with the family.

The family still had the original recording of the girl's mother's heartbeat, so the toy store found a matching "Rainbow Sparkle Bear" and added the recording to it, the statement said.

"Build-A-Bear would like to thank WRIL and Goodwill for their helpful role and while we remain hopeful that the original bear is located, it is our sincere wish that this new teddy bear will provide a bit of comfort for the child and the family at this time," the statement said.

Build-A-Bear stuffed animals with recorded sounds of loved ones are often given as memorial gifts.

Nurses at a Texas hospital gave Build-A-Bears to three children of a woman who died from COVID-19 containing a recording of their mother's heartbeat in 2021, KSAT reported.

Read the original article on Insider
[Source]

Two Alameda prosecutors have resigned over what they see as too much leniency in California District Attorney Pamela Prices policies on crimes.

Danielle Hilton, a veteran prosecutor who has served in the Alameda County DAs Office for 26 years, submitted her resignation letter on April 24, noting that she can no longer ethically and adequately carry out her duties under Prices supervision.

Hilton asserted that Prices agenda to change the offices prosecutorial conventions and rely on probation for most crimes has led to inequalities and disparate treatment.

Victims deserve better. I am not leaving because I want to. In fact, I want nothing more than to be an African American woman continuing to serve the citizens of Alameda County in a fair, unbiased and professional mannerI have spent my career picking up the pieces and gathering the fragments of lives shattered by violence. I encourage you to look at crime scene and autopsy photos, meet the victims of the robberies, sexual assaults, home burglaries and other crimes within the county. It is their voices you were elected to empower. More from NextShark: Japan proposes raising age of sexual consent from 13 to 16

Price has been facing criticism for refusing sentencing enhancements to lower jail terms.

The DA faced backlash for planning not to pursue jail time for a trio of gang members who were arrested in connection with the death of Oakland toddler Jasper Wu.

Wu was driving home to Fremont with his family on Nov. 6, 2021, when a stray bullet pierced their car on Interstate 880. The bullet passed through their front windshield and hit the 23-month-old toddler in the forehead.

More from NextShark: California lawmakers reject bill that aims to stop prison-to-ICE transfers

Last week, Price also came under fire for declining to place criminal enhancements in a case involving another murdered child. Eliyanah Crisostomo, 5, was also shot dead by three gang members on a freeway in Fremont last month

Story continues

Prices decision was described as an extreme departure from California criminal law practice by Los Angeles County prosecutor Jason Lustig, according to The New York Post.

Last month, Price responded to the criticisms, arguing that she is being attacked because she is the countys first Black DA.

More from NextShark: Virologist Claiming COVID-19 Came From Chinese Lab Backed By Group Linked to Steve Bannon

If you are a Black person in Alameda County, you are 20 times more likely to be incarcerated than a White person, she reportedly said. Racial injustice in this county is what we all need to be firmly committed against.

Price said she is being progressive by undoing the inequities in the countys prosecutorial conventions.

On Monday, Rebecca Warren, another veteran prosecutor who has been with the office for over 17 years, also resigned as she can no longer tolerate this mistreatment of the AAPI community by leaders of Alameda County DAs Office.

More from NextShark: Urvashi Vaid, influential LGBTQ activist and leader, dies at 63

Warren, who is of Chinese descent, accused Price of being condescending and disrespectful to the AAPI community in a letter regarding the death of Wu. Additionally, Warren stated that Prices chief assistant made racist comments toward Samoans to another Asian American prosecutor.

Not only is Alameda County made up of over 33% AAPI residents, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office employs members of the AAPI community, myself included. We deserve better, Warren wrote in her resignation letter.
A California Democratic lawmaker running for a battleground congressional seat in Orange County has been arrested for drunk driving.

State Sen. Dave Min, who was arrested Tuesday night in Sacramento, confirmed the arrest in a statement.

Last night I received a misdemeanor for driving under the influence. My decision to drive last night was irresponsible, Min said. I accept full responsibility and there is no excuse for my actions."

Min was pulled over near the state Capitol by the California Highway Patrol when he drove through a red light with his headlights off, according to the arrest report.

Officers conducted a DUI test and arrested him on suspicion of driving with a blood alcohol level above the legal limit. He was booked into the Sacramento County jail and released Wednesday.

Min, who is running for the seat held by Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, apologized for the incident.

"To my family, constituents and supporters, I am so deeply sorry. I know I need to do better," he said. "I will not let this personal failure distract from our work in California and in Washington."

Min is running to replace outgoing Porter in an Orange County district that will be one of the most competitive seats in the 2024 cycle. Porter narrowly defended the 47th Congressional District in 2022 but has given up the seat to run for Senate and endorsed Min as her successor.

Min has secured some key endorsements and raised more than $520,000 in the first quarter of 2023 as Democrats look to defend a seat that could be key to reclaiming the House.

Min is not the only Democrat in the race: Hes contending against Women for American Values and Ethics founder Joanna Weiss. Former Rep. Harley Rouda dropped out of the contest in April.

Lara Korte contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: A previous version misstated former Rep. Harley Rouda's intention to run in the race for the same seat.
The California Reparations Task Force will meet in Oakland for their second-to-last in-person public meetings discussing the vestiges of enslavement in California and which remedies will occur to repair the harms caused.

The meeting will take place at Mills College at Northeastern University inside of Lisser Hall, at 5000 MacArthur Boulevard.

During the meeting, the task force will share their final recommendations on reparations and what forms of repair should be carried out. There will also be a vote on the final report, which includes historical atrocities such as: enslavement, racial terror, political disenfranchisement, housing segregation and unjust property takings.

According to the task forces report, there is not yet an official dollar amount for reparations in the form of cash payments; however, economists have estimated that California could owe over $1 million per Black resident within the eligible class, based on health harms, mass incarceration and over-policing, housing discrimination, unjust property taking by eminent domain, and the devaluation of Black businesses.

The states task force has consulted a team of economists to develop a method for calculating losses to African American descendants of enslaved persons, or descendants of a free Black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th Century, to establish the amount of compensation due.

Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020 signed AB 3121, authored by then-Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, to explore how California might compensate Black residents for harms caused by enslavement and racial discrimination.

The final meeting will be June 30. The location has not yet been determined.

The task force is scheduled to complete its study and submit it to the California Legislature and governor on July 1.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  A Southern California lawmaker who is running for Congress was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving Tuesday night, according to law enforcement and jail records.

Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat who is running in the competitive 47th congressional district, said in a Facebook post that he was cited with a misdemeanor for driving under the influence. Min was released Wednesday morning after being arrested by California Highway Patrol, the Sacramento Sheriff's Department said. It wasn't clear if he would have to appear in court.

My decision to drive last night was irresponsible. I accept full responsibility and there is no excuse for my actions, Min posted Wednesday. To my family, constituents and supporters, I am so deeply sorry. I know I need to do better. I will not let this personal failure distract from our work in California and in Washington.

A spokesperson for Min's Senate office declined to comment.

The Orange County congressional race is shaping up to be one of the most contested races for 2024 and Mins arrest quickly prompted the National Republican Congressional Committee to condemn his candidacy.

Voters will rightfully question David Mins judgement after this incident, but will California Democrats? NRCC spokesperson Ben Petersen asked in a statement.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Min was arrested around 10:50 p.m. near the Capitol, according to a police report. He was driving without headlights, then ran a red light, the report says.

Min showed signs and symptoms of alcohol intoxication, a California Highway Patrol officer noted in the report. Min was booked in the Sacramento County jail.

Many state lawmakers stay overnight in Sacramento during the week rather than returning home to their districts.

Min is vying for the competitive Congressional seat in Orange County now represented by Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, who is leaving her post to enter a race to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Min, who has secured Porter's endorsement, is the most prominent Democrat in the race. Former Assemblyman Scott Baugh, a Republican, is also running.

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Min, a Harvard-educated lawyer and a former congressional aide to U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, was elected to the state Senate in 2020. He chairs the Senate's Committee on Natural Resources and Water.

Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins wouldn't say whether Min would face disciplinary action.

Like Senator Min, were disappointed in his actions, but pleased that hes taken responsibility and apologized," she said in a statement.
By Ismail Shakil

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada's spy agency withheld information about Chinese threats against a Canadian lawmaker and his family in 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday, adding that he had told the agency that in the future such threats must be revealed immediately.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had determined that information about the threats against Michael Chong, a member of parliament with Canada's main opposition Conservative party, were not concerning enough to inform him, Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

Chong has said he found out about the threat to his family in Hong Kong from a newspaper and slammed the Trudeau government for inaction after the Globe and Mail newspaper reported on the threats on Monday, citing a CSIS report.

The Globe reported that Beijing had sought information about Chong's relatives who may be in China in a likely effort to "make an example of this MP and deter others from taking anti-PRC positions."

Canadian media outlets have published several reports, citing anonymous intelligence sources, alleging schemes run by the Chinese government to interfere in Canada's last two elections. Beijing has denied those allegations, saying it has no interest in interfering in Canada's internal affairs.

Trudeau has previously said China attempted to meddle in the 2019 and 2021 votes, but did not change the outcome. He has appointed an independent special investigator to probe the allegations.

On Wednesday, Trudeau said he learned about the threats against Chong from the Globe report and upon enquiring about it, found out that CSIS had decided to withhold information.

"Going forward, we're making it very, very clear to CSIS and all our intelligence officials that when there are concerns that talk specifically about any MP, particularly about their family, those need to be elevated," Trudeau said.

Chong, speaking in Ottawa after Trudeau, said if federal ministers were unaware about the CSIS assessment, it "calls into question the PMO's handle on the machinery of government."

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"The government needs to come clean about who knew what and when and what they did about it," he said.

Chong was sanctioned by Beijing in 2021 after his motion passed the Canadian parliament declaring China's treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority genocide.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Kenneth Law has been charged in connection to two deaths in Canada, but police believe there may be more victims

Canadian police have arrested and charged a Toronto-area man they allege is linked to deaths by suicide in Canada, the UK and the US.

Kenneth Law, 57, is facing two counts of counselling and aiding suicide.

Peel Regional Police believe he may have sold a lethal substance online, with packages going to people in over 40 countries.

His arrest comes after a recent Times investigation linked him to at least four deaths in the UK.

Police said on Tuesday they began investigating the case a month ago following the sudden death of an adult in the Toronto-area.

Mark Andrews, deputy chief of community policing for the Peel police, said authorities believe the person ingested a lethal substance that was sold to them by Mr Law.

During the investigation, police say they became aware of a second local death allegedly linked to Mr Law, who is accused of operating several companies that provide a common food preservative, that can be deadly when ingested in certain quantities.

Deputy Chief Andrews said his police force is now working with other forces in Canada and internationally to determine if more charges might be be laid. A tip line has been set up for people to come forward with any information.

"We believe there could be more victims," he said.

He added police are aware of 1,200 packages sold by Mr Law that were shipped to over 40 countries, though they do not know how many may have included the substance.

A report published by the Times of London last week linked Mr Law to up to seven deaths, including a 17-year-old boy in the US and four adult British citizens.

One of them was 23-year-old Neha Raju, who died in the Surrey area last April. A coroner's inquest into Ms Raju's death revealed that she died after ingesting a substance that she purchased online.

The inquest said the substance is "freely available to be purchased from the internet in lethal quantities for delivery within the UK", and that "no protection is afforded to vulnerable people prior to them making such purchases".

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Doctors in Canada have called for tighter regulation of the preservative.

Speaking to the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail last week, Mr Law defended his actions and said that he sold a legal product.

"What the person does with it? I have no control," he told the newspaper.

Mr Law is now in custody awaiting a bail hearing. His first court appearance has been scheduled for Wednesday.

Under Canada's criminal code, counselling or aiding a person to die by suicide can result in a 14-year prison sentence.
Its hard to have Pride in Hutchinson these days.

In more ways than one.

Hutchinson Pride, the citys LGBTQ+ group, was unceremoniously ousted from a venue theyd rented for a celebration, called Salt City Pride, including a drag show and storytime.

By itself, its not that remarkable. Its just more of the kind of thing weve come to expect in this year of ascendance of anti-LGBTQ+ hatred and persecution here in the Sunflower State.

If youll recall, the same thing happened at Towne West Square in Wichita after a certain Republican candidate tried to make an issue of it in the most recent campaign for governor.

And our state Legislature just wrapped up a session marked by a bevy of anti-LGBT laws  passed by a two-thirds majority over a governors veto  that are nothing more than pandering to the worst instincts of the most homophobic homophobes Kansas has to offer.

But before we dismiss the Salt City Pride incident as a routine act of prejudice in a prejudiced state in a prejudiced year, a few observations.

Salt City Pride has been an annual celebration since 2018, and this year, they booked the Sand Hills Event Center for it.

The facility manager was delighted and even gave the group a door code to go in and measure the facility to plot out where to set up vendor booths.

But it all came crashing down after a local barber went on the Internet in a rambling cell-phone video, quoting Bible stories and accusing Pride of devil worship and child molestation.

In my thoughts its demonic, says Thomas Tommy Galindo. You want to dress up like a girl and youre a man, but you want to have storybook time with these children in our community that we love dearly, youre going to have a storybook time on what you do, youre molesting their mind.

Ordinarily, I wouldnt comment on Galindos appearance, but its germane to this situation. Hes heavily tatted, with a grenade on his bicep and a tattooed-on beard.

By all indications, he wants people to overlook his departure from social conventionality, but hes unwilling to extend that same grace to others.

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Shortly after Galindo posted his video, organizers, sponsors and vendors for the Pride event started getting online hate messages, phone calls and visitors to their businesses. Hutchinson Pride had to go to round-the-clock monitoring of its Facebook page to keep up with the hate-filled messages.

Then they got an e-mail from Sand Hills Event Center.

Were planning to pass on this and refund their money, said the message, passed on from management by the employee who rented Pride the facility. Events that may involve or have potential to involve sexualized content or confusing gender content in an environment for children isnt something we prefer at this facility.

The e-mail carried the logo of IdeaTek, a local broadband provider that developed the event center  and the company slogan, Internet Freedom For All, which seems more than a bit ironic under the circumstances.

Daniel Friesen, a Reno County commissioner who runs Sand Hills and is the co-founder of Ideatek, sought to distance the broadband company from the mess in an article in the Hutchinson News, citing an unfortunate error.

To clarify, this unfortunate error wasnt his company bowing to prejudice and kicking Pride out of the facility they had legitimately contracted to rent. It was that IdeaTeks logo appeared on the e-mail, which has prompted a backlash from Pride supporters.

He said the center is a different company from IdeaTek, which has received millions in federal broadband funding, which is subject to conditions of nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual preference or gender identity.

Funny, but Friesen didnt claim it was a different company when the business shared this message from the Hutchinson Chamber of Commerce on Facebook: Congratulations to IdeaTek on the opening of Sand Hills Event Center, a new event center and climate controlled storage facility in Hutchinson!

Hutchinson Pride has found a new venue and the show will go on. But the damage has been done. Its divided Hutch into opposing camps, boycotting and counter-boycotting each others businesses.

But before we leave this issue, lets return to Galindo, the guy who lit the match. Youre literally molesting (childrens) mind and there should be a law on this, theres not yet, but there should be, he said in the video.

Well, there actually is a law on this. Its called the First Amendment.

It guarantees the freedom of expression for drag performers to do shows and the parental right to decide whether its appropriate for their children to attend. A male in a dress reading children stories about tolerance for others isnt hurting anybody.

If only someone had done that for Tommy Galindo.

Dion Lefler: 316-268-6527, @DionKansas
An autopsy report confirmed that Cash App creator Bob Lee's cause of death to be multiple stab wounds. MobileCoin

Cash App founder Bob Lee died from stab wounds that damaged his heart, a medical report reveals.

Lee had himself called 911 after he was attacked in downtown San Francisco last month.

The suspect in Lee's killing, Nima Momeni, delayed his arraignment again on Tuesday.

Cash App founder Bob Lee died at the San Francisco General Hospital after hourslong emergency efforts to treat three stabbing injuries, according to a medical examiner's report released this week.

The wounds, which damaged his heart and lung, resulted in Lee's death at 6.49 a.m. on April 4, according to the report released by the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Police in the city had disclosed that they'd responded at 2.35 a.m. that morning to a stabbing attack, saying the victim had then been brought to a "local hospital with life-threatening injuries." The medical report states that the police officers attempted CPR when they found Lee, who had sustained wounds on his "left upper chest."

At the hospital, Lee underwent a series of emergency procedures, including one in which doctors cut his chest to treat wounds to his heart that they sealed up with staples, according to the report. Doctors also found injuries in his lung, the report said.

San Francisco prosecutors have leveled a murder charge against tech consultant Nima Momeni, a suspect in Lee's killing, whom police apprehended last month in Emeryville, California, after a more than weeklong search.

Prosecutors have also indicated that they had evidence to indicate that Lee and Momeni had a tense personal interaction that may have escalated. In a filing last month in San Francisco state court, they said that Lee and Momeni discussed Momeni's sister, who prosecutors indicated had been socializing with Lee the afternoon before he was attacked.

Lawyer for murder suspect points to drugs found in toxicology report

A toxicology finding in the report also indicated that Lee's tests at the time showed the presence of substances including alcohol, ketamine, and cocaine. But ketamine may sometimes be used to dull pain during procedures, and the alcohol detected was low, one medical expert told CNN.

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Momeni was scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday, but his lawyer Paula Canny persuaded Judge Victor Hwang, who presided over the hearing in San Francisco state court, to postpone the hearing until May 18.

Nima Momeni, the man charged in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, makes his way into the courtroom at the Hall of Justice for his arraignment in San Francisco, Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool) (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool)

Canny told reporters outside the courtroom that Lee's toxicology report would factor in the case.

"Bob Lee's system is like the Walgreens of recreational drugs," she told reporters in an impromptu press meet after Tuesday's brief hearing. Even though the medical examiner's report had stated the only cause of Lee's death as "multiple stab wounds," Canny suggested the toxicology findings would be relevant to the defense.

"Put on your thinking caps  what happens when people take drugs? Generally, they act like drugged people," Canny said. "And what can drugged people act like? Not themselves."

This is the third time Momeni's hearing has been delayed, though it's not unusual for arraignment hearings in murder cases to get pushed. The defense often attempts to learn more information about the prosecutors' case before entering a plea or trying to make a case for proposing some sort of bail release. Momeni has been held in custody in the meantime, Insider previously reported.

Representatives for the San Francisco District Attorney's office did not respond to Insider's emailed request for comment on Tuesday.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(CNN)  The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)  the two warring factions in Sudan  have agreed to a seven-day ceasefire, the foreign ministry of South Sudan said in a statement Tuesday.

The two sides also said they would send representatives for peace talks "to be held at an agreed venue of their choice," it added.

The SAF or RSF have both yet to comment on the report on their official channels.

Previous ceasefires have failed to stop the fighting between the rival factions in various parts of the country. Failed negotiations between the head of the Sudanese army Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo broke out into intense clashes between both sides in mid-April, sparking a mass exodus of refugees from the conflict-ridden country and leading to the deaths of at least 528 people.

Tuesday's announcement came after the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) warned more than 800,000 people may flee to neighboring countries, as the ongoing violence stifles evacuation convoys from key ports in Sudan.

"In consultation with all concerned governments and partners, we have arrived at a planning figure of 815,000 people that may flee into the seven neighboring countries," Raouf Mazou, the organization's assistant high commissioner for operations, said Monday.

An estimated 73,000 people have already fled Sudan to neighboring countries, Mazou added.

Thousands of foreign nationals have escaped the country as Western powers stepped in to evacuate their own citizens, while thousands more local families have risked perilous journeys from the capital Khartoum as they have been left to fend for themselves.

'Fatal to try to escape'

Many locals remain trapped in their homes, with water, food, medicine and electricity shortages increasing the risk of a humanitarian crisis, as relief organizations prioritize medical aid distribution to hospitals caught up in the conflict.

The violence flared last week in West Darfur, with attacks against civilians in the city of El Geneina continuing into Tuesday. Both warring generals Burhan and Dagalo have history in the area, having played key roles in the counterinsurgency against rebels in the region's civil war that began in 2003.

Burhan controlled the Sudanese army in Darfur, while Dagalo was the commander of one of the many Arab militias, the Janjaweed, which was implicated in human rights violations and atrocities.

"It can be fatal to try to escape" said Karl Schembri, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, NRC.

"You risk your life if you stay," and risk it if you leave, NRC's media advisor for the region said in a phone call with CNN.

Schembri called the situation in Sudan's Darfur region "total mayhem," with displacement camps set on fire, shelters burned to the ground and civilians killed in the fighting over recent days.

There are shortages of food, water, and medical supplies, with nearly all hospitals not operational, or in some way damaged. Fuel can only be found on the black market, forcing many people to abandon their vehicles, and forced to walk to escape.

People who have been previously displaced by the long-standing unresolved conflict in Darfur, and refugees from other regional conflicts as far as Syria and Yemen have been displaced again, some for the second, third or fourth time, Schembri said. A number of displaced who are NRC volunteer workers have also been caught in the fighting.

At least 94 people have been killed since April 20 in the Sudanese city of El Geneina in West Darfur, according to a statement from the Sudanese Doctors' Union on Tuesday.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Leaders of Sudan's warring factions agree to seven-day ceasefire, South Sudan says."
By Marie-Louise Gumuchian

LONDON (Reuters) - Actor Cate Blanchett, a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency, has called for more support for countries hosting people forcibly displaced from their homes to prevent "a forgotten crisis."

Blanchett, appointed a UNHCR goodwill ambassador in 2016, said it "was easy to forget" there were protracted conflicts around the world leading people to seek refuge elsewhere.

The two-time Oscar winner travelled to Jordan last week, which hosts some 661,800 Syrian refugees, in a return to the country she first visited seven years ago in her humanitarian role.

"When you think that 74% of refugees are sheltered by lower to middle income countries, it's not the wealthiest countries in the world that are bearing that responsibility. So it was amazing to see that support continuing, but also to go back and revisit with families, children who are no longer children," Blanchett told Reuters in an interview.

Some were perhaps in an even more precarious situation now, she said.

"[To] see them seven years on with the ability to return home dwindling with all of... their savings spent... (shows) just how important it is for the global community to continue the support...for those countries that are hosting what could become a forgotten crisis."

Blanchett reunited with families in Amman and travelled to Zaatari refugee camp, created soon after the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011 and where some 80,000 people now live.

"As we the general public sort of remotely lurch from watching one crisis unfold to another crisis... it's easy to forget that there are these protracted crises in Yemen, in many parts of Africa and as I was so painfully reminded in Syria," Blanchett said.

"Of course the ultimate goal is peace but while we wait for that to be brokered, humanitarian aid is absolutely vital and for governments to find cohesive bilateral solutions to these things and safe pathways for people."

A record 103 million people have been driven from their homes around the world, according to UNHCR, escaping violence, conflict, persecution and human rights violation.

(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Activists entered in droves to the Cedar Falls City Hall this week to protest the mayor's public decision not to sign a proclamation declaring June as Pride Month.

But after more than an hour-and-a-half of public discussion Monday night, Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green surprised the passionate audience when he changed his mind.

"I would say to Cedar Falls residents, we don't have to agree to support; we don't have to agree to care; we don't have to agree in order to love each other and to try to understand each other," Green said ahead of the council's vote. "So with that, I will sign the proclamation if it passes."

The council passed the resolution immediately after Green's change of heart.

Green first stirred controversy ahead of Monday's City Council meeting after he released a memo stating he would not sign the proclamation, even if the City Council passed it, due to his religious beliefs.

"As a Christian, I believe that every person is created in the image of God, and deserves love, respect, and dignity. However, my understanding of the New Testament leads me to believe that God intended marriage to be between one man and one woman; promotion or advocacy of any sexual activity outside those bounds runs counter to the tenets of the Christian faith," Green wrote in a memo to the Cedar Falls City Council on April 21.

Cedar Falls mayor Rob Green shares memories of Tyler and Sarah Schmidt, who were shot and killed at Maquoketa Caves State Park last month along with their 6-year-old daughter, Lula, during a celebration of life service on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, in Cedar Falls.

The resolution, submitted by the city's Human Rights Commission, reaffirms the city's commitment to "supporting visibility, dignity and equality for LGBTQIA+ people in our diverse community" and calls for the month of June to be celebrated as Pride Month to educate and raise awareness on the history and current struggles of the LGBTQ community.

Celebrations of LGBTQ pride often take place across the United States in June in honor of the 1969 Stonewall uprising in Greenwich Village, which the Cedar Falls' proclamations states "sparked the modern LGBTQIA+ liberation movement."

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In light of Green's stance, the Cedar Falls Human Rights Commission wrote on Facebook on April 28 that "we as a commission have no comment on Mayor Green's actual statements."

More: For LGBTQ youths, Des Moines' all-ages drag show is about more than just performing

Green's comments also sparked a wave of local activism, inspiring residents to speak at Monday's meeting and express their concerns over the contents of the memo.

"This is more than just a proclamation," said Cedar Falls resident Alaina Chinowth. "This is about acceptance. It's about representation. It's about acknowledgement that there is a group of people that exist."

Green, who has said he will not run for reelection when his term expires in January, said after so many residents personally reached out to him and expressed concern over the safety and well-being of LGBTQ members of the Cedar Falls community, he said he felt an obligation as mayor "to ensure public safety and welfare."

Through listening to community members and speaking with them one-on-one, he also said he realized he did not need to compromise his own belief system in order to support the Cedar Falls community.

"I appreciated from the comments that the advocates werent seeking for me to change my own beliefs, but to acknowledge the community and to demonstrate to them  by signing the proclamation  that they were welcome and safe in Cedar Falls," he wrote in an email to the Register.

Memo sparks debate over personal beliefs and public responsibility

Nearly 40 people spoke up Monday night in favor of the proclamation. Many of them, including some members of the City Council, called on the mayor to resign if he refused to sign it.

"If I do one thing in four years, it's going to be to vote for this and to stand up and say Cedar Falls is a great place to be for everyone," said council member Gil Schultz. "If the mayor doesn't sign this, I do think he should resign."

Green's memo did not say that he would entirely block the resolution from passing. Instead, he wrote that his "Christian beliefs" precluded him from signing the document. Therefore, if the proclamation passed, he would "remove the language regarding the mayor" and request a City Council member sign it instead.

Sonja Bock, the chair of the Cedar Falls Human Rights Commission, spoke directly to Green at Monday's council meeting, stating she found it "disrespectful" and "questionable" that she was not informed of Green's memo prior to its publication.

"It was a nine-point memo of his personal beliefs that affect his public position as mayor," said Bock, adding that it could be "taken as discriminatory and judgmental."

A Progress Pride LGBTQ flag waves in the wind during a Trans Day of Visibility event, Saturday, April 1, 2023, at the Old Capitol in Iowa City, Iowa.

Bock raised concern that his memo could have inadvertently swayed council members' votes on the proclamation. She, along with others in attendance Monday night, also questioned the role that Green's personal beliefs should play in fulfilling his public responsibilities.

"As mayor, you are absolutely entitled to your own personal beliefs, as am I," said Cedar Falls resident Chelsea Lowe. "But they have no business in this room, or on these papers that will forever dictate the future of Cedar Falls."

More: Community activists disturbed by Southeast Polk school board member's online activity, say it is anti-LGBTQ

"I think you should resign," said Jeremy Schraffenberger, who described Green as both a friend and a neighbor. "I do not think that your Christian faith should be on the table with your public duties. If it gets in the way, you do not belong in the mayor's office."

Green said while he ultimately decided to sign the proclamation out of concerns for the welfare and safety of his constituents, he said he still struggles with where the line lies between his personal convictions and his public duties.

"I dont wish to impose my beliefs on the rights of others, but I also dont want others to impose their value systems on me," he wrote in an email to the Register. "I think a lot about civics, and this is a new facet of public service Im still working through, because this hasnt come up as something to have to consider during my first five years of elected service."

"At this point, I believe that as political leaders, we cant (and shouldnt) check our faith at the front door, but we should be sensitive about our moral compass and seek to find universal values that apply to everyone, regardless of their faith (or lack thereof)," he wrote.

Francesca Block is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at FBlock@registermedia.com or on Twitter at@francescablock3.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa mayor changes stance after refusing to sign Pride Month proclamation
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a fiesta!

This most misunderstood holiday honors the Mexican armys victory over a much larger force of French invaders in the 1862 Battle of Puebla.

It was a glorious day for Mexico, but only the beginning. The French were finally vanquished in 1866 with some American support after the end of the Civil War.

Cinco de Mayo is not to be confused with Independence Day on Sept. 16, which marks the day in 1810 when a Catholic priest made the first cry for independence in the Mexican town of Dolores. Mexico finally achieved its freedom from Spain after nearly 300 years of colonialism in 1821.

In the spirit of the cultural relationship forged between Mexico and the United States, Im sharing three easy recipes from my Mexican-American culinary collection.

Baked chile rellenos, which originated in the 1950s, is one of my favorite comfort foods. Eggs, cheese, green chiles and evaporated milk are combined with other ingredients and baked to fluffy perfection.

I serve this dish with a green salad tossed with oil and vinegar and adorned with radish slices and carrot curls, plus warm corn tortillas and a seasonal fruit for dessert. I love the flavors of this fiesta dinner.

Spanish Beans, with its south-of-the-border influences, can be traced back six generations to the days of California ranchos and pioneers.

The recipe is best made in a cast iron pot.

Serve as a side with chili rellenos or use as a foundation for a tostada salad or bean soup with green peppers, finely chopped celery, tomatoes and chicken broth. Top with tortilla strips or crushed Fritos. Ole!

Nachos Original recalls a story that sums up the essence of Cinco de Mayo.

In the early 1940s, Ignacio Anaya created a Mexican appetizer in Piedras Negras, Mexico, for American military wives visiting from Eagle Pass, Texas.

While enjoying a drink in his establishment, they requested a bite to eat.

With no chef in the kitchen, Ignacio concocted a plate of fried tortilla wedges sprinkled with grated Colby cheese, topped with slices of jalapeno and baked to a melting melange.

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When asked the name of the dish, Ignacio replied, Nachos, his nickname.

Baked Chile Rellenos

Serves 4

2 7-ounce cans Ortega whole green chiles

4 ounces grated cheddar

4 ounces grated Monterey Jack cheese

4 eggs, separated

1 12-ounce can evaporated milk (can use skimmed) evaporation removes water for a firmer custard

1/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

Dash of Tabasco (optional)

Line a 9 inch-by-9-inch greased dish with one can of chiles, opened and de-seeded. Mix cheeses together and sprinkle over chiles. Layer other can of chiles over cheese.

Beat evaporated milk with egg yolks, flour, salt and Tabasco until well combined. Beat egg whites until frothy. Fold whites into yolk mixture and pour over chiles and cheese. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Spanish Beans

Serves 4 to 5

1 pound dried pinto or cranberry beans (Rancho Gordo is a good source)

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 pound bacon, sliced in 1/2-inch, crosswise (optional for vegetarian/vegan version)

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon chili powder

Enough boiling water to cover beans

Salt to taste after beans are tender

Soak beans for at least 2 hours or overnight. Drain.

Add to a large Dutch oven over medium heat, stir in bacon and cook for about 3 minutes. Place drained beans in pot and cover with boiling water. Add oil, garlic and onions. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer uncovered for 2 to 3 hours stirring occasionally until beans are tender.

Add about 1/2 teaspoon salt, chili powder and tomatoes. Simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. Check for salt and add a pinch more if necessary; the bacon should season the beans nicely. For a heartier dish, use a ham hock in place of bacon.

Nachos Original

Serves 4 to 8

4 corn tortillas, cut in eighths

Oil for frying tortillas

Salt

8 ounces Colby cheese (can also use cheddar), grated

Thin slices of pickled jalapeno peppers

Place a sheet of parchment paper or aluminum foil on a large cookie sheet. Preheat oven to

375 degrees.

In a large skillet heat to hot but not smoking enough oil to come up about 1/2-inch on the side of the pan. In four batches, fry the tortilla segments, turning once with tongs, until lightly brown and crisp.

Remove to lined cookie sheet and lightly salt one side. Top each tortilla chip with 1 teaspoon grated cheese and 1 slice of jalapeno pepper. Place in heated oven and bake about 5 minutes until cheese is melted.

Serve immediately.

The Culinary Corner is special to The Tribune. Comments or questions? Contact Nancy Allen at nancyal@pacbell.net .
Centennial High School wins the award for Best Ensemble for their production of "Into the Woods" at the 2023 New Mexico High School Musical Theatre Enchantment Awards Friday, April 28, 2023 at Popejoy Hall.

LAS CRUCES  Centennial High School musical theatre students won the Best Ensemble award Friday night at the New Mexico High School Musical Theatre Enchantment Awards for their production of Into the Woods.

The Enchantment Awards are held annually in Albuquerque to celebrate the accomplishments of high school musical theatre students from across the state. Students gathered Friday, April 28 at Popejoy Hall on the University of New Mexicos main campus.

Along with the Best Ensemble award, Centennial student Angelina K. Silva won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Rapunzel in Into the Woods. Kehlyn Houston, Celeste Shepherd and Lena Smith from Centennial were also awarded the Spotlight Award for otherwise unheralded efforts in a shows production, according to a news release.

Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe students took home the rest of the awards including:

Nori Kai Little (Albuquerque Academy)  Best Actress (Chicago: Teen Edition)

Breton Sego (Rio Rancho High)  Best Actor (Anastasia)

Angelina K. Silva 9Centennial High)  Best Supporting Actress (Into the Woods)

Finnegan McKelvey (Public Academy for Performing Arts)  Best Supporting Actor (Mamma Mia!)

Santa Fe Preparatory School  Best Production (Something Rotten!)

Desiree Lang, Albuquerque Academy  Best Direction (Chicago: Teen Edition)

Centennial High  Best Ensemble (Into the Woods)

Twenty New Mexico students performed Friday in front of judges as finalists in the Best Actress/Best Actor categories, along with another 20 students in the supporting acting categories. Five schools performed in the production categories. Students performed solos and medleys and were adjudicated by three judges.

Little and Sego will go on to represent New Mexico in New York City in June during the National High School Musical Theater Awards, known as the Jimmy Awards. Two students from each state will travel to the East Coast for a week of rehearsals with professionals before performing on the Broadway stage.

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The 2023 Jimmy Awards are scheduled for June 26 at the Minskoff Theatre.

Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Centennial High students win awards for production of 'Into the Woods'
A California man faces prosecution in Kentucky after he allegedly helped launder $23 million in drug money through Lexington, court records say.

Anthony Scott Cossu was arrested in April and made his first Kentucky court appearance last week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Cossu is identified as an international money broker who imported controlled substances and needed profits laundered and returned to drug suppliers in Mexico, according to court documents.

Cossu is one of several defendants charged in federal court in relation to the operation.

Carlos Gonzalez, Rudy Guerro, Warren Miller and Oscar Alberto Palaciso Espericuete have also been indicted in connection to the scheme. All the men allegedly participated in the organization sometime from August 2018 to December 2021.

On different occasions the men separately delivered drug proceeds to undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents acting as couriers, according to court documents.

The undercover agent would receive a contract from the men who organized the transaction to collect money in Lexington. The agent was expected to pick up the money and provide a serial number for a one dollar bill to be used as a code during the drop.

This code was given to the person delivering the money and confirmed that the courier had the specific bill in his possession before transferring the money.

These men would arrange meetings at different places throughout Lexington, including a gym parking lot and a hotel parking lot, according to court documents. Once the undercover agent had the money, it would be transferred to an undercover DEA bank account.

The agent then laundered the money by wire transfer through a Bitcoin cryptocurrency exchange to an address provided by the broker, according to court documents.

Despite Cossus recent arrest, the other defendants  Gonzalez, Guerro, Miller and Espericuete  have already been convicted and sentenced by Danny Reeves, chief U.S. district judge.

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All but Guerro accepted a plea deal, according to court records. Guerro was convicted by a jury for one count of conspiracy to launder money. He was sentenced to serve just over six and a half years in prison in November.

Gonzalez and Espericuete both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of a plea deal, according to their plea agreements.

Espericuete was sentenced in September to serve two and a half years in prison. Gonzalez was sentenced to eight years.

Gonzalez collected money from the drug sales, counted and packaged the money, and provided the money to the courier, according to court documents.

In February 2020, DEA agents were surveying Gonzalezs Chicago residence and stopped him in his car when Gonzalez left the house.

After a consented search of his vehicle, agents found multiple pounds of marijuana in the car and a money counting machine in the trunk. Because of this, the agents searched Gonzalezs home, where they found a trap compartment in the floor containing 26 kilograms of cocaine and $140,000, according to court documents.

Agents found $227,804 in drug money in Gonzalezs bedroom, along with a gun and ammunition.

He admitted he stored and distributed narcotics for an individual in Mexico.

Miller pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and promotional money laundering. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

Cossu is expected to appear for a jury trial on June 13.
Some fishermen report living off their savings following the die-off

Just over 18 months ago, waves of dead and dying shellfish began washing up on mile after mile of shoreline in the north-east of England. No-one knew why they were dying or what had killed them and, despite a series of investigations, there is still no definitive answer.

The die-off has had a profound impact on those who rely on catching crustaceans for a living and now a UK charity is urging the government to step in and help a community that is struggling to survive.

The sun is shining on Hartlepool harbour. A couple of fishermen are working on their nets and another is looking out at sea.

It's calm, but he's asking himself, "Is it worth going out today?"

It's a question more and more local fishermen are contemplating.

The industry they were born into was hit hard in 2021 when thousands of dead crabs and lobsters were washed up on the north-east coast. They say wash ups continue today and something new is happening - prawn catches have plummeted by up to 90%.

Fishermen in Hartlepool report prawn catches have fallen by up to 90%

The price of fuel and running costs have forced around half of those fishermen to put their boats up for sale.

One of them described feeling "trapped" because until his vessel is sold, he needs to find 500 a month while it is in dock.

His earnings are down by 20,000 and his costs are up by 5,000 compared to last year. His family are living off their savings and they are borrowing money from relatives. It's something he and others never thought they'd have to do.

A UK charity is trying to help.

The Fishermen's Mission, which has been running for over 140 years, says the continued economic impact on such a concentrated area is unprecedented.

Chief executive Marc Evans has come to Hartlepool to offer advice and financial support.

Marc Evans said some fishermen's mental health has suffered greatly

For some, it's a difficult subject to discuss. One prawn fisherman tells him the money he has just spent on fuel is money that isn't going home.

"How's the family doing?" Marc asks him. "Nah, don't even want to talk about it," he replies and walks away.

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"I feel bloody awful" Marc says. Yet it's a reaction that doesn't come as a surprise to him and he's worried about some fishermen's mental health.

"We're hearing about fishermen in the North East who are contacting us and other charities. They're talking about their mental health and talking about the fact they're seriously contemplating their continued existence in the world.

"They need to know that whatever has happened here is going to change and the stocks are going to regenerate."

That's all Darren Greenwood wants.

Darren is one of many having to consider his future in the industry

He's been fishing for four decades and says the last two years have been the hardest of his life.

"I would like somebody to be able to say to me, look, this is what happened, but it's getting better. You know, next year is going to be better for you.

"I've read so many probabilities and possibilities of what it could be. I've never had a definitive answer of what it actually is."

In January, a report from an independent panel of experts - appointed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) - found it was "about as likely as not" that a new disease or parasite caused the die-off in late 2021.

However, the 12-strong panel could not identify what it was and conceded there was no direct evidence of it. They determined it was possible a combination of factors was to blame.

Many fishermen believe dredging work around Teesside's new Freeport was to blame. Those responsible for creating the Freeport deny that is the case.

The expert panel concluded it was "very unlikely" regular dredging of the Tees was the cause and said capital dredging was "exceptionally unlikely".

Now, the fishermen are working with scientists from Newcastle, Durham and York universities who are testing sea water and sediment samples themselves.

They hope it will give them answers to the questions they still have.

Dr Gary Caldwell is one of the academics who will study new sedimentary samples taken from the River Tees

Dr Gary Caldwell, from Newcastle University, is one of those experts.

"We're going to create a full picture of what the chemical risk is, in terms of the North Sea and we're going to relate that back to dredging activity and we're going to see what that connection is," he said.

If there is a connection, the fishermen say they will seek government compensation. Until then, they're struggling to find a solution.

"Who wants to buy a boat with what's happened?" Darren asks. "I'm a fisherman and there aren't many jobs for people like me."

The Fishermen's Mission hopes to support local families until their future becomes clearer. It is now reporting back to government.

Defra says it's already providing millions of pounds through the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme and the UK Seafood Fund but has ruled out any compensation for the losses suffered because of the die-offs.

Follow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk
LONDON  How many Britons will stand up and swear out loud allegiance to King Charles III?

Among the latest touch-ups to the kings long-awaited coronation Saturday, the public have been invited to declare in unison God save King Charles in a chorus of millions of voices.

For many, the invitation jars awkwardly with reality: There are more questions hanging over the new monarch and indeed the Windsor family itself than at any point in living memory. Charles is far less popular than his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II. And now that shes not around, polls suggest the prevailing mood ahead of Charles coronation is one of apathy, especially among young people.

Charles has a very different challenge facing him, historian and author Helen Carr said. Hes got to prove that the monarchy is legitimate.

King Charles III Inspects 200th Sovereign's Parade At Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (Dan Kitwood / Getty Images)

Shorn of the queens unique grandmotherly brand, some of the persistent questions and deep-seated criticisms of the monarchy have come to the fore:

What place does this opulent pomp have in a country suffering one of the worst cost-of-living crises in the industrialized world? Should multicultural Britain still have its king act as supreme head of the Church of England? Will Charles stop wading into democratic politics? And should a white, multimillionaire British king, chosen by the lottery of birth, remain as head of state in former colonies such as Jamaica and Grenada, where Britain built its empire upon the institution of slavery?

In a wider sense, the coronation will act as a litmus test of whether Britons and Commonwealth citizens actually still care for the royals  or if their affection was mostly directed at the now departed queen.

A protester holds a placard which states 'The UK's to-do list (Vuk Valcic / SOPA via Getty Images)

When Queen Elizabeth II was alive, she was a queen, she was grandmotherly, it was very cute when she hung out with Paddington. We can get on board with that, Afua Hagan, a royal commentator and broadcaster, said.

But now, what are we doing? Hagan added. People are really thinking to themselves: Why do we need this unelected family at the head of our country?

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Charles, 74, is in a unique position too because, as the oldest monarch crowned in British history, the public have had a long time to get to know him. He was 4 at his mothers coronation, an event truly from another era.

Follow coronation ceremony live updates here

The colossal 1953 procession featured 30,000 military personnel, 600 aircraft and more than 8,000 guests. Royal approval was so high that no one even bothered to conduct opinion polls, the country was far more religious, and debates on the horrors or merits of the British Empire seemed very distant.

Today, not only do polls show a gradual decline in support for the royal family, but Charles is less popular than his mother. Perhaps as importantly, most people say they dont care about the coronation itself.

Last week, a study by the independent National Centre for Social Research showed royalism had fallen to a record low, with only 29% of Britons regarding the institution as very important. A YouGov poll last month found most didnt care  35% very much and 29% at all  about Saturdays pageantry, the first major royal event in seven decades without the queen.

Queen Elizabeth in Royal Carriage (Bettmann Archive / via Getty Images file)

Charles popularity took a major stumble in the 1980s during his marital problems with Princess Diana, especially when it emerged he had been having a longtime affair with his now wife, the soon-to-be Queen Camilla. This opprobrium only grew after the 1997 death of Diana, an icon whose popularity still exceeds that of Charles and the family itself, according to YouGov.

Scandal has plagued the royals again in recent years. The messy departure of Prince Harry and Meghan came amid a flurry of racism allegations. And last year Charles brother, Prince Andrew, reached a legal settlement with a woman who accused him of abusing her as a minor.

Charles and his retinue will be keenly aware of these existential threats to his tenure. And so they have vowed to modernize both ceremony and family  as much as is possible for an unelected head of state who is billed as Gods representative on Earth.

The slimmed down event (2,000 guests) will feature religious leaders from Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Buddhist communities  an unprecedented gesture, according to the Church of England, and something unthinkable in 1953.

The coronation ceremony will also avoid using the Queen Mothers Crown featuring the Kohinoor, one of the worlds largest cut diamonds, which was obtained by the British Empire. However, the crown that Camilla will use features parts of the Cullinan diamond, which was discovered in South Africa. For many there, it also represents the empires penchant for mineral plunder.

Whatever the royal family do, they cant escape the controversies of empire, said Sathnam Sanghera, author of EmpireLand: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain.

Last year Charles went further, telling an audience in Rwanda about the depths of my personal sorrow for the hurt caused by slavery and its legacy. But he stopped short of a full apology, a thorny issue as it would likely lead to increased calls for reparations from the British government.

King Charles coronation (Eddie Mulholland / AP)

Charles is, if anything, seen as more modern and progressive than his taciturn mother ever was. He has for decades been a champion for environmental issues, long before these became mainstream. His slimmed-down vision for his household includes giving far more responsibility to his eldest son and heir, the popular Prince William.

In many ways, Charles is a better fit for a modern Britain than he was 30 or 40 years ago when public opinion had not yet caught up with the king, NBC royal commentator Daisy McAndrew said.

This is uncharted territory for Britain, and the coming decades are unknowable.

There are those, such as the anti-royalist pressure group Republic, who believe Charles contradictions and complexities will eventually herald the end of this millennia-old institution.

However, most mainstream royal experts believe that the monarchy is so deeply interwoven into British society that, even in a reduced capacity, it will endure long after Charles reign.

To get rid of the monarch and the monarchy, wed have to have a referendum, said Anna Whitelock, professor of the history of the monarchy at University of London. And theres no government and no political party at the moment who are anywhere close to suggesting that.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
With a pandemic-era southern border policy ending soon, local organizations, already stretched thin serving thousands, say they are bracing for a new wave of migrant families heading to Charlotte.

Title 42, an arcane federal health policy the Trump administration used during screenings to reject asylum seekers at the border, expires on May 11. When it ends, the U.S. government may expect an increase in illegal crossings from Mexico, the Associated Press reported.

The change comes following the end of COVID-19 as a national emergency in April, said Sharisse Johnson, executive director of Camino Health Center. It will add more stress, even push organizations to their limits.

Among the disruptions, expanded eligibility for Medicaid and SNAP benefits during the pandemic will now be reassessed, she said.

It could mean some may lose their benefits. It also could add to the population of uninsured or under-insured Latino people, which organizations like Camino Health Center already serve, Johnson said.

Theres already a system overburdened in its entirety, she said. Then you have the lifting of Title 42.

The organization already has seen an increase of migrant families, said Colby Joyner, a physicians assistant at Camino Clinic. His work ranges from servicing immigrant families that have lived here for over 20 years, to migrant families who arrived days ago.

It has been more recently that you see the latter more, Joyner said.

Last August, as many as 1,400 migrants poured into Charlotte.

Families come from the Mexico-U.S. border to Charlotte as it has the only immigration court for North Carolina and South Carolina, Johnson said.

However, over that past year, she said its been a noticeable difference in the kind of families. In the past, people arrived in Charlotte with family already in the region.

Now families are coming with no ties to the area, she said.

Caminio Health Center is seeing around three to five families a week, she said. In the coming weeks, after the border policy ends, theyre expecting this number to increase.

Story continues

Johnson said more collaboration between nonprofits, the city and Mecklenburg County will be needed to assist the coming need.

We certainly have a niche, she said. But we are not an island.

More collaboration

Compounding matters with Title 42 ending and affecting Latino organizations helping migrant families is the slow pace of Medicaid expansion becoming law.

In March, Gov. Roy Cooper signed Medicaid expansion into law , which is expected to provide healthcare coverage to over 600,000 people across North Carolina.

Medicaid expansion will cover any legal resident aged 19 to 64 who earns up to 138% of the federal poverty level, or around $20,120 for one person. Children under 21 are currently covered by Medicaid.

But the new measure cant take effect until a state budget is approved, said Natalie Marles, a paralegal advocate with the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy. That means some could see a gap in Medicaid coverage, she said.

Children may have aged out over the last few years but their Medicaid was not canceled due to the pandemic, she said.

Those are the ones that are going to lose medicaid before the expansion takes off, Marles said.

This comes as the Hispanic population is already the largest percent of uninsured adults in Mecklenburg County, according to a 2021 county report.

Organizations that provide healthcare services to the Latino community could be overextended as they work to also help people coming from the border, Marles said.

The advocacy center also has already seen an increase of migrant families over the past year, she said. They are connected with free clinics because they will not have access to Medicaid even with the expansion, she said.

But more resources are going to be needed to handle the influx, Marles said. Its why more than ever local organizations will need to work in partnerships as more families arrive, she said.

So not all of us will be reinventing the wheel, Marles said. Instead, we will be working in a more collaborative way.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, pictured at a conference in Idaho on 6 July, 2022, will meet with US Vice President Kamala Harris and other government officials at the White House on 4 May, 2023 (Getty Images)

The head of OpenAI will join chief executives from major tech firms in a meeting at the White House on Thursday to discuss issues relating to the dangers posed by advanced artificial intelligence.

Sam Altman, whose firm created the hugely popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, will meet with US Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as other high-ranking government officials. Also present will be the chief executives of Google, Microsoft and AI firm Anthropic.

The invitation to the CEOs noted President Joe Bidens expectation that companies like yours must make sure their products are safe before making them available to the public.

Concerns about fast-growing AI technology include privacy violations, bias and worries it could proliferate scams and misinformation.

In April, President Biden said it remains to be seen whether AI is dangerous but underscored that technology companies had a responsibility to ensure their products were safe. Social media had already illustrated the harm that powerful technologies can do without the right safeguards, he said.

The administration has also been seeking public comments on proposed accountability measures for AI systems, as concerns grow about its impact on national security and education.

On Monday, deputies from the White House Domestic Policy Council and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy wrote in a blog post about how the technology can pose a serious risk to workers.

The Thursday meeting will be attended by President Bidens Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Director of the National Economic Council Lael Brainard and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo among others, said the White House official who did not wish to be named.

The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

ChatGPT, an AI program that recently grabbed the publics attention for its ability to write answers quickly to a wide range of queries, in particular has attracted US lawmakers attention as it has grown to be the fastest-growing consumer application in history with more than 100 million monthly active users.

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I think we should be cautious with AI, and I think there should be some government oversight because it is a danger to the public, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said last month in a television interview.

Geoffrey Hinton, known as the godfather of AI, also issued a warning this week after quitting Google following more than a decade with the US tech giant.

I dont think [tech firms] should scale [AI] up more until they have understood whether they can control it, he said.

Additional reporting from agencies.
CAMDEN  Two South Jersey men have received prison terms for federal child pornography offenses.

Ryan Osinski, 33, of Cherry Hill and Joseph Cooper, 76, of Williamstown each received 10-year prison terms at separate hearings in Camden federal court on Tuesday.

Cooper, who also was ordered to pay restitution of $73,000, admitted guilt in September to possession of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey.

Ruling: Appeals court rebuffs inmate Pennsauken man convicted of robbing stores at 19 must serve 37-year prison sentence

The prison term was the mandatory minimum for Cooper, who previously served a three-year term for another child pornography crime.

An October 2020 raid at his Main Street home allegedly found more than 50 videos and 200 images showing the sexual abuse of preteens.

Osinski, who had faced a mandatory minimum term of five years, pled guilty in November to distributing videos and images of child sexual abuse.

He was arrested in October 2021 after investigators received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Osinski was identified at that time as an Air Force non-commissioned officer.

Each man also is to spend 10 years on supervised release.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Joseph Cooper, Ryan Osinski learn consequences of child-porn pleas
Photos courtesy of Kino Lorber

A Chilean radio station welcomes American listeners as it begins playing cheery national music, only for the transmission to be interrupted by a government broadcast prohibiting anyone from addressing politics. A pleasant dinner conversation is fleetingly punctuated by critical remarks about the Pinochet government, and then again proceeds along its superficial course.

Domestic chitchat in a kitchen is complemented by two hired workers private conversation about a man whos gone missing since being picked up by an army patrol. At all times, and in every way, Chile 76 is a film defined by layers, with pleasant everyday facades masking a dark, corrupt authoritarian underbelly.

The directorial debut of actress Manuela Martelli, which premiered at last years Cannes Film Festival, Chile 76 (in theaters May 5) is a 1976-set period thriller of beguiling power, energized by its portrait of one womans heroism and the means by which its motivated by guilt, regret, fury, and despairthe last of which, ultimately, proves inescapable.

Resonating as a memory piece conjured from its makers own history, and crafted with a meticulousness thats as central to its suspense as is Maria Portugals ominously sparse, disorienting electronic score, Martellis maiden feature is a redolent snapshot of a time, place, and people brutalized, overtly and subtly, by dictatorship. Its a drama whose formal concision and elegance amplifies its desolation.

Photos courtesy of Kino Lorber

Just as audio snippets regarding Pinochets reign of terror frequently peek through its actions ordinary surface, so too does Chile 76 highlight Chiles divided nature through sly visuals.

Travel between the frames foreground and background is fraught with meaning, as is the sight of characters passing through doorways and gazing out windows. Everything appears routine and yet is dangerously partitioned in this South American country, all of it courtesy of Pinochet, whos rarely mentioned but whose presence is ever-present. Three years after coming to power via a coup, the general-turned-presidents shadow looms like a storm cloud over this tale, darkening its bright beach setting and, with it, the disposition of its residents, including one well-to-do housewife with a desire to channel her misery into action.

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Carmen (Aline Kuppenheim) is a middle-aged wife and mother whos traveled ahead to her new beachside summer house without her spouse Miguel (Alejandro Goic)a doctor whos working in Santiagoto oversee renovations ahead of her clans impending arrival. Her hairstyle neat and her neck frequently adorned with pearls, Carmen is a figure of posh poise and elegance, albeit one marginalized by her spouse and her aspiring-physician son Tomas (Gabriel Urzua) in a sexist manner thats emblematic of their patriarchal homeland.

White House Plumbers Looks for the Laughs in Watergate

As is well-known to her husband and her housekeeper Estela (Carmen Gloria Martinez), Carmen has a habit of treating her ennui by excessively popping pills and booze. The morning after one such bout of imbibing, Carmen is awakened in her bedroom by local priest Father Sanchez (Hugo Medina), whom shes brought childrens clothes to donate to the parish. He, in turn, has brought something for heror, rather, someone.

In a small room in his modest church, Father Sanchez has hidden away Elias (Nicolas Sepulveda), a young man with a gunshot wound in his leg. Theres scant conversation about how he might have suffered such an injury, in large part because the specifics dont really matter; whats apparent is that hes been hurt due to some dissident anti-Pinochet behavior for which hes now being sought by authorities.

Carmen, who routinely spends her time reading to the blind, immediately assumes caretaker duties for Elias, endeavoring to procure drugs to treat his leg from her husband and, also, from a hospital where she claims to need them for a distressed dog. This is a secret operation, and Carmen carries it out with a matter-of-fact attitude that suggests that she believes the only remedy for her weary, dishonest conditionhappy on the outside, melancholy on the insideis striving to affect a modicum of change.

Photos courtesy of Kino Lorber

What a sad country, laments Father Sanchez, who later confesses to Carmen that he once ratted out a couple of revolutionary kids whom he was protecting, and that it was my fault they were eventually murdered. Chile 76 is a study of small individuals attempting to do whats rightand assuage their own dissatisfaction and shamein whatever minor way they can.

Portugals buzzing, droning audioscape enhances the materials menacing mood as well as reflects Carmens fear and paranoia, which mounts as Elias slowly recovers and, consequently, asks her to help him contact his comrades in order to facilitate his departure. In an area where no one can be completely trusted, be it the police, shop owners or neighbors, Carmens mission is inherently and intensely perilous, and director Martelli stages it with an economy that flirts with dreamy obliqueness, the better to convey her protagonists hazy, in-over-her-head uncertainty and panic.

Chile 76 is awash in stratified compositions in which Carmen moves between distinctive close/distant spacesan expression of Chiles divergent worlds, which is a notion also intimated by recurring motifs of reflective mirrors and swirling, blending paint colors. With invigorating confidence, director Martelli lets her form do the talking. Before long, Carmen is knee-deep in a conspiracy for which she is ill-equipped and yet is unwilling to abandon.

Photos courtesy of Kino Lorber

Her efforts beget scenarios of sudden, pulse-pounding tension, from her suspicion that a car may be tailing her, to a traffic stop by a police officer that takes place after the government-mandated curfew, to a visit to a remote cafe where shes hit upon by a man whose demeanor is as unsettling as are current news stories about a dead girl discovered at a nearby beacha tragedy about which Carmens grandchildren whisper, further casting an omnipresent pall over her day-to-day.

Chile was a destroyed nation, a society with a broken spirit, and a social structure that was divided and corrupt, Pinochet is heard declaring midway through Chile 76, but its Carmen and her fellow underground rebels who appear most splintered, trapped between two uneasy realities. Led by Kuppenheims coiled, interior performance as an individual whos desperate for transformation and escape, and who learns an agonizing lesson about the possibility of achieving either under authoritarian rule, its a film of creeping dread and hopelessnessboth of which are ultimately epitomized by periodic images of violent, uncaring waves crashing against the beachs rocks.

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(Bloomberg) -- Chinas military sent a drone circling around Taiwan for the second time in a week, the islands defense ministry said Wednesday, signaling a new surveillance tactic as cross-strait tensions remain high.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The Peoples Liberation Army flew a BZK-005 drone  a long-range reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle  around much of the islands sensitive air-defense identification zone, according to flight paths released by Taiwans Ministry of National Defense.

The drone flew from the north and around the eastern side of the zone, according to the flight paths, before turning south and then flying back west  circling much of Taiwan. The flight happened at some point in the 24 hours ending at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, the defense ministry said.

The event appeared to be the second time the PLA has flown a military drone in this type of circular path around Taiwan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News based on defense ministry releases. The ministry began regularly publishing PLA flight patterns publicly in September 2020.

The first occurrence involving a circular flight path happened late last week, in the 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. on Friday. Previous PLA drones flew shorter paths around the defense zone.

Taiwans National Security Bureau is monitoring the drone situation closely, deputy director-general Chen Chin-kuang said Wednesday in response to questions from lawmakers.

So far no intelligence shows that China plans to use drones to create gray-zone conflict, he said. We will work with allies to stay on top of early warnings.

The drone and warplane flights come as Steven Rudder, the retired commander of the US Marine Corps Forces Pacific, led a delegation of defense contractors to discuss the joint development of military hardware, including drones and ammunitions, with Taiwanese companies on Wednesday.

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Beijing has ramped up military actions near the island in recent years, including near-daily warplane incursions across the Taiwan Strait. Last year, the PLA nearly doubled the number of military flights around the island compared to a year earlier to more than 1,700.

US-China tensions have also risen over Taiwan, which has sought greater ties with Washington in the face of rising pressure from Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen met with former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last year and current speaker Kevin McCarthy last month. Those events sparked outcry from Beijing, which views the democratically run island as its own territory, a claim Tsai and her government reject.

The PLA held three days of military exercises around Taiwan after the McCarthy meeting, saying that it stands ready to fight at any time and crush separatism activities and foreign interference.

--With assistance from Cindy Wang.

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A team of scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), has discovered a way to potentially slow down the aging process by up to 82%.

The pioneering method, which was found to work in yeast cells, requires genetically rewiring a circuit to allow the cells to continuously oscillate between two deteriorative processes instead of succumbing to either.

The result is an increased cellular lifespan through a delay in the commitment to aging.

Molecular biology professor Nan Hao, senior author of the study, described the circuit responsible for aging as a toggle switch that triggers the cells' progression toward death.

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This is the first time computationally guided synthetic biology and engineering principles were used to rationally redesign gene circuits and reprogram the aging process to effectively promote longevity, Hao said in a statement.

The team has focused on developing such an oscillator for years. The concept became an executable idea in 2020 after they mapped the two deteriorative processes in yeast cells that occur in the nucleus, which houses the DNA, and mitochondria, which serves as the cells powerhouse.

Hao believes the process can eventually be replicated to apply to humans.

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I dont see why it cannot be applied to more complex organisms, he told Motherboard. If it is to be introduced to humans, then it will be a certain form of gene therapy. Of course it is still a long way ahead and the major concerns are on ethics and safety.

If maintaining oscillations promotes balance in the cell (cellular homeostasis) and longevity at a universal scale, periodic pharmacological and nutritional interventions with optimal timing may also be developed, Hao said.

In a commentary, Howard Salis, an associate professor of biological and chemical engineering at Penn State University, said human cells contain similar  albeit more complex  age-committing genetic circuitry, making the same method of rewiring a possibility.

Story continues

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There are many cellular pathways in yeast cells that are widely conserved and appear in human cells as well, Salis said, as per Newsweek. Human cells do have more pathways with more interlocking feedback loops. But, importantly, the same/similar techniques can be applied to study and modify pathways in both organisms.

The recent study, titled Engineering longevity  design of a synthetic gene oscillator to slow cellular aging, was published in the journal Science last week. Aside from Hao, the research team includes Zhen Zhou, Yuting Liu, Yushen Feng, Stephen Klepin, Lev Tsimring, Lorraine Pillus and Jeff Hasty.

More from NextShark: 'Strong indications' Putin involved in downing of Malaysia Airlines jet that killed 298, probe finds
Chris Packham has several libel cases to clear his name in the pipeline. (Getty Images)

Chris Packham is appearing at the High Court in London after taking legal action against Country Squire Magazine.

The Springwatch presenter is suing for libel against three men who wrote articles accusing him of dishonest and unethical behaviour.

The Country Squire writers claimed he misled his followers into donating money to a charity to help ex-circus tigers in Spain.

It is not the only libel action Packham has in the pipeline.

The 61-year-old TV presenter and animal rights activist is also hoping to launch a legal challenge against Fieldsports Channel Ltd who have accused him of faking a death threat to himself.

Chris Packham with his partner Charlotte Corney at the High Court. (Alamy)

Packham is outspoken on social media when it comes to animal rights issues and has become a target of threats and attacks as a result.

Read more here: Chris Packham defiant after arsonists target his home (Sky News, 2 min read)

But what is he standing up against in this current court case, and what other legal battles does he have ahead?

High Court witness

Chris Packham is expected to take the stand during the trial at the Royal Courts of Justice. (Alamy)

Packham has attended the start of a trial at the High Court, supported by his partner Charlotte Corney, in a bid to clear his name of alleged "tiger fraud".

He was accused by Country Squire Magazine of making a "fraudulent appeal" on behalf of the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary on the Isle of Wight, of which he and Corney are charity trustees.

Packham asked for help to "rescue" five tigers from ex-circus life in Spain, but the publication claimed that as the tigers were no longer in a circus they were not in need of "rescuing".

Lawyer Jonathan Price, acting for the TV presenter, said the accused had called him a "notorious liar" and accused him of "obvious nastiness" and of playing the "Asperger's victim card".

Packham has said the allegations, which he denies, were repeated several times on social media.

The TV presenter was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome in 2005 and fronted an acclaimed documentary Inside Our Autistic Minds in 2022.

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Read more here: Chris Packham begins libel action at High Court (BBC, 2 min read)

Further action

Chris Packham is planning another libel case over claims he faked a death threat. (Getty Images)

Packham is also planning to launch libel action against Fieldsports Channel Ltd over an article, video and Facebook post it published claiming he had faked a death threat to himself.

A Crowd Justice campaign has already raised 118k of a target of 150k to fund the TV presenter's latest attempt to clear his name.

A spokesperson for Fieldsports Channel Ltd said: "Chris is using his private wealth to try to force a small media company out of business. He is using the high court as a cashpoint machine, even though he could have settled this with a phone call."

Read more here: Chris Packham's step-daughter pledges support as crowdfunding launched for libel suit (Yahoo UK, 2 min read)

Trolling and death threats

Chris Packham's activism for animal rights attracts supporters and haters. (Getty Images)

Packham is extremely vocal online over his campaigns for animal rights, including joining Extinction Rebellion protests and regularly petitioning against the use of living creatures in I'm A Celebrity trials.

But for all the support his efforts attract, there is equal opposition, making him a target for hate and vitriol on social media.

For Packham, trolling has spilt over into physical attacks and death threats made against him.

The naturalist was targeted in October 2021, when a Land Rover was set on fire outside the gate of his New Forest home.

He has also spoken about receiving death threats and online abuse following his involvement in an anti-shooting campaign.

Read more here: Death threats sent to Chris Packham in row over bird shooting licences (PA, 2 min read)

Watch: Chris Packham speaks at Extinction Rebellion protest
Chris Packham is suing three men for libel at the High Court

Chris Packham has told the High Court he is the "victim of a campaign of vile and relentless intimidation".

The presenter is suing three men over articles on the Country Squire Magazine website alleging he misled people into donating to a tiger rescue charity.

Site editor Dominic Wightman, writer Nigel Bean, and a third man, Paul Read, are defending the libel claim.

The 61-year-old said he had been targeted because of his "deeply held views" about blood sports.

He recounted how "random dead animals and human faeces" were regularly posted to him.

"I have become accustomed to the plethora of dead animals people leave at my home," Mr Packham continued.

He said that "masked attackers" had also set fire to a car and burned down the gate to his home.

The environmentalist and his partner Charlotte Corney are trustees of the Isle of Wight sanctuary.

He was accused of dishonestly raising money at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic while knowing the charity was due to receive a 500,000 benefit from its insurance.

But the BBC Springwatch presenter said: "We weren't hopeful that we would be insured against Covid-19 closures."

He said the insurance payments "ultimately saved the sanctuary in what was a time of dire need".

"But to be very clear, if we had not launched the fundraising appeal as rapidly as we did then these payments may have arrived too late to make a difference," he said.

'Violence and intimidation'

He believes the defendants' claims had "misled, agitated and fuelled a vocal and violent conspiratorial fringe who increasingly post threatening and vile material about me and my family".

He said: "I do go to walk my dogs in the woods and wonder: is today the day that a psychopath fuelled by all this hate turns up and kills me?

"I genuinely no longer expect to live a long life free from violence and intimidation, because it may only take the one wrong person to read Country Squire Magazine for things to go horribly wrong."

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Jonathan Price, on behalf of the broadcaster, said the defendants had published an "enormous amount of puerile, offensive and damaging material" about him, "often under the guise of fundraising for their defence".

Mr Packham said they had also "repeatedly picked on and mocked my Asperger's syndrome" as well as comparing him to Jimmy Savile.

He said it was "ridiculous, utterly unfounded, and plainly designed to be as upsetting, threatening and reputationally damaging as possible".

Nicholas O'Brien, for Mr Wightman and Mr Bean, said the articles were true and could also be defended as under the public interest.

David Price, KC, for retired computer programmer Paul Read, said his client was a "mere proof-reader" and not responsible for the articles.

The trial is due to conclude on 12 May, with a decision expected at a later date.

Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.
MUNCIE, Ind.  A year ago the City of Muncie celebrated with Gov. Eric Holcomb, who came to town to announce a $1 million Community Crossings grant from the state to pave streets in the city.

This spring, due to an incomplete project from a previous Community Crossing grant, City Engineer Adam Leach says Muncie did not receive any Community Crossing funding.

Work at Riverside Avenue and Jackson Street by DC Paving of Indianapolis is funded through a past Community Crossing grant and has not been completed due to ongoing utility work along Riverside Avenue, Leach said.

Riverside has been undergoing extensive work that include installation of a walking trail, resurfacing and drainage work between Tillotson Avenue and Jackson.

Road work: Riverside Avenue Trail on track to finish in summer of '23, paving to start this week

Mayor Dan Ridenour said the contractor expects the utility work that delayed them to be finished soon.

What caused the delay?

The Indiana Department of Transportation confirmed the delay could have disqualified Muncie from receiving any money in the most recent round of matching grants. INDOT spokesman Kyleigh Cramer said that under grant rules, new money cannot be awarded until money awarded from past years has been spent.

But the city is forging ahead with paving plans, Leach said, with money the city has available to do the work in spring and summer.

Ridenour said the city is not billed for road work until it's completed and the city plans to apply for the July round of Community Crossing grants and be qualified to receive the money. Leach said the Muncie will ask for the top limit of $1 million in July.

"If the roadwork gets billed before we get the round two of money," Ridenour said, We will use EDIT (Economic Development Income Tax) cash and ARP (American Rescue Plan) cash or from street funds we put back to pay for 2024 McGalliard Road paving (grant) match."

Paving work planned in Muncie

The city's capital plans calls for paving work on various roads this year, including: Robinwood Drive; Pettigrew Drive; Meadowlark Lane; Cole Street; South Sycamore Street; 10th Street; Jersey Avenue; Ball Avenue; Glenwood Avenue; 14th Street; Shady Lane; Woodway Drive; Russey Street; and Linden Street.

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Last spring: Muncie gets $1 million match from state to pave streets

Meanwhile, Delaware County received $640,090 in the spring 2023 Community Crossing awards to complete bridge work.

Angie Moyer, project director and administrator for Delaware County, said the county plans to use the money to replace a bridge on Delaware County Road 650-E, between county roads 350-N and 400-N.

Delaware County Highway Superintendent Tommie Humbert said he plans to present his paving details to the Delaware County Council.

He said that in the fall the state awarded a Community Crossing grant of $730,863 that he plans to use for paving this summer.

Pending county council approval, Humbert said he hopes to pave Walnut Street between Delaware County Road 900-N and Eaton-Wheeling Pike; Black Cemetery Road between Ind. 67 and Gregory Road; County Road 550-E between Gregory Road and Eaton-Wheeling Pike; County Road 800-W between Ind. 67 and County Road 700-S and Proctor Road between 360-S and 400-S.

All together, the paving plan involves about six miles of county roads, Humbert said.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Muncie moves ahead with spring paving without Community Crossing grant
Wales has reached its "last chance to save nature", wildlife groups have warned.

More than 40 organisations have written to the Welsh government saying Wales has become "one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world".

The Senedd is set to pass a new agricultural bill this month, but charities have argued the "crucial" reforms do not go far enough.

The Welsh government called the legislation "transformational".

One in six species - from salmon to hedgehogs - is currently at risk of extinction in Wales, with 73 having already disappeared since the 1970s.

The group, which includes the WWF, RSPB and Wildlife Trust Wales, said in the letter seen by BBC Wales that none of the country's natural ecosystems - such as rivers or woodlands - is classed as resilient enough to face threats including climate change.

Nearly 90% of the land in Wales is farmed

Some farming organisations - including The Landworkers' Alliance and Nature-Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) - also signed the letter and said they were "increasingly concerned" the Agriculture (Wales) Bill would fail to deliver for wildlife.

They asked Members of the Senedd (MSs) to make changes before it is passed on 16 May.

The legislation will pave the way for a new funding model for farming - as pre-Brexit era subsidies are replaced by the Welsh government's Sustainable Farming Scheme.

Farming in Wales needs to be reformed, wildlife charities say

But the charities said the wording was too weak to influence real change and could prove "disastrous".

They want the phrase "restore nature" added as a clear objective of the plans to reform agriculture.

The bill currently uses an older concept of "maintain and enhance" rather than "restore" - lifted from the Environment (Wales) Act of 2016.

The organisations warned this does not match the ambition shown in a landmark global agreement on biodiversity at the COP15 summit in Canada last December, which highlighted there were "just seven years left to halt and reverse the loss of our natural world".

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Wales' commitment to biodiversity is not met by the proposed farming reforms, says WWF Cymru's Shea Buckland-Jones

"The way we manage land through agriculture is the biggest driver of nature loss in Wales," explained Shea Buckland-Jones, policy manager at WWF Cymru.

"So in turn the agriculture bill - if designed right - provides us with a once in a lifetime opportunity."

"This is about influencing the system that sits around farmers in Wales - they are the guardians of the land," he said.

"If we don't get this bill right, we won't be in a position to meet some of those targets that the Welsh government has signed up to at COP15."

Wales has a "once is a lifetime opportunity" to protect nature, according to conservationists

The proposed make-up of Wales' first bespoke agriculture bill has been the subject of furious lobbying from all sides - with farming unions emphasising the need to protect the country's network of small, family farms and boost food production.

This has already led to some concessions including the promise of ongoing "stability" payments for farmers and a simpler approach to the future funding scheme.

That will initially involve meeting a checklist of actions for farmers, from having 10% tree cover to reporting data on use of pesticides.

But environment groups worry these requirements are "low-hanging fruit" that many farmers would already be achieving.

Farmer Hywel Morgan says ambitious policies are needed

Hywel Morgan, chair of Nature Friendly Farming Network Cymru, said "ambitious government policy" was needed to support and reward a different way of farming.

"Nature-friendly farming is a triple win: it's good for nature, farmers and wider society," he said.

The Welsh government said the bill was "ambitious and transformational" and would "support farmers, sustainable food production, and to conserve and enhance the Welsh countryside, culture and language".

"One of the objectives of the bill is to maintain and enhance the resilience of ecosystems and the benefits they provide," it said.
A Clinton County man who originally told sheriffs deputies that he shot and killed a neighbors dog in self defense has pleaded guilty to aggravated cruelty to an animal, a Class 4 felony.

Dale E. Litteken, 62, of Aviston, will spend five weekends in jail, serve 18 months of probation, pay a $1,000 fine plus fees and court costs and undergo a state-mandated psychiatric evaluation, according to his Belleville attorney, Cory Easton, and the Clinton County states attorneys office.

Dale wanted to put an end to it, Easton said Wednesday morning after a hearing in Clinton County Circuit Court in Carlyle. Thats why he pleaded guilty. He just wants to go on with his life.

The dog, a Siberian husky named Trigger, was owned by the Timmons family, of rural Germantown. Hobie Timmons, 59, said he had expected the case to go to trial and was surprised that Litteken pleaded guilty.

They had so much evidence against him, Timmons said. We had him. Now its going to civil court. Well see what happens.

The shooting occurred Dec. 9, 2022, on property that Litteken owns in rural Germantown, between Aviston and Albers. He called the Clinton County Sheriffs Office and reported that he shot the dog because it had endangered his granddaughters safety.

The states attorneys office charged Litteken on Jan. 13 with aggravated cruelty to an animal.

Timmons told authorities that 11-year-old Trigger, a frequent visitor to Hidden Lake Winery in Aviston, was gentle and friendly and that Litteken had told him and other people that he planned to kill the dog if he saw it on his property again.

Clinton County sheriffs department did an awesome job (of investigating the case), Timmons said. Praise goes out to them. Everyone at the states attorneys office, they were with me. The whole county, as a matter of fact, the whole country was with me.

Timmons had demanded justice in Facebook posts, including photos of Trigger lying dead on a truck tailgate. That resulted in supportive comments from people all over the United States.

Story continues

An X marks the vicinity in rural Germantown, between Aviston and Albers, where a man shot and killed a neighbors Siberian husky, maintaining that the dog was a danger to his granddaughter.

A person convicted of a Class 4 felony can be sentenced to one to three years in prison. The states attorneys office negotiated the terms of Littekens plea deal, requiring only five weekends in jail, and Associate Judge Douglas Gruenke accepted them.

Our goal is always to obtain justice, States Attorney J.D. Brandmeyer said. Thats what we try to do in every case, including this one.

Timmons said he was happy with the plea agreement because Litteken can no longer legally possess guns. Under Illinois law, most convicted felons arent eligible for Firearm Owners Identification Cards.

Litteken wont be commenting on the case, according to his attorney.

I think Dale would have had a good shot to win at trial, Easton said. But he wanted to move on, and he thought (a guilty plea) was in the best interest of him and his family.

It was a mail carrier who called the Timmons family on Dec. 9, 2022, to let them know that Trigger was hurt and lying in their yard. The dog had made its way home, despite an estimated 100 shotgun pellets in its body.

Hobie Timmons son, Brent Timmons, drove to the house, put the dog on a board and rushed it to a Breese veterinary clinic, where it died.

Hobie Timmons attended the court hearing on Wednesday.

(Litteken) was as nervous as could be, he said. I just stared at him the whole time. I didnt talk to him. I didnt want any drama.

The Timmons family had to put down their other dog, a 10-year-old Saint Bernard named Raven, due to medical problems the same weekend that Trigger was killed, according to Hobie Timmons. Someone later gave them a silver Labrador retriever that they named Bullet.
Remember the last time the Clovis Police Department had to deal with armed hostage-takers? Or when radical insurgents took over city streets during Big Hat Days?

I sure dont. But in the event one of those scenarios becomes real, Clovis police are properly equipped.

Officers could arrive at a critical incident in one of two armored, all-terrain personnel vehicles at the departments disposal: an MRAP (which stands for Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) and a Lenco BearCat G3, both of which seat 10-12 officers and are designed with an open floor plan that allows for the rescue of downed personnel.

Once on scene, trained officers have at their disposal a number of options to bring such situations under control. For example, 40 mm launchers that fire projectiles up to 131 feet. Some are designed to penetrate windows and hollow doors, delivering a chemical payload inside a room; others are pyrotechnic and intended for outdoor use.

Clovis police also possess PepperBall launchers that disperse payloads of irritant chemicals; shotguns that fire nonlethal beanbags; 12 different varieties of chemical agent and smoke canisters; distraction devices that produce a thunderous bang with an intense bright light; an assortment of explosive breaching tools; and .308-caliber sniper rifles.

Opinion

This being 2023, unmanned aircraft systems (aka drones) are a must. Good thing Clovis PD owns 12 different types and intends to purchase three more during the current fiscal year, including two designed for indoor use.

How did I come by such detailed information? Its all described in the 30-page annual military equipment report presented to the City Council during Monday nights meeting, part of the departments compliance with a recently enacted state law.

AB 481, authored by state Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), mandates local and state law enforcement agencies gain authorization from their governing bodies prior to purchasing what the bill defines as military equipment. Agencies are also required to compile an annual report of their existing inventories that describes each item and their authorized uses.

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The bill, according to Chiu, was born out of police rolling up in armored vehicles and riot gear in response to largely peaceful protests during the summer of 2020.

The streets of California are not war zones, our citizens are not enemy combatants, Chiu said in a 2021 interview. Law enforcement in California are our community partners in public safety. They are not military generals, and weapons and equipment they use should reflect that reality.

Law requires police transparency

Note that AB 481 doesnt restrict the purchase or use of any weapons or tactical gear. It simply requires police and sheriffs to be up front about what they buy with our tax dollars.

Which is something citizens have every right to demand from publicly funded government agencies.

Not that Clovis council members saw it that way. Several made it clear they believed the entire exercise was something designed by liberal politicians in Sacramento for the sole purpose of making life more difficult for law enforcement.

The words transparency and accountability never entered the conversation. To this set of elected officials, the police departments military arsenal shouldve remained a closely guarded state secret.

We just did the homework for people, Clovis Mayor Lynne Ashbeck groused. We gave them a whole list.  I cant find a reason why we need to tell you what we have and are going to use against you. That doesnt make any sense.

Ashbeck didnt specify who she was referring to. But by implication, Im guessing she meant all the armed and dangerous individuals who at this moment are contemplating criminal activity in Clovis. All the would-be bank robbers, kidnappers and terrorists.

Whats this? Youre saying Clovis doesnt have a bunch of bank robberies, kidnappings and terrorist attacks?

Pfft, no matter. A violent crime spree could break out inside Sierra Vista Mall at any moment. One never knows.

Military equipment hardly used

Nor does it matter, apparently, that Clovis police hardly ever dust off their military equipment. The MRAP was utilized three times in 2022 and the BearCat zero, according to the report. Not a single heat, smoke or sponge round was fired. Nor any PepperBall launchers, blasting devices or beanbag shotguns.

Just because we dont use it doesnt mean we might not need it in the future, Clovis Police Lt. Craig Aranas reminded the council during Mondays meeting.

Its the same logic used by insurance salesmen and hoarders.

For the record, Clovis paid $431,133.42 for the BearCat that never left the parking lot last year. (The MRAP was evidently a donation.) Far be it for me to suggest that money couldve been better spent.

Certainly not at a time when the citys fiscally conservative elected leaders are mulling a sales tax increase to fund more police staffing and resources.

Clovis is hardly the only California city with military equipment for police. Most medium-to-large-sized departments, Fresno police included, have such gear in their inventory.

The meaning behind AB 41 isnt to put a thumb on law enforcement. Its to ensure that each city and county, through their elected representatives, set their own standards for how they are policed. The way things should be.

Whats more, public knowledge about a police departments military arsenal, understanding each piece of equipments function and purpose and the authorized users of said items, results in greater transparency. Which leads to increased trust.

Too bad the Clovis City Council, with its acute bunker mentality, completely missed the point.
Tom Dulat/Getty Images

Less than a page of the complaint lodged by a top CNBC journalist that eventually led to the abrupt dismissal of NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell last month detailed instances of his alleged pattern of sexual harassment, according to a copy obtained by The New York Times.

Instead, the vast majority of the complaint, which reportedly spans over a dozen pages, focuses on the broader toxic workplace culture fostered by network leadership.

In one case, Hadley Gamble details an incident where a manager called her what the Times characterized as a vulgar epithet for women in front of at least two of her colleagues. That epithet began with the letter c, according to earlier reporting on Tuesday by Axios, which attributed the slur to former CNBC vice president and international managing editor Patrick Allen. Allen departed the network earlier this year.

The complaint also names John Casey, the president and managing director of CNBC International, and accuses him of complicity as bullying and discrimination was allowed to thrive at the network under his watch. At one point, according to the Times, Casey warned Gamble that she had a behavioral problem, accusing her of bullying other journalists. She denied these claims in her complaint.

Gamble moved to file the complaint after the network opted not to renew her contract this year. Her complaint claims that Casey used the allegations of bullying as a reason not to retain her, alleging that such a justification would not have been deployed against a male journalist, according to the Times.

A spokesperson for Comcast, NBCUs parent company, said Tuesday that the investigation into Gambles complaint remained ongoing, more than a week after the company made the news of Shells departure public

In an April 23 statement, it was announced that Comcast and Shell had agreed to mutually part ways, with Shell saying in his own statement that he had had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company.

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He did not identify Gamble, whose name was reported by Deadline just hours later. Her lawyer subsequently approached NBC News to confirm that Gamble had filed claims of sexual harassment against Shell, calling it very disappointing that her privacy had been violated.

In the most detailed report of Gambles allegations against Shell yet, the Times reported Tuesday that she claimed he had pressured her for sex over a period of years, beginning when she was a junior producer and he was head of NBC International. After resisting his advances initially, Gamble eventually began a sexual relationship with Shell after realizing that her career would suffer otherwise, the complaint says.

Two people close to the situation told the newspaper that Shell chased Gamble over text and email for years, with Gamble turning those messages over to company investigators.

Comcast said last week that Shell was being fired for cause, and would not be paid severance. The company said that the estimated fair value of his forfeited or canceled stock options totaled $43.3 million.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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First minister leaves Merkel cabinet to become opposition leader

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's labour minister officially left her post on Thursday, a day after she was voted in as the leader of the Social Democratic Partys (SPD) parliamentary group when it goes into opposition.

GALLERY

Andrea Nahles, who served as labour minister in the grand coalition government between Merkels Christian Democrats (CDU) and the SPD, was officially released from her duties by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Berlin (dpa) - Andrea Nahles, who served as labour minister in the grand coalition government between Merkels Christian Democrats (CDU) and the SPD, was officially released from her duties by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.In her new post as opposition leader, Nahles - who pushed through an impressive amount of legislation as head of the Labour Ministry - will have the privilege of getting the first response to the chancellor in parliamentary debates.The move comes four days after Merkels conservative bloc reached a historically-low rate of support in an election that is forcing the long-serving chancellor to attempt an untried coalition with the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).The SPD has ruled out the option of forming another grand coalition with the CDU. This move has prevented the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has won parliamentary seats for the first time, from becoming the leading opposition party."Our country will need a functioning government and a strong and responsible opposition," Steinmeier said at Berlins Bellevue Palace after dismissing Nahles form the government.
Donald Trump Photo by Jaap Arriens / NurPhoto via Getty Images

It's been years since CNN hosted former President Donald Trump for an appearance or interview on the network he's long decried as "fake news" and an "enemy of the people." In fact, aside from his various invectives against the station on social media, the most significant interaction between Trump and CNN of late came several months ago in the form of a nearly $500 million defamation suit, alleging the network had enacted a "campaign of libel and slander" against the once and aspiring future president in its recent coverage. So it was surprising to some when CNN announced this week that Trump had nevertheless accepted an invitation to appear at an upcoming "town hall" interview on May 10, where he would answer questions from "a live audience of New Hampshire Republicans and undeclared voters who say they intend to vote in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary."

"CNN has a longstanding tradition of hosting leading presidential candidates for town halls and political events as a critical component of the network's robust campaign coverage," corporate owners Warner Media explained in a statement, adding that "this event with former President Trump will be the first of many for CNN in the coming months."

Is this 'journalistic suicide'?

Despite their business-as-usual posture, CNN's decision to platform someone that's based much of his political fortunes on attacking the media has raised some questions of whether the company truly internalized any lessons it might have learned from covering Trump's previous two campaigns.

CNN is "committing journalistic suicide," broadcaster and former CNN commentator Keith Olberman claimed, adding that "if there was ONE consensus about 2024 it was that 'covering' Trump the way they did in 2016 (handing him live blocks of free airtime with no fact-checking possible) was irresponsible." Olberman's concern over lessons not learned was echoed by Democratic Coalition co-founder Scott Dworkin, who questioned why CNN would "give the biggest pathological liar in politics a platform to spread his bullshit."

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Former Clinton administration official and Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf was slightly more prescriptive in his critique, predicting the town hall would be a "sham" unless Trump was forced to answer "why should any American voter support a candidate who sought to undermine the Constitution, institutions and values he was sworn to uphold?" Media Matters for America CEO Angelo Carusone shared a similar concern, conceding to The Guardian that ignoring Trump's commanding lead in the GOP presidential field "benefits no one." At the same time, he cautioned that if the network allows Trump to use the town hall to lie without pushback, "they have no excuse. CNN isn't being graded on a curve here."

What's inside CNN's 'compelling pitch' to team Trump?

Beyond simply questioning the wisdom of holding a Trump town hall as a mere newsworthy event in and of itself, however, Carusone also highlighted the larger context in which this is all taking place, noting that "this comes just as Fox's ratings are in freefall and CNN's shift [under new network chairman Chris Licht] hasn't borne any fruit."

This insinuation that there are broader forces at work is bolstered by additional reporting from The Associated Press, which cited "a Trump adviser who was not authorized to speak publicly" as claiming that "CNN executives made a compelling pitch to Trump" in order to lure him back to the network he so often disparaged. According to Guardian reporter Hugo Lowell, that compelling pitch is, at least in Trump's mind, an "understanding that campaign could get more surrogates on air." Here, then, the town hall becomes something of a quid pro quo, in which both parties move closer to their disparate, but not wholly unrelated, goals. For Trump, appearing on CNN is not only the first step of a broader effort to re-engage with the mainstream media outlets he has largely forsaken since 2020 but to overtly work to shape their coverage of him, as well. CNN, meanwhile, can continue to frame itself as successfully pivoting toward the political center, as has been a goal of Licht since he assumed control of the network last year.

There is, however, yet another layer of potential motivation animating this ostensibly mutually beneficial agreement between Trump and CNN. And unsurprisingly, at least when Trump is involved, it boils down to a single thing: revenge.

As Carusone hinted to The Guardian, Fox News and its rocky fortunes of late are the unspoken player in this complicated dynamic. By agreeing to appear on Fox News' chief cable news competitor, Trump is making "an implicit rebuke" of the network that had so conspicuously gone all in for him during his time in office, Politico's Alex Eisenstadt wrote this week.

"Those close to the former president privately contend that Fox News  and other outlets owned by Rupert Murdoch  have been favorable toward [Florida Republican Gov. Ron] DeSantis," Eisenstadt continued. Conservative commentator David Frum agreed, tweeting that Trump's preliminary embrace of CNN is "to punish Fox for its big tilt to DeSantis." Trump has also reportedly threatened to sit out on at least one of the Fox-hosted Republican presidential primary debates, allegedly asking one associate "why would I have [Fox anchor] Bret Baier" question him, after Baier was among the network figures who called the 2020 presidential race for Joe Biden.

That Trump is newsworthy for being the dominant Republican force in America today is unquestionable. That he will use his CNN appearance to articulate a clear vision for the country is less assured. That CNN is prepared to address the many challenges inherent in both covering and platforming Trump remains entirely to be seen.

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The second-degree murder trial of Laquarus Augustine, accused in the May 7, 2021, shooting at Liberty Arsenal that killed 52-year-old David Paul, started Tuesday. Augustine waived his right to a jury trial and is being tried by 9th Judicial District Court Judge Greg Beard.

Michael Paul doesn't remember much about the morning he and his youngest brother were shot, but the 911 call he made sticks out for him.

Paul was the second witness to testify Tuesday in Laquarus Dyon Augstine's second-degree murder trial. Augustine is accused in the May 7, 2021, shooting at Liberty Arsenal in Pineville that killed 52-year-old David Keith Paul.

Ramonte Lamar Jackson, 25, accepted a plea agreement a year ago in the case. Jackson, who was the one who fired the shots inside the store on La. Highway 28 East, was sentenced to life in prison without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence in David Paul's murder.

He received an additional 50 years for the attempted first-degree murder of Michael Paul.

On Monday, Augustine waived his right to a jury trial. The case is being heard by 9th Judicial District Court Judge Greg Beard.

911 call played

Before testimony started, Beard granted a defense motion to quash the indictment against Augustine. He agreed with defense co-counsel Christopher LaCour that when Rapides Parish Assistant District Attorney Lea Hall severed the attempted armed robbery charge from the second-degree murder charge, his wording essentially changed the charge to first-degree murder.

But Hall told Beard he would change the wording again so the trial could continue. LaCour objected and asked for a continuance, but Beard denied that.

Under questioning from Hall, Michael Paul said he and David had combined their pursuits into one store for a combination gun store and flea market. He testified that he isn't sure how many times he was shot.

He said three bullets were removed from his body, while five remain.

He told Hall he was shot twice in his chest, four to five times across his abdomen, twice in one leg and once in another. He spent two months in intensive care, some of that time in a coma. In all, he spent six months in the hospital and still suffers problems today.

Paul said he had no recollection of the shooting when he woke up. Hall asked him if he remembered the 911 call he made immediately after the shooting.

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"That's my major recollection, the 911 call," he said.

The call begins with Paul saying he and David have been shot. The dispatcher tries to get information from him, but he is panicked and in pain.

"Hurry up! I'm bleeding out!" Paul cries.

As the dispatcher connects to Acadian Ambulance, Paul can be heard moaning in pain. The dispatcher asks him about David, who is lying beside him.

"He's not breathing," he said. "Oh, David."

After the call finished, Hall asked Paul if he remembers anything about that day. He said he has flashbacks, like seeing muzzle flash, feeling bullets hit him and falling. He doesn't remember firing his gun at Jackson, but he did fire once.

David pulled his gun but didn't get to fire. He died from multiple gunshot wounds to his neck, torso and right arm, testified forensic pathologist Dr. Yen Van Vo.

Surveillance footage shows shooting

During afternoon testimony, Rapides Parish Sheriff's Detective Curtis Gunter, who works in digital forensics, narrated as surveillance videos from inside the store played. The videos show Jackson and another man who prosecutors allege is Augustine walking around the store for about 13 minutes.

The two leave, but Jackson later returns. He places a magazine clip on the counter and, as David Paul looks at it, he transfers a gun from his left to right hand and starts shooting.

'Senseless'" Shooting leaves community with many questions

Detective: Man used ruse to distract Liberty Arsenal owner before shooting him, brother

Decision triggers anger: Outburst delays arraignment of defendant in Liberty Arsenal fatal shooting

Jackson ran out, but returns about 10 seconds later. The video shows him lean over the counter and continue shooting the men, who both were on the floor, said Gunter.

Augustine was driving Jackson's vehicle, Hall contended in his opening statement.

Another defendant testifies

Cliron Price was the last witness on Tuesday. Price testified that Augustine called him and asked him to pick him up from a home on Orchard Loop in Wardville. He said he took Augustine and Jackson to a house on Bertie Street in Alexandria, and later drove Jackson to Baton Rouge.

Price later was arrested in connection to the case. He accepted a plea deal in September 2021, pleading guilty to obstruction of criminal justice, being an accessory after the fact, aggravated flight from an officer and illegal carrying of a weapon with drugs.

He also agreed to testify against Jackson and Augustine, if necessary. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Price, when asked by Hall, said he only learned what the two were involved in when he saw a news media report later on the day of the shooting.

Testimony is set to continue Wednesday morning with lead Detective Andre Clark taking the stand.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: 911 call played during Laquarus Augustine's 2nd-degree murder trial
Carnival Cruise ship MH-60J rescue ocean

Few jobs in aviation are quite as demanding as operating helicopters in a maritime environment once the weather takes a turn for the worse. And while episodes highlighting the incredible bravery of the U.S. Coast Guard are by no means unfamiliar to us, this recent video is especially noteworthy for showing just how close to the limits the Coasties operate their helicopters  when the situation demands it  and how very real danger is never far away.

The video in question shows a Coast Guard MH-60T Jayhawk attempting to evacuate a passenger onboard a cruise liner. While missions of this kind are fairly routine for the services medium-range recovery helicopter fleet, in this instance the Jayhawk comes perilously close to ending up in the sea after hitting a brutal bit of bad weather as it flies away from the ship.

https://twitter.com/thenewarea51/status/1653195668268417025?s=20 https://twitter.com/aviationbrk/status/1653322004261371904?s=20 https://twitter.com/boxermomma729/status/1652323791375089664?s=20

While these videos appeared on social media only recently, the Coast Guard confirmed to The War Zone that the hazardous-looking medical evacuation (medevac) mission happened last Saturday, approximately 300 miles offshore of Fort Morgan, Alabama.

According to the Coast Guards own statement, one of its Jayhawk helicopters got into trouble during the attempt to retrieve a 76-year-old man "experiencing heart attack-like symptoms" from the cruise ship Carnival Dream. Operated by Carnival Cruise Line, this huge vessel is a little more than 1,000 feet long and plies its trade out of Galveston, Texas, carrying as many as 3,600 passengers to the Caribbean and the Panama Canal.

Also involved in the medevac effort was another Jayhawk, as well as one of the Coast Guards HC-144 Ocean Sentry medium-range surveillance aircraft, based on the twin-turboprop Airbus CN-235.

The first Jayhawk, operating out of Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans, and the Ocean Sentry, from Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile, had originally been called in to carry out the medevac at around 4:31 A.M. when one of the crew members aboard the cruise ship reported the passenger in distress. Each Jayhawk normally operates with a crew of four: typically, a pilot, copilot, crew chief, and rescue diver or medic.

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A U.S. Coast Guard MH-60T Jayhawk. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Lisa Ferdinando

The [first] Jayhawk aircrew arrived on scene and lowered their rescue swimmer, the Coast Guard said. While hoisting a cruise ship nurse, a severe squall caused the aircrew to back off from the ship. The helicopter then encountered a severe downwind, prompting the aircrew to recover the aircraft close to the waters surface. Both the Jayhawk helicopter and Ocean Sentry aircraft returned to base due to [poor] weather.

Cmdr. Keith Blair, commanding officer of Air Station New Orleans, provided more details of the abortive medevac by the first MH-60: During the rescue, the aircrew experienced severe and rapidly deteriorating weather that forced them to abort the mission. Through exceptional real-time risk management, crew resource management, and superb piloting, the aircrew was able to safely recover the aircraft and land at the air station without further incident.

@thenewararea51, a commercial helicopter pilot and friend of the site had a similar take on what was seen in the video:

"Im thinking that they saw the storm coming, and they didnt want to be connected to the hoist line and close to the ship in case of a strong downdraft, and it looks like thats what they encountered."

Despite the worsening weather, a second Air Station New Orleans Jayhawk later returned to the scene, successfully hoisted the patient and rescue swimmer, and transferred the patient to awaiting emergency medical services personnel at University Medical Center in New Orleans.

All in all, these videos give an idea of just how dangerous the work of the Coast Guard can be, and the very limited margin of error once the weather really takes a turn for the worse over the open ocean. Above even that, the video shows just how fast things can go from fine to terrifying and underscores the determination and sheer skill of the services personnel  people who risk their own lives every day in order to save others.

UPDATE 5/3/2023

In response to additional queries about this incident from The War Zone, a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard's District 8 has now provided the following statement:

"The Coast Guard places the utmost importance in the safety of the men and women performing our oftentimes dangerous missions. We will be conducting an investigation into the circumstances which caused this incident in order to ensure the continued safety of our crews during severe weather operations."

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com
A second man named as a suspect in an April shooting that left one man dead and another injured near Ohio State Universitys campus has been arrested by Columbus police.

Shemar A. Franklin, 26, of the city's East Side, turned himself in Monday at the Franklin County jail, according to a media release from the Columbus Division of Police. Franklin has been charged with murder and felonious assault and awaits his first court appearance May 10, according to Franklin County Municipal Court's online docket.

Read the series: Under Fire: A look at how gun violence has taken a toll across Columbus

Franklin is one of three men who Columbus police have said are suspected of involvement in a fatal shooting in the early hours of April 21 on the 1700 block of North High Street. Columbus police and Ohio State police had both received reports of gun shots around 2:40 a.m. that morning at the intersection of North High Street and East 12th Avenue, which is across the street from the university's student activity center known as the Ohio Union.

When officers arrived at the scene, Columbus police said they found two men with gunshot wounds, both of whom were transported to separate hospitals.

Deijon Bedgood, 25, was pronounced dead at 3:04 a.m. at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Another 27-year-old man treated at a hospital where he was listed as being in stable condition, according to a police media release.

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Surveillance video and a witness identified Franklin as the suspect who was fighting with the 27-year-old man who survived when he pulled out a gun and shot him, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Raymond C. Ladd, 26, of the Southeast Side, was arrested at the scene. In a probable cause affidavit, Columbus homicide detectives said that Ladd was identified by surveillance video as being the gunman who shot Bedgood in the chest and killed him.

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Ladd has since been indicted by a Franklin County grand jury for aggravated murder, murder, attempted murder and felonious assault  all charges that include firearm specifications. He was scheduled to appear Wednesday afternoon in Franklin County Common Pleas Court for an arraignment.

Six days after the shooting, Columbus police released a photo of a third man who they believe was involved in the altercation and ensuing shooting. That man remains unidentified and at large.

Columbus police have identified a third person of interest in connection with a fight that led to one man being fatally shot and another wounded on April 21 at the intersection of North High Street and East 12th Avenue near the Ohio State Universitys campus.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts the third man can call the Columbus Division of Police's homicide bureau at 614-774-7810 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.

elagatta@dispatch.com

@EricLagatta

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man turns himself in for fatal shooting near Ohio State
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas: Even if he's found to have breached ethics rules, what can anyone do about it? (Robert Franklin / Associated Press)

It's hardly a secret that the public standing of the Supreme Court is in a bad way.

The reasons go beyond a string of recent rulings that run counter to the weight of public opinion  eviscerating abortion rights, shrinking voting rights, undermining gun safety regulations among them.

But the court now has another problem, namely, increasing doubts about the justices' ethical standards.

A formal code of conduct would provide clearly stated, visible rules and procedures to which the justices are expressly committed.

Jeremy Fogel, UC Berkeley Law School

The doubts arise from publicity about a potentially improper financial relationship between Justice Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow, a wealthy real estate developer; questions about whether Thomas and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. should have recused themselves because of the appearance (at least) of conflicts of interest due to their wives' activities; and questions about whether Thomas and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch made adequate disclosures about their financial transactions.

Beyond the specifics, the allegations have focused attention on an inconvenient fact about the ethical atmosphere at the Supreme Court: Uniquely among federal judges, the justices of the Supreme Court aren't subject to an explicit code of conduct.

"The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) stated in opening a hearing on the issue Tuesday. "That reality is driving a crisis in public confidence in the Supreme Court."

The debate about imposing an explicit code of conduct on the Supreme Court has foundered on a constitutional shoal  specifically, whether Congress could promulgate a code without breaking the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine, which assigns specific duties and limitation on all three branches of government.

"Obviously, the ideal would be for the court to do this for itself," Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley Law School and a constitutional scholar, told me. If it doesn't, he says, Congress must step in. As for whether that would breach the separation of powers, he says, "It never has been thought that Congress imposing an ethical code on the executive branch violates separation of powers. I do not see why it is any different for the judicial branch."

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For Congress to mandate the outcome of a specific case would certainly cross a constitutional line, legal experts agree. But the Constitution does vest Congress with significant authority over the Supreme Court, including setting the size of the court, its budget and justices' pay. To a certain extent, Congress can even remove certain categories of legal cases from the court's appellate jurisdiction.

The collapse in the court's public standing is indisputable. "Americans ratings of the Supreme Court are now as negative as  and more politically polarized than  at any point in more than three decades of polling on the nations highest court," the Pew Research Center reported in September.

As recently as August 2020, the Pew researchers noted, 70% of Americans held favorable views of the court. In its most recent polling, Pew found that only 48% of the public still saw the court favorably.

The erosion of the court's public esteem is not due entirely to the tenor of its recent decisions, UC Berkeley law professor Jeremy Fogel, a former federal and California state judge and currently executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, told the committee.

Among other important factors, Fogel mentioned "a persistently hyperpartisan political environment ... and the pervasiveness of social media as a source of misinformation and disinformation about the law, the judicial process and the judges and justices to whom that process is entrusted."

That environment, he said, makes it more imperative that the ethical responsibilities of Supreme Court justices be formally defined: "Too many Americans already think that the justices decide cases based on their political preferences and alliances rather than the law; lack of clarity about the justices' ethical obligations only feeds that perception."

Republicans on the Judiciary Committee tried to paint concerns about the justices' ethical responsibilities as pure partisanship  "a concentrated effort by the left to delegitimize the court and to cherry-pick examples to make a point," huffed Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the committee's ranking Republican.

The GOP's lead witness, former Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey, dismissed the most oft-cited alleged ethical breaches as the product of innocent paperwork errors or mere bagatelles. "The public is being asked to hallucinate misconduct so as to undermine the authority of justices who issue rulings with which these critics disagree," he said.

But that won't do. The questions apply to Thomas' acceptance of and failure to disclose lavish benefits from a rich friend who apparently had business before the court on at least one occasion; about his participating on cases related to the 2020 election results while his wife was actively involved with White House efforts to challenge the results; and about Chief Justice Roberts' sitting on at least one case in which one of his wife's legal clients may have represented litigants.

The issues aren't imaginary or trivial. At best, they point to the justices' apparent failure to comply with ethics rules that they themselves acknowledge apply to them. In a statement provided to Durbin's committee on April 25, the nine justices said that they "consult a wide variety of authorities to address specific ethical issues," including judicial opinions, scholarly articles and historical practices.

To the extent they observe the code of conduct for federal judges issued by the Judicial Conference of the United States, however, the justices indicated that they do so voluntarily.

That's also the case with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, which requires all "judicial officers" of the U.S. to file financial disclosure reports listing outside income, gifts and investments, among other mandates.

Whether the Supreme Court is subject to the act hasn't been tested in court  after all, the question might be aired before the court itself  but the justices' statement simply said that they "comply with the substance of those regulations," as they said they also do with other statutory rules governing gifts to federal employees.

Whether Thomas and Gorsuch fully complied with the Ethics in Government Act rules in connection with their financial transactions, as it happens, is subject to question. The law's penalties for noncompliance are generally modest; cases of willful violation can be referred to the Department of Justice. The department's authority typically extends to imposing a civil penalty, though criminal prosecution is technically possible in especially egregious cases.

Nor have the issues been raised exclusively by "the left," as Graham and his fellow Republicans asserted. A ringing critique of the court's casual approach to its ethical obligations came to the committee from former federal appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig, who helped prepare Thomas for his confirmation hearings in 1991.

"To whatever extent the court does not subject itself to the highest possible professional and ethical standards  or only grudgingly does so," Luttig observed in a written statement to the committee, "to an even greater extent does it depreciate ... its power to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution."

In any event, every currently sitting justice has been criticized for alleged ethical lapses by the nonpartisan watchdog Fix the Court, typically for failing to recuse him- or herself on cases in which a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict existed.

Voluntary compliance with federal ethics and disclosure laws isn't enough to quell suspicions about the court's integrity. "A formal code of conduct would provide clearly stated, visible rules and procedures to which the justices are expressly committed," Fogel testified. That points to what may be the thorniest issue related to Supreme Court ethics: Who would enforce the code, and how?

Fogel suggested that a confidential panel comprising retired appellate judges of "unquestioned integrity" could provide justices with "confidential advice as to whether an act, omission or relationship raises an issue under the code."

That points to the question of what can be done about a Supreme Court justice who flatly refuses to abide by the rules?

The only disciplinary process for the court contemplated by the Constitution is impeachment by the House and removal from office by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. Otherwise, justices remain in office subject to the nebulous standard of "good behavior."

Impeaching and removing a Supreme Court justice for a financial misdeed or even flouting an order under the Ethics in Government Act might appear to be overkill. "To come up with some process for discipline short of impeachment is going to be particularly challenging," Fogel told me, "and I'm not sure it's possible."

Federal law requires judges to disqualify, or recuse, themselves in cases in which their "impartiality might reasonably be questioned." The decision is generally left up to the judge, with oversight by the Judicial Conference, but there's no method of applying that oversight to the Supreme Court. Recusal by a Supreme Court justice, moreover, raises a unique issue  a lower court judge can be replaced by a colleague, but not a Supreme Court justice. That raises the prospect that an untimely recusal might produce an evenly divided high court, resulting in an unjust outcome.

The only real option, and perhaps the best option, is for the Supreme Court to proactively subject its nonjudicial activities  financial, personal and family relationships  to public scrutiny and allow the force of moral suasion and the concept of shame to play out.

Up to now, the justices have fostered the impression that they believe conflict of interest rules apply to everyone in the country except themselves.

The harvest has been increasing public doubt about whether some of their decisions reflect sound principles of law or serve the concealed interests of friends, family members or gift-givers. They can ignore the shadows looming over their credibility for a time, but why would they want to?

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Oregon legislation that would ban "ghost guns," raise the minimum age of purchase and possession for certain firearms, and allow local governments to prohibit concealed guns in their buildings and grounds has advanced to the Senate.

House Bill 2005 is a result of a workgroup convened by House Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, last summer. It included Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, Rep. Lisa Reynolds, D-Portland, and Rep. Dacia Grayber, D-Portland.

The bill  formerly three bills but now rolled into one  would prohibit the manufacturing, sale and possession of unserialized guns. Possessing a firearm without a serial number on or after Sept. 1, 2024, could be punished by a $1,000 fine. A second conviction would be a $6,250 fine and/or 364 days in jail and any additional convictions could result in 10 years imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine.

Dozens of homemade firearms and components found at a Salem home in 2022.

HB 2005 would also prohibit Oregonians younger than 21 from possessing a firearm unless it is a certain rifle or shotgun. Those violating the rule could be punished by a maximum of 364 days imprisonment, a $6,250 fine, or both.

Oregonians younger than 21 who owned a firearm before the effective date of the bill or who give up the gun prior to prosecution would not be punished.

The bill would also extend the ability to prohibit concealed carry of firearms to local governments. Should a local government prohibit concealed weapons on their property, those in violation could be convicted of a Class A misdemeanor punishable by 364 days imprisonment, a $6,250 fine, or both.

In public hearings, the bill received an outcry from gun owners, gun rights advocates and Republicans. But it drew strong support from advocates, including members of Moms Demand Action, and at times emotional testimony from Democrats and those impacted by gun violence.

An 'Oregon solution' to gun violence

Speaking about his work on the bill, Evans said he joined the workforce after Rayfield made him an offer he could not refuse. He said it was among the best experiences he has had at any work group in his five terms in office.

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On the House floor, he urged lawmakers to support the bill, calling it a "common sense approach to a problem we all wish we didnt have to try to solve."

He called facts on mass shootings and gun violence "ugly," saying six of the nine deadliest shootings in the United States in recent years were committed by people younger than 21.

Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, looks on during a Jan. 9 House session at the Oregon State Capitol.

The New York Times reported on the pattern in detail in 2022, finding that only two of the 30 deadliest mass shootings from 1949 to 2017 involved shooters younger than 21.

"We can not do everything," Evans said. "But that does not mean we can not do anything or something."

Evans also said the bill would prevent a statewide prohibition of concealed weapons "that could very much come" and instead would give communities the opportunity to decide for themselves.

An emotional Kropf also provided a statement on the floor. He spoke of 2022's Safeway shooting where a 20-year-old shooter killed 84-year-old Glenn Bennet and 66-year-old Donald Ray Surrett Jr in Bend.

"Gun violence has pervaded every aspect of American life," he said. "It's simply not acceptable."

"In August of this last year, we had a shooting in Bend. Two people in my town were murdered. The perpetrator was a 20 year old. At the scene, the police recovered over 100 shell casings ... they also recovered an AR-15," he said. "With the passage of this bill, that would not be allowed. We can respect the rights of responsible gun owners. We can invest in needed services that are gonna help make us safer and we can have common sense rules about firearms as we collectively work to create safer communities."

Reynolds referred to the bill as an Oregon solution to the epidemic of gun violence. She was a volunteer with Moms Demand Action before being elected into office.

Other lawmakers who spoke in support of the bill included Grayber, Rep. Travis Nelson, D-Portland, Rep. Khan Pham, D-Portland, and Rep. Zach Hudson, D-Troutdale.

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum celebrated the vote Tuesday. It is the fourth session she has requested that lawmakers address ghost guns.

I sincerely hope the 4th times a charm! Rosenblum said in a statement. I commend Speaker Rayfield and the legislative sponsors of HB 2005 for moving this important set of policies forward. This bill supports law enforcement in their investigative efforts and will help ensure that these deadly weapons are not readily available to those who cannot pass a background check.

Republicans warn of impending litigation

Republicans refused to submit their vote until they were called upon and most prefaced their nays with exclamations of "unconstitutional."

They warned Democrats that the bill was going to result in a lawsuit and pointed to ongoing litigation surrounding Measure 114, a ballot measure Oregon voters passed in 2022 that remains stalled in the state Supreme Court.

Defending Measure 114 in state and federal court has cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars, Jeffrey Helfrich, R-Hood River, said. He questioned why lawmakers would pass a bill that could result in additional lawsuits as Oregon faces lower revenues and tighter budgets.

We are inviting a lawsuit," Rep. Mark Owens, R-Canby, said on the floor. "The state will get sued, the state will lose and taxpayers will foot the bill."

Several said that the bill went against constitutional protections of citizens' right to keep and bear arms.

"The Constitution specifically delineates that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," Rep. Christine Goodwin, R-Canyonville, said.

She called the bill a "direct contradiction to our fundamental constitutional protections."

Republicans also said the bill would punnish law-abiding gun owners and they shared stories of their children who would not be allowed to possess firearms under the bill.

"Why can't I protect my daughter?" Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, asked. Taking away the rights of folks who have done nothing wrong isnt a solution."

House Republican Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, decried the passage in a statement after the vote.

Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, speaks during a Jan. 9 House session at the Oregon State Capitol.

Nothing in this legislation will make our streets safer. House Democrats took three separate pieces of legislation, each with their own flaws, and combined them into one complex and extreme omnibus gun bill. Rather than strip Oregonians of their constitutional rights, this body should pass legislation in line with those bills previously provided in the Safe Schools Package, she said.

In March, Republicans pushed the House to reconsider a package of seven bills they refer to as the "Safe Schools Package." The motions failed.

The package included legislation that would provide state funds for school resource officers, require school districts that ban concealed guns on campus to install metal detectors an require schools to have panic alarms, among other things.

After the vote, Republican lawmakers gathered to hold a large $25,000 check they said represented the money they have committed to donate towards "impending litigation to protect the Second Amendment rights of Oregonians."

The bill received 35 votes in favor and 24 votes against. It now heads to the Oregon Senate for approval.

Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on Twitter @DianneLugo.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Gun control bill moves forward in Oregon House, heads to Senate
Communities In Schools of Jacksonville will host its annual Rising Stars talent show May 4 at the Florida Theatre in downtown Jacksonville.

The talent show celebrates these students with a showcase full of fun and heart for all to enjoy while supporting the organizations programs for kids.

Dozens of students will take center stage at 6 p.m.

The event will also feature a silent auction and cocktail hour.

Read: St. Johns River Ferry resumes service on May 3rd after maintenance

Tickets are $50 for general admission, $35 for young professionals, and $20 for kids aged 5-18.

Proceeds will support the agencys case management, after school, and literacy programs, which have helped thousands of struggling students  including the Stars youll see on stage.

ead: Miya Marcanos legacy: Virginia enacts version of Miyas Law to strengthen renter safety

Action News Jaxs Chandler Morgan will emcee the event!

Tickets are available for purchase through at CISJAX.ORG.

Rising Stars 2023 - Communities In Schools (urlisolation.com)

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Read: Black Keys, Mumford and Sons headlining Sing Out Loud Festival this September in St. Augustine

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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.
Prosecutors declared Wednesday they are seeking the death penalty against Mario Fernandez Saldana, a co-defendant in what authorities have called a planned hit on his wife's ex-husband, Jared Bridegan, after a custody visit with their children in Jacksonville Beach.

He was arrested on March 16 in Orange County on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse. It came the same day State Attorney Melissa Nelson announced that Henry Arthur Tenon, 62, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting and was the triggerman. He was the first one charged in the case on Jan. 25.

Tenon agreed to testify against Fernandez Saldana, 35, and any others who may have been involved in the 2022 ambush of Bridegan, 33. Tenon had rented a home from Fernandez Saldana, Nelson said.

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Who is Henry Tenon? The first suspect arrested in the death of Jared Bridegan

In 2018 Fernandez Saldana married Shanna Gardner, whose parents recently said they have been estranged for some time. Gardner, who had moved to Washington state with her children after intense media coverage of the case, has not spoken to the Times-Union since June when she said she wanted people to know where she was coming from considering all of the attention.

Authorities have not discussed motive, but the arrest warrant states "the investigation into Bridegans background revealed a highly acrimonious divorce from his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and a contentious relationship with both Gardner and Fernandez Saldana."

No other suspects have been named, but the state attorney advised it is still an active investigation.

Mario Fernandez Saldana enters a Duval County courtroom where the prosecution advised the judge Wednesday its intent to pursue the death penalty for Jared Bridegan's 2022 slaying in Jacksonville Beach.

Fernandez Saldana and Tenon are accused of planning the attack on Bridegan, who was shot on Feb. 16, 2022, after dropping his twin children off at Mario and Shanna's Jacksonville Beach home. Bridegan was on his way home to St. Augustine with his 2-year-old daughter when he stopped because of a tire on Sancturay Road.

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Early in the investigation, police said they didn't think the tire being there was an accident. It was a dark, residential road that Bridegan routinely took to get to Butler Boulevard. When he turned his hazard lights on and got out to move it, he was immediately gunned down, police said. The toddler was unharmed in her safety seat and nothing appeared to be stolen.

Investigators determined the tire came from a 2004 Ford F-150 Lariat and released video images of the truck to the media. It was determined Tenon owned an F-150 Lariat which led to him being questioned, according to arrest documents.

An arrest warrant included financial records from Tenon's bank on Oct. 14, 2022, that showed three handwritten checks from Fernandez Saldana. Phone records also showed the two had communicated 35 times during the month of Bridegan's attack.

Jared Bridegan

At Wednesday's hearing, Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler advised that the state gives notice of intention to pursue capital punishment. She laid out the following applicable statutory aggravating circumstances:

The defendant was previously convicted of another capital felony or a felony involving the use or threat of violence to a person, the capital felony was committed for pecuniary gain, the capital felony was a homicide committed in cold, calculated, premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.

State Attorney's Office spokesman David Chapman clarified that "to avoid confusion, the word 'previous' in this case would be the child abuse charge in the current indictment  in the future penalty phase following the guilt portion of trial, Fernandez Saldana would have that felony conviction."

Judge London Kite scheduled June 20 for Fernandez Saldana's next court date. Tenon has a status hearing scheduled for June 7, according to court records. His plea agreement means he will be sentenced to 15 years to life.

Kirsten Bridegan, left, Jared Bridegan's widow, is consoled by Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler, right, following Wednesday's hearing announcing the state's intent to seek the death penalty against Mario Fernandez Saldana. Kirsten's mother, center, also attended the Duval County Courthouse hearing.

Widow Kirsten Bridegan and other family members attended the hearing as they have been. She provided the following statement afterward:

The announcement today is another significant step toward justice. The knowledge that the state pursuing the death penalty for Mario Fernandez Saldana is welcome news because it signifies determination and the relentless pursuit of justice for Jared, our family, and the community. We arent backing down to those involved in the heinous, cold-blooded murder of my husband in front of our daughter.

"I take comfort knowing Abby and Liam are no longer living with Mario and I hope all evil surrounding them and our family will be removed in due time," she continued about their twin children. "Jared is loved and missed more than words can express and we deeply feel his loss. While we know he is gone, we take comfort in knowing the prosecution team and law enforcement remain unrelenting in their efforts and are committed to holding everyone involved in Jareds murder accountable. They continue to have our support and gratitude.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Death penalty sought in Jacksonville Beach murder of Jared Bridegan
GoFundMe

Seventeen-year-old Jordan DeMay was a homecoming king, a star athlete and a beloved role model at Marquette Senior High School in Michigan. He was also the victim of what investigators say was an international sextortion ring that pushed him to take his life last March.

Disturbing Instagram messages between the teen and an alleged Nigerian scammer, who posed as a teenage girl to extort him, were revealed Wednesday by U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten after a monthslong investigation that led to the indictment of three men.

Samuel Ogoshi, 22, Samson Ogoshi, 20, and Ezekiel Ejehem Robert, 19, all of Lagos, Nigeria, were charged in a four-count indictment for the sextortion of DeMay.

According to the indictment, DeMay was sexually extorted on Instagram by the three scammers, who allegedly encouraged DeMay to send explicit photos of himself that were later used to blackmail him for money.

Its an increasingly common tactic in a crime that is on the rise. Perpetrators often pretend to be someone else, encouraging victims to send sexual messages or photos that are then used to blackmail them, Totten said.

In this case, the scammers allegedly purchased a hacked Instagram account under the handle dani.robertts and posed as a teenage girl who chatted to DeMay via DM. At some point, she urge DeMay to send nude photographs.

When DeMay obliged, dani.robertts, who prosecutors say was actually Ogoshi, allegedly threatened to send the photos to DeMays family and friends.

All youve to do is to cooperate with me and I wont expose you, Ogoshi allegedly wrote to DeMay, demanding $1000.

DeMay paid $300 to Ogoshi, the indictment says, but he continued to threaten the teen.

Im kms rn [kill myself right now], DeMay wrote at one point. Bc of you.

Good, Ogoshi responded in subsequent messages, according to the indictment. Do that fast. Or Ill make you do it. I swear to God.

DeMay died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the exchange.

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As parents, we cannot begin to imagine what Jordan went through that night and how scared he was because of this senseless act, Jennifer Buta, DeMays mother, said at a news conference Wednesday announcing the indictment.

Totten revealed that DeMay was just one of many targeted victims in the trios global sextortion operation.

The indictment, which was unsealed this morning, alleges these defendants targeted more than 100 victims, both minors and adults, Totten said.

The extradition process is underway in collaboration with the Nigerian government, Totten said. He added that the investigation is still ongoing, and more defendants may be charged in the future.

A GoFundMe has been organized on behalf of the DeMay family.

If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. You can also text or dial 988.

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Police officers arrest an activist from Just Stop Oil in October. The authorities now have new powers to tackle protesters. (AP Photo)

'Draconian' anti-protest laws that bolster police officers' powers to tackle protesters have been rolled out ahead of King Charles's coronation on Saturday.

The controversial new measures in the Public Order Bill came into effect just days before thousands of people are expected to take to the streets to protest the coronation, in what many critics have

Amnesty International UKs Chief Executive Sacha Deshmukh told Yahoo News UK: "With the Government increasingly intolerant of nearly all protest, this weekend will be an important test of whether peaceful protests are even now possible amid draconian new anti-protests laws and highly interventionist police forces.

Those who wish to publicly register their disapproval of the monarchy and of King Charles ought to be able to do so without fear of arrest or indeed of violence from bystanders on the streets.

There must be no repeat of last years heavy-handed police reaction to peaceful protests in the aftermath of the Queens death. The UK has a long and proud history of street protest and this should be facilitated this weekend alongside the celebrations.

King Charles gave his royal assent to the bill on Tuesday, with his coronation being described as a "test" of the police's new powers to tackle protesters. (AP)

The new rules, which were given royal assent by King Charles on Tuesday, include up to 12 months in prison for protesters blocking roads, airports and railways, and up to six months behind bars for protesters "locking on" to others, objects or buildings.

The former shadow attorney general, Shami Chakrabarti, highlighted issues with the new rules, including the broad term "locking on".

"During the passage of this illiberal and headline-grabbing legislation, ministers admitted that the new offence of locking on is so broad as to catch peaceful protesters who link arms in public," she told The Guardian.

Read more: Just Stop Oil to march near Westminster Abbey every day until Kings Coronation

Critics have also questioned the timing of the rules coming into effect - just days ahead of the coronation - when they were initially set to be rolled out in June following disruptive protests by groups such as Just Stop Oil. However, the Home Office reportedly described the timing as a coincidence.

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In a statement, home secretary Suella Braverman said: "The public shouldnt have their daily lives ruined by so called eco-warriors causing disruption and wasting millions of pounds of taxpayer money.

Home secretary Suella Braverman said the powers would be used to deal with a "selfish minority" of protesters. (Getty Images)

"The selfish minority must not be allowed to get away with this. We are giving our police and courts the tools they need to stop this chaos and I back them in making full use of these powers."

Although the government has suggested the timing is a coincidence, protest groups said they had been reminded of the new rules in a "very odd" letter from the Home Office's Police Powers Unit.

Read more: Coronation protesters sent 'intimidatory' letter by Home Office

According to campaign group Republic, the letter reminded protesters of the new measures, listing the new criminal offences and adding: "I would be grateful if you could publicise and forward this letter to your members who are likely to be affected by these legislative changes".

Republic's Graham Smith said the letter was "intimidatory", adding: "We've been liaising closely with the police about the protest for weeks - we've had meetings with them.

"They've said very clearly that they have no problems with our plans. I just can't understand why the Home Office thinks it's appropriate to send a letter like that, which was anonymous in terms of no person's name on it."

The Home Office declined to comment on the letter.
King Charles has been spotted leaving Westminster Abbey after attending rehearsals for his coronation on Saturday.

The Prince and Princess of Wales, along with their three children were also in attendance at the rehearsal.

Prince George, nine, will be a Page of Honour to the King at Saturdays ceremony, alongside Camillas three grandsons.

The rehearsals follow an incident at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening (2 May), where a man was arrested after throwing suspected shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds, police said.

He was held on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon after he was searched and a knife was found, but he was not carrying a gun. The man was also carrying a suspicious bag and a controlled explosion was carried out.

Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan said the man spoke to a police officer on guard and asked to speak to a soldier before throwing the cartridges over the gates.

Mr Adelekan said that while being arrested, the man raised officers suspicions about his backpack by telling them it needed to be handled correctly.

Coronation news  latest updates

Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis join William and Kate at coronation rehearsal

Meet the Pages of Honour and Ladies in Attendance at the coronation

Everyone we know invited to King Charles coronation  from Prince Harry to Princess Charlene of Monaco

IN PICTURES: Royal mega-fans set up camp along coronation procession route

Coronation Concert stage with Windsor Castle backdrop revealed as 20,000 set to attend

Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis join William and Kate at coronation rehearsal

15:38 , Ellie Muir

Prince William and Prince Louis arrive at rehearsals for Kings coronation ahead of Saturdays ceremony (PA Images)

King Charles III coronation: What happens in sacred anointing ceremony?

15:30 , Ellie Muir

The coronation of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla is less than a week away, taking place on Saturday 6 May.

As we approach the big day, Buckingham Palace has been revealing more details about the events that will unfold as Britain crowns a new monarch for the first time in more than 70 years.

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The last coronation that took place was that of the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Since her death in September 2022, King Charles ascended the throne and the royal family has seen several role changes.

Read the full story below:

What will happen during King Charles anointing in coronation ceremony?

Meet the Pages of Honour and Ladies in Attendance at the coronation

15:00 , Ellie Muir

The King and Queen Consort each have four Pages of Honour supporting them on the day of the coronation  schoolboys who are family friends or close relatives.

Full story:

Meet the Pages of Honour and Ladies in Attendance at the coronation

IN PICTURES: Royal mega-fans set up camp along coronation procession route

14:42 , Kate Ng

A number of fans of the royal family have begun setting up camp along the coronation procession route, as dress rehearsals get underway for the big day.

Royal fan Ardis Ryberg from Arkansas, US, who is camping out on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace in central London, ahead of the coronation of King Charles III (PA)

A man wearing a Union Flag suit stands with a cardboard cut-out of King Charles III as he waits on the planned route of the Coronation procession (Getty Images)

Royal fan Mary-Jane Willows from Cornwall, who is camping out on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace in central London (PA)

Royalist John Loughrey speaks to journalists as he sits next to his tent on the planned route of the Coronation procession (Getty Images)

Royalists wear Union flag costumes and badges as they sit with their tents on the planned route of the Coronation procession (Getty Images)

The fascinating history behind the chair King Charles will sit on at his coronation

14:30 , Ellie Muir

On 6 May, King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla will be crowned at Westminster Abbey as the world watches.

The monarch ascended the throne following the death of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, last September. His coronation takes place more than 70 years after Elizabeth was crowned on 2 June 1953.

During the crowning and anointing parts of the ceremony, which are said to be the most sacred parts, King Charles will sit upon the 700-year-old Coronation Chair.

Full story:

The fascinating history behind the chair King Charles will sit on at his coronation

Prince George given Page of Honour role at Kings coronation

14:00 , Ellie Muir

Prince George has been given an official role at the 6 May coronation  a Page of Honour to the King.

King Charles III and the Queen Consort each have four Pages of Honour supporting them on the day of the coronation, including schoolboys who are family friends or close relatives.

George, the nine-year-old future monarch, is the most prominent among them. Camillas three grandsons will also join the royal.

Read the full story below:

Prince George given Page of Honour role at Kings coronation

Thomas Markle says he refuses to be buried by Meghan as he gives final interview

13:30 , Ellie Muir

Thomas Markle Sr has said he will not allow his daughter, Meghan Markle, to bury him while he is still alive.

The Duchess of Sussexs father, 78, claimed in the Australian news programme 7News Spotlight that his daughter had not called him in four years. He has said that his appearance on the programme would be his final ever interview.

He said that he suffered a debilitating stroke last year and expressed disappointment that she did not reach out.

Read the full story below:

Thomas Markle says he refuses to be buried by daughter Meghan in final interview

King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla arrive at coronation rehearsals ahead of Saturdays ceremony

13:03 , Ellie Muir

Everyone we know invited to King Charles coronation  from Prince Harry to Ant and Dec

13:00 , Ellie Muir

King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla will be joined by 2,000 guests at Westminster Abbey for their coronation on Saturday 6 May.

Among the senior members of the royal family, a number of celebrities, actors, and politicians in attendance. The Archbishop of Canterbury will conduct the ceremony.

After months of speculation surrounding whether the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will attend the event, Buckingham Palace confirmed on Wednesday 12 April that Prince Harry will attend. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will stay at home with their children, Archie and Lilbet.

Read the full list below:

Everyone we know whos been invited to King Charless coronation

Camilla and her pages seen leaving Westminster Abbey after rehearsal

12:31 , Ellie Muir

The Queen Consort and her grandsons have been seen leaving Westminster Abbey after a rehearsal ahead of Saturdays event.

The children will be Pages of Honour at the ceremony.

Camilla and her pages leaving Westminster Abbey (REUTERS)

Princess Anne throws doubt on slimmed-down monarchy: It doesnt sound like a good idea

12:30 , Ellie Muir

The Princess Royal has defended the role of the monarchy in the modern world in a rare, candid interview.

Princess Anne sat down with Canadas CBC News ahead of her brother King Charles IIIs coronation on Saturday 6 May. She is set to take part in the coronation procession as the Gold-Stick-in-Waiting.

Asked if there were conversations about relevance within the royal family, Anne said it was not a conversation I that I would necessarily have.

Kate Ng reports:

Princess Anne doubts idea of a slimmed-down monarchy in candid interview

Smiling Princess Charlotte photographed ahead of eighth birthday

12:00 , Ellie Muir

A smiling Princess Charlotte has been photographed ahead of her eighth birthday.

The young princess was photographed grinning in a white dress with flowers on it by her mother, the Princess of Wales, in Windsor this weekend.

The family will be centre stage at the Kings coronation on May 6  and Charlotte and her brothers are expected to watch their grandfather be crowned.

Read the full story below:

Smiling Princess Charlotte photographed ahead of eighth birthday

King Charles biographer details how the monarch is different from Queen Elizabeth

11:00 , Ellie Muir

Jonathan Dimbleby, who presented two documentaries on King Charles III, has detailed the major differences between the new sovereign and his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

The broadcaster presented the 1994 ITV documentary Charles: The Private Man, the Public Role as well as the 2022 documentary Charles, The Monarch and the Man, and has come to know the King well over the past 30 years.

Ahead of the King and Queen Consort Camillas coronation on Saturday 6 May, Dimbleby reflected on how Charles personality and impact differs from his predecessor, who died last September.

King Charles biographer details how the monarch is different from Queen Elizabeth

King Charles will have his dream fulfilled during coronation, says Britt Ekland

10:30 , Ellie Muir

James Bond star Britt Ekland has said that King Charles III will have his dream fulfilled when he is crowned at his coronation ceremony on Saturday 6 May.

The 80-year-old actress, who starred opposite Sir Roger Moore in 1974s The Man With The Golden Gun as Mary Goodnight, was a close friend of Princess Margaret, who died in 2002.

Ekland, who was speaking around the 50th anniversary of horror film The Wicker Man, recalled her first meeting with Charles, who was a big fan of the BBC radio comedy show The Goon Show, which starred her then-husband Peter Sellers.

Read the full story below:

King Charles will have his dream fulfilled during coronation, says Britt Ekland

Coronation dress rehearsals featuring state coaches take place overnight in London

09:52 , Ellie Muir

The first glimpses of the coronation have been revealed as rehearsals took place in central London in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with only three days to go until the big day.

Hundreds of soldiers, many on horseback, marched down from Buckingham Palace past Trafalgar Square and Downing Street to Westminster Abbey.

The Diamond Jubilee State Coach and Gold State Coach were marched down the Mall as part of the preparations for the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla on Saturday 6 May.

Read the full story below:

Coronation dress rehearsals featuring state coaches take place overnight in London

St Edwards Crown to be resized for King Charles IIIs coronation

Tuesday 2 May 2023 05:00 , Ellie Muir

King Charles III will wear St Edwards Crown for his coronation next year, but it will need to be resized before the significant event.

The crown has been removed from the Tower of London to allow for modification work to begin before the ceremony on 6 May 2023, Buckingham Palace has said.

Read the full story below:

St Edwards Crown to be resized for King Charles IIIs coronation

The fascinating history behind the chair King Charles will sit on at his coronation

Tuesday 2 May 2023 04:00 , Ellie Muir

On 6 May, King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla will be crowned at Westminster Abbey as the world watches.

The monarch ascended the throne following the death of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, last September. His coronation takes place more than 70 years after Elizabeth was crowned on 2 June 1953.

Kate Ng reports:

The fascinating history behind the chair King Charles will sit on at his coronation

When is the coronation of King Charles III?

Tuesday 2 May 2023 01:40 , Ellie Muir

King Charles IIIs coronation will take place on Saturday 6 May, 2023.

In a statement, representatives said: Buckingham Palace is pleased to announce that the coronation of His Majesty The King will take place on Saturday 6 May 2023.

The coronation ceremony will take place at Westminster Abbey, London, and will be conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Read the full story below:

King Charles coronation date, timetable and everything you need to know

Royal photographer explains what we can expect from King Charles coronation

Monday 1 May 2023 23:40 , Ellie Muir

A royal photographer has revealed what the British public can expect to see as the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla unfolds on Saturday 6 May.

Tim Rooke, who has photographed the royal family for Shutterstock for the past 30 years, tells The Independent that he believes the coronation will have all the pomp and significance youd expect of a royal event despite being significantly smaller than the 1953 coronation of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Kate Ng reports:

Royal photographer explains what we can expect from King Charles coronation

What will Queen Consort Camilla wear to the coronation?

Monday 1 May 2023 23:00 , Ellie Muir

It is understood that the King will opt for a more modern choice of clothing for the ceremony. Instead of the traditional silk stockings and breeches worn in coronations past, it has been reported that the monarch will be crowned in his military uniform.

Therefore, it is expected that Camillas coronation dress will also be more modern compared to previous versions, which tend to include ornate designs and lavish materials.

Kate Ng reports:

What will Queen Consort Camilla wear to the coronation?

What happens in sacred anointing ceremony?

Monday 1 May 2023 22:00 , Ellie Muir

The King will not forego the most sacred part of the ceremony: the anointing of the sovereign. This tradition is so sacred that it was hidden from public view during Queen Elizabeths own anointing  and it has been revealed that Charles will do the same.

The mysterious anointing ceremony, known as the Act of Consecration, will take place before the investiture and crowning, and is carried out by the Archbishop. At Charless coronation, the Archbishop of Canterbury will be the one to anoint the King.

Read the full story below:

What will happen during King Charles anointing in coronation ceremony?

Whats the difference between Camillas Queen and Queen Consort titles?

Monday 1 May 2023 21:30 , Ellie Muir

Queen Consort Camilla will officially be named Queen Camilla at King Charles IIIs coronation on Saturday (6 May).

The invitations for the Kings forthcoming coronation revealed Camilla Parker-Bowles new title. She was referred to as Queen Consort following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September last year.

The decision is unprecedented since the late Queen Elizabeth II said in February last year that it was her sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort. Buckingham Palace confirmed last month that Camilla will be known as Queen after the coronation.

Read the full report below:

Whats the difference between Camillas Queen and Queen Consort titles?

Prince Harrys waxwork at Madam Tussauds reunited with royal family for coronation

Monday 1 May 2023 20:30 , Ellie Muir

A wax figure of the Duke of Sussex has been reunited with the rest of the royal family figurines at Madame Tussauds London as Harry returns to the UK for the coronation.

The 38-year-old announced, along with the palace, in April that he would be attending the crowning of his father, the King, and his stepmother, the Queen Consort, at Westminster Abbey on Saturday (6 May).

Read the full story below:

Prince Harrys Madam Tussauds wax figure reunited with royal family for coronation

All the ways the coronation ceremony is expected to break from royal protocol

Monday 1 May 2023 19:30 , Ellie Muir

King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla will be crowned next month during a symbolic coronation ceremony.

Although there are many ways the coronation will be similar to Queen Elizabeth IIs 70 years ago and to her father King George VIs coronation in 1937, there will also be a few key differences as King Charles announces departures from tradition.

Read the full story below:

All the ways King Charles coronation is expected to break from royal protocol

Meet the Pages of Honour and Ladies in Attendance at the coronation

Monday 1 May 2023 18:30 , Ellie Muir

The King and Queen Consort each have four Pages of Honour supporting them on the day of the coronation  schoolboys who are family friends or close relatives.

Prominent among them is Charless eldest grandson Prince George, the nine-year-old future monarch, as well as Camillas three grandsons.

The Queen Consort will also have two Ladies in Attendance  her sister Annabel Elliot and her trusted friend the Marchioness of Lansdowne  whose roles will be to support her through elements of the service.

Meet the Pages of Honour and Ladies in Attendance at the coronation

New screen will give King Charles privacy during coronation anointing

Monday 1 May 2023 17:30 , Ellie Muir

The King will have greater privacy than afforded previous monarchs during one of the most sacred moments of the coronation.

Charles will be shielded by a new partition, featuring an embroidered design celebrating the Commonwealth, when he is anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury during his crowning on May 6.

Read the full story below:

New screen will give Charles privacy during coronation anointing

Photo of Charles at start of Cambridge studies released for first time

Monday 1 May 2023 16:30 , Ellie Muir

A photograph taken of the King for his matriculation at the University of Cambridge has been released for the first time.

Trinity College, Cambridge, where Charles studied for three years, shared the picture of the 18-year-old prince taken in October 1967, ahead of the coronation next week.

Photo of Charles at start of Cambridge studies released for first time

Camilla to wear Queen Elizabeth IIs crimson coronation robe for ceremony

Monday 1 May 2023 15:30 , Ellie Muir

Camilla will wear the coronation robes made for Queen Elizabeth II when she is crowned Queen Consort next Saturday 6 May.

Buckingham Palace has released new photographs and details about the coronation robes the King and Queen Consort will wear at the ceremony next weekend.

Read the full story below:

Camilla to wear Queen Elizabeth IIs coronation robe for crowning ceremony

Royal expert says hes interested to hear what William says about King Charles at coronation tribute

Monday 1 May 2023 14:30 , Ellie Muir

A royal expert has said that he is intrigued to hear what William will say about King Charles and Queen Camilla at the coronation tribute.

Prince William is expected to make a heartfelt and loving tribute to his father King Charles III and step-mother Queen Camilla after the coronation concert at Windsor Castle on Thursday (7 May).

Read the full story below:

Royal expert predicts what William will say about Charles at coronation tribute

Thomas Markle says he refuses to be buried by daughter Meghan

Monday 1 May 2023 13:30 , Ellie Muir

Thomas Markle Sr has said he will not allow his daughter, Meghan Markle, to bury him while he is still alive.

The Duchess of Sussexs father, 78, claimed in the Australian news programme 7News Spotlight that his daughter had not called him in four years.

Read the full story below:

Thomas Markle says he refuses to be buried by daughter Meghan

Everyone we know invited to King Charles coronation  from Prince Harry to Princess Charlene of Monaco

Monday 1 May 2023 12:30 , Ellie Muir

King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla will be joined by 2,000 guests at Westminster Abbey for their coronation on 6 May.

Among the senior members of the royal family, a number of celebrities, actors, and politicians in attendance. The Archbishop of Canterbury will conduct the ceremony.

Read the full report below:

Everyone we know whos been invited to King Charless coronation

Prince Harry waxwork reunited with royal family

Monday 1 May 2023 11:30 , Roisin O'Connor

A wax figure of the Duke of Sussex has been reunited with the rest of the royal family figurines at Madame Tussauds London as Harry returns to the UK for the coronation.

The 38-year-old announced, along with the palace, in April that he would be attending the crowning of his father, the King, and his stepmother, the Queen Consort, at Westminster Abbey on Saturday (6 May).

The Duchess of Sussex, 41, has decided to remain at home in Los Angeles to be with the couples son Prince Archie on his fourth birthday.

To reflect this, Meghans figure will remain in the Awards Party Zone  with US-based celebrities  where the couples waxworks were moved in 2020 following the Sussexes stepping back from royal duties and moving to California.

Full story:

Prince Harrys Madam Tussauds wax figure reunited with royal family for coronation

All the foreign royals attending King Charles IIIs coronation

Monday 1 May 2023 10:54 , Peony Hirwani

King Charles IIIs coronation, which takes place on Saturday 6 May, is set to be attended by 2,000 guests, including foreign monarchs across the world.

Below is a list of all the foreign royals who have confirmed their attendance so far.

All the foreign royals attending King Charles IIIs coronation

Long live King Charles acclamation to welcome monarch to Westminster Abbey

Monday 1 May 2023 10:24 , Peony Hirwani

The words long live Queen Camilla, long live King Charles in Latin will greet the royal couple as they enter Westminster Abbey for the coronation.

They are part of the Vivat acclamations which will be sung at the central London ceremony on May 6.

Read more:

Long live King Charles acclamation to welcome monarch to Westminster Abbey

Bank Holiday Monday: What time do supermarkets open and close today?

Monday 1 May 2023 09:54 , Peony Hirwani

Britons are being treated to two bank holiday weekends in a row, as the early May bank holiday and the coronation weekend of King Charles III arrive one after the other.

Monday 1 May is the early May bank holiday, while Buckingham Palace announced last year that Monday 8 May would also be a bank holiday to give the country an extra day to celebrate the coronation.

With warmer spring weather expected this coming weekend and Big Lunches and street parties planned for the following one, British people have plenty to look forward to in the coming fortnight.

However, it could also mean closures across some supermarkets on more days than usual.

Many people will be looking to stock up for the long weekends and ensure they have plenty of food and drink for gatherings, parties, or just to relax with.

Here are the opening times for Sainsburys, Tesco, Morrison, Lidl and more.

What are supermarket bank holiday opening times today?

Thomas Markle says he refuses to be buried by daughter Meghan

Monday 1 May 2023 09:18 , Roisin O'Connor

Thomas Markle Sr has said he will not allow his daughter, Meghan Markle, to bury him while he is still alive.

The Duchess of Sussexs father, 78, claimed in the Australian news programme 7News Spotlight that his daughter had not called him in four years.

He said that he suffered a debilitating stroke last year and expressed disappointment that she did not reach out.

If she doesnt turn up for a stroke, if that doesnt move her, what would? he said.

The Independent has contacted representatives of the Sussexes for comment.

Full story:

Thomas Markle says he refuses to be buried by daughter Meghan

Coronation Concert stage with Windsor Castle backdrop revealed as 20,000 set to attend

Monday 1 May 2023 09:14 , Peony Hirwani

The Coronation Concert will feature a Union Flag-shaped stage, first look images show.

The stage will also have a halo-like screen surrounding the roof, which the broadcaster said will symbolise the Crown protecting the nation.

Read more:

Coronation Concert stage with Windsor Castle backdrop revealed

When was the Queens coronation?

Monday 1 May 2023 08:44 , Peony Hirwani

As the country gears up to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday 6 May 2023, many will be remembering the crowning of his late mother 71 years earlier, a defining event in 20th-century British history.

Joanna Whitehead reports.

When was the Queens coronation?

The curious culinary history of royal coronation food

Monday 1 May 2023 08:14 , Peony Hirwani

From coronation chicken to King Charless veggie quiche, The Independents Ben Parker unpacks how different dishes have shaped the monarchys image.

The curious culinary history of royal coronation food

The Windsors Coronation Special: Exceptionally witty, uproarious send-up of the royals

Monday 1 May 2023 07:34 , Peony Hirwani

The brilliant writers once again render our reigning family into a highly amusing gallery of grotesques, writes The Independents Sean OGrady.

The Windsors Coronation Special is an exceptionally witty, uproarious send-up: review

Brian May, Kermit the Frog and Atomic Kitten together at last!: Nothing is weirder than the royal pop concert

Monday 1 May 2023 07:04 , Peony Hirwani

As Katy Perry and Take That prepare to perform during Charless coronation weekend, The Independents Katie Rosseinsky salutes the chaotic and confusing tradition of incredibly divergent celebrities coming together to sing for royalty.

The Queen wore earplugs: Royal pop concerts have always been weird

Everyone we know invited to King Charles coronation  from Prince Harry to Princess Charlene of Monaco

Monday 1 May 2023 06:00 , Maanya Sachdeva

King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla will be joined by 2,000 guests at Westminster Abbey for their coronation on 6 May.

Here are all of the royals and celebrities who have confirmed they will be attending the Kings coronation:

Everyone we know whos been invited to King Charless coronation

King Charless coronation quiche recipe sparks mixed reaction

Sunday 30 April 2023 22:00 , Maanya Sachdeva

King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla have chosen a quiche as their signature dish for the upcoming coronation, but the decision has received mixed reactions amidst an ongoing egg shortage in the United Kingdom.

Following the announcement, many royal watchers took to social media to share their thoughts about the classic French dish.

Kate Ng reports:

King Charless coronation recipe sparks mixed reaction

Tom Cruise and Winnie the Pooh to feature in King Charles Coronation Concert

Sunday 30 April 2023 21:00 , Maanya Sachdeva

The unlikely duo of Tom Cruise and Winnie the Pooh have been announced as the latest acts in King Charles IIIs Coronation Concert.

Dame Joan Collins, Sir Tom Jones, adventurer Bear Grylls and former Strictly Come Dancing professional Oti Mabuse, will also appear in a series of pre-recorded sketches revealing little-known facts about the monarch.

Tom Murray has the full story:

Tom Cruise and Winnie the Pooh to feature in King Charles Coronation Concert

Charles and Camilla: A timeline of their 50-year relationship, from friendship to marriage

Sunday 30 April 2023 20:00 , Maanya Sachdeva

Having first met in 1970, Charles and Camilla were married 17 years ago at Windsor Guildhall in a low-key ceremony.

For most royal fans, the couples journey will always be intrinsically linked to the story of Charles and his ex-wife Lady Diana Spencer, the Princess of Wales.

Over the years, the public, and other members of the royal family, became more accepting of the match. Yet for decades the couple were pursued by gossip and scandal following Charless fraught marriage to Diana.

Here, we detail Charles and Camillas complicated love story:

A timeline of King Charles and Camillas 50-year relationship

How Prince Archie will celebrate his fourth birthday on Coronation Day

Sunday 30 April 2023 19:00 , Maanya Sachdeva

Earlier this month, Buckingham Palace announced that, while Harry will attend the coronation of King Charles III and Camilla on 6 May, Meghan will remain in Montecito with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

It is believed that Archies fourth birthday  which falls on 6 May, the same day as the coronation  was one of the factors that informed the couples decision.

Since then, it has been reported that the occasion will be marked with a low-key party at Harry and Meghans home in California.

How Prince Archie will celebrate his fourth birthday on Coronation Day
Conviction in retrial of double-murder case

Jurors convicted a 53-year-old man of the 1993 killings in Santa Paula of his estranged wife and her boyfriend in a retrial that wrapped up Tuesday.

Everardo Meza Alamillo was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. Jurors also found true special allegations that Alamillo used a firearm and committed multiple murders, according to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

In March 2020, a mistrial was declared in the case after jurors deadlocked 11-1, leading to the retrial.

Alamillo killed his estranged wife, Adriana Meza, 21, and her boyfriend, Armando Cauich Jr., 22, on Oct. 13, 1993.

He had gone to Meza's home in Santa Paula to visit his daughter. Meza allowed the visit because she wanted Alamillo to be part of their daughter's life, prosecutors said.

He left and returned later the same evening, waiting nearby in a parked vehicle with a loaded .22-caliber rifle, according to prosecutors. He eventually entered the home through a back door and went into the bedroom, where he shot Meza three times and Cauich twice.

The daughter, who was 2 at the time, was asleep in bed between the two victims when they were shot dead, the DA's office said.

Alamillo fled the country and was eventually arrested in November 2015 after he was found in Mexico. He was extradited to the U.S. in 2016 after the FBI helped prosecutors bring him back to Ventura County to stand trial.

Senior Deputy DA Jon Barrick prosecuted the case both times. "I am so happy for Adriana's and Armando's families," Barrick said in a statement, saying he hoped the verdicts would bring "some small measure of peace" nearly 30 years after the crime.

Sentencing is scheduled for the morning of June 16 in room 47 of Ventura County Superior Court.

2 guilty pleas in 2016 Ventura shooting

Police investigate a fatal shooting in Ventura in June 2016.

Two defendants pleaded guilty Monday for involvement in a fatal shooting in midtown Ventura in 2016.

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Alexis Ivan Ramirez, 27, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and attempted murder, said Joey Buttitta, spokesman for the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

Richard Hernandez, 27, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, attempted murder and evading an officer.

Alex Ramirez

In July 2019, a third defendant, Luis Aguilar, then 22, was sentenced to 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and murder in the case.

The shooting took place on the afternoon of June 29, 2016, in the 4200 block of East Main Street, on a busy stretch between Sizzler and Lassens Natural Food & Vitamins.

Oxnard resident Cameron Miller, 25, was killed and a 21-year-old Oxnard man was shot in the leg, authorities said.

Officials have said the incident was gang-related, but there was no evidence the victims had gang ties.

Richard Hernandez

After the incident, Ventura Police Department officers took four people into custody after a pursuit that reached speeds of up to 100 mph. The chase ended when the suspects' car crashed into a tree near Telegraph Road and Cambria Avenue.

Ramirez and Hernandez are scheduled to be sentenced on the morning of May 26 in room 23 of Ventura County Superior Court.

Guilty plea in stabbing death of woman, 67

An Oxnard shopping center on West Pleasant Valley Road in 2020, where a homeless woman, 67, was stabbed to death. A man has pleaded guilty in the case.

A man once found unfit to stand trial pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder in the 2020 stabbing of a homeless woman, 67, in Oxnard.

James Lee Beam, now 23, admitted to a count of second-degree murder on April 17 in Ventura County Superior Court. Beam was also homeless at the time, authorities said.

The elderly victim, Sybil Woodbury, was stabbed in a shopping center in the 200 block of West Pleasant Valley Road.

James Beam

Several months after the stabbing, Beam was found incompetent to stand trial and was sent to a state mental health hospital for treatment. In August 2022, a judge determined he was competent, and court proceedings resumed.

Beam is scheduled to be sentenced on the morning of June 7 in courtroom 12.

Man sentenced in fatal stabbing case

Rudolph Neidhardt

A Ventura County man was sentenced to 11 years in prison last month following a plea deal in a 2020 fatal stabbing in Simi Valley.

Rudolph Neidhardt, 37, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter on April 20, Ventura County Superior Court records show. A murder charge was dismissed with the plea, as were special enhancements.

Neidhardt had stabbed the victim, Simi Valley resident Michael Majewski, 35, on April 18, 2020, in the 1700 block of Crater Street. Majewski, who was reportedly stabbed in the neck, died the next day in the hospital.

Simi Valley Police Department officials said at the time Majewski had been stabbed in front of his girlfriend's home. The two men reportedly knew each other and had an ongoing dispute over property, authorities said.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Roundup: Double-murder conviction in retrial of Santa Paula case, more
This article originally appeared on Velo News

COVID-19 put an early tint on the pink jersey campaign of Primoz Roglic.

Jumbo-Visma confirmed Tuesday top domestiques Robert Gesink and Tobias Foss were forced to withdraw from its provisional Giro dItalia eight after they contracted COVID-19 at the Tour de Romandie last week.

The twosome will be replaced by Jos van Emden and Rohan Dennis.

The news makes for a further tweak to Roglics Giro dItalia support crew after Wilco Kelderman was previously passed unfit after he crashed out of Tirreno-Adriatico. The Dutch GC contender was replaced by climber ace Sepp Kuss.

Roglic and Kuss will also be joined by Jan Tratnik, Edoardo Affini, Koen Bouwman, and Michel Hessmann when the Giro rolls out of the Abruzzo this weekend.

Also read:

What do the late adjustments mean in the race for the maglia rosa?

Van Emden and Dennis bring 25 grand tour starts-worth of savvy to the Jumbo-Visma team set to take on Remco Evenepoel this month.

Van Emden himself already raced 11 Giro dItalia and will be one of the wisest in the bunch to the potholes and perils of the wild and sometimes wacky Italian tour.

Dennis, who retires this winter, made his name as superdomestique when he towed Tao Geoghegan Hart through the Alps when the Brit won the 2020 corsa rosa.

 #Giro Unfortunately, covid strikes again.  Besides Wilco Kelderman, also Tobias Foss and Robert Gesink will be replaced in the Giro d'Italia. Jos van Emden and Rohan Dennis are their substitutes. pic.twitter.com/FiYQdEXcTG -- Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) May 2, 2023

Van Emden and Dennis sure have the pedigree required for a grand tour-topper team.

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However, there could be questions over their form and whether they share the climbing capabilities of Gesink and Foss.

Gesink - a key carriage of many of Jumbo-Vismas grand tour mountain trains - and TT world champion Foss both spent weeks at altitude this spring with Roglic, Kuss, and the rest of the Giro team.

The pair rode through a 2023 calendar pointing toward the Italian tour and were racing toward a fitness peak last month.

Van Emden and Dennis will likely be a half-watt behind after their racing schedules previously focused elsewhere.

Evenepoel also saw a shift to his climber crew Tuesday when Soudal Quick-Step confirmed its Giro dItalia eight. Fausto Masnada was benched and replaced after conceding he didnt have the form.

The Tour de Romandie didnt only cause difficulties for Foss and Gesink.

The Swiss race saw a handful of abandons due to sickness or infection with the virus, including the Italy-bound Mark Cavendish.

For exclusive access to all of our fitness, gear, adventure, and travel stories, plus discounts on trips, events, and gear, sign up for Outside+ today.
Kelly Crafts latest ads in her pursuit of the GOP nomination for governor focus on her status as an outsider and criticize frontrunner Attorney General Daniel Cameron by tying him to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky.

In one ad, Craft says her opponents are all career politicians whod rather follow than lead while the camera pans a set of bobbleheads featuring Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and the Republicans running against Craft. It then shows Cameron and McConnell next to the words insiders and rather follow under Camerons visage, with than lead appearing under McConnells face.

The campaign has yet to respond to a request for comment on the intent of the frame placing Cameron and McConnell together. Theres reason to believe that politicians in Kentucky, even Republicans, may want to distance themselves from McConnell given that a recent poll showed that hes the least liked Senator in the U.S.

Though McConnell has officially stayed out of the race, Camerons ties to him are strong and have lasted nearly half of Camerons life. The 37-year-old dreamed of holding elected office as early as when he interned for the Kentucky senator after his freshman year at the University of Louisville, where he was a McConnell Scholar, according to the Associated Press. He later worked full-time on McConnells staff. In 2019, McConnell backed Camerons run for attorney general, and a heap of dark money from a group linked to McConnell followed. That same group, under a new name, is the primary funder of a PAC supporting Cameron.

Like Cameron, Craft has been closely connected to McConnell. Her family has helped to bankroll some of his political endeavors and she herself once referring to him as a dear friend to our family for decades.

Craft and her husband also have strong ties to McConnell  one of the most powerful Senators in U.S. history and often recognized as the most consequential figure in Kentucky Republican politics.

Story continues

Crafts husband Joe, a wealthy donor and philanthropist who made his fortune in the coal industry, has given groups tied to McConnell more than $2.5 million. Hes given the Senate Leadership Fund, a McConnell-aligned PAC run by a former McConnell chief of staff, $2.25 million. He also has given $300,000 to Kentuckians For Strong Leadership, a PAC formed to support McConnell that later broadened its focus to elect Republicans in the state, according to campaign finance tracking website OpenSecrets.

When asked about the donations her family has made to groups linked to McConnell, Craft said that nobody in the Washington establishment owns her and signaled that the donations were meant to boost Republicans in general. She wouldnt say whether she thought McConnell was doing a good job as Senate GOP leader.

You know, its not for me to judge Mitch McConnell, but I can just tell you that Kentucky needs to have representation thats going to represent our state, Craft said.

McConnell has also personally supported Craft in her pursuit of ambassador positions under the administration of former president Donald Trump, and the Crafts likewise had McConnells back as Trump feuded with Kentuckys senior senator.

In 2016, Bloomberg News reported that Trumps commitment to not oust McConnell or then-House Speaker Paul Ryan from their Republican leadership posts was a key factor in the Crafts decision to raise money for Trump.

That is a big priority for Joe and I, and from talking directly to Donald Trump I know for a fact it is a big deal to him, Craft told the outlet.

In a much earlier re-election bid for McConnell, Craft  a notable fundraiser in Kentucky GOP circles for years  was a co-chair for an event featuring then-president George W. Bush that yielded $2 million to advance McConnells effort.

In another ad airing this week, Craft calls herself an outsider and compares her background to Trumps.

Cameron has touted the fact that he got the endorsement of Trump throughout his campaign, even bringing it up to needle Craft at a recent debate.

When asked at a recent event in Northern Kentucky about his ties to McConnell, whom Trump has expressed disdain for in recent statements, Cameron said that his only allegiance was to the constitution, according to Link NKY.

I make decisions based on the law and based on our constitutional rights, Cameron said.

A spokesperson for McConnells office did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Students from the Ukrainian Leadership Academy have brought Crime without Punishment, a 50-kilogram book about the crimes of the Russian Federation, to Europe.

It has 6,000 pages that symbolise the 6,000 children who have been abducted by the Russian occupiers.

The creation of the book, which alludes to the Russian classic by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, was "inspired" by the arrest warrant issued by the ICC in The Hague for Maria Lvova-Belova, the Children's Commissioner of the Russian Federation.

Quote: "The warrant is a relatively small document that does not convey the full weight of the Russian Federation's crimes against humanity and its deliberate attempts to erase the ethnic and national identity of the deported Ukrainian children. And considering that no one has ever been detained, this is currently a crime without punishment," the creators of the book explained.

Photo: Creative agency Bickerstaff.942

Yevheniia Mateychuk, Head of the Ukrainian Leadership Academy, said she wanted to draw the attention of the European Union to the issue so that all of the Russian criminals who started the genocidal war in Ukraine and have deported thousands of children from their own homes can be brought to justice.

The Ukrainian creative agency Bickerstaff.942 has helped promote the book about the Russians crimes. The agency notes, however, that the book is not yet complete, because many materials concerning the abduction of children by the occupiers remain classified.

Passers-by examine a book about the crimes of the Russian Federation

"Modern Russian classics are being written in blood  this is a crime that is happening right now, and this book is being written right now. What its ending will be, and whether there will be a logical solution at the end and the criminals will receive punishment, depends on whether support for Ukraine continues, or the world gets fatigue and the criminals get away with it," says Ilia Anufrienko, creative director of Bickerstaff.942.

Background: According to official data, the Russians have deported about 19,000 Ukrainian children from the occupied territories.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
To get a roundup of TechCrunchs biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here.

Wednesday is here, and were still getting excited about Disrupt later in the year. African startups: Wed love for you to apply to Startup Battlefield 200, and weve also opened our sale on Expo+ passes.

 Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

Whats the password? : Googles passkeys are now rolling out to account users around the world. The passkeys give you access to your account without passwords, and authentication essentially synchronizes across all devices through the cloud using cryptographic key pairs, allowing sign-in to websites and apps using the same biometrics or screen-lock PIN used to unlock their devices, Paul writes.

In the drivers seat : Stripe, a longtime partner of Lyft, has now signed a big deal with Uber. Ingrid has more.

Making an impact: Manish asks the question, Where is India in the generative AI race? and answers it by taking a look at how Indian entrepreneurs are working to leverage the excitement around this trend.

Startups and VC

Plexamp, the music player from Plex, now works with ChatGPT for playlist creation, reports Sarah. That made me curious, and I spent most of the morning using ChatGPT-4 to make playlists. Among other things, I asked it to create a list of top 10 essential heavy metal songs, great music to work to, and most nostalgic songs from 2004.

I also asked ChatGPT-4 to create a list of top 5 songs about startups, andIll be damned, not only did it make the list of songs, but it also explained why each song made sense in this list. Not gonna lie, this thing keeps surprising me. Below is the list, and I made them into a handy Spotify playlist, an Apple Music playlist and a YouTube playlist for ya as well.

"Started from the Bottom" by Drake: This song's lyrics about starting from scratch and working one's way up resonate with the journey of many startups as they strive to achieve success. "Lose Yourself" by Eminem: The intensity and drive present in this song's lyrics can be representative of the dedication and focus required to build a successful startup. "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi: This anthem about taking control of one's own destiny and seizing opportunities aligns with the mindset of many entrepreneurs starting their own businesses. "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey: This classic track serves as a reminder for startup founders to keep believing in their vision, even when the road to success is filled with challenges. "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor: As a symbol of determination and resilience, this song has become an anthem for those who face adversity and push through to achieve their goals, much like the spirit of a startup founder.

Story continues

Okay, enough musically inspired goofiness. Heres some more startup news for ya:

Ask Sophie: Will I be allowed into the U.S. if my passport expires in 5 months?

lone figure at entrance to maze hedge that has an American flag at the center

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Dear Sophie,

I founded a startup in Zimbabwe a few years ago. I planned to visit the United States for the first time next month to check out the market and applied for a visitor visa.

Im planning to stay in the U.S. for a couple of months, but I just realized that my passport expires in September. I understand that I need to have at least six months left on my passport in order to travel to the United States.

Is that (still) true? Do I need to delay my trip?

 Hopeful in Harare

Three more from the TC+ team:

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code DC for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

Remember when Airbnb first started as a way to rent a room in a home to avoid staying in a hotel? Now that the platforms average home rental prices have gone up  36% since 2019, according to the company  its refocusing on single rooms to give users more affordable alternatives. Ivan has more.

Meanwhile, Sarah was on dating app giant Match Groups first-quarter earnings call and reports that Match believes the recent AppleEpic Games antitrust appeals ruling, though largely in favor of Apple, could result in App Store fee relief for developers.

And we have five more for you:
Welcome to the Daily Weather Update from FOX Weather. Its Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Start your day the right way with everything you need to know about today's weather. You can also get a quick briefing of national, regional and local weather whenever you like with the FOX Weather Update podcast.

The Northeast and Northwest will continue to experience dreary conditions as the "Omega block" pattern continues to dominate the weather.

Rain chances persist for the Northeast and parts of the West through the end of the workweek while the central U.S. continues to be warm and dry.

Seven people were killed and dozens were injured after a dust storm led to a massive pileup on Interstate 55 south of Springfield, Illinois, on Monday.

Officials confirmed another death as cleanup from the massive pileup continued on Tuesday.

Meteorologists say these conditions led to the deadly dust storm in Illinois.

The potential for more typical springlike severe weather returns Thursday.

The FOX Forecast Center said portions of Oklahoma and Texas could see supercells with large hail, damaging wind gusts and a few tornadoes Thursday afternoon and evening.

Need more weather? Check your local forecast plus 3D radar in the FOX Weather app. You can also watch FOX Weather wherever you go using the FOX Weather app at foxweather.com/live or on your favorite streaming service.

You can share your weather pictures and videos with us anytime, anywhere, in our America's Weather Watchers community on Facebook, email them to weather@fox.com or add the hashtag #FOXWeather to your post on your favorite social media platform.
The daughter of Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark was sentenced to a year of probation on Wednesday on conditions that she write a letter of apology to the Boston Police officer she is accused of assaulting during a protest on Boston Common in January.

Riley Dowell, of Melrose, was charged with assault and battery on a police officer, vandalizing property, tagging property, vandalizing a historic monument, and resisting arrest, according to the Suffolk District Attorneys Office. Dowell was 23 at the time of the arrest.

Police say Dowell participated in an anti-police protest in Boston and struck an officer who approached her in the face. They also say she was seen on video defacing a public monument with spray paint.

Dowell pleaded not guilty to the assault and vandalism charges.

The case against her will be considered resolved if she completes her probation, which requires 30 hours of community service, an apology letter to the officer, and paying back the city for the cost of cleaning up her graffiti.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
The city of Davis on Tuesday evening opened about two dozen emergency shelter beds for unhoused people following a series of three stabbings in the past week at two parks and a homeless encampment, the most recent of which resulted in a woman being hospitalized after the assailant stabbed her multiple times through her tent.

Police, prosecutors and crime technicians continue to investigate the stabbings, which killed a 50-year-old man known to the community as the Compassion Guy last Thursday at Central Park, then a 20-year-old UC Davis senior Saturday at Sycamore Park, before Monday nights attack at a downtown encampment near Second and L streets.

No suspect is in custody following an unsuccessful manhunt in downtown Davis early Tuesday morning.

The city will be providing approximately two dozen emergency beds, as well as meals, for individuals willing to be sheltered indoors, city officials wrote in a Facebook Tuesday evening.

The city said other local nonprofit organizations, including Davis Community Meals and Housing and HEART of Davis, are also assisting by adding staff and providing meals. City employees and nonprofit workers on Tuesday made outreach visits to encampments, encouraging people to take shelter indoors, according to the city post.

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said in a Tuesday news conference that investigators have not definitively linked the three crimes, but criminal experts told The Sacramento Bee that they are likely the work of a serial killer.

Pytel said witnesses gave similar suspect descriptions in the Saturday and Monday stabbings, and that the attacks have been particularly violent and brazen.

The shelter beds are one of several measures imposed by city officials, law enforcement and the UC Davis community in response to the violence and fears of another attack.

Chancellor Gary S. May announced Tuesday afternoon that all UC Davis classes ending after 6 p.m. will transition to remote learning until further notice. Campus police also hired private security to join in campus patrols, and the university added personnel and vans for its Safe Rides program that drives students, faculty and staff to their homes off-campus.

Pytel said police are stepping up patrols all over town and have received help in their investigation from homicide detectives with the Sacramento County Sheriffs Office and Sacramento Police Department.

The police chief has not called for a citywide curfew, instead urging Davis residents to travel in groups, especially at night.
The two men killed in stabbings at Davis parks late last week are being remembered as a beloved community figure who spent years interviewing passing strangers about what the word compassion meant to them and a gifted UC Davis computer science student weeks away from graduating who loved to help others.

The third victim in the recent series of brutal attacks, in which Davis police are still searching for a suspect or suspects, is a woman who was stabbed through her tent Monday night at a homeless encampment near Second and L streets.

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said Tuesday that the woman was undergoing surgery for multiple stab wounds, and that she was in critical but stable condition at a hospital. Authorities have not released her name.

Here is what we know so far about the two who were killed last Thursday at Central Park and Saturday night at Sycamore Park, and the woman who was hospitalized.

David Breaux: Davis Compassion Guy was gentle and kind

Authorities identified the victim found fatally stabbed on a park bench at Central Park downtown last Thursday, April 27, as 50-year-old David Henry Breaux.

Breaux has been a fixture of the Davis community for years. City officials said he would regularly greet people walking through the park and ask them to share their view on compassion, leading to Breaux being nicknamed the Compassion Guy.

Breaux self-published a book, titled Compassion: A Compilation of Concepts on Compassion, in 2010 and began selling his book near the park in early 2011, the UC Davis-based California Aggie newspaper reported at the time.

In 2013, the city, property owners and local artists worked with Breaux to conceive and install the Compassion Bench at Third and C streets, next to Central Park.

The ceramic bench, where community members held a vigil Sunday evening, was adorned Monday and Tuesday with flowers, candles, photos of Breaux and other mementos.

People view a memorial set up at the compassion bench in Davis on Monday, May 1, 2023, to honor David Henry Breaux, 50, who was found stabbed to death Thursday in Central Park.

According to city officials, Breaux graduated from Stanford University before moving to Davis.

Story continues

David was gentle and kind, soft-spoken and thoughtful, brilliant and selfless, Davis Mayor Will Arnold said in a statement. He will be missed.

Karim Abou Najm: UC Davis senior was bundle of energy

Authorities and family identified the man killed Saturday, April 29, at Sycamore Park as Karim Abou Najm, 20.

Police said Abou Najm was found shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday with many stab wounds, following a 911 call reporting a dispute.

His father, UC Davis professor Majdi Abou Najm, said his son was at the UC Davis campus Saturday for a student research project presentation, and had been with friends before heading home. Karim Abou Najm was on his way home on a path through the park he often used when he was attacked, his father said.

UC Davis professor Majdi Abou Najm looks up Monday toward the bedroom of son Karim Abou Najm, who was fatally stabbed at park in the city over the weekend. A recent photograph of Karim, a UCD student, sits above his father on the fireplace mantel.

Born in Lebanon before moving to the U.S. in 2018, Karim Abou Najm graduated in 2020 from Davis High School and planned to graduate this June from UC Davis with a bachelors degree in computer science, university officials said.

He completed software engineering internships with Amazon and Audible, according to his LinkedIn page, which said he was deeply involved in computational neuroscience research at the university, working at Lee Millers Speech Neuroengineering and Cybernetics Laboratory.

Majdi Abou Najm called Karim an exceptional talent and a bundle of energy, who would frequently serve as a mentor to other students, helping them with job interview skills, math and computer science.

UC Davis has established a memorial fund in Karim Abou Najms honor, titled the Karim Majdi Abou Najm Memorial Undergraduate Student Research Award, which is intended to provide stipends to undergraduate students involved in research.

For his short journey with us, he accomplished a lot, the webpage for the memorial fund reads, in part. He took pride in helping others from lessons he learned through his studies and work  He always gave a shoutout to his colleagues and supported them in finding opportunities on-campus and beyond.

The fund is taking donations toward an endowment minimum of $50,000, at which point it will exist in perpetuity, according to the funds webpage.

Woman stabbed Monday remains at hospital, is alert

Pytel, the Davis police chief, said during a Tuesday morning news conference that the woman attacked late Monday night, May 1, was inside a tent at a homeless encampment near Second and L streets.

The woman, whose identity has not been released by law enforcement, was stabbed multiple times through the sidewall of her tent around 11:45 p.m. Pytel said the victim was one of several people who called 911 after Mondays attack.

She is awake, alert, talking and still in critical condition in the ICU, but certainly making progress, Pytel told the Davis City Council at the beginning of a regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday evening.

Davis Police investigate on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, the site where a homeless woman was stabbed several times through the side of her tent near Second and L streets before midnight. The city issued issued a shelter in place order that was lifted around 5 a.m.

The woman was taken to UC Davis Medical Center, where she underwent surgery Tuesday for multiple stab wounds, Pytel said.

The Davis Enterprise newspaper reported based on witness interviews that the victim was a woman named Kim, and that two of her friends in a nearby tent said they awoke Monday night to Kim screaming for help.

Where did the violent and fatal stabbings in Davis happen? Heres a map of locations

The Bees Rosalio Ahumada and Sam Stanton contributed to this story.
House Democrats sought to undercut a brewing Oversight Committee investigation into the discovery of records from President Bidens tenure as vice president, releasing partial transcripts indicating his assistant was unaware there were classified records in the boxes sent to a center bearing his name.

A memo from the panels Democrats indicates Bidens former secretary, Kathy Chung, did not spot any cover sheets for classified documents as she packed the boxes, which largely contained letters and other personal effects, as well as documents from passion projects of Bidens, including the now-revived Cancer Moonshot.

The memo also condemns committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), accusing him of misrepresenting Chungs testimony while spreading false, xenophobic, and racist conspiracy theories.

The memo points to media appearances by Comer, including those in which he suggests Chung, who was born in South Korea, had ties to Hunter Biden and the Chinese Communist Party, telling Foxs Maria Bartiromo, Were looking into that.

Chung described her role as packing  but not sorting  the materials in the boxes. She told lawmakers that no members of the Biden family were involved in packing boxes.

Her attorney has since penned a letter, also released by Democrats, accusing Republicans of making false insinuations about her role with Biden ahead of her interview with the committee.

We now have serious doubts about your intentions and the motivation in requesting a transcribed interview, Chungs attorney wrote in a March letter.

As you well know from reading the relevant emails, Ms. Chung was not hired by the Vice President for the purpose of helping with moving documents. She was hired as an Assistant to the Vice President responsible for office affairs.

House Republicans are investigating Bidens handling of classified material after several documents with sensitive markings from his time as vice president were found in an old Washington, D.C., office space and at Bidens Wilmington, Del., home in late 2022 and early 2023.

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Chung told lawmakers during a four-hour interview that she was not aware any classified documents were among the material she packed up in Bidens office at the end of the Obama administration, according to Democrats on the Oversight Committee.

Excerpts of her testimony include her telling lawmakers that she has experience spotting classified documents and that she would have alerted someone if she had come across those markings while packing up Bidens office.

The release of the memo takes a page from the book of Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, who earlier this year offered a report that included partial interviews with three GOP witnesses who have accused the FBI of improperly targeting conservatives.

Democrats justified the move by arguing committee Republicans had inflated both the number of witnesses theyd spoken with and their claims, suggesting each had little evidence of wrongdoing.

Wednesdays memo from House Oversight Democrats similarly casts Republican claims as false and likewise argues that releasing the information was necessary for transparency.

In light of Chairman Comers decision to cherry-pick and misrepresent critical information in this investigation while refusing to publicly release the full interview transcripts, the Committees Democratic staff will endeavor to provide ongoing updates to all Democratic Members on the status of this investigation to ensure the Committees work is carried out in a transparent fashion, Democrats write in the final paragraph of their memo.

Attorney General Merrick Garland in January appointed Robert Hur as a special counsel to handle the Justice Departments review of Bidens handling of classified documents.

I think youre going to find theres nothing there, Biden said of the controversy in January. I have no regrets, Im following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. Thats exactly what were doing, theres no there there.

A separate special counsel, Jack Smith, is investigating former President Trumps handling of classified materials after more than 100 sensitive documents were found at his Mar-a-Lago estate last year.

Former Vice President Mike Pence in late January notified federal officials that a small number of classified documents from his time in the Trump administration were found at his Indiana home. There has not been a special counsel appointed to review Pences handling of classified materials.

The Hill has reached out to Comer for comment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Hundreds of demonstrators filed into the Texas Capitol in Austin on Tuesday to protest S.B. 14, a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans youth in the state. Some demonstrators were forcibly removed from the building by police, sparking outrage from LGBTQ+ rights groups.

In video captured by CBS affiliate KEYE-TV's Michael Adkison, Department of Public Service officers were seen corralling demonstrators and forcing them out of the building. The officers could be heard yelling "Move, let's go!" at protestors, who were chanting "Trans rights" in support of LGBTQ+ youth.

#BREAKING: Several LGBTQ advocates were forcibly removed from the Texas State Capitol after demonstrating (breaking decorum) in the House gallery.



Theyre protesting SB 14, a bill that would ban gender-related treatment for minors. #txlege https://t.co/uR3xz9KnTu pic.twitter.com/G3FtYFYddq  Michael Adkison (@madkisonews) May 2, 2023

Some of the demonstrators refused to leave, prompting "heated scuffles" and leading to advocates being forced out of the building, KEYE reported. At one point, a group of counterprotesters got into shouting matches with LGBTQ+ rights supporters before leaving the premises, KEYE reported.

"We are deeply disturbed by and closely monitoring what has happened at the Texas Capitol. We witnessed violence and arrests today against Texans, many of whom are queer and transgender and who would be harmed directly by this bill," All In For Equality, a group comprised of the ACLU of Texas, Equality Texas and other advocacy groups, said in a statement.

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The Texas Freedom Network tweeted that prominent trans activist Sofia Sepulveda, the Community Advocacy and Engagement Manager at Equality Texas, has been banned from entering the Capitol building for a year after dropping a banner in the rotunda that read "let trans kids grow up."

@TransTexas board member & @EqualityTexas staffer, Sofia is now banned from entering the Capitol for an entire year for dropping a banner in the main rotunda.



 We are standing in solidarity with Sofia and trans Texans. We will not be silenced. #txlege pic.twitter.com/S8ujkKmUJk  Texas Freedom Network (@TFN) May 2, 2023

"Loving families, community members, and advocates were here peacefully protesting an extremist ban on transgender healthcare that puts the lives of our youth at risk. None of them deserved criminalization or brutality," the group wrote in another tweet.

We're on the ground in Texas today alongside @TransTexas, @TFN, @ACLUTx, @EqualityTexas and so many others to fight back against attempts to harm our community across the Lone Star State.



LGBTQ+ people are here to stay  and we won't let anyone roll back our rights. pic.twitter.com/3JTCmuIvOj  Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) May 2, 2023

"LGBTQ+ people are here to stay  and we won't let anyone roll back our rights," wrote the Human Rights Campaign, adding that the bill represented "attempts to harm our community across the Lone Star State."

The bill, which has already passed the state Senate, was surprisingly sent back to committee in the House following the demonstrations, KEYE reported. A substitute bill was considered and approved by a 6-5 vote. It was not clear when that bill would be reintroduced.

Suspect accused of shooting and killing 5 in Texas captured

Will anything change at the Supreme Court after the Senate ethics hearing?

Hollywood writers' strike shuts down top TV shows
(Reuters) -Swiss dental implant maker Straumann Holding on Wednesday reported organic sales growth of 3.4% for the first quarter, helped by robust demand across most of its markets.

The dental healthcare company confirmed its outlook of organic sales growth in the high-single-digit percentage range in 2023, and profitability at around 25% including growth investments.

"We are confirming our full-year outlook despite the uncertainties around potential economic and geopolitical impacts," CEO Guillaume Daniellot said in a statement.

The company said all geographies performed well in the first quarter, except for China, where the combined impact of COVID-19 lockdowns, lagging patient flows, and the Chinese Volume-Based Procurement (VBP) pricing hampered growth.

A tender programme for healthcare products aimed at lowering costs for consumers, China's VBP has driven average selling prices to a much lower level.

Sales plunged 23.5% in Asia-Pacific (APAC), including China, Straumann's key market in the region. Excluding China, APAC delivered a "solid performance", the company added.

The company, which specialises in tooth replacement and orthodontic solutions, reported revenue of 596 million Swiss francs ($668.84 million) in the three months to the end of March, compared with 588.9 million francs a year ago.

($1 = 0.8911 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Andrey Sychev and Anna Mackenzie in Gdansk; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Rashmi Aich)
Donald Trump has always been an agent of chaos. But these days his campaign operation is a picture of order.

Despite the legal turmoil surrounding him, Trump has been methodically undercutting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  snatching up congressional endorsements, blasting attack ads and dominating news cycles. Its a campaign operation characterized by an unusual level of organization and discipline  one thats chipping away at his likely chief rival before he even jumps in the race.

Trump came to New Hampshire the other day [and] rolled out 51 endorsements, said Fergus Cullen, a former New Hampshire Republican Party chair and early member of the Never Trump movement. There was nothing like that the first time or the second time.

By comparison, he said, the DeSantis people are rookies.

Trump's onslaught has been disorienting for the nascent DeSantis operation. The Florida governor, who's expected to announce his candidacy in the coming weeks, plans to make the case that he will counter Trump's circus with a sense of normalcy that positions him to do what many Republicans fear Trump cannot: Defeat President Joe Biden. But that argument is running head first into the tidy  and muscular  organization the former president is putting together.



In recent weeks, Trumps team has worked to bank wins before DeSantis officially enters the race. They have rolled out policy videos focused on a second Trump term and made hires in early voting states. They have developed relationships with state party leaders, met with lawmakers at Mar-a-lago and worked the phones to steal endorsements from DeSantis in his home state. Trump is even doing a town hall event with CNN, a former cable news foe of the ex-president, in an effort to reach more mainstream audiences. Now DeSantis  a politician who places a high premium on control  will be forced to catch up.

This is a campaign run by adults who have excelled at the crib kill strategy, said Michael Caputo, a friend and longtime adviser to Trump, on how the campaign is targeting DeSantis by nailing down endorsements before DeSantis gets into the race. Trump hasnt done it before. He absolutely eschewed the congressional endorsements in 2016 and his campaign turned their nose up at it. Its a completely different world.

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The change in that dynamic, people close to the campaign say, is due in part to Trumps own knowledge of how the presidential campaign process works. This is, after all, his third time running. But it is also the product of a team of advisers who have had worked with Trump or on Trump-adjacent operations for years, including Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, as well as Brian Jack, who served as Trumps political director in the White House.

Those advisers and others on his team have kept a low profile as they have worked behind the scenes to build out support in Congress, plan state visits and political events, put county-level operations in place, and tend to state party leaders who go on to become influential delegates. State-level GOP officials from places like Nevada and Louisiana have made visits to Mar-a-lago for fundraisers and other events, where Trump has made time to talk to them and follow through with any personal requests they have, like signing hats to auction off at home.

The dueling politicians strategies were described in interviews with over a dozen Republicans working for Trump, DeSantis, or in 2024 presidential politics.

Their focus on early blocking and tackling paid off when a majority of the Florida congressional delegation announced Trump endorsements just as DeSantis was visiting Washington, D.C. last month. Lawmakers said Trump had personally called and reached out. Some had only heard from a pollster for DeSantis, or revealed they had no relationship with their own state governor at all.

The challenge that DeSantis and others face is that Donald Trump has a several years head start on this, theyve continued to foster a significant organization across states that will make it difficult for later entrants who havent built that same infrastructure, said a Republican strategist who has been in contact with almost every Republican presidential campaign. DeSantis, he said, has a ton of money and not much organization.

But, he added, its too soon for DeSantis supporters to panic. While some donors are beginning to worry that the Florida governor cant beat Trump, those in his tightly-controlled orbit are expressing a mix of confidence in his standing as the lead alternative to Trump and hope that the ex-presidents legal troubles and recent election losses puncture his early dominance.

Coming off of an historical re-election victory, DeSantis has the most robust political apparatus with national reach that no one is aware of, said one person with close ties to the Florida governor, who was granted anonymity to speak freely before the campaign launches. If he decides to run, there is no ramp up. The machine is built, full of rocket fuel and ready to launch.



That machine begins with a deep budget, huge fundraising potential and a team of loyalists hiring staff in critical nominating states.

Never Back Down, a super PAC formed by ex-Trump staffer Ken Cuccinelli, has raised $33 million so far to support DeSantis pending campaign, according to a representative for the group, who was granted anonymity to speak about the fundraising ahead of an official filing in July. In addition, the $85 million war chest DeSantis built up during his gubernatorial campaign can likely be transferred into a PAC supporting his presidential bid  giving him an enormous financial advantage heading into the election.

The energy our team is seeing for Ron DeSantis from Iowa to South Carolina day in and day out continues to build, and we are leveraging all the tools at our disposal to expand this momentum and, ultimately, get Ron DeSantis elected to the White House, PAC spokesperson Erin Perrine said in a prepared statement.

After Trump announced a slate of congressional endorsements from DeSantis home state of Florida, Never Back Down rolled out the backing of 19 state lawmakers from Michigan.

This is spring ball right now. The campaign will kick off shortly and then people will start putting points on the board, said one Florida-based political operative who supports DeSantis but would only speak on the condition of anonymity since he is not yet an announced candidate.

The PAC, which has reportedly received $20 million from real estate mogul Robert Bigelow, has been running ads in four early voting states touting DeSantis blue-collar roots and conservative record.

The entity has hired operatives in Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire and Nevada and is staffing up its Atlanta-based senior team, including former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt. It also recently launched Students for DeSantis, which mobilizes college students to phonebank and canvas for the campaign.

Election law prohibits coordination between PACs and campaigns, but Never Back Down has thus far been serving as the vehicle to promote DeSantis ahead of his launch.

Theyre going to use the super PAC as the ground game operation, said someone else close to the DeSantis team, who was granted anonymity to speak openly about strategy. The campaign is going to be basically in charge of TV messaging, the candidates scheduling and time. Paid media is going to be the campaign and grassroots operation is going to be the Super PAC.

Meanwhile the governor  who returned this week from an overseas trip intended to bolster his foreign policy chops  is planning to host a dinner at his official residence in Tallahassee next week with fundraisers, according to two people familiar with the event.



Nevertheless, one political strategist working on Trumps re-election effort said they have an inherent advantage in not having to spend millions simply introducing the public to the ex-president.

Donald Trump is Donald Trump. We dont have to spend a single dollar telling people why you should vote for him, said the strategist, who was granted anonymity to discuss this stage of the race freely. All we need to do is beat the shit out of DeSantis. So their money has to do a whole lot of different things: their super PAC has to build a ground game, tell who he is, and tell people why they shouldnt vote for Trump.

The pro-Trump Make America Great Again super PAC has spent millions over the past five weeks on advertising that targets DeSantis record on Social Security and Medicare.

Meanwhile the Trump campaign has worked on staffing in early primary states like New Hampshire. Trumps campaign was the first to announce any hires in New Hampshire in late January when it brought on the former New Hampshire GOP chair Stephen Stepanek as a senior adviser focused on the state. In late March Trump brought on Trevor Naglieri, an alum of Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz's presidential campaigns, as state director.



Last week in Iowa, Trump announced the endorsements of 13 state legislators and former elected officials from eastern Iowa. A Trump adviser credited some of those endorsements to the work of Trumps hires in the state, which includes Bobby Kaufmann, the son of the Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann, Alex Latcham, who worked in the Trump White House, and state director Marshall Moreau.

Trumps campaign is also working on identifying potential donors or volunteers in states based on data theyve compiled from events or from the previous two campaigns in the state. According to another Trump adviser, they have already identified 192,000 people in New Hampshire who have donated or signed up online to say they want to do something with the campaign, or attended rallies over the last six years.

Thats not to say Trump wont inject chaos into everything again. He has been discussing the possibility of not participating in upcoming Republican primary debates. But the overall operations discipline is now playing out in the polls. A CBS News/YouGov Poll released on Monday showed Trump with 58 percent of support from Republican primary voters, compared to DeSantis with 22 percent.

Definitely in the last couple of weeks there's been a growing resignation to the likelihood that Trump may yet end up as the nominee again, Cullen said.

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law Tuesday a sweeping ban on sustainable investing.

House Bill 3 bars state and local governments from factoring in environmental, social or governance (ESG) factors in their decision of whether to invest or contract with specific businesses.

It also obligates state-registered banks to make loans to several industries  including fossil fuels, private prisons or the manufacture and sale of firearms  that the GOP alleges some large financial firms have been turning away from.

House Bill 3 would bar financial institutions from discriminating against customers for their religious, political, or social beliefs  including their support for securing the border, owning a firearm, and increasing our energy independence, according to a fact sheet from the state of Florida.

In his signing ceremony on Tuesday, DeSantis  standing above a lectern that said GOVERNMENT OF LAWS, NOT WOKE POLITICS  lambasted ESG as an attempt by Davos elites to impose ideology through business institutions.

They want to use economic power to impose this agenda on our society, DeSantis said Tuesday.

And we think in Florida, that is not gonna fly here.

But financial experts told The Hill that the bill is likely a political stunt with little practical impact.

It prohibits banks that engage in corporate activism, Shivaram Rajgopal, a professor at Columbia Business School, told The Hill.

But what does that even mean? Legally, thats going to be difficult to define, he said. Should banks not get involved if a manager is simply a bad manager, and wastes shareholder capital?

The anti-ESG bill was largely political with little practical effect beyond limiting Floridas future investment options, Brandon Owens, vice president of sustainability at consulting firm Insight Sourcing Group, told The Hill.

DeSantiss anti-ESG turn has not been an especially popular strategy nationwide  he trails his presumed 2024 presidential rival, former President Trump, by 36 points, according to a new poll.

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But the Florida governor has sought to cast himself as leader amid a larger push by national and state GOP lawmakers to crackdown on ESG investing.

DeSantis in February published a book that sought to make the movement against woke capital a key part of his bid for a national platform  and potentially the presidency.

In March, 19 GOP governors, including DeSantis, released a statement calling ESG a direct threat to the American economy, individual economic freedom, and our way of life.

The anti-ESG movement in March led to President Bidens first veto  overturning a bill that would have barred pension fund managers from considering factors like climate change in making investment decisions.

On Tuesday, Florida GOP leaders framed the bill as necessary to keep small businesses from being unfairly denied access to loans.

DeSantis was joined at the event by the owner of Sovereign Ammo, which lists itself as a proudly Conservative company with Patriotic values of God, Guns, and Family.

Another such firm is private prison operator GEO Group, which DeSantis name-checked in February when he announced the bill, according to Florida Politics.

The Boca Raton-based company donated $740,000 to the Republican Governors Association, which itself put $14 million into DeSantiss campaign coffers in 2022, according to investigative journalist Jason Garcia.

Two GEO Group employees also gave DeSantiss PAC about $100,000 in 2018, according to the Orlando Weekly.

The company has been in legal trouble for years. In 2021, for example, GEO Group was required to pay $17 million in back pay to detainees at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility it ran in Washington state  people who were paid $1 a day, which a federal jury found to be a violation of minimum wage laws.

Another lawsuit filed in March accuses the private prison operator of using toxic chemicals to clean a California ICE prison  and continued to do so despite prisoner complaints that it was irritating their skin and causing them to bleed from their noses and mouths.

But as GOP leaders told it, the companys woes are political in nature.

The private prison operator, which for years has struggled to get investment, was de-banked because they were contracting with the actual federal government on immigration enforcement, DeSantis said at the time.

In the ceremony on Tuesday, Florida state House Speaker Paul Renner (R) argued that only political factors had kept the private prison industry from getting investment.

Renner laid out a scenario in which a private prison company goes to the financial side of a bank: They look and say youre a bankable client because your clients are the state governments and the federal governments. Of course, youre an easy lending decision.

And they set them out, rejecting them, and putting them into bankruptcy.

But this idea of being excluded increasingly relies on obsolete ideas of what sustainable investing is, Owens of Insight Group wrote to The Hill.

First, the animating concept behind this legislationnamely, that ESG investing is a drag on profitabilityis simply not true, Owens said.

But more and more often, sustainability isnt something that the financial industry treats separately from profit.

Instead, it is becoming an essential part of profit, he said  and one that is increasingly folded into a far more traditional concept: risk.

In sustainability thinking, generally protecting the environment must be factored in because failure to do so will result in the destruction of our environment and, therefore, end profits, he wrote.

That concept could swallow the whole law, he said. If environmental risks start getting priced into risks in general, the Florida law will become ineffective as ESG is subsumed into more granular financial questions.

The director of the nations first sustainability bank  based in Saint Petersburg, Fla.  said the bill could chase his bank out of the state.

Climate First Bank boasts of its position as the first FDIC-insured community bank dedicated to investment in the environment and sustainability.

The list of companies it wont do business with maps closely to the ones House Bill 3 aims to protect, CEO Ken LaRoe said.

We wont do business with for-profit prisons, guns, porn, bad agriculture, dirty energy, or extractive industry, he said. And they put our exact exclusionary list in the bill.

If he stays chartered in the state, every year starting on July 1, LaRoe will have to sign an affidavit swearing he hasnt discriminated against those industries.

That means, at a start, that the exclusionary list will have to go.

Beyond that, if he has to invest in industries that he considers risky, Well price it appropriately, LaRoe said.

And if they choose to bank with us? Well take their dirty money and use it to do something good.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By Kirstin Ridley

LONDON (Reuters) - A record number of Russians have appeared in London's Commercial Courts over the last year, despite the war in Ukraine and global sanctions, while the number of Ukrainian litigants sunk to zero, a new report showed on Thursday.

The number of Russian litigants in Commercial Court judgments jumped by 41% to 58 in the year to March 2023, second only to 441 British litigants, the annual Commercial Courts Report by consultancy Portland Communications showed.

London courts remain a global centre for commercial dispute resolution and have long bustled with well-heeled Russians bringing cases often rooted in a battle for wealth and influence following the fall of the Soviet Union - and providing a lucrative revenue stream for law firms.

But many law firms cut ties with Russian clients after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which could yet affect the future number of Russian litigants, the report said.

Portland, which compiled the data from 257 judgments, said 38 Russian individuals and 19 companies were among those listed in judgments, including a case involving sanctioned Bank Otkritie and a prominent Russian businessman and his sons.

However, no Ukrainian litigants have appeared in Commercial Court judgments since July 2021, although Ukraine ranked among the most common litigant nationalities in previous years.

The invasion had affected Ukrainian parties' ability to access courts but, given the delay between claims being filed and judgments, it was too early to attribute the data to the war, the report said.

Sixty percent of litigants appearing in Commercial Courts last year were from overseas - the highest proportion of international litigants ever recorded. Russians were followed by Americans, Indians and Singaporeans, the report showed.

Susan Hawley, executive director of pressure group Spotlight on Corruption, said the data suggested it had been "business as usual" for Russian litigants.

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"It should cause the government to pause for thought about the ways in which UK courts have been a playground for foreign claimants without any real scrutiny of whether the UK should be playing host to some of these claims," she said.

English courts are under rising pressure from a vast backlog of cases, partly due to the pandemic, shortages of lawyers and judges and an outdated court estate.

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow on April 6, 2023. Getty Images

Russia claimed Wednesday that Ukraine tried to assassinate Putin with a drone attack at the Kremlin.

Experts say there are some things that "don't quite add up."

They came up with three theories on what might have happened based on what little is known.

Security cameras captured striking footage of two drones, one of which can be seen exploding on video, above the hardened Kremlin citadel this week.

Russian officials claimed the overnight drone incident was an attempt by Kyiv to assassinate its leader, but with little evidence linking it to the drones. Ukraine says it wasn't them. So who was responsible?

In a war rife with propaganda, experts told Insider that they see hallmarks of Ukraine's long-range drone attacks and also of Russia's staged attempts to justify dangerous escalations to try to break the military stalemate. If it was a Ukrainian attack, it would suggest its leaders risked a major escalation with a poorly executed plan, with too few explosives and Putin not there anyway. And then there's the questions about how the drones got so close to the seat of power in one of the world's most defended capitols. There are a number of things in this mystery that still don't make sense or simply don't add up.

Video from the incident shows one of the drones explode and rain down flaming debris over the Kremlin, potentially after being intercepted by Russian defenses. It also shows what appears to be two people on the roof of the building for an unexplained purpose.

Blaming Ukraine, the Kremlin characterized the incident Wednesday as a "planned terrorist act and an attempt on the president's life," though there was no actual threat to Putin, given that he was not there at the time. The Kremlin said Russia "reserves the right to take retaliatory measures," but since Russia is already waging war in Ukraine and striking its population centers with long-range missiles, it is unclear how Moscow might escalate.

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Ukraine denied any involvement in the strike, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying: "We don't attack Putin or Moscow."

But experts told Insider that despite bold statements from both countries, much remains uncertain. "There is a lot we still don't know about this strike," said Samuel Bendett, a Center for Naval Analyses expert on Russian defense and drones.

James Patton Rogers, a military historian and adviser to NATO on drones and warfare, said that "there's a few things that don't quite add up in this situation."

Bendett, for instance, noted that "it seems strange" that the unmanned aircraft managed to fly so close to the Kremlin complex, seemingly evading most of Moscow's layered air defenses. These defenses, especially for critical targets like the Kremlin, have been bolstered since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but, that being said, questions have come up about Russian force protection capabilities.

Emphasizing that their thoughts at this stage are highly speculative at best, the experts outlined three possible scenarios that could explain Wednesday's dramatic events in the Russian capital.

A "No Drone Zone" sign sits just off the Kremlin in central Moscow as it prohibits unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) flying over the area, on May 3, 2023. NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images

Scenario 1: Ukraine sends a warning

For starters, there's the possibility Ukraine was behind the attack, as the Russians claim. They certainly have ample motive and assets.

Ukraine has previously denied activities in Russia or on Russian-occupied territory only to later acknowledge involvement, such as when its forces struck Russian military targets in Crimea last summer. And though they didn't claim responsibility, there have also been strikes on military bases deep in Russian territory attributed to Ukraine.

So Ukraine's denial of responsibility is being taken with a grain of salt by some observers.

"One explanation could be that it was launched by Ukraine to demonstrate the increased ability to launch deep precision strikes at one of the world's most secure and reinforced targets," wrote Patton Rogers on Twitter.

The type of drone used is still an open question, but none of potential models experts flagged for Insider rule Ukraine out as a suspect.

Dr. Marina Miron, a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of War Studies at King's College London, said, based on observing its flight pattern in the video, that it could be a small Chinese-made quadcopter, a fairly ubiquitous system. Bendett identified other possibilities as the Chinese-made Mugin-5 or the Ukrainian PD-1.

Both Patton Rogers and Bendett told Insider that it is feasible the drone used could be the UJ-22, a fixed-wing drone often used by Ukrainian forces. Bendett said the "UJ-22 has a long range and can potentially reach Moscow."

The UJ-22 is capable of autonomously flying around 500 miles towards a pre-set target. Its ability to fly comparatively low, and slowly, would potentially help it evade some radar, Patton Rogers said.

Social media imagery suggests that the same model was used in an attempted drone strike on a Gazprom site near Moscow in February, as The Guardian reported at the time.

"One hypothesis  and it is a hypothesis because we don't know the details  could be that that strike a couple of months ago has allowed Ukraine to see what the first, or indeed the second layer of air defense for Russia consists of," Patton Rogers told Insider.

But even if Ukraine were behind it, the likelihood of it being a serious attempt on Putin's life seems small, he said.

"If it was truly an assassination attempt as opposed to a show of strength, then the payload seems rather small from the explosions that we've seen," Patton Rogers said, pointing to the relatively small blast seen in the video, suggesting its explosive payload was likely too small to penetrate a reinforced building.

"It would be odd to send in just one or two of these systems and to give away the element of surprise without knowing exactly where Putin was," he added.

Miron agreed that this would likely be more of a signal  to say that "even the Kremlin is vulnerable" after Russia has repeatedly bombarded Ukraine.

"You could interpret it as a sort of warning," she said, noting that "next time it might be more explosive, or a swarm of drones."

Russian President Vladimir Putin waves in a village outside of Pskov, Russia, on September 11, 2021. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

Scenario 2: Russia was behind it

The signs are also there: Putin was never at risk. The iconic building suffered minimal damage. And politicians immediately seized on this to argue that Russia itself is under attack.

Patton Rogers told Insider that it's possible the strike and the accompanying rhetoric was orchestrated by Russia to justify a possible assassination attack on Ukraine's Zelenskyy.

Russia has engaged in so-called false flag actions to justify military action, and Russian rhetoric and actions during and just before the start of the Ukraine war repeatedly set off alarm bells abroad.

Casting doubt on Russia's accusations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Russian allegations often have to be taken with "a very large shaker of salt."

Claiming that Ukraine tried to assassinate Putin would potentially "open up a new norm in the war," Patton Rogers said.

To be sure, Russia has repeatedly tried  and failed  to capture or eliminate Zelenskyy since the war started more than a year ago, though perhaps Russia now plans to pursue a decapitation strategy more aggressively.

Presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak told local media last year that the Ukrainian leader had survived more than a dozen assassination attempts. Senior US officials, including CIA Director Bill Burns, were also aware of these plots.

That doesn't rule out a false-flag operation, but it may mean a different motive.

US intelligence said last year that a group of Russian operatives were conducting a false-flag operation in eastern Ukraine, which would offer Moscow potential justification to mobilize more troops. On Twitter Wednesday, presidential adviser Podolyak said "Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist attack."

Another potential motivation would be to bolster popular support for the war, Miron said.

"Russia needs some sort of justification for why they are continuing to stay in Ukraine," she said. "And so this has a message for the domestic populace to say, 'Look how dangerous Ukraine is. They're even trying to kill Putin.'"

A "No Drone Zone" sign in Zaryadye park, a short distance from the Kremlin in central Moscow on March 15, 2023. NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images

Scenario 3: The work of anti-Putin Russians

"A third option could be that this has nothing to do with the Ukrainian military at all," said Patton Rogers, raising the possibility that dissident groups in Russia were responsible.

Podolyak made pretty much this exact claim in a tweet, saying the attack "can only indicate the guerilla activities of local resistance forces. As you know, drones can be bought at any military store."

There have been multiple reports of attacks on critical infrastructure and assassination attempts throughout Russia's war in Ukraine, some of which have been claimed by various dissident groups. Russia's mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops last fall catalyzed resistance to Putin's regime, but most of their attacks have come against mobilization centers run by the Russian defense ministry.

Patton Rogers said he hasn't "seen any indication" that such groups have the capacity to use drones in their attacks. "So that would be a leap of imagination based on the empirical data that we have at this moment in time," he said.

Miron also acknowledged this possibility but pointed out that Moscow is highly secure with facial recognition cameras, which would be a strong deterrent for a local trying to launch and control a strike drone, better yet, two of them.

"Such an act would mean that the probability of this person being caught would be very, very high," she said.

"I guess we'll never know the truth," Miron concluded. "Maybe if documents get declassified in a hundred years, then we'll know what exactly happened."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Millennial and Gen Z voters are witnessing what I call the last of the first women.

These are the first women to earn a place in American politics that, frankly, should have been achievable for us long before. Its fallen on my generation to witness these first women at the height of their power and as they near the end of their barrier-shattering careers.

Opinion

At this point, we should be able to thank them for their service as they gracefully move aside for the next generation of brilliant young women.

Or not.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving woman in the history of the U.S. Senate and the oldest current U.S. Senator, refuses to relinquish a job she obviously cant do anymore.

Weve seen this scenario before, with devastating consequences.

By 2020, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had achieved something close to cult status.

Fans of the longtime, liberal justice called her the Notorious RBG, she was immortalized in popular culture and ephemera, bobbleheads, tattoos and on T-shirts. The hot ticket item I desperately wanted in those days was a pin that resembled her famous white collars. At 87, she was a feminist pop culture icon.

But since her death in 2020, Ginsburgs reputation has been reassessed in the minds of many, even some of her most ardent supporters, thanks in large part to her refusal to step down.

Had she retired in 2013, after then-President Barack Obama had won re-election and Democrats had control of the U.S. Senate, Americas political landscape might look very different today. By staying on the bench until her death at the age of 87 in 2020  under the Trump administration  Ginsburg denied Americans the chance to replace her with a like-minded justice.

Her seat went to conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett, whos helped lead the court away from the liberal ideals that Ginsburg established during her decades on the court.

There is, then, a direct line between Ginsburgs refusal to retire in 2013 and the demolition of American womens bodily autonomy in 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

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The lesson here was clear: Staying too long in politics or public service is a vanity  and an unforgivable one at that.

Its curious then, that Feinstein has managed to ignore this reality.

Feinstein was born in 1933, the same year as Ginsburg. And like Ginsburg, shes another of these first women: the first woman to be elected U.S. Senator from California, the first woman to chair the Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, the first woman to hold the top Democratic position on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the first woman to preside over a U.S. presidential inauguration.

While I dont personally agree with her Patriot Act-voting, Saudi weapons-selling, illegal information-gathering, nuclear site-supporting, suspiciously large personal wealth-gathering, Lindsey Graham-hugging brand of moderate Democrat politicking  I think voters can at least appreciate Feinsteins more than three decades of service to the American public.

But its time to go.

Feinsteins refusal harms women





Feinsteins irrefutable cognitive decline in recent years had already made headlines when, in February, she took a leave of absence from the Senate and was hospitalized for a brief time due to a case of shingles. At 89, Feinstein has not been able to perform her duties on the Judiciary Committee since. And in her absence, the Democrats lost their majority  causing the pace of judicial confirmations to slow drastically.

At a time when womens rights and bodily autonomy are increasingly under attack and imperiled by federal judges appointed in the Trump era, Feinsteins leave of absence from the committee is holding up the process, and has ensured that the only new judges who are confirmed are those who can muster Republican support.

Now, as with Ginsburg, we can draw a direct line between Feinsteins selfish refusal to retire and the inability of Democrats to more effectively counteract the judicial damage done to the courts during the Trump years. That damage has threatened, and in some cases, outright stopped, access to abortion care for millions of American women.

Feinsteins supporters, both men and women, have labeled any legitimate criticism of her as sexist or anti-feminist. Thats mind-boggling since Feinstein and her supporters have undoubtedly faced misogynistic treatment, so youd think theyd be able to accurately identify it.

But it is neither admirable nor feminist to cling to power.

Nor is it feminist to block the seat from going to another capable woman who can actually perform the job: California Gov. Gavin Newsom promised in 2021 that he would nominate a Black woman for the Senate. The whispered front-runner is currently Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, who would presumably, at the very least, show up to the job.

No politician elected by the people  and no judge confirmed by representatives of the people  deserves idolatry or sacred treatment. No one is above criticism or removal.

If my mothers and grandmothers had the courage to place these first women in these seats of power, and now it is my generations bad luck to witness their end, then we must have our own courage to say, Enough is enough.
By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that it has dismissed a senior scientist, known for his role as the head of an international mission to China to probe the origins of COVID-19, for sexual misconduct.

The U.N. agency said Peter Ben Embarek, a Danish scientist who previously headed up its 'One Health' initiative on diseases jumping from animals to humans, was removed from his post last year. In a response to Reuters, Ben Embarek said he contested the accusation of harassment and was challenging the sanction.

"Peter Ben Embarek was dismissed last year following findings of sexual misconduct against him that were substantiated by investigations, and corresponding disciplinary process," said WHO spokesperson Marcia Poole.

Poole said the cases that led to the dismissal occurred in 2015 and 2017. The agency was first made aware of them in 2018. The WHO did not provide further details of the misconduct allegations.

Ben Embarek said that a single incident in 2017 "was settled immediately in a friendly way." He said he could not comment further as both he and the WHO are bound by confidentiality agreements until a resolution is reached.

"I am not aware of any other complaints and no other complaints have ever been brought to my attention," Ben Embarek said in a digital message. "I duly contest the qualification of harassment and I am quite hopeful in the defense of my rights."

Ben Embarek is the most senior WHO official known to have been dismissed since the U.N. agency launched a series of reforms to improve its response to sexual misconduct. He has often been quoted in the media about the origins of the pandemic. His dismissal can be appealed through the U.N. internal justice system.

He was the lead WHO representative on a trip to China in 2021 that aimed to investigate where COVID-19 came from. The team made global headlines with their conclusion that bats were the most likely initial hosts, eventually leading to a pandemic in humans. They had also determined that a leak of the virus from a laboratory in China was "highly unlikely," despite calls from various scientists to probe that possibility.

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Ben Embarek later said that there had been some political pressure on the team, including from outside China, but that nothing in the report had been changed as a result. He did not identify the source of such pressure.

The WHO has overhauled its handling of sexual abuse and misconduct cases after a 2021 inquiry found that dozens of aid workers, including some from WHO, had been involved in sexual abuse and exploitation during an Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The agency said that people are more willing to come forward about sexual misconduct and that it is taking action where allegations are substantiated. It has started a monthly report on disciplinary action taken.

(Reporting by Emma Farge, writing by Jennifer Rigby in London; Editing by Alistair Bell)
In the shadow of Caernarfon Castle, for centuries a hulking symbol of English imperial power, bookshop proprietor Selwyn Jones was chatting in Welsh with customers and deciding on a window display for Britains coming coronation weekend.

The chosen works didnt center on King Charles III, despite a close local connection to the monarch who is to be symbolically anointed Saturday in London. Charles Philip Arthur George, then a gawky 20-year-old, was crowned Prince of Wales nearly 55 years ago in the crenelated fortress that dominates this pretty Welsh town.

To mark the upcoming occasion, Jones was curating literary works on the Welsh royal line that in effect ended in 1283, when Wales prince-in-waiting Dafydd ap Gruffydd was killed on orders of Englands King Edward I. The execution inaugurated the tradition  at the time, intended as a humiliating blow to a conquered populace  of bestowing the title Prince of Wales upon the eldest son of the English king.

This is the most Welsh town in the universe, said Jones, pointing to the areas role in recent years as a center of Welsh-language revival and nationalistic sentiment. So as far as the coronation goes, theres a feeling of, well, ambivalence  and that at best.

As Charles formally ascends the British throne at Westminster Abbey, millions of his compatriots will cheer the continuity of the worlds most famous monarchy, whose storied roots date back a millennium.

The lavish display of pomp and ancient ritual, however, belies a deepening sense of drift and disaffection in corners of a kingdom that consists, as Americans sometimes need to be reminded, not only of England, but also Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland  all of which have their own complicated takes on the matter.

Or perhaps not so complicated.

Figures of King Charles III and Queen Camilla adorn a mailbox in Rhyl, Wales, ahead of Saturday's coronation in London. (Paul Ellis / AFP/Getty Images)

No, no, no, it means nothing to me, absolutely nothing, said David Singh, a merchant and native of the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. For decades, he has sold fine Scottish woolens on the citys famed Royal Mile, just up the street from the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the monarchs official residence in the city.

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Like many in Edinburgh, Singh, who has ancestral roots in India, was abidingly fond of Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September at age 96 at her beloved Balmoral Castle, her Highlands retreat 75 miles to the north. The monarchs first funerary rites took place in the historic Scottish capital, and thousands lined the rainy route of her cortege to pay respects.

But affection for a stoic, self-effacing sovereign, who was just 25 when she became queen, doesnt necessarily accrue to Charles.

I dont think this king can replace her, ever, Singh said. So it can be really hard to see the point of it all.

In the United Kingdom as a whole, the monarchy still enjoys broad if diminishing support. Surveys suggest that overall, around one-third of Britons dont much care one way or the other about the coronation.

Far from Westminster Abbey or Buckingham Palace, though, that sense of psychological remove is magnified.

The evidence from polling is that in Scotland, support for the monarchy has been falling quite rapidly in recent years, said Murray Pittock, a historian and literature professor at the University of Glasgow. Theres quite a gap growing.

Outside England, each of the kingdoms constituent countries has its own reasons for restiveness. Economic hardship is a common thread, with nationalist



sentiment, historical grievance, changing demographics and evolving social mores woven through as well.

Some of the lack of enthusiasm might be attributable to the fact that, at 74, Charles has spent the bulk of his life awaiting the kingly role that passed to him upon Elizabeths death. Or to lingering memories of Princess Diana, killed in a 1997 car crash after the incendiary breakup of her marriage to Charles, who at the time was romantically entangled with Camilla, now to be crowned queen.

I do hope she isnt rotating in her grave, said Heather Jones, 55, walking with her 7-year-old grandson in Caernarvons cobbled central square, explaining to him the intricacies of hereditary monarchy  No, I am not as old as the queen who died.

She recalled her own dismay, as a young woman, over Dianas demise and the tumultuous circumstances surrounding it. So my sentiments around Charles are pretty clouded, she said.

In Wales, polling before Elizabeths death pointed to 2-1 support, in principle, for the institution of the monarchy, said Richard Wyn Jones, director of Cardiff Universitys Wales Governance Center. But that could erode, perhaps precipitously, he said.

The caveat is that the queen had particular standing, being there for so long, he said of Elizabeths seven decades on the throne, which made her the longest-serving British sovereign. It remains to be seen what kind of monarch Charles proves to be.

Despite the existence of locally empowered government institutions in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, the concentration of clout in London combined with the messy aftermath of the U.K.s severed ties with the European Union leave many feeling alienated from the celebrations.

Separatist fervor in Scotland, always greater than that in Wales, saw a Brexit-fueled boost after a 2014 independence referendum was voted down 55% to 45%. But breakaway momentum has since slowed amid disarray in the pro-independence Scottish National Party over a financial scandal and the resignation of the countrys leader, Nicola Sturgeon.

Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, right, stands by the Stone of Destiny at Edinburgh Castle before the stone was transported to London for King Charles III's coronation. The 335-pound sacred slab was seized from the Scots by England's King Edward I in 1296 and built into a throne. (Russell Cheyne / Pool Photo)

The new first minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, has described himself as a republican  the term used in Britain to describe those who do not believe there should be a monarchy  but plans to attend the coronation. So does Northern Irelands designated leader, Michelle ONeill, who represents the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein.

Writing about her decision to attend, ONeill described herself as dedicated to the longer-term ideal of Irish republicanism, which would involve the Norths unity with the Republic of Ireland, not the U.K.

We are living in a time of great change. A time to respect our differing and equally legitimate aspirations, ONeill said in a statement posted on social media, adding that her attendance reflected the recognition that there are many people on our island for whom the coronation is a hugely important occasion.

Unpacking the implications of ONeills decision, the British Broadcasting Corp. noted that Sinn Fein was once considered the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, and that the IRA in 1979 assassinated Louis Mountbatten  Lord Mountbatten  the great-uncle Charles regarded as a surrogate grandfather.

It says much, the BBC analysis said, that the prospect of Sinn Fein being represented at the coronation caused scarcely a mainstream ripple.

In a nod to the kingdom as a whole, united or not, Saturdays coronation ceremony for the first time will include a hymn sung in Welsh and in Irish and Scots Gaelic, Buckingham Palace announced in detailing preparations.

That in turn conjures up memories of a gesture by Charles, who, at his 1969 investiture as Prince of Wales  one remembered personally by diminishing numbers of royal subjects, but reprised in the Netflix series The Crown  had learned enough Welsh, a notoriously difficult language, to speak it at the ceremony.

But time has worn away any vestiges of awe surrounding the British sovereign, said Wyn Jones, the Cardiff University professor. He remembers being instructed, as a schoolchild, to stand waving along the route of the royal motorcade.

There was the notion that a fleeting glimpse should be something quite thrilling for us, he said. It was quasi-feudal, really, and I cant see us going back to that.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Studio execs weren't the only ones who gave their blessing to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Turns out, a shaman did, too.

Set in 1984, the upcoming blockbuster follows the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons as they join the existing battle on Earth between Autobots and Decepticons, filmed partly at Machu Picchu  yes, that Machu Picchu.

Filming at the historical landmark was predictably strict, according to the film's stars Dominique Fishback and Anthony Ramos. So strict, in fact, that the film and its set had to receive a blessing from a shaman before filming there.

"We had a shaman come in and bless the film," Fishback told EW at CinemaCon recently, where she and Ramos were honored with the Rising Stars of the Year award. "The shaman came  and butterflies remind me of my grandmother, and [afterwards] a butterfly stayed in the middle of set for 15 minutes. And then I got the butterfly to walk on my finger. We have videos."

In addition to the shaman blessing, no one was allowed to eat or drink anything on the site, and they couldn't step on any of the stones either, Fishback and Ramos revealed.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Paramount Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback in 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts'

Speaking with EW, Fishback said noted she was to bring to life her character, Elena, who is from Brooklyn, just like she and Ramos, whose character Noah is also a Brooklynite. "We've never seen the perspective of a Brooklyn kid meeting Bumblebee or Optimus Prime," she said. "I was excited to bring our version, our authenticity, our swag, and cadence and the way we speak, and how we approach things [to the film]."

As a lifelong fan of all things Transformers, Ramos added he was thrilled to see fan-favorite characters finally make their way into the film franchise. "I was excited for the new characters to come to life and people to meet them, like Mirage and Rhinox and Cheetor and Optimus Primal. And Scourge being this new villain who I think is the biggest villain we've ever seen in any of these movies," he said, adding, "and now we can actually talk about Unicron. For the fans, like the people that really love Transformers, this means a lot to them  they've been wanting to see these characters, especially Unicron, for years."

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Ramos continued, "And then on top of that, you know, you got two kids from the hood, you know what I'm saying? Running around, saving the world, traveling, going from Brooklyn to Peru."

Directed by Steven Caple Jr., the film also stars Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Pete Davidson, Ron Perlman, Colman Domingo, Peter Cullen, and more.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is currently scheduled to open in theaters June 9, 2023.

Related content:
WASHINGTON  A member of the pro-Donald Trump online forum "The Donald," who espoused violent rhetoric and advocated for overthrowing the government, was convicted on 10 counts Wednesday for repeatedly assaulting law enforcement officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Jose Padilla, who was arrested in Georgia in February 2021, was convicted after a bench trial before U.S. District Judge John Bates. Video shows Padilla repeatedly attacking officers on Jan. 6, 2021, including by pushing up against officers and hitting an officer with a flagpole. He has been held in custody since his arrest.

Padilla was found guilty of 10 crimes, including assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; civil disorder; and assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon. He was found not guilty of just one count, which involved the mobs pushing an enormous TRUMP 2020: KEEP AMERICA GREAT! sign against a police line, because Bates found the evidence of Padilla's intent in that incident "ambiguous."

Jose Padilla at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. District Court Washington)

Testifying in his own defense, Padilla conceded he was guilty of some crimes but said he wasnt guilty of others. He insisted that the violent rhetoric he posted online about the Capitol attack wasnt reality-based but was for internet cool points. He said that exaggeration was part of "gaming subculture" and that he engaged in "heated political rhetoric" because he liked to "shock people." He said he was trying to fit in with the community of Trump supporters.

"If we could have occupied the Capitol, we could have invoked the right given to us in the 2nd paragraph of the Declaration of Independence," Padilla wrote after the attack, referring to part of the declaration that states people have the right and duty to "alter or to abolish" a government and "institute new government" when it becomes a destructive force.

Jose Padilla at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. District Court Washington)

"We would have been in the Seat of Power. All we would need to do is declare our grievances with the government and dissolve the legislature, and replace it with Patriots who were there. Then simply re-adopt the Constitution with amendments added to secure future Federal elections," Padilla wrote.

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Padilla's posts detailed his actions on Jan. 6; he wrote that he'd "pushed the rails ... pushed the stairs, and then pushed the doorway." He defended his actions online and said he wished he'd done more.

"My conscious is clear," he wrote. "Treason my ass. Keep on being jealous that I'm not a cowardly worm." Padilla wrote that he thought he would die in the fray on Jan. 6 but that God was on my side.

Jose Padilla at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. District Court Washington)

"I would liked to have gone up to the Capitol, yeah, and protested where we eventually were," he testified, referring to the scaffolding that had been set up for Joe Biden's presidential inauguration. He testified that when he called officers at the Capitol oath breakers, he meant that he thought they were breaking their oath by not allowing rioters to go inside the building.

Padilla told an officer he faced off with at the Capitol that the machine "will be gone" if the officer let them through. Padilla testified that he wasn't talking about overthrowing the government or killing politicians, as he had discussed extensively online. Instead, he told Bates, the judge, under oath, the mob would have entered the Capitol to "convince legislators" to "adopt constitutional amendments" and get Trump in for a second term, when, Padilla said, he believed Trump would "fire everyone he could legally fire" and probably fire some people illegally, too.

Bates indicated that he thought Padilla's testimony wasnt credible.

I dont credit his self-serving claims that he only intended to follow legal processes," Bates said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Donald Trump plans to skip the first of two Republican primary presidential debates because its being moderated by Bret Baier of Fox News, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The notion that the former president would shy away from TV coverage by the conservative news outlet he has watched for hours daily was once unthinkable. But perceived cracks in his favorite channels allegiance have apparently changed his outlook.

Baier is scheduled to moderate the first debate in Milwaukee in August.

In a Times report backed by five unnamed sources who have discussed the matter with Trump, he reportedly raised his objection as one of the reasons to ditch the first televised encounter.

Why would I have Bret Baier question me, Mr. Trump told an associate, the newspaper wrote.

Trump was furious that Baier rejected many of Trumps voting-fraud claims in covering the 2020 election, according to the Times.

Baier was on the air when Joe Bidens victory in Arizona was correctly called by Fox News, a network move that has stuck in Trumps craw. Baier later made a point-by-point rebuttal of Trumps baseless Arizona claims after Trump attacked him.

Trump is additionally wary because former Fox News host Megyn Kelly asked him about demeaning comments he made toward women during a 2016 Republican debate, associates told the Times.

Trump has already criticized the Republican National Committees announcement of the debates, saying he led by seemingly insurmountable numbers and would have to respond to hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP ... hating anchors asking the questions.

Trump has a large polling lead on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not announced his candidacy. Official challengers include former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former biotech exec Vivek Ramaswamy.

Related...
Donald Trump has shared his unfiltered thoughts about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in a wide-ranging GB News interview with Nigel Farage.

Speaking to the Brexit Party leader during his two-day trip to Scotland, the former US president explained his shock upon learning that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were invited to the coronation of King Charles III, which takes place on Saturday 6 May.

I was actually surprised that Harry was invited to be honest, Trump told Farage on Wednesday (3 May). He said some terrible thingsthe book [Spare] was just...to me, it was horrible.

Prince Harry made several bombshell claims about the royal family in his tell-all memoir, Spare, which was released in January. Some of the many revelations included an alleged fight between brothers Prince Harry and Prince William and Harrys relationship with his stepmother, Queen Camilla.

The 45th president went on to claim that the Duchess of Sussex had been very disrespectful to the late Queen Elizabeth II, before she and Prince Harry stepped down as senior working royal in 2020.

I think she [Meghan] has been very disrespectful to the Queen, Trump said. How can you be so disrespectful to the Queen? She was incredible, for decades and decades she never made a mistake. I cannot think of a mistake she made, she was never controversial.

Trump added: She went through years and decades without controversy. You cannot be disrespectful to her and I think Meghan was very disrespectful to her, very disrespectful.

Despite his thoughts about Prince Harry attending his fathers coronation, the former president said he thinks the ceremony will be a great day and King Charles and Queen Camilla will do a great job.

On 12 April, Buckingham Palace confirmed Prince Harry will attend the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla at Westminster Abbey in London on Saturday 6 May. However, his wife Meghan will stay at home in California with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

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Buckingham Palace is pleased to confirm that the Duke of Sussex will attend the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey on 6 May, the Palace said in a statement. The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

This isnt the first time Donald Trump has spoken out against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. He previously took aim at Meghan Markle in an interview with Piers Morgan last year, in which he claimed that the mother of two is leading Prince Harry by the nose.

During an appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Trump said that the former royals marriage was a ticking time bomb, which will blow up when Harry decides hes had enough of being bossed around. The former president added that Meghan might leave Harry when she decides that she likes some other guy better.

Im not a fan of Meghan, and I wasnt from the beginning. Poor Harry is being led around by his nose. And I think hes an embarrassment, he was quoted as saying.

Earlier in December 2021, Trump claimed that Meghan had been disrespectful to the royal family and insisted that her husband had been used horribly.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down from their duties as senior working royals in 2020, before relocating their family to Montecito, California. Since then, the couple have shared many details about their time in the royal family  from their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021; to their six-part Netflix docu-series, Harry & Meghan; to his memoir, Spare.

Following their decision to step back from royal duties, Donald Trump said it was sad and that he felt bad for the Queen at the time.

I think its sad, he told Fox News. [The Queen] is a great woman. Shes never made a mistake Shes had a flawless time.

I dont want to get into the whole thing, but I just have such respect for the Queen, he continued, adding: I dont think this should be happening to her.

Trumps remarks about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex come just days before Prince Harry is set to reunite with the royal family at King Charles IIIs coronation on Saturday 6 May.

It was previously reported that Harry was seeking an apology from his father, Charles, and his brother, the Prince of Wales, before he made any commitment to the ceremony. Harry had also said in an interview that the door is always open for reconciliation.
An attorney for Donald Trump said Wednesday he will not call any witnesses in his defense of E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit, which includes a rape allegation, meaning the jury should get to decide the case early next week.

Trump attorney Joseph Tacopina told the court that health issues would prevent an expert witness in psychiatry from testifying; Tacopina said earlier in the trial that Trump himself would not testify.

'Early next week'

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan told jurors that I think you can reasonably expect to get the case early next week."

The judge discussed the schedule as attorneys for Carroll prepared to wrap up their case on Thursday. The judge is expected to recess the trial on Friday, as he did last week, in order to handle other court business.

'I'm here because Donald Trump raped me': E. Jean Carroll testifies; Trump attacks

Rape accuser E. Jean Carroll is cross-examined by Donald Trump's lawyer in day three of trial

'Access Hollywood' tape

Wednesday's session featured testimony from a woman who said Trump physically assaulted her.

Natasha Stoynoff, a journalist, said Trump shoved her up against a wall and tried to kiss her during a 2005 tour of his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump has denied the allegation.

Attorneys also played the infamous audio tape of Trump talking about women by saying he could "grab 'em by the p----y." The tape surfaced during the 2016 campaign and was made just before Trump filmed a segment on the program "Access Hollywood."

The jury also saw a videotape of Trump's deposition in which he denied Carroll's claims.

E. Jean Carroll arrives Tuesday for her civil trial against former President Donald Trump

Psychological testimony

The judge and attorneys discussed the schedule during a break in testimony from a psychologist who discussed Carroll's emotional scars from the incident.

Leslie Lebowitz, a clinical psychologist and trauma specialist who has interviewed Carroll for some 20 hours, said the assault "made her feel she was worthless. She felt degraded, diminished."

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Trump has denied Carroll's allegations, and called them politically motivated.

No Trump witnesses

Carroll is suing Trump for defamation, claiming he lied about the attack and disparaged her character while doing so.

Legal analysts could only speculate on Trump's no-witness strategy.

"Either they've (sic) confident they've got a juror or two in their camp or they recognize they've lost & it's only about limiting damages," tweeted Joyce Alene, a University of Alabama law professor and MSNBC commentator

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump won't put up defense witnesses in E. Jean Carroll case
Correction appended, May 4

A former Colorado schools chief, whose 2022 ouster by his boards new conservative majority made national headlines, quietly settled his unlawful termination and retaliation claims against the Douglas County district last month for nearly $833,000.

The district agreed to pay Corey Wise $270,733 for the remainder of his contract and $562,000 to resolve his unlawful termination claims. While Wises attorneys initially described the source of the money differently, school board trustee David Ray said Thursday the district paid Wise for the remainder of his contract when he was terminated in February 2022 and is now responsible for covering its $150,000 deductible from the $562,000 the former superintendent will receive from the districts insurance company.

Had these funds not been expended, the dollars could have been reallocated to another area such as student learning, Ray said. This marks a dark day in our district when disrespect, political agendas and refusal to take ownership for mistakes negatively impact much needed financial resources for our students.

A popular superintendent who served the school system for 26 years, Wise was fired at a special meeting last February that barred public comment and came after the school boards conservative majority reportedly met to plan his removal  a move that prompted yet another court battle over alleged violations to the states Open Meetings Law.

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Wise had strong support among students and educators alike: Just a day earlier, some 1,500 employees staged a sickout to protest his impending removal, forcing the states third-largest school district to close.

Wise said board members Becky Myers, Michael Peterson, Christy Williams and Kaylee Winegar terminated him without cause and targeted him for advocating for students with disabilities and minority youth.

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The battle in predominantly white, affluent Douglas County mirrored those being fought in numerous districts throughout the country in the pandemics wake. Conservative parents, pushing back against what they saw as government overreach, organized politically and ran school board candidates who opposed COVID-related protocols and teachings around race and gender. At the same time, other more moderate and liberal parent groups began to rise up to counter those views.

Related: In White, Wealthy Douglas County, Colo., a Conservative School Board Majority Fires the Superintendent and Fierce Backlash Ensues

In Douglas County, the board members actions violated Wises First Amendment and due process rights in addition to state and federal laws, according to a statement released last month by his attorneys. Peterson, the school board president, did not return requests for comment.

Amy Valentine, a district parent and a part-time substitute teacher at a local charter school, said she wasnt surprised by the hefty payout.

School boards must be held accountable for their actions, and Im glad that was the case in Douglas County, she said.

Wises attorneys said their clients story might serve as a lesson to other school districts, many of which have seen right-wing groups gain control over local boards of education as a means to counter cultural movements with which they disagree, fighting against equity and inclusion efforts and social-emotional learning, among other issues.

Hopefully, his story sheds light on the dangers of politicizing student education and spreading misinformation about students, personnel, curriculum, and school policies, Wises attorneys wrote. They added the four board members put their success over the success of students, and have destroyed trust between community members, engendered hate within our county, and degraded the quality of education for our students.

Related: Fired Superintendent Files Discrimination Complaint, New Chief Steps In

Wises case isnt the districts only legal headache. Bob Marshall, an active community member with no children in the school system, filed a lawsuit against the school board as a whole and the four majority members with the Colorado District Court on Feb. 4, 2022, trying to get a temporary restraining order to keep them from meeting and ousting Wise.

Marshall, an attorney, was hoping everyone could have gone to their corner, settled down and done it the right way. He said he had no allegiance to Wise and no opinion about his leadership, but filed the lawsuit because he believed the board violated the law by meeting in secret. Marshall, a longtime Republican who now describes himself as a conservative Democrat, was elected to the state Assembly in November 2022.

Unless it is settled before that, Marshall said his case could go to trial in June.

Whether Wises support for a controversial district equity policy played a role in his termination was also scrutinized by his lawyers. Before the school board was set to discuss the policy last week, a biracial student told the trustees he and his siblings faced appalling harassment at school. One student posted that Black people should be removed from the planet and called for bringing back the Holocaust. The slurs leveled in person and over social media were so frequent and hate-filled that his mother said she could not envision sending him back to campus.

The district is also facing other challenges: Voters rejected a bond request for construction improvements and another measure to boost teacher pay, which remains among the lowest in the state  and nation.

The three seats held by the board members who are not part of the conservative majority are all up for election for this year.

We have three outstanding minority board members now, Marshall noted. Anything other than getting three equivalent board members will be a loss.

Correction: The source of the funds paid to ousted Douglas County Superintendent Corey Wise was incorrectly reported in an earlier version of this story based on information provided by his attorneys.
An hours-long protest on Wednesday that blocked the entrance to Gov. Ron DeSantis office in the Capitol building in Tallahassee culminated with the arrest of about a dozen demonstrators who refused to leave after warnings from police.

The protest started at 1 p.m., with a few dozen protesters crowding the lobby of the governors office. They were broadly protesting DeSantis policies and his approach to governing. Around 7 p.m., Capitol police gave protesters a 20-minute warning to clear the building.

Most of the protesters left, but about a dozen stayed. They locked arms, sang and swayed as a line of police officers came to arrest them. They are now facing trespassing charges and a one-year ban from the Capitol, police said.

When the demonstration started, a few dozen protesters sat on the carpet in front of the receptionists desk, locking hands. Monitoring the situation behind the desk were DeSantis communications director Taryn Fenske, a security officer and another staff member  who at one point started eating chocolate cake as the protest was ongoing.

A staffer in Gov. Ron DeSantis office eats chocolate cake as a few dozen protesters stage a sit-in demonstration at the governors office in the Capitol building in Tallahassee on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.

Protesters were associated with the student activists known as the Dream Defenders as well as the groups Florida Rising and Showing Up for Racial Justice. They lined the hallway that features the portraits of former governors, wielding different signs.. One read Black Lives Matter, another read Community Keeps Us Safe. One protester brought a pink guitar with Stand Up and Be Braver scribbled on it.

In 2013, the Dream Defenders drew national attention when they held a sit-in demonstration at the Florida Capitol for 31 days. At the time, they were protesting former Republican Gov. Rick Scotts push for Floridas Stand Your Ground law.

This time around, the protest was focused on DeSantis and the Legislatures Republican leadership.

Gov. DeSantis and Republican lawmakers have chosen to attack many of Floridas most vulnerable and historically marginalized communities with policies that attack who they are, who they love and how and what they learn, Dwight Bullard, senior political adviser at Florida Rising and a former South Florida legislator, said in a statement.

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Bullard was one of the protesters who was sitting in the office. Julia Daniel, assistant director of Showing Up for Racial Justice, was also sitting in the office.

A few dozen protesters stage a sit-in demonstration at Gov. Ron DeSantis office in the Capitol in Tallahassee on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.

He stokes division to try and make white people afraid, and Im here to say that we will not be divided or tricked because we know that we are stronger when we stand together, Daniel said in a statement.

Capitol police were monitoring the situation but an hour into the protests, no one had been removed from the office. The protesters did block some people who were trying to reach the governors office from coming in, but visitors were able to deliver paperwork to staffers through a side door.

The protest took place as Florida lawmakers were holding floor sessions in both the House and the Senate. They are considering dozens of bills and funding proposals as they race to wrap up this years 60-day legislative session, which is scheduled to end on Friday.

A few dozen Dream Defenders occupy the outer areas of the office suite of Gov. Ron DeSantis at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.
Authorities are investigating the death of a Childress woman in Memphis, Texas.

On Saturday night, the Memphis Police Department requested the Texas Rangers' assistance with a homicide investigation, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).

The victim was identified as 52-year-old Cassandra Downey of Childress.

The Rangers have a suspect in custody, according to DPS. No further details are available about the ongoing investigation.

All further findings will be turned over to the 100th Judicial District Attorneys Office, DPS said.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Childress woman dead in Memphis, Texas, and suspect in custody
AdventHealth Daytona Beach has named Dr. David Sinclair as Chief Medical Officer (CMO), effective May 21.

AdventHealth Daytona Beach has a new chief medical officer.

Starting May 21, Dr. David Sinclair will fill the role previously held by Dr. Joe Smith, the hospital announced Wednesday.

Sinclair has 25 years of clinical experience as a practicing physician, including 20 years in progressive leadership roles  nearly half of which have been in chief clinical roles for large acute care systems, the hospital said.

AdventHealth Daytona Beach has a strong reputation for providing high-quality care and I am honored to join the team, Sinclair said in a press release. My passion for improving patient outcomes and advancing health care aligns perfectly with AdventHealth's commitment to whole-person care. I look forward to working with the talented staff and physicians to improve the health and well-being of our patients and community."

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Sinclair had been serving in the same role at AdventHealth's Altamonte Springs campus since 2020, "where he led the medical staff, helped launch a local Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council, and oversaw the addition and expansion of numerous clinical programs."

He has also served as the Patient Safety Officer for AdventHealth Central Florida Division  South since January 2022.

Sinclair graduated from medical school at McGill University and earned his MBA from Florida Atlantic University. He is also a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

He earned certification in health care quality and management from the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians in 2020.

I am extremely grateful to have a leader of Dr. Sinclairs talents and expertise join our leadership team, said David Weis, president/CEO for AdventHealth Daytona Beach, in the press release. With his extensive experience and deep understanding of health care, he will help AdventHealth Daytona Beach continue to provide the highest quality care for our patients and improve the health of our community.

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AdventHealth Daytona Beach

The Daytona Beach hospital has received A ratings from the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Guidelines for the past few years and is expanding outpatient services with a new three-floor ambulatory surgery center and medical office building currently under construction in partnership with community physicians. The $45.7 million building is slated to open in January 2024.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: AdventHealth Daytona Beach names new chief medical officer
Many big businesses in America have a running legislative wish list: a series of bills designed to push more products and services out to the masses for public consumption with less oversight and overhead.

For fitness empires, the list might include a bill designed to avoid basic property taxes under the guise of leveling the playing field with not-for-profits, like the YMCA. For weapons manufacturers, it might include a bill shielding them from civil liability under state laws when their products are used to open fire on schoolchildren.

All these businesses need is a conduit  one or more skilled lawmakers who can ram the bill from the CEOs desk through both legislative chambers and over to the governors desk, then back through the Legislature for veto override if necessary.

But think about how omnipotent a corporation would be if it didnt even need a conduit to get its wish list passed: a corporation so powerful that no elected official would dare wage battle for fear of being squashed like a bug on the windshield of a 50,000-pound driverless semitruck hauling hazardous materials down a crowded highway at 70 miles per hour.

Companies like Walmart come to mind.

Speak of the devil, Walmart and its autonomous trucking startup companion, Gatik, decided last year they wanted to start running their driverless truck experiments on Kansas roads.

The idea was raised in the 2022 legislative session, and by the end of May, Gov. Laura Kelly had signed Senate Bill 313 into law. If you blinked, you probably missed it.

Driverless vehicles, like artificial intelligence, are both promising and scary at the same time.

They have the potential both to improve our world and to wreck lives. Careful oversight is crucial to avoid the latter.

For this reason alone, the frantic speed at which driverless vehicles got the green light to operate in our state is deeply troubling. And how it came to be is just as troubling.

The message was delivered to House members early in the 2022 session that Walmart was pushing autonomous vehicles and the bill needed to pass.

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Weve seen bills hit the ground running with vigor before. But the fact that few questions were being asked by anyone was concerning  as was the bill itself.

For those tracking the bill, it seemed to morph and evolve constantly, getting increasingly larger in scope and magnitude after each hearing.

The first version came through the Senate Transportation Committee labeled as Senate Bill 379: An Act concerning motor vehicles; relating to autonomous motor vehicles; providing for the use and regulation thereof.

It came up for hearing on Feb. 2 and only authorized 10,001-plus-pound autonomous commercial vehicles to operate in the middle mile  a fixed, repeatable route involving the intrastate commercial movement of goods in a business-to-business capacity.

For Gatiks part, their lobby was a well-oiled machine. They had plenty of help from Walmarts paid lobbyists under the Capitol rotunda, but their own team made slick presentations from skyscrapers via WebEx at standing desks near large windows.

Gatik is highly focused on safety, they assured lawmakers. The problem with this assurance is that the safety decisions arent made by lobbyists giving planned speeches into cameras behind standing desks  the decisions that decide life and death are made in the heat of battle by engineers and executives, who must determine whether spending more money to run more tests is good for the bottom line.

The bill had enough opposition that the hearing was spread over multiple dates in February, and some lawmakers seemed to feel that the complexity of the technology and the magnitude of the legislation made it important to avoid rushing things.

S.B. 379 stalled in committee, but Walmart pushed forward, undeterred.

The legislation reemerged as Senate Bill 546 under a similar name.

It came up for hearing in the Senate Transportation Committee on March 10 and was passed out of committee with some amendments. It was then amended again by the full Senate before passing on March 23 by a 24-12 vote.

On March 29, S.B. 546 came before the House Transportation Committee. By this time, the bill had been amended to increase the weight limit to 34,000 pounds on tandem axles through July 1, 2025, and to add a requirement that a conventional human driver be present in every driverless-capable vehicle providing transportation services (e.g., Uber) for the first 24 consecutive months.

But the middle mile restriction was gone  travel was now extended to the public highways of this state.

And no liability insurance was required beyond the states basic minimum limits.

Questions were again raised about the complexity of the bill, the number of jobs that would be lost to computers and the safety risks of allowing the testing and eventual operation of these driverless vehicles on our roadways.

S.B. 546 stalled in the House committee, and Walmart pushed forward, undeterred, with a new plan.

Enter Senate Bill 313. It was originally filed in the 2021 legislative term as An act concerning roads and highways; designating a portion of United States Highway 69 as the Senator Tom R. Van Sickle Memorial Highway. Following its progress from that point forward requires a great deal of patience and concentration.

S.B. 313 was originally introduced and referred to the Senate Committee on Transportation, where it sat for the remainder of 2021.

When the 2022 term started, the bill came up for committee hearing on Feb. 15. On Feb. 17, a committee report was filed, recommending the bill be passed as amended with some minor changes that had nothing to do with autonomous vehicles. The bill passed the Senate as amended on a 40-0 vote.

The bill was then referred to the House Committee on Transportation on March 1 and came up for hearing on March 8  two days before the second pass at autonomous vehicles, S.B. 546, came up for hearing in Senate Transportation.

The House Committee made one extremely minor edit and recommended the bill be passed. The committee report was again adopted on March 21, but no final action was taken to vote on the bill in the House. The autonomous vehicle bill, S.B. 546, was still alive in House Transportation at the time, and was about to come up for hearing there on March 29.

S.B. 313 sat idle with its proposed honorary highway in Linn County until late April, when a House-Senate conference committee submitted a report on the bill on April 27. Before the report could be submitted, a motion was passed in the House to suspend ordinary deadlines for the submission of legislation. The committee recommended gutting all 21 lines in the bill about honorary highways and replacing them with hundreds of lines about autonomous vehicles. The title was changed as well to reference autonomous vehicles and not memorial highways.

One thing was clear: This new version of S.B. 313 had a rocket behind it. The gut and go came at blinding speed. The House and Senate both adopted it the same day.

As with the last time the bill resurfaced, the new language was even more robust and detailed. There were provisions about advisory committees, law enforcement reporting, and lots of other clever things. Where the changes came from and who suggested them is not clear: No one else was in the room when it happened. As with the prior version, the middle mile restriction was gone and driverless-capable vehicles were authorized on the public highways of this state.

S.B. 313 then went to the governors desk on May 6. A week later, the bill had the governors signature on it. On May 13, 2022, self-driving vehicles became a real thing in Kansas.

It had been three months since Walmart and its partner first broached the topic of allowing self-driving vehicles to test and operate on our roads and highways. Lots of confusion ensued over this enormous piece of legislation and a small number of hearings were even held  none of which resolved the confusion.

But self-driving vehicles were on Walmarts wish list, and Walmart would not be denied. A totally different bill about memorial highways was gutted and replaced with Walmarts bill, which became more expansive each time it stalled under a different bill number.

What happened with self-driving vehicle legislation was hardly unprecedented. This process replays itself over and over, year after year. Only the companies, wish lists and bill numbers change. But this is a democracy. Our government doesnt have to work this way.

If were all on board with these new laws, theres no problem. But what if it all comes at us so hard and fast that we cant even decide if were for or against it?

As long as they have us asleep at the wheel, well need these self-driving vehicles.

Ponka-We Victors-Cozad contributed to this article. Blake Shuart and Victors-Cozad are members of The Eagle Community Editorial Advisory Board. Shuart is an attorney and Victors-Cozad served in the Kansas Legislature from 2011 until January of this year.
Russia claims numerous Ukrainian drone attacks, including against the Kremlin.

Video has emerged showing what appears to be a drone striking at the dome of the Senatsky Dvorets in the Kremlin in Moscow. Russian officials claim that the building came under attack by Ukraine and have vowed to retaliate, while Ukraine's president denied Kyiv's involvement in the incident.

The video shows what appears to be a drone approaching the dome and then exploding in a ball of fire that lit up the sky. It seems that this drone did not impact the dome itself, but detonated very close to it, sending flaming debris falling. Two drones are suspected to have attacked the dome in succession.

#BREAKING Clear footage of drone attack on Russias Kremlin overnight. pic.twitter.com/WYUqaGAq19  Clash Report (@clashreport) May 3, 2023

Stills captured from another video appear to show two drone strikes, one at 2:27 A.M. and another at 2:43 A.M.

https://twitter.com/kromark/status/1653761880144396288 https://twitter.com/KyivPost/status/1653728796128825349?s=20 https://twitter.com/Mike_Eckel/status/1653742993722028032

Moscow residents say the sound of the explosion could be heard from across the Moskva River, according to the Yakimanca Telegram channel, a Moscow neighborhood social media site.

The strength of the [explosion] was like a roll of thunder, neighbors from Serafimovicha Street write, according to Yakimanca. Also, residents of the House on the Embankment saw sparks in the sky and people with flashlights near the Kremlin wall after the claps. The illumination of the Kremlin and the Kremlin embankment is now off.

Residents of the House on the Embankment, an iconic block-long apartment building along the banks of the Moskva River, reported a strong bang and smoke in the center at about 2:30 a.m., according to Yakimanca, which posted videos of the incident. A few minutes later, the popping repeated.

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Russia says that two drones, which it claims are Ukrainian, tried to strike Putins residence in the Kremlin during the night. Here is footage from a neighborhood social media channel. pic.twitter.com/zZZa34gcls  Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) May 3, 2023

Putin's press service blamed Ukraine for the attacks, which could be viewed as a major symbolic victory for Ukraine, especially ahead of Victory Day on May 9. There is hardly a higher profile target than the Kremlin. On the other hand, they could also be used to rally Russians to support Putin's war efforts. This has already led to speculation that this was a calculated move by Russia.

The video also shows people climbing the tower just prior to the detonation of one of the drones, which has led to suspicions as to exactly how all this played out.

Drone attack on kremlin there are two People climbing on the roof on the left side.

I turned up the brightness of the video pic.twitter.com/CFG8ypapza  Floris. 'smrt vr'hm (@r_evolutie) May 3, 2023

"Last night, the Kyiv regime attempted a drone strike against the residence of the President of the Russian Federation at the Kremlin," Russia's official Presidential Press Service stated.

"Two unmanned aerial vehicles targeted the Kremlin. Timely action by the military and special services involving radar systems enabled them to disable the devices. They crashed in the Kremlin grounds, scattering fragments without causing any casualties or damage."

"We view these actions as a planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt targeting the President, carried out ahead of Victory Day and the May 9 Parade, where foreign guests are expected to be present, among others."

Putin "has not suffered in this terrorist attack. His working schedule remains unchanged and follows its ordinary course. Russia reserves the right to take countermeasures wherever and whenever it deems appropriate."

However, Mikhail Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, denied Kyiv's involvement.

"As for the drones over the Kremlin. Its all predictable," Podolyak said in a tweet. "Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist attack. That's why it first detains a large allegedly subversive group in Crimea. And then it demonstrates 'drones over the Kremlin.' First of all, Ukraine wages an exclusively defensive war and does not attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation. What for? This does not solve any military issue. But it gives RF grounds to justify its attacks on civilians."

As for the drones over the Kremlin. Its all predictable... Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist attack. That's why it first detains a large allegedly subversive group in Crimea. And then it demonstrates "drones over the Kremlin". First of all, Ukraine wages an    (@Podolyak_M) May 3, 2023

Podolyak's comment about Ukraine not attacking Russian territory is also specious, as we have repeatedly reported numerous incidents where Russian towns along the border and targets beyond have come under attack by various means.

Regardless of who is to blame, Russia has clearly anticipated some kind of attack on its capital, installing a Pantsir air defense system on top of at least two different government buildings in Moscow, including the Ministry of Defense's headquarters in January. You can read more about that in our coverage here.

We don't know at this point what kind of drones were involved or from where they were launched, but there have been other apparent attempts by Ukraine to strike near Moscow and Ukrainian drones have gotten closer and closer to the capital in recent months. On April 24, an explosives-laden Ukrainian drone, most likely a UJ-22, was found a short distance from Moscow. You can see it in this tweet below.

A kamikaze drone with 17 kg of explosives fell in the suburbs of Moscow.



A drone similar to the Ukrainian UJ-22 Airborn was discovered in the village of Zlodiyske near Noginsk - Russian media. The three-meter kamikaze drone carried Canadian M112 explosive charges. pic.twitter.com/YFPSHJDIWd  Ukrainian Front (@front_ukrainian) April 24, 2023

We also reported about an incident in February, where a Ukrainian drone came within 70 miles of Moscow. You can read more about that in our coverage here.

But despite the attack, the Victory Day parade will go on and Putin will take part, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to TASS.

Putin is working today at his residence near Moscow in Novo-Ogaryovo, Peskov told RIA Novosti.

The president's schedule continues without changes, he said.

As a result of the attack, Moscow's mayor issued an order banning drone flying in the city.

Moscow's mayor announced a ban on unauthorized drone flights over the Russian capital Wednesday after the Kremlin said it had shot down two Ukrainian drones targeting President Vladimir Putin. (Photo by NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, there was yet another Ukrainian attack in Bryansk Oblast, which sits roughly 100 miles away from the Ukrainian border.

UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked a military airfield in the Bryansk region on the night of May 3, the Russian Baza news agency reported on its Telegram channel.

https://twitter.com/maria_avdv/status/1653658199688445954 https://twitter.com/vijesti11111/status/1653675790515712005

According to preliminary data, a total of five UAVs participated in the attack, according to Baza. Two of them were destroyed by small arms, two more exploded on the territory of the airfield. Another drone was not found.

As a result of the attack, a non-operating An-124 cargo jet received minor damage, according to Baza. There were no casualties.

Bryansk Oblast, which borders Ukraine, has been a frequent target of attacks.

There was also a suspected drone attack on a Russian oil facility in Krasnodar Oblast Russia, across the Kerch Strait from Crimea, according to a local government official.

"A fire at an oil depot in the Temryuk district of the Kuban is seen from Mount Mithridates in Kerch," Krasnodar Krai Governor Veniamin Kondratyev wrote on Telegram channel, adding that there are no victims and no danger to the public.

The fire response "was assigned the highest rank of difficulty. The fire area was 1,200 square meters. The drone attack has not yet been officially confirmed, but local public reports report that the fire was preceded by an explosion."

Residents of the village were not evacuated, said Kondratyev.

https://twitter.com/auto_glam/status/1653731069995237376 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1653638258989867011

The resulting fire and smoke could be seen from the Kerch Bridge, itself the site of a Ukrainian attack last October.

The fire at the oil depot in Volna village of Krasnodar region is visible even from Crimea Bridge.



The area on fire is about 1,200 square meters. pic.twitter.com/IZPvr8hFD2  Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) May 3, 2023

These are just some of several suspected Ukrainian attacks noted by Russian milblogger Igor Girkin.

"Not a good morning": Girkin shares a list of unexplained incidents happening across Russia and temporarily occupied territories on the morning of 3 May 2023. pic.twitter.com/jsc3ul0nV1  Dmitri (@wartranslated) May 3, 2023

These are developing situations and we will update this story as we learn more.

Update: 2:20 P.M. EST

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied his country's involvement in the Kremlin attack.

Zelenskyys statement on the Russian drone attack accusations (via @svtnyheter):



We dont attack Putin or Moscow, we fight on our territory. Were defending our villages and cities. We dont have, you know, enough weapons for this. Thats why we dont use it anywhere [else] pic.twitter.com/fILacFaErj  Minna Alander  (@minna_alander) May 3, 2023

In response to this incident, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, called for the assassination of Zelensky and his cabinet.

"After today's terrorist attack, there are no options left except for the physical elimination of Zelensky and his cabal," he said on his Telegram channel. "It is not even needed to sign the act of unconditional surrender. Hitler, as you know, did not sign it either. There will always be some kind of changer like the Zitz President Admiral Donitz."

The Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev has stated today that the attempted Drone Assassination on President Putin last night by Ukraine leaves the Russian Military with no other choice than to Eliminate Ukrainian President Zelensky and his Cabinet. pic.twitter.com/3CVE5QGYY9  OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) May 3, 2023

Medvedev's statement elicited a response from Podolyak.

There is a brilliant Finnish remark for any threatening statement by a typical Russian subject "Medvedev" (deputy head of RFs Security Council), especially about "physical destruction": Tyhjat tynnyrit kolisevat eniten (translated - An empty barrel makes more noise. There is a    (@Podolyak_M) May 3, 2023

CIA director Bill Burns will brief the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the incident, according to CNN.

CIA Director Bill Burns is briefing the Senate Intelligence Committee later today on the alleged drone attack at the Kremlin, @ZcohenCNN is told. The briefing was already scheduled but Burns was then told to expect Qs on this.  Alex Marquardt (@MarquardtA) May 3, 2023

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov echoed Zelensky's denial.

Proper towers for the "kremlin towers."

Reiterating what President @ZelenskyyUa said, Ukraine doesnt need to attack russian war criminals in their residences in moscow - the Tribunal will deal with them.

The inevitable residence for russian war criminals is the building at pic.twitter.com/9pDJWBGwmA  Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) May 3, 2023

Update 12:25 P.M. EST 5/4/23:

This story has been updated to reflect the proper location of the suspected drone attack on a Russian oil depot.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com
The Russian Federation has closed its airspace for drones in St Petersburg; the ban applies to flights within a 150-kilometre radius around the city.

Source: Fontanka media outlet

Details: It is reported that "the airspace was closed for security concerns". "Until 15 May no flight approvals will be given," the State Corporation for Air Traffic Management of the Russian Federation stated.

The corporation states that the use of any kind of UAV or other aircraft has to be approved by the Transport Committee. The committee itself will coordinate the corresponding applications with law enforcement agencies.

Previously: Moscow had introduced a ban on flying UAVs. From now on, the use of drones will require permission from government authorities.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Russian media reported on the attack on the Bryansk Oblast

Ukrainian drones were used in the attack, the outlet said.

Preliminary data suggests that two drones hit their targets on the airfield, two were destroyed, and another UAV was not found.

An An-124 military transport aircraft was slightly damaged in the attack. The aircraft was not in operation, according to media reports.

There were no reported casualties.

An explosion derailed a train carrying fuel in Russias Bryansk Oblast on May 1.

A second explosion derailed a separate train in the same region on May 2.

A massive fire broke out at a fuel depot in Russias Krasnodar Krai region on May 3 after a suspected drone attack.

Another fire was reported at the Gostilitsy airfield in Leningrad Oblast near Saint Petersburg on May 3, causing the evacuation of two helicopters.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Mykhailo Podoliak, advisor to the head of the President's Office of Ukraine, connected the Kremlins claim about the drone over Putins residence with the preparation of a massive terrorist attack by the Russian government.

Source: Podoliak on Twitter

Quote: "Concerning the drones over the Kremlin. It is quite predictable Russia is surely preparing a massive terrorist attack. This is why it first allegedly detains a group of saboteurs in the Kremlin, and then demonstrates "drones over the Kremlin."

Details: Podoliak explained that, firstly, Ukraine is merely defending in this war and it does not attack facilities in Russia because it does not attain any military objectives. At the same time, such statements from Russia allow it to justify its attacks on civilians.

Moreover, Podoliak remarked that the Ukrainian leadership is watching the increasing number of accidents and excesses, which occur all across Russia, with curiosity.

"Unidentified aerial vehicles appearing at power facilities or in the Kremlin's premises may be the evidence of underground work of local resistance forces," Podoliak stressed.

He also confirmed that "Putin's clan" has lost the power control of the country, although the Kremlin constantly claimed it held total control of Russia's airspace.

Podoliak remarked with irony that nowadays, drones can be purchased in any military store. "I can only say something is definitely going on in Russia but there are surely no Ukrainian drones over the Kremlin," he stated.

Background:

The press service of the Kremlin claimed that the Ukrainian UAVs "attempted to launch an attack" on the Kremlin residence of Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia. The Kremlin called the attack "a planned terrorist act" and "assassination attempt on the President of Russia."

Serhii Nykyforov, spokesperson of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, reported that Ukraine had no information about the so-called nighttime attacks on the Kremlin.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
The dry and breezy conditions in Central Florida are working to raise our fire threat.

Our area will be mostly sunny and warm.

The high temperature in Orlando should reach around 86 degrees Wednesday.

Watch: Some Orange County residents still seeing impacts from Hurricane Ian

Any fires that start up will have the conditions to spread quickly.

Red Flag Warnings for a high fire threat have been issued for most of Central Florida.

Read: Man, son rescued from rip current by marine deputies in Tampa, Florida

Wednesday night will be cooler, with a mini front moving in.

We will have a refreshing morning Thursday with temperatures in the 50s and 60s.

Red tide guide: How to check Florida beach conditions

Get caught up on todays headlines by clicking here.

Follow our Severe Weather team on Twitter for live updates:
The Duke of Sussex is fifth in line to the throne and the youngest son of King Charles III and the late Princess Diana.

In 2020, he made the decision to step back from his royal duties but still retains his Duke of Sussex title. He now lives in California with his wife Meghan Markle and two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilbet.

After months of speculation over whether the duke will attend his fathers coronation on 6 May, Buckingham Palace confirmed in April that he would be attending the coronation, but without his wife Meghan. The coronation will mark the first time Prince Harry will appear in public with senior members of the royal family since the release of his tell-all memoir Spare.

Here is a timeline of Prince Harrys life ahead of the coronation:

Dealing with his mothers death

His parents divorced in 1996, and the following year he was hit with the news that his mother died in a car crash in Paris. At Dianas funeral, aged 12, he walked behind her hearse in the funeral procession.

In his memoir Spare, Harry wrote of the moment he learnt of Dianas death. He also revealed that, in 2007, he drove through the tunnel that his mother died in, as a way to gain closure over the loss.

The duke claimed his father did not hug him and he later felt like a politician as he greeted members of the public in the wake of her death.

Prince Harry was 12 years old when Princess Diana died (1987 AP)

Harry was subjected to close media attention in his youth that he would later decry.

Harrys blunders are published

In January 2005, the Duke of Sussex attended a friends fancy dress-themed birthday party in a Nazi uniform, wearing a swastika armband.

The royal, who was 20 at the time, later apologised, saying that he was very sorry if I caused any offence or embarrassment to anyone, adding: It was a poor choice of costume and I apologise.

In his book Spare, released in January, Harry claimed that William and his then-girlfriend Kate Middleton had encouraged him to wear the costume and howled with laughter at the suggestion.

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Harry has since said that wearing the costume was probably one of the biggest mistakes of his life. He also said in his memoir that he was probably a bigot before his met his wife Meghan.

Continuing his mothers legacy

Harry has taken part in a number of philanthropic campaigns that channel the interests of his late mother Diana.

In 2016, Harry underwent a public HIV test at Guys and St Thomas Hospital to raise awareness and promote how easy it is to get tested, as part of his on-going efforts to eradicate stigmas associated with HIV/AIDS. Diana famously shook the hands of HIV patients in the Nineties when many still believed the virus could be passed on by physical contact.

Harry also spearheaded the Heads Together mental health campaign with his brother William, leading a coalition of eight mental health charities with the aim of changing the conversation on mental health.

Harrys military service

He spent a decade working in the Armed Forces, ending his operation duties in 2015. During his service, he conducted two tours of duty to Afghanistan with the British Army.

The prince at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan (Getty Images)

After leaving the British Army in 2015, the duke spent three months working on a number of such projects in Nambia, Tanzania, South Africa and Botswana.

He later founded the Invictus Games, an international multi-sport event for wounded, sick and injured servicemen and women who are in active service or veterans.

Harry meets Meghan Markle

Harry met Suits actor Meghan Markle on a blind date at Soho House in London after being set up by a mutual friend, Violet von Westenholz.

They instantly hit it off. Despite the distance between them (with Meghan living in the US and Harry in the UK), they continued to see each other. For their third date, Harry whisked Meghan away to Botswana, where the pair camped under the stars.

Harry and Meghan met on a blind date in 2016 (Jeremy Selwyn - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The couple later returned to Botswana for Meghans birthday the following year.

Their relationship was made public in November of that year when Harry made an appeal to the media on behalf of Meghan. In the rare statement, he noted that Meghan had received sexism and racism and asked for privacy.

The couple made their official debut in 2017 at the royals Invictus Games, which were held in Toronto, Canada. In November of that year, they announced their engagement after months of speculation.

Harry said at the time that he proposed at home over a roast chicken dinner. Harry went on to say that Meghan and his late mother would have been thick as thieves.

In May 2018, Harry and Meghan wed at St Georges chapel as the new royal wore a satin boat neck gown designer by Clare Waight Keller of Givenchy, with Queen Marys Diamond Bandeau tiara.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wave from the Ascot Landau Carriage during their carriage procession on the Long Walk as they head back towards Windsor Castle in Windsor, on May 19, 2018 (AFP via Getty Images)

In May 2019, they welcomed their first child Prince Archie. Their second child, Princess Lilbet Diana was born in June 2021.

Harrys comments about the press

Prince Harry has been vocal about his dislike of the tabloid presss interest in his personal life and has often criticised how the press treated him, Meghan and his late mother, Princess Diana.

The Sussexes have publicly struggled with media coverage of their relationship, with the duchess launching privacy action against the Mail on Sunday while Harry pursued the owners of The Sun and The Daily Mirror over alleged phone-hacking.

At no point did I have a girlfriend or a relationship with anyone without the tabloids getting involved and ultimately ruining it, or trying to ruin it, using whatever unlawful means at their disposal, the princes witness statement said in the recent phone-hacking court trial.

Harry steps back from royal duties, 2020

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced in January 2020 that they were to step back as senior members of the royal family.

The couple said they wanted to become financially independent and would split their time between North America and the UK.

In the statement, Harry and Meghan said: After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution.

The Queen was very clear that she wanted both grandsons to go to war, a former head of the military has said (Paul Grover - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

We intend to step back as senior members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.

It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment.

Harry and Meghan opened their own production company Archewell Productions and worked with Netflix to create their documentary titled Harry & Meghan, which released in January 2023. In it, they made several claims about the way they were treated by members of the royal family throughout their relationship.

Relations between Harry and senior members of the royal family became fraught following the decision to step back.

Despite this, Harry was present at the Queens platinum jubilee in June 2022, but did not appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace since he is no longer a working royal.

When Queen Elizabeth II died in September, Harry flew to London with his wife Meghan to attend the funeral.

Harry releases his tell-all memoir Spare, January 2023

In January of this year, Harry released his tell-all memoir Spare, in which he made several allegations about his family.

He revealed personal details about his own life, including the story of how he lost his virginity. He also detailed his drug use as a young adult, how many people he killed while on military tour in Afghanistan and said he wanted further investigation into his mothers death.

At the time, clips of the audiobook version of Harrys memoir went viral as they circulated on the internet, with the book becoming the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever, recording figures of 400,000 sold on its first day of publication.

One of the strongest statements made by Harry in the book was perhaps the claim that his brother William physically attacked him.

Harry wrote: (William) called me another name, then came at me. It all happened so fast. So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor.

I landed on the dogs bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.

William and Harry arriving for the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace, London (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Wire)

Harry later spoke of a red mist that came over his brother during this altercation.

Harry later told ITVs Tom Bradby: What was different here was the level of frustration, and I talk about the red mist that I had for so many years, and I saw this red mist in him.

The Duke claims William urged him to hit back, citing fights they had as children, but Harry refused and his brother left before returning, looking regretful and apologising.

Harrys attendance at his fathers coronation on 6 May will mark the first time he will see senior members of the royal family since Spares release.
Jazmyn Simon and Dule Hill have written a book of affirmations for children titled "Repeat After Me: Big Things to Say Every Day." (Richard Shotwell / Invision / Associated Press)

"Pysch" co-stars Dule Hill and Jazmyn Simon have turned the daily affirmations they recite with their kids into a children's book. (Your move, Snoop Dogg.)

Following up her 2022 book "The Most Perfect You," which was inspired by conversations with her daughter, Simon and "The Wonder Years" star are bringing their co-parenting and co-authoring energy to the pages of "Repeat After Me: Big Things to Say Every Day," illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice.

"Book Birthday Alert," Hill and Simon posted together Tuesday on Instagram. "Today is a very special day in the Hill House as REPEAT AFTER ME: Big Things to Say Everyday is OUT! This book has a very special place in our heart! Like most things, it was inspired by our children. Our hope is that at least one child can walk forward boldly knowing the truth about who and what they are! We hope you love it as much as we loved writing it."

The book tells children about "the magic of self-love and standing firm, regardless of outside voices and doubt," encouraging them to believe in themselves, according to publisher Penguin Random House. It features affirmations such as "I am important," "I am loved" and "I am enough" that Simon says shaped how her 18-year-old daughter Kennedy sees herself.

"She knows that outside of everybody else, this is who I am, and I've heard this for 16 years," Simon told Yahoo! Life.

When Kennedy graduated from high school, Simon asked if there was anything about herself that she didn't like and encouraged her to talk about it. But Kennedy, who is now wrapping up her freshmen year at Northwestern University, said there was nothing she would change.

"'[Kennedy said] There's things that, you know, I obviously didn't love about myself growing up, but as a young adult, there's nothing that I would change about myself,'" Simon said. "And I would say that those affirmations got her to that point, because there's so many things in the world for our young people to want, to aspire to be something else, to look different, to sound different, to dress different. And she just doesn't. She's OK and she loves herself. And I think the first-person affirmations truly helped her get to where she's at."

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Self-affirmation is any behavior that confirms the moral and adaptive adequacy of the self, according to the American Psychological Assn. Positive affirmations are statements about the self that reinforce positive characteristics, abilities or skills and are frequently used in psychotherapy, usually as part of a treatment for depression, negative thinking or low self-esteem. The long-held practice went viral on social media earlier this year when Snoop Dogg released "The Affirmation Song," a nursery rhyme-inspired recitation that featured the rapper as the animated, kid-friendly dog Bow Wizzle.

Simon, who was a single mom to Kennedy before meeting Hill, also said that co-parenting has been a struggle for her. Over time, however, she and Hill have found a balance to benefit their two children, especially while parenting their young son Levi, who is almost 4. (The couple wed in 2018 and Hill adopted Kennedy that same year  when she asked him to.)

"In a partnership, though, I can't discount Dule. And so I have to remind myself that it's not his fault that I was a single parent and that his opinion adds value to our children's lives," she said. "Now, I feel like I did a really great job with Kennedy  I'm like, 'I did a great job ... I am Wonder Woman'  and so my first instinct is to do that with Levi, to, like, steamroll ahead and do all the things that worked with Kennedy. But it just doesn't work that way, because we have a two-parent home now."

Hill, a former child actor who toured with "The Tap Dance Kid," told Yahoo that he received plenty of positive feedback at a young age and has worked on supporting his children's interests without trying to mold them into who he thinks they should be.

"I just think it's important to instill that in children that you don't need to have all the answers right now," the Emmy-nominated "West Wing" star said. "You don't need to be forced to do any one particular thing. You can really see where your passions lead you and then let the world take you there," he said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Engineering giant Dyson plans to invest 100m in a new research and development hub in central Bristol.

The technology centre would be home to hundreds of software and artificial intelligence (AI) engineers, the company said.

Dyson said it had chosen Bristol because it was an "international hub for software and digital skills".

The centre is planned for a Dyson-owned building opposite Castle Park, close to Bristol Bridge.

The company is still going through the process of applying for planning permission to convert the building's use, and it is not yet clear when it will be fully operational.

'Connected future'

Teams at the site will work on developing appliances due for launch up to a decade in the future.

Jake Dyson, son of founder Sir James and the company's chief engineer, said the centre would focus on sensors, apps and "connectivity" in future products.

He said such technology would transform how the company supported customers, and allow it to continuously assess the performance of its machines.

"The new Dyson Technology Centre in Bristol will be a vital hub contributing to Dyson's connected future," he said.

The company's UK headquarters are located in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, but industry insiders told the BBC that the firm was struggling to tempt software and AI engineers to the site.

Dyson already has an office in Bristol with about 100 tech specialists. A spokesperson said the new centre would create hundreds of jobs but declined to give a specific number.

'Melting pot'

Ben Shorrock, managing director of networking agency TechSpark, which promotes Bristol as a hub for tech investment, said the city had a "melting pot" of skills which engineering firms needed.

According to TechSpark's research, Bristol has around 28,000 specialist tech workers and the industry is worth 1.7bn to the regional economy.

He said: "Bristol continues to be a leading place for tech businesses and people.

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"Its unique mix of historic industries from the creative, showcased in organisations like Aardman Animations and the BBC, to engineering through businesses like Hewlett-Packard and Airbus, means we're a melting pot of the skills needed in developing cutting-edge tech."

Mr Shorrock added: "Future technologies like robotics, sensors and AI all need expertise in data, hardware and design, so it's no surprise global businesses are looking here for their research and development centres."

Victoria Matthews, Bristol director of Business West, which advocates for companies in the region, said Dyson's announcement was "fantastic news for the community".

"Dyson could have gone anywhere - it's a global company so any city in any country - but they have chosen to invest here in Bristol," she said.

"It's a testament to the talent we have here, it's a testament to the business community we have here. we have built a strong tech ecosystem at a time when all businesses are struggling to recruit and retain talent."

Globally, Dyson is planning to invest 2.75bn in manufacturing and research, with development sites in Singapore, the UK, China, Malaysia, Philippines and Poland.

Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk
Dating standards are a much debated topic in the Black community. It is not uncommon for men and women to have very particular requirements for the type of person they will or will not date. These can include physical appearance, number of children, and, for some, type of employment. In particular, the type of job a potential love interest has. Lawyer and television personality, Eboni K. Williams, recently shared her thoughts on the type of man she would date, specifically the type of employment he should have. Her comments have led to an outpouring of opinions.

Iyanla Vanzant asks a sister, would she date a bus driver pic.twitter.com/R9aIoPzzgs  Be cool64 (@DEJACKS43492044) April 29, 2023

In a special interview with Iyanla Vanzant, personality discussed the dating pool for Black women. Vanzant asked Williams if she would date a bus driver and Williams responded was, If he owned the bus. This opened up the floodgates on social media for opinions and think pieces. Half of social media users are shaming Williams for classism while the other half praise her for knowing the type of man she deserves. While the topic can be daunting, it does open up a conversation about the type of people you choose to date when it comes to your standards.

Views On Dating Outside Your Tax Bracket

Eboni K. Williams responds to everyone that took issue with her would you date a bus driver viral clip pic.twitter.com/nK1UErjSrP  Tezlyn Figaro (@TezlynFigaro) May 3, 2023

Eboni K. Williams responded to the backlash in a video clip posted to her Instagram account. She framed her response from the perspective of dating a man with aspirations.

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Theres absolutely nothing wrong with driving a bus but could it be that Black America has been sold a narrative of average, regular and typical being good enough for us? Williams said in the video clip.

She challenged the idea that Black women should accept a good man no matter what he brings to the table. Williams further explained herself with an example of a child bringing bad grades home from school. Some parents choose to coddle their children by saying things like Thats okay, as long as youre doing your best, which, according to her, is not acceptable for the people in her life whom she loves. She added that accepting mediocrity is not something she stands for herself, her family members, and more specifically her partner.

The conversation ignited by Williams is similar to a debate sparked by internet personality, B. Simone in 2020. In an interview with Nick Cannon, B.Simone, whos real name is Braelyn Simone, stated that she refuses to date a man with a 9-5. Social media reacted to Simones statement similarly to Williams. The comedian also chose to clarify her point.

He cant be like clocking in and clocking out. No. I think entrepreneurs should date entrepreneursyoure not going to understand my lifestyle. Youre not going to understand why Im up at 3 a.m. He has to be an entrepreneuror moving into that direction, Simone said.

She also doubled down on Twitter saying that its not about money but about understanding the lifestyle she lives and having someone who can match that energy.

My thoughts on Eboni K. Williams saying she wouldnt date a bus driver unless he owned the bus. pic.twitter.com/PX1CVW1YXH  Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) May 2, 2023

Williams close friend, Marc Lamont Hill, chimed in with his thoughts following the interview fallout. He said he doesnt condone defining people by their jobs, however, he does understand that a successful and boss type of woman would want something similar in a partner.

On The Flip Side

While many people agree that a woman of a certain status would want a partner with a similar lifestyle, there are many on the other side of the argument. Social media debates include those vouching for men who are good partners independent of their income.

In the case of Keke Palmer, men who have money may not be the best match. Palmer had a conversation with Steve Harvey in 2019 about dating. In talk, Palmer revealed that Harvey continuously tries to set her up with billionaires. She told the host she doesnt need that. Palmer said she wants to keep her career and her personal life separate.

Ultimately, preferences are personal. While society may not agree with your requirements for a partner, it is up to each person to determine what ultimately works for them and will make them happy. So, what would you do?

The post Eboni K. Williams Wouldnt Date A Bus Driver, Would You? appeared first on 21Ninety.
A mobile billboard displays a photo of Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. outside the U.S. Capitol last month. (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images for Accountable.US)

Thanks to recent reports about financial and personal dealings by members of the Supreme Court  including lavish trips bestowed upon Justice Clarence Thomas by a friend and prominent Republican donor  the public has become aware of a troubling fact: Unlike other federal judges, justices arent bound by the Code of Conduct for United States Judges. But if that loophole is to be closed by Congress, bipartisan support will be necessary.

That will be difficult because, as a hearing Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee demonstrated, the campaign to tighten ethics for the high court is ensnarled by partisan divisions in Congress. The leading proponents of ethics reform are Democrats, while Republicans are reflexively defending the court. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the panels ranking Republican, railed against an unseemly effort to undermine the high courts legitimacy.

Reform of the court shouldnt be a partisan issue. Fortunately, there is now an effort co-sponsored by a Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and an independent senator, Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats. It could be refined, but its introduction is a milestone.

Though less ambitious than other proposals, the Supreme Court Code of Conduct Act comprises important reforms: a code of conduct for the justices, which the court itself would issue, and a mechanism for the investigation of whether a justice engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice or in violation of federal law or codes of conduct. The bill also would require the court to designate an individual to process complaints against justices.

Under existing law, complaints can be filed alleging that lower-court federal judges engaged in conduct prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts or are "unable to discharge their duties by reason of mental or physical disability.

There ought to be a similar process for filing complaints about ethical lapses by Supreme Court justices, though because of their prominence justices might be targets of frivolous or politically motivated complaints. Ideally, justices  and other federal judges  also should be required to seek approval in advance before accepting gifts or travel and lodging.

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So far the justices attitude to criticism seems to be nothing to see here. In declining a request to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. cited a statement agreed to by all current members of the court. The statement noted that in 1991 justices voluntarily adopted a resolution to follow the substance of the regulations of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Since then, it added, justices have followed the financial disclosure requirements and limitations on gifts, outside earned income, outside employment, and honoraria. They file the same annual financial disclosure reports as other federal judges.

That may sound reassuring, but the justices still arent bound by the code of conduct applicable to other federal judges. Thomas didn't reveal the lavish hospitality he received from real estate developer Harlan Crow in his voluntarily disclosures. After Pro Publica reported on that generosity, Thomas said that he had received advice from colleagues and others in the judiciary that personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the court, was not reportable.

Thomas added that he would comply with new and more stringent disclosure guidance promulgated earlier this year by the Judicial Conference. (Of course, sometimes disclosure won't be enough to inspire public confidence. Justices should decline generous gifts from political actors, even if they are friends.)

Even if the Supreme Court were to adopt a code of conduct, it wouldnt rectify all of the courts credibility problems. The justices have lost public confidence not wholly, or even primarily, because of perceived ethical lapses. The courts image also suffers because of the perception that the justices are predictable partisans in politically charged cases and the successful effort by Republicans to cement a conservative majority on the court by blocking a superbly qualified nominee, Merrick Garland, who was nominated by then-President Obama in 2016. The culmination of that strategy was last years disastrous decision overruling Roe vs. Wade and extinguishing a federal constitutional right to abortion.

But ethics reform is still important. In an injudicious interview published in the Wall Street Journal, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.  the author of the majority opinion overruling Roe  said that it wasnt surprising that the courts approval rating was sagging with critics saying day in and day out, Theyre illegitimate. Theyre engaging in all sorts of unethical conduct.  A binding code of conduct for the court is one way to address such criticism.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
By Farah Saafan

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt launched a national political dialogue on Wednesday that authorities said was meant to generate debate around the country's future, though the chair of the event said several areas of discussion would be off limits.

The dialogue, announced by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in April 2022, aims to produce political, economic and social reform recommendations that could be presented for Sisi's consideration.

It is one of several steps aimed at countering criticism of Egypt's human rights record. Other measures include a five-year human rights strategy and a presidential amnesty committee that is considering thousands of requests to free some of those jailed under Sisi's rule.

"I urge you to do the effort to make the national dialogue experience a success," Sisi said in a recorded message to the dialogue's opening session, adding that he had followed preparations closely and that "differences in opinion do not damage the cause of a nation".

The dialogue's chairperson, Diaa Rashwan, said all sessions would be open to the media but discussions around the constitution, foreign policy and "strategic national security" would be off limits.

Critics say recent steps on human rights are cosmetic, pointing to continuing detentions and arrests of dissidents, and say they doubt the dialogue signals real change.

The dialogue "had nothing to do with actual security practices on the ground," said Wesam Ata, researcher at the Egyptian rights group Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE). "Anyone who does anything that security decides they should be arrested for will be arrested."

Khaled Dawoud, spokesman for the Civil Democratic Movement, a coalition of secular and leftist opposition groups that are participating in the dialogue, said continuing arrests create "serious doubts" about the government's commitment to political reform.

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The Interior Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Rights groups estimate tens of thousands of people including liberal activists as well as Islamists have been jailed since Sisi led the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Mursi in 2013.

Sisi and his supporters say the crackdown was needed to stabilise the country.

(Reporting by Farah Saafan; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Cynthia Osterman)
BMW i3 for DT Weekend Motoring - Andrew Crowley

Electric car owners are losing thousands of pounds a year to depreciation, with leading models losing value twice as fast as comparable petrol vehicles.

Early adopters of electric vehicles (EVs) have seen prices plummet by 39pc between 2020 and 2023, while petrol car prices fell by 30pc in the same period, according to used car comparison website Choose My Car.

Drivers have been pushed towards electric cars by a string of government initiatives, which are intended to help the country become net zero by 2050. However, drivers going green risk losing thousands of pounds more than those who stick with petrol.

Some popular electric models have fallen in price at twice the rate of petrol cars. A driver who bought an electric BMW i3 in 2020 would have paid 39,000 and could sell the car for 13,900 today, a depreciation of 64pc.

However the petrol equivalent has maintained much more of its original value. A new petrol-powered BMW 3 series cost 32,000 on average three years ago but would sell for 22,360 now  a drop of just 30pc.

Choose My Car said electric cars had lost 15,000 of their value on average over a three-year period, from an average purchase price of 38,600. This compared with 9,900 for petrol vehicles, from an initial 32,700 purchase price.

The study said that electric car prices had fallen so fast they had effectively wiped out any savings drivers would have made when receiving up-front government grants. Other incentives to switch to electric cars such as lower tax and free entry into ultra-low emissions zones have also been discontinued.

Stuart Masson, of advice website The Car Expert, said early adopters of electric cars, who paid high up-front prices for their vehicles only to be met with a steep drop in value, were being hit by a double whammy.

He said: Every month electric car prices fall it is good news for everyone who wants to switch, but early adopters are subsidising that by essentially funding manufacturers research and development costs.

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Mr Masson said the rapid decline of EV prices was happening at a rate much higher than simple market forces because of the Governments net zero drive. As part of its ambition to reach zero carbon emissions by 2050, the Government will ban the sale of new petrol cars by 2030  and manufacturers are manded to sell an increasing proportion of zero-emissions vehicles every year until the deadline.

Tesla Model S press photos 2022

However, this policy has resulted in the market being flooded with cheap second-hand electric cars, as existing owners upgrade. Some motorists who bought expensive EVs in the early stage of the rollout are now nursing heavy losses, experts warned.

The average price of a new Tesla Model S was 75,000 in 2020, but is now 40,000  a drop of 46pc  according to data from dealership websites.

Nick Zapolski, of Choose My Car, said the sharp drop-off in EV value was because of an influx in second-hand models.

He added: Not only are the EVs themselves not holding value, but the price of electricity itself has also zoomed up, meaning running the cars is not as economical as it once was.

Ian Plummer, of car magazine AutoTrader, said: This year, supply has surged by triple figures and so weve seen some softening in prices as a result, despite solid growth in demand for second-hand electric vehicles.

Big-name price drops will also be having a ripple effect across the market. We expect this fluctuation to continue for a while but will eventually settle as the market matures.

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Rochdale in Lancashire where 11 men are to appear in court charged with historic sexual abuse of underage girls - Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Eleven men accused of historic sexual abuse against three teenage girls in Rochdale are to appear in court.

Their combined 103 charges relate to alleged offences against the three girls between 2000 and 2006.

Greater Manchester Police said they were charged in connection with Operation Lytton - an ongoing investigation into historic sex offences against children.

The suspects are due before Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

Allegations

Tahir Rashid, 52, of Hudsons Walk, Rochdale, has been charged with 13 offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Mohammad Salim, 44, of Bradley Smithy Close, Rochdale, has been charged with eight offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Suklene Shah, 44, of Crawford Street, Rochdale, has been charged with two counts of penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Mohammed Shazad, 42, of Beswicke Royds Street, Rochdale, has been charged with 16 offences, including rape, trafficking persons within the UK for sexual exploitation and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Nisar Hussain, 39, of Newfield Close, Rochdale, has been charged with three offences, including making indecent images of a child and trafficking persons within the UK for sexual exploitation.

Naheem Akram, 46, of Manley Road, Rochdale, has been charged with 10 offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Mohammed Zahid, 62, of Station Road, Crumpsall, has been charged with 32 offences, including rape, trafficking persons within the UK for sexual exploitation and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl, gross indecency with an underage girl, procuring an underage girl to have unlawful sexual intercourse with unknown males.

Roheez Khan, 37, of Athole Street, Rochdale, has been charged with three offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

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Arfan Khan, 39, of Grouse Street, Rochdale, has been charged with four offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Mustaq Ahmed, 65, of Corona Avenue, Oldham, has been charged with six offences, including rape and gross indecency with an underage girl.

Kasir Bashir, 48, of Napier Street East, Oldham, has been charged with six offences, including rape and gross indecency with an underage girl.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
An experimental treatment from Eli Lilly significantly slowed cognitive and functional decline in people with early symptomatic Alzheimers disease in a large clinical trial, the company announced Wednesday, a promising sign for a new category of Alzheimers treatments.

During the 18-month study of nearly 1,700 people, donanemab slowed patients rate of decline in memory and ability to perform daily activities by 35 percent compared to placebo, the company said, the first investigational Alzheimers medicine to have such strong results at this point in a clinical trial.

As a result, Lilly said it plans to file for approval with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this quarter. The drug will compete with a similar Alzheimers treatment from Eisai and Biogen, Leqembi, which won FDA approval in January.

The results show that if approved, donanemab may represent a significant step forward for people with early symptomatic Alzheimers disease, and allow them to continue to participate in activities that are meaningful to them, said Anne White, executive vice president of Eli Lilly and Company and president of Lilly Neuroscience.

The results were announced in a press release and have not yet been peer reviewed.

But the positive outcome could be tempered by two participants who died due to a type of brain swelling or bleeding that is associated with these types of drugs. The death of a third participant is likely also due to the side effect.

Donanemab is a monthly infusion therapy that works by targeting plaque in the brain known as amyloid, which is a known hallmark of Alzheimers patients. The study enrolled people with early symptomatic Alzheimers disease, which includes mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia.

Patients who took donanemab were 39 percent less likely to progress to the next stage of the disease during the study, and almost half of the participants taking the drug showed no decline on a key measure of cognition over the course of a year, the company said.

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More than half of patients completed the treatment in the first year, and 72 percent completed it in 18 months due to clearance of brain plaque.

The company and Alzherimers advocates indicated they are going to use the results of the trial to press the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to change its policy on covering these experimental Alzheimers drugs.

Currently, Medicare will only cover the majority of costs for patients participating in federally approved clinical trials.

These are the strongest phase 3 data for an Alzheimers treatment to date. This further underscores the inflection point we are at for the Alzheimers field, said Maria Carrillo, the Alzheimers Association chief scientific officer, in a statement.

Yet, Medicare stubbornly continues to block access for the people who could benefit, Carrillo said.

Alzheimers affects more than 6 million Americans, with between 1.7 million to 2 million people over 65 estimated to be in the early stages of the disease, according to Lilly.

We believe our data meets the high level of evidence the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has described as the trigger for reconsideration of its National Coverage Determination. People with early Alzheimers disease need and deserve full coverage and access for approved therapies, White said.

The company previously applied for accelerated approval with FDA in January but was denied because the agency wanted to see more data.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Twitter owner Elon Musk has reportedly emailed an NPR reporter to ask if the organization is returning to the website and to suggest that the company could reassign its account if it doesn't. According to NPR, Musk sent one of its reporters an unprompted email that reads: "So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?" If you'll recall, the organization quit Twitter in April after being labeled as a "state-affiliated media," along with state-run outlets, such as China's Xinhua News Agency and Russia's RT.

Before NPR decided to ditch Twitter altogether, the social network changed the label to "government-funded media" after being called out. However, NPR said the updated label is still "inaccurate and misleading," as it's "a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence." The label also prompted PBS to leave the website. Twitter ultimately decided to remove the "government-funded media" label entirely, even from state-run outlets, but neither NPR nor PBS has returned to the website.

Musk's surprise email turned into an exchange with the executive, wherein he reportedly wrote in one of his responses: "NPR isn't tagged as government-funded anymore, so what's the beef?" And when asked who would be taking over the NPR account on Twitter, he replied: "National Pumpkin Radio," along with a couple of emoji. We reached out Twitter for a statement, but the company doesn't have a communications team anymore.

Under Twitter's policy, the company said that users can simply log in once every 30 days to keep their account active. Further, it said that accounts may be permanently removed due to inactivity, but it "cannot release inactive usernames at this time." It encourages people to find a variation if the username they want is "used by an account that seems inactive." However, NPR said that in their email exchange, Musk told the organization that Twitter's "policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant." He apparently added: "Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR." It's unclear if Twitter intends to update its official policy page for inactive accounts with that information, and if it will implement safeguards to protect former users from impersonation.
Two anglers got a late-night fright that quickly turned into excitement while fishing off the coast of Florida, a TikTok video shows.

I was actually able to feel the line slip between the teeth of the saw while leadering it so I had a suspicion of what it could be, one of the fishers and owner of the Port St. Lucie-based Apex Anglers, AJ Rotondella, said after the catch.

Out of the pitch-black ocean waters, the fishers reel in what they call a critically endangered ancient dinosaur, video shows, and begin shouting with excitement.

On the end of the fishing line was a massive smalltooth sawfish. The video, posted by the TikTok account @Shaaaarky on April 10, got more than 16 million views as of May 3.

Warning: The following videos contain explicit language.

The anglers estimate it to be about 15 feet long, according to the TikTok video.

After excitedly marveling at the creature, the fishers released it back into the waters.

I would be so scared if I saw this, especially at night, one viewer said.

Thats just a Chainsawfaced trout, another joked.

The description of a chainsaw isnt that far off, though. The smalltooth sawfish is the only sawfish that is found in Florida, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. All types of sawfish across the world are not well studied and critically endangered.

Even though smalltooth sawfish swim like sharks, they are actually a type of ray, according to the wildlife commission. The species has been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 2003.

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Smalltooth sawfish can grow up to 17 feet and weigh 700 pounds, according to the commission.

The fishers said they used barbless hooks, so once they cut the line, the hook easily falls out of the fish, causing no harm. The sawfish was then reported to Florida wildlife officials, according to the fishers.

Fortunate enough to live near one of their last population strongholds. So crazy encountering these fish, one of the fishers told viewers in the comments. Few words can describe it.

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Denys Shmyhal

According to the official, EU countries have pledged to deliver EUR 2 billion ($2.21 billion) worth of ammunition to Ukraine.

Read also: Prigozhin threatens to withdraw his mercenaries from Bakhmut if they lack ammunition

EU member states will now send weapons worth EUR 1 billion from their stocks., said Shmyhal.

Another 1 billion euros will be allocated by the EU for their future joint ammunition purchases for Ukraine.

Earlier on May 3, the European Commission decided to allocate EUR 500 million to increase the production of weapons  both to assist the Ukrainian forces and replenish the stocks of EU members.

On March 20, EU countries agreed to purchase one million of 155mm artillery rounds for Ukraine within one year.

Read also: Germany to produce 250,000 artillery shells for Ukraine, media report says

Financial Times reports indicate that Ukraine has asked the EU to send 250,000 artillery shells every month to Ukrainian forces to address the deficit, while Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov stated that millions more are required.

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
ROME and STUTTGART, Germany  The European Union committed 500 million ($553 million) on Wednesday to beefing up the blocs ammunition production lines to better supply Ukraine, saying member states would match the sum with individual contributions.

The total of 1 billion to bolster output from factories across Europe will add to another 2 billion already committed by the EU to compensate members who donate their existing ammunition stocks to Kyiv as well to the joint purchase of fresh stocks to help halt Russias invasion.

Announcing the draft legislation for investing in EU factories, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said, Ukraine is heroically resisting the brutal Russian invader. We stand by our promise to support Ukraine and its people, for as long as it takes.

Thierry Breton, the EUs internal market commissioner, added he was confident that the so-called Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) would push EU output to one million rounds of ammunition a year within 12 months.

The challenge is arming Ukraine for its planned spring offensive with an EU industrial base which has suffered from what the EU called years of underinvestment.

The ASAP cash will be used to build new factories producing ammunition and missiles, upgrade existing ones, encourage cross-border partnerships, improve access to raw materials, test and recondition old ammunition stocks and train new staff, the bloc said.

This is not only for the benefit of the Ukrainian armed forces in their fight to defend Ukraines sovereignty against the Russian invasion, but also for the security of the European Union, said Josep Borrell, the blocs foreign policy chief.

On Wednesday, Breton tweeted a video of his recent visits to EU production sites including Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania, Finland, France, Czechia, Italy, Austria, and Greece, and previewed future visits to sites in Germany and Spain.

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The scheme has been dubbed the third track in a package of measures agreed on in March, starting with the one billion euros to be spent reimbursing members for ammunition stocks donated to Ukraine.

Track two  a plan to spend another billion on the joint purchase by members on new ammunition  has sparked a row over whether the cash needed to be spent within the EU or could be used outside the union to speed up purchasing.

The funds would come from the EUs off-budget mechanism known as the European Peace Facility (EPF), now holding more than 8 billion.

Sweden, which currently holds the revolving presidency of the EU Council, announced on Wednesday a deal had been struck.

An EU source told Defense News it was a compromise solution which requires the cash to be spent on ammunition and missiles which have undergone an important part of their manufacture in the EU or Norway, including final assembly.
(Bloomberg) -- The European Union is committed to turning its ambitious Green Deal strategy into a reality and says it wont be deterred by mounting geopolitical challenges.

Most Read from Bloomberg

What is very clear is that our climate ambition increasingly goes hand-in-hand with energy security, Kurt Vandenberghe, director general for climate at the European Commission, told a conference hosted by the European University Institute in Florence on Wednesday. We will stay the course, whatever happens in the world; in the very changing, volatile world.

The 27-nation bloc recently approved a Green Deal package that aims to accelerate pollution cuts in the next decade on the way to achieving climate-neutrality by mid-century. Under the pact, the EU must create an emissions-trading system for buildings and transportation and introduce a carbon border levy. The overhaul is set to occur as the continent faces tougher competition for clean technology from China and the US and is grappling with the fallout from Russias invasion of Ukraine.

In its shift to a sustainable economy, the EU is coming under pressure from businesses and governments to rethink some of its policies or risk losing investors to President Joe Bidens $369 billion package of tax breaks. While regulators in Brussels proposed a mix of measures this week including domestic production targets and quicker permitting for key clean-tech projects earlier this year, the response from investors was lukewarm.

When enacting the laws to meet the EUs 2030 goal of reducing emissions by at least 55% from 1990 levels the bloc will ensure funds to help the industry stay competitive, said Vandenberghe.

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The blocs next step in the clean shift will be setting an intermediary emissions-reduction target for 2040. The commission, whose current term ends next year, will in early 2024 present a policy document offering a range or options for the goal, leaving the final numbers to be decided by its successor, according to Vandenberghe.

In the post-2030 framework, key elements will include the role of carbon removals, more stringent rules to reduce emissions from agriculture and ensuring a stronger circular economy, he said.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
The AG Open Fencing Tournament, featuring about 140 competitors, returns to the PARC in Plymouth this weekend.

Ars Gladii, one of the oldest schools in North America practicing Historical European Martial Arts, is hosting the event. The Garden City-based school specializes in various weaponry including the longsword, rapier, Messer and saber fencing.

The school is known for their focus on techniques from 14th century fencer Johannes Liechtenauer of the Holy Roman Empire, which is modern day Germany. These athletes will soon put their skills to the test as they prepare for an upcoming tournament, which theyve hosted back-to-back years.

When and where is the tournament?

The AG Open begins at 8 a.m. Friday and concludes with awards at 4 p.m. Sunday. Competitions start at 9 a.m. all three days, with check-in beginning prior. Competitions conclude at 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The tournament location, the Plymouth Arts & Recreation Complex, is located at 650 Church St. in Plymouth. Parking will be available in the lot outside the gymnasium.

More: Fencing tournament comes to Plymouth this weekend

Different kinds of weapon and protection gear used in fight demonstration at Ars Gladii School of Chivalric Arts in Garden City on Saturday, April 29, 2023.

What events are included in the tournament?

Joseph Mundo, volunteer and competitor for Ars Gladii, said the focus of the tournament is longsword fighting.

The core of this tournament is going to be longsword fights. Its a two-handed sword, its European style, he said. They are blunt, steel, and they are made to recreate historical swords, but they have some safety functions built-in.

The tournament competitions include:

Longsword Relay: Requires a three-person team

Longsword: The event will include Tier A/B/C, which are skill divisions based on ones history and ratings. The entry cap is 120 people.

Womens Longsword: The event will include Tier A/B, with an entry cap of 40 people.

Messer: The Messer is a weapon often used in single-handed competitions. The entry cap is 60 people.

Longsword Cutting: The competition has Tier A/B with a cap of 60 people for entry.

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What other events are taking place?

In addition to the tournament, lectures and workshops will be available from world-class professionals.

Mundo said many instructors will be from North America, but some come from other places like Ireland and Finland as well.

Besides the fighting and the competition aspect going on, we also have a bunch of world-class instructors that are coming in, he said. They are going to be flying again from pretty much all over the world.

Among the professional attendees expected are Adam Franti, Jane Strange, Jonathan Ying, Beth Hammer, Tyler Dunham and Rebecca Glass.

Mundo said the instructors specialize in certain techniques and will teach different styles from Italy, Germany, etc.

So how (Historical European Martial Arts) works, theres no one dedicated fighting style, said Mundo. They are essentially going to be teaching their different styles and techniques to the attendees of this tournament. Theres a bunch of different styles from different historical sources.

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How much does the tournament cost?

The price is $95 for competitors and registration currently remains open. The event is free for all spectators.

How do competitors train for the tournament?

Mundo said each school is going to be different in their training and there is no standardized process. However, at Ars Gladii, they train and condition regularly leading up to competitions.

"At my school, we train probably three or four days a week depending on each individual competitors abilities. We do a wide range of different drills to work on specific techniques like our thrusts, our cuts, our parries," said Mundo. "We also do a lot of free sparring which is free fighting between people at the school."

Mundo also said they often participate in "fight nights." Here, everyone from the school  and sometimes guest fighters  are invited to spar against one another freely.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Historical European Martial Arts school hosts fencing tournament
NEO stands for noncombatant evacuation operation, and we are seeing one unfold before our eyes on the evening news this week. As these events take place in Sudan and off the eastern coast of Africa, I was encouraged to see USNS Brunswick alongside in the Port of Sudan ferrying Americans to a safe haven and follow-on passage via Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Unfortunately, this ship is an expeditionary fast transport that serves as an ocean-going ferry for limited transport of personnel or equipment. A similar type of vessel, the former USNS Swift, which was transferred to the United Arab Emirates and engaged in humanitarian missions, was hit by a cruise missile in these same waters in 2016. These waters are hazardous. It is reassuring that the expeditionary sea base Hershel Woody Williams and the destroyer Truxton are also supporting the Sudan mission.

While it is good to have a U.S. presence available for evacuation of civilians from Sudan, ordinarily an operation like this would involve an expeditionary strike group, or ESG, made up of three big-deck amphibious ships: one light helicopter assault ship, one landing platform dock ship and one landing ship dock. Loitering off the coast, an ESG brings the president of the United States and the combatant commander multiple employment options. Humanitarian lift operations can be conducted via air, land or sea. In the event of hostilities, the kit bag of an ESG includes armed, fixed-wing and rotary aircraft that can enter a nonpermissive or hostile environment, suppress fires, pick up personnel, and deliver them to safety.

In the case of violence in Sudan, these options were unavailable. The problem is both one of readiness and inventory.

The Navy and Marine Corps have studied the question on the correct number of amphibious ships for several years now, and there seems to be consensus among those armed services that the correct number is 31 big-deck amphibious ships. The problem in getting to and sustaining that number does not reside inside the Navy or the Marine Corps, but rather with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which does not embrace the value of the amphibious warship in 21st century warfare.

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While I would agree it is unlikely we will see another Iwo Jima- or Inchon-like amphibious invasion in the near or distant future, expeditionary strike groups and amphibious warships provide much in terms of capability to include forward presence and showing the flag; humanitarian assistance and disaster relief; noncombatant evacuation operations; delivery of combat capability ashore with massive sealift and airlift capacity; and a mobile Level 2 surgical hospital facility. Ad hoc groups such as the one currently assembled do not deliver the same set of options.

Evacuees from Sudan arrive in Jeddah onboard a Saudi vessel on April 30, 2023. (Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images)

During Exercise Trident Juncture in 2018  at the time considered the largest NATO exercise since the end of the Cold War, with about 50,000 participants; 65 ships; 250 aircraft of various types; and 10,000 vehicles  the ability to lift a Marine expeditionary unit from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to the fjords of Norway in response to a simulated attack by the Russian Federation was made possible by the U.S. Navys Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group. About 8,500 U.S. Marines participated in this exercise to augment allies and partners in an Article 5 operation that enabled operations in the air, from the sea and on the land.

During my time as commander of Naval Forces Europe and Naval Forces Africa, there was a constant demand signal, blessed by the combatant commanders, for a permanent presence of an expeditionary strike group in the Mediterranean. In lieu of a permanent presence, the commanders now receive transient presence, which occurs when the ESG (or other platforms) stop and operate in theater for a few weeks, vice a six-month deployment rotation.

As a result, we have the situation that we are watching now in real time. Last week, the commandant of the Marine Corps testified before the House Armed Services Committee that he felt he had let down the combatant commander. He was referring to fellow Marine Gen. Michael Langley  the current leader of U.S. African Command  and the Navy and Marine Corps inability to generate an expeditionary strike group with a Marine expeditionary unit to conduct more than one mission in the last six months  earthquake relief in Turkey and Syria, plus the outbreak of violence between warring factions in Sudan, with American citizens caught in the crossfire.

There is a simple solution, and that is to permanently deploy an expeditionary strike group in the Pacific theater and another in the Europe, Africa and Central commands areas of responsibility, 24/7 and 365 days of the year. In doing so, there would be no need to drive American citizens roughly 500 kilometers from Khartoum to Port Sudan in the middle of a combat zone. The Marine expeditionary unit and the organic lift on the strike group can do this from the sea.

While we may have dodged a bullet this time, the conflict is nowhere near over. And like Afghanistan, we will continue to hear of the plight of Americans and dual citizens who are caught up in the fray for the foreseeable future.

Retired U.S. Navy Adm. James G. Foggo is the dean for the Navy Leagues Center for Maritime Strategy. He previously served as commander of Naval Forces Europe and of Naval Forces, Africa.
Getty Images

Chinas booming demand for EVs is supporting the development of numerous new brands.

Chinese buyers bought 6 million EVs last year, 60 percent of the total global market.

Many Chinese makers are now launching in Europebut will any come to the States?

Walking around the vast Shanghai auto show last month was like passing into a parallel dimension for anybody used to the automotive landscape of the United States. Most of the global premium and luxury automakers were indeed present, trying to interest wealthy Chinese consumers in their products. But many of the exhibitors were completely fresh, stands packed with unfamiliar cars from unfamiliar brands. You might have heard of Chinas better-known automakers like Geely, Great Wall, Nio, and BYDthe last short for Build Your Dreams. But what Aito, HiPhi, Lixiang, Ora, or Zeekr? All are becoming major players in their home market.

Many of the new Chinese brands are EV only, established to try and satisfy the seemingly insatiable appetite of the Peoples Republic for electric models. Last year the Chinese bought nearly six million EVs, 60 percent of the total global production. This years numbers are already rising, with BYD now the worlds second-largest manufacturer, behind only Tesla. In the first quarter of this year BYD sold 260,000 electric cars, more than double the figure for the same period in 2022. Tesla built 440,000 vehicles globally in the same quarter, including many in China, but the gap is shrinking. While many of these EVs are low-cost models, many are also packed with technology and have range and performance comparableor superior toAmerican or European alternatives.

Future Publishing - Getty Images

Leading to the obvious question from the point of view of putative EV buyers in the U.S.how long will we have to wait for some of these Chinese models to get over here.

The answer to that depends on your definition of what makes an automaker Chinese. The seemingly ever-expanding Geely Group already owns Volvo and Polestar, but although the fully electric C30 and XC40 Recharge that come to the States are manufactured in Europe, the closely related Polestar 2 that sits on the same CMA platform is built in Luqiao, China. So on that basis the race has already been won.

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Further out, the Lotus Eletre, which we drove in prototype form last weekand which is also a Geely Group productwill be reaching the U.S. in 2024 from a factory in Wuhan. Another of Geelys portfolio of brands, Lynk & Co, has been talking about entering the United States since 2018. Its original plan to start sales in San Francisco in 2020 didnt happen, but Lynk hasnt given up on plans to come here, and would likely launch with a range consisting entirely of Chinese-made EV models.

These imports will be made against a significant financial headwind. Cars directly imported from China to the States are subject to steep tariffs, currently 27.5 percent, with that figure having been dramatically increased under the Trump administration. Thats why both Volvo and Polestar are planning U.S. production of certain models, but it is also why some Chinese companies are maneuvering for easier entry. Geely acquired a 34 percent stake in Renaults South Korean subsidiary last year, one that may ultimately allow tariff-free import of cars direct from Asia.

In Europe, where tariffs are far lower, automakers are already bringing cars direct from China. Many of these are the result of joint ventures, like the one between Geely and Daimler to build the new electric-only Smart models, the #1 that we drove last year already being on sale in Europealthough there are no plans to bring it back to the U.S.

Bernhard Filser

Mini is also set to produce its forthcoming J01 EV hatchback in China, where it will be built by partner Great Wall. The new Mini E will be sold in Europe and some other markets, but we dont know if any China-built versions will reach the States.

The bigger and tougher ask is whether any of Chinas own automakers will launch in the U.S. under their own names. Many want to. Nio has been open about its ambition to launch in the States since it produced its first car in 2018, and is currently jointly listed on the New York Stock Exchange, although it is reportedly at risk of being thrown out for not following U.S. financial data standards. Other Chinese domestic automakers including Beijing Auto, BYD, Great Wall, and SAIC have previously opened U.S. offices with a view to expanding here, although none have done more than that yet.

Yet in Europe several of the Chinese makers are already doing brisk business. The first to enter was MG, the one-time British sportscar brand that was absorbed into the vast SAIC conglomerate when MG Rover collapsed nearly 20 years ago. New era MG has been selling both combustion and electric cars in Europe, and was the second biggest selling EV brand in the UK during the first quarter of the year.

In Italy a company called DR Automobiles sells rebranded vehicles made by Chery in China, shifting nearly 25,000 last year. Other manufacturers including Aiways, BYD, Honggqi, Nio and Oraproducer of the strangely named Funky Cathave also made cautious entries to the European market.

Continuing political tensions between the U.S. and China probably turn the question of what American buyers would make of Chinese brands a moot onealthough with lower import taxes many would offer a compelling combination of price and performance. Thats already obvious on the other side of the Atlantic where several European automakers are lobbying for steeper tariffs on Chinese imports, where they are currently set at 10 percent. Last year Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares explicitly lobbied for these to be dramatically increased to protect Europes manufacturers, an implicit acknowledgement that the continents home-grown EVs often look expensive and short on range compared to Chinese imports.

Because the reality is, whether we like it or not, China is now leading the way on electrification, both in terms of market demand and technology.



Have thoughts on the Chinese electric vehicle industry, the vehicles you wish to see, and the brands that may have the best shot at making it on these shores? Share them in the comments below.
Scott Petersons quest for a new trial was dealt a significant blow in December when a judge rejected his claim that a biased juror served on his 2004 murder trial. His case is far from over, though.

Peterson last month filed a new petition for habeas corpus in Californias First District Court of Appeal. It has six claims, including that new witnesses have come forward with information supporting the defenses theory that Laci was abducted and killed by men she saw burglarizing a neighbors home.

After walking her dog on Christmas Eve 2002, she confronted the burglars by threatening to call the police, The petition reads. They then killed her and, after learning Scott, the primary suspect, had been fishing in the San Francisco Bay, dumped her body there.

In early January 2003, Modesto police issued a press release saying they had arrested Steven Wayne Todd and Donald Glen Pearce for the burglary across from the Peterson home on Covina Avenue in Modesto. Police said the burglary occurred two days after Laci Peterson went missing and they had no reason to believe the men were connected to her disappearance.

That was the information the jury heard in Scott Petersons 2004 trial.

Petersons trial attorney Mark Geragos told the jury in opening statements he would prove that Peterson was stone cold innocent based on evidence that Laci was alive when Scott drove to the San Francisco Bay.

But the jury never heard from any of the 12 people who reported to police that they saw Laci Peterson walking her dog that morning, after Scott left to go fishing, or evidence that she had witnessed the burglary.

Peterson was convicted of the first-degree murder of Laci and the second-degree murder of their unborn son, Conner, and sentenced to death.

Peterson sat on death row for 15 years waiting for a team of lawyers to draft and file his appeal and first habeas petition and for the California Supreme Court to rule on them.

In 2020, the court overturned Petersons death sentence on the grounds that the trial judge wrongly dismissed jurors who were opposed to the death penalty but might still have been able to apply it fairly. It then remanded the case to San Mateo Superior Court, where the 2004 trial took place, for a judge to determine whether a juror lied to get on his jury because she was prejudiced against him.

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Following a five-day evidentiary hearing and an extensive briefing by Petersons team and the Stanislaus County District Attorneys Office, Judge Anne-Christine Massullo denied Petersons claim on Dec. 20. She determined that while the juror gave false answers on a jury questionnaire, they were not motivated by preexisting or improper bias.

Peterson could not appeal Massullos decision but he could file another habeas petition with the First District Court of Appeal so long as it contained new information.

This time, he did it without the team of court-appointed attorneys he had when he still faced the death sentence.

As a defendant in a capital case, Peterson was entitled to those attorneys. Now that he has been resentenced to life without the possibility of parole, that is no longer the case.

Peterson is representing himself but has the help of his sister-in-law Janey Peterson, who has maintained Scotts innocence and has been intimately involved in his legal proceedings. She even attended law school but is not a licensed attorney.

Janey Peterson also maintains a website and social media pages that detail Scotts appeal process.

They had to shut her up

On Aug. 22, 2022, a little over a week after the conclusion of the evidentiary hearing in Scott Petersons juror misconduct claim, a person identifying herself as Melissa messaged Janey Peterson on Twitter. Melissa told Janey Peterson she knew of a man who, during a gathering a few months earlier, made confessions about the burglary and Lacis abduction and murder.

Janey Peterson contacted one of Scotts attorneys at the time, Pat Harris, who with private investigator Jason DeWitt interviewed three people who said they were present when the man made the incriminating statements.

One told DeWitt she heard the man make statements about Lacis murder but didnt want to be involved in the case. The other two gave details about what the man said and signed declarations.

DeWitt could not find the man who allegedly made the statements. He is identified in the petition only by his initials, D.M.

The three witnesses also are identified in the petition only by their initials. Their full names are redacted from the declarations, which were submitted with the petition as exhibits. Non-redacted versions of the exhibits were filed with the court under seal. When asked by The Bee, Janey Peterson did not say why the petition was filed this way.

According to the declarations of the two witnesses, D.M. admitted that he and two others burglarized a house across the street from the Peterson home and were dragging a safe out of the home when Laci saw and confronted them.

D.M. said Laci caught them and threatened to call the police, according to the petition. D.M. said they could not afford to get caught. They had to shut her up. D.M. said the men he was with killed Laci.

Scott Petersons fishing alibi was released by Modesto police the day after Laci went missing and, according to the petition, D.M. said they heard about it on the news, then took Lacis body to where Scott was fishing, and they dumped it.

This new evidence is of such decisive force and value that it would be more likely than not to change the outcome at trial, the petition reads.

Other claims against DAs Office

Additional claims made by Peterson are that the Stanislaus County District Attorneys Office presented false evidence at trial about the date the burglary occurred and withheld exculpatory evidence regarding a tip that would link Lacis death to the burglary and support Petersons defense of third party culpability.

The prosecution said the burglary occurred Dec. 26, but burglar Steven Todds plea agreement said it happened on our about and between Dec. 24, 2002, when the residents left town and Dec. 26, 2002, when they returned to find their home burglarized.

The only evidence the Modesto police had that the burglary occurred on Dec. 26, 2002, was that Todd and Peace said so, the petition reads. By the time they were arrested on January 2, 2003, the police should have known that the last thing any suspect in the burglary is going to do is put themselves on Covena Avenue on Christmas Eve, the day Laci went missing.

The petition claims that investigators never corroborated the alibis the burglars gave for their whereabouts on Dec. 24 or followed up on information about a third suspect. One witness told police she saw three men and a white van in front of the home on Dec. 24, according to the petition.

The jury also did not hear about a hot-line tip to Modesto police from a California Department of Corrections lieutenant. The lieutenant said he heard a recorded conversation between an inmate and his brother about Steven Todd admitting that Laci had witnessed the burglary.

The jury never heard anything about the lieutenants tip, or from people who reported seeing Laci walking her dog after Scott left for the San Francisco Bay, or from the mailman who said the dog did not bark at him like usual when he delivered mail at Peterson home, also after Scott left.

It was some of the basis for a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in Petersons original habeas petition, which was one of the 10 claims denied by the California Supreme Court.

This latest petition now uses that information in its claim the DA presented false evidence.

In the claim the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence, the petition says it never provided Peterson or his defense team any reports detailing what, if anything, investigators did to follow up on the lieutenants tip. In a 2005 declaration, the lieutenant said a Modesto police detective did a telephone interview with the incarcerated brother but the defense never received that information in discovery, according to the petition.

Another claim in the petition reasserts the juror misconduct claim that Judge Massullo ruled on in December and challenges her decision by relying on additional evidence and argument developed during the evidentiary hearing. There also is a second claim of false evidence, this regarding testimony about Conners fetal age at the time of his death.

Fetal development is a continually evolving science, the petition reads. Improvements in imaging and continuing study have changed the landscape of the science since (Petersons) conviction ... there was a dispute in the field during (Petersons) trial, and that dispute has grown since.

Peterson asked the Court of Appeals to appoint counsel to pursue this valid claim, and funding to obtain expert opinion related to the changes in science.

The court has not yet done that but on April 27 gave notice to the state that it has 30 days to respond to Petersons latest petition.
A former police officer in Cornelius, N.C., was charged in South Carolina late Tuesday with alleged sex crimes involving a minor from 2020 to 2022 when the officer lived in Fort Mill, according to the York County Sheriff and jail records.

Erickson Douglas Lee, 25, was booked into the York County jail Tuesday night around 9:30 p.m. on four charges from the York County Sheriffs Office, according to a written statement from the sheriffs office and online records from the sheriffs office jail Web site.

Lee formerly was an officer with the Cornelius, N.C. police, the Cornelius department told the Charlotte Observer in a statement on April 29. Cornelius is a town in northern Mecklenburg County near Lake Norman.

Lee is accused of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor under age 16, third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, first-degree assault and battery, and disseminating obscene materials to a person under age 18, according to the statement from the sheriffs office and jail records.

According to sheriffs office arrest warrants obtained by The Herald, Lee allegedly had illegal contact with a minor more than 30 times between December 2020 and June 2022 at Lees home in South Carolina.

Lee also allegedly enaged in a sexual battery against the victim, played a pornographic video in front of the minor, and improperly touched the minor, the warrants allege.

Two of the warrants, for assualt and battery and disseminating obscene material, describe Lee as the youth leader for the minor at the time of the incidents.

Lee was an officer with the Cornelius, N.C. police department, according to the York sheriff statement.

NEW: YCSO Special Victims Unit Arrests a Cornelius, NC Police Officer. #YCSONews

https://t.co/s7o1xH52fC  York County Sheriff (@YCSO_SC) May 3, 2023

In the statement, the sheriffs office stated Lee lived in Fort Mill in York County when the alleged incidents happened.

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The alleged incidents took place in Lees home in Fort Mill, the statement said.

Fort Mill is south of Charlotte in South Carolina.

Jail records in York County Wednesday showed Lees current address as Charlotte.

Officer resigned Friday, Cornelius police say

Lee resigned from the Cornelius police on April 28, the same day he was taken into custody by North Carolina police on a a fugitive/extradition warrant on the York County charges, according to a statement from Cornelius police.

Lee was released from custody in North Carolina before he turned himself in Tuesday, the York County sheriffs office statement said.

SC charges

The charges against Lee carry potential sentences of three to 20 years in prison, South Carolina law shows.

A conviction for second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison, state law shows. The third-degree charge carries a potential sentence of 15 years, according to state law.

The dissemination charge carries up to five years and the assault and battery charge carries as much as three years, state law shows.

No other information about the allegations has been released.

In a statement after Lee was taken into custody in North Carolina, Cornelius police officials said they hold their officers to the highest professional standards both on and off duty. Any officer who does not conform to these standards will be held accountable when they fail to meet those standards.

Lee has not yet had a first court appearance in York County in front of a magistrate judge where bail could potentially be set.

It is unclear if Lee has a lawyer.

Check back for updates on this story.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  For the first time in 25 years, former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley stood before lawmakers in his home state and gave a speech Wednesday. His wasn't a look back at old times, but a talk about his second career  combatting world hunger.

While he shook hands and swapped stories, Beasley has moved on. Since then he has been instrumental in securing a Nobel Peace Prize for the United Nations World Food Program, which has saved millions around the globe from starvation.

The Republican whose political career appeared to tank after he lost a reelection bid in 1998 only briefly mentioned that part of his life. Instead, he talked about his second career leading the World Food Program. He worked there for six years, appointed by Donald Trump and continuing under President Joe Biden before stepping aside last month.

Beasley told legislators  just 11 of the 170 of them were serving when he last addressed them at his 1998 State of the State speech  to hang on to the state motto while I breathe, I hope. He added that he knows what they do in Columbia, the state capital, can make small and big changes all over the globe.

Ive seen the world. The good the bad and the ugly. Were moving in the wrong direction. But we can change that course with the heart, the spirit we have in this room," Beasley said.

Hunger and starvation are becoming bigger issues with climate change and wars and conflicts, he said.

When Beasley took the U.N. job in 2017, about 80 million people in the world were heading toward starvation. But since then, COVID-19, wars and conflicts in Ukraine, Yemen, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Somalia and other places and crop-killing extreme weather now have 350 million teetering on the brink of death.

Beasley pushed back against the Trump administration's desire to give less international aid and broadened the amount of help the food agency gives and the sources of its funding. He said starvation is one of the most destabilizing forces in the world.

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That idea piqued the interest of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, which honored the U.N. World Food Program with its 2020 prize for trying to end the use of hunger as a weapon of war and turning the world's eyes toward the millions who still suffer in an increasingly prosperous world.

The U.N. food program fed 180 million people, many over and over again, last year. But that's not what Beasley said he thinks about before he goes to sleep.

I dont go to bed at night thinking about the children I saved," Beasley said. I go to bed at night heartbroken over the children I couldnt reach.

Beasley, 66, began his political career started in 1979 as one of the youngest representatives in the House.

He was elected governor in 1994, completing one stormy term where he battled to get rid of video poker. In 1996, he called for the Confederate flag to be taken down from the Statehouse dome, roiling many of his fellow Republicans.

Eventually, video poker was banned and the Confederate flag came down from the Statehouse dome to the front lawn and in 2015 off the capitol grounds entirely.

Legislators invited Beasley to speak to honor his second career, and he told them Wednesday that everything he learned in his life came from South Carolina, the General Assembly and the people he met.

The fights that we had on the floor, The love, the compassion  issues that I took with me all around the world," Beasley said.
(Bloomberg) -- Zambian police questioned ex-President Edgar Lungus wife Esther over her possession of three vehicles after having earlier surrounded the couples house and demanded access to search it.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Police received a complaint from two women that the former first lady had grabbed three vehicles and a property title deed from them, according to a statement. These allegations from the police were insulting, her lawyer Makebi Zulu said. Esther gave her side of the story to the police and we hope theyve understood that she is a victim in all this, he said in comments broadcast online.

The residence was encircled by police early Wednesday morning, according to Raphael Nakacinda, a spokesman for Lungus Patriotic Front party and a former lawmaker.

We woke up to a rude shock of having a battalion of police officers surrounding the house of the former president, and insisting that they want to have access to search the premises, he said in comments broadcast on Hot FM radio thats based in the capital, Lusaka.

In July, the Drug Enforcement Commission, an anti-graft agency, questioned Esther Lungu over her alleged ownership of 15 houses in Lusaka.

Lungu and the Patriotic Front lost power to Hakainde Hichilema and his United Party for National Development in an August 2021 election.

--With assistance from Matthew Hill.

(Recasts with police questioning Edgar Lungus wife Esther)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
By Polina Devitt and Michelle Nichols

LONDON/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase & Co could process another 40 Russian grain export payments, two sources said, as the United Nations seeks to save a deal allowing safe Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain that Moscow has threatened to quit on May 18.

Reuters reported last week that JPMorgan had processed the first payment for the Russian Agricultural Bank, which was cut off from the SWIFT payment system by the European Union in June over Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Access to SWIFT for the Russian Agricultural Bank, known as Rosselkhozbank, is a key Russian demand in talks over the future of the Black Sea deal, brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in July last year. Russia has signalled that unless a list of demands is met to remove obstacles to its grain and fertiliser exports, it will not agree to extend beyond May 18 the Black Sea pact, which the U.N. says helps tackle a global food crisis that has been aggravated by Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Talks between Russia and the U.N. on the Black Sea deal are expected to be held in Moscow on Friday, with the U.N. represented by top trade official Rebeca Grynspan.

According to a document seen by Reuters that lists the United Nations' efforts, the U.N. is now working with the Rosselkhozbank to prepare about 40 additional payments to be processed by JPMorgan. The document also said the U.N. was discussing Russian fertiliser exports with JPMorgan.

A source familiar with discussions said JPMorgan understood it could be asked to process another 40 payments for Rosselkhozbank and that it was ready to do so to help combat the global food crisis. The source said JPMorgan was also talking to the U.N. about Russian fertiliser exports.

JPMorgan had been asked to help by the U.S. government, said the source.

A JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment. A spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declined to comment. The U.S. Treasury and Rosselkhozbank did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week that Guterres had proposed that - as an alternative to regaining access to SWIFT - U.S. banks could help Rosselkhozbank with transactions. However, Lavrov said that could not work as a long-term solution. A source familiar with JPMorgan's first transaction last week described it as "very limited and highly monitored".

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Russia's grain and fertiliser exports are not subject to Western sanctions imposed following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, but Moscow says Western restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance are a barrier to shipments.

European Union and U.S. sanctions have also left the private sector wary of any dealings with Russia even when permitted.

A senior State Department official said last week that Washington had broad exemptions in place for Russian food and fertiliser trade and that Rosselkhozbank was not blocked by sanctions.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia would continue contacts with both the U.N. and other representatives in a bid to see its global grain and fertiliser exports improved.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt in London and Michelle Nichols in the United Nations; Editing by Mark Potter)
Psychologist Karyen Chai emphasises the importance of rebuilding trust in oneself after being scammed. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

SINGAPORE  Singapore is experiencing a growing problem with scams, with the police reporting a staggering $660.7 million lost by scam victims in 2022 alone, a significant increase from the previous year's figure of $632 million.

The financial loss caused by these scams is devastating, but it's not just the money that's affected. Victims often experience long-lasting emotional pain, shattering their dreams and leaving them feeling vulnerable and helpless.

However, it is crucial to recognise that scams can happen to anyone, regardless of their intelligence or education level. To try to help tackle self-blame and protect against future scams, Karyen Chai, a psychologist from Thoughtfull Chat, offers three tips.

1. Recognise that scams can happen to anyone

According to Chai, it's essential to understand that blaming oneself is a very natural response. "When something like this happens, there's no one else to blame," she said. However, she advises victims to consider it a learning lesson and recognise that scams can happen to anyone.

"It could be a very painful learning lesson. And it does take time to get out of that self-blame," she added.

Chai points out that scammers often create a sense of urgency or authority to force victims to act quickly without thinking, making anyone vulnerable to scams, regardless of their intelligence or education level.

"Think about the kind of person you're talking to. They can look or seem like someone in authority. So, we tend to fall for authority figures a lot more because we believe these people in authority can get us into trouble if we don't follow their instructions," she pointed out.

"Don't justify the decision to fall for a scam," warns psychologist Karyen Chai, as it can lead to cognitive dissonance. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

2. Reclaim your self-confidence

Rebuilding your trust is essential, Chai suggested. Victims must consider how to make themselves believe in themselves again, and this can be achieved through building critical thinking skills.

"Being more aware of what influences your decision-making, such as the environment, the people who are conveying the message, and the situation when the message is delivered, can help. So, think about all of these factors and understand how they can affect your decision-making," she added.

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3. Skip the excuses

Chai also warns against justifying the decision to fall for a scam, which can lead to cognitive dissonance.

"Cognitive dissonance happens when our behaviour and beliefs do not match. So when these do not match, we try to close that gap," she explained.

She cited an example: "We get scammed and give money to the scammer - that's the behaviour. However, our belief is that we do not want to fall for a scam. To justify our actions, we may say that we were donating money to a good cause, which would help the economy."

She advises victims to recognise this gap and not to make justifications that do not help with moving forward and avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

Do you have a story tip? Email: sgnews.tips@yahooinc.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Also check out our Southeast Asia, Food, and Gaming channels on YouTube.
By Aidan Lewis and Lisa Barrington

CAIRO (Reuters) - Military rivals locked in a conflict that erupted in Sudan on April 15 both courted foreign backing in the years leading up to the fighting.

That support could now influence the course of the power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, as well as efforts to stop the violence.

The conflict has brought open warfare to Sudan's capital Khartoum and sparked new unrest in the western region of Darfur, displacing hundreds of thousands of people within Sudan and sending 100,000 fleeing across its borders.

The influence of outside players has loomed over events in Sudan since the overthrow of former leader Omar al-Bashir during a popular uprising four years ago.

WHO SUPPORTS BURHAN?

Burhan's most important backer is Egypt, which shares a border with Sudan that more than 40,000 people have crossed since the fighting began.

In both countries, the military has assumed a dominant role in the decades since independence and has intervened following popular uprisings - in Egypt when former army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi led the ousting of democratically elected President Mohamed Mursi a decade ago, and in Sudan when Burhan led a military takeover in 2021.

Diplomats and analysts say Egypt feels comfortable dealing with Burhan and sees him as the most likely guarantor of its interests, including in negotiations over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam being constructed on the Blue Nile upstream of Sudan and Egypt.

In recent months, as much of the international community backed a transition plan involving the main civilian coalition to emerge from Sudan's 2019 uprising, Cairo created a parallel track of negotiations involving figures closer to the army.

During the current fighting Egypt has joined calls for an effective ceasefire while saying they consider the conflict an internal matter for Sudan. On Tuesday Egypt's foreign ministry received an envoy for Burhan.

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Diplomats and analysts say Cairo is crucial to applying any short-term pressure on Burhan.

WHO SUPPORTS HEMEDTI?

The most important regional ally for Hemedti before the conflict was the United Arab Emirates.

Hemedti has presented himself as a bulwark against Islamist-leaning factions that established deep roots in the army and other institutions under Bashir. The UAE has aggressively sought to roll back Islamist influence across the region.

The UAE has provided Hemedti, who grew rich through the gold trade, with a platform for channelling his finances as well as public relations support for the RSF, said Andreas Krieg, Associate Professor at King's College, London.

Analysts however say the UAE has also sought to hedge its bets, retaining ties to Burhan and the army and joining the Quad, a grouping that has taken the lead on diplomacy on Sudan and includes the United States, Saudi Arabia and Britain.

"While it publicly supports the policy approach by the Quad, it has used its networks to create an alternative influence hub with Hemedti and the RSF," said Krieg.

Hemedti had also cultivated ties with Russia. Western diplomats in Khartoum said in 2022 that Russia's Wagner Group was involved in illicit gold mining in Sudan and was spreading disinformation. Hemedti said he advised Sudan to cut ties to Wagner after the U.S. imposed sanctions on the private military contractor. Wagner said on April 19 that it was no longer operating in Sudan.

WHICH OTHER POWERS HAVE INFLUENCE?

Saudi Arabia has had close ties to Burhan and Hemedti, both of whom sent troops to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

As it steps up its diplomatic ambitions across the Middle East, Riyadh has asserted itself in mediating over Sudan while also looking to protect its economic ambitions in the Red Sea region, said Anna Jacobs, Senior Gulf Analyst with Crisis Group.

"Saudi Arabia is focused on Red Sea security, which is integral to Saudi Vision 2030 and investments along the Red Sea like Neom," she said, referring to the futuristic city backed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Saudi Arabia and the United States have been leading efforts to secure an effective ceasefire.

East African powers Ethiopia and Kenya also hold some sway due to their prominent role in regional diplomacy and previous mediation in Sudan.

South Sudan hosted peace talks between the Sudanese state and rebel groups in recent years, and was designated as one of the countries that could host talks over the current crisis.

Israel, which had been hoping to move forward in normalising ties with Sudan, has also offered to host talks.

WHAT'S THE WEST'S POSITION?

Western powers swung behind a transition towards elections as the military shared power with civilians after Bashir's overthrow, offering direct financial support that was frozen when Burhan and Hemedti staged a coup in 2021.

Led by the United States, they supported a new transition deal that was meant to be finalised in early April. However the deal instead helped trigger the eruption of fighting by creating a stand-off over the future structure of the military.

Critics say the U.S. was too lenient with the generals.

"Their strategy was stability and their basic misconception was that they would get stability by backing the apparently strong and decisive and cohesive players who happened to be in power," said Alex de Waal, a Sudan expert and head of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University.

(Reporting by Aidan Lewis in Cairo and Lisa Barrington in Dubai, Editing by William Maclean)
An image from Marrowbreak.

It has been a hell of a time in the world of games. As people reckon with the reveal that Wizards of the Coast sent Pinkertons after a Magic: The Gathering leaker, more and more actual plays and streams are releasing massively produced and slick games. Were excitedly waiting for The Ravening WarDimension20's next installment in the A Crown of Candy seriesand in the meantime, thoroughly enjoying My First Dungeons DIE AP.



Weve got an oversized list of new releases and crowdfunding games, and were going to skip right to the good stuff. Take a look at some of the incredible tabletop games and projects that are getting out there this month!

Read more

New Releases: Rivers of London, Turning Point, Dead After Dinner, Unconquered, The Sundering, The Boundless Library, We 3 Will Meet Again, Pantyhose Models from Mars, When Prophecy Fails, This City Must Burn

Image: Chaosium

In Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game, players take on the roles of newly recruited members of the London Metropolitan Police Services special magic branch, aka the Folly. You will solve mysteries, catch criminals, and come to grips with the demi-mondethose who have been irreversibly changed by magic.



Image: Coup Critique

Turning Point is a short horror/thriller module for one facilitator and one player. The adventure is directly inspired by road thrillers such as Duel (Steven Spielberg), Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino), and Joy Ride (John Dahl).



Image: Jenn Martin

The aging Patriarch of your family has uncharacteristically invited everyone to dinner. He says hes made changes to his will that affect you, and he will read it after dinner. Inspired by the films Clue and Knives Out, in Dead After Dinner youll tell a story about the death of a grandfather and the familial drama that caused it. (A Descended from the Queen game, youll read some instruction cards first, and play consists of drawing and responding to prompt cards.)



Story continues

Image: Monkeys Paw Games

Unconquered is a beginner-friendly, rules-light, bronzepunk swords and sorcery and sandals and sci-fi fantasy tabletop adventure role-playing game, inspired by classic pulp serials. Players generate character through a lifepath-style character creation system, at each stage learning more about the infinite Loom they inhabit. Before long, theyll be undertaking mythic and perilous journeys through a decaying, waning universe of fading Gods, strange realities, and the dizzying remains of strange and wondrous civilizations.

Image: Unlikely Heroes Studios

The Sundering: The Nation Beneath Our Feet is a 5e adventure set in a world where gods fell to earth and cut off an entire nation from the continent. It contains a campaign world setting, maps, nine adventure paths/modules, and new dragons, gods, subclasses, and races.



Image: The Far Horizons Co-Op

In The Boundless Library, race to explore infinite rooms full of lava rifts and pockets of knotted time to find books for its eldritch patrons, earning favors to become a Boundless being yourself! Bring a pen and paper, a compass, and a good pair of hiking boots. Eternity awaits!



Image: Sam Dunnewold

We Three Shall Meet Again is a story game, and the story goes like this: once upon a time, on the edge of a dark forest, three witches were cursed to share one body. They took turns living out days, never meeting, communicating only by Post-it notes and dirty dishes while they searched for a way free.



Image: sometimesknott

Pantyhose Models From Mars is 1980s flash meets 1950s camp with just a touch of 1970s glam. So put on your Ray-Bans, grab your Members Only jacket, and mousse up your hair! Youve got a future to save! Powered by Cezar Capacles Push SRD, Pantyhose Models From Mars comes with four character options, four missions, and a lengthy bit of backstory to help you flesh out this world.



Image: Nick Wedig

When Prophecy Fails is a Descended From the Queen game about a fringe religious movement and how believers face a reality that doesnt match their worldview. Its loosely inspired by the classic work of social psychology of the same title.



Image: Julien Legault

In The City Must Burn, as a group of revolutionaries, youll fight against the machinations of an elite ruling class. With a lightweight, GM-less ruleset, youll battle against injustice until tensions boil over and the city is consumed in the bloody Night of Fire. Afterwards, youll rebuild what you can from the ashes.



Crowdfunding: Alchemy RPG,Tales From Myriad,Teeth, What Is Light Without Dark, Ronin, Marrowbreak

Image: Alchemy VTT

Cinematic Virtual Tabletop (VTT) Alchemy RPG is collaborating with gaming industry giants Free League Publishing, Paizo, Chaosium, Modiphius, Magpie Games, and more during its Version One Kickstarter Campaign, offering a huge number of games available to backers as thematic content decks (including fantasy, futures, horror, and modern).



Image: Carson Daniel

Tales From Myriad is a lighthearted, setting-flexible adventure system thats focused on quick character creation and uses a 2d6 system plus stat modifiers.



Image: Big Robot

Teeth is a tabletop roleplaying game for 3-6 people about occult criminality and monster-hunting in a cursed corner of 18th-century England.



Image: Nerdburger Games

What Is Light Without Dark is a Good Strong Hands supplement that introduces a variety of new folk to play, new magics to wield, and new realms to explore. Good Strong Hands draws inspiration from movies like The NeverEnding Story, Legend, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Willow. While Reverie is a land of the fantastical, filled with whimsy, it is also beset by this sinister, destructive force. Characters will be constantly tempted by the Voids corruption, even as they seek to end it.

Image: Slightly Reckless

Ronin is a rules-lite tabletop RPG set in a mythical, samurai-inspired world. Based on the Mork Borg system, Ronin is a game of honor, combat, and adventure. In a world ravaged by an eternal eclipse and overrun by supernatural creatures known as yokai, players take on the roles of forgotten ronin, shinobi, onmyoji, and more as they seek to restore their honor and defeat the forces of darkness.



Image: Jessica Crimes

Marrowbreak is a team-focused dungeon-heisting system and setting book, set in the fractal depths of something that is trying very, very hard to be a city.

In Other News

The Awards 2023 are now accepting submissions! Eligibility includes work published from June 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023.

Monster Gaming is crowdfunding a D&D 5e stat tracker with dice tray, tracker dials, and character sheet display.

The Indie Groundbreaker Awards are now open for submissions.

Meeples & Dragons is organizing the third year of Jaspers Game Week Aussie Edition to raise money for mental health awareness and suicide prevention research.

MCDM released its shark-themed TTRPG magazine Arcadia last week, with an apt alternate title: Sharkadia.

Free League Publishing and 20th Century Studios today announced Building Better Worlds, a new expansion for the multiple award-winning Alien The Roleplaying Game. The expansion is now available for pre-order here.





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.
The occupiers have moved most of their warships from the city of Sevastopol to the territory of the Russian Federation, specifically Novorossiysk, in order to avoid them being destroyed in occupied Crimea.

Source: Major General Vadym Skibitsky, deputy chief of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence, in an interview with the Kyiv TV channel; Defence Intelligence on Telegram

Quote: "We see that the Russians are afraid. That base in Sevastopol and other military facilities are now heavily guarded; the occupiers are equipping positions to protect against attacks on this infrastructure."

Details: According to Skibitskyi, meanwhile, the Ukrainian resistance movement is strengthening its capabilities on the territory of Crimea. Its activity and strikes on Crimean military facilities are dispiriting for the Russians.

Skibitskyi also noted that before autumn 2022, the Russian occupiers did not pay much attention to the defence of Crimea. However, after the Ukrainian armys success in Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts, and then the attacks on military facilities and the resistance movement's actions on the occupied peninsula, the invaders had to start taking action: building fortifications, strengthening the coast, and so on.

Skibitsky noted that the de-occupation of Crimea will depend on how the Ukrainian operation to liberate the peninsula is planned and the morale of the Russian military. "If there is panic there and everyone starts to flee, then a 'goodwill gesture' is possible. However, it will not be easy, because they consider Crimea the last stronghold and will try to defend the peninsula to the end," the intelligence official emphasised.

He added that the Russian occupiers are also preparing for a circular defence in Mariupol. They are actively rebuilding the infrastructure necessary for conducting hostilities, particularly the port infrastructure.

Background:

Recently, explosions have become more common in occupied Crimea, such as on 1 May west of the peninsula. The occupiers said it was their air defences shooting down drones.

On 2 May, an explosion occurred at a base of Russian border troops near the city of Simferopol. Details are being established.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Lindsey Ulin wasn't feeling great when she boarded her flight from Phoenix to Austin, Texas, in early March.

Lindsey Ulin. (Courtesy Lindsey Ulin)

Ulin, 28, had just spent four days on vacation, hiking and enjoying the warm weather in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her mother and sister. Just before boarding their flight home, they had lunch at a little French restaurant at the airport. Ulin had a burger, fries and a side of Brussels sprouts  all food she'd eaten before without issue.

But nausea soon crept in.

"I really thought it was just indigestion from eating lunch, and that it would get better on its own," Ulin said.

The feeling did not go away once they were in the air. Hives popped up on her face and chest. She couldn't get enough air into her lungs.

Panic followed.

"We were still 30 minutes away from landing and my family was having to sit there and helplessly watch as I struggled to breathe," Ulin said. "Things were getting worse very quickly."

As a resident physician in internal medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, Ulin recognized that she was experiencing a severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis.

The condition can be deadly unless the person is given an emergency injection of epinephrine. It works by increasing blood flow throughout the body and relaxing muscles that block airways.

The injection device, usually placed on the thigh, administers the medicine automatically and is designed to be user-friendly, even for children who have never used one. They come with clear instructions for use, often with audio help, and can be used immediately.

But there wasn't an epinephrine auto-injector on board during Ulin's flight. The airline didn't carry one. None of the passengers did, either. And Ulin had no idea what had caused her allergic reaction.

"I accepted that I was probably going to die," she said.

In-flight emergencies

Medical emergencies on flights are not uncommon. A 2013 study found that dozens of such events occur on commercial flights each day in the United States. Most are related to stomach aches, anxiety or a feeling that a person is about to pass out.

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Some emergencies, however, are life-threatening.

Commercial airlines are required to carry a basic set of medical tools, including aspirin, a stethoscope and devices used to help with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR.

The Federal Aviation Administration, however, does not require EpiPens, or epinephrine auto-injectors, on commercial flights, a lapse that frustrates allergists.

As someone who has frequently assisted in these emergency situations, airlines should absolutely carry the auto-injectors, Dr. Purvi Parikh, an allergist and immunologist at NYU Langone Health in New York City, wrote in an email.

The airline emergency kits do carry epinephrine, but in vials that only trained medical professionals may be able to use in the event of a heart-related issue, for example.

There is a growing movement to add epinephrine auto-injectors to address allergies on commercial airlines.

"I strongly advocate for this," said Dr. Tyler Barrett, an emergency medicine physician with Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. We need something "that is designed for rapid, easy administration by a layperson."

Gasping for air

In Ulin's anaphylaxis case, the flight attendant simply handed her a vial as Ulin was struggling to breathe. Ulin tried to break open the vial against the tray table in front of her, unsure of what to do next.

A passenger walked up, identifying himself as a doctor who could administer the medicine with syringes he found in the airline's medical kit.

"I knew in that moment that this was going to be OK," Ulin said.

Ulin described her frightening allergic reaction in a series of tweets in late April.

She has not been able to figure out what caused her allergic reaction. Still, she now carries multiple epinephrine auto-injectors at all times.

The FAA's response

The Aerospace Medical Association recently advised the FAA that airlines should routinely carry epinephrine auto-injectors and other allergy medicines in doses for both adults and children. The agency is also considering updating the kits to include automated blood pressure cuffs and Narcan, which reverses the effects of opioid overdoses.

"The FAA is reviewing the emergency medical kit requirements," the agency said in a statement to NBC News.

Travelers, even those who have never had allergies before, can avoid risk during flights by wiping down seats, armrests and tray tables upon boarding, Jenna Riemenschneider, senior director of advocacy and policy at the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, said.

Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The claim: Image shows CNN tweet about Volodymyr Zelenskyy's 'mass migration' plans

An April 27 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows what appears to be a tweet from CNN about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"Ukrainian President Zelensky plans on using mass immigration to fix the country's demographics issues," reads the supposed tweet. "'We will become a new diverse and multicultural nation that will be the model state for the rest of Europe.'"

The post garnered more than 300 likes in four days. Similar posts have been shared on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Our rating: Altered

The tweet is not real, according to a CNN spokesperson. Experts say Zelenskyy has no such mass migration plans.

Tweet is digitally fabricated

Emily Kuhn, a CNN spokesperson, told USA TODAY in an email that the image is fabricated and not something the outlet reported.

It can't be found on CNN's Twitter account or on archived versions of the news outlet's account.

Ukraine hasn't released any official statements or press releases announcing plans for mass migration.

Fact check: No proof to back claims on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's assets and income

Marta Dyczok, a professor at the University of Western Ontario and an expert in Ukrainian politics and migration, told USA TODAY there's no record of Zelenskyy making the statement attributed to him in the purported tweet anywhere on his official channels.

Lubomyr Luciuk, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada with similar expertise, labeled the claim disinformation in an email to USA TODAY.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post and the Department General for Public Diplomacy and Communications in Ukraine for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The claim has been debunked by AFP and Reuters as well.

Story continues

Our fact-check sources:

Emily Kuhn, May 1, Email exchange with USA TODAY

Lubomyr Luciuk, May 1, Email exchange with USA TODAY

Marta Dyczok, May 2, Email exchange with USA TODAY

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: CNN tweet about Ukrainian 'mass migration' plan is a hoax
(Reuters) - British drugmaker GSK Plc on Wednesday became the first to receive approval for its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine in the United States, putting it ahead of rivals Pfizer Inc, Moderna Inc and Bavarian Nordic.

RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms but can also lead to serious illness and hospitalization. The market for its vaccines could exceed $10 billion by 2030, analysts have said.

The following is a list of companies developing drugs and vaccines for the virus:

GSK

U.S. health regulator approved GSK's RSV vaccine, Arexvy, in May, while Europe's health regulator recommended authorization for the shot in late April.

The company expects the vaccine to be available before the next RSV season in the United States.

GSK's vaccine was 82.6% effective against RSV infections in a late-stage study involving adults aged 60 and over, data showed in October last year.

PFIZER

The company is developing an RSV shot for older adults as well as for infants when given to expectant mothers. The FDA is set to decide by this month on the use of its RSV vaccines for adults.

In November last year, Pfizer reported that its RSV vaccine was 81.8% effective in a late-stage study in preventing severe infections in infants when given to expectant mothers.

The vaccine was shown to be 66.7% effective in August in a different trial among participants aged 60 and above with two or more symptoms.

MODERNA

Moderna's experimental messenger RNA vaccine for RSV was 83.7% effective in a late-stage trial at preventing at least two symptoms, such as cough and fever, in adults aged 60 and older.

The company plans to submit its application for U.S. approval of its vaccine, mRNA-1345, in the second quarter of 2023 for those aged 60 and older.

SANOFI AND ASTRAZENECA

In November last year, Sanofi and AstraZeneca gained the European Commission's marketing authorization for their antibody drug nirsevimab to prevent RSV-related disease in infants.

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Nirsevimab in March last year showed an efficacy of 74.5% against some types of lower respiratory tract infections, compared with a placebo in infants in a late-stage study.

It is under review by the FDA.

MERCK

Merck & Co Inc is conducting a late-stage study of its experimental antibody drug clesrovimab to prevent RSV infections in infants and children, with the trial expected to be completed in 2024.

BAVARIAN NORDIC

Denmark-based Bavarian Nordic in April last year began a late-stage trial for its RSV vaccine in volunteers aged 60 years and older. Study results are expected by mid-2023.

(Reporting by Raghav Mahobe and Nandhini Srinivasan in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Mariam Sunny, Khushi Mandowara and Bhanvi Satija; Editing by Devika Syamnath, Sriraj Kalluvila, Shounak Dasgupta and Maju Samuel)
(Reuters) -Italy's 'Ndrangheta has supplanted Sicily's Cosa Nostra as the country's most powerful mafia organisation, and has spread across Europe and the rest of the world. Here are a few facts about the fearsome group.

ORIGIN, CELEBRITY KIDNAPPING AND COCAINE

The 'Ndrangheta originates from Calabria, the impoverished southern region at the tip of Italy's boot. Its name is believed to come from the ancient Greek words "andros" and "agathos", meaning brave or valiant man.

It expanded substantially from the 1970s onwards, when it reinvested ransom money from kidnappings - one of its main activities at the time - into public work projects and drug trafficking, especially cocaine.

The 'Ndrangheta kidnapped dozens of high-profile victims, including celebrities such as John Paul Getty III, the scion of the U.S. oil family, abducted in Rome in 1973 and held prisoner for five months in the Calabrian mountains.

Getty's right ear was cut off to pressure his family into paying a reported $3 million - a story that was fictionalised in the Ridley Scott film "All the Money in the World" and in the Danny Boyle TV series "Trust".

POWER AND WEALTH

In its latest six-monthly report, Italy's Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate (DIA) calls the 'Ndrangheta "the absolute dominant force in the criminal world" well beyond its home turf of Calabria.

Its strength lies in its capacity to rely on traditional clan and family loyalties while having "maximum flexibility" in exploring new business opportunities in the legal and illegal economy, the DIA said.

In 2008, Italian research group Eurispes valued the 'Ndrangheta's annual turnover at a staggering 44 billion euros ($48.54 billion), about 3% of Italy's gross domestic product at the time.

The estimate has since been disputed by some experts, but most agree that the Calabrian mob is extremely powerful and wealthy, largely thanks to its role as a major smuggler of cocaine from Latin America to Europe.

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The DIA said it also makes money from illegal waste trafficking, racketeering and loan sharking, typically offering credit to struggling businesses and then gradually taking over control of them.

INTERNATIONAL REACH

The 'Ndrangheta is known to have an established presence as far as Canada and Australia, as well as in most of Western Europe, with local cells that usually retain strong links with their Calabrian homeland.

Italian prosecutors and investigators routinely complain that their European counterparts underestimate the extent to which the Calabrian mob has infiltrated their countries, and say all EU nations should copy Italy's tough anti-mafia laws.

Nevertheless, pan-European operations against the 'Ndrangheta - like the "Eureka" raid that led to more than 100 arrests on Wednesday and which alleged that mobsters used Chinese money brokers - have become more common.

Italian authorities also made domestic progress against the 'Ndrangheta, for example in 2021 with the launch of a so-called "maxi-trial" against more than 320 suspected mobsters and associates, including top boss Luigi Mancuso.

Judges later decided to have a separate trial for Mancuso, which is still ongoing.

THE SAN LUCA FEUD

In Germany, the 'Ndrangheta notably made headlines in 2007, when six men were shot outside a pizzeria in the western city of Duisburg as part of a long-running war between rival mafia clans.

The notorious San Luca feud between the Pelle-Vottari and Nirta-Strangio families started with a carnival prank in 1991 that prompted a string of killings, including the 2006 Christmas Day execution of the wife of a Strangio family mobster.

($1 = 0.9065 euros)

(Reporting by Alvise Armellini;Editing by Alison Williams)
By Aleksandar Vasovic

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia, where a schoolboy opened fire on his classmates on Wednesday, has an entrenched gun culture, especially in rural areas, but also strict gun control laws.

The entire western Balkans are awash with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons following 1990s wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo where ethnic Serbs fought other ethnic groups which together made up former federal Yugoslavia.

The then-Serbian authorities promoted nationalist policies and used media outlets to present war criminals and underworld figures as heroes and defenders of Serb lands. Dozens of people were killed in gangland-style shootouts in the 1990s.

Tens of thousands of illegal firearms have since been handed over or registered in amnesties. But Serbia still ranks third behind the United States and Yemen with an estimated 39 firearms per 100 people, along with its former federal partner Montenegro, according to the 2018 Small Arms Survey.

Hunting is widespread with over 78,000 of Serbia's 6.6 million people having licensed hunting weapons, and many families have had guns in their households for generations.

Yet mass shootings are comparatively rare in the country.

People over the age 18 may own firearms only with a permit issued after a thorough background check with police. A medical exam is also mandatory and must be repeated every five years.

There must be no history of crime, mental disorder, alcohol or illegal substance use, firearms must be stored locked in a designated gun cabinet, and may be confiscated if the owner is found to be irresponsible.

Gun owners are also required to pass a training course and a questionnaire about gun legislation.

Having a permit to own a firearm does not itself allow the bearer to carry the weapon anywhere outside the home. Concealed carry permits are very difficult to obtain.

In the deadliest shooting in Serbia since the 1990s, Ljubisa Bogdanovic killed 14 people in the central village of Velika Ivanca in 2013 before committing suicide.

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Nikola Radosavljevic killed nine and wounded five in the eastern village of Jabukovac on July 27, 2007. He was put in a mental institution.

Rade Sefer killed six guests at his son's wedding in the northern town of Senta in 2015 and was then killed on the spot by another man with a chair. A year later, Sinisa Zlatic killed five people with an assault rifle in a cafe in the town of Zitiste, also in the north, before being arrested and convicted.

All of those assailants were adults.

(Writing by Aleksandar Vasovic; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Mark Heinrich)
(Reuters) - Sudan, which has been in the grip of a bloody power struggle between the army and a paramilitary group for three weeks, has a history of civil wars, military takeovers and rebellions.

The commanders of the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who shared power as part of an internationally backed transition to democratic rule, have shown no sign of compromise.

Here are some major episodes of political turmoil and conflict in Africa's third largest country:

* 1985. President Jaafar Nimeiri, who seized power in a coup in 1969, is ousted after a popular uprising. Another military commander takes charge, promising elections in a year. The vote held in 1986 heralds a three-year period of civilian rule.

* 1989. Omar al-Bashir, an army general, stages a coup and starts three decades in power with support from Islamist army officers and initially with the backing of influential politician Hassan al-Turabi, seen as the spiritual leader of Sudan's Islamists. Turabi later breaks ranks with Bashir.

* 1996. Under pressure from the United States, the Sudanese government tells Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, to leave Sudan in May 1998 after he has spent five years in the country as an official guest.

* 1998. The United States fires missiles at El Shifa medicine factory in Khartoum. U.S. officials say it was producing chemical weapons ingredients and was partly owned by Bin Laden. Sudan says it was only making pharmaceutical drugs.

* 2003. A conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region flares, pitting rebels against government forces backed by a militia known as "Janjaweed", which roughly means "devils on horseback". Some 300,000 people are killed and millions are displaced. Violence persists even after a peace deal is reached in 2020.

Bashir is charged by the International Criminal Court with orchestrating genocide and other atrocities in Darfur.

* 2005. Sudan's northern-based government and rebels in the south of Sudan sign a peace deal after two decades of fighting in Africa's longest running civil war that led to the deaths of 2 million people. The deal provides for a referendum on southern secession. South Sudan declares independence in 2011.

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* 2019. Bashir is toppled after a popular uprising. This is followed by a period of rising tension between the army and civilian politicians over the transition to democratic rule.

* 2023. After protests against the military, fighting erupts on April 15 between the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan's ruling council, and the RSF paramilitary, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is Burhan's deputy in the council.

(Compiled by Michael Georgy; Editing by Edmund Blair)
A man accused of killing a mother and her three children was shot dead by police after an hourslong standoff, according to Florida police.

Family members found the mother and her three children dead in an apartment in Lake Wales just before 9 p.m. on May 2, according to the Lake Wales Police Department. The mother was 40, and the children were ages 21, 17 and 11, Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said during a news conference.

The accused killer, Al Joseph Stenson, 38, was the mothers boyfriend, and he shot her and her children in the apartment around 5:30 a.m. on May 2 before fleeing, Lemma said.

Officers began searching for Stenson and saw him near a motel in Sanford, more than 75 miles north of Lake Wales, around 3 a.m. on May 3, Lemma said.

A SWAT team responded to the scene around 6 a.m., Lemma said.

Lake Wales police officers spoke with Stensons brother, who was staying at the motel, by cellphone and could hear Stenson in the background, Lemma said.

Crisis negotiation professionals took over the conversation, but Stenson told them the standoff would end one of three ways, Lemma said.

He is accused of saying Im going to kill myself, youre going to kill me or Im going to surrender.

Officials were able to convince Stensons brother to come out of the hotel, but negotiations continued with Stenson for hours, Lemma said.

Stenson at one point put his gun on the ground, and the SWAT team used a 40mm foam baton launcher, which is considered a less lethal option to stop a suspect from resisting without killing them, according to Lemma.

But after it was deployed, Stenson went for the gun that was on the ground, Lemma said. Investigators arent sure if Stenson picked up the gun or not, Lemme said, but multiple SWAT team members opened fire.

Stenson was pronounced dead on scene, according to the Lake Wales Police Department.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting, Lemma said.

Lake Wales is about 60 miles east of Tampa.

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The identities of the victims have not been released.

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aerial view of Haiti - FBI issues travel warning for Haiti

A recent surge in violence and the abduction of an American couple in Haiti last month is causing concern for American government officials. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a travel warning for American citizens to avoid travel to the country.

While we understand that there are strong ties between Haiti and South Florida, before traveling there one should consider the trauma and financial costs of being kidnapped not only to themselves but to their family and friends as well, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Liz Santamaria said this week, as reported by the Miami Herald.

The situation in Haiti has reached a critical point as violence and lawlessness continue to escalate. The FBIs Miami field office has reported a 300% increase in kidnappings for the first three months of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022.

Photo Credit: Dr. Crystal Felima

Crisis In Haiti Causes Concern Globally

Violence and unrest in Haiti have caused great concern among foreign governments and humanitarian organizations. The United Nations has already raised the alarm about the deteriorating situation in Haiti. The United States has evacuated all non-essential personnel from its embassy in Port-au-Prince. The FBIs travel warning is just another indication of how dangerous the situation in Haiti has become.

The people of Haiti continue to suffer one of the worst human rights crises in decades and a major humanitarian emergency, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a recent report to the U.N. Security Council. With the high number of fatalities and increasing areas under the control of armed gangs, insecurity in the capital has reached levels comparable to countries in armed conflict.

In March, an American couple was kidnapped while visiting Haiti to see their sick relatives and attend a local festival. The couple was held by a gang for ransom and was finally released a month later. The exact conditions of their release have not been made public. This incident is a sobering reminder of the dangers facing foreigners in Haiti.

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Police custody also failed to protect 13 suspected gang members in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, who were pulled from a minibus during a traffic stop last week, according to the Miami Herald. The individuals were beaten to death by a mob using gasoline-soaked tires.

The latest incident highlights the severe public outrage over the increasingly lawless and violent situation in the capital. Criminal gangs have taken control over an estimated 60% of Port-au-Prince since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021.

RELATED: An Inside Perspective On The Crisis In Haiti
A man is held in federal custody Tuesday night for playing a role in a series of aiding and abetting an extortion attempt, conspiracy, and bomb threats at Harvard University last month, officials say.

William Giordani, 54, claims he was only answering a Craigslist ad from somebody seeking to arrange a package delivery to his son at Harvard back on April 11, according to new court documents.

I pay for a small side job. Will need items purchased and moved. The Craigslist ad said

Hello I am single father of 3 and my eldest son gos to Harvard. He need some supplys delivered to him before Monday and I dont have time to bring to him. I need you to buy some item for him and deliver, I am very busy I cant and my son need to stay study. Will pay very well, i will also pay back for cost of items. We are Vietnamese family, sorry for poor english. The body of the ad read

According to an affidavit by a Harvard University police officer, working with the FBIs Boston-area Joint Terrorism Task Force, Giordani answered a Boston Craigslist ad posted on April 11, allegedly from a man named Nguyen Mihn, with a New Jersey phone number, offering $300 to somebody who could buy and deliver some item to his eldest son, a Harvard student.

Acting on that mans requests, Giordani bought fireworks in New Hampshire and then, on April 13, several items, including a sturdy tool bag, a safe, and wires at the South Bay Home Depot, all for delivery to Harvard.

Starting shortly before 2:30 p.m. on April 13, police got a series of seven phone calls, all listing the same New Jersey number as the ad, and using a robotic voice to declare that three bombs had been planted around the Harvard campus.

This is not a joke, a prank, or a drill. There are real lives at stake today. Earlier today our team planted three remotely detonated improvised explosive devices in populated areas across the Harvard campus. While we do not want to detonate these devices, we will not hesitate to do so if you fail to meet our demands, according to the affidavit. These devices each have an explosive yield of at least 80 megajoules and contain several pounds of metal shrapnel. If these bombs were detonated now, we estimate that at least 40 students would die and hundreds be badly wounded. According to the affidavit

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The caller continued giving instructions for how to contact an alleged ring member  and cautioning Harvard to prepare to pay a large bitcoin transaction once it received further instructions.

In a call at 3:25 p.m., the voice declared that one of the devices was on the Science Center plaza between two food trucks in a red and black Husky tool bag, according to court documents.

That was about an hour and 15 minutes after the first threatening call.

The affidavit continues after Giordani was videoed by a Harvard Webcam walking onto the plaza with a red and black Husky tool bag.

The individual walks to the center of the plaza and sits down on a bench and places the red and black tool bag on the bench beside him, says the affidavit. The individual then appears to be looking at something in his hands, consistent with someone looking or texting on a mobile phone, for several minutes. He stands up, leaves the bag in the plaza, and walks toward the left edge of the video. He again appears to be looking at something in his hands before disappearing out of view of the camera. He reappears briefly standing at a distance from the bag, and then walks out of view of the camera again. The individual reappears and sits down next to the red and black tool bag on the bench again appearing to look at something in his hands. At approximately 14:19 the individual stands up and walks way from the red and black tool bag and appears to take a phone call. He walks in between the two food trucks parked on the plaza. He briefly reappears behind one of the food trucks before leaving the plaza. According to the affidavit

At 3:40 p.m., Harvard police officers responded to the plaza and discovered the Husky tool bag on a bench where video showed Giordani leaving it. Once officers evacuated nearby buildings and issued a campus-wide alert, investigators found a metal locking safe (similar to what would be found in a hotel room), a package of wire and a number of fireworks inside the safe, and a small rectangular box with wires attached to it.

Man delivered explosives to Harvard

Man delivered explosives to Harvard

Man delivered explosives to Harvard

Man delivered explosives to Harvard

Man delivered explosives to Harvard

The package of wire found in the bag had a yellow Home Depot sticker with the name NGUYEN Minh on it, which led investigators to the Home Depot on Allstate Road in Dorchesters South Bay mall.

The documents say, Minh had called in an order around 6:50 a.m. for 250 feet of galvanized wire, a safe box with a digital lock, and a 16-pocket tool bag, only the store didnt have the tool bag in stock.

Giordani then arrived around 11:45 a.m. to pick up the stuff and was given a gift card for the value of the tool bag. Giordani was captured on security video leaving the store with the wire and the safe box.

He then returned at 12:20 p.m. and used the gift card to buy a Husky 22-inch spring-loaded tool bag, but that was more expensive than the value on the card, so he used $10 in cash and a one-time housemates debit card.

I have compared the images from the Home Depot security cameras at the times of these transactions with a registry of motor vehicles photograph of GIORDANI and confirmed that they are the same individual, the officer stated in the affidavit.

By April 25, investigators had enough evidence to link Giordani to the case that they called him and asked to meet with him. He initially agreed to meet on April 27 in Tyngsboro, but he didnt show, claiming he had no proof the person who called was really with the FBI. He then agreed to meet with agents at the FBI office in Bedford, New Hampshire on May 1  in a call arranged by his mother.

At 10 a.m. Monday, his mother arrived at the office, but said he was reluctant to come because he was afraid that he would be arrested for transporting fireworks across state lines. Agents convinced her to call him to try to convince him to come in.

Giordani also told DR (his mother) that he spoke to the person who placed the Craigslist ad and that person told him that he would be calling Harvard Police to make a bomb threat to get money. Giordani also stated that at the callers direction, he then traveled to Worcester to get paid. When Giordani arrived in Worcester, the person told him that he wasnt able to meet, and added that he wasnt Asian (as claimed in the Craigslist ad), didnt have kids (as claimed in the ad), and started spouting off a bunch of racist things about blacks and Jews. The affidavit shows the phone call transcribed as the agents listened in

Giordani then asked his mother to come to pick him up at a specific location in Nashua, New Hampshire.

The affidavit states the agents then drove his mother to Nashua where they approached him and introduced themselves. He began to yell at his mother for bringing the agents to meet him.

Officers sought to calm him down and requested to speak with him about the Craigslist ad and the events at Harvard.

Giordani refused to give access to his phone or to discuss the incident in detail, claiming that the phone was his business phone and that there were also intimate photographs on the device. While declining to show officers his mobile phone, Giordani admitted that he knew what he did was wrong and that he just put some fireworks in a safe and put them at Harvard.

This is an active and ongoing investigation as to finding the individual who was in on the threatening calls and conspiracy.

Giordani is expected to be back in US District Court for a detention hearing on Friday.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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Fact checked by Nick Blackmer











The FDA recently announced fast-track approval for a new ALS drug.

The drug, tofersen, was developed specifically for patients with SOD1-ALS, a rare form of the disease that occurs because of mutation in the SOD1 gene.

Experts are hopeful that this milestone will have a substantial impact on future ALS treatment.











The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced fast-track approval for a new amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) drug.



The new drug works to treat a specific genetic form of ALS. The medication, tofersen, which goes under the brand name Qalsody, was developed for people who have SOD1-ALS, a rare form of the neurological disease that results from a mutation in the SOD1 gene.

Approximately 2% of people with ALS have this rare mutation that causes their disease. Researchers say that while this is medication for a very specific subset of ALS cases, its development offers a window into the expanding research and understanding of the disease.

I was super pleased to hear that tofersen would be available to treat people living with SOD1 mutations and gives me hope that tofersen will be able to substantially slow down this genetic form of ALS, principal investigator of the drugs clinical trials Timothy M. Miller, MD, PhD, the David Clayson Professor of Neurology at Washington University, told Health.

The biotechnology company behind the development of the drug, Biogen Inc., revealed that Qalsody will be available for shipment to U.S.-based providers in early May, according to a press release. It stands as the first treatment to target a genetic cause of ALS approved by the FDA.

Getty Images / Sebastian Condrea

Accelerated FDA approval

Dr. Miller, who is also the co-director of the Washington University School of Medicines ALS Center, explained the potential impact for those with SOD1 mutations is the substantial showing of disease progression and improvements in quality of life.

Researchers in the field have been trying to find solutions to ALS, a disease that as a whole poses a major puzzle to researchers, for decades. An understanding of clear risk factors for the disease remains elusive, and in many ways, there is no real pattern to determine who is most likely to develop ALS. When it comes to looking into this specific mutation of SOD1, Dr. Miller and his team found a problem that has a clear cause.

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Results from the phase 3 clinical trial of tofersen were published last year in The New England Journal of Medicine. They revealed that the drug reduced molecular signs of disease and curbed neurodegeneration in the first six months of use.

The recent approval falls under the FDAs accelerated approval pathway, which means drugs developed for serious conditions that face an unmet medical need are approved relatively quickly.

Related:FDA Approves New ALS Drug Relyvrio, Which Aims to Slow Disease Progression

The Impact of Tofersen

When asked to put this drug approval in context, Martina H. Wiedau, MD, professor of neurology and the director of the ALS Clinic and Research Center at UCLA Health, told Health the FDA approval of tofersen can motivate doctors to conduct genetic testing for SDO1 mutations early and provide this treatment.

Dr. Wiedau, who is unaffiliated with Dr. Millers research, pointed out that this study did not select participants who were in early disease stagessome had lived with ALS for a long time. She said one would assume that the neurodegenerative process from SOD1-ALS can be slowed with earlier treatment.

I am very hopeful that in the long run we will see better clinical benefits from tofersen than presented in the VALOR trial publication, Dr. Wiedau noted. She expressed her excitement for the approval, adding, I am sure it will be followed by genetic treatments for other gene mutations in ALS. I am very hopeful that we will make a real difference in some individuals with ALS.

When asked at what stage of diagnosis would it be appropriate to prescribe this drug, Dr. Miller said it would ideally be as early as possible in order to maintain as much function as possible.

Improving ALS Patients Quality of Life

Symptoms of ALS can vary greatly. Some cases include common degenerative symptoms like difficulty walking and carrying out day-to-day tasks, falling down, leg, feet, and ankle weakness, slurred speech, muscle cramps, and twitching of the arms, among others.

Dr. Miller explained that tofersen can promote the maintenance of ones overall strength, which in turn, can go to great lengths to make ones daily life easier.

The drug should be able to slow down disease progression significantly when given early. Therefore, patients may have a real chance of living longer lives with ALS, allowing middle-aged patients to see their children graduate from school and also be active longer with good function, Dr. Wiedau added.

Related:How Stephen Hawking Was Able to Live for So Long With ALS

The Future of ALS Care

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 31,000 people are currently living with ALS in the U.S.

While this new medication only addresses a specific population within those totals, Dr. Miller and Dr. Wiedau assert that it signals a future where those living with ALS might have more, better options for care.

There is momentum for the development of new ALS treatments, Dr. Wiedau noted.

Three drugs that can slow down the disease to a small degree and the first genetic treatment are exciting news for the ALS community, she said. The difficult part is transferring the expected successes for patients with familial ALS to patients with sporadic disease.

Dr. Miller added that this drug can have substantial effects in this genetic subset of ALS which points to the fact that this disease is a treatable disorder. It offers a ray of light to researchers and those living with ALS who dont have this rare genetic mutation that treatments that will have a substantial impact on other forms of ALS are hopefully on the way.

The lowering of neurofilament by tofersen shows that this biomarker can be lowered with an effective drug, he said. Measurement of this biomarker will likely be included more frequently in ALS drug development programs.



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Read the original article on Health.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Wednesday the first vaccine to combat severe respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

Arexvy, the new vaccine developed by GSK, formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline, was approved for adults 60 and older and was 82% effective at preventing lower respiratory tract illness caused by RSV, according to trial data. It was also 94% effective in those who had at least one underlying medical condition.

Todays approval of the first RSV vaccine is an important public health achievement to prevent a disease which can be life-threatening and reflects the FDAs continued commitment to facilitating the development of safe and effective vaccines for use in the United States," said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

Respiratory syncytial virus infects nearly everyone by age 2 and typically causes cold symptoms. But its also the leading cause of hospitalizations among newborns and younger children. Among those under 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports between 58,000 and 80,000 hospitalizations a year.

RSV also strikes late in life, causing more than 177,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths among older adults each year.

During an FDA advisory panel meeting in February, GSK researchers reported a few cases of neurological disorders post-vaccination, including one case of Guillain-Barre in a 78-year-old woman in Japan about nine days after receiving the shot.

However, panel members voted to recommend the vaccine, saying it was still safe and effective for older adults.

Guillain-Barre syndrome, or GBS, is a rare neurological disorder in which the bodys immune system damages nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis, according to the CDC. About 70% of people diagnosed with GBS make a full recovery, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Symptoms may persist for years, but experts say most people recover within a few months.

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RSV vaccines Shots for babies and adults are on the way. Here's what the CDC is saying about them.

Other RSV vaccines in the works

GSKs vaccine is one of several RSV vaccines and treatments under review by regulatory agencies. Others include:

Sanofis monoclonal antibody for infants and toddlers: A monoclonal antibody from Sanofi and AstraZeneca,called nirsevimab, helps prevent RSV lower respiratory tract disease in newborns and infants entering or during their first RSV season. If approved, it would be the second monoclonal antibody on the market for infants.

Pfizers RSV vaccine for pregnant people: The FDA said it has agreed to review Pfizers vaccine candidate, RSVpreF, for approval and set an action date for August. If approved, the vaccine would be for pregnant people to help protect against RSV severe disease in infants from birth through 6 months.

Pfizer's vaccine for older adults: This vaccine candidate is under the same name as the maternal vaccine, RSVpreF. Pfizer data found its vaccine was more than 85% effective at preventing RSV-associated lower respiratory tract illness in older adults.

Contributing: Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY.

Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FDA approves world's first RSV vaccine for older adults
By Pete Schroeder

(Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Banking Committee said on Tuesday it would hear from former top officials at the failed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, as well as top U.S. banking regulators at separate hearings later this month.

Gregory Becker, the former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, and Scott Shay and Eric Howell, former senior executives for Signature Bank, will appear on May 16. The hearing will mark the first time the former executives have spoken publicly since the March collapse of both firms, which helped set off broader turmoil in the banking sector. On Monday, regulators closed a third firm, First Republic, which then was sold to JP Morgan Chase.

In a separate hearing May 18, top regulators will testify, including Michael Barr, Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve, and the Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Martin Gruenberg, the committee said in a statement. The panel will also hear from top regulators for the states of New York and California, which helped oversee the two failed firms.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder in Washington and Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; editing by Christian Schmollinger)
A version of this story first appeared in Talk of the Town, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PAs State College regional bureau featuring the most important news and happenings in north-central Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.

A controversial proposal to fly fighter jets close to the ground in a part of Pennsylvania known for preserved wilderness is up for public comment again as military officials double-down on a claim the change will not have a significant impact on the area.

Residents, business owners, elected officials and others in the Pennsylvania Wilds are still deeply distressed by the plan, while a Shapiro administration official said the militarys finding of no significant impact is premature and deeply flawed.

The Maryland Air National Guard currently operates at 8,000 feet above sea level and higher over all or part of Cameron, Clinton, Elk, McKean, Potter, and Tioga Counties in north-central Pennsylvania, as well as a small area of southern New York.

In 2021, the ANG pitched a plan to dramatically lower that threshold to as low as 100 feet above ground level  approximately the height of a 10-story building.

Low-level training is necessary to allow our military pilots to proceed to their target area, destroy said target, and then return home safely, the ANG told Spotlight PA.

High-level, stand-off tactics are not as viable or survivable as they once were, due to our peer/near-peer adversaries reaching the United States militarys technological level when it comes to stealth and detection capabilities, it continued.

According to Nicole Faraguna, the director of policy and planning for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the portion of the Pennsylvania Wilds over which low-altitude flights would occur includes Cherry Springs State Parks, internationally renowned for its dark skies, and nine other state parks; 35,000 acres of state game lands; 395,000 acres of state forest; and one of the most remote natural areas in Pennsylvania, the Hammersley Wild Area.

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I think some see that as a blank spot on the map, she said.

Faraguna said that flight training would occur as low as 500 feet above most of the state parks and 1,000 feet above Hammersley, which she still considered very low over pure wilderness.

The groups opposing the proposal worry about noise pollution, disruption to livestock, and negative effects on the tourism and recreation economy of the region. The ANG recently released a new version of its environmental assessment for public comment that better explains why it believes those concerns are unfounded, but it hasnt convinced local stakeholders.

We face many challenges in attracting and retaining a strong workforce, Carolyn Boser Newhouse, executive director of the Bradford Area Alliance, recently told the Bradford Era. Outdoor recreation in the form of hunting, fishing, hiking, etc. is one of our primary attractions. This application, if approved, puts our quality of life, as well as our real estate values at risk.

The low-altitude fighter jet training would occur on about 170 days of the year, with two one-hour sorties, or aircraft deployments, occurring each of those days, according to ANG materials. Those documents say aircraft would spend two to three minutes below 500 feet per activation. The aircraft would stay under supersonic speeds, and only two to four fighter jets would be flying at a time.

The ANG acknowledges that this will result in an increase in noise experienced on the ground.

The proposal was up for public review initially at the end of 2021. According to the Maryland ANG materials, 430 comments were made by community members, elected officials, special interest groups, and agencies.

As a result, substantial changes were made to the environmental assessment, according to the ANGs website.

Among those changes: The document was revised to clarify some of the information presented and provide further justification to support a Finding of No Significant Impacts (FONSI), the ANG wrote. A new Environmental Justice section was added to Chapter 3 that the public had not previously had an opportunity to review that includes the identification of low income and minority populations within the study area and the expected impacts to those populations if the Proposed Action was implemented.

According to the Maryland ANG, the low-altitude flights would have no significant effects on noise, biological resources, land use, socioeconomics, safety, cultural resources, environmental justice, and airspace management.

The PA Wilds Center recently held an information session on the proposal. Concerns expressed during the meeting involved, among other things, the type of aircraft currently used by the military being phased out in the next decade.

Faraguna told Spotlight PA the release of the FONSI is premature and deeply flawed.

We dont believe that they have done a thorough review and analysis of the cumulative impacts, she said.

The proposal could have a significant impact on the Pennsylvania Wilds, Faraguna said, adding that the region might lose its identity as the very essence of wilderness if the flights are permitted.

Various interested parties have asked the Maryland ANG to host public meetings on the proposal, but officials have not scheduled any.

In-person public meetings arent being planned at this time because they arent required for an environmental assessment, the ANG told Spotlight PA.

Residents of rural communities already sometimes feel left out of politics.

You have this proposal thats basically being introduced and put forward without any real opportunity for the residents to speak and ask questions, Faraguna said.

It would be the ultimate flyover country, she added.

Next steps

After the public comment period closes in mid-May, the ANG will determine whether the proposal needs additional work or is ready to go to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA could incorporate all, part, or none of our documents into their own decision, the ANG said in a statement to Spotlight PA. Should the FAA modify the proposal, it would go back to the ANG for approval.

A spokesperson for the FAA told Spotlight PA that it could take eight months or longer to approve or deny the proposal, depending on the complexity. If its approved, it would likely go into effect about two months later.

How to comment

The draft final environmental assessment is on view at the Bradford, Coudersport, Green, and Galeton public libraries, and online. Public comments can be emailed to ngb.a4.a4a.nepa.comments.org@us.af.mil, or mailed to Kristi Kucharek, National Guard Bureau, 3501 Fetchet Avenue, Joint Base Andrews, MD 20762-5157.

Public comment is open until May 17.

SUPPORT THIS JOURNALISM and help us reinvigorate local news in north-central Pennsylvania at spotlightpa.org/statecollege. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability and public-service journalism that gets results.
Lori and David Hughson, parents of David Hughson IV, read statements Wednesday before Stark County Common Pleas Judge Taryn Heath sentences Taben Armstead for the shooting death of their son in 2021.

CANTON  Anna Hughson's life was turned upside down one summer day in 2021 after she left the Plain Township apartment she shared with her husband and 3-year-old daughter.

"What was supposed to be a normal day was the worst day of my life," Hughson said. "I came home to a crime scene. I saw the lifeless body of my husband (David Hughson IV) on the ground with blood everywhere. I felt like you put a bullet in me, too."

Hughson and other family members spoke Wednesday in Stark County Common Pleas Court during a sentencing hearing for Taben Armstead.

Armstead, 21, of Canton, previously pleaded guilty to felony counts of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated robbery for Hughson's death. Both charges carry a gun specification.

Judge Taryn Heath sentenced Armstead to a minimum of 20 years in prison with a maximum of term of 22 1/2 years.

As part of a plea agreement with county prosecutors, charges of murder and felonious assault were dismissed.

Authorities said Armstead shot Hughson, 28, in the head while trying to steal marijuana from the victim on June 12, 2021, at 743 W. Commons St. NE. Armstead fled and was arrested in Massillon in November by members of the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force.

Remains found: Stark authorities: Woman found dead was suspect in Akron homicide

Devastation for David Hughson's family

The victim's wife told Armstead his selfish and cruel choice took away her best friend. It also shattered her daughter's heart.

"She does not deserve to know a broken heart like this," Anna Hughson said. "She was his pride and joy. He should be here to see her grow and be part of her childhood memories. Almost two years later and she still wakes up crying out for her dad. She thinks more about going to heaven to see her daddy than normal childhood things."

When Armstead is released from prison, he will be able to see his kids, she said. Hughson's daughter will be 24 and won't have her dad.

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"I hate that you got to choose this life for her," Anna Hughson said.

Hughson's mother, Lori, sobbed as she described the pain she lives with daily.

"On June 12, 2021, a big part of me died with David," she said. "I wish I were the one he shot. It would be easier if I lost my own life than to have lost the life I love more than my own. There is no greater pain for a mom than to lose a child. It breaks my heart when I realize he is never coming back."

The family's life is different now, tormented by Armstead's selfish act.

"I don't know what I wish for you but 20 years will never be enough," Lori Hughson said. "What kind of person are you? Do you have any regrets? Was it worth it? What were you thinking? I have so many questions."

Sisters Courtney Ayers and Ashley Millington described how their brother was loved by his nieces and nephews and loved being a father.

"His absence is agonizing," Courtney Ayers said. "He was a present, fun, goofy part of our family. Our holidays and special event are not the same."

Taben Armstead reads a prepared statement to the family and friends of David Hughson IV before Armstead's sentencing in Stark County Common Pleas Court. Armstead pleaded guilty to shooting Hughson in the head in 2021.

She recalled her last conversation with her brother. He said he hoped one day she would have a child because he loved being a dad.

"He wanted that joy for me. I told my family I was pregnant last year but he wasn't here to celebrate," she said. "My son will never know his fun-loving uncle because you took that from him."

David Hughson's brother, Benjamin Fisher, called on Armstead to take what has happened, turn his life around and make something good come from the tragedy.

Fisher acknowledged he was once sitting in a courtroom just like Armstead. He was able to reform himself after a drug conviction.

"I can understand what it is like to sit in your shoes. I never took another one's life but I want to share a few things. All decisions have consequences. There was an impact, not only on my family, but yours as well. I believe transformation is possible no matter what you have done."

Fisher said Armstead could use his story as a catalyst for change and to inspire others. He suggested Armstead read in prison, starting with the Bible.

"You have a chance to rewrite history," he said. "I really feel that Jesus forgives."

Taben Armstead listens to statement from the family of David Hughson IV before his sentencing Wednesday in Stark County Common Pleas Court.

'I'm not a monster. I have a heart.'

Armstead read a prepared statement. He told Hughson's family he was sorry and that what he did was wrong. He did not plan to hurt Hughson.

"I am not a monster, and I do have a heart," he said. "From the outside looking in it doesn't look like it."

Armstead said he didn't turn himself in because he was selfish and wrapped up in his own life. He was afraid to lose the "woman he loved with all his heart," his stepdaughter and his unborn child.

"I had pain in my heart that wouldn't go away," he said, noting he has turned his life around and moved away form the drug game and the wrong people.

He said he opted to forgo a trial in order to bring closure to both families.

"I am deeply sorry and I know that this is a very hard situation because it is going to be hard for me to move forward, for everyone to move forward," Armstead said. "I am human and I do have a heart. I don't know if I forgive me, either. I just want everyone to know that I am not who I appear to be. It wasn't intentional. l know hearing it out of my mouth and it is hard for me to say. I pray you forgive me, my family forgives me and more importantly, my kids and the victim's kid, forgives me as well."

Reach Amy at 330-775-1135 or amy.knapp@indeonline.com

On Twitter: @aknappINDE

Taben Armstead reads a prepared statement to the family and friends of David Hughson IV before his sentencing Wednesday in Judge Taryn Heath's courtroom.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Taben Armstead sentenced to 20 years for killing David Hughson IV
Orinoco Crocodiles clamber over each other at a breeding pond in Turmero, Venezuela

Venezuela's Orinoco Crocodile is a fearsome beast, but its enormous size and sharp teeth were no match for humans who hunted them to the brink of extinction.

Millions were slaughtered in the 20th century, mainly for their skins, and today, only about 100 adult females are left in Venezuela, according to the country's Fudeci natural sciences foundation.

Known to scientists as Crocodylus intermedius, the enormous reptile is native to the Orinoco basin that Venezuela shares with Colombia.

It can grow to more than six meters (19.7 feet) in length and over 400 kilograms (882 pounds), making it one of the largest crocodiles in the world.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, it is critically endangered, having suffered an 80-percent population reduction in just three generations in the early and mid-1900s.

More than 2.5 million Orinoco Crocodile skins were exported from Venezuela from 1931 to 1934, according to official Venezuelan figures.

Today, such trade is prohibited but the threat persists: the crocs are killed for their eggs and meat, and sometimes out of fear. And their habitat is ever shrinking and defiled by pollution.

Efforts that started in 1990 to breed new crocs in captivity have seen some 10,000 freed back into the Venezuelan wild.

But their numbers have not significantly increased.

"We do a part... to raise the animals and then release them, but after that it no longer depends on us, there has to be protection of these animals, surveillance, control, there has to be environmental education," conservationist Federico Pantin told AFP.

Pantin, 56, manages the Leslie Pantin breeding zoo -- named after his father who founded it -- with his wife Tuenade Hernandez in the northern state of Aragua. It is one of several croc breeding centers in the country.

- 'Seeds of conservation' -

On Sunday, Pantin was on hand for the release of 160 hatchlings -- small and green-skinned with black spots and light eyes -- into the Capanaparo River.

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The zoo's captive breeding pair produces about 40 eggs at a time.

The eggs are incubated for about 90 days in very specific conditions, buried in sand at a depth of 33 centimeters, at a temperature of between 30 and 34 degrees Celsius (86-93 degrees Fahrenheit) and humidity of 85-90 percent.

The crocodiles mostly hatch in May, and at about one year of age, they are freed.

Zoo staff also capture free-born baby crocs in the river to raise them in relative safety.

"Predation in the natural environment is very high" with birds, fish and other reptiles all feeding on the defenseless hatchlings, explained Pantin.

By raising them at the zoo, 95 percent of the hatchlings survive -- whereas most would have died in their natural environment.

"The animals arrive here about 24 centimeters (9.4 inches) long and weighing about 80 or 100 grams (2.8-3.5 ounces)... we release them when they reach about 80 or 90 centimeters and weigh four kilos," said Pantin.

According to Diego Bilbao, director of a company called Rio Verde which organizes tours to witness the annual release of young crocs, the sector holds potential for tourism income with a conservational side benefit.

If locals and Indigenous communities can be convinced to see the crocs as a source of income, he explained, "they help protect it."

The Pantin Zoo, which also works to conserve other threatened species such as the Red Siskin finch, the stubfoot toad and the wood turtle, also seeks to instill a natural stewardship mindset in visiting school groups.

"I love it," said Hernandez of this part of her job. "The seeds of conservation are sown at a young age."

erc/jt/mlr/tjj
Cynthia Baileys 4 million plus Instagram followers likely got a bit of FOMO the other day.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta star was in town to attend New You magazines 8th Annual awards at the Miami Beach Edition Hotel Saturday night.

The ceremony gave props to business leaders in the health and beauty industries; other attendees included designer Nicole Miller, fellow Bravo RH Jill Zarin and Argentinian beauty queen Valentina Ferrer.

Bailey took advantage of her time down south to revel in the weather, the water  and the views.

In one snap, the 55 year old (yes, we double checked her birthday) sits out on a terrace overlooking the ocean in a hot pink cut out bathing suit and matching coverup.

In another post from the same day, Bailey strikes various poses to the beat of Mary J Bliges 2007 hit song Just Fine.

The mood boosting lyrics include: So I like what I see when Im looking at me, when Im walking past the mirror. Dont stress through the night, at a time in my life, aint worried about you if you feel it. Got my head on straight. I got my vibe right. I aint gonna let you kill it.

Commenters caught on, realizing the lyrics were possibly to keep trolls at bay.

Fine, fine, fine, wrote a follower with fire emoji attached.

The Glow Up! wrote another in all caps.

Keep slayin.

Bailey looks absolutely stunning and the beach becomes her. Why the Alabama native chose to live in a landlocked city is another question we will pose for her if we see her, mmmk?
The FinOps Foundation, a foundation under the auspices of the Linux Foundation, today announced the launch of FOCUS, the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification, a new project that aims to build and maintain a common spec for cloud cost, usage and billing data. This spec, the group argues, will provide a consistent structure for reporting cloud cost data and enable companies to expedite their cloud adoption thanks to increased trust in this data and the ability to map cost back to individual business units.

Google and Microsoft, which are both premier members of the foundation, will join the FOCUS steering committee, with the likes of CloudZero, CloudMonitor, Neos, VMware, Ternary and Accenture also participating in the project.

"One of the things that we've run into is that one of the underlying core issues with working with FinOps data and trying to push forward a culture of cost accountability and getting finance integrated and getting engineers to take better actions to be more efficient from a cost standpoint is that the data underlying the practice is super confusing," said J.R. Storment, the executive director of the FinOps Foundation. "We're trying to solve that underlying data problem. The big challenge is people don't trust the data and they don't understand it -- and as a result, they can't take actions on it."

The issue is compounded by the fact that a single cloud provider may have thousands of different SKUs and most enterprises now use multicloud solutions. Add to that the fact that the data is often extremely granular, with big users often having millions or billions of charges every month, and the different financial agreements large enterprises may have with a cloud vendor, and it becomes obvious that making sense out of all of this data is a challenge -- and one that is rather specific to FinOps.

The idea behind FOCUS then is to create a consistent data structure and nomenclature for how this cloud cost information is presented. And while the spec is currently focused on cloud vendors, the foundation expects to expand this concept to support SaaS vendors and licensing costs as well.

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Businesses, the group argues, need a single view of their cloud spend, but that's been hard to get. Even startups that specialize in cloud cost management struggle with it. Indeed, Udam Dewaraja, the chair of the FOCUS working group and former head of global financial management at Citi, argued that this is one of the reasons why most of these companies only support a very limited number of clouds.

"If you're big enough, you might have three cloud vendors, but definitely not the tail of SaaS vendors. What the corporations and organizations need is this holistic view of cloud spend, not individual vendor-level cost management," he said. "Doing FinOps is really hard because of all of these inconsistencies in the data and different terminologies and whatnot. It's a linearly scaling thing. As you add more vendors or your organizational complexity grows, both impact the complexity for the practitioner."

Storment noted that the FinOps Foundation currently represents about 10,000 practitioners from various organizations. Nine of the Fortune 10 and 88% of the Fortune 50 companies are part of the organization.
Five Columbia-area hospitals received the highest mark possible in the safety grades released by a medical watchdog group Wednesday. Overall, most Midlands medical facilities saw their ratings improve since the last scores were released in the fall.

Lexington Medical Center earned another A grade in the report from the Leapfrog Group, which issues biannual safety rankings. This time it was joined by more hospitals in Columbia, which can be considered among the safest in South Carolina.

Since 2012, the Leapfrog Group has published Hospital Safety Scores twice a year  once in the spring and once during the fall  to create transparency in the U.S. health system. The rating is focused on errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

Based on this criteria, other Columbia hospitals received four A grades and one C for the spring. Those include:

 Prisma Health Baptist Parkridges grade rose one letter from B in the fall ranking to A

 Prisma Health Baptists grade rose one letter from B in the fall ranking to A

 MUSC Health Columbia Medical Center Downtowns grade rose one letter from B in the fall ranking to A. The hospital was formerly Providence Health.

 MUSC Health Columbia Medical Center Northeasts grade rose one letter from B in the fall ranking to A. The facility was formerly Providence Health Northeast.

 Prisma Health Richland repeated its score from the fall ranking of C

One other hospital in the Midlands received an A, while one that was previously the lowest rated hospital in South Carolina in the fall ranking has improved its status.

 Prisma Health Tuomeys (in Sumter) grade rose one letter from B in the fall ranking to A

 MUSC Health Kershaw Medical Centers grade rose one letter from C in the fall ranking to B

 Newberry County Memorial Hospital repeated its score from the fall ranking of C

 Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties has only received D or F grades since 2020, but its score rose to C

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 McCleod Health Clarendon in Manning has only received an A grade since 2020, but its score dropped to C

Grading South Carolina

Overall in South Carolina, of the 51 hospitals that were ranked, 21 received a letter A. Thats an improvement from 15 in the fall rankings.

No hospitals in the Palmetto State received either a D or F in the spring grades. Thats another improvement from the fall when the Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties was given a D, which was the only hospital scored that low.

The improvement of hospital grades was reflected in South Carolinas standing among other states. Nationally, South Carolina ranked 7th among all states, with more than 41% of its hospitals scoring an A rating. That was a significant increase from the spring (29%), when the Palmetto State was ranked 21st in the nation.

The bigger picture

New Jersey (51.5%) saw a significant rise to become the top-rated state in the U.S. There was a three-way tie for lowest grade among North Dakota, Delaware, and Washington, D.C., as none had a hospital with an A grade.

Upwards of 250,000 people die every year from preventable errors in hospitals, the Leapfrog Group said. Its up to everyone to make sure that patient safety is the number one priority at every hospital across the United States.

Leapfrog graded about 3,000 hospitals nationwide this spring, and 29% earned an A, 26% earned a B, 39% a C, 6% a D and less than 1% scored an F, according to its website.

The grades are based on safety data and rate how hospitals have checks in place to prevent mistakes, and ensure strong lines of communication between hospital staff, patients, and families, according to Leapfrog.

The latest safety report showed a rise in healthcare-associated infections, a trend that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued, according to Leapfrog.

The dramatic spike in (healthcare-associated infections) reported in this safety grade cycle should stop hospitals in their tracks  infections like these can be life or death for some patients, Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release. We recognize the tremendous strain the pandemic put on hospitals and their workforce, but alarming findings like these indicate hospitals must recommit to patient safety and build more resilience.

Leapfrog said more than 1,000 people will die today because of a preventable hospital error, and every year 1-of-25 patients will develop a preventable infection while in the hospital.

Leapfrog advises the public never to reject emergency treatment based on a safety score, but to consult with a doctor about the best hospital for planned, elective procedures, the News & Observer of Raleigh previously reported.

But Leapfrogs study shows that patients at D and F hospitals face a greater risk of dying than those at hospitals graded A.

Making the grade

The Leapfrog Group said more than 30 measures are used to generate hospital safety grades, and it reports on five patient experience measures that have a direct impact on patient safety outcomes: nurse communication, doctor communication, staff responsiveness, communication about medicine and discharge information.

The Leapfrog safety grade is divided into two domains: Process/Structural Measures and Outcome Measures.

 Process Measures represent how often a hospital gives patients recommended treatment for a given medical condition or procedure. For example, Responsiveness of hospital staff looks at patients feedback on how long it takes for a staff member to respond when they request help. Structural Measures represent the environment in which patients receive care. For example, Doctors order medications through a computer represents whether a hospital uses a special computerized system to prevent errors when prescribing medications.

 Outcome Measures represent what happens to a patient while receiving care. For example, Dangerous object left in patients body measures how many times a patient undergoing surgery had a dangerous foreign object, like a sponge or tool, left in his or her body.

The Process Measures include:

 Computerized Physician Order Entry

 Bar Code Medication Administration

 ICU Physician Staffing

 Leadership Structures and Systems

 Culture Measurement, Feedback & Intervention

 Nursing Workforce

 Hand Hygiene

 Nurse Communication

 Doctor Communication

 Staff Responsiveness

 Communication about Medicines

 Discharge Information

The Outcome Measures include:

 Foreign Object Retained

 Air Embolism

 Falls and Trauma

 CLABSI

 CAUTI

 SSI: Colon

 MRSA

 C. Diff.

 Pressure Ulcer Rate

 Death Rate among Surgical Inpatients with Serious Treatable Conditions

 In-hospital fall with hip fracture rate

 Perioperative hemorrhage and hematoma rate

 Postoperative acute kidney injury rate

 Postoperative Respiratory Failure Rate

 Perioperative PE/DVT Rate

 Postoperative sepsis rate

 Postoperative Wound Dehiscence Rate

 Unrecognized Abdominopelvic Accidental Puncture/Laceration Rate

SOURCE: Leapfrog Medical Group
The Manhattan district attorney who is prosecuting former President Trump for alleged campaign finance violations compared him to sex criminals Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein during his 2021 campaign.

In January 2021, as he was campaigning for district attorney, Alvin Bragg argued that "being a rich, old White man has allowed you to evade accountability" in the New York City borough, and that he would make sure to hold Trump "accountable" if elected.

"We got two standards of justice," he said during a radio interview on WQHT. "Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein  being a rich, old White man has allowed you to evade accountability in Manhattan. That includes Trump and his children  they were engaged in fraud in a SoHo real estate deal with his children."

Bragg was referencing a civil lawsuit the Trump Organization settled a decade earlier in 2011. Trump SoHo condominium purchasers who initially claimed to have been defrauded by Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump "reversed course and took the position that the sellers had not committed any crime against them" after the organization agreed to refund their sales deposits, the DAs office said at the time.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg attends briefing on April 18, 2023.

ALVIN BRAGG PROMISES NOT TO PROSECUTE THEFT TO ESTABLISH 'RACIAL EQUITY' BALANCE: 'CRIME OF POVERTY'

"So, you are right, we have two standards of justice," Bragg continued in his radio interview, speaking to co-hosts Ebro Darden and Peter Rosenberg. "I grew up in the second standard in Harlem. I know all about it."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"Im the candidate in the race who has the experience with Donald Trump," he said at the time. "I was the chief deputy in the attorney generals office. We sued the Trump administration over 100 times, for the Muslim travel ban, for family separation at the border, for shenanigans with the census. So, I know how to litigate with him. I also led the team that did the Trump Foundation case. So, Im ready to go wherever the facts take me, and to inherit that case. And I think itd be hard to argue with the fact that thatd be the most important, most high-profile case."

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Bragg won the election that November, taking over the years-long investigation into Trumps business dealings from retiring District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. On March 30, Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from a $130,000 hush-money payment to an adult film actress.

Trump, who has characterized the charges against him as a political witch hunt, posted a clip of Braggs 2021 comments on his Truth Social site just days before his indictment in March.

NEW YORKERS PAN MANHATTAN DA ALVIN BRAGG FOR NOT PROSECUTING 'REAL CRIMINALS' AS HE ARRESTS TRUMP

Former President Trump playing golf at his Trump Turnberry course in South Ayrshire during his visit to the U.K. on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.

Former President Trump playing golf at his Trump Turnberry course on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.

Bragg said during the interview that he had to be careful talking about Trump on the campaign trail, "because I dont want to prejudge, and then I get into office and then the first motion I get from the Trump team is I got to recuse myself because I have prejudged the facts."

He added, "I have seen a pattern of lawlessness over 20 years, and so I am inclined to believe all I have seen in the public domain and believe that theres a path forward there to make the case."

Fox News Digital asked Braggs office whether it was the district attorneys opinion that Trump had not yet been convicted of a crime in Manhattan because he is a "rich, old White man," and whether his office could clarify how Trump, Epstein and Weinstein are comparable, but it did not respond.

Bragg oversaw lawsuits against Weinstein and The Weinstein Company while serving as chief deputy attorney general under former New York Atty. Gen. Eric Schneiderman.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A tax bill that looks to save Florida families money advanced in Tallahassee on Wednesday.

It creates tax holidays for things like back to school and disaster preparedness, and also permanently eliminate the sales tax on firearm safety devices, oral hygiene products and diapers.

During the pandemic, mother of three Brittani Garay said she quickly learned how a working family could fall on hard times.

When COVID came it took me out of my job. So I didnt have a job for about two years and I was pregnant so diapers were like the most essential things, she said.

Read: Gov. DeSantis proposes permanent, one-year tax exemptions on these household items

Diapers, an unavoidable expense for her baby Scarlett, came at a cost of $60 to $100 a month.

Garay said she relied heavily on help from the Central Florida Diaper Bank to meet her babys needs. And to ease that cost Wednesday, shes hoping a bipartisan tax package that would permanently eliminate Floridas sales tax on diapers will get signed into law.

Read: Some call for ending sales tax on childrens diapers to help struggling families

Its an essential product. We should be able to get that and feminine products without taxes being applied to those, she said.

The bill already passed in the House and is working its way through the Senate.

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.
As he opened the 2023 legislative session nearly two months ago, Gov. Ron DeSantis targeted illegal immigration.

We must further strengthen our laws against illegal immigration by enhancing employment verification, increasing penalties for human smuggling and further disincentivizing illegal migration to the state of Florida, DeSantis said March 7 during his State of the State address.

On Tuesday, with just days left in the session, Republican lawmakers carried out DeSantis wishes.

The House gave final approval to a controversial bill (SB 1718) that includes stepping up requirements on businesses to check the immigration status of workers, cracking down on people who bring undocumented immigrants into Florida and collecting data about whether hospital patients are in the country legally.

The bill drew intense, often-personal debate that included lawmakers talking about their families moving to the United States and House sponsor Kiyan Michael describing the day her son Brandon was killed in a car accident caused by an undocumented immigrant.

Heaven has borders, Michael, R-Jacksonville, said as she finished speaking to the House. Hell has none.

But Democrats called the bill cruel and said it would hurt migrants who, for example, might not seek needed hospital care because of concerns about being questioned about their immigration status.

Immigrants are not the enemy, Rep. Dotie Joseph, D-North Miami, said. Hate is.

The House voted 83-36 to pass the bill along almost straight party lines. Rep. Vicki Lopez, R-Miami, crossed party lines, joining Democrats in opposing the bill. The Senate voted 27-10 to pass the bill last week, meaning it is now ready to go to DeSantis.

DeSantis and the Legislature in recent years have passed a series of changes to target illegal immigration, including a 2019 law that banned so-called sanctuary cities. A federal appeals court last month tossed out a constitutional challenge to that law.

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As he prepares for a potential 2024 White House bid, DeSantis frequently blasts federal immigration policies. Republican lawmakers Tuesday pointed to a flood of migrants coming across the countrys southern border in arguing that they need to take steps to address immigration issues and protect Florida residents.

We cant solve the problems in Washington, but we can send a message that says in Florida, weve had enough, Rep. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, said.

But Rep. Marie Woodson, a Hollywood Democrat who immigrated from Haiti, told lawmakers that until you have walked in the shoes of an immigrant, you will simply never understand.

Im asking (House members) to show some empathy and humanity for immigrants, Woodson said.

Among key parts of the bill:

 All businesses with 25 or more employees would be required to use the federal E-Verify system to check the immigration status of workers. Since 2021, such businesses have been required to use E-Verify or what are known as I-9 forms.

 Toughen criminal penalties for transporting undocumented immigrants into Florida. While the bill indicates the changes are aimed at curbing human smuggling, opponents raised the prospect of family members and groups such as churches being prosecuted for transporting immigrants into the state.

 Require hospitals to ask patients about whether they are U.S. citizens or are in the country legally. Hospitals would be required to submit reports about the responses to the state.

 Require law-enforcement agencies to take DNA samples from people being held on federal immigration detainers. The samples would be sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

 Provide $12 million to the state Division of Emergency Management for the Unauthorized Alien Transport program, which could transport undocumented immigrants to other states. The program would be similar to the DeSantis administrations controversial flights last year of 49 migrants from Texas to Marthas Vineyard in Massachusetts.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.  Florida Republicans on Tuesday handed Gov. Ron DeSantis another legislative victory after lawmakers signed off on a sweeping anti-immigration measure that will guarantee millions of dollars more for a controversial program the governor used to fly migrants from Texas to Marthas Vineyard.

DeSantis, who is expected to announce a run for president in the coming weeks, has repeatedly faulted President Joe Bidens immigration policies and regularly criticizes the administrations handling of the surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. at the southern border.

The governor and his Republican allies contended that the newly approved bill will send a message to the Biden administration, while Democrats countered the legislation was overtly cruel and intimidating to migrants.

House lawmakers approved the measure after debating for 90 minutes, culminating with bill sponsor Rep. Kiyan Michael, a Jacksonville Republican who was elected last year, recounting how someone who had entered the country illegally had killed her 21-year-old son in a car accident while he was driving to the bank to cash his paycheck.

The price of illegal immigration cost us everything, said Michael, who won a GOP primary last year with the help of an endorsement by DeSantis. There is not an ounce of malice in my heart  I just want it to stop. It has to stop and it is insane if we are waiting on Washington, D.C. to do something.

But Rep. Susan Valdes, a Tampa Democrat whose parents immigrated from Cuba, contended the bill demonized marginalized people.

Immigrants are people just like us except they did not have the fortune to be in the United States, Valdes said.

Republicans have pushed immigration into the spotlight during the Biden administration, highlighting the thousands of asylum seekers that have attempted to cross into the country. Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott has bused hundreds of migrants to cities like Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., straining city resources in those blue strongholds.

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Florida also saw a huge influx of migrants when hundreds of Cuban and Haitian asylum seekers landed in the Florida Keys by boats in December and January, forcing DeSantis to activate the state national guard to respond.

DeSantis has repeatedly pushed anti-immigration measures during his time in office, starting with a push for legislators to ban sanctuary cities and culminating with this years comprehensive bill.

The legislation lawmakers passed Tuesday would require medium-sized and large employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check the status of new employees and mandates hospitals to ask patients about their legal status. The bill, S.B. 1718, will also allow authorities to charge someone with human trafficking if they knowingly transport an undocumented migrant across state lines. It would also prohibit an undocumented immigrant from driving a car even if they have a drivers license from another state.

Legislators also set aside $12 million in the bill for the DeSantis administration to transport migrants from outside the state to Democratic strongholds and agreed to roll back a measure adopted in 2014 by Republicans and signed by then-Gov. Rick Scott that allowed undocumented individuals to be admitted to the Florida Bar.

DeSantis had also called on legislators to repeal a law that allows undocumented children to qualify for in-state college tuition if they attended a Florida high school for three straight years. The measure was adopted at the urging of Scott and was sponsored by Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez while she was in the state House.

Back in February, DeSantis said that if we want to hold the line on tuition, then you have got to say you need to be a U.S. citizen living in Florida. But the proposal never surfaced during the session and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo said she urged DeSantis to drop the idea for this year.

Immigration advocates and other groups strongly condemned the bill, with some even calling it racist and threatened to challenge it in court.

DeSantis political shenanigans will force every Floridian to pay a heavy price, said Paul R. Chavez, senior supervising attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund. This bill will push hundreds of thousands of people into the shadows, including U.S. citizens, putting freedom and even our states economy at risk. ... This cruel and misguided effort will negatively impact public safety and public health and cause harm to all Floridians.

Republicans, however, defended the legislation. State Rep. Berny Jacques, a Seminole Republican who immigrated from Haiti when he was a child, told Democrats that he wished they had the same energy defending American citizens.

This bill protects our citizens, Jacques said. This bill protects the people who are here legally and did it the right way. People like my family.
The Florida Forest Service was battling a fire in Volusia County Wednesday as the state issued a red flag warning because of elevated fire danger in north and central Florida.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management issued the red flag warning due to breezy and dry conditions, which can increase the danger of fires, according to a tweet.

The forest service stated in a tweet that burn authorizations of any type would not be issued Wednesday. The tweet also warned that residents who start a fire may be held liable for any damage it causes as well as the cost to extinguish it.

A red flag warning means warm temperatures, very low humidity and gusty winds are expected to combine to produce an increased risk of fire danger. https://t.co/MZpl0y2105  USA TODAY (@USATODAY) May 3, 2023

The forest service said it was battling a blaze called the Orange Hammock fire off of Shunz Road in Volusia County. The Forest Service stated the fire is 50 acres and 5% contained. Firefighters are battling the flames with seven dozers, three brush units, one airplane and two helicopters.

In a separate tweet on Tuesday the Forest Service said it had another wildfire, called the Little Haw Creek fire, 100% contained.

The #orangehammock fire in Volusia County off of Shunz Rd has increased fire activity. Multiple resources on scene working to contain. NO structures or businesses are in danger at this time. pic.twitter.com/FCGA0EGNXA  FFS Bunnell (@FFS_Bunnell) May 3, 2023

Flagler County Fire Chief Michael Tucker referred to that fire in a phone interview on Wednesday. He said it was in the area of County Road 305 and was out.

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Tucker said that Flagler County Fire Rescue responded at about noon Wednesday to a couple of recreational vehicle fires in the Mondex, also called Daytona North, in western Flagler County. He said the RVs were destroyed but there were no injuries. He said the cause had not been determined yet.

Flagler Avenue eatery gutted: Raging fire destroys popular New Smyrna Beach restaurant and bar

Tucker said that while the area received some recent rains, people should stay vigilant.

"With the sun being out right now and there being so much wind, it's drying things out fast," he said. "Unfortunately, people are letting their guard down because they think it's wet. And it's not wet."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Red flag warning in Florida as firefighters battle Volusia wildfire
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Florida lawmakers this week put the Indian River Lagoon in line for $100 million in cleanups, marking what some are calling an historic year for funding to clean up the waterway.

"It was a good year for Brevard," Rep. Thad Altman, R-Indian Harbour Beach, said.

On Monday, Florida legislative leaders tentatively agreed to a $116 billion budget that includes the $100 million in lagoon funding. The funding hinges on a final legislative vote and and Governor approval.

The lagoon funding will bring deeper, cleaner canals and lagoon tributaries; hundreds more homes converted from septic tanks to sewer systems; and hopefully more seagrass, fish and other wildlife to the ailing estuary.

Here's a breakdown of how the lagoon fared and what happens next.

Volunteers planted some 200 of the seagrass plants in clusters of three in the Thousand Islands Tuesday. They were grown by the Florida Oceanographic Society, a 57-acre marine life nature center located on Hutchinson Island in Stuart. Although seagrass transplanting isn't specifically mentioned in Florida's proposed budget, advocates hope $100 million in proposed new lagoon funding will help grow back the estuary's grass.

What are some of the bigger-ticket lagoon items in the budget?

Among the biggest ticket items in Brevard: Another $9 million for more dredging of the Grand Canal, south of Pineda Causeway. The ongoing $26.4 million project is creating deeper, cleaner canals, by dredging out decades-worth of organic muck from entrance and finger canals. Muck is formed from rotted algae, grass clippings, and silt from stormwater runoff.

A dolphin hunts for fish in the Eau Gallie River during Melbourne Police Departments Kids Fishing Clinic Saturday, March 25, 2023 in Ballard Park. The event was sponsored by the Eau Gallie Rotary Club. Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK

Another big-ticket item is the $5 million Eau Gallie NE Construction Environmental Dredging project.

According to state legislative documents, that project will remove built-up organic muck from 73 acres of the lagoon in an area northeast of the Eau Gallie Causeway. The project location has about 376,600 cubic yards of decaying muck.

You can larn more about Eau Gallie River dredging history here.

Scenes on a sunny afternoon on the Indian River Lagoon at Parrish Park in Titusville, east of the A. Max Brewer Bridge.

Will any project prevent future sewage spills in heavy storms?

Yes. The budget includes $2 million for a deep-injection well in the South Beaches. County officials have said that project could help to prevent large wastewater discharges such as the 7.2 million gallons of treated sewage piped to the Indian River Lagoon during hurricane Ian in late September by Brevard County's South Beaches plant.

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The well will increase how much volume of semi-treated wastewater the plant can store during heavy rains.

The separation tank at the Brevard Coutny South Beaches Wastewater Facility in Melbourne Beach separates the solids from the liquids.

More: Ian's impact: 7.2 million gallons of 'highly-treated' sewage spills into Indian River Lagoon

Hope Leonard shows the seagrass plants they were planting Tuesday. Restore out Shores, part of the conservation department with the Brevard Zoo, were headed out Tuesday to the south side of the Thousand Islands in Cocoa Beach to plant 200 seagrass plants. Although seagrass transplanting isn't specifically mentioned in Florida's proposed budget, advocates hope $100 million in proposed new lagoon funding will help grow back the estuary's grass.

What happens next?

The funding is including within the General Appropriations Act (GAA). The GAA is still in a cooling off period that will end Friday morning. Then the GAA will need to be voted on by the Florida Legislature and then signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis before July 1. He has veto power authority over any of the included projects.

Will the lagoon funding will survive DeSantis' veto pen?

Altman said he's confident DeSantis would spare lagoon funding from vetoes, given the Governor's stance in recent history.

"He's been very supportive of the lagoon," Altman said.

In September 2021, DeSantis turned up at Sebastian Inlet to announce more than $53 million in new Indian River Lagoon funding, with promises that state lawmakers would allocate a similar amount annually to clean up the ailing estuary.

What other significant environmental funding is happening?

Altman worked to get $2.5 million for the creation of aWetlands Restoration and Protection Grant Program. To be eligible, at least 50% cost-share shall be provided with non-state funds. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection will prioritize the projects for funding, based on those that most benefit fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, water storage, water conservation or flood prevention.

Where can I find a complete list of lagoon and other projects in the state's proposed budget?

For a complete list of Indian River Lagoon projects in the fiscal year 2023-24 General Appropriations Act, visit: https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/2500/Amendment/491144/pdf

Brevard projects (over $1 million) funded in the GAA

Grand Canal Phase 5 Environmental Dredging and Interstitial Water Treatment - $9,000,000

Eau Gallie NE Construction Environmental Dredging and Interstitial Water Treatment - $5,010,244

Indian River Lagoon, Micco/Little Hollywood Septic to Sewer (540 homes) - $4,500,000

Sykes Creek Phase 2 Environmental Dredging and Interstitial Water Treatment - $4,324,002

Palm Bay Septic to Sewer Conversions - $2,100,000

South Beaches 2nd Deep Injection Well - $2,000,000

South Brevard Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant - $1,500,000

North Brevard Water Treatment Plant Expansion and Potable Water Wells - $1,500,000

Cocoa Beach Bicentennial Park Project - $1,250,000

Cocoa Beach Gravity Sewer Rehabilitation - $1,000,000

Jim Waymer is an environment reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Waymer at 321-242-3663 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Or find him on Twitter: @JWayEnviro or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jim.waymer

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida lawmakers put Indian River Lagoon in line for $100 million in cleanup projects.
A theft, anti-Semitic tirade and an assault at a Walmart put a Lake Worth man behind bars earlier this week, deputies said.

Daniel Scanlan, 34, is facing two charges of robbery and two charges of battery on a person 65 or older, Palm Beach County jail records showed.

On Friday, Palm Beach Sheriffs Office deputies were called to a reported robbery at the Walmart, 22100 South State Road 7 in Boca Raton, officials said.

Deputies learned Scanlan hit a man from behind, took his black Yarmulke and called him a Dirty Jew K***. He then spit in the mans Yarmulke before throwing it to the ground and hitting the man, deputies said.

A woman tried to intervene but Scanlan snatched her phone and called her a c*** before throwing her to the ground, rfom which she suffered a minor cut to her elbow.

After the debacle, he drove away. On Monday, detectives arrested Scanlan. He could not be reached for comment.
Daniel C. Ball of Homosassa, Florida, at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A Florida man is charged with throwing an explosive device into a tunnel that injured police officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

Daniel C. Ball, 38, of Homosassa, was arrested on five felony counts and three misdemeanor offenses, the U.S. Department of Justice announced late Tuesday afternoon, nearly 28 months after the riot. The felonies include using fire or an explosive to commit any felony and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

In a 19-page Statement of Facts, videos from Jan. 6, 2021 showed Ball entering the Capitol building without lawful authority; stealing a piece of a window shutter from the Senate Connecting Corridor;and assaulting Metropolitan Police and U.S. Capitol Police officers.

"Ball's assaults include throwing an explosive device that detonated upon at least 25 officers, forcefully shovingagainst the officers to make entry into the Capitol, throwing a chair or table leg at the entrance, and aiding another subject by handing the subject a large pole right before that subject threw the pole at the officers," said Barry Kays, a Task Force Officer/Special Agent assigned to the FBI's Jacksonville Field Office, in the Statement of Facts.

"Balls assaultive conduct occurred at the Lower West Terrace. Balls remaining crimes occurred inside the Senate Connecting Corridor."

Suspect was on probation in Florida

Ball has been serving a five-year probation sentence stemming from a crime unrelated to the Jan. 6 attack. Citrus County sheriff's deputies arrested Ball in late April 2021, near his Florida home on charges of battery on five civilians and two law enforcement officers.

Other Florida cases: House arrest, probation for Ocala doctor who entered U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021

Jan. 6 case: Trial for East Naples man accused in Capitol mob to resume May 11, restrictions adjusted

Daniel Ball of Homosassa, Florida, charged in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. The photo at left is from the Florida Department of Corrections, the second was captured Jan. 6 at the Capitol.

He was convicted on two charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and sentenced to probation.

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Kays said he met with Ball's probation officer and showed her 14 printed still shots from video of Ball in Washington, D.C., and the Capitol on Jan. 6.

"Upon viewing the first still shot the probation officer immediately said, 'that's Daniel Ball' " Kays said in the Statement of Facts dated April 27. "Ball was identified in each still shot shown."

Probation officer ID'd Ball at Jan. 6 riot, FBI says

The probation officer then identified Ball in all 14 videos, and in a video where Ball speaks, she identified his voice, the Statement of Facts said, noting she also identified Ball wearing the same jacket she observed him wearing during probation visits.

Ball's first felony conviction was in 2014, Kays said.

Kays wrote that Ball and other rioters were outside the Capitol's Lower West Terrace Entrance and violently pushed "against fully uniformed police officers attempting to keep individuals out of the Capitol Building."

"When that attempt was unsuccessful, Ball moved back into the crowd and threw an explosive device into the entranceway."

An FBI agent's Statement of Facts includes photos and a caption in the case against Daniel Ball of Florida: "With a right-armed, overhanded throw, BALL hurled an ignited device at the officers in the tunnel." (see figures 11 and 12)

An FBI explosives examiner could not determine the size and charge of the explosive device and whether it had been homemade or commercially manufactured. However, the device "was capable of inflicting damage to surrounding property as well as seriously injuring persons in the vicinity of the resultant explosion. Several officers were injured as a result of the explosion," the explosives expert told Kays.

Capitol riot arrests: See who's been charged across the U.S.

Ball is also charged with obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder; entering or remaining on restricted grounds without lawful authority to do so while carrying or using a deadly or dangerous weapon; knowingly engaging in any act of physical violence while carrying or using a deadly or dangerous weapon; and disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds while carrying or using a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Other Jan. 6 charges include stealing government property

Other charges include misdemeanor disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; acts of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings; and stealing government property.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Divisions Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting Ball's case.

Since Jan. 6, more than 1,000 people have been arrested from nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the Capitol breach. That includes more than 320 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, federal officials said.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Florida man charged with throwing explosive device at Jan. 6 riot
A Florida suspect in the deaths of three children and their mother was fatally shot by law enforcement after an hours-long standoff at the Slumberland Motel on Wednesday in Sanford, authorities said.

Al Joseph Stetson, 38, killed the 40-year-old woman and her 21-year-old, 17-year-old and 11-year-old children in their apartment during the early morning hours on Tuesday, the Lake Wales police department said in a news statement. Law enforcement didn't learn about the deaths until 8:51 p.m. that night when family members notified authorities, the Lake Wales Police Department said in a statement.

Officials said the motive for the murders is unknown but at a news conference on Wednesday morning Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said the suspect killed "an entire family" and the woman was the girlfriend of the suspect.

Lemma said Stetson had prior run-ins with the criminal justice system and had domestic violence charges on his record.

Stetson fled around 5:30 a.m. to the Slumberland Motel in Sanford where his brother was staying, authorities said. Slumberland Motel is a daily or weekly hotel, and the brother had been staying at the motel, Sanford Police Department Chief Cecil Smith said at the Wednesday news conference.

CBS News reached out to the Slumberland Motel for comment.

Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said the suspect's car was seen parked directly across from the Slumberland Motel. Local police contacted the sheriff's department and around 6 a.m. on Wednesday, and a SWAT team arrived at the location, authorities said.

Negotiators spoke to the suspect's brother and suspect in an effort to get him to surrender, authorities said. For hours, the negotiation continued. Lemma said the suspect said the situation was going to end in three ways: "I'm going to kill myself, you are going to kill me or I'm going to surrender."

Authorities asked other motel residents to either "shelter in place" or evacuate the hotel. They eventually brought the brother to safety. Stetson put his gun on the ground, Lemma said, and negotiators deployed a "foam baton" intended to neutralize the suspect so they "could go in and apprehend him."

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As SWAT team members went in, the suspect reached for his gun, authorities said. He was "going for the gun on the ground" when law enforcement opened fire, fatally striking Stetson.

Law enforcement who shot the suspect included two members of the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, one member of the Altamonte Springs Police Department and one member of the Sanford Police Department, the sheriff said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.

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Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

A Florida woman faces two charges of battery  one a felony  after allegedly throwing a drink at the far-right Republican congressman Matt Gaetz.

The Walton county sheriff reportedly said Gaetz insisted on pressing charges. Gaetz maintained he was justified in doing so, saying 41-year-old Selena Jo Chambers cross[ed] the Rubicon beyond just words to throwing stuff.

Related: AOC says Feinsteins refusal to retire is causing great harm to US courts

A previous case of a drink being thrown at Gaetz resulted in a woman being sent to prison.

In 2019, Amanda Kondratyev, then 35 and a former political opponent of Gaetz, received a 15-day prison sentence for throwing a slushie at her rival.

That beverage-blitzing brouhaha happened at an Open Gaetz public event at a restaurant in Pensacola appropriately named the Brew Ha Ha.

The alleged case involving Chambers happened at the South Walton Beaches food and wine festival on Saturday night.

According to the Pensacola News Journal, Chambers told police she was walking and tripped and spilled her drink on Gaetz, though she recognised Gaetz before spilling her drink on him.

The sheriff said Chambers cursed Gaetz before throwing her drink, which hit the congressman and another person. A woman with Chambers said she was the one who cursed.

Gaetz is a prominent ally of Donald Trump. He recently played a leading role in a rightwing rebellion that forced the California Republican Kevin McCarthy through 15 votes before he was confirmed as US House speaker.

On his podcast on Tuesday, Gaetz said that he had been enjoying catching up with new friends and old, and folks recognised me, and we were taking pictures and having polite conversations. As I was chatting with one gentleman, a lady threw a drink on the both of us.

Defending the decision to press charges, he said: If we start allowing stuff to be thrown or hurled, if we allow people to be harmed, there is a severe risk of escalation and accident.

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And we dont want to see anyone in harms way, whether its family members, supporters or even our detractors. We want them to be safe too.

But when they really cross the Rubicon beyond just words to throwing stuff and striking me and striking a gentleman I was speaking with, with a drink, then that has really caused harm to our community. And its something that we want to contain and extinguish and not see going forward.

In 2019, at his assailants trial, Gaetz said: I come not for any vengeance or retribution, but for the safety of the constituents who attend our public events.

In addition to her 15-day prison sentence, Kondratyev  a mother of two  got a year of supervised probation and was fined $500.

A press release from Gatez about Chambers alleged attack said: I will never allow the safety of north-west Floridians to be comprised.

He also called Chambers a registered Democrat and self-described member of the resistance to Trump and his far-right supporters.

Chambers was booked with one count each of misdemeanor battery and battery on an elected official. The latter is a felony.
Southwestern Illinois stargazers have plenty to look forward to in May, including a festive full moon and a chance to potentially see meteors.

The flower moon will peak at 12:34 p.m. Friday and will appear full from early Thursday morning to early Sunday morning, according to NASA.

As usual, the wearing of suitably celebratory celestial attire is encouraged in honor of the full Moon, NASAs website says. Enjoy the flowers of spring!

If youre hoping to catch a glimpse of the flower moon while it appears full and its dark enough to shine, Saturday night might be your best bet according to the National Weather Service St. Louis forecast.

Belleville and Swansea area residents have a 20% chance of seeing showers Saturday night, with a low around 56 degrees and partly cloudy skies, the NWS reports. Thunderstorms are possible Thursday night and Friday night.

Heres what to know about the flower moon and more upcoming sights to see in the night sky.

Where does the flower moon get its name?

The name flower moon is attributed to the Algonquin peoples, according to the Old Farmers Almanac. As you might expect, it celebrates the flowers blooming across North America in early May.

Mays full moon also goes by these names, according to NASA:

Corn or corn planting moon

Milk moon (old English name)

Hares moon

Vesak or Buddha Purnima (Vesak is a Buddhist holiday.)

Full moons, meteors in 2023

Heres the rest of this years full moon calendar, with information from Space.com:

June 3: Strawberry moon

July 3: Buck supermoon

Aug. 1: Sturgeon supermoon

Aug. 30: Blue supermoon (appears biggest and brightest of the year)

Sept. 29: Harvest supermoon

Oct. 28: Hunters moon

Nov. 27: Beaver moon

Dec. 26: Cold moon

These moons have multiple names, and many come from Indigenous cultures. The Old Farmers Almanac uses Indigenous moon names, along with monikers from colonial America and other North American sources.

In addition to the flower moon, there will also be a meteor shower in May. The Eta Aquarid shower began activity April 19, will peak May 6 and will end around May 28, according to Astronomy.com.

The flower moons peak is expected to interfere with the meteor shower, so its possible only the brightest meteors will be visible. Astronomy.com recommends observing in the early mornings during the first few days of May.
China's green exports further propel foreign trade growth

Xinhua) 09:26, May 03, 2023

People look at a Hongqi electric vehicle at the Swedish eCarExpo 2023 in Stockholm, Sweden, on Feb. 3, 2023. (Photo by Wei Xuechao/Xinhua)

BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- In China's pursuit of high-quality and low-carbon development, apparel, home appliances and furniture have given way to three tech-intensive green products as the top drivers of China's foreign trade.

The new "three major ones," namely solar batteries, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles, registered a 66.9 percent increase in the first quarter of this year, official data showed. Together they contributed 2 percentage points to the overall export growth, up from 1.7 percentage points for 2022.

"China's foreign trade growth in Q1 is mainly buoyed by new energy-related exports," said Zhou Maohua, an analyst with the China Everbright Bank.

This expansion is even more significant considering it continued whopping growth in 2022 as exports of electric vehicles, photovoltaic (PV) products and lithium-ion batteries hiked 131.8 percent, 67.8 percent and 86.7 percent, respectively.

Customs data also showed that the exports were sent to over 200 countries and regions across the globe in Q1, with their top five markets showing growth rates of over 80 percent. The top five markets were the European Union, the United States, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom.

Global buyers thronged the booths of these products at the 133rd Canton Fair, which opened on April 15 in the southern city of Guangzhou. New-energy vehicles from companies like Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor and SAIC GM Wuling enjoyed new orders and avid inquiries from overseas clients within the first days of the event.

Low-carbon products went on to steal much of the limelight in the second phase of the Canton Fair from April 23 to 27, with some items selling for over 1 million dollars in a single deal, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

A symbol of China's improved trade structure and high-quality trade growth, the rising presence of green exports over the past decade also revealed the competitive edge and potential of their respective sectors, analysts say.

China's technological advantage in making quality electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and solar batteries, coupled with the growing global demand for low-carbon products, made China an important supplier for many economies, said Hong Yong, an e-commerce expert with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

The quality of Chinese new-energy vehicles (NEVs), for example, has been increasingly praised by foreign buyers, including those from Germany, Japan and Australia, according to an executive of Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor at the Canton Fair.

The expanding production capacity in these sectors has also bolstered exports. Official data showed that in the first two months, total output of lithium-ion batteries jumped 24 percent year on year, while major products of the PV sector logged growth rates of around 60 percent. In March, NEV production surged by 44.8 percent from a year earlier to about 674,000 units.

In the near future, analysts say green exports will remain an engine for high-quality growth, thanks to a nurturing policy environment and continued investment.

China has vowed to consolidate the foundation of self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and to cement and expand the advantages in NEV development, according to a leadership meeting in late April.

The country's investment in high-tech industries continued to outpace overall growth. In Q1, investment in high-tech manufacturing and high-tech service sectors expanded by 15.2 percent and 17.8 percent, respectively, year on year.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
Bibb County sheriffs deputies arrested a former local corrections officer last week after he reportedly gave a gun to a gang member in Macon, officials said.

The Bibb County Sheriffs Office charged Kendrell Daimon Daniely, 24, with violation of oath by a public officer April 24 after he allegedly gave a gun to his brother, a known gang member, in December, according to an arrest warrant obtained by the Telegraph.

Daniely was a jailer at the Bibb Law Enforcement Center downtown at the time, Georgia POST records show. Investigators allege he gave his brother Jayshawn Daniely a gun after a social media search in December revealed that he had given him a rod, the warrant said.

Daniely knew he was providing a rifle to a gang member, investigators said in the report, and had admitted in a prior interview that his brothers belonged to the Macon gang FourKG Crip.

It was unclear in the warrant when exactly Daniely allegedly gave Jayshawn the gun, as the investigation was still underway, but the social media search resulted from misconduct at the LEC, according to an incident report. The warrant did not state what type of rifle Daniely allegedly gave to his brother.

Daniely worked for Bibb County in the jail from June of 2021 to March of this year, the sheriffs office told the Telegraph. He voluntarily resigned March 6 and was employed by the Henry County Police Department as a peace officer that same day, according to Danielys employment record with Georgia POST.

Deputies arrested Daniely without incident at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth April 24, according to an incident report. He was questioned in Macon before he was taken to jail and charged.
A US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon in a training sortie in Germany on September 9, 2015. US Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jason Robertson/Released

Ukraine has repeatedly asked the US for fourth-generation fighter jets, like the F-16.

But air-combat experts have said that these aircraft would have little battlefield impact.

A former F-16 pilot said these jets don't have a fighting chance given Russia's air-defense systems.

Ukrainian officials have long pressed their Western military backers to send them modern fighter jets, arguing Kyiv needs the airpower to best the invading Russian forces. While some in the West agree, others say fighter aircraft like the ones Ukraine wants wouldn't stand a chance in the current threat environment.

There have been repeated requests for the delivery of American-made F-16s, leading to debates about how effective the fourth-generation planes would be in the skies. One former F-16 pilot told Insider he wouldn't want to fly missions over Ukraine right now, saying that the aircraft can't outmatch Russia's air-defense systems.

Fourth-generation fighters "have no business in a modern-day battlefield," John Venable, a 25-year veteran of the US Air Force, told Insider in a recent interview.

Since the early days of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has sought fighter jets from its Western allies to supplement its diminishing fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters, which arguably cannot compete against Russia's superior air force.

California and Alabama Air National Guard crews replacing an Air Data Controller on an F-16 at Mirgorod Air Base on July 25, 2011. US Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Charles Vaughn

Kyiv has asked Washington on numerous occasions for American fighter jets like F-15s, F/A-18s, and F-16s, Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, told Congress in late February, but the Biden administration has punted on the request, insisting that aircraft like the F-16 are not what Ukraine needs.

Some lawmakers and military officials have pressed the Pentagon to send F-16s to Ukraine, and one retired US Air Force colonel said he believed the jets would help give Ukraine an edge over Russia above the battlefield.

But other air-warfare experts and officials have said that providing F-16s to Ukraine would be too much of a heavy lift for Kyiv's military, arguing that in addition to the demands of establishing key maintenance and support facilities, these fighter jets would struggle to survive in the present threat environment and provide little impact on the grinding conflict.

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As Insider previously reported, Gen. James Hecker, the commander of US Air Forces in Europe, said earlier this year that jets just aren't needed right now. "The Russian, as well as the Ukrainian success in integrated air and missile defense, have made much of those aircraft worthless," he added.

F-16 fighters would likely be outmatched by Russian air-defense systems

The airspace above Ukraine remains contested after 14 months of war. But Russia has enjoyed a numerically larger air force, stronger technical capabilities in its fighter jets, and long-range surface-to-air missile systems, according to a recent report on Russian airpower published by the Center for Naval Analyses.

The capable SAM systems "have proven extremely lethal" against Ukrainian aircraft and are the "primary killer" of Ukrainian jets, helicopters, and drones, the report notes.

A Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 at a military airbase in Ukraine on November 23, 2016. Danil Shamkin/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Fourth- and fourth-plus-generation fighter jets  like the F-16  that lack stealth features are "completely outmatched in high-threat environments" because of advanced air-defense systems like Russia's S-400, argued Venable, a veteran and senior research fellow for defense policy at The Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.

In a commentary published on the think tank's website last month, Venable wrote that the F-16 was not suited for Ukraine's air force for several reasons, including that the S-400 could outsmart the F-16's targeting systems and that it could target the fighter jets before they're in range to fire weapons like Small Diameter Bombs.

"Giving Ukraine more MiG-29s will not help the battlefield. And even if we gave them modern F-16s  I would say more modern F-16s  it's not going to change or influence the battlefield in a year, much less in time for a spring offensive," he told Insider in an interview this week, referring to Ukraine's much-anticipated counteroffensive.

Venable said that when he was flying F-16s over Europe earlier in his career as a pilot, his aircraft had solid jamming pods that worked against threats posed by the SA-6 and SA-11 Soviet-era SAM systems. He said that he would have felt comfortable going up against the integrated Soviet air defenses in the 1980s and 1990s knowing he was backed by HARM targeting systems designed to take those on.

An S-400 missile launching from the Ashuluk military base in southern Russia on September 22, 2020 DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images

"The threat would've been high. There would've been a good possibility that I would've been shot down, but also at least an equal possibility that I could have made it to the target, hit my target, and then I drop successfully and then egress safely from the battlefield," Venable said.

But there's since been a "whole leap in capabilities" from those to the current Russian SAM systems that have evolved over time. "I had a fighting chance back then," he said. "Today, there is no fighting chance."

Though sending F-16s to Ukraine does not currently appear to be on the table, the US could instead train the Ukrainian air force on how to use the fighter jets and bring it up to Western standards, Venable said. In other words, the US could get the Ukrainians oriented toward Western calibration  learning about the specific technology, logistical supply lines, maintenance, hydraulic systems, and fighter tactics.

"The end-game goal of that would not be for them to employ F-16s in combat. It would be for them to be spun up in a Western standard  a NATO standard, if you will  to where when they are able to fleet up to a fifth-generation platform, then that step will be a much more simple one for them to take," he said.

Although questions remain as to whether the US will eventually send advanced fighter jets to Ukraine, NATO countries like Poland and Slovakia have already committed to sending MiG-29s to Kyiv.

"Proud to be on the right side, doing the right thing to help protect #lives," Jaro Nad, Slovakia's defense minister, wrote on social media in mid-April after all of the jets that his country promised Ukraine were delivered to Kyiv's air force. "We Stand w/Ukraine."

Read the original article on Business Insider
A former FBI supervisory agent has been charged by federal authorities on allegations that he joined a mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, calling police officers Nazis and encouraging rioters to kill them.

Jared L. Wise, 50, the former agent, was arrested Monday and charged with four misdemeanor counts related to his actions, including trespassing and disrupting the orderly conduct of government.

According to a criminal complaint, Wise told police officers at the Capitol, You guys are disgusting  you are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo.

The complaint alleges that when violence against the officers started, Wise told rioters to kill em!

It also includes supposed photos of Wise among the rioters in the Capitol, wearing a mask, blue jacket and a dark backpack, and claims that Wise exited the building through a window at approximately 2:32 p.m ET.

Law enforcement was tipped off about the former agents appearance at the Capitol by an anonymous source, the complaint said, and found that he most recently lived in Bend, Ore., after living in Texas.

Wise worked on counterterrorism in the FBI in its New York field office from 2004 to 2017, according to The New York Times. He briefly investigated the attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead in 2012.

He left the FBI after supervisors became unhappy with his work, the Times reported.

The arrest of Wise continues the Justice Departments investigation and arrests into those who stormed the Capitol.

The probe has resulted in more than 1,000 arrests to date. But the arrest of Wise is one of just a few current and former law enforcement officers who have faced charges in connection to the riot  at least 20 officers have been charged, according to USA Today.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former President Donald Trump lashed out at an NBC reporter following a March campaign rally after getting frustrated with the reporters line of questioning, according to reports.

Dont ask me any more questions, Trump said after journalist Vaughn Hillyard suggested Trump seemed frustrated by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs investigation, according to a recording obtained by Vanity Fair and the Washington Post.

The interaction further escalated after Hillyard continued to ask questions about the investigation, revolving about Trumps Truth Social posts where the former president warned there would be potential death and destruction if he was indicted.

I dont want to talk to you, Trump told Hillyard. Do you hear me? Youre not a nice guy, Trump added when Hillyard tried to ask another question, turning to take a question from another reporter, according to Vanity Fair.

After Hillyards third attempt to get an answer, Trump told aides Alright, lets go, get him out of here  Outta here. Outta here. During that interaction Trump also grabbed Hillyards two phones and tossed them aside.

The incident occurred aboard Trumps plane following his March 25 campaign rally in Waco, Texas, days before the former president was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money payments to two women.

Trump was later charged with 34 felony counts for falsifying New York business records through a "catch and kill" scheme designed to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity before the 2016 election. He pleaded not guilty during his April 4 arraignment.

Takeaways: Donald Trump was arrested Tuesday. What you need to know about the arraignment and charges

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump demanded NBC reporter be removed: 'Get him out of here'
WASHINGTON  Steve Bannon appealed Wednesday his four-month sentence for contempt of Congress by arguing he wasn't allowed to explain his reasons for defying a House subpoena at trial, which his lawyer said violated his 5th and 6th Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Bannon was convicted in July 2022 of defying a subpoena for documents and testimony to the House committee investigating the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. He remains free while appealing the case.

His lawyer, David Schoen, told a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that former President Donald Trump invoked executive privilege on Oct. 5, 2021, to block Bannon's testimony, to keep their communications confidential. And Schoen argued that Bannon relied on advice of his lawyer, Robert Costello, who argued Bannon couldn't waive Trump's assertion of executive privilege.

Schoen argued the trial judge was mistaken in preventing Bannon from presenting evidence about executive privilege and his lawyer's advice, in violation of constitutional protections against self-incrimination and for a fair trial.

"The lower court erred by prohibiting Mr. Bannon from putting his defenses before the jury in this case, in violation of his rights under the 5th and 6th Amendments to the United States Constitution," Schoen said.

The Justice Department's reply is due June 2.

Here is what we know about the case:

October 21, 2022: Former Trump White House senior advisor Steve Bannon speaks to the media as he arrives at federal court to be sentenced in Washington, DC. Prosecutors have recommended six months in jail and pay a fine of $200,000 for Bannon, who was found guilty by a federal jury of two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to turn over documents or be interviewed by the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Why was Bannon charged?

The committee sought to question Bannon, a political strategist for Trump, in part because he told associates from China on Oct. 31, 2020, Trump would falsely declare victory even if he lost the election and said it would be a firestorm.

In a podcast, Bannon said former Vice President Mike Pence spit the bit, meaning he was no longer supporting Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which the committee described as amplifying the pressure on Pence.

Bannon called Trump at least twice on Jan. 5, 2021.

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President Donald Trump with Elon Musk, center, and Steve Bannon at a White House meeting with business leaders in 2017.

What did prosecutors argue?

Prosecutors argued at Bannons trial that he flouted the committees authority and ignored its subpoenas demands.

While the case was pending, Bannon wielded courthouse press conferences and his War Room podcast in a public display of his disregard for government processes and the law, prosecutors said.

But Schoen argued Bannon did nothing wrong in promoting his political beliefs.

An image of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is displayed on a screen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public hearing to reveal the findings of a year-long investigation, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, June 9, 2022, in Washington.

Was anyone else charged?

The House voted to hold four people in contempt and urged the Justice Department to charge them criminally for defying subpoenas. Besides Bannon, the others were:

Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to Trump, who discussed ways to overturn the election results, awaits trial on charges of contempt of Congress. Trump has asserted executive privilege to keep their conversations confidential.

Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff, who helped Trump organize his rally on Jan. 6 and coordinated efforts to challenge 2020 election results, wasnt charged.

Dan Scavino, former White House deputy chief of staff for communications, who coordinated Trumps social media, wasnt charged.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Steve Bannon appeals contempt of Congress conviction in Jan. 6 case
This June 14, 2018, file photo shows an FBI seal on a podium before a news conference at the agencys headquarters in Washington. | Jose Luis Magana, Associated Press

Fifteen years ago, Christopher Burns was a junior high ministry leader for a megachurch in Georgia. Now, hes on the FBIs Most Wanted list.

His path from the former position to the latter goes through the financial services industry, where he worked after he left his youth pastor job.

The FBI alleges that Burns, while working as an investment adviser, set up a self-benefitting investment fraud scheme and ultimately bilked his investors out of millions of dollars.

Burns obtained then violated the trust of his clients to fund his lavish lifestyle, said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan in an April 12 press release. He betrayed investors and stole their savings with promises of safe investments that would yield high rates of return.

On April 11, Burns, 40, was charged with 10 counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud and four counts of money laundering, according to the release. Hed previously been charged with just a single count of mail fraud.

Where is Christopher Burns?

In their announcement of the new charges, law enforcement officials reiterated calls for the public to help locate Burns, who has been on the run since September 2020.

At the time of his disappearance, Burns lived in Berkeley Lake, Georgia, which is located about 25 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. His car was later found abandoned in Dunwoody, Georgia, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Burns was last seen by his ex-wife and children. They are not believed to have known about the financial fraud while it was taking place, the Roys Report noted in its coverage of the case.

I have no idea who I was living with, said Meredith Burns to WSB-TV in 2021.

Meredith and Christopher Burns met in eighth grade while serving together on a mission trip, according to the Roys Report. They married in 2002 while still students at a Christian college in Indiana and later moved to Georgia, where Christopher Burn continued his youth ministry career.

Around 2011, Burns transitioned away from ministry into financial services work. Hes accused of gradually creating a Ponzi scheme through which he could personally benefit from trusting investors.

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Investors were promised that their money would be loaned to businesses that needed financing and with little to no risk. In some cases, Burns falsely described the investments as secured by the protection of collateral and personal guarantees. In other cases, he falsely claimed that he would pool investors money to lend it to startup businesses and charities. But in reality, he used investors money to repay prior investors and to fund his business and his lavish lifestyle, the April 12 press release said.

FBI search continues

Burns disappeared soon after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating his work. In the years since his disappearance, these investigations continued, resulting in the new charges filed last month.

Keri Farley, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta, said in the April 12 press release that the FBI remains committed to locating Burns and holding him accountable for his actions.

Financial crimes of this nature can cause significant disruptions to the lives of those who are victimized, and the FBI is dedicated to holding these criminals accountable, she said.

Farley continued, The FBI is still seeking the publics help in locating Burns and will continue to pursue him no matter how long he tries to evade the law.
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After more than five decades and over 150 million albums sold, Aerosmith has announced it will embark on its last tour later this year. Its not goodbye, its PEACE OUT, the band said in a statement . Get ready and walk this way, youre going to get the best show of our lives.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, Aerosmith had humble beginnings and can trace its earliest days to a tiny, roach-ridden apartment in Bostons Allston neighborhood. Heres how Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford, and Joey Kramer formed one of the nations most successful rock bands.

Kind of Loud and Obnoxious

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Tyler and Perry first met in the summer of 1966 while Perry was working part-time at a hamburger restaurant on the harbor in Sunapee, New Hampshire. Tyler, then still going by his birth name Steven Tallarico, visited with members of his rock band Chain Reaction, and they trashed the place.

They were kind of loud and obnoxious and kind of big fish in a small pond, so to speak, Perry told Radio.com . Theyre not rock stars yet, but theyre playing the part, and they made a mess of the table and had a food fight, and I ended up having to clean up after it.

Three years later, in August 1969, Tyler saw Perry again when he and a friend, future Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer, met a drug dealer at a nightclub in Sunapee called The Barn. Perry was performing there as part of his Jam Band trio, with future Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton.

Perry said the Jam Band didnt particularly care if their guitars were in tune, and Hamilton said it didnt matter to them whether the notes were right, according to an Aerosmith biography by Richard Bienstock. All they cared about was playing loud and fast, Hamilton said, and that energy made a strong impression with Tyler.

When I first saw these guys, they were terrible, Tyler said, according to Bienstock. They werent in tune, and they werent in time, but they did [Peter Greens] Rattlesnake Shake, and there was a fing energy that all the bands Id been in before couldnt do ever. What was shining through was the core of Aerosmith.

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Renting the Aerosmith Apartment

Although Tyler and Perry briefly discussed the idea of forming a band together some day, that didnt come to fruition for another year. Tyler had been living in Yonkers, New York, and started to feel burnt out by the grueling club circuit scene with Chain Reaction, for which he was both playing drums and providing backup vocals.

I remember being at the end of my rope, Tyler said, according to Bienstock. I was drumming, and [one night] I jumped over the drum set and really got into a fistfight with the guitar player. Things just werent happening. I split, packed my suitcase, and headed up to New Hampshire, where Joe was playing in his band.

Although they toured frequently, Perry and Hamilton were living in Boston, renting a roach-ridden two-bedroom apartment at 1325 Commonwealth Avenue, now known as the Aerosmith Apartment. Every room turned into a party room, Perry said in his 2014 memoir Rocks, and the narrow hallway was so filled with amps and equipment that people had to walk sideways to enter the bathroom.

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In October 1970, Perry and Hamilton took a hippie van to Sunapee for a party at a lake house, where they ran into Tyler again, according to Rocks. When Tyler heard about their place in Boston and that they were trying to get a band together, he wanted to audition but insisted he didnt want to play drums and would only consider a frontman and lead vocalist spot.

At the time he was playing drums and singing, and he wasnt satisfied with that, Perry said, according to Bienstock. Steven felt like getting up there and shaking his ass, singing. Tyler moved into the Boston apartment, and the duo found Perrys energy and penchant for mayhem mixed well with Tylers perfectionism and interest in arrangements.

Steven was very taken with Joes fire, Hamilton said, according to Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith by Stephen Davis. It was a case of two very kindred spirits getting together, and all you could do was stand there and watch in awe.

Finalizing the Band

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Tyler insisted on bringing his childhood friend Ray Tabano into the band as a second guitarist. Perry, accustomed to a power trio format, was reluctant but agreed as a compromise after Tyler, who was not particularly impressed with Hamiltons musical skills, agreed to let Hamilton stay on as bass player, according to Bienstock.

The band operated out of Perrys Commonwealth Avenue apartment during its early days, where they wrote music, rehearsed, and got high while watching reruns of The Three Stooges . Kramer came aboard as drummer, and Brad Whitford replaced Tabano as guitarist by 1971.

It was Kramer who came up with the name Aerosmith, a phrase he used to write on the pages of his textbooks in high school. He couldnt remember how he came up with it, but he thought it would be a cool name for a rock band one day, according to Rolling Stone .

No way, Tyler initially thought, according to the magazine. That was just some book that they made you read in high school, mistaking it for the classic Sinclair Lewis novel Arrowsmith (1925). When Kramer corrected them that it had nothing to do with that bookand it was spelled a-e-r-o-smiththe other bandmates reluctantly came around to the name.

After finalizing their lineup in 1971, the band started generating some success through live shows and released its debut album Aerosmith in 1973, with the single Dream On reaching the Billboard charts. That marked the start of a string of multiplatinum albums including Get Your Wings (1974), Toys in the Attic (1975), and Rocks (1976).

As of Monday when Aerosmith announced its worldwide farewell tour, the band has been playing together for more than 50 years and has released 15 studio albums. Aerosmith is estimated to have sold more than 150 million records worldwide and have had 21 Billboard Top 40 hits, including Sweet Emotion, Walk This Way, and I Dont Want to Miss a Thing.
Even though Fortnite was exiled from Apple and Google's mobile app stores years ago, there are still ways for you to play the all-conquering battle royale on your phone or tablet, thanks to the likes of Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now. Starting today, Fortnite will also be available on another cloud gaming service. It has dropped on Amazon Luna just in time for the latest Star Wars crossover.

There's one major caveat, though. Fortnite is available for free through Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now, but you'll need to pay to play it on Amazon Luna. You can access it if you have an Amazon Prime or Luna+ subscription. It's worth noting, however, that GeForce Now users on the free tier have a one-hour time limit per session.

This is your fight now. @FortniteGame welcome to Luna 



Play #FortniteOnLuna with Prime or a Luna+ Subscription: https://t.co/NQWgjqYqK8 pic.twitter.com/0mHoOl2ysU  Amazon Luna (@amazonluna) May 3, 2023

Whichever cloud gaming service you use to play Fortnite, you'll need to sign in to an Epic Games account. Youll have access to all the cosmetics you've unlocked on other platforms. You'll be able to level up your battle pass while you're away from your PC or console too.

Fortnite has been the most requested game from Luna customers in the US and were thrilled to bring the title to the service, Amazon devices and services vice president Daniel Rausch told The Verge in a statement. Amazon confirmed to Engadget that Fortnite is also available on Luna in Canada, Germany and the UK after the service recently opened up in those countries.

This seems like more of a value add for existing Prime Gaming and Luna+ members to save them from switching to another service to play Fortnite, rather than a way to encourage new users to sign up. On Luna's Prime Gaming Channel, Amazon Prime members get access to a rotating selection of games at no extra cost (though Fortnite will remain there indefinitely). There are several notable games on Luna+ as well, including the likes of Control, Alien Isolation, Devil May Cry 5, the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes and Batman: Arkham Knight. There's a seven-day free trial available, after which Luna+ costs $10 per month.

Update 5/3/2023 12:04PM ET: Clarifying that Fortnite will be available indefinitely on Luna for Prime members as well as Luna+ subscribers.
The four people gunned down in a mass shooting in Mojave were identified Wednesday by the Kern County Coroners Office.

Mojave residents Martina Barraza Jr., 33, Anna Marie Hester, 34, and Darius Travon Canada, 31, were pronounced dead after deputies arrived to the scene, the coroner said in a news release.

Faith Leighanne Rose Asbury, 20, of California City was also shot at the same location but died later at Antelope Valley Hospital, the coroner said.

All four were shot in the upper body before midnight Sunday on H Street west of Highway 14 and south of Oak Creek Road in Mojave, investigators have said.

The Kern County Sheriffs Office have not released many details in the mass shooting case.

Investigators said they were called to a dirt lot about 11:20 p.m. Sunday after a report of multiple people who were shot.

No information on exactly what happened has been released by the Kern County Sheriffs Office. Investigators said Tuesday they were asking for help from the public to find information.

The sheriffs office recognizes the gravity of this situation and is working to ensure the investigation is thorough, lawful and factual, the office said in a Tuesday news release. We are committed to releasing details for transparency while balancing the need to protect the integrity of the investigation.

Investigators have not released any info on a potential suspect.

It is the 19th mass killing of 2023, the most through the end of April of any year since at least 2006, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. A mass killing is defined as the slaying of four or more people other than the assailant.

A city with a population of 3,600, Mojave is along a rail line at an intersection of two state highways on the western side of the Mojave Desert about 70 miles north of Los Angeles.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
The baby fox was left a little dirty from its ordeal

A fox cub has been rescued by firefighters after it became trapped in an underground pipe.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said crews helped to dig the wild animal out after officers were called to Turner Road, Colchester at 12:36 BST on Monday, after a call from the RSPCA.

Its Urban Search and Rescue team used a camera to find out where it was.

The cub was freed by 13:55 and was left in the care of the animal charity.

Fire crews dug a hole and removed earth to get to the wild animal

In reference to the song What Does The Fox Say?, the service joked on social media, that after its rescue the cub said: "Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding, Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!"

Everyone involved in the rescue looked pleased with the happy outcome

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story for us, email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk
PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron's deeply unpopular pension law passed another hurdle on Wednesday when the Constitutional Council rejected a second bid by political opponents to hold a referendum on capping the retirement age at 62.

Macron defied fierce trade union opposition and weeks of sometimes violent protests against his plan to raise the retirement age by two years to 64, ramming the legislation through parliament without a final vote and signing it into law last month.

The council said in a statement that the proposed referendum did not meet the legal criteria as defined in the constitution.

Since Macron bypassed parliament, opposition lawmakers have turned to the Constitutional Council twice in an attempt to derail the reform, seeking its approval on each occasion for a referendum on the retirement age.

The council's role was to decide whether the opposition's request met the legal conditions for a referendum.

A first attempt had already been struck down, partly because the pension bill had yet to be enacted and the proposed referendum would not have led to a change in the law.

Macron says the French must work longer or else the pension budget will fall billions of euros into the red each year by the end of the decade.

But the pension system is a cornerstone of France's cherished social protection model and labour unions say the money can be found elsewhere, including by taxing the rich more heavily.

Unions, and the opposition, will now turn their attention to a nationwide day of protests scheduled for June 6, two days before lawmakers discuss an opposition motion to annul the pension legislation.

While attention has focused on the retirement age of 62, only 36% of French workers retire at that age and another 36% already retire older on account of requirements to pay into the system for longer to be able to claim a full pension.

Nonetheless, French pension payments as a share of pre-retirement earnings are substantially higher than elsewhere, OECD figures show.

Opinion polls show a vast majority of voters reject the new law.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Christina Fincher)
A dispute between two orchard workers turned violent this week, landing one man in jail on attempted murder allegations.

Investigators believe Omar E. Zuniga, 40, of Othello, was drunk when he started arguing with his co-worker about 9 a.m. Tuesday at an orchard north of Basin City.

At some point he picked up a tree branch and struck the other worker, Franklin County Sheriff Commander Monty Huber told the Herald.

The victim was not seriously hurt but when Zuniga tried to leave, other employees blocked his way. Zuniga allegedly responded by pulling out a gun and pointing it at two of his co-workers.

He then fled before Franklin County deputies arrived. Detectives asked for other police agencies to keep an eye out for Zunigas car.

A short time later, a license plate reader device in Adams County detected the car, Huber said.

Franklin County deputies, with the help of the Adams County Sheriffs Office, found the car at a home in Othello. Zuniga was found there and arrested.

He was booked into the Franklin County jail on investigation of two counts of attempted second-degree murder, misdemeanor assault and five counts of using a gun to intimidate people.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Detective Ramona Bolanos at 509-545-3501
A man was shot outside the Degraff Hall dorm on Florida State University's campus just after midnight on April 29, sparking a campus wide alert and shelter in place order.

Florida State Universitys Police Department is announcing the arrest of a 17-year-old male connected to Saturday's shooting that took place in the Degraff Hall parking lot on FSUs campus.

The suspect  who has been warranted with two counts of attempted second degree murder  is being held in the Leon County Juvenile Detention Facility and is said to have no affiliation to FSU, according to the police department's report.

Previous coverage: Late night shooting outside FSU dorm injures one, leads to campus 'shelter in place' order

The arrest comes after an incident just after midnight at the parking lot, located on 808 W. Tennessee St., where police investigators say the victim and the suspect were in the middle of an argument that escalated to the suspect and a group of other individuals physically attacking the victim.

After pulling out a handgun, the suspect began shooting and shot the victim, who was later taken to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital in stable condition before being released Saturday morning, according to an FSU spokesperson.

The suspect, however, left the scene in an unknown vehicle following the shooting. Since he is a juvenile, he has not been publicly identified by FSUPD.

A man was shot outside the Degraff Hall dorm on Florida State University's campus just after midnight on April 29, sparking a campus wide alert and shelter in place order.

The incident also prompted a campus-wide safety alert and shelter in place order to be sent out, urging students and other individuals to remain in their current area in order to wait for further instructions.

Among the many individuals who went on social media to figure out what happened, a Twitter user posted a tweet saying that they heard the gunshots right outside my apartment coming from the Degraff lot.

The residence hall on FSU's campus where the incident occurred is a 5-story facility that houses up to 700 students.

A Tallahassee Democrat analysis of gun violence shows that the shooting is the 25th one this year in the capital city and county, with three people killed and at least 24 injured as a result.

FSUPD encourages anyone with additional information or anyone who has witnessed the recent incident to contact its Investigations Unit at (850) 644-1234.

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Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on twitter @tarahjean_.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Suspect arrested following connections to FSU Degraff Hall shooting
The Federal Trade Commission is looking to crack down on Meta's use of young users data after an independent assessor found the company failed to comply with a 2020 privacy order.

The FTC on Wednesday said it is proposing changes to the privacy order that would prohibit Meta, Facebook's parent company, from profiting from data from users under 18. The action comes after an assessor found "several gaps and weaknesses" in the company's privacy program that "pose substantial risks to the public."

Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises, Samuel Levine, director of the FTCs bureau of consumer protection, said in a news release. The companys recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures.

Meta spokesperson Thomas Richards argued that the company has "spent vast resources building and implementing an industry-leading privacy program under the terms of our FTC agreement."

Facebook unveiled their new Meta sign at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on Oct. 28, 2021.

What does the FTCs proposal say?

The proposed changes to the 2020 order would apply to various Meta brands, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus and would:

Bar Meta and its entities from monetizing data from children and teens under 18.

Pause the launch of new products and services without written confirmation from an assessor that Meta's privacy program is in full compliance with the order.

Require any companies Meta acquires or merges with to comply with the order.

Require Meta to obtain user consent for any use future uses of facial recognition technology.

Strengthen privacy program provisions from the 2020 order.

The FTC has also asked Meta to respond to allegations that the company from late 2017 through mid-2019 misled parents about who their children can communicate with through the Messenger Kids app.

While parents were told children using Messenger Kids could only communicate with contacts approved by their guardian, the FTC alleges that users could communicate with unapproved contacts in group text changes and group video calls. The FTC says this misrepresentation violates a previous FTC order from 2012, the FTC Act and the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, which says entities that operate websites and online services directed to children under 13 must obtain parental consent before collecting children's personal information.

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Meta's history with the FTC

This is the FTC's third time taking action against Meta for allegedly failing to protect users privacy.

In 2012, the commission secured an order prohibiting the company from misrepresenting its privacy practices.

Meta agreed to a second FTC order in 2019 following the FTC's investigation around the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The order, which took effect in 2020, required the company to pay a record-breaking $5 billion penalty to settle charges that it violated a 2012 FTC order by deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information.

The latest action from the FTC alleges that Meta violated the 2020 order and the COPPA Rule.

Meta was also fined about $400 million by Ireland's data privacy regulator last year for mishandling children's data on Instagram.

Metas response

Meta spokesperson Richards called the proposal a political stunt.

"Despite three years of continual engagement with the FTC around our agreement, they provided no opportunity to discuss this new, totally unprecedented theory," Richards said. "Lets be clear about what the FTC is trying to do: usurp the authority of Congress to set industrywide standards and instead single out one American company while allowing Chinese companies, like TikTok, to operate without constraint on American soil. "

Richards also noted that Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya released a statement questioning the FTCs authority to take this action.

What happens next?

The agency has given Meta 30 days to respond to the proposed findings. The commission will decide whether to modify the 2020 order after considering arguments.

Richards said Meta plans to vigorously fight the proposal.

Dig deeper:

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FTC says Meta should be barred from making money off kids' data
BERLIN (AP)  Police arrested suspects and raided homes early Wednesday across Germany and Italy in a massive effort to clamp down on members of the Italian ndrangheta organized crime syndicate.

In Germany, more than 1,000 officers searched dozens of homes, offices and stores in the states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia, prosecutors said in a joint statement.

In Italy, carabinieri police backed by helicopters served arrest warrants on 108 people who were accused, among other things, of mafia association; possession, production, and trafficking of drugs and weapons; and money laundering.

European authorities have been waging a campaign against the Calabria-based ndrangheta, arguably the world's richest organized crime group, in recent years. The group has exploited tens of billions of dollars in cocaine revenues over decades to extend its criminal reach across Europe and into several continents as the Sicilian Mafia lost influence.

Over 30 suspects who had outstanding warrants were arrested in Germany.

Among other things, the suspects are accused of money laundering, gang tax evasion, commercial gang fraud, and narcotics smuggling, a statement from the German state office of criminal investigation in North Rhine-Westphalia said.

The raids are part of a wider joint investigation involving Europol and also included simultaneous measures against the group across Europe, the statement said.

A press release from carabinieri in Regio Calabria, where the ndrangheta is based, said arrest warrants were also served in Belgium, France, Portugal, Romania and Spain.

Press conferences in Italy and Germany were planned for later Wednesday.

In Germany, the main focus of the operation was in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, with around 500 officers deployed in each state.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, 51 houses, apartments, offices and business premises were searched and 15 suspects were arrested.

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In Rhineland-Palatinate, police searched 50 premises and arrested 10 suspects. The task forces in Rhineland-Palatinate were supported by special units of the federal government and other states as well as customs and the tax investigation department, German news agency dpa reported.

The state interior minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Michael Ebling, called the raids an effective blow against organized crime.

Today sends out a very clear signal: There is no place for organized crime in Europe and there is certainly no place for it here with us in Rhineland-Palatinate, he said, according to dpa.
A huge pothole is causing trouble for those who use the West Seattle Bridge to take State Route 99 into Seattle, and it probably wont be over any time soon.

The onramp to northbound SR 99 from the eastbound West Seattle Bridge is closed, forcing drivers heading into downtown Seattle to take a different route.

Cars were damaged before the hole was discovered Tuesday night. It is 5 feet by 4 feet wide, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.

The ramp was expected to reopen Tuesday night, but late Wednesday morning, WSDOT said an early estimate for how long the closure would last is around 10 days.

Bridge crews are at the scene evaluating the extent of the damage.

If your tire was blown out by the hole, you can file a tort claim with the State Department of Enterprise Services at this link.

A 5' x 4' pothole was discovered on the ramp to northbound SR 99 from the eastbound West Seattle Bridge.

A 5' x 4' pothole was discovered on the ramp to northbound SR 99 from the eastbound West Seattle Bridge.

A 5' x 4' pothole was discovered on the ramp to northbound SR 99 from the eastbound West Seattle Bridge.

This isnt the first pothole thats caused problems for drivers on the northbound Highway 99 onramp from the West Seattle Bridge.

The West Seattle Bridge reopened in September last year, but that ramp was still accessible through Spokane Street during the closure.

Last spring, WSDOT had to close the onramp for two weeks because a hole opened up and threatened the ramps structural integrity.

That hole was about 100 feet away from the new one.
A Florida teenager died after the horse she was riding at an equestrian event fell on top of her, according to officials.

Hannah Serfass, 15, was taking part in the Fox Lea Farm Spring Concours event when the 12-year-old horse she was riding tripped and fatally crushed her.

Hannah, 15, was riding Quaxx 2, a 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding, in an equitation class when the horse tripped and suffered a rotational fall, a statement from US Equestrian Federation read. The fall was unrelated to a jumping effort.

Hannah Serfass (Instagram/hmsequestrian)

The teenager was rushed to a hospital near the event in Venice, Florida, where she was pronounced dead.

A Sarasota County Sheriffs Office report stated that the horse had successfully completed a jump but then stumbled on its left front hoof after taking several steps, reported The Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

This action caused the rider to then topple forward and off the horse in the same direction and onto the ground, the report said. The horse then continued to fall in the same direction falling over and onto the riders head on the ground.

The USEF went on to describe the teenager as a talented up-and-coming young rider who was known for her passion for horses, her natural ability, and her work ethic.

The horse show also issued a statement on its Facebook page.

Fox Lea Farm had a tragedy occur today. Out of respect to the family, no information will be shared at this time. We send our sincere condolences to the family, trainer, friends, & the whole equestrian community. We are all heartbroken.
US journalist Evan Gershkovich was detained while working in Russia earlier this year

Journalists across the globe are coming under unprecedented attacks from governments, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has warned.

In its annual report, the RSF said authorities were becoming more aggressive towards reporters.

And it warned that public hostility towards the press was increasing as a result of fake news and disinformation.

According to the RSF, 55 journalists and four media workers were killed at work in 2022.

The report warned that the environment for journalism was "bad" in an unprecedented seven out of ten countries.

Among those that fell on the rankings was India - the world's largest democracy - that is now placed at 161 out of 180 countries.

The report found that many journalists who were critical of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government were subjected to harassment by his supporters.

In February 2023, the BBC's Delhi offices were raided by income tax officials one week after the broadcaster aired a documentary in the UK critical of Mr Modi.

And the report criticised the concentration of media ownership in the country, which it said was broadly controlled by allies of Mr Modi, creating a "politically partisan" media landscape.

The state of press freedom was found to be "very serious" in an unprecedented 31 different countries; including Turkey, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

Turkey fell to 165th place in the rankings, with the report noting that many journalists have been persecuted in the lead-up to elections, slated to take place on 14 May.

The US and the UK also fell slightly, with the RSF criticising the arrest of British reporters covering protests, a lack of media ownership pluralism and "legislative proposals with worrying implications for journalism".

Iranian journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi were arrested by authorities in 2022

In addition to challenges from authorities, the report also said the digital landscape was worsening conditions for journalists.

"The unprecedented ability to tamper with content is being used to undermine those who embody quality journalism and weaken journalism itself," it warned.

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It said artificial intelligence's ability to create what appears like journalism, meant the "principles of rigour and reliability" were easily bypassed.

The RSF also referenced Elon Musk's recent decision to purchase Twitter, and said his changes to the platform - including paid for verification - was like "quicksand" for journalism.

European countries led the rankings, with East Timor being the only country outside the EU placing in the top 10.

Nordic countries performed well in the rankings, with Norway coming first and receiving praise for it "vibrant" and "robust" media landscape. It was followed by Denmark in third, Sweden in fourth and Finland in fifth.

Ireland, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia and Portugal rounded out the top 10.

Speaking ahead of World Press Freedom Day, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that "all our freedom depends on press freedom".

Similarly to the RSF, he said disinformation threatened the truth as it blurred "the lines between fact and fiction, between science and conspiracy".

Unesco awarded the 2023 World Press Freedom Prize to three Iranian women - two journalists and a human rights activist - who have been imprisoned.
Computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, who studies neural networks used in artificial intelligence applications, poses at Googles Mountain View, Calif, headquarters on Wednesday, March 25, 2015. Hinton, the man widely considered as the godfather of artificial intelligence, has left Google  with a message sharing his concerns about potential dangers stemming from the same technology he helped build. | Noah Berger, Associated Press

Geoffrey Hintons research laid the groundwork for emerging artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Bard and others but the British Canadian scientist just ended his decadelong stint working for Google, citing concerns over the dangers posed by AI advancements.

In an interview with The Worlds Marco Werman Tuesday, Hinton said hes had a change of heart about the potential outcomes of fast-advancing AI after a career focused on developing digital neural networks  designs that mimic how the human brain processes information  that have helped catapult artificial intelligence tools.

The problem is, once these things get more intelligent than us its not clear were going to be able to control it, Hinton said. There are very few examples of more intelligent things controlled by less intelligent things.

In a March interview with CBS News, Hinton was asked if AI has the potential to wipe out humanity.

Its not inconceivable, Hinton said. Thats all Ill say.

Related

But Hinton also believes the development of artificial intelligence can provide widespread benefits to humanity, including elevating productivity in more or less every domain and designing new materials that could expedite goals, like achieving fossil-free energy production.

And, he sees particular potential in areas like medicine, where AI-driven tools could greatly expand the effectiveness of diagnostics and treatment.

For example ... youd much rather go to a doctor thats seen 100 million patients than one that had only seen a few thousand, Hinton told The World. And AI is, fairly soon, going to give you that.

Groups of researchers have recently published letters citing shared concerns over where artificial intelligence advancements could be headed, calling for extreme caution and/or moratoriums on research to help reduce risk.

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But Hinton disagrees with those who believe AI development needs to take a pause, noting the difficulties that would come with policing any such agreements and arguing that among the benefits of moving forward with research efforts is identifying where future AI-driven hazards may lie.

With nuclear tests, you can verify them but with AI research, its going to be almost impossible to verify that some people are not doing it secretly, Hinton told The World. We need to develop these things so we can figure out what the problems are.

But I think we need a lot of people thinking about what the problems are.

ChatGPT owner OpenAI and other AI developers use large language model systems to educate their chatbots by processing massive amounts of curated text-based information from the internet that enable the platforms to generate humanlike responses and expound on a wide range of topics.

The nature of these systems, Hinton said, could also result in the bots learning enough to outmaneuver the humans that developed them.

Theyll be master manipulators because theyll have learned that from us by reading everything on the web, Hinton told The World. Will they have their own goals and want to manipulate people to achieve their own goals or will we somehow be able to control them to help us?

How do you control something thats more intelligent than you? Its very, very difficult to do that.
The man known as the "godfather of artificial intelligence" quit his job at Google so he could freely speak about the dangers of AI, the New York Times reported Monday.

Geoffrey Hinton, who worked with Google and mentors AI's rising stars, started looking at artificial intelligence more than 40 years ago, he told CBS Mornings in late March. He started working for the company in 2013, according to his Google Research profile. While at Google, he designed machine learning algorithms.

"I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google," Hinton tweeted Monday. "Google has acted very responsibly."

Many developers are working toward creating artificial general intelligence. Until recently, Hinton said he thought the world was 20-50 years away from it, but he now thinks developers "might be" close to computers being able to come up with ideas to improve themselves.

"That's an issue, right? We have to think hard about how you control that," he said in March.

Artificial intelligence pioneer Geoffrey Hinton / Credit: MARK BLINCH / REUTERS

Hinton has called for people to figure out how to manage technology that could greatly empower a handful of governments or companies.

"I think it's very reasonable for people to be worrying about these issues now, even though it's not going to happen in the next year or two," Hinton said.

Hinton also told CBS he thought it wasn't inconceivable that AI could try to wipe out humanity.

When asked about Hinton's decision to leave, Google's chief scientist Jeff Dean told BBC News in a statement that the company remains committed to a responsible approach to AI.

"We're continually learning to understand emerging risks while also innovating boldly," he said.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has called for AI advancements to be released in a responsible way. In an April interview with 60 Minutes, he said society needed to quickly adapt and come up with regulations for AI in the economy, along with laws to punish abuse.

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"This is why I think the development of this needs to include not just engineers, but social scientists, ethicists, philosophers and so on," Pichai told 60 Minutes. "And I think we have to be very thoughtful. And I think these are all things society needs to figure out as we move along. It's not for a company to decide."

Will anything change at the Supreme Court after the Senate ethics hearing?

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Report: Lionel Messi suspended over Saudi Arabia trip
Googles annual developer conference, Google I/O, returns to Mountain Views Shoreline Amphitheater next week, and for the first time in four years, well be returning along with it. The kickoff keynote is always jammed-packed full of information, debuting all of the different software projects the company has been working on for the past year.

Update: Google just went ahead and announced the Pixel Fold over on Twitter. The company gave a good look at the upcoming foldable smartphone from just about every angle. That means all three of the expected pieces of hardware  including the Pixel 7a and Pixel Tablet  have officially been announced.

The event, which kicks off May 10 at 10 AM PT will be a big showcase for everything thats on the way for Android 14. The company has, arguably, missed a step when it comes to the current generative AI land rush -- hell, who could have predicted after all of these years that Bing would finally have a moment?

CEO Sundar Pichai will no doubt be making the case that the company continues to lead the way in the world of artificial intelligence. Theres always been a fair bit of the stuff at the event largely focused on practical real-world applications like mobile imaging and dealing with customer service. This year, however, Id say its safe to say the company is going to go bonkers with the stuff.

Hardware, meanwhile, is always a bit of a crapshoot at developer conferences. But after an off-year for the industry at large, a deluge of rumors are aligning, pointing to whats likely to be an unusually consumer electronics-focused keynote. Given the fact that the last bit is my focus at TechCrunch, Im going to start the list there.

The Pixel 7a is about as sure as bets get. Google has settled into a comfortable release cadence: releasing a flagship in the fall, followed by a budget device in the spring. The former is designed to be an ideal showcase for its latest mobile operating system and first-party silicon, while the latter makes some compromises for price, while maintaining as many of its predecessors as possible.

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How to show excitement without shouting? Asking for a friend Coming to @Flipkart on 11th May. pic.twitter.com/il6GUx3MmR  Google India (@GoogleIndia) May 2, 2023

Its a good system that works, and Googles newly focused mobile hardware team has created some surprisingly good devices at extremely reasonable prices. Never one to be outdone by the deluge of rumors, the company went ahead and announced via Twitter its next device is due out on May 11 -- the day after Google I/O and, perhaps not coincidentally, my birthday. It was Google India that specifically made the announcement -- perhaps not surprising, as the company is likely to aggressively target the world's number one smartphone market with the product. The image points to a very similar design as the 7 -- not really a surprise as these things go. Though it does stop short of actually mentioning the name, as its done in the past.

Basically expect the 7 with cheaper materials. Rumors point to a 6.1-inch device featuring a 90Hz refresh rate, coupled with a 64-megapixel rear camera. The 7s Tensor G2 returns for a command performance, likely bringing with it many of the software features it enabled the first time around.

Image Credits: Google

We know for sure that a Pixel Tablet is comingat some point. Google confirmed the devices existence at last years event, providing a broad 2023 release date, along with a render alongside the rest of the current Pixel lineup. Effectively there are two points this year Google is likely to officially announce the thing: next week or September/October. I would be shocked if the companys long-awaited (?) reentry into the category doesnt, at the very least, get a bit of stage time. As a category, the Android tablet has been very hit or miss over the years -- presumably/hopefully the companys got a unique spin here. I would be surprised if Google jumped back into the space without some sort of novel angle.

The leaks point to a design that would effectively turn the system into one giant Nest dock. Its not entirely original, as Amazon tried something similar with its Fire tablets, but it would certainly buck the iPad model, which is so pervasive in the industry. Other rumors include the aforementioned Tensor G2, coupled with 8GB of RAM.

Here's your wildcard, folks: the Pixel Fold. Google has seemingly been laying the groundwork for its own foldable for years. Heres what I wrote a couple of weeks ago:

Some important background here. First, Google announced foldable screen support for Android back in 2018. Obviously, Samsung was both the big partner and recipient in those days, and Google wanted to make Android development as frictionless as possible for other OEMs in exploring the form factor. The following year, Google foldable patents surfaced. Now, were all adults here, who implicitly understand that patents dont mean a company is working on a product. That said, its another key data point in this story. In the intervening years, foldables have begun gathering steam, even outside of the Samsung orbit. I was genuinely amazed by how many different models there were populating the halls of MWC back in March. The leaked renders point to a form factor that is more Samsung Galaxy Z Fold than Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. It also looks like it shares some common design DNA with Oppos recently foldable, which is frankly the right direction. EV Leaks says the foldable is half an inch thick when folded and 0.2 inches unfolded, weight in at 283 grams.

As evidenced by our trip to MWC back in February, foldables are no longer fringe devices. Its true that theyre still cost-prohibitive for most, but its getting to the point soon where nearly ever Android manufacturer will have their take on the category. So why shouldnt Google?

Other less likely hardware rumors include a Google/Nest AirTag competitor (the company announced yesterday that its working with Apple to create a standard for the category), new Pixel Buds and a Pixel Watch 2. Id say all are unlikely -- that last one in particular. We didnt get much in terms of Nest products last year, but so far not much is forthcoming in terms of rumors for home products.

Google's Android booth at MWC 2023 in Barcelona.

Image Credits: Brian Heater

Android is always a tentpole of Google I/O for obvious reasons. Weve already caught some major glimpses of the mobile operating system, by way of beta releases. As Frederic noted in March, So far, most of the features Google has talked about have also been developer-centric, with only a few user-facing features exposed to far. That also holds true for this second preview, which mostly focuses on added new security and privacy features.

The operating system, which is apparently named Upside Down Cake internally, is likely set for a summer release in late-July or August. At the top of the list of potential features are a boost to battery life (can always use one of those), additional accessibility features and privacy/security features, which include blocking users from installing ancient apps over malware concerns.

AI is going to be everywhere. Expect generative AI (Bard) in particular to make appearances in virtually every existing piece of Google consumer software, following the lead of Gmail and Docs. Search and the Chrome browser are prime targets here.

A preview of a new Wear OS seems likely. I dont anticipate a ton of news on the AR/VR side of things, but I would also be surprised if it doesnt at least get a nod, given what Apple reportedly has in the works for June.

The keynote kicks off at 10 AM PT on May 10. As ever, TechCrunch will be bringing you the news as it breaks.
There was a jaw-dropping moment on the floor of the Florida House of Representatives this week after a Republican lawmakers comment about who really hates the LGBTQ+ community.

ISIS, the Taliban and al Qaeda. Those are the folks who discriminate, state Rep. Jeff Holcomb said Monday. Our terrorist enemies hate homosexuals more than we do.

Its not clear if he misspoke or intended to say it like that, but he was speaking in support of a bill that urges Congress to prohibit woke social engineering and experimentation that are eroding the military.

The implication that Republicans hate the gay community  but terrorists hate them even more  led to gasps in the audience, while Democratic Rep. Kelly Skidmores jaw literally dropped:

Florida GOP Representative Jeff Holcomb says the quiet part out loud on the House floor today.



Our terrorist enemies hate homosexuals MORE THAN WE DO.



Audible gasping in the chamber.



And then theres @RepSkidmores reaction.  pic.twitter.com/ukH8EZmqL2  Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith) May 2, 2023

Holcomb, who is in the Navy Reserve, continued by quoting the Navy creed: I am committed to excellence and fair treatment of all.

(h/t Mediaite)
As President Biden launches his reelection campaign, his son, Hunter Biden, has been making his own headlines.

The younger Biden appeared in court on Monday over a paternity case, where a judge ruled that he would have to disclose his finances, including investments and money made from art sales.

Last week, in a separate case, the younger Bidens lawyers met with prosecutors at the Justice Department to discuss potential charges against the first son relating to tax fraud, CNN reported.

The legal action coincides with a House Oversight and Accountability inquiry into Hunter Bidens business transactions, part of the GOPs efforts to investigate the presidents son and drag him into 24-hour news cycles.

Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) vows that the initial inquiries into the younger Bidens financial transactions are just the beginning.

He accused Hunter Bidens lawyers just this week of communicating to potential witnesses and whistleblowers in an intimidating manner.

In communication with our witnesses and with people who are cooperating from a subpoena standpoint, we know that they have been contacted by the attorneys for Hunter Biden, Comer said Monday in an interview on Fox News. We feel that this is really close to crossing the line. Obviously, their objective  in my opinion  is witness intimidation. This will not stand.

Democrats have downplayed the focus by the GOP and conservative media on Hunter Biden, saying its not something normal voters care about and wont make a difference in 2024.

Unless you are perpetually online and red-pilled, no normal voters care about, or even really know anything about Hunter Biden, said Democratic strategist Eddie Vale. This isnt a theory. Its a fact that every poll shows people think Republicans have wrong priorities chasing down these conspiracy theories instead of doing things to actually help people.

But GOP strategists see it as a political winner  which explains in part the focus by Comer, some say.

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Hes certainly not an asset to his father, thats for sure, said Shermichael Singleton, a political consultant who left the Republican Party in recent years.

It will constantly come up, he added. You dont want this when youre running for president.

Stories about Hunter Bidens legal issues are constant on right-leaning news channels, and there is some evidence that some voters are interested.

A Fox News poll out in late March revealed that 43 percent of those surveyed said they believe Hunter Biden did something illegal, a number that rose six points since a February survey. The younger Bidens alleged actions grew among independents in particular, a 12-point increase since the last survey.

Another poll conducted for Newsweek last month showed that 42 percent of those surveyed said Hunter Biden was guilty of a crime. The same survey also found that 46 percent of those polled said former President Trump had also committed criminal acts.

At the same time, there are polls that suggest the GOPs focus on Hunter Biden could backfire.

An NBC News poll from January revealed that 55 percent of Americans  including a majority of independents  said they believe Republicans spend too much time investigating President Biden and not enough time on other priorities.

White House allies have maintained in recent months that the House investigation, in particular, is a political stunt. And they predict Republicans will inevitably overplay their hand ahead of the 2024 election cycle.

This is pure politics, said one Biden ally. Pure BS.

Comers panel has been monitoring the paternity case in Arkansas.

In that case, a judge ruled on Monday that the presidents son needs to provide written answers about his finances by next week and then appear for a deposition next month. Biden is seeking to lower his monthly child support payments to an Arkansas woman who is the mother of his child.

If he and the woman, Lunden Roberts, dont come to an agreement, Biden could be headed for trial in late July.

A spokesperson for the Oversight Committee called the Arkansas case interesting, adding that it could shed some light on Hunter Bidens financial records.

But the spokesperson added that the committees investigation isnt focused on this lawsuit.

We are pursuing our investigation on multiple fronts, and we have obtained thousands of pages of financial records related to the Bidens family business schemes.

Hunter Biden and his camp have sought to turn the tables on the GOP by going on offense and taking control of the public narrative.

Last month, he accompanied his father  together with his aunt, Valerie Owens  on a trip to Ireland.

He has also been seen more publicly at White House events after he became a frequent target of Republicans who often poked at him with the Wheres Hunter? dog whistle to the base.

Democrats say theres no question the GOP will continue to try to make the case against the younger Biden as they attempt to muddy the waters in 2024.

Theres nothing there, but theyre clearly going to try and see what sticks because what else do they have? one Democratic strategist said.

Singleton agreed.

Republicans are going to do whatever they can to leverage this, he said. And these lawsuits clearly are not going away.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming declared the Florida Governor the leader of her party on the heels of the 2022 midterm elections. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

Sen. Cynthia Lummis declared that Ron DeSantis was the "current leader" of her party in November.

Since then, DeSantis has faced significant headwinds as he moves toward launching a presidential campaign.

But in an interview with Insider on Tuesday, Lummis said she hadn't changed her mind.

In November, days after a midterm election that saw Republicans perform much worse than expected, Sen. Cynthia Lummis made waves by declaring that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  not former President Donald Trump  was the "current leader of the Republican Party."

Several months later, amid significant political headwinds for DeSantis as he steps closer to launching a 2024 presidential campaign, the Wyoming Republican insisted during a brief interview with Insider at the Capitol on Tuesday that she still believes that's the case.

"Clearly, President Trump is leading the pack for the presidential nomination at this point," said Lummis. "But DeSantis  his style, and the issues he chooses to emphasize  are very much in keeping with what the public is talking about. That's why I think he's the leader of the party."

Lummis has said that she's likely to officially remain neutral in the 2024 primary, pointing to her admiration for Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, another soon-to-be-official GOP presidential candidate.

Her initial November comments in support of DeSantis came on the heels of a poor midterm performance that many in the party blamed on Trump. Lummis, who took office just days before the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol, was notably among a small group of Republican senators who followed Trump's lead and voted against certifying some states' election results.

Meanwhile, the Florida Governor had just won a resounding victory in his own re-election campaign, helping his party win super-majorities in the state legislature and deliver a handful of swing-district US House seats to Republicans.

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With help from the state legislature, DeSantis has been free this year to pursue a broad range of policy goals, including signing a 6-week abortion ban and sweeping changes to the state's education system. That's on top of other pre-existing initiatives like the Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics, that limits the teaching of certain materials in classrooms.

"I think he leads on policy," said Lummis. "So, I suspect regardless of what happens to his campaign for president, when the Republican platform is crafted, that you will see lots of DeSantis-type policy embedded in the Republican platform."

In 2020, the party notably opted not to adopt a platform, citing pandemic-era restrictions and its "strong support" for Trump.

At the same time, DeSantis has gotten into a protracted war with Disney stemming from its opposition to the Parental Rights in Education bill  an effort that initially delighted conservatives, but has increasingly drawn criticism from his potential 2024 rivals.

"I disagree with those who say that he was attacking a company," said Lummis. "He and the legislature were attacking Disney as a quasi-government in Florida."

And as the burgeoning contest between DeSantis and Trump heats up  and the Florida's governor's 2024 primary polling takes a hit as a result, DeSantis has also faced questions about his skills as a retail politician.

A former GOP congressman who served with DeSantis in the House recently told POLITICO that he thinks the Florida Governor is an "asshole," and Republican members of Florida's congressional delegation have mostly backed Trump over him. During a recent trip to Europe, business executives were reportedly unimpressed with the Florida Governor.

But Lummis, who overlapped with DeSantis in the House from 2013-2017, put a positive spin on it  and made a less-than-subtle dig at the former president.

"You know, he's a no-drama guy," Lummis said of DeSantis. "So when you compare him to someone who craves drama, yeah, he looks kind of dull  anybody looks dull compared to Trump."

"But I think the public is also craving a little normal," she said. "DeSantis is a reflection of normal in my mind."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Gov. Inslee has called a special session of the state legislature set to begin on May 16 to address Washingtons drug possession laws.

This comes after lawmakers failed to come to an agreement on a drug possession bill before the regular session came to a close, leaving local governments to make their own laws.

In 2021, the Supreme Court of Washington passed down whats now known as the Blake decision, which effectively decriminalized simple drug possession, and by extension, public drug use. Shortly after that, state lawmakers passed a temporary fix which expires on July 1 of this year.

During this last regular legislative session, Senate Bill 5536 was introduced as a permanent solution. But many of the legislations original backers turned against it, citing concerns that the bill had been watered down and could cause more harm than good.

The legislation would have superseded existing public drug use bans in cities like Kent and Bellingham. In addition, an officer would have had to simultaneously witness someone with drugs and using them to make an arrest. It ultimately failed to pass in the state House.

Since then, several cities and counties have either proposed or passed their own drug use laws.

The special session called by Gov. Inslee runs for 30 days, but could wrap up before that if lawmakers agree to a drug possession bill before that time expires. The governor expressed hope that a deal could be reached based on conversations with lawmakers.

My office and I have been meeting with legislators from all four caucuses and I am very optimistic about reaching an agreement that can pass both chambers, he said in a news release. ... Details are still being negotiated, but caucus leaders share the desire to pass a bill.








Amid fears of worsening air quality in New Mexicos oil and gas regions, an environmental group called on the State of New Mexico to enforce regulations targeting emissions from extraction.

WildEarth Guardians of Santa Fe reported air pollutants were being released via venting by the industry at rates higher than the States standards.

In an April 27 letter to the New Mexico Environment Department, the group argued companies were reporting higher volumes of vented volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than should be allowed by the state.

More: Oil companies investing millions in Permian Basin ahead of summer fuel demands

The letter detailed allegations against almost every major oil producer in the region, spread out across 60 facilities in New Mexico.

VOCs form ground-level ozone when interacting with sunlight. Its a cancer-causing air pollutant when breathed in during a long term and creates smog.

The emissions, according to the letter, were in the Permian Basin area to the southeast and the Chaco Canyon region in the northwest San Juan Basin area.

More: $600M in oil and gas investments announced in Permian Basin as production to spike

In its research, WildEarth Guardians studied industry-reported venting data from the Oil Conservation Division (OCD) and contended the volumes were in excess of NMEDs standards for VOC releases.

About 20 to 30 percent of vented gas can contain VOCs, the report read, arguing the extent of the issue could be worse than even industry data showed.

In its letter, WildEarth Guardians alleged multiple operators failed to obtain adequate air pollution permits, violated emission limits included in existing permits and failed to report excess emissions.

More: The end of oil and gas? Lawsuit led by New Mexico group seeks to phase out drilling

Our review of venting data reported by oil and gas companies to OCD indicates widespread violations of New Mexico air quality laws and regulations, the letter read.

Based on credible emission factors utilized by industry, the aforementioned venting events led to the release of VOC emissions in excess of legally allowable limits. Accordingly, the Environment Department must take action, both to address these violations and to effectively deter future violations.

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Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director at WildEarth Guardians said the states recently adopted ozone regulations, limiting the amount of VOCs companies can emit in areas known for high ozone concentrations, were being violated by the oil and gas industry.

More: Eddy, Lea counties lead New Mexico in abandoned oil and gas wells plugged by State

In spite of rules adopted by the Michelle Lujan Grisham administration to limit oil and gas industry venting and protect clean air, the reality is companies are routinely ignoring and violating these rules, he said.

During the 2023 Legislative Session, NMED Cabinet Secretary James Kenney argued for increased funds in the Departments budget to combat air pollution and take enforcement action.

He said lawmakers opted not to adequately fund NMED during the session, which could impede the States ability to enforce air quality rules.

More: Eddy County oil and gas drives some of the worst air pollution in New Mexico, study says

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency was considering designating the Permian Basin in both Texas and New Mexico  the U.S. most active oil and gas field  in violation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS), a move that would increase federal oversight of sources of air pollution in the region.

That would slow permitting and curb oil and gas production in New Mexico, Kenney said.

Were just continuing to pave the way for deeper levels of regulatory oversight from the federal government, he said. We cant hold the companies accountable because we dont have the budget to do that.

Its going to exacerbate the ozone problem for years to come.

More: More New Mexico land must be saved from oil and gas to prevent climate crisis, study says

Despite the lack of funding reported by NMED, Nichols said the State most act to protect New Mexicos air quality and the safety of its residents as oil and gas production surged.

The Permian Basin was expected to increase production by another 13,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) for a total of about 5.69 million bpd  more oil than the next six top shale basins in the U.S. combined.

All that fossil fuel production means more air pollutants released into the atmosphere and warranted a deeper investigation, Nichols said, of the true extent of the problem.

More: $1.6B Permian Basin oil and gas land sale closes as region holds on to fossil fuel boom

We need action to confront and deter these violations and for the Environment Department to stop giving the oil and gas industry a free pass to pollute, he said.

Joe Vigil, spokesman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association maintained that operators do what they can to prevent excessive emissions and mitigate the environmental impact of energy development.

He said that production in the U.S. must be supported by government agencies as an economic driver of states like New Mexico and to avoid a reliance on foreign energy sources  often produced with laxer environmental standards.

Domestic production is key to our energy security which is vital to American national security, Vigil said. The New Mexico Oil and Gas industry is the state's largest revenue producing industry, providing $10.8 billion, about one third of our state budget and permanent fund, for the funding of education, infrastructure, and first responders.

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Group calls on New Mexico to crack down on oil and gas air pollution
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

CONSERVATIVE GROUP DEMANDS AN APOLOGY FROM CALIFORNIA LAWMAKER

The conservative California Family Council is demanding an apology from Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-San Fernando Valley, over remarks she made in a recent committee hearing.

Schiavo was speaking in defense of her bill, AB 710, which would require the California Department of Public Health to launch an awareness campaign warning about crisis pregnancy centers. Such places, which often have the trappings of a reproductive health clinic, seek to counsel pregnant people away from getting an abortion.

Speaking to the Assembly Health Committee last week, Schiavo said, these clinics use deceptive practices targeted at vulnerable populations to draw them in by claiming they provide abortion services, when they have no equipment nor capacity to provide abortions.

Schiavo said that it is extremely dangerous that these fake pregnancy centers present themselves as medical clinics. To be clear, they are not licensed medical clinics.

The CFC, which opposes AB 710, took exception to the assemblywomans remarks.

It is wholly unacceptable for elected officials to use their office to slander private citizens and organizations, said CFC President Jonathan Keller in a statement. Assemblymember Schiavo should publicly apologize for the lies and defamation directed towards pregnancy resource centers across California, specifically the two licensed clinics in Assembly District 40 serving thousands of her constituents.

The CFC acknowledged that not all crisis pregnancy centers are licensed medical clinics, but said that two of them in Schiavos own district are; both facilities mention on their websites that they do not provide abortion services or referrals.

In response to a media inquiry, Schiavo said in an email to The Bee that many crisis pregnancy centers  which outnumber abortion clinics in California  do use deceptive tactics to lure pregnant people in for care, when in fact, most dont even provide reproductive healthcare services which threatens womens health.

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Schiavo said that her bill will protect women and families by providing them with reliable, factual information about where abortion and reproductive health care services are provided in the state.

Ive never been shy about standing up for our community and if radical anti-choice extremists want to go after me, Ill wear that as a badge of honor. It begs the question, what are these crisis pregnancy centers trying to hide that they would be opposed to a simple transparency measure? she said.

AB 710 passed out of the Assembly Health Committee and now sits in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

CALCHAMBER SIGNS EQUAL PAY PLEDGE TO CLOSE GENDER WAGE GAP

Recognizing that women frequently make less than men for the same work, the California Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday that it is signing the states Equal Pay Pledge.

The pledge signals CalChambers intent to conduct annual internal company-wide gender pay analyses, review hiring and promotion processes to reduce unconscious bias and promote equal pay best practices.

CalChamber CEO Jennifer Barrera said in a statement that equal pay is the law in California, and also the right thing to do.

Additionally, studies underscore the fact that gender-equality practices increase productivity and profitability. This pledge promotes best practices for ensuring a culture and environment of fairness and equality in the workplace and encourages training so that companies can implement new policies in a way that best fits their resources and structure, Barrera said.

CalChamber spokeswoman Denise Davis said in an email that the announcement applies just to the chamber.

WHO WOULD PROFIT FROM AB 886?

AB 886 from Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, would force social media companies and digital platforms like Facebook and Google to pay a journalism usage fee for news content that is shared on their sites.

Dubbed the California Journalism Preservation Act, the bill is aimed at shoring up Californias local news media, particularly in news deserts that lack quality local journalism.

But is that who would actually benefit from the bill?

A new analysis from the center-left, tech industry-funded group Chamber of Progress shows that the biggest beneficiaries of the proposed law wouldnt be local media outlets like The Sacramento Bee, but national disinformation giants such as Fox News, the New York Post and Newsmax.

According to that analysis, Fox et al would receive four times more in revenue than major California news outlets, 151 times more than Latino news outlets in the state, 643 times more than newspapers located in the worst news deserts of the state and 844 times as much as California Black news outlets.

Assuming the bill would result in payments to news organizations based on traffic, large national news organizations will receive the most money because they generate the most amount of content, report author Kaitlyn Harger wrote.

Outside of conservative media outlets, the analysis showed that the LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Mercury News, San Diego Union-Tribune and Orange County Register produce the most web traffic and so would likely be the biggest recipients out of all the major California news outlets. The Sacramento Bee wasnt included in the analysis, though the Fresno Bee was, coming in ninth behind the Ventura County Star and ahead of the San Francisco Examiner.

The analysis only looked at web traffic for various media outlets, it did not show how much money would actually be doled out to them.

According to an Assembly Judiciary Committee analysis of the bill, the Chamber of Progress is listed in opposition to the legislation. The McClatchy Company, owner of The Bee, has not taken a position on the bill according to that analysis.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Ill keep saying it because its true: the nations highest court cannot be held to the lowest ethical standards.

- Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, via Twitter.

Best of The Bee:
(L-R): Zoe Saldana as Gamora and Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. (Marvel Studios)

 When is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in cinemas: 3 May 2023 (UK); 5 May 2023 (US)



 Our rating: 3/5



 Who's in it? Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter, Sean Gunn, Maria Bakalova, Sylvester Stallone



 What we liked: The humour when it worked, the horror, and its heart. Oh, its heart.



 What we didn't: The dip after the films natural conclusion 30+ minutes from the end; the jarring use of songs; the all-too convenient wrap-up



 What's it about?: As Peter Quill struggles with the loss of Gamora, a pressing need to save one of the Guardians offers him a way back, as Rockets past comes crashing into their present.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be the last time we see this iteration of the Guardians on screen, were told. Whatever that means. But certainly, writer-director James Gunn is moving on, his hands full, such as they are, with rejuvenating DCs cinematic universe.

This movie, then (the 32nd in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) serves as a send-off to the existing ragtag team of galactic superheroes as they gear up for their most important mission yet  saving one of their own. None other than the Guardians most valuable member, Rocket Raccoon.

Read more: First GOTG V3 reactions praise 'perfect' ending to trilogy

Will Poulter takes the role of Adam Warlock, whose arrival in the MCU as the genetically engineered perfect being has been long-awaited by Marvel fans. Hes almost nebbish at first with unbridled power bubbling beneath, and its he who first enters the fray as the one tasked with kidnapping Rocket to return him to his maker  the nefarious High Evolutionary (played by a theatrical and really freaking menacing Chukwudi Iwuji).

Will Poulter as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. (Marvel Studios)

This dude is also responsible for the creation of Adam, alongside his mother, the High Priestess (Elizabeth Debicki), secondary antagonist of Vol. 2.

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Read more: Iron Man 3 at 10: A tipping point for the MCU

Cue some unbearably tear-jerking flashbacks to Rockets youth as a laboratory experiment alongside a group of crudely cybernetically and genetically enhanced beings  Teefs, Lylla, and Floor.

Weve seen them in the trailers, and theyre adorable  their pluckiness in the face of adversity is heartwarming. This ultimately gives way to agonising tragedy.

Baby Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. (Marvel Studios)

There must be something in the air, or water, or formaldehyde because tinkering with life in labs is having a moment right now in pop culture. The Mandalorian and the recent reimagined Dead Ringers series have also both played with the idea of crafting life in labs, pushing our horror buttons at the same time.

Shout out also, while were on the horror theme, to the Cronenbergian bubblegum flesh-techscape of the Orgocorp HQ, gross and hypnotic in equal measure.

We first meet the Guardians in this instalment at their HQ on Knowhere  established as such in the Disney+ Holiday Special  where Cosmo the telekinetic Spacedog is integrated as a pretty much fully fledged member of the team.

Cosmo (voiced by Maria Bakalova) in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. (Marvel Studios)

Cosmo is voiced by Borat 2s Maria Bakalova and is paired with a Kraglin (Sean Gunn) still getting to grips with Yondus Yaka Arrow. Peter Quill, meanwhile, is mourning Gamora, and  like Thor when he was really upset  has turned to drink and the oblivion that route offers.

Read more: Looking back at X2 the first out and proud superhero movie

Yes, its the darkest of the Guardians movies but theres also plenty of characteristic GotG humour (not all of it landing). Saving Rocket is a handy distraction for Quill but his grief ultimately brings him to the realisation he needs to explore another unresolved issue in his life. Will we see more from Quill? The movie certainly sets that up.

(L-R): Dave Bautista as Drax, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, and Karen Gillan as Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. (Marvel Studios)

The film has a natural ending about 30 minutes or so ahead of its actual end, and youll sit through a largely butt-numbing finale  save for one cool hallway fight sequence  while the final wrap-up all seems kinda convenient and not necessarily in keeping with the message of both previous films, about found family being paramount.

What other critics thought of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Total Film: A rousing, resonant finale (2 min read)

IndieWire: These intergalactic weirdos are the real heart of the MCU (8 min read)

The Telegraph: Marvels once-perkiest heroes now look like a spent force (4 min read)

Independent: The best Marvel movie in years (3 min read)

The whole affair is typically peppered with songs which have felt welcome before but here feel mostly crowbarred in, some diegetically, others played over the action.

The movie ultimately paves the way for these characters to return in some way, shape, or form. Which is good, because its really sad to imagine the MCU without them.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is in UK cinemas and IMAX now.

Watch a trailer below.
A new lawsuit challenges a California law that requires gun buyers to wait 10 days before receiving firearms purchased at stores in the state, like this one in Culver City. (Francine Orr / The Times)

Renewing a legal battle that some had considered settled, gun rights advocates filed a federal lawsuit this week challenging a California law that places a 10-day waiting period on most firearm purchases.

The law, which requires people to wait the prescribed "cooling off" period even if they've passed a more immediate background check, is aimed in part at deterring people from rushing to harm themselves or others with newly purchased weapons during periods of sudden distress or anger.

Gun control advocates and state officials say the law reduces gun violence, including suicides, and the law has been upheld in the face of legal challenges before  including by the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2018 declined to hear an appeal to a lower court decision upholding it.

However, things have changed since the high court ruled last year  in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. vs. Bruen  that restrictions on firearms violate the 2nd Amendment if they arent deeply rooted in the nations history or analogous to some historical rule.

According to the San Diego gun owners and advocacy groups suing the state, the high court's 2018 decision allowing the waiting period law to stand was "abrogated," or undone, by its more recent Bruen decision, and, therefore, the law is unconstitutional under the court's newer historical standard.

The plaintiffs argue enforcement of the law "prevents law-abiding people from taking possession of lawfully acquired firearms for immediate self-defense and other lawful purposes  even after [state officials] know the individual is eligible to exercise their fundamental, constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms."

"A right delayed," they argue, "is a right denied."

The office of California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said it was reviewing the lawsuit Tuesday but could not otherwise comment. Bonta is the lead defendant in the lawsuit.

According to legal experts, the revived challenge reflects how massively the legal landscape around gun laws has changed since President Trump shifted the Supreme Court to the right and the court issued its Bruen decision.

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It also reflects the increased confidence among gun rights advocates that the high court is ready and willing to overturn more gun laws, the experts said  even those it may have allowed to stand in the past.

Jake Charles, an associate professor at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law and an expert in firearms law, said he was "surprised it took until May of this year" for the waiting period law to be challenged again under Bruen  in part because it is obviously vulnerable.

Prior to Bruen, federal courts across the country judged gun laws not only through a historical lens, but by assessing whether they served a well-reasoned purpose of modern government.

When the California-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California's 10-day waiting period law in 2016, it did so based on such a review. Writing for the court, Circuit Judge Mary Schroeder found that the 10-day waiting period was "a reasonable safety precaution," and therefore constitutional.

"We do not need to decide whether the regulation is sufficiently longstanding to be presumed lawful," Schroeder wrote.

Now, however, Bruen has changed the relevant legal analysis and Schroeder's reasoning is now irrelevant, the plaintiffs argue.

The law must be considered solely through a historical analysis, which it doesn't survive, they argue, because waiting period laws were not enacted in the country until 1923  making them too recent to be considered part of the nation's tradition under Bruen.

"Californias Waiting Period Laws, and [state officials'] enforcement of them, are not analogous to any constitutionally relevant history and tradition of regulating firearms," the plaintiffs argue. "Thus, the Waiting Period Laws must be declared unconstitutional and enjoined."

Gun law experts said it's a strong argument.

"Now with the Bruen decision, the central question is going to be whether the waiting period is consistent with historical tradition, and that seems like an uphill battle," said Andrew Willinger, executive director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law.

"If you're applying Bruen really strictly and requiring a really close analog, then it looks like they have a really strong case," Charles said.

Attorneys for California may still argue the law is similar enough to some historical law that didn't institute a waiting period for purchased weapons but restricted the purchase of them in some other way. The state has already argued that other modern gun laws being challenged  including its bans on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines  are similar enough to other historical laws to survive Bruen's test, even if they aren't exactly the same.

Charles said courts across the country have been interpreting what constitutes an "analogous" law for the purposes of Bruen differently, in part because the decision provided "really little guidance on how to perform that task."

In light of that, he said, judges in California could come down either way on whether the waiting period law is sufficiently similar to some historical law to be constitutional.

"Lower courts are all over the place on how to do this," Charles said.

He and Willinger said the state also might argue that the waiting period law is not an infringement on gun ownership, but a justifiable regulation on the commercial sale of firearms  which separate Supreme Court precedent has allowed for in the past.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Twitter

Less than an hour after an anonymous tipster came forward on Tuesday, law enforcement officials apprehended Francisco Oropesa, the fugitive believed to have gunned down five people in a cold-blooded massacre last week, according to authorities.

Oropesa, 38, was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry, according to San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers, who labeled him a coward in an evening news conference.

He was found in a private home in Summer Hollow, just east of the tiny Texas city of Cut and Shoot, officials said. Local media reported that the residence belonged to Oropesas aunt.

Authorities are weighing criminal charges for those who helped Oropesa evade police for nearly four days, though no other arrests were immediately announced.

A tip to the FBI allowed officers from the U.S. Marshals Service, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Border Patrol Tactical Unit to close in on Oropesa. The tipster is expected to receive at least $80,000 in reward money through the proper channels, according to Capers.

WATCH: Here's the moment suspected mass shooter Francisco Oropesa was taken into custody in Cut and Shoot, Texas by FBI and U.S. Marshals tonight.@25NewsKXXV

: Eva Gutierrez pic.twitter.com/6f7MNXKha0  Trenton Hooker (@trentonhooker) May 3, 2023

Thank you to the person who had the courage to call in this tip, said Jimmy Paul, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in the Houston area. We always said it wasnt a matter of if but when he would be captured, and were glad this evening was that when we've all been waiting for.

To the victims and the families, you are at the forefront of our minds. We are delighted that hes finally in custody.

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More details on the situation were not immediately available.

Oropesa is believed to have killed five people with an AR-15 rifle after a neighbor in Cleveland, Texas approached him and asked him to stop firing a weapon in his front yard, saying the noise might disturb their sleeping baby.

The victims were identified as Sonia Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Juliza Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

More than 250 officers with over a dozen agencies were searching for Oropesa by the start of the week, with authorities divulging precious few details as to the progress of the investigation.

#BREAKING San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers and @FBIHouston announce that Francisco Oropesa has been CAPTURED.

He was arrested this evening at around 6:45 p.m. at a home in Conroe, TX, after the #FBI received an anonymous tip with his location. #ClevelandTXshooting pic.twitter.com/9KySBs09UC  FBI Houston (@FBIHouston) May 3, 2023

Oropesas arrest comes just two days after the FBI admitted that investigators had zero leads in the case.

On Tuesday night, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) tweeted in response to the arrest, Great job by law enforcement.

His brief statement comes on the heels of a swell of backlash he received for labeling both Oropesa and his victims illegal immigrants in a statement announcing an additional $50,000 reward for information in the case. All the victims were originally from Honduras, while Oropesa is reportedly a Mexican national.

Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa was one of many who denounced Abbott for his rheotoric, accusing him of wielding the shooting as a means to fear-monger and lie about migrants and the victims immigration status.

After it emerged that at least one of the victims was a permanent resident of the United States, Abbotts office rapidly backpedaled, blaming the inaccurate information on federal officials.

Oropesa, however, is believed to have been in the country illegally, having been deported by immigration officials four times previously.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The Food Network star's efforts helped feed over 500 athletes and volunteers

Guy Fieri Foundation

Philanthropy runs in the Fieri family.

On Tuesday, Guy Fieri and his two kids, Hunter, 26, and Ryder, 17, served food at a Special Olympics event in Northern California. Through the Guy Fieri Foundation, students at Windsor High School worked with the trio to make lunch for around 575 athletes and volunteers.

In an Instagram Story last week, Guy said he paid a visit to the school to help out with the culinary program. He taught students how to make Mexican rice and beans for the charitable event.

In photos from the regional Special Olympics on Tuesday, Guy posed with athletes and volunteers and even smiled with the iconic game torch on a track field.

More snaps from the day feature Hunter and Ryder packing several rows of meals into boxes, along with group pictures of Guy with several volunteers.

Related:Hunter Fieri Opens Up About Being 'Guy Fieri's Son'

Guy Fieri Foundation

The Guy Fieri Foundation is often feeding communities in need. In 2020, Guy served 1,200 first responders and healthcare workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in California. At the time, he even wrote a personal note of thanks and his initials on the lid of each carryout box handed out.

That same year he partnered with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation to launch the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund. The campaign associated with the fund raised money to give one-time $500 grants to workers impacted by the pandemic.

Related:Guy Fieri's Son Ryder, 17, and His Girlfriend Pose for Prom Photos

Guy Fieri Foundation

Last week presented another big moment in the Fieri household  Ryder was off to prom.

Guy reshared his youngest son's Instagram post, which featured several fun photos from his junior prom. Ryder, who's in 11th grade, shared a sweet photo with his girlfriend on Instagram. He coordinated his outfit  a red bow tie and black suit  to match her dress.

He also shared a photo with his celebrity chef dad and mom, Lori, along with group photos featuring his friends.

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"Out of the ordinary ," he captioned the post.

Guy's eldest son left some big brother love in the comments section. "Baller!!" wrote Hunter.

ryder fieriry/instagram

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

Hunter previously opened up to PEOPLE about the example his dad sets.

"He's always leading by example," said Hunter in Guy's Sept. 2022 cover story. "Seeing how much he cares and how, even though he is so busy all the time, he focuses a lot of effort on doing fundraisers... it's eye-opening to me."

"If you're the guy that owns the shovel, why wouldn't you help dig the hole?" Guy added. "I want to make a positive impact. When it's all over, I just hope people say, 'Guy was good for mankind. Guy helped.' "

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Read the original article on People.
King Charles has only been the monarch for eight months and is yet to be officially crowned  but what happens when he dies?

At the moment, Charles is clearly in good health at 74 years old. But, theres a pretty strong chance that he will die and be laid to rest at some point in the future.

And when that occurs, what will happen to his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort? She is set to be crowned with him on Saturday  so does that mean she might get a chance at becoming the sovereign herself?

Heres what you need to know.

What happens when Charles dies?

Immediately, the Operation Menai Bridge  a code name for the contingency plan in the event of Charless death  kicks in.

While the details are unclear, based on what happened in the 11 days between the Queens death and the moment she was officially laid to rest, the arrangements for Charless formal state funeral would start almost immediately.

In fact, royal protection officer Simon Morgan told Australian show Today back in September that the day after the queens funeral, Operation Menai Bridge preparation will start in earnest.

The U.K. government would be notified, followed by Commonwealth leaders, and a note would soon be attached to the gates of Buckingham Palace, with flags all around the country lowered to half staff.

The new monarch would automatically inherit the throne at the moment of Charless death.

And, after a period of national mourning, Charles would then be laid to rest in the royal vault in King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Who will succeed Charles?

Charles has only been the monarch since his mother Queen Elizabeth IIs death in September.

But, if something were to happen to the sovereign, the crown automatically passes to the next in line. Thats typically the monarchs oldest child.

In this case, Prince William, 40, would inherit the throne  thats why he now has the Prince of Wales title, a role usually reserved for the male heir apparent.

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If something were to happen to William, the crown would pass to his eldest child Prince George, who is currently second-in-line to the throne.

But at just nine years old, that would clearly present a bit of a problem  he clearly couldnt carry out the roles of a constitutional monarch before 18.

So, Prince Harry  the next adult in the line of succession, after Georges siblings Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis  would probably become Regent until his nephew was old enough.

As the parliament website explains: In a regency, a Regent is appointed to act on the monarchs behalf.

A Regency applies if a monarch succeeds to the throne before the age of 18, or if a monarch becomes permanently incapacitated due to infirmity of mind or body.

That would probably throw up a whole new bunch of problems though, considering Harry has made it painfully clear how little he enjoys royal life and protocol (and stepped down from life as a working royal back in 2020).

The current line of succession

The current line of succession

What about Camilla?

Camilla would not be able to ever inherit the role of sovereign, because people who marry into the royal family cannot take the hereditary title.

Camilla could not keep her title of Queen Consort in the event of Charless death, either. Kate Middleton would inherit it as the wife of the new sovereign, Prince William.

Camilla would technically be able to take the role of the queen-dowager, the title awarded to the widows of late kings, but its not yet known if she would actually use that moniker.

She also probably would not use the title of Queen Mother, a moniker used by Queen Elizabeth IIs mother once her husband died, because she is the stepmother to William and Harry.

Questions have always hung over Camillas title considering she is Charless second wife and not the biological mother of those next in line to the throne.

Princess Diana, mother of William and Harry, was always expected to be the next queen as Charless first wife.

Though she was divorced from Charles at the time of her death, her popularity means palace officials have always been careful not to make it seem like Camilla was replacing her.

For instance, Camilla chose not to be known as Princess of Wales because that was the title associated with Diana.

But, even when her title was shortened to Queen Camilla instead of Camilla, Queen Consort, on the coronation invitations, it raised plenty of eyebrows from people who had not expected the change.
Harry Styles avoided the Met Gala this year to avoid run-ins with Olivia Wilde and Emily Ratajkowski (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Harry Styles is said to have avoided last nights Met Gala like the bubonic plague so that he wouldnt have any awkward run-ins with his ex-girlfriend Olivia Wilde and his recent fling Emily Ratajkowski.

Styles, 29, graciously declined an invitation from Vogue icon Anna Wintour to the prestigious event after learning that both Wilde, 39, and Ratajkowski, 31, would be attending.

Styles was in a relationship with Dont Worry Darling director Wilde for two years until their November 2022 split.

Harry was invited to the Met Gala, but knowing that both of them were definitely going, he avoided it like it was the bubonic plague, an insider told DailyMail.com.

Wilde poses at the Met Gala (REUTERS)

He was told by his team that they would take all necessary steps to ensure that there was no awkward run-in with Olivia, but he was not trying to risk it at all.

Harry has no desire to have a face-to-face encounter with Olivia at this time.

The star-studded event was the first time that Wilde and Ratajkowski crossed paths since the Blurred lines model was pictured passionately kissing the former One Direction star on the streets of Tokyo.

The tension between the women escalated when Ratajkowski told Vogue Spain she feels bad for allegedly upsetting Wilde, who shes been friendly with in the past.

Ratajkowski stunned at Monday nights event (Getty Images for Karl Lagerfeld)

Its said that Wilde felt betrayed by the fling, which happened just weeks after the two ladies were seen hanging out and posing together for snaps at the Vanity Fair Oscars Party.

Prior to that, the pair were seen dancing side by side at one of Styles concerts for his Love On Tour shows.

However, Met Gala night went without incident and both women even headed to the same after party at New York Citys, Zero Bond.

Wilde and Styles split last November (Instagram)

Running into Olivia at an event with Emily would just be way too intense, the source added of styles, who became the first man to ever grace the cover of American Vogue on his own.

The 2023 Met Gala returned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a host of A-list stars gracing the carpet from Kim Kardashian to Cardi B.
During his tenure as the president of Harvard University, Larry Summers asked Jeffrey Epstein for a donation to his wifes non-profit, years after the disgraced financier was convicted of soliciting underage prostitutes and blacklisted by Harvard fundraisers.

Epstein donated millions of dollars to Harvard during Summerss tenure as the universitys president from 2001 to 2006. After Epsteins guilty plea in 2008, Harvard decided to reject donations from Epstein.

However, documents show that Summers, who is still a Harvard professor, had more than a dozen meetings scheduled with Epstein from 2013 through 2016, including dinners. A spokeswoman for Summers explained the pair discussed global economic issues, but the Journal disclosed that Summers had solicited a donation for a public-facing online poetry project run by his wife, Harvard professor Elisa New.

I need small scale philanthropy advice. My life will be better if i raise $1m for Lisa, Summers wrote in an email to Epstein in April 2014, obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Mostly it will go to make it a pbs series and for teacher training. Ideas?

The solicitation, which was followed by a series of meetings, ultimately resulted in a donation in the amount of $110,000.

The revelation was included in the second installment of a Wall Street Journal series which has already shed light on Epsteins intertwinement with now-CIA director William Burns and ex-White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, among others. The Journal has now revealed personal relationships the sex offender had with Summers while he was Harvard president, controversial director Woody Allen, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

These meetings, like the ones reported Sunday, all occurred after Epstein served jail time in 2008 for a sex crime involving a minor in Florida. Epstein also registered as a sex offender because of the incident. Accusations would continue to rack up until he was charged in 2019 with a sex-trafficking conspiracy, dying by suicide in a New York jail cell as he awaited trial.

Story continues

Woody Allen, the Oscar-winning director who remains controversial for marrying his ex-wifes adoptive daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, knew Epstein well. He and his wife attended dozens of dinners at Epsteins mansion and the director invited Epstein to film screenings. Woody never had a business meeting with Epstein and not once spent time with him without Soon-Yi also being present, a spokeswoman for Allen told the Journal.

Reid Hoffman, a billionaire venture capitalist and LinkedIn co-founder, also knew Epstein. Hoffman invited the sex offender to a 2015 dinner in Palo Alto. He also visited Epsteins private island in the Caribbean, Little St. James, at the behest of the then director of MITs Media Lab, Joi Ito. Hoffman said he wanted to raise funds for the university. It gnaws at me that, by lending my association, I helped his reputation, and thus delayed justice for his survivors, Hoffman said in an email to the Journal.

Other names included in the second stunning report from the Journal included former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, Norwegian diplomat and Oslo Accords negotiator Terje Rd-Larsen, the billionaire couple Glenn Dubin and Eva Andersson-Dubin, and Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of private-equity firm Apollo Global Management, who had more than 100 meetings scheduled with Epstein from 2013 to 2017.

More from National Review
Test scores in history and civics have declined slightly for eighth grade students in the U.S., according to results that show an increasing number of children lack a basic understanding of either subject.

The scores were released Wednesday by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The same assessment reported in October that every single state had seen a decline in math or reading scores amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest scores, officials said, reflect more of the impact of the disruptions from the virus that shuttered schools across the country.

At a time of some pessimism about the state of the U.S. democracy, the test results suggest many young people are struggling to understand how government works and the importance of civic participation. Nearly one-third of eighth grade students cannot describe the structure or function of government, according to the results.

Many U.S. schools aren't doing enough to reverse the trend, history and civics educators say.

About 68% of eighth graders said they are taking classes mainly focused on U.S. history. Thats compared with 72% of students in 2018. And only about half of eighth graders report taking a class mainly focused on civics and or government, which remains mostly unchanged compared to 2018, according to the report.

Were not putting a value there, and were not saying this is something that they really need to be active, informed and engaged in as they grow, said Kerry Sautner, chief learning officer at the National Constitution Center, a nonprofit organization in Pennsylvania.

The CivXNow Coalition, a civics education advocacy group, reported last year that 38 states require a stand-alone civics course to graduate high school and only seven states require civics in middle school.

Patrick Kelly, a government teacher in South Carolina, said he has seen a growing emphasis on ensuring students are doing well in reading and math, and rightfully so.

But every minute that you redirect to one place, its got to come from somewhere else. And so if literacy interventions dont have a connection to social studies, then we lose ground in social studies instruction, he said.

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The National Assessment of Educational Progress  known as the nations report card  tested about 7,800 students across the country in civics, and 8,000 students in U.S. history between January and March 2022. The test had last been given in 2018.

On a point scale of 0 to 500, the average U.S. history score dropped 5 points to 258, continuing a downward trend that began in 2014. Just 13% of eighth graders scored at or above the proficient level. The latest average score was one point lower than the results of the first U.S. history assessment in 1994.

In civics, the average score dropped 2 points to 150 between 2018 and 2022. Just 22% of eighth graders scored at or above the proficient level. The results, which are on a point scale of 0 to 300, are the first drop since 1998. The average score at its highest was 154 in 2014.

The civics test included open-ended questions that asked, for example, for students to name one advantage of having the government operate programs to provide for the needs of people, and to describe a way that political candidates use technology during political campaigns.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the scores highlight a need to provide more opportunities to learn about America's history and government.

"Banning history books and censoring educators from teaching these important subjects does our students a disservice and will move America in the wrong direction, Cardona said, referring to conservative efforts to impose new restrictions on how topics related to race and gender are taught.

Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said the results are an outright failure that should concern every parent.

The Department of Education chooses to ignore this flashing red light and opts to shove wokeness down the throats of school districts and students," said Foxx, of North Carolina.

According to the results, 40% of eighth grade students are performing below basic proficiency in history, meaning they likely cannot identify simple historical concepts in primary or secondary sources. Thirty-one percent are performing below basic proficiency in civics.

___

Data journalist Sharon Lurye contributed reporting from New Orleans.

___

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Endemol Shine - Channel 5

Home and Away spoilers follow for upcoming Australian episodes.

Home and Away has released the official teaser spoilers for next week's Australian episodes.

Justin Morgan's storyline with mysterious Andrew will take centre stage, after he recently welcomed the troubled teenager into his home.

In last week's episodes on Channel 7, Justin rushed to the rescue after a desperate cry for help from Andrew, who'd slipped a note into his backpack while he was carrying out community service.

Channel 5

Justin went to see Andrew at home, but found him unconscious due to malnourishment. With Andrew refusing to provide any answers over his home life once he was admitted to hospital, it was agreed that he could stay with Justin and Leah Patterson for a while.

The new teaser spoilers suggest that Andrew's background will finally be explored next week, as the show delves into his traumatic memories.

Meanwhile, fan favourite Marilyn Chambers finds herself in a legal wrangle with Stunning Organics, a cosmetics company which is holding her to a strict sales contract.

Channel 5

Elsewhere, Tane Parata's cousin Kahu continues to cause trouble, and Rose Delaney and Mali Hudson must decide whether they can just stay friends.

The full teaser spoilers follow below.

Monday, May 8  7pm

Cash and Justin uncover a shocking truth. Kahu tries to secure a cash investment. Lyrik are offered a lifeline.

Tuesday, May 9  7pm

Andrew's origins begin to unravel. Eden refuses to accept Cash's helping hand. Alf has a 'secret weapon' in the fight against Stunning Organics.

Wednesday, May 10  7pm

Cash gets perspective on Eden's decision. Andrew's memories unveil a dark origin. Marilyn makes a stand against Stunning Organics.

Channel 5

Thursday, May 11  7pm

Rose plays cat and mouse to avoid Mali. Hurricane Mackenzie returns to Salt. Justin and Leah uncover horrific truths.

Thursday, May 11  7.30pm

Tane demands the truth from Kahu. Rose and Mali try to be friends. Xander can't catch a break. Remi hatches a new plan for Lyrik.

Story continues

Thursday, May 11  8pm

Kahu comes clean. Remi makes a bold call. Marilyn gets what she wished for, with a catch.

These episodes will air on Channel 5 in early July, due to the ongoing transmission gap between the UK and Australia.

Home and Away airs weekdays at 1.45pm on Channel 5 and 6pm on 5STAR. First-look screenings air at 6.30pm on 5STAR and the show also streams on My5.

In Australia, the show airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7pm on Channel 7 and streams on 7plus.

Selected classic episodes are available via Prime Video in the UK.

Read more Home and Away spoilers on our dedicated homepage

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Depsite a small drop in crime in New York, the transit system is becoming of increasing concern - Bim/E+

A 30-year-old man has died after being placed in a choke hold by another passenger while travelling on a New York train.

According to witnesses, the victim, an African American, who is understood to have been living on the streets, boarded the train and began shouting.

A 24-year-old passenger, described by local media as a Marine veteran, put him in a choke hold and pulled him to the ground. A second passenger helped keep the man restrained.

During the encounter, which was filmed by freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez, the man struggled to escape.

Moments earlier he had boarded the train and started yelling: "I don't have food, I don't have to drink, I'm fed up... I don't mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I'm ready to die."

Then, Mr Vazquez wrote on Facebook: "Although, so far, the disturbed did not seem to want to attack anyone, a young man with brown hair and grey shawl grabbed him by the neck and laid him on the floor as he tied him with his legs."

Held for several minutes

He was held in that position for several minutes, before being released. By that point, he was not moving. The man was taken to Lennox Hospital, in Greenwich Village, where he was pronounced dead.

Mr Vazquez told the New York Times that he felt "conflicted" by the events on the train. "I am confused now because I'm not sure how to think about what the young man did," he said. "He was trying to help."

A New York Police Department spokesman told The Telegraph the incident was still under investigation.

There has been mounting concern about violence on the city's transit system, although crime has started falling after New York's mayor, Eric Adams, increased police deployment on the network.

Police in New York are banned from using the choke hold as a means of restraint and an officer who killed an African American, Eric Garner in 2014, was sacked.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
A Hopkins Middle School student was verbally, physically and sexually attacked in a hallway by another student who was not supposed to be there, according to a lawsuit filed by the victims parent.

The lawsuit claims that school officials failed to protect the victim from harm and violated South Carolina state law. The parent is suing the district, along with the school and the state Department of Education.

The State is not naming the parent to avoid identifying the student.

On April 21, 2022, the victim was assaulted while walking to her next class, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit said the attacker was a detained student because of his dangerous and violent behavior. As a detained student, he should not have not allowed in the hallways during a class change, according to the lawsuit.

School administrators failed to do anything about the assault, according to the lawsuit, and the victim was shuffled from various administrators to report the incident, questioned about what she had said prior to the incident and shamed into believing this assault was her fault.

A week later, on April 28, 2022, the parent informed Richland 1 and Hopkins Middle School officials that her daughter had been assaulted, threatened, frightened and bullied, according to the lawsuit.

School officials, as well as the state Department of Education, were grossly negligent in not properly training staff to prevent and deal with harassment, or accommodate the victims subsequent trauma, the lawsuit says. They were also grossly negligent and reckless to allow the offending student to be released from his detention unsupervised.

In the aftermath of the attack, the lawsuit alleges that the victim continues to experience trauma and emotional distress because of the event, which has at times has included depression, nausea, vomiting and headaches. She is seeing a therapist.

The lawsuit also claims that the defendants violated the Safe School Climate Act by failing to provide a safe learning environment. Under South Carolina law, the act prohibits harassment, intimidation or bullying and dictates that any such incident should be reported and consequences be appropriate.

Story continues

Karen York, a Richland 1 spokesperson, said the district does not comment on pending litigation.

The Department of Education could not be reached for comment.

The State has reached out to the parents lawyers.
Perhaps one of the most misunderstood elements of gender-affirming care is hormone therapy. (Getty Images; Illustration by Victoria Ellis for Yahoo)

In a world in which gender is becoming increasingly fluid, trans and nonbinary people are taking unprecedented control over their bodies through a variety of gender-affirming health care services. And a major, often misunderstood, offering in that toolkit is hormone therapy, which involves administering hormones  estrogen for transgender women and testosterone for transgender men  to bring about physical changes in the body that are consistent with one's gender identity.

Hormone therapy  also called gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), hormone replacement therapy (HRT), transgender hormone therapy (THT), estrogen hormone therapy (ERT) or testosterone hormone therapy (TRT) when used in this context  has as of late been shrouded in controversy, especially when it comes to the therapy for young people. It's sparked impassioned protests around the ethics and practicalities of the medical intervention and led to 17 states banning gender-affirming hormones for minors who are transgender (people who feel their physical body doesn't match their gender identity) and nonbinary (who don't identify with any gender at all), as conservative lawmakers argue it may have irreversible side effects later in life  though the mental-health benefits, argue supporters, far outweigh any potential medical risks.

Adding to the discourse was an announcement made in April by YouTuber Chris Tyson, 26, a frequent collaborator with YouTube celebrity MrBeast, who has 150 million subscribers. Tyson announced in a tweet that they identify as gender nonconforming (neither male or female) and have begun taking estrogen as part of their gender transition process.

HRT, and its only been 2 months  https://t.co/uAWOw59eMm  Chris (@chris) April 6, 2023

Tysons message prompted a wave of anti-trans backlash online so intense that MrBeast (whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson) stepped in to defend his friend in a tweet against the "transphobia." Soon after, Tyson began sharing their experience with what they called "life-saving" hormones, imploring lawmakers to "let people make informed decisions about their own bodies."

Of course, Tyson is far from the only person to use and advocate for hormone therapy. For a growing number of gender-expansive individuals, it's become a crucial part of their journey toward self-discovery. And as society grapples with changing attitudes toward gender and identity, experts say the experiences of people like Tyson offer a glimpse into a complex and evolving landscape.

Hormone therapy: What is it?

As Susan Boulware, associate professor of clinical pediatrics and medical director for Yale School of Medicine's Gender Program, tells Yahoo Life, hormone therapy is a broad term used to describe "individualized dosing of medications" that replace one's natural hormones, estrogen or testosterone, when the body doesn't make enough of it, or does not produce it at all.

Though hormone replacement therapy has been a popular form of treatment for decades, used to offset symptoms of menopause in women and andropause (aging-related hormone changes) in men, hormone therapy has also been a tool for gender transitions since the early 20th century.

In the 1930s, when scientists were first "able to synthesize the hormones in a lab," Boulware explains, physicians saw huge benefits for people experiencing severe gender dysphoria  defined by the American Psychiatric Association as the "psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one's sex assigned at birth," based on external genitalia, "and one's gender identity," meaning the psychological sense of one's gender.

"In 1939, Michael Dillon was among the first, if not the first, transgender man to request testosterone for masculinization (and later, the first trans man on record to have gender-affirming surgery)," she says. "He himself was a physician and had heard about the use of T [testosterone] to treat excessive menstrual bleeding so he asked that physician for T as gender-affirming therapy."

"As the availability of testosterone and estrogen increased, its use among trans and nonbinary folks did as well, though obviously to much less extent than in cisgender folks," Boulware says, referring to those whose biological sex is in line with their gender identity. A growing number of trans pioneers also blossomed during this time  including Dora Richter, the first known trans person to undergo gonadectomy (removal of the testes), in 1921, and vaginoplasty (creation of a vagina and vulva) in 1931; and Lili Elbe, the first known trans woman to undergo hormone therapy as part of a transition process, before beginning surgical interventions in 1930. (The 2015 film The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne, was inspired by Elbe's life.)

Lili Elbe (1886-1931) was the first known trans woman to undergo hormone therapy as part of a transition process. (Photo: ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Nearly 20 years later, doctors like Harry Benjamin (the "American father of transgender health care," Boulware notes) began using hormones to treat people experiencing gender dysphoria. And throughout the rest of the 20th century, many physicians have followed his example.

Regarding the term "hormone-replacement therapy," or HRT, now being used by many laypeople (including Tyson) in the context of trans-related hormone therapy, Dr. Ole-Petter Hamnvik, an endocrinologist at Brigham and Womens Hospital specializing in gender-affirming hormone therapy, tells Yahoo Life that it's not the preferred medical term. Most physicians, he explains, prefer using the term "gender-affirmation hormone therapy" as opposed to HRT as a way to specify the treatment.

"It's just easier to use 'gender-affirmation hormone therapy' so we can be very specific about what we're talking about regarding trans health care," he says.

Physical, mental and social impacts

Hamnvik says the majority of trans/nonbinary people on hormone therapy have seen immense "improvement in their emotional and mental wellbeing." Its use is supported by many leading healthcare organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the American Nurses Association and the World Medical Association. And research shows GAHT being associated with lower risks of suicide among trans youth.

"Some of that could be direct effects of the hormones on the brain," he surmises of the positive mental-health outcomes. "Some of that could also just be that people are responding positively to treatment and its physical changes, or just simply knowing they are taking hormones and that it's going to change their body in the right direction."

For transgender men on testosterone, physical changes include achieving a more masculine appearance (resulting in facial hair, a lower voice and other desired effects), while for transgender women on estrogen, the therapy helps to achieve a more feminine appearance (such as breast development, reduced body hair and a redistribution of body fat). When nonbinary people use hormone therapy, it's typically to masculinize or feminize their bodies in subtle ways to create a more androgynous appearance that is neither male nor female presenting.

"Some physical changes can happen fairly quickly, within a few months," Hamnvik notes. "But many of the changes take three to four years to be fully established, so it's a pretty slow process overall." (Some patients also prefer to "micro-dose" hormones for an even slower, gradual transition.)

Should someone choose to stop hormones, the degree to which the physical effects can be reversed depends on how long a patient has been taking them: For those taking estrogen, some breast growth, and possibly reduced or absent fertility, are not reversible. Similarly, for those taking testosterone, clitoral growth, facial hair growth, voice changes and male-pattern baldness are not reversible.

As far as side effects, besides possibly reduced fertility, a recent study from the American College of Cardiology found hormones may increase risks of stroke, heart attack and blood clots in some people.

Still, even when hormones bring about a desired effect, experiencing the change to your body in real time can be shocking and triggering for some. That's why, Hamnvik adds, physicians typically use "data-informed consent" when prescribing hormone therapy to adult patients, which "assumes that the adult is able to weigh the risks and benefits of a given intervention, and sort of make a decision about what's right for them." For adolescents, however, numerous "mental health evaluations" and "parental consents" are required, he explains.

"That being said, most of my patients come with an already established relationship with a therapist," he says. "I think that is oftentimes helpful for someone who's going to undergo what could be a life-changing intervention."

'Time to be patient'

Despite immense social progress, ongoing anti-trans sentiment has led to increased harassment against physicians who practice trans health care, which has been top of mind for doctors and patients alike.

"I just came out of my clinic, and in every single visit today the political situation came up as a concern for my patients," Hamnvik says. That's supported by the latest report from Trevor Project, an LGBTQ suicide prevention organization, showing that one in three queer youths' mental health was poor "most of the time or always" due to anti-LGBTQ policies and legislation in states like Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia, among others, that have enacted laws limiting or banning gender-affirming care for minors.

Its never too late, to start being yourself  pic.twitter.com/UqiQ6QkU4K  Chris (@chris) April 7, 2023

Trans patients are increasingly anxious about the possibility of politicians taking away their "life-saving treatment," explains Hamnvik. "I've had patients who've decided to start gender-affirming interventions sooner than expected so they can get it done before it's potentially made illegal, which is what many people are fearing nationwide."

In the coming months, Hammvik remains concerned for "the mental health and wellbeing" of trans and nonbinary people living in states that are attacking their health care, which is why he says it's never been more important for other doctors to "provide the public with factual information about gender-affirming hormone therapy."

"People's lives are at stake, and we must support them," he adds.

Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Life's newsletter. Sign up here.
WASHINGTONHouse Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is done waiting on Republicans.

He's moving forward with a plan to "stop right-wing extremists from triggering a dangerous default on America's debt."

Republicans who refuse to raise the debt limit are the "right-wing extremists" Jeffries is referring to, though House Republicans may disagree with his assessment because they passed a bill last week to do just that.

But the bill that passed April 26 had strings attached $4.5 trillion worth of spending cuts in exchange to raise the government's borrowing power and avoid the first default in U.S. history. It's a bill Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer described as "dead on arrival" and President Joe Biden said he would veto.

House Democrats began taking steps Tuesday to bypass Republicans and force a vote on a debt limit increase. It's the latest salvo in the fight to pay America's bills.

Deep cuts: White House says GOP debt ceiling plan would cause largest VA benefits cuts in US history

U.S. House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks during a weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol on April 28, 2023 in Washington, DC.

How House Dems are trying to force a debt limit vote

House Democrats are using a discharge petition  a rarely used procedural move to get a bill out of committee  to force a vote with support from 218 members. It would require the support of the entire Democratic caucus and at least five Republicans willing to cross party lines.

In a letter to colleagues Tuesday, Jeffries said House Democrats are using "all options at our disposal to avoid a default."

"The filing of a debt ceiling measure to be brought up on the discharge calendar preserves an important option. It is now time for MAGA Republicans to act in a bipartisan manner to pay America's bills without extreme conditions," he said.

Democrats introduced an emergency rule Tuesday that allows them to begin collecting signatures May 16 on a discharge petition that could force a vote on their bill  if they can get a handful of Republicans to join them.

Story continues

Some Senate Republicans are encouraging House Republicans to hold the party line. "House Republicans: don't defect!" Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said in a tweet.

'They produced a ransom note' Hakeem Jeffries blasts House GOP debt limit plan, wants real budget

What's the secret plan?

The vehicle for the vote is a bill from Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif., filed on Jan. 30.

The title  The Breaking the Gridlock Act  could have given it away. But the legislation wasn't focused on the debt crisis. It included so many Democratic wishes, from a task force to help grandparents raising grandchildren to a grant program to protect nonprofits against terrorist attacks, that it was referred to 20 committees.

Being referred to all those committees, sitting without action for months, is how Democrats are now able to use this shell of a bill to use the discharge petition. A bill has to sit in committee for at least 30 days to trigger a discharge petition.

And being introduced by DeSaulnier, a lesser known congressman compared with leaders like Jeffries, also helped the legislation fly under the radar.

What the debt limit fight means for you

In a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Jan. 13, 2023, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen implored Congress to raise the debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion: Failure to meet the governments obligations would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday that the U.S. could run out of money to pay its bills as soon as June 1.

Biden shortly thereafter invited the top four congressional leaders  House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.; Jeffries, D-N.Y.; Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.  to the White House on May 9 to discuss the debt limit. McCarthy accepted the invitation, ending a three-month stall in negotiations.

But the warning from Yellen did little to move the two parties closer. Many Republican lawmakers said Tuesday that there's no way they will vote to raise the debt limit without spending cuts.

If the government defaults on its debt  something the U.S. has never done - financial markets could tank, hurting 401(k)s and other investments. It would mean higher home and auto loan rates and credit card payments, economists have warned, and could stop payments on government programs such as Social Security and military salaries. Bondholders would not be paid what they're owed on time, and a domino effect could trigger a recession and stock market crash, economists have said.

Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 times to permanently raise, temporarily extend or revise the definition of the debt limit  49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents, according to the Treasury Department.

'The clock is ticking' House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to meet with President Joe Biden on debt limit

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House Dems take steps to force debt limit vote, pay America's bills
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer issued a subpoena on Wednesday requiring the FBI to turn over an unclassified record that reportedly details allegations of a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.

The subpoena comes after Republican Senator Chuck Grassleys office was made aware of the FBI-generated whistleblower form. The FD-1023 form allegedly outlines a scheme involving the exchange of money for policy decisions.

It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose, Grassley and Comer wrote in a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray and attorney general Merrick Garland. Based on the alleged specificity within the document, it would appear that the DOJ and the FBI have enough information to determine the truth and accuracy of the information contained within it.

In the letter obtained by National Review, Grassley and Comer write that it remains unclear what steps, if any, were taken to investigate the matter.

The significant public interest in assessing the FBIs response to this information, as well as growing concern about the DOJ and the FBIs track record of allowing political bias to infect their decision-making process, necessitate exacting congressional oversight, the letter adds.

The subpoena calls on Wray to turn over all FD-1023 forms created or modified in June 2020 containing the term Biden.

We believe the FBI possesses an unclassified internal document that includes very serious and detailed allegations implicating the current President of the United States, Grassley said in a statement on Wednesday. What we dont know is what, if anything, the FBI has done to verify these claims or investigate further. The FBIs recent history of botching politically charged investigations demands close congressional oversight.

Comer said the information provided by the whistleblower raises concern that Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national.

Story continues

The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself. Senator Grassley and I will seek the truth to ensure accountability for the American people, Comer said.

The subpoena is the latest effort by the House Oversight Committee to investigate the Biden familys foreign business dealings. Comer told Fox News in March he believes at least half a dozen members of Bidens family members have used their name to turn a profit from overseas business schemes.

Hunter Biden, James Biden, Hallie Biden and an unknown fourth Biden received a total of $1.3 million in payments from accounts related to Biden family business associate Rob Walker in 2017 shortly after Walker received a $3 million wire from a Chinese energy company, Comer previously revealed.

Comer said it is unclear what services were provided to obtain this exorbitant amount of money.

The Oversight Committee is concerned about the national security implications resulting from President Bidens family receiving millions of dollars from foreign nationals, the chairman said at the time. 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.

Subpoenaed bank records show that State Energy HK Limited, a firm affiliated with CEFC China Energy, wired $3 million to Robinson Walker, LLC on March 1, 2017  less than two months after then-vice president Joe Biden left office. The following day, Robinson Walker, LLC wired $1,065,000 to European Energy and Infrastructure Group in Abu Dhabi, a company associated with James Gilliar, another business partner to Hunter Biden, according to a memo from Comer.

The Biden family members and their companies then began receiving incremental payments over a period of approximately three months, the memo states.

The memo also revealed that Walkers account sent money to Biden family members in 2015 while Joe Biden was still in office.

On November 5, 2015, Robinson Walker, LLC received a wire from a company (the Committee continues to investigate the identity of the account holder for this company) that had an overseas bank account in the amount of $179,836.86, the memo adds. That amount appears to have been split between Walker, Gilliar and the Biden family. Hunter Bidens account received $59,000 on November 2015.

Emails found on Hunter Bidens laptop previously raised concerns about President Bidens potential involvement in his sons business schemes.

One infamous email purportedly detailed a business arrangement between a Chinese company and the Biden family. It referenced a proposed equity split: 20 for H and 10 held by H for the big guy?

Tony Bobulinski, who is listed as a recipient of the email first published by the New York Post, offered further detail in 2020 in a statement to Fox News.The reference to the Big Guy in the much-publicized May 13, 2017, email is in fact a reference to Joe Biden, said Bobulinski, who says he was brought on as CEO of Sinohawk Holdings by Hunter Biden and James Gilliar, the sender of the email.

Sinohawk was a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family, he said.

More from National Review
Three McDonalds franchise operators were fined a total of $212,744 after investigators found 305 children under 16 working longer than legally permitted  and two 10-year-olds working unpaid  at 62 locations across four states, the Department of Labor said Tuesday.

The departments Wage and Hour Division uncovered these child labor law violations in Kentucky, Maryland, Indiana and Ohio and found Bauer Food LLC, Archways Richwood LLC and Bell Restaurant Group I LLC liable.

The division said the 10-year-olds, who worked at McDonalds restaurants run by Bauer Food in Louisville, sometimes worked as late as 2 a.m. and prepared and distributed food orders, cleaned the store, worked at the drive-thru window and operated a register.

The division also learned that one of the two children was allowed to operate a deep fryer, a prohibited task for workers under 16 years old, the department said Tuesday. For these violations, the department fined Bauer Food $39,711.

The franchisee employed a total of 24 children under the age of 16 and had them work more than the legally permitted hours. As a result, the minors would sometimes illegally work overlong shifts or too many shifts throughout a week  which occurred whether or not school is in session.

Federal child labor laws regulate the kind of work employees under 18 can perform, as well as the hours theyre allowed to work. For 14-to-15-year-olds, that means only working outside of school hours, no longer than three hours on school days and not after 7 p.m.

The three separate McDonald's franchise operators were fined a total of $212,744.

The three separate McDonald's franchise operators were fined a total of $212,744.

Too often, employers fail to follow the child labor laws that protect young workers, said Karen Garnett-Civils, the divisions local director. Under no circumstances should there ever be a 10-year-old child working in a fast-food kitchen around hot grills, ovens and deep fryers.

Bauer Foods told CNN Tuesday that the 10-year-olds were children of a night manager who were visiting their parent, however, and that the franchise operator never agreed to nor approved them performing tasks prohibited by child labor laws.

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Tiffanie Boyd, senior vice president and chief people officer at McDonalds USA, nonetheless told the outlet Tuesday that these reports are unacceptable, deeply troubling and run afoul of the high expectations we have for the entire McDonalds brand.

Archways Richwood, which runs 27 McDonalds locations, employed 242 children between 14 and 15. The Labor Department said most worked earlier or later in the day than the law permits and more than three hours on school days and fined the operator $143,566.

The investigation found 14- and 15-year-olds were working longer shifts at McDonald's locations than legally allowed.

The investigation found 14- and 15-year-olds were working longer shifts at McDonald's locations than legally allowed.

We are seeing an increase in federal child labor violations, including allowing minors to operate equipment or handle types of work that endangers them or employs them for more hours or later in the day than federal law allows, said Garnett-Civils in the news release.

The Bell Restaurant Group, meanwhile, had 39 children between 14 and 15 working during prohibited hours, for longer than allowed and even during school hours, said the division. This, as well as their failure to pay workers overtime wages, spurred a $43,997 fine.

An employer who hires young workers must know the rules, Garnett-Civils said in Tuesdays news release. An employer, parent or young worker with questions can contact us for help understanding their obligations and rights under the law.

The Wage and Hour Division offers confidential assistance in more than 200 languages to help people comply with child labor laws via a toll-free hotline at 866-4US-WAGE. Workers and employers can learn more about these protections on the YouthRules! website.

Related...
(Bloomberg) -- Hungarys approval of legislation aimed at de-politicizing the courts is only a first step needed to unlock billions of euros of funds frozen by the European Union over rule-of-law and corruption concerns, a top official from the bloc said.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Prime Minister Viktor Orbans government must first implement changes envisioned by judicial legislation overwhelmingly approved by Hungarian lawmakers on Wednesday, European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova told reporters in Brussels.

It must then meet all 27 so-called super-milestones imposed on Hungary to address long-standing concerns over the rule of law and eroding democratic standards to access the funds, she said. Those include measures to tackle corruption and protect academic freedom as well as asylum and LGBTQ rights.

Procedurally speaking, this is a very good step forward and Hungary is responding to our requests, she said. But, it is not the end of the process. Further steps will need to follow. We will also analyze the laws adopted, which also need to enter into force.

Last week, EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn had raised the Hungarian governments hopes of moving more quickly on fund access by saying that approval of the judiciary changes may help Hungary tap 13 billion ($14.3 billion) of the 22 billion pot of cohesion money earmarked for the country. Additional measures are needed to tap the rest, as well as 5.8 billion in Covid-recovery funds, he said on April 27.

The EU decision in December to withhold Hungarys funding was the culmination of years of dispute in which Orban has railed against Brussels for what he sees as meddling in Hungarys internal affairs while using its cash to finance a self-styled illiberal democracy that spurns the blocs liberal, multicultural values.

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Hahn met Orban and his key ministers in Budapest on Tuesday to discuss EU funds as part of a tour of the blocs capitals. He didnt issue a statement after the meetings.

Among the changes, the judiciary bill strengthens the remit of a council of judges to supervise the courts, limits the right of the government to make appeals to the Constitutional Court and automates the distribution of cases among judges to avoid meddling.

The changes, however, only partially address long-standing concerns, according to the Budapest-based rights organization Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

One is that the head of the judiciary may also be elected to lead the council of judges, which is supposed to supervise the courts, spokesman Zsolt Zadori said.

The formal preliminary assessment by the commission of the legislation concerned and its full implementation under the recovery plan will only be possible after the full set of documents covering all 27 super milestones and targets has been officially submitted by Hungary as part of the first payment request, Jourova said. So, its too early.

--With assistance from Lyubov Pronina.

(Updates with EU Commission comments throughout.)

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Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Getty

To understand that the Milky Way galaxy isnt a uniform structure, all you have to do is look up at the night sky and find the constellation Sagittarius. From our point of view here on Earth, the stars are thickest in the middle bulge of our spiral-shaped galaxya bulge thats visible as a smear of starlight behind Sagittarius. Thats the milk in Milky Way.

But its not just galaxies that have texture like this. The whole universe does, too. There are areas that are thick with galaxies and home to huge concentrations of mass and energy, and there are areas where galaxies are sparse and things seem as desolate as you can get. The latter, so-called voids, are specialand could hold clues about the forces that shape, well, everything.

Voids contain just a few galaxies that are relatively pristine, unaffected by neighboring galaxies. Void galaxies are therefore a natural laboratory for us to observe how isolation affects galaxy development, and possibly one of the best ways to do so, Lori Porter, a University of Louisville astronomer, told The Daily Beast.

This Hypnotizing Spiral Galaxy Can Tell Us How Stars Are Born

For a new peer-reviewed study, which has been accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Porter and her co-authors focused on some of the universes loneliest galaxies and asked a simple question: How are they shaped?

The answer could hint at why theyre shaped that way. Do internal or external processes dominate? Porter asked. In other words, is a galaxy the way it is because of how it interacted with other galaxies? Or did it evolve of its volition?

Enlisting tens of thousands of amateur astronomers for help, Porter and her co-authors scrutinized nearly 16,000 galaxies, identified 400 void galaxies among them, then compared the void galaxies to galaxies in more crowded galactic neighborhoodswhich they called field galaxies.

Field and void galaxies have more similarities than differences, Porter and her team stressed in their study. However, we do see evidence from our conclusions that point to how isolated galaxies may evolve differently from their counterparts, they wrote. While many galaxies, in both crowded and lonely parts of the universe, have big fat bulges in their middles, void galaxies almost always have prominent bulges.

Story continues

The Universes Oldest Galaxies Hold Its Biggest Secrets

This finding might seem trivial. Its not. The structure of galaxies results from the interplay of two formation paths, University of Hawaii astronomer Brent Tully, who was not involved in Porters study, told The Daily Beast.

One is the slow accumulation of interstellar gas, which tends to produce prominent bulges. The other is the collision of galaxies, which tends to redistribute solid matter from one galaxy to another and create wide, flat disks of stars and planets that make a galaxys central bulge relatively less prominent.

These categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive. But broadly speaking, a galaxys shape points to either a mostly gassy origin or one mostly defined by collisions. Evaluating the relative importance of disks versus bulges is garnering evidence about the formation history of a galaxy, Tully said.

But simply spotting a void galaxy, to say nothing of accurately determining its shape, takes an enormous amount of work. Void galaxies are very, very far away from Earththe closest is around 17 million light-years away. That makes them extremely dim in our night sky.

The Galaxy Mass and Assembly project. GAMA

Porter and her team started with a huge dataset from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly project, an aggregation of imagery from six different large telescopes: five on the ground in Australia and Chile and twoone each from NASA and the European Space Agencyin orbit. The GAMA dataset contains snapshots of around 375,000 of the hundreds of billions of galaxies that populate the known universe. Porters team focused on 15,710 of them.

Thats a lot of images. Scanning even a fraction of them for void galaxies is more work than Porter and her seven co-authors could handle. They needed help. Lots of it.

So they partnered with Galaxy Zoo, an organization led by Haverford College astrophysicist Karen Masters. Galaxy Zoo connects amateur astronomers with raw imagery and provides them instructions for contributing to major research projects. Citizen science is absolutely critical for work like this, Benne Holwerda, another University of Louisville astronomer and one of Porters co-authors, told The Daily Beast.

Porter, Holwerda, their co-authors and 24,000 volunteers scrutinized each image for the dim smudges that might conceivably be void galaxies, then tried to assess their overall shape. Their judgements could be imprecise, so it was best to get second opinions on each. With a single person, expert or not, one can disagree or there are mistakes, Holwerda said. With voting from many citizen scientists, one can compare.

Analyzing the resulting data, Porter and her co-authors concluded that void galaxies are bulgier than field galaxies. They werent shocked. The definite presence of bulges, particularly those that are obvious [or] dominant round ones, makes sense, they wrote.

A bulge is where a galaxys oldest stars are concentrated. When a galaxy runs into, or close to, a neighboring galaxy, it might scrape off some of its neighbors matter. But this new material tends to spin off into the galaxys disk, where it might form new stars and planets. The more the disk grows, the smaller the original bulge appears in comparison.

But what about galaxies that are all alone in their corners of the universe, with no opportunities for swapping solid matter with neighbors? As a result of their isolation, the lack of material to accrete would result in the bulge being far more dominant than the disk, Porter and her co-authors wrote. Lonely void galaxies just keep accumulating gas, and getting relatively bulgier. Something thats much less likely to happen in the universes more crowded regions.

Categorizing void galaxies, and defining just how unusual they are compared to normal field galaxies, is just a first step. Void galaxies are just different enough from other galaxies, on average, that their star systems and planets might be different, too. If we can identify further properties of void galaxies that set them apart from galaxies in denser parts of the universe, some of these properties may also be important in planet formation, Porter said.

New James Webb Telescope Photo Shows off Phantom Galaxy in Glorious Color

If and when we get a close look at the planets inside a void galaxy, we just might find something really special. But verifying that possibility requires much closer surveys of faraway galaxies. The Wide Area Vista Extragalactic Survey, which will lean heavily on the new Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, plans to image 1.7 million galaxies over the next several years.

WAVES should allow astronomers to identify more void galaxies. The void galaxies we [already] found themselves can be studied in more detail, as well, Holwerda said.

Right now all we can do is locate some of the closer voids galaxies and determine their shape. Theres so much more to learn about these lonely galaxies, once weve got the technology to see with greater precision past the dense milky smear of our own galaxy.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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As he looks around at the actual and potential field of Republican presidential candidates, it appears former GOP Rep. Will Hurd of Texas doesnt like what he sees.

"The GOP will continue to lose to Democrats if Donald Trump is the nominee," Hurd tells Fox News.

Hurd, a former CIA clandestine officer who was the only Black Republican in the House during his tenure in Congress from 2015 to 2021, is not a fan of the former president, so his criticisms of Trump come as no surprise.

But when it comes to 2024, the former president who launched his third straight White House campaign in November is the overwhelming front-runner right now in the race for the GOP presidential nomination as the field of actual and likely contenders continues to grow, and Hurd is concerned.

WHAT WILL HURD TOLD FOX NEWS ABOUT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT

"Im not satisfied with the field as it stands right now. No one is taking on Trump effectively, or presenting a vision for the future," Hurd emphasized.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Hurd will return later this month for his third visit this year to New Hampshire  which holds the first primary and second contest overall in the Republican presidential nominating calendar  hinting at a potential 2024 campaign.

"Ive served my country before, and I wont rule out the opportunity to do it again," he said.

WHO'S IN AND WHO'S ON THE SIDELINES  YOUR GUIDE TO THE 2024 GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION RACE

Hurd grabbed national attention last spring during a well-publicized book tour for "American Reboot: An Idealists Guide to Getting Big Things Done." In his book, Hurd urged his party to rethink its style of politics and offered ideas to reform Americas political system and keep the nation competitive against China and other powers.

In November, the day after an expected red wave turned into a trickle in the midterm elections, Hurd posted an 800-word essay encouraging Americans who were upset with the choice of candidates from the two major parties to become more involved in primary elections  which are often dominated by Democratic and Republican base voters.

Story continues

Former Republican Rep. Will Hurd of Texas greets activists at the New Hampshire GOP annual meeting, on Jan. 28, 2023 in Salem, N.H.

"One of the things that we have to recognize, and the Republican Party needs to come to grips with is that weve been losing. I dont have to tell you that seven out of the eight last popular elections were lost by Republicans. We lost the House in 2018. We lost the Senate and the White House in 2020. We did not take the House back by the margin we should have in 2022," Hurd stressed in a recent interview with Fox News Digital in Iowa, the state that leads off the GOP primary and caucus schedule.

Looking ahead to next year, Hurd said that "the GOP has an opportunity in 2024 but we need candidates that can appeal to independents and that can appeal to Democrats. Theyre wanting that because everybody thinks the country is on the wrong track."

Hurd said that the voters hes met with "want something bigger than themselves. They want to believe in something. They believe that our best days are ahead of us, and they want someone who recognizes that we need commonsense to deal with these complicated problems in this complicated world were living in."

FOX NEWS TO HOST FIRST 2024 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DEBATE

Asked if he needs to get into the White House race before the first Republican presidential primary debate  a Fox News hosted showdown in August in Milwaukee, Wisconsin  Hurd agreed, saying "I think anyone running for office, there are key hurdles that have to be met and you have to have organizations and boots on the ground and things like that. Those are all decisions that anybody running for office needs to be able to consider."

If Hurd runs, hell face off against candidates with much greater name ID and much larger campaign war chests  such as Trump, former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who launched her campaign in February, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, whos scheduled to declare his candidacy later this month. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence are expected to enter the White House race in the coming weeks. Also in the race are former two-term Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, as well as entrepreneur and conservative commentator Vivek Ramaswamy and businessman Perry Johnson, who have pledged to pour millions of dollars of their personal wealth into their campaigns.

Asked how he can compete, Hurd told Fox News "the person that has the most money doesnt always win," and emphasized that "the message matters."

Former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas (center), who's considering a Republican presidential run in 2024, speaks at a gathering of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, on April 22, 2023 in Clive, Iowa

Hurd spoke with Fox News on the sidelines of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Spring Kick-off, where he and a half dozen other actual and potential 2024 Republican presidential contenders spoke in front of over 1,100 Hawkeye State evangelical voters, who enjoy outsized influence in Iowas GOP politics.

Hurds upbeat message of unity to the crowd stood in contrast to many of the other speakers  who spotlighted the current political battles over abortion, transgender rights, "wokeism," and other hot button social issues.

But Hurd seemed to keep his distance from those issues  which dominate many of the discussions in a Republican Party reshaped by Trump and focused on fighting the left.

"If there's one thing you need to know about me," Hurd told the audience. "I think America is the greatest country on Earth, and we're better together."
ZNPP

The agency told Ukrainian regulators that Russian troops have placed military equipment, weapons, and explosives in the turbine hall of ZNPPs fourth reactor.

Read also: IAEA chief contemplates Russia visit for nuclear talks after touring ZNPP

In its report, SNRI notes that in late July 2022, Russian military equipment and ammunition already were spotted at the facility.

According to the message, these reckless actions by Russian forces pose significant hazards to both personnel of the nuclear power plant and residents of nearby settlements.

Read also: March 9 mass missile attack, Poland to transfer all MiGs, ZNPP out of power again

Zaporizhzhia NPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, and has been occupied by Russian forces since March 4. Several ZNPP facilities have been damaged by Russian shelling, and the station's employees are captives of the occupying troops.

Read also: Energoatom demands compensation from Russia for occupation of ZNPP

The Kremlin uses the site as cover for its forces, as Ukraine cant return fire for the risk of causing a nuclear calamity.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
When Shiva Rajbhandari won a seat on the Boise school board in September 2022, the 18-year-old made national headlines for besting a far-right incumbent in a state known for book bans and critical race theory crackdowns.

But after spending most of a school year in a role at the center of Americas education culture wars, the high school senior said hes used his first-hand experiences to be a voice of moderation on the seven-member board.

In the face of extremist views, he counters with a dose of reality: Regardless of what Tucker Carlson says is going on in Idaho schools, heres whats actually going on, hell offer. Only students can provide that on-the-ground perspective.

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In Boise, Rajbhandaris election win has put in motion a chain reaction of efforts to elevate student voices. The school board now includes a brand new youth advisory council and the district this year administered a first-ever mental health survey to take account of the struggles its students are experiencing.

Meanwhile, the teen has also helped usher along a Climate Action Plan the board is implementing  a measure he had long pushed for as a climate activist with the Sunrise Movement in his days before holding elected office.

The 74 caught up with the young politician, whos juggling the responsibilities of senior year alongside oversight of his roughly 23,200-student district, for a Zoom conversation that ranged from his efforts with the nonprofit BABE VOTE to facing off against counterprotesters wielding AR-15s.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

The 74: Its been the better part of the school year that youve been on the Boise school board. What has stood out to you most so far?

Shiva Rajbhandari: Coming into the school board, I thought this was really the end-all be-all of problem solving. But theres such a big team that works across our district to write good policy and to propose a strong budget and to make sure that were hiring the top staff to keep our schools running. Learning about the incredible people across our district has been really rewarding.

Story continues

Also learning how slow change is sometimes. Coming into this role was this transition from being an activist and really calling the shots. Like, we would meet on a Thursday and have a protest organized by Saturday. Those things were very quick.

Now, theres a lot more accountability  to our patrons [constituents], to our students  so things happen slower. But its neat to consider all aspects of the solution and think critically about how we can best prepare students for college, career and citizenship while maintaining the integrity of our district and the faith of our patrons.

That must be an interesting transition, from activist to school board member. So what are some of the issues youre working on now where the pace of change has felt slower?

One thing Im really excited about is establishing a permanent student position on the school board. Weve been talking about it since January and before that, I was talking with trustees, talking with staff, about how we could shape this policy. [Its gone to several committees including our student advisory committee and] now were waiting until September to take it back to the Governance Committee for review and then hopefully passing. So thats one example.

Another example would be our district sustainability commitments. This [issue] is why I ran for the school board initially. I led this campaign with my fellow students across our district to establish a clean energy commitment and a long-term sustainability plan for our schools. Wed seen districts across the country move quickly and then our district was slow and deliberate about it. But ultimately, our efforts did lead to the passage of this commitment on clean energy by our school board.

Some things just take a lot of time, like reviewing all the carbon emissions of our district. And then [the question of] what does the long-term plan look like that saves our taxpayers money. Thats going to take probably another year or two to craft that plan and get that through.

Rajbhandari sits alongside the other board members. (Courtesy of Shiva Rajbhandari)

Going back to the effort to get a permanent youth board member, in your view why is youth voice so important in school decisions?

Students are the primary stakeholders in our education. And yet, our school boards are elected by people who are over 18, the majority of whom are no longer in K-12. They tend to be parents or grandparents or community members, but really only students can provide that on-the-ground perspective of whats going on in our schools. I think having students on school boards is about bringing in a perspective that is vital to policymaking.

In addition, elevating students to positions of leadership empowers an entire generation of students within your district. Because when students understand that their voices are being taken seriously, that more than anything allows students to achieve their education goals.

Related Report: More States Are Giving Students a Say in Education Policy

How have your friends and peers reacted to your role on the board? Are they telling you things to bring up in meetings?

Absolutely. Our whole district is getting so much more engagement with students and its helped us think outside the box about how to engage students in policymaking.

For example, we did a districtwide mental health survey. Thats something weve never done before and we found out 30% of our students have had depression or suicidal ideation. We identified stress and social isolation as key contributing factors we really want to tackle. But thats something our district has never done before, not because our district didnt value student voices, but I dont think we understood how incorporating student input could help our district.

We also put together a student advisory committee [to the school board] and we have peer feedback groups. Weve seen so many more students attending our board meetings, asking questions of our board, bringing ideas forward.

Its a simple thing to have [a student] up there on the dais, but it really opens the floodgates for transformative change within a system that is often really rigid.

I saw that you made YouTube previews of the last few meetings. Was that an effort to make the board more accessible to your peers?

Yeah. I think theres really this misunderstanding of what the board does, and how folks can give input. And so the goal of the video is to communicate to students, Hey, this is whats going on at our board meeting. Everybody should be able to participate.

Courtesy of Shiva Rajbhandari

Going back to when you won your seat, that was a victory over an incumbent who had an endorsement from a far-right group. How have you navigated extremism in the campaign and in your term on the board?

Our state is split ideologically between the far right and the really far right. And theres this hate group called the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a policy think tank, whose stated goal is to abolish public education in our state. And so weve seen that come up time and time again with allegations of indoctrination or grooming in our schools. Now were seeing the third iteration of that, which is vouchers in the name of school choice, giving public dollars to private and potentially religious institutions with limited accountability.

I think the perspective that Ive brought is one of moderation. Regardless of what Tucker Carlson says is going on in Idaho schools, heres whats actually going on. And heres what students actually need. No one is scared about a [female-identifying person with male genitalia] going to the girls bathroom. What folks are scared about is their friends committing suicide, because we dont have the mental health resources or the resiliency factors that we need.

Its bringing an ounce of reality back to these ideological conversations. Im super lucky that, in our district, the problems we have with extremists arent nearly as bad as in the rest of the state.

Related Idahos New School Chief Lays Out Her Bold Plan to Change Literally Everything

Your time on the board isnt the first time youve interfaced with right-wing activists. Can you tell me the backstory there?

Yeah, gosh. Its funny, I think nationally, when people hear about Idaho, its like, Oh, my gosh, people are running around with guns. And living in Idaho, its almost like a fact of life, you organize a protest and folks show up with AR-15s.

The first time I interacted with the group I think youre referring to, the Idaho Liberty Dogs, I was in ninth grade. We were organizing a protest on Capitol Boulevard and it was 70 kids who got together with signs and we blocked the street, we were playing music and it was honestly a fun day. These folks showed up with AR-15s to our rally. Not only that, but then a ton of cops showed up and they all were friends with the [counterprotesters] who werent even from Boise.

Then last year, a student brought a gun to Boise High, the school Im at now, and he was suspended and not allowed to walk at graduation. This same group tried to organize this armed protest outside our school.

The threat of extremism and militarism is very real in Boise. But were not afraid of them. Weve been through so much. I think that takes away the power when people arent afraid of you.

I know were jumping from one hot-button issue to the next, but I also wanted to ask about book bans. I saw theres some state legislation proposed allowing parents to sue schools for harmful books. And there have been several Idaho districts, not Boise, that have enacted bans. So Im curious how thats come up in your time on the board?

Whats a little humorous to me about the whole book ban thing is, its not parents and its not students asking for books to be banned. Its generally random people who have heard something. And so, for example, in the nearby city of Meridian, there was this group that tried to get 200 books banned from the school library and I think they just pulled the list off the internet because half of the books werent even in the Meridian library.

To me, I will never support any kind of book bans ever because I think free access to information is the cornerstone of democracy.

The narrative thats being missed is that book bans, frankly, are disempowering to students. Its alleging that students dont have the agency to know what they should read. Schools are a resource, theyre a tool for students to learn and engage and ensuring that theres open access to information is critical to that.

You wrote a recent op-ed about efforts to reduce youth voting, which seems like a big issue for you also because I saw you co-lead the organization BABE VOTE. Can you tell me about that?

BABE VOTE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, voter advocacy organization promoting voter registration among young people. We just got the data back and Idaho is the number one state in the country for growth in registration of voters [18 and 19 years old] between 2018 and 2022. So the efforts that were doing are working and its really exciting.

The [Idaho] House and Senate both just passed a bill banning the use of student IDs at the polls, which for many students, thats their only form of ID, especially college students.

As soon as the governor signs this bill, were actually going to be suing the state and protecting the right to vote. So its that kind of stuff, knocking on doors, registering people and reminding people, Hey, theres an election, and then protecting the right to vote in the legislature and across the state.

Courtesy of Shiva Rajbhandari



Whats it been like to juggle all this work alongside senior year?

Its been a little bit crazy. Honestly, being on a school board is [manageable]. Any student can do it. People try to make it something that its not.

Senior year, you have so many opportunities and its such a wide world. Sometimes its hard to get up for first period everyday. But just keeping a Google Calendar and checking in with my friends and making sure that Im taking time for myself. Also remembering that I dont have to do everything right; I have this whole team of folks who have supported me in my election on board and support this climate activism work.

One of the things thats kind of taking a beating has been my track practice. Sometimes its hard to get to my practices.

What events do you compete in?

I run the mile and the 800 [meters].

And do you know what your plans are for next year, both in terms of school and whether youll maintain the position on the board?

Yeah, Ill stay on the board. I made a commitment. All meetings we can mostly do virtually, but I will be leaving the state for college. And I want to study public policy and maybe go become a lawyer or something. [Rajbhandari has been accepted to UNC-Chapel Hill, Whitman College and Stanford University and is still deciding where to attend. He was elected to a two-year term.]

Rajbhandari on the campaign trail. (Courtesy of Shiva Rajbhandari)

And last, whos one teacher who made the biggest impression on you and why?

Well, there are so many. My teachers were the best teachers ever. One teacher, Monica Church, she was my Student Council teacher and capstone teacher sophomore year. Shes just been such a mentor and a guiding force in my life. Whenever I have a problem or something I want to talk about, shes the first person I call.

I remember one time in my capstone class, I was running for [student body] vice president and I was a sophomore, so no one had ever done that before, and I was talking about Hey, the elections tomorrow. Everyone, make sure you go vote. And one of my friends, who is kind of a contrarian, goes, Why would you ever vote for Shiva? Then Ms. Church was like, Well, I would vote for Shiva. And one thing Ive learned in the last eight months has been never bet against him.

Now thats a source of [motivation]. Whenever Im like, This is hard, I remember Monica Church, someone I respect more than anyone, said, Never bet against Shiva.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called former Fox News host Tucker Carlson the king of hate and said she is relieved that he has been fired from the network after a string of insults he has made about her.

Tucker was the king of hate and loved fearmongering and picking on immigrants and Muslims in many cases, Omar told MSNBCs Mehdi Hasan in an interview Tuesday.

Carlson had repeatedly criticized Omar, who first came to the United States as a refugee from Somalia, during his show.

He said in July 2019 that Omar is living proof that U.S. immigration laws are dangerous, arguing that she was able to succeed in the country but constantly slams it.

No country can import large numbers of people who hate it and expect to survive. The Romans were the last to try that with predictable results. So be grateful for Ilhan Omar, annoying as she is. Shes a living fire alarm, a warning to the rest of us, Carlson said.

Omar responded by saying that she believes Carlson is a racist fool who is weeping about the fact that we have an African-born member of Congress. She also criticized companies that advertise on Fox News, arguing that they should not be underwriting hate speech.

I cant tell you just how both relieved and terrified I am of where he might end up and the kind of platform that he might end up having, Omar said Tuesday. It is really hard to make people understand just how dangerous this man was and how many lives he risked with his hateful rhetoric on a daily basis.

Carlson was ousted in a surprise move by Fox News last week, days after the network settled a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems. A report from The New York Times Tuesday night said that Foxs leaders were distressed by a text that Carlson sent about violence he saw during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. Its not how white men fight, Carlson reportedly said in the text. Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping theyd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.  Illinois is poised to become the first state to punish public institutions that ban books.

Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker has said he supports a House bill that would withhold state funding from any of the states 1,600 public or school libraries that remove books from their shelves. It passed in the Illinois Senate on Wednesday, and Pritzker is expected to sign the legislation.

In Illinois, we dont hide from the truth, we embrace it and lead with it, the governor said when the bill was first presented. Banning books is a devastating attempt to erase our history and the authentic stories of many.

The final version of House Bill 2789 passed the state Senate 39 to 19 after it was approved in March by the House on a 66 to 39 vote.

The impetus for the legislation came from newly elected Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, whose office oversees library systems and their funding. Giannoulias, a Democrat, said he couldnt fathom that book banning is happening in 2023.

It is so blatant, and so dangerous. I was blown away, he told POLITICO.

Efforts to curb reading materials are about restricting the freedom of ideas that certain individuals disagree with and that certain individuals think others should have access to, he said.

Giannoulias says this legislation is the only one of its kind.

Illinois doles out some $62 million to libraries around the state each year, according to Giannoulias office.

All these efforts to curb reading materials have absolutely nothing to do with books. They are about restricting the freedom of ideas that certain individuals disagree with and that certain individuals think others should have access to, Giannoulias told POLITICO.

Republican lawmakers who oppose the legislation have argued that their goal is to make sure books distributed in public schools and libraries are age appropriate.

Republican state Sen. Jason Plummer on Wednesday called the legislation an example of Democrats pushing an ideology on Illinois citizens, regardless of where they live or what they believe.

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He said it was offensive to take away public funds from people whose taxes paid for these grants.

Other Republicans raised questions about the bill possibly allowing libraries that dont allow drag shows to reserve library meeting rooms to be penalized, which sponsors say are decisions that should be decided by librarians, not community members who oppose such groups.

Giannoulias disagrees with the idea that locals would lose control, saying local librarians have the educational and professional experience to determine whats in circulation. Let them decide.

The bill says that in order for public libraries, including in public schools and universities, to remain eligible for grant funding, they must adopt the American Library Associations Library Bill of Rights or adopt their own written statement prohibiting the banning of books.

A library that doesnt certify either of the statements, or takes the next step of banning a book, will not be eligible for grant funding from the secretary of state, according to the secretary's office.

Giannoulias proposed the idea of banning book bans during his campaign last year and then approached Democratic state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray about following through with legislation. She had a special interest because a group of parents at a high school in her district demanded a book about a nonbinary person coming out  Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe  be banned from the school districts shelves. The parents called the book pornographic.

Members of the Proud Boys attended a school board meeting on the issue. After much debate, the book stayed, but the concerns lingered for Stava-Murray.

The kids luckily stood up for the book. That community rallied around the kids, Stava-Murray told POLITICO.

Stava-Murray said she researched the issue and saw other communities across the country facing similar challenges, so she set out to create the legislation.

The American Library Association has said its seen a record 1,200 challenges to books over the past year, nearly double from the previous year.

Most of the titles challenged in 2022 "were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community or by and about Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color," according to the association. In Illinois, the organization said there were 43 attempts that year to limit access to books.

President Joe Biden has blamed "MAGA extremists" for attempts to ban books and made ending book bans a central part of his reelection campaign.
The first victim has been identified after a dust storm caused a 72 vehicle pile-up on the I-55 outside of Springfield, Illinois.

The massive pile-up occurred during a dust storm with low visibility on Monday (May 1) morning.

Seven victims were killed while 37 were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening, and those hurt are two to 80 years old, Illinois State Police said in a statement.

Shirley Harper, 88, was named as the first victim killed in the tragedy. The death toll was initially reported as six but rose to seven on Tuesday as investigators asked for the publics help in identifying two yet-to-be-named victims.

The Montgomery County Coroners office is working to identify the five others and notify their families.

Kevin Schott, the director of Montgomery Countys Emergency Management Agency, said that efforts to rescue victims were hampered by the thick dust on the scene as well as multiple vehicle fires which made it difficult to get to victims in a rapid manner.

Key Points

At least six dead in crash after dust storm

First victim identified as 88-year-old woman

Dust storm causes numerous crashes on I-55

What is a dust storm?

You couldnt even see, says witness of massive highway pileup

Tuesday 2 May 2023 11:00 , Namita Singh

Evan Anderson, 25, who was returning home to St Louis from Chicago, said a semi turned before striking his vehicle, sparing him from even more damage.You couldnt even see, Mr Anderson said.

People tried to slow down and other people didnt, and I just got plowed into. There were just so many cars and semitrucks with so much momentum behind them.

Dairon Socarras Quintero, 32, who was driving to St Louis to make deliveries for his custom frame company based in Elk Grove Village, said that after his truck hit the vehicle in front of him, he exited and moved to the side of the road to ensure his safety, then returned after the chain reaction of crashes ended behind him.

Story continues

Mr Socarras Quintero said the dust continued to blow ferociously as he checked on other motorists and emergency personnel arrived. He held up his backpack, which was caked with dust even though it was inside a closed truck cab.

Winds at the time were gusting between 35 mph (56 kph) and 45 mph (74 kph), the National Weather Service said.

PICTURED: The aftermath of the pile-up

Tuesday 2 May 2023 11:40 , Rachel Sharp

Illinois State Police released this image of the horror pile-up (Illinois State Police)

Video of fatal dust storm in Illinois

Tuesday 2 May 2023 12:03 , Graeme Massie

Thick dust made rescue efforts difficult

Tuesday 2 May 2023 12:20 , Rachel Sharp

Kevin Schott, the director of Montgomery Countys Emergency Management Agency, said that efforts to rescue victims were hampered by the thick dust on the scene as well as multiple vehicle fires.

These conditions made it difficult to get to victims in a rapid manner, he said.

This is a difficult scene, something that is very hard to train for, something that we really havent experienced locally, he said.

We had to search every vehicle, whether they were involved in the accident or just pulled over, to check for injuries.

First victim identified

Tuesday 2 May 2023 12:40 , Rachel Sharp

The first victim has been identified after a dust storm caused a 72 vehicle pile-up on the I-55 outside of Springfield, Illinois.

The massive pile-up occurred during a dust storm with low visibility on Monday morning.

Six victims were killed while 37 were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening, and those hurt are two to 80 years old, Illinois State Police said in a statement.

Shirley Harper, 88, was named as the first victim killed in the tragedy.

The Montgomery County Coroners office is working to identify the five others and notify their families.

Emergency director describes scene of crash

Tuesday 2 May 2023 13:01 , Graeme Massie

We had multiple vehicles involved, some were on fire, said Montgomery County EMA Director Kevin Schotthe during a news briefing.

So we had vehicle fires to extinguish, we had to search every vehicle whether they were involved in the accident or just pulled over to check for injuries, to getting them out of there rapidly and getting to the hospital so that we can provide professional care for them.

(AP)

How common are dust storms in Illinois?

Tuesday 2 May 2023 13:20 , Rachel Sharp

Dust storms arent unheard of in the area of the crash.

This has happened before in various parts of the state of the Illinois, where unfortunately due to excessive high winds, that once the farmers have turned the field, the topsoil or the dirt thats on top there gets loose, major Ryan Starrick said on Monday during his press conference.

Its extremely dry, and due to the excessive winds of the area, will blow across certain roadways.

What is a dust storm?

Tuesday 2 May 2023 13:40 , Rachel Sharp

A dust storm is a wall of dust and debris that is blown into an area by very strong winds which are often produced by thunderstorms, according to the NOAA.

The wall of dust can be miles long and several thousand feet high.

Dust storms are more common in areas that are flat and that have very few trees and plants, as this allows winds to build up momentum.

The weather event is more common in the Middle East and North Africa but are also known to happen in the US, particularly in the Southwest during the spring.

Traffic moving again on I-55

Tuesday 2 May 2023 14:48 , Graig Graziosi

The aftermath of Mondays pileup can still be seen around I-55, though all of the road obstructions have been cleared and traffic appears to have returned to normal.

I-55 CRASH | This is a look at some of the damage from yesterdays 70+ vehicle pile up on I-55 between Divernon and Farmersville. Traffic is back to moving normal as of 6 a.m. @wandtvnews pic.twitter.com/lkojaQKQl6  Caryn Eisert (@CarynEisert) May 2, 2023

Police have identified, but not named, three other victims of Mondays crash

Tuesday 2 May 2023 15:29 , Graig Graziosi

Law enfocement has reportedly identified three more victims in Mondays crash.

Officials have not yet named the victims. Two of the victims were from Champaign, Illinois and one was from Florissant, Missouri, according to ABC7.

Shirley Harper, 88, of Franklin, Wisconsin, was the first of the six crash fatalities that police identified.

Drivers describe the chaotic dust storm accident

Tuesday 2 May 2023 15:42 , Graig Graziosi

Drivers who experienced the dust storm  and some who were involved in the accident  have spoken out about their experiences on the day of the massive pile up.

You couldnt even see, Evan Anderson, 25, told The Associated Press. People tried to slow down and other people didnt, and I just got plowed into. There were just so many cars and semi trucks with so much momentum behind them.

The only thing you could hear after we got hit was crash after crash after crash behind us, Tom Thomas, 43, said.

Driver who traveled through Illinois dust storm likened it to a war zone'

Tuesday 2 May 2023 16:05 , Graig Graziosi

Quetta Penson told ABC7 she was on her way home to Chicago when she passed dozens of crashes on I-55 near Springfield on Monday.

She likened the disturbing scene to the aftermath of a battle.

It felt like a war zone, she said. We could see bodies that were just lifeless laying in the grass on the side of the road.

Illinois State Police say they need help to identify two bodies

Tuesday 2 May 2023 16:15 , Graig Graziosi

Illinois State Police have not been able to identify two of the crash victims and are asking for the publics help.

Four of the six killed in the accident have been identified so far, but only one  Shirley Harper, 88  has been named.

I-55 CRASH UPDATE | ISP says they need the publics help identifying 2 of the victims killed in yesterdays crash. Anyone with information or witnesses is asked to call 618-346-3653. @wandtvnews pic.twitter.com/L7kzl42gkz  Caryn Eisert (@CarynEisert) May 2, 2023

Illinois investigators canvassing family members to identify final two victims

Tuesday 2 May 2023 17:35 , Graig Graziosi

Law enforcement officials in Illinois are canvassing families who fear their loved ones may have been involved in the I-55 dust storm crash in an attempt to identify the final two victims killed during the pile up.

We believe we are communicating with family members and we are using variety of techniques and investigative capabilities to be able to confirm that these are in fact their family members that are the victims, Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said during a press conference on Tuesday.

Four of the six victims have been identified. Only one, Shirley Harper, has been named. Two more individuals remain unidnetified, and police have asked for the publics heath determining their names.

Illinois State Senate has moment of silence for victims of I-55 dust storm crash

Tuesday 2 May 2023 18:34 , Graig Graziosi

The Illinois State Senate had a moment of silence today to honour the six individuals killed in a pile-up crash during a dust storm on Monday afternoon.

The Illinois Senate has risen in silence for a moment to honor the victims and first responders involved in yesterdays terrible string of accidents, injuries and fatalities along I-55 south of Springfield, the Senate said in a tweet.

The Illinois Senate has risen in silence for a moment to honor the victims and first responders involved in yesterday's terrible string of accidents, injuries and fatalities along I-55 south of Springfield.  IL Senate Democrats (@ILSenDems) May 2, 2023

Photos of wreckage from Mondays crash

Tuesday 2 May 2023 19:31 , Graig Graziosi

A local reporter in Illinois captured photos of some of the wreckage cleared from I-55 following Mondays fatal dust storm pile-up.

The Illinois State Police confirmed that approximately 72 vehicles were involved in the crash.

Here's a look at some of the wreckage from yesterday's deadly crash on I-55.@ILStatePolice said about 72 vehicles were involved.@wics_abc20 @foxillinois pic.twitter.com/hK4616AInq  Julia Rosier (@juliahrosier) May 2, 2023

House Representative Nikki Budzinski remembers victims of I-55 pile-up

Tuesday 2 May 2023 20:07 , Graig Graziosi

House Representative Nikki Budzinski acknowledged the victims of the I-55 dust storm pile-up Tuesday in a tweet.

My heart goes out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives in the tragic crash on I-55 yesterday. Please join me in keeping them in our thoughts and prayers, the lawmaker wrote.

Six people died in the crash.

My heart goes out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives in the tragic crash on I-55 yesterday.



Please join me in keeping them in our thoughts and prayers.https://t.co/qL7NvdjErX  Rep. Nikki Budzinski (@RepNikkiB) May 2, 2023

Shirley Harper, 88-year-old grandmother killed in I-55 crash, remembered by her family

Tuesday 2 May 2023 20:20 , Graig Graziosi

Shirley Harper, 88, was one of the six individuals killed in the I-55 pile-up caused by a dust storm on Monday.

She leaves behind a large family and numerous grandchildren.

She would talk to anybody, do anything for anybody, Tim Shaffer, her son-in-law, told ABC7. People like her, we need more of them in the world.

Five others were killed in the crash. Police are seeking assistance from the public to identify two of the victims. The other three have been identified but have not been publicly named.

Dust storm warning today for parts of Illinois, including portions of I-55

Tuesday 2 May 2023 20:58 , Graig Graziosi

A dust storm warning has been issued for parts of Montgomery County in Illinois, including portions of I-55 where a dust storm contributed to a massive and fatal pile-up accident on Monday.

The warning will last until 4:30pm.

The alert has been updated to a Dust Storm Warning and is until 4:30 PM, very focused on northern part of Montgomery County, Weather Service is getting reports of reduced visibility along I-55 in that area, KMOV chief meteorologist Steve Templeton wrote on Twitter.

The alert has been updated to a "Dust Storm Warning" and is until 4:30 PM, very focused on northern part of Montgomery County, Weather Service is getting reports of reduced visibility along I-55 in that area #4FirstAlert #4FirstAlert pic.twitter.com/cs1BF1mRY9  Steve Templeton (@SteveTempleton) May 2, 2023

Portion of I-55 shut down again due to wind, dust storm warning

Tuesday 2 May 2023 21:18 , Graig Graziosi

Portions of I-55 have shut down again today due to dust storm and wind warnings, according to local reports.

I-55 was the site of a fatal pile-up accident Monday when high winds kicked up a dust storm that obstructed drivers vision. Six people died in the accident.

The Illinois Department of Transportation has closed I-55 between the 72 and 80 mile markers, which is the same stretch of road where the pile-up occurred.

No crashes at this time, but out of an abundance of caution, ISP and Illinois Department of Transportation are closing southbound and northbound I-55 between mileposts 63 and 82, the same stretch as yesterday, due to high winds and low visibility. pic.twitter.com/pE5AudkN6a  IllinoisStatePolice (@ILStatePolice) May 2, 2023

The National Weather Service issued a dust storm warning along US-51 for Pana, Illinois until 4:15 pm. A dust storm warning was also issued along I-55 near Farmersville and I-55 near Waggoner until 4:30 p.m.

PICTURED: The aftermath of the pile-up

Tuesday 2 May 2023 22:00 , Graig Graziosi

Multiple people died in a multi-car accident in Illinois on I-55 during a dust storm on 1 May, according to police (WICS ABC 20 screengrab)

You couldnt even see, says witness of massive highway pileup

Tuesday 2 May 2023 23:00 , Graig Graziosi

Evan Anderson, 25, who was returning home to St Louis from Chicago, said a semi turned before striking his vehicle, sparing him from even more damage.You couldnt even see, Mr Anderson said.

People tried to slow down and other people didnt, and I just got plowed into. There were just so many cars and semitrucks with so much momentum behind them.

Dairon Socarras Quintero, 32, who was driving to St Louis to make deliveries for his custom frame company based in Elk Grove Village, said that after his truck hit the vehicle in front of him, he exited and moved to the side of the road to ensure his safety, then returned after the chain reaction of crashes ended behind him.

Mr Socarras Quintero said the dust continued to blow ferociously as he checked on other motorists and emergency personnel arrived. He held up his backpack, which was caked with dust even though it was inside a closed truck cab.

Winds at the time were gusting between 35 mph (56 kph) and 45 mph (74 kph), the National Weather Service said.

Video of fatal dust storm in Illinois

Wednesday 3 May 2023 00:00 , Graig Graziosi

Emergency director describes scene of crash

01:00 , Graig Graziosi

We had multiple vehicles involved, some were on fire, said Montgomery County EMA Director Kevin Schotthe during a news briefing.

So we had vehicle fires to extinguish, we had to search every vehicle whether they were involved in the accident or just pulled over to check for injuries, to getting them out of there rapidly and getting to the hospital so that we can provide professional care for them.

Windstorm Crashes (WICS TV)

We had to search every vehicle, says Montgomery County emergency services director

02:00 , Graig Graziosi

Kevin Schott, director of emergency services in Montgomery County, said Monday it was a very difficult scene and one thats very hard to train for.

We had to search every vehicle, whether they were involved in the accident or just pulled over, to check for injuries, he said, adding that people were upset  visibly so, understandably so.

Authorities set up staging areas away from the crash site to help travelers reunite with friends and family.

Dust storm not uncommon

03:00 , Graig Graziosi

The dust storm from tilling not uncommon during this time of year, said state police.

This has happened before in various parts of the state of the Illinois, where unfortunately due to excessive high winds, that once the farmers have turned the field, the topsoil or the dirt thats on top there gets loose, said Illinois state police major Ryan Starrick.

First responders work the scene of a crash involving at least 20 cars that shut down a highway in Illinois, Monday, 1 May 2023 (AP)

Its extremely dry, and due to the excessive winds of the area, will blow across certain roadways.

A blowing dust warning was issued for some counties in the area with it remaining in effect in Sangamon, Christian and Shelby counties, reported NBC Chicago.

Truck driver posts pictures of weather conditions

04:00 , Graig Graziosi

ICYMI: Governor JB Pritzker monitoring horrific situation

04:59 , Graig Graziosi

Illinois governor JB Pritzker has issued a statement in the aftermath of the pile-up on I-55 saying he is closely monitoring the horrific situation at the Macoupin and Sangamon County line.

My team is in constant communication with the Illinois State Police, Department of Transportation and Emergency Management Agency to ensure the safety of motorists as they navigate dangerous situation, he tweeted.

On the ground, our first responders and emergency management teams are working diligently to clear the road, provide medical care to those in need and collaborate with local officials to provide support to everyone affected by this tragic accident.

Everything we know about the massive dust storm car crash on I-55 in Illinois

06:00 , Graig Graziosi

Six people were killed in the crash.

Everything we know about the massive dust storm car crash on I-55 in Illinois

Thick dust made rescue efforts difficult

07:00 , Graig Graziosi

Kevin Schott, the director of Montgomery Countys Emergency Management Agency, said that efforts to rescue victims were hampered by the thick dust on the scene as well as multiple vehicle fires.

These conditions made it difficult to get to victims in a rapid manner, he said.

This is a difficult scene, something that is very hard to train for, something that we really havent experienced locally, he said.

We had to search every vehicle, whether they were involved in the accident or just pulled over, to check for injuries.

Drivers describe the chaotic dust storm accident

08:00 , Graig Graziosi

Drivers who experienced the dust storm  and some who were involved in the accident  have spoken out about their experiences on the day of the massive pile up.

You couldnt even see, Evan Anderson, 25, told The Associated Press. People tried to slow down and other people didnt, and I just got plowed into. There were just so many cars and semi trucks with so much momentum behind them.

The only thing you could hear after we got hit was crash after crash after crash behind us, Tom Thomas, 43, said.

Driver who traveled through Illinois dust storm likened it to a war zone

09:00 , Graig Graziosi

Quetta Penson told ABC7 she was on her way home to Chicago when she passed dozens of crashes on I-55 near Springfield on Monday.

She likened the disturbing scene to the aftermath of a battle.

It felt like a war zone, she said. We could see bodies that were just lifeless laying in the grass on the side of the road.

Illinois State Police say they need help to identify two bodies

10:00 , Graig Graziosi

Illinois State Police have not been able to identify two of the crash victims and are asking for the publics help.

Four of the six killed in the accident have been identified so far, but only one  Shirley Harper, 88  has been named.

I-55 CRASH UPDATE | ISP says they need the publics help identifying 2 of the victims killed in yesterdays crash. Anyone with information or witnesses is asked to call 618-346-3653. @wandtvnews pic.twitter.com/L7kzl42gkz  Caryn Eisert (@CarynEisert) May 2, 2023

Illinois investigators canvassing family members to identify final two victims

11:00 , Graig Graziosi

Law enforcement officials in Illinois are canvassing families who fear their loved ones may have been involved in the I-55 dust storm crash in an attempt to identify the final two victims killed during the pile up.

We believe we are communicating with family members and we are using variety of techniques and investigative capabilities to be able to confirm that these are in fact their family members that are the victims, Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said during a press conference on Tuesday.

Four of the six victims have been identified. Only one, Shirley Harper, has been named. Two more individuals remain unidnetified, and police have asked for the publics heath determining their names.

Shirley Harper, 88-year-old grandmother killed in I-55 crash, remembered by her family

12:00 , Graig Graziosi

Shirley Harper, 88, was one of the six individuals killed in the I-55 pile-up caused by a dust storm on Monday.

She leaves behind a large family and numerous grandchildren.

She would talk to anybody, do anything for anybody, Tim Shaffer, her son-in-law, told ABC7. People like her, we need more of them in the world.

Five others were killed in the crash. Police are seeking assistance from the public to identify two of the victims. The other three have been identified but have not been publicly named.

House Representative Nikki Budzinski remembers victims of I-55 pile-up

13:00 , Graig Graziosi

House Representative Nikki Budzinski acknowledged the victims of the I-55 dust storm pile-up Tuesday in a tweet.

My heart goes out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives in the tragic crash on I-55 yesterday. Please join me in keeping them in our thoughts and prayers, the lawmaker wrote.

Six people died in the crash.

My heart goes out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives in the tragic crash on I-55 yesterday.



Please join me in keeping them in our thoughts and prayers.https://t.co/qL7NvdjErX  Rep. Nikki Budzinski (@RepNikkiB) May 2, 2023

Portion of I-55 shut down again Tuesday due to wind, dust storm warning

14:00 , Graig Graziosi

Portions of I-55 were shut down again Tuesday due to dust storm and wind warnings, according to local reports.

I-55 was the site of a fatal pile-up accident Monday when high winds kicked up a dust storm that obstructed drivers vision. Six people died in the accident.

No crashes at this time, but out of an abundance of caution, ISP and Illinois Department of Transportation are closing southbound and northbound I-55 between mileposts 63 and 82, the same stretch as yesterday, due to high winds and low visibility. pic.twitter.com/pE5AudkN6a  IllinoisStatePolice (@ILStatePolice) May 2, 2023

The Illinois Department of Transportation closed I-55 between the 72 and 80 mile markers, which is the same stretch of road where the pile-up occurred.

The National Weather Service issued a dust storm warning along US-51 for Pana, Illinois until 4:15 pm. A dust storm warning was also issued along I-55 near Farmersville and I-55 near Waggoner until 4:30 p.m.

Senator Dick Durbin vows to address dust storm impacts

17:05 , Megan Sheets

US Senator Dick Durbin (D - Illinois) has vowed to look into how the impacts of future dust storms can be mitigated.

The Illinois Democrat took to Twitter on Wednesday to address the tragedy two days earlier.

Thanks to law enforcement, our hospitals, & first responders for their heroic response to the I-55 dust storm tragedy, he wrote.

As a member of the Ag Committee, I will be working w/ farmers on a way to deal w/ long term impacts of extreme weather events that have created new challenges.

Thanks to law enforcement, our hospitals, & first responders for their heroic response to the I-55 dust storm tragedy.

As a member of the Ag Committee, I will be working w/ farmers on a way to deal w/ long term impacts of extreme weather events that have created new challenges.  Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) May 3, 2023

Six of seven victims still not officially named

18:00 , Megan Sheets

Two days on from the deadly dust storm pile-up on Interstate 55, only one of the seven victims killed has been officially named.

Shirley Harper, 88, was named as the first victim killed in the tragedy.

Authorities said three other victims have been tentatively identified, while they asked for help identifying two others.

The death toll was initially reported as six but rose to seven on Tuesday.
After more than a year and dozens of bargaining sessions, the Clovis Unified School District and the Association of Clovis Educators, the union of mental health professionals, are declaring an impasse.

They cant agree on pay, staffing, or grievance procedures.

This was not the outcome our negotiating team had hoped for, the districts spokesperson Kelly Avants said Tuesday in an emailed statement.

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Clovis Unified and ACE will jointly file the impasse with the states Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), which will appoint a mediator to step in.

Both say theyve negotiated with Clovis Unifieds best interests in mind, including for students and employees.

Thats been our goal the entire time, and our driving compass is whats going to keep people here and whats going to bring professionals here? said Jade Edwards, a school psychologist and collective bargaining team member. Because if the best people are doing this work, then its going to benefit our kids.

Clovis Unified has negotiated the contract terms for about 70 mental health professionals.

We have earnestly negotiated toward solutions that balance the entirety of interests of ACE-Psychologists and Mental Health Support Providers, and the districts interests in negotiating a fair and fiscally responsible agreement in line with the demands of the Districts entire budget, Avants said.

Last offers differed by 1%

To Edwards and her colleagues, the district can meet ACEs demands while maintaining the budget.

The last time CUSD and ACE were at the bargaining table, ACE requested 14.5% salary increases, which they said would be an effective tool to recruit and retain mental health professionals.

The district countered with 13.5% raises.

Because of negotiations, the union has access to the districts budget, Edwards said.

Story continues

And the difference is right around $100,000 to give everybody the 14.5% as opposed to 13.5%, she said. That makes a difference of about $1,000 per year to the employees (on the mental health team), which is significant for us.

One hundred thousand dollars within a district budget is well within their means of being able to provide.

The union is requesting comparable pay with school psychologists at districts such as Fresno Unified.

The district obtained an independent market study that showed the base salary and total compensation for CUSD psychologists is below that of 11 comparable school districts.

Edwards said that the market study and proposals used throughout negotiations have been based on last school years data in 2021-22.

Since then, every neighboring district has gone up about 9% for salary increases, Edwards said. We were already at the bottom. The need to establish this contract at a competitive rate is very important. We want to make sure that this initial contract is a good base foundation to build from.

In Clovis Unified, the mental health team has yet to receive the 7% pay bumps the board approved for employees in June because talks with the newly recognized union were in the early stages. Theyve also missed out on millions of dollars that were added to employees pay schedules as a result of the market study.

Mental health team wants negotiating power about staffing

From the start, the mental health professionals sought an equitable and reasonable caseload, a defined staff-student ratio, and enough time for their increasing duties spurred by the growing need for services.

Becoming a union and negotiating with Clovis Unified allowed the mental health team to negotiate with the school district about staffing ratios of employees.

We wanted to continue being a part of negotiating staffing ratios in the future, Edwards said. Weve worked with the district to develop staffing ratios.

The school psychologists and mental health support providers want that moving forward.

The school district wants to preserve its managerial right to determine staffing, Avants said about ACE seeking more involvement in determining staffing and staffing ratios.

Clovis Unified, Edwards said, wants to consult with but not negotiate staffing changes.

We want to continue to negotiate, she said. We felt that it was productive and meaningful this time around. We want to make sure we continue to have a voice in that beyond (them) just consulting with us.

At odds over arbitration

Clovis Unified wants grievances resolved within the district, Avants said. ACE wants binding arbitration with a third party as an option in the grievance process, Edwards discussed.

Binding arbitration offers a fair and impartial way to resolve conflicts, ACE said in a Tuesday media release. By agreeing to binding arbitration, both parties can avoid the uncertainty and expense of litigation and instead rely on a neutral, impartial specialist to hear their case and make a binding decision.

Neighboring districts such as Selma Unified utilize arbitration as their final grievance level, following an informal complaint, written grievance, an appeal and mediation.

According to Edwards, an arbitrator would be unbiased, not connected to administrators, and trained to understand contract language in contrast to the seven-member school board.

In the meantime, both hope the mediation will lead to a solution that benefits Clovis Unified as a whole.

The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bees Education Lab at its website.
Blake Harrison, who played knucklehead Neil Sutherland in adored British comedyThe Inbetweeners, has celebrated the 15th anniversary of the show on Instagram.

The actor, 37, shared snaps of himself with fellow cast members Simon Bird, Joe Thomas and James Buckley on Monday 1 May.

A little show I did is 15 years old today, Harrison wrote in the caption. First episode aired 1 May 2008. Sorry for making you feel old!!

The Inbetweeners, created by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, aired for three seasons on Channel 4 between 2008 and 2010 and spawned two spinoff movies, 2011s Malia-set The Inbetweeners Movie and a sequel, set in Australia, in 2014.

All four leads have had successful careers since the show finished, with Harrison going on to star in A Very English Scandal and I Hate Suzie, while Bird has featured in Friday Night Dinner and Everyone Else Burns.

Buckley has starred in White Gold and Zapped, while Thomas has appeared in White Gold, Fresh Meat and Maternal.

Greg Davies, who played the terrifying headmaster in the series, has been busy with The Cleaner, Cuckoo, Man Down and Taskmaster.

Read The Independents recent interview with the actor here.

Discussing how, in recent years, the show has been taken to task over its themes of toxic masculinity, Harrison told The Independent in 2021: I think the whole movement that were having at the moment is that were realising that for decades, if not more, the majority of stories that weve seen are a variety of white male stories, for men, by men.

I dont think that theres any danger that the only option people have of seeing young white men is The Inbetweeners.

He expressed his surprise that The Inbetweeners is still being watched by kids. Youd be amazed at how young some kids are when they do watch it. Ive seen it.

People come up to me, He loves the show. Im like, How old is he? Hes nine. Im like, what are you doing, youre not being a good parent. But Im surprised its still being watched now, if Im honest.
By Tanvi Mehta, Dhanya Skariachan and Chris Thomas

BENGALURU (Reuters) - The owner of Go Airlines (India) has no plans to exit the budget carrier after engine troubles forced it into bankruptcy, the airline's CEO told Reuters on Wednesday, as frustrated flyers complained of abrupt flight cancellations.

India's third-largest airline, which recently rebranded as Go First, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, blaming Pratt & Whitney's "faulty" engines, which it uses on its Airbus 320 neo aircraft.

The collapse of the first Indian airline since Jet Airways in 2019 comes amid fierce competition in the sector led by its largest rival IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India, as passenger traffic roars back after the pandemic.

"The Wadia group, in particular Nusli Wadia, has always tried to see that the company and the airline operations go on, on a normal basis, in spite of the fact that we are completely disabled to that extent by Pratt & Whitney," CEO Kaushik Khona said.

"There is no question of Wadia group having any intention to exit or move out."

Wadia group, which owns 100% of Go First, pumped 2.90 billion rupees ($35.46 million) into the airline in April alone, bringing the group's total investment in Go First to 65 billion rupees.

"The Indian government is very keen we should not fail," Khona said.

GRAPHIC: Where Go First stands https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GOFIRST-CRISIS/zdpxdjjznpx/chart.png

The abrupt flight cancellations after the bankruptcy filing also upset travellers and Khona said the airline was not selling tickets until at least May 15.

"I had to shell out more than double of what I originally paid for a ticket on another flight," said Mumbai-based advertising executive Timir Roychoudhury, whose Goa-Mumbai flight was cancelled.

ENGINE WOES

In its bankruptcy filing, Go First claimed its failure followed a refusal by the U.S. company to abide by an arbitration order to release spare leased engines, that would have allowed it to return to full operations.

Story continues

Go First argued in the case that Pratt & Whitney engines had a "serious design flaw" that caused shutdowns and premature failure, which led to the grounding of 28 of its aircraft as of this week.

Pratt said in the arbitration case that Go First's arguments relied on "fabricated obligations".

The engine maker, owned by Raytheon, also asked why Go First bought another 156 engines in 2019, three years after it began operating them, if they were defective from the start.

Pratt said Go First could not show it was the "sole or exclusive cause  or any cause at all  of its poor financial condition".

The Pratt engine has faced problems with durability in hot and dusty climates including India, requiring more frequent maintenance. Gaps in availability have been compounded by a shortage of repair capacity.

In 2019, IndiGo dropped Pratt as a supplier and placed a $20 billion order for CFM International's LEAP engines for its fleet expansion following some plane groundings.

REVIVE, NOT SELL

The insolvency proceedings were aimed at reviving the airline and not selling it, CEO Khona said, confirming it had made all required payments to Pratt.

Go First's market share in India dropped to 7% in October 2022 while its weekly departures fell 39% by March, from their 2021 levels.

On Wednesday, the airline's CEO said it was looking to dissuade lessors from taking action and confirmed some parties had expressed an interest in taking a stake in the airline.

Pilots have been receiving their salaries with a delay for the past few months, and are already considering moving to bigger rivals, according to three pilots who did not wish to be named.

Go First's lenders will most likely meet on Wednesday to discuss what to do next after the bankruptcy filing, two bankers aware of the development told Reuters.

The airline owed financial creditors 65.21 billion rupees ($797 million), its bankruptcy filing showed. As of April 30, Go First had not defaulted on any of those loans, it said in the filing seen by Reuters.

Shares of Go First lenders Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and IDBI Bank fell on Wednesday, while stocks of the airline's rivals surged.

($1 = 81.7840 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in New Delhi, Chris Thomas and Dhanya Skariachan in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Siddhi Nayak and Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai, Arpan Chaturvedi in New Delhi, Tim Hepher in Paris and Kevin Krolicki in Singapore ; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil, Savio D'Souza, Gerry Doyle and Sharon Singleton)
A bit of Tri-City Herald lore came to mind after Gov. Jay Inslee announced this week he would not seek reelection.

It happened many years ago, long before Inslees time. As the story goes, a powerful statewide officeholder from Western Washington came to visit the Herald editorial board, and while details of the discussion are now fuzzy, the politician made one remark that has not been forgotten.

He told us he could stand at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle and see every vote he needs to win a statewide election.

It was a sobering thought then, and its a sobering thought now.

In the 2020 election, Inslee, a Democrat, carried Puget Sound and a couple other counties in the state. His Republican opponent, Loren Culp, dominated Eastern Washington and rural west side areas.

Inslee won, of course, and the state got a better governor.

But now Inslee has decided not to push for an unprecedented fourth term, presenting an opportunity for change we havent seen in decades.

Washington state reportedly has had the longest current streak of Democratic governors in the nation. The last Republican to hold the post was John Spellman, whose term ended in 1985.

Already, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, has launched an exploratory run for the office. Theres speculation that Commissioner of Public Lands Hillary Franz, also a Democrat, is interested.

On the Republican side, Richland School Board member Semi Bird has announced his candidacy. But being the target of a recall effort will surely dog him throughout his campaign.

Signatures were submitted Tuesday, and it appears the recall question will be on the ballot in August.

Bird and two other school board members voted to defy the state mask mandate last year, resulting in a two-day school shutdown. In the end, students returned to school wearing masks until the order was lifted by Inslee.

If Republicans want a shot at the governors office, they should find a moderate candidate who has name recognition statewide. It should be someone conservative enough to appeal to the GOP base, but thoughtful and reasonable enough to draw in constituents living in the states urban centers.

Story continues

Any candidate who focuses on solving problems  instead of stoking divisiveness  will be appreciated by those tired of ugly politics.

While Inslees roots are in Seattle, he lived in Selah, Wash., for many years, raising his family and practicing law. While living in Central Washington, he served in the state House of Representatives for two terms before running for Congress.

He represented the Tri-Cities as part of the states 4th Congressional District for one term before losing his reelection bid in 1994 to retired Rep. Doc Hastings of Pasco.

Inslee eventually moved to the west side of the state and continued his political career, but his familiarity with Eastern Washington and the Tri-Cities made him sensitive to our needs, which was always a plus.

His work on Hanford cleanup has been appreciated, and his support for new programs at Washington State University Tri-Cities has been invaluable.

As it happens, Inslee is visiting the Tri-Cities this week. His stops include Energy Northwest, the Port of Benton and the new police training center in Pasco.

But for all the good he has done, Inslees mandates during the COVID pandemic angered many people in the Tri-Cities and elsewhere. Many thought the social distancing requirements and the mask mandate went on far too long.

His goal, however, was to save lives and that was admirable. While other states hospitals were overrun, the COVID death rate in Washington state was among the lowest nationwide.

Over the years, we disagreed with Inslees clean energy goals that failed to fully embrace hydro and nuclear power. But his focus on making sure the planet is safe for future generations is one we applaud.

Under Inslees watch, Washington state implemented the nations most generous family and medical leave program, offering up to 16 weeks of paid leave. Our state also is one of 10 leading states in the country that fully implemented the Affordable Care Act and made sure insurers cover people with pre-existing conditions.

Inslee may not have been popular with many Tri-Citians, but he didnt disparage or dismiss us.

In fact, when Inslee was heckled during a pandemic visit to the Tri-Cities in 2020, he handled it graciously.

We hope his successor will be collaborative and bring us together.

And the best way to do that is to truly care about representing the entire state  not just the liberal urban core that helps get Democrat politicians elected to statewide positions.
Pavement work on southbound Interstate 5 will cause overnight lane closures all summer from Nulle Road just south of Bellingham to the Chuckanut Drive exit near Bow.

Crews will fill ruts, potholes and cracks that made the road uneven and bumpy and in some cases replace entire concrete panels along the 12-mile stretch of freeway, the Washington State Department of Transportation said in a statement.

Work began Monday and will continue through September, WSDOT said.

This work will extend the life of the highway and provide a smoother ride for travelers, the press release read.

To minimize traffic congestion during construction, most of this work will be completed during nighttime single-lane and ramp closures, WSDOT said.

Closures are planned:

 From 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays.

 From 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekends.

 Ramp closure hours vary but typically are from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Detour routes will be posted when ramps are closed.
St. Johns County Sheriffs Office deputies are now wearing body cameras as a new tool to fight crime and to create transparency during arrests. They join a list of local agencies that have already implemented the technology.

Action News Jaxs Ben Becker is the first local reporter to obtain body camera video of any kind from the agency.

The video shows the arrest of David Alan Armstrong, 36, who was taken into custody in April on charges of murdering his wife. He has pleaded not guilty.

Then the video reveals deputies putting on gloves, going through Armstrongs backpack and driving him away to jail.

INVESTIGATES: Fake police pulling people over in Jacksonville

SJSO said it started issuing body cameras in mid-March and completed the initial rollout by mid-April. It said it finished a body camera pilot program two years ago, raising the question: What took so long?

It takes time to do this, Action News Jax Law and Safety Expert Dale Carson said. Its prudent for departments to have the most advanced cameras possible. You dont want a system thats going to fail or work intermittently.

INVESTIGATES: Local homeowners sunny outlook on solar panel company turns cloudy

Action News Jax first reported in 2021 about a deadly deputy-involved shooting in Fruit Cove. Although the deputy fired one shot, the medical examiner said the shooting was suicide when the suspect turned a gun on themselves.

The death raised questions at the time if the incident and would encourage SJSO to outfit their deputies with body cameras.

SJSO Inside the Numbers:

Cameras issued: 343

Cost: $413,000 per year including all hardware, software, and data storage

Recordings: Categorized by type of crime

Video: Kept from 90 days to forever, Per Florida law

According to the most recent numbers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, 115 police departments use body cameras versus 117 that do not. The numbers are about as evenly split for Sheriffs Offices, with 34 using body cameras and 33 choosing not to use them.

Story continues

Most departments in Northeast Florida have body camera video, with the exceptions being St. Augustine Beach, Atlantic Beach, Jacksonville Beach, and the Clay County Sheriffs Office.

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]

Becker requested an interview with St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick about the body cameras but was told he wants to hold off, so we have some time under our belt with them and the implementation process.

But in 2020, when Hardwick was the Chief of the St. Augustine Beach Police Department, he pushed back against the use of body cameras in an interview with Action News Jax.

Its not just about lets knee-jerk and then put cameras in our officers because Jacksonville is doing it, Hardwick said at the time.

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Carson said while the video isnt always dynamic, it can be a difference-maker in how arrests are made.

Those protocols have to be wel- established so transparency isnt opaque, he said.

The Sheriffs Office said it expects to issue more cameras during a second phase to those in administrative or undercover roles, but a timeline has not been decided.

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.
McDonalds sign. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

More than 300 children were found working at McDonald's restaurants in Kentucky and several other states, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) said Tuesday. This includes one location in Louisville where a pair of 10-year-olds were allegedly found to be working unpaid, sometimes until 2 a.m.

In a press release, the DOL announced the results of an investigation into labor practices at three franchisees operating 62 McDonald's locations in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland, and Ohio. The investigation found that the trio of franchisees "employed 305 children to work more than the legally permitted hours and perform tasks prohibited by law for young workers."

Bauer Food LLC, which operates 10 McDonald's restaurants in the Louisville area, was allegedly found to be employing 24 minors under the age of 16, including the two 10-year-olds. These two children "prepared and distributed food orders, cleaned the store, worked at the drive-thru window, and operated a register," the DOL said. At least one of them was also allowed to operate a deep fryer, the DOL added, a task prohibited by federal law for employees under 16.

Franchise owner-operator Sean Bauer told The Associated Press the 10-year-olds were only visiting their parent that managed the store, and didn't actually work there. "Any 'work' was done at the direction of  and in the presence of  the parent without authorization by franchisee organization management or leadership," Bauer added.

The other two franchisees, Archways Richwood LLC and Bell Restaurant Group I LLC, also allowed 242 and 39 minors, respectively, to work beyond law-permitting hours, the DOL alleged.

The franchisees were fined a combined $212,754 for violating child labor laws, the DOL said.

McDonald's USA spokeswoman Tiffanie Boyd said the DOL's report was "unacceptable, deeply troubling, and run afoul of the high expectations we have for the entire McDonald's brand."

Story continues

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Millions of tourists visit the Mexican resort town of Cancun every year

An investigation about the hidden side of the Caribbean resort town of Cancun on Wednesday won a prize honoring two journalists murdered in Mexico, one of the world's deadliest countries for the press.

Ricardo Hernandez won the Breach-Valdez award for human rights journalism for his report in the magazine Gatopardo about the underbelly of the Mexican beachside city, which is visited by millions of tourists every year.

"The only thing that's talked about and promoted about Cancun are its beaches, its tourism," while overlooking what happens in the shadows, Hernandez told AFP.

His investigation shone a light on the informal housing without basic services inhabited by those who "support the lowest base of the economic pyramid of the city."

The jury hailed the "impeccable narration" by Hernandez of "testimonies that show exclusion and what we don't see in Cancun," said Griselda Triana, widow of Javier Valdez, one of the journalists to whom the award is dedicated.

Second place went to Wendy Selene, Paula Monaco, Luis Brito and Maria Ruiz for their reporting on the trial of a former official accused of supplying more than 45,000 genetic profiles of missing persons and their families to a private company.

Manuel Ureste, from the news website Animal Politico, won the new category of child and adolescent rights for his report about migrant children crossing Mexico to reach the United States.

According to Ureste, although Mexico has had a law to uphold the rights of migrant children since 2021, in reality the system fails to protect thousands of minors.

Launched in 2018, the prize honors journalists who risk their lives to cover human rights abuses in Mexico, following in the footsteps of two acclaimed Mexican colleagues murdered in 2017: Valdez and Miroslava Breach.

Long-time AFP contributor Valdez, 50, was a prominent chronicler of Mexico's deadly drug wars known for writing articles critical of powerful gangs such as notorious kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's Sinaloa cartel.

Story continues

Breach, a 54-year-old correspondent for Mexican daily La Jornada in the northern border state of Chihuahua, was known for her hard-hitting reports on links between politicians and organized crime.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to work as a journalist, with more than 150 killed there since 2000, according to Reporters Without Borders.

yug/jla/sem/dr/caw
A syringe with virus cells and vials of medicine illustration

Here is an unloved stock that offers a new group structure, the potential resolution of legal woes, the presence of an activist investor, a clear strategy, a building pipeline of vaccines and medicines  and all with a lowly valuation.

Welcome to GSK, GlaxoSmithKline as was, where we may have been early but we could yet receive a reward for our patience.

After a series of major corporate transactions, the last of which was 2022s spin-off of consumer healthcare giant and fellow FTSE 100 specialist Haleon, GSK is now focused purely on the development and sale of medicines and vaccines. That immediately offers the prospect of exposure to tempting demographic trends such as population growth (in developing markets) and increased longevity (in developing and developed arenas).

The relatively predictable demand, high margins and consistent cash flow that can result from a successful drug development model can also appeal at times of economic uncertainty (and all the more so during a recession).

If a company hits the jackpot with a blockbuster drug in a key area, as is the case at Denmarks Novo Nordisk with Saxenda and Wegovy in the field of obesity, AstraZeneca with lung cancer treatment Tagrisso and Americas Bristol-Myers Squibb with the anti-coagulant Eliquis, the revenues, earnings and cash flows can really blossom.

Novo Nordisk and AstraZeneca both trade on about 30 times forward earnings and Bristol-Myers Squibb comes on an earnings multiple in the mid-teens, well above the 11 times rating currently afforded GSK by the market.

That valuation disparity highlights the investment opportunity at GSK, although it speaks of the risks, too. Bristol-Myers

Squibb comes on a lower valuation than the other two because its cancer drug, Revlimid, is now drawing competition from cheaper generic drugs, as it comes off patent; and Eliquis and another cancer treatment, Opdivo, will face the same challenge later this decade.

Pharmaceutical companies cannot afford to rest on their laurels and must constantly replenish their pipeline of new treatments, by research and development or acquisition.

Story continues

GSK is doing both. The company, led by chief executive Emma Walmsley since April 2017, spent 5.5bn on R&D in 2022, while it has purchased Tesaro for $5.1bn (4.1bn), Affinivax for a maximum of $3.3bn and Bellus Health for $2bn since 2019  the last-named deal, for a cough drug specialist  was announced just last month.

All of this is geared towards building that all-important pipeline. Investors are still clearly sceptical, as evidenced by that yawning discount valuation. But GSK has received regulatory approval for more than 20 new drugs since 2018.

Better still, it has 23 vaccines and 42 medicines in development and undergoing phase I, phase II or phase III trials. Not all of them will make it to market by any means but the company is targeting four potentially high-growth areas  infectious diseases, HIV, immunology and oncology.

GSK raised sales and profits guidance twice last year and although last weeks first-quarter results received a muted response, revenues still grew by 16pc, excluding the fall in Covid related sales, thanks to shingles treatment Shingrix, lupus drug Benlysta and asthma medicines Nucala and Trelegy.

As a result, management is sticking to its near-term guidance for this year and  more importantly  the long-term goals of compound trend sales growth of more than 5pc a year and compound adjusted operating profit growth of more than 10pc per annum, as profit margins expand.

If those targets can be met, the 11-times earnings with a yield of about 4pc looks like a tempting price, especially as the balance sheet is less stretched than before.

When Haleon was spun off, it took some of GSKs debt with it. That reduces risk and gives the firm more scope to invest, or even acquire.

Drug approvals and earnings growth are two potential catalysts for share price performance. A third is a resolution to a legal case involving GSKs heartburn drug, Zantac, the subject of lawsuits that claim it causes cancer. A Florida judge dismissed thousands of lawsuits in December on the basis that the science was weak.

The next major hearing in the USA is due to take place in California in July. Two partners, Pfizer and Sanofi, have settled in California.

GSK could prove too cheap for all of the near-term uncertainties.

Questor says: buy

Ticker: GSK

Share price at close: 14.55

Russ Mould is investment director at AJ Bell, the stockbroker

Read the latest Questor column on telegraph.co.uk every Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 6am.

Read Questors rules of investment before you follow our tips

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  Iowa Democrats are proposing a novel way to get around their demotion from the leadoff spot on the partys presidential nominating calendar: They would still put on the first-in-the-nation caucuses but would be open to withholding the results until after other states have their contests.

The creative approach is the latest effort by the Iowa Democratic Party to claw back the prized slot it held for nearly 50 years, until chaos during the states 2020 presidential caucuses led the Democratic National Committee to reorder the calendar.

Iowa Democrats say the plan demonstrates their willingness to work with the DNC on its new voting calendar, which elevates South Carolina as the first voting state for 2024 and drops Iowa out of the top five voting states.

This flexibility is purposeful, Iowa Democratic Chair Rita Hart said Wednesday, describing the scenario of holding the caucuses first, with the option of reporting the results after other states report theirs.

A spokesperson for the DNC declined to comment on the Iowa proposal.

The plan is largely moot since President Joe Biden is seeking reelection in 2024 and doesnt face a major Democratic primary challenger. But it is another example of how the new voting calendar, meant to empower minority voters in more diverse states, has contributed to resentment among the states left behind and created headaches for the DNC.

The reasoning behind the revised Iowa plan, say Hart and Des Moines lawyer Scott Brennan, is that New Hampshire has already signaled its intention to keep the state's first-in-the-nation primary, regardless of how the DNC restructures the voting calendar.

This calendar will not hold, said Brennan, who is also a member of the DNC's rules committee. New Hampshire has made it very clear that theyre going to move. They are not going to go behind South Carolina.

Under the new calendar, South Carolina would hold its primary first on Feb. 3, followed three days later by New Hampshire and Nevada, which is swapping the caucus it used to hold in favor of a primary.

Story continues

Georgia would vote fourth on Feb. 13, followed by Michigan on Feb. 27, with much of the rest of the nation set to vote on Super Tuesday in early March.

More changes are possible later this year, and states are submitting their individual contest plans to the DNCs rules committee, which is expected to review them in June.

Under Iowa Democrats' plan, the party would hold its caucuses  individual precinct-level party meetings and not state-run primary elections  on the same night as Iowa Republicans, which would still hold the GOP's leadoff 2024 caucuses, on Feb. 5.

In a losing effort to salvage its leadoff caucuses, Iowa Democrats had previously agreed to allow voters to submit presidential preference cards by mail or in person before caucus night, and to eliminate the often confusing and time-consuming process of realignment.

The party, which retains the mail-in provision in its new plan, hoped that the changes would increase participation in the voting process and avoid the chaos that marred the 2020 caucuses. The process was racked with so many irregularities and inconsistencies that the AP was unable to declare a winner, denying top finishers Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg of the full measure of momentum ahead of New Hampshire's primary eight days later.

Iowa had long encountered criticism from party officials in other states envious of the outsize national media attention. They also often complained about Iowas vastly white voting population in the racially and ethnically diverse party, as well as the caucuses odd rules with their weeknight, in-person participation in the dead of winter that often kept night shift workers or parents of young children from attending.

Whats more, the state has shifted increasingly to the right in recent years and is no longer considered the battleground state it once was. Only one Democrat currently holds statewide office now.
Both sides agreed that James Klever killed Rachel Reuter, striking her in the head in a Bondurant garage during a methamphetamine-fueled dispute in June 2021.

They also agreed that he took steps to hide his crime, concealing Reuter's body  which was never found  and trying to destroy other evidence.

The only question put before a Polk County jury: Was it murder?

More: Starts Right Here shooting trial postponed to August over jury concerns

On Wednesday, the jurors decided it was. Klever was convicted of first-degree murder, the jury rejecting his attorney's argument that Klever's actions amounted only to the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter

Klever will be sentenced at a later date, and under state law faces a mandatory life sentence without possibility of parole.

In a statement, Polk County Attorney Kimberly Graham praised the work of Urbandale police, the Polk County Sheriff's Office and the state Division of Criminal Investigation.

The relentlessness of investigation by law enforcement and the quality of the evidence made the difference in this case, Graham said.

Defense attorney Matthew Sheeley said after the verdict that the defense was disappointed in the outcome but respected the jury's decision.

Who was Rachel Reuter?

The victim, prosecutors told the jury, was a 30-year-old mother of two who had struggled in the last years of her life with methamphetamine addiction. She'd been in and out of prison and treatment facilities, and her death came days after she was asked to leave a residential treatment center after using meth and causing a disturbance inside.

More: Bondurant care facility wrongly punished Black workers after woman's death, lawsuit claims

"She was a great person," Randy Reuter said. "Its a sad thing. Drugs take over a person."

Before her death, her father said, he'd been texting her about traveling to Iowa to bring her back to her family in Wisconsin. When she stopped responding to messages or communicating with her children, he said, the family knew something was wrong.

Story continues

What happened in Pam Larson's garage?

Prosecutors told the jury that Reuter and Klever had been friends for months, bonding over their shared drug habit, and that Reuter was last seen leaving a motel with Klever on June 12. From there, they said, Reuter and Klever went to the Bondurant home of Pam Larson, another of Klever's friends, arriving that evening and spending the night in Larson's garage, to which Klever had the lock combination.

Larson testified she first found out about her uninvited guests when Klever barged in early the next morning, saying Reuter was out of control. Larson followed him outside, where she could hear banging and shouting from inside the garage. Larson said she refused to get involved.

"I told James, 'I told you not to bring her here. Get her out of here. Take care of this,'" Larson testified.

More: Former Rep. Devin Nunes' defamation lawsuit over family's Iowa farm rejected again in court

She said she went back to bed. When Klever later called her repeatedly and told her Reuter had stopped breathing, she told him to call an ambulance, she said. His response: "It's too late for that," she said.

Larson did not contact emergency services, either, instead leaving for planned trip. When she returned, she found her garage in shambles, including large amounts of blood, she testified.

She said she deep-cleaned the garage and disposed of anything that seemed it might have blood on it. She was subsequently arrested on a charge of being an accessory after the fact, which remains pending.

She said she had not received a plea deal for her testimony.

Witnesses testify Klever repeatedly confessed

Klever provided various accounts of what happened to Larson, his children, and other associates, who recounted those stories for the jury.

Larson said Klever admitted to beating Reuter to death after she'd gone back to bed on the morning of June 13.

"He said that he beat her, and that she would pass out and he would wait for her to wake up and then beat her again," Larson said. "He said he drug it out as long as he could, I guess to make it last longer."

Though the details of his story varied, two other witnesses also testified that Klever had admitted to killing a woman, variously claiming he'd used his fists, a knife, or a bat. Larson testified a bloody bat was found in her garage.

More: Skywalk child-stealing criminal case in Des Moines at a standstill

Witnesses further recounted Klever's claims that he had bundled Klever's body in a motorcycle tarp and left it in the back of his trunk for days as he went on a drug bender at another friend's home, only leaving when neighbors began reacting to the smell. From there, they said he claimed, he took the body to the Cainsville Bottoms, a remote area in Missouri near where he'd grown up, first leaving it in a field and later returning to dump the remains in a river.

At least one witnesses reported Klever, who had been selling drugs at the time, claimed Reuter had been an informant for police, which prosecutors pointed to as a motive for the killing.

Evidence found in Klever's car

Other evidence pointed investigators toward Klever. An extinguished fire on a rural Missouri road was found to have metal fittings matching Reuter's handbag and partially burnt mail addressed to Klever. His car was found to be infested with blowflies, which forensic testing showed had consumed human blood.

In their closing argument, prosecutors said evidence showed not only had Klever killed Reuter, but that he'd done so intentionally and with premeditation.

"He had every opportunity to come clean. He had every opportunity to explain what happened," prosecutor Maurice Curry told jurors. "He didnt want to, because he murdered her."

Klever: Reuter hit me first

The defense called only one witness, Klever himself. On the stand, he said that he and Reuter, both homeless and extremely high on meth, had squabbled repeatedly overnight until finally she began to attack him, first with her fists and then the bat. He testified she struck him twice with the bat, on the back of his shoulder and his wrist, before he grabbed it from her and swung back.

"She was stumbling, and I swung and hit her in the side of the head with it. She spun into a toolbox and didnt get up," he said.

After the blow proved fatal, he said, he "panicked" and concealed her body in the back of his car. He agreed that he'd left her in his car in the hot June weather until the smell became unbearable, and admitted to attempting to burn her belongings in Missouri. He said he'd dumped her remains in Iowa's Decatur County on his way south, pushing the tarp with her body into the Grand River.

"I was terrified by what Id just done," he said when asked why he hadn't reported Reuter's death. "I could not foresee any way it would not look more horrible than it already ways."

How did Klever hurt his hand?

Prosecutors sought to poke several holes in Klever's account. His claim to have killed Reuter with a single blow did not match the amount of blood Larson found, or his own accounts to other witnesses. Others who saw him after the attack denied seeing any injuries or bruising matching what he described, except swelling in one hand and wrist that prosecutors ascribed to a "boxer's fracture" he incurred from beating Reuter.

And they pointed out that the spot where Klever claimed to have dumped Reuter's body is a popular water trail used by canoers and boaters, making it unlikely her remains would have gone undiscovered.

Curry argued there was more than enough evidence to support a first-degree murder conviction.

"He punched a woman so many times that he broke his own hand," he said. "If thats not malice aforethought, if thats not showing you have a specific intent to do someone harm, then I dont know what is."

Defense sought manslaughter conviction

Defense attorney Sheeley told jurors Reuter's death was a "tragedy" but that Klever's account on the stand was more credible than the secondhand recollections of the witnesses who testified, many of whom also were meth users. He said that in striking back at Reuter, Klever was responding to "serious provocation," the standard under Iowa law for voluntary manslaughter.

"I submit to you that was serious provocation, when she struck him with a bat," he said. "He didnt reflect on it, he didnt deliberate, he didnt premeditate, he just did it."

Sheeley acknowledged his client's irrational and at times disgusting actions, saying Klever's actions after the killing showed he "wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed." But he told jurors their job was to set aside their feelings about that conduct and focus on the why of Reuter's killing.

"The tragedy, her lifestyle, his lifestyle, what he did with her body in the days after he caused her death, thats not what hes on trial for," he said.

The jury deliberated for about five hours Tuesday and Wednesday.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines woman who disappeared in 2021 was murdered, jury finds
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi travelled to Syria on Wednesday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said, the fist visit there by an Iranian president since Syria's civil war erupted in 2011.

With military help and economic support from both Iran and Russia, Syrias President Bashar al-Assad was able to turn the tide of the conflict and regain control of most of his country.

(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP)  The presidents of Iran and Syria signed Wednesday a series of long-term cooperation agreements on oil and other sectors to bolster economic ties between the two allies.

Iran's Ebrahim Raisi, leading a large economic and political delegation, met with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, after landing in the war-torn country for a two-day visit  an Iranian president's first visit to Damascus since 2010.

Tehran has been a main backer of Assad's government since a 2011 uprising turned into full-blown civil war and has played an instrumental role in turning the tide of the conflict in his favor.

Iran has sent scores of military advisers and thousands of Iran-backed fighters from around the Middle East to Syria to fight on Assad's side. Tehran has also been an economic lifeline for Assad, sending fuel and credit lines worth billions of dollars.

Syrian government forces have regained control of large parts of the country in recent years, with the help of its two main allies  Russia and Iran.

With Arab governments that once advocated Assad's downfall now slowly making amends with Damascus, Iran appears to be hoping to reap the rewards for its decades-long support of the Syrian president with investment and economic opportunities to help alleviate its own ailing economy.

Syrian state media said Raisi and Assad signed agreements and memorandums of understanding related to several sectors, including oil, agriculture, railways and free trade zones.

Iran's state-owned railway company has long aspired to expand its network through neighboring Iraq and Syria, linking it to the Syrian port of Lattakia on the Mediterranean Sea to boost trade. Syria's opposition and Tehran critics see this as another Iran attempt at growing its political influence.

The deal are important also for Syria, whose economy has hit an all-time low over the past decade, with spiraling inflation, a currency plunge and rampant power cuts.

Story continues

In an interview with pan-Arab television channel Al-Mayadeen ahead of his visit, Raisi called for reconstruction efforts and for Syrian refugees who fled the country's war to return home.

Syrias government and people have gone through great hardship," Syrian state media quoted Raisi as telling Assad during their meeting. "Today, we can now say that you have overcome all these problems and were victorious, despite the threats and sanctions imposed against you.

Raisi was also to visit the Sayida Zeinab and Sayida Ruqayya shrines, both holy sites in Shiite Islam, as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument dedicated to Syrian soldiers killed in battle.

The last Iranian president to visit Syria was President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2010.

Raisi's visit comes as some Arab countries, including Egypt and regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, have been opening up to Assad and their foreign ministers have visited Damascus in recent weeks. Syrias foreign minister also visited the Saudi capital of Riyadh in April, the first such visit since the two countries cut relations in 2012.

In March, Iran and Saudi Arabia, a main backer of Syrian opposition fighters, reached an agreement, brokered by China, to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions.

The Iran-Saudi reconciliation is likely to have positive effects on countries where the two fought proxy wars, including Syria.

Syria was widely shunned by Arab governments over Assads brutal crackdown on protesters. The breakdown in relations culminated with Syria being ousted from the Arab League in 2011. Syria's civil war has since killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country's pre-war population of 23 million.

America and its allies failed on all fronts against the resistance, and could not achieve any of their goals, Irans new ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, told Irans state news agency on Tuesday.

Like Syria, Iran is under Western sanctions, which alongside decades of mismanagement, has plunged its national currency to new lows. Months of anti-government protests failed to unseat the ruling clerics and talks on Tehran's return to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which lifted sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Irans nuclear program, have long become stalemated.

In 2015, when the nuclear deal was signed, Irans currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar. In February, it hit a record low of 600,000 for $1.

A week before the Iranian president's visit to Damascus, Iran's minister of road and urban development, Mehrdad Bazrpash, met with Assad in the Syrian capital, where he delivered a message from Raisi supporting the expansion of ties, Irans state IRNA news agency said.

Irans military presence in Syria been a major concern for Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment along its northern border. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years  but rarely acknowledges them.

Since the beginning of 2023, Syrian officials have attributed a dozen strikes on Syrian territory to Israel, the latest of which came early on Tuesday and put the international airport of the northern city of Aleppo out of service.

___

Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
The IRIS-T air defense division destroyed more than 60 aerial targets over Ukraine

He posted a footage of the systems on combat duty.

Read also: NASAMS, IRIS-T already operating, HAWK air defense system soon to join them, Air Force says

The IRIS-T systems can share information from their radar with neighboring air defense systems so that its neighbor can continue to track and attack enemy targets.

Everyone had a great impression on the first day of using the system, said the deputy commander of an anti-aircraft missile unit aka Jeweler.

Read also: Germany provides Ukraine with additional Iris-T SLM missiles

First of all, because they shot all (targets) down.

The German government has already delivered two IRIS-T air defense systems to Ukraine, in October 2022 and in late April 2023.

The Ukrainian Air Force announced on April 23 that its first Patriot air defense batteries had been placed on combat duty.

On April 27, it was reported that a second Patriot air defense battery had also been placed on combat duty in Ukraine.

Read also: Ukraine needs at least 20 Patriot air defense batteries, says military expert

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
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza agreed to a ceasefire early on Wednesday, two Palestinian officials said, after the death of a Palestinian hunger striker in Israeli custody a day earlier sparked cross-border exchanges of fire.

The "reciprocal and simultaneous" ceasefire went into effect at 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) and was brought about with efforts from Egyptian, Qatari and United Nations officials, the sources told Reuters.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Henriette Chacar; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
Smoke billows over the West Bank village of Hares as Israeli troops demolish the home of a Palestinian accused of killing three Israelis in a car-ramming and stabbing attack last year

Israeli troops carried out demolitions Wednesday of the homes of two Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly attacks on Israelis in the occupied West Bank last year.

The army said the demolitions targeted the homes of Mohammed Souf, 18, accused of a "car-ramming and stabbing attack" which killed three Israelis last November, and Younis Hilan, accused of fatally stabbing an Israeli the previous month.

Souf's uncle, Mostafa, denounced the demolitions as "collective punishment".

"This is the occupation's policy which we, as Palestinians, are familiar with and used to. We were sure this would happen, because we have been through collective punishment before," he told AFP.

Hilan's father Jalal stressed that the stabbing carried out by his son in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, west of the city of Nablus, "wasn't my fault".

He said he had expected the army to raze only the one floor of the family home in which his son had lived, but complained they had demolished another floor too.

The army said that during the demolition of Hilan's home "suspects hurled rocks and rolled burning tyres at the soldiers."

Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967, routinely demolishes the homes of individuals it blames for attacks on Israelis.

Human rights activists say the policy amounts to collective punishment, as it can render non-combatants, including children, homeless.

But Israel says the practice is effective in deterring some Palestinians from carrying out attacks.

bur-gb/kir
By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel voiced hope on Wednesday that Saudi authorities would admit direct flights for its Muslim citizens who want to make the Haj pilgrimage, which takes place next month, in what would mark another step toward normalising relations.

Saudia Arabia signalled approval for Israel's U.S.-sponsored forging of ties with Gulf neighbours United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020 but has held off on following suit, saying Palestinian goals for statehood should be addressed first.

Any such prospects have been further clouded, however, by Riyadh's strains with U.S. President Joe Biden, its recent fence-mending with regional rival Iran - a foe of Israel - and the rise of Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right Israeli government.

Netanyahu's centrist predecessor, Yair Lapid, said on March 10 that, as prime minister last year, he secured Saudi consent for what would be the first direct Haj flights from Israel, some 18% of whose population are Muslim.

Riyadh has not offered confirmation.

Asked whether the direct flights would happen for next month's pilgrimage to the holy Saudi city of Mecca, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said a request had been submitted.

"This issue is under discussion. I cannot tell you if there is any progress," he said in an interview with Israel's Army Radio. "But with that, I am optimistic that we can advance peace with Saudi Arabia."

The Biden administration last June predicted there would be direct charter flights from Israel to Saudi Arabia for the Haj. But a senior U.S. official briefed on the matter told Reuters on Wednesday that it was "unclear" if the flights would go ahead.

Muslims from Israel and the Palestinian territories currently travel to Mecca through third-party countries, which can spell additional expense and bother.

Saudi Arabia has been allowing Israeli airlines to overfly it to UAE and Bahrain since 2020, a corridor that it and next-door Oman have since expanded to include other destinations.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
JERUSALEM (AP)  Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed a 58-year-old man and wounded five others on Wednesday, Palestinian health officials said, even as the latest spasm of violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the enclave appeared to ebb.

Israeli fighter jets struck targets in Gaza in response to salvos of rockets launched by Palestinian militants at Israeli territory on Tuesday. But after sunrise, the violence seemed to subside as both sides signaled they wanted to avoid a wider conflict.

The exchange erupted when a prominent Palestinian detainee died in Israeli custody after an 87-day hunger strike. The death of Khader Adnan, 45, a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group credited with popularizing hunger strikes as an effective form of activism, reverberated across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where he is revered as a national hero.

Protests erupted at Israeli military checkpoints and a general strike shuttered stores across the territories. Palestinians and rights groups have blamed Israel for his death, accusing prison authorities of medical negligence.

London-based Amnesty International on Wednesday described Adnan's treatment in Israeli prison as inhumane" and degrading, citing a doctor who visited his cell and said authorities rebuffed his requests for medical attention. Israel's prison service claims Adnan refused medical treatment until it was too late.

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired 100 rockets into southern Israel late Tuesday, seriously wounding a foreign worker at a construction site. The Israeli military said its warplanes struck tunnels, arms production sites and military installations belonging to the ruling Hamas militant group in Gaza.

The Israeli strikes sent shrapnel slicing through the house of 58-year-old Hashil Mubarak in Gaza City, his son Hatem said. As their roof collapsed, shards of metal struck Mubaraks chest, killing him, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Mubarak was rushed to the hospital and could not be resuscitated.

Story continues

We were sleeping at home safe and sound when we heard a giant explosion from a missile, Hatem recalled as mourners filled his neighborhood mosque and took turns bending down to kiss his father's forehead.

He was martyred, he said.

After a quiet few hours, the Israeli military announced that residents in southern towns no longer needed to remain close to bomb shelters. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem thanked Palestinian militants for confronting Israeli aggression and concluding the round of the conflict.

The U.N.'s envoy to the Mideast, Tor Wennesland, said he welcomed the restoration of calm" after a violent 12 hours. Had our efforts failed, we would risk being in the midst of another deadly escalation, he said.

But not everyone welcomed the calm. Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir lambasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over what he described as a weak response to the rocket fire from Gaza.

Ultranationalist lawmakers in Netanyahus coalition, including Ben-Gvir, won a record number of seats in the general election in November, after campaigning on a pledge to reduce terrorist threats and take a hard-line against the Palestinians. The latest rocket attacks have already heightened calls from the politicians' right-wing supporters to make good on their promises.

Ben-Gvir's party, called Jewish Power, announced its members would boycott all parliament voting on Wednesday in protest.

Netanyahu hit back at Ben-Gvir, saying that only the prime minister, defense minister and security forces are tasked with handling the sensitive and complex security events in Israel.

If this is not acceptable to Minister Ben-Gvir, he does not have to stay in the government, Netanyahu's Likud party said in a statement.

The spike in violence comes at a time of heightened tensions in the occupied West Bank under Israel's most right-wing government in history. On Wednesday, Israeli security forces demolished the family houses of two Palestinians who carried out deadly attacks against Israelis last fall.

Israel defends its decades-old policy of leveling family homes of attackers as a deterrent. The practice has long drawn criticism from human rights groups that call it collective punishment, forbidden by international law. Some also question its effectiveness in preventing future attacks, saying such demolitions only exacerbate tensions and fuel hatred in Palestinian communities.

The military said it entered the northern West Bank town of Haris and destroyed the home of 18-year-old Mohammed Souf, who killed three Israelis in a stabbing and car-ramming attack last November before being killed. The military also leveled the home of Younes Hilan, who was arrested on suspicion of fatally stabbing an Israeli man in October.

Also in the West Bank on Wednesday, Israeli forces shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian outside the city of Bethlehem. The Israeli military alleged that the Palestinian refused to cooperate at a checkpoint and tried to attack soldiers. Security forces responded first by firing into the air and then shooting the suspected assailant, the military said.

Israel-Palestinian fighting has surged over the past year. Roughly 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire and 49 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

___

Associated Press writer Mohammad Jahjouh in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.
Mette Frederiksen, the Danish Prime Minister, has said that the allies are continuing their discussions on the possibility of supplying Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets.

Source: Frederiksen during a joint briefing with Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and leaders of the Nordic countries in Helsinki, the correspondent of European Pravda reports

Quote: "When it comes to fighter jets, this is an issue that we have been discussing for some time... This is a difficult task, and this is a difficult question, but the discussion is still ongoing. On the part of Denmark, we have not yet closed this [question. - ed.]," said Frederiksen.

Details: In the Danish Parliament, there are supporters who believe their country should follow the example of Poland, which has provided its fighters to Kyiv, and send its F-16s to Ukraine, which are set to be gradually replaced by F-35s.

The Danish Air Force currently uses F-16 fighters, but in the autumn of 2023 they will begin to replace them with more modern F-35s.

Background:

In March, Denmarks Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, commenting on Poland's decision to send MiG-29s to Kyiv, said that Western countries are now discussing the possibility of sending Ukraine modern fighters.

On 2 May, the Danish parliament approved a decision to allocate a new package of military assistance worth 1.7 billion Danish kroner (over US$250 million) to Ukraine.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
The author. Courtesy of Phoebe Egoroff

I've dated men in Sweden, the UK, and Australia and found the experiences very different.

Every place had its highs and its lows, but London was my favorite place to date.

I'm in a relationship now with someone I met in Stockholm.

"Here's your bill when you're ready," a waitress told me and my date as we polished off the last of our cocktails.

I thought the evening had gone well, at least for a Bumble date. We'd had jerk chicken and fruity drinks at a bustling Caribbean restaurant in Stockholm, spoken about politics, and delved into internet culture until the lights were switched on and the pumping melodic beats came to an abrupt halt. As I glanced around, I noticed we were the last people there.

"Look, I've had a great evening, but I don't think I want to do this again," he said after a short silence. "Do you mind paying?"

Ah, the joys of dating.

I guess you could say growing up in Australia and the UK, living in Sweden, and visiting London every other month has given me a unique perspective on dating. But my reasons have always been the same  a long-term commitment. And now that I'm (finally) partnered up, I can reflect on my experiences and share what I've learned about dating in different cultures.

Dating in Australia was too casual for me

Fresh out of high school as an 18-year-old, I was desperate to have a boyfriend. I began meeting people at clubs, at bars, and through mutual friends, as is the case with dating in my hometown.

It's not uncommon for people to meet in high school and never break up, becoming totally enmeshed in each other's lives over the years. My experiences with dating in Australia were often laid-back, with friendly banter and relaxed meetups  they often erred on the side of being too casual for me.

One date, in particular, stands out, when I drove to a local pie shop to meet a Tinder date who greeted me with a handshake and a pat on the back as if I was an old schoolmate he'd bumped into on his way to lunch.

Story continues

While I can't argue that the experience would be the same for everyone  Australia has plenty of chivalrous surfer dudes  I wouldn't have scoffed at a little romanticism every now and then.

Sweden was too complicated to navigate for me

Having finally graduated from college and hot off an obsession with "Vikings" I left Australia and settled in Sweden. Not knowing much about Scandinavia, I naively based my idea of men in Sweden on the rugged, dominant types I was seeing on TV.

In reality, I was hardly prepared for how confusing the world of online dating in Stockholm was as a foreigner. The Swedish concept of "lagom" or moderation, permeated every aspect of my life, including dating. I noticed the people I went out with were hesitant to express their feelings too strongly or move too quickly, which was frustrating for me at times.

For example, despite having dated one Stockholmer for several weeks (and despite him telling me he "really liked" me), nothing ever seemed to progress further because he was waiting on me to make every move.

It just left me wondering if anyone was even interested in me.

The UK has so far been my favorite place to date

Dating in London takes the top spot out of all the places I've dated in. It's thrilling, nerve-racking, and exciting  you're never short of places to go, see, eat, or drink  and the same goes for the people. But while my potential love interests have put in more effort, and the dates are less casual, I've encountered pitfalls too.

I once went on a string of dates with a guy who seemed like he was really into me, and who constantly told me he "liked where this was going". But, as it turned out, he also wanted to "see what else was out there" before making a long-term commitment  almost like he was waiting for the perfect person to fall into his lap, rather than putting in the effort to build a meaningful connection.

And that's the thing about dating in the UK  it feels like there's always something or someone better around the corner.

I ended up footing a few more bills in Stockholm to find my Prince Charming, and the reality is this: Whether you're swiping right in London, cuddling up in Stockholm, or flirting in Sydney, dating is an adventure that never quite looks the same.

Read the original article on Insider
Whether J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell emerge victorious from Broadways biggest night remains to be seen  but theyve already made history.

On Tuesday, Ghee and Newell became the first nonbinary performers to be nominated for acting prizes at the Tony Awards, which are set to take place next month.

Ghee received a nomination for best actor in a musical for their performance as Jerry/Daphne in the musical adaptation of Some Like It Hot, while Newell received a nod for best supporting actor in a musical for Shucked, in which they play the character of Lulu.

In an email, Ghee said they were thrilled and overwhelmed by the recognition.

Im thankful to every member of this production for creating such an affirming space where I get to show the complexity of this human and go on a beautiful ride every time the curtains go up, Ghee wrote. Im grateful to the committee for recognizing this work. Its a moment I will cherish forever.

J. Harrison Ghee in Broadway's

J. Harrison Ghee in Broadway's "Some Like It Hot."

Newell expressed similar sentiments on their Instagram story while sharing a photo of the two actors posing together at Monday nights Met Gala.

We walked in The Met as Met Gala Virgins, Newell wrote in the caption, and woke up TONY NOMINEES!!!

Both Ghee and Newell use the pronouns he, she and they. Their nominations come just one year after British composer Toby Marlow and producer JJ Maley became the first-ever nonbinary people to win Tony Awards. Marlow won for their work on the musical Six, while Maley was one of the producers of A Strange Loop, the 2023 winner for best musical.

Similarly, performers Sara Ramirez and KO are past Tony winners in the best actress category, though neither had publicly identified as nonbinary at the time that they received their respective nominations.

However, just how the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League  which co-present the Tony Awards each year  plan to recognize nonbinary performers moving forward remains in question.

Story continues

In February, actor Justin David Sullivan announced that they were withdrawing their performance in the musical & Juliet from Tonys consideration due to the awards gendered nomination categories.

Alex Newell in Broadway's

Alex Newell in Broadway's "Shucked."

Because I was told I had no other option but to choose between one of the two gendered categories in which I would be eligible, I felt that I had no choice but to abstain from being considered for a nomination this season, Sullivan wrote in a statement at the time. I could not in good faith move forward with denying any part of my identity to conform to a system and structure that does not hold space for people like me.

Newell, whose credits include Glee and Zoeys Extraordinary Playlist, ultimately decided to compete in the best supporting actor category.

I went based off the English language, they told Variety last week. Because when I say Im an actor, I mean that is my profession, the craft that I studied, the craft that Im doing. Everyone who does acting is an actor. That is genderless.

Still, Newell went on to note that they hoped Sullivans decision would be a wake-up call.

Change is inevitable and it will happen, Newell added, but we need to move a little faster.

Clarification: This article has been updated to reflect past Tony winners in various categories who are nonbinary.

Related...
Jair Bolsonaro said his mobile phone and that of his wife had been seized during the raid

Police have searched the home of former President Jair Bolsonaro in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, as part of an investigation into his Covid vaccination records.

Police suspect the ex-leader's vaccination record was forged so he could gain entry to the US.

Officers seized the mobile phone of the former president and that of his wife and arrested some of his close aides as part of the operation.

Mr Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing.

The former president is a vocal opponent of Covid vaccinations, who repeatedly spread false information about the vaccine and its alleged side effects.

While he had always said that he would not get the vaccine, he had refused to make his vaccination record public, arguing that it contained sensitive private data.

But an official in the new government of his successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, ruled that the information was in the public interest.

The record showed that Mr Bolsonaro had had a vaccine in 2021 but police think the record may have been forged and launched the investigation which led to Wednesday's raid.

According to federal police, "false data" was inserted into the Covid-19 vaccination records held by the Brazilian ministry of health so that the individuals whose vaccination status had been changed would be able to get the vaccination certificates necessary to enter the United States

Speaking after the raid, Mr Bolsonaro denied tampering with any records. "For my part, there was nothing falsified," he told reporters.

He also denied having had a Covid jab: "I didn't take the vaccine. Period."

The false data was allegedly inserted in the records between November and December of last year, when Mr Bolsonaro was still president.

Mr Bolsonaro travelled to Florida at the end of December, just days before his rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was sworn into office.

The US has not commented on what visa the then-president entered the country on or what, if any, vaccination records he provided at the time.

Since his return to Brazil on 30 March, Mr Bolsonaro has had to appear before police on two occasions to testify in two separate investigations.

One is examining his alleged role in the storming of the Brazilian Congress by his supporters in January. He is also being investigated over whether he tried to illegally import and keep millions of dollars' worth of jewellery he and his wife were given by Saudi Arabia in 2019.
Jameela Jamil at the premiere of

Jameela Jamil at the premiere of "Poker Face."

Jameela Jamil has called out Hollywoods double standards after this years Met Gala celebrated fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

On Monday night, some of the most famous names in the world came together for the 2023 Met Ball, which was titled Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.

The following morning, Jameela shared an impassioned Instagram post which read: Last night Hollywood and fashion said the quiet part out loud when a lot of famous feminists chose to celebrate at the highest level, a man who was so publicly cruel to women, to fat people, to immigrants and to sexual assault survivors.

And all the womens publications, and spectators online, chose to gleefully ignore it.

Karl Lagerfeld waves.

Karl Lagerfeld waves.

The Legendary star continued: Nobody has perfect morals, least of all me, but Jesus Christ we had a year to course correct here, and not award the highest honour possible to a known bigot and everyone just decided we can separate the art from the artist when *convenient*.

And its one rule for us, and another rule for everybody else.

Last night, we relinquished our right to be taken at all seriously about anything important, she added.

Elaborating further in her posts caption, Jameela wrote: This isnt about cancel culture. Its not even about Karl. Its about showing how selective cancel culture is within liberal politics, in the most blatant way so far. Its about showing why people dont trust liberals. Because of slippery tactics and double standards like this.

And its not just Hollywood here, the general public online participated and were entirely complicit in the erasure of the truth last night. They replaced their pitchforks with spoons last night, to lap that shit right up if we carry on like this, dont be shocked when we lose the next election.

Following Lagerfelds death in 2019, Jameela tweeted: A ruthless, fat-phobic misogynist shouldnt be posted all over the internet as a saint gone-too-soon. Talented for sure, but not the best person.

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Reality TV star and influencer Ashley James also shared a post of her own on Tuesday, which included a number of quotes attributed to the late Chanel creative director.

These included cutting remarks about various famous womens appearance, criticism of those who spoke out in the early stages of the Me Too movement and cruel comments about refugees and the Holocaust.

I find it really uncomfortable to see the Met Gala this year because it serves as a stark reminder that problematic men are given huge platforms and forgiveness in society if they are talented, Ashley said.

This years Met Gala was co-chaired by Anna Wintour, Dua Lipa, Michaela Coel, Penelope Cruz and Roger Federer.

A number of guests emulated Lagerfelds signature style on the red carpet, while others paid specific tribute to his cat, Choupette.

However, many have interpreted a number of celebrities appearances at the 2023 Met Ball as protests against Lagerfelds past comments.

This included the model and activist Quannah Chasinghorse, who attended sporting a gown in Lagerfelds most loathed colour.

Meanwhile, Lizzo was seen in a classic Lagerfeld design, and posed for a photograph eating french fries behind the scenes, in what many suggested was a clap-back against his comments about plus-size people.

Related...
James Gunn almost killed off a major character in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 before Marvel executives persuaded him against it.

Though the character  Zoe Saldanas Gamora  eventually met their demise a year later in 2018s Avengers: Infinity War, the director said he was talked out of his original plan by Marvel Studio president Kevin Feige and executive producer Louis DEsposito.

Gamora almost died in Vol 2, Gunn revealed in a recent interview with ComicBook.com.

I knew from the beginning Zoe only wanted to play the character for so many years, and shes been very honest saying that shes done [after this]. And so I was going to have her die.

He continued: I thought she was the one that was going to sacrifice herself I was kind of talked out of it by Kevin and Louis and then it just didnt work that well. It didnt feel right. It felt much more right to go where we go in that movie. That seemed what was correct for the story.

Ultimately it was Yondus (Michael Rooker) death that replaced Gamoras intended Vol 2 fate.

Gunn admitted that his close friendship with Rooker made him afraid of killing off Yondu, but that was where the story naturally progressed to.

He then recalled his conversation with Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony Russo, in which they discussed their plan of killing Gamora.

They called me up and said, Were thinking about this, does this work? Can you work with this? And I went, Got it, yeah. I really can, Gunn said.

However, while Gamora dies in the 2018 film, an alternate version of her appears in 2019s Avengers: Endgame, and will feature in the Guardians trilogys final movie Vol 3.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 releases in cinemas on 5 May. Read The Independents four-star review of the movie here.
Jamie Foxx is reportedly still in hospital, three weeks after suffering a serious medical emergency.

The Collateral and Django Unchained actor is currently at a medical facility in Georgia where he is being kept under observation, US media outlets have reported.

No details have been shared by his representatives, but a source close to the actor told TMZ that he needs all the prayers and well-wishes his fans can muster.

Foxxs daughter, Corrine, said that the actor was rushed to hospital on 12 April, telling her Instagram followers that he had suffered a medical emergency and was on his way to recovery.

Corinne said: We know how beloved he is and appreciate your prayers. The family asks for privacy during this time.

Foxx is currently Georgia to shoot new Netflix film Back in Action, which he is set to co-star in alongside Cameron Diaz.

The actors fans are sending positivity to the Oscar-winning star.

Dang man Im really praying for Jamie, one fan wrote, adding; So sad but Im positive he will pull through.

Jamie Foxx is still in hospital after suffering a medical emergency (Getty Images)

Im praying for a quick recovery, another person tweeted.

The Independent has contacted Foxxs reps for comment.
REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Nick Cannon will take over hosting duties for Jamie Foxx on the upcoming season of Beat Shazam amid the actors ongoing hospitalization, according to a spokesperson for Fox.

The news comes after a series of mysterious updates about Foxxs health since he was hospitalized for undisclosed reasons last month while filming the Netflix movie Back in Action.

Details about the 55-year-old Oscar winners condition or what hes suffering from have been kept under wraps. On April 12, his daughter Corinne Foxx announced that he was being treated for a medical complication on Instagram.

We wanted to share that, my father, Jamie Foxx, experienced a medical complication yesterday, she wrote. Luckily, due to quick action and great care, he is already on his way to recovery.

Jamie Foxx Targeted in $40K Scam on Netflix Film Set: Report

Since then, the Miami Vice stars camp has remained quiet. Back in Action has also gone back into production, with stunt doubles filling in for Foxx. However, TMZ reported on Wednesday that Foxxs family members are asking the public for their well wishes and prayers for the actor.

As for Beat Shazam, Cannon is expected to fill in for Foxx on May 23 when the series kicks off its sixth season. The interactive Fox game show, built around the Shazam app, tasks contestants with identifying songs before the popular music tool can recognize them. Corinne Foxx serves as the shows DJ but reportedly wont be returning amid her fathers health issues.

Foxxs hospitalization, following the news that he was reportedly the target of a scam by an employee on the set of Back in Action, remains one of the strangest mysteries in recent celebrity history. Even so, Twitter users are posting tributes to the beloved multihyphenate and wishing him a speedy recovery.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A man walks past promotional posters outside Fox News studios at News Corporation headquarters in New York on Saturday, July 31, 2021. From left to right are hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Maria Bartiromo, Stuart Varney, Neil Cavuto and Charles Payne. | Ted Shaffrey, Associated Press

The speculation about why Fox News parted ways with Tucker Carlson, its most watched host, has ranged from Carlsons role in the multimillion-dollar settlement with Dominion, to a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by a former staffer, to the father of four being too religious.

Now The New York Times is reporting that an incendiary text obtained in discovery for the Dominion lawsuit led to the split.

Citing unnamed sources, the Times published a text message attributed to Carlson and sent to a producer on Jan. 7, 2021. The article said the text set off a panic at the highest levels of Fox and contributed to a chain of events that ultimately led to Mr. Carlsons firing.

Carlsons supporters, however, are saying the leaks are part of a smear campaign. On her podcast Tuesday, former Fox employee Megyn Kelly said that there are people within Fox who want him destroyed.

"Fox News should stop this nonsense...I see what you guys are doing, and so does Tucker's audience. And it's disgusting."@MegynKelly on the new leaked Tucker Carlson videos and who's really behind the attempt to destroy the former Fox News host. Watch - https://t.co/0vliZl7RFq pic.twitter.com/6T2Wis22iT  The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) May 3, 2023

The text, in which Carlson described watching three white men jump an Antifa kid (whose race is not specified) has been described by some on social media as racist because he says, Thats not how white men fight. The Times report said that the text revealed more about his views on racial superiority, and Keith Olbermann tweeted that it was a racist smoking gun.

But others noted the the full message revealed a moral complexity that is being ignored by those who are gloating about the release. Alyssa Farah Griffin, a CNN commentator and co-host of The View, described the text as a journey. Carlson talks about being troubled by his initial reaction to what he had seen, saying somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isnt good for me. Im becoming something I dont want to be.

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The text also said: I should remember that somewhere somebody loves this kid and would be crushed if he was killed. If I dont care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?

Theres more honesty and humanity and charity in that one Tucker Carlson text than the entire corporate press could produce in a lifetime. And every word of it is 100% true.  John Daniel Davidson (@johnddavidson) May 3, 2023

Neither Fox nor Carlson issued a response to the Times report.
Fox News

Fox News host Jesse Watters on Tuesday claimed that he is able to identify illegal immigrants in New York at a glanceand when pressed to explain himself, insisted simply that he can tell because hes a city guy.

On The Five, Watters was discussing how Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been busing migrants into the city since at least last August, partly as a revenge tactic in response to the Biden Administrations opposition to a Trump-era policy that uses Covid-19 as a reason to facilitate more expulsions. That policy, called Title 42, is set to end May 11, and the White House announced Tuesday that it is preparing to send 1,500 troops to the border ahead of an expected surge of migrants.

New York Mayor Eric Adams on Monday criticized Abbott, who has also used his authority to send migrants to places like Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, for targeting cities with Black mayors.

According to Watters, Adams remark was stupid.

This is like a lawyer complaining that all of these people are coming to them with problems. That's what you signed up for. Youre a sanctuary city! he exclaimed.

Race isnt a factor in Abbotts decision, Watters then said, claiming that Abbott didnt bus migrants to New York during former Mayor Bill de Blasios time in office (2014 through 2021) because there werent as many border apprehensions then.

Texas Guv Walks Back Statement Calling Shooting Victims Illegal Immigrants

Watters also asked, Is the mayor of Marthas Vineyard Black or white? (In fact, it was Florida Gov. Ron Desantis who arranged two migrant flights last September to the Massachusetts island, which consists of six towns, each governed by a select board rather than a mayor.)

Watters then claimed to have witnessed migrants firsthand in New York City, where the Fox News studios are located.

I saw on the way into work an illegal immigration family digging through the trash looking for recyclables, Watters said, prompting co-host Jessica Tarlov to ask him how he was so sure.

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You can tell, claimed Watters, whose explanation didnt fly with Tarlov. I can tell! Im a city guy. You dont want me to get into it, but I can tell.

Its the saddest thing to see because theyre not able to work here. They came to work, but theyre not able to work here, he continued. The point is this: you have to be able to choose the people that come into the country based on needs. If you need this type of person, bring them in. But to just say everybody come in and then, oops, you know, now people are looking for a five cent bottle, thats not right. And you cant blame the guy down in Texas for that. Joe Biden is the common denominator for all of this.

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Seth Meyers, left, and Jimmy Fallon. The late-night hosts said they each would fund a week of pay for their staffs out of their own pocket. (Lloyd Bishop; Rosalind O'Connor / NBC via Getty Images)

Employees of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and "Late Night With Seth Meyers" will continue to be paid for at least some duration of the WGA strike.

After late-night TV became the first casualty when the walkout by Hollywood writers began Tuesday, staff of the shows were informed that they would receive at least three weeks of wages while production on the programs was shut down, The Times has confirmed.

NBC intends to pay two weeks of salary to staff members, while Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers have pledged to fund a third week, according to people with knowledge of the agreement. Meanwhile, healthcare for the show's employees will continue through September. The information was relayed to employees Wednesday morning during production calls. Fallon and Meyers, who typically don't participate in the calls, each took time to address the staff.

NBC declined to comment about the agreement.

A nonunion "Tonight Show" staffer, Sarah Kobos, who describes herself as a as a senior photo research coordinator on her Twitter bio, tweeted about the development a day after she posted that staffers were initially told their compensation could cease after this week, and healthcare after this month, if the strike continued.

Both Meyers and Fallon have publicly voiced their support of their writing staffs in the days leading up to the walkout by members of the Writers Guild of America.

Look, no one is entitled to a job in show business. But for those people who have a job in show business, they are entitled to fair compensation," Meyers said when he addressed the strike during a taping of his show Monday night. "They are entitled to make a living. I think its a very reasonable demand that is being set out by the guild, and I support those demands. But I also believe that everybody at the table right now, be it from the writer side or the studio side, knows that the future of this business is dependent on storytellers.

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Other late-night talks shows that have stopped production include ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," CBS' "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" and "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver."

When late-night went dark during the last writers strike, which spanned 100 days from 2007 to 2008, the hosts at that time  David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan OBrien and Kimmel  each vowed to pay their crews out of their own pockets while their shows were off the air.

A similar move was adopted by late-night hosts when their productions were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
James Jimmy Story, the U.S. ambassador to Venezuelan affairs, is leaving his post later this month, two U.S. officials told McClatchy.

Story, a career foreign service officer, has been serving as the U.S. envoy on Venezuela, with offices in Bogota, Colombia, ever since the government of Nicolas Maduro in Caracas severed ties with Washington in 2019.

Ambassador Story will be leaving his position as the U.S. Ambassador to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on May 19, a State Department official said. We commend Ambassador Storys five years at the helm of our U.S. Mission to Venezuela, longer than the norm in such a diplomatic position, and his tireless commitment to restoring democracy in Venezuela.

While we are not physically in Venezuela, we are always present and working towards a return to democracy in the country, the official added.

Story served as the top U.S. diplomat to Venezuela out of Bogota given the Maduro regimes decision to break ties with the United States following then-President Donald Trumps decision to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela.

While in Bogota, Story maintained close ties with representatives of the Venezuelan opposition, but also played an important role in U.S. diplomatic efforts last year to re-engage the Caracas socialist regime in a new round of talks aiming to seek a negotiated solution to the Venezuelan crisis.

A number of meetings between high-ranking State Department officials and regime members, including Maduro, led among other things to the release of a number of American citizens deemed to have been jailed unjustly in Venezuela and the release of two of Maduros nephews who were sentenced in New York under drug trafficking charges.

Story participated in some of the talks held in Caracas during the first half of 2022, which also led to the Biden administration granting a new license to U.S. oil company Chevron to operate more freely inside the U.S.-sanctioned Venezuela and for Maduro to pledge that the regime would resume negotiations with opposition leaders organized in Mexico. Those talks later stalled, however.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has checked the operational situation on the border with Belarus and assessed the threats of an attack from the neighbouring country.

Source: the command of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook

Quote from Naiev: "The situation in the Northern operational zone is stable and under control. An aviation group of the Russian Federation remains on the territory of Belarus  as well as a Russian group of ground forces with a total number of up to 2,500 people."

Details: The officer added that there is a group of up to 17,000 troops in Russia's Bryansk and Kursk oblasts.

"As of now, there is no threat of ground offensive actions either from the territory of the Republic of Belarus, or from the territory of Kursk and Bryansk oblasts," Naiev emphasised.

He added that the military is doing all they can to be ready to respond appropriately in the event of a threat.

Background: On 2 May, Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus, convened a meeting to discuss the security and protection of the state border. He was informed that a "significant aggravation of the situation" is apparently expected.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
A 30-year-old Black man, Jordan Neely, died Monday afternoon on a New York City subway after another rider, who is white, grabbed him and put him in a chokehold.

A video of the incident taken by freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez shows Neely flailing his arms and legs around as he fought for his life. Blavity will not use that video in its reporting of this story.

According to The New York Times, witnesses said Neely was acting in a hostile and erratic manner to other passengers in a subway car when the perpetrator approached him. Police said the other man, 24, moved to restrain Neely, a talented Michael Jackson impersonator.

The incident clip shows the victim attempting to push the perpetrator, who tried to stop him by holding his arms down.

Later, the video shows Neely being held down for nearly two minutes before he stops moving. Then, even after the 30-year-olds movements stopped, he was still held down for 50 additional seconds before he was let go.

Later, police took the rider who put the victim in a chokehold into custody. They questioned him about the incident and released him soon after that. The 24-year-old was not charged for his involvement in the incident, but the investigation is ongoing. Police have also withheld his identity.

Vazquez has opened up about the incident, explaining that the victim was screaming before the incident.

I dont have food, I dont have a drink, Im fed up,' he said the victim yelled. I dont mind going to jail and getting life in prison. Im ready to die.'

Shortly after that, the 24-year-old went after him, and another passenger also restrained him until he stopped moving.

Police told the New York Daily News, He yelled and threw garbage at commuters, prompting an argument with the 24-year-old Marine vet.

Vazquez noted that while the 30-year-old was screaming, he did not assault anyone.

Passengers stared down at the victims lifeless body. One person on the train said, Hell be all right.

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The victim was unconscious when police arrived on the scene and was pronounced dead when he arrived at the hospital.

The New York Daily News also reported Neely has a documented mental health history with the NYPD, had been arrested more than 40 times and was a suspect in a 2021 assault. Still, his friends and fans say he was homeless and hungry when he acted out on the Manhattan train.

Beyond The Pale host Rafael Shimunov tweeted, This was Jordan Neely, a hungry New Yorker choked to death by a grinning Marine who is being celebrated as a hero by NYPD and press. His offense? Aggressive speech, throwing his jacket on the ground and asking for food and water.

This was Jordan Neely, a hungry New Yorker choked to death by a grinning Marine who is being celebrated as a hero by NYPD and press. His offense? Aggressive speech, throwing his jacket on the ground and asking for food and water. pic.twitter.com/F3rRj30rQL  Rafael Shimunov (@rafaelshimunov) May 3, 2023

The outcry about what happened to Neely has sparked on social media, with many users noting the MJ impersonator was experiencing mental health challenges.

Everyone has screamed + cried into their pillow when emotions run strong + you need emotional release. Unhoused ppl dont have 4 walls and a pillow to scream into. They have no choice but to vent in public. Jordan Neely was tired and hungry and didnt deserve to be murdered, one Twitter user wrote.

Everyone has screamed + cried into their pillow when emotions run strong + you need emotional release. Unhoused ppl don't have 4 walls and a pillow to scream into. They have no choice but to vent in public. Jordan Neely was tired and hungry and didn't deserve to be murdered.  Housing 4 All is Hot (@ahouse4all) May 3, 2023

Jordan Neely was a New Yorker. He was a person. When he began to suffer from mental illness the citys social safety net failed him, as it had failed countless others. When he exhibited signs of his mental illness in public he was murdered on the F train, another added.

Jordan Neely was a New Yorker. He was a person. When he began to suffer from mental illness the citys social safety net failed him, as it had failed countless others. When he exhibited signs of his mental illness in public he was murdered on the F train. pic.twitter.com/Ugyj1PONkR  Shabazz Stuart (@ShabazzStuart) May 3, 2023

One viewer urged others to remember Neely for who he was, not how he died.

Please remember Jordan Neely for the talent he was and not how he died in the midst of what was probably a mental health crisis (@ the hands of someone else), they wrote, including a clip of Neelys past performances.

please remember Jordan Neely for the talent he was and not how he died in the midst of what was probably a mental health crisis (@ the hands of someone else) https://t.co/JtDxBCJV02 pic.twitter.com/XQz4DKNnna   (@ladytrashbucket) May 3, 2023

Others argued this incident isnt symbolic of who New Yorkers are.

Jordan Neely loved to dance and perform. On Tuesday, while suffering a mental health crisis, he was choked to death while people watched and cheered. Jordan needed care. Instead, he was brutally murdered. This is not who we are as New Yorkers, the New York Working Families Party tweeted.

Jordan Neely loved to dance and perform. On Tuesday, while suffering a mental health crisis, he was choked to death while people watched and cheered. Jordan needed care. Instead, he was brutally murdered. This is not who we are as New Yorkers.

pic.twitter.com/F4TmtlDEQW  NY Working Families Party (@NYWFP) May 3, 2023

New York Citys comptroller, Brad Lander, tweeted: NYC is not Gotham. We must not become a city where a mentally ill human being can be choked to death by a vigilante without consequence. Or where the killer is justified & cheered.
The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office reported a man was shot outside a Lackawanna home due to an alleged ambush at 2800 Edison Ave. Tuesday evening.

JSO reported that at around 4:00 p.m., officers responded to the area of 2800 Edison Ave. about a person shot.

An adult male was transported to a local hospital suffering non-life-threatening injuries after suffering multiple shots to the legs. The victim had to undergo surgery due to the injuries.

After an initial investigation, JSO stated that the victim was sitting in front of a residence when he was ambushed by the suspect.

The suspect is described as being in his late teens to early twenties, wearing a white shirt and blue jeans with a white cloth covering his face. The location of the suspect is currently unknown.

Violent Crime Detectives are on the scene and it is an ongoing investigation.

Anyone with information related to the incident is urged to contact the Sheriffs office at 904-630-0500 or go online to ISOCRIMETIPS@JAXSHERIFF.ORG or call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 866-845-TIPS.

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The Planned Parenthood clinic in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 3, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

A Utah law that would have required abortions before 18 weeks to be performed in a hospital and criminalized abortions performed in abortion clinics has been placed on hold.

On Tuesday, 3rd District Court Judge Andrew Stone granted a preliminary injunction that enjoins and restrains the state from enforcing HB467, which was passed by the Utah Legislature during its 2023 General Session and was scheduled to go into effect on Wednesday.

Stones order prevents the state from prohibiting licensed abortion clinics from performing abortions 18 weeks from a womans last menstrual period and eliminating abortion clinics as a facility licensure category while the law is challenged in court.

HB467s sponsor, Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, and the legislations Senate floor sponsor, Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, issued the following statement: We are confident in the states position but respect the process of the courts and look forward to a prompt resolution.

The judges ruling notes given the absence of evidence from the state, there is nothing before the court to indicate that an injunction would be adverse to the public interest. In terms of the states and the publics interest, the plaintiff correctly observes that Utah already bans nearly all abortions after 18 weeks of pregnancy, including in cases of rape or incest. An injunction against the clinic ban would not prevent Utah from enforcing this ban on abortions after 18 weeks gestation.

The plaintiff has persuasively argued that the balance of equities and public interest thus weigh decisively in (the plaintiffs) favor, the ruling states.

The Utah Attorney Generals Office, which defended the state statute, declined to comment on the ruling, citing ongoing litigation.

While HB467 would have required abortions to be performed in a hospital, Stones order quotes Dr. David Turok, Planned Parenthood Association of Utahs director of surgical services, whose declaration to the court stated few abortions are performed in Utah hospitals. Dr. Turok is not aware of any detailed or coordinated plan by a Utah hospital to expand its capacity to provide abortions to more patients in the event HB467 takes effect, the ruling states.

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Planned Parenthood Association of Utah challenged the law, arguing before Stone last week in a motion hearing.

Gayle Ruzicka, president of the Utah Eagle Forum which supported the states law, said she was disappointed but not surprised because this Judge Stone did the same thing with our trigger bill.

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, removing the right to abortion after almost 50 years, Ruzicka said she looked forward to Utahs trigger law going into effect after many years of fighting for the unborn and further restrictions on abortion. She said she was frustrated by yet another wait.

Utahs law, which was triggered when Roe v. Wade was struck down, prohibits elective abortion but allows procedures in instances of rape or incest, risk to the mothers life and certain fetal defects. But it, too, is on hold pending further legal proceedings under an earlier ruling by Stone.

I was just really disappointed though that we got Judge Stone again, Ruzicka said. Why cant we have another judge?

Related

Sarah Stoesz, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, in a statement said HB467 would have forced Planned Parenthood health centers and other providers to turn away those seeking legal health care that we are trained and ready to provide. While we welcome this victory, the threat to Utahns health and personal freedom remains dire as politicians continue to undermine our judicial process and fight the injunction against Utahs trigger ban.

According to Turoks declaration, a clinic ban would drive most people seeking abortion out of state or force them to remain pregnant and ultimately give birth against their will. Patients unable to immediately receive abortion care at a Utah hospital as a result of hospital policies and capacity will be forced to delay receiving abortion care in Utah while they wait for an appointment at a Utah hospital.

Earlier this year, Lisonbee defended HB467, stating, We in Utah have a long-standing tradition  since before statehood  of protecting the unborn by outlawing abortion. We have compassionate exemptions, and we have compassionate law and services for women who find themselves in a situation, and we as a state ought to support them in making the decision that they need to make. Thats what this bill does, in a compassionate and thoughtful way.
Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D), who was censured and barred from the House floor by state Republicans, cannot yet return to the chamber, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The judge rejected a motion from Zephyr, one of the states first openly transgender lawmakers, and her lawyers to allow her to return to the House floor and participate in debate, according to the Associated Press.

Zephyr was censured and barred from the House in April for the remainder of the 2023 legislative session for criticizing Republican colleagues who voted for a bill in the state that would ban gender-affirming care for minors. She told the lawmakers they would have blood on your hands.

But lawyers for the state lobbied the court to not grant Zephyrs emergency motion to allow her back in the statehouse, arguing it would be a violation of the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches. They also argued Zephyr was expelled from the chamber for good cause.

One legislator cannot be allowed to halt the ability of the other 99 to engage in civil, orderly, debate concerning issues affecting Montana, the states lawyers wrote to the court.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen celebrated the decision on Tuesday.

This lawsuit was nothing more than an attempt by outside groups to interfere with Montanas lawmaking process, Knudsen said in a statement. Todays decision is a win for the rule of law and the separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution.

Zephyr and Democratic allies have slammed the decision by state Republicans to banish her from the legislature, framing it as an assault on free speech and an attempt to silence her voice and support for transgender issues.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) signed the bill that banned gender-affirming care for minors in the state last Friday, making the state one of a slew of Republican-led states that have enacted bans and restrictions on the care.

The silencing of Zephyr has put her into national headlines, following the recent move in the Republican-led Tennessee House to banish two Black state lawmakers for their protests over gun violence. The lawmakers were reinstated in April.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Attorneys for Zooey Zephyr have suggested that they will appeal the judge's decision

A judge has rejected transgender Democratic lawmaker Zooey Zephyr's attempt to return to the state's House of Representatives.

State Republicans voted to bar her after she said they would "have blood on their hands" if they restricted medical care for transgender youth.

A lawsuit filed earlier this week sought Rep Zephyr's return.

District court judge Mike Menahan has ruled that he does not have the authority to reinstate her.

The legal wrangling stems from an 18 April incident in which Rep Zephyr expressed her opposition to a proposed bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth in Montana.

"I hope the next time there's an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands," Rep Zephyr said, in reference to the high rates of suicide risk among transgender youth and adults.

Tuesday's ruling came after attorneys working on behalf of state Attorney General Austin Knudsen argued that reinstating her would infringe on the House of Representatives' "exclusive constitutional authority" to enforce discipline among its members.

In a statement quoted by the Associated Press, Mr Knudsen said that the ruling "is a win for the rule of law and separation of power enshrined in our constitution".

Rep Zephyr, for her part, said that the judge's ruling is "entirely wrong".

"It's a really sad day for the country when the majority party can silence representation from the minority party whenever they take issue," she told the Associated Press.

While Rep Zephyr's attorneys have hinted at a possible appeal, the House of Representatives' 2023 legislative session is soon coming to a close, meaning that any appeal would have little short-term impact.

At the time of her expulsion from the legislative body, Republican Majority Leader Sue Vinton said that Rep Zephyr's actions put lawmakers and staff "at risk of harm".

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In an interview with BBC News after her expulsion, Rep Zephyr - who represents the Missoula area - said she stood by her remarks and would continue to fight for her return.

Rep Zephyr also said the protesters supporting her were "demanding that their voices are heard".

"I think it is the legislature that is grossly out of step with what people in our state and country want," she said.

The expulsion is the second recent instance of a Republican-controlled legislative body moving to punish Democratic lawmakers who spoke in opposition to policies conservatives support.

Earlier in April, Tennessee Republicans voted to expel two black Democrats who led protests on the legislature floor in favour of gun safety following a mass shooting in Nashville.
Julie Chrisley is having a "harder" time behind bars than her husband Todd Chrisley, according to their daughter, Savannah Chrisley. Paul Archuleta/Getty Images, USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Julie Chrisley is having a "harder" time in prison than her husband Todd Chrisley.

That is according to their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, on a new episode of her podcast, "Unlocked."

Julie is currently carrying out a seven-year sentence while Todd is carrying out a 12-year sentence.

Savannah Chrisley, daughter of imprisoned reality stars Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley, has said that her mom is struggling to adapt to prison life a lot more than her dad.

"It's definitely harder on her, I think, than my dad," the 25-year-old reality star said in the latest episode of her podcast, "Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley," released Tuesday, adding elsewhere that her mom is "scared."

Savannah spoke about her mother's "new normal" at FMC Lexington in Kentucky, where Julie is carrying out a seven-year sentence for her involvement in the couple's years-long bank fraud and tax evasion scheme.

"She's just staying busy. She's trying to do anything and everything, take classes  everything known to man that she can do, she does," Savannah said.

"You know my mom. Like, she walks in a room, if something needs to be done, she just starts doing it. And, so, she's trying to stay busy."

Savannah added that her mom is also "trying to focus" on her health, too.

Julie was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 and underwent treatment, including a double mastectomy, the following year.

However, Savannah  who said she is taking care of Todd and Julie's teenage son, Grayson, 16, and adopted daughter, Chloe, 10 while they are in prison  went on to say that she suspects that her mom may not be sharing her whole experience when Savannah visits her in prison.

Savannah Chrisley with parents Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley in 2017. Jeff Kravitz/ACMA2017/Getty Images

"I think she's trying to shield us from a lot of things. Because that's my mom," she said. "That's who she is."

Savannah added that she recently received "30 or 40 days' worth of letters" that Julie had written since she entered prison in which her mom was more candid about her experience since she treats the letters like a "daily diary."

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"It was tough to see the accounts of her day and just things that she's scared of or nervous about or just all the thoughts that go through her mind," Savannah said.

She continued: "One of the constant themes in all of her messages, like, all of her letters, are: 'I can't believe Savannah's having to do this. Like, I can't believe her life's having to be put on hold.'"

A court sketch shows Todd and Julie Chrisley listen in court as their accountant was sentenced on November 21, 2022. Lauren Lacy

Savannah, who recently teased that a new reality show following the family may be coming, said that her mom also expressed her sadness over not being able to speak or see her husband of more than 25 years.

"I don't think there's a single letter that goes by that she does not say how much she misses my dad. They don't get to talk," she said.

"So, it's going on... what month are we? April? We're like three, four, four months in, almost. Being together almost 30 years now and not going a day without speaking to now, going on four months is a lot."

The "Chrisley Knows Best" stars were convicted in June 2022 of defrauding banks out of more than $30 million by providing fake financial statements to make them appear wealthier than they were and handed their sentences in November.

Todd received a longer sentence than his wife as prosecutors considered him the "mastermind" of the scheme. He was sentenced to 12 years at Federal Prison Camp Pensacola.

Read the original article on Insider
Kamala Harris, protestors, Mexico sign Illustrated/Getty Images

President Biden officially launched his bid for re-election on April 25. The video announcing his run featured Vice President Kamala Harris heavily, confirming that she'll be running beside him again despite her lackluster approval ratings, and criticisms over how she has defined her role so far.

As they head into 2024, the Biden-Harris team is "rushing to the aid" of the VP to "try to shore up her underwhelming poll numbers," Axios says. Her approval numbers are "even worse" than those of her running mate, and officials fear that "could make her a drag on the ticket as Biden begins a re-election campaign that likely will boil down to a few tight states."

It's not uncommon for the second-in-command to struggle to prove themselves in a role largely defined by behind-the-scenes work. Harris' "critics and detractors alike acknowledge that the vice presidency is intended to be a supporting role," The New York Times writes, "and many of her predecessors have labored to make themselves relevant, as well." Still, those wary of Biden's age are putting more intense scrutiny on what the vice president has been up to. She has taken the lead on several critical contentious issues while Biden focuses his efforts elsewhere.

Abortion rights

Abortion has become a central issue for Democrats following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn federal abortion rights. Harris spent much of the 2022 midterms appealing to voters with promises to prioritize and protect reproductive rights. Since Roe fell, she has "been subtly making herself the voice with a megaphone no one can ignore," writes Philip Elliot at Time, adding that Harris has met with lawmakers from at least 18 states to discuss the issue. As Biden was announcing his 2024 candidacy, Harris was giving a fiery speech at a reproductive freedom rally at her alma mater, Howard University. She blasted "extremist so-called leaders" for passing restrictive abortion bans.

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She is in need of a serious reputation boost, "which explains why Harris has made abortion rights a central piece of her political identity," Elliot continues. After all, outrage over Roe V. Wade "powered Democratic candidates to unexpectedly strong showings in the midterm elections," and many believe Harris "played no small role in that accomplishment," Elliot says.

Immigration and the southern border

Biden tapped Harris in the early months of their term to spearhead efforts to address the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. It took her months to make her first and only visit to the area, and the delay elicited backlash from lawmakers on both sides. Her trip to Guatemala and Mexico was ultimately overshadowed by an interview with Lester Holt of NBC News "in which she awkwardly downplayed the urgency" of the visit, The Washington Post says. Since then, Harris has borne the brunt of the criticism from Republicans as the border crisis worsens; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) sent multiple buses of asylum seekers from the border to the VP's home in protest.

After withstanding the intense backlash of her perceived inaction, Harris is still attempting to address the root causes of the immigration problem. Her Central America Forward initiative has "yielded more than $4.2 billion in private sector commitments" to support creating local jobs and other measures to slow the flow of mass migration, CNN reported earlier this year. Some experts have lauded Harris' ability to secure the investments "as her most visible action in the region to date but have cautioned about the durability of those investments over the long term," CNN added.

Harris still has an uphill battle ahead of her to reverse public opinion about her work, or lack thereof, on the border. In January, the Border Patrol union lambasted her lack of progress. "If you were given a job two years ago with the explicit goal of reducing illegal immigration, and then you sit around and do nothing while illegal immigration explodes to levels never seen before, you should be fired and replaced," the union tweeted.

Voting rights

Harris was also at the forefront of the administration's pursuit to codify voting rights protections. She pushed for Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, which would have extended the protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and required federal approval for some local election law changes. The VP "dove into" the "chance to make her mark on a hugely important issue," Eugene Daniels writes at Politico. To further that goal, Harris "helped craft political coalitions with civil rights leaders, built outside pressure on Congress, and engaged privately with lawmakers." Ultimately, her work "hit a brick wall" when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and now-independent Sen. Krysten Sinema (Ariz.) rejected proposed changes to Senate procedures to stop a Republican filibuster.

Harris's work leading up to the stalled legislation became "a microcosm of her stint as vice president: one defined by sharp moments, mishaps, public drama, private work, and a touch of bad political luck," Daniels adds.

What's next for Harris?

The vice president's political skills "will be put to the test" as the president runs for re-election, says Chris Megerian at The Associated Press. While the second-in-command is "rarely decisive in re-election efforts, Harris is poised to be an exception," especially because she's already leading the charge on abortion, "Democrats' most potent issue." As Biden ages, she'll face hightened "scrutiny over whether she's ready to step into the top job if necessary," Megerian adds.

With such high stakes, "Biden needs to make the case to his party  and, more important, to independents and moderate Republicans  why Harris is the best choice to succeed him," Thomas Friedman opines at The New York Times. "At the same time, Harris has to make the case for herself, ideally by showing more forcefully what she can do."

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The patient killed when the ambulance he was being transported in crashed Sunday in Kansas City has been identified as 61-year-old Raymond Miller, authorities said.

The victims identity was released by the Kansas City Police Department, the agency investigating the crash, on Wednesday.

No other updates were given, but Sgt. Deb Randol with the KCPDs accident investigation unit previously said they are looking into whether wind gusts could have caused the driver to lose control on the overpass before the ambulance went off the road and flipped twice.

Both Johnson County, Missouri, Ambulance District crew members  an emergency medical technician and a paramedic  were injured in the rollover crash but are now at home recovering, authorities said Tuesday. The investigation into what caused the crash is ongoing.

The EMT was driving the ambulance northbound on U.S. 71, over Bannister Road, when she lost control and the ambulance ran off the road and overturned twice, authorities said. Miller was declared dead at the scene.

The ambulance was traveling at 61 miles per hour at the time of the crash, according to a GPS system attached to the ambulance, said Chief Shane Lockard, with the ambulance service. The posted speed limit on that section of road is 65 miles per hour.

The captain paramedic who was tending to Miller in the back of the ambulance at the time of the crash was hospitalized with lacerations to his head, Lockard said.

The ambulance service teams work 24 hour shifts starting at 8 a.m., so Sundays crew of two was about eight hours into the shift when the crash happened, Lockard said.

Lockard said hes received numerous questions about the age and experience of the EMT, who is 21 and completed the Johnson County ambulance services EMT training academy prior to being hired.

EMT and paramedic school doesnt have any training in the driving or operation of a vehicle, Lockard said, so the ambulance service has its own field training orientation program that new hires must complete. The program combines classroom time with time behind the wheel with an ambulance crew, including a field training officer.

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The EMT was no longer driving with a field training officer at the time of the crash, Lockard said. That means she had already completed her 10, 24-hour shifts with the field training officer before getting a final stamp of approval from the district.

From there, new hires are usually assigned a more experienced paramedic as their partner, Lockard said. He added that 21 is a common age for EMS; they see EMTs as young as 18 or 19, with the bulk of the workforce being in their 20s and 30s.

With no answers yet on what caused the accident, Lockard said he cant comment on whether more training might have prevented the crash.

The EMT driver, as a part of standard procedure, remains on paid administrative leave until the investigation is completed.
Jared Letos first outfit at the 2023 Met Gala on Monday night (1 May) was a giant costume of Choupette, the late Karl Lagerfelds beloved cat.

But it appears the feline, to whom the German fashion designer left part of his fortune to when he died in 2019, was not very impressed by the actors tribute to her.

Letos costume replicated the long-haired, cream-coloured Birman cats likeness, complete with a giant removable head bearing her piercing blue eyes.

He arrived at the Met Gala red carpet in the costume, before removing it to reveal an entirely different all-black outfit underneath.

Choupettes agent, Lucas Berullier from My Pet Agency, said that while he thought Letos outfit was definitely good, it was not Choupettes favourite look from the evening.

I dont think it was her favourite in the way that Choupette doesnt like rivals, he told Insider. Shes very fierce. Shes very competitive. Shes very much like Karl.

Berullier believes that if Choupette had seen Leto in his costume in person, the kitty would have snubbed him.

Shed pretend that [Leto] doesnt matter, that hes not relevant because hes not the real Choupette, he added.

Doja Cat also wore a cat-inspired outfit to the Met Gala, complete with facial prosthetics to make her features look more like a feline. However, it appeared Choupette did not comment on the look.

One of Choupettes favourite looks of the night, according to Berullier, was Kim Kardashians, because they had a strong connection during their date last week in Paris.

Kardashian wrote about the encounter on her Instagram when she visited Lagerfelds office to get a little inspiration for the Met.

The SKIMS mogul was draped in pearls in an outfit designed by Shiaparellis creative director, Daniel Roseberry.

Berullier also said that Lagerfeld himself would have been tickled by all the tributes to his dear cat.

I think he wouldve been proud and very emotional to see that the world could be touched by an animal, the same way that he was touched by an animal, he said.

Choupette originally belonged to model Baptiste Giabiconi, who got her when she was seven months old in 2012. Giabiconi, who was Lagerfelds muse at the time, asked the designer to help look after Choupette that Christmas.

Lagerfeld became very attached to the kitten, with Giabiconi noting that the designer became angry when he returned to collect her. They changed ownership shortly after when the model said it became clear to me that Choupette brought Karl great joy.
Katya Echazarreta may not be a household name yet, but just give her time.

As a successful electrical engineer, Echazarreta has already shot to the top of a male-dominated field. But at just 27, shes also managed to shatter another glass ceiling: She recently became the first Mexican-born woman to travel into space for NASA, fulfilling a lifelong dream that shes had since she was a child.

The significance of all of this is certainly not lost on Echazarreta.

I understood at the very beginning that there were not many Latinos that have taken this path, she told In The Know by Yahoo. I understood from a very young age and very early on in my career that if I wanted to achieve something like this, something nobody else like me had ever done, then there was a very high possibility that I would have to be that person to start opening up those paths.

So far, she certainly has been  but it hasnt been an easy road.

According to Echazarreta, she had a childhood that forced her to mature at an early age.

I have an older sister with mental and physical disabilities, she explained. And I am the second after her. And so technically, after everything that happened to her, I kind of had to take on that role as the older sibling to my younger siblings. I have two more siblings after that.

In addition to undisclosed mental health issues, her sister also has epilepsy, which caused paralysis in half of her body. This, Echazarreta said, made her understand from a very young age that the family had to take care of her and that she and her siblings would need to step up.

I think that it really taught me a lot of responsibility, even as a very small child, Echazarreta shared. I mean, even when we were all  when we were toddlers  my younger siblings and I, we were already working with some of the different responsibilities of making sure she was gonna be OK.

Her sisters health is what primarily drove her parents to emigrate the family to the United States about 20 years ago. At that time, the medical attention and educational resources her sister needed just werent available where they lived in Guadalajara, Mexico. But in America, Echazarretas parents hoped it would be different.

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The adjustment period was rough, as it often can be for immigrant children.

You dont understand the language, you dont understand the culture, you dont understand anything, Echazarreta shared, adding that she and her siblings endured bullying because they were different.

Still, even at that age, she was able to see the benefits of moving to the U.S. Not only did it improve her sisters quality of life, but the move to San Diego, Calif., also gave Echazarreta and her siblings new opportunities they otherwise wouldnt have had.

It was right around this time that the NASA engineer became fascinated by space, technology and science, which she says just kept getting stronger with time.

I was probably 8 years old when I made the choice of eventually going out to space, she told In the Know. It was a very intentional choice. It was a choice that I made in a very direct way, even as a child.

Once she could, Echazarreta started taking classes outside of school on space-related topics, and her passion for all of it began to snowball until she eventually decided to make it her career.

After years of extensive schooling, Echazarreta wound up interning at NASA, where she was later able to transition into a full-time role. From there, she applied for a space mission through an organization called Space for Humanity and was overjoyed when she was chosen.

That said, the process took time.

Echazarreta first applied to the program in 2019, but it wasnt for another three years  after shed completed intense training on the realities of entering space  that she actually entered space in August of 2022.

Since then, shes been on five separate missions with NASA and continues to share her experience with others. Throughout it all, she hasnt forgotten her roots.

I was able to bring a Mexican flag with me during my flight, Echazarreta shared. And then I also wrote the words Viva Mexico on my hand. So that was a really fun thing to be able to just flash the cameras.

Shes also made it her mission to encourage young Latinx children who may not think about space travel as a possibility.

I really think that this is a gift that Im able to give to so many different Latinas in the world, but especially to all of the different women in my family and my family line, Echazarreta continued. The women in my family have always been very independent, have always been very brave and courageous, and have always had big dreams. But unfortunately, they have to conform to a society that already had written out roles for them.

Finally breaking those cycles and opening up doors for others has left her with a tremendous sense of pride.

I didnt have the finances necessary. I didnt have the support necessary to follow this dream and follow this goal. But I wasnt going to let any of that stop me, she told In the Know.

Now, she hopes that by sharing her story, shell reach other young Latinx kids who may have the same interests but lack support or encouragement. One way shes doing that is by promoting her very own Barbie doll, which was recently launched by Mattel to inspire other young kids who dream of becoming astronauts.

Echazarreta is also trying to solve some of the issues shes faced at their roots.

Im currently working very hard with Mexico and the Mexican government, she shared. Were working on a constitutional reform that, if passed, its going to create, as a national priority for the development of the country, space activities within Mexico.

Clearly, Echazarreta is aiming big when it comes to the impact she wants to leave on the world  and she doesnt seem to be taking her foot off the gas anytime soon.

As for where shes headed next? The moon.

While she may not have a mission planned quite yet, shes confident that shell get there soon enough.

And really, the way that I am is I just decide things are going to happen, Echazarreta confessed. So its going to happen.

In The Know by Yahoo is now available on Apple News  follow us here!

The post Katya Echazarreta, the first Mexican-born woman to go to space, reflects on her out-of-this-world impact appeared first on In The Know.

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Kenya Moore says the 4-year-old has taken a sudden interest in marriage

Emma McIntyre/Getty

Kenya Moore says her daughter Brooklyn is developing some curiosity about marriages.

Acknowledging that the 4-year-old "doesn't know" that The Real Housewives of Atlanta star, 52, is amidst a divorce from Marc Daly, Brooklyn's dad, Moore tells PEOPLE that the little one is "very curious about marriage right now."

"She's asked me a lot about why I married daddy... I don't know if she's getting it from school or from YouTube Kids or something, but she asks a lot of questions about marriage," Moore says. "Like, 'When did daddy and you get married? Can I see your dress?' and she wants to see photos and stuff, so I let her."

Moore continues, "The other day she said, 'Oh, so I'm going to pretend to be married when I'm playing' And I don't want her to pretend to be married, I don't know why. I don't want her to pretend being married or playing doctor. I'm paranoid."

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.

Related:Kenya Moore's Daughter Dances to Mom's 'Gone With the Wind Fabulous' Song: 'She Gets It from Her Mama'

Moore is proud to have a "mini-me" on her hands, raving, "She's extremely confident. She's loving. She walks up to everyone and if she likes you, she's like, 'I want a big hug. Can I have a hug?'"

Not quite in kindergarten, Moore says her "smart" girl is bilingual in Spanish and English.

"I now have two au pairs, Spanish and French, because I want her to learn both and then eventually Mandarin. But she loves all of it," the proud mom shares with PEOPLE. "I want her to be prepared to be a boss, an international boss.

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"She needs to just be prepared. I want her to have a global mindset. It's something I didn't have growing up. I just knew about Detroit and my family and my surroundings," Moore notes. "But then when I got older and I was introduced to international travel and people from around the world, it was eye-opening and enlightening. I saw the world differently, and I want that for my daughter too."

In January, Moore revealed that she hopes the pair's divorce will be finalized "soon" on Watch What Happens Live.

"The world's longest divorce," Moore told host Andy Cohen about the nearly two years that had passed since her split from Daly in May 2021.

Moore later revealed the holdup in finalizing her divorce from Daly. The Special Forces: World's Toughest Test star admitted they didn't sign a prenuptial agreement before tying the knot.

When asked why the divorce was yet finalized, Moore told TMZ: "No prenup, so yeah, unfortunately."

However, the reality star reiterated that she felt "confident that it will get resolved soon."

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Read the original article on People.
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's opposition on Wednesday said they had suspended the latest anti-government protests planned for Thursday after reaching an agreement with the government of President William Ruto.

In a statement, the opposition Azimio La Umoja (Declaration of Unity) alliance, led by veteran opposition politician Raila Odinga, said its leadership had met and "agreed to once more suspend the mass protests that we had earlier scheduled to continue tomorrow."

The decision to suspend the protests was taken after Ruto's ruling Kenya Kwanza (Kenya First) alliance agreed "to one of our demands," according to the statement. The opposition did not provide details of the agreement.

On Monday the coalition resumed the twice-weekly protests begun in March to highlight high living costs and alleged fraud in last year's election.

Odinga is also using the protests to pile political pressure on Ruto, whom he accuses of rigging his victory in last year's polls.

The demonstrations have been marred by clashes between police and protesters as well as sporadic violent incidents like the torching of property and use of teargas.

In early April the opposition had suspended the protests after agreeing to talks with Ruto's representatives, but later announced the protests would resume, accusing the government of not negotiating in good faith.

(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Kevin Costner and his wife, Christine Baumgartner, have called it quits.

The Yellowstone stars wife filed for divorce after 18 years of marriage. Kevin Costners rep confirmed the news to NBC News on May 2.

It is with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action, the actors rep states. We ask that his, Christines and their childrens privacy be respected as they navigate this difficult time.

It is unclear what led to their separation.

2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones - Red Carpet (Rich Fury/VF22 / Getty Images for Vanity Fair)

Costner and Baumgartner got married in 2004. They share three children together, sons Cayden, 15, and Hayes, 14, and daughter Grace, 12.

This is Costner's second marriage. He was previously married to Cindy Costner from 1978 to 1994. The former couple are parents to daughters Annie, 39 and Lily, 36, and son Joe, 35.

He is also father to 27-year-old son Liam, whom he had with his former partner Bridget Rooney.

News of Costners divorce comes as talks continue about the actor returning to Yellowstone. The 68-year-old actor plays John Dutton on the show, which premiered in 2018.

Last month, fans wondered when the Paramount+ series would return after Costner, creator Taylor Sheridan and other cast members did not appear at the shows scheduled PaleyFest panel.

Paramount Network President of Development and Production Keith Cox said during the event he was very confident Costner would continue with the show though some outlets speculated online that the show might come to an end. There currently is no release date for the second half of the fifth season.

As for Costner, on May 1, he promoted his new movie, Horizon: An American Saga, on his Instagram.

The epic that keeps getting more epic, he wrote alongside a screenshot of his casting, while fans asked about Season Five of Yellowstone in the comments section.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Destroyed Russian T-72BV tank in Donetsk region, April 2022

Read also: Russia lost more troops in Ukraine in one year than in all wars since World War II combined  CSIS

This was the subject covered in a recent report by the DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) called Out of Stock? Assessing the Impact of Sanctions on Russias Defense Industry.

The report offers a detailed analysis of Russias equipment losses and the impact of Western sanctions on its military-industrial complex. It states that these factors have forced Moscow to pivot to a slower campaign in an attempt to deplete Ukraine's military potential.

Russia has lost a significant amount of military equipment, which may limit its ability to conduct large-scale ground offensives, the report reads.

This may be one of the reasons why the Russian authorities and (Russian dictator) Vladimir Putin in particular present this war as a long-term undertaking (supposedly) necessary to ensure the security of Russia itself.

Read also: Ukraines defense minister hopes Ukrainian counter-offensive to start unexpectedly

The authors add that Moscows key strategy in Ukraine now seems to be to impose a protracted struggle that will slowly deplete Ukraine's weapons stockpiles and the Wests will to help Kyiv.

NV has compiled the most salient findings from the CSIS report.

1. Russia has lost 10,000-22,500 pieces of equipment during its full-scale invasion

Read also: Russia has removed all military equipment from northern Crimea base  Radio Liberty

Although the Russian Ministry of Defense has classified all information about military equipment losses in the war against Ukraine, CSIS points to several estimates that give an idea of the scale of these losses of the Russian army.

 Minimum estimate: 9,700 units of equipment, based upon data from the Dutch OSINT project Oryx, which establishes numbers of destroyed, damaged, abandoned, and captured Russian military vehicles systems which can be confirmed with visual evidence (CSIS analysts point out that this estimate likely represents the lower bound of Russian equipment losses, as on the battlefield, there are inevitably losses for which there is no publicly-available visual evidence).



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Read also: Poland to provide Ukraine with more heavy military equipment

 Maximum estimate: 22,500 units of equipment, based upon information from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces of Ukraine as of publication time (analysts consider this to be the upper bound of losses, based on the one hand on the fact that the UAF has significantly greater access to genuine Russian data on losses than is publicly available, while on the other hand that they have the motive to inflate reports of their battlefield successes).





These figures represent overall losses of various weapons and equipment systems, including military trucks, tanks and other heavy equipment, artillery systems, drones, MLRS, aircraft, ships, etc.

Read also: Owners of freight carrier accused of attempting to smuggle aircraft engines to Iran

2. Russia loses about 150 tanks every month, and its industry cannot compensate for this

The Russian Armys need for modern main battle tanks (MBTs) exceeds the countrys current production rates, according to the report. The authors estimates that Russian tank factory Uralvagonzavod can only produce 20 tanks per month, while according to Oryxs conservative estimates, Russia is losing at least 148 tanks per month. Recently, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, boasted that the Russian military-industrial complex would allegedly produce 1,500 modern MBTs in 2023, but independent Russian military experts consider this goal to be "completely impossible." At the same time, some of them note that Moscow is able to modernize its Soviet-era tanks, equipping them with new communication systems, electronics, and other components.

3. Despite heavy losses of modern tanks, reserves of old vehicles remain a threat

According to the reports estimates, Moscow has lost between 1,845 and 3,511 tanks during the first year of its full-scale war, but it is believed to still have about 5,000 old tanks in cold storage.

CSIS analysts note that Moscow has suffered especially heavy losses of its modern T-72B3 tanks (a model that was put into service in 2013 as an upgraded version of the T-72B tank).

Read also: Russia lost 20,000 troops fighting for Bakhmut, White House says

This has ultimately forced Russia to bring older tanks, manufactured several years and sometimes decades prior to the start of Russias military modernization program in 2011, into service as replacements, they explain.

They also note that the rarity of more advanced Russian equipment on the front (such as the third generation T-90A and T-90M tanks, or the upgraded T-80BVM) may indicate that Russia has so far deliberately kept them from being used on the battlefield.

The experts also cite earlier data on how many relatively modern tanks Russia had before the full-scale invasion (specifically, in 2020, they had about 700 T-90 and T-80 tanks and up to 2,000 different versions of the T-72s).

While Russia has lost a significant proportion of its pre-war tank fleet  up to 40% by some estimates  it likely retains a significant portion of its post-2011 retrofit tank stock, as well as a large number of older Cold War-era tanks. Moscow also has the industrial capacity to repair and upgrade this equipment, CSIS warns.

Read also: Fire in Sevastopol destroys over 10 tanks with fuel for Russian Black Sea Fleet  Ukrainian intelligence

According to some reports, the Russian military-industrial complex is able to restore and upgrade about 90 old MBTs per month, despite Western sanctions.

Therefore, the Kremlin will likely be able to maintain the supply of tanks to its forces in Ukraine for some time, the reports authors predict.

However, in the longer term, the allied export restrictions on certain key Western spare parts used in modern tank production may significantly degrade Moscows defense industrial capacity to manufacture advanced MBTs.

4. Sanctions at work: five component shortages taking toll on the Russian army

U.S. intelligence has calculated that since February 2022, sanctions and export restrictions have resulted in Russia being unable to replace more than 6,000 pieces of lost military equipment, forcing production to halt at some key defense industrial facilities and causing shortages of critical components for tanks, aircraft, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), electronic warfare assets, and other items.

Read also: Germany to allocate EUR 3 million for green industry recovery in Ukraine

The authors of the report identify five technological components shortages of which are debilitating for the Russian military-industrial complex. These are generally dual-use components:

Optical systems: these are critical to the production of modern tanks in Russia. Before the war, the Russian military imported a critical mass of advanced optical systems from France, which has now blocked those supplies. In particular, the authors of the report point out that Russia is now equipping some of its tanks (T-80BVM and T-72B3M) with less sophisticated and effective sights than should be used in these vehicles. Russias tank fleet will likely become even less sophisticated as the war continues, the report states.

Read also: Ukraine passes bill removing protected status of Soviet monuments

Bearings: these are necessary for the production of any type of vehicles, including military equipment. Russia previously imported most of its high-quality bearings from Western countries, with up to 55% coming from Europe and North America. Now, according to the U.S. government, Russia is already facing shortages which affect the production of all types of vehicles, from tanks to aircraft, and even submarines. The shortage is exacerbated by the civilian industry's need for bearings, as Russia's railroad-dependent economy is suffering direct losses as trains become more difficult to produce and repair. The authors of the report believe that the Russian Federation may increase the import of bearings from China or Southeast Asian countries, such as Malaysia, but their quality will be much lower, which may also affect the reliability of equipment.

Machine tools: industrial machine tools are crucial in the production of many types of weapons and military equipment, including aircraft. Even before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russian machine tool industry had long been in crisis. According to rough estimates, the Russian industry was 7080% dependent on imported machine tool products, while the defense sector accounted for 85% of all Russian demand for precision machine tools. China  world's largest producer of these goods  also remains dependent on Western imports to create the most technologically advanced machine tools that the Russian defense market lacks. Thus, Russia is facing an acute shortage of sophisticated tools in most advanced categories, the reports authors explain.

Engines, especially for aircraft: The reports authors point out that Russia's problems with the production of high-quality engines were noticeable even before the war in Ukraine. Thus, new Russian Su-57 fighters are likely to still rely on older fourth-generation engines (including the Saturn AL41-F1 engines that were used in Su-35S). Even before 2014, Russias aviation industry relied heavily on the engines of the Ukrainian company Motor Sich. In addition to its military, Russias civil Russian aviation industry is suffering from a shortage of turbofan engines. Moreover, Chinese engine maker Weichai has stopped supplying engines for Russian tractors because their manufacturer KamAZ was sanctioned by the West as a supplier of vehicles for the Russian military.

Read also: Russia cancels annual tank biathlon competition

Microchips: these are necessary in the production of a wide variety of weapons systems, as well as communications and electronic warfare systems. However, domestic chip production in Russia has lagged behind Western industrial standards for many years, which markedly increases its dependence on Western-made microchips whose supply is currently limited. For example, according to the UK Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Orlan-10 reconnaissance UAVs contain U.S.-made microcircuits manufactured by Texas Instruments and Honeywell. Western-made chips have also been found in Russian Lancet UAVs, Azart radio stations, and other military equipment. In addition, a study by Conflict Armament Research has shown that satellite navigation units in several Russian missiles, such as the 3M14, 9M544, Kh-59, and Kh-101 contain several foreign-made microchips. At the same time, the volume of production of microprocessors in Russia itself is small, and what they manufacture is inferior in quality to Western products. Russia will not be able to solve this problem quickly. Should it decide to import microchips from China, it could in some cases require a complete redesign of electronic equipment and restructuring of production chains, which can take years to complete. In addition, Chinese microchips are also often inferior to leading Western designs. Today, Russia needs 30,000 base-level microchip boards per month, while their domestic production tops out at only 8,000 per month.

Read also: Video footage of mysterious Kremlin explosion

Of course, Russia is working to circumvent the sanctions, as the authors explain in a separate section devoted to the issue, drawing attention to the Kremlins remarkable capacity to adapt to trade restrictions. They note that in 2022, Russia imported numerous high-tech components which it had been banned from acquiring directly  by sourcing them from third countries in Asia, Africa, and even Europe through a variety of shell companies using fake end-user certificates and other methods.

On the other hand, this pressure on the Russian military-industrial complex, which has forced Moscow to turn to less reliable suppliers, more expensive supply routes, and lower-quality imports, is likely to "slow down the speed and quality of Russian defense production," the report argues. It also states that Moscow's efforts to carry out import substitution through state support so far remain mostly unsuccessful.

This ultimately impacts Russias ability to manufacture, sustain, and deliver advanced weapons and technology to the battlefield in Ukraine, the authors write.

Therefore, while the quality of the military equipment used by the Ukrainian army continues to improve thanks to the Western aid, the quality of Russias weapons continues to degrade.

5. War of attrition: how Ukrainian forces can compensate for Russias quantitative advantages

Read also: Ukraine to get Russian An-124 cargo aircraft confiscated by Canada

Despite its equipment losses, Russia's military potential still far exceeds that of Ukraine in many respects, the report points out. The quantitative advantage in military equipment means that Western countries are facing the risk of a war of attrition, which the Russia now prefers, hoping it can wait until Ukraine depletes its arms reserves.

The report lays out some rough estimates as of February 2023:

 The overall quantity of aircraft at Moscows disposal was 13-15 times more than what Kyiv has;



Read also: UK supplied Ukraine with thousands of shells for Challenger-2 tanks

 Russia has almost 78 times more tanks and around 4 times more armored fighting vehicles than Ukraine;



 The Russian navy is 12-16 larger than Ukraines.





These quantitative advantages could allow Moscow to wage a grueling war this year, in spite of sanctions, the report says. Therefore, it is critical that Ukraine can compensate for Russias quantitative advantages by fighting with the best Western-made weapons, the authors conclude. They note that the pace and quality of Russian military operations will in fact depend on the Ukrainian militarys ability to field systems capable of countering Russian tactics, in particular with the help of Western arms. As they explain, the Russian army is still able to put modernized T-62 tanks (first introduced in the early 1960s) on the front lines, even if these vehicles do not have sophisticated optics or modern weapons. However, the effectiveness of such systems will be significantly offset by Ukraine's further access to more advanced Western technologies, such as Javelins or NLAWs, or precision artillery.



Read also: Running out of missiles? Russia launches third mass attack on Ukraine this week, with Shahed drones

This is the crux of this war in its second year: the Russian military can rely on its mass and continue feeding older or less than state-of-the-art technology as long as it thinks it can simply outlast the Western deliveries of weapons and systems to Ukraine, the report concludes.



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
Police walk along Highland Boulevard in Keansburg Tuesday morning May 2, 2023, as an investigation of an earlier incident there continues.

KEANSBURG - A borough man is charged with attempted murder after a shooting Tuesday left a Keyport man wounded and hospitalized, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago said.

Yacir James, 26, was arrested Tuesday shortly after police responded to a report of gunfire on the 100 block of Highland Boulevard, Santiago said in a news release.

Police responding to the report shortly after 9 a.m. found the Keyport man at the scene, suffering from a single gunshot wound, the news release said.

The victim was taken to a local hospital, where he was listed in stable condition, the news release said. His identity has not been released.

A detective stands on the porch of 157 Highland Boulevard in Keansburg Tuesday morning May 2, 2023, as an investigation of an earlier incident there continues.

James is being held without bail at the Monmouth County Jail in Freehold.

In addition to attempted murder, a first-degree crime, James is charged with possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon, both second-degree crimes.

Authorities are asking anyone who may have witnessed the incident to contact prosecutor's Detective Nicolas Logothetis at 800-533-7443 or Keansburg Detective Thomas Sheehan at 732-787-0600.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Keansburg NJ man charged after shooting leaves one injured
Call it the end of an era.

On Friday, Aug. 5, TODAY.com confirmed that Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson have split up after nine months of dating.

Kardashian seemingly found love when she was least expecting it. The reality TV star had been linked to comedian Davidson, 28, who announced he was exiting Saturday Night Live in 2022, since October 2021, when she hosted the variety show.

Speaking to Hoda Kotb on her podcast Making Space, the mother of four said their romance was the last thing that (she) was ... planning on.

Kardashian, 41, filed for divorce from Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, in February 2021, after six years of marriage.

Kardashian said she took her time before opening herself back up to love  just as her sister, Kourtney Kardashian, did before finding love with husband Travis Barker.

"I took 10 months or something before I dated or talked to anyone. And I just wanted that time to really figure out and go through the motions: Am I making the right decision? How do I feel about this? Kardashian told Hoda.

So once I went through all of the motions, I finally was, like, OK, guys, I am so ready to meet someone. And I randomly did, Kardashian continued.

The duo first met on "Saturday Night Live." Months later, and the now-established couple is prone to sharing (non-scripted) kisses on social media. They often sport little tributes to each other: Kardashian got a bedazzled P on her nail, and Davidson got tattoos in Kardashians honor. They attend events like the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in London and the White House Correspondents Dinner together.

Read on for their relationship timeline, in their own words.

Kardashian said Davidson calmed her down ahead of SNL hosting gig in Oct. 2021

Kim Kardashian agreed to host SNL without ever having watched an episode on TV, she revealed on Amanda Hirschs Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast in April 2022. Instead, she had gotten a front-row seat to the show, thanks to watching Ye perform.

Story continues

As a result, Kardashian had some nerves ahead of her hosting gig. I didnt want to go and embarrass myself and get up there and not be funny, she said.

But she had a little bit of help.

On the first-ever episode of The Kardashians, the familys new reality show on Hulu, she recalled how Davidson helped her get into a positive mindset during a brief encounter at the Met Gala in 2021.

I ran into Pete Davidson at the Met and I was like, I am so scared. I dont know what I signed up for, she recalled on the show.

Davidson knew just what to say, according to Kardashian. Hes like, Can you read cue cards? Youre good. Youre good, she added.

Davidson also offered her his phone number in case she needed any advice. There was just one problem: Her outfit.

I had gloves on and I couldnt get in my phone with the gloves and I was like, Oh, I have gloves and I cant... And he was like, Alright cool. And he walked away. But I was going to be like, Oh, but take mine, Kardashian said on Not Skinny But Not Fat.

On the podcast, Kardashian revealed that Davidson had been trying to get her number prior to that interaction. And everyone wasnt really sure like, Is she going through a divorce? He just wanted to wait a little bit, Kardashian explained.

Kardashian described their first kiss  which was televised

The couple kissed for the first time as part of their Aladdin-themed SNL sketch on October 9. They actually met for the first time earlier that day.

We met that day (of filming). He came and we did one dress rehearsal and then the real thing, she said on the episode of Not Skinny But Not Fat.

Kardashian said she felt a connection during that first kiss.

When we kissed, I was just like, hmm. It was a stage kiss, but it was like still a little zing, you know? It wasnt anything like a super crazy feeling. I was just like, hmm, she said.

Kardashian said she asked Davidson for his number and pursued the connection

On Season 1, Episode 8, of "The Kardashians," Kardashian said that her kiss with Davidson made her realize that she should probably "try something different" in her love life, so she invited him to her "SNL" after-party. However, Davidson didn't attend.

He does not give me the time of day, she remarked.

So, Kardashian decided to pursue him wholeheartedly. "A few days later, I called the producer at SNL and I was like, Hey, do you have Petes number? And they were like, Yeah, and I text him. I wasnt even thinking like, Oh my god, Im going to be in a relationship with him. I was just thinking like: heard about this BDE, need to get out there, like I need to just like jumpstart my  I was just basically DTF.

(Translation: DTF is an abbreviation for down to f--k" and BDE means "big d--k energy.")

Kardashian noted that once she started dating Davidson, Megan Fox texted her and told her how surprised she was about their relationship, especially since Davidson once asked her and fiance Machine Gun Kelly if they could give him Kardashian's number.

After we got together and it was like a thing, Megan Fox texted me and is like, Is this s--t for real? Because he asked me for your number months ago and like, I was like, 'Dude, you have a better shot of like, me and MGK getting eaten by crocodiles than you ever getting her number like never gonna happen. Do not ask us, the reality TV star said of their conversation.

On the show, Kardashian also hinted that she's been having great sex with Davidson by saying her grandmother once told her that she'll have "the best sex" in her 40s, and that she agrees.

"I was like, OK. I'm ready. And so far...," she added as she winked and cracked a smile to Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian.

They made their public debut in Oct. 2021, but subtly went Instagram official in March 2022

Kardashian and Davidson were spotted holding hands on a date at Knotts Scary Farm in Buena Park, California in late October. Davidson also appeared in Kardashian's beach-set Instagram pictures from a Bahamas trip in January 2022  but only as a shadow.

After months of speculation, Kardashian publicly acknowledged her romantic relationship with Davidson through an image gallery posted to Instagram in March 2022.

Scroll to the fourth photo. Davidson lays on top of Kardashians lap, and she looks down making a kissing face.

This served as confirmation of the relationship. As she joked to Ellen DeGeneres during a March 2021 taping of her show, "it's not official until you post."

However, Davidson was spotted with Kardashian in an Instagram post before then  but on Flava Flavs account.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Flavor Flav said Kardashian set up the meeting for Davidsons 28th birthday in November.

One thing that I could say is Pete Davidson loves himself some Flavor Flav. Everything he does is, Flavor Flav this, Flavor Flav that, Flavor Flav this, Flavor Flav that. So Kim said, OK, well, for your birthday, you are going to have Flavor Flav. She sent for me and thats how I ended up there, he explained.

Davidson met Kardashian's kids when the time was right

On the June 21 episode of TODAY, Kardashian said that she let Davidson meet her children six months after they started dating.

Luckily, I have a sister that has been through it all and we talked about it and I consulted with a few therapists and friends that have been through it. So I definitely wanted to wait six months and that was the marker, she said. And I think its different for everyone and different things work for different people, but you just have to do what feels right and try to just be as respectful and cautious as possible.

Kardashian spoke about the relationship publicly for the first time in March 2022

During aan interview with Variety, Kardashian talked about her new Hulu reality TV show, The Kardashians, and revealed why fans wouldnt see Davidson in an episode.

I have not filmed with him, she said. And Im not opposed to it. Its just not what he does.

Kardashian said the show would explain how they met, and all the details everyone wants to know.

He could show up in future seasons, however. Kardashian added, But if there was an event happening and he was there, he wouldnt tell the cameras to get away. I think I might film something really exciting coming, but it wouldnt be for this season.

Here's why Kardashian was hesitant to talk about Davidson on the show

At the April 2022 premiere of The Kardashians, Kardashian explained why her romance never became a plot line in Season One.

She said she was absolutely hesitant to talk about their relationship because their love story is so new. I didnt want to meet someone, go on a date, and then talk about it on the show, she told E! News at the Los Angeles event  though he's confirmed to appear in Season Two.

Davidson was also at the April 2022 premiere, but didnt walk with her. Hes here to support me. Its my thing, Kardashian explained. I dont think its his thing to be all up here with me. So, Im just so happy hes here.

After the premiere, the duo met up for a late nite snack, which she posted about on Instagram.

Kardashian's approach to sharing their relationship? 'Just give a glimpse'

Kardashian is selective with what she shares of their relationship on Instagram, according to a March 2022 interview on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

I have the cutest pictures of us and I want to be like, Oh, my God, were so cute. But then Im like, you know, Dont be so desperate. Dont be posting so much, just give a glimpse, Kardashian told DeGeneres.

I dont know what the right thing to do is. Like, I havent dated in since before Instagram existed. Yeah, I dont know what the rules are.

Kardashian continues to show more glimpses, however. In May, Kardashian posted a short video of Davidson kissing her to her Instagram story.

Pete Davidson leaning in for a kiss. (kimkardashian / Instagram)

They made their red carpet debut in May 2022

The couple attended the White House Correspondents Dinner in May 2022. "White House din din," Kardashian captioned Instagram photos from the event, where journalists and comedians gather for a roast of the current presidential administration.

Davidson will appear on Season 2 of 'The Kardashians'

Davidson appeared in the teaser for the second season of "The Kardashians," released in July  and his debut was steamy.

Babe, do you want to shower with me really quick? Kardashian asks. Davidson throws what he's holding in the air and follows her.

Kardashian 'let go' and opened herself up to the connection

While talking with Hoda on her Making Space podcast, Kardashian said that she didnt expect to be in a relationship with Davidson because it happened when she least expected it."

It was the last thing that I was really planning on, she said. And so when it did happen, we were kind of, like, Oh, my God, I wasnt planning on this. And this isnt even what I was thinking of, and it just makes it that much sweeter and so much more fun, Kardashian said.

When the duo started dating, the KKW Beauty founder didnt find it necessary to keep her guard up. Her ongoing divorce, essentially, didnt stop her from opening herself up to new love.

We all know someone thats been through a really hard time in relationships and everyones been OK and everyone comes out OK, she said. So you just have to ... let yourself go and open yourself up to receive something and just be a good person and youll get that back.

Kardashian noted that she hasnt been entirely open about her relationship with Davidson. In fact, shes been keeping certain aspects of their love story private so they can stay in their small little bubble sometimes.

She addressed their age difference of 13 years

Kardashian is 41 and Davidson is 28, giving them an age difference of 13 years.

Speaking to E! News, Kardashian addressed their age gap with a wink. She said when it comes to relationships, she goes off vibes: "Whatever good vibes are, thats what you should go for.

If its older, younger, doesnt even matter. But younger ... Im not mad at it," she said.

Kardashian posted PDA-filled photos from their tropical vacation

In June 2022, the couple went on a vacation to an unspecified location, and posted many rounds of beachside photos.

"Beach for 2," Kardashian wrote in the first batch, which included a kissing snapshot.

"Stranded," she wrote in the second.

During a June 21 appearance on TODAY, Kardashian talked about that vaca she took with Davidson and said it felt like "heaven" to be away from the kids.

"I would say the best way to describe it was just really relaxing," she said. "Like to be away from four kids for just even a few days is heaven."

Davidson got tattoos in Kardashian's honor  and her name branded on his chest

Speaking to Ellen DeGeneres on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," Kardashian confirmed that Davidson got "a few tattoos" in her honor. "A few cute ones," she added.

"That's what tattoo people do. They get tattoos of what's going on in their life," Kardashian said. Davidson also had tattoos dedicated to his ex-fiancee, Ariana Grande.

On her Instagram Story, Kardashian posted a photo of one of those tattoos. It says, My girl is a lawyer.

Davidson also has her name, "Kim," branded on his chest  literally. "He wanted to do something that was really different," Kardashian told Ellen. "He wanted something's that's there ... He said, 'I don't want to be able to get rid of it.'"

Kardashian and Davidson break up in August 2022

In August 2022, Kardashian and Davidson called it quits.

According to E! News, the couple amicably broke up due to their hectic schedules and long distance. Kardashian is based in Los Angeles, while Davidson lives in New York City.

Kardashian and Davidson reunite in 2023 at the Met Gala

The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating

At the 2023 Met Gala, Kardashian and Davidson reunited when they crossed paths inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The pair were photographed talking to Usher inside the event and they appeared to be having a friendly and playful conversation.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
King Charles III was given a royal welcome when he visited Ghana as the Prince of Wales in 2018

In our series of letters from African journalists, Elizabeth Ohene considers how the coronation of King Charles III would go if it were in Ghana, known as the Gold Coast when it was a British colony.

Short presentational grey line

The first change would be in the king's title.

Instead of King Charles, he would be Nana Charles, Nii Charles, Naa Charles or Togbega Charles - the terms for king or chief in different Ghanaian languages.

I will stick to Togbega Charles.

Royalty is not exactly a strange or unknown phenomenon to us here in Ghana.

We have lots of royal houses instead of the single royal house of the British. Our social and political setup before the advent of colonialism was very much based on royal houses being in charge.

Today, we have a constitution with the full panoply of institutions and officials: a parliament, a judiciary, a president and ministers.

And side-by-side with this republic are our kings, queens and chiefs.

Even though on paper they might not have much power, there are very few Ghanaians who would refuse to obey a call by the chief in their village.

There is certainly no talk here of abolishing the monarchy.

So, if the coronation of King Charles was taking place somewhere in Ghana, he would not have to worry about the possibility of being the last monarch.

Journalists would not be looking with extra interest at how or whether the prime ministers of Australia, Canada and New Zealand bow as an indication of the likelihood of those countries giving up the British monarch as their head of state.

Nor would the Caribbean leaders at the ceremony be scrutinised for signs of an impending declaration of republican status.

We in Ghana are quite comfortable with being both a republic, and having kings and queens.

There would definitely be lots of dancing at a Ghanaian coronation

We also know a lot about organising royal events, and we have great sympathy for the difficulties King Charles has had with drawing up the guest list for the ceremony.

It would be a full-scale nightmare here, but people would be accommodated.

Story continues

In Ghana, there would be no story in a tabloid newspaper trying to rub it in that Miss Ohene had not got an invitation, as Togbega Charles and the organisers would go to great lengths to try and satisfy everybody.

It means invitations would continue to be sent out all the way until the morning of the event.

Half the people would not send an RSVP and therefore the organisers would not be certain of the numbers. Also it does not matter how boldly it is written on the invitation card that it is meant for the named person only, some people would bring a friend along.

An attempt will be made to squeeze maybe 2,000 people into a space that can only take 1,500 people.

As for King Charles' coronation, a critical part of the preparations towards the big day would be centred on the clothes that would be worn - firstly by the king himself, then his elders, who play an important role in the events, and of course, the women - both those who are playing roles and those who are guests.

The kente cloth weavers would be extremely busy and so would our designers and tailors, for no-one would survive being seen in something worn by anyone else.

Every kente would have a name that tells a story.

Special cloths would be designed and printed with the photo of the king on it and we would all try to outdo each other with the most outlandish styles.

"We would display enough gold to dazzle anyone and demonstrate that ours is indeed, the land of gold."", Source: Journalist Elizabeth Ohene, Source description: , Image: Hand with gold jewellery

I know the British Crown has a legendary collection of jewellery, gathered from around the world, but on a coronation day here, that would be no match.

We would display enough gold to dazzle anyone and demonstrate that ours is indeed, the land of gold.

We would guarantee a riot of colours at the event. It will be noisy, very noisy, and there would be drums and drummers and drumming that would blow your mind.

If you are new to these parts, it would be helpful to have a local nearby to explain some of the dances to you because each one would be telling a story.

And please come well prepared, for the event would last much longer than advertised.

The ceremony in Westminster Abbey will be rolled out with military precision and exactly as planned and rehearsed.

In Ghana, part of the attraction is the organised chaos and the unknown factor.

The elders who are responsible for the ceremony prefer to keep the details secret and there are always some surprise elements. Everybody who attends the function will feel he has played a part in the proceedings.

I am not sure how Queen Camilla will take this bit, but once enthroned, the elders would offer a "throne wife" to Togbega Charles.

She is not meant to displace Queen Camilla and it is not obligatory that the new king takes her, but she will be offered.

It is part of the custom.

More Letters from Africa:

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
King Charles's coronation has brought on some bizarre memorabilia. (Aldi/ Hugles at Etsy)

With King Charles IIIs coronation just around the corner, its likely that youre beginning to see more and more brands bring out coronation memorabilia.

While some are opting for classic printed dinnerware, flags and banners, others are taking a more unique approach, with the likes of Aldi turning its Kevin the Carrot mascot into King Kevin plush toys.

Read more: Pimm's celebrates King Charles's coronation with limited edition bottle

Marks and Spencer has jumped on the bandwagon too, selling coronation Colin the caterpillar cakes, and the coronation has extended to its clothing section as its just released a Union Jack fleece hooded blanket  for those who really like to stand out from the crowd.

If youre feeling flush, you may even want to invest in a lithograph painted by the King himself  but youd need to be willing to fork out a cool 2,950 for the pleasure.

Weve collated some of our favourite bizarre coronation buys, below.

King Kevin plush toys from Aldi

Aldi's Kevin the Carrot has been given the royal treatment.(Aldi)

"To celebrate the coronation, were pleased to release the official portrait of King Kevin," Aldi posted on its Facebook page this week. "Plush toys of his likeness are available in store now!"

The supermarket chain is now selling "King Kevin" plush toys in both a King and Queen version, said to represent King Charles and Queen Camilla.

The toys retail for 3.99 a piece, but have already seen some stores sell out since its launch on April 20.

"The demand for them has been extremely high," an Aldi spokesperson said on Facebook. "We are limiting purchases to two soft toys in store, per variant, per customer, so as many people as possible have a chance to buy them."

Coronation Gnomes from George

George's royal gnomes have been a sell-out success so far. (George)

Shop now

Another sell-out collection has been the regal gnome collection from Asdas homeware offshoot, George.

The collection of four coronation gnomes include the King Gnorman Gnome, Queen Gnorma Gnome, Union Jack Gnorman Gnome, and the Red Guardsman Gnome.

Each gnome retails at 7 each, but the red guardsman gnome is the only one currently available on the George website as the others have sold out.

King Wedgie Doorstop by Home & Glory

Want a King Charles doorstop? Look no further. (Home & Glory)

Shop now

You know what we really want to look down at as we walk into a room through an open door? King Charles face.

We jest, but if this is your kind of vibe, Home & Glory is selling a King wedgie doorstop for 10 via Not on the High Street.

Coronation Crown Easy Crochet Kit by Wool Couture

Perfect for dress ups, but maybe not as your go-to winter hat. (Wool Couture)

Shop now

OK so this crochet crown is actually kind of cool, and would be perfect for a dress up box. But you probably wouldnt catch us wearing it outside.

The 44.99 kit can be found on Not On The High Street and comes with the pattern, all the yarn you need, a tapestry needle and the option of a crotchet hook.

I Love King Charles Coronation Mug

One for the most ardent Charles fan. (Gift Delivery / Not On The High Street)

Shop now

Love the Kings mug so much you want it printed on an actual mug? Look no further than this souvenir coronation mug that will tell the world (or your family members at least) how much you love our new monarch.

Retailing at 7.99, the mug features an illustration of the King laughing, and says "I heart King Charles" with the heart being in the shape of a red love heart.

Fleece Union Jack Coronation Hooded Blanket by M&S

How much Union Jack is too much? (M&S)

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While were hoping May wont be cold enough to wear a fleece, this 19.50 hooded blanket from M&S will be sure to show your British pride.

"It's perfect for the times you need an extra bit of heat on a summer evening, or for getting cosy at a festival or on a camping trip," the description on the site reads.

King Charles and Queen Camilla Gnomes Crochet Pattern by Hugles

Your very own Camilla and Charles to keep forever. (Hugles/Etsy)

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Gnomes are clearly all the rage this coronation, so if you want to get in on the action then you can buy this 5.76 kit from Etsy to make your very own gnome King Charles and Camilla.

"Excellent pattern, very easy to follow with lovely illustration. Super proud with how they turned out," one review said.

Castle of Mey lithograph from Highgrove

A painting by the King himself? Priceless. (Highgrove)

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The most bizarre thing about this piece of memorabilia is the price, but we guess thats what you pay if you want a limited edition painting from the King himself.

Highgrove, the family residence of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, is selling just 100 Castle of Mey lithographs for 2,950 a piece.

Each lithograph was reproduced from the original watercolour painted by the King and is signed by His Majesty too.

Watch: Tom Parker Bowles thinks that coronation chicken has become "really horrible" over the years
Drone

Russia says Ukraine has launched a series of drone attacks on its territory in recent days.

It accused Ukraine of trying to kill President Vladimir Putin in an alleged drone attack on his residence in the Kremlin on Tuesday.

Two drones were brought down by Russian air defences, according to officials in Moscow, who said Mr Putin was not there at the time.

Ukraine denied carrying out the strike and claimed it was staged by Russia.

In recent months, there have been a number of suspected drone attacks inside Russia and Russian-occupied territory - none have been officially claimed by Ukraine.

An oil refinery in the Krasnodar region of Russia, about 200km (124 miles) from the Crimean border was targeted by drones on 5 May - and the day before - according to Russian media reports.

Last month, a drone came down in the town of Kireyevsk, about 400km (249 miles) from the Ukraine border, injuring at least three people in an explosion after it was brought down, Russian state media said.

In February, a drone crashed in the village of Gubastovo, about 100 km (62 miles) from Moscow, in what the local governor said was an attempt to target civilian infrastructure.

A picture of the wreckage appeared to be consistent with a UJ-22 - a type of drone manufactured by Ukraine.

It has a range of 800km (497 miles) in autonomous flight. Its range under directly-controlled flight is much shorter.

In December last year, a drone attack hit an airbase 600km (372 miles) north-east of the Ukrainian border, according to the Russian military.

Tracking reported drone attacks

Since the start of 2023, the BBC - by analysing Russian media reports - has tracked nearly 30 suspected drone attacks inside Russia and Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

Map of Russia showing reported drone attacks, based on BBC research

These have mostly been in the Bryansk and Belgorod regions in Russia near the north-eastern border, as well as in Crimea.

Oil facilities, airfields and energy infrastructure have all been targeted.

We counted five drone strikes on oil depots.

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One of these was in Sevastopol, the capital of Russian-controlled Crimea, which was struck on 29 April, destroying several of its oil tanks.

A side-by-side comparison using two satellite images of an oil storage facility under Russian control in Crimea, which came under attack on 29 April, allegedly by Ukrainian drones. The before image from 10 March 2023, shows all the oil storage tanks intact, while the image taken on 3 May 2023, shows at least seven storage tanks destroyed or severely damaged

Layla Guest, an analyst at Sibylline security consultancy, says: "Ukrainian forces will highly likely prioritise targeting oil refineries, as well as railway infrastructure and wider Russian logistics, to cause maximum disruption as part of their strategy ahead of the impending counter-offensive."

How far can drones fly?

Drones have been deployed by both sides in the conflict, with Russia using Iranian-made drones on targets in Ukraine.

In terms of range, experts say drones launched from Ukraine could reach deep into Russian territory, and as far as Moscow, which is about 450km (280 miles) from the border.

"Although Ukraine has not confirmed that its armed forces carried out the attacks, I think that the pre-emptive raids we have seen last year prove that Ukraine has the capability to launch long range attacks of that kind from within Ukrainian territory," says David Cenciotti, editor of the Aviationist blog.

Drone specialist Steve Wright also said it was possible that a drone could hit the Kremlin having been launched from within Ukraine.

But he added: "My guess is that the drone was launched from far closer in than that, as this would avoid it having to run the gauntlet of much of Moscow's defences."

Ukraine's Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov recently boasted of a Ukrainian drone called the R18 that "can fly from Kyiv to Moscow and back".

But he denied that he was calling for drone strikes on Moscow.

Mr Cenciotti says: "Ukraine has made extensive use of several drones, with the Bayraktar TB2 drone emerging as the real star of the air war for Ukraine, inflicting heavy losses on Russian forces, some of those caught on tape and circulated online."

Turkey has sold Bayraktar TB2 armed drones to Ukraine in recent months, while the Turkish manufacturer of the drones has donated some to crowd-funding operations in support of Ukraine.

Graphic showing characteristics of the Bayraktar TB2 drone. The Bayraktar TB2 is a low-cost alternative to US-made drones and can be used to directly attack or coordinate attacks with other systems on targets.

Ukraine says it is rapidly increasing its production of drones as demand grows on the front line.

Additional reporting by Joshua Cheetham, Thomas Spencer, Shayan Sardarizadeh, Paul Brown and Adam Robinson
Quality, innovation draw global buyers at Canton Fair

09:31, May 03, 2023 By Hong Zehua ( Xinhua

People visit the 133rd session of the China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, April 15, 2023. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)

GUANGZHOU, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Having finished his light lunch, Babak Amin, an Iranian purchaser attending the Canton Fair in south China's Guangzhou, gathered his stack of brochures and walked briskly into an exhibition hall. He was heading for yet another round of meetings with business partners, continuing a decade of profitable interactions through the fair.

The second phase of this year's event, also known as the 133rd China Import and Export Fair, concluded last week. International buyers from all over the world, including Amin, participated in the fully resumed on-site activities.

Data shows that the second phase, featuring light industrial products including daily consumer goods, gifts and home decor, attracted about 12,000 participating companies. The exhibition center received some 815,000 visits, with export deals exceeding 4.5 billion U.S. dollars.

Having attended the Canton Fair for over 10 years, Amin said it displays China's ability to provide suitable manufactured goods in response to customer requests.

"I obtain customized requirements from customers and then communicate the details to Chinese companies for production. Both sides have grown in this process," he said.

With companies from various industries setting up booths at the fair, Amin said the event is very large in scale. He has already signed four new cooperation orders with Chinese suppliers at this year's fair.

Also attending the fair this year is an Italian buyer who gave his name as Marco, whose focus is on horticultural products. He visited the booth of Guangzhou Light Holdings Ltd. and talked with the company's manager about the products on offer.

"Everyone knows that China can offer quality products at a lower price," he said. "In Italy, consumers are very happy to hear that the products they're buying come from China."

Many of the goods showcased in the second phase of the fair used to be classified as labor-intensive products. However, exhibitors have been accelerating the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries through innovative ideas, optimized designs and improved technology.

At the booth of Guangdong Xin Yu Technology Industrial Co., Ltd., a drummer is playing along with the music without physically striking the drums. The product, invented and manufactured by the company, features a gyroscope built into the electric drumstick that allows players to produce drum beats with waves of the stick.

On the other side of the exhibition hall, Ye Weilun, general manager of Guangzhou Megos Tech G.Z. Co., Ltd., said the company has focused on intellectual property rights to develop international markets.

During the second phase of the Canton Fair, Ye has already had discussions with dozens of domestic and foreign clients and has secured several intended orders.

"Our brand has always been global-oriented and we have to enhance the core competitiveness of our company," said Ye.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
UKRAINE: Zelensky Categorically Denies Ukrainian Involvement in Kremlin Drone Attack

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday denied Moscows claims that Kyiv had attempted to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, after Russia said two drones were shot down at the Kremlin.

"We didnt attack Putin. We leave it to the tribunal. We fight on our territory, we are defending our villages and cities," Zelensky told reporters at a joint press conference with Nordic leaders in Helsinki.

Earlier on Wednesday Russias presidential press service said a pair of Ukrainian drones had attempted to strike at President Vladimir Putins residence in the Kremlin overnight, calling the incident a terrorist act.

Last night, the Kyiv regime made an attempt to strike with unmanned aerial vehicles on the Kremlin residence of the President of the Russian Federation, the state-run TASS news agency quoted the Kremlin as saying in a statement.

The alleged drone strike came as Ukraine prepares to launch a significant counteroffensive against Russian forces 14 months into Moscows invasion.

It also follows a string of reported drone strikes and sabotage incidents inside Russia in the lead-up to May 9, when Russia celebrates the Soviet victory in World War II with a massive military parade on Red Square.

The Kremlin called Wednesdays incident a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned.

The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit, the statement continued.

news Explosive Device Derails Second Russian Freight Train Near Ukraine Read more

"Ukraine does not attack the Kremlin because, firstly, that does not solve any military aims," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhaylo Podolyak said, suggesting that the attack had been "staged" by Moscow.

"Such staged reports by Russia should be considered solely as an attempt to prepare ... for a large-scale terrorist attack on Ukraine."

According to the Kremlin, the drones were shot down by the Russian military and special services. Putin, who was not in the building at the time, was unharmed and the incident did not affect his work schedule, it added.

From the [drone] fragments fall and the scattering across the territory of the Kremlin, no one was injured, and there was no material damage, the statement said.

Reacting to the Kremlin claims, State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin called for the Ukrainian government to be destroyed.

"We will demand the use of weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime," Volodin, a close Putin ally, said, adding that it was now impossible to negotiate with what he called "the Zelensky regime."

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev reacted by calling for the "physical elimination of Zelenksy and his clique" in a now typically bizarre rant in which he said the Ukrainian leader was not even needed to sign an act of unconditional surrender, noting that Hitler hadnt surrendered either.

Unverified video footage published online appears to show a drone descending toward the Kremlin Senate before bursting into flames.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the May 9 parade will go on as planned despite Wednesdays incident.

Also on Wednesday, Moscow officials announced a ban on the use of drones in the Russian capital.

Authorities previously called off the Immortal Regiment procession, which sees tens of thousands of Russians nationwide march with images of relatives who fought in World War II and which takes place after the Victory Day parade, citing security concerns.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was highly skeptical of any allegations made by Russia.

"Ive seen the reports. I cannot validate them, we simply dont know," Blinken said at an event in Washington. "I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt."

Security analyst Mark Galeotti of the London-based consultancy Mayak Intelligence tweeted that even if Ukraine had targeted Putin in a drone strike, its chances of success were minimal given the high level of security around the Kremlin. He also argued that calling the incident an assassination attempt was simply playing to the Kremlins talking points.

"[Putin] notoriously rarely goes to the Kremlin, let alone stays there overnight," Galeotti said, adding that while "not quite a bunker," Putins apartment was "quite well protected."

AFP contributed reporting.

To read original story, pleasde, click HERE
Jackson Mahomes was arrested Wednesday morning on a warrant and booked into the Johnson County jail, records show. Court documents show the 22-year-old social media influencer and brother of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is facing charges for three felony counts of aggravated sexual battery and one misdemeanor count of battery.

While his legal case is still unfolding, we do know a bit about the incident that prompted Mahomes arrest from past reporting.

Police previously confirmed they were investigating a Feb. 25 incident involving Mahomes at Aspens Restaurant and Lounge in Overland Park, Kansas, where he had been accused of assaulting a waiter and the owner of the business.

Throughout that evening, Mahomes allegedly shoved a 19-year-old male waiter more than once and later forcibly kissed Aspen Vaughn, 40, the restaurants owner.

In a previous interview in March and a series of follow-up texts with The Star following the incidents, Vaughn recounted the events related to Mahomes arrest, which the waiter, who at the time asked not to be named, also backed up.

Heres what we know about that night, according to their accounts:

The waiter said Mahomes arrived at the restaurant with five friends around 9:30 p.m. The place was busy. About 80 people were eating dinner or at the bar.

Mahomes and his friends went downstairs into the restaurants basement office.

The waiter said he tried to go into the office , which is typically an employee area, and that the group wouldnt let him enter. The waiter said Mahomes physically pushed him out of the office.

Mahomes group then moved upstairs to the restaurants VIP room.

At one point, Vaughn said she smelled marijuana coming from that room and told the group that they couldnt smoke in the restaurant.

Shortly after 10 p.m., Vaughn said Mahomes asked to speak with her privately in the basement office to discuss the shoving incident that happened earlier in the evening with the waiter.

During that encounter, Vaughn said Mahomes grabbed her neck with enough force to leave a faint bruise (which was evident in a photograph she provided The Star) and forcibly kissed her at least twice.

She said his advances were unwelcome and shocking, and that he seemed to be intoxicated.

Mahomes and his group left around 10:45 p.m. , according to the waiter, when Vaughns boyfriend told them to go and not come back.

Police arrived shortly after that in response to a phone call from the waiters father, who reported the shoving incident.

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He forcibly kissed me out of nowhere, Vaughn previously told The Star, and Im telling him, pushing him off saying what are you doing? and then he proceeded to do it two more times where the last time I was pushing him off.

Aspen Vaughn provided this photo, right, showing what she says shows the bruise on her neck from Jackson Mahomes alleged assault at Vaughns restaurant Aspens Restaurant and Lounge in February. The incident, shown at left, was captured on a surveillance camera in the restaurant.

An attorney for Mahomes previously contended that he did nothing wrong. The Star was not immediately able to reach the attorney Wednesday morning.

Mahomes was released from Johnson County jail Wednesday after posting a $100,000 bond on felony charges of sexual battery and misdemeanor assault. Read the full story here.

This recap is based on previous reporting from The Stars Mike Hendricks and Robert A. Cronkleton.
Kool & the Gang still knows how to party. In fact, the Grammy Award-winning group is preparing for its biggest party of all to date: its 60th anniversary in 2024. Following its April 13 performance on Good Morning America and the release of its latest single, Lets Party featuring Sha Sha Jones, the R&B, soul and funk band is now announcing the arrival of its 34th studio album, People Just Wanna Have Fun.

Helmed by the groups founding namesake Robert Kool Bell and original member George Funky Brown, Kool & the Gang recorded a lively 15-track album that will arrive July 14 through Astana Music Inc, distributed by BFD/The Orchard. The set features some of the last studio work from the groups stellar founding horn players: Kools brother Ronald Khalis Bell and Dennis D.T. Thomas, who passed away in 2020 and 2021, respectively. In addition to Sha Sha Jones, lead vocals on the album include Shawn McQuiller, Lavell Evans, Dominique Karan, Rick Marcel and Walt Anderson, plus rappers Ami Miller & Ole.

More from Billboard

People Just Wanna Have Fun is a fitting next chapter in the Kool & the Gang legacy. Founded in 1964, the band is behind a string of timeless hits that include Celebration, Ladies Night, Get Down on It, Summer Magic and Hollywood Swinging. A release announcing the new project also notes the group being the most sampled R&B band of all time by stars such as Madonna, Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, Janet Jackson, Cypress Hill and Diddy. Their music has also been featured on various film soundtracks including Rocky, Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction and Wreck-It Ralph.

Youve got the funk, the jazzier tracks; we have a few ballads on there, said Bell in the release about the new album. Then there are songs that cross over to a pop sort of thing. We go from the 70s, the 80s, right into now. Its old school, its new school  we kinda captured it all here. With all our music over the years, people have had fun. So Id say this album just about sums it all up.

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Kool & the Gang are also hitting the road this summer on the Kool and the Gang Rock the World Tour. Sponsored by Bells own Le Kool Champagne, the tour kicks off May 5-6 in Las Vegas, and wraps in Saratoga, Calif., on Sept. 24. Stops along the way include London (June 1), Cambridge, Great Britain (June 11), Plovdiv, Bulgaria (June 12) and Los Angeles (July 14-15). More tour information is available on the groups website.

Keyboardist and drummer George Funky Brown produced People Just Wanna Have Fun, recorded at his Alley Cat Studio in Woodland Hills, Calif. He also has a book coming, Too Hot: Kool & The Gang & Me (July 11), in which he shares my memoirs and cautionary tales. During a recent phone interview with Billboard, Brown talked about the genesis of the new album, the loss of revered bandmates and extending Kool & the Gangs estimable legacy.

Getting the recording party started for the project: We started the project five years ago with Sha Sha Jones. Right away, it was like hand in glove and we came up with the Lets Party track. All the original horns are on that track. So we put that away and started coming up with more original material like We Are the Party, once again with all the original members. So thats very special. Also on the 15th track, 99 Miles to JC, you hear Ronald Bell on a sax solo and [the groups late trombonist] Clifford Adams; this one has a real jazzy feel. The album also has pop, neo-soul, funk.  Its a compilation of all the things that we are as Kool & the Gang. We worked on quite a few songs before we got down to the point of naming the album. And People Just Wanna Have Fun is very apropos after the pandemic and with whats happening in the world right now. In fact, the album has three different sections that we call romance, dance and heart and soul. Theres also a young groove on the album with tracks like I Want It All featuring Sha Sha and Shawn McQuiller. Another track, Thats What I Love About You, reminds me of Anthony Hamilton, whose work I love. We use a lot of different harmonies on this album too, more than youve ever heard from Kool & The Gang in the past.

Kool & The Gang

Shooting the Lets Party video: I have no one favorite song on the album whatsoever. I love them all. I also just love putting together a project that comes together nicely. And you can see that in the video for Lets Party. Everybodys having a great time in the video, which was shot at my home. But it wasnt just shoot the video and go home. We had a free bar set up and a catered dinner. So you can genuinely see that everybodys really grooving and getting into it.

His mindset in the studio while putting the album together: My mindset was about broadening and extending the legacy of Kool & the Gang. Were a great entity that has put a few rungs in the ladder of musical history. We went from being young jazz musicians to funk then to pop and of course soul. Our music fits in so many genres and thats fairly rare. But by jumping into other niches, we got more fans. And Its grown and grown. It worked for us but we didnt do it purposely. We did it because it was something we wanted to write, something we could feel. It was nothing contrived; its about the raw sound philosophy that we have. Our music has truth and a lot of workmanship that we put into it. Im floored by and happy about the musicianship thats on this new record. I hope the public worldwide will feel the same. Also, what more can you ask for after a career thats been so successful  and thats still growing after all these years. Of course, theres been plenty of sadness with the passing of group members. Sometimes you get a little weepy in the studio. But were keeping the legacy alive and pushing it forward. And when its all said and done, weve done our job well.

Best of Billboard

Click here to read the full article.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  Senior South Korean and Japanese officials on Wednesday discussed strengthening relations and coordinating responses to North Koreas nuclear and missile threats in a meeting in Seoul ahead of a summit between the countries leaders.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will host on Sunday Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in their second summit since March. The two U.S. allies have been working to repair relations strained by historical grievances and tighten security cooperation to cope with North Korean nuclear threats.

The talks between South Korean National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong and his Japanese counterpart, Takeo Akiba, were focused on the trilateral security cooperation with Washington and encouraging further global efforts to stem North Korean attempts to evade U.N. Security Council sanctions to fund its nuclear arms program.

Cho and Akiba also discussed facilitating the economic and cultural exchanges and aligning their broader strategies for the Indo-Pacific region, according to Yoon's office.

They later participated in a broader meeting with economic and security officials that discussed issues related to supply chain resiliency, climate change and emerging technologies, Yoons office said.

The summit on Sunday follows Yoons state visit to Washington last week where he and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to strengthen nuclear deterrence to prevent North Korean aggression.

Yoon, Biden and Kishida are also planning to hold a trilateral summit next month at the Group of Seven meetings in Hiroshima, where North Korea is expected to be among the major topics along with Russias war on Ukraine and Chinas assertive foreign policy.

North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles since the start of 2022 as it continues to use the United States expanding military exercises with South Korea and Japan as a pretext to accelerate its weapons development.

The weapons North Korea tested this year include intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland and shorter-range weapons potentially targeting South Korea and Japan. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has punctuated the tests with threats to preemptively use his nuclear weapons in a broad range of scenarios where the North may perceive its leadership as under threat.

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North Koreas intensified testing activity and threats of nuclear conflict have pulled Seoul and Tokyo closer together following years of bickering over history. During the summit in Tokyo in March, Yoon and Kishida vowed to rebuild their security and economic relations that had declined over disputes linked to Japans brutal rule of the Korean Peninsula before the end of World War II.

The meeting, which was the first formal summit hosted by Japan since 2011, came after Yoons government took a major step toward improving ties by announcing plans to use South Korean funds to compensate Koreans who were enslaved by Japanese companies during the colonial period.

The plan, which doesnt require Japanese contributions, aims to end a row stemming from South Korean court rulings in 2018 that ordered Japanese companies to offer reparations to the forced laborers. Those rulings irked Japan, which insists all compensation issues were settled by a 1965 treaty that normalized relations.

Yoons push to mend ties with Tokyo has triggered criticism from some forced labor victims and his political rivals, who demand direct Japanese compensation. But Yoon has defended his moves, saying closer ties with Japan are critical for dealing with a slew of regional challenges, especially North Korea.

Japans Trade Ministry said last week that it started procedures to restore preferential trade status for South Korea, days after Seoul took a similar step for Tokyo and requested reciprocity. The countries in 2019 had downgraded each others trade status amid an erosion of ties caused by the forced labor rulings.
[Source]

Helen Park, the first Asian American female composer on Broadway, made history once on Tuesday after receiving a Tony Award nomination for KPOP.

Park was nominated for best original score, marking the first time an Asian woman has been nominated for the category. She received the nod alongside co-composer Max Vernon.

A lot of us have been working on this show for eight years, Park told The New York Times. And for people to be recognized, it really feels like a celebration and recognition of the hard work that everybody put in.

More from NextShark: Man Who Stomped on Elderly Chinese Mans Head Says It Was Retaliation for Korean, Japanese Men Who Robbed Him

KPOP, which ran on Broadway from November to December 2022, is a musical about K-pop stars preparing for their U.S. debut. The show was also nominated for best choreography and best costume design of a musical on Tuesday.

The Tony nominations mark a significant recognition after KPOP struggled with earnings and closed with only 44 previews and 17 regular performances.

More from NextShark: K-pop girl group Dreamcatcher nab their first music show win since their 2017 debut

The cancellation triggered a backlash against New York Citys larger musical theater industry.

I dont feel defeated, I feel angry. I feel like we never got a fair chance, Park told the Los Angeles Times in an earlier interview.

Ahead of the abrupt closing, cast members called out New York Times chief theater critic Jesse Green for describing the shows lighting as squint-inducing.

More from NextShark: COVID-19 Researcher On Verge of Breakthrough Found Shot to Death in Pittsburgh

The term squint is often paired with eyes  hence, squinty eyes  to mock the eyes of Asian people.

By using language in such a way as one of the many white, male gatekeepers of the Broadway world, Jesse Green cast a show of mostly Asian bodies as the other,' Abraham Lim, who made his Broadway debut in the role of Jae Ik, told NextShark.

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Reading such ignorance and seeing his language weaponized against even things like my mother tongue as a reason to deter people from seeing our show made me want to hold him accountable and protect us.

Kim told the Times that she still struggles with the closure of the show. She believes everyone who came to see it really enjoyed it, and she certainly wont say no if anyone wants to bring it back.

The 76th annual Tony Awards will be held at the United Palace in New York City on June 11.
Russian President Vladimir Putin talks on the phone in Moscow on January 3, 2023. MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images

The Kremlin has prepared media talking points about Ukraine's expected counteroffensive, per Meduza.

Propagandists are told to emphasize Western support for Ukraine, per the outlet.

These kinds of talking points will provide cover for military failures, one expert told Insider.

A newly-obtained Kremlin document outlines how Russian state media should handle an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, according to a new report.

Sources told independent Russian outlet Meduza the document is aimed at priming the public for potential losses, or to capitalize on any Russian success.

Reporters have been told "not to downplay expectations for the NATO-supported counteroffensive," and not to say that "Kyiv is unprepared for a 'counteroffensive," Meduza reported.

Instead, the document instructs news outlets to emphasize the extent of Western support for Ukraine.

Insider has not independently reviewed the document in question.

The report comes as Russia awaits a much-anticipated military pushback by Ukrainian forces.

US General Mark Milley said this week that Ukraine has bolstered its capacity and is "prepared" for the counterattack.

His comments contrasted with those revealed last month through leaked purported Pentagon documents dating to February, which suggested internal US intelligence concerns about whether the effort will fall short.

Sources close to the Russian administration  whose identities Meduza has protected  told the outlet that the Kremlin guidance is aimed at priming the public for either outcome.

"If the offensive is a failure, [the Russian authorities] will be able to say that [Russia's] army adeptly repelled an extremely powerful attack. The value of this victory will increase significantly," the sources told the outlet.

"If Ukraine, with the help of weapons from the US and Europe, is successful and takes territory, the loss will be explainable, too; after all, the West has focused a tremendous amount of effort on the front, but its successes  when compared to those efforts  have been very modest," they were cited as saying.

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Dr Precious Chatterje-Doody, an Open University lecturer in politics and an expert on Russian media, told Insider that the reported guidance fits "perfectly" with Russia's existing coverage of the war.

Not only does guidance like this provide "cover for Russia's uninspiring performance," but the focus on Western and NATO help undermines the idea of Ukraine's agency in the conflict, she said.

"As Russia had found itself unable to secure a decisive victory, state media has increasingly portrayed the conflict as a proxy war between Russia and NATO," she said.

She added: "The success of Ukraine's counteroffensive into annexed territories towards the end of last year was explained away on Russian state TV's discussion programmes as being a de facto NATO operation."

Most Russian media is subject to strict controls over how the Ukraine war is discussed.

Though there is latitude for interpretation in order to appeal to diffferent audiences, editors receive a weekly set of talking points and broad guidelines directly from the presidential administration, Dr Jade McGlynn, a researcher in Russian media and propaganda, told Insider in an earlier interview.

According to Meduza, this new document also asks media outlets not to focus on how much money is being committed to rebuilding occupied and annexed parts of Ukraine.

Instead, they should emphasize repair work in schools and hospitals in Russia, it said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Ukrainian military

Russian authorities instruct reporters not to downplay expectations for the NATO-supported counteroffensive that Ukraine has announced, and not to assert that Kyiv is unprepared for a counteroffensive.

Read also: Ukraines defense minister hopes Ukrainian counter-offensive to start unexpectedly

On the contrary, says the guide, pro-Kremlin outlets should emphasize that Western countries are providing Kyiv with weapons and supporting Ukraine in various other ways.

Two sources close to the administration of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin told Meduza that theres a simple explanation for why Moscow wants this kind of coverage.

Read also: Propaganda machine preparing Russians for new wave of mobilization, warns Ukrainian military intelligence

If the offensive is a failure, (the Russian authorities) will be able to say that (Russias) army adeptly repelled an extremely powerful attack, one the sources said.

The value of this victory will increase significantly.

If Ukraine succeeds and retakes territory, with the help of weapons from the United States and Europe, this will help explain the loss.

After all, the West has focused a tremendous amount of effort on the front, but its successes  when compared to those efforts  have been very modest, the source said.

In other words, overall, the Russian army has held its own.

In the document, the Kremlin also advises propagandists not to focus on the amount of money allocated from the Russian budget to rebuild infrastructure in the occupied and annexed Ukrainian territories.

Instead, the guide urges media to talk about how problems are being solved in Russia, including reporting on repairs in schools, kindergartens, and hospitals. The Kremlin is confident that these are the kinds of topics that garner public approval.

Read also: How does Russian propaganda end up in Western media? Presidential advisor has answers

Another topic the guide discourages pro-Kremlin media from covering is the rehearsals for Russias May 9 Victory Day parade, reported Meduza.

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Some regions have opted to forego the holiday entirely on security grounds. Moscow and multiple other cities have canceled their traditional Immortal Regiment processions (where people march with portraits of their ancestors who were somehow involved in Russias past wars).

One political scientist who works with the Russian authorities told Meduza that the changes arent due solely to safety concerns. In all likelihood, he said, this years parade will involve less military equipment than in past years, and the equipment that is featured will likely be outdated.

The modern vehicles are most likely needed at the front, he said.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via Reuters

The Russian presidential administration said Wednesday that the Kremlin was attacked by drones overnight in an attempt on President Vladimir Putins life.

Moscow residents had reported hearing two explosions behind Kremlin walls shortly after 2 a.m. local time, after which the lights went out. Footage shared by residents in a local Telegram channel captured the incident, as smoke was seen filling the sky above the Kremlin. Videos also appeared to show part of the Kremlin on fire.

Now, authorities say it was a brazen attack by Ukraine using two drones, both of which they say have been destroyed.

Astonishing footage of last night's drone attack on the Kremlin pic.twitter.com/3rghCHdIed  Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) May 3, 2023

No injuries were reported, according to the TASS news agency. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was not at the presidential residence at the time.

The Kremlin, describing the incident as a planned terrorist attack and assassination attempt on the president of Russia, is now threatening to take retaliatory measures.

A spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied that the country was behind any attack on the Kremlin and accused Moscow of deliberately escalating the situation ahead of May 9, when Russia routinely flaunts its military prowess to mark Victory Day.

Separately, the phrasing by the terrorist state is surprising. A terrorist attack is houses destroyed in Dnipro and Uman, or a rocket attack on a railway station in Kramatorsk, and many other tragedies, Zelenskys spokesman Serhii Nykyforov said.

The Kremlins official version of events left many unanswered questions. Witnesses said the two separate explosions occurred more than 10 minutes apartmeaning federal protection units guarding the Kremlin either did not react to the first blast or are exceptionally bad at their jobs.

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A Moscow resident interviewed by the independent outlet Verstka said he heard the first blast at about 2:30 a.m. The second one, he said, happened several minutes later at 2:42 a.m. Footage shared on local Telegram channels of the first and second explosions also surfaced several minutes apart.

Verstka noted that one of the more striking videos of the attack was also apparently filmed from a building located on Red Square that belongs to the presidential administration.

An unnamed worker inside the Kremlin told Verstka there was no sense of panic or heightened security as the work day began Wednesday.

Nothing strange has happened. The Alexander Garden was not blocked off, cars were parked in the lot as usual, the worker said.

It was also unclear how two Ukrainian drones could have made it through Russias air defenses and into the heart of the capital.

The alleged assassination attempt comes after Russias pro-war hawks have spent months demanding the military unleash more brutal attacks against Ukraine, claiming military commanders have been held back from doing so.

Many Russian lawmakers on Wednesday seized on news of the incident at the Kremlin to re-up that demand.

Terrorists have settled in Kyiv, and, as you know, negotiations with them are meaningless. They need only to be destroyed, quickly and mercilessly. Its time to launch a missile attack on Zelenskys residence in Kyiv, United Russia lawmaker Mikhail Sheremet said in comments to Russian state media. Im ready to give the coordinates: 11 Bankova Street, where the so-called administration of the president of Ukraine is located.

Kremlin propagandists also burst into hysterics, with Margarita Simonyan, the editor in chief of RT, suggesting on Telegram that the alleged attack is just the pretext Moscow needs to go scorched earth on Ukraine: Maybe now it will start for real?

The incident comes just days before Russias main Victory Day parade on Red Square, an event that authorities reportedly fear could be disrupted by drone attacks. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Wednesday banned drone flights in the city without a special government permit.

Independent Russian media reported last week that utility workers have been ordered to patrol the streets of Moscow in search of any bombs or drones ahead of the event.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait on Wednesday set June 6 as the date for its legislative elections, state news agency Kuna reported, two days after the Gulf state's parliament was dissolved by royal decree.

The parliament was only reinstated in March based on a Constitutional Court ruling following a previous dissolution.

Kuwait bans political parties and candidates run as independents, but it has given its legislature more influence than similar bodies in other Gulf monarchies, and political stability has traditionally depended on cooperation between the government and parliament.

The OPEC member has seen prolonged bickering between the government and the elected parliament that has hampered fiscal reforms.

The June 6 date was agreed by the council of ministers on Wednesday and referred to Kuwait's Crown Prince, Kuna reported.

Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah had said last month the legislature would be dissolved and new parliamentary elections would be held in the coming months.

The parliament, first elected in 2020, was dissolved last year in a bid to end political feuding and a vote was held in September in which the opposition made gains.

But the Constitutional Court in March annulled those results and restored the previous assembly.

The U.S.-allied state has strong fiscal and external balance sheets, but the infighting and political gridlock have hampered investment and reforms aimed at reducing its heavy reliance on oil revenues.

(Reporting by Ahmed Hegagy; Writing by Maha El Dahan; Editing by David Goodman and Angus MacSwan)
A Stanford man out on bond for a murder charge has been arrested again and accused of sending and requesting nude pictures from a minor under the age of 16.

John Gordon Stamper Jr., 25, was served a criminal complaint by Kentucky State Police on charges of procuring or promoting use of a minor by electronic means, and unlawful transaction with a minor in an illegal sex act, court records show.

According to the complaint, Stamper allegedly sent anonymous text messages to a girl suggesting they send each other pictures.

He used the TextNow app, designed to generate random numbers. The victim didnt know it was Stamper who was sending her messages, and continued to ask who he was, according to the complaint.

The victim sent a selfie of her face still trying to figure out who Stamper was, according to the complaint. Stamper allegedly said he would tell her who he was in exchange for sexually explicit photographs of her.

When the victim didnt send photos, Stamper allegedly offered to send her explicit pictures of him. The victim did return a photo, thinking the sender was a guy from school.

Stamper continued to ask for more pictures from the victim, and allegedly threatened to send screenshots of her photos to her family members if she didnt send him more, according to the complaint.

If you dont send nudes in the next 30 minutes, Im sending (names of the victims relatives) screenshots of our messages, and the nudes you already sent, the complaint recited from text messages. If you do send nudes, Ill leave you alone, and we will go on like this didnt happen. But do not think for a minute that I will not send it to them.

The victim told her teacher, school counselor and her family about the situation. Stamper allegedly sent screenshots to two of the victims family members.

After further investigation, KSP were able to find that Stamper was the one texting the victim.

Stamper was arrested last month in Boyle County, according to a police citation. At the time, Stamper was already on home incarceration while he awaits a murder trial for the 2016 death of Desiree Sparks.

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Sparks, 22, went missing in September 2016, and her body was found by a group of ATV riders in a wooded area on West Skyline Drive in the Stanford area in October 2016.

Lincoln County Coroner Farris Marcum said Sparks was found with no clothes and she had no wounds or traumatic injuries on her body, according to the Interior Journal in Lincoln County. The coroner deemed the autopsy results inconclusive because he was unable to determine a cause of death, the Interior Journal reported.

Stamper was not arrested until August 2020.

Stampers former attorney, Sarah Bryant, requested a bond reduction for him on April 30, 2021. Originally Stamper was required to pay $100,000 full cash, but Boyle Circuit Judge Darren Peckler reduced the bond amount requiring Stamper to only secure 10%  or $10,000 along with an individual acting as surety.

According to court documents, Stamper posted bond one day after it was set on May 20, 2021. He was required to be on an ankle monitoring device. But at Stampers April 4 court appearance, his bond surety requested to be removed, according to Lincoln County Commonwealths Attorney Richie Bottoms.

Stamper was scheduled to appear in court for his murder charge on May 2, 2023.

Bottoms said at the time the bond reduction was requested and granted, his office did not agree to that decision.

We were not comfortable with the reduction of bond because of the pending charges against him, Bottoms told The Herald-Leader. On behalf of the (victims) family, we are appreciative he is back in jail.
The Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar. (Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles County leaders plan to reopen a shuttered juvenile hall and deploy reserve sheriff officers to work in the facilities as they scramble to fix a staffing crisis that has state regulators threatening to close down the county's two remaining juvenile halls.

The steps are among more than a dozen changes to the Probation Department that Los Angeles County supervisors unanimously approved Tuesday as part of a plan to fix a juvenile justice system in crisis and stave off state intervention.

Under the plan, the county would reopen Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, which was shut down in 2019 amid a dwindling population and accusations of abuse by staff. Roughly $28 million would be put into upgrading Los Padrinos as well as Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar and Central Juvenile Hall in Boyle Heights. And the Sheriff's Department would send in reserve officers  volunteer members of the department  to staff the long-troubled juvenile halls.

The vote on the plan came less than a day after interim Probation Chief Karen Fletcher resigned following a brief two-month stint leading the department.

Fletcher told The Times she was ready to retire after more than three decades working in probation. She said she submitted her resignation Monday evening and her last day is May 19.

"After nearly 34 years working in the probation field, it is time to retire and embark on the next chapter of my life," she wrote in a departing memo to staff.

Fletcher became interim director in March after the board fired then-probation chief Adolfo Gonzales. Her abrupt resignation means the county is now simultaneously on the hunt for a permanent director as well as an interim one. Board Chair Janice Hahn said Tuesday the board would meet in closed session to discuss finding a replacement for Fletcher's post.

Over Fletcher's brief time at the helm, scrutiny by the state over the county's juvenile halls only intensified. The California Department of Justice accused the county of flouting the terms of a 2021 settlement around fixing the dire conditions at the juvenile halls. The county and the DOJ are expected to appear in court on May 9.

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And the California Board of State and Community Corrections threatened to shut down the halls after repeatedly finding them out of compliance with a long list of state regulations. The board has scheduled a meeting for May 23 to decide whether Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall and Central Juvenile Hall should be vacated.

County leaders hope the plan voted on Tuesday will appease state regulators and prosecutors. But it drew outrage from youth advocates, who accused the county of betraying the promise they made to move away from jails and recklessly moving staff from one chronically dysfunctional department into a different one.

If we even take a moment to look at Mens Central Jail and whats happened there at the hands of the sheriff  to think that that same body would somehow do right by our young people feels wildly shortsighted, said Milinda Kakani, director of youth justice at Children's Defense Fund.

Brooke Harris, head of the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, called the deployment of sheriff's officers "extraordinarily troubling,"

"To allow reserve sheriffs who don't have the requisite training or experience working with vulnerable youth populations is at best a massive miscalculation, and at worst a recipe for unthinkable outcomes," she said. "Young people in L.A.'s juvenile facilities have been abused and neglected for long enough."

The Sheriffs Department said in a statement that it would work with the Probation Department to determine how all of our County partner agencies can assist them.

The plan was given little fanfare by the Board of Supervisors. It was made public Friday night as part of the countys supplemental agenda  a second iteration of the agenda for proposals that came together later in the week. And it was voted on Tuesday as part of the consent calendar  in which a package of motions is voted on at once without comment.

Chief Executive Fesia Davenport wrote in a board letter that the plan was intended to ensure optimal and constitutional levels of care for probation youth and would not increase probations footprint. She wrote the sheriff's reserve officers would receive training that gave them the skills needed to work with probation youth.

The proposal would also reshuffle the youth currently split between Barry J. Nidorf and Central Juvenile Hall. The roughly 275 predisposition youth in the countys custody would be moved to Los Padrinos. Barry J. Nidorf would now exclusively house juveniles charged with serious felonies, including murder and sexual assault. And Central would be used partially as an intake unit for law enforcement and a medical hub for youth in the countys probation halls and camps.

It's not clear when the changes outlined in the plan will be implemented. A county spokesperson said a "timeline is being developed."

The letter notes state regulators need to conduct a pre-inspection of Los Padrinos before the county can begin transferring youths into the facility.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
(Photo : Mohammed ABED / AFP) (MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli jets launched attacks across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in response to rockets launched following the death of Khader Adnan in Israeli custody while on hunger strike.

Gaza hunger striker dies in Israeli custody, prompting a violent exchange between the two sides

The member of the Islamic Jihad group was awaiting trial

Adnan becomes the first Palestinian hunger striker to have died inside an Israeli prison in the last three decades

Khader Adnan, a member of the Islamic Jihad group on hunger strike for 87 days, died in Israeli custody, prompting a violent exchange between the two sides.

On Tuesday, Israeli jets struck targets across the Gaza Strip, an attack in response to the militant group's rocket barrages launched earlier in the day. The latter was a result of Adnan's death while being detained.

Death of Palestinian Hunger Striker

Following Adnan's death, hundreds gathered in blockaded Gaza and the occupied West Bank streets. They rallied in support of the individual and mourned his death. Palestinian leaders claim that the death of Adnan was considered an "assassination," as per Reuters.

An umbrella group of armed Palestinian factions in Gaza and Hamas and Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for the number of rockets that targeted Israel during the day. On the other hand, the Israeli military revealed that they monitored 26 projectiles coming from Gaza.

Officials said two rockets landed in Sderot, injuring three people, including a 25-year-old foreign national. According to Israeli's ambulance service, that individual was found to have sustained severe shrapnel wounds.

Shops located in the West Bank city of Hebron saw a general strike, and some protesters burned tires and threw stones at Israeli soldiers. The latter fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the demonstrators to push them back.

On Tuesday, the Deputy Chief of Staff Amir Baram said that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) would firmly respond to restore regional peace. However, security officials said that they wanted the response to be "measured" to avoid further escalating tensions in the West Bank, according to Haaretz.

Read Also: China, India Make Surprise UN Vote on Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Rising Tensions Between Israel and Gaza

Currently, Arab and world leaders are continuously working to ease tensions between the two sides to prevent further escalation and end the recent cycle of violence. However, a Palestinian source said Egypt's attempts to mediate peace have not yet reached an agreement.

Adnan was initially arrested in Israel on Feb. 5 earlier this year and continued to refuse to receive medical examinations. A previous report noted that he was taken into custody over allegations that he was a member of a terrorist organization and for support for terrorism and incitement.

The director of Masarat, Hani al-Masri, said that the situation between the two sides would result in an escalation. He argued that this was evident in the internal and external pressures the Israeli government faces.

Al-Masri said the Israeli government faces pressure from the opposition and inside the government to respond. Aljazeera said the Masarat director's remarks were made prior to Israeli's attacks on Gaza on Tuesday.

Related Article: Japan, South Korea to Resume Financial Dialogue After 7 Years

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Robin Koda, co-owner of Koda Farms in South Dos Palos, Calif., stands in a rice field. Koda Farms' rice played a key role in the spread of sushi in L.A. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Robin Koda navigated the levees of her familys rice farm with the grace of someone who has been moving among water, soil and grass her whole life.

She wore jean overalls and a wide-brimmed woven hat that offered minimal protection from the oppressive heat that rippled under a cloudless sky. It was July 14, and the almanac would later peg the high at 100 degrees. Somehow, it felt much hotter than that.

Still, it was something close to bearable near the water, whose constant trickle into the farms system of canals was a reminder of the thirsty crop for which Koda Farms is celebrated.

Its pretty meditative, right? asked Koda, the farms co-owner.

Koda Farms played a key role in the spread of sushi in Los Angeles in the 1960s, said Atsuko Kanai, daughter of Noritoshi Kanai, who helped popularize the cuisine in the Southland. Without Kokuho Rose, the farm's special strain of medium-grain rice, his sushi gambit might have failed.

Koda Farms' Kokuho Rose medium-grain rice was crucial to the growth in popularity of sushi. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

There were a few things that made sushi possible  No. 1 and most pivotal was the rice, said Atsuko, whose father visited Koda Farms in 1963 and struck a distribution deal to wholesale the Kokuho Rose rice to L.A. restaurants. Koda Farms  [made] a more palatable rice that could be served in sushi.

For Noritoshi Kanai, a Mutual Trading Co. executive, the prospect of his food-importing business bringing high-quality rice from Japan had been daunting  it would be too expensive. Whats more, much of the rice found in America in the early 1960s was of the long-grain sort, which wasnt suitable for sushi. The food typically requires rice that is stickier than other varieties, helping nigiri retain its shape after being formed. Kanai, who persuaded the owner of Little Tokyo haunt Kawafuku to open a sushi bar around 1965, needed a local source.

Launched in 1962, Kokuho Rose was developed by Koda Farms in conjunction with rice breeder Arthur Hughes Williams. The heirloom variety, Koda said, crossed a California medium-grain rice with a Middle Eastern long-grain to create a new, higher-quality medium-grain offering.

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Koda said Kokuho Rose was envisioned by her grandfather, Keisaburo Koda, who founded the San Joaquin Valley farm in 1928, as a table rice. The variety, she said, was not developed specifically to be a sushi rice  thats just the application that [Mutual Trading] saw was useful to them.

The rice was a revelation: Until the invention of this medium-grain strain, what had been available to make sushi in California was tasteless, couldnt retain moisture, and would get brittle as it cooled down, said Anthony Al-Jamie, editor in chief of the Japanese culture magazine Tokyo Journal.

The son of a samurai turned rice miller, Keisaburo Koda was born in Japan in 1882. He immigrated to California in his mid-20s and pursued several ventures, including wildcatting for oil in the hills of Coalinga, a Fresno County town. He began farming rice in the late 1910s on leased land in Northern California. He wanted to buy property, but no one would sell to Asians there, Robin Koda said.

Grain silos at Koda Farms, a San Joaquin Valley rice farm that was founded by Keisaburo Koda in 1928. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Bundles of rice hang inside a Koda Farms building in July 2022. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

These days, Koda Farms' two biggest products are its Sho-Chiku-Bai sweet rice and Blue Star Mochiko sweet rice flour. Above, Sho-Chiku-Bai rice is packaged in July 2022. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

He just literally kept moving south until he found someone who would sell land to him, she said, adding that her grandfather started the farm by purchasing about 8,000 acres in South Dos Palos.

As a rice farmer, Keisaburo Koda became known for his innovations, including sowing seeds via airplane. In more recent years, Koda Farms rice has won acclaim from chefs and food publications. In 2020, Sunset magazine dubbed it the "Holy Grail of California Rice. It is served at L.A. eateries, including M Cafe and Porridge + Puffs.

After touring the rice fields, Robin Koda climbed into her Ford van, a spartan vehicle that shuddered angrily over the farms rutted roads. She drove a short distance before parking in front of a property that had been Koda Farms original headquarters  and now serves as a reminder of a dark period during World War II.

To rebuild like a mile down the road  to have this here as a daily reminder of what was wrongfully, illegally taken away from you  its sort of crazy.

Robin Koda, Koda Farms co-owner and granddaughter of Keisaburo Koda, who founded the farm

Once the U.S. declared war against Japan in 1941, the government imprisoned Japanese Americans, including the Koda family. Notified that they would be sent to a detention camp in Colorado, they planned to temporarily close their farm, according to Robin Koda. But the government mandated that it remain in operation to support the wartime economy, so Keisaburo Koda had to hand over the management to non-Asians, she said.

When their incarceration ended, the Kodas returned to find that their prime property and equipment had been sold. There was about 1,000 acres of scrappy land left, Koda said. Only junk remained; all the best stuff  it was totally picked over.

But the family began building a new farm close by.

Looking at the original headquarters, which the Kodas never reacquired, Koda marveled at the strength of her family: To rebuild like a mile down the road  to have this here as a daily reminder of what was wrongfully, illegally taken away from you  its sort of crazy.

It isnt just Atsuko Kanai who has touted the significance of Koda Farms contribution to L.A.s sushi supply chain. Al-Jamie said that the creation of Kokuho Rose was essential to the spread of sushi across the region.

Without the heirloom rice, Al-Jamie said, I dont think [sushi] would have taken off when it did.

But, in a twist, Kokuho Rose is no longer a sushi bar staple, with chefs now preferring short-grain rice. In the 1980s, Koda said, more Japanese short-grain rice became available in the U.S. market, which may explain the sea change. That rice, she said, is more sticky than Kokuho Rose, and it seems to be a preference among sushi chefs.

But that shift didnt roil the companys business. Far from it.

We never would have pigeonholed ourselves into just sushi rice  you would cut your market down, Koda said, explaining that her companys two biggest products are its Sho-Chiku-Bai sweet rice and Blue Star Mochiko sweet rice flour.

Koda takes pride in carrying on the legacy of her familys business  the one started by the man once dubbed the Rice King.

Robin Koda, seen in a rice field at her farm: "People just knew that if you wanted rice, the best rice was Koda Farms rice." (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Robin Koda holds rice plants in the field, left; rice stalks hang at right. Sunset magazine has dubbed Koda Farms' product the "Holy Grail of California Rice." (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

On that sweltering day in July, talk of ancestors filled Kodas kitchen as she prepared rice for a visitor. She lives in a modest home on the farm thats within view of the vast, metal-sided structures that house the machinery that processes Koda Farms rice crops. During the harvest, which typically begins in September, the workforce here swells to nearly 100 people.

She brought over a small bowl of cooked Kokuho Rose  one topped with a spoonful of briny salmon roe that contrasted nicely with the rices floral bouquet. Then she shared something that could have only been a dream in 1928, when her late grandfather founded Koda Farms, but had become a reality by 1963, when Kanai paid his fateful visit here.

People just knew, she said, that if you wanted rice, the best rice was Koda Farms rice.

Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Some Lake Norman waterfront homeowners say intense bright lights are ricocheting off the water into their windows late at night, both spooking and angering them.

They blame bow-and-arrow fishermen who shine spotlights into the water and take aim at bottom-dwelling, shoreline-hugging catfish, gar and carp.

It is very annoying, a homeowner in the FernBrook community in Mooresville on the lake posted on Nextdoor in early April, when a debate flared about the late-night fishing. The lights shine right into your house.

Others fired back on the site, poking fun at the claims or contending the issue was overblown.

Might be a UFO sighting! a man posted.

If there was ever a non-problem, this is it, added Jake Bussolini, who lives on the lake in Mooresville and authored seven books about freshwater fishing.

Bussolini said bowfishermen leave a cove within minutes, and any lights shining into homes are merely a reflection off the water.

Why dont you complain about drivers that do not lower their high beams when they pass you? he asked a homeowner who complained on Nextdoor about lights shining into her home.

A fisherman who responded to the complaints on Nextdoor said homeowners have turned hostile.

People have threatened to shoot us, released dogs, and even sprayed us with a hose as we go by, the fisherman from Denver, in eastern Lincoln County, said on the site.

Homeowners should understand that bowfishing is a lawful activity and that bowfishing targets non-native species that damage the ecosystem, said the fisherman, who didnt reply this week to a request for comment from The Charlotte Observer.

One of the states pioneers in the sport, however, said hes warned fellow bowfishermen that it might come back to bite them if they ignore the concerns of lakefront homeowners.

Sure, you can fish anywhere, but ...

Andy Thomas of Hudson in Caldwell County told the Observer he has bowfished 45 of his 58 years. He helped found the statewide bowfishing association Tarheel Fish Stickers about 20 years ago and its tournaments that attracted up to 70 enthusiasts at lakes throughout North Carolina, he said.

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Tournament organizers respected homeowners, creating a no-fishing black zone where too many homes hugged the shoreline, he said.

Thomas was last active in the group several years ago and believes the association has dissolved. Yet he knows of younger bowfishermen who remain defiant, saying no one can tell them where to fish.

Sure, you have a right to fish in any cove or nook or cranny of Lake Norman, the states largest manmade lake, he said.

Still, he cautioned: Theres big money on Lake Norman, and you dont know if the guy whose home youre fishing in front of is a judge or a senator or a congressman.

All it takes is one person with influence before the sport is regulated, including restrictions on how close to shore you can bowfish, he warned.

Bowfishing popularity

Lake Norman has long been known for its nationally broadcast bass tournaments that attract anglers from across the Southeast and beyond  but bowfishing?

Bowfishing has been around since ancient times, but only in more recent years has the sport increased in popularity across the country, including in North Carolina, Wake County-based N.C. wildlife officer Hannah Shively wrote on the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission website in 2018. She also happens to be a bowfishing aficionado.

Bowfishermen target non-game fish, particularly gar, bowfin, carp and catfish, she said.

Such non-native fish also are called trash fish, said Jessie Smith, owner of Barefoot Archery on Old Pineville Road in Charlotte.

Smith, who lives on Lake Norman, sells the equipment bowfishermen use to pierce their catch. Its really a nice, fun sport if you like to shoot, he said.

Morris Sample, executive director of the Lake Norman Marine Commission, said hes seen more bow-and-arrow fishermen on the lake in the past five or six years, and 99% or more keep their lights downward at all times, he said.

Typically, four or five bowfishermen gather on their pontoon boats in a cove, but theyre only there a minute at most before moving on, Sample said. He and his family have lived on the lake 45 years.

Bowfishermen have every right to ply the waters, as we all do, Sample explained. The lake is everyones place to be, he said.

Referring to homeowners who dont want fishermen in their coves, he said, the water is not their private property.

In the bowfishing world, however, Lake Norman is not really popular, Smith said, because its too deep.

The Santee River in South Carolina is far more popular with the bow-and-arrow set, Smith said.

Understanding the other side

The Lake Norman flare-up on Nextdoor started innocently enough on March 31 when a woman asked if the lights on the water outside her home were a police patrol boats or a fishermans.

Weve seen them many times, a woman from another lakefront subdivision replied. Its a little freaky when you first see them. The lights weve seen have a greenish-yellow hue to them.

The conversation soon devolved, with some residents among the more than 300 people who responded to the post accusing others of self-privilege and snobbery.

Sgt. William Layton of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission said the rise in popularity of bowfishing the past five or six years has led to such occasional flare-ups.

The sport is legal, he said, just a form of fishing that requires a different skill set, i.e., archery.

Layton at the same said he has urged the statewide bowfishing group to be mindful of lights inadvertently reflecting or otherwise shining into homes. Each side just needs to respect the other, he said.

Thats our No. 1 goal, Layton said. We just want everyone to get along.
Anousa Luangsuphom was shot in a coffee shop in Vientiane

A Laos political activist who was reported to have died after being shot point blank in the face and chest is alive, activists say.

The family of Anousa Luangsuphom, 25, has told Human Rights Watch (HRW) he is recovering in hospital after being shot in a cafe in the capital Vientiane.

They had initially told people he had died in a bid to protect him from being targeted again, the rights group said.

This reflects the level of fear for dissidents in Laos, the group added.

"Friends and family basically told people he was dead because they were worried if the gunman knew that they had not succeeded in killing him, they would return to finish the job," said HRW spokesman Phil Robertson.

Mr Luangsuphom is a prominent critic of the Laos government. Security camera footage of his attack on Saturday night has been widely shared on social media and reported in local media.

It shows a gunman dressed in a brown long-sleeved shirt and black cap using a facemask to open the cafe door, before entering and firing twice at Mr Luangsuphom, who is seated on the floor.

The video then shows the gunman fleeing while bystanders rush to Mr Luangsuphom's aid.

The activist is known for running the Kub Kluen Duay Keyboard (Driven By Keyboard) Facebook page, where people have expressed criticism of the Communist authorities.

On Wednesday night, the page's administrators shared a message from another Laos political commentator, based in Europe, who has a large online following among people in Laos and abroad.

The family had requested that the Facebook influencer release the information that Mr Luangsuphom was alive, Mr Robertson said.

They had chosen to do this after the incorrect news of Mr Luangsuphom's death was reported by global outlets, including the BBC, prompting Laos police to track him down in a Vientiane hospital.

Photos published by the Facebook page appear to show him unconscious in a hospital bed with wounds and bruising on his face. The BBC has sought comment from the page's administrator.

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There has been criticism of Laos authorities' slow response to the shooting. Before Wednesday, authorities had not announced an investigation into it.

Police are still yet to show they are properly investigating the attack, Mr Robertson said.

He said the family's "protective" actions showed "there is clearly no confidence in the Laos government whatsoever that it is there to protect the citizens of the country".

It follows similar criticism over cases of other activists who have vanished or been targeted,

HRW had earlier noted the "enforced disappearance" of activist Sombath Somphone, whose whereabouts remain unknown more than 10 years after he was taken into police custody in Vientiane.

It also cited the case of Od Sayavong, a Lao activist living in Bangkok, who has been missing since August 2019.

Government officials had denied any knowledge of both disappearances.

There is little room for political opposition or dissenting voices in Communist-ruled Laos, one of Asia's poorest countries.

The landlocked country between Thailand and China is a one-party state, ruled by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, where "authorities use legal restrictions and intimidation tactics against state critics", says the US political advocacy group Freedom House.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Mr Luangsuphom survived the shooting
Larissa Fasthorse. (photo by Conor Horgan)

Larrisa Fasthorse found her voice and her superpower through being a playwright.



On April 20, Fasthorse (Sicangu Lakota) became the first Native American woman playwright produced on Broadway with the debut of her original work, "The Thanksgiving Play."

The play  starring DArcy Carden, Katie Finneran, Scott Foley and Chris Sullivan tells the story of four white presenting people attempting to devise a culturally sensitive first Thanksgiving play for Native American Heritage Month. The characters try so hard to do everything right that they do everything wrong, Fasthorse said.

Fasthorse says she wanted to challenge herself to write a play about contemporary Indigenous issues through white presenting characters.

This play is also an opportunity for people to come together and enjoy being in a space where they can share laughter, happiness, joy, and truth, she said.

Im really happy with it and how it came out and the things it deals with, Fasthorse said. As Native people, a lot of the history that Im talking about in this play, we know it. Its not news to us. Its news to everybody else.

When Fasthorse started working in film and television 15 years ago, she was frustrated with the inaccurate representation of Indigenous people.

Shows like Rutherford Falls and Reservation Dogs that depict contemporary Native life with Indigenous-specific humor with Native actors werent around back then.

I sold a couple of shows, but they were just getting watered down the way theyre portraying Indigenous people, and I didnt have the power to change that, Fasthorse said. In film and TV, the studios own your work  you dont. So, they can change whatever they want."

But then Fasthorse was commissioned to do her first play in 2012 and everything took a positive turn.

I was really excited because the theater was willing to do things right, to hire Indigenous consults, to hire language consultants, hire other Indigenous artists to work around the show, she said.

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Fasthorse grew up in South Dakota, where at a year old, she was adopted by a white family. Her adoptive parents worked to help her keep a connection to her Lakota culture and people.

But growing up, thats hard  you are separate, and I always worried about not being enough of anything, Fasthorse said. Not being enough white, not being enough Lakota, all the things.

Not feeling enough and being stuck in between was reinforced when a casting director in California told her it was a problem that she wasnt quite white  and they could tell.

Now I realize how much thats my superpower, she said. Im a bridge. Im a bridge that can translate between cultures, she said, adding she can take contemporary and historical issues and translate them for a white audience and weave in Lakota storytelling.

I was really fortunate as a Native playwright around the country to be working quite a bit, getting commissions and having them produced, she said. But then I couldnt get second and third productions; my plays would just kind of be once and be done.

The process grew increasingly frustrating, and the fight to hire Indigenous actors also became an issue. But eventually, she says, she cracked the formula, and "The Thanksgiving Play" opened doors.

Fasthorse describes "The Thanksgiving Play" as a dark satirical comedy that depicts historical events accurately.

She added the Indigenous crew found the truth and humor in the story to be a relief.

Although her plays tell historical truths, Fasthorse emphasizes that her primary aim is to create art.

A lot of my art does educate, but its first and foremost art, she said. It is not education.

Her first writing mentor, Merata Mita, a Maori filmmaker, producer and writer from New Zealand who passed away in 2010, told her that she could either be an artist or an educator, Fasthorse said.

Now, some art educates, and some education is artistic, Fasthorse said. But you have to choose which one you are. So, Im very much an artist.

Fasthorse encourages Indigenous artists to stay true to who they are/

Everybody has to find their people and if you arent being true to who you are and your voice, your people cant find you, Fasthorse said. Your voice is something they dont have and if you dont stay true to that, the people who love what you have cant find you. If you try to please everyone, you will please no one, including yourself, most importantly yourself.
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) ruled out a 2024 Senate bid Tuesday, depriving Republicans of a candidate with a proven record of winning statewide elections in the Old Line State.

Hogan was at the top of the GOPs list of preferred candidates after Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) announced on Monday that he would not be seeking reelection next year. But Hogan says its not happening.

Im getting a lot of calls about that, Hogan told NewsNations Leland Vittert on The Hill.

"It's just not something I've ever aspired to do," former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said on @NewsNation when asked about the possibility of a Senate run in 2024. https://t.co/cYLSPet0ne @TheHillNN pic.twitter.com/29OWUzciX3  The Hill (@thehill) May 3, 2023

Im getting called by senators, and donors, and Im getting lots of inquiries from the media, but the thing that surprised me the most was that my wife said, Why dont you run for the Senate?'

I told her she was crazy, he said. I mean, I didnt have any interest in being a senator.

The Senate is an entirely different job, Hogan said. Youre one of 100 people arguing all day. Not a lot gets done in the Senate, and most former governors that I know that go into the Senate arent thrilled with the job.

Hogan went on to say that theoretically he could win the race, but that it would be tough.

In a presidential year, it makes it even more difficult, he said. But its not something Im pursuing.

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Cardins announcement that he will not seek reelection opens up Marylands Senate seat for next years election. Over the last 40 years, only five people have represented Maryland in the Senate, with Democrats John Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski having served for 30 years each.

Its a difficult race for the GOP in a presidential election year, when Maryland is a reliably blue state.

But Hogan, a centrist governor who frequently criticized former President Trump, would have been a formidable candidate.

Democratic sources indicated to The Hill on Monday on that three possible candidates in their party lead the pack of contenders to replace Cardin: Reps. David Trone (D-Md.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Prince Georges County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D).

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
[Source]

A Yangtze giant softshell turtle, considered one of the world's rarest reptiles, recently died in Vietnam, leaving its species on the brink of extinction.

The turtle, which was the last known female of its kind, was found floating at Dong Mo Lake in Hanoi on Sunday by a member of a turtle protection nonprofit, according to Phung Huy Vinh, head of the economic department of Son Tay Town.

Its cause of death has yet to be confirmed, Vinh told VN Express.

The rare reptile, which was first found in the lake in 2020, was reportedly over 5 feet long and weighed 205 pounds.

More from NextShark: Elderly Asian man allegedly punched in face and his dog almost lit on fire in SF attack

It is the same individual that weve been monitoring in recent years. Its a real blow, Tim McCormack, director of the Asian Turtle Program for Indo-Myanmar Conservation, told TIME. It was a large female that obviously has great reproductive capacity. She could have potentially laid a hundred eggs or more a year.

There are now only two known Yangtzes, both of which are male: one in Chinas Suzhou Zoo and another in Hanois Xuan Khanh Lake.

The reptiles, also known as Hoan Kiem turtles, have been disappearing due to decades of illegal turtle hunting and the rising levels of pollution.

More from NextShark: Baltimore man accused of hitting Asian American sisters with cement block ruled incompetent to stand trial

I am still in just such disbelief that yesterday, we literally witnessed the loss of one of the planets true gigantic species, the Yangtze giant softshell turtle, biologist Forrest Galante said on Facebook. Its just devastating. Humans must learn from this and try to do better as docents of our planet.

Researchers from Vietnam and China unsuccessfully attempted to artificially inseminate a female Yangtze in the past, with the surviving turtle dying in 2019 while under general anesthetic.

However, researchers are remaining hopeful in their search of another Yangtze in Dong Mo.

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More from NextShark: Yale University 'Illegally Discriminates' Asians and Whites in Admissions Process, According to DOJ

In Vietnam, the Hoan Kiem turtle holds a mythical status due to a legend that is similar to that of Englands King Arthur.

The creature is believed to have gifted a sword to emperor Le Loi, which allowed him to drive away occupying Chinese forces. According to the legend, the turtle then reappeared in a Hanoi lake and retrieved the weapon after the enemies were defeated.

The reptile is even considered sacred by many and worshiped by some. When one of its species died in 2016, its remains were reportedly preserved and put on display in the Ngoc Son temple in Hanoi.

More from NextShark: 'Pillar of the Community' Store Owner Fatally Shot in Utah
Just trust us.

Thats what lawmakers seem to be saying more and more in Florida, as the assault on transparency in government continues in an unprecedented way from Tallahassee to Miami.

The latest? The Florida Legislature is poised to pass a bill, SB 1616, that will keep Gov. Ron DeSantis travel records secret. And not just in the future. Its about past travel, too. Incredibly, its retroactive.

The reason offered: DeSantis needs to keep his whereabouts a mystery for security reasons, because he might be targeted. And past travel has to be shielded because it might reveal travel patterns that could make him vulnerable.

The governor said Monday, according to Politico, that the measure wasnt his idea but that he does get a lot of threats. Running for president, assuming he does, isnt likely to reduce that  though at some point he might qualify for Secret Service protection.

The measure doesnt stop there, though. Its so broadly written that it could keep citizens from knowing where the state jet (paid for by taxpayers) has been and what the governor is up to and who else was aboard. It also would remove from the public record information who is visiting the governors office and mansion. You guessed it  another security concern.

Floridas overreach

By that logic, virtually anything any elected person does involving state government could be deemed a security concern and kept secret. Its an overreach, to put it mildly.

No one wants the governor or any elected official to be put in danger. The world can be a crazy place. But the answer to security threats against public officials cannot be a blanket order shutting out the public. It cannot be keeping the governors travel a secret, now and in the past. And it cannot be hiding the identities of those visiting the governors office or mansion, people who may there for reasons ranging from mundane to nefarious.

Citizens might well wonder, if the governor is really trying to to serve his constituents, what does he have to hide?

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One legislator indicated that some of this information would still be made available in an as-yet-undefined way. Without the words being written into the law, that means nothing.

But just trust us.

The anti-open-government virus seems to be spreading. In Miami, the Miami-Dade School Board is caught up in a Sunshine Law ruckus over a meeting that two board members held last month to discuss minority participation in School Board contracts.

The two members  DeSantis appointee Danny Espino and DeSantis-endorsed Roberto Alonso  may have tried to block senior board member Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall from participating in the meeting when she showed up, as the Miami Herald and Channel 10 reported.

Bendross-Mindingall, first elected to the board in 2010, said she was initially told she was not invited and couldnt participate. The districts lawyer then said she could. But the incident left a stench: The next day, during the regular board meeting, Bendross-Mindingall, who is Black, said the episode reminded her of going to school in Alabama, where what was legal wasnt right.

Espino has called for a new meeting, on May 9, this time to talk about Florida in the Sunshine meeting procedures.

Dont newly elected officials get government-in-the-sunshine training anymore? Perhaps its needed.

The general thrust of the law is any gathering of two or more members of an elected or appointed board to discuss something that may come before the board has to be publicly announced. The idea is to provide public access to government at state and local levels. That way, we dont have to just trust public officials to do the right thing. Because that will go horribly wrong.

Make no mistake, Floridas cherished open-records laws are under attack. Secrecy, always the favorite mode of shady politicians, is on the rise. And it wont end with DeSantis term. Itll apply to governors going forward, too, Republican or not.

But hey, go ahead. Listen to the politicians. You can trust them.
Democratic lawmakers are demanding an outside investigation into multiple allegations of sexual abuse in the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, to protect high schoolers from exploitative practices and predatory instructors.

The lawmakers asked the Government Accountability Office to launch a probe to help Congress determine whether to scale back or shutter the JROTC program altogether.

Any incident of sexual abuse or harassment is one too many and betrays the faith and trust that JROTC cadets and their families have placed in the U.S. military, wrote the group, which included Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee chairwoman Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md.

The move further clouds the long-term stability of the program, viewed by military leaders as a key recruiting and outreach tool. There are JROTC programs a more than 3,500 U.S. high schools, reaching more than 500,000 students.

Sexual misconduct in JROTC programs higher than previously reported

The lawmakers request comes a few months after Defense Department leaders acknowledged that sexual abuse and harassment of high school students has been a significant problem in the program. Between 2017 and 2022, at least 58 such cases occurred.

At least 46 instructors have been decertified over the last five years because of sexual abuse allegations. Two other instructors died by suicide before their cases could be settled.

GAO officials have not yet responded to the request, but typically pursue investigations in response to lawmaker inquiries. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have previously called on the Pentagon to investigate the issue.

Junior ROTC has mixed impact on student outcomes, new study shows

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been focused on recruiting and retention issues since the military services last year struggled or failed to meet recruiting goals. On May 2, Army leaders told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee that they believe they will miss their recruiting goals again this year.
Halifax Health Emergency Room, Wednesday, July 21, 2021.

The Leapfrog Group released its spring hospital safety ratings, showing a mixed bag of results for local facilities.

Of the five AdventHealth locations in Volusia and Flagler counties, the Daytona Beach, DeLand and Orange City campuses remained steady with A grades, while New Smyrna Beachs campus dropped to a B and Palm Coasts went from B to C.

Halifax Health hospitals in Daytona Beach and Port Orange received D ratings, which is consistent with their grades from November 2022.

Spring 2022 ratings: Halifax Health gets lowest hospital safety grade from Leapfrog. Here's why.

Emerald Award: AdventHealth earns first ever Emerald Award for outstanding achievement by Leapfrog Group

New CMO: Dr. David Sinclair named new chief medical officer for AdventHealth Daytona Beach hospital

The Leapfrog Group is a Washington, D.C.-based national nonprofit organization thats been issuing letter grades to hospitals based on safety and quality since 2012. The grades are based on a hospitals performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care. The group releases two grades per year, one in the spring and one in the fall, and it is considered a tougher grader than the federal government, which doesnt issue failing marks.

Out of 3,000 general hospitals surveyed nationwide, 29% received an A; 26% received a B; 39% received a C; 6% received a D; and less than 1% received an F.

In spring 2022, 33% received an A; 24% received a B; 36% received a C; 7% received a D; and less than 1% received an F.

Halifax Health locations remain in lower grade range

Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach

Both Halifax Health hospitals in Daytona Beach and Port Orange received low grades once again. The former received its fourth consecutive D, while the latter received its second consecutive D after two previous F ratings.

Hospital spokesman John Guthrie had previously told The News-Journal that Halifax Health does not agree with Leapfrogs methodology.

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Overall, we do not subscribe to the Leapfrog methodology and dont believe it provides an accurate picture of care, Guthrie said last spring. We are green in all the areas we should be. The bottom line is that people shouldn't choose their health care or hospital based on a grade."

These green areas refer to the infections and problems with surgery sections of the evaluation, where Halifax Healths Daytona Beach campus scored better than average in 11 out of 13 metrics, average in one metric and worse than average in another.

Data for the infections section of the Port Orange campus for four of the metrics  MRSA bacteria, blood, urinary tract and the surgical site after colon surgery  was unavailable, according to Leapfrog. The same happened last year.

Alberto Tineo, senior vice president and hospital chief operating officer for Halifax Health, explained last year that these values should indicate over or more than one in order to count, and the hospital did not have any to report.

The sections where both Halifax Health locations faltered most, according to the rating, were safety problems, practices to prevent errors, and doctors, nurses and hospital staff, with 11 below average scores in 11 of 19 metrics.

Halifax Health did not return a request for comment on this years ratings.

How did Volusia and Flagler AdventHealth locations do?

AdventHealth Palm Coast

The nonprofits grading system utilizes up to 32 national patient safety metrics from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources.

It divides these metrics into two sections: Process measures (which include errors, accidents and injuries that a hospital has publicly reported), and outcome measures (which include the management structures and procedures a hospital has in place to protect patients from errors, accidents and injuries).

With yet another A rating, AdventHealth Daytona Beach remained one of only 20 hospitals nationwide to receive the highest mark in every Leapfrog rating since 2012.

AdventHealth DeLand and Fish Memorial in Orange City also received A ratings.

"AdventHealth is proud that three of our area hospitals received an A rating in the newest Leapfrog Group patient safety scores," AdventHealth spokesperson Lindsay Cashio wrote in an email to The News-Journal. "This track record of success demonstrates our unwavering dedication to patient safety, and we remain committed to improving both patient safety and the patient experience across all of our hospital campuses."

The Palm Coast campus dropped to a C rating. It received an A last spring and a B in the fall.

It received 21 better than average scores out of 32 metrics, nine worse than average and two average scores.

The New Smyrna Beach campus received a B rating after five consecutive A ratings  it received its last B in May 2020.

The hospital received 20 better than average scores out of 31 metrics, nine worse than average and two average scores. Data was unavailable for death from serious treatable complications metric.

"We appreciate the feedback represented by these scores and will learn from it as we work continuously to assess and adjust our safety processes," Cashio wrote.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Halifax Health, AdventHealth hospitals receive Leapfrog safety ratings
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. | J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

In a committee hearing Tuesday, Utah Sen. Mike Lee said he believes theres a coordinated campaign against Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices in order to reduce trust in the court.

All these tactics, of course, are meant to harass and intimidate the court  specifically the justices appointed to the court by Republican presidents  and force them to impose the lefts radical policy agenda on the American people not through the legislative process but by judicial fiat, he said.

Lees comments came during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday focused on Supreme Court ethics reform. The hearing came in the midst of a series of media stories about justices, including Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, who were accused of ethical issues over financial dealings with friends or fellow attorneys.

Democratic Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, of Illinois, invited Chief Justice John Roberts to testify at the hearing, but Roberts declined, saying in his letter to Durbin it is rare for the chief justice to testify to Congress, and that he was concerned about the separation of powers and the importance of preserving judicial independence.

At the hearing, Durbin said he was troubled by Roberts refusal and that sitting justices have testified at 92 congressional hearings since 1960. He had harsh words for the justices, suggesting they had not done enough to police themselves.

It is critical to our democracy that the American people have confidence that judges cannot be bought or influenced, and that they are serving the public interest and not their own personal interests, he said.

Related

But Republicans on the committee, including Lee and ranking member Sen. Lindsey Graham, said Democrats were seeking to delegitimize the court, and that they hadnt covered similar stories about justices who were appointed by Democratic presidents.

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If you want to talk about making the court a better institution, Ill be glad to work with in that regard. If you want to talk about destroying the court count me out, Graham said in his opening remarks.

Lee echoed Grahams comments and defended Thomas, who has come under particular fire.

The truth is the left simply disagrees with his decisions and with the decisions of our current Supreme Court and they obviously cant persuade the American people to adopt their radical policies through legislation so theyre attempting to destroy the Courts credibility and intimidate the Republican-appointed justices and their families, starting with Justice Thomas, Lee said.

Justice Thomas is one of the most influential jurists our country has ever known. pic.twitter.com/wjrYcInq25  Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) May 2, 2023

Lee said he knew of issues related to justices appointed by Democrats, including one who traveled for free with wealthy friends, including stays at the homes of prominent attorneys whose firms have cases before the Supreme Court.

If you read articles from sources like The New York Times, Politico, and outlets like ProPublica, youd think that the Supreme Court justices appointed by Republican presidents are universally reckless and corrupt, and those nominated by Democrats are universally conscientious and virtuous, he said.

In recent years, progressive groups and lawmakers, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have suggested Democrats should increase the number of justices on the court.

When Thomas was in Utah last year, he spoke about his concerns on adding to the court.

You can cavalierly talk about packing the court. You can cavalierly talk about doing this and doing that. At some point, the institutions are going to be compromised, he said.

My fear isnt for me. But it is for your kids and your grandkids and the next generation. What are we going to leave them? Are we leaving them a mess or are we leaving them a country? Are we leaving them chaos or are we going to leave them a court? he said.

The Utah event was moderated by Sen. Lees brother, Thomas Lee, who clerked for Justice Thomas and was later the associate chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court. Their father, Rex E. Lee, served as solicitor general under President Ronald Reagan.
(Photo : Belinda Jiao/Getty Images)

Buckingham Palace was placed on lockdown after a man threw what authorities believed were shotgun cartridges on the grounds.

Buckingham Palace was placed on lockdown after a man threw shotgun cartridges on the grounds

British police later arrested the individual on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon

The incident comes only a few days before King Charles III's coronation ceremony

Authorities placed Buckingham Palace on lockdown after a suspect threw shotgun cartridges on the grounds a few days before King Charles III's coronation ceremony.

British police later arrested the man around 7:00 a.m. for suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon. The individual was said to have approached the gates of Buckingham Palace and thrown what officials believed were shotgun cartridges into the grounds of the Palace.

Buckingham Palace Placed on Lockdown

Officials were later able to recover the shotgun cartridges and took them to a specialist to examine them. Now, the suspect was suspected of possessing an offensive weapon.

Authorities cordoned off the Palace after the man was also found to have had a suspicious bag. Specialists later attended and carried out a "controlled explosion" as a precautionary measure, said police without detailing further, as per Fox News.

In a statement, Chief Superintendent Joseph McDonald said that, fortunately, there were no reports of any shots fired in the area or any injuries to officers or public members. He added that officers remained on high alert at the scene of the incident and that further inquiries were still ongoing.

The incident happened a few days before the coronation ceremony of King Charles III, which is expected to be attended by more than 2,000 people on Saturday. The guest list was found to have more than 200 international representatives and roughly 100 Heads of State.

Authorities later removed most of the cordons around Buckingham Palace, and roads surrounding it were reopened. Metropolitan police officials added that they were not treating the recent development as a terror-related incident for the time being.

Reports noted that neither King Charles III nor his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, were at Buckingham Palace when the suspect was apprehended, according to DW News.

Read Also: China, India Make Surprise UN Vote on Russia-Ukraine Conflict

King Charles III's Coronation Ceremony

Before King Charles III's coronation, his accession to the throne occurred following the Queen's death, his mother. It became a deeply sad period when the nation bid farewell to its longest-reigning sovereign.

The coronation is expected to be a moment of public celebration for the new King and is set to be an over-the-top spectacle. The ceremony's symbolic meaning is the coming together of the monarchy, church, and state for a religious ritual where the monarch will vow to God and the country.

Buckingham Palace said it would reflect the monarch's role today and move forward into the future while remaining rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry. Those who wish to view the ceremony from their homes can do so through special coverage of some media outlets.

While details on the length of the ceremony have yet to be given out, many expect King Charles III's ceremony to be shorter than his mother's, which was held seven decades ago. At the time, CNN said the former Queen's ceremony, the first live royal event to be televised, lasted more than three hours.

Related Article: Japan, South Korea to Resume Financial Dialogue After 7 Years

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Florida legislators took another step toward removing citizen input on Tuesday as the House passed and sent to the governor a bill that will put citizens on the hook for attorneys fees if they challenge a local government development decision and lose.

Proponents say its a needed change to expedite development in a fast-growing state. But growth management advocates warn the measure will be the death knell for smart growth in Florida that will lead to expensive sprawl and water shortages, exacerbate flooding and impede Everglades restoration efforts.

With little debate, the Florida House approved 87-30 and sent to the governor SB 540, sponsored by Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, and Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville.

This bill continues a pattern of making it more difficult for citizens to challenge legitimately bad development in their communities, said Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, when urging her colleagues to reject the bill on Tuesday. When citizens are aggrieved by a new development in their area and cannot work with their local authorities, sometimes their only recourse is the legal system.

If approved, the bill will require anyone who challenges a local government for violating the communitys comprehensive growth plan and loses to pay the attorneys fees and costs of both the developers and the government.

Environmental advocates are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto it.

A high-rise view of downtown Miami.

Everglades restoration may be at risk

They argue it will lead to development that could encroach on the multi-billion-dollar taxpayer funded restoration of the Everglades, and is in conflict with the governors Executive Order 23-06 that directs state and local officials to improve local government long-term comprehensive planning that ensures sustainable growth while protecting our natural resources.

There are a lot of bad bills this year, but this is one of the worst growth management bills ever facing the State of Florida, said Jane West, policy and planning director of the smart growth advocacy group 1000 Friends of Florida. This is a very heavy handed approach by the Legislature to benefit developers.

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On Tuesday, 1000 Friends of Florida organized an online petition urging the governor to veto the bill and, within 12 hours, it had more than 750 signatures. Also opposing the bill is the Florida Everglades Coalition, which is comprised of dozens of environmental and advocacy groups.

It goes against sound comprehensive planning., said Gil Smart, executive director of the VoteWater advocacy group. Full participation by affected citizens is a key component of that comprehensive planning,

Since 2011, when the state dismantled the former Department of Community Affairs, which protected from development the states natural areas of critical state concern, citizen challenges to development plans have been the only tool the public had to force non-compliant local governments to adhere to a communitys growth blueprint, known as a comprehensive plan.

Under current law, each party bears its own fees and costs but, if this becomes law, the challenger may be faced with tens of thousands and possibly in excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars, West warned.

The sponsors of the measure, however, say it simply evens the playing field for both opponents of sprawl and developers. DiCeglie told the Senate Rules Committee last month that local governments already hold numerous public hearings and provide sufficient public input before decisions are made.

There are multiple opportunities for the public to voice their support or opposition for any of these comprehensive plans or the amendments, he said.

Many current lawsuits could be dropped

Because the bill does not include a grandfather provision for existing lawsuits, West warned that dozens of current lawsuits that have been in the legal pipeline for years could be impacted if governments and developers retroactively seek to have the fees paid by the challengers  most often coalitions of citizen and environmental groups.

That could result in the groups deciding to dismiss dozens of pending lawsuits because the growth advocates cannot afford the cost, West said.

Millions of dollars would be on the hook, said Laura Reynolds, director of the Hold the Line Coalition, which aims to stop urban sprawl in Miami-Dade County. Theres no way any of us would take that risk.

Among the lawsuits that could be dismissed is one from developers in Miami-Dade that last year challenged a Department of Environmental Protection ruling that the county commission waited too long in approving the expansion of the Urban Development Boundary (UDB).

A previous version of the bill included a provision to retroactively change a state law to benefit the developers and end the lawsuit, but the lawsuit is still pending.

Development interests have for years sought to weaken citizen involvement in local government development decisions because the process can stall progress and impede profits.

Environmental advocates said Wednesday they fear that if the bill becomes law it will lead to more development in low-lying coastal high hazard areas so that landowners can profit before the land is consumed by rising seas.

It sure looks like there is a mad rush to develop some of the last remaining green space in South Florida in low-lying areas while it can still be developed and insured, said Eve Samples, executive director of the Friends of the Everglades.

Reynolds said by losing the last tool in our toolbox groups will have no leverage to encourage developers to increase urban density to preserve drinking water resources, protect wetlands, encourage public transit, build energy-efficient communities and manage flooding.

There will be unbridled development and no solutions to the climate crisis, Reynolds predicted. It is much cheaper to protect the land in low-lying areas from development than to come back in after there is a storm.

This story was updated to correct the title of Laura Reynolds, who is director of Hold the Line Coalition.

Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@miamiherald.com and @MaryEllenKlas
Thousands of Ugandan Asians arrived in the UK in 1972

An exhibition to mark 50 years since Ugandan Asians began arriving in Leicester has been shortlisted for an award.

Rebuilding Lives: 50 Years of Ugandan Asians in Leicester ran at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery and told the stories of families expelled from Uganda by dictator Idi Amin.

It has been shortlisted the Museums + Heritage Awards on 10 May.

The exhibition attracted more than 130,000 visitors.

It is one of five entries named in the category of Temporary or Touring Exhibition of the Year, with other contenders including English Heritage, the London Transport Museum and the University of Leicester, who worked with Historic Royal Palaces on an exhibition about perceptions of beauty.

The Ugandan Asian exhibition was put together by Leicester-based arts organisation Navrang.

'Truly special'

The exhibition - which originally opened in July 2022 - was asked to extend its run in Leicester to April 2023 due to its popularity.

It was also featured on BBC One's Antiques Roadshow and the organisers have also filmed a piece about the exhibition for BBC Two's Great British Railway Journeys with Michael Portillo.

Ranjan Saujani, acting chair of Navrang, said: "We are honoured to be shortlisted for such a prestigious award.

"It's a great way to acknowledge the hard work the team have put in to creating, developing and delivering a truly special exhibition."

Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.
Supporters of a far-right Islamic party in Pakistan call for the execution of a woman accused of blasphemy in Lahore, Pakistan, on April 17. (K.M. Chaudary / Associated Press)

To the editor: Columnist Nicholas Goldberg says it's wrong to insult religious beliefs, even though he correctly insists that there should be no legal consequences for doing so. Polite standards should not exempt religious beliefs from critical examination, doubt and ridicule.

We don't believe that criticizing economic theories should be socially disfavored. There is no reason to elevate belief systems about how the universe is put together to a higher level of protection from offensive comments. We don't think that good manners are abandoned when capitalists ridicule socialism or when socialists ridicule capitalism.

Society needs a robust debate about whether our existence is a natural occurrence or whether there is a supernatural basis for reality. To legally allow insulting religious beliefs, but formally disapprove of it, continues to provide undeserved deference to such beliefs.

Religious advocates should have to defend their ideas on a level playing field.

Edward Tabash, Los Angeles

The writer chairs the board of directors of the Center for Inquiry.

..

To the editor: I always appreciate Goldberg's columns, and the subject of blasphemy laws is a very important one. He is also speaking of free speech, and at the end he is correct in warning us of MAGA Republican efforts at censorship.

But he's off when he says that "Jesus was tried and condemned for blasphemy." Not really. Blasphemy may have been a pretext, but the murderers were an unholy cabal of Roman occupiers and their Temple Quislings. (Christian nationalism, anyone?)

In the original Greek text, these people executed Jesus as a "lestes," as were the two who were crucified beside him. "Thieves" is a misguiding translation. The standard New Testament dictionary gives "robber, highwayman, bandit," not a simple pickpocket or purse snatcher.

A lestes was an opponent of Rome's imperialism  someone "woke" to the dangers of plutocracy, oligarchy, kleptocracy, theocracy and the thieves of free speech.

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Tim Vivian, Bakersfield

The writer is a professor emeritus of religious studies at Cal State Bakersfield.

..

To the editor: Goldberg states that "it's offensive to deny, denigrate or mock people's gods or prophets, beliefs or rituals."

If a religion suggests that the followers have any rights over a dissenter, that is precisely why that religion must be denigrated and denied.

Jon Hartmann, Los Angeles

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
More than a week after LGBTQ+ students were crowned prom king and queen of their Ohio high school, their coronation continues to be a topic of discussion.

Rosie Green and Daisean Conley, who according to the Dayton Daily News are gender fluid 18-year-olds, were crowned during the Kettering Fairmont High School prom Saturday, April 22. Green was named king and Conley won the title of queen.

The LGBTQ really took over last night, Conley said in a Facebook post April 23. Is it really an iconic moment if there isnt a group of haters?

Thank you to everyone who supported me in any way, Green said in an Instagram post. I love you all and cannot believe tonight was real.

Conley and Green had both petitioned at their school to try to win the honor. Green even had an Instagram page  @rosiegreen4King  devoted to their prom king prospects.

Their fellow students voted for Green and Conley, but that did not stop the outpouring of anger.

Even when I was given the crown and I put (it) on my head, theres a lot of boos in the crowd, Conley told WDTN. I didnt hear them. I only heard the congratulating, which I was very thankful for.

Their coronation reportedly became a subject during a Kettering Board of Education meeting Tuesday, May 2.

Joe Overholser told the board he believes Conley should have won the king title and Green be named queen, according to the Daily News.

Im concerned about whats going on in the schools, he added. Im concerned about normalizing the idea of questioning gender.

At least one other Kettering resident also expressed their opposition of the selection, the Daily News reported. But the board does not plan on taking any action, according to WDTN.

Despite some people contesting the honors, Green and Conley were met with support during the board meeting.

A Love is Louder gathering was held outside the school board meeting.

Story continues

Show the kids that love is louder in response to the hate being shown and attendees planning on voicing that hate at the school board meeting, a Facebook post in advance of the gathering said.

CEO caught on video mocking teen boy who wore dress to Tennessee prom is fired

School supported 13-year-olds gender transition while hiding it from mom, lawsuit says
By Julie Steenhuysen and Deena Beasley

CHICAGO (Reuters) -An experimental Alzheimer's drug developed by Eli Lilly and Co slowed cognitive decline by 35% in a late-stage trial, the company said on Wednesday, providing what experts say is the strongest evidence yet that removing sticky amyloid plaques from the brain benefits patients with the fatal disease.

Lilly's drug, donanemab, met all goals of the trial, the company said. It slowed progression of Alzheimer's by 35% compared to a placebo in 1,182 people with early-stage disease whose brains had deposits of two key Alzheimer's proteins, beta amyloid as well as intermediate levels of tau, a protein linked with disease progression and brain cell death.

The study also evaluated the drug in 552 patients with high levels of tau and found that when both groups were combined, donanemab slowed progression by 29% based on a commonly used scale of dementia progression known as the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR-SB).

Using that scale, experts said Lilly's findings were roughly on par with Eisai Co Ltd and Biogen Inc's lecanemab, sold under the brand name Leqembi, which reduced cognitive decline by 27% in patients with early Alzheimer's in a study published last year.

The results drove Lilly's shares to a record high, up more than 6% at $429.85.

Dr. Ronald Petersen, an Alzheimer's researcher at Mayo Clinic, said Lilly's trial is the third to show removing amyloid from the brain slows progression of the disease, which could put to rest some lingering doubts about the benefits of drugs in the class and the amyloid-lowering theory.

"It's modest, but I think it's real," he said of the benefit, "and I think it's clinically meaningful."

Dr. Erik Musiek, a Washington University neurologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, said the efficacy looks as good or better than lecanemab.

"The evidence is really starting to build up that these drugs do work," he said.

Story continues

Musiek said the findings also offer some of the first evidence for the benefit of earlier treatment. "It really does suggest that you need to remove these plaques early, before the tau really gets going," he said.

'RISK THAT NEEDS TO BE CONSIDERED'

In the donanemab treatment group, Lilly said brain swelling, a known side effect of drugs of this type, occurred in 24% of participants, with 6.1% experiencing symptoms. Brain bleeding occurred in 31.4% of the donanemab group and 13.6% of the placebo group.

In the Leqembi Phase 3 trial, the drug was associated with brain swelling in nearly 13% of its study participants.

Lilly said the incidence of serious brain swelling in the donanemab study was 1.6%, including two deaths attributed to the condition, and a third, after an incident of serious brain swelling.

A research note by SVB Securities analyst David Risinger was headlined: "Donanemab Succeeds, But Safety Remains a Concern".

"Clearly, one saw benefits here, but there is some risk that needs to be considered," said Dr. Eric Reiman, executive director of the Banner Alzheimer's Institute, which is running a study of donanemab in presymptomatic patients.

Lilly said it plans to file for traditional U.S. approval by the end of June, and with regulators from other countries shortly thereafter. A company spokesman said a U.S. approval decision should come by year-end or early 2024.

Alzheimer's experts said they were eager to see full results of the study, including data on how the drug performs in people who carry an Alzheimer's risk gene known as APOE4, who have been prone to increased risk of side effects in prior trials.

Those results are set to be presented at an Alzheimer's meeting in Amsterdam this summer.

Study participants received a monthly intravenous infusion of donanemab. At 12 months, half had no evidence of amyloid plaques, the company said.

It also said 47% of donanemab patients in the 18-month trial had no disease progression at 12 months, compared with 29% of the placebo group.

Lilly's drug is poised to become the third in its class on the market following U.S. approval of two similar medicines developed by partners Eisai and Biogen - Leqembi as well as Aduhelm, which failed to gain traction with doctors or insurers after showing little evidence that it slowed cognitive decline.

Both were approved under the FDA's accelerated review program, based on their ability to remove amyloid plaques.

Leqembi is currently undergoing the FDA's standard reviewprocess, with a decision due by July 6.

Lilly is still working on finalizing the price for donanemab, and plans for it to be in the same range as other similar therapies, CEO David Ricks told CNBC.

More than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's,and that number is projected to rise to nearly 13 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Deena Beasley in Los Angeles, additional reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
This is a breaking news story. Check back to idahostatesman.com for updates.

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The criminal trial of Lori Vallow Daybell, a 49-year-old Rexburg mother accused of killing two of her children, took an emotional and unexpected turn Wednesday morning.

Audrey Barattiero, Daybells former friend, said in her testimony that Vallow Daybell told her shed take her life and cut her up.

She threatened to kill me, Barattiero said.

Lori Daybell, and her husband, Chad Daybell, are charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua Jaxon JJ Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan.

To be convicted of the first-degree murder charges, the jury will need to conclude that they killed, encouraged or commanded someone else to kill Vallow Daybells children.

She said to me, Youre so naive and too trusting, Barattiero said, recalling a 2019 conversation. Youre like a little child, you believe anything.

Barattiero alleged that Lori Daybell told her that she wasnt in the right head space to kill her, but that shed get there.

Jim Archibald, an attorney for the defense, aggressively questioned Barattiero on why she didnt mention the threat during previous hearings under oath.

I was scared, Barattiero responded.

You want the jury to believe that you didnt make this last crap up? Archibald pressed.

I did not, Barattiero said.

The prosecution objected to Archibalds line of questioning several times, saying that it was argumentative. But 7th District Judge Steven Boyce allowed the questions.

The Daybells are also accused of conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of the two children and Tammy Daybell, Chad Daybells former wife.

Chad and Lori Daybell  who had a months-long affair  got married on a Hawaii beach two weeks after Tammy Daybells body was buried in a Utah cemetery, according to witnesses throughout the trial.

READ MORE: Lori Vallow Daybells case spans 3 states, 4 deaths. Here are all the key people involved.

Story continues

Lori Vallow Daybells trial, in the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, began early April and could last another three weeks. Chad Daybell  who is also charged with first-degree murder in Tammy Daybells death  has a hearing scheduled Thursday.

Authorities said they believe Vallow Daybells brother Alex Cox also conspired to kill JJ, Tylee and Tammy Daybell, according to the indictment filed by prosecution teams from Madison and Fremont counties.

Cox died of natural causes in 2019. Vallow Daybell also faces a felony charge for allegedly conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, with her brother.

3:30 p.m.  Chad Daybell hearing

Chad Daybell is scheduled to appear via Zoom for a hearing at 3:45 p.m. Thursday at the Ada County Courthouse, according to a notice of hearing.

Seventh District Judge Steven Boyce said Wednesday afternoon that Vallow Daybells trial would wrap up at around 3:10 Thursday because of the hearing. The hearing is open to the public, but it will not be live-streamed in the courts overflow room, according to Ada Countys website.

3:10 p.m.  Husband of Lori Daybells niece recorded conversations for police

Ian Pawlowski, the husband of Vallow Daybells niece Melani Pawlowski, was called to the witness stand. He briefly talked about the Daybells fringe religious beliefs  Melani Pawlowski believed  and said that by November 2019 he no longer believed them.

The point where it really turned for me was the morning after my marriage to Melani, Ian Pawlowski said. Melani dumped everything on me and shared everything.

He didnt specifically state what his wife had told him but he said that he had concerns about the safety of his children, himself, and his ex-wife after hearing what Melani Pawlowski told him.

Less than a week later, in early December Ian Pawlowski approached law enforcement with his concerns. He said the police asked him to listen and observe the Daybell and also requested that he record conversations.

Ian Pawlowski clarified, when asked by the prosecution, that the recordings are about the Daybells religious beliefs and neither Chad or Lori Vallow Daybell confess to a crime.

After roughly 20 minutes of testimony, the prosecution was done with its questions and allowed the defense to begin its cross-examination. The prosecution did not admit the recordings made by Ian Pawlowski.

The court will begin at 8:30 a.m. Thursday and the defense is expected to request evidence  like the recordings  be admitted during their cross-examination.

3 p.m.  Husband of Vallow Daybells niece allowed to testify

Ian Pawlowski was called to the witness stand  without the jury present  to answer some questions about whether hes listened to or heard any evidence from the trial. Archibald asked whether Ian Pawlowski heard Melani tell someone, The nail is already in Loris coffin. Ian Pawlowski said he didnt hear her say that or anything similar to that.

Ian Pawlowskis attorney, Garrett Smith, was present in the courtroom. Smith is representing the Pawlowskis along with Vallow Daybells former friend, Zulema Pastenes.

This is just a complicated matter, and Id feel better with an attorney present, Ian Pawlowski said when asked by Archibald why his attorney was in court.

Ian Pawlowski told both the defense and the prosecution that he hasnt listened to or read any testimony from throughout the jury trial, and Boyce allowed Ian Pawlowski to testify.

2:20 p.m.  Vallow Daybells niece Melani Pawlowski listened to testimony, defense attorney says

Jim Archibald, an attorney for the defense, said Melani Pawlowski listened to witness testimony and read news articles about the trial  which shes prohibited from doing.

Thomas expressed concern about Melani Pawlowskis husband, Ian Pawlowski, testifying. But the prosecution argued there is absolutely no indication Ian Pawlowski listened to testimony, and to assume that he has because of his wife is a stretch.

Seventh District Judge Steven Boyce said hed allow the prosecution to call Ian Pawlowski to the witness stand and ask him a few questions  without the jury present  to decide if he can testify.

The prosecution said they might also call Melani Pawlowski as a witness during the trial but, it will take up any concerns about that at a later date.

1:20 p.m.  Police didnt find bullets at Tammy Daybells home after attempted shooting

The defense began its cross-examination of Fremont County Sheriffs Sgt. Vince Kaaiakamanu.

Vallow Daybells defense attorney John Thomas asked Kaaiakamanu to read a portion of an email  which hadnt been presented by the prosecution  that Tammy Daybell sent her son after an individual attempted to shoot her in October 2019.

Prosecutors have alleged in their indictment that Cox attempted to shoot Tammy Daybell on Oct. 9, 2019  10 days before she died.

In the email, Tammy Daybell said her neighbor had a pretty good theory as to why someone pointed what Tammy Daybell identified as a paintball gun at her. Tammy Daybell in the email said that when she pulled up to her driveway on Oct. 9, 2019, she had startled someone who was trying to help steal her neighbors dog.

Thomas called that portion of the email pertinent, but Kaaiakamanu disagreed. Kaaiakamanu said he didnt find it a credible lead.

Thomas also asked Kaaiakamanu whether an AR-15 could make a whooshing and clicking sound. Tammy Daybell in her email said thats what she heard when the shooter attempted to shoot at her.

Kaaiakamanu said the AR-15 couldnt make both those sounds at the same time. He added that the whooshing sound could occur if someone used a subsonic bullet.

Im not sure if you can buy (the bullet). Usually people make it, Kaaiakamanu said. He said police found some but not all of the equipment someone would need to make the bullet within Coxs belongings.

Kaaiakamanu said police didnt find any subsonic bullets or castings. He also said, when asked by the defense, that police did not find any bullets or markings on the Daybells property.

Thomas asked Kaaiakamanu whether he talked to anyone else who was suspected of pointing the gun at Tammy Daybell. Kaaiakamanu said he didnt.

When you conduct an investigation, do you go where the evidence leads you? Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake asked Kaaiakamanu.

Yes, he responded. He was excused at around 2:05 p.m.

11:30 a.m.  Rexburg detective says gun could be mistaken for a paintball gun

In an email Tammy Daybell sent to her son  which was presented in court  she described the Oct. 9, 2019, attempted shooting, which came 10 days before she died.

There was a guy dressed in black with a ski mask on with a rifle pointing at me, Tammy Daybell said in the email.

She then later clarified in the email that she believed the firearm was a paintball gun because it had a hopper  which is where the paintballs are held.

Kaaiakamanu during his testimony Wednesday said police seized weapons from Vallow Daybells Rexburg apartment that they felt were connected to Tammys shooting. Police believe the firearms located there belonged to her brother, Cox.

The prosecution presented photographs of two of the firearms that were seized by police, but the defense objected and asked the physical guns  which are being held in Ada Countys evidence locker  be presented in court.

There are certain things you cant depict in a photograph, said John Thomas, Vallow Daybells attorney.

Thomas said he felt the prosecution was going to present testimony alleging the firearms were similar to a paintball gun, and he said the jury should be able to see the guns for themselves.

Boyce allowed the prosecution to admit the images of the firearms but told the defense attorneys they could request the guns be brought in physically during cross-examination.

Kaaiakamanu said an AR-15, which was one of the seized firearms, could be mistaken as a paintball gun because it has a larger scope, and someone could mistake it for a hopper. He added that an email address linked to Cox made multiple searches regarding AR-15s.

The prosecution also attempted to enter an image that would have shown an example of a paintball gun, but Boyce didnt allow the image to be admitted. He said it could cause prejudicial confusion.

The court adjourned for a lunch break around noon. About an hour later, the prosecution continued its questioning of Kaaiakamanu.

The bailiffs brought the two firearms  an Alexander Arms Grendel 6.5 and an AR-15  into the courtroom and allowed Kaaiakamanu to physically show the jury aspects of the gun and its similarities to a paintball gun.

In your experience, can a paintball gun resemble an AR-15? Blake asked.

Yes, Kaaiakamanu responded.

9 a.m.  It didnt seem like like a prayer. Former friend testifies about Daybells religious beliefs

Barattiero was the first person called to the witness stand. The Missouri resident said she met Vallow Daybell in November 2018 after she stayed at Vallow Daybells Arizona home following a conference.

Chad Daybell  who also stayed at the Arizona house in November 2018  asked Barattiero to be Vallow Daybells friend because he couldnt talk to her all of the time, she said during her testimony. Barattiero said that she was under the impression Chad Daybell was trying to keep his and Vallow Daybells conversations private because he was still married to Tammy Daybell.

Barattiero also spoke about Chad and Lori Vallow Daybells religious beliefs. The Daybells were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had fringe beliefs that the world was going to end in July 2020. They also believed that people could be possessed by dark spirits, witnesses said in testimony, and that the spirits would need to be cast out.

If a dark spirit were properly cast out then they would die, according to testimony throughout the trial.

Barattiero said she was present when Vallow Daybell and others, including Melaine Gibb and Zulema Pastenes  former friends of the Daybells and members of the Latter-day Saints church  attempted to cast out the dark spirit from Vallow Daybells fourth-husband, Charles Vallow, in the summer of 2019. Charles Vallow was killed by Cox in July 2019.

I joined as well, thinking it was going to be prayer, Barattiero said, describing the casting.

In early October 2019, Barattiero said she was again present when Vallow Daybell and her niece Melani Pawlowski performed a casting on Tammy Daybell. Barattiero said she didnt want to participate in the casting, but that Vallow Daybell pressured her. Instead, Barattiero said, she offered to pray for Tammy Daybell.

Archibald, Vallow Daybells defense attorney, asked Barattiero whether they were praying to Jesus Christ during these castings. Barattiero said it didnt seem like a prayer.

If you thought they were a bunch of weirdos, then youd never want to hang out with them again, Archibald said.

Yes, but I didnt know what to think about it, Barattiero responded. She added that she distanced herself from the Daybells, but Archibald pointed out that Barattiero traveled to Hawaii and Idaho with Vallow Daybell until late 2019.

Archibald asked Barattiero that if she believed Chad Daybells beliefs, then couldnt other women? Barattiero responded, That could be the case.

Vallow Daybells defense team throughout the trial has been trying to note instances of Chad Daybells influence on her.

Like Lori Vallow? Archibald asked.

Yes, Barattiero said.

Barattiero also responded yes when asked the same question about Gibb and Pastenes.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has accused the Government of economic vandalism in a fiery PMQs showdown before Thursdays local elections.

Sir Keir said by the end of this year there would be nearly two million home owners paying the price because of the Tories had crashed the economy last Autumn.

The Prime Minister, in response, said while Labour had failed home owners, the Conservatives were delivering for them.

It comes as the shadow chancellor has accused the prime minister of playing a political gimmick with the investigation into Sue Grays switch to a senior Labour role.

Rachel Reeves told Times Radio that Mr Sunak had a political vandetta against Ms Gray, and he was supposed to be moving on from the era of Boris Johnson.

It was revealed on Tuesday that Ms Gray, the partygate investigator, chose not to take part in the Governmnent probe into her departure from a high-ranking Whitehall position to become Sir Keir Starmers chief of staff.

The investigation has been paused as a result, angering some Tories, but Mr Starmer has insisted that he is confident Ms Gray had not broken any rules.

Key Points

Sue Gray cooperating with normal process, Labour says

09:53 , Miriam Burrell

While Sue Gray has refused to speak to the Government about her role switch, she is fully cooperating with the normal process, Rachel Reeves has said.

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) is a watchdog that investigates new jobs for ex-civil servants.

The shadow chancellor told Times Radio on Wednesday there are two investigations underway.

There is the usual one, the ACOBA process which Sue Gray is cooperating with fully, and then there is the political gimmick one set up by Government ministers to pursue this vendetta they have got against Sue Gray.

Read more here.

Sue Gray (PA Archive)

Protesters plotting for months to disrupt coronation

10:00 , Miriam Burrell

Story continues

Protesters have been plotting for months to disrupt the Kings coronation, security minister Tom Tugendhat suggested on Wednesday.

He emphasised that some of the threats came from overseas.

He said that the coronation and Buckingham Palace were safe, as one of the biggest security operations ever seen in Britain was being put in place.

It comes after a man was arrested outside Buckingham Palace on Tuesday night after suspected shotgun cartridges were thorughn into the Palace grounds.

Read more about security plans here.

Labour blames Tories after dropping tuition fee pledge

10:10 , Miriam Burrell

Labour dropped its promise to ditch tuition fees because the Tories have crashed the economy, Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed on Wednesday.

She told ITVs Good Morning Britain: The Tories have crashed the economy, they have brought public services to their knees and that does mean that we need to look again at what we can afford and what our priorities will be if we have the privilege to form the next government.

Read more here.

Rachel Reeves with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (PA Wire)

London Tory MP to stand down at next election

10:34 , Miriam Burrell

Matthew Offord has announced he will not fight the next general election, saying his time in office has required great sacrifices in my personal and professional lives.

He has been the MP for Hendon since 2010 and is the first London Tory to confirm they will step down before Britain heads to the polls again next year.

London expected to see a raft of new MPs at the next election.

The capital is due to gain two new constituencies in boundary changes and veteran Labour MPs Harriet Harman, Dame Margaret Hodge and Jon Cruddas are also due to retire.

Read more here.

Matthew Offord with Justine Greening (Nigel Howard/ ES)

Sunak vows to bring more fraudsters to justice in new strategy

10:43 , Miriam Burrell

A new fraud strategy announced by the Government on Wednesday will include banning cold calls on all financial products, such as those relating to insurance or sham cryptocurrency schemes.

Banks will also be allowed to delay payments from being processed for longer to allow for suspect payments to be investigated.

1/ Today, were launching a new plan to stop scams at the source and help make it easier for people to protect themselves from fraudsters.



Click to see what were doing   Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) May 3, 2023

SNP signs new contract with auditor

10:53 , Miriam Burrell

The SNP has signed a contract with a new auditor more than six months after the previous company quit, it is being reported.

First Minister Humza Yousaf said AMS Accountants Group will complete the work for the publication of the partys accounts, according to Sky News.

The party has been without auditors for its accounts since October, when the Westminster group left with just weeks to file with the Electoral Commission or risk losing 1.2 million in funding from UK Parliament to support their work.

Read more here.

First Minister Humza Yousaf (PA Wire)

Give Government power to overturn ULEZ, Tory MP says

11:26 , Miriam Burrell

A new law that could give the Government the power to overturn the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion to Greater London is to be raised in Parliament.

Plans that would allow Transport Secretary Mark Harper to veto decisions by the London Mayor Sadiq Khan will be proposed by Theresa Villiers on Wednesday.

Read more here.

(PA Wire)

Pictured: Rishi Sunak leaves No10

11:42 , Miriam Burrell

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is heading to the House of Commons ahead of PMQs at midday.

(PA)

Sunak sends best wishes to King and Queen

12:03

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has sent best wishes to the King and Queen Consort ahead of the coronation on Saturday, as PMQs gets underway.

Rishi Sunak sends best wishes to King and Queen Consort

12:03 , Miriam Burrell

The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sends best wishes to the King and Queen Consort ahead of the coronation on Saturday, as PMQs gets underway.

Starmer and Sunak clash over mortgage rates

12:06 , Miriam Burrell

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has asked if Rishi Sunak knew how many people are paying higher mortgage rates since the Tories crashed the economy last year.

He claimed it was 850,000 people, when Mr Sunak dodged the question.

The Prime Minister said last year the largest number of people bought their first home in 30 years.

Starmer says 950,000 people paying more on their mortgage

12:10 , Miriam Burrell

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said 930,000 people this year are paying more on their mortgage, and the average deposit is going up by 9,000.

He said it would take four years for the average saver to save that. He accused the Government of kicking them when theyre down.

Rishi Sunak said there have been twice the number of homeowners under the Government.

Just build some houses, Starmer tells PM

12:12 , Miriam Burrell

Sir Keir Starmer said the Prime Minister needs to just build some houses instead of blaming other people for the housing crisis.

Hitting back, Rishi Sunak said in London the former Tory Mayor built 60,000 new homes - but Labour only managed half of that.

Coronation will be new chapter in our history, Starmer says

12:14 , Miriam Burrell

300 million people are expected to tune in to the coronation, Sir Keir Starmer said, calling it a new chapter in our history.

The Labour leader said it will be a chance to reflect on Queen Elizabeth IIs reign.

Rishi Sunak said the coronation will be a very special moment.

Rishi Sunak focuses on local elections

12:16 , Miriam Burrell

Rishi Sunak has used PMQs to bump the Tory image ahead of local elections on Thursday.

He urged voters to vote Conservatives.

PM asked about Labours tuition fee pledge U-turn

12:18 , Miriam Burrell

SNP MP Stephen Flynn asked the Prime Minister about Labour scrapping its pledge to scrap tuition fees.

He said Westminster political parties dont offer young people any hope at all, do they?

Rishi Sunak said: If youre from a disadvantaged background, youre far more likely to go to university in England than Scotland.

PM asked to create Sudanese family visa scheme

12:20 , Miriam Burrell

The Prime Minister was asked to instate a Sudanese family visa sceheme by Brighton MP Caroline Lucas.

But Rishi Sunak said the Governments ability to do that is absolutely hampered by Channel small boat crossings.

Christmas market in Lincoln to go after 40 years

12:24 , Miriam Burrell

Rishi Sunak said he shares disappointement with MP Karl McCartney that there will no longer be a Christmas market in Lincoln, for the first time in 40 years, thanks to a decision made by the Labour-run council, behind closed doors.

The Prime Minister said constituents deserved better and urged them to vote Conservative in the local elections on Thursday.

Prime Minister told of decay of denistry'

12:26 , Miriam Burrell

MP Mary Kelly said a constituent of hers discovered a tumor in their face that required 16 hours of surgery through private care.

She said a decay of dentistry has happened under the Governments watch and urged the Prime Minister meets with Dental association.

Rishi Sunak said there has been a reform of the industry and vowed changes were coming soon.

Schools have become fourth emergency service, MP says

12:29 , Miriam Burrell

MP Holly Lynch said schools are having to become the fourth emergency service for families amid the cost of living crisis.

Rishi Sunak said familieswill see half of their energy bills paid by the Government, and additional funding for those on welfare.

People in particular need should talk to their local councils, he urged.

Prime Minister urged to compesate '1950s women

12:33 , Miriam Burrell

MP Rebecca Long Bailey said the womens pension age was increased without their knowledge in the 1950s and people gave up work without realising.

She asked the prime minister to commit to a !fair and fast payment of compensation to 1950s women for the injustice they suffered.

Rishi Sunak said there is an ongoing process that he cant comment on but the Government would respond appropiately.

Starmer: 9,000 house deposit increase is cost of Sunaks pool heating bill

12:44 , Miriam Burrell

Prime Ministers Questions has now wrapped up.

Earlier, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that the average house deposit for a first-time buyer is increasing by 9,000.

Does he even know how long it would take an average saver to put that sort of money aside? he asked Rishi Sunak.

9,000 would take four years roughly the annual bill to heat his swimming pool, but for most people, four more years of scrimping is a hammer blow to their ambitions.

The Prime Minister replied: Thats why weve introduced a 95 per cent mortgage guarantee scheme, its why were helping people in social housing own their own home through our first homes and our shared home ownership schemes.

Tory councillors dont want to build houses - Starmer

13:02 , Lydia Chantler-Hicks

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Conservative councillors simply dont want to build the houses local people need.

He told the Commons: The only power hes given to local communities  not to build houses, and we know why he wont change course, he admitted it last month.

His councillors simply dont want to build the houses local people need, so hes given them a way out.

Sir Keir added: Why doesnt he stop the excuses, stop blaming everyone else, and just build some houses instead?

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: Our memories arent that short. We all know what happened last time when they were in power, there was no money left for the country.

He criticised Labours record on housebuilding, saying: In London, the former Conservative mayor built 60,000 affordable homes in his first five years in office, how many do the current Labour mayor manage  half of that.

In Wales, we need 12,000 new homes a year, how many have Labour built in the last year? Half of that. Labour talk and the Conservatives deliver.

Sunak says local elections will mark an important day ahead of Coronation

13:09 , Lydia Chantler-Hicks

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told PMQs: Were all looking very much forward to the coronation, it will be a very special moment in the history of our country, and I know that we will join with the country in celebrating it.

But before we get to the coronation weekend, we have an important day tomorrow, and the choice before the country is clear. When they go to that ballot box they can see a party that stands for higher council tax, higher crime, and a litany of broken promises.

Meanwhile, were getting on with delivering what we say, with lower council tax, lower crime and fewer potholes.

Rishi Sunak: It is obviously disappointing Sue Gray chose not to cooperate with probe

13:17 , Lydia Chantler-Hicks

The refusal of partygate investigator Sue Gray to co-operate with a Government probe into her move to a senior Labour role is obviously disappointing, Downing Street has said.

Rishi Sunaks press secretary told reporters in Westminster: The Prime Minister is not obviously involved in this process, but it is obviously disappointing that Sue Gray was offered to co-operate and has chosen not to do so.

I think what is more disappointing is that Keir Starmer is in a position where he could clear up very quickly when contact was made by his office, or by him, to Sue Gray, to uphold the integrity of the Civil Service and ensure that it is transparent and open.

Asked about Labours claim that the Government is pursuing a vendetta against the former senior official, the press secretary said: No, I dont think that is the case at all.

She also said she did not recognise at all reports that Ms Gray declined to engage with the process as it was on shaky legal ground.

Live coverage ends

14:48 , Lydia Chantler-Hicks

Thats all from our politics live blog for today. Thank you for following along.

For more in-depth coverage of all the latest politics news, visit the Evening Standards website.
Longtime locally owned Central Valley radio station The Vine, known for playing the nostalgic hits of yesteryear, has been sold and stopped broadcasting.

Late last month, the independent station, part of Modesto-based Threshold Communications, announced the sale of KVIN 920 AM, known as The Vine, to a Punjabi broadcaster out of the Bay Area. Since the 1990s, local radio stalwarts The Vine and The River both have broadcast out of Thresholds Emerald Avenue studio headquarters.

Co-owners Jim Bryan and Doug Wulff, Modesto-based business partners in various radio projects since the early 1980s, remain owners of The River, a popular independent classic hits station. But as of this week, sister station The Vine has switched to Punjabi-language content.

The Vine was launched by Bryan and Wulff in 1997, when they bought the station then known as KCDR La Bonita, a Spanish-language music broadcaster. The station started on 1390 AM, and then in 2002 moved to 920 AM. For the past decade, it also has simulcast across Stanislaus County on 92.3 FM and for the past four years on 107.1 FM in San Joaquin County.

The sale came after about three years of interest from Punjabi American Media, Bryan said. The new owners now control 920 AM, 92.3 FM and 107.1 FM on the dial and have been making the transition to on-air Punjabi programming this week.

Its never easy to make this kind of decision, Bryan said of The Vine sale. We never put (the station) up for sale, but (Punjabi American Media) kept calling. Eventually, we just decided that AM radio stations arent worth as much as they used to be. So with values going down, we thought we should sell.

The duo will continue to operate The River, KRVR 105.5 FM which theyve run since its Modesto launch in 1994. That station started its life as the Valleys premier smooth jazz station and in 2006 was named Smooth Jazz Station of The Year award by the industry publication Radio & Records.

But a few years later, around 2009, The River changed its format to classic hits and started focusing on songs from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, which the station still plays today. The company has a staff of about seven, including full-time and part-time workers. Bryan and Wulff, now in their 60s, both still work at the studio daily and DJ on separate weekend days as well as serving as the music, programming, operations and general managers of the station.

Story continues

Bryan said fans of The River shouldnt expect any on-air changes to the station. It remains one of the only independently owned commercial music stations in the region.

The majority of the Valleys most well-known radio properties are split between the two of the largest national radio corporations. Cumulus Media operates Kat Country 103.3 FM, KWIN 97.7/98.3 FM, KHOP 95.1 FM, The Hawk 104.1 FM and more, while iHeartMedia owns Sunny 102.3 FM, Rock 96.7 FM, The Big Dog 92.9 FM and others.

The deal to sell The Vine has been in the works since November. Last week, the radio station posted farewells to its listeners on its website and social media accounts, announcing the sale and change in format.

Bryan said they had hoped to sell to a new owner who would continue the oldies format, playing the hits and standards from the 1950s and 60s. The Vine has been the Graffiti Summer station for several years thanks to its roster of songs from the classic car era. Bryan said he wishes he could have found a local buyer who would keep the music going, but health issues and their advancing age meant it was the time to sell.

Also, while they have no immediate plans to sell The River, the radio partners said that down the road, they would be open to local inquiries for that station as well.

Its meant everything to own (these stations). Doug and I always dreamed of having our own stations one day, Bryan said. This was our dream. Weve really enjoyed it here and found success in Modesto and are were so thankful for that. We appreciate (the audience) so much, theyve been wonderful.
Tony Blakeslee/East Idaho News via AP

A former friend of Lori Vallow broke down on the stand Wednesday as she recounted how the Doomsday mom terrifyingly threatened to cut and kill herand then bury her body in a place nobody would ever find her.

She said she would cut me up and wasnt in the mental place to do it but would get herself in a place to do it, Audrey Barattiero, 34, tearfully told Ada County jurors, according to East Idaho News. There would be blood and bleach and something about trash bags. She would bury me in a place nobody would ever find me.

The harrowing October 2019 conversation came just one month after prosecutors say that Vallow and Chad Daybell killed her two children and buried their bodies in the apocalyptic authors backyard. Then, around the time that Vallow threatened her friend who she met through the Mormon church, prosecutors say the religious fanatic couple conspired to kill Daybells first wife, Tammy, for an insurance payout.

Lori Vallows Hair Found on Tape Used to Wrap Dead Sons Body, Expert Says

Barattiero, who had also been friends with Daybell, said on the stand that she did not yet know about the grisly string of murders when she was chatting with Vallow at her house in 2019. She said that she asked Vallow if something weird was going on with her that she didnt know about.

Dodging the question, Barattiero said, Vallow started laughinglike if you were laughing at someone before berating her friend.

Youre so naive and too trusting. Youre like a little child. You think the world is all unicorns and rainbows. You go around helping people and serving them, Vallow allegedly told her friend, according to Barattiero. Well, Ive got news for you. Not everyone is a good person and not everyone can be so kind.

The chilling threat was revealed to jurors after weeks of testimony in Vallows murder trial, where she faces several charges and a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors allege that Vallow and Daybells crimes were fueled by their devotion to a renegade branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Story continues

Barattiero said she first met Vallow in November 2018 at a religious conference, where Daybell was also present. She said that Vallow and Daybell had a vibe despite being married to other people at the time. Months later, Barattiero said, Daybell called to ask her to be Vallows friend.

He asked me to be her friend and that she needed a friend. He said that he couldnt talk to her all the time and that maybe I could be someone to uplift or be a friend, Barattiero said about the February 2019 conversation. I said OK.

The friendship, which she said consisted of talking to each other on the phone every few weeks about spiritual things, took a turn after Vallow started to preach about more eccentric topicslike zombies.

Barattiero said that while Vallows outlandish beliefs made her uncomfortable, she did not voice her concerns and continued their friendship. Eventually, she said, she ended the friendship in October 2019 after Vallows outburst.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Week six of doomsday cult mom Lori Vallows trial is soon to get underway at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, where the mother-of-three is accused of killing her two youngest children and her new husband Chad Daybells first wife.

The 49-year-old is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, and grand theft over the deaths of her daughter Tylee Ryan, 16, son Joshua JJ Vallow, 7, and Mr Daybells wife Tammy, 49.

Tylee and JJ were last seen alive in September 2019. In June 2020, their remains were found buried on the Daybell property. Tammy died one month after their disappearance in October 2019.

Fridays testimony included a detailed look at text messages between Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell that spanned their affair, referred to their spouses and children as obstacles, and grew increasingly romantic following her husbands death as she ignored his sons pleas for more information.

Meanwhile, the court is eyeing June 2024 as a possible start date for Mr Daybells trial.

Key points

Lori Vallow ignored stepsons pleas as she exchanged romantic texts with Chad Daybell

14:31 , Oliver O'Connell

Week five of Lori Vallows murder trial concluded on Friday with a detailed look at text messages between the doomsday cult mom and Chad Daybell in the days after her husband Charles Vallow was killed by her brother.

As the two sent romantic messages to each other, Mr Vallows sons Zach and Cole pleaded with their stepmother to be told the basic details of how their father had died after she had nonchalantly informed them of his passing in a text.

Story continues

Read more...

Lori Vallow trial hears romantic texts from Chad Daybell days after husbands death

Read the love story Chad Daybell wrote for Lori Vallow

13:30 , Oliver O'Connell

1/3 The loinfire love story is being read in court by Agent Hart [READ FULL ROMANCE TEXT HERE] #LoinFire #LoriVallow #LoriVallowDaybell #loridaybelltrial pic.twitter.com/dWu0FZyM1M  Hidden True Crime (@HiddenTrueCrime) May 5, 2023

All the key revelations from Lori Vallows murder trial so far

13:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Rachel Sharp has diligently catalogued all of the key moments in the first five weeks of the case against the doomsday cult mom:

Cult beliefs and charred remains: Key revelations from Lori Vallows murder trial

Lori Vallows friend says she threatened to cut up and bury her

12:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Lori Vallow threatened to kill her friend, cut her up and then bury her remains in a place nobody would ever find one month after her two children disappeared, according to bombshell testimony at the doomsday cult moms murder trial.

Ms Vallows friend Audrey Barattiero took the stand at Ms Vallows trial in Ada County Courthouse on Wednesday, revealing disturbing details about the alleged threat her former friend once made to her life.

Ms Barattiero testified that  one day in October 2019  she had asked Ms Vallow is there was anything weird going on.

She gave a chilling answer.

Lori Vallows friend Audrey Barattiero says she threatened to kill and bury her

Jury hears autopsy details that show Tammy Daybell was likely restrained during her murder

11:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Tammy Daybell, the late wife of doomsday author Chad Daybell, was likely restrained while she was asphyxiated, the Utah state medical examiner told the jury in the trial of Lori Vallow on Monday.

Read more:

Lori Vallow trial hears Tammy Daybell was likely restrained during her murder

Jury hears Lori Vallows DNA was on duct tape wrapped around son JJs corpse

09:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Lori Vallows hair was found on duct tape wrapped around the corpse of her seven-year-old son, according to new evidence presented at the start of the fifth week of her murder trial.

Read more:

Lori Vallows DNA found on duct tape wrapped around son JJs corpse, jury hears

Chad Daybell claimed Lori Vallow didnt have children as police searched for them

07:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Chad Daybell claimed his new wife Lori Vallow didnt have any children as authorities launched a massive search for her son and daughter that ended with the discovery of their bodies nine months later.

Rachel Sharp has the details.

Chad Daybell claimed Lori Vallow didnt have children as nine-month search launched

JJs horrifying cause of death revealed

04:59 , Oliver O'Connell

Lori Vallows seven-year-old son JJ Vallow had the date rape drug GHB in his system when he was smothered to death with plastic bags around his head, according to harrowing testimony from a pathologist.

Read more:

Lori Vallow trial told JJ had date rape drug GHB in system as cause of death revealed

Everything you need to know about the Lori Vallow Daybell doomsday cult murder trial

02:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Rachel Sharp delves into the deeply disturbing tale of suspected murders, unexplained deaths and apocalyptic cult beliefs about killing zombies which surrounds Lori Vallow and her doomsday author husband Chad Daybell.

What we know about the Lori Vallow Daybell doomsday cult murder trial

Monday 8 May 2023 00:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Chad Daybell says wife Tammy is clearly dead in disturbing 911 call

Sunday 7 May 2023 22:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Chad Daybell made a chilling 911 call saying that his wife Tammy was clearly dead after he had allegedly conspired with Lori Vallow to murder her so they could run off to Hawaii to get married.

Rachel Sharp has the story.

Chad Daybell says wife Tammy is clearly dead in 911 call heard at Lori Vallow trial

Sunday 7 May 2023 20:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Bizarre moments from Lori Vallows murder trial

Sunday 7 May 2023 18:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Beyond the testimony, there have also been some bizarre happenings taking place inside the courtroom as Rachel Sharp reports.

Bizarre moments from Lori Vallows murder trial

Sunday 7 May 2023 16:00 , Oliver O'Connell

All the key players in the case against Lori Vallow

Sunday 7 May 2023 14:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Rachel Sharp profiles all the key players in a case that sprawls across five states and two years.

Who are the key players in Lori Vallows trial?

Who is the doomsday cult mom on trial for her childrens murders?

Sunday 7 May 2023 10:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Lori Vallow is a mother of three, a former game show contestant, a Mrs Texas Beauty Pageant contestant and a cult follower.

But is she also a killer?

Lori Vallow: Who is the cult mom on trial for her childrens murders?

Killer tried to chop up Tylees body as her blood found on pickaxe

Sunday 7 May 2023 06:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Lori Vallows daughters killer tried to chop up her body before burying her burned bones and organs on Chad Daybells property, according to disturbing courtroom testimony.

FBI Agent Douglas Halepaska, a forensic examiner in the firearms and tool marks division, testified at the doomsday cult moms murder trial on Thursday morning about the injuries found on 16-year-old Tylee Ryans skeletal remains.

Read more...

Lori Vallow trial hears how killer tried to chop up Tylees body with pickaxe

Did Lori Vallow accidentally make a key confession about her childrens deaths?

Sunday 7 May 2023 02:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Lori Vallows high-profile trial took an unexpected turn when jurors heard a dramatic jailhouse phone call in which the doomsday cult mom appeared to make a key confession about her childrens murders.

Rachel Sharp has the details.

Did Lori Vallow make a key confession about childrens deaths in a jail call?

Sunday 7 May 2023 00:00 , Oliver O'Connell

You threw Tylee in a pet cemetery like a piece of garbage'

Saturday 6 May 2023 22:00 , Oliver O'Connell

The trial of doomsday cult mom Lori Vallow has been played a devastating jailhouse call in which her sister accused her of throwing her murdered children away like garbage.

An Idaho court heard Summer Shiflet sobbing uncontrollably in audio of a video call she made with her sister as she sat behind bars on 24 June 2020.

Graeme Massie reports.

Vallow trial hears devastating call with sister after discovery of childrens bodies

Saturday 6 May 2023 20:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Lori Vallows chilling internet searches and trove of burner phones revealed

Saturday 6 May 2023 18:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Chilling internet searches have revealed that doomsday cult mom Lori Vallow shopped for life insurance policies for her children two months before they were murdered and buried on her new lover Chad Daybells property.

FBI analyst Nicole Heideman took the stand at Ms Vallows murder trial in Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, on Monday to testify about the shocking discoveries on the 49-year-olds cellphones, email addresses and online search history.

Read more:

Cult mom Lori Vallows chilling internet searches revealed

Saturday 6 May 2023 16:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Saturday 6 May 2023 14:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Lori Vallows cousin reveals haunting fear about childrens murders

You ripped my heart out: Colby Ryans gut wrenching call to mother

Saturday 6 May 2023 10:00 , Oliver O'Connell

On day six of testimony in the trial of cult mom Lori Vallow, the jury heard a recording of a phone call between the defendant and her eldest son from the early months of her incarceration.

Colby Ryan, Ms Vallows son from her second marriage, was called a witness for the prosecution. He is her only surviving child following the murders of daughter Tylee, 16, and adopted son JJ, 7, in September 2019.

In the emotional call between mother and son, Ms Vallow refused to switch on her camera, while Mr Ryan demanded to know whether Jesus had really told her to murder his siblings.

Read more:

Lori Vallow trial hears gut-wrenching prison call with surviving son Colby Ryan

Revealed: Cult mom Lori Vallows chilling response to question about missing daughter

Saturday 6 May 2023 06:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Ms Vallows former friend and former fellow cult acolyte Zulema Pastenes told the court about the ritualistic castings that Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell performed to drive out demons from dark spirits. Testifying under oath for the prosecution, Ms Pastenes opened up about Ms Vallow and Mr Daybells cult beliefs and their rating system of light and dark for how they ranked the spirits of the people around them.

Ms Pastenes recounted a September 2019 visit to Rexburg, where Ms Vallow had moved along with her brother Alex Cox and her children to be closer to Mr Daybell. Ms Pastenes, who dated Cox and later married him just weeks before he died, said that she asked Ms Vallow about Tylee after she didnt see the teen during her visit.

Andrea Blanco reports on what she was told.

Lori Vallows chilling response to question about missing Tylee revealed

Saturday 6 May 2023 04:00 , Oliver O'Connell

ICYMI: Best friends confronts Lori Vallow in secretly recorded call

Saturday 6 May 2023 02:00 , Oliver O'Connell

A phone call between cult mom Lori Vallow and her former best friend was played in court during her ongoing trial for the murders of two of her children. It was the first in a series of calls and video chats included in the states case against Ms Vallow.

Andrea Blanco reports.

Lori Vallow confronted by best friend about JJ lies in secret recording

As his property was searched by police, Chad Daybell called Lori Vallow

Saturday 6 May 2023 00:00 , Oliver O'Connell

A jailhouse phone call captured the moment Chad Daybell warned cult mom Lori Vallow that police were closing in on the day that her childrens remains were discovered buried on his property.

In the call, made on 9 June 2020 and played in court during Ms Vallows high-profile double murder trial on Wednesday, Mr Daybell is heard telling his new wife that law enforcement were on the scene searching his property in Rexburg, Idaho.

Lori Vallow trial hears jailhouse call with Chad Daybell on day bodies found

Brand Boudreauxs painful testimony

Friday 5 May 2023 23:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Cult mom Lori Vallows former nephew-in-law broke down in tears on the witness stand as he testified about the moment he had to identify the remains of her murdered seven-year-old son.

Rachel Sharp reports on the emotional testimony.

Lori Vallows nephew-in-law Brandon Boudreaux breaks down at murder trial

Lori Vallow trial hears horror of her childrens murders

Friday 5 May 2023 22:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Graphic photos shown at cult mom Lori Vallows murder trial revealed how her slain son JJ was still wearing his red pyjamas and a nighttime diaper when his remains were found buried in a shallow grave on Chad Daybells property in Rexburg, Idaho.

The remains of his sister Tylee were found burned beyond recognition in another grave nearby.

Lori Vallows son JJ was found buried in red pyjamas and diaper

Detective reveals alarming items found in Lori Vallows home

Friday 5 May 2023 21:00 , Oliver O'Connell

One of the first detectives investigating the disappearance of cult mom Lori Vallows son and daughter has revealed the alarming items discovered in her home months before the children were found murdered.

Andrea Blanco reports.

Detective reveals alarming items found in Lori Vallows home weeks after murders

ICYMI: How did Tammy Daybell die?

Friday 5 May 2023 20:15 , Oliver O'Connell

The cause of death of Chad Daybells first wife Tammy was finally revealed when cult mom Lori Vallows high-profile murder trial got underway in Idaho.

Rachel Sharp reports.

Lori Vallow trial hears how Chad Daybells first wife Tammy was killed

Read the full romance story Chad Daybell wrote to Lori Vallow

Friday 5 May 2023 19:30 , Oliver O'Connell

1/3 The loinfire love story is being read in court by Agent Hart [READ FULL ROMANCE TEXT HERE] #LoinFire #LoriVallow #LoriVallowDaybell #loridaybelltrial pic.twitter.com/dWu0FZyM1M  Hidden True Crime (@HiddenTrueCrime) May 5, 2023

Court adjourns

Friday 5 May 2023 19:06 , Oliver O'Connell

Court adjourns for the day.

The trial will resume on Monday morning at 8.30am MT.

Friday 5 May 2023 19:02 , Oliver O'Connell

Agent Hart notes there appeared to be no sorrow or remorse about the killing of her husband by her brother.

That seems evident from her indifferent texts with his sons.

The prosecution says this is a good stopping point since the court is recessing early today.

More texts showing Charles Vallow's sons begging Lori for info about their dad's death and funeral plans, but no response from her.

He was our dad and we love him very much. We deserve answers," Cole Vallow writes.



Court adjourns for the day.  Alexandra Duggan (Alex) (@dugganreports) May 5, 2023

Friday 5 May 2023 18:58 , Oliver O'Connell

The next slide shows messages sent the evening of 14 July 2019.

Chad: Hanging in there, but really missing you too! Please find out the name of Mels campout in Utah. I have no intention of going, but I feel it is our avenue to get together, whether she is still here or not.

Lori: Zions family camp. Mel speaks Wednesday night and Dave speaks Thursday night. Shelly M is their main speaker...eye roll.

Chad: Well, that should work for me to get away though. I spoke at it two years ago which is when I first met Mel. What time do you fly out tomorrow?

Chad: My trip to speak at the camp July 24-26 has been approved and is now on the calendar.

More texts from the same day:

Chad: I need so badly to just gently kiss you...for hours.

Chad: It would likely lead to other activities.

Lori: Likely or Luckily?

Chad: It would likely lead to nakedness.

Hart now reads the text messages between Zach and Cole Vallow where they confronted her three days after Charles was killed. They demand answers about what happened to their dad and if JJ is safe. Lori was not responding to Charles' sons, but was busy texting Chad and Melani B.  Nate Eaton (@NateNewsNow) May 5, 2023

It is during this text conversation that Charles Vallows sons are demanding information from Lori about how their father died and any other details. She was not responding as she was busy texting Chad and Melani.

The jury appears to be finding this testimony very powerful.

Friday 5 May 2023 18:54 , Oliver O'Connell

Agent Hart said investigators repeatedly heard that Chad told multiple people his wife Tammy was going to die. These texts in July were three months before her death on 19 October.

Lori responded to the shower text: Morning sunshine. sure. Call me if you get a chance.

Chad and Lori both had multiple names for each other. Chad was called James and Raphael. Lori was called Lily and Elaina.

Agent Hart explains Chad was not physically with Lori when he sent the shower text. She was in Arizona, he was in Idaho

He explains that they often implied they had been with each other when it was not physically possible.

Later on 14 July 2019 Chad texted: I love you so much! You are me greatest desire and my best friend. Now on with the story.

Agent Hart reads portions of a romance story Chad wrote Lori. You can read the full story here.

Friday 5 May 2023 18:43 , Oliver O'Connell

Another text exchange on 13 July has Chad telling Lori that BYU-Idahos graduation is on 23 July and he will have a lot of family in town and staying at the house.

On 14 July he texts Lori:

Good morning my most beautiful Lili. Thanks for joining me in the shower this morning. Wow. Getting ready to leave for my meetings. Does noon your time look like a time we could talk? I love you so immensely that the whole universe knows it. And very soon the people on this little blue globe will know it too.

Friday 5 May 2023 18:38 , Oliver O'Connell

Another text exchange with Chad is shown in which they discuss Aly Bloomer, a friend on Brandon Boudreaux who came to the Boudreaux house to talk with Melani:

Chad: I will check with All Bloomer and husband.

Lori: Good idea.

Chad: Aly Bloomer is 4.1 dark. Her cop husband is 3 dark. I suppose Brandon doesnt know yet about the discovered Charles texts?

Lori then texts Melani: Aly Bloomers husband 3 (dark emoji).

Friday 5 May 2023 18:35 , Oliver O'Connell

The next slide is a text conversation between Lori and Charless sons Zach and Cole Vallow informing them nonchalantly of their fathers sudden death and not explaining how he died (shot by her brother).

You can read the full exchange here at East Idaho News.

These jurors are all writing. One lady looks horrified. #lorivallow@LawCrimeNetwork  Pretty Lies & Alibis (@PrettyLiesAlibi) May 5, 2023

Friday 5 May 2023 18:29 , Oliver O'Connell

Smith asks about the reference to Nephi.

Agent Hart explains Nephi is in the Book of Mormon and he is one of the first prophets mentioned.

I am told I will be like Nephi and you too refers to Nephi being commanded by God to slay Laban.

Laban was in possession of records that Nephi and his family wanted to possess before they left Jerusalem. Nephi was commanded by God to slay Laban to obtain these records, Agent Hart says.

Friday 5 May 2023 18:27 , Oliver O'Connell

The next day she texts Melani.

Lori: Al is here. Charles says he will come over in the morning.

Friday 5 May 2023 18:26 , Oliver O'Connell

The next slide shows a text from Lori to Alex on 9 July.

Lori: Getting sleepy. So Im going to need you to stay close to me for the next couple days. Mel too. She cant go to ti Utah. They are planking [sic] some kind of intervention but want Mel out of the way so Im left alone. I need to come get the stuff at your house tomorrow and secure it. Lots to do. Thank you for standing by me. Its all coming to a head this week. I will be like Nephi I am told. And so will you.

Friday 5 May 2023 18:21 , Oliver O'Connell

There are texts with Melani two days before Charles is murdered.

Lori: They have an elaborate plan Ill call you soon.

Melani: I could take all the babies with and drive? And take our stuff.

Lori: U cant go at all. We both need to stay here to defend ourselves. Its coming to a head! This week will change everything.

Charles Vallow was shot dead by Alex Cox on 11 July 2019.

Agent Hart says he learned from Loris texts that her marriage to Charles had deteriorated.

Friday 5 May 2023 18:18 , Oliver O'Connell

Lori frequently used the phrase still working on it or we are working on things in reference to their belief they were battling zombies and dark forces.

Alex believed what Lori was saying.

Friday 5 May 2023 18:12 , Oliver O'Connell

Agent Hart says Alex and Melani Boudreaux would solicit Lori to find out religious information from Chad. Loris position was right next to Chad Daybell. The two of them were in elevated positions and others would seek their counsel and advice as if related to alleged revelations and visions and so forth.

Friday 5 May 2023 18:11 , Oliver O'Connell

Next is some text messages between Lori and Alex Cox from 20 March 2019.

Lori tells Alex she is finding out some great stuff about him and she was going to the temple to do some sealings.

Alex: Ok. hurry up please.

Lori: Going to check everything with my source tonight to make sure I get this all right but its really good. We can talk about it tomorrow hopefully.

Agent Hart says Chad acted as a religious leader and this is an instance where Lori communicated to her brother regarding things shes learning about him from her source Chad.

Friday 5 May 2023 18:09 , Oliver O'Connell

Agent Hart is presenting a Powerpoint of communications regarding Lori and Chad. Chad is saved in her contacts as Bishop Shumway. They met at the Preparing A People conference on 28 October 2018.

The next slide shows a text exchange between Lori and Audrey Barattiero on 23 January 2019.

Lori: Hi Audrey, this is Lori. I would love to talk with you sometime. Text me or call me. Im excited to be able to talk with you about what we both know.

Audrey: Hi Lori. Guess you talked to Chad. Haha. Did he tell you I have a crazy work schedule? Ill have to play it by ear but I would know until about 9.30pm. The same for tomorrow.

Lori: He did. Thats ok. No pressure. I just think its fun to talk to someone who knows whats really going on :)

Audrey: So what times usually work for you? I usually talk to him on my lunch breaks on Mondays or Tuesday, Sunday afternoons I can talk.

Hart says Chad told Audrey he was going to marry Lori and he wanted Audrey to act as the liaison between him and Lori until Tammy died.

Friday 5 May 2023 17:55 , Oliver O'Connell

There were a number of communications between Alex Cox and Lori Vallow deemed to be pertinent to the investigation and it was clear there was a relationship between Alex Cox and Chad Daybell as well, Agent Hart says.

Those relationships were important because those individuals were ultimately charged with the alleged crimes.

Friday 5 May 2023 17:55 , Oliver O'Connell

Agent Hart also found information relating to finance and says there was communication and direct references to a large life insurance policy possessed by Charles Vallow as well as social security payments to JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.

Friday 5 May 2023 17:54 , Oliver O'Connell

Agent Hart discovered leads in the text messages, such as Lori and Chad saying they wanted to get married and lead a life together.

There were several communications regarding JJ and Tylee that were relevant to their deaths. They discussed their deaths. After the affair began, there began to be communication regarding the deaths of Charles Vallow, Tammy Daybell, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.

Agent Hart says Chad and Lori used the word obstacles to describe JJ, Tylee, Charles and Tammy.

Court resumes after morning break

Friday 5 May 2023 17:46 , Oliver O'Connell

Judge Boyce returns to the bench and the jury is brought back in.

Smith asks Agent Hart about viewing Loris iCloud accounts through Cellebrite, a law enforcement tool for collecting, reviewing, analysing and managing digital data.

Lollytime has far fewer files than Lori4style having only been created in April 2019, while the latter was created in December 2000.

My process was to open up a compartment and examine the data in there. If there was something that was pertinent or relevant, I would make a document of that, Agent Hart explains.

He estimates there were 130,000 to 150,000 records on the accounts.

Agent Hart applied a date filter starting 26 October 2018 (when Chad and Lori met) through to November 2019 on lori4style. There were approximately 4,500 text messages of which Hart read every one. Then he went through each category (voicemail, photos, etc.) and did the same thing.

Friday 5 May 2023 17:06 , Oliver O'Connell

Judge Boyce calls the morning break.
(Photo : Stefani Reynolds / AFP) (STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott passes a bill that would allow non-residents to access the state's assisted suicide program.

Vermont passes legislation allowing non-residents to use assisted suicide program

State Gov. Phil Scott passed the law, making Vermont the first state in the country to allow the program's use for non-residents

A court settlement resulted in Lynda Bluestein becoming the first out-of-state patient to be euthanized in Vermont

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott approved legislation allowing non-residents to utilize the state's assisted suicide program, becoming the first to do so across the United States.

The change to Vermont's medically assisted suicide law comes after Oregon agreed to stop enforcing the residency requirement of its law following a court settlement. However, the change in Vermont is the first to remove the requirement altogether.

Vermont's Assisted Suicide Program Changes

In a statement, the president and CEO of the non-profit Compassion & Choices, Kim Callinan, said they were grateful to lawmakers in Vermont for recognizing that they should not determine if someone dies peacefully or in agony.

She noted that patients commonly travel to other states to get the best healthcare they can receive. Callinan argued that there was no rational explanation for why they should not be able to travel to another state to access medical aid in dying if it is not offered where they live, as per The Daily Beast.

The passage of the bill in Vermont comes after a woman from Connecticut, 75-year-old Lynda Bluestein, reached a court settlement that made her the first out-of-state patient to be euthanized under the region's medical system.

The elderly woman had terminal cancer and wanted to end her life before her natural death, prompting her to launch a legal challenge against Vermon's residency requirement. She argued that it violates the US Constitution's commerce, equal protection, privileges, and immunities clauses.

In a statement following the court settlement, Bluestein said that she was relieved to hear about the decision regarding her case. She said it was so that she could decide the end of her life after cancer had already taken everything she could bear from her.

Read Also: Biden Administration to Deploy Troops to US-Mexico Border

Giving Access to Non-Residents

The 75-year-old added that it was important to have peace of mind in knowing that she will face fewer obstacles in accessing the "autonomy, control, and choice in this private, sacred and very personal decision about the end of my life," according to Fox News.

However, some critics have warned against removing the prohibition on non-residents. University of Massachusetts School of Law professor Dwight Duncan, said that the situation opens up the idea of "death tourism." He argued that traveling to Vermont for tourist attractions differed from going to the state to get assisted suicide.

In March, the executive director of the Vermont Right to Life Committee, Mary Hahn Beerworth, previously testified before a legislative committee. She said the practice "was, and remains, a matter of contention."

Beerworth added that the Vermont Right to Life Committee opposed the underlying concept behind suicide. She noted that it was also opposed to the decision to remove the residency requirement to the state's assisted suicide program, arguing that there are no safeguards to protect vulnerable patients from coercion, said Mass Live.

Related Article: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt Signs Bill Barring Youth Access to Gender-Affirming Care

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Officer Nickolas Wilt, the rookie police officer injured in a mass shooting at a Louisville bank last month is breathing without the assistance of a ventilator and has been moved back to the University of Louisville Hospital.

The Louisville Metro Police Department said in an update posted on Facebook Tuesday night that Officer Wilts lung condition is showing signs of improvement after spending a week and a half at Jewish Hospital

He was moved back to UofL Hospital Tuesday for monitoring by the trauma team in the ICU.

Although hes doing better, he is still working on responding to commands, the post stated.

Wilt is still listed in critical but stable condition, though the pneumonia that led to him being moved to Jewish Hospital last month has become more manageable.

Over the past 24 hours, his oxygen saturation levels have consistently stayed within normal ranges without the assistance of ECMO or a ventilator, the police department said in the post.

We are excited about the recovery and fight being shown by Nick. Continue the prayers and positive thoughts.

Wilt, 26, who has also worked as a firefighter and dispatcher, graduated from the police academy March 31 and was working his fourth shift as a police officer when he was shot in the head while responding to the shooting at Old National Bank on Main Street April 10. Seven other people were injured and six people died, including the shooter, who was shot by responding officers.

Officer critically injured in Louisville bank shooting is now able to open his eyes
A Lowell man who spent more than 30 years in prison for a deadly fire he did not commit was awarded a $13 million wrongful conviction settlement from the city.

Victor Rosario was arrested and convicted in 1983 for setting a fire in a Lowell home that killed eight people after his attorneys say he was at the scene trying to save people from the burning building.

Lowell Police later detained him and used a language barrier to force him to confess to the crime.

In 2014, a Judge exonerated Rosario, finding there was no actual evidence of arson. Rosario then sued the city for wrongfully convicting him.

Tuesday night, the Lowell City Council agreed to pay him $13 million as compensation for his wrongful conviction.

Today, this chapter is ended and a new beginning for me. Nothing can ever compensate for those years taken from me, Rosario said Wednesday.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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Regina Gasco-Bentley, tribal chairperson for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.

PETOSKEY  In April, Tribal Chairman for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians Regina Gasco-Bentley, was appointed to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Gasco-Bentley previously served on the commission and chose to step down when her term ended in December 2022.

I gave my notice that I was done at the end of (2022), Gasco-Bentley said. Then I found out that they had not appointed somebody to my position and I really got to thinking about the things that I would like to complete there. So I decided that maybe I should try and get reappointed there to help finish what I was working on when I left.

One of her biggest priorities on the commission was increasing research into the history of boarding schools and the experiences of the students who attended them.

Gasco-Bentley herself is a survivor of boarding school. Harbor Springs is also home to the former Holy Childhood of Jesus Catholic boarding school, one of the last boarding schools to be closed in the country.

That was ongoing when I left the commission and that was part of the reason I feel I should get back on the commission, because a lot of it has to do with the history up in Northern Michigan with Holy Childhood, Gasco-Bentley said.

More: 'Road to Healing': Little Traverse Bay Bands to host event for boarding school survivors

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During her last term, Gasco-Bentley was one of the commissioners who pushed for meetings to be held around Michigan, as opposed to every meeting taking place in Lansing or Detroit. There will be meetings this year taking place in Marquette and Traverse City.

Gasco-Bentley said the commission believed it needed to expand its reach to the rest of the state and make more people aware of how the commission can help them.

Gasco-Bentleys term began on April 13 and will expire Dec. 31, 2026.

I appreciate the governor for having the faith in me to be able to serve another four years and I hope I can represent our people in a good way.

 Contact reporter Tess Ware at tware@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @Tess_Petoskey.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Little Traverse Bay Bands chairperson back on Civil Rights Commission
The Lukashenko regime in Belarus has sentenced opposition journalist Roman Protasevich, one of the founders of the NEXTA Telegram channel, to eight years in prison.

Source: Belarusian state publication BelTA

Details: Protasevich was charged with conspiracy to seize power after being detained at Minsk airport on the way to Vilnius.

The regime of the self-proclaimed president of Belarus found Protasevich guilty of "organising mass riots, publicly calling for acts of terrorism, leading extremist groups, slandering and defaming the president [Lukashenko - ed.]" and other crimes.

According to the verdict, his property, including a tripod, headphones and camera lenses, remains confiscated.

Two other suspects in the Nexta case, Yan Rudzik and Stsiapan Putsila, have been sentenced to 19 and 20 years in absentia respectively.

Background:

On 23 May 2021, on the instructions of Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus sent a fighter jet to force a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk. Roman Protasevich, the former editor of the opposition telegram channel NEXTA, was on the plane. He and his girlfriend were arrested.

If charged with terrorism, Protasevich could face the death penalty in Belarus.

His detention caused an international outcry.

On 24 May, EU heads of state and government decided to increase the sanctions pressure on self-proclaimed President Lukashenko and ordered a ban on airlines from Belarus using EU airspace for both direct and transit flights. The EU Air Traffic Agency recommended flying around Belarus via the Baltic states.

Belarusian state TV channel ONT aired an "interview" with Protasevich, where he supposedly "admitted his guilt" and said that he "feels great". Human rights activists and Protasevich's family believe that he had been tortured.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday said he was "hopeful" that fellow Democrat Dianne Feinstein, the chamber's oldest member who has been absent since February while receiving treatment for shingles, can return next week.

Feinstein, 89, has not cast a vote since mid-February, effectively reducing her party's narrow majority in the Senate by one to 50-49. Her absence also has complicated the ability of Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to act on President Joe Biden's judicial nominees.

"I talked to Senator Feinstein a few days ago and we're hopeful that she can come back next week," Schumer said at a press conference.

Feinstein, a liberal from California first elected to the Senate in 1992, has said she will not seek re-election in 2024.

She was diagnosed with a shingles virus infection in February and treated at a California hospital. She had said she would continue to work from home in San Francisco while receiving treatment for the shingles infection.

Feinstein, facing calls from some fellow Democrats to resign, said last month she would temporarily step down from the Judiciary Committee. Republicans have blocked Democratic plans to temporarily replace her on the panel.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Will Dunham)
Francisco Oropesa - FBI/Reuters

A man who allegedly killed five of his neighbours after being asked to stop shooting his semi-automatic rifle was found hiding under a pile of laundry after a lengthy manhunt.

Francisco Oropesa was tracked down at a home in Cut and Shoot, Texas, following a tip off to an FBI hotline and a four day search involving 250 officers.

The 38-year-old illegal immigrant now faces five counts of murder that include the killing of a nine-year-old child and four adults.

He is behind bars and will live out his life behind bars, Greg Capers, the Jacinto County Sheriff, told reporters.

US Marshals, US Border Patrols tactical unit and the Texas Department of Public Safety arrested Oropesa at around 6.30pm on Tuesday.

Law enforcement officials work Sunday, April 30, 2023, in the neighborhood where a mass shooting occurred - David J. Phillip/AP Photo

Family members of the victims said they were living a nightmare from which well never wake up.

The arrest will never erase what he did to my family, but at least now we can hope for some justice, Lucia Guzman, one of the victims aunts, said.

The violence erupted when Sonia Guzman called police last Friday to complain that Oropesa was firing an AR-15-style weapon near their home at around 11pm.

Four men in the house then told Oropesa to move further away from their home.

Just moments later, he allegedly walked into their home and fired indiscriminately.

Neighbours gather for a vigil - AP Photo

Questions have been raised about law enforcements response to the crime, including accusations that officers were slow to arrive.

Family members called police on numerous occasions but were told that deputies were already at the scene.

Ramiro Guzman asked dispatchers  Then why is he killing my family now?  as 16 people ran to escape the attack.

Mr Guzman sheltered inside a cupboard with his six-month-old baby and wife.

By the time police arrived on the scene, four people were dead and nine-year-old Daniel Enrique Laso was grievously injured.

He died in an ambulance while en route to hospital.

The other victims were Sonia Guzman, 25, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.

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Oropesa allegedly owned five guns despite being an illegal immigrant. He had been deported from the US four times already, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Others in the neighbourhood also voiced concerns about the way sheriffs deputies had managed previous reports that Oropesa was using a firearm in his yard.

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Police at the scene outside Buckingham Palace after a man was arrested and a subsequent controlled explosion was carried out on May 2, 2023 in London.

Police at the scene outside Buckingham Palace after a man was arrested and a subsequent controlled explosion was carried out on May 2, 2023 in London. Credit - Belinda JiaoGetty Images

As security efforts are being ironed out for King Charles IIIs coronation on May 6, a 59-year-old man has reportedly been arrested outside Buckingham Palace on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon.

The man allegedly threw items believed to be shotgun cartridges onto the palace grounds on Tuesday evening. Officers detained the man around 7 p.m. local time and searched him, finding a knife but no gun in his possession, according to Londons Metropolitan police.

The area was then cordoned off so a controlled explosion of the discarded items could be carried out as a precaution. The incident is not being treated as terror-related and the man is believed to have acted in isolation, the Metropolitan police said.

There have been no reports of any shots fired, or any injuries to officers or members of the public, Chief Superintendent Joseph McDonald said in a statement posted on Twitter. Officers remain at the scene and further enquiries are ongoing.

King Charles and Camilla, Queen Consort, were not in the palace during the time of the arrest but they entertained Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier that day.

The U.K. security minister Tom Tugendhat lauded the efforts as a fantastic piece of policing during a Wednesday radio interview with BBC. He added a huge security operation, known as Operation Golden Orb, is in place to ensure public safety during the coronation.

Tugendhat also told Sky News, Were in no way complacent. And Im very, very proud of the response that the police have done. He added: The intelligence services, the police and others have been working on this extremely effectively for months. He declined to volunteer an estimate of how much these security measures would cost the British taxpayer.

Read More: Heres the Full Schedule for King Charles IIIs Coronationand What to Expect

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These measures will involve the deployment of hundreds of officers across the procession routefrom Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palaceas well as plainclothes officers located in the crowds and snipers in place on rooftops. A no-fly zone will also be implemented in Central London, with drones banned, and barriers will be erected to prevent vehicles from driving into crowds.

Metropolitan police officers are also undertaking unusual preemptive measures to minimize the threat of terror offenses and public disruption, the Times of London reported.

Police and mental health officers are working together to identify anyone who could be a possible threat, including royal obsessives. These individuals will be engaged and monitored by mental health workers.

Additionally, police officers will reportedly visit convicted terrorists and warn them to avoid the public event. They will also use intelligence to monitor disruption from environmental protests groups and make pre-emptive arrests of troublemakers.

Simon Morgan, a former Met personal protection officer told the Times: Senior members of the British royal family, royals across the world, key government figures and heads of state. Theyre all still coming and the policing plan has to reflect that.
Mr Huber with one of his dogs at Crufts in 2014

A 59-year-old man who was arrested outside Buckingham Palace suspected of throwing shotgun cartridges over the gates was an avid hunter and dog breeder from Cumbria, it has emerged.

David Huber is understood to be the person detained in connection with the incident that took place on Tuesday night. Neighbours at his idyllic 500,000 property in Cumbria described him as a good man who had issues.

Neighbours at the remote farmhouse confirmed that Mr Huber had travelled down to London on the day of the incident.

Mr Huber describes himself as an experienced gun dog breeder and trainer of Hungarian Vizslas. On his social media profiles, he claims he has been an avid hunter since he was a small boy.

On the day Elizabeth II died he posted a picture of the late monarch on Facebook and wrote: Its a massive loss to us all.

He lives in a remote stone farmhouse overlooking the Cumbrian fells and is understood to own around 23 Vizslas which he regularly posts about online.

Hes a very good dog man

A group of neighbours, who said they were looking after the dogs while he was away, congregated outside his home on Wednesday afternoon.

One person, who did not wish to be named, said: David is a good man.

Hes a very good dog man but he has his issues. He has problems. Lets just say were not surprised this has happened.

Its not really for us to comment any further. Were shocked theres so much interest in what hes alleged to have done.

We suppose its because of the Coronation.

In a briefing on Wednesday morning, Scotland Yard said it had carried out a controlled explosion on a mans backpack after he told officers it should be handled with care.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said that the man had approached officers asking to see a soldier at around 7.15pm on Tuesday.

When the officers said that was not possible, the man allegedly began throwing shotgun cartridges over the gates of Buckingham Palace.

He was searched and allegedly found to be in possession of a lock knife, and was arrested on suspicion of possessing a knife and ammunition.

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Mr Adelekan said the suspect was detained within seconds and arrested within five minutes.

The suspicious bag that was found held two passports, a phone, wallet, keys, bank cards, a laptop case, a picture of a child, and a large brown letter, according to The Sun.

There was also a copy of the book The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, a Harvard lecturer.

A video circulating on social media shows a man being handcuffed at the railings outside the palace before being walked backwards by three uniformed police officers.

The suspect has now undergone a mental health assessment and has been deemed fit to be interviewed.

Scotland Yard has said the incident is not being treated as terror-related.

It is understood that neither the King nor Queen were in residence at the palace at the time of the incident, which took place in advance of the first full processional timed rehearsal for the Coronation.

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A man has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to a string of car burglaries in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Georgia, federal officials said.

Park rangers started investigating reports of car burglaries after multiple cars were broken into in August and September of last year, according to a May 1 news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The rangers saw that the burglaries followed a pattern  the passenger door locks were picked, and credit and debit cards were taken from inside the cars.

The cards would then be used for large purchases, including jewelry and Apple products, according to the release.

Parks are places where people tend to let their guard down. Their minds enter a safe mode and they become less vigilant when they start their hike or bike ride, Jeston Fisher, chief ranger, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, said in the release.

Rangers said many hikers didnt realize their car had been broken into because they would unlock their cars with a fob as they walked up to it. But, using trail cameras, rangers noticed two cars that were always around when the burglaries took place, according to the release.

On Sept. 10, rangers saw a 24-year-old man crouched between two cars, appearing to be trying to break into one of the vehicles. The man was using a 12-year-old girl as a lookout, officials said.

Officials did not release if the girl was of any relation to the man.

When rangers searched the mans car, they found receipts for large purchases for jewelry and Apple products, as well as burglary tools, according to the release.

National Parks and Recreational Areas serve as refuges for people to relax and enjoy the outdoors without fear of being targeted, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in the release.

The man, a Lawrenceville resident, was charged with felony violations of the Assimilative Crimes Act for possession of burglary tools and attempted car burglary.

He was convicted in December and sentenced on April 25, according to the release.

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He was given one year and a day in prison, and ordered to pay restitution of $802, according to the release.

At sentencing, (our client) accepted responsibility, apologized for his actions, and expressed remorse. He plans to make amends, pay his debt to society, and move forward with his life, attorneys Michael Ross and Joseph Saul, representing the man, said in an email to McClatchy News.

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Manx Radio is funding the three-year trial, which is open to all local stations

Local radio stations on the Isle of Man are trialling Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) for the first time.

Government-subsidised broadcaster Manx Radio is funding the three-year pilot through its commercial revenue streams.

It is set to serve the Douglas, Onchan and central areas better, where they have had limited coverage in the past.

The service has been opened up to the island's two other local stations and while Energy FM has taken up the offer, Three FM has declined to take part.

Manx Radio's managing director Chris Sully said the door remained open to 3FM "to join at any stage, free of charge".

The trial, approved by the Communications and Utilities Regulatory Authority, will cost about 20,000 and Manx Radio hopes the digital service will eventually replace its AM transmitter.

'Substantially less energy'

Mr Sully said DAB used "substantially less energy to transmit in comparison to AM".

He said the sound quality was higher than AM and FM radio, had a more stable sound than internet streaming, and there was "no delay and buffering as with internet streaming".

The increased quality would give people clearer access to sittings of the Manx parliament and the lack of a delay would be beneficial during events like the TT, he added.

While the BBC has operated a national DAB service to the island for a number of years, local radio stations have not been included on it.

Why not follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and Twitter? You can also send story ideas to IsleofMan@bbc.co.uk
(Photo : FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images)

Thursday will mark the start of a new and extended seven-day truce between the warring military factions of Sudan.

South Sudan announced the warring military factions of Sudan have agreed to a one-week cease-fire

The United Nations reports that 100,000 people have fled Sudan for safety

Cairo would provide support for dialogue between rival factions in Sudan

The belligerent factions of Sudan have agreed in principle to a seven-day ceasefire beginning on Thursday, the neighboring country of South Sudan announced.

In a statement released Tuesday by the South Sudanese foreign ministry, which had offered to mediate the conflict, President Salva Kiir emphasized the significance of a longer ceasefire and the appointment of envoys to peace talks, to which both parties had consented.

Sudan's Military Factions Agree to Weeklong Ceasefire

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sudanese army, and General Mohamed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo, the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), reportedly reached a ceasefire agreement on May 4-11, but its integrity was questionable due to the rampant violations that undermined previous 24- to 72-hour agreements.

Both parties have consented to a ceasefire and will not fire unless they are fired upon, or military movements are observed, Aljazeera reported. The war in Sudan has forced 100,000 people to evacuate across its frontiers, and the violence, now in its third week, has created a humanitarian crisis.

As Sudan's neighbors deal with a refugee crisis and violence impedes aid delivery in a country where two-thirds of the population is already dependent on foreign assistance, the conflict risks escalating into a larger catastrophe.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi stated that Cairo would support dialogue between rival factions in Sudan but avoid interfering in their internal affairs.

Despite having consented to a new cease-fire, the commanders of the army and RSF, who had shared authority as part of a transition to free elections and a civilian government supported internationally, have yet to show definitive signs of retreat.

But neither seems capable of achieving a swift victory. This has elevated the possibility of a protracted conflict involving other nations, as per VOA News.

In addition to the 100,000 people who have fled the country, the United Nations migration agency reported in Geneva that at least 334,000 people have been internally displaced in Sudan since deadly combat broke out last month between two military factions.

The new figures were released a day after the UN refugee agency issued a dire forecast that the conflict could force more than 800,000 people to abandon the northeastern African nation.

Raouf Mazou, the deputy director of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, stated on Monday that the agency was preparing for 815,500 Sudanese to evacuate to seven neighboring countries. He stated that 580,000 Sudanese and foreign refugees currently reside in Sudan.

Monday, Filippo Grandi, the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), tweeted that he hoped the agency's planning estimates would prove to be too high but that "if violence does not cease, more people will be compelled to escape Sudan in search of safety."

Meanwhile, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre stated that humanitarian organizations must be granted access to Sudan to assist the people there. UN officials stated that UN aid chief Martin Griffiths planned to visit Sudan on Tuesday, but the exact date and time had yet to be confirmed.

The World Food Programme of the United Nations announced on Monday that it was resuming operations in the safer regions of the country, following a pause during the conflict during which some WFP staff were slain.

The commanders of the army and RSF, who had shared power as part of a transition to free elections and civilian government supported by the international community, showed no sign of backing down. Still, neither appears capable of achieving a fast victory.

This has raised the possibility of a protracted conflict involving foreign powers. In the meantime, the United Kingdom announced on Tuesday that British citizens wishing to flee Sudan should travel to Port Sudan, where additional flights are anticipated to depart the country on May 3.

The United Nations has also been pushing for peace negotiations, and a spokesman for the organization, Farhan Haq, was circumspect regarding South Sudan's statement on Tuesday.

Read Also: 2 Hospitals Face Federal Investigation After Refusing To Provide Life-Saving, Emergency Abortion

Sudan Refugees, Returnees Urge to Flee

According to NY Times, the violence has continued despite previous ceasefires and threatens to destabilize the region. United Nations agencies reported on Tuesday that more than 300,000 people have been internally displaced, in addition to the more than 100,000 who have escaped, primarily to Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic.

Thousands of foreign nationals have fled the country as Western powers evacuated their citizens, while thousands of local families have risked perilous voyages from the capital Khartoum after being abandoned.

With water, food, medication, and electricity shortages heightening the risk of a humanitarian crisis and relief organizations prioritizing the distribution of medical aid to hospitals engulfed in the conflict, many locals remain confined in their homes.

Per CNN, the violence erupted in West Darfur last week, and attacks on civilians in El Geneina continued through Tuesday. Both contending generals, Burhan and Dagalo, have a history in the region, having played important roles in the region's counterinsurgency against insurgents during the 2003 civil war.

Burhan commanded the Sudanese army in Darfur, whereas Dagalo led one of the numerous Arab militias, the Janjaweed, responsible for human rights violations and atrocities.

Food, water, and medical supply shortages exist, and most hospitals are inoperable or damaged. Fuel is only available on the black market, compelling many individuals to forsake their vehicles and flee on foot.

Persons previously displaced by the protracted unresolved conflict in Darfur and refugees from other regional conflicts as far away as Syria and Yemen have been displaced again, some for the second, third, or fourth time, according to Schembri. Several displaced NRC volunteers have also been affected by the conflict.

Since April 20, at least 94 persons have been murdered in the West Darfur city of El Geneina, according to a statement released by the Sudanese Doctors' Union on Tuesday.

Related Article: Israel-Gaza Strikes: Violent Exchange Following Khader Adnan's Death

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Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is deactivating its 4th Recruit Training Battalion  the battalion where all of the countrys female Marine recruits trained for 74 years.

The Marines called the milestone decision a move toward standardized training for both men and women and the final chapter of integrated recruit training.

The Marine Corps is the last remaining branch of the military to integrate its bases, and a 2019 Congressional mandate prohibits gender segregation at its recruit bases after 2025.

Today, about 8 percent of Marine recruits are women and 92 percent are men.

Since 1949 and until recently, Parris Island served as the sole point of entry into the Marine Corps for all enlisted female Marines. Women have trained under units with multiple names with the 4th Recruit Training Battalion created in 1986.

But an all-female battalion is no longer necessary because men and women have been training in gender-integrated companies since 2022, the Marines said.

Gen. David H. Berger, the commandant of the Marine Corps who made the decision, called decommissioning the 4th Battalion a moment to celebrate progress.

Im proud to see our male and female recruits benefit from having access to the quality of all our leaders  at Parris Island and San Diego  through an unchanging, tough, and realistic recruit training curriculum, Berger said.

Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego began training women in 2021.

Some of the personnel serving in the 4th Recruit Training Battalion will move from Parris Island to San Diego, which is scheduled to train about half of the female Marine population by 2024.

It wont be long before there are female drill instructors who, as recruits, graduated alongside their male counterparts, said Sgt. Maj. Troy E. Black, sergeant major of the Marine Corps. They will train recruits and make Marines with that experience.

Recruits with Kilo Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, conduct the confidence course on Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., May 2, 2023. The confidence course consists of multiple obstacles that build a recruits confidence in their training as well as comfortability in stressful environments. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Vincent Needham)

On June 15, the Marines will bid farewell to 4th Battalion in a deactivation ceremony that concludes her glorious tenure, closing the final chapter of integrating recruit training.

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We are forever grateful to the drill Instructors, staff and legions of Marines who so proudly call 4th Battalion home, the Marines said.

Major Philip Kulczewski, a Parris Island spokesman, said the 4th Recruit Training Battalion has sacred meaning to many people.

You think about the impact that battalion had, Kulczewski said. For us as Marines, its a pretty big deal.

Parris Island has methodically integrated all four recruit training battalions over the last three years with men and women now training together, Kulczewski said.

Integration, coupled with a reduction in the female recruit mission at Parris Island and more females being trained in San Diego, required an assessment of training efficiencies resulting in a reduction of training companies from 15 to 13, Kulczewski said.

On March 1, 1949, female Marines began training at Parris Island. The initial training duration for female enlisted Marines was 6 weeks.

In February 1975, a complex specifically for female Marines was completed at Parris Island.

In 1976, the first female Marines graduated from drill instructor school.
James Gunn has ensured that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 will be different every time you watch it.

The director has worked with Marvel to create 600 versions of the new film that will offer a different experience for cinemagoers.

These changes will not consist of any alterations to the story, but have been designed to ensure every exhibitor in the United States and in most international territories has the option to maximise their screen size for the audience.

Disneys vice president of finishing and stereo, Evan Jacobs, told The Hollywood Reporter: So wherever you go to see it, youre gonna see the best version.

Each version has been designed for a different aspect ratio, meaning you may witness more or less action depending where you see the film.

While every Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film comes in hundreds of different aspect ratios, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 has broken the record for the most.

Jacobs said: It wouldve been harder, frankly, to accommodate this kind of creative vision on a different delivery schedule. But we had the time and we were able to make it work.

Reviews are in for the film, and they have been mostly positive. Find The Independents verdict on the film here.
Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

The case of Adnan Syed, which inspired the hit podcast Serial, took another turn on Tuesday when a Maryland appeals court denied a request to reconsider the reinstitution of his conviction and life sentence for murder.

The case involves the 1999 murder of Syeds high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, who was 18 when she was found strangled and buried in a Baltimore park. Syed was 17 at the time.

The case gained worldwide attention in 2014, when its retelling in Serial, a podcast made by the radio producer Sarah Koenig, raised doubts about evidence used.

Last September, a Baltimore judge overturned Syeds murder conviction, ruling that the state violated its legal obligation to share exculpatory evidence with the defense.

Prosecutors also revealed that they had unearthed new evidence pointing to two other suspects. The national spotlight once again shone on Syed, who had spent more than 20 years behind bars.

Related: Fugitive former aide to ex-Maryland governor dies in confrontation with FBI

In March, however, a Maryland court reinstated Syeds conviction and life sentence.

The decision came after Young Lee, Hae Min Lees brother, filed an appeal, arguing that prosecutors violated state law that required them to give victims or their representatives sufficient notice of hearings so they could attend in person. Lee argued that the state gave him just one business days notice before overturning Syeds conviction.

In its ruling, the Maryland appeals court said it had the power and obligation to remedy those violations, as long we can do so without violating Mr Syeds right to be free from double jeopardy.

Syed remains free. But in April his lawyers asked the court to reconsider its decision, arguing that appeals court judges broke from court precedent by failing to require Lees family to prove that the outcome of the September hearing would have been different had they received an earlier notice or attended in person.

On Tuesday, the chief judge of the appellate court, E Gregory Wells, signed a brief order denying that request. Syeds motion for reconsideration, the order read, was denied because it is based on an argument not previously raised.

Story continues

A lawyer for Syed, Erica Suter, said the case would continue.

Appellate courts routinely assess whether an error impacted the underlying proceedings, Suter told the Associated Press.

We are dismayed that the appellate court of Maryland opted not to do so here. We will be seeking review in the supreme court of Maryland.
An American flag waves in the wind Tuesday outside Darbydale Elementary School in Grove City, which was the consolidated election precinct for Madison-Plains Local School District in the Franklin County portion of the school district.

Madison-Plains Local Schools voters appear to have rejected a levy proposal to build a new campus to replace the over a half-century-old campus there, according to unofficial results.

And Marysville Exempted Village School District may be facing a $9.6-million budget deficit after voters Tuesday also rejected what district officials say was a badly needed levy request, according to unofficial results.

Ohio election results: Greater Columbus area schools issues

Election results: Here's what Marysville schools plans to cut after levy failure

However, Granville Exempted Village Schools and Northridge Local School District were more fortunate, with voters approving renewal levies there, according to unofficial results.

In all, seven school districts in central Ohio had levies on the Tuesday primary ballot.

Here's how the school levies fared in Tuesday's primary/special election, according to unofficial results:

Madison-Plains voters reject new campus levy by large margin

Madison-Plains Local School District voters rejected the levy proposal to raise funds for a new school campus, according to unofficial election results. With all precincts reporting, the levy lost 56% to 44%.

The measure lost among the district's Franklin County voters in Pleasant Township, according to unofficial results.

The extrerior of Madison Plains Intermediate School on the Madison Local Schools' campus in Paint Township.

The district sought voter approval of a 9.9-mill, 37-year property tax levy to fund the district's $63,047,000 local share of demolishing current buildings and constructing a new pre-kindergarten through high school complex, including career tech, on the current campus on Linson Road, west of Ohio 38 in Paint Township.

Madison-Plains  a district of about 1,100 students in the southern part of Madison County, the southwestern-most part of Pleasant Township in Franklin County and a small part of northern Fayette County  previously said to The Dispatch that it needs to replace the district's aging buildings, one of which is nearly 70 years old.

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Poll worker Nina Roslovic, 66, checks a driver's license Tuesday at Darbydale Elementary in Grove City, which was a consolidated voting precinct that included Franklin County residents who are part of the Madison-Plains Local Schools.

Madison-Plains Superintendent Chad Eisler told The Dispatch prior to the election that the current buildings have exhausted their usable life and need to be replaced. The K-6 elementary school was built in 1956 and has been in continuous use for 67 years. The 7-12 intermediate building was constructed in 1978.

On Tuesday night, Eisler expressed disappointment with the levy rejection.

"We will continue our efforts with regard to our buildings, and hope to win the community's support in the near future," Eisler said in an emailed statement.

The levy would have cost property owners $347 for each $100,000 of county appraised property value. If the measure had passed, the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission would have contributed about $5.59 million toward the project.

Last November, voters narrowly approved a 2.5-mill permanent improvement renewal levy, which replaced a levy dating back to 1987, and is expected to generate an estimated $400,761 in annual revenue.

Board President Mark Mason told The Dispatch on Tuesday night that the district would be focusing on "engagement to get a feel for what the community would support" in terms of a future levy.

Marysville school levy failure may mean major deficit

Voters in Marysville Exempted Village Schools have rejected a five-year, 8.4-mill levy to cover what the district says is a looming $9,641,968 operating deficit, according to unofficial results.

Voters rejected the measure by a 56% to 44% margin with 100% of precincts reporting, according to unofficial results

The district, which has more than 5,100 students from Marysville and much of Union County, was seeking a levy where property owners would have paid $294 for every $100,000 of county appraised value.

Marysville Superintendent Diane Allen said the levy failure spelled immediate negative financial implications for the district.

"We are committed to working with the community to find a sustainable solution for our district's financial challenges," Allen said.

The district previously told The Dispatch that the budget shortfall was a result of state law phasing out a tax on the Honda and Scotts facilities that was a major revenue source for the district. Marysville schools had not asked for a levy increase in more than 15 years.

Granville schools 0.75% income-tax renewal approved

Voters in Granville Exempted Village Schools approved a five-year, income-tax renewal levy Tuesday, with a 55% to 45% margin, according to unofficial results from the Licking County Board of Elections.

The 0.75% all-income tax, which was first passed for five years in 2018, was set to expire Dec. 31. With the renewal, the rate stays the same for another five years with the term starting Jan. 1.

Leah Krupp escorts her 3-year-old son, Max, while he asks for a sticker Tuesday from poll worker Mark Morscher at the Bryn Du Fieldhouse in Granville.

District Superintendent Jeff Brown said in an interview Tuesday night that the district takes the responsibility of taxpayer dollars seriously.

"With this passage, we will continue that fiscal responsibility, being fiscally prudent and transparent with the taxpayer dollars so that the entire community has confidence in the fiscal aspects of our school district," he said.

Here are the unofficial results of voting in all seven central Ohio school districts with levy requests on Tuesday's primary/special election ballot.

@Colebehr_report

Cbehrens@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Election results: How central Ohio school levies fared with voters
A 22-year-old Massachusetts man faces numerous criminal charges after allegedly kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Plainfield teenager, police said on Wednesday.

At approximately 12:30 p.m. on March 18, Plainfield police responded to an address in the Moosup section of town for a report of a missing 13-year-old girl. Police were unable to immediately locate the girl, but on-scene interviews led them to believe the girl was taken by Connor Tidd, a Quincy, Mass. resident.

Police said they determined Tidd took the girl to the Elite Inn, 66 E. Main St., in Moosup. When police arrived at the hotel, they said Tidd failed to respond to verbal commands and was eventually found hiding behind a doorway. The girl was found in the motel rooms bathroom.

More: EXCLUSIVE: Ex-Plainfield teacher files initial plea in sex assault case with students

Police said several pieces of evidence seized via a warrant at the scene indicated probable cause for sexual and narcotics-related crimes. Tidd was charged with risk of injury to a minor and interfering with an investigation. He was initially held on a $150,000 bond, which was raised to $250,000 during his arraignment on March 20 in Danielson Superior Court.

Tidd was able to make bond and released under conditions he wear a GPS monitor and not leave Connecticut, police said.

Additional charges filed

On Wednesday, Plainfield polices special investigation unit filed a new warrant charging Tidd with two counts of first-degree kidnapping  one in advance of a felony and another related to sexual abuse; second-degree sexual assault; two counts of risk of injury to a minor (one involving sexual contact); two counts of illegal distribution of a controlled substance; and enticing a minor.

Tidd was arrested on Wednesday and was being held on a $500,000 bond. He is due to be arraigned on the new charges on Thursday.

John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Police: Mass. man kidnapped, sexually assaulted Plainfield girl
Porsche

Electric propulsion is on every automaker's mind, but brands like Porsche and Mazda are also investigating carbon-neutral gasoline as a clean alternative to going full-electric.

E-fuels are not new but the financial backing behind the technology is starting to take off, with companies like HIF Global building two new e-fuel facilities.

Texas will soon be the global headquarters of e-fuel production, according to HIF Global, as the company starts construction on its newest plant.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has issued an Air Quality Permit authorizing Highly Innovative Fuels Global to build an eFuels facility in Matagorda County, Texas. At its peak, HIF Global expects to produce around 200 million gallons of e-fuel per year, allowing for the decarbonization of over 400,000 vehicles. To achieve these goals, the company says it will need 2 million tons of recycled carbon dioxide as well as approximately 300,000 tons of green hydrogen separated from water using renewable electricity. Once constructed, the Texas facility will allegedly be the largest e-fuel plant and producer in the world.

For context, e-fuels are synthetic gasoline or diesel built up from a combination of renewably produced hydrogen from water via hydrolysis and captured carbon dioxide, as Autoweek contributor Jim Motavalli explains. And our cars are technically able to run on e-fuels as they sit, given that the fuel is designed to replicate gasoline in an environmentally friendly manner. E-fuels aren't exactly new, as demonstrated by Porsche's excitement around them, but the process to create them isn't as easy as installing a home EV charger.

Porsche

Both sides of the automotive science spectrum share concerns about the long-term ability to produce and use e-fuels. The Clean Transportation Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists has previously said the likelihood of tailpipe emissions from even the cleanest e-fuel is high. After all, a combustion engine is still burning e-fuels.

Chief Scientist Mobility at Shell, Wolfgang Warnecke, believes e-fuels are worth investing in but only for outlier cases where electric propulsion simply won't work. Warnecke's primary concerns around e-fuels, which he shared at a European e-fuels summit late last year, were its decades-long scalability timeline, high electricity and water need for production, and low energy efficiency compared to electric propulsion.

However, these sorts of worries are exactly what HIF Global is trying to address with its new Texas plant. After a successful launch of its Haru Oni Demonstration Plant in southern Chile, where a Porsche 911 ran on the first liters delivered from the plant, the construction of its Texas plant represents pushback against skepticism from scientists and adversarial fuel makers alike. With its permits in place, HIF says it will start construction on this facility early in 2024, with a claimed e-fuel production date of 2027.

Mazda

Supporters of this project range from brands like Porsche, which is researching e-fuel usage in relation to European Union EV mandates, to local and state governments, as Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Economic and Trade Group nominated HIF for the 2023 Community Investment Award from Trade & Industry Development magazine.

Texas has consistently been the largest annual exporter of goods in the US, largely because of its crude oil reserves, and the addition of new but still fuel-focused technology must be exciting news for Texas politicians and the state's business prospects. The US as a whole, however, is largely focused on electric vehicles, while alternative propulsion methods like hydrogen and e-fuels appear to be a lower priority.

The company has released few details about the proposed $6 billion plant, though it has previously employed Siemens Energy to design and assist in technology integration at the plant in Chile. While the environmental authorization from the EPA has been approved, Renato Pereira, CEO of HIF USA, said the company is still waiting for the plant's engineering documents and financing to finalize.

Combined with construction beginning on its Australian plant as well, it seems HIF Global is in for a busy few years, and it will be worth watching how different countries integrate e-fuels into their de-carbonization plans.

Would you buy e-fuel at $9 a gallon if you could keep an ICE vehicle? Please share your thoughts below.
The new season of MasterChef Australia premieres a week after the death of one of its hosts, Jock Zonfrillo

MasterChef Australia will air its new season on Sunday, six days after the sudden death of one of its hosts, award-winning chef Jock Zonfrillo.

The 7 May premiere has the "full support" of the 46-year-old Scotsman's family, broadcaster Network 10 said.

A tribute show will air one hour before the MasterChef Australia season begins.

Zonfrillo was found dead in Melbourne on Monday - the new show was to have aired that night. Police are not treating his death as suspicious.

He is survived by his wife Lauren Fried and four children.

Glasgow-born Zonfrillo took great pride in mentoring contestants in the high-pressure competition and in the process, he inspired a nation of home cooks, Network 10 said on Wednesday.

"It is with Jock in our hearts that we cherish this season and remember the charismatic and big-hearted judge and chef who we knew and loved," the network said.

The show was swiftly postponed when news of the chef's death broke.

"I know my heart will break but I'm looking forward to watching Jock's final season. I want to see him mentoring the home cooks and giving some advice to them and watching them grow as pro cooks. That is how I want to remember him," one Twitter user said in reply to Network 10's announcement.

"This must have been a really emotionally tough decision for Jock's family. I think I'll need a box of tissues for this one," another Twitter user replied.

Zonfrillo started hosting MasterChef Australia in 2019, after years of establishing himself in the country's kitchens.

He had likened moving to Australia in 2000 to turning a new leaf after battling heroin addiction in his teenage years that made him broke and homeless for a time. He opened up about these struggles in his 2021 memoir, Last Shot.

He opened several restaurants in Australia, the most successful of which was Adelaide's award-winning Restaurant Orana, which opened in 2013.

However, Orana closed in 2020 and Zonfrillo ended the year with millions of dollars in debt.
A truck burns on a street in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. Mexican security forces captured Ovidio Guzman, an alleged drug trafficker wanted by the United States and one of the sons of former Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, in a pre-dawn operation Thursday that set off gunfights and roadblocks across the western states capital.

Matt Dolan is a state senator from Chagrin Falls and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.

Three years ago, I voted to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorists. I took this action because it was clear that the China-sourced fentanyl they were pushing across our southern border was a weapon of mass destruction. The border crisis has only gotten worse.

Thats why I recently traveled with Ohio law enforcement to one of the busiest areas of our southern border for illegal alien apprehension, human smuggling and narcotic seizures. We saw first-hand how the border is open and Ohio is suffering because of it.

Roberts: Fentanyl 'unknowingly and silently kills people.' That doesn't have to happen.

Over the span of two days, we saw cartel spotters outnumber Border Patrol Agents. We witnessed illegal immigrants brazenly attempt to scale a border wall in broad daylight. We joined Arizona law enforcement in the pursuit and successful apprehension of foreign nationals, and human smugglers and drug mules on U.S. soil.

Mar 28, 2022; Wilberforce, Ohio, USA; U.S. Senate Republican candidate State Sen. Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) stands on stage before the start of Ohios U.S. Senate Republican Primary Debate at Central State University. Mandatory Credit: Joshua A. Bickel/Ohio Debate Commission

We didnt visit Tucson Sector to prove what we already knew, rather we learned from those facing this crisis every day and discussed what they need to stop the ongoing invasion of illegals and drugs.

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that halted construction of the border wall and turned off technology meant to stop illegal border crossings. It was a tragedy to see miles of 3-story, concrete reinforced fencing sitting idle along a border road. Its no wonder the border control agents are down 50%.

Despite the current challenges, there is a clear path to a secure border. It just takes will and leadership.

More: 'Replacement theory' fuels extremists and shooters. Now a top Border Patrol agent is spreading it.

Prosecutor: 'We are fighting merely for survival.' Drugs from border overwhelming Ohio

It may seem obvious, but first we need public leaders willing to acknowledge reality.

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In a December TV interview, Sen. Sherrod Brown said, I dont hear a lot about immigration from voters except from people on the far-right.

And last month, before Congress, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas repeatedly refused to call this a crisis. Brown and Mayorkas should be fired.

The wall should be finished where appropriate. The technology in place should be turned back on, border patrol officers need to be given the authority to act as law enforcement officers, not mere escorts. What does that mean? Stop, arrest and jail someone who is breaking our laws by crossing our border illegally who are often carrying drugs or inducing human trafficking.

Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown: "I don't hear a lot about immigration from voters except from people on the far-right" pic.twitter.com/PLQeMx7X69  RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 18, 2022

The remain in Mexico policy should immediately be reinstated so true asylum seekers can be identified at requisite ports of entry. We need to keep Title 42 in place and end the catch and release policy once and for all.

MORE: GOP-led committee strikes Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'liar' comment to Mayorkas from record

As for operational solutions, we need to get tough with the Mexican government. We need to use the full leverage of our trade and economy to force Mexicos hand in facilitating coordination to combat the cartels. This includes having the U.S. Government finally designating the Mexican cartels as international terrorist organizations, justifying coordination in the possible use of military force.

We need to recognize that China is an accomplice in the flooding of fentanyl into our country.

According to the Ohio Department of Health, approximately 76 percent of overdose deaths in Ohio are caused by fentanyl that is coming from China to Mexico and over the border into the United States. It killed over 70,000 U.S. citizens last year. Would we let China ship bombs to Mexico destined for American streets? Of course not. Yet with our open border, bombs disguised as pills are flooding into our country.

Fentanyl is a weapon of mass destruction.

Jul 7, 2022; Columbus, Ohio, United States; Sen. Sherrod Brown answers media questions after riding a COTA bus down Broad Street through Franklinton, the route that will eventually be part of the LinkUS bus rapid transit system, with COTA president and CEO Joanna Pinkerton, on July 7, 2022. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-The Columbus Dispatch

While on the Arizona border, I witnessed the bravery of local law enforcement. I also felt the frustration of federal Border Patrol agents who know they can secure the border with the right support. Unlike Sherrod Brown I know we have a problem. As I have done as a prosecutor, assistant state attorney general and legislator, I am determined to fix the problem.

Matt Dolan is a state senator from Chagrin Falls and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Sherrod Brown, Alejandro Mayorkas should be for drug crossing border| Matt Dolan
Those aren't lightsabers The Euclid Quartet  violinist Jameson Cooper, left, violist Luis Enrique Vargas, violinist Aviva Hakanoglu and cellist Justin Goldsmith  are holding. But on May 4, 2023, they'll use their bows to perform selections from the soundtracks to "Star Wars" films at May the Fourth Be With You: A Star Wars Celebration w/ the Euclid Quartet at Century Center in South Bend.

SOUTH BEND  Juke presents May the Fourth Be With You: A Star Wars Celebration w/ the Euclid Quartet at 7 p.m. May 4 at Century Center, 120 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Subtitled Star Wars Music by Candlelight, the event features the Euclid Quartet performing string quartet arrangements of music from John Williams scores for the Star Wars movie franchise.

In concert: Stanley Clark opens new performing arts center with Nathan and Julie Gunn concert

The set list includes Star Wars Main Title, Imperial March, Cantina Band, Reys Theme and Clone Wars/Rebels Survey, among others.

The quartet will be surrounded by hundreds of candles to set the scene for this journey to a musical galaxy far, far away.

Composed of violinists Jameson Cooper and Aviva Hakanoglu, violist Luis Enrique Vargas and cellist Justin Goldsmith, the Euclid Quartet has been the quartet-in-residence at Indiana University South Bend since 2007.

Euclids albums include Hugo Kauder  String Quartets 1-4, Bartok: String Quartets Nos. 2, 4, & 6, Bartok: String Quartets Nos 1, 3 & 5 and American Quartets: Antonin Dvorak & Wynton Marsalis. The quartet also has an upcoming release featuring the quartets of Debussy and Grieg.

Peter Mayhew, left, Mark Hamill, Sir Alec Guinness and Harrison Ford appear in a scene from 1977's "Star Wars: Episode IV  A New Hope." (c) Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

It also has commissioned and premiered contemporary works by numerous notable composers, including Robert Paterson, Armando Bayolo, Jorge Muniz and Dan Welcher.

This year, the Euclid Quartet will premiere a quartet concerto by Anna Clyne, commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2023.

Tickets are $25.

For more information, visit eventbrite.com and search for this event or euclidquartet.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Star Wars Day marked with Euclid Quartet concert in South Bend
A McDonald's fast food restaurant is seen in Belmont, United States on April 03, 2023. Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A McDonald's made 10-year-olds work for no pay and until 2 a.m., per the Labor Department.

The franchisee told Insider that the kids were visiting their parent, who worked as a night manager.

The children would work the register and drive-thru, and one kid was allowed to use a deep fryer.

A McDonald's in Kentucky has been fined for hiring two unpaid 10-year-old children and at times making them work as late as 2 a.m., the Department of Labor said.

The pair of children was employed by Bauer Food LLC, a Louisville-based operator of 10 McDonald's restaurants, the department said in a Tuesday statement.

The two children would prepare and distribute food orders, clean the restaurant, work at the drive-thru window, and operate a register, the labor department said.

Investigators also found that one of the 10-year-olds was allowed to work a deep fryer, a "prohibited task for workers under 16 years old," per the statement.

Bauer Food told Insider that the two kids were visiting their parent  a night manager at one of its restaurants  and weren't approved by management to be in that part of the restaurant.

Any work done by the children was at the direction, and in the presence, of their parent, according to Bauer Food. The operator said the kids' work was never authorized by management or the franchise's leadership.

Bauer Food added that it's made sure its employees are now clear on the company's policy regarding children visiting their parent or guardian at work.

"Under no circumstances should there ever be a 10-year-old child working in a fast-food kitchen around hot grills, ovens and deep fryers," Karen Garnett-Civils, the wage and hour division district director in Louisville, Kentucky, said in the Labor Department's statement.

The Labor Department also found that Bauer Food allowed 22 other teenagers under the age of 16 to work more than legally permitted hours. Under federal labor law, 14- and 15-year-olds can work up to 40 hours on a non-school week and 18 hours during a school week.

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Bauer Food was fined $39,711, the department said. Another two McDonald's operators  Archways Richmond and Bell Restaurant Group  were also fined for allowing minors to work beyond legally permitted hours.

"These reports are unacceptable, deeply troubling and run afoul of the high expectations we have for the entire McDonald's brand," Tiffanie Boyd, senior vice president and chief people officer at McDonald's USA, told Insider in a statement. "It is not lost on us the significant responsibility we carry to ensure a positive and safe experience for everyone under the Arches."

"As a mother whose teenage son proudly worked at our local McDonald's, I feel this on a very personal level," Boyd added. "We are committed to ensuring our franchisees have the resources they need to foster safe workplaces for all employees and maintain compliance with all labor laws."

Meanwhile, the Labor Department is seeing an uptick in federal child labor violations, Garnett-Civils said.

In June 2022, a 15-year-old McDonald's employee in Morristown suffered heavy oil burns while using a deep fryer, per the Labor Department.

"One child injured at work is one too many. Child labor laws exist to ensure that when young people work, the job does not jeopardize their health, well-being or education," said Garnett-Civils.

Read the original article on Insider
Today, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico and U.S. Homeland Security Advisor Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall met in Mexico City to build on the successful migration initiative that President Lopez Obrador and President Biden announced in January 2023. Following that meeting, the United States and Mexico are announcing a set of additional measures to address the humanitarian situation caused by unprecedented migration flows at our shared border and in the region.

READ NEXT: The Biden-Harris Administration Will End COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements for Federal Employees, Contractors, International Travelers, Head Start Educators, and CMS-Certified Facilities



First, Mexico and the United States will increase joint actions to counter-human smugglers and traffickers that are exploiting migrants. This complements the 60-day surge campaign that the United States recently launched with Colombia and Panama to counter human smuggling in the Darien.



Second, the two countries committed to continue to enhance their efforts in Central America to address the root causes of migration and expand legal pathways. Specifically, Mexico and the United States will redouble their development efforts that focus on people-to-people support.



Third, Mexico recognized the great potential value of the regional processing centers that the United States announced last week, and discussed how Mexico can contribute to their effectiveness. The United States intends to welcome as many as 100,000 individuals from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador under the family reunification parole processes that Secretary Mayorkas announced last week.



Fourth, Mexico and the United States commit to continue the successful joint initiative that President Lopez Obrador and President Biden announced in January 2023 beyond May 11, 2023. This initiative - which combines expanded legal pathways with consequences for irregular migration - achieved a 95 percent drop in border encounters at our shared border. Today, the United States committed to continue to welcome individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela under our parole process. For its part, Mexico will continue to accept back migrants on humanitarian grounds.



Fifth, we affirm our commitment to modernize our 2000-mile shared border. To that end, President Biden approved moving forward on a Presidential Permit to advance the expansion of Calexico East Land Port of Entry. We jointly commit to take steps to finalize this project by the end of the year - a step that will benefit both the U.S. and Mexican economies.

READ MORE: Antioch Man Sentenced to over 19 Years in Prison for Sex Trafficking of Minors at the Bakersfield Desert Star Motel

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A regional director for the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint Tuesday accusing Medieval Times management of an illegal scheme to undermine union support at its castle in Buena Park, California.

Last year, workers at the castle launched a union campaign to improve pay and working conditions, gathering signed union cards from members of the show cast, horseback-riding knights and stablehands. Later a petition was circulated in which some workers who had signed union cards asked to retract them.

The complaint alleges that the dinner-theater chains director of training and development played a direct role in that effort to torpedo the union by offering guidance on the petition and encouraging workers to pull their support.

Workers can ask to revoke their union authorization cards if they have a change of heart, but its illegal for management to take part in any such effort because it could be coercive.

We had to deal with months of near-constant union busting from Medieval Times.Erin Zapcic, queen at the Buena Park castle

The union, the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA), had filed a charge with the NLRB accusing Medieval Times of breaking the law through the petition. The complaint issued Tuesday means NLRB officials investigated the unions claims and found merit in them. If Medieval Times declines to reach a settlement on the case, it would go to a trial.

The AGVA ended up winning the election anyway, by a tally of 27 to 18, making the allegedly illegal petition campaign moot. But the regional director, Nathan M. Seidman, said Medieval Times should have to acknowledge it broke the law and post a notice about workers rights in the Buena Park castle and also read it aloud to workers.

Erin Zapcic, a queen in the cast and a union steward, said in a statement that workers were thrilled the board had issued a complaint against the company.

Throughout our organizing campaign, we had to deal with months of near-constant union busting from Medieval Times, Zapcic said. Most egregiously, the company orchestrated an attempt to cancel our election entirely through deception, manipulation, and illegal means.

Story continues

Medieval Times knight Brandon Sanchez on the picket line in Buena Park, California.

Medieval Times knight Brandon Sanchez on the picket line in Buena Park, California.

Zapcic called Tuesdays filing the first of what will surely be many complaints against this company, noting the union has accused Medieval Times of other unfair labor practices that are being investigated.

Medieval Times didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

The California castle was the companys second to form a union, following an earlier campaign at the castle in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. Workers at both locations are now trying to negotiate a first contract. The unions include the castles performers and stablehands but not food and retail employees.

The Buena Park show cast and the knights have been on an unfair labor practice strike since February, accusing Medieval Times of trying to silence them on social media. The company has brought in replacement workers  scabs, in union parlance  from other castles. According to the union, some replacement knights from the companys Toronto castle were turned away by U.S. immigration officials due to their lack of work visas.

Last year, the company filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the AGVA over the name the workers chose for their union, Medieval Times Performers United, and the Middle Ages-themed imagery of their logo. The company claimed the unions name and imagery were creating confusion among customers and endangering its brand.

The company later filed intellectual property complaints with Facebook and TikTok and succeeded in getting the TikTok account for the California castles union shut down. The union has responded by filing more unfair labor practice charges against the company, saying the trademark lawsuit and social media complaints are illegal efforts to gag them.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, leaves after attending the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations on June 3, 2022 (Getty Images)

In the mere five years since she married into the British royal family in 2018, Meghan Markle went from the small screen to one of the most recognised women in the world. The actor-turned-royals arrival on the scene proved to be explosive, in more than one sense of the word. Together with her husband, Prince Harry, Meghan has caused wave after wave both inside the royal family and outside of it.

But long before she became the subject of intense media scrutiny, Meghans beginnings were relatively humble. Born to Thomas Markle Sr, an Emmy-award winning TV lighting director and director of photography and makeup artist Doria Ragland in 1981, Meghans family was firmly middle class  worlds away from the highborn status of her future husband. Her mother is African-American while her father is white, and she identifies as half-black and half-white.

Her parents separated when she was two years old, but they continued to co-parent her. Doria described her daughter as a very congenial child who was always making friends and very empathic very mature. Meghan has said she would live with her mother during the week and spend the weekends with her father, and that she was a daddys girl my whole life.

Through Thomas, Meghan had an older half-sister Samantha and half-brother Thomas Jr. They are 17 and 15 years older than Meghan respectively. Her relationship with them is not a close one, as she told Oprah Winfrey in 2021 that she was an only child and saw Samantha only a handful of times. Meanwhile, Samantha claimed that she practically raised Meghan  which the duchess countered in her and Harrys Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan last year when she said: I dont know your name. I dont know your birthday. Youre telling these people you raised me, and you coined me Princess Pushy? Meghan is currently estranged from her father and siblings, but remains close to her mother.

Meghans interest in social justice and feminism began when she was a child. At age 11, she and her classmates wrote to Procter & Gamble to request that they change the slogan for one of their dishwashing soap commercials that was targeted exclusively at women. In an interview with Nick News at the time, Meghan said she did not think it was right for children to grow up believing mothers should be the only ones doing housework. Her letter led to the company altering their slogan from women to people.

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As a teenager, her humanitarian work continued. She volunteered at a soup kitchen in Skid Row in Los Angeles, a neighbourhood known for its concentrated homeless population. After getting into Northwestern University in Illinois, she volunteered for the Glass Slipper Project, a charitable prom organisation in the US that provides prom dresses and accessories to those who cant afford to buy them. She later interned as a junior press officer at the US embassy in Buenos Aires, but did not progress any higher up in the US State Department. Instead, she followed in her fathers footsteps and entered showbiz.

Her acting career started with brief appearances and cameos on the small screen, on shows like CSI: NY and Century City. She also did a number of modelling and contract acting jobs; from 2006 to 2007, she appeared as a briefcase girl on the US version of Deal or No Deal. She later said she left the show because she didnt like feeling forced to be all looks and little substance. Later, she made it to the big screen, but her roles continued to be small in 2010s Get Him to the Greek and 2011s Horrible Bosses.

She finally got her big break with Suits, a hit legal drama that spanned nine seasons. In it, she played Rachel Zane, a paralegal who achieves her ambition of becoming an attorney and has a romantic relationship with the main character, Mike Ross (played by Patrick J Adams). She appeared in 108 episodes of show, leaving at the end of the seventh series, which aired in 2018.

(L-R) Rick Hoffman, Patrick J. Adams, Meghan Markle, Sarah Rafferty, Gina Torres and Gabriel Macht of Suits attend USA Network and Mr Porter.com Present A Suits Story on June 12, 2012 (Getty)

Meghan first met Prince Harry in person on a blind date after being set up by a mutual friend in 2016, but they had been corresponding over Instagram beforehand. Meghan recalled that Harry was late to their date, which almost put her off  but the prince won her over after he arrived as a hot, sweaty red ball of mess who was genuinely so embarrassed and late.

The couples love story is known far and wide. Meghan and Harrys fairytale wedding in May 2018 took place at St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle and they were conferred the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex by the late Queen Elizabeth II. Across the UK, the press gushed over the handsome couple, with the Sunday Times calling the wedding a great British occasion and the Sun on Sunday hailing it as a historic change for monarchy. Meghan is believed to have become the first woman of colour to marry into the British royal family since at least the 18th century.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wave from the Ascot Landau Carriage during their carriage procession on the Long Walk as they head back towards Windsor Castle in Windsor, on May 19, 2018 (AFP via Getty Images)

But the press infatuation with the couple soured quickly, and has become the source of Meghan and Harrys main grievances. Even before they were married, Meghan came under intense scrutiny and was subjected to headlines like the Daily Mails (Almost) Straight Outta Compton story, which has been widely criticised for being racist. But following the wedding, things took a turn for the worse and the couple have claimed that Buckingham Palace was briefing the press against them by leaking and planting negative stories about Meghan to distract from less favourable coverage about other royals.

Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended first Trooping the Colour together in 2018 (AFP via Getty Images)

In 2019, during the couples tour of South Africa, Meghan hinted at the tensions between her and the rest of the royal family. She told ITV journalist Tom Bradby that her friends had warned her British tabloids would destroy your life, but she had no idea the extent of it. She added that she never thought this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair. And thats the part thats really hard to reconcile. Things came to a head in 2020 when Harry and Meghan announced they were stepping back as senior royals and would be moving to the US.

Harry and Meghan announced thry were stepping back as senior royals in 2020 (Getty)

Since then, the couple have had two children  Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet  and have settled into life in Montecito, California. Despite no longer playing a prominent role in the royal family, the couple has continued to send shockwaves through it. Their explosive interview with Oprah in 2021 revealed a number of bombshells, including accusations of racism or unconscious bias and a lack of care for Meghans suicidal thoughts while she was pregnant with Archie. The interview has caused division among royal watchers, with half fiercely defending the royals and the other half rooting for the Sussexes.

Today, Meghan continues to be a hot topic for the very same press she and Harry deride. Despite the couples continued calls for privacy, the public interest remains substantial and every move they make is put under a microscope. But, as a recent statement put out by her team suggests, Meghan is going about her life in the present and will continue with her humanitarian and media work as she sees fit.
Is Meghan Markle gearing up for a Hollywood comeback? Some experts seem to think so.

On April 27, the Duchess of Sussex became a crown jewel for WME and signed up for representation with the legendary agency, Variety reported. According to the outlet, numerous agency rivals attempted to land the former American actress since she and her husband Prince Harry moved to California in 2020.

According to reports, Markle will make millions from the deal, which has been in the works for months. Page Six reported that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been spotted more frequently in Hollywood.

WME, a powerhouse agency team will work with Meghan Markle on content creation.

Christopher Andersen, author of "The King," told Fox News Digital he suspects the mother of two will poise herself to be a power player in Tinseltown as her empire beyond palace doors strikes back.

"If Meghan doesnt end up hosting a daytime syndicated talk show, I'll be surprised," said Andersen. "She certainly seems well-suited to that role in particular, and I can easily see her pursuing a career path similar to Oprah's in the media: a show, a magazine, producing, directing  the works. She still has a sizeable chunk of the viewing public in her corner."

"Once all the controversy surrounding the Sussexes' ongoing feud with the rest of the royal family dies down, assuming it ever does, I could easily see her launching a successful talk show," he shared. "Meghan has always had her fingers in a lot of pies, and she has a knack for getting what she wants. Millions of girls dream of becoming a princess, but she made it happen  and against all odds to boot! Becoming the next Oprah  a powerful and influential media mogul  does not feel far-fetched at all."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

MEGHAN MARKLE'S ESTRANGED FAMILY SPEAKS OUT: 5 BIGGEST BOMBSHELLS FROM THEIR TELL-ALL INTERVIEW

Meghan Markle, an American actress from California, became the Duchess of Sussex when she married Britain's Prince Harry in 2018.

WME is led by CEO Ari Emanuel, who has a reputation for his aggressive dealmaking skills, making him "one of Hollywoods most powerful figures," Page Six reported. He inspired the character Ari Gold in HBO's "Entourage."

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According to the outlet, WMC will assume representation of Archewell, the content creation label for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. While film and television production, brand partnerships and "overall business-building" will be explored by the 41-year-old and her team, "acting will not be an area of focus."

Markle starred in the legal drama "Suits" from 2011 to 2018, the same year she married the British prince, 38. Andersen said he personally isnt ruling out the possibility that the right role could change Markle's mind. History, he pointed out, tends to repeat itself.

Meghan Markle played Rachel Zane in the USA series Suits.

"Will she ever return to acting? Why not?" he said, "I think it's interesting that Princess Grace of Monaco, who achieved stardom as Grace Kelly, was planning a return to acting just before she died in a car crash in 1982. And of course, Oprah still acts occasionally. I'm sure the dream of winning an Oscar - either in front of the camera or behind it - has never been that far from Meghan's mind."

Doug Eldridge, an agent and celebrity marketing expert, told Fox News Digital that the Duke and Duchess of Sussexs tell-alls helped create an audience for them. The couple detailed their struggles with royal life in a six-part Netflix docuseries a month before Harrys memoir "Spare" was published.

"Two months ago, I said the entire purpose of Markles victim marketing campaign  as it relates to her husband, the royal family, and her own estranged family  was to build an audience, cultivate sympathy through the tactical perception of victimhood, then leverage that audience toward a delineated call to action, such as a book, podcast, etc.," he claimed.

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Meghan Markle is seen here crying while Prince Harry looks on in a scene from their Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan.

"Her lamentations were not a cry for help," Eldridge further alleged. "They were a rallying cry to would-be fans-turned customers for the marketing rocket she was trying to fuel up on the launch pad. I dont say that with animus or subjective opinion; I say that apolitically and objectively. As someone who has built individual brands across a variety of sectors, Markle took a formulaic approach. Sadly, the victim aspect  which Ive never admired or employed  has become far more popular, especially among emerging female brands."

The outlet noted that the duchess advocacy for women, mothers and girls will "remain a thread in her professional work." She previously told Variety for a cover story that she was already exploring ideas for original content.

"So much of how my husband and I see things is through our love story. I think thats what people around the world connected to, especially with our wedding," Markle previously explained. "People love love. Im not excluded in that sentiment. For scripted, we want to think about how we can evolve from that same space and do something fun. It doesnt always have to be so serious. Like a good rom-com. Dont we miss them? I miss them so much."

Sarah Staudinger and her husband Ari Emanuel attend the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 12, 2023, in Beverly Hills, California.

Page Six revealed that Markles inner circle will include Jill Smoller, who is Serena Williams agent, as well as Brad Slater, who reps Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

British royals expert Hilary Fordwich told Fox News Digital that Markle has her work cut out for her. Unless her latest project has anything to do with the royal family, Hollywood executives may not instantly come calling.

"What does sell? Anything royal," she claimed. "So what we can bank on is that connection being leveraged in some manner."

MEGHAN MARKLE COULD BE RELAUNCHING PERSONAL WEBSITE; EXPERT CLAIMS: SHE'S 'TRYING TO RECLAIM HER IDENTITY'

Meghan Markle was a briefcase girl in the game show Deal or No Deal before finding fame.

Eldridge pointed out that the duchess will need to make her mark to win a new audience over, especially after making her royal exit in 2020 with Harry.

"WME could solve that by placing her in a series of critically and commercially acclaimed features, albeit in a supporting role, and then step back and point to her theatrical abilities and financial appeal," he explained.

"Conversely, if the idea is to build upon the royals wreckage that will be somewhat limited," Eldridge shared. "Markle can certainly go deeper, but she likely cannot go wider. Markle is a polarizing character among royal watchers  with a seeming 50/50 split in terms of love her or hate her  so the chance of broadening her appeal within that market demographic is unlikely, at least in the short-term."

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back as senior royals in 2020.

"However, just because she cant go wider doesnt mean she cant go deeper," Eldridge continued, adding that the duchess will need to "strengthen her foundational following."

"It certainly comes with a price, but thats what a shop like WME can test through focus groups and end-to-end ownership and their affinity for packaging talent at every step of the project," he added.

So far, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have produced two Netflix documentaries, including "Harry & Meghan." The series has the most streamed documentary premiere in Netflixs history, with 81.5 million minutes watched in its first week alone.

MEGHAN MARKLE MAKES FIRST APPEARANCE SINCE REVEALING SHE WON'T ATTEND KING CHARLES' CORONATION

According to reports, Meghan Markle is expected to release Season 2 of her Spotify podcast Archetypes'.

Markle also has her Spotify podcast "Archetypes," which has yet to announce whether a new season is in the works. A spokesperson for Spotify didnt immediately respond to Fox News Digitals request for comment. According to Page Six, it is believed that Markle will kick off Season 2.

There were even whispers that Markle was reportedly considering relaunching her lifestyle blog The Tig, which shut down months after she started dating Harry.

"A successful lifestyle and digital brand would put Meghan in the same categories as Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba or even Kim Kardashian," Kinsey Schofield, host of the "To Di For Daily" podcast, previously told Fox News Digital. "The idea would be to brand everything around a property that existed before Meghan marrying into the royal family to give the appearance that Meghan has success on her own. The reality is, Meghan will be given incredible opportunities because of her proximity to the royal family."

Meghan Markle won't be attending King Charles III's coronation. She will stay behind in California with her son Prince Archie and daughter Princess Lilibet. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex reside in the wealthy, coastal city of Montecito.

Variety noted that Markle is "a global icon," who was named one of TIME magazines most influential people.

Markles father-in-law, King Charles III, will be crowned on May 6 at Londons Westminster Abbey. While Harry will make a quick visit, Markle will stay behind in California with the couples two children.

Harry and Markle, who is biracial, have alleged she faced racist attitudes from both the palace and the U.K. press. The treatment contributed to their decision to leave the country and move to North America.
CNNs decision to host a town hall with former President Trump has sparked fresh controversy around media coverage of the former president.

The network, which had a mutually antagonistic relationship with Trump during his time in the White House, will host a New Hampshire town hall in prime time next Wednesday. CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins will moderate.

CNN came under fire almost as soon as the news of the event broke.

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan tweeted on Monday that CNN was giving a live primetime platform to an indicted insurrection-inciter, who also incited violence against their network.

Hasan added that he had been asked many times whether the media had learned lessons from 2016 and 2020, and that CNNs decision indicated to him that clearly some in our media have not.

Liberal activists were equally condemnatory of the decision.

Shaunna Thomas, the co-founder and executive director of UltraViolet, a pro-gender equality organization, called Trump a flagrant misogynist and insurrectionist to whom CNN was about to give free airtime and an unfettered platform to spew lies and hate.

Her organization is calling on the network to cancel the event.

Angelo Carusone, president of the liberal nonprofit Media Matters for America, called the proposed event at least a little odious and a transparent attempt to goose their ratings.

David Kurtz, executive editor of the left-leaning media outlet Talking Points Memo, wrote that CNN choosing to do a town hall event rather than a one-on-one interview enables Trump and those like him free rein to spew misinformation, falsehoods, and half-truths unhindered by any mediating journalistic considerations.

On social media, there was plenty along the same lines.

The contours of the debate are familiar from Trumps original run for the presidency and the years that followed.

The early stages of Trumps first presidential run, which he launched in mid-2015, were granted enormous media attention.

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Critics on the left contended this was one of the major factors that enabled the then-candidate to leapfrog other, more established rivals on his path to the GOP nomination.

While Trump was president, CNN in particular often seemed to adopt an openly adversarial tone  something which boosted ratings, riled conservatives and arguably damaged CNNs brand.

Chris Licht, who took over as CNNs chairman and CEO last year, is widely perceived to be seeking to shift the network onto a less partisan footing.

Still, the debate around appropriate coverage of Trump is given added edge in the wake of his fictional claims of election fraud in 2020, his conduct in and around Jan. 6, 2021, his recent criminal indictment in Manhattan and the ongoing trial centered upon E. Jean Carrolls accusation that Trump raped her in the mid-1990s.

Does the CNN town hall give a platform to a public figure who is uniquely prone to misinformation and inflammatory language, as its critics claim?

Or, as its defenders could argue, is it absurd to suggest that any mainstream organization can ignore a figure like Trump who, these days, is the clear frontrunner for the GOPs 2024 nomination?

Those in the middle say they appreciate the complexity of the situation.

Its too easy to say Trump got elected because the networks gave him so much airtime, David Greenberg, a Rutgers University professor of history, and of journalism and media studies, told this column. Simply putting someone on the screen doesnt magically make them president.

But Greenberg, who is also the author of a book, Republic of Spin, dealing with the presidency, media and communications, added that it was nonetheless important for CNN to retain a sense of proportion in its Trump coverage.

It is naive to expect that mainstream media will just boycott Trump. And even if they could be pressured into doing so, Im not sure that would be the right thing to do. You dont want to boycott Trump but you dont want to give him a platform disproportionate to the other candidates.

CNN has so far offered only standard, broad descriptions of the nature of the town hall event, asserting that it is part of a longstanding tradition of hosting leading presidential candidates, and that such events are a critical component of the networks robust campaign coverage.

There will clearly be enormous focus on what the network does to push back against any factually untrue comments made by Trump.

Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse Universitys Maxwell School, said he would be stunned if CNN did not offer significant fact-checking of Trump, whether in a dedicated segment, in a post-town hall panel discussion or from Collins herself.

But Reeher also defended the nature of the event.

Trump is a former president. He is, whether we like it or not, a legitimate candidate for the nomination. So I think it is entirely appropriate to host a town hall, he said.

Reeher also argued vigorously that it would be an equally serious dereliction of duty if CNN or any other network bowed to the demands of activist groups and de-platformed such a central political figure.

Some of the networks, during some periods in the last eight years, have dropped their impartiality, but that would be another level, he said, adding it would amount to the media taking a giant step over the line.

The hubbub is sure to continue right up until the event itself, and perhaps beyond it.

The controversy, by its nature, is also likely to boost ratings.

Those big ratings are, as ever, the one goal that Trump and CNN are chasing together.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Imagine calling dozens of doctors listed through your healthcare provider directory, but not getting any office willing to take you as a patient.

Thats what lawmakers say is happening to Americans in need of mental healthcare services.

Tackling these so-called ghost networks was the focus of a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

What a ghost network is all about is essentially selling health coverage under false pretenses because the providers who have been advertised arent picking up the phone. They arent taking patients, said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Patients need accurate and up to date information on their healthcare options, said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID).

Keris Myrick shared her personal story with the Senate committee about the barriers she faced because of ghost networks.

Myrick said she faced rejection after rejection when trying to find a psychiatrist.

The all too familiar responses, said Myrick. Theres no provider here. No one by that name. Oh, theyre retired, or they arent taking new patients.

Myrick said once she finally did get a doctor on the line, she was disappointed yet again.

A pause. A long silence, and then the response, oh I dont take patients with schizophrenia, said Myrick. I asked if they have any suggestions or referrals to find a doctor who does, and the answer is check the provider directory.

She was sent back to the provider directory that gave inaccurate information in the first place.

Myrick said she ended up having to pay large out-of-pocket costs for years to ensure she was able to get the mental health treatment she needed by using a doctor out-of-network across the country.

Mental health advocates called on Congress to hold healthcare providers accountable if they are using ghost networks.

Myrick called for lawmakers to create a federal system for patients to report ghost networks, such as through an online system or a dedicated phone number.

They are particularly damaging for those of us living with mental health conditions like me as they can result in delayed or inadequate treatment or even going without, said Myrick.

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Professor Meareg Amare and his son Abrham in their hometown of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia in March 20, 2020. Amare family

Meta faces a $1.6 billion lawsuit for allegedly failing to moderate hate speech in Ethiopia.

The suit was brought by the family of a professor who was killed after Facebook posts targeted him.

Insider previously spoke to six of Meta's local experts who said the platform ignored their warnings.

Facebook must "unplug the hate machine."

That's the message of an open letter from dozens of leading human rights and tech accountability groups who say the platform was weaponized to stir up ethnic conflicts and target individuals during a recent civil war in Ethiopia.

The letter was addressed to Facebook's parent company, Meta, and was prompted in part by an investigation by Insider, its authors noted in a press release. Insider previously spoke to six Ethiopian partners who said that Meta often ignored warnings from its own local experts about hateful content that was appearing and spreading on Facebook.

"By failing to invest in and deploy adequate safety improvements to your software or employ sufficient content moderators, Meta is fanning the flames of hatred, and contributing to thousands of deaths in Ethiopia," the open letter said.

Since 2017, when Facebook was used to incite violence against Rohinga Muslims in Myanmar, Meta has cited its Trusted Partner Network as a bulwark against the proliferation of hateful and incendiary posts on its platform. These partners are contracted by Meta to provide local and linguistic expertise.

Meta's "trusted partners" in Ethiopia told Insider that the company either ignored or were severely delayed in responding to their urgent attempts to flag hateful and inciting content, even as a civil war and a second sectarian conflict were underway.

This may have had deadly consequences.

Insider's reporting also revealed that one of those trusted partners warned Meta about posts targeting Meareg Amare, a Tigrayan chemistry professor, in the fall of 2021. But Meta failed to act. Amare was murdered outside his home five weeks after the first post about him appeared on Facebook.

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A spokesperson for Meta did not dispute the trusted partner's account, which was similar to complaints raised by five other trusted partners interviewed by Insider.

Amare's son and two other petitioners have since brought a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Meta in Kenya, alleging that its algorithm prioritized harmful and dangerous content and helped spread hate speech in Ethiopia. Cori Crider, the director of Foxglove Legal, a UK-based legal nonprofit handling the case, said they intend to use Insider's article as "critical new evidence" in their case.

"It's vital because it shows clearly that Facebook knew that Tigrayan intellectuals and professors were being repeatedly threatened and attacked on social media  and failed to act," Crider said of Insider's reporting. "Had Facebook staff acted on these warnings, the Professor might still be with us today."

The Facebook posts targeting Professor Amare falsely accused him of funneling funds and equipment to the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which was fighting a civil war against Ethiopian federal forces and allied groups.

Amare was shot outside his home by a group of armed militia men, who repeated the slurs made against him on Facebook as he lay dying, according to the lawsuit.

Last month, a judge in Kenya's High Court, where the lawsuit is being heard, ruled that the case can continue and that Meta can be served with legal papers in the landmark lawsuit.

Meta says that it cannot discuss pending litigation. "Feedback from local civil society organizations and international institutions guides our safety and integrity work in Ethiopia," the company told media when the lawsuit was filed.

Meta also faces a lawsuit brought by Rohingya Muslims in the UK who allege that hate speech was allowed to flourish on Facebook in the months leading up to massacres in Myanmar in 2017.

Read the original article on Business Insider
DETROIT (AP)  The New York Mets and Detroit Tigers were rained out on Tuesday night.

The series-opening game was postponed about an hour after the scheduled start. It will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Wednesday.

New York Mets star pitchers Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer are returning to the mound in the series against one of their former teams.

The 40-year-old Verlander is scheduled to make his Mets debut on Thursday against the Tigers, who drafted the right-hander No. 2 overall in 2004 and traded him to Houston in 2017. Verlanders season-opening start was delayed due to a back injury.

The 38-year-old Scherzer is due to pitch Wednesday night for the first time since April 19, when he was ejected for violating MLBs foreign substance policy. Scherzer, who pitched for the Tigers from 2010-14 before signing with Washington, is returning from a 10-game suspension.

Mets left-hander Joey Lucchesi and Tigers left-hander Joey Wentz are scheduled to start in the first game of the doubleheader. Scherzer and Detroit right-hander Michael Lorenzen are expected to be on the mound in the second game.

___

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(Bloomberg) -- The Mexican government is not currently considering giving state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos a capital injection this year to help pay upcoming debt, said Deputy Finance Minister Gabriel Yorio in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The governments decision to cut Pemexs profit sharing rate to the current 40% from 65% before President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in late 2018 gives the oil producer enough cash to pay down its maturities coming due, Yorio said.

Its very important for Pemex to have the flexibility that any company has, and that implies the reduction of its tax burden, he said, adding that Pemex still has $2.5 billion of outstanding debt amortizations after having paid $6 billion already this year.

The companys bonds due in 2032 rose half a cent to 76.9 cents on the dollar, according to Trace data. Trading jumped to more than twice the average, according to data compiled hourly by Bloomberg, ahead of first-half earnings to be released later on Wednesday.

Pemex is the worlds most indebted oil company and is facing the worst liquidity crunch in its 85-year history. The government would need to provide on average of $10 billion a year to Pemex for the next three to five years to improve its financial situation, said Saverio Minervini, head of Latin America energy at Fitch Ratings, in a Bloomberg interview.

Iberdrola Plans

The government is also looking to use a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, with a mix of debt and equity to finance its purchase of Iberdrola SA assets after the deal closes, Yorio, a key member of Lopez Obradors economic team, said in a separate interview with Bloomberg Television.

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Mexico will be a bridge lender in the first stage of the transaction to purchase $6 billion worth of power plants and a wind farm, Yorio said. The government aims to transition into an SPV vehicle as soon as three months after the deal closes, he added. Its one of the biggest recent energy deals during the current administration.

There are different ways to do the purchase, and since we have to close the transaction as soon as possible, in the first phase well have a system of funding to serve as a bridge in the transaction, Yorio told Bloomberg Televisions Shery Ahn.

Read More: AMLO Widens States Reach With $6 Billion Iberdrola Deal (1)

After the transaction with Iberdrola is complete, the government will seek to partially exit it and involve local and international market participants through an alternative local instrument that could include Fibras, Cecades or Cerpis, he added on the sidelines of the interview. The deal will be listed in the local markets, he said, ruling out a private placement.

The countrys development bank trust Fonadin will receive a 45 billion-peso ($2.5 billion) contribution from the Finance Ministry to purchase a 51% stake in the deal, Finance Minister Rogelio Ramirez de la O previously announced. Bloomberg News reported Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Banco Santander SA and Bank of America Corp. have expressed interest in backing Mexico on the deal.

Here are other key points from the Bloomberg Television interview:

Mexicos government has strong commitment to supporting Pemex financing 2023 will be the year when we are piloting the new refineries

The Mexican peso is doing well due to remittances and macro fundamentals, the peso is expected to stay strong

Mexico is seeing a lot of commitment from ESG investors

--With assistance from Maya Averbuch and Philip Sanders.

(Updates with Pemex bond moves in fourth paragraph)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Last year, a Miami doctor got off lightly when he reached a settlement agreement with the Florida Board of Medicine for prescribing large doses of the addictive painkiller Oxycodone to a patient.

Dr. Daniel Alberto Carpman paid a fine of $7,500 and administrative costs of about $10,000. A letter of concern was also placed in his file at the state Department of Health, but he was still allowed to practice medicine.

Now, the 70-year-old Carpman is in much deeper trouble.

Arrested last week, Carpman pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a conspiracy to distribute and dispense thousands of Oxycodone pills to patients and was granted a $250,000 bond with strict conditions. They include giving up his state license to practice medicine, paying a $37,500 nonrefundable premium, confinement to his Brickell Avenue highrise condo, GPS electronic monitoring, and turning over his U.S. and Argentine passports.

Carpman, who was seated in a wheelchair and spoke Spanish, told Magistrate Judge Melissa Damian Visconti that he should qualify for a bond and was not a flight risk, saying that he had only traveled regularly to Argentina and Chile to see family members.

If you look at my record, I dont even have a speeding ticket, Carpman told the judge.

Although Carpman is charged alone, his case is linked to a network of about 10 people implicated in a massive Miami-Dade painkiller pill-mill ring that unlawfully sold millions of dollars worth of Oxycodone, the generic name for the highly addictive opioid, according to court records and federal prosecutors. Almost all of those defendants, including a Hialeah doctor, already pleaded guilty and were sentenced to various prison terms.

However, a U.S. Health and Human Services agent faces trial by himself at the end of the month after pleading not guilty to charges of conspiring to distribute Oxycodone while protecting members of the pill-mill racket with tips on enforcement actions. A few cooperating members of that ring are likely to testify against the agent, Alberico Ahias Crespo, who is also charged with witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

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After Wednesdays arraignment and bond hearing, Carpmans defense attorney, Peter Butlien, said he could not comment about the case because he was still reviewing it and meeting with family members. Some attended Wednesdays hearing.

The Carpman indictment, filed by lead federal prosecutor Christopher Clark, accuses the doctor of operating a pain management clinic, Donate Medical Center, on Coral Way in Miami and illegally distributing and dispensing Oxycodone between September 2018 and March 2023 in a conspiracy that highlights four prescriptions of 380 30 mg tablets for three different patients.

The indictment accuses Carpman of distributing and dispensing a controlled substance [Oxycodone] through prescriptions that were issued without a legitimate medical purpose by a practitioner acting outside the usual course of professional practice.

The indictment also mentions other defendants convicted in a related Oxycodone conspiracy case: Yandre Trujillo Hernandez and Jorge Diaz Gutierrez, who pleaded guilty and were sentenced to about six years. Trujillos partner, Anais Lorenzo, also pleaded guilty in that case and received three years in prison. The HHS agent, Crespo, charged in that case, stands trial on May 30.

There is not a scintilla of evidence that he was involved with any Oxycodone distribution, Crespos defense lawyer, Jose Quinon, said in a prior interview. There is no evidence that Al obstructed justice or prevented an investigation from going forward.

The Crepso indictment and other court records note that Trujillo, Diaz and Lorenzo distributed Oxycodone prescribed by a Hialeah doctor who ran two pain management clinics, including West Medical Office. Dr. Rudolph Gonzalez-Garcia, charged in a separate healthcare fraud conspiracy case, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Four other defendants were also charged in his case, including three who pleaded guilty and served short prison terms. One suspect is still at large, according to court records.
Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado eats an ice cream cone while walking in the halls of the US Capitol during the budget resolution proceedings on August 10, 2021 in Washington, DC. Liz Lynch/Getty Images

Sen. Michael Bennet discussed food politics with cookbook author Mark Bittman in a new podcast.

Bennet shared how he devoured Bittman's recipes during the pandemic and now cooks them regularly.

Bennet told Insider he whips up a briny tuna sandwich creation every chance he gets.

Sen. Michael Bennet proved how "obsessed" he's been with the award-winning recipes he gleaned from cookbook author Mark Bittman during the pandemic by posting a video of himself making the Mediterranean-style tuna sandwich that's rocked his dining world.

"I'm going to show you how to make the most sublime thing that is in Mark Bittman's cookbook," the Colorado Democrat says as he walks social media fans through a savory offering punched up by anchovy-spiked olive tapenade.

The non-traditional mash-up, which Bennet said he learned from Bittman's masterful "How to Cook Everything," is just one of the life-changing recipes he's committed to memory over the past few years.

"I think that combination with the tuna is really amazing," the four-term lawmaker told Insider between votes at the US Capitol, adding that, "I made it last weekend."

The online shout-out was just an appetizer for Bennet's debut Wednesday on Bittman's weekly podcast "Food with Mark Bittman," during which the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry member talked about his interest in food policy issues. Bennet said that invite came about after Bittman heard him dispensing familiar cooking tips with another interviewer who was contemplating their own dinner plans.

"The person at the end of the podcast said she was gonna go cook dinner, and I said, 'Well, what are you going to make?' And she said, 'Tofu. But I don't have a recipe for tofu,'" Bennet explained while walking through the Senate subway tunnels. "And I rattled off Mark Bittman's recipe for stir-fried tofu."

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Bittman delves into Bennet's day job, talking child poverty, the 2023 Farm bill, and the importance of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in overcoming food insecurity during their wide-ranging talk. Afterwards, Bennet tells Bittman that he scooped up "How to Cook Everything" shortly after Covid-19 hit and used it to hash out his daily meals while the congressional cafeterias remained shuttered.

Since then, Bennet said he's become an aficionado of cooking with a cast iron skillet and praised Bittman for helping him up his home cooking game.

"I think everybody feels like the last couple of years, the food's gotten a lot better in our house," Bennet said of family mealtimes. "And they're right."

Some of the other recipes Bennet said he now relies on include Bittman's take on roast chicken, fresh fish broiled in a cast iron pan, and a single-skillet feast Bittman describes as "the shrimp dish."

Bennet heralds it as "the best way to make shrimp," but informs Bittman that he does substitute chili powder for the prescribed dusting of hot paprika, and notes that he wraps the fiery shellfish in a tortilla.

While he typically mixes it up with fellow food writers and superstar chefs, Bittman does talk turkey with politicians from time to time. The cooking icon interviewed Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey in November 2022 and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in April 2022.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Photo : Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Texas Rep. Bryan Slaton resigned after an investigation committee recommended his dismissal due to sexual misconduct allegations involving a 19-year-old staffer.

A district court judge rejected transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr's request to return to the House floor

Republicans censured the Montana lawmaker over divisive remarks

District Court Judge Mike Menahan made the ruling

A Montana judge rejected transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr's request to return to the House floor after Republican lawmakers censured her over divisive remarks.

The issue started after Zephyr told Republican lawmakers that they would have blood on their hands if they continued to oppose gender surgery for kids. District Court Judge Mike Menahan decided to deny the transgender lawmaker's request.

Zooey Zephyr Loses Bid to Return to House Floor

The ruling came a few days after Montana lawmakers called on a judge to deny Zephyr's request to return to the House floor. Menahan argued that he had no authority to overrule the legislature and let Zephyr return to the House floor.

The judge's five-page ruling argued that the decision "would require this court to interfere with legislative authority in a manner that exceeds this court's authority." On the other hand, Zephyr said that the decision marked a sad day for the United States as the majority party can silence representation from the minority party in the blink of an eye, as per Fox News.

The Democratic Montana lawmaker made headlines nationwide after criticizing state colleagues who supported a bill to ban medical care for transitioning minors. In debating SB99, Zephyr said that those who supported it would see the blood on their hands when there was an invocation when they bowed their heads in prayer.

Republicans later led the chamber in a vote last week with a 68-32 result that supported a ban on the transgender lawmaker from accessing the House floor. This meant that Zephyr could not enter the anteroom or gallery but could still vote remotely.

Montana lawyers said that court intervention on Zephyr's behalf would violate the separation of powers. State Attorney General Austin Knudsen noted that the decision that day was a win for the rule of law and the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

Read Also: Vermont Passes Bill Allowing Non-Residents To Use Assisted Suicide Program

Opposing Conservative Policies

In response to the censure of Zephyr, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Montana said that Speaker of the House Matt Regier and Sergeant at Arms Bradley Murfitt's decision to ban the transgender lawmaker from the House floor had "unfairly, unjustly, and unconstitutionally" silenced the Zephyr's constituents, according to Reuters.

A spokesperson said that the ACLU initially considered its options, which included an appeal of the decision. However, it later acknowledged the difficulty of such efforts as the legislative session is set to end on Tuesday or Wednesday.

In an interview, Zephyr said she continues to stand by her remarks and will fight to return to the House floor. She added that she believes the legislature is "grossly out of step" with what people in Montana and across the United States want.

The situation is only the second instance in recent times that a Republican-led legislative body moved to punish Democratic lawmakers who made opposing remarks to policies that conservative lawmakers support, said BBC.

Related Article: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt Signs Bill Barring Youth Access to Gender-Affirming Care

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A Michigan school district implemented a backpack ban starting Monday over safety concerns.

The policy will be in place through the end of the school year, Flint Community Schools Superintendent Kevelin Jones said in a letter to parents. Students who bring backpacks to school will be sent to the office, where they'll need to call a parent or guardian to come pick up the bag.

"Across the country, we have seen an increase in threatening behavior and contraband, including weapons, being brought into schools at all levels," Jones wrote. "Backpacks make it easier for students to hide weapons, which can be disassembled and harder to identify or hidden in pockets, inside books or under other items."

Students will be allowed to bring small purses with personal items, clear plastic bags with clothes and lunchboxes, Jones said. The bags will be subject to search.

In the past, some school districts across the country have required students to use clear backpacks. Jones said clear backpacks don't completely fix security issues. In a guide for parents, the district wrote weapons can "still easily be hidden in clear backpacks."

"By banning backpacks altogether and adding an increased security presence across the district, we can better control what is being brought into our buildings," he wrote to parents.

The Flint Board of Education, the district's administration and principals approved Flint's new backpack policy, Jones said. They also have support from the Flint Police Department.

"We apologize for any inconvenience that this policy will have on our scholars and families, but when it comes to the safety of our school community, we will not take any chances," Jones said.

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Dickerson on the state of American civics
Microsoft chief economist Michael Schwarz on Wednesday warned the potential risk of bad actors using artificial intelligence (AI) should be more concerning than the possible loss of human jobs to the rapidly emerging tech.

Im quite confident that, yes, AI will be used by bad actors. And yes, it will cause real damage, Schwarz said at an event hosted by the Word Economic Forum, adding, And yes, we have to be very careful and very vigilant to avoid that by all means possible.

We have to put safeguards; I think people who worry about AI taking away jobs are paranoid, he said. I dont think people should be worried too much about it. Its a good thing when the AI makes us more productive. I think we should be worrying a lot more about AI being used by bad actors to cause damage.

The comments come amid growing concern about quickly developing artificial intelligence technologies and worries that AI could replace human workers in some sectors and jobs.

Earlier this week, a top AI scientist resigned from Google and sounded alarms about the potential dangers of the tech he helped develop.

Right now, theyre not more intelligent than us, as far as I can tell. But I think they soon may be, he said about the chatbots.

Schwartz on Wednesday warned that before AI comes for human jobs, it could certainly do a lot of damage in the hands of spammers, people who want to manipulate elections and so on and so forth.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Twice a year, as a real-life civics lesson, the Minnesota Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a high school in front of an audience of students. After the justices dispense with the docket, they take off their robes and talk to the kids.

And so it was recently that seven jurists found themselves on the auditorium stage in a midcentury brick school a few blocks outside Minneapolis, hearing a desegregation case that could have tectonic ramifications  including for Richfield High School.

Left to right: Minnesota Supreme Court Justices G. Barry Anderson, Lorie Skjerven Gildea, Natalie Hudson and Anne K. McKeig (Courtesy Minnesota Judicial Branch)

The question at hand: The U.S. Supreme Courts landmark Brown v. Board decision declared de jure  intentional, state-sanctioned  segregation to be unconstitutional. But what about de facto segregation, which in Cruz-Guzman v. State of Minnesota focuses on schools that are nearly entirely single-race because families of color have sought welcoming places for their children?

And what about places like Richfield, where Associate Justice Paul Thissens mother once taught? While the neighborhood was once home mostly to working-class whites, today, the schools enrollment is 75% students of color and 65% low-income.

If the plaintiffs win, Richfield will have to enroll a different student body, Thissen said in posing a question to one of the lawyers arguing before him: But theres no other high school to go to in this district. What are they supposed to do?

In the eight years since it was filed, Cruz-Guzman v. State of Minnesota has been the subject of a long, stalled mediation, two trips to an appellate court and, now, two trips to state Supreme Court. Its nowhere near ready for trial.

Related Court: Minnesota Schools Racial Imbalance Alone Not a Constitutional Violation

Sitting alongside a Whos Who of state officials, some 600 students watched silently throughout the hour-long hearing. It was a fast-paced drama, as the justices interrupted attorneys with pragmatic questions about desired outcomes and intellectual puzzles about the meaning of the state Constitutions education clause.

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If the debate among the attorneys was intense and seemingly irreconcilable, the students who lined up to question the justices after the hearing were equal parts hilarious and prescient.

My question is for this lady in pink  gorgeous, by the way, said Niya Briggs, the first teen at the mic, gesturing at Associate Justice Natalie Hudson and her vivid, two-tone jacket: How do you guys get into this sort of thing?

Richfield student Niya Briggs asks Supreme Court justices a question while a classmate waits his turn at the mic. (Beth Hawkins)

Hudsons response: Go to law school, get a liberal arts education and make sure to take classes that will teach you to write.

A long line formed while she was answering.

After hearing oral arguments, members of Minnesotas high court took off their robes and fielded questions from students  who lined up eagerly, awaiting their turn. (Beth Hawkins)

What do you do when the language in the Constitution doesnt directly address the arguments before you? Or if you do not personally agree with it?

Do you have a judicial philosophy, such as being a constructivist?

Do you take into account the changing values of younger generations?

Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea had cautioned the students that the judges couldnt take questions about the case being heard that day, but one asked anyhow, explaining that she and her friends were confused. As Gildea demurred, it was easy to imagine their confusion.

The state Constitutions guarantee of an adequate education  the actual words are general and uniform, a phrase that is often described as an adequacy clause  lies at the heart of the case. The plaintiffs are several Minneapolis and St. Paul families who want the justices to decide the case in their favor before it goes to trial by agreeing that racially imbalanced schools are by definition inadequate.

During the oral arguments, the states attorneys countered that schools and districts determine the quality of the education their students receive; nothing in the state Constitution or legal precedents requires a racial balance.

Several charter schools are participating in the case as intervenors because the remedy the plaintiffs seek could force them to enroll a cross-section of students, rather than taking all comers  regardless of their racial or socioeconomic background. This, they say, would devastate a number of small, culturally affirming schools where a majority of students are of a single race or ethnicity and are flourishing.

Associate Justice Paul Thissen, on stage to the left, earned raucous applause when he announced that his mother used to teach at Richfield High School. (Courtesy Minnesota Judicial Branch)

What Brown v. Board outlawed, their attorneys argue, is different from the current situation. The 1954 decision ruled that barring students of color from the same schools as white children violated the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Its not segregation, lawyers for the charter schools argued, when a family chooses a school for its children. Minnesota charter schools are required to admit students by lottery when there are more applicants than seats, so a school cant exclude anyone based on race, class or ability.

Related How Minnesotas Push to Integrate Schools Sparked a War Against Charters Serving Minority Families

The justices seemed unconvinced that the plaintiffs had established a relationship between integration and an adequate education. One asked repeatedly whether the case should be sent back to the trial court so that question might be probed in front of a jury.

Among the last questions posed by the students were a couple suggesting that, complicated though the proceedings were, the kids were listening:

When both sides make good arguments, how do you decide?

How can someone my age get involved?
Saltwater crocodile

The remains of an Australian man who vanished while fishing with friends have been found inside a crocodile.

Kevin Darmody, 65, was last seen at Kennedy's Bend - a well-known saltwater crocodile habitat in a remote part of northern Queensland - on Saturday.

After a two-day search of the area, police euthanised two large crocodiles and found human body parts.

Police said it was a "tragic ending" for Mr Darmody. A formal identification process will be carried out.

Mr Darmody was an experienced fisherman and a well-known member of the community in Cape York.

The two crocodiles, which measured 4.1m (13.4 ft) and 2.8m (9.2 ft) in length, were shot dead on Monday about 1.5 km (0.9 miles) from where he was last seen.

Human remains were found inside only one of the reptiles, but wildlife officers believe both were involved in the incident.

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The fishermen with Mr Darmody at the time did not see the attack, but reported hearing him yell, followed by a loud splash.

"I raced down but there was no sign of him, just his thongs [flip-flops] on the bank and nothing else," his friend John Peiti told the Cape York Weekly.

Crocodiles are common in Australia's tropical north, but attacks are rare. Mr Darmody's death is just the 13th fatal attack in Queensland since record-keeping began in 1985.

A fisherman was killed by a crocodile in similar circumstances on Queensland's Hinchinbrook Island in 2021, and there were also fatal attacks in the state's far north in 2017 and 2016.

Since a ban on hunting in 1974, Queensland's crocodile population has rebounded from a low of some 5,000 animals to around 30,000 today.

A 2019 report suggested an average of 1.7 adult crocs living in each kilometre of river surveyed.

Under Queensland's management programme, "problem crocodiles" are removed from areas where they threaten public safety and, in rare instances, euthanised.

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Those numbers are dwarfed by Australia's Northern Territory (NT), which is home to the world's largest wild crocodile population of some 100,000 reptiles.

Despite publicity campaigns to be "crocwise" around rivers, there was an average of 1-2 deaths from crocodile attacks in the Territory each year from 2005, but none have occurred since 2018.

Additional reporting by Tom Housden
D70 Alternative Learning Academy Principal Cheryl Vincent, Assistant Principal Samantha Muniz and school nurse Candess White stand near a welcome sign during the school's first Career Fair on May 1, 2023.

Under the leadership of Principal Cheryl Vincent, D70 Alternative Learning Academy wants to be known as more than just an online school.

Formerly known as D70 Online School, the K-12 alternative education campus' new name, D70 Alternative Learning Academy, was approved during a Pueblo County School District 70 board meeting on April 18. The name was chosen to better reflect the school's program delivery, which includes both online and in-person components.

With the new name, the school also has a new mascot, the Phoenix, and is seeking to connect its growing student body with community resources and field trip opportunities. D70 Alternative Learning Academy held its first Career Fair at its Baxter site, 301 28th Lane, on Monday, May 1.

Since Vincent's hiring in October, the school also has taken a field trip to explore education opportunities at Pueblo Community College, is planning a trip to Colorado State University Pueblo later this year and has introduced art classes to its offerings.

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"It's kind of like we have taken on a new mission here," Vincent said. "Instead of just being a traditional alternative school ... We are adding the layers that go along to cultivating in these young people, not only their high school diploma, but what comes after that ... What they could really do and what they could really be."

Samantha Muniz is the assistant principal at D70 Alternative Learning Academy's Baxter site. She helped organize Monday's Career Fair with school nurse Candess White. Muniz and White wanted the fair to not only connect the students with career opportunities, but also wellness and life skills resources.

More than 20 organizations providing community resources, health care, career and educational opportunities were represented at this year's fair. Attendees included Health Solutions, Morton Electric, the city of Pueblo's Civil Service Commission and Pueblo Community Health Center, among others. Muniz and White intend to make the career fair an annual event.

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"It's all about the kids," Muniz said. "What can we do for them? How do we show them we care? How do we get them the resources they need in their hands?"

D70 Alternative Learning Academy has two locations. The Baxter site serves students from Mesa, Rye and Beulah-area neighborhoods. Students from Pueblo West are served at 368 S. McCulloch Blvd.

Students receive direct instruction four days a week, in the form of 2-hour, 15-minute sessions at their respective site. There are three sessions: 7:30-9:45 a.m., 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and 1-3 p.m. Students are expected to attend at least one in-person session and complete the rest of their online school work at home. There are some exceptions to this expectation, but only 1% of students work completely remote.

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There are various reasons why a student may leave a traditional school setting to attend the D70 Alternative Learning Academy. Some students were bullied at their former schools. Others may work full-time jobs or simply desire a smaller class size. At the middle and high school level, each class session has approximately 15 to 20 students, Vincent said.

Enrollment at the D70 Alternative Learning Academy is by referral. Parents and guardians of Pueblo D70 students may speak with counselor, dean or principal at their child's current school to recommend a referral to the D70 Alternative Learning Academy.

Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo D70 school rebrands as D70 Alternative Learning Academy
A Missouri Republican has offered legislation that would allow for women to be charged with murder if they get an abortion in the state.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican, would give fetuses the same rights as human beings, which would allow for criminal charges to be filed against anyone who gets an abortion, helps someone get an abortion or provides abortion care.

The bill does not explicitly mention whether going out of state to get an abortion would be illegal. Abortions are still available at clinics close to the Missouri border in Kansas and Illinois, where the procedure remains legal.

It does allow for a duress defense and does not allow for criminal charges if the abortion was performed to save the patients life or if a doctor accidentally aborts a fetus during a life-saving medical procedure on the pregnant person.

Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Pro-Choice Missouri, an organization advocating for reproductive rights in the state, said the bill would put pregnant people in harms way and make it unsafe for them to discuss their needs with family and friends.

We also know that criminalizing someones support system, their doctors, their friends, family, partners that may assist them in getting access to needed abortion care creates a culture of shame, Schwarz said.

The bill was considered Wednesday at a hearing by the Missouri Senate Health and Welfare Committee. Moon did not attend the hearing due to a family emergency.

A large crowd holding anti-abortion signs gathered outside the hearing room to support the bill. Bradley Pierce, the president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, testified in support of the legislation.

I hold the supposedly extreme position that murdering anyone should be illegal for everyone, Pierce said. Because everyone is created in the image of God.

However, one the states top anti-abortion organizations, Missouri Right To Life, is opposed to the bill.

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We want to reach out to women and have compassion for them and help them to see that they have alternatives to abortion, but we dont want to prosecute them, said Susan Klein, executive director of Missouri Right To Life.

Sam Lee, a longtime anti-abortion lobbyist and director of Campaign For Life, also testified that Missouri should not criminalize women for getting abortions.

Two women testified at the hearing about the abortions they received and said their birth control methods failed when they were college students in their early 20s.

Sam Hawickhorst, one of the women who testified about her abortion, said she was 22 at the time and a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Now 28, she said regular people have abortions and they arent monsters.

We deserve to live our lives. We shouldnt be having an economic and physical barrier caused by being forced to carry a child, Hawickhorst said.

Missouri was the first state to enact a trigger law banning abortions when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The states law now prohibits all abortions except in cases of medical emergency.

Another bill relating to Missouris abortion ban was weighed Wednesday, and would exclude the use of birth control from the definition of abortion. Sponsored by Sen. Greg Razer, a Kansas City Democrat, the bill would also include ectopic pregnancies in the definition of medical emergency.

What my bill does is just clarify, contraception is not considered an abortion. That it is perfectly legal in the state of Missouri, Razer said.

Schwarz said that Razers good intentions may sow confusion about whether birth control is legal, and lead people to be scared of seeking contraception. She said they should not fight political interference in medicine with more political interference.
Miyas Law, which strengthens tenant safety across Florida, is now law in another state.

Investigators said Miya Marcano was murdered by a maintenance worker who had a master key to her Arden Villas Apartment.

The tragic case of Marcanos death in Central Florida has made its impact 700 miles away.

Watch: Miyas Law now in effect, strengthens renter safety in Florida

The Virginia House of Delegates recently stood in silence for the slain Valencia College student.

Delegate Candi Mundon King introduced a bill that mirrors Miyas Law signed into law in Florida last year.

It requires background screening for all apartment employees and creates standard procedures to store and log master keys.

Watch: One of our better days: Miya Marcanos mother speaks after tenant safety bill signed into law

Delegate King said she was shocked to learn apartment complexes were not required to do background checks or track master key use.

We worked with realtor association apartment owners, different industry experts to get the bill right size for Virginia, King said.

Miyas mom, Yma Scarbriel, spoke virtually to Virginia lawmakers in both chambers about turning her pain into purpose.

Watch: 1 year later: Neighbors reflect on death of Miya Marcano at hand of apartment maintenance worker

Something bad like that had to happen for something, like, good for this to come out of it, Scarbriel said.

The Marcano family is working to connect with leaders in other states like Georgia and Louisiana to keep Miyas legacy alive.

See more in the video above.

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.
Christian Bowers, now 24, had many friends in high school, but after graduating five years ago, it's been hard to find good friends. Christian has Down syndrome, and his mom, Donna Herter, said his lack of friends was making him feel depressed.

"[He was] just constantly asking where his friends are, why doesn't anybody want to come over and spend some time with him," Herter, who lives near Rochester, Minnesota, told CBS News. "We would go to Walmart or the store and he would invite half the store to come home with us and play video games with us. And of course, nobody would. And he just doesn't understand why."

Herter didn't know where to turn. So, she posted on Facebook. "I just basically said that I was looking for a young man, between the ages of 20 and 28, local," she said. "I told them that I'd pay them $80 for two hours to basically just hang out and play video games with him. All he really wants is just a guy friend to do guy stuff with."

Christian Bowers has Down syndrome, and his mom, Donna Herter, said the lack of friends was making him feel depressed. She didn't know where to turn. So, she posted on Facebook. / Credit: Donna Herter

Herter is a nurse, working the overnight shift. She sent the post at 4 a.m. before ending her workday. And when she woke up, it had about 5,000 comments.

"I was freaking out. My hands were shaking, I was sweating. I was just looking for some local guys, I didn't want to invite like the entire world into our house," she said. She was overwhelmed and thought about deleting the post  but a friend told her to look at the replies first.

She saw parents offering suggestions, others volunteering to help  and some parents of children with special needs asking for advice themselves.

Donna Herter interviewed local guys in Minnesota and found seven that now visit Christian on a rotating schedule. / Credit: Donna Herter

Friendships are important for people born with Down syndrome, but leaving school and becoming an adult may make maintaining those relationships difficult. Some adults with Down syndrome may face barriers, like not being able to drive to see their friends, according to the National Down Syndrome Society, or NDSS.

Having social relationships is important for everyone's mental health  including those with Down syndrome. According to a 2018 study in Australia, young adults with Down syndrome with at least three social relationships often showed a significantly better quality of life, according to an assessment by researchers.

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NDSS says it's "vitally important" for adults with Down syndrome to plan for how they will socialize once they leave school, and clubs, volunteering or further education are good options.

There are many organizations that help people with Down syndrome find opportunities to be social and to work.

Herter said Christian attends events for people with special needs, but he "craves a friendship with somebody who is neurotypical. He doesn't want to only hang out with somebody with special needs."

"And I've never asked him, but I assume because it kind of makes him feel normal, just for an hour or two. 'Hey, somebody who doesn't have Down syndrome wants to hang out with me,'" she said.

After interviewing a few local guys in Wentzville, Minnesota, Donna narrowed it down to seven who now visit Christian visit once a week on a rotating schedule.

James Hasting was one of the men she chose. He saw the post because a friend tagged him in it. "When I first read the post, I was heartbroken that she felt she needed to pay people to be friends with Christian," Hasting told CBS News.

Hasting said he works with people with disabilities and it's something he has a passion for. He said he's visited Christian three times so far and they usually play video games or watch a movie.

"Christian has taught me to look at the world for more than what we see on the surface," Hasting said. "Because though on the surface we may look different, deep down we all have similarities and getting along should be easy."

He said he hopes this story teaches others it's OK to be different. "Just because someone is different than what you are used to, it doesn't mean that they aren't the same at heart."

Herter's post also lead to more opportunities for Christian  people around the country send him gifts, he was invited to hang out with local firefighters, was named honorary mayor of nearby Wentzville for the day and went bowling with local marines.

"He every night goes to bed with a smile on his face. He tells everybody about his new friends. He gets so excited talking about life now and what he's doing," Herter said. "But I still think the one thing he likes the most is that one-on-one. Just that guy coming over."

Herter hopes to inspire others to form friendships  because you never know how much it means to someone. "Everybody needs a friend," she said. "I thought about it one day. I just sat there and I was like, 'What if I have zero friends? What if I had literally not one person to call, to talk to, to hang out, to have lunch with.' And man, it just really hit me thinking about that, how lonely that would be."

"Knowing there's so many people out there that are wanting that relationship, or wanting a friend, I really hope people reach out in their community and find out where those people are, how to get ahold of them, how to hang out with them."

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Burke

Monroe County Right to Life is leading an effort to unite and partner with pro-life organizations and pregnancy resource centers in the region to improve communication and messaging on crucial issues like the abortion pill, abortions in Michigan and support for women in crisis.

The Right to Life board discussed options and future steps on a recent movement to build a partnership with local organizations. The aim is to build and grow relationships with each organization and center and develop a community calendar of pro-life events, Robert Burke, president of the board, said.

We all have the same message and goals  to protect the sanctity of life, Burke told the board Thursday night and representatives from about a half-dozen organizations present. We want to bring a unified voice for Monroe County to change the hearts and minds of people. This would  help each organization grow and make us aware of whats going on.

He said failure to defeat Proposal C at the polls in November signaled that what the pro-life movement had done successfully in the past was no longer working. Passage of the proposal enshrined abortion in the states constitution and created an unlimited, unrestricted right to abortion on demand.

Proposal 3 confirmed our problem, Burke explained. All the organizations came together and fought hard against it in Monroe County. We defeated it here, but not in Wayne, Washtenaw and Macomb counties. It was a reality check.

Passage of the proposal did not automatically repeal a ban on abortions in Michigan that had been in effect for the past 192 years, but since it was an amendment to the state constitution it nullified any existing bans. In March, the Democratic-controlled state Legislature voted to repeal the state's 1931 abortion ban as well as its sentencing guidelines. The bills were passed along party lines, with Republicans opposing removal of the ban.

Burke cited a huge lack of education for decades that led to Michigan no longer being the No. 1 pro-life state in America. A major stumbling block for pro-life advocates today, he said, is a majority of people dont share our values. They have believed the lies and misinformation that abortion is good for women.

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He said pro-lifers must do things differently to get their message out.

Were a partnership, he told the board. The first step is coming together and collectively, we can make a deeper impact on the county than separately. Many people dont know we exist. We need more communication and know each others activities and events so we dont overlap each other.

Burke urged support for pro-life events such as the Monroe Walk for Life May 13, the Michigan March for Life Nov. 8 in Lansing, and a Baby Shower and Ministry Fair held April 23 in Temperance. Right to Life is sponsoring a bus to take county residents to the state march and is hoping for a strong presence from the county, he said.

The board discussed ways to target youth and its messages about what actually happens during an abortion and the dangers of mifepristone, commonly known as the abortion pill. Instead of requiring the pills to be supplied directly by abortion doctors, pharmacies are now able to fill prescriptions for the drug under a January ruling by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Joe Boggs, a public school teacher and head of a Catholic youth group in Monroe, suggested that both a secular and Christian curriculum be adopted in the schools to make students aware of the sanctity of life and ethics and tools to build a good foundation of values for the rest of their lives.

Im passionate about this  we need to change the culture and teens, Boggs said.

Other board members agreed and noted that what happens to a baby in an abortion isnt being taught in schools.

Bill Terrasi, founder of the lus Vitae Foundation and coordinator for the Monroe Walk, said the partnership must find ways to reach women in crisis pregnancies. He said abortion supporters were united in lockstep to push for the wrong message and action. He said the partnership was a perfect opportunity to launch a united front of pro-life education models that are working in other states.

These women are innocent as the baby in their womb, Terrasi said. Yet they are being pressured by men, their doctors and parents to have the abortion. We have to meet women where they are and tell the truth about the sanctity of life.

Amanda Wuebben, board secretary, said one desperate mom who was taking care of four children sought assistance from a local pregnancy center.

If the churches knew about this, they would help, Wuebben said.

That prompted a suggestion that the partnership could also meet with area pastors to get their ideas for helping women in need.

Burke said reaching young people in the schools and colleges was a priority.

We have to plant seeds to promote a pro-life ethic as they enter the workplace and marketplace, he said. We have to bring them a message they can understand and see actions and mercy you show them.

Among the organizations represented at the meeting were Walking With Moms in Need, HeartBeat of Monroe, Salehs Center of Hope, New Beginnings Mercy House, Monroe Knights of Columbus and the Commission for the Protection of Life and Innocents.

The next collaborative meeting of the organizations and Right to Life will be held June 8 at Family Counseling and Shelter Services office, Suite 106, 14930 LaPlaisance Road.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe County Right to Life eyes partnership, targeting youth
A 69-year-old Monroe Township man, sentenced to eight years in federal prison for hiring an undercover officer to kill his ex-wife and her daughter, requested the daughter be killed first so her mother would suffer, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Michael Stewart pleaded guilty Sept. 19, 2022, before U.S. District Court Judge Julien Xavier Neals to one count of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder for hire.

Stewart, who also must serve three years of supervised release, was sentenced Tuesday by Neals in Newark federal court.

According to court documents, in the summer of 2021 Stewart told a confidential source he wanted to have his ex-wife and her daughter killed and offered payment for the service. He asked the confidential source to find someone to commit the murders.

Court documents indicate Stewart regularly traveled to Baltimore and used a cellphone while out of state to communicate with the confidential source and others.

Around Oct. 19, 2021, he used the cellphone to arrange a meeting with the confidential source to discuss the plan to arrange the murders, court documents say.

About six days later, Stewart met with an undercover law enforcement officer, equipped with two audio recording devices, in New Jersey. During that meeting Stewart said he wanted his ex-wife's daughter "done first" and then his ex-wife but would "pay for both," according to court documents.

More: Complete coverage, timeline for murder-for-hire case that has NJ political world abuzz

When asked if Stewart wanted the women killed in any particular way, he responded, "I don't give a f*** how you do it," court papers say.

The undercover agent confirmed he could kill the daughter and then the ex-wife. Stewart assured the undercover agent, "I got the money," court papers say.

Stewart indicated to the undercover agent that he wanted the daughter killed first "cause she started the whole thing" and he wanted to make her mother suffer.

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Stewart also advised the undercover agent that he should wait about six months after killing the daughter to kill the ex-wife, court papers say.

Stewart also said he wanted the daughter killed away from the home because he was concerned the ex-wife would realize it was a "hit" and she would run, court papers say.

Stewart said he had previously asked another person to commit the murders and provided that individual with a "brand new gun," but that person was arrested, court papers say.

He also explained he had been arrested after putting a GPS tracking device on the daughter's car.

"When I went to take it off, I didn't know they had a camera there and they caught the whole s**," court papers say.

Stewart said if the daughter was killed away from the house, the undercover agent could come back and kill the ex-wife in the house, court papers say.

Stewart said he couldn't commit the murders himself because he needed an alibi. He also provided the undercover agent with the layout of the property and information about the type of cars used by the two women, court papers say.

Stewart also showed the undercover agent a photo of his ex-wife on his phone and provided the undercover agent with $500 as a partial payment for the killings, according to court papers.

Email: srussell@gannettnj.com

Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ man sentenced for murder-for-hire plot against ex-wife
Today, U.S. Special Presidential Coordinator Amos Hochstein and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland co-hosted the inaugural meeting of the U.S. - Canada Energy Transformation Taskforce. The Taskforce is a key outcome of President Biden's March 23-24 visit with Prime Minister Trudeau in Ottawa.

The Taskforce will work with departments and agencies across both governments to accelerate cooperation on critical clean energy opportunities and supply chains, including but not limited to, securing and strengthening renewable energy and electric vehicle supply chains, critical minerals, grid integration and resilience, current and next generation civil nuclear technologies, and other areas that advance our collective energy security, and to avoid and reduce disruptions to our integrated and complementary supply chains.

READ NEXT: Statement from President Joe Biden on New Steps to Punish and Deter Wrongful Detention and Hostage-Taking



At the Taskforce meeting, the United States and Canada affirmed their commitments to our shared priorities to deploy clean energy solutions at scale, electrify our economies, and support the development of critical mineral and electric vehicle supply chains that will fuel the future North America automotive industry. The co-chairs further refined strategic priorities and next steps for the year-long Energy Transformation Taskforce.

READ MORE: The Biden-Harris Administration Will End COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements for Federal Employees, Contractors, International Travelers, Head Start Educators, and CMS-Certified Facilities

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Reuters) - Censured Montana transgender Representative Zooey Zephyr on Tuesday lost a last-minute legal attempt to rejoin debate on the House floor, as a Montana judge rejected her attempt to overturn the legislature's punishment that silenced her.

Republicans controlling Montana's House of Representatives on April 26 barred Zephyr, a Democrat, from the House floor, anteroom or gallery for the remainder of the legislative session, which could end as soon as Tuesday night.

The censure was punishment for breaking decorum during debates on transgender bills including one that would deny healthcare treatment for transgender youth.

Zephyr told Republicans they would have "blood on your hands," prompting them to cut off her microphone, and days later she was later denied floor privileges for encouraging a noisy but peaceful demonstration that disrupted a House session.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana had argued that Speaker of the House Matt Regier and Sergeant at Arms Bradley Murfitt had "unfairly, unjustly, and unconstitutionally" silenced Zephyr's constituents.

District Court Judge Mike Menahan found the court's authority was limited due to the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches.

"Even if the Court ultimately finds the House of Representatives, Speaker Regier, and Sergeant at Arms Murfitt acted unlawfully under the facts of this case, it does not have the authority to issue a broad permanent injunction to effectively remove all legislative authority ... in relation to a single member," Menahan wrote in his order.

The ACLU of Montana was considering its options including appeal but acknowledged a practical difficulty considering the legislative session was expected to end Tuesday night or Wednesday, a spokesperson said.

Montana's governor signed the bill denying gender-affirming care to minors into law on Friday, two days after the House voted to censure Zephyr.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Richard Chang)
On Tuesday evening, doctors across the state anxiously tuned in to to a press conference to hear Republican lawmakers describe their abortion bill.

They listened  while texting physician group chats, or sitting at the dinner table or huddled over a laggy computer  as legislators detailed a 12-week abortion ban with exceptions for fetal abnormalities and pregnancies that result from rape or incest.

Even though talks of this ban had been in the works for several months, the legislation announced at the press conference was disappointing for many doctors, several of whom had advocated against further abortion restrictions at the state house.

(We) have worked really hard to educate legislators for the past several months about why an abortion ban in North Carolina would be a bad idea, said Dr. Jonas Swartz, a Duke Health abortion provider.

The press conference  which he said included several pieces of health misinformation about the safety of abortions  was disappointing on multiple levels, he said.

Dr. Erica Pettigrew, who found it too upsetting to watch the live press conference, had secretly held out hope the outcome of the lawmakers closed-door talks would be different.

It had been swirling around for a long time, but I still had hope that there were enough reasonable people on both sides of the aisle in the state legislature  that they would listen to the doctors, said Pettigrew, a Hillsborough family medicine doctor. But they didnt. So here we are.

The way lawmakers framed the legislation  as a commonsense and reasonable approach that is pro-family, pro-mother, pro-baby  incensed the physicians interview by the N&O.

I dont think theres any common sense to politicians legislating medicine, said Dr. Jenna Beckham, a Triangle abortion provider.

For Pettigrew, the impact this bill will have on North Carolinians was immediately obvious:

Its no longer hypothetical, she said. I mean, people get substandard care. More people will die.

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Triangle doctors were ultimately left with more questions than answers from the press conference. Which fetal anomalies would be granted an exception? What would new restrictions on abortion clinics look like?

Im still a little bit confused, Beckham said. I think a large part of that is because its non-health care providers trying to describe medical terminology and procedures. It seemed very clear to me that they dont even quite understand what theyre talking about.

The answers to those questions were expected to come later Tuesday when the bill was supposed to be posted online. The legislature  where Republicans have enough votes to approve the legislation and override a likely veto  is expected to vote on the measure Wednesday and Thursday.

Teddy Rosenbluth covers science and health care for The News & Observer in a position funded by Duke Health and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
Morocco is home to the vast Noor-Ouarzazate Solar Complex

Morocco has big ambitions to export electricity produced by solar and wind farms to Europe, but should it be prioritising such renewable energy for its home market?

"The resources we have here could be one of the big, big answers to European demand," says Moroccan energy entrepreneur Moundir Zniber.

Mr Zniber is a passionate man who senses opportunity out of crisis.

"I think Morocco represents the best opportunity to get the European continent away from the dependency it has today on Russian gas," he says.

Mr Zniber has spent the past 15 years building his company, Gaia Energy, into one of the leaders of a renewable energy revolution in his home country.

"Morocco has truly one of the best solar and wind resources in the world combined," he says. "We don't have oil, we don't have natural gas, but we have a potential that is just amazing."

The war in Ukraine has catalysed Europe's politicians to increase their efforts to tackle climate change with new sources of clean energy. Morocco hopes to be part of the solution.

It is on Europe's doorstep, and has ambitious plans to generate 52% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The hope is that lots of this electricity will be exported via undersea cables to Europe.

But at present, the country still has to build many more solar and wind farms. Currently the north African nation of 39 million people depends on imports for 90% of its energy needs, and most of that is from fossil fuels.

In 2021, some 80.5% of Morocco's electricity production came from burning coal, gas and oil. By contrast, only 12.4% came from wind power, and 4.4% came from solar.

Moundir Zniber's company Gaia Energy is developing wind, solar and green hydrogen power projects in 12 countries across Africa

However, Morocco is already making some tangible progress to boost its renewable energy generation, thanks to projects such as the huge Noor-Ouarzazate Solar Complex. With the first phase opening back in 2016, this is now the world's largest concentrated solar power plant.

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Such facilities use mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto central tower "receivers". These contain fluid that is heated by the light, creating steam that spins turbines to generate electricity.

At Noor-Ouarzazate the mirrors are now spread over 3,000 hectares (11.6 sq miles). The facility was developed by Saudi Arabian firm ACWA Power, with funding also coming from the World Bank and European Investment Bank.

Mr Zniber says that private Moroccan firms like his are now planning to export solar and wind-generated electricity to Europe, and green hydrogen - hydrogen that has been created by renewable energy.

He adds that Gaia Energy is developing wind and solar schemes that could meet up to 4% of Germany and Italy's electricity needs. "And in terms of green hydrogen we have six projects our company is developing that could answer 25% of the needs of the EU."

Meanwhile, British energy start-up Xlinks has plans to build an undersea electricity cable from Morocco to the UK. Its hope is that Moroccan solar and wind power can provide 8% of the UK's electricity requirements by 2030.

Morocco is also investing in wind power, such as this wind farm near Tangiers

Increasing the size of Morocco's solar and wind power generation could help bolster economic growth in the country, according to the World Bank. It has provided millions of dollars of funding for the sectors.

The benefits include a decoupling from the "very heavy volatility of the prices of fossil fuels", according to the World Bank's lead economist for the region, Moez Cherif.

In a country with an unemployment rate of 11.2%, Mr Cherif adds that it could create as many as 28,000 much needed new jobs each year.

He also says it would allow Morocco to "position itself as an industrial hub for investments for exports of green industrial products" such as car manufacturing using renewable energy.

Yet the World Bank estimates that it will cost $52bn (41.6bn) for Morocco to hit its 2030 renewables target, with most of that money having to come from the private sector. The Moroccan government agrees with that.

The administration is acutely aware of the potential benefits, and is trying to accelerate the renewable vision first laid out by King Mohammed VI in 2009.

Morocco's Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development Leila Benali says some of the slow growth in renewables in the country in recent years has been caused by global factors.

Energy Transition Minister Leila Benali is trying to speed up the country's shift to renewable power

"The world is just coming out from a historic pandemic, total dislocation of supply chains and value chains - also affecting renewable energy, including the way we trade solar panels and wind turbines."

However, she acknowledges there are also internal hurdles to overcome.

Those include "speeding up and streamlining bureaucracy", including making sure companies get things such as "access to land permits relatively fast to ensure that investors get access to the opportunities that they want".

Mrs Benali adds that the government's energy strategy is based on the three pillars of ramping up renewables, increasing efficiency, and more integration into international energy markets.

When asked if it makes sense to export green electricity before all of Morocco's own needs are met through renewables, Mrs Benali says that the "priority" is for Moroccans to have access to the "lowest-cost" green energy.

She adds that there is also a need to take advantage of the "historic opportunity" to integrate with Europe's energy market, and that such opportunities could be an incentive for the much needed private investment.

The World Bank's Moez Cherif believes that Morocco should both increase exports of renewable power, and add more for domestic consumption. "Ideally you should do both," he says.

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More from the BBC's series taking an international perspective on trade.

At last November's COP27 climate change conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Morocco signed a memorandum of understanding with France, Germany, Portugal and Spain to make it easier to sell power across borders.

However, climate change activist Hajar Khalmichi, from the Mediterranean Youth Climate Network, says she wants to see Morocco fulfil all its domestic energy needs from renewables before thinking of exporting any electricity.

She also thinks that the ambition of 52% of electricity coming from renewables doesn't go far enough, and that there hasn't been enough discussion about where the rest will come from as Morocco tries to lower its dependency on its gas, oil and coal power stations.

Ms Khalmichi adds that she is also concerned that the country is exploring for natural gas off its coastline.

The Moroccan government counters that it has similar challenges to other countries that are going big on renewables, and that it needs gas to deal with the fact that the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine.

Mr Cherif says "there may be a role, a transition role for natural gas [in Morocco]" as the move from fossil fuels to renewables will be a gradual one over the course of decades.

Moundir Zniber adds that Morocco needs "a mix" of energy sources. "Renewables are part of the solution on the electric side."
Ukrainian military personnel on an armored personnel carrier near the front line in the Donetsk Oblast, May 2, 2023

"Let's ask two questions: first, do the Kremlin and the Russian military command fear the Ukrainian counteroffensive?" Musiienko asked.

Read also: Ukraines defense minister hopes Ukrainian counter-offensive to start unexpectedly

Of course, they do, they are afraid and wary, this is unequivocal.

Only real combat operations can show whether the enemy is ready or not for the Ukrainian counteroffensive, he said.

"But the fact that they are afraid, nervous, that they are really taking some chaotic steps, I agree with you  it is true," he added.

Read also: Russia blames Ukraine for overnight drone attack on Kremlin

This shows that the enemy is reacting with uncertainty and nervously to Ukraines preparations for the counteroffensive, to the fact that we are finally getting more modern weapons, that we are training our forces at NATO training grounds. Of course, this puts pressure on the enemy, including psychological pressure, and I think it will lead to mistakes, that's for sure.

Vehicle movement and artillery strikes were observed at the front line on April 30, and explosions were regularly heard hitting vital Russian targets in the occupied territories, reported CNN. The 72 hours prior especially revealed Russia's lack of readiness for the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Read also: Russian invaders move most warships to Russia after blasts in occupied Crimea

Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on May 1 that preparations for the Ukrainian counteroffensive were in the home stretch.

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
Marlene Pizarro, left, a teacher at Lake Wales High, with her daughter, Ariana Pizarro, a 17-year-old senior at the school who competed in girls weightlifting. Marlene and Ariana were among the four people killed in a shooting in Lake Wales early Tuesday.

The suspect in a quadruple homicide in Lake Wales early Tuesday morning was killed in a shootout with police as they attempted to take him into custody Wednesday.

According to Lake Wales Police Department officials, Al Joseph Stenson fled to Slumberland Motel in Sanford, after shooting and killing a mother and her three children.

While police have released few details about the crimes, Stenson was described by police as the boyfriend of one of the victims. Police said they all knew each other. The names of the victims were not released by police because of Marsys Law.

But The Ledger learned Wednesday that the mother who died in the shooting was Marlene Pizarro, a teacher at Lake Wales High School, and that her daughter, Ariana Pizarro, 17, a senior at the school and member of the girls weightlifting team who was set to graduate in two weeks.

The other victims, both children of Marlene Pizarro, were 21 and 11, but their names were not confirmed as of Wednesday afternoon.

Marlene Pizarro's Facebook page on Wednesday showed several pictures of her with Stenson.

"The Lake Wales Charter School System is deeply saddened by the tragic events that occurred last night. We have taken all necessary steps to ensure that counselors are available for our students and teachers," the charter district's superintendent, Wayne Rodolfich, said in a emailed statement Wednesday afternoon. "This process began last night, and we will continue to respond to student and faculty needs with all necessary resources. We appreciate the support of the Lake Wales Police Department, the Polk County Sheriffs Office, and Polk County Public Schools as they have helped us navigate this loss. We are praying for our children, our teachers, and our community during this difficult time."

Officers originally responded to a medical call at the residence on Tuesday evening and found the four bodies of a mother and her three children  one adult and two juveniles  dead from apparent gunshot wounds, police said.

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After Stenson, 38, was located in Sanford, detectives worked with Sanford Police Department and Seminole County Sheriffs Office in an attempt to take him into custody.

Stenson made statements that he would kill himself or force law enforcement to kill him, a Lake Wales Police Department release stated.

Stenson was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said Stenson, fled the scene about 5 a.m. Tuesday after the shooting at the Dawnlight Drive in Sunrise Apartments. Family members discovered the victims later in the evening and then notified law enforcement via a call to 911 at 8:51 p.m.

According to Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma, at about 2 a.m. Wednesday police received reports of Stenson's vehicle being seen across the street from the Slumberland where his brother was staying. About 6 a.m. the SWAT team arrived on the scene and negotiations between police officials and the suspect's brother began and went on "for hours."

Negotiators were successful in getting the brother to come out of the hotel, Lemma said, but Stenson refused to surrender.

"At one time, we were able to talk him into putting the handgun down and step away from it," Lemma said.

After he stepped away, Lemma said Stenson was shot with a less lethal option - a foam projectile.

But Lemma said the projectile had little effect on the Stenson and "the suspect immediately went for the gun on the ground, prompting members of SWAT and the Sanford police department to open fire.

"As soon as the suspect hit the ground, they immediately administered CPR," Lemma said.

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This guy is a murderer, a threat and he did not fully comply with the orders to walk far enough away from the firearm where we felt like he could not get to it in a matter of time when he presented a threat to the officers who were on the scene," Lemma said. "He was close enough in proximity to the firearm where he posed a threat to the officers who were on the scene.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office is among the law enforcement agencies that helped identify the suspect.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact Detective Ricky Hartwell with the Lake Wales Police Department at 863-678-4223. Or, if you would like to stay anonymous and be eligible for a cash reward through Heartland Crime Stoppers, call 800-226 TIPS (8477).

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lake Wales teacher and 3 kids shot to death. Suspect killed by police
This might be a first.

Moms want something for Mothers Day besides steak.

After years of prime steakhouses filling every seat for lunch on Mothers Day, theyre mostly wide open this year while the newest or prettiest restaurants are full.

Cafe Modern is nearly booked. So are classy newcomers Don Artemio, Goat & Vine and Quince, along with beloved Rise n3 Souffle and Waters.

But you can pick any time at the chain prime steakhouses, although there are fewer tables at perpetual favorite Capital Grille.

In Texas, this is big news.

Not too many years ago, a Star-Telegram readers poll awarded Del Friscos the title of Most Romantic.

Even midprice restaurants with a fun spirit such as Chicago-based Doc Bs Restaurant + Bar, clean food HG Sply Co. and Burlesons overachieving American Revelry have strong bookings compared to steakhouses.

Heres a look at a few top restaurants and hotels with space available:

 Ellerbe Fine Foods, 1501 W. Magnolia Ave., will open for a special $68 Mothers Day brunch featuring citrus-garlic shrimp, Lousiana grillades-and-grits or a spinach-and-egg biscuit, plus salad or BLT soup and lemon-berry tiramisu.

Ellerbe now takes reservations at resy.com, with no deposit but a $25-per-person fee for late cancellations; 817-926-3663, ellerbefinefoods.com.

Baklava cheesecake at Quince restaurant March 27, 2023.

 Quince, on the Trinity Trail at 1701 River Run, has a few tables available early and late.

Quince has expanded its menu since opening and now offers entrees ranging from Cajun shrimp and sea bass to steaks. The brunch menu hasnt started yet, but some items will be ready for Mothers Day.

The best news at Quince  15 in Spanish, from the original locations address in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico  is that the in-house dessert menu continues to grow.

The six desserts now include Quinces own Black Forest cake  creamy like the German version, not the familiar local dacquoise  a pavlova, tiramisu in a martini glass and baklava cheesecake.

Quince is open for lunch and dinner daily; 682-385-9073, quincesma.com/fw.

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on the patio of 61 Osteria in downtown Fort Worth on Monday, March 6, 2023. The restaurant is opening a new patio space to enjoy this spring.

 Grace, 777 Main St., and 61 Osteria, 500 W. Seventh St., are cousin restaurants with tables available.

Grace, a locally owned prime steakhouse, opens for brunch only on a few special Sunday holidays, offering egg dishes along with the regular menu; 817-877-3388, gracefortworth.com.

61 Osteria is a flashy new Italian restaurant open for brunch every weekend; 817-953-3271, 61osteria.com.

The Maine Lobster Benedict at Luciles features two poached eggs on chunks of Maine lobster and hollandaise sauce on an English muffin.

One of Fort Worths best high-end chicken-fried steaks is served at Luciles Stateside Bistro.

 Luciles A Stateside Bistro, 4700 Camp Bowie Blvd., just celebrated its 30th anniversary as one of the citys longstanding brunch favorites.

Its not heavily booked for Mothers Day yet, so get on the list for the wide-ranging menu of steaks, seafood, pizzas and breakfast dishes such as Maine lobster eggs Benedict.

Luciles fried lobster-and-waffles or bananas Foster waffles make it more than just a dinner restaurant; 817-738-4761, lucilesstatesidebistro.com.

 In the Stockyards, the new Tannahills Tavern serves a $49 monthly gospel or jazz brunch both Mothers and Fathers Day.

The menu includes breakfast dishes, pecan-smoked ham, housemade sausage and caramel-pecan French toast bread pudding; 817-900-9300, tannahills.com.

The il Modo brunch pizza has bacon, egg and bearnaise sauce

 In the downtown Fort Worth hotels, Cast Iron (in the Omni) and Wicked Butcher (in the Sinclair) have brunch tables available early or late.

Il Modo, in the Harper, and Toro Toro, in the Renaissance Worthington, have more space available.

 In Arlington, Cut & Bourbon at Live! by Loews-Arlington, 1600 E. Randol Mill Road, has tables available throughout the lunch hour for a $68 buffet featuring cheeses, omelets, seafood, entrees and desserts.

The valet parking is free. (Check out the construction progress on the new Loews tower.)

 In Southlake, Sky Creek Kitchen, 251 Texas 114 East, has space available.

Sky Creeks $85 menu features steak-and-eggs with a sweet-potato enchilada, scallops or a bourbon-smoked pork chop, plus a crab-and-shrimp salad and opera cake.
(Bloomberg) -- A mothers murder sparked uproar in Latvia, where law enforcement has been blamed for doing too little to protect victims in the European Unions leading nation for intentional homicides.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The woman was stabbed to death by her 53-year-old former partner, who killed her in front of their child and the womans mother. The man fled the crime scene and is being sought. The identity of the victim was not released by local officials.

Public anger has mainly focused on the fact that the alleged assailant was the subject of 19 criminal probes and that he had followed, harassed and attacked his ex-partner. At times he called her at work 1,000 times a day, according to co-workers who spoke to local media. Her calls to authorities for protection were ignored.

This woman did everything correctly, she did everything to save her life, Latvian President Egils Levits said in an interview with Latvian TV on Tuesday. All the blame is on the states side.

Even as law enforcement has been given more power to forcibly separate victims from abusers, Latvia and Lithuania led the EU in intentional homicides per capita in 2020, according to the most recent available data from Eurostat. Out of all victims in Latvia, 60% were women, the highest in the EU.

The Baltic neighbors have also ranked near the top for suicides and alcohol consumption, pointing to more social problems in nations that freed themselves of communism in the early 1990s.

--With assistance from Milda Seputyte.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

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Reaper MQ-9 Wyoming

For the first time, a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone has operated from a highway, as part of the latest efforts by the service to generate airpower even when denied access to traditional airfields and runways. And while the combination of manned aircraft and drones during an exercise of this kind is new, it is very likely a scene that will become much more routine in the future, as the Air Force continues to embrace the potential of more advanced uncrewed systems.

The MQ-9 took to the road for the first time during the recent Exercise Agile Chariot, between April 30 and May 2, described by the Department of Defense as an organic, entirely air-delivered, runway-independent operation. The activities were centered upon two portions of highway in Wyoming and also saw operations by an MC-130J Commando II special operations transport, two A-10C Thunderbolt II attack jets, and two U.S. Army MH-6M Little Bird special operations helicopters.

Led by Air Force Special Operations Command, Exercise Agile Chariot focused on the concept of Agile Combat Employment, or ACE, which is designed to ensure that combat airpower can still be brought to bear in a timely way, even when conventional airbases are put out of action or otherwise held under threat  the kinds of conditions likely in a conflict with a near-peer competitor, like China or Russia.

The exercise was split into two highway operations parts, with Highways 287 and 789 being used on April 30 and May 2, 2023, respectively.

An MC-130J Commando II lands on Highway 287 during Exercise Agile Chariot, April 30, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Carly Kavish

In keeping with the broader tenets of ACE, the aircraft touched down on Highway 287 where personnel had already established a Forward Arming and Refueling Point (FARP). Once the aircraft had been fueled and rearmed, they then took off again from the road  what is termed an Integrated Combat Turnaround (ICT). The state in the U.S. Mountain West has no shortage of suitable highways for these kinds of exercises.

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The requirement here was clear: how do we get after Agile Combat Employment and hone the skills required to win a near-peer competitor fight, explained Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, AFSOC commander, in an official press release. This exercise is a great example of what happens when Air Commandos come together to solve problems and test what we will see in future fights.

An A-10 lands on Highway 287 during Exercise Agile Chariot, April 30, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Carly Kavish

When you get the right people, at the right time, in the right place, you can accomplish impressive feats, Bauernfeind continued. Agile Chariot accomplished major milestones for our AFSOC community  all of which lend credence to our pathfinding nature  including the first-ever landing of an MQ-9 on a highway, an MC-130J landing on a highway and simultaneously conducting FARP and ICTs with A-10s, and our special tactics airmen establishing and securing a 30,000-foot usable runway on a public highway.

More specifically, the part of the exercise carried out on Highway 287 involved the MC-130J touching down on a remote section of the highway and then supplying munitions and fuel for the A-10s. In this way, the attack jets could be readied for a mission without any extensive logistics footprint or the need to haul supplies via roadways.

An MQ-9 Reaper lands on Highway 287 during Exercise Agile Chariot, April 30, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Carly Kavish

Meanwhile, on Highway 789, the exercise expanded to include a simulated time-sensitive, personnel recovery mission. This also saw an MC-130J, from the 15th Special Operations Squadron, land on the highway, together with two MH-6s, with infiltration and exfiltration of Air Force Special Operations (AFSOC) personnel working together with U.S. Army Special Ops Aviation Command (USASOAC).

Members of the U.S. Armys 160th Special Operation Aviation Regiment and U.S. Air Forces 123rd Special Tactics Squadron participate in a search and rescue scenario as part of Exercise Agile Chariot, near Riverton, Wyoming, May 2, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Natalie Fiorilli

In both cases, airmen from the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron secured landing zones and operated the highways as usable runways, something that would be critical when taking to the road in a more contested scenario. As for the highways themselves, the Air Force sees these as a far more survivable proposition to traditional runways:

An adversary that may be able to deny use of a military base or an airfield, is going to have a nearly impossible time trying to defend every single linear mile of roads, said Lt. Col. Dave Meyer, deputy mission commander for Exercise Agile Chariot. Its just too much territory for them to cover and that gives us access in places and areas that they cant possibly defend, Meyer added.

123rd Special Tactics Squadron operators land after performing a static line jump from an MC-130J Commando II during Exercise Agile Chariot, April 30, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Carly Kavish

In many ways, however, the standout element of Agile Chariot was the use of the MQ-9, with first-of-its-kind participation.

Landing the Reaper was conducted by the 2nd Special Operations Squadron (2nd SOS), part of the 919th Special Operations Wing at Duke Field, Florida, while the takeoff and return flight from the highway was handled by the 65th SOS from Hurlburt Field, Florida.

An MQ-9 Reaper lands on Highway 287 during Exercise Agile Chariot, April 30, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Carly Kavish

Details were not provided of the type of mission that the MQ-9 took part in, although officials were keen to talk up the potential of the Reaper in terms of future capabilities.

The capabilities witnessed during Agile Chariot showcases how the MQ-9 can launch and recover from remote locations and extend its operational reach to protect American interests globally, said Lt. Col. David Payne, 2nd SOS commander.

An MQ-9 Reaper lands on Highway 287 during Exercise Agile Chariot. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Carly Kavish

This is yet another demonstration of the vital role the MQ-9 is capable of performing for the Total Force, added Lt. Col. Brian Flanigan, 2nd SOS director of operations. One of the Reapers biggest assets is its versatility as it has the ability to support intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and close air support missions.

With a potential military confrontation with China in mind, the U.S. military continues to emphasize the importance of enhanced survivability, through initiatives like ACE, which are aimed to overcome the vulnerability of established airfields.

While the ACE concept is of relevance to all frontline branches and commands, it holds particular relevance for AFSOC and the special operations community at large. In recent years, A-10s and C-146As have operated from highways in Michigan, C-146As have taken off and landed on Latvian highways, and the MC-130J has practiced similarly on a highway in Sweden.

A C-146A Wolfhound from the 919th Special Operations Wing taxies on the Duke Field flight line, during Exercise Northern Strike, which also involved a highway exercise, on a stretch of the Michigan State Highway M-32. U.S. Air Force/Dan Neely

As for Agile Chariot, its also not clear how much preparation work had to be done to the highway before it accepted this variety of aircraft and whether the MQ-9 operations required any particular work to be undertaken in advance. As we have explored in the past, standard highway strips can require fairly significant changes to be made, such as removing crash barriers, power lines, signage, and lighting.

What we do know, however, is that the Air Force has already been looking at the MQ-9, specifically in terms of improving its ability to operate from a wider array of locations, without the need to have specialized infrastructure in place.

Back in 2021, we detailed how the Air Force was exploring the MQ-9s Automatic Takeoff and Landing Capability (ATLC), during tests in which the drone was between Creech Air Force Base in Nevada and Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, while the crews operated the drone from Nellis Air Force Base using a satellite data link.

An MQ-9 Reaper prepares to take off from Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, using the Automatic Takeoff and Landing Capability. USAF/A1C Jessica Sanchez

That successful demonstration showed the Reapers ability to divert to airfields without traditional launch and recovery infrastructure or personnel, according to the Air Force, with the potential to change how it will be employed in theaters worldwide.

The Air Force explained that the aircrew used imagery in the cockpit to generate the reference points for the automated landing system during the first day of testing.

On the second day of tests, the MQ-9 used a targeting pod to collect data about the destination runway, fly in a safe traffic pattern, then land and take off again.

The ability of the MQ-9  and potentially other drones  to use targeting pods and other sensors to generate reference points for automatic landing and takeoff capabilities has obvious relevance to agile, expeditionary deployments, including the kind encompassed by ACE.

A U.S. Air Force F-35A taxis during austere operations on Andersen Air Force Bases Northwest Field, Guam. U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman Jonathan Valdes Montijo

The MQ-9 can now operate around the world via satellite launch and recovery without traditional launch and recovery landing sites and maintenance packages, said Lt. Col. Brian Flanigan. Agile Chariot showed once again the leash is off the MQ-9 as the mission transitions to global strategic competition.

While we dont know whether a similar concept was used during Agile Chariot in Wyoming, its clear that this is a growing area of interest, particularly with an eye on future distributed operations of the kind that would be likely in a Pacific campaign.

By operating off the highway in Agile Chariot, the MQ-9 has demonstrated that it can also make use of a much wider variety of airfields and installations, while the previous ATLC experiments mean that these kinds of missions can also be accomplished without the need for predetermined reference points.

One can also imagine the potential, especially in the Pacific context, of having MQ-9s able to access multiple FARPs during contingency operations. Instead of having to transit considerable distances to return to a fixed base to rearm and reload, they could instead land and be fueled and armed from austere locations much closer to where they are needed.

Even for supporting the same austere, ACE-focused, operations they would be a part of could be a huge win. A Reaper may not be very survivable deep in contested airspace, but they can provide localized multi-intelligence gathering, communications relay, and even kinetic defense for remote outposts, especially those in the vast Pacific, for instance. Being able to redeploy rapidly to a new operations area with other forward-based assets only makes this capability more valuable.

Much of the ACE concept is also about making aircraft deployments more flexible and less predictable, often moving rapidly from one location to another to complicate the enemy's kill chain cycle. Traditionally, these sorts of impromptu operations have not been conducive to the operations of larger drone types, in particular.

Combining the ACE concept with the new capabilities offered by ATLC would also provide a Reaper force with many more potential basing options, deploying the MQ-9 using satellite links only, without the need to transport specialized launch and recovery elements. In the past, for example, it could be as many as three weeks after landing before an MQ-1 Predator was up and running at an austere overseas airfield.

A Predator and Reaper operating out of Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. U.S. Air Force

Beyond the MQ-9, its almost guaranteed that future Air Force drones will also be required to operate from austere locations, as the service continues to find alternatives to the established bases that would likely be targeted in the opening stages of a major conflict.

The MQ-9 itself is fighting for relevance as the USAF pivots towards readying for a high-end fight in highly contested combat environments. Self defense pods, new air-launched capabilities, additional sensors and other mission payloads, and fresh use cases have helped make the case for extending the Reaper's widespread service within the USAF. You can read the arguments for doing so in this special feature of ours. But the ability to robustly take part in ACE operations with minimal support would certainly be a major feather in its cap.

Regardless, until new uncrewed aircraft emerge, we will likely only see more of the MQ-9 embracing what are new concepts of operation for the drone, and ones that will help fulfill the Air Forces aspiration to ensure agility, deterrence, and resiliency in a contested or degraded environment, as defined under ACE.

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com
Atlanta mass shooting suspect Deion Patterson was angry at his messed up medication before he allegedly killed one woman and injured four others at a hospital in the city.

The suspect, who used to serve in the US Coast Guard, remains on the loose and a massive manhunt is underway after police warned that the 24-year-old is considered armed and dangerous. DO NOT approach him, tweeted Atlanta Police Department as they identified him.

The suspect, who has a military background, had originally attended a medical appointment at the building on Wednesday at which he was accompanied by his mother, reported CNN.

Deion Patterson (Atlanta Police)

During the appointment he became agitated, pulled out a handgun and allegedly started shooting, a police source told the news network.

The damn VA gave him some messed up medication. And all he wanted was an Ativan, his mother, Minyone Patterson, told The Daily Beast before hanging up.

Atlanta Police Department Chief Darin Schierbaum told reporters that all five women had been shot in a waiting room on the 11th floor of the building.

Chief Schierbaum said that the woman who died was 39, while the other four wounded women are aged 25, 39, 56 and 71.

Heavily armed law enforcement officers rushed to 1100 West Peachtree Street Northwest, which is a Northside Hospital facility, on Wednesday lunchtime as the violence unfolded.

There have been no additional shots fired since the initial incident, Atlanta Police Department spokesperson Sgt John Chaffee said in a statement.

We are currently aware of five shooting victims related to this situation. Four have been transported to the hospital for treatment and a fifth has been pronounced deceased on scene.

All of the victims were transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, which is a level 1 trauma centre.

Dr Robert Jansen told reporters at a press conference that three of the victims transported to the hospital were in critical condition, with one person in surgery.

One of the patients was admitted with a gunshot wound to the abdomen and another with a wound to the arm, according to the hospital. A third critical patient was shot in the face and required an interventional radiology procedure, says CNN.

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Images taken from a security video showing a masked man in a hoodie and carrying a bag slung across his chest were also released by APD.

Multiple agencies including Atlanta police, Atlanta fire, MARTA police, Georgia Tech police and the Georgia State Patrol responded to the situation.

Northside Hospital later confirmed that its building was the location of the shooting.

Northside Hospital is cooperating with law enforcement following the shooting at our midtown Atlanta location earlier this afternoon. We urge people in the area to shelter in place and follow instructions from law enforcement on the scene, hospital officials tweeted.

We are working an active shooter situation inside a building on West. Peachtree St, between 12th St and 13th St. We are aware of multiple people injured. No suspect is in custody, Atlanta Police Department tweeted earlier on Wednesday.

Anyone in the area is asked to secure their building and shelter in place. Anyone not in the area is asked to stay away. 

The citys mayor also took to Twitter to urge people in the area to take shelter.

I am in close contact with the Atlanta Police Department as they are responding to the active shooting situation in Midtown near 1100 W Peachtree. Those in the area should shelter in place, tweeted Andre Dickens.

At around 1.30pm ET Atlanta Public Schools notified parents that several schools would be placed on exterior lockdown for the rest of the day out of an abundance of caution.

Police are also investigating a nearby carjacking incident reported at Williams and 13th Streets blocks from the hospital. Shooting suspect Deion Patterson is no longer believed to be near the hospital. Police are working to determine whether the incidents are related.

Northside Hospital Midtown medical building is a 12-storey facility that was opened by the Northside Hospital health system in 2018.

When it was opened the health system said that the almost 169,000-square-foot building would house doctors offices and services for cancer, radiology, a spine centre, sleep disorders, diabetes and nutrition, maternity, sports medicine and urgent and primary care.

The Coast Guard said in a statement on Wednesday that the suspect entered the Coast Guard in July 2018 and last served as an Electricians Mate Second Class. He was discharged from active duty in January 2023.

Our deepest sympathies are with the victims and their families, they added, according to CNN.

A vehicle allegedly stolen by Deion Patterson was later on Wednesday located inside a parking garage along Heritage Court near The Battery Atlanta.

We did get information that the shooter may have come to Cobb County, so we began to actually check our flock cameras, said Cobb police spokesman Sgt Wayne Delk. We went back and did discover that the vehicle had entered Cobb County.
Police in Atlanta are investigating an active shooting situation at a hospital in Midtown, according to our partners at WSB-TV.

UPDATE: See continuing developments at this link.

Earlier

WSB reports that dozens of heavily-armed officers are on the scene at 1100 West Peachtree Street Northwest, which is a Northside Hospital facility.

Multiple people have been hurt in the shooter incident, according to WSB. One reporter saw several people being taken out of a building on stretchers, and they were taken away in ambulances.

Atlanta Police released photos of the suspect just after 1 p.m., saying he was still at large. Police identified him as Deion Patterson, 24.

BOLO - Suspect is still at large. pic.twitter.com/M8GkXa8dmM  Atlanta Police Department (@Atlanta_Police) May 3, 2023

At about 1:30 p.m., Atlanta Police confirmed that five people had been shot. Four of them were taken to the hospital, and a fifth victim was killed at the scene.

According to WSB-TV, reporter Mark Winne got information from a source that one of the victims is the shooters mother.

None of the victims have been identified.

The Atlanta Police Department have shared photos of a person who they said is connected with the incident. They have issued a

The Atlanta Police Department have shared photos of a person who they said is connected with the incident. They have issued a

The Atlanta Police Department have shared photos of a person who they said is connected with the incident. They have issued a

The Atlanta Police Department have shared photos of a person who they said is connected with the incident. They have issued a

WSB says multiple agencies, including Atlanta police, Atlanta fire, MARTA police, Georgia Tech police, and the Georgia State Patrol are responding to the situation.

Traffic has been shut down in the Midtown area, WSB reports.

This is a breaking news situation, check back for updates.

(WATCH: Active shooter drill highlights needs in Lancaster schools)
The former owner of a Creve Coeur pharmacy on Monday admitted paying illegal kickbacks to marketing companies to generate prescriptions for expensive medications.

Michael J. McCormac, 55, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel to two counts of violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute.

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At the time of the crimes, McCormac owned GoLiveWell Pharmacy, which operated primarily as a mail-order pharmacy supplying customers across the country. McCormac admitted striking deals with marketing companies in which GoLiveWell would illegally kick back a percentage of the pharmacy's net profit on prescriptions obtained through the marketing companies' efforts.

In exchange, the pharmacy received prescriptions obtained by the marketing companies in various ways, including by running ads in hopes that patients would "opt in" to receiving prescriptions for expensive drugs. The companies also engaged in the so-called "doctor chase," in which they fax prescriptions to doctors' offices in hopes that the doctors sign them.

Those prescriptions included topical creams, oral medications and antibiotic and antifungal "foot bath" drugs. Claims for payment for the drugs were submitted to federal health plans including Medicare and the Missouri Medicaid and Ohio Medicaid programs.

GoLiveWell paid one company 60 percent of the pharmacy's net profit and another 45 percent. One month, GoLiveWell paid one marketing company $260,836.

In total, the government alleges that Medicare paid GoLiveWell $4.7 million to which it was not entitled, with another $490,000 coming from Missouri Medicaid and $330,000 from Ohio Medicaid.

McCormac is scheduled to be sentenced August 16. Each charge carries a potential penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. He will also be ordered to pay restitution.

The case was investigated by the Office of Inspector General for the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Medicaid Fraud Control Units of Missouri and Ohio, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Meredith Reiter and Derek Wiseman are prosecuting the case.

READ MORE: FBI New York Searches for Possible Victims in Sexual Exploitation Investigation

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This Thursday is our citys Teacher of the Year Gala. I must admit; Ive never seen anything like it, and Ive been a teacher for almost 25 years.

First of all, before I attended my first Muscogee County School District TOTY Gala in 2015, I had never ever been to anything worthy to be called a gala. The fanciest event I had attended was an evening wedding or maybe the several proms I chaperoned as part of my teacher duties, but definitely nothing to this magnitude.

I also didnt even know how to properly pronounce the word gala. Was it gay-lah with the long a sound or ga-lah with the short one? And I certainly didnt know it was going to be such a spectacle, such a marvel, such an impressive event where over 1,500 people dress up, eat a nice meal together, and spend an entire evening doing one thing: celebrating teachers.

For me, my first TOTY Gala was and will remain the most impactful moment of my entire career, and every gala since has been icing on the cake. They never cease to amaze and move me. I think its because of the magnitude of the support and the massive statement the community makes for its teachers. Columbus is lucky. Not every city has and does what we have and do.

I havent spent my entire career in Columbus, Georgia. Ive shared a classroom with kids in South Carolina, North Carolina, and even Vienna, Austria. Ive worked with some mighty teachers along the way, all of whom deserve a night like the TOTY Gala in Columbus, Georgia. Sometimes I wish I could grab some of my colleagues from along the way and set them at a table in the Trade Centers ballroom and let them see the festivities, hear the accolades, feel the appreciation for what teachers do.

Especially in our current crazy world, what a much-needed, timely testimony for teachers to hear. They are a collection of brave, committed, hopeful people who heed a call that nowadays isnt as loud, boisterous, and obvious as it used to be. In the past, the teaching profession was attractive. It was right up there with law and medicine, and lots of kids dreamed of becoming a teacher. A colleges School of Education was their money-maker, always busting at the seams with new recruits. Young kids listed it on their dream boards as often as they listed astronauts and firemen. Children mimicked classrooms in their bedrooms with teddy bears and crayons.

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Todaynot so much.

Were in the midst of a teaching crisis, if you ask me, and, of course, no one has asked me. But Ill share the obvious reality with you all anyway. Every school selects a TOTY to represent their schools. Thats 54 teachers who stand in line to buy tickets as if theyre attending to get into a Taylor Swift concert, gather their favorite people, dress up, and walk into a magically transformed Trade Center ballroom jam pack full of people there to see them. Those same schools are plagued with similar challenges: not enough teachers to fill the empty positions, teacher burnout, lack of substitutes, loss of planning periodsunfortunately the list goes on.

The unfortunate point is, teachers need something positive in their work lives. They need action behind their words. They need to see and hear it. The TOTY Gala is one really neat way our great city is stopping everything for one evening to lift a unified message teachers need desperately to hear.

People are flocking to a ballroom, decked out in their finest to show teachers that they are valued. To notice and proclaim their appreciation for what they do for children. To loudly applaud their committed efforts to speak life into the potential of our most prized treasures. To stand in solidarity as a collection of community dignitaries, corporate leaders, and fellow educators to say with one voice: We celebrate YOU, Teachers.

From the kindergarten teacher at River Road Elementary to the band teacher at Rainey Mc-Cullers School of the Arts to the English teacher at Columbus High School every teacher walks into an atmosphere of delightful celebration. They are taken on a fantasy ride far away from the stresses of their classroom. Its magical. Simply put, its magical.

And that evening of celebration happens this week, and an entire citys teaching force is bustling with excitement. Ladies are scheduling their hair and nail appointments; men are getting their suits dry cleaned and pressed. Its one of the most, if not the, most highly anticipated events of a teachers careers. Theres nothing like it.

And Im glad. We all should be glad. Glad that a community rallies around its teachers. Glad that companies donate money for such a token of appreciation as the TOTY gala.

Glad that city leaders dont just attend, but also lift their voices in defined acknowledgement and support. Glad that a man, many years ago wanted to stand up and make a bold statement about the merit and excellence of Columbus, Georgias teachers. Glad that he created the Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation to spearhead such a novel idea as dedicating time, energy, and funds to say to teachers: we see your hard work; we notice your commitment to our children; we recognize your efforts; and we reward your dedication.

Its a spectacle alright. A beautiful, magical, wonderful spectacle. Hope to see you there one year.

Sheryl Green is a proud teacher in Columbus, Georgia. To correspond with Sheryl, email her at sherylgreen14@yahoo.com
The Muslim mayor who was blocked from attending the White Houses annual Eid al-Fitr celebration is questioning why his name is on a federal watch list, saying theres no reason to believe Im an unsafe person.

Mohamed Khairullah, the mayor of Prospect Park, N.J., said at a news conference on Tuesday that the federal government should discontinue its use of the list, which he condemned as discriminatory and unconstitutional. He spoke to reporters after he learned on Monday the Secret Service denied him security clearance at the White House celebration of the holiday that marks the end of the month of Ramadan.

The Secret Service confirmed Khairullah was not allowed into the event, but it said it could not provide additional details about why. Anthony Guglielmi, the chief of communications for the Secret Service, said the agency could not comment further on the specific protective means and methods used to conduct our security operations at the White House.

Khairullah said on Tuesday he has not been told why he was denied clearance for the event.

Im not upset about not being at the White House. Im about human rights. I have a platform to address this issue, but about 1.5 million others dont, Khairullah said, adding that this type of situation makes me question the progress I thought we had made.

The news conference was organized by the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Khairullah and other speakers said the Secret Service and other agencies should stop using the list, which the group said includes more than 1.5 million names, most of which are Arab or Muslim sounding.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre deferred comment on the issue to the Secret Service during a press briefing on Tuesday, saying it is under the agencys purview.

What I will say more broadly is that  and I can say this; I was in the room  the president was very proud to welcome nearly 400 Muslim Americans to the White House to celebrate Eid yesterday. It was a meaningful event and opportunity to celebrate along Muslim leaders from across the country who were here  as I said, nearly 400, she said.

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This particular situation is under the purview of Secret Service, and so I will leave it to them to speak to directly, she continued.

New Jersey Sens. Bob Menendez (D) and Cory Booker (D) and New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell (D), who represents the district where Khairullah lives, formally asked the Secret Service for an explanation.

We also urge you to provide Mayor Khairullah with the substantive reasons he was denied admission, and urge you to initiate a review of Mayor Khairullahs status so that in the future he may be able to attend events and represent his constituents at the Peoples House, they said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Protesters and journalists were among the 2,153 people freed, AFP reporters said

Myanmar's junta pardoned more than 2,000 political prisoners to mark a Buddhist holiday on Wednesday, triggering tearful reunions outside jails but also demands that the many others behind bars be released.

The military has arrested thousands of protesters and activists since its February 2021 putsch that ended Myanmar's brief democratic experiment and plunged the country into turmoil.

Protesters and journalists were among the 2,153 people freed, AFP reporters said, a tiny fraction of those targeted in the military's brutal and sweeping crackdown on dissent.

"There are many prisoners... left in the prison," said Phoe Thar, a student who was jailed in December 2021 for taking part in a flash mob demonstration.

"I want to ask people to stay strong for those prisoners," he told AFP outside Yangon's Insein prison.

About 100 people had gathered outside the sprawling, colonial-era complex following the announcement early Wednesday, AFP reporters said.

As a yellow bus pulled out of the gates, some in the crowd held pieces of paper up to the windows, signs bearing the names of their relatives.

One man reunited with his weeping family outside the prison took his baby into his arms.

Ma Ye Ye was waiting to see if her son, who was jailed in 2021, would be freed.

"He was arrested for nothing," she said, requesting a pseudonym for fear of retaliation. "He just walked through a security gate and soldiers arrested him."

"I was thinking this morning that it would be really good if my son was to be released on this Buddha day," said Ma Khin, another woman waiting in the crowd, who also requested a pseudonym.

"Then I received phone calls from my relatives that there would be an amnesty... I don't know if he will be on the list, but it's my duty to come and wait for him."

Those pardoned had been jailed under Section 505 (a) of the penal code, which outlaws any action deemed to undermine the military. The law carries a maximum jail term of three years.

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On Wednesday, the military said it ordered the pardons "for the peaceful mind of the people and on humanitarian grounds".

Those who re-offend will have to serve the remainder of their sentence with an additional penalty, it added.

Myanmar typically grants amnesty to thousands of prisoners to mark national holidays or Buddhist festivals.

Local media reported that prisoners were also released from jails in Pyay, northwest of Yangon, and in Myeik in the far south.

- 'No concession' -

"Any release of prisoners is of course welcome for the individuals and their families, but this does not represent any sort of concession by the regime," said Richard Horsey of the International Crisis Group.

"It is a ritual to release prisoners on Buddhist holidays, but thousands of political prisoners remain incarcerated for opposing the regime, and arrests continue."

More than 21,000 people have been arrested since the military ousted a civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, according to a local monitoring group.

More than 17,800 were still behind bars, according to the group's latest figures, published Tuesday. Suu Kyi is one of those in detention since the coup.

At least 170 journalists have been arrested during that time, according to the United Nations.

Myanmar ranked 173 out of 180 in the latest World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.

In December, the junta wrapped up a series of closed-court trials of 77-year-old Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, jailing her for a total of 33 years in a process rights groups condemned as a sham.

Outside Insein prison on Wednesday, Khin Sandar Win knew her husband would not be among those released.

A former regional minister, he had been jailed by a closed-door junta court for 15 years for corruption.

But she was hoping to see a journalist acquaintance of hers benefit from the amnesty.

"Today is his mother's funeral day," she said.

"His mother will be cremated this afternoon. I really want him to be released and to see his mother's face for the last time."

lmg-rma/aha
A stack of weathered photos pulled from Hurricane Ian debris has taken on special meaning as one Florida community searches for the owners.

The images were discovered in Lee County, where the Category 4 storm killed 72 people and destroyed more than 5,300 structures in late September.

Identifying the owners has become a hot topic since the photos were shared on Facebook by the Lee County Sheriffs Office.

Many wonder not only who they are, but also what may have happened to them during a storm that washed away numerous homes.

Just imagine the owner of these photos thinking these priceless memories were gone forever  to be found more than seven months after Hurricane Ian devastated SWFL (Southwest Florida), the Lee County Sheriffs Office wrote in a May 2 Facebook post.

While the photos have some damage, we are certain the family who lost these precious memories would appreciate them back. We need your assistance ... to help reunite the family with photos they thought theyd never see again.

The photos depict couples and young adults, some standing beside boats and others posed in homes. One shows a young man displaying a recently caught fish, while another depicts an adult sitting atop a cannon at a historic site.

All show hints of water damage but the faces remain clear. They were found amongst hurricane debris along Galt Island Avenue in St. James City on Pine Island, the sheriffs office reports.

The May 2 Facebook post got 800 shares, reactions and comments in one day, including some who noted the effort was part of something bigger for people who survived the storm.

Others saw it as indicative of Lee Countys community spirit in the wake of a major disaster.

The kindness of posting these photos and trying to get them back to the family speaks loudly to yalls empathy, Andrea Collignon posted.

I hope they get them back. Im sure it would mean the world to them to get even a little of what was lost back, Kathy Paton wrote.

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Florida had 149 deaths attributed to Hurricane Ian, and 72 were in Lee County, according to the University of South Florida.

In Lee County, at least 52,514 structures were impacted, of which 5,369 were destroyed and 14,245 received major damage, the National Hurricane Center reports.

Bridges and roadways were also severely damaged or destroyed. Roads and bridges to Sanibel and Pine islands were washed away, limiting access to either by boat or helicopter.

Pine Island is about 130 miles southeast of Tampa.

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TOKYO (Reuters) -NATO is planning to open a liaison office in Japan, its first in Asia, to facilitate consultations in the region, the Nikkei Asia reported on Wednesday, citing Japanese and NATO officials.

The liaison office will enable discussions with NATO's security partners, such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, with geopolitical challenges from China and Russia in mind, the media outlet reported.

Asked about the report, NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said the alliance would not go into details of NATO allies' ongoing deliberations.

"NATO has offices and liaison arrangements with a number of international organisations and partner countries, and allies regularly assess those liaison arrangements to ensure that they best serve the needs of both NATO and our partners," she said.

Lungescu said NATO has a close partnership with Japan that continues to grow.

"Practical cooperation includes a wide range of areas, including cyber defence, maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, non-proliferation, science and technology, and human security," she said.

Japanese foreign ministry spokespeople were not available for comment. Wednesday is a public holiday in Japan.

The Nikkei Asia report said the proposed office is due to open next year in Tokyo but details such as whether Japan would provide the space or NATO would fund it were under negotiation.

NATO has similar liaison offices in New York, Vienna, Ukraine and other places, it said.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg visited Japan in January and pledged with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to strengthen ties in the face off "historic" security challenges, citing Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's rising military power.

Japan and NATO are seeking to deepen cooperation on cyber threats, disruptive technologies and disinformation, aiming to sign an individually tailored partnership programme before a NATO summit in July, Nikkei Asia reported.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama, Sabine Siebold and Andrew Gray; Editing by Robert Birsel and Angus MacSwan)
The commander of the Naval Special Warfare Center who was reprimanded in connection with the death last year of a Navy SEAL candidate has been pulled out of his job about two months early, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Navy Capt. Brian Drechsler is being moved to another job as Navy officials seek new leadership for the Center, more than a year after SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen collapsed and died of acute pneumonia just hours after completing the grueling Hell Week test.

Drechsler was one of three Navy officers who received administrative non-punitive letters as a result of Mullens death. They were not directly blamed for his death and Drechsler has not been formally relieved of duty, although such an investigation is likely a career-ender. His transfer is the first step in an ongoing review to determine if any additional punishment is warranted. Officials said Drechsler will be serving as a special assistant at Naval Special Warfare Command, and had been planning to retire.

Mullens death has shined a light on the brutal Hell Week that pushes SEAL candidates to their limits. The five-and-a-half day test involves basic underwater demolition, survival and other combat tactics, and during the test sailors get to sleep just twice, for two-hour periods only. It tests physical, mental and psychological strength along with leadership skills, and is so grueling that at least 50% to 60% dont finish it.

In a brief statement released Tuesday, the command announced the change in leadership, but made no mention of Mullen. It said Navy Capt. Mark Burke will take over command of the center. The decision was made by Rear Adm. Keith Davids, who took over as commander of Naval Special Warfare Command last August. Officials said the change was done to bring new leadership in to address the ongoing challenges and not due to poor performance or wrongdoing.

Big Navy investigating SEAL basic training

Two others got non-punitive letters: Capt. Brad Geary, commanding officer of Naval Special Warfares Basic Training Command, and an unnamed senior medical officer. The medical officer remains in his same job and Geary moved to a staff job, in a change that was planned before the death.

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In a message to his command, obtained by The Associated Press, Drechsler said, It is crucial that we maintain the momentum we have made to improve our training, safety, and medical oversight while balancing the need to forge the worlds greatest warriors.

A report released last October by the command concluded that Mullen, 24, from Manalapan, New Jersey, died in the line of duty, not due to his own misconduct. It said he had an enlarged heart that also contributed to his death, which came soon after he successfully finished Hell Week, which is part of the first phase of assessment for SEAL candidates striving to get into the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL, or BUD/S, class. The training was at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, California.

The report also raised questions about the monitoring of SEAL candidates as they grind through the arduous tests, and the adequacy of medical scrutiny on the sailors, who often avoid seeking medical help out of fear it will disqualify them.

Since Mullens death, Drechsler and the command have instituted a number of changes, including advanced cardiology screening of SEAL candidates for heart problems; pneumonia prevention shots; more medical scrutiny after Hell Week ends; increased training regarding performance-enhancing drugs; and expanded training for instructors.

The medical examiners autopsy report found that there was no evidence of performance-enhancing drugs in Mullens system and that they were not a contributing cause of death.

Mullen first began BUD/S in July 2021, but suffered heat stroke and left the class for recovery. He was cleared to join another class, went through orientation and began again in January 2022.

The report said that during his first week, classmates said he had breathing issues, and they believed it to be swimming-induced pulmonary edema, which occurs when fluid accumulates in the lungs. The breathing problems were not reported to medical staff, the report said.

It said he was seen by medical staff during during the Hell Week test due to shortness of breath and problems with his knee. In medical checks after the test ended, his lungs were deemed abnormal and he went to the barracks in a wheelchair due to swelling in his legs. His condition worsened, and a medical officer recommended they call 911, but that wasnt done until about 90 minutes later. He was taken to the hospital and died.

The reluctance by some candidates to seek medical help as well as the potential use of banned drugs by SEAL candidates are issues the Navy has been looking into.

Officials acknowledge that the use of performance-enhancing drugs has been a persistent problem, particularly with special operations forces and service members trying to get through rigorous training and evaluation courses. Some additional testing for the drugs is already being done in connection with the SEAL course. Since February 2022, more than 75 candidates  out of 2,500  tested for higher testosterone levels, indicating possible drug use. Most returned to training after additional tests, or dropped out. About a dozen were determined to be using performance-enhancing drugs.

The banned drugs were a key focus of the ongoing investigation by the Naval Education and Training Command, or NETC. The command is taking a deeper look at the entire SEAL training course, including policies, procedures and proper oversight by commanders. The results of that investigation are expected to be released in about a month.

NETC is also reviewing the personnel decisions to determine if they were adequate or if any actions should be taken against others at the command.

Drechsler is a 1999 graduate of the Naval Academy, served in SEAL units throughout his career, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and has received the Legion of Merit award and three Bronze Stars, including two with a combat v for heroism. Burke is also a 1999 graduate of the Naval Academy and served in SEAL units through his career, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and received a Silver Star, five Bronze Stars with combat v for heroism and a Purple Heart.
New abortion legislation proposed by North Carolina Republicans Tuesday not only imposes a 12-week ban, but also adds new appointment rules that doctors say will create huge barriers for abortion care at all stages of pregnancy.

For women seeking a medication abortion, the bill proposes two new requirements: one in-person appointment at least 72 hours before the patient swallows the pill, and an in-person appointment one to two weeks after.

In effect, these will require women to travel back and forth three separate times to an abortion clinic. They are already required to be in the office when they take the pill.

Doctors say the new requirements create financial and logistic barriers for women who live hours from a clinic. In North Carolina, more than half of women live in counties without an abortion clinic.

For out-of-state women traveling hundreds of miles to North Carolina for abortion care, these appointment requirements can make it nearly impossible.

It would be untenable for out-of-state patients to get a medication abortion in North Carolina, said Dr. Jonas Swartz, a Duke OB-GYN. Most patients who are having abortions already have kids at home. Theyre taking time off work, theyre traveling.

In the last year, as several states began tightening abortion restrictions, North Carolina became an abortion hub for women in the South.

In the months following the fall of Roe v. Wade, the number of abortions performed in the state increased by 37%.

Now advocates and doctors worry that these additional requirements will make out-of-state abortions impractical, effectively closing off an essential access point.

It just adds one more barrier to make it impossible, said Dr. Beverly Gray, a Duke OB-GYN.

Fewer options, more barriers

Currently, North Carolinas laws dictate that patients can receive state-mandated counseling in-person or by phone 72 hours before the procedure.

Swartz said the vast majority of his patients opt to hear the counseling over the phone, so they dont have to come into the clinic multiple times. If the newly proposed abortion ban is signed into law, that option is gone.

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Within North Carolina, Gray worries these new requirements will pressure more women into choosing a surgical abortion, even if thats not necessarily what they want.

Under the proposed legislation, surgical abortions require just two in-person appointments  one 72 hours before the procedure and one the day of the procedure  potentially making it less onerous for women traveling long distances.

In North Carolina, most patients prefer taking a series of pills over undergoing a minor surgery. Nearly 60% of abortions were carried out using medications in 2020, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.

But with more required, in-person visits, the calculus could be different for some women.

I think it will change how patients make decisions now that there are these additional requirements, Gray said.

Worse, Dr. Matt Zerden fears some women will take abortions into their own hands.

Zerden, a Triangle OB-GYN, sees patients every day who have overcome tremendous barriers to show up for one in-person appointment. Theyve had to negotiate with their bosses for time off work, theyve had to ask friends to watch their children, theyve had to borrow cars to travel to the nearest abortion clinic.

Even a single additional appointment is sometimes too much to manage.

If you put up all these obstacles, some will just go outside of the medical system, Zerden said. To mandate two extra visits for completely medically unjustified and unnecessary reasons is going to be devastating.

Extra appointments arent needed, doctors say

At the press conference Tuesday night, lawmakers said the proposed changes to abortion laws were designed to ensure the health and safety of women.

But several doctors interviewed by the N&O said the required appointments outlined in the legislation serve no medical purpose.

They said the state-mandated informed consent script doctors are required to read at these appointments is not clinically useful for patients  and often confuses or upsets them instead.

State law requires doctors to tell all patients, even rape victims, that the father of the unborn baby would be required to pay child support.

They are required to offer up a state-sponsored website of resources, some of which included crisis pregnancy centers that have been known to spread misinformation about abortions.

The bill proposed Tuesday includes those same counseling requirements.

In the time that Ive been practicing ... the 72-hour counseling has never has added anything useful to that discussion, Swartz said.

Furthermore, doctors say these extra appointments will create hours of unnecessary work for abortion clinics that already have months-long waiting lists.

The health care system is already incredible strained, Gray said. How am I going to double the amount of appointments that have to happen?

Teddy Rosenbluth covers science and health care for The News & Observer in a position funded by Duke Health and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is seeking the publics help in solving a suspected arson case aboard the guided-missile destroyer Carney that took place just before Christmas at the warships home in Mayport, Florida.

NCIS is offering a $2,000 reward to anyone with information on the Dec. 23 blaze, which sent six sailors to the hospital for smoke inhalation, officials said at the time.

Anyone with information can reach the agency at NCIS.navy.mil, and can report a tip anonymously.

A fire scene examination by NCIS, other federal authorities and Florida investigators determined that the fire was a non-accidental fire caused by human means, NCIS spokesman Jeff Houston said in an email.

Fire breaks out aboard USS Carney

Houston declined to provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation.

The fire was called away at about 3:43 a.m., and the ships crew was able to extinguish the fire and de-smoke the affected spaces, Naval Surface Force Atlantic officials said at the time.

Military.com was the first to report NCISs reward for information on the case.
Forty-seven percent of people who did not finish their postsecondary degree say they would very likely go back to school if they received some student debt relief.

The State of Higher Education 2023 report released early Wednesday morning by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation found 31 percent of all students who left school with debt would somewhat likely go back, while 22 percent say they are not very likely or not likely at all to return to higher education.

The poll comes as student borrowers are set to find out soon if they will receive as much as $20,000 in student loan forgiveness, as President Biden proposed last year. Bidens plan could receive a ruling any day now from the conservative-leaning Supreme Court.

On average, students in the survey who did not finish their degree said they would need 70 percent of their loans forgiven in order to reenroll in school.

For a person to get 70 percent of their student debts forgiven under Bidens plan, they would need to have no more than approximately $29,000 in student loans, provided they qualified for the maximum amount of forgiveness.

The Chamber of Commerce says the average student loan debt is around $37,172 for U.S. borrowers.

While students may be considering going back, the poll also found 41 percent said they had a very difficult or difficult time remaining in their programs, with Black and Hispanic students more likely than white students to report the difficulty.

The report surveyed 6,008 students, ages 18 to 59, currently enrolled in a postsecondary education program and 3,004 adults in the same age range who had some college experience but do not have a degree and are not currently enrolled in a postsecondary education program. It did not list a margin of error.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Multiple law enforcement agencies are asking for the public's assistance in locating a man wanted in connection to a homicide last week in Union County.

Authorities say they are searching for Alfredo Castellanos-Rosales, a 39-year-old white/Hispanic male who is 5-feet-8-inches tall, weighing approximately 220 pounds. Castellanos-Rosales has black hair and brown eyes, and was last seen in Sioux City, Iowa, according to the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation.

The man has an active no-bond arrest warrant for murder in the first degree after Jordan Beardshear, 23, of Dakota Dunes, was found on April 26 in a residence. DCI determined the cause of death to be a homicide. A young child was also found safe by law enforcement at the time.

More: No indication of arson in southeastern Sioux Falls house fire, police say

We are seeking the publics help in finding this individual, said South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley. Please do not approach this individual who is considered dangerous. We request you contact law enforcement immediately with any helpful information.

People with information on Castellanos-Rosales whereabouts can contact the Union County Sheriffs Office at 605-356-2679.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Law enforcement asks for help finding man tied to Union County homicide
(Photo : Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Duch, Vagianos & Ordway)

The US Secret Service prevented a Muslim New Jersey mayor from attending the evening Eid al-Fitr celebration at the White House.



Secret Service bans a Muslim New Jersey mayor from attending a belated Ramadan celebration at the White House

CAIR-NJ described the act as "completely intolerable and demeaning"

Khairullah says it was not the first time he was profiled

On Monday, the US Secret Service announced that it prevented Prospect Park, New Jersey's mayor, from attending a White House celebration with President Joe Biden to commemorate the end of Ramadan belatedly.

According to the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, shortly before Mayor Mohamed Khairullah was to arrive at the White House for the Eid-al-Fitr celebration, he received a call informing him that he had not been cleared for entry by the Secret Service and therefore could not attend the event where President Joe Biden delivered remarks to hundreds of guests.

Secret Service Barred Muslim New Jersey Mayor

Anthony Guglielmi, a United States Secret Service spokesman, verified that Khairullah was denied access to the White House complex but declined to elaborate on why. In January, Khairullah was elected to a fifth term as the borough's mayor. Per NBC New York, Director of CAIR-NJ Selaedin Maksut described the action as "completely intolerable and demeaning."

Khairullah, who has previously performed humanitarian work in Syria and Bangladesh, was detained by authorities and interrogated for three hours at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, according to Dina Sayedahmed, a spokesperson for CAIR-NJ.

According to the group, Khairullah assisted the New Jersey Democratic Party in compiling a list of local Muslim leaders to invite to the White House Eid celebration and attended an event at the New Jersey governor's residence over the weekend.

Mayor Mohamed Khairullah stated that he was preparing to join other Muslim leaders on Monday to celebrate the late end of the sacred month of Ramadan when he received a phone call from a White House aide telling him not to attend.

Read Also: Vladimir Putin Warned of Possible Arrest if Russian President Attends BRICS Summit

White House Deferred to Secret Service Regarding the Incident

When questioned on Tuesday regarding Khairullah's experience, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly deferred to the US Secret Service. As per ABC News, when asked whether Khairullah merited a more thorough explanation, Jean-Pierre reiterated that the Secret Service was responsible for the incident.

After Khairullah went public late Monday night, a US Secret Service spokesperson issued a statement to reporters expressing regret for the inconvenience but stating that the agency could not comment further.

"The mayor was denied access to the White House complex this evening. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Unfortunately, we cannot elaborate on the specific protective means and methods used to conduct White House security operations, "said the agency's communications director, Anthony Guglielmi.

The Secret Service verified the occurrence but did not provide any further explanation. According to him, it was not the first time Khairullah had been profiled. The mayor claimed he was halted by authorities at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2019 after returning from a trip to Turkey to visit his wife's family.

Khairullah stated that he was detained and questioned about his acquaintance with militants for three hours. Khairullah added that he was momentarily detained at the US-Canada border when reentering the United States with his family, The Washington Examiner reported.

Khairullah, born in Syria but relocated with his family to the United States in 1991, became a legal citizen of the United States in 2000. In 2005, he was elected mayor of Prospect Park, a position he has held ever since.

Khairulllah was invited to the White House for the Muslim celebration after assisting the New Jersey Democratic Party in compiling an invitation list for Muslim leaders in the state. CAIR reports that he most recently attended a separate event over the weekend at the governor's residence. President Joe Biden delivered a speech at the White House event.

Related Article: Trump Civil Trial: Second Accuser Testifies Against Ex-President's Sexual Assault

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A man has been charged after stabbing two people at a Oilers playoff watch party outside Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday. (Canadian Press)

Edmonton Police have charged a man for allegedly stabbing two people outside Rogers Place on Saturday during the Oilers' Game 6 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

Police responded to a weapons complaint across the street from the arena and found that two people had been stabbed by the assailant.

A video making the rounds online appears to show the suspect, 20-year-old Edmonton native Jordan Reilly Fouquette, attacking a man and woman with a knife before police intervene. Officers shot Fouquette, who was then taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Police say Fouquette, along with the two victims, remain in stable condition.

Fouquette has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a weapon dangerous to the public.

On Monday, Edmonton Police promised a greater presence of law enforcement in downtown Edmonton in light of an increase in violence around Rogers Place during the Stanley Cup playoffs.

There's a lot to cheer about and we want to make sure that is what we're focused on  the sport, focused on our team, focused on our city to have the best experience possible, Police Chief Dale McFee said at a media conference at Rogers Place on Monday.

Watch parties across the street from the arena have attracted thousands of fans since the beginning of the playoffs but have been getting more and more unruly with each passing game. Police are currently investigating several violent acts alleged to have occurred amid these gatherings.

Authorities will also reinforce barricades to prevent trampling after a city employee broke their ankle as a result of a crowd crush on Saturday.

Starting Wednesday, watch parties around Rogers Place will be restricted to fans 18 years or older. Fans of all ages can attend attend a "family-friendly viewing party experience" down the road at Sir Winston Churchill Square.
Mayor Steve Rotherham says Eurovision fans and locals "wont have to cut the party short"

Extra night trains, buses and ferries will run across Merseyside for the Eurovision final.

The contest is expected to draw around 100,000 extra visitors into Liverpool over the next two weeks.

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotherham said the late night transport would ensure Eurovision fans and locals "wont have to cut the party short".

The Eurovision final will take place at the M&S Bank Arena on the waterfront in Liverpool on Saturday 13 May.

Merseyrail services will run into the early hours after the final and services will also run until after midnight on the night of the "Big Eurovision Welcome" on 7 May.

Liverpool City Region buses will also continue on key routes until the early hours following the events on 7 and 13 May.

Mersey Ferries will also operate late night services on 7 and 13 May.

Mr Rotheram said a "world class spectacular" deserved "world class transport".

"The chance to host a global spectacle like the Eurovision Song Contest is an opportunity that doesnt come around very often  especially for a city in the UK  thats why so many others tried but were unsuccessful in bidding to host it," he said.

By organising these additional late-night services in our region, were ensuring that Eurovision fans and locals will get the service they deserve and wont have to cut the party short

Ukraine won the Eurovision contest in 2022, but it was deemed too dangerous to stage the event in the winning country this year following the Russian invasion.

It will be the first Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the UK for 25 years.

The competition is made up of two semi-finals and the grand final - all of which will be broadcast live.

This year's semi-finals will take place on 9 May and 11 May, with ten countries from each show going through to the final.
After a $3.5 billion accounting error that forced the early resignation of South Carolinas top accountant, state lawmakers still have not yet elected a new comptroller.

With no permanent successor to Richard Eckstrom, an eight-year senior deputy responsible for the states payroll and paying vendors is now running the South Carolina Comptroller Generals Office.

Earlier this year, Eckstrom disclosed to lawmakers that for 10 years his office miscounted the amount of money the state had on hand, inflating cash balances by $3.5 billion. An investigation by the Senate Finance Committee found auditors had warned Eckstrom about ineffective internal controls within his office. It was an accountant, Katherine Kip who moved from the treasurers office to the comptroller, who discovered the issue that led to the decade-long error.

No money was actually missing, and the accounting error only appeared in an annual financial report. It did not affect state spending or budgeting.

In response, the House voted to reduce Eckstroms salary from $151,000 to $1, and senators moved to start proceedings to remove him from office. Eckstrom announced his decision to resign before proceedings could start.

Eckstrom, who had been the states top accountant since 2003  he was last reelected in 2022  left the office effective April 30. In his place, he appointed Ronnie Head, 51, as senior deputy comptroller general to run the agency while it waits for the General Assembly to elect a permanent replacement.

The comptroller generals office is in charge of running the state payroll, paying vendors, running the states accounting system and compiling an annual financial report.

Head oversees state payroll, ensuring bills get paid. He has worked with the comptrollers office for eight years, and worked prior for the accounting and consulting firm Scott and Company LLC.

I felt that its crucial for someone to be in-charge of the office, someone to be the primary point of contact for whomever my successor will be, Eckstrom wrote in an email Friday to the agency and obtained by The State.

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Ronnie Head is senior deputy comptroller general and is running the South Carolina Comptroller Generals office after the resignation of Richard Eckstrom.

Eckstrom submitted his resignation to lawmakers March 27, giving lawmakers time to elect his replacement.

But the House and Senate have yet to agree on his successor.

Most of the S.C. House is supporting former state Rep. Kirkman Finlay, a Richland County Republican, who lost his reelection in 2022. Meanwhile, the Senate, which led the investigation into Eckstroms error, wants to fill the role with Mike Shealy, a longtime Senate budget director, who now works at the state Department of Administration over statewide leadership and special projects. Shealy has worked for the state for 40 years.

Its the Legislatures job to fill the vacancy, done once before when former Treasurer Thomas Ravenel resigned after he was indicted for drug use. Whoever gets the majority of votes in the 170-member  or the most of the 124-member House  General Assembly wins.

The House originally proposed a Wednesday election after former Gov. David Beasley addressed lawmakers. The Senate declined.

Its a work in progress, said Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee. Theres not much more than I can say other than that.

The office of Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, declined to comment.

Senators have insisted that whoever gets the job have at least 10 years of governmental accounting experience or be a certified public accountant. And lawmakers also discussed making the job appointed as part of the governors Cabinet.

Finlay, who is a large land owner and runs Columbia-area establishments Docs BBQ, Pawleys Front Porch in Five Points and Millstone at Adams Pond, previously served on the House budget-writing Ways and Means Committee for six years.

If the General Assembly adjourns May 11, the last scheduled legislative day of 2023, without an agreement to take up Eckstroms appointment later in the year, the governor could then appoint someone on a temporary basis.

If he were to appoint the next comptroller, Gov. Henry McMaster has said he would want someone with financial background who is not politically connected. He told reporters last week if it fell to him, he might have a hard time finding a person to fill the job on a temporary basis.

It would be difficult to get someone to leave a job to come do that job just for a few months until the Legislature would come back in next session, he said.
The agency tasked with tracking some of the worlds worst tropical cyclones says it has upgraded a critical model that will enhance capabilities of accurately predicting dangerous storm surge.

NOAA says it is now using Probabilistic Storm Surge model 3.0, enabling forecasters to track simultaneous hurricanes and improve depictions along varying terrain along the U.S. coastline.

The original P-Surge model was originally developed after Hurricane Isabel produced a deadly storm of 68 feet along the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia in 2003.

"We are seeing a sharp increase in catastrophic storm surge impacts in our coastal communities," Ken Graham, director of NOAAs National Weather Service, said in a statement. "Our new capabilities to effectively and accurately model and forecast storm surge is critical to upholding the NWS mission of protection of life and property."

7 FACTS TO KNOW ABOUT HURRICANES

Storm surge is the rise in seawater level during a storm

The surge model combines historical and hypothetical information with data from the National Hurricane Center on the current storm to produce probabilistic products.

Forecasters then are tasked with determining the likelihood of the severity of the upcoming event and relay the risks to the public.

A relatively new graphical alert product debuted in 2017 to warn coastal residents of the threat of water rise and uses watches and warnings in the potentially impacted area.

A Storm Surge Watch means areas under the alert may experience life-threatening water inundation within 48 hours. A watch is upgraded to a Storm Surge Warning when life-threatening conditions occur within 36 hours.

The alerts take into account the forecast track, intensity, size of the tropical cyclone, land elevation and astronomical tide levels.

NOAA says storm surge is often the greatest threat to life and property, accounting for nearly half of the deaths of a landfalling tropical cyclone.

Agencies estimate more than 22 million people along the Gulf and East coasts are vulnerable to storm surge, with areas along shallow coastlines most at risk.

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A shallow shelfs slope allows water to rise higher and further than where the continental shelf drops off quickly.

According to the National Hurricane Center, a Category 4 that produces a storm surge of 20 feet along the Louisiana coastline would mean a storm surge of less than 10 feet around Miami.

HERE ARE THE HURRICANE NAMES FOR THE 2023 ATLANTIC SEASON

The 2023 hurricane season will officially begin on June 1, and experts with Colorado State University are calling for a year with activity that is around or slightly below normal.

The CSU outlook expects 13 named storms to form, with six that could become hurricanes. Forecasters expect two could reach major status with winds of at least 115 mph and a storm surge of at least nine feet.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) called for the passage of meaningful gun safety legislation after a deadly shooting in Atlanta on Wednesday.

One person died and four others were injured after a shooter opened fire at a medical center in the citys Midtown neighborhood. Schools in the area went on lockdown, including the schools that Warnocks two children attend, the senator said in a floor speech on Wednesday.

Theyre there, Im here, hoping and praying that they are safe. But the truth is, none of us is safe, Warnock said.

The unspoken assumption is that This cant happen to me, this wont happen to me, it wont happen to people that I love. But with a mass shooting every day, the truth is, the chances are great, he said. I shudder to say it, but the truth is, in a real sense, its only a matter of time that this kind of tragedy comes knocking on your door.

Warnock observed that mass shootings have happened in a seemingly endless variety of environments. Were not safe in our schools, he said. Were not safe in our workplaces. Were not safe at the grocery store. Were not safe at movie theaters. Were not safe at spas. Were not safe in our houses of worship. There is no sanctuary in the sanctuary.

.@SenatorWarnock on shooting in Atlanta, GA. "None of us is safe, no matter where we are. This happened in a medical facility where people are trying to find healing." pic.twitter.com/C3PI2OuWsC  CSPAN (@cspan) May 3, 2023

Cities around the U.S. have been wracked by gun violence and mass shootings in 2023. Theres been particular attention paid recently to cases where people were shot for seemingly trivial reasons, including for taking a wrong turn, knocking on the wrong door or accidentally getting into the wrong vehicle.

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The number of Americans affected by gun violence is on the rise  including top public officials like governors and senators.

We are becoming a heavily armed nation so fearful and angry and hair-trigger anxious that gun murders are now just the way in which we work out our frustrations, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in another impassioned floor speech last month. This is a dystopia, and Im here to tell you that its a dystopia that weve chosen for ourselves.

Last year, after the horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Congress passed a modest gun safety package that enhanced background checks for gun purchasers under 21 and bolstered funding for red flag laws, which help remove guns from the hands of people who have been deemed a danger to themselves or others.

But Republicans have firmly opposed more stringent measures like universal background checks and bans on assault weapons, despite overwhelming public support for further legislative action.

In a country where there is 87% agreement on something, theres no movement on it in Congress, which means that thats a problem with our democracy, Warnock said on Wednesday. The peoples voices have been squeezed out of their democracy, and there is a growing chasm between what the people actually want and what they can get from their government.

Related...
A global nonprofit is giving some lucky Queen City students some new footwear.

Soles4Souls has the mission of turning clothing and shoes into opportunities for kids around the world. The group has partnered with the National Shoe Retailers Association (NSRA) for a shoe giveaway on Wednesday.

ALSO READ: Rock Hill food bank filling big need for senior community

NSRA is a nonprofit dedicated to helping independent shoe stores in the U.S. and Canada improve and grow their businesses.

Soles4Souls surprised students at University Park Creative Arts School with new pairs of running shoes donated by the nonprofit. Volunteers helped find the perfect fit for each student.

For more information about the Soles4Souls nonprofit and how you can help, click here.

(WATCH BELOW: CMPD to hold second steering wheel lock giveaway to prevent Kia, Hyundai thefts)




Following the summit in Helsinki, the leaders of Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Ukraine, Finland and Sweden issued a joint statement on Wednesday in which they supported Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic integration.

Source: text of the statement, reported by European Pravda and published on the site of the Government of Sweden

In a statement following the summit of Ukraine and the Nordic countries, the leaders of the latter emphasised that "the future of Ukraine and its people lies within the Euro-Atlantic family".

Quote: "The European Union has already recognized the European perspective of Ukraine and granted Ukraine the status of candidate country. The Nordic EU members will strongly support Ukraine in its reform efforts and in meeting the requirements neededy to start accession negotiations by the end of 2023, looking forward to the Commission's positive report," they said.

In the short term, the Nordic countries have pledged to continue working on providing civil assistance to Ukraine.

As for Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration, the signatories of the statement noted that they support further military assistance to Kyiv through the Alliance's mechanisms, and also confirm their commitment to its "open door" policy.

Quote: "Ukraine formally requested an accelerated procedure for NATO membership in September 2022. The Nordic NATO members will continue to support Ukraine on its path towards future membership," the statement reads.

The leaders of the Nordic countries also expect to discuss the security issues of Ukraine and its membership at the NATO summit in Vilnius in July 2023.

Reminder: Following the summit of Ukraine and the Nordic countries, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine should become the next member of the Alliance right after Sweden.

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Nordic NATO member states will continue supporting Ukraine on its way toward the alliance, as well as continue their "political, financial, humanitarian and military support to Ukraine for as long as it takes," reads the joint statement by the Prime Ministers of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland, as well as the Presidents of Finland and Ukraine following the Nordic-Ukrainian summit held in Finland on May 3.

According to the statement, the Nordic countries will continue supporting Ukraine "individually, together as the Nordics, as well as through international cooperation in the European Union, in NATO, in the United Nations, and in other formats."

"In the NATO framework, all Nordic countries continue to focus on the immediate support to Ukraine, contributing to a substantive upscale of NATOs Comprehensive Assistance Package to Ukraine," the statement reads.

"The Nordic NATO members will continue to support Ukraine on its path towards future membership."

Media: Zelensky to visit Germany on May 13-14 President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit Berlin on May 13 at the invitation of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as reported by the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk

President Volodymyr Zelensky went to Finland to attend the summit. He said that security was the main topic.

"Today's security means concrete daily protection against Russian terrorists. Tomorrow's security lies in our cooperation to strengthen our countries and Europe. And security for future generations  for our children and grandchildren  means they can build their lives knowing that peace is guaranteed for them," Zelensky said at the press conference following the event.

"This is an agreement based on our common values. We in Europe, from Kyiv to Reykjavik, from Helsinki to Lisbon, value human life and freedom above all. And every part of our space of life, our space of freedom  our Europe  must be and will be protected. Jointly by all of us  thirty-three countries," he said.

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At the press conference, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said allies continue discussing the possibility of transferring F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, adding that it's a "difficult issue, but the discussion is still ongoing," as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda media outlet.

Ukraine has been requesting fighters for months to defend its skies and maximize the effectiveness of its counteroffensive operations.

Of all the available models, Ukraine has shown the most interest in the U.S.-built F-16, which have been in service since the 1970s and are operated by over 20 nations.

However, multiple Western allies, including the U.S. and Germany, have ruled out sending fighter jets in the near term, while debates about their provision are ongoing.

According to the statement, the combined aid provided by the Nordic countries' governments since February 2022 already exceeds 1.5 billion euros and will continue to grow.
Cedric Rush sat down at Cracker Barrel ready for his usual: meatloaf, potatoes and a basket of biscuits. He left in an ambulance  with shrapnel permanently lodged in his legs.

As Rush, 57, finished Monday night dinner in Charlotte with his 89-year-old uncle, a thud at the table next to them turned their heads.

His uncle, looked down and saw a semi-automatic pistol.

Rush looked down and saw blood.

A stray bullet tore through Cracker Barrels otherwise quiet dinner service April 24 at about 6 p.m., according to Rush and a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police report.

As the man at the neighboring table fumbled to pick up the gun he dropped, a bullet fired into the wall and shrapnel wedged into Rushs calves, Rush said.

It was just a normal day in Cracker Barrel, he told The Charlotte Observer this week.

Then I just heard this noise and ducked because I thought somebody was shooting into the building.

Both Rush and his uncle, Edward Martin, said the man who accidentally fired the gun tried to run out of the restaurant afterward, but another customer stopped him by the cashiers stand.

Cracker Barrel declined to comment on the shooting because of the active investigation, a manager said.

Paramedics treated another person with minor gunshot wound injuries at the restaurant near the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, according to the police report.

Police gave Robert Prebble, 64, of Ohio, a citation for violating North Carolina concealed weapons law, according to CMPD. The Charlotte Observer could not reach Prebble.

Its not clear whether Prebble had a permit for concealed carry, which is required in North Carolina, but the state also recognizes out of state permits.

Under North Carolina gun laws business owners may prohibit concealed weapons on their property. It is unclear what Cracker Barrels policy is.

Gun loaded before being dropped, firing

Prebble, according to the police report, was carrying a semi-automatic .45 pistol known as the 1911 Colt.

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The 1911 Colt pistol, also known as the Colt Government Model pistol, had been widely used by the U.S. military before the company began selling to civilians, according to American Rifleman, an NRA publication. It was redesigned in the 1980s with better safety features  specifically a block system that stopped it from discharging if dropped or thrown on a hard surface, according to the NRA.

Rushs uncle recognized the pistol as one hed seen  and fired  when he served as a Marine. The process of completely loading the pistol and getting it ready to shoot is involved, Martin said. You must intentionally pull back the guns slide and check to make sure an active round is loaded from the magazine. The gun should have never been loaded in someones pocket, he said.

With all of the gun violence going on right now, the mass shootings every week, how could they try to gloss this over so quietly, Martin said.

He and Rush along with Rushs ex-wife, had stopped at Cracker Barrel after Martins appointment at the VA hospital.

Embedded shrapnel and unanswered questions

After paramedics rushed him from a Cracker Barrel rocking chair to a hospital bed, doctors recommended Rush leave the pieces of metal in his leg. They told him it would be riskier to take them out, he said.

While the shrapnel in his legs will keep him from procedures and tests like MRI scans  something he anticipated needing at an upcoming doctors appointment  Rush agreed to let his wounds heal with the bullet casings still below his skin.

At the hospital, Rush says, a detective asked if he wanted to press charges against the man whose gun went off. Rush said he asked for some time to think about it while his mind cleared and his adrenaline settled.

When he called the department to ask about moving forward with charges, he says, he felt dissuaded by a detective.

He is still wondering why police issued a citation rather than arresting the man at the restaurant.

Carrying a concealed weapon charge is a misdemeanor on its first offense. Whether a suspect is arrested or cited is often at the discretion of the officer in charge of the case, according to CMPD.

North Carolina statute gives no explicit direction on arresting or citing someone who accidentally fires a concealed weapon, but does permit arrest when there is reason to believe the person will not be apprehended unless immediately arrested.

Prebbles court date is June 9, according to Mecklenburg Countys District Attorneys Office.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  North Carolina Republican legislative leaders said on Tuesday there's agreement in the GOP-dominated legislature on backing a measure that would prohibit abortion in nearly all cases after roughly the first trimester of pregnancy.

House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger announced at an early-evening news conference that there's consensus between Republicans in the state House and Senate.

North Carolina law currently bans nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The measure would reduce that to 12 weeks, with new exceptions in cases of rape, incest or fetal abnormality. An existing exception for when the life of the pregnant woman is in danger would remain.

Final votes for the agreed-upon legislation would occur Wednesday in the House and Thursday in the Senate, legislators said.

The bill also contains provisions to make adoptions easier and to improve health care access for children and pregnant women.

Its time for North Carolina to take the next step forward in honoring the sanctity of human life, said Sen. Joyce Krawiec, a Forsyth County Republican and one of the negotiators of the agreement, adding that the bill will undoubtedly save lives and improve health outcomes for many pregnant women.

The final measure would go to the desk of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is a strong supporter of abortion rights. He said in December he would consider it extreme to ban abortion after less than 20 weeks.

In a fundraising email to supporters late Tuesday, Cooper called the bill an egregious, unacceptable attack on the women of our state. Cooper campaigned last fall for legislative candidates that he said would help uphold his vetoes on abortion.

But Republicans now hold veto-proof majorities in both General Assembly chambers after then-Democratic Rep. Tricia Cotham, of Mecklenburg County, switched to the Republican Party last month. Cotham has declined to say publicly whether she would be willing to vote for new restrictions. If she doesn't vote for the bill, some House Democrats likely would have to vote for an override or be absent for Republicans to overcome a Cooper veto.

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According to legislators, the bill will place limits on the exceptions, capping abortions at 20 weeks in cases of rape or incest and 24 weeks for life-limiting fetal anomalies, including certain physical or genetic disorders that can be diagnosed prenatally. Doctors could face fines for failing to follow some restrictions in the measure.

House and Senate Republicans have been working for months toward a consensus to further act upon last years U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. At the time of the ruling last June, abortions were legal in North Carolina until fetal viability, which generally falls between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy, or in certain medical emergencies. That made North Carolina a locale for abortion access for those traveling from other Southern states where abortion was already banned.

A federal judge in August reinstated the unenforced 20-week ban following the Supreme Court's ruling. At least 88% of the abortions involving North Carolina residents in 2020 occurred at or before 12 weeks of gestation, according to state Department of Health and Human Services data.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic spokesperson Jillian Riley said the restrictions will have detrimental effects on the health of North Carolina residents and others from the Southeast. Other critics complained about how the agreement was worked out privately among Republicans over several months without formal public input.

The people of North Carolina are taking witness, they are listening, they are watching, Riley told reporters. They do not want any more bans on abortion care. We will remember who voted to strip away legal abortion in North Carolina.

Republican leadership also billed the measure as a $160 million investment in child care access, maternal health care and paid parental leave for teachers and state employees. The bill includes millions of dollars in funding for foster care families and parents who are working to finish community college.

The money set aside also would go to nonprofit community health centers to provide contraceptives to underserved, uninsured or medically indient patients.

This is a pro-women and holistic approach, said Rep. Sarah Stevens, a Surry County Republican and the House's No. 2 leader. "Its equipped with as much information, as many options as we could give at this point, and focuses on the health and safety of the child.

___

Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
China, Myanmar agree to promote comprehensive strategic cooperation

Xinhua) 09:38, May 03, 2023

Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing (R) shakes hands with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang during their meeting in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, on May 2, 2023. (Photo by Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua)

NAY PYI TAW, May 2 (Xinhua) -- China and Myanmar agreed on Tuesday to further promote comprehensive strategic cooperation between the two countries.

At a meeting with Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing in the Myanmar capital, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said China has attached great importance to its relations with Myanmar as the two neighbors share "Paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship.

China is ready to join hands with Myanmar to build a China-Myanmar community with a shared future and take the lead to implement the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, Qin said.

China sincerely hopes Myanmar will achieve stability and national development, he said, adding that China supports Myanmar in exploring a development path with Myanmar characteristics that suits to its national conditions .

China supports Myanmar in advancing its political transition process and backs relevant parties in the country to properly address differences and seek national reconciliation under the constitutional and legal framework, Qin said.

The international community should respect Myanmar's sovereignty and play a constructive role in helping Myanmar achieve peace and reconciliation, he added.

The Chinese side will continue to do what is in its power to help Myanmar in its development efforts, accelerate key cooperation projects of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, and implement projects on agriculture, education and health care, among others, for the benefit of the Myanmar people, said the Chinese foreign minister.

Qin said China supports Myanmar improving its relations with Bangladesh, with related issues to be resolved through consultation, adding that China is willing to work with the two countries to expand China-Myanmar-Bangladesh pragmatic cooperation.

For his part, Min Aung Hlaing said that in the nearly 70 years since Myanmar and China established diplomatic relations, the two countries have always maintained the momentum of development and achieved fruitful results.

Myanmar is willing to work with China to further enhance Myanmar-China friendship and cooperation, and actively build a Myanmar-China community with a shared future, he said.

He added that Myanmar appreciates China's objective and impartial position on Myanmar-related issues, where China is welcome to play a greater role.

The Myanmar leader noted that Myanmar attaches great importance to protecting the safety of Chinese nationals and institutions in the country, and is always ready to cooperate with the Chinese side to maintain tranquility in the border areas of the two countries.

During his visit, Qin also met with former Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Than Shwe and Union Minister for Foreign Affairs Than Swe.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang (R) shakes hands with Myanmar's Union Minister for Foreign Affairs Than Swe during their meeting in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, on May 2, 2023. (Photo by Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
A review of a nuclear missile base where several troops have been diagnosed with blood cancer has shown no current risk factors that could explain it.

In January, reports surfaced that at least nine missiles that had served at Malmstrom Air Force Base were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Since then, the US Air Force has been investigating the issue.

Push for Full Cancer Study

Also, since it was reported, over 30 cancer cases at Malmstrom and US' other nuclear missile facilities, such as F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Minot Air Force Base, and Vanderberg Air Force Base, have come to light, according to AP News.

However, the medical review showed that no factors identified would be considered immediate concerns for acute cancer risks. Nothing specifically noted at Malmstrom's main base or operational missile sites would indicate a specific reason for increased cancer.

Many are frustrated with the results, but some are hopeful that this issue will result in the Air Force conducting a complete cancer study of all the men and women who have worked with the US nuclear warheads.

The medical review made recommendations to address some concerns, such as deep cleaning each launch control center and ceasing the burning of classified documents. The Air Force is committed to continuing to investigate the issue and will perform an epidemiological study of cancers within the missile community.

However, some are pushing for a more comprehensive study that includes all individuals who have worked with nuclear weapons, not just those within the missile community. They argue that the study should consist of those working in nuclear weapons manufacturing, testing, and storage facilities.

Advocates for a full cancer study argue that it is necessary to fully understand the potential health risks associated with nuclear weapons and ensure that those exposed receive the necessary medical care and support.

While the Air Force's commitment to investigating the issue is a positive step, many believe that a more thorough study is necessary to fully understand the potential health risks associated with nuclear weapons work.

Read Also: US Air Force Gives First-Ever Look at High-Tech Stealth Bomber B-21 Raider, But No One Knows What It Can Do

(Photo : by DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images)

Officers from the United States Air Force (USAF) take part in a joint 'Exercise Cope India 2023' at the Arjan Singh air force station in Panagarh, in India's West Bengal state on April 20, 2023.

Health Risks Linked to Nuclear Weapons and Radiation Exposure

The potential health risks associated with nuclear weapons work have been a topic of concern for decades. Many individuals who worked in the industry during the Cold War era were not fully aware of the dangers they faced and did not receive adequate protection or information about minimizing their exposure.

In addition to cancer, other health issues may be linked to radiation exposure, such as heart disease and autoimmune disorders. A comprehensive study would help researchers better understand these potential risks and develop more effective treatments for those affected.

There is also concern about environmental contamination near nuclear weapons facilities, which could affect nearby communities. A full investigation into this issue would provide valuable information on mitigating ongoing hazards.

Overall, a complete cancer study of all individuals who have worked with nuclear weapons is necessary to ensure that those exposed receive proper medical care and support while also providing important insights into potential long-term health effects. It's time for action from our government agencies so we can begin addressing these concerns head-on instead of continuing to downplay them over the years!

Related Article: US Air Force Reassured B-21 Raider Won't Have Trouble Like F-35 Despite Delays

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
By Sharon Bernstein

(Reuters) - Republican lawmakers in North Carolina said on Tuesday they had reached agreement on a plan to limit most abortions to the first trimester of pregnancy, a sharp drop from the state's current limit of 20 weeks gestation.

If passed, the proposed legislation would reverberate beyond North Carolina, limiting options for women who have been traveling there to obtain abortions after the deeply conservative Southern states where they live banned or more severely limited the procedure.

The proposal is the latest effort by lawmakers in Republican-dominated state legislatures to limit abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to end a pregnancy last year.

"The bill that has been developed is a commonsense, reasonable approach to restricting second and third trimester abortions," state senate leader Phil Berger said at a news conference.

The legislation would limit elective abortions to 12 weeks' gestation, with exceptions for rape, incest, life-limiting fetal anomalies and the life of the mother.

The measure also includes funding for contraception, foster care, paid parental leave and other measures that backers said were meant to support mothers and children.

It drew immediate condemnation from Democrats.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said on Tuesday he "strongly opposed" the measure.

"This proposal erodes even further the freedom of women and their doctors to make deeply personal health care decisions," Cooper said on Twitter.

But Cooper's power to veto the bill if it passes is limited. Republicans now hold a large enough majority in both houses of the legislature to override his veto.

The move by North Carolina Republicans comes days after a far more restrictive anti-abortion bill was successfully blocked in neighboring South Carolina by a group of five women lawmakers, three of them Republicans.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Ross Colvin and Stephen Coates)
Richard Baldwin, an economist and professor, at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in 2022. World Economic Forum/Michael Calabro

AI won't take your job  if you know how to use it, economist Richard Baldwin said at the World Economic Forum's Growth Summit.

Baldwin said AI is "giving more power to all workers, but especially those average workers."

He believes AI can uplift the middle class and will affect every job.

While some workers are spiraling about one day being replaced by AI, Richard Baldwin, an economist and professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland, says there's nothing to worry about  as long as you know how to use it.

"AI won't take your job," Baldwin said during a panel at the 2023 World Economic Forum's Growth Summit. "It's somebody using AI that will take your job."

AI, Baldwin said, has the potential to help workers do their jobs better. A nurse who uses a medical AI tool, for instance, would be "much more capable than they were before," he said.

"AI is essentially wisdom in a can," he said. "It's giving more power to all workers, but especially those average workers."

In that vein, Baldwin said he believes that AI could elevate the middle class. He equates the work of "expensive" and "talented" workers with "20 years of experience" to what AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT are capable of achieving overnight.

"I think it will be uplifting for the middle class, but it will be extremely disruptive in the sense that every job will change," Baldwin said.

Baldwin's thoughts on AI come as generative AI tools like ChatGPT have sparked debate over whether the tech will replace jobs. A recent Goldman Sachs study found that generative AI tools could impact 300 million full-time jobs worldwide, which could lead to a "significant disruption" in the job market.

But some experts say AI will help workers be more productive. After all, professionals in a range of industries are already using tools like ChatGPT to develop code, write a press release, and generate lesson plans.

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Like Baldwin, many AI enthusiasts see understanding AI as a critical skill for workers.

That could be why amateur course instructors like Lance Junck have made tens of thousands of dollars teaching people how to integrate ChatGPT into their workflows. Akash Nigam, the CEO of Genies, an avatar tools creator, even plans on factoring ChatGPT usage into his employees' annual performance reviews.

Given the meteoric rise of generative AI tools, it's only a matter of time before rote tasks will be eliminated.

"There will be automation of certain things, and everybody will learn how to deal with it," Baldwin said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Hours after Republican state lawmakers announced their plan to limit abortion rights across the state, Gov. Roy Cooper announced he will veto the measure and opponents gathered to protest the ban.

By 2 p.m., more than 100 people had gathered outside the General Assembly in downtown Raleigh for the Bans off Our Bodies rally hosted by the local chapter of Planned Parenthood. Among the crowd: Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2024.

Stand up, fight back, protesters chanted.

After hearing from speakers, the crowd walked a few feet to the Legislative Building where law enforcement stood on the roof looking down.

The crowd wrapped around the building, chanting, this is what democracy looks like and my body, my choice as they held signs during the security screening process before being allowed inside the building.

Samantha Weaver of Durham stood holding a sign reading forced birthday is reproductive slavery, and said she was hoping the bill didnt go through.

Theyre trying to push that through on us, which ignored and violated our human rights, she said. And just because the illegitimate court tried to strip us of our human rights doesnt mean we dont still have them.

12-week ban

The announcement to ban most abortions that take place after 12 weeks of gestation came Tuesday evening in a news conference by GOP legislative leaders. The bill is being fast-tracked through the legislature, with votes expected Wednesday afternoon and Thursday.

Republicans reached the agreement to restrict second- and third-trimester abortions after months of anticipation on when abortion legislation would be introduced. Senate Bill 20, titled the Care for Women, Children and Families Act, includes exceptions in cases of rape or incest allowing abortions up to 20 weeks. There is also a 24-week limit on situations involving a fatal fetal anomaly, and no abortion limits when a mothers life is at risk.

Currently, abortion is restricted in the state after 20 weeks of pregnancy with an exception for medical emergencies.

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The bill also includes funding for crisis pregnancy centers, adoption and foster care across the state.

Cooper plans veto

Cooper said he would block the bill. I will veto this extreme ban and need everyones help to hold it, he tweeted.

But the Democratic governors reach is increasingly limited. Republicans gained a supermajority in the General Assembly following Mecklenburg County Rep. Tricia Cothams switch from the Democratic side.

During their announcement Tuesday, the leaders said they secured all 30 votes from Republicans in the Senate and all 72 votes from those in the House, enough to override Coopers veto. Republicans said they had settled on a first-trimester abortion ban even though many were split on the restriction, The News & Observer reported.

At least one Democrat was undecided hours before the vote, Rep. Garland Pierce of Scotland County.

Democratic Sen. Natalie Murdock, who represents Durham, told protesters that over the past few weeks more and more harmful legislation has moved on fast-tracked schedules, with little committee debate or hearings. She said she didnt see the abortion bill until 11 p.m. on Tuesday night.

This is not what democracy looks like, Murdock said.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed one of the most extensive anti-ESG bills in the country into law on Tuesday, barring the managers of state or publicly controlled funds from considering environmental, social justice, and governance factors when making investment decisions.

The Government and Corporate Activism Act requires that various state actors, including the chief financial officer, state agencies, and the state retirement fund properly prioritize financial risk and return, or pecuniary factors, over any political considerations. It also prohibits the sale of ESG bonds. Local governments are impacted to a noteworthy degree as they too are required to stop promoting environmental and social goals through their investment decisions. Municipalities also hold ESG bonds.

The move follows Bidens veto of a congressional effort to disapprove of the practice at the federal level. GOP governors signaled they would do what they can to fight ESG in their respective states. Florida now joins Kentucky and West Virginia, who were two of the first to act in a comprehensive way.

We want them to act as fiduciaries. We do not want them engaged on these ideological joyrides, explained DeSantis at a speech coinciding with the signing. They want to use economic power to impose this agenda on our society. And we think in Florida, that is not going to fly here.

The law also prevents banks, other financial institutions, and government contractors from discriminating against individuals and organizations on account of their political views. For example, this would ban banks from applying a social credit score and denying services to people based on religious beliefs or views on the Second Amendment, illegal immigration, or non-renewable energy sources.

Youll actually hear from some folks today whove kind of been caught up in this morass where theyve been discriminated against by financial institutions, just basically because theyre not toeing the ideological line, DeSantis said.

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The law follows on other actions the governor has taken against woke corporations, including Floridas decision to pull $2 billion from BlackRock, which is leading the pro-ESG charge.

Also this week, state politicians from across the country devised new ways of putting pressure on these corporations as well as a Biden administration that enables them.

Nineteen attorneys general sent a letter to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warning him and his organization to stop de-banking organizations they disagree with.

Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron said in a statement to National Review that he is leading this effort to stand up for the rights of Kentuckians.

Chase cannot call itself inclusive and say that it opposes discrimination in any form, while simultaneously disenfranchising its clients over religious and political differences, Cameron said.

Thirty-four state financial officers from 27 states also sent a letter to the Biden administration calling it out for its new Federal Housing Finance Agency policy that would penalize Americans with good credit scores.

This disastrous policy injects socialist principles into our banking sector and punishes middle-class Americans who work hard to build good credit and buy a home, explained West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore in a statement.

If people work hard to achieve the American dream of home ownership, they should not be punished with higher fees to subsidize those who pose a greater financial risk, he added.

Will Hild, executive director of Consumers Research concurred, arguing it is part and parcel of the Bidens idea of governance.

This is the latest in a disturbing pattern of Bidens big government intervention into the lives of hard-working Americans in order to push his progressive social agenda, Hild said.

More from National Review
NPR said Twitter CEO Elon Musk threatened to hand access to its account to another company after the media outlet left the platform last month.

The outlet reported Tuesday that Musk said in a series of emails he would give the account with the handle @NPR to another organization or person.

So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company? Musk said in an unprompted email.

Twitters policy on inactive accounts states that users must log in to their account at least once every 30 days. The policy says that accounts could be permanently removed because of prolonged inactivity.

NPR announced in mid-April that it would quit Twitter after the outlet gave a state-affiliated media label to the outlet and others, one that has traditionally been used for state-run media outlets such as Russias RT and Chinas Xinhua.

Following backlash in which NPR, the White House and others emphasized that NPR has editorial independence, Twitter removed the label and replaced it with one stating that the outlets like NPR were government funded.

But the outlet decided after the change not to publish its work on Twitter, letting its accounts on the platform go unused.

We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the publics understanding of our editorial independence, the outlet told The Hill at the time. We are turning away from Twitter but not from our audiences and communities.

NPRs account is still visible on Twitter but has not posted since April 12. It does not include any label indicating government funding.

Other outlets such as PBS also left the platform following the labeling.

NPRs website states that less than 1 percent of its annual operating budget comes from grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies and departments.

Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant, Musk later said in another email to the outlet. Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR.

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The outlet reported that NPR CEO John Lansing has said he lost faith with Twitters decision-making and needs time to determine if the platform can be trusted.

NPR isnt tagged as government-funded anymore, so whats the beef? Musk told NPR.

The Hill has reached out to Twitter for comment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A registered nurse stole liquid painkillers meant for patients in a Michigan hospitals critical care unit and swapped in saline, according to federal authorities.

Now, the 42-year-old woman has been sentenced to four years in federal prison, according to a May 2 news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. She pleaded guilty in August to tampering with consumer products, McClatchy News reported at the time.

Her defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 3.

In the governments sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said the nurse stole vials of hydromorphone medications, an opioid used to treat pain, from at least March through August 2020. The drugs were taken from dispensing machines at the Detroit hospital she worked at, according to the memorandum.

The nurse stockpiled the stolen drugs by using a syringe to remove the painkillers from vials, authorities said. She then added saline to the vials, according to the sentencing memorandum.

Unfortunately, an unsuspecting nurse could not distinguish between a vial that contained hydromorphone and a tampered vial that only contained saline solution, prosecutors said.

Authorities said the woman stole 116 vials and syringes of hydromorphone and faked records, making it appear as though she and an unsuspecting colleague were conducting a controlled count of medications.

Patients in the critical care unit are often in need of pain medicine for a myriad of reasons, including weaning off ventilatory support, pulmonary dysfunction, cardiac dysfunction, and recovering from surgeries, prosecutors said. (This nurse) ignored her duty to adequately treat these patients by placing saline solution in vials that if administered would not relieve the patients pain.

The nurse admitted to using the stolen drugs and being under the influence while working at the hospital, authorities said.

She was placed in an unenviable position of dealing with the pressure associated with an unprecedented global pandemic. In addition, she was attempting to manage life altering personal issues, authorities said. The combination of the pressure from work and her personal life culminated in her using drugs in an effort to relieve the stress.

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While the government empathizes with (her) situation, one cannot ignore the fact that she placed her own personal needs above her duty to her patients, prosecutors continued. And she potential jeopardized the career of a fellow nurse while doing so.

If you or a loved one shows signs of substance use disorder, you can seek help by calling the national hotline at 1-800-662-4357 or find treatment using SAMHSA's online locator.

Emergency room nurse stole pain meds every shift and gave patients saline, feds say

Patients in pain given diluted morphine as nurse took the rest for herself, feds say

Paramedic on ambulance shift injects himself with fentanyl meant for patients, feds say
Kathleen Casillo got five hours of community service after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment for plowing her BMW sedan into a crowd, injuring six.

A New York City woman who plowed her car into Black Lives Matter protesters managed to evade jail time by cutting a plea agreement with the prosecution.

According to the New York Post, Kathleen Casillo, 53, received five hours of community service under the deal with the Manhattan district attorneys office. Casillo drove her BMW sedan, with her 29-year-old daughter inside, into a crowd in December 2020, injuring six people.

Video capturing the moment showed several protesters flying into the air.

Kathleen Casillo (above) is arrested by NYPD officers on Dec. 11, 2020, after she drove her car into a group of BLM protesters, injuring six people. On Monday, she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment and will get no jail time. (Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

Casillo pleaded guilty Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court to a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment, usually punishable by up to a year in prison. However, if she completes her term and avoids trouble for six months, the prosecution plans to reduce her charge to simple disorderly conduct.

If she fails in fulfilling any of the conditions of this plea  that is, if she does not complete the community service or gets rearrested in the next year, said Assistant District Attorney Andrew Mercer, she will not be permitted to withdraw her plea and would face possible jail time, the Post reported.

Prosecutors with District Attorney Alvin Braggs office said they consented to the new conditions because Casillo had no prior record, didnt flee the scene, did not plot to harm those protesting and took responsibility for what happened.

The previous offers called for Casillo to get six days of community service and have her drivers license suspended for a year if she pleaded guilty. She declined twice.

On Monday, she expressed regret as she exited the courtroom. Im sorry for everyone, she said, the Post reported. I really am. She is due back in court on June 9.

Casillo told police she feared for her and her daughters safety when she acted that fateful day. A demonstrator outside the courtroom disputed Casillos assertions that she panicked and hit the gas because the crowd of protesters was aggressive.

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You fed peoples lives up, the demonstrator screamed at Casillo, according to the Post. Youre a criminal, and you have not taken responsibility.

Still, Casillos defense attorney Oliver Storch claimed that justice was served, and that his client did not deserve to receive a criminal conviction.

Ms. Castillo is a retired grandmother who looks forward to putting this horrible ordeal behind her and spending time with her family, Storch said, the Post reported. Her thoughts and prayers go out to anybody injured.

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The post NYC woman who drove into BLM crowd gets no jail in plea deal appeared first on TheGrio.
The New York Police Department is awaiting autopsy results before deciding whether to press charges in the death of a man put in a chokehold by a former marine on the New York City Subway.

A video has shown the ex-marine seemingly strangling an aggressive homeless man to death.

The video, filmed by journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez, shows a man identified as Jordan Neely, 30, ranting aggressively and throwing his jacket on the ground when the commuter intervenes.

The passenger, whose name has not been released by police, pinned Neely to the ground in a chokehold for approximately 15 minutes, leaving him unconscious, according to the New York Post.

The incident occurred on Monday afternoon in the northbound Manhattan subway, according to police and Mr Vazquez.

The train was stopped at the Broadway-Lafayette Street/Bleeker Street station, where the conductor called 911. The man, who was rushed to hospital afterwards, did not survive.

In the video, the subway rider can be seen lying on the floor of the train with his arm wrapped around Neelys neck.

Another bystander could be seen helping hold Neely down on the floor of the subway train.

The passenger was taken into custody but later released without charges.

The man is a Marine veteran, reported the New York Post.

The investigation is ongoing, and authorities are awaiting autopsy results before deciding whether to pursue charges against the 24-year-old former Marine.

Neely reportedly had a history of mental health issues and was homeless. However, according to Mr Vazquez, he had not physically attacked anyone before the passenger intervened.

The disturbed man did not seem to want to attack anyone, he wrote in a post in Spanish. A young man with brown hair and a grey jacket grabbed him from behind the neck and pinned him to the floor while holding him with his legs.

Mr Vazquez expressed mixed feelings to the New York Post about the encounter, saying citizens should use moderation when intervening in situations like this.

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I think that in one sense its fine that citizens want to jump in and help. But I think as heroes we have to use moderation, he said.

This would never have happened if the police had shown up within five minutes. Then wed be talking about a true hero. Its complicated.

Mr Vasquez told the Post that ahead of the violent incident, Neely had started to make a speech.

He started screaming in an aggressive manner, he said. He said he had no food, he had no drink, that he was tired and doesnt care if he goes to jail. He started screaming all these things, took off his jacket, a black jacket that he had, and threw it on the ground.

Thats when the former marine grabbed him. The 24-year-old declined to comment when reached by the Post and the New York Daily News.

None of us who were there thought he was in danger of dying, Mr Vasquez told the Post. We thought he just passed out or ran out of air.

David Schwartz, a criminal defence attorney and a former prosecutor, told CBS News that You can only assert as much force as necessary in that particular situation, so was force even necessary? I dont know. We have to see what the investigation unfolds.

He added that self-defence may be a difficult argument to make.

Was there another way to subdue this person besides getting him into a chokehold? he asked, adding that what happened before the video may decide the trajectory of the case.

Was this person just causing havoc or were they threatening the lives of others on the subway? he asked. I think the city of New York has created conditions as such where things like this are gonna happen.

The man who died has more than 40 prior arrests and an active warrant for his arrest, stemming from a charge of felony assault, police told CBS News.

Neely used to busk in the subway by impersonating Michael Jackson, according to the Daily News, which also reported that he had a history of mental health problems.

His father, Andrew Zachary, told the paper that Neelys mother was also killed. He said she was killed by her boyfriend.

Christie Neely was found dead stuffed in a suitcase on the side of a Bronx highway in 2007. Her son was 18 years old at the time. He testified at the murder trial of her boyfriend Shawn Southerland, saying that they fought every day before her death.

The boyfriend represented himself at the trial. He was convicted in 2012 of strangling her and she was sentenced to three decades behind bars, nj.com reported.

Mr Zachary said he hadnt seen his son for four years, but told the Daily News that he was great at impersonating the disgraced pop star.

I sat him in front of the TV and showed him the Jackson 5, Mr Zachary said. He took on the Michael Jackson thing and he really formed it very well.

A neighbour of the father told the paper that I felt like something was wrong with Neely. Just his aura, everything. Sometimes he was asleep in the hallway.

He wasnt violent. He was more a dont-look-at-me-type of person. Anxiety, the neighbour added. I felt like thats why he did the Michael Jackson thing  he had better confidence. It just became like thats all he wanted to do. Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson.
A police officer in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., narrowly escaped an out-of-control car that came speeding at him from across the median during a traffic stop  and it was all captured on dashcam video.

The close call on Fairfax County Parkway before noon Monday was released Tuesday by Fairfax County police, whose chief said no one was killed or seriously injured.

"It's just miraculous," Chief Kevin Davis said at a news conference.

An officer had a BMW 7 Series that was going 73 mph in a 50 mph zone, Davis said.

An out of control car goes across the median and crashes into a car pulled over by a police officer in Fairfax County, Va. (Fairfax County Poilce Department/NBC Washington)

He was speaking to its driver from its passenger side when another BMW careened toward him, backside first, at more than 120 mph, officials said.

That BMW, a high-performance M3, hit the larger sedan and then spun into a Fairfax County patrol vehicle, video shows. The officer's right leg appeared to have been struck or brushed.

"Cool, calm and collected, he hops over that guardrail and immediately gets on the radio," Davis said.

Three teenagers in the M3 essentially walked away with minor injuries, and the officer and the driver of the other BMW were treated at a hospital for minor injuries and released, police said.

The 17-year-old driver of the M3 was cited for alleged reckless driving, the department said.

Davis said that the name of the officer would be released but that he wants to give him time to process the event.

"Its quite the story for him to eventually tell," Davis said. "But right now, hes just glad to be alive."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
A fire at an oil depot in the village of Volna in Russia's Krasnodar Krai broke out after a drone crashed into it.

Source: TASS; Veniamin Kondratiev, Governor of Krasnodar Krai, on Telegram

Details: TASS said that Russia's emergency services had reported that a "tank containing oil products caught fire as a result of a drone crash in the village of Volna in the Temriuk district of Krasnodar Krai."

Russian officials did not specify who launched the drone, or why it crashed.

Veniamin Kondratiev, Governor of Krasnodar Krai, said that "the fire is extensive, foam is being used to contain it."

As of 09:18 (Kyiv time), 188 Russian emergency service workers were deployed to fight the fire. Five fire trains were also deployed.

Previously: An oil depot in the village of Volna in Russias Krasnodar Krai, not far from the Crimean bridge, caught fire on the night of 2-3 May.

On 29 April, a fuel storage tank caught fire in Kozacha Bay, in the city of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea. The fire was reportedly caused by a drone strike.

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The US will no longer delay a deadline for airlines to refit planes with new sensors to address 5G interference.

The deadline is set on July 1 and will remain in place. Airlines have already warned that they won't be able to meet the deadline and may be forced to ground some of their planes. Also, telecom companies have delayed the 5G rollout to let airlines adapt.

The radio frequencies being used for 5G are in a part of the C-Band. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aviation companies have raised concerns that C-Band spectrum 5G wireless could interfere with aircraft altimeters.

Aircraft altimeters measure a plane's height above the ground. Concerns about 5G interference led to several disruptions at US airports in 2022, according to BBC.

A lot of tech companies delayed the rollout of 5G technology until July 1, 2023, for airlines to have enough time to retrofit their altimeters.

Disruptions Ahead

The decision not to extend the deadline will make summer disruptions more likely, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Due to supply chain issues, it is unlikely that all aircraft can be upgraded by the deadline.

Previously, airlines said they wanted 5G signals to be excluded from the approximate two miles of airport runways at affected airports as defined by the FAA.

(Photo : by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images) Travelers wait in line to check in for their flights at the United Airlines Terminal 1 ahead of the Christmas Holiday at O'Hare International Airport on December 22, 2022, in Chicago. - More than 1,500 flights were canceled across the US by Thursday morning as a massive winter storm upended holiday travel plans with a triple threat of heavy snow, howling winds, and bitter cold.

The delay in the rollout of 5G technology is a setback for tech companies and may lead to further delays in the deployment of new services that rely on 5G. However, the decision to delay the rollout is important for aviation safety as 5G signals have the potential to interfere with altimeters, which are crucial for safe flying.

The IATA has called for a global solution to the issue, which would involve collaboration between airlines, regulators, and tech companies. Despite the challenges, the benefits of 5G technology are expected to outweigh the short-term disruptions caused by the delay.

Read also: US Flights Canceled, Delayed During Labor Day Weekend as Travel Record Hits Highest in Three Years

A Ripple Effect

The delay in the rollout of 5G technology has caused a ripple effect across various industries, including healthcare and manufacturing. In healthcare, remote patient monitoring systems that rely on fast data transfer speeds may be delayed due to the slower deployment of 5G networks. Similarly, manufacturers who were banking on using advanced robotics and automation powered by 5G connectivity may have to put their plans on hold.

However, despite these setbacks, experts remain optimistic about the long-term benefits of this revolutionary technology. With faster download and upload speeds as well as lower latency rates than previous generations of wireless communication technologies like LTE or Wi-Fi - it's no wonder why so many businesses are eager for its widespread adoption.

In addition to improving business efficiencies through high-speed internet access anywhere at any time (on mobile devices), there is also hope that with greater bandwidth capacity comes more innovative services, such as virtual reality experiences or autonomous vehicles becoming commonplace throughout our cities.

Despite some short-term disruptions ahead for certain sectors like aviation safety concerns around interference from nearby cellular signals- we must remember that overall investment in new technologies will ultimately drive progress forward toward smarter cities where everything is connected seamlessly online!

Related article: American Airlines Pilots Approve Strike While Contract Talks Continue

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Five Oklahoma families with transgender children and a doctor who treats transgender youths are challenging the states recently enacted ban on gender-affirming health care for minors, arguing the new law discriminates against transgender people and violates the right to parental autonomy guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

In a lawsuit filed late Tuesday in federal court, the families of five transgender minors  each of whom is identified in court filings using pseudonyms to protect their safety and privacy  allege Oklahomas Senate Bill 613, signed Monday by Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), violates the constitutional rights of Oklahoma adolescents and their parents and will cause severe and irreparable harm.

The new law, which took effect upon Stitts signature, bars health care providers from administering gender-affirming medical care to minors. It is the 18th state to enact such a law or policy, according to the Movement Advancement Project, and the 15th to do so this year.

Oklahoma is also the fourth state  joining Alabama, Idaho and North Dakota  to make it a felony to provide gender-affirming health care to transgender children and teens, punishable by up to a decade in prison. A federal judge last year temporarily blocked the Alabama law from taking full effect, pending a legal challenge submitted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Tuesdays lawsuit  filed by the ACLU, the LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal and the law firm Jenner & Block LLP  argues the Oklahoma law unfairly discriminates against transgender youths and best-practice gender-affirming care in violation of their constitutional rights.

While the measure bars health care providers from administering gender transition procedures, which include prescription medications and surgeries, to minors, it does not stop doctors from providing identical treatment to cisgender youths to manage conditions like precocious puberty.

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The Minor Plaintiffs, along with hundreds of other adolescents in Oklahoma, are now faced with the loss of access to this safe, effective, and medically necessary health care because Oklahoma has singled out transgender adolescents by enacting a discriminatory and categorical prohibition on medical treatments for transgender adolescents that are available to others, the lawsuit states. In so doing, Oklahoma has endangered the health and wellbeing of transgender adolescents in Oklahoma.

The law additionally infringes on the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care of their children, the lawsuit argues.

The state acknowledged the suit on Wednesday.

We are aware a complaint has been filed. We will review it and will defend the laws of the State of Oklahoma, said Phil Bacharach of the Oklahoma Attorney Generals office.

In a statement on Tuesday, Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, counsel and health care strategist at Lambda Legal, said Stitt and the Oklahoma legislatures actions against gender-affirming health care are based on nothing but animus towards transgender people and a campaign of misinformation and disinformation.

These actions risk the health, well-being, and very lives of trans youth in the Sooner State. We will not stand idly by as discriminatory laws endanger our community, he said.

Tuesdays lawsuit also challenges other recent steps taken by Oklahoma officials to restrict access to gender-affirming health care, including passing legislation last year to block University of Oklahoma hospitals from receiving federal COVID relief funding if they continued to offer gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths.

A policy the hospital system adopted in response to the measure prevents doctors from administering medications like puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy to transgender minors, according to court filings, though the same treatments are available to cisgender minor patients.

Members of the hospital systems board are among 40 defendants named in Tuesdays lawsuit, in addition to Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R) and members of the states medical boards.

The lawsuits plaintiffs are asking the court to issue injunctions that block state officials from enforcing Oklahomas felony health care ban and prohibit doctors at University of Oklahoma hospitals from denying gender-affirming medical care to transgender minors.

We all deserve the freedom to control our bodies and seek the healthcare we need, including gender-affirming care, Megan Lambert, legal director of the ACLUs Oklahoma affiliate, said Tuesday in a news release.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
HENRYETTA  Authorities have confirmed seven people are dead, including two missing teen girls and the man they were supposed to be with, Monday in Okmulgee County.

In an interview streamed by News on 6, Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice said 14-year-old Ivy Webster and 15-year-old Brittany Brewer were found dead on a property in Henryetta. An Amber Alert for the two teens was issued at about 10:29 Monday morning.

Though the bodies have not yet been identified by the medical examiner, Rice told reporters late Monday afternoon his office believed they had found "everything that we were seeking this morning."

Law enforcement stand outside of Henryetta High School on Monday, May 1, 2023, as people arrive for a vigil after Okmulgee County Sheriff reported seven people dead after a search for two missing teenage girls.

Authorities believe they also found the body of Jesse McFadden, 39, the man they were thought to be with, on the property along with four other unidentified victims, Rice said.

Who was Jesse McFadden and what was his criminal history?

Court records show McFadden was due Monday in Muskogee County District Court for a jury trial on one count of soliciting sexual conduct with a minor by use of technology and one count of possession of child pornography.

McFadden failed to appear in court. The judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest.

Records show McFadden was accused of the crimes while he was a state prisoner serving a 20-year sentence for first-degree rape, which he was convicted of in 2003.

Law enforcement stand outside of Henryetta High School on Monday, May 1, 2023, as people arrive for a vigil after Okmulgee County Sheriff reported seven people dead after a search for two missing teenage girls.

The Muskogee Phoenix previously reported McFadden was accused of having a cell phone while an inmate at Jess Dunn Correctional Center in Taft in July 2016.

He was accused of using the phone to communicate with a 16-year-old girl in Muskogee, the newspaper reported.

State Department of Corrections records show McFadden was discharged Oct. 30, 2020.

In Oklahoma, first-degree rape is considered an 85% crime, meaning those convicted of the offense must serve at least 85% of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

Henryetta High School on Monday, May 1, 2023, during a vigil after Okmulgee County Sheriff reported seven people dead after a search for two missing teenage girls.

Okmulgee County sheriff investigating what led up to seven Henryetta deaths

Rice said the county has not seen anything "of this magnitude" during his nearly two decades of service as sheriff.

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"We've had our share of troubles and woes, but this one's pretty bad," Rice said.

Rice said his team is still following leads to hopefully find out what led up to these deaths, which come just seven months after four Okmulgee men's bodies were found shot, dismembered and dumped in a nearby river.

"It's a tragic day in Okmulgee County again, and we just ask that you pray for the families," Rice said.

Court documents: Joseph Kennedy confessed to killing 4 Okmulgee men and cutting them up

Henryetta to still hold class, offer counseling services

Henryetta Public Schools will be in session Tuesday, the district said on Facebook, in what "will be an extremely difficult day."

"We want to (ensure) that all students have access to grief counseling & the support of faculty & friends," the district said. "We will have mental health professionals & faith-based clergy on hand, but we understand if you feel it is more appropriate to keep your student at home."

Law enforcement stand outside of Henryetta High School on Monday, May 1, 2023, as people arrive for a vigil after Okmulgee County Sheriff reported seven people dead after a search for two missing teenage girls.

A vigil was held 7 p.m. Monday night in the Henryetta Knight Center New Gym, which was attended by hundreds, including Nathan Brewer, father of victim Brittany Brewer.

"It's just a parent's worst nightmare, and I'm living it," Brewer said. "She was my right-hand person, and she's gone."

Brewer described his daughter, who he said had recently celebrated her 15th birthday, as outgoing and compassionate, with aspirations to be a teacher or a veterinarian.

"I am just lost," Nathan Brewer said. "I'm really lost at words for now. I still keep thinking she's going to run up behind me."

Nathan Brewer, the father of Brittany Brewer who was found dead, speaks after a vigil in Henryetta Okla., on Monday, May 1, 2023.

Ryan Wells, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dewar, helped rally a local faith coalition Monday evening at the high school, supporting the families of Brewer, Webster and the other victims, who were identified by residents as belonging to the school district.

"Our goal is to just let this family, multiple families, know that we're going to be there for them and with them and not let them slip through the cracks," Wells said. "The reality is, they're just beginning a journey that's going to be very difficult."

Another local minister, Marcus Whitworth, Sr., said the small community was no stranger to tragedy, but that the residents were going to persevere together.

"There's strength in numbers," Whitworth said. "This tragedy is not going to define us as a community. It's the unity that's going to define this community. We're going to stand firm."

Pastor Ryan Wells hugs Nathan Brewer, the father of Brittany Brewer who was found dead, after a vigil in Henryetta Okla., on Monday, May 1, 2023.

This is a developing story.

More: Victim identified after Sunday shooting outside northwest Oklahoma City bar

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 7 people, including two teens reported missing, found dead in Oklahoma
One person has been arrested but charges have not yet been filed in the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy on Tuesday in Alton.

Neither the victims name nor the suspects name have been released by authorities.

Alton Police Chief Jarrett M. Ford said officers responded to a report of a juvenile with a gunshot wound to his chest in the 2600 block of Maxey Street.

Members of the Alton Fire Department administered life-saving procedures but despite their efforts, the teenager died.

Ford said a criminal investigation by the Alton Police Department was started right away.

Leads and information obtained led to the identification and arrest of a suspect who was eventually taken into custody, Ford said.

The homicide investigation is a joint effort with the Alton Police Department, the Madison County Coroners Office and Illinois State Police.

Ford said once the investigation is complete, the case will be turned over to the Madison County States Attorneys office for review.

This was not a random act if violence, he said. All involved parties are known to each other.

It is always devastating when a young life is taken, Ford said. On behalf of the Alton Police Department, we offer our sincerest condolences to the family dealing with this tragic loss.
The railway station in Kherson

An ambulance was also damaged because of the strike. Fortunately, none of the medical staff was injured.

Read also: Russian shelling of Kherson Oblast kills one, injures another in past day

Rescue teams are working at the scene, Prokudin said.

A train conductor was injured after the Russians hit a passenger train car, said Ukraines national railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia.

Read also: Russian troops shell Kherson Oblast 50 times in the past 24 hours

Boarding had not started when the shelling began, and the passengers were in a safe shelter, the operator reported on Telegram.

A train to Lviv with 116 passengers on board departed from Kherson with a delay of 14 minutes. Train cars damaged by shelling will be promptly replaced at the railway station in Mykolayiv.

Ministry of Health of Ukraine

Ministry of Health of Ukraine

Prokudin added that Russian invaders had also shelled the village of Stepanivka in Kherson Oblast, resulting in the death of three energy workers who were performing repair and restoration work.

Read also: Ukrainian army destroys artillery and two Grad rocket systems Russians used to attack Kherson Oblast

Earlier on May 3, three people were killed and another five were injured after a Russian missile struck the only operating hypermarket (Epicentr) in Kherson.

The right bank of Kherson Oblast, including the city of Kherson and other settlements, are being systematically shelled by Russian troops. Enemy shells regularly target and destroy civilians and civilian infrastructure in the region.

Ukrainian Defense Forces are attempting to push the Russian occupation army back at least 20 km from the water line in Kherson Oblast to reduce the number of attacks, said Ukrainian militarys South Operational Command spokesperson, Natalia Humeniuk, on Ukrainian national television on March 12.

Read also: Ukrainian forces strike deep into Kherson Oblast with cross-Dnipro raids

The left bank of the region remains under temporary occupation.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Two women embrace near the scene of the shooting in Atlanta

Police have arrested a man suspected of shooting five people -- one of whom died -- at an Atlanta hospital on Wednesday, authorities in the southern US city said.

One person was killed and four were injured when Deion Patterson allegedly opened fire in a hospital waiting room just after midday (1700 GMT). Patterson then allegedly stole a truck that had been left running at a nearby gas station and fled.

A manhunt went into the night before Patterson was apprehended outside the city in neighboring Cobb County.

"Law enforcement have taken the suspect into custody," Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said at a news conference Wednesday evening.

"He will be charged and stand trial for his crimes."

Patterson was detained "without incident," said Cobb County police chief Stuart VanHoozer.

The victims, all women, were aged between 25 and 71, police said at an earlier news conference.

The Fulton County Medical Examiner's office later identified the woman shot and killed as Amy St. Pierre, 38, CNN reported.

St. Pierre worked for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency told the broadcaster.

Three other women were in intensive care and a fourth victim was in stable condition, CNN reported.

Police chief Darin Schierbaum said local authorities received assistance in the search for Patterson from multiple agencies, including the FBI and the Secret Service.

Patterson had been accompanied in the hospital waiting room by his mother, who was not injured in the shooting, Schierbaum said. CNN reported he became "enraged" during a visit before opening fire.

It was too soon to know if any of the victims were targeted specifically, Schierbaum added. The suspect's family cooperated with the investigation, he said.

As police were scouring the greater Atlanta area, they published a photo of Patterson, wearing dark pants, a hood over his head and a white surgical mask, wielding a handgun.

Television footage showed police and other law enforcement officers deployed at the scene. Multiple ambulances were also present.

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The shooting sent several schools near the hospital into temporary lockdown.

"Out of an abundance of caution, we have dispatched officers at every school for today's dismissal," Atlanta Public Schools announced on its website once the lockdowns were lifted.

The White House said President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had been briefed on the shooting.

Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the president's hands were tied on "more steps to deal with the violence that we're seeing in our communities or schools or churches."

"American people should be able to feel free to go into a grocery store, to go to church," Jean-Pierre said.

There have been more than 190 mass shootings -- defined as four or more people wounded or killed -- so far this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

With more firearms than inhabitants, the United States has the highest rate of gun-related deaths of any developed country: 49,000 in 2021, up from 45,000 the year before.

led-md/st/nro/sco/pbt
A Russian Shahed-136 attack drone managed to hit a target on the night of 3 May. An administrative building in the city of Dnipro has been damaged.

Source: Serhii Lysak, Head of Dnipro Oblast State Administration, on Telegram

Details: He said the strike caused a fire, but the flames have been put out.

Lysak says that defenders of the sky from Air Command Skhid (East) shot down seven drones over Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in just one night.

There were no casualties among city residents.

Emergency workers are still working at the scene, and the attacks aftermath is being established.

Background: The Ukrainian Defence Forces shot down 21 Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 attack drones overnight, with a total of up to 26 drones used by Russian forces.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
E-Kvetch

An online tutoring company that once dominated its industry is majorly hurting after just a few months of ChatGPT. As CNBC reports, the CEO of the orange-branded e-tutoring company Chegg admitted during an earnings call earlier this week that the outlook for his company is less than sunny now that its stock is down more than 40 percent. "In the first part of the year, we saw no noticeable impact from ChatGPT on our new account growth and we were meeting expectations on new sign-ups," Dan Rosensweig, the company's CEO, said during the Monday night call. "However, since March we saw a significant spike in student interest in ChatGPT. We now believe its having an impact on our new customer growth rate."

Ups and Downs

Though it was founded in 2005 as a textbook rental site and went public a decade ago, Chegg's value rose exponentially alongside its user base during COVID-19 lockdowns, when distance learning made the need for online tutoring  or, according to some critics, cheating  more pronounced. In early 2021, Forbes put the company on its cover as its stock value more than tripled and its valuation ballooned to more than $12 billion. In just a few short years, however, the company's stock price fell to around $9 at the closing of the markets yesterday, which is notably less than the $12.50 it was valued at during its initial IPO in 2013. Just a few weeks ago, Chegg announced that it's developing its own AI, CheggMate, in partnership with OpenAI to help students with homework. But as analysts who spoke to CNBC note, that probably won't be enough to change its stock trajectory until next year. Given that both of these companies are accused of helping students cheat, it's not exactly surprising that one may be overtaking the other as ChatGPT  the apex predator in this situation  eats its predecessors. More on education: High School Teacher Confesses to Using ChatGPT for Work
Hi there, OnPolitics readers. The race to be the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee continues to heat up.

Former President Donald Trump is set to do a CNN "town hall" next week in New Hampshire, which is likely the site of the first primary of the 2024 Republican presidential race.

Trump will meet with meet with New Hampshire voters May 10 at St. Anselm College in Goffstown while CNN's Kaitlin Collins moderates the town hall.

 Keep reading: Donald Trump to do a CNN town hall next week in New Hampshire

 How many legal cases does Donald Trump face?: 2 DOJ investigations, a Georgia grand jury, NY charges and a lawsuit

 ICYMI: Donald Trump's attorneys fail to win dismissal of E. Jean Carroll case

 Get newsletter in your inbox: Don't miss our politics coverage. Sign up for OnPolitics.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump will meet with New Hampshire voters in CNN town hall
Major Win

In a historic step for outsourced tech labor, over 150 African content moderators  whose work has underpinned AI systems at Facebook, TikTok, and OpenAI  have voted to unionize, Time reports. The newly minted African Content Moderators Union is entirely made up of current and former employees of third-party moderation contractors, according to the report. Those contractors include a popular firm called Sama, which has held lucrative contracts with both Facebook and OpenAI. "For too long we, the workers powering the AI revolution, were treated as different and less than moderators," Richard Mathenge, a former ChatGPT content moderator, told Time. "Our work is just as important and it is also dangerous." "We took a historic step today," he added. "The way is long but we are determined to fight on so that people are not abused the way we were."

Digital Hell

From AI to social media, content moderation is one of the most difficult and burdensome jobs in Silicon Valley. Many of those who work in the field are subjected to graphic and traumatizing content. But it's also one of the most essential positions in the space right now  without moderation, other users could be unwittingly exposed to problematic content. Some of these workers are also helping the likes of OpenAI train their AI models, turning them from racist nonsense-spewing bots into helpful assistants. And yet, reports throughout the years have painted a grim picture of moderators' work conditions and compensation. Sama, for example, has been accused of paying their workers less than $2 a day for their work moderating OpenAI's training data, while Facebook has been shown to pay its moderators much less than it pays its highly-compensated engineers. Meanwhile, tech companies including Sama and Facebook have been accused of failing to provide moderators with adequate mental health resources. All to say: this historic union is an important and necessary step forward for contracted moderators, and will hopefully help to protect them as we move further into an AI-powered future. "It takes a village to solve a problem, but today the Kenyan moderators formed an army," Martha Dark, co-director of a non-profit NGO called Foxglove, told Time in a statement. "From TikTok to Facebook, these people face the same issues. Toxic content, no mental health care, precarious work  these are systemic failures in content moderation." More on AI content moderation: OpenAI Apparently Paid People in the Developing World $2/Hour to Look at the Most Disturbing Content Imaginable
ANKARA, Turkey  The Turkish Navy has received the amphibious assault ship TCG Anadolu, its largest vessel ever, from which the military will deploy heavy helicopters, drones and light-attack aircraft, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The service received the ship on April 10 during a ceremony attended by Erdogan, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and top military brass.

Its fully loaded displacement is 27,436 tons, and it measures 231 meters (758 feet) in length, 32 meters in width and 58 meters in height. The ship can carry a battalion-sized unit of 1,200 personnel, eight utility helicopters and three drones. It also can transport 150 vehicles, including battle tanks.

Specifically, the TB-3 armed drone and the Kizilelma combat UAV can launch from the ship. Both aircraft were developed and built by the privately owned Turkish drone-maker Baykar. But the government must be patient for that capability to come to fruition, according to a senior engineer supervising the program for the TCG Anadolu.

Turkey commissioned a new ship, the TCG Anadolu, on April 10, 2023. (Turkish Defence Ministry)

For full operationality on the TCG Anadolu, we must have more powerful engines for the TB-2 and TB-3 drones, and develop folding-wing capabilities for the Kizilelma, he told Defense News on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. It will take some time before the ship becomes as operable as we wish it to be.

Turkey selected local shipyard Sedef in 2013 for the landing platform dock, or LPD, program. The company partnered with Spains Navantia.

The original delivery time was five and a half years after Turkey kicked off the effort  by the end of 2021  meaning the schedule fell behind by more than a year.

The resulting amphibious assault ship, which is based on a Spanish design, cost the Turkish government more than $1 billion, although officials have declined to reveal the exact price. Erdogan has said the TCG Anadolu will help with military and humanitarian operations around the world.

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(Geo)politics

Turkey intended to fly F-35 fighter jets from the TCG Anadolu, but the U.S. removed the country from the multinational Joint Strike Fighter program after Ankara acquired Russian-made S-400 air defense systems.

Turkey has since switched its primary aerial asset on the ship from the F-35 to the Kizilelma.

This is not a platform suitable for fighter aircraft, except the F-35 [vertical-takeoff-and-landing] version, which Turkey would never receive. Now that Turkeys F-35 dream is over, it will be a launching pad for drones and helicopters when they will be operationally fit for operations, an expert with a think tank told Defense News, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. The TCG Anadolu was never meant to be an aircraft carrier. This tag became popular for propaganda purposes.

Indeed, there could be political reasons behind the ships construction. One pollster told Defense News Erdogans campaign to provide the country with locally made defense systems  including drones, helicopters, the Altay tank, satellites and missiles  could earn the president an extra 3-4 percentage points in the national vote.

Citizens are to vote May 14 on the presidential position and lawmakers seats. Those points might be the kingmaker in an election that could very well end up with a 51%-49% margin.

Turkey commissioned a new ship, the TCG Anadolu, on April 10, 2023. (Turkish Defence Ministry)

But any gains in popularity at home likely wont be reflected in neighboring Greece. Despite both countries holding membership in NATO, Athens considers the TCG Anadolu a threat to its sovereignty, according to Ozgur Eksi, who leads the defense-focused, Ankara-based publication TurDef.

In recent years, relations between Turkey and Greece have degraded over airspace and continental shelf disputes. Erdogan once even threatened to launch a missile at Greece.

Today, we call the ship [a] UAV carrier, but it is uncertain how UAVs will be piloted under heavy electronic warfare conditions, Eksi said. The lack of [a destroyer that can serve as a means of air defense] is another disadvantage, while [the TCG Anadolus] medical capabilities provide huge potential for both military and disaster-relief operations. This size ship requires establishing the protection shield at 100 miles minimum. I believe using [it] in the Aegean Sea against Greek islands is almost impossible.

A presidential adviser said the ships main missions will include overseas military and humanitarian operations like those Turkey executed in Libya and Somalia in recent years.

If needed, the ship will be used to [perform] operations off Cyprus and Syria. This vessel does not exclusively target Greece, our NATO ally, the adviser explained on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Cem Devrim Yaylali, a Istanbul-based naval analyst published in several defense outlets, said one application of the new ship is force projection.

Amphibious ships, such as the landing ship dock, landing ship platform and landing ship helicopter, are among the most versatile and multifunctional ships any navy can possess. These vessels can be considered the naval equivalent of Swiss Army knives due to their numerous potential uses, Yaylali told Defense News. They can carry a large number of troops, vehicles and equipment, and they can transport them directly to shore for combat operations.

Additionally, these ships can be used to evacuate combatants and noncombatants from a conflict zone, providing a safe and secure means of transport. [The] Turkish [Navy] has much experience in this area; [it] conducted a very large noncombatants-evacuation operation from Libya in 2011. A ship such as TCG Anadolu would have solved many tactical problems with ease.

Yaylali noted amphibious ships can also serve as command vessels for a task force, providing a central location for naval commanders to coordinate their forces.

Furthermore, they can act as logistical supply platforms during humanitarian crises or disasters, providing necessary supplies and aid to affected areas, Yaylali added.

Additionally, Yaylali said, the local construction of the ship benefited Turkish industry by providing technology transfer and workforce experience.

This experience and expertise, when combined with the lessons learned from the operation of the ship, can contribute to the development of a completely indigenous amphibious assault ship and potentially create opportunities for export. The development of TCG Anadolu has also helped to enhance Turkeys human capital in shipbuilding, particularly in the areas of design, engineering and project management, Yaylali said.
Elon Musk has issued a warning to NPR, stating that its Twitter account could be reassigned to a different company, according to the American public broadcaster.

NPR has been inactive on Twitter since the Musk-owned social media tagged the news outlet as "state-affiliated media" alongside other Chinese and Russian media on the platform.

Elon Musk Threatens to Reassign NPR's Twitter Account

According to NPR, the big boss of Twitter, Musk, has threatened the media outlet, telling them that their account on the social network could be reassigned to "another company."

Musk reportedly reached out to one of the reporters of the American media outlet, as per a report by Engadget. The billionaire entrepreneur allegedly warned that the @NPR handle might soon be given away to another personality or organization if they continue to be inactive on Twitter.

The billionaire allegedly asked NPR when they plan to be active on Twitter again. He goes on to inquire if they should "reassign @NPR to another company?"

Twitter vs. NPR: 'State Affiliated Label' Controversy

NPR stopped sharing their news updates on Twitter since the social network slapped them with a "state-affiliated" label, Forbes reports. The public broadcaster has since slammed the tag as "misleading." Thus, it quit the platform as a protest.

Other news outlets on the platform that carry the same tag are the state-run publications of Russia and China, such as RT and Xinhua News Agency, respectively.

On top of NPR, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and PBS followed the same route. They also stopped using Twitter after getting such a label.

However, things have changed since then. Twitter has removed the "state-affiliated" label altogether. And as such, Russia and China outlets no longer bear such a tag, alongside NPR.

But despite that, NPR and the outlets that quit the platform over the labeling remain inactive.

Read Also: Elon Musk's Net Worth Slumped by $12.6B After SpaceX Starship Explodes

Which Company Might Take Over NPR's Twitter?

The potential takeover has left many wondering which company might get their hands on the NPR handle.

Engadget notes that the Twitter Chief Twit, Musk, reportedly revealed which "company" might take over the account of the news outlet. In an email exchange, the tech entrepreneur reportedly disclosed that the "National Pumpkin Radio" is likely assuming control of the inactive account.

Reuters notes that Twitter policy states that users must log in at least once in 30 days to remain in control of their handle on the platform. They could permanently lose their account if they fail to do so and continue to be inactive.

With NPR still inactive on Twitter, it remains to be seen if a new "company" is set to take over their account on the platform in the coming days.

Related Article: Elon Musk Gives LeBron James a Free Twitter Checkmark After Refusing to Pay

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E. Jean Carroll arrives at federal court in New York last Thursday, when she would be cross-examined in her civil lawsuit against Donald Trump. (Seth Wenig / Associated Press)

In the summer of 2019, the journalist E. Jean Carroll published a story that would change her life forever. It would continue the reverberation of a social movement that had already changed my life and millions of peoples all over the world.

In an article for New York magazine, Carroll accused a very powerful man of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, and not just any powerful man  Donald Trump. When the accusation came out, I was driving across town through Manhattan traffic, just a few blocks away from that very department store. I was instantly pulled back to 2017, when I had published my own story in the New York Times mere months before the #MeToo movement broke wide open the scope of the abuses of power in our country.

In the op-ed, I declared that I was done with not being believed. I told the story of a famous actor who tried to pick me up at a diner in Hollywood when I was just 16 years old. Though Carrolls story and mine are vastly different in many ways, our reasons for sharing them are not. As Carroll said on the stand during a particularly ugly cross-examination by Trumps defense during their ongoing civil trial, I thought it was time not to stay silent.

The act of sexual assault or harassment is just one part of the violence women have to endure; the other is living in a world that asks us to stay quiet about it. And we do, because why wouldnt we? Coming forward means character assassination, intimidation and sometimes endless litigation. It means having to sit on a witness stand in front of the world as Carroll just did and explain that just because you didnt scream doesnt mean you werent raped. She may not have screamed then, but Trump can damn well hear her now.

For Carroll, coming forward had less to do with who she was accusing  one of the most visible people in the entire world  and more to do with the lasting effects of a movement that united us with a purpose: to learn how to trust our stories again and, if nothing else, tell them.

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In court this week and last, Carroll credited the impact of the #MeToo movement in her decision to come forward, a movement we were once told might be going too far. Months after substantiated allegations against Harvey Weinstein came to light in the New York Times and the New Yorker, women and even some mens attention began to turn to the other Weinsteins of the world, those in our culture and our own personal lives. Quickly, a sentiment began to circulate that the movement might be getting out of hand.

The film director Woody Allen warned of incoming witch hunts, comically dramatic fears about the demise of workplace flirting were everywhere, and everyone from journalists to executives to Pamela Anderson were suddenly on the fence about where their feminism should or should not lie. Even a poll from the Hill found that more than 40% of Americans felt the movement had gone too far just one year after it had begun. And yet here we are, more than five years later, seeing it go farther than we could have ever imagined.

No matter what anyone thinks 2017s #MeToo movement has or has not been able to accomplish, hearing E. Jean Carroll explain her decision to no longer stay silent is important. To hear her truth vocalized on a witness stand with the world listening is a powerful example of the movements lasting ripple effects on our culture and the way we think and weigh the risks of coming forward.

So much has changed since then, and so much more still needs changing, from closing the pay inequality gap between women and men, to addressing a systemic imbalance of power in the workplace. But who could have predicted wed go from putting the biggest movie mogul in Hollywood on trial for sexual assault to the president of the United States in just a couple of years?

Whether or not Carroll wins this case, it is her bravery, and the bravery of those who have come before her, including Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford, that is a testament to how far weve come. Even if she loses the fight to hold Trump accountable for his actions in a court of law, Carroll has won the ability to take back her own story, publicly, and to be an example for others to consider doing the same. She has become another ripple in the ever-changing tide of whatever the next chapter of the movement against silencing women will become.

Amber Tamblyn is an actor, writer and director. Her latest book is "Listening in the Dark: Women Reclaiming the Power of Intuition."





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A 16th century biblical illustration depicting the "Whore of Babylon" from the Book of Revelation. Many believe the book prophesies an imminent end of the world. (Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Christian theology and global politics can make strange bedfellows. Consider the intimate relationship between fundamentalist expectations of Jesus return and market-driven disregard for the environment.

The affair became public back in 1981, when Ronald Reagans newly minted Interior secretary, James Watt  once known for suing the department he went on to lead  was testifying before a House committee. Watt was asked whether he was committed to save some of our resources  for our children?

That is the delicate balance the secretary of the Interior must have, the secretary affirmed, to be steward for the natural resources for this generation as well as future generations. But then he continued: I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns. Whatever it is, we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources for future generations.

Was Watt suggesting that his faith in the Second Coming should temper the governments conservation efforts? In response to the ensuing uproar, he maintained that his personal Pentecostal belief in a possibly imminent end of the world would have no bearing on official policy.

But his critics had doubts. Why would anyone who seriously imagined that only a few more generations would enjoy the planet skimp on consuming its resources?

The Watt hearing brought public scrutiny to the relationship between religion and environmental policy, but it was not the end of the affair. American evangelicals are still disproportionately uninterested in climate change and other environmental issues. Their apathy is driven not only by their well-documented distrust of science but also by a specific eschatological belief that Jesus is coming soon to bring history to a rather climactic end. Most evangelicals believe this is simply what the Bible teaches, especially in the Book of Revelation.

And its not just evangelicals. Popular evangelical culture  including Hal Lindseys bestselling 1970 book The Late Great Planet Earth and, more recently, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins blockbuster Left Behind novels (with movie spinoffs)  has led many more Americans to believe the Bible predicts our imminent end. Although evangelicals emphatically believe these predictions, and non-evangelicals decidedly do not, its broadly assumed that this is indeed what the Bible predicts.

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In fact, Scripture says no such thing, either in Revelation or in any other book. This is widely known among historical scholars of the Bible but scarcely at all outside our ranks.

It was not always that way. Throughout the long history of Christianity  from at least the 4th century to the early 19th  the vast majority of those who read and heard the stories in the Bible (including the forerunners of modern evangelicals) believed Revelation was describing events that had already happened or were happening in their own time in the life of the church. They were not thought to refer to a near or distant future.

Oddly enough, the French Revolution changed all that. The surrealities of the Reign of Terror convinced horrified Christians in Britain that the world was coming to a crashing halt in fulfillment of the catastrophes described in Revelation. This futuristic reading of Scripture swept through England and then, with a vengeance, America: The world was going to hell, and it was all according to plan.

This is a religious belief with clear social and political implications. Even in secular life, future expectations affect the decisions we make. We may be willing to incur debts for law school or a second mortgage if we think it will pay off in the long run; if were not so certain, we are disinclined to take the risk. During the Cold War, Americans convinced that a nuclear exchange was inevitable put less money into their savings accounts . What would be the point?

In the religious realm, virtually every major crisis has been taken to show that the prophesied signs of the end times were being fulfilled: the horrors of World War I, the Nazi threat, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, the Gulf wars , the invasion of Ukraine  not to mention all kinds of natural disasters. So, too, has the Antichrist repeatedly risen among us: the Kaiser, Benito Mussolini, Mikhail Gorbachev (with the  mark of the beast  on his forehead), Saddam Hussein, Vladimir Putin  pick your enemy of the human race. The end is therefore perpetually upon us, as it was in 1959 ; 1988 ; 2000 ; 2011 ; 2021  pick your date.

Many such predictions were based on assured readings of Revelation and were demonstrably wrong  and not because the doomsayers misunderstood a detail here or there or forgot about one verse or another. They were wrong because of a fundamental misreading of Revelation.

Biblical scholars have long recognized that the book was written for a 1st century audience with 1st century concerns about the 1st century Roman Empire. But there is nothing particularly scintillating about that understanding for modern audiences. You mean our generation is not the climax of all human history? It isnt all about us? How disappointing.

While many of us continue to worry about how we might indeed destroy ourselves and our planet, incredible numbers put their trust in the ultimate deus ex machina. A 2006 Pew Research Poll showed that 79% of Christians (not just evangelicals) believed that Jesus would indeed return to Earth . More intriguing, a 2010 poll indicated that over half of American Protestants believed he would return by 2050.

If a significant portion of the voting public believes the end of our civilization is just 40 years off, why worry about the environment? Why support the Paris climate agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050? Its no surprise that believers in the Second Coming are significantly more likely to oppose governmental attempts to fight climate change.

That this view is based on a misinterpretation of the Bible suggests that religious expertise has never been more crucial to humankind. Who would have thought that serious biblical scholarship could help preserve the ice caps and stem the rising seas? Could it thereby contribute to our collective salvation after all?

It can only help. Lets spread the word before its too late.

Bart D. Ehrman is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says About the End.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Orange Countys commissioners got their first look at a $279.2 million budget Tuesday night that would slightly raise next years property tax rate and spend more on education, employees and social services.

County Manager Bonnie Hammersleys proposed 2023-24 budget allocates $102.9 million to the countys two school districts, and recommends a 1.5-cent increase in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district tax.

The increase is roughly half of the $21.2 million increase that the school districts requested last week.

The county has seen consistent growth in tax revenues related to motor vehicles and new construction over the last year, while sales tax revenues are exceeding expectations by 18%, Hammersley said.

The recommended general fund budget proposes:

 The highest increase in per student spending in county history

 A 6% wage increase for all county employees

 A partnership with Chapel Hill to create a pilot mobile unit for responding to behavioral health crises

 A visitation center where children involved with Social Services can visit with their families

The budget is $21 million higher than this years budget, which ends June 30, and will be supplemented with $7 million from the countys fund balance  money left over after the bills are paid  Hammersley said.

This is the third year that the county has had a surplus at the end of the year, Hammersley noted.

The commissioners set aside $6 million from last years surplus for the 2023-24 budget to avoid a larger tax rate increase, she said.

That money will be added to a new, $37.5 million debt service fund, consolidating the countys debts and the money to pay them in one place. It also will pay for the capital projects manager and a capital projects field coordinator to manage those projects, she said.

The commissioners will hold budget public hearings May 9 and June 1 before drafting a final budget June 8. The vote to approve the budget is scheduled June 20. All meeting start at 7 p.m.

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The approved budget would take effect July 1.

Property taxes

The proposed 0.46-cent tax increase would set the county property tax rate at 83.58 cents per $100 in assessed value, an $18.40 bump on a $400,000 home. The owner of that home would pay $3,343.20 in county property tax.

Property owners in the towns and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district also pay a special school district property tax.

The county manager recommended a 1.5-cent increase in that tax, raising it to 19.8 cents per $100 in assessed value. It would add another $60 to the tax bill for a $400,000 property in the city schools district.

One penny on the county tax rate now raises $2.2 million.

What would schools get?

The budget would increase local spending per student to $5,346, an increase of $538.46. School districts also get state and federal funding.

The budget allocates $102.9 million to the countys two school districts, a 10% increase over last years $93.6 million. Thats roughly 44% of the $21.2 million increase the city and county school boards asked for April 27.

The commissioners and school boards will discuss the budget needs at a May 11 work session.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools

 Proposed: $60.2 million, an increase of $5.2 million. The higher district tax rate could bring in another $27.8 million.

 Requested: $11.2 million, including $8.4 million to cover state-mandated salary increases, higher employee benefit costs, and $5 million in one-time money from the districts fund balance that was used to pay salaries this year. The rest of the money could provide staff with higher starting salaries, professional licensing and certification fees, and six weeks of parental leave, instead of four.

Theres enough fund balance to meet the personnel costs covered last year, but not enough to offer employees more, officials said.

Orange County Schools

 Proposed: $42.8 million, an increase of $4.2 million

 Requested: $10 million, including $2.2 million to cover existing obligations, salaries and benefits. The other $7.8 million would boost salaries but largely focus on critical student needs, from emotional and social learning to field trips and other learning opportunities.

What would county employees get?

Orange County, like other local governments and school districts, is struggling to attract and retain quality employees. Hammersley noted last year that staff turnover had grown from a rate of 8.7% to 13.5%.

Her proposed budget recommends a 6% salary increase for all county employees on July 1, at a cost of $4.4 million. It also includes increases for health and retirement benefits, plus money for a new behavioral health services benefit approved in March.

Other budget highlights

 Public safety: A $3.9 million increase  to $35.8 million  for additional employees in the Criminal Justice Resource Department, the mobile crisis unit pilot program in Chapel Hill and four new Sheriffs Office detention officers.

 Fire district taxes: Nine of the countys 12 fire districts are seeking a tax rate increase: Cedar Grove, 1.37 cents; Damascus, 1 cent; Efland, 2 cents; Little River, 1 cent; New Hope, 1.01 cents; Orange Grove, 1 cent; Orange Rural, 1 cent; Southern Triangle, 1 cent; and White Cross, 1.5 cents.

Pet licensing fee: The longtime pet licensing fee will be eliminated, at a cost of $130,000 in annual revenues for the county. The fee was only paid on about a quarter of the pets living in Orange County last year, the budget noted.

 School health and safety: $3.9 million to keep school resource officers in every middle and high school, and one nurse in every elementary, middle and high school

 Housing: Another $629,650 will continue the effort to move emergency housing programs started during the pandemic to the general fund before federal grant money expires. Roughly $2.1 million in federal money will be available for eviction prevention until next year.

 Social services: Adds $761,821, largely to transition programs relying on federal money to county revenues, including child care, parent fees, food relief, and youth, foster child and low-income family programs.

The Orange Report

Calling Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough readers! Check out The Orange Report, a free weekly digest of some of the top stories for and about Orange County published in The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. Get your newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday at 11 a.m. featuring links to stories by our local journalists. Sign up for our newsletter here. For even more Orange-focused news and conversation, join our Facebook group "Chapel Hill Carrboro Chat."
Dave Ramsey doling out financial advice on "The Ramsey Show." The Ramsey Show/YouTube

An orthodontist with over $1 million worth of student loans called in to Dave Ramsey's show.

He said the interest on the debt alone was costing him about $5,800 per month.

Ramsey said he was going to have to live like a "broke college student" for a while.

TikTok viewers were shocked by a resurrected clip of a man who called in to Dave Ramsey's show saying he had over $1 million in student loan debt.

In a clip Ramsey posted to TikTok this week, where it has amassed 1.8 million views, the man, named Justin, said he had just finished his training as an orthodontist.

The exchange took place in 2020, but reached a new audience when Ramsey reposted it.

Justin said his salary was $250,000 per year, but that he was paying $5,800 per month in interest on the loans.

"You're kidding me," Ramsey said, on hearing how much debt he had. "What were you thinking?"

"Well I wasn't thinking, clearly," Justin responded.

He said he and his fiancee were trying to figure out the best way to attack the debt, and were thinking of trying to pay down $10,000 per month.

"Interest in going to be accruing greater than you're putting in," Ramsey said. "You're not making any mathematical progress."

Ramsey said the situation was "extreme," and he found Justin's debt "overwhelming."

Ramsey is an American radio host and evangelical Christian who is best known for his financial advice. He has faced controversy in the past, including accusations in 2021 that his company had a policy of firing employees for having premarital sex.

Some people are also skeptical of Ramsey's legitimacy as a financial advisor, likening him to more of a preacher than an expert on money.

But many see him as a trusted advisor on money issues, indicated by the 2.6 million subscribers to his YouTube channel and his 830,000 TikTok followers.

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When it came to Justin, Ramsey told him that he had to be "very, very careful to just act like you're a broke college student, because you are a broke orthodontist."

He added that the couple couldn't go on vacations, buy a new house, lease a new car, or eat out at restaurants for the forseeable future.

"It gives me an anxiety attack and it's not even my debt," Ramsey said.

Ramsey said the good news was that Justin had a good income and income potential. But, he said, "you cannot relax."

"You have to cut as deeply as you can cut," he said. "Other than taxes and food and water and electricity, I really want everything else going on student loan debt."

Justin said his smallest loans were around $4,500 or less, which Ramsey recommended focusing on first  "knocking out" one or two a month, known as the "snowball" method, he said.

"I like cleaning up the little ones, getting the dust out of the corner, getting rid of the mosquitoes, then we'll get down to the bear hunt," he said. "Because you go from mosquitoes to bears pretty quick here."

On TikTok, people couldn't believe how much debt one person could rack up just in student loans.

"The system is broken!" one person said. "I'm stressing with my $7k student loans that barely go down because of interest," said another.

Many others said Justin's situation made them feel much better about their significantly smaller debts.

However, others saw the investment as a good one, because Justin could be making much more than $250,000 in a few years' time.

"You gotta think long term," one commenter said. "If he focuses on paying that debt for 2 years, he'll be good."

Read the original article on Insider
A Queens woman who drove her car into Black Lives Matter protesters during a demonstration in the winter of 2020 in Midtown Manhattan will not face jail time after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors.

Kathleen Casillo, 53, was facing up to seven years in prison for her actions, which left six people injured. Ms Casillo was driving a black BMW sedan when she rammed her car into protesters between 39th Street and Third Avenue. She said she panicked and hit the gas because protesters were being aggressive.

Prosecutors ultimatley took a sympathetic view of Ms Casillos actions. The plea deal they reached will only require Ms Casillo to perform five hours of community service and will see her plea to misdemeanor reckless endangerment get knocked down to disorderly conduct if she fulfills the terms of her plea.

The New York Post called the plea a sweetheart deal, and Ms Casillo was accosted by a group of people when she emerged from the courtroom on Tuesday. Ms Casillos attorney Oliver Storch, on the other hand, was pleased with the agreement.

Were very gratified after an exhaustive and thorough review the Manhattan DAs office has decided that Kathleen Casillo should not receive a criminal conviction, which we have maintained from the beginning of the case, Mr Storch said in comments reported by the Post. Ms. Casillo is a retired grandmother who looks forward to putting this horrible ordeal behind her and spending time with her family, Storch said. Her thoughts and prayers go out to anybody injured.

Ms Casillo was contrite.

Im sorry for everyone, I really am, she said.

Prosecutors in the Manhattan DAs office said they did not pursue more severe plea terms with Ms Casillo because she had no criminal record, did not leave the scene of her crime, and, in their estimation, did not intend to hurt the protesters she hit with her vehicle.

The Manhattan DAs office is led by Alvin Bragg, who last month secured the first ever indictment of a former US president in his case against Donald Trump.

Ms Casillo was one of several people who drove vehicles into crowds of racial justice demonstrators three years ago. In Minneapolis, the city where that years Black Lives Matter protests started following the murder of George Floyd, a man who drove his car into protesters on a highway had the charges against him dropped. A man who drove his car into protesters in Seattle also had his charges reduced.
The stolen engines were going to be sold to Iran

They were planning to sell D-36 turbofan engines to Iran for $400,000. The buyers wanted to install the engines on An-74 military transport aircraft.

Read also: SBU has discovered over 300 traitors during wartime  SBU head

The suspects are the owners of a Dnipro-based freight company engaged in logistics for the Middle East and Africa.

According to the SBU, the engines were illegally seized during the liquidation of a state-owned enterprise in Ukraine. The entrepreneurs were planning minor repairs to the engines and working on fake shipping documents.

Read also: Detained owner of Motor Sich has Russian citizenship, had access to state secrets

"The suspects wanted to export the aircraft engines from Ukraine as 'components for main gas pipelines,'" the SBU said.

"To do this, they entered false information in the shipping declarations."

The engines were seized for examination, after which they may be transferred to the needs of Ukraines defense industry.

Read also: Motor Sich President Boguslaev cooperated with DPR terrorists, SBU says

A criminal case was opened under Part 1 of Article 333 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of the procedure for international transfers of goods subject to state export control).

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
In their homeland in Africa, they are responsible for more human deaths than almost any other animal, but in Colombia, hippopotami have become loved members of the local community and a tourist attraction. However, in a town close to the city of Medellin, this legacy of the late drug lord Pablo Escobar, is increasingly posing a problem, and one that experts think may soon turn deadly.

Recently, one of the so-called "cocaine hippos" burst into a school yard in Doradal with both pupils and parents present. "The mothers get scared when they see an animal of that size," teacher Dunia Arango told AFP.

This time, the uninvited guest chomped at some fruit trees before moving off into the adjacent fields. But a bloat of hippos have set up home in a lake just 20 yards from the school.

"There are about 35 children playing that could approach them and provoke a tragedy," said David Echeverri, an official from the local environment authority.

Hippos -- descendants from a small herd introduced by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar -- are seen in the wild in a lake near the Hacienda Napoles theme park, once the private zoo of Escobar, in Doradal, Antioquia Department, Colombia, on April 19, 2023. / Credit: RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP via Getty Images

"While they may look very calm, at any moment, given their highly unpredictable behavior, they can attack, as has happened before," he added.

John Aristides, 33, remembers very well that afternoon in October 2021 when he was fishing on the banks of a creek when a hippopotamus "lunged at me and hit me on the head with its lips."

He slipped trying to get away and was bitten on the arm.

"It grabbed me and threw me two meters," he added. "It didn't tear off my arm because they have very wide teeth."

But Aristides still spent a month in hospital recovering.

That is the closest Colombia has come to a fatal encounter but "if we don't do anything, then we expect to have thousands of hippopotami wandering around" in the future, said Echeverri, who two weeks ago buried a hippo that had been hit by a driver.

After cocaine king Escobar was gunned down by police in 1993, his private ranch and collection of exotic animals, including hippos, were left to nature in an area of abundant vegetation and where there are no predators.

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Independent journalist Audrey Huse, who has lived in Colombia for eight years, told CBS News that in the 1980's, Escobar imported just four hippos. The hippo numbers exploded and there are now about 160 of the two ton beasts wandering freely around this part of northwestern Colombia.

"Because they have no natural predators here, as they would in Africa, the population is booming an it's affecting the local ecosystem," Huse said. "Because they are such large animals, they consume considerable amounts of grassland and produce significant waste, which then poisons the rivers."

The result is that the hippos end up killing fish and threatening endemic species like manatees, otters and turtles, she said.

A study by the National University estimated that the local population of hippopotami could rise to a thousand by 2035.

Biologists say local fauna such as the manatee, classified as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, have been displaced.

Last year, the environment ministry declared hippos an "invasive species," opening the door to a possible cull, one of several solutions being sought to the potentially growing problem.

Fisherman Alvaro Diaz, 40, takes tourists hippopotamus watching by canoe on the Magdalena, the longest river in Colombia.

When he notices the hippos are bothered, he keeps his group at least 30 meters away.

"We see them very often ... we live peacefully with them," he insisted.

Diaz believes, however, that the hippo population needs to be controlled through castrations and contraceptive devices.

The local environment body has tried both, but Echeverri claims they were "expensive and ineffective."

Echeverri says killing them "without pain, in a technically correct manner, is not easy either" given that it would involve capturing and sedating them first.

In a bid to save the hippos, Antioquia state, where Doradal is, announced a plan to transport 70 hippopotami to wild sanctuaries in Mexico and India.

The plan  which experts say would cost about $3.5 million  just needs approval from national authorities in all three countries.

Echeverri believes this project is "possible and necessary" given he has already led a project to capture seven hippos and send them to zoos inside Colombia.

Farmers complain of damage to their crops, but locals have grown fond of the animals.

"Don't take them all. It's already become our culture to live with them and it's great to have this population with us," said Arango, keeping one eye on her pupils.

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Pakistan's Shaheen Shah Afridi (L) took two wickets in the third ODI win over New Zealand

Pakistan registered their first one-day international series win over New Zealand in 12 years with a hard-fought 26-run victory in the third match in Karachi on Wednesday.

Imam-ul-Haq scored a 107-ball 90 while Babar Azam made a 62-ball 54 for his 26th ODI half-century to guide Pakistan to 287-6 in their 50 overs.

Opener Tom Blundell hit 65 for New Zealand while debutant Cole McConchie struck an undefeated 45-ball 64 but the visitors were bowled out for 261 in 49.1 overs.

Pakistan, who won the first two matches by five and seven wickets respectively in Rawalpindi, took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.

"It's always a relief when you win a series and it was a good team effort," said Azam. "We put (on) a good total and then (the) bowlers were outstanding.

"The focus is now to not relax and come out strongly for the next two matches and hopefully we can continue to give one hundred percent."

The last two matches are on Friday and Sunday, also in Karachi.

Pakistan's last ODI series win over New Zealand was in 2011 and since then they had lost six of the seven series, with one drawn.

New Zealand threatened to run away with a win as Blundell and Will Young (33 off 41 balls) gave them a confident opening stand of 83 in 15.3 overs.

Pakistan finally broke through with Young's run out off a direct throw from short third-man, before Mohammad Wasim dismissed Daryl Mitchell for 21 -- the man who had hit successive hundreds in the last two matches.

Fifteen runs later, Blundell was also run out after failing to reach his crease in an attempt to complete a second run. He hit seven boundaries in his knock.

Tom Latham, who made 45, and Mark Chapman (13) added 40 for the fourth wicket but pacer Naseem Shah bowled Chapman with a beautiful delivery before Latham was cleaned up by Wasim.

McConchie tied valiantly to snatch a victory for New Zealand, smashing two sixes and six fours but ran out of partners.

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Naseem, Wasim and Shaheen Shah Afridi all took two wickets for Pakistan.

"The pitch probably slowed up a little bit," said New Zealand captain Latham. "If we had a couple of partnerships here and there then things could have been a little different but we were not quite at our best."

Earlier, New Zealand started well by getting the in-form opener Fakhar Zaman caught off Matt Henry for 19.

Zaman, who had scored three hundreds in his last three ODI innings, had shaped up well before his fall, leaving it to Haq and Azam to steady the innings during their 108-run second-wicket stand.

Azam hit three fours and a six before he chopped one onto his stumps off Henry.

Haq was bowled by pacer Adam Milne in the 38th over.

Abdullah Shafique struggled again as he managed just 19, but Agha Salman (31) helped Mohammad Rizwan (32) add 54 runs for the fifth wicket to lift the total.

In the final overs, Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan also chipped in with 11 and 21 not out respectively.

Henry was the best bowler for New Zealand, taking 3-54.

sh/jc
ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP)  Hundreds of people protested in Paraguays capital for the second straight day Tuesday alleging that this weekends presidential elections were marred by fraud, a claim that President-elect Santiago Pena, electoral authorities and international observers dismissed.

Paraguayo Cubas, a far-right populist outsider with the National Crusade Party who came in third in Sundays presidential contest with 23% of the vote, called for the demonstrations Monday after he received a larger share of the vote than expected on the back of a strong anti-establishment message.

The protests mean Paraguay has become the latest country in the Americas to have a populist candidate call on his supporters to protest the results of an election, alleging fraud without presenting any firm evidence to back up the claims.

Were here requesting an audit of all the records, said Francisco Soteras, who was a candidate for the lower house of Congress under Cubas' party and joined the protesters Tuesday evening. Were already seeing some signs of fraud in this regard. If there is 10% of fraud, were requesting a redo of the elections.

Pena easily won Sundays election with 43% of the vote, a result that shocked analysts who had expected a close race with Efrain Alegre, the second place candidate who represented a coalition of parties that had been described as the best chance in recent history for the opposition to snatch power from the Colorado Party. In the end though, it wasnt even close as Alegre got 27% of the vote.

Despite the lopsided results, Paraguay woke up with roadblocks in numerous points across the country Tuesday, largely set up by Cubas supporters.

This is what the people feel today: discontent, rejection and a bitter feeling that their will was suppressed and the true president of the republic was robbed from them, said Cristian Delgado, another legislative candidate for Cubas' party who joined the demonstrations Tuesday.

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Pena called on the government to assure free transit in Paraguays streets.

Unfortunately, today many people were unable to reach their places of work, many people arrived late to their workplaces, Pena said Tuesday as he dismissed fraud accusations.

The Organization of American States, which deployed an electoral observation mission for the vote, said Tuesday that there is no reason to doubt the results of the election.

Cubas supporters clashed with police on Monday night outside Paraguays electoral court in the capital of Asuncion. Some 70 people were detained, prosecutor Fatima Capurro said.

The Attorney Generals Office said Tuesday it would investigate the incidents but that didnt seem to intimidate the protesters who waved Paraguayan flags outside the electoral court later that day.

Alegre, the candidate for the Pact for a New Paraguay who came in second, called on Monday for a manual count of votes and an international audit of the countrys electronic voting system. Alegre had conceded shortly after Sundays vote and didnt denounce fraud, although he changed his tune after protests were launched.

Cubas, who openly admires El Salvadors President Nayib Bukele and his hardline stance against crime, said he would be traveling to Asuncion to lead the protests.

Its impossible, from my modest point of view, for a weary population to have given victory to these drug traffickers, he said in a television interview.

Analysts immediately drew parallels to what happened in Brazil last year when supporters of then-President Jair Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat in October elections and his supporters launched protests, which included roadblocks. His supporters later stormed top government buildings to dispute the outcome of the election in a move that recalled the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Hes following Bolsonaros playbook by calling for demonstrations, said Leandro Lima, a senior political risk analyst at Control Risks, a consultancy.

At the same time though, there is a key difference in that Cubas doesnt enjoy the support from police and military officers like Bolsonaro did. This lack of a military component is something that makes the Paraguay case less complex to handle, Lima said.

The way in which Alegre followed Cubas lead on the fraud claims shows how the populist politician will be an important voice in Paraguayan politics despite coming in third in the elections.

That growth in Cubas' influence comes at a time when there is a regional trend of an anti-establishment populist discourse against traditional politics and institutions, Lima said.

In neighboring Argentina, for example, an anti-establishment right-wing populist politician, Javier Milei, is also strengthening and is seen among the favorite candidates ahead of the October presidential election. -

Politi reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
BANGKOK (AP)  Myanmars ruling military council on Wednesday said it was releasing more than 2,100 political prisoners as a humanitarian gesture. Thousands more remain imprisoned on charges generally involving nonviolent protests or criticism of military rule, which began when the army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

State-run MRTV television reported that the head of Myanmars military council, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, had pardoned 2,153 prisoners on the most important Buddhist holy day of the year, marking the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha.

In a separate report, it said Min Aung Hlaing had commuted the death sentences of 38 prisoners to life in prison. The report provided no details about them.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, there were 112 prisoners on death row as of Tuesday who had been put there since the army takeover. The group keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the repression of the military government. At least four executions have been carried out since the military seized power.

The prisoner releases began Wednesday but may take a few days to be completed. The identities of those released were not immediately available, but do not include Suu Kyi, who is serving a prison term of 33 years on more than a dozen charges her supporters say were trumped up by the military.

According to an official announcement on state media, all of the prisoners granted pardons on Wednesday were convicted under a section of the penal code that makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear, or spread false news, and carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.

The terms of the pardons warn that if the freed detainees violate the law again, they will have to serve the remainder of their original sentences in addition to whatever term they are given for their new offense.

Two prisoners freed from Yangon's notorious Insein Prison told The Associated Press they continue to support opposition political activities.

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One arrested in 2021 said the terms under which they were released meant they would be on a government watch list.

"But we know what we have to do. And we learned a lot from prison. Using that, we will continue to fight for the revolution," said the former prisoner, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons.

The human rights organization Amnesty International said in an email that Anyone imprisoned for peacefully opposing the military coup in Myanmar should never have been jailed in the first place."

This long-overdue release should mark the first step towards the immediate release of all individuals who have been arbitrarily detained for exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly or other human rights," the group's deputy regional director for campaigns, Ming Yu Hah, said. Amnesty International remains deeply concerned about the further thousands of individuals who are still unjustly languishing in prisons across the country where they face torture and other ill treatment."

Mass prisoner releases are common on major holidays in Myanmar. The last release of that many political prisoners at one time occurred in July 2021, when 2,296 prisoners were freed.

In November last year, several high-profile political prisoners, including an Australian academic, a Japanese filmmaker, an ex-British diplomat and an American, were released as part of a broad prisoner amnesty that also freed many local citizens held for protesting the army takeover.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners had said Tuesday that 17,897 people taken into custody since the 2021 army takeover remained in detention.

Prisoner releases appear to be efforts by the hard-line military government to soften its image as a major human rights abuser.

Last week, former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Myanmars military to take the initiative in finding a way out of the countrys violent political crisis, including releasing political detainees, after a surprise meeting with Min Aung Hlaing.

A statement following the meeting said Ban supported the international communitys calls for the immediate release by the Myanmar military of all arbitrarily detained prisoners, for constructive dialogue, and for utmost restraint from all parties.

The amnesty also came a day after Min Aung Hlaing met with the visiting foreign minister of China, which has provided key support to his regime since it seized power.

MRTV said Tuesday that Qin Gang held talks in the capital, Naypyitaw, with Min Aung Hlaing and other top officials and exchanged views on bilateral relations, Myanmars political situation and conditions needed for its stability and development.

Qins visit followed a meeting Monday in Beijing with U.N. special envoy for Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer, who stressed that a robust international response to the crisis requires a unified effort by neighboring nations working together to stop the violence, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Wednesday.

Heyzer emphasized Chinas important global role and its support for the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations' efforts to facilitate peace, Haq said, while Qin underscored that the international community "must act prudently and pragmatically" to prevent the Myanmar conflict from intensifying and spilling over into the region.

China has strategic geopolitical and economic interests in Myanmar, its southern neighbor, and is one of the few large nations that has maintained good relations with its military government, which is shunned and sanctioned by many Western nations for its takeover and brutal repression of its opponents.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army took power. Its takeover prompted peaceful protests that security forces suppressed with bloody violence. Violence has since escalated with the rise of armed resistance around the country and major military efforts to suppress it.

As of Tuesday, 3,452 civilians had been killed by the security forces since the military takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Jack Ma is now a visiting professor in Japan following his controversial disappearance since China's tech crackdown in 2020, which wiped out his business empire.

After being elusive to public life for three years, the co-founder of Alibaba Group has recently taken other professorship roles in countries like Hong Kong.

Jack Ma Resurfaces as a Visiting Professor in Japan

The Chinese business magnate, who rarely sees the public spotlight for roughly three years, has gotten a new job up his sleeves.

According to News Australia, the Alibaba co-founder has recently joined the roster of professors at the Tokyo College, which the University of Tokyo or UTokyo runs. The billionaire took the visiting professor role as he embraced another academic endeavor following his controversial elusiveness since 2020.

CNN reports that the Tokyo College website says that the Chinese billionaire will work hand in hand with researchers in the educational institution. He is expected to focus on topics of food production and sustainable agriculture.

Besides that, the UTokyo-run college says that the Alibaba founder will also "provide advice and support to the major research topics of Tokyo College."

The new visiting professor of the Tokyo College has taken his current role "to share his rich experience and pioneering knowledge on entrepreneurship, corporate management, and innovation," its website says. He plans to impart all of these not only to his students but as well as to the faculty members of the institution by hosting various seminars.

Jack Ma's 2020 Disappearance Since China's Tech Crackdown

According to the South China Morning Post, Ma has been mysteriously elusive from the public eye for roughly three years since China kicked off a crackdown against tech firms in the country in 2020.

He previously criticized China, primarily its financial regulator, and banks, for allegedly giving small businesses a difficult time in the country. Days after his controversial remarks, the Chinese authorities decided to suspend the intended staggering $37 billion initial public offering or IPO of Ant Group, which is a financial subsidiary of Alibaba.

And since then, the Chinese billionaire has let go of all his roles in the company he co-founded. On top of that, he has been rarely seen in public.

Read Also: China Regulator Fines Alibaba Group $2.75 Billion for Market Monopoly Practice

The Academic Ties of the Alibaba Co-Founder

The SCMP reports that the Alibaba co-founder returned to China in March. He sits as one of the managing boards of Tsinghua University, a public research educational institution in Beijing.

While he has been elusive nowadays, he remained committed to various educational institutions. He recently joined the business school of the University of Hong Kong after accepting the honorary professorship offer. He will reportedly take the role until March 2026, News Australia notes.

Related Article: Alibaba Group To Undergo Major Overhaul as Jack Ma Returns To China

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Haylee and Shawn Ladner, the Mississippi couple who welcomed quintuplets in February, have an exciting announcement: Three of their five babies are home!

Jake  the one boy  and his sisters Adalyn and Magnolia Mae have been discharged from Childrens of Mississippi Medical Center. Siblings Everleigh and Malley Kate are expected to join them this week.

Its amazing, Haylee tells TODAY.com. Its definitely challenging at times, but it is the biggest dream come true! I wouldnt trade for the world. All of the sleepless nights are worth it. Im overjoyed and blessed with these miracles.

Daughters, Adalyn, Everleigh, Malley, Magnolia, and son Jake were delivered at the University of Mississippi Medical Center on Feb. 16. (Courtesy Ladner family)

At 2 months old, the infants are developing their own distinct personalities.

Adalyn likes to sleep, but if shes upset, youll know it, Haylee said in a news release from the hospital. She noted that Jake is the calmest as long as hes fed and rested. Malley Kate, the smallest of the bunch, has a feisty disposition, while she described Magnolia Mae as dainty and calm. And Everleigh? She likes to eat!

Adalyn Elizabeth Ladner smiles after enjoying a bottle feeding (Courtesy Melanie Thortis / UMMC Photography)

The girls' nursery is decorated in a Disney princess motif, while Jake's bedroom has a "gone fishing" theme.

Im constantly amazed with how strong they are and how beautiful they are, and Ill always be grateful for that, Haylee shared in the news release.

Magnolia Mae Ladner smiles during a nap (Courtesy Melanie Thortis / UMMC Photography)

The four girls are identical quadruplets, which means one fertilized egg divided four ways.

Quintuplets occur in roughly one in 60 million births, according to Dr. Rachael Morris, an associate professor of maternal fetal medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Malley Kate Ladner, the smallest of the quintuplets, is said to be the feistiest of the Ladner babies. (Courtesy Melanie Thortis / UMMC Photography)

The odds of having identical quadruplets are about one in 15 million.

Haylee and Shawn underwent intrauterine insemination (IUI) in 2022 after experiencing two miscarriages. An IUI is when a healthy sperm is placed in the uterus around the time of ovulation to improve the chances of fertilization.

Dad Shawn Ladner touches the hand of daughter Everleigh Rose Ladner. (Courtesy Melanie Thortis / UMMC Photography)

Weeks after the procedure, the couple heard five heartbeats on their ultrasound. Haylee carried her babies until 28 weeks gestation; an early birth is common for high-order multiples.

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Last month, the quintuplets posed together in one crib for Easter pictures. The photo shoot made Haylee emotional.

It was really hard not to cry, Haylee told TODAY.com at the time. It was just such a beautiful moment for us.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
A Texas man has been banned from United Airlines flights after assaulting an employee while boarding a plane at San Francisco International Airport, officials reported.

Cody Benjamin Lovins, 47, of Montgomery, was arrested and cited for battery late Sunday, May 1, following the incident, San Francisco police told KRON.

Lovins became irate when he and his wife were asked to move from their assigned seats on the Houston-bound flight shortly before midnight, fellow passenger Naya Jimenez told KGO. A gate attendant came on board to speak to Lovins.

After he paused for a minute, he ran toward where the pilot was, where the emergency exit doors are, and attempted to open it, Jimenez told KGO. He tried to jump off the plane but flight attendants restrained him, she said.

In a statement Wednesday, May 3, to McClatchy News, United Airlines confirmed that a disruptive passenger assaulted a customer service employee during boarding.

This customers behavior was unacceptable, the airline said. He has been banned from future United flights and we are working with local law enforcement in their investigation.

Airport police responded and arrested Lovins, KNTV reported.

San Francisco International Airport had 42 million passengers in 2022, the airport reported.

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Pedro Pascal in 2023, 2019 and 2007.

Pedro Pascal in 2023, 2019 and 2007.

Pedro Pascal recently shared a vulnerable moment on camera with fellow actor Bella Ramsey.

The Last of Us co-stars were posing on the red carpet during a For Your Consideration event in Los Angeles on Friday when Ramsey pointed out a very specific pose Pascal was striking in front of the cameras.

In the footage shot by Deadline, Pascal stood with his left hand on his torso. Ramsey appeared to acknowledge her co-stars unique pose by patting his hand and then placing her hand on her torso in a similar manner.

Actors Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal attend the Los Angeles FYC Event

Actors Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal attend the Los Angeles FYC Event "The Last Of Us" on Friday.

After Ramsey patted his hand, Pascal began to explain why he places his hand in that particular spot.

You know why? he said before taking a deep breath. Its because my anxiety is right here.

In response, Ramsey nodded with understanding and then leaned in for a hug.

Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal at #TheLastOfUs FYC event



Deadline FYC House + @hbomaxpic.twitter.com/fqv7n5eIf6  Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) April 29, 2023

Pascal does strike this pose pretty often when hes on the red carpet. Photos of the actor suggest hes been doing it for nearly 20 years  and as recently as at Mondays 2023 Met Gala.

Pascal at the New York premiere of

Pascal at the New York premiere of "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" in April 2022.

Hell also do it when hes accompanied by someone hes close with  like his longtime friend, actor Sarah Paulson.

Sarah Paulson and Pascal attend the 2016 SAG afterparty.

Sarah Paulson and Pascal attend the 2016 SAG afterparty.

In 2005, a then-unknown Pascal was photographed with Paulson during the opening of the play Absurd Person Singular in New York City, and appeared to be doing an early version of the pose with Paulsons assistance.

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Paulson and Pascal at the opening of

Paulson and Pascal at the opening of "Absurd Person Singular" at the Biltmore Theater on Oct. 18, 2005, in New York City.

Pascals method for dealing with his anxiety is a good move, according to Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University who spoke to HuffPost in 2017.

Focus on your breathing, put your feet flat on the floor. Smile even if you dont feel like smiling, Humphreys advised. Tense your muscles then let them go, then tense them again and repeat. Relax your body, and a lot of people will find your emotions will follow.

Ricks Warren, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, also told HuffPost in 2017 that accepting your anxiety  which Pascal seems to be doing  is also a healthy move.

People put themselves down for being anxious, he explained. Accept yourself with anxiety and notice that youre not alone.

Having an anxiety disorder is the most common mental health condition in the country, with nearly 40 million American adults experiencing it over their lifetimes. Its critical to cultivate self-compassion about your condition, which Pascal appears to be doing.

Support yourself with anxiety, just as if a friend was there supporting you, Warren told HuffPost.

Or if youre Pascal, have Paulson or Ramsey with you during your photocalls.
Now that summer is around the corner, rocking a 40 inch bussdown (in other words a lace front wig thats 40 inches) is risky. The sweltering heat just might melt the lace. Black women are known for protective styles and what better option to try than some fresh braids. Trends like knotless goddess braids are meant for a bohemian, effortless look while peekaboo braids are a fun way to show off some color while still protecting your crown.

Peekaboo Braids are individual braids, usually knotless or box, that highlight a pop of color in a section of the head. The pop of color is often camouflaged by the rest of the braids, usually in a darker color, at the top and sides of the head. Peekaboo braids give the wearer the option to show off the color by pulling some of their braids up revealing the colored braids. The trend became viral on TikTok.

Chicago hair braider, Natasha Mukemu, believes Black women should explore this trend despite societal expectations on Black Hair.

Black Women Are the Originators Of Color

As traveling Black hair stylist, Mukemu enjoys doing peekaboo braids for young Black girls ranging from five to mid twenties. She believes it adds a fun element during the process. Even though she loves a straight black look, she believes the peekaboo braids add more attention and grandeur to a style.

Mukemu says Black women should always be innovative with their hairstyles because Black women have the ability to be original. Mukemu notes hair braiding is designed for Black women. Beauty supply stores display vivid braiding hair. Mukemu says Black women shouldnt be afraid to take advantage of these color options.

Age Doesnt Matter

Mukemu says Black Women should express themselves in any capacity, especially when it comes to their hair. She feels Black women sometimes limit their hair styles once they get a certain age. However Mukemu advocates for women to explore hair color despite their age. Peekaboo braids are a great opportunity to do that.

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She definitely understands professionalism may get in the way of a desired style, however Mukemu believes hair is apart of a Black womans identity.

Women who are elderly that dye their hair. Theyre changing their hair color essentially. Whats wrong with adding red, blue, or anything? she said. I feel like you can be creative.

The Process and Styling Techniques Of Peekaboo Braids

Some Black girls love to be spontaneous and dye a section of their natural hair to match the braiding hair. Even though that method may be efficient to blend the braiding together, Mukemu recommends that stylists practice the tuck method. With this braiding method the stylist tucks a clients naturally colored hair behind the braid hair to essentially disguise the darker hair.

Knotless box braids are not the only style to achieve the peekaboo look. Colored, Fulani braids, best known as Beyonces lemonade braids, can transform a simple braided style. She also says passion twists and faux locs can be served as a peekaboo hairstyle.

Usually the peekaboo part of the braids are sectioned off in the back of the head but depending on their taste Black women add color throughout the entire hairstyle. Mukemu has previously achieved peekaboo braid style by starting at the center or perimeter of her clients head.

Peekaboo braids are meant for hair-flipping. Mukemu recommends the skunk stripe method of braiding for women who want show off pieces of bright-colored hair. She also advocates for women to style their hair in a braided coif, ponytail, or half up and half down for an elegant and spunky look.

The post Take a Peek at Peekaboo Braids appeared first on 21Ninety.
An appeals court has denied a request for resentencing from a man serving a 37-year prison term for a robbery spree in Cherry Hill.

The ruling rejected an argument from Andrew E. Johnson Jr., formerly of Pennsauken, that his sentence was cruel and unusual punishment.

Johnson and two friends robbed a 7-Eleven in Cherry Hill on the night of Aug. 2, 2012, and held up a Wendys in Pennsauken hours later, authorities said.

More: Tense encounter ends in gunfire What video, audio evidence reveals about lead-up to Deptford officer killing man

A robbery attempt three days later at a 7-Eleven in Cherry Hill was foiled when a clerk set off an alarm and locked the front door before they could enter.

Two Pennsauken men  Jarell Marson, then 24, and Ricardo Rivera Jr., then 22  were arrested after a short police chase.

Accomplices became witnesses

Both entered guilty pleas and agreed to testify against Johnson, who had allegedly fled from the car, the appellate ruling said.

Marson told jurors he carried a metal pipe and Johnson had a gun during the holdups, and that both struck a clerk during the first holdup, according to the ruling says.

Rivera was the getaway driver.

Marson received a 12-year prison term and Rivera got a nine-year sentence.

Johnson was found guilty at trial of armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, as well as other crimes.

He received consecutive terms of 15 years for each robbery and a seven-year term for the conspiracy charge. He must serve more than 31 years before parole eligibility.

Court: Defendant's age can be a factor

Johnson also sought resentencing because a Camden County judge did not consider his age  19 at the time of the offenses  as a mitigating factor when imposing the consecutive terms.

But the appeals court only ordered the lower-court judge to include an explicit fairness statement as part of Johnsons existing sentence.

The two-judge panel said a defendant's age "can and should be" a factor in assessing fairness, but it cannot alone drive the outcome.

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It noted the fairness statement was intended to promote "uniformity, predictability and proportionality" in cases that involve consecutive sentences, adding such explanations could "facilitate" an appellate review.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Robberies bring long prison term, and an appeal, for Pennsauken man
Theres only one Pennsylvania-born horse vying for the garland of roses Saturday in the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby -- and he just became a new favorite.

Angel of Empire, hailing from Pine Grove at Blackstone Farm in Schuylkill County, had good 8-1 odds even before five scratches, the latest of which was top dog Forte early Saturday morning, leading to a major shake-up.

As of mid-afternoon, Angel of Empires odds stood at an even better 4-1.

Heres what to know about this top Derby contender.

Everything we know about Angel of Empire

Foaled April 9, 2020, the horse was sold at auction at Keeneland for $70,000 in September 2021 to the Iowa-based Albaugh Family Stables, WGAL News reports.

Angel of Empires sire, Classic Empire, finished fourth in the 2017 Kentucky Derby.

Three stallions have sired multiple contenders for 2023 Kentucky Derby. Meet the fathers.

Christian Black and Doug Black of Blackstone Farm, who have no relation, described Angel of Empire as a healthy horse with a distinct personality that never caused trouble. He grew up on the farm for about 17 months before selling at auction.

Itll be great for Pennsylvania, Christian told WGAL News while describing Angel of Empires high-profile race as a boost for the Keystone States thoroughbred industry.

Angel of Empire is the only entrant in the derbys original 20-horse field to hail from Pennsylvania. Seventeen horses that were first selected to compete in the 2023 race are native to Kentucky, while two others  Continuar and Derma Sotogake  were born in Japan.

Heres who owns every 2023 Kentucky Derby horse and the road they took to Churchill Downs

Angel of Empire will compete in the Kentucky Derby with the help of jockey Flavien Prat and trainer Brad H. Cox. Prat previously won the 2019 Kentucky Derby and the 2021 Preakness Stakes.

Before the Run for the Roses, Angel of Empire placed second in the Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn, won the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Ground in February and won the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn April 1, ultimately compiling 154 points on the Derby leaderboard.

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Angel of Empire is expected to have a good shot at winning the Kentucky Derby, according to the morning-line odds. Following the dramatic scratch of Forte, the overwhelming betting favorite, Angel of Empire (8-1) has the second-shortest odds to finish in first place, closely trailing Tapit Trice (5-1).

2023 Kentucky Derby

When: 6:57 p.m. Saturday, May 6

Where: Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

TV: NBC and Peacock

Purse: $3 million (Grade 1)

Distance: 1 1/4 miles

For: 3-year-old thoroughbreds

Thursday brought a handful of changes to the Run for the Roses field. First, Practical Move was scratched due to an elevated temperature. Lord Miles was scratched, too, following the suspension of its trainer. Japanese-hailing Continuar was scratched Thursday night due to fitness concerns from trainer Yoshito Yahagi, Churchill Downs reported.

Friday, Skinner was scratched due to an elevated temperature, marking the fourth horse among the original 20 entrants to exit the field.

Forte, the overwhelming favorite to win the race with 3-1 morning-line odds, was scratched Saturday morning amid health concerns, including skepticism surrounding a bruised right front foot.

All three also-eligible horses have already entered the now-18-horse Derby field. Following Fridays 9 a.m. deadline, any additional scratches will reduce the fields size.

The last time four horses were scratched from the Kentucky Derby was in 2015. Nineteen horses went to post in 2021, marking the most recent race with fewer than 20 horses.

Due to the scratches, the fields newly added horses  Cyclone Mischief, Mandarin Hero and King Russell  will respectively break from posts No. 16, 17 and 18, though their program numbers will respectively remain No. 21, 22 and 23.

This story was updated at 2:14 p.m., May 6 to reflect the latest changes to the horses eligible to run.

If you or someone you know has a problem with gambling, help is available by calling 1-800-522-4700.

Sports betting and gambling are not legal in all locations. Be sure to comply with laws applicable where you reside.
Francesca Farago and Jesse Sullivan at the "John Wick Chapter 4" premiere. Jon Kopaloff / Getty Images for Lionsgate

On Tuesday, "Perfect Match" star Francesca Farago revealed she has gotten engaged.

The reality star has been dating TikTok creator Jesse Sullivan for roughly a year.

Here is everything you need to know about Farago's relationship and partner.

Francesca Farago is a Netflix reality star who has appeared on three dating shows.

Francesca Farago on the Netflix series "Perfect Match" Courtesy of Netflix

Francesca Farago is a reality star and social media influencer known for starring on the Netflix dating shows "Too Hot To Handle," "Love Is Blind" and "Perfect Match."

In 2020, she first appeared on the first season of "Too Hot To Handle," where she coupled up with costar Harry Jowsey however, she later sparked rumors she was dating "Love Is Blind" star Damian Powers after arriving at a reunion event with him on "After the Altar" season one.

In February 2023, Farago appeared on a third dating show, "Perfect Match," where she paired up with Powers and two other contestants across the series. However, she ended up leaving the villa single.

Three months after the show aired, Farago revealed that she is engaged to Jesse Sullivan, who is not from any of the shows. The couple have been posting about their relationship on social media for roughly a year.

Farago's fiance Jesse Sullivan is a popular TikTok creator.

Francesca Farago and Jesse Sullivan attend the Serena DC Presents My Transparent Life. Tommaso Boddi / Getty Images for Elysium Media

Sullivan is a TikTok creator who became popular at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic for sharing his story about his gender transition, and his relationship with his child, Arlo, who uses they/them pronouns.

According to his videos, Sullivan gave birth to Arlo when he was just a teenager before he came out.

He later identified as a lesbian and said that he raised Arlo in a "queer environment" and "as gender neutral as I could."

Sullivan came out as a transgender man in a Halloween Instagram post in 2019.

Arlo often appears on Sullivan's TikTok and Instagram posts and last year they even hosted a podcast together called "Interview With My Kid."

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Last year, Sullivan also starred in "My Transparent Life," a documentary about his experience of transitioning, as well as the journeys of a trans couple, and a trans woman.

Earlier this year, Farago was forced to explain their relationship after she appeared on the first season of "Perfect Match."

Francesca Farago, Arlo Sullivan, and Jesse Sullivan. Vivien Killilea / Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

Sullivan and Farago first posted TikTok videos featuring one another in 2021, and have consistently documented their relationship since April 2022.

Fans were confused when it was revealed earlier this year that Farago was appearing on another dating show, "Perfect Match."

While there was speculation that Farago was seeing Sullivan while on the show, the couple decided to shoot down these rumors in a series of videos, posted on the "Perfect Match" star's TikTok account.

Farago explained in the video that she and Sullivan met when she interviewed Sullivan during a 2021 Pride event organized by the social media platform.

According to Farago, they began dating when she moved to LA later that year, but they split up after the reality star, who is Canadian, went to Canada and got stuck there due to visa issues.

Farago said that while they were seeing each other before she began filming "Perfect Match," it was just a casual fling that only became serious after the show was filmed last year.

"I am grateful for my experience because I learned so much about myself and so much about what I needed in a partner," Farago said.

"Being there taught me so much and literally the minute I left that villa, I texted Jesse, and I was like, 'Hey, are you still single? I'm traumatized and do you want to hang out.'"

The couple have been teasing their engagement for months.

Francesca Farago and Jesse Sullivan. David Livingston / Getty Images

Over the last year, the couple has posted several TikTok videos of each other going to movie premieres, hanging out with Sullivan's child, Arlo, and even getting matching tattoos.

In June 2022, Farago appeared as a guest on the second episode of the "Interview with My Kid" podcast, and Arlo asked his father and Farago if they planned on getting married.

"I guess that's up to me to propose, right," Sullivan said. "But, yes, absolutely, I'm definitely marrying her. I mean, she's the love of my life. I can say that hands down. I'm possibly, maybe, already looking at rings."

Since then, Farago and Sullivan have made several allusions to getting engaged in multiple TikTok video posts, including two posts earlier this week before the engagement announcement.

The pair got engaged on April 28, 2023  two years after they met.

Francesca Farago and Jesse Sullivan met through a TikTok event. Jon Kopaloff / WireImage

On Tuesday, Farago and Sullivan revealed that they have gotten engaged in a series of Instagram posts.

Both Sullivan and Farago posted cryptic photos of themselves in formal outfits with the caption "4.28.23."

In Farago's post, she was seen wearing a rock on her ring finger, causing fans to speculate if they had eloped or gotten engaged.

Later the same day, the pair posted a slideshow of images of their engagement.

The couple captioned the post: "WE'RE ENGAGED a glimpse into the most magical night ever obsessed with our family.. what is life !!"

Farago also posted two videos on TikTok of their rings and a third video in which she speculated that Sullivan was going to propose to her.

Read the original article on Insider
The man accused of killing five of his neighbors with an AR-15 rifle in their Texas home was arrested Tuesday, officials said.

The arrest of Francisco Oropesa, 38, in the city of Cut and Shoot, Texas, marked the end of a massive manhunt that was in its fourth day Tuesday.

A tip called into an FBI line at 5:15 p.m. led to Oropesas arrest at 6:30 p.m., Jimmy Paul, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBIs Houston field office, said at a news conference.

We just want to thank the person who had the courage and bravery to call in the suspects location, Paul said.

Oropesa is accused of killing five people, including a 9-year-old boy, in Cleveland, Texas, on Friday night after a member of the family asked him to stop firing his rifle because an infant was trying to sleep, officials have said.

Oropesa will be charged with five counts of murder and is being held on $5 million bond, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said.

Capers called Oropesa a coward.

He was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry, he said Tuesday.

Details about the home where Oropesa was found werent disclosed. Officials said the case was still under investigation.

The arrest brought an end to the sprawling search, which involved more than 250 law enforcement officers, the FBI and a reward of $80,000 for information.

Oropesa was arrested four days after he went to his neighbors home in the Trails End area of Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston, and opened fire, the sheriffs office said.

Oropesa started shooting after a person complained that gunfire coming from his adjacent property was keeping an infant from sleeping, officials have said.

Wilson Garcias wife asked him to go to Oropesas residence and ask whether he would stop shooting or shoot somewhere else. The request didnt seem unreasonable, Garcia said, as theyd been on good terms with Oropesa.

So we went and told the man to please stop shooting or go continue shooting further away from the house. But he answered by saying he was in his property and could do whatever he wants, Garcia said.

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I said: OK thats fine. Its your property, but could you please move further away or turn it down, thats all? Garcia said. Then he began insulting us, and we told him we were calling the cops.

The victims, all believed to be from Honduras, have been identified as: Daniel Enrique Laso, 9; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.

Garcia has identified Daniel as his son and Guzman as his wife and the childs mother.

Officials said that the four adult victims were pronounced dead at the scene and that Daniel died at a hospital. Three other children were found in the home and may have been saved by two women who draped their bodies over them, Capers said. He said he believed 15 rounds were fired.

Cut and Shoot, where Oropesa was arrested Tuesday, is a community of around 1,000 just east of Conroe and around 16 miles west of the Cleveland area where the killings took place.

Investigators had said Sunday that they were running into dead ends, with zero leads.

The FBI said Tuesday that law enforcement officers were analyzing hundreds of pieces of information from all over, and digital billboards in the Houston area showed Oropesa and the reward. There had been plans to expand the billboards statewide.

Its not immediately clear how Oropesa eluded police for days.

Searchers found his cellphone and some of his clothing Saturday, but scent-tracking dogs eventually lost his trail.

Capers also said that authorities seized the rifle used in the attack but that Oropesa may have still been armed with a handgun.

Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Sunday that the gunman had been deported from the U.S. four times and was back in Texas illegally.

Oropesas wife filed a protective order against him last year alleging he beat her, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said. She said he was drunk and hit her with a closed fist, kicked her on the floor and threatened her, Dillon said.

His wife told authorities last year that Oropesa was staying with a sister in Conroe, Dillon said earlier. Conroe is around 6 miles from Cut and Shoot; there was no information that there was any connection to Tuesdays arrest.

A host of agencies assisted in the search for Oropesa, including the FBIs Houston field office, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers.

The Marshals Service, the Public Safety Department and the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit went in to the home and arrested Oropesa, officials said.

Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Joe Ruiz de Chavez said the killings were an atrocious crime that devastated this community and this country.

This is a very sad time for the victims, and I hope that this will bring them some comfort and they can grieve, he said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Peacock

Pete Davidson knows that youll likely be coming to his new Peacock original series, Bupkis (premiering May 4), with some preconceived notions. In fact, he welcomes those biases. The premiere opens with Davidson googling himself, the search delivering a deluge of absurd headlines. Some are just fake enough to arouse suspicion (12 Things Horribly Wrong with Pete Davidson), and others are shockingly real (Pete Davidson and the Rise of the Scumbro). Right out of the gate, Bupkis takes aim at its viewers, asking us to reflect upon which of these we may have seen, and which ones we may have even agreed with.

Some might try to defy this trick, to place themselves above the gossip that likely brought Davidson into their pop-cultural consciousness in the first place. The show has plans for how to address them too, ending its cold open with a scene so surprisingly grotesque that its begging viewers to sympathize with the most vicious of headlines. Throughout its eight-episode first season, Bupkis consistently straddles this line of reality in its (lightly fictionalized) portrayal of Davidsons life and the whirlwind that surrounds his brand of stardom, with a surprising amount of candor and depth.

The show, on which Davidson serves as an executive producer and writer, initially appears to be an unnecessary retread of 2020s The King of Staten Island. That film similarly had a semi-autobiographical sheen all over it. Though critics and audiences responded to it favorably, it felt like another standard dose of director Judd Apatows now-archetypal style and screenwriting. Ultimately, the film failed to properly dissect the perplexing charm of its titular king.

NUP_199309_00002.JPG Peacock

Bupkis solves this by letting Davidson be Davidsonand do it with all of his amiably grody allure. By playing a version of himself, Bupkis examines how Davidsons existence has come to blur celebrity and civilian, hinting at the occasional kernels of truth somewhere in that mess of it all. Playing amateur detective is part of the fun of Bupkis, and so is getting thrown off the scent of which parts draw from Davidsons reality by one of the endless celebrity cameos along the way. These moments are designed to make us briefly forget that this show features the comedian in his most sincere role yet.

That sincerity might come as a surprise, considering that aforementioned repulsive opening sequence, but its true. Helping to extract the more earnest sides of Davidson are Edie Falco, who plays Petes mother, and Joe Pesci, as his grandfather. In the series, Pete lives with his mother in Staten Island; or, rather, his mother lives with him, a true facet of his life that Davidson has drawn from in his comedy. This doesnt provide the typical mom-son strife and in-fighting, so much as offer the series a grounded character, who often inadvertently helps Pete end up in the nutty situations he so often does, thanks to her love and undying support.

These whacked-out scenarios dont always present themselves in the most coherent of ways. For instance, the fourth episodes take on The Fast and the Furious, by way of a raucous trip to Floridawhere Pete has to perform a set for Vin Diesels daughter without getting photographed doing something illicit, or risk losing a role in the Fast franchiseis damn near insufferable. Yes, even an outrageous cameo by Simon Rex (an actor who most writers cant seem to properly understand the appeal of, much like Davidson) cant save it.

Please Stop Pretending That Pete Davidson Isnt Hot

At other times, Bupkis will come out swinging, with storylines plucked directly from Davidsons own experiences that hit like a bat to the face. Its disarming; who wouldve expected to shed tears over Pete Davidsons Peacock comedy series? But the unpredictable nature of Bupkis is actually what keeps the show engaging. The second episode may leave you in tatters, while another may threaten to put you off completely. Its that gamble of which one you might get, when you hit play, that keeps up Bupkis appeal. The less-than-half-hour runtimes of most episodes wont hurt on that front, either.

While the tonal inconsistency will surely prove grating to some, Falco and Pesci ensure that this dissonance never hinders the show entirely. Falco is purely delightful here, bringing the necessary energy of a born-and-bred New York matriarch to the show. At one moment, shes hilariously overzealous, pushing Pete to find a surrogate and have kids at his mere mention of wanting to be a dad. At others shes helping the series craft its dozens of metatextual layers, screaming, Marisa Tomei played me in [The King of Staten Island], at a waiter trying to kick her out of a restaurant. Bupkis is at its best when Falco is allowed to play around. When episodes focus too much on Pete and his stagnant, nearly all-male crew of friends, youll wish for just a sprinkle of Falcos kinetic energy.

Pesci, however, is Falcos perfect opposite. Petes grandfatheror Poppy, as they so lovingly call himis abrasive and foul-mouthed, the type of crotchety Staten Island resident that will happily light up a cigarette inside a diner without a second thought. Every time Pescis got the great talent of making every stray fuck that flies out of his mouth sound completely unscripted. And maybe it is! Part of Bupkis unanticipated charm is how natural it feels, despite the storytelling often verging on the farcical. Thats exactly why the episodes that aim for something too grandiose often feel like the most hollow entries, for a show that is at its strongest when it stays close to its partially autobiographical conceit.

NUP_199314_00519.JPG Peacock

If Bupkis is to be believed, Davidson is the rare celebrity that actually has a clear vision of how the world perceives him, but he has an even more apparent perception of his own self. In colliding these two states, Davidson gets the chance to fire back at the media in a constructive way, while working through his own struggle with being one of their favorite subjects to lampoon.

Davidson plays himself with just the right amount of honesty, tackling his own real-life troubles with aplomb. When Bupkis studies the idea of fameand particularly what its like to be saddled with the knowledge that the whole world has seen you fuck upits at both its funniest and most effective. Even if the amount of truth between the lines of the scripts actually proves to be microscopic, the show lends some necessary grace to Davidsons image. For that reason alone, Bupkis is a fascinating watch, even if its just to determine how much is real and how much is, well, bupkis.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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After being sued for illegally blocking a proposed citizen-driven ballot question that would prevent lawmakers from making it harder for voters to amend the state constitution, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has allowed the proposal to move forward.

Columbia resident Harry Cooper in Cole County dropped his lawsuit against Ashcroft, a candidate for governor in 2024, last month after Ashcroft relented and allowed Cooper to begin gathering signatures to put his proposal on the 2024 ballot.

Our team is ready to make our state more accountable to the people, Cooper said in a statement Wednesday. Cooper, through a group called Respect for Voters, announced Wednesday the group was in the process of collecting signatures.

Ashcrofts office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Coopers ballot question is in response to Missouri Republican lawmakers proposing a flurry of proposals this year that would make it harder for voters across the state to approve amendments to the state constitution.

If certified for the ballot, Coopers plan would ask voters in 2024 to approve a measure preventing state lawmakers from passing laws that make it harder for citizens to amend the states initiative petition process. It also would prevent lawmakers from changing voter-approved laws for seven years unless receiving 75% approval from both chambers of the Missouri General Assembly.

And it would allow lawmakers to serve 16 years in either chamber instead of the current eight year per chamber cap.

The ballot measure would have reduced the legislative term limit to 12 years if lawmakers pass any laws that restrict the publics ability to amend the state constitution.

Wednesdays announcement comes less than a week after the Missouri Senate approved a constitutional amendment that would increase the number of votes required for a citizen-driven amendment to pass on the ballot.

The legislation, which is headed for negotiations between both chambers, is part of an onslaught of GOP-led bills filed this year that would raise the threshold for voters to amend the constitution. It comes as Missouri voters have approved several liberal-leaning policies through changes to the constitution.

The lawsuit filed by Cooper in March accused Ashcroft of initially approving his proposal and then reversing course and rejecting it after a 15-day deadline, in violation of state law.

It further alleged that Ashcroft had rejected a number of other ballot initiatives this year through a similar process.
The US Navy has partnered up with drag queen influencer Harpy Daniels, who serves as a "Digital Ambassador," to attract recruits amid an ongoing military hiring crisis.



The US Navy spokesperson says they are struggling to invite recruits. So to reach out to more potential candidates, they have turned to a Digital Ambassador campaign to promote their recruitment.

US Navy Partners with Drag Queen Harpy Daniels

As per Newsweek, drag queen influencer Harpy Daniels, known in real life as Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, shared that she is a "digital ambassador" for the US Navy.

Daniels, who has over 8,000 followers on Instagram, announced his ambassadorship last November 2020. The drag queen influencer revealed that the Navy reached out to them to be a "digital ambassador."

Fox News Digital reports that their Instagram bio of Kelley clarifies that the views and opinions in her account "are not endorsed by the [Department of Defense] DoD or the [Department of Navy] DoN." She also dubs herself a non-binary sailor, apart from being a drag queen.

The Navy spokesperson told Fox News that the Digital Ambassador campaign, which includes Daniels, is already over. The initiative began back in October 2022. However, it already had its final curtain call last March 2023.

The US Navy explains that the project sought to reach more potential candidates using digital platforms. The spokesperson further notes that they did not pay Daniels and their other partners for the "Digital Ambassadors" campaign.

On top of that, the Navy spokesperson reiterates that the program has concluded. And for now, they are still evaluating if they would still pursue the "Digital Ambassador" initiative moving forward.

The drag queen influencer says that her experience with the Navy helped her instill three crucial values, including "courage," "ambition," and "strength." Daniels goes on to thank the US Navy for the opportunity that they have given her.

Read Also: North Korean Boat Breaches Sea Border; South Korea Responds With Warning Shots

'Most Challenging' Military Hiring Crisis'

The Navy spokesperson alarmingly reveals that they are grappling with "the most challenging" recruitment crisis ever since they adopted the all-volunteer force system.

Fox News notes that a recent Ronald Reagan Institute survey echoes the revelation of the Navy. It shows that roughly 13 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 said they are "highly willing" to join the military.

On the other hand, 26 percent fall under the "not willing at all" category, whereas 25 percent say they are "somewhat willing."

Meanwhile, Newsweek highlights that the digital ambassador program, including the drag queen influencer, received negative backlash from right-wing or conservative folks.

In a recent tweet, Republican congressman Jim Banks shared his two cents on the recently concluded Navy recruitment promotion. He believes that recruiting the DoD under the Joe Biden administration "is as good as" the marketing of Bud Light.

Related Article: VIDEO: Iranian Commandos Seize US-Bound Oil Tanker; US Navy Denounces 'Harassment'

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Take a walk down most city streets in Philadelphia, and youll likely see nothing but concrete sidewalks and brick buildings. However, Philly TikToker Andrew Conboy (@andrew_the_arborist) is spotlighting a new program launched by the Philadelphia Horticulture Society (PHS), which is looking to change that ASAP.

A new initiative known as the PHS Tree Tenders program is encouraging residents to plant more trees around the city in an effort to enhance the health and well-being of neighborhoods. But to make it easy for people to get involved, the program is providing the trees at no cost at all and sending in experts to help assist in the planting.

According to Phila.gov, this is the citys first-ever strategic urban forest plan, which is aimed at enhancing citywide equity and sustainability. Over the next 10 years, the goal is to grow, protect and care for Philadelphias tree canopy while also finding new ways to work with the public on combatting climate change, the city website states.

Its certainly needed, considering how low the tree canopy is in the City of Brotherly Love. Recent studies show that only 20% of Philadelphia is covered by trees, which is less than any other major Northeastern city.

Luckily, quite a few residents seem to be getting on board so far  including Andrew.

The Philly resident shared his experience with the tree program on TikTok, where he detailed what the process was like and offered some friendly advice to others who might be interested, too.

According to Andrew, he and his girlfriend recently requested a free native tree through the Tree Tenders program, which they asked to have planted on their block.

First, a city arborist came out to ensure that there would be enough space for the tree and that the roots wouldnt interfere with any underground utilities.

Once that was cleared, contractors came by to remove a patch of sidewalk where the tree bed would be and replace the low-grade soil with high-quality topsoil.

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Just a couple of weeks later, the tree arrived.

Its an Allegheny serviceberry, a small native flowering tree with yummy, edible berries, Andrew explains in the clip.

Soon, volunteers with the Tree Tenders program showed up and started planting  and now, Andrew and his girlfriend have a beautiful tree to admire every time they look out their window or walk down the street.

That said, the benefit of planting more trees in residential neighborhoods isnt all about aesthetics.

According to PHSonline.org, Trees are a necessity, providing habitat for local wildlife, reducing stormwater runoff, and helping cool down temperatures during warmer summer months. Theyve also been proven to improve mental health and reduce crime.

With some Philadelphia streets only getting 2.5% tree canopy coverage  and most of these being lower-income areas  its easy to see why locals want to boost these numbers.

The plan states that any Philly property owner can apply through PHS for up to three street trees twice a year (in other words, six total annually). Residents are encouraged to review the Philadelphia Tree Planting Policies & Priorities first before reaching out to their local PHS Tree Tenders group for guidance. However, if their neighborhood doesnt happen to have a Tree Tenders group already, they might have to start one themselves by taking the PHS Tree Tender course.

Next up is the actual application process, which includes questions about the location of the tree, the number youll be requesting, any pavement removal needs and other details.

There is some specific timing to be aware of: Trees approved by early May are expected to be planted in November, and those accepted by November are planted in April of the following year.

But if you cant seem to get a tree during the bi-annual application window, youre in luck: The Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department accepts applications on a rolling basis  all you have to do is visit TreePhilly.org or call 215-685-4363. (If interested, you can learn more about the program right here.)

Since sharing the TikTok, Andrews post has racked up quite a ton of views. Its also gotten a round of applause from countless social media users.

THIS IS SO COOL MORE CITIES SHOULD DO THIS, one person wrote.

This is so progressive and community building and amazing, said another. Super impressive Philly!

Amazing! added a third person. Line the whole sidewalk!

In The Know by Yahoo is now available on Apple News  follow us here!

The post Philadelphia has a very cool urban forest program that lets residents request a free native tree: Super impressive Philly appeared first on In The Know.

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Phoenix police

A Phoenix police officer required surgery after suffering "significant facial injuries" after responding to a domestic violence call Sunday night, police said.

The unnamed officer was investigating a domestic fight between a man and woman in the area of Central Avenue and Thomas Road just after 9:30 p.m. when the incident happened, according to police. The man physically attacked the responding officer, causing serious injuries that were not life-threatening, police originally said.

The unidentified suspect was later taken into custody near Third Street and Roanoke Avenue by additional officers.

In a statement Tuesday, Interim Phoenix Police Chief Michael Sullivan said that police were working with Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell to be able to prosecute the suspect "to the full extent of the law."

Sullivan said that the officer injured remained hospitalized, but is receiving the best possible care.

"We appreciate the public outpouring of support for our injured officer and our sworn and professional staff working day in and day out to keep our city safe," Sullivan said.

No other information was released Tuesday.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix officer injured domestic violence suspect
Phoenix Police Department.

A Phoenix police officer injured while confronting a domestic violence suspect was released from the hospital on Tuesday night and was recovering at home.

The unidentified officer required surgery after suffering "significant facial injuries" from the Sunday incident.

The officer was investigating a domestic fight between a man and woman in the area of Central Avenue and Thomas Road just after 9:30 p.m. According to Phoenix police, a woman stopped the officer and told him she had been assaulted by the father of her children, identified by police as Rudy Gomez, 24.

Gomez approached the officer and assaulted him by punching him multiple times in the face and kicking him while he was down, police said.

Gomez was arrested Sunday by other responding officers.

"The Phoenix Police Department would like to thank everyone in the community for their support and well wishes for our officer and his loved ones," Sgt. Phil Krynsky of the Phoenix Police Department said in a statement.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix police officer released from hospital after being assaulted
Dianne Feinstein. Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Both Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein are "hopeful" she'll return to the Senate next week, per a photograph of Schumer's notes.

Feinstein hasn't voted in the Senate since mid-February, around the time of her shingles diagnosis.

In her absence, Senate Democrats have faced difficulties confirming judges.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's notes from a press conference on Tuesday showed that he recently spoke with Sen. Dianne Feinstein and the two are "hopeful" she'll return to the Senate next week, according to a photograph by Politico photographer Francis Chung.

Feinstein, who's 89 years old, has not cast a vote in the Senate since mid-February, around the time she was diagnosed with shingles. With Feinstein away from Washington, DC, Democrats in the Senate have struggled to confirm judges on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she holds a deciding vote.

Following calls from California Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota to resign in mid-April, Feinstein asked Schumer to temporarily have someone replace her on the committee, a request which was swiftly blocked by Senate Republicans.

With Feinstein absent from the Senate, Senate Republicans  along with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin  voted 50-49 to roll back a Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency rule regarding pollution from trucks.

"Because Senator Feinstein was absent, the Senate overturned a Biden rule that would cut pollution from heavy duty trucks and causes harm to people's lungs," Khanna tweeted. "We are putting decorum over democracy and our values. It's time for Senator Feinstein to step down gracefully."

A group of women Democratic senators previously told Insider that the resignation calls were sexist and "unprecedented."

"We have male members that have various challenges, and I'm not hearing anybody suggesting that they retire," Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said to Insider. "I do think she has been treated unfairly. And so she'll make the decision, and I will support that decision."

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In February, Feinstein announced she would not seek another term in office and will retire after her current term ends.

"Each of us was sent here to solve problems. That's what I've done for the last 30 years, and that's what I plan to do for the next two years," she said in a release. "My thanks to the people of California for allowing me to serve them."

Several prominent California Democrats have already declared to run for her seat, including Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter.

If Feinstein steps down from her position before the end of her term, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has the authority to appoint a successor to hold the position until the end of the term.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Writer-actor Cheech Manohar, second from right, strikes with other members of the Writers Guild of America in front of NBCUniversal offices in Universal City. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Just hours after the expiration of a midnight deadline to reach an agreement with major Hollywood studios on a new contract, thousands of striking members of the Writers Guild of America set down their pens, stepped away from their laptops and took their fight to the streets.

Forming picket lines outside more than a dozen studios and production facilities in Los Angeles and New York, including the headquarters of Netflix and Amazon Studios, writers hoisted placards and chanted in unison to demand what they regard as fair compensation and improved working conditions in an industry that has been upended by streaming.

Mark Rozeman, a writer, displays a Baby Yoda doll while striking with other members of the Writers Guild of America outside of NBCUniversal offices in Universal City. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Joe Henderson, left, a writer and showrunner, helps himself to a doughnut while striking with other members of the Writers Guild of America outside of NBCUniversal offices in Universal City. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Writers Guild of America members Joshua Allen Griffith, right, and Brent Fletcher walk near a rainbow at Sony Pictures Entertainment, the former MGM lot where "The Wizard of Oz" was filmed, in Culver City. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Members of the Writers Guild of America strike in front of NBCUniversal offices in Universal City. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Writer Saroya Whatley strikes with other members of the Writers Guild of America in front of NBCUniversal offices in Universal City. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

On Day 3 of the writers' strike, a large group of members picket in front of the Paramount Studios gate in Los Angeles. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Sara Schunck yells and raises a fist while walking the picket line with Writers Guild of America members in front of Warner Bros. Studio on the third day of the strike in Burbank. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Writers Guild of America members walk the picket line on the second day of their strike in front of Fox Studios. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Traffic on West Pico Boulevard passes by Writers Guild of America members picketing on the second day of their strike. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A billboard for the Netflix show "The Diplomat" on a building across the street from the picket line. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

WGA members walk a picket line around the Bronson Sunset Studios lot. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

WGA members walk the picket line on the second day of their strike in front of Fox Studios. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

WGA members walk the picket line on the second day of their strike in front of Fox Studios in Hollywood. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Actor and writer Daheli Hall joins WGA members on Tuesday, the first day of the strike, in front of Paramount Studios in Hollywood. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Sunset Bronson Studios

WGA members picket Tuesday around the Bronson Sunset Studios lot, where Netflix leases space for production and offices. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

People inside the Sunset Bronson Studios hand bottles of water to striking Writers Guild of America workers on May 2. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Striking Writers Guild of America workers picket outside the Sunset Bronson Studios on May 2. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Amazon Studios

WGA members picket in front of Amazon Studios in Culver City. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Writers Guild of America members walk the picket line on the first day of their strike in front of Amazon studios in Culver City. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

Paramount Studios

WGA members acknowledge cars that honk to show support. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Kyra Jones joins the picket line in front of Paramount Studios. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

WGA Board Member Ashley Gable waves at cars. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

WGA members turn in their signs in front of Paramount Studios at the end of the first day of the strike. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

CBS Television City

Actor Gregory Pekar joins a picket line outside CBS Television City in the Fairfax district. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

Sony Pictures

Writers in front of Sony Pictures. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Warner Bros. Studios

A picket line outside of Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. (Chris Pizzello / Associated Press)

Disney Studios

Workers picket at Disney Studios in Burbank. (Eric Thayer / Getty Images)

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Waves filled with sargassum continue washing up on beaches in the Caribbean Sea and southern Florida and the stacks of seaweed are expected to get worse in the weeks ahead.

A record abundance of the seaweed was seen on satellite images in the Caribbean in April, the University of South Florida's Optical Oceanography Lab said in a monthly update released this week.

The seaweed set a record in the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt in March, but the university said the overall quantity in the belt  which stretches from west Africa to the Gulf of Mexico  remained roughly the same in April, probably because of persistent clouds.

Sargassum, a smelly seaweed, may be coming soon to a Gulf beach near you. Here's what to know.

Sargassum drifts westward in the Atlantic with prevailing winds and currents, floating in the water into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Since 2011, the sargassum has reached epic proportions each summer, fluctuating from year to year and place to place.

Sargassum lines Fort Lauderdale Beach in this April 7 image by Seth Platt.

Sargassum likely to worsen

The total quantity of the floating masses of seaweed is "expected to increase over the next few months, withimpacts of beaching events in the (Caribbean) and (Gulf) worsening accordingly," the University reported.

In March, the University's researchers said it's likely this year's sargassum bloom will be the largest ever recorded, with major impacts in the months ahead. Typically the blooms peak in June or July.

In April, concentrations of sargassum in the Gulf of Mexico, where the mats float with the loop current, were comparable to those seen in April during other major bloom years.

An estimated 3 million tons was seen in the Caribbean in April, with buildups along the southern coasts of Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico, the University said. The sargassum east of the Antilles islands and in the Caribbean is expected to continue to accumulate and move westward, while abundance in the Gulf of Mexico "will likely increase substantially."

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Sargassum floats in the water off Fort Lauderdale in this image by Seth Platt. The seaweed, a type of macroalgae, is having one of its bigger bloom years in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

Can experts predict when the sargassum will arrive in the US?

It's difficult to predict exact timing and location for arrival at individual beaches, the University said, although efforts are underway to improve computer models that could be used for such forecasts.

While the macroalgae can pile up in large quantities along beaches, when it's floating along the 5,000 mile sargassum belt, the density varies but is considered "rather low," researchers said.

This composite satellite image created by the Optical Oceanography Laboratory at the University of South Florida shows the density of the seaweed in the Caribbean Sea over a week between the end of April and beginning of May.

Saltwater fisherman Marco Friedman told the Daytona Beach News-Journal in late April that the seaweed had begun to show up in the surf. It makes it almost impossible to fish," Friedman said.

Although sargassum can be a good thing in the open ocean, providing habitat for fish, turtles and many other creatures, there can be too much of a good thing. Piles of the seagrass on the beach smell bad and can be labor-intensive and costly to remove.

In Florida or visiting? Check beach webcams for sargassum.

Contributing: Ken Willis, Daytona Beach News-Journal, contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sargassum seaweed washing up in Florida, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico
UPDATE (5/3/23) 11:02 a.m.

Pittsburgh police announced on Wednesday that Jeffrey Farren was found Tuesday evening.

Pittsburgh police are searching for a missing man who is considered to be at risk.

According to police, Jeffrey Farren, 60, was last seen at his home on Autumnwood Drive in the West End on April 27.

Farren is 6 feet tall and weighs 180 pounds. He has blue eyes and gray hair.

Police said Farren has no working phone. They are advising anyone who may see or locate Farren to use caution.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call 911 or 412-323-7141.

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Police make an arrest in Hagen, western Germany, on Wednesday as part of a widescale operation involving hundreds of officers in five parts of the country - AFP via Getty Images

Police have moved against Italys most feared mafia organisation in eight European countries in what is being described as a severe blow to the Ndrangheta crime syndicate.

Early on Wednesday, police in countries including Italy, Germany, France and Spain swooped on addresses connected to the Ndrangheta, a tight-knit mafia believed to control most of the cocaine flows into Europe.

Over 100 arrests took place in Italy alone, where police moved against senior figures in the Calabrian organisation.

In Germany, 1,000 officers were involved in raids across four federal states, making 30 arrests.

Prosecutors in Belgium confirmed 20 people had been arrested.

The suspects are accused of a series of offences, including drug smuggling, gun running and money laundering, German authorities said.

Heavily armed police enter a building in Munich, southern Germany, as part of the operation - AFP

Operation Eureka

The raids are the first public breakthrough in a top-secret cross-border investigation codenamed Operation Eureka, which began in Belgium in 2019.

Belgian police started investigating a Calabrian family who ran a pizzeria and had repeated contact with cocaine smugglers, according to a report in Germanys FAZ newspaper.

As the police learned more about the criminal network, the probe grew to include police from other countries and turned into the biggest cross-border investigation in European criminal history.

Police bring an arrested person into a car after searching a residential house in Hagen, western Germany, on Wednesday - AFP via Getty Images

Detectives were able to make a major breakthrough after cracking the mafias interception-proof mobile phones, according to the FAZ.

Mafia bosses previously preferred to drive hundreds of kilometres to meet in person to avoid the risk of their communications being tapped.

With travel heavily restricted during the pandemic, they resorted to using so-called cryptophones, which rely on software that the manufacturers claim to be uncrackable.

Police officers secure evidence during a raid in Mainz, Germany, on Wednesday - AP

Cryptophone breakthrough

Police in the German state of Bavaria have taken credit for the breakthrough.

Investigators from the Bavarian State Criminal Police were able to identify the cryptophone of a key suspect during his stay in Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann, the states interior minister, said on Wednesday.

Story continues

This was a milestone for the Italian investigators, he added.

Once they accessed the phones, police could read communications giving insights into how the organisation ran its drug-smuggling operation from South America to Europe.

Bags of marijuana seized by police on Wednesday in a building in Munich, southern Germany, as part of the operation - Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt/AFP

Belgian police say 25 tonnes of cocaine seized in recent years was smuggled by the Ndrangheta.

The suspects are believed to have laundered their narcotics profits by investing them in restaurants and real estate.

The Ndrangheta come from Calabria, the region in the toe of the Italian peninsula.

Most of the main suspects who have been arrested across Europe are said to come from the hilltop village of San Luca, which has fewer than 4,000 inhabitants.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)  A man charged after a shot was fired into the lobby of a Memphis television station has faced mental health challenges for much of his life, his mother said.

No one was struck by the shot fired Tuesday into the WHBQ station, the Fox affiliate in Tennessees second-largest city, Memphis Police Department Deputy Chief Stephen Chandler said at a news conference. The bullet fired with an AR-style rifle hit glass and a desk, but it wasn't clear if it was fired intentionally, he said. Crisis negotiators helped take the suspect into custody.

He wanted to meet with media. He had a message to send out, Chandler said. He didn't provide more details.

Memphis police later announced that they had arrested Jarrad Nathan, 26, and charged him with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Nathan has had mental health issues since he was young, Marsha McKinney told news outlets.

Hes one of the nicest, kindest (people, but) everybody has another side, too, McKinney said. I think that my son is crying out for attention because he needs some help.

The station said employees were evacuated to a parking lot for about 30 minutes after the shot was fired, while police secured the area.

The suspect first approached the station from a vestibule into the lobby of the station that was locked, wanting to talk, the station said. The suspect then showed the employee that he had a gun.

The employee then left before the suspect fired a shot, the station said. According to video, he then kept trying to open the locked door into the station and became angry, stomping his feet.

Nathan appeared in court Wednesday. He told a judge that he could not afford to pay for a lawyer. The judge said she would appoint a public defender.

He appeared in court on two cases  the station shooting and another aggravated assault. He is being held on $275,000 bond. Nathan said he could not afford bond and he is dead broke. He appeared in court in a wheelchair. Police said there were no injuries when he was taken into custody.

___

AP reporter Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland, contributed to this report.
A massive security operation was being ramped up today as final rehearsals were taking place for the Coronation of King Charles.

A ring of steel was being put in place around Westminster Abbey, with roads closed off, to counter any threat from protesters or terror groups.

Thousands of police will be deployed to protect the procession and ceremony on Saturday, which will be attended by heads of state and government leaders. As London was set to showcase Britain on the global stage:

The first glimpses of the Coronation were revealed as rehearsals took place in central London in the early hours of today.

Hundreds of soldiers, many on horseback, went from Buckingham Palace, past Trafalgar Square and Downing Street, to the abbey.

The Diamond Jubilee State Coach and Gold State Coach were taken down The Mall.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat said the security operation was one of the most important. It followed a security alert last night when a man was arrested outside Buckingham Palace after shotgun cartridges were allegedly thrown into the grounds.

MI5 and the intelligence services, MI6 and the GCHQ spy listening centre, are involved in identifying any threats, including possibly from overseas.

Ministers stated that controversial new public order laws would target guerrilla tactics of climate activists blocking roads in the capital.

The Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, told of the privilege of a lifetime to be one of the first female church leaders to take part in a coronation.

Across the country, community and other groups were planning hundreds of street parties to join in the coronation festivities.

King Charles III leaving Westminster Abbey following a rehearsal for his coronation (PA)

The Met Police operation, known as Golden Orb, will be one of the most significant and largest security operations the Met has led.

There will be more than 29,000 police officer deployments over the coming week in the lead up to Coronation Day and over the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend.The Met said 11,500 officers would be on duty on the day of the Coronation and that the police wanted to ensure that the public enjoyed a spectacular celebration.

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It said the force had been preparing for months to keep people safe from any threats, but urged the public to report suspicious activity.

It added that deployments would include officers lining the processional route, managing crowds and road closures, protecting high-profile individuals, and carrying out searches with specialist teams and that officers from our dog unit, firearms unit, marine support, and special constabulary would also be ready to respond to any incident or crime.

Police outside Buckingham Palace (Getty Images)

It said it intended to use facial recognition technology in central London. A spokesman said The watch list will be focused on those whose attendance on Coronation Day would raise public protection concerns, including those wanted for offences or have an outstanding warrant for arrest issued by the courts, or those under relevant offender management programmes in order to keep the public safe.

Deputy assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan, the officer in charge of the operation, added: We want Londoners and visitors coming to the city to enjoy this historic and momentous occasion safely and securely. On Coronation Day we will have the largest one-day mobilisation of officers seen in decades with just over 11,500 officers on duty.

The weekend promises to be a spectacular celebration and the Met police is honoured to be policing such an internationally-important event right across the capital. Shortly after midnight, the Diamond Jubilee State Coach was accompanied by hundreds of soldiers as it travelled along The Mall, in a rehearsal of the procession.

A police sniffer dog at the scene outside Buckingham Palace (Getty Images)

Royal fans waited for over three hours for the parade to make a return journey down The Mall. Hundreds from the Army, Navy and RAF marched through central London before stopping along Whitehall and standing in silence.

Drums were only played by marching soldiers when they returned down The Mall after 3am. The rehearsal had particular poignancy given that just months ago, the funeral procession of Queen Elizabeth had taken a very similar route. The parade began when a brass band on horseback practised as they accompanied the coach as it passed through Westminster. Soldiers from a wide variety of regiments marched down The Mall after 1am.

Other soldiers were spotted parading in Parliament Square and practised changing position as Big Ben chimed.

Artillery regiments rehearsed moving cannons on horseback and soldiers were seen pretending to fire them.

The procession returned to Buckingham Palace shortly after 3am with the bands in full swing.

The Gold State Coach was spotted passing Buckingham Palace shortly after 3.20am.

Prince Louis and the Prince of Wales leaving Westminster Abbey (PA Wire)

Mr Tugendhat stressed that police were all over the huge security operation. He told Times Radio: What we have been planning for a number of months now is one of the most important security operations that the country has put into plan.

This Coronation is not just an opportunity to celebrate our new King but also an opportunity to showcase the UK to the world. But he also suggested that groups or individuals may also have been plotting for months to try to disrupt the Coronation. At least 15 tents are already positioned along The Mall and royal fans got to test their viewpoint as they camped out.
Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, heightening tensions between the two countries.

According to the Kremlin, two drones were employed in the assault on the building, but Russian defenses rendered them inoperable, causing debris to fall on the Kremlin grounds.

Russia described the Kremlin drone attack as a deliberate terrorist attack and an attempt on President Putin's life.

Unverified footage of the Kremlin drone attack that has been going viral on social media purports to show smoke coming out of the Kremlin overnight. Another footage showed an explosion when a drone struck the roofs of structures within the walled Kremlin complex.

Footage of the drone attack on the Kremlin which Russia has said was a Ukrainian assassination attempt on the life of Putin.https://t.co/Yo1PoAlf7t pic.twitter.com/TcHuAnq9MU  Chris York (@ChrisDYork) May 3, 2023

The Kremlin claims there were no deaths or damage from the strike.

Read Also: US Navy Partners with Drag Queen Harpy Daniels

While reserving the right to retaliate, hardliners demanded immediate action against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Reuters.

Vladimir Putin was reportedly in the Novo-Ogaryovo state house at the time of the assault, according to Dmitry Peskov, the president's spokesman.

Ukraine Denies Involvement in the Kremlin Drone Attack

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, denied any involvement by Ukraine in the assault and attributed the Kremlin drone attack to "local resistance forces," The Guardian reported.

Ukrainian presidential spokesperson Serhiy Nikiforov said that the Kremlin drone attack incident was intended to raise tensions between Russia and Ukraine before May 9.

Foreign dignitaries were set to attend Russia's May 9 Victory Day parade at the time of the event. Russian news outlets stated that the ceremony would go on as scheduled.

On Wednesday, Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, declared a prohibition on unsanctioned drone flights over the city, stating that flying drones would necessitate a special government license, per the BBC.

Related Article: Vladimir Putin Warned of Possible Arrest if Russian President Attends BRICS Summit

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Atlanta police have identified a man accused of shooting five people at a medical facility in midtown, killing one of them, as 24-year-old Deion Patterson.

On Wednesday, Patterson was arrested at a Cobb County apartment complex just before 8 p.m..

Channel 2 Action News has learned that Patterson was a Coast Guardsman until he was discharged in 2023.

Channel 2s Sophia Choi spoke to Pattersons parents, who said he was with his mother at the doctors office and asked for Ativan, but the doctors would not give it to him. Ativan is prescribed to treat anxiety disorders or anxiety associated with depression.

Patterson was previously arrested for possession of marijuana and probation violations in the mid-2010s.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The shooting unfolded at a Northside Hospital office just after noon on Wednesday.

BOLO - Deion Patterson - As of 2:46pm still at large. pic.twitter.com/NAnOr6t0Gu  Atlanta Police Department (@Atlanta_Police) May 3, 2023

Channel 2s Michael Seiden was at the scene, where he saw hundreds of heavily-armed officers outside 1100 West Peachtree Street Northwest, a Northside Hospital facility.

Police said 39-year-old Amy St. Pierre was killed, and four other women were wounded. Three of the victims, who havent been identified, remain in critical condition.

Multiple agencies, including Atlanta police, Atlanta fire, MARTA police, Georgia Tech police, and the Georgia State Patrol, responded to the situation.

Patterson is facing one count of murder and three counts of aggravated assault.

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Atlanta Police are looking for two men after they were allegedly hired to help evict a tenant but ended up robbing him.

APD investigators reported the two men returned and pulled guns, taking the tenants electronics.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

A Ring camera warned that it was rolling on April 20, when several men were evicting a tenant from a home on Angier Avenue.

They were seen unloading the home and leaving items in the driveway while a Fulton County Marshall looked on. But when friends of the tenant arrived to help move items to their car, they were confronted.

The Marshall and the Sheriff they pulled off and three guys come back saying something like yall got us messed up. And all of a sudden I start seeing guns coming out, said the victim who didnt want to share his name. I look at it that, somebody is already getting evicted and now you going to come with guns just to get their TVs.

According to the police report, the suspects worked for WDS Eviction Services.

The owner told police he knew the nicknames of the men involved and provided their phone numbers. Channel 2 Action News tried calling WDS Eviction Services multiple times Tuesday but couldnt find a working number.

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Its kicking somebody while they down, explained the victim who believes the suspects were on a mission from the start. They were hidden behind dressers and up under a mattress. I guess they were going to come back once the sheriff left. But by us being there thats when they had to come down and say we going to pull pistols now.

Crimestoppers is now offering a $2,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the suspects.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS:
A Springboro man is facing multiple charges after he accidentally shot himself and a woman in the parking lot of a Lebanon Walmart Tuesday, police said.

Lebanon police were dispatched to 1530 Walmart Drive around 1 p.m. for a shooting reported in the parking lot, according to a spokesperson for the police department.

Upon arrival, police located a 22-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman in the vehicle, both with apparent gunshot injuries, the spokesperson said. Both were treated at the scene by Lebanon Division of Fire EMS and transported to Atrium Medical Center for additional medical treatment. They have since been released.

>> UPDATE: FBI SWAT, Dayton Bomb Squad find suspicious devices during search warrant

Shortly before 7 p.m., the 22-year-old, identified as Daniel C. Wright, was arrested by Lebanon police and taken to the Warren County Jail, the spokesperson said. He is being charged with negligent assault and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle.

According to spokesperson, the preliminary investigation indicates a single gunshot bullet was fired by Wright while in the vehicle, striking himself in the arm. The bullet passed through Wrights arm striking the woman in the neck.

Additional details have not been released.

We will continue updating this story as we learn more.

UPDATE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Shooting Incident at Lebanon Walmart Parking Lot On May 2, 2023, at 1:05 pm, the City... Posted by Lebanon Division of Police on Wednesday, May 3, 2023
















Pope Francis met with a high-ranking leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, raising questions on the status of a secret "mission" in Ukraine.

The pontiff greeted Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk at the Vatican on Wednesday following his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square.

POPE FRANCIS CONFIRMS SECRET VATICAN MISSION IN UKRAINE

Anthony is the chairman for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate and serves as a foreign relations envoy for Patriarch Kirill  head of the Orthodox Church in Russia and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Following the general audience, Anthony approached the pontiff and clasped hands with him as the two spoke inaudibly for approximately a minute.

Pope Francis prepares to meet with the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, during the weekly general audience on May 3, 2023, at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.

POPE FRANCIS GIVES WOMEN THE RIGHT TO VOTE AT MEETING OF BISHOPS

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The Orthodox metropolitan presented the pope with a Christian icon before being met and escorted by Vatican staff.

Pope Francis confirmed Sunday that the Vatican is involved in a secret peace "mission" aimed to return Ukrainian children who were moved to Russia during the war between the two nations.

Pope Francis meets with the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, during the weekly general audience on May 3, 2023 at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.

POPE FRANCIS EYES 2024 VISIT TO NATIVE ARGENTINA

"Im available to do anything," Francis said during a press conference. "Theres a mission thats not public thats underway. When its public, Ill talk about it."

Prefect of the Pontifical House, Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, right, and the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, arrive for the Pope's weekly general audience on May 3, 2023, at at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.

Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Thursday he asked the pope for assistance in this effort to bring his country's children back home.

Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, right, pays his respect to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI lying in state at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, on Jan. 4, 2023.

"I asked the Vatican and the Holy Father for help in getting back children taken by force by Russia," Shmyhal told reporters.

Fox News' Patrick Hauf contributed to this report.
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis on Wednesday spoke to a top member of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) days after the pontiff made an intriguing but puzzling comment about the Vatican being involved in a mission to try to end the war in Ukraine.

Metropolitan (bishop) Anthony, effectively the ROC's number two, was given pride of place at Francis's general audience in St. Peter's Square and then was the first taken to greet the pope at the end. He spent longer chatting with Anthony than with others.

On his return from a trip to Hungary on Sunday night, Francis was asked by a reporter whether Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and ROC officials could accelerate a Ukraine peace process and arrange a meeting between the pope and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"There is a mission in course now but it is not yet public. When it is public, I will reveal it," the pope responded.

Francis added that he had spoken about Ukraine with Orban and with Metropolitan Hilarion, the chief representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Budapest and Anthony's predecessor as head of the ROC's external relations.

But his words appeared to take both Kyiv and Moscow by surprise, with both saying they knew nothing about any papal peace initiative in the works.

Neither the pope nor the Vatican press office have elaborated on the comments since. Anthony has had meetings with other Vatican officials but it was unclear if he would have a private audience with the pope during his visit to Rome.

Francis, 86, has said previously that he wants to visit Kyiv but also Moscow on a peace mission.

Pressed by reporters on the sidelines of an event in Rome later on Wednesday, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin insisted that there is a plan for a mission but it would be up to the pope to decide when to disclose it.

Parolin, the Vatican's number two, said he was surprised that Russian and Ukrainian officials had said they were not aware of it.

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The supreme head of the ROC, Patriarch Kirill, is a close ally of Putin and fully backs the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a bulwark against a West he describes as decadent.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal met the pope at the Vatican last week and said he had discussed a "peace formula" put forward by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He also said he had repeated a standing invitation for the pope to visit Kyiv.

(Reporting by Philip PullellaEditing by Mark Heinrich)
State health authorities have reported two cases of salmonella in Illinois related to a recall of flour distributed under one brand name.

General Mills issued a voluntary recall of its Gold Medal Unbleached and Bleached All Purpose Flour with better if used by dates of March 27, 2024, and March 28, 2024. Affected bag sizes include 2-, 5- and 10-pound bags, according to a May 1 press release from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Public health officials warn consumers to check their flour that still has the packaging to see if the dates match the recall, the Illinois Department of Public Health press release read. If they put the flour in a container and dont keep the packaging, and they typically buy Gold Medal flour, they are encouraged to dispose of that rather than use it.

Across the nation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 13 illnesses related to the outbreak, including three leading to hospitalization.

General Mills recommends customers check their pantries and dispose of any product affected by the recall, according to an April 28 press release shared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Consumers who have had to discard products covered by this recall may contact General Mills Consumer Relations at 1-800-230-8103, the release continued.

Heres what to know about salmonella and its potential symptoms.

What to know about Salmonella

Salmonella bacteria causes about 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations and 420 deaths in the U.S. each year, according to CDC estimates.

Diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps are some of the most common symptoms, according to the CDC, and people may also experience nausea, vomiting or a headache. Symptoms usually appear sometime between six hours and six days after infection and last for four to seven days.

The CDC recommends calling your doctor if you have any of the following symptoms:

Diarrhea and a fever higher than 102 degrees

Diarrhea that is not improving after more than three days

Bloody stool

Vomiting that prevents you from keeping liquids down

Dehydration signs, such as dry mouth and throat, dizziness when standing up or producing very little urine

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While most salmonella infections are mild, according to the World Health Organization, the bacteria can be life-threatening.

Although large Salmonella outbreaks usually attract media attention, 6080% of all salmonellosis cases are not recognized as part of a known outbreak and are classified as sporadic cases, or are not diagnosed as such at all, the WHO website says.

Children and older patients are more at risk for severe illness due to dehydration resulting from salmonella infection, according to WHO.
ST. GEORGE, Utah  Pornhub, one of the world's most-visited adult websites, is blocking access to users in Utah, citing concerns over a new age verification law set to take effect on Wednesday.

The website joins others controlled by its parent company, MindGeek, in an ongoing response to efforts in conservative states to block pornography from people younger than 18. Attempts to access the site from Utah-based IP addresses now redirects viewers to a message from the company expressing opposition to the state's new law.

"While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk," according to the message.

Cherie DeVille, an adult film star, reads the full message aloud in a video posted above the text on the website.

The message suggests that website owners have no good way to verify ages without storing important personal information and violating their own privacy rules.

"As we've seen in other states, this just drives traffic to sites with far fewer safety measures in place," the message says.

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Utah's push to regulate internet use

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed the new law in March, marking part of a larger effort to combat internet use that state lawmakers have argued can be dangerous for young people.

Gov. Spencer Cox signs two social media regulation bills during a ceremony at the Capitol building in Salt Lake City on Thursday, March 23, 2023. Cox signed a pair of measures that aim to limit when and where children can use social media and stop companies from luring kids to the sites. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP)

Cox also signed a similar bill, the Social Media Regulation Act, that would require social media companies to verify the age of users before they can sign up or maintain their accounts. It also requires a curfew for under-18 users between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.

Cox and other state politicians said they anticipate needing to fight for such measures in court but argued the danger to young people is great enough to justify moving forward.

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"Im not gonna back down from a potential legal challenge when these companies are killing our kids," Cox said before signing the social media-focused bill.

Social media legal efforts elsewhere

Other states have passed similar measures aimed at pornography and social media. A Louisiana law requiring age verification for porn sites went into effect in January and Arkansas passed its own law regarding social websites.

Some U.S. Senators are backing legislation that would ban social media use for children younger than 13.

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Pornhub bans Utah users because of age verification law
A post shared in late April on Facebook claimed that a three-month state of emergency had been declared in Ethiopias northern Amhara region. However, this is false: no such announcement was made, and the Ethiopian communications minister confirmed to AFP Fact Check that the claim was unfounded. Meanwhile, an image shared in the post showing armed men was taken in the capital Addis Ababa, not in the Amhara region.

State of Emergency has been declared in the Amhara regional state, the post in Afaan Oromoo reads, adding that it will last three months.

The Ethiopian commando forces are taking actions against extremist Fano Amhara groups in Gojjam and Gonder earlier today, the post goes on to claim.

Screenshot of the false post, taken on May 2, 2023

Gojjam and Gonder are major zones in the Amhara region.

The post was published on April 29, 2023 and has been shared more than 280 times since.

The post is accompanied by an image showing three soldiers holding rifles in the middle of a street.

According to article 63 of Ethiopias constitution (archived here), a state of emergency can be declared by the federal council of ministers and approved by parliament.

It can be declared due to external invasion, a breakdown of law, occurrence of natural disaster or epidemic. Once approved, it is effective for six months, and can be renewed by a two-thirds majority vote of parliament.

Ethiopias last state of emergency was declared in November 2021 during the war in northern Ethiopia and lifted in January 2022, before it reached expiration.

Assassination in Amhara

Tensions have risen in the Amhara region after the local head of the ruling Prosperity Party was shot dead on April 27, 2023. Girma Yeshitila was assassinated while he was traveling with his family and bodyguards to Debre Birhan, a city about 100 kilometres northeast of Addis Ababa.

Five people including Girma were killed in the attack.

Federal security forces subsequently arrested 47 individuals on April 30, 2023, accusing them of plotting to overthrow the Ethiopian government.

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However, Ethiopia did not declare a state of emergency in the Amhara region at the end of April, as claimed in the post.

No announcement

A check on the Ethiopian governments official websites and social media channels found no announcement about any new state of emergency as of time of publication on May 3, 2023.

Ethiopian communications minister Legesse Tulu confirmed to AFP Fact Check that no state of emergency had been declared in the Amhara region.

This is totally false, said Legesse, adding that there is no state of emergency in any part of the country.

Unrelated image

By conducting a reverse image search, AFP Fact Check found that the image attached to the post showed security forces at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa  not in the Amhara region.

The image was originally shared on the official Facebook page of the Afar Regional State Communications Office on April 26, 2023. The post indicated that the image was taken during an event at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, during which the embassy donated 10 vehicles to the Afar region to help with emergency management.

Screenshot of the original photo, taken on May 2, 2023

The US embassy also tweeted about donating the vehicles.

The right-hand part of the original image, which shows Ethiopian federal police commissioner Demelash Gebremichael speaking with a police officer, was cropped out in the version shared in the false post.
Two years ago, administrators and caregivers at St. Bernard Hospital in Chicago were stunned when they flunked a basic standard for patient safety.

"It was a real jolt," said Charles Holland, the hospital's president and CEO. "We thought we were doing patient safety and we thought we were doing it well."

But the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit health care watchdog organization, found the hospital fell short on documenting and having comprehensive approaches to hand-washing, medication safety systems and fall and infection prevention.

The wake-up call led Holland to hire a Patient Safety and Quality Officer and to use Leapfrog's criteria as a roadmap for improving patient safety.

It worked. In its latest annual review of hospital safety, released Wednesday, Leapfrog awarded the century-old charity hospital an A.

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The fact that St. Bernard could turn around so quickly and so effectively without spending a fortune in the process shows that patient safety is an attainable goal, said Leah Binder, Leapfrog's president and CEO.

St. Bernard Hospital In Chicago's Englewood Neighborhood went from a failing grade in patient safety to an A in two years.

"I'm incredibly inspired by St. Bernard's," Binder said. "This is a story of a hospital that has every reason to give excuses and instead gave us extraordinary performance."

For decades, hospitals have paid lip service to patient safety, but the numbers tell a different story. In 1999, an Institute of Medicine report called "To Err is Human" found medical errors cause as many as 100,000 deaths per year.

A 2017 study put the figure at over 250,000 a year, making medical errors the nation's third leading cause of death at the time. There are no more recent figures.

But the pandemic clearly worsened patient safety, with Leapfrog's new assessment showing increases in hospital-acquired infections, including urinary tract and drug-resistant staph infections as well as infections in central lines  tubes inserted into the neck, chest, groin, or arm to rapidly provide fluids, blood or medications. These infections spiked to a 5-year high during the pandemic and remain high.

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"Those are really terrible declines in performance," Binder said.

Patient safety: 'I've never ever, ever seen that'

Not all patient safety news is bad. In one study published last year, researchers examined records from 190,000 patients discharged from hospitals nationwide after being treated for a heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia or major surgery. Patients saw far fewer bad events following treatment for those four conditions, as well as for adverse events caused by medications, hospital-acquired infections, and other factors.

It was the first study of patient safety that left Binder optimistic. "This was improvement and I've never ever, ever seen that," she said.

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Binder attributes the advances to federal reporting requirements that forced hospitals to reveal patient safety metrics, such as how many people were catching infections in hospitals and how many patients were falling out of bed or not being turned enough to avoid pressure sores. Those metrics allowed Leapfrog and others to grade hospitals on their performance.

As a result, hospital board members started asking their leadership teams, "why are we are getting a C or a D or an F? How could you not tell us what was happening?" Binder said. "That moved patient safety up on the CEO's priority list. Fast."

Unfortunately, the pandemic un-did a lot of that progress.

With the increased demands on staff during the pandemic, compounded by burnout, staffing and supply shortages and high turnover patient safety slipped as a priority, Binder said.

"Hospitals are supposed to be caring for patients and keeping them safe no matter what, even in an emergency," she said. "That is why we have hospitals, because emergencies happen. We expect them to be able to handle them."

According to Leapfrog's latest ranking, over 800 hospitals  nearly 30%  received an A, a slight drop since before the pandemic. More than 700  or 26%  received a B; 1,100  or just under 40%  received a C, a small uptick; 170 or 6% were given a D; and 12 hospitals, or less than 1%, flunked.

The state with the most A hospitals is New Jersey, which jumped from No. 6 to No. 1 since the Leapfrog's last review. Delaware, North Dakota and Washington, D.C., are tied at the bottom of the ranking, entirely lacking A-rated hospitals.

On any given day now, 1 of every 31 hospitalized patients acquires an infection while hospitalized, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This costs health care systems at least $28.4 billion each year and accounts for an additional $12.4 billion from lost productivity and premature deaths.

"That blew me away," said Shaunte Walton, system director of Clinical Epidemiology & Infection Prevention at UCLA Health. Electronic tools can help, but even with them, "there's work to do to try to operationalize them," she said.

The patient experience also slipped during the pandemic. According to Leapfrog's latest survey, patients reported declines in nurse communication, doctor communication, staff responsiveness, communication about medicine and discharge information.

Boards and leadership teams are "highly distracted" right now with workforce shortages, new payment systems, concerns about equity and decarbonization, said Dr. Donald Berwick, president emeritus and senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

"There a long list of things now on the agenda," Berwick said. "Safety, if it hasn't fallen off the list, it's certainly lost rank."

Why these problems keep happening

To some extent, hospital safety is a no-brainer.

It's been clear for almost 200 years that dirty hands and medical equipment can transmit infections. Technological advances and training on basic habits can make a difference.

"We have really good evidence about things that work," Binder said. "What we haven't had is that shove to hospitals to say 'now go do it.'"

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Patient care has also become increasingly complex over the past two decades and if nothing had been done about patient safety, "the number of errors and deaths from errors would be far higher," said Dr. Robert Wachter, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

But he admits that the field has stagnated over the past decade as other priorities, such as patient satisfaction, caregiver burnout and equity, have competed with patient safety for attention and scarce dollars. "The agenda has grown and grown."

Hospitals did the easy stuff first, the "incredibly, almost flabbergasting errors where we'd do surgery on the wrong patient," Wachter said. "We don't do as many of the really, really bad, 'how could that possibly happen?' things. The errors today are more subtle, but they're actually more difficult to eradicate."

Changing a hospital's culture is the hardest part of addressing patient safety, said Dr. Elizabeth Mort, senior vice president for quality and safety at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the researchers who led a recent study on patient safety at Harvard-affiliated hospitals. Workers have to be encouraged to do the right thing and supported for it.

Serious mistakes are usually the product of systems or basic habits that don't support appropriate behavior.

"Sometimes it's the simple things that are the best things," Mort said.

She pulled up a sign that was posted next to patients getting infusions, reinforcing the "5 rights." "Is it the right person, is it the right drug, is it the right dose, is it the right time, is it the right route?"

Surgical teams should also be pausing for a "pre-operative timeout" before they begin, to make sure they have the right patient and right body part identified.

"Each and every time. There's no excuse not to," Mort said.

A culture of openness, awareness and inclusion, where employees feel empowered to raise questions is "a big part of the solution to safety," Berwick added.

Having electronic systems in place, like bar codes on both patient wristbands and medications, can also help avoid mistakes.

Electronic medical records have made it easier to avoid mistakes like giving a patient a medication they are known to be allergic to  but caregivers are subject to so many alerts they can get "pop-up fatigue" and miss important messages, Mort said.

Technical solutions aren't enough, said Stephanie Mercado, chief executive officer and executive director of the National Association for Healthcare Quality. Health care executives have to invest in training their workforce to move the needle on patient safety.

"It's the single biggest lever they have to affect change," she said.

Today's safety training is highly variable and often absent from workforce development plans, said Mercado, whose organization offers a standardized and specific framework for improving patient safety and quality. About half the 14,000 professionals involved in safety and health care quality don't have funding from their employers for training and have to scramble to self-fund their training programs, she said.

Too many hospital leaders "view quality as compliance," she said, responding to mistakes that are made instead of proactively making improvements to insure safer care.

Caregiver burnout is closely tied to patient safety, Mercado said. "Burnout occurs in part because the workforce sees the same challenges in health care quality and safety playing out over and over and over again."

The health care payment system doesn't help. Short of a truly egregious error, a hospital gets paid for a procedure whether the "care was perfect or not," Wachter said.

"No one has figured out yet a system that provides appropriate incentives on either quality or safety," he said. "Most health care organizations want to do the right thing but the kind of investment that has to go into people and processes to really address this adequately is pretty high."

Patients can help themselves by coming to the hospital with a list of medications they're taking and any allergies.

It's also "fair game" to ask a caregiver to wash their hands when entering a patient's room, Mort said, and to make sure they are being given the correct medication and that they understand it's effects and possible side effects. "If something doesn't seem right, speak up," she said.

And it makes sense for patients to bring someone with them, "another set of eyes and ears," Mort said, because it's hard to pay attention to such things when you're feeling lousy.

But the burden shouldn't be on the patient to keep themselves safe in a hospital, Mort said. "It's really our responsibility to implement these systems and do the right training."

Hospitals can turnaround

Charles Holland (left), president and CEO of St. Bernard Hospital in Chicago and Michael Richardson, the hospital's Patient Safety and Quality Officer, both wear devices on their lapels that register whether they've washed their hands before entering patient care spaces.

When Michael Richardson was first hired at St. Bernard as Patient Safety and Quality Officer, he said his focus was to make changes that would show progress quickly.

He helped establish a committee on safe medication administration, corrected systems issues with digital systems, replaced damaged equipment and began to use existing resources to provide more data on patient safety measures.

"Straight away we could see a difference," Richardson said.

He also purchased a system from the company BioVigil, providing badges that flash yellow during the first minute a caregiver is in a patient room and then red if they haven't washed their hands. Both Richardson and Holland pointed to their shoulders on a recent Zoom call, displaying their green-lit badges.

Compliance with handwashing is now around 90%. "It sends a good message to the patients," Richardson said, plus it enables the administration to track which staff members and physicians are keeping their hands clean.

Rather than punishing people for making mistakes, the administration now recognizes employees' good work and tries to encourage workers to speak up if they see a problem. "If they don't tell us, we can't fix it," Richardson said. "We're still trying to change that culture."

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Holland said he's also changed his language when he speaks with physicians and his own leadership team.

"I talk about patient safety more," he said. "I address an issue as it relates to patient safety. Before I may have said that's part of the standard or a quality issue, but now I relate it more directly to keeping a patient safe."

Safety-net hospitals like his, where nearly 80% of patients are covered by Medicaid, need additional resources to focus more fully on patient safety. His patients deserve the same standards of safety as people and communities with more economic advantages.

The A grade is a major accomplishment and the hospital is hosting a cupcake celebration Wednesday.

"They saved many lives and I have nothing but congratulations for their entire workforce and their volunteers," Binder said. "This had to be an all-out effort."

But Holland said he and his staff aren't stopping now. "We've done some great work, but we have to keep going."

Contact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Are hospitals getting safer? New report from Leapfrog Group released.
Could Dianne Feinstein return to the Senate next week and end a prolonged absence thats making it tough for Democrats to win approval of a big clean air policy and confirmation of judges?

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumers notes at a Tuesday news conference showed that he is hopeful that the California Democrat will return, the senators office said. The notes were available to Schumer at the press briefing but he did not discuss them.

Feinsteins office said it has no timetable for coming back; its up to her medical team.

The five-term incumbent, 89, has been staying at her San Francisco home as she recovers from shingles.

Shes been away from the Senate since mid-February and has not voted since then, as the drumbeat for her to return or step aside slowly grows.

Her vote would have given Democrats a win last week on a big clean air initiative. When Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, joined the Senates 49 Republicans to oppose limits on truck emissions, the vote to overturn the Biden administration effort succeeded, 50 to 49.

Had Feinstein been present and voting with the Democrats, as expected, the resulting 50-50 tie would have been broken in the Democrats favor by Vice President Kamala Harris.

The outcome sparked outrage from Rep. Rashida Talib, D-Michigan, one of four members of Congress who has called for Feinstein to step down.

Because Sen. Feinstein was absent, Republicans are passing legislation through the Senate, undermining the right of our residents to breathe clean air, she tweeted.

The only Californian to call for Feinstein to resign is Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Santa Clara.

After the truck emission vote, he was clearly annoyed. Because Senator Feinstein was absent, the Senate overturned a Biden rule that would cut pollution from heavy duty trucks and cause harm to peoples lungs, he tweeted.

Stalled Judges

Feinsteins absence is most acutely felt on legal matters. Because she is not present, the Senate Judiciary Committee has been operating with 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans.

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Some committee Democrats floated the idea of subpoenaing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to appear before the committee.

He would be questioned about his dealings with billionaire Harlan Crow, including lavish vacation trips and Crows purchase of the house where Thomas mother lives. Thomas did not disclose the transaction, even though a federal law requires it in most cases.

But it takes a majority to authorize a subpoena, and Republicans will not go along. So without Feinstein, the committee is deadlocked.

Its also stalled on advancing judges. Over the last 20 or so years, each political party has made confirmation of politically sympathetic judges a big priority.

Since Feinstein last voted in mid-February, the judiciary committee had been unable to advance President Joe Bidens judicial nominees.

When Feinstein said April 12 she would return to the Senate but provided no timetable, she said she would step away from the committee temporarily. Democrats attempted to fill her seat, but were blocked by Republicans.

Afterwards, GOP lawmakers agreed to go along with Democrats on judges as long as theyre qualified.

On April 20, in bipartisan votes, the committee approved seven judicial nominees and sent them to the full Senate for votes.

Among them were Monica Ramirez Almadani and Wesley Hsu, both nominees to be district judges for the Central District of California.

In another session, it advanced the nomination of another judge. But it also held six nominees who were unable to attract



Republican support.

The backlog is growing and some Democrats are getting impatient.

Her refusal to either retire or show up is causing great harm to the judiciary  precisely where repro rights are getting stripped. That failure means now in this precious window Dems can only pass GOP- approved nominees, said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-New York, on Bluesky, a new social media forum.

Next up could be crucial votes on raising the nations debt limit. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned this week that the U.S. government could hit the limit as soon as June 1. Democrats and Republicans are struggling to find a way to raise the ceiling.

Its likely that any Democratic plan could wind up needing every vote it can get, since Republicans are unifying behind a GOP House plan to dramatically cut spending in exchange for raising the debt limit.

The debt limit votes are likely this month.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame event this year will see the induction of Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, and George Michael, among other music icons.

An artist or band must have released their first commercial recording 25 years prior to the year of nomination in order to be eligible for consideration. Despite receiving their first nominations, Crow and Nelson have been eligible since 2018 and the 1980s, respectively, for a number of years. The only artist to be admitted in her first year of eligibility was rapper Elliott.

Missy Elliott has continually received praise for bringing hip-hop new life with her music ("Work It") and music videos ("Get Ur Freak On," "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)"), USA Today reported. She has four Grammy wins and 22 nominations, making her the first female rapper to be elected into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

With the 1993 release of "Tuesday Night Music Club," Sheryl Crow began a career that would eventually lead to nine Grammy Awards and over 50 million records sold worldwide. Her successes include "All I Wanna Do," "Soak Up The Sun," and "The First Cut Is The Deepest."

Willie Nelson joins a hesitant Dolly Parton in the Rock Hall in 2022 as the second country music icon to enter in a row. With such successes as "Always On My Mind," "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain," and "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" with Waylon Jennings, the 12-time Grammy winner is a pioneer of Outlaw country.

Kate Bush Finally Makes it

Kate Bush has previously received three nominations: in 2018, 2021, and 2022. She hasn't put out any new music since 2011, but Running Up That Hill, which was used in the smash series Stranger Things, has helped her gain wide recognition again.

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A fan vote, which George Michael won, was added to the official votes in determining this year's inductees. The former Wham! vocalist garnered 1.04 million votes, narrowly beating out Cyndi Lauper (928,000) and Warren Zevon (634,000).

The 40th anniversary of Wham's first album, Fantastic, coincides with Michael's induction. A Netflix documentary and a brand-new greatest hits compilation are also commemorating the milestone.

Most Diverse Lineup

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's upcoming induction ceremony is expected to be one of the most diverse in its history, with several women and people of color receiving honors, The LA Times reported.

On November 3, recipients from a variety of genres and styles-including country, hip-hop, rap-rock, R&B, art pop, folk-rock, dance music, and blue-eyed soul-will perform during the event at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.

Rock Hall chairman John Sykes believes the latest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees embody the varied essence of rock & roll and exhibit its various characteristics.

Here is the complete list of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, according to BBC:

Performers

Kate Bush

Sheryl Crow

Missy Elliott

George Michael

Willie Nelson

Rage Against the Machine

The Spinners

Musical Influence Award

DJ Kool Herc

Link Wray

Musical Excellence Award

Chaka Khan

Al Kooper

Bernie Taupin

Ahmet Ertegun Award

Don Cornelius

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@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Prince Harry will be in attendance without his wife and their children on May 6 for the coronation ceremony in London for his father, King Charles III, according to Buckingham Palace officials.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will not be at the ceremony and will remain at home in California with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, according to a statement released April 12 by the palace.

Before early April, Harry and Meghan had yet to confirm whether they would attend the coronation at Westminster Abbey, where King Charles will officially take the crown. They were indeed contacted about attending the coronation, a spokesperson for the couple told NBC News on March 5.

I can confirm The Duke has recently received email correspondence from His Majestys office regarding the coronation, the spokesperson had said. An immediate decision on whether The Duke and Duchess will attend will not be disclosed by us at this time.

In January, Harry raised the possibility of attending his fathers coronation ceremony in an interview with the British network ITV.

Theres a lot that can happen between now and then, the Duke of Sussex said. But, you know, the door is always open.

The ball is in their court, he continued. Theres a lot to be discussed, and I really hope that they are willing to sit down and talk about it.

During the televised ceremony on May 6, Camilla, the queen consort, will also be crowned along with King Charles.

Harrys nephew Prince George, 9, the son of Prince William, will serve as a page of honor for his grandfather during the coronation. The grandchildren of British monarchs do not usually play an official role in coronations, so Georges participation is a departure from tradition.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
As King Charles IIIs coronation approaches, Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton, will be in attendance.

Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana was born at St Marys Hospital in Paddington, London on 2nd May 2015, and on the day of Charless coronation, she will be eight years old.

As the second child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, she is third in line to the throne, after her older brother and father, since King Charles is her grandfather.

Due to the introduction of the Perth Agreement, which replaced male preference in the line of succession with absolute primogeniture  when the child of the sovereign has the same right to the throne no matter their gender  Charlotte did not move down the line of succession when her younger brother, Louis, was born. This makes her the first British princess to rank above her brother in the line of succession.

When she was born, her official title was Charlotte, Princess of Cambridge, before her parents took the Wales title following the death of Charlottes great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September.

She is affectionately called Lottie by her parents.

In March 2016, William and Kate took Prince George and Charlotte to the French Alps  their first holiday as a family of four before Louis was born.

Later in June, she made her first public appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Trooping the Colour parade.

The Duke and Duchess are delighted to share a new photograph of Princess Charlotte to mark her second birthday tomorrow  pic.twitter.com/0Xftc3EFPz  The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) May 1, 2017

That Christmas, Charlotte and George both attended their first Sandringham Christmas Day Service at St Mary Magdalene.

Later that year, she joined her parents and her big brother on her first overseas tour  an official visit to Canada.

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Charlotte also accompanied her family on their official visit to Poland and Germany in July 2017.

To mark her second birthday, the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge shared a photograph of Charlotte at their home in Norfolk, which was taken by Kate. The family lived primarily in Anmer Hall in Norfolk during Charlottes infancy, before moving primarily to Kensington Palace in 2017.

The royal family at the late Queens Platinum Jubilee in 2022 (Getty Images)

In January 2018, Charlotte started at Willocks Nursery School in South Kensington, London.

In April of the same year, Charlotte became a big sister to Louis. Charlotte and her big brother George went to visit their mother at the hospital to greet the newborn.

Charlotte began attending school at Thomass Battersea Preparatory School in London, joining George, in September 2019.

Along with her older brother, Charlotte met David Attenborough in September 2020. A video was released of the children asking Attenborough questions regarding environmental conservation.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to share two photographs of Princess Charlotte at Kensington Palace this morning. pic.twitter.com/dDIOZdA7aM  The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) January 8, 2018

Later that year, the children made their first red carpet appearance accompanying their parents to the London Palladium for a performance of a pantomime held to celebrate key workers for their efforts during the pandemic.

Charlotte made her debut in a royal carriage procession at her great-grandmothers platinum jubilee celebration weekend and joined the Trooping the Colour carriage procession in 2022.

On the same weekend, Charlotte and George made their first official visit to Wales with their parents, where they attended concert rehearsals in Cardiff Castle. The next day, Charlotte accompanied her parents, the late Queen, Charles and Camilla on the Buckingham Palace balcony.

In September 2022, Charlotte and her older brother Prince George accompanied their parents to the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

William and Kate have kept efforts to shelter their children from the press and only appears on official visits or in officially released photographs. The family currently reside in Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Home Park.
meta-troll-report.jpg Facebook - Meta Headquarters in Menlo Park - Credit: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Calls to protest George Soros and refugees. Far-right Twitter screeds about immigrants. New Europe Observation sounds like a far-right extremely online news outlet. But its actually a front group for a Chinese propaganda network thats borrowing tactics from Russias infamous 2016 troll farm.

Social media giant Meta announced on Wednesday that it had booted 107 accounts in a China-linked network behind the phony news outlet dubbed the New Europe Observation. The outlet, which Meta researchers say was linked to a Chinese technology company, appeared to be aimed at trying to stir up unrest in European countries. The fake network posted anti-immigration screeds, opposed boycotts of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, criticized Taiwanese politicians, and pushed propaganda about Chinas treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority population.

More from Rolling Stone

The New Europe Observation network pushes its propaganda differently from other China-based troll networks, which often use bulk-spam techniques. Instead, it follows the kinds of tactics used by Russias Internet Research Agency troll farm. The actors behind New Europe Observation tried to hire astroturf protesters for offline demonstrations, registered a company in London, partnered with a Ugandan NGO, and reached out to native speakers of English, Russian, and other languages to write content for their phony outlets.

Its the first time weve seen Chinese [coordinated inauthentic behavior] networks recruiting freelancers, working at an NGO, running a front company in the West, Ben Nimmo, Metas global threat-intelligence chief, tells Rolling Stone. Theyre still struggling to build an audience. They are experimenting, but they are experimenting with tactics that weve seen for years.

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In one case, the trolls tried to hire protesters for a demonstration against the favorite right-wing boogeyman, liberal financier George Soros.

We are hiring part-timers to bring your placards with a slogan Soros, we dont want refugee camps for a photo taking activity just opposite the Hungarian Parliament Building, the outlets Twitter account announced in August 2022.

The New Europe Observation also posted on Freelancer.com seeking translators who could churn out copy on topics of interest to Chinese foreign policy, like Beijings relationship with its Central Asian neighbors.

On Tuesday, Rolling Stone contacted a Telegram account associated with the fake news outlet. The account inquired about where the author was from, and said New Europe Observation was still hiring writers.

In addition to its Instagram and Facebook footprints, Meta researchers found accounts affiliated with the New Europe Observation brand on a host of other social media platforms, including Telegram, WordPress, Blogspot, Reddit, and Twitter.

Rolling Stone uncovered accounts linked to the fake news outlets email address on Skype and EventBrite  a web-based platform for organizing meetups and events  suggesting that the trolls behind the outlet were even more active in reaching out to audiences and attempting to organize them offline. The network also appears to have a TikTok account in the name of the New Europe Observation, which at the time of publication does not have any content or apparent activity.

China-based troll networks have been relative latecomers compared with other nation-state-linked influence campaigns, surfacing in earnest shortly after pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Since then, China-linked trolls have focused mostly on crude bulk-spam campaigns that blast repetitive messages and cartoons, while struggling with idiomatic English. In other cases, mainland-based troll networks have targeted female journalists with waves of harassment for reporting on sensitive issues, such as human rights in China.

Despite New Europe Observations relatively innovative tactics, the authors behind it appear to have phoned in much of their content. Inflammatory and racist tweets on immigration issues in European countries are plagiarized word for word from a host of Twitter accounts, including the far-right, racist British National Party. Articles on its website also yanked stories verbatim from news outlets, including The Associated Press and think tanks such as the Center for European Policy Analysis in order to pad out its content.

Even with its more innovative tactics, the low-effort copycat approach yielded proportionally disappointing results. Its social media accounts on Instagram and Facebook attracted only small numbers of visitors, according to Meta. New Europe Observations plea for anti-Soros and anti-refugee protesters in Hungary did not receive any likes or engagement on Twitter.

In years past, Twitter responded to other social media companies revelations about coordinated inauthentic behavior by taking similar action against networks revealed by others in the industry, like Meta and Google. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the company appears to have largely given up on policing coordinated troll networks.

Musk also fired the staff that used to coordinate information sharing with other social media companies on these issues, leaving Meta and others without another sounding board. With Twitter going through a transition period, and since many of our counterparts left, were in wait-and-see phase to see where they land on threat disruption, a Meta source tells Rolling Stone.

As of Wednesday morning, the New Europe Observation Twitter account was still available on Twitters platform.

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The Reach Act, which is a proposed bill in the North Carolina legislature, would require students at public colleges in the state to pass an American history or government class to graduate.

ALSO READ: North Carolina Republicans unveil new proposed abortion restrictions

Several historical documents would have to be covered in the course material, which would include the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and a few others.

Nearly 700 professors have signed an open letter against the bill.

The requirement would apply to the next academic year if it becomes law.

VIDEO: North Carolina Republicans unveil new proposed abortion restrictions
The wounds suffered by Boston Police Officer John OKeefe on the night of his death were the result of a dog attack, not a fight with his girlfriend, Karen Read, defense lawyers claimed Wednesday.

Read is charged with murder in OKeefes death.

Below is a highlight of evidence presented by the defense and prosecution in court:

UPDATE (3 p.m., May 3, 2023)

Judge sets a return date of May 25 for Karen Read to return to court after the defense claimed Boston Officer John OKeefe suffered wounds in a dog attack on the night of his death in January 2022. Prosecutors responded to the defenses claims, calling it a " fishing expedition.

UPDATE (2:45 p.m., May 3, 2023)

Jackson fired back at Lally, saying the defenses argument is not a fishing expedition. He added that OKeefe looked like he had gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.

UPDATE (2:30 p.m., May 3, 2023)

Lally called Reads defense teams argument the very epitome of a fishing expedition. He added that none of the medical professionals notes bite marks or evidence of a fight.

Arm injuries have always been described as blunt force trauma, not road rash.

UPDATE (2:15 p.m., May 3, 2023)

Prosecutor Adam Lally says hes filed the appropriate paperwork to expedite testing and evidence should be from the lab and produced by early May.

Lally blamed the defense for not responding to emailed questions about a strand of hair he says was found on Reads taillight and that investigators are trying to see if the DNA matches OKeefe.

Another member of Reads legal team, Alan Jackson, spoke about motions to get documents from Canton Animal Control, alluding to autopsy photos that he said show claw marks and bite marks from an animal.

Jackson said the defense hired a medical examiner who concluded with certainty that OKeefes arm wounds were from an animal attack, likely from a dog that was present at Alberts home on the night of the alleged murder.

Jackson said the Albert family registered the German shepherd, Chloe, in 2019 and that it was re-homed out of state in May 2022.

Story continues

UPDATE (2 p.m., May 3, 2023)

The legal team defending a Mansfield woman charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend asked the state to turn over evidence in his death investigation and stated that their client has been falsely accused in the murder case.

Karen Reads lawyer, David Yannetti, asked for prosecutors to turn over Officer John OKeefes clothing, autopsy samples, and data from the SUV Read was driving when authorities allege she was driving on the night OKeefe was struck outside of Brian Alberts Canton home and left to die in a blizzard.

Karen Read, 41, of Mansfield, Mass., is charged with manslaughter in the Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022, death of Boston police Officer John OKeefe. O'Keefe, 46, was off duty at the time of his death.

Yannetti added that video from the Canton Public Library would show Reads taillight intact after the prosecution claimed she hit OKeefe with it.

Jackson said the defense hired a medical examiner who concluded with certainty that OKeefes arm wounds were from an animal attack, likely from a dog that was present at Alberts home on the night of the alleged murder.

Jackson said the Albert family registered the German shepherd, Chloe, in 2019 and that it was re-homed out of state in May 2022.

UPDATE (1:50 p.m., May 3, 2023)

Karen Read walks into Norfolk District Court court for a motion hearing.

Previous story below

The case against a Mansfield woman accused of fatally striking her Boston police officer boyfriend and leaving him to die in a blizzard outside of a home in Canton last year returns to court Wednesday with the prosecution and defense expected to release new details.

A motion hearing is slated to happen in Norfolk District Court in Deadham in the murder case against Karen Read, who prosecutors say struck Officer John OKeefe with her SUV in January of 2022 and left him in the snow. Reads defense team has argued that shes being framed and OKeefes death was some sort of cover-up.

Reads lawyers say autopsy photos show OKeefe was not hit by a car, but was severely beaten and had marks on his arms that appear to be dog bites. They also claim that OKeefes phone shows he went inside the home and traveled three flights of stairs inside the house.

25 Investigates: Prosecutors to disprove woman who says shes wrongly charged in death of Boston cop

According to prosecutors, the medical examiner who performed an autopsy on OKeefe detailed that she observed no signs of an altercation or fight from her examination and went on to describe his right arm injuries as scratches caused by a blunt object.

The defense says one of the witnesses made an incriminating Google search hours before she claimed OKeefes body was discovered.

In a filing Monday, prosecutors responded for the first time to multiple claims made by Reads team, saying that the Google search Ho(w) long to die in cold, did not occur at 2:27:40 a.m.

In fact, in the new filings, the prosecution argues that the defense incorrectly interpreted the cell phone data. People inside Brian Alberts Canton home told police OKeefe never came inside.

Reads defense disputes that claim, saying their data pulled from OKeefes phone shows not only did he go inside but he traveled 3 flights of stairs once in the house.

25 Investigates: Defense claims evidence points to witness in BPD officers murder case

The prosecution has an answer for that too.

In the records released on Monday, prosecutors say their data shows OKeefe hadnt even arrived at the house when that movement on his phone was recorded, saying Mr. OKeefes phone would have (been) ascending/descending within the Fairview residence, prior to his arrival.

Last week, 25 Investigates reported that the cause of OKeefes death was never determined.

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
Russian troops "massively shelled" settlements across Kherson Oblast and the regional capital, killing 16 and injuring at least 22 people on May 3, reported the Prosecutor General's Office.

Twelve people were killed in Kherson. According to the prosecutors, Russian shelling hit some civilian infrastructure in the city.

Ukraines Internal Affairs Ministry reported earlier in the day that Russian forces shelled a supermarket in Kherson at around 11 a.m. local time. According to the ministrys earlier reports, the victims include both supermarket employees and customers.

Around 6 p.m. local time, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported the shelling was ongoing. He said that a person was killed and four more civilians got wounded "just now."

The aftermath of the Russian shelling of Kherson on May 3. (Prosecutor General's Office/Telegram)

The Prosecutor General's Office reported that three more energy infrastructure workers were killed near the villages of Stepanivka and Muzykivka in Kherson Oblast.

"They repaired power grids after repeated attacks by the Russian troops," the prosecutors said.

One more person was killed in the Russian morning attack on the village of Darivka.

The city of Kherson and surrounding settlements have been under consistent Russian artillery fire since they were liberated in November, with Russian forces retreating to the east bank of the Dnipro River.

Kherson authorities are preparing to evacuate residents if the region comes under even more intense shelling.
Hunter Biden may be criminally charged in connection with his taxes and a gun purchase. Carolyn Kaster/AP

Prosecutors are nearing a charging decision in the Hunter Biden case, The Washington Post reported.

An indictment would mark the biggest test yet of Joe Biden's pledge to maintain a firewall between the White House and DOJ.

It would also come as the president kicks off his 2024 reelection campaign.

Federal prosecutors are close to reaching a final decision on whether to indict President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, on tax and and gun-related charges.

That's according to The Washington Post, which reported that the younger Biden's lawyers met with the US attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, at Justice Department headquarters last week. It's likely that Biden's attorneys urged prosecutors not to bring criminal charges against Hunter Biden, and The Post reported that these types of meetings typically come near the end of an investigation.

An indictment against Biden would take place against the backdrop of his father's 2024 campaign; the elder Biden formally launched his reelection campaign last week, and criminal charges against his son would mark the biggest test yet of Biden's pledge to restore independence to the Justice Department following the Trump era.

It would also give fresh ammunition to congressional Republicans who are investigating the Biden family's potential financial conflicts of interest, and who have long pointed to Hunter Biden's activities as being an ethical and national security risk.

A lawyer for Hunter Biden and a spokesperson for the president did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

The Hunter Biden investigation has been underway for nearly four years, and he first announced the existence of the probe in December 2020.

"I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs," he said in a statement at the time. "I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors."

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CNN reported prosecutors started investigating Biden's taxes in 2018 but temporarily halted the inquiry because of Justice Department rules barring prosecutors from taking actions that could influence the outcome of an election. The US attorney's office in Delaware told prosecutors after the election that they could resume the probe and take overt investigative steps.

While the case initially centered on Biden's taxes, it expanded to focus on whether he failed to report all his income and whether he lied on paperwork linked to a gun purchase in 2018. In October, The Post reported that prosecutors believed they had enough evidence to charge the president's son with tax crimes and with making a false statement related to the gun purchase.

But some law enforcement officials have grown frustrated recently as the investigation has taken longer than they thought it would, Wednesday's report said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, meanwhile, previously testified to Congress that the investigation would be free from political interference. He recently reiterated that pledge in response to an IRS supervisor's claim that the inquiry was being mishandled.

A lawyer for the supervisor said in a letter to lawmakers last month that his client was overseeing an "ongoing and sensitive investigation of a high-profile, controversial subject since early 2020 and would like to make protected whistleblower disclosures to Congress." The letter did not name the subject, but ABC News reported that lawmakers had been made aware that the individual was Hunter Biden.

The letter went on to say that the agent's disclosures would "contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee"; involved a "failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case"; and laid out "examples of preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected."

Garland rejected those claims after congressional Republicans publicized them, saying he stood by his previous testimony.

"Yes, it's still the case I stand by my testimony, and I refer you to the US attorney for the District of Delaware who is in charge of this case and capable of making any decisions that he feels are appropriate," the attorney general said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Protesters disrupted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's school choice event Tuesday, calling him a "traitor" during a speech at a church in southeast Houston.

During a "Parent Empowerment Night" at Reflections of Christs Kingdom World Outreach International Church, the Texas governor was promoting school voucher programs when several people disrupted the event with shouts of protest.

"We're here tonight for a purpose and a reason," Abbott said before a protester cut him off.

"We're grounded in Jesus. We're grounded in justice. You have got to go," one demonstrator shouted. "Public schools matter."

TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT TELLS CHICAGO MAYOR TO TAKE COMPLAINTS ON BORDER CRISIS TO THE WHITE HOUSE

Abbott smiles as protesters disrupt his speech.

"You're a traitor You gotta go," said Cesar Espinsosa, executive director of progressive group FIEL Houston.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

TEXAS SHOOTING SUSPECT: GOV. ABBOTT, LAWMAKERS RESPOND AFTER FOUR-DAY MANHUNT ENDS WITH ARREST

Espinsosa also yelled: "You call people illegal, and they're not," in reference to Abbott recently referring to the five shooting victims who were killed in Cleveland, Texas as "illegal immigrants." His team later apologized after it was found that at least one of the individuals was in the U.S. legally.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced news initiatives to secure the Texas-Mexico border in anticipation of the ending of Title 42.

After the chanting protesters were escorted out of the room by multiple security guards, a supporter yelled "God bless Greg Abbott" and the crowd applauded the Republican governor.

Abbott allowed the protesters to be removed before responding. "They are trying to silence the voices of the parents in this state," he said.

"What you should be given is a choice to find a school that's right for your child and that is why I am here tonight," Abbott said during his speech to promote the expansion school choice programs in the state.
A Florida human rights group staged a sit-in outside of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) office on Wednesday to protest the states string of conservative laws, that they described as right wing attempts to dismantle democracy.

Dream Defenders, an activist group established in the wake of the 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., is demanding a meeting with DeSantis and vowed to stayuntil DeSantis comes to speak to us.

It is about the entirety of his governance and his attempts to divide the people of Florida by attacking the most vulnerable people, Akin Olla, a spokesperson for Dream Defenders, said in a statement to The Hill.

Its too long of a list and were trying to avoid chasing after each attack but instead unite the people of Florida against DeSantis and his attempts to destroy the remnants of democracy in Florida, Olla added, making reference to recent bills that place restrictions on abortion rights, transgender rights, education and the LGBTQ community broadly.

The group said Wednesdays protest was part of a national day of action for the freedom to learn but was altered to address all of the issues facing Floridians.

In a press release, Dream Defenders said they hoped the protest would also inspire other states to take action against the right wing attempts to dismantle democracy.

Members of the human rights group Dream Defenders stage a sit-in at the Florida Capitol outside of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) office on Wesdnesday, May 3. (Dream Defenders)

DeSantis has repeatedly taken aim at Floridas schools throughout his tenure as governor, most notably with the so-called Dont Say Gay law. The law barred classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for kindergarten through third grade.

Last month, Floridas Board of Education approved a proposal by DeSantis to expand the controversial law to apply to students through high school. The Florida state legislature also passed their own Dont Say Gay expansion on Wednesday, which the governor is expected to sign.

Story continues

DeSantis also rejected the preliminary framework of the College Boards Advanced Placement in African American Studies course, claiming it was inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.

Earlier this month, DeSantis also signed a bill banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The state had previously barred abortions after 15 weeks.

DeSantis office did not respond to a request for comment.

Brooke Migdon contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A former People magazine writer, testifying in E. Jean Carroll's defamation and battery case against former President Donald Trump, told the jury that Trump pushed her against a wall and began kissing her while she was visiting his Mar-a-Lago estate on assignment in 2005.

Carroll, who brought the lawsuit in November, alleges that Trump defamed her in a 2022 Truth Social post by calling her allegations "a Hoax and a lie" and saying "This woman is not my type!" when he denied her claim that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s.

The former Elle magazine columnist added a charge of battery under a recently adopted New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations. Trump has denied all allegations that he raped Carroll or defamed her.

MORE: Trump will not testify in E. Jean Carroll battery, defamation case, his attorney says

Former People writer Natasha Stoynoff told the jury she was at Mar-a-Lago in late 2005 to write an article on Donald and Melania Trump's first wedding anniversary, when Trump asked to show her a room in the estate.

"I followed him and we went in through these back doors and down the hall and turned right into a room," Stoynoff said. "I'm looking around, I'm thinking, 'Wow, really nice room,' wondering what he wants to show me, and I hear the door shut behind me."

Stoynoff said she had interviewed Trump on a number of occasions as part of her assignment on the "Trump beat" for People. She testified that Trump asked her into the room while Melania was changing clothes in preparation for their interview outside.

"By the time I turn around, he has my hands on my shoulders and he pushes me against the wall and he starts kissing me," Stoynoff testified. She said that she tried to shove him away.

PHOTO: E. Jean Carroll, former U.S. President Donald Trump rape accuser, exits Manhattan Federal Court following a civil case, in New York City, May 2, 2023. (David Dee Delgado/Reuters)

"He came toward me again and I tried to shove him again," Stoynoff said. "He was kissing me and he was against me, holding my shoulder back."

Story continues

She testified that she said no words.

"I couldn't. I tried. I was just flustered and shocked. No words came out of me," Stoynoff told the jury.

"Did you tell him to stop?" Carroll's attorney, Michael Ferrara, asked. "I couldn't," Stoynoff answered. She said the encounter ended when a butler entered the room.

Stoynoff described herself as "ashamed and humiliated at what had happened," and testified she said nothing about it to her bosses at People because she didn't want to cause trouble at the magazine.

She said she first decided to tell her story after she saw the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that surfaced during the 2016 presidential campaign, on which Trump is overheard boasting to then-host Billy Bush about grabbing and kissing women without consent.

"You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait," Trump says on the tape, which was played for the jury. "And when you're a star they let you do it ... You can do anything."

"Whatever you want," another voice on the tape is heard saying.

"Grab them by the p----," Trump says. "You can do anything."

After Stoynoff made her allegation in 2016, Trump denied her claim by saying "Look at her. You tell me what you think. I don't think so," in a response that Carroll's attorneys said echoed his assertion that Carroll was "not my type."

On cross-examination, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina asked Stoynofff if she had a legal claim against Trump. She said no.

Stoynoff is one of two women who the court has ruled are allowed to testify about prior alleged assaults by Trump. On Tuesday, Jessica Leeds told jurors that Trump groped her during a flight to New York in 1979, in what Carroll's attorneys said showed a pattern of behavior on Trump's part.

Leeds, who first made her allegations to The New York Times just before the 2016 presidential election, testified that she was seated next to Trump in the first-class section, "when all of a sudden Trump decided to kiss me and grope me."

"It was when he started putting his hand up my skirt, that gave me a jolt of strength," testified Leeds, who said she freed herself and went "storming back to my seat in the back of coach."

Trump has denied the allegations.

Earlier Wednesday, Tacopina told Judge Lewis Kaplan that Trump will not mount a defense in the case.

Tacopina told the judge that he had decided not to call an expert witness that had been expected to testify for the defense. "We're not going to move forward," Tacopina said.

The judge told the jury to expect to get the case "early next week."

Carroll's sister, Cande Carroll, testified Wednesday afternoon that she found out about her sister's alleged rape in 2019 when Carroll sent her an email containing a link to an excerpt of Carroll's 2019 book that contained the rape allegation.

That she found out about it that way was hardly surprising, she said, because she and her older sister "just didn't talk about those things."

On cross-examination, the younger Carroll testified that she and Carroll had a close relationship in the 1990s when the alleged rape occurred.

MORE: Trump will not testify in E. Jean Carroll battery, defamation case, his attorney says

"You talked almost daily?" defense attorney Perry Brandt asked. "Most days," Carroll responded, before Brandt asked her to affirm that the first she had heard of the alleged sexual assault by Trump was in 2019.

Earlier Wednesday, a psychologist testified that Carroll continued to shop at Bergdorf Goodman after the alleged attack because "she didn't feel that Bergdorf Goodman raped her."

"She didn't blame the store. She blamed herself," said Dr. Leslie Lebowitz, who evaluated Carroll for the case.

The defense suggested the fact that Carroll continued to shop at Bergdorf's, saved the dress she wore the evening of the alleged assault, and watched Trump's reality television show, "The Apprentice," were behaviors out of step with the deep trauma Carroll said she suffered.

Lebowitz pushed back against the inference from the defense that Carroll's rape claim against Trump could not be true because she did not act like it actually happened.

"I think anywhere Ms. Carroll could see evidence that she was negatively affected by what happened, she would fight against it. So to not go back into Bergdorf's would have been really obvious, given how much she loved that store," Lebowitz said.

The same holds true for the dress, Lebowitz said.

"I think that she loves clothes and that was the most expensive dress she'd ever brought," Lebowitz said. "It would have been impossible to avoid the realization that she was that negatively affected."

MORE: E. Jean Carroll says Harvey Weinstein, #MeToo movement made her come forward about Trump

As for watching "The Apprentice," Lebowitz said there was excitement about the show in Carroll's professional and social circles. To not watch would have forced her to reveal why.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Chad Seigel asked Lebowitz if her diagnosis concluded that Carroll had been raped.

"You're not offering an opinion in this case whether Ms. Carroll was raped?" Seigel asked.

"I'm not," Lebowitz replied.

Lebowitz said that Carroll did meet some of the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, including exhibiting signs of memories affected by trauma. She described a moment during her evaluation when Carroll "began to squirm in her seat" because she appeared to be "re-experiencing" elements of the alleged assault.

She also told the jury that rape victims commonly experience self-blame.

During her testimony earlier this week, Carroll said, "I was ashamed. I thought it was my fault."

MORE: E. Jean Carroll says 'shameful' feelings kept her from reporting alleged assault by Trump

"Why did you think it was your fault, Ms. Carroll?" her attorney, Michael Ferrara, asked.

"Because I was flirting with him and laughing and having one of the great times. It was high comedy. It was funny," Carroll said.

The nine-member jury of six men and three women is weighing Carroll's defamation and battery claims and deciding potential monetary damages.

Carroll's lawsuit is her second against Trump related to her rape allegation.

She previously sued Trump in 2019 after the then-president denied her rape claim by telling The Hill that Carroll was "totally lying," saying, "I'll say it with great respect: No. 1, she's not my type. No. 2, it never happened. It never happened, OK?" That defamation suit has been caught in a procedural back-and-forth over the question of whether Trump, as president, was acting in his official capacity as an employee of the federal government when he made those remarks.

If Trump is determined to have been acting as a government employee, the U.S. government would substitute as the defendant in that suit -- which means that case would go away, since the government cannot be sued for defamation.

This month's trial is taking place as Trump seeks the White House for a third time, while facing numerous legal challenges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, his handling of classified material after leaving the White House, and possible attempts to interfere in Georgia's 2020 vote. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said last week she would decide whether to file criminal charges against Trump or his allies this summer.

3rd accuser testifies Trump started 'kissing me' during 2005 visit to Mar-a-Lago originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Following his meeting with the President of Finland in the morning, Zelenskyy was scheduled to have discussions with other Nordic leaders in the afternoon of Wednesday, May 3.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, has declared the year 2023 to be "decisive for victory" in the country's ongoing war against a Russian invasion.

2023 Might Be the Year

To meet with other Nordic leaders at a conference hosted by Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Zelenskyy is making a rare trip outside of Finland, Euronews reported.

At a press conference held on a Wednesday lunch hour, Zelenskyy stated that he was working with Finland and other Nordic partners on additional military aid packages. He described it as crucial and a new round of sanctions, which he claimed the Kremlin was "constantly trying to evade."

Before he left Kyiv, Zelenskyy put out a video on Tuesday evening, May 2, in which he said that Ukraine is keeping a close eye on how Russia is trying to get around sanctions, recording each attempt, and working with Ukraine's partners to stop it.

Zelenskyy said they are getting ready to impose severe punishments and that quick action is expected to be done. Additionally, he expressed optimism that this year would prove "decisive for victory" as Ukrainian forces prepare for a long-awaited counteroffensive against established Russian forces.

Zelenskyy made a reference in Helsinki to Finland's victory over Russia in the Winter War of 1939 to 1940. Despite being outnumbered by their Russian rival, Finland was able to pull off the unlikely accomplishment of defeating them. This "historic winter fight for freedom," Zelenskyy remarked, was similar to "our brave fight now" in Ukraine.

See Also: Russia-Ukraine War: Kremlin Claims Kyiv Tried to Assassinate Putin With Drone Attack

Talks With Nordic Leaders

Finland President Sauli Niinisto, who is responsible for foreign affairs, was hosting Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on his visit to Finland.

Late Wednesday morning, Niinisto's office released a statement saying that he and the Ukrainian prime minister had held bilateral discussions during which they planned to discuss Ukraine's defense struggle, as well as Finnish support for Ukraine and bilateral ties.

After that, Zelenskyy had lunch with Sanna Marin, who is stepping down as prime minister, and Pekka Haavisto, who is leaving as foreign minister. He also met Petteri Orpo, who will be taking over as prime minister after April's election.

President Niinisto hold a Nordic-Ukrainian Summit in the afternoon with Zelenskyy, Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson, Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Stre, Danish PM Mette Frederiksen, and Icelandic PM Katrin Jakobsdottir.

Reportedly, the afternoon meeting focused on Russia's aggression in Ukraine, the Nordic countries' support for Ukraine, Ukraine's connection with the European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Ukraine's effort for a fair peace.

See Also: Vladimir Putin Warned of Possible Arrest if Russian President Attends BRICS Summit

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REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Why cant E. Jean Carroll remember when Donald Trump allegedly raped her? Why didnt she scream? And why did she keep the dreaded coat dress hanging in her closet for decades?

On Wednesday, Carrolls lawyers used the testimony of a psychologist to try to close the gaps that the former presidents lawyers have tried to attack.

Leslie Lebowitz, a Massachusetts psychologist, spent hours describing the trauma Carroll feels over the way she was allegedly attacked by the real estate mogul sometime around 1996 in the fitting room of the luxury Manhattan clothing store Bergdorf Goodman. But her testimony primarily served to buttress Carrolls actions in the years that followed, what to some would seem like a double lifeoutwardly vivacious yet quietly plagued by haunting flashbacks.

Memory is actually a complicated process, she said when being questioned by Carrolls lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan.

Trump Jury Hears Accusation He Groped a Woman on a Flight

So far, the six men and three women on the jury have heard Carroll and a close friend describein explicit detailher encounter with Trump at the store and a harried phone call in its immediate aftermath. But Carroll hasnt been able to say when it happened with any certainty, eliminating any chance for Trump to provide an alibi.

For days, Trumps lawyers have aggressively probed that lack of detail and used it to cast doubt upon her allegation, chalking it up to a contrived political plot.

On the stand, Lebowitz said, Our brain holds onto things that seem emotionally salient but not other details, like context. So while we may replay key details of a traumatic event, we may forget its place in time during our lives. She also testified that the chemicals that encode these memories in our brains are quite toxic, so a person might easily remember exactly how a harrowing situation began but not what happened afterward.

Addressing the odd way Carroll kept the black dress hanging in her small closet for decadesapparently unworn all that timeLebowitz surmised that the outfit carried a deeper, unspoken meaning for the fashion-conscious advice columnist.

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Rape feels like their personhood is being murdered, she said, adding that Carroll likely kept the dress in the hope that she would one day claim a part of herself she once lost.

The crime of rape, she explained, can harm the very core of a persons being because it violates their humanity, independence, and the sense that they own their own space.

When it was their turn to cross-examine her, Trumps lawyers focused on showing that Carroll could have simply faked symptoms to dupe the psychologist. They also kept probing why Carroll didnt scream during this alleged attack at a store in Midtown Manhattana question that keeps drawing ire over its sexist undertones.

Trump Lawyer Joe Tacopinas Terrible Cross-Examination Gets Even Worse

It is one of the least likely responses to a rape, Lebowitz told Trump defense lawyer Chad Seigel. Sure, some people scream. Its a good idea.

Seigel also noted apparent discrepancies, such as the way Carroll claims Trump deeply harmed her life but still considered herself a massive fan of his popular reality TV program on NBC, The Apprentice. Lebowitz countered that, given Carrolls social circle as a New York journalist, it would have been odd for her to make a conscious effort to avoid the showparticularly because it would have drawn attention to a traumatic memory she was trying to bury.

Trumps lawyers pressed on with their effort to have the jury disbelieve that Carroll leads two very different lives, with one as a cheery advice columnist who tells readers to immediately call the police if theyre raped versus the emotionally wrecked writer who wasnt able to follow her own advice.

Standing at a wooden lectern, Seigel showed the jurors a segment of the book where Carroll initially disclosed her encounter with Trumpone that read, I am fine. I cant explain it, but I never suffered.

Seigel asked Lebowitz to explain the discrepancy with her testimony now that Carroll is in fact deeply hurt by what allegedly happened in that fitting roomand subject to searing flashes of those memories.

We present ourselves differently in private and public, she countered.

Lebowitzs psychoanalytic expertise previously played a role in the trial of a Connecticut robber who took part in a savage rape and killing, in whats sometimes referred to as the Cheshire home invasion. Her testimony is expected to end Wednesday, and the jury will soon hear from a third alleged victim of Trumps sexual misconduct.

The judge said Wednesday that closing arguments are likely to be heard early next week, with the jury receiving the case right after.

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Pueblo police have referred assault charges to 10th Judicial District Attorney Jeff Chostner in connection to a violent 2022 citizen's arrest involving a volunteer Pueblo County Sheriff's Office SWAT medic and his son.

PCSO medic Doug Cullison and his amateur MMA fighter son, Nate Cullison, are accused of violently detaining and beating a man in September 2022. The investigation initially was dropped by the Pueblo Police Department, which later asserted that "technical issues" hampered the investigation.

In early April, the investigation was reopened after a video surfaced showing the Cullisons' violent takedown of a suspect accused of assaulting Doug Cullison's wife, a teacher at a nearby school.

Chostner confirmed Tuesday his office has received the referral for third-degree assault charges against Doug and Nate Cullison and his office is currently reviewing them.

Video of the citizen's arrest, captured on security camera footage taken from outside of Nick's Dairy Creme on the East Side, showed Doug Cullison tackle the individual to the ground. Two unidentified males then approached the scene, and one of them punched the detained man several times while Cullison held him.

Minutes later, the video showed the arrival of Nate Cullison, who sprinted from his vehicle and immediately began striking the downed man. Nate Cullison can be seen on video beating the man while his father holds him, punching, kicking and elbowing him at least 25 times while the restrained man screams for help.

On Sept. 14, the subject of the citizen's arrest and beating was issued a ticket for battery in connection to the alleged assault of Cullison's wife and was released, according to a Pueblo PD report. However, Pueblo Police Chief Chris Noeller told Chieftain news partner KRDO News Channel 13 on Monday that the man's charges have since been upgraded to the same as the Cullisons': third-degree assault.

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A still image from Pueblo police body cam footage shows some of the injuries sustained by a man subjected to a violent citizen's arrest by father and son Doug and Nate Cullison in September 2022.

Witnesses describe beating in calls to 911

In a 911 call placed by a witness at a nearby business, the witness said that "someone was getting beat up" outside the store. The caller described a man pinning down the victim while two people were "beating the crap out of him."

A second person who contacted police reported that there were "multiple people holding the kid down, and his face was bloody."

One of the callers also noted that the man being beaten was "not fighting back."

Body-worn camera footage provided to the Chieftain by Martin Conti Law, which is representing the victim in the case, showed Doug Cullison claiming to police that the man they detained "was resisting us a bit" so his son Nate came and "helped put him to ground."

Nate Cullison told police that his dad "had him" and that the two of them "had to wrestle him down a bit."

The body camera footage showed the victim with a swollen cheek and blood running down his face. An officer at the scene asked him about his injuries, to which he replied, "I got punched," while sobbing.

Noeller calls initial investigation a 'series of judgment errors'

Noeller declined to answer questions about the incident when contacted by the Chieftain on Tuesday and said his statements on the matter would be limited to what he told KRDO on Monday. However, he did say the internal affairs investigation into why the case was not investigated more thoroughly is still ongoing and that no disciplinary action has been determined for any of the four officers involved.

Noeller told KRDO that the charges against the Cullisons were based on the degree of the man's injuries. He noted that Nate Cullison's status as a trained MMA fighter could not elevate the charges against him and stated that if the victim had suffered more serious injuries, the charges could have been more severe.

Noeller told KRDO that the lack of investigation in September was not a "cover-up" related to Doug Cullison's position at the PCSO and was instead a series of judgment errors by all four officers at the scene.

"We are human beings. We make mistakes," Noeller said. "It was a series of judgment errors and mistakes in police work. It shouldn't have ended up the way that it did. There's no doubt we're not happy. Again, I think it would be fair to say that the officers are not happy with the errors that they made."

Shawn Conti, an attorney for the victim in the case, questioned Noeller's statement in an interview with the Chieftain.

"There were way too many mistakes for it to be acceptable," Conti said. "Not only did dispatch (announce) to responding officers that (the victim) was being assaulted, when they arrived on scene, he presented with blood and was battered all over. That should have immediately tipped them off that it was not what Doug Cullison wanted them to believe."

Conti said police did not take the time to gather witness statements, despite the fact that there were multiple eyewitnesses as well as security camera footage showing exactly what happened.

"There were four officers on scene. Two of them could have gone and interviewed employees at Nick's Dairy Creme, they could have interviewed the skateboarders in front of the store and said, 'Hey, what happened?" Conti said. "Every officer takes an oath to do their best to uphold the law, and they're supposed to do a thorough investigation."

Conti claimed that one individual made several attempts to provide the surveillance footage to Pueblo police investigating the case but the detective did not follow up.

"What was the disconnect? You have someone saying, 'Listen, I have everything on videotape,' and there was no follow-up on the part of (an investigating officer)." Conti said.

Conti said he hopes the district attorney presses "appropriate" charges against the Cullisons.

"While PPD may have only sent it over for third-degree assault, there's nothing preventing the DA from pressing more serious charges if they find the evidence warrants it," Conti said.

Assault charges have also been referred to Chostner's office for the man accused of assaulting Doug Cullison's wife at the school prior to the citizen's arrest and beating, Conti said.

Questions, comments, or story tips? Contact Justin at jreutterma@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @jayreutter1.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo police refer assault charges in violent 2022 citizen's arrest
An apparent drone attack on the Kremlin has spurred a global whodunit.

Moscow quickly accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, a claim that was met with skepticism among Western officials and defense experts  and denied by Ukraine.

Unverified videos that circulated online Wednesday purportedly show the aftermath of the attack, which Russia says it thwarted by shooting down the drones.

The attack will likely have a rally around the flag effect in Russia, leading some to speculate it may be a false flag operation staged by the Kremlin to bolster support ahead of Victory Day on May 9, an annual holiday to celebrate the Soviet defeat of Nazis in WWII.

It looks to me like Putin and his handlers are constructing a fake provocation with this so-called terrorist attack that Russia can use as an excuse to rain down even more pain and suffering on the Ukrainian people or possibly use to justify an assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Beth Knobel, a former CBS bureau chief in Moscow and now a communications professor at Fordham University.

Ukraine has nothing to gain by inflaming Russia further with an assassination attempt on President Putin, she added, noting that the claim of an assassination attempt was far-fetched, given Putin is widely known to reside at a complex outside Moscow.

Analysts have pointed out that theres no independent verification of the supposed attack. Theres also scrutiny over why Moscow didnt report the incident until hours later or why the videos of it were not released for some time.

Branislav Slantchev, a political science professor at a University of California, San Diego, who studies the conduct of war, also said he believes Russians were behind the attack, whether or not it was carried out with Putins knowledge. He said it would help the Kremlins recruitment drive across the country, while also renewing questions about Western support for the war if Ukraine is suspected of launching escalatory attacks inside Russia.

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The Russians will play up this card immediately, he said. I think its mostly meant for domestic and international political use rather than anything else.

Zelensky on Wednesday denied that Ukraine was behind the alleged attack.

We didnt attack Putin, he said at a press conference with Nordic leaders in Helsinki.

His presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, also said the Russian claims would give Moscow a pretext to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities in the next several days.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while speaking at a Washington Post event, said he had seen the reports but could not comment on them without really knowing what the facts are.

He warned the public should take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.

Some experts were more open to the possibility of a Ukrainian attack.

Mark Galeotti, a political scientist and historian who authored Putins Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine, said he believed Putin would want to avoid such an embarrassing failure of Russian security.

Russia would be admitting to a shocking breach of security, he wrote in The Spectator, positing that Ukraine would have wanted to show  that Moscow is not safe ahead of the patriotic Russian holiday.

Most likely, this is just what it seems: that Kyiv, witnessing the continued attacks on its infrastructure, houses and hospitals, feels it has no reason to pull its punches, he added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media on Wednesday that Russia reserved the right to respond to the attack.

Given that Russia regularly bombards Kyiv with missiles  including a barrage over the weekend  its unclear what that response would look like.

Slantchev, political science professor, dismissed the argument that Russia would be embarrassed by the attack, saying it would only feed the narrative that it is fighting a war against the more powerful militaries of the U.S. and other NATO powers.

It is not shameful to be hit by a superior enemy. And in fact, they didnt achieve anything, he said. And so this is not humiliation for Russia in any way that I can see. Which is why I simply do not see an upside for the Ukrainians.

On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, lawmakers were dubious about the Russian reports, but said they were awaiting more information.

Im not going to opine on the veracity of it because the Kremlin  I wouldnt trust half of what they say, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said.

Theres a war going on. Theres been plenty of strikes in Kyiv. In the end, if you invade a country and they fight back.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said many questions remained unanswered.

I think we have to verify  and through the technology that we have, a sense of what happened? Were drones launched? Did the Russians use anti-aircraft defenses to bring them down? What was the target? he asked.

I think within the next 24 hours well get an indication of what theyve [administration] untangled from the data they looked at.

A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that defense leaders had seen the press reporting but have nothing to provide at this time.

I think the verdict is still out, said Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant defense secretary, who is now a national security analyst with ABC.

But he said he was confident that U.S. intelligence agencies would figure it out.

They can always go back and look at satellite imagery, even signals collection, when it comes to people talking about watching something like this, whether it was a false flag type of thing, or whether it was the actual attack by Ukraine, he said.

Mulroy noted a couple of initial observations that supported suspicions of Russias involvement.

The Turkish drones commonly used by Ukraine can only travel about 150 miles.

No matter where youre shooting it from in Ukraine, you would have to go at least 300 miles, he said, adding that the possibility of a Ukrainian operation inside Russia was unlikely.

And the video of the attack that quickly circulated shows someone wanted the attack to be seen widely.

Could somebody be up for some reason or another filming the Kremlin at 2 a.m. from their house? he said. I guess.

Al Weaver contributed to this story.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Russian President Vladimir Putin could be arrested if he attends an economic summit being hosted in South Africa in the coming months, according to a report.

The BRICS economic bloc, led by Russia and China, is hosting its August 2023 economic summit in South Africa  which is a member of the International Criminal Court.

In speaking with South Africa's Sunday Times, a senior government official said the country doesn't have a choice but to arrest Putin if he chooses to attend the BRICS summit in person.

"There is no option not to arrest Putin  if he comes here, we have to arrest him," a senior government official said. "The only option we have is for him to connect via Teams or Zoom from Moscow."

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT ISSUES PUTIN ARREST WARRANT OVER CHILD DEPORTATIONS FROM UKRAINE

The ICC issued a warrant for Putin's arrest in March, stating that there's reason to believe that he "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."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in late April that Russia will participate in the BRICS summit, but didn't add any details, according to the Moscow Times.

"Of course, we will take part in the summit to be held in South Africa. Of course, this will be preceded by our bilateral contacts with the South Africans, we will clarify their position," Peskov said.

NEW WORLD DISORDER: CHINA, RUSSIA BLOC SHORES UP INFLUENCE AS COUNTRIES EAGER TO JOIN, INCLUDING US ALLIES

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, arrive to pose for a group picture during the 10th BRICS Summit, July 26, 2018, at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on April 25 that the African National Congress decided to withdraw the country from the ICC, which his office later walked back, according to the AFP.

"The presidency wishes to clarify that South Africa remains a signatory (to the ICC)," Ramaphosa's office said later on April 25, according to the report.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, hosts the 14th BRICS Summit via video link in Beijing, China, June 23, 2022.

The office added that the "clarification follows an error in a comment made during a media briefing held by the governing African National Congress."

According to South Africa's Sunday Times, the country's foreign ministry obtained private legal advice which stated that if Putin wasn't arrested while he's in South Africa, it would be a breach of the country's own laws.

Fox News' Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. April 7, 2023

"It allows us to suggest some problems in the ranks of the Russian command, in particular with regard to logistics and tactical and operational planning. The problems have been discovered only now, during this war," Vertsner told Radio NV.

Read also: Putins decision to invade Ukraine dates back to 2020, claims political analyst

Neither the dictator, nor the Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu or other military commanders had been aware of these problems before the full-scale war began.

"After all, Russia has a very good tradition (to Ukraine, first of all) of lying, of demonstrating to the leadership that "everything is fine." They actually succeeded in that. So, Putin believed that they were actually the "second (best) army in the world." He was wrong. And this very mistake should be used by the Ukrainian military in an expected counteroffensive," Vertsner said.

The commanders swaps won't help, the Israeli expert believes.

Read also: Russia already lost over 20 generals in war against Ukraine, believes Japanese intelligence

"[The problems] haven't disappeared, for sure. He (Putin) is putting in efforts, like a good joke. I apologize for the joke. They got tired of changing the beds in the brothel so they changed the women. This is what he is trying to do now. But I think it's already too late."

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REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

Russias war hawks have spent the better part of the past year claiming theyre not losing in Ukrainetheyre just being held back. But now, they claim, the gloves are about to come off.

Its no longer enough to bomb women and children as they sleep. Its time to shoot down [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskys plane and launch missiles at [his] residence in Kyiv, two Kremlin allies said Wednesday.

A chorus of pro-Kremlin voices is demanding merciless revenge after Moscow accused Ukraine of trying to assassinate President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin overnight. Rather than questioning the official version of eventslike how on earth two Ukrainian drones could elude all of Russias air defenses to strike in the heart of the capitalRussian officials and propagandists alike immediately and angrily demanded that the real war now begin.

But its still not a red line, right? Not a reason to call war a war? To start leading it. Not a reason to shoot down Zelenskys plane with precision (he was just flying away somewhere). No, of course its still not enough, propagandist Anton Krasovsky bitterly wrote on Telegram.

Pro-Kremlin war correspondent Alexander Kotz said at this point it wouldnt even be enough to launch missiles at Ukraines decision-making centers in Kyiv. According to him, Russia must now eliminate the decision makers personally.

Kremlin Says Putin Survived Overnight Assassination Attempt

The increasingly unhinged deputy head of Russias Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, called on the military to physically eliminate Zelensky and his clique.

After todays terrorist attack, there are no options left, he wrote on Telegram.

And were going to take this? Why isnt the center of Kyiv right now methodically being turned into ruins? the neo-Nazi paramilitary group Rusich complained.

Lawmakers were only slightly more restrained in their calls for hellfire against Ukraine.

This is a real casus bellireason for war, wrote Sergei Mironov. We have something with which to wipe out their bunkers, he said, calling for the liquidation of Ukraines government.

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Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, said lawmakers will now demand the use of weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime.

Pro-war Russian bloggers began circulating a meme that read: If you dont bomb [Ukrainian government headquarters at] Bankova, Bankova will bomb you.

Suddenly, military bloggers whove built their careers by telling Kremlin audiences that Ukraines military is weak and incompetent were suddenly fearmongering that the Russian leader himself was now under threat. The U-turn comes not only after the alleged drone attack on the Kremlinbut also after the presidents team reportedly instructed its mouthpieces in the media to hype up the threat posed by Ukraine in order to make any defeat in the war less humiliating.

Putin Grooms Russians for Defeat in Leaked Crisis Manual

Ukrainewhich saw more than a dozen civilians killed in a Russian strike on Kherson on Wednesday, even as Russians flew into hysterics about drones striking the Kremlinhas denied any involvement in the alleged attack and suggested it might just be part of Moscows latest escalation of the war ahead of a planned Ukrainian counteroffensive.

We dont attack Putin, or Moscow. We fight on our own territory, defending our villages and cities, Zelensky said in televised comments from Germany, adding that Ukraine doesnt even have enough weapons to carry out attacks inside Russia.

A Russian expert cited by the Financial Times said the drones might have come from just outside Moscow, and that the low quantity used in the attack suggested it was more likely carried out by a partisan movement.

Nonetheless, many saw the drone attack as the start of a new phase in the war. Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said in a statement on Twitter that it was clear the incident was meant to serve as a pretext for Russia to hit harder against Ukraine and finally appease the pro-war patriots cheering on more devastation and death.

Russia is obviously preparing a large-scale terrorist act.

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Queen Camilla was said to be "furious" after her stepson made damning accusations against her in his tell-all.

In January, Prince Harrys explosive memoir "Spare" hit bookshelves. The Duke of Sussex included details of private conversations with his father King Charles and his brother Prince William. The book also highlighted allegations that members of the royal family regularly feed the press unflattering information about other members of the House of Windsor in exchange for positive coverage of themselves.

The prince singled out Camilla, accusing her of leaking private conversations to the media as she sought to rehabilitate her image after marrying Charles. The 75-year-old was once reviled for her long-term affair with Charles, 74, which contributed to the breakdown of his marriage to the late Princess Diana, Harry and Williams mother.

"I know from various people who are close to her [that] she was pretty furious with what was being said about her," True Royalty TV co-founder Nick Bullen claimed to Fox News Digital. "But she is not someone that is going to be phoning Harry or [his wife] Meghan [Markle] and shouting down on the phone at them.

PRINCE HARRY SNUBBED AT KING CHARLES' CORONATION AS NEW DETAILS ON RELIGIOUS CEREMONY ARE REVEALED

In his memoir, Prince Harry (right) singled out his stepmother, Queen Camilla (center), who was once reviled for her long-term affair with King Charles (left).

"She just moves on," Bullen shared. "I dont think shes necessarily going to forgive, and I dont think shes necessarily going to forget. But it is not something that she dwells on, Im told. She plays a much longer game, and she plays with a much straighter bat. She was, Im told, annoyed by what was said but moved on pretty quickly from what was said."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Bullen is an award-winning documentarian who has been producing programs about the British royal family for 20 years. He has also worked closely with the king for about a decade. His streaming platform features numerous specials about the British royal family in time for the May 6 coronation.

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Prince Harry claimed he and brother Prince William begged their father not to marry Camilla.

Bullen, who has worked with Camilla, said she has long followed Queen Elizabeth II's motto in public  never complain, never explain.

"Weve made a number of documentaries with the Duchess of Cornwall, now the queen," Bullen explained. "It was the only time shes ever allowed cameras to follow her. Weve done both of those documentaries. What you find from her is shes incredibly matter-of-fact. She is the classic never complain, never explain. She just gets on with it. But shes tough."

In interviews to promote "Spare," Harry accused members of the royal family of getting "into bed with the devil" to gain favorable tabloid coverage, singling out Camillas efforts to rehabilitate her image with the British people.

"Spare" was published Jan. 10.

"That made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press," the father of two told CBS. "There was open willingness on both sides to trade information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being queen consort, there was gonna be people or bodies left in the street."

In the book, Harry also added that he and William "begged" their father not to marry Camilla, worried she would become a "wicked stepmother."

But Camilla wasnt the only royal wife who got called out in "Spare."

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The former Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall are seen here before the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle May 19, 2018, in Windsor, England.

The young prince notoriously wore a Nazi uniform to a costume party in 2005. He claimed in the book that William and his wife Kate Middleton encouraged the choice of outfit and "howled" with laughter when they saw it.

Harry also described texts that his sister-in-law wrote to his wife four days before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex tied the knot. He wrote that after he found the former American actress "on the floor sobbing," Middleton came by the next day with flowers and a card to apologize.

"The book was full of bomb-like moments that were going off in the palaces around Britain," said Bullen. "For the king and the Prince of Wales, the comments that Harry made about their wives, about Camilla and Kate, I think were the most hurtful for the royal family. You can fight with your brother, you can fight with your dad, but really should you be throwing brickbats at your sister-in-law and stepmother? And particularly when theyre not going to be able to respond? So, I think those were the ones that hurt the most."

From left: Prince William, Kate Middleton and Prince Harry during The Patrons Lunch celebrations for the queen's 90th birthday at The Mall June 12, 2016, in London.

Harry described his struggles in being a royal "spare" behind William, who is heir to the British throne. The 38-year-old recounted a longstanding sibling rivalry that worsened after he began a relationship with Markle, 41, whom he married in 2018.

Harry claimed that during an argument in 2019, William, 40, called the former "Suits" star "difficult" and "rude," then grabbed him by the collar and knocked him down. Harry suffered cuts and bruises from landing on a dog bowl. According to Harry, Charles implored the brothers to make up, saying after the funeral of Prince Philip in 2021, "Please, boys. Dont make my final years a misery."

Bullen said that detailing private conversations was "unnecessary." He also noted it was unfair for Harry to target the royal wives, knowing they "have no ability to respond."

MEGHAN MARKLE, PRINCE HARRY 'DISLOYAL' FOR 'TRASHING ROYAL FAMILY,' NEED TO 'FIND THEIR OWN IDENTITY': EX PAL

True Royalty TV co-founder Nick Bullen said the royal wives cannot publicly respond to Prince Harry's claims.

"That whole story of the fight  these are incredibly private moments between two brothers," said Bullen. "Did it need to be revealed? Well, yes, if youre being paid  $20 million. But imagine putting yourself in their shoes and hearing one of your brothers or sisters telling the world about some of your private moments.

"Its hurtful."

In April, a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirmed they were asked to vacate Frogmore Cottage, their home in the U.K. The Sun newspaper reported that the king started the eviction process Jan. 11, the day after "Spare" was published.

Prince Harry will be visiting his home country for King Charles' coronation, but it is understood that the visit will be brief.

Buckingham Palace later announced that Harry will attend his fathers coronation. Markle will remain at the couples home in California with their two young children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. The May 6 coronation at Londons Westminster Abbey coincides with their sons birthday.

Harry and Markle, who is biracial, have alleged she faced racist attitudes from both the palace and the U.K. press. The treatment contributed to their decision to leave the country in 2020 and move to North America.

The couple lives in Montecito, a wealthy enclave in Southern California. It is understood that Harry's visit to his native country will be brief, and he'll be heading back to the U.S. the same day.
King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain have confirmed their attendance at the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

On 11 April, the Spanish royal family joined the line-up of foreign monarchs who have confirmed their attendance at King Charles coronation, which takes place at Westminster Abbey in London on Saturday 6 May.

The coronation will be attended by some 2,000 guests, a stark difference from the late Queen Elizabeth IIs coronation, which was attended by 8,000 guests with 129 nations and territories officially represented at the ceremony. In fact, Charles decision to invite his counterparts from around the world marks a break from royal tradition entirely.

Much like King Charles, Queen Letizia of Spain is also one to break royal protocol  having been the first Spanish queen to be born a commoner.

Born Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano on 15 September 1972 in northern Spain, the soon-to-be queen was raised in a middle-class family. Her father, Jose Ortiz Alvarez, was a journalist and her mother, Maria de la Paloma Rocasolano Rodriguez, was a registered nurse and hospital union representative. Letizia comes from a long line of journalists; her paternal grandmother was also a radio broadcaster for 40 years.

Letizia pursued a bachelors degree in journalism at the Complutense University of Madrid, as well as a masters degree in audiovisual journalism at the Institute for Studies in Audiovisual Journalism. During her time at university, she worked multiple jobs in media  first for the newspaper La Nueva Espana and later for the Spanish newspaper ABC, before working at the major international news agency, EFE.

After briefly working as a journalist in Mexico, she returned to Spain where she reported for the Spanish versions of Bloomberg and CNN. In 2003, she gained prominence as a TV anchor for Telediario 2, the most-viewed daily evening news programme in Spain. Throughout her career, Letizia has reported from the United States on presidential elections, broadcasted live from New York following the 9/11 attacks, and reported on the Iraq War.

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Queen Letizia and King Felipe attend a dinner at Royal Palace in Madrid on 27 February 2019 (Getty Images)

Her engagement to King Felipe, then Prince of Asturias, came as a surprise to many throughout Spain. They met at a dinner party in 2002, organised by fellow journalist Pedro Erquicia, where they reportedly formed an instant connection. The couple maintained a low-profile romance for several months, before announcing their engagement on 1 November 2003.

Prince Felipe and Letizia Ortiz pose during an official engagement ceremony on 6 November 2003 at Palacio del Pardo in Madrid, Spain (Getty Images)

Not only did Letizias engagement to Felipe grab attention for her being a commoner from a middle-class family, much like Kate Middleton, but she was also a divorcee. In August 1998, she tied the knot with Alonso Guerrero Perez, a writer and high school literature teacher, after 10 years together. However, they divorced one year later.

Her previous marriage likely wouldve posed challenges for the couple who wanted to be married in the Catholic Church, considering the Vatican would have to grant special permission that allowed her to marry Felipe. Luckily, her previous wedding to Perez was only a civil ceremony.

On 22 May 2004, Felipe and Letizia were officially wed at the Catedral de Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena in Madrid. The bride wore a white wedding gown designed by Spanish fashion designer Manuel Pertegaz for the special occasion. Her veil, which was a gift from Felipe, was made of off-white silk tulle.

In several photos from the special day, the newlyweds were seen smiling and gazing at each other as Felipe kissed his newlywed wifes forehead.

Prince Felipe kisses Letizia Ortiz on their wedding day on 22 May 2004 (Getty Images)

The then-Prince and Princess of Asturias went on to welcome two daughters. Their eldest daughter  Leonor, Princess of Asturias  was born on 31 October 2005, while their youngest  Infanta Sofia  was born on 29 April 2007.

The royal couple became King and Queen of Spain in 2014 when Felipes father, King Juan Carlos, abdicated the throne. Letizias new title proved to be historic for Spain, making her the first Spanish-born queen consort since 1878 and the first Spanish queen to have been born a commoner.

The royal couple are parents to two daughters: Leonor, Princess of Asturias and Infanta Sofia (Getty Images)

Since then, Queen Letizia of Spain has continued much of the work that she focused on during her time as journalist: raising awareness towards social issues such as childrens rights, culture, and education.

King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain are set to join the many European royals  including Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco, Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, and King Carl XVI Gustaf and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden  who are attending King Charles IIIs coronation on Saturday 6 May.
Adeola Alle is voicing his concern about how his wife and family were "discriminated against on a recent Flair Airlines flight.

A TikTok taken on a Flair Airlines flight has sparked racism and discrimination allegations, after airline staff threatened to remove a Black mother from a recent flight.

Busayo Alle, a Nigerian-Canadian, was flying with her 12-week-old baby and her mother-in-law, on what was supposed to be an easy 1-hour and 25-minute flight from Vancouver to Calgary. Upon boarding the aircraft, she was surprised to find another woman, who is white, sitting in the seat. When requesting help from the airline, Busayo was further discouraged when staff asked her to move instead.

If you flip the script, what would have happened? asks Busayos husband, Adeola Alle, in his viral TikTok video titled Racism in Canada.

If a Black person was sitting on that seat, they would not have hesitated to kick them off the flight.

It's a situation in which he says "my wife and family were discriminated against, and also resulted in a threat from the airline staff after Busayo pleaded for her seat.

If you [dont] calm down, we need to get you out of this aircraft, said a Flair Airlines flight attendant to Busayo.

The story is sparking conversation on TikTok about racism in Canada, and its prevalence in our communities.

Theres so much racism in Canada but its covered and never talked about like other countries, commented @cruel_gina.

"I'm sorry you had to go through this, racism is real in Canada," commented another user, @yeyewandeeo. "I'm so over it."

The trio initially boarded Flair Airlines flight F8804 on April 14, and were expecting to sit together in their already purchased seats. At first, the mother thought this was an honest mistake. She asked the person to move, as seat 2A was her assigned seat on the boarding pass. She was surprised to hear the person simply say no and refuse to move.

At this point, the family decided to turn to the flight attendants for assistance, but were surprised by the reaction.

My wife kept her cool, but to our dismay  she was asked to move, noted Adeola.

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They sounded very condescending. We just needed you to do the right thing  this is the seat she paid for.

The video shows Busayo wondering what the problem was  all she wanted was to sit next to her young daughter and mother-in-law in the seat she paid for. As the interaction prolongs, the flight attendants can be heard asking her to calm down, to which Busayo responds, I cant be calm after what you just did.

In addition, Adeola recounts that the other passenger involved also gave his wife the middle finger.

In the end, the Alle family were able to sit together, after other passengers offered their seats. However, the interaction left a sour taste for Busayo as there was absolutely no explanation as to why she was asked to move, and then even threatened to be kicked off the flight after voicing her frustration.

We paid for this flight and you didnt help me, said Busayo to the flight staff.

Yahoo Canada reached out to Flair Airlines regarding the situation, and they noted that they are still investigating the circumstances of the incident  including each passenger's actions and their staffs response.

Flair Airlines staff did ask the passenger in 2A to move to her assigned seat, but she refused multiple times. Unfortunately, this caused the situation to escalate, said a Flair Airlines spokesperson to Yahoo Canada.

The airline notes that their flight attendants did offer a solution and attempted to deescalate the situation.

The resolution taken for the flight was to seat the passenger in the window seat on the other side of the aircraft  the same row and seat, just on the other side of the plane, said the spokesperson for Flair.

Although the airline did not address any of the discrimination allegations, they did note that the safety and comfort of their passengers is the airlines highest priority.

We spoke directly to the passenger first to listen to her experience and concerns first hand, to offer our sincerest apologies for any distress, and to discuss ways the airline can remedy her concerns, said the spokesperson.

Outrage over 'Racism in Canada'

The Alle family moved to Canada about a year ago from Nigeria. They were shocked that matters would be handled like this in this day and age, and believe its important to talk about these matters publicly to ensure that they do not happen again.

This is 2023 and this is Canada. I did not expect that this would be happening, said Adeola. Its unfortunate. How Flair Airlines handled this was very unprofessional.

They believe this is a cause of racism as there is simply no other explanation as to why Alles family was not supported by the airline in this difficult situation.

The viral video also caused a lot of conversation amongst TikTok users in the comments, who are shining light on racism in Canada and accusing Flair Airlines of discrimination.

I live in Canada and the racism here is insane! nobody acknowledges it!! commented @winniedahbarbie.

Others are standing up for the woman, empathizing with her pain and embarrassment as seen in the video.

The way those flight attendants are talking to this woman is infuriating, commented @nessasstp.

You can literally feel the pain in her voice. So sorry that this happened to your family commented @stillnessjay.

"Their tactic is to keep asking to calm down to get you agitated to justify calling the police and get you thrown out of the plane," commented @libyancanadian.

Although the Alle family had reached out to Flair Airlines for an apology before, they said that they did not hear back from the airline until after the video went viral. A follow up video posted by the husband explains how Flair Airlines only contacted his wife back after they were reached out to by a media station.

The airline tried to mend the situation by offering a full refund to all the Alles.

A representative of the airline apologized to the aggrieved passenger on the phone. A full refund has been issued to the passengers' credit card for the cost of the flight and any extras purchased for both seats," said a Flair Airlines spokesperson.

For the Alle family, this isnt about money. They are asking for a formal and public apology and fair treatment of all passengers moving forward. They hope their children do not have to face a situation like this again.

Injustice happened, and they should have acted better. I want a formal apology, said Adeola.

Yahoo Canada has reached out to the Alle family to see how this event continues to unfold, and will update this article accordingly. For now, the Alle family is asking that the airline simply apologize and understand how to treat everybody equally and fairly.
To the racists who displayed an Embrace white pride banner on a Templeton overpass:

You may bristle at the term racists  and declare you do not deserve to be slapped with that label  but thats what the white pride movement is.

Did you not know that?

Did you think your white pride statement was the equivalent of Black pride or gay pride or trans pride?

It was not. White pride is a euphemism for white supremacy.

It is a dog whistle for hate and intolerance, a rallying cry for white people who feel put upon; who harp about being discriminated against every time they or their loved ones fail to get a job or a promotion or a college acceptance letter; who insist that the slogan Black lives matter is racist because all lives matter.

As American philosopher and author David Ingram so elegantly explains it, Black pride is a defensive strategy.

Affirmations of white pride  however thinly cloaked as affirmations of ethnic pride  serve to mask and perpetuate white privilege, he wrote.

So we know youre racist. But youre destructive as well, willing to divide your community in public for all to see.

What possessed the two of you to stand on the Vineyard Drive overpass in Templeton at approximately 11 a.m. on a sunny Saturday morning to display your Embrace white pride banner to passing motorists?

Images of the banner have been shared on social media, apparently flipped to a mirror image so that the words read properly. That would place the pair holding the banner on the north side of the overpass, displaying it to southbound traffic.

A post on Reddit shows two people holding an Embrace white pride banner on the Vineyard Drive overpass in Templeton on Saturday, April 29, 2023. The image in the post was apparently flipped so that the words would read properly. This version shows it reversed as it would have appeared to passersby. It would place the pair holding the banner on the north side of the overpass, displaying it to southbound traffic.

And by the way, where did that banner come from?

From the looks of it, you cut up a sheet and spray-painted the letters on with stencils, poorly, we might add. Nice way to spend an afternoon.

Perhaps it shouldnt be a surprise, as this particular spot has become an unofficial free-speech wall for the MAGA crowd, whose followers can be found there regularly flying a collection of Donald Trump, Infowars, Dont Tread on Me and Lets Go Brandon banners.

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Last year, when pro-democracy progressives tried to reclaim the spot with their own demonstration, a man was arrested after he pepper-sprayed the activists.

But this was a departure even from those examples of right-wing extremism  so much so that many passing motorists took to social media to register their disgust.

They called you fascists and racists and other terms that arent printable.

Is that the reaction you expected? Does it make you proud? Does it make your families proud?

Was this act the culmination of years and years of grievances, or did something happen recently that set you off?

Was it your intent to promote self-esteem among supposedly downtrodden white people?

If so, you failed.

Do you have any idea how this reflects on the community ... or do you even live here?

Another post on Reddit, showing two people holding what looks to be the same sign on an overpass in Porterville recently, suggests maybe not.

You stood there, in broad daylight, for what, 30 minutes? 45 maybe?

Whether youre homegrown white supremacists or drive-by bigots, this stunt was high-profile enough, it seems, to have reinforced the North Countys reputation for being a less-than-friendly place for people of color.

Or, as one Reddit poster put it, And people wonder why North County has a bad rap ...

The community is stepping up to answer that ugly act.

A rally is scheduled for Wednesday, May 10, from 2 to 6 p.m. on the same Vineyard Drive overpass where the banner was displayed.

Those who attend are invited to bring messages of love, inclusion and support. Excellent.

Bottom line, there is no excuse for this kind of hate, and no hiding behind the protections of free speech.

But maybe, if youre brash enough to stand on an overpass trumpeting your racism, you dare to back up your thinking on the record for us.

Because were still wondering, why?

So please, send us a letter or reach out on Facebook, if you have the guts.

But, honestly, we wont hold our breath on that.

Because out in the fresh air that day in Templeton, whoever you are, you hid your faces behind masks.

So in addition to being bigots, youre cowards as well.
The Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to GSK's respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, marking a significant advancement after scientists first tried to create a vaccine for the virus nearly 60 years ago.

The RSV vaccine, a single-dose injection intended for persons 60 and older, decreased the probability of symptomatic disease by 83% and severe illness by 94% in a late-stage clinical study.

The vaccine manufactured by GSK still has to be approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) before it can be made accessible to the general public, and an advisory group is due to meet in June to talk about its use, per NBC News.

RSV is a serious illness that may kill people of any age. In the US, it is estimated that 159,000 people 65 and over are hospitalized each year with RSV, causing 10,000 to 13,000 fatalities.

For older people, particularly those with underlying medical issues like heart or lung disease or compromised immune systems, RSV presents a significant risk of a severe infection.

Read Also: Psychologist Tells Jury E. Jean Carroll Has Elements of PTSD

According to Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, the FDA's clearance of the first RSV vaccine in the world is a noteworthy development in public health since it helps to avoid a condition that might be fatal and shows the agency's continued dedication to promoting the "development of safe and effective vaccines" in the United States, as per a CNN report.

How Safe Is The GSK-Made Vaccine?

GSK researchers presented a few examples of neurological diseases that followed immunization at an FDA advisory panel meeting in February, including a case of Guillain-Barre syndrome in a 78-year-old lady in Japan approximately nine days after getting the injection, according to USA Today.

Despite these reports, panelists still advocated for the vaccination because they believed it to be safe and effective for older adults.

According to the CDC, Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare neurological condition that causes muscle weakness and, in some instances, paralysis when the immune system attacks nerve cells.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke stated that around 70% of persons with GBS attain complete recovery.

Related Article: Experimental Alzheimer's Drug Delays Cognitive Deterioration by 35%

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Liam Daniel - Netflix

Although the Bridgerton universe is almost entirely fictional, two characters who are based on real people are set to take center stage in a spinoff origin tale.

The six-episode prequel Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is now streaming on Netflix. According to the streaming service, the series portrays the epic love story between the title character and her husband, King George III. Golda Rosheuvel reprises her role as Charlotte from the original series, with India Amarteifio and Corey Mylchreest playing the young queen and king, respectively.

Epic or not, the marriage of the real Charlotte and George was filled with high points that showcased their commitment to each other, as well as distressing times of illnessplenty for creator and writer Shonda Rhimes to draw from. Heres a look inside the lives of one of Britains most famous ruling couples.

Married at First Sight

Born on June 4, 1738, George William Frederick wasnt expected to survive his premature birth. The future King George III did, of course, and three weeks after his fathers death in 1751, his grandfather King George II put the young royal in line to inherit the British throne. The youngerand still singleGeorge succeeded his grandfather in 1760 at age 22, making his search for a wife urgent. He eyed Charlotte, then 17, over other candidates for a couple of key reasons.

Born Princess Sophia Charlotte in 1744 in Mecklenberg-Strelitz, which is now part of Germany, she had good royal credentials and was a Protestant. And, as simple as it sounds, she was sweet and compliant. According to the preservation charity Historic Royal Palaces, Georges advisor Lord Harcourt said Charlotte was no regular beauty, but she did have pretty eyes and white and even teeth. Not exactly the description youd expect to inspire a TV romance, but their partnership blossomed.

Their actual courtship lasted all of six hours, as they were married the same day Charlotte reached London: September 8, 1961. The roughly three-week trip at sea was arduous, with the travel party facing multiple storms along the way. Charlotte was so thin from seasickness by the time she arrived that her wedding dress nearly fell off.

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Even with Georges eventful reignthe American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary wars in the 1790s, and the incorporation of Ireland in 1801 all happened on his watchthe first 25 years of their marriage were generally happy.

A Palace Full of Children and a Musical Bond

Getty Images

George and Charlotte had 15 children, starting with son George Augustus Frederick in 1762 who ascended the throne as King George IV at age 57. Their other children, born between 1763 and 1783, included eight sonsFrederick, William, Edward, Ernest, Augustus Frederick, Adolphus, Octavius, and Alfredas well as six daughters: Charlotte, Augusta Sophia, Elizabeth, Mary, Sophia, and Amelia.

Alfred died shortly before his second birthday, and Octavius died following a smallpox inoculation at age 4. The rest of their children lived to adulthood, but Amelia suffered from tuberculosis and died at age 27.

Both George and Charlotte had an appreciation for the arts. According to Historic Royal Places, Charlotte was trained by the son of Johann Sebastian Bach and became proficient with the harpsichord. She even performed duets with her husband, a flutist. In 1764, she invited a talented 8-year-old named Wolfgang Mozart to live and train in England for a year.

Her own childrens education was important as well, and Charlotte appointed and supervised their tutors and governesses. She was also an amateur botanist and drew the plants and flowers that grew around Kew Palace, the familys summer home just upriver from London. Her nearby cottage was home to pheasants, exotic birds, and even some of the first kangaroos in Britain.

George, meanwhile, strived to return morality to the royal family. According to the PBS series American Experience, he was the first king of the Hanover dynasty that didnt have an extramarital affair, and the English people admired his fidelity. He built model farms at Windsor Castle and collected model ships and coins.

Georges Illness and Charlottes Response

Getty Images

Georges 60-year reign remains the longest of any male English monarch, but the king suffered through much of it with an illness that has confounded researchers for centuries.

According to the Georgian Papers Programme, notes from a ministerial meeting on April 5, 1765, show George first proposed a regency bill that would put someone in charge if he was unable to execute his duties. This was after the king, whose physicians kept detailed records, showed symptoms of an upper respiratory illness and depression.

George experienced severe stomach pain in 1788 that persisted for months and eventually led to weakness in his limbs and delirium. When George became uncharacteristically sexually aggressive, the decision was made to temporarily isolate him at Kew Palace. These symptoms recurred every few years until 1810, when the king finally became incapacitated and his eldest sonGeorge, the Prince of Walesbecame prince regent. Out of the public eye, the king conversed with dead people, including his daughter Amelia and what he believed were angels. These behaviors helped seal Georges future reputation as the mad king.

The kings plight placed a lot of stress in Charlotte, who at times tried to mask the severity of her husbands condition to protect the monarchy. She downplayed his mental lapses in a December 1788 letter to her son the Prince of Wales, whose political beliefs were known to vastly differ from the kings. Soon after, the Regency Bill of 1789 gave Charlotte guardianship of the kings court, her minor children, and the king himself in the event he became permanently incapacitated.

George and Charlottes Final Years

During Georges later years, the queen felt threatened by his more aggressive state and increasingly kept her distance. She also likely harbored frustration with her husbands doctors, who used ineffective techniques like leeching, cold baths, and powders laced with arsenic, as well as torturous items like chains and straitjackets to treat him.

According to Historic Royal Palaces, Charlottes own health had deteriorated by 1818. She suffered from dropsy, which causes swelling and organ failure, and was usually confined to her bedroom at Kew. The queen died on November 17 of that year, surrounded by four of her children. During the funeral procession to Windsor Castle, the cobblestone paths were lined with straw so that the ill George couldnt hear anything. By the time of his own death in 1820, George was blind and deaf.

It remains to be seen if A Bridgerton Story will focus much, if at all, on the sharp decline in the royal couples physical health and relationship. In any case, these troubling final decades werent indicative of the amicable partnership the pair led for years.

Watch Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story on Netflix

All six episodes of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story are now streaming exclusively on Netflix. Golda Rosheuvel and India Amarteifio plays Charlotte, at different ages, and Corey Mylchreest portrays a young King George III.
A Round Rock cheerleader who was shot twice in an H-E-B parking lot in Elgin last month after one of her teammates accidentally tried to get into the wrong car didn't miss out on prom this year.

Payton Washington, an 18-year-old cheerleader at Stony Point High School, posed in a sparkly white dress with friends on Saturday after briefly getting out of her wheelchair.

Her mother, Angela Washington, said Payton was recuperating at home.

In a Facebook post on April 26 about her daughter's injuries, Angela Washington wrote that "to say (Payton) is strong is a understatement."

More: Two cheerleaders shot after trying to get into the wrong car at H-E-B; suspect in custody

Payton Washington (in white, with her friends Shanelle, Tyler and Kaitlin), a Stony Point cheerleader who was in intensive care after being shot twice on April 18, made it to her prom on Saturday. She was using a wheelchair for mobility, and moving slowly, but could still smile for photos.

"We almost lost her this last week, but in true Payton form, she beat the odds," Angela Washington wrote. "Her injuries included a shattered spleen that had to be removed, damage to the diaphragm, damage to the pancreas which required part of it to be removed, and two holes in her stomach. These caused by the gun shot in her back. She also had a gun shot in her butt."

Payton's father declined to comment on his daughter's recovery.

The incident happened on April 18 when Payton Washington and three other cheerleaders returned from practice with Woodlands Elite Cheer Co. to a carpool parking lot at the H-E-B grocery store at 1080 U.S. 290 East in Elgin, police have said.

One of the cheerleaders, Heather Roth, told ABC News that she got out of her friend's car and opened the door to a car she thought was her own, but the shooting suspect, later identified as Pedro Tello Rodriguez, was in the passenger seat.

Pedro Tello Rodriguez

Roth said that when she went back to her friend's car, Rodriguez approached it, according to ABC News. Roth said she rolled down the window to apologize, and the shooter opened fire on the teens. Roth was grazed by a bullet, she told ABC News. Roth has not returned requests for comment.

Rodriguez was arrested and charged with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

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In her most recent post on Instagram, Payton thanked people for supporting her during her recovery.

"Thank you for everyone who has prayed for me," Payton said. "It's been a really hard two weeks but I'm working to get better daily. Take some time to tell everyone you love them. Things in life can change so quickly and you don't want to lose an opportunity to let them know how you feel."

A Gofundme organized by Woodlands Elite Generals to pay for Payton Washington's medical expenses has raised $142,215 of the $250,000 being sought. Woodlands Elite Generals, which is part of Woodlands Elite Cheer Co., has not responded to requests for comment.

Washington has won numerous cheerleading awards, according to her Instagram post. She is a four-time world's silver medalist, a 10-time National Cheerleading Association champion and a four-time Majors champion.

The senior varsity cheerleader has previously signed to attend Baylor University and will be a member of their acrobatics and tumbling team, according to her Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Round Rock cheerleader Payton Washington recovering, makes it to prom
SOUTH BRUNSWICK  Two residents were displaced and their cat died in a fire Monday at their mobile home on Maine Street.

Firefighters responded around 6:07 p.m. to a mobile home in Monmouth Mobile Home Park on Maine Street on reports of a fire. Upon arrival, firefighters reported heavy smoke and fire at the rear of the residence's back bedroom, said Kendall Park Fire Chief Chris Perez.

The occupants self-evacuated as firefighters were arriving. Other homes were also quickly evacuated, Perez said.

No residents or firefighters were injured but one pet cat was killed in the fire, Perez said.

The Kendall Park, Monmouth Junction and Kingston Fire Departments battled the blaze, Perez said.

Firefighters battle a blaze at the Monmouth Mobile Home Park off Route 1 on Monday.

It took 35 firefighters approximately 30 minutes to bring the blaze under control, Perez said. Firefighters did an excellent job of preventing the fire from spreading to any of the nearby homes.

The home was destroyed in the fire and the two residents were provided shelter by the American Red Cross.

South Brunswick Deputy Fire Marshal Murnieks determined the fire was not suspicious.

Email: alewis@gannett.com

Alexander Lewis is an award-winning reporter and photojournalist whose work spans many topics. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Red Cross assisting residents displaced in South Brunswick NJ fire
King Charles III is set to become the 40th reigning monarch crowned in Westminster Abbey since 1066 (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

With just days to go before the coronation of King Charles III, The Independent brought together a panel of experts to discuss what his reign means for the UK and the future of its monarchy.

News editor Natalie Crockett hosted the virtual event and was joined by The Independents associate editor Sean OGrady, historian and senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University Jonathan Spangler, and US royal commentator and author Kristen Meinzer.

The ceremony  itself a mingling of solemn religious rites and royal pomp  will see Charles become the 40th reigning monarch crowned in Westminster Abbey since 1066. And the day of spectacle, pageantry, and formality will feature customs that go back more than 1,000 years.

Our panel looked at how the day might unfold and, from that point on, how the monarchy will navigate its future, both in the UK and wider Commonwealth.

Mr OGrady first laid out his vision for the reign of King Charles.

He said: I think, without being indelicate, it will be a short-ish reign. Certainly compared to his mother and some of his antecedents, even though hes got rather good genes for that sort of thing. And I think what he will try to do  or what he must try to do  is make sure he carries the consent of the people for the institution and the job that they do.

There has been a long-term decline in the trend of popularity for the monarchy since the Queens coronation in 1953. It reached a real low point after the death of Diana in 1997 and recovered after that. The Queens long reign helped it recover and the jubilees also helped.

Mr OGrady then went onto explain how he believes the Royal Family might stay relevant to modern society.

It still needs improvement, he said. I think he and his family need to sort out what they do, how theyre financed, what they spend. They have to make themselves useful, as Prince Philip used to say.

I think someone once asked him [Philip] if he thought the monarchy would survive, and he replied: Well, as long as people find us useful. They have to find a role in this changing society. They have to find of way of trying to reflect the country as is changing and will continue to change.

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In his closing remarks on the matter, Mr OGrady also suggested Charles really has to make an effort to retain the Commonwealth role, and to also live up to the promise he made several years ago to not voice opinions for fear of dragging the institution into politics.

Attention then turned to the matter of Harry and Meghan, whose soured relationship with the Royal Family has been the subject of front pages in light of the Sussexes now notorious interview with Oprah, the release of their excoriating Netflix docuseries, and the publication of Harrys much-discussed autobiography, Spare.

Ms Meinzer said: Charles has never been the most popular member of the royal family in the US and abroad  and part of the reason is there is still such great fondness for Diana. A lot of people still see Charles as the one that brought a third person into that marriage and broke Dianas spirit.

But theres also the sadness of Harry and Meghan. Why didnt he do more to protect Harry and Meghan in the face of racism?

The never complain never explain motto may work for skirt lengths or whatever tiara someone wore to an event. But should we really be silent in the face of racism? In the US, we dont really think we should be; we dont see that as political. We just see that as the right thing to do.

To see the event in full watch the recording below

On the Duchess of Sussex choosing not to attend the coronation, Ms Meizner said: I think that was a brilliant decision on the part of Harry and Meghan. Theyre splitting the difference. Modern American families do this all the time. We have to split things up sometimes. Sometimes theres a private event and then theres a work event. This is kind of a combination of a work event and a family event.

The main benefit of going to the coronation for Meghan, I think, would be just showing allegiance  the optics of it. But it is also, I imagine, hard to show loyalty to a family who hasnt always shown loyalty to you.

Several questions during the panel event were centered on the matter of how the royal family might evolve to keep up with the rate of change in British and Commonwealth society.

Mr Spangler said: For me, in any dynastic system  whether its today or 500 years ago  is that it is the chief role of any monarch to pass on what you have inherited to the next generation. Im sure Charles is aware of that, so the key thing for me is to make sure that a bigger role is given to William.

Since William is more popular than his father, Mr Spangler explains, Charles must tell him: You step up and you heal this rift with your brother, and you deal with the post-colonial issue, and you talk with people in the Commonwealth and see what its like to be one of the people in the realms. I [Charles] will stand here and represent the past, and you represent the future.

Mr Spangler then looked to how the crowning of a new British monarch could change in the future, suggesting alternative models used by other European monarchies.

They dont have coronations, none of them, he explained. They have simple swearing-in ceremonies. Maybe there will be a throne, maybe there will be a crown. In some cases, not even that. Some people might say: Well, if they can do it on a shoestring budget, why cant the British royal family do the same?

King Charles III will be coronated on Saturday 6 May, 2023, alongside his wife, Camilla, Queen Consort.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Relatives of Americans detained abroad gathered outside the White House on Wednesday to urge the Biden administration to do more to bring their loved ones home. They said they wanted more direct access to President Joe Biden to be able to better make their case.

The meeting unfolded against the backdrop of high-profile prisoner releases over the last year, including of WNBA star Brittney Griner in Russia, civilian contractor Mark Frerichs in Afghanistan, a group of oil executives in Venezuela and Paul Rusesabagina of Hotel Rwanda fame.

But dozens of Americans still remain held overseas by foreign governments, and the recent arrest in Russia of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has drawn fresh attention to their plight and underscored how hostage diplomacy remains a persistent, national security priority for the U.S.

"Seeing all these people come home in the last year, I think it shows us that it's possible. There just needs to be the will  from the president, from the highest levels of our government  to bring our families home," Harrison Li, whose father, Kai Li, has been imprisoned in China since 2016, said in an interview before the event.

But he noted that for all the countries where the U.S. has had recent success, China is not one of them.

Also attending Wednesday's event were some of the Americans who'd been freed over the last year, including Trevor Reed, a Marine veteran released by Russia in an April 2022 prisoner swap for a Russian pilot convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy case. In the weeks before Reed's release, his parents scored a meeting with Biden and also demonstrated outside the White House.

When he called us, said Reed's father, Joey, it meant everything to us. I mean, it gave us a complete new perspective and an ability to hang in there until he brought our son home.

Months after Reed was released, the U.S brought home Griner in a separate one-for-one swap involving convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner was not present Wednesday, instead participating in a media day for her WNBA team. She has emerged as an ambassador of sorts for the hostage and detainee community, using her star status to raise attention for others left behind, including Gershkovich and another American in Russia, corporate security executive Paul Whelan.

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Hannah Sharghi, whose father, Emad, has been held in Iran since 2018 on espionage charges her family says are false, pleaded with Biden to bring her father home so that he is able to be my dad again, instead of a diplomatic pawn in a game that is not his to play."

We have asked for a meeting with the president for so long now that I frankly don't know how else to ask or what else to say, she said, adding of her father, He's an innocent American. He deserves to be here, standing behind me, fighting the fight for all the families."

Roger Carstens, the U.S. government's special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, said in an interview on CNN this week that efforts to bring home detained Americans continue regardless of whether a family speaks to Biden. He said that of the 27 people the U.S. has brought home in the last two years, only two have families that have met with the president.

The real metric, the real measure of success, is whether someone comes home, steps on a tarmac on U.S. soil and falls into the loving arms of their family, he said, adding, Whether the president speaks to a family or not doesn't stop the machinery of trying to get the job actually done."

___

Find Tucker on Twitter at @etuckerPA
After Andrew Lester  the 84-year-old white man charged with shooting a Black teenager twice on his Northland Kansas City doorstep  surrendered to the Clay County jail last month, he paid $20,000 and was released within the same afternoon.

Lester will not need to wait in custody before his June court date, despite facing two felony charges for the shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl in April, because he had the means to post bail. On Monday, his attorney also filed to have his case sealed until trial to limit publicity.

Yarl is recovering at home, and his family says he is looking to move forward with his life after he was shot in the head after mistakenly ringing the doorbell of the wrong house when trying to pick up his younger brothers.

Local advocates are pointing to Lesters release  while the vast majority of people in jail in Clay County are there awaiting trial  as evidence of what they describe as needed reforms to Missouris cash-bail system. If someone cant afford bail, even if their charge was less severe than Lesters, they often have to stay in jail until trial.

Its a very nuanced case of Andrew Lester being able to just pay his way out of harm, said Amaia Cook, co-founder of local activist group Decarcerate KC. Cash bail is not just something that speaks to someones financial status, but its a system that upholds racism and upholds white supremacy.

Janet Smith, a spokesperson for Kansas City Community Bail Fund, called cash bail the criminalization of being poor.

Longtime critics of cash bail in Missouri and around the country say the practice inflates jail populations and results in two different justice systems divided along class lines.

Heres a breakdown of how the bail system works in Missouri, and how the shooting of Ralph Yarl connects to things some critics want to see change.

Ralph Yarl

First things first, what exactly is bail?

Until trial, Lester (and every other defendant in Missouri and around the country) is still legally considered innocent.

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So the bond is not meant to be a punishment, said Kansas City defense attorney Tracy Spradlin. Its there to ensure that he shows up to court.

Spradlin said bail is supposed to be a way to maintain a defendants right to freedom before conviction, while also ensuring that they appear for their proceedings.

Lester paid 10% of his $200,000 bail as a promise to the county that he will attend his hearing next month. In addition to the cash, his release came with the conditions that he needs to check in with a supervisor from the court once a month, cannot have any weapons at his residence, cannot contact Yarls family and cannot leave the state before trial.

In Missouri, a defendant must go to court within 48 hours of being arrested so a judge can decide what kind of bail  either money or other conditions  the defendant needs to meet in order to be released before trial. This rule was put in place by Missouris 2019 Money Bail Reform Act, which changed how the state decides when and if someone should be detained.

Missouris Supreme Court sets the rules around bail and gives judges a few options:

Monetary bonds: A judge can set an amount of money that the defendant must pay to be released from jail before trial. If the defendant shows up to all the court proceedings, the bail amount is returned when the case is closed.

Non-monetary bonds: Instead of money, a judge can require a defendants signature or hold the defendants drivers license until trial. Judges can also place restrictions on travel, order house arrest or require regular check-ins with an officer of the court until trial.

No bond: In particularly serious cases, a judge can decide that no combination of money or non-monetary conditions will secure the safety of the community, and can order the defendant to stay in jail until trial.

If the court does set a money bond for a defendant, but that person doesnt have the means to pay it, the defendant will remain in jail until trial. The only other option is to request a bail review, which could lower the bail amount, according to Spradlin.

How is bail decided in Missouri?

The most recent guidelines for bail encourage Missouri judges to use the least restrictive option to make sure the defendant shows up to court and to guarantee the safety of the community or other people involved in the case.

Its very subjective, and its based on the circumstances of the case, and the persons criminal history, the severity of the charge, Spradlin said.

According to the states rules, this means a judge is supposed to consider the defendants ability to pay when deciding on a monetary bond.

The courts are also supposed to consider the nature of the violations that the defendant is accused of, the defendants mental health and other personal circumstances, such as whether the person has failed to appear in court in the past and other past convictions.

How is that shaking out?

In effect, judges have a lot of discretion when it comes to who gets bail set and who gets other pretrial options.

The Star has previously reported that Kansas City area courts have continued to rely heavily on money bail, even with the 2019 rules in place.

They had little to no impact on equalizing cash bail in Missouri, Smith said.

Judges across the state are not using it to let people out of jail, said Dylan Pyles, the other co-founder of Decarcerate KC. Theyre basically maintaining the status quo that was already kind of happening.

Community members gathered to attend a rally for Ralph Yarl in front of the Charles E. Whittaker U.S. Courthouse on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, in Kansas City.

How common is it to post bail?

While Lesters bail amount was standard for the charges hes facing, his experience of being able to afford paying a fee that steep to be released is not the norm.

In the same county as Lester, a man died in jail earlier this year after being arrested for falling behind on his $50 child support payments. He couldnt afford the $10,000 bail.

As of this week, about 94% of the people in custody at the Clay County Detention Center, where Lester was released from, were awaiting trial and have not yet been convicted of a crime or sentenced. Some people have been there for months or even years before trial, according to county data.

Comparable real-time numbers werent immediately available for Jackson County, but the county has reported that typically 83% of those jailed at the Jackson County Detention Center are still awaiting trial.

Across the country, more than two-thirds of the jail population is made up of those who cant afford bail, according to research from the University of Missouri School of Law.

What are advocates biggest concerns with cash bail?

According to a report published by the University of Missouri School of Law in 2020, the majority of people who are impacted by the states bail system are poor.

Many low-income and poor defendants also dont have legal counsel at the time that bail is set because of Missouris overwhelmed, strained public defense system, according to the report, which lowers their chances of being released or having their bail amount reduced.

Cageing poor people increases unemployment, puts defendants health at risk, and ultimately uses the taxpayer money to do so, Smith said.

The bail system is also 3.6% more likely to assign high bail amounts to Black defendants in comparison to white ones, according to the Center for American Process.

Smith said that Black and Hispanic applicants seeking bail assistance from the Kansas City Community Bail fund routinely report higher bail amounts compared to white applicants.

The cash bail situation with Andrew Lester is part of the proof that this justice system is actually set up specifically to disenfranchise and harm poor communities, Black communities, and keep them in a cycle of oppressive systems, Pyles said.

Higher bail amounts can lead to longer time spent in jail and a higher chance of being sentenced to incarceration, since people in jail experience more challenges when trying to participate in their legal defense, according to the Pretrial Justice Institute, a national advocacy group committed to pretrial system reform.

When too many people are jailed pretrial, it undercuts that presumption of innocence, Phil Telfeyan, executive director of Equal Justice Under Law, told The Star in 2020. It takes away what most Americans feel is fundamental to our justice system.

What would bail reform look like?

Some bail reformists like Decarcerate KC would like courts to get rid of the bail bond system completely.

We imagine a world where cash bail as a practice is actually eliminated entirely, Pyles said.

Others would like states to rethink when and how they set bail for defendants to be based more on risk than on financial status.

We need clear lines that establish which charges deem a defendant a true threat to public safety and which charges do not, Smith said.

The decision to hold someone based on their ability to pay for their freedom cannot be a guess by a human being with bias or an algorithm that was created by a human being with bias.

In 2022, Illinois became the first state to eliminate cash bonds, so only people who are deemed a flight risk or a threat to the community can be detained, 19th News reported. The states Safe-T Act went into effect in January 2023, so its still a bit soon to see how well the new system will work.

In places that have eased their cash bail systems by relying less on cash bail, there have been some changes. The Center for American Progress reported that after reforms were passed in places like New Mexico and Washington state, more people were able to complete their pretrial process without getting a new arrest.

The think tank also found that by eliminating cash bail for lower level, non-violent crimes, it reduces the ability for judges to perpetuate racial and economic disparities among defendants.

Nationwide, bail reform is still heavily criticized by many Republicans that feel like the bail system should be stricter. Some have claimed that the system helps with public safety and prevents people from committing new crimes.
Michelle Budge, Deseret News

This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night.

One thing I struggle with as I write about international religious freedom issues is that the countries responsible for the most egregious and systemic attacks on faith communities feel very far away.

In many cases, they feel that way because they really are on the other side of the globe from the United States. But other times, they feel distant because of political or religious differences, or their relative unknown status. You dont hear much about Eritrea or Turkmenistan in the news, after all, unless youre reading about faith-related violence.

The perceived or actual distance between the U.S. and the countries that appear in reports on international religious freedom becomes a problem when it leads people to believe that religious discrimination only happens in distant, nearly forgotten nations.

In reality, religious freedom violations are present in some form basically everywhere, and theyve actually become more common in familiar places like Europe in recent years.

Faith-based discrimination has become a big enough issue in Europe that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom chose to highlight it in its latest annual report and the accompanying press conference, which took place Monday.

Commissioners emphasized a troubling rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia, noting that a handful of European countries are growing increasingly uncomfortable with religious expression.

In August, a body of the ruling political party in Denmark proposed a ban on hijabs for elementary school girls. In October, the Swiss government introduced a draft law to ban face coverings. ... The European Court of Justice ruled in October that prohibitions on religious symbols in the workplace are not discriminatory if those restrictions are applied equally, the new report said.

Physical attacks on members of minority faiths are also becoming more common in Europe, said commission member Imam Mohamed Magid during Mondays press conference.

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Weve seen social intolerance thats causing some religious communities to leave some European countries, he said.

Although the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom does not report on faith-based violence in the U.S., those of you who follow my work will know that similar trends are playing out in this country. In recent months, American houses of worship have been vandalized  or worse  by attackers and individual people of faith have faced discrimination when going about their daily lives.

The new international religious freedom report and recent headlines in the U.S. make it clear that religious violence is not a distant problem. Its something that all of us must watch for and something that all of us should try to root out.

Fresh off the press

An Arizona lawmaker was caught on camera hiding Bibles. Heres what happened next

Women just gained the right to vote at an upcoming meeting of Catholic leaders

Term of the week: Yom HaShoah

Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, is an annual holiday honoring those who lost their lives during the Holocaust. It is celebrated around the world by Jewish communities, government leaders and others.

Many commemorate Yom HaShoah by lighting yellow candles to keep alive the memories of the victims. Most synagogues and Jewish communities gather together to mark the day through worship, music and the stories from survivors, according to ReformJudaism.org.

The date of Yom HaShoah changes each year because its set based on the Hebrew calendar. This year, Holocaust Remembrance Day stretched from the evening of April 17 to the evening of April 18. Next year, it will begin on May 5.

What Im reading ...

As the trial for the alleged attacker in a 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting gets underway, Jews who were targeted that day remain focused on honoring the victims through their religious habits and social activism, The Associated Press reports.

The Washington Post recently obtained previously unreleased photos showing scenes from the White House the day Osama bin Laden was killed. The resulting photo essay includes a picture of now-President Joe Biden showing off the rosary beads he held during the raid.

Odds and ends

Can you guess Americas favorite bottled water brand? I had fun digging into research about the factors that drive peoples water preferences from Morning Consult.

Stumbling on this video of South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol singing the first verse of American Pie from memory was the high point of my week.
A potential Republican front-runner in North Carolinas attorney generals race ended his campaign days before its launch after learning from Rep. Dan Bishop the congressman wants the seat.

I was planning on rolling out a campaign last week, former U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray told McClatchy. Then I got word that Dan Bishop was more than flirting with it.

Murray, who serves as district attorney for Henderson, Polk and Transylvania counties, said he was recruited for the job by the Republican Attorneys General Association. He previously served as Mecklenburg County District Attorney from 2011 to 2017.

Tom Murry, a Republican and former state representative, already announced his candidacy. North Carolinas political insiders speculate other potential Republican candidates include House Speaker Tim Moore, Moores General Counsel Sam Hayes, Sen. Danny Britt, Forsyth County District Attorney Jim ONeill and North Carolina Chamber of Commerce Legal Institute President Ray Starling.

RAGA is the one who initially contacted me and sparked my interest and wanted me to to run, Murray said, but added that he wouldnt get into those conversations.

Then he heard from Bishop, Axios Raleigh first reported.

I had a direct conversation with him last weekend, Murray said. That culminated in a text to me two days later that convinced me that he was committed to running.

Murray said he decided against getting involved in a bruising primary.

Bishop

Rep. Dan Bishop speaks to reporters outside the House chamber in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023.

Bishop, 58, is a Charlotte Republican whos served in Congress since a special election in 2019. He previously served in the North Carolina House and Senate and on the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners.

He and a spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. Political consultant Jim Blaine, who would manage Bishops campaign, said he would not comment.

Blaines firm, however, released a poll in December showing Bishop with a 7 point lead over ONeill if the two ran against one another for the job.

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Bishop is an outspoken member of the Freedom Caucus, a group of some of the most conservative members of Congress, and was instrumental in both blocking, and eventually helping, the election of Rep. Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker.

Bishop says that federal law enforcement agencies have been weaponized against Republicans and wanted to form a committee to investigate those organizations. Bishop traded his vote for McCarthy for the creation of that committee.

He also authored House Bill 2, an infamous piece of legislation that banned transgender individuals from using public bathrooms of the gender they identify with. Instead, it forced them to use the the bathroom of the gender on their birth certificate. It came in response to a Charlotte anti-discrimination ordinance. The bill cost North Carolina more than $400 million as both companies and entertainers refused to come to the state following the bills passage.

Money

The influential Republican group Club for Growth already announced its support of Bishop.

We think Dan Bishop would be a great Attorney General, and we hope he decides to run, said David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth PAC, in a written statement to McClatchy.

Club for Growth PAC spent around $19.2 million in the 2020 election helping candidates it felt supported limited government and economic freedom. Its been involved in North Carolina elections since 2012, when it supported Republican Scott Keadle for Congress.

Now-Sen. Ted Budd gave the club its first win in North Carolina elections in 2016 when he ran for the U.S. House. Their support, along with the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, also lifted Budd from a third place candidate to being elected as a U.S. Senator in 2022.

A Budd spokesman said the senator also could endorse Bishop.

There are a lot of strong candidates looking at the AG race, but, should Bishop run for AG, it would not surprise me if Ted endorses him, said Jonathan Felts, Budds campaign adviser.

2024

North Carolinas Republican primary is slated for March 5, 2024. Filing begins Dec. 4.

The shapes of the congressional districts for 2024 still remain unclear. On Friday, the N.C. Supreme Court gave state lawmakers permission to redraw the congressional districts with little, if any oversight, from the court and was told that partisan gerrymandering was not illegal.

Theres widespread speculation Republican lawmakers intend to take North Carolinas seven Republican and seven Democratic districts and redraw them into a 10 or more Republican majority. Lawmakers currently intend to redraw the map in the early fall leaving all candidates in limbo about where to run until that happens.
State Rep. Tarah Probst is introducing legislation that would ban the sale of consumer-grade fireworks in Pennsylvania.

The usage of fireworks has become a real nuisance in some areas, causing stress to pets and livestock, depriving people of sleep, and negatively impacting veterans and others with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), said Probst, a Democrat representing parts of Monroe and Pike counties, in a sponsorship memo.

Additionally, there have been daily complaints in the summertime of people not following the law and shooting off fireworks in small towns, boroughs, and residential areas, potentially causing collateral damage throughout our communities, Probst said in the memo.

Before she was elected to the legislature, she was mayor of Stroudsburg for seven years. But the problem goes beyond what she has observed in her borough or the 189th District, with amateur users across the commonwealth setting fireworks off too close to buildings, she said.

One malfunction or one spark could be catastrophic to that municipality, Probst told the Pocono Record.

This comes from local fire departments, police. Its extremely dangerous, she said.

State Rep. Tarah Probst (D-189) plans to introduce legislation that would ban the sale of consumer-grade fireworks in Pennsylvania.

From 2021: Improperly discarded fireworks set off West York fire that killed 8-year-old boy

More: 'Chasing ghosts': Honesdale Council talks fireworks enforcement as complaints continue

At a council meeting last month, Honesdale officials in Wayne County discussed the difficulty of enforcing fireworks laws. Council President Michael Augello said the police chief has likened it to "chasing ghosts, as officers must catch the person setting off fireworks.

Class C or consumer-grade fireworks include firecrackers, Roman candles, bottle rockets, and similar fireworks that contain a maximum of 50 milligrams of explosive material the Pennsylvania State Police say in a fireworks FAQ.

Consumer fireworks do not include ground and hand-held sparkling devices, novelties and toy caps, the police add.

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Display fireworks, which are used by professionals with permits, would be unaffected by Probsts legislation. The legislation also would not prevent residents from buying fireworks out of state and bringing them back to Pennsylvania to use, provided they have enough space to do so safely.

Fireworks sales to Pennsylvanians were legalized in 2017. New limits were imposed in 2022, allowing municipalities to limit fireworks usage from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., with the exception of July 2-4 and New Years Eve.

Fireworks cannot be used within 150 feet of buildings or vehicles, and the 2022 law gave municipalities permission to ban fireworks if that condition cant be met.

The law also requires people to give written notice 72 hours before setting fireworks off near livestock.

Peter Becker contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: Fate of fireworks in Pennsylvania could rest on proposed legislation
EXCLUSIVE: Two Republican members of Congress are demanding answers from top financial regulators concerning the possibility Americans' financial data may have been, or is at risk of being, exposed to members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through two widely-used stock trading platforms operating within the U.S.

In a Wednesday letter to the heads of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., called on the two agencies to ensure Chinese-linked companies Webull Financial, LLC and Moomoo, Inc. are complying with American laws and regulations when it comes to protecting American consumers' data.

"Webull and Moomoo collect highly sensitive personal information from millions of their U.S. customers, including personally identifiable information such as Social Security numbers, mailing addresses, and financial account data," Tuberville and Banks wrote in the letter.

SENATE DEM BLOCKS BILL TO SAVE WOMENS SPORTS' AFTER GOP'S TUBERVILLE CALLS FOR QUICK PASSAGE

"We write today to once again call attention to the potential danger Webull and MooMoo pose to Americans financial and information security, as well as request answers from the SEC on its work to mitigate that threat," they added.

According to Tuberville and Banks, Webull and Moomoo are owned by Chinese companies with close ties to Xiaomi and Tencent, two Chinese telecom giants that have reportedly aided the CCP "in its efforts to surveil and suppress its citizens."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

The letter also said that Webull employs eight active FINRA-registered representatives who are located in China but are required to comply with all SEC and FINRA rules. However, their presence in China, the letter notes, raises concerns over the ability of those agencies to ensure those rules are being complied with.

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SEN. TUBERVILLE VOWS TO CONTINUE HOLD ON BIDEN DEFENSE NOMINEES OVER ILLEGAL PENTAGON ABORTION FUNDING

Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, left, and Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, right.

It added that allowing Chinese-owned broker-dealers with representatives in China to operate on "a level playing field" with U.S. brokerage firms appeared to be inconsistent with Congress' bipartisan efforts to obtain access to audit documents of U.S.-listed Chinese companies, something it said Chinese law has prevented.

Tuberville and Banks gave a deadline of May 31 for the SEC and FINRA to respond to the letter. They also sent the letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

In a statement, Tuberville emphasized that communist China is "the biggest threat facing our country today."

A man walks past a photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing on March 3, 2023, ahead of the opening of the annual session of the National Peoples Congress on March 5.

"China doesnt need a spy balloon to steal our information  theyve got spies in the smartphones of millions of Americans, harvesting valuable information every second. The United States must protect the personal data of our citizens from falling into the hands of our greatest adversary," he said.

Banks echoed that sentiment in his own statement, referring to China as "our greatest adversary."

"The only way to protect Americans financial data from the Chinese Communist Party is to make sure Chinese firms with U.S. customers play by the rules. The Biden administration is falling short. Holding our greatest adversary to a looser standard is bad for business, bad for our country, and puts Americans investments at risk," he said.
To the dismay of campaigners and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Uganda's parliament has enacted one of the world's strictest anti-LGBT+ legislation.

The death sentence is still part of the anti-gay bill, which was initially passed by parliament in March. The phrase "aggravated homosexuality" is used by the government to characterize behaviors like engaging in homosexual intercourse when infected with human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV).

Activists fear that the law's 20-year jail term for advocating homosexuality might outlaw any rights activities, disregarding the removal of a section criminalizing anybody identifying as LGBT+.

Under the New Law

According to the Independent, one might face up to seven years in prison for "knowingly [allowing] their premises to be used for acts of homosexuality" under the new rule.

Colonial-era legislation that outlawed sexual practices "against the order of nature" made homosexuality illegal in East Africa. Life in jail without parole is the penalty for such a crime.

In a report by Reuters, members of the LGBT+ community said that a surge of arrests, evictions, and mob violence has occurred after the bill's initial approval in March.

Supporters of the proposed legislation argue that it is necessary to pass sweeping legislation to combat what they claim to be LGBT+ Ugandans' attempts, although unproven, to attract minors into homosexuality.

The modified law was approved by 371 lawmakers on Tuesday, May 2, and now awaits President Yoweri Museveni's signature. Museveni has 30 days to either sign the measure into law, send it back to parliament for amendments, or reject it.

Museveni has indicated his intent to approve the bill in the past, but only if certain amendments were made, such as the inclusion of measures to "rehabilitate" LGBT+ individuals.

See Also: Montana House to Vote on Disciplinary Action Against Transgender Lawmaker for Protest

'Useless' Amendment

Simply identifying as LGBT+ is no longer a crime, thanks to a change in the law. In addition, the legislation changed the requirements for people to report homosexual activities such that they are now only necessary when a minor is involved. Failure to comply with this order carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of 10 million Ugandan shillings (about $2,700).

Adrian Jjuuko, an advocate for human rights, however, criticized the amendment because it was "useless" in its attempt to clarify how LGBT+ people should be identified.

"In practice, the police don't care about whether you've committed the act or not. They will arrest you for acting gay, walking gay," he pointed out.

The US has threatened economic retaliation if the legislation is implemented. A panel of UN experts has called it "an egregious violation of human rights," according to ABC News.

After Museveni signed yet another anti-LGBT+ law in 2014, western governments responded by cutting aid, restricting visas, and reducing security cooperation. Within months, a domestic court had struck down the statute on procedural grounds.

See Also: Kansas Ban on Trans Athletes From Women's Sports a Major Blow to LGBTQ Rights Movement

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Joe Biden isnt ready to give up on Florida.

As part of a broad advertising effort that includes electoral battlegrounds like Michigan and Georgia, the presidents reelection campaign will begin running a new ad this week in the state highlighting Bidens economic record.

Its the second ad the campaign has released since the president announced he would run for reelection last week.

The ad, slated to run on cable in the Orlando and Tampa media markets and on online platforms across the state, represents a relatively tiny investment compared to the multi-million-dollar sums campaigns have spent in the state in the past. And it comes only after the reelection campaign last week made a first wave of investments in core electoral battlegrounds like Nevada and Pennsylvania.

But the spending is nonetheless noteworthy in a state where national Democrats largely declined to spend money last year, despite the presence of a U.S. Senate and gubernatorial race. Strategists from both parties have speculated that Florida  which Biden lost in 2020 and currently has no Democratic statewide elected officials  is on track to lose its long-held place as a top presidential battleground next year after a string of GOP wins, including Gov. Ron DeSantis nearly 20-point victory in 2022.

In addition to Florida, Bidens reelection campaign also included North Carolina in its latest ad buy, another state the president lost in 2020.

Biden officials say the campaign is intent on competing in many states that can help it win reelection next year.

The addition of NC and FL to the media buy demonstrates the Biden campaign sees many paths to 270 electoral votes, said Kevin Munoz, spokesman for Bidens campaign. And that the campaign is investing early in building on Bidens strength in the sunbelt.

The new spot is part of a million-dollar investment from the campaign this week in select battleground states. It is paid for by the Democratic National Committee, as part of a coordinated party expenditure.

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The campaigns first ad ran in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada. The second ad includes those core six states while also expanding to Florida and North Carolina.

Its message also dovetails with the campaigns first ad, which focused on what Democrats characterized as defending personal freedoms and American democracy.

The ad this week focuses on the economy, referencing (though not by name) Biden-backed legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that it says helps reward hard work.

Over 12 million jobs have been created, a narrator says. And Joe Bidens building an economy that leaves no city, no town, no American behind.

Biden is expected to win the Democratic presidential nomination next year with ease. So far, only two candidates  self-help guru Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  have declared that they will run against Biden in the partys primary. Polls show the incumbent president leading both candidates by a large margin.
Despite a multibillion-dollar surplus, North Carolina Republicans dont appear to have any intention of fully funding public schools anytime soon.

Instead, they appear poised to do the opposite  by radically expanding the states private school voucher program.

A bill quickly moving through the legislature would expand the Opportunity Scholarship program so that any household could receive a voucher for private school tuition, regardless of income level. Senate leader Phil Berger bragged that it would be the largest expansion of school choice since the state began the program a decade ago.

Every Republican in the House and Senate has signed on as a co-sponsor, all but guaranteeing it will have enough support to become law despite the governors veto.

When it was first introduced in 2013, Republicans touted the Opportunity Scholarship program as a way to help poorer families afford private school tuition. But over the years, lawmakers have gradually loosened the income eligibility requirements so that more and more families qualify to receive a voucher, even if they dont necessarily need one.

But it was never really about helping low-income families. It was about weakening public schools, and now, Republicans are taking the next unsurprising step and doing away with income caps altogether. The new bill would tie voucher amounts to income level, so that lower-income families would receive higher scholarship amounts than those with higher incomes. Still, the wealthiest families could receive a subsidy of more than $3,000.

Its a pretty exciting day in North Carolina for those who believe in education reform, Rep. Tricia Cotham, one of the bills primary sponsors, said in a House committee Tuesday.

What it is not, however, is an exciting day for public schools. The reform in question is more like a decimation.

Republican lawmakers argue that it actually saves the state money when a student moves from a public school to a private one. But giving the vouchers to families who already intended and can afford to send their children to private schools doesnt save the state money at all. In fact, it causes the state to fork over money it wasnt spending in the first place. Current private school students would be eligible for a voucher, even though theyre already paying tuition.

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In a tweet last month, Gov. Roy Cooper called the bill worse than awful, and it is. The bill would increase the programs annual funding by an extra $1.3 billion over the next seven years, according to WRAL. By 2032, the state would be spending more than half a billion dollars per year on private school vouchers.

Do the math, and thats a lot of money that could be going somewhere else  namely, to public schools, which remain woefully underfunded. WUNC reported that half a billion dollars is more than twice what the state spends on public school transportation, and could pay for about a 12% teacher raise. The state is currently facing critical shortages of both teachers and bus drivers.

Republicans say they are supporting choice and students over systems, but their job is to fund public schools  not private ones. They say that students deserve the opportunity to receive a better education than whats provided at some public schools, but if they provided schools with adequate funding, perhaps students would not need to look elsewhere to receive a quality education.

Perhaps most importantly, theres no guarantee that private school vouchers will even be good for students or the state. Even when they receive public dollars, private schools arent held to the same curriculum or testing standards as public schools are. They do not undergo the same vetting process, and North Carolina has few guardrails in place to hold voucher schools accountable.

It wouldnt be hard for lawmakers to offer families a better chance at the kind of high-quality education they say parents are seeking. But instead of being supporters of public education, Republicans seem hellbent on turning people away from it.
RICHMOND, Ind.  A Richmond man has been sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge stemming from a 2021 robbery and stabbing.

Terrain Cyndel James, 27, had pleaded guilty to aiding, inducing or causing aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony carrying up to 16 years in prison, after negotiating a deal with the Wayne County prosecutor's office.

Wayne Superior Court 1 Judge Charles Todd Jr. last week imposed a nine-year sentence with five years suspended. James received credit for 178 days already spent in jail.

The conviction stemmed from a March 2021 attack in the 2000 block of West Main Street that saw a Richmond man stabbed and robbed of $250. The plea bargain called for dismissal of a second count against James, robbery resulting in serious bodily injury.

More: Man charged in stabbing now accused of trying to strike acquaintance with car

Maurice Harper, 36  who is James' cousin  was accused of inflicting the victim's wounds. He pleaded guilty last year to aggravated battery and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Another co-defendant, Dalton Dewayne Mills, 25, also of Richmond, is set to stand trial July 10 on counts of attempted robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, robbery and aiding inducing or causing aggravated battery.

James was convicted in 2014 of aiding, inducing or causing battery resulting in serious bodily injury.

Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Richmond man sentenced for role in 2021 robbery, stabbing
Chief Justice John Roberts has long aimed to stay above the political fray, but his goal is being put to the test as Democrats vow to intervene in the Supreme Courts recent ethics controversies.

Robertss refusal to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday left Democrats pulling no punches as they asserted the justices cannot be trusted to police their ethics.

Republicans, meanwhile, portrayed the push as an attempt to smear Justice Clarence Thomas and the courts other conservatives.

Even as the prospect of ethics legislation remains shaky in the divided Congress, the debacle has left Roberts, 68, grappling with how to remain neutral amid the partisan warfare and cratering public confidence in the high court.

FILE  Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts arrives before President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool, File)

Robertss absence came with little surprise. He has strived to insulate the courts image from partisan politics since becoming chief justice in 2005, and Tuesdays hearing consisted of outraged Democrats, on camera, delving into ProPublicas investigation into luxury trips Thomas accepted from billionaire and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow.

The chief justice cited separation of powers concerns in declining Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbins (D-Ill.) invitation, calling it an exceedingly rare offer.

Im more troubled by the suggestion that testifying to this Committee would somehow infringe on the separation of powers or threaten judicial independence, Durbin said on Tuesday. In fact, answering legitimate questions from the peoples elected representatives is one of the checks and balances that helps preserve the separation of powers.

It follows a pattern of the decorum-conscious Roberts attempting to stay out of the partisan fighting on Capitol Hill. Even on ordinary topics, like the courts budget, Roberts has left it to his colleagues to testify.

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Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, leads a hearing in response to recent criticism of the ethical practices of some justices of the Supreme Court, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Associate Justice Clarence Thomas has been criticized for accepting luxury trips nearly every year for more than two decades from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow without reporting them on financial disclosure forms. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, leads a hearing in response to recent criticism of the ethical practices of some justices of the Supreme Court, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Associate Justice Clarence Thomas has been criticized for accepting luxury trips nearly every year for more than two decades from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow without reporting them on financial disclosure forms. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

One thing we have to do every year is get money from Congress, just like every other federal entity. And so we send a couple of justices to Congress, explain what we need, and they get it. Now, I knew that there are people on the court who are better at that than I am, so they go. I dont go, Roberts told Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students in 2017.

After the 2010 State of the Union Address, when then-President Obama denounced the Supreme Courts Citizens United v. FEC ruling on campaign finance with the justices sitting feet away, the mild-mannered Roberts issued an unusual critique.

Speaking to law students weeks later, Roberts questioned why the justices participate in what he said had degenerated into a political pep rally. Roberts has attended every address since, while Justice Samuel Alito, who mouthed the words not true in an infamous moment after Obamas snipe, never returned.

Durbin slams Supreme Courts response to ethics issues as oblivious

Some people I think have an obligation to criticize what we do, given their office, if they think weve done something wrong, so I have no problems with that, Roberts told the students.

On the other hand, as you said, there is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum, he continued. The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up literally surrounding the Supreme Court cheering and hollering  while the court, according to the requirements of protocol, has to sit there expressionless  I think is very troubling.

Years later, Roberts was back in the Capitol at the center of a bitter political battle: presiding over the impeachment trial of then-President Trump.

He emerged unscathed and earned bipartisan praise, but not without some testy moments. As the prospect rose of an even split on the crucial issue of whether to allow witnesses, Roberts announced he would not step in to break a tie.

I think it would be inappropriate for me, an unelected official from a different branch of government, to assert the power to change that result so that the motion would succeed, Roberts told senators.

Former judge who advised Pence on Jan. 6: Supreme Court should subject itself to highest ethical standards

Roberts has since avoided potentially going through the wringer on Capitol Hill. He declined to preside over Trumps second impeachment trial, and on Tuesday, he dodged appearing before outraged Democrats. But that didnt stop them from lambasting Roberts and the high court.

What Chief Justice Roberts has done in refusing to come before this committee is judicial malpractice. It is a disservice to the courts, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

Roberts did not return a request for comment through a spokesperson.

Republicans spent much of the hearing condemning what they view as a double standard, portraying the effort as an attempt to derail the conservative-majority court.

They condemned Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumers (D-N.Y.) warning last year that two conservative justices would pay the price if they voted against abortion rights, protests outside conservative justices homes and the financial dealings of the courts liberals.

Were going to push back as hard as we can and tell the American people the truth about whats going on. This is not about making the court better. This is about destroying a conservative court. It will not work, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the committees ranking member.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) addresses reporters during a press conference on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) had this take: Todays hearing is an excuse to sling more mud at an institution.

One Republican senator, Alaskas Lisa Murkowski, has joined Democrats calls, but the odds of passing any ethics legislation remain slim in the GOP-controlled House.

Its very difficult to do anything in a divided Senate, especially when the committee of jurisdiction is equally divided. I think Roberts is using that to his advantage and just taking the easy way out, because he knows theres no real way to compel anything beyond that, Gabe Roth, executive director of judicial watchdog group Fix the Court, said in an interview ahead of the hearing.

It wouldnt be Democrats first failed attempt. Roughly a decade ago, Roberts rebuffed their calls to formally adopt the code of conduct in place for lower federal judges. He said the justices leverage it as a starting point, characterizing criticisms that the court is exempt from ethical principles as misconceptions.

Roberts added, In particular, Congress has directed Justices and judges to comply with both financial reporting requirements and limitations on the receipt of gifts and outside earned income. The Court has never addressed whether Congress may impose those requirements on the Supreme Court.

As the chief justice strives for an insular approach, he faces more than just angry lawmakers. Public confidence has declined sharply in the court, spurred by the courts recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll last month recorded that only 37 percent of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the court, the lowest measure recorded since the pollster began asking the question in 2018.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
 Read the full article on Motorious

Its joining a growing list of cities to do so

According to a new report from WXXI, the city of Rochester, New York plans to sue both Kia and Hyundai for failure to adhere to industry standards for anti-theft features in their cars. As weve covered before, certain Hyundais and Kias were made without an engine immobilizer, something virtually all cars have come with as standard equipment for at least the past twenty years.

Learn why insuring a Kia or Hyundai might not be an option here.

Kids on different social media platforms, including TikTok, have provided tutorials on how to steal these Kias and Hyundais using simple tools and a USB charging cable. The original group credited with starting this trend, called The Kia Boyz, are based out of Milwaukee, where thefts of Kias and Hyundais exploded a few years ago and have continued strong since.

Rochester Mayor Malik Evans held a press conference on April 24 to announce the citys plan to move ahead with a lawsuit. This problem is out of control, Evans said. And these costs should not be borne by the city, our residents or our businesses.

Many municipalities have had enough of the rash of vehicle thefts, especially when Kias and Hyundais in many areas make up the lions share. Among those which have already filed suits are San Diego, Buffalo, Cleveland, Seattle, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati.

The report indicated the plan was to file the lawsuit in California, where Kia and Hyundai have their base of operations in the US, with the help of a law firm based in Seattle. That same firm has been helping other municipalities as they seek damages from the automakers as well as injunctive relief from the court.

Its no wonder Rochester is making this move, considering WXXI says Kia and Hyundai theft has increased 2,400% so far in 2023. Car theft in general is way up in the city with 1,063 vehicles stolen so far in 2023 versus just 387 during the same time period in 2022.

Image via YouTube, TikTok

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Rohingya refugees have spent nearly six years living in overcrowded and squalid relief camps in Bangladesh

A Rohingya delegation will visit Myanmar on Friday as part of efforts to revive a long-stalled plan to return the stateless minority to their homeland, refugees and Bangladeshi officials said.

Bangladesh is home to around a million Rohingya, most of whom fled a 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar that is now subject to a UN genocide investigation.

Both countries signed an agreement to return them later that year but little progress has been made since, and the United Nations has repeatedly warned that conditions were not right for their repatriation.

The delegation will visit a site close to the Bangladesh border, where Myanmar's military regime plans to resettle more than 1,000 Rohingya in a pilot project.

"We will be shown the camps built by the Myanmar government for the Rohingyas. We will see the facilities there," Badiul, a Rohingya community leader and member of the delegation, told AFP on Wednesday.

Bangladesh refugee commissioner Mizanur Rahman will lead the delegation of 20 Rohingya refugees, a senior government official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

"They will go there in the morning and will come back late afternoon," he said, adding the team would visit a reception centre, transit centre and resettlement camp built to house the incoming refugees.

Another Bangladeshi official told AFP they expected repatriation to begin later this month, before the annual monsoon season.

Rohingya refugees, who have spent nearly six years living in overcrowded and squalid relief camps in Bangladesh, have been consistently sceptical of the scheme since it became public knowledge in March.

They say that none of their queries about security or recognition of their right to citizenship in Myanmar has been answered.

- 'Myanmar is our country' -

"Why will we be sent to Myanmar without citizenship?" a refugee who said they were also part of Friday's delegation told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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"Why should we go to Myanmar to see camps? Myanmar is our country. They have to show us our village, our land."

The Rohingya are widely viewed in Myanmar as interlopers from Bangladesh, despite roots in the country stretching back centuries.

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who has dismissed the Rohingya identity as "imaginary", was head of the armed forces during the 2017 crackdown.

The International Court of Justice is probing allegations of rape, murder and arson against entire Rohingya villages by Myanmar's security forces during that year's violence.

The repatriation plan agreed in 2017 failed to make any significant headway in the years since, partly over concerns the Rohingya would not be safe if they returned.

Progress ground to a complete halt during the coronavirus pandemic and after the military overthrow of Myanmar's civilian government in 2021.

The UN refugee agency said in March that conditions in Myanmar remained unsuitable for the "sustainable return" of Rohingya refugees.

But civil society groups have criticised the agency for facilitating the transport of Myanmar officials into Bangladesh that month as part of the return scheme.

str-sa/gle/qan
PARIS  Rolex has announced it would extend its certified pre-owned program to the U.S. starting Wednesday.

Select locations from the Tourneau Bucherer and Watches of Switzerland retailers will be available to offer second-hand models under this program and display a plaque indicating their participation.

More from WWD

Luca Bernasconi, president and chief executive officer of Rolex Watch USA, said the watchmaker was pleased to provide clients the opportunity to experience the innovation and excellence of the Rolex brand through the Certified Pre-Owned program, allowing [Rolex] to showcase the uncompromising quality and durability [its] watches are known for.

Watches that qualify for the program have to be at least three years old at the time of resale. They come identified by a seal in-store and come with a new two-year international warranty. A guarantee card bearing the words Certified Pre-Owned will double up as a official certificate of authenticity.

The program was initiated last December at Bucherer locations across six countries in Europe: Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, Denmark and the U.K., with the independently owned Swiss company stating that it was a tangible and immediate opportunity to become part of the world of Rolex for consumers.

By offering pre-owned timepieces certified and guaranteed by the brand itself, the program aims to bring added value to the existing supply of pre-owned Rolex watches by attesting to their authenticity at the time of resale through official dealers, said the independently owned watchmaker at the initial launch.

Rolex is considered one of the big three brands that take up a 55 percent lions share of the secondary market, alongside Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, said the Morgan Stanley and industry specialist LuxeConsult in a 2023 annual report on the watch industry.

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Currently worth around 25 billion Swiss francs, or $28.2 billion, the secondary watch market is forecasted to surpass the primary one in 2033 thanks to double-digit growth that outpaces the rise in new watch sales, according to figures given by LuxeConsult in 2022.

Best of WWD

Click here to read the full article.
A round-the-clock curfew will be in action from 20:00 on 5 May to 6:00 on 8 May in the city of Kherson.

Source: Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote: "During these 58 hours it will be forbidden to travel or be out in the city streets. The city will also be closed for entry and exit."

Details: Prokudin called upon the residents of Kherson to get their errands done in advance and stock up on food and medicine.

"These temporary restrictions are needed so that law enforcement officers can do their job without putting you in danger," he explained.

Background:

On 2 May, the occupiers launched 106 attacks (using 485 projectiles) on Kherson Oblast: 2 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems, 52 artillery attacks, 33 mortar attacks, 4 tank attacks, 14 UAV attacks, and 1 aircraft attack. Of these, 9 attacks (33 projectiles) were launched on the city of Kherson: 7 artillery attacks and 2 mortar attacks. During the day four people were killed and seven people (including one child) were injured.

On 3 May, the Russian occupiers struck the only hypermarket open in Kherson  three people were killed and five injured.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Toppan Photomasks, which makes a key component used for semiconductor manufacturing, is growing its Central Texas facility after the city of Round Rock approved a $1.25 million incentive package.

The agreement was announced on April 27 following two separate meetings from the Round Rock City Council, and the citys transportation and economic development corporation, which both approved the incentive package. On Tuesday, the company confirmed to the American-Statesman that it had started phase one of its expansion project.

Toppan, which makes photomasks, a key component in semiconductor production, is a subsidiary of Japan-based Toppan Inc., a company that spans multiple industries. Photomasks are opaque plates with transparent areas or holes designed to allow light to shine through in a specific pattern to help create semiconductor chips.

Last year, Toppan announced it was carving out its semiconductor business to spin off Toppan Photomask as its own company, with a Round Rock headquarters and other locations in Japan, Germany, France, China, South Korea and Taiwan. The products are used by companies including Samsung and Texas Instruments.

More: Williamson County, Taylor officials court South Korean businesses through agreement, trip

The Round Rock City Council approved a $1.25 million incentive agreement for Toppan Photomasks, which makes a key component used for semiconductor manufacturing, and is looking to expand its facility.

According to documents filed with the city, under the agreement the company will overhaul and expand its Round Rock facility in three phases through the end of 2029. The proposed $185 million expansion would also add at least 50 jobs, growing the companys Round Rock headcount to nearly 300 employees. The new jobs would have a starting salary of at least $70,000, according to the incentive agreement.

Toppan already has 231 workers in Round Rock, making it Williamson Couty's 25th largest private employer, and has had a presence in the city since 1986. The company also is part of a growing semiconductor ecosystem in Central Texas that includes Samsung, NXP and Infineon. Other major tech companies with presences in Williamson County include Round Rock-based Dell Technologies and Apple.

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In the announcement, Round Rock Mayor Craig Morgan said he is glad to see the company expand in the city.

This economic development agreement represents a significant investment in our community including new job opportunities, while also reinforcing Round Rocks reputation as a hub for cutting-edge technology, Morgan said in a statement.

In a statement, Toppan President John Nykaza thanked the city and the Round Rock Chamber, saying they, along with the community, are vital partners to Toppans growth in Central Texas.

That support allows Toppan Photomasks to add much-needed capacity to meet the needs of consumers and enhance our capabilities to advance the growing U.S. semiconductor industry and bring manufacturing back to the U.S., Nykaza said. Im excited by the role our Round Rock employees play in the needed growth of U.S. based semiconductors. We look forward to that growth continuing as we service the growing U.S. semiconductor industry.

More: Tesla, Samsung supplier Han's Laser could build factory in Manor

Round Rock has approved an incentive agreement for Toppan Photomask, which makes semiconductor photomasks, used in semiconductor manufacturing.

What does the Toppan Photomasks agreement say?

According to city documents, the expansion plans call for about $28 million in real property improvements, such as improvements related to design, new construction rehabilitation, as well as $157 million in business property investments such as equipment costs.

As long as the company meets its end of the deal, the Round Rock Transportation and Economic Development Corp. would give Toppan economic incentive payments totaling $1.25 million through the citys "Type B sales tax fund," delivered in three payments, according to the documents. The payments are based on performance-based milestones. The agreement also includes clawback provisions if the company does not meet its obligations.

According to the city documents, the first phase  which the company has already started and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025  calls for a $52.8 million investment and would add 24 employees. Under the agreement the city would pay $600,000 after the phase is completed. Phase two calls for $100.1 million in investments and an additional six employees by the end of 2028 and would lead to a $150,000 payment from the fund if completed. Phase three would be completed by 2029 and include the remaining investment and result in 281 employees total. Following phase three, the fund would pay out $500,000.

Toppan was denied a separate incentive agreement last year

The agreement comes about a year after the company tried to pursue a different incentive agreement that it said would allow it to expand in the city. In May 2022, the Round Rock school district declined to approve a Chapter 313 application, a larger proposed expansion project that would have added 250 jobs. It represented a rare denial for the Chapter 313 program, which refers to a section of the tax code that allowed school districts to grant property tax breaks for economic development projects.

The incentive tool was phased out last year but helped draw a number of projects to Austin in the past, including semiconductor maker Samsung, which has a facility in Austin and is building a $17 billion project in Taylor, both of which received 313 agreements.

The city's announcement on April 27 also mentioned that Toppan had evaluated other locations nationally and worldwide before landing on its existing Round Rock location, and said the company had been evaluating its options thanks to funding opportunities set forth by the federal U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, legislation designed to encourage companies to expand and build semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the United States.

Toppan also has been looking to grow in the semiconductor industry since it became a private company last year, and entered into an agreement with the Japanese private equity company Integral Corporation that was designed to strengthen the company's growth and competitiveness in the expanding semiconductor industry by improving costs, quality and delivery. At the time, Toppan CEO, Teruo Ninomiya said in a statement that the "new start" would bring more efficiency and service to the dynamic semiconductor market, and said the company could go public through an initial public offering as the company looks toward long-term growth.

In a statement, a company spokesperson said Toppan's expansion in Round Rock comes because of the opportunities created as several U.S. semiconductor manufacturers expand their operations in the United States in response to market growth and the CHIPS Act, and said the company considers Round Rock a key piece of its supply chain in supporting U.S. and international customers.

"The semiconductor market has been identified as a strategic industry by the U.S. and many other countries. As a result of this and overall higher semiconductor content in all products, the semiconductor and photomask markets are expected grow significantly in the next decade," the spokesperson said. "Toppan Photomask is investing to meet our customers needs globally."

More: Texas aims to attract semiconductor investment amid national boom

Agreement comes amid semiconductor industry growth

The expansion would come amid what is anticipated to be an unprecedented investment in the United States semiconductor industry thanks to the passage of the U.S. Chips and Science Act last year. It includes more than $52 billion in funding for companies that make computer chips, billions more in tax credits to encourage chip manufacturing, as well as tens of billions to fund scientific innovation and research. Semiconductor technology is used in everything from cellphones to cars, and the bill came amid a global shortage of semiconductors.

Industry experts expect that Central Texas, which has a strong history of semiconductor manufacturing, will be among the regions that could see significant investment from the federal legislation. Texas also has been eyeing its own state legislation that would further incentivize semiconductor buildout in Central Texas, including a bill that was introduced that would create a fund and consortium focused on the industry.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Round Rock OKs $1.25M in incentives for Toppan Photomasks expansion
The Royal Family haven't been well received in the Caribbean in recent years, with two tours undertaken last year ending in PR disaster. (Getty Images)

New polling has shown that nearly half of Brits support financial reparations being paid by the Royal Family over their historic links to the slave trade.

The Savanta poll commissioned by Yahoo shows a big difference in how the issue was viewed by different age groups, with younger generations supporting reparations more than their older counterparts.

It's another signal of just how polarising the royals have become, and why one expert thinks that they have "fallen victim to the culture wars"

Overall, 44% of Brits think that the Royal Family should make financial reparations for their role in the transatlantic slave trade, while 32% don't think they should and a further 22% don't know.

Watch: Royal Family 'has fallen victim to the culture wars'

The polling comes after King Charles announced he would allow a historian into the royal archives as part of a research project being undertaken by Historic Royal Palaces into the royals' ties to slavery.

However, Rishi Sunak made clear in Parliament on 26 April that the UK government currently has no intention of apologising for the country's role in the historic atrocity.

Of all age groups, 18 to 24-year-olds (58%) supported the royals paying financial reparations most strongly; this support gradually decreased to only 29% in the over 65s.

Political affiliation also played a part in how people responded to the question: with Conservative and Brexit Party voters coming in the lowest in favour of reparations being paid, at 29% and 20% respectively. 68% of Brexit Party voters surveyed said the Windsors should not make any financial reparations.

SNP voters responded most strongly in favour of the royals at 68%, this was closely followed by Green Party voters at 59% and Labour voters at 57%.

56% of respondents who voted Leave in the 2016 EU referendum said the royals shouldn't pay reparations, compared to 32% of those voted Remain.

King Charles has previously spoken about the UK's history of slavery on several occasions.

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Charles attended Barbados's ceremony marking their transition to becoming a republic in 2021, and expressed that slavery was an atrocity, but didn't officially apologise. (Getty Images)

In 2018, he called it an "appalling atrocity" during a visit to Ghana, and in 2021 said that it "forever stains our history" during Barbados's official ceremony marking their transition to a republic and removal of Queen Elizabeth as their head of state.

Last year in Rwanda, Charles said in a speech that he "cannot describe the depths of [his] personal sorrow at the suffering of so many" and that he is working to "deepen [his] own understanding of slavery's enduring impact".

These sentiments have been echoed by Prince William, who expressed his "profound sorrow" over slavery during a visit to Jamaica.

However, as yet, no official apology has been given by the Royal Family for their part in the slave trade.
China's Honor unveils new cellphone in Turkiye

Xinhua) 09:48, May 03, 2023

A woman takes a selfie with an Honor X9a mobile phone in Istanbul, Trkiye, on May 2, 2023. Chinese smart devices maker Honor unveiled its new mobile phone on Tuesday at a ceremony held in Istanbul. (Photo by Omer Kuscu/Xinhua)

ISTANBUL, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese smart devices maker Honor unveiled its new mobile phone on Tuesday at a ceremony held in Istanbul, Trkiye's largest city.

Renowned for its durability, the Honor X9a model is the first of Honor's X series to debut in Trkiye. The 175-gram, 7.9-mm phone broke sales records in its first week, selling 87 percent more than other phone series.

Sun Jingfei, Honor's country manager for Trkiye, described Honor's 13,000 staff, seven R&D centers and almost 300 patents as a reflection of fast growth in such a short period since it split from Chinese tech giant Huawei two years ago.

Cinar Turhan, the corporate communications and PR manager, said the company has developed a cellphone ecosystem to offer a fast and synergic user experience and has been investing in customization services.

Founded as a sub-brand of Huawei, Honor primarily develops and sells smart devices like smartphones, tablet computers and wearable technology.

A man tries an Honor X9a mobile phone in Istanbul, Trkiye, on May 2, 2023. Chinese smart devices maker Honor unveiled its new mobile phone on Tuesday at a ceremony held in Istanbul. (Photo by Omer Kuscu/Xinhua)

A woman poses with an Honor X9a mobile phone in Istanbul, Trkiye, on May 2, 2023. Chinese smart devices maker Honor unveiled its new mobile phone on Tuesday at a ceremony held in Istanbul. (Photo by Omer Kuscu/Xinhua)

An Honor X9a mobile phone is displayed in Istanbul, Trkiye, on May 2, 2023. Chinese smart devices maker Honor unveiled its new mobile phone on Tuesday at a ceremony held in Istanbul. (Photo by Omer Kuscu/Xinhua)

A presenter shows an Honor X9a mobile phone at a ceremony in Istanbul, Trkiye, on May 2, 2023. Chinese smart devices maker Honor unveiled its new mobile phone on Tuesday at a ceremony held in Istanbul. (Photo by Omer Kuscu/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
Ajay Banga has been chosen to take over as the World Bank's president after a recent worldwide effort to garner support.

After being nominated by US President Joe Biden in February, Banga was the lone candidate for the position and received support from the 25-member executive board. His five-year tenure in the World Bank is set to start on June 2, according to Politco.

Russia did not participate in the voting process, but a person familiar with the selection procedure said that Banga was "elected with resounding approval."

Ajay Banga had a four-hour interview with the World Bank board members on Monday before the decision was reached by a vote of 24 board members.

President Joe Biden congratulated Ajay Banga on his election as the next head of the World Bank and referred to the World Bank as a crucial organization for eradicating poverty and boosting prosperity globally, Al Jazeera reported.

Read Also: Jack Ma Resurfaces as Professor in Japan

According to Joe Biden, Banga's knowledge, experience, and creative thinking will make him a transformational leader. Biden also believed Banga would help the bank handle global issues like climate change that directly affect its aim to eradicate poverty.

Ajay Banga's Qualifications

Ajay Banga had several prominent roles in the public and commercial sectors before being nominated to lead the World Bank. He is the vice chairman of the private equity company General Atlantic and was born and raised in India. During his 10 years of employment there, he held the positions of President and Chief Executive Officer and, later, Executive Chairman.

He worked for Nestle in India for 13 years and was Citigroup's Asia-Pacific CEO. He spent over 10 years at Mastercard in several leadership roles, first as president and CEO, and then as executive chairman.

Additionally, Banga has served on the boards of numerous illustrious companies, including Dow Inc., Kraft Foods, and the American Red Cross.

The World Bank has entered a new chapter with the selection of Ajay Banga to replace David Malpass, who faced criticism for declining to clarify his stance on the effect of fossil fuels on global warming at a New York Times event in September, per CBS News.

Malpass's statement, "I'm not a scientist," sparked doubts about his climate change position.

Related Article: US Federal Reserve Imposes 10th Consecutive Rate Hike

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Senators expressed bipartisan optimism Tuesday about moving ahead with legislation aimed at relieving the affordable housing crunch in rural communities.

A bill introduced this week by Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) could expand availability of affordable housing by updating programs under the U.S. Department of Agricultures (USDA) Rural Housing Service.

It includes provisions that would make more federal support available to individual renters and open up more properties to nonprofits in order to keep affordable units on the market for cash-strapped buyers.

Smith pointed out the unique challenges of supporting rural housing during the Tuesday hearing of the Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development.

Because the reality is if you dont have a safe, affordable place to live, nothing else in your life works, not your job or your education or your health, Smith said.

A critical aspect of the new legislation, Smith said, is to modernize the USDAs Section 515 program, which provides mortgages for rental housing in rural areas.

Right now, more than 560,000 renters who live in apartments financed by Section 515 are under threat due to mortgages maturing or losing eligibility for other reasons, according to Natalie Maxwell, managing attorney for the National Housing Law Project.

Currently, additional rental assistance under the USDAs Section 521 is only available to recipients of Section 515 loans. The new bill would decouple the programs, so individuals can continue to receive 521 assistance even if they lose 515 eligibility.

The bill would also allow more nonprofits to purchase properties previously eligible under Section 515 and keep them affordable for residents. Other changes include updating the USDAs foreclosure process and quickening the time it takes the agency to process loans.

In rural communities, the Section 515 program has been a critical source of affordable housing especially for low income seniors and people with disabilities, Maxwell said. Congress can and must do more to preserve these properties for families living in poverty.

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David Lipsetz, president and CEO of the Housing Assistance Council, said the loss of rural housing from the USDAs Section 515 program is a crisis, adding that the proposed legislation doesnt cure everything but is necessary progress.

It does provide owners with a viable path to stay in the program, Lipsetz said.

Decoupling rental assistance and Section 515 aid would decrease the cost of housing, so renters could still get aid without going through the burden of complying with 515, said Chris Potterpin, president of the Council for Affordable and Rural Housing.

One of the challenges with putting together properties in rural communities is that you have to layer different levels of affordable financing, and one of the main advantages of this bill and decoupling is that it simplifies that process, and theres less layers to go through, Potterpin said.

Throughout rural America, there continues to be an overwhelming need for both affordable and decent housing, Potterpin added. The lack of affordable housing reflects the lack of investment in these localities more broadly.

Subcommittee Ranking Member Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said the hearing was a preliminary step in creating effective legislation that will aid rural families.

I think it is ripe and ready for a bipartisan effort, Lummis said. We owe it to these communities to ensure were spending federal tax dollars efficiently and effectively and stretching them as far as possible.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Unverified footage on social media appears to show an object flying over the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 3, 2021. Reuters

Russia accused Ukraine of orchestrating a drone attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday.

Russian media said it viewed the alleged attack as an attempt on Putin's life, Reuters reported.

Putin was not there at the time and there was no damage to the Kremlin, Russian officials said.

A video that appears to show a drone strike on the Kremlin is being circulated on social media after Russia accused Ukraine of trying to assassinate President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian state news outlet RIA claimed early Wednesday that a drone attacked Putin's residence in the Kremlin citadel but was disabled by Russian defenses.

Ukraine denies it had anything to do with the strike on the Kremlin, saying such an attack would achieve nothing, the BBC reported.

Unverified footage circulating online shows what appears to be a drone exploding over the citadel. The area appears to have been decorated for Russia's upcoming Victory Day parade.

The video was first posted on a group for residents of a neighborhood that faces the Kremlin across the Mosvka River, Reuters reported.

Another unverified video shows the top of the citadel in flames.

Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian leader was not in the Kremlin at the time of the alleged attack, The Guardian reported. His schedule was unaffected by the incident, Peskov added.

"Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the vehicles were put out of action," the Kremlin press service said in a statement, Reuters reported.

"We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the president's life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned," the statement added.

Story continues

May 9 is a major holiday in Russia that commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 and is usually marked with a military parade in front of the Kremlin.

The Kremlin said there were no victims and material damage. It also said "the Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit," according to Reuters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was photographed on an official visit to Finland earlier on Wednesday.

Correction: May 3, 2023  An earlier version of this story misidentified when Russia said the Kremlin was attacked. It said the attack took place overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, not Wednesday evening.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking to the Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Gleb Nikitin, during their meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. An alleged drone attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday morning is blamed on Ukraine by Russian officials. There were no injuries or deaths. | Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via Associated Press

Reports from Russia say on Wednesday an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin  in the capital of Moscow  targeted President Vladimir Putin.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian news outlet Ria Novosti that the president wasnt at the Kremlin at the time of the attack. Additionally, no one else was injured or killed and no damage was reported before the country disabled the drones.

No evidence of the attack outside of Russia has been verified and very few details have been released at this time.

A recent, unverified video circulating on social media depicts a drone exploding just over the dome of the building.

The moment of the explosion over Kremlin pic.twitter.com/vSX34EzFzD  Russian Market (@runews) May 3, 2023

Russia blames Ukraine for the act of violence and said in the statement from the Kremlin that it reserves the right to retaliate, reported The Associated Press.

We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the presidents life, said the statement released from the Kremlin, per Reuters.

Ukraine has not released any official comment on the matter or on the string of attacks that have targeted the Crimean Peninsula.

Drone attacks along the Crimean Peninsula

Close to the Russian-occupied Crimea, more drones hit an oil storage facility and the nearby Brayansk region airport on Wednesday morning, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Firefighters worked to get the fire controlled at the oil plant, in a photo released by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service.

In this handout photo released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Firefighters work at the side of an oil depot near Taqman in Krasnodar region, south of Russia. A Ukrainian drone caused a huge blaze at an oil depot behind Russian lines, Russian media reported Wednesday. An oil depot was on fire on Wednesday morning in Russias southern Krasnodar region, located east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev. | Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via Associated Press

Nico Lange, who is a military analyst and former official for the German Defense Ministry, told the Journal that this recent string of attacks is focused on cutting off Russias supplies to the southern part of the country. He thinks that it could be Ukraine implementing its long-planned countermeasures to regain control of the peninsula that Russia seized in 2014.

Related
Smoke was noticed near the Kremlin

Two Ukrainian UAVs targeted the Kremlin, Russian propaganda news agency RIA Novosti reported, saying that Russian military and special services used radar warfare to disable the drones.

Read also: Four unidentified drones found near Moscow in 48 hours. What does it mean for the Kremlin?

There were no reported casualties from the incident.

Putin was out of his office during the attack, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti, alleging that the war criminal was working at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow.

Russia will not abandon plans to hold a military parade on Red Square on May 9, Peskov confirmed.

Read also: Information Warfare Machine: How to Deal with Kremlin Fakes

Moscow considers Kyivs actions a planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt on Putin ahead of Victory Day and the May 9 parade, he said.

Peskov added that the Russian side reserves the right to respond to this attack wherever and whenever it chooses.

The drone attack was part of a series of drone attacks in multiple Russian oblasts on May 3.



Read also: Cryptic leaflets appear on streets of Moscow as UFO spotted overhead

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Russian claims Ukraine staged attack on President Vladimir Putin

Russia claims Ukraine staged an overnight drone attack to assassinate President Vladimir Putin but has provided no evidence to back up the accusation. This is the latest claim made by the Kremlin amidst what it says has been a series of attacks beyond enemy lines.

Russia said in a post on its government website that its military and special services disabled two drone attacks aimed at the Kremlin on Tuesday night. We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the president, carried out ahead of Victory Day, the site said, according to NBC News.

Read more

It said no one had been hurt by falling debris in Moscow, but added, The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit.

This is a video of the alleged drone attack against the Kremlin . I have some serious question marks. Is it really realistic - if the drone was from far away - that no air defence could have intervened until right above the Kremlin itself? pic.twitter.com/WYRdaHPf5g  Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) May 3, 2023

According to The New York Times, a Ukrainian official said Kyiv had no information about the so-called night attacks on the Kremlin. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, suggested in a statement to NBC that guerilla activities of local resistance forces might be at fault, adding it is a sign that Russia is preparing a large-scale terrorist attack.

An unverified video of the alleged attack was posted on social media early on Wednesday, showing what appears to be a flying object heading toward the Kremlin before bursting into flames. Putin was reportedly not in the building at the time of the attack, a Kremlin spokesperson told RIA Novosti, according to Reuters, and was instead at his Novo Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.

Story continues

The move comes ahead of Russias Victory Day celebrations, which commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II. The holiday is typically celebrated with a parade held in Red Square in Moscow and will go ahead as planned, however, a Ukrainian spokesperson told the BBC, What happened in Moscow is obviously designed to escalate the situation before 9 May.

Mick Mulroy, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defense and CIA officer told the outlet that the possibility that it was an assassination attempt remains unlikely, citing that Ukraine tracks Putins movements at all times and would have known he wasnt in Moscow during the alleged attack.

This may have been to show the Russian people that they can be hit anywhere and that the war they started in Ukraine may eventually come home to Russia, even the capital, Mulroy told the BBC. But, if the reports werent accurate, he added, Russia may be fabricating this to use as a pretext to target President Zelenskyy. Something they have tried to in the past.

Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out numerous cross-border attacks since its invasion of Ukraine in February of last year. Ukraine has repeatedly denied all accusations including reported strikes on a Russian airbase in December and accusations that it crashed a drone in Kolomna, about 70 miles outside Moscow, in February.

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Fragments of two Ukrainian drones fell into the Kremlin, causing a fireball near the roof of one building early Wednesday, the Russian government said in a statement. Kyiv denied any involvement.

The statement said no one was injured in what it described as a "terrorist act," and it threatened retaliation for what was characterized as an assassination attempt on the country's leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin was at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow at the time, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russias state news agency RIA Novosti.

Last night, the Kyiv regime made an attempt to strike with unmanned aerial vehicles on the Kremlin residence of the President of the Russian Federation, the statement said. The fragments struck the Kremlin after the drones were shot down by Russia's military, the government said.

Videos showed one flying object exploding over the Kremlin around 2:30 a.m. and a second one 15 minutes later detonating as it approached a domed building. There was no evidence Ukraine was linked to either incident.

Astonishing footage of last night's drone attack on the Kremlin pic.twitter.com/3rghCHdIed  Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) May 3, 2023

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was meeting with Nordic leaders in Helsinki, denied any role.

We dont attack Putin or Moscow,'' he said at a news conference. "We fight on our territory. Were defending our villages and cities.

The incident comes as Russia prepares to mark Victory Day on May 9  its annual celebration of its victory in World War II. The day is usually marked with a parade on Red Square.

Russia has staged false-flag operations to try to justify assaults on Ukraine. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak dismissed Wednesday's claim as a Russian ruse to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities in coming days.

Story continues

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration is aware of the reported attack but "unable to confirm the authenticity. At a press freedom forum hosted by the Washington Post, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, "I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.''

People attend the funeral of Sofiia Shulha (11) and Kyryl Pysariev (17), who was killed during the Russian attack on a residential building, on April 30, 2023, in Uman, Ukraine. Russian missiles hit the Ukrainian city of Uman, a small city 125 miles south of the capital Kyiv in the early hours of April 28, killing 23 people, including six children.

Developments:

 Zelenskyy said 21 civilians were killed and 48 were injured Wednesday by massive Russian shelling in the southern Kherson province. "A railway station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a grocery supermarket, a gas station  what unites these places? The bloody trail that Russia leaves with its shells,'' Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

 The European Union announced plans to ramp up the production of ammunition for Ukraine.

 In Helsinki, Zelenskyy said Ukraines counteroffensive is coming very soon. This year will be decisive  for victory, he said.

 A massive blaze broke out at a Russian oil depot in Russias southern Krasnodar region east of the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev. No cause for the fire was released.

Zelenskyy says Kremlin accusation shows Putin 'needs to do something drastic'

In denying Ukraine was behind the drone attacks, Zelenskyy said this is Putin's latest attempt at mustering support for a war he's losing. The White House said this week the pace of Russian personnel losses has accelerated, with 100,000 casualties  including more than 20,000 deaths  since December.

"He can no longer motivate his society and just send the military to their deaths,'' Zelenskyy said. "He has no victories on the battlefield. The second army of the world has lost. ... And now he needs to do something drastic  assassination attempts, drones, some geese that bombed them ... That is, they will come up with some steps every day."

Vatican acknowledges secret 'mission' to end war

The Vatican secretary of state confirmed Wednesday the existence of a "mission'' to end Russia's war in Ukraine, days after Pope Francis made a reference to such an operation, though both countries deny knowing about it.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin said both governments have been informed, adding, "you know how it is, in bureaucracies it could be that communications that are supposed to arrive dont arrive, the Vatican News reported.

On his way back Sunday from spending three days in Budapest, where he met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- who has maintained relations with Moscow -- and with the former foreign envoy of the Russian Orthodox Church, Francis told reporters he would do anything in his power to stop the war.

He then added: Also, there is a mission going on now, but it is not public yet. Lets see how  When it is public I will talk about it.

Francis has expressed support for Ukraine during the conflict while trying not to antagonize Russia.

New U.S. military assistance package for Ukraine worth $300 million

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday the latest military aid package for Ukraine, valued at $300 million and including ammunition for long-range rocket artillery known as HIMARS, as well as conventional artillery cannons and shells.

The Pentagon has provided Ukraine with more than $35 billion in military assistance since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.

"We will continue to stand with our Ukrainian partners as they defend themselves from Russias war of aggression,'' Blinken said in a statement.

Maureen Groppe and Tom Vanden Brook

Kremlin reportedly counseling state media on coverage of Ukraine offensive

The Kremlin reportedly distributed a manual instructing Russian state media on how to cover an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive. If true, that might indicate the Kremlin is trying to prepare the public for Ukrainian successes.Russian opposition outlet Meduzareports the manual instructs state media to not lower the expectations of the announced Ukrainian counteroffensive or claim that Ukraine is not ready to conduct one. The guide says media outlets should emphasize that Western countries are providing Kyiv with weapons.

"If the offensive is a failure, (Russian authorities) will be able to say that the army adeptly repelled an extremely powerful attack. The value of this victory will increase significantly," the guide says, according to Meduza. "If Ukraine, with the help of weapons from the U.S. and Europe, is successful and takes territory, the loss will be explainable, too; after all, the West has focused a tremendous amount of effort on the front, but its successes (will) have been very modest. In other words, overall, the Russian army has held its own."

Russia may be diverting strikes from Ukraine energy targets

Damage in Ukraine from Russian strikes indicates a possible shift from targeting Ukraines electrical power network, the British Defense Ministry said in its most recent assessment of the war. A least two strikes, on April 2 and May 1, probably were focused on Ukraines military, industrial and logistical infrastructure, the assessment says. Both strikes used smaller numbers of missiles than seen in earlier attacks, which is likely because of Russian attempts to rebuild its stockpiles of cruise missiles, the ministry says.

The attack May 1 injured at least 34 people, but Ukraine air defense systems shot down 15 out of 18 missiles, the Ukraine military said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russia claims Ukraine drones tried to assassinate Putin at Kremlin
Russia claimed Wednesday that Ukraine tried to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in an overnight drone attack on the Kremlin, news that drew denials from Kyiv and furious demands for retaliation from nationalists in Moscow.

The accusation, which the Kremlin made without providing evidence, was the latest in a string of reported incidents far from the wars front lines. Kyiv said it had nothing to do with the alleged incident and suggested it could be used as a pretext for a new Russian attack in Ukraine.

The U.S. had no notice if there was a drone attack against the Kremlin by Ukraine, three U.S. officials said. Two of the officials expressed skepticism that a drone could get that close to the Kremlin given that so many air defense systems protect Russia.

An attack on the heart of Moscow, even if it is foiled, would be a dramatic illustration of Russian vulnerability ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive that will seek to push the Kremlins forces out of occupied land.

Russian military and special services disabled two attacking drones, sending debris crashing onto the grounds of the seat of government, the Kremlin said in a statement on its website.

It blamed the alleged attack, in which it said no one was hurt, on Ukraine.

We view these actions as a planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt targeting the President, carried out ahead of Victory Day, the statement said, referring to the celebration next Tuesday of the Soviet Unions victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Russia reserves the right to take countermeasures wherever and whenever it deems appropriate, it added.

Videos circulated widely on social media Wednesday showing an object exploding over the Kremlin, the buildings roof on fire and smoke rising from the area.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied his country was behind the attack.

We are not attacking Putin or Moscow, he said at a news conference in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, where he was meeting the prime ministers of four Nordic nations.

Story continues

We are fighting on our own territory, defending our villages and cities, he said. We do not have enough weapons even for this. That is why we do not use them elsewhere. We have a deficit. We cannot use everything and everywhere.

Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. (Mikhail Klimentyev / AP)

One of his advisers, Mykhailo Podolyak, suggested earlier that guerrilla activities of local resistance forces could be to blame. He added that the news was a sign that Russia is preparing a large-scale terrorist attack of its own.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state news agency RIA Novosti that Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the alleged attack and that he was working out of a presidential residence near Moscow. The Kremlin said his schedule was unaffected.

Peskov added that plans to hold the Victory Day parade in Red Square remain in place, according to the agency.

Later, Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and one of the most vocal supporters of the war, told RIA Novosti that there were no options left except for the physical elimination of Zelenskyy and his cabal.

Some military analysts questioned whether the alleged incident could be seen as an assassination attempt.

This looks like #Ukraine (assuming it was Ukraine) is trying to bring the war home to #Russia, by hitting symbolic targets, the head of intelligence at the Le Beck consultancy, Michael A. Horowitz, a geopolitical and security analyst, said on Twitter.

Russia has frequently accused Ukraine of planning attacks inside the country, often being met with official denials.

The two U.S. officials were skeptical that any drone Washington might have provided to Ukraine would have been used, because it would have had to fly very far from Ukraine all the way to the Kremlin. Neither official could say whether the report could be a disinformation campaign by Russia or not, adding that they were still trying to figure that out.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a world press freedom event Wednesday, I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.

Ukrainian agents have pursued drone attacks inside Russia, contrary to U.S. and Western wishes, according to a batch of leaked U.S. intelligence documents.

James Nixey, the director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Chatham House think tank in London, said he was also skeptical.

Lets be clear on what this is not. Its not an assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin. Thats just what the Kremlin is saying, he said in an emailed comment.

The two most likely possibilities are a warning shot across the bows by Kyiv or a false flag operation by Moscow designed to justify more intense attacks in Ukraine or more conscription, he said.

Russia made the allegation 14 months into its invasion of Ukraine and ahead of an expected counteroffensive by Kyivs military.

Russian forces have struggled to make substantive progress in their own push over the winter, a campaign focused on a brutal battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut, which seems to have come at a steep cost for both sides.

After domestic blowback to the call-up of hundreds of thousands of military reservists last year, the Kremlin has recently stepped up its efforts to recruit volunteers to fight in Ukraine with slick advertising campaigns and new legislation.

But the war has also increasingly been brought home in a wave of recent incidents in the country as both sides seemingly launch drone attacks ahead of the crucial fighting to come.

A large fire was blazing earlier Wednesday at a fuel depot near a key bridge connecting Russia to occupied Crimea. Authorities blamed the incident on a drone attack, days after another caused a fire at a nearby oil terminal and blasts derailed freight trains in a region bordering Ukraine.

Also Wednesday, the U.S. said it is sending Ukraine $300 million in additional military aid  including ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, howitzers, artillery and mortar rounds. The aid package is the 37th since the war began in February.

Russias FSB, meanwhile, arrested seven people it said were connected with Ukrainian intelligence and planning a series of high-profile sabotage and terrorist acts in the annexed peninsula.

Russian war hawks also weighed in after the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, speculating about potential escalation by Moscow in response.

Maybe it will kick off for real now? Margarita Simonyan, the head of the Russian state broadcaster RT, posted on Telegram. Simonyan is one of the most vocal pro-war public figures in the country.

In a Telegram post, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian parliaments lower house, demanded the use of weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russias Wagner Group, whose mercenary forces have led the assault on Bakhmut, said the Ukrainian counteroffensive had already begun.

The enemy has also become more active outside the historical borders of Ukraine  the Russian Federation, Prigozhin said in a statement.

We see the situation in our various areas: trains, drones, and so on. Therefore, I think that everything has already gone. When will it become active? I think that in the near future, maybe days, he said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Russia issues visas to refugees from the Middle East to travel to the EU

A German police report noted that 22,500 illegal immigrants were stopped at EU borders in March  more than 60% compared to the same period last year.

Most are arriving from Turkiye via Russia, not the more common Greece route.

Around four million Middle Eastern refugees are currently in Turkiye. Many have applied for a Russia visa.

Read also: Russias FSB trying to recruit Ukrainian refugees abroad, Estonian security service says

The migrants then cross into Belarus, whose border with Russia has been effectively erased, before illegally crossing into the EU through Poland before travelling on toward Germany.

The illegal use of Russian visas for travel through Russia to Belarus and then to the European Union continues, the police said in the report.

This route is actively promoted on social networks, said the German law enforcement.

Experts say there are special planes flying from Turkey to Russia and Belarus to bring the migrants.

(Russian dictator Vladimir) Putin and (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan are sending us more and more refugees, said BILD journalist Karl Keim.

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(Bloomberg) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denied Russian allegations that his government organized an attack on Vladimir Putins residence in the Kremlin by a pair of drones.

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We dont attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory, Zelenskiy told a news conference in Helsinki, adding that the Kremlin was probably trying to distract Russians from its failures on the battlefield. The drone claim comes less than a week before President Putin is scheduled to attend the annual Red Square military parade to celebrate the Soviet triumph in World War II.

Russia earlier said it averted an attack by the drones against the Kremlin in Moscow Tuesday night, blaming the attempt on Ukraine without providing evidence. Putin wasnt in the Kremlin at the time of the attack, his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said, according to RIA Novosti.

Still, the Kremlin called the assault an attempt on the life of the president, saying Russia reserves the right to take retaliatory measures when and where it considers necessary.

No Injuries

The drones were disabled and crashed in the Kremlin without causing injuries or damage, the presidential press service said in a statement. There was no way to immediately verify the alleged attack.

If confirmed, even a failed strike on a complex that for centuries has symbolized Russian official power would be a dramatic step in bringing the threat of war home to the country. Since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Russian missiles and drones have repeatedly struck the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other cities, killing thousands of civilians. Air-raid sirens rang out across the country Wednesday evening.

Story continues

Washington, EU

In Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, I cant in any way validate the Russian claims. He said he takes all Kremlin allegations with a very large shaker of salt.

At the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it is really too early to tell whether theres any truth to Russias claim, but she said Russia has a history of false flags.

Since the beginning of this conflict, the United States is certainly not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders, she said. Weve been very clear from here about that.

A spokesman for the European Unions foreign policy arm said the EU is seeking more information about what actually happened.

Peter Stano, the spokesman, said the alleged drone attacks must not be used as a pretext for further escalation of Russias continued aggression outside of its borders.

Angry Responses

Russian state television appeared to play down the drone report, sticking largely to other news Wednesday afternoon. There was no explanation for why it took about 12 hours from the time of the alleged attack for the Kremlin to comment.

But the Kremlins claim drew angry responses from Russian politicians. Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of parliament, said legislators will demand the use of weapons which are capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime.

Sergei Mironov, a senior pro-Kremlin legislator called for a real war in retaliation in a Twitter post that included a video of a flying object exploding on the roof of the Senate Palace just off Red Square. That clip couldnt immediately be verified.

This cant be left without some kind of demonstrative response, said Ruslan Pukhov, a Moscow-based military expert. There will be a missile or bomb strike on some symbolic target. He noted that defending against the small drones allegedly used against the Kremlin is practically impossible.

Denis Fedutinov, a drone expert in Moscow, said the craft can fly at low altitudes, making them hard to shoot down. Even without doing any damage, the attack showed the vulnerability of the Russian side.

Military Parade

Despite the alleged attack, Peskov said Putin will participate in the Red Square military parade on May 9.

The Kremlin claim comes amid rising security worries ahead of the holiday and a planned Ukrainian offensive. About a dozen cities around Russia have canceled parades and other public activities for May 9, citing unspecified security concerns. Many canceled fireworks.

Shortly before the Kremlin statement was released, Moscow city authorities issued an order banning the use of drones in the capital, state-run Tass news service reported. The region around the capital announced a similar ban later.

Starting last year, Russia deployed anti-aircraft weapons in and around the capital to step up protection. In recent months, there have been several reports of drones of various sizes crashing in regions outside Moscow.

Russia has blamed Ukraine for a string of sabotage and other attacks around the country since the invasion. Kyiv hasnt officially taken responsibility, however.

(Updates with US, EU comments starting in seventh paragraph)

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Smoke from a fire at an oil depot near the Taman port, view from the side of the Crimean bridge across the Kerch Strait

A massive 1,200 square meter (around 13,000 square feet) fire erupted at a Russian fuel storage facility near the Port of Taman, with flames and smoke towering over what is believed to be large fuel tanks, according to photos published by Reuters on May 3.

REUTERS/Stringer

REUTERS/Stringer

REUTERS/Stringer

Resting near the village of Volna about 15 km from the Crimean Bridge, Russia uses the Port of Taman as a military logistics hub for southern Ukraine.

Locals reported explosions at around 2.00 a.m. The engulfed fuel tank contains 20,000 cubic meters of fuel, said Russias REN TV.

"The fire has been classified as the highest rank of difficulty," Krasnodar Krai Governor Veniamin Kondratyev wrote on Telegram, adding that there are no victims and no danger to the public.

Read also: Military base on fire in occupied Crimea, photos show

The smoke is visible even from the other side of the Kerch Strait  from the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.



While authorities have yet to comment on the cause of the fire, Russian outlets said it was a drone attack orchestrated by Ukraine.

Russian independent news Telegram channel Baza reported about explosions allegedly from a drone attack before the fire occurred and published videos from the scene.

The Taman Peninsula and the village of Volna on the map:

UPDATE: Efforts to extinguish the fire are ongoing as of 10.00 a.m. and involve five fire engines and 188 people, Kondratiev reported, publishing new videos from the fire scene.

Many other spectacular videos of the flames and billowing smoke have appeared on social media.

The oil depot was not the only site in Russia targeted by drones in the early hours of May 3.

Around five drones attacked the Bryansk military airfield, reported Baza. Two were allegedly shot down with small arms, while another two exploded at the airfield, the message reads.

"One more drone wasn't found," Baza said.

An An-124, which was not in operation, sustained "minor damage" and no one was allegedly affected in the attack, Baza said.

Story continues

Read also: Two more explosives found near site of explosion near St. Petersburg  Russian media

Another fire occurred at Gostilitsy airfield in Russia's Leningrad Oblast in the morning of May 3, Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti reported.

A 15 square meter tire fire was extinguished and caused no injuries, the propaganda outlet claimed.

The fire was reported around 7.00 a.m. and caused the evacuation of two helicopters, reported the Leningrad Oblast office of the Russian Emergencies Ministry. They allege that no equipment was damaged.

Gostilitsy Airfield is a small airport in Leningradskaya Oblast about 60 km (37 miles) away Saint Petersburg.

Earlier, an explosion on a train in Bryansk Oblast caused the derailment of up to 20 cars. It was the second train explosion in Bryansk Oblast in the past two days.

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By Andrew Stanton

May 02, 2023: Information Clearing House -- "Newsweek" -- Representative Lois Frankel recently sold shares of First Republic Bank as well as purchased stock in JP Morgan, which on Monday took over First Republic following its collapse.

First Republic Bank (FRC) was seized by California regulators and sold to JPMorgan Chase (JPM), which will now assume responsibility for its debts and assets, on Monday. Shares in First Republic, a San Francisco-based bank founded in 1985, fell more than 75 percent last week after the bank announced that depositors withdrew $100 billion in March.

The collapse comes amid weeks of turmoil in the U.S. banking industry. In March, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank both failed, setting off concerns about potential looming widespread financial troubles. Following the SVB collapse, First Republic's stock quickly began to drop, prompting an attempted rescue from several larger banks, which deposited $30 billion into the institution but ultimately failed to stop its collapse.

Amid these banking troubles, several lawmakers are facing questions about recent stock trades involving First Republic Bank.

Frankel, a Florida Democrat who represents areas near West Palm Beach, is among those lawmakers who sold shares of First Republic Bank in the weeks leading up to its failure.

According to an April 28, 2023, financial disclosure report, Frankel first sold shares of the bank on March 16 following SVB's collapse. Just days later on March 22, Frankel also purchased shares in JP Morgan Chase & Co, according to the report.

It remained unknown exactly how much stock was traded at each time, though the filing specified values between $1,001 and $15,000 for each trade. Both trades were sub-holdings of a Morgan Stanley IRA, according to the disclosure. Newsweek reached out to Representative Frankel's office for comment via email.
KYIV, Ukraine  Russias defense chief on Tuesday urged a state company to double its missile output, as a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive looms and both sides in the 14-month war reportedly experience an ammunition crunch.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, speaking at a meeting with top military brass, said the state-owned Tactical Missiles Corp. had been fulfilling its contracts in a timely manner. The business was ranked the 36th largest defense company in the world in Defense News 2022 Top 100 list.

But, Shoigu added, right now it is necessary to double the production of high-precision weapons in the shortest possible time.

Analysts have been trying to figure out whether Russia is running low on high-precision ammunition, as its missile barrages against Ukraine have become less frequent and smaller in scale.

The U.K. Defence Ministry noted in a Tuesday assessment that logistics problems remain at the heart of Russias struggling campaign in Ukraine.

Russia does not have enough munitions to achieve success on the offensive, it said.

And the White House said Monday it now estimates Russia had suffered 100,000 casualties since December, including more than 20,000 killed, as Ukraine rebuffed a heavy assault by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.

An employee walks at the workshop of the Forges de Tarbes, which produces 155mm shells, the munition for French Caesar artillery guns in use by the Ukrainian military, in Tarbes, southwestern France, on April 4, 2023. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images)

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. estimate was based on newly declassified American intelligence. He did not explain how the intelligence community derived the number.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday described Washingtons latest estimate of Russias losses in Ukraine as spun out of thin air.

Washington doesnt have the opportunity to give any correct numbers. They dont have such data, Peskov said.

Later Tuesday, the Ukrainian military reported that Russian forces launched 30 airstrikes, three missile strikes and eight attacks from multiple rocket launchers, resulting in casualties among the civilian population and damage to civilian infrastructure.

Story continues

The General Staff of Ukraines armed forces said Russia was continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraines industrial east, focusing attacks around Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka in the countrys Donetsk province.

The prosecutors office in Ukraines southern Kherson province reported that Russian shelling in the regional capital, also called Kherson, and several villages killed three people and wounded five.

Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, say they are readying their own counteroffensive  and stockpiling ammunition to sustain it along potentially long supply lines.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Monday that the key things for the assaults success were the availability of weapons, prepared, trained people, our defenders and defenders who know their plan at their level, as well as providing this offensive with all the necessary things  shells, ammunition, fuel, protection, etc.

As of today, we are entering the home stretch, when we can say: Yes, everything is ready,  Reznikov said in televised comments.

In Russias Bryansk region, which borders northern Ukraine, an unidentified explosive device derailed a freight train, Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said Tuesday evening.

Russian Railways confirmed that illegal interference caused 20 cars of the freight train to derail. No casualties were reported.

An explosive device also derailed a freight train in Bryansk on Monday.

There were no immediate indications who set off the explosives, but Bryansk has received sporadic cross-border shelling during the war. In March, two people were reported killed in what regional officials described as an incursion by Ukrainian saboteurs.

In recent months, amid winter weather, the conflict has become bogged down in a war of attrition that has depleted ammunition stocks.

The Kremlins forces took aim at Ukraines critical infrastructure with long-range strikes, while Kyiv zeroed in on Russian targets with precision artillery provided by its Western allies.

In February, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Ukraine was using up ammunition far faster than its allies could provide it.

According to some estimates, Ukraine was at that time firing up to 6,000-7,000 artillery shells each day, around a third of the daily amount that Russia was using almost one year into the war.

Sporadic nighttime Russian shelling continued to hit Ukrainian areas early Tuesday, officials said. At least seven civilians were wounded, authorities said.

As Ukraines military prepares for a counteroffensive to take back Russian-occupied territory, Denmark said Tuesday it is donating 1.7 billion kroner (U.S. $250.5 million) in aid to Ukraine, including mine-clearance vehicles, munitions, field bridges and money for air defenses.

We know that the Russians have entrenched themselves in the occupied territories of Ukraine with trenches, minefields and other obstacles to stop a Ukrainian offensive, acting Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said. The material in the donation package is important to pave the way for Ukrainian tanks and the armored infantry in the front line.

Amid growing Russian influence in Africa, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visiting the continent twice this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that he had spoken with the chairperson of the African Union and the president of the Comoros, Azali Assoumani, on Tuesday.

In the video update, Zelenskyy said he had invited Assoumani to join the implementation of Ukraines Peace Formula, and assured Assoumani that Ukraine was ready to be a reliable guarantor of food security.
A Russian Su-35 fighter jet carried out an air strike on a facility in the village of Svesa, Sumy Oblast, on the night of 2-3 May.

Source: Sumy Oblast State Administration and Operational Command Pivnich (North) on Telegram

Details: Russian troops had reportedly been striking the border of Sumy Oblast from the evening of 2 May to the morning of 3 May.

A Russian Su-35 jet dropped two bombs, preliminary reports indicating that they were KAB precision-guided bombs, on the village of Svesa at around 10:00 on 2 May, targeting an educational institution and a business facility.

The facility has been damaged in the air strike. Information on casualties and damage is being established.

Fifteen strikes were recorded in the area of the settlements of Novovasylivka and Chervone on the morning of 3 May, presumably from a 120-mm mortar.

There were no reports of casualties among the local population or damage to civilian infrastructure.

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The Russian military launched an attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia on the night of 2-3 May, damaging private houses but causing no casualties. Front-line settlements of Zaporizhzhia Oblast were under attack for several hours.

Source: Secretary of Zaporizhia City Council Anatolii Kurtiev; Head of Zaporizhia Oblast Military Administration Yurii Malashko

Quote from Kurtev: "Peaceful houses in one of the private sectors of the city were again caught in the crosshairs of enemy missiles. As a result of the attack, 1 house was destroyed, 2 were badly damaged, and in about 40 houses windows were broken and their roofs were damaged.

Thank God there were no casualties."

Details: The city emergency and rescue service, Zaporizhremservice, and volunteers have been working at the scene since nighttime.

According to the head of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration, Malashko, Russian forces carried out two strikes on civilian infrastructure facilities in the city of Zaporizhzhia overnight.

Malashko also wrote about "a loud day for the entire Zaporizhzhia Oblast".

In the oblast, the Russian army carried out 82 attacks on peaceful settlements: 2 missile strikes, 3 air strikes, 4 UAV attacks and 69 artillery strikes.

Quote from Malashko: "Front-line settlements survived the multiple-hour-long bombardments: Novoiakovlivka, Orihiv, Huliaipole and 13 more villages. There was much destruction in various hromadas: houses, property, social infrastructure and utility networks were on fire. However, the main thing is that people survived." [Hromada is an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories  ed.]

Background: It was reported that explosions rang out that night in the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro, and all drones were shot down by air defence forces over the city of Kyiv.

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A large-scale fire at an oil depot in Sevastopol after bavovna (lit. cotton in English, a euphemism used in Ukraine to describe an explosion in Russia  ed.) on April 29

Russias invading forces have moved most of their warships to Russia after the blasts in occupied Crimea, Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) representative Vadym Skibitskyi told the Kyiv television channel on April 30.

Read also: Russians, fearing strikes on Kerch bridge in Crimea, scrambling to organize more ferry services  Chubarov

Russian warships have been deployed in Novorossiysk following a decision to avoid their destruction while stationed in the temporarily occupied Crimea.

We can see the Russians are afraid of (attacks), he said.

Read also: Russia under attack  multiple drone attacks inside Russia, including massive oil fire near Crimean Bridge

That very military base in Sevastopol and other military facilities are now under enhanced security. The invaders are equipping positions to defend themselves against any attacks on this infrastructure.

Skibitskyi added that the Russians had not paid much attention to Crimeas defense until Autumn 2022 but began to bolster its defense after the Ukrainian Armys success on mainland Ukraine and the intensification of the Crimean resistance.

More than 30 explosions have occurred in Crimea since the year began, said Andriy Klymenko, Editor-in-Chief of Ukrainian outlet Black Sea News.

Earlier, Russians complained about a drone attack in Crimea. Also, explosions were heard at the Kozacha Bay near Sevastopol early on April 29. Afterwards, a massive fire broke out at a local oil depot, marked with a pillar of thick black smoke.

Read also: Fire in Sevastopol destroys over 10 tanks with fuel for Russian Black Sea Fleet  Ukrainian intelligence

A major fire broke out at a training facility for Russian border guards near Simferopol on May 2.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the Russian State Duma, has called the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin a "terrorist attack" against Putin and an "attack on Russia", and Mikhail Sheremet, the so-called State Duma deputy for Crimea, has called for a missile strike on the residence of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

Source: Volodin on Telegram; Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti

Quote from Volodin: "A terrorist attack against the president is an attack on Russia. The Nazi Kyiv regime must be recognised as a terrorist organisation. By giving orders to commit terrorist attacks, Zelenskyy has become on a par with other international terrorists. The Kyiv regime today is no less dangerous than al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, or ISIS. "

Details: Volodin imagines that the Kyiv authorities have supposedly "seized control over an entire state, [and now] threaten the security of Russia, Europe, and the whole world".

"There can be no negotiations with the Zelenskyy regime. We will demand the use of weapons that can stop and destroy the terrorist Kyiv regime."

Details: Sheremet called for a missile strike on Zelenskyy's residence in Kyiv and added that the President of Ukraine, from this day forward, "should begin to be afraid".

Quote from Sheremet: "Terrorists have settled in Kyiv, and, as you know, negotiating with them is pointless. They only need to be destroyed quickly and mercilessly. It's time to launch a missile strike on Zelenskyy's residence in Kyiv. I am ready to provide the coordinates: 11 Bankova Street, where the administration of the President of Ukraine is located."

Background:

The Kremlin press service said that Ukrainian drones had "attempted to strike" at the Kremlin residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the night of 3 May. The Kremlin called the so-called attack a "planned terrorist action" and an "assassination attempt on the Russian president".

Serhii Nykyforov, spokesman for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that Ukraine has no information about last nights attack on the Kremlin. What happened in Moscow, he said, was clearly a Russian escalation of the situation before 9 May.

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A large-scale air-raid warning has been announced in several regions of Ukraine after a Tu-22M3 long-range bomber took off in Russia.

Source: Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda

Details: Ihnat said the Tu-22M3 bomber is currently being tracked. It is flying in Kursk Oblast, constantly changing its direction.

An air-raid warning has therefore been announced in regions of Ukraine that may be within the missiles' effective range (Kh-22 anti-ship missiles are capable of hitting ground targets within a range of up to 600 km).

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Russias mercenary group Wagner, led by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, has expanded its activities in Africa, with one suspected direct action in conflict zones and dozens of efforts to help secure resources across the continent.

"Outside of Ukraine, [Wagners] presence in Africa is the most widespread," John Hardie, deputy director of the Russia program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. "It is really across the continent."

The U.S. Treasury earlier this year designated Wagner "a significant transnational criminal organization," providing Washington the ability to sanction individuals and the groups support network "across multiple continents."

Most recently, Wagner has come out of the shadows in Africa after months of rumors that the group was operating there. The Central Africa Republic alone has recorded around 1,890 "Russian instructors" supporting government troops in the ongoing civil war, German news outlet DW reported.

NEW WORLD DISORDER: CHINA, RUSSIA BLOC SHORES UP INFLUENCE AS COUNTRIES EAGER TO JOIN, INCLUDING US ALLIES

A Russian flag hangs on a monument in Bangui March 22, 2023, during a march in support of Russia and China's presence in the Central African Republic.

The group was founded in 2014 but found recent prominence in the Ukraine invasion as Russian President Vladimir Putin leaned more heavily on the group to bolster his forces following significant loses during the early months of the war.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Hardie described Wagner as just one part of founder Yevgeny Prigozhins network, albeit the crown jewel of his operations, along with political technologists, troll farms and other information operations.

"The network is obviously in part a proxy for the Kremlin, so where the Kremlin is interested, Wagner and Prigozhin will follow," Hardie said.

"Wagner is also a money-making business, in a sense. Its able to make money from mining concessions, and so on, in Africa as well as its security partnerships with guys like Sudan, etc."

RUSSIA 'CHIEF BENEFICIARY' IN DEADLY SUDAN CONFLICT AS ATTEMPTED CEASEFIRE FALLS APART

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A U.S. cable sent in January and reviewed by Politico claimed that Wagner stood to gain $1 billion in mining profits from its Central African Republic operations alone, which the group would funnel toward new weapons and fighters, according to a Western official.

But Wagner may have also entered into conflict zones. Leaked U.S. intelligence documents cited "a successful unattributed attack in Libya" that "destroyed a Wagner logistics aircraft," part of a wider Wagner fleet, according to The Washington Post.

Wagner has operated in at least 13 nations, eight of which are in Africa, according to the documents.

One such conflict includes efforts by Wagner in February of this year, during which the mercenaries tried to recruit rebels in the country of Chad and establish a training site for 300 fighters in the neighboring Central African Republic as part of an "evolving plot to topple the Chadian government," the Post reported.

RUSSIA'S DEFENSE CHIEF WANTS TO DOUBLE MISSILE OUTPUT WITH POTENTIAL UKRAINIAN COUNTEROFFENSIVE LOOMING

Sudan also plays a significant role in Wagners plans. The group partnered with Omar al-Bashir and then with the generals who ousted him, providing advisers and riot gear against a grassroots democracy movement, according the United States Institute of Peace.

In return, the Sudanese authorities gave a Wagner-linked shell company the rights to refine gold-bearing ore and export the ore, untaxed.

Demonstrators carry banners in Bangui March 22, 2023, during a march in support of Russia and China's presence in the Central African Republic.

Wagner also sent fighters to support the ruling military in Mali against the French-backed government forces.

Rebekah Koffler, president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting and a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, told Fox News Digital Wagner is merely "executing Putins Africa strategy."

"The Kremlin has articulated a version of the great game, Putins great game in Africa," Koffler explained. "The goals of Russia in Africa were declared and codified officially in Russias most recent foreign policy concept that Putin signed just this past March.

"The way they described it is to just ensure trade and economic cooperation, ensure support for Africa and for African countries, and just basically typical propaganda.  But, in reality, Putin wants to secure and maintain the foothold in the eastern Mediterranean, including naval port access in the Red Sea and continuing to extract natural resources out of Africa.

"Russia has had ties to various countries in Africa dating back to the USSR, and now theyre capitalizing."
Russian invaders attacked the railway station in Kherson on Wednesday afternoon. One person was killed and three others were wounded.

Source: Oleksandr Prokudin, Head of Kherson Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote: "The enemy attacked Kherson railway station. So far one person is known to have been killed and three civilians were wounded."

Details: Prokudin said an ambulance was also damaged. Fortunately, the medics were not injured.

Search and rescue services are working at the scene.

Update: The Ukrainian national railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia later added that a passenger carriage was hit at Kherson station. The conductor was injured and is receiving medical assistance.

At the time of the attack, boarding had not begun, and the passengers were in a safe shelter.

The train to Lviv with 116 passengers on board has now left Kherson with a 14-minute delay.

The carriages damaged by the attack will be promptly replaced at Mykolaiv station.

Background: Around 11:00 on Wednesday, Russian occupiers attacked the only mall open in Kherson, killing three people and injuring five.

On Wednesday afternoon, Russian troops attacked Stepanivka, Kherson Oblast, with multiple-launch rocket systems. Three employees of the regional power company were killed in the attack while they were carrying out repairs.

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Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Secretary of Russias Security Council, has called for the "physical elimination" of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his entourage.

Source: Medvedev on Telegram

Details: This was how Putin's puppet commented on the events near the Kremlin, which Russian authorities are claiming was attacked by a Ukrainian drone.

Quote: "After today's terrorist attack, there are no options left but the physical elimination of Zelenskyy and his clique. He [Zelenskyy - ed.] is not even necessary to sign an act of unconditional surrender."

Medvedev is known for his odious statements about the war in Ukraine and the political situation in general.

Background: Medvedev is known for his odious statements about the war in Ukraine and political situation in general.

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Russian submarines and warships are moored at the St. Petersburg Marine Station closed to receive cruise ships due to the coronavirus pandemic, during the International Maritime Defense show in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, June 25, 2021. AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky

Russia's military is more active in the Atlantic than in previous years, Western militaries say.

NATO's intelligence chief warns that this could lead to the targeting of undersea infrastructure.

Officials have warned for years about an increasing threat against undersea pipelines and cables.

Russian forces have been more active in the Atlantic Ocean than in previous years, NATO's intelligence chief warned Wednesday as he highlighted fears of possible undersea cable sabotage.

"There are heightened concerns that Russia may target undersea cables and other critical infrastructure in an effort to disrupt Western life to gain leverage against those nations that are providing security to Ukraine," David Cattler, NATO's assistant secretary general for intelligence and security, told reporters on Wednesday.

"The Russians are more active than we have seen them in years in this domain," he said of Moscow's active patrolling of the Atlantic, according to Reuters.

Cattler's remarks echo recent testimony by Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the head of US European Command. Cavoli said Russia's undersea force has not been negatively impacted by Moscow's war in Ukraine, adding that the "Russians are more active than we've seen them in years, and their patrols into the Atlantic and throughout the Atlantic are at a high level most of the time, at a higher level than we've seen in years."

Cavoli is not the only member of the US military leadership to issue caution over Russian ship activity. Gen. Glen VanHerck, the head of US Northern Command, told lawmakers in March that Russian submarine activity has increased off the US coasts, and it may be only a year or two before this becomes a "persistent threat."

In this Saturday, July 29, 2017 file aerial photo, the Russian nuclear-powered cruiser Pyotr Veliky (Peter the Great) and the Russian nuclear submarine Dmitry Donskoy moored near Kronstadt, a seaport town 30 km (19 miles) west of St. Petersburg, Russia. AP Photo/Elena Ignatyeva, File

The possibility that a foreign adversary might target undersea cables and other critical infrastructure has long worried officials in NATO countries. A top UK defense official said in 2015 that the threat to cables and pipelines is "a new risk to our way of life." Two years later, then-British parliament member Rishi Sunak described undersea cables as "indispensable yet insecure."

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Russia is understood to have such interference capabilities because it operates submarines with special-mission capabilities, such as small submersibles that can play around with undersea infrastructure. Worried about this threat to infrastructure, the US government has targeted Russian firms and individuals with sanctions to try and curb Moscow's undersea operations.

Russia's undersea capabilities have led some officials to suggest that Moscow may have been behind the mysterious sabotage to the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022. Investigators have confirmed that the clandestine attacks were deliberate, but it's still unclear who is responsible.

Cattler's comments on Wednesday, however, appear to suggest that Russia could target undersea cables and infrastructure as a specific means of punishing the dozens of countries that are providing billions of dollars in military assistance to Ukraine and improving its position accordingly.

The US alone has provided over $35.4 billion in security assistance since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to a Department of Defense fact sheet. This lethal hardware includes mountains of air-defense systems, infantry fighting vehicles, rockets and missiles, precision munitions, ammunition, drones, and small arms.

Read the original article on Business Insider
What China Is Really Playing at in Ukraine

By Pepe Escobar

May 02, 2023: Information Clearing House -- " SCF " -- Imagine President Xi Jinping mustering undiluted Taoist patience to suffer through a phone call with that warmongering actor in a sweaty T-shirt in Kiev while attempting to teach him a few facts of life  complete with the promise of sending a high-level Chinese delegation to Ukraine to discuss peace.

Theres way more than meets the discerning eye obscured by this spun-to-death diplomatic victory  at least from the point of view of NATOstan.

The question is inevitable: whats the point of this phone call? Very simple: just business.

The Beijing leadership is fully aware the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is the un-dissociable double of an American direct war against the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Until recently, and since 2019, Beijing was the top trade partner for Kiev (14.4% of imports, 15.3% of exports). China essentially exported machinery, equipment, cars and chemical products, importing food products, metals and also some machinery.

Very few in the West know that Ukraine joined BRI way back in 2014, and a BRI trade and investment center was operating in Kiev since 2018. BRI projects include a 2017 drive to build the fourth line of the Kiev metro system as well as 4G installed by Huawei. Everything is stalled since 2022.

Noble Agri, a subsidiary of COFCO (China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation), invested in a sunflower seed processing complex in Mariupol and the recently built Mykolaiv grain port terminal. The next step will necessarily feature cooperation between Donbass authorities and the Chinese when it comes to rebuilding their assets that may have been damaged during the war.

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Beijing also tried to become heavily involved in the Ukraine defense sector and even buy Motor Sich; that was blocked by Kiev.

Watch that neon

So what we have in Ukraine, from the Chinese point of view, is a trade/investment cocktail of BRI, railways, military supplies, 4G and construction jobs. And then, the key vector: neon.

Roughly half of neon used in the production of semiconductors was supplied, until recently, by two Ukrainian companies; Ingas in Mariupol, and Cryoin, in Odessa. Theres no business going on since the start of the Special Military Operation (SMO). That directly affects the Chinese production of semiconductors. Bets can be made that the Hegemon is not exactly losing sleep over this predicament.

Ukraine does represent value for China as a BRI crossroads. The war is interrupting not only business but, in the bigger picture, one of the trade and connectivity corridors linking Western China to Eastern Europe. BRI conditions all key decisions in Beijing  as it is the overarching concept of Chinese foreign policy way into mid-century.

And that explains Xis phone call, debunking any NATOstan nonsense on China finally paying attention to the warmongering actor.

As relevant as BRI is the overarching bilateral relationship dictating Beijings geopolitics: the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership.

So lets transition to the meeting of Defense Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) earlier this week in Delhi.

The key meeting in India was between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Chinese colleague Li Shangfu. Li was recently in Moscow, and was received by Putin in person for a special conversation. This time he invited Shoigu to visit Beijing, and that was promptly accepted.

Needless to add that every single player in the SCO and beyond, including nations that are for the moment just observers or dialogue partners as well as others itching to become full members, such as Saudi Arabia, paid very close attention to the Shoigu-Shangfu camaraderie.

When it comes to the profoundly strategic Central Asian stans, that represents the six feet under treatment for the Hegemon wishful thinking of using them in a Divide and Rule scheme pitting Russia against China.

Shoigu-Shangfu also sent a subtle message to SCO members India and Pakistan  stop bickering and in the case of Delhi, hedging your bets  and to full member (in 2023) Iran and near future member Saudi Arabia: heres wheres it at, this the table that matters.

All of the above also points to the increasing interconnection between BRI and SCO, both under Russia-China leadership.

BRICS is essentially an economic club  complete with its own bank, the NDB  and focused on trade. Its mostly about soft power. The SCO is focused on security. Its about hard power. Together, these are the two key organizations that will be paving the multilateral way.

As for what will be left of Ukraine, it is already being bought by Western mega-players such as BlackRock, Cargill and Monsanto. Yet Beijing certainly does not count on being left high and dry. Stranger things have happened than a future rump Ukraine positioned as a functioning trade and connectivity BRI partner.

Pepe's
(Reuters) - Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday evening, the fourth assault in as many days subjecting residents to spasms of gunfire and explosions, and at least one drone was shot down.

FIGHTING

* Russia said the United States was behind a purported drone attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday night aiming to kill President Putin.

* The United States dismissed as lies Russia's allegation. Ukraine also denied involvement.

* Nearly 50 Russian attacks were repelled along the main sectors of the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Thursday evening. The heaviest fighting is still in Bakhmut and in Maryinka, further south in Donetsk region, it said.

* Reuters was not able to verify the battlefield accounts.

DIPLOMACY/POLITICS

* Technical personnel from Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, and the United Nations will meet on Friday to discuss a deal that allows the exports of Ukrainian grains on the Black Sea, the Turkish Defence Minister said.

* The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said on a visit to Brazil that she encouraged the government to include Ukraine in any attempt to negotiate an end to the war. She was referring to President Lula da Silva's comments calling on the West to stop arming Ukraine to allow peace talks to start.

* Putin must be brought to justice for his war in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy said in The Hague, calling for the creation of a war crimes tribunal separate to the International Criminal Court.

QUOTES

* "I don't believe they got to the Kremlin ... Our Putin is super. Nothing ever threatens him" - Moscow resident Zifa.

* "We all want to see a different Vladimir here in The Hague, the one who deserves to be sanctioned for his criminal actions here, in the capital of international law" - Zelenskiy

RECENT IN-DEPTH STORIES

* ANALYSIS-Kremlin incident gives Putin cover to deepen war

* COLUMN-Global ammunition race may decide Ukraine war

* Liberated villages offer glimpse of precarious Ukrainian health system.

(Compiled by Reuters editors)
At least 130 people have died after floods and landslides hit Rwanda's northern and western provinces, authorities say.

The rains hit at night when many people were asleep - an official told the BBC this is one reason why so many died.

The five-year-old daughter of Claudette Nyiraneza was among them.

"We could not save my daughter under the rubble until morning," she told the BBC, adding that neighbours eventually helped retrieve her body.

Local governor Francois Habitegeko said many houses had collapsed on people.

He said that main roads in the area "are not usable because of landslides".

Rwanda's public broadcaster RBA reports that the casualty numbers are expected to increase as floodwaters continue to rise.

Rwanda's president offered his condolences to those who have been affected. His statement also added that residents were being evacuated from "affected and high-risk areas".

The government's main priority now is to "reach every house that has been damaged to ensure we can rescue any person who may be trapped", the Reuters news agency quotes Mr Habitegeko as saying.

Relief efforts have already started, "including helping to bury victims of the disaster and providing supplies to those whose homes were destroyed," a government minister for emergencies, Marie Solange Kayisire, told AFP

The heavy rains pounded Rwanda "all night" and more downpours are expected throughout the month, authorities say.

Heavy rains and consequent damage and casualties between March and May are commonplace in Rwanda, but the deluge on Tuesday night was unusually strong and long-lasting.

This is the worst flooding Rwanda has seen since May 2020 when around 80 people died.

Deaths have also been reported in neighbouring Uganda, where six people have died after landslides, the Ugandan Red Cross says.

Rwanda's weather authority is linking the unusual rains seen in recent years to climate change.

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Many factors contribute to flooding, but a warming atmosphere caused by climate change makes extreme rainfall more likely.

The world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

It is expected that the number of casualties will increase
Two men last week were ordered to spend the rest of their lives in prison for their roles in a revenge-murder plot that targeted a Rocklin man who disappeared five years ago and still hasnt been found.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge James Aguelles sentenced Robert Manor, 54, and Victor Merle Gray, 53, to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to a news release from the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office. Both men remained in custody Tuesday awaiting transfer to state corrections officials.

Manor and Gray were sentenced Friday for the death of Raymond Wright. He was 55 years old when he disappeared Jan. 11, 2018. Hes presumed dead and his body was never found.

A Sacramento County jury in March found Manor and Gray guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping for ransom causing Wrights death. The murder charge for each defendant included a special circumstance enhancement for committing murder during a kidnapping.

In 2011, Wright was driving intoxicated and caused a crash in which Manors wife was seriously injured. The District Attorneys Office prosecuted Wright on a felony charge of driving under the influence. Prosecutors said Wright served his time in custody and completed his probation.

But Manor held a grudge against Wright for years and put his plan for revenge into motion in 2018, according to the news release. Prosecutors said Wright then mysteriously disappeared.

Wright had three children, worked as an independent contractor on construction projects throughout the Sacramento area, played drums in a local band and had no known history of mental illness.

His family searched his home and a shop he rented in Rio Linda, but did not find him. Wrights 2016 white Ford F-250 was last seen on the day he went missing near the intersection of 26th and I streets east of Rio Linda. Later that month, that pickup was found in an apartment complex along Freedom Park Drive near Watt Avenue and Elkhorn Boulevard, according to the Sacramento County Sheriffs Office.

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The search for the missing man eventually extended statewide.

Prosecutors said Wrights brother on Jan. 13, 2018, encountered a strange man inside the victims home and called the police. The man ran out of the house, but a soda cup filled with a fresh drink was found in the kitchen. The straw from the cup was tested for DNA and uploaded to the FBIs national DNA database.

On Jan. 27, 2018, Gray was driving under the influence and led the California Highway Patrol on a high-speed chase, according to the District Attorneys Office. The chase ended in a crash, causing injuries to others. Authorities towed away Grays van from the scene.

Authorities searched the van and found inside a blood-soaked raincoat, Wrights wallet and other property belonging to him, prosecutors said. Many of Wrights belongings had been charred. But the blood on the raincoat matched Wrights DNA.

Prosecutors said further investigation led to a letter from Gray to Manor that included complaints about not being paid for delivering dude and asked Manor to take care of the person who hand-delivered you your revenge.

Other evidence also linked Manor to the revenge killing and the hiring of Gray to kidnap Wright from his Rio Linda shop, according to the District Attorneys Office. Then, investigators learned that the DNA uploaded to the FBI database returned a full profile match to Victor Gray who was a convicted felon, prosecutors said. Manor and Gray were arrested in March 2021.
Saint Agnes Medical Centers president and chief executive officer Nancy Holligsworth will retire at the end of this month amid a reorganization and will be replaced by a new CEO based in Idaho, according to a letter sent to employees and providers on Wednesday obtained by The Bee.

Hollingsworths last day as the top leader for the Fresno-area hospital will be May 26, according to the letter. David Spivey, who most recently served as interim president and CEO for St. Marys Health System in Athens, Georgia, will become Saint Agnes interim president and market leader.

Hollingsworth, the letter says, chose to retire amid a reorganization that will streamline management and decision making, reduce administrative costs and improve overall operating performance.

Nancy Hollingsworth, CEO Saint Agnes Medical Center

Until her departure, Nancy is committed to providing leadership and guidance for an effective transition, Benjamin R. Carter, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Trinity Health, said in the letter. We sincerely thank Nancy for her many contributions over the years and for her unwavering commitment to meeting the needs of the patients and community she so passionately served.

Trinity Health owns and operates Saint Agnes.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital across the nation are facing changes in patient volumes, staffing challenges with high-cost contracts and higher supply and pharmacy costs, Carter said in the letter. And Trinity Health is not immune to those challenges.

Our Trinity Health ministries are working to address these same issues, Carter said. This environment requires us to be responsive to these changes for our ministries to remain viable and continue our Mission of caring for the many communities who depend on us.

New structure will pair Fresno with Trinity Health hospitals in Idaho and Oregon

With that said, Trinity Health decided to regionalize the California and Idaho-Oregon ministries.

By combining the strengths of Saint Agnes Health in Fresno, CA, and Saint Alphonsus Health System in Idaho-Oregon, we will be able to streamline management and decision making, reduce administrative costs and improve overall operating performance, Carter said in the letter.

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As part of the restructure, Odette Bolano, who currently serves as president and CEO of Saint Alphonsus, will become president and CEO of the new regional entity. However, the board of directors for each entity will remain separate, Carter said.

Hollingsworth served as the president and CEO for Saint Agnes since February 2011. Prior to that, she had served as chief operating officer and chief nursing officer.

Hollingsworth first joined Saint Agnes in the 1980s as an oncology nurse before serving as manager of patient resources for more than a decade.

Hollingsworth leaves incredible legacy, board chair says

Retired Judge Robert Oliver, who is the chair of the Saint Agnes board, said in a memo sent to staff on Wednesday that he wanted to thank her for her unwavering dedication and steadfast leadership.

Oliver said Hollingsworth leaves an incredible legacy... behind.

Under Hollingsworth tenure as leader for the hospital, Oliver said, Saint Agnes implemented its first electronic heath record, completed the 6-story North Wing expansion, and grew from a stand-alone medical center to a health system that now has a medical foundation. The hospital now also has more than 20 primary, specialty and urgent care clinics, a health plan, joint ventures and a graduate medical education program, Oliver said.

Who could have imagined, when she began her career as a new nurse at Saint Agnes more than 40 years ago, how her influence would help shape the future of heath care in the Central Valley, Oliver told staff in his memo. I know I am not alone in saying that she will be deeply missed, but her impact on Saint Agnes and our community will be felt for many years to come.

Kelley Sanchez, a spokeswoman for Saint Agnes, described the changes as a natural progression for Saint Agnes Health and Saint Alphonsus Health System since several services have already been consolidated between the two entities. Some of the services that had already been consolidated include legal services, health informatics and human resources.

This is the latest regionalization for Trinity Health, having successfully merged ministries in several regions, including Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and New York, Sanchez said in a statement.
Salem-Keizer Public School Superintendent Christy Perry.

Salem-Keizer Public Schools Superintendent Christy Perry has proposed a $1.3 billion budget for the 2023-24 school year.

Thats about $89 million less than the current school year's budget. Enrollment also is expected to decrease next year, from about 39,307 to 38,857.

With the present fiscal uncertainty, resources committed directly to students are critical, Perry told the districts budget committee. We are in a precarious fiscal position, and it will be essential the new superintendent and current school board monitor the fiscal health of the district as they navigate this biennium.

Perry plans to retire at the end of the school year. New superintendent Andrea Castaneda begins July 1.

Its uncertain exactly how much money the district will have because the Oregon Legislature has not yet approved a two-year funding allocation for schools. Perry built the budget assuming the Legislature will allocate $9.9 billion for schools statewide.

Its also uncertain how much the district will need to spend because it is in labor negotiations with both of its employee unions. The budget includes $14 million for wage and insurance increases.

Perrys proposed budget includes $605.3 million in the general fund, which is the districts main operating budget. Thats slightly less than budgeted for the current school year.

Other funds include capital projects, grants and self-supporting services.

Salem-Keizer, along with most districts in Oregon, has been losing students, Perry said.

Enrollment has declined about 6% over the past five years, from 41,755 in 2017-18 to an estimated 39,307 this school year. It is projected to be 38,857 in 2023-24.

However, the proposed budget holds general fund staff positions for schools consistent, except for some positions shifted into grant funds.

We have adopted this approach because we believe excellent instruction and services provided directly to students are the most effective methods for achieving our strategic goals, Perry said in her budget message.

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The budget invests in improving attendance, expanding dual-language programming and replenishing a fund to make the replacement of school materials equitable.

It invests $13 million in Career Technical Education offerings and $4.1 million in early literacy.

Public input opportunities

Now, the districts budget committee, made up of the seven school board directors as well as seven appointed community members, will take public testimony on the proposed budget.

The committee will make a recommendation to the school board, which will approve the final spending plan.

Here are upcoming dates. All the meetings begin at 6 p.m. and will be held electronically:

Tuesday, May 16: The budget committee will deliberate and will take public comment.

Monday, May 22: The committee will deliberate and take public comment. It may vote to approve the budget.

Tuesday, May 23 and Wednesday, May 24: Tentative meetings if the budget is not approved May 22. The committee may or may not hear public comment.

Additional meetings may be scheduled if the proposed budget has not been approved by May 24.

More information is available at salkeiz.k12.or.us/budget/.

Tracy Loew covers kids and families for the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips to tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6779. Follow her on Twitter at @Tracy_Loew

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Salem-Keizer proposes $1.3B budget, a cut from this year
Homeless camps overlook Victory Road in Salt Lake City. The City Council voted Tuesday to approve a new process to establish homeless resource centers in the city. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News

The Salt Lake City Council voted Tuesday to approve a new process to establish homeless resource centers in the city, shifting from a conditional-use process and ending the mayor's temporary ban on new centers.

The new process, which creates an overlay zoning district, essentially allows any district in the city to possibly house a resource center, while also not specifying where those resource centers could be allowed. The overlay will be adopted into the zoning code with updates to the existing regulations that apply to homeless resource centers and homeless shelters.

The plan to establish a new process came shortly after Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall withdrew her support from a proposed homeless shelter in the Ballpark neighborhood and initiated a petition to ban new permanent homeless shelters in the city.

The initial six-month ban  which excluded temporary winter overflow shelters  was approved by the Salt Lake City Council and was later extended. Salt Lake City's planning division was tasked, at the time of the ban, by Mendenhall, to find a "more balanced path forward." Members of the division were asked to include considerations for districts that already housed permanent resource centers, as well as community concerns.

The new process was introduced in November in a public information session by the city's planning division. Since the ordinance's introduction, a number of concerns regarding the process were raised by advocates, homeless resource providers and individuals experiencing homelessness.

What is the difference between the two processes?

The shift from a conditional use application to an overlay zoning district essentially extends the process for applying to create a new homeless resource center and transfers final approval of centers from the Planning Commission to the City Council. The conditional-use process allowed homeless resource centers in certain districts of the city, while the overlay applies to every district except for manufacturing districts. Both processes still require an application outlining the request, along with security and operation plans, but the overlay adds additional requirements for approval.

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Some of the additional factors that need to be outlined in an application include:

The ratio of homeless-related services proposed in Salt Lake City compared to other jurisdictions in Salt Lake and Davis counties.

The anticipated impacts on city services, including fire, police and any other city department that would be involved in providing services to the facility.

The anticipated impact on other government entities that may provide service to the facility, if the information is readily available from the government entities.

The anticipated impact on the health and safety of public spaces within a quarter-mile of the proposed facility.

The change would also allow modifications to code regarding fence heights, landscaping and building design standards.

Concerns for the extended process

While the introduction of the proposed process signaled movement in lifting the moratorium, homeless resource providers voiced concerns early on.

"In terms of the city putting a complete moratorium on permanent facilities like Salt Lake City has. It's something that's a challenge for sure to have that moratorium in place. So we're eager to see something move forward," said Michelle Flynn, executive director of the Road Home, when the proposition for an overlay zoning district was first introduced.

The lack of guidance regarding potential areas for permanent homeless resource centers and the extended process under the overlay district has been a concern for providers.

Sean McMillan of the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness, encouraged City Council members to move forward with a recommendation that would place a time limitation of six to nine months to mitigate the challenges of the applicant. The recommendation did not make it into the final draft of the ordinance.

Pushback on the final vote

The seven-member City Council voted unanimously to approve the overlay zoning district, placing future approval of permanent homeless resource centers squarely in its own lap. The vote was met with significant pushback and frustration during the formal meeting's public comment period on Tuesday.

"Today's the same day that the last of 600 people were kicked out of the shelters after winter overflow. All of those people, the only option that was given to them was street camping. So on the same day that we're proposing to spend $440 million, we are actively kicking people out to camp on the streets," said Wendy Garvin, executive director of Unsheltered Utah, referring to Mendenhall's proposed budget for the 2024 fiscal year, which was also announced Tuesday.

Garvin outlined the proposed budget, pointing to the $110 million including $7.2 million for the police chief's office; $70 million for information technology; and $6.8 million for the mayor's staff.

"Last year y'all allocated $6 million for affordable housing and I approve of that, I support that. That is a good step in the right direction," said Garvin, going on to explain that just one project carried a $12 million price tag to purchase the building and approximately $4 million in renovations. "So $6 million is a drop in the bucket, and when we compare it against a $440 million budget or even $110 million policing budget, we see it as the drop in the bucket that it really is."

Additional public comments pushed back on the Salt Lake City Council's approach to homelessness overall, calling for a shift away from congregate shelters.

"We're wasting so much money when there's cheaper, more viable options that people want. People are camping out in tents in the middle of winter because they prefer that because everyone deserves the right to privacy," said Kseniya Kniazeva, founder of Nomad Alliance.

Advocates have called for sanctioned camping and an end to abatements of homeless encampments. Another public commenter echoed the call for more housing options.

"I believe that non-congregate housing options are the key to help resolve the homeless crisis. In my experience, there are not enough shelters with the capacity of the amount of homeless in the winter. And individuals are freezing, because of overflow are being pushed away, because of fair weather conditions and spring and summer, and constant abatements are losing their belongings year round," said Daniel Taylor.

Several individuals experiencing homelessness expressed frustration at the city's perceived lack of progress.

"I've lost too many people to suicide, murder, to simply being left behind. They've froze to death or they starve or they died in the heat. And you know, maybe we wouldn't have to be here having this conversation if those things could be addressed in a proactive way," said Brandon, who declined to give his last name.
Sam's Club is testing a burger-assembling robot at a warehouse in Arkansas. Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images

Sam's Club recently unveiled a robot that can assemble a burger start-to-finish without humans.

The burger has received strong reviews from at least one burger connoisseur on TikTok.

The Walmart-owned company does not currently have plans to roll the robot out nationwide, per Axios.

Watch out, burger-flipping maestros: A robot may soon be coming to take your job.

Walmart-owned Sam's Club is testing out a robot that can assemble your burgers  toppings, seasoning, and all  at a location in Fayeteville, Arkansas, not far from the company's headquarters of Bentonville.

Customers can order and pay for the burger without even talking to a human. And at least some burger connoisseurs are impressed with the product.

"Dang it, that's actually really good," TikTok account @ozarkburgerview, which reviews burgers in the Ozarks, said in a TikTok video in March. The taste tester ranked the burger above an 8 out of 10 and said it only cost him $6.72.

Sam's Club declined to comment when Insider reached out about the robot.

Jonathan Saffian, a group product manager at Sam's Club, recently told Axios the robot grinds up beef, cuts it into patties, cooks them, adds seasoning, dispenses sauces, and plops the burger onto a bun.

Sam's Club does not have any current plans to roll out this robot nationwide, Tim Simmons, Sam's Club senior vice president and chief product officer, told Axios.

Have you tried the Sam's Club burger or do you want to? Reach out to reporter Ben Tobin over email at btobin@insider.com

Read the original article on Business Insider
Sarasota Police officers work to find a suspect in connection to a Bradenton homicide on Wednesday.

Bradenton Police and Sarasota Police officers are working to find a suspect in connection to a Bradenton homicide on Wednesday.

Police officials are working with U.S. Marshals to arrest Dorian Brooks, 24, near the 5100 block of Old Bradenton Road. Officials said that he's wanted on multiple warrants. Brooks is one of seven suspects named in a Jan. 23 shooting that left a 23-year-old man dead.

While committing an alleged robbery, the suspects shot their guns more than 60 times, hitting three victims at the 100 block of 10th Avenue West.

More: Seven suspects face murder charges in Bradenton shooting, police say

In case you missed it: USF Sarasota-Manatee and several other Florida schools receive false shooting threats

As of Wednesday afternoon, the road was been blocked off, as it's still an active investigation. Officials said that the public is not in danger, but that they should avoid the area.

UPDATE: Sarasota Police are working with the @USMarshalsHQ to apprehend 24yo Dorian Brooks. He is wanted on multiple warrants, including a warrant for a Bradenton homicide. The suspect is not in custody at this time. The public is not believed to be in danger. Avoid the area. https://t.co/ehcYe7B9hC  Sarasota Police Department (@SarasotaPD) May 3, 2023

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Police work with U.S. Marshals to arrest murder suspect
Savannah Chrisley is sharing some insight on how her parents, Todd and Julie Chrisley, are dealing with their prison sentences.

In her latest Unlocked podcast episode, released on May 1, the 25-year-old revealed that her parents haven't spoken to each other in almost four months, since they began their prison sentences.

The Chrisley Knows Best patriarch is currently serving 12 years in prison, while his wife received a seven-year sentence after they were convicted of tax fraud.

Savannah Chrisley described how her mother, who is serving her time at Federal Medical Center (FMC) Lexington in Kentucky, sent her letters detailing her experience.

HOLLYWOOD GAME NIGHT --

She actually sent me 30 to 40 days worth of letters, she shared. It was just like her daily diary, journalIll eventually put them out, read them at some point to give people updates on how they were doing and what was going through their minds.

She said the constant theme in her moms letter is that she cant believe her daughter life is having to be put on hold.

I dont think theres a single letter that goes by that she does not say how much she misses my dad, she continued. They dont get to talkSo were like, four months in, almost, and being together almost 30 years now and not going a day without speaking, to now going on four months is a lot.

Savannah Chrisley added that the situation is tough and just a lot.

Her letters, it was a lot to read. It was tough to see the accounts of her day and things that shes scared of or nervous about, she added. Just, all the thoughts that go through her mind and not having my dad there with her, thats the biggest thing. Its tough.

The 25-year-old reality star gained custody of her 16-year-old brother Grayson and 10-year-old niece Chloe when her parents were sent to prison. While Julie Chrisley is in Kentucky, Todd Chrisley is serving his time at Federal Prison Camp Pensacola in Florida.

Earlier in the episode, Savannah Chrisley shared how its easier to travel to see her mother, as opposed to driving seven hours to see her dad.

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I imagine this is what having divorced parents feels like, with having to to figure out who am I gonna go see this weekend, she explained. Bouncing back and forth. And thats the hard part of figuring out like, alright, who am I gonna go see? Because also going to see dad is ...a lot further away.

The Chrisley Knows Best stars were found guilty of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the United States by a federal jury in Atlanta in June 2022. They were also accused of trying to defraud Georgia banks out of $30 million in personal loans. Todd and Julie Chrisley were sentenced on Nov. 21. They reported to their respective prisons on Jan. 17.

Since then, Savannah Chrisley noted that she feels like she's had to put her life on hold to take care of her family.

She said that the life she is living is not sustainable, but it is only. until her parents are able to come home.

I cant look at a relationship with someone and think, Oh, Im gonna get into a serious relationship with that person. It just doesnt work that way, she said. Unfortunately, as great as people may be that come along my path right now, I just cant, I dont have that emotional capacity or time to give to someone other than the kids and myself.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Following a steady rise in boating accidents and fatalities in South Carolina, lawmakers looking to beef up boater safety are one step away from sending a bill to the governors desk.

The S.C. House on Tuesday passed a Senate proposal that would require anyone under the age of 16 to receive boater education training before operating any type of watercraft in the state. The requirement would also apply to anyone under 16 renting a boat or jet ski, lawmakers said.

With 8,000 miles of rivers, 460,000 acres of lakes and 3,000 miles of coastline, the Palmetto State has an abundance of water resources with more than 360,000 recreational motorboats and personal watercraft registered with the state, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources  the agency that would be responsible for regulating boater education.

Heres the biggest mistake people make when they try to drive a boat: they try to drive it like a car and you cant drive it like a car, said state Rep. Chris Hart, D-Richland, who says he had to learn the essentials of boating on his own, having never taken a boater education course.

Without boater education, no one teaches you how to break a boat, Hart said Tuesday. No one teaches you the stern from the bow or who has the right-of-way on the water. I wish someone would have taught me that before I drove a boat for the first time.

Statistics from SCDNR show a general rise in boating-related accidents and fatalities in the state over the last five years. There were 22 recreational boating fatalities in the state in 2022, up from 15 deaths in 2018. There also were a total of 170 boating accidents in 2022, up from 142 in 2018.

The bill, which received widespread bipartisan support, passed 110-8 Tuesday, and will now go back to the Senate to decide whether to approve a House amendment that would allow anyone under 16 with a fishing or hunting license to operate a boat without a boating certificate, provided they are using the boat to travel to or from a hunting or fishing location, or are in the process of hunting or fishing while in the boat.

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If the Senate signs off on the change, the bill would only await Gov. Henry McMasters signature before becoming law.

State Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, said Tuesday that while he was happy to back the safety measure, support from his Republican colleagues seemed hypocritical.

This is the same body that passed a law that said that at 18 years old you can get a handgun and you can carry it with no training anywhere you want, whatsoever doing away with the permit process, Bamberg said, referring to a constitutional carry proposal that passed the House earlier this year. Were passing bills out of the House and the Senate that are doing away with training for things that are far more deadly than boat accidents or jet ski accidents.

Boater education courses, in some cases, are free, and available in-person, online and through certain apps, such as iLearnToBoat.

Under the bill, anyone born after July 1, 2007, would be required to receive boater safety certificates, which pushes the age requirement up by one year, every year, meaning beginning July 1, 2023, the requirement would apply to anyone under 17.

A supporter of the measure, state Rep. Chris Wooten, R-Lexington, said while he recognizes the bill will do little in preventing boating accidents involving alcohol, he said the majority of accidents dont involve booze.

You cant fix drunks on the lake, we realize that, Wooten said Tuesday. There were 170 accidents last year, and in only three were the contributing factor or the determining factor alcohol.

Thirty-eight states currently have a boater education requirement, including neighboring Georgia and North Carolina, according to Wooten.

Every state that has a boater education has less fatalities per 1,000 boaters, Wooten said.
Selling out Julian Assange By Finian Cunningham

May 02, 2023: Information Clearing House -- " SCF " -- The Australian government is finally responding to growing public protests to get Julian Assange freed from his British torture dungeon.

Distinguished independent journalists Dave Lindorff and Ron Ridenour give their takes in this interview with Finian Cunningham

As the world marks World Press Freedom Day on May 3, the most appropriate result would be the immediate release of Julian Assange. It is a travesty to celebrate this day while he is incarcerated.

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Australian-born Assange has been arbitrarily detained in Britain for 11 years over a baseless sex case that has been thrown out years ago. But the British government acting as a henchman for the United States has held Assange in solitary confinement for over four years awaiting extradition to the United States. In the U.S., he faces charges of spying and computer hacking that could see him spend the rest of his life in prison.

Julian Assange is being persecuted because he exposed the U.S. and British war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and countless other forms of corruption by Washington and its lackey Western allies. Assange is being buried under concrete walls because he exposed the truth of corruption that lies at the heart of the U.S. government.

Whats at stake is hugely vital. Not only one good mans freedom but the entire right of free speech and independent journalism and the right of the public to know. If Julian Assanges persecution is permitted then we can say goodbye to basic human rights. The degradation of Western media is rapidly underway as the Assange case illustrates. But it could get a lot worse if the injustice against Assange is allowed.

Dave Lindorff explains how public pressure demanding the release of Julian Assange is pushing the Australian government to finally, belatedly, make representations on getting him out of detention. There is a worldwide movement in support of Assange.

Ron Ridenour says that the Western public needs to ramp up the protests in a way similar to the 1960s movement for U.S. civil rights and anti-Vietnam war.

Ridenour and Lindorff condemn the Western mainstream media for selling out Assange and not helping to amplify the pressure for justice. Ridenour lampoons the corporate Western media as prostitutes for the powers that be. He challenges the New York Times, Washington Post and others to prove they are not prostitutes by taking up the cause to demand Assanges freedom.

Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.

Views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
Someone using a laptop - PA

Scammers are to be given Asbo-style orders to stop them socialising under a fraud crackdown announced by Suella Braverman.

The Home Secretary is proposing to expand the use of serious crime prevention orders (SCPOs) against scammers where investigators believe there are reasonable grounds they will defraud victims. They could be used against suspected criminals even if they have not been convicted of fraud.

It would enable judges and magistrates to place draconian restrictions on their lives including who they associate or communicate with, their travel in the UK or abroad, use of mobile phones or bank accounts and working arrangements. Anyone who breached an order would face up to five years in jail.

We are proposing to make SCPOs more accessible and easier to impose, giving law enforcement more tools to restrict the activities of serious and organised criminals including fraudsters, said the Home Offices new strategy.

Ministers are also considering fraud-specific orders as part of an independent review into expanding the civil powers that investigators could use to disrupt the lives of known scammers.

In addition, the Government is proposing new powers that would enable police investigators to seize control and require the takedown of suspected fraudsters websites including domain names and IP addresses.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Tom Tugendhat, the Minister of State for Security, said it was part of a strategy to deter and block scams in an attempt to reduce the incidence of fraud, which accounts for 41 per cent of all crime and costs at least 7 billion a year. In the year to December 2022, one in 15 adults were victims of scams.

Theres a whole series of areas where what were looking to do is basically deter, because it is much better not to have an incidence of fraud than to have one that then has to be investigated, he said.

What Im trying to do is to reduce the incidence of fraud in the UK and bring it down by 10 per cent over 2024. Now, part of that has to do with prosecution rates, but actually most of it has to do with blocking the avenues to fraud currently available to the scammer, the spoofing, and many other areas.

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The strategy, published on Wednesday, revealed that for every 1,000 estimated frauds, there was just one successful prosecution.

Ministers are creating a new national and regional fraud squad of 500 police officers that will be fully operational by 2025, but Mr Tugendhat said they also proposed greater use of magistrates for prosecutions with an extra 2,000 justices of the peace to be recruited over 2024.

Prosecution does matter. Thats why were opening a new court in the City of London to bring 550 more cases to trial per year and were looking to hire 1,000 new Crown Court judges, he said.

It comes as a series of new reports show two-thirds of the most common frauds are now originating from social media platforms including Instagram and WhatsApp.

An analysis by Revolut, a tech firm offering financial services, found 63.9 per cent of all authorised push payment fraud, where victims are tricked into making big payments, was accounted for by six of the major social media platforms.

Ministers have rejected calls to force the companies to pay compensation to victims on their sites  or to introduce a levy to cover the costs.

But Mr Tugendhat said they would be held to account by facing fines of up to 10 per cent of their global turnover under the proposed Online Safety Bill if they failed to prevent scams on their platforms.

We will have a league table so you know who the best and worst are [for fraud], he said. So I very much hope that companies like Meta and others will be looking at these statistics and bringing down the levels of fraud and the ability to scam over their platforms.

The Prime Minister, on a visit in Buckinghamshire to promote the Governments new fraud strategy, said that he had received fake delivery messages before.

He did not say when this occurred, but told broadcasters he had not fallen for it, largely because I dont have time now to answer my phone.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
An American black bear (ursus americanus) casually sits in a dumpster with his arm resting on the edge while looking for food. R Lolli Morrow/Getty Images

A school principle in West Virginia was unlocking a dumpster when a bear popped its head out.

Surveillance footage show both the principal and the bear running away from each other.

The National Park Service recommends not running away from a bear encounter.

A school principal in West Virginia came face to face with a large black bear after it popped out of a dumpster  causing both of them to appear startled and bolt from one another, video showed.

James Marsh, the principal of of Zela Elementary in Nicholas County, was unlocking the dumpster when the incident occurred on Monday, according to local Fox outlet KTVU. He had previously seen a bear wandering around and decided to lock it  apparently unaware that another bear was already inside.

Surveillance footage captured the moment the dumpster was unlocked. While Marsh stood in front of the dumpster, the lid suddenly began to open, until the bear finally poked its head out right in front of him. Marsh jumps briefly before sprinting away, while the bear also quickly hops out of the dumpster and takes off in another direction.

"I think the bear was as scared of the principal as the principal was the bear," Donna Burge-Tetrick, superintendent of the school district, told KTVU. She also said that upon reviewing the footage it seemed the bear had been able to enter and exit the dumpster even while it was locked.

"You put trash in a dumpster, but you don't expect anything to come out!" Marsh told the local station, adding: "It all happened so fast, and I am glad that nobody got hurt, and I can laugh about it now! For my students' and staff safety though, I would prefer this bear find his meals elsewhere."

Although running may be a natural extinct when you encounter an apex predator, the National Park Service warns people not to run from a bear.

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"Do NOT run, but if the bear follows, stop and hold your ground. Bears can run as fast as a racehorse both uphill and down. Like dogs, they will chase eeing animals," the park service says.

Instead, officials say you should identify yourself as human  as in, not a prey animal  by talking calmly, standing your ground, and slowly waving your arms.

One of the biggest factors in avoiding a negative encounter with bears is securing human food, which includes trash, that can attract them. Officials recommend that garbage in bear country be secured in containers and dumpsters that bears cannot access.

Read the original article on Insider
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is hopeful Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will return to the Senate next week after speaking to her on the phone, according to a picture of his prepared notes for a Tuesday press conference.

The document, headlined DEBT CEILING DEFAULT, that Schumer brought with him to the news conference, included a potential question on Feinsteins future in the upper chamber.

With the new June 1 deadline, isnt it time to tell Senator Feinstein she has to either return next week or resign? the document, captured by Politico photojournalist Francis Chung, asks, in reference to the looming debt ceiling deadline.

I spoke with Sen. Feinstein yesterday, the reply follows. We are both hopeful she can return next week.

Here is it zoomed in: pic.twitter.com/b6QSkkEUfg  Daniella Diaz (@DaniellaMicaela) May 2, 2023

Schumer, though, did not end up addressing Feinsteins prolonged absence during the presser.

A spokesperson for Schumer confirmed the documents authenticity to multiplenewsoutlets.

It was in his notes, and he would have said if someone asked, his office told Politico.

Feinstein, who was hospitalized with a case of shingles in February, has been recovering at home in San Francisco and has not provided a return date. She has said she will come back to Washington once her doctors allow her to travel.

Her absence is getting renewed attention following Treasury Secretary Janet Yellens warning that the U.S. government could reach the debt ceiling earlier than anticipated, on June 1, making her vote in the chamber crucial.

Feinsteins absence is already being felt on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee where it poses a challenge for President Joe Bidens legislative priorities, including the approval of his judicial nominees.

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While Feinstein asked that she be temporarily replaced on the panel, Republicans rejected the request.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday joined some of her progressive Democratic colleagues in calling for Feinstein to step down.

Her refusal to either retire or show up is causing great harm to the judiciary  precisely where repro rights are getting stripped, Ocasio-Cortez said. That failure means now in this precious window Dems can only pass GOP-approved nominees.

Feinstein has announced she isnt running for reelection but intends to serve the remainder of her term, which ends in January 2025.

Related...
Off the Charts

Scientists are alarmed as ocean surface temperatures have continuously set new record-breaking highs over the last month. According to data analyzed by the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute, daily ocean surface temperatures breached historical record highs since at least 1982 in April. That means we are in uncharted territory as global warming continues to take its toll with extreme weather events becoming more common by the year  and scientists are clearly shaken by the spiking temperatures. "This is getting ridiculous," physicist and climate change expert Rober Rohde tweeted. "For the last month [the daily index] has been continuously reading higher than in any previous year and still shows no sign of settling."

All Rise

But others argued such a rise should be expected at this point. "While it is comforting to see that the models work, it is terrifying, of course, to see climate change happening in real life," replied Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biogeochemist Jens Terhaar. "We are in it and it is just the beginning." It's part of a greater, worrying trend. A study published last month in the journal Earth System Science Data found that our planet accumulated almost as much heat in the past 15 years as it had in the previous 45, a worrying sign that we're in for considerable rises in global temperatures. Worse yet, we're still not entirely sure why this is even occurring. "It's not yet well established, why such a rapid change, and such a huge change is happening," Karina Von Schuckmann, the lead author of the study, told the BBC.

Setting New Records

The previous ocean surface temperature record was set in 2016 during an El Nino, ScienceAlert reports, a weather pattern associated with a warm band of ocean water developing in the Pacific. This year's El Nino, however, will kick off at a much higher starting point, as Axios points out, which means we could see similar climate events accelerating going forward. "2023 is off to an alarming start, even before El Nino conditions fully develop later this year," Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University, told Axios, adding that "new record will likely be surpassed in a matter of years." More on the ocean: Scientists Discover Leak in the Bottom of the Ocean
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP)  Computer scientists who helped build the foundations of todays artificial intelligence technology are warning of its dangers, but that doesnt mean they agree on what those dangers are or how to prevent them.

Humanity's survival is threatened when "smart things can outsmart us, so-called Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton said at a conference Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It may keep us around for a while to keep the power stations running, Hinton said. But after that, maybe not.

After retiring from Google so he could speak more freely, the 75-year-old Hinton said he's recently changed his views about the reasoning capabilities of the computer systems he's spent a lifetime researching.

These things will have learned from us, by reading all the novels that ever were and everything Machiavelli ever wrote, how to manipulate people, Hinton said, addressing the crowd attending MIT Technology Review's EmTech Digital conference from his home via video. Even if they cant directly pull levers, they can certainly get us to pull levers.

I wish I had a nice simple solution I could push, but I dont, he added. Im not sure there is a solution.

Fellow AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, co-winner with Hinton of the top computer science prize, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he's pretty much aligned with Hinton's concerns brought on by chatbots such as ChatGPT and related technology, but worries that to simply say We're doomed is not going to help.

The main difference, I would say, is hes kind of a pessimistic person, and Im more on the optimistic side, said Bengio, a professor at the University of Montreal. I do think that the dangers  the short-term ones, the long-term ones  are very serious and need to be taken seriously by not just a few researchers but governments and the population.

There are plenty of signs that governments are listening. The White House has called in the CEOs of Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to meet Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris in what's being described by officials as a frank discussion on how to mitigate both the near-term and long-term risks of their technology. European lawmakers are also accelerating negotiations to pass sweeping new AI rules.

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But all the talk of the most dire future dangers has some worried that hype around superhuman machines  which don't exist  is distracting from attempts to set practical safeguards on current AI products that are largely unregulated and have been shown to cause real-world harms.

Margaret Mitchell, a former leader on Googles AI ethics team, said shes upset that Hinton didnt speak out during his decade in a position of power at Google, especially after the 2020 ouster of prominent Black scientist Timnit Gebru, who had studied the harms of large language models before they were widely commercialized into products such as ChatGPT and Googles Bard.

Its a privilege that he gets to jump from the realities of the propagation of discrimination now, the propagation of hate language, the toxicity and nonconsensual pornography of women, all of these issues that are actively harming people who are marginalized in tech, said Mitchell, who was also forced out of Google in the aftermath of Gebru's departure. Hes skipping over all of those things to worry about something farther off.

Bengio, Hinton and a third researcher, Yann LeCun, who works at Facebook parent Meta, were all awarded the Turing Prize in 2019 for their breakthroughs in the field of artificial neural networks, instrumental to the development of today's AI applications such as ChatGPT.

Bengio, the only one of the three who didn't take a job with a tech giant, has voiced concerns for years about near-term AI risks, including job market destabilization, automated weaponry and the dangers of biased data sets.

But those concerns have grown recently, leading Bengio to join other computer scientists and tech business leaders like Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in calling for a six-month pause on developing AI systems more powerful than OpenAI's latest model, GPT-4.

Bengio said Wednesday he believes the latest AI language models already pass the Turing test named after British codebreaker and AI pioneer Alan Turing's method introduced in 1950 to measure when AI becomes indistinguishable from a human  at least on the surface.

Thats a milestone that can have drastic consequences if were not careful, Bengio said. My main concern is how they can be exploited for nefarious purposes to destabilize democracies, for cyberattacks, disinformation. You can have a conversation with these systems and think that youre interacting with a human. Theyre difficult to spot.

Where researchers are less likely to agree is on how current AI language systems  which have many limitations, including a tendency to fabricate information  might actually get smarter than humans not just in memorizing huge troves of information, but in showing critical reasoning and other human skills.

Aidan Gomez was one of the co-authors of the pioneering 2017 paper that introduced a so-called transformer technique  the T at the end of ChatGPT  for improving the performance of machine-learning systems, especially in how they learn from passages of text. Then just a 20-year-old intern at Google, Gomez remembers laying on a couch at the company's California headquarters when his team sent out the paper around 3 a.m. when it was due.

Aidan, this is going to be so huge, he remembers a colleague telling him, of the work that's since helped lead to new systems that can generate humanlike prose and imagery.

Six years later and now CEO of his own AI company called Cohere, which Hinton has invested in, Gomez is enthused about the potential applications of these systems but bothered by fearmongering he says is detached from the reality of their true capabilities and relies on extraordinary leaps of imagination and reasoning."

The notion that these models are somehow gonna get access to our nuclear weapons and launch some sort of extinction-level event is not a productive discourse to have, Gomez said. "Its harmful to those real pragmatic policy efforts that are trying to do something good.

Asked about his investments in Cohere on Wednesday in light of his broader concerns about AI, Hinton said he had no plans to pull his investments because there are still many helpful applications of language models in medicine and elsewhere. He also said he hadn't made any bad decisions in pursuing the research he started in the 1970s.

Until very recently, I thought this existential crisis was a long way off, Hinton said. So I dont really have any regrets about what I did.
LONDON (Reuters) - The Scottish National Party (SNP) on Wednesday said it had appointed auditors ahead of a July deadline to file its annual accounts with Britain's electoral body as police continue to probe the party's finances.

The husband of former Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon was held by police last month as part of an investigation into the funding of the pro-independence SNP, which runs Scotland's semi-autonomous government, before being released without charge.

The party's treasurer has stepped back as police look into what happened to more than 600,000 pounds ($750,000) raised by Scottish independence campaigners in 2017, which was supposed to have been ring-fenced but may have been used for other purposes.

After a months-long search, SNP leader Humza Yousaf said that the party had appointed AMS Accountants Group as auditors, following the resignation of the previous auditors last year.

The party faces the prospect of a fine if it misses July deadline to file its 2022 accounts with the Electoral Commission.

"It is welcome news that AMS Accountants Group will complete the accounts for both the party and the SNP Westminster group," Yousaf said.

"There is hard work ahead, but it is really encouraging to have them on board as we work towards challenging deadlines."

Yousaf became SNP leader and Scotland's first minister in March, after Sturgeon's surprise resignation.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout)
A lot of Herring Joe Raedle/Getty Images

"For want of a nail" is an oft-repeated proverb detailing how small, seemingly insignificant things can have a cascading effect that may ultimately bring about misfortune and ruin on a dramatically larger scale. Cited by such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin and James Baldwin, the phrase is the spiritual progenitor to the "Domino Effect" meme that's frequently deployed to highlight some unlikely sequence of events in ascending order of impact. It is, in other words, the perfect metaphor for what may end up being one of the most consequential court cases of the past half-century. It starts with herring.

What's the case about?

The U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will in the coming term hear the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a challenge by a New Jersey-based herring fishing company against Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo that could very well upend one of the longstanding precedents for how various government agencies and departments function. In particular, the case challenges the Magnuson-Stevens Act, a 1976 law that regulates maritime fishing in federal waters. In its complaint, Loper Bright alleges that the act's requirement for a government observer to not only be onboard during certain fishing expeditions but  in some cases  for the fishing companies themselves to cover that observer's salary is fundamentally not in the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) purview to enforce.

Here's where things escalate from "herring" to "government-wide precedent."

While specifically questioning the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the core of Loper Bright's case against the NMFS (and its supervisory body, the Commerce Department) asks whether the agency had the authority to apply its rules the way it did  authority ceded to it under what's known as the Chevron Deference principle. Established in 1984 after the court ruled in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc, the Deference principle effectively holds that in cases where a government agency's specific statutory authority is unclear based on how Congress crafted the statute, the court will then defer to that agency for interpretation, rather than decide for itself. It's this principle, one which for nearly 40 years has determined when and how various government agencies conduct their own business, that is ultimately being threatened by the case. As attorneys for Loper Bright wrote in their initial complaint to the court: "Whether by clarifying Chevron or overruling it, this court should grant review and reverse the clear agency overreach at issue here."

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Big fish, or an empty net?

The Chevron ruling has long been in conservative crosshairs, and both Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas have written against the precedent in the past. Accordingly, a host of right-leaning groups have weighed in on Loper Bright's behalf, with organizations like the Cato Institute, Christian Employers Alliance, and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation all filing briefs in support of the fishing company. Conversely, liberal observers have warned that eliminating Chevron could lead to a seismic reorganization of governmental authority.

"This would have the potential of being one of the most destabilizing decisions that this court has issued, if it chooses to go there," Center for Progressive Reform senior policy analyst James Goodwin told Politico after the court agreed to hear the case.

"Biden's environmental and energy agencies were already facing a heavily tilted playing field in the federal judiciary," Goodwin added. "I think eliminating Chevron ... would make the prospects of surviving judicial review all the more daunting."

To give a sense of how widespread Chevron is across the federal government, consider that when Gorsuch, arguably the court's chief Chevron opponent, was nominated to the Supreme Court bench, the precedent had been cited more than 80,000 times. But even if it's overturned by the court, that's no guarantee the sprawling "administrative state" of government agencies and departments will contract accordingly.

"Some who oppose the principle of Chevron seem to think it is a magical elixir that will tame what they see as too vast a bureaucracy," University of California, Berkley law professor Steven Davidoff Solomon wrote in The New York Times ahead of Gorsuch's confirmation hearings. "That seems silly  at its heart such a doctrine is merely a judicial tool. Whether the bureaucracy shrinks or grows depends on what Congress and the president do."

In other words: While the court considers herring, it may ultimately be up to the other two branches of government to reel in real change.

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A three-day search for a missing child who fell into a river ended late Tuesday afternoon when the 5-year-old girls body was recovered, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources said.

SCDNR and Colleton County divers found the childs body in the Edisto River at about 5 p.m., officials said.

The Colleton County Coroners Office has not publicly identified the girl, or released a cause of death.

Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of the 5-year-old girl, SCDNR said on Twitter.

The search for a missing girl ended Tuesday, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

The child fell into the Edisto River Sunday, according to SCDNR. Witnesses said the child was playing in shallow water before being swept off by swift currents, SCDNR said.

A search began that afternoon in the area near S.C. 61 and Mars Old Field Landing in Colleton County, according to SCDNR.

Officers and dive teams continued to search for the child Monday and again Tuesday before making the recovery, SCDNR said.

Swift currents and low visibility were challenging conditions facing searchers from SCDNR as well as Colleton County Sheriffs Office and Fire Rescue.

Search efforts happened on land and by boat, and some of the boats were equipped with sonar, SCDNR said. The U.S. Coast Guard assisted in the search with thermal imaging equipment, according to SCDNR.

We appreciate all those who have helped in the search, SCDNR tweeted.
Second railway attack in 2 days in Russias Bryansk Oblast

Russian Railways confirmed to Russias propagandist RBC that 20 cars had derailed.

"Due to illegal interference in the work of railway transport, a locomotive and about 20 cars of a freight train derailed," the railway company stated.

According to preliminary information, there were no victims and no open fire.

Other organizations cited different numbers, with the Baza Telegram channel saying eight, and 112 saying 20 and writing that the train overturned because of the explosion. A video, allegedly from the site of the explosion, was published by The Shot, who said that "three explosions were heard" and that two or three cars derailed.

Read also: Two more explosives found near site of explosion near St. Petersburg  Russian media

Local governor Alexander Bogomaz said that an "unidentified explosive device" caused a locomotive and several freight cars to derail.

The explosion occurred "not far from the Snezhetskaya station when a freight train was passing from Bryansk to Karachev," said Baza, noting that some of the overturned cars were carrying sulfur and nitrate, while others were carrying scrap metal.

Traffic on the Snezhetskaya-Belyie Berega section has been suspended, Russian Railways confirmed.

On May 1, a diesel locomotive and four railroad cars exploded in a railroad bombing in Bryansk Oblast of Russia, causing a 12-ton fuel leak.



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
Sen. JD Vance of Ohio argued that Tucker Carlson's leaked text was "actually quite introspective" and "reflected well on him." Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images; Rich Polk/Getty Images for Politicon.

Tucker Carlson bemoaned that a group of Trump supporters didn't fight like "white men," per a leaked text.

Sen. JD Vance argued the text was "actually quite introspective" and "reflected well on him."

"By the way, I don't think that's why he was fired," the Ohio senator added.

Sen. JD Vance on Wednesday offered a full-throated defense of Tucker Carlson on the heels of the revelation that the former Fox News host privately made comments appearing to assert the racial superiority of white people.

"It was actually quite introspective about how it made him feel," said the Ohio Republican when asked about the text by Insider at the Capitol. "I don't know why that would justify somebody getting fired, especially when you're talking about a private text message."

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Carlson, in a lengthy text message to one of his producers on the day after the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol, bemoaned that a group of former President Donald Trump's supporters did not "fight" like "white men" when they attacked someone on the street in Washington, DC.

"A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington. A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living shit out of him. It was three against one, at least," wrote Carlson at the beginning of a lengthy text. "Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It's not how white men fight."

He then went on to describe the range of feelings that the video made him feel.

"Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn't good for me. I'm becoming something I don't want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I'm sure I'd hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn't gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I don't care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?" wrote Carlson.

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The text, redacted in court filings, reportedly alarmed the board of Fox News when it was discovered just before the company was set to defend itself in a defamation trial initiated by Dominion Voting Systems, contributing to his sudden firing.

Vance, who noted that he's personal friends with Carlson, said the former Fox News host "saw a video" and "had some feelings about it."

"I know Tucker, I know that he's the sort of guy who thinks pretty deeply about this stuff, and I felt that text message reflected well on him, not poorly," said Vance.

Though Vance seemed to be primarily referencing the latter half of the lengthy text message, he also defended Carlson when asked explicitly about the "white men" portion of Carlson's text.

"He's actually articulating a view, and then criticizing that view to himself, trying to understand why he's having these feelings," said Vance. "I think that's a person being introspective in a private message to a friend. That shouldn't get anybody fired."

The Ohio senator then went on to argue that the text message wasn't the reason Carlson was fired, though he declined to elaborate much further.

"By the way, I don't think that's why he was fired," said Vance. "I'm highly skeptical that text message caused them to fire Tucker Carlson. He says far more controversial things publicly every single day."

'Critically important'

Up until his sudden firing last week, Carlson has been one of the most influential figures on the burgeoning populist right, with Republican lawmakers and candidates frequently appearing on his show to reach a conservative audience.

Last month, Vance described Carlson as "critically important" to both Middle America and the conservative movement during an appearance with American Moment, a group aligned with the populist right.

"Once a week, I worry that something terrible will happen to Tucker Carlson," said Vance. "If it did, we would be in a much much worse position as a movement."

And several Republican senators, including Josh Hawley of Missouri and Mike Braun of Indiana, have recently appeared on Carlson's show  though both pled ignorance when asked about the text on Wednesday.

"What does it say?" asked Hawley. Upon being presented the text, he said: "I'm not going to react in real time to a text that I haven't seen. I don't know where it's from."

"I really don't have any comment on that," said Braun. "I don't know how that entered into the decision Fox made and so forth, but I'm guessing anything you say can be used against you, so be careful in terms of what you do say."

Braun, according to his official YouTube page, was the very last guest to appear on Carlson's show on Friday, April 21, before it was canceled the following Monday.

"I think if there's a trivia contest," quipped Braun, "you could probably say that I might have been."

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Xinhua

May 02, 2023: Information Clearing House -- " Xinhua " -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday held phone talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

During their conversation, Xi reiterated China's core position on promoting peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, and announced that Beijing will send a special representative on Eurasian affairs to visit Ukraine and other countries to conduct in-depth communication with all parties on the political settlement of the crisis.

The phone call provides a further illustration of China's willingness to mediate in the prolonged crisis besetting the world for more than one year, and of the responsible role China plays in promoting world peace and stability.

China's commitment to helping achieve the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis reminds the headline-grabbing rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran not long ago, which was also a result of China's selfless diplomatic work.

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Persuading Russia and Ukraine to sit down at the negotiating table is indeed a much harder task. Fortunately, voices for peace and rationality are building. More people are waking up to the fact that a protracted crisis to some extent is detrimental to everyone in the world, and dialogue is the sole viable way out.

Those who refuse to endorse peace and add fuel to the fire are possessed by their mindset of bloc confrontation or care only about selfish gains from the tragedy.

As a responsible member of the international community, China has been making efforts to ease tensions and promote peace talks since the start of the crisis.

In February 2023, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released a paper stating Beijing's position on the Ukraine crisis, putting forward a 12-point proposal to end the conflict by addressing both the symptoms and the root causes of the crisis, and reiterating the necessity to end the conflict through dialogue and negotiations.

During a state visit to Russia a month later, Xi had an in-depth exchange of views on the Ukraine issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, pledging that China would continue to play a constructive role in promoting the political settlement of the crisis.

Contrary to some countries treating the crisis in a biased and partial way, China has been nudging the two sides into the restoration of peace by upholding balanced and impartial stance.

On the Ukrainian side, while pledging to send a special envoy during the phone talks between Xi and Zelensky, China also vowed to keep providing help for the country.

In response, the Ukrainian president thanked China for providing humanitarian assistance and welcomed China's important role in restoring peace and seeking diplomatic solution to the crisis.

China and Russia have blazed a path of major-country relations featuring strategic trust and good neighborliness. Meanwhile, China-Ukraine relations have gone through 31 years of development and reached the level of strategic partnership.

Moreover, China is not the creator of the crisis, nor a party directly concerned. That gives Beijing the diplomatic room and qualification to give a full ear to the demands and concerns of both Russia and Ukraine and play a responsible role in the settlement of the crisis.

As for all other parties who truly expect an early end to the crisis and restoration of peace, they should join China's efforts and build up favorable conditions for the political settlement of the crisis.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., defended former President Donald Trump for sending active-duty troops to the southwest border in 2018 while criticizing the Biden administration for preparing to do the same now in an effort to combat an expected surge of migrants.

The Pentagon will deploy 1,500 active-duty troops to help U.S. Customs and Border Patrol with detection and monitoring, data entry for 90 days, until the Department of Homeland Security can hire contractors to fill those gaps, according to Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.

In 2018, Trump deployed some 5,000 troops to the border to assist the Border Patrol. He said at the time that "Democrat inspired laws make it tough for us to stop people at the border, calling it a National Emergency."

Graham on Wednesday said that the Biden administration's plan to deploy troops to the border is ridiculous theater that would not make any meaningful change in law enforcement. But when asked by a reporter whether Trump similarly employed "theater" in 2018, the South Carolina senator demurred.

I feel that Donald Trump did the best job in my political lifetime," Graham said. "When Donald Trump did something, it worked."

President Joe Biden's border policy has come under renewed criticism as Title 42  the public health policy imposed by Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic that quickly expels border-crossers  is set to expire May 11. The policy has allowed for the expulsion of nearly 3 million asylum-seekers, according to statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The troops sent to the border by Biden will arrive as soon as May 10, Ryder said. There are 2,500 National Guard forces at the border.

Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lindsey Graham: Biden sending troops to border 'ridiculous theater'
Sen. Mark Kelly is backing President Joe Biden's decision to send 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border days before pandemic border restrictions are set to expire.

Biden announced the decision Tuesday as his administration prepares for the end of Title 42, the Trump-era border restriction, on May 11. Officials are expecting a sharp increase in daily migrant encounters along the southern border when the restriction lifts.

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., right, and other senators visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Somerton, Ariz., near the Cocopah Indian Reservation boundary on Jan. 10, 2023.

The Army and Marine Corps personnel will be tasked with helping U.S. Border Patrol by performing administrative duties, such as ground detection, data entry and warehouse support. The move is meant to help relieve Border Patrol agents by freeing them up to focus on law enforcement tasks, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Border Patrol agents have a hard job made even more challenging by this border crisis," Kelly, D-Ariz., said Wednesday in a written statement.

"Im glad to see the Biden Administration sending this additional manpower that can provide our Border Patrol agents and Arizona communities with critical assistance."

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly speaks on Aug. 10, 2022, to Barbara Cook who lives across the road from the Morelos Dam in Yuma. Cook has lived next to the border wall for nine years and frequently sees migrants, who cross between gaps in the wall, pass by her home. On one occasion, migrants knocked on her door asking for water due to the hot weather.

Kelly added that he's looking forward to being fully briefed on the details of the deployment and will keep working with Border Patrol, the Biden administration and Arizona border community leaders to respond in a humane and orderly way that doesn't burden local communities.

More: Arizona officials cheer Biden for sending troops to Mexico border while advocates blast him

Kelly joins other state and local officials who welcomed Biden's decision Monday. Advocates, however, railed against the deployment due to it further militarizing the border.

The troops will not do law-enforcement work and will be sent down for roughly 90 days, but their presence can be extended if necessary, officials said. Troops will begin to arrive as soon as May 10.

There are 2,500 National Guard forces at the border. It is still unclear how many troops will be sent to each part of the border.

Have a news tip or story idea about the border and its communities? Contact the reporter at josecastaneda@arizonarepublic.com or connect with him on Twitter @joseicastaneda.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Mark Kelly applauds Biden move to send troops to Mexico border
FIRST ON FOX: Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul will release a book later this year that focuses on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, and argues that former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' director Dr. Anthony Fauci deceived the world about the disease.

The book is called "Deception: The Great Covid Coverup" and will be released in October by Regnery Publishing, a Salem Media Group company and the publisher of numerous conservative books.

"Covid-19 was deadly, but the real killer was the cover-up, led by Anthony Fauci  Americas most durable medical bureaucrat  who knew from the beginning the virus was likely genetically engineered and possibly leaked from a lab," Paul said in a statement in the publisher's news release. "He knew because hed skirted regulations and funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan and elsewhere. We cant allow Fauci and his yes-men to walk away from what theyve done, or the next pandemic may be far worse."

SEN. RAND PAUL ACCUSES FAUCI OF COLLUDING WITH TEACHERS UNION TO PROMOTE 'HYSTERIA' AROUND SCHOOL REOPENINGS

Sen. Rand Paul will release a book later this year that focuses on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' director Dr. Anthony Fauci's role in the process.

"Wielding previously unimaginable power, Anthony Fauci misled the country about the origins of the Covid pandemic and shut down scientific dissent. One of the few leaders who dared to challenge 'Americas Doctor' was Senator Rand Paul, himself a physician. Deception is his indictment of the catastrophic failures of the public health bureaucracy during the pandemic," Regnery said of the book in a press release.

Paul has consistently taken aim at Fauci for his role in the COVID-19 pandemic response, and has criticized the health official for the NIAID's involvement with the Wuhan, China, lab that studied coronaviruses.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci responds to questions from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2022 in Washington, D.C.

Last month, Paul accused Fauci of being culpable of "one of the worst judgment errors" in his handling of COVID by pushing for the funding "gain of function" research in China.

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RAND PAUL BLASTS FAUCI AFTER FREEZE-OUT ALLEGATIONS: A FACT FAUCI CONVINCED SCIENTISTS TO CHANGE MINDS

"I think Fauci deserves culpability and history is going to judge him very poorly because he made the judgment to fund this research. It's dangerous research. He doesn't want to call it gain of function, but most other scientists do call it gain of function in Wuhan in an opaque totalitarian country. And in the end, there was a leak from the lab and millions of people died worldwide. And this didn't happen sort of accidentally. The leak may have been accident , but the funding wasn't accidental," Paul said during an appearance on Fox and Friends in April.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., questions Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Senate hearing to examine the federal response to COVID-19 and emerging variants on Jan. 11, 2022 at Capitol Hill in Washington.

"Tony Fauci actually went around the system. We had set up a system where there's a committee, they're supposed to go before a committee to judge whether this was dangerous and whether it should be funded. Tony Fauci exempted Wuhan from the committee. They never went before the committee. And this is extraordinary. The committee that was supposed to provide safety and review this, never looked at the research in Wuhan because Tony Fauci gave them exception. So the thing is, yes, he does bear responsibility for maybe one of the worst judgment errors in the history of modern medicine or modern public health to fund this dangerous research," he added.

Paul's book, which is now available for pre-order on Amazon, is slated to be released on October 10.
WASHINGTON  The Senate on Wednesday advanced a bill to strengthen U.S. security cooperation with democratic partner nations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Foreign Relations Committee moved the Western Hemisphere Partnership Act and the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative Authorization Act forward in a unanimous voice vote, paving the way for consideration by the full Senate.

As malign state actors like Russia, China, and Iran seek to expand their footprint in the hemisphere, we must strengthen regional cooperation with our democratic neighbors to achieve these goals, the committees top Republican, James Risch of Idaho, said in a statement after the vote. This legislation builds off my previous legislative efforts to enhance our security and commercial relations with democratic countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Rischs Western Hemisphere Partnership Act would require the State Department to work with other federal agencies to enhance the institutional capacity and technical capabilities of defense and security institutions in friendly Latin American and Caribbean countries.

This assistance would include arms sales, foreign military aid and training as well as the provision of radars, vessels and communications equipment needed to dismantle organizations involved in illicit narcotics trafficking, transnational criminal activities, illicit mining and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The bills security provisions exclude Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The legislation also seeks to strengthen cooperation to improve border security throughout the Western Hemisphere while enhancing port management and maritime security partnerships. Additionally, it seeks to enhance cybersecurity cooperation as well as commercial and economic partnerships in the region.

Against the backdrop of rising geopolitical competition and mounting regional humanitarian, security, economic and political crises, the United States efforts to deepen our relationship with democratic neighbors are more important than ever, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who co-sponsored the Risch bill, said in a statement.

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The committee advanced the bill the day after the Biden administration announced it would deploy 1,500 active duty troops to the southern border help the Department of Homeland Security address a new wave of migrant crossings expected later this month. Former President Donald Trump had deployed U.S. troops to the border in 2018, citing migrant crossings.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., introduced another bill advanced out of the committee: the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative Authorization Act. That legislation authorizes the State Department to begin an initiative promoting safety, security and the rule of law in the Caribbean while providing unspecified equipment to counter gangs and other transnational criminal organizations.

That initiative would also collaborate with Caribbean countries on border and port security to screen for narcotics, weapons, bulk cash and other contraband.
WASHINGTON  The Senate is starting work on a new bipartisan bill that will both further block China from using American capital to develop its most cutting-edge technology, and shore up Washingtons support for Pacific security partners.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced the plans Wednesday after directing his committee chairs to work with their Republican counterparts to begin crafting the legislation, which he hopes to move within the next several months.

We will work to halt the Chinese governments development of advanced technologies that we know will shape the course of this century, Schumer told reporters at a news conference flanked by about a dozen Senate Democrats. We need to build on the kinds of actions like the Biden administrations export control rule to block the flow of chip-tooling technology to China.

The Commerce Departments Bureau of Industry and Security announced a sweeping range of export controls last year that severely curtailed Chinas ability to obtain some of the worlds most cutting-edge microchips, arguing that Beijing could use them to produce advanced military systems through artificial intelligence algorithms. Since then, the Biden administration has persuaded the Netherlands and Japan  also leaders in advanced semiconductor technology  to instate their own export controls against microelectronics exports to China.

These semiconductor export controls hamper Chinas ability to build sophisticated supercomputers needed to produce advanced AI algorithms, which could rapidly sift through data to inform battlefield decisions under compressed time frames. These advanced chips and the technology they enable are also needed for advanced civilian technology like weather forecasting and vaccine development.

Schumer noted that hes tapped Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to begin looking at additional authorities the Biden administration could use to expand its export control regime against China.

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China has set 2030 as its target date to become a global leader in artificial intelligence, with the subsequent goal of putting the Peoples Liberation Army on par with the U.S. military by 2035  a goal that U.S. export controls and the Senates upcoming legislation intend to complicate.

We want to limit the flow of investment to the Chinese government, Schumer said. Its incumbent on us to ensure that the U.S. is not the financial lifeblood supporting the Chinese government and its military technological advancement.

The bill will also build upon legislation Congress passed last year to lessen U.S. dependence on China for supply chains crucial to the defense-industrial base, including semiconductors and critical minerals. That included $52 billion in annual CHIPS Act subsidies and tax incentives through 2026 meant to sway American and Asian semiconductor manufacturers to produce microelectronics within the United States.

Now we have to build on those investments so that we are positioned to compete against the [Peoples Republic of China] in the way that we need to, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said at the news conference.

Pacific partners

Most advanced microchip production is concentrated in Asia, and the U.S. does not produce any of the worlds leading semiconductors needed for materiel such as precision-guided munitions and the F-35 fighter jet.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is slated to begin producing the worlds most advanced semiconductors in 2026 after it opens a factory in Arizona using subsidies from the CHIPS Act. Taiwan produces about 92% of the worlds most advanced semiconductors.

We must continue to deter the Chinese government from any conflict with Taiwan, said Schumer, noting that the new bill will also focus on closer alignment with allies and security partners in the region.

Schumer said he intends to revisit a Taiwan bill that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced last year. A $10 billion Taiwan military aid authorization from that bill made its way into the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, though congressional appropriators have yet to fund much of that security assistance.

But concerns from the White House kept other components of the bill from becoming law, including sanctions on China for acts of aggression against Taiwan and upgrades to the islands diplomatic status.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., noted that the CHIPS Act has provided more security to our military-industrial base. He added that the new China bill would seek to build upon security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region while enhancing mechanisms such as the trilateral AUKUS agreement with the United Kingdom and Australia, as well as the security group known as Quad, which also Australia as well as Japan and India.

We want to create a force structure, which is combining all of our allies, being able to conduct operations and communication on an uninterrupted basis, in fact telling the Chinese and showing the Chinese that they would be up against the world if they tried anything, Reed said.

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party is also preparing a series of bipartisan proposals to rapidly arm Taiwan and enhance cybersecurity with Taipei, Defense News reported last week.

The panels chairman, Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., told Defense News in an exclusive interview that he intends to include those proposals as amendments to the FY24 NDAA, which the House Armed Services Committee will mark up later this month.

Gallagher singled out bolstering U.S. munitions production through multiyear contracts and ameliorating the $19 billion arms sale backlog to Taiwan as some of his key defense priorities on the committee.
(Bloomberg) -- Senate Democrats said that they aim to craft a bipartisan and comprehensive bill to enhance US economic competition with China and respond to any aggression against Taiwan.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a briefing Wednesday, alongside several of his colleagues, that the party will work with Republicans, who have already shown great interest.

The plan comes amid efforts by Washington and its allies to coordinate their responses to Chinas rising global economic and strategic clout.

The drive also highlights the growing interest by members Congress to dictate the terms of that challenge, including various bills to ban the use of some China-based phone apps in the US, particularly TikTok, and the formation of a Republican-led China select committee in House.

We are committed to maintaining Americas lead in the future, Schumer said at the briefing. Time is not on our side.

The package, which Schumer said may include new sanctions and may be ready in the coming months, will have five focus areas.

The first is to limit Chinas access to cutting-edge technology, which includes preventing Beijings development of advanced technologies and strengthening export control laws.

Outbound Investment

The second is to restrict investment flows to China, including a ban on some outbound US investments. That dovetails with plans by President Joe Biden to sign an executive order limiting some investments in China, which the administration aims to rally support for during the Group of Seven summit in Japan later this month.

The other focus areas include new domestic investments in key technologies; creating an alternative foreign aid program to counter Chinas Belt and Road Initiative in Asia; and aiming to deter China from initiating a conflict with Taiwan or other regional allies.

Story continues

Schumer and his colleagues on Wednesday highlighted issue around the the supply of critical minerals, which are dominated by China and seeing demand surge amid the transition to green energy, as well as protecting the agricultural sector, trade and intellectual property.

Read more: Yellen Says China Security Worries Eclipse Economy Interests

Schumer on Wednesday said he aims to get enough Republican support to get the bill passed in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to advance legislation.

GOP House Challenge

The Republican-led House will be a separate challenge. The House last year, when it was in Democratic control, approved $52 billion measure of grants and incentives to domestic semiconductor manufacturing in the US as part of a China competition bill. Republicans voted against the bill, led by now-speaker Kevin McCarthy, who derided it as corporate welfare.

The national security part of the initiative may have a better chance of clearing Congress. McCarthy is in favor of stronger ties with Taiwan and hosted President Tsai Ing-wen in early April.

Idaho Republican Senator Jim Risch said hes modestly optimistic a bipartisan China bill can be produced, adding that hes working with Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, a Democrat, on a piece of the proposed bill that would broadly define US relations with China militarily and economically.

(Updates with Schumer quote in fourth paragraph.)

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Senate Republicans said Tuesday theyre taking their cues on the debt limit from the House of Representatives ahead of next weeks meeting between President Biden and the four top congressional leaders.

Biden on Monday invited Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries to the White House May 9. It came just after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the government will need to borrow money again by June 1 or fall short of its obligations.

Ahead of that sit-down, Senate Republicans have made clear its up to McCarthy and Biden to hash out a deal.

"We have all been led to believe that this will be a conversation between the speaker and the president of the United States," Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., told reporters Tuesday. He explained that it would be impractical for McConnell to lead on negotiations when McCarthys chamber, where he presides over a thin majority, has a broader coalition of Republicans to bring to the table.

HOUSE PASSES MCCARTHY'S DEBT CEILING BILL BY TWO VOTES; FOUR REPUBLICANS VOTE AGAINST

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks during a press conference following a luncheon with Senate Republicans in the U.S. Capitol Building May 2, 2023, in Washington, D.C.

"I think thats the appropriate place for the conversation to occur right now," Young said. "Otherwise, youve got the Senate Minority Leader trying to thread a needle in and figure out how to get the support of Main Street Republicans and Freedom Caucus Republicans, and he's in another chamber. It's hard for me to see how that's a recipe for success."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

In addition to a narrower coalition of Republicans, McConnells influence is also limited by the GOPs role as the minority party in the Senate.

SCHUMER REJECTS HOUSE DEBT CEILING BILL, PLANS HEARINGS TO EXPOSE GOP'S RECKLESS LEGISLATION

House Republicans narrowly passed a bill last week raising the debt limit while also enacting deep cuts that are projected to slash discretionary spending levels by roughly $150 billion from fiscal year 2023 to 2024.

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But in the White House and the Democratically-held Senate, Biden and Schumer have insisted they will not pair spending cut talks with raising the debt ceiling, insisting on a "clean" increase in the borrowing limit.

McConnell ended speculation on what kind of role he plans to play in the seemingly uphill negotiations. He told reporters during his weekly post-GOP lunch press conference, "There is no solution in the Senate."

President Biden arrives to deliver remarks on new actions to advance environmental justice in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., April 21, 2023.

While he accepted Bidens invitation for the May 9 meeting, McConnell said, "It should be clear to the administration that the Senate isnt a relevant player this time."

His conference is following suit. Hardly any GOP senators gave direct answers to questions about what specific spending cut measures in the House bill they support.

REPUBLICANS HAVE THE UPPER HAND OVER DEMS IN DEBT CEILING NEGOTIATIONS, BUDGET EXPERT SAYS

"Its going to be a negotiation between the White House and the speaker. And if they can come up with something, then the Senate can step in. But until such a time as you can get an agreement between those two parties, theres no reason for the Senate to get in and muddy the waters," Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital.

"Were not going to muddy the waters by trying to tell them what to come up with. All we know is that we do not want to default on our debt."

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told reporters when asked for his thoughts on the bill, "However this thing looks, if its something that Kevin McCarthy and Joe Biden end up agreeing on, obviously, it's going to be something different than what they have. It's probably going  to have some of the right things.

"I'm not foolish enough to think I'm going to get everything I want, as you know. So, I just wish them well, but right now the ball is in their court."

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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he does not "mind" that all four congressional leaders are going to the White House but that "eventually" Biden and McCarthy "need to settle it."

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-S.C., said McConnell had a "secondary role" in the negotiations.

"The Republicans have control of the House. Theyre  rightfully looking to McCarthy and Biden, and to a certain extent Schumer, to figure it out," Tillis said.
The Senate voted 56 to 41 on Wednesday to rescind the Biden administration's two-year pause on tariffs for imports of solar equipment from four Southeast Asian countries  a rare bipartisan rebuke of the president's energy and trade policies.

The vote sends the resolution to President Joe Biden's desk, where it faces a certain veto. But its passage underscores the tricky politics that vulnerable Democratic lawmakers must navigate between reaching U.S. clean energy targets and taking a hard line on Chinese influence. A Republican Senate sponsor of the resolution also accused lawmakers who side with the administration of supporting forced labor in China.

Nine Democrats voted in support of the resolution, which passed the House last week with bipartisan support. One Republican senator voted against the measure.

The resolution would use the Congressional Review Act to rescind Bidens moratorium on new tariffs for solar cells and modules from Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The rule was issued as the Commerce Department investigates whether companies are circumventing existing U.S. tariffs on China by funneling products through those four countries.

Commerce issued preliminary findings in December that said Chinese companies were indeed circumventing the tariffs, and its final determination is due later this year. But given the two-year pause, no new tariffs resulting from the probe can be levied until mid-2024.

The resolution resurfaced long-running tensions on the Commerce probe. Solar industry officials who oppose the resolution warn it carries a threat of retroactive duties that will cost jobs, shut down planned solar projects and undercut the Biden administration's climate goals.

"It's going to send a devastating message to the solar industry and particularly to our independent, small businesses," Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen said in an interview.

Rosen led an open letter Wednesday with eight Democratic senators that argued Biden's two-year pause on additional tariffs is necessary as the United States works to bolster its domestic manufacturing capabilities.

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But supporters of the resolution  including several Senate Democrats  argue it's necessary to enforce U.S. trade law and support domestic industry, while ensuring the U.S. clean energy transition is not built using Chinese products.

"If you vote no, that means you support slave labor," said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who sponsored the Senate resolution. "You don't want more American jobs and you don't believe our trade policies mean anything."

The comment is a reference to the use of forced labor within Chinas Xinjiang region  an area of bipartisan concern. The solar industry has vocally opposed the use of forced labor in its supply chain, and the resolution approved Wednesday does not directly mention the topic.

Rosen rejected Scott's contention on Wednesday.

"We're always going to be against forced labor. We're always going to be for holding the Chinese Communist Party's feet to the fire in everything we do," she said.

The measure gathered support from nine Senate Democrats on Wednesday: Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Bob Casey and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Jon Tester of Montana and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the lone GOP senator to vote against the measure.

Sen. Brown, whose state is home to one of the largest U.S. solar manufacturing companies, said in a floor speech Tuesday he was defending U.S. manufacturing.

You cant say you want American manufacturing to lead the world and then allow Chinese companies, subsidized always by their government, to skirt the rules and dump solar panels into the U.S., he said.

Manchin, the chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was the only Democrat to attach his name as a co-sponsor of the joint resolution of disapproval. He argued the U.S. cannot continue to let China "get away" with laundering solar energy components through other nations with "absolutely no consequences."

"Let me be clear: America will never be energy secure or independent if we cant provide the resources we need, and it would be foolish of us in Congress to allow these waivers to continue any longer, Manchin said in a statement.

On the other hand, eight House Republicans voted against the resolution last week, with some arguing it would cost solar jobs in their districts.

George Hershman, CEO of utility solar company SOLV Energy, recently called Republican support for the resolution "disappointing," given how many solar projects are cropping up in red congressional districts.

"The largest solar districts in the country are Republican. That's where the job impacts are going to be," he told POLITICO last month. "I mean, I'm as disappointed with Democrats that might sign on to [the resolution] as House Republicans that understand the job creation of solar in their districts."

Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, called on Biden to "quickly and decisively" veto the resolution.

"Energy workers across the country are looking to President Biden to protect their livelihoods," she said in a statement.

The vote Wednesday is part of a wider trend of resolutions brought under the Congressional Review Act, which requires only a simple majority to pass the Senate, to undo parts of the Biden administration's regulatory agenda.

The Senate also voted 50-48 on Wednesday to pass a resolution that would overturn the Biden administrations protections under the Endangered Species Act for the lesser prairie-chicken, a wild bird found in five states. The White House said Wednesday that Biden will veto that resolution, as well.

Alex Guillen contributed to this report.
Yet more senators are trying to resurrect legislation aimed at protecting kids' online privacy. Senators Bill Cassidy and Ed Markey have reintroduced a "COPPA 2.0" (Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act) bill that would expand and revise the 1998 law to deal with the modern internet, particularly social media.

COPPA 2.0 would bar companies from gathering personal data from teens aged 13 to 16 without their consent. It would ban all targeted advertising to children and teens, and create a "bill of rights" that limits personal info gathering for marketing purposes. The measure would also require a button to let kids and parents delete personal data when it's "technologically feasible."

The sequel potentially makes it easier to take action in the first place. Where COPPA requires direct knowledge that companies are collecting data from kids under 13, 2.0 would cover apps and services that are "reasonably likely" to have children as users. The Federal Trade Commission, meanwhile, would have to establish a division committed to regulating youth marketing and privacy.

Cassidy and Markey portray the bill as necessary to tackle a "mental health crisis" where tech giants allegedly play a role. The politicians argue that social networks amplify teens' negative feelings, pointing to Facebook's own research as evidence.

Social networks have tried to clamp down on misuses of child data. Meta's Facebook and Instagram have limited ad targeting for teens, for instance. However, there have also been concerns that online platforms haven't gone far enough. On top of earlier calls for bans on ad targeting, states like Arkansas and Utah have already passed laws respectively requiring age verification and parental permission for social media. Another Senate bill, the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act, would require parents' approval across the US.

Whether or not COPPA 2.0 makes it to the President's desk for signature isn't clear. The first attempt got stuck in committee ahead of the current Congress session. It also comes right as other senators are making attempts to revive the EARN IT Act (aimed at curbing child sexual abuse material) and the Kids Online Safety Act (meant to fight toxic online content as a whole). All three reintroductions are bipartisan, but they'll need considerably stronger support in the Senate, plus successful equivalents in the House, to become law.
Ed Sheeran leaves after testifying over copyright infringement claim at the Manhattan federal court in New York on April 25, 2023

Ed Sheeran is preparing for a blockbuster tour and album release amid regular trips to Manhattan's federal court, where he's defending his songwriting in a closely watched copyright case.

The trial centers on whether the British pop phenom plagiarized Marvin Gaye's 1973 soul classic "Let's Get It On" in his 2014 hit "Thinking Out Loud."

The heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote Gaye's smash, are behind the civil suit, and allege "striking similarities and overt common elements" between the songs.

It's the latest in a series of high-profile music copyright cases that have the industry on edge, leaving some songwriters paranoid about their own creative processes and vulnerability to litigation.

Sheeran, 32, has spent days testifying with guitar in hand, playing demos for the court to prove the 1-3-4-5 chord progression that's primarily in question is a basic building block of pop music that can't be owned.

His legal team argues that Gaye and Townsend were far from the first to record it, citing, for example, a number of Van Morrison songs that use the sequence and that were released prior to "Let's Get It On."

It's a notion echoed by forensic musicologist Joe Bennett.

"The world I want to live in is one where nobody sues anyone for a one- or two-bar melodic or harmonic similarity, because those similarities can so easily occur through coincidence," the professor at Massachusetts' Berklee College of Music told AFP.

"They shouldn't be protectable by copyright."

The case hinges on the actual composition of the songs rather than the recorded versions -- think sheet music, not vibes.

In theory that's a specificity that could help Sheeran's case, but once a music copyright suit reaches the point of jury trial, anything can happen.

Winning demands significant funding and resources, and defendants are beholden to the volatility of opinions from jury members who almost certainly don't have a background in musicology.

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Both sides have hired expert witnesses to explain the technical details to jurors, but, of course, their conclusions differ significantly.

"If you play music to a jury, it could go either way," Bennett said.

- 'Chilling effect' -

There have been a handful of landmark music copyright cases in recent years, notably in 2016 when Gaye's family -- who is not part of the New York lawsuit against Sheeran -- successfully sued the artists Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over similarities between the song "Blurred Lines" and Gaye's "Got to Give it Up."

The result surprised many in the industry, including legal experts, who considered many of the musical components cited as foundational, and existing largely in the public domain.

Shortly thereafter an appeals court decision confirmed Led Zeppelin's victory over a similar case centered on the classic "Stairway to Heaven" -- a boon for songwriters.

"One reason that this Ed Sheeran case may be really important to the industry is that it's a data point that would show well is the pendulum actually back on the other side, or are we just going back and forth?" said Joseph Fishman, a law professor specialized in intellectual property at Vanderbilt University.

"If it's going back and forth, that could still have a chilling effect on how songwriters write, because you never know -- is my case going to be the one?"

And unintended infringement is a weak defense: in 1976, George Harrison was found liable for "subconsciously" plagiarizing "He's So Fine" by the Chiffons for his first solo hit "My Sweet Lord."

In his memoir Harrison later wrote that he suffered a "paranoia about songwriting that had started to build up in me."

This week Sheeran told the court that fellow songwriters have told him "you have to win this for us" adding with a tone of exasperation that if the Townsend estate prevails, "I'm done."

"I find it really insulting to work my whole life... and have someone diminish it by saying that I stole it," Sheeran said on the stand Monday.

Bennett said many of his students at Berklee -- a prestigious conservatory of contemporary music -- have voiced concern over the Sheeran case, speaking as the next generation of songwriters.

One of them, 21-year-old Mary Jo Swank, told AFP that "I've definitely grown a fear that the idea of being completely original and unique is going to put the emotional and creative process of a songwriter in jeopardy."

"It'd be nice if I'd be allowed to write my take on a 1-3-4-5 progression without having to worry that it's not unique enough."

mdo/md
The significance of proper access control is becoming more apparent as an increasing number of hacker groups employ privileged user accounts. These accounts possess elevated permissions that enable them to access sensitive information and carry out essential tasks.

Infiltrating a privileged account can potentially cause widespread disruption to an entire organization. Companies may consider implementing a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution to shield themselves from the dangers linked to privileged user accounts.

PAM is a critical aspect of any cybersecurity strategy, but it may be challenging for some to know where to begin. This blog post aims to help you understand what PAM is and how to evaluate and mitigate the risks associated with privileged user accounts.

Defining Privileged Access Management

Privileged Access Management is the process of controlling access to privileged accounts and resources. Privileged accounts allow to bypass security controls and perform actions that could potentially impact the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of an organization's data and systems. Privileged accounts pose a risk because malicious insiders or outsiders can abuse them.

Privileged Access Management aims to ensure that only authorized individuals can access privileged accounts and that any actions performed using those accounts are recorded and monitored for suspicious activity. PAM typically involves the use of specialized software tools to manage and track access to privileged accounts, as well as to enforce policies and procedures for their use.

Explaining privileged user account types

Here are some common types of privileged user accounts:

Root/Administrator Accounts: These accounts have the highest level of privilege on a system or network, and they can perform all administrative functions, including creating and deleting accounts, installing software, and changing system settings. Service Accounts: These accounts are used by applications and services running on a system to interact with other services or resources. Service accounts often have elevated privileges to perform specific tasks. Application Accounts: These accounts are used by specific applications and provide the necessary access and privileges for those applications to run.

Risks associated with using privileged accounts

Utilizing privileged accounts can bring about numerous hazards to an organization's security and operations. If accounts are compromised, it may allow attackers to gain entry to sensitive data or systems without authorization. If an attacker gains control over a privileged account, they could use it to amplify their privileges and gain access to more sensitive data or systems.

Employees or contractors with privileged access may intentionally or unintentionally abuse their access, ultimately leading to data breaches, security incidents, or other operational disturbances.

Privileged accounts have the potential to enable users to circumvent security controls, which could potentially result in non-compliance with regulatory requirements and data privacy laws.

Methods hackers use to obtain privileged access

Hackers can use various methods to obtain privileged access to an organization's systems and data. Here are some common methods:

Hackers may use social engineering to acquire sensitive information or system access. In social engineering attacks, they deceive individuals by posing as someone who has authorized access, but who they are not.

Misconfigured security settings can expose vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit to access privileged accounts, such as weak password policies or wrong authentication settings.

Attackers can gain access by exploiting vulnerabilities in software or systems.

Third-party vendors or partners with access to an organization's network or resources may have weaker security controls, making them susceptible to attacks that can lead to unauthorized access.

Crooks may utilize password-cracking software and launch brute-force attacks to acquire login credentials for privileged accounts.

Hackers may attempt to gain access by sending phishing emails that look legitimate but contain malicious links or downloads.

Developing a strategy to reduce privileged access risks

The first step in developing a strategy to reduce privileged access risks is to understand which users need access to which systems and data. This requires a comprehensive inventory of all systems and data, as well as an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each user. Once this information is gathered, it can be used to develop a privileges access matrix that outlines what each user is allowed to access.

The next step is to put controls in place to limit users' access to only what they need. This can be done through Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), which allows administrators to assign permissions to users based on their roles within the organization. RBAC can be used to granularly control access down to individual files or data sets. It is always advised to implement the least-privilege approach.

Other protection mechanisms

To reduce the risks associated with privileged access, organizations should take a comprehensive approach, including technical and organizational measures.

Robust authentication mechanisms, such as multi-factor authentication, can help reduce the risk of credential theft and prevent unauthorized access to privileged accounts.

Frequent monitoring and auditing of privileged account activity can aid in detecting suspicious behavior and preventing or mitigating security incidents. This involves monitoring login attempts, examining system logs, and detecting anomalous behavior.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) tools can offer additional controls and visibility to improve security. PAM tools can limit access to privileged accounts, record sessions, and automate workflows for privileged access.

Providing routine security awareness training to employees and contractors can decrease the likelihood of insider threats and other security incidents. This encompasses educating users on the risks linked to privileged access and best practices for securing their accounts and systems.

It is vital to continually review and refine security controls to ensure they remain effective and provide adequate protection against evolving PAM risks.

Assessing the effectiveness of PAM

Assessing the effectiveness of PAM is crucial to ensure that it meets your organization's needs. One way to evaluate its effectiveness is to review the PAM processes and controls in place and compare them to industry best practices and compliance requirements.

It is also important to conduct regular assessments and testing of the PAM solution to guarantee its proper functionality and resolve any potential issues. Penetration testing can be performed periodically to identify any vulnerabilities or weaknesses.

Additionally, seeking feedback from users and stakeholders can provide valuable insights into the user experience and identify any areas needing improvement. By regularly assessing the effectiveness of your PAM solution, you can better protect your organization's sensitive data and minimize the risk of security breaches.
The designer and fashion illustrator Armand Mehidri, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on April 14, 2023. (Natalie Naccache/The New York Times)

In its decade of doing business, Shein has grown rapidly by winning over shoppers with its tough-to-beat prices and kaleidoscope of new merchandise. Along the way, the e-commerce retailer has also gained vocal critics who have questioned, among other things, its connection to China, accused it of stealing designers works and pointed to how its cheap merchandise contributes to environmental waste.

Shein, for the most part, has been tight-lipped through it all. Now, the company is looking to change the perception of its business and practices before its expected filing for an initial public offering.

It has poured millions of dollars into initiatives that seek to address the long-standing criticisms as a way to earn good will. In the process, Shein is positioning itself as a retail juggernaut with whom industry stalwarts will inevitably have to share space.

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Were trying to engage with lots of stakeholders, Peter Day, Sheins head of strategy and corporate affairs, said in an interview. Were an emerging brand, and weve done a lot of things well. There are some things that we still need to learn how to do, and the best way to do it is to talk to the community.

Shein has one of the most downloaded mobile apps, has a dedicated and active hashtag on TikTok (#Sheinhaul) and is right behind Amazon and Nike when it comes to Gen Zs favorite e-commerce websites. It sells items like mesh dresses, glitter T-shirts and two-piece lime green swimsuits for less than $9.

Shein, which is regularly accused of copying designs, recently held a daylong summit in Los Angeles with hundreds of designers in an attempt to show that it wanted to work with and not against them. The event was part of a $55 million initiative that Shein began in 2021 to hire and fund artisans to make clothing lines for its site.

This program was started months after designer Justin Romero, a co-founder of the fashion brand Freak City, in 2020 joined the chorus of designers calling out Shein for selling clothes that looked like copies of their products.

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After some initial conversations with Sheins legal team, Romero talked directly with George Chiao, the president of Sheins U.S. business. Romero asked for data on how much Shein had sold of the clothing in question. It was eye-opening, he said.

After seeing how many items they sold of our items already, it was like, were already doing business without agreeing to, Romero said.

From there, Romero and Shein started a collaboration under a program that the company calls Shein X. Romero and his co-founder, Valerie Campbell, are participants.

Through Shein X, the company provides independent designers with a budget, pays their production costs and markets their wares on Sheins site. The designers receive either a sales commission or a share in the profits, an arrangement usually reserved for designers who have a licensing deal with a retailer. Its roughly 3,000 participants have collectively received $5 million in commissions, Chiao said at last months summit in Los Angeles, where his remarks were met with cheers.

Shein is trying to win over a diverse group of designers, creating a pipeline of potential industry ambassadors. The retailer does not collect demographic information on its designers, but the team that runs the program has emphasized that Shein X artists and designers come from myriad backgrounds, according to a company spokesperson.

What they want to do is make more money, and they are now seeing that having a more diverse roster will generate them millions and billions of more gross margin profits, said Shawn Grain Carter, a professor of management at the Fashion Institute of Technology. This is not an altruistic endeavor. This is a financial business endeavor.

During the daylong event in the heart of the citys downtown fashion district, Shein presented itself as an innovator with a profitable business model and a supporter of diversity and inclusion. It positioned itself at the nexus of pop culture and fashion by having panels with haute couture designers and health and beauty influencers. It capped off the day with a dance and musical performance. Sheins sustainability director pointed designers to recycled materials like polyester that the company was encouraging them to use.

Weve grown really, really fast as a business, Caitrin Watson, the sustainability director who was hired in April 2022, said to the designers in the room. But as you grow, people want to know more than just what product do you sell? They want to know who you are as a brand. What are your values? How are you making your clothes  what are they made out of?

That kind of message seemed devised, in part, to answer questions about how Shein conducts its business. Investors group Shein as a fast-fashion player; the company rejects that title, which evokes images of heaps of textiles dumped in landfills. Critics say its ultralow prices contribute to overconsumption and environmental waste; the retailer says its focusing more on sustainable solutions.

And recently, Sheins connection to China has elicited concerns that the company exploits import laws. The company was founded in Nanjing but is now based in Singapore. Most of the factories that produce its clothing are in China.

Critics like the group Shut Down Shein, formed in March, say that Shein avoids U.S. Customs and Border Protection scrutiny and billions in tariffs by shipping directly to its customers under a certain price threshold. It doesnt record these shipments in bulk, the group says, like most other U.S. retailers.

Shut Down Shein also claims that the company commits human rights abuses. On Monday, two members of Congress wrote the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, asking that, as a condition of its expected offering, Shein be required to certify through an independent party that it doesnt use Uyghur forced labor.

The company said in a statement that it conducted business lawfully and with full respect for the communities we serve.

The statement added, As a global company with customers and operations around the world, Shein takes visibility across our entire supply chain seriously.

Attendees at the Los Angeles event didnt seem to dwell much on onlookers wider concerns about Shein. When asked about accusations of copying, several designers said that creatives often looked to others in the field for inspiration. They seemed more interested in networking with Shein executives and fellow designers. They twirled in their latest designs and said they wanted to learn more about how they could use Sheins name to help elevate their own.

Designers in Shein X said that the retailers massive audience had helped catapult their brand and that their sell-through rates were high. During happy hour, two participants jumped up and down after they realized that Shein had posted their photo and tagged it on Instagram, increasing their exposure to its 1.7 million followers.

If you look at the amount of people who gravitate to the Shein brand, its millions of folks, and the exciting part is even if you reach just a third of those people youre winning, said Kenya Freeman, whose line Sylvia Mollie has been sold on Shein since January 2021.

Shein still uses more than 250 in-house designers and third-party suppliers to design the clothes shoppers see on its website and mobile app. And on TikTok, independent designers still post videos accusing the company of ripping them off.

In 2020, Shein established a team in the United States to review potential intellectual property violations. Previously, those reviews were conducted in China. It also invested in image-recognition technology to recognize cases of potential infringement and required third-party suppliers to certify that their products dont infringe on others intellectual property. A spokesperson said there was a double-digit percentage decline in infringement claims from 2021 to 2022. She declined to share exact numbers.

Armand Mehidri, a 30-year-old Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based designer in the Shein X program, said Shein used its data to help him sell more of his designs. After receiving a message from Shein alerting him that one of his shirts was selling well and suggesting he put the same design on hoodies and tank tops, he did just that, and they kept selling, he said.

While Shein X has given designers the opportunity to expand their businesses, working with the retailer still comes with baggage. After Casey Russell, 33, announced in 2022 on social media that he had been accepted into the program, he said that for two days he received the traditional hate mail whenever you do something with a brand thats seen as bad. Critics flooded his Instagram comments and direct messages, calling him a sellout and claiming he was ruining the environment by making fast-fashion clothes.

Russell wasnt given a budget when he started his Shein line, a mens collection called Claude Russell that had 13 items go into production. In his first round, he said he made about $53,000 in sales. At the Los Angeles gathering, Shein gave him a booth to display some of his black and green capes and matching button-up shirts, which brought in about $5,000 in sales.

When you work in the industry, Russell said, you also realize that a lot of stuff that people talk about, its actually not as bad as it looks on the outside.

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Plywood covers a conference room window at Alexandria City Hall on Tuesday. A Sunday night shooting about a block away "impacted" City Hall, said Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy.

Two people died after separate shootings in Alexandria and Pineville Sunday and early Monday. Alexandria's mayor and police chief sought to soothe safety concerns days ahead of a returning festival.

The Sunday night shooting in downtown Alexandria near the 3rd and Johnston streets intersection, a block from Alexandria City Hall, left one person dead. Those involved people from a rooftop party downtown, and "some attendees spilled over into downtown ... a shooting occurred, and there was a death," said Mayor Jacques Roy in a video posted to Facebook Monday evening.

In a longer video posted on the city's YouTube channel, Roy said the party was being held on private property and, after it was over, there was an after-party at "perhaps" another venue.

On Monday afternoon, Alexandria Police Department Chief Chad Gremillion issued a news release that identified the victim as Elliot B. Dauzart, 23, of Alexandria. He died at the scene.

The release also stated the shooting happened around 8:52 p.m. on Johnston Street near 3rd Street. Police had responded to a call about shots being fired.

The Pineville shooting happened early Monday, not long after midnight, according to the Pineville Police Department.

Victim Rochaune L. Prenell: 2 arrested in case of body found by crew on highway outside of Alexandria last week

Victim John McGraw: Two teen boys arrested after weekend slaying of Alexandria man

The department received a call about a shooting near Holloway Drive and Prairie Street. Officers found the body of Pineville resident Tucker Gibson, 26, who had been shot several times.

Detectives arrested Rayford Lee Brice III, 18, and booked him in the Rapides Parish Detention Center #1 on a charge of second-degree murder.

No bail information for Brice was posted in online jail records as of Monday night.

As far as the upcoming AlexRiverFete event is concerned, both Roy and Gremillion encouraged people to attend.

"I can't tell anybody that there is never a chance of issues when you attend events, I can tell that you at AlexRiverFete, the amount of security and public safety in place will be tremendous," said Roy. "This will be a safe event."

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Roy also said Alexandria City Hall was "impacted" by the shooting. On Tuesday, a sheet of plywood covered a conference room window on the upper floor.

Gremillion called the downtown shooting "isolated" and said there's no information that shows it was targeted to that area. He echoed Roy on the festival's security.

"I want to reassure the citizens of our community and those that will travel in that the Alexandria Police Department and the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office will have a sizable safety plan and presence in place," he said.

Gremillion, like Roy, said the festival will be a safe event.

Roy also said he planned to issue some executive orders that would change how such private events are held. He said nobody could predict "the moment this flash-bang of violence occurred," but those who arrange such events can be required to follow certain rules.

In the YouTube video, he said the investigation also was looking at how the party was organized.

He said he'd decided to "issue a series of executive orders that make that strict in this downtown." He said the shooting doesn't mean the downtown area is unsafe and that it's not the area having "the most problems that we have with crime."

In his YouTube video, the mayor said the changes aren't about stopping events but about having events from which people are confident they will return home.

In both his videos, Roy touched on young people and access to weapons and how many incidents that turn violent begin with "beefing on social media." He said that's "a whole lot of what we see" in Alexandria and across the country.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Shootings kill 2; Alexandria mayor, chief talk safety for AlexRiverFete
The Armys top officials told lawmakers Tuesday morning that the services recruiting slump wont end this year, making fiscal 2023 the second year in a row that the branch wont meet its recruiting targets.

And while they argue that theres reason for hope on the recruiting front, they did not sugarcoat the potential impact that a continued personnel shortfall could have on the militarys largest branch.

The services top civilian, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, said the Army wont make its goal of recruiting around 65,000 new soldiers but claimed numbers look better than they did last year. Yet end strength remains in free fall, with the active duty Army currently at 455,000 troops and losing more soldiers than its gaining with less than five months remaining to hit its scheduled target of 452,000 soldiers for fiscal 2023.

If we dont turn our recruiting situation around, I cant guarantee you that the Army wont have to make some substantial potential force structure reductions, like reducing the services number of combat brigades, Wormuth explained to Senate appropriators during a budget hearing. Weve got to make sure that our units  for example, those on the Immediate Response Force  are manned adequately so that theyre ready to go.

The service is evaluating where it can reduce personnel and do some thinning out to avoid such structural cuts, said Wormuth, who added that at most large installations around the country right now, the number of actual soldiers is fewer than the authorizations that are there.

She described the process as people optimization, akin to the so-called night courts of recent years where the Army slashed spending in order to keep its modernization programs on track. This is happening alongside standing practices like manning prioritization, whereby the service sets different strength targets for different units based on need.

The optimization process aims to ask hard questions about what units actually need. Do we need to have 60 cooks [in a unit]? Wormuth said. Or can we use 40 cooks?

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The Armys top civilian official noted that restructuring was needed anyways to build new units like fires protection formations, to guard against enemy indirect fire threats, and multidomain task forces, which synchronize long-range fires and other capabilities like cyber and electronic warfare, amid the services pivot toward future large-scale conflicts.

The general overseeing Army Recruiting Command, Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis, attributed some of the improvement to initiatives like the Future Soldier Prep Course, which allows recruits who dont yet meet testing or body composition standards attend an improvement camp to make the cut for basic training.

Davis, who spoke at an Association of the U.S. Army event Tuesday, said over 97% of course participants are moving on to basic training.

The Army is also redesigning how it trains and selects recruiters, Davis said, while a Pentagon-level task force continues its work exploring avenues for reforming the services recruiting approach.

But Gen. James McConville, the Armys chief of staff, told lawmakers that theres one red line he wont cross.

One thing that the Secretary and I have done is made a blood oath  were not going to lower standards, he said.
North Carolina first lady Kristin Cooper recently questioned the vibrancy of Raleighs Glenwood South district after a man tried to kick-in the door of her and Gov. Roy Coopers private home.

On the neighborhood listserv, Cooper said a man tried to kick down the door of the couples residence in Forest Park in late April around 3 a.m.

He had no record and didnt seem to know whose house it was, she wrote. Just a guy having fun. Did anyone else have a disruption? Im personally sick of these people roaming the streets of what is obviously a neighborhood, yelling and carrying on as they head to the free parking area for Glenwood South that we have become.

This is not what vibrancy looks like to me, she wrote.

In another message she said the simplest thing would be for the city to just enforce the noise, public drunkenness and drunk driving laws.

I can tell the time by when the noise starts, she wrote. The bars close at 2:00; between 2:15 and 2:30, the drunks hit St. Marys St.; drunken drag racing goes on until 3:00. And I hate being that person, Ive always enjoyed the young people and students who live in this neighborhood, but it seems like since the pandemic, they have just gone feral.

The Raleigh Police Department referred questions about the incident to the N.C. State Highway Patrol, which did not return a phone call or email Tuesday night, but said Wednesday morning its would check into the incident.

An email to the governors press office seeking comment for this story was not returned Tuesday night.

The listserv message was raised during the Raleigh City Council meeting Tuesday night by local resident Woody Biggs, who has been asking leaders to address crime and noise in Glenwood South for months

We have had noise issues for years. The crime issues seem to have escalated greatly in the last two years, Biggs said in an interview with The News & Observer.

Before the last 12 months I never heard about gunfire in Glenwood South, he continued. Now every month I am hearing about gunfire going off in Glenwood South. And if you dont speak up nothing changes.

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The city has to get a handle on the issue before there is a deadly shooting, he said.

Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said it was the first time shed heard about the incident at the Coopers home.

The City Council has held numerous meetings about safety in Glenwood South, Baldwin said, adding the police chief has increased patrols in the area and new signs have been installed to discourage people from parking in nearby neighborhoods.

We are working diligently on the issue, she told The N&O. Unfortunately, right now in America, guns seem to be everywhere, and we have a huge problem in our country that needs to be addressed.
World War II movies and shows often focus on conflicts on the battlefield, but every once in a while, a piece of film captures the struggles of civilians mired in wars grey areas  the spaces between decision makers and troops. A Small Light does just that.

While most Americans may be familiar with story of Anne Frank, whose diary shed light on the deplorable treatment of Jewish people under Nazi rule, the story of the brave woman who hid Frank and her family is lesser known. Miep Gies, an ordinary woman, performed an extraordinary act of courage in hiding the Frank family from the Gestapo.

The eight-part series, produced by National Geographic, tells the story of Gies (Bel Powley) and her husband Jan (Joe Cole), who worked quietly to resist the Nazis in Amsterdam.

Gies, who was not Jewish, is unemployed and living with her adoptive Dutch family as the series begins. That is until Otto Frank, played by Liev Schreiber, hires her as a secretary.

At the outset of the show, Holland appears to be a bastion, but as the Nazis seize control, Jewish life in Amsterdam becomes tenuous seemingly overnight. As a result, Gies works to hide her boss family in a hideaway known famously as the annex in their former office.

For two years, the Frank family, Van Pels family and a man named Fritz Pfeffer survived there. Nazis eventually raided the building in August 1944 and sent the eight residents to concentration camps.

Gies, meanwhile, was left with the wreckage from the raid, picking up remnants of what the families left behind, including the renowned diary of Anne Frank, which she returned to Otto  the sole surviving member of the Frank family  after Allied Forces liberated the concentration camps.

The series is a testament to the increasing danger Gies and her husband put themselves through to protect their wards following the swift Nazi takeover. The show derives its title from a quote from Gies, which said, Even a regular secretary, a housewife or a teenager can turn on a small light in a dark room, according to the New York Times.

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Gies published her own memoir in 1987.

I am not a hero, she wrote. I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did and more  much more  during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the heart of those of us who bear witness. Never a day goes by that I do not think of what happened then.

The first two episodes of A Small Light are available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu.
(Bloomberg) -- South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago unveiled upgraded banknotes that will incorporate enhanced security features, including color-changing ink, to prevent counterfeiting.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Countries lose a fortune to counterfeiting each year and the practice tarnishes the credibility of the currency, thereby impacting negatively on the growth of an economy, Kganyago said at an event hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

The new notes, which will enter into circulation from May 4, will retain the image of Mandela, the nations first democratically elected president who died almost a decade ago.

Africas so-called Big Five wild animals  rhino, elephant, lion, buffalo and leopard  which respectively adorn the backs of 10 rand ($0.55), 20 rand, 50 rand, 100 rand and 200 rand bills, will now be depicted with their young on the banknotes, with the image varying by denomination.

The notes will also be rolled out to Namibia, Eswatini and Lesotho that are in a common monetary area with South Africa and where the rand is considered legal tender alongside their own currencies, said Fundi Tshazibana, a deputy central bank governor.

South African banknotes are refreshed every six to eight years and coins every 20 to 30 years in line with international best practice to combat copying, the governor said. The existing notes bearing Mandelas image were issued 11 years ago, while a commemorative series was printed in 2018.

The current coins were released in 1989. New ones, showing the countrys fauna and flora, are also being introduced.

Without changes, not only is there a risk that the public could lose confidence in the currency but there is a greater risk that substantial counterfeiting could generate an increase in the supply of money, thereby causing inflation, Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo said at the same event.

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Policymakers have raised interest rates by 425 basis points since November 2021 to cool inflation that at 7.1% remains above the 4.5% midpoint of the target range at which the central bank prefers to anchor price-growth expectations.

The bank said in its six-monthly Monetary Policy Review last week that it sees risks to inflation from food and core price growth that have yet to peak, in part reflecting the effect of a weaker rand. The unit has depreciated almost 7% against the dollar the year, making it the second-worst performer in a basket of 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

These upgrades are an important development in reducing the potential cost of counterfeiting and preserving the integrity of the rand, Masondo said.

(Updates with comment from central bank governor in second paragraph)

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Members of far-right VOX parliamentary group walk out prior to the start of Colombian President Gustavo Petro's speech

Colombian President Gustavo Petro was snubbed by far-right lawmakers as he began a state visit to Spain on Wednesday calling for deeper ties with Latin America to fight climate change.

Addressing parliament, Petro said his visit was not just about "remembering the past and the historical scars" left as a result of Colombia's past as a Spanish colony, but about "modern-day demands".

His speech was overshadowed by a protest by the far-right Vox, Spain's third largest party, whose lawmakers staged a walkout as Colombia's first leftist president approached the podium.

The protest was in response to Petro's remarks on May 1 about his nation's 19th-century struggle for independence "from the Spanish yoke".

"He's an unrepentant terrorist, a man who insulted Spain before flying over here," Vox leader Santiago Abascal told reporters outside parliament, referring to Petro's involvement with a guerrilla group when he was a teenager.

Abascal was joined by several dozen demonstrators for a protest called by the Madrid Forum, an alliance of right and far-right Spanish and Latin American lawmakers.

"There was never any yoke, but a beautiful brotherhood, with a shared culture, faith and worldview," Abascal wrote on Facebook on May 2, describing it as "outrageous" that the Colombian leader would be allowed to address Spain's parliament.

"The only yoke that exists in Colombia is the one that totalitarians like Petro have imposed on their people."

Placing the climate crisis at the heart of his visit, Petro called for "concrete policies" in defence of the environment when Spain takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1.

With global warming, the world had to chose between "disappearing" or "changing", said Petro who has been pushing the transition to clean energy and a driving force behind an international alliance to protect the Amazon.

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He will meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday.

In power since August 2022, Petro is grappling with a major political crisis that saw him replace seven of his ministers last week as he struggles to push a reform programme through Congress.

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Kathleen Bostick, a Spelman College student, was honored by one of her biggest inspirations.

11Alive reports that retired astronaut Joan Higginbotham, the third Black woman to travel to space, presented the STEM student with a prestigious scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. The scholarship comes after Bostick shared the plans she created for a manned mission to Mars with NASAs Langley Research Center.

Just as Higginbotham has been a leading representation for young Black girls and women aspiring to work in the space industry, the college senior hopes to do the same.

We are not just as capable as everyone else but we are even more than that because we know how to problem solve in a way that no one else does, and I think that is truly the key to getting us to Mars, getting us anywhere in terms of new inventions, and the future in general, Bostick said, according to the outlet.

In addition to presenting Bostick with her scholarship, Higginbotham took a moment to share career advice with the young women in attendance at the ceremony.

I always tell students, or even adults, who are looking to venture into areas  where theres not many people that look like us or people who have not chartered those path(s), I always say, Have faith in yourself and your abilities,' Higginbotham said. Always use your voice as a conduit to speak the truth and to have confidence in what youre saying.

Before working with NASA, Higginbotham initially wanted to get an electrical engineering degree and work for IBM, according to her NASA profile. However, she ended up landing an offer from NASA as a payload electrical engineer. Then, after two attempts she became an astronaut. A highlight of Higginbothams time as an astronaut was flying on the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-116 in 2006.
Flowers sit at a tree in front of the building where a technology executive was fatally stabbed outside of in San Francisco. (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

Cash App founder Bob Lee died on the operating table in San Francisco last month after being stabbed three times, including through the heart, according to an autopsy report from the San Francisco chief medical examiner's office.

Nima Momeni, a 38-year-old tech consultant and entrepreneur, is accused of killing Lee, 43. Momeni was arrested April 13 in Emeryville on suspicion of murder after San Francisco police pieced together a narrative involving Lee, Momeni and Momeni's sister.

Momeni was set to be arraigned Tuesday, but the hearing was postponed for the third time, to May 18, at the request of his attorney.

Momeni allegedly stabbed Lee with a kitchen knife on April 4 about 2:30 a.m. near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, according to police. Lee called 911 and told police he had been stabbed and needed help.

When paramedics found him, Lee was unconscious and didn't have a pulse, according to the autopsy report. He underwent emergency surgery at San Francisco General Hospital, where doctors discovered he had two wounds to his heart, which were closed with staples. Lee also had an injury to his lung.

Doctors attempted further treatment, but Lee was pronounced dead at 6:49 a.m. on the operating table after they had spent nearly four hours trying to save his life.

Lee's manner of death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner's office, with the cause of death being "multiple stab wounds."

Alcohol, ketamine and cocaine were also found in Lee's system, according to the autopsy report.

According to the narrative laid out by prosecutors in court documents, Momeni has a married sister who had been seen in Lee's company. A close friend of Lee's met Lee and the sister in an apartment on Mission Street the night before the stabbing. Both Lee and Momeni's sister were drinking.

That friend later witnessed a conversation Lee had with Momeni about Momeni's sister. The friend wasn't sure whether Lee and the sister had an intimate relationship but told police the woman's marital relationship "had possibly been in jeopardy."

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Prosecutors believe that Momeni was upset that, the night before the stabbing, something "inappropriate" might have happened with his sister and Lee.

San Francisco Police Department retrieved surveillance video from April 4 that appeared to show Momeni and Lee getting out of a BMW on Main Street. In the video, one of the two, believed to be Momeni, lunges toward the second person, believed to be Lee.

A kitchen knife with blood on the handle was later found by police near the sidewalk seen in the video.

San Francisco Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins speaks at a news conference after a courtroom appearance by Nima Momeni at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco on April 25, 2023. (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

A woman who has not been publicly identified accused Momeni of attacking her on Aug. 1, according to an Emeryville police report obtained by The Times. She called police at 3:11 p.m. to the 4000 block of Harlan Street. She appeared to be "upset and on the verge of crying."

The woman told police that Momeni had been allowing her to stay on his couch in exchange for cleaning the unit; she said they were not in a romantic relationship. She said that, earlier that day, Momeni angrily yelled at her to get her belongings and leave. He allegedly grabbed her waist and arm and pushed her against a counter.

The woman told police that she suspected Momeni of being unstable and that "one minute he will be fine and the next he will go off for no reason."

Initially the woman didn't want to press charges but later changed her mind. Police took photos of the areas of the woman's body where she said Momeni grabbed her; an officer said he saw redness but couldn't tell if that was from being grabbed.

Momeni denied the allegation when questioned by police and told them he wanted to pursue charges against the woman, whom he accused of having pushed him.

Momeni's roommate confirmed to police that he had seen Momeni and the woman arguing that day but didn't see Momeni batter the woman.

Momeni was cited on suspicion of misdemeanor battery and released. The Alameda County district attorney's office didn't file charges against him and declined to disclose the reason.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Laxman Narasimhan, Starbucks' new CEO, spent time working alongside baristas. Stephen Brashear/AP

Starbucks' CEO shared his key takeaways after spending time working in stores alongside baristas.

He said the company needed to buy cheaper cups and slash the number of lid-and-cup combinations.

He described Starbucks stores as "theaters at the front with a factory in the back."

Starbucks' new CEO, Laxman Narasimhan, shared some of his key takeaways on Tuesday after spending time working in stores alongside baristas.

He said the company needed to buy cheaper cups and slash the number of lid-and-cup combinations. He also said beverage innovation was strong, but "food could use more work."

"Currently, we have over 1,500 cup-and-lid combinations across our network," he said in a call with analysts. "As we streamline, we will create a portfolio of fewer, more sustainable, and less costly cups while further simplifying operations in our stores."

He described Starbucks stores as "theaters at the front with a factory in the back" and said the company needed to strengthen the factory.

"We are in the business of human connection," he said. "Our performance is strong, but our health can be stronger, enable the fearless in the front by strengthening the factories in the back."

The theater is where baristas interact with customers. Starbucks recently announced it was holding two-hour employee 'connection' meetings with store employees, an initiative the company said was focused on bringing people together.

The factory involves the supply chain, technology, and other parts of non-customer-facing operations.

"We are out of stock in more items than we would like," Narasimhan said.

Later, he added, "We can buy different, and we can buy better. Our end-to-end supply chain has significant opportunities to reduce cost and improve availability."

Narasimhan said he also noticed "that we are a company that strives to be different, and we are now operating in a different kind of world."

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Starbucks is increasingly operating throughout the world. During the earnings call, the company highlighted its international growth, particularly in China, where the company now operates more than 6,000 stores.

"The world in which we operate is evolving, " Narasimhan said. "There is clear opportunity to build stronger capabilities, drive even deeper engagement, and adopt a global mindset."

Do you work for Starbucks or have a story to share? Contact Gloria Dawson via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-516-721-6598) or email (gdawson@insider.com). Check out Insider's source guide for other tips on sharing information securely.

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KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo / Courtesy of KB Financial Group





By Anna J. Park







KB Financial Group plans to host a cocktail reception during the 56th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), aiming to promote Korea's global competitiveness in the financial sector as well as the expansion of the financial group's worldwide business.







The financial group announced on Tuesday that it will hold the "KB Financial Group Cocktail Reception" at the Sheraton Grand Incheon Hotel on Thursday, inviting key officials from international organizations, global financial institutes as well as governments of many countries.







Some 200 distinguished guests are expected to attend the event, including Dinesh Kumar Khara, the chairman of the State Bank of India, and Morris Li, the chairman of Chinatrust Commercial Bank (CTBC Bank).







KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo, KB Kookmin Bank CEO Lee Jae-keun and other CEOs of subsidiary companies of the group will also join the networking event to discuss cooperative business deals.







During the reception, the KB Financial chairman is slated to present the group's global two-track growth strategy, which refers to the financial giant's differing approaches for Southeast Asian markets and advanced financial markets.







"By hosting the reception party, KB Financial Group plans to promote the competitiveness of Korea's financial sector, while actively seeking new business opportunities with competent global partners," an official at the financial group said.


Leo Schofield talks with one of his attorneys during a 2018 evidentiary hearing before Judge Keith Spoto in Bartow. Schofield, subject of the podcast "Bone Valley," will have his parole considered Wednesday by a three-judge commission in Tallahassee.

Leo Schofield Jr., championed as a man wrongly convicted of murder in a popular podcast, will not be leaving prison yet.

Schofield, who has served nearly 35 years after being convicted of killing his wife in Lakeland in 1987, had a fourth chance at parole Wednesday when the Florida Commission on Offender Review met in Tallahassee. In a compromise vote, the three-person panel decided on a one-year extension of release date.

That means Schofield, 56, could leave prison in June of 2024, though he will face another review next March. Schofields presumptive parole release date was set about a decade ago at June of this year.

Schofield received a life sentence after a Polk County jury found him guilty of murder in 1989. Florida abolished parole in the 1980s, but inmates convicted of murder before 1994 are eligible for release after serving at least 25 years.

Previously: Leo Schofield, subject of podcast on 1987 Lakeland murder conviction, faces parole hearing

Schofields plight has become an international cause through the podcast Bone Valley, which began releases last fall. The 12-part audio series, narrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King, has drawn more than 7 million listeners, according to the production company.

The case for Schofields innocence hinges on the disputed confession of Jeremy Scott, a man serving a life sentence for a separate murder.

King attended Wednesdays hearing in Tallahassee, as did a crew from the ABC program 20/20, which aired an episode on Schofield last fall. King said the New York Times also sent a reporter to cover the hearing.

Schofield, now incarcerated at Hardee Correctional Institution near Wauchula, has insisted on his innocence since his conviction. In the podcast, he says that he declined a plea agreement offer that would have resulted in a relatively short sentence.

The commissions hearings are not judicial proceedings and do not seek to establish whether a candidate was fairly convicted. Instead, the panel determines whether the convicted person should be released. The parole candidates do not appear at the hearings.

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One commissioner favored release

The commission considering Schofields potential release Wednesday included David Wyant, the retired deputy chief of the Bartow Police Department, along with two former prosecutors, Chair Melinda Coonrod and Vice Chair Richard Davison. The commissioners noted that an investigator, after conducting an interview with Schofield in prison, had recommended an extension.

Davison recommended a delay of 24 months for Schofield, and Wyant followed with a suggest of an 18-month extension. Coonrod favored Schofields immediate parole.

Outnumbered, Coonrod asked if the others would consider a 12-month extension. Wyant agreed, providing the two-vote margin needed for the commission to act.

The commission recommended having Schofield transferred to Everglades Correctional Institution in Miami, which has a program for inmates preparing to be released from life sentences.

Schofield has exhausted all his legal options to challenge his conviction, and the decision of the parole commission cannot be appealed.

The agenda for the hearing indicated that the commission received statements from a range of relatives and supporters of Schofield. The advocates included Seth Miller, a lawyer with the Florida Innocence Project, and Crissie Schofield, a social worker who married Schofield after meeting him while working in prison. The list featured two ministers and an inmate advocate, Laurie Allen.

Also: Mother and 3 kids shot to death in Lake Wales, suspect killed in shootout with police

Wednesdays hearing allotted 10 minutes for statements from those supporting and opposing Schofields parole. Scott Cupp, a retired Circuit Judge who has become an advocate for Schofield, spoke for supporters.

Cupp shared a letter that Schofield wrote to the commission. In the statement, Schofield emphasized that he cannot express remorse for a crime that he insists he did not commit.

Please understand that I am not stating this fact in arrogance, said the letter, which Schofield had read for a bonus episode of Bone Valley released last month. The only reason I am emphatically stating my position here is because I cannot make a statement of remorse for this crime, as the state has highlighted in my last appearance before you in (2020).

Cupp read a letter from Jessie Saum, Michelles younger brother. Saum, who was 16 when his sister died, wrote that he originally believed the prosecutions narrative but had since lost confidence in the conviction, citing what he called inconsistencies and discrepancies in the case.

In the podcast, King said that the retired State Attorney for the 10th Judicial Circuit, Jerry Hill, had been given a letter from Saum recommending Schofields release at a 2020 parole but had declined to share it with the commission.

Florida Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, also spoke in support of Schofield.

Everything that Ive seen about this case turns my stomach, said Martin, a former Assistant State Attorney in Southwest Florida. I dont know why Leo Schofield wasnt released years ago.

Martin said the handling of Schofields case had created doubts about the fairness of Floridas criminal-justice system.

You have the chance to restore credibility to the system that thousands of people know injustice is continuing every single second that Leo Schofield remains behind bars, Martin said.

Prosecutor: 'Overwhelming evidence'

Cupp acknowledged that the parole commission is not supposed to consider a subjects potential innocence, but he said that Schofields innocence has been the elephant in the room for way too long.

Cupp repeated the word innocent three times after reading Schofields letter, which ended with that word. He said that Schofield has spent 35 years grieving both for Michelle and for his own lost freedom.

The State Attorneys Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit had opposed his parole at three previous hearings. Jacob Orr, Chief Assistant State Attorney, led the argument against Schofields release on Wednesday. Orr said he has been told that Schofields case is the most reviewed in the history of Polk County.

Every time we go to court, we relitigate and we review the case based on actual transcripts and actual available evidence, Orr said. And every one of those reviews resulted in the same outcome, that there's overwhelming evidence in support of the guilty verdict that was handed down many years ago.

Orr said the commission should treat Schofield the same as it would any other in his situation. He urged the panel to ignore all the show thats going along with Schofields case.

Michelle Schofields older brother, Ricky Saum, spoke by phone in opposition to parole for Leo Schofield. He contradicted details Schofield gave in his testimony about what happened the night he reported Michelle missing.

More: Florida Southern College will hold 139th commencement event Saturday in Lakeland

I just want say that a lot of people have, lets just say, distorted the truth of this case, Saum said. I was there. I wasnt a kid. I was the older brother and was not too young to understand.

Saum added: I believe in God, and I believe in the courts, and the courts got it right. At the end of the day, you know, if Leo has to sit in prison for 45 years or 50 years because he tortured my sister; mentally tortured her  at the end of the day he should stay in jail for the rest of his life, period.

Orr did recognize that Schofield had been a good inmate with a nearly spotless record of behavior in prison.

The three commissioners each gave brief explanations before making their recommendations. All said they had reviewed the case carefully. Wyant, in suggesting an 18-month extension, observed that Schofield had a clean record in prison.

Coonrod said she thought the State Attorneys Office had done their job in prosecuting Schofield. She noted that the original trial result had been upheld many times.

We have to respect what has been done in the court system, she said.

She also offered a defense of Hill as an honorable man. The podcast cast the retired prosecutor in a negative light, presenting a recording of Hill speaking at Schofields parole hearing in 2020. Hill wrongly stated that Schofield had told authorities that an inner force guided him to the location of Michelles body during the search.

It was actually Schofields father who made that statement.

Schofield could have been released next month if another commission had agreed with Coonrods recommendation of granting him parole. A spokesperson for the Florida Commission on Offender Review said that Schofield would be placed in the Corrections Transitions Program at Everglades CI one year prior to his release date.

Because Leo is innocent, we were asking the parole commissioners to immediately release him from prison, Cupp said after the decision in a statement released by Lava for Good, the company behind the podcast. Their decision to send him to the Everglades Re-entry Center was not the ideal outcome, but it's finally progress. And we are not done fighting for Leos freedom.

King said: "Leo's case is a tragic example of a broken criminal legal system, and we will continue to fight for justice. Our hope was that the parole board would recognize the injustice that has been done to Leo as well as Michelle. We will not let this story and their voices fall silent."

King said that he expects to release a new "Bone Valley" episode as early as Friday.

Podcast suggests other killer

Schofield, an aspiring rock musician living in Lakeland, was 21 when he reported the disappearance of his 18-year-old wife, Michelle Saum Schofield, in February 1987. He and his father joined law enforcement in searching for her after her abandoned car was found along Interstate 4.

After three days, Schofields father found Michelles body submerged beneath a piece of plywood in a phosphate pit in a remote area along State Road 33. She had been stabbed 26 times in the neck, chest and back.

During Schofields trial in 1989, the prosecution presented no physical evidence tying him to Michelles murder. The prosecution presented testimony from a woman who lived across the street in the mobile-home community where Leo and Michelle resided.

The neighbor testified that she had seen the couple arguing just before Michelles reported disappearance and told investigators that she had seen Schofield carrying something heavy from the home that night. In the podcast, Schofield said she probably saw him carrying an amplifier.

In Bone Valley, King takes a journalistic approach in reporting details of the case but clearly advocates for the claim that Schofield is innocent. The podcast includes multiple recorded interviews with Schofield.

The podcast focuses on what King presents as weaknesses in the prosecutions case. It presents the key witness as a busybody seeking attention and says a relative contradicted part of her testimony.

King reports that investigators found no blood or residue from cleaning products at Schofields home, though the neighbor said she had seen him cleaning the home.

Witnesses at the trial portrayed Schofield as an abusive spouse, according to previous Ledger reporting. And witnesses testified to seeing two men standing near where Michelles body was later found in the early morning after her reported disappearance.

Supporters, most of them having learned of Schofields plight from the Bone Valley podcast, have sent letters to the Commission on Offender Review pleading for his release from prison. More than 31,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org seeking to have Schofields case transferred to a conviction integrity unit for an independent review.

Former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger has publicly expressed support for Schofield.

In the recent podcast episode, the director of a halfway house in Tampa for men leaving prison said he was ready to welcome Schofield if the commission granted him parole. King said Schofield has been a model inmate and serves a mentor to other incarcerated men.

The podcast asserts that Jeremy Scott, now serving a life sentence for another murder, actually killed Michelle. Scotts fingerprint was found in Michelles abandoned orange Mazda, though it wasnt linked to him until 2004. Scott had admitted to a practice of stealing stereo equipment from abandoned vehicles, and prosecutors cited that history in explaining the presence of his fingerprint.

Schofield filed an appeal in 2009, seeking a new trial based on the fingerprint evidence, but was denied. He filed again in 2017, after his lawyers talked to Scott, who confessed to killing Michelle both orally and in writing. A former cellmate also claimed Scott had confessed to him.

During a subsequent evidentiary hearing in Bartow, Scott said he had seen Michelle Schofield at a convenience store and asked her for a ride. Inside the car, he dropped a hunting knife while reaching for a cigarette, he said, and Michelle responded by hitting him, after which he lost it and stabbed her.

But Scott appeared to recant under a cross-examination from Assistant State Attorney Victoria Avalon. When Avalon showed an autopsy photo of Michelle Schofields stab wounds, Scott said, I didnt do that.

In the podcast, King suggests that Scott was reacting to the degraded state of Michelles body after days in the canal and emphasized the word that, meaning only that he hadnt left her in such a condition. King said that Scott later in the hearing repeated his claim of having killed Michelle.

Prosecutors said that Scott told Schofields lawyers he would confess in exchange for $1,000 and later claimed to be responsible for every murder committed in Polk County in 1987 and 1988.

Circuit Judge Kevin Abdoney ruled in 2018 after the evidentiary hearing that Scott was not credible and could not recount facts accurately.

Floridas Second District Court of Appeals in 2020 rejected Schofields bid for a new trial, writing that Scotts testimony at the hearing had been to put it mildly, bizarre.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Board denies parole for Schofield, convicted in 1987 Lakeland murder
Pennsylvania State Police are looking for information regarding a May 4, 1997 fatal fire in Perry Township, Fayette County.

Shirley Mae Saxon, 65, was found dead inside of her home, which was destroyed in the blaze.

State police said the fire was ruled as arson by the state police fire marshal.

According to police, Saxon was with her boyfriend, Paul Kallock, 40, earlier in the day.

Kallock denies being involved in the fire and refuses to cooperate in the investigation, police said.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact the PSP Belle Vernon Station at (724) 929-6262.

Callers can remain anonymous and could be eligible for a cash reward of $5,000.

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Eighth graders knowledge of both history and civics fell significantly between 2018 and 2022, according to the latest scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Federal officials called the decline an ominous sign for Americas civic culture, with U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona criticizing some states for banning history books and censoring educators.

Posted this morning, results from last years administration of the nationally representative test  sometimes referred to as the Nations Report Card  showed history scores dropping by an average of five points on a 500-point scale. Average civics scores fell by two points on a 300-point scale, the first-ever decline in the 25-year history of the test. After modest increases over the last few decades, performance in both subjects has fallen back to levels measured in the 1990s, when the subjects were first tested.

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Taken together, the scores provide only the latest evidence of declining U.S. academic performance across a range of disciplines. Just last fall, the release of math and English scores showed severe damage inflicted during the pandemic, with years worth of academic growth similarly erased or massively reduced.

Related Nations Report Card Shows Largest Drops Ever Recorded in 4th and 8th Grade Math

Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, told reporters that the unprecedented reversal in civics was alarming, though not of the same magnitude as last years release. More disquieting were the history results, she added, which began their slide nearly a decade ago and are now nine points lower than in the 2014 iteration of NAEP.

For U.S. history, I was very, very concerned, Carr said. Its a decline that started in 2014, long before we even thought about COVID. This is a decline thats been [going] down for a while.

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Beyond the headline figures, the test also measured lower performance across all four of the sub-themes included on the NAEP U.S. history test, including changes in American democracy (minus-five points), interactions of peoples and cultures (minus-five), economic and technological development (minus-five), and Americas evolving role in the world (minus-three).

Equally noteworthy, Carr observed, was a phenomenon that has been consistent across multiple rounds of NAEP stretching back over the better part of a decade: Scores for the most successful test takers (those at 90th percentile in U.S. history and both the 75th and 90th percentile in civics) are statistically unchanged since 2018, while relatively lower-performing students did significantly worse.

Those diverging trends were reflected in the numbers of participants scoring at NAEPs different achievement thresholds. The percentage of eighth graders scoring below NAEPs lowest benchmark of basic in U.S. history (defined as only partial mastery of the requisite skills and knowledge in a given subject) grew from 29 percent in 2014 to an incredible 40 percent in 2022. In civics, the proportion of students scoring below the basic level rose to 31 percent from 27 percent in 2018.

By contrast, just 13 percent of test takers managed to score at or above NAEPs proficient benchmark in U.S. history (defined as being able to read, interpret, and draw conclusions from primary and secondary sources)  the lowest proportion of eighth-grade students reaching that level out of any subject tested by NAEP. Only about one-fifth of students met or exceeded the proficient level in civics, the second-lowest proportion for any subject.

Patrick Kelly, a 12th-grade teacher of AP U.S. government in suburban Columbia, South Carolina, said that the results, while disappointing, could hardly be called a surprise. In spite of their importance to the countrys social fabric, he continued, requisite attention and precedence has not been granted to either history or civics.

Sample question (NAEP/The 74)

When it comes to social studies instruction, weve marginalized it for quite a while nationally, said Kelly, who also serves as a member of the National Assessments Governing Board, which oversees the construction and administration of NAEP. You get out of something what you put into it, and we havent been putting enough in to get anything other than the results were seeing.

A neglected sphere of learning

The new scores arrive at a period of contention around social studies, when both policymakers and members of the public allege partisan interference in classroom instruction.

Related How Texas Lawmakers Gutted Civics

Conservatives, including a swell of newly emergent parent groups, have spent much of the past few years complaining that teachers and school district leaders are indoctrinating children through ideological instruction on topics like race, gender and sexuality. Progressives counter that Republican-led moves to narrow topics of classroom discussion and remove controversial books from school libraries constitute a more pernicious form of political meddling.

In a statement, Secretary Cardona echoed some of the latter claims, arguing that the lower NAEP scores reflect the disruptive effects of COVID-19. Restricting the autonomy of teachers does our students a disservice and will move America in the wrong direction, he said.

The latest data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress further affirms the profound impact the pandemic had on student learning in subjects beyond math and reading, Cardona wrote, adding that it is not the timeto limit what students learn in U.S. history and civics classes.

Sample question (NAEP/The 74)

But whatever the impact of recent disputes over lengthy school closures or district-led equity initiatives, the drop in history knowledge can be traced back to 2014. It was around that time that a new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, replaced No Child Left Behind  a development that many hoped would reduce classroom focus on the core subjects of math and English and make more room in the school day for instruction in science, social studies, and the arts.

Related Race, Trump & History:

Weeks Before Election, President Leaps Into Culture War Skirmish Over Teaching 1619 Project

If that shift occurred, it cant be detected in the latest NAEP results. Edward Ayers, a renowned historian who serves as both a humanities professor and president emeritus of the University of Richmond, said that history education still languishes as a neglected, de-emphasized sphere of learning within the K12 world.

The downward-trending performance reflects 30 years of disinvestment in the teaching of social studies, reflected Ayers, who recently launched an online hub called New American History to provide free learning resources to K12 teachers. It reflects the diminished amount of testing devoted to those subjects. We have emphasized STEM and reading and sacrificed this kind of learning in schools across the country.

Related The Conservative Scholar Who Convinced GOP Lawmakers Civics Conceals CRT

Recent findings from nationally prominent research and advocacy groups have sounded a similar note. A recent and wide-ranging survey of the elementary social studies landscape was conducted by the RAND Corporation, warning of a missing infrastructure for the teaching of civics and history in elementary schools. Few states require regular assessment of social studies knowledge, the study found, and many rely on low-quality standards. While 98 percent of elementary principals reported evaluating their teachers on math and reading instruction, just 67 percent said the same of social studies. A sizable majority of teachers said that the task of selecting curricular materials for social studies lessons fell to them, and just 16 percent said they worked from a textbook.

Survey responses from eighth graders who took the exam dovetailed somewhat with those findings. Between 2018 and 2022, the proportion of students who said they were enrolled in a dedicated U.S. history course declined from 72 percent to 68 percent. Just 55 percent said they had a teacher whose primary responsibility was teaching U.S. history, compared with 62 percent four years prior.

Ayers said that the diminished focus on history endangered the development of civic skills and inclinations. Only a renewed push for more and better instruction in social studies could reverse that, he said.

I care about people living in public, living with one another. And theres nothing like getting outside of yourself  thats kind of what the humanities do generally. To step outside your own perspective and imagine another time, another place, another gender, another skin, is the best way to foster a sense of common purpose.
The Springfield Police Department will conduct a crosswalk yield check this week at Campbell Avenue and Atlantic Street near Reed Academy.

Drivers need to watch where they stop their vehicles at intersections in Springfield. Beginning May 3, they could get a ticket for failure to yield at crosswalks.

Part of the citys SGFYields pedestrian safety program, the Springfield Police Department will begin issuing citations for driver and pedestrian crosswalk violations during weekly Yield Check events. The intersection of Bennett Street and Delaware Avenue in the Delaware Neighborhood is first such event on Wednesday.

Crosswalk Yield Checks have been conducted at well-marked crosswalk locations throughout the community since mid-March. But so far, drivers have been let off with a warning. Springfield police now have the ability to ticket drivers who endanger pedestrians by failing to correctly yield.

Yield Checks have been conducted so far at six locations throughout Springfield, resulting in an average driver yield rate of 51%. On average, officers pull over and issue educational warnings to about 30 drivers per event.

So far, Yield Checks have been a great way to educate about the severity of this issue in Springfield, said City Traffic Safety Professional Mandy Buettgen-Quinn in a statement. If drivers dont pay attention and they dont yield to pedestrians, it puts people on foot in danger. As we transition from warnings to citations, we are emphasizing that crosswalk laws are a matter of life safety.

At a yield safety check, three Springfield Police officers will station themselves at a designated crosswalk location for approximately four hours, monitoring for driver compliance. One officer acts as a decoy pedestrian, a second functions as a spotter and a third in a patrol vehicle is ready to stop those who do not properly yield to the pedestrian.

Posted signage is placed to alert drivers that they are approaching a Yield Check location. Those who are stopped are provided a warning and educational materials. After a warning period, drivers may receive citations for blatant violations. Officers may also address any pedestrians that do not follow regulations, providing similar warnings and education to those who put themselves or others at risk.

Funded through a grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation, Crosswalk Yield Checks are conducted through a partnership between the Springfield Police Department and the SGF Yields pedestrian safety program administered by Springfield Public Works. The grant provides overtime pay for officers who volunteer to work additional hours through the program.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield police to ticket drivers who don't yield at crosswalks
stockdevil / Getty Images

Fact checked by Nick Blackmer











Brain cells die rapidly during a stroke, so the earlier a stroke is identified and treated, the better the outcome for the patient.

You can identify many strokes early by knowing the most common signs, and you can remember the signs with the mnemonic device BE FAST.

Not all hospitals are equally equipped to treat stroke patients, so community leaders and first responders must create protocols to get patients to the best hospital for them.











Jeri Ward was only 30 years old when she experienced a stroke that left her unable to move or talk and nearly took her life. A busy social worker and community advocate, Ward initially attributed her symptoms to the stress of her job. But when she lost her ability to speak and could not tell her husband something was wrong, she knew it was time to go to the hospital.

Ward had identified a key tenant of stroke warning signs: speech difficulty.

Sure enough, Ward was having a stroke, and ultimately required a year of rehabilitation to regain speech and mobility. That was five years ago. Now, she works as a stroke educator, advocating for better stroke awareness and protocols.

May is National Stroke Awareness Month, a time to learn the most common signs of stroke and the importance of getting care even faster than Ward did. You may be familiar with the acronym FAST, a mnemonic device thats been used by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association since 1998 to cover the major stroke symptoms in the front of the brain (if youre experiencing facial drooping, arm weakness, and/or speech difficulties, its time to call 911). But this year, the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS) doesn't just want you to know FAST, it wants you to BE FAST when responding to a stroke by looking for:

B alance difficulties

E yesight changes

F acial drooping

A rm weakness

S peech difficulties

Time to call 911

SNIS added BE (balance and eyesight) to encompass stroke symptoms in the back of the brain, which are less common but still prevalent.

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The organizations Get Ahead of Stroke campaign also emphasizes the importance of calling 911 as soon as possible during a stroke, since immediate care can make the difference between full recovery and permanent disability.

We want to make sure that patients and the people that shape our communities, like emergency responders and lawmakers, realize the incredible importance of identifying a stroke early and getting patients to a center that can treat their stroke right away, J Mocco, MD, a neurosurgeon with Mount Sinai in New York, NY, and a spokesperson for the Get Ahead of Stroke campaign, told Verywell.

Related:How to Recognize Stroke Symptoms and Warning Signs

Additional Stroke Warning Signs

Stroke symptoms will vary depending on the brain area the stroke impacts. BE-FAST does not encompass all potential stroke signs, but it does include the majority of symptoms that could point to stroke.

Other stroke signs include:

Numbness



Weakness

Difficulty walking

Briefly losing vision in one of your eyes

Dizziness

Confusion

Tingling

A sudden, severe headache, often described by patients as the worst headache of their life, can indicate a hemorrhagic stroke and needs immediate evaluation. If in doubt, seek emergency medical care.

Why Its Important to Literally Be Fast During Stroke Response

All cells in the body must have oxygen to function and survive, and a lack of oxygen is the most immediate and dire threat to life. While all organs in your body will quickly feel the effects of decreased oxygen, the brain is the most sensitive organ to this threat.

The brain has a very low tolerance for not receiving the blood flow and oxygen it needs, so it tends to die very early, Edward C. Jauch, MD, professor and interim chair of emergency medicine, director of acute stroke trials at the Medical University of South Carolina, told Verywell. The window of opportunity to save dying brain tissue is narrower than other organs, such as the heart.

Halting a stroke and restoring blood flow in the brain is paramount to preventing disability.

Someone having an ischemic stroke loses about two million brain cells every minute, Mocco said. If we restore the blood flow, they might have no permanent effects. Patients who receive proper treatment within 90 minutes of being diagnosed with a stroke are 90% likely to return to being independent. However, if treatment is after three hours, their likelihood of returning to being independent drops to 20-25%.













The most common type of stroke is an ischemic stroke, which comprises about 87% of strokes in the United States. In an ischemic stroke, a blood clot forms and disrupts blood flow in the brain, depriving brain tissue of oxygen. The treatment goal is to dissolve or remove the clot and restore blood flow to the brain as quickly as possible.

The remaining 13% of strokes are hemorrhagic strokes, which occur because of a weakened blood vessel that ruptures, causing bleeding within the brain. The treatment objective is to fix the damaged artery and stop the bleeding.











When a patient enters to the emergency room with signs of a stroke, they should receive a CT scan of the brain within 15 minutes of arrival to determine which type of stroke they are having and to rule out other possible causes for their symptoms.

Calling an Ambulance Could Make or Break Stroke Treatment

In the event of a stroke, you might think it would be quickest to take your loved one to the hospital yourself, but experts advise calling 911. Having an ambulance transport the patient is the best course of action because first responders should know which hospitals in the area are certified stroke centers. They can often notify the hospital of a patients pending arrival, saving valuable time.

When in doubt, call 911. Calling 911 increases your chances of getting to the right hospital and getting the right treatment as quickly as possible, said Jauch.

Not all hospitals are fully equipped to provide gold-standard stroke care. Arriving at a hospital that is not stroke-certified can delay proper treatment.

Related:How Stroke Is Treated

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has appointed four organizations, including The Joint Commission, to certify hospitals as stroke centers. This designation means they have proven they have the resources to treat strokes to the highest level of care. There are three levels of stroke center designations:

Level 1 stroke centers, or comprehensive stroke centers, offer the full spectrum of state-of-the-art stroke care. They have stroke teams in-house 24/7 to respond to and treat stroke patients. A Level 1 stroke center must treat at least 250 stroke patients annually, perform at least 50 thrombectomies yearly, and have designated inpatient units for stroke patients.

If there is no Level 1 stroke center within 2 hours, a patient may be transferred to a Level 2 stroke center. Level 2 stroke centers must treat 100 stroke patients and perform 50 thrombectomies a year to maintain their certification, and they also must have a dedicated inpatient stroke care unit.

Level 3 stroke centers are the lowest level of stroke certification for patients not within 2 hours of a Level 1 or 2 stroke center hospital. They must treat at least 50 stroke patients annually and have a dedicated inpatient stroke care unit. On-site neurosurgical services are optional for Level 3 stroke centers, so they may or may not be able to perform thrombectomies.













There are two options for treating ischemic stroke: thrombolytics and thrombectomy.

Thrombolytics are drugs that dissolve an existing clot. They are highly effective at reversing a stroke. However, they can potentially cause bleeding within the brain or other parts of the body, so a patient receiving thrombolytics must be carefully monitored.

The other treatment for ischemic stroke is thrombectomy, a procedure that removes blood clots in the brain under the guidance of radiology. Thrombectomy must be performed in a specialized radiology lab, so not all stroke centers can offer this procedure.











Some states have policies and regulations ensuring EMS providers take stroke patients to stroke-certified hospitals, even if that means bypassing another hospital. However, there is still a lot of progress to be made. The Get Ahead of Stroke campaign is working with lawmakers and emergency services in states that do not have the processes to guide and streamline stroke care.

We want to make sure that stroke patients are getting quick and timely treatment by being brought to the right place every time, said Mocco.

How to Reduce Your Risk Factors for Stroke

There are some stroke risk factors you cannot control, including your genetics and your age. Atrial fibrillation, an abnormal, irregular heart rhythm, can cause clots to form in the heart, increasing the risk of stroke five-fold. Individuals with atrial fibrillation should see a cardiologist to monitor their condition and often need anticoagulants to reduce their risk of stroke.

However, there are many stroke risk factors you can control. Smoking damages blood vessels and increases your risk of stroke. If you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes, work with your primary care provider to manage these conditions. Getting regular exercise and managing your stress are other measures you can take to reduce your stroke risk.

Its never too late for primary prevention, Jauch said. Even small steps can have a significant impact. If we can manage modifiable lifestyle factors, we cut stroke risk in half.













You can identify a stroke early on by knowing the most common stroke symptoms. Immediate treatment prevents disability and saves lives. If you suspect you or a loved one are having a stroke, do not delay calling 911. First responders are the initial link in the stroke survival chain and will know which local facilities are best equipped to treat stroke patients.










A 13-year-old boy shot dead eight pupils and a security guard at a school in Serbia, police have said  in what they have called a planned attack.

He used two licensed handguns belonging to his father and two petrol bombs in the massacre at the Vladislav Ribnikar school in central Belgrade, police said.

Seven girls and one boy have been confirmed among the dead, with four further boys and two girls and a teacher seriously injured.

Police chief Veselin Milic said the teenage suspect, identified by his initials KK, even had ... names of children he wanted to kill and their classes as he compared the plan to something from a video game or a horror film. Mr Milic said the dead pupils were born between 2009 and 2011.

Serbias interior minister, Bratislav Gasic, suggested the handguns were kept in a safe but that the suspect apparently knew the code. Mr Gasic said the boys father was also arrested.

In an evening address, the country's President Aleksandar Vucic announced tougher curbs on gun ownership, including a moratorium on new gun licenses other than for hunting, revision of existing permits and surveillance of shooting ranges and how civilians store their weapons.

The suspected shooter, who at 13 is below Serbia's age of criminal responsibility, will be placed in a psychiatric institution, Mr Vucic said, adding that both his father and mother had been arrested.

"He was the best student. He had asked for a transfer to another class where he had three friends," Mr Vucic said. "He was waiting for this day. He was at the shooting range with his father three times."

Mass shootings are extremely rare in Serbia and in the wider Balkan region; none have been reported at schools in recent years. In the last mass shooting, a Balkan war veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village in 2013. However, experts have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the large number of weapons in the country after the wars of the 1990s.

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In the deadliest shooting in Serbia since then, Ljubisa Bogdanovic killed 14 people in 2013. Other mass shootings occurred in 2007, 2015 and 2016. All the assailants were adults.

Milan Milosevic, father of one of the pupils at the school said his daughter was in the classroom with the attacker.

She managed to escape. [The assailant] ... first shot the teacher and then he started shooting randomly, he told broadcaster N1.

Police block streets around the Vladislav Ribnikar school (AP)

Mr Milosevic, who said he rushed to the school after hearing of the shooting, said: I saw the security guard lying under the table. I saw two girls with blood on their shirts.

An unnamed student who was in a sports class when gunfire erupted elsewhere in the building told the Associated Press: I was able to hear the shooting. It was nonstop.

I didnt know what was happening. We were receiving some messages on the phone, the student added, describing the shooting suspect as a quiet guy who had good grades.

Milan Nedeljkovic, the mayor of the district of Vracar where the shooting happened, said that most of the students were taken out of the school through a back door.

We have video surveillance, but now this is a lesson, we need metal detectors too, he said. It is a huge tragedy ... something like this in Belgrade. Such a tragedy at an elementary school.

Mr Nedeljkovic said doctors were fighting to save the teacher's life. Sinisa Ducic  the acting director of a paediatric clinic in Belgrade treating three of the children  said one, a girl, was undergoing surgery on her head. She has a serious injury, Mr Ducic told reporters.

Milika Asanin, head of Belgrade's University Hospital, said it was treating three pupils and the teacher. The teacher has a stomach injury and injuries to both hands, he said.

Police at the scene following school shooting (AP)

Serbias education minister, Branko Ruzic, declared three days of national mourning over the school shooting, starting on Friday.

It is unthinkable when you see the scene of the place, what the children have been through, and the teachers, the teachers who have tried to protect the children, he told a press conference.

Sadly there is no possible way for them to come back, said health minister, Danica Grujicic, close to tears. This is the worst thing I have seen in my whole career as a doctor and as a human being.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
FEBRUARY 28: Representative Cori Bush speaks as student loan borrowers and advocates gather for the People's Rally To Cancel Student Debt During The Supreme Court Hearings On Student Debt Relief on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. Jemal Countess/Getty Images for People's Rally to Cancel Student Debt

The Education Department awarded five student-loan companies new contracts, including MOHELA.

MOHELA is at the center of a lawsuit seeking to permanently block Biden's student-debt relief.

Rep. Cori Bush told Insider that MOHELA's "dubious record of customer services" demands oversight.

Missouri Rep. Cori Bush wants to be sure a student-loan company central to a lawsuit blocking President Joe Biden's student-loan forgiveness isn't' getting off easy.

Last week, the Education Department announced it awarded five student-loan companies  Central Research Inc, EdFinancial Services, Maximus Education, Nelnet, and MOHELA  new contracts to improve loan servicing over the next five years for 37 million federal borrowers. As the department noted in its press release, these new contracts are part of its larger plan to overhaul loan-servicing and implement "much-needed improvements to better serve borrowers," like a new income-driven repayment plan.

MOHELA, however, has fallen under scrutiny over the past year, primarily because it is a main focus in a lawsuit filed by six Republican-led states at the end of last year that argued Biden's broad student-debt relief would harm their states' tax revenues, along with Missouri-based MOHELA's revenue. Bush has long called for oversight over MOHELA, and she's keeping it up  even after it renewed its contract.

"The Department of Education must take proactive steps to seamlessly transition borrowers to repayments starting in the coming months. My colleagues and I will be watching the implementation of these new rules closely, particularly for MOHELA, to ensure the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is being administered in a timely and efficient manner," Bush told Insider.

"No company should be profiting from the student debt crisis, especially MOHELA with their dubious record of customer service in the past," she continued. "My office will continue our work to hold student loan servicers accountable for their harm to our communities. Ultimately, there is still much work to be done to provide student debt relief, bolster college affordability, and begin the transition to a world without student debt at all."

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After the six GOP-led states filed their lawsuit to block Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers, Bush wrote a letter to MOHELA CEO Scott Giles requesting information on the extent to which the company was involved in the lawsuit. MOHELA later responded to Bush and said it was not involved in the states' decision to sue, but the states' lawyers proceeded to argue on behalf of potential revenue losses MOHELA would suffer from Biden's debt relief during Supreme Court oral arguments in February.

The liberal Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of the states' standing to involve MOHELA in their case, and a recent analysis from left-leaning think tank Roosevelt Institute and advocacy group Debt Collective, based on Freedom of Information Act requests, said that MOHELA actually would not suffer any financial harm from debt cancellation because it would still profit from managing PSLF.

As Bush referenced, MOHELA is responsible for the whole PSLF portfolio, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after ten years of qualifying payments. The transition of millions of public servants' accounts over to MOHELA has been far from seamless. A number of borrowers have previously told Insider that they have spent hours on the phone waiting to get simple questions answered from MOHELA regarding their payment status, leaving them in financial limbo.

To be sure, ensuring accountability over servicers and improving customer service largely depends on increased funding from Congress for the Federal Student Aid office. Biden's budget requested $2.7 billion for Federal Student Aid  a $620 million increase over the 2023 spending level  to carry out all of the Education Department's initiatives, an increase the department said is "essential to support students and student loan borrowers."

"Students and their families deserve transparency and accountability from student loan servicers to ensure they can take advantage of the most affordable ways to repay their loans -- and it's critical that the Department of Education hold those servicers to the highest of standards," Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren told Insider. "That's why I'll continue to fight for the increased funding the Student Aid Administration needs to provide quality services and support at-risk borrowers."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Greer Grenley was diagnosed with epilepsy in Paris. Devin Peizner

A few days after arriving in Paris for my semester abroad, I had my first seizure.

I was diagnosed with epilepsy and told I needed to sleep a lot and avoid most activities.

Despite many doctor visits and seizures, I found the will to travel and explore Paris.

In January 2009, I was in my junior year of college. I left the sunshine of Southern California, packed a suitcase full of winter clothes, and headed off to Paris.

I was a student at Scripps College in Claremont, California, dual majoring in English and French, and one of the requirements of the French major was to study abroad in a French-speaking country. I was excited for the opportunity to not only visit Paris but also live like a local.

But a few days after arriving, I was diagnosed with epilepsy, and it ruined most of my semester abroad.

I had my first seizure just a few days after arriving in Paris

My best friend was also studying abroad in Paris, so we decided to live together in an apartment. It was our first weekend in the city, and we were discussing how we wanted to spend it. That's the last thing I remember.

I woke up on a couch with paramedics hovering over me. I didn't know where I was. "You had a seizure," my friend said as I slowly came to. I looked down and saw I was still wearing my pajamas, but they were now stained with blood. I had fallen on my face and there was a gash on my chin.

The paramedics helped me stand up and gestured toward a wooden chair. I sat back down, and they lifted the chair. They carried me into the hallway and then into the elevator, which was large enough for only me to fit. I watched the light of the elevator button flicker as I passed each floor until I arrived in the lobby, where the paramedics were waiting to help me onto a gurney and into an ambulance. My friend was with me.

She had called the director of our study-abroad program, who met us at the hospital, and the three of us waited. Hours passed until I was finally sent home, having never even seen a doctor. There's not much more I remember of that night; my brain was still in a fog. But the director was able to schedule a visit for me with a neurologist later that week.

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Thankfully, she went to the appointment with me. The doctor didn't speak English, so I'm grateful she could translate. Even though I knew my fair share of French, it was a different situation dealing with medical terms in another language.

The doctor diagnosed me with epilepsy.

I had to make big changes to my life while in Paris because of my epilepsy

The doctor listed things I should no longer do without supervision: swim, shower, and drive  to name a few. He prescribed me multiple medications, and every day and night, I would blindly swallow them, not even knowing what they were.

The doctor said that being overly tired could set off more seizures, so while the city danced through the night, I would draw the bedroom blinds to block out the light, envelop myself in that now familiar darkness, and try to sleep off the dizzy spells and headaches, which were side effects of the pills.

But the seizures continued, and each week, the director and I would hop on a city bus and make the hourlong journey to the outskirts of Paris to see the doctor. He would just adjust my dosage and send us on our way. I'm sure he meant well  the healthcare system is exceptional in France  but I was an American with American insurance, so there was only so much he could do for me.

I tried to still enjoy my study-abroad experience the best I could

I pushed myself to experience Paris and Europe. I had picnics in Jardin du Luxembourg, explored Le Marais with my photography class, attended art exhibits, and walked along La Seine with a crepe in hand. I visited other countries such as Scotland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

I decided to see and do as much as possible  not despite my diagnosis but to spite it. Returning home in the middle of the semester was not something I was willing to do. Even if I spent my time tired and dizzy, at least I was tired and dizzy in Paris.

Almost 15 years later, I'm happy I didn't give up on Paris

When I returned home, I saw a neurologist who specialized in epilepsy, and the seizures eventually stopped.

I'm still on medication, and I'll be taking these pills for the rest of my life to ensure I don't have a breakthrough episode.

My disorder will always be a part of me  just like my memories of Paris will be.

Read the original article on Insider
A recent study of Seattle patients has suggested the Seattle sugar tax may be responsible for a decrease in the steady rise of lower body mass index (BMI) among adults in the Seattle area.

The study was released by Public Health - Seattle & King County, Univerity of Washington Center for Public Health Nutrition, and Seattle Childrens on Monday.

Comparing BMI changes from nearly 100,000 people across Washington, aged 18 to 65, the sample suggests BMI was increasing overall, but in Seattle, the BMI was not rising as quickly, which has been attributed to the Seattle sugary beverage tax of 2017.

A second report released Monday also suggested that people are buying and drinking less sweetened soda over the last two years - mostly because of the extra cost.

The drop in consumption also means a drop in tax revenue, which is used for vulnerable communities and early childhood education.

The tax adds 1.73 cents per ounce of any beverage sweetened with sugar or corn syrup sold in Seattle.

Proponents of the tax say drinking one sugary drink increases a childs chance of obesity by 55% and diabetes by 26%.

The reports can be found on the City of Seattle website.












Sarra Eljak and her husband Mustafa Abbas (pictured with three of their children) are hoping to get on an RAF flight back to the UK

A British national stranded in Sudan said she fears she could "lose a family member at any point".

Sarra Eljak, from Slough, Berkshire, had flown to Khartoum with her husband and daughters to visit family for Easter.

They were trapped when street battles between the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group and the Sudanese army broke out on 15 April.

Ms Eljak said: "There wasn't any indication a war was going to happen."

She told the BBC they had dinner out with their relatives and returned home around 01:00 local time (00:00 GMT) before the fighting broke out a few hours later.

"All of a sudden, we woke up hearing the sound of loud army weapons all around," the mother-of-four said.

"We didn't know what was going on so quickly put on the TV and found out from the news and social media."

Drone footage shows dense smoke rising from fires near Khartoum

After five days with no sleep and "hearing gunshots every single minute", Ms Eljak, her husband Mustafa Abbas and their children fled by bus to the city of Wad Madani, around 200km (124 miles) from the capital.

"We took the risk and went," she explained, adding: "Normally the journey takes around three hours but it took us six.

"It is just a matter of luck - other people experienced stealing and some of them got shot on the same road - luckily we arrived safely."

After spending 13 days sheltering in Wad Madani, the family made their way to Port Sudan where they were waiting to get on an RAF evacuation flight back to the UK.

She said she is afraid for her parents and siblings left behind: "My mum and dad both have hypertension and diabetes so if this war continues we can't manage to bring these medications to them.

"And we can't take them out [of Sudan] - they don't have British passports."

During the clashes, she said their front door in Khartoum was shot and they found the bullet inside.

"Luckily no one was hurt," she said, adding: "But you have the feeling you are going to lose a family member at any point.

"I hope the situation will change all of sudden. I wish the best for Sudan - Sudanese people are the best and don't deserve this."

Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.
Two staff from the Asian Development Bank take photos at Hana Bank's promotional booth in Songdo Convensia, Incheon, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



By Lee Yeon-woo



INCHEON  Digital technology is one of the key sectors highlighted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to empower the poor, as it can improve service delivery and expand opportunities.



To promote its technology and strengthen communication with international financial organizations, Korean banks showcased various services and projects at the 56th annual meeting of the ADB, held in Songdo Convensia, Incheon.



One of the notable services is from Hana Bank, which operates under the theme of "experiencing innovative digital service and solutions in the foreign currency market." Based on its strength in foreign currency, Hana Bank put its travel-related services at the forefront to attract participants from across the world, such as its currency exchange commission-free debit card "TRAVLOG."



Charity Cantillo-dela Torre, a Filipino participant working for a civil organization, commented that the debit card would address one of the pain points for people who travel overseas; checking foreign exchange rates.





Participants of the 56th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank take a look at Korean banks' digital services at promotional booths in Songdo Convensia, Incheon, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
Evacuees with soldiers boarding an evacuation flight in Sudan

The final UK evacuation flight has now left Sudan, the government has announced.

It had said previously the last flight would leave on Wednesday, with British officials who have been working on the evacuation expected to be on board.

An update by the Foreign Office said the last flight had left Port Sudan and that no more would be running.

The airlift - which began amid a tentative ceasefire last week - has seen more than 2,300 people rescued.

Those taken to safety included Britons, their dependents, Sudanese NHS staff and other eligible nationalities.

A renewed 72-hour ceasefire was due to end at midnight local time on Wednesday. The Foreign Office had warned that, following the end of the agreement, violence in the country could escalate.

Dozens of people were evacuated on flights that left Sudan on Wednesday.

The country - the third largest in Africa - was plunged into crisis after fighting broke out between rival military factions on 15 April.

Hundreds have been killed, according to official figures, but it is feared the actual death toll is much higher, and tens of thousands have already been displaced in a growing humanitarian crisis.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the UK's focus would shift to providing humanitarian aid, though he warned that any continuing conflict was likely to impede relief efforts.

"We have given aid to Sudan, we are giving support to countries in the region, we will continue to push for an extension of the ceasefire and a permanent end to the conflict because that is the best way to maximise the effectiveness of our humanitarian support," he said.

Foreign Office advice for British nationals still hoping to leave Sudan is that unscheduled chartered ships will be operating from Port Sudan to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

It also states that British Embassy staff remain temporarily available on the Egyptian side of the Egypt-Sudan border to provide support.

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The UK government joined other countries in evacuating citizens from Sudan after the commercial airport was taken out of action by fighting and communication networks went down.

Initial evacuation flights organised by the British military left from an airstrip close to the capital Khartoum, but the operation was moved to the eastern coastal city of Port Sudan, which has been less affected by fighting.

Despite criticism the UK government was slow to start its evacuation, the Foreign Office says it has now overseen "the longest and largest operation of any Western nation".

Diplomats were also rescued in an earlier operation involving special forces after fighting broke out around the embassy.

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Are you in Sudan? Or have you been airlifted to safety? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.
An Oxford woman is asking the government to "show empathy" to her family who are trapped in Khartoum.

Niam Ali, her two-year-old son Yousif, and husband Mohammed Yassien, were denied a flight home after being told they were not all eligible for rescue.

They were informed Tuesday night of another evacuation flight to the UK, but said they were not given enough time to get to the airport.

Their case was raised in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Clashes between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group and the Sudanese army began on 15 April.

Today in Parliament I spoke about 2 young children who are stuck in Sudan, unable to reach safety because family members can't get the visas they need.



I called on the FCDO and Home Office to expand the evacuation to families of British nationals. These children deserve safety. pic.twitter.com/7ghqcjWyF0  Layla Moran  (@LaylaMoran) May 2, 2023

Mrs Ali and her son both hold British passports, but her husband has a Sudanese passport and no visa.

This meant once they reached the final checkpoint for the evacuation flight he was turned away.

Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, told Andrew Mitchell, minister for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, that "cool-headed common sense" was required.

She also said she was concerned about other constituents being tied up in the "intricacies of the system".

Mr Mitchell said the Foreign Office would do everything it could to help.

Speaking to the BBC on Wednesday morning, Ms Ali said she was informed at 23:00 on Tuesday of Wednesday's flight.

"It takes over 12 hours to get from Khartoum to Port Sudan so it's impossible," she said.

"It's upsetting because it just feels like it's not a genuine attempt to save people stuck in Khartoum.

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"Also the email doesn't confirm that immediate family members without visa can travel, so it was just upsetting because it's a solution that's not a solution."

She added: "It feels like it's an obvious situation. I'm not asking for much, I just want safety for my family."

A UK Government spokesperson said: "The UK has carried out by far the longest and largest evacuation of any Western country from Sudan, bringing 2,341 people out in under one week.

"It has always been the case that the evacuation has been open to British nationals and their eligible family members, with a later exemption for NHS clinicians.

"Preventing a humanitarian emergency in Sudan is our focus right now. Alongside the UK evacuation effort, we are working with international partners and the United Nations to bring an end to fighting."

Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.
By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) -Police on Tuesday captured a man suspected of shooting five Texas neighbors to death and leading multiple agencies on a four-day manhunt, after a tip led them to a home in a nearby town where he was caught hiding beneath laundry, officials said.

The bloodshed erupted on Friday after neighbors asked the suspect to stop firing his semiautomatic rifle in his yard because it kept their baby awake. Instead, the man reloaded and entered the next-door home of Honduran immigrants, killing five, including an 8-year old boy, officials said.

The suspect had been identified as Francisco Oropesa, 38, a Mexican national who immigration officials said had been deported from the United States four times since 2009.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told reporters that officials acted on a tip from an unidentified person who would now be eligible for an $80,000 reward offered for information leading to his arrest.

"He is behind bars, and he will live out his life behind bars for killing those five," Capers said, adding that Oropesa would be held on $5 million bail for five counts of murder.

The victims were killed in the town of Cleveland, Texas, and the suspect arrested in the town of Cut and Shoot, Texas, roughly 17 miles (27 km) due west. Both are about 50 miles (80 km) north of Houston.

The arrest came as the FBI said it was working with law enforcement agencies nationwide and in Mexico in an expanded, four-day manhunt.

As of Sunday, the suspect's trail had grown cold, but multiple agencies rapidly mobilized, joining the sheriff's department and the FBI, upon receiving the tip.

Officers from the U.S. Marshals Service, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit carried out the arrest about an hour and 15 minutes after receiving the tip, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul.

Most of the victims were shot in the head. All were from Honduras and among the 10 people living at the address but were not all family members, Capers said.

The victims were identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
Police have arrested a suspect in the killing of five neighbors, including a 9-year-old boy, in Texas last week, according to multiplereports.

Francisco Oropesa, 38, was arrested in the town of Cut and Shoot, about 40 miles north of Houston. San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said at a media briefing that the arrest came after someone called the FBI hotline with a tip. Oropesa was found hiding in a closet underneath some laundry, he added.

He has been taken to a local jail and charged with five counts of first-degree murder. He is being held on a $5 million bond.

Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson told The Associated Press the man was arrested without incident. He would not say if Oropesa had been armed.

The arrest ends a days-long manhunt after a man in Cleveland, Texas, went to a neighbors house with a rifle and fatally shot five people inside. Those killed had reportedly asked a neighbor to stop firing his weapon in his yard because they were trying to sleep. Authorities said last week that deputies had previously been to Oropesas home to speak with him about firing his weapons in his yard.

The victims were identified as natives of Honduras who had moved to the U.S., including a mother and her young son.

A Texas State Trooper vehicle passes a wanted poster for a suspect in the mass shooting in Cleveland, Texas.

A Texas State Trooper vehicle passes a wanted poster for a suspect in the mass shooting in Cleveland, Texas.

The shooting has inflamed anti-immigration rhetoric in Texas.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) drew criticism drew after he issued a news release offering a $50,000 reward for information about Oropesas whereabouts. In his statement, the governor called the victims illegal immigrants. He later said he regretted that language and didnt meant to detract from the important goal of finding and arresting the criminal.

Oropesas current immigration status is unclear. He is a Mexican national, and CNN reported last week that he had been deported at least four times.

Related...
Francisco Oropesa had eluded authorities after the shooting in the small town of Cleveland in southeastern Texas

A man accused of massacring five neighbors after they asked him to stop firing his rifle in his yard was captured Tuesday after a days-long manhunt, Texas law enforcement said.

Francisco Oropesa had eluded authorities since the shooting Friday in the small town of Cleveland in southeastern Texas.

"We now have this man in custody," San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told reporters at a press conference Tuesday night.

"He was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry."

The 38-year-old Mexican national is accused of attacking his neighbors after they allegedly asked him to stop shooting his semi-automatic AR-15 rifle because the noise was keeping a baby awake.

The victims were between the ages of nine and 31, with several other residents in critical condition after multiple gunshot wounds.

Capers said the surviving family members could "rest easy" now that Oropesa was behind bars.

Authorities deployed hundreds of law enforcement officers to look for the suspect and offered an $80,000 reward for information leading to his capture.

FBI special agent Jimmy Paul told reporters Tuesday night that a call to the bureau's tip line ultimately led law enforcement to Oropesa, who was arrested north of Houston at around 6:45 pm local time (2345 GMT).

"I just want to thank the person who had the courage and bravery to call in the suspect's location," he said.

US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Troy Miller also thanked law enforcement officials for apprehending "the suspect of Friday's brutal murders in Texas ... without incident".

"Tonight's actions clearly demonstrate that our agents and officers bring incredible capabilities to bear every day as they work to keep our communities safe," he said in a statement Tuesday night.

- Horrifying scene -

Capers had previously described a horrifying scene when authorities arrived at the victims' residence after receiving a call about "harassment" at around 11:30 pm Friday.

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Bodies were strewn from the front door to an inside bedroom, where two deceased women were found lying on top of two traumatized children who survived the massacre.

Friday's attack quickly became fodder for the acrimonious debate on immigration in the United States.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott drew criticism after referring to the suspect as having "killed five illegal immigrants," though their immigration status was not immediately clear and Abbott later said at least one victim "may have been in the US legally."

The victims were all originally from Honduras.

Honduran Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tony Garcia told AFP that one of the victims would be buried in the United States, while the other four would be repatriated in the coming days, according to their families' wishes.

Oropesa had been deported from the United States at least four times since 2009, according to CNN.

The Texas killings appeared to be the latest in a series of US shootings spawned by normally banal interactions: a teenager mistakenly knocking on the wrong door, a cheerleader accidentally stepping into the wrong car, someone driving into the wrong driveway, a ball rolling into a neighbor's yard.

There have been more than 180 mass shootings -- defined as four or more people wounded or killed -- so far this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

With more firearms than inhabitants, the United States has the highest rate of gun-related deaths of any developed country: 49,000 in 2021, up from 45,000 the year before.

nro-bur-caw/qan/dhw/cwl
A man suspected of killing five of his neighbours in Texas has been arrested after police found him hiding in a cupboard underneath a pile of laundry.

Francisco Oropesa was detained north of Houston. He was several miles from his own home where the shootings happened late on Friday.

Mr Oropesa is accused of attacking his neighbours after they allegedly asked him to stop practising with his rifle as the noise was keeping a baby awake.

The victims included a nine-year-old.

They were all from Honduras, and the country's foreign ministry identified them as Sonia Guzman, 28; Diana Velasquez, 21; Obdulia Molina, 31; Jonathan Caceres, 18, and Daniel Enrique Lazo, nine.

The arrest of Mr Oropesa, a 38-year-old Mexican national, brings an end to a four-day manhunt that swept up law enforcement officials across multiple jurisdictions, including the FBI. Drones and scent-tracking dogs were used as police searched an area as far south as the Mexican border.

Authorities offered a reward of $80,000 (64,000) for information leading to his arrest and, on Tuesday, the FBI said Mr Oropesa "could be anywhere" as the days-long search failed to yield any leads.

But a member of the public contacted the FBI's tip line on Tuesday evening and the suspect was captured just over an hour later near the town of Cut and Shoot, officials said in a news conference.

Police have not said who owns the home he was arrested in, but the New York Times reported that property records show it belongs to a relative.

"They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars," Sherriff Greg Capers said of the families of the victims. "He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five."

Authorities launched a massive manhunt for Francisco Oropesa after the shootings in Cleveland, Texas

The suspect was taken into custody by members of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or Bortac, a specialised unit, said Sheriff Capers of San Jacinto County.

He will be charged with five counts of murder. The alleged attacker was deported four times between 2009 and 2016, US immigration officials said, although it is unclear on what grounds this happened.

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An investigation is under way into how the suspect obtained the weapon used in the killings, which was an AR-style rifle.

On Wednesday, police said Mr Oropesa's wife had also been arrested. Divimara Lamar Nava, 53, was detained in connection with the Friday night shooting in the small town of Cleveland.

Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson said she allegedly hid Mr Oropesa before he was captured by police. She faces the felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known criminal.

Also on Wednesday, officials said Mr Oropesa was spotted in Montgomery County - where he was later arrested - on Monday afternoon but managed to evade capture.

"We did confirm that was him on foot, running but we lost track of him. That was not a false alarm. That was him," Sheriff's Deputy Tim Kean said.

A makeshift memorial with floral tributes, balloons and soft toys has been placed outside the home where the shooting took place.
CLEVELAND, Texas  A day after the man suspected of killing five of his neighbors in a Texas shooting was arrested, the sheriff says his wife has also been taken into custody.

Divimara Lamar Nava, 53, wife of suspect Francisco Oropeza, was in custody in connection with the Friday night shooting, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.

Nava had previously denied knowledge of Oropezas whereabouts, Henderson said, but authorities believe she hid him in the home near Conroe where he was arrested Tuesday.

Lamar Nava was arrested early Wednesday and was being held in the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon, according to online jail records. The records do not list a bond for her and indicate she was arrested by state police at a home in Conroe.

A four-day manhunt for Oropeza ended Tuesday when authorities, acting on a tip, said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.

Oropeza, 38, was captured without incident near the community of Conroe, north of Houston and about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from his home in the rural town of Cleveland. Thats where authorities say he went next door and shot his neighbors with an AR-style rifle shortly before midnight Friday.

Oropeza had been shooting rounds on his property and the attack occurred after neighbors asked him to go farther away because the gunfire was keeping a baby awake, according to police.

Oropeza will be charged with five counts of murder, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said. Bond was set at $5 million.

They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars, Capers said of the families of the victims. He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.

The arrest ends what had become a widening dragnet that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions and had seen $80,000 in reward money offered. As recently as Tuesday morning, the FBI said that Oropeza could be anywhere," underlining how investigators for days struggled to get a sense of his whereabouts and candidly acknowledged they had no leads.

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The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15 p.m., and a little more than an hour later, Oropeza was in custody, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul. The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to U.S. immigration officials

Connor Hagan, an FBI spokesman, said they would not disclose the identity of the person who called in the tip  one of more than 200 tips he says investigators received. Authorities did not say who owned the house, whether Oropeza knew them or if anyone else was inside when he was found.

They also would not say whether friends or family had helped Oropeza evade capture, or where he had been since fleeing the scene in Cleveland, which authorities previously said was likely on foot.

Hagan said the three agencies that went in to arrest Oropeza were the U.S. Marshals, Texas Department of Public Safety and US Border Patrols BORTAC team.

Drones and scent-tracking dogs had been used during the widening manhunt, which included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott offered a $50,000 reward as the search dragged late into the weekend, while others offered an additional $30,000 in reward money.

Capers said that prior to Friday's shooting deputies had been called to the suspects house at least one other time previously over shooting rounds in his yard.

All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velasquez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and her husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras migrant protection service.

Osman Velasquez, Dianas father, said Tuesday that his daughter had recently gotten residency and had traveled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister, who was already living there.

Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and thats true, he said. "But I never imagined it was just for this.

In offering the reward, Abbott called the victims illegal immigrants," a partially false statement that his office walked back and apologized for Monday after drawing wide backlash over drawing attention to their immigration status. Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said they had since learned that one of the victims may have been in the country legally.
Sweet Tooth

Netflix Christian Convery in 'Sweet Tooth'

Talk about bittersweet: Netflix has renewed Sweet Tooth for a third and final season.

The fantasy series, which follows human-animal hybrids Gus (Christian Convery) and Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) as they adventure through a postapocalyptic world, will return for a final send-off in 2024, the streaming service announced Wednesday. Its next installment has already been filmed in New Zealand.

Series creator, showrunner, and executive producer Jim Mickle previewed the pair's forthcoming journey while speaking with Netflix's Tudum. "Season 3 is an Arctic story with exciting new adventures and what we hope will be a satisfying conclusion to this epic tale," he said. "Gus is going to see a side of the world and humanity that he didn't see in season 1 or 2."

Joining them on their quest is Cara Gee and Ayazhan Dalabayeva, who will play the new characters Siana and Nuka, respectively. Rosalind Chao and Amy Seimetz have also been bumped up to series regulars this season.

Based on Jeff Lemire's comic books of the same name, Sweet Tooth is set 10 years after "the Great Crumble," a calamity that led to the curious emergence of human-animal hybrids. After years spent living isolated from the rest of the world, Gus sets out with Jepperd and, along the way, they encounter new friends and foes.

Speaking with Tudum, Mickle said the past two seasons of Sweet Tooth were "exactly the story that I imagined we would tell," adding that "in a lot of ways it takes on its own life."

"At the beginning, I think you set out to tell these landmark pieces of Gus' story and the big pieces of the comic book, but the beauty of long-form storytelling and Gus' journey over 24 episodes is the characters themselves tell you what they want to be," he continued. "The crew and cast bring so much depth and point of view to who the characters are and where they've come from and where they're going."

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Sweet Tooth also stars Adeel Akhtar, Stefania LaVie Owen, Dania Ramirez, Aliza Vellani, James Brolin, and more. The series is executive-produced by Mickle, Beth Schwartz, Linda Moran, Amanda Burrell, and Robert Downey, Jr. and his wife, Susan Downey. Team Downey's Evan Moore also serves as co-executive producer.

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(Bloomberg) -- Switzerlands lower house passed a long-mooted bill to ban large banks from paying bonuses to some top managers, a step that reflects popular discontent with the financial sector after the rescue of Credit Suisse Group AG but has uncertain chances of becoming law.

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The proposal from the center-left Social Democrats  entered almost two years ago and well before the recent crisis  was supported by 101 lawmakers, with 70 against, and now goes to the upper house for approval. The bill is not related to the Swiss governments recent move to cut bonuses for senior managers at Credit Suisse.

The proposal aims to outlaw bonuses paid to the highest body of systemically-important lenders, and to persons responsible for operational or strategic management, including leadership of the board of directors, the chief executive officer and the head of risk management.

Amid widespread public disapproval, the lower house of parliament last month voted against the emergency legislation to back the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS Group AG with 9 billion Swiss francs ($10.1 billion) in direct state guarantees. As a designated committee of lawmakers had already approved the deal, the vote wasnt enough to derail the biggest bank rescue in Europe since the 2008 financial crisis.

Read More: Over Half of Swiss Disapprove of UBSs Credit Suisse Takeover

The next opportunity for the upper house of parliament to vote on the bonus would be in its session starting May 30, but its unclear whether the proposal will be scheduled then, and the process can also take longer. In the lower-house vote the proposal was supported by the Social Democrats and Greens, but also the center-right Center Alliance. In the upper house, these parties have a slim majority, holding 25 of the total 46 seats.

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As a result of the crisis, the government itself has started to mull legal options to limit big bank bonuses, so the bill has been surpassed by recent events, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter told lawmakers on Tuesday.

The implicit state guarantee received by large banks means that any risk such institutions take ultimately falls to taxpayers, said Prisca Birrer-Heimo of the Social Democrats, who submitted the proposal in June of 2021.

Aside from Credit Suisse and UBS, other institutions designated by the Swiss National Bank as systemically important are Raiffeisen Group, Zuercher Kantonalbank and PostFinance. That label means that they are already required to hold higher capital and liquidity buffers and maintain recovery and emergency plans.

UBSs then-CEO Ralph Hamers received a bonus of 9.7 million francs for last year, while the lender paid out bonuses worth $3.3 billion in total.

--With assistance from Myriam Balezou.

(Updates throughout with further details.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Swizz Beatz believes he played a role in introducing major Afrobeats artists to America, sharing in a new interview that he brought music from Wizkid and Burna Boy to The States before others hopped on the bandwagon.

See, the key thing that you said was you got on a plane and you went to Ghana and now youre stuck on Afrobeats, the producer told Speedy Morman, Nyla Symone, Rob Markman and Gabe P. of Amazon Musics Rotation Roundtable. I introduced Wizkid to America. I was the first person to play his song. Me and my wife were on a trip and we danced to his song.

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He went on, [I was the] first person to bring Burna Boy to the States. Actually, he had a Ruff Ryders bandana on and I introduced him on the stage. When I was playing Fela Kuti, people thought I was being too African, and thats how ignorant the energy was at that time.

But I didnt let that stop me from moving what Im moving because it is what it is, he added. Its all educational. So we cant be scared of the educational journey of something that sound different or feels different. So for me traveling the world, its a whole like  I cant wait for people to listen to Ebo Taylor.

Its piercing through, by the way. People are more open-minded  they just need the right entry point.

Managing director for Sony Music Publishing, Nigeria, Godwin Tom, took to Twitter soon after to challenge Swizz on his take in regards to WizKid, tweeting, Here is a story for you @MI_Abaga put Wiz on his groundbreaking album Talk About It and properly introduced him to the market.

I will say this it is evident that Wizkid introduced Wizkid to the US market. After @BankyW and @CaptDemuren it was Wizkid all the way. He was deliberate and was clear about what he wanted. Thanks to everyone like Swizz and Akon and the roles they played but after Banky and https://t.co/29XrScmhUm  Godwin Tom (@GodwinTom) April 30, 2023

The exec continued, @BankyW and @CaptDemuren signed him and put EVERYTHING into pushing him and the artists on their label including Bankys own career. A series of activities happened and some of it was about personal interests by the people who did it and some was from people trying to pioneer an opportunity and when it didnt work, moved on to other things and artists. Others just wanted to exploit.

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Then the deal happened after Wiz turned down deals and shout out @Tunji and the RCA team for the work on Wizs album and shout out Wizs team for pushing boundaries and taking risks.

Here is a story for you @MI_Abaga put Wiz on his groundbreaking album "Talk About It" and properly introduced him to the market. @BankyW and @CaptDemuren signed him and put EVERYTHING into pushing him and the artist's on their label including Banky's own career. A series of  Godwin Tom (@GodwinTom) April 30, 2023

Tom went on to explain the danger of allowing non-native Africans to re-write the history of Afrobeats, adding, We are making a mistake in allowing others tell our stories and soon we wont have a story or history and guess what these videos with Swizz and Akon will be referenced in America. I hope you get what I am saying. We thank them for their contributions and support but this our story to tell.

Click here to read the full article.
Participants of a seminar, titled "Financial Inclusion to Accelerate COVID-19 Recovery: Lessons in Evaluations," listen to Felipe Medalla, second from left, the governor of the Philippines' central bank, during the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at Songdo Convensia in Incheon's Songdo International Business District, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Yi Whan-woo



By Yi Whan-woo



INCHEON  The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is urged to capitalize more on digital acceleration in the post-pandemic era on its mission to reduce poverty and bolster growth in Asia, international experts on finance, technology and sustainable development said Wednesday.



The experts advised the ADB to work closer with the private sector, to help improve productivity in the region's developing countries, and to ensure that software, devices and other up-to-date financial technologies are not misused to exploit financially vulnerable people.



Their advice came during a panel discussion at the ADB-hosted seminar, titled "Financial Inclusion to Accelerate COVID-19 Recovery: Lessons in Evaluations," at Songdo Convensia in Incheon's Songdo International Business District.



Moderated by ADB Director General of Independent Evaluation Emmanuel Jimenez, the seminar was a part of the program for the ADB's 56th annual meeting running this week from Tuesday to Friday.



"One quick advice is to work with the people on the ground  because if you work with the government, they give you a bit of a rosier picture while the private sector gives a real picture," said Sonia Kabir, the founder of tech fund SBK Tech Ventures focusing on emerging markets, especially Bangladesh.



She was one of four panelists, including Felipe Medalla, governor of the Philippines' central bank; Clemence Landers, a senior fellow at U.S.-headquartered non-profit think tank Center for Global Development; and Christine Engstrom, director of ADB's Financial Institution Division.



Kabir addressed the growing importance of combining digitization and finance, saying finance was "one of the things that didn't go backward" during the years of the pandemic amid a greater reliance on technology.



Medalla said raising productivity is crucial "to improve infrastructure and make people live a better life."



Landers said the world faces the challenge of making fintech "a source of financial resilience for its users, not a source of financial instability."



Citing a survey, she said those who were new to digital financial services in developing countries were exposed to fraud or scams during the pandemic and that consumer protection is becoming increasingly vital.



"That's the challenge lying ahead of us and what the ADB needs to be part of," Landers said.



Engstrom responded that the ADB will continue listening to both private and public sectors in its partner countries and try to understand what gaps are in their path to financial inclusion.



She went on to say that the ADB is "tailoring financial inclusion to the different countries' circumstances and making sure to reach the financially excluded in a very prudent manner."


By Lisa Barrington and Yousef Saba

DUBAI (Reuters) - Overlooked by a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad and offering sticky sweets, a Syrian tourism booth in Dubai is trying to seize on an emerging rapprochement with Arab states to win back Gulf tourists it lost during more than a decade of war.

"We are now aiming to regain the tourism income from (Gulf Cooperation Council countries) to Syria. We used to have millions of our friends and brothers from GCC countries in Syria, especially in summer," Nedal Machfej, Syria's deputy tourism minister, told Reuters at the Arabian Travel Market exhibition in Dubai.

Some Arab states, including GCC members the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, are increasingly rebuilding ties with Damascus, reversing years of isolation over Assad's crackdown on protests in 2011 and the ensuing civil war.

Assad in March visited the UAE and sources have told Reuters that Saudi Arabia plans to invite Assad for a visit soon.

Machfej said Syria had 1.5 million visitors last year, a third of which were tourists. Around 10% of those tourists were from western Europe, he added.

This year Syria is aiming for 3 million visitors, he said. Tourism ministry data shows 385,000 visitors came to Syria in the first quarter this year, 40,000 of which were non-Arab foreigners.

Tourism dried up with the outbreak of war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and badly damaged cultural sites including Aleppo's old city and the ancient ruins of Palmyra.

Syria's economy is also in a bad way, including a dramatic fall in the currency's value since 2019.

Machfej said the country wants to use tourism to increase foreign currency inflows, but named Syria's wartime allies as its main future markets.

"We are aiming to open new markets especially in Iran, Russia, China and in neighbouring countries also," he said.

Syria is building new hotels in seaside locations to cater to GCC family tourism, a website for electronic visas is coming soon and the private sector is talking to tour operators in Jordan and Lebanon to re-instate previously popular multi-country package tours, he said.

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"We have to deal with each other, with neighbouring countries to benefit all," he said.

Gulf states along with Egypt, Iraq and Jordan have been discussing Syria's possible return to the Arab League, but no agreement has been reached.

Although fighting has largely stopped, some territory remains out of Assad's control and Israel still carries out strikes in Syria against what it says are Iran-linked targets.

"After 10-11 years of war, Syria is a very safe country for tourism," Machfej said, although acknowledging the Israeli strikes.

"(Israel is) trying to target the Syrian economy," he said. "Disrupting the movement of relations that have started, the diplomatic openness that has begun for Syria."

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Yousef Saba; Additional reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus; Writing by Lisa Barrington, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Students walk on Tallahassee Community College's campus.

What Tallahassee Community College thought was a potential active shooter on its main campus Tuesday afternoon turned out to be a false report known as swatting.

The Consolidated Dispatch Agency received the false report of a shooter on campus  according to a TCC statement regarding the incident  which led to the TCC Police Department taking quick action along with local law enforcement agencies by clearing the campus in less than one minute."

The report was found to be a result of swatting, where individuals try to trick heavily armed authorities such as the SWAT team to respond to an incident at a particular address.

Although the form of harassment is associated with the act of making a prank call, the act comes with serious consequences.

Swatting is a crime that can lead to federal and state penalties, and the calls can lead to officers being pulled away from actual emergencies. Individuals who are accused of swatting could be charged with crimes such as misuse of a 911 system or unauthorized access to a protected computer, according to an article in The Palm Beach Post.

Recent college campus shooting: FSU Police Department arrests suspect connected to recent shooting outside Degraff Hall

More: Late night shooting outside FSU dorm injures one, leads to campus 'shelter in place' order

The Learning Commons building on Tallahassee Community College's campus.

TCCs statement also stated that This incident follows a trend of other schools and colleges across the country getting similar false reports in recent months.

On top of the false report sent to TCC, several Florida universities received similar reports Tuesday morning as well.

A large police response to the campus of Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach came after an active shooter report from a non-emergency line, which was later identified to be the target of a swatting call.

About 60 officers flooded the universitys campus, according to The Palm Beach Post article.

In addition, the University of South Floridas Sarasota-Manatee campus received false shooting reports that Manatee County Sheriffs Office responded to, which led to exams and classes being canceled for the rest of the day.

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Swatting calls also led to Florida International University in Miami-Dade County evacuating some campus buildings Tuesday.

Despite the disruption that triggered individuals at the universities and on TCCs campus to act fast, the TCC release ended by stating We are thankful that this was a false report and are grateful to the TCC PD and our local law enforcement community for their swift action.

Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on twitter @tarahjean_.

Never miss a story: Subscribe to the Tallahassee Democrat using the link at the top of the page.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: TCC, Florida universities receive shooter reports linked to swatting
Djordje Kojadinovic/Reuters

A teenage gunman killed eight children and one adult in a rampage at an elementary school in Serbia on Wednesday, local authorities said.

The suspect, who was born in 2009 and identified only by his initials, K.K., was a student at the school in the capital, Belgrade, police revealed in a statement. He was taken into custody in the schoolyard.

According to the Associated Press, the massacre began at the Vladislav Ribnikar school at around 8:40 a.m. on Wednesday. The shooter, who the Ministry of Interior said was a seventh-grade student, was initially reported to have fired several rounds from a gun belonging to his father. A later update confirmed eight children and a security guard had been killed, and another six children and a teacher had been wounded.

The injured kids and teacher have been taken to local hospitals for medical attention. All police forces are still on the ground and are intensively working to shed light on all the facts and circumstances that led to this tragedy, the update added. An investigation into the motive for the attack is currently underway.

Footage in local media reportedly showed a commotion outside the school as the suspect was led out of the grounds by officers. The alleged gunman's head was covered as he was placed in a car parked in the street close to the school.

A man who spoke with Serbias N1 cable news channel said his daughter was in a history class when the massacre began. I asked where is my child but no one could tell me anything at first, Milan Milosevic, who rushed to the school when he heard about the shooting, told N1. Then she called and we found out she was out.

He added that his daughter told him the shooter fired first at the teacher and then the children who ducked under the desks. She said he was a quiet boy and a good student, Milosevic said.

Speaking to Serbian public broadcaster RTS, Tirsova Clinic Director Sinisa Ducic said three young victims of the shooting were taken to his facility for treatment. Two 13-year-old boys and one girl were shot, Ducic said. Both boys are neuro-vascularly stable. They are gunshot wounds to the lower extremities. They are being monitored and receiving therapy. He added that the girl suffered a head injury and was currently in the operating room.

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Mass shootings in Serbia and southeastern Europes other Balkan states are extremely rare, and those reported at schools are even more so. The last mass shooting in Serbia took place in 2013, when a 60-year-old Balkan war veteran killed 13 people in the village of Velika Ivanca, about 31 miles south of Belgrade.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Limos. Party buses. Even an Oscar Mayer wienermobile.

We can now add a World War II tank to the list.

Two creative West Coast teens made an impressive entrance over the weekend when they rolled up their high school prom in a a M3A1 Stuart tank they reportedly rented for $1,000.

Best friends Sherman Bynum and Sam Tetro told local media outlets they raised the money through TikTok and a GoFundMe account for the event at Camas High School in Washington near the Oregon border.

We dont like normal very much, Bynum told WJHG Monday. I think the quote that weve been repeating a lot today is, todays the day, man. And were feeling really good."

The teens, who wore suits and sported green Army helmets, paid Portland resident Steve Greenberg, who owns the tank to drive them to prom, the outlet reported.

Greenburg, 65, has been collecting army gear since he was in high school, he told the New York Post.

Darth Vader and flaming bagpipes

In a twist, the duo also recruited a man to play flaming bagpipes on a unicycle to give their entrance a soundtrack of the Star Wars theme, according to KPTV.

Oh, the bagpipe player was also dressed as Darth Vader.

'I'd be tankful to take you to prom'

WJHG reported Bynum was accompanied by his date who he asked out by holding a sign that said, Id be tankful to take you to prom.

Two creative West Coast teens made quite the entrance over the weekend when they rolled up to prom in a WWII tank. Best friends Sherman Bynum and Sam Tetro raised money through TikTok and a GoFundMe account for the event at Camas High School in Washington state.

The undertaking began as a joke, the teen told the outlet, but it wound up proving a point he appreciates about living life to the fullest.

Do whatever you want," Bynum said. "Thats what its all about.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Teens go to prom in WWII tank at Camas High School in Washington
There are not unsafe levels of mold in Prichardville Elementary Schools modular classrooms, according to testing ordered by the Beaufort County School District last week following parent complaints.

Would I allow my granddaughter to go in and hang out in this building? asked Andy Rowland, a private contractor hired to test the mold levels at the Bluffton school. I absolutely would not have any reservation whatsoever.

The school has two modular, or mobile, buildings to accommodate growth in the Bluffton area. The fourth grade building has six classrooms and the fifth grade building has eight classrooms. Both modular buildings were built in 2018, although the fifth grade modular moved from River Ridge Academy in 2022.

Beaufort County school administrators tested for mold after multiple parents complained to school administrators. State Sen. Tom Davis also spoke with Superintendent Frank Rodriguez about the issue after testing was scheduled. Parents said their children have symptoms consistent with mold exposure and administrators didnt respond to their emails.

Principal Brenda Blue notified parents of the testing and results Tuesday, but parents said this was the first time theyve heard from administrators about the most recent testing.

Parent Tanya Colucci wants to bring in her own contractor to test the air. When asked if officials would allow her to do so, district spokesperson Candace Bruder said the district doesnt allow any contractor who hasnt been properly vetted into its buildings.

Teachers at Pritchardvile Elementary in Bluffton check in with each other in the new mobile classroom building for fifth grade students.

Im personally not satisfied with that because it is exactly the same report they did the last time that, according to my third-party [contractor], were not done correctly, parent Tanya Colucci said. Its not going to satisfy my request.

Rowland has tested air quality for over 35 years and previously told districts across South Carolina that their classrooms werent safe for children.

A few years back in Colleton County, we were the ones who shut down a school building and everybody was very, very angry at us, Rowland said. He said he wouldnt hesitate to do the same at Prichardville Elementary if it was unsafe.

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A classroom in the mobile classroom building is prepped and waiting for fifth grade students at Pritchardville Elementary.

Chief Operations Officer Robert Oetting said the district wont make any changes to the modular classrooms.

Theres really not a need at this point to do another sample unless there something else comes up as a concern or possibility, he said.
Texas lawmakers advanced a bill this week that would allow the secretary of state, who is handpicked by the governor, to overturn the results of an election in the states largest county and order a new one.

The bill targets Harris County, the largest in the state and the third-largest in the U.S., which includes Houston and has a population of around 4.7 million. It would allow the secretary of state, currently Republican Jane Nelson, to order a new election in the county if 2 percent or more of the polling locations ran out of ballot paper for more than an hour.

Written to apply to counties with a population over 2.7 million  which only applies to Harris County in the state  the bill follows criticism by Republican lawmakers over polling issues in the county in the 2022 midterm elections. It passed the state Senate on Tuesday, and now must be considered in the House.

Democratic-leaning Harris County faced a number of difficulties in the midterm elections, including technical and staffing issues. A Houston Chronicle investigation found that 20 polling locations ran out of paper, and just over half of the affected polling locations were in Republican-leaning areas. It concluded that it was not possible to know how many people were unable to vote due to the issues.

Democrats edged out a closely watched contest for Harris County judge, the highest position in the county, in November. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo (D) defeated Alexandra del Moral Mealer (R) by less than 20,000 votes after the GOP spent heavily to unseat Hidalgo.

Following the elections, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called for an investigation into the issues in the county. The voting issues are now the subject of a lawsuit in the state.

Updated at 11:19 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
In just over one month, the Texas Department of Public Safety reported making nearly 12,000 traffic stops in Austin, with the most of those motorists pulled over being Latino or Black.

New data was shared with Austin City Council members during a work session on Tuesday. Tuesday's revelation by the DPS follows last week's disclosure by the agency that nearly 9 of 10 arrested by the task force, which started March 30, are people of color. Most stood charged with misdemeanors, including drunken driving, low-level drug possession and traffic compliance, such as driving without a license.

In a meeting two weeks ago, Austin Police Chief Joe Chacon had assured City Council members that officers were not targeting certain neighborhoods. He said that the response is call-driven, and that DPS officers reported they had worked calls for service in seven of the nine sectors of the city.

On Tuesday, Chacon told the American-Statesman that he does not like what that data represent, but he said that he was working with the DPS to shift the focus. What that looks like is still to come, he said.

What's next? Austin city leaders reassured public that DPS and APD would not overpolice

Austin Police Chief Joe Chacon, center, answers questions from City Council members Tuesday.

"We are trying to find the balance with this," Chacon said. "We can't ignore calls for service, but we need to come in and create that balance we are looking for."

In late March, the DPS and Austin police joined forces temporarily at the request of Mayor Kirk Watson who sought state help. Gov. Greg Abbott quickly ordered the DPS to assist with policing in Austin, which has been hampered by a shortage of officers and 911 dispatchers.

According to the statistics presented, the nearly 12,000 traffic stops took place between March 30 and April 27, with an overwhelming majority, nearly 70%, of people being stopped being Black or Latino. By contrast, DPS averages about 18,000 traffic stops in Austin in a year.

We dont want people to feel targeted or racially profiled, said Watson, despite the data presented to him and the City Council that the vast majority of individuals charged or stopped are people of color.

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Previously: Some questions still surround DPS partnership among city leaders

Mayor Kirk Watson listens to a presentation from the Austin Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety on the impacts of the recent collaboration between the two organizations during a City Council working session Tuesday. The collaboration is under fire because of data indicating that nearly 9 of 10 arrested by the task force, which started March 30, are people of color.

While authorities say the location of DPS troopers is call-driven, specific data on arrest demographics and locations of their responses were still not available Tuesday. Authorities cited a need for more time to gather data from two separate systems, and promised to have that data at the May 22 public safety meeting.

DPS Director Steven McCraw insists the data is consistent with the population of Austin, including the increase of Hispanic people being pulled over and ticketed.

According to DPS data, 54.1% of traffic stops were of people who were Hispanic or Latino. However, Austins Hispanic population makes up about 33% of the citys total population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The evidence is there that supports proactive policing, McCraw said. We go where we are told to go and do what we do. ... Looking at the demographics, they are consistent with the city demographic breakdown. And the areas we are operating in are where the Hispanic populations are higher, so there is an increase among that demographic.

Several council members, however, expressed outrage with the new data and said that they did not believe the goals of the partnership aligned with the actions of DPS troopers.

City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly asks questions Tuesdays about the collaboration between the Austin Police Department and the DPS.

While all council members agreed there was a need to alleviate the pressures being placed on Austins strained Police Department, a balance was needed so that communities of color would not feel targeted.

I want to make sure we are really working with our troopers to have them doing actual strategies that address our objectives, Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said. (We all welcome additional support in) areas where we can be effective (in keeping people safe), but it cant be at expense of our East Austin communities.

Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison said many of the crime issues are deeply rooted in poverty, social justice, social injustice over policing and racism.

"My concern is there is not any room for observation around the nuance," Harper-Madison said. "The true implications of having someone already struggling get another infraction means the family suffers deeply, and it's almost impossible to recover."

Additionally, if law enforcement is going to enforce the law, it should be across the city, and not just in areas where people of color live, because crime is everywhere, she said.

"Violent crime component is the driver (of this partnership), but that crime originates somewhere, and we need to look at whole city and be fully aware of the nuance behind some of this criminal activity," Harper-Madison said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas DPS made 12,000 traffic stops in one month of APD partnership
A 19-year-old Texas college student died after falling from a balcony in New Orleans, according to police and news outlets.

Officers responded to the scene near downtown at 3:37 a.m. on Saturday, April 29, according to a New Orleans Police Department release. The student was leaning over balcony railing when he accidentally fell to (the) ground. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A Texas A&M fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, later confirmed it was one of their members, Andrew Henges.

This past Saturday, April 29th, we lost a beloved brother of ours, Andrew Henges. His passing is and will always be unbelievably tragic, but the impact he had on the men of this fraternity and everyone he knew outside of it is far from that, the fraternity said in a May 2 Instagram post.

Andrew was soft-spoken but carried a heart of gold  one that deeply cared for others. He was known to be humble, selfless, loving, strong, and proud. This fraternity is terribly saddened by the death of our brother, Andrew, but we are forever thankful for the wonderful memories that he left for us all.

Henges attended Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School in Beaumont, Texas, before enrolling at Texas A&M to pursue a degree in biology, the high school said last year in a Facebook post.

Henges funeral will be held Saturday, May 6, in Beaumont, according to an obituary.

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The man accused of killing five of his neighbors with an AR-15 rifle in their Texas home was arrested Tuesday, after a tip led authorities to a house less than 20 miles from where the crimes took place, officials said.

The arrest of Francisco Oropesa, 38, in the city of Cut and Shoot, Texas, marked the end of a massive manhunt that was in its fourth day Tuesday.

A tip called into an FBI line at 5:15 p.m. led to Oropesa's arrest at 6:30 p.m., Jimmy Paul, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBIs Houston field office, said at a news conference.

We just want to thank the person who had the courage and bravery to call in the suspects location, Paul said.

Gunman Kills Neighbors In Cleveland, Texas After They Asked Him To Stop Shooting AR-15-Style Rifle In His Yard (Go Nakamura / Getty Images)

Oropesa is accused of killing five people, including a 9-year-old boy, in Cleveland, Texas, on Friday night after a member of the family asked him to stop firing his rifle because an infant was trying to sleep, officials have said.

Oropesa will be charged with five counts of murder and is being held on $5 million bond, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said.

Capers called Oropesa a coward.

"He was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry," he said Tuesday.

Details about the home where Oropesa was found weren't disclosed. Officials said the case was still under investigation.

Footage appearing to capture the moments during and after the suspects arrest showed a man being led away from a residence in handcuffs and later sitting in the passenger side of a vehicle.

The arrest brought an end to the sprawling search, which involved more than 250 law enforcement officers, the FBI and a reward of $80,000 for information.

Oropesa was arrested four days after he went to his neighbor's home in the Trails End area of Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston, and opened fire, the sheriff's office said.

Oropesa started shooting after a person complained that gunfire coming from his adjacent property was keeping an infant from sleeping, officials have said.

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Wilson Garcia's wife asked him to go to Oropesas residence and ask whether he would stop shooting or shoot somewhere else. The request didnt seem unreasonable, Garcia said, as theyd been on good terms with Oropesa.

So we went and told the man to please stop shooting or go continue shooting further away from the house. But he answered by saying he was in his property and could do whatever he wants, Garcia said.

I said: OK thats fine. Its your property, but could you please move further away or turn it down, thats all?'" Garcia said. "Then he began insulting us, and we told him we were calling the cops."

The victims, all believed to be from Honduras, have been identified as: Daniel Enrique Laso, 9; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.

Garcia has identified Daniel as his son and Guzman as his wife and the child's mother.

Officials said that the four adult victims were pronounced dead at the scene and that Daniel died at a hospital. Three other children were found in the home and may have been saved by two women who draped their bodies over them, Capers said. He said he believed 15 rounds were fired.

Cut and Shoot, where Oropesa was arrested Tuesday, is a community of around 1,000 just east of Conroe and around 16 miles west of the Cleveland area where the killings took place.

Investigators had said Sunday that they were running into dead ends, with zero leads.

The FBI said Tuesday that law enforcement officers were analyzing hundreds of pieces of information from all over, and digital billboards in the Houston area showed Oropesa and the reward. There had been plans to expand the billboards statewide.

It's not immediately clear how Oropesa eluded police for days.

Searchers found his cellphone and some of his clothing Saturday, but scent-tracking dogs eventually lost his trail.

Capers also said that authorities seized the rifle used in the attack but that Oropesa may have still been armed with a handgun.

Maria Rodriguez places flowers Tuesday, May 2, 2023, outside the home where a mass shooting occurred Friday, in Cleveland, Texas. The search for the suspected gunman who allegedly shot five of his neighbors, including a child, after they asked him to stop firing off rounds in his yard stretched into a fourth day Tuesday. (David J. Phillip / AP)

Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Sunday that the gunman had been deported from the U.S. four times and was back in Texas illegally.

Oropesas wife filed a protective order against him last year alleging he beat her, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said. She said he was drunk and hit her with a closed fist, kicked her on the floor and threatened her, Dillon said.

His wife told authorities last year that Oropesa was staying with a sister in Conroe, Dillon said earlier. Conroe is around 6 miles from Cut and Shoot; there was no information that there was any connection to Tuesdays arrest.

A host of agencies assisted in the search for Oropesa, including the FBIs Houston field office, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers.

The Marshals Service, the Public Safety Department and the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit went in to the home and arrested Oropesa, officials said.

Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Joe Ruiz de Chavez said the killings were "an atrocious crime that devastated this community and this country."

This is a very sad time for the victims, and I hope that this will bring them some comfort and they can grieve, he said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
CUT AND SHOOT, Texas  Hours after the wife of the man accused of killing five of his neighbors in their Texas home was arrested along with several other people, a judge Wednesday ordered the suspect to be held on $7.5 million bond.

Bond was set at $1.5 million each for five counts of murder at Francisco Oropesas magistrate hearing at the San Jacinto County Jail, District Attorney Todd Dillon said.

Oropesa had an interpreter for the hearing and said very little, Judge Randy Ellisor said.

Earlier in the day, San Jacinto County Chief Sheriffs Deputy Tim Kean announced that several people had been arrested. He didnt publicly identify them, saying the number was fewer than five.

Oropesas wife, Divimara Lamar Nava, 52, was among them, records show.

A man releases a balloon from the makeshift memorial outside the victims' home on May 2, 2023, in Cleveland, Texas. (David J. Phillip / AP)

She listed as being in custody at the Montgomery County Jail after she was arrested just before 3 a.m. (4 a.m. ET) on a charge of hindering apprehension of a known felon, according to records. She was being held in lieu of $250,000 bond.

Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson separately confirmed her arrest to The Associated Press, saying that she previously denied knowledge of Oropesas whereabouts but that authorities believe she hid him in the home near Conroe where he was arrested Tuesday.

Dillon, the district attorney, said another person, Domingo Castilla, was arrested in the investigation Tuesday night in San Jacinto County on a charge of possession of marijuana.

While Castilla is under investigation for allegedly providing material aid and assistance to Oropesa, Dillon said he was being investigated on multiple charges outside the scope of Oropesa's arrest.

Castilla isnt related to Oropesa but is an associate or a friend, Dillon said. Ellisor said Wednesday that Castillas bond was set at $5,000.

Speaking in front of the jail early Wednesday, Kean said more arrests are likely, hinging on whats going on right now.

Dozens of officers swarmed house where suspect was found under hiding laundry

Kean described Oropesas demeanor as calm Wednesday morning and said he's probably in this jail right now having a hot breakfast.

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Oropesa, 38, was arrested in the city of Cut and Shoot on Tuesday evening, ending a four-day manhunt.

He was charged in connection with the shooting Friday in which officials said he killed five people  including a 9-year-old boy  after a neighbor asked him to stop firing his rifle because an infant was trying to sleep.

A tip led authorities to a house less than 20 miles from the site of the shooting in Cleveland, Texas, and he was found hiding in a closet underneath laundry, officials said Tuesday night.

In the Cut and Shoot neighborhood where Oropesa was arrested, neighbors said Wednesday that their street was swarmed with armed law enforcement personnel and unmarked vehicles and that a helicopter hovered above.

Hector Dominguez, 53, who lives next door to the home where authorities said Oropesa was found, recounted that he saw about 20 to 30 officers converge in the back of his neighbors home and about 50 more in the front.

Dominguez said he doesnt know his neighbors and had no idea what was occurring.

While authorities were targeting the neighbors home, Dominguez said, an officer told him: Take it easy. The guy is what I want.

Dominguez said he saw a man with his hands behind his back flanked by three or four officers being taken out of the home.

Similarly, Jose Luis Zuniga, 58, said he doesnt know the neighbors at the home where a shirtless man was captured, describing the area in Spanish as typically a quiet neighborhood.

Zuniga said that following media reports, he was surprised to learn that a man accused of killing five of his neighbors was apparently hiding out on his block.

I cant comprehend the killings, he said. I struggle to find the words. He killed children and women. The most innocent.

No one was at the home Wednesday where Oropesa was arrested. Yellow police tape was in both the back and the front.

Recounting the arrest, Kean said there was a little, simple flurry of resistance before the suspect was taken in. There were no injuries.

He said its not believed that Oropesa had been hiding out in the home for all four days. Officials havent disclosed his path on the run.

Speaking about the house where Oropesa was found, Kean said: I believe he thought he was in a safe spot.

The murder weapon

Kean said at the morning news conference that officials may have the weapon used in the mass shooting, pending confirmation by ballistics testing.

Dillon said Wednesday afternoon that the murder weapon was found Saturday morning at the suspect's residence. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is tracing where it came from.

It is illegal for Oropesa, as a Mexican national, to possess a firearm. In the U.S., one must be a citizen to buy firearms.

Oropesa has been deported four times, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was removed from the U.S. twice in 2009 and once in 2012 and 2016, ICE said.

The small, insular neighborhood of Trails End, where Friday night's carnage unfolded, proved very cooperative with law enforcement, Dillon said. Within the first hours of the manhunt, residents opened their doors for officer searches to ensure Oropesa wasn't hiding inside.

Antonio Planas reported from Cut and Shoot, Texas; Jon Schuppe from Maplewood, New Jersey; and Marlene Lenthang from New York City.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Korea's Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, left, poses with Masatsugu Asakawa, president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), after signing an agreement to establish a climate technology hub in Korea next year, at Songdo Convensia, Incheon, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Economy and Finance



By Lee Min-hyung



The Korean government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have agreed to establish a climate technology hub in Seoul. The facility will serve as a climate think tank for both sides to drive major climate agenda items internationally.



Korea and the ADB will invite personnel for the ADB-Korea Climate Technology Hub (K-Hub) scheduled to open sometime in 2024. The ADB is now rapidly expanding its foothold in climate businesses with a plan to allocate a total of $100 billion for the relevant sectors between 2019 and 2030.



The bank considered the potential of partnering with Korea, as major international climate organizations  Global Green Growth Institute and Green Climate Fund  are based in the country. The agreement was made on the sidelines of the ADB annual meeting that will run until Friday in Incheon, west of Seoul.






San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers, left, and FBI assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul speak to the media during a news conference announcing the arrest of murder suspect Francisco Oropeza on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 in Cleveland, Texas. Law enforcement officials captured Oropeza without incident on Tuesday night at a home near Houston, ending a four-day manhunt for a suspect who police believe fled after a mass shooting that left five dead. | Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle via Associated Press

The suspect in a mass shooting in Texas that left five people dead  including a 9-year-old  was arrested after a four-day manhunt.

Francisco Oropesa was found in a home near the town of Cut and Shoot, Texas, just 20 miles from Cleveland, where the shooting occurred, The Associated Press reported.

Oropesa, a 38-year-old immigrant from Mexico who has been deported from the U.S. four times since 2009, is accused of killing five people after his neighbors asked him to stop shooting his gun in his yard Friday night. The suspect then allegedly entered his neighbors home with a rifle, shooting and killing five.

How Francisco Oropesa was caught

A manhunt ensued following the shooting, with authorities stating Sunday that they had zero leads at that point, the Deseret News reported.

On Tuesday, a tip was submitted to the FBIs tip line at 5:15 p.m., FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said, per CNN. Oropesa was arrested at 6:30 p.m.

In a press conference Tuesday night, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Oropesa was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry in a house just 20 miles from his home in Cleveland, Texas.

Authorities did not state whether he knew the people whose house he was hiding in. However, a law enforcement source told CNN that law enforcement officials tracked Oropesas wife to a home near Cut and Shoot that was associated with one of his family members.

What happens next

Oropesa was charged with five counts of murder, with bond set at $5 million.

The families of the victims can rest easy now, because he is behind bars, Capers said, per AP. He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.

Authorities are investigating if the suspect had any help in hiding, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon told CNN.
The gunman accused of shooting dead five neighbours in Texas after they made a noise complaint against him has been captured hiding in a closet under laundry after four days on the run.

Francisco Oropesa, 38, was arrested in the city of Cut and Shoot, Texas, the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office confirmed on Tuesday evening.

Authorities said that Mr Oropesa was found hiding under laundry in a closet at his sisters house that had been previously searched following a fresh tip, reported The Houston Chronicle.

Officials say that he was arrested without incident at around 7pm CT at the address on Summer Hollow Drive. Task force agents moved on the home after a tip was received on the FBI tip line.

On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, at about 7.00pm, Francisco Oropesa, who was wanted in connection with shooting that occurred in Cleveland, Texas, was taken into custody in Montgomery County without incident. We would like to thank all local, state, and federal agencies who collaborated in this effort, MCSO said in a statement.

The San Jacinto County Sheriffs Office said that after being processed Mr Oropesa would be brought back to their jail and held on a $5m bond.

The suspect was on the run since the horrific attack in Cleveland, Texas, on Friday night and earlier in the day authorities had intensified their search near the border with Mexico.

In total, five victims  Sonia Argentina Guzman, Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, Julisa Molina Rivera and Jose Jonathan Casarez  were killed in the shooting which began when the family living next door asked Mr Oropesa if he could stop firing his gun because their baby was trying to sleep.

Survivors said they called the police multiple times before the shooting occurred, leading to criticism about local authorities initial response time

The youngest victim, nine-year-old Daniel, was friends with Mr Oropesas son who is about the same age, according to new reports.

Mr Oropesa, allegedly an undocumented immigrant from Mexico according to Texas Governor Greg Abbotts office, had been apprehended and removed from the US several times, according to an unnamed source within US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

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A state trooper vehicle passes a posted wanted sign for a mass shooting suspect Tuesday, May 2, 2023, in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred Friday, in Cleveland, Texas. (AP)

According to the source, Mr Oropesa, whose full name is reportedly Francisco Oropesa Perez-Torres, was first removed by an immigration judge in March 2009.

Mr Oropesa reentered the United States but was removed again in September 2009, January 2012 and July 2016, according to the report.

The Honduran Foreign Ministry has said that the bodies of the Honduran nationals killed in the shooting will be repatriated to the country.

The Government of Honduras deeply regrets the loss of these valuable lives and accompanies all their loved ones in their pain, the statement said.

We demand that the pertinent authorities arrest the perpetrator of this terrible event and apply the full weight of the law.
Several lawmakers from Texas took to Twitter to praise the efforts of a massive law enforcement task force Tuesday evening after they apprehended 38-year-old Mexican national Francisco Oropesa, who is accused of killing five neighbors including a 9-year-old child in Cleveland, Texas last month.

U.S. Marshals, Texas Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Border Patrols BORTAC team apprehended Oropesa, 38, without incident Tuesday evening. He was found hiding in the closet of a home, under a pile of laundry before he was taken into custody.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted: "Great job by law enforcement."

Sen. Ted Cruz called the suspect a "mass murdering illegal alien" and said he "deserves the death penalty."

TEXAS SHOOTING SUSPECT'S LOCATION CAME THROUGH FBI TIP LINE: 'COURAGE TO CALL'

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, responded to the arrest of mass shooting suspect Francisco Oropesa.

"Thank you to the brave men and women of law enforcement who worked tirelessly to apprehend this mass murdering illegal alien who killed 5 innocent people," the U.S. senator wrote.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

He added: "The victims deserve justice. And this monster when convicted deserves the death penalty."

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, also responded.

"Grateful to learn that Francisco Oropesa has been apprehended by law enforcement in Texas," he wrote in a tweet. "Justice will be served for the victims of this unthinkable murder."

Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022.

TEXAS MASS SHOOTING SUSPECT ACCUSED OF KILLING FIVE NEIGHBORS TAKEN INTO CUSTODY 'WITHOUT INCIDENT'

Crenshaw previously tweeted that he had "full confidence" that law enforcement officers would locate Oropesa and have him stand trial for his alleged involvement.

CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller also praised the efforts of the various law enforcement personnel who contributed to the search and subsequent apprehension.

"I am incredibly proud of the members of our U.S. Customs and Border Protection workforce who, together with partners at the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the San Jacinto County Sheriffs Office, apprehended the suspect of Fridays brutal murders in Texas," Miller said.

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He added: "Tonight, agents from the Border Patrols elite BORTAC unit apprehended the suspect without incident. Air and Marine Operations provided overwatch surveillance and aerial support to assist the multi-jurisdictional efforts. In small towns and communities like Cleveland, Texas, the men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection  in particular, the U.S. Border Patrol  provide integral law enforcement support to local authorities, protecting and serving the communities they live in."

"Tonights actions clearly demonstrate that our agents and officers bring incredible capabilities to bear every day as they work to keep our communities safe," the acting commissioner added.

TEXAS FUGITIVE ACCUSED OF KILLING 5 WAS ILLEGALLY IN US; DEPORTED 5 TIMES

Oropesa is accused of using an AR-15 to kill four adults  Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18  as well as one child, 9-year-old Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman.

He will be charged with five counts of murder, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said during a press conference Tuesday evening. His bond was set at $5 million.

More than 225 law enforcement officers, assisted in the days-long search for Oropesa, who was found after a tip was submitted to the FBI tipline. Search efforts were also carried out in Wyoming, Florida, South Texas, North Texas, Oklahoma, and Maryland.
A woman identified as the wife of the Texas man suspected of killing five people including a 9-yearboy was arrested just after midnight on Wednesday for allegedly helping him evade capture, authorities said.

Divimara Lamar Nava, 52, was charged with "hindering the apprehension of a known felon," a felony, said the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in a statement on social media. She is being held on a $250,000 bond, jail records show.

Although Nava has been identified as the wife of the suspect, Francisco Oropesa, jail records list her as "not married."

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office released a video of a Wednesday court hearing for Nava. She was being held on a third-degree felony count of hindering the apprehension of a fugitive. Prosecutors alleged that Nava attempted to assist Oropesa's efforts to escape to Mexico.

Oropesa, 38, was arrested Tuesday at about 7 p.m. local time at a home in the area of Cut and Shoot, Texas, following a tip from the public after a four-day manhunt. A search warrant was executed at the home where Oropesa was arrested and multiple pieces of evidence were recovered, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said.

The Associated Press reported that authorities believe Nava helped hide her husband in the home where he was arrested Tuesday.

Oropesa was transported and booked into the Montgomery County Jail and charged in the shooting deaths of five people, the San Jacinto County Sheriff's office said. He is currently being held at the San Jacinto County Jail, jail records show. He will be held on a $5 million bond, the sheriff said.

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Dickerson on the state of American civics
Korean-language text has been shared repeatedly in social media posts that falsely claim it is the speech that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was going to give at a joint session of the US Congress on April 27, 2023. The supposed speech stresses the importance of the countries' alliance and criticises Yoon's predecessor for "openly supporting North Korea". But the text, which began circulating days before the English-language speech was delivered, is a fabrication and Yoon's actual speech was significantly different.

"Text version of President Yoon Suk Yeol's speech on April 27, 2023 to the upper and lower houses of the US Congress," reads the Korean-language text shared on Facebook here on April 25.

The purported script stresses the importance of Seoul's alliance with Washington, and bashes the administration of former South Korean president Moon Jae-in for "tricking the world by openly supporting North Korea".

As president, Moon championed engagement with Pyongyang (archived link). His diplomacy ultimately failed, with the North now more belligerent than ever, and his attempts at dialogue enraged many security hawks.

Since he left office in May 2022, his opponents have accused him of being a "spy" and called for him "to be deported to North Korea".

AFP has previously debunked misinformation targeting Moon here, here and here (archived links here, here and here).

Screenshot of the false claim shared on Facebook, captured on May 2, 2023.

The claim began circulating online days before Yoon addressed the US Congress on April 27 as part of a state visit to the United States (archived link).

AFP reported that Yoon and US President Joe Biden adopted the "Washington Declaration" during the six-day visit, a joint statement committing the United States to a series of measures to better defend South Korea against the nuclear threats of North Korea (archived link).

Identical text claiming to show Yoon's speech was also shared on Facebook here, here and here.

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Comments on the posts suggest some users believed it showed the text of Yoon's actual speech.

"I am proud of him for having such a right and sane mind," one user said.

"This is such a well written speech, it perfectly encapsulates this government's identity," said another.

The purported script, however, is a fabrication and differs from the speech Yoon actually delivered.

Yoon's address to Congress

South Korea's presidential spokesperson told AFP the text is not Yoon's real speech.

"It is unrelated to the presidential office," the spokesperson said on May 1.

A keyword search on YouTube found a recorded clip of Yoon's 44-minute speech published on his official YouTube channel, as well as by multiple South Korean news organisations, including here and here (archived links here, here and here).

In these clips, Yoon's English-language speech is dubbed over in Korean.

Yoon's full speech was also shared on the official YouTube channel of C-SPAN in its original English (archived link).

The full English-language transcript of Yoon's speech is also available on the official website of South Korea's presidential office (archived link).

An analysis of the recordings and the official transcript showed significant differences between the text that was falsely shared on social media and Yoon's actual speech.

The two texts begin differently, with Yoon quoting the Gettysburg Address to talk about his commitment to freedom, whereas the text shared on social media starts with the phrase, "I am South Korea's president."

A section in the false text that accuses South Korea's former government of "working for enemies" does not appear anywhere in Yoon's speech.

And Yoon also devotes a portion of his actual speech to discussing North Korea and his hard-line policy to push for its denuclearisation, but the fabricated script shared online only refers to North Korea in the context of divisions within South Korea and to criticise Moon.
Tucker Carlson. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A text shows Tucker Carlson describing a video of a "group of Trump guys" jumping an "Antifa kid."

In the leaked text, obtained by The New York Times, he said, "It's not how white men fight."

Carlson, who was the face of Fox News, was abruptly ousted from the network last week.

A leaked text message from the settled Dominion defamation lawsuit shows Tucker Carlson describing a video of the violent assault of an "Antifa kid" being jumped by a "group of Trump guys," with the former Fox News superstar saying that "it's not how white men fight."

The text, obtained by The New York Times from interviews with people who have knowledge of the suit, remains redacted from public court documents in Dominion's defamation lawsuit against Fox News that was settled last month for a record $787.5 million.

According to the Times, Carlson sent the text to one of his producers the day after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Though many messages between the former prime-time show host and his colleagues were made public during the Dominion lawsuit, several texts between Carlson and other Fox executives sent on the day of the riot remain redacted from public filings.

The settlement  the largest ever in a defamation case  allowed Carlson and other Fox staff to avoid answering questions about those texts while under oath.

However, Fox executives were made aware of the messages before the trial began last month and were concerned that it could come to light in the proceedings, according to the Times.

The full message was published by the Times on Tuesday. In it, Carlson said the video he had watched showed at least three men against one. The race of the person who was being beaten is unclear.

"Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It's not how white men fight. Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it," the text said, according to the Times.

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"Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn't good for me. I'm becoming something I don't want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I'm sure I'd hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn't gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed," Carlson continued, according to the Times. "If I don't care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?"

Carlson, who critics have repeatedly accused of promoting white nationalist talking points  such as the racist "replacement theory"  and downplaying white-nationalist violence on his show, was abruptly ousted from the network last week.

People familiar with Carlson's firing told The Los Angeles Times that Rupert Murdoch himself made the call to fire Carlson, partly due to the host's conspiracy theories about the 2021 riots at the Capitol, which he regularly amplified on his show.

An attorney representing Carlson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider. Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Meta is in hot water with the Federal Trade Commission once again after the agency proposed more sanctions against the company, which has allegedly failed to fully comply with a 2020 privacy order. Among other things, the agency has proposed a blanket ban on monetizing data Meta collects from users aged under 18, whether they use Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram or Quest virtual reality headsets.

The proposed sanctions, which the FTC seeks to apply as part of an update to the 2020 order, include a ban on Meta launching new products, services and features unless an assessor confirms that the company is in full compliance with its obligations. Additionally, Meta would have to get explicit consent from users before employing facial recognition tech. All of these measures, plus others the FTC has proposed to strengthen aspects of the 2020 order, would apply to companies that Meta buys or merges with.

The FTC issued the most recent privacy order, which is in place for 20 years, as part of a $5 billion settlement that Meta (then known as Facebook) reached with the agency over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. At the time, the FTC determined that Meta had broken a 2012 order concerning user data privacy. Along with allegedly failing to comply with the 2020 order, Meta has violated the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), according to the FTC.

Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises, Samuel Levine, director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. The companys recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures.

Among other things, Meta allegedly misled parents over how much control they have over who their children can communicate with through the Messenger Kids app. The FTC says that, between 2017 and mid-2019, children were able to chat with unapproved contacts through the app in violation of the 2012 order and COPPA.

Moreover, the agency says that Meta continued to provide third-party developers access to user data, despite pledging in 2018 to revoke access to the information if users hadn't accessed their apps within a 90-day period. According to the FTC, Meta allowed third-party developers to maintain access to user data in certain situations until some point in 2020.

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An assessor that the FTC appointed to ensure Meta's compliance with the 2020 order found that there were several flaws with the company's privacy program. In its Order to Show Cause , the FTC said that "the breadth and significance of these deficiencies pose substantial risks to the public."

Moreover, the agency says that Meta continued to provide third-party developers access to user data despite pledging in 2018 to revoke access to the information if users hadn't accessed their apps within a 90-day period. According to the FTC, Meta allowed third-party developers to maintain access to user data in certain situations until some point in 2020.

Meta has called the FTC's move "a political stunt." Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the potential impact on its business, Meta is gearing up for a legal battle with the agency. "Despite three years of continual engagement with the FTC around our agreement, they provided no opportunity to discuss this new, totally unprecedented theory," the company said in a statement that spokesperson Andy Stone shared on Twitter .

"Let's be clear about what the FTC is trying to do: usurp the authority of Congress to set industry-wide standards and instead single out one American company while allowing Chinese companies, like TikTok, to operate without constraint on American soil. FTC Chair Lina Khan's insistence on using any measure  however baseless  to antagonize American business has reached a new low. We have spent vast resources building and implementing an industry-leading privacy program under the terms of our FTC agreement. We will vigorously fight this action and expect to prevail."
A third man has been arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with a Saturday shooting in north Wichita, according to arrest records.

Shaun Micah OBrien was arrested Tuesday at city hall, where police administration and detectives are based. The 41-year-old lives in the same block where 36-year-old Christian Santiago of Wichita was shot multiple times, according to records and police.

Police found Santiago dead in the front passenger seat of a white SUV. The SUV had also been hit by bullets.

Around 3:50 a.m. Saturday, police responded to a shooting in the 2800 block of East Shadybrook Lane after a witness got help from a homeowner in that block and the homeowner called 911, police said. The shooting happened just around the corner in the 2800 block of East Stadium, which is near 21st Street North and Hillside.

Police said there were multiple witnesses.

On Sunday, police arrested 47-year-old Adonis Christopher Andrews on suspicion of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, aggravated battery, aggravated burglary, criminal possession of a weapon by a felon and a drug-related charge in connection with Santiagos killing. He was also arrested on a parole violation, records show. He was arrested at his home in south Wichita.

On Tuesday, police also arrested 48-year-old Jorge Romero of Wichita on suspicion of first-degree murder. Romero was also arrested on a drug charge, records show.

Police have said Romero and Andrews knew the victim. Police have not said what they think led to the shooting.

OBrien has convictions in Sedgwick County for robbery, battery, domestic battery, criminal threat and forgery, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records. His supervision ended in August 2013, KDOC records show.

The killing was the citys eighth homicide of the year. There were 17 at this time last year.
Something quite un-bee-lievable happened on a Florida highway this week.

A pickup truck transporting beehives, which were home to around 1 million bees, collided with a tractor-trailer Tuesday morning, releasing a swarm of bees onto the road.

The shocking incident happened on U.S. Route 301 in Duval County at around 3:15 a.m.

After the wreck, thousands of escapee bees buzzed around the area, the Florida Highway Patrol said. However, they were reportedly not aggressive.

FHP did not immediately respond to HuffPosts request for comment.

Trent Padgett  the owner of Jesup Bee Company and the driver of the truck carrying the bees  told local news outlet WJXT that he was traveling to the city of Lawtey to make honey when the collision took place.

We both had a green light, but the semitruck made a U-turn there without a turn signal, Padgett said of the crash. I didnt see it coming, so I just hit right at the front end of the truck.

He added: A lot of bees got lost. A lot of them flew away. Theres a lot of dead bees on the highway that came from those boxes.

Padgett told WJXT that he allegedly lost $40,000 worth of bees in the incident.

No injuries were reported, FHP said. But the wreck caused significant buzz in the area.

A beekeeper was called in to wrangle many of the winged insects, and local motorists were instructed to use caution.

The highway returned to normal activity by 7 a.m. or 7:30 a.m., the Florida Times-Union reported.

Related...
Three men accused of operating a Nigeria-based sextortion ring are facing charges in the U.S. after a Michigan teens death spurred an international investigation, officials said at a May 3 news conference.

In March of 2022, 17-year-old Jordan DeMay received a message on Instagram. It appeared to be a girl named Dani Roberts, but it was a hacked account purchased by Samuel Ogoshi, a 22-year-old Nigerian national, US Attorney Mark Totten said.

Ogoshi convinced DeMay to send explicit pictures of himself. Once he did, Ogoshi dropped the fake persona and began making threats and demands for money, Totten said.

Ogoshi had done research on DeMay, collected pictures of family members, friends, even his school. He combined these with the explicit photos, creating a collage he threatened to share far and wide unless DeMay paid him $1,000, the prosecutor said.

Within six hours of being blackmailed, DeMay died by suicide.

As parents, we cant begin to imagine what Jordan went through that night, and how scared he was, DeMays mother, Jennifer Buta, said.

DeMays parents have been outspoken since his death, hopeful that sharing his story will serve as a warning to other families and ultimately save lives.

He was the perfect mix of fun loving and hard working. He played hard, he loved hard and he never held back, Buta said. He wanted to connect and be everyones friend.

Within a week of DeMays death, the FBI launched an investigation, said James Tarasca, special agent in charge of the FBI in Michigan. Evidence led investigators to Nigeria, where national authorities assisted.

The investigation involved identifying dozens of victims, following the digital bread crumbs left behind by the sextortionists (on the internet), tracking the payments made by victims  and working with our Nigerian counterpart to identify our subjects in Nigeria, Tarasca said.

Sextortion is on the rise, Tarasca said, and perpetrators can be anywhere in the world, making it difficult to identify them, much less charge and bring them to justice.

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Make no mistake, charges of this type brought against subjects outside the United States are rare, Tarasca said.

The techniques used and refined during this investigation will serve as a framework for disrupting criminal groups who engage in sextortion going forward.

All three men face charges of conspiracy to sexually exploit minors, and conspiracy to distribute child pornography, according to a Department of Justice news release. But Ogoshi is facing an additional charge of sexual exploitation and attempted sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death, which carries a minimum 30 year sentence, or a maximum of life in prison if he is found guilty.

They are awaiting extradition to the United States, officials said.

The trio targeted over 100 people in the US, according to Totten.

To those who are engaging in this crime, we will travel the world to find you and hold you accountable, he said.

Sextortionists use shame and embarrassment not only to blackmail their victims, but to keep them quiet.

If you have been financially sextorted, remember the predator is to blame, not your child or you, Tarasca said.

Victims of online sextortion should block the perpetrator on whichever platform they contact you on, but dont delete any messages theyve sent, Tarasca said. Reach out to a trusted adult and contact law enforcement, as cooperating with a blackmailer often doesnt end the harassment.

Talking about this can feel impossible, but there are people who want to help you, he said.

Men used stolen police password to access personal info, extort victims, feds say

Private school teacher catfished students, shared their photos with pedophiles, feds say
HKSAR sets up organizing committee of 15th National Games

Xinhua) 09:57, May 03, 2023

HONG KONG, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Tuesday announced the setting up of the Hong Kong organizing committee of China's 15th National Games, which will be jointly-hosted by Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in 2025.

The HKSAR organizing committees for the 12th National Games for Persons with Disabilities (NGD) and the 9th National Special Olympic Games (NSOG) were also established.

Chan Kwok-ki, chairman of the committee and chief secretary for administration of the HKSAR government, said it is very meaningful for Hong Kong to co-host the National Games with Guangdong and Macao.

He said it will also deepen the collaboration between Hong Kong and other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and go in line with the objective of building a healthy Bay Area.

The quadrennial National Games is China's highest level and largest national multi-sports event. This is the first time for Hong Kong to be a co-host of the National Games.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers congratulatory remarks at the opening ceremony of the Asian Development Bank's 56th annual meeting held at Songdo Convensia, Incheon, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



By Lee Yeon-woo



INCHEON  Korea will contribute to forming a cooperative supply chain in Asia that includes semiconductors and rechargeable batteries, President Yoon Suk Yeol said, Wednesday. He also pledged that Korea will play a role in combating climate change and bridging the digital divide.



"As a core partner with world-class production technology and manufacturing capacity in semiconductors, rechargeable batteries, and the bio-industry, Korea will actively participate in forming a cooperative supply chain with Asian countries," Yoon said at the opening ceremony of the 56th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) held in Songdo Convensia, Incheon.



Yoon pointed out that the plan is based on his administration's Indo-Pacific strategy, which was announced during the ASEAN Summit last November. As Korea's first regional foreign policy blueprint, the Indo-Pacific strategy seeks to expand the country's diplomatic boundaries in regions including Southeast Asia and Oceania.









"Geopolitical conflicts, the Ukraine War, along with the fragmentation of the global supply chain due to the spread of protectionism, are becoming new challenges," Yoon said. "However, I believe that Asia can effectively respond to these challenges through cooperation, given that the region comprises countries with abundant mineral resources, outstanding manufacturing capacities, cutting-edge technology, and highly skilled workforces."





Dignitaries, including Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masatsugu Asakawa, second from right, listen to President Yoon Suk Yeol's congratulatory remarks at the opening ceremony of the ADB's 56th annual meeting held at Songdo Convensia, Incheon, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



Yoon added that Korea will play an active role in combating climate change and narrowing the digital divide, and also share its experience of economic growth with other ADB member countries.



"I hope that ADB can create a new model that focuses on solidarity and cooperation between countries," he said.





Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyoung-ho speaks at the opening ceremony of the Asian Development Bank's 56th annual meeting at Songdo Convensia, Incheon, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyoung-ho also promised the country's support and recognized the ADB's efforts. "Korea will continue to support ADB operations financially and intellectually based on our experience and know-how," Choo said.



During the meeting, ADB and Korea agreed to jointly launch a climate technology hub that will enable governments and private corporations to share their technology, knowledge, and networks to collaboratively address issues related to climate change. In addition, Korea pledged to be an initial partner of ADB's newly-launched project, "Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific" (IF-CAP), which aims to provide funding to developing countries affected by climate-related events.



In response, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa expressed gratitude for Korea's efforts.



High-profile officials, such as finance ministers and central bank governors from around the world, CEOs of domestic corporations and financial institutions, as well as politicians, attended the ceremony to celebrate ADB's first in-person meeting since the outbreak of COVID-19.



The Business Sessions of the ADB Board of Governors will be held on Thursday, during which the bank's budget and action plans for 2024 will be determined.




Three horses died during the first two days of racing this week at Churchill Downs in Louisville, just days after a contender for the Kentucky Derby was euthanized following training at the track.

Parents Pride, a 4-year-old filly, was pulled up in the stretch during Saturdays eighth race then collapsed and died, according to the Daily Racing Form.

Then on Tuesday, 3-year-old filly Take Charge Briana fell during the stretch run of the fifth race and was euthanized on the track. Later Tuesday, 5-year-old gelding Chasing Artie collapsed and died after the eighth race in similar fashion to Parents Pride, the Daily Racing Form reported.

Those racing deaths came just days after Kentucky Derby contender Wild On Ice suffered a catastrophic leg injury during training and was euthanized.

Churchill Downs spokesperson Darren Rogers released a statement Wednesday saying the causes of death for Parents Pride and Chasing Artie have not yet been identified. Take Charge Briana and Wild On Ice suffered musculoskeletal injuries from which they could not recover.

Both horses in Tuesdays incidents were ridden by Luis Saez. He was not injured in Take Charge Brianas fall. Saez will be aboard Tapit Trice in Saturdays Kentucky Derby, the 5-1 second choice on the morning line behind 3-1 Forte.

"Those are a couple of really tough blows," said Ramsey. "Almost hard to believe."

Also Tuesday, the 3yo filly Take Charge Briana was euthanized for a catastrophic injury suffered during R5 on turf.

Will have more on the fatalities early tomorrow on https://t.co/ivY0P4pZRu. (2/2)  Marty McGee (@DRFMcGee) May 2, 2023

Parents Pride and Chasing Artie were both owned by Nicholasville-based Ken Ramsey and trained by Saffie Joseph Jr.

Those are a couple of really tough blows, Ramsey told the Daily Racing Form. Almost hard to believe.

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Parents Pride won two races and finished second twice in six career starts.

Chasing Artie had five victories from 12 career starts and competed in three graded stakes.

Take Charge Briana, trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, posted one win, one second and two thirds in 12 starts.

While a series of events like this is highly unusual, it is completely unacceptable, Churchills statement said. We take this very seriously and acknowledge that these troubling incidents are alarming and must be addressed. We feel a tremendous responsibility to our fans, the participants in our sport and the entire industry to be a leader in safety and continue to make significant investments to eliminate risk to our athletes. We have full confidence in our racing surfaces and have been assured by our riders and horsemen that they do as well.

Each horse was transported to the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostics Lab for complete necropsies, Rogers said.

We continue to press for answers and are working with regulators to conduct swift and thorough investigations. he said.

The rash of incidents at Churchill Downs comes on the heels of the deadliest meet in years at Keeneland Race Course. Three horses died during the Lexington racetracks Spring Meet, its most in one year since 2019.

Kentucky Derby Week continues with full racing cards at Churchill on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, highlighted by the Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies on Friday and the 149th Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Four dead horses in six days at Churchill Downs shows horse racings reality problem | Opinion

UPDATE: Kentucky Derby contender euthanized after suffering leg injury in training

Keenelands 2023 Spring Meet ends with most horse deaths at the Lexington track since 2019
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article contains graphic details and may be disturbing to some readers.

MARQUETTE  Three Nigerian nationals have been charged for operating an international sextortion ring following a year-long investigation that originated in the Upper Peninsula.

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten announced the charges and the unsealing of a federal indictment on Wednesday, May 3.

Samuel Ogoshi, 22, Samson Ogoshi, 20, and Ezekiel Ejehem Robert, 19, all of Lagos, Nigeria, are charged in a four-count indictment.

The indictment, which was unsealed this morning, alleges these defendants targeted more than 100 victims, both minors and adults, Totten said in a press conference. One of the victims in this case was 17-year-old Jordan DeMay, of Marquette, Michigan, who tragically took his life as a result of this crime.

DeMay is referred to as Victim 1 in the indictment. His parents were in attendance during Wednesdays press conference.

Pictured are U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten, right, and James A. Tarasca, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan.

Totten defined the criminal scheme in question as sextortion.

Sextortion is a type of blackmail where the perpetrator demands money or sexual favors from an individual by threatening to reveal evidence of their sexual activity, Totten said.

When a sextortion occurs online, the perpetrator often pretends to be someone else and then persuades the victim to send compromising photos or perhaps engage in compromising conversation. The perpetrator then threatens to disclose those photos or the conversation if the victim doesnt provide either money or further sexual favors.

This is what happened to DeMay.

According to Totten, a federal grand jury has alleged the three defendants purchased multiple hacked social media accounts. One of these accounts was used to create the Instagram persona of dani.robertts.

"Over the course of a short conversation, Samuel Ogoshi, pretending to be this young woman, persuaded Jordan DeMay to send a sexually explicit image of himself," Totten said.

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The defendants allegedly used online tools to research their victims, including where they live, attend school and who their family and friends are.

Once (he) had the sexually explicit image in hand, the indictment alleges that Ogoshi then turned to extort Jordan DeMay for money, Totten said.

Messages from March 25, 2022, shared during the press conference show the fake dani.robertts account asking DeMay for $1,000 and threatening to expose the image. DeMay paid $300, but the dani.robertts account continued to make threats.

The following exchange occurred a little over two hours after the initial threat:

dani.robertts: Goodbye

dani.robertts: Enjoy your miserable life

Victim 1: Im kms rn [Im killing myself right now]

Victim 1: Bc of you [Because of you]

dani.robertts: Good

dani.robertts: Do that fast

dani.robertts: Or Ill make you do it

dani.robertts: I swear to God

DeMays death launched an international investigation into the sextortion ring.

This was a multi-faceted investigation that involved identifying dozens of victims, following the digital breadcrumbs left behind by the sextortionists on the internet, tracking the payments made by victims through multiple financial entities and working with our Nigerian counterpart, the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, to identify our subjects in Nigeria, said James Tarasca, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan.

It is through the herculean effort of the FBI Marquette, across Michigan, and at headquarters in D.C. that were here today, just a little over a year since Jordans death, announcing charges against these subjects.

DeMays parents, Jennifer Buta and John DeMay, read from a statement on Wednesday. They described their son as a son, a brother, a grandson, a friend, a student, a co-worker and a role model. He was the perfect mix of fun-loving and hard-working. He played hard, he loved hard, and he never held back.

As parents, we cannot begin to imagine what Jordan went through that night and how scared he was because of this senseless act, Buta said. When we were informed that Jordan was potentially a victim of an internet scam called sextortion via Instagram, there was never a hesitation in our minds to share his story. We wanted everyone to be aware about sextortion and have those tough conversations with their families so if it did happen to them they knew to talk to someone.

Buta said they hope to bring more awareness of this crime to children, young adults and parents.

Our family has forever been changed by this heinous crime and our objective is to prevent another individual from being victimized. Kids, teenagers, young adults and even adults can be a target of sextortion. We urge you to have discussions about this and have a plan for your children to reach out if it does happen to them, she said. Jordan will never be forgotten. He will forever be in our hearts and will drive us forward to share his story and help others.

Tarasca also urged young people and their caregivers to educate themselves about sextortion and help others from being victimized.

If you have been financially sextorted, remember the predator is to blame. Not your child, or you, he said.

If you encounter a sextortion situation, Tarasca also advises:

Report the predators account via the platforms safety feature

Block the predator, but do not delete the profile or messages because that information is useful to law enforcement

Ask for help from a trusted adult or law enforcement before sending money or more images

Our partners at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have a program called Take It Down that can help victims mitigate the spread of their images online, Tarasca said. If youre not ready to speak to the FBI, go to another trusted adult. Say youre being victimized online and need help. Talking about this can feel impossible, but there are people who want to help you.

Totten said the extradition process for the three defendants is underway and they have received the full cooperation of Nigerian officials.

Subscribe: Get unlimited digital access to our local coverage

The defendants are charged in a four-count indictment:

Count 1 charges Samuel Ogoshi with Sexual Exploitation and Attempted Sexual Exploitation of a Minor Resulting in Death. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a statutory mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison.

Count 2 charges all three men with Conspiracy to Sexually Exploit Minors. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison.

Count 3 charges all three men with Conspiracy to Distribute Child Pornography. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison.

Count 4 charges Conspiracy to Commit Stalking. The charge has a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

This investigation is ongoing, Totten said. We may bring future charges against other defendants.

If you have information about or believe you are a victim of sextortion, contact your local FBI field office, call 1-800-CALL-FBI, or report it online at tips.fbi.gov.

 Contact Jillian Fellows at jfellows@petoskeynews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Three Nigerians charged in sextortion ring after Michigan investigation
A small university city in northern California is on edge after three people were stabbed within a week.

Two of the stabbings were fatal, killing a college student at the University of California, Davis and a homeless person.

In the most recent incident on Monday, a homeless woman was knifed several times through her tent.

No arrests have been made, and police in Davis have not said if they are searching for one or multiple suspects.

"People are scared," Mayor Will Arnold said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said "the attacks were particularly violent and brazen", adding that in the two most recent stabbings the "suspect didn't seem to care there were several witnesses".

He said he could not recall any incidents like this in his four decades working on the city's police force.

Mr Pytel said the first victim, 50-year-old David Henry Breaux, was found on Thursday on a bench where he often ate and slept.

The second victim was 20-year-old student Karim Abou Najm. The computer science major was six weeks away from graduating before he was stabbed to death at Sycamore Park on Saturday evening.

The third stabbing occurred shortly before midnight on Monday at a homeless encampment. The victim, who has not been named, was stabbed several times through her tent and is in a critical condition, Mr Pytel said.

University of California, Davis has increased its security measures since the attacks

Police issued a shelter-in-place order after the most recent stabbing but lifted it hours later with no sign of a suspect.

The attacker has been described as a male with long curly hair and a thin build, Mr Pytel said, a description which he said was similar to that of the suspect in the second stabbing.

He urged residents to be careful and to remain vigilant, adding that his department was working through hundreds of tips and looking for DNA evidence.

"This is too much," one student wrote on Twitter. "I'm looking around at my peers terrified at the possibilities. This is traumatic."

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The FBI and other law enforcement agencies are assisting the Davis Police Department.

"I am freaked out about it," Nikki Moreno, a UC Davis student, told The Sacramento Bee newspaper. "I think after this third one, I am more fearful. It doesn't seem like this is a person who's targeting people."

Gary May, chancellor at UC Davis, released a statement on Tuesday briefing students on updated security measures. They include moving all classes ending after 18:00 online and installing additional security cameras.

"I assure you the safety of our campus community is our top priority as we deal with the rash of violent stabbings in Davis," Mr May said.
Toad

A night-time 'toad patrol' has saved 260 amphibians from the risk of being run over on a busy Angus road.

Toads and frogs have to cross the A923 near Lundie, north west of Dundee, in spring to reach their breeding areas in nearby woodland.

Volunteers from wildlife charity Froglife scooped up the animals in nets and buckets and safely helped them over the carriageway.

Mild and damp nights in March and April are when the amphibians are most active.

Volunteers preparing for a night toad patrol

Dozens of toads were saved from being squashed by traffic

Patrol organiser Celia Holmes said: Toads migrate back to their ancestral breeding ponds each year.

"They follow the same route, regardless of what gets in their way, which sometimes leads to them crossing roads.

We then get a toad versus traffic scenario - and the toads inevitably come off worse.

The rescue effort was support by Scottish Woodlands Ltd and Lundie Farm.

There have been similar projects held elsewhere in Scotland, including Edinburgh.
The Ohio Supreme Court vacated the burglary conviction of a man who calmly walked into an open garage in front of the homeowner and took a $500 leaf blower. The court determined the man didn't use deception, force or stealth in the September 2020 case.

In September 2020, Donald Bertram pulled up to Timothy Huff's house as Huff did yardwork, hopped out, walked into the open garage, picked up a $500 leaf blower and drove off.

The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that Bertram did not commit burglary because he did it in plain view, without "force, stealth or deception."

The court tossed out Bertram's conviction but told Scioto County Common Pleas Court to convict him of misdemeanor criminal trespassing. Bertram had been sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison on the burglary offense.

Huff told a jury that Bertram had a smile on his face, leading him to believe initially that he wasn't there to steal anything. When Huff told him to stop and put down the blower, Bertram put it in the passenger seat. Huff snapped photos before Bertram drove off.

Nor did Bertram deceive, mislead, lie to, or trick Huff into granting him entry into the garage, the unanimous opinion said. Bertram did not commit burglary under Ohio law, because he did not gain access to Huffs garage by force, stealth, or deception.

Get more political analysis by listening to the Ohio Politics Explained podcast

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Supreme Court tosses conviction in leaf blower theft case
Tottenham Hotspur players greeting fans (left) when they last came to Singapore in 2019, and Roma manager Jose Mourinho (right) lifting the European Conference League trophy in 2022. (PHOTOS: AIA Singapore/Getty Images)

SINGAPORE  Tottenham Hotspur could have a reunion with their former manager Jose Mourinho - in Singapore.

The English Premier League club will be playing a friendly match with Mourinho's AS Roma on 26 July at the National Stadium, as part of their pre-season Asia Pacific tour.

Tottenham Hotspur last visited Singapore in 2019 where Harry Kanes spectacular stoppage-time goal from the centre line gave them a 3-2 win over Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus.

The north London club - currently sixth in the EPL table - said in a media release on Wednesday (3 May) that the tour will kick off in Perth, where they will face fellow EPL side West Ham United on 18 July, before flying over to Singapore.

Spurs will also be opening up their pre-match training session to fans on 25 July at the National Stadium. Fans can also expect the players and staff to take part in engagement events, as the team will be spending a good part of their pre-season preparations in Asia Pacific.

Donna-Maria Cullen, Executive Director, Tottenham Hotspur, said: We have fond memories of our most recent visit in 2019 and have an extremely passionate fanbase in Singapore, including an official supporters club that has been established for more than 20 years," said Donna-Maria Cullen, Tottenham's executive director.

"AS Roma will provide a great test at an important time for us as we prepare for the 2023/24 season. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to connect with the Spurs family."

Roma thriving under Mourinho

Roma meanwhile, will begin their Asian tour in Singapore before moving on to South Korea.

Under Mourinho - who managed Tottenham from 2019 to 2021 - the Italian Serie A club won the European Conference League title last season - their first trophy in 11 years. Fans will be hoping to welcome top Roma players such as Nicola Zalewski, Chris Smalling and Paulo Dybala.

Both the friendly match and Spurs' open training session will be ticketed. Tickets will go on sale via Ticketek Singapore from 10am on 8 May.

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Fans can sign up for an account on Ticketek Singapore for the latest information and for pre-sale access to the match. Follow Ticketek Singapore on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates.

Do you have a story tip? Email: sgnews.tips@yahooinc.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Also check out our Southeast Asia, Food, and Gaming channels on YouTube.
For generations, the visage of a stony-faced man watched over New Hampshire's Franconia Notch State Park from the cliffside. The human profile carved by Mother Nature into the unique rock formation stood as a patient sentinel at Cannon Cliff, becoming an icon for the region, inspiring artists and writers over the years and even playing a significant part in a long-passed-down love story.

But on May 3, 2003, the longtime resident of New Hampshire's Cannon Cliff lost its hold on the mountainside. The turnbuckles and rods that had been installed years earlier to fight erosion couldn't keep the 40-foot-tall icon from collapsing, and the rocks plummeted some 1,200 feet into the valley below.

"When he was up there, he represented a reliantly steady, reassuring presence in a world that was otherwise changing really rapidly," Brian Fowler, a geologist and president of the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund, told The Associated Press.

Mark Corliss, of Keene, New Hampshire, takes a photograph of the Old Man of the Mountain on Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire's Franconia Notch State Park on Nov. 23, 1977. (Photo by Ed Jenner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

The Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund held a 20th Anniversary Show on Wednesday, sharing poetry, memories, photos and research on the formation to honor its memory and role in local culture.

Dartmouth College graduate student Matthew Maclay, who led a research project to better understand the forces behind bedrock weathering and rockfall at Cannon Cliff, participated in the show, where he shared some of the research on erosion rates following the rock structure's collapse.

"We know the climate in New England is warming, just like it is in many other places, and we want to see if we can understand and predict how bedrock weathering rates will respond to that going forward," Maclay said.

The missing portion of the natural formation, Old Man of the Mountain, is pictured on the morning it was discovered missing in Fraconia, New Hampshire, May 3, 2003. New Hampshires fallen Old Man of the Mountain would be honored with an annual proclamation under a bill passed by the House on March 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)

In his research project, he estimated 750 cubic meters of rock fell from Cannon Mountain on that fateful day, which he had compared to more volume than five school buses.

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He also created an online interactive 3D model of the Old Man using original film negatives that documented the formation and area before the collapse as well as aerial surveys performed by Dartmouth collaborators with drones.

"The Old Man of the Mountain may have weighed nearly 2,000 tons when it collapsed," Maclay told AP. "While 3-inch turnbuckles had been bolted into the Old Man to try and prevent it from falling, the actual strength of the granite was degraded over centuries, and that's probably why it collapsed."

The age of the formation is a topic of debate; however, geologists believe it formed sometime after the end of the Ice Age -- possibly as long as 12,000 years ago.

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New Hampshire historical records mention the profile as early as 1805, but one love story from the Abenaki, an Indigenous people from the northeastern U.S. and Canada, also includes the stoic face.

The story begins with a man known as Nis Kizos, or Two Moons, who was born during an eclipse. As he developed into a capable leader and prover, he proved himself ready to attend the Kchi Mahadin, or the Great Gathering, to trade, meet with healers, reaffirm treaties and meet people from other nations. It was here where he met Tarlo, a Haudenosaunee woman.

"Their love was undeniable," according to the retelling of this tale by the Indigenous New Hampshire Collaborative Collective, which consists of local tribal leaders, Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, staff and faculty of the University of New Hampshire, local community activists and other community members.

An image of the Old Man of the Mountain. (Photo by: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Nis Kizos and Tarlo lived together happily until the latter had to return to her village to help those who had become sick, and Nis Kizos promised to stay at the family's hunting camp on the mountain so she could find her way home.

First, days passed. Then autumn came to an end. When neither returned, someone was sent to look for them. Only Nis Kizos was found, still lighting a fire by night to guide Tarlo back to him, and he refused to leave the mountain until she returned.

Winter passed, and the sickness spread. Word reached the Elders of Nis Kizos's village that Tarlo and her family had passed, and they once again sent someone to retrieve Nis Kizos. This time, however, they found the fire was no longer lit at the top of the mountain.

As they left the mountain, they looked up to say a prayer for the couple when they saw it -- Nis Kizos's face staring back at them as a part of the mountain. "Stone Face," the visage is called by the Abenaki.

When Stone Face collapsed, it was a bittersweet moment, as some interpreted it as Nis Kizos finally reuniting with the love of his life, bringing his hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years of waiting to an end.

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(Renea Thull / For the Times)

For the record:

8:39 a.m. May 5, 2023: The Original Los Angeles Flower Market receives fresh flowers every day that it is open. A previous version of this post included a quote from FlowerSchools Tara Sandonato saying the markets flowers are freshest Mondays and Wednesdays.



The debate over how to take care of flowers probably began as soon as humans started cutting them and displaying them in vessels  enthusiasts have been encouraging people to stick a pin in each tulip stem or throw an aspirin into their vases for years.

Now with spring in full force and Mother's Day around the corner, TikTok is flooded with videos from florists and flower lovers suggesting different ways to keep bouquets healthy for as long as possible. Some people swear by placing an ice cube, a shot of vodka and a penny dated before 1980 into their tulips' water. Others endorse " forbidden lemonade "  a mixture of water, sugar, lemon juice and bleach that has been claimed to keep bouquets happy for two weeks. One florist suggests throw ing out the flower food that comes with store-bought flowers, and opting instead for a few inches of water and a few drops of vinegar.

With dozens of different suggestions coming from all angles, you may be wondering whats actually necessary to keep your flowers looking strong and fresh?

I went to the experts. The short answer is that for most flowers, you really just need fresh water in a clean vase. But there are still some things to consider around buying, displaying and tending to your new bouquets to help the blooms last. Here's what you should know.

Consider your flower source

Trader Joes notably gets new flower shipments every day of the week , but many big-box supermarkets get flowers delivered only on certain days, meaning they can be past their prime before you even bring them home.

Joan Stevens, the flower farmer behind Mamabotanica Blooms in Pasadena, is wary of grocery store bouquets because of how long the flowers may have spent in transit or refrigeration.

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"You can leave them [in the fridge] for weeks, Stevens said. And when you get them out, they're just sad, and they're all droopy. And then you put them in water, and they perk back up again."

However, they won't bounce back 100%, she said. "Just from a scientific, botanical perspective, there's no way that a plant can lose that much of its turgidity  the positive water pressure that keeps its stem rigid, she explains.

Choose the freshest blooms

Stevens instead urges people to buy flowers from local farmers. (If youre looking for a farmers market in L.A., we have a database here .)

Tara Sandonato, the operations director and lead designer at FlowerSchool Los Angeles , picks up flowers every morning at the Original Los Angeles Flower Market, which receives new shipments daily (except Sundays, when it's closed). Aside from picking bouquets whose blooms arent fully open, she suggests checking roses by gently squeezing the bottom of one flowers head before purchasing them.



"If you do a light squeeze and it just feels firm, that's a nice fresh rose," said Sandonato, who has been working with flowers for 24 years. "If it squishes, it's very old, like you might have two to three days max."

TLC at home

Once the flowers make it home with you, its time to condition them by stripping extra foliage and trimming the stems. Stevens said it's especially important to remove any leaves that would sit below the water line, since those can feed bacteria and cause the flowers to wilt.

"When you're purchasing flowers, you're really purchasing them for the bloom, like that's where your money is going," Sandonato said. "And so when we remove all that foliage, it's allowing the water to only go straight to the bloom, which is going to make it last the longest."

Retrimming the stems helps the flowers stay as fresh as possible. "If you recut the stems, they can re-uptake water and then they're hydrated again, and they look good," Stevens said.

Some kinds of flowers will require more specific conditioning. Hydrangea, for example, benefit from some extra effort. "The best way to make hydrangea last the longest is when you cut the stems, you want to put the stems  only stems  in hot water, Sandonato said. And if you actually smash the bottom of the stem and open it up, the water goes up a lot faster and drinks a lot better."

Sandonato recommends changing the flowers' water every day if you can. "Every other day is great too," she said. "If you're scared to take the arrangement out, you can flush it out in your kitchen sink."

Where you display your bouquet also matters. Keep your flowers in a cool spot out of direct sunlight and away from ripening fruit," said Whit McClure, who runs a floral design studio called Whit Hazen. Fruits such as apples, bananas and mangoes emit ethylene gas and cause flowers to mature faster.

But what about all those TikTok hacks?

As for the variety of items and substances people recommend adding to their vases, both Sandonato and Stevens stay away from them. (Though both of them occasionally use flower food, neither finds it essential.)

In her floral design classes, Sandonato is often asked about adding asprin and pennies to flower water, though she always advises people to stick with fresh water. "When people hear these [hacks], they hear bits and pieces," she said. "So the penny thing, technically it's supposed to be old pennies, I think [from] the early 80s. And the aspirin, it has to be aspirin. It can't be Tylenol, Ibuprofen, like, it's very specific and people don't always pay attention to that. Adding substances such as vinegar, lemon juice, copper and bleach are all attempts at keeping the water disinfected, but they're not as foolproof as people would like them to be.

As a flower farmer who studied permaculture and botany, Stevens sees these suggestions as unscientific advice. "I was a scientist before I was a flower farmer and often these people are like, 'Oh, yes! Put the penny in! Do this and that!'" she said. "You never see them say, 'Here's the control. And here's the experimental variable.' And that's critical. Otherwise, people are just making stuff up."

One credible experiment that Stevens did come across was by Kristine Albrecht, a dahlia breeder based in Santa Cruz. In the video, Albrecht and her husband compare five flowers in five different substances: one control flower in just water; one flower thats trimmed daily in water thats changed daily; one in water with three drops of bleach; one in water with three drops of bleach,  teaspoon of sugar and  teaspoon of lemon juice; and one in water with FloraLife flower food. In the end, the vase with just water proved to be a clear winner.

The only trick that both Sandonato and Stevens vouched for is sticking a pin through the stem of droopy flowers about an inch below the bloom.

"You know what, that one works," Sandonato said. "Only if it's droopy. It doesn't work every time, but I can say it does work most of the time."

Still, even with all the proper care, its inevitable that your flowers will die.

"I can get a little bit philosophical about this," Stevens said. "We live in a society that kind of has plasticized everything we have. We're all trying to look 25 or whatever and we've forgotten the beauty of the other side of that."

Therefore, she believes a simple way to enjoy your cut flowers for even longer is to appreciate their changing phases. She said she recently took photos of the wilting tulips that were still on her table because of the way the petals curled back and looked like "an alive thing."

"A flower is part of a plant's life cycle," Stevens said. "Maybe we can actually really find beauty and pleasure in watching the fullness of its expression."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Editors Note: Some of the soldiers interviewed in this piece declined to give their last names for security reasons or because they had relatives in occupied territory, and are identified by first names and callsigns instead.

KHARKIV OBLAST  At an undisclosed part of the front line in Ukraines Kharkiv Oblast, orderly lines of trenches snake along a ridge looking across no-mans land towards Russian positions.

The sight is a familiar one: dugouts, machine gun nests, deep gashes in the soil.

Compared to the front line in Donetsk Oblast though, this sector is quiet, with no sound of artillery to be heard. In front of the trenches, sappers work calmly in broad daylight to set up a new line of barbed wire, just in case.

These lines are manned by the 209th Battalion of Ukraines 113th Territorial Defense Brigade, the ranks of which are filled with locals from Kharkiv Oblast who enlisted in Ukraines Armed Forces at the outset of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The soldiers here have been rotated back to their home region after over three months of brutal winter fighting in Donbas, where they took part in two of the fiercest battles the war has seen so far, around the cities of Bakhmut and Lyman.

Even though Russia isnt attacking these new positions in Kharkiv Oblast, the contact line needs to be manned along its entire extent to protect against new incursions.

The Territorial Defense is a military reserve force originating in the informal volunteer battalions formed in response to Russias covert invasion of parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Only in January 2022, with Russian troops and equipment gathering at the Ukrainian borders, was the reformed Territorial Defense Force officially incorporated into the structure of Ukraines Armed Forces.

These forces are the light infantry of the Ukrainian army, sometimes supported by the armoured vehicles and heavy artillery of other brigades but without any of their own.

The Territorial Defense are not the only units to have stepped up to the task of fighting in the toughest battles of the war.

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Ukraines Border Guard Service, National Guard, and police formations have all taken part in the battles in Donbas, with the border guards in particular playing a key role in Ukraines defense of Soledar and Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast.

But it is arguably those of the Territorial Defense that have undergone the most dramatic metamorphosis.

Since the days of sneaker-wearing green militia, Territorial Defense soldiers are now serving as a key component of Ukraines defense against Russias war, often performing some of the most unenviable tasks in their role as light infantry, holding the first line of defense against constant Russian bombardment and assaults.

Government to create 150 Territorial Defense battalions Ukraines Defense Ministry announced on Jan. 18 that it was speeding up the formation of 25 Territorial Defense Force brigades, which will be made up of over 150 battalions in total. The announcement was made in a statement summarizing a meeting held between Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and th Kyiv IndependentMax Hunder

Enemy at the gates

Located just 30 kilometers from the Russian border, Ukraines second-largest city of Kharkiv immediately came under fierce attack, as Russian forces looked to capture the city within a few days, much like the capital Kyiv.

All over Ukraine, tens of thousands of volunteers formed queues outside enlistment offices, many of whom were initially turned away as there was no way to immediately arm and organize them.

For the soldiers serving now in the 113th Brigade, taking up arms was not only a question of defending Ukraine itself, but of defending their own homes from immediate Russian attack.

A telecommunications tower destroyed during fighting in Kharkiv Oblast on April 5, 2023. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)

Recalling the moment to the Kyiv Independent, every soldier had a different story of how exactly they joined, but one thread ran common: the lack of any question in their mind.

From the very first days I realized that this would not be over in a matter of days or weeks, so I made the decision to go defend my dear Ukraine, said 23-year-old Vitalii Pochabskyi, who worked in a warehouse before the war in Kharkiv.

There were no doubts whether to go or not.

In the first days, people didn't have a choice, the aggression started and they had to go, said Oleksii, a senior officer in his 40s.

They were called by their heart and soul, they knew they had to defend their Kharkiv, because look, the enemy is at the gates.

Ukrainian soldier Vitalii Pochabskyi poses for a portrait at front-line positions in Kharkiv Oblast on April 5, 2023. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)

In the hectic early days of the battles around Kyiv and Kharkiv, photographs went viral of Territorial Defense volunteers, many of whom were very young men, patrolling the streets in civilian clothes, with no military personal equipment or protection besides the automatic rifle itself.

Some of the guys had never held a weapon before, recalled Oleksii. On the second day of the war, we were heading to a key intersection on a bus because there was information that Chechens were trying to break through.

One guy just asked me how to use his rifle. He wasn't scared, he wasnt making excuses, he just didnt know. I showed him how the gun worked and off he went.

After the initial blitzkrieg-style attack on Kharkiv stabilized, local Territorial Defense units settled into a support role behind Ukraines professional brigades.

Others started fighting early on, but for me personally it was more gradual, said Pochabskyi, we helped with evacuation, with delivery of ammunition and food.

We pushed and they collapsed: How Ukraine liberated Kharkiv Oblast VOVCHANSK, Kharkiv Oblast  Three months after its liberation, Vovchansk still bears the scars of Russias seven-month-long occupation. A small partly-destroyed concrete bridge leads into a town whose main road is now littered with charred vehicles turned upside down. The local police station, used Kyiv IndependentAlexander Query

From the frying pan into the fire

After almost all of occupied Kharkiv Oblast was liberated by Ukrainian forces in September, in which the 113th also took part, the unit was then sent to Donbas.

For many of the men, their first taste of how tough the fighting could really get came in the strategic settlement of Kurdiumivka south of Bakhmut, where soldiers of Russias Wagner paramilitary force had begun using their tactics of endless infantry assaults in an attempt to surround the city.

Assigned to hold the first line of defense as Territorial Defense units often are, the soldiers of the 209th Battalion soon found themselves fighting off Russian assaults at extremely close quarters.

When you are in that kind of close contact you get to know yourself and others around you much better, you understand what a person is worth, said Yevhen, a 36-year-old machine gunner who goes by his call sign Zheka.

As Russia stepped up offensive operations on Bakhmut and Lyman over winter, conditions on the front line became near unbearable.

We rotated each other because of the cold, said Dmytro, a 26-year-old infantryman. If you haven't slept for two or three days because of the cold and you're also under attack, a normal person cant handle it for long.

Once we were flooded and then the frost hit, now that was really hard, you're shivering all night and then the real fun would start in the morning.

Here, soldiers learned specialized battlefield skills, some training as machine gunners, medics, and sappers among other roles.

Andrii Sokil, a 32-year-old native of the town of Bohodukhiv near the Russian border, started as a driver but retrained as a sapper in Donbas, performing vital logistics and fortifications jobs.

Every time we go out on a job, one prays to God because you know you have children waiting at home, he said. It's scary, but what can you do?

Between the units two deployments to Donbas, Sokil got a rare chance to see his family, arriving just before New Year for the birth of his second daughter.

Oleksii adds that when the real fighting began, his fellow soldiers started to quickly learn in practice how and when to take cover, what sounds the different munitions make, and so on.

These layers of knowledge built on top of each other, and these ordinary people became real warriors.

They crawl forward 24/7: On the zero line with Ukrainian infantry north of Bakhmut Climbing to a firing position through trenches dug into black Ukrainian soil, the relative quiet in the air is only reassuring to an extent. At the most forward point, a Soviet-era recoilless rifle stands watch, dug into a shallow depression in the ground. Bohdan, a company comman Kyiv IndependentFrancis Farrell

In for the long haul

After the freezing, damp, and always under-fire trenches in Donbas, the units current posting is one of relative rest and relaxation, though they could receive the order to return at any time.

Dugouts here, in Kharkiv Oblast, are equipped with stoves, generators, and Starlink satellite internet, while hot meals can be cooked and enjoyed.

Compared to where we were before, here it really is like a rest, physically and emotionally, said Zheka. Here you don't see the constant horror that we and our brothers went through over there.

Of course we discuss what it was like back there, sometimes with a smile, sometimes recollecting the guys who were wounded, he said, pausing to recollect his thoughts. There is no way of getting around that.

The inside of a Ukrainian dugout in front-line positions in Kharkiv Oblast on April 5, 2023. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)

For Dmytro, the rest is appreciated, but brings with it a certain level of unease.

Most of us are drawn back into the fight, because everyone watches the news, he said.

When you've been in the hottest places for a long time and suddenly you are faced with this quiet, mentally you start feeling like you're not doing enough. You feel useless, and want to go back, but that's just psychology.

If we need to go again we will go again, we are here to defend our country, not just to sit around, added Zheka.

We know ourselves how hard it is, how important it is to be switched out on time and not left there for too long to the point where you are counting the men you've got left on your fingers.

Ukrainian officer Oleksii at front-line positions in Kharkiv Oblast on April 5, 2023. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)

In over a year of war, the Territorial Defense has done much to shed their reputation of amateurish reservists.

People say Territorial Defense this and that, Oleksii said, but I can confidently say that there is no difference whatsoever; we have stood on the same level as mechanized brigades, completed the same missions, together with them and on our own.

Of course there are the Air Assault units and the Special Forces who are better trained and equipped, but when it comes to holding the line in the face of constant enemy assaults, we held our own without any issues.

Wounded soldiers fight for recovery in Zaporizhzhia rehabilitation center Editors Note: Some soldiers declined to give their last names to the Kyiv Independent for safety reasons as they plan to return to fight on the front line once their rehabilitation is over. ZAPORIZHZHIA  Serhii Demkos active duty is over. He had served since the first day of the Russian Kyiv IndependentAlexander Query

Note from the author:

Hi, this is Francis Farrell, cheers for reading this article. I grew up on the other side of the world, but in Ukraine I have found a home unlike any other. Just like with so many of our readers, I understand that you don't have to be from near here to realize how important Ukraine's struggle is for freedom and human rights all over the world. The Kyiv Independent's mission is to lead the way in continuing to bring the best homegrown, English-language coverage of this war, even if the rest of the world's attention starts to fade. Please consider supporting our reporting.
Mike Clark/Reuters

The partner of Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D), Montanas first and only openly transgender legislator, was nearly the victim of a swatting hoax at her Maryland home on Tuesday morning, both women said.

Somebody just attempted to SWAT me for my reporting on transgender legislation and events, tweeted Erin Reed, a journalist and transgender rights activist. Thankfully, Ive worked closely with the police in my community anticipating this, and the attempt failed.

I will never stop advocating for my community and will never be silenced, she added.

A spokesperson for the Montgomery County Police Department confirmed the incident took place to the Advocate, saying that an email had summoned officers to Reeds residence earlier that day.

They spoke with Ms. Reed, and she stated that she was fine and that her information got leaked, the spokesperson said. She stated that she provided her information to the police department because she figured something like this might happen.

Reed did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter from The Daily Beast. She told the Advocate that she approached the police several months ago after being made aware that her personal information had been circulating on right-wing websites and forums.

She said the department contacted her ahead of the officers arrival at her home on Tuesday, saying theyd received information saying that I was being held hostage.

Rep. Zephyr also referenced the incident in a tweet on Tuesday. Those who hate trans people are doing everything in their power to silence & harm us, she said. But we will not be deterred. We will stand in defiance of their cruelty and never stop working until trans people get to live our lives in peace.

The 34-year-old Democrat remains barred from participating in proceedings in the Montana House chamber after an impassioned speech last month in which she warned House Republicans they would have blood on [their] hands if they passed a measure limiting trans minors access to gender-affirming care.

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Over the two weeks that followed her remarks, Zephyr was repeatedly silenced on the House floor. Last Wednesday, the GOP-led chamber successfully voted to banish her altogether, relegating her to remote work.

Since then, Zephyr has worked from a bench directly outside the chamber, which allows her to speak to legislators as they pass by.

I tell my Democratic colleagues: obviously I cant speak on it because theyre not allowing me in the room but is there anything you need from me? she told Time in a recent interview. Is there anything I can help with?

On Monday, the bench was occupied by a handful of women who identified themselves to the Daily Montanan as the wives of legislators. They denied they were making a political statement by sitting on the bench.

One of the women on the bench was identified by Reed as Republican House Speaker Matt Regiers mother. The women were also joined by Darin Gaub, the director of the states so-called Freedom Caucus Network, which has repeatedly denounced and misgendered Zephyr over the last few weeks.

@ZoAndBehold works from the lunch counter outside the House of Representatives chamber today because a group of women have been occupying the bench she used last week. #mtleg pic.twitter.com/ImMaYdaioS  Thom Bridge (@thom_g_bridge) May 1, 2023

Later on Monday, Zephyr mounted a bid to return to the House by suing Republican leadership.

I took this battle to court because my constituents deserve representation, Zephyr, who represents more than 10,000 Montanans, explained to Time.

When the speaker refused to recognize me, he took away not only my right as a legislator to partake in speech and debate on the floor, but also the voice of the people who elected me. And that is an attack on the very first principles of our country. That is an attack on democracy.

Hours after Tuesdays swatting attempt, a judge ruled that it was outside of his authority to authorize Zephyrs return, writing that he could not interfere with legislative authority in that manner.

Its a really sad day for the country when the majority party can silence representation from the minority party whenever they take issue, Zephyr told the Associated Press after the decision.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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First Vice Minister of Economy and Finance Bang Ki-sun gives a speech during the opening ceremony for the Project Plaza seminar, a program of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB's) annual meeting, at Songdo Convensia in Incheon's Songdo International Business District, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



Project Plaza seminar connects Korean businesses with overseas project leaders



By Yi Whan-woo



INCHEON  Korea is capitalizing on the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to widen opportunities for its exporters in the post-pandemic era.



The Ministry of Economy and Finance, jointly with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, hosted the Project Plaza seminar, Wednesday, as a part of four events aimed at promoting local businesses and connecting them with the leaders of international projects, including the ADB.



The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank), operating under the wings of the finance and trade ministries, respectively, also joined hands for the seminar.



The seminar will be followed by one-on-one consultations on overseas projects and a business briefing, both on Thursday.



The remaining event is the Korea Business Showcase, a four-day exhibition taking place through Friday in the lobby of Songdo Convensia, the venue of the ADB meeting in Incheon's Songdo International Business District.





First Vice Minister of Economy and Finance Bang Ki-sun, front row center, poses with Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) President and CEO Yu Jeong-yeol, front row left, Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) Chairman and President Yoon Hee-sung, front row right, and other dignitaries during the opening ceremony of the Project Plaza seminar at Songdo Convensia in Incheon's Songdo International Business District, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Economy and Finance




The Eastern Silk Spa massage parlor in Richland has been used as part of a sex trafficking and money laundering operation operated out of King County, Wash., according to Richland police.

Richlands street crimes unit served a search warrant at the business at 1207 George Washington Way on Tuesday after investigating reports of possible prostitution there, said police.

The units investigation linked the business to the large-scale investigation in King County, according to Richland police.

Two suspects who owned businesses used in the alleged sex trafficking and money laundering operation were arrested in Bellevue and Burian, Wash. The main organized crime operation was operated out of Burian, according to police.

A total of 11 search warrants were served across the state from Richland to Marysville as part of the investigation.

Detectives rescued 23 women or girls believed to be victims of sex trafficking. Three of them were at the Richland business.

The Support Advocacy and Resource Center, or SARC, in Richland helped police by sending advocates to the business to meet with victims. They were given food, housing and other help.

The ongoing investigation is being coordinated by the King County Sheriffs Office.

In March, the owner of another Tri-Cities massage parlor was implicated in a similar raid in Washington state.

A Tacoma man suspected of sex trafficking was listed as the owner of as many as 13 massage parlors across the state, including four in Kennewick.

It was part of a 7-month investigation led by the Wenatchee-based Columbia River Drug Task Force.
The Bubbly Boba, the Tri-Cities newest independent boba shop, opens Thursday at Kennewicks Marineland Plaza.

Owners Amanda LaFollette and Brandon Fisher will serve all types of boba tea, from sweet and creamy milk teas to refreshing fruit ones and even a custard topped version in the airy, family-friendly shop, 201 N. Edison St.

Boba takes its name from the tapioca bubbles in the beverage.

For the first month, LaFollette and Fisher plan to get to know their customers and to adapt the menu to reflect their tastes. They will hold a grand opening in June.

Simple coffee is on the menu, as is lemonade and flavored energy drinks. Boba is unquestionably a sweet indulgence, but the owners say there is something for everyone, from youngsters to adults.

All of its milks are nondairy except by request and boba is naturally gluten free.

LaFollette and Fisher, who are a couple as well as business partners, spent three months converting the long empty space near the intersection of West Clearwater Avenue and North Edison Street into a destination for bubbly beverages and a spot to hang out.

Tyler Wolf, an employee of Mustang Signs, installs a new sign for a new business called The Bubbly Boba in the Marineland Plaza of North Edison Street in Kennewick.

Boba on the rise

The duo are first-time business owners who spied an opportunity to bring boba tea to the Tri-Cities about a year ago.

They note, somewhat ruefully, that there were only a few shops at the time. By the time they found a location, secured permits to upgrade it and were ready to open, they had plenty of competition.

Boba Lab opened in February at 4827 W. Clearwater Ave.

Theyd hope to open at the same time but were delayed construction and permit issues.

Bubbly Boba is independently owned and caters to customers with children. The child focus is a calling for the couple. LaFollettes adult son, Jared, works in the shop and helped develop the menu.

And last September, Fisher finalized the adoption of his son, now 9, after being his foster dad for three years.

Fisher said he wants to embed fun as well as support child-focused organizations such as the Boys and Girls Clubs of Benton & Franklin Counties through the business.

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He designed the 1,400-square-foot space to appeal to children and young visitors. Theres a chalkboard wall and five mythical Northwest Sasquatches hidden in the decor.

Fisher plans to install a work desk along one wall and welcomes high school students to break out their laptops for homework sessions in the store.

Tri-Cities newest independent boba shop, The Bubbly Boba, opens May 4 at Kennewicks Marineland Plaza.

Customers are welcome to linger, including those who pick up food from neighboring shops. Bubbly Boba will have some packaged snacks. It is not licensed to cook, though it has ample space to expand in the future.

Yakima, Tri-Cities roots

LaFollette is a Yakima native and Davis High School graduate.

She began working in food service as a teen and liked it so much that she made it her career as an adult. She started with a fast food franchise and worked her way up to district manager.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced her to pivot after 20 years and she found employment in an office. The combination of franchise management and office work left her well prepared to manage a business, she said.

Fisher is a Tri-City native who attended Richland High School as a freshman but graduated from Kamiakin, just up the street from the new store.

After high school, he enlisted with a Pasco tank company and spent 2003-09 in the Army National Guard, deploying twice to Iraq.

As a civilian, he is an HVAC technician and is self-funding the boba business.

He recently took a job that includes regional travel but a fixed schedule that lets him spend weekends at home to work in the shop. His mother recently moved back to the Tri-Cities to help with child care and to support the business.

Marineland Plaza

LaFollette said Bubbly Boba was born when Fisher, realizing she didnt enjoy office work, asked what she would do if she could do anything.

She told him she had always wanted a coffee shop.

I told her there are too many coffee shops, he recalled.

LaFollette persisted. She wanted to create a place where people would gather and hang out.

Shed developed a fondness for boba during regular visits to the west side to visit family. Fisher, who tried it for the first time last year, said it was okay but confessed hes not much of a tea drinker, bubbly or not.

But he agreed it was hard to find boba in the Tri-Cities and could be an interesting business. He took charge of finding a retail/restaurant spot with reasonable rent. A West Richland spot was promising, but too small and required significant improvements.

Marineland offered the winning combination of size and a landlord willing to replace the ceiling and provide a small budget to construct their improvements.

The couple liked central Kennewicks mature setting as well.

Bubbly Boba hours are 10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m., Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday, and noon-4 p.m., Sunday. It is closed Mondays. Follow Bubbly Boba on Facebook.

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A Bradenton man charged with killing his ex-girlfriend and then setting her apartment on fire, also killing their 8-month-old son, is on trial this week.

Larry Bernard Williams, 25, previously claimed that a demon which takes him over was responsible for the crimes. Williams defense previously submitted an insanity plea, but recently withdrew it and submitted a plea of not guilty.

The apartment fire was discovered on the morning of Aug. 27, 2017, by an off-duty firefighter who was passing Avalon Square Apartments at 3506 14th Street West.

Inside Unit 119, emergency responders found 18-year-old Diamond Shelman and her son, Jeremiah, dead, the Bradenton Herald previously reported. The firefighter also saw a Chrysler 300 leaving the complex that was later identified as Williams car.

On Tuesday, 14 jurors heard from witnesses called by the state attorneys office, including many law enforcement personnel who investigated the crime.

Crime scene technicians recalled finding blood spatters on a plastic shower curtain and clothes in the unit at Royal Palm Terrace Apartments in Bradenton that Williams allegedly returned to after the crime, as well as in his car.

Jurors also heard from fire investigator Jeff Batz, who worked with an arson dog named Booker to look for evidence of fire accelerant at the scorched apartment.

The dog alerted investigators to fire accelerant inside, as well as on Diamond Shelmans body.

Later at Williams apartment, the dog alerted detectives to accelerant on clothes and shoes found inside, as well as in Williams Chrysler.

Finally, the dog was brought to the sheriffs office where Williams was being held. It alerted detectives to accelerant on Williams lower body.

State attorneys showed video of the dog giving an alert when it approached Williams by sitting down, tensing and putting its head in Williams lap.

Williams defense challenged the accuracy of the dogs detection, noting that it also sat down in front of a deputy who was in the room.

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But fire investigators argued that the dog test is only one method used to identify accelerants, and is typically followed by forensic testing of materials.

Also called to the stand was Tydariah Mendez, who was living with Williams at Royal Palm Terrace in August 2017.

Mendez and Williams had previously been in a relationship and had a 1-year-old daughter together, she said.

Mendez recalled Williams leaving home around 3 a.m. on the morning of the fire.

She said she awoke in the morning to find Williams walking back and forth inside their apartment.

She went back to sleep and later woke to a call from Williams telling her to go check on his car. He told Mendez that he was helping a friend move, she testified.

When she went outside, she said there were police everywhere.

Tydariah Mendez, the ex-girlfriend of Larry Bernard Williams, testifies at Williams murder trial at the Manatee County Judicial Center Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Williams is on trial for the murder of Diamond Sheldon and her 8-month-old son, Jeremiah.

The final testimony called by state attorneys on Tuesday came from Shane Gaghan, a retired investigator with the Florida Bureau of Fire, Arson and Explosives Investigation.

Gaghan detailed his investigation of the fire, which found that seven individual fires had been lit in the home.

This fire was absolutely intentionally set by an open flame device in human hands, Gaghan said.

Testimony is scheduled to continue on Wednesday. Prosecutors plan to call several more expert witnesses, and the defense may call rebuttal witnesses. Williams defense has not announced if he will testify.

Closing arguments and jury deliberation could start as soon as Wednesday afternoon.

Williams is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and would face a mandatory minimum of life in prison if found guilty. He is also charged with arson.

Williams is represented by Hillsborough County-based attorney Kim Seace.

State attorneys Suzanne ODonnell and Rebecca Freel are prosecuting.

Judge Frederick P. Mercurio is presiding over the case.

Abby Schmitt, a crime-scene technician for the Manatee County Sheriffs Office testifies during the murder trial of Larry Bernard Williams at the Manatee County Judicial Center Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

Diamond Shelman holds her infant son, Jeremiah in this file photo. Shelman and her baby were killed in their Avalon Apartment in 2017 and Larry Bernard Williams is on trial for their deaths.
null Getty Images

After two back surgeries and the insertion of a spinal-cord stimulator, I still have chronic pain.

I've tried chiropractic treatments, acupuncture, therapeutic massage, and more. Nothing worked.

I tried medical marijuana on a trip to California, and it helped. But now I can't get it at home.

I suffer from chronic nerve pain in my legs and feet after two herniated discs in my lower back, two back surgeries, and the insertion of a spinal-cord stimulator. While the medical interventions helped with the acute pain, the nerve damage is extensive, and the chronic pain lingers.

Sometimes pain pulses in my toes as if someone's stabbing me with thin railroad ties. Other times my feet burn as if they're on fire. The slightest touch of the covers hurts so much that I bought a blanket lifter , a metal frame that lifts the blankets off my feet.

Muscle spasms are part of the package, too. The muscles around my ankles and calves twist and spasm uncontrollably, pulling my toes back toward my body and waking me from sound sleep with screams I pray my children have never heard.

I've tried many things to resolve this pain: CBD, creams, heating pads, ice packs, chiropractic treatments, acupuncture, therapeutic massage, and even tapping, but nothing worked enough for me to repeat it. I wanted to try weed, but it's not legal where I live in North Carolina. So when I booked a business trip to California, where weed is legal, I decided to give it a chance.

I would've tried anything the budtender recommended for my pain

Research on whether cannabis works to relieve pain isn't conclusive, though many studies have suggested it can be helpful for some people.

Even so, I was nervous when I walked into the dispensary. For my whole life, weed has been illegal where I've lived. And though I'd tried it as a kid, it had been a long time, and I had forgotten what it felt like. The big dudes with guns guarding the entrance to the dispensary only added to my anxiety.

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But when I met and explained my symptoms to the budtender, who began recommending products as if I were at the drugstore, I began to relax. She said there were two main types of cannabis: indica and sativa. She said that both would relieve the pain but that indica would give me a full-body high; it would be more sedating and relaxing. Sativa, on the other hand, would deliver more of an energizing head high.

I'm not a smoker, so I chose chewy, fruity gummies in both indica and sativa, figuring I could try them at different times. The budtender said that unlike a vape or smokable flower, which I'd feel within a few minutes, cannabis edibles like gummies can take up to two hours to work. She told me to start with a quarter to half a gummy.

I returned to my hotel room. It was 3 p.m., and I didn't want a surge of energy. I opted for half an indica gummy, which equated to 5 milligrams of THC. I wasn't sure whether that would be too much, not enough, or just right; I had no idea how my body would react. I didn't want to be a stereotypical stoner  I just wanted to ease the pain.

I took a gummy and waited to see if I'd feel relief

I gradually relaxed. My body was feeling heavy, sinking deeper into the couch. The TV pulled me in, though I don't recall what I was watching. I noticed that the tightness in my lower back was gone. The burning sensation in my feet turned down from medium high to low.

I smiled. I felt relaxed and at peace. Sleep carried me away.

I tried the indica again for the next few nights, and it continued to work. I was able to fall asleep easily, and I stayed asleep.

I tried the more energizing sativa during the day, and though it did help my back feel looser and more relaxed, it was a little too intense to use with people around whom I didn't know as well, during times I wanted to be able to focus. I decided I'd save the sativa for weekends when I was relaxing at home with my family.

I can't get medical marijuana in North Carolina, and delta products aren't quite the same

When my supply ran out, I was faced with a quandary. Now that I'd found something that worked for my pain, what should I do? I didn't want to fly to another state where medical cannabis is legal and try to smuggle it home. I also didn't want to risk driving to another state to replenish my supply, because it's also illegal to drive it across state lines. Plus, the closest place I can get legal weed is in Illinois, an eight-hour drive away.

I decided to turn to the delta-8 products that are available in most states. Delta-8 THC is milder than the delta-9 THC that we typically think of when we think of marijuana  it's the most abundant cannabinoid in the plant  but there's still a debate about whether products containing it should be legal, because while it can have fewer side effects, there's also less research on it as of yet.

These products are also unregulated, which means it's up to the buyers to be diligent in researching and choosing them. And there are so many to choose from. The website CBD Oracle suggests more than 160 companies in the US sell delta-8 online. Do I go for the best overall, the best effects, the best lab report, or the highest potency? I've been relying on word of mouth from the vape stores where I shop. Vape-store owners are knowledgeable, which gives me a little sense of security.

It's so frustrating to know I can take gummies and be relaxed and out of pain within two hours, but I can't get those products without driving for eight hours or flying to another state and transporting the products back home illegally.

Medical marijuana is legal and regulated in dozens of states, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, DC. I find it incredibly maddening that in North Carolina, I can visit any ABC store and legally buy enough liquor to drown my pain and make me as mean as a stepped-on snake, but I can't get legal cannabis, which also kills the pain but makes me as limp as a sleeping kitten.

Read the original article on Insider
LAFAYETTE, Ind.  A boyfriend-girlfriend truck driving team from Alabama hit a patch of trouble on Interstate 65 about a mile south of the Dayton exit, according to Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Office.

The 28-year-old girlfriend from Pleasant Grove, Alabama, was driving the rig as the two argued. At some point in the argument, her 36-year-old boyfriend from Birmingham, Alabama, struck her in the head, according to the sheriff's office.

She stopped the rig, and the boyfriend threw her out of the driver's seat and into the truck's sleeping compartment behind the rig's passenger seats, according to the sheriff's office investigation.

The boyfriend then drove a short distance, pulled over and charged his girlfriend in the sleeper compartment, according to the sheriff's office new release. The girlfriend then shot the boyfriend, wounding him, according to the sheriff's office.

The wound was not life threatening, and he was treated at a local hospital, the sheriff's office news release stated.

As of about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, neither the man or the woman have been arrested, Tippecanoe County sheriff's Chief Deputy Terry Ruley said, noting the case remains under investigation.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Truck driving couple's argument escalates to shooting on I-65
CORRECTION: Former President Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 charges.

Former President Trump reportedly grabbed a reporters phone and tried to have him removed from a plane earlier this year after being asked questions about the Manhattan district attorneys investigation into the former president.

According to a recording first obtained by Vanity Fair, NBC News reporter Vaughn Hillyard asked Trump a series of questions following his campaign rally in Waco, Texas, on March 25. The questions about the Manhattan investigation appeared to irritate the former president, who later said, Dont ask me any more questions, on the recording.

Ahead of his Waco rally, Trump had posted that he expected to be arrested in connection to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs investigation into hush-money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair between her and the former president. He urged his supporters on social media to protest his potential arrest, prompting concerns among lawmakers that protests could turn violent.

Trump was indicted April 4 and pleaded not guilty to 34 charges of falsifying business records, becoming the first president to be indicted on criminal charges.

The Washington Post, which also obtained the recording, reported that when Hillyard noted that the former president seemed frustrated, Trump lashed out at him.

Im not frustrated by anything. What am I, frustrated?  I just did a speech for two hours, Trump said. Im not frustrated by it. Its a fake investigation. We did nothing wrong  I told you that.  Its the exact opposite. This is fake news, and NBC is one of the worst at it. Dont ask me any more questions.

The Post also reported that at one point, Trump told Hillyard, I heard youre a nice guy from NBC, but youre not.

About 20 minutes into the gaggle with reporters, the Post reported that Hillyard pressed Trump again on another question regarding the investigation, to which Trump could be heard saying, Lets go, get him out of here. Outta here! Outta here!

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Trump then reportedly asked if the phones on a table were Hillyards, and the Post reported that a thud could be heard on the recording as Trump tossed the phones away.

The Hill reached out to Trumps campaign and NBC for comment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former US president Donald Trump has repeatedly denied E. Jean Carroll's rape allegation

A woman told a New York civil trial on Tuesday that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her on a flight in the United States in the late 1970s.

Jessica Leeds recounted the alleged attack while testifying in the writer E. Jean Carroll's rape and defamation lawsuit against the ex-president.

Leeds told Manhattan's federal court that Trump put his hand up her skirt in the business class section of a flight to New York in 1978 or 1979.

"There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue," said Leeds, now 81.

"He was trying to kiss me, grabbing my breasts," she added.

Trump has repeatedly and strenuously denied all allegations of sexual assault and has never been criminally prosecuted over any such claims.

Leeds was called to testify by Carroll's lawyers to try to persuade the nine-person jury that Trump has engaged in a pattern of sexual misconduct.

Carroll, 79, has sued Trump alleging he sexually assaulted her in a changing room at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

She also claims that Trump then defamed her when he called her "a complete con job" after she went public with the allegation in 2019.

Leeds first made her allegations in an interview with The New York Times weeks before the 2016 election that sent Trump to the White House.

About a dozen women came forward accusing Trump of sexual misconduct in the run-up to the vote.

Leeds went public with the accusation after Trump refuted sexual assault allegations during a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton.

"I was furious because he was lying," Leeds recalled.

Jurors also watched a video of Trump's previous denial of Leeds' accusation, where he said, "Believe me, she would not be my first choice."

Trump's lawyers confirmed that the ex-president would not be testifying.

- 'Narcissistic sociopath' -

A friend of Carroll's also testified Tuesday, telling jurors that Carroll called her shortly after the alleged attack, in 1996, to confide in her.

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"I want the world to know she was telling the truth," Lisa Birnbach testified.

Trump's lawyers argued Birnbach was motivated by politics, citing comments she has made on podcasts calling Trump a "narcissistic sociopath," a "Russian agent" and an "asset" of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Carroll filed her lawsuit late last year after a law took effect in New York that gave victims of sexual assault a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers decades after attacks may have occurred.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and asks that Trump retract his comments.

No criminal prosecution can stem from Carroll's civil case but if Trump loses, it will be the first time he has ever been held legally liable over an allegation of sexual assault.

The case is one of several legal challenges facing Trump as the 76-year-old Republican seeks a return to the White House in next year's election.

Last month he pleaded not guilty in a criminal case related to a hush-money payment made to a porn star just before the 2016 vote.

Trump is also being investigated over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the southern state of Georgia, his alleged mishandling of classified documents taken from the White House and his involvement in the storming of the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.

arb-pdh/nro/md
Donald Trump lashed out at Joe Biden in an interview on Wednesday over his successors decision not to attend the coronation of King Charles III, calling it disrespectful.

It comes as Mr Biden has been invited to make a state visit to the UK by the new monarch, who will officially be coronated later this week. While Mr Biden will not make the trip, first lady Jill Biden is expected to attend the festivities.

"I was surprised when I heard that he wasn't coming, said the former president. I think it's very disrespectful for him not to be there.

Mr Trump was speaking with British broadcaster and former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, and during the interview gave his own reasoning for the supposed snub: Mr Bidens physical endurance.

"I think that it's hard for him to do it physically...getting over here for him, said Mr Trump. But certainly he should be here as a representative of our country.

 Trump says he was very surprised Biden will not attend the Coronation, adding I think its very disrespectful for him not to be here.pic.twitter.com/wyEYgZGd04  Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) May 3, 2023

For all the ex-presidents apparent outrage, no US president has actually attended the coronation of a British monarch. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 was attended by a delegation selected by then-President Dwight Eisenhower, but not by Mr Eisenhower himself.

And if Charles did view the presidents decision as disrespectful, it hasnt shown in the monarchs public statements. Meanwhile, the White House confirmed this week that Mr Biden would travel to the UK for a state visit in the near future.

"The president was appreciative of the offer by the King and looks forward to that state visit," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing.

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Mr Bidens age and stamina have long been a target of the right, but the criticism failed to stop the oldest president to ever be sworn in from defeating then-President Donald Trump in 2020. The president has also made a number of international trips since taking office, including most recently to Ireland just last month.

Nevertheless, questions about Mr Bidens age persist on the right and from some reporters, especially as he is now officially running for reelection. Should he serve a full two terms in office, the president would be 86 when he finally left office.

Mr Trump himself was one of the oldest candidates to ever take office when he did so in 2017, a fact which has drawn calls for new leadership and for younger generations to take the reigns in both parties.
Former President Donald Trump will not present defense witnesses in the civil trial over allegations he raped writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s, his attorney told the judge Wednesday.

Trump initially had an expert witness lined up to try to rebut Carroll's claims in the case, but the witness is unable to testify because of "health issues," Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

The expert was one of only two people on the defense's witness list before the trial in federal court in Manhattan. The other was Trump.

Tacopina told Kaplan at the end of court Tuesday that Trump wouldn't be testifying. It is his call, Kaplan replied.

The jury did, however, hear directly from Trump later in the day, when lawyers for Carroll played parts of the videotaped deposition he sat for in October. In one clip, Trump called Carroll's allegations "ridiculous." He said: "It's the most ridiculous, disgusting story. It was just made up."

More of the deposition is expected to be played for the jury Thursday.

Trump has denied Carroll's accusations that he raped her in a Manhattan department store and called her claims a "hoax" and a "con job." Carroll is suing him for battery and defamation. Trump maintains he didn't defame her because he's telling the truth.

Carroll testified that she never reported the attack to the police because she felt ashamed and was scared of taking on a wealthy businessman. She said she was inspired to speak out in 2019 because of the #MeToo movement.

She sued last December after a newly passed law in New York allowed a one-year window for adult victims of sexual offenses to file civil suits, even if the statute of limitations on their claims had expired, as it had for Carroll.

Testifying Wednesday was Natasha Stoynoff, a former People magazine reporter who has claimed Trump accosted her in late 2005 while she was working on a story about him and his family at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

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Stoynoff became emotional as she described the subject of the story: the approaching first anniversary of Trump's marriage to Melania Trump and the impending birth of their first child.

She said she was preparing to interview the couple when Melania Trump had to change clothes from the photo shoot for the story. After his wife stepped away, Stoynoff said, Trump offered to show her a "great room" in the estate.

Stoynoff said she followed Trump into a room and was looking around it when he closed the door and "pulls me against the wall and starts kissing me."

She said she pushed him away and "he came at me again and I shoved him again."

"He was kissing me, and he was against me and pulling my shoulder back," she said, adding she "didn't say a word." "I cried," she said. "I was flustered and shocked."

She said the attack went on for "a few minutes" until they were interrupted by a butler who told them: "Melania is done changing, and it is time to come back."

As they were leaving, she said, Trump told her, "We are going to have an affair."

Stoynoff said she interviewed the couple on "auto-pilot" and asked to be taken off the Trump beat at the magazine afterward. She said that while she told her immediate supervisor what had happened, she didn't say anything publicly because she was worried it would cause problems for the magazine and she feared Trump would try to "destroy" her.

She said she decided to go public in October 2016, after Trump denied that he would kiss women without their consent during a presidential debate.

Jessica Leeds, who said Trump accosted her on an airplane in the 1970s, testified Tuesday.

Trump has also denied both women's accounts.

Carroll is expected to rest her case Thursday, and jury deliberations are expected to begin next week. Carroll is seeking unspecified money damages.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Former President Donald Trump may skip the first Republican debates this summer, two people aware of his thinking told NBC News.

The Trump campaign indicated to the Republican National Committee that he had no intention of participating in a potential August debate, but despite that communication, the sources said that the partys debate committee went forward with its plans and announced a debate in Milwaukee.

A source familiar with the RNCs planning disputed that characterization, saying the Trump campaign's objection came after the first debate was already announced.

The New York Times first reported on Trump's lack of interest in the early debates.

The second debate is presently scheduled to be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, but one source said that Trump has bristled at the idea of going there because, in part, the library has never invited him to speak  unlike a cast of other Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who spoke there Monday night.

In a post on his Truth Social media platform last week, Trump also publicly suggested he was weighing plans to skip the debates. He questioned the Reagan Library as a host because its chairman is Fred Ryan, the publisher and CEO of The Washington Post.

When youre leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the questions, why subject yourself to being libeled and abused, Trump wrote.

The RNC is also still weighing whether to require that its candidates sign a loyalty pledge to support the eventual nominee.

While at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March, Trump avoided answering questions from reporters about whether hed sign a loyalty pledge to qualify for the debate stage, suggesting there are Republicans he may not be willing to support.

There are probably people that I wouldnt be very happy about endorsing who are running, so well see, Trump said at the time.

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The RNCs debate committee is helmed by David Bossie, a former key adviser to Trump.

Trump continues to dominate in polling for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, outpacing the other candidates  and his potential rivals  by double digits.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
South Gyeongsang Province Governor Park Wan-soo is ready to serve teas from Hadong to the world at the World Tea Expo 2023 Hadong. Courtesy of South Gyeongsang Provincial Government



South Gyeongsang banks on tea expo, South Sea tourism and space



By Ko Dong-hwan



The mind-calming hot aromas of steeped teas start brewing over the mountainous Korean county of Hadong in South Gyeongsang Province on Thursday. More eager than anyone to serve the choicest selection of the southern county to local visitors and tourists from across the world is its governor, Park Wan-soo.



Running until June 3 at special pavilions and natural tea leaf farms across the county, the World Tea Expo 2023 Hadong is now ready to open with local lodgings and restaurants, shuttle buses and having sold more than the goal of 590,000 tickets already. Pre-event promotions across the country went well. Early last month, the county government exhibited at Gwanghwamun Square in downtown Seoul. On show was a periodic reenactment demonstrating the actual practice of a Korean king being served tea from the country's center of tea culture and tealeaf farming.



"It was Woojeon, a Hadong green tea, one of the best local kinds steeped with naturally grown tea leaves that were hand-picked and selected. There was an opportunity for Seoulites and tourists to taste it during the event, too," Governor Park told The Korea Times. "Ten companies from nine countries are participating in the expo that's held in two main pavilions. About 100 programs are scheduled to excite the eyes, noses and ears of the visitors."





Tea leaves of Woojeon, a type of green tea originating from Hadong which has been long considered the country's top-quality tea, are harvested around mid-late April every year. Korea Times photo







Situated right above the country's rugged southern coast that is teeming with islands, South Gyeongsang is part of the country's new "South Sea tourism belt" jointly pursued by the authorities of Busan and South Jeolla Province.



The three municipalities late last year signed an initiative that will introduce new coastal roads and improve tourism infrastructure. South Gyeongsang alone has invested 1.2 trillion won ($890 million) in this. Ministries of culture-sport-tourism, land-infrastructure-transport and oceans-fisheries are also pushing forward together for the same project  a final plan for which is set to be unveiled later this year.



Space, national defense



While South Gyeongsang authority's tourism sector is bustling with the tea expo, the eyes of another sector in the provincial government have been fixed upon wielding regional influence in space. The hub will be the city of Sacheon, where the country's new Korea Aero Space Administration (KASA) will be set up this year. The legal foundations for the plan were approved by the presidential Cabinet meeting last month. It is now due for discussion and passage at the National Assembly.



"I visited the National Assembly earlier this year to request the special act on launching of KASA be promptly passed," the governor said. "I will proclaim the South Gyeongsang space economy vision before July."





President Yoon Suk Yeol is shown a KF-21 fighter jet during his visit to Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province in this April 24, 2022 photo. Courtesy of Presidential Office
NEW YORK  Donald Trump wont present a defense case in a civil rape trial in Manhattan federal court, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Lawyers for the former president had been poised to call one witness in his defense  a psychiatrist  but that person proved unable to testify due to a medical issue, according to Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina.

Trump is being sued by E. Jean Carroll, a writer, for battery and defamation. Carroll alleges Trump raped her in a dressing room at luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied the allegation, calling her claim a hoax, and saying it never happened.

Tacopina said earlier this week that Trump himself also wont take the witness stand.

The former president hasnt attended the trial, which began last week, but on Wednesday jurors did see a 20-minute portion of his videotaped deposition, recorded in October 2022.

On screen, Trump appeared somewhat sullen, answering questions with his arms folded on a table in front of him and his shoulders hunched. He called Carrolls allegation the most ridiculous, disgusting story.

Its just made up, he said.

On Wednesday, the jury also heard testimony from a clinical psychologist, Leslie Lebowitz; Carrolls sister, Cande Carroll; and Natasha Stoynoff, a writer who has alleged Trump sexually assaulted her in 2005.

During Stoynoffs testimony, jurors were shown a clip of the Access Hollywood tape, a recording from 2005 in which Trump boasts, When youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything, adding: Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.

Carrolls lawyers are expected to show another portion of the deposition to jurors Thursday.
Donald Trump is clearly attempting to shore up his support among evangelicals as he pushes into the 2024 campaign season.

The president was speaking on 24 April with the Victory Channels Gene Bailey at Mar-a-Lago. During the interview, he spoke about his own Christian upbringing, and claimed that he regularly attended Sunday school.

He also joked that the Bible blew his own book  a coffee table book of pictures released after he left the White House  out of the water, a comment that drew praise from Bailey.

Im glad to hear you say that, the right-wing host said reassuringly.

Trump went on Victory Channel to shore things up with the evangelicals. He was asked about the foundation of his deep christian faith, and he rambles about his mom taking him to Sunday school where he learned all about the Bible, and says its even better than his own new book. pic.twitter.com/pyjdweorDi  Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 3, 2023

The odd moment comes as Mr Trump is clearly facing pressure on the right as he prepares for a bloody brawl for the 2024 GOP nomination. Already facing a handful of low-polling challengers, he is likely to see Floridas Ron DeSantis mount a bid later this year.

Such a move could present the first real challenge to Mr Trump for control of the Republican Party since 2016, when he steamrolled Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich to win the Republican nomination that year. Since then, he has been the de facto leader of the party even through 2022 when a handful of his selected acolytes lost narrow races to their Democratic competition in the midterm elections.

The ex-president has long used overt plays for support among Evangelical Christians as a campaign strategy. In 2020, he posed for a photo on the steps of a DC church while raising a Bible in his hand, a photo op made possible by his order for federal authorities to clear Lafayette Park outside of the White House, removing protesters and others from the area.
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump has decided not to testify in the trial of a New York authors lawsuit claiming he raped her in the 1990s, sparing the former president a grilling on the witness stand.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Trumps lawyer Joe Tacopina told US District Judge Lewis Kaplan of his clients decision after the jury left for the day on Tuesday afternoon, the fifth day of the trial of E. Jean Carrolls lawsuit claiming sexual assault and defamation.

Its his call, the judge said. I understand that. You understand that. He understands that, right?

Yes, Tacopina said, without elaborating.

Very Bad Look

Contacted later, the defense lawyer said Trumps denial of Carrolls claims are already on the record in his videotaped deposition, portions of which will be played for the jury.

He has nothing more to add, Tacopina said in a text message. All he could say is, I didnt do it  again.

Whether Trump would attend the trial, let alone testify in it, had been hanging over the proceedings since a deadline for Tacopina to reveal his clients decision came and went last week. Defendants in such civil trials arent required to attend, though declining to take the stand can sometimes work against them if jurors expect to hear them respond to the claims.

Read More: Trump Jury Hears From Woman Who Claims 1970s Assault on Airplane

Its a very bad look, former federal prosecutor Kevin OBrien said. Jurors can infer that Trump lacked the courage or the conviction to appear before them.

Still, jurors will hear plenty from Trumps sworn answers to questions during his deposition, some of which were disastrous for the former president and will be submitted into evidence anyway by Carrolls lawyers, OBrien said.

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The upshot is that this is the worst of both worlds for Trump, OBrien said.

Good Call

Former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade, now at the University of Michigans law school, looks at it differently. She said Trumps demeanor and his promotion of falsehoods make it a sound decision.

I think it would be akin to legal malpractice for a lawyer to permit Trump to take the stand, she said.

Before the trial started, Tacopina asked Kaplan to tell the jury that any absence by Trump was the result of security concerns. The judge declined to give the jury such an explanation, and said the court and city could handle security if Trump decided to show up.

Carroll, 79, has already taken the witness stand.

Trump, 76, has denied assaulting Carroll or any of the other women who have made accusations against him. He says Carrolls lawsuit, like all the cases and probes he faces, is part of a politically motivated effort to undermine his campaign to return to the White House in 2024.

The case is Carroll v. Trump, 22-cv-10016, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

(Updates with comment from former prosecutor in third section.)

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How bad was 2020? Bad enough that former President Donald Trump is using photos from that year in a new 2024 attack ad against successor Joe Biden  even though Trump was still in office at the time.

Last week, the Trump team launched a campaign on Facebook that implies the country is worse off now than when he occupied the White House.

The ad  which reads, Under Joe Biden, America is a nation in decline  includes photos of a burning police car and a group of migrants.

The Donald Trump campaign ran an anti-Joe Biden ad using photos from 2020.

The Donald Trump campaign ran an anti-Joe Biden ad using photos from 2020.

But, according to Forbes contributor Matt Novak, those pictures were actually taken in 2020.

The photo of the police car was from a Chicago protest on May 30 of that year, and it was published in multiple news outlets at the time.

Novak further noted that the image of migrants is an Associated Press pic from January 2020. Though the ad appears to suggest that the people are entering the U.S., the photo actually shows them moving between Mexico and Guatemala.

Liberals and Democrats wish to burn American cities down, and allow criminals and drugs to cross the border, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told HuffPost about the ad. This is the America they want.

When asked directly about the use of photos from Trumps tenure rather than Bidens, Cheung did not immediately respond.

Its no secret that Trump lies a lot, and its probably no surprise that his presidential campaigns have a sketchy history with ads.

In April 2020, his team was accused of employing racist dog whistles in an image purportedly showing MS-13 gang members. That September, the campaign was criticized for manipulating a Biden photo to make him look older than he was.

And in December of that year, Trump was mocked for posting a campaign ad more than seven weeks after losing his reelection bid.

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TMX Group reported record revenue in its first quarter, thanks in part to its fast-growing data business. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin

Artificial intelligence (AI) could become a crucial tool for investors on the hunt for their next investment opportunity, according to the head of the owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), particularly when it comes to smaller, lesser-known companies.

While Canada's largest firms get plenty of analyst and media coverage, that's not the case for micro- and small-cap companies, such as those listed on the TSX Venture, John McKenzie, chief executive officer of TMX Group (X.TO), told Yahoo Finance Canada in an interview.

It's an information gap that could be filled by AI, he says.

"More discoverability for small-cap companies, more insights into them  all can be generated with that kind of technology. That's where we're looking at some of the potential applications," he said.

TMX Group has been laser focused on beefing up its data and analytics capabilities, both through in-house development and acquisitions, so much so that it was the fastest-growing segment in its latest quarter.

Revenue from the data side of the business jumped 14 per cent year-over-year in Q1, while its other divisions posted no growth or a one per cent dip in revenue.

TMX's data division accounts for the biggest portion of the company's revenue mix at 34 per cent.

But McKenzie says he's not done yet and wants to see "more than half" of the company's revenue coming from that segment in the long term.

Analysts raise price targets on TMX

The company reported record revenue of $299.1 million in the first quarter and a profit attributable to shareholders of $89 million, which beat analyst estimates. Operating expenses rose 10 per cent.

Bay Street analysts took a largely rosy view of the results, and two of them hiked their 12-month price targets.

CIBC Capital Markets analyst Nik Priebe increased his target to $150 per share, from $140, while National Bank analyst Jaeme Gloyn raised his target to $155 per share, from $152.

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"TMX delivered on our three keys to the quarter: (i) demonstrating continued solid momentum at Trayport; (ii) delivering revenue growth with the help of pricing initiatives and M&A activity; while at the same time, (iii) containing expense growth to deliver an EBITDA margin beat," Gloyn said in a note to clients. Trayport is a UK-based trading software firm purchased by TMX in 2017.

"The one drawback is that organic expense growth of 8% y/y outpaced organic revenue growth of 6% y/y. However, this largely reflects the impact of a softer capital markets backdrop on listings and trading revenue growth."

Michelle Zadikian is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @m_zadikian.

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 29: Fox News host Tucker Carlson discusses 'Populism and the Right' during the National Review Institute's Ideas Summit at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel March 29, 2019 in Washington, DC. Carlson talked about a large variety of topics including dropping testosterone levels, increasing rates of suicide, unemployment, drug addiction and social hierarchy at the summit, which had the theme 'The Case for the American Experiment.' Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Tucker Carlson once sent a text saying he wanted a group of white men to kill an "Antifa kid."

Carlson texted a producer about the moment he felt blood lust seeing a "kid" being hurt.

He also reflected on the moment, saying he realized he's "becoming something I don't want to be."

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson once sent a disturbing text to a producer, where he described in stark detail how he found himself wanting a group of white men to hurt and kill an "Antifa kid," per a new report from The New York Times.

The redacted text obtained by The Times showed Carlson reflecting on a moment where "a group of Trump guys" were "pounding the living shit" out of someone who shared different political views from them.

In the text  sent on January 7, 2021, one day after the Capitol riot  Carlson said that he found himself "rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him."

"I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it," Carlson told the producer.

In an apparent moment of self-reflection, Carlson then tells the unnamed producer: "Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn't good for me. I'm becoming something I don't want to be."

He goes on to describe how he realized that he "shouldn't gloat" over the suffering of another human being.

"I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed," Carlson told the producer. "If I don't care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?"

The text message was included  but redacted  as evidence in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against Fox News. Dominion accused the network of harming its business by pushing baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. The Times obtained the redacted Carlson text message from several unnamed sources who were granted anonymity to share the message. The text remains redacted in public court filings, per The New York Times.

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In April, the Fox network agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million to settle the defamation lawsuit. Carlson was abruptly ousted from his primetime spot a week after the settlement.

For his part, Carlson in January 2022 downplayed the Capitol riot during his show on Fox News.

"But actually if you take three steps back as historical events go, if we are being honest now, January 6 barely rates as a footnote," Carlson said on Fox News on January 6, 2022, the first anniversary of the Capitol riot. "Really, not a lot happened that day if you think about it."

And in 2023, the Fox News host aired selectively edited January 6 footage on his show, making the argument that the riot was not violent. His cherry-picked footage of the riot drew scorn and criticism from the members of the GOP and the Democratic Party.

A lawyer for Carlson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Tucker Carlson, former host of Tucker Carlson Tonight, poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio in New York. | Richard Drew, Associated Press

On the heels of Tucker Carlsons departure from Fox News, a clip from a 2021 conversation between Carlson and Charlie Kirk went viral, attracting more than 3 million views on Instagram. In the video, Kirk asks Carlson to give life advice to the young people who would later hear him speak. (Carlson was slated to deliver the keynote address at a gathering of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that advocates for conservative politics on high school and college campuses.)

Here are excerpts:

Get married and have a ton of kids. Get married when youre too young, have more kids than you can afford, take a job youre not qualified for. Live boldly. Stop getting high. Stop doing anything that blurs your vision or makes time go faster.  Wasting time is the one thing you cant get back.  Any time I wasted is really bitter for me, cause its finite.

He went on: I want to experience my life as fully as I possibly can. I think that starts with having a ton of kids. Like, way more  like Mormon levels of kids. I mean that.

Carlson struck the same notes in a speech he gave just before he left Fox. That speech was given at the Heritage Foundations 50th anniversary gala at Mount Vernon in April.

At the end of a Q&A with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, Carlson implored those listening, Dont throw away your hard copy books  they cant be disappeared because they exist physically. I would say the corollary to that is dont throw away your relationships with other people, because they cant be disappeared either. The material, the physical, the things you can smell  those are the things you can trust.

Your spouse, your dogs, your children  people in person. As the world becomes more digitized and people live in this realm thats disconnected from physical reality, I think the only way to stay sane is to cling more tightly to the things that you can smell.

You may hate Tucker, or you may love him. But when it comes to his advice on building a family, the statistics are on his side.

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In February 2022, economist Lyman Stone discussed the correlation between happiness and marriage and family for the Institute of Family Studies. People who get married and have families tend to be happier than those who dont. And yet, as Stone explained, Gallup polls and the General Social Survey alike show that fewer Americans believe marriage is key to happiness, or that its important for lifelong romantic partners to marry.

These trends, Stone wrote, are especially galling because they are empirically wrong.

Indeed, married people are happier than unmarried people: across nearly five decades of surveys, data from the GSS shows that 36% of people who have ever been married (including divorced, separated, and widowed people) say they are very happy while just 11% are not too happy, compared to 22% and 15% for people who have never married. Despite changing public views, the truth is married people really are happier.

The research on children tends to be a bit more complicated. A global study of parents reported higher levels of happiness for parents than adults without children in countries with more child-friendly policies (and notably the United States was not among them).

Its no secret young children can bring stress and costs, and some studies indicate children can be a blow to reported levels of happiness, especially for mothers. But other research details increasing gains in happiness among fathers and much of parental happiness depends on demographics and resources. Interestingly, the data on happiness among mothers may be skewed since larger dips appear among mothers of only one or two children, while women with three or more children have the same levels of happiness with women without children.

Theres also research suggesting having children is a long-term investment with payoffs much later in life. One study out of Hong Kong, for example, found grandparents and future grandparents are happier than non-grandparents.

Navigating the nuances of the research, Paul Bloom writes in The Atlantic that parenting ultimately may be less about the happiness we equate with being on a sunny beach and more about the meaning and purpose we associate more with, say, earned success.

A study by the social psychologist Roy Baumeister and his colleagues found that the more time people spent taking care of children, Bloom writes, the more meaningful they said their life was  even though they reported that their life was no happier. Raising children, then, has an uncertain connection to pleasure but may connect to other aspects of a life well lived, satisfying our hunger for attachment, and for meaning and purpose.

This may be true of social relationships in general.

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In 1938, Harvard University began one of the longest running studies on happiness in history. Researchers interviewed men at various stages in life and concluded, Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives. ... Those ties protect people from lifes discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.

Referencing the Harvard study, happiness guru and scholar Arthur Brooks distilled seven habits that lead to happiness in old age. The seventh habit, Brooks writes, is Do the work to cultivate stable, long-term relationships now. For most people, this includes a steady marriage, but other relationships with family, friends and partners can fit in this category as well. The point is to find people with whom you can grow, whom you can count on, no matter what comes your way.

The takeaway is hold on to those we can smell. And if that smelling part strikes you as weird, well, according to research in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, the smell of babies actually triggers the brains reward center. And for mothers, it provides a significant hit of dopamine.

Since Carlsons Fox departure, pundits have debated his influence on politics and the national discourse, because thats what he is best known for. But Carlsons influence in promoting family shouldnt be dismissed. I reached out to Charlie Kirk, Tuckers interlocutor in the clip, about the viral exchange. He said hes heard numerous stories of people choosing to get married and have children because of this exchange, including some close friends. Something about this off-the-cuff moment has really impacted people both then and now.

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While Carlson hasnt said what he will do next, in a video he posted on Twitter April 26, he hinted that his focus might be wider than politics. The thing you notice when you take some time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are. Theyre completely irrelevant. They mean nothing; in five years we wont even remember that we had them. Trust me as someone who has participated.

Where Carlson lands next and what he does is the subject of intense speculation, but I hope part of his next act will be reengaging in this topic of demographic change and our falling birth rates. His impassioned plea carried a certain resonance. Perhaps thats because these pro-family messages arent just another abstract policy discussion for Carlson, a father of four who has been married to his wife for more than three decades.

Two days after the announcement that Carlson and Fox had suddenly parted ways, The Daily Mail caught up with Carlson and his wife, Susan, and reported that Carlson said Retirement is going great so far. He seemed to be happy, saying, I havent eaten dinner with my wife on a weeknight in seven years.

He didnt come across as distressed, especially for a man suddenly out of a job that reportedly paid him $20 million a year. Maybe its because he followed his own advice?

Bethany Mandel is a home-schooling, stay-at-home mother of six, co-author of the book Stolen Youth and an editor for the childrens book series Heroes of Liberty.
A 32-year-old Tulare man accused of homicide and arson was arrested in Northern California and brought back to Tulare County to face criminal charges, according to police.

On May 1, Jacoby Jackson was arraigned on one count of murder and one count of car theft with several special allegations including robbery, arson, causing great bodily injury and increasing seriousness of prior convictions.

His charges stem from a large April 9 fire in downtown Tulare. Here's what we know about the investigation, so far.

First responders work the scene of a fire Sunday, April 9, 2023 on K Street in Downtown Tulare. A woman was transported from the scene to a local hospital.

Around 6 p.m. April 9, Tulare firefighters responded to 7 Day Spa in the 140 block of North K Street. While searching the business, a woman was found in one of the rooms, Sgt. Rosa Moreno said.

The victim was later identified as Xiuqun Yuan, of Los Angeles.

The 57-year-old woman was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she later died. Her body showed signs of strangulation, according to Tulare County prosecutors.

Yuan was an employee at 7 Day Spa, according to police.

Detectives and arson investigators discovered evidence inside of the business suggesting "foul play," Moreno said.

Jackson was identified as the suspect through video surveillance. He was later arrested in the Northern California city of Ceres in connection with an unrelated case, according to Moreno.

Jackson was booked into Tulare County Pretrial Facility last week on suspicion of theft and homicide. It's unclear if Jackson knew Yuan prior to the April incident.

Jackson has a lengthy criminal history that dates to 2011. He was also sentenced to prison in 2019 and 2022, according to his most recently filed criminal complaint.

If convicted on all charges, Jackson faces life in prison or the death sentence.

If anyone has any information regarding this case, they are encouraged to call Detective Eric Wilson at 685-2300 ext. 2157.

First responders work the scene of a fire Sunday, April 9, 2023 on K Street in Downtown Tulare. A woman was transported from the scene to a local hospital.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Tulare man charged with killing day spa employee
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey has closed its airspace to Armenian flights heading to a third destination in response to the unveiling of a controversial monument in Yerevan last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.

The monument commemorates those involved in an assassination plot against Ottoman Turkish officials whom Armenia holds responsible for mass killings of ethnic Armenians during World War One. Yerevan says the killings constitute a genocide, a charge Ankara denies.

Speaking to broadcaster NTV, Cavusoglu said Turkey would take further steps if the monument is not removed.

(Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Gareth Jones)
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.

Stephen tWitch Boss death came as a shock to many around the world, including his wife, Allison Holker Boss.

The beloved dancer and The Ellen DeGeneres Show DJ died by suicide in December at the age of 40. In her first TV interview since his death, Holker Boss  who is honoring her husbands legacy with her Move With Kindness Foundation launched earlier this year  opened up to Hoda Kotb about what life has been like without her adored husband.

I still feel like the rest of the world where Im still shocked, Holker Boss tells Kotb. No ones ready for that moment and theres no one that saw this coming. No one  and that breaks my heart too.

Allison Holker and Hoda Kotb on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 (Nathan Congleton / TODAY)

Blindsided by Boss death, Holker Boss adds that she feels so sad that he was suffering and we werent in the know.

He wanted to be the strong one for everyone and I think that was a little scary for him to think that he might need to ask for help, she adds. He was so much love and light. He really wanted to be everyones Superman, and he said that a lot.

Boss and Holker Boss appeared on So You Think You Can Dance together in 2010. They got married on December 10, 2013, and share three children together.

He adopted Holker Boss 14-year-old daughter, Weslie, and they had son Maddox, 7, and daughter Zaia, 3, together. The dancer says that she and their children have good days and bad, but are doing their best to move forward.

Im looking at you and you seem very strong to me, Kotb asks. Is that for you? For the kids? For the world?

I think its for all of them, Holker Boss says. I dont really have any other choice but to be strong.

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Now, they still see me have my highs and lows because theres a lot of it, she continues. All I can do is just try to move forward.

Allison Holker and Hoda Kotb on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 (Nathan Congleton / TODAY)

Holker Boss says she's had to also manage tough conversations with the kids.

Its honestly something I wouldnt wish for anybody. Its really hard, she says through tears. But if Ive learned anything, its that communication is key.

Theres been some really hard conversations, she continues. To us, Daddys in the stars. So we can go outside and talk to him whenever we want. ... They just ask, When is daddy coming back? and thats a really hard one.

And then itll be a couple weeks later, But does he come back when hes older? Like, when Daddys older hell come back? she says. But they are still children and still obviously want him here.

Allison Holker and Hoda Kotb on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 (Nathan Congleton / TODAY)

As for Holker Boss, she personally also had those moments when she thinks, Was there something I missed?

I did it a lot in the beginning, she says. I eventually had to tell myself, I cant change anything thats happened.

What they had, she says, was magical and real. And I think thats the hardest part about all this. The way we loved was so big, she says of their relationship. I got 13 years with one of the most magical humans and I learned so much about love and gratitude.

She adds that she talks to him every night.

Sometimes its just like, I took the kids to school, other times its a little bit deeper, little more heavy, she says. I dont allow myself to be in a place of anger or sadness, though I allow myself to feel it. Im feeling this much pain because Ive had so much love.

Holker Boss says that she asks him questions all the time, wondering if maybe one day theyll be this big aha of answers.

Thankfully, she has found comfort in the outpouring support from fans and friends like Ellen DeGeneres.

She has been a huge support system for me, she says. And talk about the fun memories we had with him. We get to live in those great memories that we had.

Many struggle in silence like Boss. Studies suggest 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness each year. Now, Holker Boss and her family are honoring her husbands legacy by partnering with her local branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, called Nami Westside L.A. running programs at the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

What I really would love is to bring awareness to mental health, open up the conversations, but to hopefully help people to feel comfortable asking for that help, Holker Boss says. I really do wanna make an impact on behalf of someone I love so much.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Chow Hang-tung, an activist barrister, speaks to reporters outside a court in Hong Kong, in this May 6, 2021, file photo. Chow has been selected as the winner of this year's Gwangju Prize for Human Rights. AP-Yonhap



By Jung Min-ho



Chow Hang-tung, a prominent pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong, was chosen as the winner of this year's Gwangju Prize for Human Rights.



Chow, 38, who is in prison now after being convicted of inciting and taking part in arranging an unlawful assembly  a commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre  has become a symbolic figure for everyone who is longing for democracy, a judging committee said at the May 18 Memorial Foundation office in Gwangju, Tuesday.



On behalf of Chow, her representative is expected to receive the award at the ceremony on May 18, Korea's anniversary of the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern city.



"Chow Hang-tung's struggle against the Hong Kong government's undemocratic, inhumane treatment has become the source of courage and hope for human rights advocates and those longing for democracy around the world, even when she is in custody," said Moon Hee-sang, head of the judging panel and former speaker of the National Assembly.



Between 2021 and 2022, Chow was among the leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements, which organized Hong Kong's annual June 4 candlelight vigil for victims of the Beijing crackdown despite the newly enacted national security law.



The group disbanded in September 2021 after authorities arrested several senior members of the group, including Chow, on charges of violating that law, under which Beijing can exert broad power to crack down on a variety of political crimes.



In addition to prison sentences for her role in the unlawful assembly, Chow faces a separate, graver charge of subverting state power through the group.



The Gwangju Prize for Human Rights was established in 2000 to mark the spirit of the Korean movement for democracy and honor those who fight for human rights and peace. Previous winners include Cynthia Maung, a Burmese doctor and founder of Mae Tao Clinic which has been providing free healthcare services for internally displaced people and migrant workers, and Arnon Nampa, a Thai human rights lawyer and vocal critic of the country's monarchy.






Two weekly Certified Farmers Markets return to the capital this week, giving state workers and other downtown Sacramento commuters an excuse to step away from work for a long and bountiful lunch break.

The Capitol Mall Farmers Market, organized by the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, opens at 10 a.m. Wednesday on Capitol Mall.

The Bodega Days at Cesar Chavez Plaza opens the following day, Thursday, at 10 a.m. a couple of blocks north.

In collaboration with Sacramento restaurant La Cosecha, Bodega Days at Cesar Chavez Plaza will be bigger and better than ever with new string lights, seating and live music.

Each market will be stacked with the usual fare like fresh produce, baked goods and flowers, as well as sales of hot food and beverages. Customers shopping with CalFresh or pandemic food benefits should visit the CalFresh booth before they shop to get $1 market vouchers.

Chefs can stock up on fresh produce without a crowd at the Capitol Mall Farmers Market, downtowns largest Certified Farmers Market, between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., according to the partnerships website GoDowntownSac.com.

Both markets end the last week of September.

Capitol Mall Farmers Market

Address: Capitol Mall at Sixth Street

Hours: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays

Bodega Days at Cesar Chavez Plaza

Address: Cesar Chavez Plaza, Ninth and J streets

Hours: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursdays

What do you want to know about life in Sacramento? Ask our service journalism team your top-of-mind questions in the module below or email servicejournalists@sacbee.com.
Two North Carolina beaches were named among the top 100 secret beaches in the United States in a reader poll conducted by vacation website Family Destinations Guide.

Carova Beach and Ocracoke Island came in at #23 and #30, respectively. The top five spots went to beaches in Hawaii, Florida and New Jersey.

Not only do these hidden gems offer a chance to escape the crowds and enjoy a peaceful atmosphere, but they also provide a unique opportunity to discover a world of natural beauty that is often overlooked by the usual well-known crowded beaches, Rose Ackermann of Family Destinations Guide said in a release.

Whether its exploring a secluded cove or relaxing on a stretch of sand with only the sound of waves crashing against the shore, these hidden beaches offer a chance to create unforgettable memories with loved ones while experiencing the true beauty of the natural world.

Hidden gem beaches in North Carolina

Family Destinations Guide surveyed 3,000 families in the United States, determining a list of 100 hidden beaches they most wanted to visit this upcoming summer. Carova and Ocracoke Island landed in some top spots.

Heres what to know about our areas high-ranking secret beaches:

 Carova Beach: This Currituck County beach borders Virginia, about 10 miles north of Corolla Beach. Its about a four and a half hour drive from Raleigh.

Carova Beach is a beautiful and secluded destination that is perfect for nature lovers and those looking for a quiet escape. The beach is unique in that it is accessible only by four-wheel-drive vehicles, which adds to its secluded atmosphere, said Family Destinations Guide.

The beach is also known for its wild horses, which are believed to have been descendants of Spanish Mustangs that have been roaming the area for centuries. In addition to the wild horses, Carova Beach also boasts beautiful sand dunes, wide stretches of pristine white sand, and calm, crystal-clear waters.

 Ocracoke Island: This beach is only accessible by ferry (or small plane), tacking some scenic commute time to the drive from the Triangle. Its roughly a six hour trip from Raleigh, including time spent on the ferry.

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Free ferries run to Ocracoke from Hatteras Island all summer long. The trip takes about 40 minutes, and wait times may average one to two hours, Ocracoke Guide says. For more information about getting to the remote island, visit ocracokeguide.com/getting-here.

Ocracoke Island boasts miles of pristine beaches, dunes, and marshlands, providing a serene and peaceful environment for visitors to explore. The islands untouched natural beauty is complemented by a rich history and unique culture, with a quaint village at the heart of the island that is home to locally owned shops, galleries, and restaurants, said Family Destinations Guide.

Visitors can enjoy activities such as swimming, surfing, fishing, and boating, or simply relax on the beach and soak up the sun. With its unspoiled landscapes, historic charm, and peaceful atmosphere, Ocracoke Island is a true hidden gem of the North Carolina coast.

Find the full list at familydestinationsguide.com/secret-beaches-usa.

Triangle Asked & Answered: What do you want to know?

Have a question about something in our community? The News & Observers Service Journalism team wants your questions for our Triangle Asked & Answered series. Reach out to us by filling out this form or by sending an email to ask@newsobserver.com.

NC moves up in rankings for hospital safety grades. See Triangle grades here.

Is that a copperhead? No, its more likely one of these non-venomous NC snakes
Police are still trying to determine the identities of two of the seven people killed on Monday in a 72-car pile up on I-55 in Illinois.

High winds kicked up a dust storm on Monday morning. Low visibility resulted in a massive chain accident on the highway, leaving long stretches of road marred by wrecked vehicles.

Only one victim, Shirley Harper, an 88-year-old grandmother, has been named thus far.

Police have identified four other victims, but have not publicly named them. Initial reports suggested there were only six deaths, but police have determined that remains they first believed were one person are actually two, according to the St Louis Dispatch.

The Illinois State Police asked for the public's assistance in identifying two of the seven individuals.

"We believe we are communicating with family members and we are using variety of techniques and investigative capabilities to be able to confirm that these are in fact their family members that are the victims," Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said during a press conference.

Police have tentatively identified three other victims, though their names have not been publicly released at the time of this report. It is unclear if the seventh victim has been tentatively identified by police or if that individual's name will require further investigation.

Montgomery County Coroner Randy Leetham told the Post-Dispatch that he cant even verify the ages or genders of the three victims.

Well have to use DNA, he said. And thats gonna be a process.

Multiple people died in a multi-car accident in Illinois on I-55 during a dust storm on 1 May, according to police (WICS ABC 20 screengrab)

A crash involving at least 20 vehicles shut down a highway in Illinois, Monday, May 1, 2023. Illinois State Police say a windstorm that kicked up clouds of dust in south-central Illinois led to numerous crashes and multiple fatalities on Interstate 55. (WICS TV via AP) (WICS TV)

Witnesses compared the scene to a "war zone." Two trucks caught fire, and 37 people required transport to hospitals to treat their injuries.

The affected stretch of I-55 remained closed for the remainder of Monday and re-opened early on Tuesday. However, another windstorm in the area kicked up dust, prompting the Illinois Department of Transportation to shut down the stretch of highway again around 3pm, citing an "abundance of caution."

The National Weather Service measured wind speeds between 35 and 45mph (56-72kph) on the day of the accident. A combination of flat land without many trees mixed with a dry three weeks made conditions ideal for a dust storm once the winds picked up.

State police said during a press conference on Tuesday that no charges were being considered for the crash at the time of the presser.
A U.S. citizen has pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle several thousand rounds of ammunition into Mexico earlier this year, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

On Feb. 27, Jesus Alberto Olivarez, 32, drove his black PT Cruiser to the Lincoln Juarez International Bridge, which connects Laredo, Texas, to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where Olivarez lives, according to a news release from the Justice Department. Law enforcement authorities noticed that the doors of Olivarez's car were rattling as if they were unusually heavy, leading to a search of all four of the Cruiser's door panels. The search uncovered a total of 5,680 live rounds of pistol ammunition of various calibers.

Olivarez admitted to smuggling ammunition from the U.S. that he had received just a few hours prior, and that he personally concealed in the car's doors and panels, prosecutors said.

"Olivarez was about to drive into Mexico with almost 6,000 rounds of live ammunition until the expertise and keen ear of a law enforcement officer thwarted his plan," said U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas in a statement. "Stopping the illegal flow of firearms and ammunition into Mexico saves lives and will always be a priority of the Southern District of Texas and our local, state and federal law enforcement partners."

Morning commuters from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, line up on the LincolnJuarez bridge over the Rio Grande. / Credit: Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Last year, a judge dismissed a $10 billion civil lawsuit filed by the Mexican government against American gun manufacturers and distributors. While the sale of firearms is severely restricted in Mexico and controlled by its defense department, thousands of guns are smuggled into Mexico by the country's powerful drug cartels.

The suit argued that the companies' negligent and illegal commercial practices have unleashed tremendous bloodshed in Mexico. Among those sued were some of the biggest names in guns, including: Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc.; Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Inc.; Beretta U.S.A. Corp.; Colt's Manufacturing Company LLC, and Glock Inc.

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In March, the Mexican government filed an appeal, according to Reuters.

Olivarez faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 maximum fine when he is sentenced Aug. 9.

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The Biden administration had no foreknowledge of an impending drone attack on the Kremlin, four U.S. officials said, and a top official recommends caution when it comes to Moscows claims.

Russia said Wednesday that two drones flew overnight into the heart of Moscow to assassinate President Vladimir Putin, even though he wasnt in the complex. Kyiv denies the allegation and officials said Ukraine had nothing to do with the attack. Instead, they insist its all a pretext created by the Kremlin to escalate its 14-month war.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said hed take anything coming from the Kremlin with a large shaker of salt during a conversation with the Washington Posts David Ignatius on Wednesday.

Senior Biden administration officials are still working to confirm whether the suspected attack was ordered by Kyiv, conducted by a rogue pro-Ukraine group, or a false flag operation by Russia, two U.S. officials said.

If it was Ukraine, we had no advance knowledge," said one of the officials, who like others was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. "We are looking into the report but arent able to confirm it or validate its authenticity," said another.

Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee will be briefed by the administration at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. U.S. intelligence agencies didnt respond to requests for comment.

Experts are skeptical that Ukraine would be brazen enough to try to kill Putin in the Russian capital. The idea that this was an assassination attempt is absolutely ludicrous, said Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. The Kremlin is a bunker and this looked like a makeshift drone that could only cause minimal damage."

Mykhailo Polodyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin. Such a strike would only incentivize Moscow to send more missiles into Ukraine to terrorize the civilian population, he suggested. Why would we need this? Where is the logic in that?

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But there have been mysterious attacks in recent months that question the level of Kyivs involvement. Intelligence suggests a pro-Ukrainian group damaged the Nordstream pipelines last year , though a Russian navy ship was near the energy throughway before the blast.

The U.S. also believes Ukraine orchestrated the killing of Daria Dugina , the daughter of a famous Russian nationalist. And there are multiple instances of Russian weapons depots, bridges and trains unexpectedly exploding.

But some are unperturbed even if its confirmed that Ukraine was behind a real drone attack. After 14 months of deadly Russian strikes against civilian targets across all of Ukraine, the Kremlin whining about a drone strike that hits the Kremlin merits zero sympathy," said retired Gen. Ben Hodges, the former chief of U.S. Army Europe.

Erin Banco and Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.
A classroom at the Will Rogers College Middle and High School in Tulsa, Okla., on Aug. 28, 2022. (Joseph Rushmore/The New York Times)

National test scores released on Wednesday showed a marked drop in students knowledge of U.S. history and a modest decline in civics, a sign of the pandemics alarming reach, damaging student performance in nearly every academic area.

The pandemic plunge in U.S. history accelerated a downward trend that began nearly a decade ago, hitting this recent low at a time when the subject itself has become increasingly politically divisive.

A growing number of students are falling below even the basic standards set out on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a rigorous national exam administered by the Department of Education. About 40% of eighth graders scored below basic in U.S. history last year, compared with 34% in 2018 and 29% in 2014.

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Just 13% of eighth graders were considered proficient  demonstrating competency over challenging subject matter  down from 18% nearly a decade ago.

Questions ranged from the simple  knowing that factory conditions in the 1800s were dangerous, with long days and low pay  to the complex. For example, only 6% of students could explain in their own words how two ideas from the Constitution were reflected in Martin Luther King Jr.s I Have a Dream speech.

The dip in civics performance was smaller but notable: It was the first decline since the test began being administered in the late 1990s. About 22% of students were proficient, down from 24% in 2018.

President Joe Bidens education secretary, Miguel Cardona, seized on the results, admonishing politicians for trying to limit instruction in history, often on topics of race, a trend that has played out in dozens of states, typically Republican-controlled.

Now is not the time, he said, adding that banning history books and censoring educators from teaching these important subjects does our students a disservice and will move America in the wrong direction.

The results, from a national sample of about 8,000 eighth graders in each subject, track with scores in math and reading, which also decreased during the pandemic. Across subjects, declines were often driven by the lowest-performing students, a trend that has federal officials so concerned that they are now considering rewriting test questions to zero in on what these students are missing.

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In history, its possible that reduced reading comprehension played some role in student performance.

But experts also pointed to a continuing de-emphasis on social studies instruction.

Since the implementation of No Child Left Behind in the early 2000s and its update during the Obama administration, federal policy has required states to test students in reading and math. Periodic testing is also required for science.

No such mandate exists for social studies. (Many state policies around testing and accountability also do not include social studies.)

While some experts have criticized standardized tests as limited in effectiveness and detrimental to students, most generally agree: What is tested drives what is taught.

Instructional time for social studies declined after the implementation of No Child Left Behind, a pattern that was amplified during the pandemic, when schools had to triage academic losses, resulting in more of a focus on reading and math.

It doesnt bode well for the future of this country and for the future of democracy if we dont start doing more instruction in social studies, said Kristin Dutcher Mann, a history professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, who helps train middle and high school social studies teachers. At one point, she said, older elementary school students in her community received an hour of social studies each day. Now, she said, they will be lucky if they get 30 minutes for social studies twice a week.

Instruction has changed, too.

Students spend far less time memorizing state capitals or the preamble to the Constitution  information they could easily Google  and instead focus more on key skills, like distinguishing between primary and secondary source documents. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, Dr. Dutcher Mann said. Students need to be taught to think critically.

But she said that emphasis can contribute to a troubling lack of background knowledge. Even in her college classes, she said, she has noticed a rapid and very significant decline in what students know about history and geography  like the fact that Africa is a continent, not a country.

A base knowledge in history and civics is critical for students to become engaged, informed citizens, particularly amid misinformation on social media platforms, said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of Tufts Universitys CIRCLE center, an organization focused on youth civic engagement.

She cited a recent TikTok campaign against an Alaska oil project, which resulted in a misguided petition urging Biden not to sell Alaska.

You need some basics to understand whats even verifiable: Does it even jibe loosely with what I learned? she said, noting that the president does not have executive power to sell a state.

With American trust in institutions falling to new lows, but with young voter turnout and political engagement up, many see this as a pivotal moment for reemphasizing history and civics education.

Sheila Edwards, a middle school history teacher in Los Angeles County, said after recent school shootings, students had inundated her with detailed questions about the Second Amendment. On the day of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, she had to come up with a new homework assignment to address her students interest in the news.

Kids seem to be more interested in history and civics than ever before, she said.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said Wednesday it would send a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $300 million, including for the first time the Hydra-70 short-range. air-launched rocket, taken from U.S. excess stocks.

The security assistance package would be the 37th approved by the United States for Ukraine since Russian invaded its neighbor in February 2022, for a total of $35.7 billion.

"The United States and our allies and partners will stand united with Ukraine, for as long as it takes," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement announcing the aid package.

The rockets, munitions and 155mm howitzer cannons included in the package would help Ukraine weaken Russian ground positions for advancing Ukrainian ground forces as Kyiv plans a spring offensive.

The Hydra-70 is an air-launched, unguided rocket made by General Dynamics Corp. The rockets are typically launched from pods attached to aircraft to provide support for ground troops.

The package also includes AT-4 and Carl Gustaf anti-tank weapon systems, TOW anti-tank missiles, several sizes of mortars, and High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) munitions.

Demolition equipment and trucks are also part of the package as well as diagnostic equipment to maintain vehicles.

The package would be funded using Presidential Drawdown Authority, which authorizes the president to transfer articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval during an emergency.

(Reporting by Mike Stone, Nandita Bose and Steve Holland; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)
Hours before Darryl Barwick was slated to be put to death by lethal injection, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a pair of decisions refusing to halt the execution.

The Supreme Court, as is common, did not explain its reasons for denying a stay sought by Barwicks attorneys. But the one-paragraph decision cleared the way for the scheduled 6 p.m. execution at Florida State Prison.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on April 4 signed a death warrant for Barwick, who was sent to Death Row for the 1986 murder of Rebecca Wendt in her Panama City apartment. Wendt was found wrapped in a comforter and had been stabbed 37 times.

Barwick, now 56, had seen Wendt sunbathing and, after getting a knife, followed her into the apartment, according to a court document. He was also found guilty of armed burglary, attempted sexual battery, and armed robbery.

He killed Wendt after being released from prison for raping another woman at knifepoint in 1983, Attorney General Ashley Moodys office said in a filing Saturday at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Barwicks attorneys went to the U.S. Supreme Court after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Florida Supreme Court refused to halt the execution. The attorneys filed two petitions at the U.S. Supreme Court, as the decisions by the federal appeals court and the Florida Supreme Court dealt with different legal issues.

In the appeals-court case, for example, Barwicks attorneys contended that his due-process rights were violated because of a standardless state clemency process. They wrote that the state has not granted clemency to any people sentenced to death in 40 years.

Due process requires that Mr. Barwick be provided a proceeding where the standards are clear and include considerations beyond the condemneds guilt, one of the filings said. Clemency is a critical stage of the death penalty scheme. It is the only stage at which factors like remorse, rehabilitation, racial and geographic influences, and other factors that the legal system does not correct can be considered.

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But in a response, Moodys office disputed the due-process arguments and pointed to Barwicks criminal history.

Indeed, Barwicks case is a uniquely poor vehicle to address clemency-related due process because every federal court to look at his pleadings before now agrees that he would likely not receive clemency even if due process required the standards he seeks to impose, Moodys office argued. That assessment is backed by the horrific, escalating nature of Barwicks crimes from burglary and sexual battery at knifepoint in 1983 to burglary, attempted sexual battery and murder by stabbing in 1986 less than three months after being released from prison.

Barwick would be the third Florida inmate executed in less than three months.

Louis Gaskin was executed on April 12 in the 1989 murders of a couple in Flagler County. The state on Feb. 23 put to death Donald David Dillbeck, who murdered a woman in 1990 during a carjacking in a Tallahassee mall parking lot.

The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops last week asked DeSantis to halt Barwicks execution.

Executing Mr. Barwick will not undo the violent acts he perpetrated against Ms. Wendt but rather will perpetuate a cycle of violence, Michael Sheedy, executive director of the conference, wrote in a letter to DeSantis. State-sanctioned killing only continues to foster disrespect for the dignity and sacredness of human life. Taking another life is unnecessary, as a society can be kept safe from Mr. Barwick through the severe and appropriate punishment of life-long incarceration.

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Julianna Pena fractured a rib, and will miss next month's scheduled bantamweight title bout against Amanda Nunes in Canada. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

Julianna Pena wont get a third bout with Amanda Nunes just yet.

Pena will miss the scheduled bout at UFC 289 due to a fractured rib, UFC president Dana White confirmed to Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole on Tuesday. Irene Aldana is going to step in and take on Nunes with the bantamweight title on the line.

Its unclear how Pena fractured her rib, or how long shell be sidelined.

Aldana has won four of her past five fights, and most recently pulled out TKO wins over Yana Santos and Macey Chiasson in her last two bouts. The 35-year-old holds a 14-6 overall record. She was initially set to headline UFC Fight Night on May 20 against Raquel Pennington. Its unclear who will replace her on that card.

"(Nunes versus Aldana) has a chance to be an incredible fight," White told Yahoo Sports. "Shes kind of been right there for the title for a while and with Julianna not being able to go, it made sense for Irene. And I love these kids who take a fight and step up like this because they believe in themselves."

Nunes hasnt fought since she last beat Pena in July to reclaim the womens bantamweight title via unanimous decision. That fight came about six months after Pena stunned Nunes with a second-round submission in their first battle at UFC 269. Nunes, 34, holds a 22-5 overall record and has won 13 of her past 14 fights dating back to 2015.

That fight is set for June 10 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada.

White also announced that Bryce Mitchell will miss his fight with Movsar Evloev at UFC 288 on Saturday due to a back injury. Diego Lopez will instead take Mitchells place.
In the photo - Jason McCue, head of the British law firm McCue Jury & Partners

McCue leads the British law firm McCue Jury & Partners and has been defending the interests of victims of terrorists in court for 30 years. He led cases against the IRA (Irish Republican Army), Al-Qaeda, and Hamas, and appeared in courts around the world - from Britain and the United States to Somalia, Libya and Equatorial Guinea. He has repeatedly sought the withdrawal of sanctioned assets of states in favor of the victims through court verdicts. And now he wants to help the Ukrainians get reparations at the expense of the assets of the Russian invaders - from Yevgeny Prigozhin's mercenaries to dictator Vladimir Putin personally.

In November 2022, McCue initiated the first lawsuit against the Wagner mercenary company. The lawyer enlisted the support of the Ukrainian government and an international network of lawyers, investigators and lobbyists built over decades of professional activity. Together they are trying to establish the process of filing class-action lawsuits against Russia in different countries of the world.

NV met with the lawyer during his latest visit to Kyiv to ask about this large-scale project.

NV: Tell us about your program and the trial against PMC Wagner in London.

McCue: PayBack4Ukraine is a program that involves countries all over the world. We have cases in Israel, in Europe, and in America. In every case, the plaintiffs are ordinary Ukrainian peoples who may have lost a loved one, may have lost their businessby this Russian invasion, and they deserve compensation. They deserve reparations for whats going on. These cases will create mass class-actions and take Russian assets, sanctioned or unsanctioned, and bring that money home for the people.

The first case is in London, which weve set up in London, is against the Wagner Group and Prigozhin. That case is eligible for 180,000 Ukrainian evacuees in London on visa. If they all come into the case, it has a cumulative value of $5 billion. Thats $5 billion we can take off the Russian war machine and bring back to Ukrainians.

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NV: How did you calculate this amount?

McCue: Each claim has different values, and you average them out. Theres a whole computer model. Theres displacement, theres the cost of having to move home and live in a foreign country. You work out that so many have direct injuries like psychological trauma. Theres an algorithm that the lawyers work out. So you come up with the figure from that.

NV: 180 thousand people are eligible, but how many have joined this case?

McCue: We have not asked anyone yet. So far we have a small group of Ukrainians who are our clients. We need the support of the [Ukrainian] government to use the Diya app to onboard all of those 180,000 into this particular case. But then we have similar cases in America where Ukrainian victims will be eligible for that action. And then in Germany, it will be a different group of eligibility criteria. So the only way in the circumstances of this war of doing this will be to utilize the Diya app, which is perfect. So we have been having meetings with the government on how to make that happen and how we can make that work. And theyve agreed to help, which is fantastic.

NV: Concerning this project with Diya, whom did you meet with in Kyiv this time and what did you discuss about this Diya project?

McCue: Ive just come from the Office of the President, where there was a roundtable meeting with all the relevant ministries that are involved in supporting this programThat is being orchestrated by [presidential advisor Mykhailo] Podolyak. There is a whole center which will direct action as needed.

In December, your government said that they fully backed and supported this campaign, and working together, we can maximize its impact and potential. The meeting held today was the first of a sort of cross-ministry task force supporting this program and all the different actions around the world. As you can imagine, the British action, which my law firm is bringing, and the different actions being brought by lawyers in the United States and in Israel, will have different evidence needs in order to prosecute their cases, and different Ukrainian victims to represent. Thats why this is so unique and brilliant  because it has never been done on this scale before.

The Ukrainian government confirmed that it fully supports our PayBack4Ukraine campaign, and the first press conference was held. Now, thanks to the Office of the President (OP), the first meeting of an interagency task force has taken place, which will facilitate the work on court cases in different countries. At the round table, we met with representatives of a number of ministries and departments; the coordinator was [adviser to the chairman of the OP] Mikhail Podolyak.

Weve done actions for the Rohingya against Facebook for billions of dollars. But this stage has millions and millions of Ukrainians, and this process is so valuable because it works in parallel with reparation commissions and justice tribunals. And this is important, because we know from history, from when Saddam [Hussein]s assets were seized after he was removedwhich is not going to happen herethe reparations payments ended up being a paltry few thousand dollars. Thats not going to repair Ukraine.

These cases that were talking about around the world are for real, actual losses. Whats hard is that they took a lot of work and effort. Weve got to prosecute all those claims and put them together in class actions, but each damages claim has to be worked out individually. But working with your government, we are able to fast track these processes and make something that would have been practically just too difficult actually happen.

NV: So what is the mechanism by which this will work? Will Ukrainians be able to submit their claim through Diya?

McCue: Lets take the UK action. The UK action will make a post on Diya which will say, If you have A, B, and C criteria and want to be in the action, tick this box, and with your permission, we will provide the lawyers with your contact details or whatever documents. We have to do due diligence so they can decide whether to proceed, and then they would be processed into the case that way.

We have agreed upon how to do it. Whats necessary now is procedures for compliance under Ukrainian law. You have a system which always requires orders to be made for something to happen.

But given that, we've been working on this for the last year pro bono. But when you start an action, those cases need funding. You cant take on the Russian war machine if you have one hand behind your back and have no resources. So we have to raise money, which lawyers, experts, and investigators all need. The network weve built for the Ukrainian lawfare program is made honestly of the best lawyers and investigators around the world. And theyve all agreed that when the cases start, they will work at a 20% discount for Ukraine. So weve got to raise this money we need now so that all the actions can start building up. Thats where were at.

Were looking at funding from some private donors, but mostly its going to be crowdfunding from the public, and thats what we talked about with the Office of the President.

NV: From your experience going after organizations like ISIS and the IRA, how does this case against Wagner compare?

McCue: The Wagner case is very easy in a way. Ive sued terrorist groups all over the world. These are organizations that do not have a corporate structure. Wagner is exactly the same. Youre dealing with groups that commit atrocities and criminality with a political motive. Wagner does the same. They are a terrorist group. So for our modeling on how to build the cases, this is easy. What Wagner has done in your country is disgusting. They have met the definition of a terrorist group in every country. All that countries have to do now is wake up, smell the coffee, and start designating Wagner as a terrorist group.

Its not just Wagner. Were also going to target the oligarchs that prop up Mr. Putin. Were also going to target the sanction-busters and those involved in the illegal arms and propaganda trade. This is what this program is going to do with your governments help, by and on behalf of the people of Ukraine.

NV: What charges are being brought against the Wagner Group in the London court?

McCue: There are three things we are going to show. We are going to show that Wagner is a terrorist organization and has committed acts of terrorism against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. We will then show that Wagner was involved in an illegal conspiracy with the Russian Federation, namely Putin, to commit those acts of terrorism. Thirdly, we will show that Putin paid for these acts of terrorism. That is a case that I can guarantee you we are not going to lose. We have seen the evidence, and we have seen what those monsters have done. Theyve bragged about it. And under international law, we will win. We will get a judgment, and then we will enforce it, and we will pursue them for their assets, whether they are sanctioned assets or non-sanctioned assets. And they will go to Ukrainians who deserve it.

NV: If the London court rules against the Wagner Group, which assets will you target and in which countries?

McCue: We are not just going after Wagner. Thats just the first London case. But with Wagner, weve been monitoring them for nearly a decade. There are people in our network like Bellingcat, who have been monitoring and tracking Wagner assets for a long time. These sorts of investigators are providing us on the legal team with information on where the assets are, in whose name theyre registered, and where the contracts are. We have that, and were going to use it and track them.

More importantly, when you win a judgment in a terrorism case or a case involving human rights in a military conflict  a case that is humanitarian in nature  we will have an international precedent for applying a verdict against sanctioned assets. The beauty of it is that this is a method that is already compliant with international law and has lots of precedent, which weve already done, where you can get a judgment against a state from a competent court, and use these exemptions to take the money..

For all this talk of getting reparations from sanctioned money, that wont necessarily happen because its in breach of international law. Countries may say that of course Ukraine deserves this, but its very tricky to just wave a magic wand and confiscate those sanctioned assets. But these lawfare cases, which are particularly crafted with this humanitarian angle, will be able to do this.

NV: Youve said youve gotten seizures of assets in other cases. Can you give some examples?

McCue: One example comes from the victims of [Libyan dictator Muammar] Gaddafis Semtex [plastic explosives] that he provided to the IRA terrorist group. That was used for what would become the model of what became the Libyan Claims Settlement Act in America. Sanctioned money was used to pay those victims, which in those US cases got $10 million each. We were involved in that. The French government took Gaddafis frozen European assets for his Semtex being used on an airplane which blew up in midair. They brought that case, and used that exemption and did it. Then again for the victims of the Lockerbie bombings  10 million per family was taken out of sanctioned assets. This is a well-tried practice in law, and we felt that it needed to be done for Ukrainians. I think thats why the government approached us. Its quite a specialized area of practice.

NV: I wanted to ask about lawsuits against Putin and Russian oligarchs. Are you planning to bring them?

McCue: Yes. There are law firms which are part of the network who have come to me about cases against Putin personally and against so many other oligarchs. We are going through them and figuring out how to prioritize them. At the moment, we have no resources. Weve got the people ready. They contact us from around the world. People are coming to us who have spent their lives doing things like hunting down assets and going after terrorist groups, and this is a great thing for the Ukrainian people to have. Because you cant pull this sort of thing off without a huge network of people working on it who can offer expertise from all sorts of countries and jurisdictions from around the world.

In addition to the Wagner Group, our targets will also be oligarchs obedient to Putin and violators of sanctions, Russian sympathizers involved in the illegal arms trade and distributors of illegal propaganda. All these court cases will be launched with the help of your government on behalf of the Ukrainians. The more of them, the better, because this is the power of people.

Our team consists of lawyers and investigators with experience in tracking down large corporate assets, there are thousands of them, and they constantly contact me with new ideas for what reasons and for what amount we can file claims. Now the difficulty for me is to prioritize them and find resources. But it is very important that we have a huge potential of a network of specialists - without it it is impossible to do a business of this magnitude for Ukraine.

NV: I know you've reached out to YouTube about content related to Wagner. Can you tell us more about that?

McCue: One of the objectives of this program is to hit the Russian war machine with litigation, stop it from being able to function, and bring that money to Ukraianians as reparations. That means going after Russian war machine propaganda. I dont think it is civilized for any multimedia platform to host commercial promotional videos of Wagner to show off its murderous terrorism, to recruit, and to promote its image around the world.

So when The Times published an article about these videos Wagner is posting on YouTube, we wrote a letter to YouTube demanding that all of that content be monitored and taken down, or else we would be looking at legal action. It cannot happen in a civilized society that people are showing videos like this which, by the way, are advancing their commercial interests. Its promoting a commercial enterprise of illegality, and I dont think YouTube wants to do that. I dont think any good social media platform wants to allow them to peddle their propaganda and terrorism. So Im sure that theyll rectify it, and it will be a small victory for our campaign.

NV: How much time did you give YouTube to respond and how will you proceed?

McCue: I was very generous and gave them 24 hours to take the videos down and seven days to respond. Why should a Ukrainian whose child was killed by Wagner have to know that on Youtube, where they watch their TV programs, that theres a rap song about these guys killing Ukrainians?

NV: What will happen if they do not comply?

McCue: If any internet platform around the world acts illegally by publishing this propaganda and terrorism, and there is a case to be made, we will bring legal action on behalf of the Ukrainian people and take huge damages from them. If they think Im joking, they can look at how we did the Cambridge Analytica case against Facebook. These big companies have to understand that there is a social responsibility in being a social networking platform. No Ukrainian and no child anywhere should have to see videos of these guys smashing peoples heads in with hammers. Its wrong, they know its wrong, and it should stop.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects what North Korea claims is the unmanned underwater nuclear attack craft "Haeil" in this photo carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency on March 24. Yonhap



By Nam Hyun-woo



North Korea is ratcheting up rhetoric against the Washington Declaration, a South Korea-U.S. agreement on nuclear-based deterrence against Pyongyang, in an apparent bid to justify its nuclear programs, according to Pyongyang watchers, Wednesday.



According to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Wednesday, a group of young North Korean students held "a gathering for a resolution to firmly punish the treacherous and evil imperialist groups" of South Korea and the United States and "carried out a punitive ritual of burning effigies of invaders and provocateurs in order to bring death to the despicable enemies."



"As the wicked shape of the warmongering dotard of the United States and the vile henchman are ground to dust, the heat of punishment only intensified among the participants," the KCNA continued.



The KCNA did not clarify the meaning of effigies, the dotard and the vile henchman, but it is assumed they are references to U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.



The propagandist article is the latest of the North's series of heated responses to the Washington Declaration, which Yoon and Biden signed during their summit in Washington, D.C., April 26.



The declaration is aimed at setting up a new Nuclear Consultative Group between Seoul and Washington to allow Seoul's voice in the U.S.'s nuclear planning stage related to its extended deterrence against Pyongyang, and the deploying of U.S. strategic assets, such as a nuclear ballistic missile submarine, to South Korea on a regular basis. The declaration is an outcome of Yoon and Biden's effort to counter the North's increasing nuclear threats.



On April 29, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said the North would stage more provocative displays of its military might in response to the Washington Declaration while laying personal insults to Biden and Yoon.



Since then, the KCNA has been releasing a series of articles denouncing the security pact, citing its own "international security analysts," Chinese media and South Korean news articles which highlighted possible side effects of the Washington Declaration.



"There seem to be three reasons behind the North's exaggerated responses," said Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.





South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden toast during their state dinner at the White House, Washington, D.C., April 26 (local time). Yonhap
Police arrested a man, who was allegedly armed with a knife, causing concern just days before King Charles III's coronation

UK security services are "ready to deal" with the challenges presented by the coronation, the government said Wednesday, after the arrest of a man suspected of throwing shotgun cartridges into the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

Police arrested the man, who was allegedly armed with a knife, at about 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Tuesday, causing concern just days before King Charles III's coronation, which will be attended by global royalty and world leaders.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat sought to reassure the public on Wednesday, telling Times Radio that police were "all over" the challenges presented by the historic event.

"Our intelligence and other security forces are extremely aware of the challenges that we face and ready to deal with them as the police did quite brilliantly yesterday," he said.

The Metropolitan Police said officers also on Tuesday conducted a controlled explosion on a suspicious bag the arrested man was carrying "as a precaution".

It later added that it was not treating the matter as terrorism-related.

The man was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon after he was searched and a knife was found, the London force said in an update around three hours after the incident.

"Officers worked immediately to detain the man and he has been taken into police custody," Met Police chief superintendent Joseph McDonald said in a statement.

"There have been no reports of any shots fired, or any injuries to officers or members of the public."

- Golden Orb -

British media reported that neither Charles, 74, or his wife Queen Consort Camilla, 75, were at the palace at the time.

Buckingham Palace officials declined to comment.

The drama unfolded Tuesday evening after the man approached the gates to the palace and threw several items into the grounds suspected to be shotgun cartridges, according to the Met.

They have been recovered and will be taken for specialist examination.

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The Mall, leading to Buckingham Palace, has been closed off to traffic in preparation for Saturday's coronation, which is the first to take place in Britain for 70 years.

Thousands of ceremonial troops will take part in a procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey as part of the coronation -- dress rehearsals for which took place overnight Tuesday to Wednesday -- with huge crowds expected.

The security operation to protect the route to and from the abbey -- dubbed Operation Golden Orb -- is one of the biggest in recent years.

It will include rooftop snipers and undercover officers, as well as airport-style scanners, sniffer dogs and a no-fly zone over central London.

New police powers to stop protests have been brought forward to ensure that roads and footpaths remain open during the celebrations, said Tugendhat.

The streets of the capital have in recent years been blocked by environmental protesters, and republicans opposed to the monarchy say they will stage a demonstration on the procession route.

"The police need to have extra powers to move people on. I think that's perfectly reasonable," said Tugendhat.

The minister rejected reports that the security operation would cost at least 100 million ($125 million), telling Sky News: "It's not a figure I recognise."

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UK watchdog plans to shake up stock listing rules. Photo: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

The UK financial watchdog has announced plans to change the rules on bringing companies into public ownership in a bid to attract more companies to list shares on British stock markets.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said its proposals would simplify regulations to make the UK "more competitive" with stock markets abroad.

It comes after British tech firm Arm and other businesses have shunned the UK and chosen to list in the US.

The changes in the consultation paper, if enacted, would remove the two classes of listings and create a single category. Currently there are standard and premium listing segments.

Only companies with premium listings are eligible to enter the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 so abolishing the distinction would clear the way for more to join them.

The regulator said that creating a single category would take away eligibility requirements that put off early-stage companies. The proposals would also remove mandatory shareholder votes on acquisitions.

Read more: Arm chooses New York for key technology listing in 'kick in the teeth' for London

The FCA said this move would "remove eligibility requirements that can deter early-stage companies, be more permissive on dual class share structures, and remove mandatory shareholder votes on transactions such as acquisitions".

Removing some mandatory votes would "reduce frictions to companies pursuing their business strategies", the watchdog added.

Chief executive of the FCA Nikhil Rathi said: Our proposed reforms would significantly rebalance the burden of regulation to the benefit of listed companies and investors who are willing to set their own risk appetite and terms of engagement.

But we must be upfront that these changes we are proposing to the listing regime will mean passing greater investment risk to investors and greater responsibility on to shareholders to hold the companies they own to account," he added.

The new rules could be in place by early next year for companies seeking new listings in London and phased in for companies already on the exchange.

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While the UK has been Europe's biggest financial hub for many years, listings in the UK have reduced by 40% since 2008, according to The UK Listing Review.

AJ Bell managing director Kevin Doran, said: The loss of Cambridge based chip designer, ARM Holdings, to the US market has clearly stung the government and FCA hard. As the crown jewel of the domestic tech sector, the fact that the company chose the US as its new home when returning to public markets is a sign of how far the UK has fallen since the company de-listed in 2016.

Read more: FTSE: Pension funds blamed for pushing companies to shun London for New York

Like a bouncer at a night-club, the London market has traditionally adopted a stricter dress code than most when it comes to listing rules, whether in the form of restricting dual-listings, votes on major transactions or requiring fuller levels of disclosure when raising capital. Todays proposal is the effective equivalent of asking the club-goers whether theyre willing to let the trainer wearing ruffians in, in order to keep the party going.

Listing a firm on a stock exchange takes it from being a private to a public company, with investors able to buy and sell shares on specific exchanges. Companies usually list on stock exchanges to gain access to a wider range of investors.

Richard Wilson, chief executive of Interactive Investor, said he supported making the UK more competitive, but that eroding shareholder rights risks undermining market standards, and this is not the right answer.

One share, one vote is a bedrock of shareholder democracy and we are concerned to see that the spectre of dual share classes, which we have actively lobbied against, still looms large, Wilson said.

Watch: British chipmaker Arm files for an IPO in the US

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An explosion over the Senate Palace in Moscow

The Ukrainian Defense Forces strictly target military facilities in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories. Podolyak noted that attacks on targets such as the Kremlin do not solve military problems and do not help prepare for the counteroffensive.

Read also: Russia blames Ukraine for overnight drone attack on Kremlin

Ukraine's strategy is to destroy enemy rear reserves in the occupied territories, which is fully in line with international law, the adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyys chief-of-staff stressed.

The alleged attack is "a clear attempt by [Russia] to seize the information initiative" and prepare the appropriate information background.

"Obviously, the simultaneous statements of the Russian Federation about the detention of a group of saboteurs in Crimea and the alleged drone attacks on the Kremlin directly indicate that preparations are underway for specific provocations by the Russian Federation itself," he said.

Read also: After a spate of drone attacks, another air defense system spotted in Moscow

The strategy of demoralization used by Russia on the eve of the moves by the Armed Forces is clear, as well as an attempt to significantly reduce the extremely negative background for Russia after the constant strikes on civilian buildings and civilian objects in Ukraine in recent days.

The Kremlin is trying to divert the attention of the world media from its own terror and, at the same time, justify numerous war crimes in Ukraine to its population. Russia is also trying to "demoralize society with shocking statements before Ukraine's offensive," Podolyak said.

Podolyak warned on Twitter of a possible large-scale terrorist attack by the aggressor state. He also noted that drones flying over Russia's energy facilities or on Kremlin territory could only mean "guerrilla activities of local resistance forces."

Read also: Russia under attack  multiple drone attacks inside Russia, including massive oil fire near Crimean Bridge

Story continues

"As you know, drones can be bought at any military store," he wrote.

The loss of control over the country by Putins clan is obvious. But on the other hand, Russia has repeatedly talked about its total control over the air. In a word, something is happening in RF, but definitely without Ukraine's drones over the Kremlin.

Russian President Vladimir Putins press service said on the afternoon of May 3 that Ukraine had tried to strike at the Kremlin. The dictator was working at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow at the time, said Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov.

Videos of fire over the dome of one of the Kremlin's towers were posted online.

The Russian propaganda channel TVC said that 16 minutes had passed between the drone "attacks".

Read also: Four unidentified drones found near Moscow in 48 hours. What does it mean for the Kremlin?

Kyiv has no information about possible overnight drone attacks on the Kremlin and calls it an escalation of the situation ahead of May 9 Victory Day celebrations, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys spokesperson, Sergii Nykyforov.

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Ukraine has been keeping the details of its upcoming spring counter-offensive from its allies in an attempt to prevent the leaking of classified information that could affect the offensive.

Source: Politico, citing two European officials in contact with Ukraine's military leadership

Details: European officials told the media outlet that Kyiv is refraining from providing information about the counter-offensive due to the leak of secret US documents. In particular, their Ukrainian counterparts are not sharing information with them about the timeframe, location and number of troops to be deployed to positions ready for the counter-offensive.

Quote: "While Ukraine is still likely sharing some basic intelligence with the US and other European countries that have supported it with weapons over the past year, officials inside the country are working to prevent the widespread dissemination of details related to battlefield planning," Politico reports, citing sources.

Details: A Ukrainian MP, who spoke to the news agency on condition of anonymity, said that senior officials in Kyiv were also withholding details of the counter-offensive from other Ukrainian politicians. "There are only a few people in the country who know the plan," the MP said.

A Pentagon official told Politico that there have been no changes and that Washington and Kyiv continue to exchange information at the same level. "There have been no signs of Ukraine keeping anything from the US," he said.

Commenting on the covertness of Ukrainians, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said: "They dont have an obligation to notify us or tell us in advance".

"Oftentimes we certainly do have a sense because were in daily communication with them [Ukrainian officials]. The US still supports Ukrainian operations with real-time information and intelligence. What were focused on is not whether we get some sort of heads up. Were focused on making sure that they have everything they need for when theyre ready to go," Kirby said.

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Other members of the Biden administration, Politico writes, argue that Ukraine has never been fully open with the US about its military plans. "Theyve been stingy with information from the beginning," a US official said.

Background: Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has not had have any conversations with the White House about the large-scale leak of classified US intelligence documents.

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(Bloomberg) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denied the Kremlins claim that drones from Kyiv attempted to strike Moscow or assassinate Vladimir Putin. Russia said earlier it has the right to respond after it downed two drones Tuesday night that it said were part of a planned terrorist act.

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Meanwhile, massive Russian strikes killed at least 21 people in the southern Kherson region, Zelenskiy said.

Zelenskiy made a surprise visit to Helsinki to discuss his countrys defense against Russias invasion with his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinisto, as well as with the prime ministers of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

Key Developments

Zelenskiy Denies Ukraine Sent Drones to Hit Putin, Kremlin

NATO Warns That Russia Is Mapping EU, US Critical Assets

Ukraine Grain Deal Talks Set as Russia Threatens to Exit Pact

Russia Halts Some Oil Wells But Keeps Production Data Secret

Russian Litigants Dominate London Courts in Spite of Sanctions

EU Pledges 500 Million to Boost Ammunition Output in Europe

(All times CET)

Fire Breaks Out at Oil Refinery in Russia (3:55 a.m.)

A fuel depot at an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region of Russia caught fire after a drone attack, Tass reported, citing an unidentified person at the local emergency service. There were no reports of injuries or details an the fire.

A spokesperson for the emergency service in Krasnodar, on the Black Sea coast near the Ukraine border, confirmed the fire at the Ilsky refinery without providing any further details. Calls to the refinery were not answered.

New Explosions Rock Kyiv, Other Cities (2 a.m.)

Multiple explosions were heard in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital early Thursday. The citys administration said air defenses were in operation but urged citizens to seek shelter.

Story continues

There were reports of blasts in the southern regions of Odesa and Zaporizhzhia.

This marked the fourth attack on Kyiv by Russian forces since last Friday  all which have occurred in the pre-dawn hours.

US Army Awards $7.2 Billion Contract for Javelins (12:15 a.m.)

The US Army has awarded a contract of as much as $7.2 billion to a joint venture by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies to build Javelin missile systems  one of the most coveted in the Ukraine war.

The anti-armor Javelin has proven to be lethal against Russian tanks. The Pentagons shipments of weapons, ammunition and military gear to Ukraine since before the Russian invasion began has led to concerns that American stockpiles are being diminished.

This contract award further illustrates the urgency the US government is applying to the acquisition of systems and replenishing munitions stockpiles, said Doug Bush, the Armys assistant secretary for acquisition.

Russian Attacks in Kherson Region Kill at Least 21 (8:45 p.m.)

Ukraines southern Kherson region came under massive Russian attack Wednesday, killing at least 21 civilians and injuring at least 48, according to Zelenskiy.

The president said on Telegram that a railway station, a house, a hardware store, a supermarket and a gas station were among the places hit.

US Provides $300 Million More in Military Aid to Ukraine (8:25 p.m.)

The Pentagon confirmed its providing an additional $300 million in weapons drawn from its stockpiles for Ukraine, including ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), howitzers and anti-armor capabilities.

It also includes small arms and ammunition for those arms and demolition munitions to clear obstacles. No new types of weapons are being provided.

US Isnt Encouraging Ukraine to Strike Beyond Borders, White House Says (7:48 p.m.)

It is really too early to tell whether theres any truth to Russias claim that drones from Ukraine sought to strike Moscow, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. She said Russia has a history of false flags.

Since the beginning of this conflict, the United States is certainly not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders, she said. Weve been very clear from here about that.

EU Warns Against Using Alleged Drone Attack as Pretext (7:29 p.m.)

Responding to the Russian claim that drones from Ukraine sought to strike Moscow, a spokesman for the European Unions foreign policy arm said the EU is seeking more information about what actually happened.

Peter Stano, the spokesman, said the alleged drone attacks must not be used as a pretext for further escalation of Russias continued aggression outside of its borders.

More than Half of Russians Expect Another Mobilization, Poll Shows (5:55 p.m.)

More than half of Russians surveyed expect the Kremlin to launch another wave of military mobilization in the next three months, a new poll shows, despite official denials there are any such plans.

The Independent Levada Center said 56% of those surveyed see another mobilization as a possibility, with the percentage higher among people ages 25-39. New rules automating the call-up process and blocking evaders from leaving the country triggered alarm and shock among respondents.

The first wave of mobilization last fall triggered an exodus of Russians from the country and led to widespread public discontent. Since then, officials have said no new call-ups are planned.

NATO Warns That Russia Is Mapping EU, US Critical Assets (5:50 p.m.)

NATOs intelligence chief said that Russia is mapping critical undersea systems and warned of a significant risk that Moscow could target infrastructure in Europe and North America.

There are heightened concerns that Russia may target undersea cables and other critical infrastructure in an effort to disrupt western life and gain leverage against those nations that are providing support to Ukraine, David Cattler, the military alliances assistant secretary general for intelligence and security, told reporters.

Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Didnt Attack Moscow (5:40 p.m.)

The Ukrainian leader said his country didnt attack Moscow or Putin, telling reporters in Helsinki: Well leave it to tribunal.

He said the Kremlin was likely trying to distract Russians from its failures on the battlefield. We fight on our own territory, where we are defending our own villages and cities. We dont have enough weapons for this.

Read more: Zelenskiy Denies Ukraine Sent Drones to Attack Putin in Kremlin

Blinken Says Ukraine Must Decide Wars Course (5:20 p.m.)

The US isnt dictating to Ukraine how to defend itself from Russias invasion, including in the anticipated spring counteroffensive, or what it would accept as the wars outcome, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Where exactly this settles remains to be seen, the top US diplomat said in Washington. And Ukraine has to make important decisions about exactly where its going to go and how it wants to pursue this, Blinken said. He said that the US and international community will continue supporting Kyiv.

Any proposed settlement must begin with a clear understanding that in this instance, theres a victim and theres an aggressor, Blinken said. Theres no moral equivalence between the two positions.

Ukraines Offensive May Be Underway, Russian Mercenary Chief Says (5:15 p.m.)

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group, said increasing Ukrainian military activity may be evidence that its counteroffensive has started.

We see the highest level of activity of enemy aviation, Prigozhin said in an audio message on his Telegram channel. We see the highest level of activity along the perimeter and behind our front.

Prigozhin reiterated that his forces are facing a shortage of shells in the fight over the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Last week, he threatened to pull Wagners troops out of Bakhmut, after accusing the Russian Defense Ministry of failing to supply enough ammunition.

EU Envoys Approve 1 Billion Ammunition Plan (4:55 p.m.)

European Union ambassadors signed off on plans to spend another 1 billion ($1.1 billion) from the European Peace Facility to jointly buy ammunition, according to the blocs rotating presidency, currently held by Sweden. While foreign ministers had backed the plan in March, the effort stalled in technical talks as they sought to hammer out the legal terms of the deal.

This comes on top of a decision to tap 1 billion from the same fund to reimburse about half of the modern and Soviet-era ammunition that member states send to Ukraine from their own stockpiles.

US Still Assessing Alleged Drones Near Kremlin (4 p.m.)

The US government is still working to ascertain exactly what transpired near the Kremlin, but one American official speaking on the condition of anonymity said that the U.S. received no advance warning of anything that may have taken place.

Ukraine Denies Link to Drones Near Kremlin (3 p.m.)

Ukraine uses all its resources and equipment to liberate its occupied territory, not to attack other countries, said Serhiy Nykyforov, a spokesman for Zelenskiy.

What happened in Moscow, is clearly an escalation of the situation before May 9  when Russia celebrates Victory Day  and it is an expected method from our enemies, he said in a text message to Bloomberg.

Separately, Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential aide, denied Ukraine has any links to the drone attack. We are not attacking the Kremlin because it doesnt solve any military task and doesnt change anything on the battlefield. and it also very unbeneficial from the point of view of preparations for our offensive.

Kremlin Says It Downed Drones Headed for Putins Residence (1:55 p.m.)

Russia has the right to respond where and when it deems necessary after two drones targeted Putins Kremlin residence, according to an emailed statement.

The Kremlin said it regarded the attack as an effort to assassinate Putin, but he was unharmed. The Kremlin didnt provide any evidence for the attack and Ukraine has not commented so far.

Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Needs More Support From NATO Before Membership (1:50 p.m.)

The best security guarantees for Ukraine is NATO membership, Zelenskiy said in Helsinki at a joint news conference with Niinisto.

Until the war goes on, we are not going to be in NATO, we clearly understand that. We would like our partners to move from the open door policy to more decisive steps to motivate the Ukrainian public, Zelenskiy said. We would like to have political support today.

Grain Talks to Resume as Russia Threatens Exit (1:25 p.m.)

The deputy defense ministers of Turkey, Russia and Ukraine are due for talks Friday to discuss the extension of the Black Sea crop-export corridor, according to Turkish media reports. Russia will hold talks with United Nations representatives in Moscow on the same date, the Foreign Ministry said, according to Tass.

Wheat held near a two-year low as officials from the Black Sea region agreed to negotiate the continuation of the Ukraine grain deal, before a looming Russian deadline for leaving the pact.

Ukraine Rises In Press Freedom Index (12:45 p.m.)

Ukraine rose 27 places to 79th in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index, while Russia dropped nine spots to 164th after the Kremlin used the war to begin a final purge of the countrys media, according to Reporters Without Borders.

In Ukraine, journalists enjoy greater freedom in the free zones, despite the turmoil in the news media, the difficulties associated with covering a country at war, and reporting restrictions that, for the most part, are proportionate to the situation, said the organization, which seeks to defend press freedom. The war and the spirit of national unity have reduced the oligarchs hold on the media, it added.

Zelenskiy to Meet With Scholz in Berlin (12:30 p.m.)

Zelenskiy will travel to Berlin to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on May 14, followed by a trip to Aachen later that day to receive the 2023 International Charlemagne Prize, German media reported.

EU Pledges 500 Million for Ammunition (12 p.m.)

The European Union is setting aside 500 million ($552 million) to boost manufacturing of artillery shells, missiles and gunpowder in an effort to speed up production of ammunition for Ukraine and galvanize the blocs defense industry.

Among a raft of measures, the European Commission proposed the funds to co-finance projects alongside EU governments. It offered around half of the funding for companies to ramp up output capacity or refit old stocks of ammunition to make them operational again.

UK Tory Treasurer to Suspend Russian Business (11:45 a.m.)

A company co-owned by UK Conservative Party Senior Treasurer Mohamed Mansour is suspending its business activities in Russia after British media reported that the firm was supplying machinery to the countrys oil and gas industry.

Mansour, an Egyptian billionaire, is the chair and co-owner of Mantrac, a global Caterpillar equipment dealer that has been operating in Russia through a subsidiary. A Mantrac spokesperson told Bloomberg that the unit has scaled back its operations significantly and is now in the process of suspending all business activities in Russia, in compliance with applicable laws.

Sanctioned Russian Yacht Raided in German Port (11:30 a.m.)

A yacht belonging to a sanctioned 67-old Russian entrepreneur was raided by Frankfurt prosecutors at a port in northern Germany.

The man is suspected to have failed to notify the authorities about his substantial assets in the country, as required under sanctions rules, the prosecutors said in an emailed statement. No names were disclosed.

Ukraine Imposes Curfew in Kherson (11:30 a.m.)

A 58-hour curfew will come into effect in Ukraines southern city of Kherson starting at 8 p.m. local time on Friday, according to the regional military authorities. The restrictions are needed to enable local law enforcement to do their jobs effectively, they said on Facebook, without elaborating.

People will be forbidden to go outside and drivers will be banned from entering and leaving the city. Since Russian troops left under pressure from Ukrainian forces in November, Kherson has frequently been shelled, with dozens of people killed and many wounded.

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Verkhovna Rada

The bill was backed by 285 MPs.

Read also: Communist Russian councilman killed in Ukraine

From now on, the state will have legal grounds to strike symbols of Russian and Soviet imperialism from the register of protected historical monuments, the minister said.

Therefore, the following types of monuments will not be considered a part of Ukraines cultural heritage:

 those dedicated to people who held leadership positions in the Communist party;

 those dedicated to leaders who held high offices in the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, or other autonomous Soviet republics;

 those devoted to events related to the Communist partys activities and the establishment of Soviet power on the territory of Ukraine;

 those that symbolize Russian imperial or Soviet totalitarian policy.

Read also: At least 34 monuments to Russian poet Pushkin dismantled in Ukraine in past year

Tkachenko referred to the bill as the Anti-Pushkin law, named after Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, who has numerous monuments dedicated to him scattered across Ukraine.

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Russian JDAM

In addition to missile strikes like those occurring over the past several days, Russias use of extended-range air-to-surface bombs is becoming an increasing challenge, the Ukrainian Air Force spokesman claimed on Tuesday.

Guided glide bombs are usually less costly and simpler to produce than powered missiles. In the context of Ukraine, they would allow Russian tactical jets to release the weapons outside of the heart of the adversary's air defense umbrella, allowing for cross-border strikes without the extreme risk of losing the launching aircraft.

Every day, about 20 guided air bombs fly into the front-line areas. They are made by the Russian method, recently and not always of high quality," Col. Yuri Ignat said during a press briefing. Those bombs can fly about 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) and they may target the facilities of critical infrastructure, kindergartens, residential areas and educational and medical institutions and we cannot counter this type of ammunition. Our air defense is inefficient against the bombs themselves but we should rather try to down the Su-34 [Fullback strike fighter] carriers of this ammunition.

To do that, Ignat said Ukraine needs more capable air defense systems than the array of Soviet-era systems like the S-300s it currently possesses.

The good news, said Ignat, is that now we have some Western equipment which allows us to target the enemy aircraft at a distance of 150 kilometers (about 93 miles), a reference to the two Patriot air defense systems - one donated by the U.S., the other donated by a combined effort between Germany and Netherlands - that arrived in Ukraine last month.

Under the right circumstances, including the use of a collaboration of sensors across multiple domains, the Patriot system can hit fixed-wing aircraft from that distance, David Shank, a retired Army colonel and former commandant of the Army Air Defense Artillery School at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, told The War Zone Tuesday.

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Shank also concurred that the Patriot's radar makes it a much better system to counter such aircraft than that of the S-300 systems.

With more Patriots, Ukraine could keep Russian aircraft away from the borders or shoot them down, but unfortunately, we only have two battalions of such air defense systems and now we're waiting for the decision about the U.S.-made F-16 Viper jets. U.S. officials have repeatedly stated they are not on the table for Ukraine while other nations possessing the jets continue to debate the issue.

Russias guided bombs have been such a problem that the deputy mayor of Orihiv in Zaporizhzhia Oblast claimed there are no more children there as a result of the ongoing bombardment in large measure by those weapons.

Orihiv, in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, has been hit hard by Russian guided aerial bombs, the city's deputy mayor said. (Google Earth image)

"All the children were taken away from the city of Orihiv, Svitlana Mandrych told the U.S.-funded Radio Svaboda news outlet. We currently have no children in town. There are still six children left in the village of Novopavlivka, these are two families. We are currently working with them on the need for evacuation.

The biggest threat at the moment is guided air bombs which the Russian army uses every day on the front-line unoccupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, she said.

"These are very large 500-kilogram (about 1,100 pounds), 1,500 kilogram (about 3,300 pounds) bombs, which have a very large destructive force, Mandrych said. Today, almost 80% of houses and the private sector have been destroyed or damaged in the city.

According to her, Russia shells the Orikhiv community every day. Most of the damage is caused by large guided aerial bombs weighing up to 1,500 kilograms.



Despite this, 6 more children remain in the village of Novopavlivka in Orikhiv community.  Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) May 2, 2023

Neither Ignat nor Mandrych specified the type of guided bombs being used by Russia, but we have written about several different types of Russian aerial munitions with apparently similar attributes.

The first visual evidence of Russias use of Grom missiles emerged in March, which you can see in this tweet from that time below.

   wunderwaffe -     "-1"    .

    - pic.twitter.com/UJDsiRe4Oh  MilitaryAviationInUa (@Ukraine_AF) March 12, 2023

The Grom is an air-to-surface weapon with a pair of pop-out wings that give it an extended stand-off capability, and it comes in powered and unpowered forms.

It has a reported range of about 60 to 74 miles, depending on the source. There are two versions. The Grom-E1, as we noted at the time, is armed with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead that weighs just under 700 pounds and is paired with an impact fuze. The Grom-E2, with the Russian designation 9-A2-7759, is said to be based on the KAB-500OD bomb body.

You can read more about the Grom family of air-to-surface weapons in our deep dive here.

In January, we told you about images that emerged of what appeared to be a FAB-500M-62 with a kit attached that features pop-out wings loaded onto a Russian Fullback combat jet. While we had no clear indication at the time that the modified weapon is guided, but that could be the case, we mentioned that the wing kit could still allow the bomb to be employed against target areas at extended ranges, allowing pilots to stay further away from enemy air defenses.

You can see the image in this tweet from the Oryx OSINT group below.

Meet Russia's newest aerial bomb: The 'JDAMski'. pic.twitter.com/YKaZhRxkc3  Oryx (@oryxspioenkop) January 4, 2023

In our previous analysis of the picture that emerged online, we noted that the wing kit appeared to consist of two pop-out main wings and a pair of horizontal stabilizers fitted to an elongated metal assembly that is strapped to a FAB-500M-62 - a 1,100-pound (500 kilogram) class general-purpose high-explosive bomb. There has been some potential evidence that these crude kits are being used operationally.

As we additionally pointed out in January and later in March, these bombs have drawn comparisons to the U.S. Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) family of precision-guided bombs, examples of which Ukraine's military confirmed was operational in March and for which range-extending wing kits are also available. Standard JDAMs use a combination of inertial navigation system (INS) and GPS guidance, together with an autopilot, to direct the bomb's course via a set of steerable tail fins. Depending on the release altitude, a 500-pound-class JDAM-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) with a wing kit can hit targets up to 40 miles away.

A standard 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) based on an Mk 84 bomb body. U.S. Air Force

So while neither Ignat nor Mandrych specified the type of guided bomb Russia is using, if their statements are indeed accurate, it would appear that Moscow has achieved some level of standoff glide bomb capability at scale.

Before we head into the latest updates from Ukraine, The War Zone readers can catch up on our previous rolling coverage here.

The Latest

The U.S. will for the first time send Ukraine air-launched unguided Hydra 70mm (2.75-inch) rockets, according to a Reuters report today.

The rockets are part of a new $300 million tranche of military aid the U.S. plans to announce as soon as Wednesday, according to Reuters, citing "two U.S. officials." Hydra rockets are typically launched from a pod attached to an aircraft, but can also be launched on the ground from specially equipped vehicles. They are the base platform for laser guided-APKWS kits which have long been promised to Ukraine and can operate in an anti-ground target role and in an anti-drone role.

It is odd that APKWS has long been listed as part of the military aid donations to Ukraine, but this is the first Hydra transfer. It could be APKWS is finally ready to be fielded and some of these rockets will equip them, while others could be used in their basic application  air-launched against ground targets. Otherwise, APKWS has been delivered with Hydras as single rounds, or considered as such. We just don't know at this time.

Recent imagery points to 5-inch Zuni rockets already being in use with Ukraine's Su-25s. You can read more about that here.

The new package will also include 155mm howitzers and associated ammunition, as well as additional Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) munitions for M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS and more Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) anti-tank missile as well as more mortars.

Demolition equipment and trucks are another part of the package, the officials said, cautioning that the package was still being finalized and could change.

Satellite images from Planet Labs obtained by The War Zone show that multiple fuel tanks were destroyed during a Ukrainian kamikaze drone strike on Sevastopol on April 28.

The image below on the right shows how the fuel depot complex at Kozacha Bay looked before the attack. The image on the left shows what it looked like after the attack. At least four tanks on the right row appear to be destroyed while additional tanks look like they were damaged, as well.

Satellite imagery shows Russia's fuel storage facility suffered damage April 28 during a Ukrainian drone attack. PHOTO  2023 PLANET LABS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION

The strike is the latest in a series of Ukrainian operations against Sevastopol using unmanned air and sea vehicles dating to last summers attack on the Black Sea Fleet Headquarters. Ukrainian kamikaze boats attacked the fleet itself in October, with numerous other attempted and successful attacks before and after.

Here's what the latest strike looked like while it was burning over the weekend.

 A fuel tank near Kozacha Bay in occupied Sevastopol caught fire. About 1000 m is on fire. Preliminary - due to a UAV hit, russian media report, citing the occupation "governor" Mikhail Razvozhayev. pic.twitter.com/aa2Nx3RP3Q  FLASH (@Flash_news_ua) April 29, 2023

When it came to finding out about the massive trove of leaked classified documents that included potentially damaging information about his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told The Washington Post he found out about them like nearly everyone else.

Through media accounts.

In an interview with the newspaper, Zelensky said he has not had any conversations with the White House about the leak, calling the disclosures damaging to both Washington and Kyiv.

I did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand, Zelensky said. We did not have that information. I personally did not. Its definitely a bad story.

It is unprofitable for us, Zelensky added. It is not beneficial to the reputation of the White House, and I believe it is not beneficial to the reputation of the United States.

Exclusive: Ukrainian President Zelensky learned about the leak of top-secret U.S. intelligence like everyone else  in the news. In an interview with The Post, he said It is unprofitable for us. It is not beneficial to the reputation of the White House. https://t.co/UXcDJCKne1 pic.twitter.com/wLnxrPvZVr  The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 2, 2023

Yesterday, we told you that the White House said 20,000 Russian troops have been killed fighting in Ukraine just since December.

The Kremlin on Monday rejected that figure and Moscow's defense chief announced his own Ukrainian casualty count.

"Washington simply does not have the possibility to name any correct figures," Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said, according to UPI.

Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Ukraine has suffered "great losses" in the past month.

Despite the military support coming from the West, the enemy is suffering great losses," Shoigu said without proof during his opening address of a special teleconference with the leadership of the Russian Armed Forces. Over the past month, the Armed Forces of Ukraine has lost over 15,000 troops.

Family of Valentin Borisovych Matveyenko, a soldier killed in the Bakhmut on April 11, attends his burial in Velykyi Sambir cemetery, where he lived. (Photo by Celestino Arce/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The Russian Armed Forces continue to destroy the weaponry supplied by the West to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he added.

Shoigu also talked about the importance of Russias defense industry.

Russian troops depend to a great extent on timely replenishment of military hardware and armament, he said. Russia's leadership has set the task for the defense industry enterprises to boost the production pace and volume. The necessary measures have already been taken.

Compared to the start of 2022, Shoigu said the quantity of significant weapons acquired has increased 2.7-fold, and the quantity of particularly highly demanded weapons has increased 7-fold.

Despite complaints from Yevgeny Prigozhin to the contrary, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Russian troops have already received enough ammo this year to deal with the enemy successfully, Shoigu claimed.

Bakhmut today.



Russian artillery and airstrikes keep reducing the city to rubble.

https://t.co/koXoEHeZfR pic.twitter.com/BaEitdSJyr  Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 24, 2023

Speaking of weapons and ammunition, when Ukrainian troops retreated from the salt-mining town of Soledar, they apparently left behind a large cache of arms, according to the Russian BRUSSINF Telegram channel.

1/3



Report from the underground armory near Soledar



The scale of the Ukrainian military facility is impressive. Five kilometers long, 28 galleries with ammunition and weapons, an autonomous repair base. And all this at a depth of 150 meters.



Part 1 pic.twitter.com/t3oIzf56Nn   (@DrazaM33) April 30, 2023

For the second day in a row, saboteurs in Russia's Bryansk Oblast have destroyed rail tracks leading to a train derailment, according to the regional governor.

"An unidentified explosive device went off near the Snezhetskaya railway station," Alexander Bogomaz wrote on his Telegram channel Tuesday. "There were no casualties. As a result of the incident, a locomotive and several wagons of a freight train derailed. All emergency services are on site."

Bogomaz said that "employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and emergency services are taking all necessary measures to eliminate the consequences of the incident. Law enforcement agencies are conducting operational-search activities."

Another train sabotage reported in Bryansk region in Western Russia, with 20 cars going off rails after a series of explosions. Russian Railways called it illegal interference, per RBC. This is a second incident in two days  yesterday another train carrying fuel was blown up. pic.twitter.com/itpUVN32kC  Mary Ilyushina (@maryilyushina) May 2, 2023

Ukraine said nope to the Pope's peace mission involving the Vatican to resolve the conflict with Russia, according to CNN.

President Zelensky has not consented to any such discussions on Ukraines behalf, a Ukrainian official close to the presidential office told CNN.

"If talks are happening, they are happening without our knowledge or our blessing."

That Ukrainian official "dismissed any papal role after Pope Francis on Sunday told journalists that the Vatican is part of a mission to end the war in Ukraine," according to CNN. The mission is in the course now, but it is not yet public, he said after a three-day trip to Hungary.

When it is public, I will reveal it, the pope added.

 Kyiv does not know what "peaceful mission" Pope Francis had in mind, - CNN



"President Zelensky did not agree to such discussions on behalf of Ukraine. If negotiations are taking place, then without our knowledge or our blessing," a Ukrainian official close to the president's pic.twitter.com/n0jnXAql3c  Malinda  (@TreasChest) May 1, 2023

A Russian T-80BV tank blew up when its ammunition cooked off after being struck by Ukraine's 72nd Mechanized Brigade near Mykilske in Donetsk Oblast.

#Ukraine: A Russian T-80BV tank was destroyed by the 72nd Mechanized Brigade near Mykilske, #Donetsk Oblast.



The tank was hit before being abandoned by the crew and later suffered a catastrophic ammunition detonation due to an internal fire. pic.twitter.com/4VSTWZQ69h   Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 2, 2023

And in Novoselivka Druha in Donetsk, the Ukrainian 110th Mechanized Brigade destroyed a Russian BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle.

#Ukraine: A Russian BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle was destroyed by a direct artillery hit of the 110th Mechanized Brigade in Novoselivka Druha, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/Z2zF2qPTJ1   Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 2, 2023

And finally, Russian authorities apparently have video of the men running around Moscow posting signs bearing photos of Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR), who has so angered Russians that they had him arrested in absentia. As an added thorn in the side of Vladimir Putin, the signs said "Our President."

Police in #Russia have video of the guys who posted photos of #Ukraine's Intelligence Chief around #Moscow. The signs said "Our President" alongisde Kyrylo Budanov's pic.



Russia says the guys were paid by Ukraine.#StopRussia pic.twitter.com/XDkk3psJnN  Tim White (@TWMCLtd) May 2, 2023

That's it for now. We'll update this story when there's more news to report about Ukraine.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com
(Bloomberg) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is on a surprise visit to Finland on Wednesday to join Nordic leaders in discussing efforts to help his country against Russian aggression.

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The visit, announced by the office of Finlands President Sauli Niinisto, comes as Finland is scheduled to host the premiers of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland to talk about current security issues, Nordic cooperation and support for Ukraine.

Zelenskiy, who has made rare foreign visits since the start of the war, is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with Niinisto and the Nordic prime ministers, followed by a joint summit. The leaders talks will include their support for Ukraine as well as the developments in its relationship with the European Union and NATO, and Ukraines initiative for a just peace, according to a statement from the Finnish presidents office.

Since December, the Nordic nations have increased their aid to Ukraine most notably among the international donors, with Finnish pledges of new aid rising 165% and Norwegian assistance increasing 90%, according to data compiled by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

The gathering in Helsinki follows Finlands entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization last month, one of the biggest shifts in the European security landscape sparked by Russias invasion of Ukraine. Finlands addition extended NATOs border with Russia by more than 1,300 kilometers (800 miles), doubling its eastern flank.

Finland had applied to join the alliance together with Sweden, which was left behind in the process due to objections from Turkey and Hungary, keeping it out of the 31-member bloc as the last Nordic nation. Swedens Foreign Minister, Tobias Billstrom, said in April he hopes his country will join NATO before its upcoming Vilnius summit in July.

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(Updates with details from statement.)

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Air defence forces destroyed all Russian drones detected in the airspace around the city of Kyiv over the night of 2 May.

Source: Serhii Popko, Head of Kyiv City Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote: "According to preliminary information, all enemy targets were identified and shot down in the airspace around the capital.

Operational summary information at this moment  no casualties or destruction. The information is being confirmed."

Details: The head of Kyiv City Military Administration reported that this was the third Russian air attack over the past six days, where they traditionally used Iranian-made Shahed drones.

Background:

On the night of 2-3 May, an air-raid warning was issued at Kyiv and a number of oblasts of Ukraine.

Air defence systems were operating in many oblasts, explosions were heard in the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro.

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The Ukrainian Defence Forces shot down 21 Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 attack drones overnight, with a total of up to 26 drones used by Russian forces.

Source: Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, on Telegram; Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Telegram

Quote: "The occupiers used up to 26 Shahed-136/131 attack drones [tonight  ed.]. With the help of military personnel and assets from the Air Force, in cooperation with the air defence of other components of the Defence Forces of Ukraine, 21 attack UAVs were destroyed."

Details: It was noted that the Russian occupiers attacked the territory of Ukraine from the north front (Bryansk Oblast) and from the south (the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov).

Anti-aircraft weapons, aircraft and mobile fire groups were used to shoot down the Russian drones in the areas of responsibility of Centre, Skhid (East) and Pivden (South) Air Commands.

Background:

On the night of 2-3 May, an air-raid warning was issued at Kyiv and a number of oblasts of Ukraine.

Air defence systems were operating in many oblasts, explosions were heard in the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro.

Air defence forces destroyed all Russian drones detected in the airspace around the city of Kyiv

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An Ohio-class nuclear-powered, ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) will be making a visit to South Korea under an agreement reached with South Korea last week to bolster U.S. deterrence against North Korean threats, a Pentagon spokesperson reaffirmed Tuesday.







Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, however, declined to comment when asked if the Ohio-class submarine will be equipped with nuclear weapons.







"It will be an Ohio-class SSBN model," the spokesperson said when asked what class submarine will be visiting South Korea under the bilateral agreement on strengthening U.S. extended deterrence commitment to South Korea.







The agreement, dubbed the "Washington Declaration," was issued by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden during Yoon's six-day state visit to the U.S. last week.







In addition to the planned visit by an SSBN, the agreement calls for "more regular" deployment of U.S. strategic assets to South Korea, along with the establishment of a new Nuclear Consultative Group that will allow more South Korean input into how the U.S. prepares for nuclear contingencies on the Korean Peninsula.







"In terms of the timing, I am not going to get ahead or announce any timing of deployment," Ryder said when asked when the SSBN will visit South Korea.







He also declined to comment when asked if the submarine will be equipped with nuclear weapons, saying, "I am not going to get into the specific payloads other than the type of submarine. It will be an SSBN." (Yonhap)


Ukrainska Pravda has identified the people involved in the abduction and re-education of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda

Details: In addition to Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, the "children's services" of the Russian-occupied territories, "children's commissioners" and "ministries of education, youth and sports" are involved in the "re-education" of Ukrainian children.

In Crimea, Ukrainian Valentyna Lavryk is the head of these "education agencies"; in the so-called "Donetsk Peoples Republic" ("DPR"), her counterpart is Olha Kaludarova; in the so-called "Luhansk Peoples Republic" ("LPR") it is Ivan Kusov; in the occupied part of Kherson Oblast, Mykhailo Rodikov; and in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Olena Shapurova. The children's service in the "DPR" is headed by Svitlana Maiboroda, and in Crimea, Anastasiia Omelchenko is in charge.

The "ministries of youth and sports" of the occupied territories are headed by Oleksandr Hromakov, Dmytro Sydorov, Elvira Vitrenko and Anton Tytskyi respectively. The children's commissioner for occupied Crimea is Iryna Kliuieva, in the "DPR" it is Daria Morozova, and in the "LPR", Inna Shvenk.

The "ministries of social policy and labour" are also indirectly involved in the abduction of children, as they were the agencies who paid child benefits to parents in the occupied territories last year.

In the "DPR", the Ministry of Social Policy is headed by Denys Strelchenko, in the "LPR" by Svitlana Malakhova; in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Yevhenii Markelov chairs the authority; in Kherson Oblast, Alla Barkhatnova, and in Crimea, Olena Romanovska. In Russia, Anton Kotyakov is the Minister of Social Policy.

In Putin's administration, Irina Pleshcheva, a former representative of Rosmolodezh (the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs  ed.), is in charge of "children's education".

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This process would not be possible without the assistance of the heads of the occupation administrations of the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia: Sergey Aksyonov, Leonid Pasichnyk, Denys Pushylin, Volodymyr Saldo and Yevhen Balytskyi.

There are also so-called philanthropists who take an interest in the issue of children in the occupied territories, such as the Russian Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeev. He and his St Basil the Great Foundation co-founded the Happy Childhood project. In 2014, he financed Russian armed gangs in Donbas like those led by former Russian intelligence officer Igor Girkin.

The foundation established by Aimana Kadyrova, the mother of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, also regularly reports on its help for Ukrainian children. With the assistance of Kadyrov and Lvova-Belova, a camp was set up near Grozny to "re-educate children from the new territories of the Russian Federation". Those who actively oppose attempts at Russification are sent there.

Background:

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for the deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.

Lvova-Belova claimed publicly that Filip, a teenage boy from the temporarily occupied city of Mariupol whom she had "adopted", had been influenced by Ukrainian "propaganda", but in spite of that, he already calls her "mum".

Russian secret services stopped a child from Mariupol who was on his way back to his homeland at the border with Belarus.

Daria Herasymchuk, Ukrainian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights and Child Rehabilitation, stated that in Russia, abducted Ukrainian children face bullying and even physical violence on the grounds of their ethnicity.

Russian invaders are trying to re-educate Ukrainian children. For example, in Mariupol, the occupiers force students to line up, listen to the terrorist states national anthem and raise the Russian flag.

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GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Wednesday he was working on obtaining commitments by the warring parties in Sudan to protecting humanitarian assistance to ensure it can be delivered to those in need.

"We will still require agreements and arrangements to allow for movement of staff and supplies," he told reporters via video link from Port Sudan. "We will need to have agreement at the highest level and very publicly and we will need to deliver those commitments into local arrangements that can be depended on."

The conflict in Sudan has created a humanitarian crisis, with about 100,000 people forced to flee to neighbouring countries, according to the United Nations.

Aid deliveries have been held up in a country where about one-third of people already relied on humanitarian assistance. A broader disaster could be in the making as refugees from Sudan cross into its impoverished neighbours.

Griffiths said he had been told by the World Food Programme that six of their trucks travelling to Darfur were looted en route despite insurances of safety and security.

There was no immediate comment from WFP.

"It's a volatile environment, so we need those commitments," Griffiths said.

"It's not as if we're asking for the moon. We're asking for the movement of humanitarian supplies, of people. We do this in every other country, even without ceasefires. It's a traditional humanitarian enterprise to go where others don't."

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber and Cecile Mantovani; editing by Matthias Williams, Alexandra Hudson)
By Aidan Lewis

CAIRO (Reuters) - The United Nations aid chief said on Wednesday he hoped to have face-to-face meetings with Sudan's warring parties within two to three days to secure public guarantees from them for the safe passage of humanitarian assistance.

The meeting could take place in the Sudanese capital Khartoum or another location, Martin Griffiths told Reuters in a phone interview from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, following a visit to Port Sudan intended to plan a large-scale relief operation.

The U.N. has warned that fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) risks causing a humanitarian catastrophe that could spill over into other countries.

Several U.N. staff have been killed in the violence, which erupted on April 15.

Though some aid has been shipped to Port Sudan, aid agencies are seeking detailed guarantees of safe passage to be able to distribute to Khartoum, Darfur and other areas.

Griffiths said he spoke by phone to army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, from Port Sudan on Wednesday, to tell them that specific aid corridors and airlift operations were required.

"We are very clear now in our operational requirements as to what we need in terms of commitments from them," he said, adding that one route could pass through Wad Madani southeast of Khartoum and another from Chad into Darfur.

About one third of Sudan's population of 46 million was already in need of humanitarian assistance before the current conflict began.

The fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands internally, mainly from Darfur in western Sudan, and more than 100,000 have fled across Sudan's borders.

In Khartoum, millions are still trying to shelter from open warfare between an army using air strikes and heavy artillery and the RSF forces embedded in residential neighbourhoods.

Most hospitals are out of service and many areas have been left without power and water as supplies of food and fuel dwindle. Repeated declarations of ceasefires have not stopped the fighting.

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Griffiths said he hoped to meet Burhan and Hemedti, or "an empowered delegate who can sign off on these specific charters that we will put in front of them" to guarantee delivery of aid.

"It's important to me that we meet physically, face-to-face to discuss this, because we need it to be a public, accountable moment," he said, adding: "We are now in the process of dealing specifically with them on a date and place."

Asked when such meetings could happen, he said he hoped within "two or three days".

(Reporting by Aidan Lewis; editing by Grant McCool)
PORT SUDAN, Sudan (AP)  The U.N.'s humanitarian chief arrived in Sudans main seaport on Wednesday to seek guarantees for the safe passage of aid deliveries, as thousands of Sudanese and foreign nationals gathered there in hopes of fleeing the conflict-torn east African country.

Martin Griffiths, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator at the United Nations, tweeted that he came to affirm the U.N.'s commitment to the Sudanese people. He arrived in Port Sudan on the Red Sea on the last day of a shaky truce, meant to expire at midnight, which has not quelled the fighting.

However, it is unclear how U.N. agencies can operate with limited staff and supplies amid the chaos, at a time of increasing concern about those trapped and displaced by the battle for control of Sudan. The fighting between forces loyal to two rival generals erupted April 15.

Thousands of U.N. workers were evacuated a week into the fighting, and some U.N. agencies paused their services. The World Food Program suspended operations after three of its workers were killed in fighting in southern Sudan, but the agency has since said it will resume its work.

The fighting, including unprecedented urban warfare in the capital of Khartoum, was preceded by months of escalating tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

At a virtual news conference from Port Sudan, Griffiths said he is seeking guarantees from the warring sides for the safe passage of humanitarian aid. He addressed criticism that the U.N. had not been doing enough by saying it was extremely difficult to work in Sudan.

The World Food Program reported that 17,000 metric tons of food has been looted, including in Khartoum and western Darfour, out of 80,000 metric tons that the Rome-based agency had in Sudan, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

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Even before the fighting erupted last month, a third of Sudan's population of more than 45 million relied on humanitarian assistance, according to U.N. agencies, which suffer from funding shortfalls.

Six WFP trucks carrying aid to the western region of Darfur were looted on the road, Griffiths said. He singled out Darfur and Khartoum as badly in need of assistance.

Its not as if were asking for the moon," Griffiths said. "Were asking for the movement of humanitarian supplies and people. We do this in every other country, even without cease-fires.

The conflict has so far killed 550 people, including civilians, and wounded more than 4,900. The fighting has displaced at least 334,000 people inside Sudan, and sent tens of thousands more to neighboring countries  Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia, according to U.N. agencies.

More than 42,000 Sudanese who fled the war in their country have crossed into Egypt along with 2,300 foreign nationals since the crisis began, the U.N. refugee agency said. Aid workers are increasingly concerned about lack of basic services in these areas, and also in Port Sudan, some 830 kilometers (500 miles) from Khartoum.

Early on, some Western countries, including France, Britain and Germany, airlifted hundreds of their citizens and other foreigners from airfields near Khartoum, Since then, the focus has shifted to Port Sudan as a base for those looking to leave. Many are still struggling to find a way out.

Hundreds of Syrians, who came to Sudan fleeing their own country's civil war over the past decade, are among the foreigners to leave.

One Damascus-bound flight took off Wednesday, a second was to follow later in the day and more flights were scheduled in coming days, said Tariq Abdel-Hameed, a Syrian in Port Sudan, He said priority was given to women, children and the elderly.

For thousands of Sudanese and foreigners flocking to Port Sudan, it's the last stop before leaving the country. Saudi warships have been ferrying evacuees across the Red Sea to the Saudi city of Jeddah.

It feels really sad to be leaving behind a part of your life, said Saadiya Abdulrahman, a Sudanese-American woman from Khartoum, while waiting with her daughter for their turn to board a Saudi vessel. When their turn came, they first got into a tugboat with dozens of others, to take them to the Saudi ship.

Khartoum has become like a ghost town in some neighborhoods because of all the destruction, said Salah Suleiman, a Sudanese from Khartoum who was among those sailing to Jeddah.

For those who can't afford to leave Khartoum, the most basic goods have become unavailable or unaffordable. Mercy Corps, an aid organization, said Wednesday that prices of basic goods in the city increased more than 130% on average while fuel prices increased more than ten-fold.

On Wednesday, the fighting continued in and around the city. Clouds of smoke were seen over areas of active fighting, and residents hiding in their homes still heard sounds of explosions, with the battles still seemingly centered around key government buildings, such as the Presidential Palace.

There were increasing signs of lawlessness in many neighborhoods, with reports that more diplomatic facilities were being targeted. Armed men stormed the building housing the office of Saudi Arabias cultural attache in Sudan, the kingdom said Wednesday.

A statement on the state-run Saudi Press Agency said an armed group destroyed equipment and cameras, seized some of attache's property and disrupted the attaches systems and servers.

Speaking from Kenya, U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the international community needs to come together and put pressure on the warring Sudanese generals to end the conflict.

All need to use their capacity to put pressure for this horrible and Id say unjustifiable conflict to stop, he said. The present situation is totally unacceptable.

___

ElHennawy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
01-billy-woods-by-BA-Stubbs.jpg 01-billy-woods-by-BA-Stubbs - Credit: B.A. Stubbs

Back when he was moving between Washington D.C. and New York City in the late Nineties and early 2000s, billy woods frequented a Black-owned record shop seeking El-P and Cannibal Ox on wax. I kept coming in, and checking for it  my homie was really diligent about it, he recalls now. I got The Cold Vein. I think I got it on CD at the same time, and it was off to the races. Soon, the success of The Cold Vein and MF DOOMs Operation Doomsday inspired woods to birth an imprint of his own, as a way to release music he thought was cool. He called it Backwoodz Studioz, after the blunt company.

The vision for the label first came to woods as an adolescent in Zimbabwe, where he spent much of his early life. When I was really young, in Zimbabwe, I started a comic book company, when I was a little kid, with my friends, he says. I was just thinking about how to put out all this music. But that was 20 years ago, when woods was pressing the original CD artwork for his debut, Camouflage, at Kinkos. Now woods is preparing his new album Maps, releasing May 5. Its a victory lap for both him and Backwoodz.

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After he founded Backwoodz Studioz in 2003, Backwoodz Studioz grew into a notorious imprint known for albums jam-packed with dense lyricism and unconventional loops and samples in the production. Backwoodz aimed to release music that enlightened through knowledge and experience, offering an alternative to the mainstream rap caviar of the day. Throughout the 2010s, with acts like Fielded, ShrapKnel (Curly Castro & PremRock), and Billys Armand Hammer partner ELUCID, Backwoodz Studioz grew an impressive resume.

That underground success didnt come without its pitfalls. The label lost money for a decade, easy, woods says. The obstacles we had [were] not actually knowing what we were doing, arriving with an idea of success that outstripped our capabilities, or popularity, at the time. Making sure everybody thats on the team, is really as committed to doing whatever youre doing as you are.

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One of Backwoodzs most acclaimed projects to date is 2019s Hiding Places, by billy woods and L.A.-based producer Kenny Segal. The two had worked together before on Armand Hammer records, but never on a solo record. Hiding Places found woods rapping over distressed samples looped into madness, with snares and bass kicks that called back to old-school Nineties hip-hop records. woods worked with Kenny for the first time for a track on Armand Hammers 2017 album Rome, thanks to ELUCID, who knew Kenny previously. The following year, the rapper and the producer met up in woods East Williamsburg apartment. He came through, just playing me beats, woods says. He had all these weird little childrens toys that hed turned into live beat-machine things, and I was just like, Wow, this guys a nut.

Kenny Segal and Billy Woods

Its been four years since the release of Hiding Places. Both Kenny and billy have steadily dropped a stream of projects over the years, expanding their artistry  last year, woods Aethiopes made many critics year-end lists  but Maps marks their first full collaboration since then. This is a post-pandemic album, woods says, explaining that it came out of his hectic tour schedule as Covid restrictions on shows were lifted.

The majority of Maps was recorded in fits and starts. Its an album born from the inspiration that comes from seeing different pockets of the world. Some tracks were recorded at Alchemists studio, and others at Kennys, both located in Los Angeles. The album artwork depicts woods unique brand of airplane etiquette as if he was piloting a Backwoodz flight.

Kenwood Speakers opens Maps with the sounds of vibrating subwoofers and snapping drums. Its a record that calls back to the golden age of hip-hop, where emcees contested for the iron mic. Its one of the last songs we did, woods says. We were joking around about how you could call us Ken Wood, and I was like, Oh, Kenwoods actually the old audio company. For him, the song evokes a strong sense of place. That song, for me, is when Im walking at night through the street, going to Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights and back, he adds. Its walking, and half-empty streets, and rats scattering around. But also these big, beautiful buildings, and the trees shading the street lights, and the beats knocking in your head, and its like a fucking movie.

Maps features guest appearances from ELUCID, ShrapKnel, Quelle Chris, Benjamin Booker, and Samuel T. Herring of Future Islands. But the most compelling addition comes from Detroit rapper Danny Brown, who delivers a brain-smashing verse on Year Zero. I reached out to Danny, and was like, How about we do this thing?' Woods recalls. When he showed up, it was memorable. Danny came through with two cars, two separate cars, arriving at different times, with different people in them, because they had all come from somewhere else, already hanging out, all night. He had the rhyme on two separate phones. He continued rhyming. I mean, it just went on. It was crazy. Its longer than even whats on there, I think.

Theres a good level of humor in some of the stories told on Maps. On Baby Steps, woods raps about taking a $300 cab ride. I had a tour where the booking agent had set up something between two places, without really considering that the options for getting there were bad, he says. My booking agents suggestion was that I would call an uber from one place to the other. And Im very skeptical, but Im calling a uber from Kansas City, Missouri, to Omaha, Nebraska, or something. It does seem a little insane, but hes like, Oh, I mapped it out, its $320.

He sees Maps as following a narrative arc that he connects to the quintessential heros journey, or any type of journey that involves getting back homeI feel I got to come home from a journey to have anything to really say, right?

He adds: The album starts in New York City, and thats where youre coming home. This is where I live, this is where Im coming back to. For better or worse, this is my home.

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An Everett man is accused of preying on, drugging, and sexually victimizing four women for his own financial gain, according to federal prosecutors.

Trevor Jones, 45, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on four counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, the U.S. Attorneys Office announced. Jones was arrested on related state charges on March 23 and has remained in state custody since. He will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.

The conduct we allege in this case is horrific, said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division. No human being should ever be lured into servitude, exploited, and forced to live their lives in fear where escape seems all but impossible, but thats exactly what we believe happened here.

According to the federal charging documents, Jones ran a sex trafficking operation targeting victims who were suffering from substance use disorder.

Prosecutors said that Jones provided those women with controlled substances, including heroin, fentanyl and cocaine, in order to intensify their drug dependence and gain their compliance in his sex trafficking operation. Jones also prohibited the women from obtaining controlled substances from other sources and routinely confiscated their identifications and other personal items in an effort to impede their ability to leave, according to prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors said Jones required the women to earn a daily quota and provide him with all the proceeds from the commercial sex acts. Jones is also accused of enforcing his requirements by punishing the women with acts of violence, threats of violence, and withholding controlled substances from his drug-dependent victims.

Sex trafficking is a very real and present threat in our Commonwealth. Every single day, Massachusetts residents are being subjected to unimaginable harm and trauma at the hands of traffickers, said United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins. My office has dedicated substantial resources and created a dedicated team of prosecutors to combat this horrific conduct, hold traffickers accountable and bring justice to victims and survivors of these awful crimes.

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The charge of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and up to life in prison, at least five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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An Upper Makefield woman accused of killing her two children is scheduled to make her first court appearance next week where a judge will decide if she should continue treatment at a state psychiatric hospital where she has been for nearly a year.

The Bucks County Court filings are the first confirmation that Trinh Nguyen, 39, has been found mentally incompetent since shortly after her May 2, 2022 arrest for allegedly shooting and fatally wounding Jeffrey and Nelson Tini, her 13-and 9-year-old sons, respectively.

A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday on a petition filed by the Bucks County Public Defenders Office, which represents Nguyen, to keep her at Norristown State Psychiatric Hospital for another 90 days in an attempt to restore her to mental competency.

The Bucks County District Attorney's Office plans to challenge the defense's position that Nguyen is not competent for trial, First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said.

Jeffrey "JT" Tini, 13, and his brother, Nelson Tini, 9, were shot in their home Monday, May 2, 2022. Their mother, Trinh Nguyen has been charged.

More on the Trinh Nguyen murder case DA says Trinh Nguyen shot her sons. Why it can be hard to spot danger when parents kill

Court documents show Nguyen is at Norristown State on an involuntary mental health commitment. A forensic psychologist who evaluated her May 18, 2022 found her incompetent to stand trial last September and November, according to the document.

In late January Nguyen was reevaluated and recommitted to Norristown for 60 days and ordered to undergo another competency evaluation before April 4.

A licensed psychologist performed an updated evaluation on March 31 and ruled she continues to be incompetent to stand trial and requested an extended commitment to restore her competency, according to the documents.

If the judge approves the commitment, Nguyen would be reevaluated for mental competency against three weeks before the order lapses on Aug. 7.

Nguyen, who has been ordered to appear Tuesday, has yet to appear for a preliminary hearing on the charges against her including two counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder. Her next scheduled preliminary hearing date is scheduled for May 11.

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What does PA law require in mental incompetency cases?

A preliminary hearing is the first step in criminal proceedings where a district court judge determines if enough evidence exists to hold a defendant for trial on charges.

Investigators work on the scene of an Upper Makefield home where two boys, 10 and 13 years old, were shot Monday morning. Their mother, 38-year-old Trinh Nguyen, was arrested and charged in the shooting, according to Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub.

Two bicycles sit parked outside an Upper Makefield home where two boys, 10 and 13 years old, were shot May 2, 2022. By noon, their mother, 38-year-old Trinh Nguyen, was taken into police custody for the shooting, according to Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub.

What the court records say in the case Ex feared mom accused of Upper Makefield shooting was 'classic parent kidnapper'; fought her trip out of US

Under Rule 600 of the Pennsylvania Criminal Procedures, which applies to all offenses, a trial against a defendant shall start within 365 days from the date a complaint is filed, except for delays attributed to the defendant.

If a judge has determined a defendant is mentally incompetent, court proceedings are halted indefinitely until a defendant is mentally competent to understand the charges and participate in their defense and trial.

What is Trinh Nguyen accused of doing?

Prosecutors allege Nguyen shot her sons in their heads as they slept in their rented Timber Ridge Road home. The boys succumbed to their injuries on May 9.

She is also charged with attempting to shoot the nephew of her former husband, who lived in an adjacent home on the property.

Nguyen was arrested the day of the killings in a nearby church parking lot hours after the boys were found dead by police and the aunt who owns the home. Authorities said Nguyen had heroin in her system in what police described as a suicide attempt.

Prosecutors have provided no motive for the shootings, which occurred the day before Nguyen was being evicted from the home for failing to pay more than $11,000 in rent. The home is owned by her former sister-in-law.

Authorities found a handwritten note dated a week before the murders that Nguyen allegedly wrote with information on what to do with her and her sons ashes. She also allegedly left a note in the minivan revealing that her sons, both Council Rock District students, were dead and the address of the home with a request to call 911.

Records show that Nguyen was also involved in a custody dispute with her former husband, Edward Tini, of Philadelphia. The couple separated and divorced in 2021 and Tini had opposed Nguyens plans to take Nelson to visit her family in Vietnam over the summer vacation.

Nguyen had sole custody of Jeffrey Tini, whose father she divorced in 2009. She has a third son, who is 17, and lives on the West Coast with his father, Nguyens first husband.

More delays in the Trinh Nguyen case Another hearing delay for Upper Makefield mom accused of killing sons. Here's why

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Trinh Nguyen, Upper Makefield mom charged with murder, mentally incompetent: Defense
A married couple from the Upstate pleaded guilty Tuesday to a misdemeanor offense for their participation in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.

William and Joei Gallman, of Fountain Inn, pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon in a Washington courtroom to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor offense that carries a maximum of six months in prison and a fine of not more than $5,000, according to court records.

Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson took their plea and set sentencing for Aug. 18.

So far, 17 South Carolinians, many turned in by tipsters, have pleaded guilty to crimes committed during the riot. In all, 20 from the state have been arrested.

Evidence against the defendants has included photographs and geolocation data from their own cellphones and video surveillance from Capitol security cameras.

Charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building and disorderly conduct in Capitol building were dropped against the Gallmans, who cooperated with law enforcement, according to court records.

The Gallmans were supporters of former President Donald Trump, and attended his rally just before the Capitol riot, where Trump made false claims of a stolen election and urged rally goers to storm Congress and interrupt the formal counting of electoral votes, according to a prosecutors statement of the case made public Tuesday.

Photographs taken during the riot showed the Gallmans wearing pro-Trump hats.

After seeing rioters physically battling police amid clouds of tear gas, the Gallmans entered the Capitol at about 2:20 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, about 20 minutes after the first rioters began smashing windows and forcing their way in, according to prosecutors.

While the Gallmans were walking through the Capitol, they saw broken windows, saw multiple uniformed and armed police, posed for photographs and took photographs of other rioters, according to prosecutors.

The Capitol was closed to the public that day while the House and Senate certified counting electoral votes, declaring President Joe Biden the 2020 election winner.

More than 1,020 defendants have been arrested in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia for offenses committed during the Capitol riot. The investigation, headed by the FBI, is still continuing. More than 530 individuals have pleaded guilty, and 67 have been found guilty of various charges at trial, according to the District of Columbia U.S. Attorneys office.

William Gallman was represented by attorney Ryan Beasley, and Joei Gallman was represented by Cindy Crick.
A US Air Force F-22 and F-35A fly with a XQ-58A Valkyrie during a test over Arizona in December 2020. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. James Cason

Over the past 30 years, the US Air Force's fighter fleet has shrunk.

As the service focuses on competition with China, it wants an affordable way to expand that fleet.

It's now developing collaborative combat aircraft, which can fight alongside piloted jets or on their own.

On April 11, General Atomics announced that AI and human pilots had successfully done combat maneuvers with the company's MQ-20 Avenger unmanned combat aerial vehicle.

The test involved human operators sending commands to the aircraft through a satellite in low earth orbit. The aircraft were also tracked and maneuvered by AI pilots operating autonomously. Data was collected and used to retrain and redeploy AI pilots via satellite connection while the aircraft was still airborne.

The test is one of the latest developments in the US Air Force's efforts to acquire collaborative combat aircraft  unmanned aircraft capable of operating alongside piloted aircraft or autonomously for all kinds of missions.

The collaborative combat aircraft is one of the Air Force's biggest priorities, one that will shape the future of its inventory and influence how it uses its aircraft.

"We're headed down the path to have much more capability for uncrewed aircraft," Gen. Charles Brown Jr., the Air Force chief of staff, said in February. "As you look at collaborative combat aircraft, it can be the sensor, it could be a shooter, it can be a jammer."

A need for 'affordable mass'

MQ-9s on a runway at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico in April. US Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Victor J. Caputo

Collaborative combat aircraft, or CCA, are a solution to a problem the Air Force faces as it prepares for an era of great-power competition with China: the size of its fleet.

Budget cuts, the unexpectedly high cost of the F-35 stealth fighter, and the focus on low-intensity counterinsurgency operations for much of the past three decades led that fleet to shrink.

In 1989, the Air Force's total fighter inventory was 4,321 aircraft. That fell to 2,584 by 1999 and to 1,176 in 2022, according to the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The number of mission-capable fighters  those that can fly and perform at least one mission  is even lower. Worse, the Air Force faces a pilot shortage and its overall number of flight hours has been decreasing.

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The Air Force has tried to address those issues in several ways. It is acquiring the F-15EX, a modernized version of the F-15 that will replace older models, and it has invested in simulators to accelerate pilot training.

The Air Force also continues to develop top-tier assets like the F-35, the B-21 stealth bomber, and the Next Generation Air Dominance program, or NGAD.

However, those aircraft are very expensive, their development may still be delayed, and acquiring them doesn't address pilot retention and generation issues. Consequently, the Air Force wants cheaper, capable airframes to provide "affordable mass."

Collaborative combat aircraft

An MQ-1 Predator prepares to land at a base in Iraq in November 2008. US Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Erik Gudmundson

The Air Force has used drones for intelligence-gathering and airstrikes for decades, but its premier unmanned combat platforms, the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, are still operated remotely by humans.

CCAs, however, are meant to function remotely or autonomously and to perform a range of missions, including air-to-air combat, airstrikes, and intelligence-gathering. They will be able to operate alongside piloted aircraft in manned-unmanned teams, in which pilots will assign tasks that the CCAs complete on their own. The CCAs will also be able to operate completely autonomously with other CCAs.

CCAs are an integral part of NGAD, which seeks to create "a family of systems," not just a single fighter.

"One way to think about it is that the pod or the weapon that might have been under the wing of crewed aircraft is now flying in separate aircraft and managed by that commander of that aircraft," Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, the service's top civilian official, told lawmakers on May 2.

"The analysis that we've done shows that the adversary has to honor each of those aircraft, as it is a full threat, and that gives you a great advantage relative to the cost of having those things in the air," Kendall added.

An XQ-58A is launched at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona in December 2020. US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Joshua King

CCAs will be piloted by systems that are in development. The Air Force's Skyborg program, which is pursuing an AI-enabled system to control unmanned aircraft, has successfully demonstrated its capabilities. DARPA's Air Combat Evolution program has demonstrated its ability to beat human pilots in simulated dogfights.

Kendall said in early March that the Air Force may acquire at least 1,000 CCAs  two each for some 500 NGAD aircraft and F-35s  but has since said that was just a starting point meant to show the Air Force was serious about the program.

"We're starting out with the intent to have at least two per fighter working together, but it could be more than that," Kendall told reporters at the Air and Space Forces symposium on March 7. "It's going to be a question of what the technology will support and what works out best operationally."

Kendall has said the cost of each CCA could be one-quarter to half the cost of an F-35. With F-35s running about $82.5 million, CCAs could cost between $21 million and $41 million.

"We can sacrifice one of these aircraft, put it well out in front, use it to draw a fire, and force the other side to expose itself and then be subject to engagement," Kendall told lawmakers this month. "We call them attritable. They're not expendable, but we can afford to lose some of them operationally."

Valkyrie, Avenger, and Ghost Bat

An MQ-20 Avenger over California in June 2021. General Atomics

Air Force officials have indicated that because of the array of missions CCAs are expected to conduct, there likely won't be a single model.

At least three UCAVs in development could be candidates for the Air Force's program: the XQ-58 Valkyrie from Kratos Defense, the MQ-20 Avenger from General Atomics, and the MQ-28 Ghost Bat from Boeing.

The XQ-58A has a maximum launch weight of 6,000 pounds and can cruise at 550 mph. Its operational altitude is 45,000 feet and it has a range of 3,000 nautical miles. Since first flying in 2019, it has done multiple test flights for the Air Force, including being used as a datalink for F-22s and F-35s and work with the Skyborg program.

The Valkyrie's unique rocket-assisted takeoff system also gives it what Kratos and the Air Force call "runway independence." It uses parachutes and airbag cushions to land.

The MQ-20 Avenger first flew in 2009 and an upgraded version with increased fuel capacity flew in 2016. It has a top speed of about 460 mph and a 20-hour flight endurance and can reach altitudes over 50,000 feet. It can carry 6,500 pounds of ordnance, including missiles and precision-guided bombs.

The MQ-20 can also be fitted with sensors and cameras, making it suitable for intelligence-gathering and electronic warfare.

An MQ-28 Ghost Bat at the Australian International Airshow in February. REUTERS/Jamie Freed

The Avenger's angular shape and internal weapons bay give it stealth properties. Only a few have been built, but it has been heavily involved in the Skyborg program.

The MQ-28 was developed by Boeing Australia for the Royal Australian Air Force and was originally known as the Airpower Teaming System, a nod to its intended role as a "loyal wingman" to manned aircraft.

Boeing has been very secretive about the Ghost Bat, which first flew in 2021. The company has said the drone can fly more than 2,000 nautical miles and carry sensor packages for intelligence-gathering and early-warning missions.

Australia has signed contracts for 10 MQ-28s, which are expected to enter service between 2024 and 2025. The US Air Force has acquired at least one MQ-28 for testing.

Kendall has said a formal competition for CCA acquisition could begin as soon as late 2023, and Air Force officials say the first CCAs could arrive in the late 2020s and enter service before the NGAD fighter.

"I think the CCA is not just desirable. It's essential" to meet the global challenges the Air Force faces, Kendall told lawmakers on March 28. "Without it, it's very difficult to envision how we could keep the Air Force at the size it currently is."

Read the original article on Business Insider
On Wednesday, the US Department of Defence announced the allocation of another US$300 million in military aid to Ukraine.

Source: European Pravda, referring to the Pentagons press release

Details: The new US military aid package is allocated by presidential authorisation from the Pentagon's warehouses and contains, among other things, additional ammunition for the HIMARS systems provided by the United States, additional howitzers, artillery and mortar shells, as well as anti-tank weapons that Ukraine uses to counter unprovoked Russian aggression.

In addition, the military aid includes TOW anti-tank guided missiles, AT-4 and Carl Gustaf anti-armour missile systems, and for the first time, Hydra-70 unguided aircraft rockets, as well as small arms and ammunition, trucks and trailers for transporting heavy equipment.

Quote: "The United States will continue to work with its Allies and partners to provide Ukraine with capabilities to meet its immediate battlefield needs and longer-term security assistance requirements," the release said.

This is the 37th package of assistance from the Pentagon for Ukraine since the beginning of the war in February 2022, with the total amount of US military assistance standing at about US$36 billion.

Previously: US officials said the weapons and equipment provided would help Ukraine break a long-lasting deadlock it has faced due to heavy fighting in the east of Ukraine, in particular around the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!




Korea's foreign ministry has dismissed a protest from Japan over a Seoul lawmaker's recent visit to the country's easternmost islets of Dokdo, a ministry official said Wednesday.







According to Kyodo News on Tuesday, the Japanese foreign ministry lodged the protest to Seoul over the visit by Rep. Jeon Yong-gi of the main opposition Democratic Party to Dokdo on the same day.







A senior Seoul foreign ministry official said the government "dismissed the unfair claim from Japan through diplomatic channels." The official added the ministry reiterated its stance that Dokdo is Korea's sovereign territory "historically, geographically and under international law."







Korea has been in effective control of Dokdo, with a small police detachment, since its liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule. (Yonhap)


Hydra-70 missiles

According to the message on the Pentagon's website, the package includes the following items:

Read also: Fighter jets ranked 8th on Ukraines list of military needs, Pentagon says

 Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);

 155mm Howitzers;

 155mm artillery rounds;

 120mm, 81mm, and 60mm mortar rounds;

 Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) anti-tank missiles;

 AT-4 and Carl Gustaf anti-armor weapon systems;

 Hydra-70 aircraft rockets;

 Small arms and small arms ammunition;

 Demolition munitions for obstacle clearing;

 Spare parts and other field equipment.

This is the 37th military aid package Washington provided to Ukraine since August 2021.

Hydra-70 is a 70mm unguided air-to-ground rocket, compatible with a variety of warheads: cumulative charge, fragmentation, and flechette darts. Ukrainian forces already use a high-precision version of these rockets, known as APKWS.

Read also: Fringe U.S. lawmakers urge Biden to halt military aid to Ukraine

On April 19, the U.S. government rolled out a $325 million military aid package for Ukraine, which included HIMARS and artillery ammunition, TOW missiles, high-precision aviation munitions, and other items.

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
GSK's vaccine is the first for RSV to be approved

The United States on Wednesday approved GSK's Arexy vaccine against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), which can cause severe pneumonia and bronchiolitis in infants and the elderly.

It marks the first such approval globally, with similar vaccines from other makers including Pfizer expected to follow soon.

"Today's approval of the first RSV vaccine is an important public health achievement to prevent a disease which can be life-threatening," said senior US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official Peter Marks in a statement.

RSV normally causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but can be serious for people with weak immune systems.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it leads to approximately 60,000 to 120,000 hospitalizations and 6,000 to 10,000 deaths among adults 65 years of age and older.

The vaccine was approved for people aged 60 and older, based on a study of 25,000 people that showed a single dose was 83 percent effective against disease caused by RSV, and more than 94 percent effective against severe disease.

The most common side effects included injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and joint stiffness.

An irregular heartbeat was a less common side effect, occurring in 10 participants who received Arexy and 4 participants who received placebo.

GSK's Arexy has been recommended for approval by the European Union's drug watchdog, the European Medicines Agency, whose positive opinions are normally formally followed by the European Commission.

Pfizer has said that it expects a decision from the FDA in May for its own over-60s RSV vaccine.

In January, Moderna said it hopes its RSV vaccine would be approved and available for the Northern Hemisphere's winter later this year.

Last year, the EU approved a preventative antibody treatment against RSV, developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca and France's Sanofi.

ia/bgs
The ongoing debt ceiling crisis can be explained in three words: Marjorie Taylor Greene.

OK, it's not 100% fair to blame America hurling toward an economic crisis solely on the nonsense-spouting Georgia congresswoman, but she and her fellow MAGA lawmakers are certainly at the root of the countrys present dilemma.

Here are some simple facts to consider.

The debt ceiling has to be raised

If the ceiling isn't raised, according to Treasury Secretary and person-who-has-had-just-about-enough-of-these-stupid-shenanigans Janet Yellen, America will default on its debts somewhere around June 1. If that happens, all economic hell will break loose, likely plunging the United States into a recession and potentially bringing the global economy down with it.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters just after the Republican majority in the House narrowly passed a sweeping debt ceiling package as they try to push President Joe Biden into negotiations on federal spending, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 26, 2023.

Raising the debt ceiling has never been a big deal when there's a Republican in the White House

Republicans in Congress raised it three times under President Donald Trump without issue, even as Trump was adding nearly $7.8 trillion to the national debt. Its a dumb and dangerous cudgel being swung about by lummoxes who dont care if others get hurt.

The debt ceiling allows the country to pay debts it has already incurred

It has nothing to do with new spending. Its like refusing to pay this months credit-card bill until your teenager agrees to stop buying expensive lattes. Youre bickering over money already spent. You pay the bill and then take away the kids card, not the other way around.

The Republican House Speaker McCarthy is fully in the pocket of Big MAGA

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Greene and the Houses collection of destructive MAGA lawmakers, politicians whose every decision is driven by the questions Will this make me look cool on Fox News? and Will this make former President Donald Trump love me more? So rather than attempt to be reasonable or concerned about the nations economy, the speaker is all-in on demanding that President Joe Biden make massive budgetary concessions in exchange for McCarthy and his merry band of bunglers doing quite literally the bare minimum  not tanking the U.S. economy.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., before former President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago estate hours after being arraigned in New York City, Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in Palm Beach, Fla.

Addressing reports of a Democratic maneuver to force a clean debt-ceiling increase, Greene tweeted Tuesday that no House Republicans would go along with it, noting ominously: "That would be a career ending move unless they want to switch parties.:

Biden wants to know Republicans won't hold the U.S. economy hostage

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of Biden: So, look, hes going to continue to make very clear that this is up to Congress to act when it comes to the debt ceiling. This is a question for them: What are you going to do and how are you going to let the American people know that youre not going to hold the American economy hostage?"

The answer from Republicans appears to be: Were going to hold the American economy hostage. PFFFFTTTTTTTT!

A Republican debt-ceiling bill that's dead on arrival

Last week the GOP-led House passed a debt-ceiling bill called the Limit, Save, Grow Act. It raises the debt ceiling, but only if there are $4.5 trillion in cuts to government programs, including a number of Biden initiatives on climate change, student loans and funding the IRS to help run down tax cheats. The act also adds new work requirements for welfare recipients. It would be more accurately called the LOL, Nope, Mean Act.

As Biden has made clear, and as Jean Pierre repeated Tuesday: He is not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling." But the president is "willing to have a separate conversation on the budget.

President Joe Biden wears sunglasses after making a joke about becoming the "Dark Brandon" persona during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, Saturday, April 29, 2023. John F. Lansing, President and CEO of NPR, is at left. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Thats what people who arent into governing-by-chaos call sensible. You pay your bills - period. You debate future spending when youre figuring out a budget. Its what every American has to do.

Responsible governing is simply not the MAGA way

But its not what Greene and Co., along with their House-pet McCarthy, want to do, because doing responsible, adult things is a sign of weakness in MAGA-land, where every day is Opposite Day.

Toying around with conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election or fetishizing the Jan. 6 attackers as patriotic martyrs is all fun and games. But mucking about with the full faith and credit of the United States of America could cause untold financial harm to millions upon millions of people here and around the globe.

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.

A meeting with McCarthy is coming up, but will it go anywhere?

Biden has agreed to meet with McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries next week. They will presumably look for an off-ramp that avoids a Thelma-and-Louise-style outcome.

But what, exactly, can McCarthy bring back to the pit of dull-witted vipers who make up the MAGA swath of the House of Representatives?

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy speaks during an event at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 17, 2023.

Well, Rep. Greene, Im sorry, President Biden wouldnt agree to your demand that he immediately report to prison and install Donald Trump as president. He also said no to deporting Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton to the moon, although he did say hed look into that Jewish space laser youve been concerned about.

America's economic future hangs in the balance, and the Marjorie Taylor Greenes of the world could care less

These are not serious people. They are opportunistic destroyers of logic, and Biden should not negotiate with them over something that has always gotten done in the past and absolutely has to be done now.

So again, the debt-ceiling crisis were enduring is not wholly the fault of Marjorie Taylor Greene. But she and her ilk in the House are the reason the Republican Party is sprinting away from sanity.

And they may well be the reason the rest of us get run right off the fiscal cliff.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

More from Rex Huppke:

Elon Musk is taking away my blue check mark on Twitter. Who am I if not notable?

Would today's GOP try to ban Mister Rogers for being woke? Probably.

Blaming Silicon Valley Bank collapse on diversity or 'wokeness' gives away Republican game

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: Blame MAGA, Marjorie Taylor Greene for debt ceiling crisis, not Biden
TAIPEI, Taiwan  A delegation of United States defense contractors and a former senior leader of the U.S. Marine Corps pledged the beginning of deeper cooperation with Taiwan on Wednesday.

Taiwan has faced increasing pressure from China in the years since Tsai Ing-wen was elected president. China, which claims the island as its territory, has poached Taiwans diplomatic allies and sent military planes and ships toward the island on a near-daily basis. It also held large-scale drills modeling a blockade and simulated strikes on important targets on the island twice within the past year.

Speaking at a public forum in Taiwans capital Taipei, retired Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder said the U.S. wants to be part of the defense capabilities of Taiwan and improve the supply chain resilience of the island. He also emphasized how critical the islands position is for security.

For the Asia-Pacific, I would offer theres not another more important area in the world to maintain peace, Rudder said Wednesday morning at the Taiwan-U.S. Defense Industry Forum. So [when] you hear a free and open Indo-Pacific, this is a small part of ensuring that shared vision remains intact.

We want to be part of the self-defense capabilities of Taiwan.

U.S. lawmakers have called on the Biden administration to follow through on the nearly $19 billion in military sales items they say were approved but not yet delivered to Taiwan.

Rudder, who was in charge of Marine Corps operations in the Pacific, said the visit was within the United States multiple agreements with China and laws related to Taiwan, such as the Taiwan Relations Act, which requires Washington to ensure Taiwan can defend itself. The legislation was enacted decades ago when the U.S. government first recognized China and broke off official diplomatic relations with Taipei.

The event was co-hosted by a trade group from the U.S. and another from Taiwan as the public-facing portion of the defense contractors visit.

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Although its unclear whether the groups will sign specific deals, local media reported the United States was looking at cooperation in production of certain products. Part of that cooperation would be ensuring both sides can work together to use the weapons systems Taiwan bought alongside the islands existing self-produced defense capabilities. Washington is Taipeis largest unofficial partner and the supplier of a vast majority of Taiwans defense purchases.

Ill say it very simply: The endgame is joint interoperability, Rudder said.

A group of about 20 activists protested outside. American warmongers are a scourge on Taiwan, read one of the banners.

Protesters shout and hold posters outside the Taipei International Convention Center during the Taiwan-U.S. Defense Industry Forum in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 3, 2023. (Chiang Ying-ying/AP)

They sell all sorts of outdated ammunition to Taiwan and make tens of billions of U.S. dollars from Taiwan every year, said David Chien, vice chair of the Blue Sky Action Alliance, which supports unification with China.

Between 6 a.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday, 27 Chinese military planes and a drone flew toward Taiwan, according to Taiwans Defense Ministry. The drone encircled the island, according to a flight map from the ministry, while seven maritime vessels sailed the waters close by. It was the second time in the past week that a drone circled the island, in what appears to be a new tactic for China to exert military pressure on Taiwan.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, joins street drummers from the Olodum Afro-Brazilian cultural center in Salvador, Brazil

The United States and Brazil pledged Wednesday to do more together to combat racism, with the Americas' most populous countries saying they again saw common cause after the exit of leaders who championed white grievances.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, signed a statement promising cooperation on racial equality with Brazil on a visit to the Atlantic coastal city of Salvador, the historic heart of Brazil's African diaspora, the largest outside of Africa.

Thomas-Greenfield, a member of President Joe Biden's cabinet, spontaneously picked up a mallet to join a troupe of Afro-Brazilian drummers performing on the cobblestone streets and later toured a square where white enforcers once publicly whipped African-descended slaves.

The ambassador on her three-day visit to Brazil has described how she grew up in segregated Louisiana with an illiterate father and credited affirmative action in university admissions -- a longstanding point of controversy in both the United States and Brazil -- with providing her with opportunities.

"Like so many, I have been subjected to racism all my life -- every single place I've been, all around the world," the 70-year-old told a news conference in Salvador.

"I have been called racial slurs and I face discrimination in all kinds of contexts and yet, despite the prevalence and pitfalls of racism, I made it through. I've risen to the highest ranks of the United States government in a country that once enslaved my ancestors," she said.

"President Biden chose me to be the face of the United States at the United Nations -- our representative to the world. That shows how much progress our country has made."

For the Biden administration, the fights against both racism and climate change mark bright points in the relationship with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who returned in January after defeating right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro, a close ally of former US president Donald Trump.

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Lula has irritated the United States by accusing the West of aggravating the war in Ukraine through its arms shipments -- an issue raised by Thomas-Greenfield a day earlier in Brasilia.

- 'International respect' -

In Salvador, Thomas-Greenfield met Anielle Franco, appointed by Lula as Brazil's first minister for racial equality, to sign a statement that will set up a dialogue between the two countries on increasing access to health and education and combatting violence against racial minorities.

The statement also renewed an exchange program between historically Black US colleges and universities and Brazilian institutions, and promised continued US financial support for civil society groups in Brazil as well as Colombia, which also has a significant population of African descent.

The statement marked a repeat of pledges made on a 2008 visit to Salvador by then-US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, a Republican. Trump shifted the tone of the Republican Party by promising to give a voice to white resentment, particularly against immigrants.

The US Supreme Court, now dominated by conservatives, is expected in the coming months to restrict the use of race in university admissions.

Brazil acted later than the United States, in 2012 starting a quota system for public universities. Lula went further in March by promising that 30 percent of federal government jobs will go to people of color.

Franco -- whose sister, a Rio de Janeiro councilwoman, was assassinated in 2018 -- said that Brazil was "reacquiring international respect" after an election that pitted against each other "barbarism and democracy."

"Brazil is back, so we can find our place internationally again, so we can promote more equality," she said.

Alluding to Bolsonaro, she said that Brazil no longer "has a president who affirms that he would rather than his son be dead than date a Black woman."

Black people face persistent inequality in both the United States and Brazil, which abolished slavery in 1865 and 1888, respectively.

In the United States, the average Black family's net wealth is around 13 times less than of an average non-Hispanic white family, according to Census figures.

sct/caw
The White House predicts that the expected counteroffensive of Ukrainian troops will turn into "carnage".

Source: The Washington Post, citing government sources

Details: "The rate at which Russian forces are being killed or wounded in Ukraine has spiked in recent months, according to estimates disclosed by the White House this week," the Washington Post says: since December alone, some 20,000 Russians have been killed in action, and another 80,000 have been wounded.

According to US officials, many of these casualties have occurred in Bakhmut. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby has said that nearly half of those 20,000 dead Russians are Wagner Group fighters, particularly convicts recruited to the front.

The US has said that such fierce fighting shows that the bloody carnage may become even worse after the start of Kyiv's counteroffensive to retake the occupied territories.

An intelligence leak at the end of February, obtained by the Washington Post, showed that 42,500 Russian soldiers and up to 17,000 Ukrainians have died in combat since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who has closely followed the conflict, said that Russian forces have suffered significant losses during the winter offensive in Vuhledar, Kreminna, Marinka and elsewhere. "When youre attacking, youre typically going to take more casualties," Lee noted.

Given this, he suggests that a Ukrainian counteroffensive may face similar obstacles and increase the number of casualties among Ukrainian soldiers.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

A US department of labor investigation uncovered child labor violations at three McDonalds locations in Kentucky, which included finding two 10-year-olds working unpaid, sometimes until 2am.

The three McDonalds franchisees cited in the investigation own a total of 62 locations across Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio, and were found to employ 305 children working more than legally permitted hours and performing job tasks prohibited by law for their age.

Civil penalties totaling $212,754 were issued against the franchisees for the violations.

Related: Dumb and dangerous: US sees surge in efforts to weaken child labor regulations

The franchisees include Bauer Food, based in Louisville; Archways Richwood, based in Walton, Kentucky; and Bell Restaurant Group, also based in Louisville. About 93% of McDonalds locations worldwide are operated by franchisees.

The investigation found the franchisees employed 14- and 15-year-olds who were working outside of and over the number of hours minors are permitted to work, and exceeding the daily and weekly limits  including cases where the workers were on the job during school hours.

The news comes as states across the US have moved to relax child labor laws.

Karen Garnett-Civils of the labor department said: We are seeing an increase in federal child labor violations, including allowing minors to operate equipment or handle types of work that endangers them or employs them for more hours or later in the day than federal law allows.

An employer who hires young workers must know the rules. An employer, parent or young worker with questions can contact us for help understanding their obligations and rights under the law.

The child labor violations are the latest among several recent cases involving McDonalds franchises.

In February, the labor department fined a franchise operator of seven McDonalds restaurants in the Pennsylvania towns of Erie and Warren for illegally allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to work at times and over hours not permitted by federal child labor laws, and cases of assigning nine workers under the age of 16 to operate deep fryers.

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The violations affected 154 minor employees at the restaurants and led to a fine of $92,107.

Another Pennsylvania-based McDonalds franchisee, the owner of 13 locations in the Pittsburgh area, was fined in December for child labor violations covering 101 minor workers. The violations include allowing the children to work later than 9pm, more than eight hours on school days, more than 18 hours during school weeks, and more than three hours a day and after 7pm on school days. A civil penalty of $57,332 was assessed for those violations.

In June last year, a McDonalds franchisee in Tennessee was fined $3,258 for illegally assigning a 15-year-old worker to use a deep fryer, considered a hazardous job task not permitted for minors. The child suffered a burn while doing so.
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. House lawmakers are requesting information from Nike Inc., Adidas AG and at least two other companies on whether they are importing products derived from forced labor in China.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Republican Representative Mike Gallagher, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and the panels top Democrat, Raja Krishnamoorthi, sent letters to the companies Tuesday. They also wrote to the Chinese-owned shopping platforms Shein and Temu.

The US has accused China of requiring Uyghurs in the countrys Xinjiang region to work against their will, part of a broader government campaign of genocide.

In response, Congress passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2021, increasing sanctions and trade restrictions. The law bans goods from Xinjiang from being imported into the US, with the presumption that it is a product of forced labor. China has been accused of widespread human rights abuses against the largely Muslim Uyghurs. China has repeatedly rejected allegations of human rights abuses and genocide.

In their letter, the US lawmakers say they are seeking to determine whether the companies are compliant with the legislation. They asked the companies a range of questions, including where materials for products are sourced and what steps the companies have taken to examine their supply chains since the law was passed.

Gallagher, from Wisconsin, and Krishnamoorthi of Illinois wrote in the letter that during a March hearing, experts alleged that both Nike and Adidas were sourcing garments made from material from Xinjiang.

Continuing to import goods produced in part with the forced labor of Uyghurs potentially violates the UFLPA and creates the conditions in which the CCP is able to continue committing genocide, the lawmakers wrote.

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Adidas didnt immediately comment early Wednesday. Its shares declined as much as 0.7% in early German trading.

Nike didnt immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday night.

In a statement, Shein said it has no suppliers in the Xinjiang region and has zero tolerance for forced labor.

We take visibility across our entire supply chain seriously, and we are committed to respecting human rights and adhering to local laws in each market we operate in, the company said. Our suppliers must adhere to a strict code of conduct.

(Updates with Adidas shares in eighth paragraph)

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WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. and Mexican officials have agreed on new immigration policies meant to deter illegal border crossings while also opening up other pathways ahead of an expected increase in migrants following the end of pandemic restrictions next week.

Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall spent Tuesday meeting with Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and other top officials, emerging with a five-point plan, according to statements from both nations.

Under the agreement, Mexico will continue to accept migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua who are turned away at the border, and up to 100,000 individuals from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador who have family in the U.S. will be eligible to live and work there.

Despite sharing a 1,951-mile border with the U.S., Mexico had been notably absent from the rollout last week of a fresh set of efforts, including the creation of hubs outside the United States where migrants could go to apply to legally settle in the U.S., Spain or Canada. The first centers will open in Guatemala and Colombia.

The COVID-19 restrictions have allowed U.S. officials to turn away tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border, but those restrictions will lift May 11, and border officials are bracing for a surge. Even with the restrictions, the administration has seen record numbers of people crossing the border, and President Joe Biden has responded by cracking down on those who cross illegally and by creating new avenues meant as alternatives to a dangerous and often deadly journey.

Mexico's support is critical to any push by the U.S. to clamp down at the southern border, particularly as migrants from nations from as far away as Haiti are making the trek on foot up through Mexico, and are not easily returned back to their home countries.

With Mexico now behind the U.S., plus an announcement Tuesday that 1,500 active-duty U.S. troops are deploying south for administrative support, and other crackdown measures in place, border officials believe they may be able to manage overcrowding and other possible issues that might arise once the COVID-19 restrictions end.

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Biden, who announced his Democratic reelection campaign a week ago, is trying to signal his administration is making a serious effort to tamp down the number of illegal crossings, which has been a potent source of Republican attacks. He also is trying to send a message to potential border crossers not to attempt the journey.

But the effort also draws potentially unwelcome comparisons to Bidens Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, whose policies Biden frequently criticized. Congress, meanwhile, has refused to take any substantial immigration-related actions.

The U.S. will continue to turn away Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who cross illegally. Mexico said Tuesday it would continue to accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from the four countries that are making up a ballooning share of the overall illegal border crossings, with no easy way to quickly return migrants to their home countries.

According to data on asylum seekers in Mexico, people from Haiti remained at the top with 18,860 so far this year, higher than the total for the whole of 2022.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is accepting 30,000 people per month from the four nations for two years and offering them the ability to legally work, as long as they come legally, have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks.

The administration also plans to swiftly screen migrants seeking asylum at the border itself, quickly deport those deemed as not being qualified, and penalize people who cross illegally into the U.S. or illegally move through another country on their way to the U.S. border.

In addition, 1,500 active-duty personnel will be deployed to the border area for 90 days and will be pulled from the Army and Marine Corps. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will look to backfill those troops with National Guard or Reserve troops during that period, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said. There are already 2,500 National Guard members at the border. They are not working in a law enforcement capacity, but their mere presence sends a message.

Then-President Trump deployed active-duty troops to the border to assist border patrol personnel in processing large migrant caravans, on top of National Guard forces that were already working in that capacity.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre downplayed any similarity between Biden's immigration management and Trump's use of troops during his term. DOD personnel have been supporting CBP at the border for almost two decades now, she said. So this is a common practice.

But some in Biden's own party objected to the decision.

The Biden administrations militarization of the border is unacceptable," said Senate Committee on Foreign Relations chair Bob Menendez, D-N.J. There is already a humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, and deploying military personnel only signals that migrants are a threat that require our nations troops to contain. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Pentagon on Tuesday approved a request for troops made by the Department of Homeland Security, which manages the border.

As a condition for Austins previous approval of National Guard troops to the border through Oct. 1, Homeland Security had to agree to work with the White House and Congress to develop a plan for longer-term staffing solutions and funding shortfalls to maintain security and immigration processing without the use of Defense Department resources, Pentagon officials said.

As part of the agreement, the Pentagon has requested quarterly updates from Homeland Security on how it would staff its border mission without service members. It was not immediately clear if those updates have happened or if border officials will be able to meet their terms of the agreement  particularly under the strain of another expected migrant surge.

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Tara Copp, Zeke Miller, Rebecca Santana, Lolita Baldor and Michael Balsamo in Washington and Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  The U.S. and the Philippines unveiled guidance on Wednesday to modernize their alliance in the face of an increasingly assertive China, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visits Washington this week.

The Pentagon released the bilateral defense guidelines to modernize cooperation after Marcos meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Secretary Austin and President Marcos reaffirmed the United States and the Philippines ironclad alliance commitments under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty and their shared resolve to defend against armed attacks on their aircraft, public vessels, and armed forces  to include their respective Coast Guards  in the Pacific, including anywhere in the South China Sea, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

The leaders discussed ways to coordinate more closely with like-minded nationsincluding Australia and Japanto strengthen shared principles, including the rule of law, freedom of the seas and respect for territorial sovereignty, he said in a statement.

The updated alliance framework commits the U.S. to helping the Philippines modernize its military and states that the countries will collaborate on a security sector assistance roadmap to identify priority defense platforms and force packages that will bolster combined deterrence and capacity to resist coercion.

It says the countries will prioritize interoperable platforms while expanding investments in non-materiel defense capacity building including through education and training exchanges, exercises and other operation activities. It also vows to expand maritime security cooperation, including but not limited to joint patrols.

The countries updated the 2014 Enhanced Defense Security Cooperation Agreement earlier this year, giving U.S. patrols additional access to four additional Philippine bases. Austin and Marcos discussed plans to to swiftly operationalize the four new basing sites in Northern Luzon and Palawan.

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Marcos efforts to deepen the U.S.-Philippines alliance marks a significant departure from his predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte who at one time publicly threatened to expel American forces.

Aircraft, vessel transfers

China frequently accosts Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, and President Joe Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defending its allies when he hosted Marcos at the White House Monday.

The administration also announced that the U.S. would transfer three C-130H military transport aircraft to the Philippines as well as two Island-class patrol and two Protector-class patrol vessels.

Congress needs to approve most U.S. arms transfers to foreign countries, and Marcos also met with several lawmakers on Wednesday.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and top Republican James Risch of Idaho hosted a meeting with Marcos and other senators.

Risch said the opportunities to deepen military cooperation and capacity between our two countries are vital.

His meeting on Capitol Hill came the same day that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced the drafting of a new bipartisan China bill that will stress enhanced security cooperation with Pacific allies such as the Philippines.




Korea and Australia shared ideas on expanding cooperation in a wide array of economic issues, ranging from supply chains to energy, the finance ministry said Wednesday.







First vice Finance Minister Bang Ki-sun met his Australian counterpart, Andrew Leigh, on the sidelines of the 56th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank in Incheon, 27 kilometers west of Seoul.







During the meeting, Bang expressed hope for solidifying ties with Australia in terms of the global supply chains under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.







Korea and Australia are two of the 14 member states involved in the U.S.-led economic initiative, which focuses on four key areas: trade, supply chains, the clean economy and the fair economy.







Leigh also said Australia wishes to expand ties with Korea in the electric vehicle industry.







Bang noted that Korea will continue cooperation with Australia to find strategies to cope with climate change as well. (Yonhap)


The US has offered a $10 million reward for a Russian national accused of running a stolen credit card operation

The United States offered a reward of up to $10 million on Wednesday for a Russian national accused of running a stolen credit card operation.

Denis Gennadievich Kulkov, in an indictment unsealed by a US District Court in New York, is charged with device fraud, computer intrusion and money laundering.

Kulkov, 43, is accused of founding an electronic platform called Try2Check that helped cybercriminals verify whether stolen credit cards were valid.

"As such, Try2Check was a primary enabler of the trade in stolen credit card information, processing at minimum tens of millions of card numbers every year," the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said.

It said the United States and partners in Germany and Austria had collaborated to take Try2Check's websites offline.

"Try2Check can no longer serve as a vehicle for continued criminal activity or illicit profits," US Secret Service special agent Patrick Freaney said in a statement.

The State Department and Secret Service said a reward of up to $10 million had been offered for information leading to the arrest and capture of Kulkov, who lives in Russia.

According to the indictment, Kulkov created Try2Check in 2005, "building it into a primary tool of the illicit credit card trade."

"The platform offered its users -- individuals who stole bulk credit card numbers on the internet -- the ability to quickly determine the validity of a credit card number," the indictment said.

To carry out its card-checking, Try2Check allegedly obtained unauthorized access to the servers of a major US-based payment processor.

The payment processor was not identified in the indictment.

Kulkov was alleged to have made at least $18 million in bitcoin through the Try2Check operation, purchasing a Ferrari and other luxury items, according to the US Attorney's Office.

Kulkov potentially faces up to 20 years in prison.

cl/des
US Republicans offered no details of allegations against President Joe Biden, pictured at the White House on May 1, 2023

US Republicans subpoenaed the FBI Wednesday for a document they said details an "alleged criminal scheme" involving a foreign national and Joe Biden -- although they made no specific allegations against the president.

The June 2020 record outlines a whistleblower's information on "then-vice president Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions," two senior lawmakers said in a letter to the bureau.

The Republicans in the House of Representatives, who have been criticized in the past for expensive investigations targeting top Democrats that ended up falling flat, are giving the FBI a week to turn over any relevant information.

The document they are seeking is "an FBI-generated FD-1023 form," House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley said in a joint statement.

"It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose," they wrote to FBI director Christopher Wray and his boss, Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Comer and other Republicans have been leading sprawling investigations into Biden and his family that have been criticized as lacking focus and failing to come up with a "smoking gun" to support corruption claims.

Wednesday's subpoena was their first to mention the president directly -- marking an escalation in their attempts to link the 80-year-old Democrat to wrongdoing.

"The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself," Comer said, without providing details of any accusations against the Democrat.

- 'Trafficking in innuendo' -

The White House dismissed the probe as another example of Republicans improperly targeting the president for partisan ends.

"For going on five years now, Republicans in Congress have been lobbing unfounded politically motivated attacks against (the president) without offering evidence for their claims. Or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than US interests. They prefer trafficking in innuendo," Biden's spokesman Ian Sams said.

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"When it comes to President Biden's personal finances, anybody can take a look: he has offered an unprecedented level of transparency, releasing a total of 25 years of tax returns to the American public."

The House Republicans have long signaled plans to turn the tables on Democrats after years of criminal and civil investigations into former president Donald Trump.

Kevin McCarthy signposted sweeping plans to "hold the Swamp accountable" after winning the speaker's gavel in January, launching probes on topics ranging from the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan to "the weaponization of the FBI."

Democrats say the point is to undermine ongoing investigations into Trump misconduct, including around the 2021 assault on the US Capitol, and more broadly to muddy the waters ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Republicans spent two years and $7 million in taxpayer money investigating the deadly 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, but fell short of concluding that then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton or then-president Barack Obama bore direct personal responsibility

McCarthy admitted in 2015 the Benghazi select committee was launched to damage Clinton's credibility in advance of the 2016 presidential campaign, which she eventually lost to Trump.

ft/caw
Xi himself also made a rare direct rebuke of Washington this week, accusing "Western countries led by the United States" of trying to thwart China's rise

US senators announced a major cross-party effort Wednesday to combat China's growing global influence by limiting the flow of investment and state-of-the-art technology to the Asian giant while deterring any potential threat to Taiwan.

The push comes after President Joe Biden signed a package last year aimed at boosting competition with Washington's main economic rival, with $52 billion in new subsidies for microchip manufacturing and scientific research.

Launching the latest legislative drive in the Democratic-led Senate, majority leader Chuck Schumer framed the fight to rein in President Xi Jinping's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as an epochal struggle.

"The Chinese government is not constraining itself in its pursuit to dominate the 21st century, and if we in America were to rest on our laurels, if we let the CCP beat us, it would have serious consequences for the world's democratic nations," he said.

"The United States cannot afford to cede its leadership to governments opposed to democracy and individual liberty. We cannot let authoritarianism call the shots in the 21st century."

Schumer and 11 of his most senior lieutenants held a news conference to outline a five-step plan aimed at addressing competition from China, which has seen its economy grow more than tenfold since the turn of the century.

- Rare rebuke -

The New York Democrat said lawmakers would look at export controls and sanctions limiting Beijing's ability to acquire -- "and even steal" -- US innovations in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other advanced tech.

The US Treasury and Commerce Department would get new authority to screen and halt the flow of cash to China's high tech industries, he added.

The drive will also look at assisting small business, building a US workforce "for the future" and strengthening the process for assessing the national security implications of inward foreign investments.

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Relations between Beijing and Washington have been declining steadily for years, with the rivals locking horns over trade, human rights and the origins of Covid-19.

A planned visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in February was canceled after the United States shot down a Chinese balloon it said was conducting surveillance over US territory -- a claim strenuously denied by Beijing.

Chinese diplomats have kept up a steady drumbeat of criticism against the Biden administration, and Xi himself made a rare direct rebuke of Washington in March, accusing "Western countries led by the United States" of trying to undermine his country.

Meanwhile Washington has been a critic of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative -- which has invested $840 billion in roads, bridges, ports and hospitals in more than 150 nations over a decade -- arguing that it lures poor countries into debt traps with huge, unaffordable loans.

- 'Helping hand' -

Schumer said the United States and its allies were ready to cooperate on providing an alternative infrastructure funding source that "actually benefits those countries looking for a helping hand."

The final element of the push will be proposals to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing and, crucially, the global leader in manufacturing high-end microchips.

Schumer did not offer specifics but said the plan would build on bipartisan proposals from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which last year approved $4.5 billion for Taipei's defense over four years and affirmed Biden's power to levy sanctions on Chinese officials and financial institutions involved in actions against the island.

The Senate's committee chairs will spend the coming months working with their Republican counterparts to craft various packages of legislation to achieve the goals set out Wednesday.

"Bottom line: time is not on our side. The Xi Regime is working every day to catch up and surpass the United States," Schumer said.

"There is no reason our two parties here in the Congress... can't come together and send a strong message to the Chinese government that we're united in this pressing national security effort and we are committed to maintaining America's lead in the future."

ft/md
The U.S. is sending Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous amount of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition as the launch of a spring offensive against Russian forces approaches, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The new package includes Hydra-70 rockets, which are unguided rockets that are fired from aircraft. It also includes an undisclosed number of rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, mortars, howitzer rounds, missiles and Carl Gustaf antitank rifles. The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been formally announced.

The latest shipment comes as Ukrainian officials say they are readying a counteroffensive  with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov declaring they are in the home stretch, when we can say: Yes everything is ready. Ukrainian officials have said they are stockpiling ammunition to stow it along potentially long supply lines.

Reznikov said Monday that the key things for the assaults success would be the availability of weapons; prepared, trained people; our defenders and defenders who know their plan at their level, as well as providing this offensive with all the necessary things  shells, ammunition, fuel, protection, etc.

The U.S. in recent months has declined to say exactly how much materiel will be sent to Ukraine, but the latest package resembles other previous deliveries. Officials said there will also be trucks, trailers, spare parts, and other maintenance assistance.

This is the 37th package of Pentagon stocks to go to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022, and it brings the total U.S. military aid to about $36 billion.

Officials have said the weapons and other equipment will help as Ukraine prepares to shift from what has been a long and bloody winter stalemate, focused on heavy fighting in Ukraines east, particularly around the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk province.

The General Staff of Ukraines armed forces said Russia was continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraines industrial east, focusing attacks around Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka.
By Karen Lema

(Reuters) - The United States stands with treaty ally the Philippines in the face of harassment by China's coast guard in the South China Sea and remains deeply concerned about "intimidation" by Beijing, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.

A visit to the United States this week by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr highlights the strength and endurance of the alliance between the two countries, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel J. Kritenbrink said.

The Philippines on Friday accused China's coast guard of "dangerous manoeuvres" and "aggressive tactics" in the South China Sea, in another maritime confrontation between the two countries. China said the Philippines vessels made "deliberate provocative moves".

"We remain deeply concerned by (China's) continued intimidation and harassment of Philippine vessels as they continue to undertake really routine patrols within the Philippine exclusive economic zone," he said in a teleconference from the United States.

"Such actions and behaviour on the part of Beijing are truly unacceptable."

Kritenbrink also said the United States and its partners recognised the importance of maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait.

The Philippines and United States on Monday reaffirmed their decades-old security alliance in a trip that marks a dramatic turnaround in their relations, as both countries seek ways to push back China's assertiveness near Taiwan and in the South China Sea.

U.S. President Joe Biden told Marcos on Monday said the U.S. commitment to defending its treaty ally was "ironclad". Marcos said the region had "arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now."

Under Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos' anti-U.S. predecessor, relations soured as he sought to court China while openly rebuking Washington.

Kritenbrink said he was "exceptionally confident" about bilateral ties.

(Reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Martin Petty)
'Scam Likely' written on a smartphone illustration

Mobile banking apps are leaving customers dangerously exposed to fraud, with users at risk of losing tens of thousands of pounds.

A report by consumer group Which? found banking apps were too easily compromised by fraudsters. One customer told Which? scammers had stolen 73,000 from his account after his phone was stolen in a pub.

The thief had been able to bypass security measures on the victims Barclays mobile banking app possibly by taking note of the code the victim used to unlock his phone and then trying similar combinations to access the app.

The scammer could then add an account they controlled as a new payee, and also reset the password on a bulk business payment system.

A recent banking security test by Which? found it was too easy to reset login details, as some apps only request basic information which could be easily obtained by a fraudster.

A Barclays spokesman said: There is no higher priority than the protection of our customers funds and data.

It comes as separate research by charity Age UK found over 65s are being cut off from vital banking services as banks close branches and they are pushed towards digital-only accounts.

Roughly 40pc of older people do not manage their money online, according to the charity.

The charity said bank branch closures had created a growing number of banking deserts across the country.

A poll conducted by Age UK also found 75pc of over-65s with a bank account preferred to visit a branch.

Nearly a third said they felt uncomfortable with online banking, with 28pc citing a lack of IT skills as a reason despite the push towards managing money through apps.

Age UK warned that the rapid closure of branches risks cutting a significant minority of the older population out of an essential service.

Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, said it was crucial for banks to meet continued demand for in-person services among the older population.

She said: We need to face up to the fact that huge numbers of older people, the oldest old especially, are not banking online.

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So-called banking hubs, intended to replace individual bank branches in smaller towns, have launched in recent years.

But Ms Abrahams added that there were concerns about the delay between a towns last bank branch closing down and a hub becoming operational.

Maybe we need a new rule whereby if they want to close a branch, they have to provide communities with enough notice for a hub to come on stream before all the traditional face to face banking services there disappear, she added.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
The U.S. Navy's newest supercarrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, has departed its homeport in Virginia on its second-ever operational deployment. This is also the ship's first full-length cruise after continuing to suffer from various technical issues and other setbacks following its official delivery four years ago.

https://twitter.com/Warship_78/status/1653550053129068550 https://twitter.com/US2ndFleet/status/1653482849608118278?s=20

The Ford is expected to conduct routine operations in waters around Europe, at least initially according to a report from Navy Times. The carrier did conduct a brief operational deployment into the Atlantic last year, which included exercising with European allies and partners, but the Navy itself admitted this was more of a stress test of the general capabilities of the long-troubled ship.

On this first true operational deployment, Ford is now set to take the place of the Nimitz class carrier USS George H.W. Bush. That carrier returned to Norfolk over the weekend after completing an eight-month cruise that took it to various locations around Europe and the Middle East. Bush's deployment had been extended in the wake of deadly attacks on U.S. forces in Syria in March, according to USNI News.

https://twitter.com/WarshipCam/status/1653505862168719360?s=20 https://twitter.com/WarshipCam/status/1653503151746568214?s=20

"She [the Ford] earned all of her certifications and met all the requirements to deploy. Shes designated to deploy the first week of May," Navy Capt. Brian Metcalf, head of the Ford class carrier program office, said back in April, per USNI News. "We expect that to be at least a six-month deployment."

The Navy had announced that the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group (GRFCSG) had successfully completed its Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX) on April 3. COMPTUEXs are the capstone training events for carrier strike groups working up to their next deployment and have a particular focus on stress-testing their defensive capabilities.

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At that time, the Navy said the GRFCSG consisted of the following elements:

"The staffs of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 12, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 2. Participating units include Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60), and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Ramage (DDG 61), USS McFaul (DDG 74) and USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116). CVW-8 squadrons include the 'Black Lions' of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 213, the 'Tomcatters' of VFA-31, the 'Ragin Bulls' of VFA-37 and the 'Golden Warriors' of VFA-87; Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 142; the 'Bear Aces' of Airborne Command and Control Squadron (VAW) 124; the 'Rawhides' of Fleet Logistics Squadron VRC-40; the 'Spartans' of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 70; and the 'Tridents' of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 9."

The listed squadrons here include ones equipped with F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets, EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning and control planes, and Seahawk helicopters. It's not immediately clear if the mention of VRC-40 is in error since that unit was expected to be redesignated as Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Squadron 40 (VRM-40) as part of its transition from the C-2 Greyhound Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) aircraft to its replacement, the CMV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor.

Navy Times reported today that the destroyers Ramage, McFaul, and Thomas Hudner had or were also preparing to leave port today as part of this deployment, but made no mention of the cruiser Normandy. Carrier strike groups are typically accompanied during their deployments by one or more attack submarines, as well.

Exactly what Ford's deployment now may entail very much remains to be seen. The ship is heading toward Europe, a region that continues to be in the midst of its most serious security crisis in years with Russia's war in Ukraine. There has been a notable spike in friction between the United States and various parties in the Middle East recently, too.

USS Ramage leaves Norfolk on May 2. USN

Our presence at sea throughout the deployment will provide reassurance to our allies and partners that sea lanes will remain open, and our joint operations will demonstrate our commitment to interoperability and maritime stability, Navy Rear Adm. Greg Huffman, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 12, said in a statement, according to USNI News.

At the same time, it is a significant milestone for the ship, which has struggled for years to reach a true operational state despite its formal delivery to the Navy in 2019. Over the years, Ford has faced major problems with its advanced electromagnetic aircraft catapults and electronically-tuned arresting gear, weapon elevators, radars, and other systems. This in turn has led to ballooning costs for Ford and the other planned ships in the class. The Navy long ago now officially capped Ford's price tag at $13.2 billion, which was already nearly $3 billion more than originally expected.

The issues with the catapults and arresting gear have been among the most significant. This is because the Navy has long touted the systems as giving Ford and subsequent ships in this class valuable increased sortie generation rates compared to their Nimitz class predecessors. In April, Capt. Metcalf said that this deployment was expected to give the service an opportunity to collect hard operational data to show whether or not those expectations are in fact the reality, according to USNI News.

Ford begins to move away from the pier on May 2 as it sets out on its first real operational deployment. USN

Many eyes will certainly be on Ford and its crew now as it conducts this historic deployment, one that couldn't come soon enough for the Navy.

Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com
People gather at the historic Pioneer Courthouse for a "Constitution Day" event in St. George on Sept. 17. Politicians in Utah were celebrating on Wednesday, touting their policies as being behind the Beehive State's top ranking as the "No. 1 Best State Overall" in a new report from U.S. News and World Report.

Politicians in Utah were celebrating on Wednesday, touting their policies as being behind the Beehive State's top ranking as the "No. 1 Best State Overall" in a new report from U.S. News and World Report.

The report analyzed more than 70 metrics in eight categories: health care, education, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, natural environment, and crime and corrections. Utahs successes were showcased as it measured in the top 15 in six of the eight categories, with No. 1 in economy and fiscal stability.

"Our states persistent focus on strengthening our economy and empowering citizens to reach their greatest potential is the reason Utah ranked the best state overall," Utah's Senate President, Republican J. Stuart Adams, said of the report in a celebratory press release sent out by the state's legislative leaders.

The state has received praise from various publications over the past year for its fast bounceback from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, often celebrated for its emphasis on innovation, collaboration, and education, as well as its creation of diverse industries.

In the U.S. News and World Report article on Utah's ranking, the state is lauded for its strong economic performance and a comparatively highly educated population  the state was tied with Hawaii at 13th out of the states for its share of the population 25 and older who have earned at least an associate degree.

Fall foliage covers the landscape in Dixie National Forest on Oct. 1.

The state's natural beauty and high scores on health and wellness were also strong factors, as well as its emphasis on family and career opportunities.

Still, the state ranked low on several measures, listed at 46th in the "natural environment" category of the rankings despite its vast outdoors, mostly because of problems with pollution and long-term worries about prominent features like the Great Salt Lake.

The state also faces challenges when it comes to diversity and inclusion, ranking 48th in the "equality" subcategory, with low marks for its income and labor force participation gaps by gender and race.

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Unique Utah

A sign welcomes motorists across the state line from Arizona to Utah where Colorado City and Hildale straddle the state line east of St. George.

Comparing Utah to other states can get tricky, thanks to its unusual demographics and unique cultural makeup, and the state often ends up near the top  and sometimes at the bottom  of all types of state-by-state evaluations and rankings.

The state is the youngest in the country with a median age of 31.8, seven years younger than the national average, meaning it tends to have higher numbers of children, a higher percentage of working-age adults and a healthier population overall.

The cultural influence of the state's predominant religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, weighs heavily as well, as the state also often compares favorably on factors like community involvement and volunteerism. It also tends to rate well on health and wellness measures, due largely to the comparatively low percentages of people who smoke or consume alcohol.

The state's homogeneity plays a factor in rankings as well, as the discrepancies that show up between racial and ethnic groups affect a smaller percentage of the population.

Rankings tell a national story

People attend an abortion-rights rally at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, June 24, 2022.

This is the fifth time U.S. News and World Report produced the rankings, which were last released in 2021. According to the outlet, "the data behind the rankings aims to show how well states serve their residents in a variety of ways."

The study showed national improvements in preventable hospital admissions among Medicare beneficiaries and a rise in the business creation rate. But it noted a rise in the age-adjusted rate of mortality.

With the economic and social devastation caused by COVID-19 pandemic finally slowing down, U.S. News analysis of state data during that time reveals some bright spots  including a rise in the business creation rate. Unsurprisingly, the hardships Americans faced were also apparent  from soaring retail electricity costs to asignificant rise in the mortality rate, Morgan Felchner, executive editor for news and events, said in a statement.

Citizens, business leaders and policymakers will benefit from the 2023 Best States data-driven journalism and rankings to see how well states are performing and gain insights on both state and national levels.

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Utah called 'No. 1 Best State' in U.S. News and World Report rankings
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Growing up in Saitama, Japan, Yoko Hasebe didn't dream of sushi. From the age of 7, she studied ballet and later jazz dance at the Nihon University College of Art in Tokyo. Fate brought her to California and a series of jobs at Japanese restaurants, where she found her way into the kitchen, rolling maki alongside sushi chefs such as Kimiyasu Enya at Enya and Morihiro Onodera of Morihiro.

I loved being in the kitchen, says Hasebe, 29. At first I didnt think I would be able to do both  being a dancer and a chef  but I try anyway.

Between auditions, she learned to make rolls and how to cut fish and eventually prepare nigiri sushi for omakase menus. In 2018, when more and more customers began asking for vegetarian options, Hasebe was asked to design vegan sushi. The requests planted the seed for her future.

Hasebe, who is also a contemporary dancer, makes vegan sushi, trading mackerel for mushrooms, toro for tomatoes, octopus for okra. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

People were asking for it so much, she says. We had a couple vegan rolls and they were popular, but not any nigiri, referring to the hand-shaped style of edomaezushi, the most highly regarded type of sushi  seasoned rice traditionally topped with raw or preserved fish or other seafood. She traded mackerel for mushrooms, toro for tomatoes, octopus for okra.

Hasebe was at the forefront of a trend. Since just the beginning of this year, two vegan sushi restaurants have opened in Los Angeles. Niku Nashi opened in February inside Melrose cocktail bar APB, with menu options such as a spicy no tuna hand roll and a dragon roll with cream cheese, asparagus, seared no eel and avocado. As of January, Kusaki is L.A.s first vegan omakase sushi restaurant. And extensive selections of vegan sushi are served at restaurants such as Ichijiku Sushi in Highland Park, Fiish in Culver City, Vegan Castle in Long Beach and Ma-Kin in Agoura Hills.

Vegetables such as eggplant and tomatoes shine. Hasebe puts finishing touches on a platter of Plant Sushi Yoko nigiri, cut rolls and temari (ball shaped) sushi. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Hasebe is the vegan sushi chef behind Plant Sushi Yoko, which she quietly launched as a delivery and pickup service in 2020 after losing her restaurant job at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and wanting to operate her own business. For Hasebe, its less about a trend and more about chisan-chisho, a local-food approach that started as a grassroots movement in Japan in the 90s in response to agricultural globalization. The phrase means "produced locally, consumed locally," but the concept also puts an emphasis on environmental stewardship and community identity.

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We have so many great vegetables, I want to use the ingredients that are from here, she says, instead of having fish shipped from Japan, which is amazing that we can do that, but I think vegetables speak of California.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Entirely plant-based sushi in L.A. has its roots in Little Tokyo, where restaurant Shojin has served a macrobiotic menu, including vegan sushi, since 2008. The history of vegetarian maki (or all maki sushi), by some accounts, goes back to Buddhist monks in 13th-century Kyoto who devised a technique for rolling their food in dried seaweed.

But Plant Sushi Yoko is thoroughly of the moment.

Hasebe is standing in her kitchen, gently shaping an ingot of sushi rice for nigiri in the palm of her right hand. On the counter in front of her is an array of ingredients and prepared neta, or toppings. Slivers of Fuji apple flank slices of tofu that Hasebe smoked over apple wood. Coins cut from the thick stems of king trumpet mushrooms are butterflied. Corn, sheared from the sides of a cob so that the kernels remain attached to one another in filets, are battered and fried. She bundles asparagus that are thinner than pencils on top of rice, attached with a slender belt of seaweed.

"I used to put a lot of stuff on top of sushi. Yuba with cheese and avocado. Or mango with daikon and chile. Truffle oil. Things like that," she says. "But it has to be more simple. If you put too much, its not wrong; customers wanted that. But I wanted to focus on the flavor of the vegetable, appreciate the raw ingredient for what it is."

Okra is the perfect texture for sushi, Hasebe says. "It's not too crunchy and stiff, perfect with the rice when you chew it." (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

No one would call it traditional, either. "When I started out, I asked, 'How can I evolve sushi that's made by a female chef?' I wanted to make a statement, 'This is what a female sushi chef does, this is what I do.' It had to be different."

Naoko Takei, author and owner of Japanese cookware store Toiro, has worked with Hasebe during cooking demonstrations. "She understands the sensitivity of each ingredient and how to pull out the flavors instead of adding the flavors. She doesn't try to mimic anything, she presents them as original. Now I tell my friends, 'I know a dancer who makes the best vegan sushi in L.A.'"

"This is what a female sushi chef does." Above, a vegan sushi platter by chef Yoko Hasebe, photographed at the L.A. Times Test Kitchen. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

For Hasebe, it's also deeply personal. "I became obsessed with eating and cooking because of body image issues," she says. But sushi became a passion the moment she handed her first nigiri directly to a customer. "To make something in your hands, give it to someone and see them eat it right in front of you, that's a connection."

Now that it's spring she's looking forward to using takenoko, the young sprout that grows from bamboos underground stem. "And okra, it's the perfect texture right now for sushi," she says, "Its not too crunchy and stiff, perfect with the rice when you chew it." Artichokes and beets: "I'm trying to figure out recipes for those."

Vegetables have more variety and more texture than seafood, Hasebe says, and most vegetables go well with sushi rice. "I don't think I've come across a vegetable that I don't like with sushi rice," she says. "That's what I love about it, and I think that's what people love about it too."

Yoko Hasebe, pictured at the Times' Test Kitchen, will be popping up at downtown market Sesame LA on May 20. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Online ordering for Plant Sushi Yoko is available at plantsushiyoko.com/orderonline. Instagram: @plantsushiyoko

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Vermont State House in Montpelier, Vermont John Tully / Stringer/ Getty Images

Vermont has become the first state to nix a residency requirement from its medically assisted death law to allow terminally ill people from out-of-state to take advantage of the offering. Gov. Phil Scot (R) signed a bill on Tuesday amending the decade-old law, which permits "doctors to prescribe life-ending medication to terminally ill people 18 or older," The New York Times reports.

The bill passed Vermont's Senate and House last month after Lynda Bluestein, a 75-year-old Connecticut resident with late-stage cancer, sued the state, arguing that the residency restriction was unconstitutional. As part of the settlement the state reached with Bluestine, Vermont waived the residency requirement for her.

Bluestein said the amendment means that other terminally ill people in the Northeast can take advantage of the law. "I'm thinking even more importantly that this is going to cause other states, the other jurisdictions that have medical aid in dying, to look at their residency requirement, too," she said, per The Associated Press.

Vermont is one of 10 states that have laws permitting medically assisted suicide. Oregon is the only other state that allows non-residents to seek life-ending care in the state after health authorities agreed to stop enforcing the residency restriction as part of a settlement in a similar lawsuit in 2022. "Critics of such laws say without the residency requirements, states risk becoming assisted suicide tourism destinations," AP adds.

Mary Hahn Beerworth, executive director of the Vermont Right to Life Committee, testified before a legislative committee earlier this year that the practice "was, and remains, a matter of contention."

"To be clear, Vermont Right to Life opposed the underlying concept behind assisted suicide and opposes the move to remove the residency requirement as there are still no safeguards that protect vulnerable patients from coercion," she said.

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Participants of a weekly Wednesday rally protesting Japan's wartime sexual slavery of Korean women hold placards criticizing the Yoon Suk Yeol government for its compensation plan for Korean forced labor victims in Jongno District, Seoul, March 8. Korea Times photo by Ha Sang-yoon



Japanese PM unlikely to address historical issues during summit with Yoon: experts



By Lee Hyo-jin



Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida should show reciprocal steps in response to Seoul's efforts to compensate Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor, according to analysts, who pointed out that the Korean public will keenly watch his remarks on the issue in the upcoming summit with President Yoon Suk Yeol.



But at the same time, the experts were skeptical whether the Japanese leader would directly address Japan's wartime atrocities during the meeting as the two nations are expected to focus on bolstering bilateral ties in the fields of security and the economy.



The Yoon government has been stressing the importance of bolstering future-oriented cooperation with the neighboring country, especially in addressing shared security challenges posed by Pyongyang's evolving nuclear prowess, despite criticism from opposition lawmakers of ignoring the demands made by the Korean victims for a sincere apology from Tokyo.



Kishida will arrive in Seoul this Sunday for a summit with Yoon, which will be the fourth face-to-face meeting between the two leaders. The two-day visit by the Japanese prime minister comes less than two months after Yoon traveled to Tokyo for a summit.



For the last couple of months, the neighboring countries have been scrambling to normalize bilateral relations that were frozen for several years due to historical grievances stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula.



Daniel Sneider, a lecturer in East Asian Studies at Stanford University, viewed that Korea played a major role in mending the frayed ties, and thus it is time for Japan to show some corresponding gestures.



"President Yoon made an important step toward dealing with the legacy of unresolved issues from the wartime and colonial past by proposing a unilateral solution to the problem of Korean forced labor," Sneider told The Korea Times in an email interview.



He was referring to a plan unveiled by the Korean government in March to compensate Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor through a public foundation that will be funded primarily by Korean companies, instead of responsible Japanese firms.



While Tokyo welcomed the arrangement, victims and liberal civic groups here denounced the government for completely ignoring the victims' calls for a fresh apology and direct payment from Japan.





President Yoon Suk Yeol shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida after a summit in Tokyo, March 16. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hun
On the side of a South Mint Street building, amoeba-like forms in bright yellows, oranges, blues and greens intermix on the brick canvas. Is that an eyeball? A fish blowing bubbles? Who knows? And thats the point.

Heat Waves Can Be Deadly, painted in 2019 by Dari Calamari, is just one product of the artists free spirit.

I dont plan anything, I just wing it, she said. I hoped it would be a vibrant, colorful piece of ambiguity. I wanted people to look at it and think, This is something I havent seen before.

Watch for Calamari winging it more in the future. After a decade of experiences in other cities and countries, her return home to Charlotte allowed her to achieve her dream of painting murals and shes now putting her stamp on her hometown  including by painting the R in the Black Lives Matter mural on Tryon Street uptown.

Born in Jacksonville, N.C., Calamari, 35, grew up in east Charlotte, eventually moving to Mint Hill with her mother and stepfather. Her father served in the Navy at Camp Lejeune. Siblings and cousins and her grandfather came and went.

Though she moved a lot, art was a constant. When she was young, her parents provided her with art sets and sketchbooks. She attended Butler High School in Matthews and started doodling to keep from dozing off.

I really just started drawing to keep me awake in school and in church, she said. I didnt think I was an artist. I didnt know anyone who was an artist. I just always liked making art.

In those years, she was drawn to the Magic Eye 3D-poster craze and the work of Dutch artist M.C. Escher, known for mathematically influenced art exploring symmetry, reflection and perception.

I like illusions and changes in perception, she said. Landscapes, cityscapes, dogsthey always bored me. Im interested in seeing things that Ive never seen before and things that make my eyes be an active participant in what Im looking at.

Many of her murals, and works on wood and canvas, reflect that style, as well as those of optical art notables Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely.

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Dari Calimari poses for a portrait in front of a mural she painted in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

Flowing with the current

Calamari, or squid, is borrowed into English from the Italian, which comes from medieval Latin calamarium, or pen case, and the Greek kalamos, or pen, with reference to a squids long, tapering internal shell and its ink.

As her name might suggest, Calamari has always just gone with the flow.

In 2005, she began studying art at UNC Charlotte, where she graduated with a concentration in education.

She began teaching at South Mecklenburg High School in 2010, then subbed for a month in a middle school. For a semester, at 22 years old, she taught 9th to 12 graders at Hough High School.

I felt under-equipped and inadequate, she said. She was only a little older than her students. After a semester of classroom rigidity  the lesson planning, structure, grading  she changed course and took on a part-time job as a hostess for kids parties and an after school teacher.

Ive always been around kids, she said, my little cousins, and friends in the neighborhood. I used to babysit a lot.

Then she joined the military.

I made a list of pros and cons, and knew it would buy me some time to figure out something else  four years of someone else telling me what to do and being paid, she said.

But Calamari didnt want to go the same route as her father or sister, both in the Navy, and always loved planes and the concept of flight, so she walked into an Air Force recruiting office on the south side and got a job.

I had never had a desk job, and it sucked a little bit of my soul, she said. Still, while stationed in Augusta, Georgia, as an intelligence analyst, art called her back. I started bringing my sketch pads and pens, and sitting there, trying to stay awake, I got back into drawing.

Calamari was Alaska-bound when, on a whim, she offered to switch places with another Air Force recruit and stay behind in Georgia.

Curiosity drives everything, she said. Whatever mistakes and accidents happen, Im very adaptable.

Art on purpose

In 2016, she moved to Richmond, Virginia, and, in order to get out of the military early, applied to Virginia Commonwealth University, where she studied Spanish, African-American Studies, and Gender and Sexuality for a year.

In Richmond, she was exposed to street art and attended mural festivals and started meeting people like muralist and fine artist Wingchow.

Eventually, Calamari had created enough work to join a RAW artists art show, where she encountered muralist Sir James Thornhill, who asked her to help him with one of his murals.

During these years, she also spent time traveling. I thought I was going to do that in the military, she said. She visited friends in Colorado, Jamaica, Germany, Austria and Brazil.

I was figuring myself out; I wasnt really making art on purpose [before that], she said.

Dari Calimari is seen in front of a mural she painted in Charlotte on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

Home, on a mission

With a newfound urge to paint a wall herself, in 2018, she moved back to Charlotte.

After Googling, murals in Charlotte, she read about a project by artist Georgie Nakima and others going up in NoDa, and jumped in her car to check it out.

I was on the wrong street, when I passed a guy painting a mural, she said. It was artist Nick Napoletano, who reviewed her work and linked her up with another artist, Owl.

Thats how I found everybody else, she said. She eventually connected with muralist and co-founder of Brand the Moth, Sam Guzzie, and began a mural residency. The Mint Street mural is a product of that project.

In 2019, she moved her work into a shared studio space at C3, where she stayed for a year, meeting other artists, observing their processes and creating her own work.

Next, the current is moving her into fashion, designing leggings and hoodies. My goal was to come to Charlotte to paint a mural, and I did that, she said.

When it comes to how shes going to make her mark in fashion, Calamaris not as clear yet. Shes just going to wing it.

More arts coverage

Want to see more stories like this? Sign up here for our free Inside Charlotte Arts newsletter: charlotteobserver.com/newsletters. And you can join our Facebook group, Inside Charlotte Arts, by going here: facebook.com/groups/insidecharlottearts.
As 14 people took turns addressing a Washington County Circuit Court judge on Tuesday regarding the West Virginia man who shot four co-workers  killing three  last June, the word "coward" came up countless times.

One of them was when the surviving co-worker, Brandon Michael, said, "I would like to say, what a coward to come into a room with unarmed men and just start shooting like that."

Michael said he was shot three times on June 9 by Joe Louis Esquivel, a co-worker at Columbia Machine off Bikle Road near Smithsburg.

His wife, Candice, who is a nurse, said she was grateful to the people that helped her husband before EMS personnel responded.

More on Tuesday's hearing: Insanity plea accepted for mass shooter who killed three near Smithsburg

At the end of the roughly three-hour hearing Tuesday morning, Judge Brett R. Wilson confirmed what the surviving victims and family members said they were told almost a month ago by the prosecuting team. That is that Esquivel, 24, will be sent to a state hospital for treatment for schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a major mental disorder in which people may experience a distorted reality and hallucinations.

Before Wilson issued that finding, Michael and family members of the other civilian victims expressed their disappointment in a state judicial system that allows Esquivel to be found not criminally responsible due to mental illness and that he could possibly be released one day if found not a danger to himself or others.

Esquivel is expected to be assigned to the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a maximum-security forensic psychiatric hospital in Howard County.

Crosses hang from a chain link fence outside the Columbia Machine, Inc. building where there workers were killed in a mass shooting in June of 2022.

Mass shooter pleads guilty to several charges

Court officials explained that state experts from the Maryland Department of Health filed a report finding Esquivel was not criminally responsible for his actions that June day, but that he is competent to stand trial.

Early in the hearing, District Public Defender Angela Oetting confirmed Esquivel was pleading guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of first-degree assault with the state stipulating that Esquivel would be found not criminally responsible.

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The remaining 27 charges were dismissed.

More about those lost: Remembering community members killed, injured in Columbia Machine shooting near Smithsburg

The murder charges were for the shooting deaths of Mark Alan Frey, 50, of Waynesboro, Pa.; Charles "C.J." Edward Minnick Jr., 31, of Smithsburg; and Joshua "Josh" Robert Wallace, 30, of the Hagerstown area. One of the attempted murder charges was for shooting Michael, then 42, of the Boonsboro area.

The assault charge was for assaulting Columbia Machine worker Hunter Schlotterbeck, at whom Esquivel pointed a gun before fleeing in his car.

The other two attempted murder charges were for shooting at two Maryland State Police officers after fleeing Columbia Machine in his car.

Families told this would happen: If Smithsburg shooting defendant avoids prison, loved ones say its a slap in the face

Oetting said the health evaluation found Esquivel was in a psychotic state related to his schizophrenia, which had not been previously diagnosed.

Assistant State's Attorney Chris McCormack, noting the families' frustration and disappointment, said the state's attorney's office also is disappointed with the report. Prosecutors rely on state doctors and the state health department on a regular basis for their opinion in some cases.

McCormack referred to the state report saying Esquivel, due to schizophrenia, "lacked substantial capacity" regarding the criminality of his conduct and is not criminally responsible for his actions.

Wilson remanded Esquivel to the Washington County Detention Center to be held until the appropriate order is signed for the state Health Department to transport him to a secure facility "for further treatment and confinement and till such time  if ever " he is found by a preponderance of evidence to not be a danger to himself or others.

New details about shootout with police after Esquivel fled Columbia Machine

Assistant State's Attorney Christine Remsburg said Esquivel was speeding and encountered state police on Md. 66, also known as Mapleville Road, south of Mount Aetna Road.

Remsburg said Lt. Vincent Upole, commander of the Rockville, Md., state police barrack, was returning from delivering paperwork when he heard and responded to the "active shooter" call. He positioned his unmarked Ford Explorer to block Esquivel's car. Witnesses reported Esquivel appeared to speed up when ramming Upole's vehicle, damaging the front end.

Esquivel, from his car, fired shots at Upole, who had exited his SUV, but Remsburg said Upole was able to take cover.

State police Detective Sgt. Phil Martin arrived and exchanged gunfire with Esquivel. Remsburg said Martin shot Esquivel twice, once in the chest and once in the leg.

Esquivel also shot Martin, who recovered and was in court Tuesday along with Upole and other state police officers.

Maryland State Police Detective Sgt. Phil Martin and his wife, Teresa, walk into Washington County Circuit Court on Tuesday morning for the hearing of Joe Esquivel, who killed three workers at Columbia Machine in Smithsburg. Martin was wounded in a shoot-out with Esquivel after he fled his workplace.

Esquivel's gun appeared to jam and he stopped firing, Remsburg said.

Remsburg said Esquivel told police he was firing at them to get the officers to shoot him. She said the defendant told emergency medical personnel he was shooting at officers not only to shoot the officers, but to get them to shoot him.

Packed courthouse for Maryland mass shooting hearing

Esquivel, with shaggy black hair, wore a blue polo shirt, charcoal pants, dark-rimmed glasses and a blue surgical mask as he was escorted into the downtown Hagerstown courthouse's main and largest courtroom.

More than 50 people sat in the court gallery, most of them surviving victims and family members. Around the perimeter of the courtroom and standing a few yards from Esquivel were 13 judicial security officers from the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

As the judge asked Esquivel questions to ensure he understood the proceedings and was in fact guilty of the crimes he was pleading to, Esquivel's standard answer was, "Ah, yes."

Esquivel affirmed he was on medication, as prescribed, that helped him understand what was going on around him. When asked if he had been in a mental health facility before this case, in the care of a psychologist or psychiatrist, Esquivel said, "Ah, no."

Wilson said he'd received and read several impact statements from victims and/or their families.

More from the hearing: Family members of Columbia Machine shooting victims struggle daily

As 14 people took turns at a microphone, sharing the effects the shooting had on their lives, Esquivel sat next to Oetting at the defense table, facing forward toward a wall.

When he first arrived in the courtroom, Esquivel did not appear to be shaking. As victims and loved ones spoke, he could be seen slightly trembling in his seat.

Statements from public defender, state's attorney

Oetting, in a statement emailed by the public defender's media contact, wrote, "Our criminal law recognizes the impact of psychosis and schizophrenia on criminal responsibility, but it does not minimize the tragedy of this case. The victims, their families, and the community have suffered immeasurably. The magnitude of loss, grief, and pain cannot adequately be expressed.

"Active psychosis is a dramatic, delusional, debilitating state that deprives one of rational thought. Consistent with the law in Maryland and every other state, the States Attorney and the Court have acknowledged that the presence of criminal intent, as required by law, is impossible for someone in that condition. We are grateful that Mr. Esquivel will receive the treatment that he needs, in the custody of the Department of Health," Oetting wrote.

Washington County State's Attorney Gina Cirincion was in the court gallery during the hearing. After the hearing, she said, "We share the disappointment that the families are feeling. This was a heartbreaking conclusion to a terrible tragedy, and we appreciate how many people addressed the court on behalf of their loved ones."

Cirincion said Esquivel's mental health will be evaluated annually. If his treatment team feels he's no longer a threat to himself or others, they can recommend to an administrative law judge that he be released. If that judge agrees, the matter would return to local court, before Wilson or his successor, for a final determination.

Oetting, after the hearing, confirmed Esquivel's family was not in the courtroom.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Columbia Machine mass shooter pleads guilty; insanity plea accepted
A police officer in Port-au-Prince. Guerinault Louis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

In and around Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, vigilante killings are on the rise as residents take up arms against the gangs that control up to 80 percent of the city.

At least 18 suspected gang members have been killed in the past week by crowds in the Port-au-Prince area, The Associated Press reports, and on Tuesday, five men were killed and their bodies later set on fire. Human rights activist Velina Elysee Charlier told The Guardian she has walked by smoldering corpses on sidewalks and witnessed men with machetes chasing suspected gang members down the street. "I've seen enough dead people for many lifetimes," she said.

In March, Haiti saw its highest number of reported murders, rapes, kidnappings, and lynchings since 2005, The Guardian reports, and the violence ramped up on April 24 when a gang tried to take control of the Turgeau area of Port-au-Prince. "What they didn't count on was the population striking back," Charlier said. Civilians armed with handguns and knives took to the streets, forming self-defense brigades. At least 13 suspected gang members in the Canape-Vert neighborhood were beaten, stoned to death, and then burned. One vigilante told AP that residents "are planning to fight and keep our neighborhood clean of these savages."

After years of government corruption and gang violence, the current situation is not surprising, Daniel Foote, former U.S. special envoy to Haiti, told The Guardian. "At some point I thought they were going to start to take matters into their own hands because they've got no choice," he said. "The Haitians, like anybody, can only take so much. The gangs have stolen their lives from them."

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As Haitis vicious cycle of gang violence continues, the Canadian government says it remains committed to helping the country overcome its security challenges by aiding the Haitian national police.

Haitis government and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have been calling for outside intervention to assist the countrys beleaguered police force combat gangs. The Biden administration, which authored a resolution at the U.N. Security Council supporting such a deployment, was hoping Canada would take the leadership role.

However, ahead of Bidens first official visit to Ottawa as president in March, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent strong signals that leading a deployment into Haiti wasnt his governments focus, and Ottawa believed the way to help Haiti is through assistance to the Haiti National Police and targeted sanctions against those believed to be financing gangs and engaged in corruption.

That position has not changed, said the countrys ambassador to Haiti, Sebastien Carriere, who is in Miami meeting with members of the Haitian community and who spoke Wednesday morning at Florida International Universitys 8th Annual Hemispheric Security Conference.

I still believe that the long-term solution to any security problem is the HNP, Carriere said in a Miami Herald interview ahead of his FIU appearance. Its not U.N. mission after U.N. mission.

Carriere said Canada has spent more than $150 million Canadian dollars over the past 20 years on the Haitian national police. At the same time, we, Canada, spent $175 million on a U.N. peacekeeping mission. What if we have put more of our money on the HNP? Where would we be today? he said.

Biden agreed that the best thing the U.S. and others could do is to help Haitian police deal with the countrys gang problem. But he said its going to take time.

Ahead of the Ottawa visit, U.S. sources had confirmed to the Miami Herald and McClatchy newspapers that the administration had quietly shifted its focus toward a U.N. peacekeeping mission, which the president acknowledged in a press conference with Trudeau.

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Still, more than six months after the request for a foreign deployment and two months after the Biden-Trudeau visit, there are no indications that a mission under the umbrella of the United Nations is likely to happen anytime soon.

During last weeks U.N. Security Council meeting, the new U.N. envoy to Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, reiterated the secretary-generals urgent plea for an outside force. But despite her argument that gang kidnappings, killing and rapes of women and children has drastically escalated  along with fed-up Haitians carrying out vigilante killings  and presents a regional threat, no country raised its hand.

Carriere said in his meeting with members of the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce of Florida that it it is clear that people are frustrated with the situation in Haiti and worried about what comes next.

As part of a $100 million in assistance to the Haiti National Police that Trudeau announced during the Biden visit, Carriere said Canada is looking at spending the money to equip the force, possibly help with police salaries and to provide weapons, which it currently does not, and is complicated given Canadas obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty, which regulates international trade of conventional arms. The Canaian government is also exploring helping the police with healthcare, because the force currently doesnt have a trauma center.

We want to provide equipment for the new recruits that graduated last year, and still not out in the streets for lack of proper equipment, he said. Were trying to do that as quickly as possible from existing stocks, because procurement is a nightmare.... Because our problem is no matter what were trying to buy for the HNP, we face delays, delays just like everything else.

A Canadian technical team visited Port-au-Prince last week made up of experts from the foreign affairs ministry, the Department of National Defense, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and public safety.

We know what the needs are. The HNP have identified their needs. The question is how we work with the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and the United Nations Police, Carriere said. If we are going to be spending money on security in Haiti, we want to be spending it on the HNP.

Helping Haitis struggling police force is a challenge. Its leaders and officers are being targeted by gangs and some have had to relocate from their homes and are sleeping in police stations. Cops at two rural police stations in the Artibonite Valley, where the violence has spread, have abandoned posts, leaving the stations empty.

Salvador told the Security Council that there are only 3,500 police officers out on the streets in service at any one time, which isnt sufficient given Haitis population of 12 million. In addition to being ill-equipped, the force suffers from high attrition rates that are being made worse by a new humanitarian parole program launched by the Biden administration.

A record number 18,000 Haitians have already been approved to enter the U.S since the program was launched in January. At the time, Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry said at least 600 police officers had applied for passports. The demand led director of immigration to open a separate center to process police passport requests.

Government officials say they are currently tracking the number of officers who have been approved to leave Haiti to get a better idea of how much the force will be affected.

The situation in Haiti is incredibly dire, Carriere said at his address at FIU, adding the country is hanging by a thread.

Haiti is a failed state, he said. State institutions have all but disappeared.

The Haiti National Police, he added, is the last functional institution in the country, and while far from perfect, it is still functioning. But he said the force is putting out fires everywhere.

Carriere said Haitians living in the U.S. and Canada could be better organized in terms of shaping the view and giving policy leaders in Washington and Ottawa a better sense of what policies should be.

I think the diaspora should inform policy, he said.

Carriere, who arrived in Port-au-Prince in October 2021, said things have only gotten worse since then. When he arrived 4.6 million people were living in a state of crisis. Today, he said, a million more people ... do not have enough to eat every day. People are dying every day; people are getting burned on the streets.

He also discussed Canadas continued commitment to sanctions. So far, Ottawa has hit 19 politicians and members of the countrys private sector with targeted financial sanctions that freezes assets they have in Ottawa and bans them from traveling to the country. He acknowledged that most of the people sanctioned have economic interests in the United States.

We never meant to act alone, Carriere told the Herald. U.N. sanctions to me are the key. So too are the U.S. and European sanctions.

Canada, he said, has not argued that sanctions would stop the gang violence, but its one part of the solution. Another is a clear political signal to the gangs from Haitis warring political factions.

I think the Haitian political class needs to get together and send a powerful signal of unity, Carriere said. Its baffling to me that almost a year-and-a half after [President Jovenel Moise] was assassinated, we still dont get a sense that theres a broad consensus.

Like others in the international community, Carriere said Canada commends the appointment by Henry of a High Transition Council to prepare for elections in the long term.

Haitian politics need to change, he said. The winner-takes all mentality is not sustainable; the sitting there waiting for the guy in front of you to falter so you can have your shot at faltering is not sustainable, and as an international partner, Canada is not interested in playing in this game anymore.
U.S. presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition Spring Kick-off in West Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. April 22, 2023. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

U.S. presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition Spring Kick-off in West Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. April 22, 2023. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy reportedly paid to have his Wikipedia page scrubbed of potentially politically damaging details about his past.

Mediaite is reporting that the page now includes a warning that the article has multiple issues, contains paid contributions and may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedias content policies, particularly neutral point of view.

The Wikipedia articles version history shows that in February, an editor identified by Mediaite as Jhofferman removed lines about Ramaswamy receiving a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans in 2011.

Since Paul Soros is the older brother of billionaire George Soros, who funds many progressive causes, its understandable Ramaswamy wouldnt want potential voters to be aware of that connection.

Ramaswamys page was also edited to remove his role on the state of Ohios COVID-19 Response Team, which an editor noted came on Ramaswamys request to have his COVID-era work removed.

Meanwhile, the editor deemed Ramaswamys Soros fellowship extraneous material.

Ramaswamy announced his presidential run just two weeks after the changes to the Wikipedia page.

Jhoffermans user page on the website notes that Ramashamy paid him for his work on the page.

Wikipedia editors debated the conflict of interest after the alterations were made. Mediaite notes that the reference to Ramaswamys fellowship was later added to the page, but his work on the Ohio COVID team is still absent.

HuffPost reached out to Ramaswamys campaign for comment, but no one immediately responded.

Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur and conservative activist, became the second person after Donald Trump to announce a run to be the Republican presidential nomination.

Although he is currently polling at 2.6% according to RealClearPolitics.com, he said last month that he expected the dynamics of this race will change dramatically after that first debate.

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Our mid-career man and his camper van (Samuel Fishwick)

In a time of strikes  doctors, teachers, Hollywood writers  I have been downing tools as well. Last year I, aged 31, took four months off work after getting married. My wife and I left our jobs and went careering around the United States in a campervan on a shoestring budget, backpacked around Mexico and Vietnam, and generally lived the life. It taught us a lot about each other (yes, were still together). It also reminded us of why we work: to have something to talk about other than ourselves.

Many, I imagine, will poo-poo the idea of a later-life Gap Year for all the obvious reasons: its the preserve of the posh, the pampered, the mewling millenial snowflake. Those who can, do it anyway. So, why shouldnt you?

Thirty is the perfect point in your life to hit pause. You have had a decade in your chosen fields, or fields, plus a network and a reputation to leverage. Perhaps lost sight of your own self-worth. If so, go forth and find it.

That we are not built for a daily grind is surely, by now, obvious. David Graeber, the late British philosopher, noted that for the majority of human history, jobs from warrior to fisherperson to novelist had a cram-and-slack rhythm, in part because these jobs were shaped by actual productive needs, not arbitrary working clocks. By 2030, a majority of Britains hope  nay, expect  to be working a four-day week, according to a poll by Survation.

Something is clearly off. Despite Britains anaemic productivity levels, burnout is endemic. We all feel like were working our socks off  but for what? Young professionals are quiet quitting in droves  doing the bare minimum  and pivoting to side hustles. A nation cannot thrive off Etsy alone.

A more extreme revolution has been seen in China in tang ping (lying flat): the youth rebellion against mind-numbing work that emerged to the alarm of the government. The term was coined by Luo Huazhong, a 26-year-old who left his job to go travelling. Sometimes, less is more. The choice is clear: build in a break  or break down.

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Emma Watson, aged just 33, explained to the FT recently, over a glass of Chablis at her fathers French vineyard, why she hasnt really gone to work since 2018.

Because she is Emma Watson  young, beautiful, and extremely well remunerated  she is bound to take flak for talking, honestly, about the need for a career break. But, clearly, she is catching the national mood.

This is not to say that I support a slackers union. Watson, for what its worth, talks of working flat out since the age of 11 adding that she felt caged by her career, locked into a robot mode just to survive the working day.

Sound familiar? Similarly, Ed Sheeran, now 32, took a year off to travel, write and read in 2019 after having clocked up 300+ gigs a year since the age of 16. If it means a less intimate relationship with my inbox, Im all for it. Let the robots take our jobs. Heres to Emma. Lets raise a glass of the finest Chablis.
ADAMS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP)  Voters in one of Michigan's most conservative counties have ousted a small-town clerk accused of improperly handling voting equipment after casting doubt on President Joe Bidens election victory.

Stephanie Scott lost Tuesday's recall election in Hillsdale Countys Adams Township to Suzy Roberts, who got 406 votes to Scott's 214, according to unofficial results reported by the county clerks office.

Roberts, a Republican who identifies as an independent, filed as non-party-affiliated in the recall election because Michigan law does not allow for challengers to file under the same political party, the Hillsdale Daily News reported previously.

Scott had run unopposed as a first-time Republican candidate when she was chosen in the November 2020 election to handle the voting in Adams Township, a reliably Republican community where the ticket of Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence received nearly 76% of the vote that year.

But she joined a crew of GOP elections officials around the nation who have questioned the accuracy of U.S. voting systems. Scott is among a number of elections officials around the country accused of mishandling voting equipment in their zeal to uncover fraud.

Before Tuesdays recall election against Scott, her challenger said that the lying has to stop.

Somehow, nationwide, we have to make lying wrong, said Roberts, 69. If you got caught in the lie there was a feeling of shame. It has to be wrong again.

A message seeking comment was left Wednesday with Roberts. Scott and her attorney did not answer questions or provide comment before Tuesdays election, and additional messages seeking comment were left Wednesday.

During preparations for her townships November 2021 election, Scott said she had voting accuracy concerns and had considered paper ballots and a hand count before settling on using the same voting system.

The state intervened after Scott allegedly refused to allow a contractor to perform preventive maintenance and failed to conduct accuracy tests, among other issues. She was stripped of her duties running township elections in October 2021.

When the Hillsdale County clerks office took custody of an election tabulator and a voter-assist terminal from township offices to prepare for a public accuracy test, they discovered the tabulators tablet had been removed. It was later seized by Michigan State Police after Scott allegedly refused to turn it over.

One of Scotts supporters, Adams Township Supervisor Mark Nichols, also lost in Tuesdays recall election. Challenger Randy G. Johnson bested Nichols by 394 to 222 votes, unofficial results show.
When Jaime Laredo calls his departure a passing of the baton, it sounds like a cliche. But he is in fact passing the baton; the music director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra is about to perform his final concert with the VSO before the next conductor wields the baton in Vermont.

Laredo led the orchestra from 2000 until 2021, when Vermonts premiere classical-music organization began a two-year search for its next music director by holding auditions at its concerts. The final of seven candidates to perform in Burlington, Andrew Crust, was announced in March as the new music director, a little more than a month after he led the VSO as guest conductor.

Crusts first concert as music director happens Sept. 30. In the meantime, the VSO is preparing to send Laredo off in grand fashion with a performance Saturday, May 6, at the Flynn titled A Laredo Salute. The Burlington Free Press spoke with both men in recent days about what the figurative and literal passing of the baton means to them.

Jaime Laredo, who served as the fourth music director in the history of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra

Jaime Laredo: A wonderful relationship

Laredo doesnt call Saturdays event a farewell concert, instead referring to it with the passing-the-baton allusion.

I was having a great time and I love the orchestra and we had a wonderful relationship. It could have gone on forever as far as Im concerned, Laredo said Monday by phone from his southern Vermont home in Guilford. I think they need some new ideas, new blood, young blood. Its good for everybody.

The not-a-farewell concert was supposed to happen in 2021, but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic scuttled that plan until now. The time since the pandemic began represents the strangest years any of us had, according to Laredo, but provided the chance for a reset for the violinist and his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson.

Our lives were just insane, according to Laredo, who with Robinson teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Music. (They have a house in Cleveland and spend most of the year there). Pre-pandemic, the two toured frequently as a duo and in a trio with pianist Joseph Kalichstein.

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Jaime Laredo, who served as the fourth music director in the history of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra

After the pandemic arrived, Laredo and Robinson suddenly found themselves not playing any live shows. They stayed home rather than getting on and off airplanes. Laredo dove into practicing, not to prepare for concerts but simply for the joy of playing.

Kalichstein died in 2022, and Laredo and Robinson decided not to replace him in the trio because he left a tremendous void, Laredo said. The couple did form a quartet that includes pianist Anna Polonsky, who has played with the VSO, as well as violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, who until last year performed with the Dover Quartet.

Saturdays concert at the Flynn will feature Laredo leading works that mean a great deal to him, including the first piece he ever conducted with the VSO, Lyric for Strings by George Walker. Violinist Bella Hristova will join the VSO to perform Saturn Bells, a composition written by her husband, David Ludwig. Hristova  absolutely one of my favorite students I ever had, according to Laredo - and Ludwig, composer-in-residence during Laredos VSO tenure, met and married at his Vermont home.

The orchestra will perform Bruchs Scottish Fantasy, which will also feature Hristova. I just adored the way she played that piece when she studied with him at Indiana University, Laredo said. I knew that I wanted her to take part in this last concert.

Jaime Laredo, who served as the fourth music director in the history of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra

The performance ends with Brahms first symphony. It just happens to be one of my favorite pieces in the entire world, Laredo said. I love Brahms almost more than any other composer.

Laredo stayed out of the VSOs selection process for a new music director. He said he isnt overly familiar with Crust but is excited to see what the next music director brings to the VSO.

Im really happy for the orchestra, Laredo said, and Im happy for him that he has such a wonderful group to work with.

Andrew Crust, music director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra

Andrew Crust: A flexible musical machine

The VSO embarked on a two-year process to audition conductors for the music-director position Laredo was vacating. Of the seven finalists who guest conducted the VSO, Andrew Crust was the last one.

Its pretty unusual in any type of job to wait two years, according to Crust, who used that long stretch to his advantage. It gave me more time to reflect and learn the repertoire and learn about the orchestra.

By the time he arrived for his Feb. 4 concert, Crust was more than ready. The VSO liked what it saw at the concert, plus the preceding days that included rehearsals and meetings with donors and other community members. By the end of the month, Crust knew he had the job, signing up for a four-year term.

Then I didnt have to wait too long, thankfully, he said.

Crust spoke with the Free Press by phone from Vancouver, British Columbia, where he served as associate conductor for what he called the other VSO, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Crust is also conductor of the Lima Symphony Orchestra in Ohio.

He studied just over the border from Vermont at McGill University in Montreal from 2010 to 2012 and spent a couple more years after that living in the Canadian metropolis. I got to come down many times just passing through (Burlington) or going to the airport, said Crust, who remembers visiting the Church Street Marketplace and dining at Shanty on the Shore.

Crust knows from his guest appearance with the VSO in February that hell be conducting an adventurous group of musicians. He credited Laredo, his predecessor, for his work to help build the orchestra into what it is today, to be such a flexible musical machine.

Andrew Crust, music director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra

The VSO, Crust said, can play any kind of repertoire. The musicians jumped with hunger into a new work he conducted by composer Roberto Sierra, he said, and showed an experimental side by delving into what Crust called the often inflexible structure of Tchaikovskys fifth symphony.

The musicians are fantastic, Crust said. It does feel like a bit of a family even though some people come from outside of Vermont.

Crust aims to ensure the VSO is not just versatile but diverse. For every traditional piece, Crust wants to bring on works by others  he mentioned Sri Lankan/Canadian composer Dinuk Wijeratne as an example  from a more contemporary, relevant perspective.

Good music is good music, according to Crust. We have to find music not only of a diverse array of composers living and passed on, but we also have to find new styles and new genres and collaborations with people of different cultures.

Crust has spoken with Matt LaRocca, the VSOs artistic advisor who oversees programming such as the orchestras popular Jukebox series of chamber performances in local music clubs. I love what hes doing, and its one of the appealing things about the job to me, Crust said. Hes creating projects where the orchestra can be nimble.

A more-relaxed setting like a club, Crust said, frees musicians to experiment with avant-garde music in front of smaller groups of passionate listeners. Its not only about seeing the orchestra in a concert hall. We have to be out in the community, according to Crust. People love to see the musicians up close and personal.

People wont see Crust at Laredos concert Saturday. We decided to let it all be about him, according to Crust. The VSO, however, will announce the schedule for the 2023-2024 season at Saturdays performance, a schedule that will be Crusts first as the orchestras music director.

If you go

WHAT: A Laredo Salute honoring former music director Jaime Laredo

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 6

WHERE: The Flynn, Burlington

INFORMATION: $8.35-$54.23. www.vso.org

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont Symphony Orchestra sends Jaime Laredo off with Flynn concert
More than a century ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote: Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants. Its in this spirit that I believe the time has come for the Legislature to begin addressing the publics and medias concerns over transparency and accessibility issues with a Washington Office of Transparency Ombuds. This transparency agency would be tasked with assisting Washingtonians with accessing public records and streamlining the process to make government more open, transparent and accountable.

In 1972, Washington voters established the Public Records Act with Initiative 276, requiring most records maintained by state, county and city governments be made available to the public. At the time, the Act included only 10 exemptions from public disclosure. Today, there are more than 500 exemptions, with more enacted just this year. Exemptions have become the rule.

In 2007, the Public Records Exemptions Accountability Committee (Sunshine Committee) became law. The Sunshine Committee makes recommendations to the Legislature to repeal or amend exemptions to the PRA. While the committee does admirable work with its limited scope, it cannot force policymakers to act, does not provide direct assistance to citizens and has failed to persuade the Legislature from eroding public access.

In our form of government, the people are sovereign. Government officials serve and are answerable to them. Thats why its essential for the public to have access to information  they have a right to know how and why decisions are made that affect their lives.

This fact alone should be sufficient reason to break down existing barriers and spearhead a new initiative to make Washington a national leader in public transparency.

Unfortunately, good government is not the only victim of our states disjointed transparency efforts  taxpayers are, too. In a recent report compiled by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee, state agencies (only 30% responded) reported receiving 357,075 public records requests in 2021. The price tag to simply respond to these requests totaled $100 million. Agencies spent another $7.2 million on litigation costs.

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Today, if a government agency, or even a legislative office, denies a public records request from a member of the public, the only formal recourse for the requester can be found through the legal system  another costly and often daunting barrier to public access. An administrative process would make government transparency more cost-effective and lower the barriers to a growing and complex PRA system. A governments default should be openness and accessibility. Recent legal victories against state agencies, as well as a recent lawsuit regarding legislative privilege, evidence a desire by the public for a better way to access their government.

Fortunately, theres a better way. Other states have adopted effective measures to shed light on the inner workings of government. In 2008, Pennsylvania passed a right-to-know-law establishing the Office of Open Records. Its based on the presumption that all records are public and available to citizens. It also acts as an ombudsman on their behalf.

With Pennsylvania and other states as models, I introduced House Bill 1856 to establish a 12-member committee on transparency comprised of legislative Democrats and Republicans, executive branch appointees, members of the media and the Sunshine Committee chair, to help commission a broad-based study on the establishment of the Washington Office of Transparency Ombuds. This study would include a comprehensive overview and comparison of each states efforts to provide timely public access to government records.

As state government has expanded in size and scope beyond what was recognizable a generation ago, its important to remember that it still exists to serve the people and protect their rights. And its incumbent on us as policymakers to make information  information that belongs to the public  as open and transparent as possible so that citizens can make informed decisions about the future of our great state.

I will continue working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to find a good-government solution.

First elected in 2020, Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, represents 20th Legislative District, which includes parts of Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis and Thurston counties.
President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, shakes hands with Takeo Akiba, secretary general of Japan's National Security Secretariat, at his office in Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of presidential office



President Yoon Suk Yeol voiced hope Wednesday for deeper friendship and cooperation between South Korea and Japan as he prepares to hold a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida this weekend, his office said.



Yoon conveyed the wish during a meeting with Takeo Akiba, secretary general of Japan's National Security Secretariat, at his office, days before Kishida arrives in Seoul for a summit with Yoon on Sunday.



"The president stressed that South Korea and Japan, as partners pursuing common interests based on common values, must join forces and respond to the global polycrisis," presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon said.



Yoon noted the recent improvement in South Korea-Japan relations and the need to support exchanges between the two countries' youths in preparation for the future.



"The president said he believes the friendship and cooperation between South Korea and Japan will gradually expand amid a continuation of South Korea-Japan shuttle diplomacy," Lee said.



Kishida's two-day visit to Seoul will mark the resumption of shuttle diplomacy, or regular visits to each other's countries, by the two countries' leaders as it follows Yoon's visit to Tokyo in March.



Yoon's March visit came after his administration's decision to compensate Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor without contributions from Japanese firms.



He was the first South Korean president to pay a bilateral visit to Japan in 12 years as the bilateral relationship frayed badly over the forced labor issue and other historical disputes stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.



Lee said Akiba thanked the South Korean government for helping transport Japanese nationals out of war-torn Sudan during its recent evacuation operation.



Akiba also conveyed Kishida's message that he highly assesses Yoon's "courageous decision" to pursue an improvement in bilateral ties, and decided to reciprocate Yoon's visit "to return (the sentiment) at least a little."



The Japanese official held a separate meeting with National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong and the two sides discussed preparations for Kishida's upcoming visit, according to the presidential office.



In particular, the two agreed on the growing threat posed by North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and on the need for South Korea and Japan, and for South Korea, Japan and the United States, to work more closely together to thoroughly implement sanctions and U.N. Security Council resolutions against the North.



The two sides also held the inaugural session of an economic security dialogue Yoon and Kishida agreed to launch during their March summit, and exchanged views on enhancing supply chain resiliency, emerging technologies, the response to climate change and energy security. (Yonhap)




An off-duty Walmart employee fatally shot a customer who tried to help a female employee who had gotten into a fight with the off-duty employee, Florida law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

Tironie Sterling, 22, is charged with first-degree murder for Tuesday afternoon's shooting at a suburban Fort Lauderdale Walmart, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said.

According to investigators, Sterling went to the Lauderdale Lakes store to meet with a female colleague. They got into an argument that escalated into a fight, with Sterling dropping a handgun onto the floor.

A male customer came to the woman's aid, but Sterling retrieved his gun and shot the man several times, killing him, investigators said. The victim's name and age have not been released.

Sterling fled the store, but was arrested hours later, investigators said. He was being held without bond Wednesday awaiting his initial court appearance. It could not be immediately determined if he has an attorney.

Senseless violence like this is intolerable, and were heartbroken the customer who intervened in an apparent attack on one of our associates has died from his injuries, Walmart spokesman Charles Crowson said in a statement. We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family during this difficult time and will continue working with our associates, providing support as needed.

He said Sterling has been suspended and steps are underway to terminate his employment.
Irrigation of grassland in Lincolnshire

Water shortages could be possible this summer in parts of Scotland after a drier than average winter.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has issued the first water scarcity report of 2023.

It shows parts of central, western and northern Scotland have reached the early warning level for water scarcity.

The watchdog said a particularly dry February had resulted in lower than normal river flows and groundwater levels for this time of year.

Businesses extracting water from natural sources are urged to plan ahead for potential water shortages.

Nathan Critchlow-Watton, head of water and planning at Sepa, said: "Given the mixed weather we've experienced in autumn and winter, and the fact that some parts are already at early warning level, what happens next will shape the risk of water scarcity this summer.

"We can't rule out a repeat of the water shortages businesses experienced last year."

Last year groundwater levels in the east of Scotland were at their lowest level since records began in 2009.

As a result the watchdog suspended 175 water abstraction licences.

Sarah Cowie from the National Farmers Union, Scotland (NFUS) said: "Last year, SEPA suspended abstraction licences for some growers for the first time.

"This stark response to a prolonged period of dry weather highlights the impacts of a changing climate and the pressures it can bring on farm businesses.

"NFUS encourages all farmers and growers to think about water use on farms as early as possible, to plan for the coming summer season."
SAVANNAH, Ga.  Two people and a dog were rescued after their boat began taking on water off the Georgia coast.

Coast Guard watchstanders in nearby Charleston, South Carolina said they received a distress call about 5:30 p.m. Monday near St. Catherines Sound. A man aboard the 28-foot catamaran Pisces gave his position and boat name on VHF marine radio.

BICYCLIST STUCK IN MUD OVERNIGHT RESCUED BY COAST GUARD HELICOPTER ALONG TEXAS COAST

A Coast Guard Air Station Savannah MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew arrived on the scene and hoisted them to safety.

"We were able to locate the survivors' exact position because of an alert from their personal locator beacon," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler Murray, the flight mechanic on the case.

The beacon can transmit personalized distress signals and helps rescuers find you during search and rescue missions.

"If you own a boat, the Coast Guard highly recommends this safety equipment," Murray said. "It can save your life, as we saw firsthand."

The survivors were transported to Hunter Army Airfield, where paramedics awaited them.
AFGSC

As part of a recently released Air Force video, Security Forces personnel can be seen storming a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silo, and at several points disarming individuals role-playing the parts of armed intruders. These sorts of recapture and recovery exercises, which are relatively routine for U.S. forces, allow security personnel to practice how a captured nuclear missile silo would be retaken if such an event came to pass.

Video of the exercise, which took place on April 28, was released by Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) and gives us a detailed look at how these training operations play out. According to the video caption, the exercise occurred near Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, and involved airmen assigned to the 91st Missile Security Operations Squadron Tactical Response Force (MSOS TRF) and Convoy Response Force (CRF). As footage of the missile silos entrance indicates, the exercise saw airmen practicing recapturing the LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBM silo B-06. B-06 houses one of 150 Minuteman III ICBMs under the control of the 91st Missile Wing, and is located near the town of Kongsberg, under 60 miles south of Minot AFB.

The original AFGSC video, posted to YouTube, can be seen below:

The video begins with two of the intruders scouring the vicinity as they sit atop the missile silo. Wearing sunglasses and hoodies, the individuals are armed with fake/training rifles painted orange.

Armed 'intruders' seen atop the missile silo. AFGSC

From there, a UH-1N Twin Huey helicopter  the Air Force, it should be noted, in the process of replacing its UH-1Ns with MH-139s  descends close to the silo site, dropping off four armed quick-reaction personnel. Additional troops are seen surrounding the outer perimeter of the missile silo.

UH-1N seen landing near the missile silo. AFGSC Additional armed personnel surround the silo. AFGSC

Having subdued several individuals with fluorescent vests outside the entrance gate to B-06  note the orange painted rifles left next to the captives on the ground  a team of airmen approach the missile silo and quickly descend underground.

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Armed personnel approach the inner missile silo. AFGSC Airmen descend underground. AFGSC

With the missile silo secure, various CRF vehicles  including Lenco BearCat armed vehicles as well as a number of up-armored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs)  approach the scene, offering additional armed support.

Additional armed support arrives. AFGSC

Toward the end of the video, one of the subdued 'intruders' is seen clearly with their dummy rifle casually laid next to them. We also see one of the orange painted rifles thrown through the air. This may have been part of the process of disarming the roleplayers, or it could have simply been part of the clean-up as the exercise was winding down.

One of the silo 'intruders' pictured with their dummy rifle placed next to them. AFGSC A dummy rifle (upper-right) seen being thrown through the air toward the convoy vehicle. AFGSC

The video caption further indicates that the training exercise took place in support of exercise Global Thunder 23 (GT23). GT23 is designed to assess joint operational readiness and provide training opportunities for USSTRATCOM forces to "deter, detect, and prevent strategic attacks against the U.S. and its allies," according to the Air Force.

As Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project, Federation of American Scientists, told The War Zone, it is hard to gauge how realistic it [the exercise] was or what the specific scenario was.  As for the wider significance, the exercise is part of the routine responsibility security forces have for protecting the 450 [nuclear missile] silos scattered around vast areas of the US mid-west.

During recent Global Thunder exercise, Minot ICBM wing practiced recapturing silo (B-06 near Kongsberg) overtaken by armed intruders. Their guns painted orange, one left next to captive (!), and one tossed through the air. https://t.co/fxrP6d3w2R #GT23 pic.twitter.com/0GNut4uzZo  Hans Kristensen (@nukestrat) May 1, 2023

Since this happened during a major STRATCOM nuclear forces exercise, the security exercise could potentially have simulated countering external threats or domestic terrorism seeking to prevent the intended operation of the silo. Although armed intruders would not be able to launch the missile, if they managed to get into the silo itself, they could potentially damage it with explosives, he indicated.

Heightened security around nuclear missile silos, including at Minot AFB, remains critical to keeping these sites safe from potential armed intruders. Airmen attached to the 91st TRF play a significant role to this end, and receive specialist training on how to handle potential incidents like the one simulated on April 28.

Airmen from the 91st Security Forces Group Tactical Response Force (TRF) prepare for the Global Strike Challenge at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., Aug 27, 2021. U.S. Air Force photos by Senior Airman Dillon J. Audit

TRF is like the tactical commanders SWAT team if compared to civilian law enforcement, Col. Chad Gallagher, then-commander of the 91st Security Forces Group, noted in an interview back in 2018. They get additional training, have more capabilities and a better sense of teamwork as a small unit. If a unit [in the missile field] faces a force that they cant handle themselves, they call in TRF.

Alongside extensive training on the defense of missile silos, as well as training on how to recapture and recover them from armed assailants, the unit also conducts training on escorting nuclear convoys to and from launch facilities using various armed vehicles. Its likely that, along with Air Force units more broadly, airmen with the 91st TRF will soon be getting their hands on new JLTVs which could supplement or supplant their existing Humvees in training and other operations.

Moreover, with silo-based ICBMs set to be a core component of the USAF and the U.S. nuclear deterrent arsenal for the foreseeable future, the need to defend them with the latest technologies remains critical. As The War Zone has noted, the LGM-30G Minuteman III  first introduced in 1970 and the only land-based ICBM in service in the U.S.  is in the process of being modernized and will eventually be replaced by new LGM-35A Sentinel ICBMs. Indeed, while the Air Force has explored alternatives to traditional nuclear missile silos as of late  such as basing missiles in tunnels or at the bottom of deep lakes  the service has ultimately opted to retain its ground-based silos when it introduces new Sentinal ICBMs.

With that said, the 91st TRF performs an essential duty in providing security to Minot AFBs nuclear missile silos  and will likely continue to do so in the years to come.

Contact the author: oliver@thewarzone.com
A teen driving over 120 mph traveled across a median and careened toward a Virginia officer, narrowly missing him, according to dramatic dashcam video and police.

The 17-year-old was behind the wheel of a BMW that police said was going extraordinarily fast on a curve. The teen lost control, sending the car into the opposite lane of traffic, according to footage the Fairfax County Police Department shared on Twitter.

The harrowing video then shows the BMW race toward a car that was pulled over along the highway. An officer who had been conducting a traffic stop ran to a safer spot before the out-of-control BMW slammed into the stopped car, pushing it toward the guardrail where the officer had just been.

The jaw-dropping moments were caught on video at about 11:30 a.m. Monday, May 1. Police said it happened along the Fairfax County Parkway, roughly 25 miles west of Washington, D.C.

Before the crash, the officer had pulled over a driver who was accused of going 73 mph in the 50-mph zone. But the teens car is believed to have been going much faster  well over 120 mph, Deputy Chief Bob Blakley said during video of a news conference shared on Facebook.

It was a rocket, and then it became a missile, Chief Kevin Davis said.

Police said everyone survived what could have been a fatal crash with minor injuries.

Speeders crash nearly proves fatal for officer on traffic stop. https://t.co/cKgxuwsLUf #FCPD pic.twitter.com/83zi7JeW3u  Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) May 2, 2023

After the crash, police praised the officer for his actions, including getting out of the way when he saw the spinning BMW. His decision to approach the stopped car from the passengers side also allowed him to see the road, likely impacting his response time, officers said during the news conference.

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The Fairfax County Police Department is relieved that this crash did not result in a tragedy, officers wrote in a news release. This is an important reminder that life can change in an instant. It is the drivers responsibility to drive safely and arrive safely.

The teen  who police said hit the officers cruiser after running into the stopped car  was charged with reckless driving. Speed, inexperience and distracted driving are believed to be the only factors in the crash.

Driver going 115 mph drags state trooper stuck in door for 3 miles, Virginia cops say

Teen sisters killed in fiery car crash in Virginia, cops say. Never be whole again
Florida lawmakers pulled a fast one over the weekend, sliding a new measure into the state budget plan that could damage the states water quality and make red tide and blue-green algae worse.

Without allowing public comment or discussion, legislators added language to the so-called budget implementing bill that would stop some 117 local governments including Miami-Dade County from imposing strict fertilizer control measures next year, as the Miami Herald reported.

The result of this egregious preemption of local government  yes, another state attack on local control  is likely to be dirtier water for all of us.

And who stands to benefit from this short-sighted idea? The states fertilizer industry, critics say.

Local governments have been trying to cut back on runoff from fertilizer use in Florida by halting the use of fertilizer containing nitrogen or phosphorus during the wet season. Runoff is suspected of contributing to the problems of red tide and algal blooms that foul shorelines and waterways, kill fish and cause health problems for humans.

Miami-Dade started banning fertilizer use from May 15 to Oct. 31 after a 2020 fish kill in Biscayne Bay. Runoff coupled with rising temperatures and lack of oxygen were found to be principal contributors. And Miami-Dade is far from alone. Sarasota, Manatee, Pinellas, Hillsborough and other counties also impose restrictions, as well as dozens of Florida cities.

No doubt those restrictions have had an effect on the fertilizer business. One estimate from back in 2014 put the loss at about $33 million.

Thanks to the Legislature, though, things seem to be looking up if youre in the fertilizer business. (If youre a person who cares about water quality, youre out of luck.) In place of local regulations, this new legislation would tell cities and counties to follow less restrictive guidelines developed by the University of Florida  regulations supported by the states phosphate industry, the producers of fertilizer.

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And then theres the issue of the Everglades. Loosening the regulations on fertilizer would seem to violate Gov. Ron DeSantis 2019 executive order aimed at speeding up Everglades restoration and protecting water sources, noted Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the House Democratic leader from Tampa. She said she didnt know why the Legislature would take away one of our most cost-effective solutions to the water-quality issues faced here in Florida.

Republicans who pushed this through didnt seem to have much of an explanation. Senate President Kathleen Passidomo from Naples seemed to suggest it was inserted into the budget during negotiations, calling it the give and take of the process.

Passidomos county, Collier, has fertilizer restrictions. She made a weak effort to brush off that issue by saying she took comfort in knowing that the restriction on local governments would last only a year, during which time UFs Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences would study the change, using $6.2 million allocated in the budget. Then it just goes away, she said.

Oh, please. Passidomo didnt become Senate president with that kind of naivete.

No, this is an underhanded move to help a specific industry while blocking any push back from the public. And itll probably work. With the legislative session set to end this Friday, the only way this bad idea goes away is if the governor vetoes the budget.

Its another preemption of local control, another way of keeping the public out of state government and another example of the Legislatures utter disdain for the voters that put them there.
-BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE



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The Weeknd is expanding his creative universe, but his next move is probably something you wouldn't expect.

Even ahead of an expansion of his After Hours Til Dawn world tour happening this summer or the anticipated premiere of his acting debut in the upcoming HBO Series The Idol, the superstar has more on his plate. The musician, born Abel Tesfaye, is partnering with Blue Bottle Coffee on Samra Origins, a new brand and coffee product offering inspired by The Weeknd's own Ethiopian heritage. Named after his mother, Samra, the new line pays homage to not only his family roots but also his shared respect for Ethiopia and its own coffee traditions. The African country is world renowned as being the birthplace of coffee.

"Blue Bottle Coffees deep roots in Ethiopia made this a natural partnership for me," The Weeknd tells BAZAAR exclusively about the new launch. "My parents emigrated from Ethiopia and my deep appreciation for the country and its people is shared by everyone involved in Samra Origins.

-BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE

For The Weeknd, Samra Origins is a new passion project based on a core family memory of watching his mother perform Buna Tetu, a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. "Samra Origins is a true passion project that I hope will inspire curiosity and encourage support for Ethiopias people, while also spreading the warmth and friendship so ingrained in Ethiopian culture," he explained.

The first product from Samra Origins will be the Exceedingly Rare Ethiopia Wolde Faye Koricha Blend, available exclusively online at samraorigins.com. Fans are able to sign up via waitlist to purchase when it's available starting May 9. Later this summer, Blue Bottle will introduce the Samra Origins Blendcrafted by The Weeknd and his motherwhich will be available to purchase as whole beans in Blue Bottle cafes or as cold brew for a perfect summer sip.

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Nearly two months after her death, and after three people were arrested for murder, the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office has determined that the cause of death for a 5-year-old Ferndale girl was fentanyl intoxication.

Olivia R. Doane died March 8 from acute fentanyl intoxication, according to an email Monday from Deborah Hollis, chief investigator and operations manager with the county medical examiners office.

However, the office ruled the girls manner of death as undetermined.

Undetermined is used as a classification when the information pointing toward a manner of death is no more compelling than any others, such as homicide, accidental or suicide, Hollis said.

Prosecutors charged Melissa Ann Welch, 35, of Ferndale, Cody Curtis Craig, 32, of Bellingham, and Michael Wayne Doane, 33, of Ferndale, with one count each of first-degree murder April 7 in Whatcom County Superior Court for their alleged roles in the childs death.

Each of the murder charges includes the aggravating factor that Welch, Craig and Doane knew or should have known that the child was particularly vulnerable, according to court records.

Welch and Doane are the girls biological parents and Craig is Welchs boyfriend, court records show.

Melissa Welch (right), makes her first appearance in Whatcom County Superior Court Thursday, April 13, 2023. Welch, along with Cody Curtis Craig and Michael Wayne Doane, are each charged with first-degree murder for the March 8 fentanyl death of a 5-year-old Ferndale girl.

All three have entered not guilty pleas in their murder cases. They all remain incarcerated in the downtown Whatcom County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail each, according to county jail records.

Their jury trials have tentatively been set for June 12, court documents state.

When asked Tuesday for more information regarding why the medical examiners office ruled the childs death as undetermined, Hollis said she was unable to comment further due to the pending criminal cases.

The Bellingham Herald has reached out to the Ferndale Police Department for more information.

Childs death

Shortly after 9:15 a.m. on March 8, Ferndale police responded to a home in the 2300 block of Douglas Avenue for a death investigation of a 5-year-old girl, The Herald previously reported.

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Ferndale police were told Welch had called 911 and reported that her daughter was dead, court records state.

When Ferndale police arrived, they found the girl lying in her bed. Fire department personnel arrived and confirmed the child was dead.

Due to foam in the childs mouth, police suspected a possible drug overdose or poisoning, court records show.

Security camera footage confirmed the girl was happy and healthy as described the evening of March 7, leading police to believe the child consumed fentanyl sometime during the night, the records state.

Cody Curtis Craig, right, makes an appearance April 13, 2023 in Whatcom County Superior Court in Bellingham.

During a search of the residence, investigators found drug paraphernalia, including a butane lighter and foils, and suspected narcotics in multiple locations around the home. The paraphernalia and drug tested positive for fentanyl, methamphetamine and methadone, and were in areas accessible to the 5-year-old child and Welchs 8-year-old daughter, the court records state.

Fentanyl powder was also found on the garage floor three feet away from flower and smiley face stickers, Nerf darts and jellybeans, The Herald previously reported.

The 8-year-old sibling was taken by Ferndale police and Child Protective Services and placed with family members.

Additional charges

Welch and Craig are facing additional charges in a separate case alleging they continued selling narcotics after the childs death, court documents show.

Welch was charged April 24 with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance  fentanyl, one count of delivery of a controlled substance  methamphetamine and one count of delivery of a counterfeit controlled substance  Oxycodone.

Craig was also charged April 24 and is facing three counts of delivery of a controlled substance  fentanyl, two counts of delivery of a controlled substance  methamphetamine and two counts of delivery of a counterfeit controlled substance  Oxycodone.

The Whatcom County Gang and Drug Task Force and the Drug Enforcement Administration started an investigation in March into Craig, who was a suspected mid-level drug dealer in the Whatcom County area, according to court records.

Michael Doane (right) makes a first appearance Thursday, April 13, in Whatcom County Superior Court in Bellingham.

Because Craig had provided his phone number to detectives during the investigation into the childs fentanyl death, drug task force and DEA officials were able to identify Craig as a previously unknown drug redistributor connected to a recent large-scale trafficking investigation. The trafficking investigation included the seizure of large quantities of narcotics and hundreds of thousands of dollars of drug proceeds, the court records state.

Days after the 5-year-olds death, Welch and Craig were observed by drug task force and DEA officials selling narcotics, police said.

Officials then conducted a controlled buy of fentanyl-laced pills and fentanyl-laced powder from Welch and Craig during the second week of March, court documents state.

Both Welch and Craig have entered not guilty pleas in their drug cases.
NORTON SHORES  At 1:10 a.m. on April 28, 2013, two days after Jessica Heeringa disappeared from her job at a Norton Shores gas station, phone towers picked up her killers cellphone.

Jeffrey Willis was on the move, his phone headed north on U.S.-31 from Norton Shores and then east on M-46.

An undated courtesy photo of Jessica Heeringa.

Its been 10 years since the young mother disappeared, her body never found. Now, for the first time, the lead detective is revealing where he thinks Willis, now a convicted serial killer, buried her.

Retired Norton Shores Police Department Lt. Michael Kasher said he believes shes buried in the Manistee National Forest near the Lake-Mason county line, northwest of Baldwin, about a 90-minute drive from Norton Shores.

He believes Willis, now 53, was headed there from his deceased grandfathers home that morning with Heeringas body in his silver minivan.

I think he went out into some area that he is well familiar with and he buried Jessica out there somewhere, Kasher, who now works at Hope College in Holland, said of the site.

Phone records show Willis likely returned to the same area in the months after Heeringas disappearance: once in June and once in August, both times around 3 a.m. Both days, Kasher said, Willis called in sick from his job at Herman Miller in Spring Lake.

Why is he out there? Hes a hunter and hes an avid snowmobiler, Kasher said. It wasnt hunting season and we werent having snow in June and August. I believe somewhere along the line he was either visiting or burying her even better.

Starting in 2017, some four years later, after Willis arrest and a review of his phone records, police swarmed the Manistee National Forest in Lake Countys Sauble Township. They used cadaver dogs, helicopters and infrared cameras. They conducted at least half a dozen searches in the area that were never made public, Kasher said.

Im telling you, out there when we were walking the terrain and using the dogs, the terrain is  wooded, the ground is uneven, you could be walking and within 15 feet from you, something could be buried. Its that tough, Kasher said. I always say, the only one that really could tell us, when it comes down to it, is going to be Jeffrey Willis.

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Denials from a serial killer

Heeringa, the 25-year-old mother of a 3-year-old boy, disappeared while working alone the night of April 26, 2013, at the Exxon gas station on East Sternberg Road.

Willis continues to deny any involvement at all in Heeringas case, in the 2014 murder of Rebekah Bletsch and in the 2016 attempted kidnapping of a 16-year-old girl who managed to escape.

At the same time, Heeringas family continues to question everything police are saying. They dont believe Willis is the killer. They wonder if she could still be alive.

In a phone interview from Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson, where hes serving two life sentences without parole, Willis admitted he'd stopped at the Exxon station before, even earlier that day.

I seen her. Id gone into that store one time with a guy I worked with, Willis said. The guy I worked with, I rode to work with him. He stopped there at the gas station because he said there was a hot girl there.

I was there that night, too. But I didnt know who she was. I never met her.

Kasher, the first detective at the scene the night of the disappearance, almost immediately suspected the worst, and that was long before he focused on Willis.

We see all of her stuff there, including her cigarettes and her lighter, which was nicely stacked, and it looked like she was pulling out the drawer to start counting, Kasher said. Theres a lot of money there, all the change, everything. Everything was in place like she was cleaning up.

Their fears grew with a discovery out back: the cover to a laser site of a gun, batteries to the laser site and a smudged drop or two of Heeringas blood.

Youre starting to go, OK, shes not here, place is left open, its not a robbery, there was no struggle inside. Did it happen out here? You start seeing a little bit of blood. Weve got a cover to a laser site. So the red flags start adding up, Kasher said.

Eyewitnesses riding by on motorcycles told police they saw a suspicious silver minivan behind the station that night.

Tip No. 257

Heeringas family held vigils next to the gas station, passed out flyers, made public pleas for help. Just days after the disappearance, a tip came in.

I think it was tip 257, Kasher said.

It led them to Willis, but a quick police interview and a check of his recently vacuumed silver minivan provided no answers.

Despite more than 2,000 tips, dozens of searches, leads on potential suspects and a task force that  at one point  grew to 45 officers, the investigation sputtered, Kasher said.

They focused for a time on Heeringas live-in boyfriend and father of her 3-year-old son. But he had an alibi and nothing to gain from her death, Kasher said.

He was always on board, Kasher said. Every time I called him, every time I needed him, every time we had something, he was there.

Their son is now 13 and being raised by Heeringas sister.

'Untainted evidence'

In April 2016, three years to the month after Heeringa disappeared, a break: A 16-year-old girl escaped a man who'd picked her up along the road. She said he pointed a gun at her as she jumped from his van and ran. It was a silver minivan.

That led detectives back to Willis and to what the Michigan Court of Appeals later called untainted evidence that Willis kidnapped and killed Heeringa.

It also led to even stronger evidence that he'd shot and killed Rebekah Bletsch in 2014 while she was out jogging near her home north of Muskegon.

Among the evidence: A stolen gun with a broken laser and what police described as a rape kit, including sex toys and restraints. Ballistics tied the gun to Bletschs murder and police found her DNA on a sex toy and glove in Williss silver minivan.

And there was the evidence on his computer: Files labeled VICS, short for victims, with subfolders bearing the initials for Bletsch and Heeringa. The JLH file held a photo of Heeringa.

He had some really dark videos, pornographic, all the same type of things, Kasher said. They were abduction, rape, torture, murder, and he had 10, 12,000 videos on his computer.

A graphic lays out the files found on Jeffrey Willis computer.

Also among the evidence tying him to Jessica Lynn Heeringa: his computer password made up of her initials and the date police believed he killed her: J4L27H13.

Kasher said he has a theory about what happened to Heeringa. He said he believes Willis parked behind the gas station and knocked on the back door.

She opens up the door, thinking she knows who it is. He gets her to come out and he hits her (with a stolen gun), Kasher said. Is it plausible that he hit her hard, whether in the head or in the face area with that gun, and that (the laser site) exploded and then she drops down, he picks her up, throws her in the van as our motorcycle people are driving by and hes closing the back hatch of the van? Thats how I think it happened.

Then, he believes, Willis drove her to the home of his deceased grandfather on Bailey Street in Norton Shores, where he killed her.

Williss cousin, Kevin Bluhm, then a state prison guard, later told investigators Willis invited him to the home on Bailey the day after Heeringas abduction.

In the basement, Bluhm told them, he saw a woman with an obvious head wound, lying face down with her hands tied. Bluhm said Willis was standing next to the unclothed body and told him he had tortured her.

Bluhm said he helped Willis wrap her up like a taco and place her wrapped body on a plastic sheet in the back of Willis van.

Bluhm told investigators he then helped carry Heeringas body to a hole that had already been dug near an old set of railroad tracks at S. Sheridan Road and E. Laketon Avenue, not far from Willis home. Investigators searched that area but never found Heeringas body.

Bluhm later recanted but was convicted of being an accessory after the fact in Heeringas murder. A judge sentenced him to 476 days time served and five years on probation.

Kasher said he believes Bluhm was telling the truth. WOOD TV-8 was not able to reach Bluhm for comment.

Kasher describes Willis as an evil predator.

He thinks hes smart, but hes not, Kasher said. He thinks he can out-talk himself. We saw that when he got on the stand and he really made himself look worse. I think hes just an evil person.

Willlis describes himself differently.

Jeffrey Willis would describe Jeffrey Willis as a wrongly convicted, decent man who has been wrongfully convicted based on lies told by the prosecutor and the ballistics expert, Willis said. Jeffrey Willis is an easy-going guy, very likeable, some call me arrogant, but very intelligent person.

He blames crooked cops and ballistics experts for concocting evidence. As for Bletschs DNA? That, he said, is a mistake by an incompetent state police lab scientist.

He does admit, as he did on the witness stand, that he picked up the 16-year-old girl who accused him of kidnapping and whose escape led to his undoing. All a misunderstanding, he said.

She seen a silver van and she thought, she felt like I was a little creepy and when I turned to look at her, she got all, her little drug-induced whatever kicked in and she jumped out. That would explain why she was frantic, because she really thought I was trying to do something to her. I wasnt. I had a phone for her. She freaked out and jumped out of my van while the fing thing was driving down the road. Crazy. Im tellin ya, Willis said.

When asked why he wouldnt help Heeringas family by telling them what he did with her body, he responded: Im not even going to answer that.

A family still searching

Heeringas family declined to be interviewed for this story. Her mom still maintains a Help Find Jessica Heeringa page on Facebook.

In a text exchange with WOOD TV-8, Heeringas sister, Samantha, wrote:

I dont think Jeffrey Willis is guilty of killing Jes. She is still out there. I wish someone would report that she is no longer being looked for whether she is alive or dead. My mom and myself think she needs to be looked for and the case reopened and looked into.

Kasher said he understands why the Heeringa family continues to hold out hope. He said he had two goals in Heeringas case: Catch the killer and find her.

Subscribe: Get all your breaking news and unlimited access to our local coverage

And half of it was completed, a major half, but the other half isnt, he said. So theres a void. Theres a big void.

He said he loses sleep over it.

I dont go around telling everybody about it because its 10 years and in 10 years, things fade off, he said. Youre onto the next news, its not the only murder that ever happened, its not the only incident thats ever happened, but for me, yeah, I think about it every day.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Where is Jessica Heeringa? Ten years later, former detective thinks he knows
Lexington Police have released the locations of the citys license plate reader cameras as it expands the number of cameras from 25 to 100.

Lexington Police Commander Matt Greathouse said about half the 75 additional Flock license plate reader cameras have been delivered. The remaining cameras should be in place in the coming weeks, Greathouse told the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councils Social Services and Public Safety Committee during a Tuesday meeting.

The Flock cameras launched last year under a pilot program. The cameras take photos of license plates and run those license plates against various databases. As of April 12, Lexington police have said the cameras have helped them locate 152 stolen vehicles, 18 missing persons and has led to the arrests of 245 people.

But many worried the cameras would be placed in largely minority neighborhoods and areas. Others have pushed the city to release the current and future locations of the cameras. Police had said they would release the locations after more cameras were added.

Police said they were concerned people would avoid the areas where the cameras were located when there were only 25 cameras on Lexington streets.

Some council districts with large minority populations have the most cameras, according to an analysis of police and U.S. Census data.

Cameras by council district:

Council District 1: 20

Council District 2: 6

Council District 3: 2

Council District 4: 8

Council District 5: 3

Council District 6: 15

Council District 7: 7

Council District 8: 13

Council District 9: 1

Council District 10: 4

Council District: 11: 15

Council District 12: 6

The council district with the most cameras is Council District 1, which includes much of the citys north side. Council District 1 is 56% non-white, according to Census figures. It has the largest minority population of any council district.

Council District 6, which includes parts of the citys east side, has 15 cameras and is roughly 25% Black or Hispanic. Council District 11, which includes much of the Versailles Road corridor, is 37% Black or Hispanic.

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In contrast, Council District 9, which includes areas around Shillito Park, is slightly less than 8% non-white and has only one camera.

However, not all council cistricts with large minority populations have lots of cameras.

Council District 2, which includes neighborhoods in the Leestown Road area, is 39.7% Black or Hispanic. Six cameras have either been installed or will be installed in that area.

Police data from 2020 to 2022 show the most violent crimes reported were in Council District 1 and Council District 11.

Still, Councilman James Brown said during Tuesdays council committee meeting he has heard concerns from minority communities the cameras are used in areas where people feel they are already over-policed.

Flock cameras are placed where crime happens, said Chief Lawrence Weathers. Weathers said he understands the concern about over policing certain neighborhoods.

Those might be areas where people are over-victimized as well. We have to take into account what the victims want as well, he said.

Expansion into real-time intelligence center

The city is starting a real-time intelligence center that will use the citys more than 130 traffic cameras, Flock license plate reader cameras, and cameras owned by private residents or businesses to help police solve crimes.

The citys traffic cameras have been available for the public to view since 2016. The location of those cameras is determined by traffic engineering.

Lexington traffic cameras captured high waters that were reported on roads across the city, including this intersection at 3rd Street and Midland Avenue.

Until recently, those traffic cameras did not record. Those cameras are now recording, said Greathouse.

Greathouse said police have given presentations to 37 different community groups.

Police are asking for $150,000 for Fusus software, which will allow the police to use both public and private cameras to help solve crimes, in Lexington Mayor Linda Gortons proposed $505 million budget. In addition, the police are asking for two new intelligence analysts to staff the new center.

Businesses and residents can voluntarily sign up for the system.

Its not mandatory, said Greathouse.

The videos are only kept for 60 days by state law, he said. If the video is needed in an investigation, it will be kept for longer than 60 days.

We are not constantly watching it, Weathers said.

If an officer needs video because a crime has occurred  say a hit and run accident  the request for the video will go to the new intelligence analysts, Weathers said. The police will monitor who is requesting videos and why, he said.

ACLU, others have concerns

Lexington traffic cameras will be used to help Lexington Police Department for investigations.







Greathouse said the department has spoken with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, the local chapter of the NAACP and the Lexington-Fayette Human Rights Commission about developing policies for the retention of the video and how the real-time intelligence center will be used.

Those groups have also had input on license plate reader cameras and body cameras, he said.

Councilwoman Tanya Fogle said she has spoken with those groups and some have concerns.

Thats true.

ACLU-KY has grave concerns about the impact on residents privacy and other potential pitfalls of such a surveillance system, said Kungu Njuguna, a policy analyst for the ACLU of Kentucky. As the city is aware, we offered feedback but in no way endorse the systems as they have been designed.

Greathouse said they are looking at some of the concerns raised by the ACLU and others as it develops policies for the real-time intelligence center. Those polices will be available after the real-time intelligence center is active. The council must approve the purchase of the Fusus software in Gortons budget.

That means the real-time intelligence center wont be operational until later this summer at the earliest.

Fogle, who represents Council District 1, said she and her constituents still have concerns about the use of the cameras, but she was relieved the cameras were going throughout the city and not just in Council District 1.

Im still not comfortable with it, Fogle said, but she said she also sees how the cameras can help police solve crimes.

Councilwoman Jennifer Reynolds, who represents Council District 11, said she, too, understands peoples concerns about surveillance. On the other hand, residents want crimes solved.

I was hesitant at first, Reynolds said. People dont want surveillance.

However, with video and still photos you can solve crimes a lot faster if you have evidence of that crime, she said. We get a lot of phone calls about crimes that arent solved or a shooting where no one was found. If used properly, it can really be a tool that can help solve crimes.
China congratulates Uzbekistan on smooth referendum on new constitution

Xinhua) 09:59, May 03, 2023

BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- China congratulates Uzbekistan on the smooth referendum on its new constitution, according to remarks by a Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

"We believe that under the leadership of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the people of Uzbekistan will achieve even greater progress on all fronts in the nation's reform and development efforts," read the remarks made public online Tuesday.

As a friendly neighbor and comprehensive strategic partner, China highly values its relations with Uzbekistan, the spokesperson said.

China stands ready to work with Uzbekistan to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields and strive for new achievements in building a China-Uzbekistan community with a shared future, according to the spokesperson.

Uzbekistan held a referendum on Sunday, which approved amendments to the country's constitution. The new constitution entered into force on Monday.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
Family members wave as the 3,200-ton Gwanggaeto the Great destroyer carrying the 40th rotation of the Cheonghae Unit departs a naval base in Busan, Wednesday. The newly deployed troops will be dispatched to the Gulf of Aden for an anti-piracy mission and other maritime security operations through November. Yonhap
A whistleblower is alleging that the FBI and the Justice Department are in possession of a document that describes a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday.

Comer, R-Ky., and Grassley, R-Iowa, said the whistleblower claims the document "includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose."

President Biden is seen in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 1, 2022.

The document, an FBI-generated FD-1023 form, allegedly details an arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions.

HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATION BEING MISHANDLED, CLEAR CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: IRS WHISTLEBLOWER

Comer issued a subpoena Wednesday following legally protected disclosures to Grassleys office.

"We believe the FBI possesses an unclassified internal document that includes very serious and detailed allegations implicating the current President of the United States," Grassley said. "What we dont know is what, if anything, the FBI has done to verify these claims or investigate further. The FBIs recent history of botching politically charged investigations demands close congressional oversight."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Comer added that the information "raises concerns that then-Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national."

WHITE HOUSE INSISTS NO 'POLITICAL INTERFERENCE' IN HUNTER BIDEN PROBE AFTER IRS WHISTLEBLOWER COMES FORWARD

"The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself," Comer said. "Senator Grassley and I will seek the truth to ensure accountability for the American people."

Comer and Grassley notified FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday of the "legally protected and highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures."

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Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

"Based on those disclosures, it has come to our attention that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) possess an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions," they wrote, adding that the whistleblower alleged that the document "includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose."

Comer and Grassley said that based on "the alleged specificity within the document, it would appear that the DOJ and the FBI have enough information to determine the truth and accuracy of the information contained within it."

"However, it remains unclear what steps, if any, were taken to investigate the matter," they wrote, adding that the "significant public interest in assessing the FBIs response to this information, as well as growing concern about the DOJ and the FBIs track record of allowing political bias to infect their decision-making process, necessitate exacting congressional oversight."

"The DOJ and the FBI appear to have valuable, verifiable information that you have failed to disclose to the American people," they added, notifying them that Congress "will proceed to conduct an independent and objective review of this matter, free from those agencies influence."

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland delivers remarks at the U.S. Justice Department.

"Transparency brings accountability," they wrote.

Comer's committee has been investigating Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, how the Biden family has been involved, and whether President Biden has been involved in those foreign business dealings. Comer has warned the business ventures with individuals in China, Ukraine and more pose a national security risk.

In the Senate, since 2019, Grassley has been investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings and any alleged involvement by the elder Biden.

BIDEN'S CLAIM TO HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF HUNTER'S BUSINESS DEALINGS IS BECOMING HARDER TO MAINTAIN

The White House has maintained that the president never spoke to his son about his business dealings, and has continued to say that the president was never involved in them. Officials also say the president has never discussed investigations into members of his family with the Justice Department.

White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, Ian Sams, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that for "going on five years now, Republicans in Congress have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically-motivated attacks against the President and his family without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests."

"Thats because they prefer floating anonymous innuendo, amplified by the megaphone of their allies in rightwing media, to get attention and try to distract and deflect from their own unpopular ideas and lack of solutions to the issues the American people actually care about," Sams said. "When it comes to President Bidens personal finances, anybody can take a look: he has offered an unprecedented level of transparency, releasing a total of 25 years of tax returns to the American public."

VP BIDEN'S OFFICE TRIED TO QUASH BLOOMBERG STORY ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN AT HIS FIRM'S REQUEST, EMAILS SHOW

Hunter Biden has been under federal investigation since 2018. The federal investigation into his "tax affairs" began amid the discovery of suspicious activity reports (SARs) regarding funds from "China and other foreign nations."

The FBI confirmed it had received the letter, adding, "We dont have any additional comment."

Fox News' Kelly Phares and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
Select tech firms working on generative artificial intelligence will meet with White House officials as the United States explores regulations aimed at preventing the technology from doing more harm than good

The White House plans to meet with top executives from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic on Thursday to discuss the promise and risks of artificial intelligence.

Vice President Kamala Harris and other US administration officials will discuss ways to ensure consumers benefit from AI while being protected from its harms, according to a copy of an invitation seen by AFP.

US President Joe Biden expects tech companies to make sure products are safe before being released to the public, the invitation said.

US regulators last month took a step towards drawing up rules on AI that could see the White House put the brakes on new technologies such as ChatGPT.

The US Department of Commerce put out a call for input from industry actors that would serve to inform the Biden administration in drafting regulation on AI.

"Just as food and cars are not released into the market without proper assurance of safety, so too AI systems should provide assurance to the public, government, and businesses that they are fit for purpose," the Commerce Department said in a statement at the time.

The United States is home to the biggest innovators in tech and AI -- including Microsoft-backed OpenAI, which created ChatGPT -- but trails internationally in regulating the industry.

Google in March invited users in the United States and Britain to test its AI chatbot, known as Bard, as it continues on its gradual path to catch up with ChatGPT.

Biden has urged Congress to pass laws putting stricter limits on the tech sector, but these efforts have little chance of making headway given political divisions among lawmakers.

The lack of rules has given Silicon Valley freedom to put out new products rapidly -- and stoked fears that AI technologies will wreak havoc on society before the government can catch up.

Billionaire Elon Musk in early March formed an AI company called X.AI, based in the US state of Nevada, according to business documents.

Musk, who is already the boss of Twitter and Tesla, is listed as director of X.AI Corporation, a state business filing indicated.

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Musk's founding of what appears to be a rival to OpenAI came despite him recently joining tech leaders and AI critics in calling for an overall pause in the development of artificial intelligence.

Google, Meta and Microsoft have spent years working on AI systems to help with translations, internet searches, security and targeted advertising.

But late last year San Francisco firm OpenAI supercharged the interest in the AI sphere when it launched ChatGPT, a bot that can generate natural-seeming text responses from short prompts.

gc/nro/caw
On Wednesday 3 April, Karine Jean-Pierre, the spokeswoman of the White House, said that the United States could not yet confirm the credibility of reports of a drone attack on the Kremlin.

Source: She said this at a briefing on Wednesday, as cited by European Pravda correspondent

Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Jean-Pierre said that Washington was aware of Moscow's statements that Ukraine allegedly attacked the Kremlin with drones.

Quote: "We are aware of those reports, but we are unable to confirm their authenticity at this time. So I don't want to get into speculation about what happened," she said.

The spokeswoman stressed that since the beginning of the war, the United States did not encourage Ukraine to resort to attacks outside its borders.

At the same time, she stressed that Russia "has a history" of conducting operations under a false flag.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in the context of the attack on the Kremlin that he would perceive everything that comes out of the Kremlin "with a very large shaker of salt."

Earlier media reported that the United States was gathering facts of an alleged drone attack by Ukraine on the Kremlin

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
The Biden administration wants to impose a 30 percent tax on the electricity used by cryptocurrency mining operations, and it has included the proposal in its budget for the fiscal year of 2024. In a blog post on the White House website, the administration has formally introduced the Digital Asset Mining Energy or DAME excise tax. It explained that it wants to tax cryptomining firms, because they aren't paying for the "full cost they impose on others," which include environmental pollution and high energy prices.

Crypto mining has "negative spillovers on the environment," the White House continued, and the pollution it generates "falls disproportionately on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color." It added that the operations' "often volatile power consumption " can raise electricity prices for the people around them and cause service interruptions. Further, local power companies are taking a risk if they decide to upgrade their equipment to make their service more stable, since miners can easily move away to another location, even abroad.

It's no secret that the process of mining cryptocurrency uses up massive amounts of electricity. In April, The New York Times published a report detailing the power used by the 34 large scale Bitcoin miners in the US that it had identified. Apparently, just those 34 operations altogether use the same amount of electricity as three million households in the country. The Times explained that most Bitcoin mining took place in China until 2021 when the country banned it, making the United State the new leader. (In the US, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation that restricts crypto mining in the state last year.) Previous reports estimated the electricity consumption related to Bitcoin alone to be more than some countries', including Argentina, Norway and the Netherlands.

As Yahoo News noted, there are other industries, such as steel manufacturing, that also use large amounts of electricity but aren't taxed for their energy consumption. In its post, the administration said that cryptomining "does not generate the local and national economic benefits typically associated with businesses using similar amounts of electricity."

Critics believe that the government made this proposal to go after and harm an industry it doesn't support. A Forbes report also suggested that DAME may not be the best solution for the issue, and that taxing the industry's greenhouse gas emissions might be a better alternative. That could encourage mining firms not just to minimize energy use, but also to find cleaner sources of power. It might be difficult to convince the administration to go down that route, though: In its blog post, it said that the "environmental impacts of cryptomining exist even when miners use existing clean power." Apparently, mining operations in communities with hydropower have been observed to reduce the amount of clean power available for use by others. That leads to higher prices and to even higher consumption of electricity from non-clean sources.

If the proposal ever becomes a law, the government would impose the excise tax in phases. It would start by adding a 10 percent tax on miners' electricity use in the first year, 20 percent in the second and then 30 percent from the third year onwards.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters

The only thing the Supreme Court seems united about is its refusal to adopt a judicial ethics code.

Despite being rift by historically high tensions and distrust following the leak of the Dobbs draft opinion, all nine justices signed a statement in which they effectively rejected adopting a mandatory code of ethics for the nations highest courtthe only court that functions without a judicial ethics code.

Clarence Thomas Shows Why Supreme Court Justices Cannot Be Above the Law

Their statement was attached to a letter from Chief Justice John Roberts declining the invitation from Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)chair of the Senate Judiciary Committeeto testify about issues involving the previously unreported gifts, travel and real estate transactions between Justice Clarence Thomas and billionaire conservative activist Harlan Crow.

The luxury travel including one trip by chartered jet and that included a cruise on a superyacht, given to Thomas for free by Crowis estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Roberts letter itself is a classic erudite piece of work, referencing research from the Supreme Court Library that identified only two previous instances of chief justices testifying (CJ Taft in 1921 and CJ Hughes in 1935), which Roberts pointed out was testimony about routine matters of judicial administration. He added that only three U.S. presidents have testified before any congressional committee. Roberts suggested that his testimony would be a potential separation of powers issue.

The tone-deaf insinuation in Roberts letter is that Chief Justices should only testify about unimportant administrative matters and not important matters concerning a justices potential integrity.

But the real shocker is what he appended to the lettera Statement of Ethics Principles and Practices in which liberal and conservative justices alike all unanimously endorse the current trust us we are the Supreme Court approach to ethics and recusals.

Story continues

Americas Tragedy Is Its Culture of FearArmed With Millions of Guns

The statement basically parrots Roberts 2011 Report to the Federal Judiciary in which he asserted that SCOTUS has no need for a code of ethics because the justices can seek ethical guidance from a variety of sources, including other justices. This last guidance is exactly what Justice Thomas claimed to have done in making his decision not to disclose the financial benefits he got from conservative billionaire Crow. Of course, Thomas did not name the colleagues who gave him this legal guidance.

The statement by the justices ends by citing their worries over security guidance implying that ethical matters (such as disclosures) need to take a back-seat to worries about their safety.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John G. Roberts react during a group portrait at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on Oct. 7, 2022. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Lets start by debunking these safety concerns.

Safety concerns relating to financial disclosures are a red herring, given the fact disclosures about travel and costs are not done in real-time, but at the end of a year. Year-end financial disclosures to ensure the integrity of the court are hardly the kind of on-line doxxing the justices seem to be worried about. In addition to that, as Justice Samuel Alito recently asserted, he has no concerns about his personal safety, as he travels in what he describes as basically a tank and with his police force guards.

So what else might the justices be worried about if they were forced to have a code of ethics?

How John Roberts Saved the GOP (and Sparked Its Civil War)

Perhaps they fear the abuses of powers being exercised now by the Republican House majority that is acting like a Joe McCarthy-era Committee on Un-American Activities (just substitute Trump Investigations for Un-American). The Republican-controlled House gives one reason to worry, since it has shown no hesitation to take such actions as seeking to interfere with an ongoing state criminal prosecution.

But while such worry might be understandableparticularly on the part of the liberal justicesallowing this worry to stop ethical accountability for themselves is a sadly short-sighted view.

The current system is being revealed as unworkable in a constant stream of new disclosures. Besides Justice Thomas friends-with-benefits relationship to billionaire Crow, new reporting reminds us of numerous non-disclosures of financial benefits to the justices.

Chief Justice Roberts himself benefited from his wife Janes work as a legal headhunterfor which she was paid commissions from work done for some of the nations largest law firms, including ones that argue before her husband.

In a profession where professional networking usually takes years to build, Jane Roberts began her work as a headhunter two years after Roberts became Chief Justice, and quickly amassed an impressive income. According to a whistleblower complaint disclosed by Insider, she generated more than $10 million in commissions between 2007 to 2014, which Roberts listed as salary from her employera categorization which essentially hid the fact that the money was actually commissions paid by law firmssome of which argued before SCOTUS.

Supreme Court Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Elena Kagan talk during a ceremony at the White House in Washington, DC on Nov. 16, 2018. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Justice Neil Gorsuch was not required to disclose the identity of who he had sold property tojust nine days after he was confirmed. (The property previously had remained unsold for two years before his confirmation.) Gorsuch properly disclosed the sale and amount, but was not required to name the buyerwho happened to be the head of a law firm doing business before SCOTUS.

The newest revelation is reporting by The New York Times on how the Scalia Law School (formerly George Masons law school) has cultivated close ties with current justices in an effort to build their reputation. That cultivation includes offering justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas paid teaching positions for two-week summer coursessome of which are in Italy, England, and Iceland.

For example, in Gorsuchs case the teaching gig included free transportation and accommodations in what the law school described as an aristocratic antique-filled apartment in the heart of the old town. Justice Brett Kavanaugh was given a similar arrangement to teach in England. This summer, Gorsuch will teach in Portugal.

Heres Why the Trump Indictment Charges Are Felonies

Other universities have done similar arrangementsJustices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor were sent by NYU to conferences in Portugal, and Alito was paid by Tulane to teach in Berlin and Paris.

Again, the justices are not required to disclose the value of these perksonly the fact of the travel. But the public records obtained by The New York Times indicate that airfare and accommodations for Gorsuchs trips to Italy and Iceland would be valued at many thousands of dollars.

As is often repeated, SCOTUS is not a self-enforcing arm of the government. It depends on public trust for its power, and right now that trust is at an all-time low.

Yet the unanimous opinion of all nine justices is to defy the ethical accountability and transparency of an enforceable code of ethics. In this sense the high court seems united in its determination to keep dragging its own esteem ever lower.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Centre County voters have an opportunity to author some measure of history as they take the first step toward electing the countys newest judge.

Gopal Balachandran said he would be the first Indian American elected to any judicial post in Pennsylvania if he wins a spot on the Centre County Court of Common Pleas. The claim is difficult to verify  the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts doesnt collect demographic data  but it has not been challenged. He would be the first ethnic minority to be a judge in the countys highest court.

Julia Rater would become the third woman in Centre County history to serve on the bench.

Each are vying to fill the spot vacated by Senior Judge Pamela Ruest. She retired as Centre Countys top judge in December but continues to hear a limited number of cases each month. Other senior judges have also presided over cases to manage the caseload.

The winner would be elected to a 10-year term and join Centre Countys three other judges  President Judge Jonathan Grine and judges Katherine Oliver and Brian Marshall. The position has a 2023 salary of $213,422.

Balachandran and Rater are registered Democrats; each registered as a candidate in the Democratic and Republican primary elections, as is typical in judicial elections. One or both could advance to the general election in November.

Neither the Centre County Democratic Committee nor the Centre County Republican Committee endorsed a specific candidate.

Balachandran is endorsed by VoteProChoice, Indian American Impact, Central Pennsylvania United and Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance. Rater is endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police Bald Eagle Lodge 51.

Judges are some of the most powerful elected officials in Centre County. Their bailiwick includes everything from criminal cases to civil litigation to custody to divorce to adoptions and more. They can even solemnize weddings.

They do not set  but have the power to modify  bail.

Challenging, serious position

Balachandran, 48, of State College, has anchored his campaign to his background in criminal law. He was a public defender for more than a decade in Massachusetts, New York and Maryland.

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Hes tried cases ranging from drug possession to first-degree murder and has not had a paying client since 2006. He is one of three attorneys in Centre County thats certified to represent someone if they were facing the death penalty.

Balachandran said he plans to serve the entire term if elected.

I would think that thats a commitment that I have made to the voters of Centre County. Theres no way I would not serve it out, Balachandran said. I do think of a job like this as public service. It is a challenging, serious position and I take it that way.

Balachandran leads the Criminal Appellate and Post-Conviction Services Clinic at Penn State Law and is the co-founder of the Centre County Pardon Project. Balachandran is also a member of State College Borough Council; hes served two years of his four-year term.

While its the second time Balachandran has run for office, its his first countywide campaign. He was the top vote-getter among the four candidates for the council in 2021.

Balachandran said he supports Centre Countys treatment courts and has expressed an interest in expanding them.

He has a bachelors degree from the University of North Carolina, a masters from the University of Chicago and a law degree from George Washington University. He is a husband and a father of two, 11 and 9.

I promised them that my dad jokes werent going to end while I was running and theyre not going to end if I become judge, Balachandran said. That was one of my promises to them.

Rater has seized on Balachandrans lack of experience in the Centre County Courthouse. Balachandran, shes said, has never represented someone in a Centre County courtroom.

He has pushed back, saying hes been involved with or has overseen legal filings in Centre County cases.

Centre County Chief Public Defender Dave Crowley said Balachandrans work is exceptional and very helpful.

Just because theyre not physically in the courtroom of the Court of Common Pleas doesnt mean that their contribution to indigent defense is devalued, Crowley said. They do important appellate work, consulting and actually filing briefs on occasion.

Not using this as a steppingstone

Rater, 52, of Patton Township, has touted her nearly three decades of legal experience in Centre County. She has focused on family law for much of the past 20 years.

Rater said shes appeared in a Centre County courtroom more than 1,100 times and has represented people in cases that reached all three of the states appellate courts. She also plans to serve the entire term if elected.

I am not a politician. This is the only time I hope to ever run for anything. I am not using this as a steppingstone to move into any other position, Rater said. I have no desire to be a Superior Court, Commonwealth Court or Supreme Court judge. I have no desire to do anything else until I retire. I will absolutely fill out my entire 10-year term.

Rater has been a member of the Centre County Bar Association for 21 years, which includes 15 years of service on the board of governors.

Shes served on the boards of Strawberry Fields, Tides and Bellefonte EMS. Rater also served as an advisory member on a member that helped form the Childrens Advocacy Center of Centre County.

Its the first time she has run for office.

If elected, she would follow in the footsteps of the two women elected to the bench before her. Ruest and Oliver were also attorneys at McQuaide Blasko before they were elected.

Rater, like her opponent, threw her support behind Centre Countys treatment courts and expressed an interest in expanding them.

She has a bachelors degree in political science from Saint Vincent College and a law degree from what is now known as Penn State Dickinson Law. She is a wife and mother of three, 24, 22 and 17.

Ive never really thought about it in terms of being a woman and bringing a woman to power instead of a man. While I do think that our community would benefit from the diversity of having the mixed bench of female and male judges, because Im a female is not why Im running. I happen to be a female, Rater said. With my daughters, weve just raised them to think that they can be anything and anybody that they want to be, not that they have to prove something because theyre a woman or they have to get ahead of a man.

McQuaide Blasko attorney Steven Hurvitz described Rater as smart, levelheaded and trustworthy in a statement shared as part of her campaign announcement.

She treats her clients with respect and dignity, Hurvitz said. I have been honored to have been a partner of Julias at McQuaide Blasko since 2010 and believe would make an excellent judge.

Countdown to primary election day

The months leading up to the May 16 primary election have been accompanied by the usual back-and-forth between candidates. Supporters of both have exchanged jabs in letters to the editor, questioning everything from experience to political party values.

Balachandran has criticized Rater and her supporters for their appearance at two events during the campaign.

He said his campaign was denied the opportunity in February to collect petition signatures at a Republican event, while Raters supporters were admitted.

Balachandran also found fault with Rater attending a Lincoln Day Dinner in February that featured Republican and former U.S. Senate candidate Kathy Barnette. Balachandran said he attended a Democratic Party event the same day in Philipsburg.

I did not attend the Lincoln Day Dinner for any purpose other than the fact that I was cross-filing, just as Mr. Balachandran was. I was not there as anybody promoted as part of the event, Rater said during an April forum carried about the League of Women Voters. Its the only time that Ive ever attended a Lincoln Day Dinner and the only time that I will ever attend a Lincoln Day Dinner because I am a Democrat.

The last day to request a mail-in or absentee ballot for the primary election is May 9. Polls are open 7 a.m.-8 p.m. May 16 for in-person voting.
(Ian James)

The history of sushi in Los Angeles spans decades, a sweeping chronicle of entrepreneurship and a sprawling citys culinary evolution. Though the first mention of sushi in this paper goes back to 1899, L.A.s love of raw fish with rice took hold in Little Tokyo in the 1960s, at its first sushi bar serving Tokyo-style nigiri. Popular American sushi culture was born.

Sushi bars soon spread to the Westside, and by the 1970s, they had proliferated throughout the city. We went wild for over-the-top rolls named after mythical creatures and stuffed with shrimp tempura or cream cheese in the 80s and 90s. We saw the rise of Matsuhisa and Masa in Beverly Hills and stalked Ventura Boulevard for trust me omakase, jockeying for seats in front of favorite sushi chefs.

Our obsession with sushi has never waned, through baroque embellishments and stripped-down bento, whether our tuna was spicy or our rice crispy. Now more than ever, we look to the fundamentals and sushis roots in Tokyo as a growing roster of omakase restaurants explore the nuances of traditional techniques. But L.A. has lots more to offer, for any craving.

Heres where to find the best supermarket sushi, ultimate California rolls, homestyle futomaki and inari, vegan sushi, sleek hand rolls and the most spectacular omakase in the city. Check back for new stories as they publish from Wednesday to Saturday, and on Sunday, May 7, in our Weekend print section.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A change to the way bids are accepted for capital construction projects could be coming to the Centre County government, but the proposal is causing controversy and a rift between the county board of commissioners.

A proposed ordinance would require the county to accept the lowest responsible bidder in any capital construction project over $250,000, with stronger guidance on what responsible means. It was discussed Tuesday in front of a packed room during an at-times contentious work session of the board.

Commissioners Mark Higgins, Amber Concepcion and Steve Dershem heard from more than 20 people about a proposed Responsible Contractor Ordinance. County code requires the board to award public works contracts to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder. But because there is limited guidance on what responsible means, the county is looking at creating its own Responsible Contractor Ordinance with those guidelines and requirements.

The proposed ordinance would, among many things, require the county to use contractors with at least 70% of the craft labor workforce employed on the project be either a journeyperson, which is a worker who has completed an apprenticeship training program, or registered apprentices enrolled in such programs.

More than an hour into the meeting, tensions among the board flared when Higgins said they want to support workforce development in the county and that the ordinance would accomplish that.

We really do want to support workforce development here in the county and obviously being in a registered apprentice program would allow someone to say look, I graduated from this program, whether it was from an ABC or a union. This is completely portable. And I can work at any employer in Pennsylvania, and they know I have a certificate and paperwork for this, Higgins said. Obviously, we do have people who have 30 years experience, they really know what theyre doing, but theyre going to have to reprove themselves every time they move to a new employer, to an extent.

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But Dershem said the ordinance benefits companies that are unionized and have apprenticeship programs. Raising his voice, Dershem responded and questioned if the ordinance was politically motivated, even suggesting that Higgins could have a potential conflict of interest due to political donations he may have received.

Youre the guy who goes out and talks to small (businesses) and tries to encourage development. And youre telling small businesses and a lot of contractors out there that theyre not good enough to work on county projects, but their tax dollars are good enough to pay for it. Everything youre saying is just counterintuitive, Dershem said.

He continued to call the proposed ordinance union driven.

And Im going to tell you, when I look at your campaign finance report next week, how many union dollars are going to be part of your campaign contribution either now, in the future, because Ive already looked at the past one, thats full of them, he told Higgins. And you know what? That, its almost a conflict of interest. And Ill say that out loud. And I really find that almost incomprehensible were having this conversation two weeks before an election cycle begins.

What does the proposed ordinance say?

The county has two versions of the RCO and at times during the meeting, it was unclear which version the board was referring to or looking to move forward with.

One version of the ordinance  what Higgins called a compromise  states in lieu of the participation of an apprenticeship program, the county will accept a successful resume of projects, documentation of the firms internal training program, roster of the trained (personnel) in its employ and submission of its safety program and Experience Modification Rate. Many in the room expressed they would not be supportive of the ordinance version that doesnt allow this.

John Franek, county administrator, said in an email the board is still considering both versions.

County Staff were asked to research and provide feedback on some of the very good questions and perspectives that were shared at (Tuesdays) meeting, Franek said.

The ordinance was crafted by taking similar ordinances enacted throughout Pennsylvania.

In addition to the 70% of the workforce requirement, highlights of the ordinance include:

The firm will pay all craft employees on the project, at a minimum, the applicable wage and fringe benefit rates, as established for the classification in which the worker is employed, in accordance with the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act. These wages would apply to employees performing any custom fabrication work for the project, including off-site fabrication.

Within 14 days of receiving a Intent to Award Contract notice, the prospective firm needs to submit a subcontractor list that provides the name of address of the subcontractors and the scope of work assigned to each.

Many people spoke in support of the ordinance, including Tyler Hawkman, a State College resident.

I cannot express how important this would be to the lives and workforce of this area. I am a member of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 5 PA and I cannot stress how important these programs of apprenticeship training and safety training have impacted my career as a BAC member, Hawkman said.

Others said they supported some of the ordinance, but had questions and concerns about certain sections.

Dave Sload, president and CEO of the Associated Builders and Contractors Keystone chapter, said ABC will always promote, support and provide registered apprenticeship and safety training. But he had concerns about the 70% threshold requirement being too high. He said statistics show in Pennsylvania, 28,800 journeymen have been added to the workforce over the last decade.

When you look at the numbers, the math just doesnt support a 70% threshold, Sload said.

Others, like Mike Hawbaker, of Glenn O. Hawbaker, questioned the definition of the off-site fabrication.

...It gets very, very daunting because weve never seen a provision like this in a state contract, in a DGS contract, about where potentially prevailing wage would pertain to off-site fabrication and not specifically something thats done on the job site, Hawbaker said.

Worries of increased taxes and limiting competition were also voiced. Higgins said if enacted, it would not cause a tax increase.

Why is Centre County considering an RCO?

The RCO has been in the works for a few months. In an email, Franek said the goals of the ordinance include:

Informing the county of any potential bidder non-performance issues

Encouraging/promoting worker safety and safety training

Ensuring quality county projects through recognized training/apprenticeship programs

Promoting workforce development and employment of workers within Centre County and Pennsylvania

Continue providing opportunities for smaller contractors to compete for work on county projects costing under $250,000

Creating potential cost-savings to the county and county taxpayers

Dershem said companies that arent unionized or have apprenticeship programs will have to figure out how to fit their program into the ordinance. While there are bad actors, he said there are also good actors that should qualify but probably wont.

I have to look out for everybody, union, non-union, it doesnt matter. Im looking at how the taxpayers of Centre County are being treated by this and I think this is certainly pointed in a direction that doesnt lend itself to equitable treatment and fair competition.

In past years, the county government has not had many capital projects, although a $30 million project to reuse the former Centre Crest building as offices for the county government is planned for next year. And the board is looking to ramp up its capital project planning in the coming years.

At the end of the meeting, Higgins said they need a pinch more work on this and suggested the board have an informational session on the revisions and concerns that were mentioned during the meeting.
Way back in 1971 at start of my drag career at the Watch Your Hat and Coat Saloon in Nashville, we had to enter and leave the club on Second Avenue with our drag concealed in a garbage bag. We were equally careful to enter the club for work as men in our street clothes and to scrub our faces free of make-up before leaving each night.

Otherwise, you could encounter a redneck looking for an excuse to beat up a gay man in a dress.

Now, over 50 years later, reading the news coverage of the drag ban in my home state of Tennessee, I feel sick to my stomach. The hate-filled bullies are no longer lurking in the alley waiting to beat us up. In 2023, they work at the state Capitol. They reside in the governors mansion.

Tennessees new law is far more dangerous than anything we ever faced back in the 1970s. And I say that as a drag queen who was on stage in 1973 when someone intentionally set fire to the Watch Your Hat and Coat and burned that packed club to the ground.

Watch Your Hat And Coat Burned Down In May 1973 According To This Tennessean Article

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Things are going backwards

Under this newly passed Tennessee law, drag performers could face six months in jail on a misdemeanor charge for a first offense. The second time, its a felony punishable by up to six years in prison. So, if you ride on a float in a pride parade or read a storybook to children in a public library, youre risking arrest and jail  for entertaining people.

Charlie Brown with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens receiving the Phoenix Award in October 2022 at Atlanta City Hall.

(On March 31, hours before the new law was set to begin, a federal judge temporarily halted the ban, citing concerns about the constitutionality of the new law).

In contrast, aside from requiring all performers to get an entertainer license from the City of Nashville and making us put a Mr. in front of our stage names so our audiences knew we were men in dresses, the cops didnt really mess with us back in the 1970s. In fact, they used to sit in the audience. The mayor of Nashville Beverly Briley would bring guests to our shows.

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Now at age 73, as someone who has performed in drag all over the world, it tears me up to see things slide backwards.

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Consider the real threats

As the grandson of a Tennessee Missionary Baptist preacher, I would ask the legislators passing these hate-filled laws in my home state to consider the following:

A portrait of Charlie Brown. (Courtesy of Charlie Brown )

In March, a Memphis youth pastor was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison for exploiting children.

In Chattanooga, a youth pastor and former PTA president has been charged with three counts of child molestation.

Meanwhile, a youth pastor in Knoxville was arrested for sexual battery and is now listed on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry.

And in Nashville, a person with a small arsenal of weapons shot their way into a Christian school and killed three 9-year-olds sitting in their classrooms.

Drag queens are the least of your problems.

Charlie Brown has been performing as a female impersonator for over half a century. He currently performs each weekend at the Atlanta Eagle and Lips Atlanta. In 2022, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens presented Brown with the City of Atlanta Phoenix Award, the citys highest honor. He resides in Atlanta with his husband Fred Wise. With Atlanta journalist Richard Eldredge, Brown is currently finishing a memoir chronicling his life on and off stage.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Drag queen: Tennessee law is more dangerous than anything I've seen
Credit - Getty Images; GSK

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can dangerously compromise breathing, especially for infants and the elderly. But there has been no vaccine to prevent ituntil today. On May 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first vaccine against RSV, from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), to prevent respiratory disease in people ages 60 and older. The Centers for Disease Controls vaccine committee will make formal recommendations in June about who should receive the vaccine, but GSK says it currently has enough doses to vaccinate eligible people beginning this fall.

In studies involving 25,000 people that GSK submitted to the FDA, the companys vaccine, called Arexvy, reduced the risk of respiratory disease by 82.6% among those who received a single shot, compared to those receiving placebo. The FDA asked the company to continue studying how long the protection against RSV disease might last to determine if people would need annual vaccinations. The company will also monitor for potential side effects of the shot; two people who received Arexvy and the flu shot on the same day developed a rare inflammatory condition, and one died, while another who received just an Arexvy vaccination developed Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare immune system condition that can cause muscle weakness and even paralysis.

It wont be the only shot targeting the virus for long. Pfizer has also submitted its RSV vaccine in older adults for approval, and the FDA has until May 31 to make a decision. Not far behind, Moderna plans to request approval for its RSV vaccine, based on the same mRNA technology behind its COVID-19 vaccine, this year. (Johnson & Johnson-Janssen, which was also testing an RSV vaccine, decided to stop its late-stage trials in March.) In coming months, the companies and FDA will also consider approving a vaccine for young babies from Pfizer, and Moderna is launching studies of its vaccine in pediatric populations.

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Getting to this point has been a long journey, but one that has benefited from game-changing discoveries. Heres how we got here.

More from TIME

The long road to a vaccine

In the 1980s, Paul Glezen, a microbiologist and immunologist at Baylor College of Medicine, made the first important discovery toward creating an RSV vaccine. Doctors knew that while nearly every baby became infected with RSV by the time they were two, only a small percentage became sick enough from their infection to be hospitalized. He guessed that most babies were benefiting from antibodies that they passively received from their mothers, which helped their still undeveloped immune systems fight off the virus. To prove his theory, Glezen collected cord blood from thousands of babies born at Baylors maternity hospital, and compared those who ended up being hospitalized for RSV to those who were not. The babies who did not get admitted tended to have high levels of antibodies against the virus, while those who did not had lower levels.

That was a fundamental breakthrough, says Bill Gruber, senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development at Pfizer. It indicated that if you could get the right antibodies to the babies, they would likely provide protection against RSV.

That insight turned into an antibody treatment: an injectable shot known as palivizumab, or Synagis. This is currently the only antibody-based therapy for RSV, but its reserved for babies at highest risk of developing infections and requires five shots over the course of one viral season.

A vaccine that trains the immune system to fight the virus would have broader impact and could be more widely distributed to every newborn as part of their routine immunizations. But after an early vaccine candidate failed to protect babies and instead led to worse illnessparticularly among those who had never been exposed to the virus before getting immunizeddevelopment stalled for decades. That vaccine, which was given to infants, made things worse and set back research years and years, says Dr. Phil Dormitzer, global head of vaccines R&D at GSK.

Scientists working on another virus, parainfluenza virus, that also causes respiratory disease in babies, first introduced the idea that an effective vaccine against that pathogen should target a specific form that the virus takes, just before it infects a cell. Previous attempts to develop vaccines had targeted the wrong form of the RSV proteinone that the virus made after it had infected cells. By then, the virus had already co-opted the cells machinery to make more copies of itself, and had launched a full scale infectiontoo late for any vaccine to come in and have much effect. Once the idea had been planted with the parainfluenza virus, we assumed that we could do the same thing with RSV, and that it would be pretty easy to engineer, says Dormitzer. But it turned out to be way more difficult, and many frustrating years went by when we tried to do the same thing with RSV, with minor variations, and they werent working.

Then, Barney Graham made a breakthrough discovery in 2013. An immunologist and virologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, Graham had devoted years to unpacking how RSV worked. He focused on understanding how the main RSV protein that sets up a red flag for the immune system was constructed. Graham successfully isolated a version of the protein that the virus made before infecting a cell, and in tests in animals and with human cells, this protein was far more potent in stimulating the immune system than previously isolated RSV proteins.

At Pfizer, Gruber, who was Grahams undergraduate roommate at Rice University, learned of his friends discovery after reading Grahams description in a scientific journal. The two connected, and Gruber convinced Pfizer to license the technology. The pharmaceutical giant put its scientists to work creating a stabilized form of the RSV protein that targeted not just one strain of the virus, but twosimilar to the way different versions of the influenza virus are included in each flu shotin order to prompt the most wide ranging immune response possible.

GSK relied on its own strategies using recombinant technology to ensure that the target RSV protein did not flip to a form we didnt want, says Dormitzer. The engineering in GSKs vaccine, he says, has advantages in that scientists can perform quality control to ensure that the RSV protein in the shot is pure and in the proper form, and gives them more control over how the vaccine can activate the immune system.

How RSV vaccines got sidelined by COVID-19

Graham was preparing to launch a trial of his RSV protein in a vaccine toward the end of 2019. But it turned out the first virus his theory would be tested against wouldnt be RSV, but SARS-CoV-2. Based on his work with RSV to that point, Graham was among the first to realize that the same approach he was testing for a new RSV vaccine could work for the novel coronavirus as well. He asked his boss, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to allow him to test that idea and develop a prototype COVID-19 vaccine with a form of SARS-CoV-2.

NIAID had partnered with a small biotech in Cambridge, Mass., called Moderna, to test this strategy. Not only did the company place its bets on the genetic code for the same form of the viral protein as Graham, but it also banked on a new way of delivering that information into the body using a genetic material known as mRNA. Scientists at Moderna were convinced that mRNA would serve as a better foundation for a vaccine, since the platform did not require growing any viral proteins but only relied on zeroing in on the right RNA sequence from the virus that would stimulate the immune system.

Grahams advance allowed the immune system to generate a strong immune response to SARS-CoV-2 that surprised even the most jaded scientists. In the first studies in people, the COVID-19 vaccine was able to neutralize lab versions of SARS-CoV-2 with more than 90% efficacy. Grahams discovery, coupled with the mRNA platforms flexibility and speed, set records for vaccine development that will be tough to beat. In under a year, scientists had gone from not knowing what SARS-CoV-2 was to having a very effective vaccine directed against it.

Next steps for RSV vaccines

The success of those shots redirected scientists to bring their other vaccine candidates full circle, hopefully with equally robust results.

Building on the right form of the RSV protein that Grahams group had identified, GSK scientists super-charged its vaccine for older people, many of whom have waning immune systems and other conditions that that can weaken their bodys defenses, with an accelerant known as an adjuvant, which makes foreign targets in vaccines more attractive to the immune system.

Gruber says Pfizer also focused on developing a vaccine for adults at highest risk of RSVthe elderlyand used the same vaccine to also immunize pregnant women as a way to protect newborns. Some pregnant women could make antibodies to pass on to their infants, so we needed to figure out how to make every pregnant woman have that opportunity, he says. In March, the company presented to an FDA panel of outside experts its encouraging late-stage results from human testing among older people. That data showed the vaccine was around 67% effective in reducing RSV illness associated with at least two symptoms of infection, and had 85.7% efficacy in lowering more severe illness associated with at least three symptoms.

Pfizers next target will be immunizing pregnant women against RSV in order to protect their newborns. In November 2022, the company announced encouraging results from its late-phase testing of the same vaccine used in older adults that was given to expectant moms. In that study, the vaccine was almost 82% efficacious in reducing the need for medical treatment of respiratory illness in the first 90 days after birth, and 69% efficacious in the first six months. That study is ongoing, and Gruber says Pfizers scientists are hoping that vaccine could be given once during pregnancy to protect the newborn. We knew pregnant women who got infected with RSV made antibodies that they passed on to their infants, and we figured out how to give every woman that opportunity with a vaccine, he says.

Dormitzer says that GSKs RSV vaccine for older people likely will not be applicable to pregnant women; early trials found a possible safety issue in this population, so the company stopped the study. If we go with a vaccine directly in children, we would probably not use [the current formulation], because of what we saw in the 1960s, says Dormitzer. Right now, focusing on the older populations, we are immunizing people who have all had RSV before, so there is no risk of seeing what happened in the 1960s.

So far, GSK found that protection from a single vaccination protects older people through an entire respiratory disease season, and potentially up to a year. In coming months, its scientists will know if that protection lasts longer, into a second season. Also coming could be combination vaccines that target pairings of three of the major respiratory diseases that plague older people  flu, COVID-19 and RSV.

Because vaccines are among the most effective ways to prevent infectious with viruses and protect peoples health, these shots could be critical in controlling RSV, not just in the U.S., but around the world as well. These are transformational products in my view, says Ruth Karron, professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They will certainly transform what happens in high income countries, and we hope they will be able to transform things globally as well.




A family of three, including a months-old baby, were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in northeastern Seoul on Wednesday, police said.







A 33-year-old-man surnamed Lee, his 37-year-old wife and their baby, believed to be several months old, were found dead by the police at an apartment in the Nowon district at 4:46 a.m.







The woman was found stabbed with a knife inside the apartment, and the bodies of the man and the baby were found outside, the police said, adding officers went there after receiving a call from the man's father.







The police began an investigation, speculating the man may have killed his wife before jumping off the apartment building with the baby.







The man reportedly sent a message to his father before the suspected crime, saying: "I did something wrong. Thank you."







The man was said to be self-employed, and whether the family had financial issues is yet to be known. An official from the Nowon Ward office said the family did not seem to have experienced any particular economic difficulty.







Police said they will conduct autopsies to find the exact cause of their deaths. (Yonhap)


London  Prince Harry's confirmed plan to attend the coronation of his father, King Charles III, on May 6, without his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has fueled questions about his relationship with his family after years of public acrimony. Harry is expected to land in the U.K. on Friday and be in town for less than 48 hours.

The coronation ceremony will be the first time Harry appears with his father and brother William, the Prince of Wales, since the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth II in September.

King Charles III's coronation: The schedule and how to watch the ceremony

Then, it seemed that King Charles was offering an olive branch to his estranged son, saying he wanted to express his "love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas."

Dashed hopes of a Harry and William truce

Harry and William greeted members of the public outside Windsor Castle after the funeral, along with Meghan and William's wife Kate, the Princess of Wales.

Prince William and Catherine, the new Prince and Princess of Wales, at left, and Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, proceed to greet well-wishers outside Windsor Castle on September 10, 2022. / Credit: Mark Kerrison/In Pictures/Getty

That brought hope of a reconciliation, Valentine Low, royal correspondent for the Times of London newspaper, told CBS News.

But despite how it may have appeared, Low said there was tension behind the scenes.

"There was definitely not any great personal warmth between the two couples," Low said. "I mean, when it was over, they went their separate ways. They didn't even get in the same car together. It was important to do it, but I think that the lack of warmth, the lack of coming together, it was pretty obvious even at the time."

Low said it was "predictable" that Meghan had decided not to attend the coronation.

"It becomes slightly less of a drama if she doesn't come," he said, suggesting that Meghan may have been hoping to "lessen the damage, lessen the pain."

Harry and Meghan go public

Since Queen Elizabeth's funeral, Harry and Meghan have released a Netflix series detailing the family's internal strife. Harry has also published his book, "Spare," and promoted it with tell-all interviews.

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"I wasn't being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves," Meghan said in their Netflix special.

Speaking with Harry for an interview on "60 Minutes," Anderson Cooper asked the prince about a line in his book in which he refers to a "full-scale rupture" with his family. He asked Harry if he thought it could be healed.

"Yes," replied Harry, adding: "The ball is very much in their court... There needs to be a constructive conversation, one that can happen in private that doesn't get leaked."

A "painful family dispute"

Low, from the Times newspaper, said the royal family, as an institution, would very much like the issues with Harry and Meghan to go away.

"These are people, you know, and we all have family rows, don't we?" he said, adding: "They just want it to be better. It's very hard to conduct what is a bitter and painful family dispute in the public eye."

King Charles begins procession ride to Westminster Abbey ahead of coronation

Historic Campaign Moments: Jimmy Carter, the Wisconsin primary and the headlines that got it wrong

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After becoming the target of far-right activist Ammon Bundy and his followers, a St. Lukes nurse practitioner installed a security system in her home, according to court documents.

She avoided going to the grocery store, posting on social media or wearing her St. Lukes badge outside of work. She didnt want her children to spend the night at her home.

I have experienced flashbacks accompanied by physical symptoms, reoccurring memories and nightmares, difficulty sleeping, distressing thoughts, and physical signs of distress such as racing heart, tightness of chest, and difficulty breathing, Tracy Jungman wrote in a court document.

At least three witnesses are unwilling to testify in St. Lukes Health Systems defamation lawsuit against Bundy, associate Diego Rodriguez and related entities because they fear the tactics used by the former gubernatorial candidate and his followers, according to St. Lukes attorney Erik Stidham.

It is those alleged actions, and not Bundys refusal to respond to the lawsuit in state court, that led to an arrest warrant being issued by a judge last week. Stidham said the warrant is the result of Bundys failure to follow a court order barring the defendants from witness harassment and intimidation.

I understand that others are unwilling to serve as witnesses because they are concerned for their own safety and the safety of their families, Dr. Natasha Erickson, a pediatrician and plaintiff in the lawsuit, stated in a May 2 affidavit. It seems completely unfair and unjust that my ability to pursue my legal claims is being undercut because Rodriguez, Bundy, PRN, and Freedom Man Press are allowed to bully, intimidate, and threaten witnesses.

St. Lukes filed its lawsuit last May after Bundy and Rodriguez led protests at the Boise hospital over a child welfare case involving Rodriguezs grandchild, the Idaho Statesman previously reported. The lawsuit names as defendants those two men, Bundys Peoples Rights Network, and other business entities affiliated with them.

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Rodriguez runs a website called FreedomMan.org that is full of blog posts and other references to the child welfare case and St. Lukes.

The suit claims that the defendants posted lies about the hospital system online and did so in part to raise money and gain a bigger political following.

Immediately after the protests, the hospital spent $4.6 million to hire 11 new full-time security employees, and purchase and test security equipment including bulletproof vests, CS spray gel, tasers, body cameras and drones, according to new court filings.

Protesters gather outside the St. Lukes hospital in downtown Boise in March 2022, causing the medical campus to go into security lockdown.

In December, 4th District Judge Lynn Norton issued a protection order prohibiting any defendants or agents of the defendants from using direct or indirect force to intimidate, threaten or harass anyone who had testified in the case or might be called as a witness. They also were prohibited from trying to influence, deter, obstruct or impede potential witnesses.

Bundy repeatedly violated that order through online statements, St. Lukes argued in a 300-page document packed with examples. He has also refused to remove certain web pages about people involved in the lawsuit  in violation of a cease and desist notice  including a call to action and a post titled Come No More Upon Me, A Warning Letter From Ammon Bundy.

Included in the St. Lukes filings was a March affidavit from Spencer Fomby, a recently retired Boise Police Department captain, stating that he believed the actions of Bundy and the Peoples Rights Network were creating a serious life-threatening danger to the targets.

It is my opinion that extremist groups like Peoples Rights Network have a playbook that involves the intentional use of misinformation and disinformation to radicalize others to take action, including violent action, against individuals identified by the extremist group, Fomby said in the affidavit.

Norton ruled that Bundy had defied the order and issued the arrest warrant.

That led to some back-and-forth regarding the Gem County Sheriffs Office serving legal papers to Bundy, and then to essentially what has become a stalemate at Bundys property in Gem County.

Ammon Bundys history, rhetoric

Known for armed standoffs with federal officials in Nevada in 2014 and Oregon in 2016, Bundy has not explicitly threatened violence against those involved in the St. Lukes lawsuit. But the hospital says that his online speech labeling them as wicked enemies, coupled with statements that violence is sometimes necessary when defending oneself, show the danger.

There is no silver bullet to securing liberty, Bundy wrote in February. It is going to take unity, suffering, and the willingness to use violence in defense, like it always has. Stop believing that some convention or other plot is the answer. Stop thinking that the courts or elected representatives are going to save us.

Gem County Sheriff Donnie Wunder said at one point that he wouldnt serve Bundy with court papers. Wunder said Bundy was avoiding those trying to serve him and was confrontational when they succeeded in contacting him. St. Lukes and Wunder said in a joint statement last week that they were concerned about the situation escalating and agree that Mr. Bundy poses a real threat of physical violence.

In online writings and videos, Bundy sometimes seems to be trying to play the role of a weary martyr.

After Thursdays confrontation with the Gem County sheriff deputies, I feel like they are going to keep pushing and pushing until I become what they say I am, he wrote in an April blog post.

In the Come No More Upon Me letter, Bundy named Stidham and St. Lukes CEO Chris Roth, among other people, and warned them to come no more upon me or my family. He warned them in the name of Jesus Christ that he would be patient three times, but after that, God will deliver them into my hands.

I pray every day to my Father In Heaven for the resolve to remain peaceful, but feel I have the justification to call upon my friends and defend myself by any means, even though I have no intention at this point to do so, Bundy said in the letter.

Roth, Erickson and others allege that they have been affected by Bundys behavior.

The false accusations and doxxing caused and continue to cause me mental distress and reputational harm, Erickson said in her court filing. These public accusations of kidnapping and harming children have adversely affected my sleep patterns and created anxiety and stress. These defamatory actions, coupled with the incitements to harass me and my family and implied threats of violence from Defendants followers, have had a traumatic effect.

Supporters of Ammon Bundy gather at his property in Emmett, Monday, April 24, 2023, after they were told his arrest was imminent.

After the warrant was issued, Bundy sent several messages to his followers, calling them to come to his aid and hosting events on his property. Long lines of vehicles have been seen outside his home.

The Gem County Sheriffs Office confirmed that deputies have visited Bundys Emmett house but have not arrested or located him. A video posted by a Bundy follower on Tuesday showed a deputy leaving papers at the property and telling the person holding the camera to let Bundy know he had been served.

Wunder did not respond to the Statesmans emails and phone calls.

Co-defendant Diego Rodriguez also accused of harassment

The St. Lukes plaintiffs on Tuesday filed a request for a contempt of court order against Rodriguez, claiming that he also was harassing and intimidating witnesses and parties to the case. Court filings show that Rodriguez has kept up a steady stream of online posts aimed at those involved.

His most recent filing was April 27, when he took shots at the judge, Roth, Erickson and others.

An April 4 blog post on the Freedom Man website targets the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and its director, Dave Jeppesen, and is littered with homophobic rants.

The departments child welfare chief, Kristen Nate  labeled by Rodriguez as a vindictive, angry, Christian hating, political leftist, who loves power and seeks every opportunity to destroy godly families  said the website posted a photo of her mother and a photoshopped image of Nate pointing a gun at Rodriguezs family.

The website accused Erickson of kidnapping and abuse, and called her a destroyer of families. Like many involved, her photo and identifying information were posted to Freedom Man.

In her affidavit, Erickson said she was disappointed that the court was not enforcing the protective order.

My family and I have received no protection, Erickson wrote. If anything, it feels like the harassment and intimidation have increased since the Protective Order was put in place. Bundy, Rodriguez, PRN, and Freedom Man Press seem to have escalated and spread their false narrative of kidnapping and conspiracy and have increased the false statements that are directed at me.
John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Defense attorneys for Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman accused of fatally striking her police officer boyfriend with an SUV last year, insisted Wednesday theres evidence to suggest someone else committed the slayingbut argued prosecutors are holding key information back.

Reads attorneys said evidence from a local animal control office and data from a cell phone will destroy prosecutors version of events and implicate friends of the slain Boston police officer, John OKeefe, who they claim beat him to death and framed Read for their crime.

The motion for evidence is the latest twist in the dizzying case surrounding Read, which has been filled with bitter bickering between prosecutors and the defense while conspiracy theories run amok outside the courtroom.

Authorities say OKeefe was found dying in a snowbank on Jan. 29, 2022, next to the driveway of a colleagues house hed been drinking at the night before. Cops said OKeefes body was found by Read the next morningwho was quickly named a suspect in his death, with cops accusing her of drunkenly striking him and leaving him to die as she backed out of the driveway.

Read was charged with second-degree murder, motor-vehicle manslaughter and for leaving the scene of a crash involving a death.

Defense attorney David Yannetti insisted Wednesday that prosecutors have charged the wrong person, saying authorities are hesitant to release further evidence because it will drive a stake through the heart of this prosecution.

Yannetti asked Judge Beverly Cannone to set a hard deadline for prosecutors to turn over the evidence they requested but she denied to do so just yet. Instead, she set a second hearing for May 25 relating to the motions.

We cannot abide by excuses any longer, Yannetti said while pleading to Cannone. We need this court's help. We need you, your honor, respectfully, to hold the prosecution's feet to the fire.

Oklahoma Rapist Shot 6 in the Head Before Killing Himself, Cops Reveal

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Yannetti laid out an extravagant alternate theory into how OKeefe was killed. He started by claiming OKeefes injuries werent consistent with someone who fought with his girlfriend before being fatally struck by an SUV, as prosecutors assert.

Defense attorneys presented photos of OKeefes arm, which were filled with scratches and gashes that Yannetti claimed were consistent with an animal attack. Yanetti then addressed the blunt head trauma OKeefe sufferedsomething cops and prosecutors allege came from being hit by Reads SUV.

Yanetti countered that the head injuries likely came from a fight inside the home of fellow officer Brian Albert. He further suggested the animal injuries on OKeefes arm likely came from that same fight, as Albert, another Boston cop, owned a 90-pound German shepherd that wouldve aided his owner in a tussle.

It looked like he could have gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson, Yanetti said of OKeefes body, adding that he was found with two black eyes and lacerations by his eye and his nose.

The defense also challenged another piece of evidence central to the prosecutionthat Reads SUV had a shattered rear tail light where her SUV struck OKeefe.

Yanetti said video from a librarys security camera that prosecutors turned over to the defense doesnt show the crucial moment when Read drives by on her way home from Alberts house. If it did, Yanetti says it would show that Read did not have a busted tail light yetsuggesting someone else manually busted it to frame her for O'Keefe's murder.

All together, the defense motioned to receive video surveillance from the Canton Public Library, the clothing OKeefe wore the night he died, evidence from Reads SUV, and DNA evidence from animal control that would show whether Alberts German shepherd took part in a vicious attack on OKeefe.

Yannetti described the missing evidence as exculpatory, perhaps case ending.

Prosecutors took issue with nearly every claim raised by Yanetti when responding. Assistant Norfolk District Attorney Adam C. Lall called the elaborate storyand the defenses motion for more evidencea fishing expedition.

The showing from the defendant is simply insufficient to establish any relevance to your evidentiary value to these records, Lall said. This is the very epitome of a fishing expedition.

Lori Vallows Former Friend Says She Threatened to Cut Me Up

Yanetti countered by poking fun at prosecutors characterization, saying: I think we've established this is not just fishing. We got a fish on the hook. We just need the court to help us reel it in.

Read, 43, remained stoic throughout Wednesdays hearing, but never spoke. She could face a life-sentence if convicted on the second-degree murder charge.

Yanetti asked the court to move quickly in ordering evidence be handed over, saying Read is struggling to afford her growing legal and medical costs since the murder allegation caused her to lose her job last year.

Complicating Reads defense has been a series of statements made the morning she discovered OKeefe in the snow bankrepeatedly asking, Could I have hit him? Did I hit him?

Cops say she still had alcohol in her system when her blood was drawn the morning OKeefe was found. Experts estimated her blood-alcohol level wouldve been well above the 0.08 legal driving limit when shes accused of striking OKeefe before driving home in white out blizzard conditions.

Ever since, the case surrounding Read has been full of twists and turns.

A shocking update came last month, when defense attorneys revealed in a motion that Alberts sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe, made a Google search just hours before OKeefe was found, Ho[w] long to die in cold.

Reads attorneys pointed to the eerie search as proof that prosecutors are missing what truly happened the night of OKeefes death.

There is simply no innocent explanation for McCabes search at that time, the defense said in a statement. This evidence unequivocally exonerates Karen because it establishes that individuals who were in the house at 34 Fairview that night were aware that John was dying in the snow before Karen even knew he was missing.

A follow-up hearing is scheduled for May 25, where Cannone is expected to approve or deny the defenses motions for additional evidence.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Jessica Leeds and Donald Trump. AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Jessica Leeds, 81, said Trump molested her on a flight with what seemed like "40 zillion hands."

She said the incident happened in the late 1970s, when she was invited to sit beside Trump in first class.

Leeds joined the other witnesses supporting columnist E. Jean Carroll's lawsuit against Trump.

A woman accused former President Donald Trump in court of groping her on an airplane with what she said felt like "40 zillion hands."

Jessica Leeds, 81, from North Carolina, testified on Tuesday to support a defamation lawsuit against Trump filed by the writer, E. Jean Carroll.

Leeds told the court that the incident happened in the late 1970s when she was in her 30s and working in sales, per the Associated Press.

Leeds testified that a flight attendant invited her to sit in a first-class seat next to Trump. They shared a meal and a conversation before Trump suddenly "decided to kiss" and "grope" her, Leeds said, per the AP.

"There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue. It was like a tussle," Leeds said in her testimony, per the AP. "He was trying to kiss me, trying to pull me towards him. He was grabbing my breasts. It was like he had 40 zillion hands. It was like a tussling match between the two of us."

Leeds accused Trump of trying to put his hand up her skirt, after which she "managed to wriggle out" and went back to her seat.

In an interview in 2016 with The New York Times, Leeds said that on the flight from the Midwest to New York City, Trump was like an "octopus" and that "his hands were everywhere."

Trump denied Leeds' accusation during a rally in October 2016.

"Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you," Trump said of Leeds to his rally audience in North Carolina.

Leeds, a retired stockbroker, is one of the 26 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct since the 1970s, including his ex-wife Ivana Trump. Leeds spoke in court on Tuesday to support Carroll's lawsuit against Trump in Manhattan.

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Carroll alleges that Trump raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

Trump, meanwhile, said in 2019 that Carroll was not his "type" and accused her of making up the sexual assault claim to sell her memoir. Carroll sued Trump in 2019  and again in 2022  for his statements.

The Carroll defamation trial comes a month after Trump was arrested and charged in New York. On April 4, in a Manhattan courtroom, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 low-level felony charges of falsifying business records.

The charges were filed against him by the Manhattan district attorney's office in connection with a lengthy investigation into an election-eve hush money payment made to the porn star, Stormy Daniels.

Representatives of Trump and lawyers for Carroll did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Photo: Getty Images

If I had a nickel for every time a woman was arrested for throwing a drink at alleged sex trafficker Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), I would have two nickelswhich isnt a lot, but its interesting that it keeps happening.



On Saturday, a Tallahassee resident named Selena Chambers was arrested for throwing a glass of wine at the far-right Congressman and shouting obscenities at him at a local event, the Walton County Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook post on Tuesday. Chambers has since been charged with battery and was released on $1,000 bail. A similar incident took place in 2019 when a different woman was also arrested and sentenced to 15 days in federal custody for throwing a beverage at Gaetz while protesting outside one of his town hall meetings.

Read more

Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson condemned the latest drink-throwing incident in the Facebook post. We cannot allow an environment where you can throw things at elected officials because you dont like them, Adkinson said. No matter your political affiliation, this is not the way to conduct yourself and will not be tolerated in Walton County. In a Tuesday statement, Gaetz said hell be pressing charges against this individual in order to uphold the civility our community deserves, and thanked the county sheriffs office for taking swift action.

The @WCSOFL is confirming reports that our agency responded to an incident at an event in Miramar Beach Saturday involving Representative Matt Gaetz.



A 41-year-old Tallahassee woman, Selena Chambers, was arrested after it was found she intentionally threw a glass of wine at pic.twitter.com/ZD9kalzjVM  Walton Co. Sheriff (@WCSOFL) May 2, 2023

Matt A. Karp, an attorney for Chambers, denies this version of events, claiming Gaetz was the aggressor in the confrontation on Saturday, and that he and a group of men instigated a verbal altercation with Chambers and a group of women. This investigation has initially shown Rep. Gaetz to have been both an aggressor and agitator, and we look forward to taking his deposition, Karp said in a Wednesday statement to the Associated Press. My client, Selena Chambers, maintains her innocence in this matter, and we intend to vigorously defend against the allegations of Rep. Gaetz.

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I, personally, am fairly inclined to believe this: Gaetz is an alleged sex trafficker whos previously said that women and girls who support abortion rights are too ugly to be affected by abortion bans. Hes also body-shamed and harassed a teenage abortion rights activist. Getting into it with a group of women at an event sounds exactly like something hed do.

In any case, even if there was no prior verbal altercation, the county sheriffs suggestion that a citizen with no government power throwing a drink is somehow worse than enacting policies that are killing people is comically out of touch. Gaetz was one of only a handful of House members who voted against an anti-human trafficking bill. Hes been one of the loudest and foulest advocates for banning abortion and reducing women to government-controlled incubators. If he cant take the vile indecency that he uses his significant political power to dish out, perhaps he should consider not dishing it out?

Even if two women throwing drinks at him has made Gaetz a little uncomfortable in public spaces, lets be clear: Hell never be as uncomfortable or as unsafe as the people, namely women and pregnant people, living through the consequences of his dehumanizing policies.

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In the most recent episode of his podcast, Firebrand with Matt Gaetz, the U.S. congressman told his listeners about an incident that occurred over the weekend involving a drink that was thrown at him.

That drink led to one count of misdemeanor battery and one count of battery on an elected official against the Tallahassee woman who threw it. The latter charge is a felony in Florida.

A Walton County Sheriff's Office report on the incident stated that Gaetz told police the woman threw a drink at him while walking past him on Saturday night at the South Walton Beaches Wine and Food Festival in Sandestin, Florida.

The woman, Selena Jo Chambers, isnt the first person who has thrown their drink at Gaetz and had charges pressed against them.

Selena Jo Chambers arrested: Florida woman arrested, charged with battery after allegedly throwing drink at Matt Gaetz

Why it's a felony: A Florida woman was charged with battery for throwing a drink at Gaetz

A Pensacola woman was arrested in 2019 after throwing her drink at Gaetz

A Pensacola woman named Amanda Kondrat'yev was arrested after she threw a drink at Gaetz as he was leaving a town hall event dubbed Open Gaetz in June 2019.

According to her Pensacola Police Department arrest report, an officer observed her holding a sign that read Gaetz  wipe off the blood from your hands, A+ rating  NRA, save our kids vote Gaetz out in 2020.

She, too, was charged with battery after the arrest.

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz pressed charges against a Pensacola woman after she threw her drink at him as he was leaving his Wont Back Down town hall meeting at Brew Ha Ha restaurant in Pensacola, Florida, on June 1, 2019.

Throwing a drink at someone would typically be a misdemeanor, but Florida statute 784.041(2) reclassifies assault or battery on specified officials or employees.

Against elected officials, 784.041(2)(c) reclassifies battery from a misdemeanor of the first degree to a felony of the third degree.

Kondrat'yev pleaded guilty in August 2019 and admitted to throwing the cup at Gaetz.

Sentencing guidelines called for a prison sentence of eight months to a year, and felony battery can be punishable by up to five years in prison, five years of probation and a $5,000 fine.

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Amanda Kondrat'yev arrested: Woman arrested for battery for throwing drink at Rep. Matt Gaetz.

However, U.S. Magistrate Judge Hope Cannon said the fact that Kondrat'yev had no prior criminal history and that the crime in question had a "limited duration" justified a departure from those guidelines.

Kondrat'yev was ultimately sentenced to 15 days in prison, one year of supervised probation and a $500 fine.

Gaetz was present at the hearing and stated to the judge asking that Kondrat'yev be sentenced to prison.

"I come not for any vengeance or retribution, but for the safety of the constituents who attend our public events," Gaetz told the court.

Pleading guilty: Pensacola woman pleads guilty to throwing drink at Matt Gaetz, could face 1 year in prison

He later said that he was afraid a sentence of probation, instead of prison time, would lead "people (who are) willing to endure that consequence to show up wishing to cause harm to my supporters or me."

Following the proceedings, Gaetz told reporters he was pleased with the 15-day sentence.

Kondratyev was one of several candidates who ran against Gaetz for former U.S. Rep. Jeff Millers seat in 2016 before she withdrew from the race.

The mother of three was also a local activist who was one of the four plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the city of Pensacola to force the city to remove a cross located in a popular public park called Bayview Park.

15-day sentence: Woman who threw slushie on Matt Gaetz at Pensacola event sentenced to 15 days in prison

The American Humanist Associations Appignani Humanist Legal Center and the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed the suit on behalf of Kondrayev and three other Pensacola residents. One of the complainants, David Suhor, has long pushed for local governments to end the practice of opening meetings with prayer and also has called for the cross to come down.

During the campaign, Gaetz challenged Kondratyev to a debate about the cross, which she accepted. The debate never happened.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Matt Gaetz's drink attack isn't the first time he's pressed charges
Matt Sowash inside one of his tiny homes. Holy Ground Tiny Homes Youtube channel

A woman hired a private investigator after waiting months for her tiny home to be delivered.

She discovered the Holy Ground Tiny Houses founder didn't have any assets in his name, NBC reported.

Matt Sowash promised buyers tiny homes, but has filed for bankruptcy, court records show.

A woman resorted to hiring a private investigator to find out why her tiny home had not been delivered months after paying almost $50,000, NBC News reported.

Matt Sowash, the founder of Colorado-based nonprofit Holy Ground Tiny Houses, is facing multiple lawsuits after being accused of failing to deliver homes.

Lori Birckhead, who runs the By Faith Farm in Tennessee with her husband, transferred $46,504 to Sowash in April 2022 for an 8-foot-by-28-foot home to put on their property and was told to expect delivery in July.

She told NBC that after multiple attempts at getting in touch with Sowash, an assistant said the home could take more than two years to be delivered.

"That was when I hired a private investigator who did some digging and discovered that he didn't have any assets in his name," she told the outlet.

Court records show Sowash filed for bankruptcy on October 7, despite telling NBC in September that he wouldn't do so "because I can't sit back and watch all those people lose homes."

He also told NBC he was not sure if he could construct the 250 homes that had already been paid for.

In an update to customers on October 14, he wrote: "This has really been a week of change. I first want to apologize for this situation. Unfortunately, filing for Chapter 11 is the only way I can make sure the business is safe and that we can live up to our obligation of making sure everyone gets their money back."

Lender Kinetic Direct Funding filed a lawsuit against him in state court in Brooklyn, New York on September 2.

Sowash told NBC he borrowed $400,000 loan from Kinetic to build the homes, but wasn't able to make the payments.

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Charles Dowling, 39, a disabled Army veteran who lives near Colorado Springs, told NBC he was sleeping on friends' couches because the 30-foot house he ordered with a $22,000 down payment, failed to arrive in July as well.

"He's nothing but a shyster, and no one should ever do business with this man," Dowling said of Sowash.

Englewood Police Department in Colorado said it was investigating the allegations against Sowash and his nonprofit, NBC reported. The police department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Sowash was sentenced in 2009 to five years in prison for defrauding investors of more than $470,000 and was also convicted of stealing $140,000 from three people who thought he was looking for investment opportunities for them.

He discovered an interest in tiny homes while in jail, and previously told NBC he built his first home in his garage in 2019, selling it for $12,000.

Sowash did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Maddy Chow (@maddychowdown), a University of Hawaii student, is documenting a personal challenge of hers: using the same plastic cup for drinking until it doesnt work anymore.

On April 11, Chow posted her first video in the series with the caption, being #sustainable like #justsmallkinethings.

Just Small Kine Things is a nonprofit organization in Oahu that focuses on sustainability and a clean environment  and efforts like beach cleanups and clearing up microplastics.

With that in mind, Chow set out on her mission, now on day 18. Shes used it for a myriad of drinks, such as coffee, matcha and water.

There are two groups watching her do this challenge, though. On the one hand, some people are excited to see her do this challenge, as they have done it themselves.

Im so addicted to doing this, it makes me feel fancy. I do this with the Starbucks cups, said @ryanreda7zv.

No because this is the cure to overconsumption, said @itsnotjasminesky.

However, there are a faction of people warning Chow about the dangers of Bisphenol-A (BPA) in her plastic cup.

BPA is a chemical used to produce strong plastic packaging, yet it can potentially leak out into the substance its holding  especially in a water bottle  under certain conditions.

There are BPA-free plastics, but its unsure if the cup Chow is using falls into that category.

Best not to do this because of BPA, said @christineismimi.

My teacher told me his friend got bone cancer from high concentration of plastic (BPA) from using the same plastic bottle, said @ljlly.

Chow acknowledged that possibility and told her commenters the steps shes taken to be safe.

Im scared of that:( i try to always throw out water if i dont drink it fast, said Chow.

With the cup looking to be in good condition, her challenge seems to still have plenty of days left.

In The Know by Yahoo is now available on Apple News  follow us here!

The post Woman sets out on sustainability challenge, tries to use one plastic cup for weeks: Im so addicted to doing this appeared first on In The Know.

Story continues

More from In The Know:

Alo Yoga is having a rare sale, and you can get 30% off pretty much everything  but not for long

This self-tanner gives you a gorgeous glow in as little as 2 hours  and its flying off the shelves thanks to TikTok

Philadelphia has a very cool urban forest program that lets residents request a free native tree: 'Super impressive Philly'

TikTokers can't decide if they love or hate the new '8D audio' sound trend: 'Excuse me while I hyperfixate on this'
Woody Harrelson just shared a new piece of evidence to support his theory that he and Matthew McConaughey are brothers.

In a new interview with Esquire, Harrelson claims that when Matthew McConaughey was born in 1969, McConaughey's dad told his mom, "That aint my son" and refused to go to the hospital with her.

Harrelson made the revelation during an interview this week, adding that he "knew that detail" years before Mary Kathleen McCabe insinuated she may have had an intimate relationship with Harrelsons father.

Last month, McConaughey told Kelly Ripa on her SiriusXM "Lets Talk Off Camera" podcast that on a trip to Greece a few years ago, his mom told Harrelson she "knew" his dad.

"Everyone was aware of the ellipses that my mom left after knew. It was a loaded K-N-E-W," McConaughey explained. "We went on to unpack what this knew meant and did some math and found out that [Harrelsons] dad was on furlough at the same time that my mom and dad were in their second divorce. Then theres possible receipts and places out in West Texas where there might have been a gathering, or a meeting, or a knew moment."

UNCLE WOODY HARRELSON PHOTOBOMBS MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY'S DAUGHTER AT BIRTHDAY PARTY

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey have revealed it's possible they're half-brothers.

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Harrelson has said he wants to take a DNA test to find out if the two are actually half-brothers, although McConaughey has been reluctant about potentially finding out that the man he always believed was his father might not be his biological dad.

Harrelson told Stephen Colbert last month, "We want to go and test, but for him, its a much more big deal. I mean he feels like he is losing a father. But Im like, no, youre gaining a different father and a brother."

Woody Harrelson said while he and Matthew McConaughey haven't done DNA tests yet, he thinks there are many "coincidences" pointing to the idea they may be brothers.

While questioning each other during this week's Esquire interview, Harrelson told his "White House Plumbers" co-star Justin Theroux that he and McConaughey havent "done the testing" to find out if they actually are brothers, "but I can say that there's a lot of almost insane coincidences. His mom had a relationship with my dad right around the time he was conceived. That seems like a big coincidence."

Story continues

McConaughey's reps did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.

Woody Harrelson's dad Charles Harrelson was a convicted killer who died in 2007.

The two actors have shared a "bromance" since they met while shooting "EDtv" in 1997, and are set to co-star in an Apple TV+ comedy series about their friendship called "Brother From Another Mother."

Matthew McConaughey said last month that his mom Mary Kathleen McCabe insinuated a few years ago that she had an intimate relationship with Woody Harrelson's father.

In the show, McConaughey and Harrelson play versions of themselves as Harrelsons family moves in with McConaughey's. The "Interstellar" actor said its "based on truth."

McConaughey's dad, who died in 1992, married his mom three times during their relationship. Harrelson's father Charles Harrelson died in prison in 2007. He was serving a life sentence for murder.
By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The World Bank's board of governors on Wednesday elected former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga to a five-year term as president, ushering in an Indian-born finance and development expert to revamp the lender to tackle climate change and other global crises.

Banga, 63, was nominated for the post by U.S. President Joe Biden in late February and was the sole contender to replace departing World Bank chief David Malpass, an economist and former U.S. Treasury official who served in the Trump administration. He starts the new job on June 2.

The election came after World Bank board members interviewed Banga for four hours on Monday. Malpass' last day at the bank will be June 1. The decision came in a vote by 24 of the board's members, with Russia abstaining, instead of the usual consensus-based process, a source familiar with the process said.

Biden congratulated Banga on his "resounding approval" to run the World Bank, which he described as "one of humanitys most critical institutions to reduce poverty and expand prosperity around the globe."

"Ajay Banga will be a transformative leader, bringing expertise, experience, and innovation to the position of World Bank President," Biden said. "He will help steer the institution as it evolves and expands to address global challenges that directly affect its core mission of poverty reduction  including climate change."

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Banga brought the "right leadership and management skills" to the job, and would play a critical role in pushing forward with additional reforms, including by forging partnerships between the public and private sectors and nonprofit groups.

"Ajay understands that the challenges we face  from combatting climate change, pandemics, and fragility to eliminating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity  are deeply intertwined. He has effectively built a broad global coalition around his vision for the Bank over the course of his candidacy," Yellen said in a statement.

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Katie Malouf-Bous, interim head of Oxfam Internationals Washington office, said the bank needed "serious reform" to tackle the widening gap between rich and poor, but that would require huge new public investments and "guardrails around private finance that has run riot for too long."

One senior U.S. official said Banga's election came at a critical moment marked by emerging debt distress in lower- and middle-income countries and ongoing problems in food and energy markets as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine.

"It is a challenging moment, but it's a moment where the World Bank remains more vital than ever, and where getting the evolution of the World Bank is absolutely critical," the official said.

The bank already loans out hundreds of billions of dollars to developing countries but is working to increase its lending to help them address overlapping global challenges such as climate change, conflict and brace for future pandemics.

"The Board looks forward to working with Mr. Banga on the World Bank Group Evolution process ... on all the World Bank Groups ambitions and efforts aimed at tackling the toughest development challenges facing developing countries," the bank said.

The World Bank has been led by an American since its founding at the end of World War Two, while the International Monetary Fund has been led by a European.

Banga, who was born in India and spent his early career there, has been a U.S. citizen since 2007.

Banga has met with officials from 96 governments since his nomination, the source said. He visited eight countries during a three-week world tour to meet with government officials, business leaders and civil society groups, flying a total of 39,546 miles (63,643 km).

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Mark Potter)




Two lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) accused of involvement in a political funding scandal said Wednesday they will voluntarily leave the party.







The scandal centers on allegations that campaign officials of Song Young-gil, a former DPK leader, distributed cash envelopes to party members prior to the party's national convention in May 2021, during which Song was elected chairman.







Reps. Youn Kwan-suk and Lee Sung-man, who are accused of involvement in the illegal electioneering campaign, said they have offered their intention to leave the party during a party meeting earlier in the day.







"I have a lot of things to say but will clarify this problem sincerely through the investigation or the due process," Rep. Youn told reporters following the meeting.







Prosecutors are investigating claims that cash envelopes worth a total of 94 million won ($70,180) were handed out to party members, including 10-20 DPK lawmakers. Song, who recently returned from Paris, has denied the allegations. (Yonhap)


Editor's Note: Some soldiers declined to give their last names to the Kyiv Independent for safety reasons as they plan to return to fight on the front line once their rehabilitation is over.

ZAPORIZHZHIA  Serhii Demko's active duty is over.

He had served since the first day of the Russian invasion when he was sent to the southern front line.

In May of last year, a Russian infantry fighting vehicle fired at his squad, killing one and wounding the rest.

Demko's left leg was nearly disconnected from his body and barely saved by the medics. Deep scars left by shrapnel run across his entire back.

He doesn't remember what came after, except for the pain, Demko told the Kyiv Independent months later, while learning to walk again on a treadmill.

"The concussion turns your brain off," he said, grunting from the effort. "(On the battlefield) youre just trying to figure out whats wounded."

"When I got here, I couldn't stand up from the bed, I was in constant pain," he remembered. "I couldn't move by myself, the pain from my leg would spread to other parts of my body."

Now, Demko needs two crutches to walk along the physical therapy room in the only public Zaporizhzhia hospital dedicated to Ukrainian soldiers' rehabilitation. Demko comes in every afternoon.

Here, despite the aging machines and the increasing number of patients, the hospital runs like clockwork, providing tailored care for each patient, Tetiana Hurova, the head of the hospital's rehabilitation department, told the Kyiv Independent.

"We provide a personal approach to every individual," she said. "It's a lot of work, many people are waiting behind that door."

Eager to return

Injured soldiers and civilians have been waiting from early morning, sitting silently in the soft gray-painted corridor outside Hurova's office.

Despite heading the department, Hurova herself does rounds and delivers prescriptions to wounded soldiers she's responsible for.

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Tetiana Hurova is in charge of the rehabilitation center, taking care of each patient personally to provide the most adapted therapy. (Alexander Query)

She reigns over a team of 18 people in charge of 70-80 wounded soldiers on average per month in the hospital, where medical equipment is scarce and dates back to the 1980s.

The individual approach is key to successful therapy, she said. "Not everyone can open up," she said when talking about the soldiers who have just returned from the front line.

"It's important for the atmosphere to be pleasant (for them to) get back in good shape, not only physically but mentally," Hurova added.

Some wounded soldiers only need basic care and company, others need more serious treatment, she said.

Starting in 2014, when Russia initially invaded Ukraine, the hospital had much fewer patients, while their injuries were less diverse. But the onset of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 has put a serious strain on Hurovas work.

"We have many more people now, with severe artillery wounds and shrapnels," she said, adding that rehabilitation saved some of them from an amputation thanks to exercise and laser therapy.

Many of those who now end up in the hospital are younger people with deep wounds and traumas, Hurova said.

One thing they have in common is a heavily injured spine due to bulletproof vests weighing between nine to fifteen kilos. The life-saving gear compresses the vertebrae and can lead to life-long back pain.

"It doesn't matter if you're 20 or 50, your spine's gonna be destroyed," Hurova said.

The hospital provides a wide range of care, from laser therapy to alleviate the pain to massage and magnet therapy, including physical therapy and psychological support, "for those who want it," she said.

The institution has 14 rooms filled with up to 10 beds each, separated by curtains, from which one can see the protruding legs in military boots and camo pixels of the soldiers undergoing treatment.

Beds in Zaporizhzhia's rehabilitation center are ready for their next patient. (Alexander Query)

The constant beeping of the laser and magnet therapy apparatus to release their pain can be heard in the room.

Some of the worn-out contraptions date back to Soviet-era Ukraine, and the hospital needs better technology, Hurova said.

"We're not desperate, but upgrading and expanding our equipment would be nice," she said.

"For example, we need a special kind of camera, but it costs Hr 1 million ($27,000), which is a lot of money for us, and we can't afford it right now."

The team makes up for its aging equipment with its dedication to patients.

There are rooms in the basement to keep treatment going during air raids and the Russian strikes that regularly hit Zaporizhzhia, only 50 kilometers from Russian-occupied territories.

The medical staff, at this point used to these emergencies, has learned to bring the patients underground in an orderly manner.

Down in the basement, a soldier was receiving treatment for hearing problems, a recurrent issue linked to constant blasts on the front line.

A nurse shows the Kyiv Independent one of the magnetic therapy apparatuses in the basement of Zaporizhzhia's rehabilitation center. (Alexander Query)

Another one, Sergei, 43, was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling while receiving magnetic therapy. "It's a very effective treatment," he said.

Shrapnel had lodged between his back and his bulletproof vest a few months prior while fighting near Huliaipole, he told the Kyiv Independent. He said was eager to return and fight.

Many soldiers go back to fight immediately after their rehabilitation, Hurova said. Seven of Demko's wounded comrades immediately returned to the front after rehabilitation.

"We have guys here for a second trauma," she said. "They're on rotation, and we don't have the means to follow them after the rehabilitation."

Patriot air defense faces its toughest challenge ever in Ukraine The wait is over  after almost a year of refusals and hesitation, Western-provided MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems have finally arrived and become operational in Ukraine. On April 21 and 26, Ukraines Air Force confirmed the full employment of two Patriot batteries. As Ukraines own Soviet-er Kyiv IndependentIllia Ponomarenko

'Men don't cry'

Oleksandr Blahut, a 23-year-old "wounded soldier and a happy man," as he describes himself, has been under treatment for eight months.

Unlike others, he won't return to the front line. His leg needs more time to recover, and he's tired of the war.

"I don't want to go back there, not that it's scary, but I think I served my part," he said. "I want to dedicate my life to my family," he said.

He was wounded in May near Orikhiv, a front-line city 60 kilometers south of Zaporizhzhia, constantly shelled by Russian artillery.

Blahut was injured by an artillery shell. His first thought was for his wife, he told the Kyiv Independent.

Ukrainian solier Oleksandr Blahut's legs were heavily hit by an artillery shell back in May 2022. He's been learning to walk again in Zaporizhzhia's rehabilitation center ever since. (Alexander Query)

"My wife had sent me a message to ask me if I was okay, I decided to answer later, the shell hit me, and I thought I didn't even have the time to answer," he said.

Blahut admitted the rehabilitation was sometimes "morally difficult."

"But then I looked at people with no legs and arms, and I realized (my injury is) not serious," he said.

He may need three more months of therapy to walk again. In the meantime, like Demko, he finds respite in his family life rather than psychological support.

"My family is enough," Demko said. Blahut has a similar response.

"The most difficult thing is that you always want to have the same physical strength as before: you want to walk, but you can't, you want to run with your kid, but you can't  it's morally difficult," said Demko.

Blahut and Demko undergo physical therapy to learn basic motor skills again, helped by a staff of Zaporizhzhia's rehabilitation center. (Alexander Query)

Soldiers tend to downplay their mental trauma, Valerii Bulanov, a psychologist based in Zaporizhzhia, who helps soldiers and refugees recover, told the Kyiv Independent.

Getting soldiers to admit they need help is extremely difficult in Ukrainian society, where there is the expectation that men project strength and where the legacy of the Soviet Union has led to taboos about psychological help.

During the Soviet era, dissidents were often imprisoned under the pretext of having psychological problems.

"The situation has changed slightly since the USSR, but not drastically," Bulanov said.

Soldiers who escape death mostly struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and survivor's guilt, especially after seeing their comrades killed, he said.

"They ask themselves, why am I alive if everyone around me is dead? How will I tell their mother?"

Traumatized soldiers tend to relive their experience when in distress, they don't sleep well because they have nightmares and are constantly on the verge of breakdown, which society doesn't always understand.

Some soldiers drink and smoke too much, a symptom of self-destructive behavior. Some want to go to the hottest spots on the front line, says Bulanov.

"I consider it suicidal," Bulanov said. "They're in an emotional vacuum, many of them are told to rotate (from the front line), but they don't want to."

This Week in Ukraine Ep. 5  Everything we know about Ukrainian attacks inside Russia This Week in Ukraine is a video podcast hosted by Kyiv Independents reporter Anastasiia Lapatina. Every week, Anastasiia sits down with her newsroom colleagues to discuss Ukraines most pressing issues. Episode #5 is dedicated to Ukrainian attacks deep behind enemy lines  on Russian soil, and i Kyiv IndependentAnastasiia Lapatina

Soldiers who constantly fight without respite may have worse conditions when returning. Now is the time to treat such issues to avoid a large-scale social ticking time bomb, he said.

The government needs to create proper infrastructure to take care of the psychological state of its veterans.

"The tendency is not that good, and the state needs to look into it," Bulanov said, citing the example of Israel, which has military psychologists dedicated to this task.

"We need more military therapists to build trust with soldiers," he said, advocating for having soldiers working with each other to talk about their experience "because only they can understand."

The only way to deal with such trauma is for soldiers to have a safe structure to let go of their emotions, he said.

"(They say) heroes don't cry," Bulanov said. "But they need to be able to cry to heal."

Note from the author:

Hello, this is Alexander Query, thank you for reading this story.

Im incredibly lucky to have been working with the Kyiv Independent team since day one and before, a team thats working 24/7 to bring you the latest news and in-depth articles to understand the situation in Ukraine and the region.

These are troubled times, but we keep hope, and we will prevail, thanks to our readers. Let us be your eyes and ears on the ground by becoming our patron on Patreon.


Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter sit at the defense table with attorneys at the Volusia County Courthouse, Monday, April 10, 2023, during jury selection in the penality phase retrial of what became known as the Xbox murders.

The 5th District Court Appeal should order the judge presiding over the Xbox mass murder resentencing to use Floridas new non-unanimous death penalty sentencing law rather than the previous stricter law, according to a response filed by the Attorney Generals Office. The response argues that using the old law may leave the state no resource if the two men are sentenced to life.

Prosecutors are seeking to convince a jury to recommend death sentences for Troy Victorino, 46, and Jerone Hunter, 35, for the 2004 mass murders in Deltona in which six people were killed.

The resentencing was about to enter its third day on April 27 at the Volusia County Courthouse in DeLand when the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach granted a state request to stop the proceedings to consider the death penalty question.

Assistant State Attorneys Heatha Trigones and Andrew Urbanak are seeking to use the new state law which only requires that eight jurors recommend a death sentence in order for a judge to sentence someone to death.

The previous law required a unanimous jury recommendation.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the new law into effect on April 20, the same day a panel of 15 jurors was sworn in to hear the case against Victorino and Hunter.

Circuit Judge Randell Rowe III is proceeding under the previous statute, which is a stricter standard that is no longer the law, according to a response filed Tuesday by Doris Meacham, an assistant attorney general. The office of Attorney General Ashley Moody handles appeals for state attorneys.

Because the court is applying an outdated law and stricter standard that requires a unanimous jury recommendation for a sentence of death, the State may have no recourse if a life sentence is imposed, the states response argues.

The state asked the 5th District Court of Appeal to quash the judge's order denying the state's motion to use the new death penalty law or order the judge to use the new law, according to the response.

Story continues

Xbox mass murder: Defense in Xbox trial says new death penalty law would violate accused killers' rights

Xbox resentencing halted: Appeals court orders halt to Xbox mass murder trial while it considers death penalty dispute

Xbox resentencing phase begins: Troy Victorino, Jerone Hunter begin penalty phase retrial in Deltona murders

Victorino and Hunter were sentenced to death in 2006, but those sentences were overturned because the state Supreme Court later ruled that death recommendations must be unanimous. The state Supreme Court later reversed itself and ruled that unanimity was not required.

Two other men convicted in the killings, Michael Salas and Robert Cannon, were sentenced to mandatory life in prison.

Killed in the massacre were Erin Belanger, 22; Michelle Nathan, 19; Roberto "Tito" Gonzalez, 28; Jonathan Gleason, 17; Francisco "Flaco" Ayo-Roman, 30; and Anthony Vega, 34. A dog was also killed.

Defense: Using new law would violate Victorino, Hunter's rights

Hunters defense attorneys, Allison Miller and Garry Wood, and Victorinos attorneys, Ann Finnell and Gonzalo Andux, filed their response on Monday with arguments on why the new law should not apply.

The defense response states that prosecutors filed their legal argument in the wrong court because the 5th DCA would not have jurisdiction over any death sentence imposed on Hunter and Victorino.

The defense accused prosecutors of having slow-walked jury selection so they could use the new law.

Despite the legislatures progress toward approving the new law and Gov. Ron DeSantis saying he supported it, prosecutors sat silent about the likely change in the law or their desire to have it applied if the statute changed mid-trial, according to the response.

The judge instructed all three panels of 288 potential jurors that unanimity was required and that applying the new law would violate Victorino's and Hunters rights, the defense response stated.

State: Judge has obligation to use new law in Xbox resentencing

The state argues in its response filed Tuesday that the 5th District Court of Appeal does have jurisdiction in the case.

While the defense argued that the 5th DCA would not review any death sentence imposed on Victorino and Hunter, the two have not been sentenced yet, which generally gives jurisdiction to the district court, according to the state.

The state argued that the judges refusal to use the new death penalty statute is the type of judicial decision warranting intervention by the district court of appeal as sought by the state.

Prosecutors said the judge refused to stay the proceedings to rule on the states request to use the new law prior to swearing in the jury. The judge also refused the states request to question the jury panel about the new law, the response states.

The judge had a clear obligation to apply the new law, according to the state.

The state argues that the judge was wrong to say that the trial began on April 10 when the panel of potential jurors was sworn in, which prosecutors claim is in direct conflict with settled law. The state is arguing that the trial did not start until the final panel of 15 jurors was sworn in on April 20 to hear the case.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Prosecutors in Deltona massacre want to apply new death penalty law
Yolo County District Attorneys Office investigators have joined the probe into the deadly stabbings that have struck fear in Davis and have enlisted the help of Sacramento Countys vaunted crime lab.

Two men, including a UC Davis student, have been killed in five days time, at the citys Central Park and Sycamore Park. A third victim, a homeless woman in her 60s, was stabbed through her tent in her encampment Monday night and survived her attack.

We had DA investigators out at the scene and providing support since. They did quite a bit of canvassing, said Yolo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven.

A prosecutor assigned to the case was also working the scene. That attorney and an investigator are assisting with search warrants and other legal issues, Raven said.

Raven did not elaborate on where or whether search warrants had been issued, but said Yolo prosecutors have reached across the river to the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office crime lab.

We have been working with Sac DA, whose crime lab has graciously offered to conduct DNA analyses, Raven said.

The labs work in DNA analysis was instrumental in cracking some of the states and the capital regions most notorious cases including East Area Rapist/Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo; NorCal Rapist Roy Waller; and Mark Manteuffel, who brutally attacked a jogger in Davis nearly 30 years ago in 1994.

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel gives a statement at a news briefing Tuesday, May 2, 2023, less than 12 hours after a man attacked a homeless woman by stabbing her several times through the side of her tent near Second and L streets  the third stabbing in less than a week in the city. Davis Mayor Will Arnold stands at left.

Sacramento DA officials contacted Tuesday would not discuss details of the labs participation in the investigation.

Our crime lab is providing some assistance to the Davis Police Department, but as this is an active investigation, we cannot provide any details, Sacramento County Chief Deputy District Attorney Scott Triplett said.

Homicides are rare in this city of nearly 70,000, where thousands of students attend the University of California, Davis, walking distance from the brutal attacks. Seven homicides have been reported in Davis since 2018 including a high of three in 2019. None were reported in 2021; one in 2022, according to a Davis Police Department crime review.

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The unease and outright fear of the brutal knife attacks have stirred is palpable.

We understand there is fear and trepidation right now, Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel told reporters Tuesday. People are asking, Is it safe being out? Well, weve had three stabbings. ... This is different. These attacks are particularly violent and brazen.

Pytel stopped short of calling for a citywide curfew, saying the resources needed to enforce one were better directed toward finding the attacker or attackers responsible for the violence. He instead urged Davis residents to be completely aware of your surroundings, stay in groups if outside and prioritize their personal safety.

Crime does take life. People have to make smart choices, the Davis chief said.
Gas stoves and furnaces will be banned from most new buildings in New York state under a new measure passed by lawmakers.

The provision, included in the state's budget bill passed Tuesday night by the New York Legislature, begins phasing in next year. The measure prohibits the installation of fossil-fuel equipment in buildings of seven stories or less in 2026, with the ban for larger buildings starting in 2029.

Changing the ways we make and use energy to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels will help ensure a healthier environment for us and our children, New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said in a statement.

A law passed by the New York Legislature on Tuesday, May 2, will ban natural gas stoves and furnaces from most new buildings.

Exempt buildings include hospitals, restaurants and buildings not fully supported by the electrical grid.

No existing buildings are affected.

I want to be very clear. I know people love to misinterpret this, but people with existing gas stoves, youre welcome to keep them, Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters Tuesday, ahead of the vote on the budget.

This is where our nation has to go eventually, Hochul said. But I want to make sure that its not a bumpy road to the transition.

A law negotiated by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democrats in the New York Legislature will ban natural gas stoves and furnaces in most buildings.

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Why is the banning of natural gas stoves and furnaces controversial?

The move to reduce the reliance on fossil fuel-burning appliances has been criticized by Republican officials as an infringement on consumer and homeowner rights. "Why shouldn't people have a choice on how to heat their home?" asked New York Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, a Republican.

The New York state legislature's action may reignite a political controversy over gas stoves that heated up earlier this year. That arose after U.S. Consumer Product Safety commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. said in January natural gas stoves are "a hidden hazard" and suggested unsafe products might be banned.

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Trumka later walked back the statement saying, "CPSC isn't coming for anyone's gas stoves."

But the issue quickly led some conservatives to raise the alarm that the Biden administration wanted to ban gas stoves. Among them were Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, who tweeted: Ill NEVER give up my gas stove. If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!" and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson who called the potential ban a red line Americans wont tolerate.

I would counsel mass disobedience in the face of tyranny in this case, Carlson said.

Does the Biden Administration want to ban gas stoves?

No. However, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has been looking for ways to reduce indoor air quality hazards. "But to be clear, I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so," CPSC Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric said back in January.

Why is New York state's ban on natural gas stoves and furnaces important?

New York is the first to pass a state law banning gas appliances, but Washington state recently approved building codes requiring heat pumps, as opposed to furnaces, in most buildings. And two other states, Maryland and Colorado, along with more than 80 local governments, including many in California, have either approved or scheduled measures that will require new construction to be all-electric, according to the Building Decarbonization Coalition.

New York City's own bill banning gas appliances in new buildings, which passed in 2021, starts phasing in next year.

What health hazards do gas stoves and furnaces cause?

Research has suggested gas stoves cause indoor air pollution and could be responsible for more than 12% of childhood asthma cases in the U.S. , and could cause heart issues, cancer and other medical problems.

New York State is leading the way in ending Americas devastating addiction to fossil fuels. The rest of the country must now catch up," said Food & Water Watch Northeast Region Director Alex Beauchamp in a statement. "New Yorks bold move to become the first state in the nation to prohibit fossil fuels in new construction is undeniably huge.  With all-electric construction, New York will forge the way to a green energy economy with better jobs, cheaper bills, and cleaner, healthier communities.

Contributing: Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY, and The Associated Press.

More coverage from USA TODAY

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gas stove ban in New York prohibits natural gas in new buildings
New York has become the first state to ban the use of natural gas in newly constructed buildings

New York has become the first state in the US to ban natural gas and other fossil fuels in most new buildings.

The ban, included in budget legislation, passed on Tuesday in the Democrat-controlled legislature.

Officials hope it will encourage the use of more climate-friendly appliances, like induction stoves.

In January, comments made by a federal US official sparked a fierce backlash over concerns a national gas stove ban was being considered.

The comments by a Consumer Product Safety Commission official were later retracted and the White House distanced itself from the remarks.

Under the New York law, new buildings under seven stories must use electric for heating and cooking by 2026, and by 2029 for taller buildings.

The ban does not apply to manufacturing facilities, restaurants, hospitals, and carwashes amongst some other commercial buildings.

Climate activists have seen this largely as a win. Some experts say natural gas also impacts respiratory health, as gas stoves emit nitrogen oxide pollution.

Republicans in the state decried the move as government overreach, arguing it limits consumer choice.

Gas is still cheaper than electricity for many in the state, and the new law also applies to propane and heating oil.

This "will drive up utility bills and increase housing costs", said minority leader of the New York Senate Robert Ortt.

Three in five homes in New York rely on natural gas for heating while only one in seven use electricity, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

New York was the sixth-largest natural gas consumer in the country in 2020, but a 2019 bill requires the state to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to 85% below 1990 levels before 2050.

While New York is the first state to pass legislation, California and Washington have used building codes as a way to advance electricity use over gas.

Meanwhile, as many as 20 states, like Arizona and Texas, have stopped their cities from enacting natural gas bans.

New York's ban could face legal challenges. A US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit recently struck down a gas ban in Berkeley, California.

Outside of the US, in 2018, the Dutch government implemented regulations to have all residential buildings off gas by 2050 to reduce emissions.
Under pressure from environmentalists, New York lawmakers on Tuesday made their state the first in the nation to ban the use of natural gas and other fossil fuels for heating and cooking in most new buildings.

The ban on natural-gas appliances was part of a $229 billion state budget passed late Tuesday. The law requires all-electric appliances in new buildings shorter than seven stories by 2026 and in taller new construction by 2029.

The law does not affect existing buildings, and it exempts renovations. It also includes exceptions for a variety of new buildings, including hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and restaurants. But it does not allow cities or counties to opt out.

Democrats, who control the state Senate and Assembly, have faced intense pressure from environmental groups, who have taken aim at natural gas to combat climate change and indoor and outdoor air pollution. Earlier this year, controversy erupted after reports said the Biden administrations Consumer Product Safety Commission was considering restrictions, and possibly a ban, on natural-gas stoves.

New York Republicans and industry leaders opposed the natural gas ban, saying that it would raise costs for consumers, stress the electrical grid, and have little environmental benefit. The ban is expected to face serious legal challenges.

A first-in-the-nation, unconstitutional ban on natural gas hookups in new construction will drive up utility bills and increase housing costs, state Senate minority leader Robert Ortt said in a prepared statement.

Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed a ban on natural-gas hookups in new construction during her state-of-the-state address in January. Her spokeswoman reassured environmental activists earlier this week that the law would not include a loophole allowing localities to exempt themselves from the ban.

The new law will not have any loopholes that will undermine the intent of this measure, Katy Zielinski said in a statement provided to the New York Times. There will not be any option for municipalities to opt out.

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Hochuls opponent in last years reelection campaign, former congressman Lee Zeldin, slammed the governor and her allies in the legislature for exacerbating the regulatory dynamics that are driving residents out of the state.

The Democrats enthusiastically pummeling New York into the ground are about to pass a statewide ban of gas hookups on new construction, Zeldin said on Twitter. Kathy Hochul and her cohorts are fast tracking the downward spiral of a once greatest state.

Until recently, environmental groups tended to view natural gas positively and as a relatively clean bridge fuel in the transition to a low-carbon environment. The shift from coal to natural gas, which is cheap and abundant, helped the U.S. power industry lower its carbon emissions by a third between 2005 and 2019, according to a Cato Institute report from last year.

But, over the past decade, many environmental groups have changed their position after research found that a larger fraction of methane in the atmosphere came from industrial sources than had previously been thought.

In 2019, Berkeley became the first U.S. city to ban gas hookups in most new homes or commercial buildings, drawing a lawsuit from the California Restaurant Association. Last month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ban. Gas-industry representatives and New York Republicans have suggested the new legislation could be struck down in court along similar lines.

Other progressive cities and counties have instituted their own bans on new gas hookups. In 2021, New York City passed a ban on natural-gas hookups in new buildings under seven stories, which is set to take effect in December. The law will apply to taller buildings beginning in 2027.

In March, the Bay Areas air-pollution regulators voted to phase out and eventually ban the sale of new gas furnaces and water heaters in the Northern California region, a move that energy experts and economists say will be costly for residents and will likely have limited environmental impact.

There is no problem with natural gas appliances, Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute told National Review at the time. Theyre not zero-emitting, but theyre very, very low-emitting. Theres no real problem with the emissions, and theyre economical in use, and consumers prefer them for that reason.

In New York, most homes rely on natural gas for heating, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In addition to the ban on new natural gas hookups, the New York budget also increases the minimum wage, raises cigarette taxes, scales back the states radical bail-reform law, and approves new fines for unlicensed marijuana sellers.

More from National Review
Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., is considering a potential run against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in 2024.

"Well keep an eye on the race," Zeldin said while at the state Capitol on Monday in Albany, Fox News can confirm. "If we did run, it would be an extremely competitive race."

Despite failing to oust former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's successor, Kathy Hochul, from office in November, Zeldin ran a competitive challenge to the Democrat governor in the blue stronghold state, garnering more than 47% of the vote.

He focused his campaign on combating crime post-2020's defund the police movement, arguing that bail reform measures ushered in by the Democrat-controlled legislature contributed to the rising recidivism of violent offenders repeatedly arrested and then released onto the streets.

SEN STEVE DAINES, LEE ZELDIN ENDORSE TRUMP TO BE PRESIDENT: BEST FOUR YEARS

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin is considering a run against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Following what is considered the best run of a Republican New York gubernatorial candidate in two decades, Zeldin launched a federal PAC, drawing speculation as to what his future political aspirations might hold. Gillibrand announced in January that she is seeking a third term for her Senate seat in 2024. After Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., previously refused to rule out a challenge in the Democrat primary, AOC spokesperson Lauren Hitt told Politico this week that the democratic socialist would not run against Gillibrand next year.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

In an interview before joining Kellyanne Conway at a dinner for the New York State Federation of Republican Women near Albany, Zeldin told Politico that for now he remains focused on helping local Republican candidates across the state who supported his gubernatorial campaign last year.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is running for reelection in 2024.

AOC WILL NOT RUN FOR SENATE IN 2024, SPOKESPERSON SAYS

He was in Albany on Monday to meet with state legislators.

Zeldin said he is still considering a run against Gillibrand but recognizes that "theres even more of a Democratic-favored turnout" during presidential election years compared to the midterms, when he ran for governor. "It was something that I was giving no thought to, but she was trying to fundraise. And the best way to fundraise in the first quarter of 2023 was to speak about a viable opponent," Zeldin told Politico. "Well see how the race shapes up."

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul narrowly claimed victory over Republican candidate Lee Zeldin in November 2022 during what was a midterm election year.

Despite Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigning in New York for Zeldin last year, Zeldin issued a statement on Twitter last week in which he threw his support behind Trump's 2024 presidential bid.

"The GOP is filled with amazing talent to save our country from the failed policies of the Biden Admin," Zeldin tweeted on April 24. "Our nominee in 2024 will be the 45th & 47th POTUS, Donald Trump. Our economy will be stronger, our streets will be safer, & our lives will be freer. He has my full support!"

Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia  Thousands of people trying to flee the violent crisis in Sudan have crowded at the east African nation's biggest port, Port Sudan on the country's Red Sea coast. A CBS News team sailed to the port Tuesday night aboard a Saudi military ship and met some of the people desperate to escape the country.

Vicious fighting erupted on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the country's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, which are led by rival generals vying for control over the country. The chaos they have unleashed has left more than 500 people dead, many of them civilians, and some 5,000 more injured, according to preliminary estimates.

A Sudanese evacuee waits at Port Sudan to board a Saudi military ship to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, May 3, 2023. / Credit: Amr Nabil/AP

For the exhausted evacuees who have spent days waiting at Port Sudan for an escape, Tuesday night was one of mixed emotions.

"I feel scared and excited at the same time," 13-year-old Reefan told CBS News. She was eager to leave Sudan and head home to her father in Georgia.

Speaking to CBS News on a small boat carrying her to a much larger Saudi vessel for the 10-hour Red Sea crossing to Saudi Arabia, she said she was "excited, because we are going back to America, and going to a safer place."

Reefan, a 13-year-old U.S. national, speaks to CBS News' Ramy Inocencio as she and other members of her family wait to be evacuated from Port Sudan, to Saudi Arabia, May 2, 2023. / Credit: CBS News

Reefan and her family waited four days for a boat, desperate to be delivered from the evils committed by both Sudan's army and the RSF forces. They've continued fighting despite agreeing to several ceasefires over the last week, and a new, longer 7-day truce intended to take effect on Thursday, to make way for peace talks. All of the ceasefires so far have been broken by ongoing attacks within hours.

Our CBS News team arrived at Port Sudan close to midnight aboard the Saudi naval ship HMS Al-Jubail. Along the water's edge, the silhouettes of people waiting for rescue stood out.

"I saw lots of bodies on the street, I saw burned cars," said Mohammad Uzman, who said he'd worked for the U.S. Embassy in Sudan's war-torn capital, Khartoum.

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"It is very hard to leave your relatives," he told CBS News as he waited to board the Al-Jubail, "but this is the life, because of the war."

Uzman said his family had seen "everything" since the fighting broke out. "They woke up in the middle of the night cryingwe ask God to solve this crisis."

Those who made it onto the small boats ferrying people from the port to the waiting Saudi ship were some of the fortunate few who have been allowed to escape Sudan. Back on shore, there are thousands of people who are less fortunate.

The crisis has displaced tens of thousands of people, including many foreign nationals whose governments have been less responsive, or who hold passports that grant more limited mobility. Many more thousands of Sudanese have also fled their homes, and CBS News has spoken to some who witnessed crowded, confusing circumstances at Sudan's land borders.

At Port Sudan, which has been declared the country's new administrative capital, implying it's the safest place to be amid the fighting, thousands are left to wait and hope they can make it out while people with North American or European passports quickly get the green light to go.

Sudanese evacuees wait before boarding a Saudi military ship to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at Port Sudan in Sudan, May 3, 2023. / Credit: Amr Nabil/AP

Reefan said she left behind her grandmother and grandfather, along with aunts and uncles.

"I said, 'I love you,' to all of them," she told CBS News.

The lights of Port Sudan dimmed behind the departing boat as people looked back one last time at what had been their home. Minutes later, the Saudi ship appeared above in the pale moonlight, and they were lifted up on board, headed for a more peaceful life.

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A fighter stands with an assault rifle in an alley of the Shatila camp for Palestinian refugees in the southern suburbs of Beirut

In Lebanon's impoverished Palestinian refugee camps, young people say they dream of leaving a struggling country where their families took refuge generations ago and where their futures remain bleak.

Nirmeen Hazineh is a descendant of survivors of what Palestinians call the Nakba -- the "catastrophe" -- when more than 760,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes by the 1948 war over Israel's creation.

She proudly considers herself from Jaffa -- now south of Tel Aviv -- and talks as if she has lived there all her life, instead of in the ramshackle Shatila refugee camp south of Beirut.

"Emigration has become the main solution for young people," said Hazineh, 25.

"Whoever you speak to, they'll tell you 'I want to leave', whether legally or illegally, it doesn't matter."

Lebanon has been grappling with a devastating economic crisis since late 2019.

Most of the population is now in poverty, according to the United Nations, and many Lebanese have quit the country for better prospects abroad.

Hazineh is a sociology graduate but is not allowed to practise in her field, as Lebanon bars Palestinians from working in 39 professions, including as doctors, lawyers and engineers.

Instead she helps to raise awareness of the dangers of drugs, which add to the daily misery of Shatila.

"There is a kind of despair among young people in the camp," said Hazineh, who despite the difficulties maintains a radiant smile.

She said she wanted to live "in a country that respects me, that gives me a chance, a job".

- Camp horrors -

Tiny Lebanon hosts an estimated 250,000 Palestinian refugees, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, while almost double that number are registered for the organisation's services.

Most Palestinians, including more than 30,000 who fled the war in neighbouring Syria after 2011, live in one of Lebanon's 12 official camps, now bustling but impoverished urban districts.

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Shatila is a warren of tumbledown homes where tangled electricity cables criss-cross tight alleyways.

Once a stronghold of Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation, Shatila became synonymous with horror in September 1982, when Christian militiamen allied with Israel massacred between 800 and 2,000 Palestinians there and in the adjoining Sabra camp.

The PLO moved to Tunis that year, and later in the 1980s, pro-Syrian militias waged war on the Palestinian leader's remaining supporters in the camps.

Portraits of Arafat still line the streets, along with Palestinian flags and posters of militants killed in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Walid Othman, 33, says he spends his spare time in political activism with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is banned in Israel.

His grandparents fled the village of Nahf, in the Acre region, 75 years ago. His parents were then driven from Lebanon's Tal al-Zaatar refugee camp, which Christian militiamen razed early in the country's 1975-1990 civil war.

Othman said he would have liked to study political science and dedicate his life to "defending the Palestinian cause on an international level".

But he had to stop his studies because of "the difficult economic situation" and instead became a blacksmith.

- 'No prospects' -

In Lebanon, Palestinians' "denied right to own property... further complicates employment and income generation activities", said Dorothee Klaus, director of UNRWA affairs for Lebanon.

Lebanon says restrictions on Palestinians are justified by their right to return to their country.

In neighbouring Syria, some 400,000 Palestinians are registered with UNRWA, where they have access to the job market.

In Jordan, more than half of the around 10 million population is of Palestinian origin, while some 2.3 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA but have the same rights as Jordanians.

"With no prospect of meaningful future", Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have "attempted to migrate whenever possible", Klaus said.

But their travel documents "may not be recognised", and they may be "required to file visas related to stateless persons", she added.

Mohammad Abdel Hafiz, whose family also hails from near Acre, lamented that Palestinians in Lebanon "don't even enjoy the most basic rights".

"Everybody is born in a country, while we are born where our heart is," said the 29-year-old, who volunteers for the Palestinian civil defence in Shatila.

As he zips through its alleys on his moped, he dreams of leaving, but his chances of getting a visa to a Western country are slim.

And he is haunted by the memory of three young camp residents who drowned when a boat carrying would-be migrants sank off the Lebanese coast last year.

"They died because they wanted to have a future," Abdel Hafiz said.

"Here, our aim is just to survive."

at/lg/srm
(Bloomberg) -- New Zealands governing Labour Party has been hit by the defection of a minister just five months before the nation holds a general election.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Customs Minister Meka Whaitiri has quit Labour to join the tiny Maori Party, she said on Wednesday. Whaitiri gave little explanation for her move, referring to a commitment to Maori political activism during a press conference in the North Island city of Hastings.

Her departure whittles Labours parliamentary majority down to two. The Maori Party currently has two seats in parliament and could potentially hold the balance of power after the Oct. 14 election.

Latest polls have Labour slightly ahead of the main opposition National Party, with both needing the support of minor parties to achieve a majority.

Read more: Maori Party Dismayed as Hipkins Signals Co-Governance Slowdown

The news broke while Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was traveling to London for the coronation of King Charles III.

Acting Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni said Whaitiri has been immediately removed from her ministerial responsibilities.

Obviously were disappointed in Meka Whaitiris decision. But we are moving on, Sepuloni said. Labour is proud of our track record for Maori.

Referring to the Treaty of Waitangi  New Zealands founding document  Whaitiri said she is joining an unapologetic Maori political movement to achieve what was promised to us 183 years ago.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

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Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, left, and Asia Development Bank (ADB) President Masatsugu Asakawa sign a memorandum of understanding to launch the ADB-Korea Climate Technology Hub, May 3, in this photo by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.



Korea's finance ministry said Wednesday it has clinched an agreement with the Asia Development Bank (ADB) to launch a new organization dedicated to sharing climate-related expertise in the region.



Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho and ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa signed the memorandum of understanding during the 56th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the ADB, which kicked off in Incheon, west of Seoul, earlier this week, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.



Under the plan, Korea and the Manila-based bank will open the ADB-Korea Climate Technology Hub, also referred to as "K-Hub," in Seoul next year.



The K-Hub plans to operate as the hub to connect Asian countries as well as other regions to carry out projects aimed at tackling climate change. It will plan and implement related projects of the ADB.






Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Washington's failure to warn him of a key war leak is a 'bad story'

Washington did not warn Kyiv about the top-secret documents leaked to internet chat rooms -- containing sensitive information about Ukraine's war effort -- before the news broke in the media last month, President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Washington Post.

The embarrassing security breach revealed US unease about a coming counteroffensive by Kyiv's forces against Russian troops as well as concerns about Ukrainian air defenses.

"I did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand," Zelensky told the newspaper in an interview in Kyiv Monday.

"We did not have that information. I personally did not. It's definitely a bad story," he said, calling the situation "unprofitable."

Speaking on CNN, Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder would not confirm or deny Zelensky's claim, saying only that Washington remains "committed to working very closely with Ukraine and our international allies to ensure that they have the security assistance they need to be able to defend their country."

Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old IT specialist with the US Air Force National Guard, is accused of posting classified material online in the most damaging government leak in a decade.

Last month, he was arrested and charged on two counts over the breach, which the Pentagon has said poses a "very serious risk" to national security.

"It is not beneficial to the reputation of the White House, and I believe it is not beneficial to the reputation of the United States," Zelensky told the Post.

The documents also contained information on Russian and Ukrainian troop casualties and equipment losses, details about NATO observation flights over the Black Sea, and accounts which point to American surveillance of close partner Ukraine.

"Anything that informs our enemy in advance in one way or another is definitely a minus for us," Zelensky told the Post, while refusing to confirm or deny the veracity of any of the exposed material.

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According to the newspaper, Zelensky said he must prioritize the larger war effort over his personal feelings on the lack of communication by the United States, which has contributed billions of dollars in support since Russia's invasion in February 2022.

"I cannot risk our state," he told the newspaper.

"Where I can speak frankly, I do it. But there are high risks," he added.

Teixeira is suspected of posting the documents, some dated as recently as early March, to a private chat group on the social media platform Discord over a period of months.

Some of the documents later appeared on other sites, including Twitter, 4Chan and Telegram, with some also showing Washington had apparently spied on allies Israel and South Korea.

caw/md
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he learned about a massive leak of top-secret U.S. intelligence documents in the news.

Zelensky, in an interview with The Washington Post, said he had no conversations with the White House or President Biden about the leak.

I did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand, Zelensky said. We did not have that information. I personally did not. Its definitely a bad story.

It is unprofitable for us, Zelensky continued. It is not beneficial to the reputation of the White House, and I believe it is not beneficial to the reputation of the United States.

Dozens of classified U.S. and NATO documents, some of which were top-secret, were leaked on Discord, a social media chat platform, before spreading to other platforms early this year. The leaks picked up national attention in early April.

The documents, which were intended for top military and intelligence officials only, leaked extensive details about munitions, training and air defense systems at a time when Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive this spring against Russia.

The documents only provide information on the conflict up to March, but they still present insights into Ukraines military capabilities and shortcomings, which experts say could prove harmful to the U.S. and Ukraines ability to defeat Russia.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the leaks with Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba during a call in April, according to the Post. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman also took calls with her Ukrainian counterparts about the issue, but Zelensky has reportedly not had any conversations.

Some Ukrainian officials believe the leak could lead Ukraine to not share as much intelligence with the United States, according to the Post.

Some leaks are from signals intelligence, indicating the United States is spying on top Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, according to the report.

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Zelensky, when asked whether the leaks have strained the relationship between the two countries, said: I cannot risk our state.

Where I can speak frankly, I do it. But there are high risks, he added. If it were my war against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and there were two of us on the battlefield, I would tell everyone what I think of them. But here the story is a little different. We are all responsible.

Zelensky declined to comment on the truthfulness of the leaks or describe the leaks as sensitive because he said that would acknowledge that the documents are real, according to the Post.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has emphasised that Ukraine is at war on its own territory and is defending itself against the aggressor, Russia.

Source: Zelenskyy at a joint briefing with Northern European countries in Helsinki, answering questions from the press

Quote: "We are not attacking either Putin or Moscow; we are fighting on our own territory, defending our villages and towns. We don't even have enough weapons to do that... That's why we didn't attack Putin; we'll leave that to the [international  ed.] tribunal."

Details: Zelensky stressed that Russia has had no victories at the front; Putin can no longer motivate Russian society and send soldiers to war for no reason, so it is in his interest to accuse Ukraine of committing some "crimes".

Quote: "He needs to do something drastic: either 'assassination attempts', drones, or some 'geese that bombed them'. They will come up with something or other every day. But the solution is simple: no need to intimidate anyone, no need to use weapons; you need to leave our territory."

Background:

The Kremlin press service said that Ukrainian drones had "attempted to strike" at the Kremlin residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the night of 3 May. The Kremlin called the so-called attack a "planned terrorist action" and an "assassination attempt on the Russian president".

Serhii Nykyforov, spokesman for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that Ukraine has no information about last nights attack on the Kremlin. What happened in Moscow, he said, was clearly a Russian escalation of the situation before 9 May.

The United States said it is gathering evidence about the incident involving the drone which Russia is claiming attacked the Kremlin.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Volodymyr Zelenskyy

The Ukrainian leader will visit the German capital at the invitation of the German Chancellor. He will also be awarded the Charlemagne Prize in Aachen during his visit.

Read also: Germanys Scholz announces new deliveries of Gepard, Iris-T systems to Ukraine

Zelenskyy will be officially received with military honors by Chancellor Olaf Scholz on May 14, before traveling by helicopter to Aachen, where he will be awarded the Charlemagne Prize.

Zelenskyy will then return to Ukraine.

Read also: Zelenskyy reveals to journalist why he stayed in Kyiv after start of full-scale war

President Zelenskyy arrived in Finland on May 3 at the invitation of the Finnish government. He will take part in the summit of Nordic leaders.

This is Zelenskyy's fifth visit abroad since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion. He has previously visited the United States, Belgium, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

Read also: Zelenskyy presents Ukrainian pilot helmet to UK parliament  video report

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)  A prominent opposition leader and lawmaker in Zimbabwe was convicted Wednesday of obstructing the course of justice for recording a video of himself accusing ruling party supporters of killing and dismembering an activist and posting the video to social media.

Job Sikhala, a Parliament member and senior official in the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party, was detained nearly 10 months ago. He must pay a $600 fine by Friday or face an additional six months in jail, according to the verdict by a magistrate.

Sikhala was repeatedly denied bail after his arrest in July. Critics have cited his case as another example of President Emmerson Mnangagwas attempts to silence the opposition ahead of Zimbabwe's presidential and parliamentary elections this year.

The 80-year-old Mnangagwa became president in 2017 after a coup ended the 37-year rule of autocratic leader Robert Mugabe.

While the coup was initially welcomed by Zimbabweans and Mnangagwa promised democratic reforms, rights groups have recently accused him of being as oppressive as Mugabe.

Amnesty International and other groups have said the arrest and pretrial detention of the 50-year-old Sikhala and other activists, along with the banning of some political meetings, show Mnangagwas willingness to use the justice system against his political opponents.

Sikhala was arrested after his comments at a memorial service for Ali, an activist and member of Sikhala's Citizens Coalition for Change who was missing for weeks before her body was found hacked into pieces and stuffed in a well.

Police have arrested one man in relation to Alis slaying and say they havent found a political link to the killing. Opposition figures claim the arrested man is an activist with the ruling Zanu PF party.

Sikhala was the lawyer representing Ali's family during the search for her. At the memorial service, Sikhala accused ruling party members of killing Ali.

Story continues

He was seen on video making the accusation and it was posted on social media. On Wednesday, Magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa ruled that Sikhala was the one who recorded and uploaded the video and his comments misled police.

Sikhala must remain in jail even if he pays the $600 fine because he is also on trial on separate charges of inciting public violence for the speech he made at the memorial service for Ali.

Sikhala has been arrested more than 65 times in the past 20 years, but his lawyers say Wednesday brought his first conviction. The verdict came days after Jacob Ngarivhume, the leader of a fringe political party, was sentenced to four years in jail for a tweet that encouraged people to participate in anti-government protests in 2020. One year of the sentence was suspended.

Zimbabwes general election will be in July or August. Many opposition figures say they are battling intense government repression similar to the time when Mugabe, who died in 2019, was president. Zimbabwe has had a series of violent and disputed elections since it gained independence from white minority rule in 1980.

Mnangagwa was a Mugabe ally for decades and served as a vice president during 2014-17 before being fired by Mugabe and then taking power in a coup backed by the army. Mnangagwa denies he is clamping down on the opposition and claims his government has improved the political environment.

Yet in recent months, dozens of opposition supporters, political activists, journalists, church leaders, trade union members and student leaders have been arrested on various charges that legal experts say amount to harassment.

___

More AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
BEDFORD  A proposed halfway house for substance abuse treatment on Lowry Road in Goode was met with heavy opposition from a packed crowd at a public hearing Tuesday, an emotional zoning review process that resulted in a 4-2 recommendation of denial from the Bedford County Planning Commission.

Sobrius Curea, LLC is requesting a special use permit to establish a high intensity chemical dependency program with 16 residents for 30-day inpatient treatment on two aces zoned Agricultural Village. Jason Stevens, CEO and founder of Sobrius, said the Galax-based operation has been running for just more than two years and looks forward to trying to have a home in Bedford County.

Our mission is to create a place for recovery with love, compassion, understanding along with accountability, responsibility and self-discipline for each person entrusted into our care, Stevens said. We really take pride in the fact that our home is not an institution. We want these folks to come in and be in a home environment. What we have found is that when they are in that environment, they can really work on themselves.

A standing-room only crowd of more than 100 people filled the meeting room Tuesday, with residents spilling into the hallway and Bedford County Sheriffs Office security more heightened than usual, as 20 spoke during the hearing, all but two in opposition. Opponents voiced concerns mostly centered on safety, as multiple speakers said the planned facility presents too many unknowns for neighboring areas and is too close to Otter River Elementary School on U.S. 221.

The Bedford County School Board wrote the planning commission and Bedford County Board of Supervisors stating its opposition based on the planned home being within a mile of Otter River Elementary. School board member Chris Daniels, who lives on Lowry Road, said residents have sympathy for those wanting to recover from substance abuse but the utmost obligation is protecting the communitys children.

Anyone who thinks that this facility here is a good idea, I think, its because they dont live in the neighborhood where this would be, Daniels said.

The proposed use is a noble cause, but careful consideration is needed in regard to location, Daniels said. His daughter runs by the proposed location daily, older people in the neighborhood walk by it and schoolchildren get off at a bus stop there, Daniels said, adding the operations potential presence is completely distressing and disturbing.

We all want people to get better and we pray for them, but they need an area that has complete access to medical care, regular patrols and is very visible, Daniels said. This facility will not work here.

Sobrius is licensed through the Virginia Department of Health and provides resident care for substance abuse treatment. Stevens said the goal is to provide treatment for those with substance abuse, mental health and trauma diagnosis, and provide a homelike atmosphere while creating a safe and secure environment.

Were not a drop-in program. We want the residents to truly want help, Stevens said. We believe in the full continuum of care. We believe thats what its going to take to help people get out of the realm of alcoholism and drug abuse.

Most of the programs participants are ages 22 to 35, Stevens said. Those are young people  they are people who need help, he added.

The program only wants those staying there who are truly committed to recovery, Stevens said. He told the commission the planned facility would be for women only.

We take security extremely, extremely serious. We know the movement at our facility, Stevens said, later adding: The residents are never ever left unattended. We know where our people are at all times  Theyre just not wondering around.

Daniels voiced concern the site would be unsecured and no amount of we will take care of it" comments from Sobrius will suffice.

Thomas Neal, a county resident, said he has two young daughters, one of whom will go to Otter River Elementary. It belongs nowhere near our school, he said.

Debbie Hoback, a former Bedford County School Board member who lives on land her family has farmed for generations, spoke against the home locating across from her property.

We are trying to give our children a gift by keeping them safe in their homes, Hoback said.

Ashley Weeks, a concerned mother who lives in the area, said she fears residents may come on to her property and steal.

I dont [think] this is a good location, Weeks said.

David Hardey, who lives on Forest Road, said his grandson will attend Otter River Elementary and expressed concern with unpredictable and potentially dangerous situations where a halfway house resident could lose it and grab a weapon. He and a few other speakers mentioned school shootings across the country in expressing their fears.

Now Im sorry, but history does have a nasty habit of repeating itself  They cant guarantee that that wont happen  but theyre going to raise the level of risk that it can happen again in our community, Hardey said. If my grandson is one of those victims all holy hell will break loose."

Stevens said the program teaches its residents how to not act out in anger. If the home is approved, 14 to 17 full-time jobs are planned, he said. An executive director will be on site, two certified substance abuse counselors, one licensed professional counselor, five peer support personnel and rotating cooks who prepare meals would be employed.

We try to create a family atmosphere, Stevens said. These are people. They made bad decisions, but theyre people.

In the application, Stevens wrote the facility is planned as a low-key, low visibility site that provides peace, serenity and calmness to residents during treatment as part of the recovery process. The home would be staffed 24 hours per day, seven days per week with highly trained personnel and residents would be heavily screened and vetted before coming in, he said.

Mark Briers, a Lowry Road resident, said the home would bring a temporary transient flow of people in a location many nearby residents do not support.

Theyre my neighbors and they dont want this, Briers said.

County resident Donald Barlow said he applauds anyone seeking to bring a residential substance abuse treatment facility to the county and spoke of devastating effects drug use has had on his family.

If its not in my backyard Ill put it there  submit the plan and you can put it in my backyard. Ill put my money where my mouth is because I suffered that loss, Barlow said. We need it here in this county because its a problem  a big problem."

Stevens told the commission the nation has 28 million documented cases of substance abuse and only 10% seek help.

Were trying to help, Stevens said. Were trying to make a difference here. We want to give people a chance.

District 7 Commissioner John Briscoe, who represents the district of the proposed use, said he understands the publics concerns, and, in principle, he is in favor of substance abuse programs.

We dont have enough of them, Briscoe said. I like the idea of this. I dont want it next to a school. These people dont want it next to a school  I cannot support something that the public obviously does not support, even if I want it personally, I cant do that.

Briscoe said people have a fear of the unknown more than anything else.

I dont think in any place in any community people are going to welcome it with open arms, the nature of the beast, but there are times when the good has to be weighed out versus fear, Commissioner Jeff Burdett said. I understand the concerns and have doubts in my mind about the viability of this location, but I also see the benefits of this location because of the nature of the program. I wish they had more years of success of operation to maybe allay some of the qualms I have and certainly the community has.

Vice Chair John Moisa, who joined Burdett in voting against Briscoes motion to deny the permit, said the public presented many fears of what possibly could happen.

One of the fears I have is what will happen is some of the kids we are worried about protecting at this elementary school and in this area might be very much the same people who could fall subject to this type of addiction and need something like this in our community and if that ever occurs and we dont have it in our community to offer them, would we have failed them for that, Moisa said.

Chair Nick Kessler took a brief pause before casting the deciding vote to send the matter on to the Bedford County Board of Supervisors with a recommendation of denial.

There is absolutely a need for this, Kessler said. Is this the right location? Thats the challenging part of it.

Briscoe said he feels the county needs residential treatment facilities and he hopes the dialogue continues.

 I dont want the door to be closed on that, Briscoe told the crowd. Were dealing with one situation right here, but this will come back up again and people that you know will get sick and people that you know will die  so everybody keep an open mind.
The Virginia Department of General Services recently declared the Central Virginia Training Center property in Amherst County as surplus, an expected step for efforts to redevelop the 380-acre campus near the James River.

CVTC, a state-owned former center for people with disabilities on Colony Road in Madison Heights, closed in 2020. At its peak, the center with more than a century of history was the countys largest employer.

The center was operated as part of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. By marking the property as surplus, the Economic Development Authority of Amherst County and/or Amherst Countys government now have less than 180 days to submit a proposal to purchase the property from the state if they so choose.

After the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services vacated the property following the 2020 closure, the land was transitioned to the Department of General Services for the purpose of being declared surplus and prepared for sale.

If the EDA or county decides to submit a proposal and it is viable and of benefit to the commonwealth, then the Department of General Services will negotiate with them for the sale of the property at the fair market value, according to a news release from the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance.

If the EDA or Amherst County choose not to submit a proposal or the proposal is not deemed viable by the end of the 180-day period, then the property will be offered for public sale.

Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, said efforts to redevelop the CVTC site are at full speed, and he was honored last year to be part of acquiring $25 million to pay off the outstanding property bonds 14 years ahead of schedule. He said he is pleased the property is now labeled as surplus so stakeholders can move forward with determining the best developer of the site.

A big thanks to the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance and Amherst County for their positive partnership in these efforts, Newman said in the release.

The Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance, in partnership with Amherst County and the countys EDA, has already begun marketing the site to potential developers to speed the potential redevelopment of the property, an effort guided by an in-depth master redevelopment plan.

The plan, first presented to the Amherst County Board of Supervisors in April 2022, maps out a range of mixed-use housing and commercial uses for the property, as well as reuse of some buildings for economic development purposes, and demolition of many older buildings on site.

Data in the 214-page master plan shows the property is best suited for a mixed-use development that has about 200,000 square feet of technology and industrial space, about 100,000 square feet of commercial space and about 120,000 square feet of neighborhood retail and the rest a variety of housing from apartments to townhomes.

A village square area, an amphitheater and playground complex, a destination restaurant, boutique hotel, a senior living facility and a monument with a reclaimed cupola from the CVTCs Bradford building, one of the most recognizable structures on the property, are among features envisioned.

The plan can be viewed online at https://trainingcentermasterplan.com/.

The redevelopment of CVTC is crucial to Amherst County and the regions economy, Andrew Proctor, chair of the EDA, said in the release. We are looking for a qualified and experienced developer who can breathe new life back into the CVTC property at its highest and best use and help restore the $87 million in annual economic activity and 1,600 jobs we lost when CVTC closed.

According to a study done in October 2013, a year after former Gov. Bob McDonnell announced the closure of CVTC and three other of Virginias training centers over a 10-year period, CVTC at one time provided 1,639 full-time jobs, $53 million in labor income, $87 million in overall economic activity and state and local tax revenue of $3 million.

Tom Martin, chair of the Amherst County Board of Supervisors, said the county and Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance are working to find a developer to implement the CVTC master plan to fulfill its highest and best use.

Amherst County is eager to bring CVTC back to life, Martin said.

Megan Lucas, CEO and chief economic development officer of the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance, in the release said the surplus declaration is an important next step in the long process of visioning a future for the CVTC campus.

We will support Amherst County and work to ensure the redevelopment of this unique site will become a boon to the entire Lynchburg region, Lucas said.
East Mills High School junior Jack Sayers is hosting a dinner party, and everyone in Southwest Iowa is invited.

The Southwest Iowa Legislative Dinner will be an opportunity for area voters to get more involved in local politics and to learn about their elected officials away from the campaign trail, Sayers said.

The speakers are gonna talk about growing up in Iowa, how did it affect who they are today, why they chose to run, their legislative priorities and their vision for the future of our great state, Sayers said. You as an audience member are going to be able to listen to and truly understand where your tax money is going to and who represents you on the Des Moines Hill.

Sayers, a participant in the Iowa Legislative Page Program, has always been interested in politics. He comes from a politically active family  his grandfather, Iowa Labor Commissioner Rod Roberts, was a five-term state representative in the 51st and 80th Districts.

Weve always been involved in some way or another, Sayers said. Ive just been raised to have that idea of public service and giving back to the community, and making sure that we can better it for everybody.

When he was looking for ways that he could become involved in state politics, Sayers quickly realized that the only real option open to high school students was the page program.

I wanted to get involved with the program, so late last year I applied and started attending more events, getting to know more people, Sayers said.

Most pages work on the Statehouse floor, running notes between representatives or grabbing someone a cup of coffee. Sayers, however, works for Rep. Matt Windschitl, the House Majority Leader, so his job is a little different.

I have to take photos of Republican representatives for their press releases and weekly newsletters, and I like to research bills and talk to my boss and other people like that, Sayers said.

One of the things Sayers has learned from his page job is that despite the public rancor between Republicans and Democrats, at the end of the day, representatives gladly work together to get legislation passed.

Theres just not that much arguments, he said. Its more of a compromise and a conversation, people reaching across the aisle to help their constituents back home, and that last part probably is why I enjoy it.

Sayers would also like to get young people more involved in politics.

I think that me being involved in politics is a way for me to give those people who dont exactly know where to start, or arent entirely passionate about it, but still have their opinions, I can help give them a voice with what I do, he said.

Sayers would like to see people like his classmates realize that what happens in Washington D.C. and Des Moines can have a profound effect on their lives, even if its not immediate.

(Legislation) can be here for 10, 20, 30 years, Sayers said. When we have a family, when we have kids, when we have grandkids, when we own a house we have to pay taxes for. So its important to get involved, because laws that get passed now will affect our generation, and thats just a big problem, is that people dont understand that it will affect them at some point in the future. And I think mainly that is the one reason why people arent involved.

One way for people to get involved is to attend Sayers Southwest Iowa Legislative Dinner, so they can speak with their representatives, and hear about whats going on in the state.

Confirmed guests for the Southwest Iowa Legislative Dinner include many Southwest Iowa representatives and senators, including Sayers boss, Matt Windschitl.

Sayers is also hopeful that Iowa Attorney General  and former Fremont County prosecutor  Brenna Bird will attend, as well as Red Oak native Sen. Joni Ernst.

We have a lot of heavy hitters, so to say, who have connections to Southwest Iowa, and it will really just be up to them whether they think its important to go to an event like this, Sayers said.

Sayers feels confident that the dinner will have a good turnout.

Ive gotten a good response, he said. I have quite a bit of community members who want to go. I have some associations that represent industries that want to go. I think its gonna be full.

The Southwest Iowa Legislative Dinner is being held on Saturday, May 13, at 6 p.m. at the Palace Event Center in Treynor. Tickets cost $20 and all proceeds will go toward a fund to help future Southwest Iowa students participate in the Legislative Page Program in Des Moines.

A lot of people cant afford it, Sayers said. Its kind of expensive living in Des Moines, so this will help pay for their housing, transportation and food while theyre living in the city.

For more information about the legislative dinner, visit facebook.com/events/905584577314983, or contact Sayers at 712-527-0447 or sayers567@gmail.com.
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By Kim Ji-soo



When the news of expanding the "1,000 won breakfast" offer at colleges rode the airwaves recently, a memory flashed back to me from 1987. As a freshman in college in Seoul, the chance to eat out at affordably priced canteens and eateries outside was a newfound joy.



There however was a "sundubu jjigae" (spicy soft tofu stew) restaurant outside the main gate, which remains etched in my mind as if by a laser beam. A bowl of the tofu stew with rice and kimchi, the simplest type, cost 1,000 won ($0.77). I remember thinking, all that for this price? Admittedly after hunting down several alma maters, the price of sundubu seemed to vary from 1,000 won to 1,500 won.



Yet the lucidity of that memory of gawking at the price, then at the stew's hearty taste and feeling a sheepish thankfulness for a "student discount" still lingers.



As of 2023, a total of 41 universities in the nation are offering the cheap breakfasts. The gist of the scheme is that the government chips in 1,000 won and the school 1,000 won. One freshman at Sungkyunkwan University who lives on her own in Seoul said she often goes for the breakfast.



"It opens early at 8 a.m., and through 9 a.m., and for me, this surely helps. I hope it continues," the freshman said on condition of anonymity.



The menu is mainly rice and soup with three side dishes and would cost around 4,500 won normally. There are other options, a sandwich or "cup-bap."



The idea has grown in popularity  mainly because of the skyrocketing living costs  among users but also politically. Having started small, university by university in 2012, the plan was also to encourage young students to eat breakfast and promote the consumption of rice. The government with its funding joined in 1997.



The student discount is commendable. Lunch at Korean public schools from elementary to high schools are free, thus the line of thought may continue into the 1,000 won breakfasts for collegians. Collegians may also be more likely to skip meals if they are financially constrained with money required for higher tuition fees, books and whatnot.



Political parties have caught on quickly, clamoring to say the scheme should be expanded. Both the ruling People Power Party and the opposition Democratic Party of Korea are eager to uphold the breakfast scheme and champion it as their respective feats. All the more so after the government and the ruling party agreed in March to double the budget and increase the number of participating schools. The collegians are voters, and there is a general election scheduled for next year.



However, coffers at many Korean universities are dwindling due to declining enrollment in the aging Korean society. The operators of school canteens are reportedly moving to pull out of the college canteens business for its small profit. Some school officials are hoping that government assistance would jump; even colleges with generous donations from graduates seek it. Pundits have cautioned about the financial sustainability of the government assistance in the long haul.



The?Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it plans to expand the scale of assistance, with the budget increasing from 780 million won to 1.58 billion won. That means 1.5 million students  from the current 690,000 students  will become beneficiaries.



Just like the anonymous freshman quoted above, 98 percent of university students who responded to a 2022 ministry survey expressed hope that the 1,000 won breakfast policy would continue. The task falls on all of us to juggle respective interests to ensure future leaders of society are well-nourished while schools, canteen operators also carry on sustainably.



The writer is a member of the Editorial Board at The Korea Times.






Royal Air Maroc has resumed direct flights between Casablanca and Moscow, after more than a year of absence from the Russian travel market.

The announcement was made Tuesday by several Russian news outlets and travel agents association. The non-stop flights will operate twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays from Moscow to Casablanca and on Tuesdays and Thursdays from Casablanca to Moscow.

With its coastlines on the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, Morocco offers travelers the opportunity to discover and enjoy a unique mix of Arab, Berber, African and European cultural influences.

The North African Kingdom is known for its cuisine, which is admired throughout the world by its savvy use of spices and local ingredients, such as saffron, mint and olives.

In addition to its mountainous interior, sunny coastline and portions of desert, Morocco boasts cities and buildings with rich historical and cultural background.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz heads Thursday May 4 to Ethiopia and Kenya, where talks will focus on reaffirming strategic alliances in the region, though the Sudan crisis is likely to dominate the talks.

While Germany has been one of the biggest financial supporters of Ethiopia, the Tigray conflict significantly strained Addis Ababas relations with Berlin. However, after the rival parties reached a peace agreement in November last year, the signs now point toward warmer relations. In terms of trade, Germany is, for example, the worlds leading importer of Ethiopian coffee, followed by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea.

Apart from normalizing trade relations, Germany has another item on its agenda in the Horn of Africa, which is regional and international security, particularly the crisis in Sudan.

Peacekeeping in the region will also be high on the agenda when Chancellor Scholz visits the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa.

The meeting with the AU chief will also play a role at Scholzs last stop in Kenya. The East African nation is considered an anchor of stability in the region and has often distinguished itself as a conflict mediator.

Kenya remains among the top five export markets in sub-Saharan Africa for German companies, with $285 million worth of exports in 2022. Chancellor Scholz will also focus on seeking clean energy partnerships particularly with trailblazer Kenya where 90% of power needs are covered by renewables, with plans to fully cover its energy needs with renewables by 2030.

Geothermal power is key in Kenyas energy mix and offers excellent conditions for the production of green hydrogen, which will eventually be imported from the East African country to Europe, as some German analysts hope.
Europe is increasingly turning to Africa to find alternatives for Russian energy supplies it has shunned since the start of the war with Ukraine, while the United States, China and Russia are racing for economic influence on the continent. These four global powers are in a race to win over Africa, the continents market of more than a billion people and tap its natural resources.

Hungry for alternatives to Russian gas, European leaders have spent months eyeing fossil fuel projects across Africa. China has spent two decades expanding its political and economic relations with the continent, while Russia is also widening its involvement on the continent, mainly through arms sales and mining projects.

The United States is all in on Africas future, US President Joe Biden told the 49 African leaders attending the US-Africa Leaders Summit last December, underscoring his administrations efforts to boost ties with Africa after four years of neglect under President Trump.

These outreach efforts centered around political, military, economic and cultural initiatives are taking place in overlap with all four powers wooing of Africa, whereby the continent is also at the heart of a geopolitical scramble for its mineral resources and rare-earth minerals. Senegal and Mauritania are planning to ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Germany, while the African Union is pushing for more energy infrastructure, including fossil gas. From Nigeria to Egypt and Algeria to Mozambique, countries across Africa are pushing to extract more gas to be shipped to Europe.

Meanwhile, analysts see China and Russia as jostling to bolster their presence in Africa to tap its rich natural resources. China has been relentless with its soft loans, extensive provision of technical knowhow and indirectly addressing Africas many developmental needs, while Russias approach appears more opportunistic.

For three decades, China has managed to secure mining deals across the African continent with the availability of cheap labor and weak regulations. Currently, however, while China maintains its command, this position is being challenged by the US and EU, both of which are motivated to minimize their vulnerability towards China and thus have actively discussed rare earth projects in the African continent.

To reduce Chinas dominance in the African market, both the US and EU are establishing new strategic partnerships with countries in the continent. Meanwhile, Moscow has sought to strengthen its political ties across Africa, while its on-the-ground proxy, the Wagner Group, seeks financial advantage, in the form of mining and extractive rights, including for diamonds, rubies and other gems, gold, rare metals and rare earth minerals.
Minister Delegate to the Head of Government, in charge of the National Defense Administration, Abdeltif Loudyi, received, Wednesday at the headquarters of this Administration, a delegation of the American Congress led by the chairman of the Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives, Mike Rogers, on the sidelines of his visit to the Kingdom of Morocco.

During this meeting, which took place in the presence of the US ambassador to Rabat, the US Congressmen expressed their enthusiasm for the major reforms achieved by the Kingdom of Morocco, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI.

The U.S Congress Delegation took this opportunity to praise the level of excellence achieved by the age-old relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, strengthened by a strategic partnership in particular on the political, diplomatic, economic, military and security levels. The delegation members also referred to the multiple efforts and the role of the Kingdom in the service of peace and stability in the Mediterranean, Africa and the Middle East.

For his part, Loudyi reiterated the Kingdoms willingness to expand the range of this partnership, consolidated by the signing, before King Mohammed VI, of the tripartite declaration between the United States of America, Morocco and Israel in December 2020, recognizing the sovereignty of Morocco over its Sahara.

He also welcomed the positive decisions taken by the US Congress, House of Reprersentatives and Senate, on the military cooperation of the United States with Morocco, on the occasion of the adoption of the US National Defense Budget for 2023.

M. Loudyi also stressed the importance of bilateral military cooperation and training actions as well as exchanges of experience and expertise embodied in particular by the regular holding of the multilateral military exercise African Lion to enhance the interoperability of the two countries forces.
Morocco and the United the Kingdom are strengthening their economic partnership, trade exchanges and political dialogue to counter common international challenges.

Total trade in goods and services (exports plus imports) between the UK and Morocco reached 3.1 billion in 2022, an increase of 49.8% or 1.0 billion recorded in 2021.

The two countries are determined today more than ever to give a strong impetus to their cooperation especially in energy, agriculture, industry, technology, fisheries, education, scientific research, defense

Moroccan authorities have designed UK guest of honor of the 2023 international agricultural show (SIAM) organized in Meknes (May 2-7) with the participation of some thirty UK companies expected to seal deals with Moroccan farmers and agribusinesses.

The two countries have signed on this occasion a Memorandum of Understanding which aims to identify and tackle the main challenges facing the agricultural sector in Morocco. The MoU will help encourage technical cooperation and knowledge sharing between the UK and Moroccan agricultural sectors.

On the sidelines of the 15th international agricultural show (SIAM), Moroccan minister of agriculture and fisheries Mohamed Sadiki conferred with UK Minister of State for Biosecurity, Marine and Rural Affairs, Lord Richard Benyon.

They discussed cooperation prospects in the agricultural sector to mitigate the impacts of geopolitical and climate crises. They stressed the need to streamline UK import processing of Moroccan fruits and vegetables.

Total UK exports to Morocco amounted to 1.3 billion in 2022 (an increase of 46.3% compared to 2021. Morocco was the UKs 59th largest trading partner in the four quarters to the end of Q4 2022 accounting for 0.2% of total UK trade.

At the political level, the two Kingdoms remain strong partners and Allies seeking mutual prosperity and security.

While a top UK delegation from the public and private sectors is looking for joint business opportunities at the Meknes international farming show, another delegation of Lords met on Tuesday in Rabat with Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita.

They praised the strong partnership between Rabat and London, affirming that the longstanding historical ties existing between the two countries are enhanced through consultation and dialogue on common political, security, and economic challenges.

The visiting delegation of UK lords includes Stuart Polak, James Arbuthnot, Alastair Colin, Leckie Campbell and Eric Pickles. After meeting Moroccan FM, members of the upper House of UK Parliament held talks with Speaker of House of Councilors (senators) Enaam Mayara on the exchange of experiences between the House of Lords and the Moroccan upper House of Parliament.

The UK delegation is expected to travel to Moroccos southern provinces to see their socioeconomic progress, the huge untapped potential and the business opportunities offered in the region, gateway for investment in Africa.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco decided to declare the first day of the Amazigh year as a national paid holiday in line with the constitution which gives an official character to the language alongside Arabic, the Royal Household said in a statement on Wednesday.

Morocco gave the language an official character in 2011 and the new decision consecrates the constitution, said the statement.

Morocco has also announced 300 million dirhams as a budget dedicated to promote Amazigh and its inclusion in the administration this year.

Morocco celebrates the first day of the Hijira muslim calendar and the first day of the Gregorian calendar as official holidays.

The Amazigh new year is usually celebrated with special dishes that underscore the attachment of Moroccans to their lands. It is also called Hagouza in Arab speaking Moroccan regions.
The Nebraska State Patrol is investigating the former Kimball police chief on allegations of misconduct, according to court documents.

Andrew Bremer, the citys police chief for the last seven years, resigned in April. In a resignation letter accepted by the Kimball City Council during an April 25 meeting, Bremer cited personal reasons for resigning. He cited burnout due to the departments being short-handed in a statement reported by the Kimball newspaper, the Western Nebraska Observer.

Bremer had been appointed as Kimballs police chief in 2016, replacing then-Chief Darren Huff after he became the subject of an investigation by the Nebraska attorney general.

According to Kimball County Court records, the Nebraska State Patrol obtained a search warrant April 11 for records of the Kimball Police Department, Kimball County Sheriffs Office and Kimball County Attorneys Office, including daily action reports, interview reports, dispatch records and other records, and even body-camera footage to ascertain the activities of five officers with the department.

The patrol sought to examine materials dating from Aug. 1, 2021, to April 12, 2023.

The affidavit for the search warrant says that the investigator applying for the warrant had been assigned an investigation alleging misconduct by Bremer. With the passage of LB 51, the state of Nebraska implemented several changes to the operation of law enforcement, effective Aug. 28, 2021.

The changes that were cited as most applicable in the warrant involved the requirement that new hires complete training to become a certified police officer, and that until that training is complete, trainees are not given law enforcement authority and cannot carry out law enforcement functions.

Trainees are also not allowed to carry a firearm or ride with a field training officer until they complete training at the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Camp.

Hires are also required to apply for training within 60 days of hire, but not less than 30 days prior to the start of the next camp, in addition to meeting other admission requirements.

The arrest affidavit cites statements by a Kimball Police Department trainee who said he and another man were hired in September 2022, given uniforms and badges, and identified publicly as law enforcement officers.

The men were also equipped with Tasers, rode and drove police cruisers, and interacted with the public as law enforcement officers.

The trainee said he had been involved in carrying out police duties, including tagging vehicles and trailers for tow, investigating theft cases and interviewing a suspect in a domestic violence case. He also alleged that the other officer hired had been given a pistol and rifle and told to qualify on the range without any training at all, according to the arrest affidavit

In November 2022, the Nebraska State Patrol investigator reported observing one of the trainees in full dress uniform, displaying a badge of office and carrying a handgun while in the Kimball County Courthouse, despite not having been certified as a law enforcement officer.

The investigator also determined that a third Kimball trainee had been involved in an investigation in February 2023 that involved transporting three children from Kimball to the CAPstone Child Advocacy Center in Gering.

The trainee transported the children in a Kimball Police Department cruiser, wore a polo identifying her as being with the Kimball Police Department and was not accompanied by another Kimball police officer.

In February 2023, according to the affidavit, the Kimball County Attorneys Office dropped a minor-in-possession charge because an investigation report had been generated by one of the trainees.

Kimball has gone through five police chiefs since 2007 after the termination of longtime police Chief Bill Schank. Two prior police chiefs were being investigated on allegations of wrongdoing when they stepped down or were terminated.

Dwain Murdoch, who served as a sergeant on the department, has been appointed to serve as interim police chief. He will be given the oath of office Tuesday at the Kimball County Courthouse, according to a press release from the City of Kimball.

Murdoch has served with the Kimball Police Department since 2015, but previously worked more than four years with the department before serving more than six years at the Kimball Sheriffs Office.

The City of Kimball has already posted a job listing for the police chief position and has also posted that it is seeking police officers.
Pre-hearing comment period ends Wednesday

Members of the public are asked to notify state officials in advance if they plan to attend or testify at Thursday's Nebraska Department of Environment and Energys public hearing on a proposed air quality construction permit for Sustainable Beef LLCs North Platte meatpacking plant.

Written comments on the permit application will be taken through 5 p.m. CT Wednesday (4 p.m. MT) as well as during the 6 p.m. hearing at Ramada by Wyndham in North Platte, NDEE officials have said.

Interested parties may download NDEEs draft permit and supporting materials at ecmp.nebraska.gov/PublicAccess/index.html?&MyQueryID=340.

On that webpage, type 116136 in the DEQ Facility Number box and click Search to bring up those materials and all other public documents related to Sustainable Beefs air quality construction permit application.

Pre-hearing written comments should be emailed to ndee.airquality@nebraska.gov. Those who plan to attend or testify at Thursday's hearing should mail or email one of the above addresses or call 402-471-2189 no later than 5 p.m. CT Wednesday.

Anyone who believes any condition of the draft permit is inappropriate or that the (NDEE) directors tentative decision to issue the air quality construction permit is inappropriate must raise all reasonably ascertainable issues and submit all reasonably available argument supporting their position by the close of the public hearing, NDEE said in its March 31 public hearing notice.

 Todd von Kampen
As our weather lurches in fits and starts from winter to spring, I am taking in the blankets I have wrapped around my underground sprinkler backflow device while looking at forecast highs in the 80s midweek. Our annual season of renewal and hope is also a time to reflect on all we have to be grateful for in North Platte and Lincoln County. A drive around our community is an opportunity to marvel at things greening up, daffodils and tulips blooming, and flowering trees in their seasonal glory. Redevelopment projects and ongoing construction in our town are in full evidence, too.

Work at District 177 continues the transition from a worn-out mall to a modern shopping, restaurant and residential center. Tenants are moving into retail and apartment space in the new V-shaped building that fronts District 177. The structure that will be home to Freddys Frozen Custard & Steakburgers moves toward completion. Transformation of the main structure of the old mall progresses. When work is complete, District 177 will beautifully complement the renovation of our downtown Canteen District.

A cruise of Newberry allows a glimpse of the conversion of North Plattes old sewage lagoon into Sustainable Beefs state-of-the-art beef processing plant. Fill dirt is raising the retired lagoon bed out of the flood zone. The owners and investors vision of this value-added agriculture industry in the heart of cattle, corn and transportation country becomes more and more a clear and concrete reality, offering our community a golden opportunity for extending our economic base.

A check of goings-on at City Hall bodes well for additional near-term investment to address our chronic housing shortage. The process of approving tax increment financing nears completion for the Victory Village project that will add 120 apartment units to the 80 that have already been built at A Street and Lakeview Boulevard. Steps to annex 65 acres near North Platte Community Colleges north campus have been initiated to make way for Chief Developments housing project.

That news is on top of the recent approval of TIF financing that will bring to life Wilkinson Cos. $16 million truck stop project in the ever-vacant northeast quadrant of North Plattes east I-80 interchange. The rail park near Hershey continues its march toward becoming reality. And contracts have been approved with the firm that will design and oversee the expansion and renovation of the Recreation Center and Cody Pool after the citizen petition drive for that improvement was approved by voters nearly 2-to-1 in the 2022 general election.

The benefits to North Platte and the area from these projects  and others too numerous to mention  are difficult to quantify. The construction alone involves huge numbers of good jobs; when the structures are complete, they will be filled with workers in good jobs. Purchases of building materials keep suppliers busy and produce sales tax revenue. Development of previously vacant land increases valuations and broadens the property tax base. The shortage of available, quality housing is lessened. Quality of life increases when shopping, eating, residential and recreation opportunities expand. North Platte is recognizing and realizing its potential in ways that only a decade ago would have seemed impossible.

Council members Jim Nisley, Pete Volz, Ty Lucas, Brad Garrick and Brian Flanders are community leaders reliably paving the way to a better future. Mayor Brandon Kelliher has provided steady, positive leadership. The expertise and experience of North Platte Area Chamber and Development Corp. President Gary Person continues to pay dividends; in Aprils well-deserved recognition, Gary was named 2023 Housing Champion at the Nebraska Investment and Finance Authoritys Innovation Expo in Lincoln. If you get the chance, tell these people thanks.

While you are at it, give yourself a humble pat on the back, too. You are among a citizenry that has elected and supported a working majority of local office holders who are pragmatic and non-ideological, who are optimistic and bullish on North Plattes future. You are among people who donate time and money to causes that make North Platte a better place to be. You live, work and shop here with your neighbors. You perform the everyday, responsible tasks that collectively fashion a prospering society. We have had lingering frosts and some nights that required wrapping our pipes, but spring is here. Enjoy the warm sunshine. And keep it up.


Open path for coexistence with three-party dialogue



A unionized construction worker set fire to himself on Labor Day. He died the following day while receiving treatment at a hospital.



The laborer, 50, a ranking member of the Gangwon Province chapter of a nationwide construction workers' union, attempted self-immolation Monday. He did so hours before he was scheduled to attend a pretrial detention hearing in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, on charges of obstructing business.



Local prosecutors earlier requested arrest warrants for the unionist, identified only by his surname Yang, and two other union officials on suspicion of forcing the hiring of union members and extorting about 80 million won ($59,700) from construction companies between April 2022 and this past February.



"I engaged in legitimate union activities. It hurts my self-esteem that police investigate me for blackmail, not even violating labor laws," he said in a letter.



It is hard to believe a worker burned himself to death in Korea in 2023.



The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) vowed to stage an all-out struggle. "The Yoon Suk Yeol's administration's crackdown on labor led to this death," the umbrella union said. We cannot help but hold the government accountable for causing this tragedy through probes like hare coursing instead of seeking a dialogue. It also shows the need for President Yoon to rethink his labor policy of the 1970s.



Labor has been one of Yoon's three reform targets since he took office a year ago. But the prosecutor-turned-president focused on the deviant behaviors of some labor aristocrats  leaders of big business unions  instead of looking at the broader picture and delving into structural problems. The conservative leader did so under the pretext of protecting "real workers." However, in a country with a unionization rate of 13 percent, nobody protects or cares about 87 percent of workers.



The first thing Yoon did for his labor reform was to thwart truckers' strikes. The chief executive blocked the collective legal action, saying it "destroyed other workers' freedom to work." Yoon's approval rating rose by rallying his conservative support base. He then tried to extend working hours from 52 to 69. But workers who suffer the most and die due to the extended workweek are nonunionized. The plan is drifting along as Millennials and Generation Z workers, whom Yoon had expected to support this flexible system, spurned it.



Yoon's labor policy is anachronistic at best and politicized at worst. Labor bashing pushes up his approval rating. Employers, managers, conservatives and many low-wage workers like to see their leader give unionists a hard time. But think about this; in a country with a per capita income of $35,000, a four-member family's breadwinner earning $75,000 yearly should not be considered too much.



Yoon may imagine himself as the Korean version of Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher, fighting with striking airline pilots or miners. The era of neo-liberalism has already ended.



Now, most industrialized countries are reducing working hours as robots and artificial intelligence replace humans in physical and mental labor. The quality, not quantity, of work and workers' quality of life are their concerns. U.S. President Joe Biden, whom Yoon says is his friend, prides himself as the most pro-labor president in America's history. He gives subsidies to foreign chipmakers and demands they provide child care services for American employees.



German companies have a worker executive on their boards. Japan has long stuck to lifelong employment. No country can prosper without respecting workers and no government can succeed by antagonizing or demonizing unionists.



There are a few bad apples in any group. Picking them out is law enforcement officers' duty, not the chief executive's role. A national leader must grasp the global trend and know the call of the times. Yoon may be the first recent president who has not met a labor leader in their first year in office. He can start anew by inviting some unionists to meet with him.






Black voter turnout needs to bounce back for Democrats in 2024. Photo: Megan Varner/Getty Images

Looking at the 2022 midterm-election turnout numbers as validated by the Census Bureau represents a sort of glass half empty, glass half full proposition. As the Washington Post reports, total turnout was down from 50 percent of eligible voters in the previous midterm election in 2018 to 46.6 percent in the most recent contest. But that 46.6 percent was still the second-highest midterm turnout number since 1968. As a rule, midterm voting participation is significantly lower than in presidential years; the turnout number for 2020 was a robust 66.1 percent. And historically, the falloff between presidential and midterm voting has been most significant among young and minority voters. Indeed, this midterm falloff issue has been a particular problem for Democrats in the years since these voter groups began leaning their way.

Indeed, while the falloff among Democratic-leaning voter groups was much lower than usual in 2018, it was quite significant last year, as the Washington Post reports:

Black voter turnout dropped by nearly 10 percentage points, from 51.7 percent in 2018 to 42 percent in 2022, according to a Washington Post analysis of the Census Bureaus turnout survey. White voter turnout slipped by only 1.5 points to 53.4 percent. The 11-point turnout gap between White and Black voters is the largest in any presidential or midterm election since at least 2000 

Turnout dropped by 5.4 points among Hispanic voters to 31 percent and by 5.5 points among Asian and Pacific Islander voters to 33 percent  Turnout among American Indian and Alaska Native voters dipped 2.1 points to 32 percent.

Turnout also dropped sharply among voters under age 30, falling from 32 percent in 2018 to 26 percent in 2022, a 6.5-point drop.

Again, 2022 turnout among all these groups was better than in most recent pre-2018 midterm elections. But the trend lines werent good, and turnout patterns may have cost Democrats some close races.

Vote share obviously can matter as much as turnout; overall, Democrats went from an 8.6 percent national House vote plurality in 2018 to a 2.8 percent deficit in 2022. According to the 2022 exit polls, Democrats also lost in some of their most important voter categories. Democrats won just 60 percent of the Latino vote (compared to 69 percent in 2018), 58 percent of Asian Americans (compared to 77 percent in 2018), 87 percent of Black voters (compared to 90 percent in 2018), and 63 percent of under-30 voters (compared to 67 percent in 2018).

The good news for Democrats is that turnout among young and minority voters is likely to bounce back (relatively speaking) in the 2024 presidential elections, particularly if Donald Trump is the GOP nominee. Democrats, moreover, have won the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. If they can avoid close losses in battleground states, and unexpected turnout and vote-share erosion among young and minority voters, they should be able to hold onto the White House next time around.
Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images

Ron DeSantis is not a subtle person. The Florida governor is fond of hearing himself talk  like a charmless Bond villain who cant help but reveal his plans, even if doing so results in a self-destructive mess that is entirely of his own making.

DeSantiss big mouth now appears to be his biggest liability in the nascent litigation that has pitted him against Disney, which sued him last week as part of an increasingly convoluted legal dispute that began last year  after the company mildly criticized the passage of a state law that restricts classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. I think they crossed the line, DeSantis said at the time. Were going to make sure were fighting back when people are threatening our parents and threatening our kids.

DeSantis then engineered a takeover of the 25,000-acre special district, known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, that had essentially allowed Disney to run local government services in the areas surrounding the companys Florida parks since 1967. The districts board was replaced by a reconstituted governing panel, dubbed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, that is now stocked with DeSantis-aligned appointees. It seemed like DeSantis had won a major battle in his war on woke, which he apparently hopes will make him the next Republican presidential nominee.

In February, however, before the takeover was completed, Disney executed agreements with the outgoing Reedy Creek supervisors that ensured that Disney would be able to finish a long-term development program  including the construction of additional theme parks and hotels in the area  and gave the company veto power over the exterior design and appearance of improvements to any property in the district. DeSantis and the geniuses who work for him at taxpayer expense apparently missed all of this, even though members of the press were present for the public meetings that preceded the agreements.

Afterward, DeSantis called for a state investigation into Disney for some reason or other, and last week, the CFTOD declared the agreements void, which prompted the companys lawsuit. On Monday, the CFTOD filed its own competing complaint in state court, alleging that Disneys agreements were both procedurally and substantively improper under state law. Residents and business owners in the area, meanwhile, appear to be turning on DeSantis, and his presidential rivals saw an opening to attack.

Pretty much everything about this is highly unusual, but Disneys greatest litigation asset, by far, is the extensive public record created by DeSantis and his allies, in which they explained that they were punishing Disney for speaking out last year. Among other things, the complaint quotes DeSantis telling Bob Chapek, Disneys then-CEO, in a phone call last year that the company shouldnt get involved, because it would not work out well for you, and announcing publicly that he would not bend a knee to woke executives in California, where Disney is headquartered. The complaint cites a fundraising email sent on behalf of DeSantis that promised, Disney and other woke corporations wont get away with peddling their unchecked pressure campaigns any longer, and there is a litany of unhelpful quotes from Republican state lawmakers who worked with DeSantis and said, to take just one example, that Disney was learning lessons and paying the political price of jumping out there on an issue. DeSantis himself was publicly levying more obnoxious threats as recently as a couple of weeks ago  including building a prison next to Disney World.

The complaint essentially advances two key legal theories. The first is that the DeSantis boards repudiation of Disney and Reedy Creeks recently signed agreements violate the U.S. Constitutions Contracts Clause, which prohibits states from impairing contractual obligations with or among private parties. The second is that DeSantis and the CFTODs actions violated Disneys First Amendment rights, because they were motivated by a desire to retaliate against the company for engaging in protected political speech.

The companys claim under the Contracts Clause would not be a particularly strong one in the absence of all of those quotes from DeSantis and his Republican allies. The reality is that its very difficult to win a case against a state in which youre claiming that the state is abridging your contract rights, Michael Allan Wolf, a law professor at the University of Florida who has studied local government law for more than 30 years, told me. He was skeptical of the claim, based on the current state of the law in the Supreme Court, but noted that members of the Courts conservative majority have expressed interest in evolving in the direction of stronger protection for contract rights.

Disneys best argument relies on a relatively obscure Supreme Court case from 1977 that emerged after New York and New Jersey repealed a covenant with Port Authority bondholders that had limited the Port Authoritys ability to subsidize commuter rail. The Court noted that a states impairment of its own contracts may be constitutional if it is reasonable and necessary to serve an important public purpose but ultimately held that the states had violated the Contracts Clause, because the only thing that had really changed over time was their interest in developing a commuter rail. There are defenses to Contract Clause claims that say that a change in situation can justify violating a contract or impairing a contract, David N. Schleicher, a professor at Yale Law School who took more of a glass-half-full view of the current state of the law, told me, but changing your mind as a governmental entity isnt a good enough explanation. The Supreme Court has said that very explicitly.

In that same case, the Court noted that the clause does not require a State to adhere to a contract that surrenders an essential attribute of its sovereignty. Although the CFTODs countersuit claims that Disneys agreements do just that  by granting the company too much remaining power in the district  the argument is weaker than it would otherwise be in light of the public comments from DeSantis and his allies indicating that their anger at Disneys decision to weigh in on state law is what has driven their campaign against the company. By bringing the retaliation claims attached to the Contract Clause claim, the Contract Clause violation looks worse, Schleicher noted, because it undermines the notion that there was a principled reason for DeSantis and his allies to try to invalidate Disneys agreements.

The First Amendment retaliation claims, however, are surprisingly robust in their own right, thanks again to DeSantiss and other Republicans own words.

I think its a strong claim, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, a First Amendment scholar based at the University of Florida, told me, because even though the state had a right to revoke any preferential treatment it gives by law, it cant do so for retaliatory reasons, and the complaint points to evidence that the states actions here to deprive Disney of preferential treatment were an attempt to try to punish it for its speech on a matter of public concern. By way of example, she cited a 1936 Supreme Court case that struck down a Louisiana state tax designed to penalize newspapers that had been critical of Senator Huey Long.

Still, as Lidsky and everyone else I spoke with readily acknowledged, predicting the outcome of a complex and politically freighted legal dispute is an inherently fraught exercise, and that is true of Disneys First Amendment claims as well. The main reason is that whenever you talk about making motive the criteria for a legal claim, youre basically leaving it up to the discretion of the decision-maker, as Yale Law School professor Robert C. Post put it to me. Thats what it comes down to as a matter of practice. Its why, for example, a legal challenge to Donald Trumps Muslim ban failed when it reached the Supreme Court. It was plain to anyone in ordinary life that it was meant to fulfill the campaign promise of prohibiting Muslims from traveling to the United States, Post observed, but the Supreme Court said, Look, were going to engage in the presumption that when the executive does something, it does it for a proper reason.

Indeed, for their part, DeSantis and his allies have sought to portray what looks very much like a politically motivated vendetta against Disney as a principled stand against corporate influence in public life and corporate favoritism in the law  claims that could provide just enough in the way of credible rationale to support the states actions in court. Its pretty clear, I think, to the ordinary observer, that this was retaliatory and, therefore, was probably unconstitutional, Post continued, but whether a court will find it is is a quite different story. Theyre very reluctant on the whole to point the finger of intentional discrimination at a coordinate branch of government as a general matter.

The trial-court judge that Disney drew in its case is a particularly favorable one for the company  Mark Walker, an appointee of Barack Obamas who has struck down laws signed by DeSantis  but he will not necessarily have the last word. Just last week, he was reversed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in a case in which he had held that an election law signed by DeSantis in 2021 intentionally discriminated against Black voters.

You could be forgiven for maintaining some ambivalence about all of this  particularly if you focus on the politically and ideologically scrambled nature of the dispute between Disney and DeSantis. In other contexts, many liberals would bristle at the sort of legal effort that Disney is mounting, especially because it represents the culmination of decades of mainstream conservative jurisprudence that has resulted in private corporations acquiring increasingly expansive  and often very regrettable  constitutional rights. (The companys behavior last year was hardly a profile in courage. It was reluctantly forced to take a very modest public stand due to pressure from protesters and advocacy groups.) By the same token, DeSantis and his allies are effectively asking the courts to reject a host of arguments that many conservative lawyers and judges would ordinarily embrace as logical extensions of the business-friendly jurisprudence that they have worked to advance with great success in the courts.

Exactly how long this litigation will last and how far it will go in the courts is anyones guess. In our discussion, Wolf sketched out a plausible path to an eventual out-of-court settlement between the parties. What might that look like? The tumult over the First Amendment, the wokeness, will die down, he posited, and theyll get down to brass tacks and sort of modify the powers of what used to be called Reedy Creek, after which the state could withdraw its presence from the governing body and return the situation to something approximating the prior status quo.

In the meantime, there are very real stakes for the dispute in both the short and long terms, especially as DeSantis prepares to embark on a presidential run that, if successful, would grant him far greater power to vindictively target any groups he perceives to be at odds with his political interests. You do not have to be a fan of the underlying legal architecture of Disneys lawsuit to be worried about how easy it would be for someone as petty and small-minded as DeSantis to wreak political and economic havoc at the federal level using similarly spiteful legal tactics, and indeed, it would likely be harder to stop a President DeSantis  particularly if he had more professional and capable advisers than those that currently surround him in Florida.

In fact, it probably would not have been that hard for DeSantis and his allies to achieve their desired result  largely, if not entirely, eliminating Disneys quasi-governmental control in the region  if they had simply managed their public statements more carefully. But of course, DeSantis appears to regard his incessant public bloviating as helpful  perhaps even essential  to his political aspirations, and though it may turn out he was wrong about that, it is unclear whether he is capable of exercising the sort of self-restraint that would have allowed him to avoid this mess in the first place.

DeSantis was supposed to offer Republicans what has become fashionable to call Trumpism without Trump  the same noxious politics without the grotesque personal behavior or the potential criminality. The limits of that vision are now on full display, as we watch a legal dispute unfold that is just as pointless, self-inflicted, and unhelpful to ordinary Americans as anything we witnessed during the Trump years  when we saw firsthand what it means to elect a power-hungry egomaniac to the presidency.
Protesters and police clash on the platform of the Lexington Av/63 St. subway station in Manhattan on Saturday. Photo: Alex Kent

Jordan Neely once wowed straphangers with his Michael Jackson impersonation, performing on the subway with an ultrasmooth moonwalk in his red Thriller jacket. But years later, on Monday, he died inside the subway after an ex-Marine, now identified as 24-year-old Queens resident Daniel Penny, put him in a choke hold.

Anger has been rising over Neelys death and the lack of charges so far for the man who killed him, with protests throughout the city and Mayor Eric Adams tussling with critics such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Meanwhile, investigators are poring over evidence and calling for witnesses to step forward as they weigh charges for the veteran, who was finally identified in media reports on Friday. The killing, captured on video, has become a flash point in the heated argument over public safety that has dominated the concerns of New Yorkers since the pandemic.

A few fatal minutes

On Monday afternoon, freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez was headed to Yonkers on from Brooklyn on the F train when it pulled into the Second Avenue stop in Manhattan, where Neely boarded. He started yelling, Vazquez said in an interview on Thursday evening, a day after he was interviewed by police. He started lamenting that he didnt have food, that he didnt have water. From what I understood, he was yelling that he was tired, that he didnt care about going to jail. Neely did not ask for anything and was acting in a very violent way, a very dramatic way, at one point throwing his jacket to the floor so hard that Vazquez could hear the zippers impact: The people who were sitting around him  well, yeah, they were scared, and they stood up and they moved around the train car as Neely stood in place and kept yelling.

At that moment, Vazquez said, this man came up behind him and grabbed him by the neck and forced Neely to the ground. (Vazquez told the New York Times he did not actually see Penny grab Neely, just heard them go down and then saw them on the floor.) About 30 seconds later, the train reached the BroadwayLafayette Street stop: When the two doors opened, everyone rushed out, obviously, afraid, because now there was an actual fight.

Vazquez stepped out to tell the conductor to stop the train while the veteran told bystanders to call the police. Then Vazquez started to film the scene inside the car. For about a minute, nothing happens; theyre just lying there, he said. (Vazquez cut that portion from the video he published.) And then when Jordan tried to escape again, they rolled over again, he said.

MUERTE EN EL METRO DE MANHATTAN! Juan Alberto Vazquez / Nueva York "No tengo comida, no tengo que beber, ya estoy... Posted by Luces de Nueva York on Monday, May 1, 2023

The video of the choke hold goes on for nearly four minutes. After two minutes, a man enters the train to warn that the choke hold could be lethal. If you suffocate him, thats it, he says. You dont want to catch a murder charge. One of the men responds, Hes not squeezing no more, and the veteran releases the choke hold. By this time, Neely is unconscious.

And we were all looking at each other, like, Whats going on? Did he faint? What happened? Vazquez said.

Neely was transported to a hospital, where he died of what the medical examiners office determined to be compression to the neck, ruling on Wednesday night that his death was a homicide. Police took Penny in for questioning on Monday, and he was released, though detectives and prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorneys office reportedly huddled on Thursday to discuss possible charges.

A woman holds a sign during a protest at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station on Wednesday, two days after Jordan Neely was killed there. Photo: Steven John Irby

They cant come soon enough for many in the city who began protesting Neelys death and the Adams administration hours after the video was widely circulated. On Wednesday afternoon, protesters crammed into the BroadwayLafayette Street stations F-train platform, where Neelys lifeless body had been removed from the train by first responders. The group stood over a spray-painted message on the concrete that read Jordan Neely was murdered here, denouncing the increased police presence in the subways. Three people were arrested in the initial protest, and more demonstrations were scheduled into the weekend. On Saturday, a group of demonstrators marched through Manhattan from Broadway-Lafayette to the Lexington Av/63 St station, where they briefly occupied the platform and climbed down onto the tracks, before police cleared the station.

Immediately after the video of Neelys death went viral, Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to say he was murdered, sharing the sentiment of other progressive officials and a segment of the city who saw the all-too-familiar scene of a Black man being killed on video by a white man  and nothing being done about it. Adams, who campaigned for mayor as a tough-on-crime former cop, said people were rushing to judgment. I dont think thats very responsible at the time where we are still investigating the situation, he told CNN. Lets let the DA conduct his investigation with the law-enforcement officials. To really interfere with that is not the right thing to do, and Im going to be responsible and allow them to do their job and allow them to determine exactly what happened here.

Jordan Neely in Times Square in 2009. Photo: Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

A talented, tragic life

Neely grew up polishing the Michael Jackson routine that he first learned when his father, Andre Zachery, showed him the King of Pops iconic music videos when Neely was just 4 years old. As a teenager and in his 20s, Neely danced in the subway for money, setting up at the 34th StreetHerald Square station. Roger Green, a subway artist who performed with Neely in 2014, recalled seeing him dance for the first time.

He had the same magnetism as Michael, said Green, whose act included roller-skating and a mime routine. He made people like him  and when they saw him dance, they were blown away. On good days, they could make $100 each. He was a great kid, trying to dance and make his money, and was hustling like everybody else, Green said, adding that he never saw any violence from Neely. He was a positive person all around. A gentleman. But I guess life can get the best of us.

Neelys mental health, however, had been deteriorating since 2007, when his mother was strangled to death by her boyfriend and found in a suitcase on the side of the Henry Hudson Parkway. Neely testified during the murder trial, answering questions directly from the killer, who represented himself. Kris Brewer, an attorney who worked in the courthouse at the time, recalls the unsettling experience of watching the questioning unfold. It landed in my bones to sit there, she recalled. The defendant would refer to himself in the third person or would refer to the murderer as someone else, and Jordan would correct him and said, You. You did X.

Afterward, he was never the same, according to his Aunt Carolyn. It had a big impact on him, she told the New York Post. He developed depression and it grew and became more serious. He was schizophrenic, PTSD. Doctors knew his condition and he needed to be treated for that. He did not get the help he needed, either. The whole system just failed him. He fell through the cracks of the system, she said.

Neely had been arrested at least 40 times in recent years; the last time was in November 2021, after he allegedly hit a 67-year-old woman in the face as she left a subway station. The Daily News spoke with man who Neely was arrested for assaulting two years earlier, Filemon Castillo Baltazar, who told the publication Neely struck him in the face while he was waiting for a train at on a platform at W. 4th St. Baltazar said Neely should have been in some rehab center instead of on the streets. Neely was wanted on a warrant at the time of his death, after failing to comply with the terms of the alternative-to-incarceration program he was sentenced to after pleading guilty to the 2021 assault.

Neelys father could barely comprehend that his own son had been killed. And now him? By somebody else? Zachery told the Daily News. I dont know what to say.

This post has been updated.

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If Kevin McCarthy gives an inch on his debt limit demands, hell be labeled a cowardly RINO. Photo: Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the federal government will run out of ways to avoid a default on publicly held debt as early as June 1. This has never happened before, despite occasional scares, and it might trigger a national or even a global economic meltdown.

House Republicans have made any debt deal contingent on adoption of an elaborate package of measures that are antithetical to the Democratic Partys values and interests (big across the board appropriations cuts, plus some obnoxious conservative policy prescriptions). The Democrats who control the White House and the Senate are demanding a clean debt limit measure without any  much less these particular  conditions. It is generally understood that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will instantly lose his gavel if he abandons the ransom his party is demanding. And he also cannot entertain the sort of debt-and-deficit reduction measures Democrats might be interested in because they would include tax increases on the wealthy, an absolute GOP no-no until the end of time.

That means Congress and perhaps the country are plunging hellwards with no real prospect of a deal. Meanwhile, legal beagles are trying to come up with some previously unimaginable way for the administration to avoid a debt default without congressional approval.

So who is to blame for this mess?

You can start with the American people, who keep denying either party the power to effectively govern in Washington. Since 1994, the only time either party had a true governing majority in Congress, along with control of the White House, was a brief moment in 2009; there were exactly enough Democratic senators (60) to override the filibusters that Republicans were beginning to deploy routinely against any legislation they did not like. The moment passed on January 19, 2010, when Republicans picked off a Senate seat in a Massachusetts special election and gridlock resumed.

There are some narrow but important loopholes in the power of Senate minorities to obstruct congressional majorities (notably budget reconciliation bills which are limited to fiscal matters and federal court and Cabinet confirmations). Thus, Democrats were able to get some important work done in the 117th Congress despite very narrow margins of control in both congressional chambers (and shakedowns from their own senators).

But then Republicans flipped control of the House in 2022. That meant no budget reconciliation bills and a Congress mostly confined to symbolic messaging legislation. Unfortunately, there are a few things a divided government must agree on: appropriations to keep the federal government running, and the legal capacity to borrow so that past federal debt can be serviced. Failure to keep the government operating is damaging to the public interest, albeit usually temporary. Failure to accommodate debt would be instantly catastrophic. Any voters who split tickets because they like the idea of checks and balances in Washington should take a good look in the mirror if a divided government defaults on the national debt.

Its easy to say the two parties engaged in this dangerous game of chicken should just come to the table and compromise. But there are important matters of principle at stake. The hard-core conservatives who pull McCarthys strings believe sabotaging Big Government is a holy cause. And Democrats (most especially including Joe Biden) remember that when Barack Obama compromised with House Republicans in 2011, Americans wound up with spending cuts they did not actually support and that severely hamstrung Obamas second term.

Indeed, the legacy of 2011 is undermining both parties interest in compromise. Since then, centrist Democrats like Biden have been suspected by their fellow partisans of insufficient spine in facing down Republicans. Meanwhile Republican leaders like Kevin McCarthy have been accused by the MAGA/House Freedom Caucus types of being RINOs unwilling to blow up the deep state and reverse progressive policies at any cost. Activists in both parties have constantly urged their elected officials to fight fight fight for them. It has become a bipartisan tradition of uncompromising partisanship. If leaders of either party flinch and cave, it will simply confirm the activist tendency to treat politics as purely a matter of superior will, which in the context of a debt limit crisis means superior willingness to risk sending the country down the road to perdition.

While the idiotic elevation of spine over brains in both parties needs to come to an end, the answer is not to appoint some centrist deal-maker like Joe Manchin to run the country; compromise from an unprincipled position just serves unprincipled interests, like the lobbyists who always seem to get into the room where deals are cut. Lets also not forget that some of the great betrayals of American history have been marketed as great compromises (e.g., in 1850, protecting slavery, and in 1876, ending Reconstruction). The best protection against the kind of calamities like a debt default is a bipartisan commitment to mechanisms to keep the country running when agreement is impossible. And ultimately we also need an American electorate that understands its better to choose between the two parties than to deny them the opportunity to govern.
Court Appearances A newsletter covering E. Jean Carrolls battery lawsuit against Donald Trump. Sign up here. Natasha Stoynoff, at right, arrives at court today. Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Natasha Stoynoff had a job to do.

It was late 2005, and Stoynoff, then a staff writer for People, traveled to Mar-a-Lago to interview Donald Trump and his very pregnant bride, Melania, for a story on their one-year anniversary. This wasnt out of the ordinary for Stoynoff. Trump had been on her beat since The Apprentices conception. She had interviewed Trump on multiple occasions. Nothing had ever gone wrong.

On December 27, Stoynoff conducted interviews of Trump and Melania between photo shoots. Melania had just wrapped one poolside session and Stoynoff was preparing to interview the couple together. Melania ran off to change.

Donald said, Id like to have you see this really great room, Stoynoff said Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, where she testified in E. Jean Carrolls civil rape trial against Trump. He led the way to show me this room. They went through some doors and down a hall. They walked into a room. Im looking around and thinking, Wow, this is a really nice room. I wonder what he wants to show me, Stoynoff said. I heard the door shut behind me.

By the time I turn around, he has his hands on my shoulders and he pushes me against the wall and starts kissing me. She tried to push him away and he tried to shove her against the wall again, she said.

How did Trump stop? asked Carroll attorney Michael Ferrara.

The butler came into the room, Stoynoff said. Melania had finished changing, she recalled the butler saying, and it was time to do the joint interview.

Did Trump say anything?

He said, you know, Were gonna have an affair, Stoynoff said. Trump also told her dont forget what his ex-wife Marla Maples had purportedly said  that he was the best sex shed ever had. Were going to go for steak. Were going to go to Peter Lugers, Stoynoff recalled Trump telling her.

Stoynoff conducted the interview as planned. I had my questions with me, she said, describing her feeling as a sort of like being on autopilot. I had to get my work done.

She told her direct supervisor what had happened, as well as a former journalism professor, but didnt take it to higher-ups. I was worried that they would kill the story and then Trump could try and get revenge on me, try and destroy me, she said.

After the notorious Access Hollywood tape emerged in October 2016  the one in which Trump said of women, When youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab em by the pussy  Stoynoff wasnt hell-bent on going public. There was an upcoming debate. Surely, Trump would be asked about it. If he copped to his boorish views on women, Stoynoff said, she was disinclined. He did not, so she wrote an essay for People detailing her alleged experience.

Trumps infamous hot-mic clip was played to jurors in court today. None of the nine panelists appeared to show any obvious reaction, in keeping with their largely poker-faced demeanor throughout these proceedings.

Stoynoff, who was choked up at several points, became particularly emotional when thinking about other accusers. I worried that because I did not say anything at the time, other women were hurt by him, so I have some regret, she said, taking a tissue.

Stoynoffs testimony came one day after Jessica Leeds testified that Trump had groped her on an airplane in the late 1970s. She is the second Trump accuser Carrolls team is calling to the stand.

Following Stoynoffs testimony, Carrolls team played a portion of Trumps October 2022 deposition in this case. (His lawyers have said Trump will not testify, and his deposition will provide his testimony.) He was sitting, hunched and orange, appearing more like James Austin Johnsons doddering caricature of Trump than himself. Did he read Carrolls 2019 New York article, in which she first accused him of rape? No, I dont believe I did. Trump was presented with a copy of the book; he flipped through the pages. Had he read it? No, never. Ive never seen the book, he said.
The community has been invited to join an online Opelika Giving Day charity drive during the second week of May to support local nonprofit organizations.

Sponsored by Envision Opelika Foundation, the 24-hour fundraising challenge will begin at noon on May 10 and end at noon the following day. Residents will have a chance to visit the Opelika Giving Day website and donate to project efforts for any of the participating nonprofits.

From outdoor recreational activities to human development to medical charities, the 13 organizations participating this year represent a broad swath of needs and interests.

As of Tuesday, those groups involved include the Alabama Rural Ministry, Circles of Opelika, Creekline Trails of Opelika, Curtis House, East Alabama Arts Association, Friends of Wood Duck Nature Preserve, O Grows, Opelika Bicycle Advisory Committee, Opelika Theater Company, Southside Center for the Arts, Twin Cedars Child Advocacy Center, Village Friends and the Womens Hope Clinic.

Susan Brinson. the board chair for the Envision Opelika Foundation, said individuals, companies and organizations are all invited to participate in this special day of giving.

Opelika Giving Day is a way to support special projects within our community. Were giving everyone an opportunity to contribute to their favorite nonprofit project  or possibly multiple projects  that impact Opelika, Brinson said.

Since beginning five years ago, Opelika Giving Day has raised over $150,000 for more than 35 nonprofits. The money groups earn must fund a project and not operations.

For instance, the Alabama Rural Ministry is looking to raise $10,500 to help two Opelika citizens with home repairs. They will provide air conditioning and heating as well as repair a roof for one resident. Additionally, funds will be used to provide home maintenance for a 87-year-old Opelika resident.

Creekline Trails of Opelika is aiming to raise $9,700 to create a small pocket park at the Pepperell Branch Creek Trail site.

The Curtis House is raising $5,000 for its NextGen Initiative mentor program. The program helps develop, mold, and enhance the skills of Black students in 5th-12th grade to become leaders in their communities.

The Opelika Theatre is raising $3,500 for the Penguin Project to help individuals with developmental and physical health issues participate in live performances.
Following a national search, Leigh Ann Ross has been named dean of the Harrison College of Pharmacy, or HCOP, beginning July 1.

A renowned pharmacy educator, practitioner, researcher and administrator, Ross comes to Auburn from The University of Mississippi, where she holds multiple leadership roles, including associate dean for clinical affairs, director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science, or CCTS, and professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice. Ross is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist, a Fellow of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, a Fellow in the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, a Fellow of the American Pharmacists Association and a Fellow of the National Academies of Practice.

A board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist, Ross brings more than two decades of experience to Auburn, including extensive advocacy for pharmacists in the expanding role of patient care, resulting in new pathways for pharmacists as healthcare leaders. With an emphasis on faculty development and advancing the colleges research portfolio, Ross will work with stakeholders across the college to develop innovative curricula designed to promote clinical knowledge, advance translational research and strengthen pharmacist competencies.

In addition to being a noted researcher and scholar, Dr. Ross is an effective administrator who will bring a wealth of knowledge, enthusiasm and innovation to the Harrison College of Pharmacy, Interim Provost Vini Nathan said. As the role of pharmacy professionals continues to evolve, I am confident that she will advance the colleges mission by bolstering its research capabilities, increasing the health care resources provided to our state and fostering an exceptional academic experience for our pharmacy faculty and students.

As director of CCTS, Ross leads the centers efforts to foster patient-based clinical research and support collaborations designed to address healthcare issues. Comprised of three primary units, Ross oversees the centers pre-clinical/translational, clinical research and community/population divisions. Working together, these units advance cardiometabolic disorders and community-based research. During its first five years, the center generated nearly $5 million in extramural funding, including two National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award partnerships with the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Mississippi Center for Clinical and Translational Research, a collaboration that engages multiple institutions across the state.

As an associate dean for clinical affairs, Ross has provided strategic leadership to several initiatives designed to strengthen the School of Pharmacys educational programs, research, outreach and service programs, opportunities she looks forward to continuing as dean.

I am honored to be given this opportunity to lead such a distinguished institution and to work alongside the talented students, faculty and staff, Ross said. I am passionate about advancing the pharmacy profession through education, research and service. Pharmacy plays a critical role in improving public health, and I am committed to working with all members of the college to prepare our graduates to meet the ever-changing needs of our society.

In addition to establishing and leading the universitys Pharmaceutical Care Clinics from 2000 through 2006, Ross developed curricular tools and opportunities for students to advance drug therapy management for diseases such as diabetes, dyslipidemia, anticoagulation, and asthma. As a result, the clinic received the Best Practice Award from the American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists in 2003.

A staunch advocate for health care education and research, Ross completed a Congressional Fellowship in the Office of then-U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran from 2006 to 2008 and continues to work with the University of Mississippi and University of Mississippi Medical Center governmental affairs teams to advance federal and state legislative, policy and regulatory issues. She is the immediate past president of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and the former president of the Mississippi Pharmacists Association and the Mississippi Biotechnology Association.

I am excited to be part of the Auburn University community, and I am committed to advancing our shared mission. I look forward to working together to make the Harrison College of Pharmacy the best it can be, Ross said.

Ross holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Mississippi and completed a primary care pharmacy residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.


By Mitch Shin



South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was warmly welcomed by U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington last week as he made the first state visit to the United States since Lee Myung-bak's in 2011. As he voluntarily sewed the historical disputes with Japan up in March, all eyes were on his visit to Washington in the expectation of getting remuneration from the U.S. president such as concrete measures to tackle the North Korean nuclear and missile threats.



Following the summit meeting on April 26, Yoon and Biden announced a Washington Declaration, narrating the U.S.' firm defense commitment to South Korea and South Korea's pledge to fully follow the Nonproliferation Treaty. The two leaders also announced the establishment of a Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) to demonstrate the joint commitment to "operate the new extended deterrence system."



The South Korean Presidential Office touted the outcomes of the summit meeting. Yoon had also created a hot clip singing "American Pie" at a White House state dinner after the summit meeting with Biden. His clip apparently made good impressions among Americans as no South Korean president had ever sang an American song at the White House in history. Thanks to Yoon's devotion to marking the 70th anniversary of the South Korea-U.S. alliance successfully, the alliance and harmony between South Korea and the U.S. appear to be stronger than ever as they seem to have little difference of opinion on approaches to almost every issue.



However, the worth-nothing part is what "gifts" Yoon received from Biden during the summit meeting.



In the Washington Declaration, Biden reaffirmed the U.S.' "ironclad" commitment to South Korea while emphasizing the importance of strengthening the South Korea-U.S. alliance amid the growing aggression of North Korea. Enhancing the U.S. extended deterrence  which has been a main policy of the U.S. in tackling North Korean nuclear threats, the U.S. added that it will further "enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula, as evidenced by the upcoming visit of a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine" to South Korea. Since the beginning of Yoon's term in May 2022, South Korea and the U.S. have scaled up their joint military drills in response to the unprecedented missile launches of North Korea.



The newly established NCG will be convened at the assistant secretary level and will enhance joint commitments to strengthen extended deterrence. No date has been confirmed for the first meeting of the group yet.



The Presidential Office and the ruling People Power Party gave full credit to Yoon's achievements during the summit meeting. Strictly speaking, however, it is a complete victory for the U.S. as no significant and major development was made on North Korea.



According to the Declaration, Yoon completely ruled out the possibility of South Korea developing nuclear weapons even though the majority of South Koreans support it. He showed full confidence in "U.S. extended deterrence commitments" even though there are no U.S. nuclear strategic assets on the South's soil.



To mollify South Koreans' ambition to have nuclear weapons as an ultimate tool to deter the North Korean preemptive nuclear attack, the U.S. offered a slightly upgraded version of its defense commitment to South Korea by pledging to make its strategic assets more visible in a regular manner. In this context, Yoon has unfurled different reactions from South Korea and the United States as the president who achieved nothing but allowing the South Korean conglomerates to make tremendous investments in the U.S. and the friendly president who showed a kind gesture to the U.S. by singing "American Pie."



In order to tip the balance, the South Korean Presidential Office stated that the Washington Declaration de facto means nuclear sharing with the U.S. However, U.S. authorities swiftly rebutted this claim and clearly drew the line that the redeployment of U.S. nuclear weapons is off the table. Seoul's hasty comments on the Washington Declaration rather highlighted that a similar version of NATO's nuclear sharing cannot be adopted for the Korean Peninsula as the U.S. does not consider redeploying nuclear weapons to the South.



Also, joint execution and planning on U.S. nuclear operations does not mean nuclear sharing between South Korea and the U.S. as the South has no nuclear weapons. Every decision on the U.S. nuclear weapons can only be made by the U.S. president, meaning the South Korean president has no authority in using U.S. nuclear weapons in the outbreaks of the North using nuclear weapons.



To sum up, the Washington Declaration clearly shows to what extent the U.S. can offer: mobilizing the U.S.' strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula on a regular basis. The redeployment of U.S. nuclear weapons on the South's soil and South Korea having its indigenous nuclear weapons are non-negotiable.





Mitch Shin is an assistant editor at The Diplomat. Shin was a non-resident Korea Foundation fellow at Pacific Forum and non-resident research fellow at Institute for Security & Development Policy, Stockholm Korea Center.


That picture has so much of her mom in her!

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mte it's the first time I really saw the family resemblance between them

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I had to do a double take.

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I know I'm high rn but I focused right on the eyes, nose, and lips and she is Princess Leia circa 1977.

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i think its very pointed that billie does not call them aunt/uncle and just refers to them as her mothers siblings.



im also glad that billie gets to decide on who gets to come and the others werent automatically invited by whomever is organizing this (im assuming disney/lucasfilm?)

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good for her. it was extremely obvious even from that outside that the fisher siblings were doing this after carrie's death.

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Holy shit she really looks like Carrie in that photo

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I mean, they proved her point by running to the media when she died, then doing it again with this 

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Poor Billie.

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Poor Billie. A death in the family can bring out the worst in people, and having to do it all so publicly must be awful for her. I hope she has a strong support system.



Oh yeah and fuck that lady from the plane life tweeting. That will never make me not mad.



Edited at 2023-05-03 10:59 pm (UTC)

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I'm sorry, WHAT? Someone live tweeted as Carrie was in medical distress?! Is that how Billie found out about her mother?? Fuck, I smoke a lot of weed, so I may have just forgotten, but that is so horrible I might have just blocked it out to save myself some faith in humanity!

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Yes, a lady and her companion tweeted that she stopped breathing on the flight and that she was taken off the plane by EMTs.

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it was anna akana!

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She even updated her own Wikipedia page with it as if it would get her clout smh.

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Im not if if that is how Billie found out, but yeah some lady was tweeting about the airplane event, and when people called her on it, she defended herself by saying she was informing people, and Carries family deserved to know.

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did joely think that post was going to anything other than prove why billie wants nothing to do with her?

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Right? Trash and dumb 

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Tbf I didnt know Tricia existed either lol

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i only learned about her from matthew perry's book LOL

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Just cos you're family, doesn't mean you have to be invited. Especially adults being at a work event.



Edited at 2023-05-03 11:46 pm (UTC)

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Does anyone else even invite their entire family anyway? Its way more focused on current co-stars, or the people that worked on a big project/your claim to fame. Then maybe a spouse and kid. Not siblings, cousins, aunties



If I had no relationship with the surviving family members but still wanted to go, Id stand outside like the rest of the plebs.

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Her siblings seem to love her even if they are shady about money. Carrie knew what kind of people they were and they were still in her life. I would let them celebrate her but stay away from them myself.

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Thank you for saying this. I so agree. I get Billy doesnt have a relationship with these people  but her mom did.

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Yep. I get Billie's position, too - she's a famous person and relatives betraying her for money is probably an ongoing concern for her. It must suck for her to think of any private family moments of her life that included those people and they might one day try to make money from it. I do feel for her, but it's not her moment - it's her mother's and a lot of people have "complicated" relationships with family but still include them.

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Good for her for breaking the cycle, family loyalty can be toxic AF and people judge those who decide to draw the line so harshly.

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totally. I no longer speak to my aunt who was a big part of my childhood. I talked to my other aunt about it for the first time and she confirmed she went low-contact years ago to keep her peace. My dad dutifully calls narcissist aunt because he has a bizarre sense of "duty."

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agreed! I cut off my aunts after my mom died bc they're horrible, narcissistic people that just got worse when they knew I was alone. I feel sad for it because I crave a family connection buuuut I'm much happier with my chosen family.

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I stopped talking to my parents and brother in September. My mom only reached out last month to let me know my cat died and that was it. It has been so much better for me mentally not to deal with them and they're not even horrible people, they're just toxic and dumb in their own ways.

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Same with my dad since last year. I still feel guilty about this, even if it was entirely his fault, and check that he's online on messengers, but both my sister and I have been much better since.

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I have nothing to do with my father's siblings (2 brothers and 4 sisters) because they're all toxic and my grandmother fucked them up with her toxicity in such famous incidents as:



Putting the 4 eldest in foster care instead of calling my grandfather to take them, leaving them to be abused.



Sending them to return staples such as milk, eggs and bread in order to have bingo money.



Marrying and having the 2 youngest kids with a pedophile and spousal abuser.



Despite having 2 different fathers, none of these children have tried to break cycles or get therapy and learn how to have healthy relationships, my father included.

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Honestly, it reminds me of Riley Keough, Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Lockwood/Priscilla Presley. The "name/power" dies and it's now open season on the hanger on relatives trying to bulldoze the grieving child for whatever selfish reasons. And in both cases, these family members weren't counting on the child to be strong in protecting their parent/the legacy.

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I have very little to do with any of my relations outside of my mum. The one cousin I did like died some time ago. My aunt is full tilt not a good person and last I heard from my cousins on that side was that they were all estranged from her.

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Were they estranged before Carrie's death?



Idk the contents of the books/interviews and obviously it sucks to feel as if they were selling her out post-death for money. But they were also her siblings and had their own experiences with her for decades before Billie was born, and I guess I kind of feel like people have the right to process those memories and grieve however they want to, even if that's publicly. But yeah, that doesn't mean Billie has to like it or be around them.



also just realizing i confused joely fischer for joely richardson lol



Edited at 2023-05-03 11:06 pm (UTC)

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Yeah not surprised I remember one of the sisters put out a book about her relationship with Carrie not that long or a year after her death. I remember being "hmm" about it.

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Authored by Rick Whitbeck via RealClear Wire,

Now that President Biden has made his 2024 run official, he has plenty of work to do if he hopes to shore up his lagging support among key constituencies. According to a recent NBC News survey, a full 70 percent of Americans do not want the President to run again. One demographic to watch is younger voters, who backed Biden by a wide 61-36 margin in 2020.

Younger Americans are exceptionally aggressive and vocal on climate policies. Nearly two-thirds (62%), support phasing out fossil fuels entirely, said Alec Tyson, an associate director of research at Pew Research Center. According to a recent Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics poll, an amazing half of those polled prefer the government do more to curb climate change, even if U.S. economic growth is damaged in the process.

As friendly as Biden has been to the eco-left, and outright hostile to our domestic, traditional energy industries, he is still facing backlash from these eco-centric voters over three recent decisions dealing with energy development. As always, my state of Alaska is at the epicenter.

First, the President  through the Department of Interior  approved Alaskas Willow oil and gas development project last month. His decision elicited a collective groan of disgust and disapproval from the environmental movement. Theyd dedicated years opposing the project, and spent the weeks ahead of the final decision bombarding social media, protesting outside of the White House and using their extensive, inside access to stop Willow from progressing.

Afterward, they vented.

Biden approved [Willow] knowing full well that it'll cause massive and irreversible destruction, which is just appalling, particularly coming from an administration who has pledged to address the climate crisis, has pledged to address environmental injustice, has pledged to address the extinction crisis, said Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, who, along with other activist organizations, promptly took legal action to oppose the decision.

Next, Biden greenlit the export plan for Alaska Gasline Development Corps goal to build an 800-mile pipeline to bring trillions of cubic feet of gas from the North Slope to homes, businesses and eventually a tidewater port for export to Asia and other Pacific Rim countries. Having previously been held up under the guise of environmental and Indigenous justice reviews, the approval on April 14 gave a significant boost to the $43 billion project.

Environmentalists went apoplectic. Joe Bidens climate presidency is flying off the rails, said Lukas Ross of Friends of the Earth. Ross pointed out this was the second U.S. approval of a fossil-fuel mega-project in as many months.

Finally, the tipping point for climate activists may have come on April 21, when Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm penned a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), asking to expeditiously approve regulatory authorizations for the Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia. Granholm noted the gas pipeline can "play an important role as part of the clean energy transition".

Once again, green activists hit the roof, including former National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) attorney and current Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA), who stated bluntly, She (Granholm) sounds like a cheerleader for the fossil fuel industry; its really quite pathetic.

The same groups who previously cheered when the Green New Deal was introduced, celebrated when the Keystone Pipeline was shuttered and nearly danced in the streets when copper mines in Alaska and Minnesota were ruled off-limits to development are now blasting Biden for losing his way on what they see as an existential threat to their survival, and turning his back on mankind.

The group Gen-Z for Change recently put out a statement that clearly spells out the position of many young voters. "There is no deeper form of betrayal than watching a president who has claimed to value the voices of youthblatantly disregard one of our generations' largest and clearest movements." Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) was even more blunt: ''Young people are plugged in and more informed than they have ever been about climate change,'' he said. ''Now they're feeling stabbed in the back.'' If Mr. Biden doesn't reverse course, ''young people stay home in 2024, that's the consequences.''

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Make no mistake: Biden is a dedicated disciple to the green cult. If given another four years, he will take steps toward fulfilling his promise to end fossil fuel. The next 17 months will determine whether Joe Biden will turn 86 in 2028 as a two-term President or defeated, one-term leader. Ironically, voters much younger will make or break his fate, and they see the world through a very green lens. Right now, theyre seeing red, and that spells trouble for Team Biden.

By Rick Whitbeck for RealClear Wire, via Zerohedge.com

More Top Reads from Oilprice.com:
While Argentina is best known in oil circles for its shale industry, there is now a real chance for the country to replicate Brazils offshore oil boom.

The court dismissed a lawsuit against an offshore oil and gas exploration project, clearing the way for the project while setting strict environmental protection conditions.

A ruling in January of this year by the Federal Court of Appeals in Mar del Plata has given a major boost to Argentinas offshore oil and gas industry.

In January this year, the Federal Court of Appeals in Mar del Plata dismissed a lawsuit brought forward by several environmentalist organizations and the mayor of the coastal resort city against an offshore oil and gas exploration project.

The court set strict environmental protection conditions for the companies involved in the exploration worksYPF, Shell, and Equinorand stipulated that permanent observers are appointed for the project to make sure these conditions are met. With this ruling, the court basically gave what looks like the final push for Argentina's offshore oil industry.

Up until recently, the South American country has been best known in oil industry circles for its massive Vaca Muerta shale formation. It is certainly an important part of the Argentine government's plans for future export revenues, with its estimated 16 billion barrels of oil and 308 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. But Vaca Muerta is not the only one.

"We celebrate this great news for the country. It is estimated that this offshore project could reach a production volume of 200,000 barrels per day, 35% of Argentina's current production. Undoubtedly, a before and after for the development and growth of our country," said the Argentine energy minister, Flavia Royon, following the court of appeals' ruling in favor of the Mar del Plata project.

Equinor is set to begin drilling in the CAN 100 block, some 300 km off the Argentine coast, later this year, and if it encounters hydrocarbons, the project, dubbed Argerich, will proceed to the next stage, where the reserves tapped will be assessed.

It's not the only offshore oil and gas project in this new South American hopeful. Earlier this month, the media reported that the energy ministry was organizing a public consultation on an offshore natural gas project near the coast of Tierra del Fuego.

The $700-million project dubbed Fenix is being led by a consortium including French TotalEnergies, German Wintershall Dea, and BP's subsidiary Pan American Energy. Production of natural gas is scheduled to begin in 2025, and peak output is seen at 10 million cubic meters daily over a period of 15 years.

The Fenix project should help reverse a decline in Argentine natural gas production, along with expected production boosts in the Vaca Muerta.

That's not all, either. Earlier this year, the Argentine authorities extended an exploration drilling license held by Norway's Equinor and Argentine YPF by one year. The license is for an offshore area known as CAN 102 in the deep waters off the Buenos Aires coast.

Equinor, by the way, had quite an ambitious drilling program offshore Argentina, but it has run into court injunctions courtesy of drilling opponents even as Argentina grapples with what is now a chronic economic crisis and could certainly do with additional export revenues.

According to YPF, the Argentine state oil and gas company, the country has reserves of some 31 billion barrels of oil equivalent off its coast. That's even more than Vaca Muerta's total reserves, which translate into some 29 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Together, Argentina's waters and the shale formation make for an impressive set of oil and gas resourcesmost of them untapped.

As for whether these offshore reserves would end up being exploited, with Argentina repeating Brazil's offshore boom, that remains to be seen. The fact that supermajors are investing in offshore drilling in Argentina suggests they are not banking on peak oil and gas demand. On the contrary, they seem to be banking on the continued relevance of both oil and gas despite the energy transition push governments in the West are swearing by these days.

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By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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By Jennifer Kary via AGMetalminer.com

The Rare Earths MMI (Monthly Metals Index) suffered yet another significant drop month-over-month. Overall, the index fell 15.81%. These massive drops in prices are the result of several factors. One of the biggest culprits is rising supply and falling demand. Prices for rare earth metals have also decreased due to new mining initiatives cropping up globally. While some parts of the MetalMiner rare earths index traded sideways month-over-month, most components fell, pulling the overall index down sharply.

China Considers Banning the Export of Certain Rare Earth Elements

China could possibly ban the export of certain rare earth elements. The move aims to protect Chinas high-tech advantages, but it could have significant economic implications for the United States and Japan. Chinas dominance of the rare earth marketplace has been a concern for many countries that still depend on China to transform raw rare earth materials into usable final products. Therefore, a ban or restriction on rare earth element exports by China could have major implications on global supply chains.

That said, some experts think that Chinas threat to halt rare mineral exports may not give Beijing much of an advantage in the ongoing trade conflict between the U.S. and China. In fact, they feel that the move could harm Chinas own economy by reducing finished goods exports.

Positive and Negative Impacts of a Possible Chinese Export Ban

Estimates indicate that Chinas plan for the export ban could be completed by the end of 2023. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, China produces slightly over two-thirds of the worlds rare earth metals. It also has twice as many mine reserves as the next closest country. And since China supplies 80% of the rare earths imported by the U.S., the ban may be detrimental to some American-based businesses.

Despite these negative implications, some interpret the move as a blessing in disguise. After all, the world continues to look for alternatives to Chinese rare earth supplies to reduce dependence on the Asian nation. If China were to push through the ban, the world would have no choice but to seek out new sources and trade partnerships.

Supplies Rising Alongside With New Rare Earth Mining Projects

Chinas move may not be as fruitful as hoped due to the rising number of new mining initiatives for rare earth elements. Indeed, supply is beginning to rise, and with it, demand is falling. Thanks to this, short-term element prices have not found much bullish strength. However, there remains a silver lining in that these new initiatives will deter reliance on China and help shape a new global rare earth supply chain.

For instance, the U.S. Department of Defense recently gave MP Materials a $35 million grant to establish a new rare earths processing facility. This recognition is a part of the DoDs initiatives to strengthen local mining and distribution while lessening reliance on China. Additionally, the DoD and MP Materials have been working together on additional projects to improve the U.S. supply chain for rare earths. Such initiatives will drastically increase American competitiveness in the global clean energy market.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has also drawn attention to how rare earths will affect the green revolution. According to the IEA research on the importance of crucial minerals in the transition to clean energy, by 2040, the total amount of minerals needed for global renewable energy technologies will have doubled.

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Rare Earths MMI: Notable Price Moves

Praseodymium neodymium oxide dropped significantly by 16.07%, bringing prices to $62,830.40 per metric ton.

Chinese neodymium oxide suffered a harsh drop of 18.3%, which brought prices to $66,427.91 per metric ton.

Cerium oxide dropped sharply by 15.45% month-over-month. Prices currently sit at $799.57 per metric ton.

Finally, dysprosium oxide dropped by 8.88%, bringing prices to $274.43 per kilogram.

By AGMetalminer.com

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A commercial oil tanker was seized by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday in the second such merchant vessel seizure by the Islamic Republic in waters in the Arabian Gulf in less than a week.

Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) seized early on Wednesday local time the Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi, the U.S. Navy said today.

The tanker was seized while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the worlds most important oil transit chokepoint between Oman and Iran that connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. The daily oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz are equivalent of about 21% of the daily petroleum liquids consumption worldwide.

The oil tanker Niovi had departed Dubai and was transiting from the Arabian Gulf toward the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) when a dozen IRGCN fast-attack craft swarmed the vessel in the middle of the strait.

The IRGCN subsequently forced the oil tanker to reverse course and head toward Iranian territorial waters off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran, the U.S. Navy said in a statement on the latest incident with commercial vessel seizures by Iran near the Strait of Hormuz.

Irans actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability. Over the past two years, Iran has harassed, attacked or interfered with the navigational rights of 15 internationally flagged merchant vessels, said the Fifth Fleet of the U.S. Navy based in Bahrain.

This is the second such incident in a week. A previous incident occurred six days ago when the Iranian Navy seized Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker Advantage Sweet while it transited international waters in the Gulf of Oman. The oil tanker had departed the Mina Saud Port in Kuwait and was destined for Houston, Texas, after being commissioned by U.S. oil giant Chevron.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Iraq and Turkey have not reached an agreement yet on the resumption of crude oil exports out of the semi-autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan from the Turkish port of Ceyhan, Iraqs Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar Ismaael was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Kurdistans exports of crude oil have been shut for more than a month now, weeks after the federal government of Iraq and the region of Kurdistan reached an agreement in early April to resume exports via an Iraq-Turkey pipeline and the port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean.

The fate of the exports now lies in negotiations between Iraq and Turkey on payments and a second arbitration case between the two countries over the exports from Kurdistan.

Oil flows from Kurdistan were stopped at the end of March, forcing companies to either curtail or suspend production because of limited capacity at storage tanks.

Kurdistans crude oil exports  around 400,000 bpd shipped through an Iraqi-Turkey pipeline to Ceyhan and then on tankers to the international markets  were halted in late March by the federal government of Iraq.

A few days earlier, the International Chamber of Commerce ruled in favor of Iraq against Turkey in a dispute over crude flows from Kurdistan. Iraq argued that Turkey shouldnt allow Kurdish oil exports via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline and Ceyhan without approval from the federal government of Iraq.

Now that an agreement between Iraq and Kurdistan is in place for the resumption of exports, Iraq is awaiting a response from Turkey.

Pipeline operators have not yet received instructions to resume flows and most of Kurdistans large oilfields remain shut in.

London-listed Gulf Keystone Petroleum, Norway-based DNO ASA, and Canada-based Forza Petroleum suspended output at their operated fields in Kurdistan in early April and have yet to announce the resumption of production.

Gulf Keystone said in an operational update last week that it continues to believe that the suspension of exports will be temporary and is ready to resume production immediately, although no official timeline to restart pipeline operations has been publicly announced by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

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By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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New York successfully passed a law late on Tuesday night to ban natural gas stoves and appliances in all new buildings. It is the first state in the nation to pass such legislation.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Democratic lawmakers passed the states new $229 billion budget, which included a provision for ending natural gas and other fossil fuel-powered hookups in new buildings.

The legislation includes a ban on gas stoves, gas furnaces, and propane heating in all residential buildings seven stories and shorter by 2026. Buildings taller than seven stories will be allowed to install gas-powered appliances until 2029. Large industrial buildings are exempt from the ban.

Late last week, The Washington Post reported that Governor Hochul and lawmakers reached a handshake deal on the new law.

Some cities have already passed bans on gas stove hookups, including Berkley, California, which passed a ban in 2019. Last month, however, an appeals court ruled against the city of Berkley, California, over its scheme to ban natural gas hookups in new buildings. In the ruling, the court sided against Berkely, saying that its 2019 ban on natural gas hookups effectively banned all appliances operating with natural gas, which it was not allowed to do because of federal legislation that pre-empts such local legislation.

New York City passed its own version of a gas hookup ban for new builds in 2021.

Hochul said that the new budget would put New York on trajectory to a cleaner, healthier future.

But the American Gas Association president and CEO Karen Harbert said that Any push to ban natural gas would raise costs to consumers, jeopardize environmental progress and deny affordable energy to underserved populations, according to CNN.

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By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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Companies operating in the Norwegian Continental Shelf are planning for more drilling in the Arctic areas in the Barents Sea, encouraged by Norways government which wants more oil and gas discoveries to boost energy security and help European partners with energy supply.

At a conference on the Barents Sea in Hammerfest last week, Norways Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland called on oil and gas companies to fulfill their social responsibility and leave no stone unturned to find more natural gas resources in the Barents Sea, the area estimated to hold most of Norways undiscovered oil and gas resources.

The petroleum adventure in the north has only just started, Aasland said, adding that the government would help the Barents Sea industry as Norway must develop, not liquidate, its petroleum industry.

Apart from being in a harsher environment so far north, the Barents Sea poses another roadblock to developing oil and gas resourcesthe north lacks the infrastructure in the more developed areas on the shelf that would make tie-ups and resource development easier.

Still, operators are not giving up.

Even if we want to maintain production, we have to explore more, we have to find more, Torger Rod, CEO of Barents-focused energy producer Var Energi, told Bloomberg in an interview.

In March, Var Energi confirmed an oil discovery in the Countach well in a production license northwest of Hammerfest near Goliat, one of two operational oil and gas fields in the Barents Sea.

Var Energi will consider potential commercial development options and tie-in of the discovery to Goliat FPSO.

This discovery is yet another in a series of successful exploration wells in the Barents Sea in recent years, including Lupa  the largest discovery on the Norwegian shelf in 2022. At the same time, the discovery confirms our exploration strategy and our position in the area, said Rune Oldervoll, EVP Exploration and Production in Var Energi.

Equinor, which plans to start production from the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea at the end of 2024, is also betting on obtaining more licenses in the Arctic.

Early this year, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy proposed including additional areas in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea in the next licensing round for Awards in Predefined Areas (ARA) expected to be awarded in early 2024.

The North has always been important for us, Grete Birgitte Haaland, senior vice president for exploration and production north at Equinor, told Bloomberg.

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We want to explore more and we think we will find more.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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French oil and gas multinational TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE) has finally reached an agreement with the government of Iraq to start a long-delayed $27 billion energy project in two weeks, Iraq's oil minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said on Wednesday.

The two parties first struck the deal back in 2021 that would see Total build four oil, gas, and renewables projects in southern Iraq over 25 years with an initial investment of $10 billion. Unfortunately, the giant project was shelved amid disputes and squabbling between Iraqi politicians over the terms of the deal.

However, last month Iraq agreed to a smaller 30% stake in the project, setting in motion a deal that could lure foreign investment back into the country. After years of instability, Iraq has been enjoying a period of relative stability, increasing the chances of foreign investors returning to the country.

"The government of Iraq confirmed the whole contract, no modification at all ... so that was for me more than good news," Total Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne has told Reuters.

Last year, widespread fighting broke out between Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadrs loyalists and Iraqs military after the cleric announced that he would withdraw from politics. Military forces fought with al-Sadrs supporters, with the police responding with tear gas and physical fights with protesters.

The clerics decision to quit politics came in the wake of a political crisis that has left the country without a new government, prime minister, or president for months.

The situation in Iraq, which pumps more than 4 million barrels per day (bpd), exacerbated oil supply fears and pushed prices higher. However, the ongoing ceasefire suggests that the countrys oil will continue reaching global markets unhindered.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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A Douglas County judge last week found a former security guard at Omaha North High School not guilty of two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child.

Ronald Powell, 55, was found not guilty April 27 following a two-day bench trial in District Court. It was the second trial for Powell on the same charges after a mistrial was declared in August 2022.

Powell sought the mistrial, according to court records, after learning of new evidence involving information found on the alleged victims cellphone. Later, Powells bail was reduced and he was allowed to remove a GPS tracking device.

The charges involved a girl between the ages of 12 and 15 when Powell worked at North High. The incidents were alleged to have occurred between Sept. 1 and Nov. 29 in 2015.
Models promote Acer's new Swift Go 16 laptop during a press conference at the Ambassador Seoul - A Pullman Hotel, Wednesday. Yonhap



By Park Jae-hyuk



Acer unveiled its new Swift Go 16 laptop during a press conference held in Seoul, Wednesday, to celebrate the recent re-establishment of the Taiwanese personal computer manufacturer's Korean subsidiary.



With the 1.6-kilogram laptop equipped with a 16-inch OLED and upgraded dual cooling fans, the company is trying to win the hearts of Korean consumers. It also decided to offer Korean consumers a 25 percent discount for the new product.



"Based on close cooperation with our Korean partner and our headquarters' experience, investments and resources as one of the world's top five PC brands, we will become one of the top three foreign PC brands in Korea within the next three years," Wayne Nien, head of Acer's Korean subsidiary, said in Korean.



In 2001, Acer sparked controversy for exiting the Korean market abruptly, five years after establishing its local subsidiary. Although it resumed sales of its products in 2009, its market share has remained small.



"Poor services led Acer to lose the trust of Korean consumers," Nien said. "We will improve our services through 10 stores managed directly by our Korean partner, Hansung."





Wayne Nien, head of Acer's Korean subsidiary, speaks during a press conference at the Ambassador Seoul - A Pullman Hotel, Wednesday. Courtesy of Acer
An annual nationwide motorcycle tour honoring veterans of the U.S. armed forces is hitting close to home this year.

The 2023 tour will begin and end in Papillion, according to organizers.

It usually starts in a different state each year, said Lisa Graves, executive director of Nation of Patriots Nebraska. This year, Nebraska won the bid to start and finish it.

Through her efforts  along with Papillion Mayor David Black; his brother, Bill; and others  the Sarpy County community represented the state in the bidding process to host the event.

We had a lot of people involved to make this come to fruition, Graves said.

Most tour participants will ride on motorcycles, though people in cars also are welcome, she said.

The nationwide tour begins May 20 at Papillions SumTur Amphitheater, 11691 S. 108th St.

Pre-tour speeches will be made by Papillion Mayor David Black, Nation of Patriots CEO Bill Sherer, U.S Rep. Don Bacon and U.S. Sen. Mike Flood. A flag ceremony will be held at 9:30 a.m.

The first stop will be at the Omaha National Cemetery in Papillion, where veterans and their spouses are buried.

Police will escort the riders down Nebraska Highway 370 and Nebraska Highway 50 to the cemetery, Black said. From there, the participants will head toward Norfolk, the first overnight stay of the tour.

Along the way, therell be a lunch stop at the American Legion post in Columbus.

The next overnight stop will be in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. There will be a flag ceremony at each overnight stop.

It will go to all 50 states, and well fly to Hawaii and Alaska, Graves said.

The Patriot Tour escorts one American flag across the country. Over the course of 115 days, tens of thousands of people will come together to accomplish this feat and honor the members of Americas armed forces.

The goal is to unite Americans beneath the colors of the flag and support the men and women who defend this country.

The purpose is to provide financial relief to veterans and their families in need through corporate sponsorships and individual donors. All the money raised goes to the veteran households.

The money raised in Nebraska goes to Nebraska veterans, Black said.

The tour will go through neighboring states in May before going east in June, including a June 19 stop in Sanford, Maine.

In July, the tour will head through the south and southwest, continuing to the West Coast in August. This includes plane trips to Ewa Beach, Hawaii, on Aug. 4 and a plane trip stop to Denali, Alaska, on Aug. 9.

The tour begins its trek back to this area in September. It concludes on Sept. 16 with a 10 a.m. stop at the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum near Ashland, with the arrival to the SumTur Amphitheater around 11:45 a.m. featuring a retirement ceremony for the flag and speeches ending the tour.

The flag is one that has flown over the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Black said.

That one single flag will travel the entire United States, he said.

Black said it is quite an honor for the community and credits Graves, who lives in the Elkhorn area, and his brother for bringing the tour to Papillion.

She had the idea of bringing it to Nebraska, he said. We thought it was a nice honor.

Graves mentioned Bill Black attended a state patriot event last year and wanted to make it bigger this year. He mentioned the tradition of patriotism of Papillion that influenced her to make the bid for the community in hosting this years tour.

The amphitheater is a fitting place to start the tour since it is adjacent to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial currently being built, Graves said.

Participants typically travel a day or two on the tour, though they can go the whole distance if they want to, she said.

At each overnight stop, the flag is typically passed on to a new set of riders, Graves said.

She anticipates 200 to 400 riders to begin the tour.

The entry fee is $20 per riders and registration can be made in advance or even that day, Graves said.

We are honored to have Papillion sponsor us this year, she said.
A 37-year-old Kimball, Nebraska, man was sentenced to 30 to 40 years in prison Tuesday after being found guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of his wife.

William Serrano also was found guilty in Kimball County District Court of two counts of attempted terroristic threats and possession of a firearm while committing a felony. He was found not guilty of a charge of first-degree murder.

Serrano was sentenced to a straight 20 years for manslaughter. That will be followed by a sentence of 10 to 20 years for the firearms charge. He was sentenced to one year in prison on each charge of attempted terroristic threats with those sentences to be served concurrent with his other prison time.

He was given credit for the 485 days that he served in the Kimball County Jail while awaiting trial.

On Jan. 3, 2022, Kimball police responded to a report of a shooting at Serranos home in the 600 block of South Oak Street. Officers found Serranos wife, Tessa Ghering, 21, deceased from one shotgun blast to the head, according to court documents.

Serrano told officers that he had accidentally shot his wife, who was found lying face down on a bed in the bedroom. He said he had been attempting to determine if the weapon was loaded when it went off.

An investigation determined that Serrano had been involved in an argument about custodial arrangements on a phone call and in text messages with his ex-wife and her boyfriends mother before the shooting. Serrano threatened to harm them during the argument, which involved custodial arrangements for the children from his previous marriage.

Serranos two minor sons from that previous marriage were present at the time of the shooting. The boys told police that 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 that 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.

When police examined the weapon, one single spent shell was found in the shotgun and 20 live shells were located in the backpack.
LINCOLN  Nebraska lawmakers advanced a collection of 23 bills packaged together in a single piece of legislation Tuesday, all of which would make changes in the states education system.

Legislative Bill 705 moved through the first round of debate on a 40-0 vote, following a series of other votes that ultimately tacked on the 22 other bills. It still needs to make it through two more rounds of debate before it goes to Gov. Jim Pillens desk to be signed.

The package is the state Education Committees priority for this session, and it covers a range of educational issues, such as addressing Nebraskas growing teacher shortage and increasing mental health resources.

Most legislative committees have developed similar packages under the guidance of Speaker of the Legislature John Arch in an effort to pass more legislation. A session-long filibuster continues on the floor in protest of a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for individuals under 19.

Thats the word of the session, I think, is package, said State Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward.

The underlying bill, LB 705, would distribute more than $24 million in state lottery funds to various education sources, including college access efforts and opportunity grants. It was introduced by Education Chair Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil.

Other notable bills within the package include LB 385, which was previously deemed to be the committees other priority bill this session. The bill, introduced by Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of the Omaha area, would allocate up to $10 million for retainment grants for teachers who continue working in Nebraska.

Under LB 385, teachers could receive a $2,500 grant for their second, fourth and sixth year of teaching. Linehan said school administrators told lawmakers that local schools often lose teachers between their second and fourth years.

LB 385 is one of several bills within the package that seeks to reduce Nebraskas growing teacher shortage. According to the Nebraska Department of Education, unfilled teaching jobs across the state increased by nearly 60% over last school year, going from 482 vacancies at the start of the 2021-22 school year to about 768 at the beginning of 2022-23.

The existing workforce shortage has impacted schools large and small, Murman said.

Other bills aimed at the same issue include LB 603, another Linehan bill that would establish alternative pathways for prospective teachers to obtain a certificate.

LB 724 would eliminate the requirement for prospective teachers to pass the PRAXIS Test, which introducer Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha described as an expensive hurdle that prevents some would-be teachers from entering the field.

Theres also LB 762, introduced by Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Bennington, which would devote $1 million to tuition assistance for paraprofessionals looking to become teachers.

The package saw limited opposition on the floor Tuesday, as few lawmakers took issue with individual bills within the collection. Arch and Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte shared concerns about LB 632, which would prohibit schools from suspending students in preschool through second grade.

Both lawmakers said some schools may not have the resources to adjust to the change. But several committee members noted that no one spoke in opposition to LB 632 during its public hearing. The bills introducer, Sen. Terrell McKinney, surmised that school districts didnt oppose the bill because they didnt have any logical reasoning to oppose it.

Theres no logical reasoning to suspend a 5-year-old, McKinney said.

McKinney argued that LB 632 would help reduce what he described as the school to prison pipeline. As someone who was suspended at a young age, McKinney said, he knows the experience doesnt help students improve. He said schools should develop alternatives to suspension.

Several lawmakers opposed LB 805, which was added through a separate amendment outside the committees package. Introduced by Sen. Brad von Gillern of the Omaha area, the bill would require that schools allow certain youth organizations to provide information, services and activities to students.

Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue said the legislation picks winners and losers in selecting specific organizations that would be allowed this opportunity, in effect restricting the free speech rights of the excluded organizations.

What youre doing is youre creating forced access, Blood said.

Von Gillern said some schools have limited resources, and could benefit from the services of organizations that work to improve students behaviors. In regard to picking winners and losers, he said that part of the Legislatures job is to choose what organizations to support for further growth. Blood said von Gillerns rationale was malarkey.

Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha noted the bills requirement that officials with the youth organizations undergo a background check, saying that the provision would divert needed resources.

Von Gillern said each organization included in the bill already does its own background checks, so the requirement wouldnt require additional resources. Additionally, his proposal clarifies that school districts can prohibit individuals who have been convicted of a felony from representing a youth organization at their schools.

Cavanaugh also took issue with the Boy Scouts of America being included in the list of qualified organizations, referencing a 2020 scandal in which more than 92,000 claims of sexual abuse were filed against the organization from former Scouts  covering incidents that allegedly took place over several decades. Cavanaugh said it was inappropriate to force schools to work with such a group.

They might be doing a better job, Cavanaugh said. They might have cleaned house. But that trauma still exists.

Von Gillern said the Boy Scouts organization is not responsible for the crimes perpetrated by some of its members and argued that many large organizations have dealt with similar allegations in the past. He said the Boy Scouts now have strong abuse protections in place.

Public school districts in the Omaha metro area Bellevue Public Schools Bennington Public Schools Douglas County West Community Schools Elkhorn Public Schools Fort Calhoun Community Schools Gretna Public Schools Millard Public Schools Omaha Public Schools Papillion La Vista Community Schools Ralston Public Schools Westside Community Schools
All Nebraska Army National Guard helicopters and crews have been grounded for the past week because of an Army-wide safety stand-down, but they could be back in air by this weekend, Guard officials say.

Last Friday, the Army suspended all flight operations for active-duty, Guard and Reserve units after three fatal helicopter crashes this year  in Alaska, Kentucky, and Alabama  that killed 14 soldiers.

All units were ordered to undergo safety training before they could resume flight operations. Active-duty units were required to complete it this week, while Guard and Reserve units were given until May 31.

With three fatal accidents in a short time, the Army decided it was time to take a day and let aviation units discuss the trend and how to bend the curve the other direction, said Col. Robert Kadavy, the Nebraska Army National Guards director of aviation and safety, in an email statement.

In Nebraska, units based in Lincoln and Grand Island flying a total of 24 aircraft  seven CH-47 Chinooks, eight UH-72 Lakotas and nine UH-60 Black Hawks  were affected.

The safety stand-down allows the state adjutant general to sign off on critical missions such as fighting wildfires, as Guard helicopters did last month in Cass, Cherry and Jefferson Counties. None have been necessary this week, Kadavy said.

The safety training will take place in Grand Island on Friday and in Lincoln on Saturday. The focus will be on multi-aircraft operations, maintenance and risk management, Kadavy said, with discussion of techniques for aircrews to minimize risks and distractions.

As pilots, we need to tune out other noise and focus on the flight, he said in the statement. We talk about this a lot with the crews in hopes that a pilot who is trying to multitask will remember their job is inherently dangerous and they owe it to their family to put all their focus into this flight.

The units are authorized to return to flying once the training is complete.

Kadavy said the Nebraska Army National Guard has never had a fatal crash.

While the Nebraska helicopter units have not suffered serious mishaps, a string of recent near-misses prompted a discussion among Nebraska Guard flight crew members at a monthly safety meeting in March, Kadavy said.

Three different aircrews stood up and discussed events that did not result in accidents, thankfully, but could have, he said. The other aircrews then asked hard questions about how the crew got into the situation and steps that could have been taken to avoid the situation in the first place.

In one of the incidents, a Black Hawk helicopter had to make a power-off autorotation landing in a bean field, and in a second, an aircraft had to land  also in a field  after encountering icing conditions. In the third, a National Guard crew encountered a small civilian aircraft whose pilot was not communicating on the radio.

The pilots were well in control of the situations, said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Stephen Gonifas, instructor pilot and safety officer for the 1st Battalion, 376th Aviation Regiment in Lincoln, in an interview. I took away some good points that I can use for my safety program, and to keep my crews safe.

Gonifas has served 25 years in the military, including 18 with the Nebraska National Guard. He has known people who have died in air crashes, but it doesnt deter him from flying. He said he welcomes the stand-down and the chance to focus for a day entirely on safety.

Our safety record here in Nebraska is pretty good. Actually, its very good, he said. We want to keep it that way.

Photos: Nebraska Army National Guard brigade welcomed home Guard 1 Nebraska Army National Guard welcome home Nebraska Army National Guard welcome home Nebraska Army National Guard welcome home Nebraska Army National Guard welcome home Nebraska Army National Guard welcome home Nebraska Army National Guard welcome home Nebraska Army National Guard welcome home Nebraska Army National Guard welcome home Guard 2 Nebraska Army National Guard welcome home
3 Pastors from the Anglican Church in Ekiti State have been killed in an auto crash along Otun-Iro road in Moba Local Government Area of the state.

The state police spokesperson, Sunday Abutu, who confirmed this to newsmen said the clergymen were travelling from Ipere-Ekiti to Iro-Ekiti when their bus somersaulted, leading to their instant death.

He said the incident also left five others in the bus with injuries, and they were taken to the Federal Teaching Hospital in Ido Ekiti for treatment. The remains of the deceased were deposited in the morgue.

We got the information, our men from the traffic section were deployed to the axis. The body of the deceased were recovered and moved to hospital, he said.

We are monitoring the situation, and investigation is still ongoing to ascertain the cause of the accident.

According to Abutu, the deceased included Felix Okeowo, who was said to have been transferred from Saint Peters Anglican Church, Ipere Ekiti and was on his way to assume duty in his new station in Iro-Ekiti when the accident occurred.

Others were identified as Arije of Saint James Anglican Church, Eda Oniyo Ekiti, and Omotoso of Saint Marys Anglican Church, Ewu Ekiti.

Between January and September 2022, road crashes killed more than 69 persons in Ekiti, according to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).

FRSC Sector Command in the state, Olusola Joseph, blamed the incidents on over speeding by drivers and poor condition of the roads.

He called on drivers to prioritise safe driving and ensure that their vehicles, including their tyres, are in good condition.

The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said there were 6,627 road traffic accidents in the country during the first half of 2022.

These crashes involved a total of 10,579 vehicles between the months of January and June.
In August 2018, Ugochukwu Ibere, a Gala seller moved people to tears by his actions when he spotted a group of prisoners in a van stuck in traffic and decided to help.

The prisoners were being transported in a Nigeria Prison Force van heading to Ikoyi Prison but were stuck in traffic.

As usual, the prisoners stretched out their hands through the tiny holes by the sides of the van and Ibere took some of the Gala he was selling and began distributing to the prisoners for free

His story was shared on social media and his act of kidness warmed him up to so many Nigerians.

Today, Ugochukwu who was once a prisoner as well, opened a distribution store where he will be selling gala and other grocery items in bulk to retailers. Facebook user, Denike Ajitena who shared the new photos of Ugochukwu in his store, wrote

About 6 months back, we meet Ugochukwu, a street hawker giving out his wares to prisoners in traffic. His act of generosity was so touching, we opened our hearts and wallets to him. For the first time, we gave him hope of his dreams becoming a reality as generous donations were made to him from all over the world.

Today, thanks to Rite Food Limited, #Galaboy has become Ugochukwu Ibere Stores! Rite Foods has opened a store for him, fully stocked with Rite Foods products  Sausage Rolls, Sodas drinks, energy drinks and bottled water, ALL FREE for the period of the contract! FREE! FREE!! FREE!!!

It was beyond imagination. How could he have guessed that his act of kindness would generate such goodwill?! From selling out of a carton in traffic to owing a store! How long would it have taken him to save for rent alone?? And the brand new equipment the company put?? And he will even be able to add provisions and general grocery items to the free products, thanks to your donations!!

And as i say to you all the time, Ugochukwu, this is only the beginning. God has only just began and wont stop until we see importer, exporter and much more added to your name! Stay blessed

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Jonas will replace Phuthuma Nhleko, its present chairman, who is scheduled to step down in December.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

MTN Group has appointed Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Emir of Kano and former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as a non-Executive Director.

In a statement released on Friday, the Johannesburg-based telecommunications company also announced the appointment of Mcebisi Jonas, South Africas former deputy finance minister, as chairman.

Jonas will replace Phuthuma Nhleko, its present chairman, who is scheduled to step down in December.

In recent years MTN Group has experienced challenging regulatory environments and highly competitive trading conditions, the company said.

The board is of the view that MTN Group has entered a more stable and settled phase, enabling it to now affect the evolution of the board.

The company has announced that it looks to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange before July, saying it plans to enter the market by way of listing by introduction.

MTN also announced that it has appointed a separate board for advice on broader African issues.

This board will be headed by Thabo Mbeki, former South African president. John Kufuor, former Ghanian president, and Nhleko, its outgoing chairman, will be members of the board.
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Ahead of May 29 swearing-in ceremony of President-Elect, Bola Ahmad Tinubu, fresh apprehension have arisen both in Nigeria and the international community over the presence and role of two Russian citizens who are working as his aides.

Political and security watchers are concerned at the real status of the two Russian Advisers. And this is more so as their status in Nigeria is not known as they are not deployed diplomats of the Russian Federation Embassy in Nigeria.

There are fears that the President-elect may inadvertently be drawing Nigeria into an arena of global U.S. Versus Russia rivalry, which could destroy the relative peace in the country.

A source told Global Upfront Newspapers (GUN): There are worries both within Nigeria and abroad as their presence poses questions. For example, are they non-state actors? What is their remit? Were they used to manipulate the INEC Server? Why would anyone who wants to be a Nigerian President outsource sensitive advisory positions to foreigners when Nigerians can do such jobs?

All these questions are begging for answers and Nigerians have a right to know, what these aliens are doing here and what is their employment and immigration status.

Aside from the well-known notorious role Russia can play in the manipulation of elections, Nigerians are also very concerned about the rivalry Russian dominance of the incoming government in Nigeria will bring with the Western World.

An easy point in hand is the needless war in Sudan where the two World powers, US and Russia are engaged in a severe proxy war with Sudanese nationals as the victims.

The source added: Maybe the President-elect and his team will need to brief Nigerians on this especially against the backdrop of his sneaking into Lagos on Saturday reportedly to meet some foreign doctors who came to attend to his health.

Why wouldnt they attend to him in Defence House, his official residence as President-elect, or his house in Abuja? When has Lagos been more conducive than Abuja for the sick and elderly, especially an incoming President?



Source: https://globalupfront.com/2023/05/02/apprehension-over-role-of-russian-advisers-working-with-president-elect-tinubu/

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 Family friend fears for daughter, Sonias wellbeing

Ahead of this Fridays sentencing of former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu for organ harvesting, the House of Representatives has appealed to the Central Criminal Court, United Kingdom to temper justice with mercy.



The plea, yesterday, followed adoption of a motion of urgent public importance raised by Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu, at plenary. The lawmakers equally pleaded with the British government to wade into the matter involving the top Nigerian politician and wife, Beatrice.



They also urged the Federal Government to take diplomatic steps in salvaging the situation. The lower legislative chamber, therefore, mandated the Clerk to convey its resolutions in writing to the British Embassy, United Kingdom government and the parliament.

Ekweremadu, 60; his wife, Beatrice, 56; and Dr Obinna Obeta, 51; were found guilty of processing the travel of a young man to Britain with a view to exploiting him, after a six-week trial at the Old Bailey



Presenting the motion, Okechukwu said Ekweremadu acted based on his limited knowledge of UK laws, stressing that he must have learnt his lessons.



The lawmaker observed: Senator Ike Ekweremadu, a Nigerian citizen, serving Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; former Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate and former Deputy Speaker and Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament and his wife, Mrs. Beatrice Ekweremadu, were tried and convicted by the Central Criminal Court, London, United Kingdom (UK) for offences relating to breach of the novel Modern Slavery Act 2015.



The sentencing of the couple is scheduled for May 5, 2023.



Senator Ike Ekweremadu acted within his limited knowledge of the UK laws and did write to the UK High Commission to support the medical visa application for the potential donor and did declare the purpose of the trip.



Senator Ekweremadu and wife acted under the natural instincts of parents to save an ailing daughter, and not for commercial purposes.



It is a common practice in international relations for nations, including the UK, to seek relief for their citizens involved in situations such as that of the Ekweremadus.



The House is also aware of the longstanding history and cordial ties between Nigeria and the UK.

IN the interim, a friend of the Ekweremadus has told The Guardian that he really fears for the wellbeing of their ailing daughter, Sonia.

Its the daughter lm really worried about now, the friend said when asked how she is coping with her thrice a week four-hour dialysis sessions.

She might be feeling really guilty that its because of her that her parents are in jail, he added. Asked how Mrs. Ekweremadu took the conviction, the friend responded: Ooooh! She took it badly. She really cried and cried.
Ekweremadu and wife, Beatrice.

ECOWAS parliament seeks pardon for Ekweremadu; says hes a major asset to the region

By Levinus Nwabughiogu,Abuja

The House of Representatives has appealed and urged the Central Criminal Court and the government of the United Kingdom to temper justice with mercy in sentencing the former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, Mrs Beatrice Ekweremadu, and Dr Obinna Obeta who have been found guilty of organ harvesting.

The appeal came on the heels of a motion titled Motion on the Need for Clemency for Senator Ike Ekweremadu moved at Tuesdays plenary by the deputy minority leader of the House, Toby Okechukwu under a matter of urgent public importance.

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His sentencing will be announced on May 5.

Presenting the motion, Okechukwu said that Ekweremadu acted based on his limited knowledge of the UK laws, stressing that he must have learnt their bitter lessons.

He said: Senator Ike Ekweremadu, a Nigerian Citizen, serving Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, former Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, and former Deputy Speaker and Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament and his wife, Mrs. Beatrice Ekweremadu, were tried and convicted by the Central Criminal Court, London, the United Kingdom (UK) for offences relating to the breach of the novel Modern Slavery Act 2015.

The sentencing of the couple is scheduled for May 5, 2023.

Senator Ike Ekweremadu acted within his limited knowledge of the UK laws and did write to the UK High Commission to support the medical visa application for the potential donor and did declare the purpose of the trip.

Senator Ekweremadu and Mrs. Beatrice acted under the instincts of parents to save an ailing daughter, and not for commercial purposes.

It is a common practice in international relations for nations, including the UK, to seek relief for their citizens involved in situations such as that of the Ekweremadus.

The House is also aware of the longstanding history and cordial ties between Nigeria and the UK.

Elder statesmen such as former Military Head of State and President, Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, have made a passionate plea for clemency, testifying also to Senator Ekweremadus character as a patriot, god-fearing, philanthropic and progressive citizen, who has served Nigeria and West Africa as former three-term Deputy President of the Senate as well as Deputy Speaker and Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament.

Several Nigerian national dailies have also joined the call for clemency for the Ekweremadus through their editorials.

The predicament of Ekweremadus ailing daughter, who needs financial support and parental love of her parents to scale through her dire health challenge.

The Ekweremadus must have learnt their lessons.

Adopting the motion, the House urged the federal government of Nigeria to take all diplomatic steps and other necessary interventions regarding the travails of the Ekwermadu family.

ECOWAS parliament seeks pardon for Ekweremadu

Also yesterday, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, parliament pleaded with a UK court to show mercy to Ike Ekweremadu and his wife.

In a letter addressed to the chief clerk of the central criminal court, Old Bailey, London, the speaker of the parliament, Sidie Tunis, said Ekweremadu made immeasurable contributions to the ECOWAS parliament while he was the speaker of the third legislature.

Describing Ekweremadu as a major asset to the ECOWAS region, the speaker said: His long absence owing to his circumstance since June 2022 has denied us his invaluable service.

It remains dreadful if he faces a long prison sentence in the present circumstance, he said.

Tunis added that Sonia, the ailing daughter of the senator, cannot survive the absence of her parents in her present health condition.

I wish to state that it is a common feeling among parents, especially in Africa, not to bury or survive his or her child.

As a father, therefore, I can easily relate to the pains, dilemma, and crossroads of the senator and his wife over the health condition of their ailing daughter, who must still undergo a kidney transplant to stand a chance of surviving to fulfil her destiny.

Who else could foot the bills better and also provide that morale support for the daughter? It still remains Senator and Mrs Ekweremadu. It is certain that Sonia cannot survive the absence of her parents in her present health condition.

At this juncture, I wish to add that I totally stand against the crime for which the senator and his spouse have been convicted. The community parliament also stands against it.

We do not support organ harvesting in any way and by any method. Nevertheless, we believe that lessons have been learnt, not only by Ekweremadu but by everybody.

In view of all these, therefore, I wish to fervently appeal to the honourable court, on behalf of the ECOWAS parliament, for leniency in meting out justice to the couple.

We understand the position of the law, but only appeal that the honourable court puts on a human face in this circumstance and temper justice with mercy, especially considering his good behaviour and contributions to the good of the society, the less privileged, and democracy.

Importantly, the typical Ekweremadu, being one, who is given to charity work and experienced in lawmaking in Nigeria and internationally, could also be very useful to the Nigerian and international community in public enlightenment and legal reforms campaigns on organ trafficking to curtail such incidents drawing from his personal experience.
Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang, third from right, meets Boston Dynamics officials at the company's headquarters in Massachusetts, U.S., April 28 (local time). Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy





By Lee Kyung-min







Local robotics firms will accelerate the development of autonomous robots, as cleared by the recent passage of a bill authorizing high-tech robots to use sidewalks for delivery, patrol, information providing and cleaning services, according to market watchers, Tuesday.







Further anchoring their business prospects is a robust industrial outlook. International Federation of Robotics (IFR) data estimated the size of the industrial and services robot market to surpass $50 billion (67 trillion won) by 2025, up from $30 billion in 2021, growing 17 percent a year.







The faster the commercialization and implementation, the more productive and efficient corporate management will become, market watchers say, since firms will no longer have to tussle with labor demands, including minimum wage hikes and strengthened employee benefits.







Others say the expansion of robot-mediated services could become a socially and economically divisive issue in the long term over humans being replaced by robots, an emerging reality that will result in harsher labor market conditions for low-income earners.







According to the bill that was passed at the National Assembly's plenary session, April 27, government-certified robots will be able to use sidewalks and enter parks. The robots will be mandatorily insured for possible damage to humans and property.







The specifics is the first step toward permanently removing regulations which businesses have characterized as "growth-stunting hurdles" undermining the country's competitiveness on the global stage.







The U.S., for example, has the Personal Delivery Device Act whereby autonomous robots have been allowed on sidewalks in 20 states since 2016.







Japan put in place a similar system in April, after a related law was revised in 2022.







"It is time for strong local players to invest in and advance the high-tech artificial intelligence (AI) industry to become a new growth opportunity," said Son Il-young, principal manager at Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement (KIRIA), a state-run robotics research institute.







The rosy assessment is underpinned by a growing number of industry leaders being convinced that the uses of robots are not limited to simple assembly and can be expanded to handle advanced manufacturing and broader people-facing services.







"The uncertainties in government policies have been largely cleared, provided that revisions of related codes follow. A growing number of mobility, logistics, delivery and personal services providers will introduce solutions to meet the varying demands of customers accordingly."











A camera mount robot manufactured by Doosan Robotics / Courtesy of Doosan Robotics

Hyundai Motor Group has fortified robotics capabilities since the acquisition of Boston Dynamics in Massachusetts, U.S. in June of 2021, a business move to elevate the robot engineering and design firm as the future robotics technology hub for the automobile giant.







Its robots are able to handle tasks in industrial sites and hold, lift and move objects, currently being used for safety maintenance at construction and industrial sites of Kia Autoland, a manufacturing plant, and Hyundai E&C. They are Spot, a four-legged walking robot, Atlas, a humanoid robot, and Stretch, a collaborative logistics robot.







Doosan Robotics, the robot business affiliate of Doosan Group, and Rockwell Automation, an American provider of industrial automation and digital transformation technologies, whose brands include Allen-Bradley, FactoryTalk software and LifecycleIQ Services, will jointly develop robot technologies for automated manufacturing plants. Their joint project seeks to expand the use of automation in the semiconductor, automobile and bio manufacturing facilities.







The Doosan affiliate, the top local player in the collaborative robot market which generates 70 percent of its sales from overseas, established a corporate entity in the U.S. state of Texas followed by setting up a corporate entity in Europe.







Among the plans for the Doosan affiliate is raising an investment fund of 250 billion won through an initial public offering (IPO) this year.







Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong pledged in 2021 to invest 240 trillion won in future tech industries, including robots and AI research and development (R&D).







The memory chip powerhouse in January acquired a 14.99 percent stake in Rainbow Robotics, a robotics firm set up in 2011 by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) research team. Samsung further signed a call option whereby up to a 59.94 percent stake can be claimed, in what market watchers said was a gradual step to take over Rainbow Robotics.







The Samsung-Rainbow alliance mostly centers on commercializing before the year's end serving robots that can move trays, cups and food at restaurants and coffee shops.







KT, a local telecommunications service provider, has developed an AI indoor delivery robot. Five of them are in use to bring beverages to customers staying at Jeju Shinhwa World, a resort hotel on Jeju Island. The 1.4-meter robot moves at a speed of 3.6 kilometers per hour and is remotely controlled.







"The automated robots can work around the clock, unlike human beings," a KT official said. "The robots helped us with labor shortage, a problem we have had since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic."


 Ikpeazu moves to mediate

The Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Chinedum Orji, was reportedly impeached, yesterday, by 18 out of 24 members, who met in an undisclosed venue outside the state Assembly chamber, in Umuahia, the state capital. In his place, the member representing Umuahia East Constituency, Chukwudi Apugo, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with Orji, was elected the new Speaker.

A video that trended online showed the impeachment session allegedly presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Ifeanyi Uchendu, with names and signatures of the 18 members posted online. According to the online report, Uchendu only said that the embattled Speaker was impeached on various allegations against him.

The House is yet to reconvene since it vacated about three months ago to enable members participate in party activities and campaigns for the just concluded national and state elections.

It was, however, gathered that the non-reconvention of the House was to prevent Orjis impeachment, and to allow members grievances against him be addressed.

As early as 08:00 a.m., security agents were seen at the House gate, stopping people from entry. Nevertheless, Orji could not respond to calls made to his mobile phone for his reactions; but speaking to journalists on phone, Jerry Uzosike, representing Umuahia South, and Ike Onuzurike of Umuahia North said the impeachment exercise was illegal and cannot stand. The duo are said to be top and die-hard supporters of Orji.

MEANWHILE, there are indications that the state governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, may intervene in the current House crisis. The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to governor, Onyebuchi Ememanka, made this known, yesterday, in a statement.

The CPS said: The governor is of the view that with barely one month to the end of his administration, and the ushering in of a new administration, it will make no sense to engage in any issue that is likely to plunge the state into any form of confusion.

He stated that Ikpeazu does not have the luxury of time and resources for any crisis at the moment, adding that the mood in the state makes any such move inexpedient.

Indicating that the governor would shortly meet with the lawmakers, Ikpeazu appealed to Orji and other lawmakers to maintain peace, and allow reason and patriotism guide their actions.
Access Bank, a subsidiary of Access Holdings, has tightened its control over E-tranzact operating policies with N12.43bn investment, making its controlling stake to rise to 37.56 per cent as of December 2022.

It would be recalled that Access Bank acquired 1.87 billion shares in E-tranzact last year, increasing its ownership stake in fintech from 23.8 per cent in 2021.

As of April 28, Access Banks investment in E-tranzact is worth N12.43 billion, up from N5.68 billion held in the fintech company in 2021.

The share acquisition was revealed in E-tranzacts first quarter (Q1) report for 2023. Although Access Holdings, in its first quarter report said it didnt receive a dividend for the investment.

Access Holdings revealed that existing investment in Etranzact was initially recognised in the books under equity instruments measured at Fair value through profit or loss, but At the point of increasing the stakes of the Group in Etranzact by means of the Right issue, the existing shares were reclassified to investment in associates at their fair value, Access Holdings said.

READ ALSO: CBN sanctions Access Bank for breaching forex, BVN directives

The financial institution stated further: The Group holds an equity interest of 3,455,729,217 ordinary shares of 50k each in E-tranzact International Plc as at 31 December 2022, representing 37.56 per cent equity participation in the company. No dividend income was received from ETRAN during the year.

The groups effective ownership in ETRAN increased from 23.8% in 2021 to37.56 per cent in 2022 as the Group acquired more shares from the company. The proportion of the Banks interest is the same as the proportion of voting rights. As at 31st December, the fair value of the Banks investment was N12.1 billion.

There are published price quotations for the associate on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. There are no significant restrictions on the ability of the associates to transfer funds to the group in the form of cash dividends, or repayments of loans or advances. The associate was accounted for using the equity method at the Group level.

The Group exercises significant influence in E-tranzact International Limited by virtue of its more than 20 per cent shareholding in the entity and the representation of one director on the board of the company and significant participation in the companys operating and financial policies.
Gov Dave Umahi

Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi has said that the next Senate President should come from the Southeast region of the country.

Umahi disclosed this after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said Igbos should be compensated with the Senate Presidency after giving President Muhammadu Buhari the needed support.

I think that every region clamouring for the presidency of the Senate to be zoned to it is the right of such people. If you look at the true reflection of our society, you will agree with me that the right thing to be done by our leaders without prejudice to their rights and thinking is that the Southeast deserves the number three position.

This is very important, and I have always said that you can deliver somebody by the reason of the majority votes of particular regions, but you also need the cooperation of the minority people to have a holistic nation to govern, he said.

With the 2023 general elections over, the political agitations have shifted to the Senate Presidency.

Relevant stakeholders in the Southeast have been clamouring for the zone to produce the number three person in the country.

They noted that it would be politically right for the Igbos to produce the next Senate President due to their inability to produce the President.


Following the impeachment of the Abia State Assembly Speaker, the police have taken over the Abia State House of Assembly Complex in Umuahia, the state capital.

Hon. Chinedum Orji was impeached on Tuesday over alleged gross misconduct and highhandedness. He is the son of former state governor Theodore Orji, who led the southeast Nigerian state from 2007 to 2015.

Hon. Chukwudi Apugo who represents Umuahia East Constituency was subsequently elected as the new Speaker of the House.

At least 18 out of 27 members of the Assembly who sat at an undisclosed location voted to impeach the Speaker, Channels TV reports.

The motion for the impeachment was reportedly moved by Chukwudi Apugo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who represents Umuahia-East Constituency.

The motion was seconded by Okey Igwe of the PDP, who represents Umunneochi Constituency.

However, the Clerk of the House was not available to swear in the new Speaker.

Orji, who represents Umuahia Central State Constituency, lost his bid to represent the Ikwuano/Umuahia Federal constituency in the February 25 National Assembly election.

Chinedum Orji lost to the Labour Party candidate, Obi Aguocha.

However, following the Speakers removal, the police sealed off the Assembly complex, leaving legislators to gather in clusters on the premises.
May 03, (THEWILL)  President Muhammadu Buhari will depart for London, United Kingdom, on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, to join other world leaders invited to attend the coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as His Majesty, The King and Her Majesty, The Queen Consort of the United Kingdom respectively.

The coronation of King Charles is scheduled for Saturday, May 6, 2023.

A statement issued on Wednesday, by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said ahead of the coronation, the Commonwealth Secretariat will take advantage of the gathering of leaders in London to host a Commonwealth Summit for Presidents and Heads of Government of Commonwealth countries on Friday, May 5.

President Buhari is billed to participate in the Summit, which will deliberate on the Future of the Commonwealth and the Role of the Youth.

The President will be accompanied by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj.-Gen Babagana Monguno (Rtd); the Director General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar; the Chairperson/Chief Executive Officer of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa; and other senior government officials.
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Punch Should Stop Living In Denial

The latest in a series of some partisan editorials by some of this countrys newspapers seeking to rewrite recent history was published by the Punch newspaper paper this weekend, painting a bleak, pessimistic and frequently inaccurate picture of the state of our nation and outgoing President Muhammadu Buharis leadership.

In this post-election period of heightened tension and disinformation, we see it fit to set the record straight.

First lets start with the one thing the editorial gets right: that President Buhari inherited an economy in disarray. Corruption ran rampant, oil-prices were nose-diving and  astoundingly  an international terror cell, the Boko Haram controlled territory the size of Belgium within our countrys borders.

That so-called country, the Caliphate is unrecognizable from todays Nigeria.

Today, corruption is thrust out in the open by Buharis landmark whistleblowing policy, empowering Nigerians to report it without fear and seeing the repatriation of hundreds of millions of dollars stolen by corrupt politicians and stashed in banks abroad.

Terrorists no longer hold any territory in Nigeria whatsoever, and their leaders have been neutralised by our security forces.

Economy has witnessed growth. External reserves have maintained a healthy growth throughout these eight years.

Within two years of the Buhari administration, exports more than doubled from the 2015 records. Agriculture exports grew 180.7% by 2017 above the value in 2015.

Raw material exports grew 154.2% in the same period; solid minerals grew 565% and exports of manufactured goods 26.8%.

The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the Federal Governments medium-term Economic Plan, launched by President Buhari in April 2017, successfully ushered in a macroeconomic environment and helped the country to achieve food security.

The editorial begrudgingly credits President Buhari for the massive success of pushing through the Petroleum Industry Bill  a staggering achievement attempted but failed by myriad previous administrations  as well as the vast improvements to national infrastructure that have set our country on course for sustainable and equitable growth.

The reality of President Buhari and his legacy is a far cry indeed from what the editorial describes as a leader who failed to demonstrate any real grasp of modern economic ideas, and lacked the presence of mind or leadership acumen required to turn the ailing economy around. Goodness!

Which economic miracle worker in Punch newspaper can turn round an economy which suffers from collapse of oil prices, COVID-19 lockdown and associated supply chain crisis and the Russia-Ukraine war?

Look around the world and see how practically every country struggles from these disasters.

But President Buhari is not a North Korean dictator. He would be scornful of any world leader who claimed a perfect record and would be the last person to make such claims for himself.

He had his strengths and his weaknesses, and applied the former and mitigated against the latter to achieve his overarching goal: to leave Nigeria a better place than he found it. In that he succeeded.

He presided over the most turbulent period in modern Nigerian history, helping our nation navigate through global shocks such as volatile oil prices, the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the global cost of living crisis.

He kept the ship steady, and paved the way for his successor, President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to take the reins at the end of this month and build upon what he has already achieved.

The editorial states that Buhari will not be missed. We shall see. But, countless Nigerians whose futures he has improved, will fondly remember him for good.

Among these, to take just one aspect or two- the two million poor and vulnerable Nigerian households that are currently benefiting from the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, which pays a bimonthly stipend of N10,000 per household; the 355,000 vulnerable persons have received a special one-off grant of N20,000 each in the 36 states and the FCT; the beneficiaries of Nigerias Micro-Pension Scheme which allows self-employed persons and persons working in organisations with less than 3 employees to save for the provision of pension at retirement or incapacitation.

Punch possibly doesnt have a record of the governments Survival Fund, the National Youth Investment Fund, and National Special Public Works Program (774,000 beneficiaries across 774 LGAs nationwide), and the Central Banks COVID-19 N300 billion Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) to support millions of small businesses, households, and young people, with federal grants, loans, and stipends.

This Survival Fund has provided grants (Payroll Support, Artisan and Transport Sector grants, and General MSME grants) to more than 1.2 million beneficiaries, since the last quarter of 2020. It has also provided free business registration to 250,000 MSMEs across the country.

Nor will he be forgotten by the owners of the new 40 plus fertilizer companies and the thousands of people they employ, producing locally to service the more than 12 million new rice growers who in turn provide six million tons of paddy processed by more 100 new rice mills with Kano alone having 62, and others spreading far and wide to Ebonyi, Lagos, Ekiti, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna, Katsina and others.

No, Punch should stop living in denial. These ones and their kith and kin making up the 200 million plus citizens of our country, the teachers whose backlog of unpaid salaries were paid and the pensioners from years yore, denied payment and treated with contempt now smiling their way to the banks will remember positively that Muhammadu Buhari came, saw and he conquered.



Garba Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity)

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By Joshua Chibuzo Andrew, Owerri

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and its counterpart union, Trade Union Congress, TUC, have embarked on indefinite industrial strike on 12 Am of Tuesday, May 2023.

The decision, according to a release jointly signed by the Secretary Generals of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Emmanuel Ugboaja and Trade Union Congress, Comrade Nuhu Toro, the sister union alleged that the May Day celebration which held on Monday, 1st May, 2023, in Owerri, the Imo state capital, was disrupted by thugs suspected to be working for the government of Imo state.

Their statement read; the joint session of the NLC and TUC after careful deliberation on the disruption of Workers May Day celebration held on Monday, 1st May, 2023, on Owerri, the Imo state capital by the agents of Imo state government, strongly and vehemently condemned the unprovoked assault on Imo state workers and resolved that the government of Imo state has grossly violated the rules of engagement among the social partners in industrial relations by using thugs to violently disrupt the smooth process of the May Day celebration.

That properties worth millions were vandalized and looted by the invading thugs of the government and some workers sustained various degrees of injuries as a result of the attack. That the government of Imo state has become a serial abuser of the workers rights and privileges committing several infractions in the process. That the government of Imo state has therefore made sane and civil social dialogue difficult in the state.

The joint session has however resolved to withdraw the guarantee of industrial peace in Imo state and has embarked on a comprehensive shutdown of Imo state with effect from Wednesday, 3rd May, 2023.

All affiliates of both NKC and TUC in the state are by this notice mandated to withdraw their services in Imo stare beginning from 12 midnight on Tuesday, 2nd May, 2023 until the state government restores and guarantees that protection of lives and properties of workers in Imo state. The state government is to sign the agreement reached between it and the workers in the month of March, 2023. That NLC and TUC will monitor compliance of all affiliates with the decisions of the joint CWC in session and will not hesitate to escalate it to a nationwide strike if positive results are not achieved quickly within days.

We will hold the governor of Imo state, Senator Hope Uzodinma responsible for any further harm done to any worker in the state now, during and after the industrial action.

Reacting to the development, the Imo state President of the National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, Comrade Rev. Richards Eze, described the purported strike action as uncalled for and unwarranted.

According to him, it was instituted by the National Secretary, Emmanuel Ogbuaja in connivance with the factional state Caretaker Committee chairman, George Ofoegbu, to cause problems for Imo workers and the government of Imo state by extension.

He said that Imo workers are currently enjoying a robust relationship with the government of Imo state and the Governor, according to him, had started implementing on the demands of the Labour unions including his most recent promise during the May Day celebration to offset the backlog of pensions ad gratuities way back from 2007.

The purported strike action that is billed to commence today is unwarranted and uncalled for. It is ill-timed especially now that the government of Imo state has shown its readiness to meet all the demands of the workers in the state.

It is true that the NLC in Imo state has internal issues but we must say the truth at all time. Trouble started when the General Secretary of the Union in connivance with some high and mighty members at the federal level were bent on imposing George Ofoegbu on the Imo NLC as its chairman but that will be a discussion for another day.

I am the President of NULGE in Imo state and I can tell you that such call on Imo workers to embark on an impromptu industrial action is, to say the least, unwarranted and uncalled for. As long as I am concerned, NULGE is not part of the plan. I also know that so many other labour institutions in the state including the Nigeria Union of Teachers, will not adhere to this. The purported industrial, I bet, will not hold.

Several calls put across to the Imo state chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Rev. Philip Nwansi, proved abortive as he failed to pick up.

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President Muhammadu Buhari will depart Abuja for London on Wednesday to attend the coronation of King Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as His Majesty, The King, and Her Majesty The Queen Consort of the United Kingdom respectively.

Buhari will join other world leaders invited to attend the coronation ceremony.

This was disclosed in a statement issued on Wednesday by presidential Spokesman, Femi Adesina.

Ahead of the coronation, the Commonwealth Secretariat will take advantage of the gathering of leaders in London to host a Commonwealth Summit for Presidents and Heads of Government of Commonwealth countries on Friday, May 5, the statement read.

The statement said that the president is billed to participate in the Summit which will deliberate on the Future of the Commonwealth and the Role of the Youth.

Recall that King Charles ascended the British throne on September 8, 2023, after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

According to the statement, the Nigerian President will be accompanied to the coronation event which holds on Saturday by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; the Director General, National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar; the Chairperson/Chief Executive Officer of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa and other senior government officials.

In other news, Kanyi Daily reported that popular skit maker, Adebowale Adedayo better known as Mr Macaroni has marked his 30th birthday.

Mr Macaroni clocked 30 on Wednesday, May 3.
Nollywood actress, Sonia Ogiri has taken to social media to announce that she has undergone a liposuction surgery.

The US-based actress, who disclosed this on her Instagram page, shared a photo of her new body while thanking her doctor for the work done.

Sonia Ogiri also appreciated her man, who she described as her king, for supporting her throughout the surgical journey, noting that she is still healing.

She wrote, I finally got my Body done  and I want to officially thank my Doctor.

I want to thank my Man for the support throughout my Surgery journey. Thank you so much my King. Im still healing and it will drop down, she added.

KanyiDaily recalls that Sonia Ogiri recently stirred controversy on social media after claiming shes still a virgin despite giving birth to her child.
A former lawmaker, Shehu Sani has accused Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, of being desperate for favour and accomdation from the president-elect, Bola Tinubu.

Shehu Sani stated this while reacting to the public holiday declared by Governor Wike over Tinubus visit to the state for the commissioning of projects.

KanyiDaily recalls that Wike declared Wednesday as public holiday and ordered closure of all schools and businesses to enable residents give Tinubu a rousing welcome.

Tinubu will be on a two-day official visit to Rivers to commission the Rumuola/Rumuokwuta flyover and the ultra-modern Magistrates Court Complex, Port Harcourt, on Wednesday and Thursday, May 3 and 4, respectively.

Reacting on his Twitter page, Shehu Sani condemned Wikes action and also urged Tinubu not to encourage such actions so it wont become a norm.

The former lawmaker noted that grounding the economic, social and educational activities of the state to commission project is a mark of desperation for favours and accommodation.

He wrote, Commissioning a project is a mark of a great achievement. Kudos. But grounding the economic, social and educational activities of the state for that purpose is a mark of desperation for favour and accommodation by a lickspittle. Tinubu can say no to that or else it becomes the norm.

Commissioning a project is a mark of a great achievement.Kudos.But Grounding the economic,Social & educational activities of the state for that purpose is a mark of desperation for favours & accommodation by a lickspittle.Tinubu can say no to that or else it becomes the norm.  Senator Shehu Sani (@ShehuSani) May 3, 2023

KanyiDaily recalls that Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi had called on Bola Tinubu to bring Nyesom Wike to the core administration of his government because he has a lot to offer.




Global pharmaceutical company Merck Life Science is considering building manufacturing facilities in Korea's central city of Daejeon, the industry ministry said Wednesday.







Merck signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Daejeon city government earlier in the day on its potential establishment of a bio materials production factory in the city, according to the ministry.







No details of the investment plan were known.







Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang welcomed the plan and vowed the government's active support, saying the new factory is expected to serve as Merck's export hub in the Asia-Pacific region, which will also help Korea's push to diversify export items and secure stable supplies of bio materials.







Earlier this year, Merck Life Science CEO Matthias Heinzel said his company is reviewing Korea as a major candidate site for a new production factory.







Merck currently has a life science operation center and a lab collaboration center in Incheon, 27 kilometers west of Seoul. (Yonhap)


The newly elected President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, expressed gratitude to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State for supporting him victory in February 25, 2023 presidential election. He commended Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for his firmness in insisting that the president must emerge from the south in the 2023 general elections, eulogising Wike to be a man of integrity.

Tinubu was in Rivers State on Wednesday on the invitation of Governor Wike to commission the Rumuokwuta/Rumuola Road Flyover in Port Harcourt.

According to Tinubu, Your Excellency, Governor Nyesom Wike, you are very dependable.

Nyesom, I say thank-you for your contribution to my victory. I couldnt have done it without some structural support.

In his Excellency, I see a man of principle. He took a principled stand that the Presidency must return to the South and he has the courage to stand by his conviction not minding whose ox is gored.

He is, indeed, a man of great integrity; he did not choose to serve his own interest, not about him. Rather, the interest of the nation. You promoted unity, you promoted fairness, you championed justice. Thank you.

There were so much gossips and speculations but you stood your ground.

Tinubu noted that he went through a gruesome campaign, fought hard and won, adding that he could not have achieved victory against major opponents like the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, from his platform, the All Progressives Congress (APC), without structural support from people like Wike.

He congratulated Wikes ally in the PDP G5, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on his victory in Oyo, commending his partnership.

Governor Wike had delivered Rivers State to Tinubu and the APC in the February 25 presidential election amidst protest for the resignation of the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, after Atiku emerged PDP presidential candidate. The conflation was a continuation of the agitation for zoning of the 2023 presidential ticket to the south.
The president-elect, Bola Tinubu, has commended Governor Nyesom Wike for the honour he bestowed on him for the invitation to commission a new bridge in the state

However, Tinubu reminded the governor that he was the president-elect and that he would not respond to his banters

The president-elect further disclosed that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state would reply Wikes banter

Port Harcourt, Rivers  Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, has referred Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to see his counterpart in Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for a response to his banter.

Tinubu made the comment during the commissioning of the Raumuokwuta/Rumuola flyover bridge in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital, on Wednesday, May 3, in a video shared on the Twitter page of the Channels Television.

Tinubu tells Wike that Sanwo-Olu will replies his banter, says he is the president-elect

Photo Credit: Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Source: Twitter

What Tinubu told Wike about Sanwo-Olu

The president-elect, at the commissioning, expressed gratitude to the Rivers governor for his support during the 2023 presidential election while adding that he appreciated the fact that he was building a relationship with Wike.

Tinubu also bragged that he was the president-elect and the president to the governor, adding that how things played out between him and the governor is another way of building a relationship and that his coming to the state was a fulfilment of the promise he made during the campaign.

To Tinubu, a promise made is a promise kept while appreciating the governor for the honour and privilege, reckoning with all the preparation that the governor had made for his coming.

Latest about Bola Tinubu, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Nyesom Wike, Rivers state, 2023 election

He said:

I will leave Sanwo-Olu to give you back your banter and response. I am the president-elect, your president.

Adding that the broadcast that the governor made yesterday, Tuesday, May 2, to declare a public holiday for his coming would not be ignored and that he would not sideline any region.

See the video here:

I say thank you for your contribution to my victory: Tinubu to Wike

Legit.ng earlier reported that Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, has thanked Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers state, for his support to him during the 2023 presidential election.

Tinubu said though he fought very hard to emerge the victor in the election, Wikes structural support cannot be undermined in the narrative.

The president-elect then commended the governor of Rivers State for fighting for the unity of the country, fairness and justice.

Source: Legit.ng
A date has been fixed by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal Court sitting in Abuja for the commencement of all pre-hearing sessions leading to the full hearing on respective applications challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

The Tribunal fixed Monday (May 8) for pre-hearing.

The date was confirmed on Wednesday by the Secretary of the PEPT, according to The Whistler.

We have fixed Monday next week for commencement of prehearing in all the Matters before the Petition Court, the official told newsmen.

The presidential flag bearers of the Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, have replied to all the preliminary objections filed against their petitions challenging Bola Tinubus declaration as the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

More so, in a bid to maximise time, Obis team in a letter to the Secretary of, Presidential Election Court, dated April 21, asked for the issuance of pre-hearing notice in respect of his petition.

In his pre-hearing notice letter before the court, Obi wrote the PEPT seeking determination of some key issues in his case against INEC and Tinubu.

The letter was subsequently approved by the court.

As seen in the pre-hearing form filled by Obis legal team, they are seeking the enforcement of the courts orders which ordered INEC to release electoral materials, among other things.

As contained in the form seen by our correspondent, Obi intends to argue during the pre-hearing session: Applications for subpoena, objections, enforcement of order of court not obeyed by INEC and other applications arising in the course of the hearing.

Other pre-hearing responses and applications entered by all the petitioners and respondents will be heard.

Recall that Obi had alleged in his petition that the election of Tinubu was invalid by reason of alleged corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

Obi also accused INEC of non-compliance with relevant laws, adding that the electoral umpire altered election results in about 18,000 polling units against him while refusing to use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machine mandatory to accredit voters and upload results in real-time in line with the Electoral Act.

But INEC, Tinubu, and his political party, the All Progressives Congress, had entered objections asking the tribunal to dismiss Obis petition for abuse of the court process.
Sen. Ishiaku Abbo

Embattled Sen. Ishiaku Abbo (PDP-Adamawa) on Tuesday challenged members of the Senate investigative panel hearing his alleged case of assault on a nursing mother not to threaten him with suspension.

The Senator spoke when he appeared before the 6-man panel set up by the Senate to investigate him.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan set up the panel which is headed by Sen. Sam Egwu (PDP-Ebonyi) on July 3.

Abbo, who appeared before his colleagues at exactly 3.15 p.m., told them that the matter was already before the court, hence he would not make comments that could amount to prejudice of the Court process.

He also refused to allow the clerk of the panel to put him on oath, as usual.

Drama started when he said that he had no business appearing and making comments about the matter anywhere.

But Abbo said his presence was out of honour for his colleagues.

Sen. Oluremi Tinubu (APCLagos) who is also a member of the panel expressed displeasure over Abbos comment and insistence before the panel.

She said: The Senate carefully selected members of this committee to hear your own side of the story which has gone viral.

What we are doing here as a legislature is a position taken by the Senate to hear from you and others involved.

This matter has affected the Senate as an institution and we have been mandated to investigate it.

You cant sit there on the other side and dictate the modalities and approach we follow to us as committee.

We are trying to protect the Senate and hear from you, but we can also suspend you because of your attitude.

At this point, Abbo flared up and said he wont allow the committee to threaten him with suspension, having earlier informed it that the matter is before a court.

Dear colleagues, I wont sit here and allow this committee to threaten me with suspension.

Is it out of place for me to say Im not addressing you since this matter is before a court of law of competent jurisdiction?

I came here to honour you as colleagues after receiving an SMS inviting me here.

Just the same way I have received SMS from the police. I was arrested, detained and charged to court over this matter. Yet, Im here out of respect for you as colleagues.

I want you to remember that this matter is before a court of competent jurisdiction and I dont want to go to contempt of the Court, he said.

After some arguments which threw the venue into a little rowdiness, the chairman urged all parties to remain calm.

Another member of the panel, Sen. Mathew Urhoghide (APC-Edo) urged his colleagues to hear Abbo off camera.

Then the chairman of the panel said though the matter is already in the public domain, but excused members of the press out of the venue.

Egwu added that: We are not here to go into the area of the matter that is already in court.

We are here to look at issues that affect us as a parliament in the eyes of the public.

Earlier, counsel to the victim of the alleged assault, had sent a team of lawyers led by Mr Chukwuma Okoroafor to submit a letter before the panel.

Okoroafor said the victim is currently taking medical treatments in an undisclosed hospital in Abuja, hence her inability to appear in person.

The panel, however, insisted that he should present the victim within the next one week to allow it submit its report to the Senate.

Okoroafor who brought the letter from Solola & Co, however refused to speak with NAN correspondents after leaving the venue of the meeting.

NAN reports that the committee has two weeks to finish its assignment.
About 35,000 people and 37 aid workers have lost their lives since the Boko Haram insurgency group started their murderous campaign in the Northeast in 2009, says the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA).

Head of the body in Nigeria, Peter Ekayu who disclosed this in a statement marking the humanitarian day, noted that over the years, too many innocent children, women and men had died in the violence.

These are 35,000 deaths too many. As we mark World Humanitarian Day to honour aid workers around the world and in Nigeria, who often risk their own lives to help save and improve that of others, I salute the courage and relentless commitment of not only colleagues and partners, but also affected people and families have shown over the years, Peter said.

Our efforts are not vain. Together, we are making a difference in the life of millions. These everyday heroes are working tirelessly to provide much-needed vital assistance to the most vulnerable people affected by the crisis in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

Today, we are paying special tribute to the women among them. Women are active in every aspect of humanitarian action: from negotiating access to people in need, to addressing deadly diseases such as measles and cholera. From reuniting separated children to ensuring people uprooted by natural disasters and conflict have shelter, access to clean water, healthcare, food and education.

Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa and Hauwa Mohammed Liman. They were midwives with ICRC and were executed after being held in captivity by non-state armed groups for more than six months. Both aid workers were abducted from Rann town, Borno State in March 2018 along with a nurse from UNICEF who is still held in captivity.

Faye Mooney. She was a British communications and learning specialist with the non-governmental organization Mercy Corps. She lost her life in an attack by gunmen in Kaduna State earlier this year.

We are here together to honour them and their grieving families, relatives and children surviving them. As I stand before you today, my thoughts also go to the families of our colleagues who are still being held captive by armed groups.

My heart also goes out to the families of the thousands of civilians who have been similarly abducted and whose whereabouts are still unknown.

Today, we are here together to remind the world that the humanitarian crisis hitting Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states is far from over.

The less attention we pay to the crisis in the north-east, the more risks face our colleagues who are working in extremely volatile areas struck by violence and devastation.

As respect for the laws of war weakens, aid workers are increasingly vulnerable, though they are more needed than ever before. He added.
Ifeanyi Agwuegbo, one of the 80 Nigerians arrested last month by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for alleged internet fraud, has been granted bail of $75,000 (N27.2 million).

Agwuegbo was amongst at least 80 Nigerians indicted by the F.B.I. in a televised announcement on August 22. Several of them have been arrested, while others still at large are being tracked down by the F.B.I. and Nigerian authorities.

The F.B.I said the operation that exposed Mr. Aguegbo and his alleged conspirators was coordinated amongst several state and federal law enforcement units in the U.S.

Mr Agwuegbo was found to have been involved in business e-mail compromise, although the syndicate was also nailed for conducting romance scams amongst others.

He was subsequently charged in Texas on three counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The preliminary bail application of Agwuegbo which was heard by an American magistrate, Peter Bray, on the 27th of August wasnt granted because he was not immediately able to meet the requirements for his bail to be granted.

He was directed to make a payment of $75,000 (#27. 2 million). He was to provide at least $5000 deposit out of the whole money. He was also to provide a guarantor whose signature must be taken before he could be released.

He was remanded in custody for his inability to meet all these conditions immediately.
The Oyo State Police Command yesterday arrested kidnappers of a 17-year-old boy, Shakiru Weti, and recovered N1 million ransom demanded by the suspects.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Shina Olukolu, who paraded the suspect at the command headquarters in Ibadan, said the kidnappers engaged the police personnel in a gun duel when they laid siege to rescue the victim.

According to the police boss, the family members were encouraged to pay the amount demanded, while the police detectives laid ambush for the suspected kidnappers.



On September 17, 2019 at about 2200hr, one Alhaji Abdul Saliu, the Sariki Fulani of Oyo State, resident in Igangan reported at the Ayete Divisional Police Headquarters that a Fulani man called Weti reported to him that an gunman kidnapped his son, Shakiru Weti, aged 17. And on September 22, 2019, at about 1700hrs the abductors called and demanded a ransom of N1 million.

In the process one Yuguda Jayum was arrested with the ransom of N1m intact while his accomplice escaped. Yuguda Jayum confessed that he is the leader of the group that carried out the kidnapping. Detectives extended investigation to their hideout at Igangan, where their victim was found tied and blindfolded.

The victim, Shakiru Weti, was rescued unhurt while one Kehinde Adeoye, a member of the syndicate who was guarding the victim to prevent his escape was arrested. But, another cohort, Taiwo Adeoye, who was armed opened fire on the team and escaped. In the course of further investigation, Bature Dogo, Kazeem Sule and Maanu Garuba were also arrested in connection with the case. Upon interrogation Kehinde Adeoye, Yuguda Jayum, Bature Dogo, Kazeem Sule and Maanu Garuba, all confessed to the crime.

Four phones were recovered. Effort is being intensified to arrest other fleeing members of the gang, he said.

Olukolu assured the people of police determination to protect lives and property.

Meanwhile, one of the suspected kidnappers, Kazeem Sulaiman, denied the allegation, saying he does not know anything about the incident.

I dont know anything about this issue. Security operatives just came to my residence last week Sunday and arrested me. I was thereafter taken to the police station and on getting there I was told that a boy was kidnapped, he said.
Federal Government has directed telecommunications giant, MTN to suspend its planned N4 charge on customers for USSD access to banking services.

Many customers woke up over the weekend to receive about two shocking text from MTN informing them of the commencement of the new charge from October 21. The two text read:

Yello, as requested by your bank, from Oct 21, we will start charging you directly for USSD access to banking services. Please contact your bank for more info. Yello, Please note that from Oct 21, we will charge N4 per 20 seconds for USSD access to banking services. Thank you.

Apparently, a man identified as Mustapha Hadi reached out to the Minister of Communication, Isa Ali Pantami, to inform him about the development.

Dear @DrIsaPantami , today MTN sent me a message that they will start deducting charges for mobile top-up as directed by my bank. I think this is a bit too harsh considering the many charges they are already deducting daily. Pls consider the common man and do something. Thank you  Mustapha Hadi, GMCPN (@musteehadee) October 20, 2019

In reaction, Mr Pantami asked the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to ensure that the operator suspends such plans until the government investigate the new charge as it is not aware of it.
Our Reporter

It was all outpouring of emotions and joy, on Friday, at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Alausa on Friday when Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, presented keys to beneficiaries of his administrations maiden rent-to-own housing scheme.

Sanwo-Olu allotted all the apartments of the Lateef Kayode Jakande Housing Estate in Igando to 492 families certified by the States Mortgage Board to benefit from the scheme. The allocation came four months after the housing estate was completed by the Sanwo-Olu administration.

A 56-year-old widow, Mrs. Fatimat Kosoko, betrayed emotion as her name was being announced to benefit in the scheme.

The mother of four, who is a staff of the Ministry of Education, said the scheme had brought a huge relief to her family, eight years after she had been struggling to provide decent accommodation for her children, following husbands demise. She got a 40 per cent rebate on the monthly payment to service the mortgage.

Sanwo-Olu described the development as a promise kept ahead of time, noting that his administrations modified rent-to-own housing scheme took off earlier than expected.

The Governor reiterated that provision of decent homes for a large number of residents across the State remained a key thrust of his administrations social intervention scheme, stressing that his Government had introduced a simple mortgage model to expand the opportunity to low-income families.

The Governor said the delivery of affordable housing to low-income residents underscored irrevocable commitment of his administration to actualise its agenda of building a 21st century economy and attaining Greater Lagos.
The personality clash between incumbent governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki and his estranged political godfather, Adams Oshiomhole, a former governor of the state, has taken a new twist as Obaseki has allegedly demanded for the arrest of Oshiomhole.

In a petition submitted by the Edo state government to the Inspector-General of Police, and Department of State Services, DSS, for the arrest of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who is the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress.

The Governor Godwin Obaseki-led government also wants the former Governor prosecuted by the security agencies.

ALSO READ: 2023: Sacked SGF backs Tinubu for president

Oshiomhole is accused of constantly disobeying the State governments orders.

This was disclosed in Abuja on Monday by the Deputy Governor of the state, Phillip Shuaibu..

aThe Deputy Governor, however, stated that the Edo ex-Governor is still his father, adding that their present differences did not change that fact.
South Africa: Working for water

Ongoing work in South Africas water industry is expected to not only ensure the provision of the precious commodity, but also to respond to challenges.

In the past year, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has made progress in unblocking important reforms and major water resource infrastructure projects that had been delayed.

Progress has the made on the decision to establish the National Water Infrastructure Agency (NWRIA), the reconfiguration of Water Boards and the Catchment Management Agencies.

The agency is envisaged to undertake the building, operation, financing and maintenance of national water resources infrastructure assets, whilst the department retains responsibility for planning, regulation, policy and price setting.

The agency also seeks to ensure sustainable, equitable and reliable supply of water from the national water resources infrastructure.

The department recently closed the extended public consultation process of the draft NWRIA Bill that will establish the agency. The department said that the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) has put in place a task team to consult on the bill and the current lenders to the TCTA [Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority] requested an independent financial and legal review of the implications of the establishment of the NWRIA for their current loans.

These processes are currently underway. When they are completed, we will be taking the bill back to Cabinet with a report on the consultations, recommendations for any amendments to the Bill, and recommendations for the Bill to be submitted to Parliament, the departments Director-General (DG), Dr Sean Phillips, told SAnews.

The department has also set up the Water Partnership Office which is a ring-fenced unit housed within the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA).

The office has been set up to support municipalities to put in place partnerships with the private sector. This is expected to enable more private sector investment in water services, and to enable municipalities to draw more on the expertise and management capacity in the private sector.

Standard partnership programmes are being developed in the areas of non-revenue water, management of waste-water treatment works, water -use, and the general management of the municipal water and sanitation function, says Phillips who was appointed as DG in January 2022.

The office is jointly overseen by the DWS, the DBSA and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA). In addition, the recruitment process for the appointment of a CEO is underway in the office that is currently being managed by DBSA officials.

Water boards

The department has also been working on reconfiguring the countrys water boards in order to improve their financial sustainability and scale. This work is being done to extend services to areas that are not currently serviced and to clarify institutional confusion caused by having multiple water boards serving the same areas. Minister Senzo Mchunu has completed all the decisions regarding the reconfiguration with work is now at implementation phase.

Earlier this year, Parliaments Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation expressed concern that as of 31 December 2022, water boards were owed R16.1 billion due to the non-payment by municipalities clients. This, said the committee, negatively impacts the boards ability to raise funds for capital projects.

Asked about the state of these entities, the Director-General said these are in a relatively good state, but are all affected by the problem of non-payment by municipalities.

Unless this problem is addressed, the financial sustainability of the water boards will increasingly be put at risk.

The department is consulting municipalities on measures to improve revenue collection by the boards. Interventions include bulk prepaid meters to be installed by water boards for municipalities and legal processes to attach municipal bank accounts where necessary.

It also includes the consistent enforcement of water limitations/restrictions for non-paying municipalities as well as collaboration with National Treasury to withhold equitable share allocations for municipalities not paying their current invoices from water boards.

Reliability of supply

While government has made good progress in increasing access to water infrastructure since 1994, municipal challenges remain with the key issue being the reliability of water supply to communities. According to the department, more than 90% of the countrys households now have access to at least a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) level of service in terms of water supply.

However, the reliability of the water supply through municipal water distribution services has deteriorated markedly over the last ten years, so that only 68% of householders now receive a reliable service.

This means that while water services infrastructure may be in place, it often does not function properly or does not provide water of an adequate quality, due to poor maintenance and operation by municipalities, explains Dr Phillips.

The DWS aims to ensure that the remaining 10% of households that do not have supply, obtain access.

In this regard, the department is prioritising working with water boards and municipalities to extend water distribution infrastructure to all areas that are not yet supplied.

For example, the department is working with Lepelle Northern Water and the Mopani District Municipality in Limpopo to ensure the installation of distribution infrastructure to communities in and around Giyani that have never had piped water.

The department prioritises these projects with its Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant and Water Services Infrastructure Grant which it allocates to municipalities.

In addition, the Minister and the department engage with municipalities on an ongoing basis.

The Minister has prioritised the municipalities with the most deteriorated water and sanitation services and in many of these the Minister and mayors have agreed on turnaround action plans which the department is supporting the municipalities to implement.

The department is also addressing the issue through the strengthening of its regulatory functions for municipal water and sanitation service. It is working on revised minimum norms and standards for these services. It is also in the process of standardising its responses to non-compliance with these norms and standards across all its regional offices.

Proposed amendments to the Water Service Act that will enable the Minister to intervene more effectively where there is gross and persistent noncompliance with national norms and standards is also receiving attention.

Floods

Meanwhile, the country has over the years, seen more incidences of flooding which have mainly affected water services infrastructure, with considerable damage to water and sanitation services infrastructure in eThekwini - in particular during the KwaZulu-Natal floods during Easter last year.

National water resource infrastructure such as dams have withstood the floods well and DWS has been releasing water from the dams to protect them as and when required in terms of the hydrological rules governing such releases.

In addition, the department is encouraging municipalities to design and build water services infrastructure with flood-resistance in mind. The department is also encouraging municipalities not to allow the building of human settlements within the 100 year flood lines of rivers.

Water use licenses

Meanwhile, the department has also cleared the backlog in the issuing of water use licenses within 90 days as highlighted by President Cyril Ramaphosa in the 2023 State of the Nation Address.

This feat was achieved through cooperation between the DWS and Operation Vulindlela wherein the department received technical support from Vulilndlela to implement a plan for the granting of water-use licences within reduced timeframes.

The department was able to do this by among others, implementing business process re-engineering on its water use licensing processes (with support facilitated by Operation Vulindlela); the training of staff; the temporarily moving staff to regions with large backlogs of license applications to assist with removing the backlog.

In addition, the department is also in the process of advertising and recruiting more staff for water use licensing which will enable it to process closer to 100% of new applications within 90 days.

There has been a positive response from business and industry. However, they would like us to improve further, which we intend to do, says the departments DG.

Established in October 2020, Vulindlela aims to drive a far-reaching economic reform agenda for the country to shift its economic growth trajectory and enable investment and job creation. The operation is a joint initiative of the Presidency and National Treasury to accelerate the implementation of structural reforms.

The quest to better the countrys water sector is clearly in progress. SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2023-05-03. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
China Focus: Chinese rice breeding tech boosts agricultural development in Asia, Africa

Xinhua) 10:47, May 03, 2023

BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- In a laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in northern Beijing, researchers are busy tagging and editing genes in rice, a key component of the complex breeding process of green super rice (GSR).

As its name suggests, this variety of rice boasts high yields while remaining environmentally friendly.

"We apply the method of genetic screening to put the quality or the traits that we need in the rice," said Xu Jianlong, a professor at the Laboratory for Molecular Rice Breeding under the Institute of Crop Sciences, CAAS.

Since 2008, under the support of Chinese government and the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, the laboratory began to develop GSR varieties to boost the agricultural development in resource-poor areas in Africa and Asia.

"We have been breeding different GSR varieties that are able to adapt to different ecological environments in different countries. In Africa, for example, we breed varieties that are more resilient to drought and high temperature, while in Southeast Asia where typhoons are common, we produce rice that is resilient to collapse and diseases such as bacterial blight," Xu explained.

According to the expert, when super typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines in 2013, all crops of local rice varieties at the island of Leyte were wiped out. "However, the GSR8 variety we trialed planting there showed better tolerance to flooding, drought and salt damage, with a harvest of 1.2 tons per hectare."

The Philippine government then decided to promote the use of GSR8 seeds, resulting in the rapid expansion of GSR variety to cover 430,000 hectares in 2014. As of 2018, the GSR varieties have been promoted in the Philippines for a total of 1.09 million hectares, accounting for 22.64 percent of the country's rice acreage. By 2021, the cumulative area of GSR varieties reached 10.8 million hectares in the Philippines.

Successful stories were also found in other Asian countries. The NIBGE-GSR1, which was promoted in Pakistan, has an average yield of about 9.5 tons per hectare, compared to 7 tons for the local variety. Currently, six GSR varieties, including NIBGE-GSR1, 2, 3, 7, 8, and NIAB GSR39, have been certified by the Pakistani authorities, according to CAAS.

For the CAAS experts, the roll-out of the GSR in Africa has been quite challenging, since the agricultural infrastructure there is relatively poor.

With the technical support of CAAS, Green Agriculture West Africa Ltd., attached to Chinese construction company CGCOC Group, has developed the GSR variety GAWAL R1 to help increase rice production. Validated in Nigeria in 2017, GAWAL R1 yielded about 30 percent more than the local variety Faro 44. With its popularization, the average rice yield across Nigeria rose from 1.98 tons per hectare in 2019 to 2.5 tons per hectare in 2022.

"We will make more efforts to help West African countries establish rice seed industry systems and ease their tight food demand," Xu said.

According to CAAS, over the past decade, 78 GSR varieties developed by the GSR project group have been tested, certified, and promoted in 18 countries and regions in Africa and Asia, with a cumulative planting area of over 6 million hectares, benefiting over 1.6 million farmers.

China's experience in rice cultivation and production has made a significant contribution to the food security of Asian and African countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which launched nearly 10 years ago, Xu said.

As for their future plans, the expert believes that it is very important to "teach them how to breed rice" instead of just "giving them rice."

Currently, 58 postgraduate students from 15 countries are pursuing master's or doctoral degrees in Chinese research institutes.

"Also, we have provided advanced training in GSR breeding techniques to nearly 943 scientists and technicians from 15 countries, and there will be more training in the days to come," Xu said.

The expert believes that using Chinese technology to ensure food security in developing countries is of great importance to the BRI construction and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

"Our ultimate goal is to help farmers in those countries become self-sufficient in rice production," Xu added.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
Hyundai Elevator's headquarters in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province / Courtesy of Hyundai Elevator





By Park Jae-hyuk







Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun continues to face the risk of losing control over Hyundai Elevator, a key subsidiary, as her legal battle with Swiss elevator maker, Schindler, has not yet come to an end, according to sources familiar with this issue, Wednesday.







A court document obtained by The Korea Times showed that a lawsuit Schindler filed in 2020 against the chairwoman and the former directors of Hyundai Elevator is still ongoing, despite her recent payment, in response to a previous legal case, of over 200 billion won ($150 million) in compensation for causing damage to the Korean elevator maker.







Schindler has been rumored for some time to be seeking to gain management control of Hyundai Elevator, which is the only Korean elevator manufacturer and ranks at the top of the domestic market.







"Schindler has suffered difficulties in increasing its share in the Korean market, unlike ThyssenKrupp and Otis, both of which have successfully expanded their presences here," an industry official said.







As the second-largest shareholder of Hyundai Elevator with 15.5 percent stake, Schindler claims the defendants owe the Korean elevator firm an additional 214.8 billion won ($160 million). Hyun holds a 7.83 percent stake in Hyundai Elevator, but is considered to be the largest de facto shareholder, as she and her allies collectively own a combined 26.57 percent stake.







"In the previous lawsuit, the court acknowledged that the defendants had violated their duty of due diligence," one of the sources said on condition of anonymity. "If the chairwoman is defeated in the ongoing litigation, she could also be forced to pay a significant amount of interest in arrears."







In April, Hyun finished paying 170 billion won and interest in arrears to Hyundai Elevator, as the Supreme Court in March accepted Schindler's claim that she had caused damage to the Korean firm by signing derivative financial product contracts between 2006 and 2014. The deal was regarded as an attempt to maintain Hyun's control over Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), an affiliate of Hyundai Group, which is now under the supervision of creditors led by state-run Korea Development Bank.







Schindler filed the previous lawsuit in 2014, after hiring Kim & Chang, Korea's largest law firm which is also dealing with the ongoing litigation. The defendants hired Lee & Ko, Shin & Kim and KHL, which are also major law firms in Korea.







In the ongoing lawsuit, Schindler is asking the defendants to provide additional compensation for Hyundai Elevator, alleging that the Korean elevator firm had suffered financial damage from four decisions made by management.







The plaintiff claimed that the defendants had forced Hyundai Elevator to sign a risky stock swap deal with Daishin Securities in 2010 to gain voting rights at HMM. Schindler also questioned Hyundai Elevator's decision in 2012 to acquire cash-strapped LK Frontier, a real estate developer renamed Hyundai Learning & Training Center. These two claims were dismissed in the previous lawsuit on a technicality.







In addition, the Swiss company argued that the defendants had caused damage to Hyundai Elevator by giving Hyun the rights to buy convertible bonds issued in 2015 and 2016 at lower prices and by establishing Hyundai Movex in 2017 after splitting off Hyundai Elevator's logistics automation business.







When Hyun lost the previous legal battle in March, she handed over her Hyundai Movex stocks to Hyundai Elevator, without selling her share in the elevator firm. As a result, the chairwoman was able to maintain management control over Hyundai Elevator.







The Solidarity for Economic Reform, however, pointed out that compensation for damage from illegal acts should be made in money. The civic group asked Hyundai Elevator's board of directors to clarify whether the payment through the stock handover can bring more benefits to the company.










Pastor Adeboye

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastor E. A Adeboye has been tongue-lashed by Nigerians for saying children of God are exempted from contracting the deadly Coronavirus disease.

Coronavirus which originated in Wuhan China in December 2019 has spread to over 30 countries with a rising death toll of over 5,000 people.

Last week, World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus a pandemic. Countries like America and those under the EU have shut their borders to protect their citizens.

However, Pastor Adeboye in a video shared online said;

I want to assure you that there is no virus that can come near you at all because it is written that those that dwell in the secret place of the most high, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I believe that this is a time for God to show you clearly that there is a difference between those who serve him wholeheartedly and those who do not.

Nigerians are angry that Adeboye implied that the people who have tested positive or died from the virus are not children of God.

See how they tackled hime below:

daddyfreeze: So are you saying that Idris Elba and those little children who contracted the virus are not living in the secret place???

missy_osas: Some times bad things happen to good people it does not mean they did not serve God enough

quamlarry: I wish Edris Elba can sneeze on you right now So those suffering from the disease and dying from the virus do not worship God abi ? Cuz that is what u trying to say ?

sleekmate03: The God I serve shows mercy even to those undeserving of it. ?

entertainforlife: Difference between those who serve him wholeheartedly and those who do not? Sir you sound funny & shallow

somebodys_1stson: Sigh so only those who are not serving God will get infected sigh. I really dont want to say anything sha ?

ozor_iyanga: So the idea now is that Nigerians serve God and others dont. I hope you havent spoken too quickly and you will not deny this statement.

misshembe

God is not a bully. He loves us all?

naijasingles: God doesnt discriminate. those who are going through it now doesnt love God/serve him less. He loves us all his children.

See his post below:
The wife of the Nigerian president, Aisha Buhari, has advised the ruling party, APC, that any government it leads should consider only card-carrying members for political appointments.

She made the call at a dinner to celebrate the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari at Daura Stadium, Kastina State on Thursday.

Mrs Buharis statement at the dinner was sent to PREMIUM TIMES by her spokesperson, Suleiman Haruna.

This paper reported how Mrs Buhari in an unusual outburst last year alleged that a cabal of just two or three persons had caged her husband and was driving people who should help his government away from him.

She said the cabal had created so many problems for her husband, to the point of disconnecting him from the millions of Nigerians who voted for him in the 2015 presidential elections.

She said most of the officials of the government were unknown to the president and the first family, adding that they were usurpers who did nothing to help the APC struggle in 2015.

Speaking in the same vein on Thursday, Mrs Buhari noted that the constitution of the party specifies that appointments to offices in an APC-led government should go to card-carrying members.

She, therefore, advised that the party constitution should be respected.

She expressed appreciation over the support that the party enjoyed in the last presidential election, especially from women and youth and assured them that the government will do more to improve their lives.

I wish to thank the women and youth of this country for the number of votes they gave President Buhari in the 2019 election and to assure that he will continue to do his best to make Nigeria a better country.

Speaking at the event, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, praised the electorate for choosing Mr Buhari, whose integrity, he said, is time-tested.

He assured them that the second term of the president will result in development in all spheres of endeavour.

He commended Mrs Buhari for her initiative of engaging women and youth during the presidential campaign, which he said resulted in the massive votes recorded.

Goodwill messages were delivered by many politicians, including the Woman Leader of the APC Women and Youth Presidential Campaign Team, Binta Muazu, and Fatuhu Mohammed, the senator representing the Daura District.

The event was attended by the wife of the Governor of Katsina State, Zakiyya Masari; wife of the Deputy Governor, Mannir Yakubu, and wife of the Minister of Interior, Hadiza Dambazau.
What do we mean when we talk about Star Wars now?

Do we still mean the movies? Or do we mean the culture that sprouted up around it almost 40 years ago and refuses to go away? Are we talking about planets and monsters from the imagination of George Lucas?

Or the ancillary empire that sprung from those first blockbusters, bedsheets and video games and TV series and amusement park rides? With Star Wars: The Force Awakens opening in December, these questions are about to get even more complicated. The new films, and the films after that, set to arrive annually, until the earth is extinguished by the sun, are post-Lucas enterprises, akin to Disneyland continuing on after Disney. Quite literally: Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012 and does not plan to put the franchise into carbonite. So it seems we need to recognize that, when we talk about liking Star Wars now, we are talking about a massive subculture within pop culture itself.

So, here are what I consider the 20 best things about Star Wars, culture-wide.
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

May 3, 1923: By passing three bills introduced by Senator Hamilton, Republican, Mattoon, the state senate tonight approved of women serving as jurors. Two of the bills provided that county boards and jury commissioners shall place men and woe electors on the jury lists. The third bill provides that women jurors are to be kept separate from male jurors while not deliberating on the verdict and are to be in charge of a woman bailiff.

75 years ago

May 3, 1948: The body of Private Harold W. Morgan, son of Mrs. Freda Morgan, 914 W. Oakland Ave., is being returned to Bloomington. Morgan, a machine gunner in the Fifth Division of the Marine Corps., was killed in action March 5, 1945 on Iwo Jima. Before he entered the service on April 3, 1944, Morgan was employed as a fireman on the Alton railroad. He attended Irving School, Bloomington High School and Illinois State Normal University and was a member of the English Lutheran Church.

50 years ago

May 3, 1973: Three area men were named recipients of the Silver Beaver award at the final annual meeting of the Corn Belt Boy Scout Council. The award, the highest honor a volunteer Scouter can receive, was presented to Robert DeChant and Glen E. Greenseth of Normal and Paul Melvin Lay of El Paso. The council, made up of units in McLean, Livingston, DeWitt and Logan counties, merged with the Creve Coeur and Starved Rock Boy Scout councils in April.

25 years ago

May 3, 1998: Small Wonders, the Normal Parks and Recreation Department's preschool program, is expanding to add a 3-year-old class and separate its 4- and 5-year-old classes. The growth is possible because it is moving to the new Activity and Recreation Center at the former Illinois Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's Home. Instead of sharing one room with other programs, the preschool will have three rooms of its own, plus bathrooms, a teacher's office and a storage area.

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'
LIBRARY BILL OF RIGHTS

The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

V. A persons right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

VI. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

VII. All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect peoples privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.
Question: Of the thousands, albeit millions, of people who have lived in Central Illinois, can you name the former resident who has traveled the farthest?

Answer: It would have to be Clyde W. Tombaugh, born in 1906 near Streator, 24 years later while working at an observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, discovered the dwarf planet, Pluto, died in 1997 and whose ashes these days are aboard a New Horizons spacecraft, launched in 2006 that in 2015 rocketed past Pluto and today is hurtling an estimated 6.2 billion miles from Earth. Tombaughs great-nephew, by the way, is the Los Angeles Dodgers star pitcher, Clayton Kershaw.
A new poll indicates the U.S. Supreme Court, once at the top of the nations most respected national institutions, is plummeting in public approval, with neither Republicans nor Democrats satisfied with the nine justices or their legal opinions. Only slightly more than a third of Americans trust the court.

Americans also strongly disagree with justices lifetime tenure. Although the court shouldnt rule by public opinion, nor will public disapproval determine its future, the judiciary branchs behavior has justified the scrutiny it is receiving.

The abortion issue is one of the big factors affecting the courts current decline in public approval. Controversies surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas repeated ethical breaches certainly dont help the courts image.

The precedent of earlier court rulings is supposed to provide the underpinnings to explain whatever new steps the Supreme Court takes in expanding or restricting constitutional rights. A major part of winning public acceptance of certain controversial rulings is the soundness of the legal argument surrounding it. In too many recent decisions, however, the court majoritys logic has appeared to be based more on ideological and even religious conviction rather than the law.

The more the court appears to veer in that direction, the less acceptance its decisions will have among the general public  and the higher the chances that individuals or governments will look for ways to skirt those rulings. So legitimacy matters, and the courts legitimacy is seriously in question. In April, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York suggested the Biden administration should ignore a Texas federal judges ruling halting approval of the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone. She was followed by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who also said the ruling should be ignored.

On April 21, the Supreme Court overruled the Texas judge and temporarily restored mifepristones legal distribution. But Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote last years ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, took issue with the 7-2 decision to maintain mifepristones availability, justifying his opposition by saying the Government has not dispelled legitimate doubts that it would even obey an unfavorable order in these cases. So Alito seems keenly aware that the court is in danger of having its decisions disobeyed.

When any branch of government veers to the ideological extremes, thats a warning sign. If justices truly value the publics acceptance, they must work harder to enforce a rigorous ethics policy and find a balance in legal interpretation that better resonates with the population that must cope with the consequences of their rulings.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Barely a year after being launched, Tale Beer has won three awards at the prestigious African Beer Cup held in Cape Town, South Africa. The awards recognize and celebrate excellence in the African beer industry, and Tale Beer emerged as a top performer.



Being the first Ghanaian beer to have ever won an award at the African Beer Cup , the beer made its mark emerging with three awards in various categories. Tale is brewed with locally sourced raw materials with over 70% un-husked grains. To ensure clarity of the beer without stripping flavour or aroma, the beer is passed through a centrifuge filtration system. The beer range consists of Farmhouse Ale (Tale 5 - Green) Hibiscus IPA (Tale 6 - Red), Ginger Triple (Tale 7 - Yellow), and Cocoa Stout (Tale 8 - Black), which are a tribute to the national colours of Ghana.



The incredible flavours of the Tale Beers have shown distinctiveness at the African Beer Cup with the Farmhouse Ale winning the Gold medal, the Ginger Triple winning Silver and the Cocoa Stout walking away with a Bronze medal.

Speaking about the awards, Kristof Henot the Managing Director of Specialty Beers Ghana Limited (SBGL), brewers of Tale Beer said: We are honoured to receive these awards, which are a reflection of the hard work and dedication of our team. We are committed to brewing beer that not only satisfies the taste buds of consumers but also reflects the rich cultural heritage of Ghana. We will continue to innovate and push the boundaries of what is possible in the African beer industry



Tale Beer is a high-end selection of unique African craft beers, brewed right here in Nsawam, Ghana. These awards are a testament of our commitment to brewing high-quality beers that resonates with consumers across Ghana and beyond, he added.



SBGL launched Tale in 2022 and the beer has quickly established itself as a contending player in Ghana's brewing industry. With this recent success, SBGL looks set to continue its growth and cement its position as one of the best craft beer brands in Africa.



The company invested in developing its recipes with the assistance of a Belgian university using mainly adjuncts available in Ghana such as broken rice, hereby replacing imported malted barley.



The African Beer Cup recently held its annual competition in Cape Town, with 242 beers from 20 African countries evaluated by a panel of 52 judges from 16 different countries. The competition is unique in that each beer is judged twice and all judging is blind, with judges focusing on stylistic accuracy rather than personal preference. The awards ceremony took place at the Woodstock Brewery in Cape Town on April 22.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Professor Kofi Agyekum has advised workers in the country to check their attitude at work.



Speaking to Nana Yaw Kesseh on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show, the Head of Linguistics of the University of Ghana, Professor Kofi Agyekum, popularly referred to as Opanyin Agyekum, asked workers to be diligent.



He expressed disgust at the way and manner some workers wander around at their workplaces, hence urging them to be serious with work.



"The attitude of some of us towards work is not encouraging. It doesn't please God. Sometimes, you will go to an office and find the female workers doing makeup and frolicking and the guys also fidgeting with their beard, you ask yourself did these people come to work or not? So, as we hope for government to make our living conditions better, we should also resolve to serve efficiently," he said.



Listen to full submissions below:





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Hon. Dr. Henry Kwabena Kokofu Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been elected as the West Africa-sub regional coordinator for the AfriMAB BUREAU in Rwanda.



The 7th General Assembly of the African network of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (AfriMAB) is being held in Musanze, Rwanda from 2-5th May, 2023.



AfriMAB comprises MAB national committees and UNESCO Biosphere Reserves in sub-Saharan Africa.



Participants for this years event include Ghana, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, among others.



Ghana was represented by Dr. Henry K. Kokofu, Chairman of the Ghana MAB National Committee and Head of Delegation, and Sylvester Koranteng, representative of the National Secretariat and Ghana MAB Youth Network.



During the election of the AfriMAB Bureau, Ghana was elected as the West African sub- Regional Coordinator.



Ghana hopes to deepen collaborations with partners in the sub region and beyond to promote the MAB concept and work to achieve the objectives of the AfriMAB and the World Network.



It is envisaged that research opportunities will be explored to further improve the restoration efforts through Biosphere Reserves as we strive to achieve sustainable development.





Speaking after his swearing in, the Executive Director of the EPA, Dr. Kwabena Kokofu said Ghana has come this far through the tacit support and commitment of H.E the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Hon Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, Minister for Environment Science, Technology and Innovation.



He indicated that as the Sub- Regional Coordinator Ghana "will also continue to promote knowledge exchanges and experience sharing on sustainable practices in the attainment of the Ecosystem Restoration agenda"

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Then-presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol speaks against the backdrop of a nuclear plant in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province, Dec. 22, 2022. Yonhap



By Lee Kyung-min



Korea should fortify cooperation with the U.S. in the global nuclear reactors market dominated by Russia and China, a report said Wednesday.



Most viable, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) report said, is seeking joint projects in the area of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU), the stable supply of which is critical for the U.S. to advance the small modular reactors (SMR) industry.



HALEU cooperation will help Korea and the U.S. align interests, mostly through keeping in check Russia, the sole and exclusive supplier of HALEU. Korea in the process can generate export income underpinned by engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects and strengthen supply chains with the U.S.



The mutually beneficial relationship will help revitalize the local industry after a yearslong slowdown brought on by the nuclear phase-out policy of the previous Moon Jae-in administration.



According to the report, of the 34 nuclear reactors under construction in 13 countries as of 2022, 23, or 67.6 percent, were sold by Russia. Four more were exported by China, accounting for 11.7 percent.



Anchoring Russia's market dominance is the country's State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM).



The state-run entity provides what the report characterizes as a "one-stop" package whereby a single project encompasses the construction of nuclear reactors, funding, uranium enrichment for fuel supplies, operation and maintenance of power plants thereafter.



The report adds that its decades of experience in what buyers consider thorough execution capabilities remains the driver of close energy cooperation between Russia and 43 countries.



As for China, the nuclear energy system export drive is led by three of its state-run entities  China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) and State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC).



China falls short of Russia in experience exporting nuclear energy systems. But the country's export directives under its Belt and Road Initiative, coupled with the massive size of its market, spurred the advancement of its nuclear energy technologies.



China has exported its own domestically developed Hualong One nuclear reactors to Argentina and Pakistan. It provided about 80 percent in funding for the construction of the reactors at a low rate with extended loan maturity.



It signed an agreement with Kazakhstan, the largest producer of uranium accounting for 45 percent of the global uranium supply, to establish a stable nuclear fuel supply chain.



Korea should be able to restore the nuclear energy market vibrancy, provided that the U.S. agrees to bolster joint cooperation to neutralize the combined forces of Russia and China, which present an emerging security threat, the report said.



"The U.S. is proposing a number of bills to fortify the competitiveness of its nuclear energy sector, in a legislative move to help elevate the private sector-led industry as a global leader," the report said. "A Korea-U.S. energy alliance will be able to reinvigorate local players still reeling from the anti-nuclear drive fanned after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan."


Data from the Forestry Commission of Ghana has shown that thirty-four (34) of the countrys forest reserves are under threat to illegal mining, locally-known as galamsey.



The Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, John M. Allotey, made this known at a press briefing on the State of Ghanas Forest Reserves, at the Ministry of Information.



According to him, the total forest cover gazetted to serve as reserves and habitats of wildlife is gradually shrinking as a result of illegal mining activities.



Seven out of the sixteen regions have been experiencing some form of illegal mining. Out of this, thirty-four reserves have been affected. These are areas where you have significant illegal mining. The total area that has been mapped is about 4, 722 hectares of forest lands have been impacted. But then this is only the surface. Some of these impact results in very deep holes and they excavate a lot of materials that will also impact on the forest, he said.



In his submission, John Allotey explained that forest areas such as Tano Nimiri, Bonsa River, and Apamprama Forest Reserves, in the Western North, Western and the Ashanti Regions, have been heavily impacted by the menace.



He further added that as a Commission they try their best to flash out illegal miners in some of the forest reserves, but there are some areas being mined with rented armed guards who end up fighting them back.



We have three forest reserves that have been classified as a the most difficult areas, these places are having active illegal mining happening and they have rented security and they are in the Bekwai forest district, he added.



The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, indicated that the government remains resolute in fighting the illegal mining menace in the country.



Below is a list of some forest regions impacted by galamsey activities;



Nkawie Forest Region

(Jimira, Tano Offin South, Offin Shelterbelt, Asenanyo)



Bekwai Forest Region

(Oda River, Denyau, Bomsontwe Range, Apamprama, Subin Shelterbelt, Supuma)



Mankranso Forest Region

(Desiri)



Asankregua Forest Region

(Tonton, Fure River, Totua)



Tarkwa Forest Region

(Nueng South, Bonsa River)



Takoradi

(Subri River)



Bibiani

(Ahwianso East, Upper Wassaw, Afao Hills)



Enchi

(Tano Anwhia, Tano Nimire)







Source: ghanaweb.com









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A former columnist suing Donald Trump over an alleged rape nearly 30 years ago has testified she launched the case "to try and get my life back".



E Jean Carroll told the New York civil rape and defamation trial she had been unable to have a romantic life since the alleged assault.



Ms Carroll claims Mr Trump accosted her in a Manhattan department store in 1996.

He has consistently denied her accusations as "fiction". "I'm here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he lied and said it didn't happen," Ms Carroll told a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday. "He lied and shattered my reputation, and I'm here to try and get my life back."



Ms Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, testified that the encounter with Mr Trump initially began with flirtatious banter after he approached her at the Bergdorf Goodman store and asked if she would help him buy a gift for a friend.



She said the banter quickly took a turn when Mr Trump asked her to try on a piece of lingerie and followed her into a dressing room. Once inside, she claimed, he closed the door, held her against the wall and raped her. "As I'm sitting here today I can still feel it," she told the court.



She tried to push Mr Trump off, saying it was clear she didn't want it to happen, she said. The "extremely painful" encounter was over within minutes, she said, and she quickly left the department store.

In the years since, she has felt guilty about her decision to enter the dressing room, Ms Caroll said on Wednesday.



Ms Carroll said she told two friends about the attack, who gave conflicting advice about whether she should go public with her story.



In his questioning, Ms Carroll's lawyer seemed to anticipate questions she may face from Mr Trump's team, including whether she was motivated to sue the former president for political reasons. Ms Carroll, who has voted only for Democratic candidates, said she was not.



Mr Trump, who is running in the 2024 presidential election, has repeatedly denied her allegations.

On Wednesday, on a series of posts on his social media website, he called the account a "fraudulent and false story" and called it into question. "She didn't scream? There are no witnesses? Nobody saw this?" he wrote.

Mr Trump's post was brought to the attention of US District Judge Lewis Kaplan before witnesses took the stand.



The judge admonished Mr Trump's legal team for their client's behaviour and said the post was "a public statement that, on the face of it, seems entirely inappropriate". Mr Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, told the judge he would ask his client to "refrain from any further posts on this case".

As of Wednesday it was not immediately clear if the former president planned to appear in court in the case, which is expected to last two weeks.



Ms Carroll, 79, will return to the stand on Thursday, where she will likely face cross examination.

She is seeking unspecified damages from Mr Trump, 76. In 2022, New York passed the Adult Survivors Act, which allowed a one-year period for victims to file sexual assault lawsuits in the state over claims that would have otherwise exceeded statute limitations.













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Russia has released a video claiming two Ukranian drones attempted assassinating president Vladimir Putin.

Two drones were flown toward the Kremlin last night, May 2 but Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said.



"No one was injured as a result of their fall and scattering of fragments," state media RIA Novosti reported.

A social media video appears to show some smoke in the vicinity of the Kremlin, but it is unclear what the source of the smoke is.



The Kremlin Press Service called the drone attack an "attempt on the Presidents life" and a "terrorist act." "Russia reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit," it added.



Kyiv is approximately 862 kilometers (about 535 miles) from Moscow. Russia has accused Ukraine of multiple attempted drone strikes deep inside Russian territory, including one earlier this year when the governor of the Moscow region claimed a Ukrainian drone had crashed near the village of Gubastovo southeast of the capital.



State media later posted a photograph of what it said was the crashed device, which appeared to resemble a Ukrainian-made UJ-22 attack drone, a relatively small and versatile drone with the ability to fly through poor weather and to travel up to 500 miles (800 kilometers). Its unclear where or when the photo of the crashed drone was taken.



Watch the videos below

JUST IN: Ukraine accused of ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT on Vladimir Putin with drone strike on the Kremlin..



We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the president..



pic.twitter.com/TWZlZoLqbK  Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) May 3, 2023







 BREAKING: The Kiev regime attempted a drone attack on the Kremlin, targeting a assassination attempt on Putin  Kremlin



Russia has accused Ukraine of attempting a drone attack on the Kremlin with the aim of killing President Putin.



The Kremlin said it reserves the right to pic.twitter.com/P5sXi3fA1h  Russian Victory is Inevitable  (@WinRussiawill) May 3, 2023









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The nomination of Justice Gertrude Torkornoo as the next Chief Justice has been referred to the Appointments Committee of the House for consideration and approval.



This was announced by The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu following an official communication from the President to Parliament on the appointment of Justice Gertrude Torkornoo as the Chief Justice to succeed Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah who is due for retirement on May 24, 2023.



Justice Torkornoo is the third Chief Justice to be approved by the President Akufo-Addo since he assumed office in January 2017.



She will also become Ghanas third female Chief Justice in history.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in a letter to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, urged him to help quickly facilitate the approval of her nomination.



















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The Office of the Attorney General (AG) has filed a motion urging the High Court in Accra to impose a custodial sentence on convicted William Ato Essien after failing to pay his first installment of GH20 million to the state on April 28 deadline.



Ato Essien, the founder of the defunct Capital Bank on December 13, last year, escaped jail after the court had accepted his agreement with the state to pay GH60 million on three installments of GH20 million beginning April 28.



This was after he had already paid GH30 million of the GH90 million sum after negotiating with the State under Section 35 of the Courts Act, which allows him to pay restitution and escape jail term.



Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, a Justice of the Court of Appeal who presided over that case, ordered him to pay the money in three installments.



The court said, should the convict miss the deadline by an hour, he should be brought to the court for a custodial sentence to be imposed.



Four days after the deadline, the AG said, a search conducted at the Comptroller and Accountant Generals Department indicates that the convict has not paid any money to the state as per the orders of the court.



The AG per a motion filed at the High Court on Tuesday, May 2, is praying the court to impose a custodial sentence on Ato Essien.



On 28th April 2023, the applicant (State) wrote to the Controller and Accountant General to ascertain whether as at close of day on the 28th April 2023 the respondent had paid the GH20,000,000 as contained in the agreement and in fulfillment of the orders of the Court, the motion filed on Tuesday, May 2 indicated.



It said, in a response dated 2nd May 2023. the Controller and Accountant General informed the applicant that no such payment had been made by the respondent (copies of the said letters attached herewith and marked as Exhibits AG1 and AG2).



That having failed to fulfill a condition imposed on him by this Honourable Court under section 35 of the Courts Act, the outstanding amount under the agreement has become due and the respondent is liable to a custodial sentence by the Court, the AG urges.



According to EIB Networks Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, the motion would be moved on Thursday, May 11, 2023.





Source: starrfm









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Former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, Kwabena Agyepong has stated that no one person can claim to be the main financier of the party because the NPP has been financed at different times by different persons for different reasons.



This is in response to a recent back and forth with Assin Central Member of Parliament, Kennedy Agyapong, over the latter's claim that he supported the party with a US$3m loan in 1992.



Kwabena had earlier disputed the claim citing the logistical challenges that he was privy to in 1992 and the unfavourable political conditions at the time.



In the wake of confirmation of the transaction by a partner of the Assin Central MP, Mr. Oppong Bio, Agyepong has conceded that he may have been oblivious to certain details but that it was immaterial to the extent that the party is supported by all members with the capacity so to do.



He mentioned the names of persons including President Kufuor, indicating that President Kufuor led them to take a loan for Adu Boahenes campaign. President Kufuor is alive and so is Kwame MpianinI dont want to go further into the matter.



"If you claim certain things happened and some persons are aware, it is possible. But dont go about bragging that you initiated it and paid off a loan for campaigns in 1992.



"There are a lot of people who have supported the party in one way or the other, he said in an interview on Kumasi-based Hello FM.







Source: ghanaweb.com









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Otiko Afisah Djaba has stated that she has no regrets turning down an ambassadorial job in 2018 after she was removed as Minister of Gender at the end of the first term of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.



The one-time New Patriotic Party National Womens Organizer said the best thing that ever happened to her was to decline the posting to Italy by the president and to retire from politics.



She cited the need to have ample time for her kids who she had long neglected as the main motivation to reject the ambassadorial job and to leave active politics.



Her four children had to contend with an absentee mother for years because of her work in the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) space and later into full time party and national politics, she said on the May 2 edition of the GTV Breakfast Show.



Id worked for sixteen years, I had four children, I was waking up at 2 am, 5 am to go to work all over the country. I became an absentee mother, I had the right to spend time with my children.



Asked about her rejection of the 2018 job, she responded: It is the best thing that ever happened to me, for me to decline going to Italy and the best thing that ever happened to me to come out of development to go into politics, she stressed.



She expressed gratitude to the NPP stating that prior to politics she was working in 98 communities, it would have been impossible to achieve all of these things that I have told you, so I am very grateful to my party.



Otiko Djaba aside having to cater for her kids added that her bedridden ex-husband was another reason she opted to leave active politics in order to attend to him.



She once contested the Bole Bamboi seat on the NPPs ticket but lost to then John Dramani Mahama, later to become Vice President and President of the Republic.





I'm very angry with my government - Otiko Afisah Djaba, Former Gender Minister pic.twitter.com/fksDyohTa6  Kafui Dey (@KafuiDey) May 2, 2023







Source: ghanaweb.com









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Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has begun engaging key stakeholders of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to inform them about his intention to run for the presidency, DGN Online can report.



He has informed the Majority Caucus in Parliament of his decision to contest the governing partys presidential primaries when nominations are opened later part of May.



Dr. Bawumia reportedly made his intention known in a private engagement of a heavily attended Majority Caucus of Parliament meeting held in the evening of Tuesday, May 2, 2023.



The Vice Presidents believes that with the current achievement of the party, when members are united and persevered they can break the 8-year cycle of the countrys political cycle with him.



He has gone ahead to carve message which reads Unity and perseverance. Together we can succeed. It is possible.



Already, over 100 Members of Parliament (MPs) have declared their support for Dr. Bawumia who had been heavily tipped to win the NPP presidential primaries for the 2024 general election.

According to him, he is ready to work with all MPs to win majority seats in Parliament and top it up with the presidency.



Accompanied by his spokesperson, Dr Gideon Boako, with Nana Akomea, former Communications Director of the party also at the meeting, the Vice President delivered his message after which he took questions from the MPs who appeared satisfied.



The MPs believe the second gentleman of the land is the one who can help the governing party achieve its objective of breaking the 8.



On Tuesday 4 April 2023, Dr. Bawumia gave the strongest indication yet that he will be contesting the flagbearership race in his bid to lead the NPP for 2024 general elections.



In a post he made on Facebook page, Vice President drew a link between what seems to be his presidential ambition with a Biblical verse, Matthew 19:26. Dr Bawumia posted a picture which had the Ghana flag at the left and the NPPs flag at the right with the inscription It Is Possible at the top of the two flags.



This attracted several comments and shares on the social media platform with most people asking him to officially declare his intention.



NPP has set November 4, 2023, as the date for its presidential primaries to select a flagbearer for the general election in 2024.



However, if more than five candidates file to run in the primaries, the party will hold a Special Congress on August 26 to cut the number to five for the main primaries.



But about 10 people have so far declared their intention to contest the NPP presidential primaries including former Trade and Industry Minister Alan Kyerematen, MP for Assin Central Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, former Minister for Food and Agriculture Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, former Minister for Energy Boakye Agyarko, former Minster for Railway Development Joe Ghartey, former General Secretary, Kwabena Agyei Agyapong and former MP for Mampong, Francis Addai Nimoh.



The nomination period for the presidential primaries will begin on May 26 and end on June 24, 2023.

The party has also announced that parliamentary primaries will be held in February 2024.

Nominations will be accepted between December 20, 2023, and January 4, 2024.



This means NPP will choose its Presidential Candidate before its parliamentary candidates.







Source: Daily Guide









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The National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party, Salam Mustapha, has encouraged the youth of the party to use their social media profiles to highlight government projects being implemented throughout the country.



As part of his TESCON (Tertiary Students Confederacy) Friday initiative, which aims to showcase the work of the President Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party government, Mustapha is currently touring the country. TESCON is the student wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).



Mustapha has urged NPP members to participate in TESCON Friday by posting a 30-second video of any government project in their constituency, wearing NPP colors and using the hashtag #tesconfriday in their posts.



According to him, this is necessary to exhibit the incredible work that the NPP under President Akufo-Addo has accomplished throughout the country.



TESCON Friday



Last Friday (April 28), the TESCON members led by the National Youth organiser took to social media to showcase numerous projects being undertaken by the government as part of the initiative.



The National Youth organiser and his national Tescon Cordinators posted videos of both finished and ongoing projects across the country.



He encouraged everyone to get involved and share pictures and videos of new roads, hospitals, or other ongoing projects, stating that people should not think nothing is happening just because they are sitting in Accra.



He urged NPP TESCONITES, friends, young people, and everyone to take part in this initiative and show the rest of the country what the government is doing.



"We have to showcase across the country, the amazing work that the NPP led by President Akufo-Addo has been doing," he said in a Facebook post.



"...If they ask you what are your taxes being used for, tell them don't sit in Accra and think nothing is happening just come across the country and you will be amazed at what this government is doing.



"I entreat NPP TESCONITES, friends, young people, everybody, get involved and show what the government is doing everywhere you see a new road, hospital or project ongoing".











Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Executive Director of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson has refuted claims that a recent scientific research by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) showed former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffour to top the NDC presidential primaries.



A publication by The Informer newspaper, on Wednesday, May 3, under the headline "EIU chooses Duffour Over Mahama" had said that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) stands a good chance of winning the 2024 elections if it puts its house in order.



" . . putting its house in order entails discarding former President John Dramani Mahama as its standard-bearer and instead embracing, with hands and feet, the astute economist and former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffour," the paper said.



The newspaper quoted portions from the EIU research to support their claim, stating the "former President, John Mahama, launched his campaign to secure the NDC presidential candidacy in March. However, the NDC could also choose to revitalise its prospects with a fresh candidate, such as Kwabena Duffour, a former Finance Minister, who has also declared his intention to secure the party candidacy".



But Mr. Mensah Thompson, speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', described the publication as falsehood.



According to him, "there is absolutely nowhere in the EIU report that the EIU chose Duffour over Mahama".



Further examining the publication, he noted that the author wasn't even bold to assert where the EIU report clearly meant that the EIU had placed Dr. Duffour ahead of Mr. Mahama.



He, however, ticked John Mahama as the next suitable Presidential candidate for the NDC saying, "there is absolutely no way anybody in their remotest of imagination can say any candidate in the NDC now can win the NDC 2024 elections other than John Mahama".





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Border patrol agents and Texas Army National Guard soldiers detain migrants, who were hiding in thick brush, after they crossed the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico in La Joya, Texas, U.S., March 17. Reuters-Yonhap



President Joe Biden's administration will temporarily send 1,500 additional troops to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, in preparation for a possible rise in illegal immigration when COVID-19 border restrictions lift later this month.



The 90-day deployment of active-duty troops will supplement the work of the U.S. Border Patrol but not carry out law enforcement duties, Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement. They will conduct ground-based monitoring, data entry and warehouse support to free up border agents and "fill critical capability gaps," Ryder said.



The force will be in addition to an ongoing deployment of about 2,500 National Guard troops.



The so-called Title 42 restrictions, set to end on May 11, allow U.S. authorities to rapidly expel non-Mexican migrants to Mexico without the chance to seek asylum.



Biden, a Democrat running for reelection in 2024, has grappled with record numbers of migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since he took office in 2021.



Republicans have criticized Biden for rolling back the hardline policies of Republican former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for his party's nomination. Some Democrats and immigration activists also have lambasted Biden for gradually toughening his approach to border security.



Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Biden's decision to send troops was unacceptable.



"Trying to score political points or intimidate migrants by sending the military to the border caters to the Republican Party's xenophobic attacks on our asylum system," Menendez said in a statement.



The 1,500 troops could arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border by May 10, Ryder said during a briefing. The Pentagon is looking at ways to replace the active-duty personnel with those from the reserve force, he said.



Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, when asked about the troop deployment in a news conference, said the U.S. is a sovereign nation and that Mexico respects its decisions.





Migrants camp between the two border fences as they wait for authorities to request asylum in San Ysidro, California, U.S., as seen from Tijuana, Mexico, April 30. Reuters-Yonhap
Former President John Mahama has said he will fix the free senior high school (SHS) programme if he wins the 2024 presidential election.



Speaking at a campaign tour in Kongo in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region, Mr Mahama who is seeking a comeback, said the current form of the free SHS programme is appalling and counterproductive.



In his view, it is rather encumbering students and parents instead of its intended purpose of providing some academic and financial respite.



Free SHS is not working properly," he told the delegates on his tour, explaining that neither the parents nor students are reaping its fruits.



"I can tell you today that the money we are spending on our children to go to school is far more than when we used to pay school fees," Mr Mahama said.



We are going to repair the free SHS and make it better and create the situation that when school reopens, all the children will go together and when they vacate they all come home together.



He also repeated an earlier call for the resignation of Health Minister Kweku Agyemang-Manu over the "failed" national health insurance scheme.



The NHIL is completely destroyed. The minister himself said there is no benefit to the NHIL card and that when he goes to the hospital, he pays cash and that was why I said he should resign," Mahama said.



He promised: "NDC is coming to make it better.





Source: ghanaweb.com









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Bernard Allotey Jacobs has jumped to the defence of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government about the criticisms on the government's performance with particular emphasis on reducing the prices of petroleum products.



Petrol prices, although currently stabilizing, however is still on high and the Akufo-Addo government has come under intense criticisms.



The President is blamed for the hikes in petrol prices but to Allotey Jacobs, the blame cannot be laid on the President.



Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' morning show, the former NDC Regional Chairman argued that no government can reduce the prices of petrol.



He expounded that from the era of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first President, petrol prices have been fluctuating, therefore asserting that any candidate who says he will reduce fuel prices is a "bloody liar".



"Nobody can bring the prices of petrol down. If someone says today that 1 gallon of petrol will sell for GHC 5, that person is a big liar. The person is a fraudster. Nobody, no government, no party can say if it is 12.66 pesewas per liter, they can make it 5 cedis per liter. That person is a bloody liar," he exclaimed.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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As we mentioned, almost 80 percent of Americans said they've had a package stolen from their porch  that's an increase of 15 percent over 2021. And the 2022 report shows that 40 percent of Americans said they plan to shop for their holiday gifts online, which means more packages on more porches at risk for theft. Holiday packages are typically more valuable, too, which provides more incentive for thieves.

Even if you have a home security system or a doorbell camera like a Ring, that's not enough to prevent package theft. In fact, the SmartWise survey found that 35 percent of homeowners whose packages were stolen had a security camera or video doorbell camera installed. Just do a YouTube search for "porch pirate" and you'll see dozens of these thieves caught in the act.

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What's worse is police make arrests in less than 10 percent of home package theft cases reported to them, Steven Malanga wrote for City Journal. And even if the cops do make an arrest, the thieves often are only charged with misdemeanors.

"Package theft is a low-risk crime," Dr. Ben Stickle, an expert on criminal justice and package theft, said in the report. "What's more, the risk is very low as well, and punishment, even if caught, is minimal. Additionally, the media attention given to package thieves may draw more people into the crime as they're made aware of the opportunity."

" " Nothing looks more enticing to a package thief than a front porch decked out for the holidays, full of boxes and packages. Don't be this homeowner. Chad Robertson Media/Shutterstock
" " The U.S. Supreme Court in its official portrait Oct. 7, 2022. The court will hear two cases this term which could determine the fate of affirmative action in the U.S. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. military learned a valuable lesson about race during the Vietnam War: Diversity does not happen without affirmative action.

That helps explain why a distinguished group of 35 military officials wrote a brief to the Supreme Court supporting the use of race as a part of college admissions  as the U.S. military has done at its four service academies over the last nearly 50 years.

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While the Supreme Court has agreed in the past that racial diversity on college campuses is an important goal, the problem is just how to achieve that goal without using race as a factor.

In two cases that are expected to determine the fate of affirmative action programs across the country, the court heard oral arguments Oct. 31, 2022, that could bring an end to using race as one of many factors in college admissions decisions.

Questions from the justices reflected the ideological divisions on the court. Conservative justices argued that race-based admissions policies had no defined end point.

"I don't see how you can say that the program will ever end," Chief Justice John Roberts said.

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas cut right to the point in his questions.

"I may be tone-deaf when it comes to all these other things that happen on campus, about feeling good and all that," Thomas said to one of the attorneys defending affirmative action. "I'm really interested in a simple thing: What benefits academically are there to your definition or the diversity that you're asserting."

In sharp contrast, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor reminded the court that diversity was deemed an issue of national importance in previous rulings and that without such programs, the number of historically disadvantaged applicants decreases substantially.

"What we know," Sotomayor said about the nine states who have tried dropping affirmative action programs, "in each of them, white admissions have either remained the same or increased. And clearly, in some institutions, the numbers for underrepresented groups has fallen dramatically, correct?"
" " Tibetan prayer flags flutter above Tilicho Lake in Nepal. Frank Bienewald/LightRocket/Getty Images

If you ever get a chance to wander the streets of Dharamshala, India  the residence of the Dalai Lama  or Nepal's capital city of Kathmandu, then you'll almost certainly come across at least a few iconic Tibetan prayer flags floating on the breeze. You even may have encountered them somewhere in your daily life.

But just what are these colorful flags fluttering in the wind and what do they signify to the Tibetan people? As we will see, Tibetan prayer flags can symbolize many different things and have a rich, complex history with roots in both Buddhist and ancient Indigenous religious practices.

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"The printing and hanging of prayer flags is a Tibetan practice, given the many mountain passes where prayer flags are typically hung," emails Donald S. Lopez Jr., a distinguished professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies at the University of Michigan and author of the book "Religions of Tibet in Practice."
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Graphical abstract. Credit: Molecular Systems Biology (2023). DOI: 10.15252/msb.202211320

It's the quiet bacteria that you've got to watch out for, the bacteria that can survive antibiotic treatments by forming dormant, drug-tolerant "persisters." These persister bacteria can wake up after treatment and prolong infections.

Persisters were first described about 80 years ago in some of the first studies of the antibiotic penicillin. Later, it was discovered that these bacteria didn't have genetic resistance to antibioticsthey basically go dormant, hibernating, essentially hiding from the treatment that has been designed to kill them.

How they wake up again has remained a mystery. But researchers with the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University are working to solve it. Along the way they've developed a better understanding of how bacteria can resist the therapeutic power of antibiotics, which could lead to more effective treatments down the road.

"These persisters don't have the genes that can inactivate an antibiotic, but they still survive treatment," said Kyle Allison, whose lab recently published its work in the journal Molecular Systems Biology. In fact, their study made the cover of the print edition published this month.

"Persisters are thought to play a role in a lot of different kinds of chronic infections," Allison said. "We approached them like an engineering problem. Rather than trying to invent or discover a brand-new antibiotic, perhaps all we need to do is understand why these bacteria survive."

Most studies of persisters focus on figuring out how they form. But Allison reasoned that the therapeutically interesting question is: How do they wake up or resuscitate from their dormant state?

"It's a challenge to study this because these are rare cells, and bacterial cells are very small, so they're hard to track and it's hard to monitor their behaviors," said Allison. "So, we developed methods that can look at thousands of cells at high magnification over long periods of time. That enabled us to study resuscitationthe waking-up moment for these persister cells in a statistically rigorous way."

Allisonwhose partner in the study was lead author Xin Fang, a postdoc in his labsaid they expected the bacterial cells to wake up randomly, which would be consistent with past studies into the phenomenon. But the activity of individual persister bacteria cells had never been verified. Through their close inspection, using single-cell time-lapse microscopy, Allison and Fang noticed that persisters wake up at an accelerated rate after antibiotic treatment.

"This led to some interesting questions," Allison said. "Was the antibiotic having an effect on the dormant persisters? They were thought to hibernate, to be oblivious to the antibiotic. But we saw that the antibiotic actually does have an effectthe more antibiotic they get during treatment, the slower they are to wake back up. We were even able to show that there is some damage in the persisters from the antibiotic treatment, and many persisters actually appear to discard that damage."

Basically, it looked as if some persisters were actually sacrificing themselves, allowing the group to wake up and develop colonies. The persisters seemed to be enabling their own survival by partitioningallowing some to die off so the rest can survive.

And the researchers saw this behavior when they studied multiple, different pathogens (escherichia coli, salmonella enterica, pseudomonas aeruginosa, and klebsiella pneumoniae) that cause completely different types of infection and have different mechanisms for tolerating antibiotics.

"The fact that they all have this cellular partitioning when they wake up after antibiotic treatment was pretty surprising," Allison said. "It indicates the possibility that this non-genetic mechanism allows bacteria to survive in patients."

Allison has been interested in the subject of antibiotic resistance since he was in graduate school. While he can't claim that this resuscitation phenomenon is widespread in patients, the fact that the researchers observed it happening in lab samples, and randomly chosen patient samples, "is probably pretty significant," he said. "It hints strongly that this may be an important mechanism underlying treatment failure in bacteria that lack genetic resistance."

More information: Xin Fang et al, Resuscitation dynamics reveal persister partitioning after antibiotic treatment, Molecular Systems Biology (2023). DOI: 10.15252/msb.202211320 Journal information: Molecular Systems Biology
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Here are some scientific findings worthy of a toast: Researchers from Brown University and the University of Toulouse in France have explained why bubbles in champagne fizz up in a straight line while bubbles in other carbonated drinks, like beer or soda, don't.

The findings, described in a new study published in Physical Review Fluids , are based on a series of numerical and physical experiments, including, of course, pouring out glasses of champagne, beer, sparkling water and sparkling wine. The results not only explain what gives champagne its line of bubbles but may hold important implications for understanding bubbly flows in the field of fluid mechanics.

"This is the type of research that I've been working out for years," said Brown engineering professor Roberto Zenit, who was one of the paper's authors. "Most people have never seen an ocean seep or an aeration tank but most of them have had a soda, a beer or a glass of champagne. By talking about champagne and beer, our master plan is to make people understand that fluid mechanics is important in their daily lives."

The team's goal was to investigate the stability of bubble chains in carbonated drinks. Part of the signature experience of enjoying these beverages is the tiny or large bubbles that form when the drink is poured, creating a visible chain of bubbles and fizz. Depending on the drink and its ingredients, the fluid mechanics involved are all different.

When it comes to champagne and sparkling wine, for instance, the gas bubbles that continuously appear rise rapidly to the top in a single-file line and keep doing so for some time. This is known as a stable bubble chain. With other carbonated drinks, like beer, many bubbles veer off to the side, making it look like multiple bubbles are coming up at once. This means the bubble chain isn't stable.

The researchers set out to explore the mechanics of what makes bubble chains stable and if they could recreate them, making unstable chains as stable as they are in champagne or prosecco.

The results of their experiments indicate that the stable bubble chains in champagne and other sparkling wines occur due to ingredients that act as soap-like compounds called surfactants. These surfactant-like molecules help reduce the tensions between the liquid and the gas bubbles, making for a smooth rise to the top.

"The theory is that in champagne these contaminants that act as surfactants are the good stuff," said Zenit, senior author on the paper. "These protein molecules that give flavor and uniqueness to the liquid are what makes the bubbles chains they produce stable."

The experiments also showed the stability of bubbles is impacted by the size of the bubbles themselves. They found that the chains with large bubbles have a wake similar to that of bubbles with contaminants, leading to a smooth rise and stable chains.

In beverages, however, bubbles are always small. It makes surfactants the key ingredient to producing straight and stable chains. Beer, for example, also contains surfactant-like molecules but, depending on the type of beer, the bubbles can rise in straight chains or not. In contrast, bubbles in carbonated water are always unstable since there are no contaminants helping the bubbles move smoothly through the wake flows left behind by the other bubbles in the chain.

"This wake, this velocity disturbance, causes the bubbles to be knocked out," Zenit said. "Instead of having one line, the bubbles end up going up in more of a cone."

The results in the new study go well beyond understanding the science that goes into celebratory toasts, the researchers said. The findings provide a general framework in fluid mechanics for understanding the formation of clusters in bubbly flows, which have economic and societal value.

Technologies that use bubble-induced mixing, like aeration tanks at water treatment facilities, for instance, would benefit greatly from researchers having a clearer understanding of how bubbles cluster, their origins and how to predict their appearance. In nature, understanding these flows may help better explain ocean seeps in which methane and carbon dioxide emerges from the bottom of the ocean.

The experiments the research team ran were relatively straightforwardand some could even be run in any local pub. To observe the bubble chains, the researchers poured glasses of carbonated beverages including Pellegrino sparkling water, Tecate beer, Charles de Cazanove champagne and a Spanish-style brut.

To study the bubble chains and what goes into making them stable, they filled a small rectangular plexiglass container with liquid and inserted a needle at the bottom so they could pump in gas to create different kinds of bubble chains.

The researchers then gradually added surfactants or increased bubble size. They found that when they made the bubbles larger, they could make unstable bubble chains become stable, even without surfactants. When they kept a fixed bubble size and only added surfactants, they found they could also go from unstable chains to stable ones.

The two experiments indicate that there are two distinct possibilities to stabilize a bubble chain: adding surfactants and making bubbles bigger, the researchers explain in the paper.

The researchers performed numerical simulations on a computer to explain some of the questions they couldn't explain through the physical experiments, such as calculating how much of the surfactants go into the gas bubbles, the weight of the bubbles and their precise velocity.

They plan to keep looking into the mechanics of stable bubble chains in an effort to apply them to different aspects of fluid mechanics, especially in bubbly flows.

"We're interested in how these bubbles move and their relationship to industrial applications and in nature," Zenit said.

More information: Omer Atasi et al, Presence of surfactants controls the stability of bubble chains in carbonated drinks, Physical Review Fluids (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.8.053601
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German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, center, attends the weekly cabinet meeting of the German government at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber

Senior officials from dozens of nations meeting in Berlin remained divided Wednesday on how to meet international climate goals, with some pushing for a phaseout of fossil fuels and others insisting that oil and gas can continue to play a role in the futureprovided their emissions are somehow contained.

The two-day Petersberg Climate Dialogue hosted by Germany heard calls for a new target on ramping up renewable energy to be negotiated and agreed on at this year's U.N. climate summit in December.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suggested that the goal could be a tripling of newly installed solar, wind power by 2030, echoing a target proposed recently by the International Renewable Energy Agency.

"This would send a clear signal to the real economy and to finance about where the journey is going," he told delegates from about 40 countries.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock insisted this proposal shouldn't detract from the need to drastically cut fossil fuel use, a position shared by other European nations and vulnerable island states present at the Berlin talks.

"This course correction needs to include an accelerated global expansion of renewables, greater energy efficiency and the phaseout of fossil fuels," she said.

The United Arab Emirates, which will host the U.N. talks in Dubai, backed the idea of significantly boosting wind and solar power, but made clear that it wants to keep fossil fuels as an option for the foreseeable future.

Wind turbines turn behind a solar farm in Rapshagen, Germany, Oct. 28, 2021. Germany has called for governments around the world to work on setting an ambitious target for renewable energy that would ring in the end of the fossil fuel age and help prevent dangerous global warming. Credit: AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File

Sultan al-Jaber, the UAE official who will chair COP28 climate talks in Dubai, said his oil-rich country wants "a comprehensive, holistic approach to an energy transition that included all sources of energy."

"We know that fossil fuel will continue to play a role in the foreseeable future, helping meet global requirements so our aim should be a focus on ensuring that we phase out emissions from all sectors whether it's oil and gas or high emitting industries," he said. "In parallel we should assert all effort and all investments in renewable energy and clean technology space."

Al-Jaber acknowledged that time is running out to keep alive the agreed on target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). Doing so would require global emissions to halve by 2030, sharply bending down the current upward curve of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Climate campaigners and scientists have expressed concern that technologies proposed for capturing fossil fuel emissions aren't tested at scale yet, and that such solutions could divert attention and resources away from effective alternatives such as renewable energy.

John M. Silk, the Marshall Islands' minister for natural resource and commerce, raised similar concerns.

"We have to actually phase out fossil fuels now," said Silk, whose low-lying Pacific atoll is threatened by rising sea levels. He called for governments at the Berlin meeting to "move beyond commitments into actual action."

"That means halting oil and gas expansion," he said. "It means investing in renewables. That is the best way for countries to develop in a way that is fairer and more just."

UAE Minister of State and the CEO of Abu Dhabi's state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber speaks during the 14th Petersberg Climate Dialogue at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, Tuesday May 2, 2023. Participants from around 40 countries are expected to attend the German government's two-day climate conference. Credit: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa via AP

More than 80 countries backed efforts to put oil and gas, not just coal, on notice at the last U.N. climate summit in Egypt. Denmark's climate minister, Dan Jrgensen, said that the proposal is on the table again this year.

"Objections against this are primarily from countries that are today mainly producers or extremely dependent on fossil fuels," he told The Associated Press.

Jrgensen said that carbon capture and storage of the kind his country is testing in the North Sea should be confined to sectors where cutting emissions is hardest, such as the cement industry.

Scholz used the meeting to announce that his country will provide an additional 2 billion euros to the Green Climate Fund for adaptation measures in developing countries. He appealed to other "traditional and possible new donors" to also increase their funding. The United States recently said it would commit $1 billion, while major emitters such as China aren't contributing.

Germany itself has come under criticism for failing to drive down emissions fast enough to meet its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2045.

Scholz expressed regret that his country recently increased coal use because of a shortfall in gas from Russia, but said that Germany remains committed to producing 80% of its electricity from renewables by 2030.

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Corals in the Indo-Pacific may be more resilient to climate change than those in the Atlantic, according to a new study describing multiple species of thermally tolerant algal symbionts that enable corals to acquire energy from sunlight. Credit: Allison Lewis

In the face of global warming and other environmental changes, corals in the Atlantic Ocean have declined precipitously in recent years, while corals in the Pacific and Indian Oceans are faring better. By describing several species of symbiotic algae that these corals need to grow, an international team led by Penn State has found that these mutualistic relationships from the Indo-Pacific may be more flexible and ultimately resilient to higher ocean temperatures than those in the Atlantic.

Coral reefs are vast geological structures made of calcium carbonate produced by coral animals whose colonies possess dense populations of photosynthetic algae from the family Symbiodiniaceaeherein referred to as "symbionts"within their tissues.

Coral bleaching occurs when environmental conditions, such as rising ocean temperatures, cause the relationship between the algae and the coral animals to breakdown, resulting in a white, or bleached, colony. While corals can recover, bleaching may result in coral mortality, depending on the intensity and duration of the stress.

"Coral bleaching not only affects the corals themselves, but also entire ecosystems of organismsfrom invertebrates, like sea urchins and spiny lobsters, to vertebrates, like fish and sea turtles," said Todd LaJeunesse, professor of biology, Penn State. "It's important to study the biology of corals and their symbionts so we can predict how they will respond to future environmental changes, especially ocean warming."

But, LaJeunesse said, not all corals and symbionts will respond in the same way. That's because the world's oceans contain thousands of species of corals, each with their own unique attributes. And, until recently, he said, no one really appreciated the vast diversity of symbiont species and their importance to coral survival.

"Scientists previously lumped all the symbionts into a few broad groups," said LaJeunesse. "My lab's work over the past several years has been to describe individual species of symbiont so we know what we're dealing with. Without this information, you really can't adequately study the ecology, physiology and biogeography of corals."

As LaJeunesse and his colleagues began to describe symbiont species, they learned that some are specialistsmeaning they can only associate with one or a few species of coral hostswhereas others are generalistsmeaning they can associate with many species of coral hosts.

In addition, they found that some corals, especially from the Caribbean, rely on specialist symbionts, whereas corals from the Indo-Pacific associate with generalists. The lack of flexibility among Caribbean corals may make them more sensitive to environmental changes while Indo-Pacific corals with more flexible partnerships may withstand greater environmental change.

Indeed, according to LaJeunesse, the symbiont species that the team described are important to reef ecosystems because of their ecological dominance and their importance to so many coral species over huge geographic areas.

He said, "It's possible that these species may come to dominate coral communities as Earth's oceans warm and more sensitive symbionts die out."

The team's new research, published in the Journal of Phycology, provides formal descriptions for several host-generalist symbiont species in the Indo-Pacific region. To conduct their study, the researchers collected samples of coral from across the Indo-Pacific, including the reefs of Palau, Thailand, Zanzibar of Tanzania, the Phoenix Islands, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and New Caledonia.

Next, they extracted the symbiotic algae from these samples and sequenced their DNA. They then identified and described five species of symbionts that are able to associate with a variety of host coral species.

"It's difficult to communicate about things we do not know about, or even have a name for," said Caleb Butler, graduate student in biology, Penn State, and first author on the paper.

"When we formally describe a species, we are putting a name to these organisms, helping build an identity we can talk about and allow us to connect previous studies with future research. The organisms that we described are widespread, and as oceans warm, these thermally tolerant generalists are likely to expand to new coral communities. Recognizing these distinct species enables informed research into their ecology, and then ability to accurately communicate about the implications of our findings."

Specifically, the symbionts that the team described are in the genus Cladocopium.

"Cladocopium are exceptionally biodiverse relative to other coral symbionts; yet very few species from this genus have been successfully cultured," said Matthew Nitschke, research scientist from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).

"One of species the team described, C. proliferum, can be cultured in a test tube which enables significant progress towards understanding the mechanisms underpinning coral-algal symbiosis, and it has become a model species for such research in Australia. Our Australian team, led by Professor Madeleine van Oppen, are currently using C. proliferum cultures in reef restoration research and development, with a focus on how these algal symbionts contribute to the heat-tolerance of corals."

More information: Caleb C. Butler et al, Formal recognition of hostgeneralist species of dinoflagellate ( Cladocopium , Symbiodiniaceae) mutualistic with IndoPacific reef corals, Journal of Phycology (2023). DOI: 10.1111/jpy.13340 Journal information: Journal of Phycology
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Marina Gomes Rachid next to her research setup. Credit: Leiden University

Searching for life's building blocks light-years away is an important task of the James Webb Space Telescope. But how does it know what to look for? Ph.D. student Marina Gomes Rachid is offering a helping hand by mapping out molecules that could exist in deep space.

Imagine the headlights of a car on a misty day. A beam of light becomes visible in the fog, revealing particles of moisture floating in the air, absorbing and reflecting the light. Similarly, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observes how stars send infrared light through space, making the molecules it meets along the way visible. In seemingly empty areas of space, clouds filled with the smallest of particles appear.

But it is very challenging to identify the molecules that the infrared light reveals remains very challenging. Even for a sophisticated device like the JWST, that is the largest of its kind.

That's where the research of Gomes Rachid comes in. Over the past four years, during her Ph.D. at the Leiden University Laboratory for Astrophysics, the Brazilian identified some of the molecules the space telescope might come across. Thanks to this research, she could provide the JWST with an invaluable dataset.

Marina calls it the "chemistry of the skies": looking at the stars from a chemist point of view. This offers a whole new perspective. Space might be unmeasurably vast, but every planet or comet is made up of tiny molecules, too small to even see with the naked eye. And they tell you more than you might think about our universe and ultimately ourselves.

Gomes Rachid is interested in the molecules that are created during the early phase of the formation of a new star, when a huge cloud of gas and dust floats around in space. It's where the cosmic chemistry happens.

Earlier research had already shown that many organic molecules are present in this kind of interstellar gas. Organic molecules are compounds that contain carbon (C), such as methane (CH 4 ), and they are key to life. But the Ph.D. candidate wanted to go one step further and find out where these molecules are formed.

To do this, she had to simulate the conditions of the deepest core of these gas clouds. There the temperature can reach as low as minus 250 degrees Celsius, causing almost all materials to freeze. "In this cold interior, the cosmic air is a bit denser," Gomes Rachid says. "That means atoms and molecules move closer to each other in the frozen material and new molecules are formed."

In the Leiden laboratory, she observed how these frozen organic molecules absorbed the infrared light shined upon them. Looking at how each molecule absorbed the light, she measured its 'fingerprint' and added it to a database. Thanks to this information, the James Webb Space Telescope now knows precisely what all these tiny molecules look like in infrared light.

Molecules light-years away from us might sound a little abstract, but they do tell us something about where life comes from. "If these molecules are present in the frozen cores, as we expect them to be, it would mean prebiotic molecules can be formed in space," Gomes Rachid says. "You could consider them as the starter kit for life. So eventually, this is also about our own origin."
Former ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns gives his opening statement during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on his nomination to be the U.S. Ambassador to China, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. Oct. 20, 2021. Reuters-Yonhap



U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said on Tuesday Washington was very concerned about China's recent "punitive" action toward some U.S. companies, and that foreign firms are delaying investments in the country due to uncertainty about the openness of its economy.



Businesses groups have warned about the rise in China's use of exit bans, heightened scrutiny toward due diligence firms, and the vague wording of China's new counterespionage law, which bans the transfer of any information related to national security and broadens the definition of spying.



Burns, speaking by video link with the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, said the legislation could "imperil" academic researchers, professors, and journalists, and make illegal mundane activities and due diligence needed before companies can make rational business decisions.



"If you put that together with some of the punitive actions that the government here in Beijing has taken against several American companies recently, we're very concerned about this," Burns said, adding: "We intend to have a full discussion with the government here about it."



"We think American businesses here ought to be free of intimidation from the government, and ... they shouldn't be targeted mainly because there are political differences and competitive differences in the U.S.-China relationship," Burns said.



U.S. corporate due diligence firm Mintz Group said in late March authorities had raided its Beijing office and detained five local staff. China's foreign ministry said at the time Mintz was suspected of engaging in unlawful business operations. Police visited Bain



Co's office in Shanghai and questioned staff, the U.S. management consultancy said last week.



China has also said it will conduct a cybersecurity review of products sold in the country by U.S. memory chip manufacturer Micron Technology, amid U.S. moves to bar Chinese access to cutting-edge chip technology.



Chinese leader Xi Jinping has emphasized national security since taking office in 2012 as suspicion of the U.S. and its allies grows, but that focus contrasts with Beijing's message that it is opening up to overseas investment and travel after emerging from the isolation of some of the world's tightest COVID-19 curbs.



Burns said a lot of foreign firms were delaying making major investments until they could see some consistency in messaging from China.



He said he had warned American companies to carefully abide by a U.S. law that prohibits importing goods from China's Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labor by Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities.



"Don't get close to the line on that particular law. Observe it in every respect," Burns said.

But Burns said China and the U.S. needed greater stability in relations, and that China's COVID restrictions and granting of fewer visas meant only about 350 American students were studying there.

"We've had a decoupling of our societies over the last three years. It's not healthy. It's not smart," Burns said. (Reuters)




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Example of Foraminifera found in the samples. Credit: The original article

In the course of the younger Tertiary, a sea spread over the territory of Europe up to the Black and Caspian seas, whose outcrop, the Eastern Paratethys, connected with the Indian Ocean approximately in the area of Iran. Together with the Mediterranean Sea, it formed an important link between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic and, thanks to the flow of warm water masses in subtropical to equatorial regions, it ensured the maintenance of relatively high air temperatures over the continent.

"It is very interesting and important to study this sea, because the disruption of the mentioned connection, along with other factors, caused the gradual cooling of the Northern Hemisphere, leading to the Ice Ages," says Professor Katarina Holcova, describing the thematic setting of the study.

In Central and Western Europe, scientists have processed the available data regarding this sea thoroughly, but in Eastern Europe (Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, and Kazakhstan) the situation is the opposite. Any samples from this area are therefore very interesting, and research should focus primarily on profiles in the Crimean region, which are the most important for paleontologiststhe so-called type profiles.

"In the late 1980s, I had the opportunity to look at the type site. At that time, we spent fourteen days on the spot, but even then the Soviet colleagues did not allow us to take samples," recalls Professor Holcova about the unsuccessful expedition. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russian scientists began working intensively in the area.

Photo of the site. Credit: Yuliia V. Vernyhorova

In 2017, Professor Holcova was contacted by Yuliia Vernyhorova from Kyiv (Department of stratigraphy and paleontology of Cenozoic deposits, Institute of Geological Sciences of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), a scientist working in paleontology and stratigraphy.

Until 2014, her scientific activity was focused on the study of the Neogene of the Kerch Peninsula, she also provided scientific support for the geological survey of the Kerch Peninsula and the eastern part of the Crimean Peninsula from 2008 to 2014. Before 2014 she managed to take samples from the Crimean profile.

"Yuliia realizes the great importance of her scientific experiences and the importance of the materials obtained from this area. The whole situation surrounding the research of the Crimean profiles troubled her a lot," explains Professor Holcova.

Yuliia was able to come to Charles University Prague (and subsequently to Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich) and bring back valuable material in 2018.

"With sacred reverence, she brought such quite small samples," Professor Holcova describes the meeting with the Ukrainian scientist. "Together with other colleagues we agreed that we simply have to deal with such small samples and try to get as much data out of the material as possible."

Scientists from the Faculty of Science of Charles University processed micropaleontology and applied advanced geochemical methods to the samples.

The co-author from Munich (Prof. Dr. Bettina Reichenbacher, Department fur Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften, Palaontologie & Geobiologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen, Germany) processed statoacoustic structures from the inner ear of fish (otoliths), which showed the authors what the water column of the studied sea looked like in the younger Tertiary period, and assisted with structuring the comprehensive manuscript data.

Other colleagues (Nela Dolakova, Masaryk University, Brno) processed the pollen that remained in the sediment and based on them calculated temperatures, precipitation, and other data to reconstruct the landscape on land.

"The material that Yuliia brought had an important geopolitical aspect, but it was also very interesting scientifically. Until now, there has never been a reconstruction of what the landscape looked like on land from that region," explains Professor Holcova. At that time, Central Europe was enjoying the warmest period in the last 15 million years, with dense forests, palm trees, and relatively humid conditions.

It was, therefore, interesting to find out what the landscape on the edge of the vast continent looked like at that time and whether the differences between coastal and inland continental climates were already evident during the Tertiary period.

One of the most interesting results of the work is that there were steppes in the younger Tertiary period in the Crimean region. "We really didn't expect that, because the grassy biotopes are relatively young," comments Professor Holcova on the output of the study. "However, there was clearly steppe vegetation in this area already fourteen million years ago, when things looked completely different in central Europe."

Furthermore, it turned out that the Crimean region was not crucial for communication between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, it was probably some kind of a bay.

"Direct communication between these bodies of water had to be somewhere else, and unfortunately the most interesting sediments are either not preserved at all, or we cannot find them, because they are in areas such as Iran, where we cannot get to them for political reasons. We often deal with territories where we touch the pain of humanity, and so we increasingly value what we have here," explains Professor Holcova.

Model of the site created by the authors of the article. Credit: The original article

In the article, Yuliia Vernyhorova also summarized the work that Ukrainian scientists have done since the country's independence, when they started publishing in Ukrainian. Therefore, the author tried to summarize the previous results of colleagues who also worked on the profile, but their studies are poorly accessible and little known to the rest of the world due to the language barrier. The research and the article itself are thus really complex and therefore took quite a long time to complete.

"It was completely iconic that we finished the text and style of the manuscript around February 20, 2022. The colleague from Brno did not follow the current news and on the morning of February 24 she sent Yulia the final edits of the article," Professor Holcova describes the tense situation.

"In the meantime, one colleague had already written to me about what had happened and then we decided that we should react somehow because we had seen what we had sent the article to Yulia into. At that moment, we all really thought that the article was over because Yuliia would have other things to worry about."

But it turned out that the opposite was true, and the scientist started writing the article with perhaps even more vigor. She said she needed something else besides all the horror she experiences every day in the war-torn country. Working on the article meant a vision for her that the terrible situation would one day end and she would be doing science again.

"When she got online, Yuliia kept in touch with us. We were surprised that she was still working hard on the article," Professor Holcova says. "When financial support for Ukrainian scientists arrived, I immediately offered Yulia to come to Prague with her son."

But Yuliia wanted to stay in Ukraine. She decided she couldn't accept evacuation for herself and considered it necessary to stay in Kyiv and help her country win. "Me and my husband helped at the Kyiv barricades. Every day, seven days a week, we went to the humanitarian headquarters at the central Kyiv railway station and as volunteers received and sent humanitarian supplies, distributed ready-made food for refugees, wounded in hospitals, people in bomb shelters, and Ukrainian defenders on the outskirts of Kyiv," says Yuliia Vernyhorova.

At the end of spring 2023, after the liberation of the north of Ukraine, Yuliia and her husband continued their humanitarian mission. Together with active volunteers, they became part of the charitable fund Renovate, and to this day, in parallel with their main work, they are engaged in humanitarian projects to help people affected by the Russian invasion and also help to provide Ukrainian defenders with the necessary things to bring Ukrainian victory closer.

The situation still did not change, but Yuliia Vernyhorova and her co-authors continued to work hard and gradually improved the article and successfully completed and published it. The editorial board of the journal also appreciated the circumstances of the creation of the manuscript and granted Yulia's article Open Access (the article is freely available on the Interneteditor's note). Just like the editors, the co-authors appreciate and highly praise the bravery that the author showed when she did not give up on the manuscript and finished the article.

The study is published in the journal Marine Micropaleontology.

More information: Yuliia V. Vernyhorova et al, The Miocene Climatic Optimum at the interface of epicontinental sea and large continent: A case study from the Middle Miocene of the Eastern Paratethys, Marine Micropaleontology (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.marmicro.2023.102231
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Pierced deer tooth discovered from Denisova Cave in southern Siberia that yielded ancient human DNA. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Artifacts made of stone, bones or teeth provide important insights into the subsistence strategies of early humans, their behavior and culture. However, until now it has been difficult to attribute these artifacts to specific individuals, since burials and grave goods were very rare in the Paleolithic. This has limited the possibilities of drawing conclusions about, for example, division of labor or the social roles of individuals during this period.

In order to directly link cultural objects to specific individuals and thus gain deeper insights into Paleolithic societies, an international, interdisciplinary research team, led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, has developed a novel, non-destructive method for DNA isolation from bones and teeth. Although they are generally rarer than stone tools, the scientists focused specifically on artifacts made from skeletal elements, because these are more porous and are therefore more likely to retain DNA present in skin cells, sweat and other body fluids.

A new DNA extraction method

Before the team could work with real artifacts, they first had to ensure that the precious objects would not be damaged. "The surface structure of Paleolithic bone and tooth artifacts provides important information about their production and use. Therefore, preserving the integrity of the artifacts, including microstructures on their surface, was a top priority," says Marie Soressi, an archaeologist from the University of Leiden who supervised the work together with Matthias Meyer, a Max Planck geneticist.

Elena Essel working in the clean laboratory on the pierced deer tooth discovered from Denisova Cave. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

The team tested the influence of various chemicals on the surface structure of archaeological bone and tooth pieces and developed a non-destructive phosphate-based method for DNA extraction. "One could say we have created a washing machine for ancient artifacts within our clean laboratory," explains Elena Essel, the lead author of the study who developed the method. "By washing the artifacts at temperatures of up to 90C, we are able to extract DNA from the wash waters, while keeping the artifacts intact."

Early setbacks

The team first applied the method to a set of artifacts from the French cave Quincay excavated back in the 1970s to 1990s. Although in some cases it was possible to identify DNA from the animals from which the artifacts were made, the vast majority of the DNA obtained came from the people who had handled the artifacts during or after excavation. This made it difficult to identify ancient human DNA.

The pierced deer tooth discovered from Denisova Cave before DNA extraction. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

To overcome the problem of modern human contamination, the researchers then focused on material that had been freshly excavated using gloves and face masks and put into clean plastic bags with sediment still attached. Three tooth pendants from Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria, home to the oldest securely dated modern humans in Europe, showed significantly lower levels of modern DNA contamination; however, no ancient human DNA could be identified in these samples.

A pendant from Denisova Cave

The breakthrough was finally enabled by Maxim Kozlikin and Michael Shunkov, archaeologists excavating the famous Denisova Cave in Russia. In 2019, unaware of the new method being developed in Leipzig, they cleanly excavated and set aside an Upper Paleolithic deer tooth pendant. From this, the geneticists in Leipzig isolated not only the DNA from the animal itself, a wapiti deer, but also large quantities of ancient human DNA. "The amount of human DNA we recovered from the pendant was extraordinary," says Elena Essel, "almost as if we had sampled a human tooth." The findings are published in the journal Nature.

The pierced deer tooth discovered from Denisova Cave after DNA extraction. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Excavation works in the South Chamber of Denisova Cave in 2019. Credit: Sergey Zelensky

The entrance to Denisova Cave. Credit: Richard G. Roberts

Top view of the pierced deer tooth discovered from Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Based on the analysis of mitochondrial DNA, the small part of the genome that is exclusively inherited from the mother to their children, the researchers concluded that most of the DNA likely originated from a single human individual. Using the wapiti and human mitochondrial genomes they were able to estimate the age of the pendant at 19,000 to 25,000 years, without sampling the precious object for C14 dating.

In addition to mitochondrial DNA, the researchers also recovered a substantial fraction of the nuclear genome of its human owner. Based on the number of X chromosomes they determined that the pendant was made, used or worn by a woman. They also found that this woman was genetically closely related to contemporaneous ancient individuals from further east in Siberia, the so called "Ancient North Eurasians" for whom skeletal remains have previously been analyzed. "Forensic scientists will not be surprised that human DNA can be isolated from an object that has been handled a lot," says Matthias Meyer, "but it is amazing that this is still possible after 20,000 years."

The scientists now hope to apply their method to many other objects made from bone and teeth in the Stone Age to learn more about the genetic ancestry and sex of the individuals who made, used, or wore them.

More information: Elena Essel, Ancient human DNA recovered from a Palaeolithic pendant, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06035-2. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06035-2 Journal information: Nature
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

As the coronavirus began to spread globally, face masks were recommended in public settings to protect against transmission, and compliance varied significantly. In a new study of people shopping in a large Chinese store in early 2020, researchers examined the motives behind customers' compliance with mask recommendations and how their shopping behaviors changed with the onset of the pandemic. The study found that customers changed their in-store behaviors significantly based on their compliance with masking recommendations.

The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Harvard University, and Renmin University, is published in Marketing Science.

"At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a variety of psychological factors drove individuals' reactions to masking recommendations, making the pandemic a large-scale social experiment," says Kannan Srinivasan, Professor of Management, Marketing, and Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, who led the study.

Srinivasan and colleagues examined customers at a large store of a retail chain in China, using recordings from high-resolution cameras at entries, checkout counters, and other locations inside the store. Researchers collected videos from January 1-23, 2020 (which they classified as the pre-pandemic period) and from February 1 to May 31, 2020. The World Health Organization issued a statement about the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, and China presented evidence of human-to-human transmission on January 23. The store was closed from January 24-31, 2020.

Based on studies on social influence and mask wearing, researchers identified three types of customers: Fully compliant customers (54%) wore masks and seemed motivated primarily by concerns about their own health risk. Partially compliant customers (29%) also wore masks, but wore them improperly, and were motivated by the desire to comply with social norms. Non-compliant customers (17%) did not wear masks and were unmotivated by health concerns or social norms.

To infer motives behind wearing masks, the researchers used advanced facial recognition mechanisms to detect whether a customer wore a mask and measured the mask fit (operationalized as the extent of mask coverage) for those who did. Fully compliant customers wore their masks over a larger area above the nose than partially compliant customers.

The researchers used the store videos to examine changes in individuals' shopping behaviors at the onset of the pandemic, contrasting them with the individuals' shopping behaviors before the pandemic. In particular, they looked at customers' attempts to practice social distancing and the amount of time spent in the store, as well as at what kinds of masks customers wore.

Fully compliant mask wearers remained at a greater distance from cashiers when shopping during the pandemic than they did before the pandemic. They were five times more likely than other mask wearers to wear highly protective N95 masks while shopping and spent 25% less time shopping than they did before the pandemic.

In contrast, partially compliant mask wearers did not distance themselves from cashiers, were less likely to wear high-quality masks, and shopped for the same duration of time as they did before the pandemic. Similarly, non-mask wearers did not distance themselves from cashiers and did not change the duration of their shopping time.

"Our findings have implications for businesses, health practitioners, and policymakers," suggests Shunyuan Zhang, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School, who coauthored the study.

In particular:

Retailers can target different customers in different ways: For example, for fully compliant customers, they can explain their efforts to reduce shopping time and mitigate store congestion, and for the partially compliant, they can emphasize the importance of social responsibility.

Public-health practitioners can message more effectively when their efforts are customized to appeal to individual motives. For example, practitioners may benefit from applying the same principles to efforts involving vaccine compliance.

In regions with large numbers of partially compliant or non-compliant individuals, policymakers can redouble educational efforts to encourage more masking.

More information: Shunyuan Zhang et al, Frontiers: Unmasking Social Compliance Behavior During the Pandemic, Marketing Science (2023). DOI: 10.1287/mksc.2022.1419 Journal information: Marketing Science
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

In 2016, Oregon became the first state to adopt and implement an automatic voter registration (AVR) system. Now, twenty-two states, plus Washington D.C., have such systems in place. Early research on the impacts of this innovation has shown an increase in the number of people registered, and greater diversity among the registrants.

Now, a researcher using Oregon voter data has identified an unintended consequence of automatic voter registration: a steep drop in party registration. These results have been published in the journal Electoral Studies in a paper called, "The partisan costs of automatic voter registration." Additional authors include Todd Lochner, Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Associate Professor of Government at Lewis & Clark College, and undergraduate student Alex Webb, '22.

The study results apply to back-end implementation of the automatic voter registration in Oregon. "Back-end" refers to a system where voters are automatically registered during a transaction at a government agency, like the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and then later have the option to register a particular party or to opt-out via mail. "Front-end" implementation systems provide potential voters with the option to choose a party or opt-out during the initial transaction. The researchers found a 66% decrease in party registration impacting Democratic and Republican parties similarly with little change over time post-registration. Third-party affiliation is also greatly reduced.

Ellen Seljan, associate professor of political science at Lewis & Clark College and the lead researcher on the study, says, "In our study, back-end automatic voter registration had a significant negative effect on party registration in the state of Oregon across all demographic groups. This negative effect persists over time and is sustained despite the large increase in registration caused by automatic voter registration."

The data that Seljan and her colleagues used in their analysis came from voter files collected from the state of Oregon in 2017. The team was able to arrive at a causal estimate between automatic voter registration and party registration because of an historical Oregon statute that makes individuals born in even-numbered years more likely to have been registered to vote via automatic voter registration in 2016. This made it possible to study the behavior of a set of individuals by an external set of circumstances, as opposed to a particular trait or behavior.

Seljan wanted to see whether the drop in partisan registration persisted over time, given the fact that voters can make adjustments to their registration in a number of ways. She tested for this by looking at updated registration records from the Oregon voter file from 2021.

"This four-year time span between the two voter files we examinedfrom 2017 to 2021included a presidential primary which, like all primaries in Oregon, was limited to party registrants," says Seljan. "The results suggest very little partisan mobilization occurs following registration."

The political implications of lower rates of party registration could be significant, says Seljan. First, those who do not register with a party cannot vote in closed primaries in many states, including in Oregon. In addition, political parties may focus less on those unaffiliated voters, leaving a gap in political knowledge for a large part of the electorate. Also, previous research has shown that party registration transforms the way voters perceive themselves.

"Unaffiliated self-perception and categorical identity may be fundamentally different from those of party registrants," says Seljan.

The authors note that the research's purpose is to demonstrate one unintended consequence of back-end automatic voter registration, not to imply such a system is undesirable.

"This particular way of implementing automatic voter registration is an excellent means of increasing both the number of registered voters and the eligible turnout rate," says Seljan. "It just means there's an additional burden on political parties to take extra steps to woo those unaffiliated voters."

More information: Ellen Seljan et al, The partisan costs of automatic voter registration, Electoral Studies (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.electstud.2023.102591
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Male woolly mammoth tusk testosterone record displaying evidence of musth. Powder samples were taken at half-millimeter increments from internal surfaces of three slabs, each cut from one of the discs. Musth episodes interpreted from surges in testosterone are marked with an "M" on the graph. Credit: Cherney et al, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06020-9. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06020-9

Traces of sex hormones extracted from a woolly mammoth's tusk provide the first direct evidence that adult males experienced musth, a testosterone-driven episode of heightened aggression against rival males, according to a new University of Michigan-led study.

In male elephants, elevated testosterone during musth was previously recognized from blood and urine tests. Musth battles in extinct relatives of modern elephants have been inferred from skeletal injuries, broken tusk tips and other indirect lines of evidence.

But the new study, scheduled for online publication May 3 in the journal Nature, is the first to show that testosterone levels are recorded in the growth layers of mammoth and elephant tusks.

The U-M researchers and their international colleagues report annually recurring testosterone surgesup to 10 times higher than baseline levelswithin a permafrost-preserved woolly mammoth tusk from Siberia. The adult male mammoth lived more than 33,000 years ago.

The testosterone surges seen in the mammoth tusk are consistent with musth-related testosterone peaks the researchers observed in an African bull elephant tusk, according to the study authors. The word "musth" comes from the Hindi and Urdu word for intoxicated.

"Temporal patterns of testosterone preserved in fossil tusks show that, like modern elephants, mature bull mammoths experienced musth," said study lead author Michael Cherney, a research affiliate at the U-M Museum of Paleontology and a research fellow at the U-M Medical School.

The study demonstrates that both modern and ancient tusks hold traces of testosterone and other steroid hormones. These chemical compounds are incorporated into dentin, the mineralized tissue that makes up the interior portion of all teeth (tusks are elongated upper incisor teeth).

"This study establishes dentin as a useful repository for some hormones and sets the stage for further advances in the developing field of paleoendocrinology," Cherney said. "In addition to broad applications in zoology and paleontology, tooth-hormone records could support medical, forensic and archaeological studies."

Hormones are signaling molecules that help regulate physiology and behavior. Testosterone is the main sex hormone in male vertebrates and is part of the steroid group of hormones. It circulates in the bloodstream and accumulates in various tissues.

Scientists have previously analyzed steroid hormones present in human and animal hair, nails, bones and teeth, in both modern and ancient contexts. But the significance and value of such hormone records have been the subject of ongoing scrutiny and debate.

The authors of the new Nature study say their findings should help change that by demonstrating that steroid records in teeth can provide meaningful biological information that sometimes persists for thousands of years.

"Tusks hold particular promise for reconstructing aspects of mammoth life history because they preserve a record of growth in layers of dentin that form throughout an individual's life," said study co-author Daniel Fisher, a curator at the U-M Museum of Paleontology and professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

"Because musth is associated with dramatically elevated testosterone in modern elephants, it provides a starting point for assessing the feasibility of using hormones preserved in tusk growth records to investigate temporal changes in endocrine physiology," said Fisher, who is also a professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

For the study, researchers sampled tusks from one adult African bull elephant and two adult woolly mammothsa male and a femalefrom Siberia. The samples were obtained in accordance with relevant laws and with appropriate permits.

The researchers used CT scans to identify annual growth increments within the tusks. A tiny drill bit, operated under a microscope and moved across a block of dentin using computer-actuated stepper motors, was used to grind contiguous half-millimeter-wide samples representing approximately monthly intervals of dentin growth.

The powder produced during this milling process was collected and chemically analyzed.

The study required new methods, developed in the laboratory of U-M endocrinologist and study co-author Rich Auchus, to extract steroids from tusk dentin for measurement with a mass spectrometer, an instrument that identifies chemical substances by sorting ions according to their mass and charge.

"We had developed steroid mass spectrometry methods for human blood and saliva samples, and we have used them extensively for clinical research studies. But never in a million years did I imagine that we would be using these techniques to explore 'paleoendocrinology,'" said Auchus, professor of internal medicine and pharmacology at the U-M Medical School.

"We did have to modify the method some, because those tusk powders were the dirtiest samples we ever analyzed. When Mike (Cherney) showed me the data from the elephant tusks, I was flabbergasted. Then we saw the same patterns in the mammothwow!"

The African bull elephant is believed to have been 30 to 40 years old when it was killed by a hunter in Botswana in 1963. According to estimates based on growth layers in its tusk, the male woolly mammoth lived to be about 55 years old. Its right tusk was discovered by a diamond-mining company in Siberia in 2007. Radiocarbon dating revealed that the animal lived 33,291 to 38,866 years ago.

Woolly mammoth tusks in dawn light on Wrangel Island, northeast Siberia, where the female mammoth tusk used in the testosterone study had been found several years earlier. These tusks were collected the day before the photo and were assembled for measurement and preliminary sampling. Credit: Daniel Fisher, University of Michigan.

The tusk from the female woolly mammoth was discovered on Wrangel Island, which was connected to northeast Siberia in glacial periods of lower sea level but is now separated from it by the Arctic Ocean. Carbon-dating showed an age of 5,597 to 5,885 years before present. (Wrangel Island is the last known place where woolly mammoths survived, until around 4,000 years ago.)

In contrast to the male tusks, testosterone levels from the female woolly mammoth tusk showed little variation over timeas expectedand the average testosterone level was lower than the lowest values in the male mammoth's tusk records.

"With reliable results for some steroids from samples as small as 5 mg of dentin, these methods could be used to investigate records of organisms with smaller teeth, including humans and other hominids," the authors wrote. "Endocrine records in modern and ancient dentin provide a new approach to investigating reproductive ecology, life history, population dynamics, disease, and behavior in modern and prehistoric contexts."

More information: Michael Cherney, Testosterone histories from tusks reveal woolly mammoth musth episodes, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06020-9. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06020-9 Journal information: Nature
Sudanese refugees cross into Chad near Koufroun, Echbara, May 1. AFP-Yonhap



Warring generals in Sudan have agreed "in principle" to a seven-day ceasefire, the government of neighboring South Sudan said Tuesday, after regional envoys denounced repeated violations of previous truces.



Diplomatic efforts have intensified to end more than two weeks of war in Africa's third-largest country as warnings multiply about a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis.



More than 430,000 people have already been forced to flee their homes, the United Nations said.



Hundreds of others have been killed and thousands wounded.



Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), "have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4th to 11th," the South Sudanese foreign ministry in Juba said in a statement.



Multiple truces agreed since fighting began on April 15 have been repeatedly violated, including one announced by South Sudan early in the war.



Witnesses reported renewed air strikes and anti-aircraft fire in Khartoum on Tuesday.



The repeated violations sparked criticism earlier Tuesday at a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, of the Extended Mechanism on the Sudan Crisis which brought together African, Arab, UN and other representatives.



The two generals have agreed to truces  the latest one on Sunday  yet "continue fighting and shelling the city", said Ismail Wais, of the northeast African bloc IGAD which includes Sudan and South Sudan.





Sudanese citizens wait with their luggage at a makeshift center to be processed for evacuation, following the crisis in Sudan's capital Khartoum, in Port Sudan, Sudan, May 2. Reuters-Yonhap



No longer safe



"Our priority today is to have the ceasefire prolonged and respected, then to ensure humanitarian assistance," African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said, opening the meeting.



The later agreement of the week-long truce came in a phone conversation South Sudan's President Salva Kiir had with the warring parties as part of IGAD's initiative for a pause in fighting, Juba's foreign ministry said.



"We'll have to see whether this is accepted by all the parties and whether it's implemented by the forces on the ground," said Farhan Haq, the UN chief's deputy spokesman.



Kenyan President William Ruto said earlier that the conflict had reached "catastrophic levels" and finding ways to provide humanitarian relief "with or without a ceasefire" was imperative.



The UN refugee agency said more than 100,000 people were estimated to have fled to Sudan's neighbours.



Despite the dire humanitarian needs, on Tuesday the UN said its 2023 aid appeal for Sudan was $1.5 billion short.



But some relief has been arriving in the country.



After the World Health Organization (WHO) shipped in six containers of medical equipment, including supplies for treating trauma injuries, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Tuesday said it delivered 10 tonnes of supplies to a hospital in Khartoum as teams prepared to "launch emergency response activities."



Only 16 percent of Khartoum's hospitals are now fully functional, according to the UN.



A Sudanese physician, Howida Elhassan, posted a social media video of medical staff struggling to cope with a surge of wounded civilians at a hospital in Khartoum's East Nile neighbourhood.



Blood appeared to stain the floor of the crowded facility where patients, one who seemed to grimace in pain with blood on his shirt, lay or sat on cots.



"On days when there are battles in the area, we receive between 30 to 40 injured people," in addition to regular cases, Elhassan said. "Other medical staff cannot reach us because roads are no longer safe. We are understaffed and lack equipment."



In addition to the more than 500 killed in the fighting, 250 are estimated to be missing, said a spokesman for the Mafqud (Missing) online project.



Munira Edwin turned to the project when her brother Babiker disappeared on the first day of fighting. Mafqud called her back nearly two weeks later.



"He had been found dead with two bullets" in his body, she said, struggling to hold back tears.



It was too late on Monday, as well, for the victim who several men carried into a Khartoum hospital, covered in a grey cloth after a van was riddled with bullets. The back seat was soaked in blood. Luggage rested on the roof, as if the passengers had been trying to flee.



At risk of getting caught in the crossfire, some civilians still venture out. Long queues formed Tuesday at petrol stations offering the scarce commodity, as well as at banks and ATMs.



Ahead of the South Sudanese announcement, UN head of mission Volker Perthes said discussions involving Saudi and US mediators were underway with the rival generals to firm up a truce.



Burhan's envoy, Dafaallah al-Haj, was in Cairo where he met senior Egyptian and Arab League officials.



Haj told a press conference that he hoped the Arab League, African Union, Saudi Arabia and the US could play a role in such talks toward a more lasting truce.



While diplomats try to stop the fighting, foreign governments have scrambled to evacuate their citizens, thousands of whom have been brought to safety by air or sea in operations that are now winding down.





Volunteers prepare aid packages for refugees fleeing war-torn Sudan, at the Wadi Karkar bus station near the Egyptian city of Aswan, May 2. AFP-Yonhap
GREENWICH  A Greenwich man is facing charges after state police said he threatened troopers with a knife.

State police responded to a home in Greenwich at about 5:39 a.m. on April 12 to assist the Cambridge-Greenwich Police Department with a welfare check. Troopers located the subject, identified as 45-year-old Nathan P. Maier, walking in the area of Main Street.

Police said Maier failed to follow the troopers' commands and began walking toward them with a brandished knife.

Maier then allegedly used the knife to damage the state police vehicle. He then dropped the knife and was arrested.

Maier was charged with felony counts of menacing a police officer and third-degree criminal mischief as well as a misdemeanor of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
QUEENSBURY  SUNY Adirondack and the Adirondack Branch of the American Association of University Women join forces to offer Girls Go STEM, an annual day of science, technology, engineering and math for regional middle school girls.

On May 16, SUNY Adirondacks Office of Continuing Education and AAUW will welcome 60 students to the college to explore STEM-related disciplines through hands-on learning experiences.

Among the workshops being offered are the beauty of bees, build a geodesic dome, forensic investigative genetic genealogy and the three sisters of farming.

The keynote speaker is Tenee Casaccio, president of JMZ Architects and Planners. Kristine D. Duffy, president of SUNY Adirondack, will offer welcome remarks.

Girls Go STEM is sponsored by AAUW, GE, Kathleen Grasmeder, NBT Bank, North Country Subaru, Stewarts Shops and The Foundation of Engineering Education, with support from Crandall Public Library.

According to the National Girls Collaborative Project, only 34% of the STEM-related jobs in the United States are filled by women, with drastically lower proportions in computer, math and engineering sciences, even though women make up nearly half the workforce.

Female academics and professionals from SUNY Adirondack, EyesNY, JMZ Architects and Planners, LKF Consulting Services, Hudson Falls Central School, Global Foundries, Finch Paper, Argyle Central School and Weather Routing Inc. will present workshops to students.

For more information, contact Yvonne Goodwin at SUNY Adirondack Continuing Education by calling 518-743-2238.
SOUTH GLENS FALLS  What began as a contentious debate settled into a compromising, days-long budget discussion between the South Glens Falls Mayor and Board of Trustees.

When all was said and done, the board on April 26 voted on a 2023-2024 General Fund budget of $3,182,687, an increase of $126,594 from last year. The tax rate is $4.62, which is a decrease of $0.37 from last year and the village tapped $69,633 from its fund balance.

Mayor Nicholas Bodkins original budget proposal drew nothing from the fund balance but carried a higher tax rate. It also included a $2,000 raise for all department heads, which equates to around a 3% wage increase. With the trustee mayoral positions earning significantly less than full-time department positions, Bodkins budget also included a $2,000 increase to the mayors wage, and a $1,000 increase for each of the four trustee positions  a 10% increase.

The tentative budget was highly scrutinized by trustees Harry Gutheil and Tony Girard, who accused the mayor of intentionally excluding the board from budget talks with department heads. The group collectively agreed to meet prior to the April 19 regular session to pick through the budget, and address the trustees concerns.

The intent here was to give a raise consistent with the other department heads, not based on percentage, Bodkin said. When you have people earning different amounts of salary, sticking to a strictly percentage-based system of raises, leads to further inequalities in pay gaps.

Trustee Joe Orlow supported the increase, citing his time as mayor, in which he cut the mayor and trustee wage by 10%, which he said still hasnt been raised to what it was seven years ago.

We want to be able to attract in this world today, Orlow said, before being interrupted by Gutheil and Girard.

Oh, come on. Dont gimme that, Gutheil said.

Stop. Stop. Please stop, Girard added.

I have a right to voice my opinion, Orlow continued.

You have a right to voice, go ahead. You made your point. Girard acquiesced.

Thank you, and if youd like to have a debate Id be glad to do it, But I dont think we want to waste that time, Orlow said.

The debate is the taxpayers dont really want us to have a 10% increase, Girard answered.

Orlow responded that there has been a lack of stability in government over the last six years and raising the salary would attract more candidates to run for office.

Gutheil addressed Orlows comment.

I respect your opinion, he started. In todays world, nobodys getting 10% raises, or very few, especially in government. Were supposed to be setting an example. You knew what the salary was when you ran for it. Arent you happy to get that?

While Orlow and Bodkin stood on the position that the rate increase would be necessary to attract future candidates to run for public office within the village, Gutheil and Girard argued that financial incentive should not be a driving factor for those looking to enter politics.

The reason I put the raises where I put them was to make these positions more attractive to potential candidates in the future, Bodkin said. These jobs are not easy jobs. They require time. They require commitment, education, and if we want to attract future governmental representatives, we have to create an environment in which people are compensated fairly for their time and effort.

Money is probably the worst reason that anybody should be running for a job to represent the people, Gutheil said. To me, that doesnt attract the right people.

Girard moved to reduce the trustee wage increase to 2%, which would be a $200 raise. With Trustee Tim Carota absent from that meeting, the vote was split down the middle, and the motion was not passed.

Does it have to be 10%, no, but we should have some recognition, and more than 2%, Orlow said.

Girard and Orlow agreed on a 4% increase for the trustees, or a $400 raise. This time, Girard and Orlow voted to reduce the increase to 4%, while Bodkin and Gutheil voted the motion down. Albeit, Gutheils reasoning was an unwillingness to budge on the 2% increase he and Girard had originally wanted.

If this is the way its gonna be the rest of the night, Ill be leaving right now, Girard said after the second motion failed. Let me just ask you one question, he added, addressing Bodkin. Are you willing to change your budget?

Unless theres something significant that would warrant a drastic change in the budget, no, Bodkin responded.

Well the HRA (health reimbursement arrangement) is significant, and it warrants to be changed, Girard said.

Gutheil added that for the mayor not to say hes wrong, to work with us and make changes on the budget, thats pure arrogance.

Im standing behind my budget and my team that helped draft it, Bodkin responded.

Im standing behind the taxpayers, Gutheil continued, The people that Im glad to represent.

And so am I, Bodkin said.

Moving on, Girard then suggested keeping the general funds employee HRA budget, which is funded through tax-payer dollars, at last years rate of $60,000 and moving $40,000 from the reserve fund to bring in closer to what was proposed.

With all three trustees present and Bodkin voting in favor of the change, the tone of the meeting quickly shifted from bickering to balance, as the officials and department heads worked their way through the proposed budget, addressing concerns brought up by Gutheil and Girard.

The workshop adjourned at around 6 p.m. so the board could meet with legal counsel, and continue with its regular board meeting agenda.

Talks conclude

Budget talks resumed on April 26 with another workshop. This time all four trustees were present. Girard asked Carota what he thought about a 4% increase instead of a 10% increase.

Initially Carota said he was comfortable with the $1,000 increase proposed by the mayors budget, but after some discussion and clarification that Girards motion would be for a $400 increase, not a percentage-based increase, Carota agreed to the lower amount. Despite not being comfortable with the compromise, Gutheil also voted in favor. The motion passed with Bodkin being the only no vote.

The rest of the budget workshop proceeded with trustees discussing budget proposals directly with department heads, voting on minor shifts and changes along the way.

The budget was passed with Girard, Orlow, and Carota voting yes, Bodkin abstaining, and Gutheil voting, no.

There were things in the budget that I just thought we didnt need, Gutheil explained. Im glad to see we got the tax rate down. If it wasnt for the changes that the board made, it wouldnt have been a good budget.
The 52-year-old investigator from Wilton died on Friday due to an illness stemming from his assignment in and around the World Trade Center site following the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, New York State Police announced in a press release Monday.
When firefighters show up to a blaze or medical emergency across much of the United States, they most likely are volunteers. Its also likely the department is understaffed, struggling to replace old equipment and facing uncertainty about its next generation of firefighters.

So much of our country relies on the volunteer fire service, said Kimberly Quiros, chief of communications with the National Volunteer Fire Council, a nonprofit advocacy organization. Right now, were seeing less volunteers and more calls (for emergency response), but a lot of communities dont have the tax base and support to switch to a career staffing model.

More than 80% of the nations fire departments are made up entirely or mostly of volunteers, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Volunteers comprise 65% of U.S. firefighters overall but participation has dwindled, from nearly 900,000 volunteers in 1984 to a low of 677,000 in 2020. Meanwhile, fire departments responded to more than triple the number of calls over that same period.

With volunteer departments stretched thin, some states began their own response. Lawmakers from both parties advanced bills to provide financial benefits or tax breaks for volunteers or funding for new equipment, in hopes of incentivizing firefighters to join up or stay in service. Without state investments to keep volunteer agencies afloat, the lawmakers say, taxpayers would have to support full-time firefighters or face public safety risks.

While some departments brought on full-time paid firefighters to fill the gaps volunteers cant cover, many communities, especially in rural areas, cant afford the cost of a professional fire service. The National Fire Protection Association estimates that the time donated by volunteer firefighters saves communities nearly $47 billion each year.

Counties would have to increase taxes to have paid departments out there, or insurance premiums would go up substantially, said Mississippi state Rep. Donnie Scoggin, a Republican. The amount of money volunteers save us makes a huge difference for the taxpayer, and right now we are not able to recruit and retain enough firemen.

Scoggin sponsored a bill, passed unanimously this session and signed into law, that will establish a Length of Service Award Program for volunteer firefighters in Mississippi. For every year of service, they will receive $500 placed in an investment fund, eligible to be withdrawn with interest when they retire from the department.

We see this as a means to recruit new firefighters and encourage retention of the valuable firefighters we already have, said John Pope, president of the Mississippi Firefighters Association and chief of the Collins Fire Department. Its going to save lives.

Fire agency leaders say the reasons for volunteer departments struggles are myriad. Many young people are leaving rural areas, which are more likely to rely on volunteer service. The rise in two-income households means fewer people have available time to volunteer. Most states now have extensive training requirements, which can be a time-consuming and costly barrier for new recruits.

At the same time, many fire departments now are expected to respond to medical emergencies, hazmat incidents, active shooter situations and other scenarios that drastically increased call volumes.

It seems like theres more and more runs every year, theyre almost full-time, said Michigan state Sen. Jon Bumstead, a Republican and former volunteer firefighter. Theres no health care, no retirement. If were going to fully man these departments, weve got to start offering more than what we are now.

Bumstead sponsored a bill that would expand worker compensation benefits to volunteer firefighters and part-time police officers. He noted that volunteer firefighters face risks even while training and shouldnt have to pay out of pocket if theyre injured or develop a health issue. He also called for future legislation requiring the state to cover the costs of the extensive training programs it requires volunteers to undertake.

The Pennsylvania Senate voted unanimously earlier this year to establish three pilot programs at community colleges and universities to offer fire training to interested high school students.

In South Dakota, lawmakers voted this year to allocate $5 million to help volunteer fire departments cover equipment costs.

To equip one firefighter can cost anywhere from $6,000 to $10,000, state Rep. Kevin Jensen, the bills Republican sponsor, said. Over 99% of the landmass in South Dakota is covered by volunteer fire departments that get no formal funding. Some departments are using outdated equipment but dont have the money to do anything about it.

The COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for fire departments to conduct the pancake and chili fundraisers that traditionally propped up their budgets, Jensen said, setting them back further. He said some fire agencies had to turn away volunteers because they cant equip them.

Last year, New York lawmakers unanimously passed a measure enabling municipalities to enact property tax breaks of up to 10% for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers.

Meanwhile, Wyoming lawmakers enacted a law last month to allocate $9 million to the states volunteer firefighter pension fund, replacing money that had been diverted to keep a fund for paid firefighters solvent.

5 most common causes of reported house fires 5 most common causes of reported house fires #5. Smoking materials #4. Intentional #3. Electrical distribution and lighting equipment #2. Heating equipment #1. Cooking
As prison violence spiked after the implementation of a solitary confinement reform law, the Cayuga County District Attorneys Office prioritized cases involving assaults on correctional staff.

Cayuga County District Attorney Brittany Grome Antonacci informed lawmakers about the uptick in cases during a Cayuga County Legislature Public Safety Committee meeting in April. While there is not historical data available, Grome Antonacci confirmed to The Citizen that her office is seeing more cases stemming from large-scale disturbances and inmates assaulting correctional officers with weapons.

In 2022, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision reported 1,489 assaults on staff and 1,486 assaults on incarcerated individuals, both records. DOCCS provided additional data to The Citizen showing that the rate of assaults on staff was 47.6 per 1,000, up from 36.8 per 1,000 in 2021. The rate of assaults on incarcerated individuals was 48.1 per 1,000, up from 34.6 per 1,000 in 2021.

Injuries to incarcerated individuals and staff both increased by 24%, according to the department, and 15% of assaults on staff occurred in residential rehabilitation units, which were established under the Humane Alternatives to Long Term Solitary Confinement Act. The law seeks to restrict the use of solitary confinement and limits how long incarcerated individuals may be kept in special housing units to no more than 15 consecutive days.

The increasing violence is occurring despite a declining incarcerated population. In 2022, the statewide prison population was 30,872, down from 39,243 in 2020.

DOCCS began collecting data on prosecutions of assaults on staff and incarcerated individuals, but a department spokesperson noted that there is not enough complete data to draw any conclusions at this time.

In Cayuga County, though, Grome Antonacci is seeing more work for her office. She said thats due to the county having two state prisons: Auburn Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison, and Cayuga Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Moravia.

Grome Antonacci said her office is reviewing a mess hall disturbance that occurred at Auburn Correctional Facility in 2022 and involved an inmate assaulting a correctional officer. There was also an officer attacked by an inmate at Cayuga Correctional Facility in March. Another incarcerated individual who assaulted an officer at Cayuga in 2022 was recently indicted.

Before HALT took effect, there was a vicious assault at Auburn prison that left an officer with a severe laceration after he was slashed by an inmate. The inmate, Narada Matthews, pleaded guilty in March 2022.

When these assaults occur, Grome Antonacci explained that DOCCS and the New York State Police will investigate the crimes. When the investigation is completed, the state police will forward its materials to the district attorneys office, which determines whether a felony prosecution is warranted. Prosecutors then present the case to a grand jury for an indictment.

With HALT in place, Grome Antonacci said criminal charges are the main deterrent to inmate assaults on staff.

We have prioritized the review and prosecution of these cases with that factor in mind, she added.
GLASSBORO  State officials and industry representatives emphasized the potential of a new offshore wind industry to bring thousands of jobs to the state and the need for new energy sources in the face of a changing climate in close to equal measure at an offshore wind technology conference Wednesday at Rowan University.

It depends on who youre speaking with. Sometimes you lead with the climate, sometimes you lead with jobs, said Doug Copeland, development manager with Atlantic Shores, while participating in a panel discussion at the morning conference.

The Steve Sweeney Center for Public Policy at the school sponsored the event. In his remarks at the start of the event, Sweeney, the former state Senate president, called out several Republican politicians, including U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, a former wind power supporter and former Democrat who has become a vocal critic of offshore wind plans.

Many shore town representatives, including some Democrats and more Republicans, have called for a moratorium on offshore wind work after multiple dead whales washed ashore over the winter.

Federal officials have said there is no evidence connecting the marine mammal deaths and survey work for offshore wind, but many in the beach communities remain skeptical.

Speakers said the opposition is about politics, not about protecting marine life. Sweeney said politics impacts public policy. He and other speakers said warming oceans and a changing climate are the biggest threat to life in the oceans.

Training to start for offshore wind jobs; here's how to apply ATLANTIC CITY  The application period is open for 21 slots in a Wind Power Ready training p

Global warming is real, he said. We all care about whales and dolphins. But theres a reason, and its not offshore wind, thats changing whats happening here.

While the Rowan event was happening, state legislative Republicans held a public hearing detailing their opposition to offshore wind energy. That meeting was held remotely.

We held a very informative hearing this morning on whales and wind farms, said state Sen. Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, after the Republican-led hearing. Its clear from the testimony we received that the wind farm projects were rushed, theres data demonstrating real harm to marine life, and shore towns and fisheries will face serious economic impacts that have been completely ignored. We believe it makes a lot of sense to put a pause on these projects to investigate the legitimate concerns that were raised today in greater depth.

Gov. Phil Murphy has put offshore wind power at the forefront of his energy policy, moving toward getting a significant portion of the states electricity from offshore turbines.

At the Wednesday conference, speakers argued warming ocean water and other climate change impacts were leading to the behavioral changes that put more whales and marine mammals in shipping lanes, leading to the high-profile whale deaths.

I dont think there is a debate. I think there is a swirl of misinformation, said Shawn LaTourette, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. He said there is a responsibility to combat misinformation.

LaTourette said New Jersey already experiences climate change impacts, with hotter summers, stronger storms, more coastal flooding and other problems.

Panel: Climate change, not wind prep, is threat to whales A panel of Democratic elected officials and environmental groups says climate change, spurred by the burning of fossil fuels, is the greatest danger to the world's oceans and marine life. Speaking in Long Branch, New Jersey as a half-dozen dolphins frolicked in the ocean behind them, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, Congressman Frank Pallone and others rejected claims from some that site preparation work for offshore wind power projects is killing whales. Numerous federal and state agencies say there is no link between the two. They criticized an energy bill being pushed by House Republicans to incentivize oil and gas production. Two New Jersey Republicans advocating a pause in wind farm preparation did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Sweeney and other speakers said New Jersey was also in position to uniquely benefit from offshore wind.

A local industry supplying materials to offshore wind projects in the state, and in Delaware, New York and beyond, could mean thousands of good jobs, Sweeney said.

Citing his background as an iron worker, Sweeney said the monopods and turbine blades are enormous, and it will make sense for industry to produce them close to where they will be installed rather than shipping from Europe or other overseas sources.

Speakers cited a wind port in Salem County, a massive project dedicated to offshore wind projects.

Rowan President Ali Houshmand said the school and others would train a new workforce for a new industry, with speakers touting a transformational economic potential from offshore wind, even as shore community officials publicly worry about the potential harm to a multibillion-dollar beach tourism industry.

At the conference, the picture painted was not entirely rosy.

NJ allocates $2 million for more research on offshore wind The state Department of Environmental Protection and Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday 

Guiseppe Palmese, dean of the College of Engineering at Rowan, said the industry has to think ahead and prepare for multiple issues, including long-term planning to make turbine materials that make structural and economic sense.

Larger turbines are on their way, Palmese said. The end of the useful life of the offshore wind structures must be part of the consideration from the start of the projects, he said. Blades could be 100 meters long and weigh 50 tons.

The amount of wind power under consideration would require about 140 miles of turbine blade material.

So I could take one lane of the New Jersey Turnpike, and run all the way to the top, north to south, and fill it all up with windmill blades, and have enough left over to go to the Atlantic City Expressway all the way to the shore, Palmese said. That would represent 250 million pounds of material.

He said innovation is needed to make the materials recyclable.

The industry, and the university, will need to study the environmental impact of offshore wind, and its economic impact, he said, and how a new energy source can enter the power grid in a sustainable manner. There may also be national security concerns that must be considered.

Still waiting for rsted's four-way stops in Bungalow Park ATLANTIC CITY  The truck traffic to the site of rsteds operations and maintenance hub, go

Palmese said the university will be part of preparing a workforce for the new industry, from technical credentials to masters degrees.

Representatives of Ocean Wind and Atlantic Shores, the two projects furthest along in the regulatory process, participated in the conference. Madeline Urbish, the head of government affairs for rsted, the energy company that owns Ocean Wind, said work on shore on that project could begin by the end of the year.

The need for the projects grows out of climate change, LaTourette said, adding the projects will help the environment, public health and the economy.

We have such a dire climate experience here, LaTourette said.
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Neil Pastore couldnt believe what he was hearing.

The horse was gone.

Not a real horse mind you, but an iconic piece of South Jersey road decor: the towering White Horse that has stood silent watch over a stretch of the White Horse Pike near Hammonton for 65 years. An instantly recognizable midway point for generations of shore travelers. A proud symbol of an agricultural community. A storied statue that had weathered storms and braved vandalism.

It was April Fools. But Jennifer Pastore assured her older brother it was no joke.

The White Horse is gone, she said.

Neil Pastore hurried to White Horse Farms, the Winslow Township roadside market his family had recently purchased and where the horse had so long been a fixture. But now only shards of the hoofs and splintered legs remained atop the pedestal. Perhaps the statue had been damaged in the previous nights heavy storms, Pastore thought. But there were no signs of the White Horse in the tall grass. Then, Pastore found one of the horses fractured legs, made of heavy wood, in the shrubs. Hefting it, he knew the White Horse didnt simply blow away.

Thats when we realized this wasnt any accident, he said.

Hamilton Township to exit Atlantic County Central Municipal Court MAYS LANDING  The township that houses the countys new central court is heading for the exit.

Security camera footage solved any mystery. Overnight, four teens hopped out of a pickup in the darkness. First, they tried pushing. The White Horse stood. Next, they used strapping and a winch, snapping the White Horse off at the legs. They loaded the landmark into the truck bed and were gone. The crime took 12 minutes.

Sgt. John Ervin of the Winslow Township Police Department said investigators believe the teens, all high school seniors, stole the White Horse as part of a prank or a scavenger hunt, and then threw its broken parts into a pond or lake in a nearby township. It has not been recovered. As part of an agreement worked out with the Pastores, Evans said the teens, who were caught within days, will not be charged criminally. Just as long as they stay out of trouble and help pay for a new White Horse.

Initially, the Pastores decided against publicizing the theft.

Kids do stupid things, Neil Pastore sighed, not wanting anyones future ruined over a wooden horse, especially since it feels like nearly everyone in Hammonton can share a childhood story of some horse play at the White Horse. It took 65 years for them to destroy it though. Thats the disappointing part.

Still, the jarring sight of the White Horses twisted remains now greets travelers along the pike. Whether at the counter of the Silver Coin Diner in town, or in posts on the local Facebook community page, Hammontians wanted to know: What the heck happened to the White Horse?

Long touted as the Blueberry Capital of the World, Hammonton was first incorporated as a town in 1866. The Pastores, fourth-generation farmers, and owners of nearby Pastore Orchards, go back nearly that far. All to say, they had a good name to protect.

We DID NOT take down the White Horse, wrote Neil Pastore in a Facebook post late last month, informing residents of the statues theft and destruction. He reassured neighbors that they planned on replacing it.

What if the road from Tuckerton to Atlantic City was built? If a 1927 law was sought to completion, Seven Bridges Road, now just in Little Egg Harbor, would be true to its namesake. The other two bridges would connect the town to Little Beach and Little Beach to Brigantine. That would have provided a shortcut from North and Central Jersey to Atlantic City and the South Jersey beaches, rewriting the shore's history forever.

In fact, the Pastores say they intended to refurbish the aging landmark before it was stolen by the teens, thinking it could make a cool restoration project for local art students. Now, they are searching the internet for a replacement.

It was Joanne Wiessner, 78, the daughter of the original owners of White Horse Farms, who first spotted the empty stump from her kitchen window April 1.

In recent years, under White Horse Farms previous owners, the White Horses red wooden perch had fallen into disrepair. Wiessner made it her daily habit to peek out across the pike to see if the White Horse was still standing. Then, one morning it was gone.

Honest to God, it was very upsetting, very disturbing, said Wiessner, who was 14 when her father, Joseph Battaglia, bought the statue in 1958. Tell you the truth, it was like another family member.

Joseph Battaglia had purchased the wooden statue, about the size of a real horse, during a weekend antiquing trip to Pennsylvania Dutch Country with his wife, Anna. The couple, who operated the farm together from 1949 to 1999, figured it would be a fun way to set the family farm stand apart from the abundance of roadside markets then dotting the White Horse Pike.

Battaglia cleared a spot set back from the road. He built a brick foundation and planted marigolds. Soon, he snapped photos for customers and passersby wanting to pose by the White Horse, and sold postcards. In time, the White Horse was another familiar landmark along a 60-mile strip chock full of them, including the giant Renault Wine Bottle and the huge Ideal clothing store sign.

When it needed white washing, Battaglia removed the White Horse from its pedestal with a forklift and added a fresh coat. But no matter how high Battaglia raised the pedestal, people still had their fun with the White Horse. Over the years, pranksters painted the White Horse with polka dots and stripes  and once painted the wooden stallions undercarriage red (They painted its personals, Wiessner whispered).

Stockton University celebrates 10 years at Hammonton location Stockton University's Hammonton instructional site, also known as Kramer Hall, hosted a 10th

Less humorously, vandals snipped the White Horses tail, so often that Joseph Battaglia gave up trying to replace the original horse hair.

When the Battaglia family sold White Horse Farms after Joseph died in 2001, the new owners used the farm more for wholesale. The roadside crowds dwindled. Many days, it could feel like the only visitors were the county cops who used the parking lot as a turn around spot (White Horse Farms straddles the borders of Camden and Atlantic counties.)

Still, its sudden departure has stirred a certain amount of nostalgia, and yes, even a sense of loss in Hammonton.

Thats because everything, even roadside landmarks, mean more when theyre gone, said Gabriel Donio, publisher and columnist for the Hammonton Gazette, who saw the White Horses destruction as news fit to print.

After all, every community has its icons, Donio said.

It was emblematic of a pride of a place, he said.

For his part, Pastore said he gets that pride. After all, his great grandparents, Frank and Michelina Pastore, first began growing blueberries on 25 acres in 1906. Now, the Pastores tend 500 acres. He hopes to find a replacement near to the original statue.

Something where if youre driving by at 50 mph, youre not going to notice its not the same White Horse, he said.
The Collector Rajesh Deshmukh directed to take immediate measures to prevent accidents on the highway.

The meeting was attended by Superintendent of Police for Pune Rural Ankit Goyal, PMC Additional Commissioner Vikas Dhakane, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Vijaykumar Magar, Project Manager for National Highways Authority of India Sanjay Kadam, Pune RTO Ajit Shinde

To avert accidents the officials agreed to allot a separate lane for heavy vehicles from Katraj tunnel to Navale Bridge, to set up a traffic police chowki at the spot. To reduce the accidents the number of ramblers between Swami Narayan Mandir and Dari Bridge should be increased and to keep a crane on stand bye to provide urgent help to the police in case of any accident.

We have also decided that two interceptor vehicles  one each for Pune City Traffic Police and Pune Rural Police  will be bought from District Planning Committee funds so that the traffic is regularised in a better way, said Deshmukh.

On this occasion, a presentation was made on behalf of the Transport Department regarding the possible causes of the accident that occurred near the Swaminarayan Temple. It was also suggested this time that it would be useful to create an exit point under the emergency escape plan so that vehicles whose brakes fail while driving have an option to move off the road.

"A detailed project report of works has been prepared under the long-term measures to prevent accidents on this route and accordingly a meeting will be held soon between the Chief Minister and the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister," NHAI Project Director Kadam said.
A still image taken from a handout video made available by the Governor of Sevastopol's Telegram channel shows a firefighter deployed to extinguish a fire at an oil depot in Sevastopol, Crimea, Aprill 29. EPA-Yonhap



An explosive device derailed a Russian freight train in a region bordering Ukraine for a second straight day Tuesday ahead of an expected counteroffensive by Kyiv.



Russian territory and Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, have been hit in recent days by a series of attacks.



The last four days have seen two trains derailed by explosions, a suspected drone hitting an oil depot in Crimea that caused a huge blaze and power lines blown up near Saint Petersburg.



The strikes come as Russia gears up to celebrate May 9, a holiday marking the Soviet victory over the Nazis that has become a central event during President Vladimir Putin's rule.



Ukraine has followed its usual line of not claiming responsibility for the attacks, which came as Kyiv said it is finalizing preparations for a spring offensive announced weeks ago.



Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of Russia's western Bryansk region, said Tuesday the train was derailed by an "unidentified explosive device."



He said it went off at Snezhetskaya station, outside the regional hub of Bryansk, a city of around 370,000 people near the Ukraine and Belarus borders.



"A locomotive and several wagons of the train derailed," he said, adding that there were no casualties.



On Monday, a similar explosion caused a train to derail and catch fire near Unecha, in the same region but closer to the Ukraine border.



Throughout its more than year-long offensive, the Kremlin has sought to portray Russia as safe while its troops fight in Ukraine.



Earlier on Tuesday it acknowledged a security threat.



"Of course, we are aware that the Kyiv regime, which is behind a number of such attacks  terrorist attacks  plans to continue this line," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.



"All our intelligence services are doing everything necessary to ensure security."





Satellite image of Maslove, Crimea, Aug. 22, 2022 before Russian fortifications were built, in this handout image. Reuters-Yonhap
A grant will let Augustana College research remote care for a condition characterized by increased sensitivity or unusual tolerance to ordinary sounds.

U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Illinois, announced the $360,000 research grant for Augustana College last week, funding a novel research study exploring remote hyperacusis care.

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) distributed the grants as part of an "Academic Research Enhancement Award."

"Northwestern Illinois once again shows itself to be a leader in the area of expanding access to care for those who need it most," Sorensen said in the announcement. "I applaud Augustana College and their cutting-edge team of researchers for securing this critical funding to support care for those living with communicative disorders."

Communication sciences and disorders professor Dr. Ann Perreau coordinates Augie's audiology clinic.

Thanks to the grant, she and colleagues will have more time and resources to mentor students through goal-oriented research projects.

"I know my students are able to achieve much more than what they might in a classroom experience, where they don't get this kind of hands-on, one-on-one experience with a faculty member," Perreau said. "This is a very novel project; there's really not anyone out there doing remote counseling for hyperacusis."

Though Perreau said only 3% hyperacusis patients need treatment, there's still plenty to learn.

"There's just not a lot of knowledgeable providers, and there's a lack of resources (for hyperacusis)," she said. "And also a lack of research on this topic, so we're really working to address that as well."

Faculty and students will recruit patients nationwide to participate in the four-week remote counseling program. Then, they'll conduct a four-week clinical sound therapy trial involving fitting participants with sound devices (like a hearing aid) to help alleviate hyperacusis reactions, tracking patients' progress in the meantime.

"The undergraduate student researchers will be critical in the project's success," Perreau said. "They're going to help me develop the counseling materials, program the devices, and they will help with the collection of data throughout the clinical trial."

Perreau also oversees Augie's on-campus "HEAR-T (Hearing + Tinnitus) Lab," which aims to develop effective strategies for managing hyperacusis, tinnitus, hearing abilities and quality of life improvements. The lab houses several pieces of equipment for sound therapy and audiology research.

The grant will fund nearly $50,000 in HEAR-T lab supplies to conduct the hyperacusis study, including items like the hearing devices, video kits and headphones.

In the announcement, Augustana President Dr. Andrea Talentino said Augie's speech, language and hearing clinic  the Roseman Center  is one of the oldest on-campus clinics in the nation, having served the surrounding community for over 75 years.

"The support of the NIDCD allows Augustana faculty and students to expand their reach, doing remote counseling and sound therapy for 60 participants from across the nation, she said. Dr. Perreaus project is a perfect example of how Augustana seeks to connect education to important needs in society.

Perreau called it a "privilege" to continue innovating in the field of audiology.

"We have helped hundreds of people  with the audiology clinic, specifically  and I feel like this is a continuation of what I enjoy doing and have a passion for doing, and that's to help people hear better," she said. "With this project, I'll be able to develop that expertise and help people even more. And, extend the work that Augie has done locally out into the rest of the country. It's quite an honor to be able to do that."

Photos: Rock Island Police conducts emergency drill at Augustana College
A new poster drawn by a local student about Moline's healthy drinking water will hang at the water plant for decades to come.

Kinsley Bonjour, a third-grader at Bicentennial Elementary School, was the winner of the 2023 Water Art Contest. The city has been celebrating National Drinking Water Week for over 15 years, and each year, the city has asked third-graders at all Moline elementary schools to create art depicting the year's theme.

This year's theme was "Healthy Water, Healthy You."

Charles Brown, utilities lab manager, presented Bonjour as the winner during Tuesday's council meeting. With a big smile on her face, Bonjour held up her framed art that showed a rainbow above a Moline water tower with raindrops coming down from the clouds.

When asking each school to participate in the contest, Brown said, they ask the art teachers to help the student do two things: tap into their advanced creativity and promote the city's healthy tap water.

"The only thing that makes art better  and I think we can all agree  is we make it a cutthroat competition and there can only be one winner," Brown said, followed by a room of laughter.

The art teacher picks the school's winner and then sends it over to the water division where everyone at the plant votes. This year, the community also got to vote for the winner online.

Brown said they tallied the votes from the community survey and the water plant to land on the winner.

"This wouldn't be doable if it wasn't for the principals letting their schools do these contests," he said. "But mostly, it wouldn't be doable if it wasn't for all the little artists we have in the city."

Following Bonjour's award, a proclamation from the American Water Works Association was read to declare May 7-13 as "Drinking Water Week".

For the 30th consecutive year, Moline's water division received an award from the Illinois Department of Public Health for achieving the highest standard of compliance with the Illinois Fluoridation Act. Every month the city has hit its goal of maintaining tight and narrow fluoride levels. Too much fluoride, Brown said, can cause damage.

The city's wastewater treatment plant also was recognized in April as the best-operated treatment plant in the state at the Illinois Association of Water Pollution Control Operators 2023 conference in Peoria. The plant received the award for its excellence in regulatory compliance, cleanliness of facilities, operator knowledge, safety programs, public outreach programs and preventative maintenance programs.

For the 30th consecutive year, the finance department was awarded a certificate of excellence in financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers of America.

"For 30 years, we have worked some magic," Carol Barnes, finance director said.

The award was for 2021 since it takes about a year for the review process to be completed.

Barnes said the audit report was reviewed by select members of the GFOA who were experts in public-sector finance reporting. The certificate, Barnes said, is awarded only if there is a consensus among all reviewers that the financial report meets all accounting principles and program policies.

Photos: Dam Tacos to open Friday
An East Moline man has been arrested on an allegation he committed sexual abuse in 2020 while working at a Genesis Health System facility in Davenport.

Scott County authorities charged Darrques B. Rhoden, 39, with a count of third-degree sexual abuse, according to court records. They allege Rhoden committed a sex act with an unwilling person on July 31, 2020, at Genesis Medical Center West, 1351 W. Central Park Ave., Davenport.

While court records state he was working at Genesis when the act occurred, they did not specify his role at the hospital, or whether the victim was an employee, a patient, a visitor or present at the facility for some other reason.

Genesis said it could not comment on former or current employee matters.

The Davenport Police Department did not respond to a request for more details.

District Court Judge Joel W. Barrows approved a warrant for Rhodens arrest on April 5, court records state.

The court records did not include details on when the warrant was served, but the Scott County Jail website showed Rhoden was booked Tuesday morning.

Rhoden was free on a $10,000, cash-only bond as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the jail website.

Rhoden also made his first appearance Tuesday, court records state. His next has been scheduled for May 12.
CHICAGO  In a sweeping verdict, a federal jury on Wednesday convicted the ComEd Four defendants on all charges related to a conspiracy to bribe Illinois' former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan to win his support for the utilitys legislative agenda in Springfield.

Found guilty of bribery conspiracy and falsification of business records were former ComEd contract lobbyist Michael McClain, a longtime Madigan confidant; former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore; ex-ComEd executive John Hooker; and Jay Doherty, who worked as a lobbyist for ComEd for 30 years and served as president of the City Club of Chicago civic forum.

The bribery conspiracy count carries up to five years in prison for each defendant, while the falsification of business records carries a 20-year maximum sentence.

The jury also found McClain and Pramaggiore guilty on three additional counts of bribery, which each carry up to 10 years behind bars.

Sentencing dates were not immediately set.

Dressed in a dark suit, green tie and dark glasses, McClain chatted nervously with his attorney as U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenwebers 17th-floor courtroom swelled to capacity before the jury entered.

McClain briefly looked at the ceiling as the verdicts were read but showed no outward reaction. After court, his wife and sons hugged in the hallway and sobbed.

Pramaggiore, dressed in a blue skirt and black top and glasses, lowered her head and grimaced slightly as the verdicts were read against her. Doherty, who was wearing a blue face covering, showed no outward reaction, nor did Hooker.

The panel of seven women and five men announced it had reached a decision Tuesday shortly after 4:15 p.m. Central time, following more than 27 hours of deliberations that began last week.

The trial became the most watched political case in years at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, where the ever-growing list of corruption cases includes both Democratic and Republican governors, George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich, as well as a string of aldermen, state legislators and political powerbrokers going back decades.

But the ComEd Four case has been singular because of the focus of the bribery probe: Madigan, the longtime leader of the state Democratic Party whose 36 years at the top of the Illinois House is the longest reign of any legislative leader in American history.

The jurys decision spells bad news for Madigan, since he and McClain face a separate racketeering indictment brought in March 2022 thats made up in large part of the same ComEd bribery allegations. Both have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for trial in April 2024.

The guilty verdicts send a clear signal that Madigan may face particularly hard sledding.

It also will undoubtedly induce some stomach-churning in Springfield, where legislators and lobbyists have watched closely to see if the trial would require a new set of standards in the mosh pit of politics at the Illinois Capitol.

Political reaction came swiftly Tuesday.

The behavior brought to light and put on display at this trial was shockingly gluttonous and unhealthy to democracy, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat, said in a statement. Weve taken concrete steps to discourage bad behavior. But most importantly, I believe we have people committed to behaving better.

The indictment alleged the four conspired to funnel $1.3 million in payments to ghost subcontractors, largely through Dohertys company, who were actually Madigans cronies.

The utility also hired a clouted law firm run by political operative Victor Reyes, distributed numerous college internships within Madigans 13th Ward fiefdom, and blatantly backed former McPier chief Juan Ochoa, the friend of a Madigan ally, for an $80,000-a-year seat on the utilitys board of directors, the indictment alleged.

In return, prosecutors say, Madigan used his influence over the General Assembly to help ComEd score a series of huge legislative victories that not only rescued the company from financial instability but led to record-breaking, billion-dollar profits.

Among them was the 2011 smart grid bill that set a built-in formula for the rates ComEd could charge customers, avoiding battles with the Illinois Commerce Commission, according to the charges. ComEd also leaned on Madigans office to help pass the Future Energy Jobs Act in 2016, which kept the formula rate in place and also rescued two nuclear plants run by an affiliated company, Exelon Generation.

The indictment charged a total of nine counts, including a main bribery conspiracy count lodged against each of the four defendants. Other charges include circumventing internal business controls and the falsification of business records to allegedly hide the payments ComEd was making.

Defense attorneys argued over and over that the government is seeking to criminalize legal lobbying and job recommendations that are at the center of the states legitimate political system.

They ripped the governments star witness, former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez, as a liar and opportunist who was so terrified when FBI agents confronted him in January 2019 that he flipped without even consulting a lawyer and agreed to secretly record his friends.

We are here because the government scared Fidel Marquez to death, attorney Jacqueline Jacobson, who represents Hooker, said in her closing argument.

Marquez eventually pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing.

Patrick Cotter, who represents McClain, told the jury that the entire case was a conclusion in search of evidence and suggested the four people on trial were collateral damage in the governments yearslong quest to bring down a political untouchable like Madigan.

They already had their target. They already knew who was guilty  it was Mike Madigan, Cotter said, adding that once prosecutors assumed the speaker was guilty, then everyone near him begins to look guilty.

In rebuttal, the lead prosecutor on the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu, told the jury that the efforts to woo Madigan were like a corruption toll similar to something motorists must pay to continue on their trip on the state tollway.

And Madigan was the gatekeeper, Bhachu said.

It was a corruption toll to make sure that Mr. Madigan was not an obstacle to their legislative agenda, Bhachu said. And they paid that toll every month, from 2011 to 2019 when they were caught.

Prosecutors powered the case with a compelling set of wiretaps and secret video recordings that provided an insiders view of how Madigans behind-the-scenes operations worked, including with snippets of calls pushing for what he wanted ComEd to do for him.

One call caught Madigan telling McClain to keep pushing for the appointment of Ochoa to ComEds board of directors despite internal company resistance, and a second call captured McClain relaying the message to Pramaggiore, who quickly responded, OK, got it. I will keep pressing.

Theres a recording of Doherty justifying why ComEd should keep funneling money through him to pay a series of Madigan-backed subcontractors, explaining the companys money comes from Springfield and the subcontractors, including Madigan precinct captains and former aldermen, keep their mouth shut. But do they do anything for me on a day-to-day basis? Doherty also said. No.

One particular comment McClain was recorded saying about subcontractors went to the heart of the prosecutions case: We had to hire these guys because Mike Madigan came to us. Thats how simple it is.

Hooker was recorded agreeing with McClain, talking about how they devised the subcontractor plan years ago and reminding McClain that Madigan thought it was great.

The ComEd Four case was viewed as a curtain raiser for the April 2024 trial in which Madigan and McClain are charged with racketeering. Part of their upcoming trial is an outgrowth of the far-reaching ComEd Four case and part involves a similar-but-smaller alleged scheme of jobs and influence involving the Illinois affiliate of AT&T.

ComEd entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorneys office in 2020 in which the company agreed to a $200 million fine and acknowledged it had showered Madigan friends and allies with jobs, contracts and college scholarships as a way to woo him into looking favorably at ComEds legislative agenda.

AT&T entered a similar agreement in 2022 over a smaller-scaled scheme and agreed to a $23 million fine. The government agreed to drop pending charges of bribery against both companies in exchange for cooperation.

The ComEd trial brought a cast of characters to the witness stand that included current and former legislators, including sitting Democratic Rep. Bob Rita of Blue Island, who testified that Madigan ruled through fear and intimidation.

Jurors were put in the unenviable position of determining where the line is drawn between legal lobbying and illegal bribery.

They had to sift through bedrock questions of whether Madigan could be bought  an idea that is heavily disputed by longtime allies in Springfield  and whether he created an atmosphere in which ComEd officials believed they needed to send favors his way in order to get what the company wanted.

PHOTOS: The career of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan December 2013 March 2014 March 2014 April 2014 May 2014 December 2013 January 2015 January 2015 February 2015 August 2015 October 2015 April 2016 May 2016 November 2016 July 2017 July 2017 August 2017 August 2018 January 2019 January 2019 2019 June 2019 May 2020 January 2021
DES MOINES  Iowa lawmakers approved bipartisan changes to a controversial bill to relax some of Iowas child labor laws.

Teens could work more jobs and later hours, as well as serve alcohol in restaurants with parental permission and adult supervision, under changes made to Senate File 542.

House Republicans amended the bill, incorporating some recommendations proposed by Democrats, who filed more than 20 amendments to remove or alter what they saw as the most harmful provisions.

The measure passed the Republican-controlled House Tuesday on a party-line vote of 60-34, with all Democrats opposed. The amended bill now heads back to the GOP-controlled Senate for final approval.

Gov. Kim Reynolds told reporters last month she supports expanding youth employment, pointing to her own experiences babysitting, waiting tables and working at a department store when she was young.

Reynolds said parents and children should be allowed to make the decision on starting work at a younger age.

The proposal has sparked protests from labor unions and criticism from the U.S. Labor Departments top lawyer.

Democrats argued the bill, opposed by groups including building trade unions and the United Way of Central Iowa, would weaken child labor protections and conflicts with federal law.

While Democrats and Republicans were able to find some common ground to remove the most egregious parts of the bill, House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said it still leaves a lot to be desired.

I do feel the bill is better but think we could have gone a little further to keep kids safe, Konfrst said.

House lawmakers stripped language that would have let state officials grant exceptions allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to work in jobs currently banned for minors, as long as they are part of an approved training program with adequate supervision and safety precautions.

Sixteen- to 17-year-olds could participate in work-based learning programs in areas like manufacturing, if granted an exemption by state officials.

Lawmakers also added provisions that would:

Require employers to provide a copy of all training materials to the minors parents

Prohibit anyone determined to be a sexually violent predator or registered sex offender from employing minors

Prohibit minors from selling or serving alcohol in restaurants unless two adult employees are physically present in the area, and only while food is being served

Require employers to report a workplace harassment incident to the employees parents and Iowa Civil Rights Commission, and mandate restaurant employers require all employees to attend sexual harassment prevention training

Children under the age of 16 would be allowed to work up to six hours a day while school is in session, which is two more hours than currently allowed under law.

Federal rules prohibit 14- and 15-year-olds from working past 9 p.m. in the summer and 7 p.m. during the school year. The bill would extend that two hours to 11 p.m. and 9 p.m., respectively.

Sixteen- and 17-year-olds could also work the same hours as adults and serve alcoholic drinks at restaurants, provided the employer has written permission from the teenagers parent or guardian. Lawmakers amended the bill to clarify that teens cannot work in bars or in strip clubs.

The bill also would create a committee to look into whether teenagers ages 14 and older can receive a special permit to drive themselves to work.

Republicans said the bill modernizes Iowa's outdated child labor regulations and provides more opportunities for young Iowans to earn a paycheck and learn valuable skills through workforce training programs.

The bill is backed by business groups including the Iowa Restaurant Association and the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, as well as conservative groups Americans For Prosperity and the Opportunity Solutions Project.

Rep. Dave Deyoe, a Republican from Nevada and the bills floor manger, said opponents have misrepresented the legislation.

Dangerous industries like mining, logging and meatpacking could not employ minors under the amended bill, and parents have to give written permission for teens to work in controlled environments, like existing school-to-work programs for welding.

Such work-based learning programs would have to be approved by Iowa Workforce Development or the Iowa Department of Education, and employers would have to demonstrate work performed by those age 16 to 17 would be done under adequate supervision and training that includes proper safety precautions.

Deyoe said benefits of expanding youth employment opportunities include less poverty, money for future education, less delinquent behavior, experience in the workplace and access to mentors and role models, as well as exposure to promising careers in skilled trades.

The U.S. Department of Labors top lawyer, Seema Nanda, disagreed, saying in a statement it is irresponsible for states to consider loosening child labor protections.

Amid increasing child labor violations, states should be working to increase accountability and ramp up enforcement  not make it easier to illegally hire children to do what are often dangerous jobs, Nanda said.

House Democrats echoed the sentiment, saying the bill would increase the chance of workplace accidents and injuries among youth.

Both violations of child labor laws and proposals to roll back child labor protections are on the rise across the country, according to a March 2023 report from the Economic Policy Institute.

At least 10 states have introduced or passed laws rolling back child labor protections in the past two years. And the number of minors employed in violation of child labor laws increased 37 percent in the last year, according to the report.

A group of state lawmakers and public officials reported possible underage labor and safety hazards last month at the construction site of Cedar Rapids $49 million Banjo Block development.

Rep. Jeff Cooling, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, proposed an amendment that failed that would have prohibited state agencies from contracting with companies that have a history of child labor law violations.

Rather than address Iowas workforce shortage by making employment in the state more attractive through better wages, comprehensive benefits and improved worker safety, Democrats argued the business lobby is proposing less restrictive child labor regulations so younger Iowans may fill the employment gap.

Cooling also proposed amending the bill to require employers demonstrate they have made a good-faith effort to hire additional employees or retain current employees prior to hiring minors. That amendment also failed.

How are we protecting children from dangerous workplaces, and how are we making sure were enforcing existing labor laws? asked Rep. Adam Zabner, a Democrat from Iowa City, who along with Cooling was among the group of lawmakers that toured the Cedar Rapids construction site.

Photos: Mississippi River rises around the Quad Cities, Tuesday, May 2
Interstate 55 between mileposts 63 and 82 south of Springfield has been reopened after deceasing winds reduced the hazard for motorists, state police said in a statement issued about 7:20 p.m. Tuesday.

State authorities on Tuesday afternoon closed a stretch of both northbound and southbound Interstate 55 where blinding dust led to crashes that left six people dead and dozens injured the day before.

The Illinois State Police and Illinois Department of Transportation said they would close the interstate between milepost 63 and milepost 82 because extreme winds were creating low visibility and dangerous driving conditions.

"At this time, no crashes have occurred along this stretch today, but for the publics safety, the road will be closed until the winds decrease," the agencies said in a joint statement at 3:40 p.m.

On Monday, similarly windy conditions stirred up a wall of dust from farm fields that limited visibility, leading to a chain reaction of crashes along a two-mile stretch of the interstate in Montgomery County, south of Springfield. Nearly 40 people were injured and six people were killed.

The interstate had been closed in both directions on Monday after the crashes, but had reopened around 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Winds were gusting between 35 and 45 mph at the time of the crashes, the National Weather Service said. Meteorologist Chuck Schaffer said the area where the crashes occurred is "very flat, very few trees.

Photos: Multiple crashes lock traffic on Interstate 55
Stacker looks at the best county to retire in every state according to Niche's 2020 ratings. Some factors that determined the rankings include
West Middle School and Stevens High School received nearly $400,000 this week from the Teresa S. Johnson Trust to fund music, travel abroad and science.

The Rapid City Public School Foundation (RCPSF) received the estate gift that directs $25,000 to the West Middle School Music Department and over $380,000 to Stevens High School. The sum will be equally divided between Stevens' World Language Department to fund student travel to foreign countries, Science Department and Music Department. Up to 4% of the respective department funds may be used each year other than $22,000 that the Music Department will immediately use to improve lighting in the Stevens Theater.

Teresa "Terry" Johnson, who passed away in 2021, grew up in western Rapid City attending Pinedale Elementary, West Junior High School and graduated from Stevens High School in 1979. Terry was involved in the Stevens marching band and the German club. She spent a year abroad in Birmingham, England, is fluent in German and spoke some Russian and Spanish.

On Tuesday, two RCPSF representatives, including Executive Director Kara Flynn and Board of Directors member Kyle Richards, spoke during a Rapid City Area Schools Board of Education meeting about the impact the money will have on students.

"The foundation has a tremendous honor to be entrusted with the wonderful legacy of Teresa Johnson," Richards said. "By stewarding and caring for this gift we can change students' lives by getting them interested in the language or maybe become a scientist or even become a world-renowned musician."

The RCPSF has a track record of good stewardship of gifted funds and ensuring the money significantly impacts students, Superintendent Nicole Swigart said during the meeting.

"It's hard to express how significant a gift of hundreds of thousands of dollars is to a school," Swigart said. "It's amazing that someone made this choice to entrust the foundation with such a significant amount of money to impact kids."

Stevens High School will hold a celebration featuring the 9th grade jazz band on May 9 at 8:00 am to honor Terry Johnson.
A Pine Ridge man charged with murder for allegedly killing a man in the Memorial Park pond on July 4, 2022 is mentally incompetent and unable to understand the charges against him  at least for the time being  according to a Pennington County Court order.

Walter Mousseau Jr., 28, was arrested and charged with the first-degree murder of 43-year-old Sheldon Glenn, who he allegedly drowned at the popular Rapid City park while people gathered a short distance away for an Independence Day concert at the bandshell.

After a competency hearing held on March 28, Circuit Court Judge Heidi Linngren signed an order on April 12 to send Mousseau to the Human Services Center, a state hospital in Yankton, for up to four months.

The hospital is tasked with determining if Mousseau could become competent enough to stand trial in the foreseeable future. The hospital could also recommend Mousseau be placed at a different facility, if appropriate.

If the hospital determines Mousseau is mentally competent to proceed, he'll be transported back to the Pennington County Jail for further court appearances in the case.

Mousseau has been held in the Pennington County Jail on a $250,000 cash only bond since July 4, 2022. He was indicted on July 13, 2022, but has not been arraigned due to his inability to understand the charges he faces.

Mousseau's attorney, Elizabeth Regalado, filed a motion in September 2022 requesting the mental evaluation. The evaluation report was filed on March 28 and sealed to the public.
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A box of Mounjaro, a tirzepatide injection drug used for treating type 2 diabetes and made by Lilly is seen at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, March 29. Reuters-Yonhap



An experimental Alzheimer's disease drug developed by Eli Lilly and Co slowed cognitive decline by 35 percent in a closely watched, late-stage trial, the company said on Wednesday, raising hopes for a second effective treatment for the brain-wasting disease.



The drug, donanemab, met all primary and secondary goals of the trial. It slowed progression of Alzheimer's by 35 percent to 36 percent compared to a placebo in 1,182 people diagnosed with early-stage disease based on scans showing brain deposits of a protein called amyloid and intermediate levels of a second protein known as tau, Lilly said.



The trial's other 552 patients had high levels of tau, suggesting they would be less likely to respond to the treatment.



After combining both groups, donanemab was shown to slow progression of Alzheimer's by 22 percent using a Lilly-developed scale to measure cognition and activities of daily living, and by 29 percent based on a more commonly used scale of dementia progression.



Eli Lilly's shares rose nearly 3 percent at $415.52 in premarket trading.



Using that dementia scale, trial results published last year showed that Eisai Co Ltd and Biogen Inc's Leqembi reduced the rate of cognitive decline by 27 percent compared to a placebo in patients with early Alzheimer's.



In the donanemab treatment group, Lilly said brain swelling, a known side effect of drugs of this type, occurred in 24 percent of participants, with 6.1 percent experiencing symptoms. Brain bleeding occurred in 31.4 percent of the donanemab group and 13.6 percent of the placebo group.



In the Leqembi Phase 3 trial, the drug was associated with brain swelling in nearly 13 percent of patients .



Lilly said the incidence of serious brain swelling in the donanemab study was 1.6 percent including two participants whose deaths were attributed to the condition and third who died after an incident of serious brain swelling.



Dr. Eric Reiman, executive director of the Banner Alzheimer's Institute, which is running an Alzheimer's prevention study of donanemab in presymptomatic patients, said he was "very excited" about the findings. "Clearly, one saw benefits here, but there is some risk that needs to be considered," he said.



The company said it plans to file for traditional U.S. approval by the end of June and with regulators from other countries shortly thereafter.



"There are risks in medicine, but I think when you look at these results in the context of a fatal life-threatening disease, these results are quite meaningful," said Lilly Neuroscience executive Anne White in an interview with Reuters.



Study participants received a monthly intravenous infusion of donanemab. When follow-up brain scans showed the amyloid had been removed, treatment stopped and volunteers were moved to the placebo-arm of the study. Half of trial participants had no evidence of amyloid plaques at 12 months, the company said.



The company also said 47 percent of donanemab patients in the 18-month trial had no disease progression at 12 months, compared with 29 percent of the placebo group.



Lilly's drug is likely to become the third in its class on the market following U.S. approval of two similar medicines developed by partners Eisai and Biogen  Leqembi and Aduhelm, which failed to gain traction with doctors or insurers after showing little evidence that it slowed cognitive decline.



Both were approved under the FDA's accelerated review program, based on their ability remove amyloid plaques.



Leqembi is currently undergoing the FDA's standard review process, which will weigh its impact on cognitive function, with a decision due by July 6. More than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's, and the number is projected to rise to nearly 13 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimer's Association. (Reuters)




The death of a grizzly bear found along the highway between Cody and Yellowstone National Park is being investigated.

A Wyoming Game and Fish Department spokesperson said the agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are conducting an inquiry into the incident, but would provide no further details.

The dead bear was reported to officials on Monday morning. Photographs of the bear lying on a hillside about 20 to 40 yards off the highway have been posted on Facebook by a Cody-area photographer. The photographer said she had seen the bear near the Newton Springs picnic area along the North Fork highway about 10 days ago.

Bears have recently been spotted in Montana's Paradise Valley and Yellowstone National Park as they search for food following winter. People recreating outdoors should carry bear spray and make noise to avoid coming into contact with a bear.

Anyone with information about the incident should contact Wyoming Game and Fish.
LOLO  Travelers Rest State Park is hosting a temporary art exhibit, "Imprinting the West," through May 21. Visitors can see the free exhibit during regular visitor center hours.

The exhibit features 44 hand-colored engravings and lithographs created by 19th century artists to depict and interpret the Wild West during the time of westward expansion in North America. Their artwork played an important role in the dissemination of information and interpretation about the West and its inhabitants.

Visitors to Travelers Rest State Park can view the exhibit during regular visitor center hours, Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. from now through April 30 and seven days a week from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. after May 1.

The park will also host two related printmaking activities on Saturday, May 20 that are free and open to the public. At 11 a.m., children and families can participate in a special program that is part of the Travelers Rest Connections Trekker Kids Saturday activity series. The family-friendly activity will feature cyanotype printmaking, which involves using the sun and natural artifacts to make images.

Then, in partnership with Western Montana Creative Initiatives Open AIR program, Indigenous artist Stella Nall will offer a print-making workshop on May 20 at 1 p.m., demonstrating simple techniques and encouraging visitors to create their own prints inspired by Western landscapes.

"Imprinting the West: Manifest Destiny, Real and Imagined" is toured by ExhibitsUSA, a national program of Mid-America Arts Alliance, and curated by Dr. Randall Griffey, associate curator of modern American art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. More information is available at eusa.org.

Local sponsors of the exhibit include Farmers State Bank, First Security Bank, Jackson Contractor Group, Montana Public Radio, and Western Montana Lighting. Call the state park at 406-2734253 or visit fwp.mt.gov/stateparks/travelers-rest for more information.
A transgender Democratic state lawmaker is asking a state district court to block the House Republicans' actions last week that banned her from accessing the chamber.

Rep. Zooey Zephyr of Missoula is still allowed to vote remotely, but has been forbidden from accessing the House chamber since last week. Republicans, who voted in lockstep to keep her out of the House, argued it was necessary following her support for protesters who had disrupted the chambers proceedings earlier that week. Seven were arrested after the protest on misdemeanor charges; law enforcement has said they are not aware of damage or violence during the event.

The complaint was filed by the Montana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union in Lewis and Clark County District Court on Monday. It alleges that the ban violated Zephyrs rights to free speech under the state and federal constitutions, and her right to equal protection under the state constitution.

Four of Zephyrs House District 100 constituents  Anna Wong, Dean Chou, Brady Schwertfeger and Sarah Velk, all from Missoula  are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit. It alleges that their rights to representation, equal protection, self government and freedom of assembly under the Montana Constitution are being violated.

House Speaker Matt Regier, a Kalispell Republican, and Sergeant-at-Arms Bradley Murfitt are named as defendants. Sergeant staff act at the direction of House leadership. The lawsuit asks the district court judge for a temporary restraining order blocking them from denying Zephyr the ability to fully participate in proceedings on the House floor.

Voters elect their representatives to do more than simply vote on bills, the complaint states. Representatives also are elected to use of the floor of the House to pursue their constituents interests and views  using the platform provided by the Peoples House to educate and persuade their colleagues and the public through speech, debate, and lobbying.

The case is before District Court Judge Kathy Seeley. As of Monday afternoon, she had not issued any order in the case.

In a statement, Department of Justice spokesperson Emily Flower called the lawsuit performance litigation.

The ACLU is trying to use the courts to interfere with the Legislature as it carries out its constitutional duties on behalf of Montanans, Flower said. Any relief granted by the court would be a gross violation of the separation of powers.

Zephyr is a member of two committees, and her ability to participate in those is not being restricted, Regier has said. She was recognized and participated in a discussion on a bill before the House Judiciary Committee on Monday morning.

The dispute began two weeks ago, when Zephyr spoke in opposition to a bill that would ban some gender-affirming health care for transgender minors in Montana. The freshman lawmaker scolded those supporting the bill, saying they should be ashamed and that they would have blood on their hands  the latter a reference to the higher rate of suicide among trans youth.

Only Republicans have supported the bill. Following initial objections to Zephyrs wording, Regier stopped recognizing Zephyr when she attempted to join debate on the House floor, a ruling that was backed up by most of the other Republican representatives and opposed by Democrats.

There is a maximum of four days left in the legislative session after Monday.
Family and friends of Claire Wenzel, the Montpelier woman who died in the chain-reaction crash on Interstate 95 last fall, protested in front of the Henrico Courts Building Tuesday, asking the Henrico County Commonwealths Attorney Office for justice.

Wenzels mother, Donna Wenzel, said the Commonwealths Attorney Office told them that they plan to charge a individual with misdemeanor DUI. Its essentially a slap on the wrist, Wenzel said. Thats not really appropriate in this case.

On Oct. 30, just before 3 a.m., a crash involving seven vehicles occurred on northbound I-95 near the I-295 exchange. Claire Wenzel, 28, who was driving one of the vehicles, died from her injuries. Seven drivers suffered injuries to varying degrees.

Virginia State Police responded to the crash and investigated the incident. Police said the first crash occurred when a 2013 Jeep Wrangler ran off the road while traveling north and hit the guardrail, spinning back into the lane.

Four more crashes occurred as drivers attempted to avoid the collisions. Wenzel was killed when her Hyundai Elantra was struck by another vehicle and sent into the back of the Jeep.

The investigation concluded April 21, with Henrico prosecutors meeting with Wenzels family on Monday to update them on the case.

First and foremost, my thoughts are with those killed or injured during this crash, Henrico Commonwealths Attorney Shannon Taylor said in a statement. This investigation is on-going, and the rules of ethics that are applicable to criminal prosecutions prohibit me from making comments on the evidence, trial strategy or likely outcomes of the case, so I am not permitted to speak as to the specifics of this matter.

Barring a decision by the Commonwealths Attorney Office to bring the case before a grand jury, Wenzels family can make an appeal to the governor, a step that Wenzels mother says they will take.

Weve continually been ignored, Donna Wenzel said. Theyve had this case for six months and nothing has moved forward. The only time they decided to move forward was when they got wind of the protest that we were holding.

From the archives: Remembering Ukrop's through the years 1958 Ukrop's 1963 Ukrop's 1963 Ukrop's 1965 Ukrop's 1972 Ukrop's 1981 Ukrop's 1983 Ukrop's 1984 Ukrop's 1985 Ukrop's 1985 Ukrop's 1986 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1988 Ukrop's 1988 Ukrop's 1988 Ukrop's 1989 Ukrop's 1990 Ukrop's 1990 Ukrop's 1990 Ukrop's 1990 Ukrop's 1991 Ukrop's 1991 Ukrop's 1991 Ukrop's 1992 Ukrop's 1992 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1997 Ukrop's 1997 Ukrop's 1997 Ukrop's 1997 Ukrop's 1998 Ukrop's 1998 Ukrop's 1998 Ukrop's 1998 Ukrop's 1998 Ukrop's 1999 Ukrop's 1999 Ukrop's 1999 Ukrop's 1999 Ukrop's 2000 Ukrop's 2000 Ukrop's 2000 Ukrop's 2000 Ukrop's 2000 Ukrop's 2001 Ukrop's 2002 Ukrop's 2002 Ukrop's 2004 Ukrop's 2004 Ukrop's 2005 Ukrop's 2006 Ukrop's 2007 Ukrop's 2007 Ukrop's 2007 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2011 Ukrop's 2011 Ukrop's 2012 Ukrop's 2012 Ukrop's 2014 Ukrop's 2014 Ukrop's 2015 Ukrop's 2015 Ukrop's 2015 Ukrop's 2015 Ukrop's 2015 Ukrop's 2016 Ukrop's 2016 Ukrop's 2016 Ukrop's 2016 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2018 Ukrop's Ukrop's
The pedestrian bridge to Texas Beach, a vital cornerstone of the infrastructure connecting the James River Park System, remains a high-traffic access point for local river-goers despite multiple attempts by the city to close it to the public because it has been deemed severely structurally unsafe and in danger of collapse.

On Sept. 1, 2022, the 75-yard-long bridge, constructed between 1970 and 1971, was inspected by the engineering firm Timmons Group, and found to be structurally unsafe for public use, per Richmonds Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities (PRCF).

It lies at the end of a short, steep path just off a parking lot in the back of the Riverview section of the Maymont neighborhood.

The bridge is the only access point over the Kanawha Canal and privately owned CSX railroad tracks to more than a mile of popular trail, beaches and rocks along the rivers north bank, a section of the JRPS enjoyed by thousands every summer.

But the city now says there is no chance of safe and legal access to Texas Beach this summer, and the process for evaluating repairs on the bridge will take at least another year.

The crown jewel

Conducted as part of a routine inspection of bridges maintained by PRCF, the report revealed severe structural damage that could potentially result in a bridge collapse. The city announced the closure on the morning of Friday, Sept. 2.

But roughly eight months later, river-goers continue to use the bridge in droves, or illegally cross the tracks as an alternative. Per PRCF, Texas Beach is not closed. But it is officially only accessible by watercraft because the pedestrian bridge is closed.

Dennis Bussey, 77 and the organizer of the James River Hikers for the past 12 years, has led more than 2,000 meetups for hikes and community projects in the James River Park System.

For Bussey, closing the bridge meant cutting off public access to the very best part of Richmond.

The crown jewel of Richmond, Virginia is the James River, and the crown jewel of the James River is the James River Park System, said Bussey, who has led various improvement efforts to the Texas Beach area over the years, such as constructing walkways, erecting a historic sign at the remnants of Foushees Mill and initiating the Texas Beach murals project in conjunction with VCUarts.

And the crown jewel of the James River Park (System) is Texas Beach. So they have taken the super plum on the top of the cake in Richmond, Virginia, and theyve taken it away from the public.

It is the best part of the best part of Richmond. Its such a special place.

Critical and immediate priority

At least three times since the original closure, a metal door with the words bridge closed no access to Texas Beach has been shut over the entrance to the bridge in an effort to deter river-goers from using it.

But each time, the lock is eventually broken open and the door retracted. At times that the door barred entry, hikers simply climbed through a hole in the chain-link fence which surrounds the bridge.

In December, Tyler Layne of CBS 6, through a Freedom of Information Act request, obtained the structure inspection report done by Timmons Group.

The report came back with significant redactions, as PRCF cited exemptions that allow critical infrastructure information to be withheld.

But it did list damage to the bottom of the bridges concrete deck and to the chain link fencing that surrounds the pathway, deterioration of the timber handrails, and deformations to the chords of the trusses.

There are holes in the concrete steps winding up and down the tower on the river-side end, and a couple have fallen out of place.

The report concluded that the city needed to either rehabilitate the bridge or replace it.

Sections on the report redacted in part or entirely include the condition ratings of certain aspects, description of the structure, special requirements, work done, and overall condition and recommendations, including one of critical and immediate priority.

Commentary on the state of individual elements of the structure has been heavily redacted in many areas of the report.

Tamara Jenkins, a public information officer for Richmonds Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities, said on April 14 that the city still has no estimate on the total cost of or a viable timetable for the bridge to be repaired or replaced.

But Jenkins did share a FAQ sheet released by PRCF, which notes that $2 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act were in November designated to address the bridge.

After The Richmond Times-Dispatch reached out inquiring as to the status of the repairs, a line was added to an updated version of the FAQ sheet that alludes to a rough timetable for at least establishing what the process for repairs will look like.

A process is underway with structural engineers to find the best solution for repairing and re-opening access to Texas Beach, the updated sheet states.

This process will likely at least take a year from the summer of 2023. Once we have a timeline established for the repair we will post it publicly so everyone can follow along with this complex and important project.

Jenkins also confirmed that the door reading bridge closed no access to Texas Beach has indeed been the citys attempt to close the bridge in the interest of public safety. She emphasized that river-goers should not under any circumstances use the bridge or cross the tracks.

When asked about the viability of a temporary access point while the bridge is in limbo, Jenkins pointed to the FAQ sheet.

Unfortunately, there are no temporary access points sanctioned by the City or by CSX to access this portion of the riverfront at this time, the sheet reads.

We know this is frustrating, but we invite you to enjoy all of the other open and accessible areas of the James River Park System while we work to ensure the safety of our citizens and re-establish access to Texas Beach over the coming year.

Alternative spots for river-goers to enjoy include Pony Pasture, Reedy Creek and 42nd Street, Ancarrows Landing, the Wetlands, Great Shiplock Park or Belle Isle.

Josh Stutz, executive director of Friends of the James River Park System, said in an April 28 email that pedestrian bridges in the JRPS akin to the one at Texas Beach are vital pieces of infrastructure.

Stutz added that no one wants to see the bridge closed less than we do, and if the engineers said it should be closed for safety and repaired I think we should all take that seriously.

Crossing the bridge does pose a safety risk and we wish people would stop cutting the locks and vandalizing the signs. They are putting other people who might (not) know the area is closed for safety at risk when they do that, Stutz said.

It is nearly impossible to effectively close a trail in Richmond, and without enforcement, people are going to break the rules to do whatever they want. It is the same reason we have to pick up dozens of bags of litter in the park every week. There isnt a consistent culture of respectful park use, and until there is we will continue to see people break rules and disrespect our shared spaces.

A sanctuary for a lot of people

Meanwhile, as the weather warms and more locals seek a hike along the water or a sunny beach to relax or swim, many Richmonders are continuing to use the bridge to enter Texas Beach.

Aside from the door, which as of May 1 was wide open, there is one sign on a porta-potty in the Texas Beach parking lot informing river-goers that the bridge is closed. No other signage indicating safety risks of any kind existed as of May 1, and some river-goers continue to use the bridge in total ignorance of any safety risks.

Dillon Butler was at Texas Beach in late April, and said he walks down there to enjoy nature almost every day, calling the area a sanctuary.

He heard that the locks on the door to the bridge had been popped recently, but in the meantime had seen many people crossing the train tracks instead.

He said he often worries about the structural integrity of the bridge, and wishes the area had safe access points.

I know its a sanctuary for a lot of people that like to read, come to play music, meditate, I just go down there and think, he said.

Id be scared that more access points would mean more people, more traffic, and then it wouldnt be what it is. But theyve got to fix this.

On a sunny day in April, hundreds of river-goers flocked to the myriad beaches that dot the extended shore spanning from Texas Beach to Pumphouse Park, where the trail ends around the CSX A-Line Bridge, a popular symbol of Richmond employed in many a local mural or design, like in the logo of Belle Isle Moonshine.

On high-traffic summer days like the Fourth of July, that number of river-goers entering the area, either by crossing the bridge or the train tracks, has in years past been in the thousands.

Joshua Carbunck walks down to Texas Beach regularly in warm-weather months. But he visited the area in late-April for just the third time this year, and said he had no idea the bridge was closed and had not seen the signs or door.

But when told of the structural evaluation, he shrugged and said: I feel like people are going to find a way.

Jan Uecker and Kate Bassett took their German shepherd down to Texas Beach on Saturday, Sept. 17 of last year, a couple weeks after the bridge was closed.

They had to access the river up by Pumphouse, an entry point turned to by many when the bridge was first sealed at the end of summer 2022.

There is no access point at Pumphouse that does not involve crossing the CSX railroad tracks, and Jenkins said PRCF has no plans to build one similar to the pedestrian bridge at Texas Beach.

So the pathway that begins with the bridge has no outlet, unless river-goers take a return trip over the bridge or cross the tracks illegally.

Stutz said FOJRP would love if there was another way for people to get across the canal and railroad tracks safely, and it is something he could see in the distant future of the JRPS.

It is not uncommon to see people, even families with children and/or dogs, jump off the tracks that run parallel to the North Bank Trail in an effort to avoid oncoming trains.

Uecker said he had for a couple years been expecting the bridge to be closed because it looks to him like it is falling apart.

It was kind of scary, he said. So Im not surprised that its closed, but I really hope it doesnt take too long to fix.

Added Bassett: I feel like theres going to be some pressure (to get the bridge fixed) because it is so very popular and it gives people from the city easy access to nature, so were hoping that will be a priority.

Bussey has done his utmost to abide by city policy and stay off the bridge and tracks since September. Over the years, he has been all over the JRPS, from the Buttermilk Trail to Belle Isle, from Pumphouse Park to Great Shiplock Park.

But to him, nothing compares to Texas Beach. So without safe access to it, Richmonds crown jewel is incomplete.

Youre right down there on the river, its beautiful, and it was pretty easily accessible, he said. All of a sudden, one day, they closed the bridge. I thought, Oh my God, this is going to be a big, big loss.

And it has been a big, big loss. It was heartbreaking. Thats the best part of the James River.

Stutz urged patience with the city while they work out a solution to this complex engineering issue.

We have the benefit of having some really great park professionals on our side, who also want to see that area re-opened, he said.

The fact is, there is no magic wand, even with $2 million in ARPA funds dedicated to the project, that will get this done quickly and safely.

Gallery: Texas Beach pedestrian bridge Bridge closed door Bridge entrance Bridge closed sign Bridge damage Bridge damage Hole in Fence Bridge tower
With a potential default of the national debt looming as early as June 1, Virginia budget negotiators say they will wait on the outcome of the confrontation between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and a crucial report on state revenues collected in May before deciding on how to bridge a $1 billion gap in revisions to the $177 billion, two-year budget.

A budget deal already was unlikely between House Republicans and Senate Democrats before late June, but the negotiators met on Monday, as the debt ceiling conflict escalated. A letter from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress the United States could reach the limit of its ability to pay existing federal debts on June 1, leading to an unprecedented default that could tank the economy and trigger a recession.

Weve got to look at revenues in May and weve got to look at a wild card in the federal government, said House Appropriations Chairman Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, who is working directly with Senate Finance Co-Chairs Janet Howell and George Barker, both Fairfax County Democrats, on a possible budget compromise.

Monday marked the May 1 deadline for Virginia taxpayers to file their returns and final payments for 2022 income taxes, which account for 70% of the revenues that pay for core government services in the state general fund budget. Sales taxes represent the second largest source of revenue, and those collections weakened in March, the last month for which results are available.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin will release revenue results for April  also a critical month for meeting the states budget forecast  in the next two weeks. Youngkin contends the state will have more than enough money to pay for $1 billion in tax cuts that he has proposed, although he has tied one proposal  a reduction in the top individual income tax rate  to the amount of revenues the state collects by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Senate Democrats have rejected his proposed tax cuts, but they have discussed a potential compromise that could include some tax cuts and rebates. They have balked at proposed reductions in the corporate tax rate or the top individual income tax rate, which would significantly reduce the amount of money the state could spend on priorities such as public education and health care.

We need to get more information to understand where were heading, Barker said Tuesday afternoon.

Knight, in an interview on Tuesday, said he is concerned about the volatility of state revenues and wants more economic certainty before making decisions on tax cuts and additional spending that will shape state finances not only this year, but in the next two-year budget.

From a farmers terminology, I call them ongoing expenses, said Knight, who was a successful hog farmer for decades.

However, the ongoing delay also poses a challenge for local governments, particularly school divisions, which may not know how much state aid they will receive for the budget year that begins on July 1 before this fiscal year ends on June 30.

That is very concerning, to say the least, said Bristol School Superintendent Keith Perrigan, who also is an officer at the Virginia Association of School Superintendents and president of the Coalition of Small and Rural Schools in Virginia.

The uncertainty for school divisions has been compounded by an error that the Virginia Department of Education made in estimates that it provided to local school divisions last year about the basic aid they could expect to receive from the state under the two-year budget adopted in June. As a result, school divisions found out during the General Assembly session this year that they would receive almost $202 million less than they had expected, although the budget itself was correct.

The Senate had proposed the inclusion of $58 million in the first year of the budget to offset the miscalculations, which many school divisions had used for this years budgets without knowing they were wrong. On the final day of the session, the assembly adopted a so-called skinny budget as a stopgap until they reach an agreement on revisions to the budget.

Perrigan said the stopgap budget bill ensured that no school division would receive less in funding for the current fiscal year than the Youngkin administration had estimated, but he said that is not the case in the next fiscal year, especially for small, rural school divisions that did not get the same boost in additional sales tax revenues for education as divisions in larger localities with more taxable sales.

The state already has an adopted budget for the next fiscal year, but Youngkin, the Senate and the House of Delegates all proposed significant increases in K-12 spending that remain in limbo. For example, both the House and Senate supported an additional 2 percent raise for teachers, on top of the 5 percent already included in the adopted budget. The governor did not include money for an additional raise in the budget he introduced in December.

Even though Im very confident that the final conference budget is going to be favorable to public education, the delay in approving that is causing significant distress to local school boards and localities, Perrigan said.

Without knowing how much state aid they will receive in the next fiscal year, we cant effectively hire, we cant effectively retain, we cant effectively negotiate with our localities, he said.

The skinny budget did not satisfy some school divisions, such as Fairfax County Public Schools, the states largest. The division would have received $5.1 million less in state aid this year and $12.7 million next year than it had been told because of the administrative error. The stopgap budget will assure Fairfax of $26.7 million more this year than it would have under the budget approved a year ago and $21.5 million more next year, but that is based primarily on additional sales tax revenues that localities would have received anyway.

We see nothing in the FY24 skinny state budget that addresses the calculation error, Fairfax Schools spokesperson Julie Moult said Tuesday.

Barker, who faces a tough Democratic primary challenge on June 20 from Fairfax School Board member Stella Pekarsky, said the skinny budget ensured that no school division would receive less than it erroneously had been promised in the current fiscal year and updated the state aid allocated for next year.

If (the Department of Education) had not made the miscalculation, you would have still gotten the same amount of money, he said.

Senate Democrats say they are holding the line on tax cuts  which the Republican-controlled House supports  because they want to invest more money in K-12 schools, including an additional $270 million to restore state support for school support positions that had been capped since the Great Recession in 2009.

It all depends on what the revenues are, Barker said.

From the archives: Remembering Ukrop's through the years 1958 Ukrop's 1963 Ukrop's 1963 Ukrop's 1965 Ukrop's 1972 Ukrop's 1981 Ukrop's 1983 Ukrop's 1984 Ukrop's 1985 Ukrop's 1985 Ukrop's 1986 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1987 Ukrop's 1988 Ukrop's 1988 Ukrop's 1988 Ukrop's 1989 Ukrop's 1990 Ukrop's 1990 Ukrop's 1990 Ukrop's 1990 Ukrop's 1991 Ukrop's 1991 Ukrop's 1991 Ukrop's 1992 Ukrop's 1992 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1996 Ukrop's 1997 Ukrop's 1997 Ukrop's 1997 Ukrop's 1997 Ukrop's 1998 Ukrop's 1998 Ukrop's 1998 Ukrop's 1998 Ukrop's 1998 Ukrop's 1999 Ukrop's 1999 Ukrop's 1999 Ukrop's 1999 Ukrop's 2000 Ukrop's 2000 Ukrop's 2000 Ukrop's 2000 Ukrop's 2000 Ukrop's 2001 Ukrop's 2002 Ukrop's 2002 Ukrop's 2004 Ukrop's 2004 Ukrop's 2005 Ukrop's 2006 Ukrop's 2007 Ukrop's 2007 Ukrop's 2007 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2008 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2009 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2010 Ukrop's 2011 Ukrop's 2011 Ukrop's 2012 Ukrop's 2012 Ukrop's 2014 Ukrop's 2014 Ukrop's 2015 Ukrop's 2015 Ukrop's 2015 Ukrop's 2015 Ukrop's 2015 Ukrop's 2016 Ukrop's 2016 Ukrop's 2016 Ukrop's 2016 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2017 Ukrop's 2018 Ukrop's Ukrop's
The Lynchburg Police Department is investigating an overnight shots fired incident that resulted in the death of a 6-year-old boy in the 1500 block of Floyd Street, according to a news release from the department.

According to LPD, officers responded at about 11:12 p.m. to the 1500 block of Floyd Street for reports of shots fired. A short time later, a call was received that a boy had been shot.

According to an afternoon update from the police department, the victim was identified as a 6-year-old boy who was struck in the head by gunfire while playing a video game on his bed.

When officers arrived to investigate, the child already had succumbed to his injuries, the department said.

Video footage seized during the investigation shows several subjects firing multiple firearms near the occupied home before fleeing on foot down Floyd Street toward 17th Street, LPD said.

No arrests have been made at this time and the investigation remains active and ongoing, LPD said.

The department still seeks more security camera footage from those in the area of the incident, and are asking those with footage to contact the police department.

The murder of this child is a senseless tragedy stemming from a violent criminal act that has no place in our community, the department said in a news release. The LPD strives to partner with and protect our residents and visitors daily. To effectively do so, we need those members of our community who have knowledge about criminal activity such as this to come forward. The victim and his family deserve nothing less.

The boys death is the third shooting-related death of a child since late February. On Feb. 24, a 12-year-old girl was killed after a shooting in Lynchburg. On March 23, a 16-year-old boy was killed after a shooting incident on 16th Street.

Ward II City Councilor Sterling Wilder, who represents the area where the boy was killed, said he continues to get the same question each time a young person is killed in the community: What can we do about this?

No parent wants their child to be the poster child for violence, Wilder said. Any murder is unacceptable. We, as a community, must work together to end this violence.

Wilder suggested several ways the community could help in order to address the rise in gun violence in Lynchburg, such as getting parents and guardians to check in with their children about weapons, a campaign aimed at teaching young people to put the weapons down, or sponsoring more after school or mentoring programs to give young people more avenues to spend their time.

He also added that while the city is a Second Amendment sanctuary, many of the crimes are taking place with stolen firearms.

The community was strong with coming out for the Second Amendment, he said. Lets (be) just as strong and united when a child is killed with gun violence.
A call to action against gun violence outside the decaying George Wythe High School was marred by a cheap shot at an undeserving target.

Commonwealths Attorney Colette Wallace McEachin held up a newspaper front page featuring a photo of protesters at the Robert E. Lee monument, beneath the headline TIMES HAVE CHANGED.

In thinking about the number of shootings that have occurred in the city of Richmond over the past two weeks, I was thinking about, where is the visible outrage? Where are the marchers in the streets? Where are the people flooding different neighborhoods and different areas?

And so, I reached back, and this is the June 4, 2020, edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, she said, noting the throngs of people protesting at the Robert E. Lee monument before its removal in September 2021. So where are these people now? she asked to applause. Where is all this anger and concern now? ...

And so, what I would ask is all of these people who protested in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, who protested against white supremacy, who protested to bring down the monuments peacefully, listen to what these community leaders have said and have asked, and volunteer. Dont just shout out, show up, McEachin said, to more applause.

The spate of recent gun violence, including the shooting of two Wythe students Thursday near the school grounds and the fatal shooting of an adult at the Belt Atlantic Apartments across Midlothian Turnpike, sparked Monday evenings vigil at Wythe.

I can readily understand the frustrations of the prosecutor, police officers, educators and others on hand Monday. They are on the frontlines of an intractable gun violence problem that waxes and wanes for reasons not even criminologists fully understand. This was a gathering of caring people, searching for solutions.

But the protesters are not the problem.

The people organizing to stop police violence havent gone anywhere, said Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice, in a text message Monday evening.

Theyre organizing to provide free food like community fridges, opening free stores and monthly grants like MAD RVA, offering political education and mentoring on community safety. Organizers are building community trust outside the city system thats leaving us to starve, inadequate schools & families unhoused, which is directly linked to the violence in the community law enforcement exploits for press, she said.

Standing at Wythe, a campus that cant get the money it needs for a new building while pointing the finger at community organizers who have been demanding for funds to be redirected is a clear misdirection away from accountability, Wise added. (After several years of infighting between the city administration and Richmond School Board, a new Wythe is in the design stage and Mayor Levar Stoneys proposed budget contains funding for construction.)

The protests, in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, were a demand that law enforcement officers stop using using unwarranted lethal force against Black people. But the protests were about much more. The problem of gun violence is rooted in some of the very social justice conditions those marchers were protesting. It was never all about the statues. Theirs was a holistic call for a more just and equitable society whose benefits would flow to the least of us.

Times have changed, but not nearly enough. Outrage, as those protests demonstrated, has its limits without public policies and resources to support positive change. Confederate monuments have been removed, but the number of fatal police shootings nationally continues to rise, according to The Washington Post.

Plenty of Americans are outraged at too-easy access to firearms, but too many lawmakers remain unmoved. Mass shootings, in their frequency, trend dangerously toward mundane. As for protesting this violent state of affairs, the Tennessee legislature expelled fellow members who voiced their outrage.

Demanding change from police departments and elected officials is not the same as addressing the moving and largely unknowable target that is gun violence in Richmond.

This is not a problem that can be marched away.

There was talk at the vigil of securing guns or not bringing a gun to a fistfight  all of which ignores the elephant-sized cache of weapons in the room.

And yet, in the face of this obvious distinction, elected officials who are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the gun lobby cast about frantically for reasons why this cannot be blamed on the easy availability of guns, or how the public is served by the availability of military-grade killing machines such as AR-15-style rifles. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court radically expanded the Second Amendment, handcuffing jurisdictions in their attempts to control firearms. So we are stuck trying to solve this systemic problem on an individual level  the default U.S. response to everything from racism to an existential climate crisis.

Parents, adults, we can fix this. We can minimize this. We can prevent this. But the same anger we had against Robert E. Lee, we need to have that same anger against crime in the city of Richmond, McEachin said to applause.

People are past fed up with crime and violence, especially those most impacted by it. But anger, without helpful public policy, is sound and fury wasted.

As we enlist all hands to stem the violence, shaming the folks who have demonstrated that they actually give a damn is unproductive.

If the aftermath of 2020 taught us anything, it is that outrage is no substitute for action.

PHOTOS: Monument Ave. without Robert E. Lee statue
Business media giant Forbes has named Maybank, UOB Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank as the top three banks in Malaysia in its latest Worlds Best Banks survey. This is followed by OCBC Bank and Citibank in the fourth and fifth spot, respectively.

On its website, Forbes explained that its global survey  which was carried out in partnership with market research firm Statista  sought to rate banks based on a few criteria. These included customers general satisfaction (30% of the score), their willingness to recommend the bank (30%), as well as customer ratings in five key areas (40%), such as trust, digital services, and customer service.

The media giant also noted that the numbers of banks ranked will vary based on the size of the country, the survey audience, and how many banks they named; each bank must be rated by at least 250 customers in order to make it on the list, and companies do not pay any fee to participate. So for instance, while Forbes had rated five banks for Malaysia, it assessed many more for other countries such as United States (15 banks), Australia (15 banks), and Vietnam (10 banks).

Overall, more than 48,000 customers have participated in the global survey  carried out in 14 languages across 32 countries.

As one of the banks to make it onto Forbes list for Malaysia, Standard Chartereds chief executive officer Mak Joon Nien thanked the banks clients for the trust and continued support over the years. We are truly honoured to have received this meaningful and prestigious recognition. As Malaysias first and oldest bank for 148 years, we continue to be committed towards keeping the client experience at the heart of our value offering, he said.

Meanwhile, Maybank is Malaysias largest bank by market capitalisation and total assets, whereas UOB had recently acquired Citis consumer banking business in Malaysia (as well as in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam).

(Sources: Forbes, Free Malaysia Today)

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World2Fly starts new Lisbon to Cancun route

Cancun, Q.R.  World2Fly has began its non-stop flights between the Portuguese city of Lisbon and Cancun. For the summer season, the leisure airline will offer the direct nonstop flight once a week.

World2Fly began the new route April 30 with Flight 3P 2151, an Airbus A350 which took off from Humberto Delgado Airport at 15:06 local time and landed at Cancun International Airport at 18:59.

In celebration of the inaugural flight, Bruno Figueroa, Ambassador of Mexico in Portugal, Duarte Correia, Country Manager of W2M WORLD 2 MEET, Francisco Pita, Commercial Director of ANA  Aeroportos de Portugal, SA along with Newblue employees, were at the Lisbon airport.

The new schedule includes a flight between Lisbon and Cancun Flight 3P 2151 LIS 14:25  CUN 18:30 Sunday and Cancun to Lisbon Flight 3P 2152 CUN 20:30  LIS 11:40+1 Sunday.

The route is operated on Airbus A350-900 with a capacity for 432 passengers in a single economy class. The leisure airline also offers nonstop flights between Madrid and Cancun.

We are very excited about this first Lisbon-Cancun connection that reinforces our commitment to one of the fastest growing Mexican destinations for WORLD 2 MEET and most appreciated by the Portuguese tourist, said Miguel Freitas Simoes, World2Fly Director of Flight Operations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto speak during a joint press conference following their talks, at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Wednesday. AP-Yonhap



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Helsinki for talks with the prime ministers of four Nordic countries Wednesday as part of his effort to secure greater firepower for his country's armed forces as they figure out how to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine.



The Nordic countries  Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark  have been among Kyiv's strongest backers since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Before the meeting with Zelenskyy in Finland's capital, Nordic officials appeared ready to provide more aid as the war stretches into its 15th month.



"There is still an urgent need for military support to ensure that the Ukrainians stand as strong as possible in the fight against Russia," Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen said in a statement.



Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre, another of the summit attendees, said: "Here in the north, we have a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian neighbor, and it is important that we discuss together how to face this new situation."



The talks came a day after U.S. officials said Washington plans to send Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid , including an enormous number of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition.



The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been formally announced.



Elsewhere, Russia used Iranian-made drones during its third attack on Ukraine's capital city in six days.



Explosions were heard in Kyiv and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defenses shot down 21 of the Russian drones, Ukraine's Air Force Command said. No damage or casualties were reported



Meanwhile, a massive blaze broke out at an Russian oil depot, local officials said Wednesday.



The depot erupted in flames in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, located east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.



He didn't say what caused the fire, which was described as extremely difficult to put out. But some Russian media outlets said it was likely caused by a Ukrainian drone attack overnight. There was no official comment on that possibility.



Local residents heard an explosion shortly before the fire erupted, Russian news site Baza said. (AP)




Dreams can often turn into nightmares. And dreams in Hollywood are a special kind, as are the nightmares that can follow. One day youre getting ready to audition for a role in a movie. Youre full of hope, depending of course on how much time youve spent among the crowd of overly aesthetic phonies. Then, in the same afternoon, you discover theres a dead body in your car trunk. This is what happens to an aspiring starlet, Vincenza Morgan, one of the protagonists of Jonathan Leafs debut novel, City of Angles.

Bathed in Hollywood and Los Angeles culture in which unspoken crimes and movies are inextricably connected, City of Angles has a fascinating cast of characters. The book itself is in a way a movie, and thats not surprising given the fact that Leaf is an acclaimed playwright with experience in Hollywood. It also exhibits a careful and linear unfolding of events. Leaf is not interested in impressing his readers with virtuosic writing, although his talent is on full display. Rather, we witness a novel that embraces the tradition of noirs and social critiques we often find in writers as diverse as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Evelyn Waugh, Carl Hiassen, and Iris Murdoch. This is not an exercise in deconstructive postmodernism that alienates the reader. In fact, it does quite the opposite. The reader is invited to be an impartial observer but also a voyeur of the lives of the rich and the famous, the bold and the beautiful, and the dazed and confused.

Vincenza is a sympathetic character, to a certain extent. She just wants to mind her own business and get as many good roles as she can, but instead gets embroiled in murder. Of course, theres no such thing as minding your own business in Hollywood. Everyone is subtly connected, Leaf implies. And despite wanting to evade Hollywood corruption, Vincenza nevertheless does what is necessary to get ahead. She changes her name, augments her breasts, and flaunts her body. Yet theres more to her than this. And more to her story. First off, she cant trust anyone, including Sara, the co-producer of an indie film thats supposed to put Vincenza on a bigger and more artistic map. And can she trust Ray Chalmers, a detective investigating the murder in which Vincenza is now implicated?

Then theres Billy Rosenberg, a screenwriter who sometimes thought that if there were talent for bad timing, he had it. Add David Clarkson, a man who is integral to the Church of Life, a cult of sorts with its own hierarchy. Clarkson is a fixer, and Vincenza needs fixing because of what happened to Tom Selva, the poor corpse in Vincenzas trunk, who was both a successful actor and Vincenzas now-former lover. Theres a quiet countenance to Clarkson, and as Leaf writes, Los Angeles is a place where everyone is nice, often aggressively so. But where does niceness end and literal aggression begin?

Leafs fictional narrative is also a social commentary on the decadence of Hollywood, one that explores Vincenzas primal fear that she will be blamed for Selvas murder. One gets a feeling that its not just a fear of being charged and arrested for a crime she didnt commit, but whether this controversy will hurt her career. As much as she remains an outsider, Vincenza has imbibed Hollywood culture in order to exist.

In one scene, Vincenza is being followed by what appear to be members of the Church of Life. In an effort to avoid her stalkers, she latches on to a married coupleinnocently named Gary and Franwho appear to be safe and harmless. Theyre gentle and soft spoken. (One might imagine Gary as Orson Bean in Spike Jonzes 1999 film, Being John Malkovich.) Gary speaks in calm tones: Im glad you came up with us Vincenza. My wife and I like to make new friends. We particularly like making friends with people in the industry. Suddenly, Vincenza is stuck between two absurd situations. What exactly do Gary and Fran have in mind? Did she just walk into a scene from Paul Schraders The Comfort of Strangers sans her own lover? Do Gary and Fran want to tie her up and do things to her? Is that the lesser of two evils?

And who killed Tom Selva and why? Could the Church of Life in any way be involved? Leaf brilliantly weaves in cultural and religious references to well-known institutions that have taken root in Hollywood. There is the Supreme Pilot, other lesser leaders of the Church, and EMEs, or enemies of mans emergence. It doesnt take much to guess Leafs gentle suggestions as to the real-life referent, yet he never resorts to clumsy obviousness.

The Church has a lot of power, as is witnessed through the lives of Vincenza, who was (supposedly) cleansed of her painful past involving a neglectful mother and abusive stepfather, and Tom Selva, our unfortunate victim. Selva was beautiful and desired by many, and like many others, he did as the Church instructed him. It had been explained to him that the future society on the new Eden required artists and poets, creative figures like himself. It had also been pointed out that he served the Church. He was a shining example of what the Church represented. His talent and beauty were avatars of what mankind would be after the interplanetary journey. Its too bad that Selvas own galactic trip ended in the car trunk of a former lover.

Throughout the novel, Leaf evokes the mystery and romance of the Golden Age of Hollywood. For one, Vincenza loves old black-and-white movies. Every movie buff knows the allure of Lauren Bacall in Howard Hawks The Big Sleep (1946), Barbara Stanwycks erotic iciness in Billy Wilders Double Indemnity (1944), and even Gene Tierneys more innocent eroticism in Otto Premingers Laura (1944).

New Hollywood doesnt seem to care about the Old, however. As Leaf writes, Among the great surprises that had awaited her [Vincenza] in Hollywood was the discovery of how few people knew or cared about old films. It baffled her. Often she had asked herself how other actresses could arrive in the city with such fervent yearning for success but not be inspired by their example, nor even by their outfits.

The reality is usually grimmer and more boring than the fantasy. The wide-eyed starlet (think Naomi Watts in David Lynchs 2001 Mulholland Drive) perhaps still exists in real life, but is she aware of the aesthetics of the past? Do they hold any meaning for the present, or the future?

To write a neo-noir is not an easy task. We tend to slip into nostalgia and admiration thats often grounded in exotic romance. This is due in part to the loss of masculinity, thrust, and eros in our society today. We want to see Humphrey Bogart smoking a cigarette in some L.A. dive or Robert Mitchums glorious indifference and unbearably attractive darkness. We want to experience life again.

Leaf, however, does not give in to such nostalgia. City of Angles draws from the springs of many traditional sources, but theyre never pasted together awkwardly. Theres a sense of authenticity and honesty in Leafs writing. Unlike most characters in his book, Leaf is not trying to be anybody other than himself.

The author has accomplished something that the literature and mystery world has been missing for a long time. Our society, so overwhelmed with ideology and wokeness, has forgotten how to have fun, experience joy and humor. Leaf has not only brought out the varied aspects of what it means to be humanthe contradictions and delusions, as well as the joysbut has also written a subtle social commentary on the absurdity, and sadness, of the present times.
In the 18 months since opening its doors, none of the clients at Family Service of Roanoke Valleys counseling program at Jamestown Place has dropped out of counseling.

More specifically, every single patient who has made it through intake is still being seen. Such a stellar track record is particularly remarkable given the complex needs of the population the program treats in southeast Roanoke.

The program  a new version of which has launched in northwest Roanoke  serves people in neighborhoods with the highest risk of victimization and crime. It is designed to make it as easy as possible for clients to access outpatient mental health services.

They have barriers around child care, around transportation, around stigma for mental health services, Family Service Chief Program Officer Jamie Starkey said.

Starkey said those obstacles can make counseling more trouble than its worth.

We say to them, Sure, well see you for counseling. Get on a bus, switch buses two or three times, get to downtown, walk from the bus stop up through downtown and then well provide you a service  and then it can take you three hours to get back home. Really, I dont know that I would be motivated enough to go through all that to get services, Starkey said.

But at Jamestown Place, a Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority neighborhood in southeast, Family Service has removed every single barrier, said Decca Knight, a licensed professional counselor.

Now, Family Service hopes to use a state grant to replicate the programs success at the EnVision Center. The housing authority opened the center in October at 2607 Salem Turnpike N.W., across from another of its neighborhoods, Lansdowne Park.

Designed as a one-stop shop for people accessing employment and housing, Starkey said the goal is to have one full-time equivalent counselor at the EnVision Center.

Because the work at the housing neighborhoods requires such an intensive response, it is really asking for burnout to only send one counselor there for a full work week. So we want to staff the office at EnVision Center for 37 and a half hours a week  thats our goal  but we will do that using a combination of different therapists, Starkey said.

A $150,000 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Program grant from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services will help make that possible. In many ways, the EnVision Center program is modeled after the one at Jamestown Place, which is funded through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Location is a major component.

We go to the housing neighborhoods and we have an office there. At Jamestown Place were actually in the same building with the folks with the redevelopment housing authority. And ... we have a permanent office at the new EnVision Center. Our counselors go onsite to the neighborhood, so these folks only commute is from their front door to our office, which is in the same neighborhood, Starkey said.

Another advantage is that donations and grants pay for counseling sessions, rather than insurance.

In some places, intakes have to be done in one or two sessions  thats just whats required by insurance. I do not have that requirement because Im grant-funded, so I can take my time to really get to know the person and not have to rush them, Knight said.

The program also doesnt penalize clients who miss appointments or cant stay for an entire session.

So I can say, Hey, I get that today was too much for you, I get that youre overwhelmed, I look forward to seeing you next week, as opposed to Oh my goodness, you missed another session. ... I know that many of my clients, at the beginning if theyre a little unsure, maybe they can only take 20 minutes of talking. Fine with me, Knight said.

Knight also stressed the importance of harm reduction, as opposed to results-oriented counseling.

I cannot help people improve if Im making them uncomfortable or if Im pushing them to a space theyre not ready to go. ... A lot of my people say, again and again, Thats why I havent stayed in therapy before. ... Because I felt like I was being judged or because I wasnt meeting the goals that I was supposed to meet in the way that I was supposed to meet them, Knight said.

Starkey said counselors efforts to build trust with the community have also contributed to the success at Jamestown Place. For instance, Knight has gone door to door and met people at bus stops. Knight said her clients are rock stars with whom she is thrilled to work.

I did not want to come in as this expert telling people what they were doing wrong, Knight said.

All of those details have contributed to the programs success, she said.

A lot of the feedback that we have gotten in our evaluations of the program is, This is the longest Ive ever stayed in counseling. ... Ive worked in many different kinds of places and this, by far, has been the most effective program, Knight said.
Builders of the Mountain Valley Pipeline said Tuesday that construction could resume this summer, but also acknowledged that continued legal battles might further stall the long-delayed project.

We see a path to obtaining all approvals by early summer. And while narrow, this would give us the opportunity to complete construction by late 2023, said Thomas Karam, chairman and chief executive officer of Equitrans Midstream Corp., the lead partner in the joint venture.

Karam spoke during a conference call with financial analysts to discuss the companys 2023 first quarter results.

The fall of 2021 was the last time there was major forward construction, which consists of actually assembling the buried pipeline as opposed to the current maintenance of the 125-foot wide right-of-way to control erosion and sedimentation.

And legal challenges from environmental groups  the main reason why completion of the $6.6 billion project has been delayed for more than four years  make the pipelines path to completion more difficult, Karam said.

On April 3, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a water quality certification for pipeline stream crossings in West Virginia, where the 303-mile natural gas conduit will begin before passing through Southwest Virginia.

It was the latest of about a dozen permits issued to Mountain Valley to be struck down by a three-judge panel of Fourth Circuit. Generally, it has taken at least a year for the company to file new applications, and for government agencies to issue renewed authorizations, following a reversal by the court.

But Mountain Valley has a high degree of confidence that the West Virginia certification can be regained in time to complete construction by the end of this year, Karam said.

The company expects to have in hand by early this summer all of its required permits, which include a project-wide stream crossing approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and permission from the U.S. Forest Service for the pipeline to cross through the Jefferson National Forest in Giles and Montgomery counties.

All of this, of course, is contingent on no additional court intervention, Karam said.

That seems unlikely, if the past is any indication. Just last week, Appalachian Voices and other environmental groups asked the Fourth Circuit to stay construction while it considers their latest lawsuit, filed April 10.

That petition asks the appellate court to review a biological opinion by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which found in early March that construction is not likely to jeopardize endangered and threatened species in the pipelines path.

Twice before, in 2019 and 2022, the Fourth Circuit rejected the Fish and Wildlife Services determination of no harm to the Indiana bat, the northern long-eared bat, the Roanoke logperch, the candy darter and the Virginia spiraea, a flowering shrub native to southern Appalachia.

A decision on the requested stay is expected in the coming weeks.

While Karam said he expects the new permits to withstand judicial scrutiny this time, the company is also eying an alternative avenue  a proposed federal law that would expedite permitting for natural gas pipelines in general and Mountain Valley in particular.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, on Tuesday introduced his third version of a permitting reform bill that would greenlight Mountain Valley.

Two earlier bills died in the Senate, where a majority was composed of Democrats concerned about the projects heavy environmental footprint and Republicans wary of handing a victory to a pivotal member of the opposing party.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline has been cited for hundreds of permit violations related to water quality, with permits thrown out time and time again because of environmental harms, said Chelsea Barnes, Appalachian Voices director of government affairs and strategy.

Our environmental laws exist to prevent harm to communities health and safety, Barnes said. No project should be exempt from environmental laws or judicial review, and its especially egregious for Manchin to ask members of Congress to grant exemptions for a project that has repeatedly violated permit conditions and whose permits themselves have been found legally insufficient.

During Tuesdays conference call, Karam praised both Manchins proposal and a statement last week from U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in support of the pipeline.

In a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the lead agency overseeing construction, Granholm wrote that Mountain Valley can help unlock additional natural gas supplies and delivery, which, in turn can enhance regional and national energy security.

Granholm wrote that while the Energy Department takes no position on the outstanding permits or pending litigation, we submit the view that the MVP project will enhance the Nations critical infrastructure for energy and national security.

Pipeline opponents saw her letter as a betrayal by the Biden administration.

Patrick Grenter, director of the Sierra Clubs Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign, said Granholms statement contradicted Bidens pledge to fight climate change by restricting the use of fossil fuels.

There is nothing natural about the fracked gas that would be transported through the Mountain Valley Pipeline; locking us and our communities into decades of reliance on risky fossil fuels, Grenter said in a statement.

What we should be focusing on is transitioning into clean sustainable energy that would maintain energy reliability and security.
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That idea formed the basis of experiments performed several years ago by another of the paper's authors, former Harvard physicist Shmuel M. Rubinstein, who is now at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his students. As Rycroft explains, Rubenstein and his team crumpled a thin sheet repeatedly and measured the total length of creases on the sheet, which they called "mileage." That research is described in this 2018 paper.

"They found that the growth of mileage is strikingly reproducible, and each time the accrual of new mileage would get a little less, because the sheet is progressively getting weaker," Rycroft says.

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That finding stumped the physics community, and Rycroft and Harvard doctoral candidate Jovana A Andrejevic wanted to understand why crumpling behaves that way.

"We found that the way to make progress was not to focus on the creases themselves, but rather to look at the undamaged facets that are outlined by the creases," Rycroft says.

" " The total length of the creases on a crumpled sheet of paper is called its "mileage." Repeated crumpling produces less new mileage as the paper becomes weaker. Flavio Coelho/Getty Images

"In the experiment, thin sheets of Mylar, a thin film that crumples similarly to paper, were systematically crumpled several times, developing some new creases with each repetition," Andrejevic, the 2021 paper's lead author, explains via email. "In between crumples, the sheets were carefully flattened and their height profile scanned using an instrument called a profilometer. The profilometer makes measurements of the height map across the surface of the sheet, which allows us to calculate and visualize the locations of creases as an image."

Because creasing can be messy and irregular, it generates "noisy" data that can be tough for computer automation to make sense of. To get around that problem, Andrejevic hand-traced the crease patterns on 24 sheets, using a tablet PC, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. That meant recording 21,110 facets in total, as this recent New York Times article details.

Thanks to Andrejevic's labors and image analysis, "we could look at the distributions of facet sizes as the crumpling progressed," Rycroft explains. They found that the size distributions could be explained by fragmentation theory, which looks at how objects ranging from rocks, glass shards and volcanic debris break up into small pieces over time. (Here's a recent paper from the Journal of Glaciology that applies it to icebergs.)

"That same theory can accurately explain how the facets of the crumpled sheet break up over time as more creases form," Rycroft says. "We can also use it to estimate how the sheet becomes weaker after crumpling, and thereby explain how the accumulation of mileage slows down. This allows us to explain the mileage results  and the logarithmic scaling  that were seen in the 2018 study. We believe that the fragmentation theory provides a perspective on the problem and is especially useful to model the accumulation of damage over time," Rycroft says.
FLORENCE, S.C.  The 12th Annual CAPES for Kids run will be Saturday at Briggs Elementary School in Florence.

Formerly the Carver CAP Run, CAPES For Kids began in 2011, when a 3-year-old Carver Elementary School student lost her life as a result of abuse and neglect. Each year the event strives to honor her life and the lives of others like her by raising awareness regarding the realities of child abuse while also raising support for child abuse services within the Pee Dee through the CARE House.

Formerly the Carver CAP Run, CAPES For Kids began in 2011, when a 3-year-old Carver Elementary School student lost her life as a result of abuse and neglect. Each year the event strives to honor her life and the lives of others like her by raising awareness regarding the realities of child abuse while also raising support for child abuse services within the Pee Dee through the CARE House.

This family friendly event boasts a superhero theme and invites runners to come dressed as their favorite superhero. Individuals and families can enter a costume contest for a chance to win prizes in a variety of categories.

We know that all children deserve heroes and abused children deserve superheroes, said Alice Curry Gallego, outreach coordinator with the CARE House.

The 10K race is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. with the 5K following shortly thereafter at 8:05 a.m. A mile-long race and Kids Fun Run will take place at 9:30 a.m. following a brief award ceremony.

Participants can register online prior to the event or in person on race day. Registration prior to the event is $35 for the 5K and $40 for the 10K. Individuals can also register at the event with race day prices of $40 and $50 for the 5K and 10K respectively.

Participants can pick up their race packets on Friday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the CARE House of the Pee Dee or at Briggs Elementary on Saturday morning beginning at 7 a.m.

The event will also include childrens activities such as face painting, inflatables, bubbles and popcorn. For more information or to register for the event visit www.thecarehouse.com/capes-for-kids-run.
Episode 88: A recent column by Charles Fain Lehman says our criminal justice system should do more to make us safe. He says we should increase spending for more police officers, a more efficient court system and better prisons would make us safer.

Hosts Richard Kyte and Scott Rada discuss which tactics prevent crimes from happening in the first place and whether the punishments we use properly deter criminals.

Links to stories discussed during the podcast:

Controversy in California: Should Crime be Punished, by Josh Barro

Mayor Muriel Bowser budget proposal calls for repurposing camera ticket money, new task force to look at equity in fines, by Jordan Pascale, WAMU

What broken windows theory can teach us now, Henry Grabar, Slate

About the hosts: Scott Rada is social media manager with Lee Enterprises, and Richard Kyte is the director of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wis.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms during the morning becoming more widespread this afternoon. High near 80F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Low 68F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
 Very different looks on criminal justice reform for governors in Oklahoma and New York | Main | Notable Wall Street Journal commentaries decry injustices highlighted by college admission scandal prosecutions 

November 6, 2019

"Acquitted Conduct Should Not Be Considered At Sentencing"

The title of this post is the title of this notable recent Law360 commentary authored by Robert Ehrlich, the former governor of Maryland. I recommend the full piece, and here are excerpts:

John Adams famously declared, Representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty." Indeed, given the role the jury trial plays in our modern criminal justice system. The jury trial was designed as an indispensable structural check on government. A safeguard the framers of the Constitution considered so paramount to a free people that it was enshrined in the Sixth Amendment. Trial by jury is essential to preserving liberty because it protects individuals from arbitrary use of government power by allowing the people to act independently of the state. Accordingly, upholding the peoples role in the administration of justice is foundational to upholding the purpose of this procedural guarantee. Against this background, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, recently introduced the Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act of 2019. The bill seeks to address the insidious practice known as acquitted conduct sentencing, wherein a judge enhances a sentence based on conduct underlying charges for which a defendant has been acquitted by a jury. You read that correctly. Under current law, federal judges are permitted to sentence individuals based on charges for which a jury found them not guilty.... Lower standards of proof at sentencing  in conjunction with 18 U.S.C. Section 3661, legal precedent and application of the guidelines  means that federal judges may consider a wide array of relevant conduct in determining a defendants sentence, including conduct for which underlying charges have been acquitted by a jury. While the Supreme Court determined acquitted-conduct sentencing did not violate the double jeopardy clause in Watts, the court has never addressed whether the Sixth Amendment right to a trial jury prohibits the practice.... The bottom line: Acquitted-conduct sentencing effectively divests individuals of their Sixth Amendment right to trial-by-jury by divesting citizens of their historical and constitutional role in the administration of criminal justice. While a defendant remains not guilty on paper, the sentencing judges veto of the jurys verdict renders the acquittal meaningless for all practical purposes. Consideration of acquitted conduct at sentencing effectively eliminates the democratic role of the jury in the criminal justice system, inverting the power structure to allow government to limit the people rather than people to limit the government. Acquitted-conduct sentencing is an affront to individual liberty, and judicial or legislative action would be welcome responses to the unconstitutional practice. The Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act would amend 18 U.S.C. Section 3661 to explicitly preclude federal courts from considering acquitted conduct at sentencing, except as a mitigating factor. Congress should advance this simple reform to restore the Constitutions basic guarantees of due process and the right to trial by jury.

A few of many recent and prior related posts on the acquitted conduct:

November 6, 2019 at 09:12 AM | Permalink

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I'm very sympathetic with this, but I wonder if barring consideration of acquitted conduct is far enough. That would just incentivize the prosecution from not charging and instead just arguing conduct at sentencing. It seems to me that acquitted conduct and uncharged conduct are the same as far as omitting the jury.

Posted by: Erik M | Nov 6, 2019 9:26:51 AM

So long as the verdict remains one of saying the prosecution reached the beyond reasonable doubt threshold and not I really don't see the problem. There is a wide gap between beyond reasonable doubt and preponderance of the evidence.

Perhaps we really do need a third possible verdict, one that actually is a finding of innocence. And if we added such a choice then I would have no problem saying conduct related to such a verdict cannot be considered at sentence (at least as an inculpatory factor).

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Nov 8, 2019 11:37:17 AM

I mostly agree with Soronel -- if there's an acquittal, the jury could be asked a follow-up question as to whether the acquitted conduct was established by a preponderance.

Posted by: Jason | Nov 10, 2019 8:14:40 PM

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June 9, 2021

"Acquitted. Then Sentenced."

The title of this post is the terrifically economical title of this new commentary authored by Shana OToole is the founder and president of the Due Process Institute. As regular readers surely realize, the commentary focuses on a remarkable sentencing reality that has long troubled me and it discusses the possibility that a legislative fix may be in the works. Here are excerpts from a piece I recommend (including a footnote that I consider especially important):

Imagine being accused of robbery and murder, but ultimately being found not guilty by a jury of your peers. Now imagine that just two years later, you are indicted again for a wholly unrelated and less serious criminal offense. You voluntarily plead guilty, expecting to receive a fair sentence. The prosecutors, the probation office, and your defense lawyer all agree that current law sets an appropriate prison sentence ranging between 2.5 years to 3.5 years. Your case is then assigned to the same judge who presided over your first case. She sentences you to eight years in prison  more than double the highest end of the range that anyone else involved in the criminal legal system would have told you to expect. And when she does so, she explains that when she went back over her old notes from your first trial, she determined there is a 51% chance that you should have been found guilty of those crimes, so shes ignoring the jurys earlier verdicts and now basing your sentence for this crime on those past unproven crimes. If you think this describes what happens in a bad movie or under some authoritarian regime, you're wrong. This describes a real case, and the practice is known as acquitted conduct sentencing. Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation that will provide much-needed reform. Tomorrow, this bill, the Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act, will face its first major hurdle: a Senate Judiciary Committee markup. The bill is a first step to addressing the many injustices caused by acquitted conduct sentencing. It will prohibit federal judges from increasing a persons prison sentence for one offense on the basis of another offense for which a jury had found the person not guilty. Perhaps the most apparent problem with acquitted conduct sentencing is that it erodes our systems presumption of innocence and the fundamental principles of fairness and justice. Many lawyers and activists argue that it undermines the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial  a pillar of the American criminal legal system, which requires that juries, not judges, determine the facts essential to a prison sentence. Yet acquitted conduct sentencing remains permissible in every federal court and a majority of state courts. While the actual number of impacted persons has yet to be quantified,[FN1] based on the number of federal appeals we know that the practice is widespread. At my organization, the Due Process Institute, our office mailbag is full of letters from those trapped behind prison walls who are serving sentences well past what their actual convictions should have brought them. [FN1] It is almost impossible to say how many people have been directly impacted by the practice since no entity in our federal legal system currently tracks that data. No judge in any of our 94 distinct federal judicial districts is required to document when he or she relies on acquitted conduct in their sentencing decision. And there is often inadequate documentation of acquitted conduct sentencing placed on the public trial record.... Some members of the Supreme Court have raised concerns.... The view that acquitted conduct sentencing is unconstitutional has also won support from lower court judges across the political spectrum. But the majority of the Supreme Court appears to remain unconvinced. Without Supreme Court action, we must look to Congress for a remedy. Thankfully, the legislative fix for this problem is relatively easy. Congress need only amend the law to explicitly exempt the use of acquitted conduct as a basis for increasing a persons sentence. The congressional history of 18 U.S. Code  3661  the part of the law dealing with the use of information for sentencing  indicates that the law was enacted to provide broad discretion to federal judges when considering information during sentencing. But it does not appear that the statute was explicitly enacted to permit the specific practice of acquitted conduct sentencing. The political case for abolishing the use of acquitted conduct at sentencing should appeal to sensibilities on both sides of the political aisle. Thats why the Senate bill and a similar one in the House of Representatives have each received support from Democrats and Republicans. In an era in which such bipartisan agreement is increasingly rare, this is an opportunity for Congress to pass meaningful legislation that will make our justice system more fair and effective. Its time to put an end to acquitted conduct sentencing, and the Senates legislation is a good start. Tomorrow, the Judiciary Committee should vote to move this legislation forward unamended and allow it to come to the Senate floor for a vote.

June 9, 2021 at 03:51 PM | Permalink

Comments

A question: How often is the acquitted conduct for which a greater sentence is applied completely unrelated to offenses where a conviction is actually obtained?

While I don't necessarily have problems with what I understand to be the usual case where the acquitted and convicted conduct are tied together I admit to being troubled where the two are wholly unrelated.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Jun 9, 2021 4:19:57 PM

I guess the real question is should you be able to impose a long sentence on Al Capone for tax evasion. If you think that character is relevant (and certainly defense counsels regularly introduce evidence of good character unrelated to the offense behavior as mitigating evidence at sentencing hearings), then uncharged and acquitted conduct is just as significant in assessing character as attending church regularly.

While it is hard to look back through a modern lens at the understanding of the framers (particularly as the framers "normal" sentences were much harsher than our current sentences reducing the potential impact of prior bad acts on sentencing), the traditional understanding of sentencing procedure is that everything is fair game for the sentencer.

I know that defense attorneys, as part of open plea deals, regularly argue that judges should not consider the dismissed charges. But if you make that a rule, there could be unintended consequences. Prosecutors are regularly willing to drop charges because they believe that the sentence to be imposed on the remaining charges will be sufficient. But part of the analysis that makes the remaining counts sufficient is the ability of the courts to consider the total picture. You get rid of that potential, then you might not get the reduced charges with the result that sentences go higher.

Posted by: tmm | Jun 9, 2021 5:20:53 PM

"acquitted conduct is just as significant in assessing character as attending church regularly"

Depends on why there was an acquittal. If the acquittal is a result of there being serious doubt that the crime occurred, actually going to church or something can be a better way to assess character.

"Prosecutors are regularly willing to drop charges because they believe that the sentence to be imposed on the remaining charges will be sufficient."

I'm not sure how much is covered by the legislation here, but this seems to be different from the "acquitted conduct" concern.

The charges were dropped. There wasn't an acquittal as a result (example given) of a whole process and jury decision. It isn't acquitted conduct from the past. It is basically a plea -- "we will drop this if you plea to that" -- regarding current prosecutions.

It isn't "two years later" after acquittal. The "everything usually is factored in" comment is noted. The current rule can benefit a defendant in various instances.

But, this seems to talk past a basic concern of the piece.

Posted by: Joe | Jun 9, 2021 6:18:28 PM

The case the post is referring to is United States v. Asaro, where the defendant was allegedly a capo in the mafia. He was acquitted on RICO charges relating to 40 years of mob activity (including the Lufthansa heist and a murder where his son pleaded guilty to moving the body). He pleaded guilty to having some mob associates torch a guy's car after the guy cut him off in traffic. The sentencing judge viewed the acquitted conduct for the other case as being relevant to the "the history and characteristics of the defendant," 18 U.S.C. s. 3553(a), because he was in a position to order mob associates to torch the guy's car because he was high up in mob. So, while I certainly agree the use of acquitted conduct at sentencing is problematic, I'm not sure it's accurate to say the acquitted and convicted conduct were unrelated in this case.

Posted by: Tre | Jun 10, 2021 11:28:50 AM

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A helpful reader made sure I did not miss this notable unanimous opinion by the Supreme Court of New Jersey in State v. Melvin, NO A-44-19 (N.J. Sept. 23, 2021) (available here). Sentencing fans and long-time readers should know why I think this ruling is spot-on and today's must-read. Here is how the opinion gets started:

One of the most important tenets of our criminal justice system is the finality of a jurys verdict of acquittal. These consolidated appeals test that principle through a common legal issue: whether a trial judge can consider at sentencing a defendants alleged conduct for crimes for which a jury returned a not guilty verdict.

In State v. Melvin, the jury found Melvin guilty of second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun and, after two trials, not guilty of the most serious charges against him, including first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder. At his second sentencing, the trial court -- notwithstanding the jurys not-guilty verdicts on the murder charges -- determined that the evidence at trial supported the conclusion that Melvin shot the victims. Citing United States v. Watts, 519 U.S. 148 (1997), the trial judge found that it was within the courts broad discretion at sentencing to consider all circumstances of the case, including evidence that Melvin was the shooter. Despite the jurys verdict, the trial court found that Melvin not only possessed the weapon, but used it to shoot three people. The trial court sentenced Melvin to a term of sixteen years imprisonment with an eight-year period of parole ineligibility. The Appellate Division affirmed that sentence.

In State v. Paden-Battle, in a trial before the same judge who presided over Melvins case, the jury found Paden-Battle guilty of kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and felony murder. The jury acquitted Paden-Battle of the remaining seven counts, including first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. At sentencing, the trial judge again relied on Watts to make findings of fact, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Paden-Battle, despite having been acquitted of the most serious murder charges, was the mastermind who orchestrated the victims murder. The trial court stated that Paden-Battle falsified her testimony and found that she was the moving force behind the murder and ordered her co-conspirators to act. The trial court sentenced Paden-Battle to a sixty-year sentence. On appeal, the Appellate Division vacated Paden-Battles sentence and remanded the matter for resentencing, holding that the trial court enhanced her sentence based on its belief -- a belief contrary to the jurys verdict -- that Paden-Battle ordered the execution.

We granted the petitions for certification in both cases and now reverse in Melvin and affirm in Paden-Battle. Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution bestows upon all citizens certain natural and unalienable rights. From those rights flows the doctrine of fundamental fairness, which protects against arbitrary and unjust government action. State v. Njango, 247 N.J. 533, 537 (2021). For the reasons stated below, we hold today that fundamental fairness prohibits courts from subjecting a defendant to enhanced sentencing for conduct as to which a jury found that defendant not guilty.
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July 14, 2022

Might SCOTUS finally be ready to take up acquitted conduct sentencing enhancements?

Long-time readers know I have long bemoaned the use of so-called "acquitted conduct" to enhance sentencing in the federal system. My moans have sometimes found expression in amicus briefs in support of efforts to get the Supreme Court to take up this issue, and I surmise any number of defendants have brought this issue to SCOTUS in cert petitions over the last two decades. But the Justices have persistently declined to take up this issue (though, back in the 2014 Jones case, Justice Scalia joined by Justices Ginsburg and Thomas dissented from the denial of cert on this topic).

But hope springs eternal, and this month I had the pleasure of working with great lawyers at Squire Patton Boggs to file another amicus brief on this issue, this one in support of petitioner Dayonta McClinton. I blogged here about McClinton's case after the Seventh Circuit affirmed his 19-year sentence that was based heavily on the judge's determination that McClinton was to be held responsible for a murder even after a jury had acquitted him of that killing. As detailed in this SCOTUS docket sheet, a number of notable interest groups have also filed amicus briefs in support of cert in this case.

I have a smidge of extra hopefulness for SCOTUS review this time because of the recent transition of Justices. Justice Breyer, who always opposed the Apprendi/Blakely line of Sixth Amendment cases and always supported broad judicial fact-finding at sentencing, likely was never too keen on this issue. But Justice Breyer is no longer considering cert petitions, and I am hopeful that his replacement, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, might be more inclined to vote for cert on this topic. (In addition, Justice Kavanaugh expressed concerns about acquitted conduct when on the DC Circuit, and Justice Gorsuch has long expressed strong affinity for jury trial rights.) And today brought an extra jolt of hopefulness because the Supreme Court officially requested that the Government respond to the cert petition after the Solicitor General had waived its right to file a response.

Because every cert petition is a long shot, I will still going to be keeping my expectations tempered. But, I do feel fairly confident that the Justices will eventually take this issue up, so I hope they come to see that there is no time like the present.

A few recent of many, many, many prior related posts:

July 14, 2022 at 10:25 PM | Permalink

Comments

I understand why this issue has superficial appeal but saying that "the jury found that he didn't do it" is not an accurate statement of the law, at least as I understand it. The only statement that is true, I believe, is "the jury did not find beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the charged offense." Meanwhile, sentencing factors only have to be shown to a more-likely-than-not standard (possibly some to a clear and convincing evidence standard, I don't know).

If that distinction is, in fact, an accurate statement of the lawI don't see how there is anything to complain about.

Note that I would not be at all opposed to adding an actual "not guilty" finding to the jury forms. But for right now that is not what we really have, regardless of what the foreperson announces as the verdict.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Jul 14, 2022 11:46:59 PM

Of course, most states do not have jury sentencing. I am not sure what the legal basis is for distinguishing between acquitted conduct and uncharged conduct and conduct that is the basis for charges that are still pending. And if all evidence of prior bad acts is inadmissible unless it resulted in a conviction, I am not sure what the legal basis is for putting on evidence of a defendant's good character while excluding evidence of bad character. Even in the death penalty cases, the Supreme Court has made clear that character is a relevant consideration in sentencing which the sentencer is entitled to hear.

While the court is free to make up whatever legal rules it wants, barring consideration of a defendant's bad character by a sentencer would be a major change to the traditional rules.

Posted by: tmm | Jul 15, 2022 11:11:17 AM

Soronel and tmm, though there is an understandable tendency to consider and conflate acquitted conduct and uncharged conduct and/or to make much of proof standards traditionally used by different fact-finders, my view is that an acquittal by a jury of certain conduct is a special kind of legal, political and social action that must be shown a unique form of respect in our constitutional system. The Supreme Court's recent Ramos ruling, authored by Justice Gorsuch, speaks in a different context to my core concerns here:

"the promise of a jury trial surely meant something  otherwise, there would have been no reason to write it down. Nor would it have made any sense to spell out the places from which jurors should be drawn if their powers as jurors could be freely abridged by statute. Imagine a constitution that allowed a 'jury trial' to mean nothing but a single person rubberstamping convictions without hearing any evidence."

I think the promise of a jury trial must mean that, if and whenever someone is acquitted by a jury of certain conduct, then a judge cannot thereafter sentence a defendant as if that acquittal was entirely inconsequential. To parrot Ramos, can we imagine a constitution that guaranteed a right to a jury trial, but also blessed a statute that ordered a single judge to thereafter sentence the person exactly the same after an acquittal by a jury as if the jury had convicted?

That said, I have long argued that all legally significant offense conduct to be used at sentencing should have to be proven as an "element." So I view uncharged sentencing enhancements as constitutionally and pragmatically problematic. But acquitted conduct sentence enhancement are different in kind and much worse in a system committed to jury trials.

Posted by: Doug B. | Jul 15, 2022 11:54:29 AM

Okay, that's at least an answer. Not one I find convincing but still an answer.

I see a major difference with your rubber-stamp counterexample in that it (at least as presented) doesn't require anything more than the original probable-cause that a particular offense was committed. Acquitted conduct sentencing on the other hand still requires (or is supposed to anyway) proof to a preponderance level.

I have, in the past, presented a system where once convicted the offender would have to prove some reason why they, in particular, should be shown leniency. I would still have no problems were that our system. Once a conviction is obtained my interest in the offender is basically nil. They have shown that they don't care to live in a law-abiding society, I see no reason not to humor that desire.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Jul 15, 2022 12:46:57 PM

Just ignoring the critical difference between the standard of proof for a conviction and the different and lower standard required for establishing sentencing facts may feel good, but is not going to result in a successful SCOTUS case.

Of course, if the defense wants to make the argument that, for the first time in American history, sentencing facts must be found BRD, it should go right ahead. How well that argument will fare in a Court that has shown new determination not to read into the Constitution things that aren't there is, ummmmm, a different question.

An acquittal does not mean and has never meant the defendant didn't do it. Very, very often it means it's highly likely he did it, but has not been established to the maximum standard of BRD. And that's all it means.

And there's this too: As we all know, the defense bar is not about to stop if it wins this case. The one to be filed ten minutes later will be that uncharged conduct ALSO can't be used at sentencing -- something, it will tell us, is a mere slight extension of the rationale they're pushing to use the acquitted conduct argument.

The truth is that the defense bar doesn't want ANY CONDUCT AT ALL to be considered at sentencing, because what it's actually seeking is no sentence. Gotta have "healing," dontcha know.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Jul 15, 2022 4:41:04 PM

Soronel and Bill: As you may or may not realize, SCOTUS has never formally said that "proof to a preponderance level" is a constitutional requirement at sentencing. In McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79(1986), the Court held simply that "the preponderance standard satisfies due process" in the application of a statutory mandatory minimum, but it also said nothing in that case "would warrant constitutionalizing burdens of proof at sentencing."

Arguably, McMillan could be read to hold there is absolutely no due process constitutional floor for the burden of proof at sentencing --- and thus probable cause or even reasonable suspicion could be the sentencing standard decreed by a legislature. Is that what your are both asserting, namely that the Constitution should be read to place absolutely no procedural rules or limits whatsoever on judicial fact determinations at sentencing?

Of course, contrary to Bill's curious suggestion, many defense folks argued repeatedly that McMillan was wrongly decided and that sentencing facts which trigger a mandatory minimum must be found BRD. The Supreme Court ultimately agreed, in Alleyne v. United States, 570 U.S. 99 (2013) by formally overruling McMillan and holding that the Fifth Amendment BRD proof standard of AND the Sixth Amendment jury trial right applies to any and all facts that "alter the prescribed range of sentences to which a defendant is exposed and do so in a manner that aggravates the punishment."

Alleyne was authored by Justice Thomas, Bill, so I am surprised you forgot this case when claiming that is unprecedented to assert that certain aggravating sentencing facts have to be proven BRD. Such a claim is not unprecedented; in fact, it is fundamental to the holding in Apprendi and Blakely and Cunningham and Southern Union as well as Allenye (with your fav, Justice Thomas, in the majority in all these cases).

Of course, proof BRD is not actually anywhere in the text of the Constitution. Are you folks inclined to claim that, for all criminal justice purposes and in all criminal justice settings, "proof to a preponderance level" ought to be considered sufficient to satisfy the Due Process Clause even when it comes to convictions? If not, why does it seem sound to read the Constitution to have varying proof standards for criminal justice determinations? I get that you both might, for policy reasons, want punishment imposed based on lower proof standards. But is that real consistent with Constitutional text and Founding era history and tradition in application of criminal laws?

Posted by: Doug B. | Jul 15, 2022 6:22:47 PM

I have enormous problems with SCOTUS rulings saying that sentencing factors have to be shown BRD. To me, once the conviction is obtained with some statutory sentencing range (be even were it a $1 fine to death) that should be the end of any entitlement to having the evidence weighed in the offender's favor. Perhaps, were the guidelines still mandatory, I could see granting more, because then the guideline range is, in fact, part of a statutory sentencing range. But advisory guidelines are not so part of a statutory range.

If the law so allowed, a magistrate could say "I'm sending you to the gallows because my ouija board told me to" and that would satisfy me, so long as the conviction itself is firm. That we choose to give a convict more than that, is - I believe - much more for the comfort of the sentencing official than anything due the offender.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Jul 15, 2022 7:19:48 PM

Doug --

You mention Apprendi and Blakely and Cunningham and Southern Union and Allenye but say not a word about the actual controlling case, Watts. How curious.

And you particularly take note of the Jones case from eight years ago, and the dissents from the denial of cert by Scalia, Ginsburg and Thomas, but say not a word about Ludwikowski, in which cert was denied on the identical issue less than two years ago with not a single dissent.

A cynical person might be tempted to think this is a case of selective citation, no?

P.S. It's not really worth a whole lot of disputation at this late date in our Republic that the standard of proof for convictions is BRD, and for sentencing (with rare and specific exceptions) is a preponderance. That law is much, much better settled than Roe ever was.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Jul 16, 2022 8:50:01 AM

Bill, you stated "if the defense wants to make the argument that, for the first time in American history, sentencing facts must be found BRD, it should go right ahead." I was eager to highlight that the argument that certain sentencing facts must be found BRD has been made many times AND the argument has been frequently successful over the last two decades in rulings such as Apprendi and Blakely and Cunningham and Southern Union and Allenye (and I left out Ring and Hurst and a few others).

The 1997 ruling in Watts relied heavily on McMillan. But, as noted above, McMillan was expressly overruled by Allenye. That is among the reasons I have long thought SCOTUS should take this issue up anew (just like you keep hoping they will reconsider Miranda). I am not confident the Justices will anytime soon, but in the wake to 20+ years of jurisprudence (led by Justices Scalia and Thomas) finding more and more "sentencing facts" subject to traditional Fifth and Sixth Amendment criminal justice procedures and protections, the Court ought to explain whether and why the rights in those amendments do or do not protect defendants in a meaningful way at sentencing after a jury acquittal.

Critically, Bill, it is NOT established constitutional law that sentencing fact-finding by judges must be by a preponderance. McMillan (decided 35 years ago) and Watts (decided 25 years ago) held only that due process was satisfied by a legislature or agency rule calling for application of that standard of proof. But the Supreme Court has never directly addressed what serves as a constitutional floor for proof at sentencing (Soronel would seemingly be content with the "ouija board" standard). A few circuits have held or suggested that a "clear and convincing" standard applies at sentencing sometimes. The division and uncertainty on these matters is another reason for SCOTUS to take up this matter ASAP.

Finally, with the Supreme Court is now stressing text, history and tradition as central to constitutional adjudication, I am eager to see and better understand when and how text, history and tradition might support the notion that a civil law standard suffices for proof of (acquitted) crimes to justify aggravation in punishment. When he was back on the DC Circuit, Justice Kavanaugh suggested SCOTUS needed to take up this issue in the wake of Apprendi jurisprudence. I hope he sticks to that view and can get the votes needed for cert.

Posted by: Doug B. | Jul 16, 2022 10:46:34 AM

1. You are correct that my initial statement was too broad. There are (quite) limited circumstances in which a fact pertinent to sentencing must be found BRD. But the run of the mine standard of proof for sentencing facts is a preponderance. Don't believe me? Go down to US District Court and watch a few sentencings.

2. Watts is the governing law until SCOTUS says otherwise. But no SCOTUS case, before Allenye or afterwards, has questioned Watts' continuing authority. The Third Circuit in Ludwikowski explicitly and solely relied on Watts, and when the case got to SCOTUS on a cert petition, not only was there not a single vote to take it; there was not a single sentence from a Justice to the effect, "While this is not an apt vehicle to examine the matter, I would note that, in light of Allenye, the continuing authority of Watts may need to be reexamined." Not one single Justice.

3. In many, many cases, the single most important determinant of the verdict is who wins the suppression motion. But SCOTUS has held explicitly that the burden of proof at a suppression hearing is preponderance, not BRD, Lego v. Twomey, 404 U.S. 477 (1972). That critical holding, like Watts, also has not been questioned.

4. You note, "A few circuits have held or suggested that a clear and convincing' standard applies at sentencing sometimes."

The words "suggested" and "sometimes" are doing a world of work in that sentence. Let's see if I can do as well: "In a few pickup games, I have hit it from 35 feet sometimes." Which is true, but if you want to use that as the basis for your litigating positions, you're going to have some long days in court.

5. I'm glad you see the many virtues of Justice Thomas. Too bad the Left continues to try to smear him (and his wife). He is a man of courage and high intellect and if I had my druthers, he would be the POTUS.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Jul 16, 2022 10:13:27 PM

In reverse order:

5. For many reasons, I would love to see Justice Thomas run for Prez in 2024.

4. Circuits have generally failed to put meat on the bones of sentencing proof standards, because SCOTUS has never done so. Everyone is generally content to treat preponderance as "good enough for government work" even though that proof standard, to my knowledge, finds no support in text, history and traditions of our Constitution.

3. A suppression motion concerns assessing facts for applying the (constitutionally questionable) exclusionary rule. Once courts invent a remedy for constitutional violations to be used in criminal cases, it is hardly surprising that they then invent a proof standard for deciding if this remedy applies. That is a far cry different that the standard of proof for criminal wrongdoing that should allow punishment in our adversarial criminal justice system.

2. Yep, Watts in still "good" law and SCOTUS has turned away repeated challenges with little comment. But, at 25, Watts it is far younger than Miranda, which is also still "good" law and high on your "they should reconsider" list. I am hoping the four Justices who have joined the Court in the last 5 years will be open to taking another look at Watts. I surmise you are hoping the same for Miranda.

1. Any and all facts that legally shift the range of sentences must be proved BRD (or admitted by the defendant). That actually covers a lot of facts, but those are often hashed out in plea deals. That 98% of federal cases get resolved by pleas means that requiring proof BRD for crime facts to enhance a sentence would not be a big deal EXCEPT in those cases in which a defendant denies guilt and a JURY UNANIMOUSLY DECLARES HIM NOT GUILTY. The jury trial right should mean something, and I think that should mean you do not get sentenced for conduct that a jury decided was not adequately proven by the government.

Posted by: Doug B. | Jul 17, 2022 2:47:45 PM

Bill, the Left didnt need to smear Ginny. Her own texts did (baselessly seeking to thwart the will of the electorate). She is a conspiracy theorist. I respect you and really hope you arent. Or does the will of the people only matter when it results in conservative approaches to issues?

Posted by: Anon | Jul 17, 2022 7:56:13 PM

Late to this blog post, but Id like to note that Florida prohibits extra punishment for acquitted conduct. There are many cases like this one: Doty v. State, 884 So. 2d 547, 549 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004) (It is a violation of due process for the court to rely on conduct of which the defendant has actually been acquitted when imposing the sentence.)

Posted by: Paul | Jul 18, 2022 7:55:13 AM

Anon,

We shouldnt know anything about her or her texts. They are not newsworthy.

We now know for a fact that Joe lied about his sons business dealings and liked to take showers with his daughter. The entire media yawns, but a couple of texts from Ginny sends them to their fainting couches.

Posted by: TarlsQtr | Jul 18, 2022 7:41:23 PM

Tarls, her texts are newsworthy. She is a public figure. She is married to a Supreme Court Justice, who could have been called to rule on those claims. She is actively inserting herself into efforts to undermine democracy. That may not be newsworthy to you, but a lot of others would reasonable disagree.

Posted by: Anon | Jul 18, 2022 8:10:23 PM

Was Thomas called to rule on those claims? No, thus not newsworthy and used solely to smear. Her texts had zero impact on public policy as she is not a public servant.

Yet, Ashley Bidens diary gets a zzzzzzzz. Only the NY Post has shown any interest in Hunters laptop, which likely shows criminal acts by Joe and, at the very least, unethical ones.

Posted by: TarlsQtr | Jul 19, 2022 8:48:03 PM

TarlsQtr --

The real reason the Left goes after Ginni Thomas is three-fold: First, they believe a woman should stay in the kitchen and have no professional life of here own; second, they resent that she has a bi-racial marriage, which (amazingly in this day and age) they view as a scandal; and third, they want to send a not-so-subtle warning shot across Justice Thomas's bow that, if he continues to be so uppity in his opinions, he and his family might get a late night visitor just as Justice Kavanaugh and his family did.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Jul 21, 2022 9:14:21 AM

Bill, that is so absurd and over the top. She is a public figure. She is married to a Supreme Court justice. She is a conspiracy theorist. Do you have any evidence for any of your assertions? It sounds like you might be a conspiracy theorist too. I know a lot of people on the Left, and none of these assertions are true for any of them. This does a disservice to your intelligence.

Posted by: Anon | Jul 30, 2022 9:07:09 PM

Mr.Berman,

Hello. My name is Eric Hicks and I was recently released from federal prison under the First Step Act of 2018 after serving 30 years. I was originally sentenced to life.

For several years I have been a proponent of the Supreme Court revisiting the issue of the use of acquitted conduct. Most people who have opinions on the topic, have not lived the horrors of standing before a federal judge and having a sentence imposed for something that was either never charged in an indictment or a crime in which a jury said that you did not commit. The issue is reviewed from a policy standpoint while I tend to view it more from a societal aspect.

My sentence was increased for elements of a crime, viz., drug quantity and leadership elements of 21 U.S.C. 848, that resulted in a hung jury during my trial. These findings substantially increased my base offense level and resulted in a sentencing range of life. I cannot even begin to calculate the damage that this policy wrought upon my family as most of them passed away while I was in prison.

The purpose of this message is to merely thank you for your years of dedication on this issue. Your work was the impetus to me writing work that was published by the University of California's Vera Institute of Justice in 2011. Thank you again for your blog and your passion.

Sincerely,

Eric

Posted by: Eric Hicks | Nov 1, 2022 10:05:04 AM

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 "'Take the Motherless Children off the Street': Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the Criminal Justice System" | Main | Rounding up lots of notable headlines and stories 

September 14, 2022

Hoping and pushing for SCOTUS finally taking up acquitted conduct sentencing enhancements

Long-time readers know I have long bemoaned the use of so-called "acquitted conduct" to enhance sentences in the federal system. My moans have sometimes found expression in amicus briefs in support of efforts to get the Supreme Court to take up this issue, and I surmise any number of defendants have brought this issue to SCOTUS in cert petitions over the last two decades. But the Justices have persistently declined to take up this issue (though, back in the 2014 Jones case, Justice Scalia joined by Justices Ginsburg and Thomas dissented from the denial of cert on this topic).

But hope springs eternal, and over the summer I had the pleasure of working with great lawyers at Squire Patton Boggs to file another amicus brief on this issue, this one in support of petitioner Dayonta McClinton. I blogged here about McClinton's case after the Seventh Circuit affirmed his 19-year sentence that was based heavily on the judge's determination that McClinton was to be held responsible for a murder even after a jury had acquitted him of that killing. As detailed in this SCOTUS docket sheet, a number of notable interest groups have also filed amicus briefs in support of cert in this case.

Excitingly, Michael Pepson and Jeremiah Mosteller have this new Bloomberg Law commentary, headlined "US Supreme Court Should Tackle Acquitted Conduct Sentencing," which focuses on the McClinton cert petition and makes this notable assertion: "Taking up the issue of acquitted conduct sentencing this next term will give the court another opportunity to tackle a criminal justice issue that unites people from across the spectrum." Here is more from the piece that I recommend in full (with links from the original):

This practice allows judges to use conduct a defendant was acquitted of by a jury to increase a defendants sentence or punishment for a separate crime. This tool essentially allows judges to veto a jurys decision when they merely disagreed with their conclusion. At least three current justices have questioned or called for an end to this unjust practice. And they do not stand alone, as other recent members of the court have also noted this issue demands action, including former justices Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Anthony Kennedy. There is reason to hope other members of the court would also agree acquitted conduct sentencing is unconstitutional given their professional backgrounds and experience on the front lines working in the criminal justice system. The justices are not alone. For years, many lower federal court judges have also forcefully argued that acquitted conduct sentencing is unconstitutional. And a growing number of state courts have also broken ranks with the federal courts, calling this sentencing practice what it is: unconstitutional. This broad criticism underscores the appalling nature of this practice. It is not only unjust to defendants but also undermines the legitimacy of our criminal justice system and eviscerates the role of juries as a check on government abuse and overreach. We both frequently have conversations with friends, advocates, and partners who have no idea this practice occurs. The response is always shock and confusion about how such a practice can exist in America. This horrified reaction mirrors our own, which is why we continue to advocate for the end of this practice. The Supreme Court has a perfect opportunity to reconsider this practice by accepting a case called McClinton v. United States.

A few recent of many, many prior related posts:

September 14, 2022 at 02:54 PM | Permalink

Comments

Doug --

I admire your persistence as much as my results.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Sep 14, 2022 9:50:11 PM

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FILE PHOTO: The logo of GoAir airline is pictured on an A320neo aircraft at the builder's headquarters of Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse

(Reuters) -Cash-strapped Indian airline Go Airlines (India) Ltd, recently rebranded as Go First and previously as Go Air, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, blaming "faulty" Pratt & Whitney engines for the grounding of about half its fleet.

Here are some details on the U.S. enginemaker's geared turbofan (GTF) engines, which Go First says are at the heart of the crisis.

WHEN DID THE PROBLEM START?

In 2016, Go First received its first A320neo aircraft powered by GTF engines after placing an order for 72 narrow-body jets from Airbus. Pratt & Whitney is the exclusive engine supplier for the airline's A320neo aircraft fleet.

Go First said it picked the engines because the U.S. firm, which competes with CFM International, offered better fleet-management terms, and the engines would be more fuel efficient, quieter and require less service.

But the GTF engines, for which Pratt invested $10 billion to develop, were found to have problems involving the fan blades, an oil seal and the combustion chamber lining.

The issues with the GTF engines grounded several A320neo planes in 2017, a year after the engine was launched. In India alone, IndiGo and Go First, among the biggest customers for the A320neo planes, grounded as many as 12 planes at one point, and cancelled dozens of flights.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

Go First said Pratt & Whitney agreed in 2017 to compensate it for engine "support". The agreement, which ran through 2019, provided unspecified compensation to the airline for days when planes were grounded with engines that needed to be changed or serviced.

But in 2020, Go First began to experience "more severe" engine failures, and in 2022 financial disputes erupted between the two companies over the engine replacement and maintenance arrangement.

In February 2023, Pratt proposed a plan to supply replacement engines at a rate four times lower than the failure rate," leading Go First to file for emergency arbitration in Singapore a month later.

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Pratt's lawyers said in arbitration that its engines were not defective even if they had not performed in the way it had hoped. The engine maker also said Go First's financial problems were of its own making, and the company was owed over $100 million by the airline.

Go First said the number of aircraft because of "faulty engines" has ballooned from 7% of its fleet in December 2019 to 50% in December 2022, costing it 108 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) in lost revenue and added expenses.

Pratt said it was "committed to the success of our airline customers, and we continue to prioritise delivery schedules for all customers."

Greg Hayes, CEO of Pratt owner Raytheon Technologies Corp, said in February that GTF engines' reliability has not been up to expectations and that the company was working to fix problems.

IndiGo, India's largest airline and a major customer of A320neo, is facing a similar problem with Pratt engines for some of its fleet, but has been able to better navigate the crisis because of its much larger fleet size and better negotiations with the vendor, according to Jefferies analyst Prateek Kumar.

(Reporting by Kevin Krolicki; Compiled by Miyoung Kim. Edited by Gerry Doyle and Louise Heavens)
Britain's King Charles III inspects the 200th Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Sovereign's Parade and presents the new Colours and Sovereign's Banner to the receiving Ensigns in Camberley, England, Friday, April 14, 2023. (Dan Kitwood/Pool Photo via AP, File)

SINGAPORE  President Halimah Yacob will be attending the coronation of King Charles III in London from Thursday to Sunday (4 to 7 May).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in a press statement on Wednesday that Halimah will be accompanied by her husband and officials from the President's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During her stay, she will hold separate meetings with Vietnam President Vo Van Thuong, and Fiji President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere. She will also attend a reception for Singaporeans living in Britain, according to MFA.

During Halimah's absence, Eddie Teo, chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers, will perform the duties of the Office of the President.

Britain's first coronation in 70 years to take place

Buckingham Palace has stated that over 2,200 people, including heads of state, foreign ministers, and royal representatives, are expected to attend Britain's first coronation in 70 years.

Westminster Abbey, the central London church, will host the coronation on Saturday. King Charles' second wife, Camilla, will be crowned queen alongside him.

Around 7,000 armed forces personnel will participate in the ceremonial duties during the coronation, including a fly-past by military aircraft.

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A US mountaineer has become the first foreign tourist to die this year during an expedition to scale Mount Everest, according to the US embassy in Nepal.

Jonathan Sugarman, 69, who was a Seattle based doctor, died at Camp 2 after he began feeling unwell on Monday.

It was Sugarmans second attempt to ascend the worlds tallest mountain and he was part of an expedition arranged by Washington state-based International Mountain Guides.

The guiding company said that his death was not the result of a climbing accident or route condition that would be of potential impact or safety concern to any other teams on the mountain.

The Embassy of the United States in Nepal issued a statement, saying: We can confirm Dr Jonathan Sugarman passed away while climbing Mt Everest Monday May 1.

Our deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends.

The embassy said its officials were in contact with Sugarmans family and with local authorities.

Seattle doctor Jonathan Sugarman died while climbing Mount Everest (via King 5)

Eric Simonson, the owner of International Mountain Guides, said: "The rest of the IMG climbing team is all doing as well as can be expected given the circumstances.

The doctor had tried to climb Everest in 2012 but had to retreat after reaching Camp 3 after he suffered high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE).

American doctor dies at Camp II on Everest



Jonathan Sugarman, 69, the retired MD from the Seattle area trained diligently for the expedition and was feeling well. Last year, he summited Lobuche and Island Peak and reached C3 on #Everest.#everest2023https://t.co/zaFVFUUWsj pic.twitter.com/lGcOtjm2qc  4sport.ua (@4sportua) May 2, 2023

HAPE is a condition caused by swift changes in elevation. Sugarman told mountaineering website Uphill Athlete that he also suffered HAPE in 2016 when he was climbing another summit in the Himalayan mountains.

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To be honest, I was never sure until I got there that Id actually make it to Camp 3, so I had a nice sense of accomplishment when I arrived, he had told the website about his expedition to Everest in 2012.

As of 26 April, Nepal had issued a record 463 permits to Everest climbers for this years spring season.

Spring is the most sought-after time for climbers to attempt to reach the peak of Everest, the highest point on earth at 29,032ft (8,849m).

Most climbers target reaching the peak in mid-May, a brief window when temperatures are warmer and conditions most favourable in the harsh high altitudes of the Himalayas.

The record number of permits has raised concerns among environmentalists and mountaineers about potentially dangerous overcrowding at camps and on the mountains most popular ridges.

Sugarman is the fourth person to die on Everest during this years climbing season. In April, three shepas died after they fell into a crevasse.

The last American who died on the peak was from Connecticut. Puwei Liu died due to exhaustion in 2021 after reaching Hillary Step, a point near the main summit.
An Indonesian woman fell to her death after she forced opened the wrong set of doors in an airport lift and fell down the shaft.

Aisiah Sinta Dewi, 38, fell out of the lift at Kualanamu Airport in Medan, northern Indonesia, on 24 April.

While she had made a panicked call to a family member about being trapped and was reported missing, her body was only found three days later.

It later emerged that the incident had been captured by surveillance cameras, with CCTV footage showing Dewi moments before she fell to her death.

The footage shows her entering the lift through one set of doors.

She is then seen turning to push a button for the second floor.

DETIK-DETIK Wanita Terjatuh dari Lift di Bandara Kualanamu, Ditemukan Meninggal Setelah 4 Hari

-------------------

Kronologi:

Tanggal 24 April 2023 Tante saya (almarhumah) Asiyah Shinta Dewi Hasibuan mengantar ponakan nya ke Bandara KNO (Medan) untuk berangkat ke luar negri, pic.twitter.com/oShw8rp4sY  Kodok Ijo  (@Midjan_La_2) April 29, 2023

The footage shows her standing and waiting as she looks at her phone and a second set of doors opened up behind her.

Then she appeared to push the lift button again, still facing the doors she had entered from.

Dewi then appears to make a distressed phone call before forcibly opening the closed doors, after which she steps through.

Her body was eventually found by airport staff investigating reports of a foul smell.

Her family had asked staff at the airport to search for her after they lost contact with her.

Dewi had reportedly called her niece to tell her she was trapped before she died.

Airport officials said that the lift was functioning normally, reported CNN Indonesia. They did not say when the checks were conducted.

Dewis brother Raja Hasibuan said that poor elevator security was responsible for his sisters death.

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This is an international-level airport. How are safety standards like this? he was quoted as saying.

The response from the staff was very, very unsatisfactory.

Twelve witnesses, including airport officers and security personnel have subsequently been questioned by the police.

Police said additional witnesses may be interviewed later.
Bookmark: A books editor says goodbye to the best job ever

By the time you read this, I'll be gone.

I know that sounds dramatic, but it's true. After 15 years as books editor, I'm handing off this gigantic, big-hearted beat to someone else. I've been working for newspapers since I was a teenager, and in 47 years this job is the best I've ever had. The best I could imagine.

For 15 years, my job has been to choose the books to be reviewed as well as the critics to review them. I also edit, report, write and read, all in a part of the country that's rich in authors, readers, book festivals, bookstores and libraries  a place that cares deeply about books.

Perhaps the most fun has been sitting with authors and discussing their work. I particularly enjoyed talking with James McBride in 2017 in advance of his talk at the University of Minnesota. It was a freewheeling conversation, and we kept returning to humor. "If you don't have humor, you're not going to make it," he said. "You're going to be one of those people who walks around with your head about to explode."

Louise Erdrich also mentioned humor in one of our many conversations. Humor is hard to write, she said, but it's essential. "I just don't feel like I've got a book unless there's something funny in it."

Over the years, much has changed in the world of books  or maybe I just became more aware, over time. I watched the rise of books by writers of color and LGBT writers  a rise in numbers but also in attention and awards, long overdue.

Genres have pushed at boundaries and morphed in fascinating ways. Memoir changed from dire stories about trauma to stories of ordinary lives to something else  sometimes a fabulous blend of fiction, reportage, illustrations and poetry, but always with that core of remembrance.

Graphic novels gained respect. Artists such as Guy Delisle, Joe Sacco and Kate Beaton combine meticulous reporting with illustration, paring down complex stories to a few potent words and images.

I've seen backlash against writers who write outside their lane  such as with "American Dirt," a 2018 novel about Mexican immigrants written by a woman who is neither Mexican nor immigrant.

That discussion has simmered for years, amplified in 2016 by Lionel Shriver donning a sombrero at a writing conference. "That's what we're paid to do, isn't it?" she said. "Step into other people's shoes, and try on their hats." Objections were fierce from people deeply concerned about cultural appropriation.

I've observed the rise of Amazon and the decline of bookstores; I've also observed bookstores rebound  such as the new Black Garnet Books in St. Paul, Minnesota, and rising-from-the-ashes Uncle Edgar's and Uncle Hugo's in Minneapolis.

And social media! My gosh, how important have Twitter, Facebook and TikTok become in spreading the word about books. But there are downsides to social media as well: the loud vilification of librarians, the clamor for book banning and censorship.

Through it all, you have been stalwart. You write and tell me things I didn't know; you write and make me laugh. You are loyal and smart and well read and we are lucky to have such wonderful readers.

I'm retiring from the Star Tribune, but I'll be around, watching as the world of books continues to grow and change. Some of the change will be good  I believe that most of the change will be good.

Goodbye, and thank you for 15 miraculous, happy years.



Laurie Hertzel is at lauriehertzel@gmail.com.
HARTINGTON, Neb.  A judge has denied a request to dismiss charges against a Laurel, Nebraska, woman charged in the death one of four people killed in a quadruple homicide.

District Judge Bryan Meismer ruled on Tuesday that prosecutors presented sufficient evidence at Carrie Jones' preliminary hearing to justify the case proceeding to trial and denied her plea in abatement to dismiss charges of first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and being an accessory to a felony in connection with the Aug. 4 shooting death of Gene Twiford.

Jones, 44, is scheduled to be arraigned May 22 in Cedar County District Court.

Her attorneys had argued prosecutors failed to establish probable cause that Jones aided and abetted her husband, Jason Jones, who also is charged with killing Twiford and three others.

At that February hearing, a Nebraska State Patrol investigator testified Jones told him Twiford had verbally harassed her for three years. The day before the shooting, Jones pointed a loaded handgun at her husband, then held a knife to his throat and told him he needed to stand up for her and end the harassment. She told the investigator she didn't tell her husband to kill Twiford, but did say shed do it if he didnt.

Hours later, Twiford, 86, was found shot to death, along with his wife, Janet, 85, and their daughter Dana Twiford, 55, in their burning home at 503 Elm St. in Laurel.

Jason Jones, 43, is charged with four counts each of first-degree murder and use of a firearm to commit a felony and two counts of first-degree arson. Hes accused of shooting the Twifords and also Michele Ebeling, 53, who lived across the street from the Jones' home. He's also charged with setting fire to both homes in the early morning hours of Aug. 4.

Badly burned, Jones stumbled into his home that morning with his wife's assistance and stayed there until he was arrested the next day and taken to a Lincoln, Nebraska, hospital for treatment of his burns. Carrie Jones was arrested Dec. 16 and remains in custody on a $1 million bond.

Jason Jones also is scheduled to be arraigned May 22. He is being held without bond at the Nebraska Department of Corrections Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln, where he continues to receive medical treatment.

Prosecutors have filed notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Jason Jones if hes found guilty of first-degree murder, and Meismer earlier this year dismissed a defense motion to quash portions of Nebraskas death penalty statute on arguments theyre unconstitutional.
SPENCER, Iowa  Iowa landowners opposed to proposed liquid carbon dioxide pipelines crossing their property won a legal victory Wednesday, when a judge ruled a state law giving surveyors the right of entry to private property is unconstitutional.

Ruling in a Clay County case, District Judge John Sandy said the law violated Iowa's constitution because it does not provide for just compensation for certain damages to landowners for their loss of the right to deny entry onto their land.

"The court can find no other reasonable interpretation in which Iowa Code (section) 479B.15 passes 'constitutional muster,'" Sandy said in his ruling denying Navigator Heartland Greenway's request for an injunction to allow third-party survey crews access Sioux Rapids landowner Martin Koenig's property.

The ruling is a win for property owners across the state, said Koenig's attorney, Brian Jorde, of Omaha.

"It's a good day for anyone who cares about property rights, and we're hopeful that this momentum continues. It's a significant, significant ruling," Jorde said.

In a released statement, Navigator said it will appeal the ruling because it deviates from precedents established in surrounding states where judges have recently upheld similar survey statutes.

"Navigator plans to appeal the ruling and believes that further review will uphold the constitutionality of the statute, aligning with the conclusions reached by courts in neighboring jurisdictions," the company said. "We remain committed to engaging in open and transparent communication with landowners and interested stakeholders. The vast majority of our surveys have been completed through voluntary collaboration with landowners and tenants. We remain committed to upholding the highest standards of safety and integrity in all of our operations."

Navigator sued Koenig in August after being twice denied entry to his farmland that lies in the route of the company's proposed CO2 pipeline. Koenig responded with a counterclaim challenging the constitutionality of Iowa's right of entry law, and the case proceeded to trial on April 19 in Clay County District Court.

In his legal analysis of the law, Sandy said the statute grants pipeline companies the right to enter private land over Koenig's right to exclude them from his property. Because the law amounts to a government-authorized physical invasion despite the owners' right to exclude, Sandy said, the action is a "per se" taking that calls for just compensation.

Jorde had argued the statute does not provide for payment of damages for that loss of the right to deny entry to private land, only for actual damages to the land caused by surveyors' actions.

Sandy said his review of the law showed that if a surveyor causes actual damages to the property, the pipeline company must cover the damages. But when non actual damages, such as those inflected upon a landowner who has lost the right to prevent people from entering the property, are subjective and not easily determined, the law's definition of actual damages does not cover the per se taking Sandy determined takes place.

"No other construction of the statute, as it currently exists, would render any compensation for damages that are not 'actual.' It is in this way that the statute is unconstitutional and incapable, beyond a reasonable doubt of any valid application," Sandy wrote in his 19-page ruling.

The ruling was filed as Jorde and Navigator await a judge's ruling in a similar lawsuit in Woodbury County.

Like Koenig, Vicki Hulse denied Navigator's third-party surveyors entry to land north of Moville owned by her and her husband, William. Navigator sued for an injunction to gain access to the property, and the Hulses responded with a constitutional challenge of the same state law at issue in the Clay County case. They also argue they did not receive proper notification of surveyors' intent to enter their land to perform their studies.

District Judge Roger Sailer in October denied Navigator's injunction request and presided over a one-day trial in Sioux City in March.

Navigator has applied for a state permit to build a pipeline through five states that would collect carbon dioxide from ethanol and fertilizer processors in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Illinois, convert it to liquid form and transport it under high pressure to an Illinois site, where it would be pumped thousands of feet beneath the surface. Many Iowa landowners have refused to grant surveyors access to their land or sign easements.

Navigator has filed lawsuits against other landowners who have denied access to their property. Those landowners have filed constitutional challenges similar to those in the Koenig and Hulse cases.

"We're hopeful other courts will look at Judge Sandy's analysis and conclude he was right," said Jorde, who represents other landowners. "One or more of these will find their way to the Iowa Supreme Court."

Navigator's pipeline would run through 36 Iowa counties, including Woodbury and Clay counties. Other Siouxland counties in the route include Plymouth, Lyon, Osceola, O'Brien, Cherokee, Dickinson and Buena Vista in Iowa and Dakota, Dixon and Wayne counties in Nebraska.

It's one of two carbon pipelines proposed to run through the area. The other pipeline developer, Summit Carbon Solutions, also has gone to court against landowners who have denied access to surveyors to gain an injunction to access the parcels. Landowners in those cases, too, have responded with constitutional challenges.
SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man is in custody after leading authorities on a chase that reached speeds of more than 100 mph in city streets overnight.

According to a complaint filed in Woodbury County District Court, Raymon Olague was a passenger in a Lexus ES350 that crossed into South Dakota on Military Road and was stopped at about 11:50 p.m. because a headlight was out.

Olague got behind the wheel and sped back into Iowa on Military Road, reaching speeds above 100 mph in a 35 mph zone and running several stop signs on residential streets and a stoplight at West Seventh Street and Hamilton Boulevard.

Olague is accused of throwing a loaded handgun out the driver's side door before bailing out of the car and fleeing on foot. Olague locked himself inside a home at 2407 Center St. and would not comply with commands to come out. When officers made contact with him, he resisted arrest. He did not have a valid driver's license, court documents said.

He was booked into the Woodbury County Jail on charges of second-offense eluding, felon in possession of a firearm, interference with official acts and fifth-degree theft for the possession of a stolen impact drill.

Olague, 30, also was wanted on a warrant for traffic violations issued to him after a March 2022 accident in which he fled from the scene.
CHEROKEE, Iowa  During a press conference at the Cherokee Regional Medical Center on Wednesday morning, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird called the opioid crisis one of the greatest threats facing people today.

"It's in the cities, the suburbs, the rural areas," Bird said. "More Americans have died in the opioid crisis than World War I and II combined."

Bird was in attendance for a discussion of the "Billion Pill Pledge" with representatives from the local hospital and Goldfinch Health, a care provider focused on alternative treatments to opioid prescriptions for post-surgery patients.

The plan and its effectiveness

The campaign is aimed at removing one billion pills from medicine cabinets in the U.S. and is funded by money Iowa received from a 2022 settlement with opioid manufacturers Teva and Allergan, as well as CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens pharmacies. Iowa is eligible to receive up to $345 million, over a multi-year period, according to the Iowa Attorney General website.

Cherokee Regional was the first Iowa hospital to join the "Billion Pill Pledge," according to John Greenwood, the co-founder and chief operating officer of Goldfinch.

"We've avoided 263 pills per Cherokee city block, per year, which is approximately 10,000 pills," said Greenwood, describing how prevention work in Cherokee has panned out thus far.

Billion Pill Pledge event at Cherokee Regional Medical Center Goldfinch Health COO and Co-Founder John Greenwood, left, at podium, talks about post-surgery treatments, that don't rely on opioids, during a

Greenwood said one approach of Goldfinch is to try and provide patients with surgery care kits which include hydration and medication such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen. He said those, in tandem, can help, greatly, with pain maintenance.

"(We've) seen a 69% average prescription reduction," Greenwood said. "No one came back to the ER with pain."

More broadly, Greenwood said his organization does hospital and provider consultation and care plan optimization. They also work to hire remote nurses to help patients when they go home from surgery so that they have a better understanding of their pain medication.

Dr. John Greaves, a podiatric surgeon at Cherokee Regional, who was on the press conference panel with Bird and Greenwood, added that the campaign has already produced better recoveries.

"Programs like this are important for our state and for our patient care," Greaves said.

Since Cherokee Regional helped kick off the "Billion Pill Pledge," Greenwood said 15 hospitals in the state have either implemented the plan or have a start date set for implementation.

Billion Pill Pledge event at Cherokee Regional Medical Center During a press conference about opioid abuse prevention, at Cherokee Regional Medical Center, Goldfinch Health COO and Co-Founder John Greenwo

Gateway drugs, punishments and preventions

While addressing those in attendance, Bird said opioids such as oxycodone and oxymorphone can act as gateways to more powerful drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. In the 2023 Iowa legislative session, state lawmakers have moved toward increasing penalties for the distribution of drugs when it results in an overdose. Bird has been a major proponent of House File 595.

"Drugs are too accessible," Bird said at the event.

If signed into law, a distributor would get three times the sentence otherwise imposed by law if they sell or provide a drug to a person that results in their death. The sentence would be doubled if the sale results in serious bodily injury. A person who manufactures a drug in the presence of a minor, or sells a drug to a minor, would get twice the penalty otherwise imposed by law. In addition, the bill would raise the sentence for selling or manufacturing fentanyl.

A 2021 Scientific American opinion piece from Maia Szalavitz, who's written extensively about opioids, said the crisis, which has most greatly impacted people between the ages of 24 and 35, was initially fueled by drug companies, such as Purdue Pharma (the maker of OxyContin), who "convinced gullible doctors to prescribe the unneeded opioids."

When asked how health care providers and hospitals are now working to prevent pharmaceutical company capture, Cherokee Regional CEO and President Gary Jordan said his hospital limits access to pharma reps and only invites companies to come and talk about products the hospital believes will be appropriate for it.

"A lot of it has been changing," Jordan said.

"It's getting better as far as the prescribing goes but illicit use is getting worse," Greenwood added.
DES MOINES  Iowas Area Education Agencies would see a near $30 million budget cut as they expect an increase in private school students who need special education services under a proposed budget from statehouse Republicans.

The reduction continues years of budget decreases to the agencies, which provide special education and other services to Iowas school districts.

Funding to Iowas nine AEAs has been cut by at least $7.5 million a year for more than two decades, but lawmakers have periodically increased that number, and the funding has been cut by $22.5 million since 2017. The proposed budget would represent an extra $7 million cut for the next fiscal year.

This is a pretty devastating cut from what weve had, and it is going to show up in numbers  its just going to be harder to serve the kids, said Matt Eide, a lobbyist for the Area Education Associations of Iowa.

The funding was part of the standings budget approved on a party-line vote by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposed. It will need to pass in the House and Senate before being eligible to be signed into law.

Adding to the budget cut, lobbyists for AEAs said on Tuesday they expect to see an influx of private school students because of a law passed this year that will allow parents to use taxpayer-funded education savings accounts to send their student to a private school.

Iowa law entitles students in private schools the right to special education services in the same manner provided to public school students.

If students who requires special education services move to a private school, their AEA is required to provide the services, but the students are not counted in the agencys funding formula. Kate Walton, a lobbyist for the AEAs, said the agencies have been attempting to change the formula to fund those services for years.

Iowas AEAs provided special education services to more than 70,000 students in the last school year, according to a December report. A little more than 800 attended private schools, about 2.2% of private school students.

Jason Plourde, the Green Hills AEA chief administrator, told lawmakers the agency is trying to hire new staff to meet increasing need for special education. But with a reduction in funds and more private school students needing special education services, Plourde said the southwest Iowa AEA would struggle to meet the needs of all its students.

It really puts us in a very dire situation, not only potentially decreasing services to kids in the nonpublics, which were trying to ramp up, but also potentially dilutes (services) to the bigger schools, he said.

Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, a Republican from Fort Dodge who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he is open to changing the formula to compensate AEAs that serve private school students, but that will not happen this year. He said hed like to see how many public school students leave for private schools and request special education services next year.

The law creating education savings accounts gives school districts around $1,200 for students in the districts boundaries who attend a private school. Kraayenbrink suggested the state could do the same for AEAs, supplementing their funding based on how many private school students each agency serves.

I think its worth us taking a hard look at in the interim to see if theres an answer, he said.

The Inflation Reduction Act's rollout is bringing green jobs across the USsee the projects happening near you The Inflation Reduction Act's rollout is bringing green jobs across the USsee the projects happening near you Projects are planned in over 30 different states Solar Wind Batteries Electric vehicles Semiconductors Other projects
After a weekend of pressure that included protesters on his lawn, Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston said Tuesday he's not budging on his position on abortion, which in effect killed a proposal supported by all of his Republican colleagues in the Legislature to sharply limit abortion rights.

"I've already taken a whipping and I'm not backing off because I think that's right."

As he spoke during an interview on the sidelines of the legislative chamber, about a dozen anti-abortion activists who gathered outside his office early Tuesday morning had dispersed.

With Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston needing 33 votes to end a filibuster that had trapped her proposal (LB626) to reduce the current abortion ban in Nebraska from 20 weeks to about six weeks, based on ultrasound detection of embryonic cardiac activity, her motion to free the bill failed on a 32-15 vote.

"I think there is huge support for 12 weeks as being something sustainable and considered to be reasonable," Riepe said.

"Neither side would get exactly what they want but could live with it."

"We live in a pluralistic society," Riepe said, where a variety of views are in play.

"I'm pro-life," he said. "But I can't live someone else's life."

Riepe said "a few people showed up at my house with signs" during the weekend and he has experienced "some level of disappointment expressed by some of my colleagues" along with concerns personally raised by Gov. Jim Pillen.

"I respect the governor," he said, "and I know this is close to his heart."

Pillen, he said, is "a reasonable individual with good core values ... but I'm not really good at obedience."

"I'm a big boy ... I served in the Navy ... and I think I'm right."

Riepe said he represents what might be described as "almost a purple district" instead of either a red (Republican) or blue (Democratic) district, one that was previously represented by Steve Lathrop, a Democrat.

For many voters in his district, this issue is women's rights, he said.

"I have to be sensitive to that," Riepe said, "but my votes also need to truly reflect what I feel."

"We'll always have differences," Riepe said. "But no one has to surrender."

Photos: The business of governing in Nebraska in 2023
DES MOINES -- Iowa Democrats will caucus the same night as their Republican counterparts in early 2024, before any other state holds a presidential primary election or caucus, according to a new plan released Wednesday by the Iowa Democratic Party.

What remains far less clear is exactly when the party will publish the results of Democrats presidential preferences  a pending decision that will be a significant factor in whether its new process runs afoul of national party rules or upsets other early-voting states.

The plan published Wednesday is the latest development in Iowa Democrats overhaul of their quadrennial presidential precinct caucuses.

The national Democratic Party determined after the 2020 presidential election to change its presidential primary election calendar, and many national party leaders expressed a preference for primary elections over party-run caucuses, citing some of the challenges to participating in a caucus.

In an effort to preserve the envied first-in-the-nation status they held for half a century, Iowa Democrats proposed a plan designed to make the caucuses more accessible, the centerpiece of which is Democrats casting their presidential preference by mail.

Despite that dramatic change to Iowa Democrats caucus system, the state was not selected by the national party to be among early voting states on the new presidential primary calendar. Iowa Democrats decided nonetheless to move forward with their new plan, and on Wednesday announced some more details  while still leaving critical elements to be determined.

Iowa Democrats will caucus on the same night as Iowa Republicans, and at least eight days before any other states presidential nominating contest, as has historically been the case and as prescribed in Iowa law.

Iowa Democrats plan continues to involve the casting of presidential preference via the mail prior to caucus night, with an exact timeline still to be determined. But there will be no expression of presidential preferences during the precinct caucuses themselves.

The state party will, at a date yet to be determined, calculate the results of the mail-in presidential preferences, which will determine the number of unbound delegates that are allocated to each presidential candidate to the county, congressional district and state conventions. A candidate must be selected by at least 15 percent of the preferences stated at the county level in order to earn any delegates, the plan says.

What remains unknown is when the state party will calculate and release those results.

So far, the announced 2024 Democratic White House candidates are President Joe Biden, self-help guru Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccination activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Iowa Democrats updated plan calls for those yet-undefined details to be finalized at a later date, no later than 90 days before the yet-unscheduled caucuses, along with further details like when Democrats will be able to cast their preference by mail.

This is intentional, party leaders say, to provide flexibility and an ability to adapt to uncertainty surrounding the Democratic presidential nominating calendar.

While the national party has announced a new slate of five early-voting states  in order, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Georgia and Michigan  that was proposed by President Joe Biden, there have been issues with the implementation of that schedule as states wrestle with their own laws, including New Hampshires that declares it shall hold the nations first presidential primary election every four years.

Weve got a plan here that says that we may open this window for the mail-in, and that may happen before the caucuses, or we can open this window and we can announce the results after the caucuses, (or) on the day of the caucuses, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart told reporters Wednesday. It just gives us a tremendous amount of flexibility there to make that decision once we know exactly what were dealing with.

Iowa Democrats latest plan, in the form of a 62-page draft document, after a 30-day public comment period will be delivered to the Democratic National Committees rules and bylaws committee for its consideration.

Iowa Democratic Party officials said they plan to work with a vendor to assist with the mail-in presidential preference cards. Hart said the goal is to create a process that is secure, transparent and logical. Part of the reason Iowa Democrats find themselves overhauling their caucus system is that in the 2020 Democratic caucuses, a new app developed to report the results failed on caucus night. Because of that, official results were not known for weeks, well after the process had rolled on to other states.

Iowa Republicans continue to express their displeasure with Iowa Democrats plan, which they believe will threaten the first-in-the-nation status that the Iowa Republicans caucuses have maintained. They point to New Hampshire, which has viewed any mail-in balloting as a primary election and has threatened to move ahead of Iowa.

If it is the goal of the Iowa Democratic Party to carry out the will of Iowans and preserve our first-in-the-nation status, they cannot move forward with their mail-in ballot plan that supersedes the New Hampshire primary, Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement. It is becoming clear to me that keeping Iowa first is not the goal of the Iowa Democrats. The fact that they continue to keep pushing their primary-in-all-but-name proposal gives the appearance that the Iowa Democrats are hellbent on tanking the entire caucus. Theyve turned what used to be a process that we did together into all out political warfare.

It was not immediately clear how Iowa Democrats latest update would align with a proposed change to state law, moving through the Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature, which would require in-person participation for the statement of presidential preference in the Iowa caucuses. Republicans conduct an in-person straw poll for their presidential precinct caucuses.

Hart said the proposed state law change is not among her concerns.

As far as the legislation is concerned, Im not going to worry about that until we see, you know, maybe I wont worry about that at all, Hart said. Im the Democratic Party chair. It is not my concern what the Republicans think we ought to do with our caucuses. So theyre going to pass their legislation, theyre going to do what theyre going to do. We did not have input into that, and thats disappointing. But were going to continue on this path to make sure that we have an accessible process that allows Iowa Democrats to participate in a caucus process that is going to give them the voice that they deserve.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russia claimed it foiled an attack by Ukrainian drones on the Kremlin early Wednesday, calling it an unsuccessful assassination attempt against President Vladimir Putin and promising retaliation for what it termed a terrorist act. The Ukrainian president denied it, saying: We don't attack Putin or Moscow.

Putin wasnt in the Kremlin at the time and was at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russias state news agency RIA Novosti.

There was no independent verification of the purported attack, which Russia authorities said occurred overnight but presented no evidence to support it. Questions also arose as to why it took the Kremlin hours to report the incident and why videos of it also surfaced later in the day.

A video posted overnight on a local Moscow news Telegram channel, shot from across the river from the Kremlin, appeared to show smoke rising over the buildings. It wasnt possible to ascertain its veracity. According to text accompanying the footage, residents of a nearby apartment building reported hearing bangs and seeing smoke around 2:30 a.m.

Another video on social media, which looks to be taken from across Red Square, appears to show the moment a drone explodes in a flash of fire above the roof of the Senate Palace in the Kremlin, near a flagpole flying the Russian tricolor, with debris falling on the roof. It also was not possible to independently verify this footage.

The Kremlin said Russian military and security forces had stopped the drones before they could strike. Nobody was hurt, it added. Its official website said debris from the drones fell on the Kremlin grounds without damage.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on an unannounced visit to Helsinki for talks with the leaders of five Nordic countries, denied any role.

We dont attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. Were defending our villages and cities, he said at a news conference.

Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the claims could provide a pretext for Russia to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. was unable to confirm the authenticity of Russias claim.

Asked whether the U.S. believed Putin was a lawful target of any potential Ukrainian strike, Jean-Pierre said that since the start of the conflict, the U.S. was not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its border.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that the United Nations "is not in a position to confirm these reports. We strongly reiterate our call on all concerned to refrain from any rhetoric or action that could further escalate the conflict, Haq said.

The purported drone attack would be a significant escalation in the 14-month conflict, with Ukraine taking the war to the heart of Russian power.

Phillips OBrien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, said, It certainly wasnt an attempt to assassinate Putin, because he doesnt sleep in the roof and he probably never sleeps in the Kremlin.

He added it was too soon to prove or disprove whether it was a Russian attempt either to make Ukraine look reckless or to buck up Russian public opinion or if it was a Ukrainian operation to embarrass Russia.

James Nixey, director of the, Russia and Eurasia program at the Chatham House think-tank, said the two most likely possibilities are a warning shot across the bows by Kyiv or a false flag operation by Moscow designed to justify more intense attacks in Ukraine or more conscription.

If it was a warning shot by Kyiv, then it was yet another shocking security lapse by the Russian state, he said.

If its a false flag operation by Moscow, then it reeks of desperation," Nixey added. "And its a high-risk strategy likely to be exposed, considering how poor their tradecraft seems to be.

The alleged attack prompted calls in Russia from pro-Kremlin figures for assassinations of senior leaders in Ukraine.

The Kremlin claimed the attack was planned to disrupt Victory Day, which Russia celebrates in Red Square on May 9 to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Peskov said the parade would go on as scheduled.

Before the news about the alleged attack broke, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a ban on using drones in the Russian capital, with an exception for those launched by authorities. He gave no reason for the ban, saying only it would prevent the illegal use of drones that can hinder the work of law enforcement.

Zelenskyy was in Finland seeking greater firepower for his armed forces as they figure out how to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine.

Both Ukraine and Russia reportedly have experienced ammunition shortages after a winter of long-range shelling and missile strikes. Kyiv has been pressing its allies for more as officials consider when to start driving Russian forces out of Ukrainian territory they occupy.

Zelenskyy said Ukraines counteroffensive is coming very soon.

This year will be decisive  for victory, he said.

The Nordic countries  Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland  have been among Kyiv's strongest backers since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Before meeting Zelenskyy, Nordic officials appeared ready to provide more aid.

Here in the north, we have a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian neighbor, and it is important that we discuss together how to face this new situation, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre said.

In fighting Wednesday, 16 civilians were killed in a massive attack by Russian forces on southern Kherson province, the Prosecutor Generals Office said.

Russian fire hit the train station and the only open supermarket in the regional capital, also called Kherson, killing 12 people and wounding 22, officials said. Three energy workers died when they came under fire while making repairs north of the city.

The talks came a day after U.S. officials said Washington plans to send Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous number of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition.

The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been formally announced.

Elsewhere, Russia used Iranian-made drones during its third attack on Kyiv in six days. Explosions were heard in the capital and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defenses shot down 21 of the drones, Ukraines air force said. No damage or casualties were reported

Meanwhile, a massive blaze broke out at an Russian oil depot in Russias southern Krasnodar region, east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

He didnt say what caused it, but some Russian media outlets said it was likely from a Ukrainian drone attack. There was no official comment on that possibility.

Residents heard an explosion shortly before the fire erupted, Russian news site Baza said.

Military analysts think Ukraine is targeting Russian supply lines while gearing up for a possible counteroffensive amid improving weather and as it receives more weapons and ammunition from the West.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group whose fighters are a key force in the grinding months-long battle for the eastern town of Bakhmut, was quoted by Russian media as saying Wednesday that he believes the counteroffensive is underway.

I believe that the offensive of the Ukrainian army has, in fact, already begun. We see the highest activity of enemy aviation, we see the highest activity along the perimeter and inside our front," he said, according to the reports.

Explosions also derailed a Russian freight train and hit a Russian airfield in recent days. Last weekend, a massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two Ukrainian drones, a Russia-appointed official said.

In anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces are focused on destroying logistical routes and centers of Ukraines armed forces with long-range strikes, Kyiv military officials say.

At the same time, Russia plans to continue talks with the U.N. and other parties to an wartime agreement on facilitating Black Sea agricultural shipments, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said ahead of talks on Friday.

Earlier Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed new consultations between Russia and the U.N. on access of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to the world market would be held in Moscow.

Signed in July and renewed twice, the deal freed Ukrainian grain shipments that were held up in the country's blockaded ports last year. The deal expires May 18 unless Russia agrees to its renewal.

Jari Tanner in Helsinki, and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed.
Petitions are starting to circulate to put a measure on the general election ballot in 2024. Its a measure to change our election process from party primaries to an open primary, in which all South Dakota voters can select the candidates who will run in each general election.

Today, Republicans and Democrats in South Dakota go to the polls in June in even-numbered years, using different ballots, with the intention of nominating a candidate for offices such as governor, the legislature and our members of Congress. Registered Independents (more than 120,000 South Dakotans) cannot vote in primaries.

And the primaries are where most legislative elections are determined. In the South Dakota Senate, 21 of 35 seats were determined in the 2022 Republican primary, so neither Independents nor Democrats were able to vote for the senator in their district. The majority of House of Representatives seats were also determined in the Republican primary.

The result of such one-sided party domination is hyper partisanship. In a more balanced situation, candidates need to get votes from all types of South Dakotans, including Republicans, Democrats and Independents. Today, candidates only need to get votes from Republicans to win, causing candidates to adhere tightly to the party platform.

The proposed constitutional amendment would allow all South Dakotans to vote in a common primary, which would have all candidates on the same ballot distributed to all voters. The top two candidates  of whatever party or affiliation  would advance to the general election. (In state House elections, the top four candidates will make it to the general election ballot, where two winners will be selected).

The point is to allow all South Dakotans to vote in the primary and cause all candidates to speak to all South Dakotans during campaigns.

About half of U.S. states offer some sort of open primary, of which there are several types. It appears to appeal equally to red and blue states. In surveys, Americans say overwhelmingly that they dislike hyper partisanship, as each party is getting more extreme in their views and leaving out those in the middle.

Its a long way to deciding this issue in November 2024. But we like what we hear and encourage all voters to consider this measure thoughtfully.
China supports Myanmar in maintaining stability, promoting development: FM

Xinhua) 10:53, May 03, 2023

NAY PYI TAW, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday that China has always supported Myanmar in maintaining stability and promoting development.

At a meeting with former Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Than Shwe, Qin said viewing the development of China-Myanmar relations from a strategic height, China has always been a good neighbor, good friend and good partner of Myanmar, and has always supported the Southeast Asian country in maintaining stability and promoting development.

China respects Myanmar's sovereignty and territorial integrity, supports Myanmar in advancing its domestic peace process, and stands ready to continue providing assistance to Myanmar in safeguarding independence, maintaining political stability and realizing sustainable development, said the Chinese foreign minister.

The Chinese side is willing to work with Myanmar to build a China-Myanmar community with a shared future, he added.

For his part, Than Shwe appreciated China's good-neighborly friendship with Myanmar and its strong support for Myanmar's socio-economic development. He expressed hope that the two neighbors could carry forward the "Paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship, strengthen friendly cooperation and push for more fruitful bilateral ties.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
ATLANTA (AP)  Police arrested a man accused of opening fire inside the waiting room of an Atlanta medical practice Wednesday, killing one woman and wounding four. Workers and others in a bustling commercial district took shelter for hours during the manhunt.

Authorities swarmed the citys midtown neighborhood shortly after noon in search of the shooter. Police said in a statement that the suspect, whom they identified as 24-year-old Deion Patterson, was captured in Cobb County, just northwest of Atlanta.

Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr. declined to discuss any details of the investigation or a possible motive, saying, Why he did what he did, all of that is still under investigation.

Patterson had an appointment at a Northside Medical building and opened fire shortly after arriving in an attack that lasted about two minutes, law enforcement officials said at a news conference Wednesday night. Patterson then went to a Shell gas station and took a pickup truck that had been left running and unattended, authorities said.

News of the shooting prompted workers and lunchgoers in the neighborhood, which is filled with office towers and high-rise apartments, to shelter in place for hours.

A woman was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said. She was later identified as Amy St. Pierre, 38, of Atlanta.

The four wounded women  aged 25, 39, 56 and 71  remained in critical but stable condition Wednesday night, according to Hampton, the deputy chief. Their names were not immediately released.

The shooting comes as cities around the U.S. have been wracked by gun violence and mass shootings in 2023.

Patterson's mother, Minyone Patterson, who police said had accompanied her son to the medical office, told The Associated Press by phone that her son, a former Coast Guardsman, had some mental instability going on from medication that he began taking on Friday.

She said her son had wanted Ativan to deal with anxiety and depression but that the Veterans Affairs health system wouldn't give it to him because they said it would be "too addicting." Shes a nurse and said she told them he would only have taken the proper dosage.

Those families, those families, she said, starting to sob. Theyre hurting because they wouldnt give my son his damn Ativan. Those families lost their loved ones because he had a mental break because they wouldnt listen to me.

She ended the call without saying what medication her son had been taking.

We are horrified and saddened to hear of the active shooter situation in Atlanta today, Veterans Affairs Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said in an emailed statement. Due to patient privacy, we cannot discuss the Veterans personal information without written consent.

In a statement, the U.S. Coast Guard said Patterson had joined the service in 2018 and was discharged from active duty in January. He was an electricians mate second class at the time.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens applauded the fact that Patterson was arrested and taken into custody alive so he can be prosecuted.

Right now, weve had a successful end to a traumatic day, Dickens said, while also advocating for tougher gun laws and stressing the importance of police training.

I hope the city, the region, rests easy that he is in custody, but I also hope that we will stay vigilant to continue to look at a future where individuals who shouldnt have a gun in possession wont have one, and also that individuals are brought to justice, and also that we deal with these things that are mental health or easy access to guns," Dickens said.

Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement that he was heartbroken by the shooting and praying for victims.

Cobb County Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer said technology played a huge role in finding the suspect, along with Department of Transportation cameras and community members calling with information.

Those tools are really what got us the clues that we we needed to make this successful  and the people getting those clues, VanHoozer said.

The pickup truck was found in a parking garage not far from the stadium where the Atlanta Braves play. Video aired by WSB-TV showed Patterson was arrested near a tennis court and swimming pool in a nearby condominium complex.

Around the time of the shooting, Cassidy Hale, a medical device representative, said she was driving to the facility to check on a machine in the buildings outpatient surgery center.

Hale saw firetrucks but didnt realize anything was wrong until after she parked and found the elevator wasnt working. Hale said she called the operating room manager, who told her there was an active shooter and she should go back to her car.

Hale said police kept her from leaving the parking garage and later checked each car and escorted her out to be interviewed.

She gathered with other employees and patients in a building across the street, where she said everyone was really in shock and trying to process what was going on.

Shortly after the shooting, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia took to the Senate floor to decry gun violence and to urge his colleagues to advance gun reform.

There have been so many mass shootings ... that, tragically, we act as if this is routine, the Democrat said. We behave as if this is normal. It is not normal.

The Atlanta pastor added: I shudder to say it, but the truth is, in a real sense, its only a matter of time that this kind of tragedy comes knocking on your door.

Georgias other U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, also a Democrat, echoed his colleague in a statement: The level of gun violence in America today is unconscionable and unacceptable, and policymakers at all levels have a responsibility to ensure public safety and implement long-overdue reforms.

This story was first published on May 3, 2023. It was updated on May 5, 2023, to correct the age of the woman killed. Amy St. Pierre was 38, not 39 as police had said. This story was previously corrected to show that one of the surviving victims was 39, not 29.
Law enforcement officials in Oklahoma are staying silent while they piece together what led to the killing of seven people on a rural property, including a registered sex offender. But two relatives of the victims told The Associated Press on Tuesday that they were all shot to death. Jesse McFadden, the registered sex offender, was found dead with his wife, her teenage children and two visiting teens near Henryetta, a town about 90 miles east of Oklahoma City. His mother-in-law, Janette Mayo, says he kept the family under lock and key and always had to know where they were. She says the family didnt learn about his criminal history until a few months ago.
Authorities say a man suspected of killing five of his neighbors in Texas hid out in a house just 20 miles away from the slayings while he and his domestic partner plotted his escape to Mexico. Details of Francisco Oropeza's actions during part of a four-day manhunt were revealed Wednesday at a probable cause hearing for 53-year-old Divimara Lamar Nava. The 38-year-old Oropeza was arrested late Tuesday at the house near the city of Conroe after authorities acting on a tip found him hiding under a pile of laundry. Lamar Nava was arrested at the same house on Wednesday.
SIOUX CITY  Whether you want to entertain friends or make a few drinks for a quiet night in, a bar can be a great addition to your home. But where do you start?

When a home bar is mentioned, many think of the classic basement bar, with all of the makings of a professional setup. But, for most people, that's not necessary.

So how do you start a home bar? What do you need to buy? How do you learn to make unique and fun drinks?

Austin Foster is a local bartender who is nationally recognized and has been bartending for 20 years, with cocktail bartending being his specialty for 15 years.

He has his own expansive basement home bar, as well as a backyard tiki bar, so The Journal sat down with Foster to ask him for advice on starting a home bar.

Austin Foster's home bar Austin Foster pours two ounces of blanco agave tequila while making a margarita in one of the bars in his McCook Lake, South Dakota, home.

Why do you want a home bar?

To start building a home bar, Foster recommends visiting a variety of different bars and determining what they like in those bars. What do they like to drink? What do they like about the setting? If they just like the setting but dont like the alcohol, then maybe a home bar isnt the best fit.

If they do like the alcohol, the next step is to determine what the purpose of the bar is. Is it to entertain guests? Is it for tasting events? Is it just for the homeowners? Is it for both? Do they want to make cocktails or serve whisky?

Foster said the main reason people want home bars is to entertain and create a bar experience at home.

"The purpose of a home bar is to create what you can get when you go to a bar," he said.

Austin Foster's home bar Austin Foster shakes a margarita made with blanco agave tequila, fresh lime juice, agave nectar and ice.

Austin Foster's home bar Austin Foster says the key to making a cocktail is to shake until your arms feel like they will fall off and then shake some more.

What should be in the bar?

Once the purpose is determined, the homeowner can figure out what to stock in it. If the home bar is for the homeowner, Foster said they should stock it with items they want to drink. If it is for entertaining guests, then there are a few basics they should get.

Whisky, gin, tequila and vodka are the best liquors to keep on hand for guests, Foster said. The brand or taste of liquors depends on the individuals price point.

Foster then recommends having a modifier of sorts such as spiced or herbal liqueurs, vermouth, bitters, syrups or other mixers.

Foster said these mixers also depend on how the space is being used. If someone is interested in making a variety of unique cocktails, then he or she will need a number of different modifiers. If someone has specific drinks, say rum and Coke, then just having Coca-Cola on hand is perfect.

Other items that are easy to keep on hand are limes, lemons, simple syrup, ginger beer, club soda.

Austin Foster's home bar Austin Foster says it isn't important for beginning home bar owners to use expensive liquors, but that understanding drink recipes and flavor 

What tools should you have in a home bar?

The first tool Foster recommends is a good shaker. There are three main types of cocktail shakers: the Boston shaker, the cobbler shaker and the French shaker.

A Boston shaker is what most bartenders use. It typically features a 28-ounce tin and, instead of a lid, either another tin or a pint glass is flipped and placed inside, creating a tightly closed container. A cobbler shaker is most popular among home bars. It has three parts, featuring a tin cup, and a lid with a built-in strainer. The French shaker is in between the two, featuring a tin cup with a lid, but no strainer.

After a shaker, Foster recommends a bar spoon for stirring cocktails, a mixing glass for stirred drinks, a jigger for measuring liquor, and a strainer.

That is the necessary product, thats going to get you the ability to make 90 percent of the drinks I make when Im behind the bar, Foster said.

For easy cleanup, Foster recommends a bar mat. Making drinks can be messy and spills happen. A bar mat captures all of that liquid and prevents a sticky mess.

So once someone has all the necessary tools, the next step is learning how to make a drink.

Austin Foster's home bar Essential barware include shakers, a jigger, a mixing cup, stirring spoon and a strainer.

Austin Foster's home bar Bottles of tequila and mezcal are shown in one of Austin Foster's bars in his McCook Lake, South Dakota, home.

How do you learn to make drinks?

Foster said there are two books he recommends reading.

The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique by Jeffrey Morgenthaler is described as a technique-driven cocktail and bartender book. The book shows how a professional bartender does every step in making a cocktail with tips and techniques from bartenders around the country, according to Morgenthalers website.

Its a fantastic, just all-purpose guide, Foster said.

Meehans Bartender Manual by Jim Meehan is described as the first book of the modern era to explain the bar industry from the inside out, according to publisher Penguin Random House. The book covers all of the steps of creating a bar.

Both books include extensive recipes that anyone can try out.

Foster said there is a little studying required starting and making drinks at home, but even just some time on Google can help.

Learning how to make a good drink takes time and practice.

"It's a journey," he said.

Austin Foster's home bar A collection of single barrel spirits from Barrell Bourbon.

Do you need a fancy built-in bar?

Foster said no. A home bar can be a corner of your kitchen counter, a bar cart, or a small cabinet.

You have a space that is dedicated to the cause, he said. The more important thing is to be able to have the tools and be able to clean up.

If someone does want to build a bar, Foster recommends fitting it to their style, needs and space. There is no right or wrong way to build a home bar.

Additional tips from Foster

While chatting with Foster, he gave a few other tips for those new to making drinks.

Simple syrup is an ingredient many cocktails call for, but Foster said dont buy it at the store.

Simple syrup is a one-to-one ratio of sugar and water. Put those two ingredients in a bottle and shake until the sugar is dissolved. The mixture is then stable for 30 days.

You dont need to heat it, you dont need to cook it, you certainly dont need to go out and buy it, he said.

Foster also recommends using fresh products when able. Fresh lemons and limes make all the difference in a cocktail. Bottled juice wont cut it.

Give yourself time to decide what drinks to make and serve when hosting a party and keep the menu small.

You can make a cocktail, he said, while also offering simpler mixers.

The important part of making drinks at home is enjoying them. If you make something you dont like, throw it and make something else.
A mystery in the Pacific is complicating climate projections

Posted on 3 May 2023 by Guest Author

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson

Nothing has a bigger influence on year-to-year variations in the global climate than the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, commonly called ENSO. And the tropical waters at the heart of ENSO arent behaving exactly as climate scientists expected they would in a warming world, with potentially major implications for Atlantic hurricane seasons, droughts in the U.S. Southwest and the Horn of Africa, and other weather phenomena around the world.

ENSO is a recurring ocean-and-atmosphere pattern that warms and cools the eastern tropical Pacific through El Nino and La Nina events that last from one to three years. Once El Nino or La Nina emerges, the odds reliably shift toward hotter, colder, wetter, or drier conditions for various parts of the globe, from Oceania to North America to Africa. But though ENSOs effects are well known, the phenomenon itself is notoriously tough to predict. And its slippery nature is complicating crucial multi-decade projections of climate.

Many aspects of human-caused climate change are playing out as long predicted, including overall warming of the global atmosphere and oceans as well as the intensification of rainfall extremes and the drying of many subtropical areas.

Not so for ENSO. Top global climate models have predicted for more than 20 years that the tropical Pacific would gradually shift toward an El Nino-like state, with the surface waters warming more rapidly toward the east than toward the west.

Instead, just the opposite is going on. The western tropical Pacific has warmed dramatically, as predicted, but unusually persistent upwelling of cool subsurface water has led to a slight drop in average sea surface temperature over much of the eastern tropical Pacific.

Figure 1. Trend in sea surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific Ocean from 1982 through 2022. Red (blue) shading in the map indicates trends toward more positive (negative) sea surface temperatures. (Image credit: NOAA/climate.gov, data from NCEI OISSTv2.1)

The result is a strengthening west-to-east temperature contrast that increasingly resembles La Nina. Scientists expect that El Nino events will continue to occur  such as the one predicted to arrive later this year  but they will take place on a backdrop of an ocean that looks more like La Nina.

All this is far more than an esoteric science matter. According to an ENSO Blog entry posted Jan. 26 at climate.gov: How the sea surface temperature trend pattern will change has profound, worldwide implications.  If you are trying to make decisions based on projections of the future, you need to know the answer. And, at this moment, there is some significant (perhaps even growing) debate that surrounds it.

Among the impacts that could be notably different in a La Nina-dominated world:

Atlantic hurricane activity is substantially higher on average during La Nina than during El Nino.

The U.S. Sun Belt, including much of California, tends to get less rainfall and mountain snow during La Nina, with widespread drought becoming more likely. (There are occasional exceptions, such as the very wet winter of 2022-23 in the Southwest.)

The highly vulnerable Horn of Africa is more drought-prone during La Nina, while rains in the African Sahel tend to be more reliable.

Typhoons are more likely to slam China, the Philippines, and Vietnam  and less likely to strike Guam, Japan, and Taiwan  during La Nina.

Heavy rains and floods often plague eastern Australia during La Nina.

The southwest monsoon in India is often wetter than average.

There are hints  though not yet enough cases to pass statistical muster  that La Nina events themselves are becoming more frequent, which would go hand in hand with the evolving Pacific backdrop. For example, since mid-2003, there have been 10 years (July to June) when La Nina conditions predominated, but only six for El Nino. Among years when the moderate-strength threshold was reached, seven were La Nina but only two were El Nino.

The La Nina-like temperature contrast in the tropical Pacific has now been strengthening for so long that its gotten tougher to ascribe to natural variability. It could be chalked up to a cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, another recurring weather pattern that can span 20 to 30 years. Yet that phenomenon is largely influenced by ENSO itself.

Climate experts are thus ramping up efforts to diagnose what it is that the state-of-the-art models could be missing and whether the long-expected El Nino-like trend may yet turn up later in the century.

Figure 2. An aerial view of a property surrounded by flood water on Dec. 9, 2022, in Louth, Australia, about 400 miles northwest of Sydney. Flooding across vast swathes of southeastern Australia during the La Nina summer of 2022-23 turned properties into islands. The highest river levels in decades occurred at many flood-hit communities across the state. A few months earlier, flooding was even more widespread over eastern Australia, leading to one of the nations worst weather disasters on record and more than $4 billion in damage. (Image credit: Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

Above the La Nina-like Pacific, a strengthened Walker Circulation

At the core of ENSO is the Walker Circulation, the large-scale flow of air over the Pacific tropics. On average, air rises above the very warm waters of the western Pacific and sinks across the eastern Pacific, where chilly water predominates. Completing the Walker Circulation loop (as shown in Figure 3 below) are westward flow a few miles above the Pacific tropics and eastward flow  the famed trade winds  at the surface.

Figure 3. This schematic of average (neutral) conditions over the Pacific Ocean shows the Walker Circulation, with rising air and showers and thunderstorms to the west and descending air to the east. Trade winds (surface arrows) push warm water toward the west, allowing colder water to upwell toward the east. The depth of the upper Pacific Ocean is exaggerated in this schematic. (Image credit: climate.gov)

When the Walker Circulation is strong, as it is during La Nina, the east-to-west-blowing trade winds are boosted and there is more upwelling of cold water off Ecuador and Peru. When the Walker Circulation weakens, the trade winds slacken or even reverse, and the resulting westerly surface winds can push warm water all the way to the South American coast. The usual upwelling weakens, and an El Nino event is in place. The warm water leads to rising air thousands of miles farther east than usual, helping to suppress the Walker Circulation and torquing other weather patterns far away.

Given that El Nino is fighting against the grain of the usual atmospheric and oceanic conditions, it normally takes only about nine to 12 months before the tropics swing back toward a more typical Walker Circulation. In contrast, La Nina  with an extra-strong version of the Walker Circulation  can persist or recur for as long as three consecutive years, as it did from 2020-21 to 2022-23.

Theres no doubt that the tropical Pacific has behaved in more of a La Nina-like than El Nino-like fashion over the past several decades. The questions now center on whether the trend might still be natural variability  and if its not, whats forcing it to happen.

Figure 4. The left column shows the relevant processes in the preindustrial climate and the right column shows how La Nina-like conditions could be reinforced. (This schematic does not show the final state). Technical Details: Left panel: Showers and thunderstorms are strongest in the western Pacific where sea surface temperature is the highest. Latent heating warms aloft, and evaporation cools the ocean surface. In the eastern Pacific, the thermocline is closest to the surface. Right panel: Under greenhouse-gas warming, a uniform surface heat flux into the Pacific Ocean causes the sea surface temperature to rise, but in the eastern tropical Pacific, the upwelling of cold water counters the forced warming. As a result, the zonal sea surface temperature gradient increases. (Image credit: climate.gov)

One of the first and most persistent among scientists looking into the perplexing sea surface temperature trend has been Richard Seager of Columbia University. We first wrote a paper on this in 1997, he said. Although less than 20 years of routine satellite data had been gathered from the tropical Pacific at that point, sea surface temperature data collected by ships extended back to the 1850s.

Since that 1997 study in Science, led by Seagers colleague Mark Cane at Columbia, the sheer accumulation of satellite and buoy data on sea surface temperatures has supported the notion that the eastern tropical Pacific is cooling. A 2019 paper gave the ideas new prominence.

We showed using all the available models just how robust the actual discrepancy is [between models and observations], and we also provided a simple model to show how this might be happening, Seager said. I think that moved the ball a little bit  Im certainly very gratified [the idea] has gained traction now, including with funding agencies.

Michelle LHeureux tracks the variable nature of ENSO as closely as anyone. Shes the physical scientist who coordinates the monthly ENSO updates released by the NOAA/NWS Climate Prediction Center. LHeureux noticed the acceleration of the Walker Circulation close to a decade ago. In 2022 she joined lead author Sukyoung Lee of Pennsylvania State University, together with Seager and others, for an overview paper that summarized the state of observations, simulations, and theories on where ENSO is heading.

Its exciting to see that others are now doing more work on the topic and coalescing around these ideas, LHeureux said.

At the National Center for Atmospheric Research, senior scientist Clara Deser, a longtime ENSO researcher, isnt yet ready to dismiss natural variability as part of the picture. However, she adds: There may be multiple causes for the La Nina-like cooling trend in the eastern tropical Pacific, not just a single one.

The cold, remote Southern Ocean could be a big part of the Pacifics puzzling trend. Much like the eastern tropical Pacific, the Southern Ocean is one of the few other areas on Earth where sea surface temperatures have cooled rather than warmed since the 1980s, in spite of pronounced surface warming over the Antarctic Peninsula and concerns about longer-term deep-ocean warming.

A number of studies have already found links between the Southern Ocean and ENSO behavior. Usually its the tropical Pacific that triggers weather and climate effects at middle and higher latitudes, but the Southern Ocean itself may be influencing ENSO, based on recent work that includes a 2022 study led by Columbias Yue Dong as well as a paper by Deser and colleagues thats now in process.

Could longer-term warming catch up to La Nina?

Adding to the complexities at hand, its possible that whatever factors are now pushing the tropical Pacific toward a La Nina-like state will eventually get overwhelmed by longer-term global warming. That could lead to the El Nino-like outcome that models have long projected  and thus vindicate the models, at least in the long run.

Figure 5. Schematic showing a possible mechanism toward an El Nino-like state, as reviewed in Lee et al. (2022). The left column shows the relevant processes in the preindustrial climate and the right column shows how these same processes initially respond to greenhouse-gas warming (this schematic does not show the final state). Technical Details: Left panel: Convection is strongest in the western Pacific where sea-surface temperatures are the highest. Latent heating warms aloft, and evaporation cools the ocean surface. Right panel: Sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific increase leading to more condensational heating aloft and a higher tropopause, which increases dry static stability and gross moist stability, thus weakening the Walker circulation. At the same time, evaporative cooling and cloud shading are more sensitive to warming in the western Pacific, which weakens the zonal sea surface temperature gradient. (Image credit: climate.gov)

There are some good physical reasons for why we would expect to eventually end up with eastern-Pacific warming, said Ulla Heede, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences whos published several recent papers on this two-stage concept.

In a subsequent study, drawing on a wide range of simulations carried out for the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment, Heede and Alexey Federov of Yale University found some but not all models depicting this two-phase response after an abrupt injection of carbon dioxide.



In one set of experiments with models that fully couple the atmosphere and ocean, Heede and colleagues found the observed La Nina-like state emerging and persisting for 20 to 100 years, depending on how quickly carbon dioxide is added. Somewhere between 50 and 100 years, the subtropical ocean circulation weakens and warms enough to cut down on cold upwelling, pushing the system toward El Nino-like conditions.

Learning from false alarms

The difficulty in modeling ENSO exists not only in century-scale climate simulations but also in the yearly-scale models that are run regularly to assess where ENSO is headed right now. This adds a hefty dose of challenge to the monthly ENSO outlooks issued by LHeureux and colleagues at NOAA and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society.

Figure 6. The official Climate Prediction Center forecast for ENSO released on April 13, 2023, shows a very high likelihood (more than 80%) of El Nino conditions during the second half of 2022. (Image credit: NOAA/IRI)

There are good reasons why ENSO is so difficult to capture in both seasonal and multi-decadal modeling. For just one example, consider the thermocline, the oceanic boundary that separates warmer near-surface water from cooler deep water. Across the tropical Pacific, the thermocline depth normally varies from about 450 feet in the west to only about 50 feet in the east. Thats paper-thin when compared to the 12,000 miles of distance from west to east along the Pacific equator, and thus difficult for global climate models to capture with precision.

When a NOAA forecast of ENSO does bust, its usually because of a false alarm from the models, and it usually involves El Nino. As documented by Columbias Michael Tippett, the North American Multi-Model Ensemble projected that the eastern Pacific would warm between May and August in 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2017. All of these model forecasts were wrong. Only one of those four years, 2014, saw the Pacific make it to the El Nino threshold. That didnt happen until autumn 2014, though, and the event was so borderline that it may end up being reclassified as neutral.

LHeureux led a 2022 study on how the cooling trends in the eastern Pacific may be complicating ENSO forecasts; shes also presenting a paper on the topic at the European Geophysical Unions annual meeting in late April.

When climate-change guidance has to change course

An even bigger challenge than modeling ENSO may be communicating to stakeholders how they can prepare for ENSO-related trends that could be starkly different from whats been long expected.

East Africa has been struggling with drought for most of the 21st century, including the last few years, Seager noted. The models predict that that region should be getting wetter, and it hasnt. The fact that it hasnt is largely consistent with what the equatorial Pacific Ocean is doing.

Food security in East Africa is a perennial problem. The implications are just enormous.

Figure 7. Somali refugees return from collecting water at the edge of the Dagahaley refugee camp, which makes up part of the giant Dadaab refugee settlement, on July 22, 2011, in Dadaab, Kenya. Five consecutive biannual wet seasons failed during the three years of La Nina conditions from 2020 into early 2023, leading to the worst drought to affect the Horn of Africa in six decades. The drought, together with the ongoing civil war in Somalia, has resulted in an estimated 12 million people whose lives are threatened. (Image credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Isla Simpson, a colleague of Desers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, is now co-organizing a workshop to examine where observational trends differ from climate models, including ENSO and other areas.

Were only really starting to be at the point where were able to observe these trends over a long enough period to know if the models are actually wrong, Simpson said.

The U.S. Southwest will experience the landscape-parching effects of hotter weather no matter what ENSO does. But any continued tilt toward La Nina-like conditions would also tend to favor the prolonged deficits in rainfall and mountain snowfall that have plagued the region since 2000. Even the bountifully wet winter of 2022-23 is unlikely to turn the long-term tide. The combined impact of warmer temps and potentially lower precipitation is not good news, Simpson notes.

As summarized by Heede: Climate scientists love studying what happens in the tropical Pacific, but my point of view is that no ones living there. We have to make the link from what happens in the tropical Pacific to what happens over land.

Jeff Masters contributed to this post. For more background on this topic, including a handy reference list, see the NOAA ENSO Blog post at climate.gov, How the pattern of trends across the tropical Pacific Ocean is critical for understanding the future climate (Jan. 26, 2023).
When the coronation ceremony for King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla takes place at Westminster Abbey on Saturday, one object will be missing. Camilla will not wear a crown with an infamous centerpiece: the Koh-i-noor diamond, a treasure believed to have been seized from South Asia centuries ago that India would now like to take back from those old crowns, much obliged.

Indeed, the royal family may prefer that this prized bit of colonial plunder not show up at all, or even be mentioned, during the London pageantries, lest it spark a diplomatic row between the U.K. and India. Historic royal garb usually sits in the Tower of London during non-coronation times, but the Koh-i-noors crown was removed from display there earlier this year for modification work, the Guardian noted in February. The diamond itself will only resurface at the tower near the end of May, when it will gain a new designation as a symbol of conquest. If Indian visitors would like to view the Koh-i-noor for themselves and evaluate the origin story added to the exhibit, theyll have to shell out about 34 pounds for the privilege.

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Whatever you make of the fluffery of modern monarchy, the Koh-i-noors omission is a pretty big deal for the institution, not that theyd admit it. The royals didnt really acknowledge the diamond itself or the general consensus that it hails from South Indiarather, they say, this is being done in the interests of sustainability and efficiency, in line with the supposedly environmentalist King Charles choice of recycled older gloves for the ceremony. (Such concern for Mother Nature is perhaps belied by Camillas choice to accept an ivory scepter at the ceremony.) But the diamond is quite the symbol for the reduced stature of the British Empire, and the crowns careful actions a sign of the public favor, power, and influence its former colonies now hold.

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There are many conflicting tales and myths about the Koh-i-noor and its significance, but heres some of what we know for sure: The diamond, one of the largest and most expensive precious stones in the world, is agreed to have been discovered during medieval times, when much of the region now known as India was governed by Islamic rulers who oversaw the Delhi Sultanate (and loved all the diamonds available there). The Koh-i-noor became a trophy for succeeding conquerors of the regionMughal emperors, Persian invaders, the Sikh Empireuntil the mid19th century, by which time those rulers had fallen and the British crown had consolidated direct control of India. The diamond then came under the official possession of the royals, who transformed it into a fixture of their foreign-origin crown jewels collection when Queen Alexandra incorporated it into her headgear. The diamond then appeared on the coronation crowns worn by Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother; the latter sported it again while attending the coronation of her daughter, Elizabeth II.

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When Queen Elizabeth II took the throne in 1952, Great Britain had only recently ceded control over much of South Asia. Even amid her personal efforts to whitewash the kingdoms cruelty and discourage independence movements, the most piercing symbols of the United Kingdoms exploitation remained with Elizabethon her horses, inside Buckingham Palace, and, most significantly, on her crown. Thousands of these crown jewels adorn the ceremonial set pieces used to grant the royals their formal status. The U.K. may have returned many of the colonial lands, but not many of the treasures.

Elizabeths death reinvigorated a global debate over whether Buckingham Palace should return all those jewels already. Theres the financial aspect, to be surethose things are worth a lot, and the postwar era was not favorable to postcolonial redevelopment. But more than anything, theres the symbolism of it all. The nations Britain once made royal subjects are not going to run roughshod over the U.K. anytime soon, but doesnt it make sense to cede these treasures, given the state of the empire? What does it mean for the royal family, whom much of the world doesnt really care for, to continue to peacock around with stolen jewels?

Its a problem thats not going away. When Camillas crown is unveiled on Saturday, the spot where the Koh-i-noor would normally sparkle will instead be filled in by three of the Cullinan diamonds, named after the colonial-era South African mining town where they were discovered in the early 20th century. Seems pretty clear that South Africa wants those diamonds back, too.
Before Robert Spitzer grew up to be an expert on American gun policy, he watched a lot of Westerns. He was raised on stories of an America built by rugged men with six-shooters on their hips  even though that image was mostly made up. Spitzer has written five books about gun policy in the U.S., and he says that in the actual Wild West, gun laws were strict.

They didnt want people walking around their new town with a gun strapped to their hip, he said. So youd have to check your gun at the town hall or the sheriffs office or the clerks office or someplace. Im still drawn into those old stories, but that was not typical at all.

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Unfortunately, mass shootings have become all too typical. Recent tragedies like the Covenant School shooting in Tennessee, two separate shootings in Louisville, Kentucky, and the shooting at a birthday party in Dadeville, Alabama, have prompted fresh calls for gun reform, though its unclear how much will come of them.

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But Americas gun policy history seems to be more important to many courts than the present. Last summer, the Supreme Court struck down a New York state concealed carry law because, in the view of the courts majority, it went against the original intent of the Second Amendment. That ruling set a precedent that all gun laws should be judged against historical tradition. And in the year since that ruling was made, more than 100 state and federal gun laws have been challenged.

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Courts have struck down limits on gun ownership for domestic abusers, accused felons, and young adults. Theyve overturned bans on guns with shaved-off serial numbers and guns made with 3D printers. All were overturned based on the notion that the U.S. of the 1700s didnt have gun control.

But Spitzer says that actually, the opposite is true. Its difficult to think of any kind of gun law that you can think of today that didnt exist in some form 150, 200, 300 years ago. In many respects, guns and weapons were more strictly regulated in our first 300 years of history than in the last 30 years.

On Wednesdays episode of What Next, I spoke with Spitzer about Americas real history with firearms and how it could change the gun laws of our presentand future. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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Mary C. Curtis: This all started with the Supreme Court case New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.

Robert Spitzer: It was a legal challenge to New York states pistol permit law, a law that had been challenged many times in the past and always held constitutional. It had been on the books since 1911, actually. But a new, more activist and conservative Supreme Court was clearly open to the idea of striking down at least a part of the New York state pistol permit law. And what they were particularly interested in was whats called the proper cause provision. It wasnt enough in New York to just not be a felon, not be judged incompetent, and other things. You had to actually say, Well, here is why I want to have a permit and go through a lengthy process to get that permit. And local officials could turn you down if they felt that you werent a good person to have a pistol permit.

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So the court struck that down in the Bruen decision last summer, but they went beyond that even though they didnt really have to. They said for the first time in history that the Second Amendment right to bear arms extends to a right to carry guns outside of the home for personal protection. And they said something else. They changed the standard for judging the constitutionality of current laws by saying, Are there similar laws in past historythis takes us to the 1700s and 1800s in particularthat are similar enough to the current law that you can argue that those laws should be constitutional? Part of the problem is, Well, similar based on what? How do you determine what old law is appropriate to compare to a modern gun law or weapons law?

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Right now, we are seeing a flood of casesover 100that have bubbled through the courts already, where judges have made rulings, and theyre going all over the place. Some are saying, Yes, these old laws are consistent with the current gun law thats being challenged or No, its not consistent with this historical tradition.

I was going to ask you to follow up on something you talked about a little bit, which was the domino effect that this ruling has had on state gun laws. You said weve had a flood of rulings after that?

Yes. For example, about 10 states have assault weapons bans on the books, and those are being challenged. Thats not a surprise. Theyve been challenged in the past and have been upheld before the Bruen case came along. But all kinds of other laws have been struck down. For example, a Texas three-judge federal panel in February struck down a law that prohibited people who were subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing guns and called that law unconstitutional. Why? Because 200 years ago, if you engaged in spousal abuse, for the most part, unless you left permanent damage to the abused spouse, you were not subject to criminal penalties. And indeed, domestic or spousal abuse wasnt even illegal in the United States until you get to the end of the 1800s. So, is that a sufficient way to judge modern gun laws? I think theres a host of problems there.

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Thats the thing when you go looking into history: Some folks were property. Im curious what kinds of questions are typically being debated and come up in these cases.

Theres been a lot of discussion and analysis of laws that restricted concealed carrying of weapons, for example. Laws that restricted the open carrying of weapons, laws that restricted the brandishing or display of weapons, laws that restricted various types of weapons that were used heavily in fights and in duels and in crimes, such as long-bladed thin knives, especially the famous Bowie knife. Now, a knife is not a gun, but a knife is an arm. Its a weapon, and its a good example of how various kinds of weapons were essentially prohibited in order to solve a criminal problem.

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And you could certainly argue that thats very similar to what states are doing now in restricting assault weapons, precisely because assault weapons have been used in very specific criminal categories, even though they represent a small percentage of all the guns in the countryin mass shootings, in attacks on police, and in right-wing militant, anti-government groups and drug gangs. So, thats the criminological problem, and thats how some states have approached it.

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Are there any other recent rulings that really make you concerned?

There are a great many of them, and again, theyre going in different directions. Ill mention one example: A federal judge in Texas ruled 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds had a right to obtain guns, whereas Texas had a law saying you had to be 21 to get a handgun. But a federal judge said, No, based on this originalist legal history of gun laws, theres no basis for saying that if youre 18, 19, and 20, you cannot get a handgun. On the other hand, a federal court in Florida ruled the other way on that very question. It was a slightly different restriction, but it was a restriction saying that 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds could not obtain assault weapons or perhaps long guns, more generallyI dont quite recall. And they ruled the other way, saying, Well, history does support that restriction.

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It turns out that from the late 1700s to the early 1900s, at least 44 states had minor-based restrictionsthat is, laws saying that if you were a minor, you couldnt have access to various kinds of weapons, including guns. So in fact, virtually all of the states had laws barring or restricting minors from getting weapons. There is actually a history in weapons law and gun law supporting that idea.

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So overall, what are some of the real-world ramifications of all these cases?

The immediate ramification is to put lots and lots of gun laws up for grabs, because were seeing an unprecedented number and variety of challenges to gun laws. Secondly, the standard itself is so vague and amorphous that judges are going off in all different directions. So, youve got two pretty complicated and difficult activities going on as a consequence of the Bruen decision. My larger concern is that the standard theyve laid out in Bruen is an ultimately nonfunctional and not very sensible standard for determining whether modern gun laws are constitutional or not.

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Americas love of firearms is newer than people think, right? The argument that the Second Amendment authors were generally against gun control partly comes from the idea that guns have been a fundamental part of American society from the very start. You say thats an exaggeration. There may have been fewer laws regarding military-grade weapons, but that was because hardly anyone owned guns meant to shoot people. Most guns were for hunting, and handguns were still a luxury item for the rich.

Our images of frontier life have been badly distorted by popular culture. And that distortion of popular culture dates back to the time of frontier settlement by Eastern European settlers traveling across the West. The West wasnt settled by or with guns, primarily. The West was settled by farmers, ranchers, tradespeople, political leaders. And was there gun violence? Yes. Were there guns? Yeah. But it was nowhere the popular culture image that so many people have today.

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How have our attitudes toward guns changed over the centuries?

Earlier in our history, there certainly was a gun culture tradition. There was a hunting/sporting tradition and the militia tradition where men of militia age were required early in our history to have, keep, and maintain military-grade guns should they be called up for a militia service. Thats why that phrase appears in the Second Amendment, to keep and bear arms, because the British would disarm men for obvious reasons during the Revolution and immediately before. And that was at a time when the main military bulwark of the country was the militia, these part-time yeoman farmers.

We dont do that anymore. Thats not how we conduct national defense anymore. And even so, the states and the federal government had laws requiring men to have and maintain military weaponry at their own expense; however, those laws were widely ignored. They were resented by most men. Most men were not interested in doing that or expending the money or the time or the effort to do those things. And these laws, generally speaking, had no enforcement mechanism. Today, theres still hunting and sporting, part of a tradition that goes back hundreds of years. But in addition, the gun has kind of been fetishized and politicized in a way that we really didnt see in our past.

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Youre right. The gun issue has become a proxy for so many other things that its a symbol as well as an actual gun.

That is exactly right, and thats why youve even seen some members of Congress starting to wear lapel pins that are a pin of an assault weapon. And thats their political statement. Even as shooters continue to commit mass shootings using assault weapons because its a favorite weapon of mass shooters.

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Weve seen this surge in mass shootings this year. There have been more than 100 mass shootings in the first 63 days of the year, which is more mass shootings than days. Youve said in the past that when there were periods of high gun violence, politicians put more regulations in place. So what changed? Why cant we do that?

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Well, we could, of course. Whats changed is the political landscape of the country. We are in an era of high polarization, of sophisticated, well-organized lobby groups that are able to exert a great deal of pressure on government behavior. That has resulted in the polarization of the states as well, where conservative states are going in a deregulatory direction and liberal states are going in a regulatory direction when it comes to gun laws. This gap is widening, and in the context of a time where the courts have been populated by a large number of very conservative judges with one of the litmus test standards for being promoted through the conservative judicial establishment being opposition to gun laws. That has buttressed these sorts of arguments and the outcome that we are seeing in our current politics.

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What lessons do you think we can learn from how America has dealt with guns in the past?

One takeaway I would emphasize is that when weapons in America collided with criminological or public safety concerns or problems, governments responded by enacting regulations. When problems arose that involved firearms, governments stepped in and imposed new regulations to protect the public and dampen criminality.

What do you think will be the result of this historical interpretation of gun laws in the states, in the courts, and in our community?

The historical approach that the Supreme Court has laid out is so vague and incompletely defined, and so much tied to the past, that I think that standard will have to be amended in some important respects in the future. I dont know who, how, or in what manner exactly, but its pretty clear already that the cascading numbers of cases that are popping up, raising all kinds of questions, are just not going to be satisfactorily answered until these standards are clarified. And that includes the history standard too.

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I dont know quite how to ask this, but do you think it will result in more violence, more mayhem?

Its hard to say. It depends on how this all comes out. Will laws ultimately be sustained or not? We do know that there is a strong correlation between more gun laws, lower gun violence, and death on the one hand, versus few gun laws and more gun violence. Theres a direct-line correlation between more gun laws and less gun violence. And if those gun laws are really torn down, I would expect that there would be more gun violence.
A bitter Washington showdown is unfolding over the confirmation of President Bidens nominee for labor secretary, Julie Su. The result is that Bidenwho has repeatedly self-identified as the most pro-union president in American history and is running for reelection on that very distinctionmay well be headed into 2024 with no labor secretary at all.

The big opposition to Sus candidacy? Its coming from her home state of California, and it is stalked by the ghost of Prop 22, that multi-hundred-million-dollar fight from 2020 over gig-worker classification.

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Su has a reputation for enforcement and application of labor law to the letter, especially in violations of overtime and worker misclassification. She worked in California as secretary of the states Labor and Workforce Development Agency during the implementation of the controversial AB5 law, which was passed in 2019 and made it more difficult for employers to keep workers as independent contractors without providing them benefits.

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So Silicon Valley front groups, like the Flex Association and the Chamber of Progress, which are funded in part by rideshare and delivery firms like Uber and Lyft, want Su as far from the office of labor secretary as possible. Their opposition is obviousits all about gig work. Its the companies and sectors that have organized themselves as non-employers that are worried about being hit with minimum wage and overtime violations, said Veena Dubal, a professor of law at the University of California at Hastings who focuses on gig work. Fast-food franchise firms, which likewise benefit from employee classification loopholes, have also entered the fray to oppose Su.

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Because of these dynamics, the fight, which is quickly escalating in Washington, has become a reprisal of the Prop 22 showdown in California from 2020, the most expensive ballot measure in the history of American politics.

In that fight, gig-economy tech companies including Uber, Lyft, Doordash, and Instacart poured over $220 million into boosting a ballot measure to convince California voters to supersede AB5 and create a third category of workers that would keep gig workers from gaining employee status. The Chamber of Progress was born of this effort. (The gig economy companies succeeded, at great cost to workers; a recent analysis from drivers advocacy groups found rideshare drivers have been taking home just $6.20 per hour in California since the ballot measure was enacted.)

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This time around, those Silicon Valley gig firms are getting a boost from a fellow Californian, Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Her continued absence from Congress means that these tech-backed associations can see a real path to downing Sus candidacy. Joe Manchin, staring down his own political mortality, has made it clear he is no big fan of Sus, even though he voted to confirm her as deputy labor secretary two years ago. Su has spent the last two years serving as the right hand of former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, but Manchin has characterized his opposition to Su by saying I am looking for a Marty Walsh. In the most charitable terms, his opposition is a cop-out.

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And if Manchin is a no, and he sure seems to be, the math looks treacherous. Republicans, though they claim to all hate California tech firms, and claim (with the same anti-reality defiance) to love labor, look like they will all oppose Su, too. She got zero GOP votes in her hearing in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee. Some of her most bitter opposition came from Alaskan moderate swing voter Lisa Murkowski.

That means 50 noes for Republicans, which would leave 50 Democratic yeses, assuming newly independent Kyrsten Sinema is on her best Democratic behavior. In any other case, that tie would go to the runner. But because Dianne Feinstein is AWOL indefinitely with a bad case of the shingles and dementia to boot, and remote voting on the Senate floor is disallowed, Su only has 49 votes in support.

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The AFL-CIO, which supports Su, is gearing up for a significant battle. The trade union federation has already put six figures into digital advertising on Sus behalf and is working on a nationwide campaign to drum up support, drawing on rank-and-file membership as part of a 50-state phone-banking campaign. There is, indeed, plenty of pressure on Democratic senators, including on Manchin, to fall in line. The fly in the ointment is Feinstein, said Steve Smith, deputy director of public affairs at the AFL-CIO.

Given that those gig economybacked firms have been previously willing to spend nine figures on working around a classification law in just a single statetheyve backed similar campaigns in places like Massachusetts and Illinois, as wellwe can expect that plenty more money will be spent. Especially if these firms view Su as the primary enemy from Californias classification fights. (A spokesperson for the gig economy firm Flex said in an email that the organization has not taken an official position on Su but that it continues to be deeply concerned about her record, and that the next Labor Secretary must embrace the flexible earning opportunities that app-based platforms have unleashed.)

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The National Restaurant Association, which is representing the fast-food franchises also lobbying against Su, has already notched some massive victories in Bidens Washington. They helped usher the $15 minimum wage plan in the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 out of the final legislative text. Minimum wage increases have scarcely been mentioned by the president since.

Su is expected to be voted on by the Senate by Memorial Day, meaning the race is on over the next few weeks. Organized labor will continue surging support; even Marty Walsh himself is working the phone on Sus behalf. To be clear, Su is not some firebreathing red. Shes basically a highly credentialed policy wonk continuing Walshs work, which perhaps Walsh can convince Manchin of. But if Feinstein doesnt convalesce and return to Washington within a few short weeks, Sus path to confirmation is extremely narrow.

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That would leave Biden with a handful of interesting options. Su, already serving as acting labor secretary after being confirmed as deputy labor secretary in a 5047 vote in 2021, could continue right on as acting labor secretary, unconfirmed. This was a core and constant practice of the Trump administration. But Biden loves norms and might be uncomfortable with that practice. In any case, that action would signal a marked change in his willingness to bend the rules of decorum to get around Republican intransigence.

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The other alternative, of coursethe failsafe, staring-us-in-the-face, plainly obvious, undeniable, and super-effective solutionwould be for Dianne Feinstein to retire. I mean, Jesus. Sus elevation would be a triumph for California Democrats broadly, and Feinsteins absence may block it entirely. Feinstein is hurting her state party, as well as her national party, in a way thats even more glaringly obvious than the way she has backlogged the judicial confirmation process, or undercut Bidens environmental policies. One EPA pollution standard that the president enacted would have prevented 2,900 deaths, 6,700 hospital and emergency room visits, and 18,000 cases of childhood asthma. But in late April, a repeal of that standard came up for a vote in the Senate and passed 5049, with Manchin voting with Republicans and Feinstein absent.
Today, the European police office Europol, in cooperation with nine countries, arrested 288 suspects involved in the purchase or sale of drugs on the dark web. Law enforcement authorities seized a total of 50.8 million euros in cash and virtual currencies, 850 kilograms of drugs and 117 firearms on three continents.

In an operation called SpecTor coordinated by Europol, law enforcement agencies seized an illegal dark web marketplace called Monopoly Market and arrested 288 suspects involved in buying or selling drugs on the dark web, Europol said.

Many of the suspects were also active in other illegal online marketplaces and were involved in tens of thousands of sales of illegal goods.

Investigations are still ongoing to identify other suspects behind the dark web accounts. With law enforcement gaining access to the sellers extensive customer lists, thousands of customers around the world are also now at risk from law enforcement.

Law enforcement authorities seized more than 50.8 million euros in cash and virtual currencies, 850 kilograms of drugs and 117 firearms. Among the confiscated drugs are more than 258 kilograms of amphetamines, 43 kilograms of cocaine, 43 kilograms of MDMA and more than ten kilograms of LSD and ecstasy tablets.

In addition to Europol, Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Brazil, Great Britain and the USA participated in the operation.

Our coalition of law enforcement agencies on three continents proves that we do better when we work together. This operation sends a clear message to criminals on the dark web that international law enforcement has the resources and ability to identify you and hold you accountable for your illegal activities, said Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle.
Small businesses, led by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), are continuing their legal battle against the United States Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) final rule on the Waters of the United States (WOTUS). The NFIB filed two amicus briefs in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit concerning the WOTUS rule, urging the court to grant a preliminary injunction.

The cases, Commonwealth of Kentucky v. United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, et al. v. EPA, center on the EPAs final ruling and its potential impact on small businesses.

The final WOTUS rule will be disastrous for small farmers, ranchers, developers, and other small businesses, said Beth Milito, Executive Director of NFIBs Small Business Legal Center. The rule expands the definition of WOTUS, which will ultimately raise compliance costs and increase uncertainty for small business owners doing their best to avoid sanctions.

The WOTUS rule, if enforced, would expand the definition of the waters covered by the EPA, a move that critics argue would increase regulatory burdens on small businesses. They contend that the new definition could lead to increased costs and uncertainty for small businesses, potentially affecting sectors as diverse as farming, ranching, and real estate development.

A preliminary injunction, if granted, would temporarily halt the enforcement of the rule, providing some relief to small businesses. This fight is part of NFIBs broader efforts to protect the rights of small business owners. The organization has previously filed an amicus brief in the case Sackett v. EPA at the U.S. Supreme Court and supported U.S. Congressional efforts in disapproving the final WOTUS rule. However, these efforts were thwarted when President Biden vetoed the disapproval.

The continuing legal battles underscore the importance of regulatory awareness for small businesses. Changes in rules, such as the WOTUS definition, can significantly impact operating costs and compliance requirements. Small business owners must stay vigilant and informed about these regulatory changes to navigate their potential effects effectively.

While the outcome of the legal fight against the WOTUS rule is still uncertain, it highlights the ongoing challenges small businesses face in managing regulatory changes. As this battle continues, small businesses nationwide will watch closely, their future operations potentially hinging on the courts decisions.

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Contracts For March 16, 2023



Rolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc., doing business as Liberty Works, Indianapolis, Indiana (N0017823D4300); General Atomics, San Diego, California (N0017823D4302); Dynetics Inc., Huntsville, Alabama (N0017823D4301); II-VI Aerospace & Defense, Murrieta, California (N0017823D4303); Lockheed Martin Aculight Corporation Systems, Bothell, Washington (N0017823D4304); nLIGHT Nutronics Inc., Longmont, Colorado (N0017823D4305); and NUBURU Inc.,* Englewood, Colorado (N0017823D4306), were awarded a combined $75,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award contract for the fabrication and delivery of prototypes and equipment in support of solid-state high energy laser (HEL) weapon systems. Each awardee was awarded $500 (minimum contract guarantee per awardee) at contract award on March 15. Work will be performed in Indianapolis, Indiana; San Diego, California; Huntsville, Alabama; Murrieta, California; Bothell, Washington; Longmont, Colorado; and Englewood, Colorado. The location percentages are currently unknown and will be determined at the delivery order level. Work is expected to be completed by March 2028. A combined total of $3,500 in fiscal 2023 research and development (Navy) funds will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. All other funding will be made available at the delivery order level as contracting actions occur. This contract was competitively procured via the System for Award Management website, SAM.gov, with seven complete offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, Virginia, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For March 17, 2023



Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a not-to exceed $32,446,000 fixed-price-incentive-firm-target modification (P00022) to a previously awarded advanced acquisition contract (N0001920C0009). This modification adds scope to procure long-lead materials, parts, components, and associated support for the production of nine Lot 17 F-35C aircraft for the U.S. Navy. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (57%); El Segundo, California (14%); Warton, United Kingdom (9%); Cameri, Italy (4%); Orlando, Florida (4%); Nashua, New Hampshire (3%); Baltimore, Maryland (3%); San Diego, California (2%); Nagoya, Japan (2%); and various locations outside the Continental United States (2%), and is expected to be completed in May 2026. Fiscal 2022 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $32,446,000 will be obligated at the time of award, none? of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For March 20, 2023



Lockheed Martin Corp., King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, is awarded a $99,932,000 modification (P00009) to a cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N0001920D0017). This modification increases the ceiling to provide continued management and maintenance of the Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System (TTWCS) software product baseline and required system and software documentation. Additionally, this modification provides for system design and development for TTWCS Security and supportability builds and software builds for the Navy and Foreign Military Sales customers. Work will be performed in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and is expected to be complete by January 2025. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For March 21, 2023



Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a Lockheed Martin Co., Stratford, Connecticut, is awarded an $119,982,834 cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price, cost reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide logistics, engineering and modification install support for the H-53 helicopter for the Marine Corps, Navy, and Foreign Military Sales customers. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut (97.62%); and various locations within the continental U.S. (2.38%), and is expected to be completed in March 2028. No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0001923D0015).



Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Melbourne, Florida, is awarded a cost-plus-fixed-fee $49,961,216 modification (P00061) to a previously awarded contract (N0001918C1037). This modification exercises options to provide non-recurring engineering, product support, and production cut in support, in support of Lot 11 E-2D Hawkeye production aircraft. Work will be performed in Melbourne, Florida (24.8%); St. Augustine, Florida (20.1%); Liverpool, New York (18.8%); El Segundo, California (12.1%); Indianapolis, Indiana (4.3%); Menlo Park, California (3.4%); Rolling Meadows, Illinois (1.8%); Aire-sur-l'Adour, France (1.7%); Edgewood, New York (1.1%); Marlboro, Massachusetts (1%); Woodland Hills, California (1%); Greenlawn, New York (1%); and various locations within the continental U.S. (8.9%), and is expected to be completed in February 2027. Fiscal 2023 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $49,961,216 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For March 22, 2023



No applicable data.



Contracts For March 23, 2023



No applicable data.



Contracts For March 24, 2023



Lockheed Martin Corp., Missile and Fire Control, Orlando, Florida, is awarded a $186,511,034 modification (P00005) to a cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N0001922F0010) against a previously-issued basic ordering agreement (N0001919G0011). This modification adds scope to provide non-recurring engineering and test vehicle materials for the development of the Air-to-Ground Missile (AGM), Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), C-3 variant (AGM-158C-3) in support of providing a combined Anti-Surface Warfare, LRASM, and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile strike capability for the Navy. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida (95%); Ocala, Florida (2.5%); and Troy, Alabama (2.5%), and is expected to be completed in March 2025. Fiscal 2023 research, development, test and development (Navy) funds in the amount of $30,000,000 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $79,955,058 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00006) to a previously-awarded indefinite delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract (N0001921D0001). This modification adds scope to procure additional initial spares in support of F-35 Lightning II Lot 17 deliveries for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Foreign Military Sales customers, and non-U.S. Department of Defense participants. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in December 2029. No funds are being obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For March 27, 2023



Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $210,088,407 cost-plus-incentive-fee, fixed-price-incentive-fee, cost-reimbursable order (N0001923F0308) against a previously-issued basic ordering agreement (N0001919G0008). This order provides logistics support, to include ground maintenance activities, depot activities, automatic logistics information system operations and maintenance, supply chain and warehouse management, pilot training and maintainer training in support of delivered F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter Air Systems for the government of the United Kingdom. Work will be performed in Marham, United Kingdom (85%); Fort Worth, Texas (5%); and Orlando, Florida (5%), and is expected to be completed in December 2027. Non-U.S. Department of Defense participant funds in the amount of $210,088,407 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is awarded a $30,374,048 firm-fixed-price modification (P00248) to a previously-awarded contract (N0001914C0067). This modification exercises an option to procure eight P-8A aircraft mechanisms as ancillary equipment in support of support of P-8A production aircraft. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington, and is expected to be completed in January 2026. Fiscal 2023 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $26,577,292; and fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,796,756 will be obligated at the time of award, $3,796,756 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Owego, New York, is awarded a $29,582,165 firm-fixed-price modification (P00024) to an order (N0001920F0350) against a previously-issued basic ordering agreement (N0001919G0029). This modification exercises options to procure 228 Generation 3i/5i mission computers (MCs) (210 for the Navy, 11 for the government of Australia, 4 for the government of Saudi Arabia, and 3 for the government of Denmark); 210 Generation 3i/5i flight management computers (FMCs) (196 for the Navy, 9 for the government of Australia, 3 for the government of Denmark, and 2 for the government of Saudi Arabia); 40 aircraft wiring kits; 1120 Lynx licenses; 4 Gm5i-MCs; and 541 RedHat licenses for the Navy in support of upgrading Generation III, V MCs and Generation VI MCs configuration to GEN 3i and 5i MC configuration, as well as Generation III and V FMCs configuration to GEN 3i and 5i FMC configuration for MH-60R/S aircraft retrofit. Work will be performed in Owego, New York (97%); and Clearwater, Florida (3%), and is expected to be completed in March 2026. Fiscal 2023 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $27,068,854; and Foreign Military Sales customer funds in the amount of $2,513,311 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For March 28, 2023



ManTech Advanced Systems International Inc., Herndon, Virginia, is awarded a $133,129,075 cost-plus-price-fee, firm-fixed-price, cost reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide warfare analysis in support of ensuring engineering level performance and design are meeting campaign, mission, and engagement level warfighting capability requirements for the Warfare Effectiveness Department Warfare Effectiveness and Analysis Support Services for the Navy. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland (95.5%); Arlington, Virginia (2.5%); and China Lake, California (2%), and is expected to be completed in March 2028. No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; two offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0042123D0007).



Contracts For March 29, 2023



Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $179,013,526 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00003) to a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N0001920D0007). This modification increases the ceiling to provide for the ongoing development, installation, integration, testing, training, and delivery of the F-35 Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) and Operational Data Integrated Network (ODIN), to include new capability development and current software modifications. Additionally, this modification continues support for the ALIS-to-ODIN re-architecture endeavor to modernize ALIS in accordance with information technology and software development best practices for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Foreign Military Sales customers, and non-U.S. Department of Defense participants. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in December 2024. No funds are being obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $120,269,044 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification (P00009) to a previously awarded contract (N0001922C0041). This modification exercises an option to provide continued engineering, maintenance, logistics, and material support in support of the development, production, and sustainment of software builds, as well as to execute developmental flight tests in support of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and non-U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) partners. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (80%); Orlando, Florida (7%); Linthicum, Maryland (3%); Nashua, New Hampshire (3%); San Diego, California (2%); El Segundo, California (2%); Samlesbury, United Kingdom (1%); various locations within the continental U.S. (CONUS) (1%); and various locations outside CONUS (1%), and is expected to be completed in March 2024. Fiscal 2023 operation and maintenance (Air Force) funds in the amount of $43,134,340; fiscal 2023 operation and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $21,567,167; fiscal 2023 operation and maintenance (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $21,567,167; fiscal 2023 research, development, test and evaluation (Air Force) in the amount of $3,900,000; fiscal 2023 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) in the amount of $3,900,000; and non-U.S. DOD participant funds in the amount of $20,721,143 will be obligated at the time of award, $86,268,674 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Diversified Service Contracting Inc., Dunn, North Carolina, is awarded a $13,644,608 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity modification against contract N40080-21-D-0006. The modification provides for the exercise of Option 2 for facilities support services at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. After award of this option, the total cumulative face value of the contract will be $40,509,118. All work will be performed in Maryland, and is expected to be completed by March 2024. Fiscal 2023 operation and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $6,468,431; Defense Health Program funds in the amount of $525,723; working capital (Navy) funds in the amount of $ 4,891,796; and non-appropriations funds in the amount of $10,057, will be obligated on a task order, and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Washington, Public Works Department, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For March 30, 2023



Raytheon Co., El Segundo, California, is awarded a $650,433,839 fixed-price incentive (firm target) and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the production and delivery of low rate initial production (LRIP) Lot III Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) Mid-Band (MB), to include 15 NGJ-MB LRIP ship sets (2 pods per ship set), 11 for the Navy and four for the government of Australia, as well as to provide associated spares, support equipment, non-recurring engineering and associated data. Work will be performed in Forest, Mississippi (50%); Dallas, Texas (37%); labor surplus area El Segundo, California (10%); and Andover, Massachusetts (3%), and is expected to be completed in April 2024. Fiscal 2023 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $461,655,033; fiscal 2022 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $6,352,655; and foreign cooperative project funds in the amount of $182,426,151 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0001923C0037).



Rolls-Royce Corp., Indianapolis, Indiana, is awarded a $15,554,347 modification (P00003) to a firm-fixed-price order (N0001922F2249) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N0001919G0013). This modification adds scope to provide for the development of the sovereign repair capability as well as facility standup for the V-22 AE 1107C engine to include integration of an AE 1107C engine test cell into existing Kawasaki Heavy Industries facilities for the government of Japan. Work will be performed in Indianapolis, Indiana (27%); and Hyogo, Japan (73%), and is expected to be completed in May 2026. Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $15,554,347 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems Inc., Sacramento, California, is awarded an $11,123,211 modification (P00001) to a firm-fixed-price contract (N0001923C0021). This modification provides for the production and delivery of 15 additional full rate production Lot 4 BQM-177A surface launched aerial targets, to include associated rocket-assisted takeoff attachment kits, as well as associated technical and administrative data in support of research, development, test, and evaluation of in-development naval combat weapon systems, fleet gunnery and missile training exercises, and fleet air-to-air missile and surface-to-air missile training exercises for the Navy. Work will be performed in Sacramento, California (50%); Dallas, Texas (20%); Fort Walton Beach, Florida (5%); Blacksburg, Virginia (4%); Santa Ana, California (2%); Newton, Kansas (2%); Concord, California (2%); Milwaukie, Oregon (2%); Chatsworth, California (2%); and various locations within the continental U.S. (11%), and is expected to be completed in May 2024. Fiscal 2023 research, development, test, and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $11,123,211 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For March 31, 2023



Raytheon Technologies Corp., Pratt and Whitney Military Engines, East Hartford, Connecticut, is awarded a $212,681,084 fixed-price incentive (firm-target) modification (P00031) to a previously awarded contract (N0001921C0011). This modification definitizes the existing contract and extends the period of performance to provide continued recurring sustainment, program management, financial and administrative, propulsion integration, engineering, material management, configuration management, software sustainment, security management, equipment management and product management support activities. Additionally, this modification definitizes and extends the period of performance to continue to provide joint technical publication updates, training, depot level maintenance and repair for all fielded propulsion systems at the F-35 production sites and operational locations for the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, non-U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) partners, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. Work will be performed in East Hartford, Connecticut (40%); Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (21%); Indianapolis, Indiana (12%); West Palm Beach, Florida (6%); Windsor Locks, Connecticut (6%); Brekstad, Norway (4%); Leeuwarden, Netherlands (3%); Iwakuni, Japan (3%); Williamtown, Australia (2%); Cameri, Italy (1%); Marham, United Kingdom (1%); and Fort Worth, Texas (1%), and is expected to be completed in November 2023. Fiscal 2023 operation and maintenance (Air Force) funds in the amount of $82,789,319; fiscal 2023 operation and maintenance (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $35,970,027; fiscal 2023 operation and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $14,356,701; FMS customer funds in the amount of $25,690,292; and non-U.S. DOD participant funds in the amount of $53,300,944 will be obligated at the time of award, $133,116,047 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



DRS Systems Inc., Melbourne, Florida, is awarded a $26,000,000 modification (P00002) to a firm-fixed-price order (N0001922F1162) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N0001919G0030). This modification adds scope to procure 16 joint urgent operation need Weapon Replaceable Assembly Shipsets associated with the AN/AAQ-45 Distributed Aperture Infrared Countermeasures system configuration in support of the MH-60S for the Navy. Work will be performed in Dallas, Texas (55%); San Diego, California (43%); Fort Walton Beach, Florida (1%); and Melbourne, Florida (1%), and is expected to be completed in March 2025. Fiscal 2023 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $26,000,000 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
Contracts For April 3, 2023



No aplicable data.



Contracts For April 4, 2023



No aplicable data.



Contracts For April 5, 2023



Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded an $18,754,263 modification (P00064) to a previously awarded, cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N0001918C1048). This modification adds scope to provide depot tooling and test equipment in support of establishing the initial depot repair of radio frequency support electronics and multi-function antenna components, to include data processor, array assembly, and antenna control module for the F-35 aircraft for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in January 2026. Fiscal 2023 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,377,132; and fiscal 2023 aircraft procurement (Air Force) funds in the amount of $9,377,131 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For April 6, 2023



No aplicable data.



Contracts For April 7, 2023



The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, was awarded a $1,170,768,698 undefinitized modification (P00001) to a firm-fixed-price order (N0001922F0030) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N0001921G0006). This modification procures 400 RGM-84L-4 Harpoon Block II Update (HIIU) Grade B canister tactical missiles, four RTM-84L-4 Block II HIIU Grade B canister exercise missiles, 411 containers, four blast test vehicles, two Harpoon Weapon System (HWS) Joint Common Test Sets (JCTS), Harpoon Coastal Defense System (HCDS) spares, weapon station support equipment, JCTS spares, missile spares, HCDS training equipment, integrated logistics support and technical publications, field service representatives and training. Work will be performed in McKinney, Texas (24.43%); Pontiac, Michigan (12.93%); Annapolis, Maryland (9.20%); Pine Brook, New Jersey (4.96%); St. Louis, Missouri (3.49%); Randolph, Vermont (2.83%); Galena, Kansas (2.7%); Huntsville, Alabama (2.21%) Grove, Oklahoma (2.05%); Chandler, Arizona (1.80%); Setauket, New York (1.51%); Enumclaw, Washington (1.37%); Minneapolis, Minnesota (1.24%); St. Charles, Missouri (1.22%); Federal Way, Washington (1.15%); Union, Missouri (1.14%); and various locations within and outside the continental U.S. (25.77%), and is expected to be completed in March 2029. Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $629,776,662 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Bell Boeing Joint Program Office, Amarillo, Texas, is awarded a $7,550,363 cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N0001923F2499) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N0001922G0002). This order provides for the sustainment of previously-delivered block fleet releases as well as ongoing development of flight test, fleet releases and analysis leading to implementation of future sustainment block fleet releases in support of the V-22 avionics systems. Work will be performed in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania (92%); and Fort Worth, Texas (8%), and is expected to be completed in January 2024. Fiscal 2023 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,878,208; fiscal 2023 operations and maintenance (Air Force) funds in the amount of $1,674,628; fiscal 2023 other procurement (Air Force) funds in the amount of $1,148,226; and fiscal 2023 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $849,301will be obligated at the time of award, $5,552,836 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For April 10, 2023



No aplicable data.



Contracts For April 11, 2023



Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $17,838,748 modification (P00066) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, fixed-price-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N0001918C1048). This modification adds scope to provide a depot maintenance activation plan in support of establishing initial depot capability for the F-35 air vehicle for the Government of Israel. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in December 2024. Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $17,838,748 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



The Survice Engineering Co. LLC, Belcamp, Maryland, is awarded an $8,359,234 firm-fixed-price contract for the production and delivery of 21 TRV-150C Tactical Resupply Unmanned Aircraft Systems and 12 months of Systems Engineering Program Management services in support of the Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems program office. Work will be performed in Churchville, Maryland, and is expected to be completed in March 2024. Fiscal 2023 procurement (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $6,363,065; and fiscal 2023 operation and maintenance (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $1,996,169 will be obligated at the time if award, $1,996,169 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 4022(f). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0001923C0033).



Contracts For April 12, 2023



No aplicable data.



Contracts For April 13, 2023



Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas is awarded a $172,100,266 modification (P00001) to a cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price order (N0001920F0002) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N0001919G0008). This modification definitizes the order and adds scope to provide special test/tooling equipment for increasing Block 4 manufacturing capacity, as well as procures material modification kits in support of removing life limits, correcting deficiencies, and retrofitting aircraft to incorporate Next Gen Distributed Aperture System hardware and associated Power and Thermal Management System modifications efforts. These modifications are in support of F-35 aircraft for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers, and non-U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) participants. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in December 2030. Fiscal 2023 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $208,445; fiscal 2022 aircraft procurement (Air Force) funds in the amount of $67,568,935; fiscal 2022 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $53,866,743; fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Navy) procurement funds in the amount of $6,792,712; fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Air Force) funds in the amount of $5,148,444; FMS funds in the amount of $1,044,729; and non-U.S. DOD participants funds in the amount of $37,470,258 will be obligated at the time of award, $11,941,156 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Marietta, Georgia, is awarded a $62,223,836 modification (P00008) to a previously awarded, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N0001921C0041). This modification increases a contract line item to provide for rapid execution of non-recurring engineering, to include studies, engineering analysis, airframe analysis, and risk reduction of the C-130J-30 aircraft in support of identifying if the aircraft can meet E-XX capability requirements and the changes that will be required to the aircraft. Work will be performed in Marietta, Georgia, and is expected to be completed in June 2026. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For April 14, 2023



Tomahawk Robotics Inc., Melbourne, Florida, is being awarded a $55,013,768 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for production and post-production support of the Flexible Cyber-Secure Radio (FlexCSR) Systems. This contract includes options, which if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $58,506,352. Work will be performed in Melbourne, Florida, and is expected to be completed by April 2028. No funds are being obligated at the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract level. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(1) (only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements). The Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division, Indian Head, Maryland, is the contracting activity.



Contracts For April 17, 2023



Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems Inc., Sacramento, California, is awarded a $9,156,552 modification to a previously awarded, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. This modification adds scope to provide non-recurring engineering, integration, and installation of a sensor payload, as well as provides for associated labor and material for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) mission systems and subsystems integration. Additionally, this modification adds scope to provide for the development and testing of autonomy and pilot vehicle interfaces, UAS ground and flight operations, as well as flight test events for the Navy. Work will be performed in Sacramento, California, and is expected to be completed in September 2023. Fiscal 2022 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,572,892 will be obligated at the time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
WASHINGTON (May 3, 2023)With long-serving Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin announcing his retirement Monday, Democrats are likely to see a primary fight next year to replace him.



So far, one DemocratMontgomery County Councilmember Will Jawandohas announced his candidacy to replace Cardin, which most political observers consider a safe Democratic seat.



Other potential Democratic candidates are Maryland Reps. Jamie Raskin and David Trone, Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski.



A Republican who could have made the general election contest more competitiveformer Maryland Gov. Larry Hogantold "The Hill on NewsNation" Tuesday he would not run for the Senate, explaining "it's just not something I ever aspired to do."



Cardin, 79, has served as senator since 2006. Before that, he represented Maryland's 3rd Congressional District in the House and was the speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates.



"I am proud of all I have done for Maryland," Cardin said. "I have given my heart and soul to our great state, and I thank Marylanders for trusting me as your representative for all these years."



Jawando, an attorney and author who served as an adviser to former Education Secretary Arne Duncan, announced his intention to run for Cardin's seat in a video released Tuesday.



Jawando has focused on lowering rents, tackling racial justice issues and building affordable housing in Montgomery County. He said he's running for Cardin's seat because "I believe we can build a shared prosperity in Maryland that lifts everyone up."



Jawando faces an uphill battle, especially if other high-profile candidates decide to enter the race.



"Very slim chance," John Dedie, a political science professor at the Community College of Baltimore County, told Capital News Service. "He is known in Montgomery County and nowhere else."



Dedie was more bullish on Alsobrooks.



Dedie pointed to Alsobrooks' experience at the local government level, saying that her work in PG County gives her insight into challenges such as infrastructure and transportation. And based on her overwhelming victory in the county executive race, Dedie thought Alsobrooks could make the jump to senator.



"There's nothing like being a county executive in a highly, densely-populated area to help yourself," Dedie said of Alsobrooks. "She hasn't made political enemies that have caused any problems, so I think that she could become the natural favorite."



Alsobrooks also endorsed Gov. Wes Moore during his campaign, and he went on to win the county by almost 200,000 votes. Dedie thinks it's possible the governor returns the favor. Moore's endorsement would cement Alsobrooks as a contenderother challengers might not want to anger the current governor by running against a candidate he supports.



Dedie also noted that in 1992, the 10-person Maryland congressional delegation featured five women. The delegation is currently all men, a fact that could be a strong argument in favor of Alsobrooks.



Raskin, who gained prominence when he led arguments in the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump and recently announced his cancer is in remission, has not yet revealed his intentions.



Trone also has not announced but has been hiring staff in anticipation of a campaign, as has Alsobrooks, according to Politico.



However, Dedie pointed to Raskin's health as something that might worry voters, and he noted that should Trone run for the Senate, it would be difficult for Democrats to maintain their seat in the 6th Congressional District, which includes several conservative counties.



On the Republican side, Dedie suggested that Kathy Szeliga, who ran against Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, in 2016 and received 36 percent of the vote, might be someone to watch.



But in a party dominated by Dan Cox, a staunch Trump supporter, it is unlikely that Maryland would select a moderate candidate to challenge for the open seat.



As such, Cardin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, maintained their confidence that Democrats would retain the seat. Marland hasn't elected a Republican senator since Charles Mathias in 1980.



Kyle Kondik, editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, agreed.



"In a presidential year and in a federal election, we still think Democrats would be clearly favored to hold the seat," he wrote Tuesday.



Maryland's primary election will be May 14, 2024, and the general election is Nov. 5, 2024.



Of the 100 Senate seats, 34 will be contested next year. The Democrats are defending 20 of those 34 seats; the Republicans hold 11 seats and independents three seats.



The Democrats currently maintain a thin 51-49-seat margin in the Senate (three independents caucus with the Democrats).



Besides Cardin, two other Democratic senators so far have announced their retirements: Dianne Feinstein of California and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. One Republican senator, Mike Braun of Indiana, has announced that he is running for governor.
WASHINGTON (April 28, 2023)Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Brian Schatz of Hawaii have reintroduced a bill to get rid of the national debt limit set by Congress.



The Biden administration and congressional Democrats are in a face-off with GOP lawmakers over raising the debt limit. The United States government could hit the ceiling, meaning the Treasury Department would run out of funds and could no longer take on more debt, as early as June.



Failure to reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling could trigger a government shutdown, lower the U.S. credit rating and set off a wave of other negative economic impacts.



The senators' bill proposes a more permanent solution to prevent a debt default: avoid it altogether.



"A debt default by the United States would throw our economy into chaos and trigger massive job losses," Van Hollen said in a statement. "It is time to defuse this economic time bomb that is repeatedly and recklessly used to threaten an economic doomsday in order to impose a radical political agenda. Let's focus on real budget solutions to meet our national priorities in a fiscally responsible way."



"Republicans are using the debt limit to hold the country hostage," said Schatz, the lead sponsor on the bill. "We need to stop playing this very dangerous game with the nation's economy and get rid of the debt ceiling."



On Feb. 15, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the money would run out between July and September, depending on April tax revenues. The Treasury Department is expected next week to provide an updated estimate of when it would exhaust its emergency measures to prevent the default.



Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, said the debt ceiling causes fights year after year. Eliminating the debt ceiling would permanently remove the threat of a debt default, Bennet said.



The current limit includes $31.4 trillion for federal spending like Social Security, interest on national debt and Medicare costs.



Republicans have argued that the debt limit and federal spending go hand-in-hand.



"No clean debt ceiling is going to pass the House," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, said after the GOP majority in his chamber passed a debt limit measure that included spending cuts. President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, rejected the proposal.



Democrats point out that the debt is mostly made of mandatory expenses that already have been incurred and that can't simply be cut.



"By keeping (the debt ceiling) in place, we are choosing to flirt with an economic recession every time Republicans use it as political leverage," Schatz said in a statement.



Increasing the debt limit is nothing new: it has been done many timesand under both Republican and Democratic administrations and Congressessince the debt ceiling was enacted in 1917. However, proposals to abolish the debt limit entirely have been more controversial.



Schatz first introduced a bill abolishing the debt ceiling in 2017 with only two cosponsors. He tried again in 2019, with a companion House bill introduced by Rep. Bill Foster, D-Illinois. The pair tried again unsuccessfully in 2021.



Democrats in 2021 also proposed the Debt Ceiling Reform Act, which would have repealed the debt ceiling and given the treasury secretary full authority to issue new debt if the president notified Congress that new debt is needed.



Last fall, President Joe Biden called the idea of eliminating the debt ceiling "irresponsible," after House Democrats led by Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pennsylvania, wrote a letter urging passage of the Debt Ceiling Reform Act.



Denmark is the only other democratic country with a debt limit, although it does not pose the same issues as the debt ceiling in the United States. In Denmark, the debt limit is set far above the debt levels, according to the Atlantic Council. The country's debt makes up 16% of its debt ceiling.



In addition to Van Hollen and Schatz, nine other Democrats are co-sponsoring the debt ceiling elimination bill: Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Mazie Horono of Hawaii, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Tina Smith of Minnesota.



"It's dangerous and fiscally irresponsible to play games with the debt ceiling at the risk of our nation's economic well being," Durbin said.
WASHINGTON (April 28, 2023)President Joe Biden's infrastructure program so far has funneled $2.6 billion over the last two years to projects in Maryland, according to White House data.



The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, signed by Biden in November 2021, has been touted as a once-in-a-generation piece of legislation and the president is highlighting it as one of his key accomplishments as he makes his bid for reelection.



"To have the strongest economy in the worldwe need the best infrastructure in the world: roads, bridges, airports, water systems, high-speed Internet and so much more," Biden told the North America's Building Trades Unions legislative conference in Washington on Tuesday.



The White House so far has announced funding for 25,000 projects across the country, the president said.



Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, said in a statement that "the bipartisan infrastructure law is making transformative investments in Maryland and around the country."



"We are seeing the impact today from the earliest federal funding to be awarded on a competitive basis or apportioned through formula funding, and this process will continue in the years to come," Cardin said.



"The infrastructure modernization law is building a stronger Maryland," Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said. "Just as important for Maryland, it is also helping reconnect communities divided by harmful infrastructure decisions of the past, combat the climate crisis, and support crucial economic drivers in our state like the Port of Baltimore and a healthy Chesapeake Bay."



Maryland's second-largest county, Prince George's, has received nearly $103 million for 41 projects, according to White House data. $56.4 million for roads, bridges and major projects, $25 million for public transportation and $21.3 million for safety, which includes transportation and water safety.



"This money will allow Prince George's County to build new and repair existing infrastructure all while creating good-paying jobs," said Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Maryland, whose district includes the county. "Prince George's County has been historically redlined, and this is an opportunity to help right that wrong while reconnecting the communities that have been cut off by historic disinvestment."



Nearly $21 million will go to a new, multimodal facility at the New Carrollton Station to connect Amtrak, MARC and Metrorail trains with the future Metro Purple Line as well as Greyhound and local bus services.



Prince George's County also has been awarded $25 million to buy electric-powered buses and to upgrade systems to support those buses.



Baltimore County has received $55.2 million and Dorchester County, Maryland's fourth-smallest county according to 2020 Maryland census data, has received $47.6 million.



However, 98 percent of Dorchester County's money comes from one $46.5 million project for the restoration of parts of Barren Island and James Island.



In a fact sheet on infrastructure projects, the Biden administration said that in the last decade, Maryland had experienced 33 extreme weather events, costing the state up to $5 billion in damages. The administration and Congress allocated funds to strengthen infrastructure (what is termed "resilience") against the effects of climate change, severe weather and potential cyberattacks. Maryland has received $341 million for such work.



Montgomery County, the state's largest county, has received $24.7 million. Its main project covers $14.9 million for grants to buy low- or no-emission buses, with an additional $8.8 million going to roads and bridges in the county.



One of the state's main projects is the Frederick Douglass Tunnel Project, which includes two new, high-capacity tunnels for electrified passenger trains that will improve the speed and capacity of the rail system. The project is slated to receive $4 billion.



When Biden visited Baltimore in January, he highlighted the much-needed improvements to the current tunnel, which he traveled through for decades as an Amtrak passenger. The new tunnel will be renamed to honor Douglass.



Other Maryland-specific spending includes:



 $144 million for clean water projects, including replacing lead pipes



 $25 million for improvements to Baltimore Washington International Airport



 $84 million in Chesapeake Bay ecosystem restoration



 $65 million to upgrade the energy grid, expand clean-energy technologies and weatherize homes



 $22.7 million to install electric vehicle charging stations around the state



 $4.8 million for ports and waterways projects



 $4.8 million to cap old oil and gas wells



 $500,000 to clean up Superfund and brownfield sites



"The federal government has a special responsibility and a financial stake in WMATA/Metro," Cardin said in a statement. "Years of neglectful decisions cannot be reversed overnight. But a safe and reliable Metro is integral to the federal government and the Washington region."



"We are rebuilding roads and bridges and ports and airports," Vice President Kamala Harris said last week at an event where she announced nearly $300 million dollars in funding for nine projects nationwide. "We are laying thousands of miles of fiber optic cable to connect families to high speed internet. We are removing every lead pipe in our nation so that our babies can drink clean water and live up to their God-given potential."
WASHINGTON (April 28, 2023)Every year it is becoming more and more difficult to see the stars. This will come as no surprise to residents of cities like Washington and Baltimore, where it is often difficult to see more than the moon.



Although it may not garner the same popular attention as other forms of environmental degradation, light pollution has far-reaching impacts for Earth's ecosystems and human health.



Astronomers at the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab (which stands for National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory) estimate that light pollution levels are increasing by 10% every year. Children born today in a city where 250 stars can be seen at night will only be able to see 100 by the time they turn 18.



Connie Walker, a scientist at NOIRLab, told Capital News Service that increasing light pollution represents a lost cultural heritage.



"Just think about (Gustav) Holst in creating the musical composition, 'The Planets', or (Vincent) Van Gogh, who did 'The Starry Night.' I mean, this is not just astronomy, it's art. It's if we basically cut ourselves off from access to the night sky, we're really damaging the opportunities for future generations and the inspiration that provides," Walker said. "And so it's like cutting off an appendage or something, we're losing part of ourselves. So it's really a kind of imperative for us to take action and try to protect the night sky."



What some may not realize when viewing paintings like "The Starry Night" or "The Night Cafe" is that during Van Gogh's time the Milky Way really could be seen from the city streets at night. This is how it was for most of human history; change came with the explosion of electric lighting in the 20th century.



However, light pollution is a serious threat beyond cultural heritage. It disrupts our sleep cycles and circadian rhythms, which can put individuals at greater risk of developing a number of cancers, according to researchers at Harvard University.



Sleep deprivation also interferes with people's work and social lives and puts individuals at increased risk for many illnesses including heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, obesity and depression to name a few.



Millions of Americans are missing out on much-needed sleep. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that at least one in three Americans does not get enough sleep.



For animals, the consequences of light pollution can be even more dire.



Many animals have evolved to use the moon and stars to guide their way in the night. Sea turtle hatchlings use the moonlight to find their way to the ocean, but in light-polluted areas, the newborns become disoriented and may actually crawl inland. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimates that light pollution results in thousands of sea turtle deaths every year.



Many communities in the southeastern United States, from Florida to the Carolinas, have ordinances requiring people living on the coast to turn off lights during sea turtle nesting season.



Light pollution is also a likely culprit in what some scientists have called the "Insect Apocalypse."



In recent years, global insect populations have plummeted, with as many as 40% of all species around the globe experiencing declines. For example, species that rely on bioluminescence, like fireflies, are unable to find mates among all of the competing lights.



Other species that rely on the moon and stars for guidance, like moths, can spend the entire night in disoriented wandering. Some species mistake light bouncing off pavement for the surface of a body of water and mistakenly lay their eggs in the street.



One of the challenges to assessing light pollution's growth is that it doesn't show up well in satellite data.



It is difficult to do longitudinal studies because of the dramatic changes in satellite imaging quality over the years. Even the modern sensors are largely unable to pick up the blue light that is the most biologically disruptive component of light pollution.



This is why NOIRLab created the Globe at Night Program, which collects light data from ordinary people around the world. Participants rate their ability to see stars in the sky from wherever they find themselves.



Over 277,000 measurements have been submitted since the program began collecting data in 2006. The submissions have been compiled into interactive maps and datasets available to the public that give a better snapshot of light pollution than standard satellite imagery.



Reducing light pollution is far from a Herculean task, according to Jim Dougherty, an environmental attorney and president of the International Dark-Sky Association's D.C. Chapter. One easy fix is making sure that lights are properly covered so that the light is aimed down and not shooting off towards the night sky.



"Here in D.C., the light fixture that we love to hate is the globe, which sends maybe 70% of its light straight up into the sky and serves no purpose whatsoever," Dougherty told CNS. "That's what we do in our homes, right? We don't have bare light bulbs over the dining room table, we have lamps shades and covers."



Alongside better covered lights, the IDA advocates for dimmer and warmer lights overall. While some cities such as Pittsburgh have moved towards dimmer lights, Baltimore has been growing brighter with an increased number of electronic billboards.



In Washington last month, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History launched an exhibit titled "Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky." The temporary exhibit features over 100 photographs, 250 objects and interactive experiences underscoring the importance of nighttime darkness.



For many people, brighter streets are associated with safety and crime prevention.



"That's a common reaction. And there's very little truth to it," Dougherty said. In fact, studies have shown that brighter streets have little impact on crime. One study out of Chicago actually found that increasing the brightness of alleyways corresponded with a significant increase in crime.
Overall crime in Maryland steadily declined between 2010 and 2020, according to data from Maryland's Open Data portal and yearly Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), a compilation of crime statistics from Maryland police departments.



Yet homicides increased in that same period.



Homicides in the state rose to a ten-year high of 573 in 2020, a nearly 35% increase from 2010. The largest year-to-year increase occurred in 2015 when homicides rose to 553, a 52% increase from the previous year.



Some criminologists attribute this uptick to individuals carrying more firearms as their distrust in police officers grew, especially following the deaths of Freddie Gray in 2015 and George Floyd in 2020. Gray died from injuries sustained while in police custody; Floyd died from asphyxia caused by a police officer kneeling on his neck.



"The unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd  had a large impact on policing, meaning policing got a lot less proactive," said Thomas Abt, criminologist, professor and Director of the Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction (VRC) at the University of Maryland.



Experts say that law enforcement became less rigid following the protests. Data from Maryland's Uniform Crime Report shows that of the 573 murders reported in 2020, only 47% resulted in an arrest.



"[George Floyd's murder] greatly impacted community trust, so communities were less likely to report crimes, to give information about solving crimes. And so basically, it drove a wedge between police and communities," said Abt.



This animosity led to people in Baltimore using firearms for self defense, therefore causing gun violence to surge in the city, according to Gary LaFree, criminologist and distinguished professor at the University of Maryland's Criminology and Criminal Justice Department.



"People don't have as much confidence in the system. They're more likely to take the law into their own hands," he said. "What happens when you aren't relying on the police to respond to violence? Well, you're arming yourself."



92% of homicides in Maryland were committed with a firearm in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



Baltimore City alone accounted for 334 homicides, 58% of the state's reported homicides that year, according to UCR data for Maryland. In 2015, the year Freddie Gray died, it accounted for 344 homicides, 62% of the state's total.



"Freddie Gray was Baltimore's George Floyd"



Dr. Joseph Richardson, the Joel and Kim Feller Endowed Professor of African American studies and Medical Anthropology at the University of Maryland, suggested that Baltimore neighborhoods were already undergoing de-policing and doubt in law enforcement well before Floyd's death.



"Freddie Gray was Baltimore's George Floyd, if you want to be honest about it.  After Freddie Gray, we started hearing that narrative from people in the communitiesthat the police were no longer responding proactively to crime and it was much more reactive policing or not reacting at all," he said.



Baltimore's Gun Trace Task Forcea former unit within the Baltimore Police Department tasked with removing guns from the streets, but ultimately found to be involved in extensive corruption and abuses of powerfurther eroded public trust in the police, he said.



"You take that on top of Freddie Gray  what you have is from the public's perception a total breakdown  in perceiving the police from a sense of lawlessness," Richardson said. "Why would you entrust that the police would respond to you when you had any kind of crisis or need?"



Richardson, who conducts research on gun violence and trauma among Black boys and young Black men, suggests that additional contextsuch as the poverty and the lack of funding in local schools, among manyis additionally needed to understand why homicides are persistent in the city.



More survivors are reporting rape and sexual violence.



Rape cases also increased between 2010 and 2020, according to UCR data for Maryland.



Rape and sexual assault reports increased to 1,891 in 2020, a 54% increase from 2010, after peaking to 2,106 in 2018, according to UCR data for Maryland.



According to Lydia Wattsthe Executive Director of the Rebuild, Overcome And Rise Center, (ROAR), a center that provides services to survivors of crime, violence and harm, at the University of Maryland, Baltimorethis statistic shows a "good sign."



"I know that it sounds counterintuitive to say that it's better that there are more reported rapes," she said. "But  rape is such an underreported crime, that what I take from that is the numbers of recorded rapes have increased, hopefully, as a result of better policing."



Watts is a lawyer who has represented survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking for almost 27 years, and noted that for a long time, reporting rape or sexual assault to the police can "be a really harrowing experience."



She described the original methods police used when dealing with rape and sexual violence as "old-school policing" where officers used "a factual and not traumatic or trauma-informed" strategy.



"So there's been a huge movement really dating back to the 80's, and even earlier 70's, of trying to train police officers on how to be more trauma-informed," Watts said, which increases the likelihood of victims reporting sexual crimes.



Property crimes on the decline



Most property crimes declined each year between 2010 and 2020, according to UCR data for Maryland.



Property crimes, specifically breaking or entry and larceny theft, comprise the majority of total crimes compared to other property and violent crimes, allowing them to widely dictate the change in crime rates, according to Abt.



"Overall crime numbers are generated by low level crimes," Abt said. "Most of the crimes that you see in the crime numbers are larcenies. And so what that means is that because those are the frequent crimes, whether they go up, they'll control the overall crime number."



LaFree attributes the overall decline in property crime to a variety of reasons, such as an aging population, the reducing impact of crack cocaine on crime, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced people to stay at home.



Crime experts are often skeptical of statistics because crime rates are simply crimes reported to and discovered by police, not all crimes committed.



"Most crimes come to the attention of police because somebody reports the crime to the police, especially crimes that involve victimization, like robberies and burglaries and larcenies and assaults," said UMD criminologist and professor Robert Brame. "So that raises the question of the crimes that are not reported to the police because those are crimes too."
Goodbye. Tucker Carlson is out at Fox. The highly rated conservative talk show host parted ways with Fox on April 24, a move that stunned the news world.

Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor, Fox wrote in a statement.

Carlson had a history of targeting minority groups during his time at Fox, according to D.C.-based progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America. Madeline Peltz and Nikki McCann Ramirez, the groups researchers, shared their findings:
Katarina Mathernova will be the EU ambassador to Kyiv.

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Ukraine has a problem with corruption, but it is intensively fighting it, says KATARINA MATHERNOVA in an interview for daily Sme. From autumn, she will head the European Union diplomatic mission in Kyiv. According to her, Russian propaganda exaggerates the seriousness of this problem, because it knows that the public in the West reacts to it.

Katarina Mathernova. (Source: Archive of K. M.)

The diplomat does not expect Ukraine to join the union in the next few years, but there may be a big shift in accession negotiations. These can continue even during the war. Mathernova considers the entry itself unlikely until the government has control over all of Ukrainian territory.

In the interview, Mathernova also describes how eastern Slovakia could benefit from the future renewal of Ukraine. However, the government must be active now, but it's really not, she warns.

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Related article Diplomats in Slovakia: Our countries will support Ukraine for as long as it takes Read more

From September, you will come to Kyiv as an EU ambassador. Could Ukraine become a member state during your tenure?

It's quite unlikely that Ukraine will join the Union during this period, but if its current determination endures, it will accomplish many steps that will bring it closer. Of course, all that will depend on when and how the war ends, which is not clear now.

Some people from the Ukrainian government said this could happen within two years.

The past is not always an accurate indicator of the future, but of the states that joined the Union in 2004, negotiations with Slovakia took the shortest time, and even then they lasted five years. Therefore it's not very likely that Ukraine would succeed in a significantly shorter time.

At the beginning of its negotiations, Slovakia was also not at war and did not have part of its territory under the control of a hostile neighbour. Can accession be talked about at all until Ukraine gets all of its territory under control?

Negotiations can take place even in this case. It's a demanding technical process and much can be done if you have the political will and commitment, and both are not lacking in Ukraine. However, realistically speaking, I don't see the possibility of accession itself until the government controls the entire country.

So we are talking maybe seven, eight years?
World Press Freedom Day is celebrated on May 3.

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The opinion was previously published in the Swedish newspaper Expressen.

Having free access to information and allowing all voices to be heard  or not. Thats what freedom of speech and freedom of the press are ultimately about. And that is why we must all cherish and defend free journalism, particularly in uncertain times when it increasingly comes under fire.

On May 3 we observe World Press Freedom Day, this year with an emphasis on freedom of the press as a basic necessity for other human rights. The situation is urgent, particularly when democracy as a form of government is being challenged in more and more places around the world. According to the University of Gothenburg the number of democracies in the world has shrunk to 1986 levels, and freedom of the press is often the first victim when a democracy crumbles.

We see this clearly in the wake of Putins invasion of Ukraine. Independent media in Russia have been censored, blocked and dismantled. Individual journalists have been censured and in March the US journalist Evan Gershkovich from the Wall Street Journal was arrested and imprisoned in Yekaterinburg on charges of espionage. Russian forces have taken control of the flow of information and the Russian population is paying the price.

But there are trends that worry me even in Sweden. According to research from the University of Gothenburg majority of the Swedish population is prepared to make temporary restrictions to democracy to resolve urgent issues such as environmental and climate crises, pandemics, financial crises and crime. The war in Ukraine has shaken people and, alongside the coronavirus pandemic, impacted how we see the world.

But in times of crisis and unrest, it is particularly important to remember how crucial it is to have access to free, credible information. In Sweden we have a long, strong tradition of freedom of the press, but this is not the case in many countries. So we must never take freedom of the press for granted. The demand for free reporting is strong. At Swedish Radio we saw that clearly when Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year  as many as a half-million brand-new listeners sought out our live reporting. Thats in a country of just 10 million.

In connection with this years World Press Freedom Day, I am travelling to Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to meet with the Swedish Embassies in a joint initiative to shine a spotlight on the immense importance of the freedom of independent media and the safety of journalists.



More than five years have passed since the murder of Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak, who was investigating corruption and tax evasion, and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova. The trail led to a well-known businessman with ties to the ruling elite in the country, and the murder led to major protests in which fed-up Slovaks filled the streets and squares. Judges, top politicians and police chiefs had to leave their posts as a result.

The Slovak peoples protests confirmed something meaningful: We must all be the guardians of freedom of the press. Because a journalist does not just represent themselves, they represent all of us. The journalist asks the uncomfortable questions, takes the powerful to task and highlights the voices that otherwise might not be heard.



In closing, I would like to quote the American historian Timothy Snyder, when he attended the Swedish Academy conference on freedom of speech and democracy earlier this spring and was asked why freedom of speech must not be restricted, for example by making lies punishable.

The lies of the very powerful is not what is in danger. It is the truth of those who dont have power that is in danger.

Thats something to think about on World Press Freedom Day.
Trains from Bratislava to Split start again, Slovakia improves in World Press Freedom Index, and the importance of knowing the right level of love in Slovak.

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Good evening. Here is the Wednesday, May 3 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.

Eagle's long, famous journey ends

Anicka the eagle with her chick. (Source: TANAP)

The life of a Slovak eagle who became famous as part of a conservation project contained all the elements of a captivating story - love, betrayal, drama, action, death. Her story, however, is now over.

The body of the bird, named Anicka, was found by a shepherd in the Liptov region in north Slovakia. It is thought she died after a fight with a stronger eagle.

From 2013 to 2016 the animal was tracked by a GPS device and thousands of people all over the world followed the bird's migrations.

Read more about the famous eagle:

More stories from The Slovak Spectator website

If you like what we are doing and want to support good journalism, buy our online subscription with no ads and a print copy of The Slovak Spectator sent to your home in Slovakia. Thank you.

FEATURE STORY FOR WEDNESDAY

Know the right level of love in Slovak

Learn Slovak words related to love. (Source: Pixabay)

The dizzying throes of incipient love (laska) are prime training ground for budding linguists. Just as babies babble, lovers have an infantile repertoire of their own.

If you've got a compassionate, captive audience, and half of what you're saying is already nonsense, the conditions for learning a foreign language may be ideal.

EVENT FOR THURSDAY

Discover alternative bands

video //www.youtube.com/embed/cyhiNONfAMY

On Thursday evening, three Slovak alternative bands - The Chronic Sleepers, Kocka Cukru, Limits of Absurdity - will perform at the Kulturak club in Bratislava. The venue is located near the SAV bus stop near the Main Railway Station.

For more info click on this link (in Slovak).

In other news

Slovakia's gas supplies are ready for the next heating season , with volumes in gas storage reservoirs above 2 billion cubic metres. "The level of readiness in terms of gas supplies is such that we do not even need to worry about the next heating season," said interim Economy Minister Karel Hirman.

, with volumes in gas storage reservoirs above 2 billion cubic metres. "The level of readiness in terms of gas supplies is such that we do not even need to worry about the next heating season," said interim Economy Minister Karel Hirman. On Tuesday, the European Commission adopted exceptional and temporary measures on imports of four agricultural products  wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed  from Ukraine. The measures have been introduced in response to serious logistical bottlenecks in five member states, including Slovakia. They will be in place until June 5. Slovakia banned imports of selected crops in April.

 wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed  from Ukraine. The measures have been introduced in response to serious logistical bottlenecks in five member states, including Slovakia. They will be in place until June 5. Slovakia banned imports of selected crops in April. Slovakia placed 17th in Reporters Without Borders' latest World Press Freedom Index, improving ten places in the last year.

improving ten places in the last year. During a march for the rights of trans people on Tuesday, an incident occurred between the OLaNO head Igor Matovic and the participants. According to the latter, the former prime minister swore at them as he stood in front of the parliament building. A slight skirmish between both then occurred. Matovic later put his version of events on Facebook referring to the LGBT+ community as "people". On Wednesday, he denied any provocation on his part and said participants in the march had insulted him first.

Equipment that power transmission operator Slovak Electricity Transmission Network is donating to Ukraine to help the country restore its infrastructure. (Source: TASR)

WEATHER FOR THURSDAY:

Light cloud cover and occasional light rain expected. Daily temperatures will rise to between 17 C and 22 C. In the southeast part of the country winds could hit 50 km/h (SHMU) in gusts.

Thank you for subscribing and reading. It means a lot to us.

P.S. If you have suggestions on how our news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.

Follow The Slovak Spectator on Facebook, Instagram (@slovakspectator) and Twitter (@slovakspectator).
Ticket sales for popular route already ahead of whole of 2022.

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National rail carrier ZSSK is to run more car trains to Croatia this summer.

Starting from May 3, ZSSK and Austrian carrier Osterreichische Bundesbahnen (OBB) will run a car train between Bratislava and Split, Croatia, three times a week until October 7 - an increase in the frequency and period during which the route will operate compared to previous years.

The first train will leave Bratislava on Wednesday May 3 at 15:53, taking around 16 hours to reach its destination. Trains will run at the same time on Fridays and Sundays. Return trips from Split will be every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday at 17:20.

Car transport on the train. (Source: ZSSK)

Each train carries 60 passengers in seats, 90 in couchette cars and 60 in sleeping cars. It will also carry 20 cars or motorcycles, with space for 10 to join at Bratislava and 10 in Vienna.

"We are happy that the number of passengers to Split is increasing every year. We see there is interest in this type of vacation after the pandemic. By mid-April, more tickets had been sold than in the whole of last year," said the national carrier in a press release.

Tickets can be purchased here.
Fight with a stronger bird thought most likely cause of death.

The life of the Slovak eagle watched people from 173 countries, illustrative stock photo. (Source: Stanislava Smadisova)

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An eagle that became famous as part of a conservation project in the High Tatras has been found dead. The body of the bird, named Anicka, was found by a shepherd in a meadow in the Liptov region in north Slovakia.

It is thought she died after a fight with a stronger eagle.

Her death comes soon after the tenth anniversary since conservationists started tracking the lesser-spotted eagle by means of a solar-powered GPS tracker. The device allowed hundreds of thousands of people all over the world to watch the animal online.

The tracker also confirmed the dead bird is Anicka.

Related article

Related article The story of eagle Anicka ends for the media Read more

"It was a unique opportunity to learn more about the life of the lesser-spotted eagle. For three years, we used telemetry to follow Anicka's amazing and often difficult journey to the wintering grounds in South-East Africa and back to Slovakia," said Tatra National Park (TANAP) Administration officer Peter Vrlik.

"During the migration, the eagle flew over 25 countries from Europe, around the Black Sea to Asia, through Syria and Israel to Africa," added Vrlik.

The furthest she went was South Africa, just 40 kilometres from the Indian Ocean, which is 8,400 kilometres in a straight line from Slovakia.

Anicka and her partner raised several chicks.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230502/biden-sending-1500-troops-to-southern-border-wont-deter-illegal-migrants---texas-governor-1110042594.html

Biden Sending 1,500 Troops to Southern Border Won't Deter Illegal Migrants - Texas Governor

Biden Sending 1,500 Troops to Southern Border Won't Deter Illegal Migrants - Texas Governor

The Biden administration's decision to send an additional 1,500 troops to the US-Mexico border will do nothing to deter an anticipated surge of illegal migrants in the region, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Tuesday.

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The surge is expected to occur after the Title 42 health emergency order - which allowed the US government to turn away thousands of illegal migrants at the border to prevent the spread of COVID-19 - is set to expire on May 11. Texas has deployed some 10,000 National Guardsmen over the last several years to support local, state and federal agencies dealing with the influx of migrants arriving on the southern border, according to Abbott. Earlier on Tuesday, Defense Department spokesperson Pat Ryder said in a statement that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved a request from the Homeland Security Department for 1,500 active-duty troops to support immigration enforcement and law enforcement agencies dealing with the crisis on the southern border. Ryder said US troops are expected to arrive at the US southern border next week, but they will not directly participate in law enforcement activities. The troops deploying to the southern border will work on providing ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry and warehouse support. An all-time record number of migrants have arrived at the US southern border under the Biden administration, hitting two consecutive records in 2021 and 2022, exceeding 2.3 million people. In fiscal year 2023, the US authorities said they have encountered more than 1.2 million migrants.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230329/biden-administration-auctions-73mln-acres-of-oil-drilling-area-in-us-gulf-coast-of-mexico-1108929431.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230502/report-trump-may-skip-early-gop-debates-for-2024-presidential-nomination-1110041886.html

Report: Trump May Skip Early GOP Debates for 2024 Presidential Nomination

Report: Trump May Skip Early GOP Debates for 2024 Presidential Nomination

Former US President Donald Trump is reportedly likely to skip at least one early debate for Republican Party candidates for the 2024 presidential election.

2023-05-02T23:08+0000

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americas

donald trump

republican party

us politics

presidential debates

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Citing five insiders with knowledge of the matter, the New York Times reported Tuesday that Trump has told associates in recent weeks that he does not want to bring attention to Republican challengers by sharing a debate stage with them. Trump reportedly said he is "up by too many points" in the polls to debate other potential Republican Party nominees. Polls show that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis poses the biggest challenge to Trump so far, receiving approximately 30% of support, the report said, detailing that all other Republican contenders have received single-digit support. In response to the debate announcements, Trump said via social media that nobody consulted him or his campaign before releasing the event dates. Trump expressed concerns about "hostile" news networks and the potential to be "libeled and abused." It's speculated Trumps non-participation in Republican debates will shrink the viewing audience and limit challengers chances to create a breakout moment. Trump told advisers he is not interested in the debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, citing its ties to library board of trustees chairman Frederick J. Ryan Jr., who also serves as CEO of The Washington Post. Trump is also hesitant to attend the Fox News debate after years of feuding with the network, following its decision to declare Joe Biden the winner of the state of Arizona on election night in 2020, the report said. Moreover, Trump pointed to his past skirmish with anchor Megyn Kelly as a reason not to attend the networks debate, the report said. However, Trump is set to hold a "town hall" style discussion on CNN next week with Republicans and undeclared voters in New Hampshire.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230428/trump-says-hes-giving-crooked-nickname-to-biden-ahead-of-2024-us-election-1109907571.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/eu-commission-says-ammunition-to-fully-support-kiev-lacking-due-to-intensity-of-conflict-1110056489.html

EU Commission Says Ammunition to Fully Support Kiev 'Lacking' Due to Intensity of Conflict

EU Commission Says Ammunition to Fully Support Kiev 'Lacking' Due to Intensity of Conflict

EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton claims that Western countries are lacking capabilities to fully support Zelensky regime due to intensity of conflict.

2023-05-03T13:43+0000

2023-05-03T13:43+0000

2023-05-03T13:43+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

ukrainian crisis

us arms for ukraine

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"...we are lacking of this kind of ammunition to support Ukraine, but everywhere, not only in Europe between our allies, the US is lacking, everyone is lacking," Breton told reporters. Earlier in the day, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU would allocate a total of 1.5 billion euros ($1.66 billion) for the production and supplies of ammunition for Ukraine, with EU member states sending to Kiev additional ammunition from their existing stocks worth 1 billion euros, with the support of the European Peace Facility. Another 500 million euros have been allocated for the expansion of ammunition production in Europe. In March, EU leaders supported a plan to accelerate the transfer of ammunition to Ukraine. The plan covers the provision of 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition in a joint effort within the next 12 months, as well as joint purchases and production to replenish EU countries' own stocks. Western countries ramped up their military support for Kiev regime after Russia launched a special military operation by providing various types of weapons to Kiev. The Kremlin has repeatedly warned against further escalation leading to NATO's direct involvement in the conflict.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230127/four-reasons-leopard-2s--m1-abrams-will-bite-the-dust-in-ukraine-1106772754.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/european-commission-to-allocate-over-16bln-for-production-of-ammunition-for-ukraine-1110052965.html

European Commission to Earmark Over $1.6Bln for Ammo Production for Ukraine

European Commission to Earmark Over $1.6Bln for Ammo Production for Ukraine

According to Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission will allocate another 1.5 billion euros ($1.66 billion) for the production of ammunition and arms for Kiev Regime.

2023-05-03T10:48+0000

2023-05-03T10:48+0000

2023-05-03T11:22+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

ukrainian crisis

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The EU body has proposed allocating 500 million euros to expand the manufacturing of ammunition in Europe. In addition, EU members will supply Ukraine with more ammo from their existing stockpiles with the support of the European Peace Facility to the tune of 1 billion euros. "Together with the Member States, we will mobilize a further 1 billion euro to ramp up capacities across Europe. This is a critical part of Europe's strategic capacity to defend its interests and values, and help maintain peace on our continent," von der Leyen was quoted as saying in a statement by the commission.High-ranking Russian officials have repeatedly warned that flooding the Zelensky regime with weapons only stokes the conflict even further and prolongs the suffering of the Ukrainian people. They added that Western military equipment and ammunition would be a legitimate target for the Russian Armed Forces and will be inevitably destoryed.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230127/four-reasons-leopard-2s--m1-abrams-will-bite-the-dust-in-ukraine-1106772754.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/french-constitutional-council-rejects-second-request-for-referendum-on-pension-reform-1110067882.html

French Constitutional Council Rejects Second Request for Referendum on Pension Reform

French Constitutional Council Rejects Second Request for Referendum on Pension Reform

The French Constitutional Council said on Wednesday that it has rejected lawmakers' second request for a referendum on President Emmanuel Macron's controversial pension reform.

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The request for a public vote on the reform, which would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, was submitted by 253 left-wing opposition lawmakers. Meanwhile, the police prefecture of Paris has announced a ban on unauthorized demonstrations from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. local time in front of the Palais Royal, where the Constitutional Council is housed. The opposition, however, intends to continue pushing back against the reform. On June 8, the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, will review a draft legislation on the repeal of the pension reform submitted by the Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories (LIOT) opposition parliamentary group. On April 14, the French Constitutional Council approved the key article of the pension reform bill, which would gradually raise the age of retirement in France from 62 to 64 years by 2030. It turned down the first request for a referendum on the grounds that the application did not meet the required criteria and was submitted out of term. The reform sparked a strong backlash, prompting people to take to the streets across the country. As many as 13 nationwide demonstrations against the reform have taken place already, with several protests organized by unions attracting over 1 million supporters across France. Trade unions have called for a 14th day of nationwide protests on June 6.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/iranian-president-arrives-in-syria-for-official-visit-for-1st-time-since-2011-1110048300.html

Video: Iranian President Arrives in Syria for Official Visit for 1st Time Since 2011

Video: Iranian President Arrives in Syria for Official Visit for 1st Time Since 2011

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Damascus for the first official visit in 12 years

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syria

iran

ebrahim raisi

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The president was met at Damascus International Airport by Syrian Economy Minister Mohammed Samer al-Khalil. Raisi will meet with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, and other high-ranking officials. A number of bilateral agreements are expected to be signed during the trip.This year, the world saw a tectonic shift in Middle East politics, with the China-brokered reinvigoration of Iranian-Saudi relations and the reestablishment of diplomatic ties between both nations after years of hostilities. Iran and Syria are close allies despite minor ideological contradictions. Tehran has actively supported Syrias legitimate leader, Bashar al-Assad, during the countrys civil war with Western-backed jihadists and provided hydrocarbons to Damascus at below market prices.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/istalk-apple-joins-google-to-prevent-malevolent-airtag-tracking-1110059158.html

iStalk: Apple Joins Google to Prevent Malevolent AirTag Tracking

iStalk: Apple Joins Google to Prevent Malevolent AirTag Tracking

Tech giants Apple and Google team up together to create measure to combat usage of location-tracking devices for malevolent purposes.

2023-05-03T17:04+0000

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2023-05-03T17:04+0000

beyond politics

apple

google

stalking

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Apple will work together with Google to prevent location-tracking devices from being used for malevolent purposes when people are being tracked without their consent. The tech giants are teaming up to work on a draft to the Internet Engineering Task Force. The companies want to create an "industry specification to help combat the misuse of Bluetooth location-tracking devices for unwanted tracking," a press release stated.Speaking of location-tracking devices, Apple implied that its own product  AirTag  which went on sale in 2021, was designed as a smart finder for users to attach to personal objects. After that, the user was able to locate the object via an iOS-powered gadget. It was alleged that AirTag could be used to track down lost items like bags, keys and even stolen cars. However, the new device became a favorite toy for wannabe special agents and even for people willing to control the locations of their partners, spouses and even ex-lovers. It was reportedly common for girls to find AirTag devices in their cars that had been planted but former boyfriends.Apple tried to solve this issue by programming its gadgets to detect "foreign" AirTags, but to no avail.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/kievs-terrorist-attack-on-kremlin-sets-dangerous-global-precedent-1110065710.html

Kiev's Terrorist Attack on Kremlin Sets Dangerous Global Precedent

Kiev's Terrorist Attack on Kremlin Sets Dangerous Global Precedent

Two Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) approached Moscow's Kremlin, the official residence of the Russian president, and were downed through the use of electronic warfare equipment on May 3. The Russian leadership denounced the incident as a "terrorist act" and an attempt on the life of Vladimir Putin.

2023-05-03T19:00+0000

2023-05-03T19:00+0000

2023-05-03T19:00+0000

analysis

opinion

russia

kiev

ukraine

kremlin

nord stream

white house

seymour hersh

crimean bridge

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"This story is related to international terrorism," Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, told Sputnik. According to Mikhailov, the incident appears to be a Kiev PR stunt aimed at galvanizing the domestic audience in the absence of any achievements at the front line: Ukrainian authorities need a "nice picture" to generate some hype on social media."Most importantly, they are trying to show the collective West that this counteroffensive, funded by the West, is underway. It's just a multi-layered one. One of its stages is an attack on the Kremlin. But we are well aware that from a military point of view, everyone is safe and sound and no damage has been inflicted. And all this [fuss] is just a propaganda stunt," he said.The Kiev regime has failed to produce any meaningful effect by this action, as per Lieutenant-General (ret.) Yevgeny Buzhinsky, chairman of PIR-Center think tank executive board and professor of economics who served as the Russian militarys top arms control negotiator from 2001 to 2009. There is no real effect because the drones were simply downed and that's it, Buzhinsky remarked.However, "an information war is one thing, but, in fact, attacks on infrastructure are a completely different thing," stressed Buzhinsky.Sputnik's interlocutors believe that Russia should raise the issue at the highest level, informing the international community that the recent terrorist attack in Moscow has created a dangerous precedent for all global players.Mikhailov does not rule out that the collective West would try to play down the incident or turn a blind eye to the terrorist attack altogether. That's why Russia needs to discuss the matter with its numerous partners and key powers, as well as with BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and other international entities, according to the expert.Sabotage Ops RecordThe Kiev regime and NATO members have a record of false flag and sabotage ops. Earlier this year, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reported that the September 2022 sabotage attack on Russia's Nord Stream infrastructure in the Baltic Sea was conducted by US and Norwegian operatives at the request of the Biden administration.The US denied involvement in the destruction of the natural gas pipelines, with the American mainstream press trying to pin the blame on some pro-Ukrainian group that conducted the sophisticated sabotage operation from a pleasure yacht. Later, the US press noted that European officials "have been whispering about the potential involvement of the Polish or Ukrainian government in the attack." Kiev and Warsaw vehemently rejected the allegations.At the same time, the US tried to distance itself from the Kiev regime's most odious terrorist operations against Russian citizens and civilian infrastructure. While chastising the Kiev regime for unilateral operations "unnerving" the White House, the US press particularly cited a strike in early August on Russias Saki Air Base on the western coast of Crimea, a bombing attack on the Crimean Bridge, December drone strikes against Russian military bases in Ryazan and Engels, and an August car bomb that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin. The US media lamented the fact that Kiev is "not always transparent with their American counterparts about their military operations," which "have frustrated US officials."It is still unclear how the Western leadership will react to the latest attack on the Kremlin, according to Sputnik's interlocutors. Still, they insist on some sort of response to the attempted terrorist operation. "We must respond to that," said Buzhinsky.As per Kornev, the reaction could be not a military but an asymmetric one. At the same time, he has drawn attention to the fact that Russia is well aware of "all the targets on the territory of Ukraine, we know where the command posts are."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/thwarted-ukrainian-drone-attack-on-kremlin-what-is-known-so-far-1110056635.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/watch-drone-attack-targeting-kremlin-thwarted-by-russian-security-forces-1110055908.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230211/why-hershs-nord-stream-bombshell-may-become-legal-nightmare-for-team-biden--its-nordic-allies-1107344300.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/new-round-of-grain-deal-talks-to-be-held-in-moscow-may-5-with-un-participation-1110050859.html

New Round of Grain Deal Talks to Be Held in Moscow May 5 With UN Participation

New Round of Grain Deal Talks to Be Held in Moscow May 5 With UN Participation

Russian officials stated that talks on Istanbul Grain Deal will be held in Moscow with US participation

2023-05-03T09:29+0000

2023-05-03T09:29+0000

2023-05-03T09:29+0000

istanbul grain deal

ukrainian crisis

grain

the united nations (un)

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Head of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Rebeca Grynspan will pay a visit to Moscow this week to discuss the grain deal. "Our estimates of the implementation of the Russia-UN memorandum on the access of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to the world market are well known, they have not changed. I can say that on May 5, Moscow will host another round of consultations on the implementation of the memorandum between the Russian interdepartmental delegation and UN representatives headed by UNCTAD Secretary General Rebeca Grynspan," Zakharova told a briefing. A high-level meeting on the grain deal is currently under discussion, the diplomat said, noting that dates are not finalized yet.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/norway-pledges-to-reach-natos-spending-target-amid-windfall-revenues-1110046404.html

Norway Pledges to Reach NATO's Spending Target Amid Windfall Revenues

Norway Pledges to Reach NATO's Spending Target Amid Windfall Revenues

Norway has the highest defense spending per capita in NATO after only the US, yet has fallen behind the designated goal due to unexpected profits.

2023-05-03T07:06+0000

2023-05-03T07:06+0000

2023-05-03T07:06+0000

military

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norway

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Norway will meet NATO's spending goal of 2 percent of its GDP by 2026, its Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store has pledged, calling it "urgent, but realistic."Until now, Norway has been among the member states that are lagging behind, with no concrete plan for how to reach this goal. However, the windfall state revenues following the conflict in Ukraine, which made Norway the EU's top energy supplier, made reaching the spending target all the more important, according to Store.Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum admitted that over time, Norway has spent less money on defense and argued that targeted investments in the armed forces will "serve Norway well." In 2022, Norway spent 1.57 percent of its GDP on military matters, falling below NATO's target of 2 percent adopted in 2014. During the year, Norway received record high revenues from the oil and gas industry, as well as the high electricity prices which dwarfed the defense sector. This year, Norway is set to spend 1.4 percent of its GDP on defense, which is NOK 32 billion (nearly $3 billion) away from the NATO goal.In October 2022, the Norwegian government granted its military budget a nearly 10-percent increase, citing the conflict in Ukraine. Defense Minister Bjorn Arild already pledged an additional NOK 11 billion (nearly $1 billion) by 2026, with an annual increase of NOK 3.6 billion ($330 million), citing the need to "re-prioritize."The US, which accounts for the majority of NATO's contributions, has championed increased spending in the European countries, pushing them to pursue compliance with the joint goal. According to Store, Norway's plan to reach the target will be presented at the NATO summit in Vilnius in July.Norway initially reached the target in 2020 after an economic contraction, but the expansion in the oil-rich economy amid energy prices close to record highs has pushed it away from the goal.Following the energy war unleashed against Russia by the EU and, broadly, the West, Norway has has taken the lead from Russia in supplying energy to Europe. The Nordic country plans to keep its natural gas and oil production at their current high levels, as Europe continues to battle a power-generation crisis that threatens to hamstring its industry. Norway said it expected to maintain the current production levels at least until 2030, potentially raising it above recent years' records.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230317/norwegian-oil-giant-pockets-fivefold-profits-amid-accusations-of-profiteering-1108490190.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/police-us-gunman-who-killed-5-neighbors-found-hiding-inside-home-17-miles-from-crime-scene-1110045095.html

Police: US Gunman Who Killed 5 Neighbors Found Hiding Inside Home 17 Miles From Crime Scene

Police: US Gunman Who Killed 5 Neighbors Found Hiding Inside Home 17 Miles From Crime Scene

Just as the trail was beginning to go cold, authorities announced on Tuesday that they found the suspect of a mass shooting in a rural town in Texas and placed him under arrest.

2023-05-03T04:04+0000

2023-05-03T04:04+0000

2023-05-03T04:00+0000

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The suspected gunman accused of killing five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old, was apprehended in Texas "without incident," law enforcement officials announced late Tuesday.Francisco Oropeza (Oropesa), 38, is accused of using an AR-15-style firearm to kill his neighbors after they asked him to stop shooting his gun because they were trying to put their baby to sleep.Oropeza was found in the city of Cut and Shoot, Texas, which is located about 17 miles west of where the killings took place last Friday. The San Jacinto County Sheriff's office said in their announcement that the suspected gunman will be held on a $5 million bond.San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told reporters that the alleged gunman, who he deemed a "coward," was found hiding in a closet underneath a pile of laundry. Officials explained that Oropeza was arrested at about 6:30 p.m. local time after a tip was given to an FBI call line at roughly 5:15 p.m. Information on the home where Oropeza was found has not been released.Officials has earlier offered a reward of $80,000 for information about Oropezas location.The capture comes just a day after the hunt for Oropeza was beginning to go cold.Wilson Garcia, the homeowner of the residence where the Friday shooting took place, said he lost his wife and 9-year-old son when Oropeza opened fire on his property. Garcia and his wife had asked Oropeza to stop shooting his gun, or to do it farther away from their home so they could put their baby to sleep. Garcia said he had called 911 five times before Oropeza approached their home with a gun.The gunman allegedly shot and killed his wife before entering and shooting four other people, including Garcias son. Sixteen members of Garcias family were home at the time in preparation for a church retreat, and three children were found safe after being shielded by the women in the family.The victims include three women ages 21 to 31, an 18-year-old man, and a 9-year-old boy. All of the victims are believed to be from Honduras, while Oropeza is from Mexico.Oropeza had been deported from the US four times, according to Governor Greg Abbott. His wife filed a protective order against him last year after he threatened and physically assaulted her, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said. Authorities are now investigating how Oropeza obtained his AR-15 style rifle.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230502/texas-manhunt-goes-cold-for-alleged-gunman-who-massacred-five-of-his-neighbors-1110018605.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/preserving-ukraine-as-independent-country-not-in-us-plans---russian-security-council-1110044386.html

Preserving Ukraine as Independent Country Not in US Plans - Russian Security Council

Preserving Ukraine as Independent Country Not in US Plans - Russian Security Council

Preserving Ukraine as an independent nation is not in the plans of the United States, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev has said.

2023-05-03T03:41+0000

2023-05-03T03:41+0000

2023-05-03T03:38+0000

world

ukraine

joe biden

nikolai patrushev

russia

nato

russian security council

izvestia

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munich security conference

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"And today the White House easily continue the war with Russia to the last Ukrainian," Patrushev said in an interview with the Izvestia daily. The recent wide-ranging interview, however, also saw the official speak to the US' repeat practice of violating international agreements and the ratcheting up of NATO troops along the Russian border, among other hot-button topics.Patrushev commented that the US does not know what war is in reality as their country hasn't experiences such level of hostilities on their soil since 1865, underscoring how the Biden White House is continually violating international agreements as it prepares to resume nuclear tests.Adding to the point of discussion, the secretary noted the West is actively using terrorist and extremist organizations against Russia, just like in the 1990s in the North Caucasus."Deceitfully declaring the importance of the fight against terrorism, the West is actively using terrorist and extremist organizations against Russia, using methods that it used in the 1990s in the North Caucasus," he pointed out.Momentarily switching gears to NATO's presence along the Russian border, Patrushev stated the defense bloc has only continued to increase its troop numbers despite past requests from Moscow to stand down.The Russian official further indicated that the alliance has boosted the intensity of operational and combat training of troops."Munich Security Conference & Russian ResourcesThe deepest decline of modern European politics is clearly seen in the example of the Munich Security Conference, whose participants only read to each other US training manuals, Patrushev said during the Tuesday interview.By creating NATO mechanisms for its own needs, the United States actually occupied Europe, he said."Put in a position of hopelessness, European officials have turned the Old World into an economic base for American experiments, obediently fulfill NATO's military tasks," Patrushev said. "And the Pentagon-controlled NATO command interacts directly with arms manufacturers, simply ignoring the official authorities of other countries."Also on topic was Germany steps to effectively deprive its economy of energy-intensive production in light of completely abandoning its nuclear power industry - a reliable and environmentally friendly source of electricity."By promoting the reduction of generating capacities, the German leadership is depriving the national economy of energy-intensive production," Patrushev said during the interview. "Renewable energy sources, which European officials rely on, will not be able to completely replace the energy generated by nuclear power plants."Patrushev also took the opportunity to highlight how the West has actually admitted it cannot exist without Russia's natural resources, explaining biased Western scientists and politicians categorically state only the countries of the collective West have the right to dispose of the natural resources available in the world.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20211221/russia-considers-natos-further-expansion-to-its-borders-a-red-line-foreign-minister-says-1091702304.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230220/munich-security-conference-2023-an-exercise-in-western-self-delusion-1107625453.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/report-ukraine-keeping-mum-on-spring-plans-after-us-stayed-silent-on-pentagon-leaks-1110042906.html

Report: Ukraine Keeping Mum on Spring Plans After US Stayed Silent on Pentagon Leaks

Report: Ukraine Keeping Mum on Spring Plans After US Stayed Silent on Pentagon Leaks

Ukraine is keeping quiet on its spring counteroffensive plans as the US opted to remain silent on the Pentagon leaks, new reports have details.

2023-05-03T00:22+0000

2023-05-03T00:22+0000

2023-05-03T07:09+0000

jack teixeira

ukraine

kiev

pentagon

white house

russia

pentagon leaks

russia's special operation in ukraine

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In early April, more than 100 classified US government documents were leaked on social media, apparently showing sensitive intelligence documents on the state of the Ukrainian military, and the United States' and NATO's efforts to strengthen it. Citing two European officials, Politico reported Tuesday that Ukraine is specifically withholding information about when and where it plans to launch its counteroffensive against Russian armed forces, including how many troops will participate in the operation. Ukrainian military leaders, according to the report, are concerned sharing too much information about their counteroffensive could compromise it. Kiev's decision to keep battle plans private are directly linked to Massachusetts Air Guardsman Jack Teixeira's alleged leak of classified military intelligence, which included detailed information about the conflict in Ukraine. An Ukrainian lawmaker told the oulet that only a few people in the country know details about the counteroffensive plan. Ukraine reportedly still shares basic intelligence with the United States and other Western allies that have provided security assistance to Kiev.However, while Kiev is keeping on its future plans in light of the earlier intelligence leaks, new reports have also revealed that the US never gave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a heads' up on the Pentagon disclosures.Zelensky exclusively told the Washington Post he has not had discussions with anyone from the White House about the highly classified US military intelligence documents that leaked last month.The Tuesday report also pointed out that the Ukrainian president only learned about the leaks through the news, adding he received no prior notification about the incident from neither the White House nor Pentagon.Ukraine's leader told the outlet the leaks are not beneficial to the reputation of the United States, and questioned whether the leaks could be deliberate manipulation or an actual accident.The report said Zelensky refused to give his personal opinion on the matter in order to avoid damaging the prospects of receiving further assistance from the United States, stating that the leaks ultimately aid Russia.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230430/pentagon-leaks-key-emerging-powers-avoid-backing-us-standoff-with-russia-china-1109975237.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/rfk-jr-zelensky-could-have-avoided-conflict-with-russia-by-saying-no-to-nato-1110064718.html

RFK Jr: Zelensky Could Have Avoided Conflict With Russia by Saying 'No' to NATO

RFK Jr: Zelensky Could Have Avoided Conflict With Russia by Saying 'No' to NATO

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Wednesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a chance to avoid the conflict with Russia by simply refusing to join NATO.

2023-05-03T17:18+0000

2023-05-03T17:18+0000

2023-05-03T17:18+0000

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According to Kennedy, Zelensky was forced to continue the dangerous path to NATO by neoconservatives in the Biden administration and by violent fascist elements within the Ukrainian government. Moreover, Zelensky even allowed the United States to place its nuclear-capable Aegis missile launchers along Ukraines 1,200-mile border with Russia and thereby provoked Russia, the presidential candidate added. Moscow launched its special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Russian and Ukrainian delegations have engaged in several rounds of peace talks since then, but the negotiations ultimately reached an impasse. Russia has insisted that it is open for talks with Kiev, even after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree prohibiting negotiations with Moscow in October 2022.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/preserving-ukraine-as-independent-country-not-in-us-plans---russian-security-council-1110044386.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/russian-disinfo-note-on-hunter-bidens-laptop-blinken-wanted-to-curry-favor-with-joe-1110057527.html

'Russian Disinfo' Note on Hunter Biden's Laptop: Blinken Wanted to Curry Favor With Joe

'Russian Disinfo' Note on Hunter Biden's Laptop: Blinken Wanted to Curry Favor With Joe

Blinkens behavior indicates that he is a big liar when it comes to that story about Hunter Bidens notorious laptop from Hell, Steve Gill, attorney & CEO of Nashville-based Gill Media Topic, told Sputnik.

2023-05-03T15:46+0000

2023-05-03T15:46+0000

2023-05-03T15:46+0000

analysis

us

joe biden

donald trump

antony blinken

hunter biden

laptop

letter

investigation

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed on Monday that he was not behind a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials in October 2020 that sought to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story as part of a purported Russian disinformation campaign.When asked whether he accepts that the laptop is not Russian disinformation, the top US diplomat deflected the question, arguing that he is very busy with other matters.According to Steve Gilll, there is something dodgy about all this, pointing to the Biden teams and Blinkens change of mind on the matter.He went on to insist that those officials "should all lose their security clearances for life" and ought to "be banned" too.He slammed Blinken as a "big liar", who had repeatedly claimed that "he's not playing at all in the delays of the investigation" into the Hunter Biden laptop story."Blinken lied to get the secretary of state's confirmation," the expert went on, arguing that the reason the US secretary of state did this "was to make sure their guy, not Donald Trump, was in power," in an apparent nod to Joe Biden."Because if Donald Trump had gotten in power for another four years, he would have cleaned out the intelligence agencies, he would have cleaned out the top levels of the FBI and the Department of Justice. And that's what needs to be done because they are so embedded deep into the structure of our government that you will have to literally pull it out by the roots, like just kind of mow the grass at the top," Gill pointed out.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230423/suppression-of-laptop-from-hell-story-was-partisan-political-move-by-anthony-blinken-1109781766.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/russian-fsb-foils-ukrainian-intel-agents-activities-to-plot-high-profile-attacks-in-crimea-1110046908.html

Russia's FSB Foils Ukrainian Sabotage & Terror Plot Against Top Local Officials in Crimea

Russia's FSB Foils Ukrainian Sabotage & Terror Plot Against Top Local Officials in Crimea

Russian security service FSB stopped the activities of Kiev-backed intelligence network that planned to assassinate high-ranking officials in Crimea

2023-05-03T06:58+0000

2023-05-03T06:58+0000

2023-05-03T08:50+0000

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"Russia's FSB stopped the activities of the intelligence network of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which planned to commit a series of high-profile sabotage and terrorist acts on the territory of the Republic of Crimea. Head of the republic Sergei Aksyonov, Chairman of the Parliament Konstantinov V.A. and Mayor of the city of Yalta Pavlenko Ya. P., as well as elements of the transport infrastructure of the peninsula, were chosen as targets of attacks," the FSB said in a statement. Roman Mashovets, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office, organized the terrorist attacks and coordinated preparations to murder high-ranking officials in Crimea, the statement read, adding that the FSB detained six citizens of Russia and Ukraine, as well as another one with dual Ukrainian and Bulgarian citizenship. The components of the bombs, camouflaged as electric stoves, were imported by the Ukrainian special services from Bulgaria through Turkiye and Georgia to Russia for these terrorist attacks, the FSB added.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230419/russias-fsb-prevents-sabotage-at-energy-system-facility-in-kerch-arrests-ukrainian-agent-1109647671.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/top-sweden-democrat-calls-eu-straightjacket-urges-swedes-to-rethink-membership-1110045685.html

Top Sweden Democrat Calls EU 'Straightjacket', Urges Swedes to Rethink Membership

Top Sweden Democrat Calls EU 'Straightjacket', Urges Swedes to Rethink Membership

According to Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson, legislation imposed by non-electable Brussels bureaucrats has risks making national elections meaningless.

2023-05-03T05:43+0000

2023-05-03T05:43+0000

2023-05-03T05:43+0000

world

jimmie akesson

sweden

brussels

european union (eu)

riksdag

jfk

scandinavia

sweden democrats party

moderate party (sweden)

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The Sweden Democrats, an external but key ally to the current minority government, have unleashed a wave of criticism against the European Union in an article penned by its perennial leader, Jimmie Akesson.The top Sweden Democrat minced no words as he called for an evaluation of the nation's membership in the union "in earnest."In the opinion piece, Akesson compared the EU to a "straitjacket" where German, French and Polish politicians decide which car Swedes can buy, how expensive the fuel should be, and what types of trees Swedes can chop down on their own land.According to the top Sweden Democrat, EU legislation risks having so much influence over the country's decision-making that Sweden's own general elections will soon have no meaning."Other countries' politicians and bureaucrats, whom we cannot elect or depose, today have greater influence over Swedish legislation than me and my elected colleagues in Sweden's Riksdag", he wrote. Akesson warned furthermore that the EU's influence over member states was growing and envisaged an ongoing power shift to Brussels. He directed particular attention to the EU's desire to control immigration policy, one of the key issues for the party running on an anti-immigrant platform."There is also a broad support among the Swedish people for a strict immigration policy. Despite this, today there is an imminent risk that the EU will make decisions that go in the exact opposite direction if we fail to act," Akesson stressed.Lastly, Akesson cited other member states that "use the union for their own gain" and urged Sweden to do likewise.The Sweden Democrats have always had a negative attitude towards Swedish EU membership, yet dampened their criticism in recent years somewhat to appease their newfound liberal-conservative allies, which finally dropped to the cordon sanitaire around the party after a record showing in last year's general election, in which they finished second with 20.5 percent of the vote. Following the 2022 election, the Sweden Democrats became a lynchpin of the minority government led by the strongly pro-EU liberal-conservative Moderates, rendering key legal support while staying short of any cabinet posts.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230309/sweden-sees-record-breaking-spike-in-food-prices-in-february-1108201683.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/us-braces-for-immigration-explosion-with-end-of-title-42-border-controls-1110055866.html

US Braces for Immigration Explosion With End of Title 42 Border Controls

US Braces for Immigration Explosion With End of Title 42 Border Controls

Millions more illegal immigrants could flood across the US border with Mexico after some restrictions expire next week. Mark Krikorian and Sergio Arellano said the Biden administration was completely failing to stem the tide.

2023-05-03T18:35+0000

2023-05-03T18:35+0000

2023-05-03T18:48+0000

americas

us

immigration

illegal immigrants

undocumented immigrants

immigration policy

joe biden

department of homeland security (dhs)

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mexico

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The Biden administration has no plan to fix the immigration crisis it has created  and which is about to get far wrse, experts say.So-called Title 42 powers to deport illegal immigrants arriving by land on public health grounds  introduced by former president Donald Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic  will expire on May 11th. Many politicians and commentators have predicted a surge in people-trafficking across the Mexican border after that.President Joe Biden ordered 1,500 troops to the border with Mexico on Tuesday for three months to help contain the expected rush to enter the US.In March, 40 people died in a fire at an immigrant detention centre in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.Mark Krikorian told Sputnik that the situation at the border was already "a disaster" since Biden relaxed immigration rules in 2021, ending Trump's system of keeping asylum seekers in Mexico while their claims are processed.He said a million people had entered the country illegally over the past two years, while authorities have released twice that many who were detained.The difference between Biden immigration policy and Trump's is "night and day", the commentator said. "Under Trump, everything wasn't fixed. There was still a lot of work to do. It wasn't perfect," he said. "But it was stabilized at the border.""Title 42 is a shorthand word for a public health measure," Krikorian explained. "The data from COVID that allowed the Border Patrol to just bounce people back across the border into Mexico. No hearings, no asylum, no nothing. Trump initially instituted it because that's when COVID started."The immigration expert said that during the three-month transition period for the Biden government the Department of Homeland Security opposed reversing Trump's 'build the wall' crackdown on trafficking.He predicted the number of illegal border crossing would soar from 8,000 a day currently to 10,000 or 12,000 after May 11."The capacity of the system to deal with this is so overwhelmed that Border Patrol agents sometimes don't even give the illegal aliens sort of the paperwork of when their hearing is going to be. They just give them the phone number for ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and say: 'where were you going to go? When you get there, call and call ICE and turn yourself in'."Sergio Arellano told Sputnik that White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre's claim this week that Biden had cut illegal immigration by 90 per cent was "laughable. It's really funny, it's delusional."He said that Yuma, Arizona alone was "prime real estate for illegal border crossings."The Biden administration has said it will open more migrant reception centres to deal with the influx, but the Phoenix-based analyst was sceptical."That's not a plan. It's an open invitation for people to come forth," Arellano said. "We're starting to see a presence that is not only Mexican anymore, but from "all over the world." He said many migrants are released soon after arrival as there were not enough places at centres to house them all. Worse still, the immigration campaigner said, was the trafficking of unaccompanied children  some as young as three years old  by the 'Coyote' gangs.Want to read more from our commentators Mark Krikorian and Sergio Arellan? Head over to our Telegram channel.For more insightful commentary on current affairs, check out our Sputnik Radio shows.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/what-is-the-us-title-42-policy-1110054202.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230502/theres-a-political-component-in-new-us-steps-to-curb-migration-1110029919.html

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us, mexico, immigration, illegal immigration, migrants, people-trafficking, joe biden, donald trump, title 42
The 2023 Vincent Delaney Memorial Racing Weekend will be held at Tir Prince Racetrack in Wales on Aug. 12 and 13.

This is the third time that the racing weekend will be held at Tir Prince, which is located in Abergele, North Wales and offers a world-class hospitality experience for race-goers. Besides the racetrack, Tir Prince also features a family friendly fun park.

This year is poised to be an exciting one. Every division has had a record number of entries and the racing is more competitive than ever.

The Vincent Delaney Memorial attracts visitors from around the globe every year and has joined the list of the must-see attractions for harness racing fans. Past visitors have included industry personalities from across the world. Just a few of these names include Dexter Dunn, Adam Bowden, Jim Simpson, Brett Coffey, Anthony Butt, Heather Vitale, Bill Galvin and Roger Houston.

For international visitors planning a trip, there is more information online at vincentdelaneymemorial.com and on the Facebook page. Anyone with questions about booking their trip is encouraged to reach out to the Vincent Delaney Memorial committee, which will be happy to help with planning.

The Vincent Delaney Memorial Committee is still accepting sponsors for the weekend. If you are interested, please contact Derek Delaney at [email protected].

(Vincent Delaney Memorial Committee)
Horse Racing New Brunswick (HRNB) has announced a new initiative geared towards generating horse ownership in New Brunswick.

For the 2023 season, HRNB will offer a Horse Ownership Loan Program. Ten loans will be issued on a first come first serve basis. Criteria are listed below.

Horses purchased must be 10 years of age or younger

Ten loans are available - $2,500 for horses/geldings and $3,500 for fillies/mares

Mares that are retained for breeding in New Brunswick are eligible for the Breeders Grant Program ($2,000 paid upon production of first live foal)

Horses must race nine out of 10 race dates in Woodstock.

Fifty per cent of all purse monies won in New Brunswick will be retained by HRNB until loan is paid. Horses unsuccessful in earning the full balance in 2023 can carry it forward in 2024. Such circumstances, the balance of the loan is due in 2024.

Horses missing a start or scratched cannot race within eight days of a scheduled race date in New Brunswick (Woodstock) or else the balance of the loan is due in seven days.

Horses sold from the loan program will have balance of loan due to HRNB within seven days.

Loans will be issued to all parties on June 3, the opening day of racing in Woodstock, N.B.

It is HRNB's hope to continue this program in future years to build up the horse racing population.

Interested individuals are encouraged to contact Dr. Mitchell Downey in writing by emailing [email protected].

(With files from HRNB)
Our Road trip today is going to take us to Hill City, South Dakota. Getting spring crazy we decided to just head north, always on the hunt for a baby buffalo or big horn Sheep. Well someone evidently cued the critters, we saw wild turkey, ducks, antelope, buffalo, deer, and one sneaky looking coyote. He watched us for a long time once he got far enough away from us to feel safe. The Black Hills are filled with spring, babies all over, green coming thru, Just a little smidge of snow up high.

Now we end up in Hill City and ready for lunch. There are many places to eat, but the Hill City Cafe looked inviting. It is located on the main street, right between the jerky store, and the chocolate turtle store. It has a nifty bar on food on one side, the other side is just the cafe. The whole place was done in beautiful wood, very rustic look. A very comfortable feeling.

The menu was varied from breakfast, which they are well known for, to buffalo, steak, ribs, you name it. So many options. Our waitress came, Betty Jo had a bacon burger and fries, and I had the buffalo burger and fries. My theory is when in Rome! Both our meals were fantastic, I dont know what they do different with their fries, but its amazing. The servings were perfect, even though a box was still needed to take home.

Prices were good, our waitress was a nice gal, busy breaking in the new folks for the tourist season. I wouldnt want that job! We enjoyed, ourselves while there and plan to return next time in the area! See you there!
A Panhandle judge sentenced a Kimball man, convicted of shooting and killing his wife, to 20 years in prison during court proceedings Tuesday, May 2.

Twelfth Judicial District Judge Derek Weimer sentenced William Shane Serrano, 37, to 20 years in prison on a charge of manslaughter, a Class IIA felony. He was also sentenced to 10 to 20 years imprisonment on a charge of possession of a firearm while committing a felony, a Class II felony, and one year in prison on two counts of attempted terroristic threats, both Class IV felonies.

In March, a Kimball County District Court jury found Serrano guilty of charges in connection with the Jan 3, 2022, shooting of 21-year-old Tessa Ghering. The jury acquitted him on a charge of first-degree murder.

Kimball Police responding to the shooting found Ghering deceased in a bedroom of the home she shared with Serrano in the 600 block of S. Oak Street. The woman had been shot in the head one time, according to court documents.

Serrano told police that he had accidentally shot his wife, saying he had been trying to determine if a shotgun was loaded and that the gun discharged. When police examined the weapon, one single spent shell was found in the shotgun and 20 live shells were located in the backpack.

An investigation determined that Serrano had been involved in an argument with his ex-wife and another woman prior to the shooting. The two had been arguing about custodial arrangements regarding their children, and Serrano allegedly threatened to harm them. He had made similar threats two days prior to the shooting. Those threats are the subject of the attempted terroristic threats charges.

During the argument, Serranos sons witnessed the man get a 20-gauge shotgun stored in rafters in the garage at the home, carrying it through the home with a backpack containing shells for it. 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. The boys were in the home at the time of the shooting.

Serrano was given credit for 485 days already served. Serrano was ordered to serve the sentences on the manslaughter charge consecutively. The sentences for the attempted terroristic threats charge will be served concurrently.

Prosecutor Doug Warner, an assistant attorney general with the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office, prosecuted the case. Serrano was represented by Kelly Breen, attorney with the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, and Stacy Bach, public defender, at trial. Bach represented Serrano during sentencing on Tuesday.
An anonymous narcotics complaint led to the arrest of a Stony Point man on felony drug charges.

Herman Dale Payne, 61, of East Lackey Farm Road, Stony Point, was charged with felony possession of methamphetamine, felony possession of Schedule I, felony maintaining a dwelling to keep or sell controlled substance and misdemeanor counts of possession of Schedule III, possession of marijuana and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia. A magistrate set bond at $7,500.

Iredell Sheriff Darren Campbell, in a news release, said that on Friday, Deputies Will Wiedenmann and T.M. Sharpe of the Aggressive Criminal Enforcement team (ACE) checked out an anonymous complaint at a residence in the 400 block of East Lackey Farm Road.

Campbell said Payne admitted to having narcotics after the deputies talked with him about the complaint.

Deputies then conducted a search of the residence and located methamphetamine, psychedelic mushrooms, buprenorphine hydrochloride, marijuana, and several items of drug paraphernalia, Campbell said.
Raisi described the relationship between his country and Syria as "strategic and deep."

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Syria on Wednesday, leading a large ministerial delegation for a two-day visit.

President Bashar al-Assad welcomed him and held plenary talks on bilateral relations and their development in various fields.

Syrias official SANA said, President Assad highlighted the stability and firmness of Syrian-Iranian relations during challenging times, despite severe political and security storms in the region. President Raisi praised Syrias resilience in overcoming difficulties and achieving victory in the face of threats and sanctions.

The discussions also covered the latest developments in the Middle East and the impact of global changes on the region, according to SANA.

The leaders emphasized the importance of cooperation between their countries and leveraging these changes for the benefit of both nations and the people of the region.

Upon his arrival at Damascus International Airport, President Raisi was greeted with an official reception ceremony at al-Shaab Palace. The national anthems of Syria and Iran were played, and the two leaders reviewed the guard of honour before shaking hands with members of their respective official delegations

MoU

President Bashar al-Assad and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a comprehensive long-term strategic cooperation plan between their countries.

Pro-government Al-Watan Newspaper reported that the signing ceremony included several agreements, such as an MoU for agricultural cooperation and minutes of a meeting on railway cooperation between Syria and Iran.

Additionally, according to the paper, the two leaders signed an MoU for mutual recognition of maritime certificates, minutes of a civil aviation meeting, and an MoU for cooperation in free zones and oil.

There was also an agreement for cooperation in the field of communications and information technology, as well as an MoU between Syrias National Earthquake Center and Irans International Institute for Seismic Engineering, Al-Watan added.

Raisi remarks

During his visit to Syria, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi described the relationship between his country and Syria as strategic and deep.

In an interview with al-Mayadeen TV on Tuesday, President Raisi emphasized that his visit aims to strengthen and expand these ties across all domains.

President Raisi expressed Irans readiness to collaborate with Syria in the reconstruction process, stressing the need for this process to begin promptly to allow the displaced to return to their homeland and for conditions to return to a state of normalcy.

President Raisi highlighted that the Americans and Zionists had hoped that Syria would collapse and that they could break the front line of resistance.

The Iranian President welcomed Syrias return to regional relations, urging for the immediate departure of US forces that are illegally present in Syrian territories.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi revealed new details regarding the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran during an exclusive interview with Al Mayadeen that aired on Tuesday. Raisi also delved into various topics including Irans accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, ties to Syria, and Israeli threats.

Tehrans statement

Ali Bahadori Jahromi, the spokesman for the Iranian government, stated that President Ebrahim Raisis upcoming visit to Syria on Wednesday is of strategic importance, with the main focus on economic cooperation between the two countries.

During a press conference, Jahromi highlighted the successful cooperation between Iran and Syria in various fields, including security and counter-terrorism, and emphasized that the two countries can continue to stand together during Syrias reconstruction process.
The Biden administration was pleased to see the joint statement of the Amman meeting, Nedaa Post reports.

On Wednesday, Jordans Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi updated a group of European officials on the outcome of the Amman Consultative Meeting on Syria, which took place in Jordan. According to a statement by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, Safadi spoke with Josep Borrell, the European Unions High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as well as Tobias Bellstrom of Sweden, Jose Manuel Paris of Spain, Catherine Colonna of France, and James Cleverly of Britain.

During the conversation, Safadi emphasized the importance of direct talks with the Syrian government to end the Syrian crisis and its negative impact on the region and the world.

He also highlighted the significance of the joint final statement issued by the meeting, which, if implemented, could contribute to resolving key issues such as the refugee crisis, border security, combating terrorism, and drug smuggling.

Safadi stressed the need for a political solution to the Syrian crisis to ensure the security and stability of the region.

The Amman consultative meeting was attended by Ayman Safadi, his Egyptian counterpart, the Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, as well as the foreign minister of the Assad regime. The meeting was held to exchange views on efforts to reach a political solution in Syria.

An official from the White House National Security Council told The National newspaper that the Biden administration was pleased to see the joint statement of the Amman meeting, which outlined several priorities that the US and its partners share.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
The Lewis and Clark Bridge is closing for vehicles July 16 and could remain that way for up to eight days amid construction.

The Washington State Department of Transportation announced the timeline for the closure and repairs Tuesday. The bridge closure will begin at 8 p.m., hours after participants of the annual Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic travel across the bridge during the two-day events final leg.

WSDOT had originally announced the closure would cap out at six days to provide time for the new concrete on the bridge to cure and fully solidify. An additional two days were added to the timeline to replace the damaged floor beam crews discovered earlier this spring.

Its a balance of doing the work that we know needs to be done as well as understanding this is a bi-state bridge that is required for the communities, WSDOT spokeswoman Kelly Hanahan said.

The full closure is part of a $1 million construction project to replace the finger joints at either end of the bridge, which allow the bridge to flex and adapt to traffic. WSDOT Regional Director Carley Francis said the limitations on those joints had likely contributed to the damaged floor beam and other minor issues on the bridge.

Its a fundamental component and we see other issues come up when the bridge doesnt have that freedom of motion, Francis said.

Pedestrians and emergency vehicles will be able to cross the bridge during the road closure, except during the beam replacement.

Prior to the closure, drivers will encounter delays and partial closures on the bridge starting the week of June 12. The bridge will have single-lane closures most nights beginning at 8 p.m., during which the bridge will have reduced speed limits and flaggers alternating traffic across the span. The bridge reopens at 7 a.m. weekday mornings and later on weekend mornings.

There will not be any lane closures during the Fourth of July weekend, WSDOT said.

Around 19,500 drivers cross the Lewis and Clark Bridge every day. To find an alternate route between Washington and Oregon, most drivers will have to detour more than 50 miles east to the Interstate 5 crossings or west to the Astoria-Megler Bridge.

The Department of Transportation has arranged for the Wahkiakum County Ferry to run twice an hour during the closure and will cover the cost of the ferry fees. Hanahan said the ferry was not an official detour because of its limited capacity and asked drivers to use it for urgent and local travel.

Chuck Beyers, public works director for Wahkiakum County, said the ferry transported around 1,100 people during one of the last road closures.

Once the full closure ends, WSDOT estimates around three more nights of partial closures will be needed to complete the project.

Hanahan said the department will send a round of postcards to residents announcing the construction timeline soon and a second round of reminders before the closure.
Wildlife and environmental groups sued the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday over SpaceX's launch last month of its giant rocket from Texas.

SpaceX's Starship soared 24 miles (39 kilometers) high before exploding over the Gulf of Mexico on April 20. The rocket's self-destruct system caused the nearly 400-foot (120-meter) rocket to blow up, as it spun out of control just minutes into the test flight.

An attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs, said the groups are suing over what they consider to be the FAA's failure to fully consider the environmental impacts of the Starship program near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. They asked the court to throw out the five-year license the FAA granted to SpaceX.

The FAA declined comment, noting it doesn't comment on ongoing litigation. The agency is overseeing the accident investigation and has ordered all SpaceX Starships grounded until it's certain that public safety will not be compromised.

Over the weekend, SpaceX founder and chief executive, Elon Musk, said his company could be ready to launch the next Starship in six to eight weeks with the FAA's OK.

No injuries or significant damage to public property were reported from any of the rocket wreckage or flying pad debris. A large crater was carved into the concrete pad, as most of the rocket's 33 main engines ignited at liftoff.

The launch pad is on a remote site on the southernmost tip of Texas, just below South Padre Island, and about 20 miles from Brownsville.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported last week that large concrete chunks, stainless steel sheets, metal and other objects were hurled thousands of feet (hundreds of meters) from the pad. In addition, a plume of pulverized concrete sent material up to 6.4 miles (4 kilometers) northwest of the pad, the service noted.

It was the first launch of a full-size Starship, with the sci-fi-looking spacecraft on top the huge booster rocket. The company plans to use it to send people and cargo to the moon and, ultimately, Mars. NASA wants to use Starship to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface as soon as 2025.

Joining the Center for Biological Diversity in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, are the American Bird Conservancy, Surfrider Foundation, Save RGV (Rio Grande Valley) and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas.

It's vital that we protect life on Earth even as we look to the stars in this modern era of spaceflight, the Center for Biological Diversity's Jared Margolis said in a statement. Federal officials should defend vulnerable wildlife and frontline communities, not give a pass to corporate interests that want to use treasured coastal landscapes as a dumping ground for space waste.

Over the weekend, Musk said changes are being made at the launch pad to avoid what he called a dust storm and rock tornado" at the next launch.

To the best of our knowledge there has not been any meaningful damage to the environment that we're aware of, Musk said.

Musk has promised to make improvements to the next Starship before it flies. The self-destruct system will need to be modified, he said, so that the rocket explodes immediately  not 40 seconds or so afterward, as was the case with this inaugural run, he said.

His remarks were made to a subscriber-only Twitter chat Saturday night that was later posted by others online.
SAP announced, it is supporting Apollo Tyres Limited (ATL), one of the leading tyre manufacturers, in moving their digital core onto the cloud and transforming the company into an intelligent, sustainable enterprise.

SAPs business transformation as a service- RISE With SAP brings the right products and tools in one package enabling companies to speed their cloud journey regardless of size, industry, cloud readiness, customization, volume, or departure point. ATLs decision to adopt RISE With SAP, underscores their commitment to gain a distinctive competitive advantage in the market and become future ready through process simplification, cost reduction, transition to net zero and future proofing its global supply chains.

Hizmy Hassen, Chief Digital Officer, Apollo Tyres Ltd., said, Agility and business innovation is crucial to address changing market dynamics and consumer expectations. It adds an extra dimensional layer to our efforts to reduce costs, improve processes, and nurture our top-line, bottom-line as well as green-line growth, said SAP on Cloud adopts Business Transformation as a Service approach that aligns with our ambitious growth goals, further consolidating our leadership in the domestic market and achieving the revenue goal of $5 billion by the financial year 2026.

Under Apollo Tyres digitalisation efforts, moving to SAPs integrated and secure cloud platform, will enable the company to secure the outer perimeter of its key systems, sweat its assets, innovate new products and services faster, and provide superior customer experiences.

Manish Prasad, Vice President  Metal, Mining, Miscellaneous & Automotive Industry SAP India, said, The Indian automotive industry today races towards a new world that is driven by changing consumer preferences and a pivot to a more sustainable world. Extending support to our long-time customer Apollo Tyres is timely, as cloud migration becomes the foundational enabler of any business transformation. Were confident that SAPs industry centricity and process will support their cloud journey and drive the next phase of growth for ATL.
Cashfree Payments and YES BANK have come together to offer Global Collections, an international collection service for exporters, who are account holders of YES BANK. Under this partnership, the Banks account holders will be able to collect payments in over 30 foreign currenciesusing the Global Collections service. The funds so received can then be converted into INR and settled into their local bank account in India within one business day.

In addition to having dedicated facilities in 4 currencies (USD, GBP, EUR and CAD), the product also enables global collections in over 30 currencies up to the equivalent of USD 10,000 in line with the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBIs) Online Payment Gateway Service Providers (OPGSP) guidelines.

Mr. Ajay Rajan, Country Head  Digital and Transaction Banking, YES BANK, said, YES BANK has been at the forefront of digital innovation in the payments landscape of the country. The partnership between YES BANK and Cashfree Payments aims to simplify and revolutionise the way Indian exporters receive payments from across the world. This is aligned with the Governments focus on boosting exports, especially in the MSME sector to make India a global manufacturing and services hub. The launch of Global Collections will empower the exporters to have real time access and control over their payments and collections journey.

Mr. Reeju Datta, Co-Founder, Cashfree Payments, said, Were excited to partner with YES BANK to streamline international payment collection for Indian exporters. With the rapidly growing export industry, innovative payment infrastructure is needed to simplify the money flow and meet compliance requirements without hassle. Global Collections and our partnership with YES BANK will help us in achieving our goal towards fuelling Indias export growth by providing affordable, top-of-the-line payment infrastructure.

Exporters will be able to share their payment collection details with their buyers over email, SMS or WhatsApp, and the buyers will be able to make payments using local rails like Automated Clearing House (ACH), Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), etc.

Some of the Key benefits of using Global Collections for exporters include:

 Fast on-boarding

 Auto-generation of e-FIRA within a day

 Seamless reconciliation of incoming payments and settlements

 Payment will be settled in INR to exporters YES BANK account in India

 Exporters can give their overseas client options to pay via local bank transfer, like ACH or SEPA

 Ability to accept payments from over 180 countries in more than 30 currencies

 Save more on FX compared to traditional swift for small value transactions

Exporters will receive their settlements in INR in their local bank accounts in India. Further, exporters will also be able to get foreign inward remittances advice (e-FIRA) within 24 hours.

With over 50% market share among payment processors, Cashfree Payments today leads the way in bulk disbursals in India with its pay-outs. Recently, Indias largest lender, SBI invested in Cashfree Payments underscoring the companys role in building a robust payments ecosystem. Cashfree Payments works closely with all leading banks to build the core payments and banking infrastructure that powers the companys products. Cashfree Payments is also integrated with major platforms such as Shopify, Wix, Paypal, Amazon Pay, Paytm, and Google Pay. Apart from India, products offered by Cashfree Payments are used in eight other countries including the USA, Canada, and UAE.
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The hydrogel-based skin created by the researchers, damaged during damage detection experiments. Credit: Hardman, Thuruthel and Iida.

For decades, roboticists have been trying to develop robots that closely resemble humans, both in terms of their appearance and capabilities. Recent technological advances have opened exciting new possibilities for the creation of human-like robotic systems, for instance by introducing more advanced sensors and soft artificial skins.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge's Bio-Inspired Robotics Lab recently created a new hydrogel-based skin that could allow robots to detect the tactile properties of objects, artificially reproducing the human sense of touch. This highly stretchable skin, introduced in a paper published in Materials Today Electronics, reconstructs tactile stimuli using a series of electrodes and a model-free computational approach.

"Recently, researchers all over the world have been interested in how robots can be manufactured from flexible and stretchable materials," David Hardman, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. "These 'soft' robots are safer to work with, don't damage the items they interact with, and can complete tasks which are very difficult for traditional 'rigid' robots. However, for the full benefits, all of a robot's components must be soft, including any sensors."

Drawing inspiration from human skin, Hardman and his colleagues set out to create a stretchable sensing material that could detect any damage, sense objects or a human's touch and monitor its surrounding environment. The artificial skin they created is based on a hydrogel (i.e., a water-insoluble gel that also contains water inside it) coupled with an electrode-based hardware system.

"We use a specially developed sensorized hydrogel as the basis of our skin, since this is biodegradable, customizable, and very stretchable," Hardman explained. "We couple this with Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) hardware, which uses electrodes at the edge of the skin to apply currents and measure voltages which give us information about the state of the skin. Using these voltages, we try to deduce where the skin has been touched, or whether it has been damaged."

The team's experimental setup. A sensorized hydrogel skin was probed by a robotic arm, whilst a series of measurements were collected using electrodes positioned around its perimeter. Credit: Hardman, Thuruthel and Iida.

Instead of analyzing the data gathered by electrodes using a conventional neural network-based architecture, as most existing artificial skins do, Hardman and his colleagues created deformation maps for their hydrogel-based system using a small amount of real-world data. In initial evaluations, they found that their system significantly outperformed an artificial skin system based on conventional neural networks, achieving an average resolution of 12.1 mm over a 170 mm circular skin.

"Combining electrical impedance tomography technologies with functional sensorised skins results in a set of problems which are very hard to solve using purely mathematical approaches," Hardman said. "We have presented a way of vastly simplifying this by including a small amount of real-world data into our calculations. Because of this, we can start to tackle applications which would be unthinkable using an analytical approach, adding soft tactile sensors over the entire surface of our robots."

So far, Hardman and his colleagues have tested the potential of their hydrogel-based skin for three key real-world applications, namely the detection or localization of damages, monitoring the environment and recognizing different tactile stimuli. Their system performed well in all of these three tasks, suggesting that it could be used to enhance the capabilities of soft robotic systems designed to tackle different missions.

"We are currently working on improving the shape and size of the skins so that they can be used to sense much more complex stimuli," Hardman added. "For example, if the skin were applied onto a robotic hand we would like it to sense not only the location and force of touches to the skin, but also the position of each finger and whether the hand has been damaged."

More information: David Hardman et al, Tactile perception in hydrogel-based robotic skins using data-driven electrical impedance tomography, Materials Today Electronics (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.mtelec.2023.100032

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Reza Argandeh (left) is a professor of computer science at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL). He is standing next to Mojtaba Yousefi from HVL (right), who is also part of the team. Credit: Heather Arghandeh Paudler

Reza Arghandeh from the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), Hossein Farahmand (NTNU) and their team are studying how hydropower producers can make better use of natural resources and flex with the market at any given time.

The researchers have developed concrete methods within artificial intelligence to calculate how producers should regulate the degree of filling in water reservoirs.

The leader of the research project on hydropower production is Hossen Farahmand at NTNU, a professor and head of the research group for electricity markets and energy system planning. The team also includes Mojtaba Yousefi from HVL and Jayaprakash Rajasekharan and Jinghao Wang, both from NTNU.

"If hydropower producers could make decisions that were just one percent better than before, it would amount to billions of kroner in difference and help to mitigate the energy crisis," says Arghandeh.

The future European power systembased primarily on renewable energy sourceswill be much more weather dependent than the power system today. The two researchers believe that consumption patterns will also change.

All these factors contribute to creating uncertainty around the energy supply, causing decision-making to be far more complicated. The researchers will help to reduce this uncertainty, so that it will be easier to secure access to energy.

Completely dependent on electricity

Arghandeh has found a way to monitor meteorological data, hydrological data (how much water is supplied to the reservoirs) and topographical data (shape of the landscape) and interpret them with the help of advanced artificial intelligence.

Farahmand further combines the use of these AI models with data on the electricity market. Together, they have created a model that accounts for uncertainty in the market and in the weather and wind.

"Electricity isn't an ordinary product, but one that keeps our society afloat, almost like oxygen. That's why it's incredibly important to create affordable, reliable and sustainable access to this basic good," says Arghandeh.

Accurate and reliable inflow forecasting has always been a challenge in the production of hydropower.

Around Easter time, the reservoirs fill up. Then the snow melts on the mountain tops, and water begins to flow from the heights into the reservoirs, regulated waters and rivers around the country.

Between Easter and until winter returns around November, producers release water at regular intervals to supply the market.

They also need to make sure to have enough water left in the reservoirs to last through the winter season, when the supply dries up (or freezes).

Complicated math for water power

But when and how much water should be released? That depends on many different factors, including weather conditions, landscapes, rainfall, winter temperatures, the electricity market and the political situation in Europe.

Since the power system in Norway is connected to Europe, making good decisions becomes all the more difficult. This was powerfully demonstrated by the events that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine. When Russia stopped the sale of gas to Europe as a result of European support for Ukraine, the effect on both energy access and energy prices was dramatic.

Calculations become extremely complicated with so many factors to take into account at once. The producers in the Norwegian hydropower industry use mathematics when they have to calculate how to regulate the water level in the reservoirs.

"We want to strengthen the classic calculation methods with methods from artificial intelligence. This way we can increase the speed of the calculations and obtain more precise answers," says Arghandeh.

Big ambitions for offshore wind

Hydropower production has its unpredictabilities, but this type of renewable energy also has major advantages. First and foremost, the water can be stored and produce the electricity when as it is needed, making it a very flexible and clean form of energy.

"At the same time, some boundaries need to be adhered to. A hydropower reservoir is limited in size, and the inflow of water is uneven," says Farahmand.

Hydropower has the potential to contribute to a secure supply of electricity to an even greater extent than today as methods from artificial intelligence help reduce the uncertainty surrounding decisions in the industry.

Norway is working to reduce the use of fossil fuel energy and become carbon neutral by 2050. An important step towards this goal is to introduce offshore wind. The plan is to build out 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity on the Norwegian continental shelf by 2040, an amount that equals the hydropower capacity in place today.

"The new green forms of energy like wind and solar are far less predictable than hydropower. The wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine," says Farahmand.

"Since wind conditions change so quickly, we need models that can calculate how wind production affects the integrity of our energy supply hour by hour."

Collaborating with power producers

The researchers in the project have collaborated with power producers Lyse Produksjon AS and stfold Energi. They are now testing the newly developed AI tools to see how they work when applied to their intended use. In the long term, they hope that the major players in the hydropower industry in Norway will adopt their methods.

"In transitioning to a society that relies far more on the sun and wind as energy sources, a sustainable hydropower supply will become far more important to us. We're really lucky in this country, which has such abundant opportunities to create clean energy," says Farahmand.

These clean energy sources "are a gift from nature. We need to make an effort to manage them as well as we possibly can," he says.
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Credit: Shutterstock

One in four Australian households are finding it hard to pay their gas and electricity bills. As winter looms, energy price rises will make it even harder. Cold homes and disconnections resulting from energy poverty threaten people's health and well-being.

Income support for welfare recipients and retrofitting homes to make them more thermally efficientby adding insulation, for examplecan ease the burden. And when homes are not too cold or hot, people's health benefits. This in turn eases pressure on the public health system.

However, many people are missing out on assistance as programs often do not recognize their difficulties. Their energy vulnerability is hidden.

What forms does hidden energy poverty take?

Our newly published study has revealed six aspects of hidden energy vulnerability. These are:

underconsumptionhouseholds limit or turn off cooling, heating and/or lights to avoid disconnections incidental maskingother welfare support, such as rent relief, masks difficulties in paying energy bills some households disguise energy poverty by using public facilities such as showers or pooling money for bills between families some people conceal their hardship due to pride or fear of legal consequences, such as losing custody of children if food cannot be refrigerated because the power has been cut off poor understanding of energy efficiency and the health risks of cold or hot homes adds to the problem eligibility criteria for energy assistance programs may exclude some vulnerable households. For example, people with income just above the welfare threshold are missing out on energy concessions. Energy retailer hardship programs also ignore people who have voluntarily disconnected due to financial hardship.

Our studies suggest trusted intermediaries such as people working in health, energy and social services can play a vital role in identifying and supporting such households.

First, energy efficiency and hardship initiatives may be integrated into the My Aged Care in-home care system. Energy poverty risk identification, response and referral could be built into the national service's assessment form. This could leverage existing client screening processes.

The system's front-line staff could connect at-risk householders with energy counselors. These counselors could help people access better energy contracts, concessions, home retrofits and appliance upgrade programs.

A new Commonwealth "energy supplement" could help pay for essential energy-related home modifications. This would help avoid My Aged Care funds being diverted from immediate healthcare needs.

Second, general practitioners and other health professionals could help identify energy vulnerability among patients with medical conditions of concern. They could also provide letters of support emphasizing renters' health-based need for air conditioners or heaters.

Third, energy providers could use household energy data to identify those that seem to be under-consuming or are often disconnected. They could also identify those that are not on "best offer" deals. They could be proactive in checking struggling householders' eligibility for ongoing energy concessions and one-off debt relief grants offered by states and territories.

Energy providers could also make it easier for social housing providers to ensure concessions for tenants renew automatically.

Fourth, local councils could use their data to identify at-risk householders. They might include those with a disability parking permit, discounted council rates or in arrears, on the social housing waiting list, Meals on Wheels clients and social housing tenants. Maternal and child health nurses and home and community care workers making home visits could call attention to cold or hot homes.

Councils could employ in-house energy counselors to provide assistance and energy literacy training. Council home maintenance teams could develop bulk-buying, insulation and neighborhood retrofit programs.

Strategies to reduce vulnerability to energy poverty should be part of municipal public health and well-being plans. Under these strategies, net-zero-carbon funds set up by states and local councils to reduce emissions could finance targeted housing retrofits.

We also suggest setting up a central helpline to improve access to energy assistance via local referrals.

Fifth, residential energy-efficiency programs could become more person-centric. For example, we already have Residential Efficiency Scorecard audits to assess the thermal quality of a home. These audits could also explore whether concessions and better energy deals are available to the household.

Building capacity at all levels

Capacity-building strategies are needed at all levelsindividual, community and governmentto overcome the challenges of reducing energy poverty. Current obstacles include the competing priorities of service providers, lack of time and resources, and poor co-ordination between siloed programs and services.

Access to essential energy services should be part of state and local governments' strategic health plans. Housing, energy and health departments could work together to include housing retrofits in preventive health programs.

A comprehensive approach is needed to overcome hidden energy poverty. It must include public education, integrated services and well-funded energy-efficiency programs. Regulatory reforms and ongoing funding are both needed to improve the availability of energy-efficient, affordable homes for tenants.

Our suggested strategies start with improving the skills and knowledge of trusted intermediaries. Doctors, social workers, housing officers, community nurses and volunteers can play a central role. Using these front-line professionals to help identify and act on energy poverty offers a novel, cost-effective and targeted solution.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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A cursor moves over Google's search engine page on Aug. 28, 2018, in Portland, Ore. Brazils Justice Ministry on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, ordered Google to stop conducting what it called a propaganda campaign against Brazilian legislation aimed at curbing misinformation, or face about $200,000 per hour in fines. Credit: AP Photo/Don Ryan, File

Brazil's Justice Ministry on Tuesday ordered Google to stop conducting what it called a propaganda campaign against Brazilian legislation aimed at curbing misinformation, or face about $200,000 per hour in fines.

The company later Tuesday took down an article the ministry had labeled propaganda, but it was not immediately clear if the big tech giant was in complete compliance with the agency's order.

The legislation, hotly contested by big tech companies including Google, would establish fines and deadlines for removing misinformation and hate speech from social media and messaging apps, and require tech companies to file reports on transparency.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government says it is essential to regulate online discourse following a recent spate of fatal school attacks that officials argue was motivated by hate speech and social media forums. The bill was sent to the lower chamber on Friday and may be voted on this week.

On Sunday, Google published a message on its homepage arguing that the bill "could increase confusion about what is true or false in Brazil" and should be improved. The message redirected to an article written by the search engine's public policy department listing arguments against the bill.

Brazil's Justice Ministry accused Google of promoting a disguised editorial position, and ordered the company to promote content which goes against its position. The agency also determined that Google needs to clearly indicate that its position is propaganda and needs to be transparent about any interference in its search engine to links related to the bill.

The agency said the company would be fined 1 million reais, or approximately $200,000, per hour if it failed to comply with the order. Google's message on its homepage, and the article, were removed Tuesday after the order's publication.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes also ordered the heads of Google, Meta, Spotify and Brasil Paraleloa far-right news and entertainment platformto give statements to the police on why they authorized what may amount to spreading misinformation about the bill and abuse of economic power.

De Moraes cited a study by the Laboratory of Internet and Social Media Studies at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), which argued that these companies advertised and ran ads against the bill "in an opaque way and bypassing their own terms of use."

Google said in a statement that it was committed to communicating its concerns about the bill "in a public and transparent way" and denied manually altering search results to favor its position.

Brazilian lawmakers last week had approved a request to speed up the approval process for the bill in the House. Analysts and big tech companies criticized the move and argued there was a need for further discussion.

The bill dates back to 2020 when it was approved by the Senate under Lula's predecessor, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, but has since undergone substantial modifications and become much broader. If approved by the House, the bill will return to the Senate for a final vote.

Last week, Telegram was temporarily suspended by a judge after the messaging app refused to send information on profiles which spread Nazi speech. A few days later, another decision canceled the suspension, although the daily fine of 1 million reais was maintained due to failure to comply. Telegram's founder and CEO Pavel Durov said in a statement that the company will appeal and that compliance is "technologically impossible."

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, speaks at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on June 27, 2022. Wicks authored a bill this session that would require Big Tech companies such as Google and Meta to share advertising revenue with media outlets for using their news content. The bill cleared another hurdle Tuesday, May 2, 2023, after receiving bipartisan support from the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Credit: AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File

Big Tech companies such as Google and Meta might soon have to pay media outlets for posting and using their news content under a proposed California measure attempting to save local journalism.

The bill, which cleared an important Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday with bipartisan support, would require Google and Meta to share with California media companies their advertising revenue stemming from the news and other reported content. The amount would be determined through an arbitration process.

Supporters of the bill said it would provide a "lifeline" to local news organizations that have seen their advertising revenues nosedive in the digital era. Opponents, including trade groups and some journalism groups, said the legislation would be an unprecedented mandate that violates the First Amendment.

The bill would mandate that at least 70% of their revenue go to local news organizations to help pay for reporters' salaries. Big Tech companies would also be prohibited from retaliating against a news outlet for demanding a fee by excluding their content on the platforms.

"As news consumption has moved online, community news outlets have been downsized and closing at an alarming rate," said Assemblymember Buffy Wicks of Oakland, who authored the bill, said during the Tuesday hearing.

The Democrat said that California has lost more than 100 news organizations in the past decade.

"The dominant type platforms, both search engines and social networks, have such unrivaled market power that newsrooms are coerced to share the content they produce, which tech companies sell advertising against for almost no compensation in return," she said, noting her bill is being backed by major journalism unions such as the News Media Alliance and Media Guild of the West, which represents The Los Angeles Times and other newsrooms.

But critics of the bill said the legislation is unconstitutional for requiring online platforms to post content from all news organizations. It would also reward clickbait content and limit the ability for Google and Meta to fight misinformation on their platforms as it could be seen as retaliation, said a representative from Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group.

Chris Krewson, executive director of LION Publishers, a national news group representing more than 450 independent newsrooms, said the bill is "fundamentally flawed" and wasn't written with small newsrooms in mind.

The bill would mostly benefit newspaper chains and hedge funds that have gutted local newsrooms in the last few decades, he said. His group represents more than 50 local newsrooms in California, 80% of which are operations with five or fewer journalists. Most of those news outlets wouldn't meet the requirements to benefit, he said.

"I applaud the lawmaker for getting bipartisan support on this," Krewson said in an interview Tuesday. "But this is backward."

Over the last two years, LION Publishers has received at least $1 million in funding from Meta but Krewson said he's not speaking on the tech company's behalf.

Similar efforts to bolster local news companies have been attempted across the United States, Australia and Canada, among others, with various levels of success. Australia adopted a law in 2021 that resulted in $140 million in payments to news companies from Google and Facebook last year.

U.S. lawmakers are also pushing for similar initiatives, reintroducing a bill in March that failed in the last congressional session and would have allowed news companies to jointly negotiate an advertising rate with tech giants such as Google.

Meta declined to comment on the California bill but pointed to a statement it made to the U.S. Congress in 2022 and another it made to the Canadian government this year when it threatened to pull all news content from its platform if the company would have to pay for news. Google didn't respond to an email seeking comment on the California bill.

Despite clearing another hurdle Tuesday, questions remain about how the bill would be implemented. Some lawmakers noted that Meta's Facebook and Google do not operate the same way. Google scrapes news websites and provides users with summaries of reported content, while Facebook shows content such as photos, videos and articles to users based on their activities on the platform.

Democratic Assemblymember Matt Haney of San Francisco said he's also concerned with how the state would ensure the money goes to local journalists.

"How do we actually make sure that this isn't simply profits handed from one company to another big company?" he asked at the hearing Thursday.

Wicks said she plans to have clarifications on those concerns before the June 2 deadline, which is the last day the Assembly could vote on the bill before it is taken up by the Senate. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has not indicated whether he would back such legislation.

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Holger Schmidt's lab develops unique, highly sensitive devices to detect pathogen biomarkers. Credit: Nick Gonzales

Sophisticated systems for the detection of biomarkersmolecules such as DNA or proteins that indicate the presence of a diseaseare crucial for real-time diagnostic and disease-monitoring devices.

Holger Schmidt, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC Santa Cruz, and his group have long been focused on developing unique, highly sensitive devices called optofluidic chips to detect biomarkers.

Schmidt's graduate student Vahid Ganjalizadeh led an effort to use machine learning to enhance their systems by improving its ability to accurately classify biomarkers. The deep neural network he developed classifies particle signals with 99.8 percent accuracy in real time, on a system that is relatively cheap and portable for point-of-care applications, as shown in a new paper in Scientific Reports.

When taking biomarker detectors into the field or a point-of-care setting such as a health clinic, the signals received by the sensors may not be as high quality as those in a lab or a controlled environment. This may be due to a variety of factors, such as the need to use cheaper chips to bring down costs, or environmental characteristics such as temperature and humidity.

To address the challenges of a weak signal, Schmidt and his team developed a deep neural network that can identify the source of that weak signal with high confidence. The researchers trained the neural network with known training signals, teaching it to recognize potential variations it could see, so that it can recognize patterns and identify new signals with very high accuracy.

First, a parallel cluster wavelet analysis (PCWA) approach designed in Schmidt's lab detects that a signal is present. Then, the neural network processes the potentially weak or noisy signal, identifying its source. This system works in real time, so users are able to receive results in a fraction of a second.

"It's all about making the most of possibly low quality signals, and doing that really fast and efficiently," Schmidt said.

A smaller version of the neural network model can run on portable devices. In the paper, the researchers run the system over a Google Coral Dev board, a relatively cheap edge device for accelerated execution of artificial intelligence algorithms. This means the system also requires less power to execute the processing compared to other techniques.

"Unlike some research that requires running on supercomputers to do high-accuracy detection, we proved that even a compact, portable, relatively cheap device can do the job for us," Ganjalizadeh said. "It makes it available, feasible, and portable for point-of-care applications."

The entire system is designed to be used completely locally, meaning the data processing can happen without internet access, unlike other systems that rely on cloud computing. This also provides a data security advantage, because results can be produced without the need to share data with a cloud server provider.

It is also designed to be able to give results on a mobile device, eliminating the need to bring a laptop into the field.

"You can build a more robust system that you could take out to under-resourced or less- developed regions, and it still works," Schmidt said.

This improved system will work for any other biomarkers Schmidt's lab's systems have been used to detect in the past, such as COVID-19, Ebola, flu, and cancer biomarkers. Although they are currently focused on medical applications, the system could potentially be adapted for the detection of any type of signal.

To push the technology further, Schmidt and his lab members plan to add even more dynamic signal processing capabilities to their devices. This will simplify the system and combine the processing techniques needed to detect signals at both low and high concentrations of molecules. The team is also working to bring discrete parts of the setup into the integrated design of the optofluidic chip.

More information: Vahid Ganjalizadeh et al, Machine learning at the edge for AI-enabled multiplexed pathogen detection, Scientific Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31694-6 Journal information: Scientific Reports
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

In a world hungry for clean energy, engineers have created a new material that converts the simple mechanical vibrations all around us into electricity to power sensors in everything from pacemakers to spacecraft.

The first of its kind and the product of a decade of work by researchers at the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto, the novel generating system is compact, reliable, low-cost and very, very green.

"Our breakthrough will have a significant social and economic impact by reducing our reliance on non-renewable power sources," said Asif Khan, a Waterloo researcher and co-author of a new study on the project. "We need these energy-generating materials more critically at this moment than at any other time in history."

The system Khan and his colleagues developed is based on the piezoelectric effect, which generates an electrical current by applying pressuremechanical vibrations are one exampleto an appropriate substance.

The effect was discovered in 1880, and since then, a limited number of piezoelectric materials, such as quartz and Rochelle salts, have been used in technologies ranging from sonar and ultrasonic imaging to microwave devices.

The problem is that until now, traditional piezoelectric materials used in commercial devices have had limited capacity for generating electricity. They also often use lead, which Khan describes as "detrimental to the environment and human health."

The researchers solved both problems.

They started by growing a large single crystal of a molecular metal-halide compound called edabco copper chloride using the Jahn-Teller effect, a well-known chemistry concept related to spontaneous geometrical distortion of a crystal field.

Khan said that highly piezoelectric material was then used to fabricate nanogenerators "with a record power density that can harvest tiny mechanical vibrations in any dynamic circumstances, from human motion to automotive vehicles" in a process requiring neither lead nor non-renewable energy.

The nanogenerator is tiny2.5 centimeters square and about the thickness of a business cardand could be conveniently used in countless situations. It has the potential to power sensors in a vast array of electronic devices, including billions needed for the Internet of Thingsthe burgeoning global network of objects embedded with sensors and software that connect and exchange data with other devices.

Dr. Dayan Ban, a researcher at the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, said that in future, an aircraft's vibrations could power its sensory monitoring systems, or a person's heartbeat could keep their battery-free pacemaker running.

"Our new material has shown record-breaking performance," said Ban, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. "It represents a new path forward in this field."

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

More information: Sasa Wang et al, Large piezoelectric response in a Jahn-Teller distorted molecular metal halide, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37471-3 Journal information: Nature Communications
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U.S. Representative Troy Balderson speaks at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 to announce that Google will be opening two more data centers in central Ohio. Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Orsagos

Google plans to build two more data centers in Ohio to help power its artificial intelligence technology and other tools, the company and state officials announced Wednesday.

With one data center already up and running near Columbus, the two new locations will bring Google's total investment in Ohio to more than $2 billion, officials said.

Ohio is seeing a wave of big investments by the technology industry.

Intel is building a $20 billion chip factory just east of Columbus, and Honda and LG Energy Solution of South Korea are building a $3.5 billion battery plant between Columbus and Cincinnati that the automaker envisions as its North American electric vehicle hub.

The area around Columbus also is home to data centers operated by Facebook and Amazon.

The two new Google data centers will be built in Columbus and Lancaster.

"Ohio is a growing technology hub and data center market, and we welcome these two new Google projects in Columbus and Lancaster to complement the one already in New Albany," Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.

Mark Isakowitz, Google's head of government affairs in the U.S. and Canada, would not say how many jobs would be created, adding that data centers typically employ about 50 people at opening and those numbers increase as they expand.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine speaks at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 to announce that Google will open two new data centers in central Ohio. Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Orsagos

From left, President of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce Steve Stivers, U.S. Representative Mike Carey, Google's Winton Steward, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Google's Mark Isakowitz and U.S. Representative Troy Balderson pose for a photo after the company announced two new data centers will be built in central Ohio on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 in Columbus. Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Orsagos

U.S. Representative Mike Carey speaks at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 to announce that Google will be opening two new data centers in central Ohio. Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Orsagos

"If you look at some of the sites we have around the country, it's hundreds and hundreds of people as you build and as you grow," he said.

Data centers have proliferated across the U.S. and become a welcome revenue source for local governments. They also require a large amount of electricity and high-voltage transmission lines.

In northern Virginia, which is home to the biggest cluster of data centers, complaints have grown mostly about the constant noise from fans needed to cool the computers and servers.

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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The failure of a component of an electric bike may result in a total loss. In a study, researchers at Fraunhofer IPA have demonstrated that manufacturing spare parts using additive manufacturing is worthwhile. Credit: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

An increasing number of people are riding electric bikes. Compared to cars, electric bikes are cheaper, more environmentally friendly, healthier for every-one and free up space in urban areas. The drawback is that there are often no spare parts for defective components such as motors or batteries, meaning they have to be completely replaced with expensive new components.

A team of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA demonstrated in a study with its partners that electric bike motors can be remanufactured in keeping with the concept of a modern circular economy. The researchers at Fraunhofer IPA will provide insight into the remanufacturing of electric bike components in the RemanLab, a new learning environment for remanufacturing.

The popularity of electric bikes continues to growaccording to the German Bicycle Industry Association (ZIV), electric bikes accounted for 48 percent of sales across the entire bicycle market in 2022and this figure is set to increase in future. The choice of models is also becoming more diverse. Alongside well-known brands, small manufacturers, too, are bringing new products to the market. However, especially in the case of batteries and motors, it is often technically and economically unfeasible to be repaired in the workshop. Thus, the failure of a component of an electric bike may result in a total loss.

Why not industrially remanufacture the used electric bike motors? Researchers at Fraunhofer IPA asked themselves that very question as part of the AddRE-Mo project. Together with partners from cirp GmbH, Electric Bike Solutions GmbH, the sponsoring association Cluster of Environmental Technologies Bavaria e. V. and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, they explored the technical feasibility of remanufacturing electric bike motors.

This involved taking a close look at the entire remanufacturing process chainfrom non-destructive disassembly to cleaning, testing, reconditioning and finally reassemblyand analyzing its ecological and economic potential. What's more, the researchers wanted to test the use of additive manufacturing processes and suitable combinations of processes and materials to produce long-lasting and reliable spare parts.

From disassembly to reassembly

"If the motor or battery fails, it's usually the case that the entire component is replaced, even though it may only be one gear that's faulty. It is rarely worthwhile for electric bike workshops to repair a motor or battery, and manufacturers also have a vested interest in replacing old motors, which are the biggest cost drivers in electric bikes, with new ones," says Jan Koller, project manager and group leader at Fraunhofer IPA, describing the dilemma.

"Our goal was to implement a value retention network by establishing an industrial remanufacturing process where a large number of motors (between 50 and 100) go through the process."

The first step for Koller and his team was to examine electric bike motors from established manufacturers to determine their probability of failure. Then they investigated whether and under what conditions spare parts with a high wear rate, such as gears and torque supports, could be additively manufactured.

The scientists gathered the necessary data for additive manufacturing either through 3D modeling or 3D digitization, depending on the geometry of the components. They then selected materials and additive processes. Finally, together with the companies cirp and Electric Bike Solutions, Fraunhofer IPA manufactured the components and tested their service life, noise emission and temperature resistance on purpose-developed test benches and under real loads.

A total of over 120 components were produced from 20 different materials using 3D printers. High-speed sintering, a special process for manufacturing or modifying materials, proved particularly promising when used in combination with the plastic polyamide 12 (PA12). The project results are summarized in the study "Additive Refabrikation in der Elektrofahrradbranche" (Additive remanufacturing in the electric bike industry), which is available for download free of charge.

The project partners were able to demonstrate technical feasibility and durability through reassembly and testing under real operating conditions. The research results showed that individual components such as gear wheels can be manufactured additively and used sustainably. "At the end of the process chain, remanufacturing delivers a bike motor that is on par with a newly manufactured motor in terms of quality, and also comes with the same guarantee," Koller explains.

Resource efficiency and sustainability through additive remanufacturing

Another important factor was the ecological evaluation of the remanufacturing process relative to brand new production. "Additive manufacturing has the potential to improve circularity in the electric bike industry and reduce resource wastage. A kilogram CO 2 equivalent saving of 90 percent can be achieved in comparison with brand new production," says the industrial engineer.

The economic savings potential, on the other hand, depends on the number of units and is usually around 30 to 40 percent for comparable components as compared to buying a new electric motor." Consequently, remanufacturing also harbors great potential for manufacturers of electric motors.

RemanLab learning environment to open its doors in Bayreuth

To perpetuate the achievements of this project, the process chain for remanufacturing electric bike motors will be implemented and demonstrated in the new RemanLab learning environment for remanufacturing at Fraunhofer IPA in Bayreuth. The RemanLab will open on May 23, 2023. In this realistic learning environment, which features all the necessary test benches, companies will gain an insight into the future of sustainable production.

Electric bike motors will be used to impart knowledge about the complexity of the remanufacturing process, from entrance diagnosis to disassembly, cleaning, testing, reconditioning, reassembly and final inspection, with the aid of demonstrators such as an augmented reality application for disassembly.

"Up to this point, remanufacturing has been characterized by cost- and labor-intensive processes. In the RemanLab, we will demonstrate how digital technologies and automation can revolutionize remanufacturing not only of electric motors, but also of small electrical appliances and other products in the future," says Koller.
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The US has offered a $10 million reward for a Russian national accused of running a stolen credit card operation.

The United States offered a reward of up to $10 million on Wednesday for a Russian national accused of running a stolen credit card operation.

Denis Gennadievich Kulkov, in an indictment unsealed by a US District Court in New York, is charged with device fraud, computer intrusion and money laundering.

Kulkov, 43, is accused of founding an electronic platform called Try2Check that helped cybercriminals verify whether stolen credit cards were valid.

"As such, Try2Check was a primary enabler of the trade in stolen credit card information, processing at minimum tens of millions of card numbers every year," the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said.

It said the United States and partners in Germany and Austria had collaborated to take Try2Check's websites offline.

"Try2Check can no longer serve as a vehicle for continued criminal activity or illicit profits," US Secret Service special agent Patrick Freaney said in a statement.

The State Department and Secret Service said a reward of up to $10 million had been offered for information leading to the arrest and capture of Kulkov, who lives in Russia.

According to the indictment, Kulkov created Try2Check in 2005, "building it into a primary tool of the illicit credit card trade."

"The platform offered its usersindividuals who stole bulk credit card numbers on the internetthe ability to quickly determine the validity of a credit card number," the indictment said.

To carry out its card-checking, Try2Check allegedly obtained unauthorized access to the servers of a major US-based payment processor.

The payment processor was not identified in the indictment.

Kulkov was alleged to have made at least $18 million in bitcoin through the Try2Check operation, purchasing a Ferrari and other luxury items, according to the US Attorney's Office.

Kulkov potentially faces up to 20 years in prison.

 2023 AFP
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Computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton poses at Google's Mountain View, Calif, headquarters on Wednesday, March 25, 2015. Computer scientists who helped build the foundations of today's artificial intelligence technology are warning of its dangers, but that doesn't mean they agree on the risks or how to prevent disastrous outcomes. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger, File

Computer scientists who helped build the foundations of today's artificial intelligence technology are warning of its dangers, but that doesn't mean they agree on what those dangers are or how to prevent them.

Humanity's survival is threatened when "smart things can outsmart us," so-called Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton said at a conference Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"It may keep us around for a while to keep the power stations running," Hinton said. "But after that, maybe not."

After retiring from Google so he could speak more freely, the 75-year-old Hinton said he's recently changed his views about the reasoning capabilities of the computer systems he's spent a lifetime researching.

"These things will have learned from us, by reading all the novels that ever were and everything Machiavelli ever wrote, how to manipulate people," Hinton said, addressing the crowd attending MIT Technology Review's EmTech Digital conference from his home via video. "Even if they can't directly pull levers, they can certainly get us to pull levers."

"I wish I had a nice simple solution I could push, but I don't," he added. "I'm not sure there is a solution."

Fellow AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, co-winner with Hinton of the top computer science prize, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he's "pretty much aligned" with Hinton's concerns brought on by chatbots such as ChatGPT and related technology, but worries that to simply say "We're doomed" is not going to help.

"The main difference, I would say, is he's kind of a pessimistic person, and I'm more on the optimistic side," said Bengio, a professor at the University of Montreal. "I do think that the dangersthe short-term ones, the long-term onesare very serious and need to be taken seriously by not just a few researchers but governments and the population."

Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO Cohere, is photographed at an office in Palo Alto, Calif., Wednesday, April 12, 2023. Gomez, whose research behind the so-called transformer technique put the T at the end of ChatGPT, says some fearmongering is detached from the reality of AIs true capabilities, but hes among a growing number of experts pushing for safeguards.Credit: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

There are plenty of signs that governments are listening. The White House has called in the CEOs of Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to meet Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris in what's being described by officials as a frank discussion on how to mitigate both the near-term and long-term risks of their technology. European lawmakers are also accelerating negotiations to pass sweeping new AI rules.

But all the talk of the most dire future dangers has some worried that hype around superhuman machineswhich don't existis distracting from attempts to set practical safeguards on current AI products that are largely unregulated and have been shown to cause real-world harms.

Margaret Mitchell, a former leader on Google's AI ethics team, said she's upset that Hinton didn't speak out during his decade in a position of power at Google, especially after the 2020 ouster of prominent Black scientist Timnit Gebru, who had studied the harms of large language models before they were widely commercialized into products such as ChatGPT and Google's Bard.

"It's a privilege that he gets to jump from the realities of the propagation of discrimination now, the propagation of hate language, the toxicity and nonconsensual pornography of women, all of these issues that are actively harming people who are marginalized in tech," said Mitchell, who was also forced out of Google in the aftermath of Gebru's departure. "He's skipping over all of those things to worry about something farther off."

Bengio, Hinton and a third researcher, Yann LeCun, who works at Facebook parent Meta, were all awarded the Turing Prize in 2019 for their breakthroughs in the field of artificial neural networks, instrumental to the development of today's AI applications such as ChatGPT.

Bengio, the only one of the three who didn't take a job with a tech giant, has voiced concerns for years about near-term AI risks, including job market destabilization, automated weaponry and the dangers of biased data sets.

But those concerns have grown recently, leading Bengio to join other computer scientists and tech business leaders like Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in calling for a six-month pause on developing AI systems more powerful than OpenAI's latest model, GPT-4.

Bengio said Wednesday he believes the latest AI language models already pass the "Turing test" named after British codebreaker and AI pioneer Alan Turing's method introduced in 1950 to measure when AI becomes indistinguishable from a humanat least on the surface.

Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO Cohere, is photographed at an office in Palo Alto, Calif., Wednesday, April 12, 2023. Gomez, whose research behind the so-called transformer technique put the T at the end of ChatGPT, says some fearmongering is detached from the reality of AIs true capabilities, but hes among a growing number of experts pushing for safeguards. Credit: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

"That's a milestone that can have drastic consequences if we're not careful," Bengio said. "My main concern is how they can be exploited for nefarious purposes to destabilize democracies, for cyberattacks, disinformation. You can have a conversation with these systems and think that you're interacting with a human. They're difficult to spot."

Where researchers are less likely to agree is on how current AI language systemswhich have many limitations, including a tendency to fabricate informationmight actually get smarter than humans not just in memorizing huge troves of information, but in showing critical reasoning and other human skills.

Aidan Gomez was one of the co-authors of the pioneering 2017 paper that introduced a so-called transformer techniquethe "T" at the end of ChatGPTfor improving the performance of machine-learning systems, especially in how they learn from passages of text. Then just a 20-year-old intern at Google, Gomez remembers laying on a couch at the company's California headquarters when his team sent out the paper around 3 a.m. when it was due.

"Aidan, this is going to be so huge," he remembers a colleague telling him, of the work that's since helped lead to new systems that can generate humanlike prose and imagery.

Six years later and now CEO of his own AI company called Cohere, which Hinton has invested in, Gomez is enthused about the potential applications of these systems but bothered by fearmongering he says is "detached from the reality" of their true capabilities and "relies on extraordinary leaps of imagination and reasoning."

"The notion that these models are somehow gonna get access to our nuclear weapons and launch some sort of extinction-level event is not a productive discourse to have," Gomez said. "It's harmful to those real pragmatic policy efforts that are trying to do something good."

Asked about his investments in Cohere on Wednesday in light of his broader concerns about AI, Hinton said he had no plans to pull his investments because there are still many helpful applications of language models in medicine and elsewhere. He also said he hadn't made any bad decisions in pursuing the research he started in the 1970s.

"Until very recently, I thought this existential crisis was a long way off," Hinton said. "So I don't really have any regrets about what I did."

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

After nearly three years, Amazon workers are set to return this week at a scale the Seattle campus hasn't seen since the pandemic first sent most home.

Starting this week, employees are required to work from the office at least three days a week, a shift from the policy Amazon had in place since 2021 that allowed leaders to decide where their teams would work. The announcement rattled Seattle, as stakeholders waited to see what an Amazon return would mean for the rest of the city.

Seattle business leaders and politicians hope the move will kick-start downtown's stalled pandemic recovery, while business owners in the city's South Lake Union neighborhood hope for more foot traffic and sales, from bubble tea to dog treats to manicures.

Not all Amazon workers are sold on the idea. "If you're telling us we're doing this for culture, that's a big misstep," said one worker who asked to remain anonymous to protect their job. "Because you sort of poisoned the well already."

On Monday, the first official day of Amazon's mandate, South Lake Union was quiet but not silent. Dogs trotted around Amazon's many pup parks; people lined up in front of food trucks parked on Lenora Street; trios of Amazon employees wandered around, badges around their necks, takeout containers in hand. People in red T-shirts handed out flyers emblazoned with "Welcome Back, Amazon!" advertising $1 lunches at nearby restaurants.

Outside the Spheres, Amazon's community banana stand sat covered in a gray tarp. A sign directed passersby to the Day One tower to grab their free snack and "Go bananas!"

"It's only going to bring ... more people back to the city," said Kieu Hoang Jorza, who owns two nail salons and a hair salon in South Lake Union, where Amazon has its largest campus. "Amazon did such a great job building such a great neighborhood for people to walk, and that's what we've been missing for three years."

Changing mandates

Amazon has wavered on its office mandates in the past. In October 2020, it named June 2021 as a return date but walked that deadline back three times in response to employee concerns and upticks in coronavirus cases.

Through each deadline shift, though, Amazon maintained that it wants its workers to return. In a March 2021 note to employees, leaders said they want a "return to an office-centric culture as our baseline." In June, they said "we invent best for customers when we are together in the office."

This February, CEO Andy Jassy said the company determined "we should go back to being in the office together the majority of the time." Whiteboard brainstorm sessions and elevator conversations had been lost with remote work, he said, and "riffing off one another's ideas" comes more easily in-person.

In response, more than 22,000 employees signed a petition opposing the change.

Employees "planned for a life where their employer wouldn't force them to return," the petition read, citing statements from executives that supported leaving office decisions up to individual teams. "The RTO mandate shattered their trust in Amazon's leaders."

In an internal survey from 2022, 56% of workers said they preferred to work remotely with in-person meetings just once a month, the petition read. Only 14% of respondents supported a three-days-a-week mandate.

A 'lack of clarity' inside

Some employees are concerned about finding care for children, family members and pets, said the current employee who works in South Lake Union. Others worry about their own health.

Amazon maintains that it has an internal policy for addressing disease transmission, including COVID-19, but the employee said it's not clear to them or other workers what the company plans to do if there are COVID outbreaks, the employee said.

That employee has a chronic illness that, in the past, required them to work from home. Their manager knows about their condition but they are nervous about a lack of flexibility if they can't make the in-person minimum some weeks.

"As far as I can tell, there's been no support from the company or acknowledgment that some people will be facing this," the worker said. "There's an internal lack of clarity. ... It's been very messy."

As the return date drew closer, Amazon locked people out of a virtual seating chart where employees could move their desks around on their own, the worker said. Now, employees are worried there won't be enough desks or equipment for everyone who comes back.

Amazon told workers in an internal memo viewed by The Seattle Times that some buildings wouldn't be ready for workers Monday, despite the mandate.

Amazon's offices are open to employees already but it will take some time until each building has been "verified" to support workers, according to the memo.

In the Puget Sound, most buildings will be ready sometime in May, while one has a readiness date of June 5. But around the world some offices won't be ready until September or October.

The Seattle worker said the lack of clarity has left many of their colleagues feeling, more than ever before, "like cogs in this wheel."

Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said "we understand that adjusting back to the ways of working ... that we had before the pandemic will take some time."

"We'll continue to work with our employees through that adjustment, including supporting individuals with unique or more challenging circumstances," Glasser continued.

Kailey Waring, an Amazon employee who has been coming into the office since October, said she's become a go-to resource for other members of her team. They have questions about the commute, tech support, or how to find their desks or print.

Many ask if it matters when she comes in or leaves for the day. So far it hasn't, and she hopes that won't change. "Right now, the return to the office seems very like 'Let's see what happens and go from there,'" Waring said.

"I do think it's the right choice, for a number of reasons," she said. "And I know it's not the right choice for everybody. It's with mixed emotions that I say that."

With a commute from Ballard, Waring said she's paid extra close attention to commuting options that don't require her to search for parking or fight traffic. Amazon has said it will restart a shuttle service and plans to set up a carpooling app.

Suresh Seneviratne, another Amazon employee based in Seattle, said his team is curious to see how return to office affects productivity.

"I think that's a question on everybody's mind: How do we define productivity? And how is this changing?" he said. Leadership hasn't defined any productivity metrics yet because "there are lots of emotions around the whole subject."

Seneviratne lives near South Lake Union and said he's excited to see how happy hours and team lunches bring the area "back to life."

"I think in a couple months we're all going to be like 'You know what this is actually pretty fun,'" he said.

'A bit of a bubble'

Even without a mandate, Amazon's campus has already seen a return-to-office rhythm, said Wassef Haroun, co-founder of Mamnoon Restaurant Group, which operates four locations in South Lake Union and one in Capitol Hill.

Wednesdays are the busiest days, while Tuesday and Thursday are "decent," Haroun said. Monday, Friday and the weekends are, he said, "dead, completely."

For almost two years, most of the group's restaurants have closed on weekends because the customers aren't there.

Haroun said he was encouraged by Amazon's mandate, partly because if it hadn't taken a strong stance, he didn't expect any other companies would either.

He watched a cycle of peer pressure throughout the pandemic as companies took stock of remote work, hiring and wages, and made sure "not to miss out" on competitive advantages.

At Bouquet South Lake Union, a flower and gift shop that opened in 2019, "we've been anxiously awaiting their return," owner Mary Davis said.

Amazon approached the company after visiting its shop in Columbia City and asked it to open a second location on Seventh Avenue, near the corporate campus, Davis said. The cost to do business in South Lake Union is higher but the risk was worth it to be part of Amazon's "village," she said.

Since the pandemic began, Amazon supported the gift shop, Davis said. Amazon had a social media influencer spend a day at the store and brainstorm ideas to grow Bouquet's virtual presence. It also funded a Bouquet giveaway for Amazonians.

"With how supportive Amazon has been to us as a business, it's taken a lot of the fear out" of the past few years, Davis said.

Davis recently started to see tourist traffic pick up. In the last few months, she's seen an uptick in large gatherings that prompt Amazon employees to buy gifts or flowers.

Now, Bouquet is gearing up to open seven days a week after years of a modified schedule.

Hoang Jorza, who owns three salons in the neighborhood, said her businesses relied on government assistance like the Paycheck Protection Program to keep afloat. Once that ended and foot traffic remained slow, she started hoping Amazon workers would return.

She never considered what she would do if remote work became permanent, though, because "I always thought they were going to come back."

Hoang Jorza said Amazon asked her to set up a salon in their building across from the Spheres just before the pandemic hit because so many employees liked her other salonRefine Nails Studioon Dexter Avenue.

Her salon on Seventh Avenue still benefits from foot traffic as tourists stop by the Spheres and spot her salon across the street. But her hair salon, located above a Whole Foods on Westlake Avenue, hasn't seen that same benefit.

Still, Hoang Jorza said she wouldn't leave South Lake Union, largely because Amazon's security team makes her and her staff feel safe, and the company has kept the sidewalks walkable and clean.

Amazon, she said, has created a "little bit of a bubble."

Mamnoon Restaurant Group's Haroun said he still has doubts about how the return to work will play out. He credited Amazon with good communication but said there are still unknowns about the scale of the mandate and whether "morale issues" could cause the company to reverse itself.

Already, the restaurant group struggles with low demand, employee retention and raising wages, Haroun said. He hopes a predictable customer flow will materialize in the next few months. If it takes another year to stabilize, he said, "then that's going to be really, really challenging for us."

As retail tenants in Amazon-owned buildings for some of its locations and surrounded by Amazonia at others, "we have very little control," Haroun said.

"This is a long road," he said. "If successful, that'd be great. But there are many, many ways this could fail."

2023 The Seattle Times.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Stellantis's Ram 1500 Revolution battery-electric pickup truck is supposed to have an industry-busting range of 800 kilometres (500 miles) on a single charge when it hits markets in 2025.

Stellantis, the world's fourth-largest automaker, said Wednesday that an easing shortage of semiconductor supplies helped drive sales in the first quarter, as more vehicles could be delivered to buyers.

Some 1.47 million vehicles were sold across its 14 brands including Fiat, Chrysler, Peugeot and Citroen, lifting quarterly revenue 14 percent to 47.2 billion euros ($52 billion).

Chips, which have become crucial components for modern vehicles, became scarce as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down factories in China and elsewhere in Asia, causing shortages that are only recently being absorbed by supply chains.

Sales of Stallantis's electric vehicles jumped 22 percent year-on-year, and the group aims to have 47 all-electric models by the end of next year, double the number of 2022.

In North America, it is counting in particular on the new Ram 1500 REV pickup truck, touted as having an industry-busting range of 800 kilometers (500 miles) on a single charge. It is set to hit the market in 2025.

North America remained the company's largest market, with sales rising 10 percent to 22.8 billion euros, while Europe sales also climbed 10 percent to 16.1 billion euros.

The sales growth overall is "largely due to continued improvement in the fulfillment of supplies of semiconductor orders", chief financial officer Richard Palmer told journalists on a conference call, adding that price increases had also driven revenue.

The company maintained its target of a double-digit operating margin for the full year, and Palmer said "short-term pricing should be relatively stable", after recent moves by Tesla to cut prices of its popular electric vehicles fed speculation that rivals would follow suit.

The industry is hoping for a rebound after three years of dampened demand in the wake of COVID, which saw new vehicle registrations in Europe drop to their lowest level since 1993.

 2023 AFP
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Ranking on global press freedom in several categories from the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index 2022, published in May 2023.

Journalism is being battered by propaganda and increasingly sophisticated fakes, aided by AI software and a failure of oversight from tech companies, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Wednesday.

Overall, the environment for journalists was rated as "bad" in 70 percent of the 180 countries in the NGO's annual ranking, and "good" in just eight countries.

Norway and North Korea remain best and worst, respectively, for press freedom, according to the 21st annual report, which was published on World Press Freedom Day.

This year, RSF put a spotlight on the myriad forms of misinformation that are "drowning out" trustworthy newsa problem compounded by the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence.

"It is the tech industry that allows disinformation to be produced, distributed and amplified," RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire told AFP.

"Reliable information is drowned in a deluge of disinformation," Deloire added. "We are less and less able to perceive the differences between the real and the artificial, the true and the false."

He said a prime example was Elon Musk, who took over Twitter in late 2022. The report criticizes his new paid-for verification system, saying Musk was pushing "an arbitrary, payment-based approach to information to the extreme".

The report used the example of Midjourney, an AI program that generates high-quality images that are "feeding social media with increasingly plausible and undetectable fake 'photos'", such as those of Donald Trump being manhandled by police and a comatose Julian Assange in a straitjacket that recently went viral.

Systematic propaganda

Traditional forms of political interference are also gaining ground in many countries, RSF said.

Some two-thirds of countries have political actors who are "often or systematically involved in massive disinformation or propaganda campaigns", it said, highlighting the cases of Russia, India and China.

They are assisted by a vast disinformation industry.

RSF recently supported a consortium of investigative journalists working on "Forbidden Stories", a project which uncovered the activities of Israeli firm "Team Jorge" which specializes in producing disinformation.

The worst countries in the new ranking, apart from North Korea, were Vietnam, "which has almost completed its hunt of independent reporters and commentators," and China, "the world's biggest jailer of journalists".

India fell from "problematic" to "very bad", thanks to "media takeovers by oligarchs close to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi", and also in Turkey, where the government "has stepped up its persecution of journalists in the run-up to elections scheduled for 14 May".

The United States fell three places to 45th, in part due to a deteriorating security situation for journalists.

The biggest falls were seen in Peru (down 33 places to 110), Senegal (down 31 to 104) and Haiti (down 29 to 99th).

Major improvement was seen in Brazil, up 18 to 92 thanks to the departure of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

The Middle East and North Africa remains the most dangerous region for journalists, RSF said, while Europe remains the safest, though attacks on journalists in Germany saw it drop five places.

The ranking is compiled by combining data on abuses committed against journalists with hundreds of surveys sent to journalists, academics and human rights activists.

 2023 AFP
IN the aftermath of internal party elections and ahead of harmonised general elections, Zanu-PF candidates who contested in the primaries should close ranks and work together to ensure a landslide victory in the forthcoming polls, President Mnangagwa has said.

As the party entrenches internal democracy  the Zanu-PF Youth League met at the revolutionary party headquarters in Harare yesterday, with President Mnangagwa urging the vanguard of the party to use the meeting as a launch-pad towards popularising and consolidating the dominance of Zanu-PF among the youths, across villages, wards, districts and provinces.

The constitutional National Assembly of the Youth League, the first since the 7th National Congress, was held under the theme, Re-energising the Zanu-PF Vanguard for a 2023 Landslide Victory  a message that brings focus towards mobilising towards a thunderous victory in the 2023 harmonised elections.

It was attended by delegates drawn from all the countrys 10 provinces.

I am pleased that many of you participated in the partys recently concluded internal democratic processes and you were successful to represent the party at both local authority and House of

Congratulations, Makorokoto, Amhlophe.

Meanwhile, I urge you to remain alive to the fact that in our colossal mass party, there are no losers and winners. It is the party which ultimately wins during our internal democratic processes.

The party and the people always come first. This is the discipline that must be exhibited by all card-carrying members. You are therefore, directed to close ranks to achieve the victory of the party, President Mnangagwa said.

Accompanying the President to the meeting of the Youth League was Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, Zanu-PF Second Secretary and Vice President Kembo Mohadi, Minister of Defence and War Veterans Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and Politburo members.

Amid rapid infrastructure development, modernisation and industrialisation towards Vision 2030 to become an upper middle-class economy, President Mnangagwa said young people must always find their generational mandate and defend the country from foreign machinations who would want to use their local lackeys to influence the outcome of elections.

Our present national development trajectory needs patriotic young people who have clarity of their generational mission. Yours is a mission to consolidate the gains of our hard-won independence, freedom and democracy as well as the ongoing socio-economic progress under the Zanu PF philosophy, Nyika inovakwa, inotongwa nevene vayo, ilizwe lakhiwa libuswe ngabaninilo. Brick by brick, stone upon stone, step by step, let us all build our motherland, said the President.

I, thus, call upon you to do more to safeguard our sovereignty, security and development interests while robustly opposing all attempts to undermine national unity and social harmony and stability.

You must equally raise your political consciousness against the machinations of our detractors, who are supported by local malcontents.

We are aware of the desperate collusions by the enemies of our beloved country, and their nefarious attempts to discredit our forthcoming Harmonised General Elections. More so as it is clear that victory is imminent for the people of Zimbabwe through our revolutionary Zanu PF Party.

Going forward, he said, Zanu PF youths are called upon to occupy online platforms with content that amplifies what the party stands for and the numerous successes of the Second Republic.

The President said the youths should, at all times, shun violence not because they are weak but because their strength lies in peace, brotherhood and love.

As cadres of our revolutionary mass party, who represent the aspirations of the people, we must hold peace and unity as sacrosanct by shunning violence in all its forms.

Party campaigns and programmes must, therefore, be conducted in a manner that ensures peaceful, free, fair and credible 2023 Harmonised General Elections. Zanu PF as the mammoth peoples party, has the onus to guarantee such conditions. We are the only party that fought for democracy and we must defend conditions that make democracy thrive.

To ensure a landslide Zanu-PF victory, President Mnangagwa said youths must continue working with various affiliate groups to mobilise support for the ruling party in the spirit of the partys Huyai Kumusha/Buyani Ekhaya programme.

Riding on the various digital platforms, mobilise and bring many of them back home to their party, Zanu-PF. Our collective priority should be to mobilise and attract new members to the party. Tose tinokwana muhomwe ye Zanu PF.

On the economic front, President Mnangagwa said youths must seize opportunities availed under the Second Republic and invest in the future by transitioning from a consumptive culture.

Under my leadership, we will continue to support you, the youth of our country to realise your full potential. To this end, I applaud the youth of Zimbabwe for their entrepreneurial drive and tremendous creative energies.

Let us carry on harnessing the youth demographic dividend to bolster our production and productivity across all sectors of the economy.

I, further, challenge the National Youth Assembly to scale up the implementation of far-reaching measures to promote business mentorship programmes and youth business incubation hubs. The innovation, research and development ecosystem established by my Government must see the talented youths respond to the needs of the economy and our people.

He added that capacity building and skills development, including national civic education, remain critical pillars for developing a party cadre of today, tomorrow and into the future.

In view of the ongoing quest to modernise and rejuvenate the party in line with the dictates of an ever-volving national and international landscape, I challenge the Youth League to pursue robust training programmes to nurture competent officials within your rank and file.

The League must value young people with talent as well as have the foresight to engage, welcome and retain them as party members.

These must also be mobilised from both within the country and abroad. We do not want the syndrome yeku vharira vamwe panze, said President Mnangagwa.

He said divisive politics, regionalism and tribalism have no room in Zanu PF and the nation as a whole. Chronicle
A recent safety inspection of Bryan school district buildings found three violations of unsecured doors, according to an update given to the school board at its Monday workshop.

During the update, Assistant Director of Safety and Security Rich Himmel presented the findings of two intruder detection audits that occurred at the same unannounced school on April 17. A second facility had an unlocked door on the same day.

On the first campus, an inspector from the Region 6 Education Service Center found one exterior door to be unsecured; that was a finding in the audit, Himmel said. Later in the audit, the inspector found one interior classroom door to be unsecured.

Himmel said because the Bryan school district has a policy that requires all classroom doors to be closed and locked during instructional time, this was also considered to be a finding.

The principal of this campus has conducted in-person remedial training with all staff members on the campus, Himmel said.

At the second campus, same day, April 17 of this year, the inspector found all exterior doors to be secured, Himmel said. Later on in the audit process, the inspector found one interior classroom to be unsecured.

Because of the districts policy, this was determined to be a finding as well.

The principal at that school has similarly conducted in-person, remedial training with all staff members, Himmel said.

According to Texas Education Code 37.108, public school districts are required to undergo a safety and security audit of the districts facilities once every three years, and campuses are not notified beforehand.

Superintendent Ginger Carrabine reiterated the message that members of the district will continue to be held to the policys standards.

I just want to remind the board and our community that in Bryan ISD, because safety and security is our number one priority, we go above and beyond the minimum expectation to just focus on exterior, Carrabine said. We made it clear in our district that we want the doors to be locked and closed for all interior doors.

Had the board not included this in its policy, the campuses discussed Monday would not have faced the consequence of undergoing further training.

Board member Leo Gonzalez II thanked the board for incorporating the interior door locking and closures into the districts policy.

I really, as I think we all do, care more about the actual safety of our students and teachers and staff than a report, Gonzalez said.

Board member Ruthie Waller said because the district is only in its first couple of months of implementing this policy, it will become a habit to close and lock all interior doors.

Its just one of those things that it will catch on with teachers; even students will remind the teacher to close and lock the door, Waller said.

Himmel agreed, stating this is a constant process of improvement. Toward the end of the workshop, the board went into closed session to further discuss the intruder detection security audit and a corrective action plan based on the April 17 findings.
"Several arrests" have been made in connection with the capture of the man suspected of fatally shooting five people last week in a Texas home, and "others are hinging on what's going on right now," a sheriff's deputy said Wednesday.

In addition to accused gunman Francisco Oropesa, fewer than five others have been arrested, Chief Deputy Tim Kean of the San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office said. "But I can't go into the details."

The woman who lived with and shares a child with Oropesa has been booked into the Montgomery County jail, online sheriff's records show.

Divimara Lamar Nava faces a charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution of a known felon, a third-degree felony. She was arrested at the same place in Montgomery County that suspected gunman was arrested Tuesday night, case records show.

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Authorities also are waiting to learn whether the mass shooting weapon has been recovered. "As of now, we may have the weapon, but we have to wait for ballistics (testing)," Kean said at a news conference outside the jail where Oropesa is now being held after a dayslong manhunt.

A 38-year-old Mexican national, Oropesa was found Tuesday evening stowed under a pile of laundry in a closet just a few miles from the massacre site after a tip helped lead authorities to him, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Tuesday. Law enforcement also tracked Oropesa's wife to the home, which is associated with one of the suspect's family members, a law enforcement source told CNN.

Oropesa will be held on five counts of murder, with bond set at $5 million, the sheriff's office said.

The suspect is expected to appear in court Wednesday to be read the charges, a source with the San Jacinto County District Attorney's Office told CNN, adding the charges could be upgraded to capital murder. Authorities are still investigating whether he had any help in evading arrest, the San Jacinto County district attorney told CNN.

"We are so happy," Jefrinson Rivera, the partner of victim Diana Velazquez Alvarado, told CNN of the arrest in a community about a 20-minute drive west of where the shooting unfolded in Cleveland, northwest of Houston.

Evelyn Echeverria, 16, had been lying in bed around 6 p.m. when she heard helicopters flying above her home, she told CNN.

"I headed out and saw a lot of cops and maybe 20 minutes later they came out with him," said Echeverria, who took a video of the apprehension. "He came out handcuffed. He looked like he was cooperating with the officers."

Officers led Oropesa through the yard of a house, then gathered around him as he sat in a law enforcement vehicle, witness videos show.

Oropesa is accused of fatally shooting five people Friday after he was asked to stop firing his rifle outdoors near his neighbor's home. Wilson Garcia, whose wife and son were killed, and two others had asked Oropesa to shoot on the other side of his property because the gunfire was waking Garcia's baby, he told CNN. The suspect refused and soon unleashed gunfire into the home where Garcia's family was gathered, he said.

The massacre is among more than 180 US mass shootings this year. The victims  all Honduran nationals  have been identified as Garcia's wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and her son Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, 9; Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.

Authorities now have 90 days to indict Oropesa, a law enforcement source involved said. Due to his status as a Mexican national, the Mexican consulate will be formally notified of his circumstances on Wednesday, the law enforcement source said.

At least four times since 2009, Oropesa had entered the US unlawfully and been deported, according to an ICE source. An immigration judge first removed him in March 2009 before he was deported again in September 2009, January 2012 and July 2016, the source said.

It's unclear how long Oropesa had been in the US before last week's attack.

***

How authorities tracked down the suspect

In the end, it was information submitted through the FBI's tip line that pointed investigators to the home where Oropesa was discovered, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said Tuesday night.

Federal, state and local authorities had devoted considerable resources to hunting for the fugitive, including a collective $80,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and more than 200 law enforcement officers on the case, officials have said.

Officials' efforts may have been stymied by a lack of trust in law enforcement. Some Latinos, particularly immigrants, fear contact with law enforcement could lead to questions about their immigration status and lead to deportation, they told CNN.

After initial leads on Oropesa went cold over the weekend, authorities pleaded for tips  which eventually came in from Texas, Wyoming, Florida, Maryland and Oklahoma, the sheriff said.

"We just want to thank the person who had the courage and bravery to call in the suspect's location," Paul said.

It's not clear if law enforcement had tracked Oropesa's wife to the home before or after the tip was sent to the FBI.

Once they had zeroed in on the house, members of the Texas Department of Public Safety, US Marshals Service and US Customs and Border Patrol's tactical unit, known as BORTAC, entered the home and brought the suspect into custody, an FBI Houston spokesperson said. The sheriff's office located the home in the small city of Cut and Shoot, while the FBI Houston office tweeted it is in adjacent Conroe.

The BORTAC unit has played a key role in several high-profile US operations, including the mass shooting last year at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where its members fatally shot that gunman, authorities said.

***

How the rampage unfolded

More than a dozen family members and friends were gathered Friday in the Cleveland home, said Garcia, whose wife and son were killed. They were helping his wife get ready for a church event, he said.

But their evening was disturbed by gunshots fired by Oropesa outside his home next door, the father said. The shots were waking up Garcia's baby and making him cry.

About 10 to 20 minutes before the suspected gunman opened fire, Garcia and two others walked over to Oropesa to ask that he instead shoot on the other side of his property, he said.

The suspect refused, and Garcia said he would call police.

"We walked inside and my wife was talking to the police, and we called five times because he was being more threatening," Garcia recalled.

At some point, they watched as Oropesa walked off his property and cocked his gun, Garcia said. Concerned, he told his wife to come inside the house.

"My wife said, 'You go inside, I don't think he will fire at me because I'm a woman, I'll stay here at the door.'"

Soon after, the gunman charged into Garcia's home, first shooting his wife, Argentina Guzman, in the doorway before killing three other adults and Garcia's son Daniel, the grieving father said.

"One of the people who died saw when my wife fell to the ground," Garcia told CNN. "She told me to throw myself out the window because my children were already without a mother. So one of us had to stay alive to take care of them. She was the person who helped me jump out the window."

The victims were shot "almost execution style" at close range above the neck, Capers told local media.

Officers responded to the scene as fast as they could, the sheriff said. But his small force covers a large county, he said, and the home is about 15 minutes outside town.

Photos: Scenes following Texas mass shooting that killed 5
AGCO Co. (NYSE:AGCO  Get Rating) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,310,000 shares, a growth of 11.0% from the March 31st total of 1,180,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 669,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days. Currently, 2.1% of the companys shares are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AGCO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on AGCO from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on AGCO from $185.00 to $189.00 in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered AGCO from a buy rating to a neutral rating and reduced their price target for the company from $149.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Monday, April 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on AGCO from $150.00 to $168.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised AGCO from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, April 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $156.36.

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Insider Activity at AGCO

In related news, SVP Robert B. Crain sold 13,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.67, for a total transaction of $1,724,710.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,167 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,328,955.89. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Robert B. Crain sold 13,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.67, for a total transaction of $1,724,710.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,167 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,328,955.89. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Torsten Rudolf Willi Dehner sold 744 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.71, for a total value of $104,688.24. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 26,867 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,780,455.57. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 27,142 shares of company stock worth $3,671,940 in the last three months. 16.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

AGCO Stock Performance

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirova US LLC increased its position in AGCO by 19.2% during the first quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 737,338 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $99,688,000 after buying an additional 118,750 shares during the period. Centric Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of AGCO in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,639,000. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its stake in shares of AGCO by 33.4% in the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 55,527 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $7,507,000 after purchasing an additional 13,901 shares during the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of AGCO in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $33,800,000. Finally, Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AGCO in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $4,340,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.48% of the companys stock.

AGCO traded up $3.32 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $127.95. 1,194,252 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 653,575. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.78, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.34. AGCO has a 1-year low of $88.55 and a 1-year high of $145.53. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $129.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $130.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

AGCO (NYSE:AGCO  Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The industrial products company reported $4.47 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.88 by $0.59. The company had revenue of $3.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.76 billion. AGCO had a return on equity of 25.75% and a net margin of 7.03%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AGCO will post 13.53 earnings per share for the current year.

AGCO Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.29 per share. This is a positive change from AGCOs previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 12th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.91%. AGCOs payout ratio is 9.77%.

About AGCO

(Get Rating)

AGCO Corp. engages in the manufacture and distribution of agricultural equipment and related replacement parts. It operates through the following geographic segments: North America, South America, Europe and Middle East, and Asia, Pacific, and Africa. The Asia/Pacific/Africa segment includes the regions of Australia and New Zealand.

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Invesco High Income Trust II (NYSE:VLT  Get Rating) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.0964 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 12th.

Invesco High Income Trust II Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VLT traded down $0.08 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $10.47. The company had a trading volume of 6,708 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,892. Invesco High Income Trust II has a one year low of $9.45 and a one year high of $12.01. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $10.53.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Invesco High Income Trust II

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. UBS Group AG lifted its stake in shares of Invesco High Income Trust II by 32.7% during the 1st quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 8,010 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $98,000 after acquiring an additional 1,974 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Invesco High Income Trust II by 19.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 12,064 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $149,000 after acquiring an additional 1,959 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Invesco High Income Trust II by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 15,409 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $161,000 after acquiring an additional 916 shares during the last quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Invesco High Income Trust II by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 17,713 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $182,000 after acquiring an additional 2,012 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Invesco High Income Trust II by 11.0% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 70,500 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $871,000 after acquiring an additional 7,000 shares during the last quarter. 25.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Invesco High Income Trust II

Invesco High Income Trust II is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Invesco Ltd. The fund is co-managed by Invesco Advisers, Inc, INVESCO Asset Management (Japan) Limited, INVESCO Asset Management Deutschland GmbH, INVESCO Asset Management Limited, Invesco Hong Kong Limited, INVESCO Senior Secured Management, Inc, and Invesco Canada Ltd.

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Jackson Financial Inc. (NYSE:JXN  Get Rating) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,090,000 shares, a drop of 7.1% from the March 31st total of 2,250,000 shares. Currently, 2.6% of the companys shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,130,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

JXN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Jackson Financial from $46.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Jackson Financial from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Jackson Financial from $36.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 5th.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Jackson Financial news, CAO Don W. Cummings sold 9,877 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.20, for a total transaction of $367,424.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,925 shares of the companys stock, valued at $964,410. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Don W. Cummings sold 9,877 shares of Jackson Financial stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.20, for a total value of $367,424.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,925 shares of the companys stock, valued at $964,410. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Devkumar Dilip Ganguly sold 13,500 shares of Jackson Financial stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.57, for a total value of $493,695.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 124,412 shares of the companys stock, valued at $4,549,746.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,648 shares of company stock valued at $907,829 over the last quarter. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Jackson Financial

Jackson Financial Stock Down 3.3 %

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Spire Wealth Management increased its position in Jackson Financial by 77.3% during the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 709 shares of the companys stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA purchased a new stake in Jackson Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Jackson Financial by 1,087.9% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,081 shares of the companys stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 990 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in Jackson Financial by 199.8% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,382 shares of the companys stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 921 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Money Concepts Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Jackson Financial during the 4th quarter worth $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.40% of the companys stock.

NYSE JXN traded down $1.17 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $34.31. 981,627 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,147,579. Jackson Financial has a 1 year low of $23.56 and a 1 year high of $49.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market cap of $2.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $38.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.10.

Jackson Financial (NYSE:JXN  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 28th. The company reported $5.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.39 by $0.27. Jackson Financial had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 42.47%. The firm had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $7.48 EPS. The firms revenue was down 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Jackson Financial will post 16.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jackson Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 23rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.62 per share. This is a boost from Jackson Financials previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 13th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.23%. Jackson Financials payout ratio is presently 3.91%.

About Jackson Financial

(Get Rating)

Jackson Financial Inc, through its subsidiaries, primarily provides a suite of annuities to retail investors in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Retail Annuities, Institutional Products, and Closed Life and Annuity Blocks. The Retail Annuities segment offers various retirement income and savings products, including variable, fixed index, fixed, and immediate payout annuities, as well as registered index-linked annuities and lifetime income solutions.

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Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL  Get Rating) saw a large growth in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,890,000 shares, a growth of 6.1% from the March 31st total of 8,380,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,600,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days. Approximately 1.6% of the companys shares are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on AFL shares. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Monday, February 6th. VNET Group reissued a maintains rating on shares of Aflac in a research report on Thursday, April 27th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Aflac from $73.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 27th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Aflac from $74.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Aflac from $77.00 to $72.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aflac currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $71.22.

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Aflac Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $68.64 on Wednesday. Aflac has a one year low of $52.07 and a one year high of $74.01. The company has a market cap of $42.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.90, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.06 and a quick ratio of 0.06. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $65.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.26.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

Aflac ( NYSE:AFL Get Rating ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $4.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.61 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.25% and a net margin of 22.90%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.42 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Aflac will post 5.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 17th will be given a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 16th. Aflacs payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 19,291 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.36, for a total value of $1,357,314.76. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 87,598 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $6,163,395.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Aflac news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.45, for a total value of $32,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,269 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,241,887.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 19,291 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.36, for a total transaction of $1,357,314.76. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 87,598 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,163,395.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Aflac

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 36.2% in the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 23,941 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,542,000 after acquiring an additional 6,369 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.8% during the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 17,268 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,112,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102 shares during the period. Aviva PLC grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 0.7% in the first quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 210,634 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $13,563,000 after purchasing an additional 1,503 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management purchased a new position in Aflac during the 1st quarter valued at about $428,000. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Aflac by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,142 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $396,000 after purchasing an additional 417 shares during the last quarter. 66.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Aflac

(Get Rating)

Aflac, Inc is a holding company. engages in the provision of financial protection services. It operates through the followings segments: Aflac Japan and Aflac United States (U.S.). The Aflac Japan segment offers life insurance, death benefits, and cash surrender values. The Aflac U.S. segment sells voluntary supplemental insurance products for people who already have major medical or primary insurance coverage.

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Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its position in shares of Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE:SUM  Get Rating) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,212 shares of the construction companys stock after purchasing an additional 429 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.s holdings in Summit Materials were worth $233,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moody National Bank Trust Division increased its stake in Summit Materials by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 11,804 shares of the construction companys stock worth $335,000 after purchasing an additional 337 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Summit Materials by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,831 shares of the construction companys stock worth $197,000 after purchasing an additional 381 shares in the last quarter. NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan increased its stake in Summit Materials by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan now owns 24,408 shares of the construction companys stock worth $693,000 after purchasing an additional 408 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC increased its stake in Summit Materials by 28.0% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 2,279 shares of the construction companys stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 499 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in Summit Materials by 35.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,953 shares of the construction companys stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 510 shares in the last quarter.

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Summit Materials Trading Down 0.5 %

SUM opened at $27.59 on Wednesday. Summit Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $21.99 and a twelve month high of $34.40. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.09. The company has a quick ratio of 3.15, a current ratio of 3.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.23 and a beta of 1.42.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Summit Materials ( NYSE:SUM Get Rating ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 15th. The construction company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.03. Summit Materials had a net margin of 11.28% and a return on equity of 7.58%. The business had revenue of $511.66 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $555.20 million. Analysts predict that Summit Materials, Inc. will post 1.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SUM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Summit Materials from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, March 10th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Summit Materials in a research report on Friday, January 13th. They set a buy rating and a $40.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Summit Materials from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, January 23rd. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Summit Materials in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn restated a neutral rating on shares of Summit Materials in a report on Friday, February 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $34.36.

Summit Materials Profile

(Get Rating)

Summit Materials, Inc is a construction materials company. It manufactures construction materials and related downstream products. The firm operates its business through the following segments: Cement, West and East. The Cement consists of its Hannibal, Missouri and Davenport, Iowa cement plants and distribution terminals along the Mississippi river from Minnesota to Louisiana.

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Bloom Energy Co. (NYSE:BE  Get Rating)  Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group lowered their Q1 2023 EPS estimates for Bloom Energy in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, April 26th. Jefferies Financial Group analyst S. Burwell now anticipates that the company will earn ($0.38) per share for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of ($0.27). The consensus estimate for Bloom Energys current full-year earnings is ($0.71) per share. Jefferies Financial Group also issued estimates for Bloom Energys Q2 2023 earnings at ($0.22) EPS, Q3 2023 earnings at ($0.14) EPS, FY2023 earnings at ($0.63) EPS, Q1 2024 earnings at ($0.08) EPS, Q2 2024 earnings at ($0.02) EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $0.15 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $0.27 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $0.33 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $1.00 EPS.

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Several other research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Bloom Energy from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 14th. TheStreet raised shares of Bloom Energy from a d rating to a c- rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Bloom Energy from $35.00 to $32.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 3rd. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Bloom Energy from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Bloom Energy from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Friday, February 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Bloom Energy has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $30.07.

Bloom Energy Trading Down 3.4 %

Shares of BE opened at $15.96 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.29 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.67 and a beta of 2.86. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $19.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.49. Bloom Energy has a 12-month low of $11.47 and a 12-month high of $31.47.

Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 9th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.01). Bloom Energy had a negative net margin of 25.14% and a negative return on equity of 194.49%. The firm had revenue of $462.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $398.36 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.16) EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Glen Griffiths sold 2,122 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.03, for a total value of $38,259.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 403,498 shares of the companys stock, valued at $7,275,068.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Bloom Energy news, insider Glen Griffiths sold 2,122 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.03, for a total transaction of $38,259.66. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 403,498 shares in the company, valued at $7,275,068.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Sharelynn Faye Moore sold 2,016 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.52, for a total transaction of $37,336.32. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 162,175 shares in the company, valued at $3,003,481. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 313,461 shares of company stock worth $6,163,328. Corporate insiders own 2.78% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bloom Energy

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in Bloom Energy during the third quarter worth approximately $207,000. Capital Impact Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Bloom Energy by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Impact Advisors LLC now owns 34,793 shares of the companys stock valued at $735,000 after purchasing an additional 584 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC acquired a new stake in Bloom Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $652,000. Jump Financial LLC grew its holdings in Bloom Energy by 392.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 74,740 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,494,000 after purchasing an additional 59,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its holdings in Bloom Energy by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 308,670 shares of the companys stock valued at $5,902,000 after purchasing an additional 39,468 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.55% of the companys stock.

About Bloom Energy

(Get Rating)

Bloom Energy Corp. engages in the manufacture and installation of a solid oxide fuel-cell based power generation platform. Its product, Bloom Energy Server, converts standard low-pressure natural gas or biogas into electricity through an electrochemical process without combustion. The company was founded by K.

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Shares of European Residential Real Estate Investment Trust (TSE:ERE-UN  Get Rating) fell 1.8% on Monday . The company traded as low as C$3.31 and last traded at C$3.31. 20,418 shares traded hands during trading, The stock had previously closed at C$3.37.

European Residential Real Estate Investment Trust Stock Performance

The stocks 50 day moving average is C$3.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$3.26. The firm has a market capitalization of C$302.37 million, a P/E ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 234.20, a current ratio of 0.14 and a quick ratio of 0.20.

European Residential Real Estate Investment Trust Company Profile

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ERES is an unincorporated, open-ended real estate investment trust. ERES's REIT units are listed on the TSX under the symbol ERE.UN. ERES is Canada's only European-focused multi-residential REIT, with a current initial focus on investing in high-quality multi-residential real estate properties in the Netherlands.

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Hyatt Hotels (NYSE:H  Get Rating) is set to announce its earnings results before the market opens on Thursday, May 4th. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.47 per share for the quarter. Parties interested in participating in the companys conference call can do so using this link.

Hyatt Hotels (NYSE:H  Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The company reported $2.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $2.23. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. Hyatt Hotels had a return on equity of 10.22% and a net margin of 7.72%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 47.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($2.78) EPS. On average, analysts expect Hyatt Hotels to post $3 EPS for the current fiscal year and $3 EPS for the next fiscal year.

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Hyatt Hotels Stock Performance

Shares of Hyatt Hotels stock opened at $119.02 on Wednesday. Hyatt Hotels has a 52 week low of $70.12 and a 52 week high of $125.07. The company has a market capitalization of $12.65 billion, a PE ratio of 28.89 and a beta of 1.36. The stocks fifty day moving average is $112.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $103.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Insider Transactions at Hyatt Hotels

Institutional Trading of Hyatt Hotels

In other news, insider Peter Sears sold 10,698 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.03, for a total transaction of $1,230,590.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,315 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $611,384.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink . In related news, insider Peter Sears sold 10,698 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.03, for a total value of $1,230,590.94. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,315 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $611,384.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website . Also, Director Cary D. Mcmillan sold 1,790 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.93, for a total value of $203,934.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . In the last ninety days, insiders sold 77,357 shares of company stock valued at $8,726,994. 21.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Hyatt Hotels by 59.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 256,384 shares of the companys stock worth $24,472,000 after buying an additional 95,574 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Hyatt Hotels by 31.4% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,991 shares of the companys stock valued at $381,000 after purchasing an additional 953 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in Hyatt Hotels by 13.2% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 18,865 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,801,000 after purchasing an additional 2,194 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. purchased a new position in Hyatt Hotels in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,214,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Hyatt Hotels in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $94,000. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on H shares. TheStreet upgraded Hyatt Hotels from a c rating to a b rating in a research note on Monday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Hyatt Hotels from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $111.00 to $113.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. StockNews.com began coverage on Hyatt Hotels in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating for the company. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Hyatt Hotels from $132.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Hyatt Hotels from $112.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hyatt Hotels has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $121.57.

Hyatt Hotels Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Hyatt Hotels Corp. engages in the development and management of resort and hotel chains. It operates through the following segments: Owned and Leased Hotels, Americas Management and Franchising, ASPAC Management and Franchising, EAME/SW Asia Management and Franchising, and Apple Leisure Group. The Owned and Leased Hotels segment offers hospitality services and hotels.

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StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Leju (NYSE:LEJU  Get Rating) in a research report released on Sunday. The firm issued a buy rating on the financial services providers stock.

Leju Stock Performance

NYSE LEJU opened at $5.52 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1.42. Leju has a 52-week low of $1.03 and a 52-week high of $9.84.

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Leju Company Profile

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Leju Holdings Ltd. engages in the provision of online-to-offline real estate services. It offers electronic commerce, online advertising, and listing services on new residential property sales. The company was founded on November 20, 2013 and is headquartered in Beijing, China.

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LTC Properties, Inc. (NYSE:LTC  Get Rating) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 865,000 shares, a drop of 5.7% from the March 31st total of 917,600 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 284,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.0 days.

LTC Properties Stock Performance

LTC opened at $32.30 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 13.87, a current ratio of 13.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. LTC Properties has a 12-month low of $31.90 and a 12-month high of $45.49. The business has a 50 day moving average of $34.35 and a 200-day moving average of $36.58. The stock has a market cap of $1.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.06 and a beta of 0.95.

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LTC Properties Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 21st. LTC Propertiess dividend payout ratio is 78.08%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On LTC Properties

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Legato Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of LTC Properties during the 4th quarter worth about $420,000. Martingale Asset Management L P bought a new position in shares of LTC Properties during the third quarter worth approximately $371,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in LTC Properties by 26.4% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 35,068 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $1,313,000 after purchasing an additional 7,319 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp boosted its stake in LTC Properties by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 6,656 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the period. Finally, Bridge City Capital LLC grew its holdings in LTC Properties by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bridge City Capital LLC now owns 33,624 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $1,259,000 after buying an additional 1,091 shares in the last quarter. 72.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on LTC. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of LTC Properties from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of LTC Properties in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. They issued an equal weight rating and a $36.00 price target on the stock. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of LTC Properties from $35.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com assumed coverage on LTC Properties in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Finally, Credit Suisse Group reduced their price target on LTC Properties from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, LTC Properties presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $38.89.

About LTC Properties

(Get Rating)

LTC Properties, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which engages in managing seniors housing and health care properties. It operates through the Texas, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Remaining States geographic segments. The company was founded by Andre C. Dimitriadis on May 12, 1992 and is headquartered in Westlake Village, CA.

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NuStar Energy L.P. (NYSE:NS  Get Rating) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 27th, investing.com reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 8th will be paid a dividend of 0.40 per share by the pipeline company on Friday, May 12th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 5th.

NuStar Energy has decreased its dividend by an average of 12.6% annually over the last three years. NuStar Energy has a payout ratio of 111.1% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect NuStar Energy to earn $0.96 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 166.7%.

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NuStar Energy Price Performance

Shares of NS opened at $15.60 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 22.56. NuStar Energy has a twelve month low of $12.80 and a twelve month high of $17.75. The company has a 50 day moving average of $15.73 and a 200-day moving average of $16.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.33 and a beta of 1.85.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NuStar Energy ( NYSE:NS Get Rating ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 1st. The pipeline company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.07. NuStar Energy had a return on equity of 149.25% and a net margin of 13.23%. The company had revenue of $429.96 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $349.77 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that NuStar Energy will post 0.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Several analysts recently weighed in on NS shares. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded NuStar Energy from a hold rating to a buy rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $19.50 in a research report on Monday, March 6th. Raymond James upgraded shares of NuStar Energy from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $20.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on NuStar Energy from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of NuStar Energy from $19.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of NuStar Energy in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $18.25.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NuStar Energy

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NS. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of NuStar Energy by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 12,661 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $183,000 after acquiring an additional 764 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NuStar Energy by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 14,610 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,001 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of NuStar Energy by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 126,881 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $1,776,000 after acquiring an additional 1,220 shares during the period. First Republic Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in NuStar Energy by 9.9% during the second quarter. First Republic Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,743 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $248,000 after purchasing an additional 1,598 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clear Street Markets LLC purchased a new position in NuStar Energy during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 67.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About NuStar Energy

(Get Rating)

NuStar Energy LP engages in the transportation of petroleum products and anhydrous ammonia, and the terminalling, storage, and marketing of petroleum products. It operates through the following segments: Pipeline, Storage, and Fuels Marketing. The Pipeline segment provides transportation of refined petroleum products, crude oil, and anhydrous ammonia.

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John Bean Technologies Co. (NYSE:JBT  Get Rating)  Equities research analysts at Seaport Res Ptn boosted their Q2 2023 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for John Bean Technologies in a report issued on Thursday, April 27th. Seaport Res Ptn analyst W. Liptak now forecasts that the industrial products company will post earnings of $1.22 per share for the quarter, up from their prior forecast of $1.14. The consensus estimate for John Bean Technologies current full-year earnings is $5.30 per share. Seaport Res Ptn also issued estimates for John Bean Technologies Q3 2023 earnings at $1.38 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $1.96 EPS, Q1 2024 earnings at $1.16 EPS, Q2 2024 earnings at $1.40 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $1.57 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $2.11 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $6.25 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $1.39 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $7.59 EPS.

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Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. StockNews.com initiated coverage on John Bean Technologies in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating for the company. TheStreet lowered John Bean Technologies from a b rating to a c+ rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 25th.

John Bean Technologies Stock Down 0.6 %

John Bean Technologies stock opened at $106.66 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.39 billion, a PE ratio of 26.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.40. John Bean Technologies has a 12 month low of $81.59 and a 12 month high of $126.75. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $106.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $100.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

John Bean Technologies (NYSE:JBT  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 26th. The industrial products company reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $529.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $513.54 million. John Bean Technologies had a return on equity of 18.50% and a net margin of 5.87%. The businesss revenue was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On John Bean Technologies

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its stake in shares of John Bean Technologies by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 41,031 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $4,484,000 after purchasing an additional 2,443 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of John Bean Technologies by 15.8% in the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,698 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,060,000 after purchasing an additional 1,320 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its stake in shares of John Bean Technologies by 33.4% in the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,570 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $3,122,000 after purchasing an additional 7,152 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of John Bean Technologies by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 7,757 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $848,000 after purchasing an additional 780 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in shares of John Bean Technologies in the 1st quarter valued at $234,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.38% of the companys stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other John Bean Technologies news, Director Caroline Maury Devine sold 300 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.17, for a total transaction of $30,651.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 45,249 shares of the companys stock, valued at $4,623,090.33. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 900 shares of company stock valued at $95,787. Insiders own 0.96% of the companys stock.

John Bean Technologies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 6th were paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 3rd. John Bean Technologiess dividend payout ratio is presently 9.80%.

John Bean Technologies Company Profile

(Get Rating)

John Bean Technologies Corp. is a technology solutions provider, which engages in the food, beverage, and air transportation industries. It operates through the JBT FoodTech and JBT AeroTech business segments. The JBT FoodTech segment designs, manufactures, and services technologically food processing systems for the preparation of meat, seafood and poultry products, ready-to-eat meals, shelf stable packaged foods, bakery products, juice and dairy products, and fruit and vegetable products.

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Dover Co. (NYSE:DOV  Get Rating)  Oppenheimer lifted their Q3 2023 earnings estimates for Dover in a research note issued on Wednesday, April 26th. Oppenheimer analyst B. Blair now expects that the industrial products company will earn $2.46 per share for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $2.43. Oppenheimer has a Outperform rating and a $174.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Dovers current full-year earnings is $8.99 per share. Oppenheimer also issued estimates for Dovers Q4 2023 earnings at $2.42 EPS.

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A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on DOV. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Dover from $176.00 to $170.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. 92 Resources reiterated a maintains rating on shares of Dover in a report on Thursday, April 27th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Dover from $144.00 to $152.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, February 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a sector perform rating and issued a $145.00 price objective on shares of Dover in a report on Thursday, March 9th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Dover from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $162.31.

Dover Stock Down 1.1 %

DOV stock opened at $144.74 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Dover has a 12 month low of $114.49 and a 12 month high of $160.66. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $146.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $142.12.

Dover (NYSE:DOV  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 26th. The industrial products company reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.94. The business had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.08 billion. Dover had a net margin of 12.51% and a return on equity of 28.27%. Dovers revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.90 earnings per share.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Dover

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ellevest Inc. grew its holdings in Dover by 47.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ellevest Inc. now owns 244 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Dover during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc purchased a new position in Dover during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Concord Wealth Partners purchased a new position in Dover during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Fairfield Bush & CO. purchased a new position in Dover during the 1st quarter valued at about $48,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.52% of the companys stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Dover

In related news, CFO Brad M. Cerepak sold 34,972 shares of Dover stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.25, for a total value of $5,009,739.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 73,878 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $10,583,023.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.30% of the companys stock.

Dover Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.505 per share. This represents a $2.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 27th. Dovers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.93%.

About Dover

(Get Rating)

Dover Corp. operates as a manufacturer and solutions provider delivering innovative equipment and components, consumable supplies, aftermarket parts, software and digital solutions, and support services. It operates through the following segments: Engineered Products, Clean Energy and Fueling, Imaging and Identification, Pumps and Process Solutions, and Climate and Sustainability Technologies.

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Teladoc Health, Inc. (NYSE:TDOC  Get Rating)  Research analysts at KeyCorp issued their Q2 2023 earnings estimates for Teladoc Health in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, April 27th. KeyCorp analyst S. Schoenhaus anticipates that the health services provider will post earnings per share of ($0.45) for the quarter. The consensus estimate for Teladoc Healths current full-year earnings is ($1.50) per share. KeyCorp also issued estimates for Teladoc Healths Q3 2023 earnings at ($0.32) EPS, Q1 2024 earnings at ($0.37) EPS, Q2 2024 earnings at ($0.31) EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at ($0.27) EPS and Q4 2024 earnings at ($0.23) EPS.

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A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Stephens initiated coverage on shares of Teladoc Health in a research report on Tuesday, April 11th. They issued an equal weight rating and a $25.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of Teladoc Health in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Teladoc Health from $28.00 to $29.00 in a report on Thursday, April 27th. SVB Leerink upgraded shares of Teladoc Health from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $34.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. Finally, 58.com reiterated a maintains rating on shares of Teladoc Health in a report on Thursday, April 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $32.78.

Teladoc Health Stock Performance

Shares of Teladoc Health stock opened at $26.03 on Monday. Teladoc Health has a fifty-two week low of $21.60 and a fifty-two week high of $44.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 3.29 and a quick ratio of 3.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -0.60 and a beta of 1.08. The companys 50 day moving average price is $25.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $26.89.

Teladoc Health (NYSE:TDOC  Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 22nd. The health services provider reported ($0.23) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.04. Teladoc Health had a negative net margin of 285.51% and a negative return on equity of 5.05%. The firm had revenue of $637.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $633.71 million.

Insider Buying and Selling at Teladoc Health

In other Teladoc Health news, CMO Stephany Verstraete sold 2,254 shares of Teladoc Health stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.36, for a total value of $57,161.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 35,188 shares of the companys stock, valued at $892,367.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Teladoc Health news, CAO Richard J. Napolitano sold 1,384 shares of Teladoc Health stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.36, for a total value of $35,098.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,030 shares of the companys stock, valued at $127,560.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CMO Stephany Verstraete sold 2,254 shares of Teladoc Health stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.36, for a total transaction of $57,161.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 35,188 shares of the companys stock, valued at $892,367.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 44,551 shares of company stock valued at $1,157,635. Corporate insiders own 1.55% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Teladoc Health

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Waypoint Wealth Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Teladoc Health during the first quarter worth about $208,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased its position in shares of Teladoc Health by 100.0% during the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 5,320 shares of the health services providers stock worth $130,000 after acquiring an additional 2,660 shares in the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System increased its position in shares of Teladoc Health by 1.3% during the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 3,833,000 shares of the health services providers stock worth $99,275,000 after acquiring an additional 50,000 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new stake in shares of Teladoc Health during the first quarter worth about $644,000. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in shares of Teladoc Health by 2.9% during the first quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 46,919 shares of the health services providers stock worth $1,215,000 after acquiring an additional 1,303 shares in the last quarter. 84.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Teladoc Health

(Get Rating)

Teladoc Health, Inc engages in the provision of telehealthcare services using a technology platform via mobile devices, the Internet, video and phone. It operates through the following segments: Teladoc Health Integrated Care, BetterHelp, and Others. The Teladoc Health Integrated Care segment offers virtual medical services.

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Chinese FM to visit Myanmar, attend SCO Foreign Ministers' Meeting in India

Xinhua) 10:54, May 03, 2023

BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang will visit Myanmar and travel to India to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Foreign Ministers' Meeting from May 2 to 5, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said Tuesday.

Qin's visit to Myanmar is aimed to further follow through on the outcomes of President Xi Jinping's historic visit to Myanmar in January 2020, deepen practical cooperation in such fields as economy and livelihood, and support Myanmar's efforts to maintain stability, revitalize the economy, improve people's lives, and realize sustainable development, according to foreign ministry spokesperson's remarks in a statement.

The upcoming SCO Foreign Ministers' Meeting will be held on May 4 and 5 in Panaji, the capital of Goa, India. At the meeting, Qin will exchange views with other SCO member states' foreign ministers on the international and regional situation and SCO cooperation in various fields, among other topics, to make full preparation for this year's SCO summit, the statement said.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
Shares of Stillwater Critical Minerals Corp. (CVE:PGE  Get Rating) were up 2.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as C$0.20 and last traded at C$0.20. Approximately 4,000 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 94% from the average daily volume of 67,571 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$0.19.

Stillwater Critical Minerals Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of C$34.59 million, a P/E ratio of -9.75 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a quick ratio of 5.39, a current ratio of 10.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of C$0.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$0.20.

About Stillwater Critical Minerals

(Get Rating)

Stillwater Critical Minerals Corp., a mineral exploration company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in Canada and the United States. The company explores for gold, platinum group metals, palladium, nickel, copper, and cobalt deposits. Its flagship project is the 100%-owned Stillwater West project that comprise 763 claims covering an area of approximately 61 square kilometers located in Stillwater District, Montana.

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StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Xinyuan Real Estate (NYSE:XIN  Get Rating) in a research note issued to investors on Sunday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the financial services providers stock.

Xinyuan Real Estate Trading Down 3.5 %

XIN opened at $3.57 on Friday. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $4.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.45. Xinyuan Real Estate has a 52-week low of $2.95 and a 52-week high of $11.90.

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Institutional Trading of Xinyuan Real Estate

An institutional investor recently bought a new position in Xinyuan Real Estate stock. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd. (NYSE:XIN  Get Rating) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 478,629 shares of the financial services providers stock, valued at approximately $536,000. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. owned 0.90% of Xinyuan Real Estate as of its most recent SEC filing. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.91% of the companys stock.

About Xinyuan Real Estate

Xinyuan Real Estate Co Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the acquisition, investment, and development of real estate properties. It operates through the following geographical segments: Henan Province, Shandong Province, Jiangsu Province, Sichuan Province, Beijing, Hainan Province, Hunan Province, Shaanxi Province, Shanghai, Tianjin, Xinjiang, Zhuhai, and United States.

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NEW CASTLE  A winding stretch of Craig Creek is the dividing line between two sides: A landowner fighting for his property rights and recreational boaters who worry about losing access to the waterway.

William Lemon, one of the owners of Briar Oak Farm, has filed a lawsuit that asks a judge to declare a section of the creek that runs through the farm and the adjoining Briar Oak Properties as his and not the states.

The lawsuit accuses the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and the Commonwealth of Virginia of wrongly claiming the creek is public property, which allows canoeists, kayakers, tubers and others to navigate it as it passes through Briar Oak.

Should a judge change that designation, outdoor enthusiasts say, it could make a popular stretch of the creek near the Botetourt County line off-limits to those who do not receive permission from the adjoining landowner.

It could set a terrible precedent statewide that would affect public access, said Bill Tanger, chair of Friends of the Rivers of Virginia. Tanger recently established a second group called Friends of Craigs Creek, which has won the backing of the Botetourt and Craig County boards of supervisors. (The tributary of the James River is also known as Craigs Creek as it winds 84 miles through Montgomery, Craig and Botetourt counties.)

The lawsuit contends that the state has made a hostile claim of the creek and its high-water marks on both sides, and asks a judge to overturn that with a declaratory judgement that establishes Briar Oak as the legal owner.

Recreational use of the creek by members of the public is not mentioned in the complaint filed last year in Craig County Circuit Court. But in more recent court filings, Lemons lawyer, Lenden Eakin of Roanoke, wrote that the propertys natural setting and beautiful views make it widely known.

The states claim of ownership has resulted in many hundreds of people trespassing on these lands as if they were a public park, Eakin wrote. Those members of the public fish, wade, swim, camp, seine, shoot, picnic, park vehicles, build fires and otherwise trespass on plaintiffs property with impunity.

Eakin could not be reached Monday following a hearing in the case.

But he said earlier that Lemons concerns are largely based not on the conduct of boaters, but rather on what happens on the sides of the creek, which are accessible from a public road that passes though Briar Oak and fords the creek.

Tangers theory is that the states position currently prohibits Lemon from barring people both from the creek proper and its banks extending to the high water marks. But if the lawsuit is successful, he said, that would free Lemon to post the land as privately owned and charge violators with trespassing.

At Mondays hearing, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission asked that the lawsuit be dismissed. The issues it raises have been rendered moot, according to commission attorney Rosalie Fessier, by new legislation from the most recent session of the General Assembly.

A new law  which Fessier said was not passed in response to the Craig Creek controversy  removes the commissions jurisdiction over the beds of non-tidal waters.

There will no longer be any controversy, once the law takes effect July 1, she said. Lemons lawsuit is currently scheduled for a July 11 trial.

Judge Joel Branscom agreed and dismissed the commission from the case, on the assumption that the law takes effect as envisioned. But he allowed Eakin to file an amended lawsuit that will state a renewed claim against the second defendant, the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Branscoms decision Monday eliminated the need for either side to make detailed arguments on why the states claim is  or is not  legitimate under the law. The hearing was originally scheduled for that purpose, but Fessiers motion to dismiss, filed April 19, put that on hold for now.

Since the lawsuit was filed, both Botetourt and Craig counties have expressed support for keeping Craig Creek open to the public.

Craig Creek and others are a natural resource that must be protected and have an important recreational and economic benefit for the citizens of the county, states a resolution adopted in February by the Craig County supervisors.

In April, Botetourt County filed a friend of the court brief that made a similar argument.

The creek has long been considered a public waterway for passage from New Castle to Eagle Rock, according to the brief, and continues to be an economic engine in the countys emphasis on tourism.

Blockage of a stream or river subject to the beneficial use as a public thoroughfare is a public nuisance, the document states.
Students squinting along a sunny stretch of sidewalk outside the Roanoke College library find a moment of cool refuge beneath the leafy shade of an old, but steady-growing champion.

A Dutch elm tree outside Fintel Library is the largest of its species measured in Virginia, with a trunk thats almost 21 feet around, stretching about 94 feet up toward the sun. Lofty branches spread 80 feet outward, casting friendly shade to passersby on a hot spring day.

Using a long tape measure to note the trees width and spread, plus a laser tool to gauge height, volunteer tree steward Harry Van Guilder scribbled those arboreal measurements on his clipboard on a recent Wednesday. During the six year span since he last measured this state champion for the Virginia Big Trees program, Van Guilder said its trunk width grew at a rate of about an inch per year.

For a tree at this maturity, and as slow-growing as they are, it still amazes me, he said. Its starting to decline a little now. You can see the top is broken out, which may have been storm related. But then there are some dead limbs out toward the tips, and thats a sign of age decline, or disease.

Roanoke College puts a lot of time, money and effort into taking care of its urban forest on campus, including properly big trees like the state champion Dutch elm, said Bill Martin, manager of landscaping, during an April 20 phone call.

We did just do a big inventory. That included over 500 trees, Martin said. Were going to start tagging 50 of those with QR codes, so that well be able to do a tour, a walk through campus.

People can use their cellphones to scan those newly installed codes and read more about the species, size and history of notable trees on campus, he said. First stop on the campus tour is that state champion Dutch elm shading High Street, which has outlived human memory, and whose planting might date back more than 180 years, to before 1842.

I read somewhere that it was planted before or around when the school was started, Martin said. So that tree predates Roanoke College, and obviously survived surrounding construction and other things.

The college hires out expert arborists to care for its trees, maintaining an urban forest of more than 1,000 trees from 77 different species, he said. In addition to surviving the elements, certain species, like the state champion Dutch elm, endure unique threats, such as fungal disease.

Wind damage, storm damage. That tree does have lightning protection in it as well, Martin said. We treat several elm trees on campus for Dutch elm disease, and thats one of them.

Its the only champion tree on Roanoke College campus, he said.

We did lose a champion gum on Elizabeth Campus several years back to lightning, Martin said.

At Virginia Tech, meanwhile, professor Eric Wiseman coordinates the Virginia Big Trees program, and maintains a list of state champions for more than 300 species.

Many of these champion trees, theyre not out in the wilderness, Wiseman said. Theyre in places that are right around the corner, and oftentimes these trees are located at places that have either cultural or historical significance.

But champion trees do not often hold their title for long, he said. The big trees program makes an effort to remeasure state champions at least once every decade.

Not all champion big trees are necessarily at the end of their biological lifespan, but a lot of them are, so something that often catches up with these trees is old age, Wiseman said. Another big one is storm damage, either lightning strikes or ice storms.

Forests  full of big trees and small  fulfill other important purposes that people might not notice, he said.

These trees, in my opinion, serve as ambassadors of our forests. People are enamored and curious about superlatives, the biggest of something, Wiseman said. If we can get people curious about superlative trees, we now have a gateway to talk to them about forest ecology, conservation and all the important roles trees play in day-to-day life.

Trees provide ecosystem services like protecting water quality, and storing the carbon that people emit into the atmosphere when driving cars and using other devices that burn fossil fuels, he said. Bigger trees store more carbon.

Another valuable service is that refreshing shade offered by trees on a hot day.

Roanoke College Professor Katherine ONeill has led environmental studies students in recent years to map urban heating in Salem, part of a statewide effort to chart temperature variations in cities across Virginia.

What we found is a lot of cities will have elevated heat relative to the surrounding rural area. Thats because theres less green space, less water movement, and a greater area of dark surfaces like asphalt and dark-colored roofs, ONeill said. We found the neighborhoods that were most impacted by that, and those are some areas where we are currently planting food forests.

As Juneberry and pecan and pawpaw trees planted this week by Roanoke College students grow, their branches will shade surrounding neighborhoods, providing respite from the sun. And as an added bonus, the plants will seasonally grow edible produce.

In addition to helping to offset the cooling, theyre also providing other ecosystem benefits, ONeill said. Theyre contributing to biodiversity, helping with stormwater runoff, and also maybe increasing some community resilience by providing another source of food.

Whether any of the newly planted saplings in Salem sprout up into state champions for their species is a test for time, said Wiseman, the Virginia Big Trees coordinator.

Many champion trees were planted by someone 100 or 150, maybe even 200 years ago, Wiseman said. Thats kind of inspiring to me, if someone goes out and plants a tree today, what theyre planting could eventually have the claim to fame of being the biggest of its kind in the state.

Van Guilder, the volunteer tree steward, said his group, Trees Roanoke, is about 50 people strong and always seeking new members. To get involved, he said go online to treesroanoke.org.

Its tree huggers like me that are interested, Van Guilder said, measuring the state champion Dutch elm. Itd take several of us to hug this tree.

On a slope of U.S. Forest Service land near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Botetourt County earlier this year, Dan Miles and Beck Stanley walked across the new Virginia champion pignut hickory tree, measuring more than 130 feet tall.

Stanley said big trees are just one of the amazing things youll find in Virginias mountain woodlands. He said:

It shows that some of the greatest wonders in life are often right in our own backyard.
The Smith Mountain Lake Vessel Pump Out Program has been funded for the 2023 boating season.

Set to be its 22nd year, the program is a cooperative effort between the Tri-County Lakes Administrative Commission, the Smith Mountain Lake Association and the Virginia Department of Health. The SML Vessel Pump Out Program is made possible by funding from the three agencies.

Pump out services are provided by two pump out sanitation trucks that service boats each Saturday, Sunday and holidays beginning Memorial weekend through Labor Day. Smith Mountain Lake is a designed no discharge zone that prohibits any vessel from discharging sewage (treated or untreated) into the lake.

The program is a free service offered to SML boaters which emphasizes protecting the lakes water quality. It was initially begun as an effort to educate the public about the no discharge zone regulations at Smith Mountain Lake. In addition to the Pump Out program, numerous marinas around the lake offer vessel pump out services.

Boaters wishing to schedule a vessel pump out are encouraged to call 540- 721-4400 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or email pumpout@sml.us.com.

A Pump Out Guide is also available showing where pump out stations are located at Smith Mountain Lake. The guide can be viewed at www.tricountylakes.org

- Submitted by Kristina Sage
Update: Authorities have arrested the sister of Alder Marin-Sotelo, the man accused of fatally shooting a Wake County deputy in August who escaped from a Virginia prison Sunday.

Adriana Marin-Sotelo was arrested in High Point, North Carolina, and charged with helping her brother escape from the Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville, Virginia, according to federal court documents obtained by ABC11, The News & Observers news gathering partner.

The documents allege she paid someone $2,500 to leave a car in the jail parking lot for Alder to use.

Around 1:40 a.m. Sunday, Alder Marin-Sotelo escaped from jail. However, authorities did not realize he had escaped until about 4 a.m., when jail officials notified the local sheriffs office in Prince Edward County.

Images from the FBI show him getting into an early 2000s red or burgundy Ford Mustang with a 30-day temporary tag.

In August, Alder Marin Sotelo was arrested along with his brother Arturo Marin Sotelo in connection with the shooting death of Wake County Deputy Ned Byrd.

Byrd was shot multiple times near in a rural area near a gas station on Auburn Knightdale and Battle Bridge roads. After evading police for multiple days, the brothers were arrested near Winston-Salem.

According to the Prince Edward County Sheriffs Office, Alder Marin Sotelo was being held in Virginia on federal gun charges.

He is considered extremely dangerous by the FBI. Anyone who sees him should call 911 immediately and should not approach him.

Earlier story:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined the search for two fugitives from North Carolina who escaped from a Virginia jail early Saturday morning.

One of the men, Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo, is accused of murder in the death of Wake County Sheriffs Deputy Ned Byrd.

Monday night, the FBI said Marin-Sotelo left the jail in an early 2000 red or burgundy Ford Mustang with a 30-day temporary tag.

On Monday morning, the Prince Edward Sheriffs Office in Prince Edward County, Virginia, posted on Facebook that two inmates had escaped from the local Piedmont Regional Jail.

Marin-Sotelo, 26, and Bruce Callahan, 44 escaped from the jail sometime over the weekend, according to a statement from Prince Edward County Sheriff L.A. Tony Epps.

Epps statement did not specify how the two men escaped, but said his office was notified of the escape around 4 a.m. Monday.

Both men have ties to North Carolina, the statement said.

Marin-Sotelo and his brother, Arturo Marin-Sotelo, were charged with murder in the shooting death of a Wake County Sheriffs Deputy.

On Aug. 11, 2022, Byrd was found shot multiple times in a rural area near a gas station on Auburn Knightdale and Battle Bridge roads. His canine partner, Sasha, was still in the unmarked SUV.

The brothers evaded capture for several days before being taken into custody near Winston-Salem.

Callahan is also from North Carolina, according to authorities. He has been convicted on federal weapons and drug charges.

By 6 p.m., the U.S. Marshals said a reward of up to $5,000 would be given for tips leading to Callahan. A similar reward was not indicated for finding Marin-Sotelo.

Piedmont Regional Jail is 140 miles north of Raleigh in a rural section of Virginia, about halfway between the cities of Lynchburg and Richmond.

On Monday afternoon, the Wake County Sheriffs Office tweeted that they had been made aware of the situation and stated that Marin-Sotelo and Callahan had escaped from the jail around 1 a.m. on Sunday.

We are working with our partners and are ensuring all resources are being used to find Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo, the tweet said.

The FBI announced it had joined the search for the two men via Twitter on Monday afternoon.

The FBI is instructing anyone who sees Marin Sotelo to call 911 and not approach him.

The U.S. Marshals Service said people can also call its 24-hour tip line at 313-202-6458.
An international law enforcement operation has resulted in the arrest of 288 vendors who are believed to be involved in drug trafficking on the dark web, adding to a long list of criminal enterprises that have been shuttered in recent years.

The effort, codenamed Operation SpecTor, also saw the authorities confiscating more than $53.4 million in cash and virtual currencies, 850 kg of drugs, and 117 firearms.

The largest number of arrests were made in the U.S. (153), followed by the U.K. (55), Germany (52), the Netherlands (10), Austria (9), France (5), Switzerland (2), Poland (1), and Brazil (1).

"This represents the most funds seized and the highest number of arrests in any coordinated international action," U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said. "The drug traffickers are confident that, by operating anonymously on the dark web, they can operate outside the bounds of the law. They are wrong."

The arrests stem from evidence gathered after the takedown of the Monopoly marketplace by German authorities in December 2021. DarkDotFail, in early January 2022, revealed that the criminal bazaar's servers were likely seized by law enforcement, although there was no official announcement.

"The vendors arrested as a result of the police action against Monopoly Market were also active on other illicit marketplaces, further impeding the trade of drugs and illicit goods on the dark web," Europol said in a statement.

"As a result, 288 vendors and buyers who engaged in tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods were arrested across Europe, the United States, and Brazil."

Europol said a number of these apprehended individuals were considered as high-value targets, adding law enforcement agencies gained access to the vendors' extensive buyer lists, potentially exposing "thousands of customers" who are now at risk of prosecution.

Operation SpecTor is a successor to DisrupTor and DarkHunTor, which led to the arrest of 329 alleged suspects in 2020 and 2021 for buying, selling, and coordinating the sale of outlawed goods across underground marketplaces and shops.

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The development also comes as the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Police of Ukraine seized nine virtual currency exchanges for knowingly offering cryptocurrency conversion services to criminal actors responsible for ransomware and other scams.

"These nine seized domains, 24xbtc.com, 100btc.pro, pridechange.com, 101crypta.com, uxbtc.com, trust-exchange.org, bitcoin24.exchange, paybtc.pro, and owl.gold offered anonymous cryptocurrency exchange services to website visitors," the Justice Department said.

The dismantling is part of a broader effort undertaken by governments in Europe and the U.S. to target infrastructure used by malicious actors to launder illegal proceeds and obscure the money trails.
It's not yet certain if the closing credits have rolled at AMC Classic Grand Island 7

The theater did not show any movies on Tuesday. An employee said the company still hopes to reopen. Meanwhile, demolition equipment is standing by.

On Monday afternoon, Hall County Court Judge Alfred Corey ruled in favor of the mall owners in a civil action brought against AMC's owners.

Woodsonia filed the action April 7 against American Multi-Cinema Inc., in care of Corporate Creations Network of Omaha. American Multi-Cinema is also known as AMC.

Corey ruled that the premises should be surrendered to Woodsonia and that AMC should pay court costs incurred by Woodsonia.

The judge agreed that under the terms of the lease, once there's a threat of condemnation, the landlord "can basically extinguish the lease with a condemning authority so the government doesn't have to waste money going through that process," said Omaha attorney Greg Scaglione, who represents Woodsonia.

Woodsonia will now "have to see if AMC is going to be cooperative," Scaglione said Tuesday morning.

In a case such as this, the lessee is normally given a certain number of days to gather its inventory and equipment before moving out, Scaglione said. If the lessee doesn't follow that procedure, the sheriff's department would arrive and demand that the lessee leave the property. The locks would be changed and the owner would gain control of the property.

After Monday's court hearing, Scaglione sent an email to AMC's attorney asking that AMC's possessions be gathered up and removed from the premises. He had not received a response as of Tuesday.

A delay would hold up construction, Scaglione said. The demolition crew is on site and ready to go.

Woodsonia urges AMC to take whatever it wants. Whatever's left usually gets disposed of in some way, Scaglione said.

Kearney attorney Daniel Lindstrom, who represents AMC, did not return a call from The Independent.

By one merchant's count, 18 businesses are continuing to operate in the mall.
The National Fire Heritage Center was established to preserve the history of Americas fire service and is pleased to announce the induction of Robert A. Burke of Fairmont into the Hall of Legends, Legacies, and Leaders (HILL) Class of 2023.

With more than 40 years of public safety service, Burke has served in a number of positions within the fire protection and hazardous materials preparedness communities.

Burkes first spark of interest in firefighting began when he was a fifth grader at Belmont Elementary School in Lincoln.

Burke said, My best friends dad from elementary school was a firefighter in Lincoln. He drove engine two out of Fire Station 2 in Lincoln and one day, there was fire at the house next door to us. The first engine that got there was the one my friends dad was driving. I saw him hook the hose to the fire hydrant at the top of the street, and I knew at that point, that was it. I wanted to be a firefighter.

Burke's family moved to Illinois, where he graduated from Dundee High School.

Burke said, I had to finish high school in Illinois and I was heartbroken. I had been with the same kids from elementary school to junior high and some of high school. When I look back on it, had we not made that move, I wouldnt be where I am today.

Burkes experience with a volunteer fire department began when he was filling a dunk tank for a high school celebration. He spotted a fire hydrant several feet away and saw it as an opportunity to ask the West Dundee Fire Department if he could borrow a fire hose and a hydrant wrench to fill the tank. Burke said, That rekindled that fire of the desire of wanting to be a firefighter.

While he could not become a firefighter due to his age, Burke still spent time volunteering in other ways, such as painting, cleaning and getting familiar with the equipment.

Burke earned an associates in fire protection technology from Catonsville Community College in Baltimore County, Maryland and a bachelors in fire science from the University of Maryland. He has completed graduate work at the University of Baltimore in public administration.

Burke has served as a fire marshal with the University of Maryland, has command experience as chief officer and worked as company officer in both the career and volunteer fire service.

He has served as a Lieutenant for the Anne Arundel County, Maryland Fire Department; an assistant fire chief for the Verdigris Fire Protection District in Claremore, Oklahoma; deputy state fire marshal in the state of Nebraska; a private fire protection and hazardous materials consultant; an exercise and training officer for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, served as a HazMat Response Technician and HazMat Response Team member, and has been and educator and instructor for many years.

Burke was contracted 30 years with the National Fire Academy to teach the Chemistry of Hazardous Materials, Hazardous Material Incident Management, the Initial Response to Hazardous Material Incidents Hazmat programs, and Emergency Response to Terrorism: Basic Concepts. Burke has taught both on and off the campus of University of Maryland.

Hes taught classes in 42 different states. As he traveled the United States for both teaching and writing, he said the people who he had never met were already familiar with him through his writing in magazines and books.

For 35 years, Burke has written for Firehouse Magazine, where he researched historical incidents, wrote about leaders in hazmat, sought out human interest stories, and put a spotlight on hazmat teams from around the United States and one hazmat department in Canada. When writing about historical incidents or hazmat teams, Burke made it a practice to visit the locations and talk with people involved in person if available and visited teams that were spotlighted.

Burke is the author of 13 books that have been published and sold around the U.S. and other parts of the world including: "Hazardous Materials Chemistry for Emergency Responders" (three editions), "Counter-Terrorism for Emergency Responders" (three editions), "Fire Protection: Systems and Response, Hazmat Teams Across America" and "Hazmatology: The Science of Hazardous Materials" ( five volume set).

Burke dedicated "Hazmatology: The Science of Hazardous Materials" to Kevin Saunders, a motivational author, speaker and medalist of the 1988 Paralympic Games.

Burke said, My first volume of the book was a history of hazardous material incidents that have occurred around the country. Theres no such book that exists anywhere else. Its a one of a kind book. I called a friend of mine in Corpus Christi, Texas and I asked Have you had any incidents in the past that were impactful that would be a good addition to my book of hazmat history. He gave me the website of Kevin Saunders that had written the history of a grain elevator explosion in Corpus Christi. He was injured by the explosion when it happened, was paralyzed from the chest down and is now confined to a wheelchair.

Burke had the opportunity to meet with Saunders in person and chat with him over the phone about his experience.

Burke's efforts of writing for Firehouse have taken him to 36 states with multiple teams covered in some states. He said he received mail, email and phone calls with questions and comments to him from readers across the country and from other countries including England, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

In 2018, Burke was recognized for his accomplishments and contributions to the fire protection community, as he was inducted into the Firehouse Hall of Fame.

All nominees for National Fire Heritage Center Hall of Legends, Legacies and Leaders are evaluated upon the following professional accomplishments, distinguished service and related factors:

Level of National Impact upon the Fire Community and Area of Expertise (30%).

Level of candidate's impact and influence upon the national / international fire protection community and area of expertise. In short, how did the individual "make a difference" within the fire serve / fire protection community?

Leadership Roles in Professional, Standards and Related Organizations (20%).

Leadership roles and positions of influence at a state, national or international level. This would include participation in consensus standards activities and fire protection community professional organizations (e.g., NFPA, IAFC, NVFC, IAFF, UL, etc.).

Development of fire service and/or fire protection research, equipment, standards, or processes (15%). These accomplishments should have a substantial impact upon the fire protection community, as applicable.

Development of textbooks, articles, and related writings and/or digital products authored by or participated in by the candidate (10%). This would include products produced or adopted by fire service and related organizations.

Education, training and/or professional certification (10%) achievements accomplished by the nominee and/or their organization during their period of service.

Professional honors and awards received, including those both within (10%) and outside (5%) of the fire protection community.

In a recent press release by the National Fire Heritage Center read, We are honored to have Robert Burke join the distinguished class of inductees into the National Fire Heritage Center Hall of Legends, Legacies and Leaders of 2023.

Now in retirement, Burke loves to do yardwork, spend time with his wife Claire, and spoil his many great grandchildren and children.
A pair of entities are looking to boost businesses in the region by sending Southern Illinoisans on a goose chase.

Carbondale Tourism and the Small Business Development Center at Southern Illinois University Carbondale have paired up to encourage residents to visit local destinations and shop the regions small businesses through the month-long Southern Illinois Goose Chase.

The first-time event is described as a free smartphone app-driven scavenger hunt that will lead participants on a series of missions. As tasks are completed  visits to sites or purchases made at indicated businesses  players earn points, competing against other players to win prizes.

Amy Dion, a program coordinator with SIUs Office of Economic and Regional Development and an adviser at the SBDC, said the joint effort seems to be a perfect fit for both the tourism bureau and the SBDC. In addition to her role at SIU, Dion is on the board of directors for Carbondale Tourism.

As we were considering things to do as part of National Small Business Week, we thought, Lets try something different, and we realized we could create these missions throughout Southern Illinois that would drive people to small businesses and do some tourism, Dion said. Its a great partnership and were trying to mix in tourism activities because as people travel, theyre going to stop at local shops and restaurants, too.

The chase, which began May 1, has dozens of missions available to players and Dion said more will be added leading up to the May 31 conclusion of the program. Participation is free, but players will need to download the Goosechase app and create an account. The join code is BD5E4X and the password is shopsoil.

Its all free, you just have to follow through what the tasks say, things like, go to a local restaurant, purchase a meal and upload a picture of your receipt or find a particular statue and then send in a photo, she explained. Its really just about building awareness of small businesses in our region.

Dion said the top point-getter will receive a $300 top prize and anyone who completed five or more missions will be eligible for a prize drawing.

We just want to remind people to get out and support the local economy. Many of these small businesses are trying their best, but they need traffic. Were hoping this app encourages people to learn about whats in their own communities. It is an opportunity to get people out and spending money locally, Dion said.

More information on the Southern Illinois Goose Chase is available on the SBDCs Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SIUSBDC.

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NEESES  The Rev. Robert Templeton, pastor of Neeses Baptist Church, on May 2 told Neeses Town Council of concerns about a lack of police presence in the town.

He also spoke about an increase in criminal behavior in the town and an a criminal element encroaching more on the citizens. Later, budget discussions by Mayor Kenneth Gleaton involved ideas about how to increase police presence in the town. Also, several council members chimed in with their related concerns.

In addition, the Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office was invited to attend the meeting. Lt. Randall Day, field services with OCSO took notes on concerns and made comments.

Templeton said toward the end of the meeting, With regards to the property upon which Neeses Baptist Church resides, directly behind us, no more than a block away, it is well known among the citizens of the town, including the committee to whom I speak, of the criminal element which seems to thrive unchecked in that area.

He said citizens have communicated to him allegations of human trafficking going on within the town.

And to conclude my opening statement, it seems everyone in the town, the committee not excluded, knows the names of the players, where they reside and what they are doing, Templeton said.

He said his concern is not only for the citizens of the town overall but for the members of Neeses Baptist Church and the neighboring Methodist church.

Templeton continued, I am not speaking on behalf of the Methodist church. However, I can say without hesitation the foot traffic of these individuals near the property of NBC is continuous.

I have a growing concern for what may eventually happen should some sort of encounter and/or altercation take place between the criminal element and the law-abiding citizens, he said.

Templeton next asked, Why do we not have a consistent law enforcement presence here in Neeses?

He also asked, What must be done in order to gain and maintain this presence in order to make inroads in deterring the criminal element about us and the continual degradation of the town?

Councilman Wylie Williams affirmed some of the alleged criminal activity. He said, I see it afternoons and on Saturdays. It is increasing. ...

"For us to be such a little town, we do have a lot of activity."

Williams said he has called the sheriffs office a lot and mentioned that a female citizen who never had a chain on her back door now has one.

Day of OCSO said he would be discussing these concerns with the sheriff.

A citizen then mentioned people cutting a lock and stealing water from a house, and a money order being stolen from a drop box at the Silver Springs Water District. She said a security system with a camera helped catch that alleged thief, recommending cameras for citizens and organizations.

The citizen said that the one who the money order was stolen from did not want to press charges and the Silver Springs Water District could not legally press charges.

Day said he would look into the legality of the issue and get back with a representative from the Silver Springs Water District.

Councilwoman Renee Olenick and Town Clerk Sonja Gleaton both mentioned citizens having property stolen, and Gleaton said a panhandler has been bothering citizens.

Day said this should be reported immediately to the sheriffs office.

Mayor Gleaton said, The criminal element is increasing (in Neeses). I do not know what the council could do. However, every option that could be on the table should be. I do not know if it will be creating a police department for the Town of Neeses or paying a full-time deputy from OCSO.

The mayor said he and council will talk with surrounding towns about the pros and cons of starting a police department.

He said the sheriff opened a substation in Neeses in 2011.

But the deputy has often been required to be in Orangeburg, Gleaton said.

Day said these issues will also be discussed in the sheriffs office.

Mayor Gleaton said a former council member takes a smoke break at 3 or 4 in the morning and sees a lot of suspicious foot traffic near the post office.

Councilman Williams said that it looked like drug pass-offs were going on after hours at the school as well.

Day said citizens can call in a property check for suspicious activity at the OCSO dispatch. The number is 803-534-3550. He said officers will respond as soon as they are able.

Mayor Gleaton later said, If we are going to think about a police department in the future, we are going to have to look at the budget.

He said the town will have only about $124,000 to operate on in the 2023-24 budget.

If you take into account penny sales tax projects/tax projects, this is basically our operating budget, Gleaton said.

The council gave first reading of a tentative 2023-24 budget during the meeting.

The total revenue will be $433,103, and the expenses will be $433,258.

Gleaton said for both, the numbers are a 3.01% decrease from the previous year.
Orangeburg County is going to spend about $3.7 million for the second phase of broadband installation in the Neeses area.

South Carolina-based Utility Service Contractors Inc. was awarded the $3.7 million contract for the broadband project.

County Council gave unanimous approval to the work during its regularly scheduled Monday meeting.

The broadband expansion project will be completely funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Orangeburg County Administrator Harold Young said a sole source bid was accepted due to the company having access to the supplies needed to do the project.

The work will begin as soon as the cable is received, Young said.

A lot of that is in the works, Young continued. It is experiencing delays, but hopefully we will get it as soon as possible.

Young said some of the project is already under construction.

I am glad to hear that the western end is getting something, Councilman Joseph Garvin said.

Many of his constituents have been inquiring about broadband, he said. We are still doing something. I keep telling them it is coming, it is coming.

Young confirmed: It is coming.

In other business:

 Council gave second reading to the rezoning of .53 acres at 224 Roosevelt Street in Elloree to commercial general for a community center to be used for childrens dance lessons and community events.

Developers say they want a venue in Elloree to provide extracurricular activities for children.

The county received 38 signatures opposed to the request, with many expressing concerns about noise and traffic.

Councilwoman Janie Cooper-Smith voted against the rezoning request.

The countys Planning Commission had previously voted 5-1 in favor of the rezoning.

 Council gave unanimous first reading by title only to the countys budget and the budget for Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, public and special education purposes.

The first reading is the first step in the process of the county's budget preparation for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

The county plans to have meetings, budget work sessions and outside agency hearings as part of the budget formulation process.

The county's fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30.

 Council gave unanimous approval to a resolution authorizing fee-and-lieu incentives for an economic development project locating in Dorchester County. A company is looking to invest about $60 million to construct two speculative buildings in that county.

Orangeburg County will receive about 1% of the fees the company pays, with Dorchester County receiving about 99 percent of the fees.

 Council read a proclamation recognizing May as Building Safety Month. The theme is It Starts with You and encourages all to highlight and build awareness of the importance of building safety.

The month is sponsored by the International Code Council.

 Council read a proclamation naming April 30 as the Rev. Dr. George Edward Hicks Day. Hicks was born on April 30, 1953 and received his masters and doctoral degrees from South Carolina State College.

Hicks is a professor of education at South Carolina State University.

Hicks has also served as teacher, principal, assistant principal and is also a pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church for over 25 years.

 Bowman Town Councilman Ike Carter said the town is a finalist for the Municipal Association of South Carolina's Community Development Association Award of Excellence.

The projects submitted for the award were the town's remodeled medical center and the new library.

 Demario Davis, founder of the nonprofit Leadership, Education, Awareness and Mobility (LEAM) organization, introduced himself and asked for council's support in providing educational and recreational opportunities for children in Bowman.

Council Vice Chair Johnny Ravenell asked Davis to bring the children to a future meeting.

 Orangeburg County Council Chairman Johnnie Wright was absent due to a family matter.
The Town of Norway is having a National Day of Prayer celebration that citizens of the town and those in surrounding areas are invited to attend on May 4.

Also, Memorial Day events will be happening in Norway and Neeses on Monday, May 29.

The Town of Norway will celebrate the National Day of Prayer at the Old Willow School, 2750 Cope Road, on May 4 at 6 p.m. The Town of Neeses and other towns have been invited to attend.

Memorial Day will be celebrated on May 29 at 10 a.m. at the Veteran's Memorial, Old Willow School in Norway. The Town of Norway usually has a placing of a wreath and guest speakers for the Memorial Day event. Neeses will be having its own separate Memorial Day event.

Inclement weather plans for these outdoor events in Norway include meeting at what is being called the new Community Center, the old First Baptist Church building in Norway.

Neeses Memorial Day Observance will be Monday, May 29, at 11 a.m. at the Seniors Recreation and Leisure Center on 220 Park St. Retired Air Force Col. Reedy Hopkins will be the keynote speaker.

A reading of the departed veterans names that are listed on the towns memorial marker will occur.

The National Guard Youth Challenge Academy (Color Guard) of Fort Jackson will be presenting the flags.

Special patriotic songs will be sung, and free hot dogs and chili will be available while they last.

The Town of North was contacted regarding their potential events but could not be reached as of press time. North does have a Veterans Park facility beside the town hall. For more information, call 803-247-2101.
CLEVELAND, Texas  A four-day manhunt in Texas for a gunman accused of killing five neighbors ended Tuesday not far from the site of the shooting when authorities, acting on a tip, said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.

Francisco Oropeza, 38, was captured without incident near Houston and about 20 miles from his home in the rural town of Cleveland, where authorities say he went next door and shot his neighbors with an AR-style rifle shortly before midnight Friday after some of them had asked him to go farther away if he was going to fire rounds in his yard so late. The gunfire was keeping a baby awake, they told him.

Oropeza will be charged with five counts of murder, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said. Bond was set at $5 million.

"They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars," Capers said of the families of the victims. "He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five."

The arrest happened near Conroe, ending what had become a widening dragnet that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions. As recently as Tuesday morning, the FBI said that Oropeza "could be anywhere," underlining how investigators for days struggled to get a sense of his whereabouts and candidly acknowledged they had no leads.

The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15 p.m., and a little more than an hour later, Oropeza was in custody, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul. The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to U.S. immigration officials

Connor Hagan, an FBI spokesman, said they would not disclose the identity of the person who called in the tip  one of more than 200 tips he says investigators received. Authorities did not say who owned the house, whether Oropeza knew them or if anyone else was inside when he was found.

They also would not say whether friends or family had helped Oropeza evade capture, or where he had been since fleeing the scene in Cleveland, which authorities previously said was likely on foot.

Hagan said the three agencies that went in to arrest Oropeza were the U.S. Marshals, Texas Department of Public Safety and US Border Patrol's BORTAC team.

Drones and scent-tracking dogs had been used during the widening manhunt, which included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott offered $50,000 in reward money as the search dragged late into the weekend.

Capers said that prior to Friday's shooting deputies had been called to the suspect's house at least one other time previously over shooting rounds in his yard.

All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velasquez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and her husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras' migrant protection service.

Osman Velasquez, Diana's father, said Tuesday that his daughter had recently gotten residency and had traveled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister, who was already living there.

"Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and that's true," he said. "But I never imagined it was just for this."

In offering the reward, Abbott called the victims "illegal immigrants," a partially false statement that his office walked back and apologized for Monday after drawing wide backlash over drawing attention to their immigration status. Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said they had since learned that one of the victims may have been in the country legally.

Photos: Scenes following Texas mass shooting that killed 5
(TBTCO) - Bat chap luong tieu thu hai thang lien tiep gan ay tang truong manh, thi truong o to Viet Nam van uoc gioi kinh doanh nhan inh con nhieu kho khan. Trong thang 5, nhieu hang tiep tuc ua ra nhung muc giam gia, uu ai "khung" cho hang loat mau xe. Trong so o, nhung mau xe sang gia tri cao uoc giam sau nhat.
Casper Mayor Bruce Knell apologized Tuesday for sharing an image of a fire on Facebook in response to news that Wellspring Health Access, a new abortion clinic someone tried to burn down, was finally opening in Casper.

I did not mean in any way for that to hurt anyone in any way, Knell said in a lengthy, and at times tearful, statement that wrapped up the evening's two-hour Casper City Council meeting.

Knell said the image, which he shared beneath a Facebook post by Oil City News about the clinics opening, was only intended to express his personal objection to abortion and had nothing to do with last year's arson attack. In the week-and-a-half since, he's staunchly defended the comment.

But on Tuesday, Knell said he had softened his stance  and that as mayor, he wants Wellspring to feel welcome in Casper.

I am strong in my convictions, Im OK with what I said, he said. I just wish I would have said it a different way so that it wasnt offensive to anybody.

In the days following the comment, Wellspring had urged local abortion rights supporters to attend the meeting to take Knell to task over the post.

They werent the only ones who showed up with something to say.

During public comment, which lasted nearly an hour, Casper residents judged his actions very differently. Some characterized the post as unbecoming of an elected official, or even violent. Others said Knell was well within his rights to express his opinion. And some just wished Knell had chosen his words a little more tactfully.

Holly Thompson, a board member for Wellspring Health Access, called Knells comments careless and cruel.

I'm not here tonight to advocate for abortion rights or trying to convince anybody of anything tonight," she said. "I'm here to defend Wellsprings right to operate safely and free from fear.

Mike Huber, a retired Natrona County Circuit Court judge and a former Casper City councilor, said he defends to the end the right for anyone to have differing opinions on anything, but he feared Knells comment could incite violence.

The inflammatory  literally inflammatory  things that you put out there on social media was wrong, he said.

While Tuesday nights meeting stayed civil, Knell and other members of the council indicated they were all subject to harassment and threats in the week-and-a-half following Knells comment.

Its important that we recognize the power of our words, and the impact they can have on others, Councilor Kyle Gamroth, who represents Ward 2, said during the meeting.

Wellspring Health Access, which began seeing patients last month, is the only clinic in the state offering both surgical and medical abortions. Its opening was pushed back 11 months after an arsonist broke in and set it on fire, costing the clinic around $290,000 in damage.

In an earlier interview with the Star-Tribune, Wellspring founder Julie Burkhart said that, fearing additional violence against the clinic, the organization has added additional layers of protection to keep staff and patients from harm.

Burkhart on April 20 made a statement condemning Knells post as incendiary and violent.

Ive lived and experienced the real-world costs of this kind of anti-abortion rhetoric, she said in the statement. Fourteen years ago, after years of harassment, my former boss, Dr. George Tiller, was assassinated in church. Less than a year ago, an anti-abortion terrorist set fire to our Casper clinic, rendering it inoperable and costing $290,000 in damage.

Wyoming residents hold a wide range of opinions on abortion, according to an October University of Wyoming poll.

In the survey, 36% of respondents said they viewed abortion as a matter of personal choice, and another 36% said they felt abortion should be allowed in cases of rape, incest or when the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. About 19% of those surveyed said they support abortion provided theres a clearly established reason for the procedure. Only 7% said abortion should be banned in all cases.

In Casper, the role of mayor is somewhat ceremonial. Casper follows the council-city manager system of local government, where the mayor is part of city council and wields no more voting power than other members. Because of that, the mayor isnt directly elected by residents, but chosen by their fellow councilors.

In this system, the main job of the council  including the mayor  is to set the budget and pass laws. The day-to-day operations of the city are handled by city staff.

PHOTOS: Community speaks out about mayor's controversial post on abortion clinic Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell Bruce Knell
GILLETTE  Gillette City Council members and many others in the community are divided over a proposed hate crime ordinance, evidenced by the turnout and comments made at a City Council meeting Tuesday night.

Residents packed the city council chambers to speak on the proposed city law, which would create penalties for crimes that are committed based on hate, discrimination or bias.

Wyoming is one of only two states, along with South Carolina, that does not have a hate crime law. Laramie, Cheyenne, Casper and Jackson already have local hate crime ordinances.

Supporters said the proposed ordinance would make the community safer and more welcoming for everyone, while its detractors worried that it would lead to the curtailing of First Amendment rights.

The Gillette City Council also was split on the issue, voting 4-3 in favor on its first reading, with Council members Jim West, Billy Montgomery and Nathan McLeland and Heidi Gross supporting it. The ordinance must pass two more readings before it becomes law.

Montgomery had brought forth the ordinance to send the message that Gillette is a welcoming environment for everybody.

More than 30 people spoke at a public hearing before the vote.

A statement from Ariane Jimison, co-owner of Pizza Carrello, was read aloud. In it, she said she and her wife, Rachel Kalenberg, dont feel safe in Gillette and that theyve experienced harassment, threats and had their property destroyed.

Some people want us to be quiet about our lives, Jimison wrote. Others would love to round us up and kill us.

Dave Ebertz said crimes based on prejudice or bias hurt more than the individual victim.

Irrational biased violence is a crime that undermines the entire community, he said. This is not what Gillette should be.

This ordinance will not change minds, he added. Some will continue to harbor hate and fear of anyone who is different. But please let us be a community that encourages diversity, it has and can make Gillette a good place to live.

Casey Cook said everybody agrees what a crime is, and that the city doesnt need to create new victims. He added that if people dont want to move to Gillette because of its political leanings, then they dont have to come here.

We dont have any urgent need to import people who are easily offended on account of leftist ideologies, he said.

Dean Vomhof, who wore a rainbow-colored wig and a blue dress, said this ordinance is trying to shut down freedom of expression.

Some people laughed at me when I walked in today, he said. Would they be charged with a hate crime?

And Sen. Troy McKeown, R-Gillette, said while hate speech and hate crime may or may not be a problem, the ordinance is unconstitutional.

What actual crime will this stop? McKeown asked. Its another way to take peoples freedoms away.

Kathy Halvorsen said freedom of speech doesnt allow people to say things that instigate violence, and that the diversity of people and ideas in Gillette is what will carry us through the tough economic times ahead.

Deb Michaels said that since she moved to Gillette in 1978, shes seen respect and tolerance deteriorate over the years. She pointed out that anti-Semitic flyers were distributed in the Westover neighborhood of Gillette a couple of weeks ago.

City Attorney Sean Brown, who drafted the ordinance, said speech alone is not enough for someone to be prosecuted. First, it must be proven that a crime, such as battery or destruction of property, has been committed.

If thats true, then you move on to the next phase, he said. If we have that in place, do we have maliciousness  and specific intent to do that thing because of some protected characteristic?

Mayor Shay Lundvall said he didnt support the ordinance because he believed it would hurt more than it would help.

It will give some people more rights than others and end up creating more division in the community, he said.

Gross said that if this had come up five years ago, she would have said Gillette didnt need this ordinance. But shes seen so many things the last couple of years thats caused her to change her mind.

I really think that theres got to be a line drawn, she said. It just saddens me to see whats been going on in our community, and the latest thing with this anti-Semitic flyer. It was disgusting.

Is that the kind of community we want to be? she asked. Is that what we want to show our children and grandchildren? Behavior like that? Yes, it may be free speech, but is that really what we want? I think were better than that.
The Federal Election Commission has dismissed a campaign finance violation complaint against now-Secretary of State Chuck Gray that was made during last years primary election.

Gray mentioned in at least two recent events that the complaint had been dismissed, but at the time, the commission hadnt yet made the case documents public. The commission published the documents on Friday. It unanimously voted to reject the complaint on March 28.

Gray said in a statement to the Star-Tribune on Wednesday that the FECs dismissal of the bogus case is a complete and total victory for truth. He accused former Secretary of State Max Maxfield, who filed the complaint, of colluding with the radical leftwing media to fabricate a phony narrative that targeted his campaign and said hell evaluate legal options against Maxfield and media outlets that covered the complaint.

This is another case study of how the Left-wing media and the insiders work together to try to stop an outsider like myself from being elected, he said. With the FECs dismissal of Maxfields frivolous complaint, the Star-Tribune has zero credibility left.

Exactly two weeks before last years August primary, Maxfield filed a federal complaint against Gray stemming from financial disclosures Gray made when he was a candidate for Wyomings U.S. House race. (Gray ended up dropping out of that race nearly a year prior and then ran for the post he now occupies.)

Maxfield alleged in the complaint that roughly $300,000 in loans Gray reported he had made to his principal campaign committee  Citizens for Chuck Gray  werent actually funded by himself but by a third party, which would violate federal campaign-finance law.

He asserted that Grays income for 2021-2022 was an insufficient amount for the state official to afford making a loan to his own campaign. Maxfield alleged the funds came from Grays father, Jan Charles Gray, given that the elder Gray was the sole donor to the Protect Wyoming Values political action committee supporting his sons bid for Congress. He also employed his son at his business, Mt. Rushmore Broadcasting.

Maxfield didnt respond to the Star-Tribunes requests for comment Wednesday.

Gray later explained in a campaign forum that the loans came from money he had inherited from his late grandfather, Siegfried Ringwald.

Documents from the FEC case further detail the different sources of the funds he loaned to his own campaign. A March 2021 loan of $125,000 to his campaign came from $250,000 he received from a family trust that had been liquidated in 2017, and that had been set up by Ringwald, according to Grays response to the complaint.

In June of the same year, Gray loaned his campaign committee $165,000. That money came from the roughly $550,000 inheritance Gray received upon liquidation of Ringwalds testamentary estate following his passing.

In the last election cycle, campaign contributions from individuals were capped at $2,900 per candidate for each election. But candidates can make unlimited contributions from their personal funds to their own campaign committees. Those personal funds include inheritances or money received from a will, which arent required to be disclosed in election finance reports.

The FEC ultimately dismissed the complaint because it found no evidence that contradicted Grays assertion that the money for the loans came from a liquidation of a trust and an inheritance from his grandfather.

Not only did Maxfield collude with the radical leftwing media to fabricate a phony narrative targeting our campaign in a last-ditch effort to subvert the will of Wyoming voters, but they also went after my family, Gray said in his Wednesday statement.

The commissions legal review says further that the House financial disclosure reports cited in the complaint arent required, under the House Ethics Committees instruction guide on filing financial disclosure reports, to include inheritances or interest-free loans owed to the candidate. (Both of Grays loans to his campaign were interest-free, according to the case documents.)

Maxfield, an outspoken critic of Gray, endorsed the now-secretary of states primary opponent Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, in her bid for the post. He denied at the time that the complaint had anything to do with his opposing Grays candidacy for secretary of state, the Star-Tribune previously reported. Both Gray and Maxfield are Republicans.

Gray also tried to raise issue with Nethercotts campaign last year, asserting that there had been meetings with the Secretary of States office to investigate his opponents omission of a paid for line in her campaign signs, the Star-Tribune reported at the time. Former Secretary of State Ed Buchanan told the Star-Tribune in early August that there had been no such meetings, and that yard signs dont require a paid for disclosure under Wyoming statute.

In a text message correspondence with Gray two days later, which Gray provided to the Star-Tribune on Wednesday afternoon, Buchanan said he was told complaints against Nethercott had been referred to the Attorney Generals office. Neither Buchanan nor Attorney General Bridget Hill immediately responded to inquiries Wednesday from the Star-Tribune about the matter.

Gray, a 2020 presidential election skeptic who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, focused his campaign on election integrity, pushing to ban ballot drop boxes and raising concern about voter fraud, though cases of fraud are exceedingly rare in Wyoming. He beat out Nethercott and a third candidate, Wyoming native and former geologist Mark Armstrong, by roughly eight points in the primary election. He was unopposed in the general election.

This story has been updated.
MINISTER of Finance Colm Imbert has hit back at UWI professor Dr Roger Hosein calling his statements about the local economy erroneous and ridiculous.

Hosein responded to the recently published IMF 2023 report on the Trinidad and Tobago economy. The IMF said the economy was recovering, but Hosein said he was not in agreement with that assessment, and said the data told a different story.
IT was highly unethical for President Christine Kangaloo to be the one conferring her husban
Homicides yesterday reached the 200 mark for the year so far.

The official police figure for murders for the year is 196, compared with 185 last year.

But at least four cases have been referred for inquests or are unclassified, thus bringing the homicide toll to 200.
Many persons let the electronic media into their homes and in the process, develop a warm re
University of Arizona: The University of Arizona Eller College of Management announced its accounting and business programs have received AACSB International accreditation for another five years. The college is among a short list of others that received this extension.

For more than 100 years, AACSB accreditation been considered the gold standard of business education. Only 981 institutions in 60 countries and territories have earned AACSB accreditation in business and 194 institutions hold supplemental AACSB accreditation for their accounting programs.

The University of Arizona Eller College of Management is among just 36 business schools that have extended their global accreditation in business and 11 that have extended their global accreditation in accounting this year.

Pima Community College: Sara Haghighi, refugee education program manager at Pima Community Colleges Adult Basic Education for College and Career, has received an award for Outstanding Local Excellence in Advocacy by the Coalition on Adult Basic Education, a national organization dedicated to advancing the field of adult literacy.

Over the past year, Haghighi has met with state legislators to raise awareness about adult education.

Haghighi has been an instructional manager in the Pima Community College ABECC program for more than three years, overseeing the Refugee Education Program. She served as the COABE 2021 Arizona State Advocate for Adult Education Fellow, which prepared her to advocate for adult education programs at the state and national level. She then mentored multiple advocate fellows from outside Arizona so they could become advocates in their states.

Haghighi helped to develop  and now co-hosts  COABEs Advocast, an adult education advocacy podcast to raise awareness about the issues that matter to the adult education community and showcase student success.

Ethan Allen: Tucson Ethan Allen Design Consultant, Frank Schepis, received the Platinum Spirit Award given by Ethan Allen Retail, Inc for the third year in a row. This award signifies a career milestone for Schepis. He has shown achievement in sales, the highest level of accomplishment through a commitment to design excellence and superior customer service for the 2022 fiscal year.
A new trial date has been set for the man accused in the April 2012 killing of 6-year-old Isabel Celis, following a mistrial in the initial case.

Pima County Superior Court Judge James Marner set Sept. 12 as the date Christopher M. Clements, 41, is to begin a second trial. A mistrial was declared March 3, after jurors were unable to reach a verdict in the first kidnapping and killing trial Clements faced in the Celis case, the Arizona Daily Star previously reported.

After hearing from 30 witnesses, jurors spent two days deliberating before Marner declared a mistrial, the Star reported.

In September, Clements was convicted in the kidnapping and killing of Maribel Gonzalez, 13, in June 2014. He was sentenced to natural life in prison for first-degree murder plus another 17 years in prison for kidnapping, which will be served consecutively, the Star reported.
A woman has been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of a man during a fight in a parking lot Tuesday night, Tucson police say.

Scot Lynn Booth, 42, and a group of men approached Melissa Ann Ortiz, 28, and a companion about 7 p.m. Tuesday near West Prince Road and North Stone Avenue, police said Wednesday in a news release.

Witnesses told investigators that the groups argued before a fight started that resulted in Booth being stabbed, the news release said.

Officers found Booth wounded in the parking lot. He died later at the hospital, the release said.

Ortiz was booked into the Pima County jail on suspicion of second-degree murder. Bond was set at $1 million.
What party responsible for national debt?

The Republicans are refusing to fund our outstanding debt by trying to hold future budgets hostage. Under Joe Biden, the debt has grown at a rate of 8.79% so far. Under Donald Trump, it grew 40.43% due largely to an unfunded tax cut. Under Barack Obama it grew at 69.98% and under George W. Bush 105.08%, the latter due to another tax cut at the same time as starting two wars. Under William J. Clinton it grew 31.64% and under George H.W. Bush 54.39%. Under Ronald Reagan, who coined the phrase, tax and spend Democrats, it grew a whopping 186.36% due to an unfunded tax cut that was supposed to spur the economy and lead to increased tax revenue. Didnt happen. Under Jimmy Carter it was 42.79%. Its easy to see with real statistics which party is most responsible for the national debt and the enormous income inequality plaguing the nation.

Sean Bruner

West side

City-run electric utility

Re: April 30 article Tucson to study creating city-run electric utility; TEP opposed and This Tucson artist loves to be gaslit.

Interesting articles on the front page on Sunday. First was the study on creating a city-run electric utility. Right below that article was in depth coverage of a resident who lights his home solely with kerosene lamps. If the first issue comes to pass, we may need the information in the second article. Please include another article on ice-boxes. I am sure I do not want my electric supply run by the same organization with a track record of abysmal performances maintaining streets.

David Germain

East side

Bad manners in democracy

Re: April 30 article Pima board meetings a wasted GOP effort.

Tim Stellers coverage of the April 18th meeting was disturbing. Since when have bad manners been a way to be a participant in a democracy? Name calling, unfounded accusations, interruptions, threats? A court of admiralty was part of one of the comments from the peanut gallery in their turn to speak. Defined it means Admiralty court, also known as maritime court, is a court that exercises admiralty or maritime jurisdiction and hears civil cases related to admiralty or maritime law. We are not on the high seas or even that close to them so I dont understand using that term in reference to society collapsing. The whole article was an upsetting account of what a meeting should be like or about.

Christie Cummins

Midtown

NO on 412: unfair to middle and low-income families

Proposition 412 is a prime example of the collusion of corporate interests and political elites. If our city government was serious about improving the environment and the public good in Tucson, they would stop supporting projects which widen our socio-economic divide.

City ratepayers should not be saddled with the cost of underground power lines that only serve to increase property values for already predominantly wealthy homeowners. These property owners should be paying increased rates for TEPs increased services. Also, given existing city ordinances, TEP was aware of codes, and could have budgeted to pay for these underground lines themselves.

Government is subsidizing TEP and the underground coalition by passing off these undergrounding costs to all ratepayers, the majority of whom, gain nothing but increased fees. Passage of proposition 412 will lead to increased profits for TEP, increase property values for wealthy homeowners, and increased energy bills for middle and low-income families. Im voting NO to ensure TEP and the underground coalition pay their fair share.

Joshua Reilly

North side

Lack of meaningful policy

Re: April 30 article Lawmakers try to block internet porn access for minors.

My thanks to the Star for this article. It documents Republican Senator Wendy Rogers continued lack of meaningful policy objectives as well as her lack of interest in doing her job. Protecting the innocence of children is a job for parents  not the state. Additionally, I dont believe there is any Constitutionally acceptable way to accomplish Ms. Rogers supposed objective. Why isnt she focusing on finding meaningful solutions to Arizonas real problems such as lack of meaningful gun control; worst ranked K-12 educational system (48th out of 50 states in per pupil funding and 49th out of 50 for teacher pay leading to 49th out of 50 for graduation rate); lack of affordable housing; or the need to change the way Arizona uses water in light of the CAP cutbacks. Arizonas future depends on our Legislature focusing on real problems, not imaginary ones.

Dean Hahn-Carlson

Rio Rico

Kelly should take a stand on Oak Flat

While Senator Kelly positions himself as a champion for water conservation in Arizona, and benefits greatly from the Native American vote, he has turned a blind eye to the environmental and cultural catastrophe planned for Oak Flat. A recent protest at the White House urged the Biden administration to hold off on permitting this public land giveaway to a foreign mining company. Tribal and Congressional leaders joined religious freedom and environmental activists in united opposition to the mine. But Arizonas most powerful democrat has refused to speak up for a legitimate environmental impact study, and has ignored the efforts of Apaches to protect their sacred site. Without Kelly a Congressional remedy is unlikely.

If Senator Kelly believes that short-term jobs are more important than clean air, having water for future generations, and the ability of all people to have religious freedom, then he should say so. His silence on this issue is arguably more offensive than the bigoted Paul Gosar, as Kelly positions himself as someone who actually cares.

Dwight Metzger

South Tucson

President Bidens life expectancy

Since Nikki Haley is running for president, she has been making statements about President Bidens age. She has opined that he will not live to the end of his second term at age 86. Since I have been in the life insurance business in Tucson for more than 40 years, these kinds of comments catch my attention. According to information published by a major U.S. life insurance company, Mr. Bidens odds of making it until 86 are 79% based on his health being reasonably good but certainly not perfect, which seems to be the case. This life expectancy is premised on hard actuarial data, not pure conjecture like Ms. Haleys. Here is another piece of pure conjecture: The odds of Mr. Biden living through a second term are at least ten times those of Ms. Haley becoming president.

Richard Patterson

East side

Griner a great athlete but clueless

Brittany Griner has proven shes a great athlete and appears to be a kindly soul. No responsible democracy would sentence anyone to nine years imprisonment for a trace of cannabis oil. But American athletes and business people who go to Russia to make money need to understand that todays Russia is a repressive dictatorship. Not even its natural born citizens have any reliable rights.

At a time when the U.S. and Russia were on different sides in the war in Ukraine, Griner cluelessly violated Russian law. It gave Russia an excuse for an international incident and resulted in the release of Viktor Bout. He is known as the merchant of death for his record of supplying weapons to terrorist groups in the Middle East and Africa. When the next terrorist incident occurs, we will have to wonder whether Viktor Bout was responsible.

Brooks Keenan
The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

En que otra parte del mundo podriamos tener nuestra historia?

Thats what my father said to me the day before I set out on this journey.

Where else in the world could we have our story? he asked in Spanish. We came to this country, we immersed ourselves in the culture, we learned English, became U.S. citizens I drive a bus most of my life, and now my son has a shot at becoming a member of the United States Congress. Nowhere else!

I kicked off my campaign for Congress with that in mind  there is no country in the world like America. The opportunities offered in the United States have made millions of dreams possible, giving birth to the American Dream. And because of that, we must work tirelessly to preserve that dream for future generations.

This is the mindset I had throughout my campaign, and now as your congressman. Earlier this month, we surpassed the first 100 days of the 118th Congress. Ive learned a number of things, including that there are no assigned seats on the floor (but dont sit in someone elses seat), how to sleep on a red eye flight, and making the best of my DC office which doubles as my living quarters. But I am incredibly proud of the results we have accomplished in this short time.

In Washington, I have been a strong voice on the issues that matter most to our district.

As the only freshman appointed to the powerful Appropriations Committee, Ive secured a seat at the table for critical funding discussions on transportation, housing, and economic issues.

On the Veterans Affairs Committee, I have already crafted and introduced bipartisan legislation that delivers results for our military installations and our 70,000 veterans.

I established the bipartisan Colorado River Caucus, which brings together lawmakers from Upper and Lower Basin States to discuss collaborative solutions to secure a strong water future.

I had the privilege and honor to offer the House of Representatives response to the Presidents State of the Union in Spanish.

Additionally, I hosted two congressional delegations to the border in Cochise County, one with Speaker McCarthy and the second with a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers. And most recently, I hosted a third delegation with key members of the Appropriations committee, including Chairwoman Kay Granger, so they could get a firsthand look at our needs as they make funding decisions.

With over 200,000 seniors and 70,000 veterans in our district, I also made it a priority to hear from retirees and the men and women who served our country, hosting roundtables and conversations across the district. And let me be clear: I am committed to strengthening Medicare, Social Security, and benefits for veterans.

As Congress works to produce a responsible annual budget, President Bidens absence from negotiations have forced House Republicans to offer a plan  the Limit, Save, Grow Act  which passed the House this week. While the bill may not be perfect, its a solid foundation for a starting point and I supported it. However, make no mistake, this bill does not in any way cut Social Security, Medicare, or veterans benefits  otherwise, I would not have supported it. The false and dishonest narrative suggesting it does undermines the work being done to move forward in the best interest of our country.

Last November, the American people voted to bring accountability to Washington. One of my first acts in Congress was launching a Citizens Advisory Council, comprised of Republicans, Democrats, and independents from the public and private sectors across all five counties of the district. This council set ambitious priorities for our district and plays an instrumental role in helping us deliver results for our entire district while acting as an engaged sounding board for me.

My mission is clear, I am in the business of people, serving our entire community, being accessible, and working on the needs of all my constituents, regardless of party registration. Its about results.

Over the last hundred days, Ive met with constituents of all backgrounds. From the Border Patrol agents that keep our community safe, to the job creators that build opportunity, young people aspiring toward public service, seniors, veterans and parents. Im inspired by our community and the stories of determination I hear about every day.

The American Dream is about the freedom to pursue your own happiness. Its about ensuring the next generation can succeed as far as their efforts takes them. My parents worked their entire lives to give me a better life to give our family a better life, and Im fighting to do the same for my children and yours. I started at Wendys in Tucson, and today serve in Washington representing my hometown. When we protect the freedoms that make our country exceptional, we keep the American Dream alive for another generation.

Thats why our Commitment to America is so important. Our House Republican Majority is fighting for a nation that is safe, an economy that is strong, a government that is accountable, and a future that is built on freedom.
A New Mexico man, overwhelmed by guilt, borrowed a cellphone to call 911 and confess to the 2008 killing of his former landlord and he also told police where the body was buried, authorities said Tuesday.

Police said Tony Ray Peralta, 37, of Roswell, was booked into the Chaves County jail on suspicion of murder.

They said Peralta went to a store Monday afternoon, borrowed a cellphone to call 911 and told a dispatcher that he had killed someone. Officers went to the store and Peralta was detained for questioning.

Police investigators then obtained a search warrant for a house where Peralta had been a tenant of 69-year-old William Blodgett. He told them where he buried the body, and they found a boot, bones and dentures after removing plywood floorboards from a detached room on the side of the house.

A tearful Peralta told police during an interview that he didn't know why he had killed Blodgett and that he just needed to confess, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.

Peralta told police he decided to come forward because his heart hurts and that the killing had been eating at him. He told the officer to tell Blodgett's family that he was a good man and that he didn't deserve what I did.

I don't have an excuse, he told police, according to the affidavit. A lot of people have an excuse, I don't have one.

Peralta was being represented by the major crimes unit within the public defenders office.

We are just beginning to work with Mr. Peralta on this case, and we will make sure Mr. Peraltas due process is respected as this case starts to move through the court, said attorney Ray Conley, who leads the unit.

The dentures found at the property were compared with Blodgetts dental records  obtained in early 2009 after he was reported missing  and that led to a positive identification, according to police.

Blodgetts girlfriend and family had not seen him since late December 2008. She told police that Peralta, who was considered a suspect by police early on, allegedly had some sort or argument or fight with Blodgett, who had tried to evict him.

Authorities at the time had talked to Blodgetts family, friends and neighbors and visited the home the two men shared, which appeared to have been abandoned with personal belongings still in place. Police found no immediate signs of foul play and Blodgett's vehicle was still there, according to the original missing person report.

Detectives would periodically drive by the house but never spotted anyone. They also brought a dog trained to sniff for bodies to the property but found nothing.

Police said the case went cold after investigators exhausted all leads until Peralta's 911 call.

Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Associated Press writers Walter Berry and Terry Tang contributed from Phoenix.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett easily won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, setting up his fall campaign for a third term against a wealthy Republican businessman to lead Indianas largest city.

Hogsett received 60% of the vote with about 75% of vote centers reporting to defeat state Rep. Robin Shackleford and four other Democratic challengers, according to unofficial vote tallies compiled by the Marion County election board.

Former City-County Councilman Jefferson Shreve pumped at least $2.5 million of his own money into his mayoral campaign and won 66% of the vote to defeat political commentator and attorney Abdul-Hakim Shabazz and two other Republican rivals.

Shreves campaign has focused criticism on Hogsett over crime in the city, including higher murder rates in recent years, and pledges to better support the citys police department. Shreve has owned a self-storage business and has real estate investments.

Hogsett says he is seeking re-election in November to complete goals disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, pointing to violence-reduction efforts, citywide infrastructure improvements and resuming business and residential development in the citys downtown area.

Hogsett won the mayoral races by wide margins in 2015 and 2019 as Democrats gained political dominance in the city. He is trying to become the longest-serving mayor of Indianapolis since Republican Bill Hudnut served four terms from 1976 to 1991.
Willis Alan Ramsey at Church Studio

The Church Studios Legacy Artist Series features performances by music artists in an intimate setting. Its Willis Alan Ramseys turn.

Ramsey will perform Thursday, May 4, at Church Studio, 304 S. Trenton Ave. Ramsey is a Church Studio alum. He released an album in 1972 on the Shelter Records label. For tickets, go to thechurchstudio.com.

Calf Fry, Bob Childers Gypsy Cafe in Stillwater

A big music weekend is on the horizon in Stillwater.

Parker McCollum, the Read Southall Band and Casey Donahew will be among performers at the 31st annual Calf Fry festival, scheduled May 4-6 at the Tumbleweed Outdoor Arena at Tumbleweed Dance Hall in Stillwater. Single-day and three-day general admission and VIP tickets are on sale at calffry.com.

Cody Canada, John Fullbright and Monica Taylor will be among performers Sunday, May 7 at the 12th annual Bob Childers Gypsy Cafe in Stillwater. Oklahomas largest homegrown songwriters festival will include five stages, as well as a new White Buffalo Brunch that will include performances of classic Childers songs. Proceeds will go to the Red Dirt Relief Fund, a nonprofit that has provided aid to more than half the artists in the lineup during the pandemic.

For tickets to Bob Childers Gypsy Cafe, go to reddirtrelieffund.org.

Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day is held annually on the first Saturday in May. Free Comic Book Day 2023 is Saturday, May 6.

Participating local comic shops will  truth in advertising  have free comic books available for customers. Heres how it works: You dont get to walk in and pull Amazing Fantasy No. 15 off the wall and claim it as your own. Rather, new comics from a variety of publishers are printed especially for Free Comic Book Day. Go to freecomicbookday.com to check out the 2023 offerings.

Mammoth Comics, 4614 E. 11th St., is hosting artists Brian Ashworth and Masta J. Wood on Free Comic Book Day. They are scheduled to be at the store from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Other participating shops, according to comicbookstore.com, are Comic Empire of Tulsa, 3122 S. Mingo Road; World of Comics, 5623 E. 41st St.; Impulse Creations, 8228 E. 61st St., Suite 121; and Wizards Asylum, 7165 S. Mingo Road.

First Friday Art Crawl

Thanks to the quirks of the calendar, one of Tulsas most popular showcases of local artists will, for once, coincide with the Tulsa Arts Districts First Friday Art Crawl, as the Tulsa Artists Coalitions annual 5x5 show will open to the public at 5:55 p.m. Friday, May 5, at the gallery, 9 E. Reconciliation Way.

Dozens of local creators were given canvases measuring 5 inches square on which they could create whatever they wanted. Those who work in three-dimensional media were also eligible to enter, as long as the finished pieces did not exceed 5 inches in any dimension.

All the works in the show are available for sale and priced at $55 each.

Several of the other arts venues in the neighborhood along Reconciliation Way and Archer Street will also be debuting new exhibits. These include:

wordfaces & landplaces by Brent Brander, at Chrysalis Salon and Spa, 7 Reconciliation Way

New works by Liz Dueck and Joshua James at Living Arts of Tulsa, 307 E. Reconciliation Way

Painting the Future, at the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities, in the former Hardesty Arts Center, 101 E. Archer St.

Also, the Guthrie Green, 101 E. Reconciliation Way, will host the Blue Whale Comedy Game Show Hour, as well as music from Hells Scooter. Antoinette Baking Co. will host its regular Pie Night 5-10 p.m., and restaurants including in the raw VU, Elgin Park and The Chowhouse will have food and drink specials.

Arias & Ales

Members of Tulsa Operas upcoming production of Stephen Sondheims Into the Woods along with some of the Tulsa Opera Filstrup Resident Artists will be at Marshall Brewing Co. to serenade the crowd for Arias & Ales, 7 p.m. Saturday, May 7, at brewerys taproom, 1742 E. Sixth St.

Vocalists will perform operatic arias, Broadway show tunes and ensemble numbers in a casual, relaxed atmosphere. Admission is free, and a cash bar will be available. See more at marshallbrewing.com.
The sea of blue-and-gold corduroy jackets has returned to downtown Tulsa.

The BOK Center and Cox Business Center are hosting more than 15,000 students, teachers, chaperones and vendors through Wednesday for the Oklahoma FFA state convention.

The countrys sixth-largest state-level chapter of the National FFA Organization, Oklahoma FFA is affiliated with the Oklahoma CareerTech systems agriculture education division and chapters are restricted to secondary schools that offer agriculture classes.

Oklahoma FFA has 29,219 student members across 366 chapters statewide, including more than 20 chapters just in the immediate Tulsa metro area.

The state FFA convention moved to Tulsa in 2022 for the first time in the organizations history and is slated to be in Tulsa through 2026.

Along with workshops, a career fair and award presentations for both individual members and chapters, the two-day affair also includes state officer elections, which Webster High School freshmen Isabella Jackson and Keyla Santacruz said they found particularly interesting.

Thats really exciting to get to see new generations of FFA students in leadership, Jackson said.

Webster is home to Tulsa Public Schools only active FFA chapter. Jackson was introduced to the organization through her older siblings and it has since sparked an interest in agriculture.

However, for Santacruz, her introduction to FFA was thanks to a scheduling quirk during her eighth-grade year that unexpectedly put her in an agriculture education class.

I didnt know what it was at first, Santacruz said. But once I got in there, it was kinda cool and its got a good teacher. She got me interested  and took me to competitions to watch. It got me really into it and this year, I got to start competing.

Santacruz was able to attend last years convention as an eighth-grader and despite the attendance numbers being comparable from year to year, she said that the 2023 edition felt a little smaller with fewer jackets from far-flung districts showing up in the sea of blue and gold corduroy.

Its been really interesting, but it just feels a little different, she said.
A man who walked into a New York City police precinct and confessed to killing someone there three years ago now faces a second-degree murder charge in connection with the murder and chainsaw dismemberment of a Broken Arrow man.

Alex Ray Scott, 27, has been charged with one count of second-degree murder in Indian Country in connection with the death of Robin Lee Skocdopole, 63.

The U.S. Attorney for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma filed the felony information Thursday charging Scott with killing Skocdopole sometime between Sept. 14, 2019, and Sept. 15, 2019.

A warrant issued Monday ordered U.S. marshals to bring Scott from Rikers Island in New York City to court officials here in Tulsa to face the murder charge.

Skocdopoles remains were found May 26, 2020, on the edge of a Broken Arrow creek near the 17900 block of East 131st Street, according to Oklahoma Medical Examiners Office records.

Scott became a suspect in Skocdopoles death Jan. 30, 2020, the same day he allegedly surrendered to authorities in New York, after telling them that he killed Kenneth Savinski, 64, in a Manhattan apartment, according to an affidavit submitted by an FBI agent in support of an arrest warrant.

Savinski was found dead on the floor of an apartment in the 100 block of East 83rd Street in Manhattan two days prior to Scott allegedly confessing. Savinskis throat had been slit and he had been stabbed multiple times in the head, according to an account from the New York Post at the time.

Law enforcement found credit cards belonging to both Savinski and Skocdopole while searching Scott, according to the affidavit and Tulsa World archives.

Scott also admitted to living with Skocdopole at a home in the 500 block of Meadowood Drive in Broken Arrow. A relative of Skocdopole told the Tulsa World Tuesday that Robin had been known to rent rooms to individuals.

Police searched Skocdopoles Broken Arrow home on Feb. 27, 2020, finding the residence completely empty, according to the affidavit.

Broken Arrow Police then used cadaver dogs to search the residence again on March 12, 2020, the affidavit states.

The dogs indicated on several locations in the home and garage.

Forensic searches later uncovered multiple locations of blood spatter and a large pool of blood under a floor transition strip between the laundry room and the garage of the residence, according to the affidavit.

The blood was later linked to Skocdopole by DNA testing, according to the affidavit.

DNA testing was then used to link a torso, left humerus and other bone fragments found May 26, 2020, near the creek to Skocdopole, according to the affidavit.

Skocdopole was last seen alive in August 2019, according to the FBI.

In mid-September 2019, Scott began telling others that Skocdopole had abruptly left Broken Arrow and moved back to Dallas for work, according to the affidavit.

Over the next four months, friends and associates of Skocdopole attempted to contact him, but reportedly received vague and oddly worded responses, according to the affidavit.

The FBI theorized that Scott was using Skocdopoles accounts to hide his death because Skocdopole was never able to meet or talk in person with others during this time period, according to the affidavit.

Investigators later learned that when Skocdopole disappeared, Scott was wearing a global positioning satellite tracking ankle monitor for another case that placed him near where Skocdopoles body was later found.

Sales records from a Broken Arrow Walmart indicated Scott purchased a chainsaw there on Oct. 4, 2019, and returned it for store credit on Oct. 27, 2019, according to the FBI, citing subpoenaed records from the store.

Skocdopole was dismembered using two different saws, including one comparable to a chainsaw, according to the FBI, citing Medical Examiner records.
Despite passing the state House and Senate by a combined margin of 135-1, a bill that would codify protections for Indigenous students wanting to wear tribal regalia at graduation was vetoed Monday evening by Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Senate Bill 429 would explicitly allow Indigenous students attending a public school, charter school or publicly funded post-secondary institution to wear traditional attire at their graduation ceremony. Along with beadwork, shoes, jewelry and clothing, the provisions also include eagle feathers and eagle plumes.

In his veto message, the governor wrote that the measure would usurp local control over graduation protocols and open a proverbial Pandoras box for groups to demand special favor to wear whatever they please to a formal ceremony.

If school districts want to allow students to wear tribal regalia at graduation, good on them; but if schools prefer students to wear only traditional cap and gown, the legislature shouldnt stand in their way, Stitts veto message read in part.

The veto message also referenced that state law currently does not prohibit school districts from allowing students to wear tribal regalia at graduation.

With more than 130,000 Indigenous students attending public schools across Oklahoma, bills with similar language have been filed in previous sessions but did not make it through both chambers. Lawton Republicans Sen. John Michael Montgomery and Rep. Trey Caldwell filed this years version at the request of constituents.

When reached Thursday, Montgomery acknowledged the coalition of support behind the bill and said he was looking into potentially seeking an override. A veto override requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate.

I was a little bit surprised (by the veto) on some level, Montgomery said. I think we definitely tried to come up with a really good work product.

Among the organizations that advocated for the measure is the Oklahoma Council for Indian Education. Its president, Tesia Zientek, described the veto as disheartening, particularly given the bipartisan support the bill had in both legislative chambers.

Our students are entering graduation season, the Citizen Potawatomi woman said. This should be a time of celebration of who they are and what theyve accomplished. To receive the message that its up to the schools to allow for regalia is concerning, as its very hit or miss whether they support that cultural expression.

Its an issue that we hear about from families.

That disappointment was also shared publicly by multiple tribal leaders, including Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Choctaw Nation Principal Chief Gary Batton and Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill. All three issued statements Tuesday thanking the legislature for the bipartisan support and urging them to override the veto.

When students choose to express the culture and heritage of their respective nations to signify this moment in their lives, it is not to demand special favor to wear whatever they please. It is to honor their identity, Hill said in a statement. We must continue to communicate the unique aspect of this honor and that allowing this expression is in no manner a gateway to introduce chaos and irreverence into formal ceremonies. The overwhelming support of this bill among legislators should be a clear message that once and for all, we do the right thing by these students and respect their familys choices.

Several Tulsa-area school districts have policies in place that allow Indigenous students to wear regalia at graduation, including Union, Tulsa, Owasso and Sand Springs.

Union Public Schools is entirely within the Muscogee Nations reservation boundaries. Assistant Superintendent John Federline said seniors are asked to fill out a form ahead of time if they are going to add something to the standard cap and gown, such as beadwork or an eagle feather.

However, if a senior shows up to graduation wearing something that has cultural or religious significance, district officials would work with the family and student to ensure that they are still able to wear it while participating in the ceremony.

We want to make sure we are being as respectful as possible, he said.

TPS has more than 50 tribes represented among its students and its attendance area is split among the Osage, Cherokee and Muscogee reservations. In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon in response to the veto, Superintendent Deborah Gist encouraged Indigenous seniors to wear their regalia to graduation.

We have had policies in place for many years to ensure that students can honor their tribal, cultural and religious identity and heritage not only during these ceremonies but also across the entirety of their learning experiences at Tulsa Public Schools, she said.

 World staff writer Barbara Hoberock contributed to this story.
A former assistant solicitor general for the Oklahoma Attorney Generals Office will receive probation after she pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to a charge filed in connection with a Broken Arrow Police pursuit.

Courtney Rae Jordan, 36, admitted to one count of eluding police officers in Indian Country in a plea agreement with prosecutors. In addition to receiving probation, Jordan agreed to pay a $1,000 fine and restitution, to be determined at sentencing.

The charge normally carries a sentence upon conviction ranging from one year to five years in prison.

In a signed statement, Jordan admitted to operating a motor vehicle July 12 while Broken Arrow police pursued her using lights and sirens.

I attempted to elude these police officers by increasing my speed of the vehicle and driving in a reckless manner, Jordan said in her plea. While I attempted to elude the officers, multiple people were endangered, including other drivers, pedestrians and the police officers.

Broken Arrow police arrested Jordan on July 12 after being called to a hit-and-run collision in the 400 block of North Pecan Avenue.

The license plate associated with the vehicle that left the scene was linked to burglary attempts that occurred about 30 minutes before the collision, according to a Broken Arrow Police Department Facebook post.

Police located the vehicle after the hit-and-run, but it then hit a pedestrian and drove off again when officers tried to stop it, according to the post.

The vehicle drove through the parking lots of various businesses near Aspen Avenue and Kenosha Street before stopping, police said. The driver then ignored police commands again and rammed a patrol car, causing the patrol car to hit an officer standing near it, before driving off again and leading officers on a pursuit, according to police.

The vehicle traveled to Elm Place and Washington Street, where it hit more vehicles and a privacy fence before Jordan was taken into custody, according to police.

A grand jury named Jordan in a three-count indictment filed Aug. 3.

In addition to the eluding count, the grand jury charged Jordan with one count of failure to stop at an accident resulting in injury in Indian Country and one misdemeanor charge of theft in Indian Country. The latter two charges will be dropped at Jordans sentencing, if the plea deal is approved.

The charges were filed in federal court because Jordan is a member of the Cherokee Nation and the incidents occurred within Indian Country, in this case, the Muscogee Nation reservation.

The plea agreement is subject to approval by a judge at sentencing. Should the judge reject the plea, Jordan will have an opportunity to withdraw her plea.

A spokesman for Attorney General Gentner Drummond said Jordan left the office Jan. 13, during Drummonds first week in office.
OKLAHOMA CITY  Death row inmate Richard Glossip has sued the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.

The panel voted 2-2 against recommending that Gov. Kevin Stitt commute his sentence to life without parole.

One member, former prosecutor Richard Smothermon, recused from the vote because his wife, a prosecutor, was involved in the case. Three votes are required to recommend clemency.

In such a scenario, the condemned prisoners burden of persuasion in his clemency hearing moves from the constitutionally imposed 60 percent of a fully constituted OPPB of five impartial members to 75 percent of a four-Member panel, according to the lawsuit.

Glossip is set to die May 18 by lethal injection at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester for orchestrating the 1997 beating death of his boss, Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese. Glossip was convicted at two separate trials.

Two days before the clemency recommendation vote, Glossip filed suit in Oklahoma County District Court saying the states failure to provide five impartial members violated his due process.

Clemency is an executive branch plea for grace and mercy, said former Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater. That is what it is. It is statutory and so there is no constitutional due process violation there. The Pardon and Parole Board has been operating with this recusal method for years.

Praters office prosecuted Glossip.

The suit seeks to declare the hearing with four members void of legal effect and null for the May 18 execution date.

The suit seeks to bar his execution until he is afforded a vote with five members.

His attorney, Don Knight, said there is no mechanism in the Oklahoma Constitution for an alternate to be appointed.

We should have had five members voting, Knight said. That is what the state Constitution requires. We only had four. The statute does not allow for a person who is recused and it was a fair recusal. He should have recused himself. The statute does not allow for replacement.

Pardon and Parole Board Executive Director Tom Bates declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kevin McDugle, R-Broken Arrow, said he plans to offer legislation to remedy the situation, but it would require a vote of the people because it is a change to the state Constitution.

McDugle, a Glossip supporter, said he would like to see seven members and two alternates on the Pardon and Parole Board. He also questioned why a 2-2 vote was in favor of the state seeking the execution and not in favor of the offender seeking a clemency recommendation.
A 17-year veteran of Tulsa Fire Department and a Tulsa police officer assigned to downtown are being honored Wednesday as the Rotary Club of Tulsa holds its 16th annual Above and Beyond Awards.

Capt. Joey Marshall, Tulsa Firefighter of the Year, and Police Officer of the Year Josh Metcalf will receive the awards during a ceremony at First United Methodist Church.

Marshall is co-founder of Tulsas annual 9/11 stair climb that first-responders undertake in remembrance of the 415 killed in the terror attack on New York City.

According to a news release, Marshall volunteers as an EMT for Bixby school band activities and is a member of a mental health support group for local firefighters.

After serving as a youth pastor at his New Beginnings Church in Bixby, Marshall now teaches its weekly young adult and college ministry program. In honor of the 2023 E. Stanley Hawkins Firefighter of the Year, $4,000 is being donated to New Beginnings Church in Bixby.

Metcalf joined Tulsa Police Department 12 years ago after serving two years in the Navy, according to the news release. He is currently stationed to the agencys Gilcrease Division and is primarily assigned to downtown law enforcement.

A member of the Bixby Bicycles 2023 Ironman/Suicide Prevention team, Metcalf is training 25 hours a week for the May 21 Ironman triathlon.

Raised in Stillwater, Metcalf developed a passion for Oklahoma Special Olympics and serves as a mentor for athletes, as well as volunteering to help raise money and awareness. Metcalfs patrol vehicle has a special bright blue wrap to promote the Law Enforcement Torch Run and Special Olympics. In Metcalfs name, $4,000 is being donated to Special Olympics Oklahoma through the Above and Beyond Awards.

The awards acknowledge public servants for outstanding acts of character, commitment and compassion to both their profession and our community, the news release states. Each department shares nominations, with recipients selected by the Above and Beyond Awards committee of the Rotary Club of Tulsa.

Go to tulsarotary.com for more information or to make a donations to the Above and Beyond Awards program.
Oklahoma moved a step closer to state support of private schools on Tuesday with the House of Representatives conditional approval of the Senates version of tuition income tax credits.

The refundable credits in House Bill 1934 would be worth as much as $7,500 per student, depending on household income, with the total amount available capped at $150 million in the first year and rising to $250 million in the third year.

But Tuesdays vote was only a teaser. Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, put what amounts to a procedural hold on the bill so that it cannot go to Gov. Kevin Stitt until McCall gets what he wants from the Senate.

That didnt sound likely Tuesday evening. The Houses machinations, said Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, were beyond disappointing and McCalls conditions a non-starter with Senate Republicans.

Instead, Treat called for an open meeting of McCall, Stitt, state Superintendent Ryan Walters and himself to settle matters.

Let the public see what we continue to argue about, Treat said.

After the vote, in a written statement, McCall said, As I have said repeatedly over the past year, we are committed to making sure any education plan that is passed doesnt hurt our public schools. Today, the House passed the Senates tax credit plan, but I am holding the bill from going to the governors desk until we get agreement on a public education funding plan.

Specifically, McCall is demanding a separate Oklahoma Student Fund  $300 million in its most recent iteration  distributed in such a way that small districts receive a disproportionate share. The argument is that small and therefore mostly rural districts should get more because those living in them are less likely to benefit from private school tax credits.

Another, related issue is that anything directing tax dollars to private schools has in the past hit a dead end in the House because of the large number of rural and suburban Republican representatives.

We are open to more money through the formula, increased funding to urban and suburban schools, higher teacher pay raises and other Senate priorities, but we are adamant that we must provide needed support to rural schools, McCall said.

Because of that, the House on Tuesday rejected Senate amendments to HB 2672  like HB 1934, essentially a Senate bill despite the House Bill designation. It includes a substantial pay raise (as did a House proposal rejected by the Senate) and a big boost to the state funding formula, which distributes money by enrollment and certain factors such as poverty, special needs and local tax base.

The unprecedented move to hold the school choice legislation hostage until the Senate agrees to pass the constitutionally questionable Oklahoma Student Fund and other pet projects is also a non-starter for the Senate Republican caucus, Treat said in his written statement. The plan we sent them treats every student the same no matter what their zip code is.

Their plan with the Oklahoma Student Fund is to disproportionately give kids in certain areas (for instance, Atoka Public Schools) more money than all others, Treat said. Their plan is a ridiculous and shameful notion that segregates children. The Senate is simply saying  treat every kid the same.

HB 1934 passed the House 61-31, with 13 Republicans joining 18 of the 19 Democrats present in opposition.

But earlier in the day, the House had voted along party lines to suspend its rules to allow any vote on HB 1934 to be reconsidered at any time until the end of the 59th Legislature  more than a year away, at the end of May 2024. Then, following Tuesdays vote on the bill, McCall captured it, meaning he reserved the right to bring the measure back to the floor.

Normally, that has to be done within three days, but that was the rule the House Republicans suspended. It is unusual for the vote to be captured after a bill passes; usually, its a way to give a bill thats failed a second life.

HB 1934 originally dealt with public posting of school curricula, but the Senate subbed out that language for its tax credit proposal. That proposal is for refundable income tax credits of from $5,000 to $7,500 per private school student, depending on household income, and $1,000 for home schooled students.

A refundable tax credit is one that can result in a refund to the tax filer if the credit is greater than taxes owed.

The bill does not include any sort of restrictions or reporting requirements for schools, except that they be accredited by the state board of education or another accrediting association.

That is one of the objections raised by opponents of most initiatives to make public funds available for private school students. The schools benefitting directly or indirectly generally do not have to meet the same admissions and accountability requirements as public schools.

Jon Echols, Majority Floor Leader, and some Democrats squabbled over whether the tax credits amount to vouchers, since the direct benefit will be to families and not the schools, but the bottom line is that up to $150 million the first year will be deducted from state income tax liabilities to pay for private school tuition and related costs.

How much the schools themselves benefit will depend on the extent to which their enrollments increase as a result of the tax credits. Some think that will be very little, while others  including Stitt  envision it fueling a private school explosion in both urban and rural areas of the state.

Others predict private schools will simply raise their tuition to something approaching the amount of the tax credits.

State support of private schools has been a priority for Stitt and Treat in recent years, and this week Stitt signed a bill that some believe is a prelude to funding of religious charter schools, which in Oklahoma are part of the public school system.

Tulsa-area state legislators and how to contact them Sen. Nathan Dahm Sen. Dana Prieto Sen. Jo Anna Dossett Sen. John Haste Sen. Todd Gollihare Sen. Kevin Matthews Sen. Joe Newhouse Sen. Dave Rader Sen. Cody Rogers Rep. Meloyde Blancett Rep. Jeff Boatman Rep. Amanda Swope Rep. Suzanne Schreiber 032823-tul-nws-davis-dean Rep. Mark Tedford Rep. Scott Fetgatter Rep. Ross Ford Rep. Regina Goodwin Rep. Kyle Hilbert Rep. Mark Lawson Rep. T.J. Marti Rep. Stan May Rep. Monroe Nichols Rep. Clay Staires Rep. Terry O'Donnell Rep. Melissa Provenzano Rep. Lonnie Sims Rep. John Kane Rep. Mark Vancuren Rep. John Waldron Check out our latest digital-only offer and subscribe now
A group of families with transgender adolescents and a medical provider are challenging a new state law that bans gender-affirming care for trans minors.

The complaint, filed in Tulsa federal court, asks a judge to declare the law imposed by Senate Bill 613 unconstitutional.

The law, which took effect Monday upon Gov. Kevin Stitts signing, bans gender-affirming surgery and drug treatments for transgender minors.

The complaint was filed by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma and others on behalf of six transgender minors, their parents and Dr. Shauna Lawlis, a University of Oklahoma Health Physician specializing in adolescent medicine, who provides gender-affirming care.

Every Oklahoman should have the freedom to access the care they need to survive and thrive, but once again, instead of deciding to boldly lead our state, Gov. Stitt and members of the Legislature have decided to risk the lives of one of our most vulnerable populations, to score political points with their base, Megan Lambert, American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma Legal Director, said in a written statement.

The law was opposed by LGBTQ advocates and many in the medical community.

The lawsuit claims the prohibition on providing gender transition services to minors denies transgender adolescents with gender dysphoria necessary, safe and effective treatment and prevents parents from obtaining medically necessary care for their transgender adolescents.

The lawsuit claims the law is discriminatory in part because it still permits the same kind of treatments for non-transgender patients, such as testosterone suppressants for female cisgender adolescents with polycystic ovarian syndrome to prevent body hair inconsistent with their gender identity.

The parents and their adolescent children are identified in the complaint only by pseudonyms.

A motion filed along with the lawsuit requests that they be permitted to remain anonymous.

Proceeding under pseudonyms is further necessary to protect the Minor Plaintiffs and their families from undue harassment, discrimination, and violence because of the Minor Plaintiffs transgender status and because the Parent Plaintiffs are affirming parents of transgender adolescents, the motion states.

The bill sparked intense debate in the Legislature as Democrats accused Republicans of concocting a nonexistent crisis at the expense of vulnerable youth, and Republicans accused medical professionals of mutilating young people suffering from psychological problems.

In practice, the banned surgeries appear to be very rare among minors. Treatments with hormones and other drugs are more common. There seems to be disagreement about the long-term effects of those drugs.

Stitt issued a written statement Monday after signing the bill.

Last year, I called for a statewide ban on all irreversible gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies on minors so I am thrilled to sign this into law today and protect our kids, Stitt said. We cannot turn a blind eye to whats happening across our nation, and as governor I am proud to stand up for whats right and ban life-altering transition surgeries on children in the state of Oklahoma.
Vietnam welcomed over 3.68 million foreign travelers in the first four months of the year, surpassing the figure in 2022, at 3.66 million, according to the General Statistics Office. The number of international tourists coming to Vietnam reached 984,100 in April alone, up 9.9 percent month on month. Chinese tourists contributed significantly to Vietnams tourism recovery in the four-month period. In particular, 112,000 Chinese travelers visited Vietnam last month, surging 61.5 percent over March, the best growth among source markets. However, South Korea took the lead in the number of visitors to Vietnam with one million in the four months. It was followed by the U.S. with 263,000 and China with 252,000 tourists. Other markets also posted a positive growth rate, such as Taiwan with 47.6 percent, Cambodia with 55.6 percent, and Laos with 35.5 percent. Vietnam hopes to serve eight million foreign visitors this year. Filipino tourists visit the building of the Peoples Committee of Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Hai Kim / Tuoi Tre During the Reunification Day (April 30) and International Workers Day (May 1) holiday this year, localities welcomed many groups of tourists. The Malta-flagged Azamara Quest with over 1,000 German travelers on board arrived at the Tien Sa Port in Da Nang City in central Vietnam on Sunday before visiting Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday and Wednesday. These tourists also visited the Mekong Delta, in addition to relic sites in the central region and Ho Chi Minh City. Saigontourist, which served this tourist group, welcomed 10 groups of over 5,000 international travelers, mainly from Germany, France, and Asian markets, to Vietnam during the five-day holiday, said Doan Thi Thanh Tra, director of marketing and communications at the company. Mein Schiff 5, another cruise ship from Malta, on Saturday docked at the Ha Long Port in northern Quang Ninh Province, bringing 3,000 German tourists to visit Ha Long Bay, Hai Phong, and Hanoi. Tourism companies in Ho Chi Minh City offer attractive tours during the Reunification Day (April 30) and International Workers Day (May 1) holiday. Photo: Hai Kim / Tuoi Tre In Ho Chi Minh City, many tourists visited the municipal Peoples Committee building during the holiday. Among the tourists visiting the city hall, there were many foreigners, said Tran Thi Bao Thu, director of marketing and communications at Vietluxtour. A group of Filipino tourists said they were honored to be the first foreign tourists to visit the city hall, saying that it was imposing and special. They were impressed by the history and culture of the city, Thu recounted. Nguyen Minh Man, head of communications and marketing at TST Tourist Company, said customers were also satisfied with and excited by his companys tours to the city hall. The demand of customers, including both domestic and international guests, is huge, Man added. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Vietnam welcomed over 3.68 million foreign travelers in the first four months of the year, surpassing the figure in 2022, at 3.66 million, according to the General Statistics Office.

The number of international tourists coming to Vietnam reached 984,100 in April alone, up 9.9 percent month on month.

Chinese tourists contributed significantly to Vietnams tourism recovery in the four-month period.

In particular, 112,000 Chinese travelers visited Vietnam last month, surging 61.5 percent over March, the best growth among source markets.

However, South Korea took the lead in the number of visitors to Vietnam with one million in the four months.

It was followed by the U.S. with 263,000 and China with 252,000 tourists.

Other markets also posted a positive growth rate, such as Taiwan with 47.6 percent, Cambodia with 55.6 percent, and Laos with 35.5 percent.

Vietnam hopes to serve eight million foreign visitors this year.

Filipino tourists visit the building of the Peoples Committee of Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Hai Kim / Tuoi Tre

During the Reunification Day (April 30) and International Workers Day (May 1) holiday this year, localities welcomed many groups of tourists.

The Malta-flagged Azamara Quest with over 1,000 German travelers on board arrived at the Tien Sa Port in Da Nang City in central Vietnam on Sunday before visiting Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday and Wednesday.

These tourists also visited the Mekong Delta, in addition to relic sites in the central region and Ho Chi Minh City.

Saigontourist, which served this tourist group, welcomed 10 groups of over 5,000 international travelers, mainly from Germany, France, and Asian markets, to Vietnam during the five-day holiday, said Doan Thi Thanh Tra, director of marketing and communications at the company.

Mein Schiff 5, another cruise ship from Malta, on Saturday docked at the Ha Long Port in northern Quang Ninh Province, bringing 3,000 German tourists to visit Ha Long Bay, Hai Phong, and Hanoi.

Tourism companies in Ho Chi Minh City offer attractive tours during the Reunification Day (April 30) and International Workers Day (May 1) holiday. Photo: Hai Kim / Tuoi Tre

In Ho Chi Minh City, many tourists visited the municipal Peoples Committee building during the holiday.

Among the tourists visiting the city hall, there were many foreigners, said Tran Thi Bao Thu, director of marketing and communications at Vietluxtour.

A group of Filipino tourists said they were honored to be the first foreign tourists to visit the city hall, saying that it was imposing and special. They were impressed by the history and culture of the city, Thu recounted.

Nguyen Minh Man, head of communications and marketing at TST Tourist Company, said customers were also satisfied with and excited by his companys tours to the city hall.

The demand of customers, including both domestic and international guests, is huge, Man added.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines recorded an after-tax loss of VND37 billion (US$1.6 million) in the first quarter of this year although its consolidated revenue skyrocketed 202 percent year on year. The airline earned VND23.64 trillion ($1 billion) consolidated revenue, according to its consolidated financial report for last quarter. However, its losses tumbled 99 percent over the same period last year, when the air carrier suffered a deficit of nearly VND2.7 trillion ($115.6 million). Vietnam Airlines submitted VND931 billion ($39.9 million) in taxes and fees to the state budget last quarter. As of March 31 this year, the air carriers assets topped VND59.6 trillion ($2.6 billion). Its equity was negative VND10 trillion ($428.5 million) and its HVN stock is still on the watchlist. Vietnam Airlines leaders said the firm was still striving to work out solutions and seek support from state management agencies to cut its losses. Meanwhile, budget air carrier Vietjet posted revenue of nearly VND12.9 trillion ($552.6 million) and after-tax profit of VND173 billion ($7.4 million). The airline operated 31,300 flights carrying nearly 5.4 million passengers in the first three months of the year, soaring 57 and 75 percent, respectively, year on year. It also transported more than 14,800 metric tons of cargo, up 20 percent over the year-ago period. International passenger transport remained a bright spot of Vietjets business as it accounted for nearly 45 percent of the firms total passenger transport revenue and 30 percent of its total passengers. The air carrier contributed VND1.05 trillion ($45 million) in taxes and fees to the state budget last quarter. Vietravel Airlines and Bamboo Airways have yet to release their financial reports for the first quarter of the year. Vietravel Airlines conducted nearly 1,600 flights in the period with an average occupancy rate of over 91.2 percent. The air carrier recorded a profit of VND200 billion ($8.6 million) in the last quarter of 2021 and 2022, when local airlines Vietjet and Vietnam Airlines incurred losses. Vietnams aviation sector served 99 million passengers last year. However, the sector struggled due to high fuel prices, the small number of international customers, and high operation costs. Experts are still pinning high hopes on a brighter prospect of the sector as aviation is a key driver of the local economy. The reopening of existing international air routes and the launch of new ones, coupled with falling fuel prices and lending rates, are expected to back the aviation sector in the coming time. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines recorded an after-tax loss of VND37 billion (US$1.6 million) in the first quarter of this year although its consolidated revenue skyrocketed 202 percent year on year.

The airline earned VND23.64 trillion ($1 billion) consolidated revenue, according to its consolidated financial report for last quarter.

However, its losses tumbled 99 percent over the same period last year, when the air carrier suffered a deficit of nearly VND2.7 trillion ($115.6 million).

Vietnam Airlines submitted VND931 billion ($39.9 million) in taxes and fees to the state budget last quarter.

As of March 31 this year, the air carriers assets topped VND59.6 trillion ($2.6 billion).

Its equity was negative VND10 trillion ($428.5 million) and its HVN stock is still on the watchlist.

Vietnam Airlines leaders said the firm was still striving to work out solutions and seek support from state management agencies to cut its losses.

Meanwhile, budget air carrier Vietjet posted revenue of nearly VND12.9 trillion ($552.6 million) and after-tax profit of VND173 billion ($7.4 million).

The airline operated 31,300 flights carrying nearly 5.4 million passengers in the first three months of the year, soaring 57 and 75 percent, respectively, year on year.

It also transported more than 14,800 metric tons of cargo, up 20 percent over the year-ago period.

International passenger transport remained a bright spot of Vietjets business as it accounted for nearly 45 percent of the firms total passenger transport revenue and 30 percent of its total passengers.

The air carrier contributed VND1.05 trillion ($45 million) in taxes and fees to the state budget last quarter.

Vietravel Airlines and Bamboo Airways have yet to release their financial reports for the first quarter of the year.

Vietravel Airlines conducted nearly 1,600 flights in the period with an average occupancy rate of over 91.2 percent.

The air carrier recorded a profit of VND200 billion ($8.6 million) in the last quarter of 2021 and 2022, when local airlines Vietjet and Vietnam Airlines incurred losses.

Vietnams aviation sector served 99 million passengers last year.

However, the sector struggled due to high fuel prices, the small number of international customers, and high operation costs.

Experts are still pinning high hopes on a brighter prospect of the sector as aviation is a key driver of the local economy.

The reopening of existing international air routes and the launch of new ones, coupled with falling fuel prices and lending rates, are expected to back the aviation sector in the coming time.

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Forget your hook, line and sinker. An Israeli foodtech company says it has 3D printed the first ever ready-to-cook fish fillet using animal cells cultivated and grown in a laboratory. Lab-grown beef and chicken have drawn attention as a way to sidestep the environmental toll of farming and tackle concerns over animal welfare, but few companies have forayed into seafood. Israel's Steakholder Foods has now partnered with Singapore-based Umami Meats to make fish fillets without the need to stalk dwindling fish populations. Umami Meats extracts cells - for now from grouper - and grows them into muscle and fat. Steakholder Foods then adds them to a 'bio-ink' suited for special 3D printers. The outcome: a narrow fillet that mimics the properties of sea-caught fish. Umami hopes to bring its first products to market next year, starting in Singapore and then, pending regulation, countries like the United States and Japan. Cell cultivation alone is still too expensive to match the cost of traditional seafood, so for now the fish cells are diluted with plant-based ingredients in the bio-ink. "As time goes by, the complexity and level of these products will be higher, and the prices linked to producing them will decrease," said Arik Kaufman, the chief executive of Steakholder Foods. A glass dish slides back and forth in the 3D printer, the white finger-length fillet building mass with each pass. It has the flakiness of traditional fish and when fried and seasoned it is hard to tell the difference. The process is simpler than with beef, but there are some disadvantages. A dish containing pieces of 3D-printed cultivated grouper fish is prepared for a tasting at the offices of Steakholder Foods in Rehovot, Israel, April 23, 2023. Photo: Reuters Cow stem cells have been studied extensively but much less is known about fish, said Umami's chief executive, Mihir Pershad. "We have to figure out what the cells like to eat, how they like to grow, and there's just not so much literature to start from," he said. "The number of scientists, you can imagine, working on fish stem cell biology is a small fraction of those working on animal cells and human cells." They have figured out a process for grouper and eel and hope to add three other endangered species in the coming months, he said. Meeting the price of fish from the sea is a key challenge. "We want consumers to choose based on how it tastes and what it can do for the world and the planetary environment. And we want to take cost off the table as consideration," Pershad added. The representative director of Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture holds up a morsel of a dish containing 3D-printed cultivated grouper fish during a tasting at the offices of Steakholder Foods in Rehovot, Israel, April 23, 2023. Photo: Reuters A worker inspects magnified species cells on a screen at the offices of Steakholder Foods in Rehovot, Israel, April 23, 2023. Photo: Reuters A chef prepares a dish with pieces of 3D-printed cultivated grouper fish for a tasting at the offices of Steakholder Foods in Rehovot, Israel, April 23, 2023. Photo: Reuters A chef holds up pieces of 3D-printed cultivated grouper fish before making them into a dish for a tasting at the offices of Steakholder Foods in Rehovot, Israel, April 23, 2023. Photo: Reuters

Forget your hook, line and sinker. An Israeli foodtech company says it has 3D printed the first ever ready-to-cook fish fillet using animal cells cultivated and grown in a laboratory.

Lab-grown beef and chicken have drawn attention as a way to sidestep the environmental toll of farming and tackle concerns over animal welfare, but few companies have forayed into seafood.

Israel's Steakholder Foods has now partnered with Singapore-based Umami Meats to make fish fillets without the need to stalk dwindling fish populations.

Umami Meats extracts cells - for now from grouper - and grows them into muscle and fat. Steakholder Foods then adds them to a 'bio-ink' suited for special 3D printers. The outcome: a narrow fillet that mimics the properties of sea-caught fish.

Umami hopes to bring its first products to market next year, starting in Singapore and then, pending regulation, countries like the United States and Japan.

Cell cultivation alone is still too expensive to match the cost of traditional seafood, so for now the fish cells are diluted with plant-based ingredients in the bio-ink.

"As time goes by, the complexity and level of these products will be higher, and the prices linked to producing them will decrease," said Arik Kaufman, the chief executive of Steakholder Foods.

A glass dish slides back and forth in the 3D printer, the white finger-length fillet building mass with each pass. It has the flakiness of traditional fish and when fried and seasoned it is hard to tell the difference.

The process is simpler than with beef, but there are some disadvantages.

A dish containing pieces of 3D-printed cultivated grouper fish is prepared for a tasting at the offices of Steakholder Foods in Rehovot, Israel, April 23, 2023. Photo: Reuters

Cow stem cells have been studied extensively but much less is known about fish, said Umami's chief executive, Mihir Pershad.

"We have to figure out what the cells like to eat, how they like to grow, and there's just not so much literature to start from," he said.

"The number of scientists, you can imagine, working on fish stem cell biology is a small fraction of those working on animal cells and human cells."

They have figured out a process for grouper and eel and hope to add three other endangered species in the coming months, he said.

Meeting the price of fish from the sea is a key challenge.

"We want consumers to choose based on how it tastes and what it can do for the world and the planetary environment. And we want to take cost off the table as consideration," Pershad added.

The representative director of Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture holds up a morsel of a dish containing 3D-printed cultivated grouper fish during a tasting at the offices of Steakholder Foods in Rehovot, Israel, April 23, 2023. Photo: Reuters

A worker inspects magnified species cells on a screen at the offices of Steakholder Foods in Rehovot, Israel, April 23, 2023. Photo: Reuters

A chef prepares a dish with pieces of 3D-printed cultivated grouper fish for a tasting at the offices of Steakholder Foods in Rehovot, Israel, April 23, 2023. Photo: Reuters
Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel arrived at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on Wednesday morning to start his three-day Vietnam visit at the invitation of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. This is his first visit outside Europe this year and the first visit to Vietnam by a Luxembourg prime minister in more than 20 years. The visit is aimed at marking the 50th anniversary of Vietnam-Luxembourg diplomatic ties, from 1973 to 2023. A high-ranking delegation of Luxembourg, including tourism and financial officials, accompanied Prime Minister Bettel during the visit. The top official of Luxembourg is set to participate in multiple activities in Hanoi on Thursday. After the welcoming ceremony, Prime Minister Chinh will hold talks with Bettel. The two will also witness the signing of cooperation agreements. In December last year, the two met during Prime Minister Chinhs official visit to Luxembourg. The two top officials inked some memoranda of understanding to boost partnership and trade activities and advance talks between their countries enterprises. Both also signed an agreement for cooperation between the Vietnam Stock Exchange and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. During his visit, Prime Minister Bettel will lay wreaths and pay tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum. The two officials will visit Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy) and Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum. Bettel does like Vietnamese culture and cuisine. He is scheduled to have a meeting with Vuong Dinh Hue, Chairman of the lawmaking National Assembly of Vietnam. After ending his visit to Hanoi, the prime minister of Luxembourg will travel to Ho Chi Minh City, southern Vietnam to meet local leaders and attend some activities and events. This is the first visit to Vietnam by a prime minister of Luxembourg in over 20 years. Photo: Vietnam News Agency Luxembourg is a European country, with an area of some 2,600 square kilometers and a population of over 647,000 people in 2022. The countrys GDP stood at VND1,124 trilllion (US$91 billion) in 2022. Vietnam and Luxembourg established diplomatic relations on November 15, 1973. As of March, Luxembourg had got involved in 64 projects in Vietnam with total pledged capital of VND60.7 trillion ($2.6 billion), making the former the third among 24 members of the European Union and 17th among 139 nations and territories worldwide investing in the latter. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel arrived at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on Wednesday morning to start his three-day Vietnam visit at the invitation of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

This is his first visit outside Europe this year and the first visit to Vietnam by a Luxembourg prime minister in more than 20 years.

The visit is aimed at marking the 50th anniversary of Vietnam-Luxembourg diplomatic ties, from 1973 to 2023.

A high-ranking delegation of Luxembourg, including tourism and financial officials, accompanied Prime Minister Bettel during the visit.

The top official of Luxembourg is set to participate in multiple activities in Hanoi on Thursday.

After the welcoming ceremony, Prime Minister Chinh will hold talks with Bettel. The two will also witness the signing of cooperation agreements.

In December last year, the two met during Prime Minister Chinhs official visit to Luxembourg.

The two top officials inked some memoranda of understanding to boost partnership and trade activities and advance talks between their countries enterprises.

Both also signed an agreement for cooperation between the Vietnam Stock Exchange and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

During his visit, Prime Minister Bettel will lay wreaths and pay tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum.

The two officials will visit Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy) and Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum.

Bettel does like Vietnamese culture and cuisine.

He is scheduled to have a meeting with Vuong Dinh Hue, Chairman of the lawmaking National Assembly of Vietnam.

After ending his visit to Hanoi, the prime minister of Luxembourg will travel to Ho Chi Minh City, southern Vietnam to meet local leaders and attend some activities and events.

This is the first visit to Vietnam by a prime minister of Luxembourg in over 20 years. Photo: Vietnam News Agency

Luxembourg is a European country, with an area of some 2,600 square kilometers and a population of over 647,000 people in 2022.

The countrys GDP stood at VND1,124 trilllion (US$91 billion) in 2022.

Vietnam and Luxembourg established diplomatic relations on November 15, 1973.

As of March, Luxembourg had got involved in 64 projects in Vietnam with total pledged capital of VND60.7 trillion ($2.6 billion), making the former the third among 24 members of the European Union and 17th among 139 nations and territories worldwide investing in the latter.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Police in Lam Dong Province in Vietnams Central Highlands region have apprehended a Dutch man wanted for killing his Vietnamese wife this week. Police officers detained JacoBus Johannes Kenter, 63, who is residing in the tourist city of Da Lat in Lam Dong, on Tuesday evening. He murdered his wife, identified as Le Thi D., 53, at 4:00 pm on Tuesday, according to police. The murder happened after the couple had a fierce quarrel at their house in Ward 4 in the city. During the argument, Kenter stabbed his wife many times with two knives, leading to her death, and fled the scene. While running away, he sent D.s daughter a message saying, I killed your mom. He was arrested while he was withdrawing cash at an ATM in Da Lat. The Dutch native traveled to Vietnam in 2006 and married D. in 2010. He confessed to police that he went out for lunch with his wife, his adopted daughter, who is also the biological daughter of the victim, and some acquaintances on Tuesday. At the eatery, D. regularly checked her phone and did not focus on the meal, angering Kenter. The two got into an argument, so he left the eatery and went home. About two hours later, D. returned home. The couple continued to have a serious quarrel. He failed to control his anger and stabbed his wife many times, causing her death. Police in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam check the scene of the murder on May 2, 2023. Photo: Pham Ngan / Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Police in Lam Dong Province in Vietnams Central Highlands region have apprehended a Dutch man wanted for killing his Vietnamese wife this week.

Police officers detained JacoBus Johannes Kenter, 63, who is residing in the tourist city of Da Lat in Lam Dong, on Tuesday evening.

He murdered his wife, identified as Le Thi D., 53, at 4:00 pm on Tuesday, according to police.

The murder happened after the couple had a fierce quarrel at their house in Ward 4 in the city.

During the argument, Kenter stabbed his wife many times with two knives, leading to her death, and fled the scene.

While running away, he sent D.s daughter a message saying, I killed your mom.

He was arrested while he was withdrawing cash at an ATM in Da Lat.

The Dutch native traveled to Vietnam in 2006 and married D. in 2010.

He confessed to police that he went out for lunch with his wife, his adopted daughter, who is also the biological daughter of the victim, and some acquaintances on Tuesday.

At the eatery, D. regularly checked her phone and did not focus on the meal, angering Kenter. The two got into an argument, so he left the eatery and went home.

About two hours later, D. returned home.

The couple continued to have a serious quarrel. He failed to control his anger and stabbed his wife many times, causing her death.

Police in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam check the scene of the murder on May 2, 2023. Photo: Pham Ngan / Tuoi Tre

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Tran Kim Truong, a 14-year-old native of Binh Thuan Province in south-central Vietnam, is under investigation for allegedly stealing a 30-seater car and causing a traffic accident, marking the third car theft he has committed. Early on Sunday morning, Truong stole the 30-seater car from a car garage located in Ham Liem Commune, Ham Thuan Bac District, Binh Thuan Province. While Truong was driving the stolen car on National Highway 28 to the provincial capital city of Phan Thiet, he crashed into an advertising board and motorbikes parked on the sidewalk. The boy fled the scene of the accident. Local police checked the CCTV camera footage in the car garage and the surrounding areas and identified Truong as the culprit. As of Tuesday afternoon, they managed to arrest him. On March 20 this year, he stole a 3.5-metric-ton truck in Nha Trang City in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa and was arrested while taking the truck to the southern province of Dong Nai. On April 3, he went on to steal a 1.2-metric-ton truck in Phong Nam Commune, Phan Thiet City and was seized after that. Since he is a teenager, he was let out on bail, during which time he continued to steal cars. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Tran Kim Truong, a 14-year-old native of Binh Thuan Province in south-central Vietnam, is under investigation for allegedly stealing a 30-seater car and causing a traffic accident, marking the third car theft he has committed.

Early on Sunday morning, Truong stole the 30-seater car from a car garage located in Ham Liem Commune, Ham Thuan Bac District, Binh Thuan Province.

While Truong was driving the stolen car on National Highway 28 to the provincial capital city of Phan Thiet, he crashed into an advertising board and motorbikes parked on the sidewalk.

The boy fled the scene of the accident.

Local police checked the CCTV camera footage in the car garage and the surrounding areas and identified Truong as the culprit.

As of Tuesday afternoon, they managed to arrest him.

On March 20 this year, he stole a 3.5-metric-ton truck in Nha Trang City in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa and was arrested while taking the truck to the southern province of Dong Nai.

On April 3, he went on to steal a 1.2-metric-ton truck in Phong Nam Commune, Phan Thiet City and was seized after that.

Since he is a teenager, he was let out on bail, during which time he continued to steal cars.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
TOULOUSE, France & LAKELAND, Mich., May 02, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

ABIONYX Pharma (FR0012616852 - ABNX - PEA PME eligible), a new generation biotech company dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative therapies for patients, announces that it has filed with the "Autorite des Marches Financiers" (AMF) its Universal Registration Document for the year ended December 31, 2022, dated April 28, 2023.

ABIONYX Pharma's Universal Registration Document for the financial year ending December 31, 2022, includes in particular:

The annual financial report for 2022, consisting of the consolidated financial statements, the annual financial statements and the related statutory auditors' reports;

The management report;

The corporate governance report;

A description of the share buyback program.

This document is available on the company's website (www.abionyx.com) and on the AMF website (www.amf-France.org). It is also available at the company's registered office, 33-43 avenue Georges Pompidou - Building D, Balma, 31130.

The Universal Registration Document has also been published in European Single Electronic Format (ESEF), with the five tables of the consolidated financial statements (the primary financial statements) and the appendix marked up using the XBRL markup language.

About ABIONYX Pharma

ABIONYX Pharma is a new generation biotech company that aims to contribute to health through innovative therapies in indications where there is no effective or existing treatment, even the rarest ones. Thanks to its partners in research, medicine, biopharmaceuticals and shareholding, the company innovates on a daily basis to propose drugs for the treatment of renal and ophthalmological diseases, or new HDL vectors used for targeted drug delivery.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230502005884/en/

Contacts

NewCap

Investor relations

Louis-Victor Delouvrier

Nicolas Fossiez

abionyx@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 98 53

NewCap

Media relations

Arthur Rouille

abionyx@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 94 98
The University of Edinburgh has sanctuary scholarships, while Scottish students are not charged tuition fees (PA Archive)

Sir Keir Starmer has gone back on his pledge to abolish tuition fees should he become UK prime minister.

The Labour Party leader had made the pledge in 2020, but shared that Britains fragile public finances would no longer allow the party to abolish fees.

Talking to BBC Radio 4s Today programme about making tuition fees free again, he shared: We are likely to move on from that commitment, because we do find ourselves in a different financial situation.

We are looking at options for how we fund these fees. The current system is unfair, it doesnt really work for students, doesnt work for universities.

While free tuition is a thing of the past here, there are a number of European countries that still offer students free or cheap higher education. Here is a look at those nations.

Countries with free university tuition in Europe

Scotland

Scotland offers free university education to students who are already ordinary residents in the country and are undertaking their first degree. Potential students who have a relevant connection with Scotland will be eligible for up to five years of free education.

There is no set amount of years specified. Basically, your application needs to clearly show that Scotland is and has been your permanent home for a considerable amount of time.

If you dont qualify for the free tuition offer, you may still qualify to pay the Home fees, which are capped at 1,820.

However, those from the rest of the UK who would like to study in Scotland are still charged up to 9,250.

Norway

Norway offers both local and international students free undergraduate and postgraduate education as long as they choose a university that is state-funded.

While the tuition is free, students are asked to pay a small students union fee each semester, to help support the universities facilities and services. But this fee is usually around 50.

Sweden

Students from Sweden, the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA), and Switzerland can access free education in the country. Countries in the EEA comprise the states of the European Union together with Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein.

Story continues

Exchange students are also usually exempt from fees.

However, those who are not from an EU or EEA country have to pay between 6,600 and 22,450 per year based on the course and university they have selected.

Germany

Germany offers free university education to everyone. Whether youre a German, from an EU nation, or a non-European, your tuition will be free of charge at almost all public universities.

The only condition for those who arent from an EU nation is that you will need to gain a residence permit before you arrive in the country. Additionally, youll have to commit to finishing your studies in Germany.

Denmark

Higher education in Denmark is free to those from the EU, the EEA, and those who are in an exchange programme. Plus, students who meet the eligibility criteria can also attain free education. The criteria ask that students have a permanent residence, a temporary residence with the possibility of obtaining permanent residence, or have a residence permit.

Alternatively, refugees and protected persons and their relatives might also be given free education.

Finland

EU citizens, EEA residents, and Swiss students can study in Finland for free. Everyone else  including UK students  counts as international students and has to pay fees.

Austria

State-funded universities in Austria are free to all EU and EEA citizens. Other students have to pay a tuition fee.

Greece

While university education is completely free to those from the EU, the EEA, and Switzerland, the fee for those who dont fit the criteria is relatively low as long as they choose a state-funded institution. Non-European students are expected to pay about 1,320 per year for an undergraduate programme at a public university in Greece.

France

The French government heavily subsidises tuition fees. Students from the EU, the EEA, Andorra, and Switzerland are asked to pay around 150 per year for a bachelors degree and 220 for a masters degree.

Plus, those who are residents of Quebec, have a long-term residence card, or have lived in a taxable household in France for more than two years are also eligible for these subsidised fees, even if they are non-Europeans.

How much are tuition fees in the UK?

Tuition fees across England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland are dependent on the students home region.

Those who are based in England and Wales pay up to 9,250 per year to study in England, Scotland, or Northern Ireland. The number is slightly less for Wales, with yearly fees costing up to 9,000 per annum.

Welsh students who claim benefits may be eligible for a Special Support Grant (SSG) of up to 5,161.

Scottish students receive university education for free in Scotland. But the same fees apply to them should they wish to pursue their higher education elsewhere in the country.

Students from Northern Ireland receive a tuition discount in their home region, with tuition fees capped at 4,395 per year.

There are exceptions for asylum seekers at more than 80 UK universities, who will have their tuition fees waived, with Sanctuary Scholarships.
Inside an evacuation flight from Sudan on the left and people leaving a place on the right (Image: PO Phot Arron Hoare/UK MOD Crown copyright/PA Wire on the left and Joe Giddens/PA Wire on the right)

Desperate families have pleaded to return to Oxfordshire as they are left trapped in war-torn Sudan and unable to reach evacuation flights.

Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran has intervened and urged the Home Office to apply "cool-headed common sense" when looking at cases.

Ms Moran appealed to the Home Office to help with the evacuation of two children who remain trapped in the country.

READ MORE: West Oxfordshire's election result could go down to the wire

Oxford Mail: Evacuation flight from Sudan

Evacuation flight from Sudan (Image: PO Phot Arron Hoare/UK MOD Crown copyright/PA Wire)

Ms Moran said: "I beg the minister for help with two constituency cases I have.

"One is an 11-month-old boy, his father a constituent of mine, his mother is Sudanese.

"Quite understandably they don't want to travel without being absolutely guaranteed that they're all going to get on that flight together so they haven't.

"Another is a two-year-old child their mother is British, their father is Sudanese, and they all want to put in visas so they can travel together."

READ MORE: Oxfordshire councillor pretended to be woman who doesn't exist

The fresh calls come as MPs were told on Tuesday that British nationals are being "beaten and robbed" when they are on route to catch evacuation flights out of Sudan.

Oxford Mail: Evacuation flight from Cyprus arrives at Birmingham airport

Evacuation flight from Cyprus arrives at Birmingham airport (Image: Joe Giddens/PA Wire)

People have been forced to make a treacherous journey to Wadi Saeedna airfield in Khartoum, with no accompaniment from UK military personnel.

Speaking to the BBC, one family called on the government to show empathy as they remained trapped in Khartoum.

Niam Ali, who lives in Oxford and works as a locum pharmacist, was reportedly denied a flight home after being told her family two-year-old son Yousif and husband Mohammed Yassien  were not eligible for rescue.

Mrs Ali said: "If my husband goes out on foot to try and get us food, he has to take a knife or a sword with him to protect himself because there's gang violence.

Story continues

READ MORE: Trains between Oxford, Didcot and London Paddington changed

Ms Moran asked Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell whether he understood that "separation is not an option".

The Oxford MP warned the government "risked failing these very small children who should be and are citizens of this country."

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Mr Mitchell assured Ms Moran that UK officials would continue to help those wanting to leave Sudan but he highlighted that there "has to be a ceasefire" to help the humanitarian work.

Conservative MP Nickie Aiken said she was also aware of a "number of Westminster residents" who were "still stuck in Sudan" and "scattered across the country".

She said they also faced the similar issue of "not having been able to get to Khartoum to secure a passage on one of the flights out".

READ MORE: Oxfordshire woman sentenced for Co-op assault after striking man

Defending the UK Government's response to the evacuation, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said it was impossible to provide an armed escort to the airfield when people were travelling from multiple points around Sudan's capital to reach the airfield.

Mr Cleverly responded to MPs' concerns by highlighting that "no country in the world was able to provide" the "level of security" which would be needed for a military escort to the airfield.

He said the "military practicalities" of an armed escort had proven to be "insurmountable".

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Harvesting grain in Kyiv Oblast, August 2022

The measure entered into force on May 2 and will last until June 5, 2023.

Read also: Polish Farmers Against the Ukrainian Hryvnia  opinion

It is deemed necessary given the exceptional circumstances of serious logistical bottlenecks experienced in five member states  Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

It concerns only four agricultural products  wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds  originating in Ukraine, and it aims to alleviate the logistical bottlenecks.

At the same time, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia have committed to lift their unilateral measures on wheat, maize, rapeseed, sunflower seeds, and any other products coming from Ukraine.

Read also: EU Commission may ban import of five Ukrainian agricultural products for rest of 2023

The Commission is ready to reimpose preventive measures beyond the expiry of the current Autonomous Trade Measures Regulation on June 5, 2023, as long as the exceptional situation continues, reads the report.

The European Commission reached an agreement on April 28 with Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia to resolve the crisis of Ukrainian agricultural imports driving down domestic prices.

According to the agreement:

Countries will abandon unilateral restrictions on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products

The EU will allocate EUR 100 million to support affected farmers in those countries

Protection measures will be implemented for the four most sensitive products: maize, wheat, sunflower seeds, and rapeseed

Countries will work to ensure exports to other countries.

In turn, Ukraines Foreign Ministry sent notes to the Polish Embassy in Ukraine and the EU representative in Ukraine on April 28 decrying the categorical unacceptability of the situation regarding trade restrictions on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products.

Poland suspended imports of grain from Ukraine on April 15.

Polish farmers had been protesting for several months against the transportation of Ukrainian agricultural products through Poland to third countries. They claimed that a significant portion of Ukrainian grain does not transit further and stays in Poland, destabilizing Polish markets and pushing down local prices.

Story continues

Read also: Polish agriculture minister resigns amid anger over Ukrainian grain imports

Later, Hungary and Slovakia also announced a temporary ban on imports of grain and oil crops, as well as some other agricultural products from Ukraine. Bulgaria joined them on April 19, allowing only transit.

A European Commission for Agriculture and Trade representative, Miriam Garcia Ferrer, stated that the EU opposes such bans.

Ukraine and Poland reached an agreement to resume the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products on April 18, Ukraines Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.

Hungary announced on April 19 that it had banned the imports of 25 types of agricultural products from Ukraine into the country, but then greenlit their transit under special conditions.

Read also: Whats the deal with the grain ban by Ukraines allies?  expert analysis

Romania has not restricted Ukrainian grain transit via its ports.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
FILE PHOTO: Commercial vessels including vessels which are part of Black Sea grain deal wait to pass the Bosphorus strait off the shores of Yenikapi in Istanbul, Turkey

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that proposed talks between Russia, Ukraine and Turkey on the Black Sea grain deal on May 5 have not yet been agreed, Russian media reported.

Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency quoted Turkey's Defence Minister Hulusi Akar as saying the grain deal would be discussed at a meeting in Istanbul.

But Russia's state-owned news agency RIA quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying of the proposed talks: "The question has not yet been agreed."

Russia has repeatedly cast doubt on the renewal of the Turkish-brokered grain deal, which was signed in July last year and facilitates Russian and Ukrainian agricultural exports on the Black Sea.

(Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Louise Heavens and Andrew Heavens)
(Bloomberg) -- The US, Europe and other key allies of Ukraine are preparing fresh penalties against Russia to try and tighten the net on President Vladimir Putins economy more than 14 months into his war, according to people familiar with the matter.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The packages would be individually implemented but coordinated. A key goal is to close loopholes in existing penalties and tackle overall sanctions circumvention, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive matters.

The plans will be unveiled around a Group of Seven leaders meeting in Japan later this month.

Multiple rounds of sanctions and other economic penalties imposed on Moscow since its invasion of Ukraine have battered Russias economy but not delivered a knockout blow, while Putin shows no sign of halting his war. Russias energy revenues are close to exceeding their target level in the face of the oil price cap imposed by the G-7 and European Union partners, helping the government to stabilize the budget even as military spending has surged.

Russia Seen Buying Yuan Soon as Sanctions, Oil-Cap Hit Eases

The Bank of Russia forecast on Friday that the economy will grow as much as 2% this year as the impact of sanctions fades, with gross domestic product reaching pre-war levels by the end of 2024, far earlier than many economists had forecast. Russias GDP declined by 2.1% in 2022 compared to a year earlier, confounding predictions early in the war that the restrictions would send the economy into a deep slump.

The G-7 summit will provide a forum for a discussion on what has worked so far and what options remain in terms of pressuring the Russian economy further. But with swathes of Russias trade and financial sectors already sanctioned, finding new areas to significantly squeeze Putins ability to fund his war isnt easy.

Story continues

The EUs package, the blocs 11th since February 2022, will mostly focus on the loopholes in sanctions already enacted, according to officials. Proposals on the table include banning many goods from transiting through Russia and targeting vessels that switch off navigation systems.

The measures, which would need the backing of all EU member states to be adopted, would also impose new sanctions on about three dozen people.

The US and Japan are preparing their own packages, the people said. Canada is working on measures relating to human rights, including the alleged abduction of Ukrainian children, and penalties on Russias defense industry.

While each package may differ in its content, due in part to the regulatory systems in each country, allies have been coordinating their respective responses ahead of the summit, the people said.

Much of the G-7s attention is focused on cracking down on Moscows ability to evade or circumvent existing measures, with an emphasis on hundreds of restricted goods and technologies used for military purposes.

That effort has involved applying diplomatic pressure on other countries through which trade to Russia has spiked, enhanced monitoring of key goods and targeting companies that may be helping Moscow  intentionally or otherwise  to get around restrictions.

G-7 leaders are expected to further hone those efforts at their meeting in Hiroshima, while also expanding restrictions on technology and equipment used by Russias military and industry.

Ahead of the summit, G-7 states are also discussing flipping the existing sanctions regime around, with all exports banned unless exempted, Bloomberg previously reported.

That is seen as especially problematic for the EU, however, where the bloc would eventually need the backing of all member states. If the new criteria are endorsed by G-7 leaders, exemptions would likely include agricultural goods, food and medicines.

The G-7 leaders are also expected to make progress on a mechanism to track and trace Russian diamonds across borders that could eventually pave the way for restrictions on that trade.

--With assistance from Ewa Krukowska.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

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The final UK evacuation flight is expected take off from Sudan on Wednesday morning, the Foreign Secretary has announced.

James Cleverly urged British nationals still wanting to leave the war-torn nation to make their way to Port Sudan.

It was previously thought the evacuation airlift had ended on Monday when planes left Sudan for Cyprus.

So far during the airlift  the longest and largest by any western nation in Sudan  2,341 people have been evacuated on 28 flights, according to the Government.

Downing Street said 1,195 were British nationals, with other nationalities, including Sudanese dependants of British nationals, also helped to leave.

No 10 confirmed that, as of Monday, 18 Sudanese clinicians had left the country as part of the UK evacuation.

In updated guidance on its website on Tuesday, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: The UK government will run final evacuation flights from Port Sudan on 3 May.

People evacuated from Sudan arrive on a flight from Cyprus into Birmingham airport (PA)

If you plan to leave Sudan, you should arrive at the Coral Hotel in Port Sudan by 10am on 3 May to be processed to travel.

After that, no further British evacuation flights will operate from Port Sudan.

Mr Cleverly tweeted: After the successful evacuation of 2341 people on 28 flights, the last UK flight is expected to leave Port Sudan tomorrow.

After the successful evacuation of 2341 people on 28 flights, the last UK flight is expected to leave Port Sudan tomorrow.



I urge British Nationals still wishing to leave the country to go to the Coral Hotel in Port Sudan and continue to follow our Travel Advice.  James Cleverly (@JamesCleverly) May 2, 2023

I urge British Nationals still wishing to leave the country to go to the Coral Hotel in Port Sudan and continue to follow our Travel Advice.

Earlier, the Foreign Secretary said there was still a British military presence at the countrys main seaport on the Red Sea coast as the situation remained dangerous.

Story continues

As well as officials and military personnel in Port Sudan, the HMS Lancaster warship is off the coast to support Britons.

The international focus is shifting to preventing a wider humanitarian catastrophe in the region and Mr Cleverly warned that any further fighting would hamper relief efforts.

The United Nations said Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan and his rival General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have agreed to send representatives to the negotiation table in a bid to establish a more stable truce.

Generals Burhan and Dagalo, both with powerful foreign backers, were allies in an October 2021 military coup that halted Sudans fraught transition to democracy, but they have since turned on each other.
Farmers on an island in Can Gio District on the outskirts of HCM City have switched to community tourism, learning new skills to welcome guests. But it wasnt an easy transition for the residents who are more used to working on salt fields then meeting and greeting visitors.
HA NOI  Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel arrived in Ha Noi on Wednesday morning and started an official visit to Viet Nam at the invitation of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

He was welcomed by Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien at Noi Bai International Airport.

Luxembourgs PM and the high-ranking delegation visited the World Natural Heritage site Ha Long Bay in the northern province of Quang Ninh on Wednesday.

Cao Tuong Huy, acting chairman of the provincial People's Committee, expressed his honor as Luxembourgs PM picked Ha Long Bay as one of the destinations to visit during his trip to Viet Nam.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel gratefully acknowledged the affection and respectful welcome of Quang Ninh Province's leaders.

He expressed his joy in visiting Ha Long Bay for the first time, feeling the beauty of the landscape as well as the hospitality of the local people.

The Luxembourgs PM will attend the official welcome ceremony hosted by PM Chinh on Thursday.

The two PMs are expected to witness a series of agreements between the two countries ministries and agencies and meet with the media to announce the result of their talks.

Before the welcome ceremony, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg will enter the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum to lay a wreath, pay tribute to the Heroes and Martyrs at the Bac Son Monument, and visit President Ho Chi Minh Relic Site.

Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and his Vietnamese counterpart will visit the Temple of Literature and the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum.

He will also have a meeting with Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Vuong inh Hue and attend several activities in HCM City.

Viet Nam and Luxembourg established diplomatic relations on November 15, 1973.

As of March 2023, Luxembourg had 64 investment projects with a total capital of US$2.6 billion in Viet Nam, ranking third out of 24 member states of the European Union and 17th out of 139 countries and territories making investments in Viet Nam.

In 2022, the total bilateral trade exchange reached $187.1 million, increasing 69 per cent compared to 2020.

In December 2022, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh paid an official visit to Luxembourg, bringing the bilateral partnership to a new development period in a comprehensive, practical and effective manner. During the visit, leaders of the two sides agreed to set up a strategic partnership in green finance at an early date.

Luxembourg agreed to support the development of a new financial centre in HCM City and strengthen cooperation with Viet Nam in trade, investment, education-training, science-technology, and the stock market.

They also concurred to increase the exchange of delegations at all levels, especially high level in 2023, while jointly organising activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a European country with an area of about 2,586 square kilometres and a population of more than 647,000 people in 2022.

Luxembourg's GDP reached $91 billion in 2022, with a GDP per capita of more than $141,000.  VNS
Vietnam currently has 1,015 foreign-invested enterprises (FDI) whose parent companies are subject to the global Minimum Tax. If the country applies the Global Minimum Tax, countries with parent companies will receive an additional tax difference in 2024 of about VND 12,000 billion.

Typical is the case of Samsung Vietnam Co., Ltd. As Korea applies the Global Minimum Tax from next year, Samsung estimates that in the fiscal year 2024, it will have to pay an additional

$400 million

in tax to Korea. If calculated for the whole tax incentive period in Vietnam, the total tax difference to be paid is estimated at 6.5 billion USD.

In a report to the Government, the Ministry of Finance said that if applying the preferential tax rate of the current Law on Corporate Income Tax, the total tax payable by enterprises during the operation period will be higher than using the Minimum Tax global 15%. The Ministry of Finance cited, as an example, an enterprise with a stable taxable income of

VND 100 billion/year

. According to the current Law on Corporate Income Tax, enterprises have to pay a total tax of

VND 765 billion

during the operation period. If applying the Global Minimum Tax, businesses only pay 750 billion VND. In the case of the same revenue of 100 billion VND/year and the steady growth of 5%/year, when receiving incentives according to the current Law on Corporate Income Tax, enterprises pay a total tax of

VND 3,861 billion

during the operation period. Meanwhile, if the global Minimum Tax is imposed, enterprises only pay 3,140 billion VND.

Canon Vietnam Co., Ltd, which is one of the businesses affected by applying the Global Minimum Tax, proposed that the authorities should support several solutions. Accordingly, Canon Vietnam supports electricity bills, social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and a disaster prevention fund. Additionally, functional agencies support other costs such as housing allowance, shuttle bus, labor training, land rent, and non-management of the industrial park. Support expenses made under this month's expense mechanism will be deducted from the next month's payable tax amount.

With the same proposal, Competition Team Technology Co., Ltd (a Foxconn Group - Taiwan subsidiary) wishes to support offsetting the original fixed asset cost and keeping dormitory costs for workers.

Slowing down will "lose" tens of trillions of billions/year

Economic expert Dinh Trong Thinh said that Vietnam needs to study and implement the domestic minimum tax as soon as possible to maintain the right to collect additional taxes. At the same time, keep the investment environment competitive. Suppose the domestic minimum tax regulation is applied. In that case, Vietnam will have the right to levy additional taxes on FDI enterprises enjoying an actual tax rate lower than the minimum 15%, thereby increasing budget revenue.

"Vietnam implementing a minimum domestic tax can spend the extra tax revenue for infrastructure development, human resource training, and technology investment. At the same time, using resources from this tax revenue to support FDI enterprises. If the global Minimum Tax is delayed, Vietnam will lose its "right to tax." Tens of trillions of VND in tax difference each year, businesses still have to pay back to the country, while the State needs more resources to continue supporting industries, "said Thinh.

With the same opinion, Dr. Can Van Luc, chief economist of the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development (BIDV), noted the difference in Corporate Income Tax when applying the Global Minimum Tax; FDI enterprises still have to pay when Vietnam did not get it. Moreover, Vietnam has yet to keep up with the trend of integrating into the global game and lost the opportunity for even more substantial reform.

Mr. Dang Ngoc Minh, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Taxation, also said that it is necessary to find solutions to support businesses in the process of investing in basic infrastructure for production, investing in the formation of fixed assets for industrial production, and maintaining environmental protection, housing support for workers, social insurance support, health care for employees, support for research and development, high technology application, environment-friendly technology.
ASEAN+3 should unlock more capital for sustainable infrastructure. Photo: Le Toan

Driven by strong exports, sound macroeconomic policies, and effective policy buffers, ASEAN economies registered growth of 5.6 per cent in 2022 and are on track to together become the world's fourth-largest trading block by 2030.

The future looks promising, but ASEAN economies must not lose sight of headwinds like climate change, geopolitical tensions, and the ever-present possibility that a future pandemic could derail their recovery.

At the heart of ASEAN's resilient and dynamic growth is quality infrastructure development, which in turn lays the foundation for economic development. Infrastructure underpins all vital aspects of economic activity and is crucial for prosperity.

ASEAN's development needs include social infrastructure like healthcare and education, as well as climate-smart investments to help deliver a fair, affordable, and secure transition away from fossil fuels. Finding the right mix between addressing the region's energy transition needs and its continued economic transformation will be key.

The demand for infrastructure financing is immense and far beyond what governments alone can provide. According to a 2017 Asian Development Bank (ADB) study, developing Asia will need $13.8 trillion in infrastructure investment between 2023 and 2030. With many critical assets needed, infrastructure demand will continue to grow.

Closing the infrastructure gap will be vital for improving connectivity, facilitating trade and investment, enhancing competitiveness, and fulfilling the commitments to move the region forward towards meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. This is true for both developing and developed economies, and it is well recognised by every country in the ASEAN+3 group  which includes China, Japan, and South Korea, alongside ASEAN's 10 member states.

There is more than $200 trillion of private capital invested in global capital markets today. Accessing these funds will be key for addressing ASEAN's critical infrastructure financing needs. To unlock this support, ASEAN governments should raise the attractiveness of the region as a destination for infrastructure investment.

Governments should bolster investor confidence by demonstrating that their legal, regulatory, and institutional frameworks are strong and consistent. They should also ensure that their capacity to prepare, design, and implement infrastructure projects is well developed, that their investment climate is favourable, and that attractive returns for investors are possible.

Importantly, ASEAN+3 economies are starting to adopt innovative mechanisms to de-risk project financing and widen their investment funding pools. One such innovation is the use of blended finance to reduce risks and enhance the bankability of projects that might not otherwise appeal to commercial investors.

Working with Indonesia and the Philippines as leading partners, the ADB's recently established Energy Transition Mechanism will take advantage of low-cost capital from various concessional, public, and private sources to incentivise the early retirement or repurposing of coal power plants. This will be an important step towards helping the region achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Likewise, the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility aims to reduce risk and enhance credit for green infrastructure projects. It has attracted $2 billion in co-financing from development partners, including some from outside the region, to support new bankable and environmentally sustainable projects.

ASEAN+3 economies are also advancing innovations like the use of disaster risk insurance to address the effects of climate change. The Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Insurance Facility provides technical assistance and disaster-risk financing solutions for ASEAN countries.

In addition, the launch of social bonds under the ASEAN Social Bond Standards has mobilised much-needed private capital to help meet the food security, job creation, and economic advancement needs of local communities in the region.

As a trusted development partner of ASEAN+3 economies for close to six decades, the ADB has an important role to play in investing in quality social infrastructure, leveraging digital and innovative technologies, and working with members with a sense of common purpose to raise funds for a resilient and sustainable net-zero future.

Providing a road map for future success, ASEAN+3 finance ministers and central bank governors jointly launched a report with the ADB on innovative financing solutions for infrastructure investments in the region at the start of the bank's annual meeting on May 2.

The report offers unique ASEAN+3 perspectives on the priorities, challenges, and opportunities for infrastructure investment in developing Asia. It also presents fit-for-purpose financing models and critical success factors from case studies, providing replicable solutions to help deepen private-sector engagement in the region.

Building resilient and sustainable infrastructure for the future is critical. It is time to act and together forge stronger partnerships with the private sector to deliver a brighter future for our children and generations to come.

(from left to right) Masatsugu Asakawa, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indranee Rajah, and Shunichi Suzuki (*)

(*) Masatsugu Asakawa is president of the Asian Development Bank. Sri Mulyani Indrawati is Indonesia's Minister of Finance. Indranee Rajah is Singapore's Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Finance and National Development. Shunichi Suzuki is Japan's Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Financial Services. Indrawati and Suzuki are 2023 co-chairs of the ASEAN+3 Finance Process.

Vietnam eager to complete integral transport infrastructure to attract FDI Local authorities at all levels are eager to implement construction of transport infrastructure up and down the country.
Sandy Wee, senior regional director of Sales Asia-Pacific, IDeaS Revenue Solutions

There is the magnificent, historical city of Hoi An that is perhaps not marketed as heavily overseas. I believe that the destinations marketing activities are crucial for showcasing the country and luring Americans and Europeans who wish to immerse themselves in the culture. Sustainability is also critical. Everyone wants to know what the country and hotels are doing in terms of sustainability.

The first imperative is that ASEAN cooperates to facilitate travel and expand air connections. Next are the visa arrival requirements. How simple is it to obtain a visa, and what are the necessary steps and procedures? Ease of entry will greatly facilitate travel. It is all about the efficiency of the process.

Today, there are many more options for travellers seeking accommodation. The lack of visitors may be a result of global marketing efforts. Consequently, I believe that tourism organisations play a crucial role in destination marketing.

Vietnam is an undoubtedly stunning nation. It has much to offer in terms of culture, attractions, and natural splendour. But what matters most is how it is marketed overseas. When competing with other destinations in the region, such as Thailand and Indonesia, the nature of the tourism boards actual marketing campaigns will be a crucial factor.

Therefore, it is crucial that the countries in the region, the attractions, the hotels, and the land proprietors, all work together to promote the destination on international markets.

In Vietnam, hundreds of hotels are and will be constructed within the next few years, along with dozens of new hotel brands. We must first market the destination, after which they will choose their hotel. So, branding and education is the first step in informing everyone about what and how diverse the culture is. And the emphasis should be on experiences. It is about more than just tourism.

In fact, every traveller will have different desires for their holiday. Some prefer cuisine, others prefer buying goods, and still others prefer culture. Thus, it depends on how the destination is really marketed to accommodate these distinctions. It could be either professional or leisure travel.

As a Singaporean, I live in a city where the weather is sweltering. I would love to visit Vietnams highlands and have a peaceful holiday away from the metropolis. This is precisely what I desire. Others may desire a city or something else. It really is about segmentation and catering to the various requirements of travellers. Are they conducting business? Are they accompanied by family? Are they appearing to be on their honeymoon? If Im a couple, where is the first site I should consider? That should already resonate with individuals. It is clear that there must be very targeted segmentation if you wish to draw various types of travellers.

Those who truly desire travel convenience must secure the flight, the hotel, and the location of their lodgings. Therefore, if you remove one of their concerns, they will be able to decide because there are Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Cambodia as other options. But it is possible that Vietnam can be the top choice in the region. Consequently, with the influx of Chinese tourists, we can see that demand and interest in Vietnam is rapidly increasing.

For concepts and revenue solutions, it is crucial that we work closely with hotels to accurately price and forecast their room rates, ensuring that they target the appropriate guests. Regarding technology, it is vital that we introduce education to the Vietnamese market. We are aware that when guests arrive at hotels, it is essential that they be able to offer the hotels loyalty and the guests return. Therefore, it is crucial that we, as suppliers and vendors, collaborate closely together.

In addition, Vietnam is vital for us because it is still expanding. Weve seen a lot of interest ever since the pandemic, with all the hotels opening up, and there is a significant human resource issue in Vietnam. In this, we are searching for hotel employees with the necessary skills. It is very challenging.

Over the past couple of years, many people fled the hospitality industry and did not return. Therefore, it is essential that hotels continue to improve training for their staff. We firmly believe in educating the Vietnamese market so that they can advance their education and comprehend how the hospitality industry functions.

When you can provide this education, you are not merely performing a mundane task, but advancing to the next level.

Talk show presents Vietnam's emerging tourism hotspots What new destinations, products, and services does Vietnam's tourism offer? The talk show Emerging Hotspots for Eco-luxury & Experienced Tourism taking place on the afternoon of August 25 will discuss these points in-depth and offer insights into the reviving sector.

Responsible and sustainable direction giving wings to Vietnamese tourism development A survey from Economist Impact on more than 4,500 travellers from nations including Australia, Japan, India, Thailand, and Vietnam found that around 72 per cent of participants agreed that the pandemic has changed their way of thinking about sustainable tourism. In which, 7/10 respondents said that sustainable tourism will become more important in the future development of the tourism industry.
High airfares slow Vietnamese visit numbers, Photo: Shutterstock

Pham Ha, president of Lux Group, said airfares to Vietnam have doubled since the beginning of this year, and he had already had two large groups cancel.

A group of 30 Italians had booked a 16-day trip to Vietnam, but they changed their itinerary and cancelled their bookings at the last minute because the airfare was too high and there were no direct routes between Vietnam and Italy.

Then a group of British tourists also cancelled their bookings and switched to Thailand due to convenient flight routes and cheaper airfares.

High airfare will give tourists less choice and affect their decision to come to Vietnam, Ha said.

At a conference on attracting foreign tourists held in Khanh Hoa province earlier this month, Ha Van Sieu, vice chairman of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said that international tourists to Vietnam by air accounted for more than 80 per cent of incoming tourists.

However, the increase in flight prices could threaten the tourism industrys goal of welcoming 8 million international visitors this year.

By the end of the first quarter, the number of foreign tourists entering Vietnam reached nearly 2.7 million, equalling 60 per cent of the same period in 2019. Sieu said that the increase in airfare prices also affected the speed of recovery and reduced the competitiveness of destinations in Vietnam compared to other countries in the region.

Our data shows that the recovery rate of Vietnams tourism is 23 per cent, lower than the average in the Asia-Pacific region of 30.5 per cent and also lower than that of neighbouring countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, he said.

Deputy head of the Air Transport Department under the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, Bui Minh Dang, said that for the international market, the ticket price depended on the needs of users.

Currently, there are 69 carriers operating flights to and from Vietnam. Competition between international markets will determine the price of air tickets, Dang said.

Currently, 52 regular foreign airlines and five Vietnamese airlines are operating 143 routes connecting 29 countries and territories in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

Although China, one of Vietnams largest international tourist markets, has reopened recently, the operating frequency of Vietnamese and Chinese airlines has only reached about half compared to the pre-pandemic period.

Generally, in the first quarter of 2023, the volume of transport on international routes reached 7.1 million passengers, approximately 68 per cent over the same period in 2019.

Meanwhile, representatives of a number of airlines in Vietnam said that increasing airfares at this time was a mandatory requirement because the ticket price will reflect the type of aircraft, flight time, itinerary, and type of service, etc.

The average ticket price Vietnam Airlines sold on the market in 2022 increased by 30-50 per cent. Airlines also had to increase air tickets to cover the losses incurred and balance costs to maintain operations during the pandemic, said Truong Tran Ngoc Hung, vice head of Product Marketing Department at Vietnam Airlines.

To remove barriers related to air ticket prices to stimulate tourism development, Vietnamese and foreign airlines are continuing to increase frequency, and reopen or open new routes. Vietnam also encourages airlines to develop routes from secondary international airports, creating maximum conditions for transportation rights, pricing policies, and other commercial conditions for airlines operating international passenger flights to these destinations.

International operations to Vietnam are currently not only concentrated at Hanois Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat of Ho Chi Minh City, but have been restored and expanded at a number of other international airports such as Danang, Cam Rang, Phu Quoc, and Dalat.

Visa upgrade at heart of fresh approach to tourism Vietnams tourism industry is expected to surpass its goal of welcoming eight million foreign visitors this year, if visa policies are updated and length of stay options adjusted.

More welcoming policies will rejuvenate tourism chances Vietnams international tourism is slowly reopening and growing again, but it still has a long way to go.
The Waco Police Department is seeking a suspect in the Tuesday shooting death of a 17-year-old male in East Waco.

Officers were called at 8:41 p.m. to the shooting in the 1900 block of J.J. Flewellen Road, department spokesperson Cierra Shipley said. They found Tercquan Johnson with gunshot wounds, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, Shipley said.

The Estella Maxey Place public housing complex is in the same block, but Shipley would not confirm whether the shooting occurred at that property.

Anyone with information on the incident can call the Waco Police Department at 254-750-7500 or submit an anonymous tip to Waco Crime Stoppers, 254-753-4357.

Shipley said Johnson is the seventh homicide victim in Waco this year.
An obscure low-water crossing in eastern McLennan County will get high-profile attention from McLennan County, commissioners Tuesday awarding a contract exceeding $500,000 to replace battered culverts made of rail cars.

The American Rescue Plan Act, passed during the raging COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, was meant to ease economic hardships communities faced. The fine print addressing spending under the measure includes culvert projects if they are meant to manage stormwater, County Administrator Dustin Chapman said.

That information in mind, commissioners voted to use some of the money McLennan County received through the American Rescue Plan to address a chronic problem where Trading Post Road crosses Trading House Creek. Mechell Contracting, of West, submitted the lowest of four bids. The company will get about $543,000 to remove two metal culverts, each 8 feet in diameter, and replace them with concrete box culverts. Crews also will top the gravel roadway with pavement, and will install lights that flash during stormwater events.

The culverts there now are old metal rail cars. Theyve been there 50 years or more, County Engineer Zane Dunnam said. Theyre rusting out on the bottom, and have been battered by heavy logs and debris coming downstream. The bridge is in a curve, and its hard to see around the curve if flooding is over the road. We need to install lights that warn people to turn around.

Dunnam said decades ago, tube-shaped train cars ready to be retired, a type usually used for carrying liquids, were repurposed as inexpensive culverts.

He said he does not know how much traffic the bridge carries.

Its always good to improve the road system, Dunnam said. Weve not done any road counts, but if we save one life, thats enough.

The site in question is nestled in an area roughly bounded by State Highway 6, Hallsburg Road and Tradinghouse Creek Reservoir. It is in commissioners Precinct 2, represented by Patricia Miller.

The Precinct 2 road and bridge foreman noticed during a routine check after a heavy rain in summer 2021 that the culvert was starting to fail, Miller said in an email Tuesday. Considering the amount of water flow and the complicated placement of the existing culvert, they brought in Dunnam to look at the issue, and last year the county hired civil engineering firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam for a drainage study and design work, along with Langerman Foster Engineering Co. for a geotechnical report, Miller said.

The county opened contractors bids in March, with Mechell offering the best price.

To some, this may appear as a laborious process, Miller wrote. However, the safety of our citizens is a paramount concern to me and given the fact that the Tradinghouse Creek Reservoirs dam drains directly through the culvert, all safety precautions and issues of concern needed to be addressed.

She said the stretch is used by private residents and businesses, including Thompson Cattle Co., and she is happy construction is about to get started.

Scott Mechell in a phone interview said his company probably can replace the bridge within four months. He employs about 25, and said the company also is serving as a subcontractor on building the new $160 million Waco High School. Mechell said work there includes water and sewer services and storm drainage.

Others bidding on the bridge replacement were Bear Creek Construction, $737,766; DJ Hansen Construction Corp., $628,624; and Pierce Construction, $573,215, records show.

Rescue Plan money

McLennan County continues to work through $49.8 million in American Rescue Plan funds, setting aside $2.5 million for improvements to low-water crossings in the county; earmarking up to $14 million to convert the old county jail downtown to courtroom, office and jury space; $4.4 million to address arsenic contamination at area water supply companies; $5.6 million for non-arsenic-related water projects; and $9 million to replace lost revenue.

About $5 million earmarked for jail conversion would apply to health-related considerations, including air purification systems.

Commissioners also have promised $8.4 million in American Rescue Plan funds to build the Central Texas Industrial Training Center in Wacos Texas Central Park. The 31,800-square-foot structure would represent a joint venture involving the county, city of Waco and Texas State Technical College, which would operate the job training facility to be filled with cutting-edge equipment.

The training center agreement appeared on the agenda for commissioners meeting Tuesday for minor tweaking.

The city gave a commitment of $8 million, and well match theirs, County Judge Scott Felton said. We will make ours available in a lump sum. Theirs is over time. American Bank will take the income stream and leverage it for cash. All the money will be in place before the groundbreaking.

The money is going to the TSTC Foundation, Felton said.

I expect sometime later this year well be breaking ground, he said.

Mazanec Construction will serve as construction manager at risk.

Thats an excellent selection, a local, high quality contractor, Felton said. Were very glad to get them. It means more economic development.

Asked about the work on Trading Post Road, Felton said, It is not a high traffic area at all, but were responsible for it.

He said the Texas Department of Transportation carried out engineering services required to proceed.
Memorial Day arrives May 29 as the nation honors military men and women who died in service to their country. The federal holiday may not lend itself to fireworks displays in the opinion of some who prefer a more somber approach, but McLennan County commissioners voted Tuesday to allow fireworks sales as the day nears.

Waco-McLennan County Emergency Operations Manager Elizabeth Thomas told commissioners there is enough moisture in the ground to go ahead with allowing fireworks sales despite what she described later as an overall drought.

Thomas said she consulted the Keetch-Byram Drought Index before making her recommendation. The index let us know there is enough moisture in the dirt right now, and for the period when sales are allowed, she said in an interview.

She said the index considers several factors, including precipitation and soil moisture, she can use to predict the danger of grassfires.

The lawful sales period runs from May 24 until midnight May 29.

Thomas said commissioners have asked her to make recommendations regarding fireworks sales before each holiday.

Unless local officials have issued a prohibition, the state allows licensed fireworks retailers to sell to the public from June 24 to midnight July 4, and from Dec. 20 to midnight Jan. 1 of the following year, according to a State Fire Marshal webpage. In counties within 100 miles of the Texas-Mexico border, retailers can also operate from May 1 to midnight May 5, as long as no local prohibition is in effect.

The state also allows county commissioners to take action each year to authorize fireworks sales for three other periods: from Feb. 25 to midnight March 2, Texas Independence Day; from April 16 to midnight April 21, San Jacinto Day; and from the Wednesday before Memorial Day to midnight Memorial Day, the last Monday of May.

Cities in the county, including Waco, ban the use of fireworks in their territory outright and year-round.

As far as the commissioners court ruling, thats the county. The city of Waco does not allow the possession or use of fireworks in the city limits, Waco Fire Department Lt. Keith Guillory said. You can have your fireworks confiscated, receive a citation, or both. Were not specifically commenting on their ruling. It doesnt affect the city of Waco.

Robinson Volunteer Fire Chief Reese Knight said firefighters will be ready.

We would prefer not to have fireworks sales, but that is not our option, Knight said. We have to be prepared, and hope people use good sense in how they enjoy Memorial Day. The commissioners court is diligent in assessing whether a burn ban should be put in place. They take drought factors into consideration, and have determined that those factors are not significant enough to postpone fireworks.

Danny Erwin, who told commissioners Tuesday his family has sold fireworks for decades, said last year proved difficult for many fireworks retailers because severe drought conditions statewide prompted bans on use.

He thanked commissioners for voting to allow sales this Memorial Day, and vowed to operate his stands to the utmost level of safety.

Erwin said he makes fireworks available to schools, church groups, volunteer fire departments and others as a fundraising vehicle.

Terresa and Thomas Hale staffed a Mr. W Fireworks stand last year in an unincorporated area near the Home Depot store in Bellmead. They, like other operators, played a waiting game, as dry conditions statewide prompted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to pull the plug on fireworks sales in the days leading up to July 4.

Terresa Hale said Wednesday she and Thomas Hale will give it another shot this year. She said she appreciates the action commissioners took and said she probably will receive an email message from the county informing her of the commissioners stance. She said the county is good about providing updates.

It was bad last year. We were shut down the five days leading up to and including July Fourth, and 98% of our customers typically come by on the third or fourth, Terresa Hale said. Well probably just see a handful on Memorial Day, but opening gives us an opportunity to prepare for July Fourth. There wont be many places open because they dont have to be.

County convention

Also Tuesday, County Judge Scott Felton said the county will join local tourism advocates in pursuing a convention of county judges and commissioners from North Texas and East Texas looking to find a host city.

Were talking about several hundred people for several days, Felton said. Some commissioners and judges meet their educational requirements at these meetings. Weve had them here several times. (Former County Judge) Jim Lewis used to host the group pretty regularly. Since then Waco has become a popular place, with a lot more attractions than back then, and more hotel rooms. They like to have it where lots of things are going on.
The Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau on Tuesday unveiled its new Waco Mobile Welcome Center, a Waco-themed bus meant to spread word to visitors and amplify tourism in the city.

Waco is just growing so much in the world, said Conventions and Tourism Director Dan Quandt. I mean, the whole opinion of the town has changed, and this is just going to try to reinforce that and put an exclamation point at the end of it.

The bus, which cost $150,000, will be used to promote Waco tourism inside the city and around the state, said Carla Pendergraft, assistant director of tourism.

The mobile center will visit local festivals, farmers markets, fairs and events where there might be visitors, but will also speak to locals, as they are critical in driving tourism, she said.

When you invite your friends from out of state to come visit, youre creating tourism in Waco, so we do want to talk to Waco people and we want to get out of town and do it elsewhere, she said.

The bus features the citys skyline and a map of iconic Waco spots, including McLane Stadium, the Suspension Bridge, ALICO Building, Waco Hippodrome, Dr Pepper Museum and Cameron Park. It is decorated with Texas bluebonnets, has the words Welcome to Waco pasted boldly on its side and an elephant positioned like The Thinker sits at the rear, a nod to the Sculpture Zoo on University Parks Drive.

The bus comes with a table and chairs and decor to sit outside and Waco-themed merchandise to be sold inside.

Quandt said he has had his eye on mobile tourism since before he joined the city in November 2021, and he was pleased to find Waco was already working on a concept when he came aboard.

To be honest with you, personally, in my career the first time I wanted one of these, a mobile visitor center, was some time in the early to mid-1980s when I was still in North Dakota doing this kind of work, he said. So this has been a dream for me for a long, long, long time.

Quandt said the bus, paid for by the Convention and Visitors Bureau, has been a massive but fun community project, involving the help of Creative Waco and local artists.

The city contacted Creative Waco looking for a local artist to create a wrap for the vehicle. Quandt said a number of artists submitted work to a contest and a jury pool narrowed down the applicants, eventually landing on Waco graphic designer Hanna Braud.

Braud, who owns the local design boutique Studio Braud, said she has worked specifically with brand identity development and a couple of food trucks, but found joy in the challenge of creating an appealing wrap that characterized the artistic elements of Wacos landmarks.

I think as a graphic designer were called to be visual problem solvers, Braud said. So thinking in terms of a map, maps can be very detailed but they really wanted it to be very artistic and have a flow and character.  Specifically love how vibrant and colorful and eye-catching it is. Hopefully it draws the eye of the viewers when passing by. I think we accomplished that now seeing it printed.

Pendergraft said many destinations have tourism buses similar to Waco that they use to promote local tourism. This week the bus will be around town for national travel and tourism week and will take its first long-distance trip to meet with travelers and travel counselors from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 12 at the Texas Department of Transportation Travel Information Centers in Waskom and Denison.

The bus will make different stops around the state each year, she said, and will likely accompany the convention sales staff when bidding out for events and conventions.

Itll be in town, itll be out of town, Pendergraft said. But at first we want it kind of in town to get people familiar with it and get people to be a visitor in their own home town.

Pendergraft said tourism is one of McLennan Countys largest industries, employing some 5,500 people across the county. As the area adds more hotel rooms and fills them up, it gives a good indication of a booming tourism market in the city, she said.

You think about all the hotels: everybody in the hotel is a visitor, right? she said. We have stayed in the top five hotel occupancy since about 2015.  This last quarter were ahead of everybody except for Austin with all these new hotel rooms.

The tourism centers first stop will be Sunday at the Waco Welcome Center, off I-35 next to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, to kick off National Travel and Tourism Week. From 3 to 5 p.m. guests can enjoy a pop-up market in the parking lot with free gelatos and Chaney Brothers Coffee for the first 50 guests.

For the rest of the week locals and tourists can find the bus at different hubs around town and elswehere:

May 8: Magnolia Market, near Eighth Street and Webster Avenue, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

May 9: Waco Regional Airport, 9 a.m. to noon

May 10: Bridge Street Market, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

May 11: Chips and Joe at the Waco Convention Center (break time for convention attendees), 9:45 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

May 12: TxDOT Travel Information Centers at Waskom and Denison, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

May 13: Waco Downtown Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
PRESS RELEASE

BELLEVILLE, MICH. (May 2, 2023)  Have you ever flown in a Huey helicopter with the doors wide open and the wind rushing over your face? You will have that opportunity at the Aerospace & Natural Science Academy of Toledo Open House on May 6 and 7. This experience is not your typical airplane ride; youll feel the difference from lift-off to landing.

For only $125.00, you can take a thrilling 10-minute flight with a new perspective from the air. Book your ride/time in advance or take a chance and walk up that day. Rides occur from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm each day. To order tickets in advance visit https://yankeeairmuseum.org/fly/#huey or just walk up at 11:00 am to see whats available.

The Yankee Air Museum Huey, Greyhound, served in the Vietnam War from 1967 until 1971. It was part of the 240th Assault Helicopter Company known as The Greyhounds, Mad Dogs, and Kennel Keepers. The Greyhound Bus Company was honored by the name and gave the company permission to use its logo. A versatile helicopter, the UH-1 was used as a gunship, for medical evacuation, and for utility purposes.

Huey rides and the Aerospace & Natural Science Academy of Toledo Open House are located at the Toledo Airport at 11600 W. Airport Service Road, Swanton, OH 43558.

About Yankee Air Museum: Established in 1981 the Yankee Air Museum is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization. The Yankee Air Museum dedicates itself to educating individuals through the history of American aeronautics, the aerospace industry and its associated technologies while inspiring generations through personal experiences to instill pride in our national accomplishments. Yankee Air Museum, located at 47884 D Street, Belleville, Michigan on the grounds of historic Willow Run Airport. Visit www.yankeeairmuseum.org to discover more or call 734-483-4030.
Taxes in retirement. Yes, they exist! And there are things you can do to keep more of your money in the future. Follow these tips to optimize 
WATERLOO  A Waterloo man accused of stealing medication from a Cedar Falls veterinarians office has been sentenced to probation.

Jordon Robert Tait, 31, pleaded to two counts of third-degree burglary and one count of possession of alprazolam.

He waived in-court appearance and was sentenced to up to five years in prison suspended to two to five years of probation with one year in the residential correctional facility in an order filed April 12.

Authorities allege he removed alprazolam pills  used to calm cats and dogs  from the Cedar Valley Veterinary Center on State Street while his girlfriend was cleaning the office after hours in May and June 2022. He also went to the clinic after hours on his own.

The business alerted police in June when workers discovered a shortage during an audit.

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
WATERLOO  Two Minnesota men arrested for break-ins in Johnson County are suspects in a burglary to a Waterloo store and dozens of other businesses in the region.

Waterloo police said they have obtained warrants for Najee Balil Abdullah, 32, and Richard Lee Holston, 43, both of St. Paul, in connection with a recent burglary to a Mexican store in Waterloo.

The two are currently housed at the Johnson County Jail in Iowa City for charges in break-ins to businesses in Iowa City and North Liberty.

Court records allege Abdullah and Holston burglarized the Acapulco Mexican Bakery on Keokuk Street in Iowa City in the early morning hours of April 4.

A security camera recorded them breaking out the front door, ransacking the business and driving off in a white Audi Q5.

That same morning, they allegedly hit the El Azul grocery store on Community Drive in North Liberty and used a screw driver and pry bar to break open the door, according to court records. Once inside they stole a safe.

Investigators discovered the two were pulled over for a traffic stop in Eagle Grove on April 2  days before the burglaries, and were wearing the same clothing and carrying tools that would later be used in the burglary.

Investigators also linked the two to the Waterloo break-in and crimes in Ankeny, and they are suspected in more than 30 burglaries to businesses across the Midwest, authorities said in court records.

Abdullah was also arrested in November 2022 for a burglary to Medford Tobacco in Owatonna, Minnesota, where a safe was stolen, according to media reports.

Safest cities in America 2023: Violent crime rate increases drive per capita cost of crime Safest cities in America 2023: Violent crime rate increases drive per capita cost of crime The 15 Safest Cities in America The 15 Most Dangerous Cities Methodology
WATERLOO  On Thursday, water mains will be flushed in the area from Independence Avenue to Newell Street between East Fourth and Iowa streets, including the City View neighborhood.

Water may be a brownish color during and after the flushing but the water is bacterially safe. Waterloo Water Works urges customers within the area and several blocks of it to not plan clothes washing on Thursday.
WATERLOO  The 24/7 Black Leadership Advancement Consortium held a graduation for the 2023 spring class of the Black Business and Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program on Thursday at the Waterloo Career Center.

The event celebrated 13 business owners who completed the 14-week program designed to provide critical business skills, intensive financial curriculum and sustainability support to accelerate growth and development for new and existing Black-owned businesses in the Cedar Valley.

This is the sixth cohort to complete the free program.

Graduates and their businesses include:

William L. Burt, providing haircut services at Kut Kings LLC.

Darrell Caldwell Sr., providing home repair at D&D Construction.

Jonathan Carter, providing a bubble tea and beverage bar at Sweets & Teas.

Ashley Glover, providing lawn care services at K&K Lawncare.

Renaldo Haywood, providing mens clothing and accessories at Foreign Gents.

Toya Jefferson-Quinn, providing event planning and coordinating with Sugar Dust Creations.

Venita Kirksey, providing food services with Pick Up N Go.

Marketia Moore, providing soul food catering with Momma Nem Soulfood and Catering.

Jerra Denice Nash, providing wigs, hair extensions and hair supplies at Kreations by Kali.

Tamara Pernell, providing food services with Pick Up N Go (901).

Teta Toe, providing homemade African food at Daniels and Mom Kitchen.

Audrey Wallican-Green, providing clothing at Dolls Boutique.

JaTera Wiley, providing accounting services at Nuri Financial Group LLC.

Each business owner receives a $1,500 stipend for completing the program to use toward their business.

Photos: Postal workers demonstration, April 28, 2023 042823jr-postal-demonstration-5 042823jr-postal-demonstration-4 042823jr-postal-demonstration-3 042823jr-postal-demonstration-2 042823jr-postal-demonstration-1
Chuck Roberson had an appointment Tuesday afternoon, so he paddled the flooded portion of his street on Campbell's Island.

The Mississippi River may have crested at 21.51 feet Monday in Rock Island and Davenport, but the water is still high in places like Campbell's Island, which is off the shores of East Moline.

"Flooding is no surprise on this part of the Mississippi River," the 80-year-old Roberson said after he moored his canoe on a neighbor's front yard along Island Avenue. "Sometimes it's best to have a boat or a canoe to get around."

Roberson opened the back hatch of his maroon Subaru Crosstrek, took off his hip waders, put on a pair of leather loafers he stores in the vehicle and considered whether he wanted a turkey, ham or roast beef sandwich for lunch.

Lunch, dinner and shelter

Roberson was parked near the long-ago-abandoned Island Fire Station, which has served for the Salvation Army's lunch and dinner site for nearly two weeks.

The site on Campbell's Island is one of four where meals and plenty of bottled water are available. The other sites are:

 Pleasant Valley Fire Station parking lot at 24495 Valley Dr. in Bettendorf.

 Terry Adams Memorial Park, 409 Dodge St. in Buffalo.

 Parking lot at the corner of South Concord Street and Utah Avenue in Davenport.

Kathleen Duvall is a Red Cross volunteer who traveled from Rochester, Illinois, near Springfield to help people dealing with the flood.

"We are handing out about 110 meals per day, lunch and dinner," Duvall said. "The lunches we serve here are from Hy-Vee, and we try to do hot dinners, but the wind has really limited what we've been able to do the last few days."

Duval said the high water and high winds made a dangerous mix for some of the residents on the island.

"We know there have been some people stuck in their homes for the last few days. Because of the wind and the water, it's just too treacherous for people," she said. "We have had quite a few people show up in their boats. Nearly half the road that runs around the island is covered in water."

'A singular place'

Roberson said he was raised on the island until he left for the Navy when he was 18 years old.

He and his wife, Patricia Shea, moved back to the island "in 2003 or 2004."

"The house I owned was a little place at the time, maybe 1,200 square feet," Roberson said. "Back then, I thought maybe we would sell the place, but then we decided to use it as a summer home. We lived in Webster Groves, near St. Louis, at the time.

"Well, my wife decided to retire early. So we decided to expand the house here, make it waterproof, and live here all year."

Roberson said even though he grew up on the island, he really wasn't a native.

"What you have here are families  clans, really," he said. "I mean clan with a C, like the Scottish families. There are families who have lived here for a long time. It makes this a very singular place."

The flood, for that reason, is no surprise to the vast majority of people who call the island home. People know each other and help one another where they can, Roberson said.

"Now I think I'll grab the wife and a sandwich, and I'll be off to my appointment," Roberson said.

Red Cross shelter locations

There are shelters available for those who lose access to their homes during the flood.

The site in Davenport is located at the former Select Specialty Hospital at 1111 W. Kimberly Road. Anyone can access the shelter using the entrance on the Marquette Street side.

Bethel Wesley United Methodist Church, at 1201 13th St. in Moline, serves as the shelter on the Illinois side.

Anyone seeking shelter there is reminded to bring needed medications, as well as hygiene items for all family members. Pets are welcome at the Davenport site, but kennels, cages and pet food must be supplied by the pet's owners.

Photos: Mississippi River rises around the Quad Cities, Tuesday, May 2
U.S. House Democrats move to force debt-limit increase as default date looms: New York Times

Xinhua) 11:14, May 03, 2023

NEW YORK, May 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. House Democratic leaders who have been quietly planning a strategy to force a debt ceiling increase to avert default began taking steps on Tuesday to deploy their secret weapon, according to The New York Times.

"The only clue to the gambit was in the title of the otherwise obscure hodgepodge of a bill: 'The Breaking the Gridlock Act'," said the report. "But the 45-page legislation, introduced without fanfare in January by a little-known Democrat, Representative Mark DeSaulnier of California, is part of a confidential, previously unreported, strategy Democrats have been plotting for months to quietly smooth the way for action by Congress to avert a devastating federal default if debt ceiling talks remain deadlocked."

With the possibility of a default now projected as soon as June 1, Democrats on Tuesday began taking steps to deploy the secret weapon they have been holding in reserve, said the report.

They started the process of trying to force a debt-limit increase bill to the floor through a so-called discharge petition that could bypass Republican leaders who have refused to raise the ceiling unless President Joe Biden agrees to spending cuts and policy changes, it noted.

An emergency rule Democrats introduced on Tuesday, during a pro forma session held while the House is in recess, would start the clock on a process that would allow them to begin collecting signatures as soon as May 16 on such a petition, which can force action on a bill if a majority of members sign on, said the report.

"The open-ended rule would provide a vehicle to bring Mr. DeSaulnier's bill to the floor and amend it with a Democratic proposal -- which has yet to be written -- to resolve the debt limit crisis," it added.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
Officials confirmed that rail tracks damaged after a BNSF Railway freight train derailed in De Soto have been repaired and returned to service.

BNSF Railway contractors made repairs and reopened the line Saturday, said BNSF spokesperson Lena Kent.

Theyve got that all repaired and theyre at full speed already, running rail overnight, said Craig Thompson, secretary of Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Two locomotives and 10 train cars derailed Thursday, April 27, just south of De Soto. Multiple freight containers on rail cars plunged into the Mississippi River. Crews from Crawford, Vernon and La Crosse counties, along with state and federal agencies, worked around the clock to remove train cars and debris.

Two containers carrying paint drifted down the Mississippi River. La Crosse area marine companies F.J. Robers and J.F. Brennan assisted in the retrieval of those containers as well as any other cars that derailed into the river and riverside clean up.

About 2.5 million pounds of materials were moved to the La Crosse County landfill in the days after the accident.

John Noyes, president of F.J. Robers, said the next step is for BNSF to add additional riprap to the base of the track, which runs along the Mississippi River.

Some residents expressed concern the tracks should not have been open due to high river waters and area flooding. The track is owned by BNSF, which is held to federal standards on how the track must be inspected, when it can run and when it should be shut down.

BNSF or the Federal Rail Administration would be responsible for shutting down the tracks if it was unsafe to operate.

BNSF was monitoring and inspecting lines through Crawford County during the flood, said Crawford County Emergency Management in a statement.

The Federal Rail Administration is conducting a full investigation into the derailment.

Highway 35, which runs parallel to the track, has been closed from Genoa to Ferryville due to machinery traffic. Crawford County Emergency Services anticipated the highway would reopen Wednesday.
Retired Winona teacher Margie White was one of two recipients of the Educator Award presented by the South East Retirement Association of Minnesota last month.

Presented at SEREAMs annual spring conference in Rochester, Mary Osborne from Faribault was the other recipient.

The award is given typically to two retired educators for both their careers in the classroom and contributions to education outside the classroom.

Apart from teaching first through fifth grades in Dakota and at Washington-Kosciusko in Winona over 35 years, White stayed active after retiring in 2001.

Shes been involved with not only SEREAM but the American Association of University Women, the Learning Club of Winona, the teaching groups Phi Delta Kappa and Delta Kappa Gamma, and her church. In addition, shes been active in over 10 community groups in the area.

She is really a worthy recipient, Edna Thayer from SEREAM said. Shes been very active in contributing to the community and she was an excellent teacher.

White received both her bachelors and masters degrees from Winona State University. She said teaching and working with children has always been something she has wanted to do.

I really appreciate and am honored to even receive the award, because it is really something special, White said.

Staying active in the education landscape was important to White after she retired.

I think you really need to. Its good to keep that networking up. We also need to have organizations to keep our pensions going, White said. And to just be aware of whats going on in both teaching and around the world. You cant just crawl into a hole once youve retired.

White was also a faculty union representative from 1975 to 1997, and was active in negotiations including the county schools merger to Winona District 861.

Thats 22 years so she must have been a good negotiator, Thayer said. She has a very unassuming personality. Shes always smiling and very helpful to everyone.

White said shes proud of both her teaching career and her work toward education after retirement.
The Beaver Dam Common Council authorized the sale of $3,355,000 in notes on Monday to pay for citywide improvements at its council meeting.

Capital improvement projects for 2023 include a library roof replacement, several road projects, new equipment for the fire department and upgrades to Rotary Park. The city was originally told the projects were to cost over $4 million, but after seeking a second estimate on the librarys roof, that total dropped.

Beaver Dam does not use long-term borrowing to finance annual operating expenses.

Dave Ferris of Ehlers Public Finance Advisors, the firm that advises the city on its borrowing, told the council that there were six bids with the lowest bidder being TD Securities of New York at 3.309%.

The one thing that did occur is there is a little bit better issuance cost on the issue and they were able to get some premium so some of it could be applied to your issuance cost, Ferris said. That allowed us to downsize the issue by $35,000. So when we came here about a month ago it was $3,390,000. Your issue now is $3,355,000.

There is money that has to be put away in a debt service account for next year so some of the interest expense that will be covered by that premium next year that will not have to be levied for, Ferris said.

We had quite a bit of competition that came out with some decent rates, Ferris said.

GALLERY: Beaver Dam Earth Day activities Earth 001.jpg Earth 002.jpg Earth 003.jpg Earth 004.jpg Earth 005.jpg Earth 006.jpg Earth 007.jpg Earth 008.jpg Earth 009.jpg Earth 010.jpg Earth 011.jpg Earth 012.jpg Earth 013.jpg
SSM Health plans to build an ambulatory surgery center in Sun Prairie at the site of its stand-alone emergency center, a move that will involve closing the ER and relocating its Davis Duehr Dean Eye Care center now on Regent Street in Madison.

The surgery center, expected to open in 2025, will focus on eye care and orthopedics. The plan, announced Wednesday, comes as other providers are planning similar surgery centers in the Madison area, including a group of orthopedic surgeons who left SSM Health last year.

SSM Healths 90,000-square-foot surgery center near Highway 151 and Reiner Road is expected to cost about $60 million, said Kyle Nondorf, president of SSM Health St. Marys Hospital in Madison. It is expected to have roughly double the number of operating rooms as the Davis Duehr Dean facility on Regent Street, which has four operating rooms, Nondorf said.

He said the plan for the new facility, which has yet to be submitted to city officials, will incorporate the ER building, which opened in 2009. Emergency care will be consolidated at St. Marys Hospital, with urgent care available at an SSM Health Dean Medical Group clinic on South Stoughton Road.

SSM Health plans to keep the Regent Street property, for which future plans are being developed, Nondorf said.

With the new project in Sun Prairie, well be able to create greater access to surgical services and clinical services, he said. It is also going to help decompress St. Marys Hospital, which is really important for us, to be able to free up capacity to care for the larger community outside of Dane County who are transferring patients into St. Marys on a daily basis.

Wisconsin has 75 ambulatory surgery centers, including five that already exist in Dane County, according to the state Department of Health Services. The centers are for outpatient surgeries that dont require hospital stays.

In December, the UW Hospital Board approved an initial plan to build an ambulatory surgery center attached to UW Healths East Madison Hospital on Madisons Far East Side.

The UW center, to open in 2024, will be connected to UW Healths 56-bed East Madison Hospital, which opened in 2015. The hospital is in the American Center Business Park east of Interstate 39-90-94 and north of Highway 151, where UW Health is also building a six-story clinic and has a 50-bed rehabilitation hospital.

Outpatient services

A significant percentage of the outpatient procedures at the surgery center are expected to involve orthopedics, such as joint replacements and spine surgeries, UW Health spokesperson Sara Benzel said. UW Health declined to provide a cost estimate in December when announcing the plan, for which a final version is soon expected to go before the UW Hospital Board.

Orthopedic and Spine Centers of Wisconsin, which opened in Madison in February, plans to build a specialty orthopedics hospital and an ambulatory surgery center in Dane County within two years, its leader, Dr. Jason Sansone, told the Wisconsin State Journal in November. The independent practice, which is competing against SSM Health and UW Health, includes 11 orthopedic surgeons who left SSM Health Dean Medical Group last year.

Sansone said the group plans additional surgery centers, likely in the Janesville and Baraboo areas and possibly elsewhere in the region. The practice is managed by Phoenix-based Healthcare Outcomes Performance, or HOPCo.

Shortly after the new practice opened, UW Health and SSM Health announced that UW Health orthopedic surgeons would start operating at SSM Healths St. Marys hospitals in Madison and Janesville.

SSM Healths general plan for a surgery center in Sun Prairie became public in November, when the organization sued Sansone and Dr. Brian Keyes, another of the departing surgeons, saying the doctors violated their employment contracts through actions designed to disrupt, sabotage and harm Dean Medical Group. The suit said the surgeons were involved in initial discussions about the surgery center plan in Sun Prairie.

Sansone, Keyes and the nine other surgeons last month sued SSM Health, asking a judge to block a clause in their former employment contracts at SSM Health saying they cant treat or solicit patients they saw there in the previous three years.

Dr. Thomas Zdeblick, who last month joined Orthopedic and Spine Centers, resigned last year as chair of UW-Madisons orthopedics department. He left after Dr. Robert Golden, dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, rejected Zdeblicks plan in which Zdeblick and other UW orthopedic surgeons would own 62% of a new ambulatory surgery center.

Other centers

SSM Health already has two ambulatory surgery centers in Madison  the one at Davis Duehr Dean on Regent Street and another on South Park Street, next to St. Marys Hospital.

UW Health and UnityPoint Health-Meriter co-own the Madison Surgery Center, on South Park Street across from Meriter, which provides several types of surgery, including in gynecology, ophthalmology and orthopedics.

UW Health and Meriter also co-own Transformations Surgical Center, in Middleton, which does cosmetic and reconstructive surgery.

NovaMed Surgery Center, on Madisons West Side, is owned by Brentwood, Tennessee-based Surgical Partners and does eye surgeries.
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FILE - Members of the public gather as military personnel in ceremonial uniform offer three cheers to the new King at St James's Palace in London, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022 after King Charles III was proclaimed at the Accession Council. Britains royal family turns the page on a new chapter with the coronation of King Charles III. Charles ascended the throne when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died last year. But the coronation Saturday is a religious ceremony that provides a more formal confirmation of his role as head of state and titular head of the Church of England. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool, File)
Doris and Steve currently live in Aurora and visit the farm often to spend time with Curran; his wife, Megan; and grandkids Phoebe and Micheal. Two other sons live nearby. When all the grandchildren are playing in that big yard, you remember past generations doing those same things, Doris says.

Some change is welcome. Were always trying something, to diversify and not just rely on corn and soybeans, says Megan. So we have chickens and bees, and weve started a Christmas tree farm.

Entertainment Ancestry 30% off a 1-year subscription View Details See All See more Entertainment offers > {"hideCategory":false,"useAlternateLanguage":false,"headlineIconAltText":"","listItems":[{"categoryTitle":"Entertainment","categoryUrl":"/membership/benefits/entertainment/","categoryDeeplinkParam":"entertainment","isLimitedTimeOffer":false,"offerJson":{"dbr_offer_id":"b270af1fb49dd39e9cfbdbf986c1f0ed","source_name":"Ancestry","offer_title":"30% off an All Access or World Explorer Subscription","offer_description":"\u003cp\u003eMembers save 30% on the first year of an All Access or a World Explorer subscription and get access to records and online tools to search, save and share their family history.\u0026nbsp; If youre new to Ancestry, youll receive the discount on the first year of your subscription only. 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The provider\u0027s terms, conditions, and policies apply.","dbr_offer_type":"discount","restrictions":"\u003cp\u003eAARP commercial member benefits are provided by third parties, not by AARP or its affiliates. Providers pay a royalty fee to AARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. Some provider offers are subject to change and may have restrictions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs an AARP member, if you sign up for an Ancestry membership through a special AARP members-only offer, you agree to the \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.ancestry.com/cs/legal/termsandconditions#disputes\" data-overlay-msg\u003d\"AARP.Everywhere.LeavingModal.drawOverlay(this,\u0027\u0027,/mnt/overlay/wcm/core/content/sites/properties.html,\u0027\u0027,\u0027You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. 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The arbitrators award shall be written and shall be binding on the parties and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo initiate an arbitration proceeding through AAA, you must send a certified letter describing your claim and requesting arbitration to Ancestry Legal Department, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 1300 W Traverse Parkway, Lehi, UT 84043. You must also send a copy of this demand to the AAA at the same time the demand is sent to Ancestry and follow all required procedures under the then-applicable AAA rule governing starting an arbitration under an arbitration agreement in a contract. The arbitration will be conducted by AAA under its \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.adr.org/Rules\"\u003erules\u003c/a\u003e, as modified by the Terms (collectively, \u0026quot;AAA Rules\u0026quot;). 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Through the Dust Bowl, hail, tornadoes and constantly fluctuating crop prices, farming has been a really good life, Doris says.

Nancy and David Greene with one of their restored antique tractors. Andy Anderson

Sheep: Greenes Lamb

White Hall, Maryland

David and Nancy Greene, both 81, cant remember a time when farming wasnt their dream. His ancestor arrived from Ireland in 1752 and got this farm in 1786. That makes David the sixth generation of his family to work the 100-acre property, which the Greenes have turned into a successful sheep-raising operation.

I grew up on a smaller farm about 10 miles away, David says. The farm were on now came down from my mothers side of the family  her father grew up here. This is where we had family gatherings and reunions. It always felt like home. And it feels good to succeed at something difficult.

When we started dating, Nancy says, wed come up here and see his relatives, and I loved this place right away.

The couple sell wool and livestock, but their main income source is meat. Were pretty efficient, especially now that we only sell directly, David says. People come to the farm to get their orders two days a week.

With no children, the Greenes know that the farm may be sold eventually. Im a realist, David says. It would be nice if I went out the road first, before the sheep did. I would be very happy with that. Id rather not be the one who sells it.
The latest export from Sweden isnt a sturdy station wagon or a funky furniture store, but rather a way of life.

More specifically, its a way of end-of-life. It's called dostadning, which translates to death cleaning.

A new reality show, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning on Peacock, brings this Swedish concept to American soil. The series, hosted by comedian Amy Poehler, features a team of Scandinavian experts who help peope declutter their lives.

The concept isnt wholly new to America. Its inspired by a book of the same name written by Margareta Magnusson, who was over 80 when the tome was published in 2017. The book introduced the world to the Scandinavian practice of Swedish death cleaning, which is as much about relieving a burden on family left behind after someone dies as it is about creating an organized home. 

In 2022, Magnusson published a second book: The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You. It was a call to not leave a mountain of crap behind for our loved ones to clean up after we die, she told The New York Times this year. 

Magnusson has said the ritual of Swedish death cleaning can begin when people are in their 40s or 50s, and it goes way beyond tossing stuff. As one of the participants in the Peacock series notes: I knew that you guys were going to declutter my house. I didnt know you were going to declutter my soul.

AARP spoke with Magnusson when her first book was published, and she explained the idea behind Swedish death cleaning. Heres what she had to say. 

Q: What problems does keeping too much stuff cause your loved ones after youre gone?

A: Its very time-consuming. Why should my family take so much time  having jobs, families and everything else they have scheduled  to take care of my things?

Q: How do you decide what to keep or discard?

A: Talk about it with your family. Its a delight to go through things and remember their worth. But if you dont remember why a thing has meaning, then it has no worth, and it will be easier for you to part with.

Q: You write that you should get rid of private items  such as diaries. Why?

A: If you think a secret will cause your loved ones harm or unhappiness, then make sure to destroy such items. Make a bonfire or shove them into a hungry shredder.

Q: How does cleaning help the cleaner?

A: The more I have focused on my cleaning, the braver I have become in discarding possessions. I have had a moment to reflect on the event or feeling, good or bad, and to know that it had been a part of my story and my life.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on January 9, 2018. It has been been updated to reflect new information.
The AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline is one of the largest operations of its kind in America, receiving 400 calls each day from scam victims or their loved ones to get free help and counseling. That would not be possible without a dedicated team of more than 100 volunteers who work the telephones, listen to people in distress and help them report crimes and locate financial or psychological counseling.

No particular background is necessary to become a volunteer, but many who step forward have seen firsthand the impact of fraud on so many Americans. Volunteers spend about 15 hours in training. The work can be emotionally draining, says one longtime volunteer. But the gratitude that we get back is really what drives us. To hear at the end of the call, Im so glad I called. 

Wed like you to meet some volunteers.

Watchdog Alerts

Sign up for biweekly updates on the latest scams. Get Alerts

LeDene Lewis, 72

Retired compliance officer in Livonia, Michigan

"I wanted to volunteer where I could make a difference.," says Lewis

Lewis gets so mad at the crooks, I want to get on a galloping horse and go find those people and rid the world of them, she says. But I cant. What I can do is comfort [the victims] and empathize with them.

She adds that "it's like being the scammer in reverse, because the scammer will listen to their heart to learn how to get at them, and I listen to their heart to learn how to help them."
The signs are everywhere: Swastikas projected onto a building in West Palm Beach, Florida. Antisemitic flyers thrown onto lawns in Atlanta suburbs. A Kanye West post on social media announcing, Im going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE. Eleven worshippers killed in an attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh. To understand whats behind this current wave of antisemitic beliefs and incidents, we turned to Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the State Departments special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. A longtime professor of Jewish studies at Emory University, Lipstadt has written several award-winning books about the Holocaust and other aspects of modern Jewish history.

Lets start with the basics. In the U.S. today, theres no simple picture of Jewish life. You have Jews who are extremely observant  who follow strict dietary laws, who dress a certain way, who dont work or drive from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. At the other end of the spectrum, you have people who maybe go to synagogue once a year and identify as Jewish. In this context, how do you define antisemitism? What does it look like today?

Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt Illustration by Sefira Lightstone

Its a prejudice like other prejudices  a hatred of Jews. But its also a conspiracy theory that cuts across ideologies, nationalities, ethnicities. Its someone who says, Jews are all-powerful. They control the media. They control the banks, the government. Or, Jews are all privileged.

It comes from Christians, it comes from Muslims, it comes from atheists. It even comes from other Jews. One sees it in a variety of forms  on the governmental level, in the media, on the streets. It looks like its increasingly normalized. Thats whats frightening to me. That its OK.

Voices: Jewish Americans Speak Out

Is it really different from other prejudices, like racism or sexism?

Jews dont fit the picture of your traditional victims of prejudice: If you look so secure and so successful, what are you complaining about? So, the Jewish kid on scholarship in my class at Emory  whos also doing work on the side so she wont graduate with $100,000 in debt  has to justify that shes not privileged. Whereas with prejudice against other groups, this lack of privilege is taken at face value. We may present as educated and financially secure, even though we know very well there are many Jews who are not.

Theres another way in which antisemitism is different from other prejudices. With most racial and other prejudices, people simply look down upon the other. But antisemites punch down and punch up simultaneously. They look down on Jews and see them as lesser human beings  dirty. And they look up and see them as more powerful, as conniving and as a threat to the antisemites well-being. And if Jews pose a danger to your well-being because they are conniving and crafty, then you have to protect yourself by any means necessary.

And yet, in contemporary America, theres also an admiration of Jews. Intermarriage rates are high. How do you make sense of that?

Jews are much admired for their accomplishments, but sometimes that admiration can turn on a dime into hostility.
Credit a clairvoyant called Kelly.

It was during a long-ago tarot card reading that Kelly inspired Richard Kuhn to head to New Mexico, leaving a New York City life that included acting off-Broadway and managing photographers on projects for artist Andy Warhol, fashion designer Pierre Cardin and others.

Kelly, a friend of Kuhns wife, wanted to leave the East Coast, so during the reading, she sought Kuhns help in figuring out where to go.

We all went into this meditative state, and we had a map out, Kuhn says. Were all sitting there, and I pointed to this weird little place called Embudo, and she moves there. We moved there in 1981. Its that silly and that goofy.

Kuhn eventually landed in Santa Fe and then Albuquerque as he pursued a career in advertising. This year, he won a lifetime achievement award from the American Advertising Federation-New Mexico for behavioral change advertising, overall creative success and support for social causes.

His firm, RK Venture, is known for its nearly two decades of work on the states DWI campaign, the citys One Albuquerque campaign and state fair ads that featured Lynette LaBurquena and her pet piglet, Chicharron.

The firm has 10 employees, not including Kuhns large dog, Luna, whos a fixture at the Nob Hill office.

Although Kuhn describes RK Venture as small and feisty, it has a long reach. It is handling the information campaign for Los Angeles multi-billion-dollar airport reconstruction project and a communication program for Citibanks global employees.

Through it all, Kuhns former acting career has not been wasted.

All my years of training as an actor have helped me immeasurably, Kuhn says. The best actors are the ones who listen. And acting is playing off a person. If I can figure out what is driving you, what are you trying to accomplish, I might have a better chance of delivering.

What was it like moving to New Mexico?

We moved from a studio (loft) on 21st and Park (Avenue) to a trailer, and I mean a small trailer, in Embudo. I would wake up in the morning and  think, What have I done? What am I doing here? What was interesting was back then I was already into solar energy, had been studying it, so I immediately got into marketing (solar).

Whats been your favorite advertising campaign?

The DOT (state Department of Transportation) has been an amazing experience for me, for the company. We started when New Mexico was the worst in per-capita deaths for alcohol. Since then, we have been developing very hard-hitting, DWI awareness campaigns over and over. Its been pretty relentless, starting with You Drink, You Drive, You Lose, which was a national campaign. In 2012, 2013, I was looking at what was happening with our cellphones and (realized) nobodys writing full sentences. So I said, Lets talk to people the way theyre talking to each other. So it became End DWI. Its on point in terms of how people are communicating on the devices that theyre using. And the team created an incredible campaign around that.

How do you spend your free time?

About 20 years ago, we built an active/passive solar house out past El Morro, using boulders from the area for the foundation and earth from the building site to make adobe bricks. By built, I mean that we worked with an architect and builder. We did want the house to stand. And Ive gotten really into this dog therapy thing, especially with kids. Its just amazing to see them open up. Im training my new dog now.

Tell me about acting

I acted in New York City, and directed and wrote. I did do some offBroadway plays. I directed a couple of off-off- (Broadway) things. I was a day player on a couple of soaps. Were talking about the 70s.

Why did you stop?

I had (some) things happen in a row that were very discouraging, and it felt to me like I was being given a sign. Even then, I was starting to work with casting directors to cast films  which opened my eyes to how the business works. Its just really tough. So I got a little more involved in the behind-the-camera action in terms of writing, directing or producing. That led me more into the advertising business, so I started working with the advertising agencies in casting. I started transitioning.

Has your advertising career changed over the decades?

All this work Ive been doing with DOT led me into what I call behavior change work, which is really what I like to do. I have spent decades helping people, companies  perceived value in the marketplace and enticing folks to buy products and/or utilize their services. Ive done all that. Now in the last 10, 15 years, Ive really done a lot of work attempting to change peoples behavior for more healthy choices. Whether its drunk driving or taking public transportation in Los Angeles, whether its Metro Link coming into the city or taking LA Metro to get around the city  we worked on those for awhile. Behavior change requires consistent, persistent, provocative messaging that grabs you over a long period of time.

Whats on your bucket list?

This is something I really want to do: Find some sailing yacht and a berth on a coast somewhere. It is a fantasy. I started sailing when I was 4, and raced sailboats from the age of 18 on Lake Erie, all the Great Lakes, and the Atlantic. I miss that part of my life.

Do you have any pet peeves?

The environmental ignorance that we in this country seem to be addicted to is very frustrating to me. I dont understand. Were caretakers. What are we doing? It almost brings me to tears. Its all about making money.

What has made you successful?

I think perseverance, definitely. I would hope that I have some intelligence and some talent because I think without that, no matter what breaks Ive had, I wouldnt be able to continue. If I have any success, its going to involve (my) team. Im the little guy. Its important for me to be that size. If not, Im not allowing them to come all the way through. Im always attempting to encourage them to surprise me. A lot of that is coming from my very early training. To break paths. Always break paths. For me, if I get too settled every day over and over again, Ive lost all this big world out there.
GM emails after the March 6 column that you clearly missed in your article that the city of Albuquerque does, in fact, REQUIRE car inspections every time you renew your plates. Try adding some facts.

Actually, Bernalillo County residents are required to get an emissions inspection every two years. There are no vehicle safety inspections in New Mexico.

Sean Donney in Sydney, Australia, shares by way of comparison, here in NSW, all vehicles more than a few years old have to be inspected every year. The inspection includes a braking test and a window-tint darkness test, among other things. The inspector takes the vehicle for a short drive, too. Im guessing some U.S. states would have a similar approach. It is a real nuisance each year, but it does get most of the unsafe vehicles off the road.

Editorial page editor DVal Westphal tackles commuter issues for the metro area on Mondays. Reach her at 823-3858; dwestphal@abqjournal.com; or 7777 Jefferson NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87109.
Speaking next to a mural of tiles honoring people who have died while living on the streets of Albuquerque, Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., decried a Republican spending proposal that she said would lead to cuts in assistance programs that would exacerbate New Mexicos homelessness problem

Stansbury gathered leaders of various organizations that assist homeless populations in the city and that received Stansburys community project funding, or earmarks, in the 2023 fiscal year, as well as groups she has picked for her federally funded projects in the upcoming fiscal year.

Stansbury and the White House have argued that the Republican-led spending proposal, which passed the House last week, would cut 22% from domestic programs throughout the country. Republicans have argued they want to cut spending at least to the fiscal year 2022 level. The GOP said it wont increase the countrys debt ceiling unless the cuts are made.

The congresswoman said an across-the-board cut to discretionary spending would be devastating, and she accused Republicans of conflating two different issues.

If we want to balance the budget and reduce our deficit and reduce our spending, we need to do so responsibly, she said. There is not a single entity in the world  a corporation, a nonprofit organization, a local government  that would go in and just willy-nilly slash programs and budgets without any consideration for strategic priorities, for budgetary needs or for outcomes for society.

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said the Republicans plan would require a $131 billion cut in base spending.

Stansbury highlighted the recipients of her community project funding that aimed to address homelessness and poverty, and she said such projects would be at risk under the GOP proposal, which cleared the House on a party-line vote. Those local projects in the 2023 fiscal year included:

The city of Albuquerque received $2.2 million to building a sobering center and $1.5 million for a homeless youth housing navigation campus.

Health Care for the Homeless was awarded $750,000 to acquire land to expand services.

The East Mountain Food Pantry got $712,000 to buy nearby land and build a facility.

The New Mexico Veterans Transitional Housing Center received $300,000 to build a integration center, which is under construction.

The cuts that are being proposed, part of those cuts are 22% to the (Department of Veterans Affairs), I never in my lifetime thought Id hear those words, said Brock Wolff, CEO of the New Mexico Veterans Integration Center.

Republicans have argued that no specific agencies were singled out for the cuts.

Albuquerques Point-In-Time count, which aims to count every person and household experiencing homelessness, found that on a recent January night there were 1,311 individuals and 860 households experiencing homelessness, which included at least 86 veterans. Data presented at the state legislature this year showed that the number of people experiencing homelessness in the state in the last decade is decreasing.

But both officials with the city of Albuquerque and other local providers of services to people who are homeless said that the demand for their services is increasing, and that the group is notoriously difficult to track. They said the federal funding for their various programs are vital.

In this country, when there are economic hard times, cuts are made, said Gilbert Ramirez, the deputy director of Behavioral Health Services for the City of Albuquerque. And cuts tend to target social services that are so vital in a time like this.
PUEBLO OF SANDIA  Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham predicted New Mexico would emerge as a national leader in hydrogen energy development as she delivered an optimistic speech Tuesday before hundreds of business leaders  her first big public address since the bill-signing deadline last month.

The governor, a Democrat, hinted that she is preparing to launch an ambitious tutoring program to help students next year, floated the idea of endowing the University of New Mexico medical school and pitched desalination as a potential new water source.

She also expressed optimism the federal government will choose New Mexico and three neighboring states  Colorado, Utah and Wyoming  as one of the nations regional hubs for hydrogen development.

The four-state coalition is seeking up to $1.25 billion in federal funding. The U.S. Energy Department is expected to announce the awards later this year.

New Mexico, I predict, is going to be the first hydrogen hub funded by the federal government, Lujan Grisham told about 300 people gathered for a Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

The state, she added, is working with a bipartisan coalition who see that New Mexico has got more potential to lead in that area than any other state in the country.

Lujan Grishams focus on hydrogen has repeatedly put her at odds with environmental groups. Democratic lawmakers have been divided on the idea, and hydrogen legislation backed by the governor to create tax breaks and other incentives has failed to advance through the Legislature.

Environmental advocacy groups say the proposed methods of separating hydrogen from methane in natural gas would emit significant amounts of carbon, contributing to climate change. They also have raised concerns about the secrecy of the four-state application for a hydrogen hub.

The governor, by contrast, pitches the idea as a boon to the economy that would also benefit the environment.

It will decarbonize transportation, Lujan Grisham said, and were going to lead. The innovation from that alone is billions of economic dollars.

Lujan Grisham devoted much of her 35-minute speech to outlining a host of promising employment statistics  such as a 14-year low in New Mexicos unemployment rate  and legislative successes, including a new law targeting organized retail crime and an emergency update to the medical malpractice system.

She also hinted at new initiatives she will pursue without offering many details, including:

 Offering behavioral health services by phone, text and video for students, in addition to launching the largest statewide tutoring program per capita in the country.

New Mexicos math and reading scores fell significantly in the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress. The state ranked last in the country.

But Lujan Grisham said she expects a new law raising the minimums required for instructional time and other changes  such as tutoring  to help improve academic outcomes.

Without having to totally revamp the existing system, she said, we just add to that, making sure that students and families have every single thing that they need to be successful.

 Endowing the medical school to make it more affordable for New Mexico residents.

 Exploring desalination as a potential new water source as New Mexico pushes to build more affordable housing. The governor said she was set to visit a desalination plant Tuesday.

I feel like our future is incredibly bright, Lujan Grisham told the crowd at the Sandia Resort and Casino. We are the envy  for the first time, almost in my lifetime  of states, not only (the states) around us.
Anyone who is in possession of a firearm on any school campus will be immediately arrested, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman promised at a news conference in late March.

Well, that may be true, but a Journal investigation found its unclear what authorities are doing  if anything  to track the origins of guns seized in schools, and the Albuquerque Public Schools police chief says if students dont want to talk, an officer cant even ask: OK, kid. Whered you get it?

According to records recently obtained by the Journal, a startling 17 guns have been reported or seized on Albuquerque school campuses this school year  more than any year in recent memory and we still have a month to go.

In most cases, local authorities had no answers about where the guns came from.

The Albuquerque Police Department didnt open cases in many of the gun incidents at APS. The Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office said it generally isnt contacted and often doesnt investigate gun seizures at schools.

Despite repeated inquiries from the Journal, APS did not provide any information showing the district tried to trace any guns ownership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Is this a sign of numb resignation?

Legally, we cant question (them) if they dont want to talk, says APS police Chief Steve Gallegos. I mean, wed have to do interviews, and a lot of times kids just dont want to say that.

Taking a gun on campus is both a state and a federal crime. Whos in charge here? If school police cant ask questions about gun origins, prosecutors sure can. And so can judges when they require full cooperation with investigators to accept a plea deal.

Lawmakers passed the Bennie Hargrove Gun Safety Act in the last legislative session to hold irresponsible gun owners accountable. The law takes effect June 16 and allows charges ranging from a misdemeanor to a fourth-degree felony for negligently allowing a minor to obtain a firearm, depending on how the child used the gun. But if police dont know here the gun came from  whether a parent left it unsecured or the student bought it illegally from a friend  theyre at a dead end.

With so many guns in Albuquerque schools since the beginning of the fall semester, we should consider ourselves fortunate no one has been hurt. Last school year two APS students, including 13-year-old Washington Middle Schooler Hargrove, were shot to death on or near school campuses.

There was a close call with a misfire at West Mesa High School in December, when a woodshop student reached into his backpack and accidentally pulled the trigger of a 9mm pistol. The student told an APS detective he brought the handgun to school to look cool. West Mesa English teacher Eric Brugger says gun incidents have become so routine administrators are nonchalant about reporting them.

The Journal investigation shows what he means. And West Mesa has had the most gun incidents this year.

Less than a month after the woodshop misfire, another West Mesa student was found with two guns in his waistband. One was modified to be fully automatic. Not long after, a West Mesa student was shot and injured at a park across the street. Last school year, a 16-year-old West Mesa student was shot and killed just off campus while fighting with a 14-year-old over a gun.

A child finds his dads gun on the coffee table and brings it to school and brandishes it to a classmate, Bregman said at the March news conference. In that scenario, both the child and the parent will be prosecuted.

But the parent cant be prosecuted unless police know he or she was the source.

APS has invested tens of millions of taxpayer dollars in security infrastructure and re-typed school safety is a community responsibility in letter after letter to families after a gun is found on a campus. And yet 17 guns were reported on school property this school year. Who knows how many more were on campus, but not discovered by police?

The Benny Hargrove Act was a tough bill to pass. But just as important is law enforcement agencies needing to work together to track down where all of these guns are coming from. That could be key to preventing so many guns from finding their way into kids backpacks.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
An Up Aerospace rocket loaded with NASA-financed payload experiments and the cremated ashes of late astronaut Philip K. Chapman failed immediately after launching Monday morning at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico.

One news station reported that the Spaceloft XL rocket exploded moments after liftoff.

But UP Aerospace Vice President of Operations Tracey Larson said there was no explosion. Rather, the rocket motor malfunctioned, causing the vehicle to crash back to the ground.

There was an anomaly, but it didnt explode, Larson told the Journal. The motor didnt burn as it should have  It all landed within the spaceports safety range, and we were able to recover the rocket and the payloads to return them to customers.

Still, its the first time the company  which has flown scores of payloads into suborbit on multiple launches from Spaceport America since 2006  has faced this type of failure, which the companys onsite crew is now scrutinizing to determine what happened.

We know we had an anomaly, and weve got some idea of what went wrong, but nothing concrete yet, Larson said. It actually looks pretty minor. Were not too worried about it and we have full confidence well be up and flying again fairly soon.

Not yet

Mondays launch failure means that Chapmans quest for space continues.

An Australian who became an American citizen and served as a scientist-astronaut with NASA from 1967 to 1972, Chapman never got the chance to get into space when he was with the space program. His opportunity evaporated when the space-station program Skylab B was canceled.

Chapman died in April 2021 at the age of 86, but his ashes were among the cremains and DNA samples of about 120 persons that were stored in the nosecone of the rocket that fell out of the sky on Monday before reaching space.

The launch was part of an Earth Rise Service conducted by Celestis Inc., a memorial spaceflight service. Chapmans widow, Maria Tseng, and others paid to have ashes of loved ones launched into space.

Tseng told the Journal in a recent interview she did not think her husband would have approved of the memorial flight.

He was a scientist to whom the search for truth and reality was very important and this is purely symbolic, she said. But I wanted to do it.

Celestis keeps a portion of ashes and DNA samples in reserve in case they are lost in a flight gone bad. But in this case cremains and samples have apparently been recovered. Celestis reported that all the cremains and DNA samples on Mondays flight will be launched on the next Earth Rise Mission, named Perseverance.

The company guarantees its performance and offers performance assurance, which means if the mission is not achieved, families will have the option of a priority re-flight on the next scheduled launch of the same service type  at no extra cost, said Celestis spokesperson Pazia Schonfeld.

In a statement issued after Mondays crash, Celestis said the company would be working with UP Aerospace to determine what went wrong.

We have full confidence that UP Aerospace will find and fix the problem and we look forward to flying with them again when they are ready, said Charles M. Chafer, Celestis co-founder and chief executive officer.

Disappointed again

UP Aerospace, which is headquartered in Colorado, in 2006 was the first commercial space company to actually open operations at Spaceport America, a $225 million facility that the state built and operates about 20 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences.

The companys reusable Spaceloft XL rocket has flown to suborbit more than a dozen times from Spaceport Americas vertical launch area. That includes numerous missions under contract with NASAs Flight Opportunities Program, which NASA launched to pay commercial operators to send new technologies into suborbit for testing and development after the space shuttle stopped flying.

That program partly financed Mondays launch, which included 13 payloads from NASAs TechRise Student Challenge, a competition that encourages teams of sixth- to 12th-grade students to design, build and launch experiments into microgravity on commercial rockets.

And it included the Celestis memorial payload.

On Tuesday, Chapmans widow, Tseng, told the Journal she was disappointed about Mondays failed flight, but said disappointment has haunted this mission. She said it was originally scheduled to launch in October 2021 and has been postponed a number of times.

It was postponed twice in recent weeks. Mondays launch was scheduled for April 21 at the Spaceport, then pushed to April 28 and then to this week.

For many people this is a very expensive tribute, Tseng said. In addition to the fee, they may want to attend the launch. She and those close to her attended a launch that was canceled at Spacesport America last year.

You are paying for something that you dont know will happen or not, Tsing said. But there is nothing to be done about it. It is not Celestis fault. Celestis is a customer of these rocket companies. And there is a guarantee of service, even though it may take the rest of our lives.

Some of Chapmans ashes will also be included in a Celestis Enterprise flight that is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral in June or July. That flight will go into deep space and orbit the sun.

Thats the plan anyway.

Past problems

Spaceloft has experienced anomalies in the past. In 2006, a Spaceloft XL rocket launched at the Spaceport plunged into the New Mexico desert after climbing to just 40,000 feet, well short of its suborbital space goal.

But previous difficulties were nothing like the rocket motor failure and crash landing that occurred Monday, said Patricia Hynes, former director of the Space Grant Consortium at New Mexico State University, which has sent many experimental payloads into suborbit on past Spaceloft flights.

Anomalies can be lots of things, Hynes said. One time the flight parameters werent set correctly and the rocket only went to 10,000 feet and then came back down.

Mondays anomaly, however, posed no danger on the ground.

As a failure, it couldnt have gone better, Larson said. Everything happened as safely as it could have.
Westbound Interstate 10 will be closed for up to two days at the New Mexico state line after a semitractor-trailer collided with an overpass pillar overnight Wednesday in Arizona.

Officials with the New Mexico Department of Transportation said traffic is being diverted onto U.S. 80 at milepost 5, west of Lordsburg.

NMDOT said on Twitter that those planning to travel west on I-10 over the next few days are being asked to detour north on Interstate 25 and take Interstate 40 west.

The Arizona Department of Transportation said the closure is expected to last up to 48 hours as crews put additional supports under the bridge to ensure the safety of the traveling public.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety tweeted that just after midnight a semitrailer driver went off the right side of I-10 for unknown reasons.

The driver crashed into a guardrail before colliding with an overpass pillar for U.S. 191. The department said the truck was fully engulfed in flames, and the overpass pillar buckled, killing the driver.

There were no hazardous materials associated with this collision, the department tweeted. Identification of the deceased and the trucking company are pending.

The department shared photos of the aftermath of the fiery crash, showing a pile of mangled wreckage amidst flames and the clearly compromised pillar. A daylight photo showed the pillar had partially collapsed, with rebar clearly showing between the cracked concrete and the surrounding bridge charred.
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The 'Renfield' actor has told Stephen Colbert in a TV interview that he remembers seeing 'faces in the dark' when he was still a fetus inside his mother's belly.

May 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Nicolas Cage claims his first memory is being inside his mother's womb. The 59-year-old actor has insisted that he can recall seeing "faces in the dark" while he was still in his mom's womb.

"Let me think. Listen, I know this sounds really far out and I don't know if it's real or not, but sometimes I think I can go all the way back to in-utero and feeling like I could see faces in the dark or something. I know that sounds powerfully abstract, but that somehow seems like maybe it happened," the Hollywood star explained when asked about his earliest childhood memory on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert".

On the other hand, Nicolas conceded that his supposed memories may have just been triggered by "vocal vibrations." The actor said, "Now that I am no longer in utero, I would have to imagine it was perhaps vocal vibrations resonating through to me at that stage. That's going way back. I don't know. That comes to mind  I don't even know if I remember being in utero, but that thought has crossed my mind."

Nicolas was also asked whether he believes in life after death. The movie star - who has won a host of accolades during his career, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe - suggested that his "spark" will continue even after he passes away.

He said, "Oh, wow. Nobody really knows, I don't know. They say that electricity is forever eternal. That the spark keeps going. I like to think whatever spark is animating our bodies, once the body passes on, that the spark continues to go. But whether or not that electricity has consciousness or not, who can really say?"

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The former professional skateboarder, who shares a young son with Nicole Boyd, makes his claim about their marriage in court documents amid their custody battle.

May 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Bam Margera's wife has spoken up after he claimed they "never legally married." Nicole Boyd, who shares a child with the former professional skateboarder, insisted that they had a wedding ceremony.

Nicole's attorney, David Glass, told Page Six, "As an initial matter, it was not until just recently that Nikki had ever heard Bam's claim that they were never married." The lawyer added, "She was told that the wedding would occur in Iceland and that it was all taken care of."

"She had a wedding ceremony," the lawyer further elaborated. "And then returned to the U.S. and lived like a married couple with Bam for years."

Bam made his claim in court documents amid his custody battle with Nicole. "Boyd and I have never been married, legally or otherwise," he argued. "To my knowledge, Boyd has never legally changed her name in any state to 'Nicole Margera.' Every driver's license or other form of identification I have seen Boyd possess bears the name 'Nicole Boyd,' " so read the docs obtained by PEOPLE.

Bam and Nicole had a matrimonial ceremony in Reykjavik, Iceland, on October 5, 2013. The wedding itself was featured in a since-deleted video on the MTV alum's YouTube channel. However, it remains to be seen whether the former couple ever got a marriage license in the United States.

In his court filing, Bam additionally noted that he and Nicole always had a "turbulent and unstable" relationship throughout their more than 10-year run and took breaks on "numerous occasions." He then noted, "During these breaks Boyd would leave my home and go stay with her family in California... However, Boyd would always come back to Pennsylvania soon thereafter and we would resume our dating relationship."

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One staff member of 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' calls out the late-night show host over his alleged fake support to writers amid the Writers Guild of America strike.

May 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - During his appearance at the 2023 Met Gala, Jimmy Fallon showed support to writers amid the Writers Guild of America strike. However, one staff member of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" slammed the TV host, suggesting that it was nothing but an empty word.

Sarah Kobos, who works as senior photo research coordinator for "The Tonight Show", took to Twitter to respond to Jimmy's Met Gala interview. "He wasn't even at the meeting this morning to tell us we won't get paid after this week," she tweeted on Tuesday, May 2. "@jimmyfallon please support your staff. Had fun bowling with ya last week, but a fun party won't pay my rent."

In the aforementioned interview, Jimmy was asked about the WGA writers strike, which began at 12:01 AM PST on Tuesday, a minute after its contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expired. In response to the question, the late-night show host said, "I wouldn't have a show if it wasn't for my writers, I support them all the way."

While Jimmy ghosted the striking writers, Sarah shared in a separate tweet that Seth Meyers "was in their zoom production meeting and that he's going to try and take care of his staff and crew after NBC stops paying."

Sarah later clarified that she is not part of the WGA, and is therefore not a striking worker. However, she noted that she is among those whose jobs will be affected by the action. "At a meeting Jimmy wasn't even at, we are told NBC decided to stop paying us after this week and end our health insurance after this month if the strike is ongoing," she said. "They won't even tell us if we will technically be furloughed. Just active employees who aren't paid."

Amid the strike, late-night shows shut down their production. Impacted by the strike, "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", "Late Night with Seth Meyers" and "The Daily Show" will all go dark starting on Tuesday. Weekly shows like "Real Time with Bill Maher", "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" and "Saturday Night Live" will also stop production.

It was said that during the previous writers' strike, which lasted from November 2007 until February 2008, late-night hosts such as David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien paid the salaries of their non-striking staff out of their own pockets.

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A representative for the 'Yellowstone' star says the circumstances are 'beyond his control' as the actor's wife Christine Costner seeks to end their nearly two decades of marriage.

May 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Kevin Costner's nearly two decades of marriage is falling apart. His wife Christine Baumgartner a.k.a. Christine Costner has filed for divorce to end their 18-year marriage amid his "Yellowstone" drama.

According to TMZ, Christine filed the divorce papers on Monday, May 1. It's unclear what led to the split, as the designer cited the usual "irreconcilable differences" as the reason why she decided to pull the plug on their marriage.

In her filing, Christine asks for joint custody of their three kids, Cayden, 15, Hayes, 14, and Grace, 12. She, however, is not asking for spousal support since there is a prenup in place.

In his response filed on Tuesday, Kevin also asks for joint custody of their children. His lawyer and disso-queen Laura Wasser says in his response, "Spousal support to be payable to petitioner pursuant to the terms of the parties' Premarital Agreement."

After news of their divorce broke, a representative for Kevin said in a statement, "It is with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action." The rep added, "We ask that his, Christine's and their children's privacy be respected as they navigate this difficult time."

Kevin and Christine got married on September 25, 2004 at his ranch in Aspen, Colorado. It's his second marriage after he married his college sweetheart Cindy Silva in 1978, but it ended in divorce in 1994. He shares three children with his ex-wife, daughters born in 1984 and 1986, and a son born in 1988.

Kevin and Christine's divorce comes following reports that the former model wanted him to quit "Yellowstone". "Christine was sick of Costner being away from the children for months while filming the hit Paramount series in Montana, and her patience was starting to fray," a source told Radar Online in October 2022.

"It's really knocked a hole in their family life," spilled the so-called friend at the time. "The show is such a mega-hit, producers want it to go on forever! However, Christine wants her husband to hang up his cowboy hat, with an insider saying her patience is starting to fray."

The pal claimed Christine warned Kevin, "She wants a firm commitment this is his last season - or he might have to hit the dusty trail!"

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Meanwhile, the TomTom bar owner appears to try to justify his infidelity with co-star Raquel Leviss by telling co-star Scheana Shay that he 'planned to break up with Ariana regardless.'

May 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - "Vanderpump Rules" unveiled its season 10 final teaser on Tuesday, May 2. The explosive teaser sees star Tom Sandoval facing the fallout from his headline making affair with Raquel Leviss while still dating now-ex Ariana Madix.

In the teaser, which was filmed shortly after the affair was exposed, Ariana can be seen confronting the TomTom bar owner. Defending his relationship with Raquel, Tom tells Ariana, "Me and Raquel became like really good friends."

Ariana, however, doesn't buy his words as she responds, "I don't give up a f**k about f**king Raquel. Your friendship is f**king bulls**t." Things get even more heated when Tom hits back, "You know everything!" At one point in the clip, Ariana declares, "I regret ever loving you."

Elsewhere in the teaser, Tom appears to try to justify his infidelity by telling co-star Scheana Shay that he "planned to break up with Ariana regardless." Scheana replies, "But you didn't. You f**ked her best friend instead." Meanwhile, Lisa Vanderpump is also featured showing support to crying Ariana, saying, "You don't deserve any of this."

The new teaser also sees Tom breaking down in front of his best friend and business partner Tom Schwartz. "I sacrificed everything and my world just got turned upside down," Tom Sandoval says while hugging his pal. He also admits that he "felt something I hadn't felt in a very long time."

Tom Schwartz additionally reveals to ex-wife Katie Maloney that Tom Sandoval told him about his affair with Raquel "a month ago." As for Lala Kent, she doesn't think that this is the first time Tom Sandoval cheated on Ariana, questioning, "You think this is the first time he's been creeping around?"

At the end of the teaser, the cover band frontman and Raquel cuddle with each other during a serious talk in which the former pageant queen says, "It turned out so horribly wrong."

After the news of their affair broke, both Tom and Raquel issued a public apology to Ariana. In an interview with Howie Mandel, Tom shared his relationship with Ariana didn't work out as their "communication was not great" and that they "kept growing apart" as time went on. He also noted that he broke up with Ariana before the affair was exposed but Ariana was "completely in denial."

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The 'Don't Worry Darling' director and the Vogue China editor-in-chief come to the prestigious event wearing different versions of Karl Lagerfeld's vintage 1983 Chloe gown.

May 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Olivia Wilde has not taken her fashion faux pas to heart. One day after rocking the same gown Margaret Zhang turned up in when gracing the red carpet at the 2023 Met Gala, the "Don't Worry Darling" director weighed in on what could have been an embarrassing experience.

On Tuesday, May 2, the 39-year-old actress-turned-director made use of Instagram Story to share a side-by-side photo of her, a model and the Vogue China editor-in-chief wearing similar dress. Over it, she wrote, "Great minds [smiling face with sunglasses emoji]."

Expressing more of her positivity, the ex-girlfriend of Harry Styles went on to give a sweet shoutout to Margaret. She noted, "If you're gonna twin with anyone, make it @margaretzhangn [smiling face with heart-eyes emoji]."

In response to Olivia's reaction, Margaret reposted the actress' Story with her own additional comment. She wrote over the photo, "CUE THE STRINGS," and added a slew of muscle and violin emojis.

Olivia Wilde and Margaret Zhang reacted to them wearing the same dress at the 2023 Met Gala.

For the 2023 Met Gala, Olivia opted to go with a white version of a dress designed by Karl Lagerfeld during his tenure at Chloe. While the original dress was a cutout dress which had a gold violin shape on top of it, the actress worked with Chloe to modify it by expanding its hem and converting its cap sleeves into a cape.

The mother of two and her designer team for the Gala additionally outlined the dress' violin motif with gold beads. She completed her look for the biggest fashion's night with a pair of dangling earrings, a pair of gilded wristbands and a gold clutch.

As for Margaret, the Vogue editor went with the black version of the dress. Similar to Olivia, Margaret also revamped the vintage 1983 Chloe gown. Hers was embellished with a long train that extended from the neckline and gold sequin trim at the hem. She paired her ensemble with a pair of chic black sunglasses and a gold bracelet.

On Monday, Chloe shared Olivia's Met Gala look on its official Instagram account. "Creative Director @GabrielaHearst lovingly reimagined the Chloe Spring-Summer 1983 'Angkor' knee-length dress designed by Karl Lagerfeld," the fashion house dished in the caption of its post.

"...as a floor-skimming gown in deadstock ivory silk cady, complete with cut-out back and short capelet, hand-embroidered cuff details, and embroidery in golden strass and tubular beads forming a trompe l'oeil image of a violin," it continued explaining in details.

"Throughout the 1980s, in tune with the times, Lagerfeld's collections put a playful yet elegant spin on themes ranging from music to home appliances," it added. "The embellishments of the original 'Angkor' dress'  now on display at the #ALineOfBeauty retrospective  were inspired by a 17th century Italian violin crafted by luthier Nicola Amati, and calls to mind the famous photograph 'Le Violon d'Ingres' (1924) by the surrealist artist, Man Ray."

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In a video on her TikTok page, the 17-year-old daughter of Travis Barker and Shanna Moakler hits back at Internet trolls who often criticize her makeup looks.

May 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Alabama Barker claps back at her haters on TikTok. In a post on the video-sharing platform, the 17-year-old daughter of Travis Barker and Shanna Moakler shuts down Internet trolls who often criticize her makeup looks.

In the clip, Alabama wrote, "When Kathryn with 3 kids only waterline liner, 4 different colored blonde, & Tom shoes, talk about my makeup or age." The step-daughter of Kourtney Kardashian further stressed her point as she used a TikTok sound saying, "I'll tell you what you look like, but you won't like it."

Alabama also clapped back at naysayers in another video. In the said clip, she could be seen having her bleach blond hair pulled back while wearing a full face of makeup, complete with eyelash extensions, thick eyeliner and a statement lip. Donning luxurious pajamas, she posed seductively at different angles while in her bedroom.

It's all fun and games until one user ruined it with a hate comment that read, "Nobody likes you." Alabama caught wind of the criticism, but she downplayed the comment as she replied, "Damn sounds personal."

While some people aren't fans of Alabama's makeup looks, Kourtney showed support for her step-daughter. "The Kardashians" star previously considered enlisting Alabama's help for her wedding look at her wedding to Travis in Santa Barbara, Calif. last year.

"I literally couldn't find makeup today. And I was almost like, 'Should Alabama do my makeup?' " the Poosh founder shared. To that, Alabama replied, "I would've!"

Kourtney and Alabama do have the best relationship that any step-mom and step-daughter could hope for. Alabama recently sang Kourtney praises in a sweet birthday tribute. "You're the best stepmom I could ask for," she shared on Instagram Stories on April 18. "you are so caring and generous for others, you are such a family person and such a hard working mom."

"Even if you don't feel good or had a hard day, you always put your family first. You have such a beautiful aura, I wouldn't want another step mom," she continued.

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The 26-year-old 'The Tender Bar' actor has reportedly inked a deal to star in the true-crime movie that is being directed by the acclaimed Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel.

May 4, 2023

AceShowbiz - "The Tender Bar" actor Tye Sheridan is joining Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult in "The Order (2023)". According to Deadline, the actor has inked a deal to star in the true-crime movie that is being directed by the acclaimed Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel.

The 26-year-old star's role has not been disclosed at this time. The thriller is based on "The Silent Brotherhood", the book by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt that chronicles the crimes of the titular white supremacist domestic terror group. In 1983, a series of increasingly violent bank robberies and armoured car heists frightened communities throughout the Pacific Northwest in the United States.

Baffled law enforcement agencies are desperate for answers and a lone FBI agent (Law) based in sleepy Idaho comes to believe that the crimes are not the work of traditional criminals but instead a group of dangerous domestic terrorists, inspired by a radical and charismatic leader (Hoult). Production on the movie will begin in Alberta, Canada on May 11.

Oscar-nominated writer Zach Baylin has written the screenplay. Kurzel has experience in the crime thriller genre having previously worked on movies such as "The Snowtown Murders", "True History of the Kelly Gang" and "Nitram".

Sheridan is best known for playing the young Scott Summers / Cyclops in the reboot "X-Men" film series, as well as Wade Watts in "Ready Player One" and Ben Goudy in "Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse". His most recent role was starring alongside Ben Affleck in George Clooney's 2021 coming-of-age flick "The Tender Bar".

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In a new episode of 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey', the series regular proves that she and her ex-husband are still on good terms two years after finalizing divorce.

May 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Teresa Giudice proved she is still on good terms with her ex-husband. Four years after Joe Giudice got deported back to Italy, the series regular of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" openly expressed her hope for her ex-husband to be able to make his return to the United States.

In the Tuesday, May 2 episode of her hit reality series, the 50-year-old could be seen prepping for her nuptials with current husband Luis Ruelas. When her daughters had a fitting of their bridesmaid dresses for her special event, her ex Joe FaceTimed their eldest, Gia.

The FaceTime call gave Teresa a chance to briefly chat with Joe. At one point during their chat, she got emotional and said, "Joe, I'm gonna keep praying every day that I hope one day you can come back here." Joe responded positively as he thanked her, "Thank you, Tre."

Joe went on to say, "I'm glad that you's are happy, and that things are going the way they are, and I appreciate everything that you're doing over there for my kids because, you know, I can't be there, and everybody deserves to be happy and as long as you's are happy, that's all that matters."

Elsewhere in the episode, Teresa explained the conversation she had with Joe. She elaborated, "Joe wishing me happiness just shows how far we've come. I'm so proud of how we've continued our relationship, stayed connected. And I know that makes our daughters happy. He's always gonna be in my life."

Teresa and Joe were charged with federal fraud crimes back in 2013. Unfortunately for Joe, in 2019, after serving 41 months in prison, he was deported to Italy. A few months after Joe's move, the former couple split. They finalized their divorce after 20 years of marriage in September 2020.

Teresa and Joe have four daughters together, 22-year-old Gia, 19-year-old Gabriella, 17-year-old Milania and 13-year-old Audriana. Teresa has since found new love in Luis whom she married in August 2022.

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Geoffrey Hinton, the renowned computer scientist and cognitive psychologist, has announced his resignation from Google at the age of 75, citing regret over his work on artificial intelligence (AI).

Hinton is known for his pioneering research on neural networks and deep learning, which have played a crucial role in developing current AI systems such as ChatGPT. However, Hinton has also expressed concerns about the dangers of AI and chatbots. He believes that chatbots could soon overtake the level of information that a human brain holds and that there are "bad actors" who could use AI for malicious purposes.

"Right now, they're not more intelligent than us, as far as I can tell. But I think they soon may be," he told BBC.

Hinton warned that chatbots are not currently more intelligent than humans, but he believes they soon may be. He also pointed out that digital systems like chatbots differ significantly from biological systems like the human brain, which raises concerns about the direction AI is heading. Hinton's announcement highlights the accelerating rate of AI capabilities and the need for urgent investment in AI safety and control.

Matt Clifford, the chairman of the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency, said in a personal capacity that Hinton's announcement underscores the importance of investing heavily in AI safety and control. While there is an enormous upside to AI technology, it is essential to ensure that it is developed in a safe and controlled manner to prevent malicious actors from exploiting its potential.

Hinton's resignation from Google is a significant moment in the development of AI technology. As one of the most influential figures in the field, experts believe, his concerns about the direction of AI research and development should not be taken lightly. It is up to all stakeholders in the AI community to take these concerns seriously and work together to ensure that AI is developed in a responsible and safe manner.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the recommendations on Ease of Doing Business in Telecom and Broadcasting Sector.

Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) has been identified as one of the focus areas of Government in the recent decade. EoDB is a recognition of the fact that business and enterprise need to be enabled. Government is striving to improve the business environment at every stage across all the sectors. As a sector Regulator, it is incumbent upon TRAI to improve the business environment in the telecom and broadcasting sector.

TRAI had suo-moto floated a Consultation paper on Ease of Doing Business in telecom and Broadcasting Sector on December 08, 2021. Previously, it undertook EoDB consultation mainly specific to DoT and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB). However, the current exercise spans across multiple ministries/ departments. The EoDB requires comprehensive review of end-to-end processes with Whole of the government approach. One application  one window should suffice for all Inter-ministerial approvals.

Written comments and counter-comments on the Consultation Paper were invited from the stakeholders by February 09, 2022 and February 23, 2022, respectively. The Authority received 45 comments and four counter comments from various stakeholders. An Open House Discussion (OHD) was also convened on the issues raised in the Consultation Paper on April 21, 2022 through online mode.

This comprehensive exercise on EoDB entailed deeper analysis. The application process, compliance process, information submission and payment process through the life-cycle of licenses have been studied. Questions like what and why for each of the process have been raised. Keeping with its tradition, the TRAI displayed all comments and counter-comments on its website. It is heartening to note that some policy makers have actively pursued the stakeholders pain points. The TRAI team engaged with the respective officers/officials. This collaborative and conciliatory approach has already started helping policy makers to identify redundant processes/ information. Already, quite-a-few reforms have been undertaken by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and MIB.

The EoDB is not a one-time activity. It is a continuous process. Therefore, the TRAI, through these recommendations, proposes the establishment of a standing committee with focus on EoDB. It remains committed to create and nurture conditions for orderly growth of the two sectors. The recommendations strive to create a process-based approach on EoDB. The TRAI envisions that such an eco-system will pave way for a periodic review and further reforms. The quick implementation of these recommendations will engender growth of these sectors.

The salient features of these recommendations are as below:

A user-friendly, transparent and responsive digital single window system based portal should be established. The portal should be enabled with new digital technologies for achieving end-to-end inter-departmental online processes.

Each Ministry should establish a standing EoDB Committee to regularly review, simplify and update the existing processes and ensure ease of doing business as an on-going activity.

MIB, DoT, DOS, MeitY and other agencies should specify stage-wise timelines for all the processes including initial as well as additional permissions, which should be mentioned in the respective Guidelines/ policy and updated in the Citizen Charter.

The Government may consider and grant Infrastructure Status to Broadcasting and Cable Services Sector.

WPC should charge the spectrum royalty fee for temporary uplinking of live events on pro-rata basis for actual number of days of the event.

Further for enablement of LCOs:

A simple mobile app should be developed by MIB for registration of LCOs. Request for cancellation before five years should also be enabled.

The RoW portal (GatiShakti Sanchar Portal) should incorporate all the service providers including LCOs. The DoT should enable RoW approvals for LCOs also in consultation with MIB. A hyperlink/ button icon should be provided on the portal and app to reach the RoW portal.

The MIB should maintain common database of registered LCOs. List of the registered LCOs should also be made available to the public at large.

In terms and conditions of the DoT License Agreement for Unified License:

The lawful interception monitoring demonstration of a new service in a single network may take place centrally at one LSA/ location.

There should be a module in the single window portal to comply with the end-to-end requirements of rollout obligation process.

The process of request for Remote Access to network from foreign locations, and approval by DoT should be made online and time-bound.

For reducing the compliance burden on ISPs:

Government may revise the periodicity for submission by the ISPs for providing the details of ISP Nodes or Points of Presence (PoP) with their locations and number of broadband/ leased/ dial up subscribers to once every year.

The website blocking process should be incorporated on the single window portal.

For laying and repair of submarine cables:
Pilgrim, one of Indias fastest growing D2C personal care brand, announced the appointment of two new members to their leadership team to accelerate their offline expansion plans. Vishakh Narendran (ex- Good Glam Group) has been hired as the Chief Business Officer and Ameya Gogate as the Senior Vice President, Finance and Accounts. Pilgrim plans to extend its offline business strategy and strengthen its commitment of building an omni-channel experience for consumers through these strategic hires.

With an aim of becoming a INR 1000 CR brand in the next 5 years, Pilgrim will be entering the offline market in this year. By December 2023, the brand expects 20% of its sales to come from offline channels. With this move, the brand plans to tap onto the extensive consumer base in tier 2 & 3 cities. Currently, 35% of Pilgrim's sales come from the top 10 metros and semi-metros, while the remaining 65% is generated from Tier 2 and 3 cities.

Through this announcement, Pilgrim aims to provide a cohesive brand experience across all channels. To ensure consumer connection at all levels, Pilgrim is investing in both online and offline channels. By embracing an omni-channel approach, Pilgrim aims to create consistency in branding, messaging, and service across all channels, which is critical for customer satisfaction and loyalty.

On the appointment of the new hires Gagandeep Makker, Co-founder, Pilgrim says, We are delighted to welcome Vishakh and Ameya to our growing leadership team. 2023 will be a crucial year for us as we enter the world of offline retail. During this period, it is important to have partners who can positively contribute to the company's growth. Vishakh and Ameya's extensive expertise and leadership will be important in making our offline business approach a success.

Vishakh Narendran, ex Senior Vice President, The Good Glamm Group, brings over 13 years of experience in building successful businesses across categories. His hands-on experience in building sales channels & category management across general trade, modern trade, marketplaces and distribution will help Pilgrim to enable their offline journey. A Mumbai University alumni, Vishakh completed his Masters from SP Jain School of Management. Ameya comes with over 11+ years of experience in Corporate Finance and is an alumni of SP Jain School of Global Management, Australia. Previously he was the Chief Financial Officer of a global graphite & high-tech products company listed on London Stock Exchange.
One of the growing concerns amongst youngsters today is hair fall. Although they have tried multiple products like shampoos, oil, serums, etc. the outcome has been unsatisfactory. This absence of any trusted hair loss solution in the market leads to a loss of hope for hair regrowth. To give hope to these individuals, Traya, Indias first-ever hair fall solutions brand that is committed to solving hair fall internally, unveiled a new campaign #HopeForHair, focused on building awareness amongst people that they should aim at achieving their larger goals in life, leaving their hair fall issues for Traya to solve.

Traya launched its first-ever TVC featuring Raj Kumar Rao to kick-start the campaign. This TVC is the first part of the campaign that focuses on marriage rejections due to hair fall or receding hairline.

The TVC starts with a joyful introduction of two families, where the matchmaker is introducing the groom to the brides parents. The excited bride is observing the groom from a distance along with her brother, actor Raj Kumar Rao when she suddenly witnesses the grooms receding hairline and looks down with disappointment. Offering a helping hand, Rao diverts the brides attention towards Trayas doctor-backed treatment for hair fall. Looking at the assurance offered by the brand with a 93% success rate, the bride begins to feel more hopeful. Subtly, Raj Kumar Rao indicates to the bride that she needs to focus on the inner qualities of the groom and leave the receding hairline for Traya. The blushing bride agrees to take this marriage forward with #HopeForHair.

Speaking on the new campaign, Saloni Anand, Co-founder, Traya said, Currently, the market for hair fall products is saturated yet there is no sure-shot solution that customers are confident of, that works. A lot of our customers come to us after trying every product in the market and every home remedy they could find. They consider hair regrowth hopeless. Through this campaign, we want to give hope to more such people who are fighting hair fall. Setting our ad in the context of a marriage proposal, we remind them that all they need to worry about is compatibility and happiness, while Trayas doctor-backed treatments will take care of their hair. The TVC is just the first part of the campaign, this will be supported by a lot of digital initiatives, channel tie-ups, partnerships and collaborations. We hope this bold move will help boost the confidence of millions of individuals facing hair fall issues.

With an emotive playout and a powerful storyline, the Traya TVC is set to build awareness amongst the target audience. The brand TVC will be released in Hindi across digital platforms like Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram. The film will also be released on OTT platforms and has already gone live on television pan India. Later, it will be amplified across various digital media and the brands web page in Hindi & English.

Watch the new TVC for Traya with Raj Kumar Rao on the link below:

YouTube Link:
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

New York, 03.05.2023 - Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis chaired an open debate of the UN Security Council on 3 May 2023. The focus was placed on building mutual trust through a recognised normative framework, inclusion and science-based evidence to promote sustainable peace. In view of the current conflicts and crises, building mutual trust is more important than ever.

On 3 May, as President of the UN Security Council, Switzerland organised an open debate in which it highlighted its priority of "promoting sustainable peace". Mutual trust and strong focused multilateralism are central to finding solutions to global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, world economic crises and last but not least peace and security. "The multilateral system is under strain, but it has not failed. The time has come to optimise our instruments to restore trust and secure lasting peace," said Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, who chaired the Council debate.



The head of the FDFA highlighted the ways in which multilateralism can offer added value. First, a normative framework respected by all strengthens predictability, which, in contrast to arbitrariness, fosters mutual trust. Second, peacebuilding should take an inclusive approach. Third, trust must be underpinned by scientifically sound facts. "Science and new technologies offer us the opportunity to better anticipate and understand the risks of today and the opportunities of tomorrow. We must respond to the challenges of the 21st century with 21st century answers," said Ignazio Cassis in New York. It is also important to use this knowledge to prevent conflicts and secure peace. "Today's debate is an opportunity to gather ideas from UN member states and to use the synergies that unite us. Trust is won through deeds, not intentions," Federal Councillor Cassis underlined during the debate.



On 4 May 2023, Federal Councillor Cassis will chair the annual UN Security Council briefing on UN cooperation with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The activities of the UN and the OSCE complement each other. The briefing is an opportunity to discuss the work of the OSCE in its three dimensions (political-military; economic-environmental; human) and in the context of its field missions. Russia's military aggression against Ukraine represents the greatest challenge in the history of the OSCE. Against this background, Federal Councillor Cassis will underline that the OSCE remains central to promoting dialogue and the peaceful settlement of conflicts in Europe.

Address for enquiries

FDFA Communication

Federal Palace West Wing

CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland

Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55

E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch

Twitter: @SwissMFA

Publisher

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html




Over a year ago, *Selenes nine-year-old daughter *Emma began waking up every morning and saying that witches were taking her to the woods at night to teach her witchcraft. Selene, a gentle farmer in rural Malawi and fiercely protective mother, soon noticed that Emma was also experiencing weight loss, mood swings and chronic morning fatigue. Determined to help her daughter, Selene tried to save enough money to bring Emma to a powerful witchdoctor, despite her nagging suspicion that many are charlatans.

And then Selene heard about our mobile legal-aid clinic, which was offering free legal services for witchcraft cases in her rural community. She came to us for help.

My law students and I were in southern Malawi partnering with a Malawian N.G.O., the Center for Human Rights Education Advice and Assistance, to run the mobile legal-aid clinic. In the months before our arrival, the students researched the legal and social contours of witchcraft accusations in Malawi and other African countries, guided by our Malawian partners who work on witchcraft cases year-round.

Their research revealed that witchcraft accusations against children in countries including Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria have increased in recent years, sparked and sustained in part by unrelenting poverty and conflict, family structures weakened by HIV/AIDS, and burgeoning religious sects that encourage child witch-hunts. These accusations often result in tragic tales of child abuse and abandonment.

Unhelpful law

During the mobile legal-aid clinic we proposed potential solutions tailored to each clients case, such as legal advice dissuading clients from making witchcraft accusations and police referral letters in serious cases of violence. But with some cases, we had to humbly accept that the power of the law is not always enough. During our initial consultations with Selene, she found our explanations of Malawis witchcraft law, which outlaws accusations of witchcraft, to be unhelpful. She didnt believe the law offered an appealing solution to her predicament.

We had to look beyond the law. We switched gears and asked Selene to bring Emma into the clinic. When we first met Emma she was wearing a blue dress the color of the sky. She was painfully shy but obviously a special, magnetic child. We all noticed her beautiful eyes, deep pools of curiosity.

We sat in a small circle with Emma underneath a tent. She told us that the witches had punished her for discussing their nightly trips to the forest. Ive heard of other children who are also taken at night by witches, she said sadly. At one point, she said the spirits were watching her, and she became quiet and withdrawn.

Selene and Emma truly believed something terrible had befallen Emma. In order to help them, my students and I had to understand the context in which we were working. Many Malawians hold similar beliefs about the possibility of bewitchment, and we had heard numerous disturbing tales involving children and witchcraft from other clients in the clinic.

We moved to solutions. The goal of our intervention was for Selene and Emma to reject the idea that Emma was bewitched. They told us they were devout Christians and had fervently prayed for Emmas protection. So, even though the students and I were a motley crew of atheists, Jews, Sikhs and spiritualists, we decided to try and dislodge Selenes and Emmas belief that Emma was bewitched by appealing to their unwavering confidence in the protective, positive elements of their faith. We understood that our personal beliefs were irrelevant.

Emma is not a witch

We first suggested that Selene and Emma chant nightly affirmations rejecting the idea that Emma is a witch. We also told them to repeat these affirmations when Emma awoke in the night and when other school children teased her. Then we all held hands in the circle and chanted in unison, Emma is not a witch. Emma is a daughter of God. As we repeated the chant in both English and the local language Chichewa, Emma eagerly looked at all of us, intently following the movement of our lips, a smile as warm as summer slowly appearing on her once forlorn face. And then the rain suddenly began to pour, a thunderous percussion to our chants.

The next day we invited Selene and Emma back to the clinic for a follow-up session. We were relieved when they told us that for the first time in a year Emma had peacefully slept through the night. The witches hadnt come to take her. Instead, Emma said she had dreamt of all of us forming a circle of protection around her.

We wrote a contract to bind the group  a written affirmation in Chichewa rejecting the idea that Emma is, or ever was, a witch  and we all signed our names and gave it to Emma for safe keeping. Selene also confidently, lovingly signed her name to the contract. And then we held hands and again chanted, Emma is not a witch. Emma is a daughter of God. Curiously, as soon as we started to chant, the clear sky once again began to thunder.

Sensitization campaigns

Our Malawian partner N.G.O. conducts monthly follow-up checks with Selene and Emma. Selene happily reports that Emma is thriving and blossoming. My students send Emma care packages with notes in Chichewa telling her how special she is and encouraging her love of math and dreams of becoming a teacher.

Many other stories involving children and witchcraft do not end on such a bright note of hope. To confront the relatively recent phenomenon of accusations of witchcraft against children, governments struggling with this issue must develop public sensitization campaigns that firmly dispel the crippling, destructive notion that children can be witches. Governments must also rally N.G.O.s, religious organizations, traditional healers, police, and the justice system to join in the fight against child abuse and abandonment linked to witchcraft, drawing on the deep reservoirs of love and care for children that exist in African communities.

When I think of Emma, I remember her moonbeam smile and her radiant innocence. But I also think of the thousands of children accused of witchcraft whose futures will not be as bright, absent critical child protection intervention and support.

* Names in this article have been changed to protect client confidentiality.
The Birmingham-Hoover metro is currently tied with Miami, FL for the lowest unemployment rate in the U.S. among metro areas with over one million residents according to a study recently released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The Birmingham-Hoover metro areas unemployment rate was 2.2% in Feb. of this year. When compared with the other 51 metropolitan areas that had a 2010 Census population of over 1 million, the metro only tied with Miami, FL for the lowest percentage.

This is a sign that the metros economy is bouncing back post-COVID according to Christopher Burks, founder of Birmingham-based public policy consulting firm Urban Analysis.

Out of Birmingham-Hoovers labor force of just over 564,000 people, only around 12,000 of these people were unemployed as of Feb. 2023 according to the BLS study.

As the US has begun to recover from the pandemic, the unemployment rate for the nation has been declining since 2021, said Burks.
A Delaware-based company with a factory in Albertville is disputing allegations in a lawsuit filed this week by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The E.E.O.C. filed the complaint against Mueller Co. and South Carolina-based IH Services, contending the two companies violated federal law by subjecting female employees to a hostile work environment, and retaliating against them when they complained.

According to the suit, cleaning employees working for IH Services were subjected to unwanted sexual touching and harassment by Mueller employees, and - in one instance - an attempted rape.

Mueller, in a statement, denied the allegations.

At Mueller, in accordance with our core values, we provide a supportive workplace free of harassment and discrimination, the company stated.

Accordingly, we maintain and enforce policies strictly prohibiting unlawful discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Due to the ongoing nature of the lawsuit filed by the EEOC in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on May 1, 2023, we cannot comment on the case. As an equal employment opportunity employer, we vigorously dispute the allegations contained in the lawsuit and look forward to presenting our evidence and defense in federal court.

IH Services has not commented on the suit, which stems from incidents that allegedly happened from about May of 2018 until late August 2020. The EEOC is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the victims, and injunctive relief against the companies.

Staffing agency IH Services assigned women to provide cleaning services at Muellers Albertville fire hydrant manufacturing plant.

According to the suit, several of Muellers male employees subjected at least three female IH Services employees to unwanted sexual touching and comments about their bodies and sex lives.

They also allegedly solicited the female cleaning crew for sex, asked to watch them have sex, exposed themselves and attempted to rape one of the female employees.

At least three women complained to several IH Services and Mueller managers, but the harassment continued, according to the suit. Instead, the women say IH Services retaliated against them, by reducing their hours, transferring them to undesirable shifts, suspending or firing them.

According to the EEOC, its Birmingham District office completed an investigation and first attempted to reach a settlement.
U.S. Marshals found a man wanted for a child sex crime hiding in the crawl space underneath a Florida Panhandle home Wednesday morning.

According to the Walton County Sheriffs Office, 36-year-old Travis Kyle Hoose had a warrant issued for his arrest on a charge of lewd and lascivious battery on a child between the ages of 12-16.

Early Wednesday, the U.S. Marshals Florida Caribbean Regional Task Force went to a mobile home on Dawn Road in DeFuniak Springs to arrest Hoose on the warrant.

When they arrived, agents noted movement inside the home and then interior lights were suddenly turned off. Making entry into the residence, Marshals searched the home and discovered a hole cut into the floor of one of the bedrooms, leading to the crawl space underneath.

The crawl space led to the back of the trailer where Hoose was spotted attempting to flee the scene, but was quickly apprehended without further incident.

This kind of situation is why the job of a law enforcement officer can be so dangerous, said Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson. However creative they may get, the result will still be the same - with the suspect behind bars.

Hoose was transported to Walton County Jail, where he is being held without bond on the child battery charge, as well as charges of failure to obey law enforcement; obstruction; driving with a suspended license; and a warrant from an outside agency.

Hoose is no stranger to a jail cell, having spent time in Florida prisons for crimes including drug possession, grand theft, burglary, criminal mischief, leaving the scene of an accident, purse snatching and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to jail records.

The U.S. Marshals Task Force included deputies from Walton, Holmes and Jackson counties.
The Jefferson County fugitive captured in Louisiana following a deadly gas station robbery and shootout with police that left two people dead may have committed more crimes during his time on the run.

Bossier City Police Chief Daniel Haugen on Wednesday said 50-year-old Cortrell Montesez Burks, initially wanted in Jefferson County for the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend and in Birmingham for the shooting of four people, possibly carried out other crimes in between the states as he traveled along Interstate 20.

We dont know led him to Bossier City from Birmingham, Alabama, theres a lot of hearsay, a lot of investigation into that, Haugen said at a press conference.

We do know he left Birmingham and we do know Bossier City was his last stop.

Asked if there were other violent acts between Alabama and Louisiana, the chief said, Thats what were hearing. Its all part of the investigation.

In Alabama, Burks, a contract truck driver, is charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of his longtime girlfriend, 40-year-old Erica Shontea Williams. Birmingham police have not yet announced charges against Burks in the wounding of four people, which happened at the home of Williams mother.

Erica Williams was found stabbed to death Sunday, April 30, 2023, in her Jefferson County home. (Special to AL.com)

In Louisiana, jail records list his charges as two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed robbery and three counts of first-degree attempted murder.

Haugen said Burks will remain in Louisiana until all of his charges there have gone through court system. That means it will likely be years before Burks is extradited to Alabama.

Bossier City spokesman Louis Johnson provided more detail about what happened in that city on Tuesday.

He said officers responded to a call of shots fired at a Valero gas station on Industrial Drive at Interstate 20. The 911 call was made by employees of a restaurant adjacent to the convenience store.

They heard the shots, made the call, Johnson said.

Bossier City Police Department responded and did they ever respond. They arrived on scene in exactly one minute and 33 seconds, Johnson said. We are certain that quick response time is what saved lives. Can you imagine what it would have been like if that person had been able to be longer without law enforcement?

Johnson said Burks had gone into the Valero with the motive of robbery. Once inside, Burks is accused of fatally shooting a 47-year-old customer and the 36-year-old store clerk.

A third person  described as a bystander - was critically wounded, but additional information about that victim were not made public.

Officers arrived on the scene, Johnson said, and immediately took fire.

Officer Kenny Gallon, a seven-year veteran on the force  was struck in the chin, the shoulder and both legs.

The impact rendered him unconscious, Johnson said. Another officer was on scene and that officer was able to keep him protected. "

Another officer applied a tourniquet to the surviving civilian gunshot victim, who had been struck in the femoral artery. That stopped the bleeding and literally saved his life, Johnson said.

Burks fled the scene to the nearby Le Bossier hotel. Johnson said the manager at the hotel had heard the gunshots and locked the door, which prevent Burks from taking refuge in there.

He was unable to make entry and do further harm, Johnson said.

Burks was then taken into custody unharmed.

Williams was found stabbed to death about 6:30 p.m. Sunday when Jefferson County sheriffs deputies were dispatched to her home in the 300 block of 20th Avenue N.E. in the Center Point area on a welfare check.

Williams sister, Marva Birchfield, said she received a Facebook message Sunday from an acquaintance saying that Burks had said he had killed Williams.

Birchfield tried to call her sister, and then family went to her home and could get no answer at the door.

Thats when they called 911 and Williams was found dead on the scene.

Birchfield said another sister and three of her nieces were wounded in that shooting. One of the victims remains hospitalized and the other three have been released.

She said her sister and Burks had been in a relationship for 16 years. She only knows of one prior domestic incident, which happened in January when she said Burks choked Williams. No charges were filed.

Both Williams and Burks have a child apiece, but they did not have any children together.

Williams death has devastated her family.

She was a sweet person. Everybody knew Erica was sweet, Birchfield said. Shed give you the shirt off her back.
A vote on an Alabama parental rights bill was postponed after a lengthy debate on the House floor Tuesday, where lawmakers called the legislation confusing and accused its author of personal motives.

HB6, authored by Rep. Kenneth Paschal, R-Pelham, prohibits the government from interfering with the fundamental rights of parents unless it is narrowly tailored and there is a compelling state interest.

The bill doesnt establish any new rights or take any away, Paschal said. Instead, he said HB6 is a proactive bill meant to codify existing case law that notes the importance of a parents role in a childs life.

Paschals bill passed through committee last month with no objections. But debate on the bill and a proposed amendment quickly got personal Tuesday.

Read more: Parental rights bill advances: What would an Alabama law do?

I have a problem when you come in here talking about fundamental rights, when all you do is take away and attempt to strip away the rights of those who so much depend on us coming here today, Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Jefferson County, told Paschal on the stand, alleging Paschal had brought the bill because of a personal situation.

Debate on the bill

In Alabama we do a great job as far as defense, Paschal said Tuesday while explaining the legislation. But if you stay on defense, you lose ground.

On the stand Tuesday, House Democrats questioned Paschal on the intent of the legislation, and whether it would impact ongoing custody cases or the work of other state agencies meant to protect children.

Givan suggested that the bill was another attempt to change state child custody guidelines. In 2022, Paschal filed a bill that would weight family court custody decisions toward joint custody. It did not pass.

Who is it we dont trust? Rep. AJ McCampbell, D-Demopolis, asked Paschal. Are we saying we dont trust ourselves? Are we saying we dont trust the citizens of Alabama?

This bill is not about child custody, Paschal said. This bill is to acknowledge the simple fact that  kids are a gift from above, God. So we have God, parents and the government, and you have to put them in order.

Others critiqued Paschals voting record on other child health and safety issues.

When we come up with stuff like this, we need to walk the walk, said Rep. Rolanda Hollis, D-Birmingham.

Two Republicans spoke in favor of the bill.

Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, called it an important protection against so-called efforts to destroy the sovereignty of the family.

The reason why this bill is important is because the fundamental principle of parental rights is under attack, he said, noting current debates about gender-affirming care, which he called chemical castration, and efforts to examine classroom and teacher training material.

God does not dwell in confusion

Critics have been sounding the alarm about similar parental rights bills recently passed in conservative states.

Last year, Florida passed a law with similar language aimed at parental rights that restricts certain classroom curriculum and instruction. At least 14 other states have followed suit.

In a recent interview with AL.com, Ailen Arreaza, executive director of the nonprofit research organization ParentsTogether, said parental rights bills like Alabamas are intentionally vague efforts to distract and divide parents.

Other advocates told The Reflector they were concerned that the bill failed to define unfit parents, and worried its broad language may criminalize parents of transgender youth.

I would like to think the law would include me, my husband, and our doctors judgements about what is best for my transgender child, but somehow feel they would see the transgender as a compelling reason to deny my rights, Cardelia Howell-Diamond, a parent to two transgender teenagers, told the Reflector.

On the stand, Paschal repeatedly brought up Biblical references about the role of parents in their childrens lives, calling his bill a protection of both God and country.

When you bring God into this conversation, God does not dwell in confusion, said Rep. Barry Forte, D-Eufaula. You sound like this bill is a personal thing with you. Is it or is it not?

After more questioning, Paschal said the bill was sponsored by about six different organizations, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal advocacy group that advocates against LGBTQ issues.

In a voice vote, The House chose to carry the bill over to the call of the chair. It may be placed on a calendar to be discussed at a later date.
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Alabama lawmakers are deciding what to do with billions of dollars of education money that, due to several years of budget decisions, isnt going to schools.

The bulk of the states $11 billion in available education funding- $8.8 billion if Gov. Kay Iveys budget proposal sticks - will be divvied out through the regular budget process for schools, colleges, and other education-related purposes complete with the earmarks and restrictions that have been in place for years.

But a huge chunk of money - $2.8 billion in excess tax collections from last year - is dealers choice.

In her 2023 proposal, Ivey wants to send more than half of that money back to taxpayers and to agencies and projects outside of K-12 and higher education.

Only 25% of Iveys proposal goes to K-12 schools, according to Ryan Hollingsworth, who leads the School Superintendents Association. Historically, he estimates, two-thirds of education-related funding has gone to K-12 schools.

Ivey defended her proposal, which includes $25 million for a Montgomery water park and $31 million for an airport in Mobile, saying those projects are still education-related.

All expenditures in the ETF should benefit education, Ivey said in response to questions from AL.com, whether those expenditures are direct or indirect investments.

An AL.com analysis found that in addition to the $2.8 billion up for grabs this year, over the past two years, lawmakers diverted $1.5 billion away from an automatic transfer process designed to protect K-12 and higher education funding.

And lawmakers are set to try the same gambit for next years budget: The budget cap is $10.9 billion, but Iveys proposal is for $8.8 billion. If lawmakers budget even one dollar below the cap, theyll get to control any and all excess revenue that comes to the state next year.

Reactions

Education advocates and interest organizations said that in past years, small amounts of education money shifted from one pot of the states budget to another.

This year, they said, is different.

We were very disappointed in the governors budget and supplemental, said Ryan Hollingsworth, with the Schools Superintendents of Alabama. Because our share was cut tremendously.

Ira Harvey, who helped craft a 2011 law that changed Alabamas education budget model, questioned whether the past three years budgets were intentionally crafted to help lawmakers keep control over excess tax revenue.

Senate Education Budget Chair Arthur Orr defended lawmakers conservative budgeting and ability to direct excess revenues.

There was nothing nefarious to end up at this point, he said. The motive has been trying to be conservative and not spending more than we thought we were going to bring in. And hold some back in case we had a rainy day.

But schools have immediate needs that should be funded that arent included in the regular budget or supplemental proposals, Hollingsworth said.

School safety is one of the top five priorities right now, Hollingsworth said. Our ask was for $100 million. I didnt see it in the governors proposed budget. But I did see it in the supplemental: $10 million. For school safety for the entire state of Alabama.

Supplemental funding should be used to fund one-time efforts to shore up Alabama facilities, technology and training, he said -- not legislators projects.

The money is not being spent on the kids, Alabama Education Association Executive Director Amy Marlowe told AL.com. The revenue coming in during the year is not being spent in the classroom on the kids that are in school at this time.

How did education funding get diverted from the K-12 and higher education safety net?

The Rolling Reserve Act, passed by Republicans during their first legislative session as the majority party in 2011, was championed as a conservative way to prevent overspending, while promising a concrete path for excess tax receipts to stay safe and available for future education spending.

Previously, each year, budgets were passed based on officials expected revenues. That was fine when revenue met expectations, but every few years, the state received less revenue than it expected.

When that happened, the Governor would declare proration. State agencies would have to cut spending in the middle of a budget year. For schools - which were not allowed to cut salaries or benefits - that often meant big problems.

When lawmakers passed the Rolling Reserve Act, the state was in the fourth straight year of prorated education budgets. Since then, state education budgets have been stable, growing slowly as determined by the smoothed-out growth curve of a mathematical formula.

The heart of the Rolling Reserve law is the use of a mathematical formula that sets an upper limit - called the Rolling Reserve cap or fiscal year appropriation cap - on how much lawmakers are allowed to budget for the next fiscal year.

The cap is primarily set based on recurring revenue growth over 14 of the 15 past years growth (the lowest growth year is dropped in the calculation). One-time or nonrecurring revenues are considered separately, generally not being added to the calculation.

Lawmakers typically used the lower of the calculated formula or the estimate as the cap, though the budget cap was exceeded in early years after its passage.

From 2013 through 2020, lawmakers passed budgets that reached or exceeded the formula-based cap. But lawmakers set budgets under the cap for the past three years.

Heres a look at the cap and the budget. Click here if you are unable to see the chart below.

When tax revenue exceeds expectations

When more tax revenue is collected in the Education Trust Fund than is budgeted to be spent, the Rolling Reserve Act prescribed a clear waterfall for the excess,

paying back money borrowed from ETF Rainy Day fund during the Recession,

then putting money into the ETF Budget and Stabilization Fund for future economic downturns, and

finally, into the ETF Advancement and Technology fund for K-12 and higher education to use on one-time expenses.

Lawmakers have tweaked the bill here and there, changing what that excess can be used for - such as paying for $516 million in PACT program liabilities from 2014 until 2022, for example.

Cascading the excess revenue has achieved the laws initial goals: The Rainy Day Fund has been fully paid back and has a balance of $505 million according to state financial reports.

The Budget Stabilization Fund - which can only be accessed if the Governor declares proration - gets 1% of the previous years budget amount each year until it reaches 7.5% of the previous years budget. The balance currently is $265 million according to state financial reports.

Whatever is left after those transfers goes to the Advancement and Technology Fund, which lawmakers then have to appropriate, or create a spending bill, to split between higher education and K-12 education.

Lawmakers typically distribute all of the money in the A&T Fund the same year it was received.

Schools and higher education institutions can use that money for specified purposes (which have expanded over the years). K-12 schools have used that money to fund the uncovered portion of transportation and purchase of computers, among other types of expenditures. The balance of the A&T Fund is currently $750 million.

But the automatic transfers into the cascade of accounts ceased beginning in 2021.

Why did automatic transfers stop?

AL.com questioned state finance officials about whether - prior to a 2022 change in the Rolling Reserve Act - lawmakers had the authority to divert excess revenue away from the automatic transfer process.

Finance Director Bill Poole and Fiscal Division Deputy Director Kirk Fulford told AL.com the automatic transfers arent required unless the education budget equaled the appropriation cap. Because the statute wasnt clear, Fulford said, SB331 was enacted in 2022 to put that into the law.

That change made it crystal clear that legislators have full control over excess tax collections if they set the education budget below the formula-based cap.

Which they have now done three years in a row and are set to do again this year.

Budgeting under the cap and taking control of the excess revenue essentially functions as an escape clause, school finance expert Ira Harvey said, and allows Ivey and lawmakers to choose projects they want to fund outside of the regular budget process.

Prior to the 2021 legislative session, supplemental bills typically redistributed money not spent the previous year and amounts were generally less than $10 million. Hollingsworth and other education officials said no one paid much attention to supplemental bills when those amounts were small.

The supplemental bills grew to $213 million in 2021, $1.3 billion in 2022, and $2.8 billion this year.

The rule change came in the middle of a dynamic and initially unpredictable economic situation due to the pandemic and subsequent federal COVID relief.

Schools were flooded with $3 billion in federal aid - with certain restrictions on how that money could be spent and with deadlines on spending it.

At the same time, the states income and sales tax receipts - the two main sources of tax revenue for the Education Trust Fund - skyrocketed. State funding and families bank accounts changed dramatically due to the billions in relief that was available for everything from saving jobs to providing rental assistance to direct stimulus payments.

Those changes meant that much more money flooded into  and stayed within  state coffers.

I dont think that 10 years ago, anyone could have foreseen the amount of available revenue that weve got in the [Education Trust Fund] right now, Marlowe said. Especially when you consider that weve come out of a worldwide pandemic.

Hollingsworth and Marlowe said they hope lawmakers scrap Iveys proposal and focus the bulk of the windfall on school needs.

Both the education budget and the $2.8 billion supplemental bill are under review by the legislature and likely will go through a lot of changes before heading back to Ivey for her signature.The new budget year starts Oct. 1.

The flowchart below was part of the Legislative Fiscal Services Agency presentation to lawmakers through 2021. It illustrates how excess revenue was required to flow prior to a 2022 change in the law. Click here if you are unable to see the document.
Peggy Elder Butler, Miss Alabama 1947, has died at age 93.

Butler, a lifelong resident of Gadsden, passed away peacefully on April 30, according to an obituary posted by The Gadsden Times. A memorial service is planned for 1 p.m. Thursday, May 4, at First Baptist Church Gadsden.

Butler celebrated her 75th anniversary as a Miss Alabama titleholder in 2022, appearing at the pageant in Birmingham with other women whove held the crown. Butlers walk across the stage at the pageant finals on July 2 drew enthusiastic applause, and was part of a celebration marking the 100th anniversary of Miss Alabama. At the time, she was the oldest living titleholder.

As part of the festivities that year, Butler also contributed a recipe to The Miss Alabama 100th Anniversary Cookbook. The recipe she chose, for Melt-Away Biscuits with Chocolate Gravy, was a favorite with Butler. (Pair these biscuits with the chocolate gravy and a scoop of vanilla ice cream! she said in the book.)

Butler was born in Birmingham, grew up in Gadsden and attended Emma Samson High School. She won her first beauty pageant at age 17. In 1946, she was named Miss Gadsden and Miss Zamora Temple, and earned the runner-up spot in the Miss Alabama pageant later that year. She was crowned Miss Alabama in 1947, and traveled to Atlantic City that year to compete for Miss America.

Butler (then Peggy Elder) tied for first place in the swimsuit preliminary at Miss America and took fourth place overall in the national pageant. According to a report by The Gadsden Times, she also turned heads in the evening gown competition, wearing a gown previously worn by June Haver in the 1947 movie I Wonder Whos Kissing Her Now.

(See vintage photos of Butler during her reign as Miss Alabama in the gallery below.)

10 1 / 10 Peggy Elder, Miss Alabama 1947

After the pageant, Elder traveled to New York to further her career, but became homesick. She returned to Gadsden and took a position with the Lady Perfection Mattress Co., traveling the Southeast as Miss Lady Perfection, The Gadsden Times said. She lived for a while in Cullman, but returned to Gadsden to take a job with the city.

Butler was married to Hoyt L. Butler of Gadsden for more than 40 years. He died in 2008 at age 75. She is survived by her three children as well as grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other relatives. Butler also had two beloved cats, Jack and Tipper, according to her obituary.

The Miss Alabama Organization paid tribute to Butler on Tuesday via social media, with posts on Facebook and Instagram. The posts included photos of Butler during her time as Miss Alabama and said:

We are sad to learn of the passing of Miss Alabama 1947 Peggy Elder Butler. Peggy attended the annual Miss Alabama competition often and we were thrilled to have her with us last year as we celebrated our 100th anniversary. Peggy won a preliminary swimsuit award and placed as third runner-up to Miss America 1947.

In 2017, upon the 70th anniversary of her crowning, Peggy noted, Wow! 70 years since I was crowned Miss Alabama! Thats 25,550 days I have faithfully put on lipstick and fixed my hair, because even after all this time, when I go out, someone will say, Werent you Miss Alabama? Recently, having lunch at The Club in Birmingham, the pianist asked me who I was. When my daughter told her I was a former Miss Alabama, she said, I knew it! I knew it when you walked in that you were SOMEBODY! I am proud and humbled to say that I have been SOMEBODY for 70 years!

We will miss Peggy, her smiling face, and her warmth and friendliness.
A 15-year-old equestrian was killed during a competition when the horse she was riding fell on top of her, according to Florida authorities.

Hannah Serfass was competing at a hunter/jumper event on April 30 at Fox Lea Farm in Venice, according to the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office.

She was about halfway through the course when her horse completed the sixth jump and landed successfully, a statement from the sheriffs office says. The horse then took a few more steps toward the next hurdle and for unknown reasons planted its left front hoof, which caused the horse to lean down significantly towards its left front hoof, the statement says.

This caused Serfass to topple forward and fall off the horse. The horse also started to fall in the same direction and fell on Serfass head, according to the sheriffs office.

Staff at the farm began first aid until members of the Sarasota County Fire Department arrived, the statement says. Serfass was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

A hunter/jumper event consists of two disciplines: hunter, which tests a horses jumping performance as well as its style and quality of movement, and jumper, which involves a horse clearing all fences on the course as quickly as possible, according to the United States Hunter Jumper Association.

The fall of Serfass horse was called a rotational fall, which is the leading cause of death in equestrian sport, according to the University of Kentucky. Rotational falls usually occur when a horse hits a fence with its legs or chest and the animal and rider are both thrown forward.

Serfass horse did not fall because of a jump, according to the United States Equestrian Federation.

The federation called Serfass a very talented, up-and-coming young rider who was known for her passion for horses, her natural ability, and her work ethic.

Other members of the equestrian community mourned Serfass loss on social media and shared the hashtag #rideforhannah.

... We tragically lost a beautiful soul in our fellow equestrian world, Hannah Serfass, wrote Barrett Farm of Florida, a boarding and training facility in central Florida. She was a kind, talented, hard working, dedicated rising star, and a joy to be around.

Baxter Lane Farm, which was also competing on the morning of April 30 with Serfass, wrote that their hearts were aching for her parents and trainer.

It is still hard to put into words but I cant stop thinking of this lovely young lady, her beautiful smile and friendly demeanor, the farm wrote.

A GoFundMe Page created on behalf of Serfass family described her as a talented rider with an extremely bright future.

She showed nothing but dedication and love to this sport, the page says.

Serfass mother did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

In 2017, a 17-year-old polo player, Donovan Stratemann, died when his horse collided with another during a match in Wellington, according to The Palm Beach Post. Stratemann fell to the ground, and his horse landed on him, the outlet reported.

Venice is about 70 miles south of Tampa.

2023 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Authorities have released the name of a woman found dead in her Birmingham apartment after family had not heard from her in more than a day.

The Jefferson County Coroners Office identified the victim as Monica Lynn Nichols. She was 59.

Birmingham police officers were dispatched early Tuesday afternoon to Glenbrook at Oxmoor Valley apartments on a welfare check. Family had not heard Nichols and became concerned.

When South Precinct officers entered the second-floor apartment, they found Nichols unresponsive. She was pronounced dead on the scene at 2:37 p.m.

A woman was found shot to death inside her home at Glenbrook at Oxmoor Valley apartments on May 2, 2023. (Carol Robinson)

Initially officers could not tell if foul play was involved, said Officer Truman Fitzgerald. Nichols body was taken to the Jefferson County Coroners Office, where authorities determined the victim had sustained a gunshot wound.

Detectives then returned to the scene to launch their investigation.

Fitzgerald said the woman has been dead at least a day. No one reported hearing any gunshots.

Nichols is Birminghams 41st homicide victim this year. Of those, one was killed in an officer-involved shooting from an outside law enforcement agency and three others have been ruled justifiable.

In all of Jefferson County there have been 56 homicides, including the 41 in Birmingham.

Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
The Alabama House of Representatives has unanimously passed a bill to exempt overtime pay from the state income tax, an idea lawmakers praised as innovative.

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, sponsor of the bill, said it would help employees by allowing them to keep more of what they earn. And he said it would be an incentive for work that would boost productivity for businesses. The bill says earnings received by a full-time hourly employee for work performed in excess of 40 hours in a week does not count as gross income for purposes of the state income tax, which carries a 5 percent rate.

The bill says the exemption will expire after three years unless the Legislature extends it. That will provide a chance to evaluate the impact of the exemption because the idea has not been tried before.

The fiscal note from the Legislative Services Agency estimates that the bill would reduce revenue to the Education Trust Fund by $45 million a year.

But Daniels said some of the tax revenue the state would lose because of the exemption would return in the form of sales taxes to local and state government because of how employees would use the extra money in their paychecks.

You not only thought outside the box. You created a box, Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, told Daniels.

The House passed the bill, HB217, by a vote of 105-0. It goes to the Senate.
The Alabama Senate gave final approval today to a bill intended to crack down on street racing and other dangerous exhibition driving, legislation that comes in response to incidents resulting in injuries and deaths.

The bill sets up criminal penalties for drivers who take part in speed contests or perform burnouts, donuts, and other reckless driving maneuvers. It prohibits those activities on public roads, in parking lots, or on private property without the permission of the property owner.

Mayors of Alabamas 10 largest cities said legislation to help stop dangerous driving exhibitions was one of their top priorities for state lawmakers. Legislators met with Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin about the problems caused by street racing. Last July, a 14-year-old boy was struck by a vehicle and killed while watching exhibition driving in Birmingham.

I know you hear this a lot but its another tool in the toolbox for law enforcement, said the sponsor, Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, former assistant chief of the Birmingham Police Department. The current laws did not go far enough. Basically, it was reckless driving and a ticket. This is an arrestable offense. It will also allow law enforcement to tow the vehicle in. Were talking about jail time if convicted also. So, weve got a lot of teeth in this law for this type of behavior. Were seeing way too many tragedies occurring.

Two years ago in Birmingham, a 52-year-old grandmother was killed when another driver authorities said was racing crossed the center line and crashed into her vehicle. In August, gunfire broke out at a driving exhibition in downtown Birmingham, leaving a woman dead and four others injured. In December, Birmingham police said 16 people were hurt, including a 5-year-old boy, when a Nissan 350z that was racing struck a Dodge Charger that was doing donuts, sending the Charger into the crowd of onlookers.

Under Treadaways bill, violating the law is a Class C misdemeanor, which can result in up to three months in jail. Second and subsequent violations are Class B misdemeanors, which can mean up to six months in jail. Violators could lose driving privileges for up to six months.

I believe, after 31 years in law enforcement, once you start taking someones freedom away, you start taking their vehicle away, theyre at least going to think twice before they get out there and put that car into that type of activity that puts lives in danger, Treadaway said.

Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, sponsored the bill in the Senate, which passed it today by a vote of 32-0. It goes to Gov. Kay Ivey, who can sign it into law. It would take effect the first day of the third month after the governor signs it, which Treadaway said will allow police departments a chance to adjust.
An Alabama state Senate committee voted Wednesday to put on hold a bill that both revises a 2017 law protecting monuments and outlines a plan to replace the deteriorating Saturn 1B rocket at an interstate welcome center.

The State Governmental Affairs Committee discussed the bill for about nine minutes before deciding to carry it over following an abundance of questions about why the bill  originally about the rocket  had controversial language about preserving monuments added to it.

I just think the way (the bill) is written, it raises other issues, said state Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham.

Related: Rocket bill bait-n-switch dupes Dems into backing Alabama monument bill

Sen. Tom Butler, R-Madison, sponsored the bill and said his original version included only the rocket. He said the language about revising the 2017 monuments law to make it more punitive was added later and he did not know it happened. Butler then gave the floor to Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, the author of the 2017 monument preservation bill.

The goal was just to make sure that the Saturn rocket was being taken care of, Allen said.

The rocket has been in place for 44 years at the Interstate 65 welcome center just south of the Tennessee state line, which could make it protected under the 2017 law. That law mandates a $25,000 fine for the removal of protected monuments in place for more than 40 years.

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville  charged by NASA with the dismantling of the rocket  is awaiting an opinion from the state attorney generals office on the legality of taking it down.

The bill, as it pertains to the rocket, called for the Alabama State Council on the Arts to commission the design and construction and provide for the installation of a replica of the Saturn 1B rocket at the welcome center. NASA, which owns the rocket, said it will be taken down and removed from the welcome center. A Huntsville group is seeking to preserve the original rocket.

The revisions to the 2017 monument preservation law increase the penalties from a one-time fine of $25,000 to a daily $5,000 fine until the entity has taken full restorative action. The bill also said the attorney general could stop the daily fines pending complete restoration.

Both Coleman-Madison and Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Birmingham, said they wanted to introduce amendments to the bill but it was tabled before those amendments were voted on.

The bill has 26 co-sponsors  both Republicans and Democrats  but Coleman, who is not a co-sponsor, said the bill that exists now is not the bill that was originally intended.

Is it customary for someone else to co-op somebody elses entire bill? Coleman asked Butler. Because what (the bill) is doing is it is changing the monuments bill. Thats what its doing. Instead of just focusing on the bill you want it to.

Thats a question Ill have to ask the reference service (which composes the bills), Butler said.

At that point, the committee voted to carry the bill over.
The hunt for the suspect in the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend and the shooting of four other people in Alabama ended Tuesday in Louisiana with more bloodshed.

Cortrell Montesez Burks, 50, was taken into custody in Bossier City after authorities say shots were fired during a robbery at a gas station there and a subsequent shootout with police that left two people dead and two others injured, including a police officer.

Burks was not injured in the shootout.

Authorities in Alabama and Louisiana would not confirm that Burks is the suspect in todays gas station shooting, but the sister of the Alabama homicide victim said she was notified that he was in custody in connection with that incident.

Public records show that a Cortrell Montesez Burks, age 50, was booked into the Bossier City Jail at 6:39 p.m.

He was later transferred to the Bossier Parish Jail where he is being held on bonds totaling $2.3 million. The jail log lists his Louisiana charges as two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed robbery and three counts of first-degree attempted murder.

The jail also lists him as a fugitive out of Alabama with no bond.

Burks has been sought by the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office and Birmingham police in the Sunday slaying of 40-year-old Erica Shontea Williams.

The Jefferson County District Attorneys Office on Monday issued a murder warrant against him.

Erica Williams was found stabbed to death Sunday, April 30, 2023, in her Jefferson County home. (Special to AL.com)

Williams was found stabbed to death about 6:30 p.m. Sunday when Jefferson County sheriffs deputies were dispatched to her home in the 300 block of 20th Avenue N.E. in the Center Point area on a welfare check.

Williams sister, Marva Birchfield, said she received a Facebook message Sunday from an acquaintance saying that Burks had said he had killed Williams.

Birchfield tried to call her sister, and then family went to her home and could get no answer at the door.

Thats when they called 911 and Williams was found dead on the scene.

Birchfield said another sister and three of her nieces were wounded in that shooting. One of the victims remains hospitalized and the other three have been released.

Burks, who is a truck driver, does not have any criminal history in Alabama.

On Tuesday morning, according to Bossier City and Louisiana State Police officials, officers responded to a call of shots fired at a Valero gas station on Industrial Drive at Interstate 20. When Bossier City officers arrived, the suspect emerged from the store and an exchange of gunfire between officers and the suspect took place.

Authorities said the initial shooting happened during at robbery at the Valero.

A Bossier City police officer was struck. He was taken to a hospital in stable condition, with injuries described as moderate.

Authorities there held a press conference shortly after the shooting and later issued a press release saying two people are dead and another critically injured. The police officer is stable.

Im shocked,' Birchfield said. I cant believe he did that.

She said her sister and Burks had been in a relationship for 16 years. She only knows of one prior domestic incident, which happened in January when she said Burks choked Williams. No charges were filed.

Both Williams and Burks have a child apiece, but they did not have any children together.

Williams death has devastated her family.

She was a sweet person. Everybody knew Erica was sweet,' Birchfield said. Shed give you the shirt off her back.
The ongoing legal battle over building bridges to Alabamas beaches continued Wednesday with the states transportation director testifying that he only spoke to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey once about his intentions to build a new bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in Gulf Shores.

Alabama Department of Transportation Director John Cooper, who chose to build a new two-lane bridge in October over the objections of the owners of a nearby toll bridge, said he last spoke to Ivey about the project in 2017. That one meeting, Cooper said, was to provide Ivey  his only direct boss  with a comprehensive overview of the states transportation priorities shortly after she took office.

Related:

We had a comprehensive session when she became governor, Cooper said during a bench trail before Montgomery County Judge Jimmy B. Pool. We do not do that on regular basis. That conversation is with the chief of staff.

The conversations with Iveys chiefs of staff are at the heart of an executive privilege case pending before the Alabama State Supreme Court. At issue is whether text messages and other communications between Cooper and Iveys current and former chiefs of staff  Jo Bonner and Liz Fillmore  should be shielded from public viewing.

The pending Supreme Court request is sought by Coopers attorneys with Balch & Bingham in Birmingham and was brought up during the testimony before Pool. It offered a brief but rare glimpse of the inner workings of Iveys administration.

Coopers testimony also capped the civil non-jury trial over whether the ALDOT director acted in bad faith while negotiating with the private bridge operator  Baldwin County Bridge Company (BCBC) LLC. The toll bridge, which is adjacent to The Wharf in Orange Beach, is approximately 1.1 miles from the site of the states proposed new bridge, which will not be tolled.

BCBC is seeking a preliminary injunction to halt construction of the Gulf Shores bridge. Scott Bridge Company was rewarded an approximately $52 million contract last October to build the new bridge, and the project is currently underway.

Pools ruling could come by Friday.

Coopers attorney, Dorman Walker, declined comment other than to confirm that the case is headed to the Alabama State Supreme Court.

Cooper has previously called the BCBC lawsuit frivolous.

Cooper, as ALDOTs director, has the sole discretion to decide whether and where the agency can construct a public bridge in Alabama, or a major project like the Intercoastal Waterway bridge. According to legal filings, Cooper would not proceed without advice from the Governors office on significant decisions regarding the project.

Joe Espy, the attorney representing BCBC, said Coopers testimony illustrates that Alabamas taxpayers will be on the hook for a $100 million to $150 million overall new bridge project and that Governor Ivey was not even made aware of this.

Espy cited a new resolution, approved Tuesday by the Baldwin County Commission, transferring the title and rights of multiple roadways in Baldwin County to ALDOT for future maintenance and improvements. Included within the resolution are Roscoe Road, Cotton Creek Drive, and the Baldwin and Foley Beach Express. All those roads have long been owned and maintained by the county.

Espy said that maintaining or improving those roads to accommodate the new bridge project will cost millions more than the initial contract with Scott Bridge Company. He also estimated the $52 million the state is spending on the Intracoastal Waterway project could fix all deficient bridges that exist in Montgomery, Macon and Baldwin counties combined.

How many more millions of dollars of taxpayers money you think you will spend on this project without talking to Governor Ivey? Espy said.

Cooper replied, I dont know.

Cooper testified on Monday that finding a resolution to the traffic congestion on Alabama State Route 59 was a priority of his dating back to when he first became ALDOT director in 2011. He said the concerns he has still exist to this date, in that Route 59 congestion is creating a public safety issue for beachbound travelers.

BCBC and Cooper had been negotiating an alternative to building a new bridge that included, among other things, adding additional lanes to the Foley Beach Express toll bridge and making additional roadway improvements. Also part of the last-minute pitch was an agreement to remove all tolls assessed on Baldwin County residents. Most bridge users are assessed a $2.75 one-way toll.

Cooper said a letter laying out BCBCs proposal in August 2022 was as a useless as a screen door on a submarine, and claimed that the company was not offering a so-called free alternative while subjecting the state to long-term exclusivity that we do not build a competing bridge.

He noted that the private toll operator, through assessing tolls to visitors, will make around $700 million in revenues over the 50-year lifespan of their proposal. BCBCs attorneys claim that the private toll company would be bankrupted if the state moves ahead with its new bridge.

Cooper said he chose to proceed with the new bridge project in 2018, shortly after a public hearing took place in Gulf Shores was attended by people who were mostly in favor of the project. At the time, local mayors and county officials backed the new bridge project.

But in recent years, Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon has voiced his opposition. He has also said his past support for the project was for Cooper to get the bridge company to the table for negotiations.

Under BCBCs plan in August, Orange Beach would have received $1 million per year for the next 50 years, which is slightly less than what the city is currently getting at $1.2 million per year under a 2004 agreement. That BCBC-Orange Beach agreement allows the city to receive a portion of the tolls through 2063. It also gave the city an option to purchase the bridge, which could take place in 2033.

Kennon has since criticized the states project as a boondoggle and one that is not effective enough in alleviating traffic into Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. The bridge does not provide a direct connection to the beaches. It would connect from the Foley Beach Express to Canal Road, at which time motorists can veer east into Orange Beach.

The project has the support of Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft, and the rest of the City Council.

Gulf Shores, meanwhile, is moving forward on a project to add an extra lane to Route 59 along the W.C. Holmes Memorial Bridge.

Cooper, during testimony Monday, said the state had examined a lane widening project for Route 59, but stepped away from those considerations sometimes around 2012 or 2013, because it was too costly. A massive overhaul to the Holmes bridge and surrounding properties would have required a significant amount of right-of-way agreements and land acquisitions, Cooper said.

The new bridge project is also proving to be costly. According to past reports, the state has spent around $20 million acquiring property to prepare for construction. Last month, the Alabama State Supreme Court upheld a $3.6 million award to an Orange Beach family who was forced to sell their 21-acre property to accommodate the new bridge.

Despite those efforts, no new bridge or additional bridge lanes have been added to alleviate traffic congestion that is likely to come as the beaches prepare for their summer season.

Cooper is convinced that the states new bridge is the solution, and that traffic will flow to it once it opens.

It will become necessary to do what we are doing, he said. I remain convinced of that.
A bill to allow a person to be charged with manslaughter if they sold or gave a drug to a person that resulted in that persons death moved a step closer to becoming law today, winning approval in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The bill, by Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, says the manslaughter charge applies to a person who knowingly sells, furnishes, gives away, delivers, or distributes a controlled substance in violation of state law and the person who received the drug dies as a proximate result of the use of the controlled substance. Manslaughter is a Class B felony that carries a sentence of 2 to 20 years.

Pringle told the committee about a friends son who struggled with addiction and died from an overdose after receiving an OxyContin pill laced with fentanyl.

We know who sold it to the boy, Pringle said. We know who killed him. And this bill would allow us to charge that person with manslaughter.

The committee approved Pringles bill without opposition. It moves to the Senate, which could give it final approval because it has already passed the House.

Overdose deaths, especially from fentanyl, have risen sharply in Alabama and across the country. In April, lawmakers passed a bill imposing a mandatory sentence of three years in prison for knowingly possessing one gram or more of fentanyl, classifying that as trafficking. Fentanyl is far more powerful than heroin. Two milligrams is considered a potentially lethal dose, meaning that one gram is enough to potentially cause 500 deaths.

Fentanyl was a factor in 316 overdose deaths in Jefferson County in 2021. Statewide in Alabama, there were 1,069 fentanyl deaths in 2021, up from 463 the year before, according to the Alabama 2023 Drug Assessment.

Related: Health groups sound alarm about deadly fentanyl: All it takes is 1 time

You cant get sober if youre dead: Alabama makes it hard for some to combat overdoses

Overcrowded prisons versus harsh fentanyl punishment: Debate to stir in Montgomery over mandatory minimum bill
A program that matches gunshot victims with specially trained workers in the hospital has launched as a partnership between UAB and the City of Birmingham in an effort to break the cycle of violence.

We hope this will provide a way to potentially break the cycle of injury, said Dr. Jeffrey Kerby, director of the division of trauma and acute care surgery at UAB Hospital, during the official kickoff announcement on Wednesday.

Rates of gun violence have gone up in Birmingham and around the country in recent years and spiked during the pandemic. Kerby said hospital staff treated 1,300 people with gunshot wounds last year, a four-fold increase since 2010. Research on survivors of gun violence found that they often get shot again, often fatally, Kerby said.

Seven people recovering from gunshot wounds at UAB have already enrolled in the program, which offers help with housing, education, employment and mental health care, according to a violence intervention specialist. The program has been in the works for about five years, after a community health assessment identified gun violence as a leading public health issue in Birmingham, said Jefferson County Health Officer Dr. Mark Wilson on Wednesday.

Leaders of the City of Birmingham have committed $2.1 million to the program, which will serve patients between the ages of 19 and 39. The Jefferson County Health Department also provided a $1.1 million grant to the Offender Alumni Association, a non-profit that works on issues related to violence and incarceration. The Offender Alumni Association will provide staff for the program, which will launch with a one-year pilot.

Violence never has a winner, and it never affects just one person, said Deborah Daniels, executive director and cofounder of the Offender Alumni Association. It destroys families and communities.

Violence intervention specialists will work with gun violence survivors who choose to participate in the program. They can offer services such as education and training, along with more immediate needs such as safe housing for people who might face more violence if they return to the community where they were shot.

In addition to protecting victims from additional violence, the services could cut down on the retaliation that often happens after a violent crime.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said retaliation is at an all-time high and is driving much of the record-breaking violence the city has experienced. City leaders have invested $6 million in recent years to community programs to prevent violence.

What we have so far is, Im afraid, just a drop in the bucket compared to what our community needs to address this extremely complex and stubborn problem, Wilson said.

Public health and community leaders began looking at ways to address gun violence in 2018, Wilson said. The pandemic slowed efforts to implement violence intervention strategies, which are designed to address some of the underlying issues behind shootings.

Life is never quite the same after a gun violence episode in someones life, said Carmone Owens, a supervisor in the violence intervention program. A lot of different pieces have to be put back together.

Among the earliest participants, one has already begun an educational program to help with job prospects once he has recovered from gunshot wounds that could leave him too disabled to continue his previous career, Daniels said. The Offender Alumni Association has partners willing to employ participants in the program, which will help provide additional economic stability, Daniels said.

We ask them what are the primary needs that they have, Owens said. They tell us what they need, and we try to get them where they want to go.

Woodfin said city leaders are looking for more ways to address gun violence outside of simply relying on law enforcement. This project will show that other community groups can address some underlying issues. Researchers will measure the success of the program, which has reduced reinjury in Chicago, according to a press release.

This is life changing, Woodfin said. This program is literally saving lives.

Daniels said she has 14 grandchildren who inspire her to help the community. Gun injuries have become the leading cause of death nationwide for people between the ages of 1 and 25 years old.

I want to see gun violence go down, Daniels said. My desire, my passion isnt just about my kids. Its about all of our kids.
A severe downwind nearly pushed a Coast Guard helicopter into the Gulf of Mexico as it attempted to rescue a cruise ship passenger in need of medical attention Saturday.

According to Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans, the MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, along with an HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane, was dispatched about 4:31 a.m. Saturday after a report from the Carnival Dream of a passenger experiencing heart attack-like symptoms.

The Jayhawk arrived at the location, about 300 miles off Fort Morgan. During the rescue attempt, as the rescue crew was hoisting a cruise ship nurse, a severe squall forced the crew to move the Jayhawk away from the ship.

As the helicopter moved from the ship, a severe downwind forced the aircraft downward, with the crew recovering the aircraft close to the waters surface, according to the USCG.

A video taken by a passenger and posted to social media shows the Jayhawk struggling against the wind to move away from the ship and is then forced downward, coming perilously close to the surface of the water.

Both the Jayhawk and Ocean Sentry were forced to return to base due to the severe weather conditions, but another Jayhawk rescue crew would return to ship later and rescued both the patient and Coast Guard rescue swimmer, who had been left aboard the ship when the first Jayhawk was forced to abort the rescue attempt.

During the rescue, the aircrew experienced severe and rapidly deteriorating weather that forced them to abort the mission, said Cmdr. Keith Blair, commanding officer, Air Station New Orleans.

Through exceptional real-time risk management, crew resource management, and superb piloting, the aircrew was able to safely recover the aircraft and land at the air station without further incident.

The patient was ultimately transferred to University Medical Center in New Orleans and was listed in stable condition.
A roller coaster ride brings screams of joy, adrenaline rushes, and sometimes a stiff neck or injured shoulders.

Rare those injuries are, they do happen. Even rarer, but more horrific is when someone dies from an amusement ride mishap that generates national headlines and lengthy lawsuits and investigations.

Alabama lawmakers want to ensure that some of the worst incidents do not happen, and that the Ferris wheel, roller coasters and massive water slides at theme parks are safe and inspected.

Legislation, pitched in the Alabama House and Senate, would remove Alabama from the list of only three states remaining without any kind of regulations for fixed amusement rides.

But the proposals lack teeth. They do not penalize amusement ride operators for not shutting down a dangerous ride. The bills do, however, allow amusement park operators to eject patrons who misbehave while on the rides.

This bill has not been generated because there are safety issues (at Alabama parks), said State Rep. Alan Baker, R-Brewton, sponsor of HB352, which was approved by the Alabama House on Tuesday.

Thats where many of these legislations (in other states) surface, with an incident, Baker said. But that wasnt the impetus behind this bill. It was more of having our state pursuing the safety of the public, and we felt this was a good step in the right direction to codify best existing safety practices.

Regulating parks

Alabama Adventure & Splash Adventure in Bessemer is open during Memorial Day weekend 2022. (AL.com file photo/Joe Songer)

The proposals, as pitched, impose new safety regulations on fixed amusement rides at the handful of theme parks that are permanent attractions in Alabama.

The only theme parks in Alabama with a roller coaster, and which would be subject to the new regulations, include OWA in Foley, Alabama Adventure in Bessemer, Track Family Fun Park in Gulf Shores, 4D Farm in Cullman, Spring Park in Tuscumbia, and the Kiddie Carnival in Athens.

OWA, which is owned and operated by Creek Indian Enterprises, features a host of thrill rides including the Rollin Thunder roller coaster.

A spokesperson with the theme park that opened in 2017, said that OWA has been helping to facilitate talks between industry leaders and state officials toward creating a regulatory framework for the amusement park industry in Alabama.

Kristin Hellmich, spokesperson with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and for OWA, said that the park has self-regulated itself based on industry guidelines.

From the opening our theme park, and now with the addition of our waterpark, safety has always been a top priority which is why our management team has proactively adopted daily safety processes based on our manufacturers guidelines and best-practices from the international theme park industry, she said.

OWA has also independently participated in annual operational audits.

The proposed regulations are nothing new and are utilized by many states already. They follow a standardized safety guideline from ASTM International (formerly American Society for Testing and Materials), an organization that develops voluntary consensus standards on a variety of products and systems including amusement rides.

At least one Alabama lawmaker is hopeful that more restrictions can eventually be required on weight restrictions and strapping requirements on rides.

State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, said the legislation does not specifically address weight, size and strapping of someone to a ride. She cited the tragedy in Orlando last year, when a 14-year-old teenage boy who weighed over 300 pounds and was over 6-foot, 5-inches tall, was killed on a ride that he was allegedly too big to be on.

OWA has self-regulated its height and weight restrictions for rides. The parks initial attempts stirred controversy. Shortly after first opening, OWA posted signs stating that people who exceed 6 feet, 2 inches in height and weighed over 225 pounds and had a 40-inch waistline or a 52-inch chest, faced ride restrictions.

Further adding to the controversy, OWA said that women who weighed over 200 pounds or those who wear a size 18 or larger, were subject to ride restrictions.

This should be about saving the life of someone and putting those standards in place, Givan said, adding that the legislation is a good first step.

Whats in the legislation

Alabamas proposal does not address rides that are part of a traveling or mobile carnival or fair, which are federally regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Regulating fixed rides at theme parks is left up to state lawmakers, and Alabama has relied for years on operators to police themselves. Aside from Alabama, only Wyoming and Montana do not have any legislation overseeing amusement parks, according to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), the trade association the represents amusement parks.

IAAPA is supportive of the Alabama proposals.

Most operators within Alabama already follow ASTM standards, which are consensus-driven safety standards written by engineers, operators, and leading experts in the global attractions industry, said Caitlin Dineen, director of global communications with IAAPA. This legislation codifies those standards into state law. ATSM standards are considered the gold standard for oversight and safety regulations within our industry.

Highlights within Alabamas legislation include:

Amusement rides and water slides are to be inspected by a qualified inspector at least once a year.

After a satisfactory inspection, the inspector is to issue a certificate to the rides owner certifying that the ride or slide complies with all that is statutorily required through ASTM standards and is reasonably safe for public use.

No patron can be admitted to an amusement ride or water slide if it has undergone a major modification until it receives a new inspection certificate.

If a ride is deemed unsafe, an inspector is not to issue an inspection certificate until the unsafe conditions have been rectified.

Owners have to keep records of all inspections of a ride for at least 3 years.

Owners have to maintain liability insurance of $500,000 bodily injury or death of one individual in each occurrence and, not less than $1 million for bodily injury or death of two or more individuals in each occurrence.

Misbehavior and exclusions

The legislation also requires patrons to behave, or otherwise be subject to immediate removal from a theme park without the refund of an admission charge.

Among the behaviors prohibited within the legislation:

Behave in a manner that can cause injury.

Interfere with the operation of the amusement ride or water slide.

Fail to engage any provided safety device.

Disconnect or disable a safety device, except at the instruction of an operator.

Extend arms or legs beyond the carrier or seating area, except at the express instruction of an operator.

Throw, drop, or expel any object from or toward an amusement ride or water slide.

Enter or exit and amusement ride or water slide except at the designated time and area at the direction of an operator or in an emergency.

Unreasonably control the speed or direction of himself or herself if the amusement ride or water slide requires the patron to control or direct himself or herself.

Riding while under the influence of alcohol or any other intoxicating substance.

Baker said the legislation includes some exclusions, particularly what is not considered an amusement ride. Among the rides excluded: Aerial trekking courses, canopy tours, challenge courses, fun karts, race karts, ropes courses, trampoline courts, or zip lines.

Also not considered amusement rides are coin-operated rides that are found in public locations like kiddie rides sometimes found at department stores.

Non-mechanized playground equipment  swing sets, teeter-totters, stationary spring-mounted animal features often found at public parks  are also not included.

Some water rides are also excluded, including lazy rivers and log flume rides.

RV parks and summer camps were also added to the list of excluded rides during Tuesdays House floor debate. Whitewater rafting courses were also excluded, which means the $65 million, 120-acre water park opening this summer in Montgomery would not fall under the legislations oversight.

Regulations and safety

Martin Lewison, associate professor of business management at Farmingdale State College in New York  and a member of the IAAPA  said that states oversee the regulations differently. Approximately 20 states have a more robust and comprehensive government oversight system requiring regular inspections and a government agency empowered to investigate accidents, according to a report in The Regulatory Review citing information from Safety Park USA, an insurance and risk management company for the amusement industry.

Alabamas system would be overseen by the Alabama Department of Revenue. He said that several states depend on their Agriculture departments to oversee regulations because historically, amusements were closely connected to agricultural fairs.

The CPSC once regulated theme park rides, but the amusement park industry was able to successfully challenge it and have the industry regulated by the states. The change occurred in 1981, after Congress removed CPSC oversight in a move dubbed the roller coaster loophole.

U.S. Senator Ed Markey, D-Mass., has long attempted to reinstitute federal oversight to the industry, which has repeatedly been opposed by the IAAPA. Among the reasons, Lewison said, is that additional regulations could increase costs at a time when operating theme parks is already expensive.

Lewison also said that statistically, amusement ride accidents are relatively rare.

The IAAPAs annual safety survey, conducted by the National Safety Council, shows the chances of being seriously injured on an amusement ride at 1 in 15.5 million rides taken. The survey is voluntary, and only 179 of 484 U.S. and Canadian fixed-site amusement facilities participated in the 2021 version.

Of the 1,224 total injuries in 2021, only 130 or 11% were considered serious in that they required hospitalization for at least 24 hours.

The vast majority of incidents involve slips, falls, bumps and bruises and, of course, sickness and biospills, said Lewison, who admits to riding on 2,226 different roller coasters at nearly 900 different sites in 40 countries and experiencing a few bruises every now and again. He said he has never needed medical attention.

Lewison said that recreational activities like riding a bicycle, skateboard and roller skates are far more dangerous.

I think youre more likely to die falling out of a chair than you are likely to be seriously injured on an amusement park ride, he said. I think youre more likely to be seriously injured on the car ride to the amusement park than you are to be seriously injured on an amusement park ride.

Serious concerns

The Park at OWA as pictured of 2017. (file photo)

Still, serious tragedies occur which often lead to state action. That was the case in Kansas in 2016, after the 10-year-old son of a state lawmaker was decapitated on a large water slide. A year later, Kansas adopted the Kansas Amusement Ride Act that tightened inspection requirements and mandated parks report injuries to the state.

Lewison said that media coverage of amusement park tragedies fuels perceptions.

If every serious skateboard (accident) were on the news, no one would ever go near one, but every amusement injury gets major news coverage, which can blow the public perception of amusement danger way out of proportion, he said. When a roller coaster stops operating due to safety warnings, the riders are evacuated, this usually becomes a major local news even though the ride safety system operated exactly as designed and no one was injured.

That is what happened last year during an incident at the Greater Gulf State Fair in Mobile, an event that features a traveling carnival which is regulated by the CPSC.

A 9-year-old girls seatbelt was unbuckled as she boarded onto the Mega Drop ride. The girl began screaming as the ride started, but it eventually stopped as the ride approached a so-called safety zone, according to an account to a local TV news station.

The industry is extremely safety conscious, and this includes the manufacturers and operators, Lewison said. Not surprisingly, the industry is well-aware that injuries are bad for business, so they go to great lengths to ensure that injuries dont happen.
A Texas-based tech company is setting up a North American delivery center in downtown Birmingham, with the goal of creating 200 jobs over the next five years.

Tquila Automation will set up the hub in the 65,000-square-foot Nextec building at 1531 Third Ave. N., located in The Switch, the citys innovation district.

According to the Alabama Department of Commerce, Birmingham beat out Austin, Nashville, and Atlanta for the project, with the company planning to tap into the citys university-trained workforce.

We are incredibly excited to be developing our delivery center in Birmingham, Richard Denton, the companys chief technology officer and co-founder, said. The city is blossoming, and we have been incredibly impressed with the collaborative approach of all of the parties involved.

The company plans on training employees on automation through its Tquila Tech Academy, and AIDT will also prepare the workforce. Jobs at the center will include software developers, business analysts, consultants and business managers.

Tquila is an automation consultancy helping businesses streamline through robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning and other technologies. Its clients include manufacturing, fast moving consumer goods, financial services, energy and insurance firms.

Governor Kay Ivey said, in a statement, In the Magic City, tech-focused companies can find skilled workers and all the advantages they need to build a successful operation.

The Birmingham Business Alliance, the Alabama Department of Commerce, the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, the City of Birmingham, Jefferson County Commission and Alabama Power were involved in the recruitment.

Business leaders are recognizing how future-proofing their operations with artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation can drive better business outcomes, Tquila Automation CEO Tom Abbott said. By investing in technology careers in the City of Birmingham and the State of Alabama, were on the front-line driving innovation in businesses, supporting the demand for new jobs and growing talented team members.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said the citys technology talent pipeline plays a critical role in attracting global companies like Tquila Automation.

The companys location in the new Nextec Building provides a continued boost for our innovation district and exciting workforce opportunities for our people, he said.
A Tucker Carlson text message described a video that showed a group of Trump guys jumping an Antifa kid, before the former Fox personality explained that Its not how white men fight.

The text, which was obtained by The New York Times, was redacted from public court documents in Dominions defamation lawsuit against Fox News. That lawsuit was settled for a record $787.5 million last month.

According to the report, Carlson sent the text to one of his producers a day after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The report indicates Fox executives were made aware of the text before the trial last month and were worried it would come out during the trial.

Here is the full text:

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington. A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living shit out of him. It was three against one, at least.

Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. Its not how white men fight. Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping theyd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it.

Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isnt good for me. Im becoming something I dont want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as Im sure Id hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldnt gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it.

I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I dont care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?

Last month, Carlson and Fox News Media agreed to part ways, the company announced in a press release. Carlson, who had been with the network 14 years, headlined Tucker Carlson Tonight, a lead in to Sean Hannitys Fox News show Hannity.

Read The Times reports here.

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.
This is a guest opinion column

For nearly three months now, Ive been engaged in a standoff with the Biden appointees at the Pentagon. Since the Biden administration began illegally using tax dollars to facilitate elective abortion, Ive used my rightful authority as a United States senator to slow down their civilian nominations and promotions from being confirmed.

This has sent the Washington outrage machine into overdrive. Ive been attacked from the podium at the White House, senators are tweeting about me, and the Senate Majority Leader has attacked me by name five or six times on the floor of the Senate.

Ive only been in Washington, DC for a little over two years now, but this is exactly what I expected from the swamp and its creatures. What Ive been more surprised by is hearing some of the falsehoods parroted by a couple of liberals in Alabama.

So lets set the record straight about what Im doing and why Im doing it.

Back in November I heard the Pentagon was thinking about using our tax dollars to facilitate elective abortion. Theres nothing in the law that allows the Pentagon to do that. Congress never took a vote on it. In fact, Congress has voted to strictly limit the instances in which DOD can perform abortion.

I warned the Secretary of Defense directly in December that if he insisted on flouting the law, I would use my authority as a senator and slow down their highest-level nominations in the Senate. Secretary Austin blatantly ignored me (and more than a dozen other senators) and implemented his illegal plan to fund unrestricted access to abortions.

So Ive kept my word. The day they announced the new policy in February, I put whats called a hold on their highest-level nominations and promotions. They can still be confirmedbut the Senate has to actually vote.

Thats not too much to ask. Thus far this year the Senate has had more than 30 days off, plus weekends. The Senate hardly ever votes on anything of substance anymore. Yet the Democrats have lit their hair on fire over the idea that we should actually do our jobs and vote.

My dispute with the Pentagon is not just about abortion. It is more about the illegal use of taxpayer funds to facilitate elective abortion.

The military has had an abortion policy for four decades. In a typical year, about 20 abortions are performed within our military system in cases of rape, incest, and a threat to the health of the mother. Until a few months ago, this was a consensus view supported by both political parties. But now the Biden Administration is forcing an unprecedented taxpayer-funded abortion policy down the throats of the American people.

Democrats admit that I have the right to slow down nominations as a United States senator. Im far from the first to do this. Democrats threatened to do the same exact thing not that long ago, and for far less important issuesincluding ensuring Colonel Vindman got promoted. Memories are short in Washington.

Democrats have made essentially two arguments against me on this issue. First, they say Im jeopardizing national security. Second, they say Im hurting families in need. Both of these arguments are false.

First, national security. During a recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI) asked a top combatant commander what impact my hold has on readiness. In response, the commander said operationally the holds have no impact because military leaders remain in their posts until they are replaced.

The idea that these jobs are remaining open is simply false. Thats not how our military works. Every one of these roles is being done right now. Anyone who says otherwise doesnt understand how the military works.

As for the second argument, about supposed hardship, lets be clear who we are talking about. This is not, to quote one liberal Alabama commentator a blanket hold on all [Defense] nominees. I am only holding brigadier generals and above. These officers earn approximately $244,000 a year in base wages and housing allowances. Thats nearly nine times the average income in Alabama, and clearly in the top 10 percent of incomes nationwide.

Elizabeth Warren said she was worried about their grocery money. Theyve got plenty of grocery money. And when they do get promoted, theyll all get back payand they know it.

Democrat senators have also fearmongered that some of these people may retire rather than wait for their promotion to go through. On average they would retire with a pension equivalent to having $6 million in a 401k.

The real crisis is our militarys recruiting figures. In the 50 year history of our all-volunteer force, weve never missed our recruiting numbers: until last year. The Army missed its number by 15,000 recruits. Thats an entire division.

The facts are clear. My hold is not affecting readiness and they wont make anybody starve. No matter the name calling and media pressure, I will keep my holds in place until the Biden administration follows the law.

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., is serving his first term in Congress
An inmate ran from court today and the Sheriffs Dept. caught him on a downtown roof. Athens Fire responded to safely remove him. Posted by City of Athens, Alabama (Public Relations) on Wednesday, May 3, 2023

An inmate ran from a Limestone County courtroom this morning and was taken back into custody on a rooftop.

According to the City of Athens, the inmate was tracked to the roof of a downtown business in the 100 block of North Marion Street, only a block away from the courthouse.

Deputies caught the inmate, who has not yet been identified, on a downtown roof.

Athens Fire responded to safely remove him.
A man was killed and two other men were injured Monday morning in a multi-vehicle wreck on I-65 in Cullman County involving two tractor-trailers and two trucks, authorities said Tuesday night.

David A. Moore, 37, was driving a 2018 Ram 3500 that struck a 2012 Freightliner tractor-trailer around 8:15 a.m. Monday on I-65 near the 318-mile marker, about five miles south of Falkville, said Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Senior Trooper Brandon Bailey.

After the initial impact, the Freightliner struck a 2021 GMC 2500 and then struck a 2017 Peterbilt tractor-trailer, said Bailey.

Moore was pronounced dead at the scene.

Two men who were passengers in the Ram were injured and taken to Cullman Regional Medical Center for treatment.

Further information is unavailable as state troopers continued to investigate the wreck.
The family of executed Alabama inmate Joe Nathan James Jr. is suing Gov. Kay Ivey and other state officials, claiming James suffered excessive pain in the hours before his execution and was unconscious before he was put to death.

Mr. James had planned, as his final words, to apologize to his mother and daughters, to apologize to the victims family, and to pray the shahada, the Muslim profession of faith, the lawsuit states.

Instead, not once during the 18 minutes of the execution did Joe James open his eyes or respond to the standard consciousness check that consists of a correctional officer calling his name, flicking his eyelid, or pinching his arm.

Alabama must own up to its wrongs, said Joe James brother Hakim James in a statement through his attorney. This lawsuit is not about attacking the death penalty or seeking pity for my brother. It is simply a demand that Alabama officials recognize the humanity of the people the State executes.

The lawsuit was filed by Hakim James as the representative of his brothers estate against Ivey, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, William C. Holman Correctional Facility warden Terry Raybon, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, and six unnamed prison system workers. Three are described as people who work on the prisons team that sets up intravenous lines for the three-drug lethal injections. The other three are workers on the execution team.

The state has never released the names of those workers, and fought in federal court to keep their names secret.

The federal lawsuit, filed Wednesday, claims Alabama imposed cruel and unusual punishment when it executed Joe James last summer. It also claims the statewho shrouds its execution procedures in secrecyhas kept information related to Joe James death in the exclusive hands of the prison system.

James was 50 years old at the time of his execution, which happened at Alabamas William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore on July 28, 2022. He was put to death for the 1994 slaying of his ex-girlfriend, Faith Hall.

James, eyes closed and without speaking, died after correctional officials spent nearly three hours trying to start an intravenous line for the lethal drugs to be administered. The seeming lack of consciousness is a point of contention about what happened that night.

When asked if James was conscious at the start of the procedure, a prison spokesperson told media, He was not sedated.

Wednesdays lawsuit claims the IV team used midazolamthe first drug used in the lethal injection protocol to render an inmate unconsciousas a sedative during their attempts to establish an IV. It claims the team didnt set up the two lines required for an IV until 9:02 p.m., more than three hours past the scheduled execution time of 6 p.m.

The state has denied using intramuscular sedation during Joe James, or any other, execution.

Following his execution, a private autopsy was performed, but the doctor performing the procedure and the doctor observing it disagreed as to if there were signs of abuse from the state. The observing doctor said he saw evidence of a cutdown procedureor a way some medical professionals cut into a persons arm to find a vein. The doctor performing the autopsy said he didnt think that happened.

In November, the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences released the official autopsy for Joe James and noted no evidence of a cutdown procedure. It didnt specifically cite the number of puncture wounds.

The lawsuit says Joe James suffered excessive pain during his prolonged execution and deprived him of the right to be conscious and speak his final words before the administration of the lethal drugs.

The suit says: (Terry) Raybon and the Execution Team knew that Mr. James was unconscious and unable to say his last words. (Terry) Raybon held the microphone to Mr. Jamess lips only momentarily, without waiting to see if he would respond. This would make no sense if Mr. James had been conscious.

Wednesdays lawsuit echoes claims from national organizations who say Joe James execution was the longest recorded lethal injection in American history. The conclusion that (the state) violated Mr. Jamess rights during his execution is further bolstered by Alabamas history of botched executions, which resulted from a poorly implemented protocol and inadequately trained staff, says the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims the prison system contacted Ivey while workers were trying to start Joe James IV on the night of his execution, and she demanded that the execution proceed and failed to intervene to call off the execution after it became clear that the execution was going awry, that Mr. James had sustained multiple injuries, and that Mr. James had been rendered unconscious. It continues that Raybon, the warden, failed to maintain close observation of the execution process and ignored signs that Joe James was in pain.

The lawsuit also states Marshall knew the problems happening with placing the IV line that night, and too failed to step in. Everyone involved knew or should have known they were superadding terror, pain, and/or disgrace to Mr. Jamess death sentence by attempting to establish IV access for over three hours and when he was forcibly sedated.

The lawsuit claims Alabama is the only state that has had to halt an execution in progress since 2017 and is fully aware of the serious problems in its execution procedures.

Late last year, Ivey announced a temporary halt on executions in Alabama while the state conducted an internal review into its own lethal injection process. That review ended in February, with no public report or details related. The state said only that the prison system has ordered and obtained new equipment for future executions.

Hakim James is seeking compensatory damages for the physical and psychological pain and suffering his brother experienced and for their rendering him unresponsive during his final opportunity to make peace with his fate.

The lawsuit also mentions the two executions Alabama attempted since Joe James death. Those two men, Alan Miller and Kenneth Smith, both survived after the state couldnt set up IV lines before the mens execution warrants expired at midnight on their respective execution dates.

Arnold & Porter, a Washington D.C. based-law firm, is representing Hakim James. One of the estates lawyers, Anand Agneshwar, said he filed the lawsuit for the James family to hold Alabama accountable. Our complaint identifies serious deficiencies in Alabamas execution process, which resulted in the longest lethal injection execution in U.S. history, as well as a series of other botched executions, he said.

At a minimum, Alabama needs to follow the example of other states and provide public transparency into its processes and the investigation that it recently conducted.

Our motive in bringing this case is to ensure the State of Alabama is held accountable for subjecting Mr. James to three hours of agony and to prevent prisoners from enduring such prolonged and unnecessary pain in the future.

Hakim James said, through a press release from his attorney: Alabama has never admitted to the pain it caused Joe and our family. Instead, prison officials have caused terrible suffering to two more men, just like they did to Joe. State officials are like the victim in a horror movie, refusing to listen to cries of warning. They keep trying to execute people in the same painful way, even though they know it will go horribly wrong.

Ivey takes very seriously her lawful responsibility to carry out executions to obtain justice, said a spokesperson Wednesday evening. A fair and lawful sentence was carried out, and an unmistakable message was sent that Alabama stands with victims of domestic violence, Ivey previously said.
The Mobile City Council could move forward with a referendum on annexation as early as next week.

The council on Tuesday added four annexation resolutions to next weeks agenda, after holding community meetings on the effort to bring in as many as 26,000 more people into Mobiles city limits. If all the proposed new residents come into city limits, Mobile would become the second largest city in Alabama.

This opportunity, for the growth of this city financially, for the possibility of growth both with population, for the ability to expand westward without being blocked, for other opportunities that may arise in the future for additional space, this is a very well-thought-out opportunity, Councilmember William Carroll said during the meeting. It gives this whole city a very essential look at the future.

The four resolutions before the council pertain to whether to establish a referendum in each of the four separate areas the city wants to annex. Each resolution that passes means another referendum on whether those residents want to become part of Mobile proper.

Each area votes independently of the others, so one area may choose to come in and another may not. If all referendums pass, the areas would combine to form Annexation Study Area A, James Barber, chief of staff to Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, said.
This is an opinion column.

Parents should have a say in their childrens educationand they do. Mine certainly did. Mom was a teacher.

They called the class speech back then at Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary in Tulsa.

Today, its Englishreadin, writin, and understandin. Basics, yall, Gov. Ivey would maybe say.

Mom was a substitute teacher during my early years, working part-time before becoming full-time after my father grew ill. (I was in seventh grade when he died.)

In fifth grade, she was my teacher.

She gave me no breaks. Zero. Truth is she was harder on me than the other kids (my story and Im sticking to it). Harder than any other teacher. (Well, except for my aunt, who also taught at Dunbar.)

To that point, Id gotten all As. (Yeah, I was that kid.) Every report card. I was partly incentivized by my dad, who promised me a dollar for every A from the moment I began school. He feigned grumbling and reached for his wallet each time I gleefully handed him my card. (Little did I know then all the life lessons he was subtly imparting.)

One of our speech class assignments was to memorize a poem. I cant remember which poemI probably blocked that evil devil out of my memoryor even the poet. Whatever it was, when it was my turn to recite it in front of the class, I flubbed a line toward the end. Forgot the last few words. Didnt finish.

Mom didnt say a word. Didnt prompt me at all. She just looked down at her paper and wrote something, presumably by my name.

You know where this is going. When I received my next report card, the letter B jumped out toward me like one of those annoying pop-up greeting cards.

I survived, of course. I got 50 cents from Dad for the B. (Cs got a whuppin, back then.) While the B didnt stifle my educational journey, I never let Mom forget it. I told her she traumatized me,; I would have grown to six feet, I told her, had she not given me that B. It was our friendly joke for the rest of her life.

Parents should have a say in their childrens educationand they do. A profound one. At home.

Back then, at a time still infected by Jim Crow, many Black women were teachers. That and nurses. Those were the primary professional lanes open to themback then.

We were surrounded in segregated North Tulsa by teachers, it seemed. By teachers, women, and men who taught us every day. By how they lived. How they navigated a world that diminished them, legally.

By how they poured into us.

Your childrens education begins with you. With them observing you. Every day. Observing how you walk in the world. Observing how you work and provide. Observing how you treat others. Observing how you spend your leisure time, at play. Observing what you read, what you watch, what you say. Observing your circle of friends, how you engage with one another.

Observing you at church.

Parents are always teaching. Always. Whether they acknowledge it or not.

Whether or not they can help their kid with homework anymore. Still teaching.

Maybe even more so than the teachers so many parents and lawmakers now want to control.

Maybe the most fundamental aspect of educating your child is this reading to them. Reading to them long before they recognize words themselves. Reading to them when they only know your voice. When they hear words you believe are important to them, words that comfort them, that elevate and enlighten them.

Mine certainly did.

I certainly have no recollection of what books my mom read to me and my baby brother as toddlers. I do recall the bookshelves at home were filled. Included was that monstrous set of Encyclopedia Britannica that was in so many homes. Back then. Sometimes Id just pull one out and read. (Yeah, I was that kid.)

Parents should have a say in their childrens educationand they do. A profound one. Not, though, by yanking books from schools and libraries because, well, they dont like whats on the pages. Pages that have been read, vetted, and approved by educators licensed to educate.

Not all parents are doing this, certainly. Or like it. Not even a preponderance of parents. A recent Fox survey found 60% of parents thought the banning of books by school boards was a major problem. Yes, Fox.

Let me say this now: The folks selecting schoolbooks havent always gotten it right. Especially history books, which we all know now were curated for generations as if much of what happened didnt.

Or to sugarcoat the truth enough to rot our insides.

Thats changing, slowly but thankfully. Children are finally being taught a broader truth about our past and seeing today through a broader lens.

That scares some folks. A parent or few. A parent whod rather keep their child in a dark box than allow them to learn whole truths then equip them to navigate it. To discern it. For themselves.

The Periodic Table of Banned Books sign at Springfield Technical Community College's library. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)

Message to them: If you object to a particular book, ask the school that your child not have to read or study it rather than stripping from every other childs educational pathagainst their parents wishes.

Like Shelby County parent Daniel Hill, a one-parent crusade that pulled Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter, written by New York Times best-selling author (and friend, full disclosure) Veronica Chambers, from the curriculum at his daughters middle school.

RELATED: Book bans are a local affair in Alabama schools. That could change.

What about the other students? Do their parents matter?

Whos creating laws to protect their rights? Not anyone in Alabama. Or other states where book banning is growing as accepted as the family bar-be-que.

Besides, more than likely, the kid will likely wonder what you dont want them to know and find the book with their phone.

If theres a speaker you feel your child shouldnt hear, keep them at home rather than demanding the speaking be canceled, stripping their words, thoughts, and ideas from every other childs educational pathagainst their parents wishes.

They do matter.

Parents should have a say in their childrens educationand they do. At home, where children learn from what they see and hear. From their parents.

Which might be the very best reason educating some children should be left to the experts.

More columns by Roy S. Johnson

Questioning parenting after youth violence is real, but does not absolve lawmaker inaction

Why are our Black children shooting our Black children?

Tell me why, Republicans; or do silence and gun deaths speak for you?

I got it wrong; Republicans actually do want us to vote

MLKs Letter from Birmingham Jail is not divisive, should be taught in all schools

Attack on trans influencer by Republican female governors is beneath the office

Im a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary and winner of the Edward R. Murrow prize for podcasts: Unjustifiable, co-hosted with John Archibald. My column appears in AL.com, as well as the Lede. Stay tuned for my upcoming limited series podcast Panther: Blueprint for Black Power, co-hosted with Eunice Elliott. Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter, The Barbershop, here. Reach me at rjohnson@al.com, follow me at twitter.com/roysj, or on Instagram @roysj
A roundup of conversations we're having daily on the site. Subscribe to the Reckon Daily for stories centering marginalized communities and speaking to the under-covered issues of the moment.

Montana bill HB359 will prohibit minors from attending drag shows, defining them as sexually oriented performances.

As of yesterday, the bill passed the conference committee after several rounds of amendments. It will either be signed or vetoed by Gov. Gianforte within the next nine days.

Introduced by Republican Rep. Braxton Mitchell on Jan. 28, HB359 was originally aimed to ban minors from attending drag shows that convey any form of sexualization. Another aspect of the original bill was the prohibition of public events of Drag Story Hour, created in 2015 by queer writer Michelle Tea and Radar, a Bay Area queer literary arts group. During these story hours, drag performers read childrens books to kids as a way to promote literacy and diversity.

Since its many rounds of amendments, the bill now has changed drag shows to sexually oriented shows amongst other additions. Some of the new phrasing explicitly prohibits Drag Story Hour in schools and libraries that receive public funding. It also now has an immediate effective date.

Penalties remain the same since HB359 was introduced, which would fine an owner, operator, manager or employee of a sexually oriented business between $1,000 and $5,000 on the first offense of violating the bill. A second fine would start from $2,500. The third and ongoing offenses would be a fine of $10,000 and, if applicable, the confiscation of business license.

Montanas HB359 harkens back to Texas HB4378, another bill that would prohibit drag performances around minors. Both bills similarly define drag as publicly displaying a gender identity that is different than the performers gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, or other physical markers.

When Texas introduced the bill, a local drag queen called out what she believed the real issue behind the bill might have been: an attack on trans people. In Montana, the case seems true as well.

The definitions contained in the bill leave too much up to personal interpretation, which paves the way for even more discrimination and violence against Montanas trans community, said Julie Yard, a drag queen based in Great Falls, Mont. She shared her frustrations with Reckon about the bill, finding it insulting that conservative politicians were attempting to define and regulate an art form that is outside of their expertise.

The conservative politicians of Montanas 2023 legislative session are robbing children of [experiences] that not only promote child literacy, but also promote appreciation for and acceptance of those who dont look, think, act, or behave like [them], Yard said. By prohibiting [Drag Story Hour], we are sending a clear message to future generations of Montanans that bullying is encouraged, and that we should look down on others who are not like us.

Yard herself has firsthand experience of pushback for doing Drag Story Hour. Last year, she participated in a reading partnered up with Montana Book Co, an LGBTQ-owned bookstore in Helena, Mont. Days leading up to the event, protesters turned to social media to share their outrage. They claimed it was child abuse and inappropriate. Despite the backlash, the Drag Story Hour went on safely.

In anticipation of whether Montanas HB359 will be signed by the governor, Chelsia Rice, one of the co-owners of Montana Book Co told Reckon that the bill violates the First Amendment.

As booksellers, we are ardently opposed to not only book banning, but censorship of any kind, Rice said. We are lovers of theater and performance artistsincluding dragand we would never put our customersespecially youthin situations that are harmful to children.

Onyx Echo, a member of Montana-based drag family The Brick Hausin which Julie Yard is also a part ofbelieves drag is an art form children can value. She says that drag would have been something she would want to watch as a child, because I would have felt a lot less alone.

While Echo agrees that drag can feature adult themes, she claims that they are not inherent in many drag queens performances. We arent dumbwe understand context, and we are capable of presenting drag in ways that are family-friendly when necessary, she said.

I want to be clear that although the bill has some negative implications for the art of drag, it has exponentially worse implications for our trans peers in our community, Echo said. If anyone goes to drag shows or watches RuPauls Drag Race, they have an obligation to show up for the trans community that created the drag scene as we know it today. Queer people are under attack, and its necessary now more than ever to express queer joy when we can in the form of art and in the form of community building.

According to the ACLUs map tracking anti-LGBTQ bills, there have been 471 bills introduced since the start of the year. Montana, however, falls under the category of states that dont have many anti-LGBTQ bills, with only eight proposed bills including HB359.

Since moving to Montana over five years ago, Kat Elam believes people in the state are overwhelmingly wonderful and accepting, apart from a very loud anti-LGBTQ minority. Elam volunteers as Board Secretary at 406 Pride, a queer and trans nonprofit and resource center in Billings, Mont., while working as the Issue Advocacy Organizer at Forward Montana, a grassroots organization helping to empower young Montanans to be political.

Last year, at their previous job, Elam worked with children as an educator at ZooMontana, a local zoo in Billings. As an effort to create more kid-oriented activities, Elam helped organize a Drag Story Hour with the help of 406 Pride. Similar to Julie Yard and Montana Book Cos case, several local churches learned about the event and shared their disapproval.

Jeff Ewelt, director of the zoo, released a statement prior to the event that said: Let me be clearZooMontana prides itself in being inclusive of all living beings [] While personal threats and threats of no longer supporting the Zoo are concerning, we will not let unwarranted fear and hate deter our decision to move forward with this harmless and fun reading event that is held throughout the country. At the end of the day, if your personal agenda does not fit this event, we simply ask that you do not come to the Zoo that day.

An hour before the event, 100 protesters lined up across the street from the zoo, with signs that read GROOM PETS, NOT KIDS, and STOP SEXUALIZING OUR KIDS. ZooMontana, however, was firm in taking a stand with 406 Pride, and proceeded with the event.

Elam, who also helped select childrens books about being kind to each other, believes the legislature is wasting their time with the push of HB359.

They could be doing so much more for Montana right now, they said. Were in a housing crisis. Were having huge price raises for everything. Theres so much more that [the legislature] could be focusing on.

To learn more about how you can support LGBTQ rights in Montana and in general, Kat Elam recommends, [Taking care of] yourselfbecause you are part of the communityis important.

When you can care for yourself, you have more capacity to care for others, and then you can make that ripple effect across communities, said Elam, who believes the biggest thing for community organizing and grassroots organizing is taking care of your community and making a change based on what the community needs.

Because at the end of the day, if the state is going to [pass bills] that are going to hurt people, then we cant rely on the state to take care of us. We have to take care of each other.
Someday, if America is saved, there may be a museum to memorialize the Covid dead. There will be a wing for those killed by the disease who died at home after being refused early treatment. There will be a wing for those who died of the vaccine and another for those who died from the lockdowns. And, surely, one wing will be dedicated to those who died in hospitals due to deadly protocols.

Last week, my article in American Thinker, What Happened in Hospitals During Covid, explored the lethal medical regimen that patients were subjected to in hospitals, often without their informed consent. The article gained a lot of attention, and I was invited on Bannons War Room to discuss it.

.@StellaPaulNY with @nataliegwinters on War Room



Hospitals engaged in systematic medical murder during Covid



Our formally trusted hospitals effectively became bounty hunters for your life https://t.co/Md0p5TUlr5 pic.twitter.com/ntZeizQ4rO  Kristen (@Katlia124) April 26, 2023

As a result, I began hearing from many people about their loved ones tortured passing in hospitals, and my Twitter feed began to resemble a digital graveyard of remembrance for the cherished souls who were lost.

Photo credit: Sheila Sund CC BY 2.0 license

Heres a sample of the agony of the bereaved.

From an American Thinker reader: My husband was one of the victims of the use of Remdesivir, and the rest of the horrible protocol given to him by Kaiser Permanente in California. We were completely isolated from him, denied lifesaving treatment that we know would work, for example, The FLCCC protocol. The entire time he was in the hospital was traumatic.

They MURDERED my mom and sister at the same time. Double funeral. Their 30 pieces of silver wont put out the lake of fire   DebraDreamer (@DebraDreamer24) May 2, 2023

Thousands of Americans are traumatized by the wrongful deaths of their loved ones due to #HospitalDeathProtocols. https://t.co/s2xdVuUYuD  Stella Paul (@StellaPaulNY) May 1, 2023

My husband was murdered by protocol. Remdesivir at 10 days of symptoms, too late and toxic,vented,sedation,paralyzed and isolated. FEMA paid for creamation.   Janet (@Janet52744448) April 30, 2023

Unfortunately, these stories and thousands like them havent shattered the media barricades yet. The bereaved suffer, unheard, alone with their anger and grief. Some of them work with protocol bereavement groups online to advocate for justice and to memorialize the dead. They do the best they can in a world that no longer resembles the America they knew.

Doctors and nurses with strong ethics are also suffering, feeling betrayed by the profession to which they gave their lives. After reading my article, a doctor wrote, It is exactly as the article describes. I lived it with my patients. It was organized homicide. Hospitals were being paid per death, not per life saved. The incentives were backwards and upside down. Once someone was admitted, the family lost contact and the patients were basically tortured to death and given no rights. They were denied an advocate, be it a spouse or hospital worker. They were forced to take drugs like Remdesivir which made tons of money for big (P)harma and Fauci. The nightmare stories are true and worse than what youre seeing in this article. Many of my patients told me theyd rather take their chances and die at home than to be denied their rights and be tortured to death in a hospital. I heard many nightmare stories. Most of this was suppressed by the media.

His description is echoed by the testimony of nurse Gail MacRae:

Its a combination. It's the remdesivir, its isolation of the patients. Its weeks on end with no access to food & water. All of these protocols, fear mongering, the isolation, toxic meds. I walked away feeling like I had participated in medical murder. https://t.co/Czn9lKPdj9 pic.twitter.com/soDyxvLVu8  COVID Humanity Betrayal Memory Project (@CHBMPorg) April 21, 2023

If the hospitals were indeed crime scenes, then we must look for the criminals motive. AAPS (The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons) has found a classic crime motive: money. The federal government paid hospitals lavish bonuses to enforce a specific deadly protocol. Every step of the way, from the patients arrival in the emergency room to the delivery of their corpse in the coroners office, obedient hospitals were slathered with federal money.

In my interview on War Room, Natalie Winter, the wunderkind investigative reporter who hosted the show, asked me to go through each stage of the federal governments bonuses to the hospitals. Here they are, as listed by AAPS:

A free required PCR test in the Emergency Room or upon admission for every patient, with government-paid fee to hospital.

Added bonus payment for each positive COVID-19 diagnosis.

Another bonus for a COVID-19 admission to the hospital.

A 20 percent boost bonus payment from Medicare on the entire hospital bill for use of remdesivir instead of medicines such as Ivermectin.

Another and larger bonus payment to the hospital if a COVID-19 patient is mechanically ventilated.

More money to the hospital if cause of death is listed as COVID-19, even if patient did not die directly of COVID-19.

A COVID-19 diagnosis also provides extra payments to coroners.

I told Natalie about another Covid payout that extended beyond the coroners slab. When my husband died in a locked down nursing home in New York, I received a letter from the government informing me that if I could get a doctor to state that he died of Covid, they would help pay his funeral expenses. I threw the letter in the trash.

Thousands of American families have been shattered by the catastrophic hospital response to Covid. The federal government subsidized a protocol that was deadly, so the result was many more dead. I hope and pray that all the families find justice for their loved ones.

You can reach Stella through twitter @StellaPaulNY
When I was in the Boy Scouts, we used to send new scouts on a snipe hunt during their first campout. It was a search through the woods for a made-up creature that didnt exist. The exercise was a good-natured joke to welcome them to the troop. (Note: Snipes are a real bird, but that doesnt change the joke).

Snipe hunting is also a gag the FBI plays on itself. Only the FBI calls the snipes white supremacist domestic terrorists -- which are apparently harder to find than Boy Scout snipes.

The feds use the white supremacist qualifier to avoid catching any BLM, Antifa, pro-abortion, or LGBTQ terrorists in their dragnet. But parents, and others of a semi-fascist (i.e., MAGA) political persuasion are fair game.

At the request of the National School Boards Association (NSBA), the FBI investigated parents who protested at school board meetings. Surely theres a criminal statute against that. Congress just received the FBIs report on this initiative and it is not confidence inspiring.

The FBI investigated a total of 25 individuals and organizations for the subversive act of exercising their freedom of speech. Six of those cases were referred to the FBI Counterterrorism Division, and one case received a full-scale investigation -- rather like that garage door pull that 15 agents investigated to ensure that a racist knot wasnt used. One of the people investigated was -- gasp -- a gun owner! Apparently, theres a 2nd Amendment exclusion in the FBI oath to defend the Constitution.

The FBIs report to Congress states that they found no credible threat. Let me paraphrase: We left no stone unturned, and verified that parents who have committed no crime, are not criminals. No threatening snipes were found. You can thank us now.

Even though the FBI cant find any actual snipes, it is determined to make it look like it does. Congress has discovered that the FBI has been cooking its domestic terrorism books. Whistleblowers are confirming that bureau leadership has been pressuring agents to reclassify other cases as domestic violent extremism, to support Merrick Garlands domestic terrorism narrative. This book cooking has been necessary because they havent been able to find any actual domestic terrorists -- at least not of the white supremacist variety.

To make the snipe hunt look convincing, the FBI has even made a couple of domestic terrorist arrests. They arrested a handful of mentally deficient fools in Michigan, for almost following an FBI hatched plan to kidnap a governor. They didnt do it, but they talked about it over beers and they were white -- so, domestic terrorism it is.

The bureau also arrested some protesters for almost laying siege to the Capitol, without any guns, and without actually entering the building. But they were people in disagreement with their government -- arrested for sinful thoughts without sinful actions. Another word for that is innocent.

Unfortunately, while the FBI has been on their snipe hunt, theyve been distracted from real threats.

Pro-life organizations have been under assault since the Dobbs decision striking down a constitutional right to abortion. Over 100 crisis pregnancy centers and churches have been attacked -- some even firebombed. But those arent classified as domestic terrorism attacks, because our current leadership doesnt agree with the Dobbs decision. I guess violence to achieve a political end isnt terrorism, if its to ensure a womans right to kill her baby.

Left-wing allies have also gotten into the mass shooting game. A confused transgender person killed six people at a Christian school in Nashville. The assailant even left a manifesto -- which is being kept secret. I wonder why?

A fired bank teller in Louisville walked into his former place of employment, and live-streamed his slaughter of five people. He was a white guy and the press was salivating for an actual instance of one of those white supremacist snipes fulfilling the narrative. But that didnt work out either. He left a manifesto too. Among other reasons, he said he did it to show how easy it is to get guns. He was using leftist logic (also known as cognitive dissonance) to protest gun violence with gun violence. The FBI decided this crime was just a case of workplace violence.

Oddly, neither of these cases were classified as domestic terrorism or investigated by the FBI Counterterrorism Division. Maybe the narrative has something to do with it.

Apart from being blind to non-white supremacist domestic terrorism, the feds have been letting other threats grow as well. The Chinese have been caught operating multiple police stations on American soil. They were using them to spy on us and intimidate Chinese people residing here. Where was the FBI while they were establishing these foreign government operations in our country? Were they too busy infiltrating the Proud Boys to infiltrate actual spy rings?

Weve also recently learned that people on the terrorist watchlist (of the foreign not domestic variety) have been crossing our open borders. Sixteen such people have been caught so far at the southern border. That begs the question: how many werent caught? Is the FBI putting as much attention into looking for them as it did to track down everyone who attended a political rally on January 6?

And while America burns, Merrick Garland is suing the states for protecting children and improving election integrity. Those are his priorities.

Whats it called when a law enforcement agency investigates someone at the request of an ideological adversary, and confirms that no crime was committed? A civil rights violation. Its a violation of the 4th and 14th Amendments (freedom from unreasonable search and equal protection). Its a crime and theres actually a statute against it -- but the statute only authorizes the FBI to investigate such violations. When civil rights violators are the only people authorized to investigate civil rights violations, its a rather glaring flaw in the system, no?

Our system of criminal justice is not supposed to pick a target and then investigate to see if a crime can be found. Thats the way it was done in the good old USSR by the KGB. Theres supposed to be an actual crime first, followed by a search for who did it. Contrary to the opinion of Merrick Garland and Joe Biden, exercising a constitutional right is not a crime.

The FBIs actions go beyond being criminal. They are breaking their promise to us. When the bureau undermines constitutional protections -- rather than defends them -- its a violation of their solemn oath to us. We grant them law enforcement powers in exchange for that oath. Violations of their oath are a breaching of the pact theyve made with us, and a delegitimization of their reason to exist.

Investigations of parents and imaginary insurrectionists is not a situation of no harm, no foul. Its a violation of the law and our trust. The FBI and DoJ have ignored real attacks on our society while they looked for crimes to charge the innocent with. They have become unapologetic political enforcers and can no longer be trusted. The only solution is to reduce the strength of the federal government, and increase the power of the states as a check on federal overreach.

John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He has written for American Thinker, and American Free News Network. He can be reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.

Image: Public Domain
Initially the goal of the Russian military was to strategically take over all of Ukraine by focusing on taking over the capital Kiev, installing a puppet government sympathetic to Russia, and occupying all of Ukraine as needed. Logistic challenges were too many. Poor troop training and planning were primary causes of failure.

More than one Russian soldier was lied to initially by their commanders who said that the soldiers were going on a training mission and not to fight in Ukraine. Overly confident Putin lied and first categorized the war as a special military operation and not a war. On December 23, 2022 about 10 months into the war Putin finally admitted for the first time that it was actually in a war with Ukraine.

Early in the attack towards the capital Kiev there was no access to railroad transport and roads were clogged with Russian vehicles. Fuel, munitions, spare parts, and other materiel were not efficiently distributed to forward combat lines. Supply lines could not keep up with the long combat pushes and logistics vehicles were not properly protected.

One example was a 40-mile-long Russian military convoy which stood still in front of a river with a blown-up bridge for about a month outside of Kiev. It was a sitting duck for guerrilla counterattacks.

YouTube screengrab (cropped)

Another example of acute Russian failure was a strategic airport near Kiev which was an ideal resupply area. Russian paratroopers held on to the airport briefly, but Ukraine easily got it back.

The Russian ground offensive was probably made on the incorrect assumptions on how the Ukrainian military, the Ukrainian people, and the West would react. The Russian surprise 2014 cakewalk into parts of Donetsk or Eastern Ukraine and the easy takeover of Crimea on the Black Sea probably lured Putin into thinking that invading the whole of Ukraine would be a similar easy cakewalk.

Little did the Russians realize that occupation of territory was not enough; controlling the territory once occupied was problematic with a hostile Ukrainian populace. Strategically, the Russians failed to coordinate their land, air, and rocket or missile attacks with too small an invasion force which permitted the west to supply military hardware via Western Ukraine with the railroads and electrical grids still functional.

Russian offensive cyber and electronic warfare failed to blind Ukrainian military command and control or threaten critical infrastructure for prolonged periods. Ukraine was able to blunt the effects of the cyberattacks with defensive help from private companies, Western governments, and other state and non-state actors.

I have been following the war almost on a daily basis since it started and it is sometimes hard to discern what is Russian and Ukrainian believable propaganda and what is not, but I am most shocked by some of the videos of Russian soldiers complaining about the military and how badly they are being treated by their commanders and by the corrupt military bureaucracy. Also, some of the intercepted cellphone calls by soldiers with their wives and acquaintances are hard to believe but probably true in many cases since they were peppered with abundant Russian profanities.

Many if not most of the soldiers are under contractual agreements, many are not being paid, contracts are not terminated as written, and many wives back in Russia are not paid compensation when husbands or offspring are killed or missing in action since their deaths are almost never recorded. Soldiers complain of inadequate military provisions such as no body armor, outdated World War II head helmets, no first aid kits, and most important of all, having to go many days without food and water.

Soldiers, especially the Russian ethnic minorities, complain with a lot of profanity to their wives and others that their commanders abuse them and treat them like cannon fodder. Many soldiers complain that the commanders are incompetent and generally dont care about them or their needs, that if wounded or sick, the medical doctors pay minimal attention and send them back to the front lines, and if they dont attack when commanded, they are imprisoned or even shot by the second line of defense when trying to retreat. Many killed soldiers are not carried back for burial but are left in the field to rot.

Alcoholism is a big problem, and what little money the soldiers may get, the frontline conditions are sometimes so unbearable that they spend the money mostly on alcohol, which is sometimes poisoned by local vendors and causes blindness or even death. There are numerous reports of about a hundred or so soldiers attacking and only a handful surviving the assault.

Since the Russian command communications are not encrypted and there is a top- down military command structure, Russia lost about a dozen generals and many commanders during the war since Ukrainian military intelligence was so good.

The Russian winter offensive of 2023 petered out and many generals were replaced for incompetence. In Eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas where most of the combat has taken place, an unexpected feud erupted between Putin confidant Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group and Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu who is in charge of the Russian generals. Prigozhins relatively successful Wagner mercenaries, who had even recruited jailed criminals to fight, and the incompetent regular Russian forces under the leadership of Shoigu and his generals had a power struggle almost forbidden in the Russian military. Lack of artillery shells, munitions, and soldiers or lack of adequate military support was Prigozhins daring public complaint.

The war of attrition of troops and military hardware has become so dire that there is now talk circulating about the coming Ukrainian counteroffensive. There is talk about switching to a Russian defensive posture instead of an offensive posture by even Russian propagandists.

Without much military action by both sides, the situation in reality is a true trench warfare stalemate. If rumors of a Ukrainian counteroffensive dont pan out or worse yet one fails, then a negotiated settlement may be in the works. Ukraine does not treat its troops like cannon fodder and the morale of the soldiers is much better than the very low morale of the Russian soldiers. However, Ukraine is also burdened with poorly trained soldiers not versed in strategic moves and any major strategic move will probably run into the same problems and mistakes that the Russians had when they initially attacked Ukraine strategically.

Inexperienced soldiers operating a potpourri of newly acquired western military hardware may yield a possible chaotic confused mess. A top-down Ukrainian military command structure inherited from the Russians cant be easily changed overnight so battlefront command communications and coordination may be highly inefficient. Another self-defeating tactic would be to engage the Russians in trench warfare with huge offensive casualties, which Ukraine cant afford. So, trying to bypass all the Russian trenches would seem like a smart thing to do.

Only time will tell whether the Ukrainian strategic counteroffensive, if it comes at all, will show the same degree of incompetence and poor planning that is evident by the Russian offensives for over the past14 months of war.
As the U.S. Central Bank considers the development of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), policymakers must examine the potential negative economic impact and privacy implications that a centralized digital currency would entail. While the Federal Reserve touts CBDCs as a means to improve payment efficiency and better facilitate monetary policy, CBDCs could have a negative impact on financial stability and banking at both the micro and macroeconomic levels.

The first concern facing policymakers is CBDCs' potential to destabilize the traditional banking system. CBDCs could eventually require  and upon establishment of their infrastructure, facilitate  conversion of deposits in commercial banks into the Central Bank's digital currency. By allowing bank members to transfer their funds from commercial banks and private financial institutions directly to the federally controlled central bank, CBDCs would leave these smaller institutions vulnerable to sudden and rapid closure in the event of a bank scare (such as the ones that followed the Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank closures earlier this year). The Federal Reserve of St. Louis stated in a 2013 workshop for economic education that bank failures cause bank runs, and bank runs cause contraction of the money supply, which in turn causes a decline in spending, investing, and GDP. Centralizing digital currency could exponentially exacerbate these problems.

According to an article from the Cato Institute this month, when compared to existing alternatives, CBDCs do not offer any new or unique benefits to Americans. They do, however, pose a threat to financial privacy, financial freedom, and the foundation of our banking system. A literature review from the Federal Reserve in 2021 acknowledged that CBDCs would likely undermine current forms of bank lending and funding. This impact on commercial banks could impede our nation's credit flow and subsequently hinder economic growth.

Apart from its potential for economic disruption, CBDC carries ominous implications for personal freedom and financial privacy. A digital currency issued and managed by the central bank would require the collection and storage of personal financial data, potentially including individuals' spending and transaction history, which could dangerously compromise user privacy. A 2023 article from the Cato Institute recognizes these risks, stating that "a CBDC would be the largest assault to financial privacy since the creation of the bank secrecy act." Additionally, Harvard Business Review cited Congressman Tom Emmer in their report on CBDCs, saying that central banks issuing CBDCs would increase their control over money and gain insights to spending while depriving CBDC users of their privacy.

While CBDCs might decrease payment time and increase financial efficiency, they would compromise our economic stability and individual privacy in the process. These risks far outweigh any potential benefits, especially since the main advantages to CBDC can already be provided by existing digital currency. Proponents of CBDCs claim that they will facilitate faster payment speeds, security of payments, and wider financial inclusion through low-cost and widely accessible payment systems. Current solutions such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) already offer those solutions without compromising user privacy. Government monitoring and federal financial control are the only key differences between existing digital currency and potential CBDCs.

Policymakers are split over the issue. In March 2023, Sen. Ted Cruz introduced legislation to prevent the Fed from creating a CBDC. In February 2023, Rep. Tom Emmer introduced the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act to prevent the Fed from issuing a CBDC that would subsequently centralize financial information and strip individuals of their financial privacy. Individuals who oppose a Central Bankcontrolled currency should contact their elected representatives and request they oppose any CBDCs.

Given the efficiency and capabilities already available to digital banking and digital currencies, CBDCs offer few new benefits. The last thing we need is trumped up reasons to give the federal government more power and insight into our lives and financial affairs.

Parker McCumber is an entrepreneur and business leader who is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Business Administration with emphasis in organizational leadership. Parker is also a contributor for Young Voices specializing in economic policy and international affairs.

Image: Santeri Viinamaki.
Only once over its history in America did the left choose the moral side in an argument: It opposed segregation. It did this, not for a moral reason, although it made a pretense of morality, but because leftists understood that race was Americas Achilles heel. Now, for the same reasonundermining America on racial groundsleftists are arguing for segregated education in medical schools. And as before, theyre pretending to advance this position on moral grounds.

The New England Medical Journal, which is Americas premier medical journal, published a short essay last week in which seven (!) people with letters after their names (M.S.W., M.D. M.S., B.A., etc.) argued that, for the good of leftismer, for the good of racial advancement in America, teaching at medical schools must be broken into include racial affinity group caucuses (RAGCs). It was no surprise to me, a person who grew up in San Francisco, attended UC Berkeley, and raised children in Marin, that all these highly credentialed people are affiliated with the University of California at both Berkeley and San Francisco.

Image by freepik.

It was also predictable that the article has no data. It is simply an avalanche of academic leftist-speak:

racially disparate health outcomes.

dismantle the systems that perpetuate these inequities.

inequitable systems.

racial affinity group caucusing engages participants in critical introspection through the lens of their own racialized experience.

The term caucusing is one that Indigenous scholars believe derives from an Algonquin term meaning a group gathering for wise counsel.

Medical education is Founded on legacies of colonialism and racism, it centered White learners, and it perpetuate[s] structural racism.

The curricula have centered White learners and ignore the differential impact of content on BIPOC learners (Black, Indigenous, or people of color) with personal experiences of racism that are nuanced and have been informed by interactions and observations over their lifetimes.

The following two paragraphs, if leftist buzzwords were sold by the pound, would bankrupt the average buyer:

RAGCs for Black learners provide a setting that centers Black experiences as the norm and celebrates diverse Black perspectives. This environment buffers participants from (often daily) experiences of micro- and macroaggressions, structural inequities, and isolating siloes in predominantly White institutions. RAGCs also allow Black learners to explore their experience of racism and contextualize their understanding of antiracism without the burden of educating or taking care of non-Black colleagues, and without facing the otherwise-common denial, gaslighting (undermining another person by causing them to doubt their own perceptions and experience), and White fragility. RAGCs are conducive to in-depth exploration of internalized racism, and they allow for individual and collective expression of everything from joy to rage without fear of repercussion. RAGCs for people of color similarly provide participants opportunities to build community, deepen their understanding of and healing from racism, and express a full range of emotions. BIPOC affinity groups acknowledge the intersectional and evolving nature of personal, racial, and cultural identities and honor each participants multidimensionality. With this foundation, BIPOC learners are better equipped to interrogate the impact of racism, including how their own communities perpetuate colorism, colonialism, xenophobia, and anti-Black racism.

The essay continues in the same vein for several more paragraphs, but you get the gist.

If this insanity is embraced, well soon have to ask for our doctors by race.

Hello, Im a 60-year-old white female. May I please have an appointment with a white-trained doctor?

Im sorry, maam. This clinic only has black-trained doctors. Youll need to find somewhere else for your care.

Once, leftists argued that separate but equal was an impossible standard to meet when it came to education in the 1950s. In 2023, theyre arguing that separate but equitable is entirely different and, when it comes to medical care in America, its the only way to go. They have effectively nullified Brown v. Board of Education.

I predict that, because of the attack on scientific norms as being white, the RAGCs, if implemented, will endlessly grow in scope and eventually churn out two very different types of doctors, with two very different types of medical outcomes. This cannot end well.

UPDATE: It's been pointed out to me that I wrote this essay so broadly it appears as if the segregation affects every class. That's not the case. These are breakout sessions. But to the extent that they tell the students that "white centered" education is bad, that their learning styles are different, and that they and their future patients are oppressed, this will inevitably color what they take from their training -- and it also inevitably means that the schools that have these programs will apply different standards to them. Still, I've updated the essay for clarity.
--With apologies to Jonathan Swift--

Given the recent cutting-edge advocacy for Gender Affirming Care and Surgery (GACS) for transgenders (sic), including minor children, why not expand this coveted GACS to the pet world, and then to the entire animal kingdom? Starting with pets, this therapy could be expanded to other owned animals (beef cattle, chicken flocks, Budweiser Clydesdales), and then to feral animals in the wild. The main benefit of expanding GACS is the massive new revenue stream to veterinarians, doctors, hospitals, and Big Pharma.

The number of Americans who dote over pets is enormous. Pet-owners spare no expense ensuring that their beloved pets are treated like royalty. The number of species that serve as pets is virtually unlimited, including dogs, cats, birds, fish, snakes, pot-bellied pigs, and horses.

A plethora of random controlled studies could keep academia focused on this topic for decades. Medical and veterinary school deans would dole out vast sums of taxpayer money to support such studies, including but not limited to the following:

1. Measuring the impact of GACS on different pet species. Is GACS more effective in horses, dogs, or fish?

2. Given the connection between mental illness and GACS, what is the effect that there are no participation trophies awarded to the losers in major animal competitions like the Kentucky Derby, The Preakness, and the National Dog Show? Could those animals who consistently fail to succeed in such prestigious events benefit from post-loss GACS? How could such trauma be identified to predict the best candidates for GACS from all the losers? What are the true equity issues and unconscious biases in animal sports?

3. Could squirrels and raccoons be less problematic for suburban homeowners, and rats for urban ones, if male-to-female GACS was maximized for them, presumably reducing toxic masculinity and making them less aggressive?

4. The Intersectionologists would love to study the comparative effects of GACS on white Samoyed Huskies as compared to black Labrador Retrievers. They could further test the results of throwing in a control group of albino black Labs. The possibilities are simply limitless, as is the source of taxpayer funds, in this quest to determine the hierarchy of victimization and mental illness among pets.

5. The salient differences between a properly licensed and trained service animal, be it a dog, miniature horse, or iguana, and a mere "comfort animal" is a key study, as the latter suffer devastating mental illness as they, unlike service animals, are banned from most retail establishments.

Some thorny obstacles must be addressed, including informed consent. Who gives informed consent for the minor child? Parents or guardians? Member of the child's school's teachers' union? Hospital GACS counselors? Who gives informed consent for the pet? Owner? Member of PETA? Operator of the local pound? Executive Board of the Cattleman's Association once this therapy is extended beyond pets? Can the pet him/her/themself be inclusively engaged in informed consent?

Widespread societal acceptance is challenging if the public awakens to how much money the practitioners of this art will be making, or if some still cling to pre-woke notions of natural beauty and existence. This hesitancy could be overcome with the development of a political commissar class to monitor dissent, engage in censorship, suppress opposing views to the official narrative, and staff the government/corporate medical/social and legacy media leviathan, which could work round the clock in surveillance activities to destroy misinformation and any independent thinking that challenges Critical Race or Gender Theory.

Photo credit: Public domain.
In 2021, Californias governor, Gavin Newsom, signed into law a bill mandating that all students take a semester of ethnic studies. At the time, Jews in California asserted that it would become a vehicle for antisemitism, but their concerns went unheeded. Those worried Jews were correct, though: the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) in California recommends that teachers for its 10th-grade ethnic studies class rely on a book that is not only intent on advancing Marxism, but that is also virulently antisemitic.

Santa Ana is within greater Los Angeles. The city has over 310,000 residents, 76% of whom are Hispanic. Only 8.5% of Santa Anas residents are white, so they lack any power to exert white privilege. The SAUSD, with more than 44,000 students, reflects the fact that the Hispanic population trends young, because 93% of the students are Hispanic and only 2.8% are white.

SAUSD is in the grip of leftism, something made obvious through the information it provides about its compliance with Californias ethnic studies requirement. According to its Introduction to Ethnic Studies in SAUSD,

Ethnic Studies is the study of U.S. history through the perspective of people of color, specifically Black, Asian Pacific Islander Americans, Chicano/a/Latinx, and Native Americans. It is a class that delves into the cultures, contributions, resistance, and resilience of these groups that addresses issues of race, ethnicity, and racism. Students will obtain the skills necessary to analyze oppressive structures and systems. Students begin to recognize their power and are encouraged to use voices to challenge and dismantle the many forms of racism that exist today. (Emphasis mine.)

That is Critical Race Theory writ large, and CRT is the racist vehicle through which leftists hope to implement socialism in America. CRTs role in the program appears again on the vision and mission page, where we learn that SAUSDs vision of Ethnic Studies is to empower students to dismantle systemic racism.

Image: Students (edited) by rawpixel.

To understand more about the pure leftism seething underneath the ethnic studies program, follow this link to The Ethnic Studies Six Guiding Pillars For Interdisciplinary Learning: A framework for course creation and implementation. I truly cannot do justice to the turgid language that clogs up this homage to Marxism-through-racial-studies.

But what does this have to do with antisemitism? Everything.

Beginning with Marx himself, a genetically Jewish man whose father converted the whole family when Marx was a child, antisemitic self-loathing permeates his work. This article describes how, in everything he wrote, Marx denigrated Jews and interwove them into his theory about evil Jews exploiting the worlds pure, beleaguered, and downtrodden workers. He updates the medieval blood libels to function in his anti-capitalist universe.

The results of Marxs toxic antisemitism became most obvious in the 20th century: Hitler was a socialist. Thats why his party was called the National Socialist Party. Hitler and his fellow socialists presided over the murder of 6 million Jews. Meanwhile, beginning under Stalin, the Soviet Union rigorously persecuted Jews, depriving them of civil rights, imprisoning them in gulags, and executing them as enemies of the state. And those are just the obvious examples. Marxism is antisemitism.

That the ethnic studies mandate would embrace antisemitism was evident early on. Those California Jews who saw what was coming fought valiantly against the lawand lost.

And that brings us to the curriculum for the SAUSDs 10th grade Ethnic Studies class. On page 17, at the very top, we learn that one of the texts the teachers will use is Michael Manns The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. Aside from the books apparent totalitarian bent, it contains a historically inaccurate and truly toxic statement of the situation in Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinians:

Israel is the main contemporary example of settlor-conquerors. For half a century, Israelis have been cleansing the occupied territories of native Arabs, most murderously in the late 1940s, renewed against in the Jewish land-grabbing of the past few years.

Everything in that paragraph is wrong, as well as being evil. It is a complete whitewash of the greatest and very cruel colonizing force on earth: Islam.

Jews have lived in the Holy Land continuously for over 3,000 years. No matter who conquered the land, Jews have been there.

Thanks to Mohameds pique that the Jews refused to recognize his new religion (a brutal pastiche of the Bible and his own desires), Muslims have been hostile to the Jews since the 7th century A.D. But significantly, despite building the al-Aqsa mosque to announce their conquest of Jerusalem, those Muslims who arrived millennia after the Jews avoided the land that is now Israel. It was a swampy, malarial wasteland. It was only when the Jews made it fruitful that the Arabs wanted it back.

Moreover, Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, are an integral part of Israel, where they enjoy full civil rights. It is the Muslims who have made their towns, territories, and nations Judenrein (Jew-free).

And in terms of taking, the Jews returned the entire Gaza Strip to the Arabs, who promptly used it as a terrorist launch pad. But most significantly, there is no ethnic cleansing when the Arab population in and near Israel is growing by leaps and bounds.

The SAUSD is teaching its students Marxism and, as an inevitable part of that socialist swing, theyre bringing foul antisemitism into the classroom.
According to the May 2 New York Times, on the last day of her testimony in her civil suit against Donald J. Trump alleging rape, E. Jean Carroll insisted that she was fired as advice columnist for Elle because President Trump called her a liar, not because she gave an excerpt of her book to rival New York magazine. This question immediately came to mind: would a New York Citybased editor dismiss a columnist because Trump called her a liar?

That question was answered by this follow-up question: in media circles, isn't criticism from Pres. Trump considered a badge of honor?

A Google search did not result in many Elle articles on Trump. But there was this one: "Are You Going to Cast a Spell on Trump?" Here are the opening paragraphs in this Elle article, February 23, 2017  only one month after Trump took office:

Those who don't like Donald Trump and the current Republican administration are mobilizing in all sorts of ways. They're speaking up in town halls and calling their representatives. They're organizing protests and demonstrations. And, for the magically-inclined, they're casting spells. Starting at midnight on Friday, witches around the country are calling for a mass spell to be cast on Donald Trump every night of a waning crescent moon until he's driven from office.

While the Times account did not identify the book title that Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina suggested was the cause of Carroll's firing by Elle, the New York magazine issue featuring Carroll on the cover opened with these paragraphs on Carroll:

The cover story New York published today details an encounter the writer E. Jean Carroll had over two decades ago with Donald J. Trump, in which the thenreal-estate mogul allegedly assaulted her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in midtown Manhattan. "The episode is one of six incidents Carroll details in the article of attacks on her by men over the course of her life. Another episode involves the disgraced former CEO of CBS, Les Moonves. The cover story is an excerpt from her newest book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, which will be published on July 2 by St. Martin's Press.

The review of What Do We Need Men For? in the Washington Post indicated that it was, to a considerable extent, "man-bashing." Note that Carroll's man-bashing tome alleges "details" of "six incidents" with men.

Note, too, this "excerpt" from the Vox review:

In the new book, Carroll posits that men are at the root of all of the problems she has been called on to solve for women in her role as Elle's long-standing advice columnist, and as an illustration of sorts of the problem of men, she offers readers a running tally of what she calls "The Most Hideous Men of My Life List."

Are lawsuits against five other men, denounced by former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll as "hideous," to follow?

Image: St. Martin's Press.
Democrat Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro has said he would not sign any execution warrants while he is governor. He even called for the Pennsylvania Legislature to abolish the death penalty. Never say never, Governor. There are exceptions to every rule. In this case, some people deserve the death penalty.



Shapiro announcing his no-execution policy (YouTube screen grab).

The responsibility of the government to determine who lives and who dies in capital crimes should never be taken lightly. Innocent people have been imprisoned and, perhaps, executed. However, the justice system in the United States, although it can move slowly, has lots of checks and balances, and that allows for plenty of time for innocent people to win their innocence.

There are people on death row who deserve to be there  men and women with records showing they are unrepentant criminals who committed an act heinous enough that multiple courts and juries have decided that these people do not deserve to live.

In Pennsylvania, Shapiro has now given more than 100 prisoners on death row, some of whom murdered police officers and children, something their victims they didn't have: hope.

In Pennsylvania, the law requires the governor to sign an execution warrant before an inmate can be put to death, and Shapiro said he would not be doing that during his time in office. He said he believes that it is immoral.

This is contradictory on a couple of levels. As a prosecutor and attorney general, he supported the death penalty. "For more than a decade, including when I assumed office as Attorney General, I believed that the death penalty should be reserved for the most heinous crimes  but that it was, indeed, a just punishment for those crimes," he said.

He went on to say that his position evolved. He tried to tie the evolution to his question of what is moral or not, but it also happened to coincide with his goal to become a Democrat governor. A prodeath penalty candidate would not have been on the Democrat ticket.

He told anecdotes to support his position, ignoring the fact that for every person who didn't want to see the murderer of a loved one executed, there was another person who did. He touted the exceptions while promising actions on his part that would ignore exceptions.

Republican Pennsylvania state rep. Aaron Bernstine told the Daily Caller News Foundation, "I strongly believe that capital punishment should be an option for prosecutors reserved for the most violent offenders, particularly those who have committed crimes against children." This was a position Shapiro himself had until he decided to run for governor.

What Shapiro should be saying is that he will review each case on its own merits. Perhaps he will find a reason to believe that there is a slight possibility that someone wasn't guilty. He can even honor the wishes of the victims who don't want to see the murderer of their loved ones executed. However, in the cases of unrepentant criminals or where the family of the victims have no problem with the execution, allow the will of the state to be carried out.

In giving a flat-out "no," Shapiro is saying that some victims matter more than others and convicted killers matter more than the victims.

Never say never, Governor. It doesn't work out well for you.

Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.
The vicious illegal alien who gunned down five people at a home in Texas has been finally caught after four days on the lam.

According to FOX4 KDFW of Dallas-Fort Worth:

CLEVELAND, Texas  Authorities have confirmed the suspect they believe was behind the mass shooting of five people in San Jacinto County is now behind bars. "He is behind bars, and he will live his life behind bars," San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said during a news conference on Tuesday night. Officials said the suspect, Francisco Oropesa was found hiding in a closet underneath some laundry in the Cut and Shoot, Texas, a city located in Montgomery County. FBI ASAC Jimmy Paul said a tip was received on the FBI Tipline around 5:15 p.m. and he was arrested by 6:30 p.m. by authorities with the U.S. Marshals Office, Texas DPS, and BORTAC. BORTAC agents are the special operations group of the Border Patrol.

Based on reporting from The Daily Caller, and photos of the arrest seen on Twitter, the heavy lifting in this arrest was done by BORTAC, the Border Patrol's special tactical unit.

BREAKING: Elite Border Patrol BORTAC agents have captured the Mexican national accused of murdering five of his neighbors in TX. Sources tell FOXs @GriffJenkins that previously deported illegal immigrant Francisco Oropesa is now in custody. https://t.co/khXDGGD9lw  Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 3, 2023

BREAKING NEWS



This is footage from the arrest of Fransisco Oropesa. We've learned he was arrested by BORTAC agents, they are the special operations group of the Border Patrol. pic.twitter.com/jGOKoqBxhT  FOX26Houston (@FOX26Houston) May 3, 2023

CBP has confirmed our reporting, saying Tonight, agents from the Border Patrols elite BORTAC unit apprehended the suspect without incident.



 https://t.co/FLRLO1lBKd  Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) May 3, 2023

The Daily Caller's Jennie Taer reported:

The elite tactical Border Patrol unit nabbed a man believed to be responsible for the killing of five people in Cleveland, Texas, a Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) agent confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation late Tuesday. San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said authorities arrested a man believed to be Francisco Oropesa, 38, in Cut and Shoot, Texas, according to NBC. Oropesa, who is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, allegedly conducted an "execution style" killing of his neighbors, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 8; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31 and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18, on Friday. (RELATED: New GOP Border Security Bill Would Bar Migrants From Using Arrest Warrants As IDs At Airports) "The U.S. Border Patrol was requested for assistance in the manhunt for the killer responsible for the senseless murders in Cleveland, TX. Members from the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) deployed to Cleveland, TX and quickly employed tactics learned from lessons learned from the recent manhunts in Pennsylvania and New York. Working with information provided by intelligence sources, the killer was surrounded and taken into custody without incident," the BORTAC agent, who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly, told the DCNF.

The response was quick:

That is a crazy fast turn around. FBI gets the tip and BP apprehends him an hour and fifteen minutes. Remarkable https://t.co/ANccsazqWg  ThunderB (@Pimpernell13) May 3, 2023

So that's two incidents in less than a year where the Border Patrol has stepped forward and stopped a dangerous mass shooter.

The other incident, recall, was when Border Patrol officers defied the incompetent police chain of command in Uvalde, Texas and charged ahead to capture the mass shooter who was gunning down children and teachers in their classrooms.

Taer reported on that, too:

Agents from the BORTAC rushed into Robb Elementary School classrooms on May 24, where 18-year-old Salvador Ramos had opened fire and killed 19 children and two teachers, according to multiple reports. After Ramos began shooting, the agents ran in when local law enforcement waited to go into the classrooms for about an hour. BORTAC agents were first held back by local authorities for around 30 minutes before getting frustrated and storming in on their own volition, with Pete Arredondo, the Chief of Police in the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, reportedly instructing his officers to await backup and additional equipment before entering the school.

That's two. That's a pattern. It makes a case for expanding this police agency, given the proliferation of mass shootings and illegal aliens who are violent. They are effective, while other agencies stand around.

And what can we say about the Border Patrol, other than that it is America's least woke police agency, the only one whose leaders have actually stood up to the Biden administration when they claimed the border was under control?

Remember this from last month?

At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing held in McAllen, Texas, BorderPatrol Chief Raul Ortiz contradicted claims by the White House and his direct boss, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, that we have operational control of our southern border. In response to a question posed by Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.), "Does DHS have operational control of our entire border?" Ortiz replied, "No sir."

The agency can't be anything but un-woke, given that the Biden administration opposes the Border Patrol's actual mission to protect the U.S. border.

The Bidenites have downgraded the agency from critical border enforcement agency to a migrant-intake processing agency, which is not border control, and it has demonized Border Patrol agents as racists for attempting to perform their mission, based on that disgusting incident where they presumed that long reins used by agents patrolling badlands on horseback were "whips" for migrants, which was nothing of the sort, and penalized the agents who were involved in the incident, as well as ended horseback patrols, forcing Border Patrol agents to operate in far more difficult snake-infested conditions without their horses. Meanwhile, at least one Border Patrol agent died trying to rescue illegals on a treacherous stretch of the Rio Grande, including a drug-dealer, who ignored warning signs about crossing the dangerous river, in order to illegally enter the U.S.

We have yet to hear thanks from the Biden administration on that selfless heroism, let alone get an apology from them for their phony and appallingly false bid to paint Border Patrol agents as racist.

Now we are learning that the Border Patrol is our most effective police agency in apprehending dangerous mass shooters, who are well represented, as the leftists say, in the illegal-alien-American community.

Oropesa was at large, law enforcement said they had no idea where he was, and there's no question he was an extreme danger to the community.

While other law enforcement agencies are trying to claim credit for the collar, and to be fair, they also had roles in this apprehension, the most dangerous and risky part of the operation was achieved by the Border Patrol and now it's becoming a noticeable pattern.

What does that say about the effectiveness of police agencies in this age of wokesterly capitulations? Less woke, more effective. Maybe that will signal to the public that it's time to scrap woke.

Image: Twitter video screen shot from Fox26 Houston.
We hear of a war with China down the road. I don't know for sure if that will happen, but I do know that we are not recruiting enough volunteers. This is from Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, U.S. Army (ret.), and Dr. Nora Bensahel, who are visiting professors of strategic studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and senior fellows at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies:

How bad is the recruiting crisis? During the last fiscal year, the Army missed its recruiting goal by 15,000 active-duty soldiers, or 25 percent of its target. This shortfall forced the Army to cut its planned active-duty end strength from 476,000 to 466,000. And the current fiscal year is likely to be even worse. Army officials project that active end strength could shrink by as much as 20,000 soldiers by September, down to 445,000. ... The other services barely met their active-duty recruiting goals last year, but it will be harder for them to do so in 2023. They all accelerated their delayed entry applicants at the end of the last fiscal year, leaving them with a far shallower pool to draw from this year. The Marine Corps may be able to compensate for this problem because its outstanding retention rates last year enabled it to lower its recruiting goal. It may be able to do so again this year. But the Navy and the Air Force face greater recruiting headwinds. Both started with deeper holes in their pool of delayed entry applicants, offered extensive financial bonuses, and took a wide range of other one-time measures  such as the Navy increasing the maximum enlistment age from 39 to 41.

Why fewer volunteers? I don't have a simple answer. I remember when our son volunteered in 2010. He was motivated by service or patriotism. He really wanted to wear the uniform and be a part of something noble like the U.S. Armed Forces. I remember visiting him at the base and found the same feelings among the other young people there.

So how much does the woke factor play into this decline in recruiting? Again, it's hard to tell, but all of this woke stuff can't play well in homes where dad and grandfather served in the past. Imagine Grandpa calling to inquire about the first week of training and hearing that they are mastering pronouns!

The aforementioned article does point out that there is less confidence in the U.S. military. Wonder why?

So what happens now, especially if a war is around the corner? That's the big question that no one really has an answer for. I do remember something called the draft and young men getting notices about showing up next Saturday at the military office. Didn't we fight Vietnam and Korea that way?

Do we need a draft to fight the next war? We may, if volunteers don't volunteer. Wonder if Chinese generals are taking that into consideration when drawing up plans to invade Taiwan?

In the meantime, where the boys are is not lining up to serve.

PS: Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos.

Image: Public Domain.
A man can lose a life in the most silliest of mishaps, like tripping over his own foot and breaking his neck. Yet, some people have an uncanny ability to cheat death. John Smith was one of them.

John Smith was born in 1661 in Malton, New Yorkshire, England. His father was a farmer, but John apprenticed under a packer in London, with whom he served out his time. Later, he became a journeyman. He then went on to serve the navy, first in a merchantman, then in a man-of-war, and was at the famous expedition against Vigo. But on the return from that expedition he was discharged. Soon after that, he enlisted as a soldier, where he acquainted with bad associates and started his career as a housebreaker.

John Smith being cut down from the gallows. Image credit: Wellcome Collection/Wikimedia

In 1705, Smith was accused of four indictments, on two of which he was convicted, and received sentence of death. Smith showed little concern over his sentence, believing his friends would somehow able to save him. Unfortunately, an order came for his execution. The date chosen was 24th December, Christmas Eve.

On the appointed date, Smith was taken to the Tyburn gallows and hanged. As he dangled at the end of the rope, some of his friends present at the hanging tugged at his legs to shorten his suffering, while others held them up for the mere possibility that Smith would not die. After hanging for 15 minutes, the crowd began to demand that Smith be cut down. The reprieve was granted and Smith was taken to a house nearby where a combination of bleeding and other traditional treatment brought him back to his senses.

When he had recovered his senses, he was asked what were his feelings at the time of execution, to which he replied:

I remember a great pain caused by the weight of my body. My spirits were in a great uproar, pushing upwards; when they got into my head I saw a great blaze of glaring light that seemed to go out of my head in a flash. Then the pain went. When I was cut down I got such pins-and-needles pains in my head that I could have hanged the people who set me free.

This incident earned him the name half-hanged Smith.

Related: Joseph Samuel: The Man Who Couldnt be Hanged

Smith was granted freedom a few weeks later, but he returned to his old ways upon release and was caught again for housebreaking. The jury encountered some complication during the trial and deferred the verdict to the twelve judges, who ultimately ruled in Smith's favor, resulting in his release. Despite this second lucky break, Smith was indicted for the third time, and it seemed inevitable that he would be sentenced to execution. However, before the trial began, the prosecutor passed away, and Smith was granted freedom once again.

More than twenty years later, in 1727, Smith, now a 66-year-old man was found picking a padlock to a warehouse. Although it was evident that Smith had intended to burgle the warehouse, he was only convicted of theft of the padlock and subsequently sentenced to transportation to Virginia. Smith made an appeal to Sir John Eyles Knight, the Lord Mayor, requesting physical punishment instead of transportation. Despite his physical disabilities and being a father of two children, the court showed no mercy and upheld his initial sentence, and Smith was transported to Virginia aboard the Susannah.

That was the last anybody heard of the half-hanged Smith.
The Galaxy S23 FE may be coming after all, and coming with an upgraded camera. Rumors are that Samsung will equip the new Fan Edition (FE) device with a 50MP primary shooter at the back. The Galaxy S21 FE, which is the last model in the lineup, has a 12MP primary camera.

There have been many conflicting rumors about the Galaxy S23 FE in recent months. The conflict was about the very existence of the phone. Some said Samsung will launch a new FE model this year, while others said the device doesnt exist in the companys plans. The Galaxy S22 FE ended up being canceled last year amid similar conflicting rumors.

However, it appears Samsung doesnt plan to shelve the FE project altogether. The Galaxy S23 FE is seemingly happening. We heard last month that the company will ship the device with an old chipset to make it affordable. The handset is said to be powered by the Exynos 2200, the same chipset that shipped inside the Galaxy S22 series in some markets last year.

Last months report also mentioned that the Galaxy S23 FE will feature a 50MP primary rear camera. While it didnt go into details about the sensor, our assumption has turned out to be accurate. At least according to GalaxyClub.

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The Dutch publication has heard from a reliable source that Samsung will equip the Galaxy S23 FE with the same 50MP camera found on the back of the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+. It used this camera on the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ as well.

Unfortunately, we still dont have details about the rest of the camera setup of the Galaxy S23 FE. Its unclear whether Samsung will upgrade the selfie shooter as well.

The Galaxy S21 FE has a 32MP unit, while the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S23 feature 12MP and 10MP sensors, respectively. If Samsung does plan to release this phone later this year, more leaks and rumors should be on the way.

The Galaxy S23 FE may arrive late in 2023

Samsung is said to be planning to launch its new foldables earlier than usual this year. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 could arrive in late July instead of the usual August timeline. On the contrary, the company may push the Galaxy S23 FE to a late 2023 launch. In fact, according to the new report, Samsung could even delay the new FE phone until 2024. We will let you know as soon as we have more information.
Google is reportedly considering switching to TSMC for manufacturing its next-gen Tensor processor, the Tensor G4. However, the latters high prices may force it to stick with Samsung, which manufactured the first three generations of Tensor chips. The Pixel maker appears undecided at the moment.

Google started using custom Tesor processors in its Pixel smartphones in 2021. The Pixel 6 series was the first to feature a custom chipset. Last years Pixel 7 series used the second-gen Tensor G2, while the upcoming Pixel 8 series is all set to ship with the third-gen Tensor G3. The company also uses Tensor chips in mid-range Pixel phones.

All three Tensor processors, including the upcoming Tensor G3, are manufactured by Samsung. The Korean firm also helped Google in development (more on that later). However, Google now plans to switch to TSMC for manufacturing its future Tensor chips, starting with next years Tensor G4. The idea is to use TSMCs 4nm process node for Tensor G4 and 3nm node for Tensor G5 in 2025.

By the looks of it, Google wants to move away from Samsung because of the latters recent troubles with yield rates and power efficiency. TSMC has been doing a better job than the Korean giant in these areas. Its no wonder the Taiwanese firm captures almost 60 percent of the semiconductor foundry market, while Samsung comes a distant second with just about a 15 percent share of the market.

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However, better things usually cost more, and thats true in this case too. TSMCs prices are reportedly too high compared to Samsungs. As such, Google isnt entirely sure whether to make the switch or stick with the Korean firm. Increased manufacturing cost of Tensor chips would hit its profit margin, or make Pixel phones more expensive. Samsung has also significantly improved its chip fabrication nodes in recent months. So that may also be tempting Google to stay. Time will tell what it decides.

Google may design Tensor G4 on its own, moving on from Samsungs Exynos chips

While Google may be undecided about whether to have the Tensor G4 manufactured by Samsung or TSMC, it plans to design the new chip on its own. The company currently uses Samsungs Exynos chips as the base for its custom processors. The unreleased Exynos 2300 reportedly serves as the base for the Tensor G3. Likewise, the first-gen Tensor chip was a modified version of the Exynos 2100, while last years Tensor G2 used the Exynos 2200 as its base.

However, Google no longer wants to rely on Samsung chips for its custom processors. Starting with the Tensor G4 next year, it will reportedly design chips on its own. It remains to be seen if Google completely cuts ties with Samsungs semiconductor division next year or if TSMCs prices are too high for it to switch from Samsung Foundry. We may get a confirmation in the coming months.
Samsung is rolling out a new update for the Galaxy A23 5G in the US. The device is picking up the April 2023 Android security patch. The new SMR (Security Maintenance Release) is also available for the 4G version of the phone in some markets.

The latest update for the Galaxy A23 5G in the US is currently limited to carrier-locked variants. Rolling out with the firmware build number A236USQS2CWD8, it brings nothing more than last months security patch. This isnt surprising considering that the mid-range device recently picked up One UI 5.1 with tons of goodies.

Samsung should soon expand the latest release to factory-unlocked units as well. The new update may also reach more markets over the next few weeks. Outside the US, the Galaxy A23 5G was launched in Europe. The device has already received One UI 5.1 there as well.

The 4G-only Galaxy A23, on the other hand, didnt arrive in the US but was sold in most global markets. It has also picked up One UI 5.1 widely. However, users in Latin America have been waiting for the new One UI version all this while. They are finally getting it. The big update comes with the firmware build number A235MUBU2CWD1 and brings the April SMR too. The latest security patch isnt available for this phone elsewhere.

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Since the Galaxy A23 and Galaxy A23 5G are only eligible for quarterly security updates, Samsung may not push the latest release to these phones everywhere. It may skip the April SMR in some markets and push May or June releases. As usual, you can always check for updates manually. Go to the Settings app, tap on Software update, and then on Download and install. If an update is available, you will be prompted to download it. If not, check back at a later date.

Galaxy M23 5G is also getting the April update

Along with the Galaxy A23 duo, Samsung is also pushing the April SMR to the Galaxy M23 5G. This phone didnt arrive in the US but the company sold it pretty much everywhere else. The latest update for the device bears the firmware build number M236BXXU3CWD1 in Europe (via). It appears the update brings more than just some vulnerability fixes but the official changelog doesnt mention anything. The device has already picked up One UI 5.1 widely. The new security release for the Galaxy M23 5G hasnt reached other markets yet.
Samsung could be getting closer to launching a triple-folding smartphone or tablet. There have been numerous rumors about the company working on a tri-fold device, with some suggesting a 2023 launch for the first-gen model. A newly-published patent application from the Korean behemoth shows what the device could look like.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently published a patent application from Samsung for a tri-fold smartphone design. It shows a device with two hinges that fold the screen from two separate places, forming a zig-zag shape with three equal-sized parts. When fully unfolded, you get a tablet-sized display. But folding it gives you a compact device only as big as a regular smartphone.

According to the Korean publication The Guru, Samsung filed this patent application with the USPTO in December last year. Titled How to use a display according to its folded state and an electronic device using it, the accompanying documents describe the technical tidbits of this futuristic mobile device. Sensors embedded in the hinge and the display reportedly allow the device to detect the current folding state and adjust content on the screen accordingly.

For example, if the device is completely folded, only one part of the screen would be in use. In that case, the user interface will take the form of a regular smartphone with a tall aspect ratio. As you unfold the other two parts of the screen, the UI will smoothly transition into a tablet-like aspect ratio. Samsungs existing dual-folding smartphones work similarly too. They allow seamless switching from the cover display to the making folding display.

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Samsung may launch the worlds first triple-folding smartphone

It wouldnt be wrong to say that Samsung single-handedly created a market for foldable smartphones. It is the only company that has been consistently releasing new folding models for the past few years, and selling them globally. Several other firms have recently entered this niche as the market size grows. Google is also gearing up to launch its first-ever foldable device.

Samsung, on the other hand, is seemingly looking to take the foldable tech to a new level. It could be on its way to launching the worlds first triple-folding smartphone. The company has patented several designs for such a device in recent years. The latest patent application now goes into explaining its functioning as well. This suggests Samsung has made significant progress in its pursuit of this device. Stay tuned for more information about a triple-folding Galaxy smartphone.
Schools who bought a whole slew of Chromebooks during the Covid-19 pandemic are now complaining about their short lifespan and reparability issues, The Verge reports.

The Covid-19 pandemic that occurred in 2020 resulted in massive lockdowns and school shutdowns. Many schools in the county went for online teaching, and as a result, the sales of cheap laptops and Chromebooks soared. Three years on, the schools have ended up with so many broken devices that are not repairable.

According to the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, reparability is the biggest issue of Chromebooks. This is because finding spare parts like screens, hinges, and keyboards is hard. School use also makes these devices more likely to break or get damaged.

The PIRG argues that increasing the lifespan of 31.8 million Chromebooks sold in 2020 could reduce the e-waste and  result in $1.8 billion in savings for taxpayers. Additionally, it can cut 4.6 million tons of CO2e.

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Chromebooks that Schools bought during the Covid-19 pandemic are starting to break and are not repairable

Besides the unavailability, the high spare parts costs for Chromebooks are also a problem. For example, over a third of keyboards listed for Acer Chromebooks cost $89.99 or more, which is a high price for a $200 device. PIRG reports that some IT departments are buying new Chromebooks to use their components to fix broken ones.

These high costs may make schools reconsider Chromebooks as a cost-saving strategy, PIRG added.

In response to the news, Acer told The Verge that schools who bought their Chromebooks from the company had received spare parts directly from the Premier Support Team. The company also said a keyboard obtained in that way would cost under $25.

Acer supports our in-warranty customers with spare parts for a minimum of 4 years for our education accounts. Our spare parts availability was 95% within 24 hours of the order being placed, Acer spokesperson said.

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Moreover, schools are also complaining about the Chromebooks auto-update expiration. While Google promised eight years of automatic updates, PIRG argues that Chromebooks expiration could be four to five years away by the time schools get their hands on them.
It seems like Xiaomi is preparing to launch 3 new Xiaomi 13 Ultra color options, which means that the device will be available in 6 colors overall. Do note that were still talking about the Chinese version of the phone, though.

The Xiaomi 13 Ultra may get 3 new color options, thus be available in 6 colors overall

The Xiaomi 13 Ultra launched in China last month, and it arrived in three color options. It launched in Black, Olive Green, and White. The phone will launch globally, but we still dont know the exact launch date.

Having said that, based on the actions of the companys CEO and founder, Lei Jun, and the companys president, Lu Weibing, new colors could be on the way for the Xiaomi 13 series. Both of them were inquiring about what colors are users interested in.

Thats not all, though. Three new color-matched wallpapers have been extracted from the Xiaomi 13 Ultra firmware. That usually indicates the colors of the phone itself, as Xiaomi loves to color match, as do some other companies.

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The colors that have been spotted are Chixia Orange, Ginkgo Yellow, and Starry Sky Blue. Lei Jun even talked about color matching on Weibo, allegedly, so that could be yet another indication.

Those colors wont be available everywhere, though

We do wonder what colors will be available globally, though. No, the global markets almost certainly wont get all those colors. In the initial global Xiaomi 13 Ultra materials that the company released, only the Black and Olive Green colors were mentioned. The White one was not.

Its easily possible Xiaomi plans to launch only those colors, but the company may yet change its mind. Some people simply love white phones, so it may be a mistake not to make that one available too.

Were eagerly awaiting for the company to confirm the global launch date. While we wait for that, do note that weve already reviewed the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, albeit with a software build made for China.
China, Myanmar vow to deepen cooperation in various fields

Xinhua) 11:15, May 03, 2023

NAY PYI TAW, May 3 (Xinhua) -- China and Myanmar have agreed to deepen cooperation in various fields so as to promote the continuous development of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

At a meeting with Union Minister for Foreign Affairs Than Swe here on Tuesday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said viewing its good-neighborly relations with Myanmar from a strategic perspective, China is willing to work with Myanmar to implement the important achievements during the Chinese leader's visit to Myanmar.

China respects Myanmar's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and firmly supports Myanmar in maintaining independence and political stability and achieving sustainable development, said the Chinese foreign minister.

China also supports Myanmar in exploring a development path with Myanmar characteristics that suits its national conditions and steadily advancing its political transition process, he said.

Qin said China is willing to strengthen communication with ministries and localities of Myanmar, and expand cooperation in agriculture, border trade and other fields, while strengthening support for Myanmar's economic development by focusing on the construction of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor.

In addition, the Chinese side will implement its aid projects in Myanmar to support the Myanmar side in improving people's livelihood, and both sides should enhance people-to-people exchanges and deepen cultural heritage protection and religious exchanges, he said.

China is also willing to work with Myanmar and Bangladesh to promote the construction of the China-Myanmar-Bangladesh economic corridor, he added.

For his part, Than Swe said Myanmar firmly adheres to the one-China policy, supports China's Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, and strongly supports China on issues concerning its core interests.

Myanmar is looking forward to working with China to deepen cooperation in such areas as agriculture, transportation, energy and connectivity, actively push forward landmark projects of the Myanmar-China Economic Corridor and implement more livelihood projects to benefit the two peoples, he said.

Myanmar is ready to work with China to safeguard security and stability in the border areas, and to promote the China-Myanmar-Bangladesh economic corridor with China and Bangladesh, he added.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 3 - Emilia Romagna Governor Stefano Bonaccini said Wednesday that he will ask central government to declare a state of emergency in the northeastern region after it was hit by a wave of extreme weather that has claimed at least two lives.

"We are already at work to request the declaration of a national state of emergency," said Bonaccini,, adding that he had spoken to Premier Giorgia Meloni about the situation.

"We will do whatever it takes to guarantee assistance and support to the people affected, for the damage and consequences of the bad weather that has hit our region.

"We have witnessed a wave of bad weather that has no historical precedent in terms of the rain that has fallen uninterruptedly in 48 hours".

A man in his 80s drowned on Wednesday after being swept away by flood waters while riding his bicycle in Castel Bolognese, in the province of Ravenna, sources said on Wednesday.

The man is thought to have been riding on a road that was closed off to traffic due to the risk of flooding, the sources said.

Firefighters said Wednesday that a dead body had been found in the rubble of a house that collapsed in Fontanelice, near Bologna, due to the extreme weather, while another person is said to be missing.

"We are particularly concerned about the (Bologna) metropolitan area," said Bologna Mayor Matteo Lepore.

"The amount of rain that has fallen is very high, we have to be very careful"..

Over 250 people had to be evacuated from their homes in the region overnight due to the floods.

The Army has been called in to help firefighters, who conducted 400 interventions in the region overnight, and the civil-protection department in the operations.

The evacuations regarded the province of Ravenna, with around 100 people affected in the Faenza area, another 100 around Biancanigo di Castel Bolognese and some 60 people residing in Conselice.

Premier Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday expressed solidarity with the people affected by the wave of extreme weather In a statement, Meloni said she was following the situation and was in "constant contact with the authorities" saying she had called Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci, Emilia Romagna Governor Stefano Bonaccini and Civil Protection Department Chief Fabrizio Curcio.

The torrential rain caused some rivers to reach dangerous levels and rail operator FS had to suspend several services - between Faenza and Forli, Russi and Lugo, Russi and Granarolo, and Lavezzola and Mezzano.

Many roads were closed too in the provinces of Bologna and Ravenna due to flooding and landslides caused by the rain, leading to major traffic jams.

Experts said intense bouts of rainfall like this one will do little to alleviate the water shortage that northern Italy is experiencing after a prolonged period of low precipitation levels.

Scientists say that extreme weather events like heat waves, supercharged storms, flooding and droughts are becoming more frequent and more intense because of climate change caused by human greenhouse-gas emissions. (ANSA).


Scientists are on the hunt for super memorisers to take part in a new study about people with exceptional memories.

Academics from the University of Cambridge are trying to uncover why some people are much better at remembering than others.

Anyone who believes they have an exceptional memory is being urged to take an online survey and memory test.

Based on their performance, some will be invited to Cambridge to have a brain scan so researchers can examine the images in detail to assess whether there are any differences in structure or function.

Memory is one of the best understood psychological processes in terms of brain networks and yet we still dont really know why some people have exceptional memories. Thats why were inviting people to take part in our study, said Professor Jon Simons from the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge.

The researchers are also aiming to discover whether people who are autistic or neurodiverse are more likely to have an exceptional memory.

The team have previously worked with writer Daniel Tammet, who is autistic and has synaesthesia and can recall the number pi to 22,514 digits.

Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University and lead investigator of the study, said: You dont need to have won any competitions to take part or to consider yourself neurodiverse  and you certainly dont need to be able to recite pi to 22,000 digits.

Were looking for anyone who thinks they might be a super memoriser to try out our memory tests.

Dr Carrie Allison, also from the Autism Research Centre, added: We hope that people will enjoy taking part in this study and in the process contribute to helping us understand more about memory and whether exceptional memory is related to autism.

For decades, autism research has focused on disability, but this study is a wonderful opportunity to focus on strengths.

 People aged 16 to 60 who wish to take part in the online memory tests  such as memorising a phone number or patterns on a chess board  can visit: https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eFYFJCUtGpbc3RA
Updated 3 May 2023 at 3:46 am

Actor Stephen Tompkinson is due to go on trial accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The 57-year-old, best known for playing the title role in TV crime drama DCI Banks, will appear at Newcastle Crown Court on Wednesday.

At a previous hearing, the clerk of the court said Tompkinson unlawfully and maliciously inflicted grievous bodily harm on a man named Karl Poole on May 30 2021.

The actor, who lives in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, denies the charge.

His barrister Adam Birkby previously told the court he will claim self-defence, during a trial which is expected to last four days.

Tompkinson became a household name after starring as Father Peter Clifford in 1996s Ballykissangel, and in the same year appeared in hit film Brassed Off.

Other notable TV credits include Drop The Dead Donkey, Wild At Heart, Minder, New Tricks, Grafters and Ted And Alice.

He also appeared in ITVs DCI Banks for six years until the show was axed in 2016, and starred in a 2021 stage adaptation of Educating Rita.
Actor Stephen Tompkinson is due to go on trial accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The 57-year-old, best known for playing the title role in TV crime drama DCI Banks, will appear at Newcastle Crown Court on Wednesday.

At a previous hearing, the clerk of the court said Tompkinson unlawfully and maliciously inflicted grievous bodily harm on a man named Karl Poole on May 30 2021.

The actor, who lives in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, denies the charge.

His barrister Adam Birkby previously told the court he will claim self-defence, during a trial which is expected to last four days.

Tompkinson became a household name after starring as Father Peter Clifford in 1996s Ballykissangel, and in the same year appeared in hit film Brassed Off.

Other notable TV credits include Drop The Dead Donkey, Wild At Heart, Minder, New Tricks, Grafters and Ted And Alice.

He also appeared in ITVs DCI Banks for six years until the show was axed in 2016, and starred in a 2021 stage adaptation of Educating Rita.
An Army staff sergeant slept with an officer cadet months before she was found hanged in her room at the prestigious Sandhurst military academy, an inquest has heard.

Olivia Perks, 21, was discovered dead at the elite military training school in Berkshire on February 6 2019.

An earlier inquest hearing recorded her provisional cause of death as asphyxia due to hanging.

Her inquest at Reading Town Hall heard she told Sophie Given, whom she had met on a dating site, that the staff sergeant had slept with her and she may be pregnant.

An inquest into the death of Olivia Perks was being held at Reading Town Hall (Family handout/PA)

In the phone call on December 9 2018 she also said he was about 45, she was speaking to him every day and was asking whether she should reply to a text from him.

Later she told Ms Given the staff sergeant encouraged her to get drunk on a date and that she wanted to go back to Sandhurst during it.

Inappropriate relationships between officer cadets and their superiors are banned regardless of whether or not they are sexual.

Mike Rawlinson KC, who represents Ms Perkss mother Louise Townsend, told a pre-inquest review the officer cadet had fallen victim to gross sexual misconduct before she died.

The inquest has also heard she had spent the night with Colour Sergeant Griffith after the Falklands Ball on February 1 2019.

Both of them denied any sexual or other inappropriate activity took place.

After the ball, Ms Perks and Colour Sergeant Griffith joined a group of officer cadets who continued drinking and at one point entered a room together and locked the door, the hearing was told.

Fellow officer cadet Anwar Zurmati said he heard grunting noises and that it sounded like the pair were making out.

He said Captain Tamara Clements and him laughed but in her witness statement, she said she heard noises but could not be sure where they were coming from.

The rooms had thin walls, there were many nearby and people were also making noise in the corridors, she added.

Ms Perks was walking back in her ballgown from the night before when she was seen by the regimental sergeant major, who told her my office, now, according to Ms Clements.

The inquest also heard rumours about the pair began spreading on WhatsApp after the ball which left Ms Perks feeling like shit.

A friend, whose name was not given due to vulnerabilities, told the inquest in evidence which was read out by counsel to the coroner Bridget Dolan KC: Someone sent a message saying she had slept with Colour Sergeant Griffith which had been circulating.

People were gossiping, you could hear it. It made Liv very uncomfortable and made Liv feel like shit.

They werent checking in to see how she was. Others were avoiding her.

Ms Perks had made a significant suicide attempt following a Royal Engineers visit in July 2018 and was back in training two days later after being classed as a low risk of reoccurrence.

Her friend added: I was not at the Engineers visit. There were rumours she had tried to kill herself and people gossiped about that.

Officer cadets were bothering her trying to find out what she was doing rather than actively being concerned about her welfare.

Captain Annelise Milton told the hearing on Wednesday that Ms Perks told her Ive f***** up, they will kick me out of the Army following the suicide attempt.

The inquest continues.
A flute player originally from Belfast has performed with Lizzo at the 2023 Met Gala.

Sir James Galway, nicknamed The Man with the Golden Flute, performed a duet of Flight Of The bumblebee with the pop star at one of the most popular fashion events of the year in New York City.

Each year the fundraising gala, held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute in New York, invites an artist to perform for the A-list audience.

Lizzo, known for integrating classical flute playing into her performances, invited her idol Sir James to join her on stage.

Sir James said he hopes the performance will inspire other young artists to cross traditional boundaries of music genres.

Belfast flautist Sir James Galway, who performed with Lizzo at the 2023 Met Gala (Impact Communications/PA)

Lizzo and I share a joint love and passion for the classical flute so for some time now a meeting between us has been something we were both hugely interested in, he said.

Over the last few weeks, my wife and I have been in New York visiting friends, family and students so I was thrilled that Lizzos team reached out to invite me to join her on stage to perform at this years Met Gala.

It really was an opportunity I wouldnt have missed.

Educating and inspiring young musicians has become a great passion of mine. Therefore, I hope my duet with Lizzo will inspire young artists, showing them that it is possible to cross the boundaries and bring music genres together in extraordinary ways.

Sir James first became aware of his chart-topping fan when Lizzo talked about her love of his music in an interview with David Letterman in 2020.

James Galway, who I love. I would listen to his CDs and try to sight read and play along with him, she told Letterman.

After the interview, the pair had several interactions on social media, most recently when Sir James sent Lizzo a personalised Christmas greeting.

The Met Gala performance was their first in-person meeting.

Sir James has collaborated on film soundtracks such as The Lord Of The Rings and played alongside the likes of Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell and Sir Elton John.

For years, Sir James and his wife, Lady Jeanne Galway, have worked to teach the next generation of classical musicians through their Galway Flute Academy.
The Government should be given powers to overturn Labour mayor Sadiq Khans paywall to drive in London, as well as other transport schemes, a Conservative former minister has said.

Former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers urged MPs to back her law change, which would allow ministers to intervene on decisions about transport and air quality.

Labour mayor Mr Khan intends to expand Londons ultra low emission zone (Ulez) to cover the entirety of outer London.

Last month, a High Court judge decided five Conservative-led councils could challenge the plan.

If it goes ahead, the Ulez expansion will see drivers in outer London pay a 12.50 daily fee from August 29 if their vehicles do not meet required emissions standards.

Ms Villiers, who represents Chipping Barnet in outer London, told the Commons: In my 18 years as an MP  almost nothing has provoked such strong opposition as the Mayor of Londons plan to expand the ultra low emission zone.

It comes up on almost every doorstep and at almost every meeting. People stop me in the street to tell me how strongly they feel about this, and over 50,000 have signed the Conservative petition.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has faced criticism over the expansion plans (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

That is why I am bringing forward this Bill to give the Government power to overrule Mayor Khan and stop Ulez expansion.

She described the Ulez expansion as wrong scheme at the wrong time to improve air quality, citing the mayors own impact assessment which suggested the scheme would only have a minor or negligible impact on pollution.

Ms Villiers suggested the scheme would be bad for small business owners and shoppers alike in outer London, telling MPs: This scheme could devastate our local town centres in outer London, as their regular customers stop coming because of the paywall Mayor Khan is constructing around our capital.

She urged MPs to back her Greater London Authority Act 1999 (Amendment) Bill, which would give ministers the power to intervene.

The Ulez expansion would see drivers in outer London pay a 12.50 daily fee from August 29 if their vehicles did not meet required emissions standards (Yui Mok/PA)

The Tory MP said: If the mayor is allowed to push this scheme through, it is only a matter of time before he hikes up that daily charge and imposes it on an ever wider range of vehicles, as a stepping stone to the pay per mile road charging he would like to inflict on every single driver in London.

That is why we need to stop Ulez expansion now.

The Tory MP also said her proposals could apply to other anti-car projects championed across London, including low traffic neighbourhoods and moves to build on station car parks.

The mayors spokeswoman said: The mayor has been clear that the decision to expand the ultra low emission zone London-wide was not an easy one, but necessary to tackle toxic air pollution and the climate crisis. It is disappointing that some backbench MPs are wasting parliamentary time playing politics. Both No 10 and the Transport Secretary have been clear this is a matter for the elected mayor.

With around 4,000 Londoners dying prematurely each year due to air pollution, there is no time for inaction and its people in outer London, particularly the poorest households, who suffer the most from the damaging health effects.

She added: Nine out of 10 cars in outer London are already Ulez compliant. For those with the most polluting vehicles, the mayor has launched his 110 million vehicle scrappage scheme  the largest scheme ever launched by any city in the UK  to help low-income Londoners, disabled Londoners and micro businesses, sole traders and charities to replace their polluting vehicles.

The mayor is calling on the Government to match his action on toxic air by funding a targeted national scrappage scheme or providing funding to London and the surrounding areas to support the switch to cleaner vehicles. The Government have given millions of pounds for scrappage schemes in other parts of the country, but not a single penny to London.

Ms Villierss Bill has the backing of other Conservative London MPs, including Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Bob Blackman.

It is due to be considered by MPs again on November 24 but is unlikely to progress due to a lack of parliamentary time.
A British pub in California will be the place to be for expats wanting to celebrate the Kings coronation this weekend, its manager has said.

Preparations have begun at Ye Olde Kings Head pub in Santa Monica, California, in anticipation of the big event on May 6.

The pub often marks significant royal events and celebrations, having put on events for the Platinum Jubilee and funeral of the Queen.

The pubs gift shop is already stocked with commemorative merchandise, which includes mugs, postcards, flags and tea-towels (Mike Bedigan/PA)

The coronation is due to be televised between 2am and 7am local time in Los Angeles, so replays and highlights of the ceremony will be shown throughout the day from 10am.

Celebrations will include a special King Charles afternoon tea, an all-British hits DJ set and a Beatles tribute band.

The pubs gift shop is already stocked with commemorative merchandise, which includes mugs, postcards, flags and tea towels, with Union flag bunting already proudly displayed.

A large cardboard cutout of Charles is in pride of place, ready for guests to take photos with to mark the occasion.

A large cardboard cutout of the King is in pride of place, ready for guests to take photos with to mark the occasion (Mike Bedigan/PA)

Operations manager Lisa Powers said the pub was already at capacity for bookings on the afternoon tea.

If you cant be in England and you are in Los Angeles, then we are the place to come and feel like youre in England, she told the PA news agency.

Youll be with like-minded people having a good time.

All the girls are going to be dressing up in their crowns and tiaras and their fascinators and all of that  it will be fun.

Ye Olde Kings Head, a traditional British pub in Santa Monica, California (Lisa Powers/PA)

Ye Olde Kings Head has previously featured a Queen impersonator, although Ms Powers suggested the actress may now need to be recast as the Queen Consort.

We have the King Charles cutout so people can come and have a picture taken with King Charles, but we still need to find a Camilla, she said.

Established in 1974, the venue has been visited by scores of Hollywood celebrities over the years including Kate Beckinsale, Pierce Brosnan and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Rocker Ozzy Osbourne reportedly used to frequent the gift shop and has been rumoured to spend thousands of dollars on British-brand chocolate.
A child murderer will be sentenced on television for the first time in England and Wales following a successful legal challenge by the media.

Marques Walker, 17, can now be identified as the killer of Jermaine Cools, who at the age of 14 was the youngest victim of fatal knife crime in 2021.

Jermaine was stabbed as he lay defenceless on the ground outside a chicken shop in Croydon, south London, on November 18 2021.

At the time of the killing, Walker, then aged 16, was on bail for carrying a large knife, the Old Bailey was told.

Earlier this year, Walker, now 17, pleaded guilty to Jermaines murder and possessing a knife.

Ahead of his sentencing, a joint application was made by the PA news agency, The Times, The Sun and The Daily Mail newspapers to lift a court order banning Walker from being identified.

A separate bid was made for permission to film Walkers sentence and broadcast the footage on news channels and online.

Jermaines parents Lorraine Dudek and Julius Cools attended the legal hearing by video link on Wednesday to discuss reporting of their sons case.

Walkers lawyer attended court and the media was represented by a barrister.

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC said: There is a very strong argument in this case in support of the lifting of reporting restrictions and once it is deemed in the public interest for reporting restrictions to be lifted the hearing may be recorded for broadcast unless there is a reason not to. We bear in mind the defendant would not be filmed.

She argued that in the circumstances of the case the widest reporting would act as a very powerful deterrent and that Jermaines parents were fully supportive of the widest possible reporting.

Judge Sarah Munro KC lifted the legal restriction on naming Walker and agreed to allow his sentence to be filmed despite his young age.

In her ruling, she said: Jermaine was the youngest victim of fatal knife crime in 2021.

The defendant was 16 at the date of the murder. He is 17 now and will be 18 in four months time. The reporting restriction would, in any event, lapse upon his attaining 18.

In this highly fact-specific case I have no hesitation in concluding that the restriction should be lifted and I hereby revoke the S45 order.

In all the circumstances of this case the welfare of this defendant does not outweigh the public interest in open justice and a reporting restriction is no longer necessary.

Outlining her reasons, she said: The serious nature and increasing prevalence of knife crime, knife-related homicide and violent crime; the consequent need for deterrence; the promotion of public confidence that the criminal justice system is addressing the problem; and the proximity of the defendants 18th birthday all outweigh any minimal impact upon the welfare of defendant.

She added: Having decided to revoke the reporting restriction, I will also grant the application for the sentence to be filmed and televised.

Jermaine was fatally injured in London Road, near West Croydon railway station, following a fight involving a number of people on November 18 2021.

Police have previously said that at 6.41pm, a member of the public reported the incident outside a chicken shop.

Walker was caught on chilling CCTV calmly walking towards the fight and drawing a large knife from his coat.

Jermaine appeared to fall over and the youth ran towards him while he was on the ground.

Walker was seen to repeatedly lunge at Jermaine with the knife while his victim was frantically trying to avoid being stabbed.

Judge Sarah Munro KC made legal history last year (PA Video/Cameras in Court/PA)

Jermaine received multiple stab wounds and the defendant ran off from the scene with the knife.

A member of the public approached Jermaine, who was bleeding heavily, and helped him into a car and drove him to Croydon hospital, where he later died.

A post-mortem examination found he had suffered seven stab wounds to his body, with the fatal wound to his chest piercing a lung.

A murder investigation began and the defendant was quickly identified from CCTV.

However, he had left his home and police hunted for him for nearly six weeks.

On December 27 2021, he was found hiding behind a bed and gave a false name to officers.

It was while on the way to the police station that he finally provided his real name and was arrested for murder.

At the station he refused to answer any questions but was charged with Jermaines murder and possession of an offensive weapon.

Judge Munro will sentence Walker, from Bromley, Kent, at the Old Bailey on May 9.

In July last year, Judge Munro made legal history when she became the first judge to be broadcast as she sentenced a defendant for manslaughter at the Old Bailey following the change in the law.
A convoy taking UK fire and rescue vehicles and other life-saving equipment is on its way to Ukraine.

Fire minister Chris Philp said he was immensely proud of our continued contributions, which included 21 fire and rescue vehicles as well as a further 8,000 pieces of equipment, with the convoy expected to arrive in Poland on Friday.

The donations will be received by the head of Ukraines fire and rescue service and this shipment takes contributions by England and Waless fire services to support Ukraine to 86 fire and rescue vehicles and more than 100,000 items of equipment.

The vehicles left Liverpool on Tuesday (UK Home Office/PA)

The timing of the shipment is also to honour the Eurovision link between Ukraine and the UK, with the vehicles leaving Liverpool on Tuesday, the city which will host the competition later this month.

I am immensely proud of our continued contributions to support Ukrainians on the front line and of our fantastic colleagues from fire and rescue services who have volunteered to ensure the convoys safe passage, Mr Philp said.

Putins barbaric invasion of Ukraine has decimated so many lives and has left fire and rescue services in the country with minimal equipment.

A total of 17 fire and rescue services were involved in the transportation of the donations (UK Home Office/PA)

Putin is deliberately targeting civilians and civilian buildings in Ukraine so it is essential we do everything within our power to help them.

The Government collaborated with the National Fire Chiefs Council as well as fire and rescue services across England and Wales to co-ordinate the effort, which includes delivery of helmets, generators, lighting and hoses.

A total of 17 fire and rescue services were involved in the transportation of the donations, while dozens of firefighters volunteered their time.

Our 24 drivers and 8 appliances have crossed the border safely on their journey to Ukraine, alongside other UK Fire and Rescue Service colleagues  Read more on their journey  https://t.co/OiaZpF6Ydr#FireAid4Ukraine @FIRE_AID_UK @NFCC_FireChiefs pic.twitter.com/lAtXi4RCNC  South Wales Fire and Rescue Service (@SWFireandRescue) May 3, 2023

Chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council Mark Hardingham said: Firefighters on the front line in Ukraine are in desperate need of equipment as the war continues to devastate the country.

This fifth convoy means fire and rescue services have now donated 86 fire engines and more than 100,000 items of kit.

The determination and pride of all involved is testament to how committed everyone is to getting help to where it is needed.
The coronation will serve as an enormous economic boost to the nation but organisers have been mindful of the cost-of-living crisis by making key efficiencies, Buckingham Palace has insisted.

A Palace spokesperson said the global interest in the celebration would more than repay the money spent on the occasion.

Critics have, however, branded the King and Queen Consorts crowning, the cost of which falls to the taxpayer, a slap in the face for the millions facing economic difficulties across the UK.

Some predictions suggest the bill for Operation Golden Orb could come to 50-100 million, with the cost of security likely to increase the figure further.

King Charles III speaks with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at a coronation reception in Westminster Hall (Arthur Edwards/The Sun/PA)

But the Palace spokesperson said: Ive seen a number of different estimated figures floating around, some more fanciful than others.

The true figures will be shared in due course where expenditure relates to the Sovereign Grant or Government costs.

They added that one of the key lessons of the late Queens funeral showed that a national occasion like this, a great state occasion, does attract huge global interest that more than repays the expenditure that goes with it, indeed it vastly exceed it in terms of the boost to our economy and to our nations standing.

The coronation is expected to provide a 120 million surge for pubs across the UK, according to the British Beer and Pub Association, while other reports said the hospitality sector could enjoy a 1 billion windfall.

The Palace spokesperson said: Its not for me to say how accurate those figures are but certainly the theory pertains that the celebrations are an enormous economic boost to the nation  and just as importantly, with 100 heads of State coming to Britain for the event, its a fantastic opportunity for networking, for Government, and for engaging the interest from those nations with everything that Britain has to offer.

Many previously made ceremonial elements have also been reused, the Palace said.

Camilla is the first Queen Consort not to have a new crown made for her coronation, but she does have a new purple velvet Robe of Estate.

Embroidery work on the the Queen Consorts new Robe of Estate (Royal School of Needlework/PA)

The King has also recycled royal coats of arms that decorated a chair used during George VIs coronation for his own enthronement.

The planning process has been ever-mindful that this is a time of economic challenge for many, so efficiencies have been found in key areas  for example through reusing many ceremonial elements, rather than commissioning new ones, the spokesperson said.

No budget has been revealed for the weekend of celebrations, and with the Government not commenting on the expected total cost, the amount of public funds due to be spent remains unknown.
The police and intelligence agencies are mounting a very complex security operation around the coronation  with the eyes of the world set to be on the UK.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat said police are all over it and not complacent about the scale of the challenge.

New laws to curb protests came into force on Wednesday ahead of Saturdays ceremony but Mr Tugendhat said the celebrations will showcase our liberty and our democracy.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat (PA)

Under the new Public Order Act, protesters who block roads will face up to 12 months behind bars.

An official letter warning of the new powers was sent to anti-monarchy campaign group Republic, which said its campaign around the coronation will proceed as planned.

Republic boss Graham Smith said it is very odd the letter came from the Home Office and described it as intimidatory.

He told the PA news agency: Weve been liaising closely with the police about the protest for weeks. Weve had meetings with them.

Theyve said very clearly that they have no problems with our plans. I just cant understand why the Home Office thinks its appropriate to send a letter like that, which was anonymous in terms of no persons name on it.

Mr Smith added: It struck us as intimidatory in a way.

He said there are plans for 1,700 people to protest in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.

Mr Tugendhat said the operation around the coronation will show security can be a liberator in a democracy, not like an authoritarian state where its a controller.

Asked about the letter sent to Republic, Mr Tugendhat said: They have the liberty that anybody in the United Kingdom has to protest. What they dont have the liberty to do is to disrupt others.

And thats where were drawing and making a difference.

"Those who seek to attack our ways of life repeatedly will be met with court orders preventing them from causing chaos again." Home Secretary @SuellaBraverman on the Public Order Bill receiving Royal Assent. pic.twitter.com/R41gtFN7Vh  Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) May 2, 2023

Pressed on whether the new laws will prevent protesters unfurling banners in certain locations or getting on to the route of the parade, Mr Tugendhat told the BBCs Today programme: Im not going to go through the details of what you can or cant do for fear of encouraging people to find loopholes in it, for very obvious reason.

He said the presence of foreign leaders at the coronation adds to the complexity of the operation.

Its perfectly possible that were dealing with protest groups who have nothing to do with the UK but are seeking to protest against a foreign leader whos visiting or seeking to make a complaint about something thats happening hundreds or thousands of miles away.

So this is a very complex policing operation, a very complex intelligence operation.

The scene outside Buckingham Palace, where a man was arrested after allegedly throwing suspected shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds (Ben Roberts-Haslam/PA)

The arrest of a man after suspected shotgun cartridges were thrown into the grounds of Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening was a sign of the effectiveness of the security operation, Mr Tugendhat said.

The police are, to put it mildly, all over it and our intelligence and other security forces are extremely aware of the challenges that we face and ready to deal with them  as the police did quite brilliantly yesterday, he told Times Radio.

He said the coronation is an opportunity to showcase the United Kingdom to the world.

So were very conscious that there are going to be quite literally thousands  possibly hundreds of thousands  of foreign tourists, there are going to be many film crews and journalists from around the world and, of course, were going to have heads of state and government coming to celebrate with us on Saturday.

So this is an enormously important moment for the country.

In response to a suggestion the operation will cost taxpayers at least 100 million, the security minister told Sky News: Its not a figure I recognise.

He said: Its very difficult to pull that out as a separate figure for the simple reason that we have got an enormous amount of effort going in for a major incident like this in different parts of the country  because there are people getting together in streets, theres people getting together in gatherings across the country because this is a moment of national celebration.

What I think is worth looking at, though, is how much this is bringing to the country in terms of the number of tourists who are coming, the amount of attention that is coming and, indeed, I hope, the amount of business that will be generated by heads of state and government and other business people coming to the UK at this time to see what we offer.
Updated 3 May 2023 at 8:02 am

Drivers risk unfair fines for using most yellow box junctions which councils want enforcement powers over, according to a new report.

Problems with the boxes include poor visibility and being too large, research commissioned by the RAC found.

Yellow boxes are used in an attempt to ensure traffic flows smoothly through busy junctions.

Motorists should not enter them unless their exit is clear or they are waiting to turn right.

The RAC said to avoid inadvertently breaking the rules, drivers must be able to clearly see boxes and where they end.

In England outside London, only police forces have the power to punish motorists over their use of yellow box junctions.

But 27 councils have put forward proposals to enforce 111 boxes under legislation introduced by the Government in May 2022.

Successful applicants will be able to issue penalty charge notices (PCNs) to offending drivers.

On Transport for Londons (TfL) red routes, PCNs are 160, reduced to 80 if paid within 14 days.

Chartered engineer Sam Wright was commissioned by the RAC to analyse the 111 boxes which councils have put forward proposals to enforce.

The RAC said there are issues with 90% of the boxes which are likely to lead to drivers being fined unfairly.

Forty boxes were found to pose visibility difficulties such as faded road markings, while 18 extend beyond junctions.

Mr Wright, who was formerly responsible for the design and approval of yellow boxes on TfLs road network, said: I havent seen a single proposal that reviews the visibility of the box from a drivers point of view.

If you also factor in bad weather, poor light and other vehicles, then the poor visibility situation is exacerbated.

This is all very concerning, especially as enforcement is carried out via cameras high in the air.

Many of the boxes have been around for years, perhaps decades.

It appears that many authorities have simply assumed that the boxes already on the ground are suitable for enforcement without carrying out a fresh assessment as is recommended in Government guidance.

RAC roads spokesman Simon Williams said: Fining people can have real financial consequences for those on the receiving end.

Enforcing yellow boxes means that the driver of a vehicle overhanging a box by any amount for just a moment can get a ticket.

Yet many drivers end up stopped or trapped in these junctions through no fault of their own.

It is not only imperative, but a moral duty to ensure that fines are fair, justified and that the appeals process is consistent across the country.

We urge the Government to carry out an urgent review of its yellow box junction guidance and clarify what is and isnt enforceable.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves insisted Labours principles have not changed as she defended her party leaders U-turn on his commitment to abolish tuition fees.

The shadow cabinet minister was forced to answer questions about Sir Keir Starmers commitment to the pledges, which formed part of his bid to become Labour leader, after the promise to ditch tuition fees became the latest pledge to be dropped by the party.

The move has been criticised by those on Labours left, while some Conservative opponents branded the party leader Sir Flip-Flop.

Ms Reeves blamed the Governments handling of the economy for the policy shift.

The Tories have crashed the economy, they have brought public services to their knees and that does mean that we need to look again at what we can afford and what our priorities will be if we have the privilege to form the next government, she told ITVs Good Morning Britain.

She said the circumstances since Sir Keir became leader have changed significantly, forcing the change to pledges announced when he ran for the party leadership.

But she added: We have got work going on on a whole range of areas, including student finances.

The next election is probably a year, maybe more, away. We will set out our policies in good time ahead of that election.

Labour is expected to spell out in the coming weeks its new tuition fee policy after Sir Keir branded the current system unfair.

Tuition fees sit at a maximum of 9,250, with the current system introduced by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition in the face of severe opposition from students.

Ms Reeves said principles dont change but the priorities and the policies must change according to the circumstances.

Sir Keir, she said, is a pragmatic sort of guy.

I dont think anybody would seriously say that the circumstances when Keir became leader of the Labour Party are the same as the circumstances that we face today, when weve had the global pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the Conservatives mini-budget last year that crashed the economy, a massive cost-of-living crisis and public services on their knees.

His vision, his mission as prime minister, remains the same and his values remain the same, she added.

Sir Keirs spokesman on Wednesday vowed that none of Labours manifesto commitments at the next general election will be dropped.

What we will set out in our manifesto at the next election is the programme that we will deliver in government if were lucky enough to be elected, he told reporters in Westminster.

There are clearly circumstances that have changed that it would be daft for any politician not to be grounded in the reality of the situation that we are in now

The promises that we make will be determined by the economic reality of the situation that we find ourselves in.

Students in England are split on what Labour should do about tuition fees, a poll of more than 1,000 full-time UK undergraduate students in April suggests.

Some 28% of students living in England want Labour to commit to abolishing tuition fees in England, 23% want the party to reduce fees to 6,000 and 20% want Labour to back the current system of fees capped at 9,250, the Higher Education Policy Institute survey carried out by Savanta found.
The Government has been accused of intentionally wanting to keep a loophole in UK election law that might be letting foreign countries donate to political parties through the back door.

A Lords amendment to the National Security Bill would have introduced new transparency measures on UK-registered political parties with respect to donations received from foreign powers.

However, MPs rejected it by 254 votes to 134, majority 120, with Security Minister Tom Tugendhat insisting the law already makes robust provision in relation to donations to political parties.

Disagreeing with Mr Tugendhat, Labour former minister Sir Chris Bryant asked in the Commons: What would a party do if, for instance, they were offered a donation for, lets say, 50,000 by somebody who lives and works in Moscow today?

The law says they have to do nothing as long as they are on the electoral register.

But surely, we would want to say Im not sure that thats quite right.

He described the provisions in the Lords amendment as the minimum, adding: I have said that theres a flaw in PPERA (the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act )  but the danger is, Im starting to worry that the Government wants it to exist as a loophole, because otherwise I simply dont understand why the minister is holding out on this point.

The Conservative chairman of Parliaments Intelligence and Security Committee, Sir Julian Lewis, also gave his backing to the Lords amendment, as he argued it would help to increase the transparency and accountability of our political system.

Former Labour minister Sir Chris Bryant (Yui Mok/PA)

He insisted the UK has previously clearly welcomed Russian money, including in the political sphere, and said: The amendment is eminently reasonable, it shouldnt be controversial for political parties to want to ensure the transparency of their foreign political donations.

We must protect against covert, foreign state-backed financial donations if we are to defend our democratic institutions from harmful interference and influence.

Meanwhile, shadow Home Office minister Holly Lynch challenged Mr Tugendhat to say that alternative provisions are effective and that dirty money with a price attached isnt finding its way into our system and into our democracy.

Closing the debate, Mr Tugendhat said the Government has to treat British citizens like British citizens, adding: The idea that we can treat British citizens differently, depending on how we feel about them seems to me rather a bad way of making law.

That, however, does not mean that political parties have to treat British citizens the same.

And the rule in this surely is just because you can, doesnt mean you should. There are many donations, there are possibly many individuals who many of us would not wish to accept donations from. And the point about politics is its about decisions. Its about judgment. Its about choices.

Conservative chairman of Parliaments Intelligence and Security Committee Sir Julian Lewis (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament)

The Bill will now return to the House of Lords, where peers will decide whether to accept the Governments rejection of their amendment or propose a different one.

Dr Susan Hawley, executive director of Spotlight on Corruption, said: The Governments strong words on tackling foreign influence and defending UK democracy ring very hollow today.

This is a badly missed opportunity by the Government to protect the next election from malign influences and make sure that political parties play their role in protecting the UK political system from dirty money.

The Bill as a whole aims to update Britains security laws to combat modern-day state threats, including sabotage, spying, foreign interference and economic espionage.

Liberal Democrat former minister Alistair Carmichael (Aaron Chown/PA)

Concerns were raised in the Lords that moves to grant criminal immunity to the intelligence services and military in assisting overseas operations could provide legal cover for tipping off other states in cases of torture or extraordinary rendition.

The Government stressed it would not make it legal to encourage or enable torture or rendition or solicit murder.

Liberal Democrat former minister Alistair Carmichael tabled an amendment to specify the protection did not apply to torture or inhuman, cruel or degrading treatment or punishment, or the violation of a persons sexual integrity.

His amendment was defeated by 252 votes to 132, majority 120.

Peers and MPs also pushed for the remit of Parliaments Intelligence and Security Committee to be updated to improve scrutiny of the intelligence services, although the Commons voted 254 to 136  majority 118  to disagree with this change.
Environmental protesters have caused major disruption at banking giant Barclays annual meeting for shareholders in central London.

Chairman Nigel Higgins grew disgruntled after protests broke out minutes into the annual general meeting (AGM), leading security to remove multiple people from the venue and the meeting to be temporarily halted.

Singing a version of the Spice Girls Stop, a group sang: Stop right now, no more oil and gas. Stop burning fossil fuels and end this madness.

Hey, you, burning up the Earth weve had enough.

BREAKING: We just now disrupted the Barclays AGM to stop the worst fossil fuel funder in Europe from destroying our future. To be or not to be  that is the climate question. Dont shuffle us off this mortal coilBarclays keep it in the soil! #BarclaysAGMChaos pic.twitter.com/bKu397Grnq  Fossil Free London (@fossilfreeLDN) May 3, 2023

Mr Higgins eventually responded: Obviously we are very happy to hear opinions of what we do but maybe better to wait for the Q&A and have a two-way discussion.

Money Rebellion, a subsidiary of Extinction Rebellion, was among the teams of activists interrupting the meeting with shouts, songs and rhymes.

Several protesters continued to halt the meeting by standing up and shouting about the banks impact on climate change and financing of fossil fuel companies.

One shouted: Barclays funds climate chaos  people are dying right now. The largest funder of fossil fuels in Europe.

Another protester was carried out of the building for refusing to move, with his shouts drowned out by Barclays company secretary Hannah Ellwood, who continued to run through the agenda.

At least two women were removed from the venue by security after holding up banners and shouting: Barclays funds climate chaos.

Shareholders and environment activists pressed Barclays on its climate policies during its AGM (Barclays/PA)

Mr Higgins repeatedly asked people to be removed and shuffled out of the meeting and was audibly sighing during interruptions and repeated questions.

During the question-and-answer section of the AGM, Barclays management team was pressed over its climate policies and decision not to end financing the expansion of oil and gas fields.

Mr Higgins was clear in his response: The world at the moment cannot function without fossil fuels.

He said the bank had restricted its financing of energy companies and reduced emissions from its energy portfolio by a third over the last few years.

Mr Higgins added: We dont believe that a simple exit from the sector is the right thing to do because it doesnt square with the other requirements for energy security and meeting the demands as a consequence of energy poverty around the world.

One campaigner, who did not give her name, responded: This isnt real. Whats real is record-breaking temperatures in the worlds oceans, crops failing around the world and a third of humanity in record-breaking heat in 12 countries in Asia. Thats real.

I dont know if you feel that your privilege is going to protect you, Nigel, but it isnt.

Protests broke out minutes into the annual general meeting (Fossil Free London/PA)

Later, questions on the banks climate policy were fielded by Mr Higgins, as he said we have answered this already.

Elsewhere in the meeting, Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan, known as Venkat, assured shareholders the banking giant has been insulated from the recent volatility in the global banking sector.

He referenced the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank in the US, and Credit Suisse.

He said the group has strong risk management, robust liquidity and a prudent approach to lending.

And these have insulated Barclays from the volatility which we have seen in markets, and have enabled us to continue to support our customers and clients through an uncertain period.

Despite the protests, shareholders voted to approve all of Barclays resolutions, including the pay packages of the executive team.

Some 12% voted against the resolution to approve the directors 2022 remuneration report, with 88% voting in favour.

Venkat took home 5.2 million in cash and bonuses last year, and is set to see his fixed pay jump by 3.4% this year.
Protesters who try to disrupt the coronation can expect very swift action from police who will have an extremely low threshold when dealing with them, a senior officer has said.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan told journalists that the force will not tolerate any criminal activity camouflaged as protest during the event.

A massive security and policing operation is under way that will see 11,500 police officers on duty on Saturday and 10,000 military personnel taking part in the ceremony.

Details of the massive policing and security operation for the coronation have been unveiled, hours after a night-time rehearsal for the event (James Manning/PA)

Specialist teams have begun scouring the area of central London where events will unfold and will continue monitoring crowds to spot signs of suspicious behaviour.

The policing plan, dubbed Operation Golden Orb, has been re-examined after a security incident outside Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening when a man who allegedly had a knife threw shotgun cartridges over the palace gates.

Mr Adelekan told the PA news agency: Weve debriefed our plans after that incident just to make sure there are no gaps and were absolutely confident that weve got a plan that will deliver the coronation in such a manner that everyone will come to London and celebrate and there will be no issues whatsoever.

Asked about how officers will deal with protesters, he said: Our priority is around safety and security for everyone thats going to come to this event, and we want to make sure that everyone enjoys it.

We have an extremely low threshold for anybody or anything that will disrupt this event and what you will see is very swift action from us.

New laws to curb protests came into force on Wednesday ahead of Saturdays ceremony but Security minister Tom Tugendhat said the celebrations will showcase our liberty and our democracy.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat (PA)

Under the new Public Order Act, protesters who block roads will face up to 12 months behind bars.

An official letter warning of the new powers was sent to anti-monarchy group Republic, which said its campaign around the coronation will proceed as planned.

Republic boss Graham Smith said it is very odd the letter came from the Home Office and described it as intimidatory.

He told the PA news agency: Weve been liaising closely with the police about the protest for weeks. Weve had meetings with them.

Theyve said very clearly that they have no problems with our plans. I just cant understand why the Home Office thinks its appropriate to send a letter like that, which was anonymous in terms of no persons name on it.

Mr Smith added: It struck us as intimidatory in a way.

He said there are plans for 1,700 people to protest in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.

The scene outside Buckingham Palace, where a man was arrested after allegedly throwing suspected shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds (Ben Roberts-Haslam/PA)

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to travel to central London for the event, including scores of foreign VIPs who need close protection.

Commander Karen Findlay, who is Gold Command for the policing operation, said there are more VIPs for the coronation than there were for the Queens funeral.

She said: It is an absolutely historic, unprecedented mobilisation for us in terms of scale, but most importantly the nature and specialness of this event to the public, to the service, and all our communities in London and actually the whole of the United Kingdom and globally.

Its such an event of constitutional, spiritual importance for us all to be involved in.

A total of 29,000 officer shifts will be used during the days around the coronation, with specialist teams including armed police, sniffer dogs, mounted officers and marine officers on the Thames all taking part.

There will be an airspace restriction across London on Friday and Saturday as part of an extensive security operation.

As well as the coronation itself, there are 1,800 registered events taking place in London over the weekend.
A Government probe into partygate investigator Sue Grays switch to a senior Labour role has been paused after she refused to co-operate.

Some Tories reacted angrily after an update into her departure from her high-ranking Whitehall position to become Sir Keir Starmers chief of staff did not say whether she had broken rules, as had been suggested by several reports.

Others criticised the Governments statement as a political stunt, as allies defended Ms Gray for prioritising a separate review by the anti-corruption watchdog.

In a written statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday, Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden said the Government will consider next steps after Ms Gray chose not to speak to the investigation.

It was launched following concerns that she had engaged with the opposition while looking into allegations of parties being held in Downing Street during pandemic lockdowns.

The Government has submitted a confidential assessment to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which will consider evidence from a range of sources to make a recommendation on any appropriate restrictions on the appointment, Mr Dowden said.

Oliver Dowden stopped short of saying whether the Cabinet Office deemed Ms Gray to have broken rules (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The watchdog can set recommendations for when senior people leave government, including calling for a cooling-off period between three months and two years to avoid any conflict of interest.

Mr Dowden noted that under Civil Service guidance, any contact between senior civil servants and leading members of opposition parties should be cleared by ministers.

But he stopped short of saying whether the Cabinet Office deemed her to have broken rules.

The Deputy Prime Minister said: In order to maintain confidentiality towards an individual former employee, I am unable at this stage to provide further information relating to the departure of Ms Gray whilst we consider next steps.

Sir Tony Blairs former chief of staff described the statement as a political stunt following briefing to the press that the inquiry would find Ms Gray had breached the Civil Service Code.

Jonathan Powell, who left the diplomatic service to work for the former prime minister, told BBC Twos Newsnight: We were briefed all day yesterday and today it was going to be full of these sins committed by Sue Gray and theres been absolutely nothing in it at all.

I think today has really been a complete diversion and the real thing is Acoba.

As Oliver Dowden's statement on Sue Gray makes clear, ACOBA is the real deal in this process and they should be able to come to a conclusion based on evidence without political interference or briefings. pic.twitter.com/YCpK1Q9h32  Dave Penman (@FDAGenSec) May 2, 2023

Dave Penman, leader of the FDA union which represents senior Whitehall staff, said Ms Gray has the right to prioritise Acobas deliberations and stressed that she is no longer a civil servant.

Calling the statement a damp squib, he told Times Radio: Acoba is really the real deal when it comes to this and whos going to make a decision. And it really should be, because it isnt doing it for political ends.

Its doing it based on evidence, and I can understand why shed prioritise that.

A Labour source told the PA news agency: Sue Gray has fully co-operated with the Acoba process and is awaiting their outcome. They are the designated channel in cases like this.

Once the watchdog makes its recommendation, Rishi Sunak will make the final ruling, though neither he nor the committee have the power to block an appointment.

Former Acoba chairwoman Baroness Angela Browning said she would be very surprised if a prime minister challenged the advice, a move that would trigger an almighty row.

Sue Gray, who reported on Downing Street parties in Whitehall during the coronavirus lockdown, walking in Westminster, London (Aaron Chown/PA)

The failure of the Whitehall inquirys outcome to materialise came after intense negotiations between Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and Tory ministers, the Guardian reported.

The paper said that Mr Case, who initially backed the release of findings critical of Ms Grays departure, blocked the plans amid concerns over publishing a politically-charged report into a former official just days before the local elections when the Government is meant to observe purdah rules on political impartiality.

After the Government update, Tory MP Mark Jenkinson tweeted: When Sue Gray was in the Propriety and Ethics Team, how might she have reacted to someone who failed to comply with her investigations?

What might she have said about Partygate witnesses if theyd declined her offer of a chat?

Sir Keir earlier insisted he was confident Ms Gray had not broken any rules.

The Labour leader said he had no discussions with her while she was investigating Boris Johnson whatsoever, I dont think anyone is suggesting thats the case.
Religious and community leaders with roles in the Kings coronation service have urged Britons to take part in a planned volunteering drive.

The multi-faith group, set to participate in a greeting to the King at the end of the Westminster Abbey service on Saturday, have encouraged communities to get involved in the Big Help Out on Monday May 8.

Organisers say thousands of organisations across the country are set to unite for a day of community volunteering to mark Charles historic coronation.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who will crown the King during the Westminster Abbey service (Steve Parsons/PA)

The Archbishop of Canterbury said he is delighted to support the volunteering drive because helping others is a key theme of the Coronation weekend.

Justin Welby added: As we celebrate the coronation, I joyfully encourage everyone to help out in all kinds of creative ways.

I pray we take this opportunity to come together, support those around us and unite our communities.

Lets build a legacy of love for one another.

The Dean of Westminster, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, KBE, The Most Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala, The Rt Hon The Lord Singh of Wimbledon, CBE, Radha Mohan das and Aliya Azam, MBE have also backed the Big Help Out.

Sir Ephraim urged everyone to take part in this day of national volunteering.

Sir Ephraim was installed in his role in September 2013 during a ceremony attended by Charles when he was prince of Wales, the first time a member of the royal family was present.

He said: By taking part in The Big Help Out campaign, volunteering our time and energy, we can make a positive impact on our communities, help those in need, and promote social cohesion.

I urge everyone, regardless of their faith or background, to embrace this opportunity and take part in this day of national volunteering.

May The Big Help Out be a source of inspiration and hope, and may it strengthen the bonds that unite us as a people.

Mr Seelawimala, head monk of the London Buddhist Vihara and Chief Sangha Nayaka of Great Britain, echoed their calls by urging Buddhists in the UK to come together to celebrate the coronation through volunteering.

Lord Singh of Wimbledon CBE, a prominent member of the Sikh community, sitting as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, said: Seva or selfless service is central to Sikhism.

The Big Help Out with its focus on volunteering for the public good on the Coronation bank holiday, rightly pays tribute to King Charless longstanding commitment to public service.

Radha Mohan das, a Hindu representative based at the Bhaktivedanta Manor Temple, a mock-Tudor Hertfordshire mansion in 78 acres donated by former Beatle George Harrison, called the Big Help Out a fantastic initiative.

Let everyone work and serve together for the betterment of our country, its environment and all its communities, he said.

Muslim Aliya Azam MBE is an interfaith co-ordinator at the Al-Khoei Foundation which organises a number of events encouraging people of different religions to interact, the most prominent is the Big Iftar which brings people of all faiths and none together during the Islamic month of Ramadan.

She said: Volunteering is not just about lending a helping hand, its about spreading kindness, building connections and spiritual growth.

Joining the Big Help Out initiative is an opportunity to make a meaningful positive impact on the lives of others.

Lets come together for the coronation weekend and show that even the smallest acts of kindness can make a big difference.

It comes as, for the first time, representatives from the nations faith communities are set to play an active role in the coronation of a monarch.

At the end of the coronation, the King will receive a greeting in unison from leaders and representatives from Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Buddhist communities.

They will tell the newly crowned King: Your Majesty, as neighbours in faith, we acknowledge the value of public service.

We unite with people of all faiths and beliefs in thanksgiving, and in service with you for the common good.

Charles will acknowledges the greeting.
Updated 3 May 2023 at 1:04 am

Royal Mail has unveiled four specially decorated postboxes across the UK to mark the coronation.

The boxes  in Westminster, central London; Edinburgh; Cardiff; and Hillsborough, Northern Ireland  display the occasions official emblem.

A specially decorated postbox in Hillsborough, Co Down (Jonathan McCambridge/PA)

The Westminster postbox is situated close to Westminster Abbey where the coronation will take place on Saturday.

Royal Mail is also commemorating the coronation with four new stamps, depicting the King being crowned and celebrating the multi-faith and biodiversity causes Charles has made his lifes work.

The miniature sheet for the four new stamps (Royal Mail/PA)

The set is based on newly-commissioned wood engravings by artist Andrew Davidson, and one imagines St Edwards Crown being lowered on to Charless head by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the moment of coronation.

Royal Mail is also applying for a special postmark to be stamped on letters in honour of the royal occasion.

It will read: Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla 6 May 2023, and run from April 28 until May 10.

David Gold, director of external affairs and policy at Royal Mail, said: The coronation of their majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla is a momentous occasion and one that will be celebrated across UK.

The postbox in Hillsborough, Co Down (Jonathan McCambridge/PA)

We are proud to mark such a historic event and to offer our warmest congratulations to the King and Queen.

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said: The coronation of Charles III is going to be a huge historic moment for the UK and one that will be celebrated with a weekend packed with different ways for people to get involved.

Our postboxes are recognised the world over as an iconic symbol of Britain and these four iconic unique coronation postboxes will leave a lasting royal legacy in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Royal Hillsborough.
Royal enthusiasts often go to great lengths and travel long distances to make sure they get the best view of major ceremonial events at Buckingham Palace.

But not many will have made a decision like 34-year-old Bartley Graham, who arrived at The Mall on Wednesday after discharging himself from hospital.

He has joined dozens of people gathered in front of the Palace ahead of the Kings coronation, with tents set up to enable them to get a prime spot.

Mr Graham, from County Durham, said: I should have been here earlier, but the hospital scenario made it impossible.

I self-discharged this morning purely so I could be here.

Its important Im here to get a good view of the procession, as I did for the Jubilee.

Bartley Graham (Nick Warren/PA)

I came out for Prince Phillips funeral even though there was a risk I might be fined at the time.

I queued for 30 hours at Balmoral to see the Queens coffin a first time, and I queued 30 hours a second time at the Houses of Parliament.

Royal fan Ardis Ryberg from Arkansas, US, who is camping out on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace in central London, ahead of the coronation( (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Then I passed out and had a stroke, and all I could blame was exhaustion.

If it happens again, Im in the right place, Londons hospitals are the best in the country.

I love being out here.

Mr Graham came wearing a suit printed with Union Jacks and carrying a cardboard cut-out of Charles, who he thinks will be a fantastic King.

I like King Charles, and I definitely like Lady Camilla, he said.

Charles will be a fantastic King and will do a great job, he has some really strong values, and I think Lady Camilla has fallen into the role very well.

Kerry Evans, 58, from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, who also arrived at The Mall on Thursday said she would rather die than miss the Kings Coronation.

I cant camp out like I used to, Ive got a heart condition and small vessel disease, she said.

Every time I come out to an event like this I end up in casualty, because I just exhaust myself, but Ive really paced myself this time.

Nothing would stop me, I would rather die supporting the Royal Family than not be part of all this, she continued.

Ill probably suffer for three or four months after an event like this.

Union flags hang from the street furniture outside Buckingham Palace (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Ms Evans, who is a writer and a full-time carer, says that she hopes the King will be a champion for diversity.

The King is being very quiet at the minute, I think hes waiting to see what people want, she said.

I hope hell be a strong King in terms of change and diversity, race, disability.

Other fans of the Royal Family have travelled from further afield to see the coronation.

Carol Bush, 62, who comes from California but now lives in London, and Ardis Ryburg, 61, from Arkansas, came out to The Mall together to support the late Queen.

We loved her, and she wanted her boy to do this, so we want to support her, Ms Bush said.

The Queen just gave and gave and gave, and really took her job as a monarch seriously.

Were going to come back in 20 years for her grandson, well be old in our wheelchairs and well be here for William, she continued.

I cant wait for the carriage, I want to see the golden carriage come back out again.

Royal fan Faith Nicholson (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Celebrations for the Kings coronation will take place over the course of this weekend.

The ceremony itself will take place in Westminster Abbey on Saturday, with the Coronation Big Lunch and Coronation Concert happening on Sunday.

Members of the public have been encouraged to take part in The Big Help Out on Bank Holiday Monday by volunteering for organisations in their local areas.
Russian racing driver Nikita Mazepin has begun a High Court fight with British government ministers after being made subject to sanctions in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Mazepin, 24, who used to drive for the Haas Formula 1 Team, wants sanctions lifted and has taken legal action against Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

A judge considered preliminary issues at a High Court hearing in London on Wednesday.

Nikita Mazepin was taking legal action against Foreign Secretary James Cleverly (Belinda Jiao/PA)

Mr Justice Chamberlain heard that Mazepin and his father Dmitry Mazepin  a Russian businessman  had been made subject to sanctions in mid-March 2022.

In September 2022, Mazepin had requested revocation of his designation but ministers had decided to take no action.

A judge is due to oversee a further hearing in London in June.

Mr Justice Chamberlain was told that Mazepin was involved in a similar bid to get sanctions lifted in Canada.

Neither Mazepin nor his father were at the hearing.

The hearing was held at the High Court in London (Anthony Devlin/PA)

Barrister Tom Leary, who represented Mr Cleverly, told the judge that Haas had terminated its relationship with Mazepin in early March 2022, following the outbreak of war.

He said Mazepin had not driven for a Formula 1 team since.

Mazepin and his father were subject to an asset freeze and travel ban, the judge was told.

Mr Leary indicated that one of the reasons Mazepin wanted sanctions lifted was so that he could travel to Britain to negotiate with race teams for the 2024 season.

Mr Justice Chamberlain suggested that a trial judge might have to stage part of the proceedings in private in order to consider any closed material presented by ministers.

Barrister Rachel Scott, who represented Mazepin, told Mr Justice Chamberlain in a written case outline: The UK sanctions to which he has been made subject, alongside the imposition of restrictive measures at EU level, effectively ended his racing career.

He missed the 2022 season and, almost certainly, the 2023 season and, whilst those sanctions are in place, no Formula 1 team will take him on as a test, reserve or full driver.

She added: The claimant will, in effect, be unable to negotiate a place on a Formula 1 team for 2024 unless he is free to travel to and from the UK to attend negotiations at teams bases in the UK, bearing in mind that seven of the 10 teams are based in the UK.

Negotiations to join a Formula 1 team usually begin in May or June of the previous year. Thereafter he must be able to enter the UK, not just for the British Formula 1 race, but for briefings, ergonomics design work, training and attending the teams base.
First Minister Humza Yousaf has come under fire after failing to attend Holyrood for a debate on transparency within the SNP.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross accused the SNP, which has been in power for 16 years in Scotland, of secrecy, spin and cover ups.

He said while Mr Yousaf has been happy to answer questions from the press, he is unwilling to give a statement to MSPs about the turmoil within Scotlands governing party.

With a police investigation into the SNP finances ongoing and following the resignation of senior figures in the party after the media was misled about membership numbers, the Tories brought forward a debate in Holyrood calling on the First Minister to make a statement about SNP governance.

Mr Ross said such matters are in the public interest and should be properly scrutinised and debated in the national Parliament.

Insisting there are still crucial questions to be answered weeks into this sorry saga, the Scottish Tory leader said Mr Yousaf should answer questions from fellow MSPs.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross accused the SNP of secrecy, spin and cover ups (Jane Barlow/PA)

Mr Ross said: The First Minister seems quite happy to answer these questions outside the chamber. He always stops to speak to the press to give his views on a whole host of issues.

If the First Minister is happy to give those answers to the press just a few metres from this chamber, why is he not happy to come in here to answer those questions?

Not just is he unwilling to answer questions in this chamber, he is unwilling to even attend today to respond to these points.

Today marks 16 years since the SNP were elected into Government.

During that time we have seen secrecy, spin and cover ups from the heart of Government.

Today is an opportunity for SNP members to say enough is enough.

With Mr Yousaf absent from the chamber, parliamentary business minister George Adam spoke for the Government.

He made clear that transparency and scrutiny of this Government is important, and he hit out at the Tories over their own refusal to reveal their current membership figures  saying Mr Rosss party wont practice what they are trying to preach.

Mr Adam added: The absolute hypocrisy from the Conservatives is almost laughable.

You have to admire someone who has that level of brass neck, to complain about a lack of transparency when you lead the Scottish Conservative Party.

He recalled how the Conservatives at Westminster had illegally prorogued the UK Parliament to avoid debate and scrutiny, and he said that at the Scottish Conservative conference last weekend Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would only agree to speak to the Scottish press if he could handpick the media.

Mr Adam continued: The Tories come to us here in the Scottish Parliament and they talk about our integrity.

This party, the Conservatives, have received hundreds of thousands of pounds from unincorporated associations that do not reveal their origin of funding, and they question the integrity of others.

You just cannot take the Tories seriously on this issue.

He also noted that within days of being elected SNP leader, Mr Yousaf had announced a review of governance within the party.

The minister told MSPs: I am not going to stand here and claim that there are not issues in the SNP which need to be addressed.

But I can stand here and say these issues are going to be addressed.
Sheridan Smith and Celine Buckens will star in a new TV adaptation of The Castaways, it has been announced.

The UK original drama series is based on the bestselling novel of the same by Lucy Clarke and will be streamed on Paramount+.

The Castaways follows the story of sisters Lori (Smith) and Erin (Buckens) on the holiday of a lifetime in Fiji.

But after a falling out, Erin never boards the island-hopping flight to their tropical resort  and the plane, with Lori on board, never arrives at its destination.

Sheridan Smith (PA)

Months later, despite no wreckage or survivors being found, Erin refuses to give up hope her sister has survived.

After Loris credit card is used in a corner shop in a remote village in Fiji, Erin immediately sets out from the UK to investigate the mystery of her sisters disappearance.

Jumping between the two sisters perspectives, viewers will follow Erins present day investigation and Loris struggle for survival following the crash onto a tropical, remote desert island.

Dark secrets revealed in both the past and present slowly reveal the truth about what happened to Lori and her fellow passengers.

Filming on The Castaways is due to begin on location in Fiji and Greece from next month.

Bafta-nominated Smith is known for her roles on both the big and small screen, including Gavin and Stacey, The C Word and The Railway Children, as well as multiple stage productions.

Im so excited to be working with Celine Buckens and to be part of this amazing production bringing Lucy Clarkes bestselling novel to life, she said.

And, as Im currently playing Shirley Valentine in Londons West End, its ironic that I finally get to go to Greece!

Celine Buckens (Suzan Moore/PA)

Buckens, best known for her role as Talitha Campbell in BBC mini-series Showtrial, said: Im really thrilled to bring Erin to life.

Shes a firecracker and the scripts bring layers and darkness to such an arresting premise. I hope audiences will be as hooked watching it as I was reading it.

Buckens has also been nominated for awards at both the Baftas and International Emmys.

Clarke praised the electric scriptwriting of the TV adaptation and said both Smith and Buckens were cast perfectly.

The Castaways is produced by Clapperboard Studios and Blackbox Multimedia and will be available exclusively on Paramount+.
The SNP has signed a contract with a new auditor more than six months after the previous company quit, the PA news agency understands.

The party has been without auditors for its accounts since October, with the Westminster group left with just weeks to file with the Electoral Commission or risk losing 1.2 million in funding from UK Parliament authorities to support their work.

Sources told the BBC on Wednesday that the SNP now hopes to be able to file its accounts in time to meet this deadline, and to file its accounts with the Electoral Commission in July.

A source told the broadcaster: Humza Yousaf, Stephen Flynn and their teams have had to put in some shift to fix the situation they inherited, but theyve managed to turn things around in a matter of weeks and both the party and the Westminster group now have auditors in place.

The issue has overshadowed much of First Minister Humza Yousafs time in office so far (Robert Perry/PA)

In the past month, the SNPs former chief executive Peter Murrell  who is Nicola Sturgeons husband  and its then treasurer Colin Beattie have been arrested in connection with a police probe into the partys finances.

Both Mr Murrell and Mr Beattie were released without charge pending further investigation.

The Scottish Conservatives will on Wednesday push for a statement on the turmoil engulfing the SNP, claiming it is in the public interest.

Led by Douglas Ross, the Tories will use their Holyrood debating time to push for clarity on the financial situation within the ruling party.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Mr Ross said: These questions are not going away for the First Minister and SNP leader, who recently had to step in as the SNPs acting treasurer.

He cannot stick his fingers in his ears and claim this is not a matter for his Government, as well as his party, especially if the SNP were to face bankruptcy or an imminent threat to their viability.

This is clearly also a Government matter if the First Minister is compromised, his hands are tied, or if he has been kept in the dark about his partys affairs, as was the case with the resignation of the SNPs auditors.

Douglas Ross will use the Tories Holyrood debating time to push for clarity on the SNP finances (PA)

Right now, the real priorities of Scotland are being ignored by him and the SNP Government because they are distracted by the meltdown in the party.

The unacceptable secrecy that has characterised the SNP in Government, on ferries, the Lochaber smelter, the Salmond affair, and many others, is equally evident in its internal financial scandal, and it has to stop.

The public must have confidence that Humza Yousaf is treating this investigation as seriously as possible and this debate gives him the opportunity to address these questions in full.

A previous push for a statement to Parliament was rejected by the First Minister, who said: I dont think Parliament is the place to do a statement on the partys finances.

As well as calling for the statement, Mr Rosss party will push the Government to end the pre-release of statistics, deliver a more transparent budget process, publish ministerial expenses and travel quicker, and improve scrutiny of breaches of the ministerial code.

The vote, however, is likely to fail thanks to anticipated support for the Government from the Scottish Greens.

The Tories will also hit out at the SNP for a lack of transparency over its membership figures, but SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald described the motion as a shocking error in judgment.

He added: It is the height of hypocrisy for the Scottish Tory leader to be calling into question issues of transparency of political party membership whilst refusing to disclose his own.

If Douglas Ross wants to salvage the smallest smidge of self-respect, then its time for him to release his own party membership figures.

Nobody will be fooled by the Tory partys cheap political games though, especially from a party who have some nerve to pontificate about transparency when their Prime Minister was all too eager to ban Scottish journalists from asking questions at their party conference over the weekend  and thats before we even begin to scratch the surface of dodgy PPI deals and their own elusive membership figures.

Mr MacDonald was alluding to a wrangle between Number 10 aides and the Scottish press at the Scottish Tory conference in Glasgow on Friday over access to a press conference with the Prime Minister.
Soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland performing at the Kings coronation have said it has been hard to find the time to practice during a seriously busy few months of combat training and exercises.

Four servicemen will join a full band of 100 soldiers on Saturday as part of the pomp and pageantry in London.

Drummer and Fusilier Declan Tytler, 26, from Penicuik in Midlothian, and piper Lance Corporal Ryan Steele, 29, from Auchenheath in South Lanarkshire, have spent the last few weeks learning and rehearsing new music to be performed at the historic occasion.

But the soldiers said practice has not been on their minds much amid an intensive programme of combat training and exercises over the last few months.

Fusilier Tytler said: Yes we perform at ceremonial events, but most of the time were either training, out on deployment, or jumping into whatever mission or military aid were needed for. And when this is the case, drumming just isnt on the mind.

I think it can be easy for the public to forget the other things we do when we arent on their screens.

Fusilier Declan Tytler will be among the soldiers performing at the coronation (Royal Regiment of Scotland/PA)

L/Corp Steele said it has been a juggling act to fit everything in.

The lead up to the coronation is certainly nothing like the ceremony and pageantry that youll see on the day, he said.

In fact, its a pretty quick transition from being in armoured vehicles and walking around in full 30kg kit in sweltering heat to being polished and presentable, stood in front of our new King.

Both men, who also performed at the Queens funeral last year, have recently returned from a military training exercise in Oman where they spent three months developing their core skills in challenging temperatures and terrain.

Lance Corporal Ryan Steele said soldiers have had to juggle coronation rehearsals with their everyday duties (Royal Regiment of Scotland/PA)

Private Graeme Thomson, 22, from Eyemouth in the Borders, and Lance Corporal Ryan McAllister, 22, from Gourock, Inverclyde, will be marching as part of the ceremonial parade on Saturday.

While the pressure is on to keep their steps in line, their day jobs have not stopped either.

They recently engaged in a Nato readiness test with the Canadian Army, undertaking hundreds of hours of training across a vast area with challenging terrain, weather and obstacles, including mine fields and enemy camps.

Pte Thomson said it had been gruelling, adding: Theres very little time for a break and you never know whats coming round the corner at any point.

Private Graeme Thomson will be marching as part of the ceremonial parade (Royal Regiment of Scotland/PA)

Theres no bed or restful sleep at the end of a day either  its constant.

We set up tents and slept outside in the hours we could manage, but with the low March temperatures and the next test always around the corner, youre in a perpetual state of being on red alert.

L/Cpl McAllister said: Finding time to practice for the coronation has had to fit in around a seriously busy few months full of exercises and our wider combat training regime.

But I wouldnt have it any other way.

I joined the Army for the challenge and the opportunities it brings, and getting to step into these events that will be marked in the history books forever is definitely a bonus.

Its something I never thought Id be doing when I signed up.
Irelands premier has urged respect for those who support the monarchy in the UK after two opposition parliamentarians questioned the time Irish national broadcaster RTE is devoting to the Kings coronation.

Leo Varadkar stressed that the model of constitutional monarchy is backed by a majority of people in the United Kingdom as he responded to criticism levelled by two socialist TDs in the Dail parliament in Dublin.

Why is RTE showing four hours of coronation coverage on Saturday? The monarchy should be abolished  not celebrated. 100 million is being spent on this exercise in rehabilitation when 4 million children in Britain are in food poverty.  Paul Murphy  (@paulmurphy_TD) May 3, 2023

Paul Murphy and Richard Boyd Barrett from People Before Profit-Solidarity both raised concerns that RTE One is devoting four hours of televised coverage of Saturdays events in London.

Mr Murphy branded the monarchy an institution built on racism, privilege and empire and claimed the coronation was a very obvious attempt to rehabilitate that institution.

Some republicans are saying that they are going to attend this coronation on the grounds of reaching out to the unionist community, he said.

The King leaving Westminster Abbey in central London, following a rehearsal (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

We think it is perfectly possible and necessary to build a united socialist movement of working-class people from a Catholic background, Protestant background, and a non-religious background, not on the basis of this sort of anachronistic and hated institution, but on the basis of the interests of ordinary people and the need for a socialist Ireland in a socialist world.

Even in Britain only 29% of people think that the monarchy is very important, its an increasingly unpopular institution.

But, yet, if you turn on RTE on Saturday, youre going to be treated to four hours of the coronation.

Why on earth is our state broadcaster spending four hours on a Saturday displaying this so-called coronation?

Mr Boyd Barrett stressed that Ireland was a republic.

Whatever political differences there are, I think most of us identify with the aspect of it being republic, that we dont believe in kings and monarchs and inherited power and privilege, particularly when its associated with empire, with colonialism, with shocking inequalities between a tiny group who have that inherited power among the royal aristocracy and ordinary people, he said.

And against that background, while of course we all very, very much welcome the peace that arose from, or accompanied at least, the Good Friday Agreement, the idea that sort of building bridges should extend to us having an uncritical approach to a coronation, something by the way that most of the remaining royal houses in Europe have completely abandoned, they dont have coronations anymore, its not legally required.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Niall Carson/PA)

Yet this weekend, we are going to have huge amounts of public money in Britain spent on this coronation, an insult to huge numbers of people living in poverty in Britain.

Andthe national broadcaster in this country is going to broadcast this for four hours.

I mean, is that really an appropriate thing to be done from the standpoint of a republic?

Responding during a question and answer session in the Dail, Mr Varadkar said: The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy.

That position is supported by the majority of its people.

I think thats something we should respect.

Monarchies sometimes become republics.

Barbados was the latest to do that.

But they do when their people want to change their system of government and the majority of people in United Kingdom want a constitutional monarchy with a democratically elected parliament and government and I think we should respect their choices.
Suella Bravermans Home Office faced fresh questions from local Tories about a plan to moor a barge for asylum seekers in a Dorset harbour.

The Bibby Stockholm will house around 500 migrants when it is in position in Portland Port, despite the concerns of Conservative council and police chiefs.

The accommodation barge will head for an assessment and refurbishment in Falmouth, Cornwall, in the coming days before moving into position in Portland in the next few weeks.

But Spencer Flower, the Tory leader of Dorset Council said the authority remains opposed to the plan and said the Home Office has failed to answer questions about the scheme.

Dorset police and crime commissioner (PCC) David Sidwick demanded answers from the Home Secretary about funding for the extra policing that will be required.

Dorset police and crime commissioner David Sidwick (PA)

The Tory PCC said Dorset Police have started the necessary and detailed planning required to ensure both asylum seekers and residents will be kept safe.

Currently though, they also have detailed questions that need answering and that are necessary to ensure the safety of all concerned, he said.

I have been and remain in regular contact with both the Home Secretary and the policing minister with regard to the funding that will be required to meet the extra policing needs that this project will entail.

I am determined that the funding should not come from the current police budget or from the people of Dorset and I will continue to push the Government to fully fund the necessary security requirements brought about by the decision they have made to site this barge here in our county.

Council leader Mr Flower said: Dorset Councils position has not changed. We still have serious reservations about the appropriateness of Portland Port in this scenario and we remain opposed to the proposals.

However, like all local agencies, we have statutory responsibilities to fulfil and collectively we want to ensure robust arrangements are in place if this goes ahead.

We still have unanswered questions which we are waiting for the Home Office and the barge operator to respond to.

A forum including representatives from national, regional and local public sector agencies and the Home Office is meeting weekly to discuss the plan.

The Home Office has defended the plan, which is part of a series of schemes aimed at moving asylum seekers away from costly hotel accommodation.

A spokesman said: The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain.

We have been clear that the use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable  there are currently more than 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer 6 million a day.

We have to use alternative accommodation options, as our European neighbours are doing  including the use of barges and ferries to save the British taxpayer money.

Portland Ports chief executive Bill Reeves said asylum seekers will be given advice about cultural sensitivities and behaviour before being housed on the barge.

We understand that there are genuine concerns about the arrival of the accommodation facility for refugees at Portland, he said.

We wish to reassure local people that a great deal of effort and co-ordination is being carried out in relation to such issues as security, policing, health provision and other matters.

Mr Reeves said concerns about crime and anti-social behaviour have proven to be unfounded at other accommodation sites and there is no reason to expect any different here.

He added: I cannot think why people who have travelled thousands of miles and have risked their lives to get here would do anything to run the risk of their asylum claim being denied and them being deported.

Meanwhile, the latest figures showed 88 migrants were detected crossing the English Channel in two boats on Tuesday, taking the total for the year to 6,280.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made a pledge to stop the boats one of his key political priorities.
Toxic chemicals have been found in water spilling from a South Wales landfill through a woodland used by children and dog walkers, raising concerns about pollution to people, animals and the environment.

The Ty Llwyd quarry in the village of Ynysddu, Gwent, was used in the 1960s and 70s as a dump site by the now-defunct chemicals manufacturer Monsanto.

The company used it to dispose of various substances including carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have been shown to be toxic in humans and wildlife and are known as forever chemicals because they do not break down in the environment.

Village residents have complained multiple times about a foul-smelling brown, foamy liquid flowing from the quarry after heavy rain through the woodland, which they said has been happening for at least 20 years.

Testing of samples taken from water in an aeration chamber downstream from the landfill, which is designed to evaporate any hazardous substances, found a number of toxic and persistent industrial chemicals including a PCB.

Six samples were taken by independent councillors for Ynysddu, Jan Jones and Janine Reed; three from a stream running from the quarry, two from the woodlands soil and one from a pond in the aeration chamber. They were analysed in a Greenpeace laboratory.

Dr David Santillo, of Greenpeaces Science Unit, who analysed the samples, said: Some of the chemicals that we were finding in the woodland linked back to what was in the aeration pond and these are not naturally occurring chemicals.

They could only have come from industrial sources, theyre not things that you would normally find in nature and theyre quite toxic and persistent, so once theyre in the environment theyre very hard to get rid of.

Liquid from the Ty Llwyd quarry flowing beyond the boundaries of the aeration pond (Bronwen Weatherby/PA)

An aeration pond cannot deal with some of these persistent organic pollutants because theyre not going to evaporate over time. So if that aeration pond fills up, they will just wash off and go further down the gradient.

A scrutiny committee for Caerphilly County Borough Council (CCBC), which owns the quarry and the woodland, passed a motion on Tuesday night to back calls for a public inquiry into the contamination issues.

The council has also admitted that contaminated liquid from the quarry, known as leachate, did mix with rainwater in January which washed onto public land, though it said there was no public health risk.

Testing commissioned by CCBC in January at the edge of the woodland did not find any evidence of significant contamination.

Archived documents show there may be contamination from PCBs and other toxic chemicals across the England and Wales (source: PA investigation)

However, the lowest limit for PCB detection was set 10 times higher than the Environment Agencys minimum reporting level, so any PCBs present at this level would not have registered.

A CCBC spokesperson said: In December 2022, and January of this year, there was a prolonged period of wet weather and unfortunately the systems in place did not cope, resulting in water containing leachate leaving land owned by the council.

The council is currently looking at further improvements for this system and has entered into pre-application discussions with Natural Resources Wales to determine whether there is a requirement for a water discharge consent on the site in question.

Ms Reed said: There are people that transverse that woodland day in and day out walking their dogs, playing with their kids, having exercise. Theyre not protecting those people.

Dogs paws are walking in this. There are kids in there digging up dirt because theyre building dens and all kinds of stuff.

Theyre going home, probably not washing their hands and theyre eating and drinking. It frightens me and the council doesnt seem to want to take this seriously.

Ty Llwyd was not the only site used by Monsanto. A combination of documents published after legal cases in the US and freedom of information requests have revealed that PCB waste may be lying in dozens of unregulated landfills across England and Wales and sitting in the sediment of major estuaries.

Monsanto manufactured PCBs in the UK from a plant in Newport, South Wales, filling quarries around the area with hazardous waste.

Documents show they discussed transporting waste to Shropshire, Merseyside and Cumbria and detail how a large number of damaged drums containing PCBs were offloaded from a ship on Teesside.

Monsanto employees also discussed PCB waste being discharged into the environment by one of their customers in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, in the Thames catchment.

Dr David Megson, an environmental chemist at Manchester Metropolitan University, said landfills shouldnt be a significant source of PCBs but they probably are.

The researcher added: There is a common perception that PCB pollution is a thing of the past. It is absolutely not.

Although environmental levels have declined they are starting to plateau and this level is still way beyond the toxic threshold for wildlife.

Given that most marine mammals contain toxic levels of PCBs, and we live on an island where fish is an important food source, we should be doing everything in our power to limit their release to the environment.
Adverts for ultrasound services have been banned for misrepresenting the extent to which scans can provide reassurance about the wellbeing of an unborn baby.

The ads for London Private Ultrasound (LPU) and the Meet Your Miracle private scan studio were both likely to mislead parents about the extent to which they could provide reassurance about a babys health, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled.

Both rulings are part of a wider investigation by the ASA into private pregnancy ultrasound scans.

The London Private Ultrasound ad banned by the ASA (ASA/PA)

The website for LPU, seen last May, said the service offered various scans including a reassurance scan costing 100 to reduce your parental anxiety and to confirm a normal progress of your pregnancy.

The website said this was suitable for parents to be if you would like to confirm a healthy pregnancy, if you have pain or bleeding or if you cannot feel the babys movements.

This scan is not routinely offered in NHS but at LPU we offer you a reassurance scan to provide you a piece (sic) of mind about the health of your baby and your pregnancy.

Meet Your Miracles website, also seen last May, said: Award winning pregnancy scan studios offering a range of ultrasound scans including wellbeing checks for you and your family, and Reassurance, dating Scan + Wellbeing check 59.00.

The Meet Your Miracle website (ASA/PA)

The ASA investigated whether the ads misleadingly represented the extent to which the scans could assess the health and wellbeing of an embryo from seven or eight weeks.

Ultrasound London Ltd, trading as LPU, said its ad was never intended to suggest the reassurance scan provided extra medical information to the patient but rather to address any concerns the patient may have.

LPU said it immediately removed the listing for the scan from their website.

Meet Your Miracle said a simple measure of wellbeing might be whether the baby is alive, which is possible to determine from observing a heartbeat, which is visible at seven weeks.

The ASA said LPUs ad was not sufficiently clear that there were differences or limitations in the extent of possible assessments over the course of pregnancy, particularly at an early stage from eight weeks.

It ruled: Given the emphasis on providing reassurance and using the scan to confirm the health of the foetus, and in the absence of further information clarifying what the scan assessed and was able to perceive, particularly from the very early stage of eight weeks into a pregnancy, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.

The ASA ruled Meet Your Miracles ad had also not made sufficiently clear the extent to which it could provide reassurance or determine the wellbeing of an embryo, particularly from the early stage of pregnancy from seven weeks.

The watchdog banned both ads from appearing again.
Actress Vanessa Kirby has opened up about overcoming self-doubt in her childhood, and starring as a villain in the latest Mission: Impossible film.

The Crown star spoke to Harpers Bazaar about finding confidence through acting, as she prepares to play White Widow in the American action franchise.

Kirby, who played Princess Margaret in The Crowns first and second series, said she knew she wanted to act from a young age.

She told the magazine: I was very sensitive. I had no idea how I would become an actress, but I knew it was what I wanted to do; it was what made me feel happiest, it was what made me feel most free, least judged somehow.

I had so much self-doubt growing up  oh my goodness, I still do. I have made peace with the fact that it is there.

Its the practice of letting it be in the passenger seat. You have to say: You are not going to drive but you can be here.

The 35-year-old Bafta-winning actress said Christopher McQuarrie, director of Mission: Impossible  Dead Reckoning Part One, gave her loads of books on power to prepare for her role as the villain.

Speaking about White Widow, she said: She comes from an underground crime family, so I wanted to know, how did they get into arms?

Vanessa Kirby at the Mission: Impossible  Fallout premiere (Ian West/PA)

I did all sorts of research, and Christopher McQuarrie gave me loads of books on power and how to transmit power, how calm is the thing that is most powerful  the more you reel it in, the more intimidating it is.

Kirby said her co-star Tom Cruise is the most passionate actor.

He knows more about cinema, cares more about it, than anyone I have ever met, she said.

He also believes anything is possible, and that really inspires everyone around him to believe in what their own mission is.

Mission: Impossible  Dead Reckoning Part One will be released by Paramount Pictures on July 12 in the US and two days later in the UK.

The June issue of Harpers Bazaar UK is on sale from May 4.
Dont like the songs on this weeks music charts? Blame it on the weather.

Scientists have found that weather conditions as well as seasonal patterns can play a role in shaping a listeners song preferences, which in turn, may have an impact on its success in the UK music charts.

Researchers at the University of Oxford found that dance songs which evoked positive emotions of joy and happiness performed better in the charts when the weather was warm and sunny, when compared with cold and rainy months.

They also found that popular songs had a stronger association with the weather, compared with less popular ones.

The researchers said their findings, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, challenge the view that success in the music industry is solely based on the quality of the music.

Dr Manuel Anglada-Tort, a lecturer in the Faculty of Music and head of the Music, Culture, and Cognition Lab at Oxford University, said: Our study suggests that favourable environmental conditions, such as warm and sunny weather, induce positive emotional states in listeners, which in turn, leads them to choose to listen to energetic and positive music, potentially to match their current mood.

He added: Thus, it highlights the importance of considering broad environmental factors when analysing the success of songs in the music market, and provides insight into how music choices are influenced by external factors beyond the music itself.

Dr Anglada-Tort and his colleagues analysed more than 23,000 songs that reached the weekly charts in the UK in the last 70 years, gathering historical data from the Met Office as well as Official Charts.

They measured three different weather conditions: daily temperature, daily hours of sunshine, and days of rain.

Dr Anglada-Tort said: The UK presents a compelling case study to investigate the impact of weather on behaviour due to its well-known climate patterns, with lots of rain and notable changes in weather.

Using machine learning techniques, the researchers were able to determine each songs musical features such as melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, dynamics, and tempo.

The team found that songs which were energetic, danceable, and evoked positive emotions  such as Temperature by Sean Paul (2005)  performed better during warm and sunny weather when compared with rainy and cold months.

They also found that hyper-popular songs in the top 10 of the charts showed the strongest associations with weather fluctuations.

Meanwhile, songs that were of low intensity and had negative emotions of sadness  such as Never Gonna Fall In Love Again by Dana (1976)  did not appear to be influenced by the weather.

Dr Anglada-Tort said: This suggests that negative emotional states may be more influenced by individual situational factors rather than general environmental conditions.

The researchers said their work only shows a link between music success in the charts and the weather conditions so the results must be interpreted with caution.

Dr Anglada-Tort said: Using our methods, we cannot establish any causal effect between weather and music preferences.

Moreover, alternative explanations may account for our results, such as the role of industry gatekeepers or recommender systems that decide which music is available to consumers.
The world is on the cusp of a first generation of treatments for Alzheimers disease, experts have said, as a new drug was found to slow cognitive and functional decline.

The drug donanemab, made by Eli Lilly and Company, slowed decline by 35% to 36% in a late-stage phase 3 clinical trial, the company said.

Donanemab appeared to slow the decline associated with Alzheimers compared with placebo in 1,182 people with early-stage disease based on those with intermediate levels of a protein known as tau.

The drug also resulted in 40% less decline in the ability to perform activities of daily living, according to the firm.

Almost half (47%) of those on donanemab had no clinical progression of disease at one year compared with 29% on placebo (defined as no decline in the commonly-used Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Sum of Boxes score).

Furthermore, participants on donanemab experienced a 39% lower risk of progressing to the next stage of disease compared to placebo, according to Eli Lilly.

In those patients receiving donanemab, brain swelling, a known side effect of drugs of this type, occurred in 24% of the participants, with 6.1% experiencing symptoms.

Brain bleeding occurred in 31.4% of the donanemab group and 13.6% of the placebo group.

Lilly said the incidence of serious brain swelling in the donanemab study was 1.6%, including two participants whose deaths were attributed to the condition and a third who died after an incident of serious brain swelling.

It said most cases of swelling or bleeds were mild to moderate and responded to treatment.

Daniel Skovronsky, Eli Lillys chief scientific and medical officer, said: This is the first phase 3 trial of any investigational medicine for Alzheimers disease to deliver 35% slowing of clinical and functional decline.

Dr Richard Oakley, associate director of research at the Alzheimers Society in the UK, said: After 20 years with no new Alzheimers drugs, we now have two potential new drugs in just 12 months  and for the first time, drugs that seem to slow the progression of disease. This could be the beginning of the end of Alzheimers disease.

Based on todays early results, donanemab appears to slow the progression of Alzheimers symptoms by 36% (as compared with 27% of last years breakthrough drug lecanemab).

Promisingly, the trial also demonstrated a 40% slowing in decline of everyday activities such as driving, doing hobbies and managing finances.

While weve seen lecanemab could slow progression by over seven months, well need to see the full results to know if donanemab could do the same or even better.

Dr Susan Kolhaas, executive director of research and partnerships at Alzheimers Research UK, said: This is incredibly encouraging, and another hugely significant moment for dementia research.

A second drug for Alzheimers has been shown to slow peoples cognitive decline in a rigorous phase 3 trial. Were now on the cusp of a first generation of treatments for Alzheimers disease, something that many thought impossible only a decade ago.

The treatment effect is modest, as is the case for many first-generation drugs, and there are risks of serious side effects that need to be fully scrutinised before donanemab can be marketed and used.

However, this news underlines the urgency of preparing the NHS to make these treatments available should regulators deem them safe and effective.

People should be really encouraged by this news, which is yet more proof that research can take us ever closer towards a cure.

Dr Charles Marshall, honorary consultant neurologist at Queen Mary University of London, said: This is hugely exciting news as it provides further evidence that it is possible to slow down Alzheimers disease.

When the full results are published as a paper we will be able to start carefully balancing the risks and benefits, and this will inform decisions about whether donanemab should be routinely given to patients with Alzheimers disease.

For this to be possible, we will also need substantial new investment in dementia clinics that can deliver accurate diagnosis, treatments that are given as infusions, and appropriate safety monitoring.

Without this, there is a very real risk that existing health inequalities are exacerbated as only a few patients living near large teaching hospitals will be able to benefit.

John Hardy, professor of neuroscience and group leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute, University College London, said: It is great news to have a success with a second anti-amyloid Alzheimer drug.

This should dispel any lingering doubts about this approach. Having two drugs is great for competition.

Dr Tom Russ, director of the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre, said: The results of the donanemab trial are very welcome and will bring many people with dementia and their families some much-needed hope.

The top line results do not give much detail and the publication of the full results in the summer will be very helpful.

While this is another encouraging development, the UK NHS is not ready to implement an infusion-based therapy such as donanemab or lecanemab, should they become licensed treatments in the UK.

There needs to be significant support for struggling dementia assessment services which are still emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic to continue to diagnose, treat, and support people currently presenting while developing new ways to implement the disease-modifying treatments of the (near) future.

The study also enrolled a smaller number of people (552) with high levels of tau, representing later stages of the disease.

When this group was combined with the intermediate tau group, donanemab also demonstrated meaningful positive results, Eli Lilly said, with a 29% slowing of decline on the commonly used Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Sum of Boxes.
Humza Yousaf has dismissed Alex Salmonds suggestion that police should have been used to prevent the Stone of Destiny being moved from Edinburgh Castle.

The First Minister said the ancient stone is all (Mr Salmonds) been talking about recently.

The Alba Party leader had said that Scottish police should have staged a standoff outside Edinburgh Castle, preventing the historic artefact from being moved to London for the Kings coronation.

He said such a move could have been used as a bargaining tool in the push for a second independence referendum.

Humza Yousaf oversaw the departure of the Stone of Destiny (Russell Cheyne/PA)

The stone was taken to London last week to be used in the coronation, with Mr Yousaf attending a ceremony during which it was removed from its resting place at Edinburgh Castle.

The stone has been used to crown monarchs of Scotland  and later the UK  in a tradition dating back centuries.

Mr Yousaf was asked about the former first ministers comments as he spoke to journalists at an anti-poverty summit in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

He said: Alex Salmond should remember of course that operational matters are for Police Scotland.

Its not for the First Minister to tell the police what to do, but of course it wouldnt have been the right thing to do even if those powers did exist.

Alex Salmond can sit there and talk about the Stone of Destiny all day long.

Alex Salmond has said he will attend a pro-independence rally on the day of the Kings coronation (PA)

It seems its all hes been talking about over the last few weeks.

Im committed to talking about reducing poverty, the cost-of-living crisis, investing in our public services.

Mr Salmond, a former SNP leader who is now a vocal critic of the party, said he would be speaking at a pro-independence rally on Saturday  the day of the coronation.

He told Andrew Marr on Tuesday: You dont command very much as first minister of Scotland, but you do command the Scottish police force, you could have put a ring of policemen around Edinburgh Castle.

Have a standoff on the Esplanade and politely explain to the world that Scotland should not sacrifice its symbol of sovereignty until that sovereignty is at least recognised by Westminster.
FILE -In this illustration photographed in La Habra, Calif., the AirTag tracking device is introduced during a virtual event held to announce new Apple products, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Apple and Google on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, disclosed they are teaming up in an effort to thwart unwanted tracking on smartphones through Bluetooth devices designed to help people find their keys, keep tabs on their luggage and locate other things they dont want to line. The two companies behind the iPhone and the software that powers Android phones said they submitted a proposal to set standards for combatting secret surveillance on Apples AirTag trackers and similar gadgets to Internet Engineering Task Force. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Apple and Google are teaming up to thwart unwanted tracking through Bluetooth devices that were created to help people find lost keys, keep tabs on luggage or to locate other things that have a tendency to be misplaced or lost.

The two companies behind the iPhone and the software that powers Android phones on Tuesday submitted a proposal to set standards for combatting secret surveillance on Apple's AirTag trackers and similar gadgets. The concept also has the backing of Samsung, which sells the most Android smartphones worldwide, as well as tracking products similar to the AirTag such as Tile, Chipolo, and Pebblebee.

The $30 AirTag has become a popular item since its 2021 release, helping users pinpoint the locations of a wide variety of lost property. But stalkers have also deployed AirTags and similar products to shadow former love interests and other people who dont realize they are being tracked.

Bluetooth trackers have created tremendous user benefits, but they also bring the potential of unwanted tracking, which requires industrywide action to solve, said Dave Burke, Googles vice president of Engineering for Android.

Apple and AirTag hope to have a plan in place by the end of this year to thwart stealth tracking. The solution would be distributed through software updates to iPhones and Android phones.

Erica Olsen, the senior director of National Network to End Domestic Violences Safety Net Project, applauded the effort to set an industry standard that she believes will help protect survivors of abusive relationships and other people that have been targets of stealth technology. These new standards will minimize opportunities for abuse of this technology and decrease the burden on survivors in detecting unwanted trackers, Olsen said.
Jared Wise, circled, at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Former FBI. (U.S. District Court Washington) (U.S. District Court Washington)

WASHINGTON  The FBI this week arrested a former bureau supervisor in connection with the Jan. 6 riot who they said called for killing officers protecting the Capitol that day.

Authorities arrested Jared L. Wise in Oregon on Monday, court records show. An FBI affidavit says he worked as a special agent and a supervisory special agent at the FBI from 2004 until 2017.

It wasnt immediately clear where Wise was employed at the time of the riot.

Wise was charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly conduct in a restricted building; disorderly conduct with an intent to impede an orderly session of Congress; and unlawfully parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

"Im formerIm former law enforcement. Youre disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You cant see it. ... Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! federal authorities say he told officers after he entered the Capitol. Yeah, f them! Yeah, kill em! Kill em! Kill em! Kill em!

Jared Wise, circled, at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Former FBI. (U.S. District Court Washington)

The FBI said that security video showed Wise entered the Capitol through the Senate wing door and that cellphone data confirmed his presence. He later exited out a window, it said.

The incident when Wise yelled at police took place on the upper west terrace at around 4:21 p.m., when violence against police officers was happening in front of him, "including officers being knocked to the ground directly in front of him," the FBI affidavit said. That's when Wise "turned in the direction of the violence" and called for the mob to kill officers, the FBI affidavit said.

The initial tip came from someone Wise told about entering the building, according to the affidavit. Wise was living in New Braunfels, Texas, until last June, authorities said, and then moved to Bend, Oregon.

An attorney for Wise did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Federal authorities have arrested at least 1,000 people in connection with the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, including multiple current and former law enforcement officers. Shortly after the attack, a top FBI official warned that many within the bureau were sympathetic to the mob.

Reached for comment on Wise's arrest, an FBI spokesperson said, We refer you to the public court documents on the case and dont have any additional comment.

This week, the FBI also arrested Daniel Ball, a Florida man charged with setting off an explosive device inside a tunnel where some of the most violent scenes took place during the Capitol attack.

CORRECTION (May 3, 2023, 8:47 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated when Wise called officers Nazis and yelled, Yeah, kill em! It was after he left the Capitol, not before, according to court documents.
More than 300 children, including two 10-year-olds, were found working at McDonald's restaurants across Kentucky and several other states in violation of federal labor laws, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

In one case, investigators found two 10-year-olds were working unpaid and until as late as 2 a.m. at one McDonald's restaurant in Louisville operated by Bauer Food LLC, which is based in Louisville, the department said in a news release.

The two children prepared and distributed food orders, cleaned the store, worked at the drive-thru window and operated a register, investigators found. One of them was also allowed to operate a deep fryer, a task prohibited for workers under the age of 16 under federal law.

Most of the restaurants, 45 of the 62, were in Kentucky, according to data released by the department.

The two 10-year-olds were among at least 305 children found to have been employed in violation of federal labor laws across 62 McDonalds locations in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio, operated under three franchisees  Bauer Food LLC, Archways Richwood LLC and Bell Restaurant Group I LLC, the Labor Department said.

Bauer Food LLC said the two 10-year-olds alleged to have been employed at the McDonalds restaurant were children of a night manager who were visiting their parent at work and were not approved by franchisee organization management to be in that part of the restaurant.

The franchisee said it had since taken steps to ensure policies regarding children visiting a parent or guardian at work were clear to all employees.

"These reports are unacceptable, deeply troubling and run afoul of the high expectations we have for the entire McDonalds brand," Tiffanie Boyd, senior vice president and chief people officer at McDonalds USA, said in a statement. "It is not lost on us the significant responsibility we carry to ensure a positive and safe experience for everyone under the Arches."

"I know how important it is that every restaurant fosters a culture of safety. As a mother whose teenage son proudly worked at our local McDonalds, I feel this on a very personal level," she added. "We are committed to ensuring our franchisees have the resources they need to foster safe workplaces for all employees and maintain compliance with all labor laws."

Archways Richwood LLC did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NBC News early Wednesday. A LinkedIn account appearing to belong to the owner of Bell Restaurant Group I LLC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A McDonald's restaurant at 420 E. Market St. in Louisville, Ky., is one of those named by the Labor Department. (Google Maps)

Too often, employers fail to follow the child labor laws that protect young workers, Karen Garnett-Civils, the Wage and Hour Division district director in Louisville, said in a statement. Under no circumstances should there ever be a 10-year-old child working in a fast-food kitchen around hot grills, ovens and deep fryers.

The employers face civil money penalties with an estimated combined total of more than $212,000.

Archways Richwood LLC, based in Walton, was found to have allowed 242 children between the ages of 14 and 15 to work beyond allowable hours. Most worked earlier or later in the day than the law permits and more than three hours on school days, the Labor Department said. The employer was expected to be fined an estimated $143,566 in civil money penalties for the violations.

Bell Restaurant Group I LLC, based in Louisville, allowed 39 children between the ages of 14 and 15 to work outside allowable hours, the department said. The employer was expected to face an estimated $29,267 in civil money penalties, the department said.

Bauer Food LLC employed 24 children under the age of 16 to work more than legally permitted hours, according to the department. The employer was expected to be fined an estimated $39,711 in penalties.

Garnett-Civils said the latest incidents came amid an "increase in federal child labor violations, including allowing minors to operate equipment or handle types of work that endangers them or employs them for more hours or later in the day than federal law allows."

While most cases with child labor violations involve minors working longer and later hours than the law permits, the Labor Department found at least 688 minors employed illegally in hazardous occupations in fiscal year 2022, the highest annual count since fiscal year 2011.

Among those was a 15-year-old who was injured while using a deep fryer at a McDonalds in Morristown, Tennessee, in June 2022, it said.

One child injured at work is one too many. Child labor laws exist to ensure that when young people work, the job does not jeopardize their health, well-being or education, Garnett-Civils added.
A girl who was rescued through a Project Dynamo evacuation mission in Sudan following weeks of civil war. (Project Dynamo)

When Bryan Stern launched a humanitarian effort to rescue Americans and other vulnerable people during the 2021 turmoil in Afghanistan, he didnt expect hed still be extracting people during a conflict two years later  only this time in Sudan.

As the East African nation falls into civil warfare, Sterns representatives confirmed that his nonprofit, Project Dynamo, rescued around 90 Americans, [U.S.] allies and their families over the weekend. The organization successfully landed a charter aircraft in Cairo with evacuees from Sudan, it said, arriving at Cairo International Airport at 6 a.m. on Monday.

The large-scale rescue operation, dubbed: RHINO RIVER, is focused on evacuating Americans and residents of other NATO and allied countries from the Sudan war zone to safety, Sterns press team said in an email. This is the second time Project DYNAMO [was] the first to land a charter plane in a conflict zone to rescue Americans, the first was in Afghanistan.

Bryan Stern, founder of Project Dynamo, holding flag at right, poses with Americans, U.S. allies and their families after his nonprofit rescued them from armed conflict in Sudan. (Project Dynamo)

Mohamed Mahgoubs wife, son and two daughters were visiting extended family in Sudan for about a year. After the school year, they were to return to the U.S. and rejoin him in San Leandro, Calif. He even had a flight on May 29 booked for them. But then the conflict erupted.

There was no way for me to fly in so I [could] live or die with my family, Mahgoub said. There [was] no way for me to get them out of there. I saw these things going on, and I saw other nations taking care of their citizens.

He added that he could hear bombs and bullets firing when talking to his family on the phone. Eventually, Mahgoub said a friend told him about Project Dynamo, so he filled out an application, and he said the organization responded within three or four minutes.

In the Rhino River operation, Stern and his crew were able to rescue Mahgoub's family.

Im happy for my kids to be safe, but at the same time, I feel like I have a responsibility to Project Dynamo, Mahgoub said. Because if that's what they are doing, everyone needs to jump in and help. It's like we cannot just leave them alone trying to save the entire world by themselves. So I feel gratitude, I really appreciate what they did for me. I owe them, I owe them my life.

Mohamed Mahgoubs son, Abdullah, and wife, Lamees Babikar Mohamed, with Stern after he helped rescue them in Sudan. (Project Dynamo)

Stern founded Project Dynamo, which describes itself as a veteran-led, donor-funded, international rescue organization, in 2021 in Tampa. When the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan caused mayhem in Kabul, the capital city, his group evacuated Americans and American allies.

Now Sterns organization is helping people in Sudan, where a civil war has recently erupted between the army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces. The military factions, which are loyal to rival generals, are battling in the capital, Khartoum, and across the country. The death toll has exceeded more than 520, according to a recent report, with nearly 5,000 injured.

Our vehicles are on the street pulling Americans as we speak, as I'm talking to you right now, Stern told Yahoo News in an interview via Zoom on April 26.

Last week provided a critical opportunity for Project Dynamo, as both sides in Sudan agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire that was extended for an extra 72 hours through Sunday, although the Associated Press reported that gunfire and heavy artillery fire persisted over the weekend.

The ceasefire is only as good as the people who follow it, which is most, but not all, Stern said. A ceasefire is kind of like a speed limit. Most people follow it. Some people, a lot of people, break it every now and then. Then there are some people that look at that sign, and it's like, [they] don't care.

When violent conflict breaks out in a country, the American government will often evacuate its embassy, but many other Americans living there may be left to fend for themselves.

Smoke rises in Khartoum, Sudan, on April 29 as gunfire and heavy artillery fire continued despite a ceasefire. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)

Thats when private organizations like Project Dynamo step in. The group is funded by donations and is trying to execute exfiltration missions for the hundreds of people in Sudan who it says have reached out to it.

Withdrawal from Sudan

On April 15, conflict erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The U.S. sent special operations troops into Khartoum on April 22 to airlift embassy staffers and government personnel.

The White House said on April 24 that the U.S. would still try to help thousands of Americans left behind in Sudan who are seeking to escape the fighting.

In a press briefing last week, Jake Sullivan, President Bidens national security adviser, defended the decision for U.S. forces and personnel to depart Sudan, saying the U.S. was now remotely assisting Americans trying to flee the country by road.

However, following criticism about leaving Americans behind, the U.S. evacuated three groups of American citizens, as well as their immediate family members and nationals from allied and partner countries, on April 29, April 30 and May 1, according to State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel.

U.S. soldiers escort American nationals to a U.S. Navy ship in Port Sudan on April 30. (AP Photo/Smowal Abdalla)

The convoys transported more than 700 people to Port Sudan, a Sudanese city on the Red Sea, where they could be removed from the conflict. Tens of thousands of people in Sudan have arrived at border crossings into Chad and Egypt, and the U.N. projects that the number will eventually reach 800,000.

In response to a request for comment from Yahoo News before the weekend rescues, the State Department forwarded a previous briefing from Patel.

We remain dedicated to assisting U.S. citizens in Sudan. As Secretary [Antony] Blinken said, we are actively helping U.S. citizens who seek to depart Sudan to move overland to a location where they can more easily exit the country, Patel said in a prepared statement at the briefing.

He encouraged U.S. citizens in Sudan to complete the crisis intake form on the State Department website so department officials can contact them.

Patel added that fewer than 5,000 U.S. citizens have requested additional information from the State Department, and of those only a fraction have actively sought our assistance to depart Sudan.

Responding to a question from Yahoo News about thoughts on Project Dynamo's efforts, a department spokesperson reiterated Patels comments, adding, We have a team of consular officers in Washington, D.C., who are working around the clock to communicate directly with U.S. citizens.

Other missions Project Dynamo assisted in

Stern, who lives in Tampa, grew up in New York City. He initially enlisted in the Army and then became a naval officer, becoming a lieutenant commander and serving 25 years in special operations.

He also considered becoming a lawyer or joining the FBI. But now his full-time job is extracting people from conflict zones.

Stern at work for Project Dynamo. (Project Dynamo)

Project Dynamo now has thousands of donors and an average donation size of $217, he said, and is looking for corporate sponsors and major companies serve as donors. Right now it has about 17 volunteers, a number that ebbs and flows based on availability.

When rescuing people, the group typically charters an aircraft. For the first rescue in Kyiv on day one of the Russia-Ukraine war, Stern said he drove people to safety.

He originally expected Project Dynamo to be a three-month-long operation to help in Afghanistan.

When we started, it was really about honoring our promise to our partners that had fought with us for 20 years that we left behind, Stern said. Thats how it started: helping Afghans, Afghan commandos, Afghan judges, womens rights folks, translators, those kinds of people that have helped us out over Americas longest war. Then it turned into Holy cow, theres a whole bunch of Americans left behind.

Then Stern found himself helping out in Ukraine.

In January 2022, as the Russian invasion began to look more likely, we had a big donor that said ... I actually have an office in Ukraine. And I have a lot of Ukrainian friends. And I actually used to live in Ukraine, this donor told me. Is Dynamo going to Ukraine?

Inside a Project Dynamo refugee tent in Ukraine. This was more than 100 days into the Russian invasion into the country. (Project Dynamo)

In Ukraine, Stern said the group did the first rescue of Americans in the country. He said missiles dropped around 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2022, and Project Dynamo left Kyiv within an hour with a bus packed with 20 people. The organization is still helping out with withdrawals in Ukraine and Afghanistan, having carried out operations in those countries this week alone.

Project Dynamo has also helped out much closer to home, heading to Fort Myers, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

We were in the water, boats in the water conducting operations before the Coast Guard, before Sanibel Fire Department, before the Florida State Police, before Florida Fish & Wild, Stern said.

Serving the evacuees

A bus of Americans, U.S. allies and their families after being rescued from Sudan by Project Dynamo. (Project Dynamo)

By nature, Project Dynamo volunteers are put into dangerous and daring situations. Stern said they are not armed and often cant use every mode of transportation, depending on the nation and conflict.

Weve had a few sources that have been killed, and weve had a few people detained or arrested and interrogated over time, as recently as [April 25], he said. The people I serve are the [evacuees]. I dont have an ambassador to give me approval. I dont have a colonel to judge or to say thats too risky.
Davis police are hunting a monster. And its extremely likely the suspect is a serial killer, experts say.

The person behind three stabbings in the normally quiet college town is likely full of rage and has targeted his victims with no clear connection to one another, criminal experts told The Sacramento Bee. Given Davis relative isolation, 15 miles west of Sacramento and surrounded by farmland, the suspect probably lives in the city.

Its also possible the person responsible is battling mental illness.

The chances that these cases are not linked is very small, said Mark Safarik, a former Davis police detective and investigator with the FBIs behavioral analysis unit. One of the things here is we dont really have a motive, Davis is a relatively small community, and its very likely these cases are linked.

By definition, Sararnik said, two or more homicides separated by time are serial killings.

The nature of the killings has added to the gravity of the case. The first two victims died of multiple stab wounds after being attacked in city parks. The third was a homeless woman stabbed multiple times through her tent; she was in critical condition Tuesday.

It could be someone so rageful, so intent on doing harm that hes just seeking out the most vulnerable, said Michael Vitiello, a criminal law scholar at the University of the Pacifics McGeorge School of Law. Think about the violence, the rageness that you have to have.

Law enforcement officials have not definitively linked the three attacks, but have said they share similarities, including the brutal nature of the crimes. Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig said law enforcement agencies in the region are responding with all hands on deck.

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said, to his knowledge, the city has never encountered a wave of stabbings similar to this one in at least the past 40 years.

This is different, he told reporters Tuesday. These attacks were particularly violent and brazen.

Davis police are likely being cautious before labeling the crimes the work of a serial killer.

Once you label someone as being a serial killer, the case takes on a whole other life, Safarik said. He said media attention intensifies and task forces are formed, attracting law enforcement from around the nation.

Its going to change the dynamics of the case, he said. They want to be absolutely certain.

Law enforcement vehicles and police tape block multiple streets Tuesday in Davis, including at Third and L streets, following a stabbing at a homeless encampment overnight. It was the third stabbing in the city in less than a week.

Up close and personal

Stabbing murders are not rare, but serial stabbings involving multiple victims are uncommon, law enforcement officials said.

Its a completely different kind of crime, former Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said. Its up close and personal. Youve got to feel the force of the weapon as it penetrates the body.

Stabbings are not rare, certainly, but a serial stabbing? Im not thinking of any.

A series of stabbings presents an unusual challenge to law enforcement.

When victims are killed by gunfire, the shots are often heard by others, hastening police response to the scene. In stabbings, however, there may be little audible evidence, giving suspects extra time to flee, experts said. All three of the Davis attacks have also occurred at night, police said.

The first killing occurred Thursday, when 50-year-old David Henry Breaux was found dead in the citys Central Park. Breaux, known in the community as the Compassion Guy, was likely killed hours before his body was found, meaning there were no witnesses to the act, Pytel said.

There appeared to be a witness to the killing of UC Davis student Karim Abou Najm, 20, in Sycamore Park on Saturday night. Police said a neighbor heard a disturbance and went outside to find Najm suffering from multiple stab wounds.

Multiple people were also nearby when a homeless woman was stabbed late Monday in an encampment near Second and L streets. Police conducted a detailed search of the downtown Davis area, the department said. Still, after a brief call to shelter in place, an army of officers from multiple jurisdictions ended the manhunt without a suspect in custody.

Police said they were looking for an assailant described as a light-complected male, between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-9. The man had a thin build wearing a black or blue sweatshirt, black Adidas pants with white stripes, black shoes carrying a brown backpack.

Investigating stabbings

If the attacks are connected, the fact that the victims were stabbed may help investigators connect the crimes. There may be evidence, particularly DNA evidence, left at the scene of attacks in which the suspect and victim came into close contact.

Without knowing the facts of a particular case, it is possible DNA is left behind in stabbings, said former Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, whose office helped break the notorious Golden State Killer case using DNA and genealogy. Given the latest technology and advancements in DNA, I would anticipate law enforcement is doing everything it can to identify potential forensic evidence.

Pytel, the Davis police chief, said his department was consulting with the FBI to help determine whether the attacks are the work of a serial killer. Experts said knives are an uncommon weapon used in serial killings.

The reason stabbings are less likely in serial killings is its harder to kill, Vitiello said. You need to get close and its more likely youll be detected.

Homicides in general are also extremely rare in Davis. There were just nine homicides in the city between 2012 and 2021, according to the California Department of Justice. And the city had just one last year, according to records maintained by The Sacramento Bee.

One of the more heinous killings came in April 2013, when then-15-year-old Daniel Marsh used a hunting knife to slice open a screen window on an elderly couples south Davis condominium.

Marsh, who had covered his shoe soles with tape to quiet any noise, slipped inside the bedroom and butchered 87-year-old Oliver Chip Northup and his 76-year-old wife, Claudia Maupin.

Marsh, who eventually was sentenced to 52 years to life, told investigators he watched the couple sleep before stabbing them more than 60 times.

There have been recent high-profile mass stabbings in North America.

Last weekend, three people were injured during a random series of stabbings in Toronto, Canadas largest city. In October, a man was charged in connection with the stabbings of eight people, two fatally, on the Las Vegas strip. He was later found unfit for trial.

And in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last year, a 42-year-old man was arrested after police said he rode around the city on a bicycle and stabbed 11 people over the course of a weekend.
In the shadow of Caernarfon Castle, for centuries a hulking symbol of English imperial power, bookshop proprietor Selwyn Jones was chatting in Welsh with customers and deciding on a window display for Britains coming coronation weekend.

The chosen works didnt center on King Charles III, despite a close local connection to the monarch who is to be symbolically anointed Saturday in London. Charles Philip Arthur George, then a gawky 20-year-old, was crowned Prince of Wales nearly 55 years ago in the crenelated fortress that dominates this pretty Welsh town.

To mark the upcoming occasion, Jones was curating literary works on the Welsh royal line that in effect ended in 1283, when Wales prince-in-waiting Dafydd ap Gruffydd was killed on orders of Englands King Edward I. The execution inaugurated the tradition  at the time, intended as a humiliating blow to a conquered populace  of bestowing the title Prince of Wales upon the eldest son of the English king.

This is the most Welsh town in the universe, said Jones, pointing to the areas role in recent years as a center of Welsh-language revival and nationalistic sentiment. So as far as the coronation goes, theres a feeling of, well, ambivalence  and that at best.

As Charles formally ascends the British throne at Westminster Abbey, millions of his compatriots will cheer the continuity of the worlds most famous monarchy, whose storied roots date back a millennium.

The lavish display of pomp and ancient ritual, however, belies a deepening sense of drift and disaffection in corners of a kingdom that consists, as Americans sometimes need to be reminded, not only of England, but also Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland  all of which have their own complicated takes on the matter.

Or perhaps not so complicated.

Figures of King Charles III and Queen Camilla adorn a mailbox in Rhyl, Wales, ahead of Saturday's coronation in London. (Paul Ellis / AFP/Getty Images)

No, no, no, it means nothing to me, absolutely nothing, said David Singh, a merchant and native of the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. For decades, he has sold fine Scottish woolens on the citys famed Royal Mile, just up the street from the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the monarchs official residence in the city.

Like many in Edinburgh, Singh, who has ancestral roots in India, was abidingly fond of Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September at age 96 at her beloved Balmoral Castle, her Highlands retreat 75 miles to the north. The monarchs first funerary rites took place in the historic Scottish capital, and thousands lined the rainy route of her cortege to pay respects.

But affection for a stoic, self-effacing sovereign, who was just 25 when she became queen, doesnt necessarily accrue to Charles.

I dont think this king can replace her, ever, Singh said. So it can be really hard to see the point of it all.

In the United Kingdom as a whole, the monarchy still enjoys broad if diminishing support. Surveys suggest that overall, around one-third of Britons dont much care one way or the other about the coronation.

Far from Westminster Abbey or Buckingham Palace, though, that sense of psychological remove is magnified.

The evidence from polling is that in Scotland, support for the monarchy has been falling quite rapidly in recent years, said Murray Pittock, a historian and literature professor at the University of Glasgow. Theres quite a gap growing.

Outside England, each of the kingdoms constituent countries has its own reasons for restiveness. Economic hardship is a common thread, with nationalist



sentiment, historical grievance, changing demographics and evolving social mores woven through as well.

Some of the lack of enthusiasm might be attributable to the fact that, at 74, Charles has spent the bulk of his life awaiting the kingly role that passed to him upon Elizabeths death. Or to lingering memories of Princess Diana, killed in a 1997 car crash after the incendiary breakup of her marriage to Charles, who at the time was romantically entangled with Camilla, now to be crowned queen.

I do hope she isnt rotating in her grave, said Heather Jones, 55, walking with her 7-year-old grandson in Caernarvons cobbled central square, explaining to him the intricacies of hereditary monarchy  No, I am not as old as the queen who died.

She recalled her own dismay, as a young woman, over Dianas demise and the tumultuous circumstances surrounding it. So my sentiments around Charles are pretty clouded, she said.

In Wales, polling before Elizabeths death pointed to 2-1 support, in principle, for the institution of the monarchy, said Richard Wyn Jones, director of Cardiff Universitys Wales Governance Center. But that could erode, perhaps precipitously, he said.

The caveat is that the queen had particular standing, being there for so long, he said of Elizabeths seven decades on the throne, which made her the longest-serving British sovereign. It remains to be seen what kind of monarch Charles proves to be.

Despite the existence of locally empowered government institutions in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, the concentration of clout in London combined with the messy aftermath of the U.K.s severed ties with the European Union leave many feeling alienated from the celebrations.

Separatist fervor in Scotland, always greater than that in Wales, saw a Brexit-fueled boost after a 2014 independence referendum was voted down 55% to 45%. But breakaway momentum has since slowed amid disarray in the pro-independence Scottish National Party over a financial scandal and the resignation of the countrys leader, Nicola Sturgeon.

Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, right, stands by the Stone of Destiny at Edinburgh Castle before the stone was transported to London for King Charles III's coronation. The 335-pound sacred slab was seized from the Scots by England's King Edward I in 1296 and built into a throne. (Russell Cheyne / Pool Photo)

The new first minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, has described himself as a republican  the term used in Britain to describe those who do not believe there should be a monarchy  but plans to attend the coronation. So does Northern Irelands designated leader, Michelle ONeill, who represents the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein.

Writing about her decision to attend, ONeill described herself as dedicated to the longer-term ideal of Irish republicanism, which would involve the Norths unity with the Republic of Ireland, not the U.K.

We are living in a time of great change. A time to respect our differing and equally legitimate aspirations, ONeill said in a statement posted on social media, adding that her attendance reflected the recognition that there are many people on our island for whom the coronation is a hugely important occasion.

Unpacking the implications of ONeills decision, the British Broadcasting Corp. noted that Sinn Fein was once considered the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, and that the IRA in 1979 assassinated Louis Mountbatten  Lord Mountbatten  the great-uncle Charles regarded as a surrogate grandfather.

It says much, the BBC analysis said, that the prospect of Sinn Fein being represented at the coronation caused scarcely a mainstream ripple.

In a nod to the kingdom as a whole, united or not, Saturdays coronation ceremony for the first time will include a hymn sung in Welsh and in Irish and Scots Gaelic, Buckingham Palace announced in detailing preparations.

That in turn conjures up memories of a gesture by Charles, who, at his 1969 investiture as Prince of Wales  one remembered personally by diminishing numbers of royal subjects, but reprised in the Netflix series The Crown  had learned enough Welsh, a notoriously difficult language, to speak it at the ceremony.

But time has worn away any vestiges of awe surrounding the British sovereign, said Wyn Jones, the Cardiff University professor. He remembers being instructed, as a schoolchild, to stand waving along the route of the royal motorcade.

There was the notion that a fleeting glimpse should be something quite thrilling for us, he said. It was quasi-feudal, really, and I cant see us going back to that.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Department of Health and Human Services and its subagency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), have decided to require Saint Francis Health System in Oklahoma to either extinguish the sanctuary candle in its chapel or risk losing the ability to serve Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP patients.

In response to the threat, Becket Law, a religious-liberty organization, sent a pre-litigation letter to the federal government urging it to reverse course or risk a lawsuit on religious-exercise grounds. Becket senior counsel Lori Windham explained to National Review that both the hospital and Becket were surprised to see HHS take a different interpretation of the fire-safety standards and claim that the living flame, which is lit in accordance with the Catholic faith, was a problem.

The Code of Canon Law requires that wherever the Blessed Sacrament is kept, a special lamp must shine continuously, read the letter, referring to the chapels offering of the Eucharist. Windham explained that the chapel and the worship offered there are incredibly important to Saint Franciss identity and mission.

The chapel has existed for many years and was blessed and consecrated by the bishop, said Windham, adding that worship and service to patients go hand in hand.

It would be a huge burden on Saint Francis to be told they could not continue to worship there, she said. Its important when youre looking at a religious charity, when youre looking at a religious group to understand their faith and understand why something is important to them. If we lose that understanding then we end up with silly rules like this one.

Saint Franciss chapel and the living flame within have been approved by the local fire marshal in the past. Its never been a question thats come up for federal regulators, but this year for the first time HHS has decided that Saint Francis should choose between keeping a living flame in its hospital chapel and its ability to serve the elderly, poor, and disabled who receive Medicaid, Medicare and CHIP through HHS, Windham said.

The issue first arose with the hospitals accreditor, the Joint Commission. Hospitals are accredited in order to serve Medicaid, Medicare and Childrens Health Insurance Program patients. When Saint Francis failed to address its difference with the accreditor, it appealed the issue to CMS requesting a reasonable accommodation, but CMS rejected that appeal.

Were not sure what standard theyre applying here, explained Windham. They have cited a regulation having to do with open flames in patients room or near medical equipment.

However, said Windham, there isnt a patient room nearby and the candle is not near any medical equipment. Its behind two glass candleholders and has a brass top on top of it, Windham said. There are other places where flames are allowed in the hospital like pilot lights on stoves in the kitchen or lights for gas-powered stove dryers. For some reason theyve focused on the sanctuary candle, or living flameThis is really an unnecessary action to take and an unnecessary fight to have.

Windham was confident that they will prevail in the courts if CMS continues to refuse to grant a waiver.

Our constitution protects free exercise. Exercise is something you get out and do. Its an action and being able to worship, being able to live out your faith in the chapel is a core religious exercise, explained Windham. The Supreme Court has protected religious exercise in many forms including going out and serving your community and so we believe that the courts are going to protect Saint Francis here.

According to Becket, at issue here is a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits the federal government from imposing substantial burdens on religious exercise, absent a compelling interest that is furthered through the least restrictive means available.

That makes it clear that when the government wants to restrict religious freedom, they have to have a really good reason and this is a classic case of not having a really good reason, explained Windham.

The organization argued in its letter it is not the federal governments role to instruct a religious organization to use an electric candle: Saint Francis is entitled to draw the line where it believes it must. Becket also argued in the letter that the economic consequences to Saint Francis of not complying would be enormous and thus a substantial burden.

The letter argued that the federal government will fail to prove they had a compelling interest as flames are allowed elsewhere and zero concerns have been raised up to this point. Finally, Becket said the government hasnt considered pursuing the least restrictive action against Saint Francis available.

Short of granting a waiver, the government still has other less restrictive means available. It could ask that Saint Francis add additional shielding, or inspect the flame to confirm it is nowhere near oxygen equipment. It could accept Saint Franciss proposal to add tile on the wall and floor around the candle. The fact that the government hasnt even entertained such alternatives shows that it has not and cannot demonstrate that it is using the least restrictive means for furthering its interest in fire safety, read the letter.

I hope HHS will see the light and do the right thing. If they dont we will go to court really soon, added Windham.

Asked to comment, an HHS spokesperson told National Review that HHS is aware of a safety finding involving a fire risk, made by an independent accrediting organization, issued to a hospital in Oklahoma. CMS is working with the hospitals accrediting organization to develop options to mitigate the potential fire risk and remove the safety finding.

National Review also reached out to the Joint Commission, but the accreditor said it does not comment on matters pertaining to litigation.

More from National Review
Police across Europe and South America arrested more than 100 people Wednesday in a wave of raids against one of Italys most notorious organized crime groups.

A total of 132 people were arrested across 10 countries, in a huge and complex operation involving 2,770 officers, Europol, the international policing agency of the European Union, said in a statement.

"Members of one of the worlds most powerful criminal networks have been taken into custody," said Europol, which described Wednesday's operation as the "largest-ever coordinated hit" against the 'ndrangehta, arguably the worlds richest organized crime group.

"The mafia-style organization is responsible for much of Europes cocaine trade, combined with systematic money laundering, bribery, and violence," Europol said.

The Carabinieri, a branch of Italian law enforcement, said it arrested 108 people on charges including international drug trafficking, money laundering and possession of weapons.

Arrests were also carried out in Germany, Belgium, France, Portugal, Romania and Spain, as well as Brazil and Panama.

In Germany, hundreds of officers carried out raids in five parts of the country, regional prosecutors said in a statement, adding that operations also took place in Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. (Alex Talash / AFP - Getty Images)

Authorities have been waging an intense campaign against the ndrangheta in recent years, a huge multinational police operation that has made a string of arrests.

In 2021 some 350 suspects went on trial in a specially-built courthouse in the Calabria region, the groups heartland, with prosecutors submitting 15,000 pages of evidence.

The region in the toe of Italy has long been associated with organized crime.

In February this year French police arrested mafia hitman Edgardo Greco, 63, who had links to the ndrangetha group and spent 16 years on the run after being convicted of killing two people in the 1990s. He had been working in a pizza restaurant in France under an assumed identity.

In January Italian police arrested the most wanted man in the country, mafia boss Messina Denaro, who had spent three decades on the run. He is suspected to have been the leader of the Cosa Nostra crime group and was apprehended as he went for a doctors appointment at a clinic in Palermo on the island of Sicily.

The investigation that prompted Wednesday's arrests centered on several powerful families based in the town of San Luca in Calabria, which Europol said have been waging an inter-family feud for years, leading to fatal shootings in Italy and Germany.

The crime group was responsible for trafficking drugs from South America to Europe, Europol said, as well as smuggling guns from Pakistan to South America.

The investigation also uncovered an "extensive global money laundering system, with massive investments in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil," Europol said.

The operation was led by officers in Reggio Calabria, a city in the Calabria region.

Italian police released a video showing seized items including gold bars, handguns, assault rifles and stacks of cash.

Bavarian police spokesman Ludwig Waldinger told the Reuters news agency that officers in Munich raided a car-wash that was being used as a front for criminal activity.

Some 500 officers took part in raids in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in western Germany. Another 500 emergency services personnel were involved in searching 51 addresses in neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia to the north.

An unnamed 47-year-old man was arrested in the city of Saarbrucken, Germany's southern border with France, in an operation involving 30 special police units and riot police. Both his house and business premises were searched, prosecutors said.
FILE - The screen at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans honors Tyre Nichols before an NBA basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Washington Wizards, Jan. 28, 2023. The family of Tyre Nichols has sued the city of Memphis, Wednesday, April 19, and individual officers and emergency medical personnel involved in his case. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)

MEMPHIS, Tenn.. (AP)  A former Memphis police officer who hit Tyre Nichols with a stun gun during a traffic stop that preceded Nichols brutal beating by other officers won't be charged criminally, a prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said his office did a thorough investigation of Preston Hemphills role in the arrest, reviewing hours of body camera footage and interviewing witnesses multiple times.

By no means do we endorse the conduct of Officer Hemphill at that first traffic stop ... but we do not believe that criminal charges are appropriate," Mulroy said.

Hemphill was fired Feb. 3 after an internal Memphis Police Department investigation showed he violated multiple department policies for his role in the Jan. 7 arrest of Nichols, who died in a hospital three days later. Five other officers have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Nichols death.

Nichols was beaten after police stopped him for what they said was a traffic violation and he fled the stop. Video released after pressure from Nichols family shows officers holding him down and repeatedly punching, kicking and striking him with a baton as he screamed for his mother.

Hemphill was not present for the initial traffic stop nor when other officers forcibly removed Nichols, 29, from his vehicle and put him on the ground, Mulroy said.

He had to make his decisions based on what he knew, or what he thought was happening, and following the lead and in support of the other officers," Mulroy said. "He acted on limited information in a matter of seconds at the direction and in support of the other officers. He did not pursue Mr. Nichols, was not present at the second incident where the actual beating took place that led to Mr. Nichols death."

Hemphills body camera showed that from the very beginning of the traffic stop he and two other officers approached Nichols with force that was disproportionate for the alleged offense of reckless driving, according to a statement from the disciplinary hearing that took place before he was fired.

Along with breaking rules regarding the use of a stun gun, Hemphill was also fired for violations of personal conduct and truthfulness, police have said.

Mulroy said Hemphill has cooperated fully with the investigation into Nichols' death.

Hemphills Lawyer, Lee Gerald, said the decision did not come as a surprise.

As we all know, Mr. Hemphill was not present at the second scene, Gerald said. However, as we prepared a defense our investigation brought to light evidence showing that Officer Hemphills actions did not violate Tennessee or federal law.

Attorneys for Nichols' family said in a statement that they are supportive of the decision not to pursue charges because of Hemphill's cooperation.
Ukrainian servicemen ride atop by an APC towards frontline positions near Vuhledar, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, May 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

WASHINGTON (AP)  The U.S. is sending Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous amount of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition as the launch of a spring offensive against Russian forces approaches, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

The new package includes Hydra-70 rockets, which are unguided rockets that are fired from aircraft. It also includes an undisclosed number of rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, mortars, howitzer rounds, missiles and Carl Gustaf antitank rifles. The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines.

The latest shipment comes as Ukrainian officials say they are readying a counteroffensive  with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov declaring they are in the home stretch, when we can say: Yes everything is ready. Ukrainian officials have said they are stockpiling ammunition to stow it along potentially long supply lines.

Reznikov said Monday that the key things for the assaults success would be the availability of weapons; prepared, trained people; our defenders and defenders who know their plan at their level, as well as providing this offensive with all the necessary things  shells, ammunition, fuel, protection, etc.

The U.S. in recent months has declined to say exactly how much materiel will be sent to Ukraine, but the latest package resembles other previous deliveries. It includes trucks, trailers, spare parts and other maintenance assistance.

This is the 37th package of Pentagon stocks to go to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022, and it brings the total U.S. military aid to about $36 billion.

Officials have said the weapons and other equipment will help as Ukraine prepares to shift from what has been a long and bloody winter stalemate, focused on heavy fighting in Ukraines east, particularly around the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk province.

The General Staff of Ukraines armed forces said Russia was continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraines industrial east, focusing attacks around Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A potential Republican front-runner in North Carolinas attorney generals race ended his campaign days before its launch after learning from Rep. Dan Bishop the congressman wants the seat.

I was planning on rolling out a campaign last week, former U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray told McClatchy. Then I got word that Dan Bishop was more than flirting with it.

Murray, who serves as district attorney for Henderson, Polk and Transylvania counties, said he was recruited for the job by the Republican Attorneys General Association. He previously served as Mecklenburg County District Attorney from 2011 to 2017.

Tom Murry, a Republican and former state representative, already announced his candidacy. North Carolinas political insiders speculate other potential Republican candidates include House Speaker Tim Moore, Moores General Counsel Sam Hayes, Sen. Danny Britt, Forsyth County District Attorney Jim ONeill and North Carolina Chamber of Commerce Legal Institute President Ray Starling.

RAGA is the one who initially contacted me and sparked my interest and wanted me to to run, Murray said, but added that he wouldnt get into those conversations.

Then he heard from Bishop, Axios Raleigh first reported.

I had a direct conversation with him last weekend, Murray said. That culminated in a text to me two days later that convinced me that he was committed to running.

Murray said he decided against getting involved in a bruising primary.

Bishop

Rep. Dan Bishop speaks to reporters outside the House chamber in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023.

Bishop, 58, is a Charlotte Republican whos served in Congress since a special election in 2019. He previously served in the North Carolina House and Senate and on the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners.

He and a spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. Political consultant Jim Blaine, who would manage Bishops campaign, said he would not comment.

Blaines firm, however, released a poll in December showing Bishop with a 7 point lead over ONeill if the two ran against one another for the job.

Bishop is an outspoken member of the Freedom Caucus, a group of some of the most conservative members of Congress, and was instrumental in both blocking, and eventually helping, the election of Rep. Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker.

Bishop says that federal law enforcement agencies have been weaponized against Republicans and wanted to form a committee to investigate those organizations. Bishop traded his vote for McCarthy for the creation of that committee.

He also authored House Bill 2, an infamous piece of legislation that banned transgender individuals from using public bathrooms of the gender they identify with. Instead, it forced them to use the the bathroom of the gender on their birth certificate. It came in response to a Charlotte anti-discrimination ordinance. The bill cost North Carolina more than $400 million as both companies and entertainers refused to come to the state following the bills passage.

Money

The influential Republican group Club for Growth already announced its support of Bishop.

We think Dan Bishop would be a great Attorney General, and we hope he decides to run, said David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth PAC, in a written statement to McClatchy.

Club for Growth PAC spent around $19.2 million in the 2020 election helping candidates it felt supported limited government and economic freedom. Its been involved in North Carolina elections since 2012, when it supported Republican Scott Keadle for Congress.

Now-Sen. Ted Budd gave the club its first win in North Carolina elections in 2016 when he ran for the U.S. House. Their support, along with the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, also lifted Budd from a third place candidate to being elected as a U.S. Senator in 2022.

A Budd spokesman said the senator also could endorse Bishop.

There are a lot of strong candidates looking at the AG race, but, should Bishop run for AG, it would not surprise me if Ted endorses him, said Jonathan Felts, Budds campaign adviser.

2024

North Carolinas Republican primary is slated for March 5, 2024. Filing begins Dec. 4.

The shapes of the congressional districts for 2024 still remain unclear. On Friday, the N.C. Supreme Court gave state lawmakers permission to redraw the congressional districts with little, if any oversight, from the court and was told that partisan gerrymandering was not illegal.

Theres widespread speculation Republican lawmakers intend to take North Carolinas seven Republican and seven Democratic districts and redraw them into a 10 or more Republican majority. Lawmakers currently intend to redraw the map in the early fall leaving all candidates in limbo about where to run until that happens.
Russia claimed Wednesday that Ukraine tried to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in an overnight drone attack on the Kremlin, news that drew denials from Kyiv and furious demands for retaliation from nationalists in Moscow.

The Kremlins accusation, made without providing evidence, was the latest in a string of reported incidents far from the wars front lines. Kyiv said it had nothing to do with the alleged incident and suggested it could be used as a pretext for a new Russian attack inside Ukraine.

The United States had no advance notice if there was a drone attack against the Kremlin by Ukraine, three U.S. officials told NBC News. Two of the officials expressed skepticism that a drone could get that close to the Kremlin given the fact that Russia has so many air defense systems protecting it.

An attack on the heart of Moscow, even if foiled, would represent a dramatic illustration of Russian vulnerability ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive that will seek to push the Kremlins forces out of of occupied land.

Russian military and special services had disabled two attacking drones, sending debris crashing onto the grounds of the seat of government, the Kremlin said in a statement on its website.

It blamed the alleged attack on Ukraine but said that no one was hurt.

We view these actions as a planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt targeting the President, carried out ahead of Victory Day, the statement said, referring to the May 9 celebration of the Soviet Unions victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Russia reserves the right to take countermeasures wherever and whenever it deems appropriate, it added.

Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. (Mikhail Klimentyev / AP)

Videos that show an object exploding over the Kremlin on Wednesday, the buildings roof on fire and smoke rising from the area circulated widely on social media.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denied his country was behind the attack.

We are not attacking Putin or Moscow, he told a news conference in the Finnish capital Helsinki, where he was meeting the prime ministers of four Nordic nations.

We are fighting on our own territory, defending our villages and cities, he said. We do not have enough weapons even for this. That is why we do not use them elsewhere. We have a deficit. We cannot use everything and everywhere.

His comments came after one of his advisers, Mykhailo Podolyak, suggested that guerilla activities of local resistance forces could be to blame. He added that the news was a sign that Russia is preparing a large-scale terrorist attack of its own.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state news agency RIA Novosti that Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the alleged attack, and was working out of a presidential residence near Moscow. The Kremlin said the presidents schedule was unaffected by the incident.

Peskov added that plans to hold the Victory Day parade in Red Square remain in place, according to the agency.

Later, Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and one of the most vocal supporters of the war, told RIA Novosti that there were no options left except for the physical elimination of Zelensky and his cabal.

However, some military analysts questioned whether the alleged incident could be seen as an assassination attempt.

This looks like #Ukraine (assuming it was Ukraine) is trying to bring the war home to #Russia, by hitting symbolic targets, said Michael A. Horowitz, a geopolitical and security analyst, and head of intelligence at Le Beck consultancy, in a tweet.

Russia has frequently accused Ukraine of planning attacks inside the country, often met with official denials.

The two U.S. officials were skeptical that any drone Washington might have provided to Ukraine would have been used in the alleged attack on Wednesday because it would have had to fly very far from Ukraine all the way to the Kremlin. Neither official could say whether the report could be a disinformation campaign by Russia or not, adding that they were still trying to figure that out.

I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a world press freedom event Wednesday.

Ukrainian agents have pursued drone attacks inside Russia, contrary to U.S. and Western wishes, according to a batch of leaked U.S. intel documents.

James Nixey, the direction of the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House think tank in London, said he was also skeptical of the Kremlins account.

Lets be clear on what this is not. Its not an assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin. Thats just what the Kremlin is saying, he said in an emailed comment.

The two most likely possibilities are a warning shot across the bows by Kyiv or a false flag operation by Moscow designed to justify more intense attacks in Ukraine or more conscription, he added.

The alleged incident comes 14 months into Russias invasion of Ukraine and ahead of an expected counteroffensive by Kyivs military.

Russian forces have struggled to make substantive progress in their own push over the winter, a campaign focused around a brutal battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut that seems to have come at a steep cost for both sides.

After domestic blowback to the call-up of hundreds of thousands of military reservists last year, the Kremlin has recently stepped up its efforts to recruit volunteers to fight in Ukraine with slick advertising campaigns and new legislation.

But it has also increasingly seen the war brought home in a wave of recent incidents inside the country as both sides seemingly launch drone attacks ahead of the crucial fighting to come.

A large fire was blazing earlier Wednesday at a fuel depot near a key bridge connecting Russia to occupied Crimea. Authorities blamed the incident on a drone attack, days after another caused a fire at a nearby oil terminal and blasts derailed freight trains in a region bordering Ukraine.

Also Wednesday, the U.S. said it is sending Ukraine $300 million in additional military aid  including ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), howitzers, artillery and mortar rounds. The aid package marks the 37th since the war began in February.

Russias FSB meanwhile arrested seven people it said were connected with Ukrainian intelligence and planning a series of high-profile sabotage and terrorist acts in the annexed peninsula.

Russian war hawks also weighed in after the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, speculating about potential escalation from Moscow in response.

Maybe it will kick off for real now? Margarita Simonyan, head of the Russian state broadcaster RT, posted on Telegram.

Simonyan is one of the most vocal pro-war public figures in the country.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian parliaments lower house, demanded the use of weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime, in a Telegram post.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russias Wagner Group whose mercenary forces have led the assault on Bakhmut, said the Ukrainian counteroffensive had already begun.

The enemy has also become more active outside the historical borders of Ukraine  the Russian Federation, Prigozhin said in a statement.

We see the situation in our various areas: trains, drones, and so on. Therefore, I think that everything has already gone. When will it become active? I think that in the near future, maybe days, he added.
Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, works from the lunch counter outside House of Representatives chamber in the Montana State Capitol in Helena, Mont. on Monday, May 1, 2023. (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP)

HELENA, Mont. (AP)  Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the transgender state lawmaker silenced after telling Republicans they would have blood on their hands for opposing gender-affirming health care for kids, was barred from returning to the Montana House floor in a Tuesday court ruling that came just hours before the Legislature wrapped up its biennial session.

District Court Judge Mike Menahan said it was outside his authority to overrule lawmakers who voted last week to exclude Zephyr from the House floor and debates. He cited the importance of preserving the Constitutions separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches.

Plaintiffs requested relief would require this Court to interfere with legislative authority in a manner that exceeds this Courts authority, Menahan wrote in his ruling.

The ruling and lawmakers decision to adjourn brought a sudden end to a political standoff that dominated the last days of the Legislature and put a national spotlight on transgender issues and the muffling of dissent in statehouses across the U.S.

It leaves bitter feelings on both sides, with Democrats and the transgender community outraged over Zephyrs treatment, and Republicans indignant over the vehemence of the response.

Attorneys for the state of Montana had asked the judge to reject an emergency motion from Zephyrs lawyers challenging her ouster. The first-term lawmaker was silenced two weeks ago for admonishing Republican lawmakers, then banished from the floor for encouraging a raucous statehouse protest.

Zephyr told The Associated Press that Menahan's decision was entirely wrong.

Its a really sad day for the country when the majority party can silence representation from the minority party whenever they take issue, Zephyr said.

An attorney for Zephyr, Alex Rate, said an appeal was being considered. But with the 2023 legislative session ending, a ruling in coming days would be of little immediate consequence.

The punishment against Zephyr was through the end of the 2023 session. Since Montanas Legislature convenes every two years, Zephyr would have to be re-elected in 2024 before she could return to the House floor in two years.

Lawyers working under Attorney General Austin Knudsen had cautioned that any intervention by the courts on Zephyr's behalf would be a blatant violation of the separation of powers. They wrote in a court filing that the Montana House of Representatives retains exclusive constitutional authority" to discipline its own members.

Knudsen, a Republican, issued a statement through a spokesperson saying the lawsuit was an attempt by outside groups to interfere with Montanas lawmaking process.

Todays decision is a win for the rule of law and the separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution," he said.

Zephyr and several of her Missoula constituents on Monday filed court papers seeking an emergency order allowing her to return to the House floor. Zephyr and fellow Democrats have denounced her exclusion from floor debates as an assault on free speech that's intended to silence her criticism of new restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors.

But lawyers for the state said the censure of Zephyr by her Republican colleagues was for good cause" following the April 24 demonstration by her supporters.

One legislator cannot be allowed to halt the ability of the other 99 to engage in civil, orderly, debate concerning issues affecting Montana, the state's lawyers wrote.

GOP leaders under pressure from hard-line conservatives initially silenced Zephyr from participating in floor debates and demanded she apologize almost two weeks ago, after she said those who supported a ban on gender-affirming care for youths would have blood on their hands.

On April 24, Zephyr raised a microphone in defiance on the House floor as protesters in the gallery demanded she be allowed to speak and refused orders to leave. Seven people were arrested on trespassing charges and two days later lawmakers voted along party lines to oust Zephyr from the floor and gallery for the remainder of the session.

She's since been working from a bench in a hallway and, when that's been occupied, at a statehouse snack bar.

The actions taken against Zephyr have propelled her into political prominence and made her part of broader conversations about who gets to speak in statehouses. But in Montana, Republicans hope to capitalize on her high profile by painting Democrats as a party of extremists headed into the next election.

The lawsuit seeking to reverse her punishment was filed by attorneys working with the Montana ACLU. It named House Speaker Matt Regier and Sergeant-at-Arms Brad Murfitt as defendants.

Regier said in a statement that the court recognized that the judicial branch has no power to revise or overrule the power expressly held by the Montana State Legislature.
Three Colorado teenagers arrested in connection with a rock-throwing spree that killed a driver have been formally charged with murder.

They also now face a dozen other counts for allegedly throwing large landscaping rocks toward seven vehicles on suburban Denver roads on April 19.

MORE: Colorado rock-throwing suspect took photo of victim's car 'as a memento'

Joseph Koenig, Nicholas "Mitch" Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak, all 18-year-old high school seniors, were arrested last month on first-degree murder, with extreme indifference, in connection with the rock-throwing spree.

The final rock-throwing incident killed 20-year-old driver Alexa Bartell. Three other people were injured, according to prosecutors.

PHOTO: Rocks thrown on a freeway in Jefferson County, Colo., killed 20-year-old Alexa Bartell, April 19, 2023. (Jefferson County, CO Sheriff's Office)

The three teens have now formally been charged with one count of murder in the first degree, with extreme indifference, as well as six counts of criminal attempt to commit murder in the first degree, three counts of assault in the second degree and three counts of criminal attempt to commit assault in the second degree, the Colorado First Judicial District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.

"Based on the available facts and after careful legal analysis, we have filed charges and will now move forward with a criminal prosecution," First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King said in a statement. "It is important to remember that these individuals are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty. As in every case, our goal is to seek justice.

MORE: 3 arrested for 1st-degree murder in Colorado rock-throwing incidents that killed 20-year-old driver

Karol-Chik, Koenig, and Kwak are being held without bond. They appeared in court Wednesday for the return filing of charges.

The three defendants, dressed in orange jumpsuits and handcuffed, sat with their attorneys. A court official escorted six family members who sat in the front row. The families declined to talk to ABC News or identify themselves.

As the proceeding began, Judge Christopher Zenisek asked each defendant if they were aware of the charges. Their attorneys responded yes. The only words each defendant spoke were, Yes, your honor.

PHOTO: Joseph Koenig, Nicholas 'Mitch' Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak were arrested for first-degree murder, with extreme indifference, after allegedly throwing large landscaping rocks toward at least seven cars on Colorado roads. (Jefferson County Sheriff's Office)

The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for May 16.

Koenig and Karol-Chik had allegedly thrown rocks at cars on at least 10 separate occasions since February, according to court documents.

Karol-Chik allegedly told police that on April 19, all three teens threw rocks at cars and they were "excited" when they hit them, according to court documents. He allegedly said Kwak was the one who threw the fatal rock at Bartell's car, the documents said.

After Bartell's car was hit, Kwak allegedly said, "We have to go back to see that," and when they turned around, Kwak allegedly took a photo of Bartell's car "as a memento," according to the documents.

ABC News' Emily Shapiro and Jeffrey Cook contributed to this report.

Teens accused of deadly rock-throwing spree formally charged with murder originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
FILE - The Vermont State House stands on Feb. 14, 2023, in Montpelier, Vt. Vermont on Tuesday, May 2, became the first state in the country to change its medically assisted suicide law to allow terminally ill people from out of state to take advantage of it to end their lives. Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed the bill that removes the residency requirement for the decades-old law. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke, File)

Vermont on Tuesday became the first state in the country to change its medically assisted suicide law to allow terminally ill people from out of state to take advantage of it to end their lives.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed the bill that removes the residency requirement for the decades-old law.

Last year in a court settlement, Oregon agreed to stop enforcing the residency requirement of its law allowing terminally ill people to receive lethal medication. It also agreed to ask the Legislature to remove it from the law.

Before Vermont removed its residency requirement Tuesday, it had reached a settlement with a Connecticut woman who has terminal cancer to allow her to take advantage of its law, provided she complies with other aspects of it.

We are grateful to Vermont lawmakers for recognizing that a state border shouldnt determine if you die peacefully or in agony, said Kim Callinan, president and CEO of Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit advocacy organization, in a statement. Patients routinely travel to other states to utilize the best healthcare options. There is no rational reason they shouldnt be able to travel to another state to access medical aid in dying if the state they live in doesnt offer it.

Vermont is one of 10 states that allow medically assisted suicide. Critics of such laws say without the residency requirements states risk becoming assisted suicide tourism destinations.

Mary Hahn Beerworth, executive director of the Vermont Right to Life Committee, testified before a legislative committee in March that the practice was, and remains, a matter of contention.

To be clear, Vermont Right to Life opposed the underlying concept behind assisted suicide and opposes the move to remove the residency requirement as there are still no safeguards that protect vulnerable patients from coercion, said Beerworth, adding she had a number of concerns including what liability Vermont could incur if the drugs failed to end a patients life.

Supporters of Vermonts medically assisted suicide law say it has stringent safeguards, including a requirement that those who seek to use it be capable of making and communicating their health care decision to a physician. Patients are required to make two requests orally to the physician over a certain timeframe and then submit a written request that they signed in the presence of two or more witnesses who arent interested parties. Witnesses must sign and affirm that patients appeared to understand the nature of the document and were free from duress or undue influence at the time.

Lynda Bluestein, 75, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Diana Barnard, a physician from Middlebury, sued Vermont in federal court last summer, claiming its residency requirement violated the Constitutions commerce, equal protection, and privileges and immunities clauses. Barnard specializes in hospice and palliative care and has patients from neighboring New York state, which, like Connecticut, doesnt allow medically assisted suicide.

Bluestein said Tuesday that the change in Vermont means that so many other people in the Northeast can take advantage of the state's law.

"Im thinking even more importantly that this is going to cause other states, the other jurisdictions that have medical aid in dying, to look at their residency requirement, too," she said.

For Cassandra Johnston, 38, of Clifton Park, New York, the news was such a relief." She was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer last year and lives a 40-minute drive from Vermont.

It gives me such a peace of mind to know that if I need that peaceful and compassionate option that it's right next door, Johnston said. And it's life-changing for someone like me. It really is.

______

Rathke reported from Marshfield, Vt.
This missing poster provided by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol shows 14-year-old Ivy Webster, left, 16-year-old Brittany Brewer, center, and Jesse McFadden, who were reported missing Monday, May 1, 2023. Authorities discovered the bodies of seven people later in the day while searching a rural Oklahoma property for the two missing teenagers. Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokesman Gerald Davidson said the state medical examiner will have to identify the victims, but authorities were no longer searching for the missing teens or a man they may have been with. The teens were reportedly seen traveling with McFadden, who was on the state's sex offender registry. (Oklahoma Highway Patrol via AP)

An Oklahoma sex offender who was released from prison early shot his wife, her three children and their two friends in the head and then killed himself, authorities confirmed Wednesday as concerns grew about why he was free in the first place.

Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said that the victims had sustained between one and three wounds to the head when they were found Monday on a rural Oklahoma property. Jesse McFadden, a 39-year-old convicted sex offender, then shot himself, Prentice said in the first major update on the case.

The victims' bodies were found near a creek and in a heavily wooded area.

The evidence is that Jesse McFadden murdered six people and then killed himself. Beyond that, I dont know what his thought process was," Prentice said. Im not going to express a theory because I follow the evidence, and I dont have any evidence about what the motive was.

Family members have questioned how a rapist accused of soliciting nude images from another teen while behind bars was ever allowed to go free.

The shooting happened as a series of ominous text messages  sent by McFadden to his young accuser hours before his trial was to begin on felony charges of soliciting and possessing images of child sex abuse  suggested that he blamed the woman for ending his great life and that he was determined not to return to prison.

According to screen grabs of the messages, forwarded to KOKI in Tulsa by the now 23-year-old woman McFadden allegedly groomed from prison, he said he was having success at a marketing job and making great money.

Now it's all gone, he texted. I told you I wouldn't go back.

This is all on you for continuing this, he finished.

A solicitation conviction can mean a 10-year sentence; the pornography charge could mean 20 years behind bars.

Prentice declined though to speculate on whether that is what led to the shooting.

Everyone wants to understand why," he said. "Normal people cant understand why. People who perpetrate crimes like this are evil and normal folks like us cant understand why they do it.

Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Edwards said the young woman shared the text messages with him as well. "They are tragic. Lets just say that. He more or less blames her for what he did and thats the part I really have the problem with, because she didnt do anything wrong, Edwards told Tulsa-based KOTV.

Authorities began a search after McFadden failed to appear at his long-delayed jury trial on Monday in Muskogee County. His body was later discovered along with his wife, her son and daughters, and two other teens who were visiting the family over the weekend.

Now family members of the victims are asking why McFadden, sentenced to 20 years in 2003 for first-degree rape in the sexual assault of a 17-year-old, was freed three years early, in part for good behavior, despite facing new charges that he used a contraband cell phone in 2016 to trade nude photos with the woman, then 16. He was released in 2020 after 16 years and nine months, even though the charges could send him back to prison for many years if convicted.

And they rushed him out of prison. How?" asked Janette Mayo. She said she was told that her daughter, Holly Guess, 35, and her grandchildren, Rylee Elizabeth Allen, 17; Michael James Mayo, 15; and Tiffany Dore Guess, 13, were all shot to death.

Oklahoma failed to protect families. And because of that my children  my daughter and my grandchildren  are all gone, Mayo said. "Ive lost my daughter and my grandchildren and Im never going to get to see em, never going to get to hold them, and its killing me.

Justin Webster, who said he allowed his 14-year-old Ivy Webster to join a sleepover at the McFadden home not knowing anything about the man's past, raised similar concerns about McFadden's release.

To get to save some other children, to make a change is what I want to do," Webster told The AP during a tearful interview Tuesday in Henryetta, expressing a determination to tell Ivys story and our story and get our government officials and everybody to start speaking up loud and keeping those pedophiles in jail.

"There needs to be repercussions and somebody needs to be held accountable. They let a monster out. They did this, Webster said.

A spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday on why McFadden was released despite facing new felony charges.

Prosecutors objected to any early release from prison, noting that he tied a 17-year-olds hands and feet to bedposts, cut her shirt off and raped her at knifepoint. At one point, he threatened to use the knife on her if she "did not shut up, the records show.

The circumstances have alarmed Republican state Rep. Justin Humphrey, who chairs his chambers Criminal Judiciary Committee. He told The AP in a text that he's working with another lawmaker on legislation that would stop tragedies of this nature from occurring again.

He said the effort also will involve trying to determine how a person could commit sex crimes in prison and be released on good behavior, and how McFadden was able to be in contact with minors while on sex offender supervision.

Court records show McFadden was charged with the new crimes in 2017 after the young woman's relative alerted authorities. Set free in October 2020, he was arrested the next month and then released on $25,000 bond pending the trial, which was repeatedly delayed, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

McFadden married Holly Guess in May 2022; what she knew of his record isn't clear. Mayo said the family didnt learn about her son-in-law's criminal history until a few months ago.

He lied to my daughter, and he convinced her it was all just a huge mistake, said Mayo, of Westville. He was very standoffish, generally very quiet, but he kept my daughter and the kids basically under lock and key. He had to know where they were at all times, which sent red flags up.

According to Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice, the seven bodies were found on the property where McFadden lived near Henryetta, a town of about 6,000 about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City. The dead bodies included the two teens who had been reported as missing and in danger  Webster, 14, and Brittany Brewer, 16.

Brittany Brewers father confirmed that his daughter was among the dead. At a vigil Monday night, Nathan Brewer said Its just a parents worst nightmare, and Im living it.

The grim discovery could push the number of people slain in mass killings past 100 for the year, according to a database maintained by The AP and USA Today in a partnership with Northeastern University.

___

Associated Press data journalist Larry Fenn and researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
Two missing teenage girls have been found dead in a house in Oklahoma, along with their suspected abductor and four other people, authorities say.

Brittany Brewer, 15, and Ivy Webster, 14, were named in an Amber Alert on Monday morning after disappearing while in the company of a convicted rapist named Jesse McFadden, 39.

But on Monday afternoon Okmulgee County sheriff Eddy Rice said the two girls and Mr McFadden are believed to be among seven dead bodies discovered in a rural home east of the city of Henryetta, about 50 miles south of Tulsa.

Mr Rice said that while he was still waiting for the identities of the bodies to be confirmed, we believe we have found everything that we were seeking this morning.

Asked if his force had ever seen anything like this, he said: Not this magnitude, no. We've had our share of troubles and woes, but this one's pretty bad.

Missing girls Brittany Brewer, 15, left, and Ivy Webster, 14, right, were found dead in Oklahoma in May 2023 (Brewer family / Webster family via Facebook)

According to local broadcaster KOTV-DT, the girls had gone to spend the weekend with Mr McFadden, which Ms Brewer's father said had happened many times before without incident.

They were meant to be back on Sunday night but did not reappear, triggering a search.

Simultaneously, police were reportedly seeking Mr McFadden because he did not appear in court on Monday morning to be tried on charges of sexual contact with a minor while he was still in prison in 2016.

Oklahoma prison records show that Mr McFadden was jailed in 2003 for first-degree rape, serving just under 16 years until being released in October 2020

"Brittany was an outgoing person," Ms Brewer's father Nathan Brewer told KOTV. "She actually was selected to be Miss Henryetta in [an upcoming] pageant in Tulsa, and now she ain't gonna make it because she' dead. She's gone."

Sheriff Rice declined to give any further details of what his officers found inside the rural ranch but said there now appeared to be "no other threat to the community" from this case.

"Our hearts go out to the families and friends, schoolmates, and everyone else. It's just a tragedy in Okmulgee," he said.


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YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Senator Bob Menendez has criticized the USAID for its slow responses.

Addressing USAID Administrator Samantha Power at a Senate hearing, he said that the agency moves slower than molasses and asked why it hasnt airlifted humanitarian supplies to Armenians who are now blockaded in Nagorno Karabakh.

Often times USAID moves slower than molasses. Case in point: The humanitarian crisis for Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh is only getting worse. Where are we? Why arent we airlifting humanitarian supplies to those Armenians facing Bakus blockade? We need to respond to events quickly and we also need to address root causes, Menendez said.

Senator Menendez asked Power to comment on how much assistance Armenia and Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh will receive from the $40,000,000 assistance program envisaged for Eurasia and Central Asia countries under the U.S. budget. He expressed concern that these funds wont reach the vulnerable Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh.

Power was unable to give an answer, noting that she doesnt have that figure of the top of my head. Weve conducted two assessment missions to the region to look at the needs specifically in Nagorno Karabakh, she added. Menendez told Power to provide him a copy of the assessment. Id like to see the assessment. Particularly how you are going to be able to achieve delivering humanitarian assistance in the Lachin Corridor, Menendez said.

After the hearings, Menendez tweeted: As I did at Senate Foreign Relations Committees recent hearing on USAID's FY24 budget request, I will continue to call for relief for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. I will continue to condemn Azerbaijan's Lachin Corridor checkpoint. I will continue to speak out. We cannot be silent.
YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. Turkey has closed its airspace to Armenian flights heading to a third destination in response to the unveiling of the Nemesis monument in Yerevan last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.

Cavusoglu said Turkey would take further steps if the monument is not removed.

The direct flights from Armenia to Turkey are unaffected by the move.

However, Cavusoglu said that "VIP flights" will not be allowed. He said they made an exception for Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan, who is visiting Turkey for the PABSEC meeting, Anadolu reported.

Nemesis was unveiled in Yerevan on April 25 to honor the participants of Operation Nemesis, a 1920s program of assassinations of Ottoman perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.
The Arts Management Program at American University invites applications for a full-time contract appointment for Academic Year 2023-2024. Rank will be dependent on education, experience, and stature in the field. The appointment is a 9-month position and will commence on August 28, 2023. The position is potentially renewable.

Housed within the Department of Performing Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Arts Management Program offers world-class graduate education for professionals across the visual, performing, media, community, online, or emerging arts. Highly qualified applicants will have at least three years of professional arts management practice and demonstrated teaching experience at the university level. Candidates must have at minimum a masters degree in arts management or a related field. Areas of specialization could include financial management, governance, fundraising/development, or general arts management. Commitment to student success is a core value of the program, and a key aspect of the position.

The successful candidate will teach six arts management courses over the academic year, including supervision of graduate capstones. Potential courses could include financial management, governance, fundraising/development, as well as special topics courses in the candidates area of specialization, all primarily at the graduate level. Active service including advising students and overseeing events or other non-classroom related activities is expected. Additionally, the candidate will work closely as part of the collaborative Arts Management faculty team to build upon the programs demonstrated commitment to inclusion, impact, and innovation.

Salary is competitive with an expected range between $65,000 and $70,000, plus an attractive benefits program.

Review of applications will begin May 22, 2023, and will continue until the position is filled. Please submit applications via: http://apply.interfolio.com/124708. For the initial submission, please only include: (1) letter of application addressing: qualifications, experience, previous teaching, and interests; (2) a statement on diversity and inclusion, and (3) a curriculum vitae. Letters of reference and additional materials will be requested at a later date. Please contact Richard Streeks, Administrative Coordinator, 202-885-3422 or streeks@american.edu if you have any questions.

American University is a private institution within easy reach of the many national, regional, and local arts organizations located within the nations capital, as well as centers of government, policy, research, and business. For more information about American University, visit http://www.american.edu. For more information on the Arts Management Program, visit artsmanagement.american.edu.

American University offers an attractive program of health care benefits for its employees and families. Other employee benefits include life insurance, long-term disability coverage, and a generous retirement plan with investments managed by TIAA/CREF or Fidelity Investments. There are options for dental insurance, long-term care insurance, and legal assistance. In addition, the university provides educational benefits for faculty members, their spouses or same-sex domestic partners, and their college-age dependent children under certain conditions. Details on AU benefits can be found here: https://www.american.edu/hr/benefits/

American University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution that operates in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The university does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy), age, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, personal appearance, gender identity and expression, family responsibilities, political affiliation, source of income, veteran status, an individuals genetic information or any other bases under federal or local laws (collectively Protected Bases) in its programs and activities. American University is a tobacco and smoke free campus. To ensure the health and safety of our community, American University requires that all faculty and staff are vaccinated for Covid-19. To learn more about American Universitys health and safety directives please click here. https://www.american.edu/hr/how-we-work/vaccinations.cfm

Hiring offers for this position are contingent on the successful completion of a background check.
Any strategy or plan for future action is essentially a story. It describes the present and coming world, the dynamics of the past that invoked them both, and the actions that will propel an organization toward a desired future. While well-constructed strategies or plans use evidence to inform them, its invariably the story that galvanizes and inspires collective action. As historian Yuval Noah Harari asserts:

Humans think in stories rather than in facts, numbers, or equations, and the simpler the story, the better.

But often, the simpler story is a terrible tool for understanding the past and planning for the future. A simple story not only conflates or ignores core dynamics but also blinds us to them. Sociologist Charles Tilly called these simpler stories standard stories, and wrote quite a bit about their structure, their power, and their fundamental flaws.

To construct a standard story, Tilly advised:

start with a limited number of interacting characters, individual or collective. Treat your characters as independent, conscious, and self-motivated. Make all their significant actions occur as consequences of their own deliberations or impulses. Limit the time and space within which your characters interact. Now supply your characters with specific motives, capacities, and resources. Furnish the time and place within which theyre interacting with objects you and they can construe as barriers, openings, threats, opportunities, and tools  as facilities and constraints bearing on their action. Set your characters in motion. From their starting point, make sure all their actions follow your rules of plausibility, and produce effects on others that likewise follow your rules of plausibility. Trace the accumulated effects of their actions to some interesting outcome. Better yet, work your way backward from some interesting outcome, following all the same rules.

That description, although drawn in cartoonish language, rather wonderfully describes the common and conventional approach to strategic planning.

The trouble is, Tilly states, most significant social processes cannot be captured by standard stories, because at least some crucial causes within them are indirect, incremental, interactive, unintended, collective, and/or mediated by the nonhuman environment. In the wise words of a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend song:

If you saw a movie that was like real life

Youd be like, What the hell was that movie about?

It was really all over the place.

Life doesnt make narrative sense.

So, how do you avoid the standard story when exploring, explaining, or planning for the world you work in? Thats a lifelong pursuit, but here are some first ideas:
Congress is, however, well aware that the planned move against the Bajrang Dal could hurt the party to an extent in coastal Karnataka

New Delhi: While the Congress manifesto promise to ban the Bajrang Dal if it came to power in Karnataka has raised many eyebrows within the organisation, the party believes that the move will not damage its electoral prospects.

The Congress assurance in its manifesto released Tuesday was aimed to stem the split of Muslim votes among the secular forces in the state. The partys spin doctors believe that the 13 per cent Muslim vote may have split between the JD(S) and the Congress.

The Congress also feels that the promise to ban the Bajrang Dal will attract a major chunk of civil society and young voters in the state. Besides proposing to ban the Bajrang Dal, the Congress also promised to restore the four per cent Muslim quota scrapped by the BJP government.

Regardless of the partys confidence, however, a section in the Congress believes the move has the potential to work as a double-edged sword. While it may consolidate the Muslim votebank, it could also alienate the majority community from the party.

After the Congress poll promise to act against the Bajrang Dal, the BJP and other Sangh Parivar units have swung into action to put the Congress on the mat over the issue. For the saffron outfits, dharma is in danger. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of trying to lock up worshippers of Hanuman, state chief minister Basavaraj Bommai warned: If the devotees of Lord Hanuman rise, the Congress will be wiped out from the nation. He claimed that the Bajrang Dal upholds the countrys heritage, culture, history and religion. The BJP described the Congress poll plank as a PFI manifesto. The Bajrang Dal has decided to conduct Hanuman Chalisa recital programmes across Karnataka on Thursday.

It may be recalled that the Congress manifesto stated: We believe that the Constitution is sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and organisations like the Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among the majority or minority communities.

Speaking to this newspaper, a Congress functionary from Karnataka felt that the poll assurance to ban the Bajrang Dal, which was being viewed as a regressive force, would attract first-time voters among liberal-minded youth in the state. It was argued that the Bajrang Dals activities had disturbed the cosmopolitan nature of Karnataka. The Congress poll manifesto has sent a clear signal that the party was going to fight the terror unleashed by the Bajrang Dal.

The Congress is, however, well aware that the planned move against the Bajrang Dal could hurt the party to an extent in coastal Karnataka. Incidentally, coastal Karnataka has been a BJP bastion. The region is often called the Hindutva lab of Karnataka, a Congress leader said. Of the 19 Assembly seats in three coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada, the BJP had won 16 seats, leaving only three for the Congress, in the last Assembly elections. The Congress spin doctors felt while coastal Karnataka could remain a BJP bastion, the party was going to record major gains in north and central Karnataka.
Ajit Pawar will likely get control of the all-important Maharashtra unit

Mumbai: Despite protests by NCP workers, resignations of party office bearers and appeals by other leaders, Sharad Pawar has not changed his decision to resign from the post of party president. Though there was no official announcement from the NCP, reliable sources said that Mr Pawar will not change his decision. Supriya Sule has emerged as the frontrunner for the NCP presidents post, while Ajit Pawar will get control of the all-important Maharashtra unit.

Several senior NCP leaders, including Ms Sule and Ajit Pawar, met the NCP chief on Wednesday at Y.B. Chavan Centre in Mumbai. Former Union minister Pruaful Patel denied that there was any official meeting called by the party and said that Mr Pawar met a lot of people "as usual". However, a leader present in the discussions confirmed that options before the party were discussed.

"Mr Pawar is not in the mood to change his decision. There was a brief discussion on how to proceed in case he resigns," the leader said.

A senior NCP legislator, requesting anonymity, told this paper that the committee Mr Pawar appointed committee is likely to hold its meeting on Friday. "The resignation of Mr Pawar is likely to be accepted in this meeting as he is not ready to change his decision. His successors may be contemplated in the same meeting," the senior NCP legislator said.

Another option before the committee is to reject Mr Pawar's resignation and appoint an executive president.

Former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal said that Ms Sule and Ajit Pawar should lead the party after Mr Pawar. Mr Bhujbal said that Ms Sule was ideal for a "national role" as she has a good grasp of issues. "She has been doing well as a parliamentarian. Ajit Pawar should handle the responsibility of the state (Maharashtra). The division of work is already there," he said.

Interestingly, the NCP recently lost its status as a national party. Whoever is in charge of Maharashtra's affairs will control the party. The national role will be only a decorative position.

According to sources, the majority of the senior NCP leaders, including Mr Bhujbal, Mr Patel and Sunil Tatkare, are backing Ajit Pawar to take control of the party.

When asked if Ms Sule will become the national president of the party, Mr Patel said that Mr Pawar is still the president and the question of a new party president has not arisen. "Let us not speculate. Pawar saheb has asked for two to three days to decide on his resignation. We should give him that time. Probably on Thursday or Friday, we will formally announce the final decision in this regard. I will be making the formal announcement and requesting everyone to stop speculating till then," he said.

Earlier in the day, the NCP workers continued their protests outside the Y.B. Chavan Centre. The protests were stopped only after Mr Pawar personally intervened and directed them to have food. There were protests in other parts of the state as well.

Several office bearers gave their resignations in protest of Mr Pawars decision to resign from the party president post. Senior NCP leader and MLA Jitendra Awhad resigned from his post as national general secretary. Many other office-bearers in Thane district have also resigned with him.

NCP's Kerala unit chief P.C. Chacko, national general secretary of NCP K.K. Sharma, Mr Bhujbal, Anil Deshmukh, Hasan Mushrif, Dilip Walse-Patil and Sunil Tatkare met the NCP chief with a request to reconsider his decision.

NCP's Maharashtra unit chief Jayant Patil went to meet Mr Pawar at his residence, Silver Oak, late on Wednesday evening. According to the sources, Mr Patil is negotiating for his position in the party as Ajit Pawar is likely to take command in Maharashtra.
The visit of Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is being treated with a hot and cold attitude by the Indian media

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is an inter-governmental organisation established in 2001. Its members include China and Russia, India and Pakistan, and the four Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The moving force behind the multilateral group is China, which aims to keep a tight control over its areas of interest in the regional, and now increasingly in a wider international context. This year India is the SCOs chair; by virtue of that a series of meetings under various domains have been organised, the last being the defence ministers meeting in New Delhi on April 27-28. That was a relevant one for India in the context of the LAC standoff between India and China, which has been at a high pitch since April 2020. It gave India a chance to project its position strongly in a 45-minute bilateral meeting of the two defence ministers. There were no handshakes, but a namaste conveyed Indias stance while the Chinese minister appeared nonchalant and wanted India to improve relations, detaching these from the LAC standoff. All eyes are now on Goa, where the foreign ministers will meet on May 4-5 to set the agenda for the summit in July 2023, for which both the Russian and Chinese Presidents are expected. In todays context the presence of both at such a multilateral forum is almost a compulsion. Both India and China have professed neutrality, but China has bilaterally gone to a fair extent to establish its support for Russia without going completely overboard. The Indian stance has been more muted and neutral, catering to its own interests both for now and the future. In the last SCO summit in Tashkent, Prime Minister Narendra Modis mature advice to President Vladimir Putin resonated with the rest of the world and placed India in a position to play a more proactive role in ending the Ukraine war. That initiative was later seen to have been seized by China with its outreach to Russia through the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow. The perception perhaps does not hold water now as China is seen as too deeply meshed with Russia and its insipid efforts at resolution were spurned right at the outset by Nato and the Western powers. Indias stance still holds good as the advice by the Prime Minister was more on the lines of neutrality and for betterment of the world order in a post-pandemic world. Will Indias astute external affairs minister work through the Goa conference to set up something for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seize as an initiative in the July 2023 summit? The SCO is one platform through which initiatives on Ukraine will remain plausible.

Besides Ukraine, Sino-Indian bilateral aspects will be under focus at this meeting, but some of that sheen may already have been taken by the two defence ministers New Delhi encounter, where the LAC standoff drew greater attention. Also, external affairs minister S. Jaishankars bilateral meeting with Russias foreign minister Sergey Lavrov will be keenly watched. The last time Mr Lavrov was in New Delhi he addressed the Raisina Dialogue, and spoke out very strongly. He may be softer this time if an agenda aiming for peace in Ukraine is on the cards at all.

The visit of Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is being treated with a hot and cold attitude by the Indian media. By virtue of the clear Indian stand that talks and terror wont go together, no one expects a bilateral meeting, especially after the recent Poonch terror attack that was sponsored by Pakistans Deep State. Bilawal has not really endeared himself to the Indian establishment or Indian media due to his recent uncalled-for personal remarks on Indias Prime Minister, which smacked of immaturity and a lack of professionalism. Not much importance is being attached to his presence primarily as he is considered a lightweight in the Shehbaz Sharif government in Pakistan and virtually an intern foreign minister who has to be guided by Hina Rabbani Khar, a former foreign minister who is now nominally his deputy. One wonders why he is coming for the meeting at all, when Pakistans defence minister joined the defence ministers meeting virtually? In reality, the Goa meeting is the flagship meet just below the summit level. It is here that the agenda for the July summit will be chalked out and grounds prepared for any major initiatives. Pakistan is out of mainstream international politics for some time now because of its political and economic instability, which demand attention of its political leadership towards internal affairs. Besides that, Pakistan is known to be kowtowing to the United States for support with the IMF to get the next loan tranche, on which it is hugely dependent for a partial bailout of its economic morass. That may be acceptable, but its gesture of sending containers of missiles and artillery ammunition to Ukraine at the behest of Nato has not been taken very kindly by China and Russia. The absence of Pakistans foreign minister would thus be taken very negatively, even though the state of India-Pakistan relations is well known to both. The invitation to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was technically not sent by India but by the SCO secretariat.

Should we expect any surprises in Goa? One is reminded of the Ufa SCO summit where the last India-Pakistan peace initiative was triggered in a bilateral meeting. Terror attacks were prevalent even then, and the adage talks and terror expounded by India was also applicable then. This time, the two sides are perilously close to elections in both nations. Such big decisions may therefore be postponed for the time being. The PDM government in Pakistan perceives vulnerability from Imran Khans very virulent anti-India stance, and may not wish to be seen as going soft. It has no plan to seek assistance from India to bail it out of the economic hole it finds itself in; political ego is far too big for that. The two things that hold any hope for the future of India-Pakistan ties are the ongoing ceasefire at the Line of Control (since 25 February 2021) and the broad stance of former Pakistan Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, who had espoused the understanding that Pakistan should live in peace with India. One only hopes that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is mature enough to handle the challenging SCO agenda in Goa and doesnt get led away to score brownie points for politics back home by upsetting his hosts with anti-India statements to counter Imran Khan.
How to Shave Your Balls

The Cleanest, Safest Way to Take a Razor to Your Jewels

The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.

Product photos from retailer sites.

Welcome to the dawn of a new grooming era. One where the modern gent takes pride in shaving his balls without succumbing to the public ridicule of coming off less manly. You know this better as manscaping, and yes, its become an it trend's transcending the male grooming landscape and redefining our views of masculinity.



Nowadays, women are finding guys with smooth packages hot. Think differently? Peep it. A study conducted between two public universities in the U.S., documented in an issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, provided these intriguing stats:

49% percent of guys shaved off pubic hair at some point in a month

38% of all study participants claimed they were typically hair free

Roughly the same percentage of both sexes (76% women and 74% men) claim to shave their pubes

32% of men agreed that shaving down their made them feel cleaner

Those numbers should sway you to perform some deforestation in the groin area. Still on the fence? OK. Another survey done by Gillette showed that 92% of women prefer a guy who keeps it nice and tidy down under.

RELATED: AskMen's Ultimate Guide to Manscaping

Its understandable that you're frightened about using a sharp razor on such a delicate area or refuse to deal with the extra maintenance that comes with properly buzzing your grapefruits. But, hey, its time to get with the program. Doing so leads to less sweaty testes, provides for a more sensual oral experience, and results in an enticing bikini line, if youre all about the David Beckham, Euro-beach look.



So, why shouldnt your nuts receive the same treatment as, say, your face, head, back, or nose? Heres an in-depth guide on how to shave your balls in style.

Proceed With Caution

Your balls harbor bacteria and yeast, which can spread across the body when performing other manscaping duties that require the same tools. Even the slightest laceration can lead to abscesses, cellulitis or Fournier gangrene: a necrotizing infection that causes some pretty disgusting side effects.



Feel your scrotum and shaft for a second. Notice the several skin folds and grooves? The sensitivity of both areas makes them susceptible to cuts. Thats scary, especially when seeing how most self-inflicted common genital injuries often lead to visits to the American emergency rooms. Play nice down there.

Any proper shave starts with providing a smooth-cutting surface. Be sure to use your non-cutting hand to pull the skin back tight. The odds of nipping your jewels will be less frequent because youre preventing the skin from rolling underneath the blade. So, tug that sack.



Maintaining a steady hand is vital for shaving your balls successfully. You might want to take a razor to the face first to calm your nerves and practice precise strokes. This should build confidence when heading down there. Shave in the direction of your hair and not against it, for this will prevent irritation and any post-shave stubble. Lastly, implement a cleaning routine such as wiping down your grooming tools with rubbing alcohol. Wash your hands too before proceeding.

Ballscaping Pre-Ritual

Common sense tells you to never shave any body part under dry conditions. Thats just begging for a bloody outcome. Hopping in the shower is the most effective way to soften crotch fur, as it will stimulate every pube and allow for a smoother pass of the blade. Warm water opens your pores and lubricates your skin. Once out the tub, its all about prepping your sack with the right pre-shave and shaving solutions. The following three products fit the bill.

Bravo Sierra Hair/Body Wash & Shave

This all-in-one hair and body wash plus shave gel is fit for purpose, producing a rich, satisfying lather that makes it easy to shave hair down to the roots on the first pass, reducing the risk of razor burn or skin irritation. It's also enriched with ginseng and blue algae, giving you a refreshing feeling as it heals your newly-shaved skin.



$9.90 at BravoSierra.com

Proraso Pre-Shave Cream

A pre-shave cream carries much of the same qualities as a pre-shave oil. Both improve razor glide, pre-condition skin, and soften hair. The only reason difference lies in protection, as a pre-shave cream offers more cushioning to decrease the risk of nicks. Prorasos cream is formulated with healing agents to treat, tone and revitalize skin, ensuring little-to-no skin irritation.



$13 at Amazon.com

Recipe for Men Clear Shaving Gel

A shave gel is amazing for shaving your balls. Its translucent appearance makes it easier to see where you're shaving, plus it comes loaded with healing and moisturizing properties. Nothing compares to Recipe For Mens foam-free offering, which gives forth maximum comfort by softening and lifting fur for slicker shaves. Aloe Vera, lemon extract, and menthol tame inflammation and nourish the nards to prevent bacterial attacks and excess sebum from developing.



$26 at RecipeForMen.com

Pick the Best Grooming Tools

No well-groomed man enters the jungle without the necessary equipment to tame a hairy beast. Some guys prefer a razor blade over a body trimmer, some may even prefer an electric shaver. Others favor a more old-fashioned instrument such as scissors. Dont ask why. All these tools complement each other when nipping hair off your balls. It just depends on how close of a shave or trim you desire.

Hair growth patterns are genetic and some guys experience it near the base or lower shaft of their magic stick, which is considered normal. Shaving this form of pubic hair is a quick fix. However, it must be shaved constantly, as stubble regrowth can cause itching, as well as trigger irritation in a sex partner. Tweezers are known as the most popular solution, especially since plucking the hair out of the follicle slows down the growth process. However, it is very time-consuming. So why bother. Also, refrain from using any hair wax removal system because it can cause serious damage to your penis skin.

That being said, lets see how some of these other tools are beneficial when shaving your testicles.

Body Trimmers

Imagine your nut sack is your chin, only with a full-grown beard. No way youre going to take a straight razor and shave your face before trimming it down. Before putting in any skin-level blade work, use an electric groomer to shorten pubic hair to a manageable length. This will ensure you dont feel any hair pulling when getting closer to the skin surface.

Investing in one of these is a must. Guys with a bushy sack require the hardware to shorten their way through the weeds for a more intimate cut. A body groomer wont fully rid your privates of hair, but its the quickest and most useful way to achieve a basic shave.

The market has a variety of options available, some with multi-purpose features that come in handy for other manscaping needs.

Philips Norelco Bodygroom 7000 Series

AskMens pick for Best Body Hair Trimmer lives up to its hype with a skin-protecting shaving head made from hypoallergenic materials, plus five built-in trim options for precise trimming and a waterproof design. The premium foil design captures loose hair with every stroke. The self-sharpening blades also account for low maintenance care.



$69.96 at Amazon.com

Braun All-in-One Grooming Kit & Trimmer

Shaggy crotches are disgusting. And even if youre not up for shaving it, at least make the effort to keep it well groomed. Brauns 9-in-1 grooming kit offers all the necessary attachments to trim down tough bushes. The trimmer itself is worthy of handling any task, though the real value comes in the extras. By that we mean the 40 precision length settings (0.5-21mm), six precision attachments including a detail trimmer, if youre ever inspired to get creative with pelvic presentation.



$59.99 at Amazon.com

Mangroomer Platinum Pro Body Groomer

Mangroomer is well known for its innovatively designed back shaver. But dont overlook its more dynamic body groomer. Advanced shaving performance is guaranteed with the companys patented Shock Absorber Flex Head that adapts to the contours of your balls to trim to precision. It comes kitted with a built-in trimmer, seven trimming options, separate button for thick body hair, and a waterproof shell to take into the shower. We don't necessarily a wet shave to your sensitive skin sack area is a good idea, but an electric trimmer like this one means you can safely shave a step in the shower. (See what we did there?)



$69.99 at Amazon.com



Manual Razors

The bolder route, cartridge-based razors deliver the cleanest and closest shave possible. But shaving like that requires more time and paying special attention to your testicles. No one wants a slashed up scrotum. Right? These selections just might encourage you to move forward.

Gillette Fusion5

This isn't your dad's old school disposable razor blade. Flexibility is everything when it comes to manscaping. Gillette makes one of the most resilient razors with anti-friction blades and "Lubastrip" technology to minimize discomfort. The cartridge is capable of pivoting in multiple directions and opens the lane for longer strokes to lessen the shaving time. Thinner blades are used for decreased facial resistance, which translates well on the balls. Choose a bold color to give your bathroom countertop some flare.



$20 at Amazon.com

Harrys The Truman Razor

Harrys signature razor blade isn't as pliable as Gillettes top models, but it has the upper hand in two categories: control and durability. The lightweight, rubberized handle provides optimal grip to easily navigate the razor around delicate spots. The German-engineered blades guarantee a smooth shave and come built to last. In other words, youll get a handful of shaves out of one cartridge with proper care.



$9 at Harrys.com

Wilkinson Sword Hydro 5 Groomer

As a razor, this 4-in-1 styling tool gets the job done. Though its biggest selling point is not the blade. Its the built-in power trimmer with three adjustable settings that executes trims at most lengths with finesse. Granted were not talking a Norelco machine here by any means, the product is powerful enough to mow through pubes.



$24.50 at Amazon.com

Scissors

Hairdressing clippers come in handy when looking to tame excessive hair growth. They prove to be incredibly useful for snipping through longer hair strands. Just dont expect a uniform finish or to complete a full trim in fast succession. If youre feeling that adventurous, wrap your fingers around these sharp sheers.



Tweezerman GEAR Stainless Steel Scissors

A trusted name in facial hair shearing, Tweezermans cutters are serviceable enough to double as a pair of pubic hair scissors. Sharpness is guaranteed along the blades, whereas the curved tip guides the blades away from skin to reduce the risk of wounds. Men with coarse hair might need a more durable option, but those with more malleable threads will find cutting action to be reliable.



$16.65 at Amazon.com

Clean-Up Time

Thought the nightmare was over? Oh no. Just like your face, your balls deserve the same post-shave love. One word: Aftershave. The antiseptic agent keeps ingrown hairs and razor burn at bay. Dont settle for a splash-based formula. Why? Well, most liquid aftershaves contain alcohol. So unless you want your them burning up, look into an aftershave balm to hydrate and soothe the skin. Bonus: it provides a relaxing sensation during application.

Take other post-shave remedies into account, for some, if not all will be needed to take care of common skincare issues. Lacerations. Ingrown hairs. Razor burn. Common stuff basically. Add these to your virtual cart.

Manscaped Crop Preserver

Nothing better than an all-in-one.This unique moisturizing deodorant is designed to keep you both fresh and hydrated all day long. The Crop Preserver is residue and oil-free, and is formulated with natural herbs that work to soften coarse hair in your most sensitive areas. Manscaping just got interesting.



$12.99 at Amazon.com

Baxter of California Shave Tonic

Shaving any part of the body messes with your skins pH levels. Spraying this post-shave mist down there wont just put pH back into balance, but it'll also provide instant relief thanks to the cooling effects of aloe, eucalyptus and spearmint. A host of vitamins are infused into the complex to keep your balls hydrated and boost elasticity.



$19 at Amazon.com



Grooming Lounge The Shavior

A razor burn, razor bump, and ingrown hair remedy all in one, the Shavior is a post-shave stunner that covers all skincare tracks. Exfoliate dead skin cells. Disinfect and heal skin. Uplift ingrown hairs. Heal your bark. Is there anything this product doesnt do? Even crazier is how Grooming Lounge formulated The Shavior to double as a spot treatment for often-irritated areas.



$20.92 at Amazon.com

There Will Be Blood, But Dont Panic

If its your first rodeo, anticipate some slip-ups along the way. Keep a box of tissues on hand. In case you notice some minor bleeding, dont trip, just take a damp piece of bounty or toilet paper and apply pressure onto the cut. Hold it there for up to 10 minutes and it should stop the wound from leaking.



Follow these steps, practice patience, use quality products and your boys will be breathing hair-free going into the summer, no problem.

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San Angelo, TX (76909)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High near 90F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Considerable cloudiness. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

ICE

Kia Corporation, as in the mothership in South Korea, informed Kia North America of this concern on February 17. The safety boffins immediately started investigating, eventually identifying 77 reports with receipt dates ranging from November 2022 to April 2023. On the upside, no accidents or injuries  or worse  have been reported thus far in the US market.The inability to see indicators and telltales isn't merely a safety risk, but a noncompliance with three federal motor vehicle safety standards. These are FMVSS 101 for control and displays, 138 for tire pressure monitoring systems, and 208 for occupant crash protection.In addition to bad software leading to booting errors, electrical noise caused by voltage instability is also noted in the document attached below. A whopping eight variants of the suspect instrument cluster are called back, all supplied by Chinese company TYW.Kia North America told thethat updated software rolled out in vehicle production as early as February 2023. As for the affected vehicles, production dates range between September 2022 and March 2023. The list kicks off with the Niro Hybrid and Niro Plug-In Hybrid, plus all three variants of the Sportage. The-only Soul is also included, together with the ICE-only Telluride.Dealers have already been instructed by Kia North America to update the instrument cluster software at no charge whatsoever to affected owners. The owners that Kia is aware of will receive Kia -branded envelopes by first-class mail beginning on May 26.The Soul is the most affordable crossover of the bunch, retailing at $19,800, excluding destination charge, for the 2023 model year. All feature a 1,999-cc engine with 147 horsepower and 132 pound-feet (179 Nm) to its name, paired with a continuously variable tranny.Prospective customers of the Niro are charged $26,590 for the hybrid and $33,840 for the plug-in hybrid. Further up, the Sportage can be had for $26,290 with internal combustion, $27,490 as a hybrid, and $38,690 for the plug-in hybrid. Named after the most populous town in Colorado's San Miguel Country, the Telluride is the largest crossover that Kia sells in the US of A.Manufactured in the United States rather than South Korea for the Hyundai Palisade, the Kia-branded crossover is rocking a naturally-aspirated V6 with direct fuel injection. Capable of towing between 5,000 and 5,500 pounds (2,268 and 2,495 kilograms) depending on the chosen trim level, the Telluride uses an eight-speed automatic transmission. At full song, it cranks out 291 ponies and 262 pound-feet (355 Nm).
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

It all started with a report of a fuse melting in the high-voltage battery of a 2022 model. The Technical Safety and Regulatory Compliance organization within FCA US LLC started investigating the matter in February 2023, after it had received a second report of a melted fuse . Together with Samsung SDI, the American manufacturer identified a rather inexcusable error.As it happens, the South Korean battery supplier used the incorrect fasteners to secure the 200-amp fuse in the Wrangler 4xe's battery. The suspect period began on January 10, 2022, when the suspect fasteners were introduced into Wrangler 4xe production in Toledo.According to documents filed with the, the iffy fasteners were quietly discontinued on September 20, 2022. It's pretty weird that Samsung SDI didn't inform FCA US LLC of this change. Had it done the right thing, the recall population would have been smaller.A grand total of 2,564 vehicles produced for the 2022 and 2023 model years are called back stateside. High resistance in combination with the 200-amp fuse interface generates heat, which causes the fuse in question to fail, therefore leading to a loss of motive power. A warning light, a change in drivability, and strange noises from the high-voltage battery assembly serve as indicators for the aforementioned condition.Dealers will be instructed no later than June 16 to inspect the fasteners of the 200-amp fuse. In case of incorrect fasteners, dealer techs are required to replace the fuse assembly. If there's any bit of discoloration or charring on the bus bars, then the battery pack assembly will be replaced at no charge to the owner.The only Jeep Wrangler available in Europe since 2022, the 4xe matches the 6.4-liter HEMI V8's peak torque. Jeep advertises the first  and thus far the only  Wrangler plug-in hybrid with 470 pound-feet (637 Nm) on deck. Peak horsepower is estimated at 375, which is 95 horsepower down on the Rubicon 392.Torque, however, is more important for an off-road vehicle when venturing off the beaten path. Built around a 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder engine, the 4xe system also happens to be far more efficient than the naturally-aspirated V8 of the Rubicon 392. On gasoline alone, the 4xe drinks 5 gallons (18.9 liters) per 100 miles (160 kilometers) compared to 7.1 gallons (26.9 liters) for the better-sounding Rubicon 392.As far as pricing is concerned, the difference couldn't be higher. As opposed to $82,495 sans taxes for the Rubicon 392, the Rubicon 4xe is $61,080 at press time. Lower down the spectrum, the most affordable specification available is the Willys 4xe at $54,735.
Photo: Oceanco

Photo: Charter Yacht

Photo: Charter Yacht

If Kaos is anything to go by, the bigger, the better. Kaos was delivered in 2017 as Jubilee, a fully turnkey commission that had to meet very specific requests, size being one of them. It broke several world records at the time it was delivered, including for the largest build in the Netherlands up to that point, both in length and volume. The fact that it was sold before the original owner could use it only added to its aura of mystery.Today, Kaos remains one of the largest and most luxurious superyachts in the world. Often described as a floating island, it belongs now to Walmart billionaire heiress Nancy Walton Laurie, who bought it in 2019, right after putting up Secret for sale. She bought it as Jubilee and, according to online reports, planned to name it Secret III, with the joke being that no one knows which vessel was supposed to be Secret II. She eventually settled for Kaos, a name that matches the warship-like silhouette of the superyacht but bears no connection to the vibrant and outrageous interior.The story of Kaos starts in 2008, when the then-Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, began window-shopping for a new superyacht. The royal family had long-established ties with Oceanco, so he went directly to them to discuss the possibility of buying a project already in the works. The financial crisis put an end to negotiations, but they resumed in 2011 when the Emir had made up his mind: he wanted a new vessel , and it had to be turnkey, ready to go at the moment of delivery. It also had to have a garage for his Bentley, without which he wouldn't even consider traveling.With a design by Igor Lobanov on an Oceanco platform and interiors by Sam Sorgiovanni, Kaos is a 110-meter (361-foot) monster of a yacht with an interior volume of 4,523 GT, built to the Passenger Yacht Code (PYC) with accommodation for 31 guests in 16 cabins, and an additional 45 crew in 24 cabins. Most superyachts offer maximum guest accommodation for 14 people because building to PYC entails a different process with a focus on extra safety measures, which, in turn, entails the use of different build materials and layouts.The size of the yacht only made the process more challenging, as did the owner's request that it be turnkey. The hull is steel, and the superstructure is aluminum, but the underside of the floors isn't plywood like in regular superyachts . Instead, the marble floors sit on honeycombed aluminum panels on top of rubber foundations for noise dampening.Kaos looks a bit like a warship and handles like one, too, the captain told one media outlet at the time of its delivery to the Monaco Yacht Show in 2017. The Emir had passed away just months before the scheduled delivery, and the family decided to sell it. Burgess listed it for $310 million, but it would be another two years before Walton Laurie came along. It was refitted in 2020 at Lurssen before she took it out for the first time.The most distinctive feature of this superyacht is the metallic blue superstructure with its many decks. Many of those decks are actually "fake," as designer Lobanov came up with the idea of adding more volume on top to paradoxically create the impression that the vessel is sitting lower to the water and thus achieve more harmonious proportions . The optical illusion was achieved through curves and long lines, rows of smoked glass panels, teak decking that looks like walkways but is actually inaccessible to guests, and LED overhangs.On top of the superstructure, where the flydeck would have normally been, is the owner's suite, with unparalleled views from its own private deck. The owner wanted a space where no one could bother him, even if the vessel was packed to maximum carrying capacity  a most understandable request when you're paying at least $300 million for your very own floating island.Amenities onboard are up to par with that price tag. Kaos has a large helideck at the bow, and a spectacular beach club aft, including a wellness center with gym and spa, a pool, and vast lounge areas. There's even an oversize aquarium here, looking into the pool above, but it's never been shown to the public. Kaos also has a packed tender garage with a fold-down transom and every kind of watertoy imaginable, from matching tenders and rescue boats to inflatables and other fun stuff.All of these, and items like crew training material, china, and hardware, came with the superyacht, as per the owner's request. The interiors are clad in the finest silk rugs and rare Italian marble, with gilded surfaces and ornate pieces that add a certain cosmopolitan vibe to the place. The spaces, be they the private theater or the smallest guest room, are beautiful in a somewhat visually overwhelming way and very luxurious , but they stop short of being "too much" in either direction.Kaos is powered by two MTU diesel engines of 4,800 hp each, taking it to a maximum speed of 18.5 knots (21.2 mph/34.2 kph). This beautiful and very luxurious superyacht isn't just about looks, it delivers on the performance side, too.
The competition (pun intended) is heating up, though. Maserati has entered the D segment with a high-performance crossover of its own, which features an evolution of the Alfa Romeo Stelvio's platform. It should be highlighted that Alfa Romeo designed the Giorgio with Ferrari's help at Maserati's facility in Modena. The rear- and all-wheel-drive vehicle architecture was developed by a crack team of engineers headed by Philippe Krief, the former technical director of research & development at Ferrari. He's currently with Alpine in the role of vice president of engineering & product performance.Although closely related to the Stelvio, the Grecale is very different in every respect. Even the range-topping powerplant comes in the form of a 3.0-liter V6 as opposed to the 2.9-liter V6 employed in Quadrifoglio models. The Maserati-specific V6 engine has a few Alfa Romeo and Ferrari things about it, although the pre-chamber architecture is unique to Maserati.Equipped with the very same 8HP automatic transmission as the X4 M Competition, the Grecale Trofeo in the clip below isn't a featherweight. 4,650 pounds (2,109 kilograms) compared to 4,431 pounds (2,010 kilograms) makes a world of difference in a good ol' drag race, but curb weight isn't the only factor at play. On that note, let's talk about their engines.Codenamed S58, the inline-six mill of the Bimmer makes 503 horsepower and 479 pound-feet (650 Nm) of torque on full song. Expect it doesn't. BMW reports less power and torque than the S58 actually cranks out, and the same applies to the B58 engine of the X4 M40i. Over at Maserati, the House of the Trident uses a V6 for packaging reasons. Affectionately dubbed Nettuno after the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna, the vee-six lump belts out 523 horsepower and 457 pound-feet (620 Nm) in this application. There's more available based on the ratings for the MC20, but the Italian automaker knowingly detuned the Grecale Trofeo's engine because of the Grecale's place in the lineup.The first of two dig races starts with the BMW's owner messing up the launch, which cost him the win. Second time out on the Dunnville Autodrome in Ontario, the X4 M Competition makes easy work of the Grecale Trofeo with a quarter-mile time of 11.4 versus 11.6 seconds. The GPS performance meters also recorded 3.4 and 3.6 seconds, respectively. Can the Maserati redeem itself from a roll? Even though it's heavier, the Italian sport utility vehicle surprisingly managed to keep the Bimmer at bay by circa half a car length.
In fact, this is precisely what set VLC apart from the rest of the crowd. While many people were just fine using Windows Media Player or alternatives like GOM Player and BSPlayer, VLC offered almost everything you needed to play media content, all mixed with an open-source license.VLC has since evolved significantly, so its also available on mobile devices. But since were here to talk about cars, the big news today is that VLC is also making its way to our four-wheel companions.The latest version of the VLC app released on the App Store includes support for CarPlay. In other words, you can now access VLC from the CarPlay screen in your vehicle. The app lets you view the content library, manage playlists, and so on.VLC has long been available on CarPlay via the Now Playing screen. But thanks to this update, it steps into the CarPlay world as a fully featured media app with a dedicated interface and all. As such, if youve previously used a different app to manage your offline content and local libraries, you can forget about it because VLC is finally here.The update to version 3.4.0 also includes a series of other big improvements, including a new audio playback UI, views for artists and albums, support for bookmarks, and so much more.CarPlay is getting more big apps these days, and this new trend shows that General Motors will certainly have a hard time killing off support for Apples platform in its cars. Starting in 2024, the American carmaker will no longer offer CarPlay and Android Auto in its EVs. The company plans to go all-in on Android Automotive without allowing users to connect smartphones to their cars. With mobile phone projection gone, GM customers would be blocked from accessing apps like Dominos Pizza and VLC unless they specifically launch on Android Automotive.The strategy has already backfired, with customers in the United States threatening to switch to another carmaker unless General Motors gives up on its controversial decision. On the other hand, the carmaker has already emphasized on several occasions that its new plan is here to stay, as the partnership with Google should provide an upgraded experience from what customers get together with screen projection.The new VLC app with CarPlay support is available for download from the App Store. Once the new version is installed on your iPhone, the VLC icon should also show up on the CarPlay home screen after connecting the smartphone to a compatible head unit in the car.
There are 18 new permits filed with the City of Austin for Giga Texas (March to May). "Cyber Restrooms", Tesla Road widening, Boat Docks, building extension & tons of interior changes. Here are a few w/ maps showing locations. I'll go into these more in-depth in future videos! pic.twitter.com/q5NniCkSyv  Joe Tegtmeyer ???? ???????? (@JoeTegtmeyer) May 2, 2023

Besides being known as Tesla's most advanced production facility in the US, Giga Texas is also where the Cybertruck will be produced later this year. Even though the Austin gigafactory is already building cars, construction work continues at a fast pace. Drone footage shows new buildings added while complicated machinery is brought to the site. Things are interesting enough that people observe Giga Texas premises daily to spot changes that might reveal secret details about the Cybertruck production.Fans have gone even further, scouting for permits that Tesla filed with local authorities. These can be interesting, as they reveal Tesla's plans in the area. That's how Joe Tegtmeyer, a Tesla fan and regular drone pilot around Giga Texas, discovered that Tesla has filed to build a boat dock. The Colorado River flows to the south and east of the gigafactory, so it's the perfect place to build a dock. The question is, what does Tesla intend to do with it?Thinking about it, Elon Musk's words from September 2022 can offer a clue. Tesla CEO wanted the Cybertruck to be able to cross the strait between the Starbase and South Padre Island in South Texas. People mocked him back then, especially as nobody knew what "serving briefly as a boat" might mean. Comedian Blain Capatch caught the moment perfectly, saying that when you drive your car off a cliff, it serves briefly as a plane If Tesla wants to make the Cybertruck amphibious, it must test it in all scenarios. This is where a boat dock comes in handy, especially as the Colorado River flows nearby. The permit discovered by Tegtmeyer doesn't offer more clues. Still, the project name is "Production Support Area," which doesn't exclude testing. Is Tesla building the dock to test the Cybertruck's ability as a boat? It could be, but we're yet to see a prototype testing on the water There are other interesting permits that Tesla applied for, with the most intriguing being for a "cyber toilet" in the middle of the Giga Texas main building. This is in the General Assembly #2 area, which is still in construction. Tesla is also expanding the main building to the south, toward the Colorado River, but we don't know if this is related to the boat dock.Until the Cybertruck can float, the electric pickup continues its final tests, being recently spotted at the Fremont test track. The prototype featured a lower front bumper and appeared ready for production. The sighting produced the same mixed feelings as an earlier prototype, proving the Cybertruck remains more polarizing than ever.
China Focus: China's water-saving agriculture technology benefits BRI countries

Xinhua) 14:04, May 03, 2023

LANZHOU, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Muhammad Ali Raza, a Pakistani doctor, has recently been working on an experiment on the utilization of plastic mulch and drip irrigation in cereal-legume intercropping systems at a water-saving agricultural research station located in the city of Zhangye in northwest China's Gansu Province.

"The crop straws are processed into mulch and used in soybean-corn compound planting fields," Raza explained, adding that the technology can not only avoid resource waste and effectively save water but also improve soil fertility and reduce evaporation at the soil surface.

Raza, 33, came to the Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GAAS) to pursue his postdoctoral studies after the GAAS signed a memorandum with a university in Pakistan in 2022 to carry out cooperation in modern agricultural technology transformation and personnel training projects.

In recent years, GAAS has signed cooperation agreements with institutions in Pakistan, Tajikistan, Malaysia and other countries participating the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to conduct extensive cooperation in agricultural science and technology.

Lettuce grown in water and chili on the substrate are thriving in an intelligent greenhouse at the GAAS, thanks to the efforts of Ma Zhongming, the head of the organization.

Ma has dedicated himself to the research and promotion of soilless cultivation technologies, resulting in these impressive outcomes.

"Soilless cultivation is suitable for arid regions and holds great potential for agricultural cooperation with some Belt and Road countries," said Ma, who is also Raza's professor.

"I'm excited about the research. My study area is related to dry farming and facility agriculture in China, and I am looking forward to introducing relevant technologies in Pakistan in the future," Raza said.

Xiong Youcai, a professor at Lanzhou University's College of Ecology, has led a team dedicated to dryland agriculture research and technology promotion since 2011 in East Africa.

The all-film double-furrow sowing, an agricultural technology originating from China's arid Loess Plateau, has now been applied to agricultural production in Kenya and other countries based on local conditions to help relieve the impact of severe drought on food production.

In 2022, Xiong's team, with the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, launched an international cooperation project involving the efficient utilization and adaptive management of rainwater resources in dryland agriculture in the East African Plateau.

The project was designed to further expand the adaptability and benefits of dryland agricultural technology.

"Take Kenya as an example. If the technology of all-film double-furrow sowing is effectively promoted in the country, one-third of Kenya's land can feed the whole population of Kenya," Xiong said.

"BRI agricultural cooperation has seen continuous progress, and it will be further advanced in the area of agricultural technology, personnel exchanges and agricultural policy," Ma said.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
The vote on the resolution on cooperation between the UN and the Council of Europe took place on April 26, with 122 nations, including Armenia, voting to support it, 18 nations abstaining and only five voting against it.

Armenias Foreign Ministry explained to RFE/RLs Armenian Service that Armenia did not support the controversial paragraph of the resolution, but voted in favor of the resolution itself.

A press release posted on the UN website confirms that while compromises were reached on lots of issues, no consensus was reached on paragraph 9. This is exactly the paragraph that speaks about Russian aggression against Ukraine and Georgia and calls for providing redress to victims and bringing to justice all those responsible for the violations of international law.

Eventually, it was decided to hold a separate vote on this paragraph, in which Armenia abstained.

Thus, by its April 26 vote at the UN Armenia showed no change in its neutral position on the Russian-Ukrainian war, again avoiding calling Moscow an aggressor.

Against the background of media reports that several key partners of Russia, including Armenia, Kazakhstan, China, India, Turkey and others voted in favor of an anti-Russian resolution, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said that we are talking about an ordinary resolution of cooperation between the United Nations and the Council of Europe, and many of Russias partners did not support the controversial paragraph.

In the separate vote on paragraph 9, only 81 countries voted in favor of calling Russia an aggressor, while 48 countries, including Armenia, abstained and 10 voted against it.

Sargis Khandanian, chairman of the Armenian National Assemblys Foreign Relations Committee, said that Armenia could not have voted otherwise on the general resolution on strengthening cooperation between the UN and the Council of Europe that talks about such key things as promotion of the rule of law and democracy, freedom of speech and thought, fight against terrorism, trafficking, etc.

Armenia is a member of the Council of Europe, and a number of institutions that operate within the Council of Europe are very important for Armenia in terms of the protection of human rights, the development of democracy. And that resolution also pursues such goals and has such emphasis. So it would be strange if Armenia did not join the adoption of this resolution, Khandanian said.

As a matter of fact, Armenia joined the entire resolution, and one should consider the resolution as a whole and not focus on one paragraph, which contains different emphases, the pro-government lawmaker concluded.
Official Washington has asked Baku and Yerevan to consider how best to protect the rights and security of people in Nagorno-Karabakh, a State Department spokesperson told RFE/RLs Armenian Service, answering a question on whether issues related to Nagorno-Karabakh are being discussed in the U.S.-hosted Armenian-Azerbaijani talks.

Bilateral negotiations between Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov aimed at hammering out an agreement to normalize relations between the two South Caucasus nations opened in Washington on Monday after the two top diplomats met separately with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and then had a meeting all together.

As Mirzoyan and Bayramov went into talks that officials in Washington said could last a few days Blinken stressed the importance of dialogue for reaching a lasting peace in the South Caucasus region.

In written comments to RFE/RLs Armenian Service on May 2 the State Department spokesperson stressed that the question of the rights and security of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh is central to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Ultimately ensuring that this population can feel secure in their homes and have their rights protected is the only way to guarantee a lasting settlement to a conflict that has lasted too long and cost too many lives, the official said, adding that the United States supports an agreement that is durable, sustainable, and lays the foundations for peace.

At the same time, the State Department emphasized that the scope and nature of the agreement to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan is between the two parties.

We are honored to host the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan as they work toward peace. The United States remains committed to promoting a peaceful future for the South Caucasus region. Direct dialogue is key to resolving issues and reaching a lasting peace, the spokesperson said.

The scope and nature of the agreement to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan is between the two parties. Our goal is to provide a location where there can be bilateral discussions and the parties can undertake the real hard work together to make progress on lasting peace. Specifics on what is  and is not  part of their agreement is a question for the parties, the U.S. official added.

Armenias Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that negotiations between Mirzoyan and Bayramov continued today and were scheduled to end on May 4.

According to Azerbaijans Turan news agency, Blinken is expected to join the Armenian and Azerbaijani ministers for final negotiations on Thursday.

A spokesperson at Armenias Foreign Ministry said that information on the U.S. participation and other details will be reported tomorrow.
The public opinion polls conducted on behalf of the International Republican Institute (IRI) in Armenia among over 1,500 permanent residents of the country aged above 18 in January-March 2023 reveal that while as many as 93 percent of Armenians in 2019 considered relations with Russia to be good and only 6 percent viewed them as bad, that ratio has changed to 50 and 49 percent, respectively, this year.

The trend of the perception of deteriorating relations with Russia began after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh in which, according to observers, Armenians largely felt Russia should have provided more support to Armenia, its strategic political and military ally in the region. The IRI poll shows that it continued in 2022, the year when Russia invaded Ukraine, as Armenians began to look more to other countries as their main security partners.

According to the latest survey, while 54 and 52 percent of Armenians, respectively, consider Iran and France as their most important security partners, only half of them now view Russia as such.

France, Iran and the United States are also viewed as the top three most important political partners for Armenia by 75, 67 and 52 percent of respondents, accordingly, while Russia is only fourth in the list with 50 percent.

Interestingly, while Azerbaijan and Turkey, with which Armenia has had bad relations for decades because of Nagorno-Karabakh wars and other historical feuds, are still viewed as the greatest political threat to Armenia by most Armenians (93 and 89 percent, respectively), as many as 24 percent of Armenians said they also consider Russia, a formal ally, as such a threat.

In contrast, according to the poll, only 3 and 2 percent of Armenians called the United States and the European Union, respectively, as the greatest political threat to their country, while 7 percent said that Ukraine posed such a threat.

While 5 percent of Armenians viewed relations with Turkey as good and 91 percent viewed them as bad in December 2021, a month before Yerevan and Ankara formally embarked on their latest attempt to normalize relations, the current ratio, according to the IRI poll, stands at 23 to 75 percent, respectively.

Generally, 52 percent of respondents in the poll said that they believed Armenia is heading in the wrong direction, while 36 percent said the country was on the right track.

A total of 60 percent of respondents in the poll named national security and border issues as the main problems Armenia is currently facing. Economy and unemployment was mentioned by only 27 percent of the respondents.

The survey also shows that the level of support for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his ruling Civil Contract party remains almost as strong as a year ago.

A total of 14 percent of respondents named Pashinian as the most trusted politician in Armenia, with only 2 percent naming ex-President Robert Kocharian, Pashinians top rival in the 2021 early parliamentary elections, as such.

A total of 21 percent of respondents, compared to 25 percent in June 2022, said that they would vote for Civil Contract if national parliamentary elections were held next Sunday. The number of those ready to vote for Kocharians Hayastan (Armenia) Alliance has dropped from 8 percent last year to 5 percent today.

According to respondents of the poll, the biggest successes of the Pashinian government during the last six months were development of diplomatic relations and improvement of roads, while the biggest failures in the same period were the closure by Azerbaijan of the Lachin Corridor that links Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia and the foiling of the Karabakh issue.
A Flyone Armenia plane operating a flight from Paris to Yerevan had to land in Chisinau, Moldova, on April 29 after Turkeys aviation authorities banned it from entering the countrys airspace. Flyone Armenia, which has been flying into and over Turkey since last year, said it had not been informed about the ban in advance.

Speaking on NTV Channel, Cavusoglu said: If necessary, we will allow planes into our country, but we will not allow airplanes and private planes to fly through our airspace while the provocations [of Armenia against Turkey and Azerbaijan] continue. If they do not stop doing this, we will also take other steps.

The top Turkish diplomat, in particular, referred to the recent erection of a monument in Yerevan to participants in Operation Nemesis, a 1920s program of assassinations of Ottoman perpetrators of the 1915 Armenian genocide and Azerbaijani figures responsible for 1918 massacres of Armenians in Baku.

While Operation Nemesis participants are widely regarded by Armenians as avengers, Turkey and Azerbaijan view them as terrorists.

In statements following the unveiling of the monument in the center in Yerevan on April 25, one day after Armenians in Armenia and around the world marked the 108th anniversary of the Ottoman-era Genocide vehemently denied by Turkey, the Turkish and Azerbaijani foreign ministries condemned the event that was also attended by Yerevans deputy mayor.

Ankara also warned that the shameful monument in Yerevan only damages the normalization process that Turkey and Armenia embarked upon in early 2022.

Turkey is sincere in its desire to normalize relations with Armenia, but the installation of the Nemesis monument in Armenia is unacceptable, Cavusoglu said.

I cant accept it. Armenias statements on this issue are also insincere. We closed the airspace as an adequate response. If necessary, we can also take other steps, he added, urging Armenia to stop attempts to deceive Turkey.

The Turkish ministers remarks came as Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian was heading to Turkey to attend a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. Cavusoglu said that the Armenian official was allowed to use Turkish airspace since he was arriving for an international event held in Ankara.

Official Yerevan did not immediately comment on Turkeys condemnation of the Operation Nemesis monument inauguration in the Armenian capital and its ban on overflights for Armenian airlines.

In remarks in parliament on Wednesday Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian acknowledged that the closure of Turkish airspace for Armenian planes was a problem. But whose problem is it? It is our problem. Those who block our roads have no problems at all, he said.

Pashinian said that when the issue of opening the monument was being discussed in 2020-2021, months after the end of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the decision was made to have it erected in order to avoid being labeled traitors.

Being always guided by the logic of doing so as not to be called traitors we actually keep betraying the state and national interests of our country, he said.
3 May 2023 21:00 (UTC+04:00)

Rena Murshud Read more

The name of the country that uses Islamic religion and its attributes and commits acts of provocation, blackmail and terrorism against its society and foreign countries under the guise of religion is Iran. And the question is why the first concept of terrorism comes to mind when the name of the country Iran is mentioned?

In fact, the history and culture of Iran is both rich and fascinating. Iran, which reflects thousand-year-old Oghuz Turks and Seljuk culture, has turned the Islamic religion, which in its true sense guides people to the right path, into a nightmare. Iran's religious leadership, which tries to impose on people that it is based on the rules of the religion, unfairly punishes and in the worst cases executes those who oppose it. That is why when the name of the country is mentioned, there is a feeling of disgust towards it. The question is that: Is this country cursed or did the ruling regime make the country like an inescapeable prison...?

It is known that the overthrow of Mohammad Reza (King) Pahlavi in 1979 was made possible by the will of the people. At that time, the people saw the way of salvation in the religious authority, i.e. nowadays' mullah regime. Because by the time of Khomeini's theocratic rule, people had fed up with the ugly aspects of secular life, such as racism, arbitrariness, monarchy, etc. As a result, a revolution took place and the state was drawn on the world map under the name of the Islamic Republic of Iran. But what were the mysterious moments behind the overthrow of Pahlavi? It is quite interesting if Shah Pahlavi was really dethroned because of his warm relationship with the United States, or are there other reasons?

Political analyst Sadreddin Soltan, who shed some light on obscure points in his interview with Azernews, notes that in 1979, on the eve of the revolution, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the king of Iran, sought refuge in the United States and left the country. But since the United States did not keep him for a long time, the king went to Egypt and died there.

The pundit considers this event similar to the era of Shah Mammadali Mosaddiq, who was in power in 1951-52. Because at that time, after the suppression of the Mammadali Mosaddiq movement, the United States returned him to Iran. Pahlavi thought that what happened in the 1950s would be repeated again, but it did not happen. Because the US plan for Iran was completely different. However, the plans for establishing a military regime in Iran, holding elections, etc., were not implemented.

Later, with the coming to power of Ayatollah Khomeini, a theocratic regime was established in Iran. Khomeini undertook obligations regarding oil and a number of issues before Western powers, including the United States. The desire of the new forces in power in Iran from the United States was to hand over the dethroned Mohammad Reza the King to the country and put him on trial. Iran wanted to punish the Pahlavi in this way. However, the United States considered it a betrayal of its ally and did not implement the request. Iran, in turn, spoiled the relations between the two countries by holding the employees of the US embassy hostage for 444 days in November of that year. Only during the Iran-Iraq war, an agreement was reached between the countries. According to the agreement, the United States was supposed to supply Iran with weapons, as well as transfer these weapons to the mujahideen (guerrilla fighters) in Afghanistan who were fighting against the Soviet regime. Later, relations between the two countries are regulated only through Switzerland.

What kind of changes happened in the country after the Revolution? It is interesting if the society is happy because it got rid of the monarchy regime, or did it want to bring back the days of Pahlavi? Maybe they were cursing themselves for what they did...

As for the reason for the Reza Pahlavi's overthrow, it was said that at that time, irreligion and dishonor had reached their peak in the country. However, an interesting question arises: if this was really the case, how did such a large number of Ayatollahs (shia clerics) grew up?

Sadreddin Soltan calls Iran before the revolution a secular state. However, he notes that even during Pahlavi's rule, clergy were trained in the country on the basis of special training.

"Even at that time, all religious rites (Muharram, fasting) were performed in the country, and there were even a large number of mosques. It was the existence of these that supported the revolution that took place in 1979. Also, Ayatollahs and clerics were particularly trained. From the economic point of view, Iran was extremely dependent on the US and Western investment. Nevertheless, at that time, new technologies were brought to Iran, a steel plant was built in Isfahan, king's new atomic energy projects were implemented, and the country was equipped with new military equipment. Despite all the supports, Khomeini declared that the country will continue on its own path without turning east or west. Khomeini, in turn, eliminated his opponents and established his mullah regime. However, the Iran-Iraq war brought the country down economically. The Tehran regime included Iran in the list of politically, economically, and culturally risky countries. This situation is still ongoing."

To be continued Part 2...

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Follow Rena Murshud on Twitter: @RenaTagiyeva

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3 May 2023 17:41 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

Azerbaijan and Turkiye will build a pharmaceutical factory to produce medicaments, Azernews reports, citing the Azerbaijani Economy Ministry.

The Ministry held the meeting with "Gen Ilac ve Saglk Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.", which specializes in the field of pharmaceutical production in Turkiye. The meeting discussed the expansion of cooperation with the company.

The meeting heard the political will of the heads of state, friendly and brotherly relations, and the implementation of the tasks given by them are important in effectively using the potential of economic cooperation. It was brought to our attention that a successful economic trade and investment partnership has been implemented between Azerbaijan and Turkiye. Expanding the scope of the Preferential Trade Agreement with the brotherly country, which is one of the main trade partners of our country, will create an additional incentive to strengthen our economic and trade cooperation. It was reported that effective steps are being taken towards the development of partnerships with Turkish companies and the implementation of mutually beneficial joint projects. Cooperation in the field of pharmaceuticals is also important in this regard. Cooperation in this field can increase the possibilities of the production of pharmaceutical products in Azerbaijan.

At the event, Azerbaijan Investment Company OJSC and Gen Ilac ve Saglk Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. signed a cooperation agreement. The main goal of the project is to contribute to the replacement of imports of important pharmaceutical products at the expense of local production and their availability in the consumer market under favorable conditions. According to the document, it is planned to build a factory for the production of pharmaceutical products in Azerbaijan. In addition to the domestic market, the products produced by the plant are expected to be exported to neighboring countries.

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3 May 2023 12:14 (UTC+04:00)

Laman Ismayilova Read more

This year marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of Khadija Gayibova, who entered the history of Azerbaijani music as the first professional female pianist.

International Mugham Center has hosted a musical evening dedicated to the memory of the prominent pianist, Azernews reports.

Khadija Gayibova was known as the first professional female pianist of Azerbaijan and the first talented piano performer of mughams.

She was born into the family of a well-known cleric, Osman Muftizadeh, in Tiflis on 24 May 1893. He wanted to give his daughter a perfect education and see her as a professional musician.

Distinguished by her music talent, Khadija received her first musical education at St. Nina girls' school in Tbilisi.

In 1911, Khadija completed her secondary education with the Golden Cross badge and was awarded a diploma with a golden frame after attending a special course in the piano class of Professor N. Nikolayev.

In 1919, Gayibova moved to Baku with her family. She was one of the founders of the Azerbaijan State Conservatory in 1920. Furthermore, she became head of the Department of Oriental Music in the Azerbaijan People's Commissariat for Education. During this time, Gayibova organized short-term piano and drama classes for women. In 1927, she was admitted to the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire specialising as a composer.

As a result of Stalin' repressions in the 1930s, lots of Azerbaijani intellectuals, including poets, writers, teachers, cultural and artistic figures were arrested and executed. Among those victims was also Khadija Gayibova. She was released three months later and the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. In the following year she was employed by the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire to research Azerbaijan's folk musical legacy.

Nurida Sultanova, the successor of Khadija Gayibova, spoke at the event and expressed her gratitude to all the performers and those who contributed to the celebration of her great-grandmother's anniversary.

Next, the soloists of the Mugham Center thrilled the listeners with classical music pieces, mughams and folk songs.

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3 May 2023 08:30 (UTC+04:00)

Elnur Enveroglu Read more

Azerbaijans Hiroshima - Aghdam was known also as a ghost town since it was occupied by Armenian forces in the First Karabakh War in July 1993. Founded in the 18th century, it was granted city status in 1828 and grew considerably during the Soviet period. Aghdam lies 26 km (16 miles) from Azerbaijans Kahnkendi at the eastern foot of the Karabakh Range, on the outskirts of the Karabakh plain.

By the time it was occupied and ruined by Armenian separatists, Aghdam had been famous for its butter, wine and brandy, machine, and silk factories, an airport and two railway stations functioned there. Today, this city, which looks like a ghost town, was once the home of 23,100 Azerbaijani Turks, and after 1989, the city was gradually abandoned as a result of provocations by Armenian separatists. The heavy fighting forced the city's population to flee eastwards, and upon the seizure, Armenian forces sacked the town. Until 2020, it was almost entirely ruined and uninhabited.

As part of an agreement that ended the 2020 Second Karabakh War (known as also The Patriotic War), the town and its surrounding district came under Azerbaijani control on 20 November 2020.

Today, Aghdam replaces its former ghost town name with the status of a rebuilt, flourishing Aghdam and enters a new era of its development. This was clearly reflected by the participation of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva in the groundbreaking ceremonies of a number of large-scale infrastructure works during their recent visit to Aghdam.

First up, the President laid a foundation stone for the Digital Management Center and Training-Education Complex owned by "Azerishig" OJSC in the city of Aghdam.

President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva then laid the foundation stone for the Aghdam Mugham Center, the 2nd and 3rd residential quarters to be built in the city of Aghdam, and an administrative building in the city center.

The head of state also viewed the progress of construction of the Barda-Aghdam railway line.

New Digital Management Center, Training-Education Complex of Azerishig in Aghdam was founded by President Ilham Aliyev.

As informed by Chairman of "Azerishig" OJSC Vugar Ahmadov to the President at the groundbreaking ceremony, the Digital Management Center will meet the electricity needs of the city's multi-purpose infrastructure.

It is noteworthy that the Training-Education Complex will be enabled to host international events with necessary conditions to be created soon. Besides, according to Ahmadov, the Regional Training Center of the complex will consist of a training hall and a training ground.

Azerbaijani President was also informed of the works done by "Azerishig" OJSC in order to build the electric power distribution network in the liberated territories.

It should also be mentioned that Karabakh is the cradle of culture. Mugham is also an integral cultural gem of Azerbaijan. A number of important steps taken by Azerbaijan's Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva in the direction of keeping mugham alive are also of particular importance. In this regard, the opening of the new mugham center in Aghdam is a symbol of the great concern for the development of mugham art.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva have attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the Aghdam Mugham Center during the visit.

Noting that special Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the liberated territories of the Karabakh Economic Region (except Shusha district) Emin Huseynov briefed the President and First Lady on the project.

Having a cafe, cinema, library on its first floor, the Center will comprise 637-seat concert hall and two dancing halls. With its administrative rooms projected on its second floor, the center will also have 15 classrooms, an exhibition hall, convention hall, rooms for teachers and managers and a large open-air amphitheater.

President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva laid the foundation stone for the Aghdam Mugham Center as well.

Aghdam is no longer a ghost town, Aghdam is being rebuilt to become the most prosperous and most beloved abode of new residents. Yes, the 2nd and 3rd residential quarters to be built in Aghdam and the groundbreaking ceremony was held in the presence of the head of state and his wife, were for the realization of this goal.

President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva have attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the 2nd residential quarter to be built in the city of Aghdam.

As the President and the First Lady were informed of the new construction, a large part of the territory of the residential quarter, which occupies a total area of 14 hectares, will consist of a green zone. The quarter will be built on the central street of Aghdam. A total of 1,268 apartments comprised of 114 one-room, 464 two-room, 536 three-room, and 154 four-room will be built in the residential quarter. The Azerbaijani President and the First lady also attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the 3rd residential quarter to be built in the city of Aghdam.

The President and the First Lady were informed of the construction progress of a new building of the 960-seat Aghdam city school No1. It is worth to note that the foundation stone for the school was laid by President Ilham Aliyev on May 28, 2021. The school, which was founded in 1883, is the oldest educational institution in the Karabakh region.

As regards the construction of the residential area, the quarter occupies an area of about 17 hectares. Besides, a total of 1,239 apartments comprised of 25 one-room, 396 two-room, 533 three-room, and 285 four-room are planned be built in the residential quarter.

Laying the construction of a robust and multifaceted administrative building

With its five-storey building Aghdams newly constructed administrative building will occupy a total area of 24,500 square meters. This was reported by Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the liberated territories of the Karabakh Economic Region (except Shusha district) Emin Huseynov to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva as attended the buildings groundbreaking ceremony in the city of Aghdam.

The building will house a parking lot, technical rooms, a kitchen, auditorium, the district statistical office, the district department of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the local department of the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, the district culture office, the DOST Center, meeting rooms, a secretariat, the headquarters of the special representative office of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, a banquet hall, offices and other rooms.

A parade square, a park with an area of 17,500 square meters and a town square will be built in front of the administrative building.

Firm steel rails that will extend to Aghdam

Aghdam will no longer be separated from the districts of Azerbaijan. The strong steel rails connecting it will extend to many regions as well.

Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev viewed the construction progress of the Barda-Aghdam railway line in his recent visit to Aghdam.

As he was informed, the construction of the railway line is scheduled to be finished in 2023. The single-track railway is 47.1 kilometers long. The area along the railway line was cleared of mines.

The Barda-Tazakend and Tazakend-Aghdam sections of the railway are 80% and 71% complete respectively.

President Ilham Aliyev was also briefed about the Aghdam city railway and bus terminal complex. The railway and bus terminals are scheduled to handle respectively 1000 and up to 1500 passengers daily.

All this once again shows that it is not a problem for Azerbaijan to bring any destroyed areas back to life. Armenia turned every place it occupied into ruins, and made Agdam and other areas like it uninhabitable. However, Azerbaijan's determination and optimistic view of the future put an end to all this black page. Long live Aghdam, long live Azerbaijan!

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Elnur Enveroglu is AzerNews deputy editor-in-chief, follow him on @ElnurMammadli1

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3 May 2023 11:15 (UTC+04:00)

On the eve of the second day of discussions between the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian Ararat Mirzoyan on the draft peace agreement between the two countries took place in the United States, Azernews reports, citing local media.

As noted earlier, the talks will continue on Wednesday and may continue for a few more days.

It should be noted that on May 1, a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia was held in Washington with the mediation of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

Then Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan held a bilateral meeting.

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3 May 2023 11:26 (UTC+04:00)

The 4th International Conference themed "Shaping the Geopolitics of Greater Eurasia: from Past to Present to Future", dedicated to the centennial anniversary of the national leader Heydar Aliyev, has kicked off in Shusha, Azerbaijan, Azernews reports.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the conference.

Opening the conference, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said:

- Good Morning. Dear guests, welcome to Karabakh. Welcome to Shusha. Very glad to see you here.

First of all I want to express gratitude to ADA University for organizing this conference dedicated to the memory of the architect of independent Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev. I was invited, and decided to meet here in Karabakh.

I've been at many events organized by ADA University, meeting with international experts, public figures in Baku, and first time here. I hope you will enjoy your visit to Azerbaijan, your trip to Shusha. Shusha has a special place in the history of Azerbaijan. And now Shusha is being rebuilt almost from scratch.

This year was announced the Year of Heydar Aliyev in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of our Great Leader. And throughout the year, we organize numerous events, conferences in Azerbaijan and abroad, paying respect to the memory of the founder of independent Azerbaijan, and at the same time addressing the important issues of our domestic politics, regional development, international affairs. We wanted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Heydar Aliyev not by kind of a formal events, but by addressing real issues, which need a special attention, because the geo-politics in the region has changed, and the topic of the conference also is covering this issue.

Heydar Aliyev was always a person who was protecting the interests of the people of Azerbaijan. Regardless of the time, regardless of the political situation, during the times of Soviet Azerbaijan, when he was for more than ten years the leader of the Soviet Azerbaijan even in the framework of those ideological barriers, he was defending the interests of the Azerbaijani people. He was trying to do everything so that we keep our identity. And many steps he took during the times of 1970s and beginning of 1980s. Now we see that they were targeted to the time when Azerbaijan would be independent. So, throughout the year, and of course the events dedicated to his memory will continue until the end of the year. We wanted to fill this space with practical steps, with exchange of views, ideas, mainly with respect to the future development of Azerbaijan and also regional development. Because we cannot ignore situation in our region and though, we dont have any risks anymore after liberation of Karabakh inside the country, but we are not living on an island. Meeting here in Shusha, has of course a special meaning for all of us. Last year, by the way, I announced the Year of Shusha, because it was the 270th anniversary of the foundation of the city by Karabakh khan Panah Ali, and Shusha always was the Azerbaijani city. Only during the times of occupation, for more than 28 years, Shusha was under foreign domination, but I know that you will be making a city tour after our meeting and you will see that during the times of occupation Shusha was almost totally destroyed. Though it once again demonstrates that Shusha has never been a native city for Armenians.

If it was, they would have kept it, they wouldn't have destroyed it. They would have developed it. All what you've seen or what you will see, most of what you will see - the buildings are either been renovated during the last two years and a half, or built from scratch. Heydar Aliyevs biggest dream was to see Shusha free and we made his dream come true. So, we are proud of that. We are happy, all Azerbaijanis, not only citizens of Azerbaijan, but all Azerbaijanis of the world are proud of our victory. That was a victory of justice, historical justice, victory of international law. So, once again, thank you for making a trip here. The weather is not very friendly, but this is how Shusha is, as we can never predict. It can be storming, raining and then sunshine comes all of a sudden and I hope you will enjoy your trip. Thank you.

x x x

Rector of ADA University Hafiz Pashayev: Mr. President, thank you very much. We yesterday had very fruitful discussion in Baku in our University. Actually, more than 60 scholars and politician, political practitioners came to Baku to discuss this topic and commemorate our national leader`s anniversary  the 100th anniversary. We had very good discussion and we were, including myself, very much excited that we have opportunity to be in Shusha, magnificent city, cultural capital of Turkic world. So, we're now here and we're happy. Among 60 participants of the conference, at least half of them are first time participating in our conference. So, if you allow me, we will come to discussion. First, I would like to ask Michael Reynolds from the United States Princeton University. He has a question.

Michael Reynolds, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies, the Princeton University, the US: Thank you, Mr. President. In April last year, you were speaking here in Shusha. I think it was the 5th Congress of the World Azerbaijanis. And you said that negotiations do not result in a treaty. Negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, do not result in a treaty wherein Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan will not recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia either, and will officially declare that. Now, today, although many of us are hopeful that a peace treaty of some form will be and the solution will be found between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Soon, perhaps even as we speak in Washington, DC. It has already been two and a half years since the end of the Second Karabakh War. And still there's no final solution to this conflict. If Armenia continues to refuse to come to an agreement with Azerbaijan, what options are on the table for Azerbaijan? And are there any options not on the table?

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, I several times elaborated on that. Saying that, if Armenia doesn't want peace, there'll be no peace. And there are countries, which didn't sign peace agreement. We know it from history, but that will not be good either for Armenia or for the region and of course not for Azerbaijan. Therefore, we still hope that they will be reasonable. And they will not use the same tactics as they used during the times of occupation, when former Minsk Group was in the picture, and for 28 years, did nothing by the way from the point of view of results. And main reason for that was because Armenia didn't want to liberate the territories. Yes, Minsk Group was not very popular in Azerbaijan during the times of occupation. Now when it actually resigned, probably we should not go too far on it. But the main reason why we could not find the peaceful settlement of the conflict was because Armenia didn't want it. They were just using these tactics delaying and making one step forward, two or three, maybe five steps back, and they wanted to seal the situation to freeze it. They thought that they will be able to legitimize occupation. They thought that we will agree to kind of a compromise on our territorial integrity. They thought that their international sponsors will always stand behind them, and will fight for them. But that was miscalculation, they were wrong.

So, now, what can happen? The same thing can happen. They can delay, they can use negotiation format, which already has been established not in order to come to an agreement, but in order to make the process endless, waiting for something, waiting for a miracle, waiting for changes. And I think they will miss opportunity, because almost thirty years of occupation did not give them any advantage. On the contrary, they have been isolated from the regional development. They lost the chance to become the really independent country, not formally but in fact. They are looking now for the new master or masters. But the history, the recent history should teach them a lesson. So, we hope that they will understand it. In my communications with the Armenian counterpart, I tried to explain that a peace treaty, first of all, is in their interest, opening of communications is in their interest. They will be able to have access to different markets. And of course, it will be beneficial for us, because we want this chapter to be closed. And actually if you follow the chronology of statements and events, you will see that it was Azerbaijan, which offered to start talking about a peace agreement.

Because when Second Karabakh War ended, not many actors knew what will be next. Because the trilateral declaration, it is not a ceasefire agreement, but it is also not a peace agreement. So, what should happen next was under big question mark. So, it was us who made the initiative. It was us who put forward the vision for the future, for integrated Southern Caucasus, for regional cooperation, for normalization of relations. Therefore, we put an initiative to start peace talks, there was silence from all directions. Then waiting for some time, we put forward these famous five principles, which are totally in line with norms and principles of international law and Armenia formally had to either reject it or to accept it. Rejecting it would have demonstrated them again being unconstructive, because there was nothing in contradiction with international law in these principles. Accepting it, probably it was difficult for them from a psychological point of view and from point of view of agreeing to normal behavior. So, then we a had long, how to say, break again, because of Armenian unwillingness to engage in serious negotiations.

Weve sent them four copies, four new variants of a draft of peace agreement. They return their comments. We've been waiting for more than 40 days for the last comments, which we received just a week ago, just prior to the Washington meeting, because they realize that without that the Washington meeting will be absolutely useless. But what we've seen in these comments is again territorial claims against Azerbaijan. It was absolutely clear for Armenia, for international players during my numerous communications with the US and EU officials that there should be a two track approach. One is Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization and another communications between Azerbaijan`s authorities and Armenian community in Karabakh. Therefore, any attempt to put so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which does not exist, into the text of the peace treaty is counterproductive.

Therefore, we hope that they will be constructive. If not, well, we are not planning to undertake any other measures rather than diplomatic. We had enough of that. Therefore, therell be just no peace, no communications. They will be isolated again. And they will have to find the place for them in this new geopolitical configuration. Because all geopolitical situation, not only in the region, but globally have changed. We have our place there, which is very stable and which is becoming more and more solid. But for them, it will be a big challenge. So, I hope that Washington negotiations will produce - if not results, but at least kind of signs of progress.

Hafiz Pashayev: Next, Vladimir Socor, the Jamestown Foundation.

Vladimir Socor, Senior Fellow, the Jamestown Foundation, the US: Mr. President, Azerbaijan has established bilateral alliance outside NATO's framework with a NATO member country and regional power Turkiye. This is a unique achievement of Azerbaijan in the entire post-Soviet context. This relationship amounts to a military security alliance. It is closer than most strategic partnerships. And it is rooted not only in personal relationships, important as these are, but more deeply in the shared national interests. Many of us would like to be confident that this alliance will continue regardless of the results of Turkish elections and will become a permanent feature. Also, with Turkiye involved in a number of contested theaters simultaneously, all making claims on Turkish resources at the same time, many of us would like to be reassured or rather feel that there is a strong case to be made for Azerbaijan, to hold the top priority among Turkiye's own national interests. Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you very much. I fully share your views on this issue. By the way, the Shusha Declaration, which made Turkiye and Azerbaijan officially allies was signed here in Shusha in several metres from this building. And that was the historical event. Though de-facto relations between Azerbaijan and Turkiye were relations between allies. And we've demonstrated it, especially during the last 20 years. During last 20 years, when President Erdogan has led Turkiye, our relations transformed by our joint efforts with him into relations not only between brothers, but between allies, and we've demonstrated it many times. Therefore, of course, this is an important factor of regional development, and you're absolutely right. Azerbaijan, becoming a military ally to Turkiye, indirectly becomes also, to a certain degree, a military ally to NATO. And by the way, there was, for several years, a kind of misperception of the road to Euro-Atlantic integration and cooperation by different countries of the former Soviet Union, whether it's NATO, whether it's EU. Yes, Azerbaijan did not engage formally in any form of agreements. We even did not sign an association agreement with the EU, unlike some of the members of the Eastern Partnership Program. But that was not because we didn't want to be closer. We don't want to have a kind of a unilateral format of cooperation. To my mind, I'm absolutely sincere with you, the association agreement is not an agreement in a normal sense of the word. It's just a list of instructions, which have been presented to those countries which joined this format. It is their choice, we will respect it, but this is not our choice. We have chosen the different path. And we signed strategic partnership agreements and declarations with nine members of EU. So, this is one third of member states. And strategic partnership declarations, which have been signed or adopted, do not make difference and have much higher value than association agreement.

The same with NATO. Some countries may seem to be very close. Some countries announced, I mean the countries of the Eastern Partnership, their target to be a NATO member. Some countries announced it for more than 15 years. By the way, NATO promised Ukraine and Georgia 15 years ago to become member states. I remember that, I was present at the Bucharest NATO Summit, when Ukraine and Georgia were denied by some leaders of some leading European countries from the Membership Action Plan. But instead, it was announced that they will become a member. When? Nobody said. 15 years have passed. So, were there where they are. But we signed an agreement with the second NATO member state with respect to the potential of the army and this is serious. So, we always have chosen the paths of practical steps rather than declarations, which then did not transform into tangible results. With respect to relations between Azerbaijan and Turkiye in the future, I'm absolutely sure that both countries will not only keep the format of this alliance, but will strengthen it. Because in this new geopolitical realities, this already became an important factor of regional stability and regional security, whether it is military component, energy, communications, trade, etc. So, I'm very optimistic and I think that nothing will change the fraternal character of relations between Turkiye and Azerbaijan.

Hafiz Pashayev: Margarita Assenova, The Jamestown Foundation.

Margarita Assenova, Senior Fellow, the Jamestown Foundation, the US: Thank you very much, Mr. President for taking the time and coming to Shusha to meet with us today. I have a question, which concerns security and potential developments in the region. A potential collapse or disintegration of Russia could have serious security implications for Azerbaijan and for the Caucasus. Would Moscow try to stir up trouble problems between Azerbaijan and its neighbors - Dagestan, Chechnya - in order to deflect attention from its rupture? That's one of the possible scenarios. My question is how can Azerbaijan prepare for such scenario? And who would be Bakus partners in such case?

President Ilham Aliyev: First of all, I think that we will not see the time, when as you put it, Russia will be disintegrated. We don't foresee this scenario for Russia. We support the territorial integrity of Russia and all the countries. And I think any disintegration of any country, especially your neighbor, of course, can possess a potential threat to you. With respect to our neighbors - our historical neighbors and brothers in Dagestan and Chechnya - we have relations based on our history, common history and brotherhood. And Azerbaijan in the Southern Caucasus was always - throughout all the times, during the times of Soviet Union, during the times of Czarist Russia and before - has always been the closest to the peoples of Northern Caucasus by historical ties, by religious ties, by a lot of ties, like relative ties. So, we always wanted our brothers in Dagestan and Chechnya to be able to fully realize their great potential. And today we have a very active format of interaction on different levels. A lot of delegations come from these two republics to Azerbaijan and from Azerbaijan. We've signed agreements of cooperation, and just recently agreement, a kind of a program, for several years with Dagestan. So, Caucasus is a complicated area. Unfortunately, like Balkans. I think one of the most beautiful areas of the world - Balkans and Caucasus - but the most complicated and with a tragic history. And we know the tragic history of our brothers in the North of Caucasus, they know tragic history of Azerbaijanis in the Southern Caucasus. We will never forget this history, because if we forget it, then we will not have future and we will not be able to properly measure our steps in time and in actions. But that also is something, which unites us. And of course, in relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, communications between Azerbaijan and republics of the Northern Caucasus were always an important factor. And it is well understood in Moscow and in Baku and during numerous high-level contexts, we always reflected the importance of stability and peace in the Northern Caucasus and in Southern Caucasus, particularly in Azerbaijan. Although there are dividing lines, administrative borders, state borders in the Caucasus, but Caucasus is one organism and you cannot divide the body in two. And I think today's level of mutual understanding of threats and of potential, I think, is more visible, because of the change of geopolitical situation and because of the growing importance of Azerbaijan, also, for stability in the Northern Caucasus.

Hafiz Pashayev: Next, John Roberts, Energy Security Specialist, Methinks Ltd., the United Kingdom.

John Roberts: Mr. President, thank you very much for coming here today. I have a question, which is how serious do you think Kazakhstan's problems are regarding its energy export routes through Russia? And what can Azerbaijan do to help Kazakhstan find alternative export routes?

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, according to my information, there is no problem for Kazakhstan to export its hydrocarbons through traditional routes. And I know that there have been some technical problems in the pipelines or terminal, but they've been fixed. And then today again, the oil from Kazakhstan is going through traditional routes. But at the same time, during my official visit to Kazakhstan last month, we also discussed the prospects of cooperation in the energy area. And there been several delegations from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan and backwards to discuss this issue. And the agreement was reached to start transportation of oil from Kazakhstan through Azerbaijan's pipeline infrastructure. So, the process has started just recently, and the agreement was signed to deliver 1.5 million tonnes of oil and to ship it through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to the Mediterranean coast. Also, there are plans, and the negotiations are continued. Now in order to increase the volume of Kazakhstans oil through for Azerbaijan, our pipeline infrastructure allows that. With respect to the increase through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, the problem can be the quality of final product, because Kazakhstani oil is different from Azeri Light. And if big volume is shipped through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, so, we will lose quality, how to say, premium. Because Azeri Light oil, which we export through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan is more precious even than Brent. But there are other options, of course, we can work on some commercial terms. If the quality of the final oil in Ceyhan changes or we have a pipeline, which is now empty, goes from Baku to the Georgian Supsa Sea port and can be also engaged, because there is a big market in the Black Sea - I know that Kazakhstan owns refinery capacity, facilities in some Black Sea countries - so, we always were supportive to the plans of our neighbors across the Caspian to use Azerbaijan infrastructure for their exports. By the way for many years, oil from Turkmenistan is being shipped through Azerbaijan, through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

So, these are all, you know, commercial issues. And I think that we should not look for some geopolitical changes, some political preferences. You know if Russia decides to ship its oil through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan because it's more beneficial, of course, they will do it. So, today we are a transit country for oil from Russia, from Turkmenistan, from Kazakhstan. If the volume of oil grows, we will be only happy. Who would not like to have more transit fees? So, in the future and not only oil by the way. We are providing important transportation for Kazakhstan with respect to uranium exports. And this is very important not only for Kazakhstan, but also for those countries - two countries - which are recipients of uranium and many other cargos, petrochemicals, fertilizers from Turkmenistan. We are, by the way, expanding capacity of our trade seaport, waiting for more cargoes from Asia.

Hafiz Pashayev: Next, Vasa Laszlo, Research Professor, the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs.

Vasa Laszlo: Thank you very much, Your Excellency. Thanks again for being here, and for being invited. My question is rather focusing on economic issues of the region. There are some thoughts of the Central Asian countries to form a kind of cooperation among their markets and economies. For sure it is not another development of the next year, but at least they are thinking of it. If it will be realized, Azerbaijan would join such an economic community with Central Asian countries? Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: It's always difficult to answer the question, which has this if. You know, if something happens what would you do. If that happens, we will see what we will do. Therefore, I think we should not, how to say, run in front of the train. So, Azerbaijan is not a Central Asian country, but is closely linked by historical and cultural links to Central Asia and now much more linked by political contacts. I visited this year, last month, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan on an official visit. In March, the presidents of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan visited Azerbaijan. I also visited Kyrgyzstan on an official visit in the end of last year. And last year I visited Uzbekistan three times. So, you can see how active the dialogue is between Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries. And it has very positive dynamics. We think in general, regardless of what may happen, if something happens regardless, I think the Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the future can be more integrated because, of course, first of all, transportation, security issues, because today issues of transportation security and access to export markets for Central Asian countries become more important than a while ago. It's understandable why. And here is a friendly country with already modern transportation infrastructure whether its railroad, sea ports, biggest fleet in the Caspian, also, by the way, growing number of vessels in the Black Sea. We actively now started to increase our transportation presence in the Black Sea with the biggest air cargo company in the region and with access to corridors like East-West and North-South. Of course, it is a big asset and definitely we are doing everything in order to contribute to regional cooperation between the Central Asia and Azerbaijan. What kind of partnership that will be from formal point of view is not so important. With countries of the Central Asia like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan - we are together in the Organization of Turkish States together with Turkiye. As I said, we have very active political and economic dialogue with Tajikistan. So, this is a kind of a reality of today's time. And of course, it's important to activate even more. Though I can tell you that my interaction and mutual visits with my Central Asian partners during the last two years are unprecedentedly high. So, this actually, I think answers also partly to your question, what will happen if something happens.

Hafiz Pashayev: Brenda Shaffer, the US Naval Postgraduate School, please.

Brenda Shaffer, Professor, the Naval Postgraduate School, the US: President Aliyev thank you for meeting with us. And it's an honor to be here in Shusha. It's still a dream, I think for all of us. And as you said, international law was very clear about the status of Shusha, about the status of Karabakh. But Azerbaijan under your leadership had to implement the UN resolutions on its own. And so, I have two questions on this. One  you know that principle of territorial integrity. We hear, it unequivocally apply to Ukraine, apply to Georgia, even the most recently released US National Security Strategy mentions that the US must promote territorial integrity of Ukraine and Georgia and must promote peace in between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The words explicitly don't promote your territorial integrity. Explain to us why is this principle applied to certain countries and not applied to other countries and what are the implications? And if I can be a bit greedy and have a second question? Energy calculations, energy policies are very difficult, right? There are technology, geopolitics or economics, laws and figuring this out is very difficult. But Azerbaijan always got this right meaning extra capacity in the BTC when people said why do you need to waste all this steel and here we have central Asian oil coming. President Heydar Aliyev said Central Asian oil will come. It was one of his statements. The Southern Gas Corridor built scalable extra capacity when people were saying that this is the last major gas pipeline, gas is a thing of the past. Now, when commercial operation started in the Southern Gas Corridor in December 2020 already people and countries were in line for extra gas. So, what are the things we need to look at to get energy forecasts right as Azerbaijan has done so correctly? Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: With respect to the first question, you know, I ask myself - how many times I asked this question to our American partners. Why? And never got any answer, because it was obvious that there is a big injustice to Azerbaijan and a kind of attempt to, again put a dividing line in the methodological approach to the issues related to territorial integrity of countries of former Soviet Union and always we've heard in official statements, in letters by US presidents to the leaders of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, very straightforward wording about support of territorial integrity. And when it comes to Azerbaijan, it is as if it is there, but at the same time, peaceful settlement. So, during the times of occupation, it was even more unfair and unjust. And of course, we were much more sensitive to that. Now, we are less sensitive because we've done what international community was supposed to do, the UN Security Council, permanent members were supposed to do - implement resolutions of the Security Council. So, we've done it ourselves. Therefore, as I said, we don't pay too much attention to that. But of course, we think that this injustice must be lifted, and single standard approach must be applied not only to countries of former Soviet Union, but to all other countries. And there cannot be any justification with respect to political preferences - if one country is more close and another country is not so close. Though it's also a questionable whose the factor is closer. Also, I think all the references and a kind of a justification or excuse, pointing out on Armenian lobby also are too exaggerated. It's a very good excuse for those who do not want to articulate straightforward position, not only the United States but also look at France. Even worse, even worse. France two chambers of Parliament recognized so-called Nagorno-Karabakh, which no country in the world including Armenia recognized. Therefore, this is how they call it real politics. Therefore, again, any kind of justification by Armenian lobbyist exaggerated. Just the question is still in the air. Why it happens? We need to have an answer. But again, I'd like to say that now this answer is not so important, as it was before. You remember, Brenda very well how we're in Azerbaijan were sensitive to this famous 907 amendment to Freedom Support Act. When I was not the president in my previous capacity, I was visiting Washington at least twice a year. Ambassador Pashayev at that time, also remembers very well how many doors we knocked in White House, National Security Council, in Senate, in Congress, just asking to lift this amendment. It didn't happen. So, I think in Azerbaijan nobody remembers 907 amendment, because first we don't need this assistance any longer. And second, there was a waiver to that made by President Clinton and then the presidents who succeeded him continue that. And actually it also demonstrates that it was resolved. So, with respect to the formal articulation of straightforward support of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan by the Western countries, I think the time will come. Actually, it's already coming. And important is that Armenia itself, actually now, more openly than some of Armenian friends in the West says as they de facto recognize it, because they've signed the Prague Declaration last October, Sochi Declaration again last October, where they agreed that the Almaty Declaration of 1991 should be taken as a basis for normalization and Almaty Declaration actually draws administrative boundaries of former republics and consider them as their official borders. That means that they already agreed that Karabakh is Azerbaijan. And I said recently that they just need to say the last word. They said A they need to say B. They should say what I said, Karabakh is Azerbaijan, I am waiting for that. I hope the time will come.

And with respect to energy security, you are absolutely right. We always did and measured our plans with respect to the future, because that was a vision of my father. And you're absolutely right. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline has a capacity of 50 million tonnes. And it, by the way, never, maybe one year it was close to that. We have condensate from Shahdeniz. We will have condensate from Absheron, hopefully, this year, and from many other fields. By the way, with respect to our future gas production and transportation, several new fields will be activated soon. As I said, Absheron with a capacity of 300 billion cubic meters, so-called Deep Gas of ACG with minimum the same amount - already the work has started and several other. So, there'll be more condensate in the pipeline than we even anticipated. And one day, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, I think, can be working full capacity with oil from Azerbaijan condensate from Azerbaijan and also oil from Central Asia. The same was with natural gas and you know that the diameter of TANAP and TAP are different. And this is again because in TAP, we didn't have the majority share. We have only 20% in TAP. Therefore, we could not, if I may use this word, dictate the partners that we need to have a bigger capacity. In TANAP, we have a majority share. So, TANAP is 16 bcm and TAP is 10. So, we are trying to expand twice because there is a big demand and the gas is here.

Those who said many years ago that Azerbaijan do not have oil, now were saying that Azerbaijan does not have gas. And just recently I was informed that European Commissioner on Energy Madam Simson, called Azerbaijan a Pan-European supplier of gas and this is true. And just recently I said we will be supplying gas in maximum couple of years to 10 countries including eight European countries. So, this demonstrates that we need not only to plan the project from commercial point of view, but also from strategic point of view and need to continue this combination. Because companies, which are investing, and banks, which are lending money, of course, they look at your potential today, some prospects for future, and they think that it should be the diameter and the capacity. But we look strategically. We better have capacity and have it not fully engaged rather than to have resources and not to be able to transport. So, the same will be, I'm sure, with our renewable projects. An original target for Black Sea cable was one gigawatt. But when Azerbaijan joined the project, we increased it to four gigawatt, because we already signed contracts and MoUs with international companies to produce 25 gigawatts of solar and wind energy in Azerbaijan. So, MoU with these companies, leading companies actually means contract. So, 25 gigawatt will be available here in the Caspian and onshore, and we need to have capacity, we need transmission. So, if everybody listened to what we advocated for today, I think European security on energy would have been much more better protected. Thank you.

Hafiz Pashayev: Thank you, Mr. President remind me about Section 907.

President Ilham Aliyev: You forgot too.

Hafiz Pashayev: It was my favorite topic during my years in Washington. So, I remember how late President Heydar Aliyev was

President Ilham Aliyev: We had, by the way, you probably remember, a kind of this mark when you have on the roads like 60 km or 100 km, we had 907 crossed.

Hafiz Pashayev: It was t-shirt.

President Ilham Aliyev: T-shirt.

Hafiz Pashayev: So, I remember how with very passion late Heydar Aliyev was trying to explain members of congress, big number of them together, that its unjustifiable. And then in spite of all this explanation, some members still insisted that you have to be very polite toward demands of Armenians.

President Ilham Aliyev: Maybe, we need to explain a little bit what 907 means, because I think not everybody in the audience understands. The Freedom Support Act was adopted by the US Congress after the collapse of the Soviet Union in order to support newly emerged republics. And pro-Armenian lobby in the Congress - they made amendment which was amendment 907, which deprived Azerbaijan from that right, from direct US assistance and, its most important why, because Azerbaijan was blockading Armenia. So, can you imagine the level of the manipulation? Azerbaijan was occupied by Armenia, and the territories which were adjusted Armenian border - Kalbajar, Lachin, Gubadli, Zangilan - all were under occupation. How could we blockade Armenia if our territory is under occupation? So, that was why we were absolutely, how to say, frustrated when we could not explain that this is not fair. But nevertheless, you see Mr. Ambassador, now we have to explain what 907 was, nobody remembers it.

Hafiz Pashayev: But still thats law of the United States. Injustice, which we still have and double standards still we have. I think its very much in the fact that its still a law of United States government.

President Ilham Aliyev: The most important is to change the reality on the ground, and to continue.

Hafiz Pashayev: Exactly. Next, Neil Melvin, Director International Security Studies, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the United Kingdom. Please.

Neil Melvin: Thank you, Mr. President. Azerbaijan has long been a part of European security, including through its membership with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. And you've already spoken today about the long-standing approach that you've taken to Euro Atlantic integration. But European security is changing. Russia's war against Ukraine is transforming European security. What used to be a collective project with Russia is now becoming a project about how to deter and contain Russia. Russia is the threat to European security. And that is only going to become clearer with the Vilnius NATO Summit, which we're seeing a realignment of Europe, a transformation of the security environment on the Black Sea. So, my question is, given all of the plans that you've been outlining for Azerbaijan's role as a transit company country and an energy country, do you see new challenges as a result of this shift, particularly as regards the positioning towards Russia from the Western Community? And do you anticipate that Azerbaijan may have to adjust some of its external policies in this new environment?

President Ilham Aliyev: Because it is difficult to predict what will be the end of the standoff when and how Russian-Ukrainian war ends and what will be a geopolitical situation after this war ends. Because sooner or later, the war will come to an end. Though, we cannot exclude that the way how is the war is conducted could be modified. But again, it's premature to talk about that. So, everything will depend on that, but it is absolutely clear that the world will never be the same as it was before the Russian-Ukrainian war. This is absolutely clear. And I think also absolutely clear for many European countries, NATO members as they had to take more serious steps with respect to security and the defense capabilities, because they themselves on the leadership level admit that they did not do enough in order to supply them with modern weapons, ammunitions. They probably found out that some of their statistics of their possession is not correct. It happens sometimes. So, I think this new geopolitical change will lead to militarization of Europe, of the world. And on one hand, it can be a dangerous kind of a trigger, on other hand, I think that could be also a kind of factor of deterrence. We in Azerbaijan, we realized many years ago that no one will help us and all our illusions about prevalence of international law disappeared. Not immediately, but throughout the times of negotiations. So, we realized that if we don't have a strong army, if we don't raise young generation ready to fight for the dignity not only for the land, we will always be occupied and always will complain. We were fed up with complaining, you know, let others complain about us now. That was how it was here in Azerbaijan. I think Azerbaijan's example is valuable. I know that the way how we conducted the battlefield, particularly liberation of Shusha, is being evaluated in international military academies. When you were approaching Shusha, you probably have seen the rock and it's just a fortress. It is very difficult to conquer. And Shusha was occupied because of the treason of many of those who were in power in Azerbaijan or trying to come to power. So, liberation of Shusha is really a demonstration of our spirit. So, I think that geopolitical changes in order that they do not create a problem for you, but on the contrary, be an opportunity depends on you, on your strategy, on your proper analysis of situation, and also on your principal policy. Because if countries start to maneuver, like for instance, what we see now in Armenia, it's an attempt to maneuver, attempt to sit now not on two chairs, but I think minimum four chairs and it is impossible. When it comes to Azerbaijan, whether it's our policy on regional development or policy on international affairs, on issues related to territorial integrity of countries is absolutely clear, absolutely free from any kind of current situation interests. And I think that Azerbaijan will become much stronger as a result of geopolitical change. We already see it, and the way how Armenia is coming closer to not only understanding but to publicly admitting Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, and also partly because of geopolitical change, partly because of collapse of the illusions that someone will come and fight for them. So, and of course, Azerbaijan's energy resources now much more needed to strengthen European energy security than ever before. So, I am not pessimistic with respect to our country's prospects, rather more optimistic, but try always to be realistic.

Hafiz Pashayev: Thank you. Arian Starova, Albania.

Arian Storova, Member of the Board, the Albanian Institute for International Studies: Very happy to be here and to share thoughts and your opinions, Mr. President. Thank you very much for that. I have two questions. In fact, the second question you`ve already given some answer, but probably, I would like to modify a little bit. The first question is: What's your opinion about the Belt and Road Initiative in Chinese One, about the future of that initiative? My second question has to do with the war of Russia in Ukraine. You said that it's very difficult to foresee and predict about the end of that, but I would rather put it differently and say probably that, how do you think this conflict might end? Thank you very much.

President Ilham Aliyev: The Belt and Road Initiative always was supported by Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan was among a limited number of countries, which got invitation and participated in a high level international conference. It was, I think, in spring 2019 in China dedicated to the Belt and Road Initiative. Azerbaijan is considered to be an important part of that project, especially now. So, we are very optimistic, what adds optimism is, first, that we made very good homework, as I said already, we modernized completely and still in the process of final, final touch, I would say, to modernize and to prepare more capacity for transportation infrastructure. At the same time more interest from Central Asia to use our infrastructure. And also I would like to say that in the end of last year the projects of building new railroad connection between China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Caspian have also started. So, this project was in the face of discussions for several years. So, it was officially already started and it demonstrates that if it started that it will work, definitely that there'll be more cargoes. So, we're now working with our partners on the eastern shores of the Caspian and in general in Central Asia on issues related to unification of tariffs, on making this road not only important from a point of view of transportation security, but also from commercial point of view. And it is possible. If each country, part of these projects, behaves in a fair way, and we have agreement on tariff unification and also customs administration. This is also very important to limit the bureaucratic procedures, to have more, how to say, electronic forms of joint operability.

With respect to the Russian-Ukrainian war, you ask a question that no one can answer. Maybe I know that someone can know when it will come to an end. But definitely it's not Azerbaijan, and for me, it will be irresponsible to make any predictions. Of course, as most of the countries in the world we want this war to stop sooner than later. But at the same time, as realists, we understand that probably it will not be possible to stop it sooner than later. So, that is a big tragedy for the peoples of these countries and for Europe and for the world.

Hafiz Pashayev: Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you.

Hafiz Pashayev: Nigar Goksel, Turkiye Project Director, the International Crisis Group.

Nigar Goksel: Thank you very much, Mr. President. With the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington, hopes were raised that a peace agreement, a breakthrough might be seen towards a peace agreement. But I gather from what you said that you're not very optimistic about this. I also gather that you don't have much hope. So, the external actors playing a very positive role in forging a peace agreement. So, I was wondering whether you could speak to whether any of the external actors are actually actively might try to prevent a peace agreement, whether there's a spoiler role and in my mind, I'm thinking about the interplay between the US and Iran, perhaps, between the US and Russia. How does the tensions between these powers play out in the South Caucasus and affect the chances of reaching a peace agreement with Armenia?

President Ilham Aliyev: I am less optimistic because of those comments, which we received. As I said several days ago, after waiting for more than 40 days, where we saw that almost 95% of the comments were the same like the previous one. So again, attempts to put under questions territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, again attempts to incorporate in some way, so-called Nagorno-Karabakh into peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, again attempts to cross when we put a proposal that we will combat together against terrorism, extremism, radicalism and separatism - all the rest remains on the separatism - Armenians cross. So, that means they will again trigger separatism in Azerbaijan. So, that reduced our optimism, but again we will see, because this session of negotiations is different from previous. It will already last for a couple of days and maybe will last for a couple of days more. And our idea was that they should come with some result, if not, it will be a big disappointment. At the same time, I think that the best way how to come to an agreement is direct negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia without any mediator and without any facilitator or spoiler. Before the Russian-Ukrainian war, we have seen the attempts of the former Minsk Group co-chairs to reengage again. We were actively against that. Because our position was that the Minsk Group failed and since 1992 until 2020 produced no result. The actual result was negative. Because we clearly understood in the end of so-called negotiations, during the times of occupation that Minsk group co-chairs just wanted to have situation unchanged. In other words, to keep the status quo, which was very comfortable for them and for Armenia, but not comfortable for us. Therefore, we've changed the status-quo. So, they were planning to join the efforts and to persuade Azerbaijan that the Minsk Group should in some form continue to be around. And when asked about what could that be, I said, first, we don't see any opportunity for doing as this usual business has finished. What countries of the former Minsk Group co-chairs can do if they want to help just to facilitate normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. So, I said the Karabakh conflict has been resolved and absolute majority of the principles, which were called Madrid principles have been implemented by Azerbaijan. Therefore, if you want to help, please concentrate on a peace agreement and persuade Armenia to be constructive. If any of these countries, I mean, now, the United States and Russia, of course, because after France took unilateral pro-Armenian position, it actually deprived itself from any kind of mediation. It is absolutely clear and not only, by the way, the so-called recognitions of separatism in Karabakh, but also other very open anti- Azerbaijani statements and actions in the United Nations, in Francophonie, in other formats and public statements of politicians actually isolated France from being mediator. Because mediator must at least pretend to be neutral. If you are not neutral in your soul, you at least have to pretend that you are neutral. They did not even try to do. So, now we see these efforts from the United States, from Russia, you probably know that next round of negotiations is supposed to take place between the ministers of the two countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan - in Russia this month. There is a European format of President Charles Michel, who several times convenes meetings on the level of leaders of the country. So, I think that may continue, but again I think direct negotiations between two countries will be more useful and helpful. I think that we need to go in that direction. Of course, if Armenia also is ready to do it.

Hafiz Pashayev: David Merkel, Managing Director, the Summit International Advisors, the US.

David Merkel: Mr. President, good to see you again. I'm really honored to be here on the 100th anniversary of Heydar Aliyev. Because of the ambassador's kindness, I had the opportunity of spending time with President Heydar Aliyev. It was at Yeni Azerbaijan Party Congress that first time I had the honor of meeting you. I have a request and a question. Being in Karabakh, I'd love to have a picture with you in Karabakh to take back to my friends on a Hill with regard to 907, which I have heard a lot about from yourself and the ambassador and other Azerbaijani friends. My question has to do with Iran. A lot in the Western press has been discussed on increasing tension between Azerbaijan and Iran and even a suggestion of kind of a little bit of axis of Armenia and Russia and Iran, on the one side, and Turkiye and Azerbaijan and Israel on the other. So, if you could just give us your thoughts on relations with one of your neighbors.

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, we always tried to develop these relations and as a President for almost 20 years, I was in Iran many times on official visits and previous presidents of Iran many times visited Azerbaijan. So, we had very active trade relations. We worked actively on issues related to transportation, particularly, the North-South Transport Corridor. And we saw that these relations have big potential, because always it is good to have good relations with your neighbor, especially when we have also a lot to remember in our history.

But, of course, during the times of occupation, we expected more from Iran with respect to support of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. And they always supported Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and voted for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity in the United Nations, in the Islamic Cooperation Organization. So, we must be absolutely fair about that. And but of course, people in Azerbaijan were not very happy with Iranian-Armenian relations. But as politicians we understood that every country has its own foreign policy priorities. Iran and Armenia are neighbors. Many people in Azerbaijan expected the same attitude as Turkiye, as Saudi Arabia, as Pakistan demonstrated during the times of occupation. Actually, these three countries did not even have diplomatic relations with Armenia because of occupation. So, I'm just telling you about the popular mood in Azerbaijan. So, people thought that it would be natural if Iran could be among these three countries and to demonstrate solidarity, especially because of active use of the territory of Iran by Armenia with respect to transportation, including transportation of military ammunition and equipment. But nevertheless, our relations were very solid. We agreed, together with other Caspian littoral states, on the Caspian Sea Convention. It was not easy. It took almost 30 years for countries to agree and there've been a lot of disagreements. I don't want to go into details. But finally, in Aktau, Kazakhstan, we signed the convention. So, that was also important that we've already come to an agreement how Caspian Sea boundaries and resources will be divided. But unfortunately, after the Second Karabakh War there have been several steps, which led to this escalation. And of course, if you look at the chronology of these steps, you will see that Azerbaijan was not the initiator. And why should we be initiators? We have such a huge challenge and task in front of us - reconstruction of Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. We do not have the need to have any problems with any country, especially with a neighboring country. But everything happened after we put cameras on road between Lachin and Khankendi, and we've detected regular movement of Iranian trucks to Karabakh and that was absolutely illegal. Because Iran recognizes territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and should not do things like that. We started to monitor the situation. We thought that maybe it's just a kind of an accident, maybe the drivers who came from Iran to Armenia they lost the road and by accident, they came to Karabakh. So, everything can happen. But then we started to see that it's already a kind of a tendency. So, my assistant invited the Iranian ambassador for a meeting by my instruction, private meeting, asking to convey to officials that we want kind of request to stop it. Because it is not good for our relations and it is not good from all points of view. We expected that will stop. But unfortunately, it did not stop. So, this traffic continued, illegal access to Azerbaijan from Iran continued. Then, we had to make an official step. We issued a diplomatic note and it was published and the Iranian ambassador was invited to our foreign ministry and that was made public that we expressed our dissatisfaction with that. So, this is a usual diplomatic procedure, nothing special. We thought that it will be the kind of message that will be responded. But unfortunately, not only it didn't stop, but this traffic became more intensive, what they were doing, and everything is documented because we have cameras already there. They were putting fake Armenian plaques and keeping the trucks as they were with this Arabic script. So, we had to stop it. So, two of these trucks have been detained and the drivers were arrested. In the traffic documents, we've seen that the cargo is sent from one of the Iranian cities and destination is written - Stepanakert, Armenia. Can you imagine that? And we have all these documents. It's not just the word, Stepanakert. First, it is not just Stepanakert, it is Khankendi. Second, it is not Armenia. And that created a lot of waves in some part of Iranian establishment - accusations, threats, etc.

But we think that we did the right thing. So, after a while, these drivers of course were released. And we thought that and it stopped. It stopped, frankly speaking. So, we had to use these kinds of measurements in order to protect our territorial integrity. Then there have been a lot of media attacks. A lot of statements from politicians, members of parliament, but actually we did not pay much attention to that because sometimes happens, somebody's unhappy wants to demonstrate his unhappiness. So, it's not something tangible. Even when they started to organize military drills on our border we treated it also as a kind of emotional gesture. Of course, it was difficult to understand because during the times of occupations they never had any military drills in that area. And these two military drills also were accompanied by a very hostile media campaign statements, insults, accusations, threats, etc. So, as always, we responded and we had two military drills on their border. One, by our special forces, those who liberated Shusha, by the way. And second with our ally, Turkiye, with Turkish F16 and Turkish special forces and it was not a demonstration. But it was also a message that we can defend ourselves. So, again, frankly, speaking as a President, I saw that it can create some difficulties but nevertheless, we wanted always to have a diplomatic solution to any kind of disagreements. I had a couple of meetings with my Iranian colleague at some international events, not in Baku and not in Tehran, but in Turkmenistan and in Kazakhstan. And it seemed to me that we clarified everything, and this misunderstanding is in the past. Unfortunately, when we were very close to, how to say, making a good step in reengagement - by the way, the visit of the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, the co-chair of the Joint Economic Commission was scheduled already to Tehran, because in Iran, there was a change of co-chair. So, we decided to send our co-chair to meet and because we have a lot of things on our agenda  then this terror act on our embassy happened and that ruined almost everything because there is a video footage. I don't want to go into much details, everyone can see what kind of act of terror it was. It was a deliberate, organized act of terror in order to kill our diplomats and members of their families. Because in that building, not only we have embassy but also apartments and family lives there. And we have security officers in several countries, but only in Iran they were not allowed to carry weapons. So, our security officers were with empty hands and the person who broke in he had Kalashnikov, and he started to shoot immediately, immediately killed and wounded two of them and only one brave officer with empty hands disarmed him and pushed him back. But for 40 minutes there was no police, no security officers, nothing. For 40 minutes, he was trying to get back, he was shooting with Kalashnikov, he used the hammer. He came with a hammer, and by the way, he came with Molotov cocktail and he broke the door with a hammer and entered again the building and again the same wounded officer, how to say, disarmed him and pushed him back. Then, he approaches, because we have external camera, internal camera definitely, approaches the police, puts down Kalashnikov, also he was using this Molotov. So, how can that be non-organized?. And moreover, the same day, this person appears on media. He gives an interview. Can you imagine the person who broke in an embassy of other country and killed one and wounded two gives interview saying that he did it because of some other reasons. And two days after in Iran, he was announced mentally disabled in order to avoid any kind of legal procedure. How that can happen? Mental disability cannot be examined and tested in two days. But that was not the end of the story. Yes, we pulled back completely all our diplomatic stuff, all our embassy. Now our embassy in Tehran is closed. And that was my decision, because for me the security and lives of our people are more important than what they will think in Iran about that. But that unfortunately was not the end of the story. Then, there was an act of terror against a member of the parliament of Azerbaijan and only by chance he was not killed. The God saved his life. Again, Kalashnikov in just two meters distance, six bullets and he was seriously wounded.

And after several days that group was detained. So, our law enforcement structures worked very efficiently. We find and punish everyone, no matter where they hide. And they already said where they hide and put their Kalashnikov. It was found, so, the whole network was disclosed. They testified that they received orders from Iran. So, this is crossing the red line. You know, this is serious, this is terror. And we think that this terror is organized on a governmental level. We totally consider inappropriate any kind of statements that someone had done it. No. Therefore, we demand first, extradition of some terrorists from Azerbaijan who found shelter in Iran. And, we demand transparent investigation of the terror attack on our embassy. So, you can imagine that now relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are on the lowest ever level. It is very difficult to predict whether they will remain on that level, whether they will go down or they will go up. It's very difficult to predict. So, we got some communications from Iranian officials, some phone calls and other communications, proposals to normalize relations but definitely, as I said, our demands are absolutely legitimate and justified. If these demands are met, then we can talk about normalization. If not, then not. So, again, it was not our choice. But everybody in Iran, all segments of the establishment should finally understand that the language of threats and terror will not work with Azerbaijan. The soon they understand, the better we can see signs of normalization.

Hafiz Pashayev: Mr. President, if you will allow, continue.

President Ilham Aliyev: Yes, go ahead.

Hafiz Pashayev: Thank you. Next, Victor Kipiani, Chairman of Geocase, Georgia.

Victor Kipiani: Thank you very much, Mr. President Aliyev. Your Excellency, delighted to be in Shusha. Thank you for your time to say us. You mentioned on few occasions the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan, the South Caucasus Pipeline. Undisputedly those projects laid down foundations for a good regional cooperation, which will be benefit us up to this phase and hopefully will continue benefiting into decades to come. And this is really the great legacy of Heydar Aliyev and his counterpart President Shevardnadze. And this is something you know something, which we should be very much thankful to. In the context of those projects as well, at the start of the next phase of increasing regional interconnectedness. And that is about the Middle Corridor and the Black Sea cable. You've touched on, from time to time in course of this conversation, but cause expectations but still if you could still elaborate a little bit more on your outlook in relation to the projects, your expectations from the partners. When speaking about the expectations of the partners in that context, once again, so elaborates on the good partnership of Azerbaijan and Georgia, which has always been critical for an overall success of any cross-border project, which we are witnessing, we have witnessed, and we will be witnessing. So, thank you so much indeed. Thanks.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you very much. Yes, I fully agree with you, President Heydar Aliyev and President Eduard Shevardnadze - they laid down the foundation for the strong partnership and cooperation between our two countries. You know that they were leading Georgia and Azerbaijan during the Soviet times. They had a very good friendly relations at that time and as leaders of independent countries, they actually founded today's Georgia- Azerbaijan partnership format. And of course, it started with the Baku-Supsa Pipeline and famous inauguration in the end of 1990s in Supsa with a presence of President Shevardnadze and President Aliyev. And then they together laid down the foundation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan. And when the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan was inaugurated in 2006 already, and it was without their participation unfortunately.

So, today, relations developed successfully based on that foundation. You know that recently, last month, the Georgia Prime Minister visited Azerbaijan. I visited Georgia six months ago. So, we always keep in touch and try jointly to even cement even more relations between our countries and there is a high level of mutual understanding that only together we can achieve our goals, only together we can be more powerful in the region and also in relationship with our partners in Europe. Therefore, Georgia and Azerbaijan, interconnections and partnership in transportation energy in many other areas is important factor of energy security and transportation security. During these two important visits and also during the visits of other high-ranking officials, mutual visits, these two important issues have been addressed.

With respect to the Middle Corridor, you probably know that Azerbaijan is now investing additional funds into expansion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad on the Georgian territory. We've allocated about 140 million US dollars to expand the capacity to 5 million tonnes by railroad, and hopefully within the maximum one year from now, we will achieve that. At the same time, we are actively evaluating future cooperation with respect to the potential of Georgian sea ports  existing and planned. I do not want to say something before some results are achieved. We are seriously evaluating. We see a great potential, because we can foresee huge cargo flow through the Middle Corridor across the Caspian and then further down to Georgia sea ports and through Georgia to Turkiye, to Kars further down. So, this is a reality.

With respect to the Black Sea cable, you know that project feasibility study had been started a while ago, but now, we established more, how to say, a broader I would say format of four countries, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary and Romania. And First Advisory Council of that project took place in February in Baku and the second in Tbilisi, relatively recently, I think, last month. So, we looked at this project from a bigger perspective, not just a Black Sea cable, but a transportation route from Caspian offshore wind farms to Europe, and to have an integrated project. Unlike the Southern Gas Corridor, which was a fragmented one consisting of three independent integrated pipelines, now we want to have integrated projects from the source and of course, source will be also in Georgia to the final destinations. And after we started this already formal cooperation, we already started to receive some messages from some other European countries which want to join. So, I think that it could be a really global project.

Already we have oil, gas. Now, why not to have electricity transmission and cable. The European Union strongly supports that, and that adds to our optimism because European Commission's President Madame Ursula von der Leyen was witnessing the signing ceremony last December in Bucharest. So, her presence there demonstrates that European Union will seriously participate. And this is a project of probably the coming decades, because they have great potential of renewables in Georgia, Azerbaijan, including Karabakh, whether it's hydro or wind. And as I already said, with several major international companies famous in renewables, we signed contracts and MOUs to produce 25 gigawatts. Almost 500 megawatts already is being constructed, 230 megawatts inauguration we are planning within several months. So, more than 700 megawatts of solar and wind we will have probably maximum like in 2025 and the rest is in the pipeline. So, we have great future and must always be together.

Hafiz Pashayev: Next, Victoria Coates, Senior Research Fellow, the Heritage Foundation, the US.

Victoria Coates: Thank you Mr. President for the warm welcome to both Baku and Shusha. This has been an extraordinary opportunity. And if I can get into David's 907 picture, I'd appreciate that tangled with that issue myself. But having this chance to both look back at the extraordinary century that Azerbaijan has experienced under both your father and you, and looking forward to the next century, which of course will start in 2024. You had brought up the Belt and Road Initiative, which is obviously, this is sometimes in the paper. There are heightened tensions between the United States and the People's Republic of China, so that may have crossed your inbox. You know, I'm of the opinion that we can't be surprised that a country like Azerbaijan would look both East and West. After all in the United States we faced the same challenge. We are both an Atlantic and the Pacific power. And in terms of positioning the United States as a partner of choice to Azerbaijan going forward, I think it is beholden on us to be more proactive in that space, rather than as I said, simply lecturing you on the evils of the PRC. I do have views on that, but I need to air them here.

As we go forward, so, if you look at something like 907 as an unnecessary irritant in a relationship, what can the United States do particularly as we grow into our status as an energy superpower? Due to be from an Azerbaijan perspective to be the partner of choice to you, and what would you see as the best engagement from both the United States government and from our private sector?

President Ilham Aliyev: Actually, I think I'm absolutely convinced that agenda of bilateral relations between the United States and Azerbaijan is really very impressive. What we just were discussing about 907 and some, you know, sensitivity to the issues related to some wording with respect to territorial integrity of Azerbaijan did not mean at all that we had some kind of contradictions that cannot be resolved. On the contrary, with the United States we have a very broad and very important bilateral agenda. First of all, on the issues related to energy security. The United States always supported Azerbaijan in its endeavors to diversify the energy supply routes and helped us in order to transform into a country, which today's considered, as I already said, by European Commission as a Pan-European gas supplier. I remember those years very well, because when I worked in SOCAR in 1990s, I know very well how important US support was in implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. There was a lot of opposition to that pipeline around. So, it was very strong Armenian and pro-Armenian campaign. They even established the NGO, which was called if I'm not mistaken, BTC Campaign. They issued letters everywhere and by the way, unfortunately, some of these letters worked. So, World Bank delayed for one year, lending money for construction of BTC, because of the so-called environmental concerns. So, they use just this pretext, that it will damage the environment. Though it's almost 20 years that BTC in operations, there was not a single, not a single drop of oil, which can damage the environment. In other words, the United States helped us to overcome those difficulties.

If talking about the gas, yes, as always we`re joking with US partners, none of the drops of Azerbaijani gas will reach US market, but the United States was instrumental in support of Azerbaijan's vision for the Southern Gas Corridor. There have been a lot of obstacles in implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor and obstacles from unexpected sources. I think it is not a secret any longer. But again, the pretext was environment. And this time it was not turtles like in case of BTC, it was olive trees. So, you see how creative they are. Actually, it was the same group of people, who were concerned about turtles with BTC and olive trees in Italy. Because we made our own investigation and found who was behind this campaign against the Southern Gas Corridor. Unfortunately, we had difficult times in communications with previous governments, governments of Italy and also some local authorities. We've traced all the connections, because we had to know who is behind this campaign in order to fix the project and we found. Maybe I don't want, it's premature to talk about that, but the time will come everything will be known. But what's happened then, and I witnessed on the television. First of all, I'd like to say that President of Italy, Mr. Sergio Mattarella was of great support and he did a great job in order to move the process forward. Because several olive trees relocation happens on a regular basis in Italy, in other Mediterranean countries, it happens. So, in this case, these olive trees, unfortunately, were a source of big concerns and then they, by the way, were relocated, and I'm sure they're safe. But then at the press conference of then-President of the United States Donald Trump and then-Italian Prime Minister, Donald Trump openly said you have to support the project and that was a turning point. And immediately all the concerns of olive trees relocation were lifted, and we got the green light. So, this is how United States is working. What I'm saying now, maybe I'm saying for the first time, but I think that why should we keep it secret? Why there should be some ambiguity? No.

We have very profound relations with the United States. And now in particular, and I got several letters from President Biden, very positive. I got public communications from President, from Secretary Blinken with respect to our humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. Azerbaijan was one of the two last countries along with Turkiye, who left mission in Afghanistan. We were the last two. And we stayed in Afghanistan from the very beginning. We've been in Iraq since 2003. Until we got a message from the United States that we can go home. So, we went. So, we've been even in Kosovo before this process of recognition started. Security, energy, trades, now, on renewables, we hope that American companies will be part of our big project of transforming Azerbaijan into a source of renewable energy. Because proven reserves of wind and solar power in Azerbaijan is close to 200 gigawatts and this is already with respect to the Caspian Sea has been confirmed by IFC. 157 gigawatts of wind power only in the Caspian Sea, which belongs to us.

So, once again, I maybe go too far, but only in order so that no one thinks that is 907 and some other things - they are peanuts. Now they seem like peanuts, then it was maybe more sensitive, but we need always to look at the broader picture. There can be certain disappointments. Of course, we are disappointed that people like Senator Menendez, who has Armenian family always attacks Azerbaijan. And he's a big lobbyist, not Armenia lobbyists, but anti-Azerbaijani lobbyist. We regret that person like Adam Schiff also spreads hatred against Azerbaijan, and now he wants to put the kind of resolution to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh. That resolution if adopted will have the same value as resolutions adopted by French Senate and National Assembly. So, we know these people, we know that they're sponsored by Armenia lobby, we know that most probably the background of this cooperation is not very clean. It is possible, but having people like Menendez and Schiff and Sherman, it should not interfere with our relations. There was a case when American Ambassador Matthew Bryza, who, by the way, was participant at the last meeting. His appointment was blocked by pro-Armenian senators, because he was not too pro-Armenian and because he had a Turkish wife. Can you imagine, the level of political conscious of these people? If person has a Turkish wife, he cannot be ambassador in Azerbaijan. And diplomatic career of Matthew Bryza was ruined. The person, who served for the US State Department for a couple of decades, at least it was ruined by one person, this pro-Armenian guy. So, this is something, which we of course, take into account, but neither Menendez nor Schiff nor any other people like them will be able to interfere in relations between US and Azerbaijan. Our relations are very well balanced, solid and based on mutual respect. And I'm sure that will be the case for the future.

Hafiz Pashayev: Mehmood Hassan Khan, the Center of South Asia and International Studies, Pakistan. Please.

Mehmood Hassan Khan: We have a special connection, passion and respect for you and the people of Azerbaijan. And we really appreciate your strategic vision in terms of complete socio-economic transformation of Azerbaijan, and successful liberation of Karabakh. Since a lot of questions related to geopolitics have already been asked, so my questions pertain to geo-economics.

His Excellency, would Azerbaijan seek Chinese diplomatic assistance to resolve the issue of Zangezur corridor? How do you foresee is the role of Azerbaijan after Chinese facilitated peace agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Greater Eurasian region? Because it has changed the regional socio-economic dimension and geopolitics and most recently, phenomenon, the pace of the process of dedollarisation strategic expansion of SCO and momentum of BRICS. Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you. First of all, I'd like to say that Pakistan and Azerbaijan are true friends and brotherly countries. We are very grateful to the people and government, and previous governments of Pakistan for continuous support to Azerbaijan. With respect to our territorial integrity and sovereignty - during the times of occupation, during the war - there were very clear statements from high-ranking Pakistani leaders - President and Prime Minister - supporting Azerbaijan and after the war. So, once again, like to ask you to convey our gratitude to all our brothers. Pakistan is one of the three countries along with Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, which did not have any diplomatic relations with Armenia, because of occupation and we, of course, highly value that.

With respect to the Zangezur corridor and as far as I got it correctly, how China can facilitate. I think there's a big potential in Zangezur corridor and already I mentioned that the railroad connection between China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, is started. The Zangezur corridor has a big potential to become one of the extension of the One Belt and One Road and also can be part of the North South Corridor. Because entering Nakhchivan, then it has already a railroad connection with Iranian railroad, which can deliver goods to the Persian Gulf. So, Zangezur corridor is important not only for Azerbaijan and Armenia, but I think on a global scale. Because we expect a growing number of cargoes, growing volume of cargoes. So, the more roads we have the better. As far as we're concerned, next year we will complete the construction of the railroad, which was dismantled during the times of occupation and it was sold on the market by Armenians from Fuzuli to Zangilan, almost to Armenian border and 40 something kilometers on the territory of Armenia. If built, that will be, of course, an international project. If Armenia would put artificial obstacles in front of that project, they will only lose. Because today we don't have any problems of transporting goods through Georgia, Turkiye, through Georgia and Black sea ports, either through Russia or through Iran, but Armenia doesn't have this physical connections.

With respect to the role of China in normalization between Saudi Arabia and Iran, we highly value the role of China, by the way, Id like to say that we have excellent relations with China. I met President of China Xi Jinping many times. And he called me a good friend of China during one of our meetings. So, I think only this is enough to demonstrate the level of our cooperation. And of course, we support normalization between Saudi Arabia and Iran. We do not know what is the substance of the agreement, it's not known for us, but anyway, it's very good. Saudi Arabia - for us is brotherly country - country with which we had excellent relations and we want them only progress, stability and development. As I said, they did not establish diplomatic relations with Armenia because of us. And this means a lot. And of course, Iran as a neighbor, of course, we want stability and predictability in Iran. So, I think that the role of China must be only appreciated.

With respect to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, I was invited for the first time, by the way, to the Summit, which took place in Uzbekistan, because Azerbaijan is not as you know, a member is not even an observer, Azerbaijan status is partner for dialogue. But nevertheless, Azerbaijan was invited and I think that was very important for us, because with many countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, we have very good relations. Thank you.

Hafiz Pasayev: Mr. President, we are already two hours in session.

President Ilham Aliyev: So, you have the list. I haven't seen your list. Everything is in your hands.

Hafiz Pashayev: List is big and even I see some signs that somebody wants to.

President Ilham Aliyev: I think we can continue if you are not tired.

Hafiz Pashayev: Ilayda Nijhar, the Overseas Development Institute, the United Kingdom. Please.

Ilayda Nijhar, Global Risks Analyst, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the United Kingdom: Thank you Mr. President for dedicating your time today and it's great to be here. We've touched upon a lot of different themes and the question on the Middle Corridor. Yesterday, we heard the Minister for Digital Development and Transport saying that the Middle Corridor can't just be an option to be used when things go bad. In your view, what more can be done in terms of engagement and support on development of the Middle Corridor from external partners? And if I may, just another quick one. The Organization of Turkic States (OTS), it's already been mentioned, but I'd be keen to hear your views on what role you see Azerbaijan playing in the development of the OTS, particularly considering observer status and of course, including Northern Cyprus as well. Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: With respect to the Middle Corridor, of course, we fully support this project and it has a great potential. I think that important is for us to understand that we should not only be a transit route for cargoes, but we should use this opportunity in order to stimulate business activity on the route. So, I think for all the countries, which are involved in the Middle Corridor, it will be important not only to earn money from transit fees, but to use this opportunity in order to stimulate local manufacturing. And we have big expectations with respect to the future activity of the Alat Free Economic Zone, which has a very solid legal foundation and the rules of the zone, I think it should be very attractive for investors. And it is in the process of completion. I mean, the first installation of the first infrastructure. So, we want to use this opportunity to become the place for manufacturing, for more business opportunities. Taking into account the improving business climate in Azerbaijan, big reforms in the area of taxation and customs administration and, in general, reforms on transparency of all our financial system, I think there's a big potential. Plus of course, geographical location, because Azerbaijan as I already said, is not only East-West Corridor country, but North-South. We're just on the juncture. And with all the transportation routes open and almost all of them fully modernized, of course, there is a big potential. But again, we want to look at these opportunities from broader picture, not just to be a transitor, it is not enough and there is a potential.

With respect to the Organization of Turkic States, Azerbaijan was always very active throughout the whole period of these organizations, though it had different names before. There were times when some countries were more active, some countries less. There were times when the summits were not regular. But Azerbaijan always was one of the important country. It was not by chance that the Declaration about the creation of the Council was adopted in Nakhchivan more than 10 years ago. And also change of the name also means not only how to say how it will be called, but it means the substance and we see that there's a big need in all the member countries of the organization to consolidate the efforts. Because if we do it, if we transform this organization even more into serious international player, I think, everyone will benefit. Because, look, we have big geography. We have in some countries big natural resources, including energy resources, have a strong military capability in some of the countries and if we unite all these efforts, of course, we will see a serious player on a global scale. It can be and I think it should be one of the centers of global powers. Because again, population geography, transportation routes, Eurasian, how to say, dimension, energy resources. Turkiye is a second NATO member army. Azerbaijan's army also demonstrated that it is very capable. So, if we unite all these efforts, we will only benefit and I think the more we get together, more we interact, the more understanding is in our countries that this is a way how it should be. And moreover, you know, you have to live in your family. You have to live in your country. That's my, how to say, approach. Of course, I respect people who live in some other countries. It's now normal in a global world. But I think that for everyone, that's my personal view, is better to live in your country and in your family. So, this is our family and we must be in our families. This is natural space for all of us. And with respect to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, you know, that they became observers. And we supported that from the very beginning until the very end. We only can congratulate our brothers. And by the way, we got certain messages from, you can imagine, from where about that. So, our answer was that first, they are our brothers. And second, they are observers already in Islamic Cooperation Organization, which has many more countries. So, I think that potential is here and I witness more common understanding about our future coordinated performance on international arena.

Hafiz Pashayev: Next, Michael Ritchie.

Michael Ritchie, Editor, Energy Intelligence, the United Kingdom: Thank you, Mr. President. You've already addressed some of the issues I was interested in about the Southern Gas Corridor. Energy is my field. Talking about the resources available and the commerciality of them. So, if I can be just a bit more specific and ask how much extra gas do you think Azerbaijan can supply to the European Union by 2027. That's called for in a Memorandum of Understanding signed last summer with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. And also, do you see any flexibility in that time table? I mean it's quite tight. And finally, given that the EU aims gradually to phase out fossil fuels, what sort of long term commitments will you require from the EU side?

President Ilham Aliyev: Yeah, you touched on very important issues long term commitment. This is important, because we've got a lot of requests from many countries. After the Russian-Ukrainian war started, from more than 10 countries we got requests either to increase the supply or to find the opportunity to start the supply. And of course, this needs additional investments and a lot of, how to say, technical things to be resolved. And of course, we must know what will be the duration of that deficit and what will be the approach to fossil fuels in the future. Because you know, that now European Investment Bank does not finance any longer projects of fossil fuel. I don't want to comment about that. But this is something we have to take into account. So, we don't want to find ourselves in this situation where we invest additional billions of dollars, which we did not plan, by the way, and then, all of a sudden, someone will tell us thank you, goodbye.

We don't need it any longer, we have hydrogen or whatever. Therefore, one of the element of our energy dialogue with the European Commission is exactly what you mentioned very correctly that we need to have predictability. We are ready to help. We are already helping. We are investing additional financing. We're doing a lot of other, how to say, diplomatic steps, in order to supply as much as we can to European countries. Of course, we expect understanding of our position in European Commission. So that we can plan the future. In general with European Union we have energy dialogue, which covers many areas, not only gas, but also renewables and green hydrogen. And so, the portfolio is really very impressive. And with respect to concrete figures, we signed a MOU to double our supply by 2027. And that will be around 20 bcm. I think this is absolutely realistic. Otherwise we wouldn't have signed it, if we thought this is not realistic. If no force majeure takes place. It is absolutely realistic. 2021 our supply to EU market was something more than 8 bcm. This year it will be 12. So, in two years from 8 to 12. And I think going by this big steps by 2027, it can be 20.

You may ask about the sources. I can tell you. First, we expect more gas from Shah Deniz, we expect maybe in four years time, maybe less from new phase of Shah Deniz additional gas. We expect already several years, but I hope this year we will get first gas from Absheron, which at the first phase of Absheron will produce 1.5 bcm. And then we will have to decide what will be the second phase and what will be the market, whether it will be the domestic market or international market. So, it's just I don't want to bother you with too many details. Of course, so-called deep gas from ACG has great potential. And BP and SOCAR are already actively working on that. It's a huge gas condensate field. When I said 300 billion cubic meters of gas, this is minimum. Of course, big potential in Umid and Babek, which partly is developed by SOCAR itself, but we're ready to work with international companies also. And Karabakh oil field, which also has potential. So, this is a source of gas. Another source is efficiency in management. Reduction of losses, modernization of our gas distribution network, and renewables. Because today we use about 5 bcm minimum to produce electricity. So, if we have enough renewables, this 5 bcm will be available for market.

So, this is additional. But we come here to the problem, which we just raised in the beginning. We need to have capacity in transportation. TAP must be expanded. As I said we have 20%, others companies have also 20% almost, except one. So, it must be common decision to expand TAP. If TAP is not expanded, then there'll be no gas in TAP. So, TAP now is at the maximum capacity already. To expand TANAP is easier, because in TANAP it is Azerbaijan, Turkiye and BP. So, it is easier to do. But in TAP it is more difficult. We need to have access to the Trans-Balkan pipeline and to be able to supply countries which are waiting for our gas. And if interconnectors in Europe are built on time, then by the end of this year, we can start supply to Hungary and to Serbia.

Romania already started this year. So, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria already started. In Albania, we are in the stage of negotiations of investment in gas distribution network. So, Albania is a transitor, but it doesn't have gas distribution network. So, we are planning to invest substantial amount of money to create this distribution network. I was in Sofia just several days ago to attend the inauguration of the Solidarity Ring. So, Slovakia is joining. So, if now we export to six countries, within one year if everything goes according to the schedule, without force majeure, it can be 10. And that's why Commissioner Simson says Azerbaijan will be the Pan-European supplier and this is not the end. I think, we will find if there is a market and if there are enough interconnectors, the geography can expand because we still have requests from the countries, which I did not mention, in Balkans and also in other parts of Europe, which can be also recipients of Azerbaijani gas. So, the real picture is very broad, but all these projects must be in coordination. If we don't have on time implementation of green energy project, so that will also, how to say, delay all the rest.

Farhad Azima, Chairman, ALG Transportation, the US: Thank you, Mr. President. It is very special for me to be here, on this occasion, in this area. The dream of late President was manifested in reality by you, Mr. President. I'm honored to be here. I have a simple question. Natural gas from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and possibly Kazakhstan could be very easily transferred here via underwater Caspian Sea to Baku and from Baku via Turkiye to go to Europe. What are the obstacles that are not being implemented?

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, it's difficult for me to say, because you know the projects of gas, infrastructure, construction are usually the projects, which are initiated and financed by those countries, which are the owners of these resources, as it was in our case. We are the owners of resources. We initiated construction of the Southern Gas Corridor and built together with our partners - with the help of international financial institutions - the 3,500 km-long pipeline from Baku to Italy, partly underwater. Major investments, billions of dollars and we did not yet recover the costs. So, it's a long term investment, but it was a strategic decision. And without that, none of what we're talking about would have been possible. And by the way, just for historical memory, I want to say that Azerbaijan was an initiator of the Southern Gas Corridor. Before that, there were a lot of speculations, discussions about different projects. I personally participated many times, maybe almost 10 times, in different conferences, international events on NABUCCO. So, if you remember, maybe it's like 907 also everybody forgot about it. But it didn't happen. Why? Because the question was who is going to pay for that? And when this question was raised everybody backed down. So, we initiated the Southern Gas Corridor and did it on time, and now we enjoy the benefits.

With respect to the gas from Central Asia, this decision must be made by the owners of these resources. Where the owners are planning to export, in which direction, whether it will be East or West? If they choose West, or if they choose both, of course, we in Azerbaijan will do everything in order to facilitate. We can provide the technical assistance, we can provide our pipe link barges. We only have it in the Caspian Sea. We can provide access to the Sangachal terminal, we can provide access to our pipeline system, but the decision must be made by them. If made, financial package must be also organized by them. In other words, the consortium, corporate capital and then borrowed money, who will be financing? So, this is one important part. So, this is a trigger. If this trigger is not pushed, it will not work. But even if the trigger is pushed, the question is then, if everything what I said is done, then what happens after the gas comes to the shore of Azerbaijan? How its going to be exported? What will be the volumes? What will be the commercial terms between the owners and the consumers? So, we can only be a transitor and we will be definitely a very fair transitor. By the way, the cash flow we may have as a transitor is not significant for Azerbaijan taking into account the cash flow we have from oil and gas. So, it's not a matter of significant economic importance. It's a matter of contribution to energy security, and a matter of facilitation to our friends in the East and in the West. So, in other words, we cannot initiate this project, and we cannot finance it. That's why, why it didn't happen, the question is not to me, but maybe your neighbor can answer.

Sodyq Safoev, First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan, Rector of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy: Yesterday, when Ive been asked, whether I am going to ask you a question, I said, I'm going to listen. And I thank you very much for this meeting. And we appreciate highly your vision, your inspiration, and your in-depth analysis. I'm sure that it was educational for all of us to listen to your assessments, your predictions and analysis. Few days ago in Tashkent, we've had a big conference dedicated to the centennial of the great leader, statesman Heydar Aliyev. We appreciate that the members of the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan attended the referendum as observers. The main conclusion of our Congress, which was by the way, only beginning of series of events to take place until the 10th of May in Uzbekistan, dedicated to the heritage of Heydar Aliyev, was that it was a man of caliber and magnitude and he possessed leadership what we need all now. Being here in Shusha, we've seen his dreams had come true. And we've seen his legacy in splendid, magnificent Baku, in the minds and spirit of military force of Azerbaijan, in the revival of Shusha. Thank you very much for allowing us to see it.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you. You probably realize that we don't need to have an interpreter. Our language are so close, our people are so close, that we not only understand each other, but we feel the pulse of each other. I'm very grateful to what you said, very grateful to all our brothers in Uzbekistan for the respect to the memory of Heydar Aliyev. During my official visit to Tashkent, together with my brother President Mirziyoyev, we opened the monument in honor of Heydar Aliyev in the park, which was named after him. It was a festival of our brotherhood and friendship. We're very grateful for that.

And just using this opportunity, Id like to congratulate the people of Uzbekistan with the important political event - successful referendum, which will create better opportunities for development of political system, economic development, social development. And you know that President Mirziyoyev and myself - we are good friends. And we told our ministers that we will personally monitor the implementation of all our instructions, and it already happened. So, don't want just to take much of the time, but really the substance and the spirit of cooperation is unique. As it should be between two brotherly peoples who speak more or less the same language and who share the same values. So, thank you and welcome to Karabakh.

Hafiz Pashayev: Mr. President, you are very generous with your time. But I want to stop, probably, questions. And I want to mention one person, who is here with us. Yesterday, he presented a short movie about his vision and his feelings about Karabakh, about his meetings with Heydar Aliyev. And this is Thomas Goltz, who is with us. For his health reasons, of course, he could not make even more active involvement of all this contribution to our conference, but what he did was very valuable and we are very thankful to him that he came to Shusha, to Karabakh. Because in my memory not any other journalist or even some other Americans did so much to make sure that Karabakh will be known to American public in a way which, which is true, which presents realities. So, we're very thankful. Yesterday, he made this presentation of movie and as you know, he was the first person, who visited Nakhchivan during Heydar Aliyev`s being there. In that movie he was also on the backside of the pictures. So, Thomas, thank you very much for coming. And I think he would be delighted to have picture with you.

President Ilham Aliyev: Yes, yes. With pleasure. I know, Mr. Goltz, weve met, I think, a couple of times in some events. And of course, I heard a lot, and I know how committed he was to restoration of justice. I think one of the elements of the restoration of justice is him being today in Shusha. And I think this is how justice prevails. So, thank you very much for all what you have done and thank you for being with us today.

Thank you very much. So, with respect to the pictures, I think we can have a family picture and then individual pictures and outside. Yes, yes. Outside we need to find a good place.

x x x

Then, a family photo was taken.

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3 May 2023 11:44 (UTC+04:00)

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev sent a congratulatory letter to President of Poland Andrzej Duda.

Dear Mr. President,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I cordially congratulate You and through You all your people on the occasion of the national holiday of your country  the Constitution Day.

Relations of friendship and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Poland are based on rich traditions. The present level of development of interstate relations, which vividly reflect these traditions, cooperation in political, economic, cultural and other fields are gratifying.

I believe that with our joint efforts, we will achieve the strengthening of Azerbaijan-Poland relations, and the further expansion of our mutually beneficial cooperation both bilaterally and multilaterally, especially within the European Union.

On such a remarkable day, I extend the best wishes to you, and wish the friendly people of Poland everlasting peace and prosperity.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 1 May 2023

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3 May 2023 13:30 (UTC+04:00)

"Together with Azerbaijan, we wanted to normalize relations with Armenia. Azerbaijan offered peace, this is a sign of sincerity."

Azernews reports that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said about that in an interview with a foreign media outlet.

"Armenia cannot accept the fact that Azerbaijan has liberated its lands from 30 years of occupation. It constantly transfers weapons to Karabakh, creates tension. Azerbaijan is taking steps against this. We are always with Azerbaijan. We have taken steps towards normalizing relations with Armenia having held consultations with Azerbaijan," Cavusoglu added.

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3 May 2023 14:23 (UTC+04:00)

Rena Murshud Read more

The National Academic Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan hosted an international conference "Heydar Aliyev and the Turkic World", dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev, Azernews reports, citing foreign media.

The conference was organized by the Turkic Academy and the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation.

President of the Academy Shahin Mustafayev stressed that Heydar Aliyev is a unique personality in the history of the statehood of Azerbaijan and the Turkic world.

History is based on the ideas and deeds of great people. The name of Heydar Aliyev, without exaggeration, is a symbol of modern Azerbaijan, its independence and successful development as a competitive state. Heydar Aliyev made great efforts for the integration and rapprochement of our peoples, Mustafayev said.

He also noted that the personal merit of Heydar Aliyev is the formation of the foundation for close, constructive and mutually beneficial cooperation, which is carried out between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Kazakhstan.

According to the Minister of Information and Social Development Darkhan Kydyrali, Heydar Aliyev is one of the great figures of the 20th century not only for the Azerbaijani people, but also for many others.

At the meeting of the presidents of the two countries, Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted that Heydar Aliyev is the true brand of the Azerbaijani people. He is like a bridge connecting two nations. In honor of this date, a film dedicated to the great figure was created, and materials related to him were published on our information portals. The recent opening of the Heydar Aliyev Street in Astana has brought our brotherly countries even closer. Every time we visit Azerbaijan, I try to visit the Heydar Aliyev Museum in Baku first of all. There you can not only touch the history of the country, but also see a true example of how to properly serve the people. He is one of the great figures of the 20th century, not only for the Azerbaijani people, but for many others. I consider it natural that this date is celebrated not only in Azerbaijan, but throughout the Turkic world, said Minister of Information and Social Development Darkhan Kydyrali.

As part of the event, the participants of the conference were shown the documentary film "Gaziz Gumyr" (Happy Life) about the life and work of Heydar Aliyev, prepared by the state television channel "Qazaqstan".

In their speeches, the participants and guests noted that the national leader was an excellent expert on the cultural and spiritual heritage of the Turkic world. Heydar Aliyev's activities in the direction of the development of Azerbaijani culture, his contribution to science and education in Azerbaijan, the reforms he carried out, as well as his exceptional role in the patriotic education of the country's youth were also discussed.

Recall to last month, President of Kazakhstan Kassym- Jomart Tokayev and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev solemnly opened of a street named after Heydar Aliyev in the center of Astana.

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3 May 2023 19:50 (UTC+04:00)

Netflix will invest around $2.5 billion in South Korea, the US streaming service has said, adding that this would be the largest investment in the country's content industry which is expected to create 68,000 jobs, Azernews reports citing Anadolu Agency.

The announcement came during a meeting between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is in Washington on a state visit to the US since Monday and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos.

Netflix will produce Korean TV series, movies and scripted shows as the investments by the US streaming service would be made over the next four years.

"We were able to make this decision because of our great confidence in the Korean content industry, and we'll continue to make great stories," Sarandos said after meeting Yoon at Blair House.

"I have no doubt that our investment will strengthen our long-term partnership with Korea and Korea's creative ecosystem," he said.

Lauding South Korean TV productions which include "Squid Game," "The Glory," and "Physical 100 hits, Sarandos said: "The sum is twice the amount Netflix has invested in South Korea since it started there in 2016."

"Stories produced by Korean creators are now at the heart of the global cultural zeitgeist," he said, according to Seoul-based Yonhap News.

Yoon welcomed the investment, saying he expects it to be a "large opportunity" for the South Korean content business, creators and Netflix.

South Korea's culture ministry said the investments "will help strengthen the capabilities of domestic production companies and increase their chances of advancing to the global market."

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3 May 2023 20:47 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev began his visit to Germany with talks with Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Azernews reports citing UzDaily.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mirziyoyev sincerely thanked the German Chancellor for the warm welcome.

It was emphasized that Uzbekistan sees Germany as a reliable and strategic partner, countries are connected by deep historical roots. In recent years, Uzbek-German relations have been developing dynamically in all areas.

A twofold increase in mutual trade and the number of joint projects was noted with satisfaction. The volume of German investments in the economy of Uzbekistan reached US$5.5 billion, of which US$4 billion were attracted over the past few years.

A high assessment was given to the joint business forum held during the visit, as a result of which agreements were reached on the implementation of new trade, investment and technological projects worth US$9 billion.

We are talking about cooperation in the field of "green" energy, mining, chemical, pharmaceutical industries, modernization of transport infrastructure, digitalization of agriculture, innovation and other priority areas.

In order to support the projects of German companies in Uzbekistan, an agreement was reached on a full-scale partnership with KfW Bank, Deutsche Bank and the German Society for International Cooperation.

The readiness of the Government of Germany to further support Uzbekistans accession to the WTO and the soonest signing of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the European Union was expressed.

The importance of continuing the political dialogue was emphasized. The parties welcomed the signing during the visit of the Intergovernmental Declaration on deepening multifaceted cooperation

Olaf Scholz supported the new regional policy of Uzbekistan to create an atmosphere of friendship and mutual trust in Central Asia, deepening integration in the region.

An agreement was reached to launch a dialogue platform in the Germany-Central Asia format.

Issues of ensuring regional security were discussed, including in the context of the situation in Afghanistan.

The need to continue humanitarian projects was confirmed, including through the capabilities of the logistics hub and the Educational Center for Afghan youth in the city of Termez.

Particular attention was paid to the development of transport and logistics. The parties agreed to develop the Trans-Caspian Corridor, which will create an effective route connecting the region of Central Asia with Europe.

The rich cultural and humanitarian agenda was noted with satisfaction. The German side highly appreciated the unique exhibition of the cultural heritage of Uzbekistan that is opening these days in the city of Berlin.

The parties welcomed the growing interest in the study of the German language in Uzbekistan. An agreement was reached on the technical assistance of the Government of Germany to the expansion of the study of the German language in the regions of the country.

In general, during the visit, 16 intergovernmental and interdepartmental documents were signed in the fields of economy, trade, finance, education, science and innovation.

At the end of the meeting, Mirziyoyev invited Scholz to visit Uzbekistan.

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Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will become overcast in the afternoon. High around 75F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy early with partial clearing expected late. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 52F. WSW winds shifting to N at 10 to 20 mph.
https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/swindle-buzzbaits.html

Fishing Lures

Image

Bass Fishings funniest man, Gerald Swindle, doesnt draw smiley faces on all his tackle boxes, but he inked one on his buzzbait box for several good reasons.

Along with skipping a jig around docks, no lure brings Swindle more joy than a buzzbait. Hes cashed a ton of tournament paychecks using the classic topwater, and perhaps as much as anything, theyre a sentimental connection to many weekday evening jackpot tournaments when thoughts of fishing for a living first became a heartfelt dream.

Growin up, buzzbaits were a way for me and Johnny McCombs to win jackpots on Smith Lake in my early 20s when I was trying to figure out a way to stop framing houses in the Alabama heat for a living, reflects the much-loved Team Toyota angler.

Three decades later, with $2 Million in prize money and two Bassmaster Angler of the Year titles to his credit, its been a long time since Swindle swung a framing hammer. However, his in-depth love of tinkering with buzzbaits to catch bass is as strong as ever, and he graciously offers 30 years of wisdom about these bite-generating topwaters.

Theyre Not All Created Equal

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Swindles shade tree mechanic mentality figured out years ago that the key to reducing lost bites on a buzzbait was to set a sharper angle on the wire as it exits the lead head, forcing the hook to ride lower in the water column for better hookups.

As a result, the buzzbait hes about to launch with Buckeye Lures features a hefty wire thats bent at a better angle than most buzzbaits to reduce lost fish. Plus, the heavier wire creates more friction when it makes contact with the blade for a louder fish-attracting squeak.

Not Too Heavy, Not Too Fast

One of the biggest mistakes people make with buzzbaits is they try to fish them way too fast. The goal is to retrieve them just fast enough to keep them on the surface, and the two keys to achieving that is using a  or 3/8-ounce bait, not a  ounce, and dont use a fast retrieve reel. I dont like anything faster than my 6.6:1 Inception reels from 13 Fishing, emphasizes Swindle.

His rod is a 7 4 medium heavy action, also from 13 Fishing, and his go-to line for buzzbaits is 18-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon. He avoids braided line on his buzzers at all costs because braided line pulls the bait away from the bite way too fast.

Postspawn Is Primetime For Buzzbaits

Depending on what latitude you call home, the phases of the spawn occur at different dates on the calendar, but one things for sure: soon after fish are done, spawning is a fantastic time for buzzbaits.

Whether youre getting fry-guarding males to eat it or a big old hungry female laying around a dock resting up after she spawns, there arent many lures that allow you to cover more water and generate more bites during the early postspawn than a buzzbait, says Swindle.

And he should know. Its been 26 years since he buzzed out of the house framing business.
School choice would continue its growth trajectory in North Carolina under a budget passed by the House April 6 in a bipartisan vote of 78 to 38.Nine Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the spending plan for the new biennium, which expands school choice by growing private-school choice programs and charter schools.The budget makes three changes to the Opportunity Scholarship Program, a means-tested scholarship designed to allow low- and moderate-income families to attend the private school of their choice.First, it would eliminate the requirement that students in grades third through eighth attend public school for at least a year prior to receiving the scholarship. Under the current structure, the requirement is only waived for students in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.Second, beginning with the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the budget allocates an additional $392 million to the program's reserve fund over a seven year period. Third, the budget removes a requirement that private schools participating in Opportunity Scholarships submit student test data to the state government each year.said Mike Long, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina.Gov. Roy Cooper had proposed a budget that would eventually phase out Opportunity Scholarships. On April 5, Rep. Lindsey Prather, D-Buncombe, offered an amendment to the budget on the House floor that would have halted increases in funding for the program and restored the reporting requirement for test data.said Prather.The amendment failed 69-44, with two Democrats - Reps. Cecil Brockman, D-Guilford, and Garland Pierce, D-Scotland - joining Republicans in voting it down.The budget also removes the State Board of Education's oversight to authorize or shutter charter schools, shifting this responsibility to the Charter Schools Advisory Board.Republican lawmakers have proposed two measures - House Bill 406 and House Bill 420 - that would expand school choice to an even greater degree. H.B. 406 would grow eligibility for Opportunity Scholarships to even higher earning households, while H.B. 420 would phase out Opportunity Scholarships and ultimately replace them with Education Savings Accounts, available to parents regardless of income level.The Senate is likely to releases its budget in May.
This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation . The author of this post is Paige Terryberry The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), along with Dr. Arthur B. Laffer, just released their 2023 annual report of Rich States, Poor States.North Carolina ranks 2nd best in theranking measured by factoring 15 different state variables. Variables include tax rates and burdens, state debt, minimum wage, and right-to-work status. Recent tax rate cuts bolstered the state ranking, along with our low corporate income taxes, right-to-work status, and lack of estate tax.The state ranks 10th best in theranking, a retrospective measure based on state GDP, domestic migration, and employment. This is an improvement from last year when North Carolina ranked 12th best. The state's ranking was bolstered by high net domestic migration.Stephen Moore, a co-author of the report, highlighted in an interview the benefits of our system of federalism. He said, "We knew from decades of research that states with lower taxes, states that had Right to Work laws, states that allowed more freedom for their workers and businesses had better performance. We wanted to really chronicle that in this report."The 16th annual report can be found here . Historical state rankings can be found on their website here
Beaumont ISD is asking the Texas Legislature to fully fund public education and in turn is taking a stance against school vouchers.

The Beaumont school board at its April 20 meeting unanimously approved a resolution "regarding vouchers, education savings accounts, taxpayer savings grants and other mechanisms that reduce public education funding."

The resolution will be submitted to the Texas Association of School Boards as part of its advocacy agenda. The association has designated the voucher issue as one of its top priorities, asking the Legislature to "prevent any transfer of public funds using vouchers..."

"Right now, during the legislative session where there is significant discussion on vouchers or education savings accounts, this particular resolution indicates that public school districts accept every student," district Superintendent Shannon Allen said at the meeting. "Education savings accounts and other voucher schemes give private schools, not parents, the right to choose."

RELATED: DATA: Southeast Texas superintendent salaries

The resolution came less than a month after the Texas House voted 86-52 to amend the budget to ban state funding for "school vouchers or other similar programs," according to the Texas Tribune. The issue of "education freedom" has been a top legislative priority for Gov. Greg Abbott, who has pitched an education savings account which would allow parents to use state funds to send their kids to private schools.

But Beaumont ISD, the region's most populous school district, is taking a stand against that proposal.

"Public schools adhere to state-mandated academic and financial accountability standards," Allen said. "Private schools are not required to meet the same academic standards of public schools and they do not report their test results, graduation rates or performance measures to the public."

RELATED: Reporter's notebook: Beaumont students will be reading machines

While the House passed the anti-voucher budget amendment, the Texas Senate approved a measure that would give parents up to $8,000 per student each year to send their children to nonpublic schools, adding a provision for districts with fewer than 20,000 students to receive $10,000 for each child who enrolls in the program and leaves their district, according to the Texas Tribune. Beaumont ISD currently has just over 16,700 students.

Allen said the funds allotted by the state may not even be enough to cover tuition at a private school and would "strip away significant funding from public school systems."

"Education savings accounts and similar voucher schemes eliminate public accountability of schools and tax dollars," Allen said. "Using tax dollars to pay for tuition at private and religious schools would grow into costly entitlement programs and taxpayer-funded voucher programs will reduce the amount of state funds available for schools, harming many rural Texas communities where families have few, if any, private school options and Texas parents who accept a voucher will lose out on the long list of important parental rights outlined in the Texas State Education Code and in federal law, especially protections for students receiving special education services."

olivia.malick@hearst.com
A crane has overturned on Interstate 10 westbound.

The driver fled the scene and has yet to be located, according to an update around 4:30 p.m. from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

"(Interstate 10) westbound between Boyt Road and Hwy 365 is down to one lane due to a wreck involving a tractor/trailer carrying a crane," according to a Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Facebook post.

Around 1:15 p.m., the post said motorists could expect the interstate to be shut down intermittently for "several hours" to allow crews to clear the wreck.

Drivers are encouraged to use alternate routes.

"The preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 11:40 a.m., a 1998 Deutsche Grove mobile crane was traveling west," according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. "It is reported that the driver failed to drive in a single lane to the right and traveled into the ditch, where it overturned."

The Texas Department of Public Safety said it is currently is an ongoing investigation, and that no other information is available at this time.
NASA blasted off into 2023 with a far-out discovery: finding precious stones on Mars.

The agency's Curiosity rover, which has been operating on Mars since 2012, found "halos" of rocks inside a crater that scientists said were actually opal gemstones, according to a study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

In images taken by the rover, Arizona State University and NASA researchers said they saw circles of light around rocks situated near cracks in the surface of the Gale Crater, an ancient dried-up lake basin on Mars. When scientists compared the halos to ones seen in photographs taken in the past, they realized the circles of light contained the same opal-rich composition previously discovered.

"Our new analysis of archival data showed striking similarity between all of the fracture halos we've observed much later in the mission," said Travis Gabriel, lead author of the study. "Seeing that these fracture networks were so widespread and likely chock-full of opal was incredible."

Because opals are formed when water alters a hard compound called silica, scientists have reason to think the area once held vast reserves of water and possibly even some form of life.

"It's reasonable to expect that these potentially habitable subsurface conditions extended to many other regions of Gale Crater as well, and perhaps in other regions of Mars," Gabriel said. "These environments would have formed long after the ancient lakes in Gale Crater dried up."

Now, these jewels could end up serving a greater purpose beyond interstellar bling for extraterrestrial beings.

In a previous study, Gabriel and his colleagues demonstrated how grinding opal down and applying heat to it releases water. They said a single three-foot section of the mineral can release about 1.5 gallons of water within the top foot of the surface.

Futurism news website predicted the fracture halos might serve as a source of water for future astronauts that "gravitate" toward the Red Planet. Gabriel and his team however proposed the fracture halos in Gale Crater as a new destination for collecting geological samples or for a potential human exploration mission, should NASA choose to "plan-et."
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

The Beaumont-Port Arthur area is expected to see an "Ozone Action Day" on Wednesday due to poor air quality.

According to the nonprofit organization Public Citizen, an Ozone Action Day is issued when weather conditions and pollution emissions in an area are likely to combine and create high levels of ozone near the ground, potentially causing harmful health effects.
Justin Rex/AP

GALVESTON, Texas (AP)  A man who filed a lawsuit in Texas against three women he said helped his now-ex-wife obtain medication for an abortion is accused in a new court filing of using the lawsuit as an extension of the manipulative, controlling and emotionally abusive behavior he displayed toward her during their marriage.

Marcus Silva had found the first pill that begins a medication abortion while secretly going through his then-wife's purse last summer but instead of talking to her about it or throwing it away, he took photos of text messages on her phone between her and two of her friends, according to a document filed Monday on behalf of those friends, who are two of the defendants in Silva's lawsuit.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  A decisive win by Democrats in hotly-contested local races in Lincoln could be indicative of the partys chances next year, including in a presidential election where Nebraskas Omaha-centered 2nd Congressional District has twice given an electoral vote to Democratic presidential candidates.

Nebraska and Maine are the only two states that allow their electoral votes to be split in presidential elections. That system has confounded Nebraska Republicans, who have been unable to force the state into a winner-take-all system since Barack Obama became the first presidential contender to shave off one of Nebraska's five electoral votes in 2008. It happened again in 2020, when President Joe Biden captured Nebraska's 2nd District electoral vote.

Democratic Party leaders see an opportunity to capitalize on Republicans' hard shift to the right, particularly on religious and culture war issues issues  including the recent push across red states to target the transgender and LGBTQ+ community members, ban books from schools and libraries and vastly restrict abortion access. Those efforts are unpopular with the majority of voters, Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb said Wednesday.

Womens reproductive freedom will continue to be a key issue that voters want a clear answer from candidates on where they stand, and Republicans are simply out of step with the majority of Nebraskans," Kleeb said.

Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, a Democrat, handily won a second term Tuesday, despite an aggressive push by Republicans to oust her in favor of former Lincoln state Sen. Suzanne Geist, who saw more than $1.5 million pumped into her campaign by GOP donors. That included hundreds of thousands of dollars each by the family of former Gov. Pete Ricketts and the Peed family that owns publishing company Sandhills Global, based in Lincoln.

Geist had stepped down from her legislative seat last month to focus on the mayor's race. Campaign ads supporting her painted Lincoln as an unsafe, crime-ridden city under Baird and blanketed airways for weeks before Tuesday's election.

Lincoln, Nebraska's capital and home of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is one of the few communities in the conservative state where Democrats can claim regular election victories. But Tuesday's win stood out for the number wins Democrats scored, including 3 of 4 contested City Council seats, giving Democrats a dominant 6-1 advantage. And Republicans lost all three of the contested local school board seats.

The only other area of the state where Democrats have seen some success in the last three decades is in Omaha, the state's largest city with more than 850,000 in the city and surrounding suburbs.

Weve learned many lessons over the last few cycles of what works and what we need to improve on, Kleeb said. As the Democratic Party, we are going to continue to build in the blue dots of Lincoln and Omaha while making sure we invest in rural towns that deeply care about public schools, access to abortion and protecting our democracy.

The Nebraska Republican Party didn't address its Lincoln losses on its Twitter or Facebook pages, and state party chairman Eric Underwood did not immediately return a message Wednesday seeking comment.

But the party has made no secret of its frustration over losing Omaha's electoral vote to Democrats in recent presidential elections. Republicans tried for nine years after first splitting the state's electoral votes to revert to a winner-take-all system, but those proposals failed year after year. The effort was resurrected after Biden won the Omaha vote in 2020, but it has gained little traction. A bill introduced this year has been stuck in committee.

Republicans have instead relied on redistricting to curtail Democrats' progress in the 2nd District, having twice redrawn the district's boundaries since 2008 to favor Republican candidates.

But even some Republcians have said that might not be enough to overcome a turnout of voters soured on the hot-button issues targeted by GOP-led legislatures this year.

Nebraska Sen. Merv Riepe publicly warned his fellow Republican colleagues last week that efforts to ban abortion will cost them at the polls next year.

Riepe, an 80-year-old former hospital administrator, had initially signed on as a cosponsor to a Nebraska bill that would effectively ban abortions as six weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. But he later refused to give the measure the final vote it needed to survive a filibuster over concerns the ban was too strict.

Riepe pointed to his own election last year against a Democrat who made abortion rights central to her campaign, noting that his margin of victory dropped from 27 percentage points in the May primary election, which occurred before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, to under 5 percentage points in the general election after the fall of Roe.

This made the message clear to me how critical abortion will be in 2024, he said. We must embrace the future of reproductive rights.
CHICAGO (AP)  Prison officials this week moved a former drug dealer convicted of killing a 16-year-old Texas girl off federal death row to serve a life sentence in another prison amid criticism he should have been moved years ago after a judge deemed him intellectually disabled and vacated his death sentence.

The transfer comes two weeks after The Associated Press first highlighted Bruce Webster's case, reporting that chronic bureaucracy and jurisdictional obstacles left him stuck in solitary confinement on death row at a U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, since the judge's 2019 ruling.

Webster, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was in a solitary, 12-by-7-foot cell, 23 hours a day, while on death row, but has been transferred to a less restrictive U.S. prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, according to his lawyers, who say the prison informed them Tuesday that Webster had been transferred overnight.

Obviously, we are delighted he is off death row. That should have happened a long time ago, one of Webster's lawyers, Minneapolis-based Steven Wells, said Tuesday.

Wells was still seeking details but hoped Webster would be placed in a program at Allenwood that helps former inmates held for years in solitary confinement transfer to general prison population.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday declined comment.

In his 2019 ruling, the federal judge in Indiana, William Lawrence, cited tests putting Websters IQ between 50 and 65, below the benchmark score for severe intellectual disability of 70. The average is 100.

Webster was sentenced to death in 1996 for the kidnapping, rape and killing of Lisa Rene. He and three accomplices kidnapped the sister of a rival drug trafficker, kicking their way into an Arlington, Texas, apartment as Rene frantically dialed 911. They raped her over two days, then stripped her, bludgeoned her with a shovel and buried her alive.

Before the transfer, another of Webster's lawyers, Monica Foster, said she was baffled and frustrated by inaction of the Justice Department and its subordinate agency, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, to move her client despite the ruling tossing his death sentence.

She added that the Biden administration should have seen moving Webster as an uncontroversial, if modest, step toward fulfilling President Joe Bidens campaign pledge to stop federal executions for good.

This case is a no-brainer, the Indianapolis-based federal defender said.

As part of regular inspections of U.S. prisons, Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters recently visited Terre Haute, stopping by the death row section where Webster was at the time. She has said she's committed to reforms.

With his death sentence vacated, the only available sentence for Webster is life in prison. But because of jurisdictional disputes, formal resentencing hasn't yet taken place.

When his lawyers and the Justice Department asked in a joint 2021 motion for the judge in Texas where Webster was tried in 1996 to resentence him, he refused, saying he lacked jurisdiction. Judge Terry Means also chided his Indiana counterpart for tossing Websters death sentence.

The Justice Department executed 13 U.S. death row inmates, some of them Webster's friends, in the last months of Donald Trump's presidency. While Biden's Justice Department paused the executions and reversed decisions to seek death sentences in some cases, it continues to seek them in others.

Judge Lawrence based his Webster ruling on Atkins v. Virginia, a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2002 ruling that executing those with intellectual disabilities violated Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

During arguments, prosecutors accused Webster of playing dumb and intentionally answering IQ questions incorrectly to avoid the death penalty. They said proof of his aptitude included how, during a jail stint, he figured out how to pick locks on a food chute to slip into a womens section.

The decisive evidence, however, were newly obtained Social Security records from before the killing indicating Websters IQ was within the intellectually disabled range. That evidence, despite requests for it, wasn't made available at his trial.

___

Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at @mtarm.
The University of Miami Health System is developing a 363,000-square-foot medical office building that plans to hire 450 physicians, nurses, technicians and support staff, according to a May 2 report from Miami Today News.

UHealth broke ground on the new center in September and is powered by the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami.

The seven-story building will sit on 10 acres and is expected to be complete in 2025.

It will offer several specialities, including ophthalmology, gastroenterology, radiology, oncology and orthopedics. It will also offer UHealth's flagship women's services.

The facility will house over 110 exam rooms, 10 operating rooms and 33 cancer treatment rooms, according to the report.
The University of Miami Health System will hire 350 new staff members and create 450 new positions to staff a new hospital in North Miami, Miami Today reported May 2.

The 363,000-square-food, seven-story facility is set to open on a 10-acre plot of land in 2025. Many specialties, including the health system's flagship women's health services, will be offered there.



"Over 450 new positions will be created just for this building alone," Roy Weiss, MD, PhD, the health system's chief medical officer for ambulatory services, told the newspaper. Physicians, nurses, technicians and support staff will be among the new hires.
UT Health San Antonio is set to break ground on a $100 million Center for Brain Health.

The project, expected to be completed in 2025, is part of $1 billion in capital investments undertaken by UT Health over the next four years, according to a May 2 UT Health San Antonio news release shared with Becker's.

The center will research and provide care concerning Alzheimer's, dementia, movement disorders and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Just nine days ahead of the end of the public health emergency in the U.S., Boston-based Tufts Medical Center became the first known hospital in the country with zero COVID-19-positive patients, WFXT, a Fox affiliate station, reported May 2.

It is the first time the facility has had zero COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in 2020.

"This is a milestone that we didn't know when or if we would ever see," Shira Doron, MD, chief infection control officer at Tufts Medical Center, told WFXT.

Although it is a milestone long hoped for, Dr. Doron remains cautiously optimistic, according to the news outlet, pointing to the fact that COVID-19 is not behind us and any subvariant could emerge driving cases back up worldwide.
A cyberattack has forced Murfreesboro (Tenn.) Medical Clinic & SurgiCenter to shut down.

The medical center took its IT network offine and closed its patient care operations May 1 to contain the attack, it said in a May 2 news release. The facility said it planned to open "on a limited basis" May 3.

"Preserving sensitive patient and employee information is of the utmost importance to MMC, but like so many other organizations around the country and despite its best efforts, MMC has found itself as the target of criminals attempting to steal personal or company data," CEO Joey Peay said in the release. "I want to thank our patients and employees for their understanding and patience while we work to make sure our computer infrastructure is secure and free of any harmful software."

The medical center said it has not confirmed whether any patient or employee's information was breached in the hack.
Scott Flamm, MD, the former section head of cardiovascular imaging at the Cleveland Clinic, is joining the digital radiologist connection platform DocPanel to lead the company's cardiac imaging department.

In his new role, providers will be able to access Dr. Flamm's imaging support services through the DocPanel online platform, according to a May 1 DocPanel news release.

"DocPanel and I share a mutual mission to make subspecialized cardiac imaging routine care that can be accessed by all," Dr. Flamm said in the news release. "Joining DocPanel is an opportunity for me to harness all that I've learned over the years and transfer that knowledge and experience to facilities across the nation."
Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health will end acute care, general surgery and emergency services at Einstein Medical Center Elkins Park (Pa.) and convert the facility soley into a physical rehabilitation provider.

The emergency room at Einstein Elkins Park will cease operations June 30. Acute care and surgical and emergency services will transition to Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia and Jefferson Abington (Pa.) Hospital.

The move allows Elkins Park and MossRehab  a physical medicine and rehab provider  to expand inpatient physical rehab services at the 60-bed hospital.

"This transition of services creates a unique opportunity to expand the delivery of rehabilitation care at a centralized location," Jefferson said in an April 18 news release. "Moving in-patient rehabilitation services to MossRehab, will enable Jefferson Abington Hospital to add 23 general medical beds to that campus, improving the patient experience and decompressing the emergency department."

The hospital has about 1,000 employees, 115 of whom will be affected by the changes, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.

"Jefferson Health is committed to minimizing the impact to employees and our goal is to retain all employees affected by these changes," a spokesperson for the health system told Becker's.
When DuBois-based Pennsylvania Mountains Healthcare Alliance set out to choose a tech platform to manage the system's revenue cycle, the main goal was to find one end-to-end solution that would support PMHA's 13 community hospitals for years to come, Nicole Clawson, vice president of finance and revenue cycle, told Becker's.

"Before, we had multiple vendors with various platforms that managed various pockets within a revenue cycle. They were separate databases that weren't connected to each other," she said.

Further, at the time, her team was doing a considerable amount of manual reporting. "We were having to piece information together to get the reports we wanted. We wanted to understand what was happening so we could identify issues and save time by automating revenue workflows," Ms. Clawson said.

The health system landed on FinThrive's Revenue Management Platform, which brings all parts of the revenue cycle together in a central system.There are multiple levels of installation and training, so while all the hospitals in the system will eventually be onboarded, Ms. Clawson said she is focused on a slower, strategic rollout.

On March 15, four hospitals began using the contract management part of the platform, and one hospital launched the claims management component on the back end.

Becker's spoke with Ms. Clawson about her expectations for the new technology in PMHA's hospitals and the biggest ongoing opportunities it will provide for PMHA. She also offered one piece of advice for her colleagues in hospital finance and revenue cycle management.

Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Question: Why did you decide to centralize your revenue cycle management technology?

Nicole Clawson: We wanted to create efficiencies within revenue management, especially around expense reduction. When we started looking, we were focused on finding a technology that could support us now and five to 10 years out. We are already having trouble finding talent, and we knew we had to find a way to become more efficient so we can utilize the people we have in the most optimal way.

Q: What opportunities does FinThrive's platform offer your hospitals?

NC: We took on an ad hoc project with one of FinThrive's products, Insurance Discovery. We knew it had the potential to help us submit our self-pay claims that were sitting out there [not getting paid]. Maybe they were claims where patients had notified us of the correct insurance. We were told we could run these through the system. Was I skeptical? Yes, when we signed up. But it has proven to be very effective and is a part of the system we will likely look to continue to use.

Also, the opportunity for partnership is also important. When we were looking for a vendor, we didn't want to just find a "vendor." We wanted to pick a partner, a company that understood our model. FinThrive hit those buttons.

Q: What are the toughest revenue cycle challenges you're dealing with right now?

NC: After COVID, we are focused on building back efficiency and standardization. Pre-COVID, we had been good at what we do, but now we have to refocus and build back those efficiencies and processes.

Q: Do you have any data to suggest that an end-to-end system approach will create the efficiencies you talk about?

NC: Absolutely. Here's an example: Patients don't always provide the correct information when they walk in the door. This platform allows us to track data from a patient's point of entry to when the bill goes out. When there is an error, we don't get paid. This system is able to help with the insurance discovery piece and we get better returns from the payers.

Another example is labor costs. This system is going to be key to automating tasks and helping our staff do their jobs better.

Also, we're in budget season and my catchphrase for fiscal year 2024 is "revenue optimization." We've been in a cleanup mode from COVID and now we have to optimize our revenue. I'm not saying we should get more than we deserve, but we also should not get paid less. We believe our new system will help us get paid accurately for the services we provide.

Q: What are the biggest opportunities for PMHA now that you have this new RCM technology?

NC: The biggest economic opportunity is cash acceleration. With clean claims going out the door, they can return as cash more quickly.

We want to stay ahead of the changes as much as possible, and [embracing] a culture of innovation is going to help us do that. We can make sure we have clean data in the system so we have a reduction in denials. The key to that is having the information going out the door correctly. Additionally, we are making sure everyone has access to information on one central platform. And, again, the ability to automate is big for us.

Q: Phase one of FinThrive's platform is contract management; what are the other phases of installation?

NC: Phase two is the back-end billing workflow and a denials analyzer. Phase three is the front end focusing on patient eligibility and patient estimator. We are being very methodical and strategic about the rollout. We want to make sure that we customize the system for our needs. Doing this will make installations at the other hospitals go more smoothly and quicker.

Q: Are you seeing any challenges with implementation?

NC: Technology is only as good as the people who use it. So, we are focused on making sure our staff has the training, tools and workflows to be able to use the system. We want to have the best outcomes.

Also, it's important that both the clinical and revenue staffs can understand and access the system. We want clinicians focusing on the patients, but as we've evolved in healthcare, they do have to be accountable and knowledgeable so they get paid for the services they provide.

Our goal is making sure the platform is understood by very different departments within the hospital.

Q: Are there any tech trends in revenue cycle management that you are particularly excited about?

NC: I realize it's an unknown, but I'm excited about how we are going to automate by using AI and bots. For example, perhaps we can automate checking on pre-service eligibility. On the back end, maybe we can use bots with collections. We could have a bot monitor collection statuses and reach out to the payer to collect. This isn't an effort to eliminate staff, but it will help us make the best use of the staff that we have in each hospital.

Q: What's your advice for a healthcare system that hasn't upgraded the RCM platform?

NC: Don't hesitate.
Snoqualmie Valley, Wash., voters rejected a measure that would have raised property taxes by 46 cents per $1,000 of property value to help support capital projects and new equipment for Snoqualmie Valley Hospital District, the Snoqualmie Valley Record reported May 2.

As of April 28, just a third of voters approved the tax hike. Hospital board members will discuss in June whether to approve another ballot measure.

Hospital officials told the Record that they are still on track to hit their financial goals but are disappointed by the result.

"To say our team is disappointed is an understatement," hospital officials wrote in a Facebook post. "We are grateful for the votes we received, the friends we made, the partnerships we solidified and the ability to be able to listen to what matters most to our neighbors."
Administration burden costs U.S. healthcare $1 trillion annually, but AI and machine learning technology could help significantly reduce administrative responsibilities for providers, especially in the EHR, Fast Company reported May 3.

Fifty-seven percent of providers reported that excessive EHR documentation is one of the contributing factors leading to burnout, and one way hospitals and health systems are looking to relieve this is by using artificial intelligence technology such as generative AI and ChatGPT.

UC San Diego Health, Madison, Wis.-based UW Health, and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care are currently piloting a new integration from EHR vendor Epic Systems that uses Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service with Epic's EHR software.

The aim is to use Microsoft's AI to automatically draft message responses so providers don't have to do it manually.

John Brownstein, PhD, chief innovation officer of Boston Children's Hospital, also told Becker's that it is working on a similar initiative with Nuance, a Microsoft company, to use its Dragon Ambient eXperience Express technology to automate clinical documentation.

The tool uses ambient AI and OpenAI to capture details of virtual visits in context to create clinical documentation while the physician focuses on the patient.

If these tools can successfully reduce the amount of time providers spend on administrative tasks, they can have the potential to improve the quality of care patients receive.
Top-performing CIOs are more likely than their peers to prioritize growth, customer experience and investment in such technologies as artificial intelligence and cloud computing, according to Forbes Research.

The news outlet defined "outperforming CIOs" as leaders at companies with annual revenues of $5 billion-plus with more than 10 percent growth in the previous fiscal year.

Here are 13 things to know from the May 1 report on outperforming CIOs:

1. 90 percent focus on growth initiatives (compared to an average of 69 percent)

2. 85 percent prioritize customer experience as a top growth factor (67 percent average)

3. 83 percent plan to invest in communication/collaboration tools (71 percent average)

4. 78 percent intend to invest in cloud computing (56 percent average)

5. 76 percent focus on employee experience (71 percent average)

6. 74 percent plan to invest in artificial intelligence (64 percent average)

7. 74 percent intend to invest in edge computing (56 percent average)

8. 70 percent focus on diversity/inclusion and social issues (54 percent average)

9. 65 percent say chief human resources officers are critical to their organization's growth (39 percent average)

10. 65 percent collaborate with CEOs (62 percent average)

11. 61 percent plan to invest in 5G (43 percent average)

12. 59 percent work closely with CFOs (40 percent average)

13. 59 percent collaborate with chief revenue/sales officers (47 percent average)
Parkview Health System President and CEO Leslie Barnes will retire effective May 31, and Vice President and COO Darrin Smith will succeed Ms. Barnes effective June 1, according to a news release shared with Becker's.

Ms. Barnes became the first woman to serve as CEO of Parkview in 2019. She has 26 years of experience with the Pueblo, Colo.-based organization total, according to the release. Before taking the helm, she served as the hospital's vice president and COO. She also previously held roles as controller, CFO and senior vice president.

As president and CEO, Mr. Smith will oversee a senior leadership team and Parkview's 3,000 employees, according to the release.

Mr. Smith was named senior vice president and COO of Parkview when Ms. Barnes took the helm. Before that, he served as vice president of human resources at Parkview.






Lehigh Valley (Pa.) Health Network has named two new regional and hospital presidents, according to a May 2 news release shared with Becker's.

Bob Begliomini, PharmD, will serve as president of Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest campus in Allentown, Pa. He will also lead the health system's Lehigh region, which includes four hospital campuses.

Mr. Begliomini currently serves as president of Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg in Bethlehem, Pa., and has served the health system since 2001.

Jim Miller, CRNA, will replace Mr. Begliomini as president of the Muhlenberg hospital. He will also become president of the health system's Northampton region, which includes three hospitals  Muhlenberg being one of them.

Mr. Miller has served the health system for 20 years, most recently as chief operating officer of the Cedar Crest hospital. In addition to his two new roles, he will continue to serve as senior vice president of Lehigh Valley Institute for Surgical Excellence.
The leadership team of Jefferson Health and Thomas Jefferson University is responding to a report about one executive's use of Twitter, which involved "liking" tweets about COVID-19 vaccines and gender reassignment surgery.

Mark Tykocinski, MD, president of Thomas Jefferson University and the Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia, was the subject of a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer on April 29 about his use of Twitter and tweets he "liked," most of which have since been reversed since the story's publication. Tweets questioned the validity and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and called gender reassignment surgery "child mutilation."

Dr. Tykocinski told the newspaper he "liked" tweets to bookmark them in an effort "to learn more about the subject matter or the particular viewpoint." He said he did not endorse the tweets or the person tweeting those thoughts.

"I regret my lack of understanding of how 'liking' a tweet is an implied endorsement," he told the Inquirer. "I also regret how my lack of understanding of the Twitter platform caused some to question my views on these complex issues."

Joseph Cacchione, MD, CEO of Jefferson Health and Thomas Jefferson University, issued a message April 30 to faculty, employees and students, noting his disappointment in Dr. Tykocinski's "careless" use of the social media network.

"At his level, he is held to a higher standard and should have known better," Dr. Cacchione wrote, according to The Inquirer.

Dr. Tykocinski also issued an apology within Dr. Cacchione's email. "I understand that my lack of knowledge of the Twitter platform created questions and unintentionally offended many," he wrote. "Please be assured this will be a learning experience, and I will grow as a person and professional from this misstep."
Richard Brasington, MD, an internationally renowned clinical rheumatologist, drowned in the North Fork River in Missouri on April 30, The Kansas City Star reported May 1.

The 71-year-old was fishing when he waded into the river. For unknown reasons, he went underwater at 10 a.m., the Missouri State Highway Patrol told the Star. His body was pulled from the river at 2:15 p.m.

Dr. Brasington was a "nationally and internationally known clinical rheumatologist," according to Chester, Ill.-based Memorial Hospital, where he worked starting in 2022. He was on "America's Best Doctors" list for many years, the hospital added.

Dr. Brasington also had been a faculty member at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis since 1996, where he received the university's Distinguished Educator Award in 2015.

"Words can't describe" his impact on rheumatology, Lacey Feigl-Lenzen, rheumatology fellowship coordinator and lupus clinic clinical coordinator at the university, told the Star.
From a jury awarding nearly $183 million to a family who filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, to a Colorado hospital agreeing to settle a lawsuit alleging it did not compensate for off-the-clock work, here are 11 hospital lawsuits and settlements Becker's has reported since April 21.

1. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against a Trinity Health hospital in Michigan for allegedly violating federal religious laws by rescinding an employment offer because the person refused to get a flu shot. Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health and Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Mercy Health St. Mary are listed as defendants.

2. A woman suing Allentown, Pa.-based Lehigh Valley Health Network dropped her request to compel the health system to pay $5 million in ransom to a cybercriminal gang to have her nude breast cancer treatment photos removed from the internet.

3. Boston Children's Hospital agreed to a $15 million settlement with the parents of a 6-month-old boy who died in 2022 during a sleep study at the hospital.

4. Xavier University in Cincinnati agreed to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of nearly 500 nursing students for $750,000. The suit alleged that the university failed to provide proper education to students enrolled in its accelerated bachelor's degree in nursing program in the spring and summer of 2020.

5. A nurse alleged in a lawsuit that he was wrongfully terminated by Providence Portland (Ore.) Medical Center in 2021 after he raised concerns about inadequate staffing and patient safety.

6. A federal judge granted preliminary approval of a settlement between Warren-based Ascension Michigan and healthcare workers who alleged they were denied a religious exemption to their employer's COVID-19 vaccination policy and were either suspended or otherwise lost their job as a result of their denied exemption.

7. A jury awarded nearly $183 million to a family who filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Philadelphia-based Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The family alleged that a birth injury left their son with cerebral palsy.

8. A physician filed a lawsuit alleging that executives at Oskaloosa, Iowa-based Mahaska Health discriminated against those who do not share their religious beliefs and political views.

9. As legal battles between LCMC Health and the federal government play out, a judge ruled the New Orleans-based system cannot close any of the three hospitals it purchased from Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare in January.

10. Gulfport, Miss.-based Memorial Hospital is suing Wiggins (Miss.) Acute Care Hospital for $453,127 concerning payment of new air-conditioning units put in at Wiggins-based Stone County Hospital and a medical clinic.

11. Delta (Colo.) County Memorial Hospital, also known as Delta Health, is settling a collective action lawsuit alleging the hospital did not compensate for off-the-clock work performed by hourly staff.
Three nurses who say they legitimately earned their nursing degrees from one of the three now-shuttered Florida schools involved in Operation Nightingale are fighting to keep their licenses, according to their attorney.

All three nurses still have their licenses, which will remain valid pending the outcome of the investigation.

Twenty-five people were charged in Operation Nightingale in early 2023, and each faces up to 20 years in prison.

Officials allege that three nursing schools  Siena College in Lauderhill, Palm Beach School of Nursing in West Palm Beach and Sacred Heart International Institute in Boca Raton  sold more than 7,600 fraudulent diplomas and transcripts  at between $10,000 and $15,000 each  to aspiring nurses.

Chad Yarbrough, FBI special agent in charge, called the scheme "disturbing" in a Jan. 27 New York Times report. "There are over 7,600 people around the country with fraudulent nursing credentials who are potentially in critical healthcare roles treating patients," he said.

With transcripts in hand, these students were able to sit for National Council Licensure Examination without completing required coursework. About 37 percent of individuals who bought fake documents passed the test, obtained their nursing licenses and got jobs in healthcare facilities across the United States. Many states are trying to root out individuals identified by the three schools as having purchased the fake documents.

The attorney for the three nurses who say they are wrongly accused, Jamaal Jones of Miami-based Jones Health Law,said all nurses flagged by the closed schools as being involved with the fraud have been given the opportunity to relinquish their licenses in lieu of further penalty. "The FBI has already stated that it won't pursue any criminal charges" for nurses who bought their transcripts, he said. "I would think many will relinquish their licenses because they know what they did."

However, Mr. Jones said his three clients are going to fight for their nursing livelihood because they are innocent.

"The allegations against them are baseless," he said. "Complaints were filed against them without any documentation to support the allegations made by criminals who have shown they are untrustworthy."

The defendants' cases

Mr. Jones' clients  two registered nurses and one licensed practical nurse  received notices of complaint from the FBI alleging they obtained "a licensure through fraud or error" and accused them of "deceptive and fraudulent representation." The three nurses declined to speak with Becker's directly but gave permission for Mr. Jones to speak on their behalf.

All three nurses were born outside the U.S., and Mr. Jones said he believes the "perpetrators of the crime are preying on these individuals who were not born in the U.S." English is a second language for two of them; the third has been living and working as a nurse in New York for more than a decade, and English is his first language.

Client 1 is from Nigeria and is a practicing licensed practical nurse. Mr. Jones said she attended Sacred Heart International Institute remotely and earned a diploma, which has been provided to the Florida Board of Nursing.

"She did not buy her transcript," Mr. Jones said, adding Client 1 completed all her coursework and has been "lumped in with people who bought their transcripts. When they were asked to give the names of people who bought transcripts, they basically just served up names."

When pressed, Mr. Jones said the schools gave the names of anyone who attended during the period of time that is being investigated. Officials are basing their complaints, he said, on the "affidavits of the main perpetrators of the crime  without doing any independent research."

Client 2 is from Cuba. She was a physician in her native country and wanted to be a nurse in the U.S. She attended required classes from a licensed, but non-accredited, nursing school in Florida and decided to transfer all her credits to Siena College  one of the three schools involved in the scheme  which was accredited.

Mr. Jones said Siena College collected a credit transfer fee after informing Client 2 her transferred transcript showed she had already taken the required classes and earned enough credits to become a registered nurse.

"She took and passed all of the courses that she needed. She was not looking to pay for a transcript. In no way was she under the premise that she would pay to play. She did not pay anyone in exchange for the grades she earned," Mr. Jones said. "It's not unusual to transfer from one institution to another. She completed all the required coursework."

He said he understands why the FBI is looking to track down people who bought "bogus transcripts stating that they completed coursework that they didn't. But that is a very different situation from my client, who did complete the coursework and went through the proper channels to have her credits transferred to Siena College."

Client 3 is a New York nurse who is originally from Trinidad. He obtained his diploma from the Palm Beach School of Nursing and holds licenses in New York and Florida. "I worked hard and missed family and friends' events while attending school. I spent a lot of money on hotels, cars and tuition. There were many sleepless nights spent studying and writing papers. I followed the curriculum set by the school and abided by their rules. I attended every class and never missed a day. I even did research to make sure school was accredited before attending. After all of that hard work I passed the NCLEX," Client 3 said. "I worked hard for all these years especially during COVID on the frontlines and put myself and family in danger while other professionals worked from home. I won awards and was recognized both by institutions. I also furthered my training and skills to be able to serve my patients better."

After receiving the FBI complaint, he lost two of his four nursing jobs, including a lucrative travel nurse gig.

"I feel like this is all a nightmare. I still think one day they will say, "oh, it was a mistake,'" said Client 3, who has been a practicing nurse for more than a decade. "I have never and would never associate myself with fraudulent activities that would bring shame to family and myself." Becker's tried to reach all three schools for comment. Phone numbers are no longer in service.

"Not only is this a public safety concern, it also tarnishes the reputation of nurses who actually complete the demanding clinical and coursework required to obtain their professional licenses and employment," Markenzy Lapointe, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said in a Feb. 2 Newsweek report. "A fraud scheme like this erodes public trust in our healthcare system."








A group of former employees of St. Charles Health System have filed a lawsuit alleging the Bend, Ore.-based health system's COVID-19 vaccine requirement violated their religious freedom rights, The Bulletin reported May 3.

The $2.5 million lawsuit, filed in Deschutes County Circuit Court, alleges that six nurses, a lab tech and a phlebotomist received a religious exemption, but were still told they could quit or be fired, according to the newspaper.

The workers either quit, were placed on unpaid leave but later fired, or outright fired.

Two workers were denied a religious exemption and were fired, and one nurse did not apply for a religious exemption but chose to quit, the lawsuit says, according to The Bulletin.

According to the newspaper, the lawsuit alleges that St. Charles had an obligation to accommodate workers' religious beliefs and that "it would not have been an unfair hardship to have allowed [employees] to continue working with personal protective equipment, regular testing, or other measures."

At issue in the lawsuit is the health system's vaccination requirement, which was put in place when Oregon initiated its vaccination requirement for healthcare workers in October 2021. The state updated its policy in April 2022, prompting St. Charles and other Oregon hospitals to lift their requirements.

Kayley Mendenhall, a spokesperson for St. Charles, shared the following statement with Becker's: "St. Charles fulfilled its obligations to comply in good faith with both state and federal vaccine requirements for healthcare workers and prioritized the safety of its patients, its caregivers and the community during the global COVID-19 pandemic. We stand by our commitment to keep our community safe during that difficult time."

The lawsuit seeks damages for lost wages or costs incurred because they were fired, according to The Bulletin.










If you ask a nurse leader why they moved away from the bedside and into leadership, there is a good possibility they will give a version of this answer: "Because I wanted to make more of an impact."

For the past few years, nurses have been leaving hospitals in droves. Some leave the profession altogether and some leave for better opportunities at other organizations or through temp agencies. Still others are leaving the bedside to take on C-suite roles where they can make the changes they want to see.

"Believe it or not, there's a lot to be excited about in healthcare right now, and I want to be a part of it," Stacey-Ann Okoth, DNP, RN, told Becker's. She recently became senior vice president and associate chief nursing executive at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia.

For others, tragic experiences drove them to be the change they wanted to see in the healthcare system.

"Healthcare disparities has been a lived experience that has fueled my passion to eradicate healthcare disparities, to fix the brokenness of the system, to ensure that no one else has to go through the experiences that I've gone through due to the inadequacy of our system," Airica Steed, EdD, RN, CEO of Cleveland-based MetroHealth, told Becker's. "I really believe that leadership and nursing is a calling and I consider this to be divine order. I've been destined to do it and I've been put in a position to advocate for the voice of others that often feel muted."

Being a leader in the field gives nurses the opportunity to make changes, improve healthcare and contribute to the field in a new way.

Regina Foley, PhD, RN, went from a bedside nurse to a leader within five years. She now is the executive vice president and chief transformation officer and interim chief nursing officer at Edison, N.J.-based Hackensack Meridian Health.

"With so many years at the bedside, I knew what the patients needed and saw myriad opportunities to improve areas such as patient experience, quality and cost," Dr. Foley said in an interview with Becker's. "I had the confidence and knowledge to pursue my passion, which is to build a better healthcare system for patients."

Leadership advice

Many nurses are looking for ways to advance into leadership, and many nurse leaders are eager to be mentors. Here are some of the pieces of advice leaders have for those wanting to move up the ranks:

Dr. Airica Steed: I would say stay encouraged. Continue to fight the good fight. Don't give up, because I can honestly say my life is full of twists and turns. It's full of adversity and it's full of various experiences that were presented as challenges, but I've turned those into opportunities to succeed and thrive. If you aspire to climb, just be courageous and believe in yourself. Be your best advocate and set a legacy for others to follow. By building other people, you're building yourself.

Kristin Wolkart, RN. Executive Vice president and Chief Nursing Officer at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (Baton Rouge, La.): Listen more than you speak. Listen to the voice of the bedside caregivers about what they truly need. And do your best to follow through or follow up. Sometimes we can't meet every request, but instead of saying no, try to find ways to meet the need, maybe differently than what they've asked for. The staff at the bedside know what works and what doesn't work, and they are our best voice to help guide us into the future.

Athena Minor, MSN, RN. Chief Nursing and Clinical Officer at Ohio County Healthcare (Hartford, Ky.): I've had a lot of great mentors over the years who have given me some really good advice, and I'm learning every day, but recently a co-worker sent me an article and it said, "Always ask yourself, what is it that you don't know?" So as you're leading, what is it you need assistance with? You know what you know, but what is it that you don't know? What is it that you can bring into that conversation to make things better? What support do you need to make things better because it's not your field of expertise?

Representation

Healthcare is dominated by white men, and many nurse leaders are paving the way to show more women and minorities it is possible to break into leadership.

"I also took on this role [as senior vice president and associate chief nursing executive] because of representation," Dr. Okoth said. "So many people of color and women have reached out to me to let me know that I am an inspiration to them. They feel comfortable bringing their concerns forward. We work together to solve them through our councils or through coming to the table and discussing meaningful solutions."

Dr. Okoth is not alone.

"I represent less than 1 percent of other leaders that look like me across the country," Dr. Steed said. "I was the first Black person, the first female and the first nurse to serve in this role at MetroHealth after almost 200 years."

Race and ethnicity are not the only characteristics that are underrepresented in healthcare leadership. Women, although closing the gap, still make up a small percentage of that demographic.

Here, five leaders from Hackensack Meridian weigh in on what characteristics female hospital leaders need to be successful.

Patricia Carroll, MSN. President and Chief Health Executive at Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, N.J., and Old Bridge (N.J.) Medical Center: I have always believed that everyone should be judged on their work, not on their gender. I am grateful for every opportunity that I have had and work to earn the respect of my leaders and colleagues. As a woman leader, I have learned to pivot and adapt to not only provide for my family but to meet every expectation in my work and career.

From my own experience, female hospital leaders need to remember to stay strong in their beliefs, to remember their viewpoint is a valuable contribution and to provide a role model to the women behind them. When I look back in history, I am in awe of what women have done to give me this opportunity, we must continue to go forward and show examples that women leaders can successfully rise to a position of influence.

Dr. Foley: We need humility, [the ability to] keep our ego in check, resilience and be grounded in the present moment.

Lisa Iachetti, BSN, RN. President and Chief Hospital Executive Officer at Hackensack Meridian Palisades Medical Center (North Bergen, N.J.): Confidence  having the feeling that you can trust, believe in and be sure about your abilities. Courage  the ability to do something that may frighten you at first. It is all about being brave and demonstrating your strengths while emulating empathy.

Caitlin Miller, BSN, RN. President and Chief Hospital executive of Bayshore Medical: There is an added level of persistence and resilience needed as a female leader. I think women have to work harder to show we can handle tough conversations and situations, and make difficult decisions.

I have noticed that female leaders, at times, are not allowed to simply be competent and effective. I've personally gotten feedback on occasions, from men, about my facial expressions and seriousness. Women are expected to be comforting, happy and smiling. It's an expectation only placed on women.

Michele Morrison, RN. President and Chief Hospital Executive of Southern Ocean Medical Center (Stafford Township, N.J.): Female leaders more quickly pivot with change. Perhaps this is mirrored from the many changes females experience during life with body changes, hormonal changes, childbearing and being care providers and moms. We are agile in the ever-changing landscape of healthcare, all while maintaining composure and leading our teams forward despite barriers. And we do it with compassion for patients, our team and the communities we serve.

As a nurse myself, I understand how patient care works and is delivered at the bedside. This gives me the opportunity to discuss operations on a different level with leaders and engage with our front-line team members.
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill May 2 allowing adults who do not live in the state to access life-ending care.

The move makes Vermont the first state in the nation to remove a residency requirement from its medically assisted death law, according to The New York Times.

The amended law was spurred by a lawsuit filed against Vermont by Lynda Bluestein, a 75-year-old Connecticut woman with late-stage fallopian tube cancer. Ms. Bluestein contended that the state's residency requirement for medically assisted death was unconstitutional.

Vermont waived the requirement for Ms. Bluestein in a March settlement, and a bill to amend the state's existing law passed the state Senate and House in April.
After working for more than 20 years on drug shortages, Erin Fox, PharmD, is not burnt out.

Dr. Fox, the associate chief pharmacy officer for shared services at Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Health who works on the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists' drug shortage database, told Becker's her strategy to avoid burnout is staying focused on the root of the issue.

Among hundreds of ongoing drug shortages, hospital pharmacists are dealing with a scarcity of multiple cancer therapies and emergency medications. The work is like using a pen to chip away at an ice block every day before a new layer forms overnight  one can work to gradually lessen its size, but a new problem can form at any time.

Dr. Fox said it is frustrating to constantly work on the decadeslong problem of a fragile pharmaceutical supply chain. Sometimes, people's proactive work can be tossed, leading to discouragement when a mitigation strategy is not needed.

"Just like emergency planning, you might never have that earthquake or hurricane or other disaster, but it's good to have that emergency plan in place," she said. "I try to talk to our clinicians about it from that perspective. It is frustrating to keep having, day after day, year after year, the same problem."

To prevent burnout, Dr. Fox said she focuses on the "why" of drug shortages as she redirects anger at the FDA to drugmakers reporting quality issues or failing to handle spiking demand.

She said hospital pharmacy directors need to "think creatively."

"It's very easy to get discouraged, but it's always better to try to be optimistic," Dr. Fox said. "Think about what you can do rather than what you cannot do."
The Association of American Physicians has tapped Paul Noble, MD, chair of the department of medicine at Cedars-Sinai, to be the organization's next president.

Dr. Noble stepped into AAP's president-elect role May 1 and is slated to assume the president role in May 2024.

Along with his department of medicine chair role, Dr. Noble also serves as director of the Women's Guild Lung Institute and as the Vera and Paul Guerin Family Distinguished Chair in Pulmonary Medicine at Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai.

AAP selected Dr. Noble as its next leader  and inducted three other Cedars-Sinai physicians as elected members  during the association's annual meeting April 22 in Chicago.
Josh Hudgens, MD, joined EmergeOrtho's Durham, N.C.-based Triangle Region, according to a May 3 news release from the company.

Dr. Hudgens is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in shoulder surgery, specifically arthroscopic and open shoulder arthroscopy procedures to treat shoulder arthritis, rotator cuff tears, shoulder fractures and shoulder instability.

The Triangle Region has 16 locations throughout North Carolina, 14 of which are orthopedic urgent care centers.
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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A DUP councillor has demanded Primark respects the British identify of citizens in Northern Ireland by selling King Charles III coronation products.

Lisburn representative Paul Porter has aired his frustration at the chief executive of the popular company, which has its headquarters in Dublin.

The Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council candidate has raised his concerns as coronation merchandise is sold in Primark stores in other parts of the UK but not in Northern Ireland.

Primarks website contains a number of items celebrating the coronation, including Union flag-printed T-shirts, top hats, hoodies and sunglasses.

Mr Porter said: After receiving complaints from constituents that Primark is failing to provide the same products available in Great Britain in Northern Ireland to celebrate the coronation, I have contacted the chief executive and issued the following letter.

DUP councillor Paul Porter

The letter reads: As a councillor for LCCC, I am writing on behalf of my constituents who are seeking clarity as to when Primark stores in Northern Ireland will be stocking your coronation theme merchandise, which is currently available in GB based stores.

As you will appreciate, the coronation is being eagerly anticipated by many people in Northern Ireland.

As a constituent part of the United Kingdom, we will be playing a full part in the nationwide celebration of this historic event.

To enable events such as street parties, lunches, BBQs and community fetes, availability of merchandise, clothing and coronation memorabilia is vital.

Primark enjoys great success in Northern Ireland, and many within your loyal customer base are disappointed that merchandise available to GB customers is not currently available in Northern Ireland stores.

I look forward to hearing from you, and to hearing when NI stores will be stocked with coronation items.

When contacted for a response to Mr Porter, a spokesperson for Primark said: We have never stocked any products featuring national emblems in our Northern Ireland stores.

This is based on local market and customer considerations.
Northern Irelands planning system has faced two damning and critical reports while a new portal has been blasted by many in the industry as not being up to scratch. John Mulgrew sits down with the Department for Infrastructures two top planners, Kathryn McFerran and Alistair Beggs to discuss the issues, challenges and improvements being made

Northern Irelands planning system has been in the spotlight for mostly the wrong reasons over the last few years.

Following the transfer of the majority of planning powers to our 11 councils in 2015, we now have a two-tier system alongside the Department for Infrastructure, which was previously responsible for all planning decisions.

Now, eight years later and two reports have heavily criticised the system while architects and planners have branded the new 14m submission portal as feeling like a beta version with a litany of major problems.

Planning is at the core of everything we do here in Northern Ireland, and thats why its so crucial the system  and the technology  works, and works well.

Two reports last year criticised elements of the system which were not working. A Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) report said Northern Irelands planning system is not fit for purpose and risks causing economic damage, while the Northern Ireland Assemblys Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the system is not working.

Planning transferred to the two tier system in 2015. Last year we had two reports they raised a number of issues, Kathryn McFerran, acting director regional planning governance and legislation, told Ulster Business.

Id just like to reaffirm that planning is complex and we deal with many, many different stakeholders. Its important we get it right and it works for everybody.

The PAC and NIAO reports, while they did put forward recommendations and put a spotlight on some of the issues within planning, we welcome those because we want to listen to people.

If there are issues and challenges that people are flagging up to us we want to know those and address those, with everybody.

Since then the cost of submitting applications has risen by around 12%.

Ms McFerran, who is new to her current role, says almost a year on from the reports we are in a completely different sphere.

A year has almost gone, and we are in a completely different sphere at the end of this the proof of the pudding is in the eating, she says.

We have put out a very ambitious improvement agenda for the department in collaboration with stakeholders and local government.

We have put in quite tight timeframes with that. One of those being with the fees which are going to rise. The proof be will whether people think the system is any better after this improvement agenda.

She says two of the recommendations were around establishing an independent commission to look at planning. The commission had its first meeting in February and is due to meet in May, Ms McFerran said.

Its a very genuine move to get as many people and as many voices around the table to show how we can improve and show we are improving.

But its Northern Irelands new planning portal which has raised recent eyebrows. From day one on December 5 it was clear there were issues  from searches not delivering full results, to dates being incorrect on documents, while those submitting applications have reported having to send them in manually due to issues.

I asked Ms McFerran why the system wasnt up to scratch, despite the 14m spend on the portal itself.

Its not that its not up to scratch and its being used day in, day out. It was a massive transfer and IT project, she says.

We transferred around one million textual data records from our legacy system to the new one. In addition we transferred 5.5 million documents and over one million spatial features.

She says around 66% of applications are now being submitted online. It is improving we are on the record to say there were teething issues and we are working very hard with stakeholders to get those resolved.

The priority one issues have all been closed and [soon] priority two will have been dealt with.

She says the department is continuing to work with the councils, is hosting project boards and is rolling out a workshop to bring people in and speak to them.

Hailed as the largest joint IT project between central and local government to date in Northern Ireland, the portal is used by 10 of our 11 councils.

But as Ulster Business was going to print some of the major issues were still not addressed, including documents from any application filed with the previous system all showing as November 26.

There are still some issues, she says. A lot fewer than there were the system is working and people are using it.

But the issue is also that the industry was vocal in saying that it was not consulted sufficiently before the new portal went live.

According to Ciaran Fox of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA), it offered to help test the system during the development phase.

In September the Department ran a testing session which one architect was invited to but when it came to editing an application the system failed, he said.

The process was abandoned and there was no follow up. In our view that testing was too late and insufficiently rigorous.

Ms McFerran said: People are saying to us that they want more engagement and thats what we are giving them.

I am very happy to meet with people and listen to them.

Turning to the planning system in general, has the transfer of powers eight years ago been a success or a failure?

I would say we have a system that is successful and producing the goods, Alistair Beggs, chief planner and director of regional planning policy and casework, says.

Could we be doing better is the question and I think theres things we can do to that. Those reports were quite clear that things arent working quite as they should and we can be doing better.

But is it value for money, especially with a rise in costs for users? This is a recommendation from the PAC and they did say the system has to be financially sustainable, Ms McFerran says.

Its a 12.3% increase England and Wales are out to consultation at the minute and theyre almost potentially doubling the planning fees I feel [our rise] is necessary.

Ms McFerran says the department has a really good relationship with various stakeholders and engages with them on a regular basis.

The reports are an opportunity for us to improve what we have got, Mr Beggs says.

I think to a degree you have to go back to the system as it was. It was a massive sea change as opposed to what you have perhaps in England, Scotland and Wales, which is used to the two-tier working. That has to bed down.

There have also been calls from the renewables sector to prioritise green schemes, such as wind and solar. Is that something which the department would consider?

All applications are important and so the priority is to speed up the system for everybody and to look at any way to make the system better for everybody, Ms McFerran says.

Mr Beggs said: Im going to keep an open mind on anything Im not saying its something we would be looking to do but then again you have to be open to listening to the arguments and see where its going.

But without a working Executive, how is the department faring with major applications or taking potentially big decisions on regionally significant schemes in its absence?

We keep processing as much as we can and through the Executive Formation Act if something comes to a decision point wed have a look at that and see if its in the public interest to make a decision, Mr Beggs says.

We will hopefully be able to take as many decisions as we possibly can, but we hope that ministers and the Executive will come back because really as civil servants its really not the worlds most comfortable place for us.

Asked if the department should have more oversight over the councils and planning decisions, Mr Beggs said: Its something you always keep an eye on and see how things are going but at the moment I think were content with that.

Ms McFerran said: Councils are autonomous and we must respect the decisions that are being made by the planning committees as well.

We are really passionate. This is our profession and we want to do a good job and work with people. We love nothing more than taking [something] through the process and seeing the output of that.

Speaking about the planning portal, following the interview, a spokesperson for the department said: In terms of ongoing engagement, a workshop with planning agents and stakeholders was facilitated [on April 21],

The workshop was welcomed by attendees and it was constructive. The department welcomed the input from the users about their experience and an update was given on outstanding priority fixes. As with any IT project, it is not feasible with an out of the box system like this to deliver everyones preferences, but we want to continue to work with users as we go forward and gave a commitment to consider the issues raised and meet again.

We are working very closely with the supplier and a program of work has been developed to address the highest-priority issues identified. These will be addressed through the biweekly software update by the supplier, which will continue into May 2023.

"We will continue to work with the supplier to resolve any outstanding issues to further improve system performance for users. This includes dates for some types of documents that were transferred to the planning portal.
Will the Windsor Framework provide a solution for grocery retailers and suppliers hampered by Brexit, or does it replace one layer of bureaucracy with another? Pavel Barter looks for answers

Grocery retailers and suppliers have described new labelling requirements for products travelling from Great Britain into Northern Ireland, under the Windsor Framework, as solving one problem but creating another.

Under the Framework, not for EU labels will have to be placed on food and drink packaging prior to travelling across the Irish Sea.

Wine merchant James Nicholson, of JN Wine in Crossgar, Co Down, describes the new requirements as one of the more intricate and painful outcomes of the Framework.

Kieran Sloan, managing director of Sawers deli in Belfast, says that while multiples can afford new labelling requirements, small independent companies may struggle. We deal with artisan suppliers across the water who, like us, are often small family-run businesses who make fantastic niche products. Once they have to re-label their Northern Irish products, theyre going to say, Its too much hassle. Were not going to bother.

Simon Spurrell, founder of Cheshire-based business, Cheshire Cheese, concurs. On one hand [government] say the Framework is solving a problem, but its also creating another one, he says.

We now have multi-labelling requirements and we have to create paperwork that defines its not going to go across the border into the EU and its only going to be sold in Northern Ireland. Its a small step in the right direction but its not a fix.

The food and drink sector was largely supportive when the Windsor Framework was announced in February, 2023. The proposals solved the Rubiks Cube of the protocol and reduced burdensome checks and controls, according to Archie Norman, M&S chairman. Simon Roberts, chief of Sainsburys, announced that customers in Northern Ireland will once again be able to access the full range of products as customers in Great Britain.

The Framework creates a lane system for goods arriving in Northern Ireland: a green lane for goods destined for the six counties; a red lane for produce going to the Republic. Lorries in the green lane will require a single certificate, even if its contents are made up of different products, while red lane cargo requires full custom processes and checks. According to the deals proponents, the Framework will ease bureaucracy and cut paperwork and costs.

We are led to understand that the required information for the green lane will be commercially available data that can be uploaded online, says Neil Johnston, director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium (NIRC). The vast bulk of whats coming into Northern Ireland will pass through the green lane.

The Framework marks an improvement for some food producers, retailers and wholesalers. GB suppliers dealing with Sawers deli, face cost, bureaucracy, and paperwork, according to Kieran. We are buying from the UK and selling within the UK, and thats the frustrating part: we dont apply to the single market. We cant get certain meat sauces. Loose pate is a nightmare to get across. The deli recently ordered 3,000 worth of product from a chutney and cracker supplier in GB. The final order, when they checked it all out, was about 600, remarks Kieran. 2,500 of it, they could not send to Northern Ireland.

Exporting from GB to Northern Ireland, in its current form, is uneconomical for small producers, agrees Simon Spurrell of Cheshire Cheese.

Every small producer in mainland UK knows if you cant ship to Europe, you cant ship to Northern Ireland. We had to abandon that market [prior to the company being bought by cheese producer Joseph Heler in 2022] because it was too expensive. You need a health certificate to ship one wedge, or 20 tonnes, of cheese to Northern Ireland. A health certificate needs a veterinary surgeons certificate, which costs 180 per parcel, per destination, and four hours of paperwork.

This bureaucracy has resulted, according to some retailers, in a reduction in the variety of food and drink products on shelves. In removing certification for goods such as wine, the Windsor Framework bodes well. The UK Wine Society, for example, describes the Windsor deal as workable with clarity and a sense of certainty and consistency.

[As part of the deal] Northern Ireland becomes the responsibility of the British government, so hopefully we will get to the situation where all products available on the GB market will be available on the Northern Irish market, Neil Johnston says.

But could labelling be a spanner in the Framework? Alongside product labelling, shops will be required to include signage  particularly for loose products. The deal introduces labelling requirements on a phased basis with October 2023 as the first deadline for dairy brands and chilled meats. Cheshire Cheese is in the midst of a rebrand and had already booked a new labelling and rebrand, and 12 months worth of stock, before the Frameworks announcement, according to Simon Spurrell.

Labelling increases cost and waste. Now we have to produce short label runs solely for Northern Ireland. If we have one million labels, we have to run a separate 20,000 or 30,000 for Northern Ireland. The unit cost will go up by 2p or 3p. Its a shambles.

Retailers with stores in the Republic and Northern Ireland, meanwhile, have concerns about how split supply deliveries will work within the green-red lane system. Asda and Sainsburys are relatively content because they dont have any stores in the Republic, says Neil Johnston. Lidl is relatively content because they have two supply chains  a British-based one and a Southern-based one  but there are people who fall midway, such as M&S who will ultimately need separately labelled products.

A lack of clarity and guidelines around the Frameworks minutiae has left some grocers feeling vulnerable. Food and drink suppliers wishing to use the green lane into Northern Ireland must also register as a trusted trader, according to the Framework. But there is a lack of clarity about the definition of a trusted trader.

Part of the problem is that we are only now getting details of the regulations from Europe and they may yet be amended, Neil says. Therefore, its very hard for retailers to aim for the October deadline when they dont know what they are aiming for.

Some food producers, retailers and wholesalers, who adapted to an all-island model, are waiting to see how the Framework might change the consistency of their business. JN Wine in Crossgar, for example, imports wine from Europe to their warehouse in Dublin. We take goods into Ireland every 72 hours  and shipments go from Belfast to our London office  so its quite efficient, James Nicholson says. We have unfettered access in terms of selling within the UK market and have grown our business there substantially, whereas goods coming from GB [to NI] have a more difficult path.

The Windsor Framework needs to pass a number of stages before it can be implemented, but retail industry representatives are confident it will provide much-needed business stability in Northern Ireland. Our broader membership is reasonably satisfied with the Framework, Glyn Roberts, Retail NI chief executive, says.

Theres a deep dive into the details. But overall, were pleased we got as many of our members as possible into the green lane. The big question is does it move us forward? Does it provide greater stability and certainty? Yes, it does.

The Framework is here, adds James Nicholson of JN Wine. Now we have to suck it up, make it work, and get on with it.
The Cosmati pavement, a mosaic containing marble, stone, glass and metal that dates to the 13th century is seen inside Westminster Abbey in London (Dan Kitwood/PA)   Dan Kitwood

Irelands premier has urged respect for those who support the monarchy in the UK after two opposition parliamentarians questioned the time Irish national broadcaster RTE is devoting to the Kings coronation.

Leo Varadkar stressed that the model of constitutional monarchy is backed by a majority of people in the United Kingdom as he responded to criticism levelled by two socialist TDs in the Dail parliament in Dublin.

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Paul Murphy and Richard Boyd Barrett from People Before Profit-Solidarity both raised concerns that RTE One is devoting four hours of televised coverage of Saturdays events in London.

Mr Murphy branded the monarchy an institution built on racism, privilege and empire and claimed the coronation was a very obvious attempt to rehabilitate that institution.

Some republicans are saying that they are going to attend this coronation on the grounds of reaching out to the unionist community, he said.

The King leaving Westminster Abbey in central London, following a rehearsal (Stefan Rousseau/PA)   Stefan Rousseau

We think it is perfectly possible and necessary to build a united socialist movement of working-class people from a Catholic background, Protestant background, and a non-religious background, not on the basis of this sort of anachronistic and hated institution, but on the basis of the interests of ordinary people and the need for a socialist Ireland in a socialist world.

Even in Britain only 29% of people think that the monarchy is very important, its an increasingly unpopular institution.

But, yet, if you turn on RTE on Saturday, youre going to be treated to four hours of the coronation.

Why on earth is our state broadcaster spending four hours on a Saturday displaying this so-called coronation?

Mr Boyd Barrett stressed that Ireland was a republic.

Whatever political differences there are, I think most of us identify with the aspect of it being republic, that we dont believe in kings and monarchs and inherited power and privilege, particularly when its associated with empire, with colonialism, with shocking inequalities between a tiny group who have that inherited power among the royal aristocracy and ordinary people, he said.

And against that background, while of course we all very, very much welcome the peace that arose from, or accompanied at least, the Good Friday Agreement, the idea that sort of building bridges should extend to us having an uncritical approach to a coronation, something by the way that most of the remaining royal houses in Europe have completely abandoned, they dont have coronations anymore, its not legally required.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Niall Carson/PA)   Niall Carson

Yet this weekend, we are going to have huge amounts of public money in Britain spent on this coronation, an insult to huge numbers of people living in poverty in Britain.

Andthe national broadcaster in this country is going to broadcast this for four hours.

I mean, is that really an appropriate thing to be done from the standpoint of a republic?

Responding during a question and answer session in the Dail, Mr Varadkar said: The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy.

That position is supported by the majority of its people.

I think thats something we should respect.

Monarchies sometimes become republics.

Barbados was the latest to do that.

But they do when their people want to change their system of government and the majority of people in United Kingdom want a constitutional monarchy with a democratically elected parliament and government and I think we should respect their choices.
Actress Vanessa Kirby has opened up about overcoming self-doubt in her childhood, and starring as a villain in the latest Mission: Impossible film.

The Crown star spoke to Harpers Bazaar about finding confidence through acting, as she prepares to play White Widow in the American action franchise.

Kirby, who played Princess Margaret in The Crowns first and second series, said she knew she wanted to act from a young age.

She told the magazine: I was very sensitive. I had no idea how I would become an actress, but I knew it was what I wanted to do; it was what made me feel happiest, it was what made me feel most free, least judged somehow.

I had so much self-doubt growing up  oh my goodness, I still do. I have made peace with the fact that it is there.

Its the practice of letting it be in the passenger seat. You have to say: You are not going to drive but you can be here.

The 35-year-old Bafta-winning actress said Christopher McQuarrie, director of Mission: Impossible  Dead Reckoning Part One, gave her loads of books on power to prepare for her role as the villain.

Speaking about White Widow, she said: She comes from an underground crime family, so I wanted to know, how did they get into arms?

Vanessa Kirby at the Mission: Impossible  Fallout premiere (Ian West/PA)   Ian West

I did all sorts of research, and Christopher McQuarrie gave me loads of books on power and how to transmit power, how calm is the thing that is most powerful  the more you reel it in, the more intimidating it is.

Kirby said her co-star Tom Cruise is the most passionate actor.

He knows more about cinema, cares more about it, than anyone I have ever met, she said.

He also believes anything is possible, and that really inspires everyone around him to believe in what their own mission is.

Mission: Impossible  Dead Reckoning Part One will be released by Paramount Pictures on July 12 in the US and two days later in the UK.

The June issue of Harpers Bazaar UK is on sale from May 4.
The trial of a Co Antrim pensioner charged with raping a mentally impaired and now deceased woman was properly halted, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Senior judges rejected a prosecution challenge to the ending of criminal proceedings against the 70-year-old man accused of sexually abusing an adult sister-in-law who had Down's Syndrome.

Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan held that the decision to stop the case was based on a reasonable assessment of the reliability of the evidence.

She said: There were particularly challenging and unusual features where the sexual behaviour alleged by the complainant was so unclear and where she was deceased by the time of trial.

The defendant, who is not being named, faced counts of rape, sexual assault and indecent assault.

He denied molesting his sister-in-law at residential properties and in a caravan over a period which spanned from 1994 to 2016.

The charges were based on disclosures the woman made to a relative and staff at her care home, as well as achieving best evidence interviews.

Although she died in 2017 at the age of 52, the defendant subsequently went on trial before a Crown Court jury.

In June last year his lawyers successfully argued that the case should be stopped due to inconsistencies in the allegations against him.

The trial judge held that the differing accounts and hearsay evidence was so unconvincing that any conviction would be unsafe.

In its appeal the Public Prosecution Service claimed the decision to terminate proceedings was unreasonable, wrong and based on inconsistencies of no fundamental importance.

But dismissing the challenge, Dame Siobhan held that the trial judge properly considered the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence.

She concluded that the hearsay evidence could not be left to the jury without any unfairness to the defendant, the Chief Justice said.

Self-evidently there is a dual difficulty in this case in that the complainant was deceased and had significant learning and communication difficulties.

It must be observed that the defendant had no opportunity to test the complainants evidence.

Dame Siobhan added: We recognise the public interest in prosecuting those who commit sexual crimes against persons with a mental disorder or learning disability.

However, we cannot fault the exercise of judgment in this sensitive and difficult case that it was not fair to leave counts to the jury.
An American actor who harassed an Irish woman over a three-year period has been sentenced to two years in prison, with the final year suspended.

Stephen Spenneberg (55) of Oakshire Drive, Los Angeles, California, was sent forward on a signed plea from the District Court for harassing a woman on dates between May 10, 2020 and January 3, 2023.

Passing sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, Judge Orla Crowe described Spennebergs harassment as unwanted, unwarranted, persistent and repeated and noted that it had had a profound impact on the woman.

Judge Crowe said that like so many Irish students, the woman had travelled on a J1 visa to the United States in 2003.

The court heard that the woman had formed a brief romantic relationship with Spenneberg during which they exchanged contact information, but that on her return to Ireland, she told him she no longer wished to continue their relationship.

However, Spenneberg, who was living in Los Angeles, continued to contact her directly and indirectly by various means including phone, email and social media. The woman complained to gardai, who told Spenneberg to stop contacting her.

Judge Crowe said Spenneberg was told clearly and unequivocally by third parties including the gardai and Kentucky police, on several occasions, to stop contacting the woman, but that he persisted.

The woman blocked him from all her social media accounts and changed her contact details, but Spenneberg changed his account name and made further contact.

Garda Shauna Ferncombe gave evidence that Spenneberg emailed the woman on May 10, 2020 asking her to appear on his podcast with a view to promoting a project she was involved with. The court heard the woman received two voicemails, one email, two Instagram friend requests and one message on social media during 2020, asking her to unblock an account from Spenneberg.

The woman also made a report to gardai on June 17, 2022 about a voicemail from Spenneberg on June 13 in which he said he had lost his job and asked her, What he was waiting for? Gda Ferncombe confirmed she listened to the voicemail, in which Spenneberg also said he was desperate, adding, Desperate people do desperate things.

Spenneberg came to Ireland on December 31 last year and went to a commercial premises connected with the woman's family in Munster. He made enquiries about her and spoke with her parents. The court heard when the woman's father asked him what his business was, Spenneberg walked away.

Spenneberg was arrested on January 7 this year at a location in the south of the country. He has been in custody since.

When interviewed, Spenneberg told gardai he wasn't inclined to stop, as he wanted to hear from the woman herself that she didn't want any further contact. He told gardai he didn't take their calls seriously as it seemed insane that an international police force would contact him. He said he would have stopped all contact if the woman had told him directly to stop.

Spenneberg told gardai that he thought some of the woman's social media posts were a way for her to contact him without other people knowing. He accepted he had tried to contact her on several social media platforms.

He has no previous convictions in Ireland.

A victim impact statement was handed into the court, but not read aloud.

Gda Ferncombe disagreed with a suggestion put forward by Kieran Kelly BL, defending, that Spenneberg was chivalrous in going to speak with the woman's family.

Spenneberg told gardai he visited the Wild Atlantic Way and Dublin between December 31 last, the date of his arrival in Ireland, and his arrest on January 7. Gda Ferncombe said she was not aware if Spenneberg made any attempts to contact the woman during this period.

Gda Ferncombe disagreed with Mr Kelly's suggestion that Spenneberg was motivated by a genuine belief to see if there had been something worth re-kindling between the woman and himself. She also didn't accept that his voicemail to the woman could be interpreted in other ways.

Mr Kelly said his client regretted his actions and was now aware that there was no prospect of a relationship with the complainant.

Mr Kelly said there was no malicious intent behind Spennebergs actions, but rather a misdirected perception and that he was sorry. A letter from Spenneberg was handed to the court.

Counsel said Spenneberg has described himself as pro women and pro feminism. Spenneberg has a career as an actor and a podcast host. He also worked as an entertainer in Disneyworld and Seaworld, the court heard.

Judge Crowe set a headline sentence of three years but reduced this to two years with 12 months suspended, on the basis of mitigating factors, including Spennebergs guilty plea and the fact that he would be in custody far from home.

The sentence was backdated to January 7 of this year.

Spenneberg was ordered to stay away from and have no contact, directly or indirectly, with the injured party, on a permanent basis, by any means whatsoever.

He was further ordered to stay away from her family, friends, co-workers and professional cohort, and not to publish or upload any photos or details pertaining to the woman, including her name, address or any identifying details.

The final 12 months of the sentence were suspended for a period of three years.
But Olympic heroine admits the Queen will not be far from her thoughts this Saturday

Lady Mary Peters during the Order of the Garter Service at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle in 2019.

Lady Mary Peters fondly remembers June 2, 1953. It was the first time she had sat down in front of a television.

Not long moved to Ballymena from her childhood home in Liverpool, she was invited to her new friends house to watch the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Almost 70 years later she will be amongst the first people on parade behind the new King Charles III at his own coronation as it moves around London on Saturday.

And as she heads over to take her place in the ceremony, invited to do so as a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter, she has been reminiscing with that old school friend from Ballymena ahead of her journey.

London hosts early morning Coronation rehearsal

Its funny, but I was just reflecting on this yesterday, said Lady Mary, whose gold medal achievement in the 1972 Munich Olympics made her a household name.

I remember arriving in Ballymena as a young girl from England and I suppose its because we were both a little bit different, but my first proper new friend, and someone who Ive stayed in touch with, was Elizabeth OKane.

She was Catholic, I was English and we sort of gravitated to each other. Her family had a television, the first one I can remember seeing in Ballymena 70 years ago.

She kindly invited me to visit and we watched the coronation of the Queen as schoolgirls. That was a wonderful occasion to watch.

Elizabeth phoned me yesterday to wish me a safe and happy journey over to London and it was lovely to remember those times.

Seven decades later here I am actually invited to take part in one and its a thrill for me to be involved.

Lady Mary Peters will attend the coronation. Picture by Kevin Scott

Lady Mary Peters may have mingled with royalty more than most Northern Ireland people in her life, but she says every minute in their company holds a special place in her heart.

And as a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter, an honour bestowed on her in 2019, Lady Mary will be one of the honoured few to be taking part in the coronation of King Charles III this week.

Lady Mary (83) will head over to London today to join invited distinguished guests as part of the parade through the streets of the capital.

She said the honour is the latest in a long list of treasured memories she has amassed over the years

Its always a privilege to be in their company and its something that has happened to me quite often, something Im always thankful for having the opportunity to do, she said.

I have been extremely fortunate in what Ive been able to do and receiving an invite to the coronation of King Charles III is not something I ever expected. But Im determined to take in every moment.

King Charles III to wear golden garments during crowning

Lady Mary will get her first taste of what to expect on Saturday when she will be involved in a full dress rehearsal ahead of coronation day tomorrow.

That will be a full robes occasion and Ill know a bit more about whats expected, she said.

Then itll be a wait until the real parade on Saturday. Thats going to be an early start!

The atmosphere will be somewhat different to Lady Marys last visit to the capital when she was in attendance at the committal service of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

While it is going to be a grand and splendid occasion on Saturday, the Queen will never be far from my thoughts, said Lady Mary, who enjoyed many conversations with the monarch over the last five decades. Before attending the funeral, Lady Mary made a quiet and personal visit to Hillsborough Castle to lay flowers in her memory.

Mary said she last met the Queen on June 13 last year at Windsor Castle when celebrating Garter Day.

Queen Elizabeth II travels in a horse drawn carriage as she leaves the annual Order of the Garter Service in 2019. Peter Nicholls/PA Wire

I was lucky enough to have a few minutes privately with her, she added.

She was talking about the Paddington sketch and she was smiling about that.

It was just a little intimate chat and then we went into lunch and then the Garter celebrations continued but Her Majesty stepped back.

While the Queens coronation day remains one of Lady Marys most vivid memories as a young girl, she hopes the coronation of King Charles III will give others similar memories to look back on in years to come.

I just hope everyone watching at home on Saturday enjoys the spectacle as much as I did as a young girl, she said.

I never for a moment thought it would be something Id have the honour of taking part in.

I just hope it doesnt rain the way it did in 1953.
Series shines light on LGBT communitys suffering during the Troubles

Former PSNI ACC Chris Noble, now chief constable of Staffordshire Police (Pic by Siobhan Fenton/PA Wire)

A former assistant chief constable says he is grateful the shocking story of a gay police officer murdered during the Troubles has been brought to a wider audience.

Chris Noble, who left the PSNI in 2017 and is now the chief constable of Staffordshire Police, thanked the creators of the BBCs Blood On The Dance Floor, which investigated the INLA killing of Darren Bradshaw on May 9, 1997.

I joined the police with Darren in September 1996. A few months later hed been shot dead by terrorists, he said. Thank you for telling his story of being a young, gay police officer in 90s Ulster.

The six-part series is shining a light on the suffering of the LGBT community during the Troubles. It reveals the extent to which homophobia was rife in our society  including within the security services and paramilitaries  and the role it played in the 24-year-old being gunned down in The Parliament, Belfasts only gay bar at the time.

Former PSNI ACC Chris Noble, now chief constable of Staffordshire Police (Pic by Siobhan Fenton/PA Wire)

The unsuspecting victim was shot in the back at close range as he enjoyed a drink on a night out in the Dunbar Street venue.

Actor Kristian Nairn, known to millions as Hodor in Game Of Thrones, was aged 21 and among hundreds of horrified onlookers.

In the series, he recalled: Bang! Bang! Bang! The music carried on for a second. I remember seeing a girl stood at the bar covered in blood.

Hundreds of revellers ran for cover. However, many key witnesses fled the scene for fear of being outed by photographers who would inevitably descend upon the horrific crime scene.

There was stunned silence, Nairn continued.

It was like a bomb had gone off. There was a horrible, horrible atmosphere in the room.

A doorman tried in vain to save Darren as he lay dying outside the toilets, where he had collapsed and curled up on the floor.

Presenter Jordan Dunbar, who was a comedian and drag performer on the Belfast scene, explains in the podcast how the victim had been betrayed by an old acquaintance he met at a house party previously.

The former schoolmate, described as a scoundrel, is believed to have passed on sensitive information to the IRA to avoid being targeted in a paramilitary attack.

It is believed that the IRA sanctioned the INLA to do its dirty work in the turbulent days leading up to the Good Friday Agreement.

The podcast exposes the honeytrap tactics employed by terrorist gangs during the Troubles and how they blackmailed vulnerable members of the LGBT community who feared being outed. In an interview from the time, PA Maglochlainn of the NI Gay Rights Association described the anti-gay element within paramilitaries who considered a gay cop as a twofer.

A former colleague describes the manner of Mr Bradshaws death as repulsive, while an ex-partner reveals the guilt he felt in the aftermath of his loss.

The killer, wearing a grey wig and a painted-on beard, got out of a red Toyota  later found burnt out on the Falls Road  just before 10pm that Friday night, before entering the venue and approaching his target.

Mr Bradshaws brother Scott recalls being woken up in the middle of the night to be told the devastating news, which came six months after his other brother, Simon, was killed in a road crash in Germany.

It broke my heart, he says. It really did.

Alliance Party MLA Andrew Muir after being elected mayor in 2013

The news also destroyed his mum, who passed away without ever getting justice for her son.

Meanwhile, Mr Bradshaws dad always maintained that his son was killed twice: first murdered by the gunman, then assassinated in the media.

Shot RUC man in gay probe, one tabloid headline read two days after the brutal killing.

The newspaper report included false claims that Mr Bradshaw was investigated for allegedly being part of a gay sex ring in Omagh.

The podcast reveals that Mr Bradshaw had been interrogated by colleagues after being photographed by officers surveilling public toilets as part of a major investigation into cottaging.

But Mr Bradshaws use of a public toilet was only questioned by colleagues after they found out about his sexuality.

Alliance MLA Andrew Muir, who became the first openly gay mayor in Northern Ireland 10 years ago, was a volunteer for the LGBT Society at the then-University of Ulster.

He recalls being drafted into the RUC to do an exercise on community relations which involved asking officers about their thoughts on gay people.

Some of the responses were appallingly homophobic, he says. They are so extreme I wouldnt repeat them.

Blood On The Dance Floor also features a report from 1976  nine years after homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales  which includes a segment on gay rights trailblazer and former UUP councillor Jeffrey Dudgeon.

At first glance, hes like thousands of other young men in Ulster, the presenter says. Except that Jeff is a homosexual.

Mr Muir lamented the use of harmful stereotypes in the media, which often branded LGBT people as perverts.

Unfortunately, there is a long history of that, he said.

The North Down representative broke down in tears as he described the sense of shame heaped upon LGBT people in Northern Ireland, which he said has yet to be fully documented.

He also reflected on his own friends who have taken their own lives as a result.

Its a stain on our society that occurred.
Emergency services at scene of Belfast crash as railings flattened

A woman has been rescued by firefighters in west Belfast after a crash which left street railings flattened.

The collision has happened at the Andersonstown Road beside Casement Park, but details as to how it occurred are currently unclear.

The Fire Service has confirmed that only one vehicle was involved in the crash.

Police have said no injuries were reported and the vehicle has since been recovered.

Former SDLP Assembly member for the area Paul Doherty tweeted: Bad crash on the Andersonstown Road.

Thankfully no one has been seriously hurt. A lot of damage to the railing running outside the shops which will cause difficulty for pedestrians.

It has also been reported to the Department for Infrastructures road services team.

The Fire Service said three fire appliances attended the incident.

A spokesperson said: Firefighters were called to a one vehicle road traffic collision. One female was rescued by Firefighters. Firefighters made the scene safe and left the incident at 11.32am.

A PSNI spokesperson said: "Police, along with colleagues from Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service and Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, attended a report of a one-vehicle road traffic collision on the Andersonstown Road.

No injuries were reported and the vehicle was recovered from the scene.
Police have released a 31-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of a number of drug-related offences after a vehicle was stopped and searched in Newtownabbey.

He has been released on bail to allow for further police inquiries.

The PSNIs Inspector McCallion said: Officers were attending to an unrelated report in the Antrim Road area on Tuesday evening, 2nd May when they had reason to stop a car and question its driver who had been acting suspiciously.

The driver of the vehicle became aggressive and obstructive towards police while officers attempted to carry out a search.

After the man was handcuffed and searched, a quantity of suspected cannabis was located down his trousers, as well as a sum of money. A sum of money was also located inside the car.

Further searches were later carried out a property in the Glandore Parade area of north Belfast and a quantity of suspected Class B drugs along with drug-related paraphernalia were seized from the house.

The man was arrested on suspicion of possession of a Class B controlled drug with intent to supply, possession of a Class B controlled drug and obstructing powers of search for drugs.

He remains in police custody at this time, assisting officers with their enquiries.

Drugs have no place in our society and, through Operation Dealbreaker, we will continue to tackle the supply, use and harm caused by illegal drugs.

If you have concerns about drugs in your area, call us on 101. The quicker we receive information the quicker we can act. Even if you think it's not significant, it could make a big difference.
A deaf woman from Northern Ireland who met King Charles III earlier this year believes he will be a popular monarch.

Holly Gault visited Buckingham Place on Commonwealth Day as a representative of The Princes Trust NI.

The 29-year-old from Moira, Co Down, is very excited for the coronation this weekend.

Im really looking forward to it. My mum and dad are especially excited, they are big into the Royal family, so we are going to their house to have afternoon tea, she said.

I think Charles III will be a good king because he has been preparing for this his whole life, so he is ready for it and he will do a lot of good as king.

Ms Gault didnt realise she was going to be meeting His Majesty while visiting London in March.

It was lovely, it was a good experience. It was kind of a pinch-me moment, she added.

I didnt actually think I was going to meet the King. I thought it would be a group of people there and then the King would do a presentation, but when I got there someone said, Are you ready to meet the King?

I just couldnt believe it, I was so overwhelmed, no one told me what to do, I didnt know if I was supposed to curtsy or what I was supposed to do.

Despite being flustered, Ms Gault enjoyed her chat with the King.

He came out of the room and everyone sort of crowded around him. We formed a line, I got to shake hands with him and he asked who I was with, and he just kept saying, Fantastic, fantastic, Ms Gault said.

She also spoke to the Prince of Wales, adding: I felt like Prince William wanted to hang out with the younger crowd.

He spoke to me because he wanted to know about barriers to employment in Northern Ireland and what we could do to overcome those.

Ms Gault relies on lip-reading and sign language to communicate and has previously seen this as a barrier to employment.

During the pandemic, she joined The Princes Trust, and with their help and support, she was able to start her own business, Holly Gault Pet Services.

She says shes thankful for the work The Princes Trust has done to help her find employment and is happy William showed an interest in helping the people of Northern Ireland overcome employment issues.

I think it was a great opportunity to speak to him, she said.

He was so interested in helping people in Northern Ireland. I wish I had been able to speak to him for a bit longer, and talk to him about overcoming barriers, particularly for people in the deaf community.
More boxes of cigarettes seized in Coalisland on April 27. Credit: HMRC

Over three million illegal cigarettes and tobacco worth an estimated 2m in duty and taxes have been seized in Co Tyrone.

A 70-year-old man in Coalisland has been arrested and subsequently released on bail following the seizure by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officers and police.

Officials searched premises in the town on Thursday, April 27, as part of an operation to disrupt the sale and supply of suspected non-UK duty paid goods.

Lucie Irving, assistant director of the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said: The trade in illicit cigarettes and tobacco damages funding for essential public services and undermines legitimate traders including small, independent shops that serve local communities.

HMRC continues to work closely with our partners to relentlessly pursue the determined minority who refuse to play by the rules.

PSNI Detective Superintendent Emma Neill added: We are committed to working alongside our partner agencies to combat the illicit trade of illegal tobacco, wines and spirits and remain resolute in our efforts to put those who seek to profit from criminality before the courts.

Investigations into the seizures are continuing and I would encourage anyone with information about the sale of counterfeit cigarettes and other goods to please get in touch with us on 101."

Anyone with information about the illegal sale of tobacco or alcohol should report it to HMRC online.
The venues for this years Twelfth of July parades have been revealed.

With only 10 weeks to go, the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland has named the 19 cities, towns and villages that will host demonstrations.

Some of the main demonstrations are scheduled for Belfast, Lurgan and Enniskillen.

Heres all you need to know ahead of the 333rd anniversary celebrations of King Williams victory at the Battle of the Boyne, which falls on a Wednesday this year.

Belfast

As always, Belfast is expected to welcome a large Scottish contingent, as the city holds the longest Twelfth parade on the day, with participants walking over six miles to the field.

Its expected that Orangemen and women will walk representing nine districts  accompanied by approximately 60 bands.

Co Armagh

As is tradition, County Armagh will once again host the biggest Twelfth gathering in the world with around 150 lodges and 5,000 brethren gathering in Lurgan.

Co Antrim

Apart from Belfast, Ballymena is the only place in Northern Ireland which has a Twelfth demonstration every year. In 2023, other considerable parades will take place throughout the county, in Ballycastle, Randalstown, Broughshane, Portglenone and Upper Ballinderry.

Co Fermanagh

Whereas last years parade took part in the countys major town of Enniskillen, 2023 will see Ballinamallard have a time to shine. The small village lies to the north of Enniskillen and is within Fermanagh and Omagh district.

Co Tyrone

Twelfth celebrations this year will officially take place in Dungannon, Clogher and Dromore.

Co Down

Four locations have been chosen to host this years Twelfth in Co Down  Loughbrickland, Bangor, Comber and Kilkeel.

In 2022, there was a lot of excitement after the tiny village of Greyabbey hosted a parade for the first time in more than 50 years.

Co Londonderry

Down in Mid Ulster, Magherafelt will anchor the Twelfth celebrations, while Coleraine will be host to those near the north coast.

Also, in neighbouring Co Donegal, the popular Rossnowlagh parade will take place on Saturday, July 8.

There are 18 parades taking place across Northern Ireland: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, Edward Stevenson, said he was looking forward to a wonderful day of orange culture, heritage and celebration.

I am delighted to confirm the venues which will host this years Twelfth of July celebrations - the centre piece of our packed annual calendar of events, he said.

I know that a lot of work is being done by the host districts to prepare for the big day and I trust everyone will have a great time no matter which of our 19 demonstrations they attend.

Mr Stevenson will be in attendance at the Loughbrickland demonstration.

He told the Orange Standard newspaper: We continue to welcome an increasing number of international visitors to our celebrations who are keen to experience first-hand the spectacle of the biggest day in the parading calendar.

High calibre music provided by some of the finest marching bands will only add to the festival atmosphere. We look forward to another glorious Twelfth.
News the Grenfell Inquirys final report is unlikely to be published until next year is a sign justice is being kicked further down the road, a campaign group said (PA)   Dominic Lipinski

News the Grenfell Inquirys final report is unlikely to be published until next year is a sign justice is being kicked further down the road, a campaign group said.

The final hearing took place in November 2022 and a panel and inquiry team have been working on their phase two report since then.

On Tuesday, in a monthly newsletter published on its website, the inquiry confirmed the final report is unlikely to be published until 2024.

Phase two examined how the tower block came to be in a condition that allowed the fire on 14 June 2017 to spread.

The report into phase one, which focused on the factual narrative of the events on the night of the fire, was published in October 2019.

It concluded the towers cladding did not comply with building regulations and was the principal reason for the rapid and profoundly shocking spread of the blaze.

The inquiry team said it will spare no effort to finish the final report as soon as possible.

It acknowledged everyone involved in the inquiry wants the report to be published as soon as possible and we fully understand the importance that has for them and for the wider public.

But it said the report must be complete and accurate.

Chapters are at different stages of drafting and several stages are yet to be completed, it said.

The team said the report will be sent to the Prime Minister as soon as we can, but that will probably not be possible before the beginning of next year, after which Rishi Sunak will decide when it will be published publicly.

The 2017 fire at the west London tower block claimed 72 lives (PA)   Jonathan Brady

Campaign group Grenfell United, which represents survivors and bereaved families of the west London fire, which claimed 72 lives, said those affected now face an even longer road ahead.

In a statement, the group said: We went through this same delay following the conclusion of phase one, which was pushed back by six months.

This news is no surprise. History is repeating itself. Its what we expected. Justice is being kicked further down the road as the system continues to protect those who should be held accountable. A system we have no influence over.

Its just another reminder of what we are forced to battle against. Six years, no justice and now an even longer road ahead.

Also on Tuesday, a judge approved a global settlement of compensation claims made by people affected by the fire.

Lawyers representing bereaved relatives, survivors and local residents told a High Court hearing in London there had been a global settlement of about 900 cases and a global sum of about 150 million compensation agreed.
The Stone of Destiny will be used in the coronation ceremony this weekend (Susannah Ireland/PA)   Susannah Ireland

Humza Yousaf has dismissed Alex Salmonds suggestion that police should have been used to prevent the Stone of Destiny being moved from Edinburgh Castle.

The First Minister said the ancient stone is all (Mr Salmonds) been talking about recently.

The Alba Party leader had said that Scottish police should have staged a standoff outside Edinburgh Castle, preventing the historic artefact from being moved to London for the Kings coronation.

He said such a move could have been used as a bargaining tool in the push for a second independence referendum.

Humza Yousaf oversaw the departure of the Stone of Destiny (Russell Cheyne/PA)   Russell Cheyne

The stone was taken to London last week to be used in the coronation, with Mr Yousaf attending a ceremony during which it was removed from its resting place at Edinburgh Castle.

The stone has been used to crown monarchs of Scotland  and later the UK  in a tradition dating back centuries.

Mr Yousaf was asked about the former first ministers comments as he spoke to journalists at an anti-poverty summit in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

He said: Alex Salmond should remember of course that operational matters are for Police Scotland.

Its not for the First Minister to tell the police what to do, but of course it wouldnt have been the right thing to do even if those powers did exist.

Alex Salmond can sit there and talk about the Stone of Destiny all day long.

Alex Salmond has said he will attend a pro-independence rally on the day of the Kings coronation (PA)   Lesley Martin

It seems its all hes been talking about over the last few weeks.

Im committed to talking about reducing poverty, the cost-of-living crisis, investing in our public services.

Mr Salmond, a former SNP leader who is now a vocal critic of the party, said he would be speaking at a pro-independence rally on Saturday  the day of the coronation.

He told Andrew Marr on Tuesday: You dont command very much as first minister of Scotland, but you do command the Scottish police force, you could have put a ring of policemen around Edinburgh Castle.

Have a standoff on the Esplanade and politely explain to the world that Scotland should not sacrifice its symbol of sovereignty until that sovereignty is at least recognised by Westminster.
A suspect is escorted by police outside the Vladislav Ribnikar school (AP)   Uncredited

A 13-year-old who opened fire at his school in Serbias capital drew sketches of classrooms and made a list of people he intended to target in a meticulously planned attack, police said.

The boy killed eight fellow students and a guard before calling the police and being arrested.

Mass shootings are extremely rare in the Balkan region, although Serbia is awash in guns left over from the wars of the 1990s. No mass shootings have been reported at Serbian schools in recent years.

The boy first killed a school guard and then three students in a hallway, according to senior police official Veselin Milic. He then entered a history classroom close to the school entrance and opened fire again, Mr Milic said.

Worried parents flocked to the school (Milos Miskov/AP)   Milos Miskov

Seven girls and one boy were killed, he added.

The victims included a girl with French citizenship, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said in a statement.

The assailant called police when the attack at the school in central Belgrade was over, though authorities had received a call reporting the shooting two minutes earlier.

The child who committed the crime said when he called the police that he shot some people in the school and that he is a psychopath who needs to calm down, Mr Milic told state television station RTS.

He said that after committing (the crime) he was caught by fear and panic and funny breathing, and that it was the right thing to call the police and report the event.

A father of a student said the boy entered his daughters classroom, firing at her teacher and then her classmates as they ducked under their desks. Most students at the school were able to flee through a back door, according to a local official.

While Mr Milic said the boy had planned the attack for a month, sketching classrooms and writing out a list of children he planned to liquidate, authorities said they did not know the motive for the shooting.

It is unclear if he shot any of the people named on his list or how many rounds were fired, but police said the boy reloaded the handgun.

Police block streets around the Vladislav Ribnikar school (Darko Vojinovic/AP)   Darko Vojinovic

In addition to the nine killed, six children and a teacher were also taken to hospital.

Commentators on television and officials repeatedly said it was the kind of thing they expected to read about elsewhere, particularly in the US. In the last mass shooting, a Balkan war veteran in 2013 killed 13 people, including family members and neighbours, in a central Serbian village.

Today is one of the toughest days in Serbias modern history, said President Aleksandar Vucic, who addressed the nation in a sombre manner, crying occasionally. Unfortunately, Serbia is united in grief.

Authorities declared three days of nationwide mourning, starting on Friday.

Police identified the boy as Kosta Kecmanovic, who attended the Vladislav Ribnikar school, where students range in age from six to 15.

Because he is under 14, he cannot face criminal charges, the Belgrade prosecutors office said. Social services will determine what happens to him.

He carried two guns belonging to his father  at least one a handgun  and four petrol bombs, officials said.

Interior minister Bratislav Gasic said the weapons were licensed and kept in a safe but the teenager, who had been to shooting ranges, apparently knew the code. The father was also arrested but has yet to be charged.

The shooter is said to have contacted the police after the incident (AP)   Uncredited

Local media footage showed a commotion as police removed Kecmanovic, whose head was covered as officers led him to a car. Police sealed off the blocks around the school. Authorities later carried body bags to a waiting van.

Police said they received a call about the shooting at around 8.40am on the day classes resumed after a long weekend for the May 1 holiday.

One student described the attacker as a quiet guy who had good grades.

He was not so open with everybody. Surely I wasnt expecting this to happen, she added.

Milan Milosevic, who said his daughter was in a history class when the shooting took place, told N1 television that he rushed to the school when he heard what had happened. He received a call from his daughter who had escaped the building and was unharmed.

He (the shooter) fired first at the teacher and then the children who ducked under the desks, Mr Milosevic said his daughter told him.

Milan Nedeljkovic, mayor of the Belgrade area of Vracar where the shooting happened, said most of the students were removed from the school through a back door.

We have video surveillance, but now this is a lesson, we need metal detectors too, he said. It is a huge tragedy something like this (happening) in Belgrade. Such a tragedy at an elementary school.
Firefighters work at the side of an oil depot near Taqman in Krasnodar region, south of Russia (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)   Uncredited

A massive blaze has broken out at an oil depot behind Russian lines as the war in Ukraine stretches into its 15th month, officials said.

The oil depot erupted in flames in Russias southern Krasnodar region, located east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

He did not say what caused the fire, which was described as extremely difficult to put out. Some Russian media outlets said it was likely to have been caused by a Ukrainian drone attack overnight.

Local residents heard an explosion shortly before the fire erupted, Russian news site Baza said.

A building destroyed by Russian shelling at night in Zaporizhia, Ukraine (AP)   Andriyenko Andriy

Military analysts reckon Ukraine is targeting supply lines in the Russian rear as Kyiv gears up for a possible counter-offensive amid improving weather conditions and as it receives large amounts of weapons and ammunition from its Western allies.

At the same time, anticipating a Ukrainian counter-offensive, Russian forces are focused on destroying logistical routes and centres of Ukraines armed forces, Kyiv military officials said.

Meanwhile, the Kremlins forces used 26 Iranian-made drones in another night-time attack on Ukraine.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defences shot down 21 of the Russian drones, Ukraines Air Force Command said.

No damage or casualties were reported in the third attempt in six days by the Kremlins forces to hit Kyiv.

A Ukrainian army sniper looks on near Bakhmut, Donetsk region (AP)   Libkos

Both sides reportedly have experienced ammunition shortages after a winter of long-range shelling and missile strikes as the conflict became bogged down in a war of attrition.

Ukraines government has been pressing its allies to give it more as officials consider when and how they might start trying to drive Russian forces out of the Ukrainian territory they have occupied.

The US plans to send Ukraine about 300 million dollars (240 million) in additional military aid, including an enormous number of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition, US officials said.

The new package includes Hydra-70 rockets, which are unguided rockets that are fired from aircraft. It also includes an undisclosed number of rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, mortars, howitzer rounds, missiles and Carl Gustaf anti-tank rifles.

A Ukrainian soldier fires an RPG during his training at the frontline positions near Vuhledar, Donetsk (AP)   Libkos

The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines, according to the officials.

New Zealand also said it was increasing its support for Ukraine by adding another year to the deployment of about 100 military personnel who, among other tasks, have been helping train Ukrainian troops in Britain on operating howitzers.

New Zealands Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said it will also donate an additional 3.3 million dollars (2.6 million) towards Ukrainian humanitarian, refugee and legal justice efforts.

He said New Zealand has spent about 50 million dollars (40 million) on financial and military support to Ukraine since the war began.
The Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi surrounded by Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels in the Strait of Hormuz (US Navy via AP)   Uncredited

Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has seized a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the second such capture in less than a week.

The taking of the Niovi renewed concerns about Iran threatening maritime traffic in the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude oil passes.

It also comes amid the disappearance of a tanker in south-east Asia believed to have been carrying Iranian crude oil amid reports it may have been seized by the US.

The US Navy published surveillance footage shot by an aerial drone of about dozen Guard vessels swarming the tanker on Wednesday morning. The drone had been on a routine patrol in the area and saw the seizure, though the Navy did not receive a distress call from the Niovi, 5th Fleet spokesman Commander Timothy Hawkins said.

The Guard ships forced the oil tanker to reverse course and head toward Iranian territorial waters off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran, the Navy said.

Irans actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability, the 5th Fleet said in a statement.

Irans continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are unwarranted, irresponsible and a present threat to maritime security and the global economy.

Iran acknowledged the seizure, with the judiciarys Mizan news agency quoting the Tehran prosecutors office as saying that a judge had ordered it impounded over an unspecified complaint.

Shipping registries show the Niovi as managed by Smart Tankers of Piraeus, Greece. The Niovi had been coming from dry-dock repairs in Dubai, bound for Fujairah on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates without carrying any cargo, according to data firm Refinitiv.

Last week, Iran seized an oil tanker carrying crude for American firm Chevron, amid wider tensions between Tehran and the US over its nuclear programme. The Advantage Sweet had 23 Indians and one Russian on board.

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Iran has accused the Advantage Sweet of colliding with another vessel, but offered no evidence to support its claim. Iran has offered a variety of unsupported claims in the past when seizing foreign-flagged ships amid tensions with the West.

The taking of the two tankers in under a week comes amid the disappearance of the Marshall Island-flagged Suez Rajan, which had been in the South China Sea off Singapore for over a year after a report alleged it was smuggling sanctioned Iranian crude oil.

Tracking data for the Suez Rajan last showed it off east Africa, moving in a direction that could take it to the Americas.

The Financial Times and maritime intelligence firm Ambrey reported the Suez Rajan was seized on order of American authorities.

The Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs acknowledged on Wednesday that it had recently sent a warning to Greek ships in the Middle East to be on alert when going through the Persian Gulf. The ministry did not say what prompted the warning.

The seizure by Iran of two ships in the last week was the latest in a string of ship seizures and explosions to hit the region.

The incidents began after then-president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from Irans nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

They have continued under President Joe Biden as diplomatic efforts at finding a way back to the accord remain in stalemate.
Vladimir Putin is said to be safe (Sputnik/Pool/AP)   Mikhail Klimentyev

Russian authorities have accused Ukraine of attempting to attack the Kremlin with two drones in an effort to assassinate President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin branded the alleged attack attempt overnight as a terrorist act and said Russian military and security forces had disabled the drones before they could strike.

A statement on the Kremlins website said debris from the unmanned aerial vehicles fell on the grounds of the seat of Russias government, but did not cause any damage.

The statement added that no casualties were reported.

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If true, the purported drone attack would be a significant escalation in the 14-month conflict, with Ukraine taking the war to the heart of Russian power.

The alleged attack immediately prompted calls in Russia from pro-Kremlin personalities to carry out assassinations on senior leadership in Ukraine.

A video published overnight on a local Moscow news Telegram channel, which appeared to have been shot across the river from the Kremlin, showed what looked like smoke rising over the Kremlin.

According to the text accompanying the video, residents of a nearby apartment building reported hearing bangs and seeing smoke at around 2.30am local time (12.30am BST). It was not possible to independently verify the posted footage.

A view of empty Red Square closed for Victory Parade preparation with the Historical Museum, right, and the Kremlin Towers in the background (AP)   Alexander Zemlianichenko

Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak denied any involvement in the incident.

He said: Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin, adding the claims would provide a pretext for Russia to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities in the coming days.

The Kremlin did not present any evidence to back up its account as Russia prepares to observe its annual Victory Day on Tuesday May 9.

We consider these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the president of Russia, carried out on the eve of the Victory Day, the parade on May 9, where foreign dignitaries are expected, the Kremlins statement read.

Russia retains the right to respond when and where it sees fit, the statement said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russias state news agency RIA Novosti that Mr Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time and was working from the Novo-Ogaryovo residence.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store pose for a family photo during the Nordic-Ukrainian Summit in Helsinki (AP)   Heikki Saukkomaa

The Kremlin added that Mr Putin was safe and his schedule was unchanged. Mr Peskov said that the parade would take place as scheduled on May 9.

Shortly before the news about the alleged attack broke, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a ban on using drones in the Russian capital, with an exception for drones launched by authorities.

Mr Sobyanin did not cite a reason for the ban, saying only that it would prevent illegal use of drones that can hinder the work of law enforcement.

A legislator who represents Crimea in Moscow, Mikhail Sheremet, told Russian state media that the Kremlin should order a missile strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys residence in Kyiv in retaliation for Wednesdays alleged incident.

A Ukrainian army sniper faces Russian troops near Bakhmut, Donetsk region (AP)   Libkos

Elsewhere, Russia used Iranian-made drones during its third attack on Ukraines capital city in six days.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defences shot down 21 of the Russian drones, Ukraines Air Force Command said. No damage or casualties were reported

Meanwhile, a massive blaze broke out at an Russian oil depot, local officials said.

The depot erupted in flames in Russias southern Krasnodar region, located east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

He did not say what caused the fire, which was described as extremely difficult to put out. But some Russian media outlets said it was likely caused by a Ukrainian drone attack overnight. There was no official comment on that possibility.

Firefighters work at the side of an oil depot near Taqman in Krasnodar region, south of Russia (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)   Uncredited

Local residents heard an explosion shortly before the fire erupted, Russian news site Baza said.

Military analysts think Ukraine is targeting supply lines in the Russian rear while gearing up for a possible counter-offensive amid improving weather conditions and as it receives large amounts of weapons and ammunition from its Western allies.

Explosions also derailed a Russian freight train and hit a Russian airfield in recent days. Last weekend, a massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two of Ukraines drones, a Russia-appointed official said.

In anticipation of a Ukrainian counter-offensive, Russian forces are focused on destroying logistical routes and centres of Ukraines armed forces with long-range strikes, Kyiv military officials say.

At the same time, Russia plans to continue talks with the United Nations and other parties to an wartime agreement on facilitating Black Sea agricultural shipments, Mr Peskov said ahead of talks on Friday.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that a new round of consultations between Russia and the UN on access of Russian agricultural products and fertilisers to the world market would be held in Moscow.

A building destroyed by Russian shelling at night in Zaporizhia, Ukraine (AP)   Andriyenko Andriy

Signed last July and renewed twice, most recently in March, the deal unblocked Ukrainian grain shipments that were held up in the countrys blockaded ports last year. The deal will expire on May 18 unless Russia agrees to its renewal.

In the latest Ukrainian civilian casualties, three people died and five were wounded when a supermarket in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson came under fire on Wednesday.

According to Ukraines ministry of internal affairs, the attack on the only operating hypermarket in Kherson happened at around 11am local time.

Meanwhile, a round-the-clock curfew is to be introduced in Kherson from 8pm on Friday through 6am on Monday, Kherson governor Oleksandr Prokudin announced.

During these 58 hours, it is forbidden to move around or stay on the streets of the city. Also, the city will be closed for entry and exit, Mr Prokudin said.

The measure is necessary, he said in a video on social media, so that law enforcement officers can do their job and not put you in danger.
A woman identified as the wife of a man suspected of killing five neighbours in a shooting in Texas has also been taken into custody, a sheriff has said.

Divimara Lamar Nava, 53, wife of Francisco Oropeza, is in custody in connection with the Friday night shooting, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.

Although Mr Henderson identified Nava as Oropezas wife, jail records list her as not being legally married. The two share a home address, according to the records.

She had previously denied knowledge of Oropezas whereabouts, Mr Henderson said, but authorities believe she hid him in the home near Conroe where he was arrested on Tuesday.

Lamar Nava was arrested early on Wednesday and was being held in the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon, according to online jail records.

Francisco Oropeza (San Jacinto County Sheriffs Office/AP)   Uncredited

Oropeza was charged on Wednesday with five counts of first-degree murder during a court hearing in jail, said San Jacinto County Justice of the Peace Judge Randy Ellisor.

Bond was set at 1.5 million dollars per count, for a total of 7.5 million dollars (6 million), Judge Ellisor said. Bond for Castilla was set at 5,000 dollars, he added.

A four-day manhunt for Oropeza ended on Tuesday when authorities, acting on a tip, said they had found the suspect hiding under a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.

At a news conference on Wednesday morning in Coldspring, Tim Kean, chief deputy with San Jacinto County Sheriffs Office, said authorities spotted Oropeza, 38, on Monday afternoon in Montgomery County, prompting the lockdown of several schools.

We did confirm that was him on foot, running, but we lost track of him. That was not a false alarm. That was him, Mr Kean said outside the county jail.

Montgomery County Sheriffs Office had previously said reports of a possible sighting of Oropeza in the area was a false alarm.

Mr Kean declined to comment on the tip that led authorities to the home where Oropeza was arrested as well as on when he had arrived or how he got there. The chief deputy said the home had not been previously checked by authorities.

Mr Kean said there have been several other arrests but I cant go into the details on that.

He added that Oropeza only mildly resisted arrest and was not injured.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers speaks to the media (Houston Chronicle via AP)   Brett Coomer

Mr Kean said the home where Oropeza was arrested has a personal connection to the suspect. He declined to provide more details, but said there was no indication Oropeza was about to leave.

I believe he thought he was in a safe spot, Mr Kean said.

Oropeza is expected to appear before a judge inside the San Jacinto County Jail and the judge will formally set his bond at 5 million dollars (4 million), Mr Kean said.

The home is near the community of Conroe, north of Houston and about 20 miles from Oropezas home in the rural town of Cleveland. That is where authorities say he went next door and shot his neighbours with an AR-style rifle shortly before midnight on Friday.

He had been shooting rounds on his property and attacked his neighbours after they asked him to go further away because the gunfire was keeping a baby awake, according to police.

The arrest ends what had become a widening dragnet that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions and had seen 80,000 dollars in reward money offered.

As recently as Tuesday morning, the FBI said Oropeza could be anywhere, underlining how investigators for days struggled to get a sense of his whereabouts and acknowledged they had no leads.

Oropeza is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to US immigration officials.

Connor Hagan, an FBI spokesman, said officials would not disclose the identity of the person who called in the tip  one of more than 200 he says investigators received.

Drones and scent-tracking dogs had been used during the widening manhunt, which included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene.

Republican governor Greg Abbott offered a 50,000-dollar reward as the search dragged late into the weekend, while others offered an additional 30,000 dollars in reward money.

All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and Daniel Enrique Laso, nine.
We must learn new ways to disagree agreeably so we can encourage the islands under-represented groups into politics, write Dawn Purvis and Ciaran O Cuinn

During the Troubles, political representatives and their families faced regular threats, abuse and direct personal attacks. Tragically, several political representatives on the island were murdered in this brutal and sectarian time.

These actions were a threat to the rule of law and attempted to undermine the very basis of democracy itself.

Twenty-five years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, we may have reached a period of relative peace, but we also face a real and present danger  the threat posed to democracy from an often negative political discourse.

In Britain, the brutal murders of MPs Jo Cox and Sir David Amess remind us yet again that democracy comes at a high price. The recently reported abusive experiences of women representatives in Leinster House are of serious concern and they target an already underrepresented group in parliamentary democracy.

A healthy democracy is characterised by institutions that are representative of the communities and people they serve. Underrepresentation of groups limits the range of ideas and perspectives that are vital for balanced and democratic decision-making. Persistent extremes of attack and defend politics and personally-targeted vitriol online and offline damage the willingness of under-represented groups, including women, young people and minority ethnic groups, to engage in politics. Learning new ways to disagree agreeably in the public sphere can play a part in addressing this.

The John and Pat Hume Foundation and the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation are working together to promote a more ethical political discourse. This has involved consultations with current and former politicians on the island and meetings with regulatory and other groups including, most recently, the London/Yorkshire-based Jo Cox Foundation and the Association of Irish Local Government.

During our work, we have heard accounts of misogyny, sectarianism, personal threats and verbal and physical abuse that are deeply concerning.

We were told of instances where, for their self-protection, some politicians do not hold constituency surgeries; are concerned about the risk created by the public availability of their home addresses; and where politicians families experience fear and threat. In Britain, there have been instances where some politicians even wear stab vests.

We believe there is an urgent need for an all-island conversation about how we can promote a more respectful and ethical political discourse. The framework for such a conversation could focus on these seven questions:

(i) How can we strengthen empathy, and foster a greater capacity to listen to understand as core tenets of political and public discourse?

(i) How can a human rights approach to political discourse, where the dignity and respect of the human person and where a truth culture is central, be cultivated and upheld across the island?

(ii) What is the role of political parties in promoting ethical political discourse amongst their representatives and members, and holding them accountable to it?

(iii) Are legislation, codes of conduct and ethical standards in the Assembly and Oireachtas and at local government level, sufficiently robust to provide for respectful political debate, and to investigate conduct that falls short of the required standards?

(iv) Is there a notional duty of care by political parties and political institutions to elected representatives and their families when they experience threat, abuse, intimidation and hostility? If so, what does that involve/look like?

(v) What can we learn from other jurisdictions on how politicians can conduct their public duties with safety and dignity and without threat and fear for themselves and their families?

(vi) How can the wider governance of civil discourse, mass media and social media be engaged to demonstrate their support in monitoring and taking action for respectful and ethical discourse as a key element of free societies?

As John Hume said in his Nobel Peace Prize address: Difference is an accident of birth, and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it.

If we permit a socially divisive political culture to continue to develop, we anticipate a further loss of public confidence, a belittling of politics and political institutions, and a gradual erosion of representative democracy.

Twenty-five years after the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, there is an urgent need to renew our commitment to partnership, equality and mutual respect as the basis of our relationships across the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. Taking the necessary steps for ethical and civil dialogue in politics is central to continuously nurturing those relationships.

In a nutshell, lets debate, not hate.

Dawn Purvis is vice-chair of the John and Pat Hume Foundation. Ciaran O Cuinn is chair of the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation.
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Prayer beads, also referred to as rosary beads, are used in the practice of prayer and meditation. Prayers are repeated a number of times corresponding with the number of beads. Prayer beads are traditionally associated with Catholicism, but their use is widespread with many religious traditions incorporating them.

The history of the rosary in Christian circles can be traced all the way back to the Crusades. It is believed by historians that the Crusaders had adopted this practice from Arabs, who, in turn, copied the observance of using beads from India. Recent archeological findings reveal that the ancient Ephesians made use of such beads in their worship of Diana, also known as Artemis, whose temple was one of the seven wonders of the world (Acts 19:24-41).

Prayer beads are also used by Roman Catholics to help the practitioner keep track of some 180 prayers which may up the rosary. Examples of such prayers are Our Father, Hail Mary and Gloria. In the Catholic Church, the rosary is one of the most cherished prayers. The Rosary is still the easiest ways to acquire the ancient skills of meditative prayer, and it is believed by Catholics to be the most effective way to grain the graces that this way of prayer can obtain.

For Catholics, prayer beads are a powerful prayer of intercession. Praying the rosary is promoted as a means of strengthening ones faith, resisting evil, growing spiritually, and generally benefiting society.

The word rosary comes from Latin and means a garland of roses, the rose being one of the flowers used to symbolize the Virgin Mary. If you were to ask what object is most emblematic of Catholics, people would probably say, The Rosary. Catholics ask the Blessed Mother to bring their prayers to Her Divine Son and plead for His aid. Catholics bring rosary intentions to Mary with the hope that their request will be answered.

The rosary is devotion in honor of the Virgin Mary. It consists of a set number of specific prayers. First are the introductory prayers: one Apostles Creed, one Our Father, three Hail Marys and one Glory Be.

The first prayer in the Rosary is the Apostles Creed. It is called the Apostles Creed not because it was composed by the apostles themselves, but because it expresses their teachings. The original form of the creed came into use around A.D. 125, and the present form dates from the 400s.

Protestants, when they say the prayer, refer to the holy catholic church, using catholic to refer to the universal church, not implying any connection with the Catholic Church, which is based in Rome. This is despite the fact that the term catholic was already used to refer to a particular, visible Church by the second century and has already lost its broader meaning of universal. Despite these differences, Protestants embrace the Apostles Creed without reluctance, seeing it as embodying basic Christian truths as they understand them.

The next prayer in the rosary is Our Father or the Pater Noster. This is also known as the Lords Prayer. This prayer is even more acceptable to Protestants because Jesus Himself taught it to His disciples. It is given in the Bible in two slightly difference versions, the first referenced in Matthew 6:9-13 and the second referenced in Luke 11:2-4. The one given in Matthew is the one commonly said.

The following prayer in the Rosary is the Hail Mary which is really at the center of the devotion. It is a prayer to Mary. While many Protestants assume its unbiblical, it does have roots in Scripture. The prayer begins, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. This is the same greeting the angel Gabriel gave Mary in Luke 1:28.

The basic rosary is made up of 59 beads linked together in the shape of a necklace. Each of the beads on the rosary is intended to have a prayer said while holding the individual bead. Of these beads, 53 are for Hail Marys to be said on them. The other six are intended for Our Fathers. These beads provide a physical method of keeping count of the prayers as the fingers are moved along the beads as the prayers are recited.

The use of prayer beads is not scriptural. In fact, Jesus Himself chastised the religious leaders of His time for repeating their prayers over and over. He told the disciples not to emulate them by using vain repetitions as the heathens do, for they think they will be heard for their many words (Matthew 6:7).

While many who use prayer beads today claim that the rosary helps them take the focus off themselves and onto Christ, the question is really one to the efficacy of repeating the same phrases over and over in a mantra-like manner. While there are liturgical churches using prayer beads in prayer, non-liturgical churches do not use them.

There is incredible power in prayer. Our ability to pray to God is an incredible privilege and we are called by our Heavenly Father to communicate with Him bolder. If prayer beads in fact enhance your time and communion with God, then they may be for good use, but if repeating the same prayer over and over again isnt helping intimate communion with God, the use of prayer beads will not be useful to you.

Lesli White is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth with a Bachelors degree in Mass Communications and a concentration in print and online journalism. In college, she took a number of religious studies courses and harnessed her talent for storytelling. White has a rich faith background. Her father, a Lutheran pastor and life coach was a big influence in her faith life, helping her to see the value of sharing the message of Christ with others. She has served in the church from an early age. Some of these roles include assisting ministry, mutual ministry, worship and music ministry and church council.
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What is prayer? The most straightforward definition of prayer is a discussion with God or talking to the Lord. This discussion can be confession, thanksgiving, adoration, asking questions, conversing and other types of communication. For Christians, praying to God is standard, so they may find the Catholic practice of praying to Mary a bit odd.

Why talk to Jesus mother if Hes in the room? So do Catholics pray to Mary, and if so, why? We must understand Marys importance within the Catholic Church to understand these questions.

Marys importance to the Catholic Church.

Our Lady, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Blessed Mother. These are only a small sampling of Marys titles in the Catholic Church. Liturgically and doctrinally speaking, shes a significant figure in Catholicism. However, an adoration and emotional element in Catholicism is obvious, but a Catholic wouldnt call this practice worship. A good Catholic wouldnt say they worship Mary, but she is revered. She is treasured, adored, loved, and held in high esteem, but it doesnt mean shes given a place of equal adoration as the Holy Trinity.

But why is Mary so significant? An excellent of Marys importance comes from Peter Kreeft, a professor of philosophy at Boston College. According to him, Catholics love Mary because they love Jesus. He also believes that Jesus comes to us through Mary. Kreeft says shes where the most miraculous and important thing ever occurred happened. According to Luke 1:38, all of this happened because Mary said yes to God. Kreeft says, The greatest thing that ever happened, happened in her and because of her. If we truly love Jesus, why wouldnt we respect how He came to us?

Kreeft is trying to help us see Mary as a mediator, a path by which we connect to God. Shes not only a mediator, but apart from Jesus, shes a well-known mediator. As declared officially in 1964, Mary is the Mother of the Church, a title given by Pope Paul VI. However, it was first used by Ambrose in the fourth century. This title comes from the knowledge of Revelation 12:17 and John 19 when Jesus looked to John and told him, Here is your mother while on the cross. Others call Mary the second Eve, the woman who would become the mother of every person who follows Jesus.

Theres no space to talk about another doctrine, but its essential to understand the Catholic viewpoint. Mary is believed to be sinless in Catholicism to keep Jesus free from sin. Her conception was immaculate, setting Mary apart as humanitys most righteous.

Why do Catholics pray to Mary?

For a Protestant to comprehend why Catholics pray to the Saints or Mary, we must realize that when someone is baptized, they become part of Christs mystical body from a Catholic viewpoint. This idea means when the Bible demands us to pray for each other, it also includes the departed. When we think about how James 5:16 says, the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and greatly affects, why wouldnt we go to the most righteous saint we know, the sinless virgin, who will care for, love and pray for us?

According to Denver Catholic, Mary has a special place for those who participate in Jesus mediation because God decided to come to us through her and chose her as Mother. As detailed in John 2:5, her job is to lead us to Him. Like us, Mary meditates under Christs mediation. When we say Mary negotiates for us, we cant forget about God. It means that Catholics go to her for prayers, something all Christians do when asking for prayers from fellow believers. Praying to Mary is a way of being brought to Jesus. Like a Protestant will go to their pastor and say, Pray for me, assuming that they will guide them to Jesus, a Catholic will pray to Mary, knowing she will guide them toward Jesus Christ. Its an act of mediation.

A Catholic would say they pray to Mary. However, their definition differs from a Protestant praying to God, though the official Catholic doctrine wouldnt use that language. Still, the average Catholic would. Christ is the Mediator between humanity and God from a Catholic viewpoint. The Vatican II declared that Marys maternal role toward people doesnt diminish the special mediation of Christ. Instead, it shows the power of mediation in Christ. They believe the Hail Mary to be a prayer request.

You may also wonder how long Catholics have been praying to Mary, which has historically been a challenging question. Some opinions about Mary held firmly by Catholics today are somewhat newer in history. Pope John Paull II said, Many centuries were necessary to arrive a the explicit definition of the revealed truths concerning Mary. This practices elements, then, might be somewhat modern. Still, some intercessory prayers and veneration to Mary are early in the church. The earliest recorded prayer is Beneath Thy Protection or Sub tuum praesidium. However, is praying to Mary biblical?

Is praying to Mary biblical?

Does the Bible say theres a scale to a prayers effectiveness? In other words, do we find that a request is more likely to be answered or heard because it comes from someone holier than someone else? Does the Bible teach that Marys prayers are heard more than those of a widow named Mary who lives in the middle of nowhere?

The Bible says that when we are one with Christ, we have access to the throne of grace, according to Hebrews 4:16. It doesnt reference or mention lines to His throne, nor those who have more access over others. Its straightforward as we are in Christ, so we have access. Our prayers can be stalled, and a connection with Christ is required for this access. Still, theres no indication in the Bible that God hears St. Peter more than another child of God. Its quite the opposite.

Mary is Jesus mother and is highly revered in the Catholic faith. Catholics pray to Mary because she is the mediator between them and Jesus. As Jesus mother, she should continue to be upheld and respected in every faith.
Chinese envoy urges UN Secretariat to strengthen comprehensive peacekeeping budgetary performance

Xinhua) 14:08, May 03, 2023

UNITED NATIONS, May 1 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Monday called on the UN Secretariat to strengthen the comprehensive peacekeeping budgetary performance.

"The Secretariat should continue to strengthen the comprehensive budgetary performance and improve internal control, so as to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of peacekeeping operations," Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the second part of the resumed session of the Fifth Committee of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

"As the largest single budget of this organization, the budget for peacekeeping operations runs into billions of dollars. China always supports the Fifth Committee's efforts to review the budget under the science-based and prudent principle, and to provide necessary resources for peacekeeping operations to fulfill their mandates," he said.

"We note the relatively large increase in the peacekeeping budget proposed by the secretary-general for the 2023/2024 fiscal year, which may raise financial burdens for member states, many of which have concerns over," said the envoy.

"It is a shared view that the peacekeeping budget should be reviewed carefully and comprehensively. China supports the Board of Auditors in fully playing its role as an external audit body to provide valuable recommendations on improving budgetary management. We support the UN to reimburse troop/police contributing countries in a timely manner," he added.

On China's contributions, Dai said that ever since the first time China dispatched its formed military unit of Blue Helmets to UN peacekeeping operations, "we have sent more than 50,000 peacekeepers to peacekeeping operations over the past 30 years, and have set up an 8,000-strong peacekeeping standby force. China takes practical actions to actively fulfill the obligations and shoulder the responsibilities to maintain international peace and security."

The ambassador further noted that peacekeeping missions "should use resources effectively to implement core mandates," adding that at present, peacekeepers are facing increasing challenges and threats to their safety and security with instabilities rising in different regions.

Dai noted that as the largest troop contributor among the five permanent members of the Security Council, and the second largest financial contributor for UN peacekeeping operations, "China expresses its serious concern in this regard."

"We hope that the UN will strictly implement the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, allocate adequate resources, and accurately assess and effectively remove all risks threatening the life of peacekeepers, so as to achieve further progress of the peacekeepers security agenda," he said.

"The agenda item of Investing in Prevention and Peacebuilding has been deferred three times since the discussion began last year," he said. "China attaches great importance to peacebuilding and we have been actively engaged in and proposed a constructive solution that complies with the current UN budgetary and financial regulations and rules."

"We are of the view that the regulations and traditions in UN management areas should be fully respected. The historical responsibility of developed countries as major donors to peacebuilding financing cannot and should not be changed," he said.

"When using assessed contributions for peacebuilding, it is imperative to respect the supervisory rights of member states accordingly. This is a shared concern of many member states including China, and should be treated with due regard and addressed prudently," said the ambassador.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
China should stop its unacceptable harassment of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, a senior American official said Wednesday, while pledging Washington will stand with its staunch ally against any intimidation from Beijing in the disputed waterway.

The comments from Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, come shortly after a near-collision between Philippine and Chinese vessels and as Ferdinand Marcos Jr. makes the first official visit by a Philippine president to Washington in more than a decade.

This is really a very important issue, and we remain deeply concerned by the People's Republic of Chinas continued intimidation and harassment of Philippine vessels as they undertake routine patrols within the Philippines exclusive economic zone, Kritenbrink told reporters in an online press briefing from the White House.

You have such actions that are truly unacceptable. We stand with the Philippines in the face of Chinese Coast Guards ongoing infringement and harassment.

On April 23, two China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels intercepted Philippine patrol boats and exhibited aggressive tactics near Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, according to the Philippine Coast Guard.

At one point, CCG 5201 came within 50 yards (46 meters) of a Philippine ship, it said. Another China Coast Guard ship persistently followed BRP Malabrigo at a distance of 700 yards (640 meters).

Beijing has said the Philippine vessels trespassed into waters near Renai Reef, the Chinese name for Ayungin Shoal, and had dangerously approached a Chinese vessel.

China has competing claims in the South China Sea with the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam. In 2016, an international tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines and against the sweeping nine-dash line by which Beijing asserts its maritime claims in the strategic waterway, but China has refused to acknowledge the ruling.

The Philippine coast guard vessel BRP Malapascua (front) maneuvers as a Chinese coast guard ship sails across its path at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, April 23, 2023. [AFP]

Kritenbrink said the U.S. would continue to monitor Chinas provocative conduct in the South China Sea.

But most importantly, we will continue to stand with our Filipino allies and we will continue to operate together, he said.

The U.S. has committed to defend the Philippines in case of any armed attack on its military, public vessels or aircraft, under the 1951 U.S. Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.

During the digital press briefing, Kritenbrink also responded to claims from Chinese officials that the U.S. is dragging Manila into potential conflict over Taiwan by allowing greater American access to local bases under a 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

The fact that friends in Beijing would issue a statement somehow expressing concern about that, I think it is not worthy but also somewhat puzzling, he said. I am confident that the U.S. and the Philippines share a vision for a peaceful and stable region.

We support the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo by either side and we insist that cross trait differences be resolved peacefully. Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is a matter of international concern.

Marcos visit to the U.S. signals improving bilateral ties after his immediate predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, cultivated warmer relations with Beijing.

Marcos and U.S. President Joe Biden discussed a wide range of issues in Washington earlier this week, including food security, climate change, trade and investment, and defense cooperation.

On Tuesday, Washington announced it intended to transfer two island-class and two protector-class patrol vessels and three C-130H to support the Philippines modernize its maritime and tactical lift capabilities.
Pita Limjaroenrat (center), the leader of the Move Forward Party, is greeted by his supporters at a bus stop near the Central Praram 2 department store in Bangkok, May 2, 2023.

Sparring between Thailands two main pro-democracy parties may undermine their common goal of defeating the military-inclined ruling establishment in the May 14 general election, analysts said.

The bickering between the progressive Pheu Thai and the Move Forward Party has increased in recent weeks, especially as the latters leader appears to be gaining support according to recent surveys, although Pheu Thai is still trending ahead.

The popularity of the Move Forward Party is rising in many constituencies, said a recent message from a Pheu Thai election outreach office, to its MP candidates.

Unless you work harder and reach out to the people more, we wont achieve the goal of a landslide win.

The message reflects Pheu Thais fear that Move Forward is more popular among people aged 26 to 43.

According to results of a survey released Wednesday, Pita Limjaroenrat, chief of the Move Forward Party, leads the pack of potential prime ministerial candidates, with 35.44% of support, followed by Pheu Thais candidate, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, at 29.20%.

The Pheu Thai Party holds the edge with 38.32% support versus Move Forwards 33.96%, showed the survey by the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA).

For decades, Pheu Thai has won the most votes of any party competing in Thai elections, reflecting its popularity in rural areas and in the countrys northeast. Now, it is dubbing the Move Forward Party immature, and the newcomer is not taking it lying down.

When Move Forward issued the statement about good politics, good livelihood and good future, they said it is a day dream, it would never happen in Thailand, Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, a campaigner for the party, told supporters at an April 22 event.

When politicians like ours offer honest outlines, they say we are naive, he said, apparently referring to Pheu Thai.

Pheu Thai hit back a few days later.

People want a political party that is mature, able to work collaboratively with others, is practical and can get the job done, Pheu Thai Partys deputy leader. Poomtham Vejjayachai, tweeted.

They are just dreamers and will fail to achieve their goal.

Drawing such battle lines could hurt both the parties, said Thouchanok Sattayavinit, a lecturer at Burapha University.

For constituency MPs, there is a chance they both lose. We have seen big parties losing out to smaller parties in the individual run-up, Thouchanok told BenarNews.

That means if Pheu Thai and Move Forward voters are split, a third candidate may win, because the candidate who wins the highest number of votes wins the constituency.

Pheu Thai Partys prime ministerial candidate, Paetongtarn Shinawatra (center), waves to supporters along with her party colleagues during a campaign rally at a stadium in Muang Thong Thani Complex, Nonthaburi province, Thailand, April 5, 2023. [Suntorn Chongcharoen/BenarNews]

Cross-bloc handshake?

Meanwhile, pro-military parties  which are currently part of the ruling coalition  are also bickering with each other.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha has been criticized for his economic policies by people within his own government, although some of the critics belong to parties that will be contesting separately from the PM in the upcoming election.

One of Prayuths ministers, who is deputy leader for the Palang Pracharath Party (PPP), blamed the PM for the high cost of consumer energy.

Fuel, cooking gas and electricity are ridiculously expensive. These are the main problems we have to troubleshoot quickly, Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, the minister for digital economy and society, told reporters in April.

His remark angered Prayuth.

Its not appropriate to attack me like that. He was in the government for four years and it is not right to dump everything on me, Prayuth told reporters in mid-April.

These are collective results, good or bad.

Prayuth quit the PPP to form a new party, the United Thai Nation Party, which is competing against PPP in the upcoming polls. Prayuths deputy and fellow retired Army general, Prawit Wongsuwan, is viewed as the PPP candidate for prime minister.

Separately, Suphachai Jaismut, a veteran Bhumjaithai Party politician, also criticized Prayuth on the economy. Bhumjaithai Partys leader Anutin Charnvirakul, a potential PM candidate, is the public health minister.

[He] was elected the last time because people wanted peace, but today we have peace already but no money, Suphachai said in February, referring to Prayuth.

What we dont have yet is money in the wallet.

Prayuth is the most popular prime ministerial candidate among the ruling coalition politicians. Nearly 15% of those surveyed support him, with his UNP registering 12.08% popularity on the NIDA poll.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the prime ministerial candidate from the United Thai Nation Party, plays Sepak Takraw, a traditional Thai sport, during a campaign event at Lumpini Park in Bangkok, April 20, 2023. [Suntorn Chongcharoen/BenarNews]

Despite a stark ideological divide between the progressive and pro-military parties, some analysts dont rule out a cross-bloc handshake.

Move Forward has the most conditions  no Prayuth, no Prawit  perhaps it is ready to be in the opposition, Nuttakorn Vititanon, a political scientist at Chiang Mai University, told BenarNews.

So if Move Forward wants to be the ruling party, it has to gain as many seats as possible. That means intensified attacking within the same ideological bloc, which worries Pheu Thai. In many constituencies, especially in the urban, voters choose a party over an individual.

That puts Move Forward at a disadvantage, said Burapha Universitys Thouchanok.

I believe if the UNP and the PPP join hands again, Move Forward will be in the opposition because it is the only party to have announced it will stay away from the pro-military bloc, Thouchanok said.

Its hard to predict who Pheu Thai will join with as it is mercurial and we can assume that it does not want to be in the opposition again.

At least 376 seats are needed to secure a parliamentary majority when both houses elect the new head of government from the list of the prime ministerial candidates.

After coming to power in a 2014 coup, and prior to the 2019 election, the junta led by now-Prime Minister Prayuth changed Thailands electoral system to let 250 senators appointed by the ruling party vote for the nations next prime minister.

Because the senators are expected to vote as a unit for someone from the ruling party, pro-democracy candidates likely could fail to reach the 376 count needed to hold the top elected office even if they won a majority of the lower house seats.

However, most parties appear to be confident they will win enough seats to form a government without depending on senators votes in electing the new prime minister, Chiang Mai Universitys Nuttakorn said.

From the many debates Ive seen, all parties, even the coalition ones, have the same common ground, that is to mitigate the need for the Senates help when an MP is chosen in the parliament, Nuttakorn said.
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A Draeger Breathalyzer, used by the Pittsfield Police Department to evaluate blood alcohol content, sits ready for use at the department. A recent ruling by the state's highest court has called into question tens of thousands of drunken driving convictions.
Community News Editor / Librarian

Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989.
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Matt Martinez is a news reporter at The Berkshire Eagle. He worked at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, graduated Marquette University. He is a former Report for America corps member.
Lee town officials may have a new friend in their fight against a toxic landfill planned for the Woods Pond area. After staff members from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., met with town officials Wednesday afternoon, her office announced that she has sent a letter to the EPA seeking clarification on several matters regarding the GE-EPA plan to build a landfill to store PCB-contaminated soil in town.
What was discussed at your annual town meeting? Looking for the results of your town election? We've got all of that information here in one place.
Tonight's rundown:

 Talking Points Memo: Joe Biden continues to decline with the world watching and remains out of the press reach

 Presidential Historian Larry Cook weighs in on how Bidens relationship with the press compares to past presidents

 US Special Forces have been confirmed to be in Ukraine

 OReilly describes Democrats hosting the DNC in Chicago as Crazy Arrogant

 The trial of Fox News gets underway

 58% of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck even as inflation begins to cool off

 Smart Life: Utilizing Kelly Blue Book when searching for a new car

 This Day in History: FDR dies in office

 Final Thought: what to do when someone is disrespectful to you

In Case You Missed It:

 Read Bill's latest column, "Reason to Believe"

 Join 'Team Normal!' Order your gear now at BillOReilly.com!

 Pre-order Bills next bestseller Killing the Witches NOW

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Built by combining disruptive digital technologies in the medical and healthcare domain

Mumbai-based startup EPC Tech has announced the formal launch of Medgami, a first-of-its-kind, one-stop networking and knowledge platform that facilitates engagement between doctors in India and helps them build their peer network.

Medgami uses algorithms to provide healthcare specialists with personalised content in the form of CME videos, case simulations, live surgery recordings, info-graphics, interactive quizzes, latest news & summaries from premier medical journals. The platform also provides disease awareness and patient educational content that doctors can share with their patients with a single click.

It allows doctors to discuss patient cases and facilitates learning from the experiences of other specialists. The platform suggests events related to specialists fields based on their location and area of interest. It also provides user-generated content in the form of posts, videos, images, polls, documents, etc. Medgami has plans to onboard doctors in other specialities such as Dermatology, Ophthalmology, etc. and is targeting to enrol over 100,000 doctors this year.
Making good on its commitment to deliver creative excellence and impact for its clients' brands, Ogilvy and their clients won 12 awards at the 2023 Clios. The prestigious awards recognise creative excellence in advertising, design, and communication across the globe.

These awards are widely recognised as a key benchmark for assessing the standard and quality of modern communications around the world. Ogilvy South Africa is thrilled that its clients' brands were recognised across multiple categories, including; design, film, digital, media, experience, activation, cause-related campaigns and film craft.

We are truly proud to have produced work that delivers great creative impact, say Kabelo Moshapalo, chief creative officer at Ogilvy Johannesburg. Better still, is being recognised for telling compelling stories across multiple modern communications platforms. Receiving these honours from the Clios is truly humbling, a testament to the incredible teams we have working throughout the business.

The Bride Armour campaign has been hugely successful in inspiring activism. The messaging has inspired both men and women to become advocates for the cause.

 Vaughan Croeser

We exist to create work that drives true impact and the Bride Armour campaign for Carling Black Label is one such example, said Camilla Clerke, executive creative director at Ogilvy Cape Town. Impact comes when we pivot to connect with an elusive target audience who are uninterested in traditional advertising and we served them NFTs on their social platforms. Impact is derived from deploying modern communications through leveraging technology smartly, like they did on the VW Polo Game On campaign.

Volkswagens Passenger head of marketing, Bridget Harpur, agrees they were delighted by the modernity of the campaign and the power of its impact. The Polo is one of South Africas most loved and aspirational cars, so when launching this new model in January 2022, we knew we needed something special. The campaign was exciting and showcased the new safety features and technologies in the wild and crazy streets of Johannesburg, embedded in a video game. This is a testament to the creative excellence of Ogilvy. This campaign surpassed all metrics, from view-through rates and engagement to customer sentiment. But more importantly, this is a high quality, relevant piece of work for our aspirational customer.

Pete Case, Ogilvy CEO and creative chairman adds: Thank you to the Clio's panel of judges for this recognition and congratulations to our clients who have partnered with us on the work, and continued to believe in the true power of creativity.

Of the 12 Clio Awards given were five silvers, two for CBL Bride Armour, one for Spotify Sound Tour, one KFC Anything for the Taste, and one VW Polo Game On. These campaigns also won one bronze and four shortlists for KFC Anything for the taste, the additional bronze awarded for the production house, Romance Films, as well as two shortlists. Spotify Sound tour also gained an additional bronze and shortlist. Altogether five silvers, two bronze awards and five shortlists.

The four biggest winners for Ogilvy were Game On for Volkswagen, Anything for The Taste for KFC, the Spotify Sound Tour, as well as Carling Black Label Bride Armour. All receiving accolades in judging and in multiple categories.

Ogilvys client partners entrust them to deliver work that breaks through the clutter of any category comments Grant McPherson, chief marketing officer of KFC Africa This achievement is a testament to the power of partnership and how challenging, provoking, and pushing each other on the creative journey can result in truly impactful work that drives brand love, and sales growth simultaneously.

Brands play a significant role in society and have a mandate to deliver social impact as well as business impact, Vaughan Croeser, VP Marketing, BU South, for Carling Black Labels #NOEXCUSE Bride Armour campaign: The Bride Armour campaign has been hugely successful in inspiring activism. The messaging has inspired both men and women to become advocates for the cause.

We believe great creative work can gain exponential attention for any brand in an attention-starved era, and ultimately can change the world we live in, concludes Case.




The record start to the year for BusinessTech comes as South African companies continue to move their advertising budgets online.

Q1 of 2023 has been the best quarter ever for new advertising campaigns being launched on BusinessTech.

The record start to the year for BusinessTech comes as South African companies continue to move their advertising budgets online  ensuring they receive the best ROI on their marketing spend.

We are well positioned to help companies grow and succeed in South Africa, ensuring they reach their target audiences with the right message at the right time.

 Kevin Lancaster

As South Africas largest and most influential business publication, BusinessTech has benefited from this  with more companies than ever before taking advertising campaigns in the first three months of the year.

The advertising campaigns on BusinessTech cover both the B2B and B2C sectors, promoting the biggest names in the country.

This includes Standard Bank, FNB, Discovery, Absa, Old Mutual, Vodacom, MTN, Apple, Samsung, Telkom, BCX, Afrihost, Huawei, Seacom, Mustek, HP, Sage, and many more.

Excellent audience

Companies advertise on BusinessTech thanks to its excellent audience.

BusinessTech is read by over five million South Africans each month, the majority of whom are c-level executives, business owners, company directors, managers, and professionals.

These readers are responsible for the purchasing decision which take place in their businesses and their homes, making them a target market of choice.

Great news for businesses

BusinessTechs record start to 2023 also shows that South African companies continue to position themselves for growth.

Companies which partnered with BusinessTech reported a strong performance from their advertising campaigns, and stated they continue to see growth opportunities in the local market.

The top-performing advertising products for these companies on BusinessTech have been: sponsored articles and reviews with social media amplification, Business Talk interviews, video promotions, and display banners.

The first quarter of 2023 has been incredible for BusinessTech and we expect this strong performance to continue for the remainder of the year, said Broad Media CCO Kevin Lancaster. We are well positioned to help companies grow and succeed in South Africa, ensuring they reach their target audiences with the right message at the right time.




On the eve of the 30th United Nations (UN) World Press Freedom Day, the 2023 Unesco / Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize was awarded to three imprisoned Iranian women journalists, Niloofar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohammadi and Narges Mohammadi.

Source:  Unesco Unesco The 2023 Unesco / Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize has been awarded to three imprisoned Iranian women journalists

Created in 1997, the annual Unesco/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize honours a person, organisation or institution which has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. It is the only such prize awarded to journalists within the UN System.

It is named for Guillermo Cano Isaza, the Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper El Espectador in Bogota, Colombia, on 17 December 1986, and funded by the Guillermo Cano Isaza Foundation (Colombia), the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation (Finland), the Namibia Media Trust, Democracy & Media Foundation Stichting Democratie & Media (The Netherlands), and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Unesco is the UN agency with a mandate to ensure freedom of expression and the safety of journalists around the world. It coordinates the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, which marked its 10th anniversary with a global conference in Vienna, Austria this year

We are committed to honouring the brave work of Iranian female journalists whose reporting led to a historical women-led revolution. They paid a hefty price for their commitment to report on and convey the truth. And for that, we are committed to honouring them and ensuring their voices will continue to echo worldwide until they are safe and free, says Zainab Salbi, chair of the international jury of media professionals.

At last night's ceremony in New York, Audrey Azoulay, director general of Unesco, says, It is now, more than ever important to pay tribute to all women journalists who are prevented from doing their jobs and who face threats and attacks on their personal safety. Today we are honouring their commitment to truth and accountability.

The three laureates

Niloofar Hamedi writes for the reformist daily newspaper Shargh. She broke the news of the death of Masha Amini following her detention in police custody on 16 September 2022. She has been detained in solitary confinement in Irans Evin Prison since September 2022.

Elaheh Mohammadi writes for the reformist newspaper, Ham-Mihan, covering social issues and gender equality. She reported on Masha Aminis funeral, and has also been detained in Evin Prison since September 2022. She had previously been barred from reporting for a year in 2020 due to her work.

Hamedi and Mohammadi are joint winners of both the 2023 International Press Freedom Award by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), and Harvard's 2023 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. They were named as two of Time magazines 100 Most Influential People of 2023.

Narges Mohammadi has worked for many years as a journalist for a range of newspapers and is also an author and vice-director of the Tehran-based civil society organisation Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC).

She is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence in Evin Prison. She has continued to report in print from prison and has also interviewed other women prisoners. These interviews were included in her book White Torture. In 2022, she won the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Courage Prize.

Women journalists under threat

Globally, women journalists and media workers face increasing offline and online attacks and are subject to disproportionate and specific threats.

The gender-based violence they are exposed to includes stigmatization, sexist hate speech, trolling, physical assault, rape and even murder.

Unesco advocates for the safety of women journalists and collaborates with partners to identify and implement good practices and share recommendations with all parties involved in countering attacks against women journalists, as recognised by numerous UN resolutions.

In 2021, Unesco published The Chilling, a study on global trends in online violence against women journalists, which demonstrated the extent of attacks against women journalists and the impact on their well-being, their work and press freedom at large.

Unesco works with partners to develop practical tools for journalists, media managers and newsrooms to respond to online and offline abuse. It also partners with specialised organisations to train women media workers on the ground and through online training courses, and works with security forces to sensitise them on freedom of expression with a gender focus.

Unesco raises global awareness through events such as World Press Freedom Day (3 May) and the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists (2 November) held annually.

World Press Freedom Day

2023 year marks the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day.

World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993, following the recommendation of UNESCO's General Conference. Since then, 3 May, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek is celebrated worldwide as World Press Freedom Day.

While there has been substantial progress towards achieving a free press and freedom of expression around the world, media freedom, safety of journalists and freedom of expression are increasingly under attack, which impacts the fulfillment of other human rights.

The international community faces multiple crises: conflicts and violence, persistent socio-economic inequalities driving migration, environmental crises and challenges to the health and well-being of people all around the world.

At the same time, disinformation and misinformation online and offline proliferate, with serious impact on the institutions underpinning democracy, the rule of law and human rights.

It is exactly to counter these critical situations and threats, that press freedom, safety of journalists and access to information take centre stage.

The right to freedom of expression, enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is a prerequisite and a driver to the enjoyment of all other human rights.

This years Special 30th anniversary celebration of World Press Freedom Day is, therefore, a call to recentre press freedom as well as independent, pluralistic and diverse media, as key to the enjoyment of all other human rights.
Are banks doing enough on human rights and environmental concerns, particularly in light of financing mining for transition minerals in South Africa? A new briefing provides some answers.

Source: Wikipedia. Lithium chemicals, a transition mineral seen here in oil, is set to grow in demand by 700% by 2050, a growth that will be spurred on by the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries.

Financing is pouring into the mining industry in South Africa, which is home to significant deposits of some of the worlds most strategic minerals needed to power the energy transition. However, new analysis has revealed banks linked to companies extracting these crucial transition minerals are in fact overlooking serious human rights and environmental concerns.

In a report published on 26 April 2023, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre analysed the human rights commitments and actions of 15 banks (five local and 10 international) linked to the mining of transition minerals in South Africa.

The research revealed these banks are not taking adequate measures to avoid contributing to abuses in this particularly risky sector. The increased demand for transition minerals poses a significant threat to local communities, including lack of access to water and exploitation, which are likely to be more severe if the communities have not been adequately consulted prior to the extraction.

If the abuses of the fossil-fuel sector and poor human-rights practices associated with South Africas traditional mining sector are replicated, the urgently needed clean-energy transition will be derailed.

Despite this, of the banks surveyed for the report:

Over 80% (12 out of 15) have a policy or public statement to respect human rights. This commitment, however, is not complemented by specific policies and procedures to address the most salient risks in the mining sector.

None have a clear requirement for their clients in the mining sector to respect Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of communities in all circumstances. Eight international banks mention FPIC, but only in relation to project finance.

None of the local banks have specific human rights due diligence policies regarding the mining sector covering both corporate and project finance services, only one has some consideration of human rights due diligence.

Of the 10 international banks surveyed, only three have clear exclusion policies in place based on poor track records of human rights or environmental abuses, while locally only one of the five banks has such a policy.

Only four of the 10 international banks have a clear cross-sector commitment to provide remedy when associated with human-rights harms, while none of the local banks have such a policy of commitment.

The report stresses the importance of banks needing policies and due-diligence procedures in place to address the most salient risks of the mining sector, before providing corporate or project finance services.

It also recommends banks use their leverage to condition access to corporate finance on companies having a robust approach to human rights, which must be accompanied by capacity from the banks to undertake adequate risk analysis which includes environmental and social risks.

A race to greener energy resources

Manson Gwanyanya, representative for southern and anglophone West Africa at the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, said: Banks financing transition mineral mining in South Africa have a unique opportunity to shape our energy transition in a positive way.

"The mineral-rich country is certain to play a pivotal role in the race to achieving greener energy sources across the continent, but the serious human rights and environmental concerns associated with its mining industry cannot be repeated.

"We have seen time and again how ignoring the rights of local and indigenous communities has stalled mining projects. As mineral demand to power green energy technology increases, banks must ensure they are using their unique leverage over mining companies to demand a sector that is not riddled with replicated abuses from the fossil fuel sector.

This is not just the right thing to do  banks have a responsibility under the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights. Before providing corporate or project finance services, it is crucial they implement robust policies and due-diligence measures which address the risks of the mining sector. Without doing so, they risk derailing mining projects  as well as slowing down the energy transition which our world so desperately needs.
The impact of global geopolitical and economic turbulence and the challenges of the pandemic have led private equity (PE) investors to carefully assess which sectors are expected to do well in Africa and where they can find high quality assets at the right price. Healthcare, technology, media and telecommunications (TMT), energy, infrastructure and financials have emerged as the most active sectors by value in Africa in the last few years, with PE investment in general rising substantially despite economic challenges. Rapid innovative developments in these sectors have attracted the attention of PE investors, and it is clear that the continent is open for business.

Image source: Denis Ismagilov  123RF.com

The rise in PE investments in Africa was recently confirmed in a report by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The report notes that private equity and venture capital investments in Africa soared 66% year on year in 2022 to $7.7bn, the highest aggregate value for the region in the last five years. S&P pointed out that this big jump was due mainly to the acquisition of hospital operator Mediclinic International PLC by a consortium comprising its shareholder Remgro and Switzerland's Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which is valued at more than $5bn. In terms of transaction volume, PE transactions have shown a steady climb in the region since 2018, reaching 404 deals in 2022. Both value and volume being on a steady climb is reflective of an optimistic environment.

Increased access and transformation

Expanding access to quality healthcare services and increasing domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity dominate Africa's healthcare sector development agenda, and investment has been following in support of these objectives. Technology-focused healthcare delivery models, which allow for easier access to medical advice and care, especially in Africa's rural areas, had already begun easing the constraints of the traditional delivery model and driving further investment in digital healthcare across Africa before the pandemic hit, and have taken off since then. PE investors in this sector usually show long-term commitment, understanding of individual markets and strong partnerships with local stakeholders and governments, with the overall aim of improving access to public healthcare.

The TMT sector has been playing a positive role in transforming businesses in Africa, opening the sector up to competition, introducing new services and disrupting incumbent business models. The impact of the pandemic boosted existing trends, for example, digitalisation and the remote delivery of services. Well before Covid-19, businesses in Africa had been turning to technology to reduce costs, improve processes, grow customers, provide access to those without it and enhance innovation.

Finance

Aligned to this, the financial sector is leading the way in developing new technologies, such as artificial intelligence systems, advanced analytics and digital trade finance platforms. Financial institutions in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have an important role to play in facilitating trade between the multitude of diversified economies with different financial systems following the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. This increased demand for new financial products and services has led to a corresponding increase in investment in the SSA financial sector.

Further, the African fintech space has shown incredible resilience to global market turmoil and there is still a lot more room for growth in segments such as such as alternative lending, digital investment and neo-banking. African economies are buoyed by young populations that are increasingly entrepreneurial and driven by technology-led innovation. Digital infrastructure is also attracting investor interest; there is an imbalance in the supply of data centres, for example, compared to the growth expected from consumers that need more data and are spending more time online.

Free trade agreement

AfCFTA is also providing numerous new opportunities for PE investors. The free trade agreement has seen the consolidation of a $1.3bn market with a combined GDP of $3.4tn. The start of trading in 2021 resulted in an increase in investor sentiment as investors took note of the agreement's first movers. AfCFTA is unlocking significant growth opportunities for the continent, providing the chance for countries to diversify their economies, scale production capacity, and widen the range of products made in Africa, in particular boosting the production of manufactured goods.

AfCFTA is also acting as an impetus for African governments to address their infrastructure needs and overhaul regulations relating to tariffs, bilateral trade, cross-border initiatives, and capital flows. The World Bank has noted that AfCFTA is expected to increase Africa's income by $450bn by 2035, as well as boosting intra-African trade by more than 81%. So far, beneficiaries of trade under AfCFTA have included a Kenyan car battery company and a women-owned Rwandan coffee company - both have taken advantage of the lower tariffs to export their products to Ghana. This is all good news for PE investors seeking new opportunities.

More power

The energy sector in Africa has also been attracting PE investor interest. Access to power on the continent is hampered by the lack of access to competitive funding, the dire state of Africa's utility infrastructure, and the need for energy policy and legislation to be adapted to boost investment. However, new systems and networks are being designed around future environmental stressors and energy demands without having to consider the limitations of old infrastructure. With the use of mobile technology and the lack of existing electricity transmission networks, these developments are providing an opportunity for African communities to gain access to power by leapfrogging the traditional model of centralised generation and transmission of power.

New and cost-effective solutions that utilise renewable energy, green hydrogen, battery storage and smart power technologies, as well as the global drive towards a decentralised, decarbonised, and secure energy supply that addresses climate change and stimulates economic growth, are all leading to innovative PE investment opportunities.

ESG focus

There is also a growing focus on green, low-carbon, and sustainable initiatives in Africa. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) have been incorporated into PE funds' general investment considerations for several years now, but it's fair to say that these are no longer nice-to-haves. Community healthcare, energy efficiency, staff training and qualifications, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the highest standards of governance and best business practices, inclusion and diversity, social impact, and litigation risks are some factors they have been considering. Alongside the increased focus of equity investors on ESG, most lenders and investors are also prescribing particular ESG principles that a company must meet in order to receive funding.

Developments across the continent and the rapid innovation across sectors, in addition to the growing demand for services in key sectors, have resulted in PE investors having an important role to play in financing the continent's exciting transformation.
Get ready for a morning of inspiration and invaluable insights from some of the most respected and successful business professionals in South Africa. The event is back, and this year it promises to be bigger and better than ever before. Scheduled for Thursday, 1 June 2023, at Durban's ICC, the breakfast will feature a star-studded line-up of guest speakers who will share their expertise and experience with the business community in the province. Among the speakers are Dr Mzamo Masito, the CMO of Google Africa, Musa Kalenga, CEO of Brave Group, and tech businesswoman Kimberly Taylor.

The breakfast is themed #LiveYourLegacy, acknowledging that as thought leaders, we have a duty to shape the next captains of industry. The aim is to encourage young minds to think beyond today, to consider their futures and what they will be remembered for.

Dr Mzamo Masito, with over 25 years of experience in brand and marketing expertise, will draw on his vast knowledge and insights to inspire attendees. As the CMO for Google Africa, he is responsible for bringing to life Googles mission and values. He has also held several c-level roles at Unilever, Nike, and Vodafone.

Musa Kalenga, a well-known and respected business leader, will also address the aspirational entrepreneurs and leaders at the breakfast. He is the CEO and co-founder of Bridge Labs, a shareholder, and a board member at The Brave Group. Musa has worked as managing director IHOP WORLD, Group head of digital marketing at Nedbank, and Facebook client partner for Africa.

Kimberley Taylor, one of South Africa's most talked-about tech-savvy female entrepreneurs, will share her insights on how to make waves through invaluable technology applications in the logistics space. She is the brains behind Loop, an adaptable, intuitive delivery management platform that empowers companies to optimise and scale their delivery systems.

Miss South Africa and Miss Universe 2019, Zozibini Tunzi, will also form part of the panel discussion. Tunzi holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Public Relations Management and has worked as a graduate intern in the public relations department of Ogilvy Cape Town. She is the third woman from South Africa to win the Miss Universe title and the first black woman since Leila Lopes was crowned Miss Universe 2011.

The Mancosa East Coast Radio Business Breakfast is the perfect opportunity to discover, learn, and gain valuable insights from industry greats. Its where business minds come together to inspire, to build a future, and to leave a legacy.

Don't miss out on this incredible event taking place on 1 June 2023  get your tickets now from Quicket for just R550 or visit ecr.co.za for more information.




Since the pandemic, there have been unprecedented shifts and emergent trends affecting the global real estate market as a result of lifestyle changes and increasing uncertainty in the market.

Image source: watchara ritjan  123RF.com

While property has always been considered a stable investment option, investors need to be aware of the latest trends in order to make informed decisions, which Claude McKirby, co-principal of Lew Geffen Sothebys International Realty in Cape Towns Southern Suburbs and False Bay says is especially important now.

In order to properly leverage current trends, one has to not only be aware of them but also understand their origin, their import and their impact on the market.

Because, although some of the currently emerging trends will probably be no more than passing fads, others are here to stay and will continue to influence the market for years to come.

McKirby says that the following are trends that investors should be aware of:

1. Aging populations and senior living

The global population is aging, leading to an increasing demand for senior living communities. Investors should consider investing in senior living properties that offer a range of amenities such as healthcare facilities, fitness centres, and social activities to cater to the aging population.

2. Short-term rentals and vacation homes

The pandemic has also led to a rise in demand for short-term rentals and vacation homes, with more people looking for private and secluded getaways rather than in popular and busy towns. Investors should consider investing in properties that cater to this trend, such as vacation homes or short-term rentals.

3. Urbanisation and affordable housing

The increasing urbanisation trend is leading to a shortage of affordable housing in many cities worldwide. Investors can capitalise on this trend by investing in affordable housing projects to cater to the growing demand.

4. Rise of remote work

The pandemic has fundamentally altered how we work, with remote work becoming the new normal for many. This has led to increased demand for properties in suburbs and rural areas that offer more space and better work-life balance. Investors should consider investing in real estate properties that cater to this shift, such as single-family homes or multi-family properties with larger units.

5. Sustainability and energy efficiency

Sustainability has become a key consideration for many buyers and tenants, with eco-friendly buildings gaining popularity. Energy-efficient buildings not only help reduce carbon footprint but also offer long-term cost savings on utilities. Investors should consider investing in green buildings or retrofitting existing properties with energy-efficient features.

6. Demographic changes

Demographic changes are also having an impact on the real estate market. For example, the aging of the population is leading to an increased demand for retirement communities and assisted living facilities. Meanwhile, the rise of the millennial generation is leading to a growing demand for urban, walkable neighbourhoods that offer a mix of residential and commercial real estate.

7. Globalisation

Globalisation is leading to increased investment in real estate markets around the world. As more investors seek out opportunities in other countries, there is a growing need for global real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other vehicles that allow investors to invest in real estate assets in multiple countries.

8. Digitalisation and smart homes

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology, with more homebuyers and renters seeking properties that are equipped with smart home features. These features include everything from automated lighting and temperature controls to voice-activated home assistants. Investors should consider properties that can be easily upgraded with these features to stay competitive in the market.

9. Political and economic uncertainty

Finally, political and economic uncertainty is a trend that investors cannot afford to ignore. From Brexit to trade tensions between the US and China on an international level, to SAs own crises, political and economic factors can have a major impact on the real estate market. Investors who are considering investing in real estate should be aware of these risks and take steps to mitigate them.

Leveraging these trends

In order to make the best investment decisions in relation to these trends, McKirby offers the following tips:
A look at the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show

The international motoring landscape has changed significantly over the last ten or so years. There have been shake-ups in many areas, not least of all the importance of certain markets on the world stage.

In years gone by the international auto show scene was dominated by the likes of the Geneva, Frankfurt and Paris auto shows. In recent times support for those events has dwindled with new showcases such as Delhi, Dubai and Shanghai taking up positions of prominence. Continue reading the full story on Double Apex...
Geoffrey Hinton, who has often been called the Godfather of AI, on Monday (May 1) confirmed that he quit his role at Google last week and spoke about the dangers of artificial intelligence, the technology he helped develop. This comes after Hinton had been working part-time at the tech giant between its headquarters in Silicon Valley and Toronto, Canada. He said that "right now, they're not more intelligent than us, as far as I can tell. But I think they soon may be".

In an interview with the New York Times, Hinton, who along with two of his graduate students at the University of Toronto created technology that became the intellectual foundation for AI systems, has now officially joined a growing number of critics warning about the risks of AI. He also admitted that a part of him now regrets his lifes work.

I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadnt done it, somebody else would have, Hinton told the New York Times. He also spoke about how he thought he had more time to talk about the potential threat of AI and said it is coming sooner than expected. I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away, adding, Obviously, I no longer think that.

After the interview, he also took to Twitter to clarify that he left Google so he could speak freely about the risks of AI, as opposed to because he wanted to criticise the tech giant specifically.
Naomi Wolfs speech What Is In the Pfizer Documents? at Hillsdale College has gone viral with well over a million views. Wolf is a feminist, Rhodes Scholar, and author that graduated from intelligence agency-connected Yale and worked for Bill Clinton and Al Gore as a political advisor. She currently heads up a media organization called the Daily Clout that has spearheaded one of the largest investigations into the criminality of The Covid by organizing 3500 volunteers, including doctors, nurses, lawyers, scientists and data analysts, to comb through the 55,000 documents a month being released by Pfizer under court order.

To date, the volunteers have published 64 reports that highlight the fraud of the mRNA vaccine campaign. The first 46 reports have been compiled into an e-book and a paperback, which they claim can be used in lawsuits, government testimonies, letters to universities that are still mandating the mRNA vaccine, and anywhere else that coerced people to participate.

There is no doubt the documents and crimes revealed by the documents are legitimate, and Ms. Wolfs characterization that The Pfizer Documents Contain Evidence of the Greatest Crime Against Humanity in the History of our Species is spot on. However, similar to suspected conservative-flavored controlled opposition Stew Peters who released good information wrapped in poo to discredit the good information in the documentary Died Suddenly, is liberal-flavored controlled opposition Naomi Wolf releasing good information in a limited-hangout to gate-keep the population away from the most-likely domestic suspects by trying to pin the blame on China, China, China?

Watch the Complete Speech Above or Here.

First, the Speech itself and what is, apparently, the only partial transcript linked to the source documentation anywhere on the Internet. I couldnt find one, so we created one ourselves.

Key Findings from the Investigation/Speech (Partial Transcript)

Pfizer knew one month after rollout (Nov 2020) that the vaccines did not work to stop covid. Vaccine Failure and Failure of Efficacy

In fact, 3rd most common side effect of the vaccines was COVID itself. Within a month or two, Pfizer got so many complaints of adverse events they needed to hire 2400 new full-time workers to process the adverse events paperwork.

By May of 2021, Pfizer knew that 35 minors had developed heart damage within a week of the jab. But the regulatory agencies( FDA/CDC) did not tell parents for four months that young people were getting heart damage (August 2021).

At the same time that the government knew the vaccines didnt work and were causing adverse effects, they were paying for advertising campaigns using social media influencers to get people to take the injections.

CDC told us that lipid nanoparticles (made from petroleum-based polyethylene glycol) mRNA stayed in the injection site. But they had no evidence of this. Pfizer knew the molecules bio-distribute throughout your body within 48 hours. The vaccine components would go to the brain, liver, adrenals, spleen, and, for women, accumulate in the ovaries and other organs. Industrial fats coated with PEG-contaminated womens ovaries. The body has no mechanism to eliminate the toxins in the ovaries. The lipid nanoparticles crossed every membrane in the human body and were designed to usher the spike protein mRNA into your cells through the cell membrane.

Pfizer knew there were 300 deaths out of 4200 adverse effects.

Industrial Scale Adverse Events: Strokes, clots, neuro, Guille Barre, Bells Palsy, neurotoxicity.

#1 Side Effect: Joint pains. (Lipid nanoparticles go through cartilage).

Sixty-one deaths from strokes, 50% within 48 hours. Five deaths from liver damage and half of the liver damage were also seen within 48 hours.

Report 54 - Emergency use authorization (EUA) for kids came about four months ago.

Pfizer experimented on 62 children as young as two months old in early 2021 before it was legal to do so under the EUA, where there are records. There may have been as many as 1000 children experimented on. Wolf speculates that these were throw away kids probably homeless, orphans, and children without responsible, loving parents. Twenty-eight records were lost, so we dont actually know their health outcomes. Out of the 34 remaining records, A two-month-old baby suffered liver damage, and a 7-year-old British girl got a stroke.

A Mengele-Type Experimentation on a Grand Scale on Human Reproduction

Wolf calls the Centerpiece of the documents the reports on Pfizers [Nazi Dr. Joseph] Mengele-type experiment on a grand scale on human reproduction. 360-degree experiment on How to disrupt and impair human reproduction. Pfizer told Women in their trial NOT to get pregnant during the trial! However, 270 women did get pregnant. Pfizer lost 234 records, a total violation of responsibility. Of 36 women records left, over 80% lost their babies from spontaneous abortion (miscarriage).

Shedding is real. Pfizer defines exposure to the vaccines as inhalation, sex, and topical skin contact, especially male-to-female spread. Pfizer specially told the men in the trial NOT to have sex with child-bearing women and, if they did, to use two forms of contraception. There was something about conceiving with a vaccinated male that Pfizer was guarding against. What did they know?

We now know there is tremendous evidence that Lipid nanoparticles traverse the placenta, and enter the womb and a maternal-fetal medical specialist by the name of Dr. Jim Thorpe has found in his patients that the Vaccine causes calcifications therein, causing early delivery because of impaired or compromised placentas with chromosomal abnormalities.

The lipid nanoparticles covered in petroleum-based polyethylene glycol enter breast milk and then into nursing babies. The babies get seizures. One nursing baby died from seizures. Four lactating moms had milk that turned blue-green. In addition to the Pfizer documents, the National Institute of Health did a study and found that babies nursing from vaccinated moms had failed to thrive, wouldnt put on weight and were agitated, restless and sleepless.

In the past two years, the percentage of moms who nurse has dropped from 34% to only 16% of moms and Wolf believes that the contamination of the breast milk from the vaccine is potentially the culprit. Interestingly, Bill Gates rolled out his lab-grown breast milk at this time.

Dr, Robert Chandler confirmed that 72% of vaccine harm went to women. Pfizer defines in the document that 16% of adverse events are reproductive disorders. What kind of monsters look at 16% reproductive disorders and keep going? The Pfizer documents have 20 different scientific terms for ruining a womans menstrual period, including terms for having two menstrual cycles per month, bleeding every single day of the month, and not having a cycle at all, as three examples. Other examples include 10-year-old girls getting menarche after injection and post-menopausal women beginning to bleed.

In 2022, a 13-22% drop in live births occurred all over the world (but limited to vaccinated countries), double the number of stillbirths in Scotland and a stunning rise in miscarriages around the world. Eighty-nine stillbirths in one providence in Canada when usually they have 2-3. Dr. Jim Thorpe describes in his practice dealing with 5-6 miscarriages a week when they usually have 1-2 a month. These events happened only in Western Europe and North America - where the vaccines were mandated.

The lipid nanoparticles affect baby boys as well.

Amy Kelly discovered that the lipid nanoparticles degrade baby boys in utero. They dont even have to be vaccinated. The particles traverse the testes and get into testicular Sertoli and Leydig cells which are the factories of masculinity balance male hormones. She asks, Why did Pfizer analyze the reproductive organs of rats for a respiratory virus?

Dr. Wolfs Analysis

Was all this based on greed? Thats not what this is. She believes it is a bioweapon, and we are under attack.

A German company? Pfizer is a German/Chinese company [Etienne: This does not appear to be true. While Pfizer was founded by German Immigrants to the US, its corporate HQ is in New York. I cant find any evidence that Pfizer is a German/Chinese Company ]; its subsidiary company is BioNTech which is purchased right before the pandemic is a German-Chinese company. The latter signed a memorandum of understanding with Fosan Pharma which is, essentially run by CCP. In 2021, BioNTech transferred 100% of its technology to China. So, it is Chinese technology being injected into you. This is not being injected into Chinese. They (Fosun) created a billion dozes and opened 13 plants in Europe and 2 in North America to distribute these doses.

In 2018, a Chinese study published that lipid nanoparticles damaged fertility in mammals. They knew. A 2021 study from Chinese-controlled Hong Kong found that the first injection enlarges the heart in rats, and the second injection can cause catastrophic damage to hearts in animals. (It is the second injection that we are seeing that causes greater damage, which damage gets worse with each subsequent injection.

Who got mandated for the jab? Reason backward. What is the effect?

The military! First responders. Nurses and, doctors, college kids were mandated despite the lack of evidence showing that the vaccine prevents transmission. How do you disable a country? Take out the kids of the elite, of the leaders.

Who else got it by mandate? Firefighters, police, pilots. The authorities went for the key populations. All universities except six mandated the vaccine. [Hillsdale did not mandate]. CCP was permitted to cripple our country. CCP could defeat us without a hot war. The disability of 18-39-year-olds is off the charts.

Wolf said there were 42,000 adverse effects in Pfizer documents, and 36000+ were in the USA. 8000+ in Europe, in country order of political importance: UK, Most all adverse effects hit Europe and USA. Our populations were targeted.

Pfizer dose is 30 mcg of the active substance. Moderna is 100 mcg. Pfizer says in documents that 100 mg is so high that it is dangerous and has to be dropped. But did not warn about Modernas vaccine. They [Pfizer] wanted children to get 100 mcg.

Dark summary of what is in Pfizer documents.

430 million doses held by Pfizer, which will expire since no one wants them. Informed consent is the law, but we did not get informed consent.

Naomis coalition has lawyers who are suing Pfizer. She believes we are victims of mass murder and war crimes.

End Partial Transcript

Seven Solid Reasons to Suspect This is a Controlled Opposition Limited Hangout & Wolf is Gatekeeping

First, I want to be very clear. The documents are 100% legitimate, and Wolf is 100% right about the documented harm from the vaccines. The Art of Liberty Foundation has done its own investigation into the scam of The Covid and reviewed many of the same documents and reached many of the same conclusions. Our criticism and suspicions concern Wolfs background, her partnership with Steve Bannon, her failure to use or even mention the word Eugenics, and her conclusion that the Chinese are the ultimate culprits where our conclusions and those of other investigators point to a domestically-centered, although international criminal conspiracy led by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Gates Foundation, Johns Hopkins, the World Economic Forum and Blackrock in alignment with the DARPA/HARPA/US Military and the Intelligence Agencies.

While I am sure that Pfizers legal team has scoured what documents that are being released for anything super-damning, Steve Bannon and Wolfs high-profile investigation into the release leaves them/her in the ultimate editors position to sweep up anything missed and control the narrative on the results e.g. China, China, China, no mention of eugenics or the Rockefeller Foundation or the intelligence agencies, etc. It also sucks the oxygen out of other groups doing their own crowd-sourced investigation into the documents.

Here are our specific suspicions and criticisms:

Leana Wen, another Rhodes Scholar in on The Covid
Why did this happen?

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said China is willing to strengthen communication with ministries and localities of Myanmar, and expand cooperation in agriculture, border trade and other fields, while strengthening support for Myanmar's economic development by focusing on the construction of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor.

(Xinhua) -- China and Myanmar have agreed to deepen cooperation in various fields so as to promote the continuous development of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

At a meeting with Myanmar's Union Minister for Foreign Affairs Than Swe here on Tuesday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said viewing its good-neighborly relations with Myanmar from a strategic perspective, China is willing to work with Myanmar to implement the important achievements during the Chinese leader's visit to Myanmar.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang (R) shakes hands with Myanmar's Union Minister for Foreign Affairs Than Swe during their meeting in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, on May 2, 2023. (Photo by Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua)

China respects Myanmar's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and firmly supports Myanmar in maintaining independence and political stability and achieving sustainable development, said the Chinese foreign minister.

China also supports Myanmar in exploring a development path with Myanmar characteristics that suits its national conditions and steadily advancing its political transition process, he said.

Qin said China is willing to strengthen communication with ministries and localities of Myanmar, and expand cooperation in agriculture, border trade and other fields, while strengthening support for Myanmar's economic development by focusing on the construction of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor.

In addition, the Chinese side will implement its aid projects in Myanmar to support the Myanmar side in improving people's livelihood, and both sides should enhance people-to-people exchanges and deepen cultural heritage protection and religious exchanges, he said.

China is also willing to work with Myanmar and Bangladesh to promote the construction of the China-Myanmar-Bangladesh economic corridor, he added.

For his part, Than Swe said Myanmar firmly adheres to the one-China policy, supports China's Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, and strongly supports China on issues concerning its core interests.

Myanmar is looking forward to working with China to deepen cooperation in such areas as agriculture, transportation, energy and connectivity, actively push forward landmark projects of the Myanmar-China Economic Corridor and implement more livelihood projects to benefit the two peoples, he said.

Myanmar is ready to work with China to safeguard security and stability in the border areas, and to promote the China-Myanmar-Bangladesh economic corridor with China and Bangladesh, he added.


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Straumann Holding AG / Key word(s): Miscellaneous/Quarter Results

Straumann Group achieved CHF 596 million revenue in the first quarter and launched advanced digital solutions



03-May-2023 / 07:00 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



First quarter revenue of CHF 596 million or 3.4% organic revenue growth

Dynamic organic growth in all regions, with the anticipated strong negative impact from Covid-19 and Volume Based Procurement process in China

New advanced digital solutions released at the International Dental Show in Cologne: Straumann Falcon, Smilecloud smile design collaboration platform and Clear Correct launches

Outlook 2023 confirmed: Organic revenue growth is expected in the high single-digit percentage range and profitability at around 25% including growth investments REVENUE BY REGION (in CHF million) Q1 2023 Q1 2022 Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) 286.6 267.2 Change in CHF in % +7.2. +24.7 Change in local currencies in % +12.3 +33.0 Change organic[1] in % +9.2 +33.0 % of Group total 48.1 45.4 North America (NAM) 181.9 170.1 Change in CHF in % +7.0 +23.2 Change in local currencies in % +7.2 +20.7 Change organic1 in % +7.2 +20.7 % of Group total 30.5 28.9 Asia Pacific 79.9 112.3 Change in CHF in % -28.9 +21.7 Change in local currencies in % -22.7 +21.6 Change organic1 in % -23.5 +18.4 % of Group total 13.4 19.1 Latin America 47.2 39.3 Change in CHF in % +20.1 +56.1 Change in local currencies in % +20.0 +48.8 Change organic1 in % +20.0 +48.8 % of Group total 7.9 6.7 GROUP 595.6 588.9 Change in CHF in % +1.1 +25.4 Change in local currencies in % +4.9 +27.9 Change organic1 in % +3.4 +27.2 Basel, May 3, 2023: Straumann Group reached CHF 596 million in revenue or organic growth of 3.4% in the first quarter of 2023, building upon a very strong comparative basis from the previous year. Overall patient flow remained good in most countries leading to a dynamic growth rate in all regions. In China, patient flow was impacted by Covid-19 effects at the beginning of the quarter and the Volume Based Procurement process in the second part of the first quarter which is reflected in the overall Asia Pacific performance. Revenue in Swiss francs was impacted by a negative currency development mainly related to the Euro, Turkish Lira, Japanese Yen and Chinese Renminbi. The good first quarter result was accompanied by digital solution launches which will further support our implantology and orthodontics offering in the future. Guillaume Daniellot, Chief Executive Officer, said: An exciting first quarter lies behind us with solid growth considering the anticipated challenges and promising digital solutions launched at the International Dental Show in Cologne. It was very rewarding to receive first positive customer feedback on the new digital solutions we have been investing in over the past two years. Our implant portfolio continued to grow in both, the premium and value segment, supported by strong intraoral scanner performance. In addition, we are proud of the wide range of ClearCorrect launches which significantly strengthen our offering in the clear aligner business. With this in mind, we are confirming our full-year outlook despite the uncertainties around potential economic and geopolitical impacts. REGIONAL PERFORMANCES REGIONAL PERFORMANCES Strong growth in Europe, Middle East and Africa on top of last years high performance Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) as the Groups largest region, had a very good first quarter. EMEA grew organically by 9.2% compared to the first quarter of 2022, accounting for CHF 287 million. This growth was driven by all segments including our core implantology business which was complemented by a strong contribution from orthodontics. Intraoral scanners continued to show high revenue growth particularly in Eastern and Southern Europe as well as in the Middle East. Germany being the largest country drove revenue in absolute terms while Turkey continued to show very strong growth. North America further builds on strong comparison quarter North America further builds on strong comparison quarter North America reached 7.2% organic growth in the first quarter, while revenue came to CHF 182 million. The US delivered excellent growth on top of last years very high baseline. The performance was driven by immediacy implant solutions and intraoral scanners where the business continues to gain market share. Orthodontics improved its service level and showed solid growth in the first quarter. The challenger brand Neodent delivered a very solid performance throughout the quarter. Asia Pacific with negative growth due to China Asia Pacific with negative growth due to China Without China, the Asia Pacific region reported a solid performance. Among the standout successes were the growth achieved in Japan, Australia, Thailand and India. Also, newly established countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia are accelerating growth. The implantology solutions showed solid growth across the segments while the challenger brands Neodent and Medentika performed very well. The region's growth was hampered by the combined effects of Covid-19 in China during the first two months of the year, and the Chinese Volume Based Procurement pricing which has been quickly implemented both in the public and private segments, driving average selling prices to a much lower level. On the other side, as expected, the implant volume has significantly accelerated at the end of the quarter, coming from the pent-up demand generated from the past few months. Overall, the Asia Pacific region showed negative organic revenue growth of -23.5% and accounted for CHF 80 million in revenue. Latin America consistently shows high performanceThe region grew 20.0% organically, while revenue came to CHF 47 million. All segments performed strongly with Latin Americas home brand Neodent complemented by the Straumann premium implantology segment. A consistent highlight is the VirtuoVivo intraoral scanner market penetration which leads to strong revenue growth. While still at a low base, the orthodontics business grew very rapidly in the first quarter throughout the region. Overall, the regions largest market Brazil grew strongly, while Mexico, Argentina and Colombia also showed very strong performance. STRATEGIC PROGRESS / NEWS HIGHLIGHTS Latin America consistently shows high performanceThe region grew 20.0% organically, while revenue came to CHF 47 million. All segments performed strongly with Latin Americas home brand Neodent complemented by the Straumann premium implantology segment. A consistent highlight is the VirtuoVivo intraoral scanner market penetration which leads to strong revenue growth. While still at a low base, the orthodontics business grew very rapidly in the first quarter throughout the region. Overall, the regions largest market Brazil grew strongly, while Mexico, Argentina and Colombia also showed very strong performance. STRATEGIC PROGRESS / NEWS HIGHLIGHTS Continued investment in growth to build a unique customer experience and production capacities Continued investment in growth to build a unique customer experience and production capacities To achieve its growth ambition, the Group keeps on investing in building a unique customer experience through digital solutions, expanding geographically and building manufacturing capacity to deliver on the demand. As an example, Neodent is already planning its next expansion for future growth and acquired additional land for a potential third manufacturing site. To deliver benefits such as precision and efficiency during clinicians daily practice, Straumann introduced a new software solution for its Virtuo Vivo intraoral scanner which improves the speed and accuracy of digital impression-taking. The intraoral scans are connected to the Straumann AXS digital platform which will provide a seamless integration between the different solutions, eliminating the need for entering patient data manually in different systems along the treatment journey. Additionally, Straumann launched Smilecloud, a smile design and centralized collaboration platform, in selected European countries. Smilecloud allows clinicians to design virtual mock-up smiles for patients supported by AI technology and 3D biometric libraries to achieve the best possible outcome for patients. Smilecloud will enable collaboration among dental professionals and will allow them to improve interaction with patients by discussing their future smile design. Dynamic navigation system for dental surgeries launched Dynamic navigation system for dental surgeries launched In addition, Straumann launched its first dynamic surgical navigation system to perform implant surgeries in a fully digitally guided workflow. Straumann Falcon is a computer-assisted system that surgeons use to navigate their instruments during dental procedures. Enabling visualization of the precise instrument location in the surgical field in real-time, it allows clinicians to avoid critical anatomical structures and supports precise implant positioning while giving them the flexibility to adapt to the clinical situation during surgery. ClearCorrect with major launches to improve value propositionClearCorrect launched a series of new developments allowing clinicians to treat more advanced cases. To efficiently treat patients who have missing or erupting teeth ClearCorrect introduced pontics, bars, and guides. In addition to improving the aligner itself, ClearCorrect is launching a series of improvements with regards to treatment planning, including an enhanced, dynamic prescription form to improve communication between clinicians and treatment planning teams. For submitting intraoral scans, enhancements have been made to optimize two intraoral scanner integrations. This update to the digital workflow is completed by the launch of ClearPilot 6.0. This software release introduces a series of upgrades designed to give providers a more intuitive and user-friendly treatment planning experience. ClearCorrect with major launches to improve value propositionClearCorrect launched a series of new developments allowing clinicians to treat more advanced cases. To efficiently treat patients who have missing or erupting teeth ClearCorrect introduced pontics, bars, and guides. In addition to improving the aligner itself, ClearCorrect is launching a series of improvements with regards to treatment planning, including an enhanced, dynamic prescription form to improve communication between clinicians and treatment planning teams. For submitting intraoral scans, enhancements have been made to optimize two intraoral scanner integrations. This update to the digital workflow is completed by the launch of ClearPilot 6.0. This software release introduces a series of upgrades designed to give providers a more intuitive and user-friendly treatment planning experience. Annual General Meeting (AGM) approved all proposals including the election of a new Board member and increased dividend Annual General Meeting (AGM) approved all proposals including the election of a new Board member and increased dividend At the recent AGM, the shareholders of Straumann Holding AG approved all the Boards proposals. This included the election of a new independent Board member Dr. Olivier Filliol, as well as the approval of the 2023 increased cash dividend of CHF 0.80 per share, which was paid on April 13, 2023. OUTLOOK 2023 (BARRING UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES) OUTLOOK 2023 (BARRING UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES) Macroeconomic uncertainties remain and geopolitical tensions did not ease up during the last period. However, with an estimated globally addressable market of CHF 19 billion, the Group remains confident that it will continue to gain market share and progress in all its strategic priorities. Despite the impact of the Chinese Volume Based Procurement process which will require a year of transition and readjustment in China, the Group will continue to invest in its growth and transformation. As a result, the Group confirms its full-year outlook and expects organic revenue growth to be in the high single-digit percentage range and profitability at around 25% including growth investments. About Straumann Group The Straumann Group (SIX: STMN) is a global leader in tooth replacement and orthodontic solutions that restore smiles and confidence. It unites global and international brands that stand for excellence, innovation and quality in replacement, corrective and digital dentistry, including Anthogyr, ClearCorrect, Dental Wings, Medentika, Neodent, NUVO, Straumann and other fully/partly owned companies and partners. In collaboration with leading clinics, institutes and universities, the Group researches, develops, manufactures and supplies dental implants, instruments, CADCAM prosthetics, orthodontic aligners, biomaterials and digital solutions for use in tooth correction, replacement and restoration or to prevent tooth loss. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, the Group currently employs more than 10400 people worldwide. Its products, solutions and services are available in more than 100 countries through a broad network of distribution subsidiaries and partners. Straumann Holding AG, Peter Merian-Weg 12, 4002 Basel, Switzerland Phone: +41 (0)61 965 11 11 Homepage: www.straumann-group.com Contacts: Corporate Communication Silvia Dobry: +41 (0)61 965 15 62 Jana Erdmann: +41 (0)61 965 12 39

Mario Previsic +41 (0)61 965 17 47 E-mail: corporate.communication@straumann.com Investor Relations Marcel Kellerhals: +41 (0)61 965 17 51

E-mail: investor.relations@straumann.com AnalystS AND MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL S AND MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL Straumann will present its 2023 first-quarter results to representatives of the financial community and media in a webcast telephone conference call today at 10.30 a.m. Swiss time. The webcast can be accessed via www.straumann-group.com/webcast. A replay of the webcast will be available after the conference. If you intend to ask a question during the Q&A, we kindly ask you to pre-register for the conference call through this link Conference call . We also recommend that you download the presentation file in advance using the direct link in this media release before joining the conference call. Presentation The conference presentation slides are attached to this release and available on the Media and Investors pages at www.straumann-group.com. UPCOMING CORPORATE / INVESTOR EVENTS 2023 Event Location 10-11 May Exane BNP Paribas European Roadshow Paris & London 25 May Mirabaud Conference Geneva 13-14 June Stifel Swiss Equity Conference Interlaken 22 June J.P. Morgan Conference London 27-29 June Jefferies USA Roadshow Los Angeles & San Francisco 15 August Half-Year Results Conference Call 31 October Third-Quarter Results Conference Call Disclaimer This release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the current views of management, and which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Straumann Group to differ materially from those expressed or implied in this document. Statements are made on the basis of management's views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance at the time the statements are made. They are subject to risks and uncertainties including, but not confined to, future global economic conditions, pandemics, exchange rates, legal provisions, market conditions, activities by competitors and other factors outside Straumann's control. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes may vary materially from those forecasted or expected. Straumann is providing the information in this release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any statements contained in it as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This release constitutes neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation to buy any securities. # # # [1] Excluding the effects of currencies and acquisitions

End of Inside Information
Greece is spending about $400 million on a unique Israeli combat system. The new system uses Orbiter 3 UAVs to seek out targets and automatically cause a Spike NLOS missile to be launched from an aircraft, ground vehicle or ship to hit the target. Israel developed this system over several decades and now it is widely used in the Israeli military as Fire Weaver.

The Orbiter 3 UAV is a 32 kg (70 pound) fixed wing UAV with endurance of at least six hours, a top speed of 125 kilometers an hour and max range (from ground controller) of 50 kilometers. The guided missile is Spike (Non-Line-Of- Sight) NLOS, which weighs 71 kg (156 pounds) in its storage/launch container and has a max range of 50 kilometers. Fire Weaver takes data from existing sensors on tanks and other armored vehicles as well as artillery, UAVs and warplanes and rapidly (within five seconds) lets vehicles, warplanes and artillery know which available target each combat system should fire at. This eliminates a common battlefield situation where too many weapons fire on some targets while other targets are not initially fired on at all. Currently, tank crews and artillery spotters (troops who call back to tell artillery which targets to hit) have manual procedures for picking which targets they should fire at. That often works quite well, especially during a situation where a tank unit encountering the enemy has an opportunity to fire first. Fire Weaver automates these decisions and makes more effective choices more quickly. The troops and pilots can override the Fire Weaver selected target but tests have shown that Fire Weaver is usually quite effective in selecting the best targets for each tank, artillery unit or aircraft.

For the Greek system the principal weapon is the Spike NLOS missile. The current version is the sixth major upgrade for Spike NLOS and adds some major new features, including longer range (to 50 kilometers), salvo fire and improved use of networks. That means four Spike NLOS missiles can be launched by a helicopter and control of one or more of these missiles can be instantly transferred to another helicopter. The new version of Spike NLOS is also more reliable and effective when facing jamming or other forms of interference.

Spike NLOS was first developed in the 1970s as Tamuz and entered service in 1981 with a range of ten kilometers and used a trained human operator to hit the distant target. By the 1990s, advances in electronics, software and design made it possible to add fire and forget and other operator friendly features to most new ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missiles). Rafael, the Israeli firm that developed and built Tamuz, transferred some of the Tamuz tech to its Spike family of ATGMs, which first entered service in 1997. Rafael noticed that upgrades to Tamuz tech were converging with what the Spike family of ATGMs, and competing foreign systems, were using. Eventually it made sense to call the latest version of Tamuz what it really was, a longer range of the Spike missile, which became known as Spike NLOS. Meanwhile, Israel had pioneered the development of reconnaissance and surveillance UAVs as well as ever-more-powerful fire control systems.

Israel successfully used Spike NLOS during the 2006 war with Hezbollah in south Lebanon and the 2014 war with Hamas in Gaza. Now that most of the details of what Spike NLOS is, where it came from and what it has been through, have been published, it is an increasingly popular, if expensive, export item. But that is mainly because various versions of this missile, first as Tamuz then as Spike NLOS, had been in service since 1981, were battle tested and known to be very dependable and effective no matter what tech they used.
Cybersecurity experts are expected to help protect Eurovision Song Contest voting from possible Russian interference, British MPs have heard.

Science and technology minister Paul Scully declined to comment on the details, but flagged the work of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre and said the aim was to keep resilience in our voting process.

Ukraine won last years competition but due to Russia's renewed invasion Liverpool will host this year.

Conservative MP Michael Fabricant told the UK's House of Commons: Last year during the Eurovision Song Contest, Russian agents attempted to interfere with the voting that was being made for Ukraine.

This year, of course, were hosting the Eurovision Song Contest.

What is (the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) doing to ensure that the integrity of the voting will be maintained?

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Mr Scully replied: The government is always aware there are a number of possible threats to our systems and our events.

Im not able to discuss the details but the National Cyber Security Centre are world experts at understanding attacks and providing incident response for the most serious of attacks.

We want to make sure that all organisations are aware so we can indeed keep that resilience in our voting process.
A flute player originally from Belfast has performed with Lizzo at the 2023 Met Gala.

James Galway, nicknamed The Man with the Golden Flute, performed a duet of Flight Of The Bumblebee with the pop star at one of the most popular fashion events of the year in New York City.

Each year the fundraising gala, held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute in New York, invites an artist to perform for the A-list audience.

Lizzo, known for integrating classical flute playing into her performances, invited her idol Galway to join her on stage.

Galway said he hopes the performance will inspire other young artists to cross traditional boundaries of music genres.

Belfast flautist Sir James Galway, who performed with Lizzo at the 2023 Met Gala. Photo: Impact Communications/PA.

Lizzo and I share a joint love and passion for the classical flute so for some time now a meeting between us has been something we were both hugely interested in, he said.

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Over the last few weeks, my wife and I have been in New York visiting friends, family and students so I was thrilled that Lizzos team reached out to invite me to join her on stage to perform at this years Met Gala.

It really was an opportunity I wouldnt have missed.

Educating and inspiring young musicians has become a great passion of mine. Therefore, I hope my duet with Lizzo will inspire young artists, showing them that it is possible to cross the boundaries and bring music genres together in extraordinary ways.

Galway first became aware of his chart-topping fan when Lizzo talked about her love of his music in an interview with David Letterman in 2020.

James Galway, who I love. I would listen to his CDs and try to sight-read and play along with him, she told Letterman.

After the interview, the pair had several interactions on social media, most recently when Galway sent Lizzo a personalised Christmas greeting.

Entertainment Graham Norton describes Ireland entry as little d... Read More

The Met Gala performance was their first in-person meeting.

Galway has collaborated on film soundtracks such as The Lord Of The Rings and played alongside the likes of Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell and Elton John.

For years, Galway and his wife, Jeanne, have worked to teach the next generation of classical musicians through their Galway Flute Academy.
Government officials could not give a commitment on Tuesday night that 80 Ukrainian men, women, and children would be allowed to stay in a hotel in Co Kerry which has been their home since last year.

A pause remains on moving around 80 people out of the former Skellig Star hotel in Caherciveen after an outcry by the local community.

The Government planned for 40 residents to move out of the hotel but remain in the area, while 35 were to be moved to Tralee.

As the Irish Examiner reports, it is believed that the Skellig Accommodation Centre recently applied to accommodate international protection (IP) applicants and won the State tender.

The Government has been struggling to secure accommodation for IP applicants, or asylum seekers, in recent months.

While it is challenging to secure accommodation for Ukrainians, officials are finding it harder to find shelter for asylum seekers, particularly single men.

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The Citywest transit hub will remain closed for the foreseeable and there is no date in sight for when it may be open again to accommodate newly arrived asylum seekers, due to capacity constraints.

As of Tuesday night, 580 asylum seekers had not been offered state accommodation, the highest figure yet.

It comes as the Government is concerned about the wider financial implications of a landmark compensation payout due to an Afghan teenager next week. The teenager came here seeking international protection but was not offered state accommodation on arrival.

Ireland Ukrainians refugees still in the dark about situat... Read More

It is understood department officials are working on papers for Integration Minister Roderic OGorman ahead of a Cabinet committee meeting on Ukraine on Thursday which will outline the State's response to the judgement.

Meanwhile, TDs and senators will be told on Wednesday that there is a feeling of nervousness in the tourism sector due to the Governments contracts with hotels to accommodate Ukrainians and asylum seekers.

Elaina Fitzgerald Kane, chair of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, will tell the tourism committee that outside Dublin, 35 per cent of all beds have been given to the State to house those fleeing war.

She will tell politicians that over 50 per cent of tourism beds in Donegal are contracted to the Government, 39 per cent in Clare, and 37 per cent in Kerry.
The Department with responsibility for refugees has finalised arrangements with regard to stalled plans to replace Ukrainian refugees beneficiaries of the EU temporary international protection order, with asylum seekers in Cahersiveen Co Kerry it has said.

There had been a public outcry locally over the weekend and following appeals by local representatives, Ukrainians and the wider community a pause had been placed on the plans to remove some 80 Ukrainians including 10 school going children from their accommodation at the Skellig Accommodation Centre and replace them with asylum seekers.

However, in a statement this afternoon the Department of Children and Integration said no one who does not wish to move need do so.

Some people seeking international protection will be placed in the hotel, and it will now become a mixed use facility.The Department has finalised arrangements in relation to Cahersiveen.

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This will involve a number of BOTPs staying at Skellig Star, others moving within Cahersiveen, while others, who wish to do so, will move to Tralee.

Ireland Report shows justice system retraumatising victims... Read More

This will ensure availability of some beds in Skellig Star for IP applicants.

The Skellig Star applied for and was successful in tendering to provide International Protection accommodation and these moves are necessary in order to maximise all available accommodation for IP applicants, given the severe shortage currently.

The hotel will now be used as a mixed use facility to accommodate international protection applicants and beneficiaries of temporary protection (BOTPs), the statement said.

The confirmation has been widely welcomed in Cahersiveen where a blockade on buses removing the refugees was planned.
Wednesday's front pages cover a range of stories from victims of domestic abuse being let down by the courts, gardai and Tusla to SUVs cancelling out the emission benefits from electric cars.

The Irish Times lead with a piece which says women and children are being left in life-threatening situations because of a failure of the courts, gardai and Tusla to collaborate on domestic violence cases, a joint Department of Justice and National Womens Council report has found.

The Irish Examiner report that increased sales of electric vehicles (EVs) have not made a dent in transport emissions, a leading expert has said, as he called for SUVs to be phased out of the market.

The Echo report that the average fee for nursing homes in Cork is now 661.

For all this and lots more, pick up a copy of Wednesday's Irish Daily Mail. pic.twitter.com/oOu0RWyUGk Advertisement  The Irish Daily Mail (@irishdailymail) May 3, 2023

Good morning,



Here is the front page of today's Irish Independent pic.twitter.com/U1S3ppStBX  Independent.ie (@Independent_ie) May 3, 2023

Today's Irish Sun front page. pic.twitter.com/IASR4rnqjj  The Irish Sun (@IrishSunOnline) May 3, 2023

Morning readers. Stay with @BelTel for all your breaking news. Here's a look at the front page of the Belfast Telegraph this morning. To read the full newspaper on your device, go Premium +https://t.co/WfXEtzkTSl pic.twitter.com/jZWsEq0kJ5  Belfast Telegraph (@BelTel) May 3, 2023

In the UK, royal stories again occupy the front pages of many of Wednesdays newspapers, but for once the countdown to the coronation is not centre stage.

Several papers splash on the arrest of man for throwing suspected shotgun cartridges into the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

Both the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express declare the palace was in lockdown, the Mirror calling it a coronation security scare while the Express says police carried out a controlled explosion.

The incident also makes the front of The Sun, which calls it Palace shotgun terror while the Daily Mail reports on the man being held by police.

On tomorrow's front page: Cops carried out a controlled explosion at Buckingham Palace after a man threw shotgun cartridges into the grounds https://t.co/GmdXIUVnjW pic.twitter.com/Lf6Z52IlWQ  The Sun (@TheSun) May 2, 2023

Daily Mail: Man held in shotgun cartridges drama at

the Palace #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/3PsdTbAUzg  George Mann  (@sgfmann) May 2, 2023

The Guardian, which is one of many front pages featuring a picture from the Met Gala in New York, focuses on letters sent to anti-monarchists outlining new powers to deal with protests which it says have been rushed into law ahead of the coronation.

Guardian front page, Wednesday 3 May 2023: New anti-protest powers rushed into law in time for coronation pic.twitter.com/uo1oMTSviR  The Guardian (@guardian) May 2, 2023

And the Daily Star has its own, individual take on the coronation countdown, saying the King covers up his sausage fingers in the official pictures.

Daily Star: KING COVERS UP PODGY

FINGERS IN OFFICIAL PICS #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/ycLU52liUZ  George Mann  (@sgfmann) May 2, 2023

Across Westminster, both the i and the Independent digital edition concentrate on former senior civil servant Sue Gray refusing to co-operate with the inquiry into her new role with Labour leader Keir Starmer.

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Thei: Gray refuses to help inquiry over Starmer job - sparking Tory anger #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/ZJGxNDGdpS  George Mann  (@sgfmann) May 2, 2023

The Gray inquiry and the Met Gala also feature on the front of The Times, but the main story is a government plan to ban cold calling for financial products as part of a bid to tackle fraud.

Times: Cold calling ban to fight financial fraudsters #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/L5Vw37sETt  George Mann  (@sgfmann) May 2, 2023

The same fight against fraud leads The Daily Telegraph which says spies will be brought in to track down text scammers.

The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph:



'Spies take the fight to text scammers'#TomorrowsPapersToday



Sign up for the Front Page newsletterhttps://t.co/x8AV4Oomry pic.twitter.com/WTsyUccXhq  The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 2, 2023

The Metro focuses on the murder trial of nurse Lucy Letby as she sheds tears in the witness box.

Tomorrow's Paper Today 



'KILLER NURSE' WEEPS IN COURT



 Letby: I wrote 'I am evil' note as I felt my mistake may have let babies die #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/moqPupMQTX  Metro (@MetroUK) May 2, 2023

And the Financial Times says tumbling shares in the education sector are linked to the threat of artificial intelligence.

Just published: front page of the Financial Times, UK edition, Wednesday 3 May https://t.co/w5gP47zmz5 pic.twitter.com/IDpifciWBq  Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) May 2, 2023
A judge has told a taxi driver there was a bit of spoofing going on about minimal impact collisions before throwing out his 60,000 damages claim for alleged severe personal injury.

Judge James ODonohoe said he was not really impressed with Barry Griffins claim regarding what was a most minor impact, similar to what was happening in traffic every day of the week.

Mr Griffin (37), of Raheen Park, Ballyfermot, Dublin, had sued Annette Moran, of Errigal Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, who was the owner of a car being driven by her daughter, Deborah Moran, following a collision on Kylemore Road, Dublin, on February 2nd, 2019.

Deborah told the Circuit Civil Court she accepted her car had run into the back of Griffins car in traffic, but said there had been no damage to either vehicle and she had not heard a bang. There had not been any injuries and Mr Griffin had told her he was fine, she claimed.

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Her sister Karen, a passenger in Ms Morans car, said she was unaware of the incident until the car's engine was turned off and they were approached by Mr Griffin, who told them he had never been involved "in anything like this before".

She told barrister Karl Finnegan, who appeared with Fergal White of Coughlan White Solicitors for Annette Moran and Liberty Insurance, that Mr Griffin had said at the scene he was not injured.

The court heard Mr Griffin, who had been involved in another collision in 2018, less than a year before the incident with the Morans, had claimed to have been fully recovered prior to the 2019 crash.

Judge ODonohoe said it transpired in evidence that he was still attending his GP about the 2018 collision when the second had occurred.

"I accept the evidence of Ms Moran that Mr Griffin had said at the scene he hadnt been injured and had added he wasnt used to this kind of thing when he clearly was," Judge ODonohoe said.

Ireland Judge refuses to recuse herself from Ammi Burke ca... Read More

He dismissed the claim by Mr Griffin, who had alleged he had been shocked following the collision and had experienced pain the full length of his spine with back and neck pain radiating to his scalp.

Eight months after the collision he claimed to have been making progress but still experiencing flare-ups of neck and lower back pain after driving and prolonged sitting.

Mr Griffin told Mr Finnegan about having allegedly been thrown back and forward in the collision. He claimed he "did feel it" and later that he had physiotherapy because "I was sore".

Dismissing Mr Griffins claim with an order for costs against him, Judge O'Donohoe said the Morans had been very surprised about the personal injuries claim and usually when a defendant turns up to give evidence, they obviously feel very strongly about it.
Elon Musk threatened to reassign National Public Radios Twitter account to another company, according to the non-profit news organisation, in a continuing dispute between Mr Musk and media groups since his 44 billion dollar acquisition of the social network last year.

So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company? he wrote in one email late on Tuesday to NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn.

NPR stopped tweeting from its main account after Twitter abruptly labelled the groups main account as state-affiliated media last month, a term that has also been used to identify outlets controlled or heavily influenced by authoritarian governments.

Twitter then changed the label to government-funded media.

NPR said both labels were inaccurate and undermined its credibility  noting that it operates independently of the US government. Federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting accounts for less than 1% of NPRs annual operating budget, the company said.

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The last tweets on NPRs main account are from April 12 when it shared a thread of other places readers and listeners could find its journalism.

Twitter temporarily labelled other news organisations  including the BBC and PBS  as government-funded media. PBS also stopped using its Twitter account in response.

An article written by Allyn late on Tuesday detailed the messages the billionaire owner of Twitter sent regarding NPRs account. Mr Musk pointed to NPRs choice to stop tweeting as the reasoning behind possibly reassigning the account.

Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant, he wrote in one email. Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR.

According to Twitters online policy, the platform determines an accounts inactivity based on logging on  not tweeting. Twitter says users should log in at least every 30 days to keep their accounts active, and accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity.

Mr Musks comments and his actions do not always match and it is uncertain if he will reassign NPRs handle, regardless of Twitters published policy on account activity.

Asked by NPR who would be willing to use its Twitter account, Mr Musk replied, National Pumpkin Radio, along with a fire emoji and a laughing emoji, NPR reported.

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It is unknown if NPR has logged into its account, which currently has a blue tick without the previous government-funded media label, since April.

Mr Musk disbanded Twitters media and public relations department after the takeover.

It is the latest volley in what many experts describe as a chilling and uncertain landscape for journalism on Twitter since he acquired the company in October.

In addition to removing news organisations verifications and temporarily adding labels like government-funded media on some accounts, he abruptly suspended the accounts of individual journalists who wrote about Twitter late last year.

Liz Woolery, digital policy lead at literary organisation PEN America, said it is hard to imagine a more potent example of Musks willingness to use Twitter to arbitrarily intimidate and retaliate against any person or organisation that irks him, with or without provocation.

Its a purely authoritarian tactic, seemingly intended to undermine one of the countrys premier and most trusted news organisations  one that is especially important to rural communities across the US, she added.
Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has seized a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the second such capture in less than a week.

The taking of the Niovi renewed concerns about Iran threatening maritime traffic in the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude oil passes.

It also comes amid the disappearance of a tanker in south-east Asia believed to have been carrying Iranian crude oil amid reports it may have been seized by the US.

The US Navy published surveillance footage shot by an aerial drone of about dozen Guard vessels swarming the tanker on Wednesday morning. The drone had been on a routine patrol in the area and saw the seizure, though the Navy did not receive a distress call from the Niovi, 5th Fleet spokesman Commander Timothy Hawkins said.

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The Guard ships forced the oil tanker to reverse course and head toward Iranian territorial waters off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran, the Navy said.

Irans actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability, the 5th Fleet said in a statement.

Irans continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are unwarranted, irresponsible and a present threat to maritime security and the global economy.

Iran acknowledged the seizure, with the judiciarys Mizan news agency quoting the Tehran prosecutors office as saying that a judge had ordered it impounded over an unspecified complaint.

Shipping registries show the Niovi as managed by Smart Tankers of Piraeus, Greece. The Niovi had been coming from dry-dock repairs in Dubai, bound for Fujairah on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates without carrying any cargo, according to data firm Refinitiv.

Last week, Iran seized an oil tanker carrying crude for American firm Chevron, amid wider tensions between Tehran and the US over its nuclear programme. The Advantage Sweet had 23 Indians and one Russian on board.





On May 3 at approximately 6:20 a.m. local time, Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi was seized by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.



See video & link to statement below https://t.co/sdyxYmAQtO pic.twitter.com/0QcHUwM1Ks Advertisement  U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet (@US5thFleet) May 3, 2023

Iran has accused the Advantage Sweet of colliding with another vessel, but offered no evidence to support its claim. Iran has offered a variety of unsupported claims in the past when seizing foreign-flagged ships amid tensions with the West.

The taking of the two tankers in under a week comes amid the disappearance of the Marshall Island-flagged Suez Rajan, which had been in the South China Sea off Singapore for over a year after a report alleged it was smuggling sanctioned Iranian crude oil.

Tracking data for the Suez Rajan last showed it off east Africa, moving in a direction that could take it to the Americas.

The Financial Times and maritime intelligence firm Ambrey reported the Suez Rajan was seized on order of American authorities.

The Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs acknowledged on Wednesday that it had recently sent a warning to Greek ships in the Middle East to be on alert when going through the Persian Gulf. The ministry did not say what prompted the warning.

The seizure by Iran of two ships in the last week was the latest in a string of ship seizures and explosions to hit the region.

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The incidents began after then-president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from Irans nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

They have continued under President Joe Biden as diplomatic efforts at finding a way back to the accord remain in stalemate.
Pope Francis has greeted the foreign envoy of the Russian Orthodox Church, just days after revealing a secret mission is under way to try to put an end to the war in Ukraine.

Metropolitan Anthony attended Francis weekly general audience in St Peters Square before greeting the Pope at the end.

He presented Francis with an icon, which the Pope blessed.

Anthony was later seen being led off the stage by one of Francis aides.



Pope Francis talks to Metropolitan Anthony (AP)

Francis devoted his remarks at the audience to a recap of his weekend visit to Hungary, during which he made repeated calls for an end to the war.

While in Budapest, he met with Metropolitan Hilarion, Anthonys predecessor as the foreign envoy of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian church who has strongly supported the Kremlins war and justified it on religious grounds.

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During a press conference en route home, Francis praised both Hilarion and Anthony as knowledgeable, as well as being his main conduits to reach Patriarch Kirill.

He was asked if Hilarion and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has maintained relations with Moscow, could facilitate a mediation to the war.



Metropolitan Anthony arrives flanked by Leonardo Sapienza to attend Pope Franciss weekly general audience in St Peters Square (AP)

You can imagine that in this meeting we didnt only talk about Little Red Riding Hood, right? Francis replied.

He repeated his willingness to do whatever it takes to end the war.

Also, there is a mission going on now, but it is not public yet. Lets see how  When it is public I will talk about it, he said.

The Vatican has a tradition of diplomatic neutrality, while working behind the scenes to end conflicts.

Last week, before Francis went to Hungary, Ukraines prime minister called on the pontiff and asked his help in particular to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia.
Russian racing driver Nikita Mazepin has begun a High Court fight with British government ministers after being made subject to sanctions in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Mazepin (24), who used to drive for the Haas Formula 1 Team, wants sanctions lifted and has taken legal action against British foreign secretary James Cleverly.

A judge considered preliminary issues at a High Court hearing in London on Wednesday.

Nikita Mazepin was taking legal action against British foreign secretary James Cleverly. Photo: Belinda Jiao/PA.

Mr Justice Chamberlain heard that Mazepin and his father Dmitry Mazepin  a Russian businessman  had been made subject to sanctions in mid-March 2022.

In September 2022, Mazepin had requested revocation of his designation but ministers had decided to take no action.

A judge is due to oversee a further hearing in London in June.

Mr Justice Chamberlain was told that Mazepin was involved in a similar bid to get sanctions lifted in Canada.

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Neither Mazepin nor his father were at the hearing.

The hearing was held at the High Court in London. Photo: Anthony Devlin/PA.

Barrister Tom Leary, who represented Mr Cleverly, told the judge that Haas had terminated its relationship with Mazepin in early March 2022, following the outbreak of war.

He said Mazepin had not driven for a Formula 1 team since.

World SNP signs contract with new auditor weeks before d... Read More

Mazepin and his father were subject to an asset freeze and travel ban, the judge was told.

Mr Leary indicated that one of the reasons Mazepin wanted sanctions lifted was so that he could travel to Britain to negotiate with race teams for the 2024 season.

Mr Justice Chamberlain suggested that a trial judge might have to stage part of the proceedings in private in order to consider any closed material presented by ministers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made an unannounced visit to Finland for talks with the leaders of five Nordic countries as he tries to secure greater firepower for his effort to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine.

He told a Helsinki news conference that Ukraines counter-offensive is coming very soon, and this year will be decisive for victory.

The Nordic countries  Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland  have been among Kyivs strongest backers since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.



Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store (Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva/AP)

Before the meeting in Finlands capital, Nordic officials appeared ready to provide more aid as the war stretches into its 15th month.

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There is still an urgent need for military support to ensure that the Ukrainians stand as strong as possible in the fight against Russia, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, another of the summit attendees, said: Here in the north, we have a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian neighbour, and it is important that we discuss together how to face this new situation.

The talks came a day after US officials said Washington plans to send Ukraine about 300 million dollars (240 million) in additional military aid, including an enormous number of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition.

The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks so they can go quickly to the front lines, according to officials.

Elsewhere, Russia used Iranian-made drones during its third attack on Ukraines capital in six days.



Firefighters work at an apartment building hit by a Russian attack (National Police of Ukraine/AP)

Explosions were heard in Kyiv and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defences shot down 21 Russian drones, Ukraines Air Force Command said. No damage or casualties were reported

Meanwhile, a massive blaze broke out at an Russian oil depot, local officials said on Wednesday.

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The depot erupted in flames in Russias southern Krasnodar region, east of the Russian-held Crimean peninsula, according to Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

He did not say what caused the fire, which was described as extremely difficult to put out, but some Russian media outlets said it was likely to have been caused by a Ukrainian drone attack overnight.

Military analysts think Ukraine is targeting supply lines in the Russian rear while gearing up for a possible counter-offensive amid improving weather conditions and as it receives large amounts of weapons and ammunition from its western allies.

Explosions have also derailed a Russian freight train and hit an airfield in recent days. Last weekend, a massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two Ukrainian drones, a Russia-appointed official said.

In anticipation of a Ukrainian counter-offensive, Russian forces are focused on destroying logistical routes and centres of Ukraines armed forces with long-range strikes, Kyiv military officials say.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has travelled to Helsinki for talks with the prime ministers of four Nordic countries as part of his effort to secure greater firepower for his countrys armed forces as they attempt to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine.

The Nordic countries  Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark  have been among Kyivs strongest backers since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Before the meeting with Mr Zelensky in Finlands capital, Nordic officials appeared ready to provide more aid as the war stretches into its 15th month.

Mr Zelensky listens during a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. Photo: AP.

Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen said: There is still an urgent need for military support to ensure that the Ukrainians stand as strong as possible in the fight against Russia.

World Russian military foiled Ukrainian drone attack on... Read More

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, another of the summit attendees, said: Here in the north, we have a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian neighbour, and it is important that we discuss together how to face this new situation.

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The talks came a day after US officials said Washington plans to send Ukraine about 300 million dollars (240 million) in additional military aid, including an enormous number of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition.

The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines, according to the officials.
From the Packing Room to an account of being painted, a triple-finalist, and the portrait that will tug at your heart, read all our Archibald 2023 coverage.

Artist Jason Phu is under the pump, busy making toy robots that will sing an original opera for a show at this years Dark Mofo festival. The deadline is rapidly approaching, there are some issues with coding, and he is a tiny bit stressed.

That aside, the 33-year-old is also pretty happy: as a finalist in all three of the Art Gallery of NSWs most prestigious prizes this year, Phu joins a rarefied list that includes Brett Whiteley and the late John Olsen.

Artist Jason Phu is a finalist in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes this year. Credit: Michael Bradfield

Its a trifecta that recognises portraiture in the Archibald Prize, landscape in the Wynne Prize and subject/genre painting or a mural project in the Sulman Prize.

While Sydney-based Phu is thrilled to be short-listed in all three awards, he is philosophical about the process. Entering these things, youve got much higher odds than [winning with] a scratchie, so youre a fool if you dont enter every year.
When Irish actress Sinead Keenan learned that she was on the short list for a lead role in the crime drama Unforgotten, her reaction wasnt what you might expect. My agent called and said, ITV wants to give the script to three actors and youre one of them, she recalls. And I said, Thank you very much. Im flattered that they think that might work, but no thank you, Im not going to get involved.

Irish actress Sinead Keenan steps into the role vacated by Nicola Walker as DCI Jess James in season 5 of Unforgotten. Credit: Jonathan Ford

The producers of the acclaimed series created and written by Chris Lang were seeking to fill the space left by Nicola Walker. Shed starred as DCI Cassie Stuart through four rightly revered seasons, playing opposite Sanjeev Bhaskars DI Sunil Sunny Khan. Together the pair had worked determinedly with their dedicated team to solve cold cases, bringing to their investigations an almost religious zeal. With an absence of bravado but a powerful sense of purpose, they saw it as their mission to achieve justice for those who couldnt speak for themselves, people whod been the victims of unsolved murders or mysteriously disappeared, as well as for their devastated family members, friends and loved ones.

Speaking from her home in Stratford-upon-Avon, Keenan (Being Human, Little Boy Blue, Three Families) explains that shed witnessed the shocked reaction to Walkers exit: I thought, God love anyone whos going to be taking that part, she recalls with a laugh. And then my agent did her job and said, Look, just read it, thats all you need to do. And I read the first script and I was pretty much in. So I sort of crawled back to her and asked, Do they have a second script by any chance?

She auditioned for the role of DCI Jessie James and landed the part. Explaining her initial trepidation, she adds, You see it in other series, when a beloved characters gone and that character-shaped hole is left. They bring a character in to basically be the same, the same energy, just a different name. Of course, I didnt factor in Chris Lang, whos a really good writer, to bring in somebody completely different and to give it a different energy.
It can start with a low-level FBI agent assigned to the graveyard shift in the White House monitoring a phone that rarely rings. Or it could be a CIA newbie whos handed a pile of files that no one else can be bothered reading and discovers an overlooked email that threatens the organisation. Or it might be a carriage full of spies erupting into a shootout on a train speeding through the Italian alps.

Whatever the set-up, with a selection of recent espionage thrillers, it serves as an introduction to a world where its impossible to know who can be trusted and danger lurks everywhere. There are nefarious forces hovering in the shadows, powerful people with plenty of money, and theyre plotting to control the world.

Noah Centineo as Owen Hendricks in a scene from the series The Recruit. Credit: Philippe Bosse/Netflix via AP

In addition to these scenarios  which relate respectively to The Night Agent (Netflix), The Recruit (Netflix) and Citadel (Amazon Prime)  theres also Rabbit Hole (Paramount+). Its set-up involves John Weir (Kiefer Sutherland), the smoothly confident head of a sophisticated sting ring. Weir sees himself as a modern-day Robin Hood, orchestrating elaborate ruses to take down corrupt corporate kings. Then he finds himself a target and, as in the other series, a murderous game of cat-and-mouse begins.

With varying degrees of accomplishment, this batch of thrillers is jam-packed with suspense and surprises. Someone is always chasing something  a suitcase, a hard drive, an informant  and with each discovery comes a fresh twist to keep the plot rollicking along.
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Penshursts newest pizza joint, Bsperia, might look more at home on the backstreets of Brooklyn than next to a Sydney train station. The brick building, with its retro 70s charm, street-facing bright industrial kitchen, and original red cloth awning attracts hordes of hungry diners, who perch on milk crates on the footpath devouring fresh pepperoni pies drizzled with hot maple syrup and other varieties from the six pizzas on offer.

Bsperia opened mid-March, next to Penshurst station. Supplied

Pizzas are made Neapolitan-style on an electric stone pizza oven, with chewy sourdough bases and twists on more traditional toppings. The gamberi ($29) pairs prawns with dollops of fresh stracciatella cheese and thin slivers of almond, while the Uncle Charlie ($25) features spicy njuda and creamy ricotta on a white base sweetened with a touch of honey.

We really pride ourselves on using high-quality ingredients, says co-owner Michael Sgourdas, who opened the spot with business partner Mick Abboud in mid-March.

Were sticking to a small menu so we can be really consistent and make sure were putting out a great product every time.
Bodies lie on the streets of Khartoum as gunshots echo through the streets. Sudanese Australian community leader Patrick Dako watches the grainy footage, hoping, desperately, that his family has survived another day.

Dakos cousin, who sent the footage through patchy Wi-Fi that can drop out for days at a time, is stuck in Sudans capital, sitting helplessly, 13,000 km away, watching for news of the city that has turned into a bloody war zone.

Patrick Dako, David Loosing and Osfak Mela are concerned about family and friends in Sudan as conflict heightens. Credit: James Brickwood

They have no electricity, no Wi-Fi and all the access has been cut from them, Dako said from his Blacktown home. Theres nowhere for them to get out.

The United Nations has warned that more than 800,000 refugees could flee the country as fighting continues between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces which erupted into conflict on April 15.
Weary travellers to Perth will soon have a place to rest their heads far closer to the airport terminals than the procession of hotels and motor lodges lining Great Eastern Highway.

Perth Airport confirmed it was seeking a partner to operate a 250-room hotel to be built next to the new Airport Central train station.

An artists impression of the new Perth Airport hotel. Credit: DKO/Perth Airport

Perth Airport chief property officer Dan Sweet said the hotel had been a part of the airport masterplan for many years and would be walking distance from the terminals.

A hotel located within walking distance of terminal infrastructure means that international

and interstate visitors have a convenient place to stay as they wait for their regional connection

to one of our wonderful tourism destinations, he said.
Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi is suing One Nation leader Pauline Hanson over an allegedly racist tweet calling on the senator to piss off back to Pakistan, and hopes to send Hanson to anti-racism training and force her to pay $150,000 to a charity.

Faruqi launched Federal Court action against the veteran Queensland senator on Wednesday, accusing her of breaching section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act that makes it unlawful to commit an act likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate someone with race-based comments.

Hanson and Faruqi in the Senate in 2020 Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Hanson, who has repeatedly been accused of racism against minorities, made the fiery remarks in response to a tweet from Faruqi in September shortly after Queen Elizabeth II died.

The Greens senator for NSW expressed her condolences to those who knew the Queen, before adding: I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples. We are reminded of the urgency of Treaty with First Nations, justice & reparations for British colonies & becoming a republic.
London in springtime is an unpredictable beast: sweet sunshine then pelting rain and whipping winds. With a wet, hungry kid in tow, I take shelter in a pub in St Martins Lane in touristy Covent Garden. We peel off sodden coats, sit and I place my phone on the table in front of me.

A moment later, a low, monotonous voice starts chanting, Change? Change? in my ear, and a woman appears at my shoulder, begging for money.

You know what happens next.

London is in the grip of a phone-theft epidemic, with locals and tourists alike the victims. Credit: Bloomberg

Anyone whos travelled in Europe will know this ploy, which has been used to lighten pockets since Marco Polo was a backpacker: wave a newspaper (or, in this case, a soggy Tube map) in the victims face while whisking away anything of value.
With the US and the Philippines holding the largest ever military drills in the South China Sea, followed by China and Singapore holding their own, tensions are heating up.

As one of the worlds most important shipping lanes for oil, minerals and food, whoever dominates the South China Sea will control more than a fifth of global trade. But the biggest economic asset up for grabs in the region is Big Data  and the future of the entire internet depends on who wins the battle to dominate this strategic waterway.

Illustration: Dionne. Credit:

More than 486 undersea cables carry more than 99 per cent of all international internet traffic globally, according to the Washington-based research firm TeleGeography. The bulk of them are controlled by a handful of American technology giants, namely Google-owner Alphabet, Facebook-owner Meta, Amazon and Microsoft.

South-East Asias internet economy is expected to reach $1 trillion in value by 2030. Whoever controls the Asia-Pacifics subsea cabling infrastructure will not only dominate this booming economy, but control the global internet.
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Six University at Buffalo students and alumni awarded Fulbrights

Three of the students are from the greater Buffalo area; the others are from New York State, Oregon and Texas

UBs success in the Fulbright is both a testament to our growing international orientation as a university and an integral part of our development into a Top 25 public university. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  Six University at Buffalo students and alumni have won Fulbright awards, the prestigious national scholarship competition for grants to study, research and teach abroad.

UBs success in the Fulbright is both a testament to our growing international orientation as a university and an integral part of our development into a Top 25 public university, says UBs Fulbright program advisor Patrick McDevitt, PhD, associate professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Whether it is studying how to better predict volcanic eruptions in Italy, researching better methods for evaluating the effects of climate change on the Greenland ice sheet with world experts in Austria, or teaching English in Andorra, Slovakia, Spain or Taiwan, UBs Fulbrighters are actively working to create a better and more integrated world, McDevitt says. We couldnt be prouder of them.

The Fulbright recipients:

Grace Van Vessem of Buffalo. A graduating senior, Honors College member and Presidential Scholar, Van Vessem received an English Teaching Assistant Award to the Slovak Republic. Van Vessem majored in public health and minored in environmental studies, and has wide experience working with non-native English speakers. Her motivation for pursuing the award in Slovakia is as much personal as academic: Her mothers family roots are in Slovakia. Van Vessems future goals include going to law school to prepare for a career in public health and environmental policy.

Oress (Fiona) Pratt-MacDonald of East Amherst. A 2022 sociology graduate of UB, Pratt-MacDonald received an English Teaching Assistant Award to Taiwan. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and an alumna of the Honors Colleges Advanced Honors Program. Pratt-MacDonald works as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Buffalo. Upon completion of her Fulbright year, Pratt-MacDonald hopes to earn a PhD in sociology and pursue a career in academia.

Alivia Smeltzer-Darling of Buffalo. A 2021 graduate of UB, Smeltzer-Darling received an English Teaching Assistant Award to Spain. She double-majored in Spanish and health and human services at UB, with minors in education and psychology. A member of the Honors College, Smeltzer-Darling served as a teaching assistant for the Honors Colloquium. She is currently a senior program specialist at Erie Niagara Area Health Education and is pursuing an advanced certificate in public health at UB. After completing her Fulbright grant, Smeltzer-Darling plans to pursue a masters degree in elementary education and earn certification to teach in New York State. Her ultimate career goal is to become a leader in the field of educational nonprofits.

Emma Correia of Newark, N.Y. A graduating senior, Correia received an English Teaching Assistant Award to Andorra. Correia will graduate with a double major in Spanish and linguistics, and a minor in education. A member of the Honors College, Correia was a teachers assistant at UB. Her long-term plans include pursuing graduate work in linguistics and higher education, with a particular focus on bilingualism.

Jane Halfhill of San Antonio, Texas. A masters student in geology, Halfhill received a research grant to Italy, where she will create a set of numerical models of phreatic eruptions at the primary vent of Vulcano in the Aeolian Islands. She will work at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia in Pisa, Italy, where she will work with fellow researchers specializing in computational models to better understand when eruptions occur. Halfhill earned a Bachelors of Science from Arizona State University, and would like to pursue a PhD in geology and work for the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Caleb Walcott of Portland, Ore. A doctoral student in the Department of Geology, Walcott received a research grant for study in Austria. He will work with Michael Meyer and his team at the University of Innsbruck to conduct research of the Greenland Ice Sheet using a novel geologic technique known as luminescence rock surface exposure dating. Walcott earned bachelors degrees in German and geology from Middlebury College. His work in Austria will form the basis of his dissertation, under adviser Jason Briner, professor of geology.

UBs three alternates

Three UB students were selected as alternates. They are Russel Bassarath, a history and social studies education major who is an alternate for an English Teaching Assistant Award to Cyprus; Leah Cabarga, a UB Teach English/English education major and alternate for an English Teaching Assistant Award to Montenegro; and Kaitlyn Flynn, a global affairs major with a Korean language minor, who is an alternate for an English Teaching Assistant Award to South Korea.
research news

Searching for ancient bears in Alaskan cave led to important human discovery

The bone that researchers found belonged to an ancient individual that the Wrangell Cooperative Association named Tatook yik yees shaawat (Young lady in cave). Credit: University at Buffalo

We realized that modern Indigenous peoples in Alaska, should they have remained in the region since the earliest migrations, could be related to this prehistoric individual.  Charlotte Lindqvist, associate professor Department of Biological Sciences

The first people to live in the Americas migrated from Siberia across the Bering land bridge more than 20,000 years ago. Some made their way as far south as Tierra del Fuego, at the tip of South America. Others settled in areas much closer to their place of origin where their descendants still thrive today. In A paleogenome from a Holocene individual supports genetic continuity in Southeast Alaska, published April 21 in the journal iScience, UB evolutionary biologist Charlotte Lindqvist and collaborators show, using ancient genetic data analyses, that some modern Alaska Natives still live almost exactly where their ancestors did some 3,000 years ago. Lindqvist, associate professor of biological sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, is senior author of the paper. In the course of her studies in Alaska, she explored mammal remains that had been found in a cave in the states southeast coast. One bone was initially identified as coming from a bear. However, genetic analysis showed it to be the remains of a human female. We realized that modern Indigenous peoples in Alaska, should they have remained in the region since the earliest migrations, could be related to this prehistoric individual, says Alber Aqil, a UB PhD student in biological sciences and the first author of the paper. This discovery led to efforts to solve this mystery, which DNA analyses are well suited to address when archaeological remains are as sparse as these were.

Learning from an ancestor

The earliest peoples had already started moving south along the Pacific Northwest Coast before an inland route between ice sheets became viable. Some, including the female individual from the cave, made their home in the area that surrounds the Gulf of Alaska. That area is now home to the Tlingit Nation and three other groups: Haida, Tsimshian and Nisgaa. As Aqil and colleagues analyzed the genome from this 3,000-year-old individual  research that was not possible just 20 years ago, Lindqvist notes  they determined that she is most closely related to Alaska Natives living in the area today. This fact showed it was necessary to carefully document as clearly as possible any genetic connections of the ancient female to present-day Native Americans. In such endeavors, it is important to collaborate closely with people living in lands where archaeological remains are found. Therefore, cooperation between Alaska Native peoples and the scientific community has been a significant component of the cave explorations that have taken place in the region. The Wrangell Cooperative Association named the ancient individual analyzed in this study as Tatook yik yees shaawat (Young lady in cave).

Genetic continuity persists for thousands of years
In this section

First Published: May 03 2023 | 9:51 PM IST

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Europe ops will be out of woods only in next FY: Tata Steel's T V Narendran

New UK govt examining our proposal, promised to come back soon: Narendran

A day after Tata Steel, while announcing its results, flagged risks to its UK operations against the backdrop of a possible economic downturn in Europe, Tata Steel MD & CEO, in an interview with, says the offer from the UK government as it stands wont justify the investment required for the impending transition to greener steel. Edited excerpts:

It is generally part of what the auditors do. Its more for the UK business; they have pointed out the vulnerabilities of the business to the volatilities seen in the past couple of years and with some of the assets coming towards the end of life. Its an open secret that the business (UK) is structurally not in a great place. Hence, the need for government support for the transition because cash flows of the business cant support the transition.

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Amazon and Samara have approached family offices and domestic capital investors for this round, sources said, adding that the planned share sale comes ahead of a potential public listing in the next 12-18 months. More Retail, a company owned by Amazon and private equity firm Samara Capital, is looking to sell about a fifth of its equity to external investors for about $2 billion, an Economic Times (ET) report said.



"There have been discussions about diluting 10-20 per cent in More to attract domestic investors before the planned IPO. It is likely to be a 15 per cent sale to investors, sources told ET. The retail chain, which was formerly a part of the Aditya Birla Group, was acquired by Amazon-Samara in 2019 at an estimated value of under $600 million.



People aware of the matter told ET that Amazon is working to further integrate More Retail stores with its online grocery offering Amazon Fresh. This is being discussed in order to boost the growth plans of More amid increased online adoption for grocery and essentials. On the other hand, an Amazon spokesperson stated that the company doesnt comment on speculations about potential future actions.

Also Read This Chris Wood owned stock hit a 52-week low. What's worrying the Street? Amazon to pull down shutters in food-delivery business in India on Dec 29 Amazon Smartphone Upgrade Days sale: Know offers detail, discounts and more No employee was sacked, all resignations were voluntary: Amazon India We are committed to India; review process is normal: Amazon India's Tiwary Go First saga: The engine dispute at the heart of bankruptcy filing 'Tough times': Go First staff hopes for airline survival, scout for options PE firm Multiples closes its Fund IV, subscriptions worth $640 mn received Doing everything possible with utmost care for employees: Go First CEO Go First owner Wadia Group has no plans to sell its stake in airlines: CEO



Witzig Advisory Services is the holding company of More Retail houses, in which Samara owns 51 per cent stake and Amazon owns the rest. The investment is part of Amazons plan to develop a significant omnichannel strategy for its grocery business in India, while also expanding its dominant online presence. In New Delhi and Bengaluru, Amazon Fresh has tested store pickups for its Amazon Fresh grocery orders, they said.
By Tanvi Mehta, Chris Thomas and Dhanya Skariachan

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Go Airlines (India) Ltd owner Wadia Group is completely committed to the airline and had no plans to exit it, the airline's chief executive told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

His comments came a day after the cash-strapped Indian airline filed for bankruptcy, blaming "faulty" Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines for the grounding of about half its fleet.

The insolvency proceedings were aimed at reviving the airline and not selling it, CEO Kaushik Khona said, confirming it had made all required payments to Pratt & Whitney.

The airline was also looking to dissuade lessors from taking action.

"The Indian government is very keen we should not fail," Khona told Reuters.

Also Read Go First bankruptcy seen helping rivals, boosting airfares in India IndiGo Q3: Focus on international destinations lifts outlook, say analysts IndiGo seeks final approval from DGCA to wet lease B777 aircraft Airlines in India to add 100 aircraft per year to fly 412 mn passengers IndiGo embarking on next level of growth, cost leadership crucial: CEO Go Airlines' lenders may meet on Wednesday to plan further course of action Jagatjit Ind to invest Rs 210 cr to set up grain-based ethanol plant Multiples Alternate closes over $640 million for new private-equity fund Air India pilots gets stern warning over license renewal, AEP delays SpiceJet plans to revive 25 planes as Go First files for bankruptcy

The company, which is "continuously evaluating options", said some parties have expressed interest in the airline. It did not share further details.

Go First's lenders will most likely meet on Wednesday to discuss what to do next after the bankruptcy filing on Tuesday, two bankers aware of the development told Reuters.

The airline owed financial creditors 65.21 billion Indian rupees ($797 million), its bankruptcy filing showed. As of April 30, Go First had not defaulted on any of those loans, it said in the filing seen by Reuters.

BOON FOR RIVALS

Go First's bankruptcy may boost airfares in India and give other domestic airlines a chance to grab a larger chunk of the market share, analysts said.

Share prices of India's largest airline, IndiGo, were up 5.1% on Wednesday, after rising as much as 8.2% earlier.

"If the suspension is prolonged, other airlines that are adding capacity would look to avail the slots vacated by Go First and grab onto the market share," Jefferies analyst Prateek Kumar said in a client note.

"Indigo is facing a similar problem with P&W engines for some of its fleet but has been able to better maneuver the crisis owing to its much larger fleet size and better negotiations with the vendor," Kumar added.

Lessors may also be eager to allocate some Go First aircraft to IndiGo, given a similar fleet type, Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a note, adding that such a development would benefit IndiGo in terms of market share and stronger yields in a capacity-strained environment.

Lenders to Go First, including Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and Axis Bank, fell on Wednesday. Go First owes creditors 65.21 billion rupees ($798 million), its bankruptcy filing showed.

The Wadia Group also runs bread and biscuits maker Britannia Industries and textile firm Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Co. Share prices of Bombay Burmah Trading, which is also owned by Wadia and has given loans to Go First in the form of inter-corporate deposits, slid 5%.

($1 = 81.8450 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta, Chris Thomas and Dhanya Skariachan in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Siddhi Nayak in Mumbai; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil, Savio D'Souza and Gerry Doyle)
Feature: Chinese classical music resonates in ancient Swiss city

15:09, May 03, 2023 By Wang Qibing and Lian Yi ( Xinhua

Zhang Zhenfang (L), Yang Jing (C) and Tan Qinglun perform with traditional Chinese musical instruments in St. Gallen, Switzerland, April 28, 2023. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)

St. GALLEN, Switzerland, May 2 (Xinhua) -- As night fell in northeastern ancient Swiss city of St. Gallen, local residents flocked to the 114-year-old St. Gallen Concert Hall to attend a Chinese classical music concert.

Performed with traditional Chinese musical instruments, "A Moonlit Night on the Spring River," as the concert's opening piece, captivated the audience with its understated and elegant melody. Ahead of the performance, Yang Jing, the traditional Chinese instrument pipa player, introduced this classical Chinese music piece, whose title originated from a long poem written by Chinese poet Zhang Ruoxu of the Tang Dynasty.

"Traditional Chinese music has a long history. Since China is rich in languages and geographical diversification, its music also varies," Yang wrote on the concert brochure. "We thank the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra for its invitation of our traditional Chinese musical instrument performance."

"Music has no boundary," said Florian Scheiber, the concert director of the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra and the organizer and producer of this project. "I hope people here not only listen to European and American music, but also all kinds of music."

Scheiber told Xinhua that he always had an idea of "organizing musicians around the world to play their own music in St. Gallen, including those from China, Japan, Iran, Uzbekistan, and other countries," which in the end gave rise to this concert -- "Classical Music from China."

"I want more people to appreciate different types of music and understand different cultures," he said. "It is a great honor for us to have different styles of music from around the world, especially Chinese classical music. We really appreciate it."

Performed on stage by the Chinese traditional music trio composed of Yang Jing, Zhang Zhenfang, and Tan Qinglun were a total of 14 Chinese classical music pieces, including "Fisherman's Song at Dusk," "Shadows of Apricot Blossoms," "Ambush from Ten Sides," "Moon Reflected on Erquan," "Kucha Dance," and "Su San Searches Solution."

Yang's pipa solo "Ambush from Ten Sides" brought the concert to a climax with furious and passionate rhythm. In the second half of the concert, "Su San Searches Solution," a piece especially arranged and rehearsed for the concert by the trio, integrating traditional Chinese musical instruments, Peking Opera and rap music elements, evoked an enthusiastic response among the audience. A well-known Swiss folk song was played as the concert's encore, winning a roar of prolonged applause.

"In the pipa solo 'Ambush From Ten Sides,' I could hear horses and two groups fighting each other," said Regula Koenig, an instrumentalist in St. Gallen. "The musicians are really professional. And we are amazed and touched because the music is so old, with such a long history."

Describing Chinese music and Chinese traditional musicians as quite interesting, local resident Monika Amann said, "Each country has a different culture, and I guess you have to listen more to get to know the Chinese culture."

"It's very exciting to hear familiar music in this place. I could tell that the local residents are very fascinated by Chinese classical music, as they watch the whole performance so attentively," said a Chinese woman in the audience.

"I think the history of each country and nationality may be different, but the music is universal. Civilizations of all kinds can learn from each other, and different cultures can also communicate," she said.

Yang Jing (L) and Tan Qinglun perform with traditional Chinese musical instruments in St. Gallen, Switzerland, April 28, 2023. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)

Tan Qinglun plays traditional Chinese musical instrument Xiao, a vertical bamboo flute, in St. Gallen, Switzerland, April 28, 2023. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
Low-cost carrier IndiGo on Wednesday announced it will commence flight services to Singapore and Bangkok from Bhubaneswar from June 3.

These additional international routes will not only improve connectivity but also enhance accessibility for passengers flying to and from Bhubaneswar, IndiGo said in a statement.

The Gurugram-based airline has already announced its plans to connect Bhubaneswar with Dubai from May 15.

"These new connections to Bangkok and Singapore from Bhubaneswar will not only reduce travel time but also enhance global connectivity from the state," said Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha.

The enhanced accessibility, Patnaik added, will increase trade and tourism, benefit the people of the state and help the government realise its goal of new Odisha.

These new flights to Singapore and Bangkok will encourage tourism and trade in the city and the entire state, said Vinay Malhotra, Head Global Sales, IndiGo.

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The company said in a statement it aims to meet the demand for quality steel products melted & manufactured in the US, in line with the Biden Administrations Buy America policies. The new projects are expected to be completed and commissioned in FY26. JSW Steel USA Ohio Inc, a subsidiary of Indias JSW Steel, will invest $145 million in projects to upgrade manufacturing operations in Mingo Junction, Ohio.



The company said that the new investment would help expand its Made in USA product portfolio and improve imports. The investment was announced at the SelectUSA Investment Summit held in National Harbour, Maryland. These new investments reiterate JSWs commitment to a sustainable and green future. The operational upgrades being made at JSW Steel USA are a progressive step towards achieving our long term ESG goals. These investments and projects will help us in producing high quality melted and manufactured in USA steel products required by our customers in the infrastructure and renewable energy sectors, said Parth Jindal, director of JSW Steel USA.



This capital expenditure ensures not only job retention and creation but adds an element of economic sustainability to JSW Steel USA Ohio, Inc.s footprint in Jefferson County, said Robert Naylor, executive director of the Jefferson County Port Authority. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said, Choosing Ohio for this expansion brings good-paying jobs to Jefferson County while helping secure a stronger domestic supply chain for steel manufactured in the United States.
The Kerala government and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) on Wednesday reached an in-principle agreement to set up a plant in Kochi to process waste and produce compressed biogas, nearly two months after the port city witnessed a massive fire at the Brahmapuram dump site, exposing an outdated waste management practice.

A decision in this regard was taken in a meeting held by government representatives, including State Local Self-Government Minister M B Rajesh, Industries Minister P Rajeev, and State Chief Secretary VP Joy with representatives of BPCL, an official statement said here.

Rajesh said the plant will be constructed by BPCL on the land handed over by the government, and the company will also be responsible for maintaining the plant.

"BPCL has informed us that the plant can be made operational within a year. The current understanding is to set up the plant in Brahmapuram itself. The municipal solid waste of Kochi and nearby municipalities can be treated at the plant", Rajesh said.

The minister said the natural gas produced through waste treatment will be used for BPCL's operations.

Along with this, the organic manure produced will be marketed.

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Rajesh said the Kochi city corporation and municipalities in its neighbourhood will ensure that the sorted waste is available for daily plant operation.

"The decision will be a crucial step in the government's efforts to find a solution to Kochi's garbage problem. The plant is expected to be operational within a year," he said.

Earlier, BPCL had expressed its willingness to provide an amount from CSR funds to set up windrow compost in Kochi.

However, BPCL came up with the new proposal after finding that a natural gas plant would be more suitable for Kochi's climate.

Further discussions related to the project will be held in the coming days.

A massive fire had broken out at the waste treatment plant in Brahmapuram on March 2, and thereafter, the air quality in Kochi city and neighbouring municipalities and gram panchayats had worsened as they were engulfed in the dense smoke billowing from the garbage dump.


Pine Labs execution of the Digital Rupee payment process is completely digital via dynamic QR (quick response) built within its smart Android PoS terminals. Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs announced the acceptance of the digital Rupee on its PoS (point-of-sale) terminals in partnership with ICICI Bank. The technology integration between the two entities will now support Digital Rupee acceptance at Pine Labs point-of-sale terminals across key retail outlets in Mumbai and Bengaluru.



Bijith Bhaskar, head, digital channels and partnerships, ICICI Bank, said that India is among the select few countries globally to have its own digital currency. CBDC (central bank digital currency) and Digital Rupee open up exciting opportunities, said B Amrish Rau, chief executive officer of Pine Labs. If implemented correctly, it can accelerate the migration from paper-based currency to digital. Pine Labs is happy to partner with ICICI Bank in launching CBDC as a payment option under this pilot run by the RBI.



He also said that the partnership with Pine Labs would present a seamless payment option to the users and improve the operational efficiency of merchants with Pine Labs PoS terminals. The Digital Rupee, which is a tokenised digital version of the Indian Rupee, is a resilient, safe and additional avenue to users for making payments, said Bhasker. Increased acceptance of Digital Rupee would hasten its adoption among customers.

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As reported by Business Standard, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is conducting a pilot to test the CBDC in the retail and wholesale segment. The pilot for the CBDC wholesale was started on November 1, 2022, while the pilot for the retail segment was launched on December 1, 2022.


Upholding the constitutional validity of Section 140(5) of the Companies Act, 2013, that allows the government to enquire and act against auditors, it allowed the tribunal to proceed with its enquiry and any subsequent action against the former auditors of IL&FS Financial. The Section deals with the removal and resignation of auditors and imposes a five-year ban on an auditing firm that is proven to have acted fraudulently, or to have abetted or colluded in any fraud. In a setback to BSR & Associates, LLC (BSR)  a KPMG India affiliate  and Deloitte Haskins and Sells (Deloitte), both former auditors of IL&FS Financial Services (IL&FS Financial), the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday set aside the Bombay High Court (HC) order to quash all prosecution against the two firms pending before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and a special court in Mumbai.



Under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), SFIO is a multi-disciplinary organisation that detects and prosecutes or recommends for prosecution of white-collar crimes/frauds. The order (Bombay HC) setting aside the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) prosecution is quashed. Section 140(5) is neither discriminatory, arbitrary and/or violative of Articles 14, 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India, as alleged, the court observed.



The firms, however, argued that they had already resigned as auditors of IL&FS Financial much before the ministry sought their removal. They also challenged the constitutional validity of Section 140(5) of the Companies Act, 2013. The MCA had sought the removal of both firms as auditors of IL&FS Financial and initiated criminal proceedings against them for their role in the alleged financial irregularities at the now-bankrupt Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Group.

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When the earlier Companies Act, 2009, was introduced, it was for stricter accountability for the auditors. There were suggestions to make the provisions for audit and auditors stringent, the court said. The apex court observed that auditors should be independent above all.



The subsequent resignation of the auditor after Section 140(5) has been initiated does not mean that the proceedings against the auditor will end. Therefore, the enquiry/proceedings initiated under the first part of Section 140(5) have to be taken to their logical end. If the HC order is upheld, the auditors will resign whenever there are proceedings initiated against them. This could not have been the intention of the legislature. There must be a final order passed by the tribunal, irrespective of their resignation, to see if they have colluded or acted fraudulently, the court said. It noted that the view taken by the Bombay HC was erroneous.



Irrespective of any other provisions of the Act of 2013, the NCLT is vested with powers under Section 140(5) of the Act to pass a final order against the auditor on the allegation that such an auditor of the company has, directly or indirectly, acted fraudulently, the court said. The court said the intention of the legislature behind Section 145 is very clear.



The NCLT shall have the quasi-judicial power under Section 140(5) and ample opportunity shall be given by the NCLT before passing a final order, the Bench said. The court exhorted that the Section cannot be called to be an excessive or arbitrary use of power by NCLT to determine offences of a grave nature.



A lookback In light of this ruling by the SC, the auditors will need to lend extra caution in the course of performing their duties and responsibilities, as is evident that the firms will not be absolved of liability in such cases because of having tendered their resignation once the relevant proceedings are initiated. Furthermore, the court also highlighted the fact that sufficient opportunity will be given in such matters to the auditors, before the NCLT, said Ketan Mukhija, partner, Link Legal.



The SFIO had subsequently claimed BSR and some other audit firms had acted in breach of auditing standards and that they had failed to detect financial inconsistencies at IL&FS. The MCA had moved the NCLT in June 2019 against BSR and some of the then external auditors of IL&FS Financial, alleging professional misconduct. It had also directed the SFIO to initiate a probe and disciplinary action against such audit firms.



In August 2019, the NCLT had found merit in the central governments plea, and subsequently approved the proposed removal of both firms. BSR, part of KPMG India, and Deloitte had moved the Bombay HC in 2019, challenging the validity of the Centres plea before the Mumbai Bench of the NCLT, seeking their removal as auditors of IL&FS Financial.



The Bombay HC on April 21, 2020, quashed the prosecution of both firms ordered by the NCLT. The HC upheld the constitutional validity of Section 140(5) and said the provisions of the Section did not apply to former auditors who had resigned. The firms then approached the Bombay HC, arguing that they had already resigned as auditors of IL&FS Financial much before the ministry sought their removal. They also challenged the constitutional validity of Section 140(5) of the Act.

The HC also quashed a criminal complaint filed against the two firms by SFIO before a special court and said the complaint was bad in law.


SpiceJet has 72 aircraft in its fleet, out of which 31 are in storage and the remaining 41 are in service as on May 3, according to aviation analytics firm Ciriums data. An aircraft that has not operated a single commercial flight in 30 days is considered to be in storage. A day after Go First suspended its flights and started the insolvency process, SpiceJet on Tuesday announced that it has mobilised a plan to revive 25 grounded planes.



SpiceJet said that funds to revive the planes will be drawn from the governments Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) and better cash accruals. The sudden exit of Go First, which was operating about 200 flights per day, has left a vacuum in the Indian aviation market. SpiceJet is looking to fill this vacuum by bringing its grounded planes back to service.



SpiceJet grounded the 31 planes due to lack of funds. The airline has already mobilised around Rs 400 crore for getting its grounded fleet back in the air, which will further enhance its top-line.

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Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet, said, We are meticulously working towards return to service of our grounded fleet back in the air soon. Majority of the ECLGS (emergency credit line guarantee scheme) funding received by the airline would be utilized for the same, which will help us capitalise and make the most of the upcoming peak travel season. On the other hand, 25 of Go Firsts total 57 planes are grounded due to delay in engine supply from US-based Pratt and Whitney. As the number of grounded planes increased with time, Go First started facing cash crunch. This led to insolvency.



The engine manufacturers spokesperson said: Pratt & Whitney is committed to the success of our airline customers, and we continue to prioritize delivery schedules for all customers. P&W is complying with the March 2023 arbitration ruling related to Go First. As this is now a matter of litigation, we will not comment further. Go First on Tuesday squarely blamed engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney for the airlines situation and suspended all flights till Thursday.



The order directed Pratt & Whitney to take all reasonable steps to release and dispatch without delay to Go First at least 10 serviceable spare leased engines by April 27 and a further 10 spare leased engines per month until December, with the objective of Go First returning to full operations and achieving Go Firsts financial rehabilitation and survival, the airline said. Go First, which received Rs 3,200 crore of equity infusion in the past three years, said it was forced to move for insolvency after the engine manufacturer refused to comply with an award by an emergency arbitrator appointed in accordance with the 2016 Arbitration Rules of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.



Go First has claimed before an arbitral tribunal Rs 8,000 crore in compensation for the grounded planes. Despite the emergency arbitrators order, however, Pratt & Whitney has failed to provide any further serviceable spare leased engines at all, and has stated that there are no further spare leased engines available for it to comply with the emergency arbitrators award, the airline added.


Some Go First pilots have joined airlines in West Asia in recent weeks and others have approached IndiGo, India's largest domestic airline. Calls to IndiGo's human resources and operations department increased after Go First said on Tuesday it will suspend flights for three days starting May 3, sources said. The beleaguered airline's cabin crew is discussing opportunities in Air India, which is hiring staff to fuel its growth. Employees of Go First, which has filed for bankruptcy, hope that the airline will fly out of the crisis with government support but some are already scouting for work.



The airline management wrote an email to address employees' concerns. "We want to reassure you we are doing everything possible to navigate this situation with utmost care and concern for all employees. We understand that this news is likely to be distressing and we remain committed to offer our support to all of you during this difficult time," said Kaushik Khona, Go Firsts chief executive officer, in the email. Financial challenges are not new for Go First's employees: they endured several months of leave without pay during the pandemic. Salaries have been delayed in recent months as the airline battled a cash crunch it blamed on half its fleet being grounded. Employees were aware of Go First's troubles, but Tuesday's announcement about insolvency came as a surprise.



"We have always had confidence in this company. The airline has gone through tough times and has survived when others went bust," said a Go First engineer. The company will be in a better position to brief employees about its plan after receiving orders from the National Company Law Tribunal.

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On Tuesday, Go First filed for bankruptcy with the National Company Law Tribunal, blaming Pratt & Whitney engines for grounding about half its fleet. Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a show cause notice to Go First after the airline decided to cancel flights for two days amid a severe financial crunch. Wadia Group is "completely committed" to Go First Airline and will not exit the airline, the airline's chief executive officer Kaushik Khona told news agency Reuters on Wednesday. He added that some people have expressed interest in the airline.



The insolvency filing marks the first major airline collapse in the country since Jet Airways filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and underscores the fierce competition in the sector. The crisis-hit airline has cancelled all their scheduled flights for May 3 and 4 "without any prior intimation", the DGCA said in a statement.



"...in the absence of Pratt & Whitney not providing the required number of spare leased engines in accordance with the order issued by the emergency arbitrator, Go First is no longer in a position to continue to meet its financial obligations," the airline said. Go First's filing comes after Pratt & Whitney, the exclusive engine supplier for the airline's Airbus A320neo aircraft fleet, refused to comply with an order to release engines to the airline that would have allowed it to return to full operations, the company said.

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"Pratt & Whitney is committed to the success of our airline customers, and we continue to prioritise delivery schedules for all customers. Pratt & Whitney is complying with the March 2023 arbitration ruling related to Go First. As this is now a matter of litigation, we will not comment further," the company said. On Wednesday, Pratt & Whitney said that the airline has a "history of missing its financial obligations".



Business Standard reported in April that Go First would receive Rs 600 crore more as promoter equity and bank debt by the month's end. This will help it meet immediate capital requirements. The Wadia family and banks would provide Rs 300 crore each. Khona told Reuters that the airline had made all their due payments to P&W. He added that the insolvency proceedings are not to sell the airline but to revive it. The call was taken to preserve the airline's assets.
The company's revenue from operations rose 33 per cent during the period to Rs 9,704 crore from Rs 7,276 crore in FY22. The earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose 37 per cent to Rs 1,053 crore in the quarter. Moreover, the EBIT margins were at 12 per cent.

Titan on Wednesday reported a 50 per cent rise in its profit after tax (PAT) in the quarter ended March 31, 2023, to Rs 734 crore from Rs 491 crore in the same quarter in FY22. The board of directors of the company also recommended a dividend of Rs 10 per share, according to the BSE filing of the company.
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The BJPs harking back to the controversial NRC, which it had put on the back burner after anti-CAA-NRC protests of 2019, is likely to persist until the next round of assembly polls in Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram, which are likely to be as challenging for the party as Karnataka. The results of these assembly polls would decide, say Sangh Parivar sources, whether the NRC issue gets into the BJPs manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The Karnataka assembly election marks the BJPs return to its core agenda, with its manifesto promising to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to identify and deport illegal immigrants in the state and setting up a committee to study the uniform civil code (UCC).



In the first session of Parliament after the 2019 elections, Parliament made instant triple talaq illegal and invalidated Article 370 on August 5, 2019. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has called for a nationwide NRC after the BJP manifesto release on Monday. The NRC had briefly returned during the Assam assembly polls in the summer of 2021, where the BJP committed itself to a corrected NRC exercise.

Whether the BJP returns to the remainder of its core agenda, such as implementing a UCC and NRC, can be gleaned from the May 28, 1996 speech of then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He explained to the Lok Sabha that his 13-day government dropped references to the Ram temple, Article 370 and UCC since it lacked a majority, suggesting that the time was inopportune. Ye hamare iss samay ke karyakram mein nahin haiaur isliye nahin hai ki hamare pass bahumat nahin hai...Koi chhupane ki baat nahin hai," he said.


The battle to end coalition government in the state has already begun with all three major political parties - Congress, Bhartiya Janata Party, and Janata Dal (S) - intensifying their approach to woo the voters. In order to form a government single-handedly, a minimum of 113 seats is required by the winning party. Karnataka, which is the seventh-largest legislative body in terms of strength, goes to poll on May 10, 2023. The elections will occur in a single phase for all 224 constituencies and the result will be announced on May 13.



The state of Karnataka is divided into 31 districts which are divided into six political regions, namely- Bengaluru region, Coastal Karnataka, Mumbai Karnataka, Hyderabad Karnataka, Central Karnataka, and Southern Karnataka. Ahead of the Assembly elections, here is everything you must know about the six major political regions of Karnataka:



Bengaluru region: Because of its distinct voting pattern, Bengaluru is considered a separate region. The region is landlocked and bound by the Western Ghats. The Bengaluru region is religiously diverse, in which Hindus constitute the majority, followed by Muslims and Christians. The region comprises present-day districts of Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural. Since independence, the Bengaluru region has been a bastion of the Congress party, however, in the last few years, the voters have voted for candidates who are working for the development of the region. According to Elections.in, each political region in the state of Karnataka is a composition of history, political dynamics, socio-cultural dynamics, and distinct caste equations, that dominates the politics in these regions.

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Coastal Karnataka: The Coastal Karnataka region is a 300-km long belt of coastline that has the Arabian Sea to its west and the Western Ghats surrounding it from the eastern side. The region includes three districts, namely- Dakshin Kannada, Udupi, and Uttara Kannada. Each of these districts follows a distinct political pattern.

According to a Quint report, the Coastal Karnataka region is the only region in the state where Hindutva remains the biggest political issue and decider. It is also BJP's stronghold. : The Coastal Karnataka region is a 300-km long belt of coastline that has the Arabian Sea to its west and the Western Ghats surrounding it from the eastern side. The region includes three districts, namely- Dakshin Kannada, Udupi, and Uttara Kannada. Each of these districts follows a distinct political pattern.

Mumbai Karnataka: The Mumbai Karnataka region has been renamed to Kittur Karnataka region following the controversy surrounding it. This region comprises Belagavi, Hubbali-Dharwad, Gadag, Bagalkote, and Vijapura districts.

Belagavi district has been in the middle of a dispute between Mumbai and Karnataka for nearly six decades. According to a Business Standard report , the issue of the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute finds its origin in the State Reorganisation Act of 1956, which determined the borders of Indian states based on language. Karnataka was formed on November 1, 1956, and Maharashtra was created on May 1, 1960. The Mumbai Karnataka region has been renamed to Kittur Karnataka region following the controversy surrounding it. This region comprises Belagavi, Hubbali-Dharwad, Gadag, Bagalkote, and Vijapura districts.



Hyderabad Karnataka: This region is also known as the Kalyan Karnataka region and it comprises six districts. Bordering Andhra Pradesh, it is one of the most underdeveloped regions in the state, claims Quint's report. It is dominated by the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Muslim voters. Since its reorganisation, Maharashtra has claimed that 856 villages should be part of its territory, not Karnataka. These include Belgavi, Karwar, and Nipani, says the report.



Central Karnataka: The region consists of Tumakuru, Davanagere, Haveri, Chitradurga, Shimoga, Raichur, and Koppal districts. It is often known as the land of seers and mutts, who will play a crucial role in the upcoming elections. According to an Indian Express report, along with a strong Lingayat influence, the region also has a strong SC/ST population that defines the demography of the four districts in this region. It consists of Kalburgi, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, and Ballari districts.

Southern Karnataka: The region is often referred to as the Old Mysuru region and is bound by the sea and the Western Ghats in the east. According to a 2018 report in Quint, BJP has had a limited influence in the region. It consists of Mandya, Mysuru, Chamarajnagar, Ramanagaram, Hassan, Kolar, Tumkuru, Kodagu, and Chikkabalapur.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) should look at the issue of farm subsidies with an open mind as it impacts the food security needs of emerging economies in the backdrop of Covid pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Governor's seminar on 'Policies to support Asia's rebound', Sitharaman said sooner a solution is found out by the WTO, the better it would be for the world.

"Since WTO was founded, there has been a grievance with respect to the export of agricultural products and generally in trade, the voice of the Global South and emerging markets has not been heard at par with that of the developed countries," she said.

The 'Global South' largely refers to countries in Asia, Africa and South America.

Subsidies for agriculture and poor farmers in developing countries were not counted at all and were frozen, she said, adding that in context of Covid and Russia-Ukraine war, food and fertilizer security have become important.

"We will all have to talk again (about food and fertiliser security) at the WTO with an open mind," the minister said.

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"There is better food security in the developed world compared to developing countries. Trade agreements have come about in a lopsided way, for which solutions have to be found," Sitharaman said.

Under global trade norms, a WTO member country's food subsidy bill should not breach the limit of 10 per cent of the value of production based on the reference price of 1986-88.

As part of permanent solution, India has asked for measures like amendments in the formula to calculate the food subsidy cap and inclusion of programmes implemented after 2013 under the ambit of 'Peace Clause'.

As an interim measure, the WTO members at the Bali ministerial meeting in December 2013 had agreed to put in place a mechanism popularly called 'Peace Clause' and committed to negotiating an agreement for a permanent solution.

Under Peace Clause, WTO members agreed to refrain from challenging any breach in prescribed ceiling by a developing nation at the dispute settlement forum of the WTO.

This clause will stay till a permanent solution is found to the food stockpiling issue. PTI DP JD CS



The PTI correspondent is in South Korea on invitation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Max Helathcare had moved the court after Quality Care went ahead with a better offer from the US-based private equity fund, Blackstone to sell Care Hospitals.



Max says as it has signed a term sheet with Quality Care for the acquisition of Care Hospitals, its offer should be decided first.

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday appointed the retired judge Justice S J Kathawalla as an arbitrator to decide the dispute between Max Healthcare Pvt Ltd, Touch Healthcare, Quality Care hospitals and Evercare Group management over the acquisition of the Care Hospitals.


Speaking at a seminar organised by the Asian Development Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Sitharaman said the WTO needed to look at the issue of farm subsidies with an open mind as it impacts food security. The Finance Minister is in Seoul to attend the annual meeting of the ADB. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday that the voice of developing nations was not being heard at the World Trade Organisation when compared to developed economies, whether on specific issues such as agriculture exports or on trade in general.



Subsidies for agriculture and poor farmers are critical in developing countries were not counted at all and were frozen. In context of Covid and the Russia-Ukraine war, food & fertilizer security has become important. The food and fertiliser subsidy will again have to be talked in WTO with rather open mind, she said. Sitharaman said since WTO was founded, there has been a grievance with respect to the export of agricultural products and generally the trade, the voice of the global south, and emerging markets has not been heard at par with that of the developed countries.



Sitharaman also called for greater digital integration of economies. There has to be digital globalisation and countries need their systems to talk to each others technological platforms. Digital globalisation benefits common citizens. People move to different countries, but they keep their roots intact. Cross-border transfers should become easier as it helps migrant labour and helps economies to sustain themselves, she added. In the context of food security, Sitharaman raised concerns on the disparity in treatment of emerging markets compared to developed countries. She also called for WTO to renew focus on trade in agricultural products, recognising that subsidies will be essential for developing economies as they attempt to recover from the effects of the pandemic.

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Indias systemic long-term reforms facilitated by digital public infrastructure enabled timely conditional cash transfers during the pandemic. Other countries were busy writing cheques whereas we transferred money directly into bank accounts, she said. The Finance Ministers statement comes at a time when India, as the head of G-20, is touting its success in digital public infrastructure and has expressed its willingness in helping countries who want to develop their own payment and unique identification systems.



Sitharaman stressed that there was also a need to involve the private sector to step up investment and innovation. The Finance Minister underlined the need for focusing on four Is  infrastructure, investment, innovation and inclusivity that are essential for long-term sustainable growth for both advanced and developing economies.


Not that Mane, leader of Dharavi Bachao Andolan, minds the development of the city, which has a population of 1 million. What hes sceptical about is the involvement of Adani Realty, which has come under public scrutiny after Hindenburg Research, an American short seller, alleged the Adani Group of financial frauds. Baburao Mane is furious as "his" Dharavi, a city stuck in its striking images in movies and glossy magazines, faces a radical transformation.



Adani Realty, an arm of Adani Enterprises, had last year won the bid to revamp Dharavi, one of the largest slum clusters in the world, with an initial investment of Rs 5,069 crore. The project aims at transforming the slums into a modern residential, commercial and industrial area. Accusing the Maharashtra government of being partial towards the conglomerate, Mane expressed his doubts about the group's financial capability. We dont mind the development but it shouldnt be done by someone who is embroiled in controversies, he added.



Situated close to major commercial estates in Mumbai such as the Bandra Kurla Complex and Mahim, Dharavi is home to a large informal sector with over 100,000 employed within the area that stretches over 2.8 square kilometres. Close to 58,000 families and around 12,000 commercial establishments are housed within this area, and the redevelopment project will have a consequence on their lives. The bid by the Adani Group is an initial investment in the Rs 20,000-crore project, and according to the bid criteria, the company will form a special purpose vehicle (SPV). The SPV is a joint venture between the Maharashtra government and the firm  where the state government will hold a 20 per cent stake and the Group will hold 80 per cent.

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Only those who produce documents to prove their residential unit existed in the area before January 1, 2011, are entitled to a free house. Those who are ineligible will be provided homes after paying the construction cost. There are many daily wagers who came here after the cut-off date. I wonder how they will afford these construction costs, Agawale said. People here are clueless about what is going to happen. They (the government) should have, at least, taken the residents into confidence, said Manda Agawale, who runs a khadi and leather manufacturing unit in the area. She also owns a chawl that is home to 18 to 20 families.



When asked why past attempts hadnt been successful, Mane said, Its all about the willpower of the ruling authority, which previous governments lacked. Mane had completed a full term as an MLA from Dharavi in the 1995 Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government. This is the fourth time in 18 years that the Maharashtra government is attempting to rebuild Asia's largest slum cluster, which is also a thriving market that contributes to the informal economy with an estimated annual turnover of $1 billion.



In January 2019, a Dubai-based firm, Seclink Technologies Corporation (STC) had won the bid for Dharavi, after outbidding Adani Infrastructure and Developers Pvt Ltd. STC had quoted Rs 7,200 crore, while Adani had bid at Rs 4,539 crore. However, the project hit a roadblock due to issues with the railway land and the STC tender was cancelled. Speaking in the Maharashtra assembly on March 21 this year, Congress MLA Varsha Gaikwad had questioned the allotment of the tender to the Adani Group at allegedly a lower price and the changes in the conditions for the bidders. The legislator from Dharavi had said: There is an atmosphere of fear in our area. People are taking out marches, and some are preparing to file petitions in the court. The Adani Group has not given the work order yet, and it is being demanded that the work order should not be given, she said.



Meanwhile, deeming the concerns unfounded, an Adani Group spokesperson told Business Standard, The fears and concerns, raised by the parties with a vested interest, on us meeting financial obligations for the project are unwarranted. The balance sheet of Adani Properties is very strong, and we are confident about arranging the financing for this project, the spokesperson added. Replying to Gaikwad's questions, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also heads the housing department, asserted that the government was not going to take the project back from the group. He, however, assured that the firm would get the letter of intent (LoI) only after it had established that it had the financial capability to execute the project.



SVR Srinivas, CEO of the Dharavi Redevelopment Board, which is overseeing the slum clusters overhaul, and commissioner of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, believes that the project will be a stepping stone towards a slum-free Mumbai and an example of upward social movement. While residents like Manda and the MLA are anxious about Dharavis future, some are hopeful about the redevelopment.



The units will be provided with a five-year state goods and services tax (SGST) refund, he added. He is also mindful of the challenges that may arise along the way. Among the many challenges, rehabilitating thousands of people and their commercial and industrial units is one of the biggest tasks at hand, Srinivas said. As of now, we have made plans for the commercial establishments by allotting them separate spaces and options for technological upgrade.



Hafeez Contractor, arguably Indias commercially most successful architect, said that with the project going to the Adani Group, he was optimistic about the social and financial good the redevelopment would bring. This will show the world how such a huge plan is carried out, and that too in one go. This will help uplift peoples situation, right from sanitation and water supply to pucca homes, Contractor said. As far as the shifting of residents is concerned, the commissioner said that the consultation with the people of Dharavi will start soon and the first seven years of the project will focus on their rehabilitation. The project will start as soon as the state government releases a LoI to the Adani Group, Srinivas said.

Back in Dharavi, as Raju Khade wraps up his day at his handbag manufacturing unit, his only ask is a better place to live and work  ideally, close to where he now lives, if not the same spot. Many of my friends and I have been living and working here for decades, so we do not wish to leave, Khade said. But, going by the current situation of Dharavi, development is needed too.
Gujarat Minister of State for Panchayat Bachubhai Khabad on Wednesday said his department will recruit as many as 10,000 employees through direct recruitment in the next two years.

Khabad was addressing an event at the Mahatma Mandir convention centre in Gandhinagar where 1,760 youngsters, who were recently selected as multipurpose health workers, were handed over appointment letters.

Panchayat employees play a crucial role in delivering government schemes and benefits to each and every citizen. These 1,760 youngsters who received appointment letters today were selected in a very transparent manner by the Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board. In the next two years, the Panchayat department will recruit 10,000 employees, said Khabad.

At the event, Gujarat Energy and Finance Minister Kanubhai Desai handed over the appointment letters in the presence of Khabad, Health Minister Rushikesh Patel and other dignitaries, said an official release.

Desai said the Gujarat government has prepared a recruitment calendar to fill up the vacant posts in various government departments. He added that the state government is committed to filling up all the vacant posts very soon.

The Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board had chosen 1,760 youngsters from nearly 41,000 candidates through a competitive exam held in June last year. The list of selected candidates was published in March, said the release.

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Of the selected candidates, 26 belong to the general category, 337 are from Scheduled Castes, 245 from Scheduled Tribes, 884 from Other Backward Classes (OBC), while 268 belong to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), the release said.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya reviewed the Organ Donation Policy on Wednesday and directed officials to imbibe learnings from international best practices for policy reforms to augment organ donation and transplantation in India.

Mandaviya reviewed the status of organ donations and transplants with senior officers of the health ministry here in the presence of Minister of State for Health Bharti Pravin Pawar, the ministry said in a statement.

In the 99th episode of his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon the citizens of the country to come forward for the noble cause of organ donation to save lives. This has given a fresh impetus to organ donation in the country, it said.

The number of total organ transplants in the country has substantially increased from less than 5,000 in 2013 to more than 15,000 in 2022, it stated.

According to the ministry, more organs per deceased donor are being utilised now due to better coordination through the network of Organ and Tissues Transplant Organisations at national, regional and state levels.

For example in 2016, 2,265 organs were utilised from 930 deceased donors, while 2,765 could be utilised from 904 deceased donors in 2022, it said.

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The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) is working on a transplant manual as a step-by-step guide for implementation of organ donation and transplantation programme in hospitals and also on a standard course for training of transplant coordinators. Both these documents will be completed and released shortly, it added.

Recently, the government of India granted special casual leaves for up to 42 days to its employees who donate an organ, as a special welfare measure in public interest.
This, according to India, will be in violation of the WTO principles since invoking the domestic law is not in conformity with the rules of the global trade body, the official told Business Standard. In such a case, India can inform the WTO and take counter retaliatory action by imposing tariffs on imports from the EU, the offic

The EUs domestic law allows the trade bloc to retaliate if any country goes ahead with an appeal into void. The WTOs appellate body, its highest adjudicating authority, is nonfunctional at present due to lack of judges.
India and the Maldives on Wednesday reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability and security in the Indian Ocean as they underscored the significance of respecting international law and rules-based international order, amid China's growing influence in the strategically vital region.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who arrived here on Monday on the invitation of his Maldivian counterpart Mariya Didi, also jointly laid the foundation stone for the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) Ekatha harbour in Male in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of SAGAR or Security And Growth for All in the Region.

The development of the Coastguard Harbour and repair facility at Sifavaru is one of the biggest grant-in-aid projects of India.

During his visit, Singh and Didi held bilateral talks to enhance defence cooperation and strengthen the longstanding partnership between India and Maldives.

"They discussed a wide range of regional and global security issues of mutual concern, and agreed to deepen their cooperation in the defence and security domains," said a joint press communique issued at the end of Singh's visit to Maldives.

"Both Ministers reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability & security in the region and recognised the need to work together to address common security challenges. They underscored the importance of respecting international law & rules-based international order and expressed their commitment to upholding these principles," it added.

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The Maldivian defence minister described Singh's visit as "a major milestone in the bilateral defence cooperation engagements" between the two countries.

"His visit epitomizes the strong sisterly bond that exist between our two nations from time immemorial," she said and thanked Singh for the reception hosted by him on board INS Airavat.

"The reception celebrated the rich cultural heritage & friendship that exists between India and Maldives. The event was a testament to the strong bonds of cooperation & mutual respect fostered over years," she said.

The ministers welcomed the progress made in ongoing defence cooperation between the two neighbours, including joint exercises and exchanges of visits by military officials. They also noted the importance of sharing best practices and expertise in areas such as counter terrorism, disaster management, cyber security and maritime security.

The ministers agreed to explore additional avenues for cooperation, including in the areas of defence trade, capacity building and joint exercises. They also discussed the need to promote people-to-people contacts and exchanges between the armed forces of both countries.

They attended a ceremony for the commissioning of the replacement ship for Huravee.

Prime Minister Modi had announced the provision of the replacement ship for the aging Huravee, during Maldivian President Ibrahim Solih's recent visit to India.

Singh also gifted MNDF an additional Landing Craft. The handing over of these vessels are in line with India's SAGAR vision that seeks to work together with and jointly develop the capabilities of friends and partners for a safe, secure, prosperous and stable Indian Ocean Region.

India's gift of the two platforms to one of its strategically key maritime neighbours came amid China's persistent efforts to enhance its strategic influence in the Indian Ocean Region.

"Both Parties reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening the partnership between their countries, and expressed common sentiments that they looked forward to continuing the dialogue and cooperation in the future," the joint communique said.

Singh's visit renewed the sense of commitment of the two friendly neighbours to enhance the security and prosperity of their respective countries and the region, it added.

During his visit, Singh also paid a courtesy call on President Solih and met Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid.

It was Singh's first visit to the Maldives as the defence minister.
Sir,



Thank you for allowing me space to voice my concerns regarding the much talked about era, the 4th Industrial Revolution. I wont dwell much on what this revolution is about and I would like to re-assure emaSwati that we have already reached the time where everyone says this is the 4th Industrial Revolution. To explain, this is the time where everyones life is controlled or affected by technology. But my biggest worry is how far the country is in its readiness for such a revolution?

Example

Let me make an example, which might seem silly; one day I was perusing through the classified section looking for vacancies that might meet my requirements and fortunately for me, I did get one which simply needed me. As someone living in a country where service delivery is not slow but not there altogether, I was involuntarily compelled to miss such an opportunity because it needed one to send his application via an email. As we all know that for many of us, we usually get to see a copy of a newspaper after three or more days of its publication because we live in far-flung areas and there are no internet cafes in our tinkhundla centres, where I might have sourced that kind of assistance, if they were better put into good use.

Worry

Moreover, my biggest worry centres around the issue of educators. Is government aware that about 80 per cent of teachers do not have adequate knowledge to meet todays requirements?

For instance, most teachers cant send emails and let alone owning the accounts? Because I believe that teachers are the ones who should always be given first priority when it comes to issues of development as they play a pivotal role when it comes to transferring and imparting knowledge to the younger generation. So how do you expect them to share such paramount information if even themselves are ignorant thereof! If you can take for instance the English syllabus, both at junior and senior levels, it does incorporate technology but the relevant stakeholders are afraid to ask pupils to write emails in their final examinations.

Afraid

That is why every year children will always be examined on how to write a friendly letter, which is now outdated except for certain stores. Why are they afraid? Its because they know that teachers cant competently teach them these tasks except with the aid of IT teachers. Lastly, Id like to appeal to government to quickly come up with tangible possible solutions in an attempt to curb this disease. We need a well detailed roadmap on how you plan to re-skill these educators. Remember, Helen Hayes once said; If you rest, you rust.
Delhi Urban Development Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Tuesday demanded that the lieutenant governor conduct a high-level inquiry into alleged corruption in the MCD while it was under the BJP's control.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) earned a revenue of about Rs 8,900 crore in the financial year 2022-23, a rise of more than 22 per cent compared to the earnings in the year before, according to officials.

The three erstwhile civic bodies of Delhi were unified into the MCD in May 2022.

The "perennially cash-strapped" MCD has registered record revenue receipts in 2022-23, witnessing a jump of 22.77 per cent over the year (FY 2021-22) prior to it, when the figure was Rs 7,249.25 crore, a senior official of the Raj Niwas said.

Following the release of these figures, Bharadwaj said LG V K Saxena's comments have raised questions on the 15-year tenure of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the MCD.

He expressed concerns about the LG's statement over the MCD's revenue growth over the last year.

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"The LG's statement about the MCD's earnings increasing from Rs 7,249 crore to Rs 8,900 crore in 2022-23, indicating a revenue growth of about Rs 1,650 crore, raises some questions. We hope he will answer these questions," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said.

The questions raised by the LG were -- were the old officers of the MCD replaced with new ones in 2022-23, were the old officers of the property tax department replaced with new officers in 2022-23, was the MCD commissioner replaced with a new commissioner in 2022-23 and were all the MCD employees replaced with new employees in 2022-23, Bharadwaj said.

Noting that the MCD was under the BJP's control from 2007 to 2022, he said over the last one year, the civic body was run in accordance with rules and regulations and managed by officers and hence, the BJP government at the Centre was not able to interfere in its functioning.

"As such, when the LG claims that he has put an end to the revenue leakages within the municipal corporation, leading to a significant increase in revenue, it implies that the LG also acknowledges that the revenue of the municipal corporation was looted for the last 15 years under the BJP," the AAP leader added.

He demanded that the LG conduct an investigation into the "loot" that he claimed had stopped in the MCD after 15 years.

"The LG has a habit of conducting an investigation for trivial matters, so I request that since he has claimed that the revenue loot of the MCD was stopped over the last year, he should conduct an investigation as to who was looting the MCD for the last 15 years," Bharadwaj added.

He further said since the LG "himself has acknowledged that a revenue loot was taking place in the MCD for years, he should constitute a high-level committee to investigate and reveal to the people of Delhi who were involved in looting their tax money for the last 15 years".
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday opened air ticketing to Singapore and Bangkok from Bhubaneswar facilitating the people of the state to travel to these south-east Asian cities at a fair price.

Indigo airlines will commence direct international flights to Singapore as well as Bangkok from Bhubaneswar from June 3. Earlier, direct flight ticketing was launched by the chief minister to Dubai from Bhubaneswar which will start from May 15.

Patnaik said that the initiative will promote job opportunities for the youth of Odisha, open up tourism potential of the state and also provide a boost to IT and ITES sectors in the state.

"It is a momentous occasion for all of us today as Indigo opens ticketing to Singapore & Bangkok from Bhubaneswar. Recently, I had also inaugurated the ticketing to Dubai. With this, Odisha is now connected to the top cosmopolitan Asian cities-- opening a whole new world of opportunities for our people," the chief minister said.

He further said that in last few years, the aviation traffic in Odisha has seen immense growth. Though the domestic flight connectivity has seen a noticeable improvement, Odisha government has come forward to make a sizeable contribution to ensure direct international flight connectivity between Bhubaneswar and world-class destinations to meet the people's aspirations, he added.

The CM hoped that these international flights would provide tourists more convenience and affordable travel options while also encouraging trade and tourism.

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Patnaik also thanked the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and Indigo Airlines for the support.

Earlier during the budget presentation, the state government has made an allocation of Rs 100 crore to support the viability gap funding.

Singapore and Bangkok will be the threshold to the entire south-eastern Asian region while connectivity to Dubai will open the gateway to the Gulf, Europe, and Western countries making world tour accessible, convenient and affordable for the people of Odisha, an official said.

In order to meet the people's aspirations, the Odisha government has come forward to make sizeable contribution to make the direct international flight operations viable between Bhubaneswar and international destinations namely Dubai, Singapore and Bangkok.

Vinay Malhotra, Head Global Sales, IndiGo, in a statement said, "We are pleased to announce the launch of new exclusive international routes from Bhubaneswar. IndiGo has been at the forefront of enhancing international connectivity and these new flights to Singapore and Bangkok will encourage tourism and trade in the city and the state".

While the airfare between Bhubaneswar-Dubai is Rs 10,000 (one way), price of a ticket for Bhubaneswar-Singapore route is Rs 7,500 (one way),



Bhubaneswar-Bangkok ticket price will also be Rs 7,500 (one way).
Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president Srinivas BV has filed a plea for anticipatory bail before the Gauhati High Court.

Hearing the pre-arrest bail petition of Srinivas BV (case no - AB/1556/2023) on Tuesday, Justice Ajit Borthakur said in his order that, the instant pre-arrest bail application is fixed on May 4 at 12.30 pm.

Srinivas BV filed the plea for anticipatory bail at the Gauhati High Court apprehending arrest in connection with Dispur Police Station case no. 692/2023 under Sections 509/294/341/352/354/354A(iv)/506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

"D. Saikia, learned Advocate General, Assam at this stage, submits that the learned Public Prosecutor, M. Phukan, who is presently away at Bengaluru in connection with another petition of the petitioner filed under Section 438 Cr.P.C., shall appear and plead on behalf of the State in the instant petition copy of which is also not available with him and on the other hand, as the case diary is also not received by him, the matter can be heard day after tomorrow, that is on 04-05-2023," said in the order copy of the Gauhati High Court.

The court directed the Public Prosecutor to produce the case diary on May 4.

Earlier, the Court of Learned City Civil and Sessions Judge No. LXXI, Bengaluru City (CCH-72) by an order on April 28 this year dismissed the petition of Srinivas BV filed under Section 438 Cr.P.C. in connection with a case registered at Dispur Police Station following the complaint filed by Dr Angkita Dutta, former president of Assam Youth Congress.

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On the other hand, hearing another case (no. Crl.Pet./377/2023) filed by Srinivas BV, Justice Ajit Borthakur has fixed May 4 as the next hearing date.

Devajit Lon Saikia, Advocate General of Assam told ANI that, the court listed the matter for hearing on May 4.

"On May 4, we will submit the case diary before the court," Devajit Lon Saikia said.

On April 23, a five-member team of Guwahati City Police went to Bengaluru and pasted a notice at the residence of Srinivas BV and asked him to appear at Dispur police station on May 2, but Srinivas BV not appeared at Dispur police station today.
BENGALURU (Reuters) - Go First's bankruptcy will likely boost airfares in India and give other domestic airlines a chance to grab a larger chunk of the market share, analysts said on Wednesday.

Shares of India's largest airline IndiGo rose by more than 8% on Wednesday, a day after cash-strapped airline Go First filed for bankruptcy, blaming "faulty" Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines for the grounding of about half its fleet.

"If the suspension is prolonged, other airlines that are adding capacity would look to avail the slots vacated by Go First and grab on to the market share," Jefferies analyst Prateek Kumar said in a client note.

"Indigo is facing a similar problem with P&W engines for some of its fleet but has been able to better maneuver the crisis owing to its much larger fleet size and better negotiations with the vendor," Kumar added.

Lessors may also be keen to allocate some of the Go First aircraft to IndiGo, within India itself, given a similar fleet type, Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a note, adding that the development would benefit IndiGo in terms of market share and stronger yields in a capacity strained environment.

Lenders to Go First, including Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and Axis Bank dropped 1.1% to 6.8% on Wednesday. Go First owes financial creditors 65.21 billion rupees ($798 million), its bankruptcy filing showed.

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The airline is owned by the Wadia Group, which also runs bread and biscuits maker Britannia Industries and textile firm Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Co, whose shares dropped up to 1.5% and 5%, respectively.

Bombay Burmah Trading, which is also owned by Wadia and has given loans to Go First in the form of inter-corporate deposits, slid 10%.

(Reporting by Chris Thomas and Dhanya Skariachan in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Savio D'Souza)


The airlines decision to voluntarily declare insolvency caught its lenders off guard and senior bankers got into a huddle on Wednesday to plan the next course of action. A lender on condition of anonymity said that the meeting was inconclusive and would continue on Thursday. No-frills carrier Go First stopped fresh bookings for its flights till May 15, even as it pressed on Wednesday for an urgent hearing of its insolvency application. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) will hear the plea on Thursday.



In its insolvency plea, accessed by Reuters, Go First said it owed its financial creditors Rs 6,521 crore ($798 million). It said it had not defaulted on any of these dues. However, considering the present situation of the airline, defaults to banks would be imminent, it said. The lenders on Wednesday discussed the issue of limited communication from the airline on such a crucial decision (going for insolvency resolution). It is premature, the source said, to decide on invoking collaterals and guarantees provided by the promoters/company for the loans taken from banks.



The move to limit possible passenger inconvenience came as lessors initiated steps to secure their planes. At least two US-based lessors have applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to deregister three Airbus A320 aircraft leased to Go First. Go First Chief Executive Officer Kaushik Khona told CNBC earlier in the day that for the flights scheduled between (May) 6 and (May) 15, we have stopped further bookings. We are ready to start operations as soon as a moratorium is available and as soon as the matter is admitted in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

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The airline was served show-cause notice by the civil aviation regulator for cancelling flights without intimation. Till late evening there was no update from the DGCA on the airlines response and its regulatory action. Lessors are also issuing notices terminating the leases because the airline has been struggling to pay them. On Wednesday, Go Firsts lawyers asked the NCLT Bench to admit its application, appoint a resolution professional, and declare a moratorium with a view to protecting the companys assets.



The company has defaulted on payments to operational creditors, including Rs 1,202 crore to vendors and Rs 2,660 crore to aircraft lessors. Lessors have also served notices on terminating lease agreements and six of them have invoked letters of credit issued to them by the airlines lenders, the application said. The company has defaulted on payments to operational creditors, including Rs 1,202 crore to vendors and Rs 2,660 crore to aircraft lessors. Lessors have also served notices on terminating lease agreements and six of them have invoked letters of credit issued to them by the airlines lenders, the application said. The airlines liabilities to all creditors stand at Rs 11,463 crore. These include its dues to banks, other financial institutions, vendors, aircraft lessors.

Khona told mediapersons the promoters, the Wadia group, remained committed to the airline, having pumped into it Rs 3,200 crore in the past three years.



Meanwhile, employees are hoping that the airline will fly out of the crisis with government support. Some, however, are already scouting for work. For instance, some Go First pilots have joined airlines in West Asia in recent weeks and others have approached IndiGo and Air India. Following the sudden cancellation of flights by the airline, spot airfares on Go Firsts top routes, which include Delhi-Srinagar, Mumbai-Goa and Delhi-Leh, have increased by up to 43 per cent.



The engine maker in turn said Go First had a lengthy history of missing its financial obligations to it. The airline has squarely blamed engine maker Pratt & Whitney for forcing it to take the drastic step and accused it of not honouring the arbitral award to supply engines. The order had directed the engine maker to immediately release 10 serviceable spare leased engines by April 27 and 10 such engines every month till December, Go First had said on Tuesday.

Pratt & Whitney is committed to the success of our airline customers, and we continue to prioritize delivery schedules for all customers. P&W is complying with the March 2023 arbitration ruling related to Go First. As this is now a matter of litigation, we will not comment further, it said in a statement.


The beginning of resolution of disputed issues for OEMs augurs well for the sector, said Sohinder Gill, Director General SMEV, adding, It is time that the sector is allowed to stand on its feet again and efforts to revive the e-Mobility sector can begin. The Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) on Wednesday has welcomed the move by the ministry of heavy industries (MHI) to start settling pending issues of original equipment manufacturers and bring the sector back to its feet.



However, he called for a tapered localisation in the sector a sustainable option. Terming the news about the ministry giving clean chit to various companies as a move in the right direction, Gill said that the sector was desperate for a resolution of the subsidy blockade that has all but choked the sector for the last 15 months.



Localisation should have been much higher to start with  say 70 per cent to 80 per cent as the supply chain was not existing at that time and allowed to progressively taper down to 50 per cent. Force-localisation comes with dangers, as we have seen some OEMs trying to procure locally at the cost of quality components that have resulted in fires and short circuits and parts that have required to be recalled later.

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The solution is a flexi-policy approach, until total localisation can occur, Gill said. Unfortunately this was not the case with FAME II PMP norms that mandated item by item localisation conditions which were tougher to meet and created supply bottlenecks that led to OEMs scrounging for parts and which in turn created the issues OEMs are facing today, Gill said.

Restore legacy players

Gill also urged the ministry to help the market rehabilitate. Highlighting that the companies like Hero Electric, Okinawa Autotech and Ampere who were market leaders in FY19 and FY20 with 82 per cent share of the market have reported drastic drop in sales and were able to muster only 24 per cent market share in April 23.

If these companies are not revived, the organisations that built the EV ecosystem for the initial 10 years or more may have to shut down, setting a bad example in the EV world, including the global investment funds, Gill said in a statement.
MBABANE  A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.

This adage serves true for Food Quest, an NGO which will be launching a programme that seeks to roll out solar backpacks to pupils across the country, targeting pupils who have challenges with electricity or cannot even afford to buy a candle for purposes of studying. Solar backpacks are kitted out with lightweight flexible solar panels that convert sunlight into solar energy stored in a battery pack. Local non-governmental organization (NGO), Food Quest Eswatini is on a drive to help the country achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) one and two, which speaks to ending poverty and hunger, achieving food security, and improving nutrition.

In an interview, its Founder Celani Matsenjwa, shared that as much as their main mission was on the reduction of food loss and waste and the delivery of food resources to the hungry, they saw a need to help children whose parents or guardians had limited resources to purchase electricity or sometimes candles. He shared that this was putting some of the scholars at a disadvantaged position, as they could not study due to lack of light, which compromised their studies. This is an initiative that seeks to bridge the gap between pupils who can; those who have; as well as those who have no access to adequate electricity or a simple candle to light for the purposes of studying, he said.

When asked on whether the NGO was manufacturing the solar backpacks, Matsenjwa said they, together with other partners, were procuring them from South Africa and mainland China and were hopeful that more partners and companies would join the initiative, through their corporate social responsibility programmes, to help reach all the needy children through this project. Matsenjwa said the rollout had not began yet as they were looking at launching the initiative first, which is slated for next month. They said they already had approval from the Ministry of Education and Training to go ahead with the initiative. Matsenjwa shared that a 14-year-old girl from Macetjeni, in eastern Lubombo, wants to be a doctor when she grows up, to treat her sickly father. She also wants to be able to provide healthcare to her community. Born into a family of three children, her parents make a living from ploughing and weeding the local fields, but their combined wages arent enough to put food on the table, let alone buy electricity.

Study

Matsenjwa shared that the girl was one of many emaSwati who could not study after dusk and were, therefore, less likely to graduate and get jobs that could help pull their families out of poverty. Studying for tests and doing assignments at home was not possible for the teenage girl and her siblings. Sometimes I try to finish my homework at school, but its difficult because the schedule is full of lessons and theres no free time. When I go home, I still have my chores to do, and by the time I finish, its dark, and we dont have light. Waking up early doesnt help either because theres just not enough time when youre trying to get ready for school, she said. Temasiko Dlamini, who teaches Grade IV and V pupils at Siteki Nazarene Primary School, agreed that many of her pupils faced challenges in their academic journeys and that most came from disadvantaged backgrounds as related by Matsenjwa. I have had many of my pupils fail to submit their homework on time and fail to perform to the best of their abilities in tests because they just dont have the means to study ahead of any academic assessment. This, therefore, impacts their overall performance, she said.

Lighting

The fact that these pupils come from homes with no lighting, which affects their academic progress, is a concern that needs to be properly looked into, added Dlamini. Recognising the plight of schoolchildren in his community, Matsenjwa has rallied like-minded individuals to form Food Quest Eswatini. This local food bank does not only secure surplus and unsalable food and makes it available to those who need it but also provides solar backpacks to schoolchildren. Seeing so many schoolchildren either carrying their books under their armpits or using plastic bags unsettled me. So, in the 2022 academic year, I started this project, which kills two birds with one stone, Matsenjwa explained.Matsenjwa added that apart from the bag and food problems, some school children had no reliable source of light, since their homes had no access to the national grid, while others could not afford the high electricity costs. Most of them have never owned a school bag nor have a reliable source of light back home to do their homework during the night, he said.

Irradiation

According to Matsenjwa, the backpacks they provide solve this problem since they have a solar panel, an in-built battery, and a light. The solar panel recharges the battery during the day. The total irradiation reaching the solar panel while the kids journey to school in the morning and back home is enough to recharge the inbuilt battery and can give ample light for up to five hours, he explained. Matsenjwa said the organisation currently buys solar backpacks from China for E450 (US$25) each and he shared that scaling up would help bring down costs.

Weve donated these bags to schools including Mphundle Primary, Kumenini Primary, Sitsatsaweni Primary, and Ndlalane Primary, he said. Food Quest partners with the corporate community to build on the initiative. Companies buy these bags on behalf of the kids through their CSI programmes, and they get international recognition through Food Quest Eswatini, he said.

Nosipho Dlamini, a Social Worker at Hoseas Heart, which partners with Food Quest Eswatini, said the backpacks were making a difference. Their lives will be improved as they will be able to focus on their dreams without making excuses for not finishing their work at home because now they will have lights and food supplied often, she said. With small strides such as these, Food Quest remains resolute in its quest to help children study at home and develop their full potential to become the leaders of the future. Lack of electricity is a major hindrance for many in Africa and for schoolgoing children, it affects hours of study, completion of their homework, revision for exams and other curriculum activities which are to be done at home.

According to the International Energy Agency, 600 million people in Africa lack access to electricity, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. In Botswana, with a population of 2.5 million, access to electricity stood at 72 per cent in 2020, according to the World Bank. Sustainable Energy for All points out that the country has reached 77 per cent electricity access for the urban population, while in rural areas is still limited to 37 per cent, although increasing. Dare to Dream, a Botswana-based social enterprise working towards the advancement of youth, women and girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), is the latest entity to procure the product: Buying 33 bags for girls under the Jwaneng Mine Maranyane Bokamoso Programme (a STEM promotion project among girls aged 14-19 years).
The steel ministry on Wednesday held a meeting with the industry players over the European Union's move to impose carbon tax, sources said.

The meeting comes amid the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) being implemented by the European Union, which would have an adverse impact on India's exports of metals such as iron, steel and aluminium products to the EU, they said.

The EU is introducing CBAM from October 1 this year. The new mechanism will translate into a 20-35 per cent tax on select imports into the EU starting January 1, 2026.

On the request of the representatives of various steel companies and industry bodies the steel ministry held a meeting on Wednesday evening.

"In the hybrid meeting chaired by steel secretary Nagendra Nath Sinha, the industry raised the issue of CBAM, saying it violates several articles of the WTO," sources said.

They also noted that post imposition of the tax regime, India will become vulnerable to dumping of steel items by various countries, which may include those part of the EU itself.

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"The industry also informed the government that 79 per cent of the historical carbon emissions has been done by the developed nations themselves that is why common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) for carbon emission has been agreed in Paris Agreement and the tax is in violation of this," they said.

India exports 4 million tonnes of finished steel to the EU region, annually.
Also Read Ambuja Cements Q4 net profit up 1.61%, declares dividend of Rs 2.5 apiece Adani Wilmar reports 60% fall in net profit in Q4FY23, revenue up 7% Adani Wilmar bucks weak trend in group companies; surges 5% post Q3 results Analysts cautious on mid, smallcaps; await earnings catch-up Ambuja Cements rallies 5%, hits all-time high in a range-bound market Manappuram Finance slumps 14% as ED raids premises in money laundering case Hindenburg targets Icahn Enterprises, claims IEP shares overvalued Go First bankruptcy: IndiGo, SpiceJet good momentum plays, say analysts Price hikes to favor Hero Moto's Q4 revenues; margins may expand: Analysts Gravita India hits 52-week high; up 11% on huge volume day after Q4 results

Shares of Gautam Adani Group-owned companies weakened in Wednesdays intra-day trade, sliding by up to 7 per cent on the BSE after Adani Wilmar (AWL) reported a 56 per cent drop in its standalone profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 98 crore for the March quarter (Q4FY23). The edible oil company had posted a PAT of Rs 223 crore in the year ago quarter.The companys revenue declined 8 per cent year-on-year to Rs 13,122 crore from Rs 14,230 crore in Q4FY22. Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) per ton was down 30 per cent to Rs 2,407 from Rs 3,425 in the year ago quarter.AWL said TRQ (Tariff Rate Quota) disparity led to pressure on Soyabean oil margins. The decline in edible oil prices continued in Q4 as well leading to high-cost inventory, along with the mark to market (MTM) impact in P&L. The impact was restricted to a large extent by the companys robust risk management processes, it added.The edible oil segments branded sales volume grew by 4 per cent during the quarter, on the back of good consumer demand due to softened edible oil prices. However, overall oil sales volume was dragged down due to lower demand from the bakery and frying industry.The company's wholly owned subsidiary in Bangladesh made a loss of Rs 12 crore in Q4FY23 and Rs 63 crore in FY23, due to price caps by the government on edible oils, local currency-related issues, and unavailability of counter party for forex hedging.Meanwhile, Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of the Adani Group, was down 7 per cent to Rs 1,786.10. Adani Power, Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas, Ambuja Cements and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone were trading 3-5 per cent lower. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.37 per cent at 61,126 at 01:51 pm.According to a Business Standard report, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) may approach the Central government or law-enforcement agencies to be able to get information from foreign jurisdictions in the Adani-Hindenburg case. Sebi is awaiting details on end-beneficiaries of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in connection with the charges levelled by the US-based Hindenburg Research against the Adani Group.The market regulator may refer the matter to ministries because some offshore regulators were not very forthcoming in providing the information sought, citing privacy reasons, said two people in the know, the newspaper reported. CLICK HERE FOR FULL REPORT


At 09:45 AM, the stock was down 8.5 per cent at Rs 1,236 on trades of around 2,900 shares on the BSE as against the two-week average traded quantity of 638-odd shares. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.4 per cent at 61,112. Shares of Astec LifeSciences tumbled over 10 per cent to hit a low of Rs 1,212 in Wednesday's intra-day trades after the company reported a net loss for the March quarter.



Astec LifeSciences reported a net loss of Rs 5 crore for the quarter ended March 2023 as against a net profit of Rs 43.10 crore in the correspoding quarter a year ago. Total income plunged 53.5 per cent Year-on-Year (YoY) to Rs 129.50 crore from Rs 278.80 crore. The stock has been a significant underperformer in the last six months, and has shed as much as 44 per cent during this period when compared to 0.3 per cent gain in the benchmark index.



For the full fiscal year FY23, consolidated net profit was down 71.5 per cent YoY at Rs 25.60 crore, while total income declined by 6.7 per cent to Rs 641.20 crore. Earnings before depreciation, interest and taxes (EBITDA) slumped 89 per cent YoY to Rs 8 crore from Rs 72.30 crore.

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"High level of channel inventories in India as well as key export markets, resultant demand-supply imbalance and subsequent correction in prices of key Active Ingredients (AI) continued to pose challenges for Indian Agrochemical sector, primarily in the second half of the year. Astec also witnessed unprecedented drop in volumes as well as realisations in H2FY23 and as a result, the company reported decline in topline and profitability in FY23 as compared to the previous year.", stated N B Godrej, chairman, of the company in the release. Topline as well as profitability was adversely impacted in Q4 by subdued demand for key enterprise products with further drop in realisations, the company said in its release.
Stocks to Watch on May 03, 2023: The key Indian benchmark indices are likely to start todays trading session on a nervous note following the sharp fall in US and UK markets overnight. At 07:30 AM, the SGX Nifty May futures quoted at 18,133, indicating a likely opening loss of 50-odd points on the Nifty 50 benchmark.

In other news, the Sebi approved Tata Plays proposed public issue. The Tata group firm is the first company in India to file confidential papers with the markets regulator for an IPO. The key Indian benchmark indices are likely to start todays trading session on a nervous note following the sharp fall in US and UK markets overnight. At 07:30 AM, the SGX Nifty May futures quoted at 18,133, indicating a likely opening loss of 50-odd points on the Nifty 50 benchmark.



Earnings Watch: ABB India, Godrej Properties, Havells India, Jyothy Labs, MRF, KEC International, Petronet, Sona BLW, Sula Vineyards, Tata Chemicals and Titan are few of the prominent companies scheduled to announce March quarter results on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the following stocks are likely to be in action in trades on Wednesday.

Aviation: Shares of Airlines will be in focus today after Wadia-owned Go First filed for insolvency, driven by a cash crunch that resulted from the grounding of nearly half its 57 aircraft. The airline squarely blamed engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney for the step and suspended all flights till Thursday.

Tata Steel: The steel major reported an 82.5 per cent YoY drop in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,704.86 crore for Q4FY23 as steel spreads across regions took a hit. Revenue was down 9.2 per cent at Rs 62,961.54 crore. The revenue and profit numbers, however, came ahead of expectations. The steel major reported an 82.5 per cent YoY drop in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,704.86 crore for Q4FY23 as steel spreads across regions took a hit. Revenue was down 9.2 per cent at Rs 62,961.54 crore. The revenue and profit numbers, however, came ahead of expectations. READ MORE Shares of Airlines will be in focus today after Wadia-owned Go First filed for insolvency, driven by a cash crunch that resulted from the grounding of nearly half its 57 aircraft. The airline squarely blamed engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney for the step and suspended all flights till Thursday. READ MORE

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Bharti Airtel: The Sunil Mittal led teleco, which started operations in Sri Lanka in 2009, announced the merger of operations of Bharti Airtel Lanka with Dialog - a subsidiary of Malaysian multinational telecommunications conglomerate Axiata Group Berhad. The move is expected to give Airtel access to a larger user base in the island nation.

Ambuja Cements: The newly acquired Adani Group owned cement companys Q4 net profit rose by 1.6 per cent to Rs 502.40 crore in the quarter ended March 2023 as against Rs 494.91 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income surged 11.9 per cent YoY to Rs 4,430.28 crore. The Sunil Mittal led teleco, which started operations in Sri Lanka in 2009, announced the merger of operations of Bharti Airtel Lanka with Dialog - a subsidiary of Malaysian multinational telecommunications conglomerate Axiata Group Berhad. The move is expected to give Airtel access to a larger user base in the island nation.

Cipla: The pharma firm informed BSE, that a routine current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) inspection was conducted by the USFDA at the manufacturing facility of InvaGen Pharmaceuticals Inc. (wholly-owned subsidiary of the company) in the US from April 24 to May 01. The inspection concluded with zero Form 483 observations.

PSB: Punjab & Sind Bank net profit jumped 32 per cent YoY to Rs 457 crore in the January- March quarter (Q4) as its interest income rose by 17 per cent to Rs 2,105 crore. The pharma firm informed BSE, that a routine current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) inspection was conducted by the USFDA at the manufacturing facility of InvaGen Pharmaceuticals Inc. (wholly-owned subsidiary of the company) in the US from April 24 to May 01. The inspection concluded with zero Form 483 observations.

Max Healthcare Institute: The company has moved the Bombay High Court against Touch Healthcare, Quality Care India, and the Evercare Group management for an alleged breach of contract after its (Maxs) offer to acquire Care Hospitals was turned down.

Sugar: Cooperative sugar factories have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to increase the minimum sale price (MSP) of sugar to improve their cash flows that would make clearing sugarcane dues to growers convenient. The cooperative factories want the MSP to be raised from the existing Rs 31 per kilogram to at least Rs 37.20-39.70 in line with the past increases in fair and remunerative price (FRP) of sugarcane. Cooperative sugar factories have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to increase the minimum sale price (MSP) of sugar to improve their cash flows that would make clearing sugarcane dues to growers convenient. The cooperative factories want the MSP to be raised from the existing Rs 31 per kilogram to at least Rs 37.20-39.70 in line with the past increases in fair and remunerative price (FRP) of sugarcane. READ MORE The company has moved the Bombay High Court against Touch Healthcare, Quality Care India, and the Evercare Group management for an alleged breach of contract after its (Maxs) offer to acquire Care Hospitals was turned down.

Fino Payments Bank: The firm reported a 25.3 per cent YoY growth in March quarter net at Rs 22.08 crore, backed by a 13.4 per cent increase in total income to Rs 323.43 crore.

Astec LifeSciences: The company reported a net loss of nearly Rs 5 crore for Q4FY23 as against a net profit of Rs 43.04 crore in Q4FY22. Total income plunged 53.5 per cent YoY to Rs 129.54 crore. The firm reported a 25.3 per cent YoY growth in March quarter net at Rs 22.08 crore, backed by a 13.4 per cent increase in total income to Rs 323.43 crore.

Sasken Technologies: The companys Q4 net profit plunged over 36 per cent to Rs 17.07 crore for the quarter ended March 2023 when compared with Rs 26.88 crore in the quarter ended March 2022. Total income was down 2.2 per cent YoY at Rs 111.27 crore.


Social discussion forum Reddit has rolled out new features to make it easier for Redditors and publishers to share content on and off Reddit for both iOS and Android users.

Earlier, when a user came across a post, conversation, or meme on Reddit, the company did not make it easy to send it to others.

However, the company is now making it easier for Redditors to quickly and easily share Reddit content they love on other social platforms without compromising their Reddit identity.

"On Reddit's native apps for iOS and Android, you'll now find -- an updated 'shared link' preview for text posts that Redditors have shared via messaging services. The appearance of the shared post now includes a visual preview of the content, the subreddit name, and total upvotes and comments," Reddit said in a blogpost.

With this feature, Redditors get the ability to share content directly from Reddit to Instagram Stories without having to first screenshot or download content.

Moreover, Reddit users get a new custom 'share sheet' featuring the Redditor's most used sharing channels, which appears when the user clicks on the share icon under a post, making it easier to publish without having to leave Reddit.

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The company also introduced a one-tap screenshot-sharing experience, allowing users to share content without saving images to their device -- meaning they can link back to the content rather than only sending a screenshot.

In addition, Reddit introduced a new toolbox that makes it easier to display Reddit content on their own platforms to make sharing easier for publishers.

"This new toolbox comes with easy-to-use, self-serve tooling and includes features that clearly outline the predictable height of a post or comment, more prominently showcase the community the content is from and display the total tally of upvotes and comments," Reddit stated.

Publishers can also now add a call to action to join the conversation.

--IANS

shs/prw/bg
As many as 328 people were killed and 565 others injured in 304 road accidents within 15 days, from April 15 to April 29, during the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival rush in Bangladesh, said a report published here.

According to Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a passenger welfare association, most of the accidents involved motorcycles as a total of 167 people were killed and 120 others injured in 165 motorcycle accidents, Xinhua news agency reported.

The organisation said it collected the data based on reports in national dailies, online news portals and electronic media in Bangladesh.

Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of the organisation, revealed the information at a press conference held in the capital Dhaka on Tuesday.

He said road crashes and road accident-related deaths during this Eid season were 18.2 per cent and 21.1 per cent, respectively, lower than in last year's Eid rush.

According to the report, the condition of the country's roads and highways was relatively better than before during this year's Eid rush due to the government's continuous development efforts.

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--IANS

int/sha
MBABANE  The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) will not issue voters cards for this years elections.

This was revealed by EBC educator Vusumuzi Mdluli during the Mahamba Gorge Hiking on Sunday when he was given an opportunity to address participants. Mdluli encouraged the hikers to participate in all the elections stages from registration up to the secondary elections. He noted that in the previous elections, young people would register in their numbers but then did not show up during the voting stages. He therefore encouraged young people to fully participate in the elections till the end.

required

Mdluli said instead of the voters card, voters would be required to provide their national identity cards (ID) throughout all the stages of the elections. EBC Communications Officer Mbonisi Bhembe confirmed the said changes. He said issuing the voters cards came at a cost and that cost was for the taxpayer to carry. Bhembe said therefore as EBC, it was their duty to ensure that all costs of the elections were not exorbitant. He noted that the voters card was made strong such that even today there were people who still had them and such showed that indeed the voters cards were costly. Bhembe also stated that there were other changes proposed for the upcoming elections. He said such included the amendments in the legislation governing the elections. He said such amendments were still being deliberated in Parliament and was currently consulting stakeholders on those amendments. He highlighted that such would look into changing the period which allowed people vote in areas where they have stayed for three months.

recommendation

He said the recommendation was to change that period to at least six months. Bhembe said they were also looking at making changes in period for checking of voters roll from 14 days upwards in order to allow voters to have enough time to check the voters roll and identify any errors and names of people who had registered from areas where they did not originate from.

He also stated that they were also working around amending the number of nominees from the three to 20. He said they aimed to make it four upwards in order to allow inclusion of all groups like the youth, disabled one, women and men. He said the minimum of three nominees showed that already one group was left out.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will travel to Pakistan this week on a maiden visit during which he will hold strategic talks with the country's top officials and is expected to attend a trilateral meeting involving Afghanistan, according to a media report.

The Chinese leader would land in Islamabad on May 5 immediately after attending the SCO Foreign Ministers' Meet 2023 in India.

Dunya News channel reported quoting sources that the Qin would hold strategic talks with Pakistani officials during the visit on May 6.

Pakistan and China are also expected to hold a trilateral meeting with Afghanistan to discuss the regional situation.

The moot would be held in Islamabad and it would be attended by interim Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

A UN Security Council committee on Monday agreed to allow the Muttaqi to travel to Pakistan from Afghanistan next week to meet with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China, diplomats said.

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Muttaqi has long been subjected to a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo under Security Council sanctions.

Chinese and Pakistani officials have both said in the past that they would welcome Taliban-led Afghanistan into the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project, part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.

Afghanistan sits as a key geographical trade and transit route between South and Central Asia and has billions of dollars of untapped mineral resources. The Taliban seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war.

The Security Council committee allowed Muttaqi to travel to Uzbekistan last month for a meeting of the foreign ministers of neighbouring countries of Afghanistan to discuss urgent peace, security, and stability matters.
India is among the 14 countries that do not adhere to any protocols concerning international parental child abduction (IPCA), according to a United States report.

The Department of State's 2023 annual report on IPCA that was submitted to the US Congress on Tuesday was referring to a pattern of noncompliance.

"India does not adhere to any protocols with respect to international parental child abduction. In 2022, India continued to demonstrate a pattern of noncompliance. Specifically, the competent authorities in India persistently failed to work with the Department of State to resolve abduction cases," it said.

"As a result of this failure, 65 per cent of requests for the return of abducted children remained unresolved for more than 12 months," the report added.

The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (1980), signed by 96 countries, provides for a mechanism to return a child internationally abducted by a parent from one member country to another.

On average, these cases remained unresolved for three years and ten months. The mediation cell, established in 2018 by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights with the objective of mediating custody disputes, is yet to resolve any abduction cases between the United States and India, it said.

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India was previously cited for demonstrating a pattern of noncompliance in the 2015-2022 annual reports. In 2022, the department received one initial inquiry from a parent regarding a possible abduction to India for which no additional assistance was requested or necessary documentation was received as of December 31, 2022.

After India formally refused the proposal for a US-India Joint Committee on IPCA in 2021, the department presented a new proposal to the Indian government to create a bilateral dialogue on IPCA following the US-India Consular Dialogue. In response to which, in October 2022, India hosted representatives from the Office of Children's Issues in its capital and held IPCA discussions for the first time outside of the annual Consular Dialogue, it said.

The State Department said in 2022, the competent authorities in India regularly failed to work with the Department of State toward the resolution of pending abduction cases.

Moreover, the competent authorities have failed to resolve cases due to a lack of viable legal options, which contributed to a pattern of noncompliance, it added.

The other "non-complying" countries as stated by the report are Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras, Jordan, Peru, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
MBABANE  Having finance reserved in a fund for future incidents that may need funding did not sit well with some Members of Parliament (MPs).

This, after Chairman of the Ministry of Finance Portfolio Committee and Lobamba Lomdzala MP, Marwick Khumalo, moved for the adoption of the report of the Finance Portfolio Committee on the Revenue Stabilisation Fund Regulations, 2023. In his motivation for the adoption of the report, Khumalo shared that; if there was a windfall or a bumper harvest, it says as a country, we should save for the future because nobody knew what it had in store.

announced

He highlighted that government, through the Ministry of Finance, recently announced that Eswatini received over E11 billion from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and it was of utmost importance for the country to save for the future from this money. He shared that it was for that reason that the Ministry of Finance saw it fit to come up with the idea to have the fund, which would keep the funding from windfalls, for future use. He also shared that initially, government had planned to keep E2 billion in the fund but the amount was revised to E1.5 billion. However, as much as they did not entirely oppose the formulation of the fund, some MPs questioned the rationale behind having a fund while people in some parts of the country were in dire need of food and feeder roads.

deplorable

They made an example of the road network, especially in the rural areas, which were in a deplorable state. One of the MPs to question the formulation of the fund was Nkilongo MP Timothy Myeni, who shared that a hungry nation was an angry one. Why not feed the people first then we can talk about having a fund that will keep money for future use. It does not make any sense to me to have money stored in a fund when it should be used to rehabilitate roads that are badly damaged across the country, he submitted. Lomahasha MP Ndumiso Masimula also shared his discontent on having money stored in a fund when there were a lot of situations in the country that needed urgent funding.

irregularities

There are no drugs in our hospitals and there are no teachers at schools, all these irregularities need funding. This is a good initiative which I support but the question remains, why would we want to put money in a fund when there are so many critical areas that need urgent funding? he wondered. The same sentiments were shared by Somntongo MP Dumisani Mbhamali, who also voiced his concerns on having a fund to keep money for future catastrophes when the same funding should be made available for current critical areas that need funding.

Meanwhile, Mkhiweni MP Michael Masuku, was of the view that this was a good initiative that needed the support of the MPs because it was meant to help the country efficiently deal with unforeseen circumstances in future. He also queried if the fund would not clash with the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), to which Khumalo responded to the negative.

Khumalo explained to the MPs that there was a formula in place that would ensure that each time the money was withdrawn from the fund, transparency would prevail and it would be accounted for. He made an example that when an individual wanted to make a loan from a financial institution, they were required to have a strong financial muscle to convince the bank that they would be able to repay the loan and the same concept applied with a country when it wanted to make a loan from other international institutions providing same.

surety

He said the fund would act as surety, that indeed the country was capable of repaying whatever loan that may be urgently needed in future to service cases of emergency. The objective of the fund is to provide fiscal sustainability through addressing the SACU revenue volatility caused by the critical nature of common revenue pool and the inherent forecasting error, reserving funds from the SACU revenue receipts and reserving other revenue streams to address future revenue shortfalls that may be experienced by the government of Eswatini periodically during the budgeting period.
MBABANE  Some SNAT members have alleged that they did not attend the recent mass meeting because the union was now managed like a political party.

It is worth noting that the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) was supposed to convene an extra-ordinary general meeting, which did not take place last Friday, as the members failed to form a quorum. According to the sources, the SNAT members grievances were not taken into consideration because of a faction that aligned with political parties within the union. They alleged that it was due to this reason that they decided to not attend the unions meetings, as they felt that their issues were not taken into consideration.

Elections

The source revealed that the issues allegedly started during the unions previous elections, where only three potential candidates names were supposed to be voted into office were circulated. The source alleged that those individuals belonged to some political parties, which, however, will not be named as the allegations could not be verified. We have been told by some of our colleagues that there is a slate currently circulating with the names of the candidates supposed to be voted into the unions next elections to be held in 2026. Some of the union members who are also aligned to political parties had already started doing character assassination, said the concerned SNAT member.

Challenge

Another SNAT member, who preferred anonymity, said the unions elections were now more politically motivated, which was a challenge. The source revealed that the main challenge was that the capabilities of any nominated candidate were no longer taken into consideration before being voted into office. The political parties have saturated the union to the extent that even during their elections, people are vying for their own candidate from a preferred political party. When sought for comment with regard to the aforementioned allegations against the union, the Secretary General, Lot Vilakati, said he had no comment at the moment. He said he did not know whether those teachers were part of the union or not. He then invited this reporter to the SNAT Centre where he would explain everything that needed to be clarified.
World-class athletes bagged top honors at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Paris on Monday, the first in-person ceremony since the pandemic. Chinese American freestyle skier Eileen Gu won Action Sportsperson of the Year, while Lionel Messi was crowned Sportsman of the Year for the second time and jointly took home the World Team of the Year award with Lisandro Martinez for Argentinas World Cup-winning mens soccer team. Other winners included sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and tennis player Carlos Alcaraz

May 09, 2023 06:06 PM
MBABANE  A man has laid a complaint with the police over a derogatory post on Facebooks popular page, known as Ladies House Eswatini.

*Mbongiseni of Mliba, who is also a pastor, Gospel artist and promoter, reported to the Manzini Police Station on Monday that he was being harassed by the mother of his 11-year-old child *Nompilo, who alleged that he was an absent father. Information gathered was to the effect that the social media harassment started early this year. Before that, the two had been constantly quarrelling over child maintenance issues. In an interview, the man claimed that the abuse started immediately after the death of popular South African Rapper Kiernan Forbes, who was also known as AKA. Mbongiseni produced a post that he alleged was posted by the mother of his child, where she stated that he should have died instead of AKA. The post was posted in the Ladies House Eswatini group. This is a popular controversial group on Facebook known for its adult content as well as its penchant for accusing men of infidelity and running away from parenting responsibilities. It also exposes alleged scammers.

Post

The first post that appeared on February 20 read: Kuze kufe indvondza lenaka umntfwanayo nkosiyami. Kube mane kufe (name withheld) lohlala eBuhleni ngabe kunani jovongcwele.

This loosely translates to mean: I lament the death of a man who cared for his child (AKA), instead of (Mbongiseni) who stays at Buhleni, dear God. The post was then followed by a number of comments, some of which were derogatory, while others asked the poster why she had not involved the mans parents. Those who knew Nompilo personally condemned her for posting such, while others were hyping her and demanded that she revealed more information about him. The next post was Mbongisenis picture, which was captioned here is the man of God who does not pay child support. These posts, according to Mbongiseni, were followed by a series of derogatory posts.

When he was asked why the mother of his child made such allegations about him, he mentioned several reasons. Firstly, he alleged that Nompilo took the child from his custody and ran away with her. He said he had not had access to his child for quite some time because she had been smuggled to South Africa, where she was also schooling. Secondly, he said he learnt that his daughter was using another mans surname, not his or her mothers surname. He said that created more questions for him. Having said that, Mbongiseni said when Nompilo was pregnant, her family reported the pregnancy to his family and he never denied it. He stated that the reason he ended up going to report her to the police was that he felt that he was losing his temper and was at the verge of doing something he would regret. Inasmuch as I do not have a stable income, I am a man and cannot run away from my responsibilities. I do not know what she is planning to achieve by insulting me on Facebook, he said.

Information gathered was that law enforcers had made means to speak to Nompilo but she was out of the country, therefore, she could not be reached. Deputy Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni said a formal charge had not been laid against the poster. She confirmed, however, that Mbongiseni had laid a complaint about the harassment he was receiving on Facebook to the police. Worth noting, the tendency of posting people on social media, particularly on Facebook, amounts to criminal defamation and possible jail time. The law defines criminal defamation as the unlawful and intentional publication of a matter concerning another, which tends to injure his/her reputation. The case-law suggests that words are defamatory if they tend to expose a person to hatred, contempt or ridicule, or if they tend to diminish the esteem in which the person to whom they refer to is held by others.

Section 17 (1) of the Computer Crime and Cybercrime Act 2022, states that a person who intentionally engages, or solicits or abets another in the furtherance of cyber bullying of another person commits an offence and is liable, on conviction to a fine not exceeding E100 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years. Section 28 of the same Act stipulates that a person who intentionally and without lawful excuse or justification or in excess of a lawful excuse or justification initiates any electronic communication, with the intention to coerce, intimidate, insult, harass, or cause emotional distress to a person using a computer system, to support hostile behaviour, commits an offence and is liable, on conviction to a fine not exceeding E100 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years.

NB: Pseudonyms used to protect the minor involved in the matter and that no one has been charged for any offence for now.
MBABANE  The death of a police recruit, who was also a member of newly-formed political party, Swazis First Democratic Front (SFDF), has raised eyebrows regarding the vetting process of the police service.

It is a known fact that people who are affiliated to political parties do not get recruited into the countrys security forces and this was said in various quarters. At the time when the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) started the recruitment exercise for aspiring officers, the aspirants were told that there would be a vetting exercise to ensure that only those who qualified and met the criterion of the police service would be recruited. However, it would seem one person, at least for now, managed to slip through the vetting process. This was in the late aspiring cop, Simhle Fakudze, who was also a member of the SFDF.

Already

It would seem at the time when Fakudze joined the police service, she was already a member of the SFDF. It could not be ascertained as to when Fakudze joined the service as a recruit following that the aspirants were called in different stages. Fakudze beat the vetting process as she requested to be removed from all the groups of the political party before attending the REPS interview. The police recruit died on Saturday following a nasty accident which happened at Nyanyali, along the Yith Abantu Highway, between Tri-Cash and Nkwene. A relative, who preferred anonymity, confirmed Fakudzes passing. According to the family member, Fakudze, who was training as a police officer, was returning to the Police Academy on Saturday when she met her death. The relative stated that she had arrived at her parental home at Hluthi on Friday to check on her children and mother. He said Fakudze hitched-hiked from KaMjuda in Nhlangano. This was after we had lunch together in Nhlangano as she had offered to buy me a meal, the distraught relative said.

He said after eating, he accompanied her to the hiking spot and a car stopped and she jumped in. The family member said when they were around Mkhondvo, a van approached and there was a head-on collision and three people died, including Fakudze. According to the relative, all three people who died had hitched-hiked a lift. Furthermore, he said they were struggling to come to terms with Fakudzes death as they were banking all hopes on the deceased to take care of the family. The relative said Fakudzes mother was not employed and relied on odd jobs for a living. He said the mother was hoping things would be better following her daughters employment by the police service. The relative stated that they were not sure on whether Fakudze continued to participate in her partys activities or not after being recruited. What I know is that she left SFDF following pressure that she wanted a job, hence she had to choose (the police service), the relative said.

However, the family member confirmed that Fakudze was a comrade at heart. When questioned on whether REPS was aware of Fakudzes affiliation to SFDF, the relative said they were aware that she was once a member but had left the party. The SFDF announced her tragic passing. Deputy President Dr Siphetfo Dlamini made the announcement. Dlamini stated that the family and relatives of the late Fakudze were working on the funeral logistics, adding that more information would be shared in due course. SFDF Youth President, Sihle Ndwandwe, said Fakudze was among their first members and was present when it was launched on December 10, 2022. Ndwandwe said Fakudze was among the 100 members who were present during the launch and there was nothing she said about her previous political affiliations. Asked on whether they were aware that Fakudze was training as a police officer, Ndwandwe said they knew as she did not hide it.

Registration

Upon registration for membership at SFDF, she mentioned that she was unemployed, Ndwandwe said. She said after a few days, Fakudze requested to be removed from the partys WhatsApp groups as she was going to attend an interview with the police service and they might want go through her cellphone. She did not formally report thereafter on what her position was, although we were aware that she was training at the Police Academy, Ndwandwe said. The youth president stated that whenever the organisation held activities in Nhlangano, Fakudze would show up whenever she could. She said as a result, Fakudze attended the late Muzi Mmemas funeral and when a branch was launched at Ntondozi, she was also present. These activities, Ndwandwe said, were conducted after Fakudze had joined the Police Academy.

REPS: We cant confirm Fakudzes affiliation

MBABANE  We cannot confirm whether the late Simhle Fakudze was a member of Swazis First Democratic Front (SFDF).

The above sentiments were shared by the Deputy Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni. Mnguni confirmed though that Fakudze was a police recruit, but distanced herself from her being politically affiliated.

Affiliation

However, she said even though they could not confirm the deceaseds political affiliation, vetting at the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) for aspiring officers was a continous exercise. Even though the aspiring officers have been accepted and are training, the exercise has not stopped, she said when asked if they knew that Fakudze had affiliations to a political party. Mnguni said vetting was carried out until they were satisfied, adding that it was most likely that with Fakudze, they were eventually going to find out the truth.

According to Mnguni, the Police Act was flexible that the Office of the national commissioner (NATCOM) of Police could dismiss any individual found to be affiliated to political parties, once found.
CAMEROUN :: Cameroon Reformation Party Set For First Participation in Elections.

Cameroon Reformation Party Set For First Participation in Elections.

National President, Foligar Lang says ready for candidature, discloses reforms for Cameroonians



The National President of the Cameroon Reformation Party (CRP) political party, Foligar Lang has revealed that the party will be having its first participation in elections in Cameroon in the year 2025. He disclosed the information in an interview granted The Voice on April 2, 2023

He told us "We are definitely going to be participating in all forms of elections starting from 2025 and we're quite ready for municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections. I for one, I am pretty sure I am ready for the candidature" , the UK-based young Cameroonian business man disclosed.

The announcement came on the heels of a political meeting the CRP organised in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, to launch the party in the neighborhood of Mbankolo. According to the party leader, the meeting was more or less a sensitisation and empowerment forum to guide the new party militants on the values and vision of the Cameroon Reformation Party. With more of youths in attendance, Mr Foligar Lang said the first meeting was basically introducing the new party members on how politics operates in Cameroon, including the reforms and changes the party members can bring into the Cameroonian political space to stand out.



"The meeting was to introduce the party to the common people who have been longing for a while, and writing letters to us to see that they can have access to the membership of the party. We wanted to enlighten them on the new understanding of the Cameroon Reformation Party . We as a reformation party , need to sensitise young Cameroonians to know what type of reforms we got on the table for them especially in the field of education", he added.

Expanding on the reforms the CRP is bringing into the Cameroonian political scene, the party President further told us that "If you look through on our scheme far back in 2010, we have political reforms, constitutional reforms, environmental reforms , educational reforms and all sorts of reforms that are quite necessary. We equally have military, police, judiciary, women and children reforms".



In his call to Cameroonians within the reformative vision of the CRP, Foligar Lang urged that "We have to look into all these reforms and build a momentum on how we can change the situation of Cameroonians, and the way Cameroon is being run, so that everyone in this land can feel free and happy and live well on the way the country is being run by the Cameroon Reformation Party".



The decision of the CRP to participate in future elections in Cameroon, Foligar Lang made us to understand, has not just been taken overnight. He assured that the party is prepared for future political competitions, stating that "we have been doing sensitisation over the years. It is a hard job when you have great fine information to give out to people. But it is easy when you don't have great fine information to give out to people. So, our eggs are still very hard to hatch because the duty and responsibility we got in mind to give out Cameroonians , will take a lot of time. So, we are building up momentum so that by the time we arrive on the ground to meet the needy people, just like we did in Mbankolo, we will know Cameroonians understand their rights and freedoms as to what they can do and what they cannot do".



According revelations from the party's President, the CRP has been facing challenges from impostors whom he said have been for some time parading the corridors of the Ministry of Territorial Administration alleging to be the leaders of the party. He however said the problem was resolved after he drew the attention of the Ministry of Territorial Administration on the issue.
Across China: Ancient Hainanese brocade shines in Italy

Xinhua) 15:47, May 03, 2023

Liu Xianglan, a national-level practitioner of the spinning, dyeing and embroidery traditions of the Li people, displays Li brocade weaving techniques during Milan Design Week in Milan, Italy, on April 17, 2023. (Xinhua)

HAIKOU, May 2 (Xinhua) -- What wonder can be created when millennia-old Li brocade traditions from China's Hainan island meet the global fashion hub of Milan, Italy?

Donning a traditional Li ethnic group costume, 54-year-old Liu Xianglan sits on the ground and weaves colorful yarn into delicate brocade, using a waist loom she brought to Milan from her home in the city of Wuzhishan.

Liu is a national-level practitioner of the spinning, dyeing and embroidery traditions of the Li people. This ancient craft was put on display during Milan Design Week, which ran from April 18 to 23.

"It was quite a spectacle. Many curious foreigners came to take a look at my weaving of the Li brocade," Liu said, still excited.

With a history of over 3,000 years, Li brocade weaving techniques have been passed down through women alone.

Liu has been learning the craft from her mother since she was little. Today, she trains local villagers in the techniques of Li brocade and teaches in local schools, hoping to "help the traditional skills survive time."

More young talent is now joining Liu's cause and helping to promote the ancient brocade on the international stage.

During Milan Design Week, nearly 100 Li brocade works were created through a design platform led by the Academy of Fine Arts at Hainan Normal University.

Zhang Yin, dean of the academy, said that designers are innovating to make Li brocade more fashionable and attractive to young people.

The traditional brocade is embracing modern techniques, new materials and clothing styles favored by young people, he said. It is also being made into home decorations and other creative products.

The exhibition of the Li culture at Milan Design Week showcased Li brocade costumes and weaving skills, and also featured performances of Li folk songs and musical instruments.

The show was the largest of its kind where the Li culture stepped onto the international stage, said Rao Qiongjuan, director of the office for intangible cultural heritage protection under Hainan's department of tourism, culture, radio, television and sports.

Rao said she believes the occasion was of special significance to Hainan's ethnic cultures. "It was a kind of exchange and mutual learning between cultures," she said.

In Milan, the Hainan delegation also met with various Italian brands. Rao said she expects commercial cooperation with local brands to help integrate Li brocade patterns into fashion design.

"The exhibition brought home the bright prospects of innovation in Li brocade," Zhang said. "The internationalization of the brocade has just begun."

A model presents a Li brocade creation during Milan Design Week in Milan, Italy, on April 17, 2023. (Xinhua)

A model presents a Li brocade creation during Milan Design Week in Milan, Italy, on April 17, 2023. (Xinhua)

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
New Delhi, May 3 (UNI) Supreme Court in its verdict on Wednesday refused to grant relief to Babbar Khalsa terrorist, Balwant Singh Rajoana, seeking commutation of his death penalty to life imprisonment, but it asked the Centre to take a call in his mercy plea at an appropriate time in future.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice B R Gavai and also comprising Justice Vikram and Sanjay Karol, passed the order, after hearing Rajoana's plea seeking commutation of death penalty to life imprisonment in the 1995, former Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh assassination case.

"We ask the competent authorities to take a decision as and when they deem necessary, on the mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana," the Bench led by Justice Gavai, read out the judgement.

The Apex Court had reserved its verdict on March 02 this year after hearing from convict- Rajoana, Centre and other respective parties.

For killing the Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh in 1995, Rajaona was sentenced to the gallows in 2007 by a lower court in Punjab, and it was also upheld in 2010 by the Punjab and Haryana High Court and also finally by the Supreme Court in 2012.

Former Attorney General (AG) of India and Senior Supreme Court lawyer, Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Rajoana, had said that the death row convict- Rajoana has served 27 years in jail since 1996 and his mercy petition was filed in 2012 but still not decided.

"Keeping a prisoner on death row for so long violates their fundamental rights," Rohatgi told the Supreme Court and pleaded for leniency in converting his death penalty to life imprisonment.

He prayed to the Supreme Court to commute his death sentence on the ground of the long delay in considering the mercy petition.

"This man (Rajoana) is suffering only due to the inordinate delay. His (Rajoana's) death sentence has to be commuted," Rohatgi told the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court was hearing the plea filed by former Punjab Police constable and pro-Khalistan militant, Rajoana, who has been in jail for the past 26 years, for his involvement in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.

After serving 26 years in jail, including around 10 years on death row, Rajoana, desperately pleaded to the Top Court and sought its mercy in passing orders for his commutation from death penalty to life imprisonment, in the former Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh's assassination case.

The convict, Rajoana had knocked the doors of the Supreme Court and filed the writ petition in 2020, on the ground that the Central Government had in 2019 announced its decision to commute his death penalty to life imprisonment and grant remission to 8 other convicts to mark the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.

Rajoana, in his petition, had sought for the implementation of this Centre's decision. He also sought an alternate prayer to commute his death sentence on the ground of long delay in considering the mercy petition.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had said the mercy petition cant be considered as it was filed by another organisation and not Rajoana himself and that it cant be decided until the appeals of other convicts were decided by the top court.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) K M Nataraj, representing the Centre, has argued that the mercy petition cannot be decided until the appeals filed by other convicts in the case before the apex court are not disposed of. Also, Rajoana has not challenged his conviction or sentence, either before the high court or the Supreme Court.

UNI SM GNK
Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 11:32PM

Photo: Jorge Urosa/Pexels

When Twitter opted to shut down its free API, this caused issues for public institutions that rely on this feature to disseminate information on the platform. The social network is restoring this free access to the app's programming framework for verified government and publicly-owned services that use the API for "critical purposes," including emergency notifications, transportation updates, and weather alerts.

The social network wanted to earn money from the use of its API. So, Twitter outlined a three-tier pricing strategy for its API in March. The free access was limited to bots and testers that only needed to write posts. It allowed just 1,500 tweets per month and one app ID, limiting the use for creators who need to make frequent updates. Meanwhile, the basic access costs USD 100 per month with fixed caps on tweets. And businesses need to use the multiple enterprise-level tiers, which could cost tens of thousands of dollars per month.

Source
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Abstinence: The practice of choosing not to do a certain behavior or give into a desire or addiction, such as using tobacco or alcohol.

Advanced cancer: A general term describing the late stages of cancer, when the disease has spread from where it started (the primary site) to other parts of the body. When the cancer has spread only to the nearby areas, it is called locally advanced cancer. If it has spread to distant parts of the body, it is called metastatic cancer. See also metastasis, metastasize.

African American/Black: People in the United States who can trace their lineage to Africa. Some Black people do not identify as African American. The Black lineage contains many histories, cultures, and experiences, including Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latino populations.

Age-adjusted cancer death rates: A cancer death rate that has been adjusted with a math calculation to allow for differences in age so that 2 populations can be more directly compared.

American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN): A person with origins in any of the First Peoples in North, Central, and South America who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment. These include Navajo, Blackfeet, Inupiat, Yupik, and Central and South American Indian groups. The AIAN is a federally recognized tribal entity with certain rights of self-government and are entitled to receive US federal benefits, services, and protections.

Apoptosis: Programmed cell death. Apoptosis is controlled by genes that cause cells to die at certain times, for example, when DNA is damaged. This type of cell death is different from the process of cell death by decay. Some drugs used to treat cancer cause apoptosis.

Behavioral research: Research into what motivates people to act the way they do. The results of such research can be used to help encourage people to adopt healthy lifestyles and follow life-saving screening and treatment guidelines.

Biomarker (also called molecular marker or signature molecule): A measurable molecular, genetic, chemical, or physical characteristic in the blood or other bodily fluids, such as sweat and tears, that is a sign of a normal or abnormal process or of a health condition or disease. A biomarker may be used to see how well the body responds to a treatment for a disease. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies 7 categories of biomarkers: susceptibility biomarkers, diagnostic biomarkers, response biomarkers, safety biomarkers, prognostic biomarkers, monitoring biomarkers, and predictive biomarkers.

Biorepository: A facility that collects, catalogs, and stores samples of biological materials. The ACS Cancer Prevention Studies biorepository includes blood, urine, buccal cells (from the inside of the cheek), cancer tissue, and stool.

Biospecimen: A sample of a biological material, such as blood, urine, tissue, cells, or stool collected from participants for research.

BRCA1: A gene which, when damaged (mutated), puts a person at higher risk of developing breast, ovarian, prostate, and other types of cancer, compared to people who do not have the mutation. See also gene, mutation.

BRCA2: A gene which, when damaged (mutated), puts a person at higher risk of developing breast, ovarian, prostate, and other types of cancer, compared to people who do not have the mutation. See also gene, mutation.

Cancer burden: How the number of cancer cases and results of cancer affect a country, community, family, or one person. For example, the cancer burden for a specific person depends on their risk factors for cancer, how well they manage their modifiable risk factors, how closely they follow the recommended cancer screening schedule, if they develop cancer, and their access to high-quality cancer treatment. See What Is Cancer Control?

Cancer care continuum: The full scope and progression of cancer care, from promoting good health (wellness) to preventing cancer, detecting it early, diagnosing it, treating it, and surviving it.

Cancer control: Organized programs that focus on reducing the number of people who develop cancer, have complications from it, and die from it. It uses approaches that have been tested through research to control the number of cancer cases as well as the effects of cancer. Programs may include cancer prevention and early detection, treatment, palliative care, patient and family services, professional education and training, and cancer survivorship care. A cancer control program is successful when it assures that people are as healthy as possible, regardless of race, age, gender, location, social level, or economic status. See What Is Cancer Control?

Cancer death (see cancer mortality)

Cancer death rate (see cancer mortality rate)

Cancer disparities: Harmful differences between population groups, such as differences in the number of people who receive standard cancer care or in how well they do (their outcomes) after receiving care. For instance, without standard cancer care, people are more likely not be diagnosed with cancer until it's at a late stage, and they're more likely to die from the cancer. See Cancer Disparities ACS Research Highlights.

Cancer epidemiology research: Studying the distribution and determinants of cancerwho gets it, where they live, and the risk factors that contribute to its development.

Cancer incidence (also called cancer occurrence): The number of new diagnoses of cancer, or new cases, in a group. Incidence counts can give information about a specific group but cant be used to compare groups because the numbers alone dont account for the size of the group or age ranges of the people in it. Comparing groups requires cancer incidence rates. Compare to prevalence.

Cancer incidence rate: The number of people who have a new diagnosis of cancer within a defined population (such as people aged 65 and older) and during a specified period of time (like 2019-2021). Incidence rates are usually given as the count per 100,000 population and are adjusted to account for differences in age.

Cancer mortality (also called cancer deaths): The number of people who die from cancer. Death counts can give information about a single group but cant be used to compare groups because the counts dont account for the size of the group or age ranges of the people in it. Comparing groups requires cancer death rates. See Understanding Cancer Death Rates.

Cancer mortality rate (also called cancer death rate): The number of people who die from cancer within a defined population such as Black women (but not limited to Black women with cancer) during a specific time period. The cancer death rate is not confined to people with cancer, it includes all people in the population. Cancer death rates are given as the number of deaths per 100,000 of the population. Researchers account (adjust) for age when they calculate death rates so they can track trends over time, and so they can compare groups. Cancer death rates are the best measures researchers use to track progress against cancer. See Understanding Cancer Death Rates.

Cancer occurrence (see cancer incidence)

Cancer-predisposition genes: Genes that are vulnerable to cancer-causing variants or changes (mutations). In some cases, a cancer-predisposition gene is inherited, or passed along from generation to generation. Several dozen cancer-predisposition genes have been identified, and about 5 to 10% of all cancers result directly from those that are inherited from a parent. For example, BRCA1 and BRCA2 are inherited cancer predisposition genes, and mutations on them increase the risk for developing certain cancers.

Cancer prevalence: The number of people in a population with a history of a cancer diagnosis.

Cancer-related outcomes: The results of a cancer diagnosishow it affects health, quality of life, and length of survival. These outcomes are influenced by a patients overall health, access to quality health care, cancer type and stage, response to provided treatments, complications, and follow-up care.

Cancer relative 5-year survival rate: An estimate of the percentage of people who will be alive 5 years after a diagnosis of cancer compared with people who havent been diagnosed with cancer. The relative survival rate shows whether a disease shortens life and is used as a way to approximate the expected lifetime. For example, a relative 5-year cancer survival rate of 80% means that compared to the number of people without cancer who are alive, 80% of people with cancer will be living 5 years after their diagnosis.

Cancer surveillance research: Ongoing and systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and reporting of cancer data about the new cancer cases, extent of disease, screening tests, treatment, survival, and death. Its goal is to use data to guide public health policy and action, such as the distribution of health care resources.

Cancer survival rate: The percentage of people who survive a certain type of cancer for a specific amount of time (often 5 years). For example, if a 5-year survival rate is 77%, it means that of all the people who have that type of cancer, 77 out of every 100 will be living at least 5 years after their diagnosis.

Cancer survivor: The American Cancer Society describes anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer as a cancer survivor, regardless of whether they are actively receiving treatment.

Cancer treatment outcomes: How well a person is doing after being treated for cancer, which can depend on how well they respond to treatment, the treatment's side effects, their other health issues, and follow-up care, as well as on the facility where they received care and its geographic location.

Cohort: A group of people, including groups of people who are in a study. See prospective cohort study.

Complete response: When tests after treatment show no signs of disease. A period when a disease is under control. A complete response may not be a cure.

Correlation/Correlational research: The process of establishing a relationship or connection between 2 or more measures.

Correlational research design investigates the relationship between 2 or more variables without interfering with or manipulating them. Results of a correlational study may find a positive or negative relationship, a linear or non-linear relationship, or a partial or multiple relationship. An example of a positive correlation is height and weighttaller people tend to be heavier, and vice versa. In some cases, positive correlation exists because one variable influences the othersuch as ice cream sales and temperature. In other cases, the 2 variables are independent from one another and are influenced by a 3rd variable which may or may not be identified. Scientists can calculate the strength of a relationship between variables, but they cannot assume cause and effect.
New Delhi/Male, May 3 (UNI) The foundation stone laying ceremony for the Maldivian National Defence Force Ekatha Harbour, jointly performed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Maldivian counterpart Mariya Ahmed Didi, stems from an agreement that both nations inked during the visit of EAM S Jaishankar to Maldives in February 2021.

The Indian High Commission in Male tweeted:

Foundation Stone for MNDF 'Ekatha harbour' was jointly laid by RM Rajnath Singh & Defence Minister Mariya Didi. FM Abdulla Shahid also joined.

GoI is committed to support capacity building and capability enhancement of MNDF.

During EAMs visit in 2021, India signed a pact with Maldives to develop, support and maintain a harbour for the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) and Coast Guard for maritime security in the region. As part of it, India is to also support development of other infrastructure needed for the harbour, support the development of communications resources and radar services, and provide training.

The pact was signed in view of the request by Maldives in April 2013 for Indias support and cooperation in enhancing the capability of the MNDF in maritime surveillance, and follow-up requests in 2015 and 2016.

The dockyard is being developed at the Uthuru Thila Falhu (UTF) Naval Base, northwest of Male, and will help strengthen the Maldivian defence capabilities

The Maldives, an archipelago made up of 1,192 coral islands, situated in the Indian Ocean, has a land area of just 300 sq km, with a population of over 5,00,000. The Maldives strategic location can be gauged from the fact that located at the southern and northern parts of the island chain are the only two passages through which ships can pass safely. These two sea lanes of communication (SLOCs) are critical for maritime trade flow between the Gulf of Aden and Gulf of Hormuz in West Asia and the Strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia.

While the Indian Ocean is considered as the key highway for global trade and energy flow, Maldives virtually stands as a toll gate. The two SLOCs are of vital importance for India.

During EAM Jaishankars visit in 2021, India had also signed a USD 50 million defence Line of Credit agreement with Male to boost the maritime capabilities of the island nation.

The USD 50 million credit line agreement for defence projects was signed between the Finance Ministry of Maldives and the Export Import Bank of India.

UNI RN
Photo by Ulysses Ang We were the first to leak out the pricing of the 2012 Mazda CX-5 and now, we can ultimately say for certain that t...
India records 1,331 Covid cases in last 24 hour 09 May 2023 | 1:52 PM New Delhi, May 09 (UNI) India recorded 1,331 Covid -19 cases in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. see more..

Prez, VP condole loss of lives in MP bus accident 09 May 2023 | 12:39 PM New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday expressed grief over the loss of lives in a bus accident in Madhya Pradesh. see more..

Israeli FM to cut short India visit amid Gaza airstrikes 09 May 2023 | 12:24 PM New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced that he is cutting short his scheduled three-day India visit following the early morning Gaza airstrikes, and will return to his country tonight after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. see more..

SC to hear 'The Kerala Story' case on May 15 09 May 2023 | 12:17 PM New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) Supreme Court on Tuesday, once again, said, it will hear on May 15 the appeal against Kerala High Court's order refusing to stay the release of film 'The Kerala Story'. see more..
Headline, a national media program focused on mental health in Ireland, has partnered with The Carter Center to offer the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism to Irish media.

The fellowship, which was founded by former U.S. First Lady Rosalynn Carter, gives journalists across the world the resources they need to report on mental ill health to help dismantle the stigma that millions of people face every day.

With over 200 alumni across the globe, the fellowship is internationally recognised. The two successful pitches will each receive 10,000 to fund their proposals and will have access to top international experts and resources in the mental health and journalism fields. Ireland is only the second country in Europe ever to participate in the fellowship programme.

Shine, the mental health organisation which houses Headline, works with people living with mental ill health through 1-1 recovery work, national advocacy initiatives, research, the national stigma reduction partnership See Change, and its media programme Headline. Accurate media representation of the lived experience of people with mental ill health is crucial to better understanding that experience, and proposals must include this to be considered.

Headline Programme Leader Aine OMeara said: Weve been working on bringing this fellowship to Irish journalists for a long time, so were thrilled to finally be able to do that. In referencing Headlines 2018 research, Reporting on Mental Health: Challenges Facing Journalists, OMeara said: Its so easy to get mental health journalism wrong, given the nuances of these kinds of stories. Journalists want to cover tough topics, but it's clear the resources arent there to support them in that work. This fellowship gets them closer to achieving that.

Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander said: Were delighted to expand the Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship Program into Ireland. We know that quality reporting on mental health issues can tremendously impact decreasing stigma, educating the public about solutions, and even changing policies on mental health. Were grateful to Headline and Shine for bringing this program to Irish media, adding to the more than 220 fellows who have participated over 25 years.

The main aims of the fellowship are to increase effective and accurate reporting on mental ill health, to equip journalists with the tools needed to produce high-quality work that reflects an understanding of mental ill health, and to develop a diverse cohort of informed journalists who can more effectively report on these issues across evolving and emerging platforms.

Shine CEO Nicola Byrne said: I am delighted that our Headline programme has been selected to facilitate the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism in Ireland. Shine is proud of its long history of working with the Irish media to break down the stigma attached to mental illness. We look forward to seeing how the fellowship empowers the media to continue their good work of amplifying the voice of lived experience of mental ill health.

You can find pervious successful proposals here and more information about the fellowship program on mentalhealthjournalism.org and on @CarterFellows Twitter account.

On May 24, Shine will host a conference in Cork where these themes are explored further. Anyone interested in applying for the fellowship is encouraged to attend and take part in Headlines brainstorming workshop where people with lived experience of mental ill health will discuss the stories that matter most to them.

Headline and The Carter Center will host a fellowship information webinar on Tuesday, May 16. You can register for the event here.

Applications open on May 17 and will close on June 18, 2023.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: fellowship@headline.ie; rennie.sloan@cartercenter.org

About Headline:

Headline is Irelands national media programme for responsible reporting and representation of mental ill health and suicide. Headline operates under the remit of the current national suicide prevention strategy, Connecting for Life, as set out by the National Office for Suicide Prevention. The programme works under four pillars: Research, which is carried out to inform and improve media practices when reporting on mental health challenges and suicide; Training, which supports both students and media professionals to report responsibly on suicide and improve representation of mental illness; Media Monitoring, which enables us to gather real-time information and produce research to further knowledge in the media and mental health fields; and Support, which is achieved by rewarding best-practice mental health reporting at Irelands only dedicated Mental Health Media Awards.

About Shine:

Since its establishment as a national organisation in 1979, Shine has worked tirelessly to shape better policies and services for all those affected by mental health challenges. We support individuals and groups to enhance their recovery, challenge negative attitudes and behaviours and deliver a variety of programmes and services. Shine is proud to be the only national mental health organisation specifically founded to support all family members. Our teams provide a range of services to support individuals with lived experience of mental health challenges and their families, including: Information and Brief Support, Individual Recovery Planning and Support, Peer Support Groups, Recovery Education, Advocacy work and stigma reduction.





About The Carter Center:

A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide. Visit our website CarterCenter.org | Follow us on Twitter @CarterCenter | Follow us on Instagram @thecartercenter | Like us on Facebook Facebook.com/CarterCenter | Watch us on YouTube YouTube.com/CarterCenter
Ambuja Cement reports 8% growth in March quarter

03 May 2023

Ambuja Cement has reported standalone net revenue of INR42,560m (US$520.1m) in the quarter ended 31 March 2023, up from INR39,270m in the same quarter a year earlier, marking 8.4 per cent YoY growth. This growth comes despite the adverse impact on volumes of halting operations at the companys Himachal Pradesh plants for 50 days during the three-month period.

EBITDA over the same period advanced from INR8250m to INR9620m, while the EBITDA margin has improved from 21 to 22.6 per cent. Profit after tax has expanded from INR4940m in the quarter ended 31 March 2022 to INR5020m in the same quarter a year later.

In terms of sales volumes, the company sold 8.1Mt of cement and clinker in the quarter ended 31 March 2023, compared to 7.5Mt in the same quarter a year earlier. This brings the total sales volumes for January 2022 to March 2023 to 37.8Mt. The sustained volume growth is being attributed to an increase in blended cement, with the clinker factor reduced from 62.5 to 60.6 per cent, better route planning and improved operational synergies with its subsidiary, ACC. Meanwhile, waste heat recovery system projects at Marwar, Bhatapara and Rauri have been commissioned for 33MW, while similar projects at Suli, Ambujanagar and Maratha for 48MW are being implemented and progressing well.

Ajay Kapur, director and CEO, Ambuja Cement, said, We are pleased to report another strong performance of Ambuja Cement which has been driven by our strategic initiatives on business excellence, operational efficiencies and synergies. Our focus on operational excellence and cost optimisation measures has yielded improved profitability. We have been able to maintain our growth trajectory and further strengthen our position in the market. With the rise in construction activities across our markets, we see the continuation of the elevated demand and strong volumes in the coming quarters as well."

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Kiwi launches 'credit on UPI' platform

Mumbai, May 3 (UNI) Kiwi, a revolutionary credit card platform, has announced the launch of its all-in-one "Credit on UPI," solution for customers.

Certified by the NPCI, Kiwi is the first app in India that will help customers experience Credit on UPI by issuing Rupay Cards in partnership with banks. With this launch, Kiwi aims to create one of the largest direct-to-consumer (D2C) models in the credit market through its cutting-edge mobile application, which offers users the ability to make payments using either a credit card or bank account directly through their phones in a secure manner.

The company has raised $6 million in pre-seed funding from marquee investors - Nexus Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, and a host of angel investors. Kiwi has been co-founded by senior fintech experts and banking industry veterans, Siddharth Mehta (ex-CEO, Freecharge), Mohit Bedi (ex-Axis Bank & PayU), and Anup Agrawal (ex-business head, LazyPay).

Speaking about the launch, Siddharth Mehta, co-founder, Kiwi, said, UPI has become the most inclusive mode of payment in India, with over 30 crore unique users and five crore merchants onboarded on the platform. With the launch of Kiwi app, for the first time in India, users can now leverage the power of a (RuPay) credit card with the convenience and ease of UPI. Our vision is to enable access to credit on UPI for 1 million users over the next 18 months.

RBI recently approved the linking of RuPay Credit Cards to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which will provide a seamless, digitally enabled credit card lifecycle experience for the users. Kiwi users will be issued a RuPay credit card, digitally and instantly. Post receiving the card, users will be able to link the card to UPI on the Kiwi app and will be able to use the Credit on UPI transactions facility at offline as well as online stores. The Kiwi app will also help users manage their cards with a host of facilities like blocking cards, increasing limits, and making card payments while rewarding them for every transaction. Starting today, users will be able to join the waitlist by signing up on the website. The Kiwi app (available on Android and iOS) is expected to go live by mid-May.

Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI said, In our step towards attaining the goal of Digital Payments for All, Kiwi will be a game-changer in the Indian credit card industry. With the monthly expenditure on UPI P2M transactions amounting to approximately Rs. 3.2 lakh crore, which is almost 2.5x larger than the monthly credit card spends, Kiwi is set to capitalize on a significant untapped market. Moreover, the number of unique UPI users are more than 100 times the number of existing card users in India, and the acceptance points for 'Credit on UPI' are anticipated to be five times larger than regular credit card acceptance points. Looking at the whitespace that Kiwi is addressing, were confident that their model will support plenty of Indian credit card users on a daily basis.

Anup Gupta, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners said, Kiwi will offer consumers the best of credit cards and UPI i.e. convenience, rewards and flexible repayment experience of credit cards along with unmatched acceptance rail of UPI which is ubiquitous across India. We are excited to partner with Team Kiwi in their mission to accelerate credit card adoption in India.

Ritesh Banglani, Stellaris Venture Partners said, UPI is the world's second-largest payment network, and is truly world class both in scale and robustness. By enabling credit card usage over UPI, Kiwi will further deepen the consumer value provided by the network. We are thrilled to partner with Kiwi in their quest to revolutionise the Indian credit card market.

UNI JS SY
New Delhi/Male, May 3 (UNI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Maldivian counterpart Mariya Ahmed Didi reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability and security in the Indian Ocean region and recognised the need to work together to address common security challenges. The two ministers jointly laid the foundation stone for the Maldivian National Defence Force Coast Guard Ekatha Harbour, a major grant-in-aid project of India.

During their talks in Male, the two ministers discussed a wide range of regional and global security issues of mutual concern, and agreed to deepen their cooperation in the defence and security domains, a joint statement issued said.

Both Ministers reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability & security in the region and recognised the need to work together to address common security challenges. They underscored the importance of respecting international law & rules-based international order and expressed their commitment to upholding these principles.

The Ministers welcomed the progress made in ongoing defence cooperation between the two neighbours, including joint exercises and exchanges of visits by military officials. They also noted the importance of sharing best practices and expertise in areas such as counter terrorism, disaster management, cyber security and maritime security, it said.

The Ministers agreed to explore additional avenues for cooperation, including in the areas of defence trade, capacity building and joint exercises. They also discussed the need to promote people-to-people contacts and exchanges between the armed forces of both countries.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister Didi attended the ceremony for the commissioning of the replacement ship for Huravee, in the presence of the President of Maldives Ibrahim Mohammed Solih. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the provision of the replacement ship for the aging Huravee, during President Solihs August 2022 visit to India.

Minister Rajnath Singh also gifted MNDF an additional Landing Craft. The handing over of these vessels are in line with India's vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) that seeks to work together with and jointly develop the capabilities of friends and partners for a safe, secure, prosperous and stable Indian Ocean Region, it said.

The visit saw the laying of the foundation stone for the MNDF Coast Guard Ekatha Harbour by Rajnath Singh and Minister Didi. The development of the Coastguard Harbour and repair facility at Sifavaru is one of the biggest grant-in-aid projects of India.

Both Parties reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening the partnership between their countries, and expressed common sentiments that they looked forward to continuing the dialogue and cooperation in the future.

The visit renewed the sense of commitment of the two friendly neighbours to enhance the security and prosperity of their respective countries and the region, it added.

The Defence Ministry in a tweet said:

Security and Growth for all in the Region

In keeping with Prime Minister Shri @narendramodis vision of SAGAR, Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh and Defence Minister of Maldives, Ms @MariyaDidi jointly laid the foundation stone for MNDF Ekatha harbour in Male.

On the handing of the patrol vessel and landing craft, the Defence Minister in a tweet said on Tuesday:

Delighted to handover a Fast Patrol Vessel and a Landing Craft Assault ship to Maldives today. It is a symbol of our shared commitment towards peace & security in the Indian Ocean Region.

UNI RN
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Dhaka, May 3 (UNI) On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of their bilateral relations, Bangladesh and the EU agreed to further deepen their partnership.

This was revealed during the meetings of State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam, MP with the EU dignitaries, including Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen, Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic, European Parliaments Chair of the Committee on International Trade Bernd Lange, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs David McAllister, and EU Special Representative for Human Rights Eamon Gilmore on 2-3 May 2023 in Brussels.

The EU commended Bangladesh on its outstanding development journey and hailed the country as a success story. Bangladesh side gratefully acknowledged the role of the EU in the countrys development since independence, particularly how the EBA has changed the social fabric of the country for the better through its contribution in women empowerment.

The EU was apprised of steps being taken by the government to prepare for graduation and the much bigger role of the EU envisaged in the future, particularly in the areas of post-LDC trade relations, infrastructure development under EUs Global Gateway initiative, green transition, talent partnership for skilled migration, human rights development, etc. Bangladesh expressed hope for an early launching of the Partnership Cooperation Agreement which would be an important institutional and legal mechanism to concretise the elevated relations.

Bangladesh expressed appreciation of the EUs political and humanitarian support for the Rohingya being temporarily sheltered by Bangladesh and sought EUs support for their early repatriation to Myanmar. The two sides also shared their views on different regional and international issues of mutual interest and concerns, including climate change, Russia-Ukraine conflict, Indo-Pacific, combating human trafficking and migrants smuggling, etc.

Bangladesh Ambassador to Belgium and the EU along with Nahim Razzaque, MP and officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy were present during the meetings. State Minister Shahriar Alam is on a four-day visit to Brussels and is covering a packed agenda including meetings with Commissioners of the European Commission, Members of the European Parliament, engagements with European think tanks and international media.

UNI MAZ SY RKM
GraceWorks Church is celebrating its 17th Anniversary this Sunday. To celebrate the occasion, there will be a special outdoor service on the Church campus at 10:30 a.m. There will be a Church Fellowship Dinner at 5 p.m., with special music and activities for children.The church was founded in 2006 by Dr. Dennis Newman and three benefactors, Dr. Don Brock, Gregg Underwood and Bill Worley. Dr. Newman accepted the call of pastor to the interdenominational church. At the first worship service, Dr.Newman emphasized that he wanted the new church to be Christ-centered. He then requested that the church be called GraceWorks.Early in the life of the Church it was decided that a cross was a powerful Christian symbol and could be effective in reaching the unchurched. A 110-foot cross now stands on the hill at the end of Grace Way Road and serves as a prominent landmark in Chattanooga.GraceWorks has three pastors on staff. With over 30 years in Christian ministry, Pastor Tony Leonard has been at GraceWorks since 2018. His primary pastoral responsibility, when hired, was for family ministry. In November of 2020, he transitioned into the role of lead pastor. In addition to preaching, Pastor Leonard also organizes local and international missions for the Church.Dr. Bill Owens has over 50 years in Christian ministry and joined GraceWorks as lead pastor in June 2014. His primary focus currently is in pastoral care ministry  hospital, care facility and in-home visitation, plus coordinating small group ministries. Pastor Owens leads several Bible studies and regularly assists in pulpit ministry.Michael Prettyman serves as GraceWorks worship pastor and has been in Christian ministry for over 25 years. He has been on staff since August of 2016, serving in a multifaceted position, including coordinating all worship services at the church. He also has a monthly ministry to many assisted living and retirement facilities in the Chattanooga/North Georgia area.The public is invited to attend the 10:30 a.m. celebration service Sunday. GraceWorks Church, at 6445 Lee Hwy., is an interdenominational church with 17 years of ministry to the Chattanooga area. A succinct statement of the Churchs beliefs and ministry is, Love God, Love People and Make Disciples.
Police responded to the American Towing, 1900 Shepherd Road, for a disorder between employees and an owner of a vehicle in their possession. Police had responded to the address previously, but a manager/owner never arrived to orchestrate the return of the vehicle. Upon arriving on scene on this date, police found a man who was upset because he was not able to retake possession of his box truck after it had been towed from the Brainerd Walmart parking lot by American Towing. The man was also upset because he believed he was being charged too much for the tow of his truck. An owner of American Towing was on scene and said he was trying to explain that the man needed to provide proof of ownership in order to take his truck out of the tow lot. After extensive searching, the man was able to find documentation that showed he was the owner of the business to which the vehicle is registered. Both men agreed on $700 being the amount needed to settle the tow. Once the man began to leave in his truck, he quickly realized there was an issue with the truck's air braking system. The owner had one of his mechanics check out the issue. It was determined that there was damage to the air lines for the brakes on the rear axle. The man asked how the truck was towed and the owner informed him that it was towed from the rear. This led the man to believe his truck was damaged while being towed by American Towing. The owner said that was not the case, and how could it be proven that the truck was not already damaged, which could have been the reason it was sitting in the Walmart parking lot in the first place. The mechanic at the shop was able to fix the issue and the owner said he was not charging the man, and he just wanted him to take his truck and leave.

* * *

An anonymous caller said there was a white male walking on Cummings Highway and they were concerned for the individual. Officers located the man, who was later identified. He told police that he was heading to the First Horizon Bank. Officers transported the man to the bank at 3604 Tennessee Ave.

* * *

Police observed a suspicious woman at Alpha Lane/Northgate Mall Drive in the drainage ditch. Police approached her and she identified herself. Police ran her info and did not observe any warrants for her. She told police that she and her boyfriend sometimes stay under the ditch while it is raining.

* * *

A man told police he bought a phone from Ace Food Market, 2100 E Main St. He told police the phone was not working and from what police could see, that was true. Police went inside and spoke with an employee. The employee said he would not give a refund because he has a sign that says "no refunds on phones." The employee did say he would give the man a new phone with a sim card in it and take the other phone back, and the man was okay with that. The employee showed police the phone was working and then gave the new operating one to the man. The man then left the scene without incident.

* * *

A man on Hunt Drive told police he found a wallet in front of the AT&T store on Gunbarrel Road. He said he took the wallet back to his house and checked to see if there was a phone number to contact the owner. The wallet had various cards and a Social Security card with a man's name. There was no state ID card and no money inside the wallet. The wallet will be taken into the Property room.

* * *

A man on Hansley Drive told police he believed he was a victim of welfare fraud that occurred earlier in the year. He said he paid a woman $50 to file unemployment for him this year and he received $600 in unemployment benefits. He said when he went to file his taxes, he was notified by the IRS that he had two outstanding debts, totaling approximately $3,000. The man said he believes the woman used his information to take out extra benefits and deposit it into her bank account. The man did not provide any collections receipts or invoices showing the total debt, nor did he provide any evidence pointing to the woman.

* * *

While inspecting homeless camps behind Howard High School, officers were flagged down by a woman who said a man had her money. She said the man had $13 belonging to her. Officers spoke to the man, who said the woman is his girlfriend and she gave him the money to hold. They then went together to the store to buy drinks with her $13 and on the way back to camp she dropped them, and broke them, which caused an argument. He said she then demanded her money back. The woman confirmed she gave the money to him to hold onto, but denied going to any store. Officers were unable to locate any witnesses to this incident and did not locate any money in the man's belongings.

* * *

An employee at the Target, 1816 Gunbarrel Road, told police he wanted to return multiple IDs that were left in Target for the last six months. The items were turned into Property.

* * *

A man at an apartment on Boynton Drive told police he had left his apartment building to get some fresh air. However, he allowed a woman to stay in his apartment since she had nowhere to go. When the man returned to his apartment, he noticed his flat screen television was gone and so was the woman. The man said he wants to press charges on the woman for taking his television. However, when asked, he said he did not see her take his television. The man also did not have enough identifying information on the woman. He had no Social Security, no date of birth and police were unable to find the woman on any criminal database. Therefore, no further action was taken.

* * *

A man told police he took his daughter to the restroom at Harbor Freight Tools, 5839 Brainerd Road, and laid his firearm on the hand rail inside the stall. He said he forgot to pick it up before walking out. When he returned to the bathroom to retrieve the firearm, it was no longer in the bathroom. He said the gun is a black Springfield Hellcat with a Streamlight TLR7A on it. The firearm has been entered into NCIC as stolen.
The above term is a derivative word that exaggerates its original source materials in humorous(?) ways.

It is meant to make fun of the real world whereas its companion, the derivative parody, speaks about a specific word or a general category.

Satires are provocative and critical as they point to a specific vice associated with an individual or a group of people(City of Chattanooga/Hamilton County/Tennessee legislature, Congress, etc.) to mock them into the correction of a perceived negative public project that might not be in the ultimate interests of the majority of the populace(tax payers) rather than a favored few.

Satire was the favorite writing tool of the late humorist Lewis Grizzard who died 29 years ago on March 20, 1994.

His use of the term through the publishing of 25 best selling books and syndication in 450 national newspapers demonstrated a following that extended well beyond the drum beaters and financial reward seekers of today.

To some, L.G.s use of satire has a modern message. To others, his humor was controversial, demeaning, and outdated.

A few others think he was prophetic(?)

(Please no criticism from English majors!)

* * *

You can reach Jerry Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com
Funeral services will be Thursday for the Chattanooga Volkswagen employee who was killed at the plant when a vehicle hit her and two other workers.

Amber Leann Davis Reed was 37 and the mother of three children.

Another employee was critically injured and a third was treated and released after the tragic incident early last Saturday.

Jason Thornton, a VW paint shop employee from Cleveland, Tn., is facing charges of vehicular homicide and other counts. He said he fell asleep while driving.

Police said Thornton went off the roadway some 400 feet before striking the three employees. There was no evidence of any braking.

The funeral for Ms. Reed will be at 4 p.m. in the chapel of Vaughn Funeral Home with Rev. Paul Daniels officiating. Interment will follow in Spring City Cemetery.

The family will receive friends on Thursday from 2-4 p.m. at Vaughn Funeral Home.

Ms. Reed, who lived in Chattanooga, was born on June 17, 1985. She attended Bledsoe County High School. She loved the outdoors, liked to fish, and enjoyed dirt track racing. Amber also loved to sing.

She was employed by Malone Staffing and had been working at Volkswagen since January. She was of the Baptist faith.



Survivors include her mother, Judy (Bobby) Clowers of Spring City, Tn.; her grandmother, Vernall Davis of Cleveland, Tn.; her children, Noah Vestal of Indiana, Grace Davis of Cleveland, Tn., and Eli Reed of Grandview, Tn.; her sister, Angela Davis, of Spring City, Tn.; and her nieces and nephews, Michael Trew, Chloe Kilgore, Kylah Neal, and Joshy Davis.
A court date has been postponed for three men involved in a shoot-out from moving vehicles that killed a woman in the Brainerd Tunnels last year.

Roderick Bates, Vincent Kennedy, Jr., and DAvonte Wofford will appear June 22, charged with first-degree felony murder and vehicular homicide.

Public defenders asked for the new date to allow the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to continue analyzing newly discovered technical data that the lawyers cant read on their own, they said.

The three were involved in a shootout on Brainerd Road June 28, 2022, which led to the death of Tekeia Clay, who wrecked her car in the Brainerd Tunnels. Ms. Clay was an innocent victim not involved in the shootout, police said.

Wofford was arrested August 18, 2022, after being added to TBIs Most Wanted list.

Kennedy was arrested July 19, 2022.

Jeremy Jerome Cottons court date will be postponed to May 31 so that his attorney can meet with a new witness. Cotton is charged with attempted second-degree murder.
Cairo, May 3 (UNI) The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has yet to agree to a seven-day ceasefire in Sudan, Yusuf Izzat, an adviser to RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, said on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry of South Sudan said the leaders of the Sudanese armed forces and the RSF have agreed to the truce from May 4-11. According to the statement, Gen. Abdel Fatah Al Burhan, the Chairman of the Sovereign Council and the commander in chief of the Sudan military, and Dagalo agreed to name their representatives to begin negotiations.

"It is premature to talk about our agreement to a seven-day truce. At this point, we have not agreed to a one-week truce," Izzat told the Al Arabiya broadcaster.

At the same time, Izzat stressed that the RSF does not reject the truce and welcomes all initiatives aimed at resolving the internal conflict in Sudan.

Gen. Brigadier Nabil Abdallah, the Sudanese military spokesman, told Sputnik Tuesday that Saudi-American mediators of the ongoing conflict in Sudan have proposed to hold negotiations between the sides in Saudi Arabia's city of Jeddah.

On April 15, violent clashes broke out between the Sudanese regular armed forces and the RSF, with the epicenter located in Khartoum. The parties to the conflict have introduced a number of temporary nationwide ceasefires since then, but none has helped in settling the conflict yet.

According to the Sudanese Health Ministry, at least 550 people have been killed in the conflict, and nearly 5,000 have been injured.

UNI/SPUTNIK GNK
Willie Nelson put his mark on country music forever. Hes finally been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at 90 years old, which is long overdue for the influential star. Nelson began making outlaw country music at a pivotal time in the 70s, which was also at the tail end of when The Beatles made their splash and changed music forever. So, was Nelson friends with The Beatles? Heres whats known about their relationship, including Nelsons collaboration with one Beatle member.

Willie Nelson | Peter Pakvis/Redferns

Was Willie Nelson friends with The Beatles? He collaborated with George Harrison

Willie Nelson rose to fame in the 60s and 70s thanks to his country music. Born during the Great Depression, the joined the Air Force after high school and found his music career after he was discharged. Nelson recorded his first album in 1962 and started gaining success in the mid-60s until he grew tired of the music scene in Nashville, Tennessee. He then signed with Atlantic Records after moving to Austin, Texas, and he recorded his hit album, Red Headed Stranger, with Columbia Records in 1975. After 1975, he found his stride with outlaw country and inspired many other artists.

So, was Nelson friends with The Beatles? Its unclear how often Nelson and The Beatles crossed paths. The Beatles found their major success in the early to mid-60s, which is slightly earlier than when Nelson seemed to hit his stride. By 1974, The Beatles were officially no more. It seems unlikely that Nelson and The Beatles were friends during their prime music-making eras.

While Nelson likely didnt become friends or work closely with all four of The Beatles  John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr  he did seem to develop a friendship with Harrison after The Beatles stopped playing together. Harrison made it known that he loved Nelsons country influence. Nelson and Harrison collaborated on a duet of Heartbreak Hotel in 1985.

Additionally, a photo from 2018 shows Nelson playing guitar with Paul McCartney singing beside him and playing piano. Its clear they also developed a relationship in their later years.

Ringo Starr said he loved the country stars music

The Beatles | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Its not just George Harrison who enjoyed Willie Nelsons songs. Ringo Starr of The Beatles also said he was a fan of Nelsons work. Starr explained in an interview that he was influenced by country and blues music from a young age.

The people that impressed me when I was starting to listen to music in my early teens was Hank Williams and a lot of the country [musicians], Starr told You & I. I also love Kitty Wells and Willie Nelson.  He wrote some great songs. So, he and Johnny [Cash] seem to come through for me.

Starr also noted that he hoped to move to Houston, Texas, when he was 19 years old. John and I went down to the embassy and filled in all these forms, and you know, we were just teenagers then, Starr said in the interview. We even had a list of factories where we wanted to apply for jobs because I was working in a factory at the time. But then, when we went back to the embassy, we were given more paperwork with more questions. We then turned back into teenagers, and just ripped them up. Sod it! That would have been an interesting move if Id have done that.

If Starr and other members of The Beatles lived in Texas when they were 19, there wouldve been a greater chance of connecting with Nelson.

Willie Nelson covered The Beatles songs over the years

Willie Nelson clearly has love for The Beatles, as hes covered their songs. He covered With a Little Help From My Friends on his 2022 album, A Beautiful Time. In 2018, he also covered Yesterday with Merle Haggard.

Nelson continues to play music in 2023. Fans shouldnt be surprised if they hear him covering more of The Beatles in his later years.

Elements of this story were first reported by Ben Vaughn.

For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheets YouTube channel.
Gov. Kevin Stitt wielded his veto against Senate Bill 429, which stated that Native students could wear tribal regalia to graduation ceremonies of any public institution on any public or private site.
Pixabay/succo

Church leaders are asking Catholics to stand behind a bill to assist students by providing them with $8,000 in tax money to cover their school expenses. However, some parishioners argued that bishops should avoid getting involved in political matters.

Education Savings Accounts

A report from the 12 News Now stated that the Diocese of Dallas had appointed Dr. Veronica Alonzo as Associate Superintendent of Catholic Schools. She notified that they have approximately 2,500 open seats, and there are nearly 15,000 pupils currently enrolled in their institute, which means that the church would gain throughout the state of Texas if lawmakers enact a school choice bill. Dr. Alonzo also claims that families would feel the same way.

As mentioned, to encourage families to transfer their children out of public schools and into private schools, including religious institutions, one law proposes to offer families the opportunity to receive a one-time payment of $8,000 from the federal government per kid, to cover the costs of the transfer.

Even though that sum would not be enough to pay for the entire tuition fee at Dallas's Catholic middle schools or high schools, it would be enough to cover the cost of attending most of the Diocese's elementary schools.

Recently, bishops from around the state called their parishioners, asking them to support education savings accounts, often known as ESAs. These are some of the most contentious legislations being considered in Austin during this legislative session.

However, WFFA reported that many parishioners were dissatisfied when they discovered that bishops had sent them a political directive requesting that they contact Texas lawmakers and express their support for school choice.

One parishioner noted that the Catholic Church had not encouraged its members to devote political energy to addressing issues like kids getting shot, a soaring homelessness epidemic, or the absence of proper health care for many Texans. "Yet, this communication urges us to take action on a matter that increases revenue to private schools," she said.

The parishioner added that she is also a mom and contributes the total tuition cost for her children so they can attend Catholic schools. She worries about their future since they are being pushed to embrace political concerns that affect society beyond their Catholic schools and beliefs.

Also Read:Massachusetts Student Gives Away $40K Scholarship To Others In Need: 'God Gave Me The Strength To Do That'

Separation of Church and Government

Based on an article from Time, religion and politics may be controversial because they deal with significant issues that are both highly personal and near to people's hearts. Nevertheless, these conversations do not necessarily need to be contentious or conflicting. It is up to the individual to decide whether or not they are intolerant of another person's faith; it is not a statutory necessity.

As mentioned, when religion is utilized for political purposes, it loses its eternal significance and turns into merely another cynical means of attaining power.

The principle of the separation of church and state is far too significant to be exploited and certainly not to discourage debate between competing points of view. Moreover, on National Religious Freedom Day, which honors the right to practice one's religion without interference from the government, it is particularly significant to reflect on the nature of the wall that divides the church and the state, as well as the importance of religious liberty.

Related Article:Diocese of Little Rock in Arkansas Asks Parishioners to Cover Students Scholarship Gap
Pixabay/Alexander Grey

The new legislation in Oklahoma has made it illegal to perform sex change procedures on minors. As a result, church leaders have voiced their support for the decision made by Gov. Kevin Stitt to pass this law.

New Legislation in Oklahoma

On Monday, May 1, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt approved a bill banning children from getting gender-affirming care. CNN reported that under Senate Bill 613, medical professionals are prohibited from giving gender-affirming care to patients under 18. This includes the provision of puberty-blocking drugs, hormone therapy, and surgical procedures.

A healthcare provider may be subject to criminal prosecution if they are suspected of breaking the new rule. The ban goes into effect immediately since it has an emergency provision, but it does include some exceptions for children already undergoing therapy.

With the act's passage by Oklahoma's Republican governor, the state becomes the most recent one to attempt to limit transgender youths' access to medical care and other related services. Gov. Stitt noted in his recent statement, "We cannot turn a blind eye to what's happening across our nation, and as governor I am proud to stand up for what's right and ban life-altering transition surgeries on children in the state of Oklahoma."

Thus, Catholic News Agency reported that an organization comprising the state's Catholic bishops had expressed their approval of the recently passed legislation.

Catholic Conference's executive director in Oklahoma, Brett Farley, stated on Tuesday, May 2, that the organization is grateful to Gov. Stitt for quickly executing Senate Bill 613 into law after working closely with the bill's authors the House and the Senate. This move reportedly adds Oklahoma to the list of states that protect children from these potentially harmful and irreversible procedures.

Moreover, on Sunday, Apr. 30, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City published a pastoral note titled "On the Unity of the Body and Soul: Accompanying Those Experiencing Gender Dysphoria."

The archbishop asserted that seeing a child in distress is one of the most challenging things a person can go through. There are no easy remedies for gender dysphoria; nonetheless, families may traverse these complex themes through unconditional love, patience, and humility.

He went on to say that healing needs individuals to talk about issues of gender and sexuality in rational and compassionate ways, attempting to enter other people's worldviews.

Also Read:Russian President Vladimir Putin Calls Sex Change Among Children A Crime Against Humanity

Gender Dysphoria

According to statistics that Komodo gathered for Reuters, over 42,000 adolescents and teenagers across the United States were given a diagnosis of gender dysphoria in 2021, which is roughly quadruple the amount that received an assessment in 2017. The mental anguish that arises when a person's internal representation of their gender does not match the gender they were designated at birth is called gender dysphoria.

The investigation revealed that between 2017 and 2021, a minimum of 121,882 youngsters aged 6 to 17-year-olds had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

As mentioned, youth may get gender-affirming care in various ways, including the social acknowledgment of a preferred name and pronouns, as well as medical measures like hormone therapy and, in some cases, surgery. A relatively small but growing number of children in the United States diagnosed with gender dysphoria are opting for medical procedures to help them embrace their true selves and relieve their anguish.

Related Article: Texas New Bill Will Criminally Charge Parents Whose Kids Undergo Sex Change
Pexels/Karolina Grabowska

Maureen Martin, a Christian who campaigned for mayor and was dismissed by a housing association because of her views on marriage, was awarded considerable compensation. Prior to her firing from L&Q in May of last year, Martin, the president of the Christian Peoples' Alliance (CPA) and an ordained pastor, had worked for the company for 13 years as a housing manager.

She said that natural marriage between a man and a woman is the primary cornerstone of a thriving society and the safest setting for raising children in her platform for the local mayoral elections. Following an investigation into three complaints against her for allegedly using "hate speech," L&Q fired her for serious misconduct.

Christian Mayoral Candidate Receives Settlement After Termination Over Marriage Views

According to Christian Today, Martin expressed her happiness with the result. She credits divine intervention with her accomplishment and stresses how crucial it is for Christians to speak out against prejudice. Martin contends that by not protesting such behavior, businesses are able to continue mistreating workers.

She finds it disturbing that long-held Christian views on marriage are increasingly seen as hateful or unlawful in today's society. Martin believes that people should be free to express their Christian views in their personal lives without worrying about negative consequences or losing their jobs. If her manifesto had endorsed same-sex marriage, she questioned whether her company would have responded in the same manner.

Martin emphasized to listeners that the Bible forbade same-sex unions and urged Christians to stand by their convictions. She made the case that attempting to strike a balance, like the Church of England, results in compromise. Martin claimed that because they are a Christian party, they compete based on the truth and consistently triumph.

Also Read:Religious Freedom Bill Advances to Senate After Clearing House Vote

Miss Martin's Legal Battle Against L&Q Sparks Calls to Amend Employment Rights Act

In the article in Christian Concern, according to Miss Martin's attorneys, L&Q's actions were "outside the band of reasonable responses" under all the circumstances of the case, and Miss Martin's firing violated her right to political speech under Articles 9 and 10 of the ECHR.

Furthermore, they asserted that L&Q upheld a staunch stance throughout the disciplinary process, favoring the protected characteristic of sexual orientation over that of religion or belief. An "attack on democracy" has been made of the situation.

Forty-two thousand people signed a petition after she was fired, urging the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to change the Employment Rights Act of 1996 to include free speech protection. L&Q, which provides housing for more than 250,000 individuals in the southeast, has actively publicized its goals to keep a high rating in Stonewall's Equality index. The housing association was nominated for an award by the LGBT advocacy publication Pink News the previous year.

Another source, Premier Christian News, said that Maureen Martin was praised for her bravery in stating her conviction that conventional marriage between a man and a woman is best for kids and society by Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre. Williams attacked how Martin's opinions on marriage and her faith in Jesus were suppressed and excluded from political discussion.

Williams said that they have never seen such problem before, in which it sends an alarming message to those who supports Christian marriage and those who wants to share it in a workplace or as an advocacy. She pointed out that Stonewall activists' support for LGBT ideology has significantly impacted institutions, stifling free speech and Christian freedoms.

Related Article:Religious Freedom in Canada 'Essentially Dead,' Says Lawyer for Teen Suspended Over Trans Comments
Pixabay/Sergei Tokmakov, Esq.

Collective of Southern Artists was accused of making fun of the Christian faith, leading to a complaint being lodged against them by Christian Lawyers Foundation. It was stated that the organization presented crucifixes along with dolls and weapons.

Lawsuit Against Collective of Southern Artists

A report from the Catholic News Agency stated that the display of crucifixes fashioned with doll heads was the basis for the legal action. The crucifixion victim was depicted in the pieces as being equipped with a gun in his left hand while carrying a banknote in his right hand.

A group of artists is being investigated for "the possible existence of a criminal offense" against religious sensibilities after an order was issued by Trial Court No. 6 in Fuenlabrada, Spain. The ruling mandated that initial procedures be begun into the matter.

As mentioned, one of the items that prompted the filing of the criminal charge included an item that looks like a confessional, and there is an offensive representation of a priest inside it.

Ana Anton, a member of Christian Lawyers and the attorney in charge of the case praised the judgment made by the court. "We are fed up with the fact that where the Left governs, these types of attacks are financed with public money, which are also a crime. We are not going to allow it," he noted.

Also Read: The Church Is The Key To Overturning The Electoral Deceit And Mockery Of God In America

Christian Art

Based on an article from Press Books, early Christian art, also known as Paleochristian art, was created by Christians or through the guidance of Believers from the early time of Christianity until, depending on the term employed, between the years 260 and 525. The earliest examples of art identified as Christian date back to the second century. After 550, Christian art is categorized as Byzantine or another type entirely, depending on the region.

However, it can be challenging to pinpoint the exact beginning of art that may be identified as Christian. Before the year 100, Christians were possibly prevented from producing long-lasting works of art due to their status as a persecuted group.

On the other hand, since people of lower social classes predominantly practiced Christianity during this time, the absence of art that has survived may be due to a lack of funding opportunities or a small number of adherents.

In the act of strategic and tactical convergence, the early Christians borrowed Roman themes to provide new meanings to symbols that had previously been associated with pagan religion. The peacock, grapevines, and the "Good Shepherd" image were some of the used patterns. Additionally, early Christians established their very own style of iconography. Certain symbols, like the fish (ikhthus), were not taken from the iconography of pagan religions.

As per Cobo Social, although there are works of art depicting Jesus that deliberately seek to cause controversy, there are also works that accidentally do so. Artists, in both instances, give Christians and non-Christians a fascinating lens through which to examine their ideas and, at times, expand what an icon of culture like the Christian church can signify in general.

Occasionally, people assume that artists are merely attempting the Christian doctrine of forgiveness, a test of sorts for tolerance. Furthermore, there is no doubt about it since Jesus has been at the center of many controversies in the art world.

Related Article:Guardians Of The Galaxy Director James Gunn Defends Chris Pratt From Those Mocking His Christian Faith
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After a recent destructive tornado that ripped through Hosford, Florida, Christians gathered at Corinth Baptist Church to celebrate mass to thank God for sparing their community from any loss of life.

Destructive Tornado at Hosford

On Thursday, Apr. 27, National Weather Service in Tallahassee stated that an EF2 tornado with speeds of up to 125 miles per hour had swept through Hosford.

News Channel 7 reported that the Liberty County Sheriff's Office deployed its mobile command station to assist the community. According to its Chief Deputy, Dusty Arnold, the vast majority of the affected region was in the Hosford community. Volunteers also clear trash and distribute supplies to those affected by the disaster.

Moreover, officials from the National Weather Service urge members of the general public to ensure they have numerous channels to get warnings about tornadoes. It is likely the deciding factor in whether or not someone lives or dies.

As per Fox Weather, a video captured by storm tracker Michael Gordon revealed destroyed homes and debris clogging streets in the community located approximately an hour's drive from Tallahassee.

As mentioned, there were multiple reports of hail and damaging winds in the Florida Panhandle, and at least one tornado was confirmed to have made landfall in the region. The initial reports did not indicate that any storms had caused severe injuries.

However, there is a significant number of debris as well as downed electrical wires in the region. A power outage reportedly affected approximately 80 percent of Liberty County, and the neighborhood energy supplier could not estimate when all residents will once again have access to electricity. On the other hand, the destructive tornado has no reports of any missing or injured pupils from the Hosford school.

Also Read: New Commandment Church of God in Arkansas Destroyed By Tornadoes

Celebration of Mass After Destructive Tornado

A report from WTXL stated that the storm on Thursday, Apr. 27, caused some damage to the residence of Max Kelly. Fortunately, the Kelly family was not in their house when the tornado passed through the area. Damage was done to their home, including tearing off some of the sidings, cutting down trees, and breaking three windows.

He and his wife Sandra went to the Sunday church service on Apr. 30, so they could think over the events of the past few days. According to him, the sermon's message struck a chord with him.

According to Senior Pastor Kyle Peddie, who also works as the Superintendent of Liberty County Schools, the community is thankful that no lives were taken in the incident.

Pastor Peddie believes that the neighborhood functions as a single large family and that this is demonstrated by the fact that residents look out for one another in times of crisis like the one that occurred on Thursday, Apr. 27.

"If people had a tractor with a front-end load or a dump truck or a dump trailer they showed up in yards. I was on a chainsaw most of the day with my son and it was amazing how people come in your yard and say what do you need me to do?" he asserted.

Related Article: Samaritan's Purse, Convoy of Hope, Other Christian Groups Deploy Relief Teams to Help Survivors of Severe Storms in United States
New Delhi/Khartoum, May 2 (UNI) India has so far evacuated 3,195 Indians from violence-torn Sudan, ferrying them over 850 km from Khartoum to the Port of Sudan in over 60 buses. Five Indian Naval Ships and 13 Indian Air Force aircraft have been used in the operation so far, the Indian Embassy in Sudan said giving an overview of Operation Kaveri.

The Embassy, which was today shifted temporarily to the Port of Sudan in view of the fighting going on in Khartoum, in a series of tweets said:

8th day of Operation Kaveri:
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A former drug dealer named Pastor Adem Guneyi recently shared his testimony about returning to God's arms. The pastor of Freedom Centre also addresses the controversies in their congregation.

Life Journey

According to Stuff, when he was 22 years old, Pastor Adem Guneyi encountered Jesus while working as a security guard at Melbourne Airport and selling drugs in nightclubs throughout the city.

As mentioned, Pastor Adem's father was Turkish, and his mother was Italian. He had spent his childhood as a non-practicing Muslim; however, Pastor Adem went over the deep end in his teens.

He noted that his friends were all nice but were up to no good. In Melbourne, they went to a few nightclubs regularly, and some of the most prominent drug dealers in those nightclubs.

The pastor was reportedly hooked on various drugs, including marijuana use about four or five times a week, speed, cocaine, and just about everything else. Moreover, despite his activities, Pastor Adam claims he was never found guilty of anything.

He initially made fun of his coworkers when they tried to convert him to Christianity, but he eventually became interested. On the other hand, there came a day when Pastor Adem said to himself, "God if you're real, prove it."

Later that day, he reportedly spoke to someone while performing duties on the airport's surveillance explosives detecting machine. The man said, "I want you to know that God heard your prayer before." It reportedly melted his heart, and he returned to the church.

The following Sunday, Pastor Adem got baptized at what was formerly known as the Innerlife location of the Freedom Centre in Melbourne. The pastor mentioned that it was a significant shift in perspective, and he could kick all his addictions. He also met Grace Thomas, granddaughter of the church's founder Neil Thomas while taking leadership training and got married in 2012.

On the other hand, Adem and Grace Guneyi, who currently serve as lead pastors at the Freedom Centre location in New Zealand, are not afraid to shy away from discussing the church's history of scandal. They discuss it frankly and commit to making themselves better by studying the mistakes of others and their own.

As per Freedom Centre, due to the power of Jesus, Pastor Adem was redeemed from a life of drug use and criminal activity, and he underwent a complete transformation. At the same time, Pastor Grace was brought up in the church and went through a personal transition that led her to a personal relationship with Jesus throughout her time there.

The couple simultaneously exudes the enthusiasm of the Holy Spirit. It is driven by an intense desire to witness others undergo a radical change in their lives as a direct result of their encounter with Jesus.

Also Read: Former Porn Star Pastor And Wife Share Powerful Love Story Of God's Forgiveness And Grace

God's Second Chance

According to Got Questions, Peter, Jonah, Mark, Samson, and David are only some examples of Bible people who were given a second chance or even a third or fourth chance by God. He desires His children to be patient and forgiving toward one another, just as He is patient and forgiving toward them.

To encourage individuals to turn from their sins and return to him, God extends grace and new opportunities in every humanly feasible way. However, if people persist in turning their backs on Him, the offer will be taken away, and once a person dies, there will be no more opportunities. Grace is a model that people follow, and individuals grant second chances to one another until it is no longer possible for them to have a good relationship.

Related Article: Former Male Stripper Found His Way Back to Jesus Christ
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A Missouri judge has issued a restraining order against Attorney General Andrew Bailey's proposed limitations on gender-affirming care, a victory for transgender patients and healthcare professionals. The decision guarantees that medical professionals can carry out essential procedures without interference from the government.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and transgender clinics filed a lawsuit opposing Bailey's order, which was scheduled to go into force last Thursday. The proposed regulations called for a minimum of 18 months of psychotherapy for all transgender patients in Missouri, including both adults and children, before they may start or continue their therapies.

Missouri Judge Issues Restraining Order Against Proposed Restrictions on Transgender Health Care

According to KSDK, the Missouri Attorney General's regulation on transgender healthcare was blocked by the court in part due to worries that the limits would confuse patients at hospitals and clinics. The judge cited the rule's vagueness, which didn't include a comprehensive list of actions that would be illegal under the Act and left a lot of space for interpretation. Both the rule's enforcers and those obligated to abide by it could get perplexed due to this.

Since gender-affirming care is still available and unrestricted in Missouri due to the court's ruling, transgender patients and advocates can now sigh with relief. Although the proposed rule's future and any upcoming changes are uncertain, transgender people in Missouri can still get the healthcare they require immediately without encountering any new obstacles or limitations.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Missouri's deputy director of litigation, Gillian Wilcox, has recently commended the decision that has countered the decision of Attorney General Andrew Bailey's policy on having more restrictions on transgender health. According to Spectrum News NY 1, Wilcox has referred to the decision as a win for the transgender community of Missouri and has also noted that it stops the unlawful and unfair attempt to violate the rights of transgender people, including their rights to bodily autonomy, the ability to express one's self, and the right to seek life-saving medical care.

Legal professionals and transgender campaigners warn that if the lawsuit is unsuccessful and the rule is put into place, Missouri will be the first state to restrict gender-affirming care for adults and adopt such restrictions through emergency rule-making than by passing new legislation.

The lawsuit claims that the rule is discriminatory and accuses the Attorney General of abusing his power by attempting to regulate gender-affirming healthcare under Missouri's consumer protection legislation, circumventing the Republican-led Legislature.

Also Read:Missouri Attorney General Proposes Law to Ban Transgender Healthcare for Minors, Sparking Backlash From LGBTQ+ Advocates

Assistant Attorney General Defends Missouri AG's Rule on Transgender Health Care

Assistant Attorney General Joshua Divine defended Attorney General Andrew Bailey's proposed rule on transgender health care, arguing that the order would not prohibit gender-affirming care but rather provide "basic procedural guardrails." According to the shared article in ABC News, divine-cited studies show that many children seeking to transition deal with mental health issues, suggesting they should undergo "talk therapy" instead.

Bailey imposed the limitations after opening an inquiry into the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital in February. A former employee allegedly accused the facility of giving children gender-affirming care without obtaining their informed consent, adequately evaluating each case, or offering wraparound mental health assistance. However, the university's internal investigation found no wrongdoing and found the claims to be untrue.

Some transgender people have resorted to storing prescribed hormones or seeking alternative means to obtain drugs because of a potential lack of access to gender-affirming therapy. Many believe these treatments save their lives; some even think about leaving Missouri if the rule is not changed.

Related Article:Attorney General of Missouri Imposes Emergency Order Limiting Gender-Affirming Treatments
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A pastor in the New Life Prayer was accused of murdering his congregation by starving them to death. This makes the second case of 'mass killing' in the Country.

New Life Prayer

Following the arrest of Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, a leader of a cult who came under suspicion of manipulating over one hundred followers of his church, which led to the deaths of those individuals, on Thursday, Apr.27, Kenya's Ministry of the Interior, Kithure Kindiki announced that Ezekiel Odero, the charismatic leader of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church, would also be facing criminal charges concerning the mass massacre of his followers, DW reported.

As mentioned, many people frequently visit Odero's church, which is located south of Malindi in Kenya. The building can accommodate 40,000 people. At church rallies, the congregation offers "holy" pieces of cloth for sale and asserts that the items can cure any illness, including HIV.

In the past, notable figures, such as Dorcas Rigathi, the wife of Kenya's Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, have been seen in attendance during Odero's mega rallies.

Moreover, The Manila Times reported that on Friday, Apr. 28, Kindiki made his second visit to the murder scene. During this visit, he mentioned an overhaul in the local law enforcement and security agencies, including transferring top managers. However, he did not give any grounds for the transfer.

According to the prosecutors, Odero has been accused of committing various crimes, including homicide, assisting in the commission of suicide, kidnapping, radicalization, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud, and money laundering.

The affluent televangelist faced trial in Mombasa's magistrate's court, where prosecutors requested additional 30 days of detention to allow authorities to finish their investigation.

Based on the legal documents, Attorney Peter Kiprop stated that there was "credible information" connecting the murders of "several innocent and vulnerable followers" of Odero to the bodies that were excavated from the Shakahola forest.

Without providing a specific figure, he continued by saying that "the police have established that several deaths... occurred within the precincts of the New Life Ministry" in Mavueni, which is located not too far away from Malindi.

Also Read: LA Police Arrested Housekeepers Husband for Killing Auxiliary Bishop David OConnell

Forest Massacre of Paul Mackenzie Nthenge

A report from The Guardian stated that In the aftermath "Shakahola forest massacre," people are wondering how Nthenge could continue to evangelize despite having attracted the notice of the authorities six years earlier.

In 2017, he was detained on counts of "radicalization" after he urged parents not to allow their kids to go to school, claiming that the Bible did not sanction education.

According to reports from the local media, Nthenge was retaken into custody this past month after two children in the care of their parents died of starvation. However, he turned himself into the authorities after being released on bail. On May 2, Nthenge and several other potential culprits will appear in court.

On the other hand, the President of the East African nation, William Ruto, has referred to the head of the cult as a terrorist and pledged the harshest possible penalty for him and anybody else in the Country who promotes "weird, unacceptable ideology."

However, previous attempts at controlling the more than 4,000 churches registered in Kenya have failed, although incidents involving cults and rogue pastors have garnered significant media attention.

The constitutional guarantee of separation between religion and state is being used as a basis for vehement opposition to initiatives that have been proposed to weed out undesirable actors. These proposals include mandating that pastors receive formal training in theology.

Related Article: Aerial Bombing in Myanmar Killed Members of Bible Missionary Church
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Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence of Rhode Island has submitted his letter of resignation this week, in which Pope Francis has now accepted. According to canon law, Tobin resigned on April 1, the day before he turned 75.

Tobin will be replaced as coadjutor bishop of Providence by Bishop Richard Henning, who Pope Francis chose in November. Nearly 603,000 Catholics live in Providence.

Thomas J. Tobin, Champion of Life and Humanitarian Causes, Resigns as Bishop of Providence

According to the shared article in Catholic News Agency, on May 1, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin announced in a press release that Pope Francis had accepted his request to resign from office, allowing him to retire from active ministry. Tobin expressed his profound gratitude and personal peace on this decision. The announcement coincided with the day dedicated to St. Joseph the Worker and the beginning of the month dedicated to the Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary. Bishop Robert J. Henning is set to lead the Diocese of Providence following Tobin's resignation.

Bishop Tobin has received several awards over his career, including the Cardinal von Galen Award from Human Life International, the Proudly Pro-Life Award from the National Right to Life Committee, and the Defender of the Faith Award from Legatus. New programs have been started to help the Rhode Island immigrant, refugee, and needy communities under his direction.

In a diocese press statement announcing his resignation, Tobin discussed his sermon at his installation Mass 18 years ago. He expressed his opinion that the diocese adopts the bishop as its own, as opposed to the other way around. Tobin emphasized his happiness and willingness to give his heart and soul to the diocese and his promise to work assiduously for the people. He also highlighted how crucial their assistance, encouragement, and prayers were to the success of his mission.

According to another source, Patch stated that Bishop Thomas J. Tobin conveyed his sincere gratitude to the neighborhood as he announced his resignation as the bishop of Providence. Tobin thanked the priests, deacons, consecrated women and men, diocesan personnel, and faithful church lay members, saying, "You have been so good to me!" He thanked them for their endurance, prayers, and contribution to the successes of the last 18 years, attributing all success to their perseverance, generosity, and hard work.

In November 2022, Bishop Richard Henning was appointed Tobin's successor and will take over as the ninth bishop of Providence. As it continues its mission of serving the community and assisting its faithful members, the diocese looks forward to Henning's leadership.

Also Read: Vatican Library Appoints Salesian Priest as New Prefect, Bringing Fresh Leadership to Its Historical Collections

Bishop Richard Henning, Successor to Bishop Thomas J. Tobin in Providence

Bishop Richard Henning, appointed coadjutor bishop of Providence to familiarize himself with the diocese before succeeding Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, is set to become the ninth bishop of Providence. According to Yahoo! News, the Diocese of Providence covers the entire state of Rhode Island, with a total population of 1,097,379, including 603,558 Catholics, according to the U.S. Conference of Bishops.

Before being appointed in Rhode Island, Henning served as the auxiliary bishop for the Long Island-covering Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, which has about 1.5 million Catholics and over 154 parishes.

Bishop Tobin, who came to Providence before Henning, had previously held the positions of auxiliary bishop in Pittsburgh and bishop for the Diocese of Youngstown in Ohio. Tobin remained a devoted supporter of the Pittsburgh Steelers while spending nearly two decades in New England, the Patriots' home city.

Tobin, well-known for his conservative viewpoints and willingness to voice them, frequently adopted stances that provoked debate and attracted public attention. In addition to opposing efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in Rhode Island, he has blasted Catholic lawmakers who support abortion rights and tweeted in 2019 that Catholics shouldn't participate in LGBTQ Pride Month activities.

Related Article:Pope Francis Appoints Five Cardinals to His Inner Circle of Advisers
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Pope Francis denied losing consciousness before his hospitalization in March, clarifying his health concerns during his in-flight press conference on Sunday, Apr. 30. According to a report from Catholic News Agency, the pope had been hospitalized due to "strong and acute pneumonia" in his lower lungs, which was first diagnosed as bronchitis.

Pope's Response

During the press conference, the 86-year-old pope explained that he had felt unwell after the Wednesday audience in March and went to lie down instead of having lunch. He denied losing consciousness and later developed a high fever, prompting his doctor to take him to the hospital for immediate treatment.

"The body responded well to the treatment. Thank God," Francis said, referring to the antibiotic infusion therapy he received during his hospitalization.

The pope's health was also questioned during his upcoming travels, including World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, and trips to Marseilles, France, and Mongolia in August. However, he confirmed that a doctor had checked him before his trip to Budapest and that his scheduled travels were still on "for the time being."

Despite using a wheelchair and a cane during his recent trip to Budapest, the pope managed to deliver two public speeches per day. Reporters also noted his relaxed schedule, and he used the opportunity to emphasize the importance of taking care of one's health.

After the press conference, the Vatican has yet to release a statement on the pope's health. Nonetheless, the clarification from the pope himself should ease any concerns about his health as he continues his duties as the leader of the Catholic Church.

Also Read: Pope Francis Presides Palm Sunday After Discharge From Hospital

Pope's Hospitalization

The Guardian reported that the Vatican announced on Mar. 29 that Pope Francis had been hospitalized due to a respiratory infection. The statement said that the pope had been experiencing breathing difficulties recently, but tests showed he did not have Covid-19. The Vatican stated that Pope Francis would need to spend "a few days" in a hospital for treatment.

After appearing in good health earlier in the day while attending his weekly general audience at the Vatican, Pope Francis' unexpected hospitalization has raised concerns about his ability to lead the Palm Sunday service on Apr. 2. The service marks the start of a week filled with essential ceremonies leading up to Easter Sunday on Apr. 9. The uncertainty surrounding the pontiff's health has cast doubt on his ability to participate in the daily events.

As per PBS News Hour, Pope Francis was discharged from the Rome hospital on Saturday following treatment for bronchitis. The pontiff had been hospitalized at Gemelli Polyclinic on Wednesday after experiencing breathing difficulties. During his stay, he received antibiotics administered intravenously.

Moreover, as a sign of his improved health, the Vatican released Francis' Holy Week schedule details. It said he would preside at the Palm Sunday Mass and Easter Mass on Apr. 9, held in St. Peter's Square and expected to draw tens of thousands of faithful.

Francis has a history of respiratory issues, which may be attributed to removing part of one of his lungs during his early years as a seminarian in Argentina. As a result, he is at higher risk of developing breathing difficulties and related ailments.

His recent hospitalization has raised concerns about his ability to lead essential services during Holy Week. Nonetheless, his discharge from the hospital and the release of his Holy Week schedule suggest that he is recovering and will be able to carry out his duties as usual.

Related Article: Vatican Reports Pope Francis' Health' Steadily Improving' During Hospital Stay
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According to some religious and political leaders, a nonpartisan school board election in Grapevine-Colleyville, a suburb 20 miles northwest of Dallas, has turned into a spiritual battle between the forces of good and evil.

Concerns Over Christian Nationalism

NBC News reported that a well-funded campaign to promote Christianity in the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District (GCISD) had divided residents and alarmed religious liberty advocates who opposed the growing trend of Christian nationalism in the United States.

Robert Morris, a megachurch pastor and spiritual adviser to former President Donald Trump, told his congregation during a Sunday worship service that Satan was working in the GCISD and other area schools. He then shared the names of Christian school board candidates who would stand against these demonic forces.

As mentioned, David Barton, a prominent figure in the Christian nationalist movement, gave a speech at a local theater in which he called on Christians to "take the offensive" to restore prayer and biblical values to public schools.

He argued that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that the separation of church and state is a myth. He also claimed that the decline of America was due to the fall of Christianity and that the only way to save the country was to return to its Christian roots.

Moreover, Rafael Cruz, a pastor and the father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, urged believers at a church-based political rally to vote for "committed Christians" to "reclaim territory that the devil has stolen from us." This coordinated campaign has divided the community into three slates of candidates.

In addition, Kimberly Phoenix, a parent in Grapevine-Colleyville, is running for school board with the support of organizations that oppose teaching religion in schools. She has pledged to reverse the district's changes that include restrictions on discussions of gender and race. Phoenix believes that outside groups have divided the community by spreading unfounded fears that teachers are indoctrinating students with non-religious values.

The deep-seated conflict in Grapevine-Colleyville is a microcosm of the more extensive national debate over LGBTQ inclusion in education and the role of public schools.

Also Read: Texas Baptist Men Provide Metal Structures to Build New Home for Victims of Earthquake in Turkey

Christian Nationalism

The rise in Christian nationalism raises concerns among religious liberty advocates and scholars who warn that it could lead to the erosion of democracy and the marginalization of minority groups. According to Time Magazine, the popularity of Christian nationalism should be seen as a "wake-up call" for Americans who value pluralism and democracy.

Christian nationalism is often associated with the idea that Christianity should play a central role in American politics and policy-making. Supporters of this ideology believe that the country was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian principles should guide its laws and policies.

Critics of Christian nationalism argue that this ideology can be exclusionary and divisive, leading to the marginalization of minority groups who do not share the same religious beliefs. They also say it can undermine the separation of church and state, a cornerstone of American democracy.

Furthermore, the survey conducted by NPR and Ipsos found that the support for Christian nationalism was higher among older, white, and rural Americans and those who identified as evangelical Christians. However, the study also found that a significant minority of Democrats and independents supported the idea that the United States is a Christian nation.

Related Article:Texas' Gender-Affirming Care Considered Child Abuse For Some, Survey Says
Thousands of migrants from mainland China are trying to enter the United States illegally through various countries in Latin America. The desperate route runners ( in Chinese) are deeply disillusioned and dissatisfied with the political and economic realities of todays China. They desire to flee the country but lack the capital or ability to seek legal immigration by investment or as skilled professionals.

The migrants occupy lower socioeconomic levels in China. To migrate to the US, they fly to a South American country that does not require a visa for visiting Chinese citizens, then cross the dangerous mountains and deserts of the American continent, avoiding border police and trafficking mobs, hoping to smuggle themselves across the US-Mexico border into the US and then apply for political asylum. The success rate of such route running is usually low, carrying a high risk of denial of entry, deportation to China, or even loss of life.

Although the number of people in this group is small (3,855 Chinese migrants crossed the Darien Gap in the first three months of 2023 according to a Wall Street Journal report), it has caught attention from Western and overseas Chinese media because of the desperate and extreme measures these runners employ to flee to the US.

A new wave of immigration quietly rises

This group of border - crossers is only part of a new wave of Chinese immigrants. In the last two or three years, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new term has quietly become popular on Chinese social media:  (run), along with its derivatives run xue (, the study or philosophy of run) and run chao (, the wave of run). The Chinese pinyin for  is run, so it is a homophonic pun meaning to flee or to run away from China and to immigrate to developed countries such as the US, European nations, Australia, and Japan.

Behind this new wave of flight are disillusioned Chinese people, desperate for better economic prospects and more freedom in todays China, suggested a Radio Free Asia (RFA) report. Even though nationalism, patriotism, and anti-American, anti-Western sentiments have grown in recent years under Xis rule, these dissident Chinese citizens are choosing to vote with their feet to feel safe, be free and be a normal human being.

While many of the Chinese who unobtrusively migrated before the pandemic were economic elites or successful professionals, the most recent cohort is a less educated, more grassroots assemblage, possessing fewer resources. But whether it is through wealth, skill, or the more desperate route running, the new wave of Chinese immigration is changing the composition of the Chinese population in the US.

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Chinese immigration history and the Chinese church in the US

In his presentation at the annual mission conference of the Chinese Bible Church of Howard County, Maryland, Yeou-cherng Bor, president of the Chinese ministry Ambassadors for Christ, pointed out that the development of the Chinese church in America has been closely linked to the history of Chinese immigration to the US. It was intertwined with the Chinese Exclusion Act (enacted in the 1850s and repealed after WWII) and the arrival of Chinese students and scholars from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia in the second half of the 20th century, who established Bible study groups and fellowships on university campuses across the US.

After the Tiananmen Square Incident in 1989, a large number of students and scholars from mainland China immigrated to the United States, and a wave of conversion fever rose among them, gradually increasing the proportion of believers and leaders of mainland background in American Chinese churches. In the first two decades of the 21st century, another wave of students from mainland China, mostly from well-off families, arrived on the doorstep of the Chinese church. Campus ministry and returnee ministry have continued to play an important role in the diaspora mission of the Chinese church. (Returnees are those who came to the US to study or work for a period of time and then returned or planned to return to China.)

Because of this historical background, in the decades before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese churches and fellowships in the US were predominantly composed of intellectuals or professionals, and Chinese church evangelism and missions corresponded with this reality. For example, evangelistic sermons or seminars often started with the Big Bang (i.e., the relationship between science and Christianity), and church training for Christians frequently discussed Christian testimony and calling in the professional marketplace.

Challenges and opportunities for Chinese churches

The new group of immigrants from mainland China is very different from Chinese immigrants of the past decades. Are Chinese churches in the US aware of this new trend? Do they have plans to adapt mission strategies and approaches in response? Several Chinese church and ministry leaders in the US told CT they are paying attention to the new challenges and opportunities this trend brings to the evangelism and mission of diaspora Chinese churches and are already thinking about corresponding church initiatives.

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Agnes Tan, editor in chief of Behold magazine of Overseas Campus Ministries, said that the Chinese church she is involved with in California was established and led by scholars and students from Hong Kong and Taiwan in its early years, so it may not have recognized the new wave of immigration. But recently the church has been giving open seminars on topics that address the needs of new Chinese immigrants (such as how to help their children apply for admission to American universities). Tan believes that such activities are a good outreach attempt, but she would like to see the church reexamine the needs of the new wave of Chinese immigrants, adjust its outreach and discipleship strategies, rekindle its passion for evangelism.

Other leaders agree that the new trend is a good reminder for the Chinese churchs missionary strategy. Chinese churches that are predominantly intellectual need to  broaden their mission boundaries and engage in near-cultural and cross-cultural missions, in addition to continuing to reach out to professionals, students, and visiting scholars (which is basically same-culture mission), said Rumin Zhang, an elder and evangelist at Rutgers Community Church in New Jersey.

Zhang gave a few examples from his churchs ministry.

Our church used to have ministry helping illegal immigrants and Chinese restaurant workers and, in recent years, has started to reach out to Indian, Jewish, and Muslim immigrants in the community, he said. Hopefully, in the near future, the church will also pay special attention to the new route runners and do evangelism to pay the debt of the gospel to our fellow Chinese.

Daode Chen, a Southern Baptist pastor in Los Angeles, told CT that in his own churchs area, Chinese Christians do notice more new immigrants coming. From the pulpit, Pastor Chen himself has encouraged his congregation to seize the moment to reach out to the new immigrants. But he also believes it will be a challenge, because in the past, the congregation was relatively unitary, mostly composed of intellectuals or middle-class professionals, whereas the new immigrants have a more diverse background. It will bring a challenge to pastoral care and the way brothers and sisters with different social status and education levels get along under the same church roof.

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To meet such challenges, Chen reminded diaspora Chinese Christians to raise their cultural quotient for the sake of evangelism and to actively participate in the churchs community service ministry to help new immigrants. He has also noticed that some believers in his church have spontaneously set up organic modes of reaching out to new immigrants, such as running English-learning classes and organizing hikes and Chinese dancing classes.

Pastor I-Ming Huang of the West Houston Chinese Church in Texas believes that family ministry to help the new immigrants will be an excellent opportunity for evangelism. The Chinese church can show its concern for its neighbors by providing legal and other counseling services to new immigrants or by encouraging Christians to open their homes to welcome and build friendships with new immigrants in the community. In response to the needs of new immigrants, our established family ministry and pre-evangelism work will need to make adjustments, especially for these recent route runners. The church must figure out new ways to minister to them.

Charlie Wang, the Chinese congregation pastor of CrossPoint Church in Chino, California, reminds the Chinese church to become more aware of, understand, and get familiar with the ecology niche of the recent Chinese immigrant community. A concept developed by Harvard Chinese studies scholar Philip A. Kuhn, ecology niche is about the mode of existence, main livelihood skills, and community structure of immigrants in a particular historical period and in a particular natural, social, and economic environment, Wang explains.

It helps the Chinese church to generate ministries appropriate to the new group of immigrants so that they can receive practical care and pastoral care and the church can bring them the benefit of the gospel, Pastor Wang said. He also reminds us that even before this new wave, the Chinese church needed to think about mission and discipleship strategies for Chinese people from different cultural backgrounds:

Indeed, the Chinese church has long been made up of brothers and sisters from culturally diverse backgrounds who differ because they come from very different placesmainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Even in the places where they used to live, there are cultural differences due to geographical and ethnic diversity and urban-rural differences. There are also cultural differences between the first, 1.5, and second generations of immigrants in the Chinese church. Chinese churches need to strengthen their understanding of unity in diversity, which the Bible has rich teachings on, and Chinese pastors need to improve their ability to pastor congregations of diverse cultural backgrounds.

Article continues below

Sean Cheng is CT Asia Editor.

[ This article is also available in  and . ]
Every once in a while, I will hear someone who is otherwise accurately describing the current plight of the church suggest the problem is that weve replaced Jesus with the Bible or that weve emphasized biblical authority to the point that weve tipped over into authoritarianism.

Is Jesus too much eclipsed in evangelical America? Undoubtedly. Do we see authoritariansfrom strongmen dictators to exploitative pastorsdoing cataclysmic damage? Yes. Does this happen because we know and revere the Bible too much? No, not one bit.

Some would have us oppose authoritarianism with suspicion of authority itself. In the end, they would tell us, everything is just about power and domination, so our choice is, essentially, to whom we will yield power or over whom we will exercise it. But authoritarianism is not an intensification of authority any more than polyamory is an intensification of love or polytheism is an intensification of God. These are altogether different things.

As the sociologist Robert Nisbet demonstrated in the last century, authoritarians of all sorts thrive on an absence of legitimate authority. In so doing, they replace authoritywhich is grounded in persuasion and allegiancewith powerwhich Nisbet defined as rooted in coercion.

The Gospel of Mark introduces Jesus at the beginning of his ministry as one who startled the crowds because he was teaching as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law (Mark 1:22). This is the sort of authority that, yes, could dispel unclean spirits and calm storms, but it was also an authority that spoke to human hearts, saying, Come and see and Come follow me.

If the Bible is the Word of God breathed out by the Holy Spirit, as we believe it to be, then that Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (1 Pet. 1:11). When we hear the Bible, we hear Jesus. This is how the Good Shepherd leads his sheep: We follow his voice (John 10:3, 14, 27).

When we do not heed that voice, we start listening for other voices, for calls to other pastures. Sometimes these other voices are happy to let us think their voices are that of our Lord. Sometimes they are glad for us to believe that their voices are those of our own independent thinking. In either case, that path leads to tears.

We see the Bible used by many different people today, including would-be authoritarians. Sometimes the Bible is used to make a traditions theological interpretation unquestionable; other times its used to render a gurus practical life-tips unquestionable; and sometimes its leveraged to make loyalty due to a leader or an ideology unquestionable.

The antidote to this, though, is what it has always been: consciences that know the Word of God well enough that, like Jesus in the wilderness, they can recognize when it is being twisted into something else.

An evangelical emphasis on biblical authority rooted in the Reformation principle of sola Scriptura is easily caricatured. But sola Scriptura was never intended to mean that the Bible is the only authority, rather that the Word of God is the only authority that cannot be judged or usurped by some other authority.

As long as there is a Word from God, no human being or institution can claim to be unquestionable. Thats not because theres nothing knowable out there, but because there is one true Godand he has spoken.

Today, we have more Bible resources than ever. We have more people who know how to argue from abstractions drawn from Scripture for whatever point of controversy they want to use to devastate their opponents.

What we dont have is a church made up of people who deeply know the contents of Scripturewho know the story well enough to recognize a Bethel or a Meribah or an Egypt or a Babylon when they find themselves there.

How do we ensure that our children know how to resist those who falsely claim the authority of Christ? We familiarize them with the voice of the real one (Mark 13:1423). In an era that cant tell authority from authoritarianism, our most important contribution is to conserve the kind of church that can say, Thus saith the Lorda church for whom that really means something.

Russell Moore is editor in chief of CT.

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What is the most racist thing youve ever experienced?

Thats the question that was posed to Esau McCaulley, an author, assistant professor, and contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, as he sat on a panel in front of a mostly white audience. He didnt answer the question. On a new episode of The Russell Moore Show, he explains why.

Tune in for a rich conversation on suffering, how we tell our stories, and the meaning of empathy. Moore and McCaulley cover systemic injustice, the function of society, and how our personal backgrounds inform everything from our political engagement to the way we read Scripture.

Reflecting on the wounds and grace of fatherhood, they discuss how they work to make Gods love plausible. They talk about McCaulleys forthcoming book, a memoir titled How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Familys Story of Hope and Survival in the American South. And they talk about addiction, pastoring, and what McCaulley has learned as a military spouse.

Resources discussed during this episode include:

Pre-order:

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to questions@russellmoore.com.

Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

The Russell Moore Show is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper

Host: Russell Moore

Producer: Ashley Hales

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and Azurae Phelps

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Social Media: Kate Lucky

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

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Audio Engineer: Kevin Duthu

Coordinator: Beth Grabenkort

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Theme Song: Dusty Delta Day by Lennon Hutton
With the US withdrawal from Afghanistan nearly two years ago, religious congregations across the country began extending an embrace to refugees.

Partnering with resettlement agencies, they helped families escaping war and political turmoil settle into homes, find jobs, learn English and acclimate to life in the US.

Now, in a corner of North Carolina, a group of Baptist churches has begun to deepen that support by retrofitting vacant church-owned buildingsoften homesfor refugee housing.

Organized through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina but open to any religious congregation, a new initiative encourages churches to refurbish church-owned parsonages, office buildings, youth clubhouses, or single-family homes and make them available to refugees or humanitarian parolees for a nominal fee.

Its increasingly difficult to find affordable housing for refugees, said Marc Wyatt, a missionary who founded the Welcome House Community Network. Churches have physical property and buildings that are underutilized. Rethinking the use of those buildings for housing is our vision.

Last Saturday, the network held its first housing and hospitality summit with 210 congregational leadersmostly from North Carolinawanting to learn more about how to use vacant church properties to minister to refugees.

The conference made plain twin realities: A glut of underutilized church properties and a severe shortage of affordable housing for newly arrived refugees with few means.

So far, about a dozen churches in North Carolinas Triangle region, anchored by Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, have retrofitted ancillary buildings for use by refugees. In all, about 40, including churches in Virginia, Tennessee and Texas, have joined the Welcome House network.

They include First Baptist Church in Hillsborough, which is housing a seven-member Afghan family in its parsonage, and Temple Baptist Church in Durham, which owns a ranch-style home a few yards away from its sanctuary where an eight-member family from Congo is now staying.

Churches typically charge the families $10 a day to cover the cost of utilities and otherwise provide hospitality and connection.

A lot of (church) folks like to clean and prep the house, said Randy Carter, pastor of Temple Baptist. Some people like to work in repairs or on the yard. A small group of folks are more engaged with the family itself.

Until recently, many of these church-owned homes had been used by pastors or foreign missionaries on leave. Increasingly, they have stood vacant.

The surge of refugee and humanitarian parole programs under the Biden administration has made affordable housing an urgent need.

Since he took office in January 2021, Bidens administration has reversed Trump-era restrictions on immigration to the United States. The boost in refugee admissions includes some 300,000 Ukrainians who have arrived in the United States fleeing war with Russia, more than all the people from around the world admitted through the official US refugee program in the last five years.

The Welcome House churches partner with one of 10 US refugee resettlement agencies working to house the immigrants. Those agencies are often scrambling to provide affordable housing for refugees, most of whom come to the US penniless or after yearslong stays in refugee camps. The State Department typically provides only three months housing costs, and families must quickly find jobs to stay afloat.

The rate of arrivals is faster than we can find long-term housing, said Adam Clark, executive director of World Relief in Durham, one of the resettlement agencies working in North Carolina. There has to be a temporary housing piece for this to work.

Clark said some refugees are placed in an extended stay hotel or an Airbnb until housing is found. But those are expensive and they quickly exhaust the governments minimal housing subsidy.

In most cases, church-owned properties are used on a temporary basisup to 90 daysat which point the resettlement agencies typically locate to more permanent housing.

But some churches, such as Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh, which owns three residential homes near its church building, are also renting out properties to refugees on a longer-term lease.

Two of those homes are now occupied by refugee familiesone from Morocco and one from Afghanistan (a third house is being renovated). The families pay rent at below fair market value, typically no more than 30 percent of the familys monthly income.

We have assets that are sitting here and there are people coming into our community that need housing, said Kristen Muse, senior associate pastor at Hayes Barton Baptist. Our congregation is a generous congregation and when they see the needs, they want to reach out and use what we have for the glory of God.

Both families staying at Hayes Bartons church homes are Muslim and do not attend church services. But the point of the housing is not to proselytize anyway, Muse said. Instead its to extend a welcome. One of the refugee children attends the churchs preschool, and the church keeps in touch and helps support the family as needs arise.

The initiative comes at a time when many older churches are rethinking how to repurpose unused buildings for the common good and at the same time cast a sustainable vision for the future.

Housing refugees is emerging as one solutionone that fits in with many churches larger mission of welcoming the stranger.

How do we do what God wants us to do? said Randall Austin, a member of First Baptist Church in Hillsborough, which started offering its parsonage to refugees nearly two years ago. This is a tangible way.
New Delhi, May 3 (UNI) India-born Harjinder Kang, who was the UK's Chief Negotiator for the UK-India Free Trade Agreement, was on Wednesday appointed as Britains new Trade Commissioner for South Asia and the countrys Deputy High Commissioner for Western India.

Kang will be leading the UKs trade and investment ties with South Asia.

As His Majestys Trade Commissioner (HMTC) for South Asia, Kang will be leading the overseas effort to promote UK trade, investment, trade policy and export finance.



He will also serve as the British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India based in Mumbai - with overall responsibility for the states of Maharashtra, Goa and Madhya Pradesh, a statement from the British High Commission said.

He will be succeeded in his role as UK's Chief Negotiator for the UK-India Free Trade Agreement by Kate Thornley, previously Deputy Chief Negotiator.

In his new position, Kang will play a pivotal role in supporting the implementation of the UK-India Free Trade Agreement, which could bring huge opportunities for UK businesses.



Before joining the Department for Business and Trade, he spent nearly 30 years at AstraZeneca, later becoming the Global Commercial Director, focusing on creating affordable solutions for pharmaceutical access in less developed regions. He is also a member of the Council of the University of Birmingham.

UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Kemi Badenoch said: Harjinder has been an integral part of our India trade deal negotiating team and Im confident he will use that experience to build on our outstanding track record on trade in South Asia, expanding opportunities for British businesses in untapped markets. With an economy worth over 3.2 trillion and a growing population, a flourishing trade and investment relationship with South Asia holds vast potential for UK businesses and consumers.

British High Commissioner to India, Alex Ellis said: Harjinder will be uniquely positioned to lead on our trade and investment team, our Consulate in Mumbai and be a core part of our leadership team for the UK in India network.

Harjinder Kang said: I am deeply committed to fostering strong relationships between the UK and South Asia and am excited about the opportunities ahead as we strengthen our economic ties and forge new partnerships in the region to create jobs, promote innovation and drive economic growth at home and abroad.

Harjinder Kang is married with three daughters. He was born in Jalandhar and moved to the United Kingdom with his parents at the age of 3.

As the new Trade Commissioner for South Asia, Kang will generate business opportunities for the UK while contributing to the growth of sustainable, resilient, and productive economies across the South Asia region. He joins a team of nine HMTCs promoting Global Britain across the world and encouraging UK trade and investment.

He succeeds Alan Gemmell OBE who served as HMTC for South Asia and British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India from June 2020 to April 2023.

The Trade Commissioner for South Asia oversees all Department for Business and Trade (DBT) work in Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka:

- growing bilateral trade and investment relationships;

- improving market access for British companies, including small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs); and

- developing finance and trade policy.



The HMTC also works closely with High Commissioners, Ambassadors, the wider diplomatic network and colleagues across the UK to support the prosperity agenda.

Deputy High Commissioner leads a subordinate office to the High Commission in another major city and fulfills a similar role to a Consul General, representing the UK government and typically responsible for consular, visa and trade activities in their city or region, the statement said.

UNI RN
Franklin Graham launches 'God Loves You Tour' in Maryland: 'We are here to give'

Evangelist the Rev. Franklin Graham kicked off the "God Loves You Tidewater Tour" on the East Coast over the weekend, where he invited people to listen to Christian music and surrender their lives to Christ.

The CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association launched his tour on Saturday, holding the first live event at the Charles County Fairgrounds in La Plata, Maryland.

In addition to Graham, the tour stops will feature live performances from the contemporary Christian music band the Newsboys and musicians Marcos Witt and Dennis Agajanian.

Following a tour stop in La Plata, on Sunday, they traveled to Timonium and then Elkton. Other stops will include Salisbury, Maryland; Portsmouth, Virginia; and Edenton, North Carolina.

A spokesperson for Graham told The Christian Post on Tuesday that more than 17,500 people attended the first three stops of the tour. Due to rain during Sundays event, 5,000 covered seats were offered to attendees at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

I have a heart for smaller cities. It is just as important to go to these communities as it is to preach in major cities, Graham told CP in a Tuesday statement about the tour location selections.

Graham said he and his team have already witnessed hundreds of people respond to the Good News of Jesus Christ, noting that the Gospel has a strong impact in smaller places.

We are also grateful for the strong participation and support that we receive from churches and civic leaders in cities like these, Graham stated. They are so excited we have come to the Tidewater Region  and we are so glad to be here.

Graham, who also serves as the CEO of the Christian charity Samaritan's Purse, expressed gratitude for the donors who made it possible to share the Gospel and for those who have supported the tour through prayer.

We dont charge people to attend these events or take up any offerings when we come  we are here to give, he said.

Around 885 churches are working with the BGEA on the six-city tour.

In a press release provided to CP, Angel Nunez, senior pastor of Bilingual Christian Church in Baltimore and a supporter of the tour, highlighted the hurt and pain impacting communities in the city, citing it as proof that the area needs a touch from God.

Graham told a crowd during Sundays event that God loves them, reminding them of how He sent His son from Heaven to absolve the world of sin.

Jesus Christ paid the penalty of sin. He took our sins to the cross, the evangelist said in a clip provided to CP. He shed His blood on the cross; He died on the cross. He was buried, and on the third day, God raised His son to life. And if youre willing to accept this and believe this, God will forgive your sins tonight.

According to the "God Loves You Tour" website, Graham has held evangelistic outreach tours since 2017 in 63 cities across 24 states. The Christian leader has preached the Gospel to more than 440,000 people on these tours, helping over 27,000 people come to know the Lord and make the decision to give their hearts to Him.
Elisabeth Elliot's faith, courage highlighted in Museum of the Bible's latest exhibit: 'She knew her purpose'

The story of Elisabeth Elliot, a Christian missionary who devoted two years of her life to ministering to a tribe in Ecuador that killed her husband, is featured in a new exhibit at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

Elliot, a missionary and speaker, followed the calling of the Lord in January 1956 alongside her husband, Jim Elliot, to share the news of Gods saving grace with others. While traveling through the Ecuadorian jungle to connect with the people of the Auca/Waodani tribe, Elliots husband and four other missionaries were speared to death.

According to the Museum of the Bibles website, Elliot returned to the Ecuadorian rainforest two years after her husbands death to live with the very tribe that had killed her husband. Her decision to forgive them helped the tribe begin a new path, and she advocated for their education.

The exhibit, which explores the Christian missionarys life and career spanning six decades before her death in 2015, is located on the Impact of the Bible floor in an area designated as "Personal Stories." This section of the Museum of the Bible highlights individuals who have used Gods Word to impact their communities and the broader world, according to Amy Van Dyke, lead curator of exhibitions.

The Voice of the Martyrs, a nonprofit that supports persecuted Christians and their families around the world, sponsored the exhibit. Another group that sponsored the exhibit, The Women of Legacy, is an offshoot of the Museum of the Bible that brings women together twice a year to work on projects related to the museum and the Bibles impact, according to Van Dyke.

In addition, the Elisabeth Elliot Foundation, which highlights the Christian missionarys work and teachings, served as an adviser on the project. Van Dyke, who grew up in a Christian home and remembered learning about Elliots story, believes it has impacted people of faith since the 20th century.

I remember learning about this story and this action of faith that these families had and, despite the results that happened, they knew that this was their purpose in life, and they knew that even in death, they were serving God, Van Dyke told The Christian Post in an interview.

Elliots husband had been determined to reach the tribe in Ecuador, and after his death, his wife took on his goal. The missionary returning to the tribe after they killed her husband was an act of forgiveness and love that served as the catalyst for a revolution in the tribes culture, according to Van Dyke.

The lead curator and historian explained that the tribe killed Elliots husband and the other missionaries they went to minister to due to a misunderstanding. The tribesmen had been afraid and uncertain about the group of outsiders but later came to feel remorse for their actions. According to Van Dyke, the tribesmen embraced Christianity quickly once the religion was introduced to them.

Van Dyke has been researching Elliots life and has become acquainted with the missionarys family since 2019. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the lead curator visited the home of Elliots third husband, Lars Gren. As Van Dyke went through Elliots things, she was surprised to learn just how organized the missionary had been.

The widow kept files of letters and gifts people had sent her, and drawings that she had received from children. On the front of every book that Elliot owned, she wrote the name of who owned it and when it was gifted to her. But the second thing that surprised Van Dyke was Elliots toughness.

She was obviously full of compassion because a lot of what she spoke about was helping people through suffering and through trials in life because she's been through it herself, the lead curator said.

She knew her purpose in life, Van Dyke said about Elliot. She knew what she was supposed to do, what God had told her to do.

This was her mission in life to not only do what she did with the tribe but then, from then on, to teach other people about how to live a life that is worthy to God and how to get through the tough parts of life, she continued. And she did it with a lot of grace.

The Museum of the Bible exhibit about Elliot's work opened on March 30, and it will run through Jan. 28, 2024.
Surprising surge in Chinese migrants attempting to reach US border through dangerous jungle trek

A growing number of Chinese migrants are journeying through a dangerous mountain jungle in Necocli, Colombia, an area that has become a breeding ground for illegal migration, drug trafficking, rapes and robberies to get to the United States, according to a recent report.

Chinese migrants now comprise the fourth-largest people group making the trek through 66 miles of the Darien Gap, a region between the borders of Colombia and Panama, to reach the U.S.-Mexico border. Unlike the incalculable number of migrants from countries like Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, Indonesia and elsewhere, the Chinese migrants have money, a lot of money, and stay in luxury hotels.

"That's one of the big changes that we're seeing now," said Newsmax war correspondent Chuck Holton in an interview with Greta Van Susteren during her recent trip to Panama to investigate the U.S. border crisis and surge in illegal immigration.

"There are a tremendous number of Chinese coming through that we haven't seen until recently," Holton said. "They're now the fourth-largest group of people coming through the Darien Gap. That's very strange because the majority of the people you see here are destitute. ... The people coming from China pay up to $30,000 a person for the same crossing. They have tons of money, and they're staying in luxury hotels and they have iPhones.

"Some of them tell me that it's because of the extreme COVID measures in China. They just can't take being welded inside their house anymore," he added. "But talking to some of the merchants here ... they have told me that many of the Chinese were prisoners" sent away with money.

According to Holton, in Panama, many of the Chinese are indentured servants who get their money from the Chinese mafia. Once they reach Panama or wherever else the mafia wants them to go, they work for the rest of their life to pay off their debts. "So it looks like they have a lot of money, but in reality, that money is debt that they have taken on to get here," he added.

In April, the Biden administration, alongside government officials representing Panama and Colombia, announced a campaign to end the illegal movement of goods and people through the Darien Gap and into the United States.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Panamanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Janaina Tewaney and Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alvaro Leyva Duran led the delegation in Panama City.

Holden elaborated on the government officials plans to close for 60 days the part of the Darien Gap migrants have been trekking through. The war correspondent noted that the area is a jungle, and many migrants can work around this plan by journeying through a different part of it.

While some migrants opt to stay in Ecuador, Holden said the reason most migrants are choosing to cross the border now is because theyve heard from people they know who live in the U.S. that entering the country and finding a job will be easy.

The correspondent also speculated that with Title 42 set to expire on May 11, that is another reason why many migrants are heading to the U.S. border.

In October, the Biden administration used Title 42 to remove most Venezuelan asylum seekers from the U.S. While the Department of Homeland Security policy gave some Venezuelans a pathway to stay in the U.S., others were ordered to remain in Mexico until their asylum claims were heard.

According to Voice of America, there were nearly 90,000 illegal crossings through the Darien Gap in the first three months of 2023. Holden, who started reporting on the issue in 2012, noted that at the time, 45,000 people attempted to use the route. Last year, however, that number reached nearly 250,000.

One group that takes advantage of the flow of migrants, Holden added, is drug traffickers. These traffickers disguise themselves as migrants seeking asylum and carry backpacks full of cocaine.

In October, the Panamanian news outlet Nex Noticias reported that authorities had arrested over a dozen people in Darien for their involvement in drug trafficking.

I think it's very instructive to Americans to understand what a gap there is in our thinking, in our way of life and what our expectations are from life and what theirs are, he said. Because so many people you talk to here, you ask them about facing the dangers of the Darien Gap, and they say it can't be any harder than where I just came from. It can't be any harder than living in Haiti or living in Venezuela or Cuba. And they are inured to that kind of hardship.

According to VOA, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol reported that 4,366 migrants from China encountered border agents from October 2022 to February 2023 after illegally crossing the southern border.
Christian alternative to Boy Scouts gets 1,000th Troop: 'Campaign to rescue Americas boys

A scouting organization founded in 2014 to be a conservative Christian alternative to the Boy Scouts of America recently celebrated its 1,000th Troop.

Trail Life USA announced via emailed press release on Monday that the Greenville, South Carolina-based scouting organization had officially chartered its 1,000th local chapter.

Trail Life Chief Executive Officer Mark Hancock told The Christian Post that he was humbled by the response of churches and families across the country who are communicating their excitement for the vision and mission of Trail Life USA by starting and joining Troops.

Every new Troop means boys are being impacted by our Christ-centered, boy-focused approach to building Godly men, said Hancock. He noted that, at present, 150 new Troops were currently in the process of being chartered.

Hancock attributed the growth of the organization to its Campaign to Rescue America's Boys, which he said speaks to the challenges boys face in our culture today. This gives churches and families hope.

Hancock also explained to CP that due to our dynamic and automated charter process, which frequently has a number of Troops in the process at the same time, we prefer not to point to a specific Troop.

Boys join Trail Life USA for adventure, and parents love the character and leadership objectives, he added. Our growth has been constant and every Troop has great value as having been a part of reaching this milestone.

Trail Life was officially launched at the start of 2014, partly in response to the Boy Scouts of Americas decision to allow troops to accept openly gay members.

By September of that year, Trail Life was already boasting around 450 Troops and more than 14,000 members spread across 47 states, with more Troops being processed for approval.

As the Boy Scouts announced in 2017 that it was going to accept girls into its ranks, prompting legal action from the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, Trail Life reported increased interest in its organization.

By 2018, according to the group, it had grown to 805 Troops and more than 27,000 members, which was a sharp increase compared to the year before.

News of the 1,000th Troop milestone comes just after Trail Life USA held its fourth annual Nationwide Campout, which took place April 28-30.
Christian mayoral candidate wins settlement for religious discrimination, firing over biblical views 'You can fire me, but you cannot silence me'

A housing association has reached a settlement with a Christian mayoral candidate whose employment was terminated after she described marriage as between a man and a woman in her manifesto.

Maureen Martin, president of the Christian Peoples' Alliance (CPA) and an ordained minister, had worked for L&Q as a housing manager for 13 years before her termination in May last year.

She was standing in the local mayoral elections when she published a manifesto in which she outlined her political position on a number of issues, including marriage.

In her manifesto, she pledged "to cut through political correctness and simply state the truth that natural marriage between a man and a woman is the fundamental building block for a successful society, and the safest environment for raising children."

She was later investigated and sacked by L&Q for gross misconduct after three complaints were made alleging "hate speech."

Supported by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), she challenged her dismissal, claiming that she was discriminated against.

Following her firing, 42,000 people signed a petition calling on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to amend the Employment Rights Act 1996 to protect free speech.

She has now received a "substantial" payout from the housing association after reaching a settlement, the CLC said.

Martin said she was "pleased" with the outcome.

"I know God brought me through this situation and I cannot emphasize more the importance of Christians taking a stand when being discriminated against," she said.

"If you don't challenge, you walk away with nothing and the employer who has discriminated against you believes that they have done nothing wrong and are likely to treat someone else similarly.

"It was chilling what happened to me, but I am now stronger for it."

She urged other Christians not to compromise on their beliefs.

"Much of our culture is now anti-Christian and believes that biblical beliefs, especially on marriage and human sexuality, are 'hate speech' and therefore illegal," she said.

"It is disturbing how Christian beliefs on marriage, which have been held and expressed for thousands of years, are being silenced and treated with such hostility and disdain in this country.

"I should have had a right to express my own Christian beliefs in my own private time and should not have been required to self-censor my beliefs or be forced out of my job.

"If my manifesto had been in support of same-sex marriage, would I have had the same response from my employer?

"The Bible simply does not condone same-sex marriage. If you try and take the middle ground on this issue, as the Church of England has tried to do, you quickly become compromised. As a Christian party, we are not in a popularity contest. We are in a truth contest, and when it comes to truth, we always win."

She plans to stand again as a mayoral candidate in Lewisham next year.

"My message will not have changed. You can fire me, but you cannot silence me," she added.

CLC chief executive Andrea Williams said that Christians were being "intimidated into silence."

"Maureen is a courageous woman treated appallingly for having the guts to declare her belief that marriage between a man and a woman is best for children and our society," she said.

"For speaking about a positive vision of life and marriage as a building block for the good of our society she was silenced and de-platformed in the political space for boldly speaking about her faith in Jesus.

"We had never seen a case like this which sent a crushing message to anyone who believes in Christian marriage and wishes to express those beliefs at work or in public office.

"LGBT ideology fuelled by Stonewall activists has captured institutions to such an extent that free speech and Christian freedoms have been intimidated into silence.

"No Christian political candidate must face such treatment again."

Originally published at Christian Today
Christian wireless provider responds to Texas police department rejecting donation after backlash

A Texas police department is saying thanks but no thanks to a donated pizza party from a Christian conservative wireless provider after receiving backlash on social media.

Patriot Mobile, which stirred up controversy last year for donating In God We Trust signs to a Dallas-area school district, says on Jan. 12, the group donated a $1,500 gift certificate for a pizza party to the police department in Grapevine, a suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The gift, according to Patriot Mobile, was a thank you for their service to the Grapevine community, similar to donated meals from other local businesses.

Initially, the Grapevine Police Department offered its thanks for Patriot Mobiles support and encouragement and said the department was grateful for the donation.

Sincere thanks to our friends at Patriot Mobile. We are blessed to have their support and encouragement. Today they presented us with a certificate to host a pizza party for our staff. We are grateful for the opportunity to have a fun and relaxing meal together as a team. pic.twitter.com/vY12SZJNND  Grapevine Police (@GrapevinePolice) January 12, 2023

The department tweeted: Sincere thanks to our friends at Patriot Mobile. We are blessed to have their support and encouragement. Today they presented us with a certificate to host a pizza party for our staff. We are grateful for the opportunity to have a fun and relaxing meal together as a team.

But after a number of comments were posted on social media criticizing GPD for accepting the gift, the department announced it would instead donate the food to a true need.

We want something positive to come from this experience and that means giving to a worthy cause, the Jan. 14 statement read.

While not offering any specific explanation, the statement cited deep emotion in response to Patriot Mobiles donation and said GPD will re-evaluate how we receive donations in the future.

The relationships we have, and desire, with our community members are foundational to growing trust and legitimacy, the statement added. Please know that our actions were not intended to create distrust, and we vow to do better moving forward.

Its not clear whether someone in the GPD chain of command or a city of Grapevine official made the decision to reject the donation.

The GPD did not respond to a request for comment from The Christian Post as of midday Friday.

In response to the move, Patriot Mobile CEO Glenn Story said the police department took a knee and bowed to extreme left activists.

The response from the far left is not surprising to us, nor is it anything new, Story said. We are humbled to serve as a Christian conservative company. Our mission is to defend our God-given constitutional rights.

The $1,500 gift certificate, according to Patriot Mobile, was originally purchased for $2,575 at an auction benefiting fallen soldiers and was donated to honor our police officers.

Patriot Mobile is asking for the GPD to give the donation to another police department in North Texas if Grapevine continues to reject the donation.

The wireless provider also slammed the woke PR statement from GPD, adding that is is not shared by all officers in the Grapevine Police Department.

Founded in 2013, Patriot Mobiles corporate headquarters is located in Grapevine and has supported efforts to elect more conservatives to school board seats in Texas.

The company made headlines last August after donating several signs reading In God We Trust to the Carroll Independent School District, located in Southlake about 15 miles west of Dallas.

Patriot Mobile donated the signs in response to a new Texas law requiring all public schools statewide to display the national motto.
Franklin Graham on 'God Loves You' tour: Im not a preacher of hate; my message is about love

Evangelist Franklin Graham, who is on a U.K. tour called God Loves You despite opposition from LGBT activists, including a Welsh Labour Party politician, due to his biblical views on marriage, said the accusation that he's a preacher of hate is a lie.

Their criticism is a lie. They say, Im a preacher of hate, Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, told Premier Christian News during his ongoing tour, which was scheduled for 2020, but the venues he had booked canceled the booking after activists groups complained about his past comments on homosexuality and Islam.

The reason they say Im a preacher of hate is because I say that marriage is between a man and a woman, explained Graham, who also heads the Samaritans Purse humanitarian ministry. And it is. What I do is I answer reporters questions. Well, what do you think about gay marriage? Well, it's a sin. That's what the Bible calls it.

Grahams tour involves free events throughout the U.K. from May through July.

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has expressed his regret over Grahams upcoming visit to Wales.

Im sorry to see a person of those views given a platform to express them here in Wales and they absolutely do not reflect any that the Welsh Government would be prepared to endorse or sanction, Drakeford said, according to Christian Today.

Graham said the criticism is not fair.

They say, Well, you're offending a lot of people. Im not offending them, but Gods offending them, because its what God says. But my message is not against gay people, or people that think differently or worship differently to us. My message is a message about love.

Graham, who has taken legal action against the venues for canceling his tour events, said criticism was expected.

We never expect to get 100 percent support to the churches, theres always critics within the Church, he said. Theyre always critics of the Lord Jesus Christ within the religious community. Theyre the ones that turned on Him. So I expect to have criticism, and there are a lot of churches that have compromised and theres division within the church.

In the interview, Graham said the Church needs to rise up. We dont back up. I would hope that there would be an army of young evangelists who would come down and take their place to preach the Gospel. We cannot allow one act of violence to stop the Gospel. If anything, it should be a recruiting tool for other evangelists to stand up where she shed her blood and take the Gospel to the next generation  not be afraid and not be ashamed.

At his event in Liverpool Saturday, Graham encouraged the audience to seek a relationship with Jesus. We have a vacuum, an emptiness inside each of us, in our souls that only God Himself can fill, he was quoted as saying. God made us. God created us in His own image, the Bible says. Did you know that God has a plan and purpose for your life?

In an interview with the BBC, Graham said he wants all to know that fulfillment in life is found in God, according to CBN News.

I want people to know that God loves them. We have trials and storms that we go through in life, but Jesus Christ is our anchor. If we put our faith and trust in Him. He will get us through those storms of life  He loves us and cares for us.

This isnt the first time the evangelist has been met with opposition from LGBT groups. In 2018, bus ads for his evangelistic festival were pulled following an outcry from activists.

Graham earlier said he believes the need for preaching the Gospel in the U.K. is greater than ever. He added he wanted people to know that we are all sinners and our sins separate us from God.
Radical Fulani kill 12 Christians in Nigeria, pastors house among 86 homes torched

ABUJA, Nigeria  Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists on April 16 killed 12 people in attacks on predominantly Christian villages of central Nigeria that continued until April 19, sources said.

The assailants burned down the house of a pastor and other homes belonging to Christians in the attacks on Tattara Mada, Migini, Angwan Barau and other villages in Kokona County, Nasarawa state, area residents said.

The house of the pastor of the ECWA [Evangelical Church Winning All] local congregation in Tattara Mada village was burned down, and dozens of other houses belonging to Christians there were also destroyed by the herdsmen, the Rev. Danladi Ndoh, village resident and chairman of the ECWA Angwan Takwa District, told Morning Star News by phone. Hundreds of our church members have been displaced, and this is aside from the 12 Christians killed.

Area resident Chorio Musa identified the assailants as Fulani terrorists.

The victims were murdered like animals, while some inhabitants of these communities are still missing, Musa said in a text message to Morning Star News. Valuables worth millions of naira have been lost. More than 50 houses have been burned down to ashes, and food and cash crops were burnt to ashes too.

Survivors were stranded without any assistance from the Nasarawa state government, he said.

Pastor Elisha Tangwai said the entire village of Tattara Mada was in confusion after the killings on April 16.

Let us pray for Gods intervention, for peace to be restored and for sanity to prevail in this community, Pastor Tagwai said in a text message to Morning Star News.

Pius Kyubeh of the Mada Development Association said 86 homes were destroyed in area communities.

Tattara Mada is a settlement which predominantly has a collection of thousands of Mada Christians adjoining with other villages like Kama Yanda, Kama Madaki, Ngah Habu, Angwan Barrau, Angwan Takpa, etc., Kyubeh said. These attacks carried out by armed Fulani against unarmed Mada Christians of Tattara Mada and environs is the height of unbridled terrorism, as has been perpetrated in other parts of central Nigeria.

Kyubeh said that in his teams visits to the area, villagers told them no fewer than 12 Christians were killed by well-armed Fulani herder/militias.

Many Christians have been rendered homeless, and in some cases, Christians have been forced to flee from their homes, he said.

Nanham Nansel, spokesman for the Nasarawa State Police Command, said in a press statement that security personnel were deployed to the area.

Nasarawa Gov. Abdullahi Sule released a statement asserting, It is not only the Tattara community that is affected. Therere also other communities, Angwan Takpa, Angwan Ayaba and other surrounding communities, that have been displaced.

Nigeria led the world in Christians killed for their faith in 2022, with 5,014, according to Open Doors 2023 World Watch List (WWL) report. It also led the world in Christians abducted (4,726), sexually assaulted or harassed, forcibly married or physically or mentally abused, and it had the most homes and businesses attacked for faith-based reasons. As in the previous year, Nigeria had the second most church attacks and internally displaced people.

In the 2023 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria jumped to sixth place, its highest ranking ever, from No. 7 the previous year.

Militants from the Fulani, Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and others conduct raids on Christian communities, killing, maiming, raping and kidnapping for ransom or sexual slavery, the WWL report noted. This year has also seen this violence spill over into the Christian-majority south of the nation. ... Nigerias government continues to deny this is religious persecution, so violations of Christians rights are carried out with impunity.

Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdoms All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a recent report.

They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity, the APPG report states.

Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigerias Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
Which denomination tithes the most?

Whether churchgoers believe that tithing  giving 10% of ones income  is a biblical commandment varies depending on age and denomination, according to a recent study.

Lifeway Research, an organization that examines ongoing church ministry trends, published a study on April 25 that found more than 3 in 4 American Protestant churchgoers (77%) view tithing as a biblical command that the faithful must abide by today.

The study of 1,002 American Protestant churchgoers was conducted online from Sept. 19-29, 2022, using a national pre-recruited panel. The completed sample has a 95% confidence level and the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.3%.

Young adult respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 were the least likely to believe that tithing is a biblical commandment (66%). Along denominational lines, 59% of Lutherans agreed that tithing is a biblical commandment compared to 85% of Evangelicals and 71% of non-Evangelicals.

Eighty percent of people who attend a worship service at least four times a month agreed that tithing is a biblical commandment compared to 72% of respondents who attend a worship service one to three times a month.

In a statement, Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell concluded that based on the survey, Giving 10% of your earnings to God is still a widespread standard among churchgoers. He attributed the small decline in considering tithing a command to a lack of teaching on the subject as opposed to a rejection of such teaching.

Regarding how much churchgoers give, only 51% of those surveyed said they give 10% or more of their income to the church that they attend.

Thirty-one percent told pollsters they give a tithe and 19% said they give more than 10% of their income. Meanwhile, 16% said they donate less than 10% of their income to their church. Nine percent of respondents reported that their financial situation makes it difficult to give, and 2% said that they did not give.

According to the study, how much churchgoers are willing to tithe varies based on denomination. Those attending Baptist (40%), Presbyterian/Reformed (34%) and non-denominational (34%) churches were more likely to give 10% of their income than members of Lutheran (19%), Restorationist Movement (17%) and Methodist churches (12%). A higher share of churchgoers with Evangelical beliefs (39%) told pollsters that they tithe than those without Evangelical beliefs (25%).

Additionally, how often participants attend worship service appears to play a role in how likely they are to tithe. Churchgoers who attend a worship service at least four times a month (34%) were more likely to tithe than those who attend one to three times a month (26%).

The newly released study found that fewer churchgoers (31%) give 10% of their income to the church today when compared to churchgoers from a 2017 Lifeway Research study. The 2017 survey revealed that 37% of Christians tithed.

However, the most recent study also found that 51% of churchgoers give 10% or more of their income to the church compared to 54% of churchgoers from 2017, meaning the data has remained relatively steady.

Examining the methods churchgoers use to tithe, the study found that most still donate cash at church (53%) compared to 30% who said they give a check to the church and 23% who reported providing electronically.

Fourteen percent of respondents answered that they give through their bank, while 7% said they give through an app provided by the church. Another 2% of churchgoers said they gave through a text provided by the church, and 8% indicated that they tithe through automated payments.

While more than 3 in 4 American Protestant churchgoers still viewed tithing as a biblical command, not all participants agreed that tithe money must go to the church.

Ninety percent of respondents said that tithe money can go to the church, while 55% insisted that tithes can be given to a Christian ministry. Much smaller shares of respondents thought that tithes can be given to an individual (42%), another church that they do not attend on a regular basis (34%) and a secular charity (25%).

Lutherans, according to the study, were among the denominational categories that were the most likely to say that tithing money can be given to the church (98%), followed by 96% of participants identifying as Presbyterian/Reformed and 93% of Baptists. Ninety-two percent of non-denominational churchgoers also agreed that tithing money can go to churches.

Denominationally, Lutherans were among the least likely to say that tithe money can go to a Christian ministry (72%), another church they dont regularly attend (58%) or a secular charity (45%).

Presbyterian/Reformed churchgoers were also among the most likely to say tithes can be donated to a Christian ministry (68%) or another church they dont regularly attend (53%). These respondents were also among the most likely to say tithe money can go to an individual in need (51%).

Ninety-five percent of participants holding Evangelical beliefs said that tithe money can be given to churches compared to 85% of churchgoers without Evangelical beliefs. Twenty-nine percent of those without Evangelical beliefs said tithe money can go to secular charities compared to 20% with Evangelical beliefs.

Fifty-one percent of Baptists said that tithe money can be given to a Christian ministry, 37% said it can go to a person in need and 34% said it can be given to a church they dont frequently attend. Only 19% of Baptists believed that tithe money can be donated to a secular charity.

The latest research about tithing comes amid other polls suggesting churchgoers dont tithe anymore and some pastors have been speaking out against the practice.

As The Christian Post previously reported in October 2021, a study titled The Generosity Factor: Evangelicals and Giving found that only an estimated 13% of Evangelicals tithe and just half give away less than 1% of their income annually, even though a majority view tithing as a biblical practice. The findings from Grey Matter Research and Infinity Concepts are based on responses collected from 1,000 American Evangelical Protestants.

A separate study that surveyed 2,016 U.S. adults from Nov. 12-19, 2021, found a lack of consensus among pastors on the practice of tithing. Seventy percent of pastors maintained that tithing doesnt have to be financial and only 33% expressed support for people tithing 10% of their income. Another 20% of pastors said Christians should give as much as they are willing. Twenty-one percent of pastors did not name a specific amount Christians should tithe but stated that it should be enough to be considered sacrificial.

In June 2022, televangelist Creflo Dollar renounced tithing and his previous teachings on the subject during a sermon titled The Great Misunderstanding. Dollar said that after studying Romans 6:14, which states that one is not under law, but under grace, he concluded that tithing is an Old Testament concept.
Scottish venue must pay over $100K for canceling Franklin Graham evangelism event

A Scottish court has ruled that an event venue must pay over $111,000 (97,000) for canceling a 2020 evangelistic outreach featuring American evangelist Franklin Graham over his views on issues like homosexuality and Islam.

In a judgment issued by Sheriff John N. McCormick of Glasgow on Monday, Scottish Event Campus Limited was ruled to have violated the United Kingdom's Equality Act because it canceled an event hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in January 2020.

"It is accepted that the event was a lawful evangelical outreach event. I therefore begin with a discrete issue which alone, in my opinion, constitutes a breach of the Equality Act 2010," McCormick judged.

"Briefly put, if it is correct that the event was evangelistic, based on religion or philosophical belief, then it follows that the decision to cancel was a breach of the Equality Act 2010 in that the event was cancelled as a commercial response to the views of objectors."

McCormick said that the venue "discriminated against the [BGEA] on the basis of a protected characteristic" and put the damages due to the cancellation at $111,503.19 (97,325.32).

"In short, pressure was put on the defender by its majority shareholder to cancel the booking as it may offend others. The effect of writing in such terms was not to protect one group from another but to prefer one opinion over another," he continued.

"I heard no evidence to suggest that Franklin Graham had intended to pursue a toxic or dangerous agenda at the event. On the contrary, it is not disputed that the event would have been an evangelical outreach event for up to twelve thousand people. That is not to say that his opinions are not offensive to some whether in Glasgow or elsewhere. However, the pursuer's right to engage a speaker at the evangelical event  in furtherance of a religious or philosophical belief  is protected by law."

On Tuesday, Graham, the son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham, said he is "grateful to God for this decision." He views the ruling as "a clear victory for freedom of speech and religion in the UK."

"This case was never about financial remedies  it was about the preservation of religious freedom in the UK  particularly the right for Christians to share the Gospel in the public square," stated Graham.

"I want to thank Sheriff John McCormick for upholding the law and affirming that Christians must be treated fairly and equally. This ruling will be a great encouragement for Christians and people of all faiths across the UK and many other parts of the world."

A spokesperson for the Scottish Event Campus told BBC that the organization is "naturally disappointed in the outcome of the case."

"We are currently reviewing the extensive documentation to determine whether any further action is required," the spokesperson added.

In 2020, before the pandemic lockdowns began, multiple venues in the U.K. canceled BGEA events that were part of the BGEA's "God Loves You" tour. BGEA maintains that those contracts were legally binding. The organization rescheduled the tour events, which took place earlier this year.

At issue was Graham's opposition to homosexuality and dislike of Islam, which some British activists and groups viewed as hateful in nature.

Last December, the Scottish charity The Robertson Trust, which canceled bookings made by a local church and the BGEA scheduled for 2019, offered an official apology for violating the Equality Act. The group paid 20,000 (about $26,500) towards legal expenses as part of a settlement.

Mark Batho, chair of the board of trustees at The Robertson Trust, said in a statement last year that his organization had "inadvertently breached the Equality Act 2010."

"The Trust's long standing funding policy (1) legitimately states that we do not fund or support the promotion of any particular religious or political beliefs," Batho stated.

"We recognise that in applying our funding policy to the hire of our facilities, which are available at substantially subsidised rates to charities and community groups, we inadvertently breached the Equality Act 2010."
UNC website scrubs links to 'Gender Equity and Wellness Initiative' for kids as young as 4

The University of North Carolina has seemingly scrubbed multiple pages of information from its website offering transgender consultations and other so-called treatments for children as young as 4 years old.

An archived page for the UNC Department of Psychiatrys Gender Equality Psychiatry Clinic stated that the clinic serves patients ages 4 to 30 years old who are undergoing or exploring all forms of gender affirming care, an industry euphemism for chemical and surgical castration and double mastectomies for young girls, among other irreversible procedures.

However, as of Tuesday, the UNC Psychiatry site no longer serves the link for the page with child/adolescent patient care under its apparently defunct Gender Equality Psychiatry Clinic, which also has a broken link.

Both pages result in a 404 or not found message reading, Sorry, but the page you were trying to view does not exist.

Likewise, Google results for the psychiatry schools UNC Gender Diverse Programs and About Our Team pages  which state the Gender Equality Psychiatry Clinic provides gender-affirming services to children, adolescents, young adults, and families  also resulted in broken links.

Through a student-run gender affirming care clinic, UNC also offers free, culturally humble, gender-affirming care once a month, including prescriptions for hormone therapy, letters of support for surgery, and other resources.

UNCs Campus Health services also offer opposite-sex hormones using an informed consent protocol, meaning students are not required to present a letter from a mental health professional to begin so-called hormone therapy or other procedures, such as puberty blockers, according to the schools website.

It was not clear whether these links were taken down or moved to another location on the UNC website.

As of Tuesday evening, The Christian Post was awaiting a response to a request for comment from UNC. This article will be updated once a response is received.

Last month, following a Democratic state lawmakers move to join the Republican Party, North Carolina Republicans looked to capitalize on their new supermajority with several pieces of new legislation aimed at banning sex-change procedures for minors, according to The Associated Press.

Some psychologists, including Dr. Michael J. Bailey of Northwestern University, have argued that one form of gender dysphoria, known as child onset dysphoria, may lead to some young children expressing a desire to identify as the opposite sex. According to Bailey, these children typically outgrow this confusion.

Despite Bailey's conclusion, proponents of allowing children to socially transition have questioned the validity of the research into this phenomenon, asserting that there's no need to delay a child's social transition.

In October, the United Kingdom's National Health Service proposed new guidelines for health professionals, advising them to be cautious about encouraging gender dysphoric children to socially transition by changing their names or pronouns.

The NHS warned healthcare professionals that these children might be going through a "transient phase," and it recommends taking a more watchful approach.
American society and freedom: Something is seriously wrong

American citizens better be concerned about the precarious state of their First Amendment rights. The assault is real, its happening right now, and its time to take a stand.

Its not a coincidence that free speech and freedom of religion are foundational to the U.S. Constitution. Our founders knew that without these two building blocks, our society would crumble. Thats why its frightening when we see more and more instances of censorship and government overreach threatening these basic rights.

Take, for example, the wholesale censoring practices that the Twitter files have brought to light since Elon Musk stepped in. Big Tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Google have a tremendous amount of power in controlling the flow of information and the shaping of public discourse. When they start selectively censoring, suppressing, and even cancelling content that they dont agree with, they are essentially acting as a de facto arm of the government, manipulating and crushing public opinion. Some have even started calling this evil The Censorship Industrial Complex.

Another troubling example is the recent case of social influencer Douglass Mackey, a political commentator, who was convicted of election interference for sharing one meme that allegedly misled voters during the 2016 presidential election. The idea that someone could be jailed  Mackey faces 10 years in prison  for expressing their opinions in a satirical way is disturbing and sets a dangerous precedent. And the mainstream media, which supposedly stands on free speech, is cheering his conviction.

Perhaps most concerning of all was the governments attempt to silence the Church by prohibiting it from gathering during the panic days of COVID. The idea that the government could declare churches non-essential and attempt to shut them down is a blatant violation of our First Amendment rights. Its not just about the ability to worship together, but also about the freedom to express our beliefs without fear of government intervention or retaliation.

Its clear that something has gone seriously wrong in American society when the freedoms that millions of its citizens have died protecting, are discarded with such callousness. As Christians, we are not to stand idly by and allow this to continue. The Bible tells us in 2 Thessalonians that there is a restraining force in the world at work to hold wickedness at bay. That force is the Holy Spirit dwelling within His people, and it is our duty as the Church to fight against the powers of darkness.

To combat this violent censorship, we are launching The Real Life Network on Pentecost Sunday, May 28. The Real Life Network will offer relevant, biblical worldview programming that wont be silenced. We must be proactive in keeping truth as the primary narrative in society and speaking out against the forces that seek to shut us down.

Why Pentecost Sunday?

It was a watershed moment for the early church, symbolizing the empowerment of believers through the Holy Spirit to spread the Gospel and continue Christs mission on earth. It was also a significant day for me personally. On Pentecost Sunday in 2020, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me to reopen the doors of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, regardless of any lockdown, mandate, or guidance from the government. On that day, I informed our congregation that we would never again violate Gods Word by shutting down His Church, as no one has that authority but God Himself.

As a result, The Real Life Network was birthed, the network will be an extension of that commitment to keep Gods Word going forth without any sway or influence from Big Government, Big Tech, or the biggest liar the world has ever known: Satan himself.

We must not be afraid to speak the truth and share the love of Christ with others, even when its unpopular or inconvenient.

As Christians, we are called to be salt and light in the world. We need to be a positive influence on our culture and engage in the public square to shape the course of our nation. We must never give up our freedom to speak and worship as we choose, and we must always be vigilant in defending those freedoms.
George Verwer: Radical missions DNA and disruptive thinking will live on

George Verwer was quite simply the most extraordinary, revolutionary person Ive ever known. His courage and willingness to push beyond the existing norms changed the face of missions. Since his death on April 14, the tributes have been amazing, many lauding George  founder of Operation Mobilization (OM)  as a missionary statesman.

But that was not always the case.

When George, as a teenager from New Jersey, first burst onto the scene, his radical approach gave the 1950s mission establishment heartburn.

Courage to change the who of missions



At that time, mission agencies required would-be missionaries to have a seminary degree and lifetime commitment. George told his generation, If you love Jesus, and youll come for a summer, God will use you. He stood against 60s social norms at a time of racial segregation in the U.S. Shocked when an African American asked if it was okay for him to join a mission team because he was Black, George broke down in tears and embraced him.

Thousands of young people from all over the world accepted Georges invitation and joined him in Europe for the summer. Many wanted to stay longer. Some did, and they began to spread out across the globe.

As a 19-year-old, I was one of those enthusiastic, young missionaries, and today  decades later  Im privileged to come alongside others as president of OM USA (www.omusa.org).

As OM grew, George recognized the importance of national leadership. He invited a whole new group into the who of mission. The work in India led by nationals became similar in size to the rest of OM, becoming its own movement.

One of the leaders from that time told me: Many missions leaders did not take George or OM seriously because we were a bunch of untrained young people. We didnt fit their idea of a missionary. But George pressed on, and thousands more followed.

Courage to take risks



George had an incredible ability to think disruptively and then take huge risks as he courageously executed his ideas with relentless focus. As a 24-year-old, he decided things were moving too slowly. What if we had a ship? he said. Once again, the doubters came out in force, believing this would never work. They let him know this in no uncertain terms.

Fifty years later, OM has had five ships transporting crews of hundreds of Jesus followers and a floating bookshop carrying Christian literature to port cities worldwide, impacting hundreds of millions.

Courage to change



During the Kurdish refugee crisis in the 90s, George realized that demonstrations of mercy and compassion were needed, not just handing out gospel tracts. Many thought he and OM had lost their way, drifting into a social gospel. George championed this holistic approach, and this view of the gospel remains at the very heart of OM.

Today, OM workers from 134 nations are active in almost 150 countries as we work to see vibrant communities of Jesus followers among the least evangelized.

Carrying the mantle



Our commitment is to continue Georges legacy by being willing to take courageous risks as we live out the gospel, extending the invitation to every follower of Jesus to be part of Gods mission in the world.

We continue to build new pathways for every Jesus follower to go live on mission as engineers, doctors, teachers, nurses, businesspeople, and more.

As George showed us, we continue to push for national and local leadership, with those of us from the West coming alongside as servants.

We continue to see the Gospel as something we live out with love and compassion, and share with conviction.

My prayer is that we will build on Georges legacy by being people with the courage to take risks, change, and push the boundaries so the world will hear the good news of Jesus and see the gospel in action.

That would be the highest possible tribute to George Verwer.
Is a 'surge of faith' happening with younger Americans?

According to The Wall Street Journal, recent polling data shows a Surprising surge of faith among young people. As columnist Clare Ansberry wrote, About one-third of 18-to-25-year-olds say they believe  more than doubt  the existence of a higher power, up from about one quarter in 2021, according to a recent survey of young adults.

This study corresponds with others that have offered surprising insights about Generation Z. One Barna study found that, globally, 52% of teenagers today identify as Christian, and 6 in 10 are motivated to know more about Jesus. In the U.S. and Canada, Barna concluded, teens feel less negatively about sharing their faith than Millennials do, with 81% rejecting the statement that if someone disagrees with you, it means theyre judging you.

Ansberrys explanation for the increased interest in matters of faith is that after three years of loss and confusion, including the disruption of the pandemic, young people are seeing the need for something bigger than themselves. In many ways, she wrote, it aged young Americans, and they are now turning to the same comfort previous generations have turned to during tragedies for healing and comfort. Barna researcher Daniel Copeland even called this generation, The Open Generation.

At the same time, spiritual openness of young people often comes at the cost of identifiably Christian convictions. As political scientist Ryan Burge laid out in 2021, They are the first generation in [American] history in which the nones clearly outnumber the Christians, 48% to 36%, to be exact. Even the report cited by Ansberry excluded the phrase belief in God in favor of the term higher power. As the authors explained, when the question is narrowed down to belief in God, the numbers revert to an overall decline in faith.

The results are a mixed picture. As rates of disbelief in God and rejection of Christian doctrine rise, young people are grappling seriously with a search for meaning, truth, and belonging. This is a critical moment to reach what is the loneliest, most agnostic, and most distraught generation on record. They are the epitome of a line widely attributed to G.K. Chesterton: When men stop believing in God, they dont believe in nothing; they believe in anything.

The opportunity in front of the Church right now is to relate to teens, especially in the midst of their loneliness, while also challenging the wrong ideas about faith, truth, and life that they have embraced. Writing for the Institute for Family Studies, sociologist Jesse Smith synthesized mountains of data on kids who maintain religious convictions through adulthood as opposed to those who dont. One factor stood out:

Parents want to make sure they give their kids room to explore religious questions for themselves and dont want to do anything to alienate their kids or provoke teenage rebellion [However] [t]aking too light a touch with religious parenting comes at a cost. If kids do not receive a clear and consistent message from their parents that religion is important, they are likely to simply conclude that it is not important.

One of the main predictors of belief is that a young persons objections were taken seriously by someone willing to listen and address them. It isnt enough simply to repeat what is true, especially when Christians are one voice among so many. Instead, as weve said before on Breakpoint, opposing viewpoints must be considered thoroughly in order to inoculate, not isolate, Christian young people.

To that end, I highly recommend Summit Ministries, a lifelong friend of the Colson Center and one of the best places I know for asking hard questions. Two-week conferences are held at Covenant College in Georgia and Summit headquarters in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Summit gives students a chance to explore the Christian worldview in all its fullness, covering topics like abortion, doubt and deconstruction, evolution, sexuality, Gods existence, and more. If you know a student who would benefit from a Summit conference this year, please go to Summit.org/student and use our special code BREAKPOINT for an exclusive discount.

The spiritual openness of Gen Z is an opportunity we must not miss. For young people, it may be the difference between eternal life and death, as well as a life of flourishing and purpose here and now. Clearly, God isnt done with this emerging generation. And neither should we be.
Population decline, artificial wombs and brain-dead surrogate mothers

Anne and Paul Ehrlichs prediction in the late 1960s of the global overpopulation bomb has certainly fizzled out like a lot of doomsday predictions of the last few decades. Yet, human reproductive technology continues to make advancements. With those advancements come bioethical concerns that give pause to many people, regardless of their worldview. Christians who watch these trends are especially alarmed by these advancements and the implications the technologies have for humanitys future.

Except where immigration has offset the trend, population decline has already started in the reproductively stunted cultures of North America (1.6 births per woman), Europe (1.53 birth per woman), and East Asia (1.2 births per woman). It is generally accepted that 2.1 children per woman are needed to maintain a population, i.e., the so-called replacement rate. The Population Reference Bureau and others track these trends. It is known that China has lost nearly 1 million people in 2022. The trend is expected to accelerate in the years ahead. The German population, like the American population, is only increasing because of a flood of controversial immigrants. In both places, the working-age population is aging. These trends are compounded in many places by modern confusion regarding gender identity and who can have babies. In addition, there are certain radical feminists and others who see pregnancy as a disease. For example, Gilbert Meilaender in his May 1979 article in the Linacre Quarterly quotes Judith Jarvis Thomsons 1971 defense of abortion that sees the fetus as a parasite.

What is a culture to do if it wants to survive but is unwilling to address the cultural factors that have caused the population decline?

Societies that constitutionalize the destruction of the pre-born, coerce women to only have one child, redefine marriage to something beyond a heterosexual union, legalize sperm banks, allow sacrificial human embryonic stem cell research, and condemn millions of human embryos to cryo-storage, are societies that can sanction any outlandish reproductive policy. There are many such societies in the East and West. However, even for these societies, extinction is not typically considered a viable option.

As these societies continue to follow the secularizing postmodern neopagan and atheistic paths they are on, where will they look for salvation? Unless there is massive religious conversion to change the message, I suspect these societies will embrace the vision of the 1933 Humanist Manifesto that says, there is no God to save us, we must save ourselves. And why not? If the God of salvation is out of the picture, technology looks like it is full of promise. For example, life expectancy in the United States went from 47.5 years in 1900 to nearly 77 years in 2000 before it started to drop.

Many strong artificial intelligence (AI) proponents see the uploading of consciousness to the perpetual cyborg upgrade as the way to beat death. Strong AI proponent Ray Kurzweil places his hope in this. And renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss sees moving beyond humanity as, not a good thing or a bad thing. Its just what is going to happen. Although others, like the late physicist Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, see developments in strong AI as serious threats to humanity.

Societies will probably be divided by opinions on how to best move forward. However, developments in reproductive technologies are likely to have their day. A debate article last year in The Atlantic, "Liberation of Folly? Your Takes on Artificial Wombs," is sobering. The article begins with the quote, If you squint a little, artificial wombs look like a solution that can satisfy everyone ... The article quotes a woman who claims that women would never be equal until everyone had access to artificial wombs and the ability to have children with their partners, regardless of gender  imagining a world where no one has to be defined by their reproductive role. Given the gender identity issues of the day, it is likely that this opinion is more widespread than some might expect.

Technologies such as artificial wombs, like most technologies, are not inherently evil until they are put into the hands of the ethically unscrupulous. One can envision the use of technology to save mothers and unborn babies at risk of death or serious harm. However, for those who see their population slipping away, who are already predisposed to devalue the nuclear family as the central societal unit, salvation will be in sight. Their central authorities can claim the authority to produce and raise children.

The Catalyst, a feminist journal of theory and technoscience, proclaimed that ectogenesis (the technical term for artificial wombs) is for feminists. The article mentioned that by 2017 gestational technology had advanced to the point of taking a 60% naturally gestated lamb to completed development of birth. The MIT Technology Review reported the accomplishment of Israels Weizmann Institute of Science. By 2021, artificial womb technology had advanced to the point of growing mouse embryos from conception to the 11-to-12-day stage, about half their gestational length. They acknowledge that this sets the stage for other species and that humans could be next.

Those of us squarely in the pro-life camp need to resist the use of experimental trials that involve human embryos and fetuses, many of which would not survive the technologically advancing experiments. In addition, serious ethical concerns exist regarding the use of successfully developed artificial wombs, which are likely to be only a few years away.

Other possibilities for generating children have crossed peoples minds. For example, in the November 18, 2022, issue of the Journal of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, Anna Smajdor, of the University of Oslo, suggests that we consider using brain-dead surrogate mothers to gestate babies. I am sure many families would consider technologies that would sustain a trauma-induced brain-dead pregnant woman to remain on life support to give the unborn child a chance to fully develop. Yet, to sustain a brain-dead woman on life support solely for the reason of becoming a surrogate mother seems to be a new depth of inhumanity.

Who is most likely to use a fully developed gestational technology to produce human babies? Communist China would be an obvious candidate. As their aspirations for world dominance continue to drive their ambitions, the communist Chinese are confronted with a rapidly declining population that is projected to be reduced by half by the end of this century. That population will be increasingly aged with a drastically reduced working-age population to support them. Considering that the Chinese have a history of human rights abuses, such as an aggressively enforced one-child policy (lifted in 2016), keeping criminal organ donors on life support to ensure future organ harvesting, and the worlds first GMO children, they seem to have everything in place philosophically to have gestational factories cranking out babies. Yet the continually secularizing West seems to be on a similar trajectory. Notice that the comments above are all from Western sources.

Right-thinking Christians will continue to support the heterosexual nuclear family as the only biblically sanctioned way to produce children. Yet, we find ourselves in a cultural climate that will inevitably split Christians on the best way forward. Sadly, we do not have the best record of achieving ethical solidarity. However, Christianity anchored in biblical truth and categories of the biblically informed created order will always have an opportunity to be salt and light in a confused world. Being aware of the trends and proactively developing critically Christian responses is a necessary start to meeting the challenge.
Can a Christian have a demon?

As the subject of deliverance and demons has come front and center in recent days, I wanted to state clearly what I do and do not believe, in keeping with the views I have held for decades.

To help simplify the discussion, I'll answer a series of common questions...

(For those who don't believe in the spiritual realm at all, this article will strike you as either exceedingly odd, exceedingly irrelevant, or exceedingly foolish. If so, I'd encourage to you check out C. S. Lewis's little book, Screwtape Letters.)

1) Can a Christian be demon possessed? Certainly not. A Christian (in the true sense of the word, not in the sense of a believer in name only), cannot be owned or fully under the control of the devil, since Jesus owns that person and is their Lord. If that person is possessed by Satan, he or she is not owned by the Lord.

2) Can a Christian be demonized? Yes, meaning that, in a particular area of their lives, they can allow themselves to come under the power of Satan. (Note also that many Greek scholars would argue that the Greek verb daimonizomai should be translated "to be demonized" rather than "to be demon possessed.")

3) Can a Christian "have a demon"? Obviously, that depends on what you mean by "having a demon." If you're asking if a demonic spirit can dwell within the born-again, human spirit, the answer is no. If you're asking if a demonic spirit can enter into a stronghold in a believer's mind or attach itself to a believer's body, the answer is yes.

4) Do Christians ever need deliverance? Yes, in some cases, when they open the door to the devil and are unable to break free, they might need deliverance. By this I mean that they would need to receive ministry from another believer who would help break the power of the devil in their lives. In such cases, we can order that spirit to leave in Jesus' name, recognizing that the demon is somewhere in that person's life where that demon does not belong.

5) Is deliverance only for Christians? Certainly not. Demons can be driven out of non-believers, as is clearly the case in Acts 16:16-18, and presumably was very common in the ministry of Jesus, who was frequently engaged in driving out demons (see, e.g., Matthew 8:16-17; Luke 13:31-33). This is sometimes part of that person's salvation experience. They are set free from Satanic dominion and then come to faith in the One who set them free. For a classic example, see Mark 5:1-20.

6) Should deliverance be a normal practice in the life of a believer? Certainly not. Deliverance should be the exception to the rule for many reasons, including: 1) It is certainly not a New Testament emphasis for believers, meaning that very little can be found about deliverance in the letters written to the churches or in the instructions written to leaders. Repentance from sin is emphasized far more than deliverance from demons. 2) We are called to cultivate intimacy with Jesus, crucify our flesh, and renew our minds. Doing this will take care of the vast majority of our problems. 3) We are overcomers in the Lord, indwelt by the Holy Spirit and bought with the blood of Jesus. Unless we continue to play games with the enemy (which is a very dangerous practice for a believer), we definitely should not find ourselves needing repeated deliverance.

7) Do some Christians underestimate demonic activity? Absolutely. Satan and his demonic forces are very real and very active, and we are at war with these forces whether we recognize it or not. (This is most clearly stated in Ephesians 6:12.)

8) Do some Christians overestimate demonic activity? Absolutely. We are to be God conscious, not demon conscious, and our identity should be found in being followers of Jesus, not ministers of deliverance. We should not be looking for demons hiding under every rock, nor should we attribute all (or most) of our problems to demonic infestations. The more we look for demons, the more we open up the door to demonic deception and even to purely emotional (and fleshly) manifestations.

9) Are there common errors in deliverance ministry? Yes, just as there are common errors in many forms of ministry, especially when they become prominent after being dormant for some time. Some of the errors would be: 1) making deliverance from demons a central issue; 2) being more conscious of demons than of the Lord; 3) attributing too much power to the devil; 4) making deliverance a regular practice for believers; 4) expecting common manifestations and responses (such as the "deliverance churches" which literally have "barf bags" by every seat  or in every pew  to aid all the Christians coughing up demons; this is not an exaggeration).

10) Should deliverance be put on public display? No, it should not, meaning, to the extent it is our decision, deliverances should not be put on display, which is why Jesus silenced the demons professing that He was the Son of God. And even though there are instances in the New Testament when demons screamed when they left people or caused their victim's bodies to convulse or collapse, there are no examples of protracted deliverances which became spectacles. In fact, in the lengthy account in Mark 9:14-29, when Jesus saw a crowd running to watch what was happening, He immediately drove the spirit out. Those who engage in mass evangelism meetings where people under demonic power suddenly begin to act wildly have their teams ready to remove such people from the crowds immediately. They do not want demonic activity to be a distraction, and those under demonic power are brought to a separate, private area to receive ministry.

11) Can we glean spiritual information from demons? Absolutely not. We do not give heed to lying spirits; we do not learn truth from the darkness; we do not gain information about the spiritual realm by listening to Satan's minions. This is a sure path to deception.

12) Can any Christian be engaged in the ministry of deliverance or is this only for Christian leaders? On the one hand, theoretically speaking, any Spirit-empowered believer can drive a demon out of someone, as the longer ending of Mark indicates (see Mark 16:15-18; the signs mentioned here, beginning with driving out demons, were to follow all believers; note also the ministry of Phillip, who was not an apostle, in Acts 8:4-8). On the other hand, we should not approach the subject of deliverance in a cavalier way, nor should we glibly challenge the devil to "bring it on." That is as foolish as it is arrogant (In Catholic circles, of course, exorcism is only to be carried out by qualified clergy.)

Let us then preach the gospel, lift Jesus up in our praises, be people of prayer, renew our minds by the Word, be filled with the Spirit, crucify our flesh, and resist the devil. When we need to drive him out from places where he does not belong, we will be ready.

(Those wanting a more in-depth treatment of the subject can listen to my 12-hour, scripturally-based teaching series on "Angels, Demons, and Deliverance," recorded more than 30 years ago but still representing my position today.)

Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is Revival Or We Die: A Great Awakening Is Our Only Hope. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.
Number of US teens who identify as LGBT skyrockets

(CP) One in four high school students in the United States identify as homosexual, bisexual or are questioning their sexuality, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The latest edition of the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System found that 74.2% of high school students claimed to be exclusively attracted to the opposite sex in 2021.

Of the remaining participants, 11.9% identified as bisexual, 3.2% as gay or lesbian and 9% as "other/questioning." The survey examines the responses of 17,232 students collected in 2021.

"The percentage of students with a sexual identity other than heterosexual has increased steadily, from 11% in 2015 to 26% in 2021," the CDC added. "Increases in the percentage of LGBQ+ students in YRBSS 2021 might be a result of changes in question wording to include students identifying as questioning, 'I am not sure about my sexual identity (questioning),' or other, 'I describe my sexual identity in some other way.'"

Data compiled by Gallup, released in February, showed that the share of the American population identifying as LGBT had doubled over the past decade, driven by a large share of Generation Z categorizing themselves as something "other" than heterosexual. The survey examined Americans' self-identification with the LGBT community based on responses from 10,736 adults in the U.S. collected in 2022.

Gen Zers, classified as adults born between 1997 and 2004, have a much larger share of their population identifying as LGBT compared to their older counterparts. Nearly one in five (19.7%) members of Gen Zers consider themselves part of the LGBT community. By contrast, just 11.3% of millennials identify as members of the LGBT community, followed by 3.3% of members of Generation X, 2.7% of baby boomers and 1.7% of the silent generation.

Generation X consists of Americans born between 1965 and 1980, baby boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964, and the silent generation comprises Americans born before 1946.

Among the LGBT-identified members of Gen Z, 13.1% identify as bisexual, 3.4% describe themselves as gay, 2.2% consider themselves lesbians, 1.9% categorize themselves as trans-identified, while 1.5% select the "other LGBT" category when asked about their sexual orientation.

Overall, the share of Americans who identify as LGBT reached a record high of 7.2% in 2022, a slight increase from the 7.1% measured in 2021, and the 5.6% measured in 2020. In 2012, the first year Gallup collected data on LGBT identification, just 3.5% of Americans embraced the label.

Similarly, "Gen Z Post Election Research" polls conducted by the Walton Family Foundation and Murmuration in conjunction with SocialSphere and released in February found that Gen Zers were much more likely than older generations to identify as either gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or some other form of queer.

Only 75% of Gen Z respondents called themselves "heterosexual or straight," an identification embraced by 92% of older adults. Nine percent of Gen Z respondents considered themselves bisexual, as did 3% of adults aged 26 and older. The survey measured the share of gay respondents at 2% among Gen Z and 1% among all other adults. The percentage of respondents who identified as lesbians came in at 1% among Gen Z respondents and less than 1% among older adults.

A noticeably higher share of Gen Z respondents reported having an "other queer identity" (4%) and categorized themselves as "transgender or non-binary" (4%), while less than 1% of adults 26 placed themselves into each category.

 The Christian Post
Why Westminster Abbey? 1,000 years of coronation history

The coronation of King Charles III is the latest in a continuous history of such events, which stretches back a millennium. Its location, within Westminster Abbey, is a direct link to Anglo-Saxon England and the eleventh-century world.

The British Isles in the eleventh century

The roots of the events which occur at a coronation in the modern UK reach back to before the Norman Conquest of 1066. In that pre-Conquest world there was no political authority which united the communities of the British Isles. Things were more complex, as a very quick overview will demonstrate.

Anglo-Saxon England was ruled by the royal family of Wessex, which had originally dominated the lands south of the Thames, but had united England (largely within borders we would now recognise) during the tenth century, following the Viking Wars.

Since 954 (when the Viking king of York, Erik Bloodaxe, had died in battle) this royal family had supplied the rulers of England, with a break in the period 10161042 when England had been part of an Anglo-Danish empire under Cnut and his two sons. But in 1042 the English royal house had been restored, when Edward the Confessor (king 10421066) had returned from exile and inherited the English throne.

In Scotland a unified Kingdom of Scots had emerged by the early eleventh century, in southern Scotland, but had yet to fully assert itself over the (still independent) rulers of the Highlands and Western Isles. It contested rule over Cumbria with England.

Wales was a mosaic of kingdoms which, while nominally independent of England, were frequently forced to submit to English rulers and pay tribute to their powerful (and aggressive) eastern neighbour.

Ireland, like Wales, was made up of many small kingdoms, which at times were drawn under the authority of a dominant High King from one of the Irish kingdoms.

All the communities were officially Christian by the eleventh century. The latest to convert being the Norse communities (descendants of Vikings) in eastern Ireland and the Western and Northern Isles of what is now Scotland. The other communities  English, Welsh, Scots, and Irish  had been Christian for centuries.

The importance of Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey is the place in which kings and queens of England have been crowned since the middle of the eleventh century. As the British Isles became unified, through a combination of conquest and dynastic arrangements, it became the coronation place of kings and queens of the United Kingdom.

Most kings of Wessex, since 901, had been crowned at Kingston upon Thames. But, in 973, Edgar was crowned at Bath. This was probably due to its impressive Roman ruins (having been the Roman settlement of Aquae Sulis, with its impressive bath complex), as he attempted to set an imperial tone for his rule. Edward the Confessor was crowned in Winchester, which had been a special place for the rulers of Wessex for centuries.

However, it was Edward the Confessor who set the scene for the next thousand years. And that is inextricably connected with Westminster Abbey. Today, the spiritual centre of the monarchy is there, in a church whose origins date from the 960s or early 970s, when Saint Dunstan and King Edgar installed a community of Benedictine monks.

Between 1042 and 1052, Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St Peter's Abbey, to create a royal burial church. The attraction of the location was its proximity to the royal palace at Westminster, which in turn was close to the preeminent commercial centre of London. The building of the new abbey was completed around 1060 and it was consecrated only a week before Edward's death on 5 January 1066.

Edward was buried at the new church on 6 January. That very afternoon, Harold Godwinson (a powerful non-royal and famous for his death at the Battle of Hastings) was crowned as Harold II. This almost certainly occurred at Westminster Abbey, although we have no documentary proof of this. If so, he was the first to have his coronation there.

Since then, it has been closely connected with the English, and then the British, monarchy as a place of coronation and of funeral (even if, since the nineteenth century, the burial place has been at Windsor). As a result, Westminster Abbey has witnessed thirty-eight coronation ceremonies.

It became so connected to coronations that, when Henry III was forced to choose Gloucester as his coronation place in 1216 because rebel barons held London, he had a second coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1220 (needing papal dispensation for another one).

Coronations at the abbey over the centuries

While Harold II was almost certainly crowned at Westminster Abbey, it is definite that William I (aka William the Conqueror) was crowned there on Christmas Day, 1066. This followed his defeat of Harold II at the Battle of Hastings in October that year. The location was clearly chosen to underscore his claim to be the legitimate successor of Edward the Confessor.

The coronation was marred with violence. Norman bodyguards outside the abbey mistook the acclamation (when those in the service acclaimed the new king) for a riot, turned on the crowd, and burned down surrounding houses.

This was not the last time that violence marked a coronation there. At the coronation of Richard I (Lionheart), in 1189, an antisemitic crowd launched a violent attack on the Jewish community in London.

Jewish citizens had come to the abbey to pay homage to the new king. The crowd  inflamed by antisemitism at this time of crusade  took offence at Jews attending a Christian ceremony. Most would not be going on crusade with the king and so targeted their crusader-enthusiasm on those at home they considered to be the "alien other." It was a grim foretaste of more antisemitic violence to come during the next century.

Other coronation events reflected contested times. In 1274, after Edward I was crowned, he removed the crown and said he would not wear it again until he regained lands lost by his father (Henry III) and grandfather (John). He never regained those lost lands in France but conducted wars against the Welsh and Scots.

In 1296, the Stone of Scone (on which kings of Scots were crowned) was seized by Edward I and incorporated into the Coronation Chair of Westminster Abbey, which was built for him between 1297 and 1300. The first coronation incorporating it was that of Edward II in 1308. The stone was returned to Scotland in 1996.

Coronations in the abbey have marked other pivotal points in history. In 1308, Edward II's coronation oath included a new clause "to uphold the laws and rightful customs which the community of the realm shall have chosen," an attempt to limit the monarch's power.

In 1429, at just seven years old, Henry VI's coronation order was modified to incorporate French practices. This was to show that this coronation could only be completed in France (he was crowned in Paris in 1431). The union of England and France swiftly collapsed.

In 1559, the coronation of Elizabeth I was a complicated and rather confusing mixture of English and Latin, reflecting religious changes.

In 1603, the coronation of James VI of Scotland as James I of England, united the two nations under one ruler; a foundational event in the history of the United Kingdom.

In 1661, almost the whole of the coronation regalia for Charles II had to be recreated as the traditional items had been melted down and sold when the nation was a republic between 1649 and 1660.

In 1689, the joint monarchs William III and Mary II swore a coronation oath which represented a new stage in the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, promising to "maintain the Statutes, Laws and Customs" of England (as made by parliament). That settlement has underpinned the constitutional role of the monarch since then.

Westminster Abbey has reflected the changing history of both the monarchy and the nation over one thousand years. Its stones have echoed to the great events of history.

Martyn Whittock is a historian, columnist, and lay minister in the Church of England. Having written books on a wide range of historical and theological themes, he has a particular interest in the impact of the past on the present, and the interaction of faith and culture/politics. His recent books include: Jesus the Unauthorized Biography, The Story of the Cross, and The End Times, Again? He has appeared on news and talk shows, on television and radio, discussing historical themes, faith and the crown in the UK, US politics, and the war in Ukraine (including its religious dimension).
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Good news for all the password-haters out there: Google has taken a big step toward making them an afterthought by adding passkeys as a more straightforward and secure way to log into its services.

Here's what you need to know:

WHAT ARE PASSKEYS?

Passkeys offer a safer alternative to passwords and texted confirmation codes. Users wont ever see them directly; instead, an online service like Gmail will use them to communicate directly with a trusted device such as your phone or computer to log you in.

All you'll have to do is verify your identity on the device using a PIN unlock code, biometrics such as your fingerprint or a face scan or a more sophisticated physical security dongle.

Google designed its passkeys to work with a variety of devices, so you can use them on iPhones, Macs and Windows computers as well as Googles own Android phones.

WHY ARE PASSKEYS NECESSARY?

Thanks to clever hackers and human fallibility, passwords are just too easy to steal or defeat. And making them more complex just opens the door to users defeating themselves.

For starters, many people choose passwords they can remember  and easy-to-recall passwords are also easy to hack. For years, analysis of hacked password caches found that the most common password in use was password123. A more recent study by the password manager NordPass found that its now just password. This isnt fooling anyone.

Passwords are also frequently compromised in security breaches. Stronger passwords are more secure, but only if you choose ones that are unique, complex and non-obvious. And once youve settled on erVex411$% as your password, good luck remembering it.

In short, passwords put security and ease of use directly at odds. Software-based password managers, which can create and store complex passwords for you, are valuable tools that can improve security. But even password managers have a master password you need to protect, and that plunges you back into the swamp.

In addition to sidestepping all those problems, passkeys have one additional advantage over passwords. Theyre specific to particular websites, so scammer sites cant steal a passkey from a dating site and use it to raid your bank account.

HOW DO I START USING PASSKEYS?

First step is to enable them for your Google account. On any trusted phone or computer, open the browser and sign into your Google account. Then visit the page g.co/passkeys and click the option to start using passkeys. Voila! The passkey feature is now activated for that account.

If you're on an Apple device, you'll first be prompted to set up the Keychain app if you're not already using it; it securely stores passwords and now passkeys as well.

Next step is to create the actual passkeys that will connect your trusted device. If you're using an Android phone that's already logged into your Google account, you're most of the way there; Android phones are automatically ready to use passkeys, though you still have enable the function first.

On the same Google account page noted above, look for the Create a passkey button. Pressing it will open a window and let you create a passkey either on your current device or on another device. There's no wrong choice; the system will simply notify you if that passkey already exists.

If you're on a PC that can't create a passkey, it will open a QR code that you can scan with the ordinary cameras on iPhones and Android devices. You may have to move the phone closer until the message Set up passkey appears on the image. Tap that and you're on your way.

AND THEN WHAT?

From that point on, signing into Google will only require you to enter your email address. If you've gotten passkeys set up properly, you'll simply get a message on your phone or other device asking you to for your fingerprint, your face or a PIN.

Of course, your password is still there. But if passkeys take off, odds are good you won't be needing it very much. You may even choose to delete it from your account someday.
Mongolia's foreign trade up 50.4 pct in 4 months

Xinhua) 16:01, May 03, 2023

ULAN BATOR, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's total imports and exports expanded 50.4 percent year on year to 7.7 billion U.S. dollars in the first four months of 2023, the Mongolian Customs General Administration said on Wednesday.

The Asian country registered a surplus in foreign trade balance as exports exceeded imports by around 2.4 billion dollars, mainly due to a significant increase in the exports of mining products, the administration said.

Mining products accounted for 88.7 percent of the mineral-rich country's total exports in the four-month period.

During the same period, the landlocked country traded with 125 economies.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Hongyu)
In her work as a curator at the Blaffer Art Museum, Houstonian Erika Mei Chua Holum began to see similarities between artists and creators in Houston and those working in Southern Asia. Holum, who is Filipinx, refers to this as a "South-South relationship."

"I started to see overlaps in how art is being created," she says, "And I started to think about 'What does it look like to generate knowledge from the South?'"

Alan Castelan

Those intersections are the subject of a new exhibit curated by Holum, now open at Sanman Studios, called Majority Rule. The exhibit, which features eight different artists from Texas and Southeast Asia, is meant to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. With artists from the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, and more working in Corpus Christi, Dallas, Houston, and elsewhere, the show looks at the ways the Global South has become a bellwether in dealing with climate change, gentrification, political marginalization, and other issues. It also addresses the way diasporas preserve their culture, whether through food, artistic traditions, knowledge-sharing, or other methods.

Beyond politics and cultural knowledge, these shared ways of working include things as simple as tools, says Matt Manalo, a Filipinx artist who works in graffiti, clay, and other materials. For Majority Rules, Manalo has built a series of bamboo easels meant to support and enhance the other artists' works.

"Every material means something," says Manalo, who has spoken in previous interviews about how seeing mural painters on bamboo scaffolding in Manila as a child helped influence his art practice. "I am working with the same materials I knew existed in the Philippines."

Alan Castelan

For other artists, displacement can be both personal and cultural. Sajeela Siddiq addresses both with her charcoal drawings in the show, Holum says.

Siddiq studied business at Bryant University in Rhode Island, and then moved to Louisiana to get her master of business administration. Then she took a five-year break to take care of her young children. After two back-to-back hurricanes, she found herself a climate refugee, something she says was a "painful reminder of the many traumas from the original immigration experience." On advice from one of her MBA advisers, she decided to study art, and is now a master of fine arts candidate at the University of Houston.

Those identitieswife, mother, minority, climate refugeeare reflected in her hyper-realistic paintings and drawings. "She depicts the wrinkles in the faces and hands of elders," Holum says. "She's showing women who have really put in the work."

Climate is a major practical concern for artists working in the South, Holum says. She mentions one artist who switched from making paintings to making tapestries because tapestries were easier to finish and sell in the humidity of the South. Even Manalo had trouble sourcing bamboo for the exhibit's easelstwo unprecedented freezes in Texas, in February 2021 and December 2022, had decimated local crops.

The exhibit runs through May 21 at Sanman Studios, an independent, artist-run space focused on supporting local creatives and community collaborations. The show is being produced by CARA, a new local agency that aims to hosts community events and brand collaborations with an eye towards bringing Houston's many diverse communities together.

"The goal for this exhibition was to help shine light and showcase AAPI artists in Houston, Texas," says CARA co-founder Brian Rama. "Houston is the most diverse city in the nation. Putting together this exhibition and providing a platform for these amazing artists is an honor."

As part of CARA's mission, Majority Rule will also feature a series of special events throughout May, inducing readings from some of the artists in the show, a conversation about Black and Asian history between Manalo and acclaimed chef Jonny Rhodes, a dinner with artists Preetika Rajgariah and Lovie Olivia, and a movement performance. A full list of events can be found at the Majority Rule website.

Manalo says he hopes the exhibit can shine a light on the many different Southeast Asian artists working and living in the American South. "We as a community are still very much underrepresented because of white supremacy. I am excited to be a part of this conversation about colonialism and be surrounded by the voracity, wisdom, and presence of people I admire.

Majority Rule runs until Sunday, May 21 at Sanman Studios, 1109 Providence St, Houston, TX 77002. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
By Abraham Verghese

Grove. 736 pp. $32

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Abraham Verghese - novelist ("Cutting for Stone"), doctor and professor of medicine - introduces his enormous new novel, "The Covenant of Water," with a personal note to advance readers: His late mother, Mariam, "was an incredible storyteller" who "wrote a forty-page manuscript" in response to a grandchild's query about her life. "In this novel," Verghese declares, "I draw on some of those stories." He dedicates the book - 10 years in the making - to his mother.

I can't think of a mightier tribute. (Nor, apparently, can Oprah Winfrey, who has just announced this novel as her latest book club pick.) Set in the Kerala state of India, "Covenant" reads like a lavish smorgasbord of genealogy, medicine and love affairs, tracing a family's evolution from 1900 through the 1970s, in pointillist detail. The family's dark secret? "In every generation . . . at least one member has drowned unexpectedly" - even though those who sense they're afflicted with "The Condition" try their utmost never to get wet.

Artfully, Verghese shapes and links successive lives through wars, monsoons, famine ("the fruity, acetone odor of a body consuming itself, the scent of starvation"). Pivotal scenes are intensely physical; intimacy swept up into widescreen pageantry in the manner of "Dr. Zhivago": floods, fires, pestilence, train journeys, teeming streets, far-flung characters coming face-to-face. Some of these coincidences test credulity - yet their urgency defeats doubt. Likewise, when loss and horror strike, they feel inevitable and real.

What binds and drives this vast, intricate history as it patiently unspools are vibrant characters, sensuous detail and an intimate tour of cultures, landscapes and mores across eras. "Our young bride" - who becomes Big Ammachi (big mother), the saga's unforgettable matriarchal backbone - rejoices in windfalls (births, friendships, including that of a beloved elephant) and grieves innumerable tragedies (some foreshadowed, others a shock). Local wit lightens up many of the proceedings: "Does he have a cow ready to calve back in the barn? . . . Did he leave the rice on the fire?" (What's his hurry?) "A crying child is a breathing child." (Prioritize emergencies.) "If brains were oil, that one didn't have enough to prime the tiniest lamp."

Verghese folds in major players, guiding them toward each other: the irresistible Digby Kilgour, a young medical graduate, migrates in 1933 from a nightmare childhood in Glasgow to Madras, India, to gain surgical experience: "The sight of suffering is familiar; its language transcends all borders." Medical crises incite action throughout the novel, allowing Verghese to tap into his deep experience and endearingly humane philosophy. When Digby, badly burned in an accidental fire, flees to a remote leprosy sanctuary to recover, he is slowly repaired there by the (marvelously drawn) Swedish village doctor Rune Orqvist. These passages provide some of the book's most moving and revelatory moments. Of Digby's hands Verghese writes: "The spectacle of these ruined tools of a surgeon's livelihood fills Rune with sorrow. This is, after all, his own nightmare, though in his dream the culprit is always leprosy. He is overcome. He takes a deep breath. The journey the two of them embark on together must begin with love, Rune thinks. To love the sick - isn't that always the first step?"

Verghese's technical strengths are consistent and versatile: crisp, taut pacing, sensuous descriptions that can fan out into rhapsody. Madras's evening breeze carries "scents of orchids and salt, an airborne opiate that . . . finally lets one forget the brutal heat of the day," a break from the riotous sense-assault of Madras itself: "odors of cured leather, cotton, dried fish, incense, and salt water, the top notes of the antique scent of this ancient civilization." Verghese writes sex scenes with striking tenderness, as well as stunning accounts of birth and death struggles, graphic surgeries, mouthwatering food, and keen depictions of class and caste divisions in Glasgow and India.

Verghese's compassion for his ensemble, which subtly multiplies, infuses every page. So does his ability to inhabit a carousel of sensibilities - including those of myriad women - with penetrating insight and empathy. Writerly strokes may occasionally feel broad, but like animate oil paintings, their effect is rich and reverberant. The further into the novel readers sink, the more power it accrues.

Throughout, Verghese painstakingly weaves in his insatiable love for, and belief in, art and literature. When an eccentric neighbor teaches Ammachi's son Philipose to read - starting with "Moby Dick"- Ammachi wonders: "Isn't it one big lie?"

"It's fiction!" thunders the old teacher. "Fiction is the great lie that tells the truth about how the world lives!" Mother and son are quickly converted, hungry to read - and here Verghese secures his opus's through-line. After reading a book, Philipose explains to Ammachi, "I've lived through three generations and learned more about the world and about myself than I do during a year in school. Ahab, Queequeg, Ophelia, and other characters die on the page so that we might live better lives."

That's surely its own covenant - a fitting mission statement for this grandly ambitious, impassioned work. "Covenant" is a magnificent feat.

- - -

Joan Frank's latest books are "Late Work: A Literary Autobiography of Love, Loss, and What I Was Reading" and "Juniper Street: A Novel."
DANBURY  For the second time in five years, Dylan McBeth is in need of a kidney transplant.

This time, he has created a personal website in the effort to find a living donor.

McBeth, 34, had his first transplant in 2019 due to IgA Nephropathy, an autoimmune disorder also known as Bergers Disease that affects the kidneys. At the time, his sister Darcie McBeth donated her kidney to him.

The wait for a kidney transplant can take years, McBeth said. Before my first transplant I was told a cadaver donor can take up to eight to 10 years. In Connecticut today, for a kidney transplant alone, almost 1,000 persons are on a waiting list according to the National Kidney Fund. More patients are added to that list every day.

The best-case scenario is finding a living donor now. So, I decided to take that search into my own hands. Like many others these days who need an organ, I used a social media campaign to find living donors.

With the help of his family, he launched a website two weeks ago called Dylans Journey (www.dylanmcbs-journey.net). The website shares his story and resources like the National Kidney Foundation's Big Ask: The Big Give program, which aims to increase living donation and kidney transplants by providing free nationwide training for patients and families.

"It has been getting a lot of views," McBeth said of the website.

McBeth, a journeyman electrician with two children, ages 4 and 10, said if he doesnt get a transplant soon, he will need to go on dialysis. Last week he needed to get an iron infusion to help boost his hemoglobin.

I understand some people might be hesitant being a kidney donor for me knowing this is my second transplant, he said. There is always a chance another kidney will be attacked by the disease I have.

But I want to continue to be involved in all aspects of a busy life, a life that includes my children Cayden (10) and Addison (4)."

McBeth explained that IgA nephropathy affects everyone differently. Some patients can have it for years with no symptoms. Others have a mild case and can live a normal life with it.

I happen to have an aggressive form that is stubborn when it comes to treatment, McBeth said. It causes my body to produce antibodies that fight my own kidneys.

Facebook, website campaign

McBeth learned in 2017 that IgAN was affecting his kidneys. In early 2018 McBeth said his kidney function dropped to 20 percent, which is the government target number to be eligible for a transplant.

McBeth then created a Facebook page to explain his need for a donor. The page also doubled as an information tool explaining his disease, how the transplantation process worked, and links to programs available at the National Kidney Foundation.

The Facebook page took on a life of its own, McBeth said. We kept adding more information and people from all around the country kept going to the site.

For the first transplant, his parents Mark and Terri McBeth were rejected as donors. But testing showed his sister, who lives in San Diego, was a perfect match. On Feb. 4, 2019 the transplant was successfully done. Dylan McBeth still kept the Facebook page active to post personal updates and any new transplant information available.

Dylan McBeth is adding a page called "Darcie's Story" on the website to tell his sister's story as a donor.

In 2021, he learned his kidney was failing again. Throughout 2022, lab results indicated the kidney function was still failing, and by early this year he was placed on a transplant waiting list.

The best way to find a living donor is to get the message out there and get Dylans story out there," Mark McBeth said. "That is what we first did with the Facebook page, which helped prepare us in developing the new website."

Dylan McBeth said he is optimistic he'll find a living donor.

Mark and Dylan McBeth have been impressed with the number of views the website has produced in a short time, with crossover from the Facebook page. There have been views and connections from people across the country, including California, Colorado and Texas.

Dylan McBeth said several people who saw the website have offered to be tested as potential donors. Due to federal privacy laws, the names of people tested and their results are kept confidential. McBeth wouldnt know if he has a donor who tested positive for a match until the Yale New Haven Transplant Department contacted him.

We needed to do more to get the word out in addition to Facebook, Mark McBeth said. With Facebook you can submit posts, but you can do so much more with a website. In the short time it has been online, every time weve posted a blog it generates a huge spike in views. The website is living and breathing with new people connecting with us."
Jason Mack/Laredo Morning Times

The Laredo and United Independent School Districts are in line to increase the number of mental health professionals in their schools thanks to a partnership with two other districts and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley supported by nearly $5.6 million in federal funding.

Rep. Henry Cuellar will be in Laredo on Thursday, May 4 to hold a 10 a.m. press conference announcing the partnership and the $5,598,047 in federal funding. The money is from the Department of Educations Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration Program.
A high school student from the town of Alexandria, Alabama, went shopping for a baby blue prom dress inspired by Cinderella. It was when Alexandria High School valedictorian Emilea Mitchell and her mother Millie were in Pensacola, Florida, visiting Emileas grandma May Hammock, that they found the perfect dress and something more.

In the spring of 1962, Hammock wore a similar blue prom dress. Sleeveless and sleek with a classy chiffon and a balloon skirt, the teenager really did look like Cinderella. After the prom at the National Guard Armory in Perry, Georgia, Hammock bagged up her beautiful dress and tucked it away in a closet. She wondered if someone else might someday wear her dress.
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PUNTA GORDA, Belize - As King Charles III gears up for his coronation Saturday, some in this Central American nation are reassessing his role as their head of state.

Belize, which borders Guatemala, Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, became a British colony in 1862 and achieved independence in 1981. It continued, however, as one of the remaining Commonwealth realms - former British territories, including Australia, the Bahamas and Jamaica, for which the British monarch is still the ceremonial head of state.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II resurfaced debates here and across the Caribbean over whether to split from the monarchy, as Barbados did in 2021. Especially in this region, the monarchy is a reminder to many of colonial occupation, slavery and exploitation.

As the Belizean government assesses whether to hold a referendum on parting with the crown, people are reexamining their relationship with its legacy and their new king.

- - -

Ludwig Palacio, 59, wants an apology from King Charles. He believes the British crown is living off the wealth accumulated through slavery.

The enslaved population of Belize reached some 2,300 in the 18th century, when the area was a British settlement. They lugged heavy timber for the colony's major exports, mahogany and lumber. Calls for reparations and a formal apology from the monarchy have grown in Belize and its neighbors.

In the coastal fishing town of Punta Gorda, Palacio works as a veterinarian, artist and writer. Museums all over Europe, he says, are littered with stolen treasures from former colonies.

"If you steal something, the least you can do is give it back," he said.

- - -

Cynthia Pitts, 73, remembers being a young girl when Princess Margaret, Elizabeth's sister, visited Belize. Pitts and her classmates had to gather in a field to form the word "welcome" for the princess to see as her plane flew over.

When Pitts the lawyer visited the British Parliament in 1989 on a fellowship, she saw all the mahogany in the building. It made her emotional to think of the enslaved people of Belize who may have carried it.

Pitts has no strong feelings about Charles as head of the Commonwealth. She knows he has no power over her country. "Whatever we are experiencing now, it is in the hands of our own people," she said.

- - -

Donisio Shol, a mapping coordinator, is Q'eqchi', a Maya people of Belize and Guatemala. The 32-year-old lives in the small town of Indian Creek with his wife and daughter. Last year, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, canceled a trip to the village after Shol and others organized a protest against the royals, whom he refers to as "colonial masters."

As if addressing Charles, Shol said: "If you're serious about an apology, come and do it. And make sure you look the people in the eye that have been hurt."

- - -

Roque Marin, 82, is a land surveyor who lives in Belize City. He was 12 when King George VI died and Elizabeth took his place. He has a soft spot for the queen.

"I don't like when people degrade her," he said, "even though she may deserve the degrading."

Marin also likes Elizabeth's grandson William, who made headlines dancing with a local community in Hopkins, a town on the eastern coast, during his trip to Belize last year.

"That brotha can wind," Marin said.

- - -

Abbie Godoy, 24, was a 2020 Commonwealth Caribbean Rhodes Scholar; she studied social anthropology at the University of Oxford, where she came to realize few Britons are even aware of Belize or its connection to the crown.

"It was just the realization that I really am an outsider," she said. She came home "way more Caribbean" and committed to advocating for a departure from the monarchy. "To free yourself from that last tie, to me, is super important for future generations," Godoy said.
Cameron Roxberry/AP

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  U.S. military investigators have recovered flight data recorders from two Army helicopters that collided last week in a remote area of Alaska's interior, killing three soldiers and injuring another, the Army said Wednesday.

Two helicopters from the 1st Attack Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment at Fort Wainwright collided about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Healy when they were returning from training on April 27, the Army has said. Healy is about 80 miles (129 kilometers) southwest of Fairbanks.
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BRIDGEPORT  Several dogs, cats and a single turtle will be available for adoption Thursday, Friday and Saturday, when the city's animal control department hosts another "Free the Shelter" event.

"We've probably got 20-plus animals available," said Jennifer Wallace, who was hired seven years ago as Bridgeport's chief animal control officer.

The hours are 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.

Since 2019 the shelter has hosted similar special adoption events. A private partner covers the related fees for spaying/neutering, vaccinations and microchips  $80 for dogs, $60 for cats  and Wallace and her staff of four spend more of their workday trying to match visitors with a future pet.

"You tell us who stands out to you and we get them out in the play area so you can try to make a connection," Wallace said. "Normally we'll have you apply (to adopt), set up an appointment and meet that dog you're interested in. (During 'Free the Shelter') we're basically just dedicating all of those hours and all of our manpower toward getting people through the shelter and making those connections."

She added all the necessary criteria are still being followed.

"It's not like we're just going, 'Hey, free dogs,'" Wallace said. "It is about trying to make the adoption process, which I already think is pretty accessible, even more accessible."

Anyone interested in attending must bring proof of home ownership or, if they rent, a notarized letter from a landlord indicating they can have a pet. Also families with young children under 13 must bring them. And current dog owners must bring those animals.

Wallace said one of her strongest partners and the entity covering the adoption fees for this week's "Free the Shelter" process is the Cathy Kangas Foundation for Animals, a New Canaan-based charity.

Wallace said when she recently noticed the animal control department space at 236 Evergreen Street filling up, "I texted my contact over there and said, 'Hey! Mayday.' The issue isnt just what does the building look like right now but looking forward to summer where intake is typically higher.

"They've been extremely supportive," Wallace said. "It gets lots of animals into homes."

We love Bridgeport Animal Control," said Mary Frances Duffy, the director of communications at Cathy Kangas. "Weve partnered with them in the past. Its a great shelter. But its a public shelter and desperately needs help in order to get their animals adopted."

For more information, visit bridgeportct.gov/animalcontrol and the department's Facebook page.

James Bias is executive director of the Connecticut Humane Society, headquartered in Newington.

Bias said according to state and national data, shelter intake numbers are down in Connecticut and around the country compared to before the global COVID-19 pandemic struck three years ago.

"Intake significantly, measurably dropped across the country, including in Connecticut," Bias said Wednesday. "Now that we're opening back up for normal lifestyle, we're seeing an increase. But it's still not exceeding prepandemic."

Bias said he is heartened that more and more shelters are focused on finding the animals in their care new homes, rather than euthanizing them, and that it is far more acceptable to adopt pets from a local animal control than in the past.

"I started in the late 1970s in the Houston (Texas) area," Bias said. "Adoption from the shelter was an afterthought. Most of the time it was people bragging about how much they paid for their highly-papered and pedigreed dog."

Now, he said, people take pride in adopting rescue animals.

"That's really good that 'brand' is there," he said.

As for why Bridgeport's animal control staff has been so busy, Wallace said that, speaking with her peers and rescue groups, she has gotten "multiple perspectives" but one possibility is housing costs and the lack of animal-friendly places to stay.

"People have to move, whether the cost of rent, job switching, consolidating," she said, and new landlords may not accept pets.

But both she and Bias said that, contrary to what some believe, people who adopted pets when working from home to avoid getting ill during the pandemic are not now abandoning those animals in droves.

"I think that's an overblown issue," Wallace said.
Donald Trump has spent the better part of the past seven years badmouthing CNN, attacking its reporters as "enemies of the people" and calling its reporting "fake news." He once tried banning one of its journalists from the White House. He routinely mocks its eroding ratings.

Yet, on Monday, CNN offered to put Trump on the air live for an hour in prime time - and Trump accepted.

Proving that bygones can be bygones, CNN lined up Trump for its first "town hall" telecast of the 2024 presidential campaign. The twice-impeached, once-indicted former president will take questions from Republican and undeclared voters in a CNN-produced event next Wednesday in New Hampshire, the state that will hold the first Republican primary next year.

The announcement drew expressions of surprise and shock, aimed at both CNN and Trump. Some critics of CNN took to social media to suggest a boycott of the network. One prominent Trump supporter called Trump's acceptance of the invitation "a Romney move" - implying that it revealed a suspiciously moderate sensibility reminiscent of that of Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee.

Norman Ornstein, the eminent political scholar, put it this way: CNN's invitation to Trump "legitimizes a man under indictment, currently on trial, with more indictments to come, who incited a violent insurrection against the country and its constitution and democracy," he told The Washington Post.

For Trump, he said, the invitation is "a godsend - a network he hates bowing down to him and giving him attention and airtime."

The rebukes came from inside the house, too. A CNN staffer, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid about his employer, called the decision baffling. "He's going to be taking questions from voters?" this staffer asked. "This was the guy who tried to overturn" what voters decided in 2020.

Officially, CNN says it's just doing what it has always done during presidential election cycles.

"CNN goes all in on covering the presidential campaign, and a key piece of that is town halls with the candidates," said David Chalian, the network's political director, in an interview. The format "helps inform voters about their choices."

Of course, Chalian noted, Trump is "a unique candidate." Since leaving office, he has been indicted on 34 felony counts by a New York grand jury, and his alleged efforts to promote the violent overthrow of the 2020 election are the subject of multiple state and federal investigations.

But he's also the Republican front-runner for the nomination, Chalian said: "For us, our job, despite his unique status, is the same. We have to hold him to account for his words and his actions.  I don't think our mission as journalists is anything less than to cover the news. And he's the news."

It's unclear, however, how the town hall format, which features questions from non-journalists - some of whom may be Trump supporters - would enable CNN to hold Trump to account. Chalian said CNN has routinely produced such events with candidates, and "you'd be hard-pressed to say [the format] is less revealing than a one-on-one interview."

The event will be hosted by morning anchor Kaitlan Collins, who will also ask questions.

CNN has had a complicated relationship with Trump since he declared his candidacy for president in mid-2015.

The network arguably was instrumental in boosting Trump's profile and prestige during his first run for the Republican nomination in 2015 and 2016. It turned its cameras on his rallies for extended periods, typically without offering fact-checking, commentary or context. It also gave substantial airtime to Trump's allegations about Hillary Clinton's deleted emails.

The network's former president, Jeff Zucker, later said he regretted those two decisions.

But CNN also enraged Trump by covering the many scandals of his presidency and post-presidency, including his false claims of a stolen election that led up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. In 2018, a Florida man, Cesar Sayoc, anonymously sent improvised explosive devices to several prominent Trump critics as well as CNN's office in New York. Sayoc's lawyers later told a court that Sayoc had been inspired by Trump. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

At one point during his presidency, Trump banned CNN correspondent Jim Acosta from the White House grounds. And in another attempt to humiliate the network, he directed his aides to reassign CNN's seat at the front of the briefing room to the back. (The reassignment plot failed when CNN's correspondent at the time - Collins, next week's town hall moderator - refused to move.)

Politico speculated on Monday that Trump's decision to appear on CNN was a snub of Fox News, because Fox, and other media properties controlled by Rupert Murdoch, have given favorable attention to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely rival for the Republican nomination.

But Trump has given two interviews to Fox hosts in recent weeks, including one with Tucker Carlson, who was fired by Fox last week. Trump also spoke to FoxNews.com in late February.

A Trump adviser said Wednesday that his decision to appear on CNN was aimed at "going outside the traditional Republican comfort zone" to reach new voters. "Some other candidates are too afraid to take this step in their quest to defeat Joe Biden, and are afraid to do anything other than Fox News," he said, adding: "CNN executives made a compelling pitch" to the Trump campaign.

CNN said in a news release that the town hall next week will be "the first of many" such events, though it hasn't announced any involving other candidates.

Although Trump is no longer the attraction he was as president, his live appearance could provide a badly needed boost to CNN's ratings. Notably, the town hall will air beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern, the time slot once dominated by Carlson but now up for grabs as the ousted host's viewers seek alternatives.

Come what may, Ornstein thinks Trump will be the big winner. For one thing, he gets access to CNN's small but moderate prime-time audience, expanding his message beyond his rabid MAGA base. In addition, "he knows he is unlikely to face really tough questions [from audience members] and can use bluster and filibusters to avoid being nailed," he said.

And if anything goes wrong for him? Easy: "He can blame the biased CNN."
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Two white Louisiana sheriffs deputies who forced a Black woman facedown to the ground in 2020 as they investigated an allegation that she had been riding a motorcycle without a helmet asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to throw out a lawsuit the woman filed against them.

U.S. District Judge Wendy Vitter refused to dismiss the civil case last year against St. Tammany Parish Deputies Kyle Hart and Ryan Moring, ruling that there was evidence of constitutional violations against Teliah Perkins and her son, then 14, arising from the May 2020 arrest for resisting an officer in front of her home. The deputies' lawyer told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Vitter's ruling was wrong and that video clearly shows the officers' actions were justified.

Perkins' is seeking damages for herself and her son, who was threatened with a Taser as he recorded the arrest.

One issue before the three appellate judges hearing the case Wednesday morning: whether they have the authority to overrule the lower court based on video evidence at this point in the lawsuit, which has not yet gone to trial before a jury.

We're here on a very limited standard of review, Judge Cory Wilson said at one point as attorney Chadwick Collings argued for the deputies. How do we get beyond what the district court found to be a genuine issue of fact?

Vitter had ruled there was evidence supporting Perkins' claims that the officers used unnecessary force even after she'd been subdued and that her son was clearly not interfering with her arrest when Moring shoved him in the chest and threatened him with a Taser as the teen recorded. The evidence of constitutional rights being violated overcame the deputies' claim that the suit should be thrown out under the doctrine of qualified immunity, which protects police from lawsuits arising from the scope of their work.

Collings argued that the appeals court has the right to throw out the case at this stage based on three videos by the son and others that he said clearly show the officers' actions were justifiable.

Exactly what the videos show and how they should be interpreted was at issue throughout the hearing  including whether Perkins was choked at some point during her arrest.

The video shows the officer's hand on her neck, Wilson told Collings at one point.

For two seconds, Collings replied.

In fairness, the video is a bit hard to follow," Judge James Ho said later in the hearing.

Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod did raise doubts about Perkins' claims that the officer brandishing a Taser rose to an unconstitutional threat against her son.

This is a non-lethal weapon, Elrod said.

Keith Cohan, representing Perkins and her son, said the officer brandishing the Taser and shoving the teen constituted violations of his rights.

Perkins didn't deny in her lawsuit that she resisted arrest or that she was subsequently found guilty of resisting a police officer. Perkins' lawyers argued that the force used during the arrest  at one point she was held face down with a deputy's knee in her back, at another she was face up with a deputy's hand briefly on her throat  was clearly excessive. And they say it continued after she stopped resisting.

Perkins alleges the incident left her with chronic pain in her legs, back and neck, as well as depression, anxiety and insomnia that require medication. Her suit claims her son's injuries include post-traumatic stress disorder.

The lawsuit was filed as part of the Justice Lab project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, which enlists the aid of private attorneys in suing over racially discriminatory police practices.

There was no indication when the 5th Circuit panel would rule.

Judges Ho and Wilson were nominated to the court by former President Donald Trump; Elrod was nominated by former President George H.W. Bush. Vitter was nominated for the district court judgeship by Trump.
The rate at which Russian forces are being killed or wounded in Ukraine has spiked in recent months, according to estimates disclosed by the White House this week, underscoring how ferocious the combat has become and suggesting the carnage could get even worse with Kyiv's long-planned counteroffensive to retake occupied territory.

Such a scenario could compound the already staggering number of military casualties suffered on both sides of the war, officials and analysts say, a figure that may be greater than 360,000 dead and injured combined since the war began, according to a tally of the most recent Western assessments to become public.

Those assessments come as the United States and its allies continue to provide Ukraine with an ever-expanding arsenal of weapons intended to inflict devastating losses on Russia's army - even as, in private, U.S. officials have determined that Kyiv's counteroffensive will probably yield only "modest territorial gains" with the bloodshed extending well into 2024 with neither side securing victory.

The White House this week, in an apparent attempt to portray President Vladimir Putin's military as badly degraded, said that about 20,000 Russians had been killed in action since December alone, as the Kremlin readied for a multi-prong offensive intended to break the Ukrainian resistance in multiple regions. Another 80,000 Russian personnel had been wounded in that time, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Many of those casualties, U.S. officials surmise, have occurred in Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city where Putin's army - augmented by tens of thousands of private paramilitary fighters and prison convicts - has since late last year mounted an intense fight against dug-in Ukrainian forces.

It's unclear how many casualties Ukrainian units have suffered in that time. Kyiv keeps those numbers a secret, worried that too much transparency could weaken its troops' morale and dampen public support for the war.

The U.S. government, similarly, has refused to disclose what it knows about the scope of Ukraine's losses. A leaked intelligence assessment from late February that surfaced online with several other U.S. secrets indicated that up to 17,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in action since Putin's full-scale invasion began a year earlier. The classified document said that, over the war's first 12 months, as many as 42,500 Russian troops had died as a result of the fighting.

The battle for Bakhmut has been especially horrifying, with Russian airborne units seizing control of high ground on the city's flanks as commanders with the Wagner Group, the paramilitary organization, order Russian convicts to assault through neighborhoods in the city's center. Unlike Russian military units, the convicts generally are not allowed to retreat under any circumstances and have been killed at a disproportionately high rate.

Kirby, in his remarks Monday, said that "nearly half" of the 20,000 Russian military fatalities since December were Wagner personnel, with thousands of deaths among the convicts ordered into battle in an effort "to throw human flesh at this fight."

Bloodshed has occurred in other locations since December, however. Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who has closely followed the conflict, said Russian forces suffered significant fatalities during their winter offensive in Vuhledar, Kreminna, Marinka and elsewhere. Those losses, he said, also explain the rise in Russian casualties noted this week by the White House.

"When you're attacking," Lee said, "you're typically going to take more casualties."

Lee pointed to how well fortified Ukraine's defensive positions are, saying that any Ukrainian counteroffensive could face similar obstacles and a rise in Ukrainian military deaths.

The Ukrainian military has said its continued, costly defense of Bakhmut, now the war's longest battle, was a strategic move aimed at weakening Russia by making its military expend more people, ammunition and other resources. Analysts have warned, though, that Ukraine also is suffering heavy casualties and burning through large qualities of materiel.

Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine's ground forces commander, told The Washington Post in February that Kyiv considers forces from Wagner among the most effective of Russia's units. The more Wagner fighters who die in the battle for Bakhmut, Syrsky said, the fewer there will be for Ukraine to worry about during its counteroffensive.

"Russia," Syrsky said at the time, "always concentrated the most prepared units here. And Russia suffered the heaviest losses here. . . . If you look at this whole area, it's literally soaked in the blood of people who died here."

As the Ukrainian military has lost ground in Bakhmut since the start of the year, U.S. officials have downplayed the city's strategic value. Privately, they also advised the Ukrainians to withdraw in January, said a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid.

Instead, Ukrainian officials have amplified what they consider to be Bakhmut's symbolic importance. Appearing before the U.S. Congress late last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky compared the fight to the battle for Saratoga during the American Revolution.

"It really keeps a large number of Russian troops tied up and prevents them from breaking through our country in different directions," Zelensky said in an interview with The Post on Monday. "That is why all the military believe that this is a very important point and that a large number of enemy troops are destroyed there."

Assessing casualty counts remains difficult, as U.S. and other Western officials have acknowledged a limited ability to observe the battlefield, and efforts by Russian and Ukrainian commanders to protect operational security by obscuring the true scope of each side's losses.

Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview with Foreign Affairs magazine published Tuesday that Russia has suffered "maybe" 200,000 or 250,000 dead and wounded overall in the war. Putin has replaced them, Milley said, with waves of reservists who are "poorly led, not well trained, poorly equipped, not well sustained."

The leaked U.S. intelligence assessment from late February says that American officials believed with "low confidence" that between 35,000 and 42,500 Russian soldiers had been killed at that stage of the war, with another 150,500 to 177,000 wounded. The same assessment listed Ukraine's losses at between 15,500 and 17,000 dead after a year of war. Another 106,500 to 110,500 were believed to have been wounded.

Despite the bloodshed, neither side seems inclined to end the war. The conflict, according to another leaked assessment, is expected to drag on into 2024, even if Ukraine inflicts "unsustainable losses" on Russian forces. "Negotiations to end the conflict," the document says, "are unlikely during 2023 in all considered scenarios."

- - -

Khurshudyan reported from Kyiv. The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
MIDDLETOWN  Vinal Technical High School freshmen carpentry students successfully transformed plywood and polystyrene foam into a replica of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that will lead off the citys Memorial Day parade this year.

City veterans reached out to carpentry instructor Timothy Larson at the beginning of April for the project, and it took students just weeks to construct the replica, which will be carried on the veterans' float at the May 29 parade, Larson said.

The Vinal memorial stands 6 feet tall, is 8 feet long and 5 feet wide. Just like the original, the inscription reads: Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.

Larson said the students were so eager to begin the project that it was launched the day after he broached it with them.

The tomb, built in 1921, serves as a symbolic grave for all war dead whose remains have not been found or identified, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. It began with one unknown service member from WWI, and today, three unidentified military personnel are interred at the marble sarcophagus in Virginia.

It also serves as a place of mourning and a site for reflection on military service, the Arlington National Cemetery website states.

The veterans provided the details, Larson said. I told them it would be no charge, but I felt it was fair to have the kids vote on it," he said. That same afternoon, he sought the students approval.

It was a unanimous decision. I had every hand go up in the classroom, Larson said. The kids were ready to go, so much so that the project began some 10 minutes later.

Shortly afterward, the youth began their research on the tomb. We needed to know why we were building it, and were building it for free, he said.

Middletown Council of Veterans Commander Bill Currlin is spearheading the project. Every detail is beautiful. ... It was a whole school event.

He's very impressed at the final product. I had a vision of a bunch of guys banging nails and making a box, Currlin said.

During the parade, the float will be escorted by a retired member of the Old Guard, he said.

Student Emma Reynolds did a lot of the painting alongside one of her peers, including the trio of sculpted figures representing peace, victory and valor. Different shades of gray paint are meant to resemble real marble, she said.

It looks good, especially for it being a freshman project, Emma added. Seeing the end result and how it all came together  means a lot to us."

Fellow student Alex Karber is a hands-on person, he said, and he already builds and sells handmade planter boxes and trellises. He worked on most of the wood construction and added the foam later, he said.

Student Lucas DeMatteo knew very little about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier prior to beginning the project, but was impressed by its importance and what it symbolizes. Even without the name, theyre getting the respect they deserve, he said of the veterans.

Larson also was impressed, by the camaraderie the students developed.

Indeed, the project united the students, Alex said. It brought us all together. It really did," he said. "We were working together right next to each other, and we had to figure out how to work with each other to get it done.

Carpentry and other hands-on fields are undergoing a transition, Larson said. Were in the middle of a huge skills gap. All of the trades are going through the roof right now, he said, talking about interest.

Generations before us were pushed toward college. You get a million people with a masters degree in business management, but nobody went into the trades, added Larson, who has been in the industry for 25 years.

These business owners have reached retirement age, and theres no one to fill that gap besides this generation coming up, he said.

As work progressed on the replica, 30 percent smaller than the actual tomb, the veterans stopped by, increasing in number each time, Larson said. This was a technical project with a deadline. Normally, this would be pretty advanced for a freshman class, where the average age is 14, he said.

These kids didnt divert from any other projects. They came together, they worked as a group, they were enthusiastic about it, he said. I couldnt be more proud of the end result.

Information systems technology students created a website and QR code for the float, enabling parade goers to scan it with their cellphone and be directed to information about the tomb, Larson said.

He said he was anticipating veterans' reaction to the final product, and said students "exceeded my expectations."

"Thats hard to do, especially with a brand new freshman class coming in, Larson said.

Celebrating the sacrifices of those in the armed services on Veterans Day and Memorial Day is one thing, Larson said, but "being that this was out of the ordinary, and we could give back right then and there, and say yes to them  just the look on their faces and having them here, that was worth it for us, he said.

His students have built "a part of Middletown history, Larson added. This will be talked about for a long time.

There were smiles all along when students stood back to take in the final project, he said.

The veterans are shaking their hands and kids are puffing up their chest. They might be modest, but theyre soaking it in," Larson said. "They did an awesome thing for the community."
Montgomery County Police Department

The suspected gunman accused of murdering five people in a San Jacinto County home late Friday was captured Tuesday evening, according to Montgomery County authorities.

Francisco Oropesa, 38, was arrested "without incident" near Cut and Shoot east of Conroe in Montgomery County, according to a KHOU report detailing official sources. Oropesa's arrest marks the end of a four-day manhunt that had seen several false reported sightings. A tip received by Montgomery County officials finally led to the man's arrest, KHOU reports. The 38-year-old was taken into custody around 7 p.m. CT on Summer Hollow Drive in an area officials had previously searched, according to details offered by a high-ranking county law enforcement official.
Five Houston men have been sentenced to federal prison for forcing nearly 100 men to live in an area stash house in reportedly "deplorable conditions." Migrants are typically forced to live in stash houses until relatives can pay smugglers a fee to secure their release.

Marina Garcia-Diaz, 24, Marcelo Palacios, 23, Kevin Licona-Lopez, 27 and Marco Baca-Perez, 22 all received between 27 and 30 months in federal prison, according to a Tuesday release from U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Texas.

Henry Licona-Larios, 34, of Copan, Honduras, was sentenced to serve 41 months in federal prison on Tuesday after pleading guilty on May 24, 2022, per the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Licona-Larios and the other four men are not U.S. citizens and are all expected to face removal proceedings following their sentences.

"The investigation began April 30, 2021, when authorities learned of a kidnapping. A woman reported that she had paid several thousand dollars for her brother to be smuggled into the country. However, the smugglers demanded more money before they would release him. They also threatened to harm him if the money was not paid," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

According to the Houston Chronicle's Olivia P. Tallet, police obtained an emergency geolocation order following the threats against the man's life by pinging cell phone calls made to his sister. The pings officers to a house on Chessington Drive in southwest Houston, where 97 migrants were found packed into rooms in their underwear, dehydrated and suffering health conditions in some cases.

You cannot trust a human smuggler. Giving them money will put your life in danger, said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani. These five people preyed on the desperation of foreign nationals hoping to get into the country. This sentence makes it clear - we will not allow the victimization of people for profit.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The worlds divided nations agreed Wednesday on one thing: There is a lack of trust in a world beset by conflicts and crises.

Diplomats at the U.N. Security Council presented ideas on how to move toward a more peaceful future  a task they see as difficult, but not impossible.

Switzerlands Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, whose country is in its first presidency of the U.N.s most powerful body, chose the debate on trust, calling it a crucial element for peace. He recalled that when the United Nations was established on the ashes of World War II its mandate was to prevent another world war and there was trust among the former warring nations. Yet today, he said, we still live with war.

International diplomacy is under stress and U.N. members have to acknowledge they havent taken account of the frustrations and challenges facing the planet, Cassis said. But the international system where the worlds nations act together is not bankrupt, and the real failure would be to do nothing, he stressed.

Cassis challenged the Security Council to grasp its responsibility of ensuring international peace and security, rebuild broken bridges, and reflect on its potential for action in the face of the increasing number of crises.

Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia laid out the challenge of rebuilding bridges in stark terms, citing the deep-seated divide and trust deficit among the councils 15 members. He blamed what he called the treacherous activities of our former Western partners.

Over the last 15 to 20 years, theyve managed to destroy step-by-step the green shoots of mutual understanding and cooperation which had sprung up after the end of the Cold War, Nebenzia said, citing what he said were broken promises of no NATO expansion, the West's promotion of revolutions in east European countries formerly part of the Soviet Union, and attempts to impose its own world order.

The Russian ambassador stressed that he was referring first and foremost to Ukraine, which he said "has been relegated to a pawn in the geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the West."

Albanias U.N. Ambassador Ferit Hoxha, whose country is a NATO member, countered that the Security Councils role is to lead the battle for peace and security and not be taken hostage to contemplate aggression and drivers of instability in the world  including Russias ongoing war in Ukraine.

He called trust the glue that holds people in societies together and said the conflict in Sudan, the frustrating failure to agree on elections in Libya, and the abandonment of Haiti to the claws of gangs also demonstrate what happens when there is no unity and a breaking of trust.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and many countries have accused Russia of violating the U.N. Charter  which demands that every countrys sovereignty and territorial integrity be respected  by invading Ukraine.

Nebenzia told the council that in order to overcome this crisis, we need joint efforts to come up with an updated, more sustainable international security architecture.

Frances deputy U.N. ambassador, Nathalie Broadhurst, said violating international law and the U.N. Charter including on non-use of force and peaceful settlement of disputes  and I am thinking in particular of Russias war of aggression in Ukraine  undermines the international order based on common rules.

She said the 193 U.N. member nations must build trust by respecting their international commitments, and the United Nations must help restore trust, including through its peacekeeping missions.

Chinas U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun told the council the world faces a serious trust crisis and warned that without mutual trust and international rules and order humanity will once again be subject to the law of the jungle.

He said nothing undermines political trust between countries more easily than blowing hot and cold or breaking promises in international relations and forming exclusive military blocs.

Without naming the West, he accused it of damaging trust by distorting market rules, seeking technological monopolies, suppressing the development of other countries, and using human rights to interfere in a nations internal affairs.

The world today is more interconnected than ever, Zhang said, and it needs to join hands globally to meet the challenges we face and create conditions for trust and lasting peace.
BERLIN (AP)  Berlin police said Wednesday that they are getting ready for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to visit Germany's capital this month.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz invited Zelenskyy to come, and the Berlin police department is preparing for the visit to take place May 13-14, police spokesperson Anja Dierschke said.

It would be Zelenskyys first visit to Germany since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The chancellor's office did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation. Scholz's spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, told German news agency dpa that the chancellors appointments would not be announced until Friday for the following week.

Dierschke said Zelenskyy was expected in Berlin on the evening of Saturday, May 13.

The next day, the president and the people of Ukraine are set to receive the International Charlemagne Prize, awarded annually by the western German city of Aachen for contributions to European unity. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is scheduled to give the speech honoring Zelenskyy.

Scholz visited Zelenskyy in Kyiv in June 2022 together with the leaders of France, Italy and Romania.

Germany has provided Ukraine with significant military and humanitarian aid, although relations between the two countries were strained at the start of the war.

Initially, Scholzs government was criticized both at home and abroad for being slower in giving weapons to Ukraine than the United States and some smaller European countries.

Zelenskyy has visited several other countries since the outbreak of the war, including the United States, the U.K. and France. On Wednesday, he arrived in Finland.

___

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MADRID (AP)  Colombian President Gustavo Petro began a state visit to Spain on Wednesday to seek support for his peace plan for the South American country while urging for greater action against climate change from Europe.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia greeted Petro and his wife in Madrid, where they will later attend a state dinner hosted by the Spanish royals.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Spains Socialist leader, is a backer of Petro, an ex-rebel who became Colombias first leftist president last year.

One of the main topics on his agenda is his peace process with the National Liberation Army (ELN), a communist-inspired guerrilla organization still active after the dissolution of FARC, a group which spent decades pursuing rebellion.

Colombias government and the ELN started talks in November, shortly after Petro was elected president. Petro has called the talks a cornerstone of his effort to resolve a conflict that dates back to the 1960s.

Last week, ELN militants killed nine Colombian soldiers in an attack, complicating efforts by Petro to negotiate a lasting peace.

The Colombian leader seeks Spain's full support for his plan, which he will likely explicitly obtain from Sanchez, according to reports from high-ranked officials in the European country.

Starting in July, Spain is set to hold the European Union's rotating presidency, a six-month period in which Madrid aims to revitalize Europes relations with Latin America. That includes plans by Spain to hold a summit between Latin America and the EU in the early days of its presidency.

Petro, 63, started his speech before the joint session of parliament by recalling the importance of his early reading of Don Quijote and the role of Spain in Colombia's cultural imagination, but he quickly moved on to warning of what he called the existential threat to humanity posed by global climate change.

The environmental message was timely for Spains lawmakers, who are managing a prolonged drought after a record-hot 2022.

We are on the brink of extinction or change, Petro said. There is no time to waste. This is no longer just a political debate  it's an order given to us by science. You can believe or not believe as if this were a religious question, but this is still science.

Lawmakers from Spains far-right Vox party left the chamber before his speech in protest against the leftist leader. Vox supporters held a small protest outside the parliament.

The visit to Europe comes two weeks after Petro traveled to Washington to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden amid deep differences on drug policy and Venezuela. But they did find some common ground on their concern for the adverse effects of climate change.

Spain recently announced a collaboration with the United States and Canada on establishing migrant centers in Latin America to facilitate orderly and safe migration.

It is a step forward for Spain, which is taking the initiative regarding a certain lack of action by Europe in this matter, Anna Ayuso, senior researcher for Latin America at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), told The Associated Press.

Spain is the leading European recipient of Latin American migration  some 500,000 Colombians live in Spain  and in recent months it has sponsored specific initiatives to accept migrants from American countries in humanitarian situations. One of these initiatives was offering nationality to 100 Nicaraguan opponents exiled by Daniel Ortega in February 2023.

There is a shift of strategy from emphasizing containment, as promoted by (former U.S. President Trump), to facilitating orderly migration and preventing irregular migration, which, in the end, encourages international crime, Ayuso said.

Petros is the only state visit that Spain is set to host this year. Felipe and Letizia welcomed Petro and his wife, Veronica Alcocer, whose car arrived at the Royal Palace accompanied by soldiers on horseback. A military band played and cannons were fired in their honor.

The Colombian leader will sit down with Sanchez on Thursday, when he will attend a meeting with the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations.

The confederation is the countrys leading business group, representing 2 million companies and self-employed entrepreneurs. Petro is expected to push his economic agenda, particularly in green energy and digitization.

Petro wants to present Colombia before Europe not only as a country committed to peace but also a stable one that deserves the trust of investors, Ayuso said.

On Friday, Petro will visit Salamanca University, where he studied.

___

Joseph Wilson contributed to this report from Barcelona.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russia claimed it foiled an attack by Ukrainian drones on the Kremlin early Wednesday, calling it an unsuccessful assassination attempt against President Vladimir Putin and promising retaliation for what it termed a terrorist act. The Ukrainian president denied it, saying: We don't attack Putin or Moscow.

Putin wasnt in the Kremlin at the time and was at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russias state news agency RIA Novosti.

There was no independent verification of the purported attack, which Russia authorities said occurred overnight but presented no evidence to support it. Questions also arose as to why it took the Kremlin hours to report the incident and why videos of it also surfaced later in the day.

A video posted overnight on a local Moscow news Telegram channel, shot from across the river from the Kremlin, appeared to show smoke rising over the buildings. It wasnt possible to ascertain its veracity. According to text accompanying the footage, residents of a nearby apartment building reported hearing bangs and seeing smoke around 2:30 a.m.

Another video on social media, which looks to be taken from across Red Square, appears to show the moment a drone explodes in a flash of fire above the roof of the Senate Palace in the Kremlin, near a flagpole flying the Russian tricolor, with debris falling on the roof. It also was not possible to independently verify this footage.

The Kremlin said Russian military and security forces had stopped the drones before they could strike. Nobody was hurt, it added. Its official website said debris from the drones fell on the Kremlin grounds without damage.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on an unannounced visit to Helsinki for talks with the leaders of five Nordic countries, denied any role.

We dont attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. Were defending our villages and cities, he said at a news conference.

Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the claims could provide a pretext for Russia to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. was unable to confirm the authenticity of Russias claim.

Asked whether the U.S. believed Putin was a lawful target of any potential Ukrainian strike, Jean-Pierre said that since the start of the conflict, the U.S. was not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its border.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that the United Nations "is not in a position to confirm these reports. We strongly reiterate our call on all concerned to refrain from any rhetoric or action that could further escalate the conflict, Haq said.

The purported drone attack would be a significant escalation in the 14-month conflict, with Ukraine taking the war to the heart of Russian power.

Phillips OBrien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, said, It certainly wasnt an attempt to assassinate Putin, because he doesnt sleep in the roof and he probably never sleeps in the Kremlin.

He added it was too soon to prove or disprove whether it was a Russian attempt either to make Ukraine look reckless or to buck up Russian public opinion or if it was a Ukrainian operation to embarrass Russia.

James Nixey, director of the, Russia and Eurasia program at the Chatham House think-tank, said the two most likely possibilities are a warning shot across the bows by Kyiv or a false flag operation by Moscow designed to justify more intense attacks in Ukraine or more conscription.

If it was a warning shot by Kyiv, then it was yet another shocking security lapse by the Russian state, he said.

If its a false flag operation by Moscow, then it reeks of desperation," Nixey added. "And its a high-risk strategy likely to be exposed, considering how poor their tradecraft seems to be.

The alleged attack prompted calls in Russia from pro-Kremlin figures for assassinations of senior leaders in Ukraine.

The Kremlin claimed the attack was planned to disrupt Victory Day, which Russia celebrates in Red Square on May 9 to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Peskov said the parade would go on as scheduled.

Before the news about the alleged attack broke, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a ban on using drones in the Russian capital, with an exception for those launched by authorities. He gave no reason for the ban, saying only it would prevent the illegal use of drones that can hinder the work of law enforcement.

Zelenskyy was in Finland seeking greater firepower for his armed forces as they figure out how to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine.

Both Ukraine and Russia reportedly have experienced ammunition shortages after a winter of long-range shelling and missile strikes. Kyiv has been pressing its allies for more as officials consider when to start driving Russian forces out of Ukrainian territory they occupy.

Zelenskyy said Ukraines counteroffensive is coming very soon.

This year will be decisive  for victory, he said.

The Nordic countries  Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland  have been among Kyiv's strongest backers since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Before meeting Zelenskyy, Nordic officials appeared ready to provide more aid.

Here in the north, we have a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian neighbor, and it is important that we discuss together how to face this new situation, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre said.

In fighting Wednesday, 16 civilians were killed in a massive attack by Russian forces on southern Kherson province, the Prosecutor Generals Office said.

Russian fire hit the train station and the only open supermarket in the regional capital, also called Kherson, killing 12 people and wounding 22, officials said. Three energy workers died when they came under fire while making repairs north of the city.

The talks came a day after U.S. officials said Washington plans to send Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous number of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition.

The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been formally announced.

Elsewhere, Russia used Iranian-made drones during its third attack on Kyiv in six days. Explosions were heard in the capital and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defenses shot down 21 of the drones, Ukraines air force said. No damage or casualties were reported

Meanwhile, a massive blaze broke out at an Russian oil depot in Russias southern Krasnodar region, east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

He didnt say what caused it, but some Russian media outlets said it was likely from a Ukrainian drone attack. There was no official comment on that possibility.

Residents heard an explosion shortly before the fire erupted, Russian news site Baza said.

Military analysts think Ukraine is targeting Russian supply lines while gearing up for a possible counteroffensive amid improving weather and as it receives more weapons and ammunition from the West.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group whose fighters are a key force in the grinding months-long battle for the eastern town of Bakhmut, was quoted by Russian media as saying Wednesday that he believes the counteroffensive is underway.

I believe that the offensive of the Ukrainian army has, in fact, already begun. We see the highest activity of enemy aviation, we see the highest activity along the perimeter and inside our front," he said, according to the reports.

Explosions also derailed a Russian freight train and hit a Russian airfield in recent days. Last weekend, a massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two Ukrainian drones, a Russia-appointed official said.

In anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces are focused on destroying logistical routes and centers of Ukraines armed forces with long-range strikes, Kyiv military officials say.

At the same time, Russia plans to continue talks with the U.N. and other parties to an wartime agreement on facilitating Black Sea agricultural shipments, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said ahead of talks on Friday.

Earlier Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed new consultations between Russia and the U.N. on access of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to the world market would be held in Moscow.

Signed in July and renewed twice, the deal freed Ukrainian grain shipments that were held up in the country's blockaded ports last year. The deal expires May 18 unless Russia agrees to its renewal.

___

Jari Tanner in Helsinki, and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed.

___ Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
STOCKHOLM (AP)  Lawmakers in Sweden passed legislation Wednesday that tightens the country's anti-terrorism laws, a move expected to help persuade Turkey to approve the Nordic nation's request to join NATO.

The revision includes a prison term of up to four years for individuals convicted of participating in an extremist organization in a way that is intended to promote, strengthen or support the group. However, the penalty can be increased to eight years when a crime is deemed serious.

The legislation allows for someone identified as a leader of a terror organization to receive a life sentence, which in Sweden generally means a minimum of 20-25 years.

The bill, which passed on a 268-34 vote with 47 lawmakers absent, made it illegal to finance, recruit for or publicly encourage a terrorist organization, as well as traveling abroad with the intention of joining such a group.

The revisions are set to take effect June 1.

Turkey has accused Sweden of failing to take concrete steps to crack down on groups that Ankara lists as terror organizations or considers existential threats, including Kurdish groups.

Swedens center-right government has taken a harder line not just toward Turkeys outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, but also toward the Syrian Kurdish militia group YPG and its political branch, PYD. Turkey regards the YPG as the Syrian arm of the PKK, which for decades has waged an insurgency within Turkey.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom has said there were close links between the PKK and the YPG/PYD, and Sweden would therefore keep a distance from Syrian groups in order not to harm relations with Turkey.

Sweden and Finland jointly applied for NATO membership in May 2022, abandoning decades of non-alignment in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

While Finland became the Western military alliance's 31st member nation in April, opposition from Turkey and Hungary stalled the Swedish bid. NATO requires unanimous approval to admit new members.
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HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)  A prominent opposition leader and lawmaker in Zimbabwe was convicted Wednesday of obstructing the course of justice for recording a video of himself accusing ruling party supporters of killing and dismembering an activist and posting the video to social media.

Job Sikhala, a Parliament member and senior official in the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party, was detained nearly 10 months ago. He must pay a $600 fine by Friday or face an additional six months in jail, according to the verdict by a magistrate.

Sikhala was repeatedly denied bail after his arrest in July. Critics have cited his case as another example of President Emmerson Mnangagwas attempts to silence the opposition ahead of Zimbabwe's presidential and parliamentary elections this year.

The 80-year-old Mnangagwa became president in 2017 after a coup ended the 37-year rule of autocratic leader Robert Mugabe.

While the coup was initially welcomed by Zimbabweans and Mnangagwa promised democratic reforms, rights groups have recently accused him of being as oppressive as Mugabe.

Amnesty International and other groups have said the arrest and pretrial detention of the 50-year-old Sikhala and other activists, along with the banning of some political meetings, show Mnangagwas willingness to use the justice system against his political opponents.

Sikhala was arrested after his comments at a memorial service for Ali, an activist and member of Sikhala's Citizens Coalition for Change who was missing for weeks before her body was found hacked into pieces and stuffed in a well.

Police have arrested one man in relation to Alis slaying and say they havent found a political link to the killing. Opposition figures claim the arrested man is an activist with the ruling Zanu PF party.

Sikhala was the lawyer representing Ali's family during the search for her. At the memorial service, Sikhala accused ruling party members of killing Ali.

He was seen on video making the accusation and it was posted on social media. On Wednesday, Magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa ruled that Sikhala was the one who recorded and uploaded the video and his comments misled police.

Sikhala must remain in jail even if he pays the $600 fine because he is also on trial on separate charges of inciting public violence for the speech he made at the memorial service for Ali.

Sikhala has been arrested more than 65 times in the past 20 years, but his lawyers say Wednesday brought his first conviction. The verdict came days after Jacob Ngarivhume, the leader of a fringe political party, was sentenced to four years in jail for a tweet that encouraged people to participate in anti-government protests in 2020. One year of the sentence was suspended.

Zimbabwes general election will be in July or August. Many opposition figures say they are battling intense government repression similar to the time when Mugabe, who died in 2019, was president. Zimbabwe has had a series of violent and disputed elections since it gained independence from white minority rule in 1980.

Mnangagwa was a Mugabe ally for decades and served as a vice president during 2014-17 before being fired by Mugabe and then taking power in a coup backed by the army. Mnangagwa denies he is clamping down on the opposition and claims his government has improved the political environment.

Yet in recent months, dozens of opposition supporters, political activists, journalists, church leaders, trade union members and student leaders have been arrested on various charges that legal experts say amount to harassment.

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BRAMPTON, Ontario (AP)  Police in Canada arrested a man for allegedly selling a lethal substance to people at risk of self-harm and charged him with counseling suicide in the deaths of two Canadians.

Peel Regional Police said the charges were lodged late Tuesday against Kenneth Law, 57, of Mississauga, Ontario, after an investigation into two recent deaths in the area.

Law appeared briefly in a Brampton, Ontario, court, on Wednesday and his case was put over to next week.

Police said Law used a series of websites to market and sell sodium nitrite, a substance commonly used to cure meats but that can be deadly.

The Globe and Mail reported that Law confirmed before his arrest that he was selling sodium nitrite online but that he denied any wrongdoing. Im selling a legal product, OK. And what the person does with it? I have no control, he was quoted as saying.

Police said their investigation found that at least 1,200 packages were allegedly sent by Law to over 40 countries. Authorities did not specify what the packages contained, but Peel Regional Deputy Police Chief Marc Andrews urged anyone who received a shipment from Law to contact suicide hotlines and police.

It is against the law in Canada for someone to recommend suicide, although assisted suicide has been legal since 2016 for people aged at least 18. Any adult with a serious illness, disease or disability may seek help in dying, but they must ask for that assistance from a physician.

The Canadian Press reported that a coroners report it obtained from the United Kingdom appears to point to at least one death by suicide in the U.K. linked to a postal box in Mississauga and a company name that police linked to Law.

Ontario Provincial Police issued a public safety warning about packages containing sodium nitrite being mailed out across the province that may have been sent to people at risk of self-harm. At least one of those companies lists a Kenneth Law as the site founder.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Another mother searching for her disappeared child has been killed in Mexico, the sixth murder of a volunteer search activist in Mexico since the start of 2021.

The volunteer search group known as A Promise to be Kept said Teresa Magueyal was killed Tuesday in the violence-wracked city of Celaya, in the north-central state of Guanajuato.

The state prosecutors office said it was still investigating the report and could not confirm it.

It was the second such killing in Guanajuato in less than six months. Volunteer searcher Maria Vazquez Ramirez was shot to death in November in the city of Abasolo, Guanajuato.

In Guanajuato we women searchers are not safe, they kill us in broad daylight, in public, with total impunity, Magueyal's group said in a statement, calling the killing cowardly.

The motive in the killing remained unclear; most searchers say they are looking for the bodies of their children, not evidence to convict their killers.

Magueyal was active in the search for her son, Jose Luis, who disappeared in 2020. Mexico has over 112,000 missing people, and relatives of the disappeared often have to search for them because of police inaction.

Police in Mexico often lack the time, expertise or interest to look for the clandestine grave sites where gangs frequently bury them.

Much of that effort has been left to volunteer search teams known as colectivos made up of mothers of the missing, who often call themselves as Searching Mothers.

Two cartels  Santa Rosa de Lima and the Jalisco cartel  have carried out a years-long turf war for control of Guanajuato state. They kill off rivals, kidnapping victims and innocent people and hide their bodies in mass graves or body dumping grounds.

But the problem is not limited to Guanajuato. In October, attackers in the central city of Puebla shot to death Esmeralda Gallardo, who led efforts to find her missing 22-year-old daughter.

Many mothers carry out their own investigations or join search teams that, often acting on tips, cross gullies and fields, sinking iron rods into the ground to detect the telltale stench of decomposing bodies.

The searchers, and the police who sometimes accompany them, usually focus on finding graves and identifying remains. Search groups sometimes even get anonymous tips about where bodies are buried, knowledge probably available only to the killers or their accomplices.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexicans living abroad sent home a total of almost $14 billion in the first three months of 2023, an 11.4% increase over the same period of 2022, the country's central bank said Tuesday.

While still considerable, the rate of growth in remittances appears to be slowing, after large pandemic-era increases in 2022 and 2021. In March, remittances for the month were actually down 1.2% compared to the same month last year.

That may be related to the Feb. 28 decision by the government to stop accepting remittances through the government-owned Bienestar bank.

The government said the decision was made to avoid duplicating the functions of another government transfer office. But some experts said it was a reaction to signs that drug cartels may have been using remittances through the Bienestar bank to launder money.

The Bienestar bank has not yet responded to questions about reports that there had been a surge in remittances sent through the bank to the cartel-dominated state of Sinaloa.

Remittances grew by 13.4% in 2022, totaling about $58.5 billion for the year as a whole. In 2021, remittances grew by an astounding 27.1%, totaling about $51.6 billion for the year.

Remittances now surpass almost all other sources of the countrys foreign income, including tourism, oil exports and most manufacturing exports.

Mexico receives more money from remittances than any other country except India. Indian migrants send home about $100 billion each year.

Still, no one is getting rich in Mexico from remittances; the average amount each migrant sent was $391, according to the Bank of Mexico.

Remittances as a percentage of Mexicos GDP have almost doubled over the previous decade, growing from 2% of GDP in 2010 to 3.8% in 2020, according to the government. Between 2010 and 2020, the percentage of households in Mexico receiving remittances rose from 3.6% to 5.1%.
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TALLINN, Estonia (AP)  As Russian officials tell it, two Ukrainian drones flew into the very heart of Moscow under the cover of darkness, reaching the Kremlin before they were shot down at the last minute.

A cloud of questions hangs over the claim.

Why did the Kremlin announcement come about 12 hours after the purported incident? Why did no reports of explosions emerge prior to the announcement on the messaging apps that remain full of chatter despite Russia's crackdown on media and criticism of the war in Ukraine? Why didn't videos of the purported attacks appear until after the announcement? Why haven't the images been verified?

A drone attack on the Kremlin would be the most severe penetration of Russian airspace since German teen Matthias Rust landed his little single-engine plane on the fringes of Red Square in 1987. Announcing the attack  or even faking it  risks Russia undermining its citizens' trust in its frequent assertions of military superiority.

Adding to that humiliation is that the incident occurred less than a week before Victory Day, Russia's paramount military holiday. In some of the videos of the claimed attack, the decorated viewing stands and tribune for the day's ritual Red Square military parade can be seen prominently.

For President Vladimir Putin, the confession of Ukrainian drones reaching the Kremlin could be justification for a brutal step-up of attacks on Ukraine. Russian officials persistently contend  repeated evidence to the contrary  that the military goes after only military targets.

Severe retaliation is already in the wind, including threats aimed specifically at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who denied attacking the Kremlin.

After today's terrorist act, no variant remains other than the physical elimination of Zelenskyy and his clique, said former Russian president and deputy chairman of the Russian security council, Dmitry Medvedev,

The chairman of the powerful lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, compared the Ukrainian government with the terrorist Islamic State and said he will demand the use of weapons capable of destroying it.

Russias nuclear doctrine says the country can use nuclear weapons if it comes under a nuclear strike or if it faces an attack with conventional weapons that threatens the very existence of the Russian state. The West has accused Putin of nuclear saber-rattling during the Ukraine war

But Phillips O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at University of St. Andrews, downplayed the possibility related to the alleged Kremlin attack.

Youre not going to say, Now that there has been an attack with a tiny drone, now we can go nuclear, he said.

Commentator Abbas Gallyamov, a former Putin speechwriter who has fled the country, also raised doubts.

If enemy drones reach the Kremlin, it means that any other object on the territory of the European part of Russia is generally defenseless," he said. "Therefore, I do not believe that this was a provocation conceived by the Kremlin in order to influence public opinion.

If Ukraine had indeed attacked, "consider it a performative strike, a demonstration of capability and a declaration of intent: Dont think Moscow is safe, said Mark Galeotti, a Russian military and security analyst at University College, London.

Less clear, he said on Twitter, is whether it shakes Russians nerve or angers them.

Russians' nerves already have been frayed by attacks, either likely from Ukraine or from domestic opponents, that have risen sharply in recent weeks.

Two freight trains derailed this week in bomb explosions in the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine. Notably, the region's authorities did not blame Ukraine, which could be an attempt to whitewash Ukrainian sabotage capacities.

But Bryansk authorities in March claimed that two people were shot and killed when alleged Ukrainian saboteurs penetrated the region. The region also has been hit with sporadic cross-border shelling, including one that killed four people in April.

Ukrainian drones reportedly have penetrated deep into Russia several times. In December, Russia claimed to have shot down drones at airfields in the Saratov and Ryazan regions. Three soldiers were reported killed in the attack in Saratov, which targeted an important military airfield.

Earlier, Russia reported shooting down a Ukrainian drone that targeted the headquarters of its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol in Russia-annexed Crimea.

In addition, two prominent supporters of Russia's war in Ukraine have been killed on their home ground. Darya Dugina, a commentator with a nationalist TV channel, died in a car bombing outside Moscow that officials blamed on Ukraine. And authorities said Ukrainian intelligence was behind the killing of prominent pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed in April when a bomb inside a statuette he was handed at a party exploded.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  Turkey has closed its airspace to flights by Armenian aircraft in retaliation for the erection of a monument in the Armenian capital that Ankara says honors people responsible for the killings of Turkish officials, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday.

In an interview with NTV television, Cavusoglu warned that Turkey would take further measures if the monument in Yerevan is not removed.

The move comes as Turkey and Armenia, which have no diplomatic relations, had been engaged in talks to normalize ties and put decades of acrimony behind. They appointed special envoys who have held several rounds of talks. Their discussions had resulted in an agreement to resume charter flights between Istanbul and Yerevan.

The two countries have a more than century-old bitter relationship over the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey.

Historians widely view the event as genocide. Turkey vehemently rejects the label, conceding that many died in that era but insisting that the death toll is inflated and the deaths resulted from civil unrest.

Cavusoglu said the monument aimed to glorify Armenians involved in plans to assassinate Ottoman and Azerbaijani officials in the 1920s and Turkish diplomats in the 1970s and 1980s.

It is not possible for us to accept this. We can clearly see that their intentions are not good, Cavusoglu said.

The monument is dedicated to members of Operation Nemesis  the codename for a covert operation to avenge the killing and deportation of Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces, with seven assassinations carried out by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation between 1920 and 1922.

Operation Nemesis represented a record of the fact that throughout history, crimes do not go unpunished regardless of how the international community treats it, Yerevan Deputy Mayor Tigran Avinyan told state news agency Armenpress on the April 25 unveiling of the monument, on which the names of 16 Operation Nemesis members are engraved.

Armenias central aviation committee claimed that it didn't receive official notification from the Turkish side about the airspace closure.

Turkey shut down its border with Armenia in 1993, in a show of solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, which was locked in a conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

In 2020, Turkey strongly backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan gain control of a significant part of the region.

Meanwhile, Armenian parliamentary president Alen Simonyan arrived in Ankara on Wednesday to attend the 30th anniversary of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. According to Simonyans press secretary, the parliamentary president is set to also meet with the president of the Turkish parliament.

___

Elise Morton contributed to this report from London.
HARTFORD  A small pack of lobbyists descended on the State Capitol on Wednesday to hone their puppy-dog eyes.

Cozying up to lawmakers of both parties, about a dozen puppies served as the backdrop for a news conference to draw support toward a pair of bills aimed at improving Connecticuts middling standing among animal welfare advocates.

Among the changes sought by lawmakers are improved standards for municipal animal shelters  an issue that was highlighted in Wallingford last year when activists criticized the lack of air conditioning in the towns shelter during a summer heat wave.

In addition, a second bill would bar anyone convicted of animal abuse from owning another pet for five years, enhance the states definition of bestiality, and require veterinarians to report suspected instances of abuse through dog fighting.

Both bills were advanced by legislative committees earlier this month with broad bipartisan support. On Wednesday, the House passed the measure dealing with shelters by a vote of 144-2, while the other bill was awaiting action on the floor.

During Wednesday's news conference, lawmakers described animal abuse as gateway crime for other offenses, including domestic violence.

Animal cruelty acts are disturbing, and theyre heinous and those that commit these crimes need to be identified and they need to be addressed, said state Rep. Dorinda Borer, D-West Haven. Recognizing animal cruelty as a serious, violent offense has been a slow development over the years.

While lawmakers placed stricter regulations on private kennels several years ago, the last time the state updated standards for municipal shelters  which are funded by taxpayers  was in 1963, according to James Bias, the executive director of the Connecticut Humane Society.

For some reason animals, theyre at the button of the budgetary process, Bias said.

Still, Bias said many public shelters can solicit donations to lower the cost of any needed upgrades required under the proposed law. The bill would require that municipal dog pounds and animal shelters maintain an internal ambient temperature of between 55 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, except in certain medical cases.

Neither bill attracted significant opposition during a public comment period held earlier this year.

Several dog breeders and representatives of kennel clubs requested that the anti-cruelty legislation be amended so as not to interfere with the artificial insemination of animals for breeding purposes, a change that lawmakers adopted.

That bill would authorize animal control officers to take possession of any animal if they have reason to believe the animal was subject to neglect to cruelty. It would also require judges to bar anyone convicted of animal cruelty offenses from owning or working with animals for five years.

There were 3,348 cases brought under Connecticuts existing animal cruelty laws during a 10-year period ending in 2021, according to a report by legislative researchers. More than 80 percent of those charged were ultimately dropped without a conviction.

Animals might not be people, but they deserve to be treated with the same respect, said state Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria, R-Seymour, who serves as co-chair of the Animal Advocacy Caucus. When animals are being harmed, its our duty to speak out and stop the abuse.
WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Tuesday, May 2, 2023

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Midland has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

North central Andrews County in western Texas...

Central Gaines County in western Texas...

* Until 745 PM CDT.

* At 645 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 9 miles south of

Gaines County Airport, or 11 miles south of Seminole, moving north

at 25 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage

to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Seminole, Seagraves, Seagraves Airport, Gaines County Airport,

Florey, Paynes Corner and Gaines County Park.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

Large hail and damaging winds and continuous cloud to ground

lightning may occur with this storm. Move indoors immediately.

Lightning is one of nature's leading killers. Remember, if you can

hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning.

Torrential rainfall is occurring with this storm, and may lead to

flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways.

_____

Copyright 2023 AccuWeather
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Thunderstorms. High near 80F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Variable clouds with showers and scattered thunderstorms. Storms more numerous this evening. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
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Centrul de Drept al Avocatilor - Recruitment for national consultant position

Centrul de Drept al Avocatilor is looking for qualified persons for national consultants position to support the Enhancing the Rule of law system-wide capacities to address justice needs of vulnerable groups, including displaced people and host communities and empowering Vulnerable groups to claim their rights and access legal remedies for their grievancesproject.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Title: National consultant Contract type: Service contract, part-time Location: Chisinau, Balti, Soroca Date of publication: 3 May 2023 Application Deadline: 14 May 2023

Terms of Reference:

- Provide advice and support in the context of solving the grievances displaced persons face, including in the context of the temporary protection mechanism, as well as document positive and negative scenarios of the temporary protection system

- Provide expertise, knowledge and tools with 5 civil society organisations working in the regions of the country( Balti, Soroca, Causeni, Cahul and Comrat), aiming to strengthen the capacities thereof to become active stakeholders in the context of mainstreaming the needs of displaced persons and host communities.

- Provide support and guidance to a network of Ukrainians engaged facilitation of access to justice

- Refer persons of concern to relevant state authorities for any type of available assistance and monitor the access to the national social, legal, educational and medical assistance.

- Provide expertise and counselling to local authorities

- Ability to produce high quality reports and analysis

Qualifications and skills required:

Academic Qualifications:

University degree, preferably in international law or human rights law.

Lawyer license would be considered an advantage

Experience and knowledge:

Previous work experience in the area would be considered as advantage

Good organizational and time-management abilities.

Proficiency in Excel, Word, Power Point, use of databases

Competencies:

Good analytical skills and good oral and written communication skills.

Ability to work effectively under stress and in crisis situations.

Cultural and gender awareness.

Fluency in Romanian, Russian and English languages.

Driver license.

CDA is committed to workforce diversity. Women and men, persons with disabilities, Roma and other ethnic or religious minorities, persons living with HIV, LGBTQI+ as well as refugees and other non-citizens legally entitled to work in the Republic of Moldova, are encouraged to apply.

Please provide details in CV on your past employments and two references.

Please submit a cover letter and your resume to law-center@cda.md . Applicants selected will be contacted via email.
This year, I celebrated 30 years of credit counselling in the House of Commons, reflecting on my time setting up the Money Advice Trust (MAT) and the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), now known as StepChange.

Of course, in those days people only had hardnosed creditors to worry about. Now the state, and local authorities in particular, make life much harder for people short of money.

StepChanges origins

I researched credit counselling in the US and found a perfect model in Texas  not in the buzzy capital Austin which I knew and loved, but in the staid oil town of Houston where there was a palpable determination to do good and to do things well.

Feeling somewhat guilty after a week "fact-finding" in America, I started my report as soon as the plane took off. My travelling typewriter of choice was then the Sinclair ZX. It only had one major drawback - there was no saving mechanism so the vivid report was in constant danger.

Fortune favours the brave and the thousand words lived to be posted to Vic Ware of General Electric (GE), whose idea it had been to visit the States. I had by then earned my corn as Vic's go-to man for making things happen.

Vic was GEs supremo for good works in Europe. GE had entered the new UK credit market by taking over Burtons, where Vic worked. It was quick to recognise his star quality in retail credit and his early advocacy of credit referencing. Vic brought into our project team immediately CCN Systems (soon to be renamed Experian), Jeremy Burton, the dynast from his former employer, and his wife Carole who became our unpaid finance director at the Consumer Credit Counselling Service for years before and after launch.

I added Barclays to the mix thanks to Nick Cobban. Nick had worked with me at the Co-op and moved up. We also had the strong backing of the Consumer Credit Trade Association.

Eddie George, governor of the Bank of England, gave us the nod. Eddie and I had both been in the secret classrooms at Crail in Fife learning Russian, along with  but not alongside  Dennis Potter, Michael Frayn and Alan Bennett.

So we had the money, the stature and the oomph to get going. We all saw credit as a good thing, even if it needed to be handled with care. We all agreed that the credit industry needed to help people who got into difficulty both for simple humanity and to avoid costly regulation.

What we brought to Britain was not only the US approach but also the spirit of Texas. Its chief Terry Blaney trained our first cohort of counsellors in Houston free of charge and allowed us to join its systems where appropriate.

Early developments

The aim from the start was to be modern and hi tech in approach as well as practical and human. But the technical leap came a few years later with the arrival from GE of Gordon Bell. At GE, Gordon's job had been to fly in to companies worldwide which GE had just bought and adapt their systems so that they could report back seamlessly within weeks to GE HQ. From that dynamism Gordon now wanted more family time and that was our gain.

Within a few years most CCCS customers were reaching us online and we could help them effectively for as little as 6 a person. This was after meeting the high cost of constant improvement. Whenever the system showed people having problems, better code made it smooth again.

By 2010, Gordon and I were able to launch free cognitive behavioural therapy online and offer the first breathing space: clients who couldn't keep up payments were allowed to pay 1 a month. It signalled their wish to repay and effectively encouraged creditors to hold back from pursuit.

Many of these developments slowed after research commissioned by my successor showed that few people had heard of CCCS, which was no surprise since most of our customers were referred by their creditors. That led to the adoption of the trading name StepChange.

The name change led to an influx of clients whom the charity couldnt readily help, less differentiation from the rest of the sector and ultimately more competition for the scarce resources available from central government.

Before the name change CCCS took no money from government. But StepChange received funding until January this year, when it and Christians Against Poverty were replaced by MAT and Gregory Pennington. Now MAT is recruiting heavily to meet the extra flood of demand.

Lets found again

As a member of the governments MidLife MOT Board, I have great hopes  together with expert fellow board member and Kings College professor Rachel Jenkins  of encouraging the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to introduce a successor to CCCS free CBT programme.

The Midlife MOT covers both financial and mental health. People in their 50s often have reach through the whole population through parents and children. Up to a million people are already online with the DWP so the new system would only face setup costs (with which charitable players are ready to help) and not marketing cost of attracting users.

I am also working on a new book, encouraging people to found new ventures, under the working title: Lets found again. It features CCCS, MAT, CIFAS, some similarly well-known names and others who have vanished as though they have never been.

On the cusp is the most recent  Action for Financial Inclusion. This community interest company is now helping Scots become financially resilient through payroll saving and awaits a second round of funding to share its success with the rest of the UK.

Civil Society Voices is the place for informed opinion, and debate about the big issues affecting charities today. Were always keen to hear from anyone, working or volunteering at a charity, who has something to say. Find out more about contributing and how to get in touch. is the place for informed opinion, and debate about the big issues affecting charities today. Were always keen to hear from anyone, working or volunteering at a charity, who has something to say.
For decades, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have broadcast into countries all over the world, in dozens of languages, on a mission not just to report the truth, as Emily Russell observes for the latest issue of CJR, but to spread American values. In an audio feature, Russell looks at how thats gone in Afghanistan, where the longest war effort in United States history quickly gave way to Taliban rule. There, as in many places where the American government has heavily invested in soft power, authoritarianism has only gotten stronger, and journalists remain at risk. Its not clear that the mission of these US-funded outlets can ever be achieved, Russell says.

The history of hearts-and-minds media can be traced back to at least the Napoleonic Empire. Bonaparte didnt invent propaganda, but he was particularly skilled at narrative manipulation: in bulletins written for the Monitor, the official government newspaper, he was known to overstate triumphs on the battlefield and underplay losses; popular art depicting him as a war hero helped, too. As technology advanced, so did the sophistication with which leaders aimed to influence people. Radio made it possible to broadcast into millions of homes, continents away; developments in social sciencethanks in large part to Sigmund Freuds nephew Edward Bernays, known as the father of public relations and a member of the US Committee on Public Informationled the American government to reach the conclusion that ideas were weapons and were even more effective than bullets. By the time Radio Free Afghanistan had settled into the airwaves, in the nineties, the US was pumping more than a billion dollars into media influence campaigns each year. Not long after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress approved new funding for broadcasting in Afghanistan, and Radio Azadi (freedom radio) was born.

Whats happened since reveals as much about Americas investment in media as about a democracys willingness to put reporters in harms way. From the perspective of RFE/RL and Voice of America, danger isnt a deterrent, Russell notes. Its the reason for their presence. Below, she speaks with me about her piece. You can listen to the whole thing here and check out the rest of the issue.

What are Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, exactly? How are they supposed to work?

They are both news organizations funded by Congress that broadcast to other countries. Voice of America primarily reaches people through television and radio. Radio Free Europe/Radio Libertyas the name impliesuses radio. Both also sustain a digital presence. The organizations have different origins: VOA was established by President Roosevelts administration during World War II; RFE/RL was originally a CIA operation. But both are meant to provide news and spread democratic values around the world. Historically, theyve been leveraged in times of conflictboth were big players in the Cold War, transmitting news in the USSR. Some view these networks as soft-power influence operations; others consider them valuable news services. In my view, theyre a combination of the two.

In recent years, VOA and RFE/RL have been housed under the same federal agency, the US Agency for Global Media, or USAGM, where theyre overseen by a single CEO, though their daily operations are completely distinct. USAGM, which Congress supplies with an eight-hundred-million-dollar annual budget, employs hundreds of journalists, who report from and broadcast to nearly a hundred countries in forty-eight languages.

How direct is the political influence over Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty? Is there an expectation of some independence? Does it depend on who occupies the White House?

Theres an expectation that VOA and RFE/RL will do independent reporting. Since 1994, and the establishment of the International Broadcasting Act, there has been an editorial firewall separating Congress, the president, and the USAGM CEO from the news networks journalists. But expectation and reality dont always align, and there have been accusations of editorial bias and interference from both sides of the political aisle.

This subject of political influence spilled into the public sphere in 2020. President Trump, who often accused USAGMs news networks of liberal bias, became the first president to appoint a CEO to lead USAGM. That CEO, Michael Pack, replaced what had been an advisory board, so power was greatly consolidated. Pack promptly fired the heads of VOA and RFE/RL, among many others. After President Biden entered the White House, and replaced Pack with a new CEO, Kelu Chao, federal officials investigated how the editorial firewall should be strengthened to prevent political interference in the future. But theres still nothing written into law that would prevent Congress or the president from influencing USAGM or its networks.

Thats not to say the journalists on the ground are just pawns in a political game. I believe the journalists who work for VOA and RFE/RL are people of integrity. But after tracking instances of political meddling in editorial operations, its clear that maintaining independence is a challenge.

In your piece, you focus on Afghanistan. What is the reputation of Radio Azadi, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty station there?

Many people told me that Radio Azadi is really important to the Afghan people. Radio Azadi has been in the country for two decades, reporting on security, elections, education, hosting music programs and call-in shows. The listenership is quite large, something like six million people a week. In Afghanistan, radio is much more popular than television. Now that the Taliban has taken over, some of Radio Azadis programming has become essential, especially shows that give Afghan women a platform to share their stories. Malali Bashir, Radio Azadis senior editor, told me some women cry when they call in on-air to talk about how their life has changed under the Taliban. Its important to capture these realities, and Im not sure that any local media organization would broadcast the same material, given the Talibans crackdowns on free speech.

What are the biggest dangers facing journalists working for Radio Azadi and Voice of America?

They deal with the same dangers any journalist might face in countries hostile to the press. I dont think we can definitively say that because these journalists represent US interests they are more targeted in places where the US faces opposition, though that was suggested in some conversations I had while reporting. In the past five years, four Radio Azadi journalists have been killed in Afghanistan.

Since the Taliban took over, RFE/RL and VOA have largely scaled back their on-the-ground operations. Its unclear exactly how many of RFE/RLs former stringers and journalists remain in Afghanistan, but I was told that the number is in the hundreds. Id also note that its important to think about the consumers of US-funded news media, people who are assuming risks just by clicking on VOA or tuning in to RFE/RL. Thats often overlooked when we talk about risks and journalism.

In your piece, you speak with Dan Robinson, who was a journalist with Voice of America for many years and is now its most devoted critic. How does he view the costs and benefits of Americas heart-and-minds media?

Dans view is nuanced. He appreciates what VOA and RFE/RL offer people in countries that dont have a robust or free media ecosystem. For decades, VOA and RFE/RL have filled gaping holes in news coverageoriginally within the USSR and now in countries like China and Bangladesh. But Dan takes issue with the editorial firewall, which I think he has little confidence in. Since retiring from VOA, he has tracked instances of what he believes to be poor management and editorially unsound practices at VOA and RFE/RL.

On a fundamental level, Dan struggles to embrace the purpose of USAGM. He isnt sure the US government should be engaging in the international news business. He questions whether we should be waving the First Amendment flag where the US has, in one way or another, interfered with a countrys history and freedom.

How can we understand this kind of media in the context of Americas larger foreign-policy agenda?

I think its hard to separate the mission of these news organizations from Americas foreign-policy agenda, whichbroadly speakingis to spread a distinctly American version of democracy to other countries. A critical component of American democracy is freedom of speech. USAGMs media operations provide a means to do that beyond US borders. Another way to contextualize USAGMs media operations is to see them as a counterbalance to Russian and Chinese disinformation on social media. And that can be a valuable endeavor, considering how harmful disinformation is on a global scale.

Betsy Morais is the managing editor of CJR.
Journalist Evan Gershkovich is the latest victim of a new war on media freedom. Arrested and charged with espionage in Russia whilst on a reporting trip, the Wall Street Journal correspondent is being held in solitary confinement. He could face 20 years in jail.

That a free press in Putins Russia is all but extinct is well-documented. More than two dozen journalists have been killed there since 2003. But what is new here is the precise method of attack. Russian journalists have long experienced legal harassment. But Gershkovich, an American, is the first Western journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since 1986.

Journalists who hold power to account are increasingly making enemies of the powerful. From surveillance and coercion to physical violence and online abuse  the methods of extinguishing unwanted truth-telling have evolved. And lately, a new weapon has been added to this arsenal of tools: the law.

Once used for protection, now abused for persecution, the law is being hijacked by powerful individuals, organizations and governments to criminalize media practitioners and muzzle free speech. These legal attacks are not just the domain of autocratic regimes; weaponization of the law is happening all over the world, including in leading democracies. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a record 363 reporters were imprisoned globally in connection with their work in 2022  an increase of 20% on the previous year.

The legal tactics used to ensnare and cripple journalists are many and varied. They range from the introduction of new legislation under the guise of national security interests, to the use of multiple lawsuits that threaten those targeted with financial ruin.

Amongst the most prominent legal threats to journalists is the surging abuse of both civil and criminal defamation laws. Legitimately used to protect an individuals reputation from false statements, defamation laws and the disproportionate penalties they can carry are now being used to shield powerful individuals  particularly public figures  from criticism.

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In the last five years, an alarming number of countries have introduced or amended laws to silence a free press. According to UNESCO, at least 160 currently have criminal defamation laws  used to threaten journalists with arrest, detention, expensive trials, fines and imprisonment, should their scrutiny stray into uncomfortable territory.

From Cubas new criminal code, approved by the Legislative Assembly in 2022, to, Japans heightened penalties for defamation  with fines of up to 300,000 yen (USD$2,220) and a one-year prison sentence for online insults  journalists are being criminalized under the guise of libel, slander, insult or injury.

In December last year, Indonesia outlawed insulting the president or vice president in a new criminal code that has been widely criticized by human rights organizations for its impact on free speech. Between 2017 and 2019 in Azerbaijan, journalists, bloggers, media workers and media editorial staff were charged 72 times with libel, insult, and reputational damage. Meanwhile in Brazil, businessman Luciano Hang, owner of the Havan retail chain, has filed at least 37 lawsuits, many alleging defamation, against journalists and media organizations that exposed his close ties to the former Bolsonaro administration. He is seeking compensation for more than $1.2 million.

These claims can be just as steep in civil defamation cases. While they can be used to uphold rigorous journalistic standards, create accountability and protect reputations  as with the recent lawsuit brought against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems that resulted in a staggering $787.5 million settlement  such laws are being routinely and widely abused. Journalists and media organizations have faced wildly inflated damage claims in attempts to derail investigative journalism. Former US Congressman Devin Nunes, for example, sued CNN for $435 million over an article published in 2019 that alleged he had met with a former Ukrainian official in Austria in a bid to uncover damaging information on then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The suit was thrown out in February 2021.

Left unchecked, defamation laws, both criminal and civil, will continue to be used all over the world to suppress scrutiny and to prevent open public debate.

The surging use of legal tactics to silence journalists has disastrous consequences for citizens and society.

The first problem is that journalists themselves are often unaware of this complex legal quagmire, or the specialist advice theyd need to extricate themselves from it. Moreover, the resources theyd need to mount their defense are often entirely out of reach.

Secondly, there is a growing need for greater legal expertise to protect media practitioners and combat the increasing array of traditional and non-traditional threats they face.

Thirdly, legal warfare waged against journalists turns the accuser into the accused. When a journalist faces a criminal charge, their own reputation is damaged, fueling even greater distrust between them and the audience they serve.

As long as this issue is only discussed in distinct circles, journalists will continue to be targeted with impunity. Widespread understanding of the nature of these risks, the support available  and the gaps in this support  is critical to protecting free media, the cornerstone of democracy.

This is why the Thomson Reuters Foundation has partnered with the Tow Centre for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School to produce a report that identifies and examines the worlds leading legal threats to the profession.

The report is the first of its kind to bring together global research, contributions from media freedom experts all over the world, and the first-hand experience of nearly 500 journalists. It provides a critical step towards a holistic, global overview of the weaponization of the law against journalists and a springboard into future research.

But more than that, it is a call to arms to prioritize the safeguarding of journalists, to protect free media and preserve democracy.

Collectively, we have a duty to halt the democratic deficit driven by bankrupting journalists, threatening their liberty  and in doing so  extinguishing free speech.

Antonio Zappulla is CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation

Joel Simon is Founding Director of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University New York

Antonio Zappulla and Joel Simon
More than 85% of Americans own a smartphone, meaning about 300 million people across the country have high-resolution digital cameras tucked into their pockets. The ubiquity of these devices has led to efficiencies in the claim-handling process for many property and casualty carriers. By enabling insureds, claimants, providers, and others to capture and share photographic evidence in support of claims, insurers can investigate and process those claims with increased speed. One study indicated that 27 percent of repairable vehicle claim estimates are initiated via photos.

These estimates seem like a win-win for insurers and customers. Policyholders can get faster, simpler service when reporting losses, and carriers reduce expenses without the need for onsite estimates. But theres another group benefiting from remote claim estimatesfraudsters.

Digital photo technology has armed fraudsters with new tools and methods to defraud insurers in the claim-handling process. As carriers embrace customer and claimant-submitted photos, including photo-based estimates, and accelerate toward straight-through processing, they must reckon with the growing digital photo fraud problem.

The growing photo fraud threat

How big of a problem is insurance fraud? According to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, it costs the U.S. economy $308.6 billion each year. Thats nearly $1,000 for every person in the country.

Fraud is not a new problem for the industry, but in light of current economic headwinds and a nearly $27 billion net underwriting loss in 2022, reducing the leakage is critical. Certain factors have contributed to frauds growth, including increased digitalization, customer-focused claims strategies, and lackadaisical consumer attitudes toward insurance fraud.

The Internet and digital claims processes have made it easier than ever to commit fraud, and there are numerous ways to submit fraudulent claims using loss photos. Many of them are relatively simple. For example, fraudsters can submit the same image to different carriers as evidence of losses. A fraudster can also download a picture of damages from the Internet and submit it as evidence of their claim.

A classic example occurred in a McDonalds coffee burn claim. In that case, a California woman submitted hand burn photos she had downloaded from a Colorado hospital website. Unless a hyper-vigilant adjuster happens to discover the duplicate image, these schemes will likely go undetected.

Fraudsters are also turning to technology to perpetrate schemes. Using photo-editing software, they can manipulate documents and images to fabricate or inflate damages or even create fake claims altogether. And with the emergence of generative artificial intelligence and certain smartphone apps, anyone can create or doctor loss images.

Its not just claimants and insureds that perpetrate these schemes. Some third-party suppliers such as independent adjusters, repair contractors, and auto body shops might re-use images or download photos from the Internet to inflate bills or cut corners on providing estimates. For example, in a recent analysis of a carriers claims, we discovered that a single property appraiser used the same photo in 170 different claims over two years. This one appraisers nefarious actions impacted claims totaling more than $1 million in indemnity payments.

Investigating an images digital fingerprint

Insurers can protect against this growing source of leakage with help from digital forensics. This defensive technology uses AI to identify indicators of fraud and manipulation in digital photos and documents. A robust digital forensics program monitors and checks four primary threat vectors: 1) metadata (or Exif data) inconsistencies, 2) image duplication, 3) Internet sourcing, and 4) pixel manipulation.

Metadata and Exif data forensics identify inconsistencies in information embedded within an image file. Embedded information may include the date, time, and location the photo was taken, the manufacturer and camera model used to take the photo, the date a photo was edited, and other details. An example of an inconsistency in metadata is a substantial distance between the location a photo was taken and the loss location.

Image duplication occurs when someone submits the same image as evidence in two or more unrelated claims. This can occur by submitting the same photo to different carriers or to the same insurer under multiple policies and claims. For duplication detection to be effective, image forensics must compare photos across claims and carriers.

Sourcing photos from the Internet is often the easiest for a fraudster. Effective image forensics must not only search for duplication across P&C claims but also must identify images duplicated from the web.

Finally, advanced image forensics look beyond metadata and duplication flags. Forensics designed to detect pixel manipulation, for example, compare pixel patterns and markers inherent in the original photo to those pixels added or changed by software. Although not visible to the human eye, photo-editing software leaves trace evidence in the form of noise patterns easily spotted by well-trained AI forensic software. These forensic technologies provide insurers with vital capabilities in their anti-fraud toolkit.

Better detection, better customer experience

As digital images become more and more central to the claim-handling processespecially straight-through-processingits essential for insurers to employ digital forensics technology. Savvy fraudsters and opportunists have many ways to game the system with digital images, so insurers must be equipped with the latest techniques to quickly identify and scrutinize non-meritorious claims.

But the ultimate benefit of image forensic technology is not just for detecting fraud, its for processing legitimate claims more quickly. Carriers equipped with effective tools to verify the authenticity of loss photos can confidently and accurately pay meritorious claims faster, thus shortening claim cycle time and improving customer experience. Thats a true win-win for the carrier and policyholder.
Louisiana Insurance Commissioner James Donelon on Tuesday issued $2 million in fines against McClenny Moseley & Associates and three of its partners, the maximum amount allowed by law.

The illegal insurance scheme perpetrated by McClenny Moseley & Associates is frankly one of the most egregious cases that has ever come through this department, Donelon said in a prepared statement. The $2 million in fines should put all bad actors on notice that fraudulent behavior will not be tolerated in Louisiana.

Donelon said he issued $500,000 fines each against MMA founding partners James McClenny and John Zachary Moses, New Orleans office managing partner William Huye III and the law firm as a whole.

In a cease and desist order dated May 1, Donelon says MMA attorneys own admissions during hearings before federal court judges show that the law firm knowingly attempted to defraud Louisiana insurers. In 856 instances, MMA led insurers to believe it represented homeowners when in fact it represented Apex Roofing and Restoration or other contractors. MMA admitted that it settled 11 claims on behalf of insured property owners without the property owners knowledge or consent.

The law firm also deposited checks from insurers that were made out to mortgage holders in addition to the property owners. In one instance, someone with MMA stamped an endorsement on the back of a check made out to a mortgage holder, Accord Services, even though Accord was unaware that the check had been issued and had not received any part of the proceeds.

MMAs fraudulent behavior included presenting demands for payment pursuant to the consumers insurance policy, invoking the appraisal provision of the policy, and receiving and negotiating insurance settlement checks without the authority to do so from the policyholder, the Insurance Department said in a press release.

Under Louisiana law, MMA and its attorneys have 30 days to file a request for an administrative hearing to appeal the fine, said Deputy Insurance Commissioner John Ford.

The insurance commissioners fines are just the latest in a long string of setbacks for MMA. The Louisiana Supreme Court on March 3 suspended indefinitely William Huyes license to practice law. All of the other attorneys assigned to the New Orleans office have since left the firm.

MMA has acknowledged that it paid $13.9 million to an Arizona-based marketing firm, Tort Network, which does business as Velawcity, for prescreened client leads. But federal judges in the Western and Eastern Louisiana district courts have refused to allow the law firm to proceed with lawsuits filed on behalf of those clients.

A former MMA business partner has filed lawsuits that seek $13 million in compensation. Global Estimating Services says MMA owes it nearly $10 million for appraisals it performed on hurricane damaged homes. An affiliated company, Access Restoration Services, sued to recover a $3 million investment loan it made to MMA to finance the acquisition of new clients.

A New Orleans-based personal injury law firm added its own legal action to MMAs challenges this week. Morris Bart filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for Eastern Louisiana seeking a temporary restraining order and an injunction barring MMA from communicating with former clients who fired the law firm and signed agreements with Morris Bart. The pleading also asks for a declaration to nullify any client engagements in Louisiana and an order to stop MMA from collecting attorney fees.

The lawsuit says former MMA clients have approached Morris Bart seeking representation after learning about MMAs misrepresentations.

In total, Morris Bart has now taken on the representation of over 900 former MMA clients and has dedicated at least 39 attorneys in its law firm to the work of pursuing these claims and cleaning up the mess MMA left in its wake, the suit says.

New Orleans insurance defense attorney Matthew Monson, whose review of MMAs mass court filings prompted the investigations by federal judges and the insurance commissioner, noted the Morris Bart lawsuit on his LinkedIn page Tuesday.

Never before have the most aggressive insurance defense law firm (The Monson Law Firm, LLC) and the most successful plaintiffs firm in Louisiana been so aligned on the issues, Monson wrote.
AKRON, Ohio  Akronites effectively chose the citys next mayor in Tuesdays Primary Election.

Because there are no Republican or independent candidates running for the position, its all but certain that Shammas Malik will take the reins as the citys 63rd mayor when current Mayor Dan Horrigans term ends Dec. 31.
CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio

Theft: Shopping Plaza Drive

Police were called at 11:47 a.m. April 25 to Heinens Fine Foods by loss prevention personnel for a report of two instances of shoplifting.

An Arizona man, 61, was identified and charged with theft. He was given a date to appear in Bedford Municipal Court.

Traffic stop: West Orange Street

An officer stopped a vehicle at 3:39 p.m. April 12 near Williams Street, resulting in the arrest of a Euclid man, 26, for driving with a suspended license.

Welfare check: Solon Road

A parent of an adult woman voiced concern for her well-being and asked police to check on her April 20. An officer found her in town. Her family arrived at the scene and took custody of her.

Traffic stop: Philomethian Street

After checking the registration of a vehicle at 9:39 a.m. April 23, an officer arrested a Union, Ohio, man, 26, for driving with a suspended license. He will face Bedford Municipal Court.

Traffic stop: East Washington Street

Stopped by police at 11:14 a.m. April 26 for using a wireless communications device, a Chagrin Falls man, 23, had an outstanding warrant from Highland Heights police. He was transported and released to police in that community without being charged in Chagrin Falls.

Found item: Solon Road

Someone found a black case along the road near Monticello and turned it in to police at 4:37 p.m. April 20. The owner can identify it and pick it up at the police station.

Get police blotters by email every weekday for free with our new Police Blotter newsletter. Sign up at cleveland.com/newsletters.

Read more from the Chagrin Solon Sun.
PARMA, Ohio -- Parma, Parma Heights and Seven Hills residents -- for the fourth time over the last roughly four years -- have voted down a Parma City School District strategic consolidation bond issue.

Issue 4 vote totals were 7,750 (53.53 percent) against vs. 6,727 (46.47 percent) in favor, according to final, unofficial results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Tuesday night (May 2).

Obviously, its very disappointing, Superintendent Charles Smialek said. We thought we had some positive momentum.

We thought we really had some good community support, but theres a sense of inertia in this town thats very difficult to chip into.

The new-money, 4-mill bond issue -- which if passed would have cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 an additional $11.67 a month -- was tied to the construction of a $250 million high school building serving the entire district on the site of the current Parma Senior High School, which is set for demolition this summer.

The roughly 300,000-square-foot building would have been what Smialek called Northeast Ohios largest high school campus.

The failure of Issue 4 means once again residents werent swayed about a state funding contribution -- $79.1 million from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission -- to the construction cost of the new school.

Looking ahead, Smialek said: I think we live with two high schools for a while -- Normandy High School and Valley Forge High School. Well demolish Parma Senior High, as planned.

We have to see what state funding looks like, what our five-year forecast looks like and, at some point, we know that we will most likely need some operating money.

Weve always wanted to space out the bond issue and an operating levy, so we have to see how best we can do that.

Read more news from the Sun Post Herald.
PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio -- City Council recently approved a four-year contract with the Parma Heights firefighters union.

Im very happy with the collective bargaining agreement with our firefighters, City Council President Tom Rounds said.

I would say both the firefighters and the city came to a very fair deal that shows the firefighters that they are important to us while also showing our residents that safety and fiscal responsibility were our focus.

The four-year contract represents a $412,000 increase -- 3 percent ($64,000) in 2022 followed by 5 percent in 2023 ($110,000), 2024 ($116,000) and 2025 ($122,000) -- to the citys budget.

This contract with fire is a result of binding arbitration, Mayor Marie Gallo said. We ended up going to arbitration with the fire department because their tentative agreement went before council, which rejected it last November.

The city wanted language changes and some of our management rights back that over time some were given away. So we had to buy them back.

The decision to seek arbitration was related to the city seeking significant language changes in the contract.

As a result of the city being successful in getting the Me Too clause removed, fire got the same increases as the OPBA (Ohio Patrolmens Benevolent Association) captains and sergeants, Gallo said.

Theres also going to be a reduction in compensatory time balances over the next couple of years with fire.

The Me Too clause comes into play when a union, after agreeing to a new contract, sees something of greater value in another union deal with the same municipality. The clause means the former union automatically receives the same benefit.

What the city found is it at times the Me Too clause would undermine the collective bargaining process, she said.

We successfully got it removed from the OPBA contract. Now the arbitrator ruled in the citys favor and we got it removed from the firefighters contract. Were optimistic that the FOP and the service union will also agree to have it removed.

The Parma Heights International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 1690 didnt return messages left by cleveland.com in time for this story.

Gallo said the Parma Heights Fire Department currently has 30 firefighters, including the fire chief and assistant fire chief.

Even though we went to arbitration with the firefighters, now we have a contract in place and moving ahead we look forward to working with this bargaining unit, she said.

Here in Parma Heights, safety is a priority. Were grateful -- even though we went to arbitration -- to have this department. They work very hard for the residents.

Read more news from the Parma Sun Post.
SEVEN HILLS, Ohio -- The Seven Hills Fire Department is currently in the process of adding epinephrine auto-injectors (EpiPens or Auvi Qs) at various city venues.

Were one of the first municipalities in the state to be able to carry and keep what we call stock epinephrine in buildings, Fire Chief Jamie Meklemburg said.

The epinephrine auto-injectors are incredibly important. Currently, 32 million adult Americans live with food allergies. Also sometimes people develop allergies over time and dont realize they have it until they eat something and it happens, he said.

While ambulances regularly carry epinephrine to emergency calls, the fire chief said having the modern devices, which audibly instruct the public about the application process, could be lifesaving.

The first couple of minutes when somebody is going into anaphylaxis are critical, he said. Basically, a lay person is able to take these devices, which walk them through the process of giving the initial epinephrine.

Its incredibly critical that people going into anaphylaxis get epinephrine on board as quickly as possible. If we show up even in four minutes, those are four minutes folks arent able to breathe.

The Seven Hills Fire Department has added an allergy emergency kit at City Halls Community Room. (John Benson/cleveland.com)

The donated epinephrine auto-injectors -- recently installed at the Community Room in City Hall and planned for the Gathering Room in the Community Recreation Center -- are a product of the new partnership among Seven Hills, the Allison Rose Foundation and Code Ana USA.

Meklemburg thanked Cuyahoga Heights Fire Chief Mike Suhy for his efforts.

Stock epinephrine has been a big push of ours since the Allison Rose Foundation was created in 2018, Meklemburg said.

It started with school districts. Now its moving to restaurants and other qualified entities like municipal buildings and rec centers.

The fire department has been busy training City Hall and Community Recreation Center employees on how to use epinephrine auto-injectors.

Also on the fire chiefs radar is adding the units to park concession stands and other locations.

The seed to bring EpiPens to Seven Hills was firmly planted in my mind over two years ago while attending a fundraiser for the Allison Rose Foundation, Mayor Anthony D. Biasiotta said.

Im very pleased to report thats fully grown into a partnership that will provide EpiPens to our city free of charge.

Read more news from the Parma Sun Post.
CHARDON, Ohio  Investigators for the Geauga County prosecutors office and federal agents on Wednesday raided the countys Department of Water Resources, taking hard drives from department computers, officials said.

Geauga County Prosecutor James Flaiz said the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, sheriffs deputies and Russell Township police conducted several raids in the area, including at the water resources department on Ravenwood Drive.

Flaiz said the investigation centers around individuals having an unlawful interest in a public contract. He declined further comment.

Water Resources Department director Steve Oluic said investigators interrupted a meeting at the office early Wednesday and took one employee to a different building for questioning.

Later, investigators returned with a search warrant and seized some hard drives from department computers. He said investigators told him that they are investigating old contracts, but didnt elaborate.

I wish I could tell you more, Oluic said.

Water Resources is the sewer and water department for the county, and services 6,200 water and sewer accounts. Its budget is about $7 million, according to its website.

Geauga County Commissioner Ralph Spidalieri said he was aware of the raid, but was unsure what prompted it.

A Secret Service supervisor at the Cleveland Field Office said their agency doesnt publicly comment on cases.

Recently, the water resources department has clashed with the Geauga County auditors office about the water department having its own IT administrator, instead of coming under the countys automated data processing system.

Adam Ferrise covers federal courts at cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. You can find his work here.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Attorneys for three people whose trial in the slaying of an 18-year-old woman in East Cleveland ended in a mistrial earlier this year now want a judge to throw out the charges.

The attorneys argue that a text message that Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John Russos bailiff sent on Russos behalf to the four assistant prosecutors on the case that caused the mistrial was not a simple error, as the judge has previously claimed.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  A woman died in an early morning fire in the citys Hough neighborhood Wednesday, according to Cleveland fire officials.

Cleveland firefighters responded to a house fire on East 66th Street, south of Superior Avenue, at 4:38 a.m. Wednesday, according to a post on the departments Twitter.

An unidentified woman was transported to MetroHealth Medical Center where she died, the department said.

cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to the Cuyahoga County medical examiners office for information regarding the identity of the woman who died.

The fire department said a mattress in a bedroom of the residence was on fire. No additional details were immediately available.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Voters remain a tough sell on tax increases for schools, with three districts requests for more money for operations and building improvements being defeated in Tuesday nights primary election.

In Parma, a 4 mill bond issue that school officials said would cover the construction cost of a $250 million high school building went down, 7,750-6,727, with 100% of precincts reporting, according to unofficial results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

A 2.6 mill bond issue with an 8.6 mill additional tax levy for Garfield Heights Schools was overwhelming defeated, 888-248, while a tax renewal and increase for Independence Schools was trailing, 1,115-806.

Beachwood Schools was the lone district to have success, with its 3.95-mill bond issue being approved, 1,308-785. The bond issue will raise $65 million to build two new elementary schools and to update the Fairmount Early Childhood Center, which also serves as the Board of Education offices. It will cost $138.25 per year for each $100,000 of the county auditors appraised value of a home and will be repaid over 37 years.

A five-year, 2.8 mill tax levy renewal and 0.6 mill increase for Westlake Porter Public Library easily passed, 1,981-614, with 100% of precincts reporting. The money from the levy will be used for current expenses and will cost $88 for each $100,000 of appraised home value.

Voter turnout was low for Tuesdays election, with only 12.7% of Cuyahoga Countys registered voters casting ballots. In May 2019, there was a 21% turnout and in May 2021 there was a 19% turnout.

Go here for more election results from the May primary.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals led Northeast Ohio hospital systems for patient safety with the only area hospitals receiving the top A grades, according to the Leapfrog Groups spring 2023 Safety Grades Rankings released Wednesday.

Yet across the nations hospital system, the COVID-19 pandemic worsened patient safety, the report said.

The Clinics main campus and six other hospitals in its system  including Lutheran and Hillcrest  earned A grades. University Hospitals Ahuja, Geauga, Portage and Parma medical centers all earned A grades.

UH main campus and UH St. John received B grades, along with the Clinics Euclid and Medina hospitals, and Ashtabula Medical Center.

Leapfrogs hospital safety grades have serious implications for patients, Stewart said. Accidents, errors and hospital-acquired infections can lead to longer hospital stays, complications and death, she said.

These safety grades really should be the first tool that patients use to select a hospital, Stewart said. If they have the option of going to an A hospital, thats certainly something that they should consider.

The information also can spur conversations between patients and healthcare providers about how they ensure patients safety, Stewart said.

The Clinic estimates that it saved an additional 500 lives in 2022 by using sepsis teams to quickly detect and treat sepsis. This condition can become a life-threatening medical emergency when an infection leads to tissue damage and organ failure.

Patient safety, quality and experience are core tenets of our care, and we remain focused on implementing data-driven best practices at each of our locations, the Clinic said in a statement.

Among the Northeast Ohio hospitals with C grades were MetroHealth System, Southwest General Health Center, Summa Healths Barberton campus and UHs Elyria, TriPoint and Lake West medical centers.

MetroHealths new CEO Airica Steeds goal is to eliminate patient harm and improve the health systems Leapfrog grade to an A.

Steed created the MetroHealth Institute of Patient Centered Excellence, which brings together all of the health systems quality and safety programs, MetroHealth said in a statement.

These departments work in synergy to improve the quality, safety and experience of care given at MetroHealth by keeping patients at the forefront, the health system said.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades look at how well 3,000 U.S. hospitals protect their patients from medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections. Grades are updated twice yearly, in spring and fall. The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization focused on improving patient safety in hospitals.

Out of the nearly 3,000 U.S. hospitals that Leapfrog evaluated, 29% received A grades, 26% received a B, 39% received a C. The D and F grades combined accounted for about 7% of hospitals, Leapfrog said.

Ohio ranked No. 26 on the Leapfrog rankings of U.S. hospital safety.

New Jersey was the state with the highest percentage of A-ranked hospitals. It was followed by Idaho, Utah, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Hospital City Spring 2023 Fall 2023 Spring 2022 Cleveland Clinic Avon Avon A A A Cleveland Clinic Fairview Cleveland A A A Cleveland Clinic Foundation Cleveland A B B Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Mayfield Heights A A A Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Cleveland A A A Cleveland Clinic Marymount Garfield Heights A A B Cleveland Clinic South Pointe Warrensville Heights A A A UH Ahuja Beachwood A C B UH Geauga Chardon A B C UH Parma Parma A B B UH Portage Ravenna A B B Ashtabula County Medical Center Ashtabula B C C Cleveland Clinic Euclid Euclid B C C Cleveland Clinic Medina Medina B B A UH Cleveland Medical Center Cleveland B C C UH St. John Westlake B B B Mercy Health - Lorain Hospital Lorain C B B MetroHealth Medical Center Cleveland C C C Southwest General Health Center Middleburg Heights C B B Summa Health System, Akron Campus Akron OH C C Summa Health, Barberton Campus Barberton C C C UH Elyria Medical Center Elyria C C C UH TriPoint Medical Center Concord Twp C C C UH Lake West Medical Center Willoughby C C C Western Reserve Hospital Cuyahoga Falls C C C

Infections rose, patient experience declined during pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic showed that U.S. hospitals need to improve patient safety by sharing best practices and becoming more resilient, Stewart said.

Nationally, the average risk of three hospital-associated infections  including Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus  rose to a five-year high in U.S. hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic and remain high, the Leapfrog report said.

Across the country, the average MRSA standard infection ratio increased by 37%.

Bloodstream infections associated with intravenous lines standard infection ratio increased by 60% and urinary tract infections associated with catheters standard infection ratio increased by 19%.

The standardized infection ratio compares the number of healthcare-associated infections at each hospital to the predicted number of infections.

However, Clostridioides difficile, or C. Diff, infections in hospitals improved 15% from spring 2021 to spring 2023, the Leapfrog report said.

Infections like these can be life or death for some patients, Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group, said in a statement. We recognize the tremendous strain the pandemic put on hospitals and their workforce, but alarming findings like these indicate hospitals must recommit to patient safety and build more resilience.

Leapfrogs Hospital Safety Grades look at five patient experience measures that impact patient safety outcomes: nurse communication, doctor communication, staff responsiveness, communication about medicine and discharge information.

Nationally, Leapfrogs measures of patient experience showed declines during the pandemic. The most significant declines were found in communication about medicine (4% decline) and staff responsiveness (3% decline), the report said.

Checklists, open communication increase safety at MetroHealth, Clinic

MetroHealths new Institute of Patient Centered Excellence is working to raise the health systems C grade by evaluating each instance of patient harm to uncover any systemic flaws or trends, and share results with staff, the health system said.

The open communication helps to create a sense of ownership and accountability to initiate sustainable improvements, MetroHealth said.

The health systems real-time performance in many Leapfrog measures can be viewed by all staff on MetroHealths internal intranet site.

The Clinic pointed to training, checklists and procedures that helped many of its hospitals earn A grades from Leapfrog.

Clinic employees are continually trained on proper hand hygiene, intravenous line management and wound care, the hospital system said.

Clinic caregivers use checklists of items that must be confirmed with each patient, such as the intended procedure and medications. All employees are encouraged to point out situations that could be unsafe.

Julie Washington covers healthcare for cleveland.com. Read previous stories at this link. Also:

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CLEVELAND, Ohio  Authorities are investigating a slaying that took place Tuesday in the citys Stockyards neighborhood.

Wilkuin Melendez, 41, of Cleveland was shot about 11:40 p.m. in the 3100 block of West 54th Street, near Kouba Avenue, according to police. Officers found Melendez on the kitchen floor with multiple gunshot wounds.
MADISON, Wisconsin  Legislation proposed by two Republican lawmakers would allow children as young as 14 years old to serve alcohol to seated customers at bars and restaurants.

Sen. Rob Stafsholt and State Rep. Chanz Green introduced the bill Monday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Currently, someone must be 18 years old or older to serve alcohol. In Ohio, no one under 18 can serve or sell alcohol. The legal drinking age is 21 in Wisconsin, although minors of any age in Wisconsin can drink in bars and restaurants if they are with their parents.
WASHINGTON  General Mills has voluntarily recalled bags of its Gold Medal bleached and unbleached flour after it discovered salmonella in a sampling of the product, the Food and Drug Administration said.

The nationwide recall affects flour marked better if used by March 27, 2024, and March 28, 2024. The dates involve five- and 10-lb. bags of unbleached, all-purpose flour and two- and five-lb. bags of bleached, all-purpose flour.

The UPC numbers for the unbleached flower are 000-16000-19610 and 000-16000-19580. The codes for the bleached bags of flour are 000-16000-10610 and 000-16000-10710, the FDA said.

If you find the products in your pantry you should dispose of them, according to the FDA. Consumers who have had to discard products covered by the recall may contact General Mills consumer relations at 1-800-230-8103.

Healthy people infected with the bacteria salmonella infantis can experience nausea, diarrhea, fever and abdominal pains. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are 1.2 million cases annually in the United States.

Symptoms typically start between six hours to six days after infection and last four to seven days.

The recall notice did not link General Mills flour to any reports of illness. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been investigating an 11-state salmonella outbreak in which most of the 12 individuals sickened reported eating raw dough or batter made with flour before becoming ill, The Washington Post reported.

Investigators are working to identify a specific brand of flour linked to illnesses, the CDC wrote in a March 23 advisory.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  Tens of thousands of people gathered in New Mexico on Friday for what organizers bill as the largest powwow in North America.

The annual Gathering of Nations kicked off with a colorful procession of Native American and Indigenous dancers from around the world moving to the beat of traditional drums as they filled an arena at the New Mexico state fairgrounds.
CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio -- With Cinco de Mayo on Friday (May 5), margaritas, burritos, nachos and Latin music will be in full force from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Chagrin Falls Heinens, 20 Plaza Drive.

Musician Justo Saborit will perform Latin music while patrons eat pork carnitas or dance to Saborits exotic blends.

On the Heinens Cinco de Mayo menu will be made-from-scratch burrito and taco shells. Patrons will be able to stuff those tacos or burritos with fresh mushrooms, peppers and marinated chicken. Made on-the-premises guacamole, salsa and queso will be in the Heinens kitchen to add to tacos and burritos.

Featured Cinco de Mayo drinks will include Thomas Ashbourne Margarita Craft Spirits and beer selections from Wolfs Ridge Brewery and Masthead Brewery Company.

Sarah Maxwell from Onda also will be at Heinens to provide samples of classic tequila-based seltzers.

If the never-ending May rain/snow ceases, the Heinens patio in the vicinity of the cafe will be open for business on Cinco de Mayo.

Read more from the Chagrin Solon Sun.
COLUMBUS, OhioGoogle announced Wednesday it is building two new data centers in Central Ohio to boost the tech giants artificial intelligence efforts and tools like Google search, Maps, and Gmail.

The data centers, already starting to be built in south Columbus and Lancaster, will create about 1,000 temporary construction jobs, as well as an unknown number of positions when the centers open, according to Jessica Ryan, a spokeswoman for Google. Data centers, in general, tend to create a significant number of jobs while theyre being constructed but a comparatively small number of long-term jobs after they open.
LONDON (AP)  Great Britains royal family turns the page on a new chapter Saturday with the coronation of King Charles III.

The pomp, pageantry and symbolism dates back more than 1,000 years, but the crowning of this king will feature new twists on the tradition and changes from the coronation of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, 70 years ago.

Plans for the ceremony at Westminster Abbey call for a more toned-down affair than the last one, even though royals from other nations, heads of state and most of Charles family will be there, and the monarch plans to wear the same vestments as Elizabeth did.

Here are some things to know about the coronation:

WHY HAVE THE CORONATION IF CHARLES IS ALREADY KING?

Charles automatically ascended to the throne when Elizabeth died Sept. 8, and he was officially proclaimed Britains monarch two days later in an ascension ceremony broadcast for the first time on television.

Charles said he was deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty which have now passed to me.

There is no legal requirement for a coronation, and other European monarchies have done away with the ceremonies.

But the deeply religious and regalia-heavy event is a more formal confirmation of his role as head of state and titular head of the Church of England and was intended to show the kings authority was derived from God.

During the service conducted by the churchs spiritual leader, the archbishop of Canterbury, Charles will be anointed with oil, receive the traditional symbols of the monarch  including the orb and scepter  and have the St. Edwards Crown placed on his head for the first time. Charles wife, Camilla, will be crowned as queen consort.

WHAT WILL BE DIFFERENT FROM THE LAST CORONATION?

The coronation ceremony dates back to the medieval period, and much of it remains unchanged.

Westminster Abbey has been the setting of the ritual since William the Conqueror was crowned in 1066.

Elizabeth IIs coronation in June 1953 was the first to be televised live. The broadcast in black and white drew an audience of tens of millions in Britain and was later played to a worldwide audience. In the age of streaming and social media, people will be able to watch Charles crowning live  and in vivid reds, blues and golds  from virtually anywhere on the planet and post their hot takes with a crown emoji created for the occasion.

Charles has said he plans to slim down the monarchy. His coronation is expected to reflect that with a ceremony shorter than his mothers three-hour extravaganza and 2,000 guests in the audience  a quarter the number who assembled to see Elizabeth crowned.

In a nod to the change in the religious makeup of the United Kingdom, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh religious leaders will play a role at the coronation. That reflects Charles vow to be the defender of faiths, as opposed to the defender of the faith.

The procession after the ceremony also will be decidedly shorter than the 5-mile (8 kilometer) route that Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, took around London in 1953. Charles and Camilla plan to take a more modern set of horse-drawn wheels for the 1.3-mile (2-kilometer) route from Buckingham Palace to the abbey. Once crowned, they will step back in time and retrace the journey in the 260-year-old carriage  notorious for its rough ride  used in every coronation since William IVs in 1831.

WHOS ON THE GUEST LIST?

A hundred heads of state are expected to attend along with royalty ranging from Japans Crown Prince Akishino and his wife, Kiko, to Spains King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.

The U.S. will keep alive its streak of a president never attending a British royal coronation, although first lady Jill Biden is set to attend.

William, Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, is expected to kneel before his father and pledge his loyalty in whats known as the Homage of Royal Blood.

His younger brother, Prince Harry, the disgruntled Duke of Sussex, is not expected to take part in the service. His explosive memoir Spare, which became a bestseller early this year, made unflattering claims about the royal family.

Until three weeks ago, there was a question of whether Harry and his wife, Meghan, would attend the crowning after leveling charges of racism and media manipulation at the royal family.

While Harry will be there, the duchess is to remain at the couples Southern California home with their two young children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

The coronation is just a few days before the first of Harrys lawsuits against the British tabloid press goes to trial. The case could reveal more family secrets.

During a hearing in a similar case last week, Harry said in court papers that Buckingham Palace, with the approval of the queen, had an agreement with Rupert Murdochs English newspapers to settle phone hacking allegations without a lawsuit. Harry said he was directed by palace staff to drop his litigation because his father wanted to curry favor with the press.

The family drama doesnt end there. Charles brother, Prince Andrew, is also not expected to play any role in the ceremony. Andrew gave up royal duties and was stripped of military titles and patronages after revelations of his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew settled a lawsuit with a woman who said she was forced to have sex with him when she was a teenager.

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CORONATION?

With opinion polls showing support for the monarchy has weakened in recent years, this is the chance for Charles to seek and showcase the publics embrace.

Crowds are expected to line the streets to cheer the new king, and throngs will stand outside Buckingham Palace waiting for him to appear on the balcony after the procession.

While criticism of the crown was relatively muted in recent years out of respect for the queen and her decades of service to the country, there is likely to be much more discussion of whether Britain still needs this antiquated institution or if it should become a republic with an elected head of state.

The leader of the anti-monarchist group Republic said it plans to have more than 1,000 protesters clad in yellow chanting, Not my king as the royal procession passes by.

For the vast majority, though, it will be an opportunity to celebrate being British  or show their support for an institution that is the subject of fascination for so many around the world.

Streets will be lined with union flags, spectators will dress in red, white and blue, and military jets will fly overhead streaming plumes of smoke in the national colors. The pomp and circumstance of the ceremony itself is also a reminder of a time when Britain was the most powerful nation in the world.

WHO IS PICKING UP THE TAB FOR THE CELEBRATION?

The public is footing the bill for the coronation. There is no official estimate yet of what it might cost. Some reports estimate it could top 100 million pounds ($125 million).

The celebration comes as the U.K. weathers a bruising cost-of-living crisis that left many struggling to heat their homes this winter and put food on their tables.

But plenty of people stand to profit from the hoopla.

Officials are expecting to see a tourism boost and there is no shortage of coronation-themed events and commemorative products that could ring up additional sales taxes.

Fans looking to remember the historic event can find everything from fine china to souvenir coins or even cardboard masks of Charles and Camilla. Coronation themed biscuits, chocolates and beers are likely to be quickly forgotten.

___

Danica Kirka contributed to this report.
COLUMBUS, Ohio  Ohio Statehouse Republicans again have delayed taking action on a bill that would set an August special election to ask voters to make it harder to amend Ohios constitution.

Without explanation, the Ohio House Government Oversight Committee canceled its planned meeting on Wednesday afternoon, according to a notice from the office of GOP Rep. Bob Peterson, the committees chair.

The committee was set to vote on Senate Bill 92, which would schedule and fund the August election, partially undoing a bill Republicans passed months ago eliminating most August state elections. The committees Democrats left the room when the notice went out, as did a few stray Republicans who had lingered in the vicinity.

The bill would set an election for a constitutional amendment backed by dozens of Statehouse Republicans. The proposed amendment would require future state constitutional amendments to get 60% support from voters to pass, compared to the current simple majority standard thats been in effect for more than a century.

The Ohio Senate approved SB92 last month alongside an accompanying resolution placing the proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. A separate Ohio House committee approved the resolution on Tuesday afternoon.

But the Republican-dominated House now likely wont take up the measure until next week. House Speaker Jason Stephens said on Tuesday that a full chamber vote wouldnt happen this week. The House is scheduled to hold a session on Wednesday, the same day as a constitutional deadline to set an Aug. 8 election. The vote is expected to be close, although backers claim to have the 59 or 60 votes needed to send the proposed amendment to voters.

The proposals have become a flashpoint for the debate over abortion in Ohio, since Republicans have fast-tracked them to specifically try to sabotage a ballot measure that would ask voters in November to add legal protections for abortion to the state constitution. Abortion-rights supporters saw a wave of victories in state elections last year, but none of the proposals have exceeded 59% support in competitive or Republican-leaning states.

Abortion currently is legal in Ohio through 22 weeks into pregnancy, although thats only because of a pending lawsuit. If the the lawsuit is unsuccessful, the Heartbeat law that Gov. Mike DeWine signed in 2019 could ban it as early as six weeks, before many women know theyre pregnant.

The canceled committee hearing followed a flurry of activity at the Statehouse on Wednesday.

Hundreds of demonstrators protested ahead of the planned committee vote, joined by Democratic state legislators, including House Minority Leader Allison Russo, of Upper Arlington. First meeting at a church across the street, the protesters then encircled the Statehouse with signs before heading inside.

An amendment to SB92 also emerged on Wednesday that would strip the $20 million contained in the bill to cover local government costs of running the election. Republican legislative leaders did not explain the purpose of the amendment, but some lawmakers believe the move could be an attempt to circumvent the House Finance Committee, which reviews all bills containing new appropriations and allowing the proposal to be fast-tracked while avoiding its chairman, state Rep. Jay Edwards, a Republican who has refused to publicly back the proposal.

The 60% proposal has drawn opposition from Republican and Democratic elections officials, who say it would be costly and challenging to hold an unexpected election, as well as from Ohios last two Republican governors, John Kasich and Bob Taft. Critics also have said  citing the Republican talking points for eliminating August elections in the first place  such a consequential vote shouldnt be held in August, when voter turnout generally is low.

DeWine has said he will sign the bill scheduling the August election. He doesnt have a role in deciding the resolution.

Republican Senate President Matt Huffman is a vocal supporter of the proposal, citing the role it could play in foiling the proposed abortion measure. Stephens position is less clear though. He recently has softened his opposition to holding an August election, but also has yet to call the measure to the floor for a full vote. Stephens control over the chamber also is clouded after he struck a deal with Democrats at the beginning of the year to become speaker, angering a faction of Republicans who supported another candidate. Many Democrats believe they got an implicit promise from Stephens to stall the 60% proposal in exchange for their support.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have faced pressure from anti-abortion advocates and other social conservatives, including from a budding campaign funded by a GOP megadonor from Illinois, to push the constitutional amendment reform proposal through. A few GOP lawmakers have tried to avoid taking a position on the proposal, or said they support making it harder to amend the state constitution, but specifically oppose doing so in August for various reasons.

State Rep. Jon Cross, a Kenton Republican who sits on the committee reviewing SB92, is among the Republicans who oppose holding an August election.

Cross, who supports the 60% proposal, said Wednesday that Republicans instead should target the March 2024 election, when voter turnout would be higher, reasoning it had a better chance of passing then.

I am 100% pro-life, and I am working on a winnable solution with a path to victory, Cross said in a statement.

The proposal, if voters approve it, would create another major new hurdle for statewide ballot issues. It would require amendment backers to gather a higher number of signatures from all 88 Ohio counties, compared to the current requirement that they do so in just 44 counties.

Besides citing the abortion issue, backers say that Ohio makes it too easy for well-financed ballot campaigns to write language into the state constitution thats difficult to undo once voters approve it.

A campaign opposing the 60% proposal has begun organizing, in a likely coalition between organized labor, abortion-rights advocates, Democrats and voting-rights groups. A similar coalition soundly defeated a bill weaking legal protections for labor unions more than a decade ago, but Ohio since then has become much more Republican-leaning.

We are heartened that the House session and related committees were canceled today, said Jen Miller, executive director of the Ohio League of Women Voters, one of the organizations that opposes the constitutional amendment proposal. Its my sincere hope that Ohio lawmakers will actually put the rights of everyday Ohioans over the bidding of special interests and out of state billionaires. But rest assured that our coalition of more than 240 organizations will continue to do everything in our power to defeat this in the House or at the ballot box if we must.

Andrew Tobias covers state politics and government for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
COLUMBUS, Ohio The Ohio Supreme Court was asked Wednesday morning to throw out police questioning of a teenager convicted of a 2019 shooting death of a 14-year-old, including portions of the interview after police read him Miranda Rights.

The Ohio Supreme Court heard the case of T.D.S, who was 15 years old when convicted in the September 2019 shooting death of the 14-year-old boy in an abandoned Cleveland apartment building. Court documents do not name the teenager convicted in the shooting.
COLUMBUS, OhioAttorney General Dave Yost said Wednesday that his lawsuit against Norfolk Southern over the East Palestine train derailment wont be settled quickly, but instead will likely be resolved in phases over the next few years.

In an interview with cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer, Yost said that was because he and his office want to take the time to collect all the facts about how spilled and burned chemicals from the Feb. 3 derailment affected nearby residents and the local environment.

I think a lot of people are expecting a quick settlement, he said. Were still going to do discovery. We want to get to the facts. And thats going to take a little bit of time.

The derailment spilled large amounts of toxic chemicals such as vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, and ethylene glycol monobutyl either. Federal and state officials, fearing the vinyl chloride tanks would explode, set them afire, creating a massive plume of thick black smoke. Other chemicals got into local streams, killing fish and traveling down into the Ohio River.

Yosts lawsuit, filed in federal court, claims Norfolk Southern violated numerous state and federal laws, including Ohios solid waste, air pollution, water pollution, and hazardous waste laws. It also asks Norfolk Southern to pay for the damage done to the local environment, property and finances of area residents, as well as civil penalties and repaying court costs.

Yost, a Columbus Republican whos a potential candidate for governor in 2026, said his office is currently in discussions with Norfolk Southern about the Atlanta-based railroad providing money to local residents to make up for local property values falling following the crash.

If you had a $100,000 house (near the crash site) on February 2, (I) guarantee it wasnt worth $100,000 on February 4, he said.

Yost said theres a decent possibility a settlement will be reached regarding real estate before the case is finished. The company has kind of agreed that they have some responsibility there, he said.

Other aspects of the case will likely take longer to resolve, Yost said, including the effect on local crops and livestock and the pollution of nearby water and soil. The issue that will probably take the most time to resolve, he said, is the potential long-term health effects from the released chemicals on area residents.

I would be surprised if this settled in less than two or three years, Yost said. But Ive been surprised before. We dont know what we dont know at this point.

Yost said Norfolk Southern seems to be very interested in having settlement discussions and has been in regular communication with his office and Gov. Mike DeWines office. Theyre interested in settling this, and it would be human and corporate nature to want to get a bad thing behind you, he said.

Norfolk Southern spokesman Bryan Long declined comment Wednesday.

However, Yost said his lawsuit isnt just about getting money from Norfolk Southern  its about getting the facts of how the derailment happened and what its effects have been.

Weve got to know enough to be able to get to a final settlement, and we dont right now. And, more than that, we have to be able to have the facts so that ...we, as a society, look at how this doesnt happen again, he said.

The lives of the people in that little town were changed forever, Yost continued. You cant put a price tag on that. You cant put a price tag on the facts about what actually happened. You cant put a price tag on truths, and there wont be any settlement without a thorough understanding of the truth.

Yost said hes been to East Palestine several times and has spoken with local residents and officials about what they would like to see from his lawsuit. Residents and business owners have filed more than 30 of their own lawsuits against Norfolk Southern; last month, a judge consolidated them into a single suit.

I would hesitate to characterize everybody with the same brush, Yost said, but there seems to be an understanding that at least on the states lawsuit, as opposed to private lawsuits, there are facts that need to be uncovered.

Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer has reached out to East Palestine city officials for comment.

Jeremy Pelzer covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio -- By a slim margin, residents of the North Ridgeville City School District rejected a $190 million bond issue for school construction and renovation on the May 2 ballot, according to final, unofficial results from the Lorain County Board of Elections.

There were 3,566 votes cast in favor of the 8.32-mill bond issue and 3,603 against. The bond issue was to fund the construction of a new high school and elementary school.

Superintendent Roxann Ramsey-Caserio was not available for comment Tuesday night.

Due to the numbers being so close, we are awaiting the certified results that include provisional and outstanding absentee ballots. Once the data is received and finalized, we will make a statement regarding the future of the district, stated Brooke Roshong, the districts manager of communications.

District officials had warned that if the bond issue failed, students would see larger class sizes; have fewer course offerings, including full-day kindergarten, AP courses and STEAM electives; and see a reduction in district-provided transportation.

This was the last chance to utilize Ohio Facilities Construction Commission funds to trim the bond balance and for the district to receive $30 million to $33 million from the state to reduce the overall cost of the project, according to district information.

Voters in November rejected a combined school district bond issue and city tax increase. After a community survey, it was decided to separate the issues.

School officials explained that the district saw a 10 percent increase in enrollment over the last five years, creating space needs and pressure on the aging facilities.

Total enrollment this year is 4,711 and is expected to reach 4,803 in 2024, according to the districts bond issue brochure.

The current enrollment at the high school is 1,416, while the capacity for the building is only 900, requiring the use of modular classrooms, the superintendent noted earlier.

The enrollment at Liberty Elementary School is 650, with a building capacity of 520. Bond issue backers stated that this has required dividing the library to make room for music classes, and closets have been converted into classrooms where there are no clocks or speakers, no heat or air conditioning, and a lack of mobility.

The cost to community members would have been $24.27 per month per $100,000 of the market value of their home.

Fifty-four percent of the bond issue was earmarked for the new high school, with 36 percent slated for a new elementary building.

Read more from the Sun Sentinel.
COLUMBUS, Ohio  An Ohio House committee could vote Wednesday on a bill that schedules an Aug. 8 special election to decide whether to make it harder to amend the state constitution.

The possible vote on Senate Bill 92 by the House Government Oversight committee comes as a deadline looms next week for the state legislature to decide whether it will schedule a summer election just months after banning them in most cases. On Wednesday, hundreds of demonstrators opposed to the ballot issue marched around the Statehouse.

The committee is scheduled to meet at 4:30 p.m.

The bill is a near-immediate shift from lawmakers decision in December to nix August special elections in all but a few circumstances, arguing that they were too costly and turnout was too low. Republicans who favor the plan have said an exception is needed for the constitutional amendment.

In addition to making another August election possible by changing the law, the current version of the bill allocates $20 million to hold the vote on the proposed constitutional amendment.

The proposal would ask voters whether they want to raise the threshold for amending the state constitution from a simple majority to 60%. It would need just a majority itself, but it would make it far more difficult for future amendments to pass.

Read: A slap in the face: Elections officials urge lawmakers off August elections

That includes an abortion-rights amendment that backers are seeking to put on the November ballot. While abortion access has prevailed at the ballot box in several states since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, none have cleared 60%.

Opposition to the idea has united hundreds of groups, including the League of Women Voters, Common Cause Ohio, the ACLU and others. Democratic lawmakers, abortion-rights activists and organized labor representatives joined with them on Wednesday to demonstrate against the plan.

They marched from a church across the street to Capitol Square, where they circled the Statehouse before entering the building carrying signs and singing out chants.

On the other side are dozens of Republican state lawmakers, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, anti-abortion activists, pro-guns groups and a super PAC funded by a wealthy out-of-state GOP megadonor.

If the committee advances the bill, it next would have to pass the full Ohio House along with a separate resolution putting the question before voters. The resolution narrowly cleared a separate Ohio House committee on Tuesday.

But its prospects in the chamber are unclear. Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens has waffled on his support for the idea. The resolution also needs three-fifths of the House to vote for it, which means it would require 59 or 60 votes, depending on Stephens interpretation of the constitution.

The Ohio Senate already has cleared both the bill and the resolution. Gov. Mike DeWine has said he would sign the bill into law, but he has no role in the resolution.

The legislature faces a May 10 deadline to get the amendment on the August ballot.
Adrienne Raphel at The Paris Review:

The first and only time I went to the Walmart in Iowa City was surreal. When I was in high school, my parents business-oriented small press had published a book called The Case Against Walmart that called for a national consumer boycott of the company; the author denounced everything from the superstores destruction of environmentally protected lands to its sweatshop labor to its knockoff merchandise. So by the time I made a pilgrimage out to the superstore at age twenty-one, I hadnt stepped in a Walmart for nearly a decade, and it had acquired this transgressive powerthe very act of crossing the threshold was as shameful as it was thrilling. Immediately, I sensed the stores anonymizing power: outside, I was nearby the Iowa Municipal Airport, en route to the Hy-Vee grocery store; inside, I was anywhere. I didnt know what I expected, but it was wonderful, and terrible, and weird, and empty, but also full of stuff. In the real world, I was allergic to animals, but I found myself hypnotized in the pet aisle: snake food, dry cat food, wet cat food, Iams, I am what I am. Each shade of paint chip in the Benjamin Moore display bouquet was more erotic than the one before. Primrose Petals, I Love You Pink, Pretty Pink, Hot Lips. Everything was too bright, oversaturated, illuminated in fluorescent Super Soakerlevel high beams. I wasnt high; I didnt need to be. I barely saw another human, but the accumulation of things constituted many lifetimes of living. I was in a mass graveyarda place defined by, as Annie Ernaux puts it, the dead silence of goods as far as the eye could see.

more here.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Jasmin Santana used to travel back and forth to Puerto Rico a couple of times a year to see family. That stopped years ago, after Cleveland Hopkins lost nonstop service to San Juan.

Santana, a member of Cleveland City Council, is eager to resume those trips. Indeed, shes booked on the very first nonstop flight between Cleveland and San Juan since 2017, which launches Thursday on Frontier Airlines.

This is huge. Its the talk of the neighborhood, said Santana, who represents Ward 14 on Clevelands West Side, which is 48% Latino.

Frontier is counting on the support of Santana and other Clevelanders with ties to the U.S. territory, according to Daniel Shurz, senior vice president, commercial for Frontier.

Cleveland has a reasonably large Puerto Rican community, he said. Were certain with the combination of nonstop service and low fares, were going to see a significant increase in demand in the market.

Currently, fares are running between $250 and $500 round-trip for spring and summer travel, not including advanced seat assignments or luggage fees.

According to airport figures, San Juan is one of Clevelands top markets unserved by nonstop service, with 90 to 100 people traveling daily between Northeast Ohio and Puerto Ricos capital city via connecting flights.

Santana was one of them  although she said she hasnt traveled to Puerto Rico since 2020, for her grandmothers funeral, in part because it has been so hard to get there in recent years.

With a connection, the flight typically took as many as 12 hours, she said. The nonstop flight will take four hours.

Her mother  a native of Puerto Rico  most recently flew to San Juan in 2022. She missed her connecting flight home in Chicago  she was in a wheelchair and the person assigned to escort her to her next flight didnt show up  so she ended up in the airport overnight.

When her mother moved to Cleveland decades ago, it wasnt nearly as difficult to travel between the two communities, with daily nonstop flights on Continental Airlines. United Airlines, meanwhile, discontinued its weekly route between San Juan and Cleveland in 2017.

It was easier for her to live here knowing she had access to Puerto Rico so frequently, Santana said. All of our family is in Puerto Rico.

Santana said her trip is part work and part pleasure  shell spend the first few days working with Puerto Rican officials on several topics, including the possible recruitment of police officers. The last four days will be spent with family, she said.

Shes already planning a return trip, in September, with her mom.

Meanwhile, a representative from Discover Puerto Rico was in Cleveland this week, hoping to drum up interest in the new flight and Puerto Rico as a leisure destination.

Davelyn Tardi, communications coordinator for Discover Puerto Rico, said there is a misconception that Puerto Rico, devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017, hasnt recovered sufficiently to welcome visitors.

We are ready for tourists, said Tardi, at a Tuesday media event held at Twisted Taino, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Parma.

Its a very easy escape, she added, without the need for passports, currency exchanges or international cell-phone charges.

Alas, Tardi was headed back to San Juan Wednesday  missing the new nonstop flight by one day.

The Frontier flights run four times per week  on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The first week of flights are at odd times, while Frontier transitions from its winter flying schedule to summer, with Cleveland departures at 6 p.m. or later. On May 11, the regular schedule kicks in  with departures from CLE at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and at 12:03 p.m. on Saturday. The return flights from San Juan leave at 3:46 p.m. and 4:16 p.m.

Shurz said the route was initially planned as a seasonal route, but may be extended to year-round depending on demand. The route will use a 186-passenger Airbus 320neo.

The Puerto Rico flight is the first of several new routes coming this summer from Frontier. Later this month, the carrier is launching nonstop service to Charlotte and Dallas. Next month, San Francisco and San Diego will be added to Frontiers CLE roster.

With this summers additions, Frontier will offer 17 nonstop destinations from Cleveland  more than any other carrier.

In an interview this week, Shurz pitched the airlines new GoWild! Summer Pass for Northeast Ohio travelers. Cleveland is one of those markets where it really is a great opportunity, he said. We have lots of places where travelers can go.

The summer pass offers unlimited travel on Frontier through Sept. 30 for $499 per person. For each flight booked, passholders are responsible for certain fees and taxes, plus charges for seat assignments, luggage and other extras.

There is a catch: Passholders typically can book travel just one day in advance for domestic flights. However, the carrier this week temporarily broadened the booking period. Until May 16, passholders can book flights through June 8.

The goal, said Shurz, is to fill more seats on more planes. The typical Frontier plane was 83% full last year, he said. We have millions of empty seats flying around the system. The idea is we are going to give customers the chance to use those seats.

Blackout dates and other restrictions apply. For details: flyfrontier.com/deals/gowild-pass/

Read more: Cleveland on short list for new Frontier Airlines crew base
South Africa: Committee welcomes launch of Gauteng's crime fighting unit

The Gauteng Provincial Legislatures Portfolio Committee on Community Safety has welcomed the newly launched crime fighting unit in Gauteng by Premier Panyaza Lesufi and Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko.

Committee Chairperson, Bandile Masuku, said the committee is pleased that the launch of this unit will see 6000 Crime Prevention Wardens deployed in communities, especially in townships, informal settlements and hostels to protect residents and fight crime.

Masuku said this much needed crime prevention intervention is anticipated to reduce the scourge of crime in Gauteng that continues to rob residents off their right to freedom and peace.

This government led initiative is more like a replica of what was historically known as Street Committees where community members organised themselves to provide safety and security in their neighbourhoods.

Unlike Street Committees, this initiative is government led and funded and the Committee is concerned that there seem to be an over reliance on government to provide peace and security in communities and that there is little being done by residents to assist government in fighting crime, Masuku said.

The committee has called on Gauteng residents to organise themselves and take part in programmes, including Community Policing Forums and augment governments efforts of effectively fighting crime.

The fight against crime in our communities can only be won if residents play a more proactive and effective role in working together with police to resolve issues of crime and creating environments where everyone is and feels safe at all times, Masuku said.

The committee also raised concern over some residents, who instead of welcoming and supporting the newly deployed Crime Prevention Wardens, took to social media and started body shaming some.

The committee condemns this kind of behaviour as it only serves to degrade and humiliate others whose only crime is committing to serving and protecting their communities. Community members should welcome these wardens with open arms and provide them with the necessary support in executing their responsibility of creating a safer Gauteng, Masuku said.

Over 3000 wardens reported for duty this week after attending a graduation at a pass out parade held at Giant Stadium in Soshanguve on Sunday.

The wardens will be deployed to crime hotspots across the province and work with communities, community patrollers, schools, and law enforcement agencies (LEA) to eliminate elements of crime, including lawlessness, vandalism, and corruption across the communities.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2023-05-03. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.

There are four main hurdles all investors have to navigate right now, but anyone who does so effectively will see a payoff, Jim Cramer said on Tuesday.

"If it were just one hurdle, we'd be fine," Cramer explained. "But with four of them, everybody suddenly wants to sell in May and go away."

For starters, there's Wednesday's Fed meeting, which will likely lead to a quarter-point rate hike  but it's unclear if the Fed will slow down on its aggressive tightening after that, he said.

There are also upcoming employment numbers from the Labor Department, which need to stay steady or come down for the Fed to stop tightening for good, Cramer says. While that might happen eventually, he doesn't see it happening on Friday.

Then, there's the debt ceiling crisis: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress on Monday that the U.S. could default on its debt by early June. Cramer expects the crisis to be resolved in due time, but there could be a hangover for the market over the next few weeks.

Finally, there's Apple , which reports earnings on Thursday. Apple's stock has moved dramatically, and the quarter will likely need to be stellar for it to keep moving the same way, Cramer added.

"Now, all of these issues would be much easier to put to bed if stocks were lower, and that's what's happening," Cramer said. "It's not a bear market, just an interlude, and you have to recognize these four hurdles are a gauntlet, a real gauntlet, that must be traversed."
The Adobe Systems logo is displayed outside one of the company's offices.

Britain's competition watchdog said on Wednesday it was looking into Adobe Inc 's $20 billion buyout deal for cloud-based designer platform Figma to find if it could lead to "substantial lessening of competition" in the country.

The move underlines regulators' worries that large tech firms acquiring smaller innovative rivals could throttle competition.

UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last week blocked U.S. software giant Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard over concerns it would hinder cloud gaming.

CMA said it has set June 30 as the deadline for its phase 1 decision on the the Adobe-Figma deal.

"We look forward to continuing to engage with the DOJ (U.S. Department of Justice), CMA and EC (European Commission) in productive discussions about the businesses, markets and positive economic impacts this deal will bring as they conduct their reviews," Adobe said.

Figma said it would "continue to engage constructively with regulators in the UK".

Adobe in September announced a cash-and-stock deal for Figma, the biggest buyout of a privately owned software startup, whose web-based collaborative platform for designs and brainstorming is widely popular among tech firms including Zoom Video Communications, Airbnb Inc and Coinbase.

The company said in March it was working with the DOJ on clearing the deal and expected it to close by the end of 2023.
Federal police officers stand guard near the house of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, during a search operation at his home, in Brasilia, Brazil May 3, 2023.

Brazil's federal police on Wednesday raided former President Jair Bolsonaro's home in Brasilia as part of a probe into a group suspected of adding false vaccine data into the government's Covid-19 database, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Two of Bolsonaro's closest aides, Mauro Cid and Max Guilherme, have been arrested in the same operation, the sources added.

Federal police earlier in the day said in a statement they were serving 16 search and seizure warrants and six preventive arrest warrants in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro as part of the operation, but did not disclose the names of those targeted.
Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., US, on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will be deposed in late May over two days for civil lawsuits accusing the giant bank of benefiting from sex trafficking by the late money manager Jeffrey Epstein, a source told CNBC's Eamon Javers on Wednesday.

Dimon's questioning under oath will occur in New York, on May 26 and 27, a Friday and Saturday, the source said.

A person with knowledge of Dimon's deposition said, "The scheduling is fluid and could change."

The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and one of Epstein's accusers are suing JPMorgan in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The bank has denied any wrongdoing.

Epstein was a customer of JPMorgan for years. The bank only cut ties with him in 2013, five years after he pleaded guilty in Florida state court to soliciting sex from an underage girl.

"Jamie Dimon knew in 2008 that his billionaire client was a sex trafficker," an attorney for the Virgin Islands said at a court hearing in March.

The bank has said Dimon did not have knowledge about Epstein that was relevant to the lawsuits.

In addition to lawyers for the Virgin Islands and Epstein's accuser, lawyers for Jes Staley, JPMorgan's former investment banking chief, will get to question Dimon.

JPMorgan argues that Staley, not the bank, is legally responsible for any civil liability related to its dealings with Epstein.

On Wednesday, attorneys in the suits were scheduled to depose William Langford, who previously served as a top JPMorgan executive responsible for anti-money laundering efforts, financial crimes compliance and regulatory management.

The Virgin Islands' lawsuit claims that JPMorgan "facilitated and concealed wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of  and were in fact part of  a criminal enterprise whose currency was for the sexual servitude of dozens of women and girls in and beyond the Virgin Islands."

"Human trafficking was the [principal] business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JP Morgan," the suit says.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, a month after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.

He previously was a friend of two former presidents, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, and Britain's Prince Andrew, as well as a slew of other rich and powerful people.

Correction: A previous headline cited multiple sources for the timing of Jamie Dimon's expected deposition when there was only one source. CNBC has since confirmed the timing with multiple sources.
After a tough few months, lithium  a battery metal crucial in electric vehicles  is back in the spotlight as prices start to rebound. Lithium futures on the LME were down over 45% year-to-date early last week, according to CNBC analysis, and well off their record highs seen in late 2022. By the end of last week, however, lithium prices had started to bounce back. It comes as Chile, the world's second-largest lithium producer, moves to nationalize the sector , sparking a rally in the share price of miners as excess supply fears eased. "Chile, holder of the world's largest reserves, has a new policy requiring state involvement for new lithium projects and the use of environmentally friendly processing that is still unproven on a commercial scale. This could delay the delivery of its pipeline of projects," said ANZ Research in an April 28 note. Battery-grade lithium carbonate prices in China rose around 10% on the week to trade around 182,500 yuan ($26,380) a metric ton Friday, according to Refinitiv data. That was the first weekly increase since Nov. 2022, when the metal was trading at 600,000 yuan per ton  more than 200% higher than current prices. "Lithium prices in China gained for the first time this year on signs demand growth may be finally gathering pace  [and] amid thinning inventories across the supply chain," the ANZ Research analysts added. Meanwhile, Corinne Blanchard, clean tech equity analyst at Deutsche Bank, told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" last week that she expects there to be a shortage of lithium supply versus demand over the coming years. For investors looking to play the EV-related sector, CNBC screened the Global X Lithium and Battery ETF  still down 20% since November  and the Amplify Lithium & Battery Technology ETF for stocks with buy ratings from over 70% of analysts covering them, and average price target upside of at least 15%. Canadian miner Sigma Lithium stood out for getting the highest potential upside from analysts at 155%, and a buy rating from 75% of analysts. Stocks that received a 100% buy rating included American EV battery maker Microvast Holdings and Australian miner Piedmont Lithium . Microvast also got 100% average potential upside from analysts. Meanwhile, South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution and chemical company LG Chem were two global socks that appeared on the list.
BNP Paribas , the euro zone's biggest bank, saw profit more than double in the first quarter from a year ago, bolstered by the sale of its U.S. retail division while revenue beat estimates.

This allowed the French bank to beef up its capital and liquidity buffers, at a time when European lenders strive to restore confidence in a sector battered by turmoil.

Revenue of just over 12 billion euros ($13.20 billion) in the period exceeded the company's compiled consensus of 11.7 billion as net interest income ticked higher in the usually difficult French retail market, the bank said on Wednesday.

In securities trading, revenue edged down 1.8% but still performed better than some peers including Deutsche Bank, which saw fixed-income trading decline by 17% in the first quarter.

At U.S. bank Goldman Sachs, first-quarter sales from fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC) trading, usually a bright spot, plunged 17% to $3.93 billion, while equity trading revenue sank 7% to $3.02 billion.

BNP's FICC trading over the period was up 9%.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a panel at the CEO Summit of the Americas hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on June 09, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. The CEO Summit entered its second day of events with a formal signing for the "International Coalition to Connect Marine Protected Areas" and a speech from U.S. President Joe Biden. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Google CEO Sundar Pichai received a hefty pay raise last year, making him one of the highest-paid CEOs in America. Last week, his company announced the authorization of a $70 billion stock buyback.

Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabet has been aggressively cutting costs, including the elimination of 12,000 jobs, in response to slowing revenue growth.

That confluence of events has raised the ire of Google's workforce. In the weeks since Pichai's annual compensation was made public, internal Google platforms have filled with conversations and memes slamming the CEO for taking a pay bump while slashing costs elsewhere. Some employees also criticized the share repurchase, which equaled its 2022 buyback.

SEC filings showed Pichai was paid a total of $226 million last year, mostly through a $218 million stock award, which he receives every three years. The last time he received the award, in 2019, it was for $276.6 million and total compensation was $280.6 million.

His 2022 package included nearly $6 million for personal security and a $2 million base salary. In 2021, Pichai received a total of $6.3 million, consisting of a $2 million salary and $4.3 million in other compensation.

Memes began circulating comparing Pichai to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who in January received over a 40% cut from his 2022 target total compensation. Around the same time, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said he would reduce his salary by 98% and decline his bonus after the company cut 1,300 jobs. Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson said he'd also be taking a pay cut amid a 17% workforce reduction.

More than a dozen memes from employees have filled Google's internal discussion forums, many with several hundred likes, according to posts viewed by CNBC. One meme with more than 1,200 likes referred to comments from finance chief Ruth Porat, who wrote last month in a rare companywide email that the company is making "multi-year" cuts to employee services. CNBC found cuts ranged from employee laptops and expenses to fitness classes and cafe items.

"Ruth's cost savings applied to everyone except our hardworking VPS and CEO," the meme said.

Google didn't provide an on-the-record comment for this story.

It's not the first time Pichai has been under fire for his recent decision making. In January, Pichai said he took "full responsibility" for conditions that led to the companywide layoffs.

At an all-hands meeting, employees asked Pichai why executives are getting pay cuts if he's taking responsibility. Pichai responded by saying that senior vice presidents are taking "significant reductions to their bonuses" and that he was forgoing his bonus.

Another popular meme showed an image of Shrek character Lord Farquaad with the text "Sundar accepting $226 million while laying off 12k Googlers, cutting perks, and destroying morale and culture." A quote from the character read, "some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make."

In the computer-animated fantasy from 2001, Lord Farquaad is the ruler of Duloc who exiles many fairytale creatures to the swamp.

The topic of Pichai and money has been a controversial one dating back to late last year, when the CEO said at a companywide meeting that "we shouldn't always equate fun with money." At the time, he was responding to certain perks the company was eliminating, but he dodged employee questions about cutting executive compensation.

Some of the frustration is being directed at Google's plan to repurchase $70 billion in stock, a sign the company has more than enough cash to cover its operations and investments. A recent meme that was liked more than 700 times read, "$70 billion in buybacks shows we respect external shareholders more than Googlers."

WATCH: A.I. may ruin Alphabet's only real business
A shopper carries a bag of Nike merchandise along the Magnificent Mile shopping district on December 21, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois.

WASHINGTON  A House committee examining the U.S. government's economic relationship with China is asking some of the world's largest clothing companies for information about the use of forced labor during production  a potential violation of U.S. trade law.

Lawmakers asked retailers Temu, Shein, Nike and Adidas North America about the use of materials and labor sourced from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region of China, according to letters sent to company leaders on Tuesday. Such practices would constitute violations of the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, according to the lawmakers.

Congress passed the UFLPA with bipartisan support after the State Department determined China is "committing genocide against Uyghurs and other minority groups in Xinjiang."

The letters were sent to Rupert Campbell, president of Adidas North America; Qin Sun, president of Temu; Chris Xu, CEO of Shein and John Donahoe, president and CEO of Nike, Inc. They were signed by Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.

"Using forced labor has been illegal for almost a hundred yearsbut despite knowing that their industries are implicated, too many companies look the other way hoping they don't get caught, rather than cleaning up their supply chains. This is unacceptable," Gallagher in a statement. "American businesses and companies selling in the American market have a moral and legal obligation to ensure they are not implicating themselves, their customers, or their shareholders in slave labor."

The inquiries also follow a March hearing of the committee that included an expert assessment finding that U.S. companies finance "state-sponsored forced labor programs in the Uyghur region."

The lawmakers requested responses to their questions, including the identity of materials suppliers, supply chain policies and audit measures for suppliers, by May 16.

Representatives for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CNBC.

The latest inquiries follow a separate bipartisan effort earlier this week urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to require Shein to certify it does not use Uyghur labor before the company can expand into the U.S. market. Shein has denied the accusation.

Chinese brands Shein and Temu, which is owned by Chinese parent company PDD Holdings, are also accused of capitalizing on a 90-year-old loophole to avoid tariffs on many goods sold directly to U.S. consumers, the lawmakers said Tuesday.

The lawmakers say Shein and Temu rely heavily on the de minimus provision of Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to waive import tariffs if the fair retail value of in the country of shipment does not exceed $800.
Hunter Biden, U.S. President Joe Biden's son, attends the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House on April 10, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Federal prosecutors are getting close to deciding whether to criminally charge Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, after a yearslong investigation, a new report said.

Prosecutors are known to be weighing whether to charge Hunter Biden with tax crimes, as well as another charge related to an allegedly false statement he made when buying a gun in 2018.

Hunter's lawyers met last week in Washington, D.C., with prosecutors at the Department of Justice about the probe, a step routinely taken shortly before authorities move to charge people.

Among those prosecutors was David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, who is leading the investigation, and who will decide whether to charge Hunter, according to The Washington Post report on Wednesday, adding it could happen soon.
Little St. James Island, one of the properties of financier Jeffrey Epstein, is seen in an aerial view near Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands July 21, 2019.

An investment firm led by the billionaire Stephen Deckoff has bought two private islands in the U.S Virgin Islands previously owned by the late notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, Deckoff confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday.

Forbes first reported that Deckoff, the founder of the private equity firm Black Diamond Capital Management, purchased the two islands for $60 million, less than half of their initial asking price.

One of the islands was used by Epstein to sexually abuse young women for years, according to court filings.

"Mr. Deckoff plans to develop a state-of-the-art, five-star, world-class luxury 25-room resort that will help bolster tourism, create jobs, and spur economic development in the region, while respecting and preserving the important environment of the islands," according to a press release about the sale.

SD Investments, which is led by Deckoff, announced the purchase.

"A significant portion of the sale proceeds are being paid to the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands under a previously announced settlement agreement between the government and Mr. Epstein's estate," the release said.

Epstein's estate and related entities in November agreed to pay the government of the Virgin Islands more than $105 million to settle claims of sex trafficking and child exploitation. That deal required the estate to pay the Virgin Islands half of the proceeds of the sale of the islands, Little St. James and Great St. James, and another $450,000 to address damages on Great St. James, where Epstein had razed the remnants of structures that were hundreds of years told to make room for development.

During a brief phone interview with CNBC, Deckoff confirmed he had bought the islands.

"No comment," he said when asked about his plans for it.

Deckoff then hung up.

Little St. James covers more than 70 acres, and Great St. James is more than double the size of its neighbor.

The purchase was reported on the same day that CNBC revealed that lawyers for the U.S. Virgin Islands and an accuser of Epstein's will depose JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon starting on May 26.

The USVI and the anonymous woman accused JPMorgan in civil federal lawsuits of benefiting from Epstein's sex trafficking of young women at his Virgin Islands property. Epstein was for years a customer of JPMorgan Chase, and had millions of dollars in deposits there.

The bank denies the allegations in the lawsuits. But it kept Epstein as a customer until 2013, five years after he pleaded guilty to a Florida state court charge of soliciting sex for money from an underage girl.

Multiple women have said they were raped or sexually assaulted on Little St. James, where Epstein had a mansion. They included Virginia Giuffre, who has alleged she was sexually abused there, and in other locations, by Prince Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles of Great Britain.
People should worry more about "AI being used by bad actors" than they should about AI productivity outpacing human productivity, Microsoft chief economist Michael Schwarz said at a World Economic Forum event Wednesday.

"Before AI could take all your jobs, it could certainly do a lot of damage in the hands of spammers, people who want to manipulate elections," Schwarz added while speaking on a panel on harnessing generative AI.

Microsoft first invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, years before the two companies would integrate OpenAI's GPT large language model into Microsoft's Bing search product. In January, Microsoft announced a new multiyear multibillion-dollar investment in the company. OpenAI relies on Microsoft to provide the computing heft that powers OpenAI's products, a relationship that Wells Fargo recently said could result in up to $30 billion in new annual revenue for Microsoft.

Schwarz tempered his caution about AI by noting that all new technologies, even cars, carried a degree of risk when they first came to market. "When AI makes us more productive, we as mankind ought to be better off," he noted, "because we are able to produce more stuff."

OpenAI's ChatGPT sparked a flood of investment in the AI sector. Google moved to launch a rival chatbot, Bard, sparking a wave of internal concern about a botched rollout. Politicians and regulators have expressed growing concern about the potential effect of AI technology as well.

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet Thursday with top executives from Anthropic, another AI firm, and Google, Microsoft and OpenAI to discuss responsible AI development, the White House told CNBC on Tuesday. Meanwhile, FTC Chair Lina Khan penned an op-ed in The New York Times on Wednesday warning "enforcers and regulators must be vigilant."

"Please remember, breaking is much easier than building," Schwarz said.
Eli Lilly 's (LLY) said Wednesday its experimental Alzheimer's drug slowed progression of the disease in a large-scale study, sending its stock to new all-time highs and brightening the Club's investment outlook for the pharmaceutical giant. Lilly's treatment, known as donanemab, slowed cognitive and functional decline by 35% in one early Alzheimer's patient group compared with trial participants who took a placebo during the 18-month Phase 3 trial, the company said in a press release . Just under half the people who took donanemab showed no disease progression after one year, based on a commonly used system to measure Alzheimer's severity, compared with 29% of the placebo group. "It is not a cure, but it is a significant step forward," Lilly's chief executive, Dave Ricks, told CNBC on Wednesday. The drug, he contended, "significantly slows the disease down in our study." Eli Lilly plans to submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of June and "hopefully have full approval by the end of the year," Ricks said. The FDA in January rejected the company's push for fast-track approval , citing a need to see more data. Donanemab attempts to treat Alzheimer's by reducing the amount of amyloid plaque  abnormal clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid commonly found on the brains of people with the memory-robbing disease. The exact role those amyloid plaques play has long been uncertain and controversial. But Eli Lilly and other pharmaceutical peers have spent years  and billions of dollars  developing anti-amyloid drugs, arguing that successfully lowering amyloid levels would translate to slower disease progression. Removing amyloid plaques is "not the only thing to do" in treating a complex disease like Alzheimer's, Ricks said on CNBC. "But we have a new tool today." LLY 1Y mountain Shares of Eli Lilly over the past 12 months. The FDA granted accelerated approval to an anti-amyloid drug  developed by Japanese pharmaceutical firm Eisai and U.S.-based partner Biogen (BIIB)  in early January. The regulator is expected to decide on full approval for that treatment, marketed under the name Leqembi, in July. Donanemab's successful Phase 3 data is good for both Eli Lilly and the makers of Leqembi, according to some Wall Street analysts who cover the companies. They say it should help bolster the overall credibility of anti-amyloid drugs in the eyes of regulators and health insurers, especially the federal agency that administers Medicare. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has yet to broadly cover anti-amyloid treatments. But there is growing hope CMS will change its stance on reimbursement, clearing the way for the drugs like Leqembi, and possibly donanemab, to be commercially viable. "There is room for both drugs," said BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan David Seigerman, who has a buy rating on Eli Lilly shares, in a CNBC interview. "A rising tide lifts all boats, and I think having two strong drugs validates the amyloid hypothesis, so you have more pressure on CMS." Additionally, having three companies  Eisai, Biogen and potentially Eli Lilly  in the market is necessary to build out the infrastructure needed in the U.S. medical system to give these intravenous drugs to patients, Seigerman added. "It's a positive for the space, generally," he said. For Eli Lilly, specifically, Seigerman said the donanemab data appears to be a "home run." The company's Alzheimer's pursuits have not been the main driver of BMO's bullishness  a view that mirrors the Club's own thinking . That crown belongs to Mounjaro, Lilly's type-2 diabetes drug with immense promise to treat obesity. But the strength of the Alzheimer's data Wednesday increases the likelihood that donanemab becomes a commercial success, Seigerman said, solidifying Lilly as the leader in the pharmaceutical industry. The safety of donanemab is likely to remain in focus because anti-amyloid drugs are associated with what's known as amyloid-related imaging abnormalities, or ARIA; symptoms can include brain swelling and bleeding. Eli Lilly said two participants in the Phase 3 trial died due to ARIA side effects, while a third patient did after a serious ARIA incident. "The majority of ARIA cases were mild to moderate and resolved or stabilized with appropriate management," the company said in a press release. A more detailed dataset will provide better context around safety, Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal indicated in a note to clients Wednesday. But in the company data released Wednesday, donanemab's safety profile roughly matched expectations, said Bansal, who has an overweight, or buy, rating on Eli Lilly shares. Leqembi "may have an edge on safety," Bansal said, while donanemab appears to be slightly more effective in slowing the progression of Alzheimer's. "Investors would take a sigh of relief with this success," he wrote. Bottom line We'd been hopeful that Eli Lilly's late-stage donanemab data would impress, but the complexity of Alzheimer's  and the company's numerous unsuccessful studies in the past  made it hard to know for sure how the trial would go. A sigh of a relief is certainly in order now. "It's the holy grail," Jim Cramer said Wednesday. "It's what Eli Lilly was looking for. ... It's what we wanted." Eli Lilly shares climbed more than 6% to around $429 each. More upside is likely ahead for the stock, Jim predicted, as investors reconsider the impact a commercially successful Alzheimer's drug would have for the company. "This is a very big win for Eli Lilly," he said. Lilly's biggest financial winner in the years ahead is still likely to be Mounjaro, which has gotten off to a stellar start since launching as a type-2 diabetes drug last summer. Its promise to treat obesity  and other conditions, such as sleep apnea  will dramatically expand its sales potential. Jim has said it could become the best-selling drug of all time. Eli Lilly hopes U.S. regulators will allow Mounjaro to be marketed as an obesity drug by the end of the year, another positive catalyst looming on the horizon. Of course, future updates around donanemab  including any change to CMS's reimbursement policy for anti-amyloid drugs  will be closely watched by investors. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long LLY. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

The Eli Lilly logo is shown on one of the company's offices in San Diego, California, September 17, 2020. Mike Blake | Reuters
Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference on May 2, 2022, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Qualcomm said it expected around $8.5 billion in sales in the current quarter, short of Wall Street expectations of $9.14 billion. Analysts were expecting current-quarter earnings guidance of $2.16 per share, but the company said it would be around $1.80.

Net income during the quarter ended in March fell 42% to $1.70 billion, or $1.52 per share, from $2.93 billion, or $2.57 per share, in the year-earlier period, the company said.

Qualcomm reported second-quarter earnings on Wednesday that were in line with analyst expectations, but sales from handset chips, a core business for the company, declined 17% from a year earlier.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon in a statement blamed the results on a challenging environment, and the company said it had not seen evidence that smartphone sales are recovering in China. The smartphone market is looking at a tough 2023, with shipments for the global market declining over 14% in the first quarter, according to IDC.

"The evolving macroeconomic backdrop has resulted in further demand deterioration, particularly in handsets, at a magnitude greater than we previously forecasted," Amon said on a call with analysts.

Total revenue declined 17% to $9.28 billion from the year-earlier quarter, the chipmaker said.

Qualcomm's chip segment, called QCT, sells smartphone processors, automotive chips and other parts for advanced electronics. QCT revenue declined 17% to $7.94 billion during the quarter.

The biggest part of the segment's revenue comes from handset chips, which are the processors at the heart of most Android phones. Qualcomm reported $6.11 billion in handset sales, down 17% from last year.

The company said it expected a larger-than-normal decline in the third quarter for QTL revenue, saying it was related to "the timing of purchases by a modem-only handset customer." QTL is the company's licensing segment, which sells access to technologies needed for cellular service.

Qualcomm rarely discusses its business with Apple , and didn't name the company, but Apple does purchase modems from the company for its iPhones and other devices.

"Given the weaker handset forecast, until demand normalizes and visibility improves, we anticipate that customers will remain cautious with purchases," Qualcomm finance chief Akash Palkhiwala said on the call.

The automotive business, which includes chips and software for cars, is still small, although it showed 20% growth during the quarter to $447 million in revenue.

QTL reported an 18% annual decrease in revenue to $1.29 billion.

Qualcomm said it made $900 million in share repurchases and paid $800 million in dividends during the quarter.
Semiconductor maker Qualcomm (QCOM) delivered mixed fiscal second-quarter results after the closing bell Wednesday. But a weaker-than-anticipated handset forecast, which sent shares more than 6% lower in after-hours trading, left us looking to move on as quickly as possible from the small position the Club still holds in the stock. Revenue in the quarter fell about 17% year-over-year to $9.27 billion, beating analysts' forecasts of $9.1 billion, according to Refinitiv. Adjusted earnings-per-share (EPS) dropped 33% on an annual basis to $2.15, matching analysts' predictions. Bottom Line Weakness in the market handset chip sets is expected to pressure Qualcomm's business for a few more quarters, making it harder to justify continuing to own the stock as it navigates this industry challenge. One reason why Qualcomm took its handset unit expectations down for 2023 is due to a slower rebound in China demand, which has become a disappointing theme of the week. Management said it has not seen evidence of a meaningful recovery yet despite the reopening of the world's second-largest economy post-Covid. Since we have a few China consumer plays in the portfolio that are sorting through this issue, we believe it is best to circle the wagons around the ones where we believe market share gains and growth is more evident, like Starbucks (SBUX) or Estee Lauder (EL). Accordingly, we'll be looking to sell off the rest of this small Qualcomm position, which we have trimmed into strength numerous times this year, as soon as Thursday. Quarterly commentary Handset sales in fiscal Q2 increased 6% sequentially, quarter-over-quarter, driven by new launches with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. However, broader demand remains muted due to too much inventory, hence the nearly 17% decline from last year's Q2, as seen in the table above. The company now sees global 3G, 4G, and 5G handset units in calendar 2023 to be down at least a high single-digit percentage from 2022, a weaker forecast than previously anticipated. In auto , revenues grew nicely, 20% from last year, but it was disappointing to see it fall short relative to the consensus estimate. In the quarter, Qualcomm won 12 new designs across its Snapdragon Cockpit and Snapdragon Connectivity 5G platforms with automakers. While there hasn't been much action in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) yet, management anticipates some new designs in the second half of the year. Internet of things (IoT) revenue was a miss as well, with revenues falling about 24% from last year. Sales were hurt due to the impact the weakening macroeconomic environment has had on demand and an inventory drawdown that's taking longer than expected. Guidance Qualcomm expects its fiscal third quarter revenue to be in the range of about $8.1 billion to $8.9 billion, which at a midpoint of $8.5 billion is well below the consensus of $$9.1 billion. This is a big shortfall relative to estimates, and at the midpoint, it reflects macro headwinds, weaker global handset units and channel inventory drawdown. While there was hope coming into the quarter that handset shipments were approaching a bottom, Qualcomm said Wednesday evening that inventory drawdown dynamics will remain a factor for at least the next couple of quarters. The outlook also reflects a larger-than-normal sequential decline in Qualcomm CMDA Technologies (QCT) revenues, which the company attributes primarily due to the timing of purchases by a modem-only handset customer  likely Apple (AAPL), which is also a Club stock and it reports after the bell Thursday. On earnings, Qualcomm expects adjusted EPS to be about $1.70 to $1.90, which at a midpoint of $1.80, misses estimates of $2.17. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long QCOM, SBUX, EL, AAPL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Cristiano Amon, chief executive officer of Qualcomm Inc., in New York, on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Figs has a strong story for investors who can look beyond the past two years of chaotic price moves, Roth MKM said. Analyst Matt Koranda initiated coverage of the healthcare apparel stock with a buy rating. His $9 price target implies the stock could rally 32% from where it closed Tuesday. "We expect the stock to work as FIGS exercises its strong brand power, driving multi-year accelerating revenue and margin improvement in 2024 and beyond," Koranda said in a Wednesday note to clients. Shares were up 5.9% Wednesday, bringing the year-to-date gain to 7.7%. Koranda said the stock has been on a "rollercoaster" since the founder-led, direct-to-consumer apparel company known for its scrubs for health care workers went public in an IPO in May 2021. The business and brand is "healthy" despite a tough 2022 and what should be a year of transition in 2023, he said. FIGS ALL mountain Figs This year, he said management will work to clear excess inventory built up during the period of backed-up supply chains in 2021 and early 2022. That will also help free cash flow, Koranda noted. With the backlog behind them, Figs will then be able to lean into innovation and marketing to drive sales growth in 2024 and 2025, the analyst said. Figs should also see moderating operating expenses in those years, he added. Koranda said the brand should be able to maintain its leading market share among medical professionals by leveraging its well-regarded brand and using its scale. He noted Figs was essentially the first direct-to-consumer medical scrub brand when it was created in 2013. He also said the relative stability of the medical field is a plus, especially as retail brands face the threat of softening consumer trends due to the weakening economic backdrop. To be sure, Koranda said Figs' performance could be affected by increased competition or if the company needs to use excessive promotions to move inventory. Changes in consumer behavior could also affect the Santa Monica, California-based company, he said.  CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved an RSV vaccine produced by GlaxoSmithKline for use on adults ages 60 and older.

The approval, the first ever globally by a regulatory body for an RSV vaccine, is a decisive victory for GSK in a race against drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna to bring to market a shot that targets the respiratory syncytial virus.

Shares of GSK rose nearly 2% Wednesday following the approval.

GSK's chief scientific officer Tony Wood said in a statement the decision "marks a turning point" in the company's effort to reduce the "significant burden" of RSV.

The company will now focus on ensuring eligible older adults in the U.S. can access the vaccine "as quickly as possible," he said. GSK will also work toward regulatory review and approval of the shot in other countries.

London-based GSK during an earnings presentation last week said it has "millions" of doses of the RSV vaccine ready to ship.

The company plans to meet in June with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory committee to hash out potential vaccination schedules for the U.S., according to that presentation.

GSK's shot is also inching closer to approval in the European Union. Last week, the European Medicines Agency recommended that the company's vaccine be approved by the EU for older adults.

The shot would help countries combat the next RSV season in the fall.

The U.S. suffered an unusually severe RSV season last year.

Cases of the virus in children and older adults overwhelmed hospitals across the country, largely because the public stopped practicing Covid pandemic health measures that had helped keep the spread of RSV low.

RSV usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms. But each year the virus kills 6,000 to 10,000 seniors and a few hundred children younger than 5, according to the CDC.
Joseph Tacopina, lawyer of former President Donald Trump, questions E. Jean Carroll before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan as Carroll's deposition plays on a monitor in New York, May 1, 2023, in this courtroom sketch.

But the presumptive frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination was in Scotland on Monday to break ground for a new golf course.

On Tuesday, Tacopina said Trump would not testify before the jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Trump has not appeared in court since the trial began last week.

Trump's attorney Joseph Tacopina told Judge Lewis Kaplan the one expert witness he planned to call to the witness stand is unable to testify due to a health issue.

A lawyer for former President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will not present any witnesses at the civil trial for a lawsuit accusing Trump of raping writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and defaming her last fall when he again denied her claim .

A videotape of Trump's deposition for the case might be played later Wednesday for jurors.

The tape includes footage from the so-called "Access Hollywood" tape, in which Trump bragged to the show's then-host Billy Bush about groping and kissing women without their consent.

"I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women  I just start kissing them, it's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait," Trump says on the tape, recorded in 2005 when he was taping a segment of the television show "Access Hollywood."

"And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. "Grab 'em by the p----," Trump said.

Carroll's sister, Cande Carroll, was due to take the witness stand, followed by Natasha Stoynoff, who claims Trump assaulted her at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2005.

Kaplan told jurors Wednesday they will start deliberations in the case next week.

Carroll's lawyers expect to rest their case on Thursday.

Carroll, 79, alleges Trump raped her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan after a chance encounter with him.

He has denied raping her, or even being in the store with her on that date. Trump has also said he would not have even had consensual sex with her because she was not his "type."

However, during questioning under oath by Carroll's lawyer for his deposition, Trump mistook Carroll for his former wife Marla Maples in a photo that shows Carroll and her then-husband, John Johnson, with Trump and his then-wife, Ivana Trump.
DETROIT  Leaders of the United Auto Workers are withholding a reelection endorsement for President Joe Biden until the union's concerns about the auto industry's transition to all-electric vehicles are addressed, according to a Tuesday letter sent by UAW President Shawn Fain to union staff.

Fain, who was elected union president in March, said the UAW wants a "just transition" for workers. He argues that is currently not the case as automakers invest billions of dollars, with the support of taxpayer money, to move from traditional vehicles to EVs.

"The federal government is pouring billions into the electric vehicle transition, with no strings attached and no commitment to workers," Fain said in the message obtained by CNBC. "The EV transition is at serious risk of becoming a race to the bottom. We want to see national leadership have our back on this before we make any commitments."

How to transition traditional auto workers into new jobs for EVs has been a major concern for the UAW for several years. A 2018 study by the union found mass adoption of EVs could cost the UAW 35,000 jobs. However, the union has more recently said that number could be lower.

The UAW has historically supported Democrats. However, former President Donald Trump was able to gain notable support from blue-collar auto workers during his presidential campaign.

In the Tuesday letter, Fain said "another Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster," citing the need for the union to "get our members organized behind a pro-worker, pro-climate, and pro-democracy political program that can deliver for the working class."
A sign prohibiting unmanned aerial vehicles flying over the area is on display near the State Historical Museum and the Kremlin wall in central Moscow, Russia, May 3, 2023.

Ukraine denied any involvement in an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin that Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

A senior Ukrainian presidential official, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Ukraine had nothing to do with the drone strike, stating on Twitter that "Ukraine wages an exclusively defensive war and does not attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation."

Rather, he said the allegations suggest Russia was planning a large-scale "terrorist" attack against Ukraine in the coming days.

Serhii Nikiforov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's spokesman, also told the Ukrainian Pravda news outlet that Kyiv was not involved in the incident.

"We have no information about the so-called night attacks on the Kremlin, but as President Zelenskyy has repeatedly stated, Ukraine directs all available forces and means to liberate its own territories, not to attack foreign ones," he told the news outlet in comments translated by NBC News.

Nikiforov said Russia's description of the incident as a "terrorist" attack was interesting given Russia's repeated attacks against Ukrainian territory over the course of the war.

"A terrorist attack is the destroyed houses in Dnipro and Uman, or a rocket fired at the train station in Kramatorsk and many other tragedies. And what happened in Moscow was obviously an escalation of the situation in light of May 9," alluding to Russia's upcoming Victory Day parade commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

The comments come after the Kremlin claimed Wednesday that Ukraine tried to strike the Kremlin with drones overnight, but said the purported attack on the heart of the Russian government was "successfully repulsed."

Russian President Vladimir Putin was not injured in the incident, the Kremlin said. It provided no evidence to back up the claim of an attempted attack.

 Holly Ellyatt
Yum Brands on Wednesday reported quarterly earnings that fell short of analysts' expectations, despite a China sales rebound for KFC and Pizza Hut.

Yum joins the growing list of companies that includes Procter & Gamble and Starbucks that have reported recovering sales in China.

Shares of the company closed Wednesday down 3.9%.

Here's what the company reported for the first quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: $1.06 adjusted vs. $1.13 expected

Revenue: $1.65 billion vs. $1.62 billion expected

Yum reported net income of $300 million, or $1.05 per share, down from $399 million, or $1.36 per share, a year earlier. The company said its earnings decreased by 7 cents per share due to declines in the value of unnamed investments, and took an 8 cent per share hit because of foreign currency.

Excluding items, the restaurant company earned $1.06 per share.

Net sales rose 6% to $1.65 billion. Its same-store sales increased 8% in the quarter as its three largest chains outperformed expectations. Digital sales exceeded 45% of transactions, CEO David Gibbs said in the company's earnings release.

Executives credited lower-income consumers with helping drive sales during the quarter. Deals like Taco Bell's $2 and under value menu, KFC's two for $5 wraps and Pizza Hut's $6.99 melts helped attract diners who would otherwise be pulling back on their restaurant spending.

Yum CFO Chris Turner said on a conference call with analysts that inflation, staffing challenges and supply chain disruptions have abated in the U.S., making it easier on the company and its franchisees to operate restaurants. However, he added that some international markets are still struggling with inflation.

KFC's same-store sales rose 9%, thanks to its international markets. In China, KFC's largest market, system sales climbed 17%, helping lift the chain's international same-store sales growth 11%.

Similarly, Pizza Hut reported that China's system sales soared 24% in the quarter. The country is Pizza Hut's second-largest market, trailing only the U.S.

The pizza chain also performed well stateside, reporting domestic same-store sales growth of 8%. Overall, Pizza Hut's same-store sales rose 7%.

Taco Bell reported same-store sales growth of 8% for the quarter. Out of Yum's portfolio, Taco Bell saw the largest increase in openings as the chain focused on expanding its international footprint.

China became Taco Bell's fourth international market to have at least 100 locations. Spain, the United Kingdom and India had already passed that threshold.

Yum opened 746 new locations across all of its chains during the quarter.

Shortly after the quarter ended, Yum completed its exit from Russia through the sale of those KFC restaurants to Smart Service, an existing Russian franchisee. The company had already sold its Pizza Hut locations there to a local operator last summer following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Next quarter, Yum won't face any comparisons that include its Russian business because the company suspended operations there in early March of last year.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  The United States said its Trade and Development Agency will launch new infrastructure activities this year intended to leverage over $3 billion in public and private financing to boost infrastructure development in the Philippines.

In a fact sheet on the May 1 bilateral meeting of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his US counterpart Joe Biden, the White House said the two leaders agreed to beef up economic ties, including investments in sustainable and high-quality infrastructure.

According to the US, the expected multibillion funding will strengthen the Philippines critical mineral supply chains, as well as advance smart grid technologies and clean energy solutions.

It is also seen to help promote secure 5G deployment in the country, strengthen airport security and maritime safety, and support healthcare infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the White House said the US Agency for International Development will also forge a new partnership with the Philippines to support the construction of railways, ports, and transport systems.

The meeting between Marcos and Biden took place in Washington and marked their second bilateral talks after they met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last September.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 2)  Another batch of repatriated Filipinos from war-torn Sudan is expected to arrive in the country on Thursday, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) announced on Tuesday.

In a statement, the DMW said the two groups, composed of 80 and 72 evacuees, will be taking Saudia Airlines commercial flights on Wednesday.

It said the repatriates are among 340 Filipinos who fled from the Sudan Port into the Argeen Land Port Authority in Aswan, Egypt last April 29.

READ: DFA: 340 Filipinos fleeing embattled Sudan allowed to enter Egypt

https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2023/4/30/340-pinoys-allowed-to-enter-egypt.html

For this week, we will have 152 arriving on May 4 from Egypt and another bigger batch of OFWs from Sudan coming home hopefully via a chartered PAL (Philippine Airlines) flight, DMW Secretary Susan Ople said.

OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration) and the DMW are committed to bring as many of our kababayans home, so that the process of healing from the trauma of Sudans civil war can commence, she added.

On Saturday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said 17 Filipino evacuees have landed in Manila in two batches.

READ: Two batches of Filipino evacuees from conflict-torn Sudan back home

According to the DMW, the two commercial flights will be traveling to Manila from Jeddah and Riyadh.

OWWA chief Arnell Ignacio will be joining one of the groups on the flight home.

The DMW is currently negotiating with PAL for a chartered flight to bring the remaining 188 Filipinos from the group in Sudan.

Ople said the agency has a partnership with Egyptair that would enable it to come up with flight arrangements from Cairo to Dubai and onward to Manila.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 2)  Senators should push for a new Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) division to try agricultural smuggling cases instead of creating a separate court, officials and legal experts said on Tuesday.

Court administrator of the Supreme Court Raul Villanueva initially suggested that regional trial courts (RTCs) be designated for the function, but Senator Cynthia Villar said it would be ineffective.

"If the intention of Congress is to elevate the rank of the judges who would hear anti-smuggling cases, another division may be added to the CTA," Gener Gito, Philippine Judges Association's (PJA) vice president for administration, said during the Senate hearing on the amendment of the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act.

Danilo Cruz, president of PJA, added that doing so would be swifter and more practical.

While Villanueva expressed support for the proposal, he pointed out that there may be a need to amend the law, given the limited jurisdiction of the CTA. The court currently has three divisions.

"Expand lang 'yung jurisdiction nila [Just expand their jurisdiction] on special laws pertaining to violations, for example, sa smuggling," Villanueva said.

"Pwede [rin] namang i-raffle lang sa apat na divisions 'yun (cases) para hindi exclusive for one division," he added, noting there are only nine agricultural smuggling cases pending with the SC to date.

[Translation: We just need to expand their jurisdiction to include special laws pertaining to, for example, smuggling. We can also raffle such cases among all CTA divisions instead of making them exclusive.]

According to the Department of Justice, a total of 159 cases have been filed with the agency from 2016 to February 2023. Of that number, 76 cases or 48% were dismissed for lack of probable cause. Only nine have reached the Supreme Court.

"Maybe we can add a specific crime, refusal to prosecute large-scale agricultural smuggling," Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Koko Pimentel III suggested, adding that legal departments, even DOJ prosecutors, can be held liable depending on the evidence.

Economic sabotage as non-bailable crime

Under Senate Bill 1963, Villar proposed the creation of special courts in four areas: Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cebu, and Davao.

The courts aim to hear criminal cases against persons involved in agricultural smuggling.

"We are amending the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act (RA 10845) to include hoarding, price manipulation and cartels as economic sabotage and non-bailable," Villar said. "We intend to create an Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Court to ensure the proper implementation of the law will be made."

Under RA 10845, the amount to be declared as economic sabotage is 10 million for rice and 1 million for other agricultural products.

However, Villar said no smugglers were charged with economic sabotage.

According to the Bureau of Customs, 24 cases of large-scale agricultural smuggling have been filed in the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2022 and 46 cases in 2023. However, all cases are still under preliminary investigation.

Villar said the only "deterrent" to smuggling would be to put those liable behind bars, even while they are still being tried for economic sabotage.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture said it will look into the 2.87-billion budget released to the Bureau of Animal Industry this year for the establishment of first border inspection facilities for imported produce after it was questioned over the status of the project.

CNN correspondent Currie Cator and multiplatform news writer Mariel Celine Serquina contributed to this story.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  Results of the probe into the alleged drug ties of two police generals and two colonels will be made public this week.

"We are going to make a statement about this okay. Just give us about probably two days so that we can cover all legalities. We just want that when we make a statement, all of these are airtight," Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said in a media briefing Wednesday.

Former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and head of the five-man advisory group Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said they have recommended the filing of complaints against the four ranking police officials.

The four are among the 36 remaining officials who are subject to further review by the National Police Commission (Napolcom), according to Azurin.

990-kg shabu haul cover-up

Abalos also said the Napolcom Task Force created to look into the alleged cover-up in the 990 kilogram shabu drug haul is set to release its findings in a couple of weeks.

The investigation is not yet complete as there are still so many questions to be answered, the secretary added.

Questions were raised on the anti-drug operation in October last year after Abalos revealed an attempt to cover up Police Sergeant Rodolfo Mayo's arrest.

Authorities seized nearly a metric ton of shabu  or the local version of methamphetamine hydrochloride  worth 6.7 billion in Mayo's property.

READ: Abalos urges PNP officials linked to 6.7-B shabu haul to go on leave

On April 15, PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management chief Maj. Gen. Eliseo Cruz said 49 people from the PNP-Drug Enforcement Group, including its former chief PBGen. Narciso Domingo, will be facing complaints over their involvement in the controversial drug bust.

But some of those implicated, including Domingo, denied the allegations of a cover-up.

READ: Ex-PDEG director, 48 other personnel to face charges over shabu haul and 'cover-up'

CNN Philippines Correspondent Crissy Dimatulac contributed to this story.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  Former Ambassador to the United States Jose Cuisia urged the Philippine government to bring recent incidents in the West Philippine Sea to the United Nations.

Speaking to CNN Philippines, Cuisia said China has been ignoring and rejecting the country's diplomatic protests for quite some time now.

The former envoy added that the Philippines should gather support from the international community to ask China to comply with international law.

"We must take more aggressive action in the United Nations that every opportunity we have. We must bring this up in the United Nations show that China refuses to recognize the ruling of the [Permanent Court of Arbitration] at the Hague, even though they are a party to whom clause they signed that treaty," Cuisia said.

"We need to take every opportunity that we must bring it out in the United Nations and to get other nations to support our stand because we keep advocating the rule of law, we talk about the international order, and China being part of the international community must respect our rights. So, I think we must keep hammering it," he added.

Cuisia also slammed the statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on the recent near collision incident in Ayungin Shoal.

Beijing said the move was premeditated and provocative.

"China talks about being provocative, they are the ones who are taking provocative actions. You know, this is why I've said before, we cannot rely on the words of these Chinese diplomats and Chinese officials because they say one thing, and they do something else," Cuisia stressed.

US on China's behavior in West PH Sea: Unacceptable

The US State Department reiterated its support for the Philippines in asserting its rights over the West Philippine Sea.

In a media briefing on Wednesday, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said Chinas actions remain concerning for Washington.

"This is really a very important issue, and we remain deeply concerned by the [Peoples Republic of Chinas] continued intimidation and harassment of Philippine vessels as they continue to undertake routine patrols within the Philippines exclusive economic zone. And such actions and behavior on the part of Beijing are truly unacceptable," Kritenbrink said.

The US official said the best way forward to prevent similar incidents from happening again is for China to recognize the 2016 Arbitral Ruling and comply with the international law.

"The best way to prevent such incidents in the future would be for the PRC to make a commitment to uphold the rules-based international order and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and to abide by the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal ruling, which of course is binding on both parties. We again call upon Beijing to desist from its provocative and unsafe conduct," Kritenbrink said.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila has yet to respond or issue a comment on the recent pronouncements of Manila and Washington officials over the South China Sea issue.

Beijing, however, previously maintained that the 2016 Arbitral Ruling is illegal, and therefore null and void.
A protester holds up a sign at a rally against Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill in November 2009 at the Uganda High Commission in New York (file photo).

press release

Bill, which imposes death penalty and life imprisonment in certain cases, will fuel violence and homophobia

President Museveni failed to veto bill after sending it back to parliament

'This law will have a devastating impact on LGBTI individuals in Uganda' - Flavia Mwangovya

Responding to news that the Ugandan parliament has passed the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill after President Yoweri Museveni recently sent it back to parliament for revision, Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director, said:

"This contemptuous law blatantly violates the human rights of LGBTI people in Uganda, including the right to privacy, freedom from discrimination and the right to equal protection under the law."This law will have a devastating impact on LGBTI individuals in Uganda, who already face persecution and discrimination."It will fuel violence and discrimination against them and reinforce stigma and stereotypes related to homosexuality. "It will also have a chilling effect on freedom of expression, as people who support LGBTI rights may fear persecution and imprisonment. "The Ugandan president must immediately veto this law and take steps to protect the human rights of all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity."Amnesty also calls on the international community to urgently put pressure on the Ugandan government to protect the rights of LGBTI individuals in the country."

Bill imposes brutal prison sentences

The 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill imposes life imprisonment for same-sex sexual conduct, and up to ten years for attempted same-sex sexual acts. It also imposes the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality", a broad term used to describe actions including same-sex acts among people living with HIV, and criminalises the "promotion" of homosexuality, a provision that encourages homophobia.

On 21 March, the Ugandan parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, with 387 out of 389 MPs voting in favour. Today, 341 MPs voted for the revised bill after the president sent it back for their review last month; only one MP voted no. It will now be returned to President Museveni, who can sign, veto or again send it back to parliament.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said it soon hopes to classify COVID-19 as a common illness in the country once the situation stabilizes.

Its all part of having this kind of shift from a pandemic into endemicity. So, ito pong pagkakaroon ng endemic na state ng isang bansa sa isang sakit, kasama po yan that you are now classifying this illness as something common already in the country. Hopefully towards the end of the year, sana po maging stable tayo, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire told CNN Philippines The Source.

[Translation: Its all part of having this kind of shift from a pandemic into endemicity. So, a country having an illness in an endemic state is part of classifying this illness as something common already in the country. Hopefully, towards the end of the year we will be stable.]

This was her response when asked if the Philippines would follow the move of Japan, as the latter sets to downgrade COVID-19 to the same level as seasonal flu on May 8.

We will eventually get to that point, but for now let us closely monitor, Vergeire said.

Based on the DOHs latest COVID-19 case bulletin, there were 4,456 new infections from April 24 to 30. This meant an average of 637 cases daily, which is 42% higher than the previous week.

The OCTA Research group also said Metro Manilas positivity rate - or the rate of people testing positive for COVID-19 - increased to 18.8% on May 1 from 11.7% on April 24.

While this is the current situation, Vergeire said the countrys health system can still accommodate all COVID-19 patients. She also noted that most of the infections are mild.

She also said that health authorities are still encouraging the public, especially the vulnerable population which includes the elderly, persons with comorbidities, and the unvaccinated, to wear face masks to protect themselves from the virus.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  More Filipinos evacuated from conflict-torn Sudan arrived in the Philippines on Wednesday.

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said 42 Filipino evacuees landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in two batches.

Twenty-five of themmostly studentsarrived in the afternoon, while 17 others arrived in the evening.

Representatives from OWWA, the Foreign Affairs, Migrant Workers, and Social Welfare departments provided them with emergency kits, food and transportation assistance, hotel accommodation, and financial assistance.

Their arrival brings to 108 the total number of Filipinos repatriated from Sudan after being forced to flee the North African nation due to a violent power struggle between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces.

READ: Rival generals are battling for control in Sudan. Here's a simple guide to the fighting

Around 152 more Filipinos are expected to arrive in the country on Thursday.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has clinched investment pledges for the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry during his trip to the United States.

In a statement on Wednesday, Malacanang said American healthcare services provider Optum is set to invest 800 million in medical BPO. The investment is expected to create 1,500 jobs.

BPO firm Atento also committed to set up its first call center in the Philippines in the Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao.

Marcos is confident that Atentos first venture in the local market would be successful as Filipinos speak and write the best English.

It has been a go-to industry for the Philippine government for quite a long time now, he said.

I dont see how it could be a problem since this is really a line of work that has become well-established in the Philippines, he added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  US-based pharmaceutical firm Moderna has informed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of its plan to set up a vaccine-making facility in the Philippines, Malacanang said on Wednesday.

According to the Palace, Moderna Chief Commercial Officer Arpa Garay and Senior Vice President and General Manager Patrick Bergstedt bared this during a meeting with Marcos at the Blair House in Washington, D.C.

The two executives said their company is set to establish a shared service facility for pharmacovigilance that will serve the Asia-Pacific region.

Once operational, it will be Modernas only shared service facility in Asia and the third in the world following Poland and Georgia in the US, Malacanang noted.

It will also be the company's first investment in the Philippines and in Asia, it added..

The government also said the facility is expected to employ around 50 health professionals, and may be housed either in Makati City or at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City.

Malacanang said the President expressed his gratitude to Moderna, telling them the project will give the country an advantage in healthcare.

The opportunity to build shared services in areas of interest, connecting with the scientific, academic opportunity with Moderna, the ministry of health is something that were very, very interested in, the President was quoted as saying.

With your experience in other countries, there are many lessons that we could learn that can be applied in the Philippines, he added.

Moderna is among the companies that developed COVID-19 vaccines which have been distributed in the Philippines.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  A day after the 30th World Press Freedom Day, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) on Thursday reported 75 cases of violations against media workers since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office.

From June 30, 2022, to April 30, 2023, these include 40 intimidation, 10 libel and cyberlibel, 7 harassment, 6 barred from coverage and censorship, 5 threats through messages and online, 4 cyberattacks, and 1 physical assault.

The CMFR said 31 of the 40 cases of intimidation include red tagging media members or news organizations and 8 cases of surveillance.

President Marcos Jr. has been amiable toward the press. And there has been no real action to prevent the kinds of attacks that made the Duterte regime as dark as it could ever be for the media and for democracy, the CMFR said.

While it exceeds the number of attacks and threats in any one year during former president Rodrigo Dutertes term in office, the CMFR said attacking journalists and media is no longer the top priority of the current administration.

In a statement released after World Press Freedom Day, the Presidential Communications Office said they condemned all attacks on press freedom and has called for the protection of journalists and media workers worldwide.

We honor the brave journalists who risk their lives every day to bring us the news and the stories that shape our world, it added.

The reported cases cover the death of broadcaster Percy Lapid on October 3 last year, and of editorial cartoonist Rey Blanco on September 18, 2022.

State agents were involved in 41 cases as alleged perpetrators, the media group added, with 23 from the national government, 12 from the police, and 6 from local government units.

In a separate post on Wednesday, the National Union of Journalists (NUJP) reported a lower number of press freedom violations at 60.

While there have been victories  such as acquittal of Maria Ressa and Rappler of tax cases  the NUJP said press freedom in the Philippines remain fragile.

The NUJP also reiterated that the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act and SIM Card Registration Act restricts that freedom of an individual from which the freedom of the press comes.

"In the backdrop of all these hangs the threat of the use of the tactics that the Duterte administration used against the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Rappler and ABS-CBN that continue to chill our community, the NUJP said.

In the backdrop as well are the unresolved murders of our colleagues, with Renato Blanco and Percy Lapid being only the latest of these," it added.

Meanwhile, human rights group Karapatan on Wednesday also denounced the weaponization of laws against the media that it said still persist under Marcos administration.

"The weaponization of laws to attack the hard-won rights to press freedom and free expression must stop," the group said.

Instead of heeding widespread calls to decriminalize libel, the group said state authorities have even strengthened these measures through a cybercrime law prescribing harsher punishments for criminal libel and granting authorities massive powers to shut down websites and monitor online information.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  The six-hour shutdown of the entire Philippine airspace on May 17 could cost the economy as much as 300 million, according to Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation chief economist Michael Ricafort.

"It ranges from about 100 to 300 million. That would be largely on passengers taking airlines. Most specially the foreign tourists," Ricafort told CNN Philippines' Politics As Usual on Wednesday.

"Because in a day, we do the math for the contribution to our economy, for foreign tourism businesses alone, it's around 600 million per day. About a third of half of which will be disrupted by the closure of airport operations," he explained.

Ricafort said the temporary shutdown would largely impact the tourism sector, including the hotel industry or lodging-related businesses, restaurants, and retailers.

The six-hour shutdown is to allow for maintenance activities aimed at preventing future power outages at the country's airports, the most recent of which occurred on May 1 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

The economist previously estimated that the New Year's Day technical failure at NAIA  which affected over 300 flights  would cost 100 million in economic losses.

The scheduled temporary closure of the Philippine airspace is likely to disrupt just about 130 flights, but is expected to cost more because the country has "more tourists right now compared to a few months ago," according to Ricafort.

Ricafort also pointed out that domestic and foreign travelers right now have "finite" vacation days that they would rather opt to visit other countries given the constraints.

"Certainty is of course important, as well as predictability. If they cannot arrive at their places of destination within the country, they would have to forego what otherwise they will be spending," he said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  The Philippines and the United States would form a bilateral labor working group that would keep an eye on the implementation of labor rights, according to a White House fact sheet.

This plan is pursuant to the US-Philippines Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, the White House said.

The labor working group is intended to become a platform where both nations can collaborate to accelerate the implementation of internationally recognized labor rights.

The platform is also seen to advance exchanges between government officials and labor unions, which would make sure that workers voices will shape the way ahead.

The White House said both countries are committed to ensuring workers can organize freely and safely.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 3)  Solar technology provider Maxeon is looking to invest around $900 million -- or nearly 50 billion -- for the expansion of its operations in the Philippines, according to Malacanang.

In a statement, the Palace said the firm bared its plan during a meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his officials in Washington D.C.

Bill Mulligan, CEO of Maxeon, said the investment could trigger the creation of over 3,000 jobs in the next few years.

Mulligan said he sees the Philippine market as a strategic partner in the groups business growth.

It operates in the country under the name of Sunpower Philippines Manufacturing, with seven projects in Laguna composed of manufacturing, IT, and logistics activities.

Aside from the Philippines, Maxeon has a footprint in the United States, Canada, and Japan.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 4)  The United States and the Philippines have adopted new bilateral defense guidelines during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.s official visit to Washington D.C.

Marcos on Wednesday was accorded full honors upon his arrival at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Department of Defense (DOD). He met with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, where they reaffirmed their "ironclad alliance" commitments to the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.

According to US DOD, Austin and his Philippine counterpart Carlito Galvez have established the bilateral defense guidelines that institutionalized key priorities to deepen cooperation and interoperability across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace.

Pentagon said the guidelines also modernized alliance cooperation in support of the US and the Philippines shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

The guidelines reaffirm that an armed attack in the Pacific, including anywhere in the South China Sea, on either of their public vessels, aircraft, or armed forces  which includes their Coast Guards  would invoke mutual defense commitments under Articles IV and V of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty, it said.

The following goals serve as the foundation for the guidelines:

- Reaffirm the 1951 Mutual Defense Treatys continued relevance in addressing current and emerging threats;

- Foster a common understanding of roles, missions, and capabilities within the framework of the alliance to face emerging regional and global security challenges;

- Drive unity of effort across shared dialogue mechanisms and working groups and ensure all areas of bilateral security and defense cooperation are coordinated to address primary security concerns; and

- Guide priority areas of defense cooperation to address both conventional and non-conventional security challenges of shared concern to the United States and the Philippines.

The guidelines also outlined paths of efforts to achieve such goals, including:

- Modernize defense capabilities through close coordination on the Philippines defense modernization, and prioritize the procurement of interoperable defense platforms sourced from the US

- Deepen interoperability through bilateral exercises, maritime security awareness, and cooperation under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement

- Enhance bilateral planning and information-sharing through coordinated analysis and tabletop exercises, enhancement of information security

- Combat transnational and non-conventional threats through improving cyber defense and cyber security cooperation, and other capacity-building activities to respond to chemical, biological, and nuclear-related attacks

- Contribute to global and regional peace and security
A protester holds up a sign at a rally against Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill in November 2009 at the Uganda High Commission in New York (file photo).

press release

Responding to the news that Uganda's Parliament has passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill after President Yoweri Museveni sent it back to Parliament for revision, just confirms that the state is institutionalizing discrimination through criminalization of same-sex sexual relationships, Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director said:

"The revised Bill still criminalizes consensual same-sex conduct and has retained the death penalty in cases of "aggravated homosexuality", a broad term used to describe actions including same-sex acts among people living with HIV. It still allows a 20-year sentence for promoting homosexuality, which could outlaw any advocacy for the rights of LGBTI persons in the country.

"It is abhorrent that Parliament has retained the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that was passed by Uganda's Parliament in March. This contemptuous law blatantly violates the human rights of LGBTI individuals in Uganda, including the right to privacy, freedom from discrimination, and the right to equal protection under the law.

The legislation now heads back to President Museveni, who can sign, veto or return it again to parliament.

"This law will have a devastating impact on LGBTI individuals in Uganda, who already face persecution and discrimination. It will fuel violence and discrimination against LGBTI individuals and reinforce stigma and stereotypes related to homosexuality. It will also have a chilling effect on freedom of expression, as individuals who support LGBTI rights may fear persecution and imprisonment.

This law will have a devastating impact on LGBTI individuals in Uganda, who already face persecution and discrimination.Flavia Mwangovya, Deputy Regional Director, East and Southern Africa, Amnesty International

"The Ugandan President must immediately veto this law and take steps to protect the human rights of all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Amnesty International also calls on the international community to urgently put pressure on the Ugandan government to protect the rights of LGBTI individuals in the country."

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President Museveni must veto this law and take steps to protect the human rights of all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.Flavia Mwangovya

Background

The 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill imposes a punishment of life imprisonment for same-sex sexual conduct, and up to 10 years behind bars for attempted same-sex sexual acts. It also imposes the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality" and criminalizes the "promotion" of homosexuality, a provision that encourages homophobia.

On 21 March 2023, the Ugandan Parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, with 387 out of 389 MPs voting in favour. Today 341 MPs voted for the revised bill after the president sent it back for their review last month; only one MP voted no.
More than two years ago, when the Colorado Supreme Court found that juries, not judges, must decide if people accused of felony drunk driving are repeat offenders, it prompted defendants found guilty of other offenses to wonder whether their own prior convictions were something prosecutors must prove to juries beyond a reasonable doubt.
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Kampala, Uganda  Parliament has reconsidered the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 and passed it with amendments to the 4 clauses that President Yoweri Museveni objected to.

Despite the changes, the new bill retains most of the measures adopted in March. Those include the death penalty for certain same-sex acts and a 20-year sentence for promoting homosexuality.

Persons who knowingly allow their premises to be used for acts of homosexuality now face 7 yrs in jail upon conviction while those who fail to report acts of homosexuality while having knowledge about them face a fine of Ushs10 million or 5 years in jail.

Rt. Hon. @AnitahAmong ordering Hon. @KafuuziJackson not to defend any bill in the House again for as long as she is the Speaker.#PlenaryUg https://t.co/vr5NdNU9dF pic.twitter.com/5KKrg2tqpv --- Parliament Watch (@pwatchug) May 2, 2023

In a heated moment, Speaker Anitah Among stopped deputy Attorney General Jackson Kafuuzi from explaining why he advised the President not to sign the bill.

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Boomtown 2023: How to live your best life in Columbia over 50

Columbia makes repeated appearances on lists ranking cities as good places to live. It is perhaps an even better place to mature and retire. A strong health care network, reasonable housing prices, a vibrant, engaged community and an appealing downtown help create an attractive location for all generations, but especially for those over 50. Read more stories.

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IBM plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to replace 7,800 jobs over the next five years, CEO Arvind Krishna said in an interview, sparking fears of widespread job losses across industries.

Comments, such as the ones Arvind made, validate the claims that AI can reduce support jobs and hence costs for the company. It will set the direction for other enterprises to look for similar opportunities in their support functions, said Pareekh Jain, lead analyst at Pareekh Consulting.

IBM CEO on Tuesday told Bloomberg that the company was looking to cut down hiring for roles that could be replaced with AI.

These 26,000 roles, which are essentially non-customer facing jobs, include back office functions such as HR, the CEO said, adding that 30% of such roles, or approximately 7,800 jobs could be replaced with AI or automation over the next five years.

AI will replace 85 million jobs globally by 2025, according to The World Economic Forums The Future of Jobs report. While the report also predicts that AI may create 97 million new roles, it points out that the jobs AI will create will not be the same as the ones being lost.

IBMs strategy to turn to AI is a good workforce strategy

Krishnas comments on AI replacing humans come just months after the company said it would cut 3,900 jobs or 1.5% of its workforce. However, analysts believe it is high time mundane tasks are replaced with AI.

If IBM is pausing 7,800 jobs that AI could do, it would be a good move for the company, as I wouldnt think it was a good strategy to hire positions that could have been easily done by AI and automation in the first place, said Lily Phan, research director at IDC.

In March, IBM spin-off and managed IT services provider Kyndryl said it was eliminating a small percentage of global roles in search of efficiency. The layoffs at Kyndryl were followed by job cuts at another IBM-owned firm, RedHat.

Large technology companies such as IBM have continued to reduce their headcount in search of efficiency and cost reduction in the wake of reducing revenue after they went on a hiring binge during the pandemic when lockdowns sparked a tech buying spree to support remote work and an uptick in e-commerce.

Jain cautioned that the IBM CEOs comments were more of a hope than a plan.

This is just an approximation and extrapolation of current trends for the next five years. The actual numbers might not be that much or might take longer than five years. We dont know what challenges will come up in scaling these early pilots around AI or AI implementation, Jain said. What Arvind has said is that he expects a 30% reduction in the next five years in the HR department headcount because of AI. At this point, I think it is a hope, not a plan.

Mundane tasks will see automation

Giving examples of roles that are likely to be impacted in the next five years, Krishna said that mundane tasks such as employee verification or moving employees from one department to the other will be fully automated while other tasks such as measuring productivity would stay relevant for the next decade.

The roles that are likely to be impacted globally, according to analysts, dont require human intelligence at all.

What Arvind is talking about are the routine jobs that dont require analysis and judgment and only require accessing information, transactions, and updating. These jobs are at risk as there is not much concern about bias or hallucinations, Jain said.

In fact, AI and automation have been impacting routine jobs slowly for quite some time like we see IVR [interactive voice response] or chatbot in customer support for information access and complaints. What generative AI has done is accelerated this development.

Some analysts are more optimistic than others when it comes to the impact of AI on jobs. The scare of losing jobs to AI, according to IDCs Phan, could be compared with the time when robots came to the fore.

The same fears that robots would take up peoples jobs happened a few years ago, but in fact, we are having more jobs today than before. AIs replacement of jobs would help to do mundane and manual tasks and leave more bespoke/customized tasks to employees that require human skills, relationships, connections, and emotional quotient, Phan said.

Not all jobs will not be taken over by AI and its proliferation will see the creation of highly skilled jobs, added Deepika Giri, IDCs head of AI research.

Although the looming anxiety around job losses is prevalent, it only will push the workforce to be re-aligned and trained with more relevant skill sets.
The future of augmented reality (AR) glasses is clear. At least it used to be. Then OpenAI happened.

Specifically, the focus of AR has been following the Microsoft Hololens/Magic Leap idea, where billions are spent on the R&D goal of anchoring high-definition 3D digital objects to physical spaces. The Holy Grail is that, say, a realistic monkey avatar can not only stand on a real table, but can hide behind it  or a topographical interactive map sitting on the floor.

In order to achieve these feats of visualization, companies like Microsoft and Magic Leap require massive processing power, massive hardware that cant be worn while walking around  and massive price tags.

The futurists clamor for something smaller. Many (including I) have long believed that Apple would be first company to mainstream a compelling product for all-day, every-day AR glasses that look almost like ordinary prescription glasses (based on hundreds of patents, comments by Apple executives including CEO Tim Cook and the companys sterling record of dominating mobile electronics markets).

Apples everywhere, everyday AR glasses are years away  four years at least.

Meanwhile, an interim product likely to be called Reality Pro should be introduced to the public by Cook at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 5 and available to the public much later. That product is expected to be high-end virtual reality (VR) gear that primarily functions as AR (instead of virtual objects and data superimposed on a natural view of the real world, it will instead be superimposed on a live video stream of the real world). At $2,000 to $3,000 a set, Reality Pro will not be a mainstream product for the masses.

How AI changes everything

While tech observers were waiting for compelling AR (and waiting, and waiting), an AI revolution happened. San Francisco startup OpenAI launched public access to its DALL-E AI text-to-image generator, as well as its ChatGPT chatbot based on the GPT architecture. The services offered APIs so developers could build apps atop the AI  and a thousand apps bloomed.

Its hard to believe that ChatGPT was launched only five months ago, in December 2022.

Other AI platforms emerged in the wake of OpenAI, with more coming. And Google I/O next week should see that company unveil dozens of new AI products. There are now so many apps that more than 100 directories have emerged to link to the tools  so many directories that theres even a directory to the directories.

The AI wave of 2023 has already had a massive impact on culture, leading Professor Yuval Noah Harari, historian, philosopher and author of the book Sapiens to proclaim that AI has hacked the operating system of human civilization.

If thats true, its because it has re-set our expectations about how everything should work. And this is especially true of what we expect from AR.

The shift to AR implies a fraught change in how we find information, from search engines to the One True Answer (a concept popularized by search engine expert Danny Sullivan). With a search engine, we type in our queries and get a very long list of links to possible answers. With AR, well just want the answer, not a thousand links to consider.

The new AI services in general, and OpenAI GPT-based services in particular, have already changed our desires and expectations for how the One True Answer concept should work in practice. Specifically, we want it to be detailed, flexible and variable based on prompts and interactive like ChatGPT, and not actually one static, final answer like Google Searchs Featured Snippets or Knowledge Panels.

Now we want AI more than Glasses

A startup called Humane, founded by ex-Apple employees Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno (who are married), recently impressed AR fans with an smart new vision for how AR could work. During a TEDtalk, Chaudhri showed off a body-worn connected device with a camera, microphone and projector with access to AI and personal user data: AR without glasses.

Humane envisions this device as a smartphone replacement for what they call the intelligence age  the world transformed by AI, computer vision and machine learning.

During the demo, Chaudhri held a candy bar in front of the device in his pocket and asked, Can I eat this? The prototype device appeared to use computer vision to recognize the product, public online data to get the ingredients, then compared that against a list of intolerances or allergies of the user to advice against consumption.

It translated Chaudhris English words into French, which it spoke in Chaudhris own simulated voice. It summarized key information from recent emails with the command, Catch me up, and performed other ChatGPT-like feats. When his wife called, the caller ID information was projected onto his palm, with actionable buttons made of light.

Its a new kind of device that can be understood as an AI-based, highly personalized wearable Amazon Echo smart speaker that can see. Or you can envision it as advanced AR glasses without the glasses. Instead of showing data through glasses, it projects the information to any nearby surface based on a hand gesture.

But the most compelling descriptive comparison is that its AI-specific hardware. Its designed to render the physical machinery needed for interacting with various kinds of AI invisible  part of the body.

Given the excitement and energy around AI right now, thats a far more compelling vision than any description of Apples eventual AR glasses Ive heard.

To be clear, its likely that all Apples future AR devices will access AI, including a possible future Siri that accesses GPT-like language models. And the functionality of the Humane could be built into glasses.

But Apples master plan of starting out with a big, bulky, powerful, expensive solution to AR, then eventually paring it down to socially acceptable mobile, self-contained glasses in four or five years or more seems increasingly antiquated.

Silicon Valleys pivot from the 'metaverse' to AI

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerbergs metaverse idea isnt catching fire as hoped. In fact, it seems, the tech industry is generally laying off thousands of employees who had been working on AR and VR and doubling down on AI investment in the wake of the OpenAI-driven revolution. This includes Microsoft, which is the major shareholder of OpenAI.

What the world expects at the moment, and what any number of startups and established players are no doubt working on, are AR wearables that augment reality via an human-like personal assistant that accesses AI, computer vision, and machine learning.

While augmenting reality remains a compelling vision for businesses, creatives and consumers, the AI revolution of 2023 has created demand for augmenting ourselves. What the world wants now is wearable AI hardware.
Indian Navy chief meets Singapore minister alongside maritime defence show and ASEAN+1 naval drill

The Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral R Hari Kumar, called on Singaporean Minister of Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen this morning. This took place within the scope of Indias participation in a weeklong (May 2-8) naval drill with the 10 ASEAN countries  the ASEAN+1 drill or, formally, the inaugural ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise (AIME-2023), which began at the Changi Naval Base, Singapore, yesterday.

The Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral R Hari Kumar, with Singaporean Minister of Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen. Photo courtesy: Government of Singapore

India is also participating at the 13th International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference (IMDEX) Asia, which runs alongside the naval drill, and the meeting between Dr Ng and Admiral Hari Kumar took place on the sidelines of IMDEX. According to a Singapore government media release: During their meeting, Dr Ng and Admiral Kumar reaffirmed the strong and long-standing bilateral defence ties between Singapore and India. They also discussed regional security developments and the importance of leveraging multilateral platforms for confidence building.

Also read: Indian warships reach Singapore for maiden ASEAN naval drill

Minister of Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen opened IMDEX Asia at the Changi Exhibition Centre this morning. This years IMDEX resumes in full scale, with a physical exhibition at the Centre and a warship display in RSS Singapura  Changi Naval Base (CNB) following a four-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral R Hari Kumar, speaks at the inauguration of the ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise (AIME-2023), which began at the Changi naval base, Singapore, on May 2. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@IndiannavyMedia

About the visit of the Indian Navy chief, the media release added: Admiral Kumar is in Singapore from May 1 to 4, 2023, for his introductory visit. On May 1, 2023, he received a brief on Singapores history and visited the Kranji War Memorial. On May 2, 2023, he inspected the Guard of Honour at the Ministry of Defence, before calling on Chief of Defence Force Rear-Admiral (RADM) Aaron Beng and Chief of Navy RADM Sean Wat. Thereafter, he visited the Information Fusion Centre (IFC) at RSS Singapura  Changi Naval Base (CNB), where he was briefed on how the IFC contributes towards maritime security by cueing operational responses from regional navies through information sharing.

The Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral R Hari Kumar, inspects the Guard of Honour at the Singapore Ministry of Defence. Photo courtesy: Government of Singapore

The Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral R Hari Kumar, is welcomed at the Information Fusion Centre, RSS Singapura  Changi Naval Base. Photo courtesy: Government of Singapore

Thereafter, he co-officiated the opening ceremony for the inaugural ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise with RADM Wat, before visiting the RSNs Formidable-class Frigate RSS Supreme. Admiral Kumar will also attend the 8th edition of the International Maritime Security Conference (IMSC) on May 4, 2023.

The release informed: Admiral Kumars visit underscores the strong and long-standing bilateral defence relations between Singapore and India. The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and the Indian Navy interact regularly through bilateral exercises, professional exchanges, visits and cross-attendance of courses. These mutually beneficial interactions have deepened the bilateral defence relationship, enhanced mutual understanding and strengthened the co-operation between the two navies.

Admiral Hari Kumar listens to a briefing at the Changi Naval Base. Photo courtesy: Government of Singapore

On the sidelines of IMDEX Asia, Dr Ng also had visits from naval chiefs of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) member nations (Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom)  Chief of the Royal Australian Navy, Vice-Admiral Mark Hammond; Chief of the Royal Malaysian Navy, Admiral Datuk Abdul Rahman Ayob; Chief of the Royal New Zealand Navy, Rear-Admiral David Proctor; Chief of the Republic of Singapore Navy, Rear-Admiral Sean Wat Jianwen; and Second Sea Lord and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff of the Royal Navy, Vice-Admiral Martin Connell. They jointly called on the Singaporean minister of defence.

Reaffirming their commitment, the FPDA naval chiefs exchanged views with Dr Ng on the importance of maintaining strong military-to-military ties and to deepen co-operation.

Also this morning, the German Chief of Navy, Vice-Admiral Jan Christian Kaack called on Dr Ng. They discussed bilateral co-operation, geopolitical developments, and security challenges in the region.

At the IMDEX opening ceremony today, Dr Ng highlighted the importance of strengthening mutual understanding and fostering consensus, against the backdrop of increasing tensions in a globally inter-linked world. He said, IMDEX Asia provides an important platform to maintain and hopefully enhance regional stability and security. That alone provides sufficient cause for government leaders and military commanders to be here.

Dr Ng said, In my mind, the top priority for all government leaders, at least in the next decade, if not longer, is to avoid a physical conflict in Asia.

In attendance at the opening ceremony were 47 delegations, including 22 Navy chiefs, directors general of Coast Guards and heads of maritime law enforcement agencies from 38 countries. Over 250 exhibitors from around the world are participating in this years exhibition, while 22 ships from 13 countries are taking part in this years IMDEX Asia Warships Display.

In conjunction with IMDEX Asia 2023, the Republic of Singapore Navy is co-organising the 8th International Maritime Security Conference with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies and the Maritime Information-Sharing Exercise from May 3 to 5, 2023. These exchanges provide excellent opportunities for navies and maritime agencies to strengthen friendships and forge practical co-operation.
A protester holds up a sign at a rally against Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill in November 2009 at the Uganda High Commission in New York (file photo).

Kampala, Uganda  Ugandan lawmakers have passed a harsh anti-LGBTQ bill after minor changes. If signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni, as expected, some same-sex acts could be punishable by the death penalty. Anyone found guilty of promoting homosexuality could face up to 20 years in prison.

The bill, which passed Tuesday with the support of 301 legislators and only a single dissenting vote, was a modified version of the Anti- Homosexuality Bill of 2023 .

An earlier version of the bill passed in March was sent back to Parliament by President Yoweri Museveni, who suggested three amendments.

This included distinguishing between being a homosexual and actually engaging in same-sex acts. Museveni argued that the law needed to be clear so that what is being criminalized is not how the person identifies but rather their actions and any promotion of homosexuality. The legislation mandates a life sentence for someone convicted of homosexuality.

The president also argued against a clause penalizing property owners whose premises are used by gay or lesbian people, saying it presented constitutional challenges and would be problematic to enforce.

Museveni's third recommendation was that mandating the public to report any same-sex acts should be restricted to cases involving children and vulnerable people. Failure to comply would fetch a jail sentence of five years. To ensure there was a quorum, Speaker Anita Among took a roll call for members and closed the doors of Parliament to ensure no one could leave.

Among asked legislators to remain steadfast in opposing homosexuality.

"Let's protect Ugandans. Let's protect our values, our virtues," she said. "We have a culture to protect. The Western world will not come and rule Uganda. We may disagree, but we disagree respectfully."

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Western medical and psychiatric associations regard sexual orientation as innate and part of normal human diversity. LGBTQ rights defenders say the proportion of sexual minorities remains constant from country to country -- including those with punitive laws.

Frank Mugisha, a gay rights lawyer and founder of a banned LGBTQ rights organization, Sexual Minorities Uganda, said Museveni's amendments make a bad bill worse.

"This bill increases the penalty for reporting from three years to five years," he said. "And, also, this bill, yes, it doesn't criminalize the identity or identifying as an LGBTQ person, but in promotion it's vague. If then someone identifies as LGBTQ person, won't that be seen as promotion?"

Fox Odoi Oywelowo, the sole lawmaker voting against the bill, said, even with modifications, it will lead to abuse of the LGBTQ community.

The bill awaits being signed by Museveni, something he promised to do once Parliament considered his recommendations.
Police have confirmed the death of State Minister for Labour Col(Rtd) Charles Engola Macodwogo who was shot by his bodyguard on Tuesday morning.

In the incident that happened at the minister's home in Kyanja, it is reported that the UPDF bodyguard went on a shooting spree, shouting his grievances.

"The man kept on shouting on the streets while shooting "....I work for a whole minister and yet I'm broke.." comedian Patrick Idringi also known as Salvador tweeted.

The bodyguard targeted the minister as he left home for work. In the resultant melee, he first shot two of his fellow UPDF guards who were severely injured.

The armed UPDF guard would later turn the gun onto the minister as he boarded his official vehicle to work later turned the gun on himself.

"This morning we registered a tragic incident that occurred in Kyanja. We would like to confirm that Col(Rtd) Charles Engola was shot dead while entering his vehicle to go for work. The shooting was done by one of his bodyguards at his residence in Kyanja who fired several shots at close range," Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said on Tuesday morning.

He said after shooting the minister at close range and killing him instantly, the bodyguard then fled the scene to the nearby trading centre along Kyanja ring road where he entered the salon and shot himself dead.

Enanga said the Police deputy Inspector General of Police, Maj Gen Geoffrey Tumusiime Katsigazi and the Criminal Investigations Director, AIGP Tom Magambo have rushed to the scene.

The police spokesperson confirmed the deceased shooter as Private Wilson Sabiti who also injured the minister's aide-de-camp(ADC), Lt Ronald Otim and another unnamed guard to the minister.

"The investigation is currently in early stages of review and to this, we have dispatched crime scene experts using most advanced forensic technology to get what was the cause of this tragic murder"

Whereas eyewitnesses said the soldier was yelling that he had not been paid for a long time, the police spokesperson said it is too early to speculate.

"We don't want to speculate what could be motivation of this murder but we want to confirm the minister died at the scene."

Enanga said police is trying to establish the exact number of other bodyguards injured during the shooting spree.

According to an eyewitness , after killing his boss, the deceased UPDF soldier stormed out of the minister's residence while shooting in the air.

"He ran out of the gate shooting in the air prompting everyone to run for their dear life. The soldier later ran to a nearby salon which was open and it is there that he shot himself dead from. He sat in one of the salon's chairs and pointed the gun to his neck before finishing himself off," a neighbour to the deceased's minister said.

A builder at a nearby building site confirmed that when the shooting spree begun, everyone scampered for their dear lives.

"All the nearby shops were closed and only the salon had one door open. After entering the salon, in a few minutes, we realized blood was flowing from inside," he said.

Another eyewitness said, "The soldier came shouting that he did not have a problem with civilians. His only problem was with government for not paying him his money. He first tried to enter a supermarket but the people locked themselves inside. This is when he went towards the salon..."

The deceased minister last made a public appearance on Monday during the International Labour Day celebrations in Namutumba district.

Biography

Born 64 years ago to Chief (Jago) Nasan Engola and Ketula Engola of Awangi, in Iceme, Oyam district, Charles Engola had a degree in development studies attained from Kampala International University in 2010 and a second degree, a master of Public Administration and Management in 2013 from the same university.

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Engola also served in the UPDF where he among other positions was the commander of the 501-brigade headquarters at Opit in Gulu district which played part in fighting Lord's Resistance Army rebels led by Joseph Kony.

By the time retired in 2007, Engola had reached the rank of colonel in the UPDF.

In politics, Charles Engola was in 2006 elected as the Oyam district LC5 chairman and served in the position for 10 years until 2016 when he tried his shot and won the Oyam North parliamentary seat that he has held until his death.

In June 2016, Engola was appointed by President Museveni as the State Minister for Defence to replace Gen Jeje Odongo, who had been appointed Minister of Internal Affairs.

In 2021, President Museveni transferred Col(Rtd) Engola to the Gender Ministry where he was appointed as the State Minister in charge of Labour, a position he has served in until his death today morning.
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Either way, Charles is an avowed appreciator of classic British comedy, including The Goon Show and Monty Python; the latter even got a shout-out in his recent speech addressing the German parliament. Charles Python fandom is so great that, according to Eric Idle, he once asked the comedian to take a job as his personal court jester.

As Idle recounted in his book Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, he met then-Prince Charles during a dinner party at Billy Connollys house, which also featured famous guests such as Robin Williams  because, as Idle put it, the Royal Heir loves comedians. At one point, Charles turned to Idle and said, Eric, why dont you become my jester? As the rest of the room watched Idle with anticipation, he eventually replied, Why would I want a fucking awful job like that?

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Despite his flippant response, Idle admitted that he was secretly very flattered, noting that Charles responded by laughing rather than, say, demanding his immediate beheading.

You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter (if it still exists by the time youre reading this).
Have you ever had a moment where youre, say, shopping for pants, and you find a barren pocket field where the pockets no longer grow. So you say, I guess Ill just stick my phone up my butt. Someone overhears, and the next thing you know, intra-anal wallets are a billion-dollar business?

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Unless you live in a sitcom, probably not. But some of the most fundamental building blocks of society were birthed from someones exasperated utterance. Such as

4 Schrodingers Cat Physics in the 1930s was a wild west, or at least as wild as a bunch of nerds can get. There was all this quantum shit going around, things that can be nowhere and everywhere until you look at them, and not everyone was on board. One of those skeptics was Erwin Schrodinger, who wrote a paper in 1935 called The Current Situation in Quantum Mechanics, which can be read in the same resigned tone you might write The Current Situation in the Speidi Stan Community. Schrodingers beef was with the concept of superposition, which is basically when a particle is in two places at once and only chooses where to be under duress of measurement. To be fair, that does sound insane (and also like a lot of relationships). In response, he developed the Cat Paradox, which was supposed to illustrate what Schrodinger regarded as a flaw in the theory in the most ridiculous way possible. Obviously, a cat can only be either alive or dead, not both, and it doesnt particularly matter whos looking at it. Any cat owner can tell you they couldnt give less of a shit about the actions of humans. But the joke was on Schrodinger. Quantum mechanics is now a pretty uncontroversial theory, and weve differentiated the behavior of quantum particles and non-quantum, catty objects, but that hasnt stopped physicists from taking Schrodingers supposed paradox as a challenge. Theyve gathered increasingly large groups of atoms in different places at the same time, simulated the experiment with something called qubits and optical tweezers, and even built predictive models to save the cat. Theyve barely stopped short of straight-up gassing a tabby. Advertisement

3 Americas (Possibly the Worlds) First Female Mayor In 1887, when women were only kind of considered people, the ladies of Argonia, Kansas had just won the right to vote in local elections but still really only had the power to be mad about drunk dudes. Prohibition became a key issue for suffragettes, chiefly in the form of the Womens Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which had chapters all over the country. That year, the WCTU recruited a group of boring  er, prohibition-friendly  men to run for mayor and city council in Argonia to advance their cause. The Argonia elite who liked to drink and especially didnt like broads telling them not to drink didnt take kindly to that. In an attempt to take down those uppity dames, they secretly changed the ballots, which werent released until the day of the election, to include the only WCTU officer who lived in Argonia, Susanna M. Salter, as the Prohibition Partys mayoral candidate instead of the man theyd chosen to run. They assumed her hilarious loss would discourage women from getting involved in politics, since obviously no one would vote for a woman. Might as well elect a hamster, or a Try Guy. Advertisement Advertisement They werent exactly wrong, but they did underestimate how much local Republican Party officials disliked election tampering. Upon seeing a name on the ballot ending with an A, they descended upon the Salter home, where they confirmed that Salter had no idea she was running for mayor. They threw their full support behind her, more to get back at other men than because they loved womens rights, and she won in a landslide. She dutifully served one term as Americas (and possibly the worlds) first female mayor, went back home and died at the ripe old age of 101, almost certainly longer than any of those drunks.

2 Pickerings Harem Theres a story thats told in astronomy about Edward Pickering getting so frustrated with the male staff hed hired to perform routine calculations at Harvard that he sneered, My Scotch maid could do better! and then actually hired her. Thats all true (probably  there was little documentation of outbursts in 1881), but its not the whole story. Advertisement Pickering was well aware that Williamina Fleming, the immigrant single mother hed recently hired as a maid, was brilliant. His wife, the daughter of a former Harvard president, had even previously told him he should hire her to do more than dust. He eventually reached a point where doing so seemed advantageous on a number of levels. For one thing, women could be paid a lot less than men, but as an added benefit, her success would humiliate all those guys he just fired. Advertisement It turned out Fleming and the other women on the team she oversaw, grossly referred to as Pickerings Harem, really were much better than the men theyd replaced. They were only supposed to do tedious clerical and computation work based on photos of the night sky, but they were very bright, so they drew their own conclusions and made several important discoveries." By the time of her death in 1911, Fleming was recognized as one of the most accomplished intellectuals in her field, and she even has a crater on the moon named after her. Advertisement Of course, she had to share it with a dude, which is fitting enough, as her classification of stars was known as the Pickering-Fleming System.
Stop me if youve heard this one before  Adam McKay is making a comedy about how the elites abuse their power at the expense of the rest of the world.

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The Dont Look Up and Big Short writer and directors newest project, Average Height, Average Build, is part-serial killer thriller, part-satire that is currently searching for a studio. The star-studded cast includes the likes of Amy Adams, Robert Downey Jr., Forest Whitaker and Robert Pattinson, the lattermost of which sticks out as an interesting addition as the films plot summary sounds sort of like the opposite of The Batman. The Hollywood Reporter describes Average Height, Average Build as the story of a well-connected serial killer who pays political lobbyists to pass laws that make it easier for him to murder.

As Average Height, Average Build searches for a buyer, I have one question that Id like to ask its lauded writer/director McKay: Is this comedy actually going to make us, like, laugh?
If the classic 1990s Ace Ventura movies are to be believed, a pet detective spends much of their time cosplaying as delivery people, speaking from their assholes, crawling out of the anuses of mechanical rhinos and, on occasion, rescuing animals.

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But given the utter ridiculousness of Jim Carreys two Ace Ventura films, its probably safe to assume that theyre not the best representation of actual pet detectives. So what is it that they do exactly  beyond the obvious (i.e., locating lost pets and returning them safely to their very worried moms and dads)? I sniffed out a few real-life Ace Venturas to find out

What does a pet detective actually do?

Kelly Brach, Pet Detective in Long Island since 2018: There are so many different variations of what people do to assist with finding lost pets. There are Facebook forums, and there are people that go out and look around and help owners hang fliers. I have trained canines who are imprinted on pet odor instead of drugs or bombs or humans. I give the dog a scent article for the pet Im working on  like a bed or a toy or something  and I say a special word to have them smell it and look for the pet.
More details have emerged explaining circumstances under which the bodyguard shot dead State Minister for Labour Sam Engola.

In an incident at around 8am on Tuesday, Pte Wilson Sabiti shot dead the minister as he prepared to leave his home in Kyanja for work in the city centre.

The bodyguard would later turn the gun onto himself.

According to sources privy to the ongoing investigations into the matter, as his principle prepared to leave the home, Pte Sabiti started his mission.

"He first shot and disabled the minister's Aide de camp(ADC) who was at that time cleaning his pistol," a source told the Nile Post.

It is also reported that the killer bodyguard attached to the guard brigade of the 59th battalion in the fourth division in Gulu later turned to the minister's driver whom he asked to leave immediately.

"He told him he had no issue with him but asked him to leave immediately."

The Minister for Gender, Betty Amongi earlier today said the killer UPDF bodyguard had only been deployed to guard the minister a month ago.

"This particular bodyguard has not stayed with the minister for long. He has been his bodyguard only for about one month The (Pte) Sabiti who shot him was with him yesterday at Namutumba and guarding him in his principal car. He was brought a month ago from Bombo to join the other bodyguards in the ministry who have been supporting him(minister),"Amongi said.

Earlier, police spokesperson, Fred Enanga told journalists that Col(Rtd) Charles Engola was shot dead while entering his vehicle to go for work.

"The shooting was done by one of his bodyguards at his residence in Kyanja who fired several shots at close range," Enanga said.

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The Information Minister, Dr.Chris Baryomunsi also told journalists that police investigations will help in determining the cause of the incident in which the bodyguard opened fire on the labour minister.

"The ADC(who was also shot)Lt Ronald Otim was rushed to Mulago and is able to talk . He sustained injuries in one of the thighs and arms and we hope he will get out of danger. That is what we have now and investigating officers are in high gear to find out what exactly happened," Dr.Baryomunsi said.

Baryomunsi explained that by the time the incident happened, the minister was seated in the vehicle together with the driver as the bodyguard removed the flag.

"He came, the bodyguard opened for him the vehicle and sat behind. The bodyguard was now opening the flag as the ADC was saluting the minister ready to take off. Then the bodyguard later corked the gun and opened the fire at the ADC first. In the process the minister tried to get out of the vehicle and he was also shot instantly. The driver then run out of the vehicle to a nearby town Pte Sabiti then rushed out of the gate,"he said quoting onlookers at the scene.

However, minister Baryomunsi's version contradicts with one of the investor's narration of the events leading to the incident.
As artificial intelligence and machine learning models become more firmly woven into the enterprise IT fabric and the cyberattack infrastructure, security teams will need to level up their skills to meet a whole new generation of AI-based cyber risks.

Forward-looking CISOs are already being called upon to think about newly emerging risks like generative AI-enabled phishing attacks that will be more targeted than ever or adversarial AI attacks that poison learning models to skew their output. And those are just a couple examples among a host of other new risks that will crop up in what's looking to be the AI-dominated era of the future.

Time to prepare for AI-powered attacks

There is still time to prepare for many of these risks. Just the faintest amount of demonstrable data shows that attackers are beginning to use large language model (LLM) powered tools like ChatGPT to boost their attacks. And most adversarial AI examples are still largely theoretical. However, these risks will only stay theoretical for so long and is time to start building a bench of AI-related risk expertise.

The increasing reliance of AI and machine learning models in all technological walks of life is expected to rapidly change the complexion of the threat landscape. Meanwhile, organically training security staff, bringing in AI experts who can be trained to aid in security activities, and evangelizing the hardening of AI systems will all take considerable runway.

Experts share what security leaders will need to shape their skill base and prepare to face both sides of growing AI risk: risk to AI systems and risks from AI-based attacks.

There is some degree of crossover in each domain. For example, machine learning and data science skills are going to be increasingly relevant on both sides. In both cases existing security skills in penetration testing, threat modeling, threat hunting, security engineering, and security awareness training will be as important as ever, just in the context of new threats. However, the techniques needed to defend against AI and to protect AI from attack also have their own unique nuances, which will in turn influence the make-up of the teams called to execute on those strategies.

The current AI-enabled threat scenario

A Darktrace study found a 135% increase in novel social engineering attacks from January to February 2023, showing some evidence that attackers may already be using generative AI to increase the volume and sophistication of their social engineering attacks.

"While it's very early to say in terms of dataand understanding that correlation doesn't mean causation, we've got some data points pointing in that direction," Max Heinemeyer, chief product officer for Darktrace, tells CSO. "And qualitatively speaking, it would be silly to assume they're not using generative AI because it's got massive return on investment benefits, it can scale up their attacks, speed up their attacks and run more attacks parallel. The genie is out of the bottle."

Experts expect an increase in attackers using generative AI to create novel text-based spear phishing emails at speed and scaleand potentially branching out to audio-based generative AI to impersonate others via phone. Similarly, they could potentially be using neural networks to sift through social media profiles and speed up their research of high-value phishing. Suffice it to say that the real risk comes down to a worry that CISOs should be pretty familiar with already: more effective automation on the attacker side, Heinemeyer says.

"If you call it AI or machine learning or whatever, it all means they have better tools at hand to automate more of the attacks they're doing. And that means attackers can run more bespoke attacks that are harder to detect and harder to stop."

Skills to defend against AI-enabled attacks

So what does that mean from a skills perspective in the security operations center (SOC) and beyond? The automation of attacks is hardly a new thing, but AI is likely to accelerate and exacerbate the problem. In some ways this will just be an exercise of getting more serious about pulling in and developing more rockstar analysts and threat hunters who are skilled at finding and utilizing tooling that helps them sift through detections to quickly discover and mitigate emerging attacks.

This will likely start to be another classic spy vs. spy cybersecurity situation. As the bad guys ramp up their use of AI- and ML-based tooling, security teams will need their own suite of AI automations to look for patterns associated with those kinds of attacks. This means at a minimum, the entire security team needs at least a 'light knowledge' of AI/ML and data science to ask the right questions of vendors to understand how their systems work under the hood, says Heinemeyer.

For larger and more mature organizations, security leaders may be advised to start developing more robust in-house data science and ML expertise. There are plenty of global SOCs that have already begun to invest in recruiting data scientists to do custom machine learning, many who started long before ChatGPT hit the scene, according to Forcepoint CTO Petko Stoyanov. He believes this trend may accelerate as SOCs try to put threat hunters on the ground who will be able to navigate a threat landscape supercharged by malicious AI tooling. But security leaders are likely going to be running into talent shortages on that front. "Honestly, try finding someone that does cyber and data scienceif you want to talk about needle in a haystack, that's it," Stoyanov tells CSO.

This will require some creative staffing and team building to overcome. Based on his experience in the field, he suggests groups of three experts to hunt quickly. The team should consist of a threat hunter with lots of security experience, a data scientist with analysis and machine learning experience, and a developer to help productize and scale their discoveries.

"What usually happens is you need a developer between those first two folks. You have the big brains that can do the math, the person who can go find the bad guys, and then someone who can implement their work going forward in the security infrastructure," Stoyanov explains.

Taking a single threat hunter and giving them data science and development resources at the same time could significantly boost their productivity in finding adversaries lurking in the network. It also avoids disappointment from seeking those unicorns who have all three of those specialized skill sets.

In addition to generating social engineering attacks, another risk down the line that could come from generative AI in the hands of threat actors is the automated creation of malicious code to exploit a wider range of known vulnerabilities.

"People are suggesting that since it's making it easier to write code, it will make it easier to create exploits," Andy Patel, researcher for WithSecure, tells CSO. Patels team recently produced a thorough report for the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency that details some of the potential for AI-enabled cyber attacks. One example is a new ChatGPT-enabled tooling that makes it easier to enumerate security issues across a body of open source repositories as a potential risk for cybersecurity. "These models will make it also easier for people to start doing that. And that might open a lot more vulnerabilities, or it might mean that a lot more vulnerabilities get fixed," he muses. "We don't know which way that's going to go."

So, on the vulnerability management side it could also become a potential AI arms race, as security teams scramble to utilize AI to fix flaws faster than AI-enabled attackers can craft the exploits. "Organizations could have people start looking at these tools themselves to plug their own vulnerabilities, especially if they write their own software," says Patel. In the vendor world he expects to potentially see a "slew of startups using LLMs to do vulnerability discovery."

In addition to new tools, this dynamic could also potentially open room for new security roles says Bart Schouw, chief evangelist for Software AG. "Businesses may need to strengthen their teams with new roles like prompt engineers," he says. Prompt engineering is a burgeoning new activity of crafting prompts from LLMs to get quality generated output from them. This could be hugely beneficial in areas like vulnerability enumeration and classification across an enterprise.

Skills to protect enterprise AI

While all these threats from AI-enabled attackers start to proliferate there looms another significant risk within the enterprise. Namely, the potential exposure of vulnerable AI systems (and training data associated with them) to attacks and other failures of confidentiality, integrity, or availability.

"What is clear, is that, whereas the last 5-10 years have been characterized by the need for security practitioners to internalize the idea that they need to incorporate more AI into their processes, the next 5-10 years are likely to be characterized by the need for AI/ML practitioners to internalize the idea that security concerns need to be treated as first class concerns in their processes," says Sohrob Kazerounian, distinguished AI researcher for Vectra.

Already there's movement among security thought leaders to build out AI red teaming and AI threat modeling into the development and deployment of future AI systems. Organizations seeking to build that capability out will need to bolster their red teams with an infusion of AI and data science talent.

"The red team is going to have to get some expertise in how you break AI and ML systems," explains Diana Kelley, CSO and co-founder of Cybrize. "Leaders will be called to pull in data science people that are interested in the security side and vice versa. It'll be a matter of recruiting data science folks into security the same way that some of our best application red teaming folks started as application developers."

This will also be an exercise of security-by-design, in which the people who are responsible for building out and deploying the AI and ML models in the enterprise should be trained by and collaborating with security teams to understand the risks and to test for them along the way. This will be the key to hardening these systems for the future.

"You need to retain the ML/AI experts that designed and built the system. You need to couple them up with your technical hackers and then with your security operations team," says Steve Benton, vice president and general manager of threat intelligence at Anomali, explaining that together they should be creating potential risky scenarios, testing them out, and reengineering accordingly. "The answer here is purple teaming, not just red teaming. Remembering that some of this testing could involve poison you need a reference model set-up to do this with the ability to restore and retest scenario by scenario."
Ransomware group BlackCat has released a set of screenshots on its leak site that it claims are from data stolen from Western Digital in an April system breach. The images include screenshots of videoconferences and internal emails of the storage device manufacturer, according to a tweet by cybersecurity researcher Dominic Alvieri.

The screenshots also included an image of a recent meeting held by Western Digital where the company was discussing how to respond to the cyberattack. The ransomware group, along with the image, wrote, with the finest threat hunters Western Digital has to offer. The images of the participants were blurred.

Western Digital suffered a network breach

Western Digital disclosed it had suffered a network breach on April 3. The incident was first identified by the company on March 26 and the company revealed that an unauthorized third party gained access to several of the companys systems.

Based on the investigation to date, the Company believes the unauthorized party obtained certain data from its systems and is working to understand the nature and scope of that data, Western Digital said.

The company also said that it was taking down certain systems and services offline as a proactive security measure. Following the incident, several users reported that they were not able to access Western Digitals network-attached storage service My Cloud.

We are currently experiencing a service interruption that is preventing customers from accessing the My Cloud, My Cloud Home, My Cloud Home Duo, My Cloud OS 5, SanDisk ibi, SanDisk Ixpand Wireless Charger service, the company said on April 3. The services were restored on April 12, according to the company's status page.

BlackCat threatens to release more data

Along with the screenshots that BlackCat currently posted, the group also posted a note that states it would release more data and eventually put Western Digitals intellectual property on sale.

Beginning next week on an unspecified day, we will share leaks every week until we lose interest. Once that happens, we will put their intellectual property up for sale, including code signing certificates, firmware, personally identifiable information of customers, and more, BlackCat said, adding that the group had obtained a full backup of Western Digitals SAP Back Office, which dates back to the last week of March.

The group also claimed it was doing so because Western Digital did not get in contact with them. There has been no further update on the issue from Western Digital nor confirmation of any ransom demanded.

BlackCat becomes more active

BlackCat, also known as ALPHV, was the second most active ransomware group in 2022, according to cybersecurity conpany Malwarebytes. It was the first ransomware to be coded in the Rust programing language. In February, the ransomware group listed over 6GB of data allegedly stolen from the Munster Technological University in Ireland on its website.

The Lehigh Valley Health Network disclosed on February 20 that it had been attacked by the BlackCat ransomware gang and stated that it would not pay a ransom. Following this, the gang posted pictures of nude cancer patients on its site. The pictures were clinical images used as part of radiotherapy.
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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)  Republican state lawmakers and other New Jersey opponents of offshore wind turbines called Wednesday for a 30- to 60-day moratorium on construction work at such sites to see if it would lead to a decrease in whale deaths.

Four state senators hosted a online hearing about offshore wind energy generation and whale deaths, three weeks after the most recent East Coast whale death was reported and despite the assurances of most scientists and conservationists that there is no correlation.

The two-hour hearing came a week after Democrats, who control the Legislature and the governorship, held a similar hearing and many of New Jersey's major environmental groups said the greatest danger to whales is climate change, not offshore wind generation.

I've been labeled a climate change denier and a tin-foil hat wearer, said Jim Hutchinson, managing editor of The Fisherman, a widely read New Jersey publication. We're defamed, denied, discarded and disparaged at every step along the way.

One thing our side of the aisle gets accused of is not following the science, said Republican state Sen. Michael Testa. So what is the harm of waiting 30 or 60 days?

Since Dec. 1, 32 dead whales have washed ashore between Massachusetts and Florida, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The most recent death came on April 9, when a fin whale washed up on a sandbar in Virginia, according to NOAA spokeswoman Allison Ferreira.

New Jersey has aggressively approved and cleared the way for a nascent offshore wind energy industry, with three offshore wind projects already approved and more being sought.

What began in January as a request by the environmental group Clean Ocean Action for the Biden Administration to temporarily halt offshore wind site preparation work while the deaths are investigated rapidly grew into a politically polarized divide.

Weve gone too far, too fast, Cindy Zipf, the groups executive director, said of efforts to approve offshore wind in New Jersey. Over 2.2 million acres is being allocated to offshore wind and 10,000 miles of cables. We became alarmed that it was plausible that activity going on offshore had to do with the whale die-offs. We felt there was a reason for investigation.

Most of the state's major environmental groups support the expansion of offshore wind energy generation and have declined to join Clean Ocean Action in its call for a moratorium.

Numerous federal agencies, including the NOAA, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Marine Mammal Commission and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, have said there is no evidence linking offshore wind prep with whale deaths.

Many panelists and witnesses at Wednesday's online hearing accused the administrations of President Joe Biden and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, both Democrats, of turning a blind eye to concerns about offshore wind in a rush to establish the industry.

You can't find evidence if you don't look for it, said Trisha DeVoe, a conservation biologist who works with the Miss Belmar Whale Watching business.

We're being told, Just accept what we tell you, added state Sen. Anthony Bucco.

Meghan Lapp of the Rhode Island-based seafood company Seafreeze, said the turbines will interfere with the radar fishing vessels commonly use, preventing them from operating among the structures, and other panelists said insurers will not cover vessels if they do so.

Offshore wind is the single greatest existential threat to commercial fishing in the United States right now, Lapp said.

As Republicans were holding their forum, a group led by former Democratic state Senate President Steve Sweeney held an event touting the economic and employment potential of offshore wind.

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., who represents part of the Jersey Shore and who led last week's Democratic-led forum, said pausing offshore wind projects wouldn't prevent whale deaths.

We know that the climate crisis is the biggest threat to marine mammals and their habitats, he said in a statement Wednesday. The food source whales depend on is moving closer to the busy shipping lanes near the Port of New York and New Jersey as ocean temperatures rise, leaving them vulnerable to vessel strikes and entanglements.

___

Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC
A former commander of the state police SWAT team has won a $260,000 civil rights settlement in federal court over allegations that he was demoted for refusing to join a powerful law enforcement union.

Sgt. Joseph Mercer claimed in a 2016 federal lawsuit that state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection violated his rights the previous year when he was demoted from the SWAT unit and assigned an administrative position with little overtime opportunity.

Mercer claimed the reassignment came because several years earlier he had resigned from the Connecticut State Police Union, citing his First Amendment right to abstain from union membership and its political activities. After he was named SWAT commander in 2015, then-state police union President Andrew Matthews filed a grievance claiming the appropriate selection process had not been used to fill the position.

The lawsuit also alleged that complaints by Matthews and others that Mercer mismanaged a deadly shooting at an Old Saybrook hotel factored into a "conspiracy" that resulted in his demotion.

The state and the union denied Mercers allegations and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation provided Mercer with legal services. The case was recently dismissed with prejudice by the federal court and the DESPP and the state police union were ordered to pay him $260,500, according to a statement released by the right to work foundation.

We at the foundation are proud to have defended Sergeant Mercers rights and secured him a settlement that vindicates his free association, commented Foundation President Mark Mix.

Its disgraceful that CSPU union officials targeted Mercer, a dedicated public safety officer, with such a vicious retribution scheme in the first place, Mix said. Public servants should not have to endure multi-year lawsuits just so they can refrain from supporting union politics they oppose.

The state police union took issue with the legal defense foundations portrayal of the settlement, saying the union did not retaliate against him nor had any role in changing his position within the state police emergency services unit [ESU].

NRTW falsely reports that Mercers union status was a predicate for his removal from the ESU position and that the CSPU retaliated against him, the union said in a statement.

It also inaccurately reported that CSPUs then President, Andrew Matthews, filed grievances with the Agency due to Mercers non-union member status, the union noted. Again, this is blatantly false. No grievance was filed having anything to do with Mercers union membership status. All grievances filed related to ESU were based on the selection process that the agency used in placing Troopers in the role of ESU Operations Sergeant, which is required per the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The CSPU added that it offered five hundred dollars  a nuisance value - and Mr. Mercer accepted this nominal amount. The settlement has nothing to do with NRTWs proclamation that the settlement vindicates his free association.

Richard Funaro, a spokesman for Attorney General William Tong, said the state will not appeal the settlement. The Office of the Attorney General is pleased that the parties involved were able to resolve this matter, Funaro said.

The state police referred the matter to Tong's office.

Mercer in 2017 retired from the state police and records show that in 2022 he collected a $89,089 pension.

Long legal battle

The federal lawsuit filed by Mercer in 2016 claimed that Matthews and then DESPP Commissioner Dora Schriro worked together to replace him as operations sergeant of the Emergency Services Unit, which includes SWAT, with a union member. Mercer quit the union in November 2014 and was appointed commander of the SWAT team in May 2015, a move the lawsuit said prompted the grievance from Matthews and the union.

Connecticut State Trooper Joseph Mercer has won a settlement in his federal civil rights lawsuit against the Connecticut State Police Union and Department of Emergency Services officials, in which he charged them with illegally demoting him for opposing union membership and politics, said Len Comello, a spokesman for the right to work foundation, in a statement.

The state police union disagreed with the foundations assessment.

The NRTWs reporting of events is misleading and distorted. To begin, the CSPU has no authority and plays no role in the determination of what position a Trooper is assigned, the union said. NRTW claims that Mr. Mercer was demoted which is factually untrue  he was simply reassigned within the Emergency Services Unit (ESU), which the employer had the right to do as with any appointed position.

In addition, the lawsuit alleged that Mercers removal from the post was related to an October 2015 shooting at an Old Saybrook hotel. The state police SWAT team was called to assist local police with a man who had fired shots and was barricaded in a hotel room.

During the encounter, a SWAT team member shot and killed Richard Love, the man barricaded himself in the room. Love had pointed a gun at the trooper who then shot him; Mercer and another commander was in charge of the scene. The lawsuit claimed that questions about Mercers oversight of the incident formed the basis of another grievance filed by Matthews and the union.

State police officials had never expressed dissatisfaction with how Mercer handled the situation, the right to work foundation noted.

The state and union in 2018 tried to have the case dismissed but the federal court allowed it to proceed. In 2022, the court ordered the state to turn over additional information.

Mix said the groundwork for the lawsuit and settlement was laid by a federal court ruling that determined the first amendment established that employees cannot be fired or punished if they decline union membership.

As was obvious in Mercers case, unelected public sector union bosses often wield their enormous clout over government to serve the unions private interests over the public interest, Mix said. Thats why its vital that public employees can exercise their First Amendment right to cut off all financial support of union bosses who are contorting government in this way.
Harare City Health Director Prosper Chonzi has confirmed a Cholera outbreak in the capital, with 21 suspected cases recorded.

Chonzi put residents on high alert saying the outbreak had the potential to spread rapidly.

Cholera outbreaks have been noted regionally and Zimbabwe has so far recorded 588 cases.

"This serves to confirm that we have an outbreak of Cholera in the city of Harare.

"We now have 21 suspected cases and seven confirmed cases and these are mainly coming from the western suburbs, Budiriro has four of the confirmed, Glenview 3 has two of the confirmed and one is from Mt Pleasant Heights.

"What this means is we should take this outbreak seriously because it has the potential to spread like veld fire so we need to be on high alert and everywhere even where there are no cases currently," he said.

Chonzi added: "Cholera is a preventable disease so it is important to practice hygiene and sanitation".

Meanwhile, vaccination is ongoing in areas with confirmed cases.

Addressing the media during a Tuesday's post cabinet briefing, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said as at 29 April 2023, the cumulative suspected cholera cases were 588, with 550 recoveries and 4 deaths.

Matabeleland South and Manicaland Provinces continue to contribute the highest number of suspected cases to date,with195 cases (33.2%) and 161 cases (27.4%),respectively.

Regionally, eight out of 16 SADC countries have reported cholera outbreaks, with most suspected cholera cases reported from Malawi (58 171) and Mozambique (26 841).

"In light of the continued increase in cholera cases, a multi-sectoral approach in responding to the cholera outbreak is being enhanced with focus on addressing water and sanitation needs in affected areas," she said.

There are fears of recurrence of an epidemic similar to that of 2008-2009 which claimed about 4 000 lives.
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LAKE WALES, Fla. (AP)  After an hourslong standoff at a motel, police in central Florida fatally shot a man suspected of killing a mother and her three children, authorities said Wednesday.

Al Joseph Stenson, 38, quickly became a suspect Tuesday night after police were called to an apartment complex in Lake Wales where they found the bodies of the 40-year-old woman and children, ages 21, 17, and 11. Their names haven't been released.

Investigators say Stenson and the victims knew each other, but did not describe their relationship or release a motive in the familys killing.

After investigators tracked Stenson to the Slumberland Motel, he said he would kill himself or force law enforcement to kill him, Lakes Wales police said in a news release.

Stenson's brother was also staying at the same motel in Sanford, which is about a two-hour drive from Lake Wales, and police there said they learned the suspect was in the room next door.

Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said during a news conference at the motel that investigators convinced Stensons brother to come out of the room.

Eventually, Stenson also came outside, Lemma said. Authorities convinced him to put down his handgun and step away from it.

The SWAT team then shot him with a 40 mm foam projectile but it had little effect and Stenson immediately went for the gun on the ground, the sheriff said.

Four officers shot him and he died at the scene, Lemma said.

Investigators believe the victims were shot around 5 a.m. Tuesday. Police were called just before 9 p.m. when someone found their bodies in the apartment.

Stenson was wanted on four counts of first-degree murder, Lake Wales Police Chief Chris Velasquez said.

Our hearts are broken for the family, Velasquez said.

The Florida slayings represent the 21st mass killing of the year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in a partnership with Northeastern University. That is the most during the first four months of the year since data was first recorded in 2006.

The number killed is a fraction of the total number of people who died by homicide for the year. The database counts killings involving four or more fatalities, not including the perpetrator, the same standard as the FBI, and tracks a number of variables for each.

A mass shooting in Texas last week also sparked a manhunt, which ended Tuesday when authorities arrested a man suspected of fatally shooting five neighbors. The dead included a 9-year-old boy.

Authorities say Francisco Oropeza, 38, had been firing rounds on his property and the neighbors asked him to go farther away because the noise was keeping a baby awake.
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CLEVELAND, Texas (AP)  A man suspected of killing five of his neighbors in Texas after they asked him to stop shooting his gun near their house hid out just miles away from the slayings while he and his domestic partner plotted his escape to Mexico, authorities said Wednesday.

Francisco Oropeza showered and slept at the house outside the city of Conroe on Tuesday while Divimara Lamar Nava got him donuts from a nearby store, a prosecutor said. Lamar Nava also acknowledged delivering a message from Oropeza to his cousins in the area asking them to help him get out of the country, the prosecutor said at Lamar Navas probable cause hearing. The cousins refused to help.

Authorities believe Lamar Nava was talking to investigators at the same time she was trying to help Oropeza, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said at a news conference. She initially told authorities she didn't know where Oropeza was, but later told a federal agent that he showed up at the house about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to the prosecutor at the probable cause hearing.

Oropeza, 38, was arrested there on Tuesday evening, just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the city of Cleveland, where the shootings took place. Acting on a tip, authorities found him hiding under a pile of laundry in a closet after a four-day manhunt. Lamar Nava, 53, was arrested at the house on Wednesday.

Authorities identified Lamar Nava as Oropeza's wife, though jail records list her as not being married but sharing a home address with him.

The slayings Friday sent shudders through a nation already dealing with a wave of shootings that have put the U.S. on a torrid pace for mass killings this year.

Outside the Conroe-area home, yellow police tape could be seen Wednesday in both the front and back, although the officers were gone. Neighbor Angel Lozano recalled looking up from unloading tools from his truck Tuesday night to see unmarked law enforcement vehicles streaming onto his normally quiet street.

"A bunch of people got out with guns and they went straight to the house and surrounded the area, Lozano, 39, said Wednesday, estimating that at least 50 officers surrounded the home two doors down from his. It was a really fast job they did. They got him without people getting hurt or another shooting.

Several others have also been arrested, authorities said, although they only shared details about one of them. Domingo Castilla, a friend of Oropeza, was arrested on Tuesday in the Trails End neighborhood where the victims were shot, Dillon said. Castilla was charged with marijuana possession but authorities also expect to charge him with obstructing Oropezas apprehension, Dillon said.

At a news conference Wednesday, San Jacinto County Chief Deputy Sheriff Tim Kean said he couldnt go into details about the other people who were arrested, including how many.

Oropeza was charged Wednesday with five counts of first-degree murder during a court hearing in jail, said San Jacinto County Justice of the Peace Judge Randy Ellisor. Bond is set at $1.5 million per count, for a total of $7.5 million, Ellisor said. Lamar Nava is being held at the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon. Her bail has been set at $250,000. Bond for Castilla was set at $5,000, Ellisor said.

Oropeza is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to U.S. immigration officials.

Police had previously spotted him on Monday afternoon in Montgomery County, prompting several schools to lock down, Kean said at a news conference outside the county jail Wednesday.

We did confirm that was him on foot, running, but we lost track of him," Kean said.

Kean declined to comment on the tip that led authorities to the Conroe home, which he said was one that had not been previously checked by authorities.

The arrest came after authorities set up a widening dragnet of more than 250 people, drones and search dogs from multiple jurisdictions and offered $80,000 in reward money. The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. A little more than an hour later, Oropeza was in custody, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul.

Lozano said he hadn't known the residents of the home where Oropeza was arrested but would sometimes say hi to them if they were walking by his house. "We never thought he was going to be right next door, he said.

The victims have been identified as Diana Velasquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9, all from Honduras. Velasquez Alvarado's father, Osman Velasquez, said she had recently obtained legal residency in the U.S.

Argentina Guzman's husband, Wilson Garcia, survived the shooting. He said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield the children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

When offering a reward for Oropezas capture, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the victims illegal immigrants, which drew widespread backlash. His office apologized on Monday.

A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velasquez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and her husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras migrant protection service.

Osman Velasquez said his daughter had traveled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister who was already living there.

Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and thats true, he said. "But I never imagined it was just for this.

___

This story has been edited to correct Kean's title and to note that Wilson Garcia was Sonia Argentina Guzman's husband, not Diana Velasquez Alvarado's.

___

Merchant reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Jake Bleiberg in Dallas; Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas; Mike Wyke in Coldspring, Texas; Marlon Gonzalez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate approved a measure Wednesday that would reinstate tariffs on solar panel imports from several Southeast Asian countries after President Joe Biden paused them in a bid to boost solar installations in the U.S.

Lawmakers also approved a separate plan to undo federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken, a rare grouse thats found in parts of the Midwest and Southwest, including one of the countrys most prolific oil and gas fields.

The two measures are part of efforts by newly empowered Republicans to rebuke the Democratic president and block some of his administration's initiatives, particularly on the environment. Republicans control the House and have strong sway in the closely divided Senate, where California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein remains out for health reasons and conservatives such as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., often side with the GOP.

Congress voted earlier this year to block a clean water rule imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and a separate Labor Department measure that allows retirement plan managers to consider the effects of climate change in their investment plans. Biden vetoed both legislative measures.

The solar tariffs measure was approved, 56-41, and now goes to the White House, where Biden has vowed to veto it. Nine Democrats, including Manchin, supported the measure, while Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was the only Republican who opposed it.

The measure to undo the bird protections was approved 50-48 and now goes to the Republican-controlled House, where there is strong support for the plan. Manchin was the only Democrat to back the repeal of protections for the threatened bird.

The Senate action follows a House vote last week to reinstate fees on solar panels imported from Asia. Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns about what many call unfair competition from China.

Some U.S. manufacturers contend that China has essentially moved operations to four Southeast Asian countries  Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia  to skirt strict anti-dumping rules that limit imports from China.

Biden paused the tariffs last year amid complaints from the solar industry that the threat of up to $1 billion in retroactive tariffs and higher fees had led to delays or cancellations of hundreds of solar projects across the United States. Solar installations are a key part of Biden's agenda to fight climate change and achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035.

The White House said Bidens action was necessary to satisfy the demand for reliable and clean energy while providing certainty for jobs and investments in the solar supply chain and the solar installation market.

A Commerce Department inquiry last year found likely trade violations involving Chinese products and recommended steep penalties. Biden halted tariffs for two years before the Commerce investigation was completed. The White House has said Biden will not extend the tariff suspension when it expires in June 2024.

The U.S. industry argues that solar panel imports are crucial as solar installations ramp up to meet increased demand for renewable energy. Less than 30% of solar panels and cells installed in the U.S. are produced here, although that number is increasing as U.S. manufacturers take advantage of tax credits included in the landmark climate law adopted last year.

But Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said tariffs were needed to hold China accountable while protecting U.S. jobs and workers.

Its disgusting that Bidens actions would shield Chinese solar companies  many of which are using child and slave labor  and allow them to circumvent U.S. trade laws,'' Scott said in a statement. We need to be taking every step possible to hold Communist China and these companies accountable for breaking U.S. law.''

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., sponsored a separate measure repealing federal protections for a rare prairie bird thats found in parts of the Midwest and Southwest, including one of the countrys most prolific oil and gas fields.

The lesser prairie chickens range covers a portion of the oil-rich Permian Basin along the New Mexico-Texas state line and extends into parts of Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas. The habitat of the bird, a type of grouse, has diminished across about 90% of its historical range, officials said.

The crow-size, terrestrial birds are known for spring courtship rituals that include flamboyant dances by the males as they make a cacophony of clucking, cackling and booming sounds. They were once thought to number in the millions, but now hover around 30,000, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Environmentalists have long sought stronger federal protections for the bird, which they consider severely at risk due to oil and gas development, livestock grazing and farming, along with roads and power lines.

Marshall and other Republicans say greater protections arent needed and that the government instead should rely on voluntary conservation efforts already in place.

Farmers, ranchers, and others in Kansas and the region have been instrumental in the recovery of the species to this point, while the climate activists demanding (federal protections under the Endangered Species Act) have no understanding of the threat it poses to Kansass economy, especially the energy and ag industries,'' Marshall said in a statement.

Lew Carpenter, director of conservation partnerships with the National Wildlife Federation, said voluntary efforts are not enough.

We hope partisan politics will not put a halt to federal efforts to recover one of our regions iconic birds. And recovery means recovery of the habitat, too,'' said Carpenter, who also serves as vice president of the North American Grouse Partnership, a Colorado-based conservation group.

The League of Conservation Voters said the Senate vote sets a disastrous precedent" that could put the prairie bird and other endangered species at risk of disappearing forever.''

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said reinstating solar tariffs would jeopardize 30,000 jobs nationwide, including thousands in Nevada, which has the nation's most solar jobs per capita.

Enacting retroactive tariffs on imported solar panels and cells will absolutely kill the American solar industry, and it will kill any chance we have to meet our climate goals, and it will kill the current American solar jobs, Rosen said.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  A Texas judge on Wednesday denied a request for a new trial for an Army sergeant convicted of killing an armed protester during a Black Lives Matter march and set a May 9 sentencing in a case where Republican Gov. Greg Abbot has said he will seek a pardon.

Sgt. Daniel Perry faces up to life in prison for the 2020 fatal shooting of 28-year-old Garrett Foster, who was legally carrying an AK-47 rifle through downtown Austin during a summer of nationwide unrest over police killings and racial injustice.

Perry sought a retrial in part over claims of improper jury behavior during trial and deliberations. State District Judge Clifford Brown, who presided over the original trial, denied the request after a brief hearing.

A jury unanimously voted to convict Perry on April 7. The verdict prompted outrage from prominent conservatives including former Fox News star Tucker Carlson, who called the shooting an act of self-defense and criticized Abbott on the air after he didnt come on his show.

Abbott, a former judge who has not ruled out a 2024 presidential run, tweeted the next day that Texas has one of the strongest Stand Your Ground laws and that he looked forward to signing a pardon once a recommendation hits his desk.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has already begun what legal experts say is a highly unusual and immediate review of the case on the orders of Abbott, who appoints the panel.

The governor has not said publicly how he came to his conclusion. It is not clear when the parole board will reach a decision on Perrys case.

Perry attorney Clinton Broden declined to comment on the judge's rejection of a retrial and the potential pardon.

Perry served in the military for more than a decade and was stationed at Fort Hood, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Austin. He was working as a ride-share driver the night of the shooting and had just dropped off a customer when he turned onto a street full of protesters.

Perry claimed he acted in self-defense while attempting to get past the crowd blocking the street and said Foster pointed a rifle at him. Witnesses testified that they did not see Foster raise his weapon, and prosecutors argued that Perry could have driven away without shooting.

After the trial, the court unsealed dozens of pages of text messages and social media posts that showed Perry having hostile views toward Black Lives Matter protests. In a comment on Facebook a month before the shooting, Perry allegedly wrote, It is official I am a racist because I do not agree with people acting like animals at the zoo.
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ROME (AP)  A Canadian lawyer who found his vocation caring for AIDS patients in Harlem was elected the grand master of the Knights of Malta on Wednesday, the first non-European and first non-aristocratic head of the ancient lay Catholic order that provides humanitarian aid around the world.

John Dunlap, 66, was elected by an absolute majority of 99 voting members of a Knights body known as the council complete of state. He immediately informed Pope Francis of his election and was sworn in during a pomp-filled ceremony and procession Wednesday at the Knights magnificent villa on Romes Aventine hill.

The election brings a hoped-for end to a tumultuous few years during which Francis intervened to remove a previous grand master as a result of a governance crisis. Francis then imposed a new set of constitutional reforms on the order, and appointed Dunlap as interim head, in ways that critics said threatened its sovereignty.

The Knights of Malta is an ancient chivalric order and sovereign entity that runs hospitals and clinics around the world. It counts 13,500 knights, dames and chaplains, 80,000 permanent volunteers and 42,000 employees, most of them medical personnel who lend first aid in areas of natural disasters and conflict zones.

As a sovereign body under international law, the Knights have diplomatic relations with more than 100 countries, which facilitates the delivery of humanitarian aid in war zones and conflict areas. The group participates in the U.N. and other international organizations as an observer state.

The order experienced a governance crisis in 2016-2017 sparked by a condom distribution scandal that resulted in Francis ousting the then-grand master and imposing years of Vatican-mandated constitutional reforms. Last year, a now-former top leader of the Knights warned that the proposed reforms risked the order's sovereign status since they implied the Knights were a subject of the Holy See.

The distinction matters to the order because the Knights count on their reputation as a sovereign neutral player to gain access to crisis-hit areas that might be denied to other humanitarian groups.

During a recent conversation with journalists before the election, Dunlap denied the Vatican intervention posed a risk of creating confusion or had negatively impacted the Knights' ability to maneuver in conflict zones.

Absolutely not, he said, adding that during the years of turmoil, the Knights had actually opened diplomatic relations with four new countries and that 11 ambassadors from countries that dont have diplomatic relations showed up for his New Years' greetings this year.

Weve had no country that withdrew their ambassador, Dunlap said.

Dunlaps election to a 10-year term ends a period of change that including the election of a new governing body in January and the approval of a Vatican-mandated constitution in September.

Dunlaps election was the first under the new constitution, which allows the election of a grand master  the order's head of state  without noble lineage and removes the requirement that he serve for life. The reforms were deemed necessary to broaden the pool of potential leaders down the line.

Dunlap was born in Ottawa and practices law in New York. He found his vocation to the Knights in the 1980s while volunteering with AIDS patients at the Cardinal Cooke Medical Center in Harlem, where he has continued to volunteer.
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JERUSALEM (AP)  Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed a 58-year-old man and wounded five others on Wednesday, Palestinian health officials said, even as the latest spasm of violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the enclave appeared to ebb.

Israeli fighter jets struck targets in Gaza in response to salvos of rockets launched by Palestinian militants at Israeli territory on Tuesday. But after sunrise, the violence seemed to subside as both sides signaled they wanted to avoid a wider conflict.

The exchange erupted when a prominent Palestinian detainee died in Israeli custody after an 87-day hunger strike. The death of Khader Adnan, 45, a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group credited with popularizing hunger strikes as an effective form of activism, reverberated across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where he is revered as a national hero.

Protests erupted at Israeli military checkpoints and a general strike shuttered stores across the territories. Palestinians and rights groups have blamed Israel for his death, accusing prison authorities of medical negligence.

London-based Amnesty International on Wednesday described Adnan's treatment in Israeli prison as inhumane" and degrading, citing a doctor who visited his cell and said authorities rebuffed his requests for medical attention. Israel's prison service claims Adnan refused medical treatment until it was too late.

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired 100 rockets into southern Israel late Tuesday, seriously wounding a foreign worker at a construction site. The Israeli military said its warplanes struck tunnels, arms production sites and military installations belonging to the ruling Hamas militant group in Gaza.

The Israeli strikes sent shrapnel slicing through the house of 58-year-old Hashil Mubarak in Gaza City, his son Hatem said. As their roof collapsed, shards of metal struck Mubaraks chest, killing him, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Mubarak was rushed to the hospital and could not be resuscitated.

We were sleeping at home safe and sound when we heard a giant explosion from a missile, Hatem recalled as mourners filled his neighborhood mosque and took turns bending down to kiss his father's forehead.

He was martyred, he said.

After a quiet few hours, the Israeli military announced that residents in southern towns no longer needed to remain close to bomb shelters. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem thanked Palestinian militants for confronting Israeli aggression and concluding the round of the conflict.

The U.N.'s envoy to the Mideast, Tor Wennesland, said he welcomed the restoration of calm" after a violent 12 hours. Had our efforts failed, we would risk being in the midst of another deadly escalation, he said.

But not everyone welcomed the calm. Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir lambasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over what he described as a weak response to the rocket fire from Gaza.

Ultranationalist lawmakers in Netanyahus coalition, including Ben-Gvir, won a record number of seats in the general election in November, after campaigning on a pledge to reduce terrorist threats and take a hard-line against the Palestinians. The latest rocket attacks have already heightened calls from the politicians' right-wing supporters to make good on their promises.

Ben-Gvir's party, called Jewish Power, announced its members would boycott all parliament voting on Wednesday in protest.

Netanyahu hit back at Ben-Gvir, saying that only the prime minister, defense minister and security forces are tasked with handling the sensitive and complex security events in Israel.

If this is not acceptable to Minister Ben-Gvir, he does not have to stay in the government, Netanyahu's Likud party said in a statement.

The spike in violence comes at a time of heightened tensions in the occupied West Bank under Israel's most right-wing government in history. On Wednesday, Israeli security forces demolished the family houses of two Palestinians who carried out deadly attacks against Israelis last fall.

Israel defends its decades-old policy of leveling family homes of attackers as a deterrent. The practice has long drawn criticism from human rights groups that call it collective punishment, forbidden by international law. Some also question its effectiveness in preventing future attacks, saying such demolitions only exacerbate tensions and fuel hatred in Palestinian communities.

The military said it entered the northern West Bank town of Haris and destroyed the home of 18-year-old Mohammed Souf, who killed three Israelis in a stabbing and car-ramming attack last November before being killed. The military also leveled the home of Younes Hilan, who was arrested on suspicion of fatally stabbing an Israeli man in October.

Also in the West Bank on Wednesday, Israeli forces shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian outside the city of Bethlehem. The Israeli military alleged that the Palestinian refused to cooperate at a checkpoint and tried to attack soldiers. Security forces responded first by firing into the air and then shooting the suspected assailant, the military said.

Israel-Palestinian fighting has surged over the past year. Roughly 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire and 49 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

___

Associated Press writer Mohammad Jahjouh in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.
A New Jersey mayor who was blocked from attending a White House celebration this week with President Joe Biden to belatedly mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan called Tuesday for the administration to end the federal watch list that he said illegally targets Muslims and others.

During a news conference held Tuesday in South Plainfield by the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NJ), Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah and several other speakers condemned the list as illegal, discriminatory and unconstitutional. They also called on the U.S. Secret Service and other federal agencies to stop using and distributing the list, which the group says has more than 1.5 million names, a majority of which are Arab or Muslim sounding.

CAIR has called on the Biden administration to cease the FBIs dissemination of information from what is known as a Terrorist Screening Data Set that includes hundreds of thousands of individuals. The group informed Khairullah that a person with his name and birthdate was in a dataset that CAIR attorneys obtained in 2019.

Shortly before he was set to arrive at the White House for the Eid-al-Fitr celebration on Monday, Khairullah said he received a call from the White House stating that he had not been cleared for entry by the Secret Service and could not attend the celebration where Biden delivered remarks to hundreds of guests.

Khairullah said Tuesday that he has no idea why his information is on the list and that no one in the federal government will tell him, adding that theres "no reason to believe I'm an unsafe person. Khairullah noted that he has been detained a few times and questioned while traveling, experiences that he called humiliating.

Im not upset about not being at the White House, said Khairullah, who was elected to a fifth term as his town's mayor in January. Im about human rights. I have a platform to address this issue, but about 1.5 million others dont ... an incident like this makes me question the progress I thought we had made."

Selaedin Maksut, the CAIR chapter's executive director, said there is no transparency in how or why people are added to or removed from the list, and there is no remedy people can seek to have their names removed.

Two decades after 9/11, we continue to see the harm of the watch lists. We continue to see how it causes difficulties for American Muslims and Americans at large, infringing on their civil rights," Maksut said.

A Secret Service spokesman confirmed that Khairullah was not allowed into the White House complex, but he declined to detail why. The White House also declined comment.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, New Jerseys two U.S. senators  Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, both Democrats, and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. , a Democrat who represents the district where Khairullah lives  announced that they have formally asked the Secret Service and the Biden administration for an explanation of why the mayor was blocked from attending. The trio also asked that he be notified about the substantive reasons he was denied admission and that his status be reviewed so he may be able to attend such events in the future.

Khairullah was an outspoken critic of President Donald Trumps travel ban that limited entry to the U.S. of citizens from several predominantly Muslim countries. He also has travelled to Bangladesh and Syria to do humanitarian work with the Syrian American Medical Society and the Watan Foundation.

Khairullah said he was stopped by authorities in 2019 and interrogated at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York for three hours and questioned about whether he knew any terrorists. The incident happened when he was returning to the United States after a family visit to Turkey, where his wife has family.

On another occasion, he said he was briefly held at the U.S.-Canada border as he traveled back into the country with family.

CAIR said Khairullah helped the New Jersey Democratic Party compile names of local Muslim leadership to invite to the White House Eid celebration and over the weekend was a guest at an event at the New Jersey governors mansion.

Khairullah was born in Syria, but his family was displaced in the midst of the government crackdowns by Hafez al-Assads government in the early 1980s. His family fled to Saudi Arabia before moving to Prospect Park in 1991. He has lived there since.

He became a U.S. citizen in 2000 and was elected to his first term as the towns mayor in 2001. He also spent 14 years as a volunteer firefighter in his community.

Khairullah said he made seven trips to Syria with humanitarian aid organizations between 2012 and 2015 as a civil war ravaged much of the country.
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CAIRO (AP)  Exhausted Sudanese and foreigners joined growing crowds at Sudan's main seaport Tuesday, waiting to be evacuated from the chaos-stricken nation. After more than two weeks of fighting, areas of the capital of Khartoum appear increasingly abandoned.

The battle for control of Sudan erupted on April 15, after months of escalating tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Other nations have tried to convince the two generals to stop the fighting and come to the negotiating table. The government of South Sudan, which officially split from Sudan in 2011, said Tuesday that the two rival generals have agreed in principle on a weeklong cease-fire starting on Thursday, and on engaging in peace talks. The statement did not elaborate on the possible venue or timing for the talks.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir spoke with both Burhan and Dagalo over the phone, the government said in a statement. There was no immediate comment from either the army or the paramilitary.

Meanwhile, civilians were packing buses and trucks for Sudans northern border with Egypt. Many others headed to Port Sudan, on the country's Red Sea coast. The relative calm of the port city, from which many foreign governments have evacuated their citizens, seemed the safer option.

Much of the capital has become empty, said Abdalla al-Fatih, a Khartoum resident who fled with his family to Port Sudan on Monday. He said they had been trapped for two weeks, and that by now, everyone on his street had left.

When they arrived in Port Sudan after a 20-hour journey, they found thousands, including many women and children, camping outside the port area. Many had been in the open air for more than a week, with no food or basic services in the sweltering heat. Others crowded into mosques or hotels inside the city.

Tariq Abdel-Hameed was one of around 2,000 Syrians in Port Sudan hoping to get out by sea or air. Some 200 Syrians have been evacuated since the crisis began, including 35 on Friday on a vessel bound for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The first Damascus-bound flight was scheduled to take off later Tuesday, Abdel-Hameed said, with about 200 on board, mostly pregnant women and sick people.

At the congested crossing points with Egypt, thousands of families have waited for days inside buses or sought temporary shelter in the border town of Wadi Halfa.

Yusuf Abdel-Rahman, a Sudanese university student, said he and his family entered Egypt through the Ashkit border crossing late Monday. They had first gone to another crossing point, Arqin, but said it was too crowded to make the attempt. Families with children and the sick were stranded in the desert landscape with no food and water, waiting for visas which are mandatory for Sudanese men to enter Egypt, he recounted.

In Khartoum, Abdel-Rahman said he had seen widespread destruction and looting. He knows many people whose homes have been commandeered by the paramilitary forces and thinks they are lucky to have left before their home was stormed.

We could have ended up dead bodies," he said.

The fighting has displaced at least 334,000 people inside Sudan, and sent tens of thousands more to neighboring countries  Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia, according to U.N. agencies. Aid workers are increasingly concerned about lack of basic services in these areas.

Between 900 and 1,000 people arrive daily at the border with Ethiopia, Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said at a news briefing Tuesday in Geneva. At least 20,000 people crossed into Chad, which borders the Darfur city of Genena where clashes last week killed dozens and wounded hundreds.

Aleksandra Roulet-Cimpric, the Chad Country Director with the International Rescue Committee, described dire conditions for the arrivals there, many of them women and children who have no choice but to seek shelter from the heat under sparse trees.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi warned that the number of people fleeing to neighboring countries could surpass 800,000.

Early Tuesday, the sounds of explosions and gunfire echoed though many parts of Khartoum, with fierce clashes taking place around the militarys headquarters, the international airport and the Republican Palace, residents said. Warplanes were seen flying overhead, they said.

The fighting continued despite the newest extension of a shaky cease-fire, meant to allow safe corridors for healthcare workers and aid agencies working in the capital.

The war never stopped, said Atiya Abdalla Atiya, Secretary of the Sudan Doctors Syndicate. Morgues across the capital are filled with bodies and people are still unable to collect the dead for burial, he said.

At least 447 civilians have been killed and more than 2,255 wounded since the fighting began, according to figures provided Tuesday by the Doctors Syndicate, which tracks civilian casualties. The Sudanese Health Ministry said it counted at least 550 people killed, including civilians and combatants, with more than 4,900 wounded as of Monday.

In addition to the South Sudanese proposal, there has been other suggestions aimed at stopping the violence and avoiding a worsening humanitarian disaster. Both sides agreed to send representatives for talks that would potentially be held in Saudi Arabia, according the U.N. envoy in Sudan, Volker Perthes. The kingdom has joined the United States in pressing for a lasting cease-fire.

Another proposal, put forward by Sudan's former Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, who met this week with regional leaders and Western diplomats in Kenyas capital, Nairobi, set forward a series of five steps to help the two sides reconcile.

This war can lead to a global emergency unless halted immediately," he said.

The power struggle has derailed Sudans efforts to restore its democratic transition, which was halted in Oct. 2021 when Burhan and Dagalo, then allies, removed Hamdok's Western-backed transitional government in a coup.

___

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
analysis

Long-standing cultural affinities of Rwandophones in the Great Lakes may appear to bolster Kigali's historical claims to parts of eastern Congo, but it's more complicated than it seems.

Two weeks ago, Rwandan President Paul Kagame gave his historical take on the border that separates Rwanda from Congo, prompted by the resurgent M23 rebellion. "The borders that were drawn during colonial times had our countries divided," he said. "A big part of Rwanda was left outside, in eastern Congo, in southwestern Uganda and so forth and so forth. You have populations in these parts of other countries who have a Rwandese background. But they are not Rwandans, they are citizens of those countries that have absorbed those parts of Rwanda in the colonial times. So this is a fact. It is a fact of history...And these people have been denied their rights."

While there was no explicit territorial claim in his proposition, it was interpreted in Congolese circles as a desire to redraw the borders of Rwanda and to annex part of the Congo. This interpretation is not wholly unsurprising given a longer history of such territorial claims in Rwandan public discourses going back to at least the First Congo War in 1996-1998. Moreover, it feeds into Congolese fears of 'balkanisation': the idea that Rwanda (and sometimes Uganda) are out to annex a part of Congolese territory in order to benefit from its natural resources to the detriment of the Congolese. The battle on the ground in North Kivu is thus extended as a battle of words, in which history has become a weapon in power struggles over identity and geopolitics.

While, in Rwanda, these historical arguments go back to the period before German and Belgian colonisers divided the region amongst themselves, in Congo these arguments use imperial claims as well the principle of the intangibility of African borders as stipulated by the Organization of African Unity in 1964. Eminent Congolese historian Isidore Ndaywel e Nziem, for instance, retorted that instead of Rwanda having lost out to Congo, the opposite was true: "As far as the Rwandan-Congolese borders are concerned, there is no ambiguity. If we go back to the first map of the region...of 1885, it is Congo that has land to reclaim from Rwanda, and not the other way round, because on this initial map, the western part of Rwanda was Congolese".

The scramble for maps

Yet, it was precisely these maps - there were three of them - that caused the ambiguity. They had been drawn by Europeans who only had knowledge of a lake at an approximate location; no European had set foot in the Kivu area before 1894. The first map, produced by the Germans in 1884, in the context of the Berlin Conference claimed the border was in fact located on what is today Congolese territory. One of the other maps divided Rwanda almost in half to add it to the Congo Free State. It is the existence of these different maps that led to disagreements between European powers thus provoking the Kivu border conflict between Germany and the Congo Free State and, from 1908 onwards, Belgium. It was only in 1910 that European powers came to an agreement, and on the ground the border was only demarcated in 1911.

My argument here is not that the current borders should be redrawn, nor that I know where the 'right' border could or should have been - the problem is more with what these borders did and do, than with where they were drawn. I am also not interested either in trying to explain whether a certain place was 'Rwandan' or 'Congolese' at a particular time. As I argue in my forthcoming book, this question is impossible to answer: not only did 'Congo' only come into existence as a political entity as a result of this colonial border-making; we also have to be clear what we mean when we say 'Rwanda', and how we define it.

'Every historical fact is open to multiple interpretations'

Indeed, 'Rwanda' existed as a kingdom for over a hundred years before colonization. However, it would be wrong to think that we can understand what it was then by looking at it now. What 'Rwanda,' meant was never static: in terms of its identity, geography, and political structure, it varied dramatically over time. Current debates about this border are political. Every historical 'fact' is open to multiple interpretations, and those interpretations are a manifestation of other, political tensions. So there can likely never be an end - a final, 'true' historical interpretation - that ends the debate over the border.

Contrary to much popular belief in Congo, people speaking Kinyarwanda - those we would call today 'Hutu', as well as 'Tutsi' - lived within the boundaries of what is today the Congo, long before Europeans decided on dividing the continent amongst themselves in 1885. In Rutshuru for example, they had their own land - often marked by the ficus-tree of their ancestors -, their own forms of socio-political organization, and their own leaders - 'Hutu' as well as 'Tutsi', depending on the locality. In South-Kivu as well, they were present. Today, according to Congolese law they are Congolese - but some Congolese politicians cast doubt on their citizenship, and many Congolese contest it.

But could these places and communities therefore be considered 'Rwandan'? On this count, it depends on who you would have asked. There was more than one possible answer to this question back then, and that answer depended on the context, and what you mean exactly by 'Rwandan'. Rwandan historian Emmanuel Ntezimana for example distinguished 'being Rwandan' culturally [ikinyarwanda]--a cultural community--from "political facts and military events" - 'being Rwandan' politically. In the current Rwandan nation-state these two indeed coincide, but this has not always been the case. Not all Kinyarwanda-speakers have always been included in the Rwandan kingdom. Nor have all those linked or included in the Rwandan kingdom always been necessarily of Rwandan culture - they often had origins elsewhere.

Many of the clans in Bugoyi for instance, around what today is called Rubavu in Rwanda, - just across the border from Goma - claimed their descendance in Gishari, in the mountains of DRC's Masisi territory. Today we would probably call these people 'Hunde' and nobody casts doubt on the 'Congolese-ness' of Hunde people. The rulers of the small Bukunzi kingdom - Mbirizi - in Rwanda's current-day Rusizi district, claimed their origins in Bushi, in DRCs South Kivu. Even until the beginning of the twentieth century, many communities today in Rwanda's frontier areas defended some kind of independence vis-a-vis the kingdom. And, for many people in western Rwanda, 'Rwandan' national identity would never have been the only nor most important label people identified themselves with in the nineteenth century. For many it was regional and/or clan-identities that were most important.

While some would like to frame this defense of political independence as a Tutsi/Hutu divide, they are mistaken. The best example of this are part of the group we call nowadays Banyamulenge: mainly of 'Tutsi' origin, they fled the violence of the Rwandan state. Back then they were 'culturally' Rwandan yes, but politically they wanted to be independent. 'Rwandan' in one sense, then, but not in the other when they moved; and today Congolese. Hence the incongruence of projecting current identities and nationalities into the past when the meanings of these labels were fundamentally different or contested back then.

Some inconvenient pre-colonial truths

Another way history is sometimes used to express territorial aspirations within Rwanda, is to refer to its military prowess. For this, it is relevant to go back to the last three decades of the nineteenth century, during mwami Rwabugiri's reign (r. 1867-1895), one of Rwanda's most infamous bami. It was also during his reign that the western part of what is nowadays Rwanda became much more firmly integrated into the Rwandan kingdom. Rwabugiri is also known by lakeside people both on the western and eastern shores, because of his military campaigns. On the western shores - present-day Congo - most of them did not result in long-lasting occupation. For Bushi and Idjwi for example we know that most Rwandans associated with these military campaigns had left - were chased away - before even the Europeans occupied the area.

For what is nowadays Rutshuru (DRC) on the other hand, we know that more successful attempts of territorial occupation had been undertaken: Rwabugiri had constructed courts in several places in the area - even one in today's military camp in Rumangabo for example. There, he leaned on local rulers - 'Hutu' as well as 'Tutsi' - to levy taxes, and these rulers were listening to his orders "from a distance", maintaining links, while keeping a relatively autonomous position. And in other ways, society in Rutshuru differed from that in the heartland of the Rwandan kingdom.

The fundamental question is not - or should not be - whether these events took place, but how they are recounted today and the meanings attributed to them. In Rwanda, these histories are often triumphant renderings of the power and might of the Rwandan kingdom. But they omit the contestations of this power within these areas under (in)direct control. They also leave out that it did not mean that because some of these principalities had accepted alliances and/or delegates from the Rwandan kingdom, that all land and people in between these islands of (in)direct control had accepted Rwandan overlordship. Resistance continued until the turn of the twentieth century. Resistance rallying around the Nyabingi cults in the region that nowadays forms the Rwanda, Congo and Uganda border triangle not only targeted European colonialism but also (delegates from) the Rwandan kingdom. Caravans bringing tribute to the Rwandan mwami were often attacked - a political act.

What colonial boundaries fixed - and what they divided

Before the Westphalian system of (colonial) borders fixed the limits of political power in those spaces 'for eternity' (or at least until the downfall of the current state-system), state-formation was a continuous and ongoing process accompanied by territorial expansion as well as retraction; integration as well as disintegration; and changing alliances. Claims that borders should have to be drawn based on a contested situation in the nineteenth century are thus based on a snapshot of a particular time, only consider one perspective, and erase contestations. What colonial borders did was to fix forms of territoriality that had been less permanent before, and that were not necessarily unilaterally accepted. Projecting back such fixity on a pre-colonial past is thus anachronistic.

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Finally, the colonial border did not only divide those 'being Rwandan' culturally from each other. It also divided communities who might not have shared the same language and culture, but who nevertheless had very similar cultural practices. They were furthermore tied together through kinship, bloodpacts, and commercial links - and they often provided refuge to each other in times of trouble, even before the arrival of the Europeans. While Rwabugiri's campaigns are easily mobilized today in order to 'prove' that Rwanda is Congo's natural enemy, this hides internal struggles in, for instance, the Bushi region. More importantly, it also hides the histories of connections and solidarity across the fluid boundaries of communities around lake Kivu.

Colonial borders are a tangible inheritance of the violent, racist and extractive system that colonialism was. They made ethnic as well as national identities more rigid and exclusive. Moreover, Belgian colonialism contributed to shaping the perception of Kinyarwanda-speakers, and especially Tutsi, as 'eternal immigrants' in Congo. But there is a reason why the Organization of African Union decided in 1964 on the intangibility of African borders. Today, there are no straightforward historical arguments which can justify that the Rwandan-Congolese border should be redrawn. Who could govern where, and on what basis that authority was based, was contested already back then, and not only now. It is a political, not a historical question. The concept of being 'Congolese' did not exist at the time these borders were drawn. The concept of being 'Rwandan' did exist, but did not necessarily mean the same thing, or did not mean the same thing everywhere throughout those areas today claimed and/or considered 'Rwandan'. Arguing about 'who belongs where' today by projecting these contemporary identities back into the past before borders were demarcated makes little sense. What these identities mean today is - at least partially - a product of these borders, and not the other way around.

Dr Gillian Mathys is a Great Lakes historian at Ghent University. This essay is based on her book conditionally titled, 'Making Histories of the Lake Kivu Region: Conflict, Connections and Mobility in Central Africa', forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. It is based on extensive oral history in the Lake Kivu region (both Congo and Rwanda) since 2009, as well as archival research.
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  Police in Kenya clashed with anti-government protesters Tuesday in the capital, Nairobi, during a fresh round of demonstrations called by the opposition leader.

Opposition lawmakers marched to the president's office, in the central business district, to present a petition. Police dispersed them with tear gas.

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua told us we know where to find them. We do. We went there and instead met police. Cowards! Sen. Edwin Sifuna, who represents Nairobi County, said.

Protesters who turned up in the morning to erect barricades on major roads around the city threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas. A bus and a cargo truck were torched.

Business was paralyzed in Kisumu County, an opposition stronghold, as police clashed with protesters.

The opposition is calling for action to tackle the cost of living and reforms to the electoral commission that oversaw the election won by President William Ruto last year.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, a former prime minister of Kenya, rejected the governments position that Tuesday's protests were illegal and urged his supporters to turn up in large numbers.

Odinga's former running mate in last year's presidential election, Martha Karua, said protests would resume Thursday after the opposition takes a day off to strategize.

Karua said Odinga and former Deputy President Kalonzo Musyoka both had their security withdrawn.

The police chief had banned the protests, citing previous protest violence that led to businesses being looted and Kenyans being robbed.

Odinga said the protests would be peaceful.

Ruto on Monday warned opposition supporters against destroying private property. He urged Odinga to reconsider returning to talks.

Odinga had called off protests during Ramadan to pave the way for the talks proposed by Ruto. Both the opposition and the ruling party nominated politicians to take part in the discussions, but the opposition rejected some of those nominated by the ruling party.

The talks have since halted, and the opposition announced that it would resume street protests.
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP)  FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP)  Community Healthcare Trust Inc. (CHCT) on Tuesday reported a key measure of profitability in its first quarter. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations.

The real estate investment trust, based in Franklin, Tennessee, said it had funds from operations of $15.6 million, or 62 cents per share, in the period.
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Less than a year after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered intensified inspections of a Pratt & Whitney jet engine, an India-based airline is blaming the engine for forcing it into bankruptcy after too many planes were kept out of service while the airline waited on a fix.

Pratt & Whitney has its headquarters in East Hartford as a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, and a second big Connecticut plant in Middletown. The manufacturer is one of the largest jet engine makers in the world, with rivals including GE Aviation and its CFM International joint venture with Safran, and Rolls-Royce. Pratt & Whitney is part of another joint venture called International Aero Engines in partnership with Germany's MTU Aero Engines and Japanese Aero Engine Corp.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that the India-based airline Go First is blaming its bankruptcy collapse on faulty Pratt & Whitney engines that forced it to ground half of its fleet of 50 Airbus passenger jets. Go First claims Pratt & Whitney did not comply with an arbitration order that required it to provide Go First with spare engines under an existing contract, and is seeking enforcement of the order in a Delaware federal court filing against International Aero Engines.

"The arbitrator found that Pratt failed to perform its contractual obligations, including to provide serviceable aircraft engines on which GoFirsts airline business depends," Go First attorneys wrote in the Delaware court complaint. "Without the aircraft engines Pratt has been ordered to provide to GoFirst, a significant portion of GoFirsts fleet remains grounded and unable to generate revenue."

Go First cited both U.S. law and the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards as backing its case for a federal ruling in its favor. Pratt & Whitney has through May 23 to file an initial response in court after being served notice of the lawsuit on Tuesday.

The Indian Express cited an unnamed Pratt & Whitney official saying that Go First has a "lengthy history of missing its financial obligations" to the company. In a statement to Reuters, Pratt & Whitney asserted it is complying with the arbitration ruling, and declined further comment during the litigation process.

Speaking last week on a conference call, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes referenced issues with the engine, which was introduced in 2015.

"With respect to durability, we have improved 'time on wing' since program inception, ... meaning how long engines can be operated before needing to be removed for maintenance, but we are not yet at the level we and our customers expect," Hayes said on a conference call in late April. "Reliability and durability are the two issues, and reliability is great  99.98 percent dispatch reliability. Time on wing is the challenge."

The Airbus A320neo jets used by Go First are designed for engines from either Pratt & Whitney or CFM International. The Pratt & Whitney engine in question is the PurePower PW1100G-JM geared turbofan, with both Go First and rival IndiGo having reported problems with the engines due to degradation of protective coatings in a "combustor" portion of the engine. That has forced intensified inspections and groundings as Pratt & Whitney redesigned internal components to deal with the problem.

Airbus has also certified the PW1100G-JM engine for its larger A321neo jet. In February, Airbus stated it is delivering at a pace of 65 jets monthly in the A320 family, without specifying the split between those using Pratt & Whitney engines and those with CFM International engines.

"We probably didn't spend enough time testing for those harsh environments  specifically places like India, and that's where we've seen the lower life on the combustor," Hayes said last week. "It's going to take us a couple of years before we can get all of those upgrades introduced."

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered ultrasonic inspections of the engines last year to ensure turbine blades showed no signs of possibility of fracturing.

Pratt & Whitney sales totaled $5.2 billion in the first quarter, up 15 percent from a year earlier, with nearly $3.6 billion of that total generated by sales of engines, parts and services for airlines and other commercial aircraft. Pratt & Whitney's operating profits nearly tripled from a year ago to $415 million, as airlines continue to upgrade their fleets during a surge in global travel.
BRIDGEPORT  The number of young Bridgeport students performing mathematics at grade level is on the rise, though school officials warn they may need more resources to maintain the trend.

Only about a fifth of students between the second and eighth grades are currently proficient in math, according to assessment data presented last week to the school boards teaching & learning committee.

Though the figures reveal the majority of students are performing below their expected grade levels, the data also shows a slight increase in academic achievement over the previous year.

During the 2021-22 school year, just 16 percent of students between the second and eighth grades were performing at or above their grade level. Meanwhile, a whopping 84 percent were performing below grade level, according to the data.

As of this spring, the share of students performing at grade level has increased to nearly 20 percent. Likewise, the proportion of students working below grade level has fallen to 80 percent.

We have a lot of work to do still, said Herminio Planas, the districts executive director of elementary schools and mathematics. But we are looking that we're moving in the right direction.

Planas credited the increase in performance to new strategies and initiatives around mathematics instruction, including additional assessments, intensive training for teachers and an enrichment program called WIN (What I Need) Block that is designed to provide targeted academic support.

The WIN Block program, Planas explained, allows students to concentrate on subjects they need extra guidance in during the last 30 minutes of a 90-minute math class following an hour of normal instruction.

It's truly not easy, Planas said. But thanks to all the different things that we're doing  through the Win Block, through looking at data  we've managed to support those students.

The school systems math assessment data largely mirrors the findings of recent districtwide reading tests. Those assessments showed that only about a third of kindergarten, elementary and middle school students are currently reading at their expected grade level, though the figures are also improving.

Planas said the districts math assessment results suggest the new strategies have benefited students even over the last several months, including for the youngest students. The percentage of kindergartners, for example, who can distinguish between numbers  a key foundational skill  grew from 29 percent to 45 percent between last fall and the midpoint of the academic year.

Similarly, the share of first graders who are able to add and subtract has jumped from 26 percent to 31 percent over the same time period. For students between the second and eighth grades, the percentage performing at level shot up 12 percent since the start of the academic year.

Rome wasn't built in one day, Planas said. We have a lot of work to do below the iceberg of this data.

Planas said the district will likely need more resources, including additional funding for teacher training, to maintain and build on the performance increases. He also suggested adjusting student schedules and adopting yearlong math classes instead of semester courses to boost instruction time.

Much of the new programs that helped district officials improve student achievement were funded through emergency COVID-related federal aid that is slated to expire next year. School board Vice Chairperson Christine Baptiste-Perez and member Robert Traber both said the board should try to push for funding to continue investing in student performance. The board has requested the city allocate an additional $12 million next year, but Mayor Joe Ganin has proposed a $2 million increase.

The COVID funding has allowed us to return to a level we were at before, Traber said. It has not allowed us to go beyond that level to the level enjoyed in the wealthier communities in our neighborhood. We are fighting to get the same resources so that we can provide our students the same level of opportunity to learn.
analysis

At the end of 2022 the Central Bank of Nigeria launched new banknotes. At the same time it also capped withdrawal of the new banknotes. The rollout of the currency change was shambolic. But it also led people to turn to digital financial services such as the use of point of sale (PoS) machines for payments in their transactions. Digital financial services are financial services which rely on digital technologies for their delivery and use by consumers. The Conversation Africa's Wale Fatade asks Iwa Salami, an expert in financial technology regulation and financial regulation in emerging economies, to explain the increase and its implications.

How did the botched currency changeover affect the way Nigerians used the banking system?

The Central Bank set a deadline of 31 January 2023 for all old notes to be deposited in banks in exchange for new. The country was plunged into a currency crisis when all old notes were out of circulation and the new notes were hardly circulating. The ensuing scarcity of cash made life unbearably hard for Nigerians.

One outcome was that Nigerians sought alternative ways to pay for goods and services using digital alternatives, such as point of sale machines. Between 2017 and 2022, the number of point of sale terminals in Nigeria grew significantly.

In 2017, there were around 155,000 terminals, and this number has increased to roughly 1.1 million as of April 2022. Merchants and PoS operators handle the machines. Their operations are regulated by the Central Bank.

It also resulted in a surge in point of sales transactions in Nigeria. There was a 40.69% year-on-year increase from the N573.72 billion (US$1.24 billion) transactions that was done in January 2022 to N807.16 billion (US$1.75 billion) in January 2023. Total cashless transactions also rose by 45.41% year-on-year to N39.58 trillion (US$85.96 billion) in January 2023.

What are the most developed forms of electronic transacting in Nigeria?

Point of Sale (PoS): These devices are installed both by traditional banks as well as by payment service banks. They are now ubiquitous throughout Nigeria - in supermarkets, large retail outlets as well as in small-scale businesses set up for this purpose only.

Payment service banks: These are technology driven companies licensed by the Central Bank to engage in banking activities. Examples are Hope and MoneyMaster.

Fintechs: This includes any app, software, or technology that allows people or businesses to digitally access, manage, or gain insights into their finances or make financial transactions. A number of companies offer these services in Nigeria. They include Flutterwave, Piggyvest, OPay, Interswitch, Kuda and Remita.

Online banking offered by traditional banks: All Nigerian banks offer online services. However, the services aren't always reliable. During the currency crisis, for example, platforms collapsed and customers were unable to transact. Digital platforms didn't have the ability to cope with the deluge of online transactions.

Mobile money: Financial service offered by a mobile network operator and can be independent of the traditional banking network. A bank account is not required to use mobile money services - the only pre-requisite is a basic mobile phone.

Those offering this service include MTN and Airtel Africa. As with most other countries on the continent, mobile money uptake in Nigeria has been slow. The exception has been Kenya, where the launch of MPesa in 2007 led to a massive uptake in mobile financial services.

In 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued MTN the first license to operate mobile money services. It started operations in May. MTN is the largest mobile network operator in Nigeria.

Can you paint a picture of the banking landscape?

In 2021 Nigeria had 122.3 million active bank customers. According to February 2022 data only 39% of Nigerians use the formal banking system.

As has been shown elsewhere, mobile money offerings, as well as other digital services, can extend banking to the unbanked.

In 2022 the volume of transactions performed electronically in Nigeria surged to the highest in five years. The total volume of the Inter Bank Settlement Scheme Instant Payment Platform transactionsrose by 613.1% to 5.2 billion in 2022 from 729.2 million in 2018. Its value also increased by 381.5% from N80.4 trillion (US$174.6 billion) as at 2018 to N387.1 trillion (US$840.67billion) in 2022.

In my view, the spike in the value of transactions carried out at point-of-sale devices in Nigeria in January 2023 - they went up by 40.7% higher compared to the same month in 2022 - shows a wider adoption of digital payments. It is also an indication of the huge opportunities that mobile money operators and other forms of digital payments have in Nigeria.

How does Nigeria's digital currency eNaira fit into the picture?

eNaira was launched by the Central Bank in October 2021. However, less than 0.5% of Nigerians were recorded as using it a year after its launch.

The Central Bank didn't have an adoption strategy for the eNaira planned ahead of the currency change over. This was clearly a missed opportunity.

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Although the aim of the currency was to facilitate financial inclusion and shrink the size of the informal market, it's fallen short of the mark. It is currently only accessible to those with bank accounts. So, despite a reported increase in the number of e-Naira wallets to 13 million since October 2022, and an increase in the value of transactions in 2023, a lot still needs to be done to drive widespread adoption by the financially excluded.

Rethinking its architecture and policies to drive its adoption could include:

making it accessible to all with a mobile phone;

incentivising people to use it such as granting significant discounts when used to pay taxes and for other public services; and

embedding mobile network or payments apps into Central Bank Digital Currency wallets for the wallets to be inter-operable with mobile network operators' infrastructure.

A lesson of the currency crisis is that fintech offers a solution to the limitations of legacy financial institutions, and at the same time, they can help address the financial exclusion challenge in Nigeria.

Had Nigeria appreciated the value of digital finance and particularly the key role to be played by mobile money operators, the impact of the crisis would not have been as painful.

Iwa Salami, Reader (Associate Professor) in Law, University of East London
Aid efforts have been suspended and hundreds have been killed since fighting broke out in Sudan on 15 April. Large parts of Khartoum (pictured here) now resemble a ghost town.

Port Sudan, Sudan  'We were living for five days under continuous fire.'

The bus driver played Quranic verses through the stereo system as we chugged through Khartoum on Saturday. We were trying to leave behind a city held hostage by the egos of Sudan's rival military generals.

As we left the capital, passing a final checkpoint and burnt-out vehicles, the mood suddenly swung: The driver ditched the prayers for a jaunty Sudanese pop song, and an American action film began playing on a television monitor.

Among the 50 passengers on board was a family that started handing out sweets to celebrate. Al-Humdulillah al-salameh, al-Humdulillah al-salameh, the family said - thank God for your safety.

Vast numbers of Sudanese are escaping the conflict that broke out last month between the army and the country's main paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces. While some are heading abroad, others are moving to safer areas within the country.

Over the weekend, I left Khartoum for the eastern Red Sea city of Port Sudan, a safe haven where evacuations are currently taking place. On a 14-hour bus journey I witnessed the relief of those escaping after weeks of relentless conflict.

I also saw a glimpse into what people have been facing: people like Abdul Moniem, a civil servant who lived for five days under continuous fire; and people like Haitham Mohammed, a trader who was arrested by the RSF and saw them torturing detainees.

"Immediately after I got out [of detention], I went back home, took my luggage and my father, and we came to the bus station looking for a ticket to travel anywhere," Mohammed told me.

Roadblocks and profiteers

Finding a seat on a bus leaving Khartoum isn't easy right now. The price of a fare to Port Sudan is almost $200, far more than it was before the crisis. Seats to the Egyptian border have been selling for even more.

The profiteering bus companies were the subject of discussion among those on board, even if the solidarity of the Sudanese has shone through clearly over the past three weeks.

Our route through Khartoum reflected the current balance of power on the battleground: RSF fighters were deployed everywhere, standing aggressively on four-wheel 'technicals'.

The RSF dominates the streets in Khartoum, but they are afraid of airstrikes and cannot move freely. The army isn't visible on the ground, but they still control military bases and government institutions.

My fellow passengers were afraid as we crossed Manshiya bridge into Khartoum's East Nile neighbourhood. RSF soldiers were sitting under trees, hiding from army aeroplanes while keeping their eyes fixed on the sky.

The fighters stopped us to inspect the bus as we passed through one of their camps. At another checkpoint, they told male passengers to disembark so they could search through luggage, presumably for any evidence of army affiliation or weapons.

It wasn't until we reached the town of Shendi, 150 kilometres north of Khartoum, that we saw Sudanese soldiers for the first time. They also boarded the bus to check for RSF agents and weapons.

A civil servant on the run

The majority of the passengers were relieved as we left Khartoum, but they were also sad and shocked at what they had seen. They shared stories with each other about houses that had been bombed and looted, and incidents at checkpoints.

The story of Moniem, the civil servant who was travelling with his wife and four daughters, epitomised the struggle of Khartoum's civilians. Fighting had stalked his family for days, and forced them to run from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.

The family live in a district close to the military headquarters, and which houses senior army officers and ministers. Their home is also near Khartoum international airport, which has been a flashpoint in the conflict.

The RSF controlled the neighbourhood from the first day of the fighting, said Moniem, who is 70. "We were living for five days under continuous fire, under our beds," he told me. "The sound of the gunfire never stopped, not even for five minutes."

Moniem said he got out of the neighbourhood by leveraging relationships with local RSF officers who live in the same area. He said he had cultivated these ties before the war, in ordinary conversations with officers on the streets and in mosques.

On the fifth day of the conflict, an RSF vehicle took his family to the Khartoum 2 neighbourhood. But the presence of RSF fighters in that area exposed them to bombing from army warplanes.

"It wasn't safe because there are many RSF, and the army conducted many air offensives," Moniem said. "The electricity had [also been] cut for three days, so we decided to leave."

The family moved next to a neighbourhood in the south of Khartoum, but their struggle continued. They finally decided to leave for Port Sudan, to stay with a relative who lives in the city.

If RSF officers helped Moniem, the other passenger I spoke to - Mohammed, the Khartoum trader - shared a very different experience as he and has his father sat anxiously on the bus.

Mohammed said he was arrested by the RSF after braving the streets to buy vegetables and bread. Fighters accused him of being an army officer and took him to a base for six hours of questioning.

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Detainees were being tortured, Mohammed said: "They didn't torture me, but I saw them torturing others. I told them that I'm not [an army officer] and after a lot of questions they released me."

These accounts come from just two people on one bus heading to Port Sudan. They give a sense of the scale of the suffering that has befallen Khartoum and the surrounding area - home to more than seven million people.

Port Sudan: Crowded and chaotic

The suffering was also evident in Port Sudan on our arrival. The town has become a hub for evacuations, and looks set to become an operating base for the UN and aid groups.

According to locals I spoke with, the price of goods and accommodation is already shooting up as new arrivals and international organisations snap up apartments, hotels, and offices.

Port Sudan is where I am originally from, and I worry about its ability to cope. The bombs may not be falling here right now, but difficult days lie ahead - for the town and for my fellow bus passengers, whatever they do next.

Edited by Philip Kleinfeld.

Mohammed Amin, Freelance journalist in Sudan
On April 4, the Lane Community College Board of Education voted to raise tuition by 5%. An initial vote to raise tuition was voted down. However, after a condition was added that would allow the board to reconsider the issue if more state funding was provided in the next several months, the tuition hike passed by a 4-3 vote.

LCC chairwoman Rosie Pryor said the motion was passed following a "very robust discussion" on the impacts of the tuition increase as well as the colleges fiscal state.

During the public meeting, Adrienne Mitchell, president of the Lane Community College Education Association, brought the boards attention to LCCs financial woes, including a $25 million debt held by LCC. Mitchell said this significantly impacts tuition rates as well as negatively impacts the viability ratio, which will make it harder for LCC to accrue more debt if necessary.

Pryor said the tuition raise is unfortunate. She said the board has two choices when creating the balanced budget mandated by the state of Oregon: raise revenue or cut expenses. "And administration has consistently recommended increases in tuition," she said.

LCC tuition hikes are not a new financial challenge for students. In the last 10 years, between the 2012-13 and 2022-23 fiscal years, tuition rates have been raised by nearly 50%, going from $90 per credit to over $132 per credit. This has coincided with a steady decline in enrollment.

During the 2012-13 year, regular student enrollment was at a historic high due to the 2008 recession, over 18,000. Enrollment steadily declined to roughly 11,000 by 2020 and barely 6,000 in 2022. LCCs enrollment experienced its first growth in over a decade during the 2223 school year as enrollment grew to roughly 8,500, confirmed LCCs External Affairs Director Brett Rowlett.

The overall decline in enrollment is likely a contributing factor in tuition increases, as the college wants to avoid cutting services, according to student demographic data gathered by LCC.

KLCC reported that the tuition increase had the support of LCCs Student Government Association. However, Nikhar Ramlakhan, president of SGA, said this is a mischaracterization. The article now has an editors note saying SGA does not support the increase.

Ramlakhan said that he and other SGA members present at the meeting were caught off guard by the 5% hike. "We recommend an increase in tuition depending on state funding. Those recommendations are 2% and 3.5%, respectively, he said.

Ramlakhan said that the primary objective of SGA is to advocate for student needs and that the tuition raise would make higher education less affordable for Lanes low-income students, who are living paycheck to paycheck.

"For me, it's more of a problem for the state itself, Ramlakhan said. And the government is not actually prioritizing higher education. Pryor said LCC is not optimistic that there will be additional funding from the state.

LCC students and faculty are not alone in their belief that the state is not providing enough support for higher education. Public colleges and universities across Oregon are lobbying the state for more funding.

Oregon ranks 45th in the nation in per-student state funding of public universities.

Ramalakhan asks who is to blame for rising tuition rates: "Is it the colleges themselves? Or is it actually the state funding that's not coming out the way it should? More often than not, it's the state.
The lawmakers said the planned concession of the Ajaokuta Steel Company on the eve of the departure of the Buhari administration may be self-serving.

The House of Representatives has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend the "last minute" concession of Ajaokuta Steel Company.

The lower chamber made its position known on Tuesday, following a motion of urgent importance moved by Ali Halims (APC, Kogi) during plenary.

Mr Halims, in his motion, said the planned concession at the eleventh hour of the current administration is self-serving and not in the national interest.

Background

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the Nigerian government agreed to pay $496 million to settle a multibillion-dollar claim by Global Steel Holdings Limited.

Attorney-General Abubakar Malami had stated that the federal government will pay the company $496 million instead of the $5.258 billion demanded by the firm, to settle the dispute.

The dispute followed the federal government's revocation in 2008 of an agreement that handed control of the steelworks and the National Iron Ore Mining Company to Global Steel Holdings Limited, an Indian firm. In cancelling the deal, the then Umar Yar'adua administration said the terms of the concession at the time were not favourable to the country.

Why the last-minute rush? -- Halims

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Mr Halims questioned the motive behind the rush by the Buhari administration to concession the asset weeks before the end of the administration.

"Why now? Why the hurry to concession such strategic national assets within a narrow window of less than six weeks? Why the rush to consummate a concession deal during this transitional period and not leave it for the incoming administration which stands inaugurated on the 29th of May 2023," he said.

He added that there is a need for a "robust stakeholder consultation and adoption of proper procurement, due diligence and due process protocols are well adhered to and observed in the said concession deals and in the best national interest."

Following the presentation of the motion, the House resolved to invite the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, to appear before it in a plenary session to explain the details of the concession process.

When the motion was put to question by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, members voted overwhelmingly in support of it.
Nursing is the ultimate vocational career. None of us came into this difficult and demanding job to fight political battles. We do it because we want to help our patients: we care passionately about looking after them.

Yet industrial action by NHS staff, including nurses, is putting lives at risk. It is doing untold damage to vulnerable people and creating huge anxiety for families.

It is destroying the goodwill built up by generations of NHS workers. And it is making already exhausting jobs even more difficult.

Stress

During a 28-hour strike on Sunday evening, some nurses walked out of A&E, cancer and intensive care wards.

How they could bring themselves to do such a thing, I will never know. I cannot believe that this is what more than a tiny minority of my colleagues ever wished for.

I cannot believe that this is what more than a tiny minority of my colleagues ever wished for, writes Carmelah Jacobs. Pictured: Nurses from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union hold placards and chant slogans on a picket line at St Thomas Hospital in London on May 1

For patients and NHS staff alike, this is both cruel and unnecessary, writes Carmelah Jacobs. Pictured: Nurses hold placards and signs on a picket line outside St Thomas Hospital in London on May 1

As the deputy in charge of a busy outpatients' department at a hospital in the North-West of England, I see first-hand every day just how much stress the strikes are causing.

Our department is undermanned, suffering from waves of staff sickness that mean nurses are constantly being redeployed to provide essential cover.

READ MORE HERE: NHS workers will get a pay rise... but devastating strikes WILL continue Advertisement

I'm working extra hours on a weekly basis to make sure services do not falter.

Sometimes this means I'm unable to pick up my children from school. Every night I go to bed with my brain churning, and often wake in the early hours with a start, suddenly remembering another job to do the next day.

There is a solid pay deal on the table to end these needless strikes - and restore some semblance of normality to departments like mine across the country.

And yet a handful of union leaders are refusing to see sense. For patients and NHS staff alike, this is both cruel and unnecessary.

This week, representatives from 14 unions representing more than a million NHS workers agreed a new deal: a 5 per cent rise, plus a one-off bonus of up to 3,789.

The offer had first been proposed in March - so this partial resolution to the pay dispute could have come much sooner.

The offer is more than most public sector workers can expect, and it would make a very welcome difference to nurses and their families when the cost of living is rising.

The extra money could start hitting their bank accounts as early as June.

Yet despite this, a few unions are continuing to pressure their members, many of whom have consistently voted against industrial action.

Only one of these, Unite, has a strike mandate - and only in relatively limited form.

But the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has not only rejected the Government's offer, it has warned that it will continue to pursue strike action.

Hardship

I'm a member of the RCN - but I voted against the strikes. Today I want to beg my union organisers: please stop doing this. It goes against everything we nurses represent.

Visit my hospital and you will see for yourselves the turmoil these strikes are causing. Our hospital has a wide catchment area. Getting here from 30 or 40 miles away is difficult, tiring and costly. It's not unusual to see patients who have no option but to take an expensive taxi.

Do the RCN organisers understand how serious this is for the poorest people - those most in need?

Nurse Carmelah Jacobs (pictured) is begging union organisers to 'please stop' the strikes

They can't just dip into their savings accounts to pay for long-distance journeys.

Some will face weeks of hardship, perhaps living with the lights and the heating off, or eating from food banks, simply in order to attend an appointment.

When they do get here, many are in pain. To be told that their appointment has been postponed at the last minute thanks to strikes - and that their complaint will not be resolved any time soon - is deeply upsetting for them and all of us involved in their care.

Most patients bear the news stoically. Some become angry and frustrated - and I understand why.

They know it's not the fault of individual nurses, but too often we are the ones delivering bad news, saying: 'We're really sorry but there's nobody available to see you today.'

This causes terrible stress. A lot of our patients are elderly, of course, and some will have dementia, which makes it even harder for them to understand why the system seems to have stopped caring for them.

Often, they have paid taxes and national insurance for decades, but have barely used the NHS in the confident belief that this safety net would be there for them when they needed it.

Now that time has come - and the net has gaping holes in it. It's nothing short of shameful.

Across the NHS, delays and waiting lists are already running at record highs in the aftermath of the pandemic. We've barely begun to make up the shortfalls. Strikes are making it so much worse.

We've barely begun to make up the shortfalls. Strikes are making it so much worse, writes Carmelah Jacobs. Pictured: A nurse walks through an NHS hospital ward

Of course, most hospitals are doing everything they can to reschedule appointments, but the awful truth is that some people are likely to be in pain for longer because of the industrial action.

Others will have to wait longer for diagnoses and treatment. And across the country, with more than half a million appointments and operations cancelled, it's possible that some people will die as a direct result of these strikes.

READ MORE HERE: A strike goes against what it means to be a nurse. I beg my colleagues to think again, writes NHS staff nurse CARMELAH JACOBS Advertisement

Most nurses know this and are deeply concerned by it.

Yet the strikes risk painting nurses as unsympathetic, heartless and greedy, which is manifestly unfair.

Quite simply, most nurses want to do their jobs - it is the unions that are making it harder for them.

The RCN must think again. If its activists insist on negotiating for better conditions for nurses, let them continue to do so while nurses are back at work tending to patients. This crisis has to come to an end.

Suffered

Twenty years ago, I followed my mother into the nursing profession, and I've striven all my working life to live up to her standards. I know that many of my colleagues have similar stories.

For me, it's especially personal, because my inspirational mother died last year, surrounded by the best nursing care possible. I'll always be grateful for the tender support I was shown.

The thought that other people might have to go through what my family suffered, but will be denied that care because of the strikes, is unbearable.

I'm not alone. Dr Peter Carter, the former leader of the RCN, says he has been bombarded with messages from nurses who are furious at the strikes.

The outpouring of love and support for NHS staff during the pandemic makes it clear that Britain backs its nurses to the hilt.

Strikes are a terrible response to that support. There must be a better way.
Royals should be the epitome of grace and composure while travelling the world on official outings.

But even the most refined members of the Royal Family have been left flustered after their skirts have blown up in an unexpected gust of wind.

In an attempt to preserve the late Queen's modesty while battling the elements, her personal dressmaker was left looking for a solution.

Stewart Parvin, the late monarch's favourite couturier, revealed that he would sew curtain weights into the hems of the Queen's dresses to keep them in place.

The Queen would have curtain weights sewn into the hems of her dresses so they would not fly up in the wind

On her first royal tour, the flimsy skirt of Kate's yellow Jenny Packham dress was left fluttering in the gusts encircling Calgary Airport runway in Canada

The Queen almost lost her hat during strong winds at a welcoming ceremony while on a State Visit to Oman in 1979

Measuring just over an inch across and weighing less than an ounce, the nifty weights were sourced from the Chelsea department store Peter Jones at a cost of just 1.50 for four.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Stewart previously explained: 'I just pop a couple of weights into the hemline of her dresses and coats and it makes them hang beautifully.

'If there is a flap in the coat then I will sew in one on each side of the split to even it up.

'And sometimes if she is wearing a lightweight chiffon skirt I will sew in a smaller lead weight the size of a pea or even a length of chain.'

The Queen was also snapped holding onto her hat in blustery weather but explaining why the hats don't blow off, Stewart added: 'We make old-fashioned hat pins with the heads covered in the same fabric as the hat itself, so you cannot see them.'

Other royals have not been as lucky as the Queen in her pursuit of avoiding flyaway skirts and the Princess of Wales has been caught having a 'Marilyn moment' more than once.

The Princess of Wales found herself repeatedly battling to stop her dress flapping in the breeze as she laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Delhi in 2016

The giggling princess held down her pink dress as she attended the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in 2018

Kate holds down her dress as she disembarks from a plane at Wellington Airport, New Zealand in 2014

The Princess has since moved away from the shorter, flimsy skirts that might bring 'wardrobe malfunctions'

On her first royal tour, the flimsy skirt of Kate's yellow Jenny Packham dress was left fluttering in the gusts encircling Calgary Airport runway in Canada, prompting the designer to say she would also start using weights in her designs.

'I had a little handwritten letter from a lady in Wisconsin passionately criticising me for the primrose yellow shift dress I made for the duchess,' Packham told the Evening Standard at the time.

'She said didn't I know about putting weights around the bottom of a hem so it can't blow up?

'Well, I didn't know it was going to be worn on a windy runway - but I did think maybe in future I will put in more weighting, just in case...'

Queen Camilla's sapphire coat dress was whipped up by the wind as she stepped out of her vehicle to attend the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey this year

She faced a similar difficulty when she arrived for the christening of Princess Charlotte in 2015

Princess Anne could not help her dress floating up in the wind in 1992

The Duchess of Edinburgh's skirt was left fluttering as she attended the service of celebration for the 60th anniversary of the Queen's Coronation in 2013

Lady Sarah Chatto held down her long flyaway skirt as she attended the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in 2018

Princess Diana's pink Catherine Walker dress with a pleated skirt was blowing in the wind as she disembarked from a helicopter in 1985

This wasn't the only time the wind distracted from the Princess' sartorial look. In 2013, her polka dot Topshop dress flew up in the wind at the Hertfordshire-based Warner Bros Studios before executing the same malfunction at a wedding the following month.

Not sure what to save first, the Princess was pictured clutching onto her hat while her skirt was left fluttering in the breeze.

Queen Camilla was caught up in a similar slip-up at the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey this year when her sapphire coat dress by Fiona Clare was whipped up as she stepped out of her vehicle.

Meanwhile Kate's tighter-fitting midi skirt by Erdem left her less prone to exposure at the event.

The Duchess of Sussex's hair was blowing in the wind at a ceremony to open a bridge in Widnes in 2018

Zara Tindall's white dress was floating in a gust of wind as she spoke to her husband, Mike and the Duchess of Edinburgh at Ascot in 2017

Queen maxima of the Netherlands' colourful dress was blown in a gust of wind at a ceremony in 2014 to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden (centre right) had to hold her skirt down in the wind at a celebration for her 30th birthday in 2007

The Duchess of York (left) and her daughter, Princess Eugenie (right), have had to manage as their skirts have been left blowing in the wind

In 2014, it was reported that the Princess would start wearing dresses with lower hemlines in a regal makeover supported by the late Queen to promote her image as a senior royal.

Etiquette expert Myka Meier revealed that Kate and Meghan Markle adopt the trick of wearing undergarments that will stick to their skirts with static to prevent their skirts flying up.

She told The Sun: 'Often they wear body suits and clothes that actually increase static so its much hard for something to fly up.

'So you have an under garment that is almost like a body suit that is one tactic that is used.'
The Royal Mint has issued a set of commemorative coins to mark the Coronation of King Charles on Saturday.

Featuring the first portrait of the King wearing a crown, the coins come at a range of weights and prices from an affordable silver 50p coin on sale at 11.00 to an extraordinary collector's piece containing one kilogram of gold at more than 77,000.

The tradition of striking commemorative coins goes back to King Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria, who came to the throne in 1901.

Monarchs before him had produced commemorative medals instead.

Here we look at the new King Charles collection - and the commemorative coins that went before.

King Charles's effigy, designed by artist and sculptor Martin Jennings, appears on the new range of coins and is the first image of the crowned king

The Royal Mint's new Coronation coins range in price from 11 to more than 77,000

King Charles III, 2022

The King's portrait was designed by artist and sculptor Martin Jennings, and shows him wearing the Tudor Crown.

This in itself is a curiosity. The Tudor crown was personally selected by the King, yet no longer exists, having been melted down by Parliamentary forces in the 1640s.

The 50p coin, priced at 11 features a drawing of Westminster Abbey by the Royal Mint's resident designer, Natasha Jenkins.

And, at 14.50, the 5 coin features a design by Timothy Noad, showing the Coronation Regalia - the sacred and symbolic objects used in the coronation ceremony - and the St Edward's Crown.

One ounce silver coins (containing one Troy ounce of silver) cost 99.50. They crowned portrait of the King on one side and an intricate design by John Bergdahl on the other.

Other coins on offer include a gold 1/40th of an ounce coin at 85 and a limited edition 2 ounce silver coin at 190.

Collectors are also being offered a range of limited edition pieces in display boxes, the most expensive of which are a 5 oz gold coin at 12,725 and a 1 kilogram gold coin on sale at an eye-watering 77,565.

The final coin in the range, The Sovereign, will only be available in a limited number and will be struck on Saturday, the day of the Coronation itself.

The intricately designed reverse the most expensive coin in the range. Only 15 of the 1kg pieces have been struck and they cost more than 77,000 each

The two sides of a 50 pence commemorative coin by Natasha Jenkins, issued to celebrate the upcoming Coronation of King Charles III at the Royal Mint

The two sides of the five pound commemorative coin issued to celebrate the King's coronation. The reverse is designed by Timothy Noad

The range, specifically made for the coronation, will be the first crowned effigy of His Majesty to feature on a coin and will be reserved for special collections moving forward.

Rebecca Morgan, the director of collector services at the Royal Mint, said: 'The Coronation range is a celebration of the Coronation and His Majesty The King's formal investiture, exhibiting exemplary British craftsmanship, with a range of price points making it accessible for all.

'We're particularly excited to unveil the unique crowned effigy, making this range highly collectable and a wonderful keepsake of such a historic occasion.'

The 50p coins became available to buy from 9am on April 24 for between 11 and 1,220, while the 5 coins are priced between 14.50 and 2,995.

Queen Elizabeth II, 1952 - 2022

Elizabeth II, the eldest daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, became Queen on February 6, 1952, following the death of her father.

Her coronation took place on June 2, 1953, at Westminster Abbey, London.

The late Queen Elizabeth became the world's longest-reigning sovereign in British history and the first to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee in 2022, surpassing her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria.

The 1953 crown was the first UK commemorative coin issued by the Royal Mint during Queen Elizabeth II's reign, however, it was only released in a limited capacity and was not issued into general circulation.

The commemorative coin, designed by sculptor Gilbert Ledward, features a unique photograph of the Queen riding on horseback. The inscription, taken from the coronation oath, reads: 'Faith and Truth I will Bear Unto You'.

Its reverse shows a crown in the centre of an emblematic cross formed from a thistle, rose, leek and shamrock.

The 1953 commemorative coin, designed by sculptor Gilbert Ledward, features an image of the Queen riding on horseback. The reverse shows the shields of the four nations

Queen Elizabeth's coronation took place on June 2, 1953, at Westminster Abbey, London

King George VI, 1936 - 1952

King George VI acceded to the Throne on 11 December 1936 following the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII.

While a coronation date of May 12, 1937, had already been put in place for Edward, when he stepped down to marry Wallis Simpson, the new King kept the same date.

At the ceremony that took place in Westminster Abbey, the King was anointed and crowned, before a shorter and simpler ceremony took place for the Coronation of his wife, Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother).

A four-part coin set collection was made to celebrate the King's Coronation, including the Five Pound (sometimes known as a Quintuple Sovereign), a Double Sovereign, a Full Sovereign, and a Half-Sovereign. They were struck in 1937.

Each of these coins displayed the same images, and the design shows a portrait of the King with and St George and the Dragon by Italian Pistrucci on the other side.

A four-part coin set collection was made to celebrate King George VI's coronation in 1937, following the abdication of his brother Edward VIII

Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth, Princess Margaret Rose and King George VI standing on the balcony in Buckingham Palace following the coronation

King George V, 1910 - 1936

Following the death of his father, King Edward VII, The then Prince was proclaimed King George V on May 6, 1910.

The King's Coronation took place the following year on June 22, 1911, at Westminster Abbey.

To celebrate King George's Coronation, a proof gold and silver 'short' set were released the same year. The collection contains 10 coins in total, the gold Sovereign and Half-Sovereign, silver Half Crown, Florin, Shilling, Sixpence and Maundy Set.

The original coin featured George Vs portrait by Bertram Mackennal and St George and the dragon on the reverse.

Following the passing of his father, King Edward VII, George V became King on May 6, 1910

King Edward VII, 1901 - 1910

The eldest son of Queen Victoria, Edward VII succeeded to the throne in 1901.

While his conation date was set for June 26, 1902, however, the King suffered from appendicitis a few days beforehand and developed life-threatening peritonitis.

A new date was chosen for August 9 and the service went ahead as planned.

The official coronation Medallion of King Edward VII was struck in 1202 by the Royal Mint and was produced in two sizes, and three metals, gold, silver and copper.

The portrait of Edward VII in his coronation robes by George William de Saulles is shown on the front, and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, appears on the reverse, crowned, veiled and draped.

These medallions are found with the two different Coronation dates because the first had been postponed.
Mr Gbajabiamila also said the House would revisit the law that made the NEMA the agency responsible for taking charge of evacuations for a possible review.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, says the House will investigate the hard diplomatic stance of the Egyptian authorities in denying access to Nigerians fleeing war-ravaged Sudan.

Mr Gbajabiamila stated this on Tuesday during a meeting with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubair Dada; Director General, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs Social Development, Nasir Gwarzo; and other officials of government.

The meeting was held at the National Assembly complex.

While reacting to the situation report on the ongoing evacuation, Mr Gbajabiamila expressed dissatisfaction with the attitude of the Egyptians during the evacuation.

"It is also heart-warming that borders are now open in Egypt. But we will take it up in parliament to find out why they didn't open the borders in time, especially in a period of crisis like this.

"We are happy that all 5,500 Nigerians willing to leave Khartoum have been evacuated and are on their way home to Nigeria," he said.

Mr Gbajabiamila also said the House would revisit the law that made the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) the agency responsible for taking charge of such evacuations for a possible review.

The speaker said this has become necessary due to the lapses observed in the current evacuation operations as seen in the overlapping roles of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs; Humanitarian, Disaster Management and Social Development; the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM); and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

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Giving the details of the evacuation operations, Mr Gwarzo stated that though Nigeria responded immediately to the situation by using a multi-sectoral approach involving his ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NiDCOM, the plans faced some initial challenges.

He said the isolation of Sudan as a country from the outside world with loose financial operations made it difficult to move funds easily for emergencies.

Mr Gwarzo added that the initial hitches had been addressed, saying that all Nigerians willing to return home had been evacuated by buses to Port Sudan, from where they would be air-lifted.

"Our work is 24 hours on and we are in contact with all student groups.

"Some of the videos you see on social media are a bit exaggerated and most of the issues have been well taken care of already", the permanent secretary said.

He added that up to five airlines, including a Sudanese carrier, would be involved in the air-lifting, while another option of travelling by naval vessels within a seven-day duration was also being considered.

NEMA had announced that the first batch of 1,600 Nigerians evacuated were expected to arrive in Abuja last Friday. They were however not allowed to cross Egypt's border with Sudan

However, the Nigerian government on Monday said the Egyptian authorities had opened their country's border for 5,500 Nigerians fleeing Sudan to cross following the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Among the many magnificent jewels on display for Saturday's Coronation, there is one that will play a particularly dazzling role.

No fewer than five pieces of the worlds biggest diamond, the Cullinan, will be glittering among the Royal regalia at Westminster Abbey, with parts set into the Sovereigns Sceptre, the Imperial State Crown and Queen Marys Crown, which will be used to crown Queen Camilla.

The diamond was 3,106 carats, and the size of half a house brick or a human heart when it was first discovered - so implausibly huge that a South African mine worker threw it out of the window, thinking it was rubbish.

Yet since its discovery, gemmologists have believed the enormous diamond that we know about was only half of an even bigger gemstone and that the rest of it has been missing in the sunbaked earth of South Africas Transvaal  either lost or stolen  for more than a century.

One of the gems cut from the Cullinan diamond features in the Imperial State Crown. The late Queen is pictured wearing the crown for the State Opening of Parliament

Three Cullinan gems will take the place of the Koh-i-Noor diamond in Queen Marys Crown which will be worn by Camilla for the Coronation

Thomas Cullinan is pictured holding the world's biggest diamond after it was discovered at his mine in South Africa

The true story of the Cullinan, found in 1905, is one of mystery, malice and maybe even murder. It sparked a treasure hunt without parallel and stories of a curse on whoever took it from the African earth.

It starts on a sticky summers evening at the Premier Mine near Pretoria when Surface Manager Frederick Wells was getting ready to go home. A worker raced into his makeshift office saying hed spotted something protruding from the earthen wall of the mine.

Using his pocket knife, Fred prodded at the object from where it protruded 18ft below the surface. At first, he thought that someone was playing a trick on him  that it was a large lump of glass  but brushing off the dirt and dust, he realised that he had unearthed an enormous diamond.

Back in the mine office a worker laughed at Fred's claim, and threw it out of the window; but the gemstone was quickly retrieved then weighed and measured. It was more than half a kilo, and ten centimetres long!

Senior manager William McHardy, telegrammed mine owner Thomas Cullinan who also suspected the discovery was a prank. 'I am sure it is just a crystal,' he said to his wife.

Within hours, the story was swirling through the simple homes of the mining compound. And within days, it had reached the rest of world. Newspapers across Africa, Europe and America printed extra copies to satisfy the public demand for news.

Almost a week after the find, on February 1, 1905, the diamond left the mine for Johannesburg where it was exhibited at The Standard Bank. Soon, though, the Premier Mine Company realised they now had a problem: the diamond was simply too valuable to keep in South Africa.

What followed was an operation to smuggle it to London which could have come straight from the pages of a Wilbur Smith novel.

The Cullinan was hidden in a hat box belonging to the wife of a senior employee of the South African postal service and transported by steam train from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Then it was put in the regular parcel post and secretly mailed back to London while on the same ship, a worthless rock was packed into a biscuit box, locked in the Captains safe, and placed under 24-hour armed guard.

No one, instructed Thomas Cullinan, was to be trusted.

Joseph Asscher, pictured in 1908, spent eight months splitting and cutting the Cullinan diamond

The Cullinan was officially accepted by the King in 1907 as a present for his 66th birthday and it was split into the nine principal pieces which are now among the Royal familys most valuable and prized jewels

After the diamond was found, there had been an operation to smuggle it to London as it was too valuable to keep in South Africa

The largest Cullinans will play a starring role in the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Saturday 6th May

The diamond arrived in the UK in early April 1905, but proved too big to sell. In 1907, General Louis Botha, the newly elected Prime Minister of the Transvaal, suggested buying it and gifting it to King Edward VII (still then the King of South Africa) as a token of their loyalty.

It was a controversial offer, but the Cullinan was officially accepted by the King as a present for his 66th birthday. On November 9, 1907, it travelled to the royal railway station at Wolferton near Sandringham, in a First Class carriage with a huge police escort, to be presented to the Royal family.

Finally, it would cross the North Sea to Amsterdam in the coat pocket of Abraham Asscher, scion of the worlds best diamond cutting family  as the Royal Navy ran a decoy operation with a sealed box on board a warship.

It would take Abrahams brother Joseph Asscher eight months to split and cut the diamond into the nine principal pieces, Cullinan I to Cullinan IX, which are now among the Royal familys most valuable and much-prized jewels.

The rest is history  as we shall see when the five largest Cullinans play a starring role in the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Saturday 6th May.

Or is it?

One hot dusty January day, 104 years after the discovery of the diamond, I arrived in the picturesque town of Cullinan, with its main street lined by jacaranda trees and cute cottages.

I had booked myself onto a tour of the mine and village and had a wonderful time listening to an elderly lady whose husbands ancestors had been the Prinsloo family, the farmers from whom Thomas Cullinan had bought the koppie (hill) where hed opened his mine.

While having a cup of tea, the lady proudly told me, as if it were a secret, that even though their land had turned up the largest diamond in the world, the true Cullinan had once been bigger, much, much bigger.

Mary of Teck, wife of King George V, would wear a triangular-pear cut diamond weighing 18.80 carats that was part of a stomacher

One of the original glass replicas of the rough diamond at the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge

I assumed this was a myth. But a year later, when I started research for my debut novel - the first of a mystery series about jewels - I looked again at this extraordinary story.

I began with the work of Gustaaf Molengraaff, the former State Geologist of South Africa whod been tasked with examining the Cullinan and valuing it on behalf of Central Bank of South Africa. He was the first expert to suggest the diamond was only a fragment of a colossal crystal.

Diamonds grow mostly into an octahedral shape  two square pyramids back to back. Since four of the eight sides of the Cullinan were smooth, as opposed to misshapen and rough, Dr Molengraaff deduced that it had been part of something bigger when it was catapulted from the earths upper mantle, where diamonds are formed, and upwards through whats called a volcanic chimney, or diamond pipe, to the surface of the earth.

Queen Victorias favoured gemmologist Sir William Crookes, who examined the Cullinan when it arrived in London and agreed with the verdict from Johannesburg  that it had cleaved from a bigger crystal.

Sir William, later president of the Royal Society, said the stone given to the King represented probably less than one half of the original octahedral crystal.

I also found evidence from George Frederick Kunz, a mineralogist and vice president of Tiffany and Co, who concurred with Sir William but added that, in his expert opinion, the other half may have fragmented into several still-enormous diamonds.

All of which suggests the original Cullinan had been a mighty 7,000 carats or more when it was expelled from deep within the earth by a volcanic eruption.

But there my trail grew cold.

In 2012, I tried to pick it up again. I wrote to Lord Balfour, then aged 88, asking if he knew of any other evidence which might help me substantiate the story.

He wrote back saying South African historians Eric Rosenthal and Hedley Chilvers had both independently recorded versions of it  and, after much searching in the British Library, I located their work which I believe is the closest we have ever come to knowing the truth.

The late Queen is pictured after her Coronation in 1953 holding the sceptre and wearing the Imperial State Crown

It appears that in late 1907, a Premier Mine worker called Johannes Paulus let it be known hed found a diamond even larger than the one that had just been given to the King. He wanted 2000 Rand in gold (154,000 in todays money) for it.

A former farmer and reformed convict, Johannes Hendrikus Fourie, then working as an informer for the Pretoria police, heard of Pauluss boast and began making enquiries within the corrupt and dangerous world of diamond smuggling and thieving.

A Dr Van Wijk said that he knew Paulus, and it was arranged for the two men to meet at midnight, out on a lonely patch of veld near the Premier Mine, accompanied by a Detective Inspector Hill.

When Paulus arrived, he was surprised to find three men awaiting him, rather than just Fourie. Suspicious, he asked to see the gold  but when he thrust his hand into the sovereigns, he realised it was a bag full of washers beneath a surface layer of gold. He had walked into a trap.

To allay his fear, a document was quickly written out on the policemans notepaper guaranteeing that if Paulus was to hand over the stolen diamond, the mining company would offer him an amnesty. He would not be prosecuted and he would be paid the agreed amount.

Paulus did not believe the offer was genuine and fled into the night  taking the diamond with him.

The Detective Inspector later reported he had seen the stone and that one side was indeed flat and smooth  in other words, a cleavage plain just like those on the Cullinan.

Johannes Paulus was never heard of or seen again.

Fourie was said to have become obsessed with the hunt, spending months sitting in the Premier Mine pub hoping for clues as to the whereabouts of Paulus.

Of course, legend of the cursed diamond did not end the treasure hunt. A report from the New York Times on December 19, 1909 asked Where is the Cullinans Other Half, and captured the ongoing frenzy of press and public interest four years after the discovery of the original.

South Africans still busy in search for famous diamond, ran the headline, adding: Its not impossible that the broken-off fragments of the Cullinan are scattered over a wide space and that they may one day be found on the surface of the earth but it is just as possible that they are still reposing in the depths of the mine.

More than a century later, itll be a very lucky person indeed who finds them.

Cullinan I

The Cullinan I, known as the Great Star of Africa, was mounted in the Sovereigns Sceptre by Garrard

The stone, known as the Great Star of Africa, is the largest colourless cut diamond in the world. Part of the Crown Jewels collection, it is usually on display in the Tower of London, but has a central role to play at next months Coronation.

In 1911, it was mounted in the Sovereigns Sceptre by Garrard, the then Crown Jeweller, and is so large that the Sceptre  which was made for Charles IIs coronation in 1661  had to be reinforced to take its weight.

Cullinan II

The Cullinan II, often referred to the Second Star of Africa, is set below the Black Princes Ruby at the front of the Imperial State Crown

Like the first Cullinan stone, this diamond is also a part of the Crown Jewels, and is often referred to the Second Star of Africa.

The 317.4-carat cushion-cut stone is set below the Black Princes Ruby at the front of the Imperial State Crown. This will be exchanged with St Edwards Crown during the Coronation ceremony, worn for the Kings departure from the Abbey for his Coronation Procession and then his appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony.

Cullinans III and IV

The Cullinan III  a 94.4-carat pear-shaped diamond  and the Cullinan IV, a 63.6-carat cushion-shaped diamond, are normally joined together in an impressive brooch

The two Lesser Stars of Africa are being reset for the Coronation in Queen Marys Crown, with which Queen Camilla will be crowned

Part of Queen Elizabeth IIs private collection, the Cullinan III  a 94.4-carat pear-shaped diamond  and the Cullinan IV, a 63.6-carat cushion-shaped diamond, are normally joined together in an impressive brooch. The late Queen jokingly called them Grannys Chips, because she inherited them from her grandmother, Queen Mary.

However, the two Lesser Stars of Africa are being reset for the Coronation, in Queen Marys Crown, with which Queen Camilla will be crowned. The gems will take the place of the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

Cullinan V

The Cullinan V is a triangular-pear cut diamond weighing 18.80 carats that was part of a stomacher worn by Queen Mary

It is now usually set in a brooch, which was worn by Her late Majesty and will also appear at the Coronation in the Queen Mary's Crown

A triangular-pear cut diamond weighing 18.80 carats that was part of a stomacher worn by Queen Mary  a stomacher was an enormous brooch that covered the abdomen. Now usually set in a brooch, which was worn by Her late Majesty, it too will appear at the Coronation in the Queen Marys Crown.

Cullinans VI and VIII

An 11.50 carat, marquise-cut stone, Cullinan VI was purchased in 1908 by King Edward as a gift for his wife, Queen Alexandra and she generally wore it as the pendant to Cullinan VIII

More than any other Cullinan gem, VI was the one worn most often by the young Queen Elizabeth II, though she later declared that, as a brooch, it gets in the soup

An 11.50 carat, marquise-cut stone, Cullinan VI was purchased in 1908 by King Edward as a gift for his wife, Queen Alexandra. She generally wore it as the pendant to Cullinan VIII and latterly in a small circlet when she became a widow.

When Queen Mary inherited it in 1925, she preferred to wear Cullinan VI in a brooch, either with Cullinan VII or VIII, an emerald-cut diamond of 6.8 carats, as a brooch.

More than any other Cullinan gem, VI was the one worn most often by the young Queen Elizabeth II, though she later declared that, as a brooch, it gets in the soup.

Cullinan VII

The Cullinan VII is an 8.8-carat marquise-cut diamond set as a pendant hanging from the diamond and emerald-set Delhi Durbar necklace

The late Queen is pictured wearing the necklace for a state banquet in Singapore in 1989

This 8.8-carat marquise-cut diamond is set as a pendant hanging from the diamond and emerald-set Delhi Durbar necklace, once part of the late Queen Elizabeths personal collection. Created by Garrard for the coronation of George V and Mary as the Emperor and Empress of India in Delhi, the diamond is detachable and can be reset in a brooch.

Cullinan IX

The Cullinan IX, the smallest of the nine principal stones cut from the Cullinan, was set in a ring with a prong setting for Queen Mary

The smallest of the nine principal stones cut from the Cullinan, this pear-shaped diamond was set in a ring with a prong setting for Queen Mary. The late Queen Elizabeth sometimes wore it, but it has rarely been seen on modern Royals.

*Josie Goodbodys novel The Cullinan Diamond Connection: A Jemima Fox Mystery will be available later this year
This year more influencers were absent, but Emma Chamberlain attended

The who's who of A-listers and fashion industry darlings walked the red carpet at this year's Met Gala hosted by Vogue's long-reigning editor Anna Wintour.

And famously she keeps a tight leash on who makes it onto the ultra-exclusive guest list, but in the past couple of years she's been criticized for loosening up too much.

Ahead of 2021's annual event, one celebrity agent told Page Six those who were on and off the list for that year's gala had put traditional celebrities off going as many influencers had been included.

But after a few years of influencers making up the guest list on the red carpet - including Chiara Ferragni, Liza Koshy, Lilly Singh, James Charles, Addison Rae, NikkieTutorials, Dixie D'Amelio and Avani Gregg - it seems Anna and the committee have cut back on how many internet stars are in attendance.

The who's who of A-listers and fashion industry darlings walked the red carpet at this year's Met Gala hosted by Anna Wintour. Pictured is Emma Chamberlain at Monday's event

Of her first Met Gala experience, Emma (pictured left in 2021 and right in 2022) compared it to going to prom, a life event she hadn't ticked off the list herself

The most notable influencer at this year's Met Gala was YouTuber and It Girl Emma Chamberlain who reprised her role as a red carpet interviewer for Vogue.

Of her first Met Gala experience, Emma compared it to going to prom, a life event she hadn't ticked off the list herself after her YouTube career took off when she was 16.

'Actually this kind of feels like going to prom, because of the nerves,' she told Vogue at the time.

'You're not that scared, but you're excited. This is my prom experience.'

With a smaller numbers of influencers attending the Met Gala, TikTok hosted a watch party for creators.

One creator who was in attendance at New York rooftop bar Dear Irving, where the watch party was held, was Jenee, who is better known as @highlowluxxe on the video-sharing platform.

She uploaded a get-ready-with-me video on her TikTok as well as footage from inside the party, with its location boasting stellar views of Manhattan.

Jenee also appeared alongside influencers Carla Rockmore, Caroline Vazzana, Pierrah and Eric Sedeno in an InStyle TikTok video at the event.

Another creator Hannah Harrell also attended a TikTok watch party and posted about her process of choosing an outfit on her account.

One creator who was in attendance at TikTok's Met Gala watch party was Jenee, who is better known as @highlowluxxe on the video-sharing platform

Jenee (pictured) also appeared alongside influencers Carla Rockmore, Caroline Vazzana, Pierrah and Eric Sedeno in an InStyle TikTok video at the event

TikTok creator Addison Rae made her Met Gala debut in 2021, but she also attended last year

Liza Koshy has attended for a number of years as well (pictured left in 2018) and Dixie D'Amelio (right) was also invited in 2021

Lilly Singh was another internet-famous celeb who attended the gala in 2019

In 2021, when the Met Gala was held in September due to COVID (it's traditionally held on the first Monday in May), NikkieTutorials gushed about being invited to the the gala.

'PAY IT NO MIND... when I got asked to join the Met Gala(!!!!!) I knew I wanted to pay homage to a trans icon who was at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots Marsha P. Johnson paved the way for so many of us, and I hope I made my community proud tonight,' the trans influencer said.

'This night has been so incredibly surreal. I can't wait to tell you EVERYTHING!!!!!!... WE DID IT GUYS!!!!!!!!... I'll forever be so grateful!'

That same year, Addison Rae made her Met Gala debut and was there again in 2022.

'I wrote about this in my dream journal. I am so grateful. Thank you,' she wrote simply after walking the red carpet for the first time.

James strut the red carpet in 2019, writing at the time: 'My first met gala... thank you so much @youtube for inviting me and @alexanderwangny for dressing me!

'Being invited to such an important event like the ball is such an honor and a step forward in the right direction for influencer representation in the media and I am so excited to be a catalyst.'

James Charles wears Alexander Wang to the 2019 Met Gala (left) and in 2021, NikkieTutorials (right) stunned the carpet with her ode to Marsha P. Johnson

Another repeat attendee is influencer Chiara Ferragni (left in 2022) and TikTok makeup guru Avani Gregg (right) appeared at the event in 2021

Try Guys YouTuber Eugene Lee Yang attends the Met Gala celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2021

That same year YouTuber Jackie Aina also graced the red carpet in this hot-pink number

One of the first influencers to be invited was Liza Koshy who also acted as Vogue's red carpet interviewer for the event in previous years, starting with her 2018 debut.

'Thank you to @voguemagazine and @annawintour for dressing these little brown buns (or not),' she wrote at the time.

'It was an honor, a blessing and a sweaty dream to be Vogue's interviewer at the Met Gala's Red Carpet. Rihanna, J-Lo, Ariana... y'all looked good, but standing next to me, you looked even better. you're welcome.'

And it seems the industry's elite have been taking note of the flood of internet stars, with one celebrity agent telling Page Six back in 2019: 'I've been told that a lot of influencers are on the guest list.

'I've heard that Facebook and Instagram have taken so many tables, and that's put a lot of people off going, alongside the mask mandate.

'Personally, I don't think the Met is cool anymore It's gone from super prestigious to [being] full of influencers.'

Anna has faced scrutiny over the years for inviting Kim Kardashian, who is arguably the original influencer, and her family, including sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner.

She's also had to defend putting Kim and her then-husband, Kanye West, on the cover of the fashion tome in 2014.

'Part of the pleasure of editing Vogue, one that lies in a long tradition of this magazine, is being able to feature those who define the culture at any given moment, who stir things up, whose presence in the world shapes the way it looks and influences the way we see it,' Anna wrote in the issue.

'I think we can all agree on the fact that that role is currently being played by Kim and Kanye to a T. (Or perhaps that should be to a K?)'
A crime reporter has revealed why you shouldn't immediately get out of your car after a fender bender, saying the driver who hit you may have a nefarious ulterior motive.

Lori Fullbright, 57, has covered crime for News On 6 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the past 31 years, interviewing countless victims and perpetrators over the course of her career.

The evening news anchor has more than 118,000 followers on TikTok, where she uses her knowledge of criminals and their behavior to share potentially life-saving tips.

Fullbright went viral this week when she detailed what you should do when another driver hits you from behind in traffic.

'Sometimes it's just a fender bender, but sometimes a person will use that to get you to pull over, so they can do something bad to you,' she explained.

Crime reporter Lori Fullbright, 57, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, went viral on TikTok after sharing why you shouldn't immediately get out of your car after being hit from behind

The anchor has covered crime for News On 6 for the past 31 years, interviewing countless victims and perpetrators over the course of her career

The journalist recalled covering a story about a teenage girl who was brutally murdered after being hit from behind in an unpopulated area.

Fullbright shared how the teen had called her family and was warned to stay inside her car, but she insisted she would be fine.

'When police officers do get to the scene, her car is the only one that's there. The door is opened. Her purse is inside, and, of course, her body was found days later in a cemetery,' she said.

Fullbright did not name the victim, but viewers believed she was referring to 19-year-old Amanda Morton, who was abducted, raped, and murdered by David Zink in Missouri in 2001.

'Obviously, if you get bumped from behind, and it's a very well-populated area, lots of people, lots of traffic, and it's broad daylight, then you can feel safer pulling over,' she said.

'You could still call 911 and say, "I've been hit from behind. I don't feel safe. Could you send an officer?" And they can do that.'

Fullbright advised calling 911 first and then a family member, insisting there is nothing wrong with staying in your car until help arrives.

Fullbright recalled covering a story about a teenage girl who was brutally murdered after a man hit from behind in an unpopulated area

Fullbright stressed that you are 'perfectly in your rights' to stay in your car with the windows up and the doors locked while you wait for help after a fender bender

Fullbright's eye-opening video has been viewed one million times and has received more than 1,600 comments in just three days

'You can keep those windows up, keep those doors locked, and you could say to the person, "I've called the cops. I will get out when they get here,"' she said.

'I think it's perfectly okay to do that because you don't know what someone's motive is, and we have seen these little bumps from behind be used for worse purposes.'

She reiterated that it likely would just be a fender bender, but it was a 'good idea' to have a plan in place ahead of time.

'You're perfectly in your rights to pull over, stay in your car with your windows up and doors locked, call 911, call family members, and not get out at that moment and exchange information,' she concluded.

Fullbright's eye-opening video has been viewed one million times and has received more than 1,600 comments in just three days.

'What? New fear unlocked,' one person wrote.

'Thank you for this information,' someone else added. 'The first thing I would do is to get out of the vehicle. Not anymore. Your content is valuable [and] will save lives.'

'Very true, happened to me... I had a feeling I never had before, "a doom feeling,"' someone else recalled. 'Something told me not to get out, I did not, they sped off...'
A money conscious driver claims he has found a fool-proof way to avoid paying parking fines - and notes it could save people hundreds of dollars.

The driver, known only as Jack, shared that parking tickets issues by private companies aren't legally enforceable, and can be thrown away and ignored.

'Guys you do not have to pay a parking ticket issued to you by a private parking company,' he explained.

'If you get one of these on your dashboard and its not issues to you by police or your local council then you can kindly grab that parking fine and wipe your behind with it.'

But others have criticised his 'fool-proof' method and claim it isn't without risk.

'I tried not paying and they put debt collectors onto me lol how do you just not pay won't it ruin your credit if there is collections?' one person warned.

But the Melbourne-based runner held firm.

'It is technically not legally enforceable, its not a fine, its a breach notice,' he added.

He added the companies 'cannot do anything to you legally' and have 'no right to your personal data' including your 'address or license number'.

'They can't issue you an official legal penalty or follow this up any further,' he added in the now viral TikTok.

'You can take the ticket and throw it in the bin, you do not have to pay it, hope this helps,' he added.

A savvy driver has revealed a sure-fire way to always get out of parking tickets - much to the amazement of many motorists

Under Australian law, only courts and governments can charge and impose parking penalties.

This means private companies cannot issue fines.

Queensland's Transport Minister Mark Bailey recently advised motorists to not pay invoices from private parking operators.

The politician added that he's looking to 'stamp out' the practice and that motorists are being 'ripped off'.

'I'll be asking my department to review the situation and [be] working with other departments to find a solution because we can't have Queenslanders being scared into a rip-off,' he told ABC in January.

'The advice I've been given is it is illegal to fine people in a private car park.'

The driver, known only as Jack, shared that parking tickets issues by private companies aren't legally enforceable, and can be thrown away and ignored

Currently, a person parking on private property is a trespasser unless the owner of the land has given permission to park there, according to Australian Law Firm Holding Redlich.

Unless there is an obvious 'no parking' sign or restriction such as a gate, this permission is implied.

As such, any claims made by private companies must be based on trespass and claimed for general damages.

Many Aussies were shocked by the advice, while others shared their stories about not playing parking tickets.

'I've chucked out maybe around 400 + of these,' one person wrote.

'As a employee of one of these companies I can confirm this is fact,' said another.

'Yep, found this out in WA!' commented a third.

'Why didn't I see this before?? I just paid the b******s!' wrote a fourth.

'I've got 27 of these in my glove box,' another wrote.
A property was left in such grimy condition by its fizzy drink addict tenant that professional grimebusters had to be called in to haul away 3ft piles of empty bottles and other waste.

Wayne Moran and cousin Lee Moran were dispatched to clear out a two-bed terraced house near Wigan, Greater Manchester.

But the duo were stunned and they realised the enormity of the task when they were unable to get through the front door, and were forced to tunnel their way in.

The co-owners of ASAP Clearances had to wade through the waist-deep mess throughout the property, consisting of bottles, clothing, household items and rotting food.

The mounds of 'horrendous-smelling' rubbish were so overwhelming in the living room that the sofa was almost completely submerged, with just the headrest peeking out.

The Wigan home (pictured) was filled with piles of rubbish, including a staggering number of plastic drink bottles - both soft drinks and alcoholic ones

The living room (pictured before the grimebusters cleaned it out) was practically submerged in a sea of garbage

Mounds of trash: The rental home was let out, and when the tenant moved, it was left in this state

After two days of back-breaking work that involved hauling rubbish to the tip in four van trips, the pair said they were 'relieved' to see the floor and go home for hot baths.

Wayne, from Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, said: 'The landlord had let it out to somebody and [when they] came back that was in the state it was in.

'I don't know how long they rented it out for. We couldn't get in the front door, we just had to squeeze in.

'We had to start from outside the house and pass things out just to make a space to get in.

'We had to wade our way through each room. [On the sofa] they just left a small gap so they could sit on one seat I think.

'It was up to our waists  about 3ft deep.

There was so much waste in the living room that the room, including the bed, was totally covered in piles of filthy clothing, drink cans, and other detritus

Before and After: It was difficult for the grimebusters to even get into the property, as the hallway (pictured) was packed so full of trash

Grimebusters Lee and Wayne said the garbage filling the house was 'horrendous-smelling' (pictured: master bedroom)

After Wayne and Lee worked their magic, it looked like whole new property, and the floor could finally be seen (pictured: living room)

'There were a lot of different kinds of bottles knocking around - alcoholic ones and fizzy pop ones.

'There was also general food waste, clothes and general household items.'

It wasn't just the living room that was a dumping ground, shocking photos show the kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms filled to the brim with teetering piles of rubbish.

Wayne said: 'The kitchen sink was piled up, there's no way anyone could be washing dishes in there.

'In the bathroom the bath was full of clothes and food. The food was full of flies, it smelt horrendous.

Wayne Moran and cousin Lee Moran (pictured) are professional grimebusters from Manchester. They described this Wigan home as one of the worst they've tackled

Full of rubbish: The two men had to fill four vans with the detritus they removed from the filthy home

'The landlord didn't even want to walk in there and waited at the door.

'The kitchen was the worst room, the floor was thick with cat food wrappers and food waste that had just been walked all over.

'It looks like there was an adult bedroom and a kid's bedroom but I don't know whether there were children staying in there or not.

'It was fairly back-breaking work to get it all out, it was a big job and very hard work.

'It took four full vans to clear it.'

Cleaning expert Wayne said the duo were proud of what they had achieved and once it's undergone a deep clean it can go back on the market.

Cleared: The second bedroom (pictured after being cleared out) was also packed full of junk, just like the rest of the house

The house was barely recognisable after being cleared out. Following the garbage removal, deep cleaners are set to come and finish the clean up (pictured: kitchen)

Wayne said: 'This is probably up there in one of the top five that we've done.

'There was a real sense of satisfaction of getting it clean.

'It was great when the owner came in, she was just so excited that she could put her house on the market.

'We've put her in touch with a company that does deep cleans and they're going to sort it all out for her.

'At the end of the day it was a relief to see the floor and then getting home for a nice hot bath.'
McDonalds celebrates McNuggets 40th birthday by releasing four dips and a brand new burger.

The fast food chain will be launching garlic mayo, chipotle mayo, mega hot sauce, and creamy ranch for a limited time across the UK and Ireland from May 10.

The new dips will be welcomed by fans who have been crying out for new flavours for years.

The brand new Mega Hot Sauce and Garlic Mayo dips will be available from next week, with two more to follow on 31 May.

The burger joint is also launching the new Spicy Big Tasty which is similar to the Big Tasty but with a fiery kick.

McDonalds celebrates McNuggets 40th birthday by releasing four dips and a brand new burger

The spicy version is built with beef patty, made with Emmental cheese, lettuce, bacon, tomato Big Tasty sauce with a jalapeno twist.

It is also bringing back old fan favourites including the classic version of the The Big Tasty burger and halloumi fries.

The four delicious halloumi cheese sticks will be coated in a light batter and served with a rich tomato dip.

And if that wasn't enough the popular Wispa McFlurry will also be making a return.

It's made up of soft dairy ice cream, swirled with Wispa chocolate pieces and a chocolate sauce.

Or fans can opt for a Wispa Gold McFlurry which is made with Wispa chocolate pieces and a Cadbury caramel sauce.

The spicy version of the Big Tasty will feature Emmental cheese, lettuce, bacon, tomato and Big Tasty sauce with a jalapeno twist

The fast-food chain will be launching garlic mayo, chipotle mayo, mega hot sauce, and creamy ranch for a limited time across the UK and Ireland from May 10

The new dips will be welcomed by fans who have been crying out for new flavours for years

The brand new Mega Hot Sauce and Garlic Mayo dips will be available from next week, with two more to follow on 31 May

While another new addition will be coming to the menu as Netflix series Karmas World is becoming a Happy Meal.

Available in all McDonalds restaurants nationwide from May 3 until June 3.

The new promotion sees Karma and her friends encourage joyful family moments with a set of unique journal toys  or the option of a Little People, Big Dreams book.

Featuring the characters of Karma, Winston, Switch, there are eight unique activity journals from Karmas World to collect in a limited-edition Happy Meal box.

Netflix series Karmas World is becoming a Happy Meal, with every box containing a QR code which gives fans the chance to dance along with Karma and her friends as well as an activity journal

Each Happy Meal box also includes a QR code which gives fans the chance to dance along with Karma and her friends.

As part of McDonalds mission to support childrens literacy, it has partnered with Little People Big Dreams, the best-selling biography series for kids by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, throughout 2023.

The book series allows children to discover the lives of outstanding people, from designers and artists to scientists and activists.

Available for around 3.49, a Happy Meal contains a choice of Fish Fingers, Chicken McNuggets or Veggie Dippers with an Apple & Grapefruit Bag, or Carrot Bag side, plus drink options including water, milk, or Fruit Shoot.
Prince Joachim and Princess Marie of Denmark looked all smiles yesterday as they took their children - Count Henrik and Countess Athena - to an aquarium.

The family paid a visit to the Kattegatcentret marine centre in Grena, Denmark on Tuesday, to mark the attraction's 30th anniversary.

The European royals looked delighted to enjoy some family time in their homeland, ahead of their relocation later this year to Washington DC.

Prince Joachim, 53, is set to become the Defence Industry Attache at the Embassy of Denmark in the US city, sparking a new chapter for his family following Queen Margrethe's decision to strip his four children of their Prince/Princess titles.

During their outing to the aquarium, Princess Marie, 47, looked effortlessly elegant for the day trip, opting for a chic black turtleneck and a sage green trouser suit with tapered trousers.

The mother-of-two wore her chestnut tresses down in loose waves and sported a natural make-up look, with a subtle smokey eye and dusky pink lipstick.

Prince Joachim and Princess Marie of Denmark were all smiles as they took their children - Count Henrik and Countess Athena - to spend the day with penguins and other sea life at the Kattegatcentret aquarium in Grena, Denmark

The family were greeted by dozens of well-wishers waving the Danish flag as the royals took time to observe the sea creatures in huge tanks, and were even pictured feeding some penguins.

In another photograph, they donned aprons and gloves to poke and prod what appeared to be a squid.

Prince Joachim, 53, looked relaxed, wearing a simple black suit worn over a checkered shirt. His son Henrik, 13, channelled his father with an equally laid-back look as he sported red trousers, a blue jumper and a collared button-down.

Meanwhile, his little sister Athena looked adorable and ready for adventure in khaki cargos, Converse and a beige turtleneck.

The family was visiting the Kattegatcentret aquarium in Grena, Denmark which was celebrating its 30th anniversary - and changed into sensible coats to meet the penquins

In another shot, the family donned aprons and gloves to poke and prod what appeared to be squid

The European royals looked delighted to observe creatures in the huge tanks and were even pictured feeding some penguins

The family enjoyed a jam-packed day of activities as they visited the aquarium for its 30th anniversary

When it was time to meet the penguins, the whole family swapped their chic jackets out for blue puffers, and their smart shoes for white wellies.

Joachim and Marie grinned as they watched their children excitedly handing the animals their fish.

And it was time for yet another outfit change as the family also enjoyed getting some lab gear on while aquarium staff presented them with a close-up look of sea creatures.

The trip comes after the Danish royals put on a united front last month to mark the 83rd birthday of Queen Margrethe - who underwent back surgery in March -at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen.

It was a tumultuous end to 2022 for the Danish Royal Family after the monarch stripped Prince Joachim's four children of their prince and princess titles - a shocking move which he publicly spoke out against.

She has said the decision was intended to allow Nikolai, 23, Felix, 20 - born from Joachim's first marriage - and Henrik and Athena to live normal lives without royal obligations.

When it was time to frolic with the penguins, the whole family swapped their chic jackets for blue puffers, and their smart shoes for white wellies

Joachim and Marie grinned as they watched their children excitedly handing the animals their fish

Joachim, Marie and their children were excited to join in with the penguin's feeding time at the aquarium

Instead of being Princes and Princesses, they are Counts and Countess and referred to as Their Excellencies - a change which is now reflected on the household's website.

At the time, Joachim publicly spoke out against his mother's decision - claiming that his children had been 'harmed' in the process.

Later this year, the 53-year-old royal, who is sixth in line to the Danish throne, will relocate to Washington DC with his family to become defence industry attache at the Embassy of Denmark.

In 2022, a split arose between Joachim and the Danish royal house when Queen Margrethe decided that his four children should lose their titles as prince and princess.

Denmark's popular long-serving monarch later apologised for upsetting members of her family with the decision  with Joachim publicly expressing his frustration, but she has refused to change her mind.

The royals scooped fish out of a bucket as the penguins approached them during a visit to the aquarium

Aquarium staff got the family in a lab to tell them all about sea life - showing what looked to be a dissection of a squid to the group

Joachim and Marie helped their children get into their aprons as they sat down for an educational lab session

The family looked equal parts fascinated and horrified as aquarium staff showed them the body of a squid

The official reason was to allow the children to live more normal lives, and follows similar moves by other royal families in Europe, including the Windsors, to slim down their monarchies, the palace said.

But Countess Alexandra of Frederiksborg, Joachim's first wife and mother of his two older children, said at the time: 'We are all confused by the decision.

'We are saddened and in shock. This comes like a bolt from the blue. The children feel ostracized.

'They cannot understand why their identity is being taken away from them.'

And Joachim himself added in an interview with Danish news outlet Ekstra Bladet that: 'We are all very sad. It's never fun to see your children being harmed. They have been put in a situation they do not understand.'
Omid Scobie has revealed that Prince Harry and Meghan had to wait 'for some time' to get confirmation that they were 100 per cent welcome at the Coronation in London.

The royal author, 41, who penned the couple's biography Finding Freedom, said Harry never questioned whether he would go or not, however he wasn't sure if he would be invited.

Speaking to Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning, the journalist added: 'There was never any question on whether he would want to come or not, it was a question at one point on whether he would be invited, I think.

'From what I understand the Sussexes had to wait for some time to really get the confirmation whether they were 100 per cent welcome at this event. Of course this all follows the release of Spare.

'But for Harry there was certainly no question about [attending]. Ultimately he is fifth in line to the throne. He is a Counsellor of State.

'There is a serious constitutional reason for him to be here and he takes that seriously, even though hes not a working member of the Royal Family.'

He added that the occasion would also be an emotional one for the Duke, insisting: 'As we have heard from him time and time again in his interviews, despite the pain that he has experienced from his own family he still cares for them.

'So much can happen over time and I don't think he would want to look back and regret not being there for that moment.'

Speaking about Harry's role in the Coronation, Scobie acknowledged that he wouldn't have any official role except to 'be here'.

He said: 'Unfortunately there is nothing carved out in the ceremony for him and I would imagine if Harry and Meghan were working royals still, and everything had worked out differently, there may have been some way for them to have been orchestrated into it, or at least to be visible on that big balcony.

'But obviously that's not the case and people are wondering where Harry will be. Will he be with the civvies or will he be with his family members, and if he is what row will he be in?

Omid Scobie revealed Harry and Meghan had to wait 'for some time' to get confirmation that they were 100 per cent welcome at the Coronation in London

Prince Harry and Meghan beaming as they arrive for the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf this year

'I think people will be watching to see that almost as a reflection of where he stands with his family today. But he gets no say in it.'

Speaking about the contact that Harry has had with his father since the release of his tell-all memoir, Spare, Scobie claimed the pair have spoke a few times over the phone.

He said: 'Obviously this is the first time he sees his family face to face since the release of Spare. But I don't think people know there has been a somewhat regular pattern of conversation between him and his father since the release of that book.

'Now, have they discussed the details and the points that he wanted to go into? From what I hear, no. But he has had contact with his dad.

King Charles III has spoken to Harry several times since the release of Harry's memoir, Spare

Speaking to Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning, Scobie said: 'There was never any question on whether he would want to come or not'

He went on to say some of the conversations had been negative, including the 'loss of Frogmore cottage', adding: 'They lose the keys to that any week now and he would have spoken to his father about that.'

Scobie also claimed that Harry spoke about the Coronation over the phone with the King and made it clear that he wanted to be a part of it.

However, in contrast to his relationship with King Charles, he said Harry's bond with Prince William is still frayed, adding: 'There has been minimal contact since the Queen's funeral.'

Elsewhere, he revealed that Meghan had decided not to attend the Coronation to 'protect her peace'.

He said: 'She is aware just how much of the spotlight goes on her when she sets even a foot near the story.

'It's portrayed as intentional. Should she come over and just stand next to her husband, the commentary and the narrative of the day would have been very different.'

The author insisted that some of the Royal Family may be relieved that Meghan won't be at the Coronation because they 'would rather the attention didn't go on to her'.

He said: 'If you look back at some of Harry and Meghan's biggest problems it was all down to the fact that the attention was always on them at times when it shouldn't have been.'
Queen Letizia of Spain donned a breezy white lace dress today, as she welcomed the Colombian president and his wife to Madrid.

The stylish mother-of-two opted for the pretty dress by Spanish brand Sfera, which was first spotted last summer and recycled today for the Colombian official visit.

Standing by King Felipe VI's side, Letizia greeted their esteemed guests on the steps of Zarzuela Palace in the Spanish capital - with Colombian First Lady Veronica Alcocer similarly attired in a flamboyant white dress.

Showcasing her renowned sartorial flair, Queen Letizia added a pop of colour to her look by accessorising with a small floral clutch bag from Furla.

The Spanish royals will attend King Charles' coronation in London on Saturday.

Queen Letizia of Spain donned an elegant summer look to welcome the Colombian president and first lady to Zarzuela Palace in Madrid with King Felipe VI this morning

Mirror dressing! The Spanish Queen, 50, opted for a lacy day dress from Spanish brand Sfera, which she paired with nude slip-on heels Pictured: walking with Colombian First Lady Veronica Alcocer

Letizia, 50, was the picture of poise as she welcomed resident Gustavo Petro and First Lady Veronica Alcocer to the Royal Palace, where they will be treated to a state dinner later this evening.

The presidential couple arrived in Spain yesterday and will stay until Friday.

The Spanish Queen's understated frock boasted a round beck and floral guipure details, in a shade of white that complimented the royal's sun-kissed skin.

Known for her effortless fashion, Letizia paired the number with a pair of nude slip-on heels. Her Furla Toni Bag in Ballerina, which she has also worn before, added a pop of flowers to the overall look.

The Monarch let the dress do the talking and kept her pick of jewellery to a minimum. On top of a gold ring on her left index finger, Letizia also opted to wear studded silver earrings for today's event.

Her hazelnut locks were styled in a slick straight blow-dry tucked behind her ears, which highlighted her immaculate posture.

Letizia opted for a sun-kissed natural makeup, with a terracotta eyeshadow, a dash of mascara and blush, and a nude lipstick that brought out the sparkle of her green eyes.

A warm welcome! Queen Letizia and Colombia's first lady Veronica Alcocer kissed each other on the cheek when they met each other

The Queen and the first lady donned similar looks, with Letizia adding a pop of colour with a Furla bag, right

King Felipe VI looked dapper in a pin-striped blue suit, which he paired with a yellow tie and white shirt

The Colombian first couple arrived in Spain yesterday and will be treated to a state dinner at the royal palace tonight. Pictured from left to right: First Lady Veronica Alcocer, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, King Felipe Vi and Queen Letizia

As luck would have it, the Spanish Queen's outfit matched that of the First Lady of Colombia. Veronica Alcocer looked as elegant as her host in a white and gold day dress she also paired with nude heels.

Meanwhile, King Felipe VI looked dapper in a pin-striped navy blue suit which he paired with a yellow tie and crisp white shirt.

After the Colombian president's visit, Queen Letizia and King Felipe will join other crowned heads and 203 international heads of state in attending King Charles' Coronation in London on Saturday.

It has been reported that some 2,200 people will witness the historical event at Westminster Abbey this weekend.

A number of recognisable figures, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Westminster, will have key roles to play during the coronation ceremony.

In a break from previous plans, Camilla will be crowned as Queen, having initially been set to use the title of Queen Consort.
UNHCR has set up a transit centre in Renk in South Sudan for people fleeing violence in Sudan.

South Sudan says rival generals in Sudan have agreed "in principle" to a seven-day truce. Meanwhile, clashes in Khartoum have undermined an already existing ceasefire. DW has the latest.

The two factions battling for supremacy in Sudan have agreed to a seven-day truce starting May 4, a statement from South Sudan's foreign ministry in Juba said Tuesday.

The ministry said the deal had been brokered by South Sudan's President Salva Kiir in a phone conversation. It raises hopes of an end to weeks of bloodshed that have killed hundreds and wounded thousands.

Both sides had agreed "to name their representatives to peace talks to be held at any venue of their choice", the statement said. Kiir was holding talks with Burhan and Daglo as part of a regional initiative.

Witnesses in Khartoum reported air strikes, gunfire, and explosions, despite a second extension of a 72-hour cease-fire.

The power struggle between Sudan's de facto leader, army chief Abdel Fattah Burhan, and his former deputy Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (more commonly known as Hemeti) who commands the powerful Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group is well into its third week.

Here are other key headlines about the crisis in Sudan for Tuesday, May 2:

Refugees pour across borders

The United Nations has warned of an influx of refugees fleeing to Sudan's neighboring countries, as the fighting continues between the country's top military generals.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said late on Monday that the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) was bracing, alongside governments and partners, "for the possibility that over 800,000 people may flee the fighting in Sudan for neighboring countries."

"We hope it doesn't come to that, but if violence doesn't stop we will see more people forced to flee Sudan seeking safety," Grandi said on Twitter.

The UNHCR said that 100,000 refugees had crossed from Sudan into neighboring countries.

The fighting has killed over 500, with thousands more injured. The UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said an estimated 334,000 people had been internally displaced since the fighting broke out on April 15.

"About 72 percent, roughly 240,000 of these new internal displacements were reported in West and South Darfur alone," spokesman Paul Dillon told reporters.

Risk 'moderate' after lab seized in fighting -- WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that after having conducted a risk assessment, there was "moderate risk" related to the seizure of a public health laboratory in Khartoum by one of the warring factions.

"The situation and the risk are being seen as moderate," WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told reporters at a briefing in Geneva.

"This is because the lab cannot provide its main function, that is to provide the analysis and the diagnostics because of the lack of fuel and lack of trained staff."

Last week the WHO warned that Khartoum residents were at risk due to the capture of the facility which contained various pathogens.

The UN body did not stipulate which of the warring sides was occupying the laboratory which is storing cholera bacteria among other hazardous items.

Pakistan completes evacuations from Sudan

Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its evacuation effort in Sudan had been completed with more than 1,000 nationals taken to safety.

"We have successfully and safely evacuated over 1,000 Pakistanis out of Sudan," the ministry said in a statement.

"With this our evacuation operations out of Sudan have ended," it said, adding that it included all Pakistanis who had wanted to leave.

The final group of Pakistani nationals had been taken by boat to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, according to AFP news agency, citing a foreign ministry official.

Russia evacuates more than 200 people from Sudan

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday it was evacuating more than 200 people from Sudan.

"Four Il-76 aircraft ... of the Russian Aerospace Forces are bringing more than 200 people from the Republic of Sudan to the Russian Federation," the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

The evacuees were citizens of Russia and neighboring countries, it added.

Nearly 500 evacuated to Saudi Arabia by sea

Saudi Arabia announced late on Monday it was evacuating a further 212 individuals from Sudan via the Red Sea, including US and British citizens.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said the latest evacuation mission included 41 Saudi nationals and 171 foreign nationals.

The latter included citizens of Afghanistan, the Philippines, the Comoros Islands, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Madagascar, Syria, the UK and the US.

Monday's ship brings the total of those Saudi Arabia has evacuated since the conflict erupted to 5,409, the ministry said. They include 225 Saudi nationals.

Earlier on Monday, a US-operated rescue ship carrying 300 civilians fleeing Sudan arrived in Saudi Arabia. The French AFP news agency cited officials as saying the ship carried 105 US citizens, 100 Sudanese, and citizens of 15 other countries.

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Analyst sees little hope for Sudan peace process

The chances of Sudan's warring generals ceasing the fighting and engaging in a meaningful peace process are low, said Jon Temin, vice president of policy and programs at the Truman National Security Project in Washington DC.

Temin, who previously served as the Director of the Africa Program at Freedom House, told DW on Monday that both Burhan and Daglo were likely to fight until one party wins.

"Both of these generals and the forces they command, they are accustomed to fighting. They are accustomed to getting what they want through fighting. And it's awfully hard to see now how they coexist. It was hard to see how they coexist even before this fighting kicked off."

Temin also cast doubt on the possibility of reaching an agreement that would satisfy both parties, but he said the hope lay in "negotiations with strong leadership from the region," alongside the US and other world powers involved.

He also dismissed the possibility of a foreign military intervention, saying he could only imagine it happening in "the rarest of circumstances."

zc, rmt/wd (AFP, AP, Reuters)
An American TikToker sparked a debate on the English language when she asked why Britons say they're going to have 'a Chinese'.

Influencer Soogia (@soogia1) - who has more than 1.7million followers on the app and creates content around her Korean-American heritage - questioned the UK's shorthand in a clip.

She also admitted the phrasing felt 'a little' racist to her - although stressing she knows that it isn't.

In a more recent follow-up video, Soogia explained that in the US putting 'a' in front of a nationality is often said to dehumanise a person from that background, which is why it 'gave her pause'.

'It's like that prompt that's like "tell me something that isn't racist but feels like it",' she said in the viral clip from May 1, which has been viewed 2.5 million times. 'It feels like that!'

Influencer Soogia ( @soogia1 ) - who has more than 1.7 million followers on the app and creates content around her Korean-American heritage - questioned the UK's shorthand in a clip

She continued: 'I find it so strange that they all call it "a Chinese". Like here in the United States we call it "Chinese food" like we do all other foods...

'So do British people also say I'm going out for a Greek or a Mexican or an Italian or is it exclusively when they talk about Chinese food? I find that so odd.'

Soogia also questioned the selection of Chinese takeaway classics most Brits were piling up on their plates - including signature picks like chicken balls and curry sauce.

She was also baffled by seeing chips in the selection, claiming she has never seen the side dish offered at Chinese eateries in the US.

The TikToker said she's more used to seeing other dishes considered Chinese cuisine staples in America, such as Mapo tofu, dumplings and bao buns - questioning why she didn't see any of those in the UK videos.

However, she admitted it could just be what her algorithm is showing her.

Tensions between TikTokers arose on both sides of the pond, as many were quick to criticise Soogia for 'reaching' and senselessly accusing British people of being offensive.

Elsewhere, one British creator who filmed herself eating 'a Chinese' admitted she has since been inundated with 'horrible comments'.

In a moment of social media diplomacy, 'born and raised British' creator Olivia Smith ( @whalesandfairytales ) sat down with her 'born and raised Chinese' boyfriend Derek ( @derekjguo_ ) Guo as the pair explained the situation

The couple first addressed the confusion around whether calling the takeaway 'a Chinese' is offensive

Comments on Olivia and Derek's clip reiterated that the phrase was simply a common way of addressing takeaway cuisine in the UK

In a moment of social media diplomacy, 'born and raised British' creator Olivia Smith (@whalesandfairytales) sat down with her 'born and raised Chinese' boyfriend Derek (@derekjguo_) Guo to explain the situation.

'We think we have enough qualifications to speak about Chinese food in England,' Olivia said in reply to Soogia's video.

'Outside looking in, her questions are valid but we can answer them.'

The couple first addressed the confusion around whether calling the takeaway 'a Chinese' is offensive.

'They are not racist, they are just English people being lazy,' Derek joked.

'It's short for "I'm gonna have a Chinese for dinner",' Olivia explained.

UK food TikToker Lauren Griffiths ( @laurenkategriffiths ) also stressed that the phrase is never meant to cause offense

In a video the influencer, who recently made a video about getting 'a Chinese' says viewers from across the pond have been telling her that 'it sounds like we're talking about a person'

'We just shorten it - and - to answer the question, would we do it with a Mexican, a Greek, an Italian - yes, 100%. That's just what we say.'

The pair then stressed that Chinese takeaways in the UK are very different from Chinese restaurants - and don't necessarily reflect the nation's food selection across the whole country.

Olivia said: 'All the food you see on your For You page where it's like chips, curry sauce... we personally don't like it - but they're from takeaways.

'Chinese takeaways do sell Chinese food in England, but they also are normally the only takeaway in a big area so they have to cater for a lot of different people.'

'It's kind of like a comfort food,' she added. 'You order it when you're 10, you order it when you're hungover and you're 25 as well.'

Derek also said that there is a great selection of other Chinese cuisine available in the UK.

'There are actually some good authentic Chinese food [restaurants] around city centres,' he explained.

Olivia added: 'Location-wise and money-wise, Chinese takeaways are very popular in like the countryside and they're super, super cheap so it's very accessible.

'In cities like where we live, there's actual proper Chinese restaurants because there's a.) Chinese people here who can give an authentic experience but b.) there's actually the money so that the Chinese food that you do get can be of Chinese quality.'

UK food TikToker Lauren Griffiths (@laurenkategriffiths) also stressed that the phrase is never meant to cause offence, addressing the Americans who 'flooded' her account over the last few days.

In a video the influencer, who recently made a video about getting 'a Chinese' says viewers from across the pond have been telling her that 'it sounds like we're talking about a person'.

'I do just kind of want to clear it up because we are a lazy nation,' she continued. 'It is literally just us removing the word takeaway off the end so we would do it for all cuisines...

'It's genuinely not meant offensively in any shape or form and I'm really sorry if it comes across that way... it's just British slang.

'We would say the same for a "full English". Because I heard a lot of comments being like "you wouldn't say a British" but we say "a full English" instead of "a full English breakfast" or we say "we're going for a chippy" which is British.

'I completely understand curiosity or not understanding... but over the past 24 hours it's kind of got to a little bit of like a different level, my page is being completely overwhelmed with horrible comments.'

In her most recent video, Soogia stressed that she now understands that 'takeaway' works as a singular noun in the UK, and hence makes sense.

The influencer then revealed that she herself has also been inundated with racial slurs and comments from trolls following the dilemma.

She also reiterated that she never called the British creators on her page racist, and insisted that her video did everything in its power not to spread hate regarding her question.
Stephen 'tWitch' Boss's widow Allison Hollker has opened up about the 'shock' she felt over her late husband's suicide in an emotional new interview, revealing how she and the couple's three children are coping with the loss of their 'Superman,' five months after he took his own life.

Sitting down with the Today show's Hoda Kotb for her first TV interview since the Ellen Show star's death, Allison, 35, shared insights into her husband's mental health struggles, breaking down as she recalled how tWitch always wanted to 'be the strong one for everyone' and how that left him 'a little scared' to ask for help.

'He wanted to be the strong one for everyone and I think it was a little scary for him to think that he might need to ask for help,' she shared.

Allison, who wed tWitch in 2013, admitted that it 'breaks her heart' that she didn't 'see it coming,' adding that she 'feels sad' that her late husband was 'so there' for her and their kids - Weslie, 14, Maddox, six, and Zaia, three - while secretly battling his demons.

'I still feel like I'm like the rest of the world, where I'm still shocked,' she said.

Stephen 'tWitch' Boss's widow Allison Hollker has opened up about her 'shock' over her late husband's suicide in an emotional new interview

Sitting down on Today for her first TV interview since the Ellen Show star's death, Allison, 41, broke down in tears as she shared insights into her husband's mental health struggles

The So You Think You Can Dance and Ellen Show alum died by suicide at age 40 in December, and his loved ones have grieved in private ever since. He and Allison are seen in 2022

You know people say a lot like what were the signs? He was so much love and light he really wanted to be everyone's Superman and he said that a lot, Allison Holker Boss says on her husband's mental health. pic.twitter.com/TMIcu6SLtr  TODAY (@TODAYshow) May 3, 2023

'No one's ready for that moment and there's no one that saw this coming. No one. And that also breaks my heart too. But I feel so sad that he was so there and we weren't in the knowing.

'He was so much love and light. He really wanted to be everyone's Superman, he said that a lot.

'He could hold so much for people and I do think it was hard for him to process that at the end.'

The So You Think You Can Dance alum and Ellen DeGeneres co-host died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in December at the age of 40, and his loved ones have grieved in private ever since.

Allison confessed that she initially asked herself whether she had missed any warning signs about her husband's struggles, saying: 'I did it a lot in the beginning. I eventually had to tell myself that I can't change anything that's happened.'

When asked by Hoda how she has remained so 'strong,' the dancer admitted that she has no other choice - particularly when she is around the couple's three children.

'It's all for them, I don't really have any other choice but to be strong,' she said, before admitting: 'They still see me have my highs and lows because there's a lot of it.'

While Allison is still grieving the loss of her husband, who she described as a 'magical' person, she said that she is trying to focus on the incredible memories that they made together during their 13-year relationship, explaining that she knows the pain she feels now is a sign of just how 'much love' they shared.

Allison admitted that it 'breaks her heart' that she didn't 'see it coming', adding that she 'feels sad' that her husband was 'so there' for her and their kids while secretly battling his demons

While Allison is still grieving the loss of her husband, who she described as a 'magical' person, she said that she is trying to focus on the incredible memories that they made together

'Our love was magical and it was so real and I think that's the hardest part about all of this,' she explained.

'The way we loved was so big and I got 13 years with one of the most magical humans. I learned so much about love and gratitude.

tWtich, who was a longtime executive producer of the Ellen DeGeneres show, passed away on December 13 inside a hotel room at the Oak Tree Inn in Encino, California, having checked in at 10:30am that day.

His body was discovered the following day after he failed to check out of his room.

It was reported by TMZ that he left a suicide note in the hotel room alluding to the challenges he faced in the past and turned his phone to airplane mode before shooting himself dead.

tWtich's wife of nine years, contacted Los Angeles police on Tuesday to report him missing, saying he had left without a word a day earlier and wasn't returning her calls, TMZ reported, citing law enforcement sources.

Allison insisted there had been no fight or dispute that precipitated his departure, just three days after their wedding anniversary, and said his lack of contact was extremely out of character.

While chatting with Today, Allison said she still 'talks to him every night,' adding that she tells her kids to do the same because 'communication is key.'

'I talk to him every night. And it's different every night, sometimes it's just like, "I took the kids to school." Sometimes it's deeper, a little bit heavy,' she explained.

'If I'm feeling this much pain it's because I've had so much love. It's honestly something I wouldn't wish for anybody. It's really hard.

'But if I've learned anything, it's that communication is key. To us, Daddy is in the stars, so we can go outside and talk to him whenever we want.'

She recalled her young children asking her, 'When is daddy coming back?' and, 'Is daddy coming back when he's older?'

Allison noted that Ellen DeGeneres has been 'a huge support system' for her since her husband's death

She explained that she and the talk show host 'talk about the fun memories we have about him'

But she tries to focus on the positive times they've had together, adding, 'We get to live in those great memories that we have. I do feel like he's with me. We know he's guiding us through every single day.'

Allison noted that Ellen has been 'a huge support system' for her since her husband's death.

She explained that she and the talk show host 'talk about the fun memories we have about him.'

Following his passing last year, the TV personality paid tribute to him online, calling him her 'family' and a 'pure love and light.'

The star said: 'I will miss him. Please send your love and support to Allison and his beautiful children - Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia.'

Allison added that she hoped by being honest about what he went through could 'bring awareness to mental health and open up conversations.'

'[I hope it] helps people to feel comfortable asking for that help. I really do want to make an impact on behalf of someone I love so much,' she concluded.

Just a month prior to his passing, the beloved DJ had told the Jennifer Hudson Show that he and Allison were considering adding to their family  saying: 'I love the little babies, I love them. It's a constant conversation.'

The last video the dancer posted on social media showed him smiling and laughing with his family.

Jennifer Lopez, Questlove, and Michelle Obama were among the other famous names who honored the DJ following his passing.

Sharing a post on her Instagram page, Jennifer wrote: 'tWtich was such a light and a beautiful soul. Shocked and deeply saddened.

'My heart breaks for @sir_twitch_alot, his wife and children. Sending you love and strength.'

Following his death, Allison also released a statement to People gushing over his legacy.

'Stephen lit up every room he stepped into. He valued family, friends and community above all else and leading with love and light was everything to him,' the widow said.

'To say he left a legacy would be an understatement, and his positive impact will continue to be felt.'
We hear a lot, these days, about the rise of childless - or, following a timely rebrand, child-free - women. At 59, I am technically one of them, since despite longing for a baby I never had one of my own.

But I'm also a member of another group that is less talked about. I am one of the legion of women who put our lives on hold to help our relatives or friends raise their families after divorce, separation or widowhood.

I am a second mum.

This is nothing like the 'Pank' (professional aunt, no kids) who appears laden down with lavish treats and gifts, plays with the children for an hour or so and just as swiftly disappears again.

A second mum takes on the everyday chores. For me, that has meant co-parenting my two nephews, George and Oskar, since my younger sister Louise's separation when they were four and eight, and her divorce five years later.

I am one of the legion of women who put our lives on hold to help our relatives or friends raise their families after divorce, separation or widowhood. I am a second mum

I have cleaned up spilt drinks and crisps from down the back of sofas, broken up fights, got up bleary-eyed at 3am to soothe a nightmare, mopped up tears from scraped knees, cancelled dates for babysitting and put holidays on hold to be at the school gates.

At the same time, I know that my laughing claim to the title 'second mum' is a mask of sorts, hiding the lingering pain that I'll never know the love of my own child.

My role means everything to me, but nothing to most of the world. At family events, I am still the childless auntie. There are no badges, no days of Second Mum celebration or membership of the swim mums WhatsApp group.

The role started by accident 13 years ago, when Louise and her husband split. Up until that point, although we all lived in the suburbs of London, apart from Sunday family lunches and the odd walk in Richmond Park, I rarely saw George and Oskar.

But Louise didn't want to disappoint her sons by cancelling their holiday to Marbella, so she begged me to come in place of her ex. I was working on a book, but was so excited at the prospect of time with the children, I jumped on a plane. It wasn't an easy time, but it was the best holiday I've ever had.

Carrying the boys on my back in 90-degree heat, and being dive-bombed in the swimming pool as I tried to breaststroke, was a lesson in Buddha-like patience.

It also made me feel like I could have a significant role in the children's lives, especially since their father travelled a lot with work. They hardly saw him now they were living apart.

When we returned to London, I told Louise I wanted to help, properly  and she agreed.

I havent tried to replace Louise as their mum

Like most lone parents, Louise coped because she had no choice, but I could see the weight of responsibility and bone-aching tiredness etched on her face.

I'm Louise's big sister, and I've always looked after her, so it seemed natural to step in.

I would cook in the evenings when Louise had been working four days a week as a studio manager for an interiors company, and I'd give her a chance to rest when she was getting up at 4.30am to take an 11-year-old Oskar to swimming  he was in the Surrey County Squad.

Divorce is often unavoidable, but repeated studies show its fallout can be devastating for children. I was adamant my nephews would not be those children.

Gillian McCallum, founder of co-parenting network Creating Parents, says our type of arrangement is booming in popularity, with 'single parents, siblings and even friends' coming together to give children the 'care and love' they need. It seemed to work, too.

Like most lone parents, Louise coped because she had no choice, but I could see the weight of responsibility and bone-aching tiredness etched on her face

There were frequent tears in the early days, when something triggered a memory of their father. But one Saturday afternoon in July, several months after the split, as the boys and I sat gobbling crisps and fizzy drinks at Whole Foods in London's Kensington - they could pick whatever they wanted to eat on Katie Days - something shifted.

I pulled a funny face and they began laughing hysterically. My goodness, the palpable relief. Even though they missed their father terribly, they seemed happy. It was the vindication I needed that Louise and I were doing the right thing.

I had been desperate for my own children, but after two miscarriages in my late 30s, it just never happened. I found myself single, childless and the wrong side of 40.

A brief engagement to the man I hoped to spend happy-ever-after with broke down - and then I was 47 and the window of baby opportunity was well and truly shut. But being so involved with my nephews meant I got a ready-made family of my own. And, admittedly, an overnight introduction to the sharp end of parenting.

I had been blissfully unaware what it means to look after two hyperactive boys. At the beach on that first holiday, I was so terrified of losing one of them that I contemplated chaining them to the sun lounger.

On a sleepover, I proudly presented them with spaghetti in a rich ragu. The boys refused to eat it, preferring to fling tomatoey strands at each other and all over the table.

'Small children are not partial to fancy food,' Louise later pointed out, laughing. At first, they didn't understand my shift to co-carer, rather than co-conspirator. They just looked at me strangely after I told them in an imperious voice to 'stop banging each other on the head' or 'put the biscuits back in the cupboard'.

Factor in the squabbling and whining that were suddenly aimed at me, and it did cross my mind to throw in the towel.

But picking them up on Mondays and Thursdays became a doddle once I discovered a nearby Tesco and plied them with sweets. This was a second mum privilege; if I was looking after them all day every day, those sweets would have had to go.

The freewheeling life I once took for granted was put on hold. It was pretty full-on; three days of childcare a week (including Saturday) and the monthly sleepover. Not to mention the babysitting.

I shall never forget the time I was dating a charming man named Jeremy in 2015. It was his birthday and he had invited me to a lavish weekend at a country house hotel. I longed to go, but I said no as it would mean missing my Saturday with the children.

Louise said they would be fine. But I didn't want to let the boys down. Jeremy was disappointed, but forgave me . . . until it happened several more times. In the end, he left.

Still, I believe wholeheartedly that I did the right thing.

I swapped sophisticated restaurants for kiddie eateries, mopping up bits of food and trying to talk over the horrendous din.

Divorce is often unavoidable, but repeated studies show its fallout can be devastating for children. I was adamant my nephews would not be those children (stock image)

Spontaneous late-night parties were scratched off the to-do list. I was too tired for a start  when Oskar, then five, woke me up with a cup of imaginary tea at 5.30am one day, I realised why sleep deprivation is categorised as a form of torture.

More importantly, knowing Louise and the boys needed me gave my life meaning.

I remember prepping Oskar for an English exam and telling him to 'start the story in the middle of the action'.

'How did it go?' I asked the following day as he rushed in. 'I started the story in the middle of the action, Katie,' he replied proudly. I could have cried with joy.

When people thought I was their mother  usually at the swings in Hyde Park  I would beam with pride, and tell them laughingly, 'No I'm just their second mum'.

Now they're older I can share more with them. They have a fascination with my dating life.

'Let me,' they argue, grabbing my iPhone and laughing at the faces of prospective dates as they swipe right on Tinder. Little did I know they had also been sending cheeky messages  until a curt missive pinged back from one disgruntled suitor.

While I have an incredibly close bond with the boys, I never tried to replace Louise as Oskar and George's mum. I am well aware that the weight of responsibility, the sleepless nights and all the other everyday, teeth-gritting bombs that fall on real motherhood never really touched me.

I have learnt my lesson: her children, her rules. Whatever I thought about Louise's parenting style, I learnt to restrain myself from offering tips. I may have seen my advice as constructive; she saw it as undermining her, even suggesting she was a bad parent.

Like the summer afternoon in Hyde Park when the boys were playing up and Louise was telling them off. I chipped in.

'Oh come on, Louise, let them enjoy themselves.' She snapped back: 'When you look after them 24/7, then tell me what to do'.

She was right, but I stood my ground and we were soon at each other's throats. It shook us both, and after that, we tried hard to curb our tongues. Anyway, on the rare occasions Louise and I did have a fall-out, the boys would always side with their mum.

Nevertheless, Louise often says she wouldn't have been able to cope through those first hard years without me.

Oskar, now 18, says: 'You put us first. To be honest, not all aunts would do what you did for us.'

When I got Covid in March 2020 and had to spend an evening in hospital, George sent me a text. 'Don't worry, Katie,' he said, 'nothing will happen to you, you're one of the loveliest people.'

I would have burst into tears if the coughing hadn't stopped me.

It's not easy being 'just' a second mum. But be in no doubt, I would do it all again in a nanosecond.

LOUISE'S VIEW

I love being a mum, and although I didn't ask Kate for help, when she offered, I was over the moon.

She has always been there for me, especially when I was younger and it felt soothing to have that support back.

It was the perfect solution to enable me to go to work, safe in the knowledge that the boys were with someone they loved and who loved them unconditionally.

Kate has always been there for me

I don't think I could have managed without Kate's help in those early days. When I separated, it was a shock to the system - it all felt so daunting, suddenly alone bringing up two little boys.

I am fine about getting up early and working hard, but I appreciated Kate picking up the slack of childcare - it gave me that much-needed break.

More importantly, just having someone there who I could trust and chat to if I was concerned about something was vital.

To me, second mums do the soft parenting: never scolding the children or getting up at dawn (that is a first mum job), but still performing all the day-to-day mum tasks including cooking, picking them up from school and giving them baths.

Plus, of course, devoting their time and care to making the children feel special and loved.

And a second mum can spoil the children without impacting their upbringing. It's the first mum who has to set the example and bring in the boundaries.
Be honest  have you ever pinched a pair of fluffy slippers from a hotel room? Surely, the logic goes, they are not going to wash them and shove them back into a plastic bag for the next guest  so why not?

The soaps and shampoos, perhaps, too; even a branded bath hat. They are easily slipped in between the pants and the socks as youre packing.

Although maybe not the towelling gown  thats a hefty steal that requires effort, fortitude and definitely buttocks on the suitcase.

Ive been reminded of hospitality lifting, as its known, because former PM Liz Truss has recently received a bill for 12,000 for costs incurred at events she hosted at Chevening House when she was Foreign Secretary, reportedly including bathrobes and slippers.

She has since agreed to pay for missing items, but even so

Former PM Liz Truss has recently received a bill for 12,000 for costs incurred at events she hosted at Chevening House when she was Foreign Secretary

Of course, Chevening, in Kent, is a grace-and-favour country house rather than a hotel. But, to be honest, I am a little puzzled by her guests abstemiousness and lack of imagination. Just the slippers and dressing gowns?

Only this week, having spent the Bank Holiday in Italy, I returned with two ashtrays, three packets of coffee pods, jam and a nice piece of Murano glass.

And its not just me. Last week a friend came back from New York with two steak knives, a jar of honey and almond butter, and a pepper pot.

The salt cellar had sadly eluded her, but the steak knives were super-sharp and simply irresistible, and would I like to try them out on this piece of cheese?

My grandmother would certainly be shocked by this sort of brazen behaviour, but perhaps, in this corporate-heavy society, theres a little part of us all that wants to stick it to the man.

For some, those hotel slippers are the gateway to more elaborate lifting.

My own habit started with soaps, which is something of a grey area, to be honest. Theyre travel-sized and branded. Surely they are ripe for the clearing? And who on earth wants to find a half-used shampoo and conditioner in their complimentary spongebag?

I think it was in Indonesia in 1996 that I progressed to the harder stuff, and a very small incense diffuser found its way, accidentally, into my bag. A little bit of brass beauty.

Truss's bill reportedly including bathrobes and slippers, but some guests are more ambitious with their 'hospitality lifting'. An American guest at a five-star hotel in London had unscrewed a Victorian wooden lavatory seat and popped it into his suitcase

It was wrapped in my sarong, or at least thats how I found it. It had pride of place in my sitting room for a while. It has long since disappeared, as has the guilt for pinching it.

Next there was the glass cotton-wool dispenser from Australia. It was simply too pretty to leave behind. Then there was the trinket tray from Los Angeles. A handy plastic cotton-bud holder from Spain. A dear little bedside mug from Morocco. A tips box (empty) from the Seychelles.

Endless salt and pepper pots from Russia, Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Manchester. Writing paper, envelopes  oh, and the postcards (but I think youre meant to take those, arent you?), along with the pads and pens by the phone.

I have a friend who steals the towels. Who on earth knows why? She has plenty of her own back at home. The coat hangers, obviously. But never the Corby trouser press. (Its far too big, for a start, and they might really miss it.)

A guest unscrewed the Victorian lavatory seat

The last thing you want is to incur the wrath of anyone, or an actual bill. The rule of thumb for a five-fingered discount at a hotel is that nothing expensive or of real value ever leaves the room.

But there is certainly something strange that happens to many of us when we cross a hotel threshold. Its almost as if the normal rules of engagement no longer apply.

Its possibly all down to the sudden lack of responsibility  or, more likely, that particular alchemy of alcohol and luxury.

When I researched my books, Hotel Babylon, Beach Babylon and Restaurant Babylon  all exposes of the hospitality industries  I realised what a rank amateur I was. For guests will steal anything that is not nailed down, and, in some circumstances, even nails, or indeed screws, are not enough of an obstacle.

Go into the marble confines of any five-star hotel bathroom these days and youll find a little sign suggesting you might want to buy the slipper and bathrobes co-ord from reception

One manager of a five-star hotel in London told me about an American guest whod taken such a shine to a Victorian wooden lavatory seat that hed unscrewed the whole thing and popped it into his suitcase.

Naturally he received a bill for the antique item before his plane had even touched down.

Once, the same hotel had someone lift up a bed and cut out the carpet from underneath it, then struggle through reception with the fabric in their bag.

It wasnt until housekeeping were vacuuming later that day that anyone noticed. Was he charged? He most certainly was.

The hotel has also lost lamps, trays, books, fridges, pillows, duvets and, of course, bottles and bottles of booze. Numerous guests drain the contents of the mini bar and fill the empty bottles of gin and vodka with water to save a few quid. TVs go missing. Sound systems. Speakers.

One hotel in Knightsbridge was even targeted by a highly organised gang who removed all the furniture in the lobby  helped by the staff, as they were sporting what looked like official overalls  only for the management to realise a few hours later that no new sofas had been ordered for the hotel reception.

My favourite klepto story has to be of the honeymooning couple who were staying in a $15,000-a-night water villa in the Maldives and stripped their suite clean. They packed every little trinket and tray into their luggage, only for their bags to fall into the sea as they left.

The hotel emptied the suitcases, dry-cleaned all their clothes, packaged all the goodies up in tissue paper, and sent everything back to their home in the U.S., without a word. Needless to say, the couple never stayed in that five-star resort again.

Teaspoons go missing in their hundreds

However, hotels are beginning to fight back. In the past, they would factor in the price of a few missing bits and bobs  quite possibly including the bathrobes  into the price of the room. Now, though, they are actively selling them.

Go into the marble confines of any five-star hotel bathroom these days and youll find a little sign suggesting you might want to buy the slipper and bathrobes co-ord from reception. Which, of course, is a passive-aggressive way of saying If you pinch them, we will charge you, whether you packed them accidentally or not.

Others, notably the fashionable Soho House group, have opened their own shops.

As for the most stolen item from any hotel or restaurant? Teaspoons! When I asked my manager friend from the five-star London hotel why, he simply shrugged.

Theyre small, theyre sweet and eminently nickable, and you dont need a capacious bag. They slip into any pocket. I have no idea why youd want to, he added. But all I know is, we get through hundreds every week!

So, from spoons to slippers, could it be there are light-fingered tendencies in us all?
Lara Trump has insisted that there's no bad blood between her sister-in-law Ivanka and the rest of the family, after it was revealed that the former First Daughter had dropped her brothers' lawyers in a $250 million fraud lawsuit against the Trumps.

News hit the web last week that Ivanka, 41, had fired the attorneys who were representing her and her siblings Eric and Don Jr. in Letitia James' fraud suit against her family - with some suggesting that the move might be an indication that there is a froideur between Trump's eldest daughter and her siblings.

Now, Lara, 40, has addressed those rumors head-on, telling DailyMail.com exclusively at the Rescue Dogs Rock NYC Cocktails For Canines event on Tuesday evening that everything is all good between them.

'I think people are trying to make that a bigger deal than it really is,' she explained, while discussing Ivanka's decision to switch legal representation.

Lara Trump has insisted there's no bad blood between Ivanka Trump and the rest of the family, after it was revealed that the former First Daughter had dropped her brothers' lawyers

News hit the web last week that Ivanka, 41, had fired the attorneys who were representing her and her siblings Eric and Don Jr. in Letitia James' fraud suit against the Trumps (seen in 2014)

Now, Lara, 40, addressed rumors that there's been a fallout between Ivanka and the rest of the family exclusively to DailyMail.com at the Rescue Dogs Rock NYC event on Tuesday evening

'It's not common to have to go through all this stuff that my husband and his siblings go through.

'They've had a series of different attorneys throughout this entire process and it just so happened that Ivanka felt closer to one, gravitated towards that [one].

'She [may have] said, "I'm going to have this person directly for me," but [the attorneys] all work as a team. I think that got lost in the story.'

New York Attorney General Letitia filed a suit against former President Donald Trump last month, alleging that he, his three eldest children, his real estate firm, and its top executives falsely inflated property values to obtain cheaper loans.

She is seeking $250 million  and is asking a judge to 'permanently' bar Donald and his adult children from doing business in the state. The Trumps have denied the claims.

While it was first revealed that Ivanka, Eric, and Don Jr. had retained Clifford Robert and Michael Farina of Robert & Robert to represent them, Forbes reported days later that Ivanka had split from the firm.

The mother-of-three is now being represented by Bennet Moskowitz of the firm Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders, according to a court filing obtained by the outlet.

When asked if she and Ivanka ever get together - since they both live in Florida - Lara told DailyMail.com, 'We do,' before quickly changing the subject, to talk about the strong bond she has with her father-in-law, Donald, instead.

'I think people are trying to make that a bigger deal than it really is,' Lara (seen with Tiffany, Donald, and Ivanka in 2019) explained, while discussing Ivanka's decision to switch lawyers

She added: 'They've had a series of different attorneys throughout this entire process and it just so happened that Ivanka felt closer to one.' She is seen with Ivanka and Jared in 2020

Letitia (seen) filed a suit against Donald Trump last month, alleging that he, his three eldest children, his real estate firm, and its top executives falsely inflated property values

Lara and her husband, Eric, 39, reside in Jupiter, Florida, with their two kids, Carolina, three, and Eric Jr., five - which is a stone's throw away from where Donald and his wife, Melania Trump, settled after they left the White House in January 2021.

When asked if she and Ivanka ever get together - since they both live in Florida - Lara (seen at the event) told DailyMail.com, 'We do,' before quickly changing the subject, to talk about the strong bond she has with her father-in-law, Donald, instead

'It's actually great because when my kids say, "Let's go to the beach," what I hear is let's go to grandpa's because we go down to Mar-A-Largo,' Lara told DailyMail.com.

'We get to see grandpa quite often and he's always got chocolate and candy for my kids.

'It's kind of crazy how we all ended up in South-East Florida. I love it, honestly, it's such a great place to be.'

Even before Ivanka switched lawyers, speculation was swirling that there were tensions brewing between her and the rest of her family.

A source told Us Weekly in November 2022 that Ivanka had a 'rotten time' towards the end of Donald's presidency and that she 'couldn't step away fast enough.'

'Even if her dad begged her to be involved in his campaign again, Ivanka would turn it down flat,' they added.

Lara and her husband, Eric, 39, reside in Jupiter, Florida, with their two kids - which is a stone's throw away from where Donald and his wife, Melania Trump, live. She's seen with Donald

Lara told DailyMail.com, 'We get to see grandpa quite often. It's kind of crazy how we all ended up in South-East Florida. I love it.' She is seen with Melania, Tiffany, and Ivanka in 2020

'Her priority is to pursue a calm, low-key life now and enjoy her new professional start in the private sector, raise her family and stay away from the circus and volatility that will surely be coming along with her dads campaign.'

Last year, Ivanka, who previously served as a White House advisor, announced she was stepping away from politics and would not be involved in her father's upcoming 2024 presidential campaign. Instead, she said she would be focusing on her children.

'I love my father very much. This time around, I'm choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family,' she said.

'I do not plan to be involved in politics. While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena.'

She, her husband, Jared Kushner, and their three kids - Arabella, 11, Joseph, nine, and Theodore, seven - have been living a much quieter life in Miami, Florida, since leaving the White House in early 2021.

Ivanka, her husband, Jared Kushner, and their three kids - Arabella, 11, Joseph, nine, and Theodore, seven - have been living a quiet life in Miami, Florida, since leaving the White House

Last year, Ivanka (seen in 2020), who previously served as a White House advisor, announced she was stepping away from politics and would not be involved in her father's 2024 campaign

She's rarely ever seen with her dad in public - and the last time she and Donald were seen together was in November 2022, at Tiffany Trump's wedding to Michael Boulos (pictured)

She's rarely ever seen with her dad, or the rest of her family for that matter, in public - and the last time she and Donald were seen together was in November 2022, at Tiffany Trump's wedding to Michael Boulos.

One thing that may have put a strain on their relationship was the fact that Ivanka went against her father's claims that President Joe Biden's election was rigged during the hearing over the January 6 Capitol riots last year.

At the time, Ivanka said she 'accepted' former Attorney General Bill Barr's determination that there was not evidence of fraud during the election.

Afterwards, Donald railed against his own daughter in a scathing social media post.

'Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, election results,' he wrote on the app Truth Social.

'She had long since checked out and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked).'
A model has revealed that she paid $7,500 to have salt water injected into her chest so she could achieve an 'instant boob job' - insisting that it expanded her breasts by 'five times her natural size' but deflated within hours.

Kayla Kayden, 34, a former Playboy bunny-turned OnlyFans star from Las Vegas, Nevada, underwent breast augmentation surgery at age 19, which turned her natural C-cup into an E-cup.

For 13 years, she boasted the bigger chest size, until she was forced to remove the implants in 2021, because she had gone over the recommended time frame of 10 years.

While Kayla missed her larger breasts, she didn't want to go under the knife again out of fear that it would leave heavy scarring on her chest.

A model has revealed that she paid $7,500 to have salt water injected into her chest so she could achieve an 'instant boob job'

Kayla Kayden, 34, insisted that it expanded her breasts by 'five times her natural size' but deflated within hours. Her chest is seen left before the injections and right after the injections

Kayla, a former Playboy bunny-turned OnlyFans star from Las Vegas, underwent breast augmentation surgery at age 19. She is seen when she worked for Playboy

So, her plastic surgeon suggested she try a bizarre new trick dubbed the 'instant boob job,' which involves inserting saline into your boobs to temporarily inflate them - and according to the model, the technique was a total success.

It turned her natural C-cup into an E-cup. For 13 years, she boasted the bigger chest size, until she was forced to remove the implants in 2021, as she had gone over the recommended time frame of 10 years

'I told my plastic surgeon that I didn't know if I want [implants] again, and he suggested getting saline (a mixture of salt and water) put in,' she told NudePR.com recently.

'He did the injection and it worked  I was shocked. They looked much bigger.'

Kayla insisted that the injections are '1,000 times better than implants' because they feel more 'natural.'

'The injections take you from your normal size to three or five times your natural size,' she said.

'With the implants, you can feel a ball inside your chest. But with the water, it's like a waterbed  you don't even notice it's in there.'

The only problem? The effects only lasts a few hours before your breasts drop back down to your normal size.

'It lasts like 12 hours and it reduces throughout the day,' explained Kayla. '[That means] I can be my normal self and then when I want to look all glammed up, I put a wig on and do my boobs.'

The procedure involves a trained plastic surgeon injecting the salt water through a needle after numbing the breast, working in sections to achieve the desired look.

It's an expensive treatment though - with an eye-watering price tag of $750 a pop.

Kayla said she spent $7,500 in total for 10 injections in 2022. And while she loved the instant 'boost,' it ultimately made her want something more long-term.

While Kayla missed her larger breasts, she didn't want to go under the knife again. Then, her surgeon suggested she try the 'instant boob job' - which involves injecting them with saline

According to the model (seen after the injections), the technique was a total success. 'The injections take you from your normal size to three or five times your natural size,' she said

The only problem? The effects only lasts a few hours before your breasts drop back down to your normal size, which ultimately made her want something more long-term

In December 2022, the 34-year-old made the decision to risk the consequences and go under the knife again.

In December 2022, the 34-year-old made the decision to risk the consequences and go under the knife again. She is seen after her most recent boob job

'I loved how the insta boob looked so much, I decided to have my breasts done again. So I'm back to fake size D cups again,' she revealed.

'Thankfully I didn't get any new scarring because the plastic surgeon went over previous scars.

'I do have scarring from my explant but I scar white and my lines are thin. I'm so happy the way I am now.

'I highly recommend anyone who gets breast implants to try saline injections first to see which size they want.

'[If I didn't have my implants], I would absolutely get the injections again. It helped me decide that I wanted new implants. And I got the exact size that's right for my body.'
Parents are applauding the most recent episode of kids' TV program Bluey many say made them 'well up' and put a spotlight on men's mental health.

In the episode titled, Stickbird, Bluey's dad Bandit was visibly upset about something not revealed to the viewer and had conversations about how to deal with sad feelings with his kids.

Mums and dads said they were moved to tears by the way the show handled Bandit's sadness and shared their theories as to what could have made Bandit upset.

Some dads said the story-line made them 'feel seen' after dealing with tough times themselves while others praised Bluey's creators for highlighting fathers' struggles.

Stickbird centres around the animated family's trip to the beach and while mum Chili is enjoying the day with kids Blue and Bingo, Bandit is distant.

Parents have been moved to tears by the latest episode of Bluey where the show's dad Bandit is dealing with sad feelings. They praised Bluey's creators for highlighting fathers' struggles

As Chilli is teaching the kids how to throw a stick, Bandit sits by himself and seems deep in thought, oblivious to what's happening around him.

When Bingo asks her dad to help her find a stick to throw he's so distracted by his thoughts he doesn't realise he's talking to her.

'Let it go babe, you're missing all this,' Chilli says to him before Bandit snaps out of his sadness to play with Bingo.

However, while helping Bingo collect sticks and build a bird in the sand, the dad still cannot put his troubles completely aside.

After another child destroys Bingo's sand bird leaving her angry and upset, the dad and daughter have a conversation about dealing with sad feelings.

'When you put something beautiful out into the world, it's no longer yours really,' Bandit tells Bingo.

Bluey's dad Bandit was visibly upset about something not revealed to the viewer and has conversations about how to deal with sad feelings with his kids.

Bluey then comforts both Bandit and Bingo in their sadness telling them to scoop up the 'upset and angry' in their hands and throw it as far as they can.

Online, parents have been raving about the 'beautiful' episode with a dad of a seven-year-old daughter saying it 'spoke his language'.

'I was laid off and have decided, in the name of stability, not to tell her. I have no clue if that's what this episode is about but I've had more than my share of thousand yard stares this week,' he said.

'My daughter enjoyed this episode, but for the zillionth time I'm here saying I've never felt more seen by an episode of Bluey. I sincerely appreciate it.'

One mum thought it was the first time they had seen the Bandit character upset and another said their daughter had asked why he was feeling sad.

'I just told her that sometimes dads get angry and upset too. She understood that, and I actually understood it too,' she said.

'Something I like about this episode is Bluey takes the role of teaching a lesson. The parents are learning a lesson from the kids, not the other way around,' another parent added.

'What a lovely episode, the ending made me well up (been worried about a few things lately),' someone commented.

Online, parents have been raving about the 'beautiful' episode with a dad of a seven-year-old daughter saying it 'spoke his language'

Many were sharing their theories as to what was troubling Bandit from problems at work to the death of a loved one.

'My assumption for what's making Bandit down is probably the death of someone (hopefully not Grandpa Bob!),' someone guessed.

'I don't think it can be something as big as a death. Chilli said 'Let it go, you're missing all this'. I don't think she'd say something like that if Bandit was dealing with something that significant,' another replied.

'Seasonal depression or burnout is my guess, might be why they took the vacation in the first place,' a third thought.

However lots of parents thought the reason behind Bandit's depression was irrelevant to the show's message.

'Bandit being sad isn't supposed to be something we know about because it doesn't matter, it's just to show kids that adults can be sad too,' one dad pointed out.

'I liked that you don't find out what Bandit was worried about, it seemed like a perfect viewer stand-in,' a second agreed.

On ABC's Behind Bluey podcast, writer and creator Joe Brumm said he purposely kept Bandits down mood ambiguous so viewers could relate to his struggles.
Scientist also hot back at critics of his pandemic comments in farewell speech

Covid having emerged from a lab leak cannot be ruled out according to the top scientist who helped lead Britain through the pandemic.

Sir Patrick Vallance, England's former Chief Scientific Adviser, told MPs during his valedictory speech today that the virus 'more likely' swept the world after a person was infected by an animal.

But he said whether the virus could have leaked from a lab it was being studied in was a question of how secure the facility was.

Nicknamed 'Dr Doom' for gloomy statements and being the bearer of bad news during the Covid crisis, Sir Patrick resigned from his official role last month.

In his appearance before the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee today, he also fired parting shots at critics who had attacked his position on masks and herd immunity during the pandemic.

Sir Patrick Vallance was asked for his thoughts on the origins of Covid in his closing remarks as England's top scientific advisor and said a lab leak, while unlikely, was a possibility

When asked about the origins of the virus that made him a household name, Sir Patrick said that while the likeliest culprit was Covid coming from an animal, a lab leak was also a possibility.

Many scientists back the natural origins theory, believing that the virus originated in bats and infected an intermediary species  possibly a pangolin  before then infecting humans.

However, others believe the virus was leaked  accidentally or on purpose  from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which was conducting experiments on live bats.

'Could a sample be taken into a lab and then that have leak out? You can't really answer that question biologically, it's not a biological question, it is a security question,' he said.

'I think it's less likely...I think it's much more likely that this is a zoonotic overspill.'

He said there were multiple opportunities for bats, the animal believed to be the biological source of the Covid virus, to pass it on to animal species held at the market which could have then infected humans.

And in a last flash of 'Dr Doom' he suggested that a zoonotic overspill origin for Covid could in fact be worse because it makes it 'very likely' a similar virus with pandemic potential could emerge in the future.

Where Covid came from is a hotly contested topic with a lab leak origin, once dismissed as a conspiracy theory, having gained traction over the course of the pandemic.

Even the former head of China's top health body has now admitted a lab leak might have spawned Covid.

MPs also asked Sir Patrick about the experiments some scientists suspect might have sparked the pandemic, known as gain of function research.

This is hugely controversial field of research that can involve purposely manipulating pathogens to make them more dangerous.

In theory, it can help scientists get a head start on developing treatments for viruses that could naturally evolve to become deadlier.

But critics of the technique warn that it poses a massive risk to human health  if the pathogens ever escape.

Scientists at WIV, which is at the centre of the lab leak theory, have been accused of conducting such research on bat coronaviruses, but those who helped fund them have insisted these experiments were not gain of function.

Some experts now say Covid may have emerged from within the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Here security personnel are pictured keeping watch outside the WIV during a visit by the WHO in 2021

Other Covid origin theories point to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan (pictured) as being the epicentre of the outbreak. Many of the earliest cases in December 2019 and January 2020 had visited the site, where live animals were sold

From wanting to be a palaeontologist to steering the nation through Covid: The rise of Sir Patrick Vallance Born in Essex in the 1960s, Sir Patrick Vallance dreamed as a child of being a 'dinosaur hunter'. But ambitions of becoming a highly-renowned palaeontologist were soon abandoned in favour of a career in medicine. He was educated at Truro school in Cornwall, which costs nearly 30,000 to board now. Before becoming a household name for steering the nation through Covid, he spent time teaching at St George's, University of London, where the now 62-year-old graduated in the 1980s. He later became a specialist in the area of both diseases of blood vessels and endothelial biology. Sir Patrick, who describes his 'guiltiest pleasure' as driving fast cars, also spent a decade teaching at University College London. He joined British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline in 2006 and worked there until 2017. After six years at GSK his base salary as Executive Director was said to be 780,000 a year. When he left to become No10's chief scientific advisor in 2018, he cashed in 5million worth of shares he got from them from his time working there until March 2018. During the pandemic, it transpired that Sir Patrick Vallance still had 600,000 of shares. It sparked controversy because GSK was one of many firms racing to develop a Covid vaccine. Married to former GP Sophie Dexter, the couple live in a semi-detached Victorian house worth 1.8m, which they bought in 2018 with cash. The street they live on is lined with expensive cars, with an R-class Mercedes once spotted parked on their own drive. They had to complete extensive renovations after it had been left completely gutted by a fire before they were involved in the property. The pair have three children together  who all think their father, knighted originally in 2019, is 'geeky'. Advertisement

Sir Patrick defended gain of function as a whole but acknowledged there were issues that needed to be addressed on the security measures in place at labs conducting such experiments.

He said: 'Gain of function mutation is incredibly important for all sorts of areas of beneficial science and therapeutics.

'It is of course about biosecurity lapse, and I do think there is a need to make sure that biosecurity is properly regulated across the world.'

The 63-year-old, who is resigning from his 185,000 role to become chairman of the Natural History Museum's Board of Trustees, also fired parting shots to his critics.

The Government's stance on masks during the pandemic has come under fire, after ministers originally said the public did not need to wear them, before U-turning.

Asked about criticism of the masking policy, Sir Patrick said: 'In my experience during Covid, the louder the voices, the lower the evidence base.

'There were lots of uncertainties and lots of strong opinion and all sides.'

He also hinted to recent studies that suggested face coverings were not the sure-fire solution to stopping infections.

'The evidence around the effects of masks changed and grew over time and I think pretty much ended up where lots of people thought at the beginning in terms of where they might be most effective,' he said.

Sir Patrick admitted to MPs that he used 'clumsy wording' at times during the pandemic, pointing to his controversial comments about herd immunity.

He faced huge backlash in the early days of the pandemic for, on a least three occasions, saying that the aim was to 'build up some degree of herd immunity'.

Herd immunity is when a disease effectively runs out of people to infect, as enough of the population have some form of protection.

But the comments sparked a furore because it suggested the Government was prepared to allow millions of Brits to get infected, some of whom would inevitably die, under the strategy.

Speaking today about the row, Sir Patrick said: 'The mistake I made was to answer a question about herd immunity.'

He claimed he had been misunderstood the question and that he was highlighting that herd immunity was how pandemics end.

Sir Patrick said: 'Because the question I was trying to get at was not "there needs to be a strategy to get that" but fundamentally that's how you end pandemics, people get immunity through vaccines and through catching infections.

'That's absolutely not the same as saying what you want to do is go out and deliberately and got out and get people infected.'

While China has insisted the virus originated elsewhere, academics, politicians and the media have contemplated the possibility it leaked from a high-level biochemical lab in Wuhan - raising suspicions that Chinese officials simply hid evidence of the early spread

Read more: Vaccine mandates are 'morally akin' to sexual harassment, philosopher controversially claims Is pressuring someone to get a vaccine, and threatening them with financial penalties or restrictions similar to sexual harassments? One philosopher thinks so yes in a controversial new article Advertisement

He also fended off criticism of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE)  a group of scientists who advised Government during the pandemic.

SAGE has been accused of not considering the economic impact of its recommendations to ministers.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is among those who has been critical of SAGE at one point saying it had been a mistake to 'empower' the committee.

But Sir Patrick hit back at suggestions SAGE should include economists into its stable of experts, labelling them 'completely wrong'.

'The notion of bringing together all of the sciences and economics in a single advisory board is incorrect because it leaves ministers not having to make the trade-offs they need to make,' he said.

'It's a sperate question about whether economics and other things should provide input to that side of the equation for ministers to consider.'

Sir Patrick has famously hit back at suggestions SAGE were scaremongering during the pandemic, arguing that it wasn't his job to be an optimist but to give ministers the data.

Asked about what he was proud of during his reign as the nation's top scientist, Sir Patrick said supporting the development and deployment of Covid vaccines and the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, featured highly.

Sir Patrick served as the Government's Chief Scientific advisor for five years, first taking on the role in 2018.

He is being succeed in the role by Professor Dame Angela McLean, an expert on the spread of infectious diseases from Oxford University, who previously worked as the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser.
Fentanyl deaths rose 5.7 per 100,000 people in 2016 to 21.6 per 100,000 in 2021

Fentanyl's fatal rise across America has been laid bare in a new Government report.

Overdose deaths involving the synthetic opioid more than tripled from 2016-2021, rising from 5.7 per 100,000 in 2016 to 21.6 in 2021.

The drug was responsible for killing 69,943 people in 2021, equivalent to roughly one American every eight minutes, making it more deadly than cancer, Covid and car accidents.

Fentanyl  which is 50 times stronger than heroin  is killing almost as many as methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and oxycodone combined.

It comes as the Department of Homeland Security Secretary declared fentanyl the 'single greatest challenge the US faces as a country' last month.

Drug overdose deaths between 2016 and 2021

Fentanyl users lay passed out in filth while a third sits unconscious in plain sight of the Capitol building in Sacramento, California on Capitol Mall itself. The state capitol is not immune from the homeless and drug problems plaguing US cities while solutions seem thin on the ground

The drug was initially produced in India and China and mailed to recipients across North America. Makeshift labs have since sprung up in Mexico to receive the precursor chemicals from Asia, mix them or press them into pills, and smuggle them into the US

It is being increasingly mixed with other illicit street drugs, leading to swathes of accidental overdoses  as well as people intentionally injecting fentanyl.

Today's report is the latest to evaluate the lethal opioid's impact on the American population.

It looked at death certificate records across America and showed that fentanyl-related deaths rose by about 55 percent in 2019-2020 and 24 percent in 2020-2021.

In the US, difficulties in getting treatment for substance use disorders during the Covid pandemic coincided with a jump in use of synthetic opioids like fentanyl, and opioid-related deaths soared to a record-high in 2020.

The heroin-based market has morphed into a fentanyl-based market, according to the Department of Justice's Drug Enforcement Administration.

Fentanyl is flooding into the US from Mexico and China and is relatively easy to smuggle across the border. It is also cost effective for dealers to mix it into their supplies, which saves them money and can extend or boost the high experienced by users.

Dr Allison Lin, an addiction psychiatrist at University of Michigan Medical School, told ABC News: 'The vast majority of our folks or patients with substance use disorders, even if they don't know it, they're primarily using the drug supply that's primarily fentanyl.

'So, the folks who were using heroin previously are the folks who are also using fentanyl now. It's just that the supply of opioids and other drugs in our communities are primarily supplies that are predominantly fentanyl because of all the characteristics of it, how inexpensive it is, how easy it is to cut with other substances, other factors.'

This photo provided by the US Drug Enforcement Administration's Phoenix Division shows some of the 30,000 fentanyl pills the agency seized in one of its bigger busts, in Tempe, Arizona, in August, 2017. The picture shows just one of four plastic containers that were stuffed with the tablets

Fentanyl users on the streets of Portland, Oregon. The drug readily manufactured in Mexico is flooding across the porous southern border in pill form. The pills known on the street as 'blues' cost anywhere between $3-5 a pop and are first crushed then superheated on foil with the vapor inhaled through a tube

The rates of drug overdose deaths by gender

It takes a vanishingly small dose of fentanyl to cause a fatal overdose. Just two milligrams, the equivalent of five grains of salt is enough to cause death

The rates of drug overdose deaths by age. Across all ages, fentanyl had the highest overdose death rates. Rates were greatest in those aged 35 to 44, followed by those aged 25 to 34

The Biden administration has been pushing for action as US drug-related overdose deaths surpassed 100,000 in 2021, according to government estimates.

Between 2016 and 2021, the rate of drug overdose deaths involving methamphetamine increased more than fourfold, and cocaine-related overdose deaths more than doubled, the CDC said.

Oxycodone and heroin deaths fell marginally during the study period.

Roughly two-in-100,000 died due to oxycodone-related overdose in 2016. That fell to 1.5-in-100,000 people in 2021.

Heroin related deaths decreased from 4.9 per 100,000 in 2016 to 2.9 in 2021, the report found.

For all five drugs looked at in 2021, men had higher death rates than women, particularly with heroin where men's rate of death was three times higher.

Across all ages, fentanyl had the highest overdose death rates.

Rates were greatest in those aged 35 to 44, followed by those aged 25 to 34.

The cheap and highly addictive drug is used by doctors for patients in serious pain or with terminal illnesses.

Fentanyl was invented in the US in 1959 as a cheaper alternative to other painkillers used in hospitals and health centers worldwide.

Three chemicals, benzylfentanyl, 4-anilinopiperidine and norfentanyl and considered to be precursors to fentanyl by the DEA - meaning they are primary ingredients to the drug's creation.

It binds to opioid receptors in a person's nervous system, which are responsible for giving the body a pleasurable feeling when activated.

Republican lawmakers have blamed the Biden administration's lax immigration policies for the surge in fentanyl coming across the southern border.

It takes a vanishingly small dose of fentanyl to cause a fatal overdose. Just two milligrams, the equivalent of five grains of salt is enough to cause death.

Because it is cut into other popular drugs, many people who die of overdoses do not know they are taking fentanyl. Fentanyl has been partially blamed for America's sharp fall in life-expectancy over the past three years.

It's now found in everything from cocaine to molly and street benzodiazepines like Xanax.
opinion

Of all appointments to be made by the President Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, none will define his presidency, then the appointment of Minister of Petroleum. There are Ministers and there are Ministers but the Minster of Petroleum in this country is in a class of his own.

He or she holds the key to the nation's treasury. We shall know by the appointment the direction of his government.

Petroleum subsidy to be not to be, our refineries, will have great impact on our future and these are issues that the next Petroleum Minister will have to determine.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has several choices over the appointment. He could appoint himself like General Abdusalam Abubakar GCFR, President Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR and President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR all did. Afterwards he is from the oil industry. He could appoint someone either inside or outside of the oil industry. Or he could appoint someone from the South south region so as to compensate to the people of that region. Afterwards the oil comes from their area. The Minister of petroleum is not just an ordinary person in this country or outside of this country.

I remember Sheikh Zaki Yamani (June 30, 1930-23 February 2021) who was the embodiment of the ascent of the Arab Petroleum Power and the face of oil embargo of 1973, who brought the Western world to its knees. I was in the Presidency during the Sani Abacha era and I knew the influence of the then Petroleum Minister, Senator Dan Dauzia Loya Etete(78). We still remember the power and the influence of Mrs Diezani K. Agama Alison-Madueke(62) during the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency.

Let us take a look at the schedule of the Minister of Petroleum. My last check showed that he has more than twenty schedules of responsibilities. They are formulation and implementation of policies and programmes, supervising NNPCL, supervising National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Crude Oil Matters, OPEC Matters, Nigerian Gas Company, Nigerian Liquefied National Gas, Department of Petroleum Resources and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company.

Other responsibilities are Integrated Data Services, Eleme Petrochemicals Company, National Engineering and Technical Company, Petroleum Training Institute, Petroleum Equilisation Fund, College of Petroleum Studies, Chairman, Ministerial Tender's Board and Postings, Research and Development(R & D), Abuja Offices and Housing Projects and African Petroleum Producers Association Matters.

The seven agencies under the Minister of Petroleum Resources are Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is now known as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited established 1 April 1977, Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NURC) -- established 16 August, 2012, Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) established 1973, Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) established 1973, Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) established 3 August 1999, Nigerian Content Development Management Board (NCDMB) established in 2010, and Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) established 16 August, 2021.

The powers of the minister of petroleum resources under the Petroleum Act extend to all segments of the industry and span the policy, regulatory and commercial spheres. For example:in the commercial sphere, the minister is empowered to set the prices of petroleum products; in the policy sphere, the minister sets the policy priorities for the industry through policy pronouncements and directives; and in the regulatory sphere, and arguably most importantly, the minister has extensive powers to make determinations, prescribe anything required and make regulations and policies for the industry.

The minister is the apex regulator of the industry, imbued with wide discretion. The Department of Petroleum Resources carries out the day-to-day regulation of the industry on the minister's behalf.

The culmination of the minister's powers in the commercial sphere and his obvious conflict of interest may be seen in his appointment as chair of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the national oil company.

To my knowledge the Minister of State for Petroleum or special adviser to the President on Petroleum matters may carry out any of these schedules as may be delegated by the Minister of Petroleum. No wonder General Abdusalam Abubakar (80), President Olusegun Obasanjo (86) and President Muhammadu Buhari (80) placed the Ministry of Petroleum Resources under their direct supervision.

In 2002, the then House of the Representatives, under the leadership of Alhaji Ghali Umar Na'Abba (64) from Tudun Wada Constituency in Kano queried President Obasanjo for appointing himself as Minister of Petroleum. That was when the House of Representatives could bark and bite .

The query then was that "Mr. President has refused to appoint a Minister of Petroleum Resources which action has occasioned the following: (a) that since inception of this Government in 1999 Mr. President refused, failed and or neglected to appoint a Minster of Petroleum Resources contrary to the Petroleum Act cap 350, laws of the Federation as amended by the Petroleum (Amendment) Act No. 22 of 1998 and thereby authorizing the performance of or performing yourself the functions of the Minister of Petroleum Resources (b) that in breach of Section 9 (1) d III laws of the Federation 1990 appointed the Committee which has increased the prices of petroleum products which function is that of a Minister of Petroleum Resources under the said Act, which Act constitutes a gross misconduct (c) that a process of establishing the refineries through bidding was established and provisional licenses were issued without the approval of the Minister of Petroleum as required by 3 (1) of the Petroleum Act which Action amounts to gross misconduct".

President Olusegun Obasanjo's response was that "Under Section 5 of the 1999 Constitution, the Executive powers of the Federation are vested in the President who may exercise same directly or through the Vice President, Ministers or officers in the public service of the Federation. It is apparent from the wordings of this section that it is within my discretion to exercise these powers directly or delegate same to certain functionaries.

In the same vein, Section 147 (1) of the Constitution makes provision for such offices of the Ministers of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President. This clearly gives me the discretion over which office of Minister to establish. The Constitution does not specify the Ministries which I have to establish or the powers which I may delegate to Ministers.

It is therefore within my constitutional powers to choose not to establish the office of the Minister of Petroleum Resources and directly exercise executive control over petroleum matters. It is immaterial that the office of Minister of Petroleum Resources is provided for in the Petroleum Act as the provisions of the Constitution take precedence over that of an existing law in the event of a conflict".

President Olusegun Obansanjo GCFR made his reply on September 7, 2002.

The appointment of Petroleum Minister in this country has always generated controversy.

The pioneer Minister of Petroleum was Colonel Muhammadu Buhari GCFR in 1977. It was during his tenure that The PUNCH newspaper published an alleged loss of N2.8 billion oil revenue in 1977. Chief Festus Remilekun Ayodele Marinho (30 December, 1934-21 January, 2021), Papal Knight of St. Sylvester, was then the Managing Director of the NNPC.

In 1977, the military head of state, Lt. General Olusegun Obasanjo, set up a crude oil sales tribunal to investigate the operations of the Nigerian National Oil Company (NNOC), which metamorphosed into NNPC same year. The tribunal found out that in three years, NNOC had failed to collect its equity share of oil produced by Shell, Mobil and Gulf. As a joint venture partner, NNOC was entitled to 182.95 million barrels of oil production. But NNOC did not find buyers for its own share, thereby losing a potential income of $2.8 billion.

The way and manner the press reported the story angered Colonel Muhammadu Buhari.

When he became the head of state on 31 December, 1983, he promulgated Decree 4 which gagged the press. Through the decree he jailed my friends, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor of The Guardian newspaper. Several journalists including myself and Folu Olamiti were detained.

Professor Tamunoemi Sokari David-West (26 August, 1936 - 11 November, 2019) was appointed Minister of Petroleum by General Muhammadu Buhari between 1984 and 1985. On 12 September, 1985, General Ibrahim Babangida swore in his first cabinet. Among those appointed Ministers at that time were Lt-General Julius Alani Ipoola Akinrinade, Lt-Colonel Tanko Ayuba, Major General Domkat Bali, Professor Jubril Aminu, Rear Admiral Patrick Koshoni, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Major-General Mamman Vatsa, Dr Kalu Idika Kalu, Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, Alhaji Lawal Mala, Lt-Colonel Anthony Ukpo, Lt-Colonel John Nanzip Shagaya, Prince Bola Ajibola, Alhaji Rilwanu Lukman, Dr Chu Okongu, Professor Tam David-West, Lt-Colonel Ahmed Abdullahi, Professor Emanuel Emovon, Air-Vice Marshal Ishaya Aboi Shekari, Majoe General Gado Nasko, Brigadier Jeremiah Useni and Air Commodore Hmaza Abdullahi.

General Babangida retained Professor Tam David-West as oil minister.

He was eventually removed as minister and arrested by the Babangida regime for allegedly contributing to the economic adversity of the country; He was discharged and acquitted of these charges by Nigeria's Special Appeal Court on 8 August 1991.

In 1986, General Babangida appointed Dr. Rilwanu Lukman (26 August 1938 - 21 July 2014) as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, holding that position until February 1990. In that role, he was also chairman of the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

In the transitional Council appointed in 1993 and headed by Chief Ernest Adegunle Oladeinde Shonekan GCFR (9 May 1936 - 11 January 2022), a retired Federal Permanent Secretary, Chief Phillip Asiodu was made the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Alhaji Hassan Hadeja was made Minister of State for Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

On assuming power, General Sani Abacha appointed Chief Donald Etiebet as Minister of Petroleum. Chief Etiebet was a brother to late Senator Donald Duke Etiebet, my very good friend who was elected the governor of Cross Rivers State in 1983. They are both from Ikot Ekpuk, now in Akwa Ibom state.

In 1995 General Abacha GCFR (20 September 1943 - 8 June 1998) removed Chief Etiebet and replaced him with Senator Dan Etete. Chief Etete brought a lot of controversy to that Ministry. There was a time he had a quarrel with the then Minister of Finance, Chief Etubom Anthony Ani (86), the son of Chief Michael Ani, the former Chairman of the Federal Electoral Commission, FEDECO. The quarrel became front page news in most newspapers with both of them accusing each other and Chief Etete threatened to "dance naked on the street" over the issue.

After the sudden death of General Sani Abacha on 8 June 1998, General Abdusalam Abubakar took over.

On August 22, 1998, General Abdusalam swore in his cabinet. This was how The New York Times captured the event the following day. The story was titled "Nigerian Strongman Names a Cabinet".

"Nigeria's ruler, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, released the names of his military and civilian Cabinet today, but no one was appointed to the important position of oil minister.

General Abubakar gave no explanation for the absence of an oil minister in an address to the new Cabinet, in which he told ministers to shun corruption and ignore politics in the months leading up to the restoration of democracy next May 29.

Officials said that a new department would be created to oversee the oil industry, which accounts for at least 90 percent of the country's export earnings.

Ismaila Usman, a central banker with a reputation for discipline who was demoted for standing up to late dictator, Sani Abacha, in his demands for cash, was named Finance Minister".

Although General Abdusalam did not appoint a Petroleum Minister, following pressures from his deputy, the then Chief of General Staff, Admiral Okhai Michael Akhigbe GCON (29 September 1946-28 October 2013), General Abdusalam appointed Chief Godwin Aretenakai Adams (27 February, 1938 - 7 August, 2002) as special adviser of Petroleum Affairs. Chief Adams was from Auchi in Edo State, while Admiral Akhigbe was from Fugar also in Edo State.

Chief Adams was a geo-physicist, reputed to be highly principled, and his tenure as the managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), between November 1985 and April 1990, would be remembered for a very long time to come.

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He stood firm against what he considered attempts to undermine standards and plunge the sector into crisis, even at the risk of losing his job as the chief executive of the NNPC, during the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida.

One of such instances was his opposition to the appointment of Alhaji Abba Gana as General Manager, Marketing of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited.

Although he was subsequently suspended from office by the government on account of his position in 1989 and retired in April 1990, Adams left the NNPC with his head held high and reputation unsoiled.

Following his appointment as special adviser on Petroleum by General Abdusalam, the assumption was that he would discharge his duty as Minister of Petroleum. The assumption became grounded when he moved to the office vacated by Chief Dan Etete in the Federal Secretariat. Three weeks after, he realised that Government officials in the oil business were not reporting to him instead they were reporting to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Gidado Idris GCON (15 March 1935 - 15 December 2017). Nobody told him that he was not the oil minister. He had audience with Alhaji Gidado Idris but the issue was not resolved. Several times he had meetings with Admiral Akhigbe yet the issue was not resolved. Sponsored Magazines and newspaper publications surfaced portraying Alhaji Gidado Idris in bad light. I had a tight schedule visiting newspapers and magazines, shuttling between Kaduna, Lagos and Ibadan defending my boss, Alhaji Gidado Idris.

In the midst of the crisis, General Abdusalam named the Minister of National Planning, Chief Rasheed Abiodun Oladosu Gbadamosi (1943-2016), an industrialist, a boardroom guru, a good friend that I miss daily, to lead the Federal Government delegation to the OPEC meeting in Vienna. The Nigerian delegation to OPEC meetings is the statutory responsibility of the Minister of Petroleum or anyone in charge of that Ministry. After the Vienna meeting, it dawned on Chief Adams that the Ministry of Petroleum was in fact under the Head of State, General Abdusalam Abubakar.

When President Obasanjo came to power in 1999, he did not make any pretence about it, he just named himself Minister of Petroleum. He was Minister of Petroleum during his eight years tenure.

President Muhammadu Buhari followed the footsteps of President Obasanjo when he became the President in 2015. For the records, President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) is the longest serving minister of Petroleum.

Expectedly there are pressures on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on what to do with the Ministry of Petroleum. He either follows the footsteps of General Abdusalam Abubakar, President Obasanjo or President Buhari by naming himself Minister of Petroleum. or he follows the footsteps of President Shehu Aliyu Usman Shagari, General Babangida, Chief Shonekan, General Sani Abacha, President Umaru Yar'Adua or President Goodluck by naming someone as the Minister of Petroleum. It will be hard choice for the in-coming President.

Eric Teniola, a retired director at the Presidency wrote from Lagos.
They were also lower in protein, fiber, calcium and iron than adult packaging

Food marketed to children is 60 percent higher in sugar and far less nutritious than snacks aimed at adults, a study has warned.

Researchers from the University of Toronto, Canada, found that snacks with child-friendly packaging like cartoon characters and multicolored designs contain on average 63 percent more sugar, the equivalent of one-and-a-half teaspoons.

They are also lower in protein, fiber, calcium and iron  nutrients that are important for growth and development, particularly in younger children.

The researchers said that the current lack of standards for child-friendly marketing on food is 'concerning'.

More than one in five US children and teens are obese. They are more likely to remain overweight for the rest of their lives, putting them at risk for a multitude of health issues.

Lucky Charms cereal has child-appealing characters and colors, and has around 168g of sugar per box. Shredded wheat, marketed more towards adults, has 4.8g of sugar per box. Kid-friendly Chips Ahoy! Cookies with sour patch candy have 99g of sugar per pack whereas Tate's Bake Shop Chocolate Chip Cookies have 84g sugar per pack. Breyers ice creams is geared more towards adults and contains 57g of sugar per tub. Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies Ice Cream is plastered with child-friendly characters and racks up 65g of sugar per tub

The Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy to try and fight the obesity epidemic but drew criticism for not tackling the issue at its root by encouraging healthier lifestyles.

According to the Canadian study of almost 6,000 items, products with child-appealing packaging had an average of 14.7g total sugars compared to 9g in non-child-appealing  63 percent higher.

Some 5,850 items of child-relevant packaged food were evaluated from the Food Label Information Program database.

Researchers looked at the foods which they deemed a top priority for analyses of child-appealing marketing, including cakes, grain bars, cereals, cookies and pudding.

Some of the examples of marketing they mentioned include branded characters such as Cap'n Crunch, Tony the Tiger, Toucan Sam, Kraft Bears and Pillsbury Doughboy.

The categories with the highest proportion of products displaying child-appealing marketing on their packages were toaster pastries, cereals and crackers.

Candy, ice cream, cookies, meals and juice also had a high prevalence of child-friendly packaging.

All products were evaluated under the nutrient thresholds proposed by Health Canada as part of an upcoming Bill.

The thresholds for sodium, total sugars and saturated fat are roughly five percent of the daily value for each.

According to the proposal, if a product exceeds one or more of the nutrient thresholds, it would not be permitted to be marketed to children.

They found that 98 percent of child-appealing packaging exceeded Health Canada's proposed thresholds, compared to 94 percent of non-child appealing packaging.

The child-appealing packaging items were also lower in all other 'positive' nutrients measured.

Techniques such as the use of characters, promotions, games, toys, and child-appealing graphic designs like unusual colors and shapes are displayed frequently on food packaging.

Within products with child-appealing packaging, 79.6 percent exceeded the sugars threshold, 42.2 percent exceeded the sodium threshold, and 27.2 percent exceeded the saturated fat threshold.

Within products with non-child-appealing packaging, 53.6 percent exceeded the sugars threshold, 54.0 percent exceeded the sodium threshold, and 32.4 percent exceeded the saturated fat threshold.

The researchers found that in the cereals category, there was no difference in energy, sodium or saturated fats between products with child-appealing and non-child-appealing packaging.

However, cereals with child-appealing packaging had significantly higher levels of total sugars and free sugars, and lower levels of protein than cereals with non-child-appealing packaging.

Cereals that were more powerfully marketed were also more likely to be higher in total and free sugars.

The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, concluded that 'implementing marketing restrictions that protect children' should be a 'priority'.

A Pew Research study found that Americans are eating 23 percent more calories now than they were in previous decades.

This is combined with a more sedentary lifestyle that many are living. Children are less likely to get the recommended one hour of daily physical activity now than they were in previous years.

The pandemic likely exacerbated these issues. Children who stayed home from school were less likely to go and play outdoors where they would get more exercise.

They were also more likely to snack throughout the day, adding calories that they previously would not have in a more structured school environment.

While obese children still have time to shed weight and eventually live a healthy life, it does set them up for more health problems later down the line.

Many obese children are diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes, the former is a lifelong condition that much be managed daily to live a healthy life.

They are also more likely to stay obese throughout the rest of their lives, setting them up for health problems down the line like diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure among others.
Hunter Biden cut his baby mama out of his life after hearing their unborn daughter's heartbeat for the first time, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

Hunter, 53, vowed to support Lunden Roberts 'emotionally, physically and financially' after she discovered she was pregnant in January 2018, according to a close friend of the single mom.

The pair met at Hunter's Maryland home several weeks later, when excited Roberts, 32, played him an audio recording from her 12-week ultrasound scan.

Dad-of-five Hunter is said to have become teary-eyed and emotional listening to Navy Joan Roberts' fetal heart beating for the first time.

But when Roberts returned to her native Arkansas the President's son began ghosting her - ignoring her calls and texts - and has never seen, nor spoken, to her ever since, the confidante told DailyMail.com.

A close friend of Hunter Biden's baby mama Lunden Roberts tells DailyMail.com that Lunden met with Hunter at his Maryland home and played him an audio recording from her 12-week ultrasound scan

Dad-of-five Hunter is said to have become teary-eyed and emotional listening to Navy Joan Roberts' fetal heart beating for the first time. But he cut her off soon after

The former flames finally came face to face in an Arkansas courtroom on Monday to argue over how much child support Hunter should pay for the adorable, four-year-old girl he has never met.

His lawyers rejected the notion he was a deadbeat dad and revealed the president's son has contributed $750,000 towards the child's upbringing.

Abbe Lowell, Hunter's hotshot DC lawyer, suggested it was time the world knew how much his client was shelling out for Navy Joan Roberts.

'Mr. Biden is paying the plaintiff $20,000 a month,' Lowell told the two-hour hearing in Independence County, Arkansas. He later put the total figure at $750,000.

The judge presiding over the trial ripped into the First Son for 'sealing and redacting' his financial information.

'The ability to redact is somewhat being abused,' Judge Holly Meyer fumed. Im seeing a lot of things filed, especially by Mr. Bidens counsel, sealing things, redacting things, that are not confidential.'

She suggested that lawyers for the First Son's baby mama should subpoena a downtown Manhattan art gallery to find out exactly how much he has made from selling his art.

And the judge ordered the First Son to produce more financial documents to back his claim that he should be allowed to reduce the amount he gives Lunden Roberts each month.

Hunter glanced occasionally at Roberts as they sat across the court from one another. Roberts, supported by her parents and sister, did not look back at him.

Neither was called on to speak as the court worked through a list of procedural matters before setting a June date for both parents to sit for depositions ahead of a July trial.

Hunter hopped out of a silver SUV and headed inside at 8.45am, stopping briefly to shake someone's hand in the entrance way

Roberts has refused to buckle and raised the stakes by petitioning the court to officially rename her daughter Navy Joan Biden to 'benefit from carrying the Biden Family name,' a move Hunter dismissed as 'political warfare'

Their long-running paternity suit seemed to have been resolved in 2019 when a DNA test proved Hunter had fathered Navy Joan and he agreed to a reported $2.5 million settlement.

But the recovering drug addict abruptly reopened the case in September by claiming he had suffered 'a substantial material change' in his income and couldn't afford the payments.

Roberts refused to buckle and raised the stakes by petitioning the court to officially rename her daughter Navy Joan Biden to 'benefit from carrying the Biden Family name,' a move Hunter dismissed as 'political warfare.'

She also served the First Son with a sprawling discovery request covering everything from his shady business dealings in Ukraine and China to the names of the mystery art lovers who have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for his beginner abstract paintings.

After Hunter blew through multiple deadlines to turn over his documents, Judge Holly Meyer ordered him to appear at Independence County Circuit Court in person for today's contempt hearing.

'Hunter's political enemies may be relishing his awkward court encounter with Lunden but, for her, it's going to be extremely tough,' dished the friend.

'The last time she saw him face to face she was 12 weeks pregnant, and they were listening to Navy Joan's heartbeat together.

'Hunter promised to support Lunden emotionally, physically, and financially. He said he wanted to go with her to the doctors' appointments and she had no reason to doubt him.

'That was the last time she saw him before he went ghost. There was sporadic communication via a friend for a short while - and then nothing.'

Navy Joan was born in August 2018 but she remained a secret until Roberts sued Hunter for child support in her native Arkansas 10 months later

Lunden is bringing up daughter Navy outside Batesville, Arkansas where she grew up herself

Roberts lit the touch paper on yesterday's hearing by accusing the Biden scion of hiding assets and posing as a 'destitute' artist in her latest court filing.

She wants to know how Hunter can plead poverty while deploying a stable of super lawyers charging up to $855 per hour across his various lawsuits and congressional probes.

The feisty mom, who studied crime scene investigation at George Washington University, has even called for Hunter to be slung in the county jail - and left there until he coughs up his records.

Her attorney Clinton Lancaster says slashing the childcare payments would be 'inappropriate and unjust' and wants Hunter - who spent last week at Democrat donor's Joe Kiani $50 California vineyard - to pay more if he's caught concealing his true wealth.

To add insult to injury, Roberts has retained Garrett Ziegler - a former Trump administration staffer and longtime Hunter nemesis who produced a 644-page analysis on the contents on his notorious abandoned laptop - as an expert witness.

In his own filings, Hunter has opposed Navy Joan becoming a Biden, insisting he wants a 'peaceful existence' for her, free of the political scrutiny associated with his family dynasty.

The angelic, blonde-haired girl was born in August 2018 but remained a secret until Roberts sued Hunter for child support in her native Arkansas.

She is the fourth of Hunter's five children but neither he, nor his parents Joe and Jill Biden, have ever met the child or publicly acknowledged her existence.

Hunter claimed during the original 10-month paternity case that he was 'unemployed and had no monthly income' despite living in a $12,000-per-month Hollywood rental and driving a Porsche.

But when a judge ordered him to produce financial records he repeatedly failed to do so and instead settled out of court, the two sides announcing a 'global, final settlement of all issues'.

Roberts also wants to change her daughter's last name to Biden to benefit from carrying the president's family name

Navy Joan has never met her grandpa Joe, 80, despite the President fawning over his six other grandkids and frequently bringing them along for events and speeches. Joe is seen holding Hunter's son Beau

It was initially reported that Hunter met Roberts while she worked as a stripper at a DC club which Hunter frequented.

But texts retrieved from his abandoned laptop proved that she was in fact on the payroll at Rosemont Seneca, Hunter's Washington, D.C. investment firm.

She and Hunter conceived Navy Joan around December 2017 while he was still in a relationship with his brother Beau's widow, Hallie.

Hunter claimed in his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, that he went on such a 'rampage' in the wake of his 2017 divorce from Kathleen Buhle that he couldn't remember the names of the women he bedded.

'It's why I would later challenge in court the woman from Arkansas who had a baby in 2018 and claimed the child was mine  I had no recollection of our encounter. That's how little connection I had with anyone,' he wrote.

Hunter has never seen Navy Joan and could not pick her out of a photo lineup, according to court filings.

Navy Joan has never met her grandpa Joe, 80, despite the President fawning over his six other grandkids and frequently bringing them along for events and speeches.

And she gets none of the perks, nor the round-the-clock Secret Service protection, enjoyed by the rest of the Biden brood.

In February 2022 Roberts gave evidence to a Delaware grand jury investigating Hunter for alleged tax crimes, joining a growing list of former business partners and associates who have been drawn into the Department of Justice's secretive probe.

Federal prosecutors were particularly interested in what she learned about Hunter's finances, her attorney said at the time.
A move to ban recreational vaping has sparked a furious backlash among some users - but has been welcomed by many vapers worried about the mystery chemicals they are hooked on.

Health minister Mark Butler revealed plans on Monday to bring in a sweeping ban on all disposable vapes over fears they target children and lure them into smoking.

The federal government has vowed to end the sale of vapes in retail and convenience stores, forcing all users to apply for a prescription through a doctor to use them.

It's not yet been decided if prescription vapes will be covered by the pharmaceutical benefits scheme - which could see the cost of vapes slashed to just $30 every two months, compared to around $30 a week or more for some current vapers.

But the move, expected to be detailed in Tuesday's Budget as part of a $93million campaign aimed at stamping out vaping and smoking, has enraged many.

'It's nanny state nonsense,' fumed traffic engineer Jan Muller, as he puffed on a vape outside an office building in Sydney's CBD on Tuesday.

'I hate it, I absolutely hate it. I used to smoke but now cigarettes taste like poison to me. Vapes are so much better. A ban would be outrageous.'

Vapers Elizabeth Wenster, left, and Stella Esbjoernson, right, said they were concerned about what was in their vapes that made them so addictive

A move to ban vapes has sparked a furious backlash among some users - but welcomed by vapers worried about the mystery chemicals they are hooked on

LABOR'S BAN PLEDGE Health minister Mark Butler (pictured) Health minister Mark Butler said one in six teenagers aged between 14 and 16 and one in four Australians aged between 18 and 24 had vaped. 'Vaping was sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit,' Mr Butler said. 'It was not sold as a recreational product - especially not one for our kids. But that is what it has become: the biggest loophole in Australian history.' The government is planning a major crack down on black market vapes which are imported from overseas and readily available at retail outlets around the country. Single use, disposable vapes will be banned and more doctors given the ability to prescribe prescription vapes to patients who need one to help them stop smoking cigarettes. The new rules will also include restrictions on the flavours and colours of vapes that can be sold in Australia as well as tougher border controls. 'The Budget will include $63million for a public health information campaign to discourage Australians from taking up vaping and smoking and encourage more people to quit,' said Mr Butler 'There will also be $30m invested in support programs to help Australians quit, including through enhanced nicotine cessation education and training among health practitioners.' Advertisement

Another vaper raged that her habit was being targeted but smokers were still getting a free pass.

'Why aren't they banning cigarettes?' said Kylie, 25, who has vaped for two years.

'Vaping looks better, it tastes better and it doesn't feel like it's doing as much damage to your lungs - even though it probably is.'

But most other vapers spoken to by Daily Mail Australia said a ban couldn't come soon enough and welcomed the government's plan.

Each one admitted they were hopelessly addicted to their clouds of fruity smoke - and most said a ban might be the push they need to quit for good.

However almost all were shocked to discover that nicotine vapes are already banned except those issued by pharmacists on prescription.

Many importers are suspected of deliberately mislabelling vapes as nicotine-free to smuggle them into Australia, triggering the move to now ban all disposable vapes.

'Vapes are far more addictive than cigarettes,' said Stella Esbjoernson, 21, as she soaked up the sun in Bondi with her vape by her side.

'You smoke much more than with cigarettes - it's always in your hand so you're constantly using it.'

But she was amazed to find out there was not supposed to be any nicotine in her corner shop-bought vapes.

'If there's no nicotine in it, why am I so addicted to it?' she asked.

'In that case I'm wondering why we're doing it? What does it have in it?

'It probably does have nicotine in it - they must just be pretending it doesn't.'

Some vapers warned the move to ban all vapes - except those prescribed by doctors for patients trying to give up smoking - could drive the market underground.

'If people want it, they will get it,' said Josefina Gurtubay, 33, in Bondi.

'It will be like drugs. Making them illegal doesn't stop it, it just makes it more expensive.

'People will take advantage of that and make it a big business. And then you will never know what is in your vape either because it will all be unregulated.'

Josefina Gurtubay 33, left, with friends Colomba Saez, 30, and Sergio Arze, 31, warned banning vapes may drive the market into the hands of drug dealers

The move to ban vapes, expected to be detailed in Tuesday's Budget as part of a $93million campaign aimed at stamping out vaping and smoking, has enraged many

CBD worker Michail Schwartz, 27, said he felt healthier since giving up cigarettes and moving onto vapes - but admitted he was hooked.

'I was smoking less before, but my lungs were wrecked by cigarettes,' he said.

'You really notice the difference.

'After vaping for a few months, you feel better walking up a hill.'

He believes a ban is too heavy-handed a solution to tackle the problem of vape use by under-age schoolchildren.

Some vapes are designed to look like marker pens to allow students to hide them in their pencil case while the fruit flavours appeal to every child's sweet tooth.

But Mr Schwartz believed it was possible to impose restrictions without imposing a ban.

VAPE COSTS COULD BE SLASHED UNDER BAN Health minister Mark Butler has promised that vapes will be available on prescription from any GP in Australia if the doctor believes it is necessary for the patient to give up smoking. But government health advisors admit the finer points of the proposal - including the final cost - have yet to be worked out. Under consideration is including prescription nicotine vapes within the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which could limit the cost of each prescription to just $30. If vapes are also included in the government's new 60-day supply prescriptions, it would bring the cost of vaping down to just $30 for two months' supply, compared to at least $240 for users who buy a vape a week from convenience stores. 'That is all still to be worked on,' said a spokesman for Mr Butler. 'These details have yet to be finalised.' Advertisement

'If it was regulated heavily, sold in a chemist, flavourless and you needed to show ID to buy it - I feel like that would kind of deal with a lot of the issues without getting rid of it altogether,' he said.

He currently uses a non-disposable vape with separately bought vape juice to control his intake.

'The ones you get at convenience stores at the moment are really, really strong,' he said. 'I don't know what they put in them.

'The ones in the store, you have absolutely no idea what they are. It's just a flavour but it could be anything.'

Elizabeth Wenster, 21, admitted the sweet fruit flavours of the vapes were clearly designed to tempt children.

'The vape flavours are very important - I bought one vape with a disgusting flavour and I didn't vape for two days until I ditched it and bought another,' she said.

But she said in her native Sweden, schoolkids regularly suck on tobacco pouches similar to ones which have been banned in Australia over concerns of a link to mouth cancer.

'The pouches are so common in Sweden - I was using them from the age of 17,' she revealed.

'You start doing it in school - my little sister's doing it and she's 16. It's very popular for girls as it doesn't make your teeth brown and it tastes like vape.'

Recruitment agent Rory Phelan, 28, vowed to quit if the ban was brought in - despite his self-confessed $120 a month addiction, going through one $30 vape a week.

'It's probably a good thing, really,' he said. 'Vaping is just so much more accessible than smoking. You can do it at home and there's no end to it.

'It's not like a cigarette which starts and finishes in a few minutes. Once the vape is in your hand at home, you can just keep puffing on it all night long.

'And it's so addictive. I stopped for a month in January, then one stressful day in the office and I was back on it again.

'But I don't understand why they are just banning vaping and not cigarettes and smoking as a whole in general as well.'

Recruitment agent Rory Phelan, 28, (pictured) vowed to quit if the ban was brought in - despite his self-confessed $120 a month addiction, going through one $30 vape a week

Health minister Mark Butler revealed plans on Monday to bring in a sweeping ban on all disposable vapes over fears they target children and lure them into smoking

Annalise, 27, from Bondi, said she needed a ban to force her to kick the addiction.

'It might make me give up as I can't seem to do it myself,' she admitted. 'I just need that dopamine hit and it supplies it. Cigarettes are too expensive so I vape instead.'

But she doubted a ban would have any impact on stopping children from getting hooked on the sweet smoke.

'Even before there is a ban, I've heard of kids who go to a shopping centre to meet someone there who will sell them vapes,' she revealed.

'The parents think they're giving them lunch money but it's being spent on vapes. Other sellers will sit on benches outside the schools and sell to them.

'It won't make any difference if vapes are banned or not - there will always be people like that who will find a way to exploit the kids by giving them what they want.'

Australia launches massive crackdown on vaping that will affect every e-cigarette user - here's what you need to know about the changes

BY DAVID SOUTHWELL FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

The sale of flavoured vapes will been banned in Australia as part of a major crackdown on e-cigarettes.

Health Minister Mark Butler dropped the bombshell on Monday's episode of Q+A, adding that an official announcement will come on Tuesday.

The strict laws will mean Aussies can only purchase vapes in plain packaging with a prescription at pharmacies - not convenience stores, service stations or any other shops.

'I am determined to stamp out this public health menace because that's what I think it genuinely is,' Mr Butler said.

'They should only be available in therapeutic settings, which is essentially pharmacies.

'Only products that are pharmaceutical style plain package, plain products, they don't have flavours only those products should come into Australia.'

As part of the major push Mr Butler is also preparing to ban disposable vapes, which are single use e-cigarettes that don't allow refills of the liquid electronically heated to produce the inhaled vapour.

What changes are coming to vaping laws? -All vape flavours will be banned -Plain packaging will be introduced -Vapes will only be sold at pharmacies -The importation of non-prescription vapes will be outlawed -Single use vapes to also be banned Advertisement

Currently vapes are available from convenience stores and tobacco outlets, as well as from online sources and come in a bewildering variety of flavours, shapes and designs.

The minister said e-cigarettes were initially promoted to governments and health regulators as a therapeutic aid for people to quit smoking.

But he claims vape producers are instead targeting children to take up the dangerous and addictive product.

'It was not sold as a recreational product targeted at our kids but that's what it has become,' he said.

'Vapes are disguised as highlighter pens, as USB sticks so that people can take them to school and it is having a significant health effect on our youngest Australians.'

He accused producers of marketing to young people by decorating vapes with pink unicorns or giving them bubblegum flavours.

'This is a deliberate strategy by the tobacco industry to create a new generation of nicotine addicts and far from being a pathway out of cigarettes, which is what it was promoted to us as, it has become a pathway into cigarettes for young people,' he said.

The use of vapes among young people has become a major concern for health authorities

Poll SHOULD AUSTRALIA BAN VAPING? YES NO SHOULD AUSTRALIA BAN VAPING? YES 1383 votes

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It is estimated that over a million Australians regularly use vapes, with one in four 18 to 24-year-olds and one in six high school students having tried e-cigarettes.

The Health Minister claims vapes are now 'the number one behavioural issue in high schools and are rapidly becoming the number one issue in primary schools'

The extent of the the federal government's vaping crackdown will be revealed in the May federal Budget, Mr Butler said on Friday, with further details to be revealed at his Press Club address in Canberra on Tuesday.

In March a health academic argued that only pharmacies should be allowed to import vapes because other retailers, manufacturers and importers falsely label nicotine vapes, outlawed in Australia in late 2021, as nicotine-free.

Sydney University Associate Professor Becky Freeman said the legal importation of nicotine-free vapes was a loophole that needed to be closed with a complete ban imposed except for pharmacies to sell e-cigarettes that curb addiction.

Vapes are currently sold in a bewildering assortment of colours and flavours, which Mr Butler believes target children

A major concern about the flood of vapes being imported from China is that many contain unlisted toxic and cancer-causing chemicals such as formaldehyde as well heavy metals, such as nickel, tin, and lead.

Mr Butler said the Victorian Poisons Hotline had received 50 calls about kids under four swallowing vaping liquids.

The government has committed $63 million in next week's budget to conducting a campaign to discourage Australians from vaping or smoking.

A further $30 million will be funneled to quit support programs and to training health practitioners in how to wean people off nicotine.

A separate tackling Indigenous smoking program will be widened to include vaping, costing an extra $140 million.
The devastated father of a 16-year-old Oklahoma beauty queen found dead with six other people, including a sex offender, had no idea that he had a criminal history.

Nathan Brewer called his daughter, Brittany Brewer, his 'right hand side kick,' and was heartbroken when he found out on Monday that his child and her friend Ivy Webster, 14, were killed.

'She was my right hand person and now she is gone,' the heartbroken father told The Oklahoman. 'It's just a parent's worse nightmare and I'm living it.'

Six other people were also found dead, including pedophile Jesse McFadden, 39, a convicted sex offender. The names or ages of the other victims have not officially been disclosed.

Earlier in the day, an endangered missing advisory was issued by officials for both girls. The alert indicated that the authorities believed that the two teens were with McFadden. It wasn't until hours later that officials from the Okmulgee County Sheriff's office made the grim discovery.

Officials discovered seven bodies on the property around 3 pm at 14600 Holly Road in the rural town of Henryetta, Interim PIO Gerald Davidson Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations told DailyMail.com.

Brittany Brewer, 16, was planning to represent her Oklahoma town at a state beauty pageant this summer. Brittany is wearing the sash as she stands in front of the beauty pageant poster

Fourteen-year-old Ivy Webster was one of the people found dead on a rural Oklahoma property on Monday near the rural town of Henryetta

Jesse McFadden, 39, a convicted sex offender, was found dead. The ages and names of the other five victims have not officially been disclosed

The Oklahoma Medical Examiner's office did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment and to find out the other victims identities and their manner and cause of death.

But according to a relative, the other four victims were all found shot to death.

Janette Mayo, 59, said the Okmulgee County Sheriffs Office informed her that the other four victims were her daughter, Holly Guess, 35, and her grandchildren, Rylee Elizabeth Allen, 17, Michael James Mayo, 15, and Tiffany Dore Guess, 13, reports NYP.

The Endangered Missing Person's Flyer issued by thte Oklahoma Highway Patrol

McFadden, who was listed on the state's sex offender registry, was supposed to be in court Monday on child porn charges and that he had been convicted of sex crimes, as per online records, WWMT News reported.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections prison records show McFadden was convicted of first-degree rape in 2003 and released in October 2020, the news outlet said.

The Okmulgee County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that deputies took a missing person report for Webster Monday morning.

Both women were reportedly seen traveling with McFadden before they disappeared.

A grief-stricken Nathan Brewer, father of Brittany Brewer, 16, who was found dead on Monday afternoon in the rural town of Henryetta

Brittany's father said that his daughter had spent the weekend with the McFadden's family several times before.

He told News On 6 that his daughter was selected to be Miss Henryetta at the [National American Miss pageant] in Tulsa and represent her town this summer.

'And now she ain't gonna make it because she's dead, she's gone,' the grief-stricken father said.

He said during a vigil that he was held on Monday that his daughter had dreams of becoming a veterinarian or a teacher.

He added: 'I am just lost.'
Prosecutors are nearing a decision on whether to charge Hunter Biden on violations related to his taxes and his attempt to purchase a gun, according to a new report Wednesday.

U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, a Donald Trump appointee tasked with leading the Hunter probe, is nearing the end of process, the Washington Post reported, citing sources familiar.

Hunter Biden's attorneys met with Weiss at Justice Department headquarters in Washington D.C. last week in a sign that things are wrapping up.

There is no timetable for any final decision from Weiss, who has been investigating President Joe Biden's son for four years.

Republicans have used the probe to paint the Biden family as corrupt. There have been no charges against President Biden. Hunter Biden says he's not guilty.

Prosecutors are nearing a decision on whether to charge Hunter Biden

Weiss and his federal prosecutors are weighing four charges against Hunter, three related to tax crimes and a felony charge related to a gun purchase.

The possible charges are two misdemeanor counts for failure to file taxes, a single felony count of tax evasion related to a business expense for one year of taxes, and the gun charge, also a potential felony.

Prosecutors are examining whether Hunter paid adequate taxes on millions of dollars of his income, including money he made from multiple overseas business ventures.

And, when purchasing a .38 caliber gun in 2018, Hunter wrote on the Firearm Transaction Record that he did not use unlawful drugs, but admitted in his memoir that he was a crack addict at the time. Intentionally providing misleading information while making a gun purchase is a felony.

Hunter Biden filled out a federal form related to the purchase in which he allegedly answered 'no' to the question whether he was 'an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?'

U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, a Donald Trump appointee, will decide whether or not to charge Hunter Biden

Such cases are called 'lying and buying.'

Additionally, Hunter borrowed $2 million from his lawyer and confidant Kevin Morris to pay the IRS for back taxes, penalties and liens that he owed, according to reports.

The Hunter Biden probe began in 2018 during the Trump presidency. The former president used Hunter Biden as a rallying cry for his base in his unsuccessful 2020 re-election campaign.

The initial investigation focused on Hunter Biden's finances related to his overseas business ventures.

Over time, it focused on whether or not he reported all of his income and whether he lied on gun purchase paperwork in 2018.

House Republicans are also investigating Hunter Biden and his businesses.

The first son is fighting GOP attempts to garner his communications with intelligence agencies, travel and financial records since the time President Biden served as vice president.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Republican congressman from Kentucky, said: 'The Committee is investigating President Biden's knowledge of and role in these foreign business deals to assess whether he has compromised our national security at the expense of the American people.'

A federal indictment of Hunter Biden could shut the GOP investigation down.

In the Justice Department probe, there have been reports of frustration inside the FBI because the bulk of its investigative work was finished last year while the IRS finished its tax investigation more than a year ago.

But prosecutors make the decisions on when and if to charge and the Hunter Biden investigation is fraught with political landmines.

Any decision by Weiss will be used by Republicans, who have sought to tie Hunter's troubles to his father.

Republicans have tried to tie Hunter Biden's legal issues to his father Joe Biden

Biden announced last week he will seek another term in the White House, meaning, if charges are filed, his son Hunter could be on trial during his re-election campaign.

Questions about Hunter Biden's business dealings - particularly his overseas work in the Ukraine and China - have dogged Biden's presidential campaigns.

Attorney General Merrick Garland left Weiss - a holdover from the Trump administration - in charge of the case, gave him complete authority to run the investigation, and to make the final decision on filing charges.

Garland was asked at a news conference about the status of the investigation: 'I stand by my testimony, and I refer you to the U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware, who is in charge of this case and capable of making any decisions that he feels are appropriate.'

Hunter Biden has gotten more aggressive in his response to the probes, engaging a new legal team to fight back led by lawyer Abbe Lowell.

The first son also has been appearing in public more. He joined President Biden on a trip to Northern Ireland and the Republican of Ireland last month.

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden was in court in Arkansas this week on a judge's orders in an ongoing case between him and the mother of a 4-year-old child that they had together.

Hunter Biden's lawyers have been trying to lower childcare payments that they say for years have been $20,000 per month.

The judge ordered Hunter to produce more financial documents to back his claim that he should be allowed to reduce the amount he gives Lunden Roberts each month.

Roberts, 32, and Biden, 53, came face to face for the first time since she gave birth to his daughter, Navy Joan, now four.
The Barefoot Investor has issued an urgent warning to Australians over a terrifying new scam in which fraudsters can use artificial intelligence to clone anyone's voice.

Scott Pape, as he is also known, said in his 20 years of covering finance, he had 'never seen anything like' the skyrocketing number of scams appearing over the last couple of years.

'Scams are red hot right now. In fact, they've increased a staggering 80 per cent in the last year alone,' Pape said.

But as Australians wise up to the 'run-of-the-mill scammy stuff', as Pape puts it - such as dodgy overseas call centres, romance scams, or fake links - those who want to steal your money are also upping their game.

'Don't get too comfy - an army of robots is coming for your money.'

Barefoot Investor Scott Pape said the scammers are moving too fast for banks and the government

While AI-powered search engines, like Bing's partnership with ChatGPT, have become all the buzz recently, there are a host of other AI programs out there, and many are worrying.

'A new artificial intelligence app called VoiceLab can recreate your voice with just a three-second clip,' Pape said.

'It can gain this from a spam call when you answer 'Hello, who is this?' or, more likely, from one of your TikTok posts.'

Pape said there are several ways this can be used to gain access to a mark's cash.

'Scammers have even been using voice-cloning tech to trick parents into believing their kids are calling them in a panic and needing money fast.'

'Yet what the scammers are really after is voice authentication.'

Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office both offer voice authentication to access accounts.

Financial institutions are also getting on board, with at least two Australian banks investing in voice ID verification.

If scammers can also get hold of some basic information such as an account number, then 'Bingo', Pape said.

But it doesn't stop there, with AI programs also being deployed to try and hack old-fashioned passwords.

According to Pape, the scammers are moving too fast for the government or even the banks to keep up.

'Last year, the Big Four managed to stop just 13 per cent of scam payments. Worse, the banks only compensated their customers for around 2 per cent to 5 per cent of what they lost, according to ASIC.'

He suggests having two-factor authentication on all your accounts, which requires verification from a second method such as a mobile phone to gain access.

'If you're really concerned, lock down your credit file,' he said.

This can prevent scammers applying for credit with your information.
Two 10-year-old children were found to have been working unpaid shifts at a Kentucky McDonald's, sometimes until 2am.

The children, who have not been named, prepared and served meals at the Louisville McDonald's, worked the drive-thru and cash register and had to clean the floor.

One was even allowed to work the deep fryer, a task that is considered illegal for anyone under the age of 16, as it involves 'dangerous equipment.'

The two children are just some of 305 children under the age of 16 who the United States Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division investigators discovered were working illegally at McDonald's restaurants in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio.

It comes as businesses across the country have been turning to younger workers to cope with the labor shortage  with some states passing bills to ease child labor laws.

Two 10 year olds were found to have been working long, unpaid shifts at a Louisville, Kentucky McDonald's. Fast food employees are seen here in New Zealand

According to the Department of Labor, 62 McDonald's restaurants in Kentucky were found to have violated child labor laws

The minimum working age is 14, but there are limits on working hours for those under 16 and prohibitions on hazardous jobs for anyone under 18.

According to the Department of Labor, 62 McDonald's restaurants were found to have violated child labor laws

They are run by three franchises: Bauer Food LLC, Archways Richmond LLC and Bell Restaurant Group LLC, which were required to pay a total of $212,754 in fines.

Officials say Bauer Foods, based in Louisville, employed 24 employees under the age of 16, including the two 10-year-olds who were hired back in August 2022.

Those children worked 10 shifts between two to four hours per night, investigators told the Miami Herald.

But under US law, the minimum working age is 14, but there are limits on working hours for those under 16 and prohibitions on hazardous jobs for anyone under 18.

The franchise was fined $39,711 as a result of these violations.

Meanwhile, Archways Richmond, based in Walton  about 80 miles northeast of Louisville, employed 242 14- and 15-year-olds who worked either too early or too late in the day.

Investigators said the franchise sometimes had teenagers working over three hours on a school day.

It was ordered to pay $143,566 in penalties as a result.

And Bell Restaurant Group, based in Louisville with additional restaurants in Maryland and Indiana also had 14 and 15 years olds working too early or too late into the night, and longer than allowed under law.

Fifty-eight of those teenagers were not paid overtime wages, federal officials say.

It was ordered to pay $14,730 in back wages and liquidated damages to the workers.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Bauer Foods, Archways Richmond and the president of Bell Restaurant Group for comment.

McDonald's Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer Tiffanie Boyd provided a statement after being contacted by DailyMail.com.

'These reports are unacceptable, deeply troubling and run afoul of the high expectations we have for the entire McDonalds brand. It is not lost on us the significant responsibility we carry to ensure a positive and safe experience for everyone under the Arches,' the statement read

'I know how important it is that every restaurant fosters a culture of safety. As a mother whose teenage son proudly worked at our local McDonalds, I feel this on a very personal level. We are committed to ensuring our franchisees have the resources they need to foster safe workplaces for all employees and maintain compliance with all labor laws.'

Federal officials say Archways Richmond, based in Walton, employed 242 14- and 15-year-olds

Bauer Foods, based in Louisville, employed 24 employees under the age of 16, including the two 10-year-olds who were hired back in August 2022. The franchise's homepage is pictured

The report comes just one year after a couple recorded two children behind the counter at a Louisville McDonald's.

But a spokesperson for the company told WHAS 11 that the minors shown in the video were not actually employees  and were instead the children of some of the employees.

'While we are proud to employ many parents and caregivers and understand that sometimes kids may visit a parent's workplace, minors who are not employees are not permitted behind the counter,' the spokesperson said in a statement at the time.

'We have taken action to ensure that all of our employees are reminded of our policies regarding visitors.'

More recently, federal investigators found a 15-year-old working at a McDonald's in Morristown, Tennessee, suffered hot oil burns when using a deep fryer in June 2022.

The franchisee in that case, Faris Enterprises of TN LLC, was fined a $3,258 civil penalty.

In total, the Department of Labor issued a total of $4.3 million in penalties for child labor law violations in fiscal year 2022, when 688 minors were found to be employed illegally in hazardous conditions  the highest annual count since fiscal year 2011.

At the same time, a New York Times investigation found an increase in the number of unaccompanied minors arriving in the US and joining the workforce, including middle school students working in meatpacking and roofing.

'Too often, employers fail to follow the child labor laws that protect young workers,' Wage and Hour Division director Karen Garnett-Civils said in a statement.

She added that the department is 'seeing an increase in federal child labor violations, including allowing minors to operate equipment or handle types of work that endangers them or employs them for more hours or later in the day than federal law allows.'

Meanwhile, lawmakers in at least 11 states over the past two years have sought to loosen child labor laws to help employers fill roles.

They argue that relaxing the rules would prompt teens to seek out valuable work experiences, and make it easier for them to supplement their family's income.

A new law in Arkansas, for example, removed the requirement that children under 16 provide parental consent to work, and a Tennessee law scraps the prohibition on 16- and 17-year-olds working in restaurants that derive more than a quarter of their revenue from alcohol.

A bill in Minnesota would also allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work in construction, and one in Iowa would permit 14- and 15-year-olds to work in coolers and meat freezers.
Mr Buhari also seeks the confirmation of the nomination of six federal commissioners for the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Senate to confirm the appointment of Abike Dabiri-Erewa as the chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) for a second term in office.

The president's request was contained in a letter read by Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, at the plenary session on Tuesday.

Mr Lawan read the letter after the senators emerged from a closed-door session, which lasted for about one hour.

Mrs Dabiri-Erewa is a former member of the House of Representatives where she represented Ikorodu constituency, Lagos State.

She had also served as senior special assistant to the president on foreign affairs and diaspora.

She was the pioneer chairperson of NiDCOM, an agency under the federal ministry of foreign affairs.

In a separate letter read by the Senate President, Mr Buhari also requested the senate to confirm the nomination of six federal commissioners for the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

The nominees include Ayogu Eze (Enugu State), Peter Opara (Imo State), and Hauwa Aliyu (Jigawa State).

The president, in another letter, also asked the upper legislative chamber to pass the Amended Financial Bill 2022 into law.

The upper chamber resumed on Tuesday after observing a few weeks of recess to participate in the 2023 general elections.
Debate of a controversial bill in Texas to ban young transgender people from accessing surgery, puberty blockers and hormone therapy was blocked Tuesday amid angry protest, with police and activists scuffling outside the House chamber.

Protesters inside the chamber, seated in the gallery, began a noisy chant as the SB14 was being discussed - unfurling banners, clapping and catcalling.

The Sergeant at Arms was asked to remove the agitators, who chanted 'trans rights are human rights' as they were dragged out of the chamber.

Police and protesters then scuffled outside the chamber: footage shared on social media showed protesters being pushed to the floor and restrained by officers.

Minutes after the protesters were removed, an expected vote on the bill was delayed until later in the week after a parliamentary concern was raised.

Texas police are seen wrestling a protester to the ground inside the state Capitol

Police on Tuesday are seen trying to clear the Capitol

Protesters chanted, clapped, cheered and unfurled banners in the Capitol, and were then removed from the chamber

Opponents of SB14 are seen on Tuesday inside the Capitol

The Department of Public Safety, which polices the Capitol, has not confirmed whether any arrests were made.

According to the Texas Tribune, the protestors were chanting in the lobby and a trooper used a bullhorn to direct them to leave.

Police then began to usher protestors down the stairs when several troopers and two protestors began pushing and shoving each other.

Police then handcuffed one person and led them away.

If Texas manages to pass Senate Bill 14, it will join at least a dozen other states that have outlawed gender-affirming care so far - Georgia and Tennessee being the most recent, according to a U.S. News report published on Tuesday.

The bill passed the Senate last month and was introduced in the House on Tuesday.

Tom Oliverson, a Republican member of the House representing Cypress, introduced the bill and thanked those gathered in the Capitol to support it, wearing red t-shirts with the slogan 'Save Texas Kids'.

Oliverson tweeted: 'Thank you all so much for coming today. Your presence in the gallery strengthens our resolve to get this done today!'

Johnathan Saenz, president of Texas Values, which led support for the bill, told WFAA that there should be more mental health support for children, rather than medical interventions.

'When you have kids go through gender transitions, it harms them,' Saenz said.

'Let's focus on the heart instead of thinking that removing body parts is somehow going to make their mind feel better.

'Kids are not in a position to make these decisions and even if the parents support it, it's not healthy for them.'

As the Texas House starts hearing SB14, the ban on hender-affirming care for minors, a group of LGBTQ-rights advocates start chanting from the gallery.



DPS was instructed to clear the gallery. #txlege pic.twitter.com/YqpHBthUc5  Sergio Martinez-Beltran (@SergioMarBel) May 2, 2023

.@AdriPerezTX, organizing director of @TFN, is forcibly restrained. They are asking at end of video to return to the gallery to get their glasses. #SB14 #txlege pic.twitter.com/1i2EfAkHWO  Taylor Goldenstein (@taygoldenstein) May 2, 2023

Tom Oliverson, a Republican member of the House representing Cypress, introduced the bill

Ricardo Martinez, who heads the LGBTQ-advocacy group Equality Texas, said government should not interfere in healthcare.

'This sets the standard that the government can interfere in your life when they don't like how you lead it - and that should terrify everyone,' he said.

Martinez said the bill is one of 140 targeting LGBTQ Texans, including criminalizing drag shows and limiting the discussion of LGBTQ topics in classrooms.

A study by the Williams Institute at UCLA estimated there are 92,900 transgender adults in Texas and 29,800 who are 13-17 years old.

'Stigma leads to discrimination,' Martinez said.

'Discrimination leads to violence against our community and that's what we're seeing play out.'
But Kelly slammed her during a broadcast of The Megyn Kelly Show on SiriusXM on Monday and said no one wants to watch her show

Psaki was President Joe Biden's former press secretary before she left last year and started her own show on the left-leaning network in March

Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly has hit out at MSNBC host Jen Psaki and said she has 'no actual talent' in the broadcasting field.

Psaki was President Joe Biden's former press secretary before she left last year and started her own show, called Inside with Jen Psaki, on the left-leaning network in March.

But Kelly slammed her during a broadcast of The Megyn Kelly Show on SiriusXM on Monday and said no one wants to watch her show.

She claimed Psaki had an eye on being a cable news star while she working at the White House.

Inside with Jen Psaki drew in roughly 1.1 million viewers when it debuted on March 19 but there was an audience of 765,000 for the April 23 show which was a two per cent drop from the previous week, according to USTVDB.

Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly has hit out at MSNBC host Jen Psaki and said she has 'no actual talent' in the broadcasting field

Psaki was President Joe Biden's former press secretary before she left last year and started her own show, called Inside with Jen Psaki, on the left-leaning network in March

'We looked up just the trajectory to see maybe she's just started and she's building [her audience], you know, give her some time,' Kelly said.

'Literally, it's like a downward escalator  the overall and the demo off a cliff.

'No one wants to watch Jen Psaki. I mean no one.'

She said Psaki, like others who work at the White House press office, wanted to be a cable news star and laid the foundations to become a national personality.

Kelly added: 'This is so true of all these people that work at the White House Press Office.

'What they really want is to be a cable news star. And so they lay the foundation while theyre over there trying to make themselves into a national personality.

'What they really want is the job of the people they watch on primetime every day.

'Theyre envious.'

Kelly has often put the issue of gender front and center during The Megyn Kelly Show, the show she hosts daily on SiriusXM

Psaki interviewing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her show

She said Psaki is failing because she has no actual talent in this field'.

And Kelly added: 'She had more talent being a professional spinner behind the lectern than she does being a different kind of professional spinner behind the MSNBC mic.'

Psaki's show has drawn in larger viewing figures than her competitors on CNN on a consistent basis, despite Kelly's criticism.

She beat her rivals at CNN in total viewers during April as well as those in 25-54 age demographic.

Inside with Jen Psaki airs every Sunday at 12pm Eastern Time on MSNBC and its program description it reads: 'Jen Psaki breaks down the biggest issues of the week, featuring one-on-one interviews with newsmakers.'
Aussie rocker Nick Cave  known as the 'dark lord' of goth music  has hit back at fans who slammed him for planning to attend King Charles' coronation on Saturday, and praised the late Queen Elizabeth.

But if they hoped to change the longtime UK resident's mind with questions such as 'Why the f*** are you going to the King's coronation?', they got no satisfaction.

Cave used that question - from Jon in Brisbane - to headline his response on his Red Hand Files website where he regularly gives no holds barred answers to fans.

Addressing Jon and other shocked fans, he sarcastically opened by saying 'I'll make this a quick one because I've got to work out what I am going to wear to the Coronation.

'I am not a monarchist ... nor am I an ardent republican,' he said. 'What I am also not is so spectacularly incurious about the world and the way it works.'

Aussie rocker Nick Cave (pictured) has hit back at fans who slammed him for planning to attend King Charles' coronation on Saturday, and praised Queen Elizabeth

He added that he was not 'so ideologically captured, so damn grouchy, as to refuse an invitation to what will more than likely be the most important historical event in the UK of our age.

'Not just the most important, but the strangest, the weirdest.'

But if that stunned his fans, there was a bigger surprise to come when Cave expressed his great respect for Charles' mother and how it made his mother proud.

'I once met the late Queen at an event at Buckingham Palace for "Aspirational Australians living in the UK" (or something like that).

Poll Should Nick Cave attend the King's coronation? No. What a sell out. Yes. It would be rude not to attend after being invited. Should Nick Cave attend the King's coronation? No. What a sell out. 30 votes

Yes. It would be rude not to attend after being invited. 259 votes Now share your opinion





'It was a mostly awkward affair, but the Queen herself, dressed in a salmon coloured twin-set, seemed almost extraterrestrial and was the most charismatic woman I have ever met.

'Maybe it was the lighting, but she actually glowed. As I told my mother  who was the same age as the Queen and, like the Queen, died in her nineties  about that day, her old eyes filled with tears.'

Cave, who grew up in Warracknabeal and Wangaratta in rural Victoria, also shed tears for the Queen himself.

'When I watched the Queen's funeral on the television last year I found, to my bafflement, that I was weeping myself as the coffin was stripped of the crown, orb and sceptre and lowered through the floor of St George's Chapel.'

Though he acknowledged what he called the 'necessary debates about the abolition of the monarchy', Cave said he holds 'an inexplicable emotional attachment to the Royals'.

'The strangeness of them, the deeply eccentric nature of the whole affair that so perfectly reflects the unique weirdness of Britain itself.

'I'm just drawn to that kind of thing  the bizarre, the uncanny, the stupefyingly spectacular, the awe-inspiring.

The post ended with a joke at his own expense, saying 'with all that in mind, I am looking forward to going to the Coronation. I think Ill wear a suit.'

The joke being that Cave, who was named an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the performing arts in 2017, is very rarely seen without a suit, onstage or off.

One Sydney-based fan told Daily Mail Australia she had mixed feelings about Cave's royal leanings.

'I was shocked to hear it, but because it's Nick Cave of course it's OK,' said Cecilia McKenna.

Nick Cave (pictured right with his wife Susie) said he is 'not a monarchist ... nor am I an ardent republican'

'He's not just post modern, he's post everything. I'm a staunch republican, but Cave can do little wrong in my eyes.'

Ms McKenna couldn't resist a gag at how Cave's hair is still black, despite him being 65 years old.

'He should get his roots done before he goes to the coronation, though,' she said.

Other fans were less forgiving, though, with one saying they were surprised that Cave supports 'such a waste of money', and another saying 'He's gone soft in his old age.'
The CNBC reporter who accused NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell of sexual harassment also complained a former executive called her the 'C-word,' according to a complaint she filed with the outlet.

Hadley Gamble, 41, alleged former CNBC vice president and international managing editor Patrick Allen called her the foul slur, the latest detail to come out of her damning complaint which led to Shell's ousting in April.

Allen's behavior was witnessed by two former CNBC staffers, according to Axios. He left the outlet in early 2023.

Gamble also claimed international president and managing director John Casey fostered a 'toxic' culture where employees were afraid to complain about harassment.

Her complaint led to an internal investigation which culminated in Shell, 57, admitting he had an 'inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company.' He and Gamble had a consensual relationship that ended several years ago.

CNBC did not respond to DailyMail.com requests for comment.

Former CNBC vice president and international managing editor Patrick Allen was accused of calling Gamble the 'C-word' in the complaint

CNBC anchor Hadley Gamble accused Jeff Shell of sexual harassment and sex discrimination in a complaint that led to his ousting as NBCUniversal CEO

Gamble was spurned to speak out about her allegations against the CNBC executives after her contract with the outlet was not renewed this year, sources told Axios.

She filed the complaint with NBCUniversal, CNBC's parent company. The parent company of NBCUniversal, Comcast, conducted their investigation using an outside group.

It remains unclear whether the organizations have determined whether the executives named in the complaint were guilty of any wrongdoing, according to Axios.

Shell, who is married to Laura Fay Shell said he 'deeply regret[s]' his relationship with Gamble. The details of their affair are not known publicly. His firing meant he missed out on a $43million stock award.

Comcast said the reward was 'forfeited and canceled' due to the scandal.

NBCUniversal did not say who had made the complaint, but media reports suggested it had been filed by Gamble.

Gamble's lawyers subsequently confirmed her identify in a statement, writing 'The investigation into Mr Shell arose from a complaint by my client of sexual harassment and sex discrimination.'

'Given these circumstances it is very disappointing that my client's name has been released and her privacy violated.'

The CNBC anchor moved to front the channel's Middle East coverage in 2018 after it began broadcasting Capital Connection from its new studio in Abu Dhabi.

She previously worked for ABC News and Fox News in Washington, DC and also presented CNBC's Access show on the Middle East and Africa.

NBCUniversal did not say who had made the complaint, but media reports suggested it had been filed by Gamble after an on-off relationship between the pair had ended a few years' ago

Shell, who is married to Laura Fay Shell (left), admitted he had had an 'inappropriate relationship' with a member of staff, which he said he 'deeply regret[s]'

Gamble grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, the daughter of a car dealer and teacher, and attended Halls High School in the city.

She graduated from the University of Miami in 2003, where she was a member of the famed Delta Gamma sorority, which boasts a number of media personalities among its alumni.

Gamble is unmarried and generally tight-lipped about her love life, but told Harper's Bazaar Arabia last year that she was looking for 'trust, transparency, kindness, [and] the chutzpah to tell it like it is' in a companion.

She said that her exhausting work schedule made having a personal life difficult, but that she was open to a relationship with someone who shared her values.

'Every relationship teaches you more about yourself and the whole point of living is to grow and become a better, stronger and hopefully, more interesting person,' she said.

It was previously revealed Gamble also had a romantic relationship with California billionaire Tom Barrack.

The high profile nature of Gamble's relationship with 76-year-old Barrack, a longtime billionaire friend and 2016 fundraiser to President Trump, led to an internal investigation by human-resources at the CNBC network.

The probe was sparked after she managed to secured a high-profile interview with Trump's senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner in August 2020.

It was alleged that Barrack was instrumental in securing the interview between Kushner and Gamble which occurred while the pair were dating, reports the New York Post. The Post also shared behind-the-scenes footage of Gamble shooing Barrack out of a Turkish hotel room during summer 2020, as further evidence of their romance.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources

The parents of Jack Reid, the New Jersey boarding school student who took his own life after being bullied, have spoken out to share the last conversation they had with their son.

In a new interview with 'Good Morning America,' Elizabeth and Bill Reid said their son, 17, told them he was 'doing better' and said 'I love you,' before he killed himself.

'We were meant to see him the next morning and the last words we spoke to him about were, "Dad, I'm doing better. I love you,"' Bill said.

His parents said officials at the prestigious Lawrenceville School where tuition is $76,000 a year knew about the relentless bullying and 'cruel behavior' Reid was enduring prior to his April 30, 2022 death.

'We were well aware of what was going on and we were encouraging him. He advocated for himself,' Bill said. 'He talked to the school. He talked to his friends.'

Over the weekend, Lawrenceville released a statement saying 'there were steps that the school should have taken in hindsight and did not.'

Elizabeth and Bill Reid revealed what their son said to them in his last message before taking his life

Jack Reid, 17, a student at Lawrenceville School in New Jersey took his own life after being bullied by other students both in person and online

The statement released over the weekend was part of settlement between the school and Jack's parents.

Elizabeth, who is a clinical psychologist, said she was in contact with her son before his death and that she saw no signs of what was to come.

Part of the bullying the teenager had endured included unsubstantiated rumors that he was a campus rapist.

During a Secret Santa gift exchange among his classmates, Jack was given a rape whistle together with a book about how to make friends.

'Everyone in this room probably knows someone that was bullied as a child, and you do suffer the scars of that,' the devastated mother told GMA.

'This is a very serious issue and the Internet absolutely makes it even much worse for kids today,' she continued.

As heartbroken as she is, Elizabeth told anchor George Stephanopoulos it's 'such a pleasure' to speak about their son.

She said she was proud of Jack for being kind and living by 'the Golden Rule.'

'He had lots of friends, he loved his community and he was a leader,' she said before mentioning that the family is trying to use Jack's story to save other children.

'You lose a child, you look around at the rubble and you say, "What can I make out of this?" I know Jack would want to save other children. And thats what we want to try to do,' Elizabeth said.

Tuition at The Lawrenceville School, located between Trenton and Princeton in New Jersey $76,000 a year and is said to be one of the top ten boarding schools in the country

Although school staff were made aware of the bullying, the school has now admitted make an extraordinary admission of failure on the anniversary of Jack's death.

'There were steps that the School should in hindsight have taken but did not,' the school wrote in a lengthy statement.

Most damning of all is the fact the school did not make a public or private statement that it had in fact investigated the rape and found the rumors about Jack and the entire story to be completely untrue.

Stephanopoulos asked why the school did not exonerate Jack after an investigation into the accusations.

The school's officials admitted Sunday that they were aware of the bullying, but fell short in their obligation to protect him.

'We're very gratified by the admission of the school that there are things they could have done and should have done, including the intervention of adults in certain circumstances,' Bill said Monday speaking with GMA.

'We think that's a very courageous admission and we hope other institutions follow their lead... we're anxious to see the success of their plan to fight bullying on campus,' he continued.

In a frank, honest and heart-wrenching admission the school, which ranks among the nation's top boarding schools, believes Jack's death could have been prevented and stated how 'there also were circumstances in which the involvement of an adult would have made a difference.'

'As we seek to improve as a community, we have examined our role and take responsibility for what we could have done differently. Lawrenceville's top priority is the physical, social, and emotional health, safety, and wellbeing of our students. We recognize that in Jack's case, we fell tragically short of these expectations,' the Sunday statement read.

The agreement requires the school, which hosts 830 students, to undertake a series of corrective actions, including creating a new dean's position that will focus on mental health issues, with the goal of becoming a model for anti-bullying and student mental health.

'We think bullying, with the 1,000 times echo chamber of the internet and everybody knowing, is much more devastating to kids and, in Jack's case, produced a very impulsive act,' Jack's dad, William Reid, said

'We feel like we both have life sentences without the possibility of parole,' Jack's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Reid, a clinical psychologist, said to the New York Times.

'The only thing I'd love to change here is to get Jack back. I can't. I do know if he were alive, he would want me  both of us  to try to make something good out of this and honor him in the way he lived his life.'

'We think bullying, with the 1,000 times echo chamber of the internet and everybody knowing, is much more devastating to kids and, in Jack's case, produced a very impulsive act,' dad, William Reid said.

'He had to escape the pain from the humiliation he was feeling.'

The school explained how after a student who previously had been disciplined for bullying Jack was expelled for an unrelated violation of school rules, Jack was allowed to return the school but was left largely unsupervised where students gathered.

'Some harsh words were said about Jack,' the school revealed adding that administrators did not notify or check on Jack once he was back on campus.

Later that night, Jack, who was a Dean's list student, took his own life, telling a friend that he could not go through the ordeal again.

He had a bible in one pocket of his gym shorts, as well as a note directing his parents to a Google document, in which he described his helplessness.

The school has since released a statement recognizing the failure of the establishment to protect Jack ,noting how inaction by school staff contributed to his death

Stephen Murray, the head of Lawrenceville School

'The School acknowledges that bullying and unkind behavior, and actions taken or not taken by the School, likely contributed to Jack's death,' the Lawrenceville School wrote.

'We acknowledge that more should have been done to protect Jack.'

Following his suicide, the school's board of trustees hired the law firm Petrillo Klein & Boxer to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.

The investigation included interviews with 45 students, faculty members, and others, together with a review of more than 100 emails from students and school personnel, Jack's personal emails, phone records, text messages, and internet searches.

'We said from the beginning, 'Let's seek the truth and follow it where it leads us. Period,' ' Stephen S. Murray, Lawrenceville's head of school, said to the New York Times. 'And that's what we've tried to do every step of the way.'

He added: 'This happened on my watch and I'm grief stricken. And yet I can't begin to compare that to the grief and sorrow of Bill and Elizabeth Reid.'

The school say they are to introduce 'meaningful changes that will support the School's aspirations of becoming a model for anti-bullying and student mental health.'

The settlement agreement and the school's admission of responsibility are aimed at honoring Jack, taking appropriate responsibility, and instituting meaningful changes that will help prevent something similar from happening again.

The admission by Lawrenceville School is particularly rare with educational establishments not usually publicly accepting responsibility after a suicide.

The Reids hope that something good can come out of their son's death by raising awareness about bullying, mental health, and suicide prevention.

While at Lawrenceville, Jack was recognized as a leader by his peers and served as President of Dickinson House (one of the residential homes at the school).

He also ran on the cross country and track teams and loved singing in choir groups.

Before attending Lawrenceville, Jack had attended The Buckley School in New York City where tuition starts at $58,500 a year.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
An Australian mum said she and her husband were robbed while on a family holiday before being hit in a $150,000 scam.

Melbourne social media influencer Anna De Rieu and her partner were on the trip of a lifetime with family when they were robbed of their belongings.

The couple's details were then used by thieves to hack into their myGov account and withdraw $150,000 in government support payments under their name.

Anna De Rieu (pictured) and her husband fell victim to identity theft while holidaying in Bali and only realised months later they had $150,000 scammed from their myGov accounts

The couple's contact details and home address had been changed and more than $150,000 in government support payments had been claimed in their names (pictured)

Ms De Rieu said she had no idea so much money had been taken out until she went to log into her account herself.

She and her husband were blocked from accessing it which prompted them to phone Centrelink to try and resolve the issue.

They were then informed their details and home addresses had been changed multiple times with money taken out in their names.

Ms De Rieu said it took about six months to resolve the issue and she now fears she could be the victim of more hacks in the future.

Several families have fallen victim to scammers defrauding their myGov accounts by accessing and changing their personal and tax information.

Through myGov, users can access services including Centrelink, the Australian Taxation Office and Medicare.

Ms De Rieu told 7News the scammers had claimed payments from flood and pandemic relief to jobseeker.

'Every time they would make a claim, they would change (our) address,' she said.

Melbourne woman Leah Wilson was also sent a massive bill due to cyber criminals filing fraudulent tax returns in her name.

'I noticed (through myGov) there were three separate organisations that put through that I was working for them,' she said.

'I ended up with a $27,000 tax bill... and it was really difficult trying to prove it wasn't me.

'I had a mini heart attack, I'm not going to lie.'

Services Australia warns anyone who has received a message that alleges their account has been changed in some way should consider it a scam (stock image)

Ms Wilson was among the millions of Australians whose details were stolen in the Optus data breach last year and says ever since she has received several scam emails and calls.

It comes as Australians have been told to remain vigilant of scam emails or texts claiming to be sent by myGov following an uptick in fraudulent messages.

Scammers are posing as government officials and telling recipients to click on dodgy links so they can claim a refund or rebate.

Services Australia says anyone who has received a message that alleges their account has been changed in some way should consider it a scam.

'You may have recently got a text message to advise you've made a change to your myGov account' Services Australia said in a statement.

'The scam text message asks you to click a link if the myGov activity was not made by you.

'The text message may ask you to click on a link or access a web form.

'If you do, you may be redirected to a fake myGov site designed to steal your personal information and banking details.

'It may tell you that your information is being transferred securely. This is a trick to gain your trust and get you to click on the link.'

One example of a scam message will 'inform' the recipient that their security information was 'successfully changed' and provide a suspicious link to click if they didn't make this change

Another text message claimed the recipient was eligible for a refund and told them to click on a hyperlink to confirm their bank details

Services Australia recommends users only log into their myGov account by searching my.gov.au on a web browser and never click on links attached to an email or text message.

One example of a scam text will read: 'Your profile security information was successfully changed if you didn't make this change Go To [link].'

Another tells the user that their 'profile has been placed on hold pending review' and then adds a link at the end to 'resolve' it.

ScamWatch has shared several tips and tricks to help everyday Australians recognise a scam text message or email.

They say poor grammar or punctuation are among the major red flags found in scam messages and hyperlinks will never be included in any email or text message sent by myGov.

Emails sent by the government agency will also not include the logo and simply inform the recipient they have received a new message in their inbox.

Anyone who believes they may have already fallen victim to a myGov scam should call the Services Australia Scams and Identity Theft Helpdesk immediately.
A Victorian man pretended to be the state premier, finance minister and ombudsman in an elaborate scheme to con his father out of more than $150,000.

Melbourne man Peter Michael Baird, 50, began deceiving his father in 2012 when his parent asked for help to unlock a frozen bank account.

Baird said he would contact the ombudsman about the issue but instead applied for two loans in his father's name, totalling more than $77,000.

Peter Michael Baird, 50, began deceiving his father in 2012 and pretended to be Victorian Premier Dan Andrews

He also contacted Centrelink and had his father's age pension payments redirected to his personal bank account.

Between June 2013 and May 2020, Baird received $152,423.33 in payments which should have gone to his father.

Whenever the older man asked about his locked bank account, Baird said he was working with the ombudsman and the government to resolve the issue.

His father repeatedly received calls and emails purporting to be from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, then-finance minister Robin Scott, MP Kim Wells and the Victorian Ombudsman about his locked account.

When the pensioner eventually contacted those offices directly, there was no record of their conversations.

Baird's crimes were uncovered in May 2020 when he was jailed for separate deceptions.

He pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court to obtaining financial advantage and property by deception and on Tuesday was sentenced to four years in jail.

County Court Judge Frank Gucciardo described Baird's actions as reprehensible, saying they 'defied decency'.

'This behaviour breaches fundamental principles of trust and familial care, respect and responsibility in order to deceive for your own benefit and greed,' the judge said in his sentencing remarks.

The older man repeatedly received calls and emails purporting to be from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, then-finance minister Robin Scott, MP Kim Wells and the Victorian Ombudsman

Baird's father had to work part time and rely on financial support from his partner which led to undue stress, Judge Gucciardo said.

The judge accepted Baird had shown some remorse, noting he had no drug, alcohol or gambling addictions and instead used the money to pay rent and support his children.

But Judge Gucciardo said his prospects of rehabilitation were guarded and the serious conduct needed to be punished.

Baird will be eligible for parole after three years and three months in custody.
The Texas gunman who shot dead five people, including a nine-year-old, had an elaborate death cult shrine and links to the criminal underworld.

Francisco Oropesa, 38, opened fire in his neighbors' Cleveland home, about 40 miles north of Houston, on Friday after they asked him to stop firing the gun in his backyard.

Oropesa, who is an illegal immigrant from Mexico previously referred to as Oropeza by police, fled the scene as a nationwide manhunt unfolded.

An anonymous law enforcement officer working on the case told the Center for Immigration Studies that a shrine honors the 'Santa Muerte death cult' was found in his room following the massacre.

The cult is famously known among Mexico's drug cartels, and investigators believe it signifies Oropesa has connections to the criminal underworld, which can help him escape back to Mexico.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday that Oropesa had been deported four times since 2009.

On Tuesday, sources stated that Oropesa was caught, ending the four-day manhunt.

Francisco Oropesa, a 38-year-old Mexican, is on the run after shooting dead five people in Cleveland, Texas on Friday night

Oropesa had several tattoos dedicated to the 'Santa Muerte death cult'. A shrine honoring the cult was found in his room following the massacre

Followers of the Santa Muerte cult, who are often drug lords, believe that their 'prayers' will prevent them from being arrested.

The shrine found in Oropesa's bedroom sat on top of glass shelving. Candles from the display were still burning from when the gunman opened fire on Friday.

The source told the news outlet the candles had 'saints' from the death cult, which often reflect a grim reaper.

Multiple statues similar to Catholic patron saints were found along with fresh flowers and several $2 bills. An offering of drugs wrapped in tinfoil was also found, according to the news outlet.

Oropesa appeared to be deeply invested in the cult and even had several tattoos of the 'saints' on his body. One tattoo on his arm showed a skeleton figure with a cloak sitting on a pedestal.

Another large tattoo on the inside of his forearm showed what appeared to be a female Aztec, wearing a headdress.

The shrine wasn't enough for police to believe Oropesa may be connected to drug crimes but the gunman's tattoos might suggest otherwise, according to the source.

Another large tattoo on the inside of his forearm showed what appeared to be a female Aztec, wearing a headdress

Five people - the youngest only eight years old - were shot and killed inside this house on Friday night

Garcia's wife Sonia Guzman, 29, (right) and their son Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, 9, (left) were both shot dead in the incident

A memorial was seen outside of the home where the mass shooting occurred on Friday

Oropesa allegedly shot the victims after one of them asked him to stop firing off rounds outside his home just before midnight.

Police were called to the home before for reports about the firing of guns. It is not illegal to fire guns in your own yard, but it remains unclear why officers did not ask for a permit - which, as a person in the country illegally, he could not have.

The victims have been identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 9; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.

They were all Honduran nationals shot 'from the neck up,' in their home, according to the sheriff of San Jacinto County, Greg Capers.

He said two of the victims were found in a bedroom laying over two children in an apparent attempt to shield them.

Capers said there were 10 people in the house, including three children who were not hurt.
The parents of a teenage driver accused of killing three women and critically injuring another were screamed at and called 'shameful idiots' when they arrived at their son's court appearance.

A 13-year-old boy from Bundaberg, central Queensland, appeared at Maryborough Children's Court on Tuesday accused of causing the fatal three-car crash on Sunday night.

A heckler waited outside the courthouse to confront the boy's parents as they walked along Wharf St in the town centre.

'Idiots, idiots. Shameful parents,' the man yelled as the couple left the court, video shows.

'Three people are dead! Three people are dead because of your son! Idiots,' the man claimed.

The parents (above) of a 13-year-old Bundaberg boy who is accused of causing the three-car crash that killed three women and critically injured another were heckled at after leaving their son's court appearance on Tuesday

Police have charged the Bundaberg teen with three counts of dangerous operation of motor vehicle causing death and one count of unlawful use of a motor vehicle.

It's alleged the Mercedes-Benz was stolen from a home on Dalhousie Street, 2.5km from the crash site, at 8.40pm on Sunday.

CCTV footage showed two hooded figures taking the car.

Police believe the car was then driven around Maryborough and Hervey Bay before it collided with a Holden travelling south on Saltwater Creek Road at about 10.45pm.

The force of the crash then sent the Holden into a Mazda that was driving in the opposite direction.

Former Riverside Christian College student Kelsie Davies, 17, and Reach Church pastor Michale Chandler, 29, were in the Holden and died during the crash.

Kaylah Behrens, 23, was the third person travelling in the Holden and has been left severely injured. As of Tuesday morning, she remained in a critical condition.

Maryborough Hospital nurse Sheree Robertson (above) was driving the Mazda home after her shift and was killed in Sunday's crash

Former Riverside Christian College student Kelsie Davies (right) and Reach Church pastor Michale Chandler (left) were travelling in the Holden and died in the crash

Maryborough Hospital nurse Sheree Robertson, 52, was driving the Mazda home after her shift and was killed.

A GoFundMe by Reach Church has raised more than $34,000 for the four women's families, including a $4,000 donation from another local church.

The 13-year-old charged driver was treated for minor foot injuries following the horror crash before he was taken into custody at Maryborough watch house.

Officers are investigating whether there was a passenger in the Mercedes who fled the scene.

Anyone with information or footage of the car is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers used the crash to highlight why the legal age of criminal responsibility should not be raised to 14.

Currently, Australian children aged between 10 and 14 are subject to criminal law so long as it can be proven they had the capacity to understand their actions.

However, a 2020 report from the Standing Council of Attorneys-General found children under the age of 14 do not have this capacity so should not be punished under the same laws as though who do - meaning they are not criminally responsible.

Kaylah Behrens (right) remains in a critical condition after the Holden she was travelling in was hit by the allegedly stolen Mercedes

A GoFundMe for the four women's families has raised more than $34,000 (pictured, flowers left at the crash site on Tuesday)

Mr Leavers slammed the finding and said current measures, like curfews, are not effective against young offenders and 'penalise the ordinary child'.

'These young people like this alleged 13-year-old, they are nothing but criminals. We need to target them, the courts need to hold them to account,' he said.

'The courts have actually got to stand up when we lock these kids up.'

Mr Leavers said he knows Maryborough and Hervey Bay well from his 30 years on the Queensland Police Force.

'There is a core group of under a dozen young people who are causing mayhem and putting the community at risk,' he said.

'They need to be incarcerated and put away because they cannot live by society's standards.

'States across Australia want to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14. That would mean this 13-year-old would not be held to account.

'We cannot even put them before the courts.'

Police allege the Mercedes-Benz hit the Holden, causing it to crash into the Mazda (pictured, the aftermath of the crash)

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers (above) slammed the recommendation that children under the age of 14 should not be considered criminally responsible, saying 'young people like this alleged 13-year-old, they are nothing but criminals'

Instead, Mr Leavers urged law enforcement to intervene early by holding children's parents accountable.

'We need look at other programs and things that we can put in place at a very early age because when many of these kids get to 12 or 13, it's a learned behavior,' Mr Leavers said.

They are recidivist offenders and we can't change that.

'We need to look at the parents and caregivers.'
He was also developing new sandwich bar

Jock Zonfrillo was in the early stages of planning a new restaurant and had started working on a cookbook prior to his shock death, Daily Mail Australia can reveal.

The star chef hoped to open a sandwich bar before he was tragically found dead in Zagame's House on Melbourne's famed Lygon Street in the early hours of Monday.

He'd been scouring potential locations for the restaurant and workshopping new recipes for his cookbook, which was in development with the backing of Simon and Schuster.

The publishing house also collaborated with Zonfrillo on his hit memoir, Last Shot, in 2021, which detailed his battles with addiction and rise to the top of the culinary industry.

Zonfrillo constantly shared recipes on his Instagram account which sparked a frenzy among his fans to try them at home and report back to him.

Zonfrillo constantly shared recipes on his Instagram account which sparked a frenzy among his fans to try them at home and report back to him

He taught everything from how to roast the perfect potato to oysters and roasted peri peri chicken.

It's unclear if these were the recipes he was preparing to share in his cookbook, or what stage he was up to in the process.

The impending projects were keeping Zonfrillo busy, alongside filming his hit Network Ten program, MasterChef, which was due to air just hours after his death was publicly announced.

The future of the show is currently up in the air.

Zonfrillo had no restaurants at the time of his death after being forced to closed three in the past five years.

His restaurant Orana, which opened in 2013, was once considered the pinnacle of Australian cuisine and voted the nation's best in 2019, but both its start and end were far less glamorous.

Zonfrillo first took up a job in a kitchen aged 12. By 2017, he was the hottest chef in Australia, with his restaurant Orana winning awards across the world

He'd been scouring potential locations for the restaurant and workshopping new recipes for his cookbook, which was in development with the backing of Simon and Schuster

On opening night, not a single diner came, despite glittering reviews from critics a week earlier. Zonfrillo needed it to be a success. He had just enough money to pay the overheads for two weeks.

'It was so expensive to run,' he wrote in his memoir. 'I had a s**tload of credit cards I kept maxing out - whatever it took to keep the restaurant going until the Australian people realised what we were trying to do.'

At the time, he was hot off a job as Penfolds' head chef and was highly respected on the culinary scene.

Despite running at a $360,000 loss in that first year, 2014 saw a turn of the tide and the bookings started rolling in - until Covid hit.

Orana was the first to bring Indigenous ingredients into the fine dining scene and won international acclaim.

Downstairs, beneath the restaurant, he launched Bistro Blackwood, a more casual eatery.

His restaurant Orana, which opened in 2013, was once considered the pinnacle of Australian cuisine and voted the nation's best in 2019, but both its start and end were far less glamorous

On opening night, not a single diner came, despite glittering reviews from critics a week earlier. Zonfrillo needed it to be a success. He had just enough money to pay the overheads for two weeks

He launched a casual food truck called Nonna Mallozzi after his Italian nonna in 2018, serving pastas, fries and paninis our of a blue van lodged between a barber shop and a bar. Shortly after, it moved into a permanent space on Rundle Street, just down the road from his other two venues.

As his career outside of the kitchen went from strength to strength, Zonfrillo's businesses were struggling.

Nonna Mallozzi closed less than seven months after opening, in July 2019. Signs posted to the venue windows revealed the leaseholder was in arrears by $8,700 for rent. The company posted losses of $140,000 in that time.

Bistro Blackwood closed its doors in December 2019, and within months, Covid had hit, temporarily shuttering Orana.

Downstairs, beneath the restaurant, he launched Bistro Blackwood, a more casual eatery

He launched a casual food truck called Nonna Mallozzi after his Italian nonna in 2018, serving pastas, fries and paninis our of a blue van lodged between a barber shop and a bar. Shortly after, it moved into a permanent space on Rundle Street, just down the road from his other two venues

Zonfrillo said in his memoir he 'ran the numbers with lockdowns looming and realised even if we could open again in a few months, we'd have to sell out every sitting at every service in order to break even'.

'It was clear that wouldn't happen for a long time.'

He and his staff had no idea how long it would take for the pandemic to pass, but running on such tight margins to begin with meant that keeping afloat was untenable.

'The decision to shutter was gut-wrenching,' he said.

'It was really emotional. It felt like a funeral to have to close the place. Everything we'd fought for had been a struggle; not one thing about that place had ever been easy, and this was the hardest thing we'd ever had to do.'

It's understood the business owed about $1.4million, but settled for about $90,000. Creditors included Zonfrillo and his wife, Lauren Fried.

Zonfrillo's tragic death is not being treated as suspicious by Melbourne police.

Ten boss Beverley McGarvey said in a statement: 'This is a terribly sad day for Jocks family and friends, his Network 10 and Endemol Shine Australia colleagues.'
"We have kept the faith. We have ensured that Nigerian journalists have had unfettered freedom to practice their art..."

President Muhammadu Buhari rejoices with the media on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, celebrated every May 3 internationally.

This year's celebration marks 30 years since the UN General Assembly's decision proclaiming an international day for press freedom, and the president says the landmark is a tribute to media professionals, who risk their lives to keep society informed and educated.

On this year's theme, "Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights", President Buhari is delighted that the rights of Nigerian journalists have been protected and upheld in the past 8 years.

"We have kept the faith. We have ensured that Nigerian journalists have had unfettered freedom to practice their art, and on this occasion of World Press Freedom Day, we recommit to that resolution, even as we wind down in office," the president says.

He charges media professionals to continue to be patriotic, work for the cohesion of the country, and exercise their freedom with a high deal of responsibility.

Femi Adesina

Special Adviser to the President

(Media and Publicity)
Two Metropolitan Police officers have been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, beating and raping a woman after meeting her at a nightclub.

The duo, who were off-duty at the time, allegedly met a woman in Kingston, London, before taking her by taxi with a third man to a flat in north London.

The woman said she was held there without her consent and raped by one of the police officers.

She claimed she was also beaten before she reported them in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Specially trained officers are supporting the woman.

Two Metropolitan Police officers have been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, beating and raping a woman after meeting her at a nightclub (File image)

The two police officers from the Met's North West command unit have both been suspended.

One was held on suspicion of rape, kidnap and common assault.

He was bailed until June for the rape allegation but no further action was taken for the allegations of kidnap and common assault.

The other police officer was released with no further action after he was arrested on suspicion of kidnap and possession of Class A drugs.

The third man was also released without further action after being arrested on suspicion of kidnap.

The Met Police said: 'The Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed and a referral has been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.'
Jimmy Fallon's claim that he fully supports the Hollywood writers' strike was ridiculed by a member of his team on Tuesday, who said that the 48-year-old comedian did not attend a production meeting to discuss the union's move.

Fallon was at the Met Gala Monday in New York City, photographed laughing uproariously with supermodels Gigi Hadid and Karen Elson, and palling around with Jared Leto.

Asked on the red carpet if he backed the strike - which was confirmed hours later - Fallon said: 'I wouldn't have a show if it wasn't for my writers, I support them all the way.'

Yet a photo research coordinator on his show swiftly accused him of being disinterested in their plight.

'At a meeting Jimmy wasn't even at, we are told NBC decided to stop paying us after this week and end our health insurance after this month if the strike is ongoing,' tweeted Sarah Kobos.

Jimmy Fallon on Monday night, while at the Met Gala, said he fully supports the writers strike

Sarah Kobos, who works as a photo research coordinator on Fallon's show, said he did not show up to a vital meeting about the strike

'They won't even tell us if we will technically be furloughed. Just active employees who aren't paid.'

She added: 'I should note that I am non-union and not a striking worker - this was to the rest of the staff and crew.'

Fallon's representatives, contacted by DailyMail.com, said they were unable to comment.

Sources told DailyMail.com that the meeting Kobos referenced was a standard production meeting, which Fallon has never before attended.

Kobos, who is based in New York City - where The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is recorded every weeknight - said Fallon's behavior contrasted with his rival comedians.

'I'm told Seth Meyers was in their Zoom production meeting and that he is going to try and take care of his staff and crew after NBC stops paying,' she tweeted.

During the last writers' strike, in 2007, Conan O'Brien famously paid the salaries of 75 of his team out of his own pocket.

Sarah Kobos tweeted about a perceived lack of support from Fallon despite his claims

Jimmy Fallon's NBC show, The Tonight Show, will not air live on Tuesday

Jimmy Fallon is pictured at the Met Gala on Monday night with Gigi Hadid and Karen Elson

Fallon's show will not air live on Tuesday following the announcement of the writers' strike

Fallon is seen on Monday with Jared Leto at the Met Gala

Striking writers are pictured on Tuesday outside Netflix's offices on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles

The LA picket began forming around 1pm on Tuesday

Actor Rob Lowe turned up on Tuesday to show his support for the striking writers in LA

Union members stand on a picket line outside the headquarters of NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service on Tuesday in New York City

David Letterman also paid the salaries of staff members on Late Show With David Letterman and The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, both of which are produced by his Worldwide Pants banner, through year's end during the 2007 strike.

Jay Leno, meanwhile, broke the strike and wrote his own material, and let his staff go.

A Leno representative said the comedian handed out $500,000 in bonuses to staff.

Carson Daly also returned to work.

'If I didn't go back to work, roughly 75 staff and crew would have lost their jobs,' Daly said.

'As a non-WGA member, I feel I have supported the Writers Guild of America and the strike by suspending production for a month. While I continue to support the cause, I can't, in all good conscience, stand by and let that happen to my loyal staff and crew. I sincerely hope the strike will be resolved soon.'

On Tuesday, shows hosted by Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Meyers all aired re-runs.

Members of the union picketed studios across the country.

In Los Angeles, picket lines formed shortly before 1pm local time outside of at least 10 television and film studio offices, and drivers passing by honked their horns in support.

In New York, the picketing started even earlier with writers taking up an entire block outside the 5th Avenue venue where NBCUniversal streamer Peacock hosted its Newfronts presentation.
Ministers fear pro-Russian hackers could disrupt Eurovision by silencing the song contest next week.

Experts from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) were called in after the Government and Eurovision organisers raised concerns that the competition could become a digital front of the Ukraine war, The Times reports.

A senior Whitehall official said the biggest worry was the potential hacking of the voting system like last year, when police in Italy, where the contest was staged, said the Killnet hacker group targeted the first semi-final and grand final.

This year's contest, held in Liverpool, will have reinforced cyber-defences by NCSC experts working with the Home Office and the Department for Science.

In 2022, Italian police managed to thwart attacks by pro-Russian hackers at the competition in Turin, especially during performances of the Kalush Orchestra, which represented Ukraine and won the contest.

Experts from the National Cyber Security Centre were called in after the Government and Eurovision organisers raised concerns that the competition in Liverpool (pictured) could become a digital front of the Ukraine war

Brookside actress Claire Sweeney will present the song contest finale, while Paul Quinn, 32, from the Dingle area of Liverpool, will provide an alternative Scouse commentary

Scouser Paul Quinn, who was chosen to give an alternative commentary in the host city's regional accent

However, ministers still fear disruption during this year's Eurovision. A security source told The Times: 'While its possible to be confident that concertgoers will be safe, the cyber side is far more unpredictable.'

It is unknown whether British security agencies are acting upon specific intelligence regarding a potential Russian hacker attack. The Kremlin has always denied engaging in cyber-warfare against Western states.

A successful hacking attack at the contest in 2019 in Israel saw the national broadcaster's online stream being replaced with footage of explosions, which the Israeli government blamed on Hamas.

The Government and local authorities have spent 14million to host the song contest in Liverpool. According to a source familiar with protecting the show against cyber attacks, the NCSC was 'routinely' helping out with big events like this.

Liverpool was chosen to host Eurovision after a public vote, beating Glasgow.

Paul Quinn, 32, from the Dingle area of Liverpool, will co-present the song contest finale alongside Brookside actress Claire Sweeney, 52, on Saturday, May 13.

The BBC said it will be the first time contest audiences will have the option of listening to an alternative commentary in the host city's regional accent.
The legal war between the children of deceased billionaire Bruce Wasserstein's children and his mistress rages on, 14 years after he died following a short illness.

Lawyers representing Sky, the 15-year-old daughter that Wasserstein shared with his partner, Erin McCarthy, filed paperwork in court Tuesday accusing his five legitimate children of cheating the teen out of her birthright, reports Page Six.

In 2015, Forbes valued the Wasserstein's holdings at $2.4 billion.

In the new lawsuit, McCarthy's lawyers call the five children 'evil stepsisters' in reference to Cinderella. A section of the suit reads: 'There is no Prince Charming in the Wasserstein family coming to save Sky.'

The suit accuses the children of 'continuing conspiracy, through psychological and economic bullying... to deprive Sky of her rightful share of her father's multi-billion dollar estate and to ostracize her from the Wasserstein family.'

According to the Page Six report, Sky has been receiving $30,000 in child support payments and also has a trust earmarked for her worth millions.

Bruce Wasserstein's holdings were valued at $2.4 billion when he died

Wasserstein, an investment banking mogul, had a stellar career on Wall Street where he made his name as a corporate raider in the 1980s. Pictured: Bruce Wasserstein, Wendy Wasserstein attend The Bank Street College of Education Annual Dinner in 2004

Lawyers representing Sky filed paperwork in court Tuesday accusing Wasserstein's five legitimate children, including Vox Media president Pamela Wasserstein, of cheating the teen out of her birthright. Pictured: Pamela (left) , Julianna Margulies (center) and Joy Nash (right) attend Vulture Festival

Following the filing of the suit, a statement from Wasserstein family called the legal action 'meritless' and said that the estate has been 'divided into portions of equal value for each of his six heirs, and a judge signed off on the framework of the division of assets years ago.'

Wasserstein, an investment banking mogul, had a stellar career on Wall Street where he made his name as a corporate raider in the 1980s. He used some of the earnings to acquire New York Magazine.

The billions he earned were poured into breathtaking property including a Manhattan duplex penthouse on Fifth Avenue and a sprawling mansion in the Hamptons.

There is also a Santa Barbara ranch in California and a Parisian apartment along with the vast 26-acre Hamptons estate known as Cranberry Dune, where wealthy neighbors include Jerry Seinfeld.

After he died, Wasserstein's children were ordered to split the values of the properties.

But according to the papers filed in New York's Surrogate's Court on Tuesday, Sky's half-sister Pamela Wasserstein  the 45-year-old president of Vox Media  schemed with her siblings to prevent her from getting her full inheritance.

The suit stated, 'This campaign against Sky has been pursued with particular zeal by Pam who serves as Sky's trustee despite a plethora of conflicts and self-dealing.

'Pam, by her bullying, ostracizing and neglecting Sky  makes even the behavior of Cinderella's evil stepsisters Drizella and Anastasia seem mild.'

It argued that 'contrary to Bruce's desires and intentions, the Sibling Trustees have rejected Sky's attempts to build a relationship with them' and have 'gone so far as to try to erase her from the Wasserstein family tree.'

It added the siblings have never turned over the $1million Wasserstein left Sky in his will.

The filing on Tuesday marks the second time Sky has sued for her share o the inheritance.

The filing on Tuesday marks the second time Sky has sued for her share o the inheritance. Pictured: Wendy Wasserstein (left) and Samantha Schweitzer (right) attend The Bank Street College of Education 2004 Annual Dinner

Pam Wasserstein said in a 2012 court affidavit that sharing Cranberry Dune with McCarthy and Sky 'would be a source of unimaginable stress and trauma for my brothers and me'

In 2019, her lawyers claimed her five half-siblings were trying to cheat her out of the value of her father's Hamptons home as they divvied up the $2.3billion estate.

McCarthy, who gave birth to Sky in 2008 when Wasserstein was still married to his third wife, has claimed her half-siblings only agreed to give Sky her share of his properties if she and the girl promised never to visit the homes.

Pam Wasserstein said in a 2012 court affidavit that sharing Cranberry Dune with McCarthy and Sky 'would be a source of unimaginable stress and trauma for my brothers and me.

'We would rather sell these homes than live under those circumstances.'

The Wasserstein children are said to believe McCarthy split up their family, and have accused her of breaking into Cranberry Dune one night when Sky was an infant.

McCarthy has denied these claims.

In a statement to Page Six, Sky's attorney William D. Zabel said: 'No amount of money can undo the psychological damage to a young woman who since age 3 (she is now 14) has been the target of an insidious, relentless conspiracy to ostracize her from her family.'

Her co-attorney Taleah Jennings also said, 'We are seeking damages for Sky in an amount no less than $100 million, which is a small fraction of what her father left for his children to share equally.'

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the executors of the estate and the trustees of his family trust said, 'Mr. Wasserstein's estate and the family trusts were divided into portions of equal value for each of his six heirs, and a judge signed off on the framework of the division of assets years ago.

'The executors and trustees have at all times acted in accordance with their fiduciary duties. We regret that this matter continues to be litigated and will vigorously defend against these meritless objections.'
The United States Navy has turned to a drag performer in its efforts to reach younger recruits on digital platforms and social media.

Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, whose stage name is Harpy Daniels, announced on TikTok in November that he would be the Navy's first 'digital ambassador,' highlighting his journey from performing on board beginning in 2018 and growing to become an 'advocate' for those who 'were oppressed for years in the service.'

Kelley, who identifies as non-binary, was one of just five active sailors to participate as 'digital ambassadors' for the Navy in its 'efforts to reach a wide range of potential candidates,' a spokesperson told Daily Caller.

None of the digital ambassadors were paid, the spokesperson said, and no promotional or recruiting materials with the ambassadors exist.

The campaign is reminiscent of Bud Light's partnership with trans-star Dylan Mulvaney which led to an immediate backlash, cost billions and caused the brand's sales to plummet.

The Navy's digital ambassador program has now ended, running from October 2022 through March 2023, and officials are now working to assess its effectiveness.

But authorities say the Navy is still expected to fall 8,000 short of its recruitment goals for the year.

Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, whose stage name is Harpy Daniels, announced on TikTok in November that he would be the Navy's first 'digital ambassador'

He said his experience in the Navy 'brought me so much strength, courage and ambition to continue being an advocate and [representative] of queer sailors'

Kelley said he began dressing in drag and performing in shows years before he joined the Navy, drawing on inspiration from the queens on RuPaul's Drag Race  which he started watching at the age of 16.

He then first started performing on ships after a sanctioned MWR (Morale. Welfare and Recreation) lip-syncing contest in 2017, while deployed on the USS Ronald Reagan, and became a regular in the competitions, according to NBC News.

The officer insists he never experienced harassment in the Navy, but when he was scheduled to perform at a diversity, equity and inclusion event at Langley Joint Air Force Base in the summer of 2022, it 'caused an uproar to many conservatives and Christian extremists.'

'I'm an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and being able to do drag is not just for me, but a tribute to many service members who were kicked out, harassed, bullied or worse for being openly gay during Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' he told the USS Constitution Museum in an interview, referencing the Clinton-era policy that discouraged military members from disclosing their sexual orientation.

'It shows representation, and that is truly needed for a culture and organization that has shunned us for so long.'

In announcing that he would be a digital ambassador for the Navy, Kelley wrote that his experiences in the Navy have 'brought me so much strength, courage and ambition to continue being an advocate and [representative] of queer sailors.'

He first started performing on ships after a sanctioned MWR (Morale. Welfare and Recreation) lip syncing contest in 2017

Kelley, pictured as Harpy Daniels, said he was inspired by the drag queens on RuPaul's Drag Race, which he started watching when he was 16

The Navy's decision to promote Kelley was part of its larger efforts to reach Gen Z.

It ran a series of ads on social media platforms like Instagram, as well as on TV and streaming services tailored to the younger generation.

The military branch even updated its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion statement, which it promoted prominently online.

'Our Navy is committed to enabling a workforce demographic similar to that of the nation it serves,' the statement now reads.

'With nearly 50 percent of recruitable talent coming from diverse talent, the Navy must be deliberate to create a culture where every person, regardless of their background, has the opportunity to succeed.'

Writing for the USNI journal in January, Lt. Ian Clark and PO 3rd Class Kyle Atkinson said: 'An effort is, indeed, being made to connect recruiting to the interests and concerns of Gen Z.'

But only 2 percent of the youth population both meets the requirements to join the Navy and are open to serving, a spokesperson for the ad agency VMLY&R told USNI News as the Navy seeks to boost its size to 347,000 officers and enlisted sailors in 2024  up from the 341,736 current sailors.

The Navy's decision to promote Kelley was part of its larger efforts to reach Gen Z

Last month, though, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti submitted written testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, saying that they are projected to miss its goal for enlisted sailors by 8,000 recruits.

'We entered this fiscal year with a record low Delayed Entry Pool after exhausting all means to meet the recruiting goal in FY2022,' she wrote of a program that allows people to accept contracts with the Navy but remain on hold before shipping off to boot camp.

'In FY23, we expect to miss our active duty recruiting goal 8,000 Sailors short of our 37,700 goal,' she continued. 'Additionally, we expect to finish 3,000 Sailors short of our 10,330 recruiting goal for the Navy Reserve.

'We are using all available levers in FY23 to increase recruiting, while maintaining our standards.'

In March, a National Independent Panel on Military Service and Readiness report suggested poor recruiting was, at least in part, a result of the military's new woke policies.

It found that DEO initiatives have risked 'supplanting the US military's culture of warfighting with a new culture of DEI promotion and compliance.'
Plans for juryless rape trials and moves to allow judges to be summarily sacked are repugnant and potentially unlawful, a former judge has said.

Lord Uist warned that the proposals  published by Justice Secretary Angela Constance last week  were a serious attack upon the independence of the judiciary.

A new Bill proposes a pilot scheme of juryless rape trials as part of changes aimed at driving up the conviction rate, including abolishing the not proven verdict.

Writing in Scottish Legal News, Lord Uist said: The work of the pilot courts is to be subject to review by the executive [Government] and a report of that review is to be submitted to the legislature. This amounts to politicians treating the courts as forensic laboratories in which to experiment with their policies.

Lord Uist said the SNP Government had said the main purpose of the review is to consider whether the work of the court has been acceptable to the executive in the percentage of convictions returned by it. He added: A court with a limited lifespan working under such constraints could not be considered an independent tribunal within the meaning of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Pictured: Lord Uist (file photo). Lord Uist warned that the proposals  published by Justice Secretary Angela Constance last week  were a serious attack upon the independence of the judiciary

Pictured: Scottish Tory justice spokesman Jamie Greene (file photo). Greene said: Lord Uist has delivered the latest damning verdict on the SNPs plans for juryless trials from within the legal sector. Any reforms must have the buy-in of the sector

The former judge attacked the power the Bill provides for the Lord President to dismiss judges from the proposed Sexual Offences Court  without giving a reason. Referring to both proposals, Lord Uist wrote: It is shocking that they were ever included in the Bill. Consideration should be given to removing them from the Bill.

Scottish Tory justice spokesman Jamie Greene said: Lord Uist has delivered the latest damning verdict on the SNPs plans for juryless trials from within the legal sector. Any reforms must have the buy-in of the sector.

Ms Constance said: The Bill will be debated in detail and of course scrutinised  I hope  to the very highest of standards.

The Scottish Government said: The evidence that jurors are subject to preconceptions about rape is overwhelming.
President Joe Biden will attend a pair of swanky fundraising events at the homes of a pair of well-heeled New Yorkers this month.

On May 10, Biden will first attend an event at the home of Hamilton 'Tony' James, 72, a former Blackstone executive worth around $3.3billion who has previously hosted similar fundraisers for Biden and former president Barack Obama.

Tickets for the event at James' home  a Fifth Avenue duplex on Central Park he bought in 2011 for $24.9million  cost at least $25,000 each, according to CNBC. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will also attend the event.

Later, Biden will head uptown for a fundraising dinner at the Upper East Side home of George Logothetis, 48, a Greek shipping magnate who also previously hosted the Obamas for a similar dinner in 2015.

The events are the President's first NYC fundraising events since he announced his plans to run for re-election in April.

President Joe Biden is going to New York City for a pair of fundraising events on May 10

One of the events will be at the home of former Blackstone CEO Tony James (right). The second event will be at the home of shipping and hotel magnate George Logothetis (left)

George Logothetis' Upper East Side New York City townhouse where he's hosted the Obamas

A tent set up outside of Logothetis' apartment for the 2015 fundraiser for Barack Obama

Logothetis with Michelle Obama in 2016. He's done several fundraisers for Barack Obama

James' ties to Biden go beyond mere fundraising just last March the president announced his plans to appoint him to his Intelligence Advisory Board.

He was previously offered but turned down the role of commerce secretary by Obama after raising about $2million for the then-president.

Then, during Biden's 2020 election, James raised another $2million for the campaign, according to OpenSecrets.

James joined the investment management group Blackstone in 2002, rising to the role of CEO and vastly expanding the firm's presence.

He remained in charge until late 2021, announcing his retirement after he sold $500million worth of Blackstone stock.

James married his wife, Amabel Boyce James, in 1973. The pair have three children together.

He is also the co-chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the chairman of the Mount Sinai Hospital System's finance committee, and also chairman at Costco Wholesale Corp, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A graduate of Harvard College, James received his business degree from Harvard Business School.

Logothetis bought his Upper East Side home for $12.5 million, where he held his fundraiser for the Obamas that cost $33,400-a-head. That was one of many fundraisers for Democrat politicians he has hosted over the years, according to OpenSecrets.

Obama appointed him to the board of My Brother's Keeper, an initiative launched in April to help young black men stay on track and realize their potential.

And over the years London-born Logothesis has shown he tends to get what he wants.

He started work in his father's company, Lomar Shipping, when he was just 18. Within 10 years he was CEO and bent on expanding. He grew the company from just two ships to 70.

With his younger brother Constantine, he turned the company into the Libra Group which now runs hotels, leases planes and helicopters and is heavily involved in renewable energy.

George Logothetis and Joe Biden shake hands in 2017 (left), and Tony James and his wife at the White House in 2012 (right)

The ritzy Fifth Avenue apartment building where Tony James bought a duplex for $24.9million

The Grace Santorini is one of the many luxury hotels Logothetis owns under his company

A view of a villa pool at the Libra Group's Grace Santorini hotel in Santorini, Greece

A lounge at the Libra Group's Grace Santorini hotel in Greece, which is owned by Logothetis

The Vanderbilt Grace in Rhode Island is another of Logothetis' many luxury hotels

But life for the father-of-three is not all work. He insists on taking three months off every five years to give himself time to think about his goals for the next five, refusing to look at work e-mails or take business-related phone calls. 'Ideas need time to breathe,' he says.

During his first sabbatical he hit upon the idea of 'asking inappropriate people to do appropriate tasks' and set out on the company's expansion.

'We took all the great people from our shipping business, and sent them around the world to start companies. We ended up with a ship's captain running a $200 million real estate company and a Russian fruit seller who runs six biogas plants in Latvia,' he told Fortune Magazine.

His family's net worth is unclear, but is believed to be over $1billion.

Logothetis and his glamorous wife Nitzia, a psychotherapist who also comes from a Greek shipping family, are regulars on the Democratic fundraising circuit. The hosted a fundraiser in upstate New York for Obama last year.

In 2015, the couple were on the guest list for the White House state dinner for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

George Logothetis and former Deputy National Security Advisor Anthony Blinken in 2016

George Logothetis greets Bill Clinton in New York City in 2012 at the Plaza Hotel

George and Nitzia Logothetis greet Nancy Pelosi in Washington DC in 2015

George Logothetis with New York Governor Kathy Hochul in NYC in 2022

Secret Service members and security officials stood outside the home before President Obama's arrival in 2015

Police block off the street outside of Logothetis' townhouse before Obama's arrival in 2015

The tent outside Logothetis' townhouse being set up for Obama's fundraiser in 2015

NYPD officers patrol the street where Logothetis' lives before Obama arrived in 2015

Obama's security detail outside Logothetis' townhouse in New York City in 2015

The streets leading to Logothetis' townhouse were blocked off in 2015 for Obama's fundraiser

NYPD officers manning the street barricades on Logothetis' street during Obama's 2015 visit

A police officer standing guard during Obama's 2015 visit to Logothetis' townhouse

Both events indicated the president still holds a base of loyal wealthy Democrat voters, despite a number having voiced they would rather see another candidate leading the ticket.

Biden previously leaned on Wall Street wealth to fund his campaign, reeling in about $74million during his 2020 race against Donald Trump, according to CNBC.

That sum was far larger than what Trump raised from Wall Street.

It comes as a new poll from NBC showed 70 percent of Republican voters preferred Trump over his rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

A majority of voters did not support Biden, who is 80 years-old, running again, largely over fears of his age.
The governor, who was recently elected to the Senate, acknowledged that the South-east did not give President-elect Bola Tinubu the majority of votes from the region.

The outgoing governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, on Tuesday, restated his position that Nigeria's ruling party, APC, should zone the senate presidency to the south-east region.

Mr Umahi, a member of the APC, stated this while addressing journalists in Abuja after a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari to apparently seek the president's support for his ambition to be the next senate president.

"I think that every region clamouring for the presidency of the Senate to be zoned to it is the right of such people," he said. "If you look at the true reflection of our society, you will agree with me that the right thing to be done by our leaders without prejudice to their rights and thinking is that the South-east deserves the number three position."

The governor, who was recently elected to the Senate, acknowledged that the South-east did not give President-elect Bola Tinubu the majority of votes from the region but said the new administration needs "the cooperation of the minority people to have a holistic nation to govern."

"This is very important and I have always said that you can deliver somebody by the reason of the majority votes of particular regions but you also need the cooperation of the minority people to have a holistic nation to govern."

"So, for inclusiveness, unity of the country and for everybody to be carried along, the South-east deserves the position and so far, nobody has been able to say this is the reason why the South-East should not be given that position and I am pleading for that."

Mr Umahi said leaders of the ruling party, APC, in the South-east worked hard for the party even before the presidential election; thus, the strides it made in winning other elective positions.

"I know what effort we made as a people for the unity of the country. I know the way we were regarded and we understand that we are stronger while we are together and we made vows to our people while we were campaigning for APC, we assured them that we belong to an equitable and fair Nigeria.

"Now it has come to a point where that position we took should be put to practice and that is what we are begging for because the chain is as strong as the weakest link and it is time for healing, inclusiveness as well as the time to move this country forward," he said.

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The South-east used to be a major bastion of the opposition PDP until some of its governors including Mr Umahi defected to the APC.

However, the presidential candidate of the APC, Mr Tinubu, scored less than 10 per cent of the votes in the region with Peter Obi of the Labour Party scoring about 90 per cent of the votes in some of the five states in the region.

However, the APC won some Senate and Reps seats in the South-east including the seats won by Mr Umahi and ex-Abia governor Orji Kalu, both of whom want to be senate president.

The APC is expected to zone the positions of the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives to different regions but has yet to do so. Apart from Messrs Umahi and Kalu, other senators-elect from different parts of the country have also shown interest in becoming the senate president.

The APC won the majority of seats in the 109-seat Senate but could not win the majority in the 360-member House of Representatives.

The new lawmakers will be inaugurated next month when they will elect their leaders.
Former Neighbours star Madeleine West has formally launched an appeal after an AVO was taken out against her to protect her ex father-in-law.

West, 42 - who was married to celebrity chef Shannon Bennett, 47 - is accused of pushing Shannon's father Benny Clifton Bennett, 75, at his son's home last year.

West has previously denied the allegation and fronted Byron Bay Local Court for two days last month in a bid to fight the apprehended violence order.

Prosecutors alleged West pushed Mr Bennett and forced her way into her ex-husband's home on May 4, 2022.

The court was shown CCTV of West and Mr Bennett at her ex-partner's home while the MasterChef star was in the US. Magistrate Stafford then ruled the two-year domestic violence order against West be upheld.

The 42-year-old appealed the decision with the matter briefly mentioned in Coffs Harbour District Court, on the NSW north coast, on Wednesday morning.

Madeleine West and Shannon Bennett are pictured together during their 13-year relationship. She has been hit with an AVO after she allegedly pushed Bennett's father

The actress did not appear and was represented by her lawyer Farshad Amirbeaggi, with the matter adjourned to June 7.

During last month's court proceedings, prosecutors allege the incident between West and Mr Bennett left the 75-year-old 'in fear' of his ex-daughter-in-law.

The actress vehemently denied the claims, telling a police prosecutor she 'didn't lay a hand' on Mr Bennett.

The AVO means West is banned from approaching Mr Bennett and Shannon's Byron Bay home when his father is visiting.

'I am satisfied he fears if visiting his grandchildren he will be harassed by (Madeleine West),' Magistrate Stafford said last month.

Magistrate Stafford found West had 'barged her way in' to Shannon's house while the chef was overseas and Mr Bennett was at home.

West has launched an appeal against the decision to impose an apprehended violence order against her. The matter was briefly mentioned in court on Wednesday

The encounter was caught on CCTV which Ms Stafford said showed West's 'demeanour is almost verging on being aggressive'.

Shannon had revealed in May last year that the separation process between he and West had 'turned love toxic'.

Shannon was with West for 13 years before they split in 2018. The couple share six children.

West left Melbourne in 2020 and moved to Byron Bay to be near her children who live with Shannon in Byron Bay.

The former soap star bought her own mansion in nearby Suffolk Park, paying $4.6million for a four-bedroom house with a heated pool, open plan-living, spacious sun-filled living areas and a stunning architectural design.
The man accused of opening fire on a family in Texas, killing five people, has been arrested following a four-day manhunt.

Francisco Oropesa, 38, is accused of opening fire on his neighbors after they asked him to stop shooting in his yard because they were trying to get a baby to sleep.

The shooting happened on April 28, and sparked a national manhunt. On Tuesday, sources told NBC DFW that Oropesa was apprehended in the city of Cut and Shoot, Texas.

Officials said Oropesa was found hiding under the laundry in a closet.

Oropesa has been taken to the Montgomery County Jail and is charged with first-degree murder.

Francisco Oropeza, 38, is accused of opening fire on his neighbors in Cleveland, a city north of Houston. He has now been arrested

Video showed Oropesa in police custody after a four-day manhunt

Pictured: Sonia Guzman, 29, and her son Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, 9, who were both shot dead in the massacre

Jose Jonathan Caserez, 18, also died during the incident which saw five people killed including a nine-year-old boy

Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, (left) and Julissa Molina Rivera, 31, (right) were both shot dead by the gunman

Authorities said they responded to a home in Cleveland, a city just north of Houston around 11.30pm and found two women dead at the front of the house, and a man lying dead in the living room.

The two women were covered in blood, according to San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers, and were lying on top of two young children who survived.

'In my opinion, they were actually trying to take care of the babies and keep them babies alive,' he said.

BREAKING NEWS



This is footage from the arrest of Fransisco Oropesa. We've learned he was arrested by BORTAC agents, they are the special operations group of the Border Patrol. pic.twitter.com/jGOKoqBxhT  FOX26Houston (@FOX26Houston) May 3, 2023

The victims have since been identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 8; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.

They were all Honduran nationals shot 'from the neck up,' in their home, Capers said.

Capers added there were 10 people in the house, including three children who were not hurt.

The home in Cleveland, Texas, where the shooting unfolded at 11.30pm on April 28. Three adults were found dead inside and a child was taken to the hospital

The suspect's home next door. He had been shooting in his yard when at 11.30pm and his neighbors asked him to stop so they could get their baby to sleep

Police said they had been called to the home before for reports about the firing of guns. It is not illegal to fire guns in your own yard, but it remains unclear why officers did not ask for a permit - which, as a person in the country illegally, he could not have.

Oropesa, a Mexican national, had been deported multiple times, sources told Fox News.

His last encounter with immigration authorities was in 2016.

He has a large tattoo on the inside of his forearm of what appears to be an Aztec woman wearing a headdress.

During a four-day manhunt, the FBI confirmed that more than 250 law enforcement officers participated in the search for the suspected mass murderer, who was an illegal immigrant.

The city of Cut and Shoot is about a 30-minute drive from Cleveland where the shooting happened.

Authorities said they acted on a tip and found Oporesa hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house, according to the Associated Press.

'They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars,' San Jacinto County Greg Capers said of the families of the victims, the outlet reported. 'He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.'
A retired Seattle doctor who died while climbing Mount Everest on Monday could not be airlifted down the mountain due to the current bad weather.

Jonathan Sugarman, 69, died at Camp 2 while on an expedition arranged by Washington state-based International Mountain Guides.

An official at the base camp said he died during his acclimatization rotation, which are designed to gradually expose the body to higher altitudes before returning to a lower, more comfortable altitude.

He added: 'Rescuers are trying to bring down his body to the base camp, which will then be flown to Kathmandu for autopsy.'

The University of Washington said on Twitter that Sugarman was a clinical faculty member known for his work in Native American health care and international health.

Sugarman was also CEO of Global to Local, a Seattle-based nonprofit whose mission is to advance health equity and improve health in US communities by applying best practices from around the world

Eric Simonson, CEO of International Mountain Guides, confirmed the death of Sugarman in a post on their website: 'It is with deep sorrow that IMG reports the death of one of our Everest 2023 team members at Camp 2.

He stressed that Sugarman's tragic death was not due to an accident or conditions that could affect other teams.

The mountaineer was on an acclimatization rotation at around 6,400 meters when he died on Monday.

A guide said the man, who has not been named, had been taken unwell and died at Camp 2, around 2,400-meters below the 8,849-meter summit.

According to Outside, Sugarman had arrived in the Khumbu valley in early April and reached base camp on 10 April.

The group trained for a week before starting acclimatization hikes to get used to the altitude.

Sugarman and the other IMG expedition climbers began moving up the mountain on April 29, according to expedition posts on the International Mountain Guides site.

Sugarman previously attempted the mountain in 2016 but came down with high-altitude pulmonary edema at Camp 1.

He tried again in 2022 with 'a good fitness base' from his work with an outdoor-athlete-focused coach. Despite injuries, Sugarman went on to reach Camp 3.

Publication UphillAthlete, who worked with Sugarman, said he was a 'good, earnest guy' who was 'humble and... really cared about the Sherpa people'.

Tents are pitched on Camp 2, Mount Everest, on May 16, 2013. University of Washington officials say a retired Seattle doctor died on Monday, May 1, 2023, while climbing the mountain

The climber died at Camp 2 as he was on an acclimatization rotation at around 6,400 meters

A statement from the American Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal read: 'Dr. Jonathan Sugarman passed away while climbing Mt. Everest Monday May 1.

'Our deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends. The embassy is in contact with Dr. Sugarman's family and with local authorities.'

Sugarman's tragic death is the fourth on the world's tallest mountain this year, and the first American fatality, per Outside.

Three Sherpa climbers died after falling into a deep crevasse on a treacherous section of Mount Everest just above the base camp in April.

Hundreds of foreign climbers and a similar number of Nepalese guides and helpers were expected to try to scale the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) mountain during the main climbing season that began in March and ends in late May.

Sugarman leaves behind his wife, Terese Sullivan, and his daughter Maya Sugarman.
Chinese-made cars now occupy three spots in Australia's top 10 list of bestsellers - with Tesla equalling Toyota for the number of most popular models for the first time ever.

Sales of cars made in China surged by 68.5 per cent compared with a year earlier.

The rising popularity of electric cars last month saw the Tesla Model Y and Tesla Model 3 take out the fourth and tenth spots, respectively, as the MG ZS claimed the ninth position, Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries data showed.

China's three spots in the monthly top 10 was equal to Thailand's three positions, and more than the two spots each for Japan and South Korea.

Chinese-made cars now have three spots in Australia's top 10 list for the first time ever - with Tesla (Model 3 pictured in South Australia's Yorke Peninsula) now equalling market leader Toyota for the number of most popular models

Australia's most popular cars in April 1. FORD RANGER: 3,567 sales (made in Thailand) 2. TOYOTA HILUX: 3,526 sales (made in Thailand) 3. TOYOTA RAV4: 2,198 sales (made in Japan) 4. TESLA MODEL Y: 2,095 sales (made in China) 5. HYUNDAI I30: 2,029 sales (made in South Korea) 6. MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER: 1,829 sales (made in Japan) 7. ISUZU D-MAX: 1,809 sales (made in Thailand) 8. HYUNDAI TUCSON: 1,678 sales (made in South Korea) 9. MG ZS: 1,588 sales (made in China) 10. TESLA MODEL 3: 1,581 sales (made in China) Source: Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries Advertisement

This is occurring as more Australians buy electric vehicles, with China making the most popular Teslas sold in Australia along with an EV version of the MG ZS and BYDs.

When it came to car brands, Chinese-made cars took out two places in the top 10, with Tesla in seventh place with 3,676 sold last month, including 2,095 for the Model Y, priced from $68,900, and 1,581 for the Model 3, selling from $60,900.

Toyota was Australia's No.1 brand but only had two cars in the top 10 - including the Toyota HiLux in second spot and the RAV4 in fourth place.

For the time ever, Toyota had the same number of cars in the top 10 as Tesla.

MG was Australia's eighth most popular brand with 3,463 sales in April, including 1,588 for the MG ZS.

Year-to-date sales of cars from China, covering the first four months of 2023, were 68.5 per cent higher than the same period in 2022 with 13,426 sold in April.

That meant 16 per cent of Australia's 82,137 new cars sold last month came from China.

Japan was still the biggest source of vehicles with 22,304 sold in April, ahead of Thailand, where 15,886 cars leaving the showroom were made.

But China was third, ahead of South Korea, the source of 12,952 cars sold last month.

Electric cars had an 8 per cent market share in April but when petrol-electric hybrids and plug-in hybrids were included, that rose to 15.4 per cent.

FCAI chief executive Tony Weber said half of Australia's most popular cars were available with an electric engine of some sort.

When it came to car brands, Chinese-made cars took out two places in the top 10, with Tesla in seventh place with 3,676 sold last month, including 2,095 for the Model Y (pictured) and 1,581 for the Model 3

MG was Australia's eighth most popular brand with 3,463 sales in April, including 1,588 for the MG ZS (EV version pictured)

'It is worth noting that five out of the top 10 models sold in April offer some form of electrification,' he said.

Australia's perennial market leader Toyota doesn't have any fully-electric cars, but offers the Mirai, a hydrogen-fuelled car, and hybrid versions of the Prius, RAV4, Camry, Corolla and Yaris.

Utes still dominate the sales charts, with the Australian designed but Thai-built Ford Ranger in the top spot for the second month running with 3,567 sales, ahead of the Toyota HiLux on 3,526 sales.
A married man has narrowly avoided jail after he illegally recorded more than twelve women sunbathing on one of Australia's most iconic beaches for his own sexual gratification.

Christopher Pooley, 44, appeared in Waverley Local Court on Wednesday to learn his fate after pleading guilty to filming a person's private parts without consent.

The court heard Pooley spent four and a half hours walking along Bondi Beach on February 4 and surreptitiously recorded at least 12 women who were sunbathing topless.

He used his iPhone to record the stationary woman as he walked past in a 'disgusting' act slammed by magistrate Ross Hudson.

Christopher Pooley (pictured) appeared in Waverley Local Court on Wednesday to learn his fate after pleading guilty to filming a person's private parts without consent

He said the recordings were 'targeted and lengthy' and constituted a 'massive breach of trust' in the public space.

'Just because someone is recorded and it's unknown to them, it doesn't undo the gravity of the offence,' the magistrate declared.

'People have a right to their privacy. Not to be filmed. Not to have their images end up somewhere else ... somewhere they can never be removed from.'

Pooley's actions were spotted by another beachgoer, who immediately alerted police.

The printer admitted he captured the recordings for his own sexual gratification and told police he wanted to see if the images would 'excite him'.

The court heard he has an addiction to pornography which had normalised voyeurism to him.

The 44-year-old spent four and a half hours walking along Bondi Beach (pictured) on February 4 and surreptitiously recorded at least 12 women who were sunbathing topless

'He believed they were more appropriate than staring at the victims,' Mr Hudson said.

The court heard the West Ryde resident planned the 'not opportunistic, not spontaneous' offences, which took place over nearly five hours and impacted more than a dozen women.

Magistrate Hudson said the printer's actions were unjustified and 'in many ways, disgusting'.

'You say in some ways this was a victimless crime. It was not,' he said to Pooley.

'In terms of a person's safety and sanctity in regard to taking those recordings, you must recognise the damage that does'.

The beach pervert had no prior criminal history and good prospects of rehabilitation, the court heard.

Mr Hudson sentenced him to an 18 month community corrections order and 120 hours of community service.

Pooley (pictured) was sentenced him to an 18 month community corrections order, 120 hours of community service and must also undergo rehabilitation

He must undergo rehabilitation to address his mental health, his pornography addiction, and to reduce his sexual impulses.

Pooley hid his face as he entered the courthouse to learn his sentence for his reprehensible behaviour.

Wearing a blue and white checkered shirt and grey pants, he appeared relieved as the magistrate told him he would not spend time behind bars.

Eyes hidden behind thick black rimmed glasses, he swore to the court he wouldn't repeat his disgusting actions.
An experienced cop has been forced to abandon her holiday plans after falling victim to criminal youth gangs in two different Outback towns, saying she'd never experienced such brazen crime in all her years on the force.

Keely Allport and her partner have been travelling Western Australia in their van but had their holiday quickly cut short after suffering a string of crimes in the state's north last week.

Ms Allport said the pair had checked in to accommodation in Broome to celebrate her partner's birthday on April 24.

They were woken early the next morning by the sound of four youths stealing their credit cards and cash.

'I'm fully aware of the problems that happen in small communities with youth crime,' she told the ABC.

'It's not that I'm a naive traveller; I'm very aware and very safety-conscious travelling to remote areas.'

But it was the brazen nature of the crimes that left her shocked.

South Australian policewoman Keely Allport (above) said she was 'traumatised' after she and her partner were robbed and targeted by a youth gang in remote northern WA

The couple had travelled to Broome (above) but woke to find four children stealing their credit cards and cash on April 25

They managed to chase the gang of four away from their accommodation and decided to move onto Halls Creek, a small town about 685km east of Broome, on Saturday.

It was there the couple decided to abandon their WA plans altogether.

She explained a gang surrounded their van while they were parked at a service station and began shaking and throwing rocks at their vehicle at about 10am.

'What happened in broad daylight at 10 o'clock in the morning in front of a lot of people, I've never encountered that,' she said.

Ms Allport has worked as a police officer for nearly 17 years - eight of which she spent working in South Australia's remote northwest Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) region.

The couple travelled to Halls Creek on Saturday where they were surrounded by a youth gang and had stones thrown at their van (pictured, a map showing Broome and Halls Creek)

Halls Creek has seen a jump in youth crimes with gangs like the '6670 Boys' inspired by postcode violence in Sydney (pictured, Halls Creek police station)

On top of her experience in the police force, Ms Allport joined several Aussie travel community pages and thoroughly researched the pair's holiday destinations.

She explained the majority of red flags she'd come across were for regions in the Northern Territory, specifically around Alice Springs.

She said the incident left her 'shocked' and 'traumatised' both her and her partner.

'Every noise that we hear wakes her up and it wakes me up, we're just constantly on edge,' she said.

They have since decided to 'salvage' their trip by heading over to Queensland.

While Australia's attention has been focused on the growing youth crime epidemic in the Northern Territory, the frightening trend has also been suffered in remote WA.

Videos posted online (example above) by the youth gangs shows teens hooning through the streets as Halls Creek residents say they don't feel safe going outside at night

Concerns for the region peaked in December last year with Halls Creek residents saying they no longer felt safe to go out at night due to gangs like the '6670 Boys' who are inspired by postcode violence in Sydney.

The '6670 Boys' still run rampant in the town and regularly post videos of children hooning in seemingly stolen cars on TikTok.

One of the town's estimated 4,000 residents, Kirsten Thomson, said the community had become 'totally lawless'.

'These kids are now attacking people to steal from them . . . so I don't go out at night anymore,' she told The West in December.
Tucker Carlson sent an incendiary text message the day after the January 6 storming of the Capitol - which the board of Fox News learnt about on the eve of their defamation trial - sparking, in part, his shock firing last week, according to a report.

The pivotal role played by the January 7, 2021, text message was reported Tuesday by The New York Times.

In the text to one of his producers, Carlson recalls seeing a mob of three white men attacking an 'Antifa kid' and wanting the victim to be killed. But, Carlson wrote, he realized wanting the 'Antifa kid' to die was wrong.

Carlson, whose critics call him a white supremacist, also asserted that white people in general do not act so dishonorably as to launch a three-against-one attack. He did not specify the race of the 'Antifa kid'.

'It was three against one, at least,' Carlson wrote. 'Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It's not how white men fight.'

Tucker Carlson is seen on April 26 - two days after his firing - in a video posted to Twitter. In the video, Carlson claimed he had been silenced by the powers that be

The text message was unearthed as part of a defamation case filed by Dominion voting systems against Fox News - which, following the 2020 election, allowed the promotion of the idea that Dominion rigged the election in favor of Joe Biden.

Dominion obtained private messages between Fox News hosts and executives, which showed that many of them privately admitted the idea of a stolen election was nonsense.

The judge overseeing the Dominion case is being asked by multiple news organizations to remove the redaction of many of the messages which were part of the case. No ruling has yet been made.

Carlson's texts also showed him ridiculing Fox bosses and attacking his colleagues.

The texts became known to Fox News's board on the eve of the trial - which began on April 18, and was settled before the jury could start to hear evidence.

The content of the messages so alarmed the board that the wheels were set in motion for Carlson's firing, The New York Times reported.

'A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington,' Carlson wrote in the text, sent at 4:18pm on January 7, 2021.

A member of the Proud Boys is stabbed during street fights in Washington DC on December 12, 2020

Proud Boys and Antifa fight after the 'Million MAGA March' from Freedom Plaza to the US Capitol on December 12, 2020

Members of the Proud Boys are pictured in Washington DC on December 12, 2020

'A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living s*** out of him. It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It's not how white men fight.

'Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it.

'Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn't good for me. I'm becoming something I don't want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being.

'Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I'm sure I'd hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn't gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed.

'If I don't care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?'

Fox's board was deeply concerned that the message could be made public at trial - a fear that pushed them to agree to the $787.5 million settlement.

The board told Fox executives on the day the trial began it was bringing in an outside law firm to investigate Carlson's behavior.

Carlson is pictured speaking at the Heritage Foundation shortly before his April 24 firing

The board hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz to investigate Fox's biggest star.

It is the same firm that helped Twitter force Elon Musk to buy Twitter after he tried to back out of the $44billion acquisition.

The Fox board's actions are said to have contributed to the decision by Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox Corporation, and Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News, to fire him.

In addition, there was internal concern about other messages sent by Carlson and worry over a lawsuit accusing him of presiding over a toxic work environment.

Carlson's disdain for Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump - who he said he 'hates passionately' - were also problematic for the conservative network, and Rupert Murdoch himself was said to be tiring of Carlson's provocations, such as saying the January 6 rioters were 'tourists' and downplaying Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Neither Carlson nor Fox have commented on the text message.
A female firefighter has died after she became 'trapped' and 'ran out of air' when her breathing apparatus apparently failed in a factory fire at Slacks Creek, Brisbane.

Izabella Nash, 46, suffered serious injuries after entering the inferno with a colleague about 2.30am on Tuesday before the pair were feared lost in the flames.

Her fellow firie was rescued from the flames but it is believed Ms Nash ran out of oxygen.

She is understood to have fallen unconscious inside the blazing building before being discovered and carried out by other firefighters.

Ms Nash was rushed to the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital, but was declared dead at 9.15pm on Tuesday.

Izabella Nash, 46, (pictured) suffered serious injuries after entering the inferno with two colleagues about 2.30am on Tuesday before all three were feared lost in the flames

A female Fire and Rescue Service firefighter has died overnight following a factory fire (pictured) at Slacks Creek, Brisbane, early yesterday morning

Fire crews were called to Pacific Highway at Slacks Creek in Brisbane's south at about 2.20am overnight following reports a pool maintenance warehouse was engulfed in flames (pictured)

The second firie, senior firefighter Lia Drew, remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition, suffering burns and smoke inhalation.

Both were described as veteran firefighters with around 25 years of experience between them. A third male firefighter also in the fire managed to escape without injury.

The two women are said to have been trapped on the second storey of the building as they tried to tackle the inferno.

'They were upstairs for a while. The crews went to rescue them, they had to find them,' United Firefighters Union Queensland secretary John Oliver told the Courier-Mail.

'We will look into every aspect of what went wrong - communications, whether the breathing apparatus failed or not, the types of areas that were posted to them.

'It will all come out. Im concerned for the firies that have gone down. Im very concerned for the firefighters that rescued those firefighters.'

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has promised a full investigation into the blaze and called Ms Nashs death 'absolutely horrific'.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has promised a full investigation into the blaze and called said the death Izabella Nash (pictured) was 'absolutely horrific'

'Therell be an investigation about what caused that and how the tragedy happened,' said the Premier on Wednesday.

'Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and loved ones. Its an absolute tragedy.

'I know that her family came up from NSW to be with her and she was an experienced firefighter.'

She added: 'It took 30 or 40 fire trucks to actually put out that blaze. Of course there will be more investigation.'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the tragedy was devastating.

'Firefighter Izabella Nashs tragic death is a cruel reminder of the risks and dangers firefighters confront every day,' he posted on Twitter.

'Along with all Australians, I offer my deepest sympathies to Izabellas family, friends and crew members in this time of grief and sorrow.

'My thoughts are also with Lia Drew. We must never forget the bravery of firefighters who work to keep us all safe.'

Izabella Nash (pictured) had been in the military prior to becoming a firefighter, based at Duntroon in Canberra

Fire investigators are now poring over the twisted metal in the wreckage of the blaze at the factory fire in Brisbane (pictured) to determine the cause

QFES Assistant Commissioner John Cawcutt said that the state's firefighters were made aware of her death via a broadcast over fire stations PAs.

Flags will fly at half-mast at stations across the Queensland.

Asst Cmsr Cawcutt revealed Ms Nash had been in the military prior to becoming a firefighter, based at Duntroon in Canberra.

'(She was) incredibly fit, (a) really, really fit person, very strong. She was always the first person out to check over equipment,' he told reporters.

'You get junior firefighters who come to the station and shed be the first person out showing them over (the equipment). She always had a good sort of smile about her, could take a joke and give it out as well. The crew she was attached to is really broken up.

'She is outstanding. It is a true loss for us, one of those sorts of people who would walk into a station and the people would be attracted to her.'

Tributes have been posted to the fallen firefighter online, with one commenting: 'RIP Izzy, your shift is over.'

Another added: 'Rest easy Izabella, thank you for your service.'

Former colleague Rob Boniwell revealed he had met Ms Nash when she was bidding to become a firefighter in 2014.

'I interviewed Izzy for her role as a permanent firefighter and was proud to see her graduate from the school several years ago,' he posted on Facebook.

'In my 29 years of service I have never experienced a fellow firefighter from my own agency or service pay the ultimate sacrifice to protecting their communities.

'Until now.

My thoughts and prayers are with our Fire and Rescue friends, families and colleagues today and the immediate future. We are all feeling this sad loss.

'Rest in peace Izzy. You will be sadly missed.'

Senior Firefighter Lia Drew (pictured) remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition, suffering burns and smoke inhalation

Izabella Nash died after entering the inferno with two colleagues about 2.30am on Tuesday before the three were all feared missing in the flames

An investigation has now been launched into the condition and operation of Ms Nash's breathing apparatus, while a probe is also underway into the cause of the fire.

'It is very rare that our firefighters are injured in this way,' Queensland Fire and Emergency Service Deputy Commissioner Michael Wassing said.

'That's because of the enormity of the training and professionalism of our firefighters.'

Ms Nash joined the Fire and Rescue Service in 2014 and served as a First Class Firefighter.

'The thoughts of all QFES members are with Izzy's and Lia's families, friends and fellow crew members,' said a QFES spokesman.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the tragedy brought home the dangers faced by emergency services personnel every day.

'She was clearly devoted to her job, on the front line supporting her fellow Queenslanders,' said the premier.

'Izabella's passing is a terribly sad and poignant reminder of the dangers our front-line staff face on a daily basis.'

Federal Treasurer and local MP Dr Jim Chalmers also paid tribute to Ms Nash, calling her an 'incredible young woman'.

He added: 'The news has come through this morning that Isabella Nash lost her life protecting our community in that horrible fire in Slacks Creek.

Authorities declared the fire under control just after 6am but multiple crews and three senior officers remained on scene, with police declaring the area a crime scene (pictured)

An investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing (pictured, damaged building at Freedom Pools, at the scene of a factory fire in Slacks Creek)

'This is another reminder of the courage, the selflessness and the commitment of people who are first responders.

'That fire two nights ago was a dangerous fire. We've lost an incredible young woman. Selfless, committed and courageous.

'Her loved ones and her work mates will be incredibly sad today and our community is heartbroken too.'

State fire and emergency services minister Mark Ryan added: 'So sad to hear of the passing of firefighter Izabella Nash. With Izzy's passing, Queensland has lost a hero.

'The thoughts of our entire state are with her family, friends and the broader fire and emergency services family,' Mr Ryan posted on Twitter.

The cause of the fire at an event planning business, A Noble Event, is yet to be determined.
Two police officers have been stabbed before their attacker was shot dead in a terrifying incident in a small town in South Australia.

Emergency services were responding to a 'high risk incident' in Crystal Brook, in the state's mid north, just after midday on Wednesday.

Police had reportedly received complaints about the homeowner's dog, a husky, prompting them to send out some officers to the house.

A local shop owner said several complaints had been made about the canine for 'some time'.

Police said they were responding to a 'high risk incident' in Crystal Brook, in the state's mid north, on Wednesday just after midday (pictured police at the scene in Crystal Brook)

'It was a very aggressive dog, both in his front yard and when it was tied up out the front of shops in the main street,' they told The Advertiser.

'I actually felt sorry for the dog because it would get quite anxious when it was tied up.'

The shop owner said the dog's owner had been living in the area for about five years.

'He kept to himself, when he came into the shop he was always very pleasant and polite,' they said.

One officer had to be airlifted to hospital after suffering serious stab wounds, believed to be to the neck.

It's understood a second officer suffered minor stab wounds.

Police Association president Mark Carroll said the incident was a reminder of the dangerous of working on the force.

'This is a horrifying reminder of the levels of extreme violence front-line police officers face in the line of duty,' he said.

'Details about this tragic incident are scarce at the moment, but we do know that both officers are badly hurt, and one is in a serious condition in hospital.

'The Police Association is currently providing support to both the impacted officers and their families.'

More to come
The broke up for a period after she told him that she wanted children, Costner already had four children from three different relationships

Christine Baumgartner first met Costner shortly after his first marriage to Cindy Silva ended in the 1990s but they didn't become a couple until 1998

Kevin Costner's impending split from his wife of 19 years, Christine Baumgartner, will be the Oscar-winning director's second time in divorce court.

Baumgartner filed Monday to end their union citing unspecified 'irreconcilable differences.' It's believed that the pair have a pre-nuptial agreement.

In November 1994, Costner's then wife, Cindy Silva, filed for divorce after 16 years of marriage. The couple met while they were both students at California State University - Fullerton.

They would go on to have three children together.

The pair split amid multiple reports that Costner had been having an affair with a celebrated hula dancer named Michele Amaral while he was filming his multi-million dollar flop Waterworld in Hawaii. Eventually, Silva was awarded around $80 million in the divorce settlement.

Less than two years after that split, Costner had a son, Liam, with Bridget Rooney, heiress to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and aunt of actresses Rooney and Kate Mara. That affair is rumored to have cost the actor $7 million.

Costner pictured with his first wife Cindy Silva in 1991, she filed for divorce three years later ending their 16 year marriage

In 1994, Kevin Costner was widely reported to have had an affair with hula dancer Michele Amaral while filming Waterworld

Amaral was also married as well as being a mother-of-two when she met Costner. A report at the time in the New York Daily News said that the pair met at the Mauna Lani hotel and shortly afterwards Amaral was 'spotted creeping out of his $4,500-a-day villa.

According to a Departures Magazine feature, Amaral has taught hula across the world and is known as the island's premier soloist.

The Daily News report said that Silva was alerted to the affair by someone who was working on Waterworld and was fired.

The same article accused Costner of multiple infidelities during his marriage.

At the time Costner strenuously denied the allegations saying that he was merely interviewing Amaral for a job.

During an interview where Amaral was brought up, Costner became infuriated.

'This woman has done nothing wrong and yet has had to share the harsh light of celebrity with me. I feel embarrassed, and I don't think there's one thing I can do to make her life better.'

'This woman has a name and to make her a thing is the worst part of all. It's wrong for her and her husband,' Costner said.

Costner denied that he'd had an affair with Amaral, with some reports saying that he was interviewing her for a job

At the time of the alleged affar, Amaral herself was married with two children

In a separate interview, The Bodyguard star took responsibility for his role in the demise of his marriage, but did not go into detail.

'A series of events conspired to happen at the same time. I know it hurt some people that I had failed in my marriage. And the marriage was my own failure,' he said.

Costner said in a 1995 interview with Parade Magazine that he never even spoke to Amaral on the phone.

He also listed off the other women he was supposedly linked to including Playboy model Angie Everheart and the daughter of casino magnate Steve Wynn.

'It was hard on Cindy and our children. It didn't help things. The only thing it did was hurt. The collapse of my marriage was the hardest thing of all for me,' the Dances With Wolves star said.

Costner went on to express his love for his first wife: 'You can put this on the record. Through all the pain, Cindy's been what I always thought she was a real lady. I still have love for Cindy.'

The article notes that Costner was shortly due to begin filming the romantic comedy Tin Cup, it was on that movie's set where he met his second wife, Christine Baumgartner, who was then 21.

Silva supported Costner when he was a struggling actor, taking on odd-jobs that included performing as Snow White at Disneyland.

Shortly after his split from Silva, Costner had a son, Liam, with Pittsburgh Steelers heiress Bridget Rooney

'We have amicably resolved all issues regarding our children and financial affairs and a full marital settlement has been reached. We ask to be allowed the dignity of sorting through this more painful part of our lives in private,' a statement from the couple read in 1994.

A representative for the Yellowstone star asked for privacy Tuesday while saying that 'circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action' with Baumgartner.

The couple share three children, 12, 14 and 15, both have filed for joint custody.

The family's primary residence was in Ventura, California, 30 miles south of Santa Barbara, where they also own an oceanfront mansion. The couple has a prenup, reports TMZ.

In a 2012 interview with Parade Magazine, Costner was asked about what the secret was to a good marriage.

'Maybe its the ability to say youre sorry. I know that sounds so simple. If youre willing to tell somebody that you love them, are you also willing to say youre sorry? You need to, even when you think youre in the right,' The Untouchables star said.

The couple first began dating in 1998, having met around 1996 while Costner was filming his movie Tin Cup. The Bodyguard star said that at the time he first met her, he wasn't ready to fall in love again.

Both are graduates of California State University - Fullerton. Baumgartner graduated with a degree in business.

They married in 2004 in Aspen, Colorado, where Costner has long maintained a 160-acre ranch, known as The Dunbar. Rooms can be rented on the property for as much as $36,000 per night.

The reason for the long courtship was because Costner was not sure if wanted more kids. The uncertainty even led them to break up for a period prior to their engagement.

'Fear kept me from marrying Christine. [She] wanted a child, but I was afraid I couldnt be an effective father.'

'I woke up and thought, Am I going to lose a beautiful woman who is willing to be with me to my very last breath because I am afraid to say yes to a child?' Thats all it took. Sometimes you learn the thing youre most afraid of will save your life,' he told Closer Weekly in 2018.

Costner told the Daily Telegraph in 2011 that the reason for his four year hiatus from making movies was because of his new family.

Christine Baumgartner, 49, called it quits from her Hollywood heartthrob husband Kevin Costner on Monday. The two are pictured at Vanity Fair event in 2022

Christine is a handbag designer by trade. Her label is named Cat Bag Couture. The Daily Telegraph feature refers to her as a 'model.'

It was her Oscar-winning husband who helped her to get her start in style.

'When I came up with some samples, I showed them to Kevin, and he said they were beautiful and amazing. When I came up with some samples, I showed them to Kevin, and he said they were beautiful and amazing,' Christine told the Denver Post in 2005.

'I love classic women who are strong and feminine,' she said in the interview. The piece also mentioned that the bags made an appearance in an episode of Desperate Housewives.

The article listed the bags as retailing at between $275 and $997. The website for Cat Bag Couture is no longer active.

'I dont know if well ever be a big company. I have mixed feelings about it. I have so much room to grow,' Christine told the Post.

Online records show that Christine now operates a business named Coda Bands, a fashion accessory business.

As a recently as 2020, Costner spoke glowingly about how the couple's relationship strengthened during the Covid-19 pandemic. He told People: 'Our partnership has really come into focus about what we do for each other and how we deal with our family.'

In 2022, Radar Online reported that Costner was given an ultimatum from his wife. The report said that she was demanding that he quit his hit show Yellowstone due to the fact that he was gone from home so often.

'The show is such a mega-hit, producers want it to go on forever! [Baumgartner] wants a firm commitment this is his last season  or he might have to!,' a source told the website.
This is a sacred dutyIll work day and night to make Nigeria better, President-Elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu says after INEC issued him a certificate of return.

Mr Tinubu uses the property for his stay in London and photos from there became popular online when the politician was hosting political figures there while convalescing in 2021.

A corruption-tainted London mansion that the Buhari administration had targeted for confiscation now belongs to Nigeria's president-elect Bola Tinubu's son through an offshore shell company, which is also linked to the politician's surrogates.

The Tinubu connection with the property - 32 Grove End Road, London - as well as its link with a petrodollar fraud investigation in Nigeria was first revealed by PREMIUM TIMES as part of the Pandora Papers investigation. But in a new report on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Seyi Tinubu is a beneficial owner of the property through shell company Aranda Overseas Corporations, citing UK company documents.

Using leaked documents from Pandora Papers, PREMIUM TIMES previously reported that Aranda was incorporated in November 1999 in the British Virgin Islands by Mr Tinubu's trusted surrogates - Gboyega Oyetola, former governor of Osun State, and friend Eluyemi Eludoyin. The incorporation was done months after Mr Tinubu assumed power as governor of Nigeria's business capital Lagos State.

But Seyi Tinubu's connection has only just been revealed by Bloomberg after the UK enacted a new law requiring foreign companies investing in the country's property market to declare their beneficial owners. Mr Tinubu and his son, Seyi, refused to respond to enquiries by Bloomberg on the matter.

Seyi, who was active in his father's campaign, is a businessman, known for his interest in advertising.

Bought from a fugitive at 8 million discount

Documents obtained from the UK property register revealed that in July 2013, the property with title number 340992, was bought for 11.95 million by Zavlil Holdings Ltd, a shell company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, a notorious tax haven. Further documents obtained by PREMIUM TIMES revealed that Zavlil Holdings Limited is owned by Kolawole Aluko, an international fugitive wanted by law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and the United States for money laundering.

Kola Aluko and his associate, Jide Omokore, were indicted in the US and Nigeria for multi-million-dollar fraud and money laundering violations allegedly in collusion with a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

In 2016, the Federal Government of Nigeria filed a Mareva injunction at a Federal High Court in Lagos seeking to confiscate a list of properties belonging to Messrs Aluko and Omokore valued at $1.8 billion.

A Mareva injunction is a court order which freezes the assets of a defendant pending the outcome of litigation.

In the suit against Messrs Omokore and Aluko, alongside their companies, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited and Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited, the Nigerian government asked the court to grant it seven orders to prevent the accused from disposing of the assets. The government alleged they were acquired through fraudulent means.

The third prayer the government made to the court was to grant it an order restraining the accused "from giving any instruction, demanding, accepting, receiving payments and/or transacting, transferring, mortgaging or howsoever dealing in any manner with assets of the Defendants in both houses and land in Abuja and Lagos and others located outside Nigeria."

The government then listed 17 properties in Abuja, Lagos, the U.S., Canada, Dubai, Switzerland, and the UK.

Among the listed properties was "Grove End Road, London".

The court granted the government all its prayers. In October 2017, an attempt by the defendants to dismiss the Mareva injunction granted on the properties was subsequently dismissed by Oluremi Oguntoyinbo, the trial judge.

But just around the time (on October 18, 2017) the court dismissed the defendant's attempt to dismiss the injunction, documents obtained from the U.K. property register revealed that Mr Aluko sold the house for 9 million to Aranda incorporated by Mr Tinubu's surrogates, Messrs Oyetola and Eludoyin.

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The huge discount at which the property was sold is curious and raised questions of whether Mr Aluko desperately needed to sell the property even while a court of law had placed a freeze order on it.

The United Kingdom, especially the greater London area, is noted for its rapid increase in the value of properties. According to PREMIUM TIMES' calculation of the likely value of the property when it was bought by Aranda Overseas Corporation done on the website of the UK's National Building Society, which is the largest building society in the world, the property should be worth approximately 17 million pounds. Thus, Mr Aluko sold the property at a discount of 8 million.

Mr Tinubu uses the property for his stay in London and photos from there became popular online when the politician was hosting political figures there while convalescing in 2021. President Muhammadu Buhari whose government had sought had targeted the property for confiscation was one of the guests.

Read PREMIUM TIMES' original report on the property here.
The tech executive charged with the brutal murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee appeared all smiles in court - as a coroner report revealed the brutal details of the slaying.

Nima Momeni, 38, gleamed while being escorted into the courtroom Tuesday for his arraignment hearing for the killing of Lee, 43, on April 4.

Momeni is accused of stabbing the entrepreneur multiple times with a kitchen knife near the west edge of the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

But the alleged killer's hearing got pushed back for the third time as his lawyer, Paula Canny, told the judge she needed more time to prepare amid the victim's autopsy revealing he had a mixture of drugs an alcohol in his system when he was stabbed.

The arraignment was postponed until May 18 as Momeni prepares to plea not guilty.

Nima Momeni, 38, smiled while walking into the courtroom on Tuesday for his arraignment hearing. The hearing was delayed for a third time until May 18

The suspect is accused of killing Cash App founder Bob Lee on April 4 in San Francisco. An autopsy report revealed Lee was stabbed several times and had drugs in his system

Paramedics found Lee collapsed in front of an apartment block after he called 911 himself at around 2.36am on April 4.

Lee was 'unconscious, pulseless' and gasping for breath when medics found him. Paramedics, who discovered two stab wounds to his chest and a third on his hip, fitted a tube to help with breathing and performed CPR.

The autopsy from the San Francisco Medical Examiner revealed in graphic detail how Lee was found slumped outside an apartment block with no pulse before paramedics rushed him to the hospital.

He found he had a mixture of drugs and alcohol in his system when he was stabbed, including ketamine, cocaine and alcohol.

During the desperate, hours-long attempt to save his life, medics performed several procedures to try and seal the wounds and stop his bleeding before Lee was pronounced dead on an operating table at San Francisco General Hospital.

The autopsy also revealed traces of cocaethylene, which is produced when alcohol and cocaine are consumed, and the allergy medication antihistamine levocetirizine.

Momeni's lawyer, Paula Canny, told the judge she needed more time to prepare amid the victim's autopsy revealing he had mixture of drugs an alcohol in his system when he was stabbed

Momeni was seen wearing an orange sweatsuit while walking into the San Francisco courtroom on Tuesday

Paramedics found Lee collapsed in front of an apartment block after he called 911 himself at around 2.36am. Lee can be seen bleeding outside of an apartment on April 4

The medical examiner's discovery of drugs in Lee's system comes after claims that Lee was romantically involved with Momeni's sister, Khazar, and the pair had visited the home of a drug dealer the day before the murder.

It has also been claimed Momeni was concerned his sister had been using drugs and had argued with Lee hours before the stabbing.

Nima Momeni has been charged with murdering Lee in a rage after grilling him about his relationship with his sister

Momeni is the older brother of Khazar Momeni, known as Tina to her friends, who had a close friendship with Lee.

Surveillance footage following the stabbing showed Momeni stabbing Lee in his BMW after driving him to a secluded part of town in the early hours of April 4, prosecutors said.

They, however, said the footage was dark and difficult to make out.

But, Momeni's lawyer claim she is not convinced by the surveillance footage she has seen.

'He's gonna plead not guilty, and he's gonna deny the special allegation and absolutely the plea will be not guilty,' Paula Canny said following an April hearing.

'I don't think you can see anything in the videos.'

Friends have claimed Khazar was romantically involved with Lee despite her being married to plastic surgeon Dino Elyassnia, and one alleged in a recent interview with The San Francisco Standard that Khazar had a drug problem.

'She was basically asking me to buy drugs with my money,' Samira Kuduzovi, who was friends with her, said.

Police sources said on the day of his murder, Lee and Khazar visited the home of a man who has a criminal record for dealing drugs.

It's unclear if they purchased any from him that day. A previously-filed court motion says the trio were 'drinking' at his home. The man in question has not been named.

The autopsy findings come after claims that Lee was romantically involved with Momeni's sister, Khazar (pictured), and the pair had visited the home of a drug dealer before the murder

Khazar Momeni with her husband, plastic surgeon Dino Elyassnia, at her brother's first court appearance on April 14. Her friends told The San Francisco Standard she has a drug problem

Police found a text on Bob Lee's phone from Khazar where she told him she 'love you'

The apparent connection to drugs ties into an earlier claim that Lee argued with Nima Momeni about Khazar hours before the stabbing.

It was claimed by friends that Nima was concerned his sister was wrapped up in a bad crowd and had been using drugs.

Lee, according to the friends, assured him she was not.

Robert Canny, an attorney who spoke on behalf of Khazar Momeni and her husband at her brother's first court appearance, did not immediately respond to previous DailyMail.com inquiries.

Authorities have not released any further details regarding illicit substances being involved in the case.

Canny, the attorney representing Nima, previously suggested police had arrested the wrong person.

'Clearly they seem to think they have enough to make an arrest, but I haven't seen it.

'So, until I see it and analyze it, I'm gonna say they've made a mistake. There isn't enough [to hold him].

'My client is a super nice person, his family loves him and supports him.'
A Melbourne tradie who broke into his boss's home, tied up his wife and kidnapped their children, had a meltdown in court after a jury ruled he was guilty.

The jury returned their verdicts on Wednesday after three days of deliberation in the County Court of Victoria.

Jiangang Ji, a plasterer, has pleaded guilty to five charges, including kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated burglary and car theft, but denied three related charges, including the common assault of the wife while she was restrained.

The court was told Ji had worked for the man for two years but claimed he had snapped under constant verbal abuse and psychological pressure.

After being found guilty, Ji dramatically slammed down headphones he'd been wearing and muttered angrily.

Jiangang Ji has admitted to kidnapping the two children from a home in Blackburn North

Prosecutor Kristie Churchill said Ji knew where his boss lived after working on their property seven or eight times in the past and waited until the man had left for work in the early hours of August 23, 2021.

Armed with a knife and duct tape, he broke into the home and used the tape to tie the wife's ankles and wrists before covering her mouth and eyes.

'You could imagine the sheer terror of being confronted by a strange man in the early hours of the morning ... gagged and restrained,' Ms Churchill said in her closing remarks.

'(She) gave evidence about what was no doubt a traumatic event ... what she described is a nightmare and would stay with you.'

Ji left her at the home, placing their two young children in the boot of the family's Mercedes-Benz and driving to his home in Mitcham.

Police were alerted after the wife, still restrained, managed to raise the alarm after flagging down passers-by for help.

Just after 7pm, about 12 hours after the children were abducted, Ji was arrested at his home while loading them back into the car.

During his record of interview, he told police he 'hated' his boss and wanted to teach him a lesson.

'As soon as I did it, I regret what I have done and I realise how serious kidnapping kids (was),' he said.

Armed with a knife and duct tape, he broke into the home and used the tape to tie the wife's ankles and wrists before covering her mouth and eyes

The jury was told Ji had admitted to making a ransom demand during his interview but claimed it was only to 'scare' his boss.

'Give me $1m, I'll give the kids back, otherwise I'll destroy the car and the kids,' he said.

Ji reacted by shaking his head and muttering angrily as the jury found him guilty of the three remaining charges, including assaulting his boss's wife.

The court was told that while she was tied up, Ji applied force to her stomach with the knife, with doctors later discovering an 11.5cm abrasion.

His barrister, Carmela Pezzimenti, had argued that Ji did not assault the woman, saying 'nothing has been held back' during his interview.

'(He's pleaded not guilty) for one reason and one reason alone because he did not commit these offences,' she said.

As the jury left the room, Ji slammed headphones he'd been wearing for a Mandarin translator to explain the proceedings into the court's dock.

Ji will return to court on August 2.
A young international student is fighting for life after he was allegedly attacked and left for dead during a violent home invasion.

Shocked flatmates found the Bangladeshi student, 23, in his bed surrounded by a pool of blood at their home in the Darwin suburb of Millner around 4.30am on Wednesday.

The intruder allegedly fled the home armed with a fire extinguisher.

The student was rushed to Royal Darwin Hospital in a critical condition, where doctors have warned he isn't expected to survive his 'significant' injuries.

NT Police are investigating an alleged home invasion on Trower Rd, Millner early Wednesday morning which has left a young man in a critical condition (Google street view pictured)

'With that sort of prognosis he's likely to die within a day,' an unnamed surgeon told the NT News.

'There was no point in doing anything except inserting an intracranial pressure monitor and giving him palliative care.'

A post shared to a community Facebook page also claimed doctors have asked the students' friends to contact his parents as he's unlikely to survive his injuries.

The student had been studying at Charles Darwin University.

'When we hear about incidences of violence that involves our students it impacts the whole CDU community,' vice-Chancellor Professor Scott Bowman said in a statement.

'Our thoughts and prayers are with family and friends at this very difficult time.'

NT police minister Kate Worden added: 'Absolutely my heart breaks for this student and also their family, and for the CDU family.'

An international student is fighting for life in Royal Darwin Hospital (pictured) after an aggravated home burglary

Northern Territory Police were called to the Trower Road home in Millner shortly after the alleged home invasion.

A man, 29, was arrested in the area a short time later and remains in custody. No charges have yet been laid.

The Millner home remained a crime scene on Wednesday as forensic officers scoured for evidence.

Anyone who saw anything suspicious area in the area at the time or who may have CCTV is urged to contact police on on 131 444.
He was pressed on cost of AUKUS nuclear submarine deal

A 'polite' heckler has interrupted Richard Marles' speaking event at a defence summit to press him on the massive cost of the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal.

The Deputy Prime Minister, who is acting prime minister with Anthony Albanese in London, was mid-conversation with former Liberal defence minister Christopher Pyne at the Four Seasons hotel in Sydney.

He was then abruptly interrupted by the protester on Wednesday morning.

Vision and images of the event shows Mr Marles and Mr Pyne were seated on stage discussing defence policy in front of an audience when an unidentified man shouted from the crowd: 'No nuclear submarines, Marles.'

'We want hospitals and public housing. We don't want those nuclear submarines,' the man continued.

Protester (pictured) interrupts acting prime minister Richard Marles at defence summit demanding that Australians get public housing and hospitals not nuclear submarines

Mr Pyne, who was MCing the event hosted by online publication Defence Connect, was filmed trying to regain control, saying loudly: 'Thank you, we can have both. Lovely, thank you.'

Mr Marles also responded from the stage to suggest the Albanese government would fund hospitals and public housing as well as the multi-billion dollar AUKUS security pact.

'We'll do that too,' he said.

Mr Marles continued by saying: 'That was polite, anyway, as (far) as protesters go'.

Mr Pyne appeared to run with Mr Marles' lighthearted response, making a joke about the way Labor managed the economy and public spending.

'Under Labor governments we can have everything,' he said.

Mr Marles burst out laughing as Mr Pyne continued with the joke: 'We've got money coming out of our ears'.

Mr Marles' office was contacted for comment but said it had nothing more to add to what was said on the stage.

Mr Marles, who also holds the defence portfolio, has previously said he accepts there will be critics of the AUKUS security agreement with the United States and the UK but staunchly defended the pact.

Under the trilateral deal, which was signed in 2021 by the former Morrison government and which Labor and the Coalition support, Australia will purchase and manufacture nuclear-powered submarines to replace its own ageing Collins-Class fleet of conventional vessels.

Under the 'optimal pathway' revealed by the Prime Minister in March, the AUKUS endeavour is forecast to cost Australian taxpayers between $268bn to $368bn over the next 30 years by increasing annual defence spending from 2.05 to 2.20 per cent of GDP.

Vision and images of the event shows Mr Marles (pictured) and Mr Pyne were seated on stage discussing defence policy in front of an audience when an unidentified man shouted from the crowd: 'No nuclear submarines, Marles'

The federal government says the project, which has bipartisan support, will create 20,000 local jobs over the next three decades and budget offsets mean it won't drive up Defence spending until the 2026-27 financial year.

But the revelation of the plan's enormous price tag has triggered questions about how an already under-strain budget will handle the cost as the government weighs up how to fund other vital public services.

AUKUS will cost $9bn over the next four years, but the government says this will be offset by $6bn that had been allocated to the cancelled Attack-class submarine program and $3bn in savings from other Defence programs.

Additionally, the government has also committed to funding some of the recommendations made in a landmark review of the Australian Defence Force in the upcoming federal budget.

The Defence Strategic Review will cost $19bn over the next four years, which includes the $9bn in spending already announced to fund the AUKUS submarines.

Around $7.8bn of that will come from savings made through the gutting, delaying or cancelling of a number of projects, with the rest to come from a pot of money already within the defence budget.

Australia's yearly defence spending was already one of the biggest strains on the federal budget at $48.7bn.

The government has routinely named defence as one of the five biggest pressures facing the budget which it must figure out how to balance with the cost of government programs such as healthcare and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

The Albanese government's second federal budget will be handed down on Tuesday.
Famed auction house Christie's is planning to sell off 700 jewels worth an estimated $150million that all belonged to the widow of a Nazi Party member who made his fortune buying out Jewish businesses.

Anthea Peers, the president of Christie's Europe, Middle East and Africa touted Heidi Horten's collection as 'one of the most beautifully curated' to 'ever come up in the jewelry world.' It includes a sapphire and diamond necklace worth $1.5million and a jadeite and diamond necklace valued at $16.5million.

But all of the jewelry was purchased using money her husband Helmut made off the backs of Jews in the Holocaust, when they were forced to sell their businesses  often at greatly reduced rates.

Helmut, who was once a member of the Nazi Party, used those businesses to build his eponymously named department store franchise.

By the time he died in 1987, Helmut left Heidi with nearly a $1billion inheritance.

Christie's touted Heidi Horten's collection as 'one of the most beautifully curated' to 'ever come up in the jewelry world.'

But all of the jewelry was purchased using money her husband Helmut made off the backs of Jews in the Holocaust

Christie's is planning to sell off 700 jewels worth an estimated $150million

The collection includes a sapphire and diamond necklace worth $1.5million and a jadeite and diamond necklace valued at $16.5million.

According to David De Jong, author of 'Nazi Billionaires: The Dark Side of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties,' Horten made his first business acquisition  a modest department store purchased from his Jewish employer in 1933.

The owner felt pressured to flee Germany as the Nazis came to power and sold his business at a fair price.

But from then on, journalist Stephanie Stephan said, 'Horten developed a routine for seizing Jewish businesses' in a process called Aryanization in which Jews were forced to sell their businesses to Aryans at reduced rates.

He would often buy businesses for just 65 percent of their value, De Jong explained to the New York Post, and 'Nazi authorities would be intermediaries in the sales.'

'They were coerced by authorities or by Horten himself,' he continued. 'They sold cheaply or lost their businesses.'

And following the purchases, De Jong said, Horten would take out advertisements in local newspapers proclaiming the businesses were now under Aryan ownership.

By 1937, Horten became a member of the Nazi Party.

Helmut married Heidi in 1966 when she was 19 and he was around 50 years old.

Helmut would often buy Jewish businesses for just 65 percent of their value

But, De Jong says, 'he did not have Nazi ideology. He was interested in expanding his business empire.

'He was a sheer opportunist who saw an opportunity to grow from a small business owner to a department store mogul by the end of World War II.'

As part of his efforts to expand his empire, Stephan said, Horten sought Jewish-occupied businesses in German-occupied territories.

She said her father, Reinhold, had been working for Gerzon, the largest department store in Amsterdam when Horten 'used his influence with the German occupiers in the Netherlands to appoint a German administrator' who would steer the businesses to him.

'This man immediately fired my father because he opposed Aryanization and advised the owner not to sell,' she said.

Unfortunately, the Jewish business owner did not heed her father's advice, and sold his business after being pressured. He had planned to escape to America, but was soon captured by the Nazis.

'My father led a lawsuit against Horten, consulted lawyers and spent a lot of money in the process,' Stephan recounted.

'Unfortunately, since most of the judges were old Nazis, and Horten had a good relationship with them, my father lost the case.'

Helmut married Heidi in 1966 when she was 19 and he was around 50 years old.

Before she died last year, Heidi commissioned historian Peter Hoeres to research and write about her late husband's past.

In his report, Hoeres acknowledges Horten had exploited Jewish business owners, he had initially paid 'quite normal market prices' for their business.

He also cited several instances where Horten kept Jews on as wither employees or suppliers, and noted that although he was a member of the Nazi party, h was later expelled.

But, he also said his report surfaced information that Horten used forced labor at a Berlin company he purchased in 1943 that repaired airplanes.

Officials at Christie's acknowledged the painful history Horten's estate is built on in their listing for the auction, which is set to begin online on May 3 and in person in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 10.

'We are aware there is a painful history,' Peers told the New York Times. 'We weighed that up against various factors.'

In a statement to the Post, Guillaume Cerutti also acknowledged 'awareness of the well-documented business practices of Mrs. Horten's late first husband during the Nazi era when he purchased Jewish businesses sold under duress.'

But, he said, 'all proceeds from the sale will be directed to a foundation, which supports philanthropic causes, including health care, children's welfare and access to the arts.'

The website for the auction also said 'Christi's will make a significant contribution from its final proceeds of this auction to an organization that further advances Holocaust research and education.'

Officials at Christie's acknowledged the painful history Horten's estate is built on in their listing for the auction, which is set to begin online on May 3 and in person on May 10.

By the time he died in 1987, Helmut left Heidi with nearly a $1billion inheritance.

The website for the auction also said 'Christi's will make a significant contribution from its final proceeds of this auction to an organization that further advances Holocaust research and education.'

The controversy comes just months after a French court ordered Christie's London to return The Penitent Magdalene by Dutch artist Adriaen van der Werff to the heirs of its Jewish owner after it was discovered the 18th-century work was looted by Nazis.

The painting was originally owned by Lionel Hauser, an art collector and Jewish banker in Paris who reported in 1945 the Nazis confiscated his entire art collection  including The Penitent Magdalene  from his Paris home three years earlier.

The French government later included photographs of the stolen artwork in its official catalog of items looted by Nazis in the country.

But when Christie's sold the painting in 2005 for $115,185 its sale did not include a provenance history that mentioned Hauser's previous ownership.

Then in 2017 when the painting's current owner, an anonymous British collector, approached Christie's about selling the painting again its researchers discovered it once belonged to Hauser, at which point its legal team contacted his heirs and offered to split the proceeds from the sale between the heirs and the current owner.

It refused, however, to turn over the painting to Hauser's heirs, claiming there is a statute of limitations under British law since more than six years had passed since the painting was sold in 2005.

Hauser's family then sued Christie's London last June in Paris civil court, and in February a judge sided with them.

Christie's must now pay the family a $545 daily fine for any delays identifying the painting's current owner and location, as well as $10,900 in procedural fees.
A father who sexually abused his three-year-old daughter after she was placed in his care by Child Protection, filmed and shared the vile acts online, a court has heard.

The man faced South Australia's District Court on Wednesday pleading guilty to maintaining an unlawful relationship with his child and multiple counts producing, disseminating and possessing child exploitation material.

Prosecution told the court the southern suburbs man, who is not named to protect his daughter's identity, bragged about abusing his little girl in online chat groups.

The man (pictured), who cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, abused the little girl for more than a year and had bragged about it online

A court file detailing the abuse was sealed with only a select number of people exposed to its content, The Advertiser reported.

District Court Judge Anthony Allen said the man showed 'enthusiasm' in the videos and claimed the abuse was among the most serious he has seen.

The man's lawyer Emma Shaw described her client's acts as 'abhorrent' but told the court there was hope for him to be rehabilitated.

'He hates what he has done,' Ms Shaw said.

Ms Shaw said her client acknowledged he was a paedophile and wrote a two page letter apologising for abusing his daughter and for exposing court staff, police and prosecutors to images of the abuse.

She explained her client rated 'extremely high' on an autism spectrum disorder test but had been undiagnosed throughout his life.

The court heard the man moved between 10 different schools and suffered 'debilitating social anxiety' due to being bullied.

The court also heard the man could not hold a conversation or keep a relationship.

The man managed to hold a three-year relationship with a woman which led to the birth of his daughter - a relationship he described as the 'worst three years of his life'.

When the pair separated, the Department of Child Protection placed the little girl in the care of her father after determining her mother was 'unstable'.

The young girl was placed in the care of her father after the Department of Child Protection deemed her mother 'unstable' and too much of a risk to take care of the child (stock image - the child the subject of the court case is not pictured)

Court documents outlined the mother used large amounts of cannabis and posed too much of a risk to the child's welfare.

Judge Allen slammed the decision made by child services as an 'opportunity lost with catastrophic consequences'.

The young girl was aged three years and four months when the offending begun, with her father abusing her for more than a year.

The little girl's foster mum detailed the impact of the abuse in a victim impact statement she read out in court.

The foster mum said the child, who is a 'smart, joyful and courageous' treasured member of her family suffers from night terrors and behavioural issues linked to trauma.

The man will face court for sentencing later this month.
Police are facing security questions today after a man carrying a suspicious package and a knife who had camped for days allegedly ranting he was going to kill the King threw suspected shotgun cartridges into the grounds of Buckingham Palace before he was arrested last night.

The palace was on lockdown yesterday after the Metropolitan Police detained the man at about 7pm after he approached the gates in central London and threw a number of items. He is being held on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon after a knife was found, the force said.

Though neither the King nor Queen were in residence at the time, Camilla's grandchildren had been seen arriving at Buckingham Palace hours before - while Charles himself had held an audience with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier in the day.

Police carried out a precautionary controlled explosion which could be heard live on GB News, while cordons were put up in the area. Scotland Yard is not treating the incident as terror-related, and it understood it is being treated as an isolated mental health incident.

This is the moment police arrest a man who 'threw shotgun cartridges' into the grounds of Buckingham Palace. He was detained on suspicion of possessing a weapon. Witnesses say the suspect had stationed himself outside the palace over the 'last few nights' and was heard shouting: 'I'm going to kill the King'

Police carried out a controlled explosion on the suspect's bag as a precaution. Officers are pictured at the scene, by the bag

Police officers keep guard near to Trafalgar Square ahead of King Charles' Coronation

The bag held two passports, a phone, wallet, keys, bank cards, laptop case, picture of a child, and a large brown letter, according to The Sun. There was also a copy of the book The Happiness Advantage by Harvard lecturer Shawn Achor.

Minister Tom Tugendhat this morning appeared to play down concerns about the scare and insisted 'we are in no way complacent' about the security challenge posed by the Coronation on Saturday.

He told Times Radio: 'The police are, to put it mildly, all over it, and our intelligence and other security forces are extremely aware of the challenge that we face. What we've been planning for a number of months now is one of the most important security operations that the country has put into plan.'

The arrest comes as a ring of steel is expected in the capital for the Coronation at Westminster Abbey.

Former head of Royal Protection Dai Davies said the Coronation represents a far greater security risk to the Royals, visiting dignitaries and members of the public.

You can never drop your guard as far as the royals are concerned, he said.

Of course, for hundreds of years you might expect protesters at events such as this but never before have activists been able to organise on the scale of groups such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.

There are considerable groups that pose a threat. Often it is the lone wolf that wants publicity. This incident indicates that the police are on full alert.

Witnesses said the man was seen throwing a 'number of items' in the residence grounds before he was arrested.

Footage shows how the handcuffed suspect hung his head as officers took him into custody. Police later carried out a controlled explosion on a suspicious bag as a precaution.

Police stand guard outside Buckingham Palace after a man was arrested on suspicion of possessing a weapon

Tom Tugendhat said he is proud of the preparation for the Coronation from the police and intelligence service

A witness told The Sun that the suspect had stationed himself outside the palace over the 'last few nights' and was heard shouting: 'I'm going to kill the King.'

Police cordoned off the area outside the palace after the suspect began targeting the royal residence.

Met Police chief superintendent Joseph McDonald said officers 'worked immediately to detain the man' - who is currently in custody.

A witness alleged that officers 'jumped' on the man 'as soon as he placed the bag on the ground'.

'They were shouting at him 'get down on the floor,'' the witness told The Sun, adding that it was 'astonishing' that the man was even able to get that close to the Palace with the Coronation just days away.

Royal super fans who are camped along The Mall told MailOnline they were shocked after the 'big bang' from the controlled explosion went off at Buckingham Palace.

While none saw the incident, many remarked they had heard a bang that sounded like a 'gunshot' as authorities detonated the suspected shotgun cartridges thrown over the fence.

Mary-Jane Willows, who has camped out at multiple royal events including the Diamond Jubilee, said: 'The police threw a cordon up and there was a bang.'

But she added that royal super fans wouldn't let the person responsible ruin their fun and he would be quickly forgotten when the event got closer.

Police say they are not currently treating the incident as terror-related. It is understood it is being treated as an isolated mental health incident. Officers are pictured at the scene

Troops were seen rehearsing for the upcoming Coronation while the incident unfolded

The Metropolitan Police said officers arrested a man around 7pm last night after he approached the Palace gates

'Let's rub him away and forget about him', she said.

One passerby remarked it was worrying, but the police had acted swiftly. The person, who asked to remain anonymous, said: 'It's concerning that someone would do something like this. Why would you want to do that? Everyone's so excited about Saturday, it's a shame someone wants to ruin that.

'But the police seemed to have it under control, we didn't know anything had happened until the big explosion.'

A controlled explosion was heard on live TV as police investigate suspicious bag at Buckingham Palace. Jacog Rees-Mogg was presenting at the time

A general view of Buckingham Palace after a man was arrested and a subsequent controlled explosion was carried out

The scene near Buckingham Palace after a man was arrested after throwing items suspected to be shotgun cartridges into the grounds of the Palace

Buckingham Palace confirmed the King and Queen were not in residence when the incident occurred. But a Royal spokesperson would not answer whether any other relatives or family members were there when it unfolded

An ambulance is pictured at Buckingham Palace after a man threw suspected shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds

Officers guard the gates outside the royal residence after a man was arrested on suspicion of possessing weapon

A controlled explosion was conducted as a precaution, Scotland Yard said, and the detonation was heard live on GB News.

The items thrown into the palace grounds 'have been recovered and will be taken for specialist examination', the Met said.

There were no reports of any shots fired, or any injuries to officers or members of the public.

'Officers remain at the scene and further inquiries are ongoing,' added Mr McDonald.

Police say they are not currently treating the incident as terror-related. It is understood it is being treated as an isolated mental health incident

Police are seen outside the palace gates after the incident

Officers had detained the man and taken him into custody. Cordons had been put in place after the man was found to have a suspicious bag

MP Jacob Rees-Mogg was presenting from the palace for GB News while police carried out the controlled explosion.

The politician told MailOnline that he arrived at Buckingham Palace around 7.20pm, after the man had already been arrested.

'It was all a bit odd,' Mr Rees-Mogg recalled. 'It wasn't closed off yet.'

The MP, who was evacuated as the incident unfolded, added: 'It wasn't much at all. We could've carried on broadcasting rather than evacuating.'

Mr Rees-Mogg said that despite the incident, he has no safety concerns for the upcoming Coronation festivities.

Noting how the suspect 'wasn't near the King,' Mr Rees-Mogg stated: 'An event with millions of people poses some element of risk. The question is getting the balance right.'

He said the 'key to this is not to overreact' and believes the risk posed with the Coronation is 'proportionate to scale of event'.

Buckingham Palace is on lockdown after a man threw suspected shotgun cartridges on the ground outside the royal residence - just days from Charles' coronation

Police added that the objects were recovered, and that the man is now in custody after he was also found to be in possession of a 'suspicious bag'

Officers stand guard near Buckingham Palace after a man threw a number of items - suspected to be shotgun cartridges - into the palace grounds

Officers are pictured outside Buckingham Palace after a man approached the palace's gates in central London and threw a number of items

The arrest comes as police and security services prepare for King Charles' coronation on Saturday, which is expected to see large crowds line the streets of London and heads of state from around the world attend the formal coronation ceremony.

Royal fans were also starting to set up camp along The Mall to ensure front-row seats of the historic event this weekend.

More than a dozen brave souls have set up tents and makeshift accommodation at the barriers days before thousands of people are expected to line the streets for the Coronation.

A jovial atmosphere has sprung up among the group, but this was punctured by the explosion.

Policing minister Chris Philp has said a ring of steel is expected in the capital for Charles's coronation at Westminster Abbey on Saturday.

He described it as a 'huge policing operation', and heads of state and foreign royals from around the world are set to travel to the UK.

More than a dozen brave souls have set up tents and makeshift accommodation at the barriers outside Buckingham Palace (pictured) days before thousands of people are expected to line the streets for the Coronation

Members of the military march near Buckingham Palace in central London on Tuesday during a rehearsal for the coronation of King Charles III

Members of a military band march along the Mall near Buckingham Palace during a rehearsal for the coronation of King Charles III which will take place at Westminster Abbey on May 6

Royal fans were also starting to set up camp along The Mall to ensure front-row seats of the historic event this weekend. Members of the military march are pictured above

In February, Jaswant Singh Chail, then 21, admitted a charge under the Treason Act of trying to harm the late Queen.

He was caught in the grounds of Windsor Castle with a loaded crossbow on Christmas Day 2021, close to the late Queen's private residence, where she and other members of the royal family were at the time.

The former supermarket worker had scaled the perimeter of the grounds with a nylon rope ladder at around 6am - wearing black clothes, gloves and a metal mask - and later told an officer: 'I'm here to kill the Queen.'Chail, from Southampton, Hampshire, appeared at the Old Bailey by video link in February and pleaded guilty to three charges, including an offence under the Treason Act.

He also admitted to making a threat to kill the Queen and having a loaded crossbow in a public place.
An extremist European anti-LGBTQI group is now expanding into Australia with a position currently on offer for a 'campaigns director' Down Under.

CitizenGO, founded in Madrid in 2013, describes itself as a 'community of active citizens who work together to defend and promote life, family, and liberty'.

The group claims to 'influence institutions, governments and organisations' in 50 different countries, and is now hoping someone in Australia will join the team.

The organisation is known for regularly campaigning against the LGBTQI+ community and peddling anti-gay rhetoric.

The group regularly campaigns against LGBTQI groups and is anti-abortion (pictured revellers at Sydney's Mardi Gras parade)

The job description for Campaigns Director says the applicant will organise rallies, stunts, advertisements as well as coordinating campaign strategies on social media.

'This is an exciting position at the heart of one of the most innovative and promising advocacy and mobilisation organisations in the world today,' the listing says.

'It offers a unique platform from which to help develop and pursue large scale social change efforts.'

CitizenGO claims it has more than 17 million 'active citizens' across the globe who 'stop radical lobbies from imposing their gender on society'.

It was founded by far-right Catholic conservative group HazteOir and has links to Russia - with the latest job opening causing concern.

The controversial group is pro-life and regularly shares petitions asking members to vote against abortion schemes.

One of their latest petitions calls on people to boycott Nike, following the activewear brand's advertisement featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Another petition took aim at LGBTQI group Educate and Celebrate, which educates school children about gender identity and sexual orientation.

CitizenGO described it as a 'controversial group' that is 'responsible for promoting materials such as the "Gender Unicorn" to teach a completely unscientific view of sex and gender'.

Extremist European anti-LGBTQI group CitizenGo is now expanding into Australia with a position currently on offer for a 'campaigns director' Down Under

The organisation is also sternly against Disney holding a pride concert, which will feature some of its classic songs performed by the San Francisco Gay Men's Choir.

'Disney has become a twisted and predatory servant of the radical left and the LGBTQ agenda,' CitizenGO said.

In December last year, the group's Twitter account was suspended after sharing a photo where it accused LGBT groups of 'normalising peadophilia'.

The group also calls on members to reject any moves to legalise assisted dying.

Daily Mail Australia contacted CitizenGo for comment.
RAF fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a Russian spy plane near UK airspace last weekend.

The anti-submarine aircraft Tu-142, also known as a Bear-F, was detected over the Norwegian Sea and North Atlantic Ocean north of Scotland on Sunday.

Jets were scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth to shadow the plane and Norwegian F-35A fighter jets were also launched to monitor it as part of a Nato response.

The aircraft did not enter UK airspace, the RAF said. It comes as tensions between Russia and the West continue to simmer following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Pictures show the moment Royal Air Force Typhoon jets intercepted a Russian spy plane operating near to UK airspace

The Russian aircraft was identified as a Tu-142 - also known as a Bear-F - and was detected flying over the Norwegian Sea and North Atlantic Ocean

The Typhoons shadowed the Russian aircraft closely while keeping an eye on their movements.

An RAF spokesperson said air-to-air refuelling support was provided by RAF Brize Norton, and RAF High Wycombe. RAF Boulmer also assisted with the operation. Bear planes are used in anti-submarine and maritime patrol missions.

An RAF Typhoon pilot said the operation 'demonstrated the close working relationships we have with our Nato colleagues'.

They added: 'After scrambling to intercept the Russian aircraft, we were in close contact with RAF Battlespace Managers, who directed us towards the aircraft and relayed orders throughout. Ensuring we could confirm where they were and what they were doing at all times.'

Quick Reaction Alert procedures involve the RAF holding aircraft and crews at continuous high readiness to take off within minutes and intercept unidentified aircraft flying in the UK's area of interest to protect UK sovereign airspace if required.

British and German warplanes were scrambled to intercept two Russian jets and a spy plane last week, after they were close to encroaching on Nato airspace over the Baltic Sea.

Germany and Britain sent Eurofighter jets to identify the two Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft (pictured)

British and German warplanes intercepted two Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft (pictured)

On April 25, The UK and Germany sent Eurofighter Typhoon jets from Amari Air Base in Estonia to identify the two Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft escorting an Ilyushin Il-20 Coot-A intelligence plane, the RAF said.

The Russian jets and spy plane were flying over the Baltic Sea close to Estonian airspace when they were intercepted.

'RAF and German Air Force Typhoon fighters scrambled together from Amari Air Base in Estonia yesterday against unidentified aircraft over the Baltic Sea close to Estonian airspace,' a RAF spokesperson told MailOnline.

'The aircraft, operating as part of Nato's Baltic Air Policing (BAP) Mission intercepted a Russian military IL-20 jet that was being escorted by two Sukhoi Su-27 Flankers.'

The Ilyushin Il-20 Coot-A intelligence planes are designed to soak up enemy communications and signals for analysis.
The UK court will sentence Mr Ekweremadu, his wife and a doctor on 5 May following their conviction in March.

The House of Representatives has asked the government of the United Kingdom and the court in that country to temper justice with mercy in sentencing Ike Ekweremadu, a Nigerian senator, found guilty in March of "organ trafficking".

The resolution was a sequel to a motion of urgent public importance moved by Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu) on Tuesday during plenary.

The House resolved to urge the government of the UK and the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing Mr Ekweremadu, a former deputy senate president, his wife and their doctor.

It also urged the Nigerian government to take all diplomatic steps and other necessary interventions regarding the travails of the Ekweremadu family.

Background

Mr Ekweremadu, the senator representing Enugu West Senatorial District, was arrested and charged by MET Police last June for conspiracy to traffic a man, whose name was later revealed to David Nwamini (Ukpo), to the UK for the purpose of harvesting his organ to treat his ailing daughter.

He was arraigned alongside his wife, Beatrice and a Nigerian doctor.

The trio had argued that the man willingly agreed to donate one of his kidneys to the sick daughter. But they were found guilty in March by the Westminster Magistrate Court in what has been described as the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act. They will be sentenced on 5 May but face up to 10 years in jail.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Nwamini was not a minor, based on the details provided by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and Westminster Magistrate Court last June.

The motion

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Moving the motion, Mr Okechukwu, who is a close ally of Mr Ekweremadu, said there is a need for clemency based on public service.

He noted that the House must take "Cognizant of the predicaments of Ekweremadu's ailing daughter, who needs the financial support and parental love of her parents to scale through her dire health challenge."

Mr Okechukwu added that "it is a common practice in international relations for nations, including the UK, to seek relief for their citizens involved in situations such as that of the Ekweremadus."

Speaking in support of the motion, Jide Jimoh (APC, Lagos), said Mr Ekweremadu has served the nation meritoriously, hence, the country should come to his aid.

"He has served this country meritoriously with a very good record.

"It is only God that is merciful. We are calling on the UK government to be merciful in this situation to ensure the lawmaker is not jailed," he said.

Before ruling on the motion, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila said the charges against Mr Ekweremadu are a departure from the character of the man he has known for 24 years.

"It was a terrible shock. It is a far departure from the character of a man I have known for 24 years," he said.

Mr Gbajabiamila promised to write to the relevant bodies in respect of Mr Ekweremadu.
An oil storage depot in Russia exploded today after a drone attack thought to have been orchestrated by Ukraine.

A tank containing tons of fuel erupted into flames at around 2am at a port near Volna village on the Black Sea, close to a key bridge linking Russia to the annexed Crimea peninsula.

A plume of smoke was seen rising after dawn from the Taman port in the southern region of Krasnodar. Nobody was wounded in the attack.

Video taken shortly after the strike showed one fuel tank spewing smoke and flames.

A witness said: 'Something exploded at 2am. There was a sound of hissing in the air, and a drone trace in the sky. Now it's burning. Oil or something else is burning.'

Massive oil depot set on fire in the village of Volna, port area of Taman in the south of Russia after a reported Ukrainian drone strike

Spectacular flames erupted at the port at Volna village on the Black Sea

A giant explosion hit an oil storage depot close to the key bridge linking Russia to annexed peninsula Crimea

The strike, the latest in a rising tide of apparent attacks by Ukraine on Russian territory, was only six miles from the Kerch Bridge built by Vladimir Putin linking Krasnodar region to Crimea, which he annexed in 2014.

The bridge, a key lifeline for the Kremlin's grip on the peninsula, has been repaired after a sabotage attack on 8 October 2022.

This morning there were unconfirmed reports that people were being evacuated from homes near the inferno, some hours after the raging fire started.

A report said Russian special services were at the scene.

The suspected Ukrainian drone strike came after saboteurs derailed two Russian freight trains and destroyed power cables with explosive devices in a matter of days.

And today, Russia's FSB security service said it had arrested members of a Ukrainian sabotage network planning a series of attacks in Russian-occupied Crimea, Russian news agencies reported.

'The FSB has broken up the activities of an agent network of Ukrainian military intelligence planning to carry out major sabotage and terrorist attacks in Crimea,' the security service was quoted as saying.

Krasnodar regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said of today's strike: 'A tank with oil products caught fire. The fire was assigned the highest rank of difficulty.

'According to preliminary information, there are no victims or injured. I am keeping the situation under control.

'Fire brigades, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other emergency services were pulled into place.

A suspected Ukrainian drone attack was behind the blast soon after 2am, say reports

A view across the Kerch Strait shows a fuel depot on fire near the Crimean bridge in the village of Volna in Russia's Krasnodar region as seen from a coastline in Crimea, on Monday

A giant explosion hit an oil storage depot close to the key bridge linking Russia to annexed peninsula Crimea

Spectacular flames erupted from the tank following the suspected Ukrainian drone strike

A huge plume of noxious dark smoke seen rising after dawn from the Taman seaport on Wednesday

Pictured: Firefighters work at at the compound of the JSC Tamanneftegaz in the Volna settlement, Taman peninsula, Krasnodar region, Russia, following the suspected drone attack

Pictured: Fire fighters work at at the compound of the JSC Tamanneftegaz in the Volna settlement, Taman peninsula, Krasnodar region, Russia, following the suspected drone attack

A view across the Kerch Strait shows smoke rising above a fuel depot near the Crimean bridge in the village of Volna in Russia's Krasnodar region as seen from a coastline in Crimea on Wednesday

'Every effort is made to prevent the fire from spreading further. There is no threat to residents of the village.'

The fire began after a drone - believed to be from Ukraine - dropped explosives into one of the fuel tanks, according to Pro-Kremlin Russian outlet Readovka - despite the site being some 170 miles from Ukrainian territory.

Witnesses told the news outlet they heard two explosions before the fire erupted, covering almost 13,000 square feet with flames. In the early hours of this morning, 85 firefighters were battling the blaze.

The latest suspected drone attack came a day after a blast hit the Black Sea port village of Vilna, destroying an oil depot.

A day earlier, on Tuesday, saboteurs derailed a freight train transporting 20 oil tankers on the Snezhetskaya-Belye Berega line.

It was carrying oil and fluorosilicic acid as well as lumber, according to reports.

And on Monday, saboteurs again derailed a Russian freight train and destroyed power cables with explosive devices.

The train, carrying oil and construction materials, burst into flames following a detonation on the tracks in the Bryansk region, 37 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Video taken shortly after the attack showed several destroyed carriages ablaze and laying on their side, with dark grey smoke billowing into the air.

Local governor Alexander Bogomaz said the explosive device went off 'on the 136th kilometre' of the railroad between Bryansk and the town of Unecha - a route used for transporting Moscow's military supplies.

A day earlier, on Tuesday, saboteurs derailed a freight train (pictured) transporting 20 oil tankers on the Snezhetskaya-Belye Berega line

A Russian freight train derailed and burst into flames today after an explosive device detonated on the rail tracks just 37 miles from the Ukrainian border on Monday

Video shows several destroyed oil tanker carriages ablaze and laying on their side following the blast, with dark grey smoke billowing into the air on Monday

Russian authorities say the region - which borders both Ukraine and Belarus - has seen multiple attacks by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 14 months since Russia invaded.

Separately, the governor of Russia's Leningrad region near St. Petersburg said a power line had been blown up on Monday and an explosive device found near a second line.

A blast moments after midnight caused the collapse of the main power lines and officials said the attack was sabotage.

Governor Alexander Drozdenko posted photos of destroyed power lines and metal supports near the village of Susanino on his Telegram page on Monday morning.

On Saturday a drone attack led to an explosion and giant fireball at an oil facility in Sevastopol, headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in occupied Crimea.

Separately, the governor of Russia's Leningrad region near St. Petersburg said a power line had been blown up on Monday and an explosive device found near a second line

It comes as Kyiv prepares for a widely expected counter-offensive this spring, with Ukraine building up mechanised brigades with armour supplied by Western allies.

Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks in Russia and on Russian-controlled territory.

But Ukraine's intelligence chief Major-General Kyrylo Budanov has previously said that some incidents in Russia are orchestrated by Ukraine.

'Much of this is no accident,' he said. 'Something is constantly on fire [in Russia].

'Signalling equipment on railways, it lights up several times a day, on various highways constantly for two to three hours, sometimes for five to six hours, traffic gets suspended.

'Clearly it doesn't just happen like this... I would put it this way: money works wonders.'
The editor of the Guardian has written to apologise to the ex-BBC chairman at the centre of an anti-Semitism row over a 'sickening' cartoon in the newspaper.

Katharine Viner has been facing calls to resign over the offensive image which depicted Richard Sharp, who is Jewish, with 'outsized grotesque features'.

She has also agreed to speak to the UK's leading Jewish community body to 'discuss their concerns'.

Guardian editor Katharine Viner has been facing calls to resign over the offensive image

Ex-BBC chairman Richard Sharp (pictured) was depicted with 'outsized grotesque features'

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said yesterday they would also raise 'other examples of questionable output'.

Drawn by cartoonist Martin Rowson, it showed the ex-Goldman Sachs banker carrying a box from the bank stuffed with a squid, Rishi Sunak's head, and what appeared to be gold coins.

Dave Rich, of Jewish charity the Community Security Trust, told the Jewish Chronicle the cartoon 'falls squarely into an anti-Semitic tradition of depicting Jews with outsized grotesque features, often in conjunction with money and power'.

In a 1,000-word statement Mr Rowson, 64, said he felt 'enormous regret, idiocy and deep shame.'

He explained he knew Sharp was Jewish because they both attended the fee-paying Merchant Taylors' school in North London, but insisted that Sharp's Jewishness 'never crossed my mind as I drew him'.

'I was trying to draw him looking silently furious, by implication with Johnson, in the standard caricatural way common to all political cartoons of exaggerating various of his features.

'I thought at the time it was a fairly mild caricature compared with how I'd draw Johnson.'

A Guardian spokesman said the meeting with the Board of Deputies would go ahead, adding Ms Viner had personally written to Mr Sharp to apologise for the cartoon.

Mr Sharp quit as BBC chairman and will leave at the end of June

Discussing The Guardian's cartoon of the former BBC chairman, Stephen Pollard, former editor of the Jewish Chronicle, described it as 'unambiguously antisemitic', adding: 'It takes a lot to shock me. But I still find it genuinely shocking that not a single person looked at this and said, 'No, we can't run this.'

Boris Johnson suggested those responsible at The Guardian for publishing the image should resign. 'Frankly whoever commissioned and printed this has made a far worse mistake than Richard Sharp,' he said. 'They should take his lead.'

Writing on Twitter, award-winning screenwriter Lee Kern also said: 'The Guardian is antisemitic. If a paper can be institutionally racist, it's them.'

Critics also highlighted that the cartoon appeared to feature a bloodied pig's head and Rishi Sunak portrayed as a puppet. Alex Hearn, co-director of Labour Against Antisemitism, said: 'It is extraordinary that so many classic anti-Jewish motifs were squeezed into one cartoon, without The Guardian editors objecting.'

Mr Sharp resigned from his BBC role last week after a report found he broke rules by failing to declare involvement in a 800,000 loan guarantee for Boris Johnson.

The publication of a review by Adam Heppinstall KC found Mr Sharp, who was acting as an adviser in No10, had told Mr Johnson he wanted to be BBC chair before formally applying in November 2020.

The review found both matters amounted to a breach of the Governance Code, but did not challenge Mr Sharp's insistence that mistakes were 'inadvertent'.
'Black magic' has been blamed for the alleged nude rampage by an Australian tradie in a remote Indonesian fishing village.

Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones, 23, from Queensland's Sunshine Coast, faces years in an Indonesian prison and a public caning after he allegedly ran riot while drunk and naked, heaving a motorcycle at a fisherman and assaulting a security guard among others.

He has since been sitting in a tiny 3x3 metre cement cell on the island of Simeulue, off the coast of Sumatra, where the alleged incident happened on Thursday night and has been unable to explain his alleged actions beyond suffering sunstroke.

However, an explanation has been offered by Australian Brian Willy, who lived on the island for eight years.

'When I heard about this guy (Mr Risby-Jones) the first thing that came to my mind was black magic,' Mr Willy told the Courier Mail.

Queenslander Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones (pictured) faces lengthy jail time and a potential public flogging for a drunken rampage on an idyllic Indonesian island

'Black magic is basically poisoning and it sends them crazy, they (local residents) might put it in your coffee or tea.'

'They poison people by making up a potion or something.

'There is lots of black magic going on since after Covid because people think they can make money out of it.'

Belief in black magic is widespread in Indonesia and the sporadic killing of shamans (black magic practitioners) has been reported up until 2017.

Mr Willy said although the region's Islamic beliefs imposed a strict norms of behaviour the island it was also famed for its marijuana.

Since the alleged rampage Mr Risby-Jones as struggled to say what came over him.

'I feel like not myself, like almost possessed,' said while under police guard on Saturday

The small Indonesian island of Simeulue has become a surfing mecca but has strict Islamic laws and codes of behaviour

'It was not a good feeling. I wasn't myself. Normally I'm very nice guy.'

Aceh operates under a Sharia-based legal system, and alcohol consumption is banned.

Police allege he had been drinking vodka in his hotel room at the Moon Beach Resort when he emerged without any clothes just after midnight last Thursday.

Simeulue police chief Senior Commissioner Jatmiko alleged Mr Risby-Jones hit a security guard in the neck, causing him to fall to the ground, as he left the hotel.

He is then alleged to have hit passing motorbike riders on the street, knocking one man to the ground where his bike fell on him causing a serious leg injury.

Angered locals then chased him to the beach where they held him down and tied his arms while police were called.

The fisherman who was alleged assaulted required 50 stitches.

Australian Brian Willy lived on the island of Simeulue for eight years and witnessed a public flogging

Mr Willy said while living on the island in 2000 he witnessed a public flogging, a fate that could lie in store for Mr Risby-Jones who potentially faces 40 lashes with a heavy cane.

'It was a couple that had committed adultery and all the locals were there, even kids,' Mr Willy said recalling the spectacle.

'They were all cheering the guy with his big stick, saying 'yeah, hit her, hit her' and I just thought 'that's so barbaric' you know.

'It disgusted me and I had to walk away.'
Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi has launched legal action against Pauline Hanson over a tweet telling the party's deputy leader to 'pack your bags and p*** off back to Pakistan'.

The tweet from the One Nation leader was in response to comments made by Senator Faruqi following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September.

Ms Faruqi has filed paperwork in the Federal Court, suing Senator Hanson for unlawful offensive behaviour over the comment, and alleging Senator Hanson breached section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act

She is seeking a sum of $150,000 from Senator Hanson to be donated to a not-for-profit or community organisation chosen by her.

Senator Faruqi, who moved to Australia from Pakistan in 1992, also wants Hanson to undertake anti-racism training, and pay legal costs.

Greens deputy leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi (pictured) has launched legal action against Pauline Hanson over comments made in a 2022 tweet

In a statement, Senator Faruqi said she refused 'to let Senator Hanson get away with racist bullying and harassment'.

'I've taken on bullies my whole life. I believe that if you have power to make positive change, you should use it for the benefit of the community,' she wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

In September, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Ms Faruqi tweeted that she 'could not mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples'.

'We are reminded of the urgency of Treaty with First Nations, justice & reparations British colonies and becoming a republic,' she wrote.

The comments drew the ire of Ms Hanson, who hit back in a fiery tweet directed at the Greens Senator.

'You're attitude appalls and disgusts me,' Hanson wrote.

Ms Hanson accused Ms Faruqi of taking 'every advantage' of living in Australia after migrating from overseas, and told her to 'pack your bags and p*** off back to Pakistan'.

Senator Hanson said in a tweet that Senator Faruqi should 'pack your bags and p*** off back to Pakistan'

Last year, the Greens attempted to censure Senator Hanson in the upper house but the motion was amended by the government and opposition to instead condemn all forms of racism.

Senator Hanson refused to back down on her comments and denied she is racist.

Senator Faruqi said she chose to launch proceedings following Hanson's refusal to apologise for the tweet, and her rebuff of conciliation attempts from the Australian Human Rights Commission.

'Senator Hanson has used her decades in the spotlight and immense public platform to spew vicious hate towards people of colour,' Faruqi said.

'She has caused incalculable harm and gotten away with it for far too long. It's time that she was held accountable.'
A dog owner who was shot dead after stabbing two police officers was filmed screaming and threatening other residents over his 'aggressive husky' less than a day before his frenzied attack.

Footage has emerged of the man, who has been named as 52-year-old Sean Ferris, shouting at people about his dog - a husky called Buddy - outside a supermarket in the small town of Crystal Brook, in South Australia's mid north, on Tuesday.

Ferris tells them he is 'sick of a**eholes like you whinging about my dog and causing me trouble'.

Within 24 hours a police officer would be left fighting for his life and another in an induced coma after visiting the man's property over the altercation.

Brevet Sergeant Ian Todd, 53, and Brevet Sergeant Jordan Allely, 32, were stabbed by the man after attending his home for a welfare check at 10.15am on Wednesday.

It is unclear what exactly happened but the officers were left with serious knife wounds before Ferris was shot and killed at the scene.

Sean Ferris, 52, was shot dead after stabbing two police officers who were paying him a visit over a minor altercation the day before involving his dog

Brevet Sergeant Todd sustained life-threatening injuries after being stabbed in the neck, arm and hands, while Brevet Sergeant Allely suffered knife wounds to his right leg and arm.

Both men are in medically-induced comas at Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Ferris had had a few run-ins with the police, having been arrested for refusing to wear a mask in November 2021, according to The Advertiser.

On the same day he was arrested for assault and disorderly behaviour and later charged with hindering police.

Police eventually dropped the assault charge and Ferris pleaded guilty to breaching Covid restrictions, disorderly behaviour and hindering police.

He was ordered to pay costs and had no further penalty imposed after the magistrate took into account the time he had spent in custody following his arrest.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens revealed that the officers were paying Ferris a visit following a 'disturbance' at the local supermarket on Tuesday.

'There was a minor disturbance at the local supermarket in Crystal Brook,' he said.

'The police officers were following up as a result of that incident.'

He later described the incident as 'relatively benign' but said it warranted the police to follow-up.

Brevet Sergeant Jordan Allely suffered stab wounds to his right leg and arm

Brevet Sergeant Ian Todd, the officer in charge of Port Germein, sustained life-threatening critical injuries after being stabbed in the neck, arm and hands

It now appears that the incident was caught on camera by a local resident.

Footage, first published by The Advertiser, shows Ferris yelling at another man outside the Foodland while holding a husky and what appears to be a walking stick.

'You're the one causing me trouble, (unintelligible) try and do your job,' the man can be heard saying, before shouting: 'Leave me alone'.

'I'm sick of a**eholes like you whinging about my dog and causing me trouble  don't tell me what I should do with my life.'

Crystal Brook resident Tom Sawyer witnessed the altercation and said he had heard elsewhere that the man had threatened someone with a knife.

'I heard that in passing today,' he told The Advertiser.

'People would get frustrated with the dog, it would make a lot of noise but I never saw it get aggressive.'

'He was a nice guy whenever I talked to him.

'He'd go down to the shops once a day and then have his lunch under the rotunda  (then) he'd come down again in the afternoon and walk his dog along the trails around town.'

Police said they were responding to a 'high risk incident' in Crystal Brook, in the state's mid north, on Wednesday just after midday (pictured police at the scene in Crystal Brook)

Officers from the Forensic Response Section were seen outside the house in white hazmat suits analysing the crime scene

However, there were multiple reports of him confronting strangers with his walking stick and also threatening to unleash his husky.

Commissioner Stevens said the shocking incident had devastated the tight-knit police community in Crytsal Brook and the surrounding area.

'Ian has a son-in-law who is the officer in charge of Kadina police station, while Jordan's partner is a constable and his father is also a police officer and the officer in charge of Hallett police,' he said.

'So as you can appreciate, there are family members who are directly involved in terms of the impact of this particular incident both as family members and also as police officers.'

The police commissioner also revealed that a local resident had provided aid to one of the injured officers during the incident.

'We're very grateful for that person stepping forward and providing critical support,' Comm Stevens said.

Comm Stevens praised the first responders.

'In all likelihood (ambulance officers') swift actions very likely saved the life of at least one police officer,' he said.

Officers from the Forensic Response Section were seen outside the house in white hazmat suits analysing the crime scene.

Major Crime Detectives and the officers from the Internal Investigation Section were also attending the scene, with police cars lining the streets.

Both officers were flown to Royal Adelaide Hospital in a serious but stable condition and have been placed in induced comas

A local shop owner who did not wish to be identified said Ferris had been in to buy his weekly lotto ticket before the attack occurred.

The shop owner said people had been complaining about the dog for 'some time'.

'It was a very aggressive dog, both in his front yard and when it was tied up out the front of shops in the main street,' they told The Advertiser.

'I actually felt sorry for the dog because it would get quite anxious when it was tied up.'

The shop owner said Ferris had been living in the area for about five years.

'He kept to himself, when he came into the shop he was always very pleasant and polite,' they said.

Another Crystal Brook shop worker called Chloe said she had just served Ferris before the incident unfolded.

'I served him probably just over half an hour before the incident took place  I'm in shock,' she told FIVEaa.

'It was just a normal interaction with him. He has come in the past a few times a bit on edge after a few incidents with his dog but this was just a normal morning and he seemed very happy and we were just chatting about the rain and how it takes him so long to dry his dog because of how big he is.

'Not long after we found out there was a siege down the street where he lived.'

'It was pretty scary and hard to hear  these things don't happen in your small country town very often. We serve him daily, it's not nice to hear.'

Police Association president Mark Carroll said the incident was a reminder of the dangerous of working on the force.

'This is a horrifying reminder of the levels of extreme violence front-line police officers face in the line of duty,' he said.

'Details about this tragic incident are scarce at the moment, but we do know that both officers are badly hurt, and one is in a serious condition in hospital.

'The Police Association is currently providing support to both the impacted officers and their families.'

Premier Peter Malinauskas has been briefed on the incident.

'Our frontline police do an inherently difficult and dangerous job each day when they go to work,' he said.

'They exercise this duty with courage and bravery. My thoughts, and I'm sure those of all members, are with these two officers and their families.'
A list of 111 yellow box junctions where councils want to use new rules allowing them to issue fines was revealed today amid concerns drivers risk unfair fines.

Town hall chiefs have been accused of declaring war on motorists amid concerns over problems with the boxes such as poor visibility and them being too large.

Research commissioned by the RAC has investigated the boxes - which motorists should not enter unless their exit is clear - as councils push for enforcement powers.

Drivers face fines for stopping in the boxes unless they are waiting to turn right. In England outside London, only police forces have the power to punish motorists.

But research by the RAC found that 27 councils have put forward proposals to enforce 111 boxes under legislation introduced by the Government in May last year. If successful, they can issue their own fines, which are up to 160 in London.

 Slide me  NEWCASTLE - A box on the far side of a T-junction at Great North Road and Christon Road causes problems for right-turners (left), while the long box also causes issues for both (right)

LIVERPOOL - The report said there is an unnecessarily large box at Chapel Street and New Quay in Liverpool - because part of the box (highlighted) does not cover a cross movement

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE - This box on Packhorse Road and Station Road in Buckinghamshire is not permitted because it extends beyond a junction (shown in red), according to the report

SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE - The report said there is poor visibility to see where this box ends

OLDHAM: Very large boxes on Manchester Road, Stanley Road and Ashfield Street in OIdham

The RAC said there are issues with 90 per cent of the 111 boxes which are 'likely to lead to drivers being fined unfairly' as it published a major study into them.

Consultations to enforce 111 yellow boxes across 27 councils in England Authority Number of sites Number of boxes Medway Council 4 4 Hertfordshire County Council 2 2 Newcastle City Council 1 2 Bradford City Council 2 2 South Gloucestershire Council 3 12 Gloucestershire County Council 2 2 Devon County Council 2 4 Bath and North East Somerset Council 1 1 Oldham Council 6 7 Manchester City Council 5 5 Liverpool City Council 3 4 Buckinghamshire Council 2 2 Central Bedfordshire Council 1 1 Hampshire County Council 2 2 Kent County Council 1 2 Oxfordshire County Council 2 5 Reading Borough Council 15 17 Surrey County Council 1 2 Trafford Council 2 7 Leeds City Council 2 2 Wokingham Borough Council 1 1 Walsall Council 2 3 Salford City Council 4 4 Herefordshire Council 8 8 Sheffield City Council 3 3 North Northamptonshire Council 4 4 Leicester City Council 3 3 TOTALS 84 111

The council with the highest number of yellow boxes affected is Reading, which has a total of 17 across 15 sites in the Berkshire borough.

That local authority is followed by South Gloucestershire Council which has 12 across three sites; and Herefordshire Council which has eight across eight sites.

Behind those, Trafford Council has seven across two sites, while Oldham Council also has seven but across six sites.

Yellow boxes are used in an attempt to ensure traffic flows smoothly through busy junctions.

Motorists should not enter them unless their exit is clear or they are waiting to turn right.

The RAC said to avoid inadvertently breaking the rules, drivers must be able to clearly see boxes and where they end.

Successful applicant councils will be able to issue penalty charge notices (PCNs) to offending drivers.

On Transport for London's (TfL) red routes, PCNs are 160, reduced to 80 if paid within 14 days.

Chartered engineer Sam Wright was commissioned by the RAC to analyse the 111 boxes which councils have put forward proposals to enforce.

The RAC said there are issues with 90 per cent of the boxes which are 'likely to lead to drivers being fined unfairly'.

Forty boxes were found to pose visibility difficulties such as faded road markings, while 18 extend beyond junctions.

Mr Wright, who was formerly responsible for the design and approval of yellow boxes on TfL's road network, said: 'I haven't seen a single proposal that reviews the visibility of the box from a driver's point of view.

'If you also factor in bad weather, poor light and other vehicles, then the poor visibility situation is exacerbated.

'This is all very concerning, especially as enforcement is carried out via cameras high in the air. Many of the boxes have been around for years, perhaps decades.

'It appears that many authorities have simply assumed that the boxes already on the ground are suitable for enforcement without carrying out a fresh assessment as is recommended in Government guidance.'

HERTFORDSHIRE - A very large box at Adderley Road and The Causeway in Bishop's Stortford

LEEDS - A box on St Peters Street, Duke Street and York Street is said to be too close to signals

HERTFORDSHIRE - This yellow box in Bishop's Stortford is said to be in the wrong location

READING - The report said this box at Eldon Road and Kings Road is unnecessarily large

OLDHAM - Another unnecessarily large box at Hamilton Street and Glodwick Road

READING - Poor visibility to a box at Wokingham Road and London Road in Reading

SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE - Councils want to enforce boxes at roundabouts and gyratories without traffic lights  locations not allowed under the rules. Filton Roundabout is pictured

OLDHAM - This box at Holt Street and Huddersfield Road is said to be too close to the signals

MEDWAY - A faded yellow box at Gibraltar Hill and Maidstone Road in Chatham, Kent

OLDHAM - Unnecessarily large boxes at Manchester Road, Stanley Road and Ashfield Street

MEDWAY - Poor visibility to the yellow boxes at Rock Avenue and Chatham Hill in Chatham

RAC roads spokesman Simon Williams said: 'Fining people can have real financial consequences for those on the receiving end.

'Enforcing yellow boxes means that the driver of a vehicle overhanging a box by any amount for just a moment can get a ticket.

'Yet many drivers end up stopped or trapped in these junctions through no fault of their own.

'It is not only imperative, but a moral duty to ensure that fines are fair, justified and that the appeals process is consistent across the country.

'We urge the Government to carry out an urgent review of its yellow box junction guidance and clarify what is and isn't enforceable.'
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer engaged in brutal clashes about housing today on the eve of crunch local elections.

The leaders faced off at PMQs amid a final push for votes across England - with the results seen as a waypointer for who will be in Downing Street after next year.

Sir Keir savaged Mr Sunak over rising mortgage rates, saying that together with scrapping housebuilding targets was 'killing the dream of home ownership for a generation'.

But the premier shot back that Labour wanted to 'impose top-down housing targets' and would 'concrete over the greenbelt and ride roughshod over local communities'.

Both parties have been engaged in desperate expectation management ahead of the ballot tomorrow, with the Tories playing up predictions that they could lose more than 1,000 seats.

However, MPs are privately more optimistic about limiting gains by Labour and the Lib Dems. Sir Keir's allies have suggested that picking up an extra 400 seats would be a good performance - but experts insist that would be far short of what is needed to win a general election.

Labour HQ is said to have been sending in 'hit squads' to struggling local associations, with tip sheets featuring inspiring quotes from Second World War hero Field Marshall Montgomery.

Rishi Sunak (left) and Keir Starmer (right) faced off at PMQs today on the eve of crunch local elections

Sir Keir savaged Mr Sunak over rising mortgage rates, saying that together with scrapping housebuilding targets was 'killing the dream of home ownership for a generation

A poll by Deltapoll published yesterday suggested Labour's lead has extended from 13 points to 15 points

Sir Keir opened hostilities by asking: 'How many mortgage payers are paying higher rates since the Tory Party crashed the economy last autumn?'

Mr Sunak replied: 'Our record on homeownership is crystal clear - because of our tax cuts, 90 per cent of first-time buyers now don't pay any stamp duty at all.

'Last year, we saw the largest number of people buying their first home in 20 years.

'That is a Conservative Government delivering on people's aspiration to own their own homes.'

Sir Keir said: 'The answer that the Prime Minister avoided giving is 850,000.

'Nearly a million people paying more on their mortgage each month because his party used their money as a casino chip.'

He asked: 'Does the Prime Minister know how many more people will be joining them on higher mortgage rates by the end of this year?'

Mr Sunak replied: 'We know that our plans will deliver lower inflation and lower interest rates, but we know that his plans just mean more debt, and I quote 'year after year after year'.

'Those aren't my words, that is the assessment of the former Labour shadow chancellor.'

Sir Keir responded: 'By the end of this year, nearly two million homeowners counting the cost of the Tories' economic vandalism with every mortgage payment they make.

'It's not just those who already own their home that are counting the cost of Tory recklessness, the average deposit for a first-time buyer is going up to 9,000.'

Mr Sunak replied: 'That's why we've introduced a 95% mortgage guarantee scheme, it's why we're helping people in social housing own their own home through our first homes and our shared home ownership schemes.'

Sir Keir said: '9,000 would take four years, they think it's funny ... roughly the annual bill to heat his swimming pool, but for most people, four more years of scrimping is a hammer blow to their ambitions.

'And now he's kicking them when they're down, because his decision to scrap housing targets is killing the dream of homeownership for a generation. Why doesn't he admit he got it wrong and reverse it?'

Mr Sunak said: 'I promised to put local people in control of new housing and I'm proud that that's what I've delivered within six weeks of becoming Prime Minister.

'Now he wants to impose top-down housing targets, he wants to concrete over the greenbelt and ride roughshod over local communities. Now previously he did say, he's on record as saying, local people, local communities should have more power, more control. Now he's U-turned, just another in a long list of broken promises.'

Sir Keir responded: 'His councillors simply don't want to build the houses local people need, so he's given them a way out.'

He added: 'Why doesn't he stop the excuses, stop blaming everyone else, and just build some houses instead?'

Sir Keir was boosted yesterday by polls showing Labour stretching its advantage.

Redfield & Wilton Strategies research found the party's support running at 45 per cent - up one from a week ago - while the Conservatives were down one on 28 per cent.

In another worrying sign for Mr Sunak, the Lib Dems - hoping to make big gains in the England council contests - were up to 12 per cent.

A separate poll by Deltapoll suggested Labour's lead has extended from 13 points to 15 points.

Although the gap has been narrowing slightly in recent months and Mr Sunak's personal approval ratings have been ticking up, the findings underline the scale of the challenge for the Tories tomorrow.

They will have been encouraged by Sir Keir's woes over appointing Sue Gray as his chief of staff, with a review into whether she broke civil service rules due imminently.

The Labour leader also confirmed yesterday that he is ditching a pledge to scrap tuition fees, admitting it is not affordable.

Experts point out that the measures of success are particularly complicated in these local elections.

Around 90 per cent of the 8,000 seats were last up for grabs four years ago, when Theresa May was struggling to get her Brexit deal through.

But Labour was also failing to make major inroads with an unpopular leader in Jeremy Corbyn.

According to The Times, Labour HQ has dispatched campaign improvement boards (CIBS) to areas including Leicester, Birmingham and Croydon in a bid to boost gains.

Training sessions have apparently included quotes from Field Marshal Montgomery, such as: 'I have no intention of launching our great attack until we are completely ready.'

Keir Starmer has been boosted by a poll showing Labour 17 points ahead of the Tories just two days ahead of crucial local elections

A senior Tory told MailOnline that Downing Street could be happy even if the party loses 800 councillors.

'Labour taking that few seats would be a real problem for Keir,' they said.

Election guru Professor Michael Thrasher told Sky News that Labour should be doing 'far better' than 4000 gains tomorrow.

'I think that's a very modest claim and given two things. Number one is where Labour currently is in the polls - it's at 43 per cent,' he said.

'So again, if you recall, in 2019, we were saying that Labour was on 31 per cent. That's an increase of 12 percentage points on the position four years ago, so they should be doing well, and we think far better than 400 gains.

'Really, that's a very modest swing from the Conservatives to Labour since 2019. They should really be aiming much higher than that, given what they need to do to win the next general election.'
This week in royal history saw the births of two royal princesses and the third son of Queen Victoria.

On May 2, 2015, Prince William's daughter Princess Charlotte arrived into the world at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington.

Her birth came 51 years and a day after Princess Margaret's daughter Lady Sarah Chatto was born at Kensington Palace in 1964.

And on May 1, 1850, Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, the seventh of Queen Victoria's ninth children, was born at Buckingham Palace.

On May 2, 1969, the majestic QE2 ocean liner embarked on its maiden voyage to New York, after being launched by the Queen at Southampton two years earlier.

Birth of Princess Charlotte - May 2, 2015

When she was born, Princess Charlotte, the second child and only daughter of the Prince and Princess of Wales, weight 8lb 3oz

When she was born, Princess Charlotte, the second child and only daughter of the Prince and Princess of Wales, weight 8lb 3oz.

Thanks to the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, Charlotte became the first British princess not to be overtaken in the line of succession by her younger brother Prince Louis, when he was born in 2018.

The Princess's full name, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, was a touching nod to both her grandfather, grandmother and great-grandmother.

In line with royal tradition, Prince William and Kate showed off Charlotte to the world outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital.

A picture released to mark Charlotte's eighth birthday this week showed her cuddling up to the family dog, Orla.

Whilst the Princess of Wales has taken many family photographs that have been shown to the public, this image captured by professional Millie Pilkington.

The Princess's full name, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, was a touching nod to both her grandfather, grandmother and great-grandmother. Above: Newborn Charlotte being held by her mother; a new photo of the Princess released this week to mark her eighth birthday

Birth of Princess Margarets daughter, Lady Sarah Chatto - May 1, 1964

When she was born at Kensington Palace on May 1, 1964, Lady Sarah was seventh in the line of succession.

Weighing 6lb and 2oz, she was the first direct descendant of a sovereign in 145 years - since Queen Victoria's birth in 1819 - to have been born at Kensington Palace.

Her father, Anthony Armstrong-Jones, was not present for the birth but arrived an hour afterwards. Beaming, he then told the press: 'She's a super baby'.

Sarah was two-and-a-half years younger than her brother, David Armstrong-Jones.

When she was born at Kensington Palace on May 1, 1964, Princess Margaret's daughter Lady Sarah was seventh in the line of succession. Above: Newborn Sarah is seen with her mother, father Lord Snowden and brother David

The Daily Mail's coverage of the birth of Lady Sarah told of a visit from the Queen Mother

Her grandmothers - the Queen Mother and Lady Rosse - were among the first relatives to see her.

Other family visitors included the Queen and Angus Ogilvy, the husband of Princess Alexandra, Margaret's cousin.

Lady Sarah was the fourth royal baby of the year, after the births of the Queen's youngest son, Prince Edward, Princess Alexandra's son James, and the Duchess of Kent's daughter Lady Helen Taylor.

Lady Sarah, now 59, is not a working royal but is regularly seen at family events and is expected to be at the King's Coronation on Saturday.

Lady Sarah is seen with her aunt the Queen and grandmother the Queen Mother at the Badminton Horse Trials in 1976

Lady Sarah Chatto attends a private party to celebrate the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II at the Ritz Hotel on December 5, 2006

Lady Sarah is seen with Prince Harry attending the Royal Family's Christmas Day church service at Sandringham in 2015

Birth of Prince Arthur, Queen Victoria's third son - May 1, 1850

Queen Victoria's seventh child and third son, Prince Arthur, was born on May 1, 1850.

Her Majesty wrote in her journal: 'The child is dear, dearer than any of the others put together, the dearest and most precious object to me on earth.'

Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, went on to marry Princess Luise Margarete of Prussia. They had three children together.

Queen Victoria's seventh child and third son, Prince Arthur, was born on May 1, 1850. Above: The youngster is seen posing for a photo in 1854

In 1911, Arthur was appointed the Governor-General of Canada, the first member of the Royal Family to hold the position.

The move was made in the hope of strengthening links between the monarchy and Canada.

He retired from public life in 1928 but retained an interest in military matters until his death aged 91 in January 1942, after the Second World War had been raging for more than two years.

Arthur retired from public life in 1928 but retained an interest in military matters until his death aged 91 in January 1942, after the Second World War had been raging for more than two years

Japan's Naruhito ascends the throne after abdication of his father Akihito - May 1, 2019

On May 1, 2019, Japan's Emperor Naruhito ascended the throne after the abdication of his father, Akihito.

Akihito's decision to give up his crown was put down to his advancing years and failing health.

The former emperor, now 89, is still seen in public with his wife, Michiko, and wider family.

In 1953, when he was Japan's Crown Prince, Akihito - then aged just 19 - was among the foreign guests at the Queen's Coronation.

On May 1, 2019, Japan's Emperor Naruhito ascended the throne after the abdication of his father, Akihito. Above: Naruhito is seen with his wife Masako at their first audience after his accession

Japan's Emperor Akihito waves to well-wishers during a public appearance for New Year celebrations at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Japan, January 2, 2019

The current emperor studied English at Oxford University.

During his time in the UK, Naruhito went on a jaunt to the Scottish Highlands to search for the Loch Ness monster and climb Ben Nevis, the UK's highest mountain.

He also had tea with the Queen and was shocked to discover that she poured her own tea and served the sandwiches herself.

Naruhito and his wife Masako will not be at the Coronation but will be represented at the ceremony by Crown Prince Fumihito and his wife Princess Kiko.

British liner Queen Elizabeth II leaves Southampton on maiden voyage to New York - May 2, 1969

The Queen Elizabeth 2, better known simply as the QE2, embarked on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on May 2, 1969.

The Queen Elizabeth 2, better known simply as the QE2, embarked on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on May 2, 1969. Above: The ship is welcomed into New York

The 70,000-tonne ship, which was the last of the great traditional ocean liners, took four days, 16 hours and 35 minutes to cross the Atlantic.

Other royal anniversaries this week King Charles I surrenders in Scotland - May 5, 1646 Act of Union joining Kingdoms of England and Scotland comes into force - May 1, 1707 Birth of Catherine the Great - May 2, 1729 King Edward VII of Great Britain visits Paris - May 1, 1903 Death of John Campbell, husband of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Louise - May 2, 1914 Hussein I installed as King of Jordan after regency period - May 2, 1953 Faisal II installed as King of Iraq after regency period - May 2, 1953 Advertisement

The 963ft long and 171ft high ship was the first British liner to offer ensuite facilities in every cabin and to site restaurants high up with panoramic views of the ocean.

The vessel's maiden voyage came just over 18 months after it had been launched by the Queen in front of a crowd of 30,000 people at the Clyde shipyard in Scotland.

She used the same pair of golden scissors that her mother had used to launch the Queen Elizabeth and her grandmother used to launch the Queen Mary.

The naming of the ship proved controversial, with many Scottish nationalists upset that it paid homage to Her Majesty.

The ship sailed 4,648,050 miles in her first three decades of service.

She was said to get through 19 tons of lobster a year, along with more than 12,000 gallons of champagne and one ton of caviar.

Each day, her passengers consumed 2,500 tea bags. Whenever she docked, 575lb of coffee and 15,000 cocktail stirrers were picked up.

In 1982, the QE2 was used to carry 3,000 troops to the Falklands War. With them were 650 crew who had volunteered for the task.

In 1995, the vessel was hit by a freak 95 wave caused by Hurricane Luis, an incident which damaged part of the superstructure.

After she was retired in 2008, plans were announced to turn the ship into a floating hotel in Dubai.

The project was completed in 2018. The vessel now boasts 447 rooms and suites, a gym and indoor pool, restaurants and a theatre.

The vessel's maiden voyage came just over 18 months after it had been launched by the Queen in front of a crowd of 30,000 people at the Clyde shipyard in Scotland
A woman who was savagely beaten and smeared with dog faeces by her ex-partner in a six-hour ordeal managed to escape after mouthing five words to a quick-thinking taxi driver.

Mother-of-two Rosie Frankish, 26, of Warrington, Cheshire, was locked in an abusive relationship with Daniel Little, 33, who refused to let her to move on with her life when she tried to split up.

Little had just been released from police custody for attacking a stranger when he turned up at Miss Frankish's home late one night in December last year, banging on her door and demanding to be let in.

Once inside, he grabbed her by the throat and subjected her to six hours of repeated punches, kicks and slaps as he blamed her for everything wrong in his life.

Miss Frankish said: 'He was telling me it was all my fault, that I had taken away his family, and I would have to pay for it. I knew the attack was coming. His eyes were completely dead. I had no way of getting through to him.'

Rosie Frankish, 26, of Warrington, Cheshire, was left with a black eye and covered in bruises after a brutal attack by her ex-boyfriend Daniel Little, 33, in December last year

Miss Frankish says her relationship with Little (left) became controlling and abusive while she was pregnant with her second child

She said that when her frightened dog defecated inside the house because the doors were bolted shut, Little smeared the faeces in her face, grinding it into her cheeks and hair with a towel.

Obsessed Little even forced Miss Frankish to sit on a toilet seat while he ran himself a bath, determined not to let her out of his sight.

Eventually, after he decided he needed to return to his home to get some clothes, he dragged Miss Frankish - who was still in her pyjamas and covered in dog faeces - into the back of the taxi.

She said: 'The taxi ride lasted only around ten minutes, but it felt like forever. My mind was racing with possibilities, I thought about throwing myself out on to the road, or screaming out of the windows for help.'

However, she saw her chance when Little got out first, telling the cabbie as soon as her abuser was out of the car: 'Please drive. Just go. Now.'

She added: 'As he drove off, Daniel was grabbing the door, trying to get back in. I only just got away. I want every woman out there to see his face and know what he is capable of.'

Miss Frankish said she thought Little was going to kill her that night and she was left with bruises for weeks after the attack.

Last week, Little was jailed for three years and seven months at Liverpool Crown Court after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm and false imprisonment.

Little was jailed for three years and seven months after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm and false imprisonment

Miss Frankish (pictured with Little during their relationship) was abused by her former partner for years, before a brutal attack last December which lasted for six hours

Miss Frankish said she met her former partner seven and a half years ago while pregnant with her first child and facing the prospect of being a single parent.

She described him as 'lovely, very jokey and confident' in the early days of their relationship and he was supportive and loving when her baby was born.

After setting up a home, the couple had a child together the following year. But it was during her second pregnancy that Miss Frankish said Little began to abuse her.

She said: 'I was three months pregnant when he grabbed my hair in an argument.'

Despite this, Miss Frankish said she was determined to stay with Little for the sake of her children - even as he became increasingly controlling and violent - forcing her to hand over her phone and keys once she was at home.

In 2020, the couple split up and two years later, she heard from Little again as he pleaded to see the children.

Hesitantly, Miss Frankish agreed to them going on days out with him and says the arrangement worked well at first.

But she took a step back once he became 'possessive and controlling' again - telling him he could only see the children in supervised visits with another adult present.

Little is said to have taken the news badly and his behaviour deteriorated, eventually leading to his arrest for attacking a stranger in December 2022.

Upon being released, he immediately went to the address where Miss Frankish and the children were living.

Miss Frankish was taken to hospital with severe cuts and bruises, including a black eye, reduced hearing in her left ear, a 10cm bruise over her shoulder to her elbow, a 5cm bruise over her chest, and swelling to her head and scalp

Miss Frankish displays the bruises she suffered in the sickening attack at the hands of ex Little

She says she is now determined to create a new life with her children

In her impact statement, Miss Frankish (pictured) told the court: 'Psychologically this has affected me. I cannot sleep properly'

After letting him in, Miss Frankish says he gripped her throat and threw her against the fridge freezer before dragging her upstairs where his attack continued.

In between blows, she said he made her hug him and he promised not to hit her any more, before resuming the attack 'like it was all part of some sick game'.

It wasn't until six hours later that Little decided he needed to collect some clothes and called the taxi. When he got out of the vehicle to light a cigarette, Miss Frankish saw a chance to get away.

She says: 'I knew Daniel was looking at me, expecting me to get out after him, so I said very quietly, without moving my face, "Please drive. Just go. Now".

'The cab driver said, "Where do you want me to go?", and I saw Daniel's hand reach for the door handle. It was like it happened in slow motion.

'I yelled and the driver just put his foot down and we were off. I couldn't believe it was over. He took me to the police station and I got help.'

Miss Frankish was taken to hospital with severe cuts and bruises, including a black eye, reduced hearing in her left ear, a 10cm bruise over her shoulder to her elbow, a 5cm bruise over her chest, and swelling to her head and scalp.

Officers arrested Little shortly afterwards.

Last week he appeared at Liverpool Crown Court and admitted assaults and false imprisonment.

In her impact statement, Miss Frankish told the court: 'Psychologically this has affected me. I cannot sleep properly.

'I feel like I cannot talk to anyone but my family. I feel vulnerable as a result.

'When I close my eyes, I can see his face from that night. I used to love being on my own but now I cannot do that.'

In mitigation, the court heard Little was 'deeply ashamed' of his behaviour.

His barrister said: 'He accepts that he needs to be in prison. He knows he must be punished.'

Little has a lengthy record of 17 previous convictions for 34 offences, including violence.

Concluding, recorder Michael Blakey described the attack as a 'prolonged and persistent assault'.

'There is serious psychological harm. You humiliated that lady,' he said.

Little was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison, of which he will serve half before being released on licence.

Miss Frankish said: 'I think his sentence should have been much longer. He could have killed me that night, and perhaps he would have if it wasn't for the taxi ride.

'I feel deeply traumatised by what he did.

'It was Daniel's aim to ruin me, but that won't happen. I won't let him win. I'm building a new life for me and my children, and our love is far stronger than his hatred.'
Mr Buhari applauded Mr Osinbajo's dedication to service especially in catering for the interest of the masses.

President Muhammadu Buhari has described Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as a dedicated and loyal compatriot with a passionate desire for the development of Nigeria.

Mr Buhari was part of other distinguished Nigerians that extolled the qualities of Mr Osinbajo at the public presentation of a book in the vice president's honour.

The president spoke on Monday at the virtual unveiling of a book titled "Osinbajo Strides: Defining Moments of An Innovative Leader" written in honour of the vice president by a team of 25 journalists under the auspices of PYO COLLECTIVE.

Mr Buhari, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, applauded Mr Osinbajo's dedication to service especially in catering for the interest of the masses.

He thanked Mr Osinbajo for his selflessness and passion for excellence in the execution of tasks assigned to his office, acknowledging all of his visits to the different parts of the country to identify with the common people.

"One thing that is admirable about the vice president is his passion for excellence in everything that he is involved with.

"Besides all of his official engagements as vice president, we all saw this attribute exhibited by him right from the campaigns, how he ensured that the right things were done," he said.

In his remarks, Mr Osinbajo said he felt honoured to be celebrated in such a manner.

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The vice president commended former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, for his belief in a better Nigeria.

Mr Osinbajo commended the elder statesman's impact and influence in major decisions particularly with regards to uniting Nigerians and promoting peace across the country.

He also expressed gratitude to state governors and other guests present at the event for their support and cooperation throughout the eight years of his stewardship as vice president.

Other dignitaries who attended the event alongside Mr Gowon, were the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State.

Others were Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau, Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, and the Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State, Musa Akabe.

The former CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi, former Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, literary icon, Chimamanda Adichie, and renowned broadcaster, Kadaria Ahmed, also attended the event.

(NAN)
In Germany, more than 1,000 officers raided dozens of homes, offices and stores

Police arrested more than 100 suspected mobsters thought to belong to the notorious 'Ndrangheta mafia across Europe in the early hours of this morning in a huge crackdown on the feared Italian crime syndicate.

Under the cover of darkness, thousands of police officers across Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Portugal and Spain raided the suspected mobsters' homes as part of an investigation codenamed 'Operation Eureka'.

In Germany, more than 1,000 officers descended on their homes and offices across the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland Palatinate to the east, with more than 20 suspected criminals arrested in the raids.

And in Italy, 1,400 Carabinieri police officers backed by helicopters arrested 108 suspected 'Ndrangheta mobsters in the major operation which saw huge piles of cash, drugs and firearms seized.

The suspects are accused of mafia criminal association; possession, production, and trafficking of drugs and weapons; criminal tax evasion and money laundering.

A police officer gets into a car with a suspected Mafia bombster following his arrest on Wednesday in Hagen, Germany

Seized money is displayed in an unknown location following an operation of the Carabinieri del Ros and the Provincial Command of Reggio Calabria in Italy on Wednesday

Police arrested more than 100 suspects and raided homes early Wednesday across Italy and Germany. Pictured: Guns seized during the raid on Wednesday

Italian and Belgian investigators believe that the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mobsters smuggled close to 25 tonnes of cocaine between October 2019 and January 2022 and funnelled more than 22 million euros (19.4 million) from Calabria to Belgium, the Netherlands and South America.

The 'Ndrangheta has now surpassed Cosa Nostra as the most powerful mafia group in the country, and one of the largest criminal networks in the world.

Italy's Carabinieri police carried out 108 arrests across the country in an investigation based in the southern city of Reggio Calabria, they said in a statement. A further 15 people were detained on the orders of police in the northwestern port of Genoa.

In Belgium, police raided more than 20 addresses, prosecutors said, adding they would provide more details at a news conference later in the morning.

Meanwhile, in Germany the main focus of the operation was in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, with around 500 officers deployed in each state. A total of 30 suspects were arrested there who had outstanding warrants.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, 51 houses, apartments, offices and business premises were searched and 15 suspects were arrested.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, police searched 50 premises and arrested 10 suspects.

The task forces in Rhineland-Palatinate were supported by special units of the federal government and other states as well as customs and the tax investigation department, German news agency dpa reported.

Two suspects who were under investigation in the western state of Saarland, were arrested in Italy. Police did not identify them, but said one was 47 years old and the other 25.

A man was arrested in Spain's southern city of Malaga as part of the coordinated investigation, Spanish police said, without giving further details.

The suspects are accused of money laundering, criminal tax evasion, fraud and the smuggling of drugs, mafia-type criminal association, and the possession and trafficking of weapons. Pictured: Seized guns from the raid

European authorities have been waging a campaign against the Calabria-based 'ndrangheta, arguably the world's richest organized crime group, in recent years. Pictured: Seized guns

Police arrested more than 100 suspects and raided homes early Wednesday across Germany and Italy

State police in Bavaria said the arrests were the result of more than three years of an investigation dubbed 'Operation Eureka'. Pictured: Seized money

The 'Ndrangheta, which has its roots in the southern region of Calabria, the toe of Italy's boot, has surpassed Cosa Nostra as the most powerful mafia group in the country, and one of the largest criminal networks in the world. Pictured: Piles of money were seized in the raid

State police in Bavaria said the arrests were the result of more than three years of an investigation dubbed 'Operation Eureka'.

The state interior minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Michael Ebling, called the raids an 'effective blow' against organised crime.

'Today sends out a very clear signal: There is no place for organized crime in Europe and there is certainly no place for it here with us in Rhineland-Palatinate,' he said, according to dpa.

The suspects are accused of money laundering, gang tax evasion, commercial gang fraud, and narcotics smuggling, a statement from the German state office of criminal investigation in North Rhine-Westphalia said.

The raids are part of a wider joint investigation involving Europol and also included simultaneous measures against the group across Europe, the statement said.

European authorities have been waging a campaign against 'Ndrangheta, arguably the world's richest organised crime group, in recent years.

The group has exploited tens of billions of dollars in cocaine revenues over decades to extend its criminal reach across Europe and into several continents as the Sicilian Mafia lost influence.
Vladimir Putin is reportedly preparing a contingency plan in the event that Russia sustains more losses in the war against Ukraine, sources have said.

Russia's presidential administration sent an instruction manual to the Kremlin's team of propagandists, urging not to 'underestimate' Ukraine's planned counter-offensive and not to spread the idea Kyiv is not ready for it.

Ukraine's strategy is thought to focus on the eastern side of the Dnipro River, near Kherson city.

Infiltration of the area is an attempt to dislodge Russian forces from positions they are using to shell Ukraine-held Kherson.

Independent news outlet Meduza - which obtained a copy of the manual - said the aim is to provide Russians with morale regardless of the outcome of the attack.

Vladimir Putin is reportedly preparing a contingency plan in the event that Russia sustains more losses in the war against Ukraine

Rescuers work at the site of a residential area heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine May 3, 2023

'If the offensive is unsuccessful, it will be possible to say: the army [of Russia] skillfully fended off an attack that was superior in power.'

But should the Ukrainian military take back territories and achieve victories 'with the help of weapons from the US and Europe,' then Russia's losses should be 'understandable' as they were up against the 'entire West', the sources said.

Propagandists are advised to use material to show citizens that Russia is upgrading buildings, hospitals and schools in its territory, rather than shooting funds into new ones.

'It's clear there will be problems with the economy, and it's clear why. Spending on the "special military operation" isn't going anywhere,' a source close to Putin said. 'It is better not to show in specific amounts how much was taken [for the new regions].'

It is a rapid turn from last year, when spin doctors tried to convince the population that Russia was on the way to revitalising itself as a grand empire as it takes control of Ukraine.

Ukraine is thought to be mustering up to 100,000 men into at least 12, but even as many as 18 combat brigades to take on the Russians in the upcoming attack.

Their military has been given roughly 200 western tanks, 800 armoured vehicles and 150 artillery guns  a total of up to 400 tanks, 1,600 vehicles and 300 guns are thought to be held.

Ukrainian soldiers pull a Soviet-made 82mm gun-mortar in a truck, as Ukrainian Armed Forces units train for a critical and imminent spring counteroffensive against Russian troops, which invaded 14 months earlier, in the Donbas region, Ukraine, on April 26, 2023

A view across the Kerch Strait shows a fuel depot on fire near the Crimean bridge in the village of Volna in Russia's Krasnodar region as seen from a coastline in Crimea, May 3, 2023

Russia's status is not as clear. Based on leaked casualty figures, Putin could have between 100,000 and 290,000 troops in Ukraine.

The leaks suggest he only has around 500 tanks left on the battlefield, but may be able to rely on more from storage. The number of armoured vehicles and artillery is unclear.

Although Ukraine's plans are being kept very close, Mick Ryan, a general who recently retired from the Australian army, told Mail Online Kyiv has three options.

'First, they could go with a single big attack, using everything they've got; second, they could split that force between simultaneous attacks in the south and east; or third, they could decide on smaller-scale attacks in both the south and east, which are not coordinated.'

General Stephen Twitty, retired from the US military, believes Ukraine will go with option three, which is incremental, slower and more sustainable.

'Ukraine will go with what has worked for them in the past,' he said. 'What the Ukrainians have been successful at doing is small-scale manoeuvres using infantry, armour and artillery, to attack Russian forces in small areas, and gain ground.'

General Ryan himself believes it will be a mixture of options two and three.

It comes as an oil storage depot today exploded close to a bridge linking Russia to its annexed Crimea, following a drone attack thought to be orchestrated by Ukraine.

One tank containing the fuel burst into flames at 2am at a port near Volna village on the Black Sea.

Over the past few days, saboteurs have also derailed two Russian freight trains and destroyed power cables.

Today, Russia's FSB security service said it arrested members of a Ukrainian sabotage network planning attacks in Russian-occupied Crimea, according to Russian news agencies.

'The FSB has broken up the activities of an agent network of Ukrainian military intelligence planning to carry out major sabotage and terrorist attacks in Crimea,' it was quoted as saying.
Ministers pulled out of issuing a critical report into Labour's hiring of the civil servant behind the Partygate investigation after the Cabinet Secretary got 'cold feet', it was claimed today.

The Government had briefed that a damning Cabinet Office report into Sue Gray's decision to join the opposition would be released last night.

But in the end only a brief statement was released by Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, saying Ms Gray had refused to co-operate with the probe.

The Times this morning reported that Mr Case talked ministers out of publishing the full report over legal fears and a lack of basic information due to her non-involvement. One source branded it a 'political gimmick'.

It will now be down to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), to decide whether any restrictions should be placed on Ms Gray over her employment by Sir Keir. She has co-operated fully with its investigation.

Sue Gray, the former senior civil servant who authored the Partygate report, refused to speak to a Whitehall probe into her talks with Labour about becoming Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff

The Times this morning claimed Mr Case talked ministers out of publishing the full report over legal fears and a lack of basic information due to her non-involvement. One branded it 'flimsy'.

The Labour leader has insisted Ms Gray did not break civil service rules and said he was 'confident' the proper process was followed over her prospective move to work for him

A Tory source said last night: 'The fact that Sue Gray is refusing to co-operate tells you all you need to know about this grubby deal. It's like an experienced lawyer has told her to say no comment to every question in a police interview.

'Sir Keir said very clearly in March that Sue Gray would lay out when she entered into talks with Labour. The fact she is refusing to do so means it's time for Starmer to come clean.'

Tory former Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries said: 'Boris Johnson complied with Sue Gray's Partygate probe, but now the spotlight is on her she's lost for words. If she won't explain, Sir Keir Starmer needs to set the record straight.'

Tory MP Mark Jenkinson criticised Ms Gray's approach to the Cabinet Office probe.

'When Sue Gray was in the Propriety and Ethics Team, how might she have reacted to someone who failed to comply with her investigations?' he posted on Twitter.

'What might she have said about Partygate witnesses if they'd declined her offer of a chat?'

But Sir Tony Blair's former chief of staff said the report was a 'political stunt'.

Jonathan Powell, who left the diplomatic service to work for the former prime minister, told BBC Two's Newsnight: 'We were briefed all day yesterday and today it was going to be full of these sins committed by Sue Gray and there's been absolutely nothing in it at all.

'And I'm not surprised she didn't cooperate with it, it's not appropriate at all.

'What she should be cooperating with, and she is, is Acoba, the correct body to apply to in these cases.

'So I think today has really been a complete diversion and the real thing is Acoba.'

Ms Gray was a 'long-standing civil servant who has a very clear grasp of the rules', he said, adding: 'If she says she's applied the rules, I believe her.'

In his statement Mr Dowden revealed how the former senior civil servant chose not to give evidence to the Cabinet Office inquiry.

He pointed towards confidentiality concerns as he admitted he was not yet able to provide 'further information' in the row over Labour's attempt to poach Ms Gray.

He said the Government would consider its 'next steps' and had made 'submissions' to Acoba.

The Deputy Prime Minister only reiterated that the civil service code requires that contacts between senior civil servants and top opposition politicians should be cleared with ministers.

Giving an update on the Cabinet Office probe into Ms Gray's dramatic resignation in March, Mr Dowden wrote: 'I can update the House that Ms Gray was given the opportunity to make representations as part of this process but chose not to do so.

'I hope the House will understand that, in order to maintain confidentiality towards an individual former employee, I am unable at this stage to provide further information relating to the departure of Ms Gray whilst we consider next steps.'

Mr Dowden promised to provide a further update to MPs 'in due course' but suggested, in the meantime, it would be left to Acoba to make a ruling.

'The Cabinet Office has made submissions to Acoba, the independent appointments watchdog, in relation to Ms Gray's application for advice under the Business Appointment Rules, prior to her taking up an appointment as Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition,' he added.

'The Government's confidential assessment is in line with the usual process and Acoba will consider evidence from a range of sources to make a recommendation on any appropriate restrictions on the appointment.

'As set out in the Business Appointment Rules, the aim of the Rules includes avoiding any reasonable concerns that 'a former civil servant might improperly exploit privileged access to contacts in Government or sensitive information.

'The decision on any recommended restrictions on the appointment is for Acoba.'
A 13-year-old boy who has been arrested for killing eight children and a security guard in a school shooting may be too young to face criminal sanctions, prosecutors have revealed.

Kosta Kecmanovic, 13, identified by police as the suspected shooter, opened fire in his classroom at a Belgrade school this morning, Serbian police said.

The baby-faced teenager has now been pictured after he was arrested in the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school yard and led away with his face covered.

The shooter drew up plans for the massacre over a month, making sketches of classrooms which looked like a 'horror movie', Belgrade's police chief, Veselin Milic, revealed.

He was armed with two guns and two petrol bombs and had planned everything meticulously, even compiling a list with the names of children he wanted to kill and their classes, according to Milic.

Terrified students hid under their desks amid 'non-stop shooting' at around 8.40 this morning. Kecmanovic then called police himself when the depraved attack was over.

Kosta Kecmanovic, 13, has been identified by Serbian police as the suspected shooter

Police officers escort a minor, a seventh grade student who is suspected of firing several shots at the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school in Belgrade

Eight children and a guard are now believed to have died in a shooting after a 13-year-old boy opened fire in his classroom

The shooter drew sketches of classrooms and wrote a list of children he planned to 'liquidate' in the school massacre, police said

The local police chief said that Kecmanovic called police himself when the depraved attack was over

Police received a call about the shooting in the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school at around 8.40am, they said in a statement

Terrified parents rushed to the school in the Vracar neighbourhood in central Belgrade

At least eight children and a security guard were killed in the gun rampage and there are fears that the death toll could rise even further, with some sustaining life-threatening injuries.

Seven people were injured, including a teacher, who reports have said is fighting for their life.

The shooter first killed a guard at the school in central Belgrade and then three students in a hallway, according to Milic.

He then entered a classroom - apparently choosing it simply because it was close to the entrance - and opened fire again, Milic said. Body bags have since been brought out of the school to a van outside.

According to Serbian legal provisions, the 13-year-old boy 'is deemed criminally irresponsible, because he has not reached the age of 14', local media has reported.

The boy's father has been detained on suspicion of aggravated endangering of the public safety, it said.

A drawing by the alleged shooter, which was shown to reporters, looked like 'something from a video game or a horror movie,' Milic said, 'which indicates that he planned in detail, by classes, whom to liquidate.'

Most students were able to flee through a back door, according to a local official.

Milan Milosevic, a father of one of the pupils, said his daughter was in the history class where the shooter opened fire 'randomly' at other children as they cowered under their desks.

'She managed to escape,' the father told Serbian TV station N1.

'He [the shooter] fired first at the teacher and then the children who ducked under the desks,' Milosevic quoted his daughter as saying.

A parent breaks down following the massacre in the Serbian capital Belgrade this morning

People embraced outside the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school in Belgrade following the unspeakable tragedy

'They say he [the shooter] was quiet and a good pupil. He recently joined their class.'

Mr Milosevic said that he rushed out to the school when he heard what had happened.

'I asked where is my child but no one could tell me anything at first,' he said. 'Then she called and we found out she was out.'

'I saw the security guard lying under the table. I saw two girls with blood on their shirts,' Mr Milosevic added.

Evgenija, 14, said she knew the suspected gunman, who she said was 'somehow silent... appeared nice and had good grades'.

'[I] did not know much about him, he was not that open to everyone. I would never expect that this could happen,' she told reporters.

'I heard noises and I thought some boys, some kids were throwing firecrackers... But then I saw the security guard falling to the ground,' she said, adding that she then ran away.

Family members were reeling as news of the shooting emerged. Serbia has not seen a school shooting of this scale in decades

Fearful relatives rushed to the elementary school and were seen consoling one another in the aftermath of the massacre

Tributes have begun to be lift outside the school to the nine victims of the shooting

Serbia's Interior Ministry said in an updated statement that eight children and a security guard were killed in the shooting, while six children and one school teacher were wounded.

'All police forces are still on the ground and are intensively working to shed light on all the facts and circumstances that led to this tragedy.'

A student who was in a sports class downstairs when the gunfire erupted said: 'I was able to hear the shooting. It was non-stop.'

The shooting has rocked the Balkan state, which has not seen a mass shooting in a decade

'I didn't know what was happening. We were receiving some messages on the phone.'

The student who heard the violence unfold, identified only by her initials, E.M. because of her age, described the suspect as a 'quiet guy' who 'looked nice.'

'He was having good grades, but we didn't know much about him,' the student added. 'He was not so open with everybody. Surely I wasn't expecting this to happen. '

'I saw kids running out from the school, screaming. Parents came, they were in panic. Later I heard three shots,' a girl who attends a school adjacent to Vladislav Ribnikar (pictured) told state TV

Police have blocked the street around the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia

Milan Nedeljkovic, mayor of the central Vracar district where the school is located, said doctors were fighting to save a teacher's life.

Mr Nedeljkovic said the school's security guard likely prevented more deaths by putting himself in front of the shooter.

The guard 'wanted to prevent the tragedy and he was the first victim,' Nedeljkovic told reporters told journalists live on television outside the school.

'I saw kids running out from the school, screaming. Parents came, they were in panic. Later I heard three shots,' a girl who attends a high school adjacent to Vladislav Ribnikar told state TV RTS.

Police sealed off the blocks around the school, in the center of Belgrade.

Officers in helmets and bulletproof vests cordoned off the area around the school, which is in the Vracar neighbourhood in central Belgrade.

Serbian media have reported that the guard was killed in the shooting. Police gave no other details.

A row of ambulances were pictured parked on Kralja Milutin Street outside the school, the area around which was cordoned off

Terrified parents rushed to the school in the central district of Belgrade to hear news of their children

Local media footage from the scene showed commotion outside the school as police removed the suspect, whose head was covered as officers led him to a car parked in the street.

Casualties are being treated and an investigation into the motives behind the shooting is under way.

Serbia's Interior Ministry said in a statement: 'The police sent all available patrols immediately to the spot and arrested a suspected minor - a seventh grade student who is suspected of firing several shots from his father's gun in the direction of students and school security.'

Minister Bratislav Gasic said the suspect's father has also been arrested

Police sealed off the blocks around the Vladislav Ribnikar school, in the center of Belgrade

Vracar is a wealthy area of the city and a number of embassies are based there.

A row of ambulances were pictured parked on Kralja Milutin Street outside.

Police sealed off the blocks surrounding the school. Primary schools in Serbia have eight grades.

Mass shootings in the country are extremely rare. In the last mass shooting, a Balkan war veteran in 2013 killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.

Experts, however, have repeatedly warned of the number of weapons left over in the country after the wars of the 1990s.

The western Balkans are awash with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons following the unrest there.

Serbian authorities have offered several amnesties for owners to hand in or register illegal guns.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
A republican journalist has triggered outrage after branding Britain's monarchy a 'cartel of some very weird people' that is 'neither fair nor representative'.

Ash Sarkar, senior editor at Novara Media, tore into the Royal Family in her latest controversial broadside against the Firm - just days before King Charles's coronation on Saturday.

The journalist, who previously called for Britain's national anthem to be replaced with a 'grime banger', said young people interested in the 'values of fairness and representation' were increasingly becoming turned off by the royals.

'Whatever way you slice it, the monarchy is neither a fair nor representative institution,' Ms Sarkar told BBC's Newsnight on Tuesday.

'There have been attempts by the Royal Family to strip themselves of some of the mystery, invite the media in and show the public what they really do. And what they've revealed themselves to be is a cartel of some very weird people.'

Ash Sarkar, senior editor at Novara Media, tore into the Royal Family in her latest controversial broadside against the Firm. Ms Sarkar is pictured on BBC Newsnight on Tuesday

Her comments come just days before King Charles's coronation, set to take place on Saturday. His Majesty is pictured on April 14 as he inspects the 200th Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Sovereign's Parade

But the controversial media personality's claims triggered outrage online, with royalists branding her comments as 'nonsense' and a 'load of hot air', with one person saying: 'I have never heard so much rubbish in all my life.'

READ MORE: First glimpse of King Charles' Coronation as stunning images reveal midnight rehearsals in as hundreds of troops march down the Mall Advertisement

Daniel Knowles tweeted: 'As someone on the right, I like hearing from you but this was total nonsense. Expecting the Royal family to behave perfectly is beyond irrational.

'Yes they have flaws and they try to hide them, as do most people. If you remove them, you leave a void. They aren't harming you.'

While others pointed out the value to the nation of having a Royal Family, which contributed 19billion to Britain's economy pre-pandemic, according to Forbes.

'You completely miss the international effects, millions of Americans are only interested in Great Britain because of the Royal family, when that ends their interest ends. Great Britain shrinks on the world stage when that happens,' one person added.

Although there was some support online for the journalist's comments, with one saying 'well done' and another adding she had 'hit the nail squarely on the head over the dysfunctional' Royal Family.

It's not the first time Ms Sarkar has been blasted by Britons for her divisive opinions about the monarchy.

In 2018 she appeared on GMB and sparked outrage when she demanded the national anthem, which at the time was 'God Save The Queen', was replaced by a 'grime banger' by Wiley.

Social media users lashed out at Ms Sarkar online after her latest comments about the Royal Family

Ms Sarkar previously called for Britain's national anthem to be replaced by a 'grime banger' in 2018. She is pictured on Tuesday on Newsnight

Viewers watching at home branded her comments as 'idiotic' on social media, with one accusing her of 'talking utter s***' on Twitter.

And earlier this year, she used a slot on BBC Question Time to launch another attack on the royals, branding them a 'hideous cartel'.

During her latest tongue lashing of the monarchy last night, she claimed social media and 24-hour press coverage had shown some of the Royal Family to be 'deeply unhappy by the institution that they were born into'.

'The more unhappy you see them being, the less you're into it,' Ms Sarkar told the debate.

Her comments come days after a poll found nearly 40 per cent of 'Generation Z' are in favour of abolishing the monarchy.

Some 38 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds want to replace the Crown with an elected head of state, YouGov claimed.

About a third of Gen Z back the Royal Family, while another 30 per cent said they did not know.

Ms Sarkar's comments come days after a poll found nearly 40 per cent of 'Generation Z' are in favour of abolishing the monarchy. Pictured is a shot of Tuesday's debate on Newsnight with Ms Sarkar, middle, pictured next to fellow panelist Rosie Harte (left), a TikTok historian

King Charles III and Camilla before The King's Company of the Grenadier Guards, during a ceremony where they presented new standards and colours to the Royal Navy on April 27

The survey for the BBC 's Panorama also revealed that King Charles enjoys wide support across all age groups in Britain, with 58 per cent in favour and 26 per cent against.

And among the oldest group of those 65 and over, 78 per cent back the monarchy while just 15 per cent want it abolished.

Another finding in the study was that 78 per cent of 18-24-year-olds are 'not interested' in the Royal Family.

It also revealed that 40 per cent of that younger age bracket think it is bad value for money  although this falls to 32 per cent as a total figure across all age groups.

Speaking during last night's debate on the BBC, TikTok historian Rosie Harte claimed young Britons were ignorant to the role carried out by the Royal Family, which was helping to fuel apathy towards the Windsors.

She said: 'Young people don't understand the sort of messaging why they should care about the Royal Family (and) why they should feel that they're important in their lives.'

The debate comes as anti-monarchists led by the group Republic continue to threaten the upcoming Coronation at Westminster Abbey this weekend.

Protesters hold up banners and placards saying 'Not My King' during the arrival of the car bringing King Charles III and Queen Camilla to York Minster during a royal visit on April 6

The campaign group, led by chief executive Graham Smith, is planning big protests on Coronation Day in their bid to try and have the monarchy abolished.

They have urged thousands to descend on the procession route between Buckingham Palace and the Abbey with yellow T-shirts and placards proclaiming 'Not My King'.

It follows similar protests staged during official engagements attended by His Majesty King Charles earlier in the year.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said 'all necessary steps' will be taken to 'protect the integrity' of the coronation.
Actor Stephen Tompkinson has arrived at at Newcastle Crown Court today to face charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm in an incident that the TV star is expected to argue was self defence.

The 57-year-old, best known for playing the title role in TV crime drama DCI Banks denies that he 'unlawfully and maliciously inflicted grievous bodily harm' on a man named Karl Poole in a fight outside his home.

Poole was allegedly left with a double skull fracture and has reportedly been left unable to work since the incident on May 30 2021.

Tompkinson, from North Tyneside became a household name after starring as Father Peter Clifford in 1996's Ballykissangel, and in the same year appeared in hit film Brassed Off.

DCI Banks star Stephen Tompkinson pictured arriving at Newcastle Crown Court this morning

The actor is best known for playing DCI Banks on the popular ITV series

Other notable TV credits include Drop The Dead Donkey, Wild At Heart, Minder, New Tricks, Grafters and Ted And Alice.

He also appeared in ITV's DCI Banks for six years until the show was axed in 2016, and starred in a 2021 stage adaptation of Educating Rita.

His barrister Adam Birkby previously told the court he will claim self-defence, during a trial which is expected to last four days.

The actor could face a five-year prison term if he is found guilty.

Mr Birkby, defending the actor previously, said the case has attracted 'substantial interest', stressing the importance of Tompkinson's right to a fair trial.

Mr Birkby added: 'It is important for everyone to note, he has pleaded not guilty and the issue to be tried is one of self defence.'

Following his plea hearing in September last year, Tompkinson was granted conditional bail.

At the hearing, the actor confirmed he understood what had been said and thanked the court at its conclusion.
A married head teacher admitted having a secret affair with a pupil's mother and has made a grovelling public apology after being absent for hours during the school day claiming he was 'popping to the Co-op'.

Aled Rees  who wrote to parents warning about children watching the ITV2 reality show Love Island  was caught having long chats with the mother at the school gates, taking long absences from duty and having personal phone calls in his office.

A disciplinary hearing was told Rees admitted five breaches of professional standards, including an 'extra-marital relationship' with a pupil's mother at rural school Ysgol Teilo Sant in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire.

Rees told the hearing: 'I recognise my fault and blame. I take the blame.

'I have fallen short of the expectations I would have set for myself and would be expected of me by bodies in general. I regret the pain I caused to members of staff, pupils, parents and not to mention my own family.'

Married head teacher Aled Rees admitted having a secret affair with a pupil's mother - and has made a grovelling public apology for his behaviour

Rees was caught having long chats with the mum at the school gates, taking long absences from duty and having personal phone calls in his office

He made headlines when he sent letters to parents at Ysgol Teilo Sant school (pictured) in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, complaining pupils as young as eight were emulating behaviour seen on Love Island

An Education Workforce Council (EWC) hearing was told Rees was having a secret romance of his own with a mother of one of the pupils in the school.

He faces being struck off the teaching register for his behaviour after a string of complaints. The hearing was told he has since left the school and does not intend to carry on working in education.

Ioan Jones, representing him from the education union UCAC said he 'accepts it is not appropriate to remain in the profession'.

The EWC panel heard that Rees joined Ysgol Teilo Sant as head in January 2018 before quitting in February 2021.

Between September 2018 and February 2020 it is alleged he 'spent an excessive amount of time' away from the site during the school day, often without telling colleagues or arranging cover.

Assistant head Maureen Williams said this left the 180-pupil school without the safeguarding lead and without anyone taking overall responsibility.

The hearing heard Rees would be absent for periods ranging from 45 minutes to several hours and once for a whole afternoon amid rumours that he was seeing the mother of a pupil identified only as Learner A.

Mrs Williams said: 'Although there was no evidence of an affair, there was a rumour and people witnessed the head and a pupil's mother talking together for long periods at the school gates each morning.'

She asked Rees to let her know when he was leaving the site. 'He didn't give any reason other than he was popping to the Co-op for food,' she said.

Mrs Williams began keeping records of the head's departures and said she noticed he left his work phone in school.

She said: 'He was not leading the school as he should. He did not offer advice or support to staff. Leadership was unclear.'

Mrs Williams said: 'We did not have evidence of an affair but there was a rumour going around and there was the pattern of his frequent loitering and staying outside by the gate with Learner A's mother.

'Staff talked about it. I would see him at the gate talking to the parent in question.'

Rees made headlines when he sent letters to parents at the school complaining that pupils as young as eight were emulating behaviour seen on Love Island and were staying up late to watch it.

The head teacher sent a letter to parents at the school in 2019 to say Love Island contestants were 'no role models for our children'

In 2019, Rees said Year 4 pupils had been commenting on each other's appearance and 'pairing individuals together' to emulate Love Island.

Pupils were getting upset in the playground after 'rating each other based on their looks to see who would be the best match' and and 'coupling up' together.

Rees told parents the show's contestants were 'no role models for our children'.

In his letter to parents he said: 'I am of the opinion that primary school pupils aren't mature enough to watch a programme of this nature where a person's appearance is more important than their personality.

'The influence of the programme has led to pupils commenting on others' appearance and pairing individuals together as they are a good "match".

'I am sure that there are better ways to spend time with your children and more appropriate programmes they could be watching.'

Year five teacher Elen Davies told the panel that Rees sometimes spent half an hour chatting to the parent at the school gate in the mornings. She said: 'It was clear he gave this parent more attention that other parents.'

Ms Davies, 25, later informed Rees she was pregnant. Shortly afterwards, when she complained that her class had been moved, she claimed Rees said words to the effect of: 'That's what you get for opening your legs.'

Rees denies he said that, but admits five allegations, including that 'by virtue of his extra-marital relationship with the mother of a child at the school, he placed himself in a position where there was a conflict of interest'.
Rishi Sunak today rejected George Osborne's call for a ban on smoking and taxes on orange juice in a bid to boost Britons' health.

The former Chancellor urged new action to cut obesity and cancer by suggesting Britain should look at 'the long-term legality of smoking'.

He proposed the UK should copy New Zealand in gradually raising the legal age for purchasing tobacco.

Mr Osborne also outlined how the sugar tax on soft drinks should be expanded to include fruit juices.

But Downing Street said there were 'no plans' to follow Mr Osborne's advice and pointed to how the inclusion of fruit juices under the sugar tax had been rejected when the levy was first introduced.

George Osborne said Britain should look at 'the long-term legality of smoking' as part of new action to cut obesity and cancer

The former Chancellor suggested the UK should copy New Zealand in gradually raising the legal age for purchasing tobacco

Mr Osborne called for an expansion to the sugar tax to cover fruit juice and milkshakes, as well as biscuits and cakes

Rishi Sunak rejected Mr Osborne's call for fresh Government intervention over public health matters

'That issue was considered as part of the levy, there was a consultation document that set out further detail on why we're not looking to take that forward,' the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.

No10 also dismissed the prospect of a complete ban on smoking and said such a move would represent 'major departure from the policy pursued over recent decades, which has emphasised personal responsibility'.

'It's worth emphasising smoking rates in England are at an all-time low - currently 13 per cent, down from 20 per cent in 2010,' the spokesman added.

No10 said the Government remained committed to England becoming 'smoke free' - defined as less than 5% of the adult population smoking - by 2030.

The PM's press secretary revealed Mr Sunak himself had never smoked.

It came after Mr Osborne had claimed Tory critics of fresh Government intervention over public health matters were 'not worth listening to'.

The ex-Chancellor offered his support to Britain copying New Zealand's phased-in smoking ban - an annually rising legal smoking age that will eventually introduce a complete ban on smoking.

Mr Osborne told The Times: 'You basically phase it out. Of course you're going to have lots of problems with illegal smoking, but you have lots of problems with other illegal activities.

'It doesn't mean you shouldn't try and ban them and police them and make it less readily available. I thought that was a compelling public health intervention.'

In his final Budget as Chancellor in March 2016, Mr Osborne announced the introduction of the sugar tax on soft drinks.

He said it should now be expanded to cover fruit juice and milkshakes, as well as biscuits and cakes.

Mr Osborne admitted such a move would have been 'too controversial' while he was in charge of the Treasury because 'most people think a glass of orange juice every day is a good thing'.

The sugar tax was fiercely opposed by some Tory MPs as an example of 'nanny statism at its worst'.

But Mr Osborne insisted that 'anti-nanny state Conservatives' are 'not worth listening to'.

He compared possible new health measures to the smoking ban in pubs and laws on wearing seatbelts introduced by past governments.

'Theyve all been opposed at the time by vociferous lobbies,' the former Chancellor added.

'Its taken quite a lot of political courage by the different administrations to get them done.

'But no one now would reintroduce smoking in pubs and no one now would say you shouldnt wear a seatbelt.'

Former minister Lord Bethell said he agreed with Mr Osborne that it was 'time to phase out smoking in the UK'.

The Tory peer criticised the Government for not implementing the recommendations of an independent review by Dr Javed Khan.

His report warned, without further action, England will miss the Government's smoke free 2030 target by at least seven years, and the poorest areas in society will not meet it until 2044.

'What a shame the Govt hasnt introduced the Khan Review recommendations,' Lord Bethell posted on Twitter.

'It should be doubling down instead of backing off.'
Mr Gbajabiamila said the House will review the legal framework establishing the agencies to prevent future occurrences.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila says "interagency disagreements" is to be blamed for the challenges that have dogged the evacuation of Nigerians from war-ravaged Sudan.

Mr Gbajabiamila stated this on Tuesday in his speech at the resumption of plenary.

He stated that the challenges with the evacuation are caused by "interagency disagreements arising from overlapping mandates and the absence of established operational guidelines for such circumstances."

"The House is aware of ongoing difficulties with the evacuation efforts and the federal government's response to the developments in the Republic of Sudan," Mr Gbajabiamila said.

To address the problem, Mr Gbajabiamila mandated the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs to summon the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, officials from the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to brief the House.

"I have requested the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs to invite the honourable minister of Foreign Affairs and officials from the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to appear before the House to give an account of the status of evacuation efforts," he said.

He added that the House will review the legal framework establishing the agencies to prevent future occurrences.

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"We must further revisit the statutory and other frameworks that have left us seemingly unprepared to respond promptly and effectively," he said.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the Nigerian government commenced the first phase of the evacuation of its citizens from troubled Sudan on Wednesday with the hiring of 40 buses.

However, the arrival of the first batch of evacuees has been delayed due to logistics and diplomatic issues at the Egyptian border, the head of NiDCOM Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said Thursday.

The Nigerians arrived at the Egyptian border but were not let into Egypt by the authorities there.

On Monday, Mrs Dabiri-Erewa announced that Nigeria had finally secured entrance documents to Egypt for the evacuees after the direct intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari.

All the evacuees, over 5,000 people mainly students, are expected to be airlifted from Egypt to Nigeria.
One of Australia's most rarely seen marsupials has been spotted - but locals have been warned to stay away.

Bathurst Regional Council, which sits in central west NSW, posted photos of a snow white albino echidna, which an employee had come across.

'We thought he is just too beautiful not to share, and particularly rare with only a handful of the mammals ever sighted in Australia,' the council wrote in the post.

Council have christened the unusual animal 'Raffie' but have warned admirers not to get too close.

'If you see Raffie out, please feel free to take a couple of snaps but do not approach, touch, or try and contain him,' the post said.

'It is important to leave wildlife alone, as you could risk them losing their scent trail or leaving young unattended in the burrow.'

A rare albino echidna, which has been named Raffie, has been spotted in the NSW central west region of Bathurst

Council are keeping the echidna's last-known location under wraps so it can enjoy some privacy.

Geoff Hadley told the ABC he had seen Raffie on a road and decided to give him a helping hand to get across safely.

'I thought it had been hit by a car originally because it just wasn't walking,' he said.

Mr Hadley said it was an 'out of this world' and once in a lifetime experience.

John Grant, a spokesperson from wildlife rescue organisation WIRES, said albino echidnas are very rare but and infrequently spotted because they nocturnal. .

'They're not common, that's for sure,' he said.

One local came across Raffie balled up on a road and feared the animal had been hit by a car

'We get the occasional rare wallaby that you'll see that's albino [and] I know last year we got an albino kookaburra, which was pretty rare.'

Raffie was certainly proving a hit online with many people commenting how 'beautiful', 'special' and 'awesome' he was under the council's post.

One person wrote they had a Raffie lookalike as a tenant.

'We have a blonde one on our property (NW Tasmania). So cute,' the commentator said.
Financial expert Martin Lewis has shared his latest tip, that could be of huge benefit to pensioners across the UK.

During an appearance on Good Morning Britain, Mr Lewis said that one million pensioners could receive Pension Credit, but have not yet applied for the scheme.

The upcoming deadline to apply for Pension Credit is fast approaching, as it falls in less than three weeks on 19 May.

Mr Lewis urged pensioners to apply, as anyone who does will not be fined or penalised if they do not meet eligibility criteria, stating: 'Don't stall, just call'.

During a broadcast of Good Morning Britain, Mr Lewis said one million pensioners may be missing out on Pension Credit

In the Good Morning Britain segment, Lewis stated: 'Pension credit is a top-up benefit that helps those who are of state pension age who are not getting enough income.'

Anyone wishing to apply for Pension Credit must be receiving no more than 220 per week from a single state pension.

This limit increases to 320 for a couple, but both members must be state pensioners.

Anyone wishing to apply for Pension Credit can do so up to four months before they become eligible to receive a State Pension.

Upon reaching State Pension age, you can make a claim for Pension Credit at any point, but it will only be backdated for three months.

This means you could receive as many as three months worth of Pension Credit from your first payment if you were eligible during the backdated period.

You will also need to share some personal details including your National Insurance number, along with information about your income, savings and investments.

You must also enter your bank account details if applying via telephone or by post.

If you elect to backdate a claim, you will need details of your income, savings and investments from the date you want your claim to start.

You are not able to use the calculator if you or your partner are deferring your State Pension or own more than one property.

Additionally, it cannot be used by anyone who is self-employed or has any housing costs (such as service charges or Crown Tenant rent) which are neither mortgage repayments nor rent covered by Housing Benefit.

In May 2019, the law changed so that a mixed age couple - a couple where one partner is of State Pension age and the other is not - are considered to be a working age couple when verifying entitlement to means-tested benefits.

The deadline to apply for Pension Credit falls in just under three weeks, on 19 May, with Mr Lewis (pictured) urging people to apply so they do not miss out

Upon applying, you will be asked a series of questions related to your residence, earnings and savings.

Once you have answered these questions, a summary screen shows your responses, allowing you to go back and change any answers before submitting. The Pension Credit calculator then displays how much benefit you could receive each week.

Afterwards, follow the link to the application page to find out exactly what you will get from the DWP, including access to other financial support.

There is also the handy option of being able to print off the answers you give using the calculator tool so you do not get stuck looking for the same details again.
Madeleine McCann's devastated parents today shared a heartbreaking poem to mark 16 years since their little girl vanished from their holiday villa in Portugal.

Kate and Gerry McCann said they still find it 'hard to find the words' to convey how they feel on the 16th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance, as they said they are still waiting anxiously for a 'breakthrough' in the case.

In a touching tribute, the grieving parents shared a poem by Clare Pollard which includes the heartbreaking line 'please let me hold you'.

The McCanns said Pollard's poem The Contradiction 'resonates strongly with us' as it conveys the sheer pain of losing loved ones.

They added they 'still very much miss' Madeleine, who would now be 19 if still alive. The British girl, then three, went missing while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

Madeleine McCann, then three, went missing while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal , in May 2007, vanishing from their accommodation without trace

Kate and Gerry McCann said they still find it 'hard to find the words' to convey how they feel on the 16th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance, as they said they are still waiting anxiously for a 'breakthrough' in the case

Instead, as words failed them, the parents shared Pollard's poem which reads: 'The absence contradicts itself: the missing conjures what we miss. You are not here, I'm not myself, but still talk to you like this.

READ MORE: Young woman who believes she may be Madeleine McCann finally receives DNA test results as new statement is released Advertisement

'You're in the crowd, the news, the glimpse - I make you there when you're not there.

'I trace your steps, I map your face, I say your name, see you in air.'

The poem continues: 'You're all I know and so unknown. I cannot hold you yet I do: please let me hold you in my head and where are you now, hold me too.

'How can you be so near and far? You are not here. But here you are.'

After posting the poem, the McCanns added that as the police investigation into Madeleine's disappearance continues, they 'await a breakthrough'.

'Thank you to everyone for your support - it really helps,' the parents wrote before signing of with their names.

The post came two weeks after German prosecutors said are dropping sex offence charges against Christian Brueckner, a suspect in Madeleine's disappearance, as they did not have jurisdiction over him.

Picture shows the house in Lagos, Portugal, where the three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007

Convicted rapist Christian Brueckner, 45, is under investigation on suspicion of murdering Madeleine

Bruecker, 45, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he committed against a pensioner in Portugal in 2005.

Last year he was charged with a number of sex offences  said to have taken place on the Algarve where the three-year-old vanished in 2007  between 2000 and 2017.

But those charges have not been dropped by the Braunschweig court over issues with jurisdiction. But it's believed another court in Germany could take charge of the case.

Germany prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said that nothing has changed in the toddler's case and that the decision by the Braunschweig court will need to be reviewed.

Brueckner hasn't been charged in Madeleine's case, in which he is under investigation on suspicion of murder.

He spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine's disappearance there in 2007. He has denied any involvement in her abduction.

Madeleine went missing while on holiday with her family in a villa in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

Her siblings, twins Sean and Amelie McCann, were in the same room as Madeleine when she vanished.

Maddie disappeared from her bed in a holiday villa while Gerry and Kate, from Rothley in Leicestershire, were having dinner with friends at a tapas restaurant just 55 metres away.

Kate checked the children at 10pm to find Maddie had disappeared, but the twins, then aged two-years-old, were still sleeping soundly in their cots.

Last month, it was revealed that police investigating Madeleine's disappearance are to receive hundreds of thousands of pounds in a new funding effort.

A significant sum has been requested by the Met Police and is likely to be approved by the Home Office, reported the Sun.

Each year hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent on attempts to find her, with a total of 13million being spent since 2011.
Former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers today launched a bid to hand the Government new powers to scrap London mayor Sadiq Khan's 'anti-car policies'.

The Chipping Barnet MP introduced a Ten-Minute Rule Bill to the House of Commons this afternoon seeking to give ministers the ability to overturn the expansion of the capital's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).

Mr Khan's proposal to expand ULEZ to the whole of the London from late August - which will see a 12.50 daily fee for vehicles not meeting minimum requirements - has been met with widespread opposition.

Ms Villiers' Bill looks to amend the 1999 Greater London Authority Act so Transport Secretary Mark Harper can review and overturn decisions made by the capital's mayor relating to transport and air quality, such as ULEZ.

The proposed legislation would also allow Mr Harper to review other controversial policies being pursued in London, such as the growth of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) and 20mph speed limits on main roads.

Former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers launched a bid to hand the Government new powers to scrap London mayor Sadiq Khan's 'anti-car policies'

Mr Khan's proposal to expand ULEZ to the whole of the London from late August has been met with widespread opposition

The London mayor's spokeswoman said it was 'disappointing that some backbench MPs are wasting parliamentary time playing politics'

Ms Villiers' Bill looks to amend the 1999 Greater London Authority Act so Transport Secretary Mark Harper can review and overturn decisions made by the capital's mayor

The former Environment Secretary told the Commons: 'In my 18 years as MP for Chipping Barnet, almost nothing has provoked such strong opposition as the Mayor of London's plan to expand ULEZ.

'It comes up on almost every doorstep and at almost every meeting. People stop me in the street to tell me how strongly they feel about this.

'That is why I am bringing forward a Bill to give the Government power to overrule Mayor Khan and stop ULEZ expansion.

'Of course, we need to continue to improve air quality in London but this is the wrong scheme at the wrong time.'

Ms Villiers warned the ULEZ expansion - which she dubbed a 'paywall' around the capital - would 'devastate' local town centres in outer London.

She also told MPs it could be a 'stepping stone' to pay per mile road charging in the capital.

There has been outrage at Mr Khan for pushing ahead with the ULEZ expansion to London's outer boroughs during the cost-of-living crisis.

Fears have been expressed about the financial hit for emergency workers - such as nurses driving to hospitals for night shifts - as well tradespeople who need to take vans into the capital.

'The ULEZ has been tolerated in inner London because it has one of the most extensive public transport systems in the world. That is just not the case in the suburbs,' Ms Villiers said.

'The reality is that ULEZ expansion to the Greater London boundary leaves my constituents facing the cost of buying a new vehicle which many cannot afford, or paying an annual bill of as much as 4,500 per year just to get around their own neighbourhood.'

Ten-Minute Rule Bills are often put forward by backbench MPs to highlight a concern or issue, with Ms Villiers' Bill unlikely to become law in its current form.

Mr Khan's spokeswoman said it was 'disappointing that some backbench MPs are wasting parliamentary time playing politics'.

'The mayor has been clear that the decision to expand the ultra low emission zone London-wide was not an easy one, but necessary to tackle toxic air pollution and the climate crisis,' she said.

'It is disappointing that some backbench MPs are wasting parliamentary time playing politics. Both No10 and the Transport Secretary have been clear this is a matter for the elected mayor.

'With around 4,000 Londoners dying prematurely each year due to air pollution, there is no time for inaction and it's people in outer London, particularly the poorest households, who suffer the most from the damaging health effects.

'Nine out of 10 cars in outer London are already ULEZ compliant. For those with the most polluting vehicles the mayor has launched his 110 million vehicle scrappage scheme.'
A YouTuber has been cleared of stalking a plus-size model who refused to give evidence in court as the hearing fell on her birthday.

Dialunguna Lema, 26, was accused of harassing and stalking neighbour Madia Giwa in Crouch End, north London, between May 2021 and June last year by trying to speak to her about his video-streaming channel.

Lema denied stalking and harassment and the charges were thrown out when Ms Giwa today failed to turn up to give evidence against him at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on her birthday.

Tom Lambert, defending Lema, told the court that the case had gone on long enough. He said: The overriding objective of this case is not the convenience of the complainant.

Were here today to have a fair and just trial.

The written reasons given for adjourning were not trauma or long-term memory damage, but because she had birthday plans in place.'

Qadeer Mirza, prosecuting, told Highbury Magistrates Court that it was Madia Giwa (pictured) was absent from the hearing as giving evidence would traumatise every future birthday

Dialunguna Lema, 26, was accused of stalking Madia Giwa (left) between May 2021 and June 2022. The complainant is pictured with a friend Aeva Andersson (right) who was said to have witnessed one of the incidents

Refusing the application to adjourn, Bench Chair Ms Anna Kaposi said: Weve not heard of any steps by the prosecution to secure the attendance of the witness here today.'

Ms Giwas 6ft 2in friend and fellow model Aeva Andersson was said to have witnessed one of the alleged incidents.

Qadeer Mirza, prosecuting, earlier told the court that giving evidence on her birthday would traumatise every future birthday for Ms Giwa.

He said: Ms Giwa did not want to give evidence on her birthday. Shes been harassed and stalked by this man, to such a point that its caused her severe distress and anxiety.

She doesnt want to give evidence because it will traumatise her. She has other health issues as well. Today her parents fly in from abroad and its the only day she will get to stay with her parents.

Plus-sized model Madia Giwa failed to turn up to give evidence against her alleged stalker at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court

She lives alone in the UK and this is the only day she will see her family. She does not know what plans they have made for her birthday, but it is still a family gathering.

The application is simple, giving evidence on her birthday will affect her mental health.

Giving evidence and reliving the incident on her birthday will mean she is traumatised every future birthday.

Any subsequent birthday she will recall what happened in court, because that day is unique to her.

She has various personal medical matters which have affected her mental health. She is currently under safeguarding with a counsellor.

It isnt just a matter of oh its my birthday and I cant be bothered - its painful.

Summarising the alleged offences, Mr Mirza said: Remember she lives alone and here we have a grown man.

On May 2021, Ms Giwa states the defendant approached her address out of the blue, knocked on the door and said: Hello, my name is Chris, I have a YouTube channel. Do you live alone?

He then stepped inside her property and she had to force him out. She pushed him out - this is someone she never met, someone she doesnt know.

She shouted leave me alone, and he left.

Last year, on March 7, she was woken up to loud banging on the front door. The defendant is there and says: I want to talk to you.

He was standing so close that she could see the glass on the door was fogging up from his breath.

She shouted: What are you doing here? Get away from my door. Get away from my door or Ill call the police. He then runs away.

Between March 7 and March 14 last year the complainant is at Haringey train station. The defendant walked onto the platform, she walked to the other end of the platform to create some distance from her and the defendant, as much as possible.

Once she arrived at Finsbury Park station, she got off the train and found the defendant on the platform looking at her directly. She decided to ignore him and make way to her final destination.

Madia Giwa had previously told the Crown Prosecution Service she was unwilling to give evidence on her birthday but the court was notified of this

Shes walking along Ferme Park Road, N8, between seven and eight in the evening, when a male rushed past her from behind.

He rubbed close to her, he brushed past her. She expresses shock. He turned around and she saw it was the defendant, Chris.

In another incident on 4 June last year, the complainant Ms Giwa contacts the police. In that call she states the defendant is following her from the communal bins to her flat, then staring at her aggressively making her feel uncomfortable.

Ms Giwa had previously told the Crown Prosecution Service she was unwilling to give evidence on her birthday.

The defence lawyer added: Given that the claimants credibility is at issue in this trial, that is something to consider.

If this trial is delayed again there would be further distress caused to Mr Lema.

In making her ruling, Ms Kaposi said the defendant also had rights in the matter.

She added: We know it is the fault of the CPS that there was a delay in notifying the court today. The matter is now almost a year old, indeed some of the incidents are a year old.

Lema, of Ridge Road, Crouch End, was arrested on July 12 last year.

He denied and was cleared of harassment without violence and stalking without causing fear of violence after the prosecution offered no evidence.

Ms Kaposi added: Were refusing the application for a restraining order. We find it not necessary as we have not heard any clear evidence that the witness needs protection.

Addressing Lema in the dock, Ms Kaposi said: You were here for a trial today and that trial is not going to take place. That matter is dismissed and you will hear no more about it.

Your bail conditions are gone and youre free to go.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has apologised after thousands of learners in KwaZulu-Natal have been left without school meals for the past month.

The chaos began after Pacina Retail, a little-known company with no previous background in distributing food to over 5,000 schools, was awarded a R2 billion school feeding scheme tender.

Motshekga, who visited the province on Tuesday, expressed concern over the disruptions to the feeding programme and apologised for any inconvenience caused.

"It is for that reason that, as the Department of Basic Education, we became particularly concerned with the disruptions to the feeding programme. For whatever inconvenience that was caused, as government, we apologise," said Motshekga.

However, after being briefed by the Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube's government about the crisis in over 260 schools, Motshekga said learners were no longer going hungry at school. She said that all schools that were visited have received food and the situation has been restored.

As for the future of the Pacina Retail contract, Motshekga stated that the matter is with their legal team.

However, Pacina has issued an ultimatum to the department, demanding payment for the goods already served to schools and that they are reinstated in the R2 billion nutrition tender.
The soldier denies a single charge of sexual assault and the trial continues

Private Jonathan Rowell hit the woman so hard she was left 'stumbling forward'

A British Army soldier slapped a female colleague's bottom as she bent over and told her 'don't act like you weren't asking for it' when she protested, a court martial heard today.

Private Jonathan Rowell allegedly left the soldier 'shocked' and 'uncomfortable' by smacking her as she readjusted her 'twisties', an elastic twist which keeps the cuffs of your trousers rolled up at the top of your boot.

He hit the woman with such force she was left 'stumbling forward', it was heard. The soldier denies one count of sexual assault.

Prosecutor Lieutenant Commander Jamie Brotherton told Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire, that the woman - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was walking from a smoking area when the alleged assault occurred.

'The complainant was outside bending down to adjust her twisties when, without consent, the defendant came up behind her and grabbed her bottom hard, causing her pain and distress,' he said.

Lieutenant Commander Brotherton said Private Rowell, of the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, Berkshire, had used such a 'good deal of force' that the woman's friend who had walked slightly ahead, turned around after hearing a 'loud slapping noise'.

Private Jonathan Rowell, of the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, Berkshire, slapped a female colleague's bottom as she bent over

He then told her 'don't act like you weren't asking for it' when she protested, a court martial heard

'It was uninvited, unwanted and not consented to,' he continued.

'She said it left her stumbling forward. The Crown say she was carrying out an everyday activity - adjusting her twisties - and she did not expect, invite or want anyone to grab her bottom.

'She clearly wasn't asking for it.'

Giving evidence, the woman told the court her break, which she had taken in a smoking area, had ended so she was returning to her workplace in a group containing Rowell.

'We walked up a path back to our squadron,' she said.

'Private Rowell was behind me in a group. I wore twisties on the bottom of my trousers - they go around the bottom of your boots to touch the bottom of your trousers to make them look neater.

'I bent down to readjust them because I was going back to work, when Private Rowell came up behind me and slapped me on the bum - it knocked me forwards.

'I shot up and obviously I was shocked. It hurt.'

The Bulford Military Court Centre in Wiltshire [File image]

The woman insisted she was 100 per cent sure it was Private Rowell and that she had given him no invitation to touch her.

The court heard when the female soldier exclaimed 'what the f***?', Private Rowell said: 'Don't act like you weren't asking for it.'

'It made me feel really uncomfortable,' she added.

'I didn't feel like I wanted to be touched by him and he had touched me.'

Private Rowell denies a single charge of sexual assault. The trial continues.
The man who sparked a Buckingham Palace security scare last night by throwing shotgun cartridges over the gates was allegedly armed with a knife and warned officers his rucksack should be 'handled carefully', Scotland Yard has revealed.

David Huber, 60, is understood to be the man arrested after allegedly approaching the gates and chucking items into the palace grounds.

The Sun claims Huber travelled to London from his remote Cumbrian cottage, where he breeds Hungarian Vizslas, for Charles's crowning on Saturday. It is reported that on the day Queen Elizabeth II died, he wrote on Facebook: 'It's a massive loss to all.'

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said the man had approached officers asking to see a soldier at around 7.15pm on Tuesday.

When they said that was not possible, the man allegedly began throwing shotgun cartridges over the gates. He was searched and allegedly found to be in possession of a lock knife, and was arrested on suspicion of possession of a knife and ammunition.

During the arrest, the man told officers they should handle his rucksack with care, which led to a controlled explosion being carried out on the bag that could be heard live on GB News.

Though neither the King nor Queen were in residence, Camilla's grandchildren had been seen arriving at Buckingham Palace hours before - while Charles had held an audience with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier in the day.

Mr Adelekan said the suspect was detained within seconds and arrested within five minutes. He said he had no knowledge of reports that the man had been shouting that he wanted to kill the King before he was arrested.

The suspect has undergone a mental health assessment and has been deemed fit to be interviewed. Scotland Yard is not treating the incident as terror-related.

David Huber, 60, is said to be the man was arrested by armed police last night after he allegedly chucked ammunition into the grounds of the Royal residence, The Sun reported

This is the moment police arrest a man who 'threw shotgun cartridges' into the grounds of Buckingham Palace. He was detained on suspicion of possessing a weapon. Witnesses say the suspect had stationed himself outside the palace over the 'last few nights' and was heard shouting: 'I'm going to kill the King'

Former head of Royal Protection Dai Davies warned the threat of an attack is 'as high now as it's ever been' and said 'you can never drop your guard' when working for the Royal Family.

Mr Davies told MailOnline: 'As we saw the police's response was adequate - but if he's been there for days, I would have hoped someone would have noticed him. It is essential to watch the characteristics of people and to take action immediately. I would be very very angry to anyone who didn't do that.'

He added: 'If a police officer heard him, he would have had a duty to catch him and detain him under the Mental Health Act.'

The security expert also issued a warning that the risk for a potential attack is very high, saying not just the palace could be targeted but also railway and Tube stations. He said it is vital for police to 'know their history' and make sure they are aware of previous attacks and attempts.

'Of course, for hundreds of years you might expect protesters at events such as this but never before have activists been able to organise on the scale of groups such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion,' he added.

'There are considerable groups that pose a threat. Often it is the lone wolf that wants publicity. This incident indicates that the police are on full alert.'

The Metropolitan Police said officers arrested a man around 7pm last night after he approached the Palace gates

It is claimed Huber travelled to the capital from his Cumbrian cottage where he breeds Hungarian Vizslas

Police carried out a controlled explosion on the suspect's bag as a precaution. Officers are pictured at the scene, by the bag

The suspect was detained within seconds and arrested within five minutes. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said he had no knowledge of reports that the man had been shouting that he wanted to kill the King before he was arrested

Though neither the King nor Queen were in residence at the time, Camilla's grandchildren had been seen arriving at Buckingham Palace hours before - while Charles himself had held an audience with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier in the day.

King Charles reportedly left the palace just minutes before the incident took place, The Sun reported.

Police carried out a precautionary controlled explosion which could be heard live on GB News, while cordons were put up in the area. Scotland Yard is not treating the incident as terror-related, and it understood it is being treated as an isolated mental health incident.

The suspicious bag that was found held two passports, a phone, wallet, keys, bank cards, laptop case, picture of a child, and a large brown letter, according to The Sun. There was also a copy of the book The Happiness Advantage by Harvard lecturer Shawn Achor.

Police stand guard outside Buckingham Palace after a man was arrested on suspicion of possessing a weapon

Buckingham Palace confirmed the King and Queen were not in residence when the incident occurred. But a Royal spokesperson would not answer whether any other relatives or family members were there when it unfolded

The scene near Buckingham Palace after a man was arrested after throwing items suspected to be shotgun cartridges into the grounds of the Palace

Officers guard the gates outside the royal residence after a man was arrested on suspicion of possessing weapon

Police say they are not currently treating the incident as terror-related. It is understood it is being treated as an isolated mental health incident. Officers are pictured at the scene

An ambulance is pictured at Buckingham Palace after a man threw suspected shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds

A general view of Buckingham Palace after a man was arrested and a subsequent controlled explosion was carried out

Troops were seen rehearsing for the upcoming Coronation while the incident unfolded

Minister Tom Tugendhat this morning appeared to play down concerns about the scare and insisted 'we are in no way complacent' about the security challenge posed by the Coronation on Saturday.

He told Times Radio: 'The police are, to put it mildly, all over it, and our intelligence and other security forces are extremely aware of the challenge that we face. What we've been planning for a number of months now is one of the most important security operations that the country has put into plan.'

The arrest comes as a ring of steel is expected in the capital for the Coronation at Westminster Abbey.

Witnesses said the man was seen throwing a 'number of items' in the residence grounds before he was arrested.

Footage shows how the handcuffed suspect hung his head as officers took him into custody. Police later carried out a controlled explosion on a suspicious bag as a precaution.
A bearded man has won a women's poker tournament in Florida, sparking outrage from fellow competitors.

David Hughes, from Deltona, Florida, entered the $250 buy-in see-off his competitors at the 'Ladies No-limit Holdem' event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

Hughes, who was photographed and filmed taking part in the ladies' tournament, took home a whopping $5,555 after seeing-off 82 other entrants.

A heated debate about the bearded man's involvement in the tournament broke out online as he was filmed sitting at the poker table.

The presence of the man, said to be aged 70, also appeared to rattle his female competitors with many taking to social media to voice their displeasure about his decision to enter.

Hughes, who was photographed and filmed taking part in the ladies' tournament, took home a whopping $5,555 after seeing off 82 other entrants

David Hughes entered the $250 buy-in see off his competitors at the 'Ladies No-limit Holdem' event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Florida

Hughes was said to have been able to compete in the Texas Hold'em tournament for women due to anti-discrimination laws in Florida. Despite evidently being a bearded man, state legislation prevents him from being excluded from the woman's event.

READ MORE: Why ladies' poker is a big deal Advertisement

Other states such as Nevada also do not restrict men from entering the tournaments. However, some competitions offer a 90 percent discount for women so that men are deterred from trying to enter.

Hughes' fellow competitors appeared outraged that he was able to enter and win.

Professional player Ebony Kenney voiced her outrage and criticized Hughes for entering.

'Playing the World Poker Tour ladies event today, and Dave here is the only man.

'While we appreciate the dead money, I really wish men would get what these events stand for.'

Other pros also weighed in to share there disapproval. Charlie Carrel said: 'It pokes fun at the idea that anybody can identify as a woman and be allowed to enter womens spaces.'

DailyMail.com has approached Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Florida, for comment.

Hughes' fellow competitors appeared outraged that he was able to enter and win

Professional player Ebony Kenney voiced her outrage and criticized Hughes for entering

But this is not the first time that a man has entered a women's poker tournament, nor that a man has won one of the competitions.

Former World Series of Poker (WSOP) champion Abraham Korotki entered a $300 buy-in competition at the Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City in 2009.

Participants in the poker tournament were said to have been furious with Korotki at the time, growing increasingly irate with him as he advanced through each round.

Korotki was one of two people who remained standing at the end, facing competitor Nicole Rowe from New York. But the man took home the prize pot of $20,982 after defeating the women challengers.
The Navy's appointment of a non-binary drag queen as its first 'digital ambassador' has sparked fury, disbelief and mockery of the Department of Defense.

Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, whose stage name is Harpy Daniels, announced on TikTok in November that she would be the Navy's first 'digital ambassador,' highlighting her journey from performing on board beginning in 2018 and growing to become an 'advocate' for those who 'were oppressed for years in the service.'

A Navy spokesman tells DailyMail.com the digital ambassador program was a pilot that ended in March 2023.

Kelley's involvement attracted fresh criticism this week.

Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, whose stage name is Harpy Daniels, announced on TikTok in November that she would be the Navy's first 'digital ambassador'

Criticism: Many fumed over the Navy's decision to focus on diversity in its recruitment campaign

On her now deleted Instagram page, she listed her pronouns as 'she/her' but also called herself non-binary.

While Kelley's appointment is not new, and she is not the only digital ambassador (she is one of five), her role has only recently attracted criticism.

Many have compared her to Dylan Mulvaney, the trans activist whose association with Bud Light sparked a PR crisis for the brand and sent sales plummeting.

Now, some veterans and conservatives are slamming the Navy for trying to solve a recruiting crisis by appointing a drag queen.

Kelley has a large following on TikTok where she has been sharing videos of her drag performances on-board Navy ships for years.

Kelley said her experience in the Navy 'brought so much strength, courage and ambition to continue being an advocate and [representative] of queer sailors'

In November last year, as part of an effort to boost recruitment, she and four others were given the non-paid, digital ambassador roles.

While her performances and non-binary identification have been applauded by many - including some vets - others are furious that the Navy believes this may solve the answer to its recruiting crisis.

They say the decision will only make America's enemies mock its capabilities and strategy.

'US Navy are now using Drag Queen Joshua Kelley (AKA Harpy Daniels) to attract new enlistment.

'This must strike fear in our enemies,' quipped one critic.

Kelley, pictured as Harpy Daniels, said she was inspired by the drag queens on RuPaul's Drag Race, which she started watching when he was 16

Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, whose stage name is Harpy Daniels, announced on TikTok in November that she would be the Navy's first 'digital ambassador,' highlighting her journey from performing on board beginning in 2018 and growing to become an 'advocate' for those who 'were oppressed for years in the service'

The Navy's decision to promote Kelley was part of its larger efforts to reach Gen Z

'So the US military misses recruitment goals by a mile.. and instead of getting a clue their strategy is to enlist a drag queen influencer that goes by the name of Harpy Daniels to meet recruiting goals?

'I'm sure China is terrified!' said another.

In her video, Daniels described standing up for LGBTQ causes in the military.

She hit back at some critics online, labeling them 'homophobic'.

Kelley said she began dressing in drag and performing in shows years before she joined the Navy, drawing on inspiration from the queens on RuPaul's Drag Race  which he started watching at the age of 16.

She then first started performing on ships after a sanctioned MWR (Morale. Welfare and Recreation) lip-syncing contest in 2017, while deployed on the USS Ronald Reagan, and became a regular in the competitions, according to NBC News.

The officer insists she never experienced harassment in the Navy, but when she was scheduled to perform at a diversity, equity and inclusion event at Langley Joint Air Force Base in the summer of 2022, it 'caused an uproar to many conservatives and Christian extremists.'

A recent survey found that only 13 percent of 18-29-year-olds are 'highly willing' to join the Navy, while 25 percent are 'somewhat willing.'
A British Army corporal bit into a fellow soldier's ears and nose at a formal Christmas party in a brutal 'unprovoked' attack, leaving him covered in blood, a court martial heard.

Corporal Paul Byron allegedly followed Lance Corporal Dean Taylor into toilets at the smart event in December 2021, after he was accused of making a racist slur towards a Muslim colleague.

Cpl Byron then hit LCpl Taylor on the back of the head, repeatedly punched him and kneed him in a 'frenzied' attack - leaving the LCpl Taylor with blood 'all down' his face, Bulford Military Court heard.

The pair were left tangled on the floor, before Cpl Byron was pulled away from the brutal assault.

The hearing was told that before the attack, Cpl Byron was accused of making a racist comment about a fellow Muslim soldier, Lance Corporal Faisal Murtaza.

Pictured: Victim, Lance Corporal Dean Taylor at Bulford Military Court. The court heard how he was left with blood 'all down' his face following the attack in December 2021

Pictured: Cpl Paul Byron at Bulford Military Court. He allegedly followed LCpl Taylor into toilets before hitting him on the back of the head and repeatedly punching him in a 'frenzied' attack

The hearing at Bulford Military Court Centre (pictured) was told that before the attack, Cpl Byron was accused of making a racist comment about a fellow Muslim soldier, Lance Corporal Faisal Murtaza

LCpl Taylor told the court he had 'no idea' why Cpl Byron had attacked him.

But when quizzed by service police, Cpl Byron claimed he had simply been acting in self defence.

The Military Court in Wiltshire heard the men - members of the Royal Anglian Regiment - had been wearing 'best dress' during the boozy party at Kendrew Barracks, Rutland.

In prospecting, Major James Eveleigh told the trial: '[Cpl Byron and LCpl Taylor] both attended a unit Christmas function.

'Everyone was in best dress, nothing out of the ordinary, but of course alcohol was involved.

'The defendant became involved in a series of backwards and forwards arguments which culminated in a suggestion of racist behaviour from Cpl Byron [towards LCpl Murtaza].

'These arguments were thought to have been settled in a practical way - but that wasn't the case for Cpl Byron. LCpl Taylor went to the toilets and was standing with his back to the door.

'As he stood in that position he was struck on the back of the head and dealt a number of blows all while his body was wedged between the toilet and cubicle wall.'

The prosecutor continued to say that he managed to turn around and face Cpl Byron, but he proceeded to brutally attack him as he lay 'helplessly' on the floor.

The court heard LCpl Murtaza and Cpl Byron had shaken hands after the alleged racist remark, before LCpl Taylor was assaulted

Cpl Byron denies a single charge of causing actual bodily harm at the smart event, which was held in December 2021

Major Eveleigh continued: 'Cpl Byron was shouting, swearing and even growling at him in what was a frenzied attack.

'He bit him on the back of the head and ears, causing his blood to freely run.

'It was unprovoked, extreme violence conducted in drink and only separated by a bystander.'

After being separated, details of the incident eventually were reported up the chain of command and Service Police were informed.

LCpl Taylor told the court Cpl Byron had threatened him before assaulting him in the toilets, saying: 'He came over to the table and said 'I'll kick your head in' - he was very drunk and angry.

'He called LCpl Murtaza a P***.'

The court heard LCpl Murtaza and Cpl Byron had shaken hands after the alleged racist remark, before LCpl Taylor was assaulted.

LCpl Taylor continued to say: 'I started going to the toilet in a cubicle and I got punched from behind and fell.

'I tried to get him off me but I was being punched and kneed in the face.

'He was very angry, swearing, punching, biting. He bit me on the front of my nose, my ear on the back of my head.

'I had blood all down my face.'

Cpl Byron denies a single charge of causing actual bodily harm at the event in December 2021.

The trial continues.
Police in New Jersey are hunting two short suspected robbers who held Best Buy employees up at gunpoint.

The pint-sized criminals, described as both being under five feet tall, tried to steal several iPhones from the store in Nixon Drive, New Jersey.

Mount Laurel Police Department was called to the robbery in progress on April 30 at around 1.30pm. It's unclear if the robbers managed to steal any goods.

Both suspects fled the store in an early 2000's model silver Acura TL which had a temporary registration and dark-tinted windows before police arrived on the scene.

Surveillance footage shows the suspects inside the store trying to swipe iPads and iPhones before an employee intervened.

The pint-sized criminals, described as both being under five feet tall, tried to steal several iPhones from the store in Nixon Drive, New Jersey

A suspect in a blue jumpsuit then started to point his Glock 9mm handgun at staff members, but they did not make any verbal threats.

Both men fled the store before police got there, and officers have now released images and are appealing for help in identifying the suspects.

A Best Buy spokesman said: 'Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our customers and employees, and we're grateful that no one was injured at our mount laurel store n Sunday.

'We're focused on supporting our employees and are working closely with law enforcement during their investigation.'

During a press conference, Lieutenant Ryan Orange said: 'To do something like this in the middle of the day on a Sunday when people are shopping is incredibly bold and that's why we're going to do everything in our power to catch them.

'If you see the suspects contact 911 immediately we consider them armed and dangerous.

Both men fled the store before police got there, and officers have now released images and are appealing for help in identifying the suspects

Both suspects fled the store in an early 2000's model silver Acura TL which had a temporary registration and dark-tinted windows before police arrived on the scene

Authorities are appealing for any information on the small-statured criminals, and confirmed they are looking into the possibility that they have targeted other stores

A suspect in a blue jumpsuit pointed his Glock 9mm handgun at staff members, but they did not make any verbal threats

Authorities are appealing for any information on the small-statured criminals, and confirmed they are looking into the possibility that they have targeted other stores.

In a statement Mount Laurel Police Department said: 'On Sunday, April 30, 2023, at approximately 1:30 PM, Officers responded to Best Buy on Nixon Drive for an armed robbery in progress.

'Upon arrival the suspects had left the location in an older silver Acura TL bearing an unknown temporary registration. The vehicle has dark tint on all windows.

'The suspect in the blue jumpsuit pointed a firearm at multiple employees while attempting to retrieve iPhones off the display.

'Both suspects are described to be under 5 feet tall.'

If anyone knows the identity of these suspects or has any information, you are kindly asked to contact Mount Laurel Police Department at 856-234-8300 or the confidential tip line 856-234-1414 Ext. 1599.
Russia has accused Ukraine of trying to assassinate Vladimir Putin in a double drone strike on the Kremlin overnight.

Moscow said it had foiled the attempt and called it 'a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation'. It has prompted demands from Russian lawmakers for the Kyiv government to be 'destroyed'.

Two drones were used in the alleged attack, Moscow claimed, with nighttime footage showing fireballs erupting above the roof of the government complex.

The accusation was followed by a chilling warning from a senior Russian official, who called on Moscow to escalate Putin's war and use 'weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime'.

But Ukraine quickly responded to the claim, the most dramatic Russia has levelled against Kyiv since invading its neighbour more than 14 months ago, saying it had 'nothing to do' with the alleged attack.

Pictured: A fireball is seen rising over the Kremlin after an alleged drone strike by Ukraine

Pictured: An explosion is seen (left) over the Kremlin. It was captured by a camera overlooking Moscow's Red Square and St Basil's Cathedral (right)

Zelensky on Wednesday denied Moscow's claims that Kyiv had attempted to assassinate Putin, after Russia said the two drones were shot down.

'We didn't attack Putin. We leave it to the tribunal. We fight on our territory, we are defending our villages and cities,' Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters at a joint press conference with Nordic leaders in Helsinki.

His senior aide said earlier: 'We have no information about the so-called night attacks on the Kremlin. But, as President Zelensky has repeatedly stated, Ukraine directs all available forces and means to liberate its own territories, and not to attack others.'

One theory could be that the attack is a cynical false flag operation by Russia seeking to unite people behind the under-pressure president, amid setbacks and a huge toll caused by unleashing a disastrous war on Ukraine.

The timing is certainly interesting, coming less than a week before the planned massive annual military parade in Red Square marking the defeat of Hitler - for which Putin has no victories to boast of in his on-going assault across the border.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the accusation that Kyiv was behind the attack, as well as Russia's arrest of alleged Ukrainian saboteurs, could indicate Moscow was preparing for a large-scale 'terrorist' attack of its own against Ukraine in the coming days.

Podolyak added that 'Ukraine does not attack the Kremlin because, firstly, that does not solve any military aims'.

But soon after the accusation, officials called for an escalation in the conflict.

The influential speaker of Russia's parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, demanded the use of 'weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime' in response to an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday.

In a statement posted on Telegram, Volodin said Russia should not negotiate with Zelensky after the purported attack. Russia has said it is open to negotiations, while making clear it would only enter talks on its own terms.

Meanwhile, Kyiv and some central and eastern Ukrainian regions announced air alerts on Wednesday afternoon, warning of possible impending attacks, while the United States said it was unable to verify the Russian reports.

Russia has accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin in a double drone strike on the Kremlin overnight. Moscow furiously decried the attack as 'a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation'. Pictured: Video purportedly shows smoke rising over the Kremlin overnight

Pictured: A plume of smoke rises over the illuminated spires of the Kremlin overnight

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he is highly skeptical of any allegations made by Russia. 'I've seen the reports. I cannot validate them, we simply don't know,' Blinken said at an event in Washington.

'I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.'

The allegation of the failed assassination attempt was made by Kremlin officials today and reported by Russian news agencies hours after the strike last night.

The Kremlin said two drones had been used in the alleged attempt, but that they were disabled by Russian defences.

The first was at 2:27am hitting the Senate Palace, the second at 2:43am, said TV Centre channel.

The Kremlin did not present any evidence to back up its account.

Extraordinary video posted by Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russia's law enforcement agencies, showed a flying object approaching the dome of a Kremlin building overlooking Red Square and exploding in a burst of light just before reaching it.

Seats could be seen set up for the Victory Day parade.

Another video posted on a neighbourhood internet group appeared to show a plume of smoke over Kremlin spires filmed from across the Moskva River.

The second strike was also captured on video, which showed another fireball erupt from the roof of the Kremlin.

In one the clips, two people were seen climbing up the dome at the time of the strike. It was unclear who they were or why they were on the dome.

'Two unmanned vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin... the devices were put out of action,' Moscow's statement read. In a chilling threat, Russia made clear it reserved the right to respond to the alleged drone strike.

Putin was not injured, and there was no material damage to the Kremlin buildings, the Kremlin said, adding that Putin continues to work normally.

'The Kremlin has assessed these actions as a planned terrorist act and an assassination attempt on the president on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade,' RIA reported. It noted Putin had not changed his schedule.

'The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit,' the Kremlin's statement added, suggesting it planned to retaliate.

The Kremlin said fragments of the drones had been scattered on the territory, as Moscow's mayor announced a ban on unauthorised drone flights over the city.

Telegram channels are sharing what appear to be videos of anti-aircraft fire over the Kremlin, while there were reports of a noise like a 'thunderclap' in Moscow.

Other clips have shown a flash of what is said to be the drone as it flies in over Moscow and explodes over one of the vast Kremlin buildings.

Residents of Stalinist House on the Embankment 'saw sparks in the sky and people with flashlights near the Kremlin wall after the claps'.

RIA state news agency reported: 'As a result of the terrorist act, the president was not injured. The schedule of his work has not changed and will continue as usual.

'There were no casualties during the fall and scattering of UAV fragments on the territory of the Kremlin.'

The purported drone attack would be a significant escalation in the 14-month conflict, with Ukraine taking the war to the heart of Russian power.

Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, said, 'It certainly wasn't an attempt to assassinate Putin, because he doesn't sleep in the roof and he probably never sleeps in the Kremlin.'

He added it was too soon to prove or disprove whether it was a Russian attempt 'either to make Ukraine look reckless or to buck up Russian public opinion' or if it was a Ukrainian operation to embarrass Russia.

Russia has massively increased air defences in Moscow and around Putin's palaces and residences. RIA said Putin had not been in the Kremlin at the time, and was working on Wednesday at his Novo Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.

He said in March that he is living in his apartment more often. State media 360TV reported Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time.

In March, Putin said: 'I have an apartment here [in the Kremlin], where I spend a lot of time lately. I work here and spend a lot of nights often.'

He met Chinese president Xi in the flat 'sitting by the fireplace and drinking tea, [and] talked about everything slowly'.

Dmitry Peskov confirmed Putin was working as normal today at his official residence outside the city.

Pictured: What appears to be a drone is seen flying over the Kremlin overnight

Pictured: An explosion erupts over the Kremlin in a purported drone strike in Moscow

People are seen on the dome of the Kremlin Senate building in central Moscow, May 3, after the purported drone strike

Russian pro-war analysts expressed shock that drones could penetrate defences to the Kremlin, the official residence of the Russian president.

Telegram channel VChK-OGPU stated that if Putin had been at the Kremlin, his spokesman would not have admitted it.

Russian pro-war reporter Alexander Kots called for retaliation against Ukraine's leadership. 'They must be destroyed,' he said.

'We should not hit the centres, but the people who make decisions. Methodically, systematically and ruthlessly.

'The enemy is doing this systematically on our territory.'

Retired colonel and military expert Anatoly Matviychuk said the alleged bid to assassinate Putin will lead to a massive Russian response.

'I think that we will strike at the decision-making centre [of Ukraine] like the presidential palace in Kyiv.'

He claimed the US and Britain would have approved the drone strike on the Kremlin.

'I think this attack was made on the advice of our Anglo-Saxon "friends" in order to test our government's response.

'How will we react - let's wait a couple more hours... Either there will be a political statement or there will be physical actions by our fighters. They [the Armed Forces of Ukraine] have already crossed not even the red line but the crimson line.'

Pro-war reporter Sergey Karnaukhov said NATO planes were active over the Black Sea in the aftermath of the 'Ukrainian drone strike' on the Kremlin.

The Russian outrage comes despite Putin's special forces attempting to assassinate Ukraine's president Zelensky in the first days of his invasion.

Gun battles broke out on the streets of Kyiv, and the Russian saboteurs - who were understood to have been ordered to capture or kill Ukraine's first family - were repelled from the capital, before Russia retreated fully a month later.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday it shot down two drones launched by Ukraine that it said were part of an attempt on the Russian president's life. Pictured: Putin is seen in Moscow today

The attempted attack in Moscow comes ahead of a huge military parade scheduled against a backdrop of the Kremlin on Red Square on 9 May, marking Victory Day - the Soviet defeat of Hitler. The videos from the scene showed the branding of the event.

Russia's Victory Day is seen as the biggest day in Putin's calendar, and he has no military victories to boast about to his people despite his desperate attempts to seize the eastern city of Bakhmut - which Ukraine has defended for months.

There may be a calculation that such an attack will bring sceptical Russians behind Putin once more. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today the parade would go ahead despite the drone attack.

READ MORE: Saboteurs derail Russian freight train with explosives 37 miles from Ukraine and destroy power cables in double blow to Putin Advertisement

The drone strike in Moscow last night came a week after it was claimed that Ukrainian secret service agents had tried to assassinate Putin with a kamikaze drone carrying explosives as he was due to visit a newly built industrial site outside Moscow.

The drone failed after it crashed a few miles short of their target, it was claimed.

The Ukrainian forces reportedly launched the UJ-22 drone, laden with 17 kilograms of C4 plastic explosives, from Ukraine on Sunday, April 23.

But before the deadly drone reached the Rudnevo industrial park on its alleged mission to take out the Russian despot, it crashed mere miles away from the site.

German tabloid Bild cited a tweet by Ukrainian activist Yuriy Romanenko, who claims to have close ties to Kyiv's intelligence services, alleging Ukrainian secret service agents had received 'information' about Putin's apparent trip.

They decided to launch the deadly drone in an attempt to assassinate the president.

He claimed that a kamikaze drone that had crashed in Voroskogo village, 12 miles east of the Rudnevo industrial park, was the one that Ukrainian forces had launched as part of the assassination plot.

The news of the alleged assassination attempt came as Ukraine prepared for a fresh offensive against Russian troops that has been months in planning.

In possible signs that preparations are being stepped up, the frontline city of Kherson in southern Ukraine announced a long curfew for residents and sabotage acts behind Russian lines intensified.

Kherson, which was re-taken by Ukrainian troops in November, will be under curfew from Friday evening until Monday morning.

Regional officials said this was 'for law enforcement officers to do their job', but similar long curfews have also been used in the past for troop and arms movements.

'During these 58 hours, it is forbidden to move on the streets of the city. The city will also be closed for entry and exit,' the head of Kherson's regional military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram.

He advised residents to stock up on food and medicine and said people could go for short walks near their houses or visit shops but should carry identity documents with them at all times.

The curfew announcement came as officials said three people were killed and five injured in a Russian strike on Kherson's only working hypermarket on Wednesday.

Kherson was captured by Russian troops last year in the first days of the invasion and remained under Russian occupation until November 2022.

After a sustained campaign of sabotage attacks behind Russian lines, Russian forces withdrew from the city.

They crossed to the eastern side of the Dnipro River which now delineates part of the front line in southern Ukraine.

The curfew announcement came as officials in Russia said they were dealing with a major fire at a fuel depot close to the bridge to Russian-annexed Crimea - the second such incident in just a few days.

A source in the emergency services was quoted by TASS news agency as saying that the fire had been caused by a drone.

An explosion also caused a freight train to derail in a southern Russian region bordering Ukraine on Tuesday, also the second such incident in just two days.

In this file photo taken on March 15, 2023 a 'No Drone Zone' sign sits in central Moscow as it prohibits unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) flying over the area

A group of police officers stand at the corner of the GUM department store in the empty Red Square, closed for Victory Parade preparation with the Spasskaya Tower and the Kremlin Wall in the background in Moscow, Russia, Friday, April 28

Ukraine says it has been preparing for months for a counteroffensive aimed at repelling Russian forces from the territory they currently hold in the east and south.

Head of pro-Putin Wagner private army Yevgeny Prigozhin said the Ukrainian counteroffensive had begun. There was 'the highest activity' by Ukrainian aviation.

Meanwhile in Finland, NATO's newest member, Zelensky was on a surprise visit to take part in a summit with the leaders of the five Nordic nations which have been key providers of military aid.

'In order to be in NATO and support alliances to gain support, fundamental diplomatic work must be done. Ukraine is doing it today,' Daria Zarivna, Ukraine's presidential communications adviser, wrote on Telegram.
Chris Packham today told a libel trial that he fears a 'psychopath' will 'turn up and kill me' as 'random dead animals and human faeces' are regularly posted to him.

On the second day of the trial at the High Court in London on Wednesday, the BBC Springwatch presenter began his evidence by saying he was a 'victim of a campaign of vile and relentless intimidation'.

The TV naturalist is suing three men for libel over nine articles which included claims he defrauded and 'manipulated' people into donating to a charity to rescue tigers while knowing the animals were well looked after.

Mr Packham is also accused of dishonestly raising money for the charity at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic while knowing it was due to receive a 500,000 benefit from its insurance.

He revealed 'masked attackers' set fire to a car and burned down the gate to his home in October 2021, which local police are said to believe was carried out by paid professionals.

TV naturalist Chris Packham today told a libel trial that he fears a 'psychopath' will 'turn up and kill me'

Mr Packham joined protesters gathering outside the Royal Courts Of Justice as animal charity The Humane League UK takes legal action against the government over 'Frankenchickens'

The 61-year-old later said he fears for his and his family's security. He stated: 'I do go to walk my dogs in the woods and wonder: is today the day that a psychopath fuelled by all this hate turns up and kills me?'

Mr Packham also said the men had 'repeatedly picked on and mocked my Asperger's syndrome' as well as comparing him to Jimmy Savile.

In a 50-page witness statement, Mr Packham said his 'deeply held views' have attracted criticism from people who shoot and fox hunt - detailing some of the threats he receives.

'I have become accustomed to the plethora of dead animals people leave at my home,' Mr Packham continued.

He added that he believed the 'defendants' unsubstantiated claims have misled, agitated and fuelled a vocal and violent conspiratorial fringe who increasingly post threatening and vile material about me and my family'.

'I genuinely no longer expect to live a long life free from violence and intimidation. Because it may only take the one wrong person to read Country Squire Magazine for things to go horribly wrong.'

His barrister Jonathan Price previously said an 'enormous amount of puerile, offensive and damaging material' had been published about the presenter and that in letters between the defendants and his lawyers, he had been described as a bully and accused of 'the commission of rape and other sexual offences'.

The presenter called these allegations 'totally unconscionable,' adding: 'They are ridiculous, utterly unfounded, and plainly designed to be as upsetting, threatening and reputationally damaging as possible.'

He later denied fraudulently raising money for the charity, adding 'we weren't hopeful that we would be insured against Covid-19 closures'.

He continued: 'The insurance payments... ultimately saved the sanctuary in what was a time of dire need. But to be very clear, if we had not launched the fundraising appeal as rapidly as we did then these payments may have arrived too late to make a difference.'

The 61-year-old TV naturalist (left), pictured with his partner Charlotte Corney, is suing three men for libel over nine online articles claiming he defrauded people into donating money

The strongly denied allegations, repeated in several tweets and videos, relate to Mr Packham's involvement with the Wildheart Trust, which runs a wildlife sanctuary on the Isle of Wight.

Dominic Wightman, editor of the online site Country Squire Magazine, is defending the libel claim along with writer Nigel Bean and a third man, Paul Read.

Lawyers for Mr Wightman and Mr Bean said the articles in the claim could be defended as true while Mr Read said he was not responsible for the publications as he was a 'mere proofreader'.

Nicholas O'Brien, for Mr Wightman and Mr Bean, said the allegations in the articles in the claim were true and could also be defended as under the public interest.

In written submissions, the barrister said: 'It is clear that the tigers had not been rescued from a circus, were not then in need of rescue, and were not rescued by Mr Packham.'

However, Mr Packham said it was correct to use the word 'rescue' when talking about the tigers moved to the sanctuary.

He said: 'They had been mutilated in that circus, teeth sawn off, claws torn out, leaving them with long term health issues. These animals were the victims of systematic long-term abuse and deprivation and thus any movement toward a clearly positive change constitutes a rescue.'

The trial before Mr Justice Saini is due to conclude on May 12, with a decision expected at a later date.
press release

Amathole  A 33-year-old woman from Prudhoe village in the Amathole district appeared in the Peddie magistrate court this morning, 02 May 2023, for allegedly being in possession of suspected stolen property taken in a burglary on Saturday, 30 April 2023, at the Fish River Resort.

Funeka Xawuka was arrested after police received a tip-off.

It is alleged that on Saturday, 28 April 2023 during the day, a burglary occurred at the Fish River resort where every room of the resort was burgled and many items stolen, including items as stoves, fridges and TVs.

It is further alleged that vehicles with trailers were used to load items from the resort. The office areas were also broken into and all computers and projectors stolen. A vehicle, a Quantum minibus was completely stripped on the premises. The damage incurred including the stolen property is estimated to be millions of rands.

Some of the stolen items were recovered hidden in the bushes.

The company that is managing the resort has since placed security to guard the premises.

A case of burglary business is under investigation.

She is expected to appear in court again on 03 May 2023, for a formal bail application. Police expect to make further arrests.

Police are appealing to the communities to assist in tracing those involved in the theft, to report such crime to the police. All information supplied is confidential and callers may remain anonymous. Police are urging second hand good dealers and the community to be observant and heedful when anyone approaches them to sell any of the abovementioned items. Buying stolen property is an offence and anyone who receives stolen property may be charged and prosecuted.

Media Statement - Office of the Provincial Commissioner Eastern Cape
These are the five teens and two adults who were killed in a suspected murder-suicide in Oklahoma - as a grief-stricken grandma claims pedophile Jesse McFadden carried out the shocking massacre at his property.

Friends Ivy Webster, 14 and Brittany Brewer, 16, were among six victims discovered on Monday after being slain by the convicted sex offender who was found dead alongside them at his home in Henryetta.

The other victims were mother Holly Guess, 35, and her children Rylee Elizabeth Allen, 17; Michael James Mayo, 15; and Tiffany Dore Guess, 13, according to grieving grandma Janette Mayo, 59, who said she had been informed of the tragic deaths by cops.

Ms Mayo was told by the Okmulgee County Sheriff's office that her daughter - who was married to McFadden - and grandchildren were all found shot dead in various locations on the rapist's property. She described McFadden as a 'monster'.

Ivy's father, Justin Webster, said all of the victims suffered gunshot wounds and that some had been lined up in a row and others were 'scattered' across the property. He described the massacre as a murder-suicide.

Fourteen-year-old Ivy Webster (pictured) was one of the people found dead on a Oklahoma property on Monday near the rural town of Henryetta

Ivy's friend Brittany Brewer (pictured), 16, was also found dead at the rural Oklahoma property. She was planning to represent her Oklahoma town at a state beauty pageant this summer. Brittany is wearing the sash as she stands in front of the beauty pageant poster

Holly Guess, 35, and her children Rylee Elizabeth Allen (right), 17; Michael James Mayo (middle), 15; and Tiffany Dore Guess (left), 13 were the other teens killed

Holly Guess pictured with husband McFadden who is believed to have carried out a murder-suicide at his home

Posting on Facebook, Ms Mayo said: 'My daughter loved her children and yes she married the man who killed them but she was fooled by his charm. I hurt just like the other families but he took my world from me. My grandchildren and my daughter. I have a hole in my heart that he created by his actions Jesse McFadden was a monster for his actions.'

In a separate post, she added: 'If someone wants to blame my daughter they can contact me, that man had her fooled and now my daughter and my grandchildren.

'My daughter didn't help him he killed her and 5 children so stop digging my daughter she is a victim as well.'

The Oklahoma State Bureau Investigation, which is assisting in the investigation, told DailyMail.com that they could not confirm the identities of the victims.

'In Oklahoma, only the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner may release the positive identification of individuals,' PIO Gerald Davidson of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations told DailyMail.com.

McFadden, 39, had been scheduled to appear in court Monday for the start of a jury trial on charges of soliciting sexual conduct with a minor and possession of child pornography.

Fox 23 reports that he sent chilling texts to the victim in the case, warning her 'this is all on you', the night before he was found dead with six others.

'I did exactly what I promised I would do when I got out,' McFadden texted the victim. 'I got a marketing job making great money and was being advanced been there 2 years now and made a great life like I promised I would do with you.'

'Now it's all gone, I told you I wouldn't go back  This is all on you for continuing this.'

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections prison records show McFadden was convicted of first-degree rape in 2003 and released in October 2020.

Court records show he was communicating with a then-16-year-old girl using a contraband cellphone while he was incarcerated at a state prison near Muskogee.

The teen's grandfather reported their communications to prison officials, according to an affidavit from a Department of Corrections investigator.

Ms Mayo has revealed that her daughter married McFadden last May but only found out about his criminal past two months ago.

Sex offender Jesse McFadden (pictured) was due in court on child porn charges same day of the killings. He was also found dead at the scene

Janette Mayo revealed that her daughter and three grandchildren were among the victims who she claims were killed by Jesse McFadden

The property where seven bodies were found on Monday following a shocking massacre

Justin Webster wipes tears from his eyes after speaking about his daughter Ivy yesterday

Officials had initially issued an amber alert for Ivy and Brittany - who were reportedly seen travelling with McFadden after vanishing - but it was called off when the bodies were discovered later the same day at the home near Henryetta, a town of about 6,000 about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City.

The two girls were supposed to be going swimming at a creek with McFadden's teenage daughter.

The Endangered Missing Person's Flyer issued by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol

While details from police have been scant, grieving relatives are trying to piece together the horror started that began with two teenagers being reported missing.

In an emotional interview this morning, Ivy's parents suggested that McFadden had impersonated their daughter over text after killing her.

Ivy's mother Ashleigh Webster explained how she had been speaking to her daughter on Snapchat late on Saturday night but when she received a message from her the next morning, something didn't feel right.

'I got a message the next morning, Sunday morning that was her phone but I don't believe it was from her anymore saying that they were going to McAlester and she would be home later,' she told NewsNation.

Mr Webster added: 'We think Jesse wrote that and probably had already happened at that point.'

Ivy's parents Justin and Ashleigh (pictured) have revealed that McFadden texted them pretending to be her while she lay dead next to her friend and four others

An aerial view of the property where five teenagers and two adults were found dead on Monday

Speaking about why they had concerns, Ms Webster added: 'The way Ivy is, she's my best friend, she's constantly 'Mum I love you, ok mum we're going to eat, ok mum we're done eating we're going to go do this now'. She lets me know everything.

'This message was kind of 'ok we're going to McAlester, I'll see you around 5.'

'It was just different but I also didn't think anything of it because they were maybe in a hurry.'

Officials discovered the seven bodies on the property around 3pm at 14600 Holly Road in the rural town of Henryetta, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations told DailyMail.com.

The Websters, who moved to the area two years ago, revealed that they were completely unaware of McFadden's past, adding: 'We had a read on him that he was a little weird but we felt comfortable especially knowing several of our daughters' friends would go over there all the time and hang out.

'Tiffany would come over here to our house and stay here on the weekends and we never suspected any kind of maliciousness.'

Brittany's father Nathan, who called his daughter his 'right hand side kick' also said that his daughter had spent the weekend with the McFadden's family several times before.

He told News On 6 that his daughter was selected to be Miss Henryetta at the [National American Miss pageant] in Tulsa and represent her town this summer.

A grief-stricken Nathan Brewer, father of Brittany Brewer, 16, who was found dead on Monday afternoon in the rural town of Henryetta

Brittany's father said during a vigil that was held on Monday that his daughter (pictured) had dreams of becoming a veterinarian or a teacher

'And now she ain't gonna make it because she's dead, she's gone,' the grief-stricken father said.

He said during a vigil on Monday that his daughter had dreams of becoming a veterinarian or a teacher.

He added: 'It's just a parent's worst nightmare, and I'm living it. I am just lost.'

The grim discovery in Oklahoma keeps the U.S. on a torrid pace for mass killings in 2023 and could push the number of people slain in mass killings past 100 for the year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in a partnership with Northeastern University.
Lucy Letby slept in a bed surrounded by cuddly toys that was made by her father after she was arrested on suspicion of murdering seven babies, a court has heard.

The 33-year-old nurse is accused of murdering five boys and two girls and trying to kill 10 others at the Countess of Chester Hospital from June 2015 to June 2016.

Prosecutors say she injected the infants with air, poisoned them with insulin, overfed them with milk and physically assaulted them. She denies murder.

Letby wept in the dock on Tuesday as she took to the stands for the first time in her trial, following seven months at Manchester Crown Court.

Jurors were told she was arrested at her three bedroom Chester home two years after she was moved off the neo-natal unit, following suspicions she had harmed babies in her care.

Lucy Letby, 33, (pictured) originally from Hereford, is accused of carrying out a spree of murders between June 2015 and 2016. She told the court today that she had not harmed any children

John Letby made his daughter's bed after she was arrested over the alleged murders of seven babies, and alleged attempted killings of 10 others. Mr Letby is pictured leaving Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday after watching his daughter give evidence for the first time

The court was shown a photograph of Letby's bed at her home in Chester. It is covered by a duvet bearing the motif: Sweet Dreams

The court was then shown a photograph of her untidy bedroom and bed, which was covered by a duvet bearing the motif: Sweet Dreams.



Arranged at the pillow end of the bed are four cuddly toys - Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, a rabbit and a light brown eddy bear.

Her defence lawyer Ben Myers KC observed that someone must have straightened the bed following her arrest, and suggested it was probably her father, John Letby. 'Yes,' replied Letby.

Letby was giving evidence for the first time, as her parents John, 76, and Susan, 62, looked on behind - alongside the family members of the alleged victims on the other side of the public gallery.

During the hearing, an emotional Letby told the court she tried her best to care for premature babies and felt sick to be accused of murdering them.

The 33-year-old nurse sobbed as she revealed that being arrested at dawn by police, and taken away in handcuffs in her pyjamas, had left her with post-traumatic stress and unable to sleep.

She was 'devastated' to be blamed for the infants' deaths and at being removed from the neo-natal unit, adding: 'My job was my life, my everything.'



In dramatic exchanges with her barrister, Mr Myers, the nurse repeatedly denied trying to kill or murder the 17 infants.

Asked by her lawyer whether she ever wanted to harm the babies, she replied: 'I only ever did my best to care for them  I am there to help and to care, not to hurt.'

She said 'it was sickening' to be blamed for the deaths, adding: 'I just couldn't believe it. It was devastating, I don't think you could be accused of anything worse than that.'

Lucy Letby wept in the witness box at her trial on Tuesday as she repeatedly denied murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further ten while working as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital

Police are pictured searching the home of Lucy Letby on July 3, 2018. She gave evidence for the first time on Tuesday in her trial, where she is accused of murdering a number of babies. She denies the charges against her

Letby admitted describing doctors, including TV medic Ravi Jayaram, who was in charge of the children's ward and who pointed the finger at her, as 'bastards'.

The court has heard that he and other consultants blocked Letby from returning to the unit when she was moved into a desk job, in July 2016, even though hospital managers wanted her back on the ward. Asked if she ever wanted to hurt any of the 'hundreds' of babies she looked after, Letby said: 'No, that's completely against everything being a nurse is.'

Mr Myers asked Letby to explain a note police found at her home when they arrested her two years after her final alleged victim died.

Letby had written a number of chaotic phrases, including: 'I don't deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough. I am a horrible evil person. I AM EVIL I DID THIS.'

Letby, who sat up straight in her chair as she gave her evidence, claimed she wrote the note, in July 2016, when she was 'really struggling' and doubting her professional ability.

Mr Myers asked: 'How were you feeling?' She replied: 'I felt immense responsibility, I felt I had been incompetent or done something wrong that had harmed the children.'

The court heard officers discovered four notes, in scrawled handwriting, which contained declarations of love for a doctor she worked with, names of some of the babies she is accused of murdering and desperate comments, including 'help me' and 'kill me' inside a handbag and diary in Letby's bedroom

Letby's notes sometimes appear as a jumble of words crammed onto a single sheet of paper

In a further note Letby writes the word HATE in capital letters. 'At the time I did hate myself because I was made to feel I had done something wrong  that I had done something incompetent

Mr Myers pointed to a section of the brief note on which she had scrawled: 'I will never have children or marry or know what it's like to have a family.'

Asked why, the accused replied: 'Because at that time I didn't see any future for myself, I couldn't imagine what life would be, or that I would have a future.'

Mr Myers added: 'The note says 'I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough'. Why did you think you weren't good enough?'

Letby answered: 'Because the suggestion throughout was that I'd done something wrong, that my competencies had to be rechecked.'

The nurse started weeping when Mr Myers asked her about the times she thought about killing herself and about the comment 'I'm evil I did this'.

She told the jury: 'I felt at that time if I'd done something wrong and I didn't know I'd done (something) I must be such an awful evil person if I'd made mistakes and not known.'

The 33-year-old (pictured with a baby), said she was 'devastated' when she was removed from clinical duties

The corridor within the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit, where the alleged incidents are all claimed to have taken place

Letby said she started working at the Chester hospital while studying for her nursing degree at the city's university in 2010. She qualified the following September.

Mr Myers also questioned the nurse about a close friendship she had with a doctor, who cannot be named for legal reasons. Earlier in the trial Letby broke down in tears in the dock when the fellow medic gave evidence.

Asked whether there was 'anything more' to the relationship, Letby replied: 'No, he was just a trusted friend.'

But she admitted they had met up outside work, adding: 'Sometimes we would go out for meals or coffee or walks.'

She said their friendship 'fizzled out' at the beginning of 2018 before she was arrested in July.

At times her mother, Susan, 62, wiped away tears as her only child gave evidence. She and her husband, John, 76, have attended every day of the trial.

Letby, of Hereford, denies seven counts of murder and 15 counts of attempted murder against 17 children. The trial is scheduled to continue on Friday.
He had been surfing waves in Tahiti when he was flung head first into the ocean

Tom Lowe, 39, was hospitalised with six broken ribs and internal bleeding

British big-wave surfer Tom Lowe was hospitalised with six broken ribs and internal bleeding after suffering a huge wipeout in Tahiti.

The father-of-one, 39, had been surfing the waves off the coast of Teahupo'o in southern Tahiti on Friday when he was flung head first into the Pacific Ocean.

Video shows Lowe taking off late on a large wave before losing his balance and being thrown into shallow waters where sharp pieces of coral cut into his body.

Lowe, from St Ives, Cornwall, was nowhere to be seen as the huge wave crashed down on top of him in the horrifying incident.

Those who watched in horror at the wipeout rushed to rescue the critically injured surfer from the waters before airlifting him to a nearby hospital.

Tom Lowe was hospitalized after a brutal wipeout yesterday. Click the link for more updates from Teahupo'o. https://www.surfline.com/surf-news/swell-alert/teahupoo-awakes/177788 Posted by Surfline on Saturday, April 29, 2023

Video shows Lowe taking off late on a large wave before losing his balance and being thrown into shallow waters where sharp pieces of coral cut into his body

British big-wave surfer Tom Lowe was hospitalised (pictured) with six broken ribs and internal bleeding after suffering a huge wipeout in Tahiti

The father-of-one, 29, was injured following the wipeout. Pictured: Lowe surfing in Newquay, UK, in August 2014

Lowe underwent surgery and a blood transfusion after he suffered six broken ribs, a fractured scapula and internal bleeding. His pregnant wife Tess and daughter Tigerlilly, upon hearing of the life-threatening accident, rushed to be by his bedside.

'I truly do feel lucky to have made it,' Lowe wrote in an Instagram post.

'It was a rough day,' Lowe later told Surfline. 'But I'm in one piece and I'll be back, reborn and fighting fit.'

Lowe's friend Greg Long has since set up a GoFundMe page to help raise runs for the surfer's 'extensive' medical bills as his insurance does not cover his treatment.

Long wrote: 'During the recent monumental swell at Teahupo'o, Tahiti, Tom endured a bad wipeout.

'His resulting injuries from hitting the reef required he be airlifted to the hospital where he underwent multiple emergency surgeries.

'He is currently in stable condition but will need to remain under close watch in the hospital for the coming days.'

Lowe (pictured) underwent surgery and a blood transfusion after he suffered six broken ribs, a fractured scapula and internal bleeding

Long said any donations will help Lowe and his family to cover his medical expenses and support his rehabilitation process.

'Tom has been a dear friend for years,' Long wrote. 'Anyone who has ever met Tom knows him as a humble, kind and talented surfer who is a dedicated family man to his wife Tess, daughter Tigerlilly and soon-to-be baby-on-the-way.

Tom has a long road ahead, but true to his nature, he is positive, in a fighting spirit, and extends his heartfelt gratitude for all the love and support he is being shown.

'It's not in my nature to ask for handouts, but in this instance I don't know what I would have done without it,' Lowe said of the donations. So far, $36,000 (28,800) has been raised.

'I am completely overwhelmed and humbled by the generosity and kindness everyone has shown,' Lowe said. 'Thank you for all your positive energy and thoughtful messages.'
Bryan Kohberger, 28, was arrested for killing four student in their Idaho home

Alongside a photo of the pair together Jake Schriger sent 'kisses to heaven'

The boyfriend of one of the victims in the University of Idaho killings, Maddie Mogan, celebrated the couple's two year anniversary by posting a new photo of them together.

Jake Schriger, who knew all four victims, also said in a message to Mogan: 'I miss you so much. I wish I could spoil you today but I'm sending extra hugs and kisses to heaven.'

Schriger's girlfriend Mogan, 21, her close friend Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were all stabbed to death in the off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13.

In December, Bryan Kohberger, 28, was arrested for killing the students and charged with four counts of first-degree murder. He's being held in prison awaiting his next court appearance.

Schriger and Mogan were dating at the time of her murder and April 28 would have marked their two year anniversary. The two had been dating for around 18 months at the time of the murders.

A new photo of murdered University of Idaho victim, Maddie Mogan (right), and Jake Schriger was shared on couple's second anniversary last Friday

In December, Bryan Kohberger (pictured), 28, was arrested for killing the students and charged with four counts of first-degree murder

Schriger was also a student at the University of Idaho and spoke at a vigil in December of the couple's first date at The Breakfast Club in the university town of Moscow.

'She was the first person I talked to every morning and the last person I talked to before bed,' Schriger said at the time. 'She was the person that I loved most.'

'I remember always being so excited to see the way that your face would light up when I finally got to see you and have you in my arms again,' he wrote in a different social media post honoring Mogen in November, less than a week after she was killed.

'I promise to make you proud from heaven and carry on your values of showing and spreading love to everyone,' he added.

A preliminary hearing on the murders is scheduled for June, in which several witnesses are expected to give testimony.

Previously, a crucial witness - one of the surviving roommates in the house - had fought a subpoena forcing her to appear in both the preliminary hearing and the trial.

Then, court documents last week revealed that Bethany Funke, 21, had agreed to an interview with Kohberger's defense team.

In new documents submitted last Wednesday, both sides came to the agreement that the defense would go to Funke for an interview in Nevada  dismissing a subpoena issued on April 11.

Funke (far right) may not be forced to appear at the preliminary hearing on June 28, depending on the information that she gives investigators

Court documents last week revealed that Funke's lawyers were arguing that she should not have to testify at a preliminary hearing in June, or for the duration of Kohberger's trial

A court order submitted on April 26 has squashed a subpoena forcing her to testify, after she agreed to speak with Kohberger's defense team

Bethany Funke, 21, (left) will meet with lawyers for Bryan Kohberger at her home in Reno, Nevada, after trying to argue that she should not have to testify during the various court hearings

It means that the surviving roommate may not be forced to appear at the preliminary hearing on June 28, depending on the information that she gives investigators.

Investigator Richard Bitonti, who is working for Kohberger's defense team, subpoenaed Funke on the basis that she may have exculpatory information.

They claimed that the information she has is 'material and necessary' to the alleged killer's defense  though it is unclear exactly what that is.

Bitonti wrote in an affidavit: 'During the course of my investigation, it became known to me that [she] has information material to the charges against Mr. Kohberger.'

He added that she 'disclosed things she heard and things she saw' when interviewed by police and was present when police were called.

However Funke's lawyers hit back by saying that the preliminary hearing is not meant to 'become a mini-trial', and is only meant to decide probably cause.

They also said the subpoena was improperly filed, and there is no authority for an Idaho criminal defendant to summon a Nevada witness to Idaho for a preliminary hearing.

As a potential witness Funke can willingly testify in the hearings, but if she refuses a subpoena can force her to attend court even if she does not want to.

Criminal justice major Kohberger, 28, is accused of killing Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, on November 13 last year

Investigator Richard Bitonti, who is working for Kohberger's defense team, subpoenaed Funke (left) on the basis that she may have exculpatory information

Funke lived on the first-floor of the split-level home with survivor Dylan Mortenson, the second survivor and person who came face-to-face with the killer during the attack

If a witness refuses to testify after being ordered to do so by a subpoena they can be held in contempt of court and given a fine of $500 or 25 days in jail.

However they can invoke their Fifth Amendment rights while testifying at the hearing if doing so might implicate them in a crime.

According to the statement of Office Brett Payne, both Funke and the other surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen, were home at the time of the homicides.

Funke's bedroom is described as being located on the east side of the first floor of the property, and she heard Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle return to the property at 1.45am on the night of the murders.

Mortensen's account of seeing a 'tall man' who was 'clad in black clothing and a mask' is detailed in the document.

However Funke's version of events has not been publicly released, though both roommates phones were forensically downloaded by officers  leading them to believe the crimes occurred between 4am and 4.25am.

It is unclear what defense investigators feel could clear Kohberger, but if Funke's version of events contradicts that of Mortensen it could play a key role in the trial.

A gag order also remains in place, preventing anyone connected to the case from speaking publicly.

Kohberger is yet to enter a plea in the quadruple homicide, and is charged with four counts of murder and one of burglary.
A six-months pregnant passenger attacked a Spirit Airlines employee after she was told she could not board the flight after threatening a gate agent.

Video footage shows Que Maria Scott, 29, tackling Jasmine Rhoden at a gate at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Georgia on April 30.

After a brief struggle, fellow passengers were able to pull Scott, who is originally from Philadelphia, off Rhoden.

As she was being led away from the gate, Scott announced to shocked onlookers that she was pregnant, despite allegedly 'smelling of alcohol.'

She was later arrested for simple assault and disorderly conduct and transported to the Clayton County Jail in Jonesboro.

There was a fight yesterday at Atlanta Airport. They were both added to the no fly list.  pic.twitter.com/svK2fKj9AZ  Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) May 1, 2023

Video footage shows Que Maria Scott, 29, tackling Jasmine Rhoden at an Atlanta airport gate

Footage posted on social media shows a violent altercation between the two women, with Scott ending up on top of the employee.

Although the video posted to Twitter says 'They were both added to the no fly list', this is incorrect as one is Rhoden, who works for the airline.

An Atlanta Police Department witness statement from Rhoden said Scott came to the gate and asked others what was going on with the flight that they were supposed to take.

She then reportedly began to threaten one of the gate agents, who got on the phone to call 911.

'Rhoden stated that the passenger made a statement to other passengers around that, she will beat a b**** up if she does not get on the plane,' the report said.

'At that moment, Ms. Rhoden explained that she was going to deny her boarding to this flight due to her statement and actions at the gate area.'

The gate agent then reportedly closed the gate, and Scott pulled up her sweat pants and proceeded to attack Rhoden by 'swinging her arms and hitting Ms. Rhoden on the left side of her face.'

'Ms. Rhoden then stated that Ms. Q. Scott began to pull her hair at the scene and pulling her into a barrier that was at the location causing them to fall to the ground,' the report continued.

'Ms. Rhoden stated that the female fell on top of her and it took for other passengers to get Ms. Q. Scott off her.

'Ms. Rhoden stated that she clearly smelled alcohol on Ms. Q. Scott even though Ms. Q. Scott claimed to be pregnant.'

Rhoden said in a police report that fellow passengers had to help break up the altercation

Body cam footage provided by Atlanta Police Department shows Rhoden saying 'she needs to be arrested.'

In response Scott shouts 'I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant' as she is handcuffed by officers.

Scott then says: 'I didn't do nothing to nobody. You really just got me booked. It's cool. I'm going to remember your face in my head forever.'

Scott was arrested by the Atlanta Police Airport Division and transported to Clayton County Jail with a bond amount of $1,500 in fees and $350 in fees.

The police report said Scott told officers she was pregnant as she was transported to the precinct.

'During the event, Ms. Q. Scott advised that she was six months pregnant,' the report said.

'Atlanta fire and EMS was called out to the precinct to check Ms. Scott out for any pains or discomforts. Ms. Scott was not transported to the hospital.'

DailyMail.com has contacted Spirit Airlines for comment.

Rhoden alleges that Scott hit her and pulled her hair when she was denied access to a flight

According to FOX 5, Spirit is one of the few airlines that would bring on off-duty officers to monitor its gates in the past. That deployment has apparently been discontinued.

It is not the first violent incident which has occurred at an airport gate of the airline.

Shocking video footage obtained in February exclusively for DailyMail.com shows Spirit Airlines agents trading blows with unruly passengers as they were boarding a flight in Philadelphia.

The vicious fight erupted at Philadelphia International Airport when a mom, 39, and her 17-year-old daughter were hit with extra fees because their carry-on luggage was too large.

Officers spoke to everyone involved but did not make any arrests over the dust-up.
Fox News funnyman Greg Gutfeld came to the defense of his former colleague Tucker Carlson on Tuesday as more behind-the-scenes clips of Carlson's comments are leaked by the press.

Weighing in on a Twitter thread devoted to Carlson's off-air comments, Gutfeld slammed critics coming for Carlson in the wake of his abrupt exit from Fox News.

'Apparently everyone understands nonsense banter between segments except for hall monitor failures bitterly chronicling the lives of the far more successful,' he wrote.

Gutfeld's defense of Carlson comes after the late night Fox host defended the now axed host against derogatory comments from Fox News colleague Geraldo Rivera last month.

Rivera referred to Carlson's 'perverse January 6 conspiracy theory' as 'bullsh**,' to which Gutfeld replied, 'You're a class act Geraldo. A real man of the people.'

Despite the somewhat raunchy nature of some of the behind-the-scenes clips of Fox's former highest-rated host currently circulating, the videos do not seem to be grounds for termination.

Late night Fox News host Greg Gutfeld jumped to the defense of his former colleague Tucker Carlson, as behind the scenes videos from his sets continue to be leaked to the media

In clips that have been making the rounds after being leaked to Media Matters, Carlson is seen criticizing the Fox Nation online platform, for which he produced a significant amount content.

'Nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks,' said Carlson, adding that the site's failures were a 'betrayal of our efforts.'

The video appears to have been shot on the set of Tucker Carlson Today, one of Fox Nation's exclusive shows.

'I'm just frustrated with it. It's hard to use that site. I don't know why they're not fixing it. It's driving me insane. And they're like making, like, Lifetime movies. But they don't...work on the infrastructure of the site. Like what? It's crazy. And it drives me crazy because it's like we're doing all this extra work and no one can find it. It's unbelievable, actually,' said Carlson.

'We're like working like animals to produce all this content, and the people in charge of it...they're ignoring the fact that the site doesn't work. And I think it's like a betrayal of our efforts. That's how I feel.'

In another video posted by Media Matters, Carlson is overheard exchanging remarks with Fox Nation host Piers Morgan, who is about to interview him.

The conversation starts politely with Carlson welcoming Morgan to the company and Morgan saying he's had a positive experience so far, and then changes pace as Carlson delivers what is meant to be a humorous comment about sex.

'If we're going to talk about sex, I'd love to hit up some of the fine points of technique, but, you know, but it's your show. It's totally up to you,' said Carlson in jest.

Morgan, playing along with the bit, responded: 'We can certainly talk about your sexual technique, especially after your tanning testicle last week,' making reference to a segment Carlson did about the practice of tanning one's testicles as a way to reduce a decline in testosterone levels.

'Not mine!' replied Carlson. 'We'll speak in more general terms, but I've got something to add.'

In another leaked clip, Carlson, speaking to someone off camera joked that someone's 'girlfriend was yummy,' then said: 'Just kidding, in case this is being pulled off the bird. Hey, Media Matters for America, go f**k yourself! I don't even know what his girlfriend looks like.

'And if I did, I would not find her yummy.'



A recently reported text chain sent from Carlson to one of his producers on January 7, 2021 may provide insight into why Carlson was ultimately shown the door at Fox.

An incendiary text sent by Carlson was revealed to the board of Fox News on the eve of its defamation trial last month and reportedly sparked, in part, his shocking exit from the network at which he thrived for years.

The texts from Carlson read: 'A couple of weeks ago, I was watching a video of people fighting on the street in Washington.'

'A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living s*** out of him. It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It's not how white men fight.

'Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it.

'Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn't good for me. I'm becoming something I don't want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being.

'Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I'm sure I'd hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn't gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed.

'If I don't care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?'

Carlson is pictured speaking at the Heritage Foundation shortly before his April 24 firing

The New York Times reported that Fox's board was concerned the messages could be made public at trial - a fear that pushed them to agree to the $787.5 million settlement.

The board told Fox executives on the day the trial began it was bringing in an outside law firm to investigate Carlson's behavior.

The board hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz to investigate Fox's biggest star.

The network has been tight-lipped in its explanation of Carlson's bombshell firing.

In a statement last Monday, a spokesman said: 'FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways.

'We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.'

The New York Times report also claims Carlson called one senior Fox News executive a 'c**t', and was disappointed when that was redacted from the official record.
Eleven men accused of historical sexual abuse against three teenage girls in Rochdale are set to appear before a court.

Their combined 103 charges relate to alleged offences against the three girls between 2000 and 2006.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said they were charged in connection with Operation Lytton - an ongoing investigation into historical sex offences against children.

The suspects are due before Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

Tahir Rashid, 52, of Hudsons Walk, Rochdale, has been charged with 13 offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

The eleven men - whose combined 103 charges relate to alleged offences between 2000 and 2006 - are due before Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court [pictured]

Mohammad Salim, 44, of Bradley Smithy Close, Rochdale, has been charged with eight offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Suklene Shah, 44, of Crawford Street, Rochdale, has been charged with two counts of penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Mohammed Shazad, 42, of Beswicke Royds Street, Rochdale, has been charged with 16 offences, including rape, trafficking persons within the UK for sexual exploitation and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Nisar Hussain, 39, of Newfield Close, Rochdale, has been charged with three offences, including making indecent images of a child and trafficking persons within the UK for sexual exploitation.

Naheem Akram, 46, of Manley Road, Rochdale, has been charged with 10 offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Mohammed Zahid, 62, of Station Road, Crumpsall, has been charged with 32 offences, including rape, trafficking persons within the UK for sexual exploitation and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl, gross indecency with an underage girl, procuring an underage girl to have unlawful sexual intercourse with unknown males.

Roheez Khan, 37, of Athole Street, Rochdale, has been charged with three offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said they were charged in connection with Operation Lytton - an ongoing investigation into historical sex offences against children

Arfan Khan, 39, of Grouse Street, Rochdale, has been charged with four offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Mustaq Ahmed, 65, of Corona Avenue, Oldham, has been charged with six offences, including rape and gross indecency with an underage girl.

Kasir Bashir, 48, of Napier Street East, Oldham, has been charged with six offences, including rape and gross indecency with an underage girl.
A father who was fined nearly 500 after taking his children on holiday during term time has defended his decision because the trips were 8,000 cheaper.

Paul Benson, 35, and wife Jessica, 34, were ordered to pay a total of 480 for twice taking their two children on holiday to Disney World in Florida.

He says his children were 'ostracised' at their primary school, who he says made them feel their family break was a 'criminal activity'.

But he said the family was right to jet off for the breaks in September as the price of their two-week stay was 3,700, rather than 12,000 in peak season.

Paul says he was shocked by critical comments he received from teachers, adding that going away during holiday periods was now just for the 'super earners'.

Paul and Jessica have been fined after taking their children on holiday during term time

He said: 'It wasn't so much the fine that bothered us, but because of the fine, it meant it was a criminal activity to be able to spend time with our family.

'Teachers would remind us and say it's affecting their education, and their education would suffer as a result.

'But our eldest child was one of the top performers in her SATS. So it contradicted what they were saying all the way along. We just found it a massive blow to us.

'My wife said to me it feels like only the privileged people can have a holiday - the super earners who can afford to go. It's not an equal opportunity.'

Paul from Redcar, North Yorkshire, said he had first taken his two children, Ruby and George, out of school in September for a trip to Disney World, Florida, in 2018. He then repeated the trip last year during the same period when the children, now aged 12 and 10 respectively, were accompanied by his new baby, two-year-old Olive.

But on both occasions, he said teachers had warned him about taking the time off before informing Redcar and Cleveland Council, who issue fines for non-attendance, about their unauthorised trips.

Mr Benson twice took his children, Ruby and George, pictured with sister Olive, two, to Florida

Paul said his wife, who is an operating department practitioner in the NHS, was limited in the time that she could take off during normal school holiday periods.

And he said the time away was also a form of education that gave his children valuable insights into different cultures and experiences.

He added: 'My wife works for the NHS, so obviously during the pandemic, there was a massive backlog for operations. It's very competitive when staff want to take holidays. She couldn't really take time off during the holidays.'

Paul said it 'wasn't nice' to receive fines for taking his children out of school, which arrived in the first week of December, just before Christmas.

Happy holidays for Olive, Ruby and George at Disney World in Florida during term time

And he called for councils to be more 'fair' with parents after learning that friends of his at different schools had not been fined for doing the same thing.

He said: 'It was a massive sting trying to get Christmas presents, and then you get that massive fine coming through the door.

'So I think it needs to be done more fair. I've got some friends with kids at different schools and councils and the teachers have a different approach.'

Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council has been approached for comment.
With just days to go before The Coronation of King Charles, new polls have revealed that only a third of Australians approve of Queen Camilla.

Polling from YouGov has revealed that Australian approval for Camilla is sitting at about 35 per cent while the King has an approval rating of just over half.

Even Harry and Meghan, whose approval ratings are lower than 10 per cent in the UK, poll higher than Camilla Down Under.

The royals who remain the most popular Down Under are Prince William and Princess Catherine, with Princess Anne not far behind.

A recent poll has revealed only just over a third of Australians think positively of Queen Camilla (pictured) just days out of her husband, King Charles', coronation

The poll also revealed about 57 per cent of Australians are at least slightly interested in Saturday night's Coronation.

The majority of those interested in the Coronation and the fanfare are millennial women aged 27 to 42 and women aged over 77.

'This research actually refutes the perception of some that Australians aren't interested,' YouGov's polling boss Campbell White told The Australian.

'Actually  while it's not setting the place on fire  a majority of us do have at least some interest, and it's not limited to older Australians.'

While having boosted his popularity by nine per cent since 2021, King Charles has not seen a significant boost in approval from Australians.

The King reportedly asked 'But will I be welcome?' when discussing the possibility of making a trip Down Under with Australian diplomats.

Princess Camilla's approval falls lower than dejected royals, Prince Harry and Princess Meghan (both pictured), who only have nine per cent approval in the UK

Camilla has not been seen greatly in the nation since reaching the public eye in the 1990s as Charles' mistress (both pictured)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with King Charles on Wednesday to invite him and the Royal Family to the nation.

King Charles, who replaced his mother Queen Elizabeth as Australia's head of state when she died last September aged 96, has long and deep connections to Australia.

As a teenager he spent two terms at the Timbertop school in Victoria and while Prince of Wales visited Australia on 16 occasions, with the last trip being in 2018.

While being a 'die hard republican', Mr Albanese has said he will swear the oath of allegiance to the King during his coronation on Saturday night.
EXCLUSIVE: The family of the victim told MailOnline they are 'completely broken'

The devastated family of a young woman stabbed to death by a stranger while on the phone to her grandmother has said they are 'completely broken'.



Johanita Dogbey, 31, was walking along Stockwell Park Walk, in Brixton, just after 4pm on Bank Holiday Monday when she is believed to have been approached by a man from behind who attacked her.

She was the founder of a charity that helped people suffering with sickle cell disease and a devout Christian who 'wanted to make the world a better place', MailOnline revealed today.

The charity worker had been out to buy a present and was returning home for a birthday celebration.

Fighting back the tears, her father Yao told MailOnline: 'We have no words at this moment.

Johanita Dogbey, 31, was walking along Stockwell Park Walk in Brixton just after 4pm on Bank Holiday Monday when she is believed to have been approached by a man from behind who attacked her

She had been out to buy a present and was returning home for a birthday celebration

'My daughter was beautiful and kind-hearted. I'm sorry, I can't say anything more.'

Johanita's younger brother Maurice said: 'We are trying to understand what has happened and are completely broken.

'As far as we know there was no link between my sister and the attacker.

'This whole thing has left us devastated. It's too much for us.'

A family friend said: 'She was a genuinely good person who loved God and just wanted to make the world a better place. It's tragic that somebody who did so much good was killed like this.'

A 33-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is currently in police custody, Met Police confirmed.

They revealed that at this stage there is no information to suggest the victim and the man were known to each other.

Ms Dogbey was the founder of the Odette Foundation, a charity which worked with people suffering from sickle cell in Ghana and Togo.

In addition to providing medical support, it also raised much needed funds for those afflicted by the disease.

Officers, paramedics and an air ambulance attended, but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Met Police officers are pictured at the scene on May 1

She was a regular visitor to the two West African countries as part of her charity work and also helped organise fund raising events in the UK.

Ms Dogbey helped establish the organisation with her friend Naya Faya, who posted a number of moving social media tributes to her.

In one she writes: 'God is within her she will not fall.'

Away from her charity work, Ms Dogbey, a devout Christian regularly attended a church close to her Brixton home with her parents, with friends describing them as 'God fearing people.'

She originated from Ghana and lived with her family only around 300 yards from where she was attacked, and they rushed to the scene within moments of it taking place.

Johanita was speaking to her grandmother on the phone, who heard 'a terrible scream', the Evening Standard reported

The 31-year-old was stabbed to death in broad daylight in London while 'on the phone to her grandmother'

Metropolitan Police officers cordoned off Stockwell Park Walk in Lambeth with a blue tent erected following the death of the woman, 31

Met Police were called to Stockwell Park Walk in Brixton around 4.04pm on May 1 to reports of a stabbing

Eyewitnesses revealed that her father Yao and other relatives dropped to their knees and started praying at the police cordon near the scene of her death on Monday.

Ms Dogbey was on her way to a birthday celebration at her flat where she lived with her mother, father, brother and sister when she was attacked.

Jacqueline Demontague said she saw the woman's distraught father rushing to the scene shortly after 4pm following a phone call from the grandmother.

She said: 'She was on the phone to her grandmother and suddenly she began shouting and screaming.

'I cannot imagine how awful it must have been for both her and her grandmother.

'The grandmother phoned the woman's father, who came straight out to the scene.'

Detective Chief Superintendent Seb Adjei-Addoh, local policing commander for Lambeth, said: 'I am in regular contact with officers leading the investigation into this brutal attack and my thoughts continue to be with the woman's family and friends as they come to terms with this awful news. We will do everything we can to support them at this unimaginably difficult time.

'I recognise that the community will be experiencing worry and considerable concern and we have extra officers out in the community to answer questions and provide a visible presence.

'My police neighbourhood policing teams have visited local community centres and businesses taking on board concerns and to ensure we are having the right conversations with local people at this time.

'I would also ask people to share anything that they feel might help the investigating detectives.'

Anyone with information about what happened can call police on 101 quoting CAD 4728/01May, or to remain anonymous contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online.
analysis

Ending hunger by 2030 is one of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN. This is a huge challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, where one third of all households are still exposed to food insecurity. To meet the demand of the rapidly growing African population, there is widespread consensus that farmers need to boost cereal crop yields.

Crop yields in the region are severely limited by depleted soils, following decades of relentless cropping with insufficient fertilisation. This is because African farmers struggle to access affordable mineral fertilisers, while a lack of biomass also places organic fertilisers out of reach.

Currently, the quantity of nitrogen input would need to increase 15-fold to produce the cereal crop yields required for food security.

The precious nutrients in green manure

Mineral fertilisers provide one solution to inject nitrogen into crops. Although they are crucial for improving cereal crop yields, they can nevertheless harm the environment if used in excess, and are often too expensive for farmers. The war in Ukraine has only worsened the region's fertiliser shortage, though prices have stabilised since their peak in 2022.

Another fertilising method seeks to harness the nitrogen from legumes. Through symbiotic bacteria, these plants have the unique ability to fix nitrogen present in the atmosphere to their tissues. To secure it for cereals cultures, farmers can adopt a technique consisting in growing legumes and pushing their residues into the soil prior to sowing cereals seeds.

This effect is well known in temperate and tropical systems, but can vary considerably from one year to another. In cases where there is an abrupt temperature increase, legume residues will decompose more rapidly, while heavy rains can cause the nitrogen obtained by residue decomposition to leach.

Fertilizers, climate and rice growth in Madagascar

For more than 20 years, FOFIFA (institute of agronomic research in Madagascar) and CIRAD have been exploring different avenues aimed at sustainably intensifying agricultural production in Madagascar and alleviating poverty.

In a recent study, we looked at the possibility of boosting the yields of a rain-fed rice fields in Madagascar by replacing some of the mineral fertilizers with green manure. The country's state policy provides for an increased in rice production in order to ensure food self-sufficiency in the country.

Both the saturation of the floodplains used for irrigated rice and the emergence of upland rice varieties have led many farmers to take up rain-fed rice cultivation in Madagascar's highlands.

However, they currently obtain an average yield of 1.6 t/ha, which is well below the maximum yield of around 4 to 6 t/ha that can be obtained in research stations under experimental conditions, in other words when nutrients are not limited and when pests - insects, diseases, weeds - are controlled.

Mucuna and Crotalaria

In our experiment, the green manure grown was a combination of "Mucuna" and "Crotalaria" legumes. Thanks to their complementary growth and above-ground structures, these two plants can produce a large quantity of plant biomass and thereby fix atmospheric nitrogen. This green manure was grown during the rainy season in the first year of a two-year rotation based on rain-fed rice, and residues were then incorporated into the soil, before tillage and rice sowing for the following crop season.

The rotation was repeated twice for the purposes of the experiment and compared to rice monoculture. We conducted in-depth monitoring of this experiment, measuring the quantity of nitrogen in soil and plants, the dynamics of rice growth, the biomass produced and the grain yield. The data collected enabled us to adapt a crop simulation model to the case of rain-fed rice in Madagascar, in order to reproduce the impact of green manure incorporation and decomposition on rice growth.

A promising model

The model then enabled us to explore the potential advantages of green manure for rice growth, for 24 hypothetical rice growing seasons, built using climate measurements corresponding to our study region, for the period from 1994 to 2018. In this virtual experiment, we set the quantity of green manure incorporated into the soil prior to rice cultivation at 6 t/ha (or 140 kg of nitrogen), based on results obtained in the field.

Our findings showed that the cultivation and integration of green manure made it possible to reduce the mineral fertilizers required to improve rice yields. We set the target yield at 3.7 t/ha, or 75% of the maximum yield obtained in the on-station experiments. We achieved this with 40 kg/ha of nitrogen provided by mineral fertilizers when green manure was added to the soil. By way of comparison, more than double this quantity or 100 kg/ha, was necessary without the use of green manure.

Trade-offs to be made

This promising practice nevertheless requires considerable adjustments to make it appealing to family farms in Madagascar. Three key aspects need to be taken into consideration.

First, and as previously noted, heavy rainfall will dampen the benefits of green manure on rice productivity. To tackle this, farmers will have to dynamically manage residues and fertilisers and tailor them to individual crops.

Next, the gains linked to the use green manure do not entirely offset the losses resulting from its cultivation. In the process, farmers have to use a part of the land that would otherwise serve to grow rice for self-sufficiency. Crop rotation remedy this problem, as well as helping (control pests, nematodes and weeds, higher soil fertility over time and maintain biodiversity).

Finally, crop residues are typically left on the land to be grazed by cattle in the region. Alternative solutions are therefore required to feed cattle, and suitable value chains need to be developed to guarantee supplies for these farmers, who often live a long way from any infrastructure. It is also essential to once again ensure that mechanisms exist to offset this additional spending for farms, the majority of which live on less than 540 euros per year per agricultural worker.

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Dual purpose legumes

Obstacles linked to rainfall can be overcome by adjusting the dates at which green manure is incorporated and rice is sown. The model that we have calibrated can help to make this type of assessment in silico.

Likewise, farmers needn't have to make the choice between food security and fertilisers. Certain pulse crops, such as groundnuts, can be both used as green manure and sustenance for farmers. Experiments in Southern Africa are currently focusing on the assessment of these "dual" legume crop rotations. However, it is important to ensure a market exists for these products with a sufficiently high price.

Time is short, but we are convinced that a change can occur rapidly to transform the current cereal production system toward greater productivity and sustainability. Solutions exist, including green manure, but extension officers, researchers, value chain actors and policymakers need to help farmers to invest in these techniques that will maximize production in the short term, but will be more sustainable in the long term.

Recent decades have seen the emergence of many talented African researchers. Now it is up to the leaders to make decisions.

Lalaina Ranaivoson, Chercheure en agronomie, Cirad

Aude Ripoche, Chercheure en agronomie du systeme de culture et modelisatrice, Cirad

Francois Affholder, Principal Investigator in Agro-ecology and sustainable intensification research unit, Cirad

Gatien Falconnier, Ecologue agronome, Cirad

Louise Leroux, PhD, Remote sensing scientist, Cirad
More than 8,000 council seats are up for grabs tomorrow in Rishi Sunak's first major electoral test.

Local elections in England should give the clearest indication yet of how the public is viewing the main parties - with perhaps a year to go until the Westminster contest.

The Tories are under huge pressure from Labour in the Red Wall, as Keir Starmer's party rides high in national polls. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems are hoping to make significant gains in the South East and South West.

But there are dangers for Sir Keir as well, with questions over whether Labour can turn in a performance good enough to show he is on track to enter Downing Street. The Tories are trying to limit losses to a few hundred seats, but experts say Sir Keir needs to rack up 500 gains or more.

On a visit to a community group in Buckinghamshire this afternoon, Mr Sunak said: 'We've always said these are going to be a tough set of elections for us. We are concentrating on delivering on people's priorities.'

Sir Keir told Labour activists on a trip to Medway: 'We desperately need change, I think you can sense that in the air.'

Here are some of the key battlegrounds to look out for when the results begin arriving in the early hours of Friday morning.

These are some of the key battlegrounds to look out for when the local election results begin arriving in the early hours of Friday morning

More than 8,000 council seats are up for grabs tomorrow in Rishi Sunak's first major electoral test. Pictured, the PM visiting Peterborough last month

NORTH WEST

Bolton is likely to be a litmus test for the night, with every council seat up for grabs.

Both Labour and the Conservatives are hoping to do enough to win a majority, although Sir Keir's outfit needs 12 more seats while the Tories would get over the line with five.

Labour will look to rack up numbers in strongholds such as Liverpool, Manchester and Wigan. The showing in Blackpool will be watched closely, with the town currently represented by two Conservative MPs.

Sir Keir is targeting a majority in Cheshire West & Chester, which would require a moderate boost from the existing 33 of the 70 seats held.

And in Wirral, Labour needs 10 gains to turn minority control into overall control.

However, Sir Keir's party is in a dogfight to hold off the Greens' bid to become the largest party in Lancaster.

NORTH EAST

Labour requires just two seats to take Middlesbrough, another crucial part of the Tories' northern base.

They will also seek to underline their resurgence in Sunderland, which came close to falling to the Conservatives in the 2019 general election rout. .

Hartlepool, once a symbol of Boris Johnson's 'big tent' appeal with a shock by-election win in 2021, is the site of a bitter struggle between Labour and the Conservatives for overall control. They each need six gains.

YORKSHIRE & HUMBER

The Lib Dems are defending one of their only northern outposts in Hull. The party secured the council from Labour last year, but Sir Keir's team only requires two seats to get back in the driving seat.

Sheffield sees a three way deathmatch between Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens - made more complicated by the fact that the trio are currently power sharing.

Labour is pitching to dethrone the Lib Dems in York, where they have been in coalition with the Greens. The city could also be a rare spot for the Tories, who are looking to pick up seats.

The Tories are under huge pressure in the Red Wall, as Keir Starmer's party rides high in national polls. (Pictured, the Labour leader campaigning in Derbyshire)

EAST MIDLANDS

Another totemic Red Wall area, Bolsover, will give a signal of Labour's fortunes. The party is aiming to shore up a slender majority.

In Derby every seat is in play, and Sir Keir will have ambitions of ousting the minority Tory administration.

In Boston, Lincolnshire - known as one of the most Brexit-supporting parts of the country - strong independent candidates could thwart the Conservatives from gaining full control.

WEST MIDLANDS

The Tories' 20-year dominance of Stratford-on-Avon is at risk from a Lib Dem advance. The Lib Dems would become the largest party if they take four seats from Mr Sunak's crew.

Solihull is another council where the Conservatives have lost ground in recent years, but here their main challengers are the Greens.

Labour will be pinning a lot of hopes on Stoke-on-Trent to show it is making progress. The area was once a stronghold for the party, but the Tories now have all three MPs and half of the councillors.

EAST

The Conservatives are facing a serious threat from the Lib Dems in Brentwood.

Meanwhile, Labour could stage a recovery in Thurrock - although it would be a major upset if the Tories lost control.

Colchester has become a three-way tussle between the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems. With a third of its seats in play the results here could see a shift from the current Labour-Lib Dem-Green coalition.

The Greens are pushing to become the largest party in Mid-Suffolk.

Ed Davey's Lib Dems are hoping to make significant gains in the South East and South West (pictured in Eastleigh)

SOUTH EAST

The Lib Dems have their fingers crossed for big advances in this region, and on a good night might even end up the biggest party overall.

Ed Davey's warriors are hoping for gains in Dacorum, as well as to tighten their grip on Woking, where they secured a wafer-thin majority last year.

Tories would also be alarmed by advances in spots such as Surrey Heath - where Michael Gove is the MP - and Wokingham.

Labour and the Tories are going head-to-head in the ultra-marginal council of Crawley in another key contest.

SOUTH WEST

Here the Lib Dems are working to boost their slender advantage in Cotswold, while the Tories are mounting a revival against the yellow incumbents in Torbay.

Labour only needs five gains to take charge of Plymouth.

The minority Tory administration has endured bad headlines recently for chopping down 110 healthy city centre trees overnight.

Tory-run Swindon is also a target for Sir Keir. If Labour grabs control here  which means taking six of the 19 seats on offer  it will likely have performed well overall.
A British traveler had the fright of his life when he returned home from a trip to Mexico, after discovering a hairy tarantula made its way into his jeans.

James Mugridge, 31, discovered the 12cm-long creature after spending two weeks in a jungle hotel.

The beast is thought to be a Mexican red rump, a burrowing spiders that is distinctive by the red hairs on its abdomen.

However, the spider - also known as a Tliltocatl vagans - is known to be docile and its bite is not considered overly dangerous to people.

But Mr Mugridge did not know this, and says that he was left 'absolutely terrified' after spotting the creature as it was the 'last thing' he was expecting to come out of his suitcase after flying back from Cancun in April.

James Mugridge with the tarantula. The Brit had the fright of his life when he returned from Mexico - and found a tarantula in his jeans

Whilst unpacking from their 3,000 holiday to Mexico, a couple were shocked to discover a terrifying tarantula stowaway in their luggage

James Mugridge and Emma in Mexico. The couple hired a car and drove down the coast to Tulum, staying in jungle-style hotels. They saw several tarantulas along the way, including the Mexican red rump

In fact, he says he shouted and let out a big yelp when he saw the furry legs emerging from his jeans.

However, after peeling back the fold with chopsticks, he discovered the tarantula was already dead - which he believes must have frozen in the plane's hold.

Mr Mugridge, from Exeter, Devon, said: 'For a split second I thought it was alive - I let out a yelp!'

The business consultant flew to Cancun on April 15 for a two-week holiday with his girlfriend Emma Forrester, 27.

The couple hired a car and drove down the coast to Tulum, staying in jungle-style hotels.

They saw several tarantulas along the way, including the Mexican red rump.

But it seems that there was one that decided to hitch a ride back to much colder climates and make a home in the UK.

Speaking out about his discovery, Mr Mugridge said: 'I think it was in [the jeans] for a couple days at least.

'We're lucky because the bag was supposed to come in the cabin. But there was not enough space, so they put it in the hold.

'Subsequently, the tarantula froze to death, but in the cabin I fear it would have been alive and kicking.'

The spider - also known as a Tliltocatl vagans - is known to be docile and its bite is not considered overly dangerous to people. But James didn't know that

The pair believe that the spider must have frozen to death on their 13-hour flight from Mexico, and they carefully removed the creepy-crawly from the bag with chopsticks, depositing it in a Tupperware box

James Mugridge and Emma in Mexico. The pair were left terrified when they discovered the spider - with James letting out a shriek in the process

He added that despite the fact that the animal does not prove to be fatal to humans, he was still 'terrified.'

Mr Mugridge said: 'The sting on it is said to be worse than a bee sting, but its not fatal.

'That being said, I was absolutely terrified when I saw the little thing had made its way into my jeans. It really was the last thing I was expecting.'

Although Mexican red rump's are docile, they have a strong feeding response when they detect movement in their enclosure Normally they are very slow moving, but can move very fast in short bursts and mine are prone to mood swings.

If they do feel threatened, they may flick their hairs or bite.
Legendary Australian satirist Barry Humphries will be honoured with a state funeral jointly hosted by the Victorian, NSW and federal governments.

Humphries died last month at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney aged 89 following complications from hip surgery stemming from a fall earlier this year.

In the UK for the coronation of King Charles III, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed Humphries would receive a state funeral which the three governments would co-host.

'He's someone who gave an enormous amount of pleasure to generations of Australians,' Mr Albanese told British channel Talk TV.

'I know how warmly he was regarded by people in Australia and the UK.'

Barry Humphries (pictured right with wife Lizzie Spender in London) will be given a state funeral

No details were provided on when or where the funeral will be held.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he was not aware a three-government tribute was in train for the Melbourne-born entertainer.

'I can't confirm for you where the service will be, or where the funeral will be,' Mr Andrews told reporters at state parliament on Wednesday.

'As far as I know, that's not settled and we're still talking to the family.'

The NSW government also appeared to confirm negotiations remained under way.

'As the Prime Minister said, governments will work with the Humphries family to honour the life and legacy of the beloved Australian,' a spokeswoman told AAP in a statement.

Humphries delighted and outraged audiences for more than half a century and was a founding patron of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, leading to it name its annual prize for most outstanding act after him in 2000.

The famed satirist was known for his outrageous characters such as Dame Edna Everage (pictured in 2019 promoting a show in Sydney)

Three governments will join forces to give the much-loved and internationally famed satirist his official farewell

Mr Albanese declined to weigh in on whether the festival 'cancelled' Humphries by stripping his name from its annual award over controversial remarks he made about transgender people.

The prime minister instead remembered Humphries as a quintessential Australian character, who brought a sense of Australian larrikinism to his satirical characters of Dame Edna Everage, Sir Les Patterson and Sandy Stone.

'Barry Humphries could only have come from Australia. What Barry Humphries would say is (Australians like) 'taking the piss out of ourselves',' Mr Albanese said.

'He did it so well and for such a long period of time, so it was a big loss for the Australian arts community.'

The prime minister's office has been contacted for further comment.
Authorities say vaccine cards were forged prior to Bolsonaro departing for the United States on December 30, a day before his presidential term ended

The top aide, Colonel Mauricio Cid, was among six people who were arrested in series of raids Wednesday; Bolsonaro had his phone taken during a raid, too

Brazil's Federal Police is investigating a group that forged vaccine information for former President Jair Bolsonaro, his daughter and a former top aide's family

Brazilian authorities raided the home of former President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday as part of an investigation of a group that allegedly forged COVID-19 vaccine cards.

At least six people were arrested by the Federal Police as part of the operation, including Colonel Mauricio Cid, Bolsonaro's former top aide. Search and seizure warrants were also issued for 10 other suspects.

Brazilian media outlets TV Globo and Globo News were able to confirm that the suspects allegedly entered vaccine information in the Ministry of Health system which false claimed that Bolsonaro, his 12-year-old daughter Laura Bolsonaro, Cid, his wife and daughter were vaccinated.

The Federal Police is also looking into whether former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro's vaccination card was also altered.

'With this, such people were able to issue the respective vaccination certificates and use them to circumvent the current health restrictions imposed by public authorities (Brazil and the United States) aimed at preventing the spread of contagious disease, in this case, the Covid pandemic,' the Federal Police said.

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro met reporters outside his home after it was raided Wednesday morning and confirmed that he never took the vaccine for COVID-19 and that there was no forgery on his part in regards to the falsification of information in the government health data base system that would have confirmed he was vaccinated

Federal police agents guard the area near the home of former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia, Brazil, following Wednesday morning's raid as part of an investigation of a group that allegedly forged COVID-19 vaccine cards.

Bolsonaro, who tested positive for the coronavirus on multiple occasions and compared the virus to 'a little flu,' told a bevy of reporters that he was 'surprised' by the raid at his Brasilia home. His cellphone was seized during the raid.

'There was no adulteration on my part, it didn't happen,' he said. 'I didn't take the vaccine, period. I never denied that.'

The former far-right leader also confirmed that his daughter never received the vaccine.

Information in the National Health Data Network showed that Bolsonaro had received two doses of Pfizer.

The first vaccine shot was administered August 13, 2022 and the second jab took place October 14, 2022. Both vaccine appointments took place at the municipal health center in the Rio de Janeiro city of Duque de Caxias.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (left) with former top aid, Mauricio Cid (right), one of six people arrested Wednesday as part of the probe into the falsification of COVID-19 records in the government data base

Brazilian Federal Police vehicles are parked in front of the Brasilia residence of former President Jair Bolsonaro during a raid Wednesday morning

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro greets supporters at the Agrishow fair in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil, on Monday

The vaccine information was entered into the National Immunization Proram Information System on December 21 by Duque de Caxias city government secretary Joao de Souza, who was among the six people apprehended Wednesday.

The records were removed by December 27 by Duque de Caxias vaccine director, Claudia Acosta, who cited an 'error' in the system.

Bolsonaro and his daughter departed for the United States on December 30, a day before his presidential term ended.

Acosta was questioned by Federal Police agents Wednesday but was not placed in custody.

The search adds to Bolsonaro's mounting legal headaches. Federal Police have questioned him at their Brasilia headquarters twice in the past month related to separate investigations - first, about three sets of diamond jewelry he received from Saudi Arabia and, second, regarding his potential role in sparking the Jan. 8 uprising by his supporters in the capital.

Bolsonaro is also the subject of several investigations by Brazils electoral court into his actions during the presidential election campaign, particularly his unsubstantiated claims that the nation's electronic voting system is susceptible to fraud. Those threaten to strip him of his political rights and render him unable to run for office in upcoming elections.

Separately, Bolsonaro and his allies are also facing a sprawling Supreme Court-led investigation regarding the spread of alleged falsehoods and disinformation in Brazil, and a federal police investigation for the alleged genocide of the Indigenous Yanomami people in the Amazon rainforest by encouraging illegal miners to invade their territory and thereby endangering their lives.

The former president has denied any wrongdoing in all of the various cases under investigation.

Six people have been arrested by Brazilian authorities as part of the investigation of a group that allegedly forged vaccine information in the government's COVID-19 data base.

cards that were used by former President Jair Bolsonaro, his family and top aides to enter the United States.
Op Golden Orb will be one of the largest security operations the force has led

Protesters who try to disrupt the Coronation can expect 'very swift action' from police who will have 'an extremely low threshold' when dealing with them, a senior officer said.

A massive security and policing operation is under way that will see more than 11,500 police officers on duty on Saturday and 10,000 military personnel taking part in the ceremony.

The Metropolitan Police have also said they will use facial recognition technology to spot troublemakers during King Charles' Coronation this weekend.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said that the force will not tolerate any criminal activity masquerading as protest during the event.

This comes after a man who allegedly had a knife threw shotgun cartridges over Buckingham Palace's gates yesterday evening.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said that the force will not tolerate any criminal activity masquerading as protest during the event

Buckingham Palace went into lockdown yesterday after man allegedly threw shotgun cartridges into palace grounds

The Met said the operation, known as Golden Orb, will be one of the most significant and largest security operations the force has led.

There will be more than 29,000 police officer deployments over the coming week in the lead up to Coronation Day and over the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend.

In a statement, The Met said: 'Our tolerance for any disruption, whether through protest or otherwise, will be low. We will deal robustly with anyone intent on undermining this celebration.'

A massive security and policing operation is under way that will see 11,500 police officers on duty on Saturday and 10,000 military personnel taking part in the ceremony.

Specialist teams have begun scouring the area of central London where events will unfold and will continue monitoring crowds to spot signs of suspicious behaviour.

The policing plan has been re-examined after a security incident outside Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening when a man who allegedly had a knife threw shotgun cartridges over the palace gates.

Mr Adelekan said: 'We've debriefed our plans after that incident just to make sure there are no gaps and we're absolutely confident that we've got a plan that will deliver the coronation in such a manner that everyone will come to London and celebrate and there will be no issues whatsoever.'

Asked about how officers will deal with protesters, he said: 'Our priority is around safety and security for everyone that's going to come to this event, and we want to make sure that everyone enjoys it.

'We have an extremely low threshold for anybody or anything that will disrupt this event and what you will see is very swift action from us.'

New laws to curb protests came into force on Wednesday ahead of Saturday's ceremony but Security minister Tom Tugendhat said the celebrations will 'showcase our liberty and our democracy'.

Under the new Public Order Act, protesters who block roads will face up to 12 months behind bars.

An official letter warning of the new powers was sent to anti-monarchy group Republic, which said its campaign around the coronation will proceed as planned.

Republic boss Graham Smith said it is 'very odd' the letter came from the Home Office and described it as 'intimidatory'.

A police officer keeps guard ahead of King Charles' coronation at the Mall outside Buckingham Palace today

He said: 'We've been liaising closely with the police about the protest for weeks. We've had meetings with them.

'They've said very clearly that they have no problems with our plans. I just can't understand why the Home Office thinks it's appropriate to send a letter like that, which was anonymous in terms of no person's name on it.'

Mr Smith added: 'It struck us as intimidatory in a way.'

He said there are plans for 1,700 people to protest in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to travel to central London for the event, including scores of foreign VIPs who need close protection.

Commander Karen Findlay, who is Gold Command for the policing operation, said there are more VIPs for the coronation than there were for the Queen's funeral.

She said: 'It is an absolutely historic, unprecedented mobilisation for us in terms of scale, but most importantly the nature and specialness of this event to the public, to the service, and all our communities in London and actually the whole of the United Kingdom and globally.

'It's such an event of constitutional, spiritual importance for us all to be involved in.'

A total of 29,000 officer shifts will be used during the days around the coronation, with specialist teams including armed police, sniffer dogs, mounted officers and marine officers on the Thames all taking part.

There will be an airspace restriction across London on Friday and Saturday as part of 'an extensive security operation'.

As well as the coronation itself, there are 1,800 registered events taking place in London over the weekend.
A Canadian chef who admitted supplying a lethal poison through the post to suicidal youngsters has been charged by police.

Kenneth Law, 57, from Mississauga, Ontario, was charged for alleged online sales and distribution of the substance said to be related to two deaths in the Peel region of Toronto.

For at least two years, Law allegedly sent the lethal substance through the post to vulnerable customers around the world.

Law was arrested on Tuesday evening by Toronto police and was subsequently charged with two counts of counseling or aiding suicide. He will appear in court later today.

But more deaths have been linked to the chef, including four in the UK, as police warn there 'could be more victims'.

Kenneth Law has allegedly been sending the substance to vulnerable customers around the world from a post office near Toronto for at least two years, an investigation claimed

Tom Parfett, from Maidenhead in Berkshire, took his own life aged 22 after buying the substance

Neha Raju died in the past 18 months after buying products from Kenneth Law's company, The Times reported

'It is believed that the suspect distributed and marketed the substance online to target individuals at risk of self-harm,' police said.

Speaking to reporters following the arrest on Tuesday, Peel deputy chief Marc Andrews said investigators believed around 1,200 packages have been shipped out by Law to 40 separate countries. Andrews noted that police were unable to confirm if all the packages contained the same substance.

'Investigators are working in collaboration with multiple jurisdictions across Ontario, nationally and internationally as we believe there could be more victims,' Andrews said, as reported by The Times.

'The mental health and well-being of our communities is our main priority.

'As such, we will not tolerate criminal actions by those who prey on vulnerable individuals in our community.'

Law's alleged actions were uncovered in an investigation by The Times last week that claimed the chef had sent the substance out to vulnerable customers around the world from a post office near Toronto.

Four deaths in the UK have been linked to the poison sold online, The Times investigation claimed, including that of Tom Parfett, from Maidenhead in Berkshire, who took his own life aged 22 after buying the substance from Law's company.

Mr Parfett's father, David, said that Law had 'effectively handed a loaded gun to my son'.

He told The Times: 'I believe my son would still be alive if it wasn't for this man and this substance.'

Anthony Jones, 17, an American, was another of Law's customers who ran to his mother shouting 'I want to live' after ingesting the substance which eventually killed him, The Times investigation said

Michael Dunham also died after buying products from Kenneth Law's company

An undercover reporter had posed as a suicidal customer of Law's. He was said to have boasted about supplying the substance, claiming he was doing 'God's work'.

It was reported Law also admitted to sending the poison to hundreds of buyers in the UK, and said he would continue doing so until he had exhausted his inventory.

While the substance has caused at least 70 deaths in Britain, it is still is legal to sell and serves purposes other than as a poison. Retailers must still alert the authorities if it is suspected to have been bought to cause harm.

Assisting suicide in the UK and Canada is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Anthony Jones, a 17-year-old American, was another of Law's alleged victims. He ran to his mother shouting 'I want to live' after ingesting the substance, which eventually killed him, The Times investigation said.

In Britain, Mr Parfett, Michael Dunham, 38, Neha Raju, 23, and a 21-year-old student have all died in the past 18 months after buying products from Law's company.

Mr Parfett's father said Law was playing God by supplying vulnerable people with the means to kill themselves.

'He is knowingly supplying a substance for people to take their own life and gaining some kind of perverse pleasure from the knowledge that they are doing it,' he added.

Law told the undercover reporter that 'many, many, many, many' people had died after ingesting the poison.

He said he went into the business of selling the poison after seeing his mother suffer following a stroke.

Police have since warned the public to alert officials if they have received a package from the following businesses: Imtime Cuisine; AmbuCA; Academic/ACademic; Escape Mode/escMode; and ICemac.

Anyone who has received such a package or has any further information is invited to contact police at 1-888-714-0003 or 11Divproject@peelpolice.ca.
A Florida sheriff's deputy sprang into action to help deliver a baby on the side of a highway after an expectant mother went into labor while traveling in the car.

Dramatic body camera video footage released by the sheriffs office captured the miraculous roadside delivery in Plant City on Sunday.

The driver and father of the baby Luis Lopez approached Hillsborough County Master Deputy Daniel 'Red' Jones in a panic, and explained that his wife was about to give birth and that her water had broken.

Jones called Hillsborough County Fire Rescue for backup at the scene on the shoulder of Highway 60, but the baby wasn't waiting for anyone.

Without hesitation, he jumped into assist and within minutes, a healthy baby girl was born. The baby is the woman's sixth child and she is the third child Jones has helped delivered since he started at the sheriff's office in 2001.

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Dramatic video captured the moment Hillsborough County Master Deputy Daniel 'Red' Jones sprang into action to deliver a baby on the side of the highway in Plant City Florida on Sunday

Luis Lopez is pictured with his wife and new baby daughter Lexela Luis Lopez. He said he is thankful for Jones and the safe delivery of his child

Jones offered the woman words of encouragement throughout the delivery while also making her laugh at times. When he asked if this was her first baby, the mother replied that this was her sixth.

'Six? Woo, you all need a better hobby,' Jones said, which made the mother chuckle.

The deputy continued to provide 'constant encouragement and emotional support' while also using his training to make sure it was a safe delivery, according to a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office news release.

'All right, look at me, look at me,' Jones is heard telling the woman. 'Breathe through, all right, mama. Breathe through.'

Paramedics arrived on the scene a short time later and transported the mother and baby to a nearby hospital for further evaluation and care.

Jones, who has been with the sheriff's office since December 2001, let the woman clutch on his hand and offered her words of encouragement as he helped deliver on baby on side of road

The deputy continued to provide 'constant encouragement and emotional support' while also using his training to make sure it was a safe delivery, the sheriff's office said in a news release

Paramedics arrived on the scene a short time later and transported the mother and baby to a nearby hospital for evaluation and further care. The parents named the baby Lexela Luis Lopez

The baby's father told 10 Tampa Bay that he is thankful for Jones and the safe delivery of his child.

'I want to thank the Hillsborough Sheriff's Department for having amazing officers that helped us to deliver our baby girl at Highway 60,' Lopez said. 'Also, thanks to the fire department and EMS team for the awesome job they did there.'

Meanwhile Jones said he was thrilled to help welcome this baby girl into the world and even recommended that they name the baby 'Red,' the sheriff's office said in the news release.

However, Lopez said they have named the baby Lexela Luis Lopez. Both mother and baby are doing well, officials said.

The mother and baby were transported to a nearby hospital where they are both doing well

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office praised Jones for his quick actions.

'I am extremely proud of Master Deputy Jones's quick actions and dedication to serving our community in any capacity,' Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement.

'This is his third time assisting a citizen with delivering a baby! While delivering in the front seat of a car was not the original birth plan, Master Deputy Jones reassured the mother of six that she was in good hands.

'I wish mom, dad, and their new baby girl all the joy and happiness. Congratulations!'

Jones, who is best known around Hillsborough County as 'Red,' is also a proud local small business owner and once had an active rodeo cowboy career from the ages of 15-21.

He's an active Patrol Master Deputy and won HCSO's Distinguished Service Award in 2012 and a Life Saving Award in 2021.
A 20-year-old Colorado woman plunged to her death from a swanky boutique hotel in midtown Manhattan leaving behind her eight-month-old daughter after she got into a heated argument with her 24-year-old boyfriend, who was later arrested.

Police responded to a 911 call of an assault in progress at the Oyo Hotel in Times Square at 157 West 47th Street on Tuesday night. When officers arrived around 10:27pm they discovered the young woman on the second floor scaffolding outside of the hotel unconscious and unresponsive. She was later pronounced dead.

An NYPD spokesperson told DailyMail.com that 'further investigation determined that a female and 24-year-old male had an altercation at the hotel room and location where an 8-month-old female child was present.'

The woman's boyfriend Tyler Griffin of Littleton, Colorado was described by the authoritiesBedf as being in an emotionally disturbed state and had to be shocked with a stun gun in the lobby of the hotel as they took him into custody, as per NBC4 News.

The young mother's identity has not been released until next of kin is notified.

Police responded to a 911 call of an assault in progress at the Oyo Hotel (pictured) in Times Square located at 157 West 47th Street on Tuesday night around 10:27pm

Bystanders at the grim scene where a 20-year-old woman's body was found outside the second floor scaffolding. The woman's identity has not yet been released

Police are investigating whether the woman had accidentally fallen or was pushed. The Medical Examiner was present. They have not yet determined the manner and cause of death

Griffin was arrested on charges of assault, reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17, the spokesperson said. He was transported to Bellevue Hospital for evaluation.

Tuesday evening police received multiple calls regarding a disturbance in a room on the 10th floor of the Times Square hotel and then a call regarding a roof jump, according to the news outlet.

When police arrived they found Griffin in the room where the 20-year-old woman had been staying. The room had been trashed, as if there had been some type of altercation, as per the authorities.

A source told The New York Post, 'all hell broke loose in the room.'

The fight later spilled out into the hallway. During the argument, the woman's boyfriend allegedly yanked the baby's arm 'in a forceful manner.'

The baby then tumbled down the stairs to the ninth floor, police and sources said, according to the news outlet. A hotel guest caught the infant, who miraculously did not sustain any injuries in the fall, but was hospitalized for an evaluation, police said.

Police said the young woman was allegedly punched 'repeatedly,' by Griffin, leaving her bruised.

It is unclear if Griffin was the baby's father.

After the harrowing scene, witnesses had lost track of the couple's whereabouts, but police and sources believe the young mother made her way to the roof of the hotel building and jumped.

The authorities said they do not believe the young mother was thrown by Griffin, though it is unclear if the young man attempted to harm the child when the couple had a fight.

Authorities said they do not believe at this point that Griffin threw the young woman or pushed her off the building, according to NBC4 News.

An NYPD spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that a preliminary investigation had determined that the woman's injuries are indicative of a fall from an elevated position.

The city's Medical Examiner's office has not yet determined the manner and cause of death.

Griffin's arraignment was scheduled for Wednesday.

Police said the citys Administration for Childrens Services will be taking the baby under their care.
Russian racing driver Nikita Mazepin has begun a High Court fight with British Government ministers after being made subject to sanctions in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Mazepin, 24, who used to drive for the Haas Formula 1 Team, wants sanctions lifted and has taken legal action against Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

A judge considered preliminary issues at a High Court hearing in London today.

Mr Justice Chamberlain heard that Mazepin and his father Dmitry Mazepin - a Russian businessman and ally of Vladimir Putin - had been made subject to sanctions in mid-March 2022.

In September 2022, Mazepin requested 'revocation of his designation', but ministers decided to 'take no action'.

Russian racing driver Nikita Mazepin, 24, who used to drive for the Haas Formula 1 Team, wants sanctions lifted and has taken legal action against Foreign Secretary James Cleverly

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) talking to Mazepin's father Dmitry, chairman of the board of directors of Uralchem Group, in Moscow last November

A judge is due to oversee a further hearing in London in June.

Mr Justice Chamberlain was told that Mazepin was involved in a similar bid to get sanctions lifted in Canada.

Neither Mazepin nor his father were at the hearing.

READ MORE: NOW UK GOES AFTER WIVES AND DAUGHTERS OF OLIGARCHS WITH NEW SANCTIONS Oksana Marchenko, who hosted X-Factor Ukraine, is the wife of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk Advertisement

Barrister Tom Leary, representing Mr Cleverly, told the judge that Haas had 'terminated its relationship' with Mazepin in early March 2022, following the outbreak of war.

He said Mazepin had not driven for a Formula 1 team since.

Mazepin and his father were 'subject to an asset freeze and travel ban', the judge was told.

Mr Leary indicated that one of the reasons Mazepin wanted sanctions lifted was so that he could travel to Britain to negotiate with race teams for the 2024 season.

Mr Justice Chamberlain suggested that a trial judge might have to stage part of the proceedings in private in order to consider any 'closed' material presented by ministers.

Barrister Rachel Scott, representing Mazepin, told Mr Justice Chamberlain in a written case outline: 'The UK sanctions to which he has been made subject, alongside the imposition of restrictive measures at EU level, effectively ended his racing career.

'He missed the 2022 season and, almost certainly, the 2023 season and, whilst those sanctions are in place, no Formula 1 team will take him on as a test, reserve or full driver.'

She added: 'The claimant will, in effect, be unable to negotiate a place on a Formula 1 team for 2024 unless he is free to travel to and from the UK to attend negotiations at teams' bases in the UK, bearing in mind that seven of the ten teams are based in the UK.

'Negotiations to join a Formula 1 team usually begin in May or June of the previous year. Thereafter he must be able to enter the UK, not just for the British Formula 1 race, but for briefings, ergonomics design work, training and attending the team's base.'

Last month, Mr Cleverly announced a raft of penalties targeting those who knowingly assisted the oligarchs as they scrambled to hide their assets in complex financial networks.

Among those sanctioned are the wife and daughter of billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the the largest shareholder in the Russian IT company Sistema.

Also targeted in the new sanctions is popular Russian television presenter Oksana Marchenko, the wife of key Putin ally Victor Medvedchuk, and owner of multiple luxury properties in Crimea.

Haas's Nikita Mazepin in action during practice for the Russian Grand Prix in September 2021

Oksana Marchenko, who hosted X-Factor Ukraine and is the wife of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. The glamorous wives and daughters of Russian oligarchs have also been hit with sanctions for helping to shield their wealth

Marchenko, who begged for the release of her husband from a Ukrainian prison

The TV star, and friend of Putin, has previously begged for the release of her husband from a Ukrainian prison on video.

These 'financial fixers' have been hit with asset freezes, travel bans, transport sanctions and trust services sanctions, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said.

The new measures will affect Gulnara Kerimova, the daughter of Putin-linked oligarch Suleyman Kerimov, who holds four luxury villas in France on behalf of her father.

The penalties have also hit Tatiana Yevtushenkova, who has been the acting director of firm Redline Capital which is owned by her father, Vladimir Yevtushenkov.

Billionaire Yevtushenkov owned a company which reportedly supplied Putin's forces with drones used for deadly bombing raids in Ukraine and until 2021 owned key Russian defence contractor RTI.

The financial sanctions also extend to his wife, Natalia Yevtushenkov, who holds board positions in banks and other companies in which her husband owns stakes, including MTS Bank.
A 16-year-old girl has died in Italy after she dropped her phone in the bathtub while she was talking to a friend.

The girl - named in Italy Maria Antonietta Cutillo - had been on the phone when she dropped the mobile, which was charging at the time, in the water while taking a bath in her parents' home in Montefalcione, Avellino.

According to local media, her parents were not present in the house when the teenager was tragically electrocuted.

In that time, the emergency services had already been called by the friend of Cutillo, who grew concerned when the call cut out. On arrival, they discovered that she had died after the device short-circuited.

Her body was taken to the morgue of the Moscati hospital in Avellino for an autopsy.

Maria Antonietta Cutillo - had been on the phone with her friend when she dropped the mobile along with a charging unit in the water in her parents' home in Montefalcione, Avellino

According to local media, her parents were not present in the house when the incident took place but returned home later

Sources say Cutillo's father is well-known in the regional capital of Irpinia, where he is the owner of a local butcher's shop. Local police are investigating the incident.

In 2020, a schoolgirl had died in her bath after a charging phone fell onto her chest and slipped into the water in France.

The 15-year-old, identified at the time as Tiffenn, was electrocuted after the device slipped into the water at her home in Marseille.

READ MORE: The perils of using your phone in the BATH A Dutch girl, 13, suffered these injuries after dropping her smartphone into bath water while it was on charge (pictured, the wounds she was left with post-surgery) Advertisement

Emergency crews had rushed the girl to the city's Timone hospital and tried to resuscitate her but to no avail.

Similarly, in 2019, a 13-year-old girl in Amsterdam was electrocuted when her smartphone fell into the bath while it was charging.

The teenager's mother dragged her out of the bathtub after racing to the bathroom when she heard a loud scream. She had called the emergency services.

Paramedics woke up the unconscious girl by punching her in the sternum, before whisking her straight off to hospital, where she spent two days.

In this instance, the girl didn't die but was left with amnesia as a result of the incident, and couldn't recall the moment she dropped the phone in the bath.

Dr Sem Hardon said the severity of her injuries made it likely she was electrocuted by the mains supply, which is 240V in the Netherlands.

He added: 'If household electrical devices are used in bathrooms, users must be aware of safety hazards

'Nonetheless, electrical appliances or cords should never be plugged in near water and should never be in contact with a wet environment.'
Johannesburg, South Africa  There's a now familiar groan every time the lights go out in South Africa. Due to a critical shortage of electricity, the national power utility institutes a daily regimen of scheduled power cuts.

Some areas in large cities experience up to ten hours of blackouts per day. The damage to businesses and a general sense of safety and security is yet to be properly calculated.

But it has also had profound implications for how community radio stations can continue broadcasting through the darkness. Most community radio stations have simply gone silent. Bush Radio, the country's oldest community radio station, found itself off air for several hours per day.

In the townships of Cape Town's sprawling Cape Flats district, Bush Radio has a special relationship of solidarity and belonging with the communities it serves.

Through its talk shows, training programmes and social engagement campaigns, it acts as a sounding board for communities who often struggle to find representation and recognition beyond daily reports of gang violence.

Amidst all the other challenges facing the radio station, like ageing equipment and dwindling sources of funding, broadcasting through the dark is the latest setback. It is a typical story. The challenges news media face may be different from place to place, but they are rapidly compounding everywhere.

And they have an impact on more than whether Bush Radio can remain on air. What is at stake is the avenues available for their audience to communicate with each other, to take part in decisions that affect their lives, and to celebrate their own cultures.

This week, as the United Nations celebrates World Press Freedom Day - also 30 years old - it's time to get serious about stopping what's been labelled a media extinction event.

Until June 2020, I was the editor of the Mail & Guardian newspaper in South Africa. I'd hoped to restore the start-up rigour of one of Africa's most cherished independent news institutions.

However, my experience of trying to run a newsroom, to keep public interest journalism alive in the face of broken business model, revealed the grave structural crisis facing news media today.

Advertising revenue was already in free fall as so much of it had migrated to the social media platforms, but it was the pandemic that sent us over the edge.

We were forced to issue an urgent appeal to our readers to keep the paper afloat and while this allowed us to meet our most pressing commitments at the time, it did not resolve the deeper problem of quickly finding a consistent revenue stream that would allow the institution to be relevant in new ways.

My experience is replicated across Africa - and beyond. Media outlets are trying to innovate but cannot do so quickly enough to defy the harsh economic headwinds.

Independent journalism faces an existential economic crisis: traditional business models have broken down; new ones will take time to emerge. Economic levers are being used to silence critical voices, and private and political interests are capturing economically weak media.

So, what do we do?

In this moment of profound crisis, we must assert the value of news media. This is a moment for the world to come together to recognise that something drastic must be done to ensure independent journalism is supported as a public good.

So, when so much of the discourse around news media is steeped in despair - for good reason - working on the founding team of International Fund for Public Interest Media, as Journalist-in-Residence, has been energising.

Launching today [May 2] at the UN's World Press Freedom Day conference, the International Fund is the first multilateral body dedicated to helping independent media in low and middle-income countries to weather the storm.

Bush Radio is one of its pilot grantees. It will use its small grant to supplement salaries and update its computer systems. It has also used its grant to purchase a generator to power the studio during blackouts.

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So far, the International Fund has received support from world leaders such as Presidents Biden and Macron, with pledges from over a dozen governments and corporate entities, raising US$50m.

But its ambition is to emulate the success of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria or the GAVI Alliance, bodies which transformed the level of treatments and vaccines available to fight deadly disease. In the coming years we want to raise $500m, a sum more commensurate with the scale of the problem facing media today.

A free, independent media is what underpins freedom of expression, human rights and all our development goals. Its decline will have a profound impact on democracy - for the fewer stories journalists are able to get to, the less we understand what is happening around us, the more we lose of our understanding of each other.

Khadija Patel is Journalist-in-Residence, International Fund for Public Interest Media, and Chairperson of the International Press Institute.

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
Anti-monarchist group Republic has said 'it will not be deterred' after receiving a 'passive aggressive' letter from the Home Office warning them against plans to protest at the King's coronation.

At least 1,600 people are expected to join peaceful 'Not My King' protests in Trafalgar Square and along the coronation procession route on Saturday.

But the group has slammed the Home Office for the official warning letter which they 'interpreted as a passive/aggressive intimidation of a legitimate protest group'.

The letter, sent by the Home Office's Police Powers Unit, set out new offences under the Public Order Bill which was given Royal assent by the monarch yesterday.

Under new legislation, protesters blocking key infrastructure such as roads, airports and railways can face 12 months behind bars.

Republic said 1,600 are planning to attend a Not My King protest at Trafalgar Square on Saturday. Pictured: Anti-monarchy protesters in York last month

Republic said the letter (a screenshot of it pictured here) was deemed 'intimidatory'

Anyone found 'locking on' or gluing themselves to buildings or objects could get six months in jail and face an unlimited fine.

Police can also stop and search anyone they suspect is planning to cause disruption under measures which came into force today - ahead of the coronation on May 6.

The Home Office has contacted a number of protest groups to notify them of new offences which may affect them.

But Graham Smith, the chief executive of Republic, said its campaign around the coronation will proceed as planned.

Mr Smith said it is 'very odd' the letter came from the Home Office and described it as 'intimidatory'.

He said: 'We have had two meetings with the Met police, and numerous phone conversations.

'They have repeatedly said they have no concerns about Republic's plans. It is a mystery why the Home Office thought it was necessary to send us an anonymous letter that could be interpreted as intimidation.'

'Republic will not be deterred and we will be protesting on Trafalgar Square and along the route of the coronation procession on Saturday.

'It is telling that Charles, who has had no problem speaking up on various issues, has chosen not to defend democratic rights when they are being threatened in his name. Perhaps he might make it clear that he believes in the right to protest.'

Security minister Tom Tugendhat said that the group has 'the liberty that anybody in the United Kingdom has to protest.

'What they don't have the liberty to do is to disrupt others.

King Charles' coronation is set to take place on May 6

A security and policing operation is under way with 11,500 police officers on duty on Saturday

'And that's where we're drawing and making a difference.'

A security and policing operation is under way with 11,500 police officers on duty on Saturday and a further 10,000 military personnel taking part in the ceremony.

Today a senior office warned that protesters who try to disrupt the coronation can expect 'very swift action' from police who will have 'an extremely low threshold' with dealing with them.

The Metropolitan Police have also said they will use facial recognition technology to spot troublemakers during King Charles' Coronation this weekend.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said that the force will not tolerate any criminal activity masquerading as protest during the event.

Specialist teams have begun scouring the area of central London where events will unfold and will continue monitoring crowds to spot signs of suspicious behaviour.

There will be more than 29,000 police officer deployments over the coming week in the lead up to Coronation Day and over the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend.

In a statement, The Met said: 'Our tolerance for any disruption, whether through protest or otherwise, will be low. We will deal robustly with anyone intent on undermining this celebration.'

The policing plan, dubbed Operation Golden Orb, has been re-examined after a security incident outside Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening when a man who allegedly had a knife threw shotgun cartridges over the palace gates.

The man was detained on suspicion of possessing a knife and ammunition had asked to speak to a soldier before warning police to handle his rucksack carefully at around 7.15pm yesterday.

This is the moment police arrest a man who 'threw shotgun cartridges' into the grounds of Buckingham Palace. He was detained on suspicion of possessing a weapon. Witnesses say the suspect had stationed himself outside the palace over the 'last few nights' and was heard shouting: 'I'm going to kill the King'

Climate activists Just Stop Oil have also been holding 'slow march' protests to London's Parliament Square ahead of the Coronation

Speaking at a briefing for journalists ahead of the coronation, Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said the man had initially asked police officers if he could speak to a soldier.

When the officers said that was not possible, the man allegedly began throwing the ammunition, Mr Adelekan said.

Meanwhile climate activists Just Stop Oil have also been holding 'slow march' protests to London's Parliament Square, a stone's throw away from Westminster Abbey, in the run-up to Saturday.

The Met Police said 16 people were arrested this morning for breaching conditions that they remain off the road during a slow march between Whitehall and Parliament Square.

Tuesday and Bank Holiday Monday saw similar slow marches held by the group.

A police officer keeps guard ahead of King Charles' coronation at the Mall outside Buckingham Palace today

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to travel to central London for the event, including scores of foreign VIPs who need close protection.

Commander Karen Findlay, who is Gold Command for the policing operation, said there are more VIPs for the coronation than there were for the Queen's funeral.

She said: 'It is an absolutely historic, unprecedented mobilisation for us in terms of scale, but most importantly the nature and specialness of this event to the public, to the service, and all our communities in London and actually the whole of the United Kingdom and globally.

'It's such an event of constitutional, spiritual importance for us all to be involved in.'

A total of 29,000 officer shifts will be used during the days around the coronation, with specialist teams including armed police, sniffer dogs, mounted officers and marine officers on the Thames all taking part.

There will be an airspace restriction across London on Friday and Saturday as part of 'an extensive security operation'.

As well as the coronation itself, there are 1,800 registered events taking place in London over the weekend.
As calls for resignation pile up for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the 89-year-old California Democrat is 'hopeful' she can return to the Senate next week, according to Chuck Schumer's notes.

Senate Majority Leader Schumer held a news conference on Tuesday where he did not address Feinstein's absence, but a shot of Schumer's notes showed he had an update from the senator.

'I spoke with Sen. Feinstein yesterday. We are both hopeful she can return next week,' the document read.

A Schumer spokesperson said: 'It was in his notes, and he would have said if someone asked.'

The senator has been absent for nearly two months since she was hospitalized in early March. Her absence on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee has held up President Biden's judicial nominations as Republicans refuse to give the nominees a majority vote to get confirmed.

Senate Majority Leader Schumer held a news conference on Tuesday where he did not address Feinstein's absence, but a shot of Schumer's notes showed he had an update from the senator

Feinstein's office would not confirm a timeline for her return.

'Senator Feinstein continues to make progress in her recovery, however, we don't have a timeline yet for her return to Washington which is dependent on her medical team saying it is safe to travel,' the spokesperson said.

On Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Committee held a high-profile hearing where Democrats eviscerated the Supreme Court's lax ethics rules and some Republicans agreed the high court needed to do more to offer transparency and confidence on conflicts of interest and free perks.

Chair Dick Durbin had urged Chief Justice John Roberts to testify or appoint another member of the court to do so. But without Feinstein he could not subpoena the justice, who refused to comply.

Meanwhile New York progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Monday that it was time for 89-year-old Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein to retire, amid a lengthy absence from Congress due to ill health which has disrupted Democrats' efforts to confirm liberal judges.

AOC is the latest member of Feinstein's own party to call for her to go, and she shrugged off complaints that such messages were sexist.

'I think criticisms of that stance as 'anti-feminist' are a farce,' she wrote on the new social media platform Bluesky.

Democrats including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand have dismissed such calls as sexist because they say men of the same age would not face the same demands.

But there is no getting away from it - Republicans have refused to help Democrats replace Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee while she is away.

New York progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Monday that it was time for 89-year-old Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein to retire, amid a lengthy absence from Congress due to ill health which has disrupted Democrats' efforts to confirm liberal judges

Feinstein has been absent since February as she recovers from shingles

'Her refusal to either retire or show up is causing great harm to the judiciary - precisely where repro rights are getting stripped,' wrote AOC, as she made the case that Feinstein was hurting women's rights.

'That failure means now in this precious window Dems can only pass GOP- approved nominees.'

It follows similar comments she made in April, after weeks of speculation about Feinstein's frailty.

'I think what we're seeing is really concerning, and I think whenever a member's health and ability to serve us brought into the spotlight, it's very unfortunate, it's very sad,' she told CNN.

'But I do think that what is happening right now, and the impact that the continued ability to serve is having on our ability to fill the courts, the impact that this is having on people's access to abortion care, I think this is something that is  it is unfortunately something that I think it is appropriate to consider.'

It follows a ruling in Texas that threatened access to mifepristone, a common abortion pill, handed down by a conservative judge appointed under Donald Trump.

Even before shingles, the Senate's oldest member was prone to concerning bouts of forgetfulness - with staff having to remind her about where she stood on bills and once forgetting that she had already announced her retirement in 2024.

California Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee are already locked in a race for her seat.

Last month Feinstein issued a statement revealing she had asked Senate Leader Chuck Schumer 'to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve' on the judiciary panel 'until I'm able to resume my committee work'

Nancy Pelosi blasted calls for Senator Dianne Feinstein to resign as sexist

In the meantime, allies in her own party have helped fend off calls that she should go.

'Senator Feinstein has been a champion for California for 20 years,' former House Speaker and fellow octogenarian Pelosi told CBS News. 'She deserves that respect to get well and be back on duty.'

Men would not face the same calls, she added.

'It's interesting to me. I don't know what political agendas are at work that are going after Senator Feinstein in that way. I've never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way,' she added.

But her absence comes at a critical time with Democrats' holding the slimmest of Senate majorities.

The Senate is due to hold a hearing Thursday on raising the debt ceiling, after the House passed a Republican bill last month that would increase the borrowing limit but only if it came with big spending cuts.

Any bill needs 60 votes to get through the Senate, and Feinstein's absence reduces Democrats' leverage by one vote.
A California YMCA which was at the center of a locker room controversy has re-opened its doors after a $70,000 remodel.

The new facilities at Cameron Family YMCA in Santee, San Diego County, come after multiple protests erupted when a teenager claimed she ran to hide in the showers after seeing the bare backside a transgender woman in the locker room.

The month-long project included adding privacy stalls in both the women's and men's locker rooms to allow members to change behind closed doors.

Rows of benches surrounded by raised walls and a door to allow people to change without showering have also been installed.

Under new rules, public nudity is also now banned at the facility.

Rebecca Philips said she felt unsafe changing near a transgender woman in the locker room

Christynne Wood hit back and insisted she did not parade around naked as was suggested

In January, Rebecca Philips, 17, addressed a city council meeting in Santee about the 'trauma' she experienced at seeing a transgender woman in the locker room at the Cameron Family YMCA in December 2022.

She sobbed as she spoke about encountering what she described as a 'naked male' after swimming at the facility.

'As I was showering after my workout I saw a naked male in the women's locker room,' she said.

'I immediately went back into the shower, terrified, and hid behind their flimsy excuse for a curtain until he was gone.'

Philips did not name the woman, who was later revealed to be 66-year-old Christynne Wood.

Wood started transitioning in 2016 and as of December 2021, had not yet undergone bottom surgery.

In 2021, she issued a lawsuit against a branch of Crunch Gym, where she'd been told she couldn't use the women's locker rooms unless she had gender reassignment surgery.

Philips later clarified that she had not seen a penis, but had only seen Wood's 'backside'.

The YMCA in Santee, San Diego, has re-opened its doors after a $70,000 remodeling project

Speaking at the city council meeting, Philips said: 'This is the YMCA, where hundreds of children spend their summer afternoons in child care camps.

'This is the YMCA where my little sister took gymnastics lessons.

'The locker room was supposed to be her safe haven to gossip with her friends, and shower and change.'

Philips says staff told her the trans woman was perfectly entitled to be in the changing rooms, and that only those on the sex offender's registry were banned from entering.

In California, transgender people can use the locker room or restroom of the gender they identify with, regardless of how far along their transition process is.

After being accused of 'terrifying' Philips, Wood hit back at the claims, insisting she did not parade around naked as was suggested.

She claims she showered - as she always does - in one of the private stalls with the curtain closed.

She also spoke at a protest at the YMCA, where she said: 'Im Christynne Lili Wrene Wood. Im the scary transgender woman who that child misidentified as a man,' she said.

She praised children who had come to support her, saying: 'Youre the people we truly love. And youre the next generation to make those Neanderthals irrelevant.'

After Philips spoke at the council meeting, Wood said she went to her water aerobics class at the center, insisting 'I do not run from bullies and I sure don't run from lies.'

'The staff of the Y came out and they all hugged me and said Christynne we all support you 100 percent,' she said.

Member Reanna Cook told NBC San Diego that she was happy with the changes that had been made to the center.

Member Reanna Cook said the changes at the facility would help people feel comfortable

'I feel like the Y really focuses on inclusivity for everyone and I feel like they also want to respect everyone as well, so I feel like they've made changes that allow everyone to come to the Y no matter why you're coming or what your beliefs are.

'They allow you to come and feel comfortable,' she said.

A Cameron Family representative told the outlet that only 18 people canceled their membership due to the controversy, while 400 locals joined the YMCA between January and May.
Then Vice President Joe Biden's former executive assistant Kathy Chung told the House Oversight Committee that she wasn't aware there were any classified documents among the belongings she packed up.

CNN reported Wednesday on the contents of Chung's interview to the GOP-led committee, with Chung telling lawmakers she did not notice any documents with classified markings as she unpacked boxes to move Biden into his Penn Biden Center office.

Chung testified that she didn't look closely at Biden's belongings, which also included family photos, policy papers and challenge coins, she said.

Classified documents were also found at Biden's Wilmington, Delaware home, prompting a federal investigation and the appointment of special counsel Robert Hur, who is leading a criminal probe into the matter.

Chung spoke to federal prosecutors in January, CNN said, before Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur.

President Joe Biden's (pictured) former executive assistant Kathy Chung told the House Oversight Committee that she wasn't aware there were any classified documents among the belongings she packed up his vice presidential office

Speaking to the House Oversight Committee voluntarily, Chung explained how she packed up the vice president's office and then unpacked some of the contents into his office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. (pictured)

Republican Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence are also being investigated over classified documents found at their homes after leaving office.

Chung's testimony backs up Biden's claim that he was 'surprised' by the discovery of classified documents at his Penn Biden Center office.

More documents were later found at his home in Wilmington - where he continues to spend practically every weekend.

'My Corvette's in a locked garage, OK? So it's not like they're sitting out on the street,' Biden offered in January. 'People know I take classified documents and classified materials seriously.'

In her testimony, Chung described being tasked to pack up Biden's vice presidential office during the transition to the Trump-Pence administration.

Classified documents were also found at Biden's Wilmington, Delaware home

While she had a security clearance during her time working in the Obama-Biden administration, Chung told lawmakers that she believed that any classified material or documents that would need to be collected via the President Records Act had been removed from Biden's office by the time she was packing it up.

She testified that she didn't double check the contents as she loaded file folders into the approximately 13 boxes that ended up at the Penn Biden Center.

When asked why she said, 'we didnt have the time or we didnt think that we needed to sort through them.'

'We just were tasked with  to pack up,' she added, according to CNN.

In her interview with lawmakers, she explained that some of Biden's belongings were unpacked, while other files were stowed away.

'Well, there were - like those boxes with the Cancer Moonshot and some of the policy papers, I knew. You know, we unpacked those,' she said. 'And we also unpacked some of the boxes with - you know, the Vice President loves photos of his family, so just to make his office look nice, we unpacked those and put those out.'

'So, it wasn't just all documents,' she said.

When asked if she studied each file she decided to unpack Chung answered 'barely.'

'We just picked up the file folder from the boxes and put it in the cabinet,' she said.

Chung was also forced to tell lawmakers that she had not relationship with the Chinese Communist Party nor was anyone in the Biden family involved in the packing of boxes or instructing her what to pack.

Chung has been the target of a racist conspiracy theory suggesting because of her ethnicity she has ties to China.

On the political right, another narrative popped up that she was hand-picked by Hunter Biden to move boxes of classified materials.

Chung's full transcript hasn't been released to the public.

On Wednesday, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Oversight Committee's ranking member, demanded that it see the light, expressing concerns that Republicans deliberately 'misrepresented the voluntary transcribed interview.'

'Since launching their investigation into then-Vice President Bidens handling of classified records, Committee Republicans have peddled false claims and racist innuendo to distract from their unwillingness to investigate former President Trumps mishandling of and refusal to turn over hundreds of classified records retained at his Mar-a-Lago Club,' Raskin said Wednesday in a statement.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a bill banning state officials from investing public money in funds that promote environmental, social and governance goals.

Supporters of E.S.G. investments say they represent capitalism with a conscience, and that moving money away from fossil fuels, for example, represent a good bet on future returns in a greening economy.

But DeSantis says they were an attempt to impose the politics of the 'Davos elites' through financial markets.

'They want to use economic power to impose this agenda on our society,' he said.

'And we think in Florida, that is not gonna fly here.'

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a bill banning state officials from investing public money in funds that promote environmental, social and governance goals

The bill is one of the furthest-reaching efforts yet by Republicans to stamp out sustainable investing efforts.

And it marks a clear message from DeSantis, as he sets out his culture war credentials ahead of an expected presidential run.

The bill bars state and local governments from using ESG factors in investment decisions.

House Bill 3 also required state-registered banks to make loans to companies in sectors such as fossil fuels, firearms and private prisons.

Conservatives claim that banks are discriminating against businesses in controversial fields.

The law also bars the sale of E.S.G. bonds, an increasingly popular way to fund green energy projects or that lower borrowing costs for companies that meet emissions or diversity targets.

'Florida will not bow down to the political virtue signaling of martini millionaires,' said House Speaker Paul Renner.

'Corporations have no right to bypass our democratic process.

'Companies that engage in E.S.G. hurt their customers and the communities they serve, including Florida's retirees, by making everything they produce more expensive.'

Critics of the move say it will cut off Florida from E.S.G. mandated funding, and that it will be difficult to enforce.

A fact sheet published by the Florida governor's office setting out the new law

President Joe Biden issued the first veto of his administration, rejecting a bill that would overturn a Labor Department rule on fund managers who take into account 'environmental, social and governance'

But the subject is something that Republicans have coalesced around. In March, 19 governors, including DeSantis, took aim at President Joe Biden and his embrace of the principles of E.S.G.

'We as freedom loving states can work together and leverage our state pension funds to force change in how major asset managers invest the money of hardworking Americans, ensuring corporations are focused on maximizing shareholder value, rather than the proliferation of woke ideology,' they wrote.

They said the would work together to 'keep fighting the administration's decision to jeopardize retirement savings for millions of Americans to promote far left priorities.'

The issue triggered the first Biden veto of his presidency. He stopped a Republican-led bill that would have overturned his administration's rule letting retirement account planners take E.S.G. factors into account.

Because climate change, social impacts and ongoing lawsuits have significant financial repercussions, administration officials argued that the investment limits were courting possible disaster.

Biden, in a video released by the White House, said he vetoed the measure because it 'put at risk the retirement savings of individuals across the country.'
A skydiver who murdered his girlfriend after she confronted him about the suspected rape of a teenage girl at work has been jailed for life.

Ashley Kemp was jailed for a minimum of 19 years by a judge who told him he had shown 'nothing but self-pity to the end'.

The 55-year-old was handed a life sentence for the murder of mother-of-three Clair Armstrong, 50, who was also a skydiving instructor and owned a beauty salon.

Kemp, a sky diving instructor and pilot, placed his hands around Ms Armstrong's neck 'for what seemed like an eternity' so 'no one else could have her', it was heard.

Judge John Thackray KC said the relationship was ending and Kemp had decided 'if you could not have her, nobody could'.

Ashley Kemp, 55, who murdered his girlfriend after she confronted him about the suspected rape of a teenage girl at work has been jailed for life at Hull Crown Court

Ashley Kemp was convicted of the murder of beautician and mother Clair Armstrong (pictured) last week

The court heard how a teenager had made sexual allegations against the defendant which had led to him losing his job and put a huge strain on the couple's relationship.

Sentencing him at Hull Crown Court, Judge Thackray said the circumstances of the attack at Ms Armstrong's home in Messingham, north Lincolnshire, were 'devastating, tragic and brutal'.

He showed no emotion as the sentence was passed at Hull Crown Court this afternoon as members of victim Ms Armstrong's family sobbed in the public gallery.

Earlier, Ms Armstrong's brother in law Ian Farrell said in a victim impact statement: 'On sixth of November 2022 our lives changed forever.

'We received news which has shattered us all and left a huge hole in our lives that can never be filled.

Kemp admitted manslaughter but denied murder - leading to a six day trial at Grimsby Crown Court which ended with a guilty verdict on Tuesday last week

'Clair our beautiful sister and mum was tragically taken from us in such horrific circumstances that we will never accept or understand.

'We miss her incredibly and regardless of what the person responsible for killing Clair receives as a punishment it will never ever be enough to ease our pain for losing her.

'The day we lost Clair was the day our lives changed forever.'

Recalling how Ms Armstrong was murdered in her own home, he continued: 'It was place where she should have felt safe.

'But ultimately, it was where her safety was stolen from her by him,' he added, turning to look at Kemp in the secure dock, dressed in a suit and tie.

Mr Farrell continued: 'It is unbearable to comprehend. Her youngest son, who at the age of 14, an age when he needs her most, has had his mum ripped from his life.

'Since that horrible moment in November, we cannot remember a day in which we did not cry. We cannot remember a day when we laughed.

During a victim impact statement, Clair's family said they could not accept that 'our beautiful sister and mum was tragically taken from us in such horrific circumstances'

'We cannot remember a day not filled with pain and heart ache. So many days are marred with sadness and will never be the same again.'

Kemp admitted manslaughter but denied murder - leading to a six day trial at Grimsby Crown Court which ended with a guilty verdict on Tuesday last week.

In his statement today, Mr Farrell continued: 'He did not have the decency to admit what he had done.

'Sadly, he did not have the courage to do that. As a result, we sat through utterly horrific accounts and details about how Clair was taken from our lives.

'We have heard accounts we will never be able to unhear We have seen images we can never unsee. We have heard lies we can never forgive but they will stay with us and haunt us forever.

'As a family we will have to work out what life will look like without our beautiful sister and incredible mum. Currently, it is literally beyond comprehension and we can't bear to think about it.'

Passing sentence, Judge John Thackray KC said he was satisfied that Kemp strangled Ms Armstrong 'so no else could have her' after she ordered him to pack his bags and leave her home.

The couple had been dating for more than two years and had discussed marriage before Kemp was arrested at Leeds Bradford Airport last August, as they returned from holiday in Portugal.

Kemp was accused of attempting to rape a teenage girl at the Drop Zone sky diving centre he was managing at Hibaldstow airfield, near Lincoln.

Gym regular Ms Armstrong, 50, worked as a sky diving instructor at Drop Zone and also ran a beauty salon in her village of Messingham.

Judge Kemp said: 'You committed the offence in the home of Clair, a place where she was entitled to feel safe and secure.

'A great deal has been said in court, I emphasise wholly properly, about the devastating, tragic and brutal circumstances of the death of Clair Armstrong.

'Her untimely death, coupled inevitably with the impact of what occurred on her family and those who were close to her, are a critical consideration.

Passing sentence, Judge John Thackray KC said he was satisfied that Kemp strangled Clair (pictured) 'so no else could have her' after she ordered him to pack his bags and leave her home

Ashley Kemp (left), 55, was found guilty of murdering his freefall instructor girlfriend Clair Armstrong (right)

'No sentence I impose can give the sons of Clair their mother back. No sentence I impose can undo what you - Kemp -have done.

'All I can do is impose what the law considers to be the appropriate sentence for a case of this nature.

'I take account of the victim personal statement which describes better than I ever could the devastation that you have caused.

'It is perhaps impossible to put into words how they feel but perhaps the statement which has been read out on behalf of the family, gives some indication of the devastation you have caused.

'It describes there not being a single day when they do not cry, and not a day which is not filled with pain and heartache.

'Clair Armstrong was a wholly blameless victim of a violent attack upon her, followed by her asphyxiation which culminated in her death.'

He said Ms Armstrong 'had so much to live for', adding: 'She was obviously an impressive woman with her own business whilst also working as a skydiving instructor, in addition to her participation as part of a formation skydiving team. She was a much loved mother to three sons.'

Kemp was fired for gross misconduct over the allegation and also lost his tied accommodation at Hibaldstow.

The judge continued: 'She had generously given you a home when you lost your accommodation due to the sexual allegations .

'The relationship had become strained and you must have known that it was close to being over. On the day in question, she had informed you that the relationship was finally over and that you must move out.

'You decided that if you could not have her, nobody could and you launched a brutal attack upon her.

'First, you struck her twice to the head, breaking her nose and causing an injury to her forehead. You then pinned her down and strangled her with such force that you broke her hyoid bone and the thyroid cartilage.

'Injuries to her mouth indicated that you also smothered her mouth, no doubt to prevent her from screaming for help.

'She was undoubtedly fighting for her life, evidenced by the injuries caused to your forehead and the fact that she had bitten her tongue. I reject your account that she was attacking you.

'Whilst it is correct that she may well have lost consciousness during the process of strangulation, I have no doubt that the pain, suffering and undoubted terror prior to losing consciousness was in excess of a few moments.

'I have no hesitation in concluding so that I am sure, that you intended to kill - although I accept it was a briefly held intention.'

He also noted that Kemp had lied about the time of the murder. Kemp claimed in his 999 call in the early hours of Sunday November 6 2022 he had killed Ms Armstrong only two hours earlier.

But the prosecution claimed she had died much earlier, possibly early on the Saturday morning when she stopped responding to WhatsApp messages from sky diving pals.

The judge said Kemp had been caught on CCTV early on Saturday morning, with clear injuries to his face.

The trial also heard that while Ms Armstrong was lying dead in bed, in a dressing gown and panties wrapped in a duvet, Kemp let the dogs out three times and wrote a suicide note.

He was arrested eight miles away, standing dazed on a grass verge by a country lane after crashing his silver Nissan Qashqai into a tree.

The judge was also satisfied Kemp disposed of her phone to hide damaging evidence on it - and said there were also other aggravating factors, adding:

'First, this was domestic violence. That makes it more serious because of the breach of trust and because of her vulnerability.

'Second, you concealed evidence by disposing of the phone. Third, you delayed reporting the death and lied as to when it occurred. Fourth, the offence was committed under the influence of alcohol.'

The judge accepted Kemp had no previous convictions, the murder was not premeditated, and he was going through a difficult period.

'But I do not accept that it significantly reduces your culpability. I do not accept that you are genuinely remorseful,' he added.

'During your evidence, I detected nothing but self pity from beginning to end.'

Jailing him for life, he ordered him to spend at least 19 years behind bars, minus 176 days on remand.

Kemp, originally from Reading, met Ms Armstrong at the Drop Zone where she worked as a sky diving instructor and was also a member of the formation sky diving team.

Mitigating, Mohammed Nawaz KC said: 'It is accepted by the defence that the actions of the defendant have caused untold loss and sorrow and it is difficult not to be moved by the sentiments of the family. This was a spur of the moment incident which led to this violence.'
Lori Vallow today smirked as a distraught former friend of the cult mom told her murder trial that she threatened to cut her up and bury her in trash bags.

Audrey Barattiero, who was staying at Vallow's apartment in Rexburg, Idaho, in October 2019, wept as she recounted how she confronted her about whether there was 'anything weird going on'. Vallow told her, 'No.'

At the time, Vallow's kids JJ, seven, and Tylee, 16, had vanished. Nine months later, they were found buried in her new husband's backyard. JJ's body was in trash bags.

Barattiero told Vallow she was going to pack. 'As soon as I turned to go upstairs, she started laughing  as if at something hilarious,' Barattiero recalled. Vallow told her: 'You're so naive and too trusting. You're like a little child ... Well I've got news for you. Not everyone is a good person and not everyone can be so kind.'

Barattiero told the court Vallow threatened to kill her: 'She said she would cut me up ... it would be so messy and there would be so much blood and something about bleach and trash bags. She would bury me in a place nobody would ever find me.'

Lori Vallow (pictured at an earlier hearing) sat smiling - almost appearing to laugh at times - and whispered feverishly to her attorneys during Barattiero's emotional testimony at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise on Wednesday

Audrey Barattiero, who was staying at Vallow's apartment in Rexburg, Idaho, in October 2019, wept as she recounted how she confronted the cult mom about whether there was 'anything weird going on'. Vallow told her, 'No'

Vallow sat smiling - almost appearing to laugh at times - and whispered feverishly to her attorneys during Barattiero's emotional testimony at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise on Wednesday.

The cult mom, 49, and her new husband Chad Daybell are accused of murdering her kids and then killing Daybell's wife Tammy a month later. Two weeks after Tammy's death the pair married in Hawaii.

Defense attorney Jim Archibald grilled Barattiero over the 'crap' he accused her of making up after never disclosing it at grand jury proceedings. The witness testified that she had never spoken of it before because Vallow terrified her.

'Nothing of this sort was talked about. You want the jury to believe that you just didn't make this last crap up?' Archibald said.

Barattiero replied: 'I did not make it up.' She said she hadn't mentioned it before because Vallow said: 'If you ever tell anyone, I will find you in the dark of the night.'

Earlier the witness told how Vallow had pledged to use 'knives and fire' to drive an evil spirit out of her husband at the time, Charles, just days before he was shot dead by Vallow's brother.

Barattiero was attending a religious conference with the cult mom in Utah when she said she 'wanted to work on getting a negative spirit out of Charles.'

Barattiero said Vallow claimed that her husband was a 'zombie' who had been possessed by an evil spirit. The alleged killer was leading a group of women in a prayer-like circle in her hotel room when she said she would use 'knives and fire and weapons' to 'work on her husband.'

The conference was in June, 2019. On July 11 of that year, Charles Vallow was shot dead in Arizona by Vallow's brother Alex Cox who is also accused of being involved in the murder of her two kids.

Vallow moved to Rexburg, Idaho, after Charles' death to be near her future husband Daybell. The State says the same theories about evil spirits and 'zombies' were used by Vallow and Daybell to justify the killings of her two kids and Daybell's wife Tammy.

Barattiero said she met Daybell and Vallow in late 2018. At the time Vallow was married to Charles and Daybell was married to Tammy, but the pair are believed to have started an affair long before their eventual marriage.

'I believed that there was kinda a vibe,' Barattierro told jurors. 'They didn't seem flirtatious but it seemed like they maybe liked each other or something.'

The children's bodies were discovered in shallow graves on Daybell's property on June 9, 2020 - nine months after they vanished

Chad and Tammy Daybell pictured before she was murdered in October, 2019

Vallow (pictured at an earlier court appearance) and her lover Chad Daybell are accused of killing JJ and her daughter Tylee, 16, in Rexburg, Idaho , in September 2019.

Chad Daybell appears during a court hearing in St. Anthony, Idaho, Aug. 4, 2020

She said that Daybell, who was a religious author and the self-styled leader of their deranged cult, later asked her to be friends with Vallow.

Barattiero said Daybell told her 'he couldn't talk to her all the time'. She added: 'My impression was that he was trying to keep propriety because he was married.'

She told the court that in January or February of 2019, Daybell told her his wife was going to be dead within a year.

'He said that he had a near death experience and that a deceased relative told him that [Tammy] would pass on by the time she was 50,' Barattiero told jurors. Tammy Daybell died aged 49, seven months before her birthday.

She said that in October 2019, the month of Tammy's death, Vallow had visited her in Missouri. She was over at Vallow's hotel when she told her that Tammy's spirit was in a cage and needed to be freed because 'some person has overtaken her body.'

Vallow asked Barattierro to help with casting out the evil spirit from Tammy. Barattierro broke down as she told the court: 'I told her I did not want to help and did not want to participate. She highly pressured me saying you're supposed to be my friend, you're supposed to help me. I reiterated I didn't want to and she kept on.'

Tammy died at the Daybells' home in Rexburg on October 19, 2019. She was initially determined to have died of natural causes but when cops started searching for Vallow's missing children her body was exhumed.

An autopsy - which had been refused by Daybell - found she was suffocated.

Tylee, 16, and JJ, seven, are shown with their uncle, Alex Cox, in what is believed to be the final photo of them, taken during a family trip to Yellowstone National Park on September 8, 2019

Vallow (in an undated photo shared by Tylee before her death) and her husband Chad Daybell are accused of killing Tylee and her seven-year-old adopted brother JJ in Rexburg, Idaho, in September 2019. The State says the couple believed the children were Satanic 'zombies'

Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow in Hawaii after they were married. At the time cops were still searching for the kids in Idaho

Vallow's children, Tylee and JJ disappeared in September 2019, but their remains were not discovered until the following June

Vallow and Daybell tied the knot on a beach in Kauai on November 5, 2019. Receipts show she purchased her own wedding ring on Amazon almost three weeks before Tammy's death.

The children were missing for almost a year before their corpses were found buried in Daybell's yard on June 9, 2020.

During the opening, prosecutor Lindsey Blake described how charred remains were all that was left of Tylee.

She told jurors: 'You will hear it explained as a mass of bone and tissue. That's what was left of this beautiful young woman.'

Tylee's DNA was later found on a pickaxe and shovel in a shed on the property. JJ's body was wrapped in trash bags and duct tape - the tape binding his arms in front of him and wrapping around his head.

The two children and Daybell's previous wife Tammy were all killed because they stood in the way of the couple's relationship, the State says.

'Remember, the defendant will remove any obstacle in her way to get what she wants, and she wanted Chad Daybell,' Blake told jurors.

The key individuals in Lori Vallow's tangled family tree, including her five husbands, two dead children and killer brother

'The defendant used money, power and sex to get what she wanted.'

Jurors have heard from friends and relatives of Vallow that she and Daybell believed the children were 'dark' and referred to them as 'zombies' before they disappeared.

'The common theme was the body has to be destroyed,' Blake said. 'The defendant and Chad used their self-proclaimed religious teachings to justify their actions to others  their actions from affair to murder.'

Prosecutors say the couple planned to use life insurance money from Tammy's death, and that Vallow kept collecting and spending the children's social security and benefits after they died.

The trial opened on April 10 and the State is still laying out its case.

Vallow denies two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of conspiracy in the deaths of her two children and Tammy Daybell.

She further denies grand theft for allegedly collecting government benefits on behalf of her children after they were killed.

Daybell is being tried separately.
A cat believed to have been shipped from China was found in a box by border officials in Canada.

The cat was first spotted through a 'sizeable' hole in the box, which had been shipped from China, according to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

It is not known whether the cat had been shipped intentionally or whether it was a stowaway that somehow made its way into the package.

The cat, named Precious Cargo by border officials, was initially too shy to eat and dehydrated, but after a week of rehabilitation is now set to be adopted, according to the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BC SPCA).

Officials with the CBSA discovered the calico cat in a box last month at the Vancouver International Mail Center in Richmond, British Columbia.

'The officers noticed that the box was damaged and had a sizable hole in its side,' Binder Kooner, chief of operations for the CBSA told CTV.

This calico cat is believed to have survived being mailed from China to Canada, where she was rescued last month

The adorable kitty was spotted peeping through a hole in a cargo box, and was very shy when border patrol officials tried to coax her out

'When the CBSA officer looked into the box, the officer saw a pair of eyes staring back which blinked,' she added.

Officers coaxed the cat into a spare dog kennel with bedding and water.

'The cat appeared healthy but scared,' said Kooner. 'We contacted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the BC SPCA, who sent an animal control officer to bring the cat directly to an emergency vet clinic.'

The cat spent a week with an emergency vet in order to stabilize. Since its origin was unknown it was vaccinated against rabies, rehydrated and tested for foreign parasites and diseases.

'No one knows how long the cat spent in transit, so she was kept at the emergency vet clinic for a week to stabilize,' Krista Shaw, manager of the BC SPCA's Richmond community animal center said in a statement.

The kitty, now named Precious Cargo, has been taken in by a foster mom and will be put up for adopted once she has recovered from her ordeal

Shaw said it's possible that the cat hopped into the box somewhere en route, and that the cargo aircraft landed once between China and Canada.

It's unclear where the plane stopped.

'We're not sure exactly where the cat came from. there was a hole in the box so it looks like the cat may have somehow got its way into the box,' she told Global News.

Shaw said the cat is now in the care of a foster mom who intends to adopt her.

'The foster mom tells me that she is slowly starting to eat and drink more and is getting comfortable around her and her home,' Shaw added.

'She loves belly rubs and a good stretch on her lap.'
A man who served 17 years behind bars for a rape he says he did not commit has said clearing his name is the 'single most important thing' in his life as he appeared at the Court of Appeal.

Andrew Malkinson, 57, was found guilty of the 2003 attack on a woman in Greater Manchester and the following year was jailed for life with a minimum term of seven years but remained in prison for a further 10 because he maintained he was innocent.

He spoke outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Wednesday following a hearing in his appeal against his conviction, which centres around new DNA evidence that recently emerged pointing to another potential suspect.

Mr Malkinson said it has been 20 years since he was arrested and that he hopes the court reaches 'the right decision and quashes the conviction', adding that it has 'taken a huge toll on his life'.

Asked what it would mean to clear his name, he said: 'It is the single most important thing in my life, since the day I was convicted.

Andrew Malkinson, 57, (pictured) was found guilty of the 2003 attack on a woman in Greater Manchester and the following year was jailed for life with a minimum term of seven years but remained in prison for a further 10 because he maintained he was innocent

Mr Malkinson outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, on May 3, 2023. He has had his conviction for rape referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) over new DNA evidence

'I come from a strong, honourable family. My father and grandfather were military men and they fought with distinction.

'I am proud to be a Malkinson and they have tarnished our name. I could never do what they accused me of, never.

'I want the court to find I am innocent, if they don't I will keep on fighting.'

His appeal is due to be heard in July after three senior judges gave directions at Wednesday's hearing about how the case should progress.

The case was referred to the court in January by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, after new DNA evidence was discovered.

He previously applied for his case to be reviewed by the CCRC twice, but was turned down, eventually being released from prison in December 2020.

After his release, advancements in scientific techniques allowed his legal team, supported by legal charity Appeal, to provide new DNA analysis that cast doubt on his conviction to the CCRC.

The body then commissioned its own testing that found that DNA from the victim's clothing matched another man on the national police database.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed in January that a man had been arrested and released under investigation in light of the new information, but no decision has yet been made as to whether he will be charged.

At Wednesday's hearing, Edward Henry KC, for Mr Malkinson, told the court the CCRC was aware since 2009 that there was 'crime specific' DNA which was not a match for either Mr Malkinson or the victim.

However, he said at that time the CCRC 'did not consider it tipped the balance towards a referral' to the Court of Appeal.

Mr Malkinson said it has been 20 years since he was arrested and that he hopes the court reaches 'the right decision and quashes the conviction', adding that it has 'taken a huge toll on his life'

However, in October last year, the sample was found to be a partial match for another man, who the court ordered can only be identified as 'Mr B', and forensic investigations are ongoing, with a final report due later this month.

Mr Henry said that 'to this day' no DNA evidence to link Mr Malkinson to the crime has ever been deduced.

The prosecution case against him at his trial was based solely on identification evidence.

Addressing the court, Mr Henry said that, despite his earliest release date being in 2010, Mr Malkinson was not released until late 2020 'because throughout those many years in prison, which he served for an offence we submit he was wholly innocent of, he never once conceded that he was responsible for those appalling crimes... he never admitted his guilt'.

The barrister added: 'The only thing he had left was his family honour and, in particular, the memory of his grandfather who fought with distinction for this country, and therefore he was not going to admit something he had not done.'

He said the case should be handled with 'profound urgency', despite the fact Mr Malkinson has been freed from jail, adding: 'Nevertheless it should be recognised that he served more than double his sentence because he protested his innocence, as he had done from the outset, and shortly after his arrest in interview he had asked for everything to be DNA swabbed.'

Mr Henry said Mr Malkinson 'not unreasonably' has 'grave concerns about police conduct through the entirety of this matter'.

He added: 'This is a case where there has been an array of procedural breaches and... abdication of responsibility in connection with the preservation of exhibits.'

While his main ground of appeal is the fresh DNA evidence, Mr Henry told the court there were photographs of the victim's hands, corroborating her evidence that she scratched her attacker and broke a nail, which were not disclosed at the time of Mr Malkinson's trial.

He also told the court there is evidence that one of the key identification witnesses was a 'long-term user of heroin', which may have affected his memory, but that was not known by Mr Malkinson or his legal team at trial.

Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mrs Justice McGowan and Mr Justice Holgate, said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has until June 23 to either file a response to the appeal or notify Mr Malkinson that it does not intend to oppose it.

The judges also said that, if the CPS wishes to re-interview the victim, that must take place before June 9 and be conducted in accordance with a plan given to Mr Malkinson's legal team, and be recorded.

The case will return to the court at some point in the two weeks after July 17.

Legal charity Appeal said in January that the new analysis of the DNA was only possible because samples had been kept by the government-owned company Forensic Archive Limited, and accused Greater Manchester Police of having destroyed or lost exhibits.
Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale's manifesto will not be released anytime soon due to a pending litigation that was filed this week.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said in a tweet on Wednesday that they have been advised by counsel to hold in abeyance the release of records related to the shooting at The Covenant School pending orders or direction of the court.

It comes just after former Hamilton County Sheriff James Hammond and the Tennessee Firearms Association filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Metropolitan Nashville government over the police department not yet releasing Hale's 'manifesto.'

The lawsuit requested a court order to force police to turn over the writings which have been referred to as a 'blueprint on total destruction' detailing why Hale chose to enter The Covenant School on March 27 and kill three children and three members of the staff.

The lawsuit on May 1 is not the only one that's been filed, and it's unclear exactly which 'pending litigation' Metro police is referring to in their recent statement.

Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale's manifesto will not be released anytime soon due to a pending litigation that was filed this week, the police department tweeted on Wednesday

Metro police said they've been advised by counsel to hold in abeyance the release of records related to the shooting at The Covenant School pending orders or direction of the court

It comes just after former Hamilton County Sheriff James Hammond and the Tennessee Firearms Association filed a lawsuit on Monday. Hale, 28, killed three children and three members of the staff at the school on March 27. Pictured: Hale before transitioning to male

Last week, a Nashville police source initially confirmed the release of the document to the New York Post as demands for Hale's writings grew louder on social media and across the country.

But that all appears to have changed this week following another lawsuit filed in the Chancery Court of Tennessee, Davidson County, which is against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, requesting for a court order to force Metro Nashville police to turn over certain records.

The Tennessee Firearms Association had previously filed two open records requests, including the 'manifesto' and also sought disclosure of 'all email communications of MNPD officials regarding the mass shooting committed by Audrey Elizabeth Hale on March 27, 2023, as well as MNPD officials' text messages regarding the same, and copies of the 'manifesto' reported left by Audrey Elizabeth Hale in her vehicle.'

Hammond told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that he joined the lawsuit to ensure transparency on how the situation was handled by law enforcement and responding agencies is upheld.

'It's just that we want open transparency in regard to a way that case was handled and especially information that may be helpful to police in saying that this doesn't happen again,' Hammond said.

Records sought in the lawsuit reportedly contain material including body camera footage, photos, impound and evidence invoices, coroner information, toxicology reports, audio calls for service and surveillance footage.

Records sought in the lawsuit includes body camera footage, photos, impound and evidence invoices, coroner information, toxicology reports, audio calls and surveillance footage

'We'll take a look at that material and will advise other groups, including law enforcement, of any information that might be germane to keeping citizens safe in their own county,' Hammond explained.

The lawsuit filed on Monday came after Nashville authorities denied a public records request by a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization.

At that time, a spokesperson for the police department told Fox 17 in Nashville that 'the investigation has advanced to the point that writings from the Covenant shooter are now being reviewed for public release. That process is underway and will take a little time.'

Hale fired 152 rounds from two assault rifles and a handgun, murdering Hallie Scruggs, William Kinney, Evelyn Dieckhaus, all 9, and headmistress Dr. Katherine Koonce, 60, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and custodian Mike Hill, 61.

No motive for the massacre has yet been given.

Officers retrieved the 'manifesto' - along with hand-drawn maps, a suicide note, 20 journals, laptops, phones and several writings, from Hale's home and the Honda Fit she left in the school parking lot.

One official with the Metro Nashville Police Department said the contents of Hale's manifesto 'keeps him up at night.'

The manifesto has been shared with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit in Quantico, Virginia, and detail Hale's 'planning over a period of months to commit mass murder' at the school, according to police.

Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, was one of the victims shot by transgender shooter Audrey Hale, 28, after she opened fire at the private Christian school

Tributes have flooded in for a second victim, Will Kinney, (pictured) who was shot and killed along with Hallie Scruggs, both 9, in the massacre

Hallie Scruggs, 9, was killed in the shooting and is pictured with her father, a pastor at the church, Chad Scruggs

For some, Hale's decision to target the Christian elementary school she once attended, together with her changing gender identify, suggest the attack was a manifestation of violent transgender activism.

Hale was born female but used the names Audrey and Aiden, together with he/him pronouns. There is a debate over how to correctly refer to her in media reports. She's been described as having 'high-functioning autism.'

Reporters have revealed that Hale's conservative, Christian parents could not accept she was gay or trans, which may amount to personal motivations for the attack. She was also grieving the recent death of a friend in a vehicle accident.

On the day of the shooting, Hale attacked the school, which she previously attended, at around 10 in the morning. She sent a suicide note to an old friend before storming into the school.

Within minutes, Hale shot and killed six people, including three students. Police entered the school about ten minutes later and gunned her down.

Police have previously said Hale mentioned another location in her manifesto, but decided that there was too much security to launch an attack.

Katherine Koonce, head of school (left), and Cynthia Peak, a substitute teacher (right) were among those shot dead by Audrey Hale

The daughter of Mike Hill (pictured), who had worked at the school for more than a decade, said that she 'never thought' he would be killed in a mass shooting
The Zamfara State Governor-elect, Dauda Lawal, on Tuesday in Gusau inaugurated the 60-member Transition Committee, reiterating that he is on a rescue and rebuilding mission.

The 60-member committee is chaired by the Former Inspector General of Police, M.D Abubakar.

Speaking at the inauguration of the committee, Lawal said the committee was tasked with the responsibility of making necessary preparations for a smooth transition of government in Zamfara State.

He described the 60-member committee as an assembly of experts with years of experience in different areas, carefully selected to be part of the transition process.

Lawal said: "The change that the people of Zamfara voted for is a change from insecurity, a life of poverty, to a life of security, prosperity and comfort, accountability, and respect for the rule of law.

"The 60-member Transition Committee is constituted purposely to commence all necessary preparations and to set the ball rolling for a smooth transition of our new Administration in the State which will take effect on May 29th, 2023.

"The Committee is charged with the responsibility of developing a clear framework of liaison and establishing a channel of formal communication with the outgoing Administration and taking over by the incoming Administration for a successful transition.

"The committee will engage Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, and review the finances of the outgoing government with a focus on receipts, assets, and liabilities, among others.

"The people of Zamfara State have higher expectations; they chose us, believing we can rescue and rebuild our state.

"We also chose you as members of the Transition Committee because we believe that with your years of experience and expertise, we can lay the foundation for the incoming government to succeed in its rescue mission.

"With this brief remark and by the Will of Allah, I, at this moment, inaugurate this Transition Committee."
U.S. Marshals sent out to protect Supreme Court justices in light of the Dobbs leak last year were ordered not to arrest protesters outside justices' homes even though federal law bans such activity, according to internal records obtained by four senators.

In a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the GOP senators said 'post orders' from last spring show that the officers were specifically told not to enforce the federal statute that bars protests at justices' or federal judges' homes.

'[A]lthough there may be state and federal laws concerning protest activity around residences the USMS is not in a position to enforce those laws,' read one set of orders, according to the letter led by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala.

Another set of orders told Marshals they 'should not engage protestors "unless they attempt to enter private property,"' according to the letter.

'[A]lthough there may be state and federal laws concerning protest activity around residences the USMS is not in a position to enforce those laws,' read one set of orders, according to the letter led by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala.

Britt and three other Republicans said their findings contradict Garland's own testimony before Congress earlier this year that Marshals were told they 'have full authority to arrest people under any federal statute' including Section 1507, the anti-protesting law.

Protesting outside federal judges' homes is prohibited specifically when it occurs 'with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer.'

The protests came before the final decision in the Dobbs case.

Garland said in a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing in March that Marshals had the authority to make arrests 'under any federal statute including that federal [anti-protesting] statue, but they have to make the determination on the ground whether they can do that in a manner that is safe and able to protect their main mission.'

Protesters march outside Kavanaugh's suburban Maryland home in June after the court's decision on Roe v. Wade

Garland stressed he was 'the first Attorney General who's ever ordered the Marshals to protect the residences of the justices and protect them 24/7.'

The attorney general said he did not know details about the instructions to the Marshals until Britt showed him some of them in the March hearing.

Britt said her office had obtained the Marshal orders 'from multiple whistleblowers separately.'

'In the aftermath of your appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, it became clear that your testimony was misleading and incorrect,' Britt wrote, joined by Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Mike Lee of Utah.

U.S. Marshals are still protecting justices around the clock, though Garland has said he hopes that soon Supreme Court police can handle that work.

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan has now launched an investigation into directions given to the Marshals.

The probe comes one year after the bombshell leak of the Dobbs decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade - which sent shockwaves across the nation and spurred protests in front of justices' homes for a time.

Jordan wrote a letter requesting information from U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald L. Davis about the training materials Marshals were given as they were sent out to justices' homes.

Cops stand outside of Brett Kavanaugh's home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on June 29, five days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade

Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, California, sparked the greatest security fears by bringing a gun, knife and burglary tools to Kavanaugh's home at the beginning of June, according to law enforcement. He has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of a federal judge and his due to stand trial in August

'The training materials provided to the U.S. Marshals strongly suggest that the Biden Administration is continuing to weaponize federal law enforcement agencies for partisan purposes,' Jordan wrote.

'While authorities apprehended the man who intended to do harm to Justice Kavanaugh, we are aware of no other arrests or charges for agitators demonstrating outside of the justices' homesdespite the actions clearly violating federal law,' Jordan said in the letter, referencing a July 2022 arrest of a man outside Brett Kavanaugh's home who threatened to kill the justice and was found to be armed.

Jordan requested documents and communications between the U.S. Marshals Service and the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Maryland, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, and the Executive Office of the President about enforcement of the statute from the day of the leak - May 2, 2022 - to the present.

He requested the information by 5 p.m. on May 17.
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are asking President Biden to reverse his administration's decision to end Title 42, saying it will 'exacerbate' the ongoing migrant crisis 'disaster' on the southern border.

Title 42, the COVID-19 pandemic-era policy that helped law enforcement quickly remove illegal migrants at the border, is set to expire next Thursday on May 11, which ranking member Lindsey Graham called a 'nightmare date.'

According to reports, migrants crossing the southern border into the U.S. are expected to spike between 10,000 and 13,000 per day with the end of Title 42 restrictions.

'So what we hope to do is to beg and plead with this administration -- I've asked Democrats to join the effort - to not repeal Title 42,' Graham said in a news conference.

The senators write in a letter to Biden signed by members of the Judiciary Committee and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Wednesday that Title 42 is imperative to keeping order at the border.

But Title 42, a CDC policy, will end with the Covid-19 emergency, and it's not clear if there is any legal authority to keep the rule in place beyond the emergency.

Graham called on Biden to find an 'adequate substitute' for Title 42 if he could not keep in place the current public health rule.

Graham said migrant caravans are camping out along the border because they don't believe other border policies - namely Title 8 - will provide an 'adequate substitute' to Title 42.

'The reason 10,000 people are in one city waiting for May the 12 is because they don't see an adequate substitute,' he said.

'We write today to implore you to reverse your decision to end the Title 42 public health order, set to expire on May 11. According to the Department of Homeland Security's own estimates, border surges in response to the termination of the Title 42 order could reach 13,000 encounters with illegal immigrants a day,' the letter says.

The senators wrote a letter to Biden led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

'We write today to implore you to reverse your decision to end the Title 42 public health order, set to expire on May 11,' the senators say

'We shudder to think about how much worse the situation at the border would have been over the past three years if it had not been for the deterrent effect of Title 42,' the letter continues.

The senators also say that the administration's CBP One app to help migrants set up asylum claim appoints is a 'weak response' that will not be useful during such a large surge.

'A rebuttable presumption of asylum ineligibility is a weak response to the rampant and ongoing abuse of our asylum system. Nothing in this rule prevents aliens from making frivolous asylum claims,' they write.

'Instead, under the terms of the rule, aliens are encouraged to schedule a time to present at a port of entry through the CBP One mobile application, after which time many, if not most, will subsequently claim asylum,' the senators continue in the letter.

If border crossings increase to 13,000 every single day, it will 'be the equivalent of throwing gasoline on an already raging fire,' the senators argue.

The Republicans urge Biden to 'seize the moment' and secure the border.

The Biden administration announced Tuesday it will send 1,500 troops to the southern border by May 10, ahead of Title 42's termination - a move Republicans are branding as 'ridiculous political theatre.'

At the request of the Department of Homeland Security, the agency will 'provide a temporary increase of an additional 1,500 military personnel, for 90 days, to supplement CBP efforts at the border.'

The Defense Department will deploy the troops for about three months to help out U.S. Custom and Border Patrol agents, but will not be engaged in active 'law enforcement' work.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the troops can do nothing but 'push paper' and 'change diapers.'

'They're not doing anything to deter the interest of the country. So it is political theater, it doesn't change the dynamic,' added Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Former President Trump sent troops to the border in 2018. Asked by DailyMail.com if he felt it was 'theater' then, Graham responded: 'I feel that Donald Trump did the best job in my political lifetime. When Donald Trump did something, it worked.'

'The triangle agreement with the three Northern Triangle countries where they would process asylum claims took the problem off the table. He had the lowest illegal crossings in December of 2020. As Senator Cruz said, in 45 years. So I would suggest that if you want to compare the Trump performance on the border to Biden, it's an easy comparison to make,' Graham continued.

Chairman Mark Green of the House Homeland Security Committee blasted the Biden administration's decision to send 1,500 active duty U.S. service members to the southern border, saying it will not stop the influx of illegal migrants.

The Republicans urge Biden to 'seize the moment' and secure the border

There is a rapidly forming migrant caravan in Mexico, and some have estimated that there are as many as 35,000 asylum seekers waiting to cross over into the interior of the U.S. after May 11

'By having our men and women in uniform do administrative work to help move illegal aliens into the interior of the country quicker, President Biden is now using our troops to facilitate the demise of our homeland security, instead of securing our borders,' Green told DailyMail.com exclusively following the administration's announcement.

'On January 20, 2021, the number of Border Patrol agents didn't change and the CBP-enacted budget has remained the same. What changed was the removal of key policies that promoted law and order and ensured the security of the U.S. homeland,' he continued.

'Don't be fooled, Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden deliberately and intentionally created this historic crisis. It is amazing the lengths they will go to avoid implementing the last administration's successful border security policies.'

There is a rapidly forming migrant caravan in Mexico, and some have estimated that there are as many as 35,000 asylum seekers waiting to cross over into the interior of the U.S. after May 11.

The number of migrants apprehended at the border in March jumped 25 percent over the previous month to 162,000.

New data from April reveals that there were 210,000 illegal migrant encounters. The total over the 2023 fiscal year so far is at 1.4 million.

The administration has said it is preparing to encounter nearly 400,000 migrants each month after Title 42 ends, a huge figure that makes it difficult for border patrol to contain the surge into the interior of the country.

Border agents say they have intercepted over 73,000 illegal immigrants in the past 10 days alone.
The Essex pub that refused to remove its display of golliwog dolls has been forced to close after Heineken and Carlsberg told the owners to stop serving their beer and a maintenance firm refused to work on site.

The White Hart Inn in Grays was discovered to have 'golliwog dolls' displayed inside, which landlord Benice Ryley claimed to have collected since childhood.

Essex Police raided the pub and seized the offensive dolls following reports of 'suspected hate crime' a month ago. Since then, the pub has been removed from the CAMRA good pubs guide, and been the subject of an ongoing police investigation.

Now, following the controversy Mrs Ryley and her husband Chris, have vowed to shut the pub down for good and move home to Turkey.

The couple, who have been landlords of the White Hart Inn for almost 20 years, are understood to be 'utterly gutted' by the decision and claim they 'don't understand' the hate they have received over the dolls.

The White Hart Inn (pictured) in Grays, Essex was forced to close after Heineken and Carlsberg told the owners to stop serving their beer and a maintenance firm refused to work on site

Landlords Chris (left) and Benice Ryley (right) will now be retiring and are returning to their home in Turkey. They are understood to be 'utterly gutted' by the decision to close the pub

The White Hart Inn shut its doors under its current management, Mrs Ryley confirmed to Thurrock Nub News.

She and Mr Ryley will now enter retirement and return to their home in Turkey.

'I feel gutted, totally and utterly gutted. Hurt, upset,' she said of the closure. 'We've had a few bits of hate, which I personally don't understand.

'The young people these days don't understand, from years ago where did the Gollys originate from, it's such a shame.'

Citing opposition from suppliers as a contributing factor to the decision, Mrs Ryley added: 'I've had enough.'

A Carlsberg spokesperson told MailOnline today: 'We believe pubs should be an enjoyable place for everyone and we will take steps to seek removal of our beers from venues who do not share our values.

'Whilst we do not directly supply the pub in question, after being made aware of the police investigation we contacted our third-party distributor to make our views clear.'

Heineken ordered the pub to stop serving its beer on April 20 citing the 'abhorrent display' that allegedly goes 'against everything the company stands for'.

The White Hart Inn in Grays was discovered to have 'golliwog dolls' displayed inside, which Mrs Ryley claimed to have collected since childhood. She said she had 'received them as gifts' from her late aunt and various customers

Essex Police raided the pub (pictured) and seized the offensive dolls following reports of 'suspected hate crime' a month ago. Since then, the pub has been removed from the CAMRA good pubs guide, and been the subject of an ongoing police investigation

'We advised the pub owners that we want nothing more to do with them,' a Heineken UK spokesperson told MailOnline. 'We believe pubs should be places of inclusivity and respect for all people, regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion or gender.

'We have made it clear that we want all Heineken UK brands removed, and there will be no further contact with the pub from Heineken UK.'

CAMRA, which removed the establishment from its Good Beer Guide and Pub of the Year awards display, echoed the sentiment, telling BBC that the organisation believes' pubs are for everyone' and that there is 'never a place for discrimination'.

MailOnline has approached CAMRA for comment.

The pub reportedly displayed its collection of nearly 30 dolls for the last 10 years after Mrs Ryley had 'received them as gifts' from her late aunt and various customers.

She previously the dolls were 'part of my childhood history, it's a part of our inheritance. I can't see any harm.'

Last month, amid the slew of hate, Mrs Ryley said that if someone is opposed to the display, 'they don't have to come through the door'.

Police seized the dolls from the pub on April 4 while investigating an allegation of hate crime that had been reported on February 24. Essex officers 'seized several items in connection with the investigation'.

Vandals later targeted the pub on April 16 around 12.40am. They reportedly hurled a brick through the windows and graffitied the building with offensive slogans. The pub had five windows and a door damaged.

The White Hart Inn first made headlines after it was reported by MailOnline that Home Secretary Suella Braverman said Essex Police 'should not be getting involved in this kind of nonsense' and instead focus on 'catching criminals'.

The pub reportedly displayed its collection of nearly 30 dolls for the last 10 years

Police seized the dolls from the pub on April 4 while investigating an allegation of hate crime that had been reported on February 24

Last month, amid the slew of hate, Mrs Ryley said that if someone is opposed to the display, 'they don't have to come through the door'

Pub landlord Mr Ryley, who spends most of his time in Turkey, came under criticism online after posts emerged in which he made what many have said are racist remarks.

He posted: 'Black Chancellors matter' in October 2022 in a reference to former Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng.

In another from June 2020, a golliwog is pictured with the caption 'Sadiq's new ideas.'

Other offensive messages include a post asking: 'When is White History Month please. Anybody know?' while in another a golliwog is pictured with the caption: 'Hello Great Britain Am I Allowed Back In?'

In another post in March 2016, he wrote: 'They used to hang them in Mississippi years ago' alongside a picture of the dolls hanging from his bar.

Referring to the hard-hitting 2016 post and his controversial comment, Mr Ryley told MailOnline: 'It was a tongue in cheek remark, but I was just expressing a historical fact. I wasn't trying to offend anyone.

'In the 1800s when slaves used to run away in the deep south of America they either beat them or hanged them. My comment was a reference to that. It was not meant to be detrimental to anybody. I was just repeating something that used to happen, you can't accuse me of being racist for that.'

Referring to his 'White Lives Matter' post from June 2020 he said: 'Everybody was going on about Black Lives Matter and to be honest, I was getting sick of it. Nobody seemed to care about other lives.

The White Hart Inn first made headlines after it was reported by MailOnline that Home Secretary Suella Braverman said Essex Police 'should not be getting involved in this kind of nonsense' and instead focus on 'catching criminals'. Customers are pictured inside the pub

Pub landlord Mr Ryley, (left) who spends most of his time in Turkey, also came under criticism online after posts emerged in which he made what many have said are racist remarks. He is pictured with his wife Benice

'I don't care if you're black, brown or white because to me, all lives matter. That was the point that I was trying to make. And I would like to know when white history month is because we also have a history to celebrate.'

Mrs Ryley previously hit back at allegations of racism, saying the pub frequently hosts Indian weddings, and said she does not understand how people could be offended by the dolls.

'I think the racist people are the ones who complain - it's their problem, not us,' she said at the time. 'I have so many different cultures come in here, we are definitely not racist. We do many Indian weddings, for example.

'As far as we are aware we are not breaking any laws by displaying them. It took six officers to come and remove a shelf full of dollies. What a waste of taxpayers' money.'
London will receive a tourism boost worth over 205million during the Coronation fortnight, helped by the arrival of 30,595 more overseas visitors than last year, according to new research.

The historic event has sparked a surge in bookings with international visitor numbers up 75.1 per cent compared with the same period last year, analysis from Key Data, which tracks trends in the short-term rental market, revealed today.

Overall arrivals in London, including from across the UK, are 47.4 per cent higher year on year. This compares with just a 9 per cent rise in the number of people taking trips in England as a whole.

The research shows that London can expect an extra 30,595 overseas visitors during the Coronation fortnight, totalling 71,378 foreign tourists.

That alone has provided the capital with an additional revenue windfall worth an estimated 20m, including spending money and the cost of hotels and short-term rental accommodation.

Pictured: Visitors pass under a Happy and Glorious message on the Admiralty Arch as London prepares for the Coronation of King Charles III on May 6

Pictured: Admiralty Arch (file photo). The historic event has sparked a surge in bookings with international visitor numbers up 75.1 per cent compared with the same period last year, analysis from Key Data , which tracks trends in the short-term rental market, revealed today

All international visitors to London will spend an estimated 67,614,561 during the first half of May, while all 192,406 tourists in the capital will shell out an estimated 205,137,727 over the same period, providing a massive lift to the hospitality and tourism industries.

Nightly rates are up approximately 16 per cent year on year to 186 while there has been a 29.4 per cent improvement in occupancy.

While the supply of hotel rooms will have remained relatively static, the number of short-term rentals available over the Coronation fortnight has climbed 6.5 per cent on last year to 81,818.

Revenue per available room (RevPAR)  a key measure of revenue strength across the hospitality industry  is up a staggering 50.1 per cent annually.

Short-term rental operators in the capital are enjoying a 59.9 per cent increase in revenue overall.

Sally Henry, VP of Business Development at Key Data, said: 'Short-term rental hosts are really feeling the benefit because they're the cornerstone of London's tourism economy.

'Occupancy, average daily rates and RevPAR are all up, but so are the number of properties on offer.

'This speaks to how the short-term rental industry has this incredibly important flexibility built in, which the traditional hotel industry just cannot offer.'

Pictured: Intersection near Buckingham Palace ahead of Coronation (file photo). Overall arrivals in London, including from across the UK, are 47.4 per cent higher year on year. This compares with just a 9 per cent rise in the number of people taking trips in England as a whole

New research also shows that the US is the country outside the UK that loves the Royal Family the most.

Travellers from the US have booked the highest number of flights to the UK for King Charles' Coronation weekend, followed by tourists from India (second) and Australia (third), according to trend data from Travelport, a global technology company that powers bookings for international travel suppliers.

Canada and Italy also appear to share a passion for the British monarchy, ranking fourth and fifth respectively.

The research also analysed the countries that registered the biggest surges in searches for flights to the UK within 24 hours of the Coronation date being announced.

The Republic of Ireland tops this ranking, with searches for UK flights up 580 per cent after May 6 was confirmed as the Coronation date.

The second biggest search surge came for domestic travel within the UK (442 per cent), followed by searches from Italy (third, 355 per cent), Spain (fourth, 349 per cent) and the Netherlands (fifth, 313 per cent).

The remaining top 10 countries to have booked the most UK-bound flights are Nigeria (sixth), South Korea (seventh), Germany (eighth), Thailand (ninth) and Spain (10th).
Russia's ex-president Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday called for the 'physical elimination' of Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky after Moscow accused Kyiv of a drone attack on the Kremlin aimed at assassinating Vladimir Putin.

'After today's terrorist attack, there are no options left aside the physical elimination of Zelensky and his cabal,' said Medvedev, who has been increasingly hawkish since Moscow's Ukraine offensive.

Moscow claimed a pair of Ukrainian drones exploded over Putin's Kremlin residence in the early hours.

Russia said it had foiled the attempt and called it a 'planned terrorist act and an attempt to take the life of the President of the Russian Federation'. It has prompted demands from Russian lawmakers for the Kyiv government to be 'destroyed'.

Ukraine quickly responded to the claim, the most dramatic Russia has levelled against Kyiv since invading its neighbour more than 14 months ago, saying it had 'nothing to do' with the alleged attack.

Pictured: A fireball is seen rising over the Kremlin after an alleged drone strike by Ukraine

Pictured: An explosion is seen (left) over the Kremlin. It was captured by a camera overlooking Moscow's Red Square and St Basil's Cathedral (right)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied Moscow's claims that Kyiv had attempted to assassinate Vladimir Putin

Moscow claimed a pair of Ukrainian drones exploded over Putin's Kremlin residence in the early hours

A chilling warning was issued by senior Russian official Vyacheslav Volodin, who called on Moscow to escalate Putin's war and use 'weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime'.

It was unclear which weapons Volodin was referring to, but Putin and other senior officials have threatened on several occasions to deploy nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Night-time footage showed what appeared to be fireballs erupting above the roof of the government complex. There was no independent verification for the purported attack, with Russian authorities saying it occurred overnight without presenting any evidence to support it.

Putin was at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow at the time, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti.

The Kremlin said Russian military and security forces had stopped the drones before they could strike. Nobody was hurt, it added. Its official website said debris from the drones fell on the Kremlin grounds without causing any major damage.

Zelensky on Wednesday denied Moscow's claims that Kyiv had attempted to assassinate Putin, after Russia said the two drones were shot down.

'We didn't attack Putin. We leave it to the tribunal. We fight on our territory, we are defending our villages and cities,' Zelensky told reporters at a joint press conference with Nordic leaders in Helsinki.

His senior aide said earlier: 'We have no information about the so-called night attacks on the Kremlin. But, as President Zelensky has repeatedly stated, Ukraine directs all available forces and means to liberate its own territories, and not to attack others.'

One theory behind the attack is that it could be a cynical false flag operation by Russia seeking to unite people behind the under-pressure president, amid setbacks and a huge toll caused by unleashing a disastrous war on Ukraine.

The timing is certainly interesting, coming less than a week before the planned massive annual military parade in Red Square marking the defeat of Hitler - for which Putin has no victories to boast of in his ongoing assault across the border.

Foreign dignitaries are expected to attend and Russia has previously accused Ukraine of seeking to disrupt the parade.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today that the parade would go ahead despite the drone attack.

Pictured: Russia's ex-president Dmitry Medvedev (file photo). 'After today's terrorist attack, there are no options left aside the physical elimination of Zelensky and his cabal,' said Medvedev, who has been increasingly hawkish since Moscow's Ukraine offensive

Russia has accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin in a double drone strike on the Kremlin overnight. Moscow furiously decried the attack as 'a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation'. Pictured: Video purportedly shows smoke rising over the Kremlin overnight

Pictured: A plume of smoke rises over the illuminated spires of the Kremlin overnight

The Kremlin has persistently attempted to persuade Russians that the conflict is necessary to 'denazify' Ukraine.

A staged explosion may have also been part of an internal public relations campaign designed to prepare Russians for Ukraine's counter-offensive.

The thrust, using Western tanks and long-range missile systems, is likely to lead to a loss of Russian-held territory in eastern Ukraine and heavy casualties.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the accusation that Kyiv was behind the attack, as well as Russia's arrest of alleged Ukrainian saboteurs, could indicate Moscow was preparing for a large-scale 'terrorist' attack of its own against Ukraine in the coming days.

Podolyak said the claims could provide a pretext for Russia 'to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities'.

He added that 'Ukraine does not attack the Kremlin because, firstly, that does not solve any military aims'.

But soon after the accusation, officials called for an escalation in the conflict.

In a statement posted on Telegram, Volodin said Russia should not negotiate with Zelensky after the purported attack. Russia has said it is open to negotiations, while making clear it would only enter talks on its own terms.

The Pentagon is looking into the alleged attacks, according to a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he is highly skeptical of any allegations made by Russia.

'I've seen the reports. I cannot validate them, we simply don't know,' Blinken said at an event in Washington.

He added: 'I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.

'We'll see what the facts are and it's really hard to comment or speculate on this without really knowing what the facts are.'

The allegation of the failed assassination attempt was made by Kremlin officials today and reported by Russian news agencies hours after the strike last night.

The Kremlin said two drones had been used in the alleged attempt, but that they were disabled by Russian defences.

The Kremlin did not present any evidence to back up its account.

Extraordinary video posted by Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russia's law enforcement agencies, showed a flying object approaching the dome of a Kremlin building overlooking Red Square and exploding in a burst of light just before reaching it.

Seats could be seen set up for the Victory Day parade.

Pictured: What appears to be a drone is seen flying over the Kremlin overnight

Pictured: An explosion erupts over the Kremlin in a purported drone strike in Moscow

People are seen on the dome of the Kremlin Senate building in central Moscow, on May 3, after the purported drone strike

Another video posted on a neighbourhood internet group appeared to show a plume of smoke over Kremlin spires filmed from across the Moskva River.

The second strike was also captured on video, which appeared to show another fireball erupt from the roof of the Kremlin.

In one of the clips, two people were seen climbing up the dome at the time of the strike. It was unclear who they were or why they were on the dome.

'Two unmanned vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin... the devices were put out of action,' Moscow's statement read. In a chilling threat, Russia made clear it reserved the right to respond to the alleged drone strike.

'The Kremlin has assessed these actions as a planned terrorist act and an assassination attempt on the president on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade,' RIA reported. It noted Putin had not changed his schedule.

'The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit,' the Kremlin's statement added.

Moscow's mayor also announced a ban on unauthorised drone flights over the city.

Telegram channels shared videos of what appear to be anti-aircraft fire over the Kremlin, while there were reports of a noise like a 'thunderclap' in Moscow.

Other clips have shown a flash of what is said to be the drone as it flies in over Moscow and explodes over one of the vast Kremlin buildings.

Residents of Stalinist House on the Embankment 'saw sparks in the sky and people with flashlights near the Kremlin wall after the claps'.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday it shot down two drones launched by Ukraine that it said were part of an attempt on the Russian president's life. Pictured: Putin is seen in Moscow today

RIA state news agency reported: 'As a result of the terrorist act, the president was not injured. The schedule of his work has not changed and will continue as usual.

'There were no casualties during the fall and scattering of UAV fragments on the territory of the Kremlin.'

The purported drone attack would be a significant escalation in the 14-month conflict, with Ukraine taking the war to the heart of Russian power.

READ MORE: Saboteurs derail Russian freight train with explosives 37 miles from Ukraine and destroy power cables in double blow to Putin Advertisement

Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, said: 'It certainly wasn't an attempt to assassinate Putin, because he doesn't sleep in the roof and he probably never sleeps in the Kremlin.'

He added it was too soon to prove or disprove whether it was a Russian attempt 'either to make Ukraine look reckless or to buck up Russian public opinion' or if it was a Ukrainian operation to embarrass Russia.

Russia has massively increased air defences in Moscow and around Putin's palaces and residences.

Russian pro-war analysts expressed shock that drones could penetrate defences to the Kremlin, the official residence of the Russian president.

Telegram channel VChK-OGPU stated that if Putin had been at the Kremlin, his spokesman would not have admitted it.

Russian pro-war reporter Alexander Kots called for retaliation against Ukraine's leadership. 'They must be destroyed,' he said.

'We should not hit the centres, but the people who make decisions. Methodically, systematically and ruthlessly.

'The enemy is doing this systematically on our territory.'

Retired colonel and military expert Anatoly Matviychuk said the alleged bid to assassinate Putin will lead to a massive Russian response.

'I think that we will strike at the decision-making centre [of Ukraine] like the presidential palace in Kyiv,' he said.

Matviychuk claimed the US and Britain would have approved the drone strike on the Kremlin.

He said: 'I think this attack was made on the advice of our Anglo-Saxon "friends" in order to test our government's response.

'How will we react - let's wait a couple more hours... Either there will be a political statement or there will be physical actions by our fighters. They [the Armed Forces of Ukraine] have already crossed not even the red line but the crimson line.'

Pro-war reporter Sergey Karnaukhov said NATO planes were active over the Black Sea in the aftermath of the 'Ukrainian drone strike' on the Kremlin.

The Russian outrage comes despite Putin's special forces attempting to assassinate Zelensky in the first days of his invasion.

Gun battles broke out on the streets of Kyiv, and the Russian saboteurs - who were understood to have been ordered to capture or kill Ukraine's first family - were repelled from the capital, before Russia retreated fully a month later.

The drone strike in Moscow last night came a week after Ukrainian secret service agents tried to assassinate Putin with a kamikaze drone carrying explosives as he was due to visit a newly built industrial site outside Moscow.

In this file photo taken on March 15, 2023 a 'No Drone Zone' sign sits in central Moscow as it prohibits unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) flying over the area

A group of police officers stand at the corner of the GUM department store in the empty Red Square, closed for Victory Parade preparation with the Spasskaya Tower and the Kremlin Wall in the background in Moscow, Russia, on April 28

The Ukrainian forces reportedly launched the UJ-22 drone, laden with 17 kilograms of C4 plastic explosives, from Ukraine on Sunday, April 23.

But before the deadly drone reached the Rudnevo industrial park on its alleged mission to take out the Russian despot, it crashed a few miles short of their target, it was claimed.

German tabloid Bild cited a tweet by Ukrainian activist Yuriy Romanenko, who claims to have close ties to Kyiv's intelligence services, alleging Ukrainian secret service agents had received 'information' about Putin's apparent trip.

They decided to launch the deadly drone in an attempt to assassinate the president.

He claimed that a kamikaze drone that had crashed in Voroskogo village, 12 miles east of the Rudnevo industrial park, was the one that Ukrainian forces had launched as part of the assassination plot.

The news of the alleged assassination attempt came as Ukraine prepared for a fresh offensive against Russian troops that has been months in planning.

In a possible sign that preparations are being stepped up, the frontline city of Kherson in southern Ukraine announced a long curfew for residents and sabotage acts behind Russian lines intensified.

On Wednesday, Kyiv said Russian strikes had killed 21 people in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson - including on a supermarket and a train station.

Officials said they were dealing with a major fire that broke out at a fuel depot near a crucial bridge linking Russia's mainland with Crimea earlier in the day.

Kherson will be under curfew from Friday evening until Monday morning.

Regional officials said this was 'for law enforcement officers to do their job', but similar long curfews have also been used in the past for troop and arms movements.

'During these 58 hours, it is forbidden to move on the streets of the city. The city will also be closed for entry and exit,' the head of Kherson's regional military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram.

He advised residents to stock up on food and medicine and said people could go for short walks near their houses or visit shops but should carry identity documents with them at all times.

Kherson was captured by Russian troops last year in the first days of the invasion and remained under Russian occupation until November 2022.

After a sustained campaign of sabotage attacks behind Russian lines, Russian forces withdrew from the city.

They crossed to the eastern side of the Dnipro River which now delineates part of the front line in southern Ukraine.

An explosion also caused a freight train to derail in the western region of Bryansk bordering Ukraine on Monday, governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram.

Ukraine says it has been preparing for months for a counteroffensive aimed at repelling Russian forces from the territory they currently hold in the east and south.

Head of pro-Putin Wagner private army Yevgeny Prigozhin said: 'I believe that the offensive of the Ukrainian army has already commenced, basically.

'We see an extremely intensive activity of enemy aviation on the perimeter and inside the frontline.'

Meanwhile in Finland, NATO's newest member, Zelensky, was on a surprise visit to take part in a summit with the leaders of the five Nordic nations which have been key providers of military aid.

'In order to be in NATO and support alliances to gain support, fundamental diplomatic work must be done. Ukraine is doing it today,' Daria Zarivna, Ukraine's presidential communications adviser, wrote on Telegram.
Ten men have appeared in court accused of being part of a grooming gang that sexually abused teenage girls in Rochdale.

The men are accused of more than 100 offences including rape, sexual activity with an underage girl and trafficking persons for sexual exploitation.

The charges relate to alleged incidents involving three underage girls in the Lancashire town between 2000 and 2006.

They form part of Operation Lytton, an ongoing investigation by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) into historical child sexual exploitation.

All of the men appeared on Wednesday at Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court.

Ten men aged 37 to 62 were charged at Manchester Magistrates Court (pictured, file image)

They were charged as part Operation Lytton in March, 2022.

Mohammed Zahid, 62, of Station Road, Crumpsall has been charged with 32 offences, including rape, trafficking persons within the UK for sexual exploitation and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl, gross indecency with an underage girl, and procuring an underage girl to have unlawful sexual intercourse with unknown males.

Roheez Khan, 37, of Rochdale, has been charged with three offences, including two rapes and one charge of penetrative sexual activity with girls aged 15 to 17.

Arfan Khan, 39, of Rochdale has been charged with four offences, including two rapes and two counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child.

Mohammad Salim, 44, of Rochdale, has been charged with eight offences, including four rapes and four counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

Mohammed Shazad, 42, of Rochdale, has been charged with 16 offences, including seven rapes, one charge of inciting a girl to commit gross indecency, one charge of trafficking persons for sexual exploitation, two counts of penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl and five counts of sexual penetration of a girl.

Mustaq Ahmed, 65, of Oldham, has been charged with six offences, including two rapes and four counts of gross indecency with an underage girl.

Kasir Bashir, 48, of Oldham has been charged with six offences, including two rapes and four counts of gross indecency with an underage girl.

Nisar Hussain, 39, of Rochdale, has been charged with three offences, including one count of making an indecent image of a child and two counts of trafficking persons for sexual exploitation.

Naheem Akram, 46, of Rochdale, has been charged with 10 offences, including six rapes and four counts of sexual activity with an underage girl.

Ten men have appeared in court accused of being part of a grooming gang that sexually abused teenage girls in Rochdale (File image)

Sucklene Shah, 44, of Crawford Street, Rochdale has been charged with two counts of sexually touching a girl aged 14 to 15.

No pleas were entered and the men spoke only to confirm their name, address and date of birth.

But lawyers for each of them indicated their intention was to plead not guilty to all of the charges.

An eleventh man has also been charged but failed to appear at court.

Tahir Rashid, 52, of Rochdale has been charged with 13 offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl.

The court heard that police intelligence indicated that he left the UK for the Republic of Ireland on Sunday and has yet to return.

District judge Tom Mitchell issued a bench warrant for his arrest.

The judge bailed the men to appear for a pre-trial hearing at Minshull Street Crown Court, in Manchester, on June 7.

They were handed various bail conditions, which include surrendering their passports, residing at their home addresses and not travelling from the UK.

Eight other men, mainly from Rochdale, are due to go on trial next week accused of various child sex offences.
The dog breeder who sparked a Buckingham Palace security scare may snapped and travelled to London because he was being kicked out of the kennels, neighbours say.

David Huber - who described himself as an 'avid hunter' - was anxious and stressed after being told by his boss that he that he had to leave the dog business he ran in Cumbria, it is claimed.

Mr Huber, 60, is understood to be the man arrested by armed police after allegedly approaching the gates and throwing items including suspected shotgun cartridges close to the Palace.

He is believed to have travelled to London from his remote Cumbrian cottage, where he breeds Hungarian Vizslas, for Charles's coronation on Saturday.

Today a farmer neighbour suggested that Huber had recently been told he could be evicted from his business premises.

And another neighbour said of Huber: 'Daft lad, going down to London.'

David Huber (pictured), the dog breeder who sparked a Buckingham Palace security scare, may snapped and travelled to London because he was being kicked out of the kennels, neighbours say

Mr Huber, 60, was anxious and stressed after being told by his boss that he that he had to leave the dog business he ran in Cumbria, it is claimed. He is believed to have travelled to London from his remote Cumbrian cottage, (pictured) where he breeds Hungarian Vizslas, for Charles's coronation on Saturday

Farmer Roy Ashley, 72, said Huber had recently been told to leave Banks Gate Farm which he rents from a landlord.

Mr Ashley, who keeps his horses on fields belonging to Banks Gate Farm, said:'The owner had given him notice to quit the kennels. Maybe that has set him off.

'He had a woman with him for a while when he first moved in about two and a half years ago, but not now,' said Mr Ashley.

'There was nowt wrong with him. And he was always alright with me. 'He had fanciful big plans for the kennels, building new buildings and such like.

'He would have the odd girl working for him, looking after the dogs. 'But he didn't like anybody else near his dogs. If I was going down to get my horses I would have to ring him and he would open the gate, but I wasn't to go near the dogs.'

Sheep farmer Frank Milburn, 51, said Huber moved into Banks Gate Farm, near Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, about three years ago.

Mr Milburn said: 'He has about 50 or 60 acres, but doesn't farm the land. He just breeds dogs, he gets most of his income from selling the dogs. It is a very successful business I believe.

Mr Huber is understood to be the man arrested by armed police (pictured) after allegedly approaching the gates and throwing suspected shotgun cartridges close to the Palace

Met Police officers are pictured last night next to a 'suspicious bag' believed to belong to the suspect. Police later carried out a controlled explosion on the bag as a precaution

Met Police detained the suspect at around 7pm last night after he approached the gates of the palace in central London. Officers are pictured at the scene last night

'He lives there alone, but he does have staff working for him, looking after the dogs and so on. I'm not sure whether one or two might board there.

'He has a huge amount of dogs. They'll need looking after,' said Mr Milburn. 'Daft lad, going down to London.'

Mr Milburn went on: 'We are very remote around here and we don't see much of each other.

'I don't know why he's gone down to London and done what he had done. There has been no suggestion he was planning anything from what I've seen of his recent activities.'

Mr Milburn said Banks Gate Farm was a stables for horses before Huber bought it, and it was a working farm prior to that.

Another farmer John Lord, 64, said:'We had the police here this morning. They had got lost looking for David's farm, because it is hard to find.

'He lives alone, and just has his dogs.

Neighbours described Mr Huber as a 'quiet fella' and claim he 'lives alone, and just has his dogs'. Mr Huber is pictured holding tow of his dogs

'I cannot believe what he's done.

'I thought he was a quiet fella. I know him to say hello to, but no more really.'

The farm has a heavy wooden gate, with an intercom, and the entrance is covered by CCTV.

But the frequent barking of dogs from inside the modern indoor kennels on his could be heard.
Florida prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the man accused of plotting the brutal murder of Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan in front of his two-year-old daughter last year.

Mario Saldana-Fernandez allegedly orchestrated the fatal shooting of Bridegan in a 'cold, calculated and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification,' said prosecutors Wednesday in court.

Bridegan was gunned down last year after dropping off two of his children at the Jacksonville Beach home of his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez, who had married Saldana-Fernandez.

The father of four, 33, was shot execution style after getting out of his car to move the tire, as his toddler daughter looked on from the backseat

Saldana-Fernandez appeared in Florida court in March 2023

Jared Bridegan was gunned down in the middle of the road last summer in front of his daughter

Bridegan and his ex were, at the time, splitting custody of their two children, but the arrangement had become increasingly contentious.

Henry Tenon, a former tenant at one of Saldana-Fernandez's rental properties, was also arrested in connection with Bridegan's untimely death.

Authorities said they eventually discovered several payments from Saldana-Fernandez to Tenon and that the pair communicated regularly in the months leading up to Bridegan's killing.

Saldana-Fernandez was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse.

In March, Tenon - who was allegedly the gunman - took a plea deal on a second-degree murder charge that required him to truthfully testify about about any co-defendants in the case.

He told police that Fernandez had hired him, and is now willing to testify against him at trial.

Shanna Gardner-Fernandez remains a suspect in the case, but has not been charged. Following the murder, she moved to Washington, without her current husband.

Shanna is from a wealthy Mormon family in Utah, where her relatives run the successful Stampin' Up paper company. She has denied any involvement in her ex-husband's murder, and announced that she had separated from Saldana-Fernandez.

Following her ex's murder, Shanna told the Florida Times-Union that she had once asked a tattoo parlor employee if he knew someone who could make Bridegan 'disappear,' but the request was made in jest.

Shanna Gardner-Fernandez picture with her husband whom she now claims to be separated from, and the two children she shared with Bridegan

Henry Tenon, 61, confessed to working with Saldana - his old landlord - to carry out the murder

Bridegan had since remarried and had two more children with Kristen Bridegan

Bridegan, who was a father of four, was driving an SUV in February 2022 with his then 2-year-old daughter Bexley in the car when he stopped because a tire was blocking his path.

Police say the tire was placed there deliberately. After Bridegan exited the vehicle to move the tire, he was fatally shot as his toddler watched. She remained on the scene near her father's lifeless body for several minutes until a passerby called the cops.

In addition to the twins he shared with his ex-wife, Bridegan had two more daughters with his new wife, Kristen Bridegan.
An elderly doctor jailed for killing a patient in a botched procedure after lying about his age to avoid retirement has now been struck off.

Dr Isyaka Mamman, who had pretended to be 11 years younger than he was, bungled a bone marrow extraction so badly that Shahida Parveen, 48, bled to death in 2018.

A court heard he plunged the needle in at the wrong point, puncturing the sac around her heart. As she died at Royal Oldham Hospital, her husband shouted: He killed her!

Then 85, he was found guilty of Mrs Parveens manslaughter and imprisoned last July.

Mamman did not attend yesterdays Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing and remains in prison serving his sentence.

Dr Isyaka Mamman, 85, pictured, had lied about his age to avoid retirement, Manchester Crown Court has heard

Mrs Parveen died at the age of 48 after attending the hospital for a routine bone marrow biopsy. But she died after Mamman carried out a 'highly dangerous procedure' rarely used in the UK, instead of using the conventional technique

After Mrs Parveen collapsed, her husband came running out of the room shouting: 'He killed her! I told him to stop three times and he did not listen. He killed her'

In its published report, the tribunal said that 'given the seriousness of Dr Mamman's conviction and the sanction imposed, and notwithstanding his custodial sentence, it is in the public interest to make an order suspending his registration with immediate effect, to protect patient safety, uphold and maintain professional standards and maintain public confidence in the profession'.

The tribunal heard Mrs Parveen died after Mamman carried out a 'highly dangerous procedure' rarely used in the UK, instead of using the conventional technique.

In the botched operation, he initially tried and failed to take a sample from her hip.

He then tried her breastbone  a technique considered dangerous because of its proximity to the heart.

Ignoring her husband Khizar Mahmoods protests, and using the wrong needle, he made several attempts before piercing her heart sac, causing massive bleeding.

Sentencing, Mrs Justice Yip said it was hard to understand how Mamman had been allowed to carry on working as she gave him a sentence that  ironically  she said took into account his advancing age and frail appearance.

After the case, it emerged other patients had also suffered ill-treatment from Mamman.

In 2015, Margaret Helliwell was left in agony during an identical biopsy by the haematologist, then 79, who shoved his knee into the grandmothers back to force a needle into her hip with such pressure that the device bent.

Speaking last year, the 81-year-old said that when she read about Mrs Parveens death, I just thought, That could have been me.

But her terrifying experience was not even the only such incident of 2015.

Last year Mamman, then 85, and aged 81 at the time Mrs Parveen died, was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to gross negligence manslaughter at Manchester Crown Court

Now following disciplinary proceeds instigated by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, Mamman has been struck off the register of doctors. He did not attend the hearing, and remains in prison serving his sentence

That same year, a bone marrow biopsy by Mamman led to a patient suffering internal bleeding and a heart attack. The unnamed man was left permanently disabled, and won a negligence claim.

He had also lost a previous job in Kent over poor performance.

During the crown court case, it emerged Mamman was only working in the NHS due to what the judge called the astonishing decision to rehire him after he was caught lying about his age.

Born in rural Nigeria, he arrived in Britain in 1965 and began working as a haematologist.

But 20 years ago, managers at Medway Maritime Hospital in Kent noticed a discrepancy. Mamman, who had said he was born in 1936, was using a Nigerian passport that showed a birth year of 1941  slicing five years off his true age.

In about 2001, Mamman adopted an even later birth year  1947  which he relied upon for naturalisation as a British citizen, allowing him to continue working well beyond when he had actually turned 65.

At Mamman's sentencing hearing, his barrister claimed that Mrs Parveen had also been failed by the trust running the Royal Oldham, alleging a 'catalogue of failings' between 2015 and 2018 in relation to the doctor.

"He should never have been allowed to be in the position that he was," Michael Hayton KC said.

After the sentencing hearing, Dr Chris Brookes, Group Chief Doctor and Deputy Chief Executive for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, said: We wish again to offer our sincerest condolences to Mrs Parveens family and friends and we are deeply sorry for their loss. We would like to reiterate our sincere apology previously provided to Mrs Parveens family.

Following Mrs Parveens death in September 2018, the trust launched a thorough internal investigation to examine the circumstances leading up to and following this tragic incident.

The trust (has) implemented improvements which were shared with Mrs Parveen's family. The trust has admitted liability in relation to a civil claim brought by the family.
An Army cadet said she had slept with a staff sergeant and thought she might be pregnant before being found hanged in her room at Sandhurst, an inquest has heard.

Olivia Perks was discovered dead at the elite military training school in Berkshire on February 6, 2019, after complaining about rumours being spread about her.

An earlier inquest hearing recorded the 21-year-old's provisional cause of death as 'asphyxia due to hanging'.

Her inquest at Reading Town Hall heard she told Sophie Given, whom she had met on a dating site, that the staff sergeant had slept with her and she 'may be pregnant'.

In the phone call on December 9, 2018, she also said he was about 45, she was speaking to him every day and was asking whether she should reply to a text from him.

Army cadet Olivia Perks, 21, said she thought she might be pregnant before taken her own life

She was found hanged in her room at Sandhurst military academy in Berkshire in February 2019

Later she told Ms Given the staff sergeant 'encouraged her to get drunk' on a date and that she wanted to go back to Sandhurst during it.

Inappropriate relationships between officer cadets and their superiors are banned regardless of whether or not they are sexual.

Mike Rawlinson KC, who represents Ms Perks' mother Louise Townsend, told a pre-inquest review the officer cadet had fallen victim to 'gross sexual misconduct' before she died.

The inquest has also heard she had spent the night with Colour Sergeant Griffith after the Falklands Ball on February 1, 2019. Both of them denied any sexual or other inappropriate activity took place.

After the ball, Ms Perks and Colour Sergeant Griffith joined a group of officer cadets who continued drinking and at one point entered a room together and locked the door, the hearing was told.

Fellow officer cadet Anwar Zurmati said he heard 'grunting noises' and that it sounded like the pair were 'making out'.

He said Captain Tamara Clements and him laughed but in her witness statement, she said she heard 'noises' but could not be sure where they were coming from.

The rooms had thin walls, there were many nearby and people were also making noise in the corridors, she added.

Ms Perks was walking back in her ballgown from the night before when she was seen by the regimental sergeant major, who told her 'my office, now', according to Ms Clements.

The inquest also heard rumours about the pair began spreading on WhatsApp after the ball which left Ms Perks feeling 'like s***'.

An inquest heard that rumours about Ms Perks' relationship with the staff sergeant made her feel 'like s***'

A friend, whose name was not given due to vulnerabilities, told the inquest in evidence which was read out by counsel to the coroner Bridget Dolan KC: 'Someone sent a message saying she had slept with Colour Sergeant Griffith which had been circulating.

'People were gossiping, you could hear it. It made Liv very uncomfortable and made Liv feel like s***.

'They weren't checking in to see how she was. Others were avoiding her.'

Ms Perks had made a 'significant' suicide attempt following a Royal Engineers visit in July 2018 and was back in training two days later after being classed as a 'low risk of re-occurrence'.

Her friend added: 'I was not at the Engineers visit. There were rumours she had tried to kill herself and people gossiped about that.

'Officer cadets were bothering her trying to find out what she was doing rather than actively being concerned about her welfare.'

Captain Annelise Milton told the hearing on Wednesday that Ms Perks told her 'I've f***** up, they will kick me out of the Army' following the suicide attempt.

The inquest continues.
Julius Malema, leader of South Africa's opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, has criticized the Zimbabwean government for sentencing Transform Zimbabwe (TZ) President Jacob Ngarivhume to four years in jail.

Ngarivhume was last week found guilty of inciting public violence.

Writing on Twitter, Malema expressed shock over the sentence, urging Zimbabweans to protect activists like Ngarivhume.

"I was shocked to hear that a Zimbabwean Government has jailed Jacob Ngarivhume @NgarivhumeJacob, for demanding accountability through picket lines on how Covid-19 funds were used in 2020 by kleptocratic politicians. Sending an activist to 4 years imprisonment for simply holding different political views is pathetic. Zimbabweans must learn to protect their own, particularly those who are the voice of the voiceless against the corrupt few. The truth will never be incarcerated; Africa we are one."

Meanwhile, Ngarivhume has since rallied Zimbabweans to continue with the fight in an open letter from Harare Central Prison, where he is being kept.

"Our struggle is just and our fight is for a good cause. There is no going back. A fight for our rights should never be taken lightly and should never be abandoned. History is on our side." reads part of the letter.
This is the retired post-mistress who was found battered to death at her home last night.

Maya Devi, 77, was discovered with head injuries at a house near Hornchurch, East London, just after 9.30pm.

A 79-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder after handing himself into a local police station.

Today it emerged that Ms Devi was due to go on holiday to Lanzarote next week.

She was a regular at the Havering Asian Social and Welfare Association (HASWA) community centre close to her home, where she practised Yoga and met friends for lunch.

Maya Devi (pictured), 77, was discovered with head injuries at a house near Hornchurch, East London, just after 9.30pm on May 2

Today it emerged that Ms Devi was due to go on holiday to Lanzarote next week

Close friend, Nirmala Leal, an outreach worker at HASWA, saw her just hours before she was found dead.

Ms Leal told MailOnline: 'I spoke to Maya yesterday afternoon, about 1.30pm, and she seemed to be in a good mood. In fact she was excited as she was going on holiday next week.

'She had come to the community centre for yoga, which she did every week, and told me that she wouldn't be in from Wednesday as she was going to Lanzarote for six days with a female friend.

'Maya was such a lovely lady, really warm-hearted. She loved singing as much as yoga and had a smile for everyone.

'I can't believe this has happened and that she has gone. I saw her just a few hours before her death, it doesn't seem real that I won't see her again.'

Ms Devi was originally from India but had been living in Britain for more than 50-years.

She and her husband ran the post office in Rainham, Essex, before retiring a few years ago.

More recently she helped out at HASWA, of which her husband is a former director, and she was one of the organisers of the Vaisakhi celebrations at the centre at the weekend.

Manjit Singh, HASWA's project development officer, said: 'Maya had been coming here for the last four-years and was a really popular member.

'She would turn up at least four days a week. To begin with she was quiet and fairly withdrawn but gradually she came out of her shell and was full of so much fun and happiness.

'She came to our lunches and picnics and loved the seaside outings to places like Eastbourne and Hastings.

'She had the best smile and a little glint in her eye. I loved her company.

'There was never any mention of any unhappiness or unpleasantness at home, so I'm shocked that this has happened to her.

'This has really left us all numb because Maya was the gentlest, kindest and most wonderful lady.'

The three-floor end terrace home of Ms Devi and her husband Tarsame Singh was today cordoned off by police.

Neighbour and friend, Kartar Singh Panesar, 87, told MailOnline: 'I just don't know what happened or why. They were a lovely couple, I never once saw or heard them argue. I certainly didn't hear anything last night.

'The first I knew was when the police turned up. 'Tarsame used to run the post office in Rainham for many years but recently retired but sometimes if there were staffing difficulties he'd still help out there as he knew how everything worked.

'He and his wife have been living in Britain for more than 50-years. They are both from India and before moving to Hornchurch, they lived in East Ham.

'They have a son and two daughters, who are all devastated. We all are.'
Ron DeSantis now has at his disposal $12 million to fly migrants to Democratic enclaves after the Florida legislature passed on Tuesday a new measure that helps fund the controversial program.

In September, the Florida governor flew four dozen migrants from Texas to the swanky Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard. The stunt caused an uproar from immigration advocates and Democrats after the migrants had to find ways off the island.

DeSantis is expected to announce a run for president in coming months.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is deploying 1,500 troops to the southern border to help with any impending surges that could happen with the end of pandemic-era Title 42 on May 11.

Republicans lament that President Joe Biden and Democrats have long ignored the crisis at the southern border because it is only affecting red states like Texas, Arizona and Florida.

Florida passed a new law Tuesday allocating $12 million to expand a program allowing Gov. Ron DeSantis to transport migrants to Democratic enclaves

This has led to governors, including those from Texas, Arizona and Florida, sending migrants from their states to so-called sanctuary cities like Washington, D.C., New York City and Chicago.

Florida's Republican supermajority legislature signed-off on sweeping new legislation to appropriate millions for this initiative of transporting migrants.

DeSantis and his allies argue the bill sends a message to the administration that they won't stand idly by while southern states are overrun by illegal immigrants and drug and human traffickers.

The law mandates medium and large-sized employers in the state to use E-Verify, a federal system that checks the citizenship status of applicants and new employees.

It also requires hospitals to inquire about the legal status of their patients and prohibits illegal immigrants from driving cars in Florida  even if they have a license from another state.

S.B. 1718 allocated $12 million for DeSantis' administration to transport migrants from outside the state to Democratic areas  just as he did when flying migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard last year.

Legislators also agreed to roll-back a 2014 measure that allowed undocumented immigrants to be admitted to the Florida Bar.

Florida House lawmakers debated for 90 minutes before approving the measure.

'The price of illegal immigration cost us everything,' said bill sponsor Rep. Kiyan Michael, whose 21-year-old son was killed in a car accident with an illegal immigrant. 'There is not an ounce of malice in my heart  I just want it to stop.'

'It has to stop and it is insane if we are waiting on Washington, D.C. to do something,' said Michael, who won a GOP primary last year with DeSantis' endorsement.

The number of migrants who are sent to Democratic jurisdictions by Florida's governor could increase exponentially with the end of pandemic-era Title 42 next week.

DeSantis made the controversial move in September 2022 to transport 48 migrants from Texas to the swanky liberal Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard

Title 42 allowed for the instant deportation of certain asylum-seekers during the public health emergency. Without any program to replace the program when it ends on May 11, reports claim that thousands of migrants could cross the border in the days following.

DeSantis is among the GOP politicians who have been highly critical of Biden's immigration policies, blaming the president for the surge and denouncing the handling of the influx.

But Democrats in his state say this shouldn't excuse the governor's push to fly migrants out of Florida to other areas of the country.

Florida Democratic Rep. Susan Valdes, from Tampa, says that the bill 'demonized marginalized people.'

'Immigrants are people just like us except they did not have the fortune to be in the United States,' said Valdes, whose parents immigrated from Cuba.

Democrats have already threatened to challenge the law in court, with some calling measures in the legislation 'racist.'
Tucker Carlson has been caught on tape calling a Dominion lawyer a 'slimy little motherf**ker' that 'triggered' him during his deposition.

Carlson, who was recently let go from Fox News after 14 years, was on Wednesday the target of another leaked video filmed from behind-the-scenes of his axed show Tucker Carlson Tonight.

The video appeared to have been recorded the same day Carlson had his deposition for the Dominion lawsuit - August 26, 2022 - as he is wearing the same suit.

The conservative host can be seen wiping his face with a makeup wipe and telling his staff the opposition's lawyer 'triggered' him.

Tucker Carlson was caught calling the Dominion lawyer a 'slimy little motherf**ker' that 'triggered' him during his deposition. He said: 'That guy, he triggered the s**t out of me...The amount of times I had: "First of all, f**k you," on my lips was like, it was unbelievable'

The moment came after Carlson jumped off-air on August 26 after his show as he was seen wiping makeup off his face at his anchor desk

'That guy, he triggered the s**t out of me,' he can be heard saying on the video, obtained by Media Matters.

'"Where are you now? Where do you live?" The amount of times I had: "First of all, f**k you," on my lips was like, it was unbelievable. Suggesting that I was - that I was cheating on my taxes?

'Holy s**t, 10 hours [with] that slimy little motherf**ker sitting across from me,' he said. 'The amount, it was so unhealthy, the hate...the hate that I felt for that guy.'

Carlson went on to say he doesn't like to feel hatred toward people because 'it's wrong' and it's 'totally bad for you to feel that way,' but he was unable to push the negative feelings away for Dominion's lawyer.

Yesterday, the same media outlet published more leaked footage of Carlson, where he joked about his 'post-menopausal fans' with his senior staff.

Some of the remarks were included in a New York Times report last week which suggested they were among a trove of highly incriminating clips.

They show Tucker bantering with producers, assistants and fellow hosts.

In one, he makes a reference to someone's girlfriend being 'yummy,' and later, he jokes about relying on 'post-menopausal fans' to tell him how he looks on-air.

In the first video, Tucker unleashes on Fox Nation while on the phone to a representative for Andrew Tate, the British influencer arrested in Romania earlier this year.

He fumed that 'no one' was watching the service, and that his talents were going to waste.

Tucker held the most successful show on primetime Fox News for many years.

He also had a daytime show that was streamed on Fox Nation called Tucker Carlson Today.

Tate's reps were begging Carlson to wear a sweater or t-shirt for their interview instead of his normal suit and tie.

He refused, telling them part of the show would end up on his primetime, cable news show, and that he didn't want to become a 'slave to Fox Nation.'

In an earlier video, Tucker unleashes on Fox Nation while on the phone to a representative for Andrew Tate, the British influencer arrested in Romania earlier this year

'Nobody's going to watch it on Fox Nation. Nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks,' he said. 'So I'd really like to just put the  dump the whole thing on YouTube. But anyway, that's just my view,. OK. I'm just frustrated with it.

'It's hard to use that site. I don't know why they're not fixing it. It's driving me insane,' he continued. 'And they're like making, like, Lifetime movies.

'But they don't, they don't work on the infrastructure of the site. Like what? It's crazy. And it drives me crazy because it's like we're doing all this extra work and no one can find it. It's unbelievable, actually. I don't know who runs that site.

In other videos that Media Matters deemed 'creepy' and which the Times referred to vaguely last week, he joked about his own appearance and said he would wait for his 'post-menopausal fans' to tell him how he looked on-air.

He joked under his breath that someone's 'girlfriend was yummy', then said: 'Just kidding, in case this is being pulled off the bird. Hey, Media Matters for America, go f**k yourself! I don't even know what his girlfriend looks like.

'And if I did, I would not find her yummy.'

To an off-camera assistant, he joked: 'I can never assess my appearance. I wait for my postmenopausal fans to weigh in on that.'

In another leaked moment, he flips the bird at Media Matters, the left-wing website that published the videos. He had commented on someone's girlfriend being 'yummy,' then said: 'Just kidding, in case this is being pulled off the bird. Hey, Media Matters for America, go f**k yourself. I don't even know what his girlfriend looks like. And if I did, I would not find her yummy'

Tucker has not commented at length about his firing and Fox's statements have been limited.

Many sources have attributed his firing to his insubordinate comments about bosses, some of which were unearthed as part of the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems.

Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5million in an 11th-hour settlement on April 18, moments before a trial was due to begin.

The voting machine company had filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit against the network for 'giving life' to a 'manufactured storyline' about voter fraud after the 2020 election.

Dominion has since come out and said they hope the lawsuit will be re-released un-redacted as there's more damning texts from Carlson inside.

As part of the lawsuit discovery, Dominion's lawyers uncovered texts in which Fox hosts and journalists seemed to acknowledge that the fraud claims were not true or farfetched, but gave them airtime anyway.

In their first interview since the lawsuit was settled unexpectedly, Dominion's CEO John Poulos and Stephen Shackelford, a lawyer who was involved in the case, told Axios they now want the full record to become unredacted.

They also took credit for Carlson's firing, which came after senior Fox News executives learned what he had been saying in them in text messages that the lawsuit unearthed.

'Dominion did not insist on them firing Tucker Carlson as part of the settlement.

'But the very fact that that's what resulted out of all of this, and it's traceable from the work that Dominion set in motion.. of course I know whats in the redacted stuff and I can't say anything about it.

'I hope that it all gets un-redacted at some point,' Shackelford, a partner at Susman Godfrey LLP, told Axios.
Donald Trump tonight blasted Joe Biden for snubbing King Charles's Coronation as he suggested the US President was set to be sleeping through the historic event.

The ex-president claimed it was 'very disrespectful' for his successor to be skipping the Westminster Abbey service on Saturday.

Mr Biden is not travelling to London for the Coronation with his wife Jill to attend as America's representative instead.

This is despite a number of other world leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, heading to the capital for the occasion.

Tory MPs have described it as 'foolish' for Mr Biden not to attend, which has increased concerns over his claimed 'anti-British' stance.

Donald Trump blasted Joe Biden for snubbing King Charles's Coronation as he suggested the US President was set to be sleeping through the historic event

Speaking to Nigel Farage on GB News, Mr Trump claimed it was 'very disrespectful' for his successor to be skipping the Westminster Abbey service on Saturday

Mr Biden is not travelling to London for the Coronation with his wife Jill to attend as America's representative instead

A number of other world leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, are heading to the capital for the occasion

Mr Biden's no-show for King Charles's ceremony is not unusual - as no US president has ever previously attended a Coronation

The DUP said the US President revealed his 'priorities' with a three-day trip to his ancestral homeland in the Republic of Ireland last month - but deciding not to cross the Atlantic again for the Coronation.

Mr and Mrs Biden both travelled to London for the funeral of the Queen last September.

His no-show this weekend will not be unprecedented - as no US president has ever previously attended a Coronation ceremony.

But, in an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News, Mr Trump joined the backlash at Mr Biden's Coronation snub and suggested the US President was not up to it physically.

'I don't think he can do it physically, actually,' the 76-year-old said of his 80-year-old political rival.

'I think that it's hard for him to do it physically. I think, getting over here for him.

'He's got a lot of things going and a lot of strange things happen. But certainly he should be here as a representative of our country.

'I was surprised when I heard that he wasn't coming.'

Mr Trump, who was defeated by Mr Biden in the 2020 presidential election, branded Mr Biden 'incompetent'.

He added: 'When you have somebody that's going to be sleeping instead of coming to the Coronation as president of the United States, I think that's, I think it's a bad thing.'

Since being kicked out the White House by American voters, Mr Trump has become the first former US president to face criminal charges.

They relate to alleged hush-money payments made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

But Mr Trump insisted he wasn't worried about an impending trial or a number of other legal cases he is facing.

'No, they don't worry me because I'm right and the people who are with me look at my poll numbers,' he said.

'I'm killing everybody. I'm way above everybody. Nobody's even close. Including Biden.

'You know, I wonder how Biden gets any poll number frankly, the job he's doing. They have horrible policies In many cases, they're very sick, horrible people.'

The White House last month rejected claims Mr Biden, who is intensely proud of his Irish heritage, is 'anti-British'.

It came as the US President spent 18 hours in Northern Ireland on 11 and 12 April to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

He then headed to the Republic of Ireland for a three-day visit, which included trips to his ancestral homelands of County Mayo and County Louth.
Police are searching for a trio of men who stole 2,000 worth of alcohol during a Ocean's 11-style heist in Tesco.

Detectives believe the men worked as a team to snag a large quantity of booze from the Tesco superstore in Horwich, Bolton in March. The suspected thieves were caught on CCTV as they entered the store.

Greater Manchester Police released photos the the men today in a public appeal for information about their identities.

Officers have asked anyone with information about the crime to come forward.

Police are searching for a trio of men who stole 2,000 worth of alcohol from the Tesco superstore in Horwich, Bolton on March 29. One of the suspects is pictured above

The suspected thieves were caught on CCTV as they entered the store. Greater Manchester Police released photos the the men today in a public appeal for information about the crime

Police were called to the store on March 29 around 4pm for reports of theft/shoplifting.

Investigators believe the trio caught on surveillance camera worked together to get 2,000 worth of alcohol out of the store.

'As part of our investigation into this crime, we have released CCTV images of three men we would like to speak to,' Dave Malee of GMP's Crime Investigation Team said today. 'We believe they could have some vital information that could assist us in our enquiries.

'If you have any information, please get in touch with us as soon as you can. Even the smallest piece of information could prove to be vital to our enquiries.'

Information can be reported to police on 0161 856 7265 quoting reference number of 2092 of 29/3/20223.

Anonymous reports can also be made to independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Russia may have already mined Europe's critical underwater infrastructure, NATO representatives fear, as its intelligence chief warned on Wednesday Russia may sabotage them to punish Western nations for supporting Ukraine.

The alliance is seeking to boost efforts to protect undersea pipes and cables following attacks on the Nord Stream pipeline in September last year, which saw three of the four main lines which transports gas from Russia to Germany damaged.

Threats to undersea cables and pipelines have become a focus of public attention since the as-yet unexplained explosions crippled the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

The alliance is so concerned by the threat of energy disruption it set up the Critical Undersea Infrastructure Coordination Cell in February, which seeks to monitor Russian espionage under the command of Lieutenant General Hans-Werner Wiermann, a retired German military officer.

The warning came as tensions rose further today after Russia accused Ukraine of a botched assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin - which Ukraine has strongly denied.

Threats to undersea cables and pipelines have become a focus of public attention since the as-yet unexplained explosions crippled the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea

The warning came on the same day Russia claimed Ukraine had attempted to assassinate Putin using a drone

Intelligence chief David Cattler said on Wednesday: 'There are heightened concerns that Russia may target undersea cables and other critical infrastructure in an effort to disrupt Western life, to gain leverage against those nations that are providing security to Ukraine.

'The Russians are more active than we have seen them in years in this domain.'

He added: 'Russia is actively mapping allied critical infrastructure both on land and on the seabed.'

Mr Cattler said NATO vessels are patrolling more throughout the Atlantic than in recent years and have also stepped up activities in the North and Baltic seas.

'Altogether, they carry an estimated 10 trillion US dollars worth of financial transactions every day, so these cables really are an economic linchpin.'

He warned NATO's adversaries were realising the huge strategic advantage of being able to threaten the security of Western internet, energy and financial systems.

It is understood authorities are now alerted by companies to suspicious activity such as the unauthorised presence of ships and 'tapping' registered by sensors.

Asked if there were suspicions that Russia had already mined undersea infrastructure, a NATO official told The Times: 'Yes, I think [so]. I would use [the] word suspicions. Strong suspicions.

'I don't think we have anything  maybe individual companies have their own very classified information. I think it's more we have a lot of suspicions... and we think there might be something there. But obviously actually sending someone down, something or someone down, is quite an expensive thing and we don't always do it.'

Underwater pipes could be particularly threatened due to the economic and social impacts disruption to power supply may have, as well as the fact it is far more difficult to investigate any attack.

Although there are signs pointing towards Russia as behind last year's attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, no cause of the damage has been officially established.

It was recently reported that a convoy of six Russian vessels was spotted near to the pipeline just days before the damage appeared.

Gas bubbles from the Nord Stream 2 leak reaching the surface of the Baltic Sea in September

A satellite image shows gas from the Nord Stream pipeline bubbling up in the water following the explosions

It is thought hundreds of kilograms of explosives and equipment would have been required to pull off the scale of the damage seen last September, which occurred 80m below sea level.

But it has now been claimed that a Swedish warship may have spotted the Russian convoy and tracked it in the days up to the attack.

Several weeks later a Danish paper reported a Russian submarine rescue ship SS-750 was photographed in the Baltic Sea four days before the still-unexplained explosions.

The SS-750 has its own mini-submarine, called the AS-26, which can reach depths of 262 feet (80 metres) and carry loads of up to 50kg.

As concerns grow over the security of cables, Western countries are setting out to turn the North Sea into a green power engine, planning a spate of new wind parks that will be linked to the mainland by cables.

Other undersea cables transport some 95 percent of internet traffic around the world at speeds of about 200 terabytes per second, with 200 of these 400 cables deemed critical, according to NATO.

Read more: Russian navy vessel carrying a mini-submarine was seen near Nord Stream pipelines four days before they were blown up Advertisement

Possible future targets for Russia could include offshore wind farming and even Norway's Troll platform, which produces ten percent of all of Europe's gas.

It's feared any interference with the platform could seriously damage European energy supply.

However, NATO allies are closely monitoring Russian vessels equipped with sensors that can collect electronic or acoustic information from the seabed, and the spy ships can be identified by their antennae or unusual activity near critical areas.

NATO significantly increased the number of ships patrolling the North and Baltic seas after the Nord Stream blasts, and established a Critical Undersea Infrastructure Protection Cell to improve cooperation with industry, capitals and experts.

'The threat is real, and NATO is stepping up,' said German Lieutenant General Hans-Werner Wiermann who has been in charge of the new NATO cell since February.

Asked what industry can do to make new wind parks more resilient to attacks, he suggested linking them to the mainland with several cables instead just one.

The warning came as Russia claimed Ukraine had launched a botched assassination attempt of Putin in the early hours of Wednesday.

Moscow claimed a pair of Ukrainian kamikaze drones exploded over Putin's Kremlin residence in the early hours.

Russia said it had foiled the attempt and called it a 'planned terrorist act and an attempt to take the life of the President of the Russian Federation'. It has prompted demands from Russian lawmakers for the Kyiv government to be 'destroyed'.

Ukraine quickly responded to the claim, the most dramatic Russia has levelled against Kyiv since invading its neighbour more than 14 months ago, saying it had 'nothing to do' with the alleged attack.

Britain's response includes a P8 Poseidon maritime reconnaissance aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth, as well as a specialised undersea protection surface vessel, the Times reports.

The new vessel, costing 65 million, is understood to be the first of two Royal Navy 'multi-role ocean surveillance ships'.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had not even had a chance to answer the first question at the global press freedom day event on Wednesday when two pink-clad protesters clambered on stage.

'Excuse us,' said CodePink founder Medea Benjamin politely.

'We can't use this day without calling for the freedom of Julian Assange.'

She held a 'Free Julian Assange' sign above her head as a security guard started to manhandle her away. A second protester held a similar sign.

She hooked a leg around Blinken's chair, giving her time to demand: 'Stop the extradition request of Julian Assange.

CodePink protesters climbed on stage to demand the release of jailed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange during an event with Secretary of State Antony Blinken

The secretary of state rose awkwardly from his chair as its leg became entangled with Medea's.

But he was unflustered enough to urge the security guards not to use excessive force on the interloper.

'Take it easy, take it easy guys,' he said.

A voice from the audience then joined in. 'Not one word about journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, who was murdered by the Israeli occupation forces,' he said, raising the case of an Al Jazeera journalist who died during a Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin nearly a year ago.

Then normal service was resumed.

'We're here to celebrate freedom of expression, and we just experienced it,' said the event's host, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.

Wikileaks founder Assange, 51, is being held in the U.K., at London's Belmarsh prison.

He has been there since 2019 while fighting extradition proceedings. He faces espionage charges in the U.S., and if found guilt could be sentenced to 175 years in prison for publishing thousands of classified documents involving the US military between 2010 and 2011.

Blinken looked unflustered as two protesters clambered on stage, and urged security guards to 'take it easy' as they bundled the interlopers off

Wikileaks founder Assange, 51, is being held in the U.K., at London 's Belmarsh prison. He has been there since 2019 while fighting extradition to the US where he face spy charges

His role in revealing military secrets initially made him a free speech hero. However, he has alienated a string of supporters, including journalists who worked with him and the Ecuadorean government which granted him asylum in its London embassy until 2019.

But he remains the darling of some anti-war protesters who now campaign for his release.

That includes the female protest group Codepink.

'This brave truth-teller continues to be incarcerated for exposing U.S crimes,' the group said a recent protect.

'At any time, the US could bring this case to a halt by dropping the charges and this is what the Biden administration and the Department of Justice should do.'
Madeleine McCann's younger sister spoke publicly for the first time last night as her family marked the poignant 16th anniversary of the toddler's disappearance.

Maddie vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007 when she was just three.

Her sister Amelie, now 18, joined her parents and well-wishers last night at a candle service dedicated to her. She said: 'It's nice that everyone is here together, but it's a sad occasion.'

It was the first time Amelie, who is applying to go to university, has been pictured since she was a toddler - giving a glimpse of what her older sibling may look like as an adult.

The vigil came two weeks after a German court decided not to hear a sex offences case against a man who is a suspect in Madeleine's disappearance.

Madeleine McCann's sister Amelie, 18, (right) lit a candle in her memory as she joined her parents and well-wishers on the poignant 16th anniversary of the toddler's disappearance

Kate and Gerry McCann pictured with their daughter Amelie (bottom right) during the prayers service last night

Madeleine McCann vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007 when she was just three

Amelie, with her long blonde hair and casually dressed in navy leggings, trainers and cream puffa jacket, was warmly welcomed along with Kate and Gerry by locals and supporters during an informal prayer gathering in their home village of Rothley, Leicestershire.

Her twin brother Sean did not attend.

Kate's close friend Fiona Payne, one of her 'Tapas Seven' pals who was on the fateful holiday in Portugal when Maddie vanished, was among the crowd.

Maddie's parents had been having a tapas meal with friends when Maddie was abducted from their apartment just yards away.

Amelie took her turn to light a candle for Maddie and other missing children at the war memorial, where pictures of her sister adorned the black railing and where a lantern of hope still glows around the clock for her.

Kate, wearing black jeans and a blue jacket, joined in prayers but neither she nor Gerry addressed the crowds.

Fiona, a doctor, read a moving poem, Hope Is The Thing With Feathers, by Emily Dickinson. She later gave Kate a warm embrace.

The Reverend Rob Gladstone, vicar of the local parish church, led prayers at the informal outdoor event.

He told those gathered: 'We are here this evening to show our loving concern for Madeleine and for all young children who have been taken away from their families against their will.

'We are also here to encourage one another to keep up hope and pray for a renewal of strength even after this long time.'

Kate and Gerry McCann are pictured with their children, Amelie, Sean and Maddie, before their eldest daughter's disappearance

Kate and Gerry McCann with their daughter Amelie yesterday evening at the prayer service in the village of Rothley to mark the 16th anniversary of the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine

It marked the first time that Amelie (left), who is applying to go to university, has been pictured since she was a toddler. It gives a glimpse of what her older sibling may now look like as an adult. The 18-year-old is seen with her mother, Kate (right), hugging a friend

Kate McCann, wearing black jeans and a blue jacket, joined in prayers, but neither she nor her husband Gerry addressed the crowd

Kate and Amelie, who was casually dressed in navy leggings, trainers and cream puffa jacket, were warmly welcomed by locals and supporters during the informal prayer gathering in their home village of Rothley, Leicestershire

Maddie's sister Amelie, 18, lights a candle with her friend Georgina during the vigil

READ MORE: Fake Madeleine McCann apologises to the missing girl's parents in 17-page statement weeks after being exposed as a fraud who impersonated three other missing girls A Polish woman who claimed she was Madeleine McCann in an internet post that became a global sensation apologised to the missing girl's parents Advertisement

Amelie, accompanied by her friend Georgina, joined in repeating mantras read out by individual people in the 70-strong crowd, including 'Never, never give up', 'Leave no stone unturned', 'Don't forget about me' and 'Still missing, still missed'.

Kate and Gerry cling to a glimmer of hope that Maddie, who would now be 19, could still be alive.

Kate's uncle, retired head teacher Brian Kennedy, 84, said after the event: 'Kate and Gerry are very moved by the size of the group of people who turned up.

'After all these years people still assemble - some come every time and some are new and we are very grateful.'

Brian, who lives in the same village with his wife Janet, who addressed the crowd, added: 'Sixteen years without someone and still not knowing where they are is a very long time. Even if it was bad news, in some ways, would give us some closure.

'But with no closure there is still hope.'

German police are convinced Maddie is dead and have been intent on charging prime suspect Christian Brueckner - who was named nearly three years ago - with her kidnap and 'no-body' murder.

But it recently emerged that the convicted paedophile may never face a trial in the high-profile case, and for unrelated alleged sex offences, because of a legal technicality over foreign courts' jurisdiction.

Brueckner, 45, is serving a sentence in a German jail for the rape of an American tourist in the same Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz from where Maddie vanished in May 2007.

He has vehemently denied any involvement in her abduction.

Kate and Gerry, who is pictured with Amelie, cling to a glimmer of hope that Maddie, who would now be 19, could still be alive

Amelie McCann (right), 18, lights a candle at the prayer service held in the village of Rothley to mark the 16th anniversary of the disappearance of her sister Madeleine

Kate and Amelie McCann at the prayer service yesterday evening

Amelie, accompanied by her friend Georgina, joined in repeating mantras read out by individual people in the 70-strong crowd, including 'Never, never give up', 'Leave no stone unturned', 'Don't forget about me' and 'Still missing, still missed'

No suspects have ever been charged in connection with one of the world's most talked-about missing child mysteries.

British Police have recently asked the Home Office for more money to keep up their investigation, which is codenamed Operation Grange and has cost the taxpayer 13million so far.

Their request is set to be approved by a Special Grants committee.

German police are convinced Maddie is dead and have been intent on charging prime suspect Christian Brueckner (pictured) - who was named nearly three years ago - with her kidnap and 'no-body' murder

Maddie was snatched just nine days before her fourth birthday from a holiday apartment in the Algarve while she was sleeping alone with her younger twin siblings.

At the time her parents were dining with pals in a nearby tapas restaurant.

Heart doctor Gerry and Kate, a former GP turned medical worker with dementia sufferers, both 55, have previously said: 'We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive, but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know as we need to find peace.

'All we have ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice.

'We are grateful for the ongoing work and commitment by the British, German and Portuguese police. It is this combined police effort which will yield results and bring us those answers.'

A Polish woman, Julie Wendell, recently heaped more misery on Maddie's parents by claiming in global online posts to be the missing child.

Despite negative DNA tests, denials from her own family and a year's difference in age, she bizarrely continues to insist she is Madeleine.

Maddie McCann was snatched just nine days before her fourth birthday from a holiday apartment in the Algarve while she was left sleeping alone with her younger twin siblings

An aerial view of the Ocean Club apartments and tapas bar in Praia da Luz, Portugal, from where Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007

Kate and Gerry had earlier posted a message on the official Find Maddie website, saying their daughter was 'still very much missed' and they 'await a breakthrough' in the police hunt for her.

They wrote: 'Today marks the 16th anniversary of Madeleine's abduction. Still missing...still very much missed.

'It is hard to find the words to convey how we feel. The poem below, by Clare Pollard, resonates strongly with us.

The Contradiction

The absence contradicts itself:

the missing conjures what we miss.

You are not here, I'm not myself,

but still I talk to you like this.

You're in the crowd, the news, the glimpse -

I make you there when you're not there.

I trace your steps, I map your face,

I say your name, see you in air.

You're all I know and so unknown.

I cannot hold you, yet I do:

please let me hold you in my head

and where you are now, hold me too.

How can you be so near and far?

You are not here. But here you are.

'The police investigation continues, and we await a breakthrough. Thank you to everyone for your support - it really helps.'
Cox looked up guns in the days before Tammy's death - he also Googled for porn

Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell are accused of her murder - but ten days before she died she was the victim of an attempted shooting at home in Rexburg, Idaho

where to stand in order to shoot Tammy Daybell

Lori Vallow's killer brother researched firearms before an attempted shooting of Chad Daybell's wife - and Googled 'trannys' and pornography.

Detective Vince Kaaiakamanu told Vallow's murder trial Wednesday that in the days leading up to Tammy Daybell's death, Alex Cox searched for bullet drop data, using an AR-15 in cold weather and shooting a victim inside a vehicle.

Kaaiakamanu said he believed Cox was trying to gauge where to stand in order to shoot Tammy. The mother-of-five died as a result of asphyxiation on October 19, 2019 - ten days after an intruder pointed a gun at her. Her husband Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow are accused of murdering her. The pair married two weeks later in Hawaii.

Doomsday cultists Vallow, 49, and Daybell, 54, are further accused of killing her two kids JJ, seven, and Tylee, 16, the month before Tammy's death. Nine months later their bodies were found buried in Daybell's backyard in Rexburg, Idaho.

A list of Cox's searches for firearms on October 10 were displayed on the screen. But Vallow's defense attorney John Thomas put to Kaaiakamanu that there were other searches which showed he was not just a 'gun nut.' The cop agreed Cox also looked up 'trannys' and porn but these were omitted because they were 'not pertinent.'

Kaaiakamanu said he believed Alex Cox (right) was trying to gauge where to stand in order to shoot Tammy Daybell (left). The mother-of-five died as a result of asphyxiation on October 19, 2019 - ten days after an intruder pointed a gun at her. Her husband Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow are accused of murdering her. The pair married two weeks later in Hawaii

Lori Vallow sits in a police car after a hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, on Aug. 16, 2022

Chad and Tammy Daybell pictured before she was murdered in October, 2019

Cox, who died of natural causes in December, 2019, shot dead Vallow's estranged husband Charles in Arizona that July. He claimed self-defense but Vallow has since been charged over the shooting. She is yet to face trial in that case.

Ten days before Tammy's death, a masked man approached and shot at her several times with what she believed was a paintball gun before running off. Jurors heard earlier how Cox had visited a local store and bought a ski mask and fingerless gloves.

The Ada County Courthouse in Boise heard today how on October 8, Cox searched for bullet drop from 100 yards, 200 yards and 300 yards. The following day he looked up several different AR-15 uppers and muzzle energy.

On October 10, he searched for using an AR-15 in cold weather and also a YouTube video for firing the rifle at -30 degrees. It was 26 degrees that day.

He performed further searches for guns and ammunition on October 12. He also looked up a Dodge Dakota - the type of car which Tammy Daybell drove. He Googled what would be required to shoot through a car.

Cox visited the Fremont County Sportsmans Club, a shooting range, on October 7, 9, 12, 13 and 15.

An AR-15 that was seized from Vallow's garage can resemble a paintball gun because of its scope, Kaaiakamanu told jurors. The firearm was shown to jurors and the detective indicated how the scope could be mistaken for the hopper - which holds paintballs - on a paintball gun.

Kaaiakamanu testified: 'When Tammy Daybell called in the attempted shooting, she described the rifle as a paintball gun. After looking at all the firearms, this one stuck out because it has a larger scope on it which could be mistaken for a hopper, which Tammy described. A hopper is on a paintball gun.'

The State says that Cox was involved in killing Vallow's two kids in September, 2019. He was part of the couple's doomsday cult which believed the children were 'zombies' that had been possessed by Satan. The same deranged theory was espoused about Tammy Daybell and Charles Vallow before their deaths.

Jurors were earlier played a bizarre 'blessing' in which Daybell thanked Cox for assisting the couple following the killings.

In the 15-minute recording, made on November 24, 2019, Daybell says: 'You have already assisted us in ways that can never be repaid, but you will continue to do so as you move forward in this life.'

Tammy died at the Daybells' home in Rexburg in the early hours of October 19, 2019. She was initially determined to have died of natural causes but when cops started searching for Vallow's missing children her body was exhumed. An autopsy - which had earlier been refused by Daybell - found she was suffocated.

Tylee, 16, and JJ, seven, are shown with their uncle, Alex Cox, in what is believed to be the final photo of them, taken during a family trip to Yellowstone National Park on September 8, 2019

Vallow (in an undated photo shared by Tylee before her death) and her husband Chad Daybell are accused of killing Tylee and her seven-year-old adopted brother JJ in Rexburg, Idaho, in September 2019. The State says the couple believed the children were Satanic 'zombies'

Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow in Hawaii after they were married. At the time cops were still searching for the kids in Idaho

Vallow's children, Tylee and JJ disappeared in September 2019, but their remains were not discovered until the following June

Vallow and Daybell tied the knot on a beach in Kauai on November 5, 2019. Receipts show she purchased her own wedding ring on Amazon almost three weeks before Tammy's death.

The children were missing for almost a year before their corpses were found buried in Daybell's yard on June 9, 2020.

During the opening, prosecutor Lindsey Blake described how charred remains were all that was left of Tylee.

She told jurors: 'You will hear it explained as a mass of bone and tissue. That's what was left of this beautiful young woman.'

Tylee's DNA was later found on a pickaxe and shovel in a shed on the property.

JJ's body was wrapped in trash bags and duct tape - the tape binding his arms in front of him and wrapping around his head. He had been suffocated inside a plastic bag.

The two children and Daybell's previous wife Tammy were all killed because they stood in the way of the couple's relationship, the State says.

'Remember, the defendant will remove any obstacle in her way to get what she wants, and she wanted Chad Daybell,' Blake told jurors.

The key individuals in Lori Vallow's tangled family tree, including her five husbands, two dead children and killer brother

'The defendant used money, power and sex to get what she wanted.'

Jurors have heard from friends and relatives of Vallow that she and Daybell believed the children were 'dark' and referred to them as 'zombies' before they disappeared.

'The common theme was the body has to be destroyed,' Blake said. 'The defendant and Chad used their self-proclaimed religious teachings to justify their actions to others  their actions from affair to murder.'

Prosecutors say the couple planned to use life insurance money from Tammy's death, and that Vallow kept collecting and spending the children's social security and benefits after they died.

The trial opened on April 10 and the State is still laying out its case.

Vallow denies two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of conspiracy in the deaths of her two children and Tammy Daybell.

She further denies grand theft for allegedly collecting government benefits on behalf of her children after they were killed.

Daybell is being tried separately.
The House of Representatives has urged the United Kingdom government, especially the parliament to intervene in the sentencing of former deputy president of the Nigerian Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife Beatrice with the aim to ensure a softlanding for them.

Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, specifically addressed the British Crown at the plenary on Tuesday, demanding that the UK Criminal Court considers the plea of the Nigerian lawmakers.

The House also asked the federal government to take diplomatic steps to "intervene" in the trial of the Enugu West lawmaker.

The resolution was passed at plenary session on Tuesday following the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Toby Okechukwu, a lawmaker from Enugu State.

Following the adoption of the motion, the lawmakers asked the clerk of the lower legislative chamber to "convey" their resolutions in writing to British Embassy, UK government and the parliament.

Ekweremadu alongside two others are due to be sentenced on May 5 at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey in the UK, having been found guilty of intention to harvest the organ of a 21-year-old Nigerian for his ailing daughter.
Union leaders in the civil service want to remove Tory ministers from office and replace them with Corbynite alternatives, it was claimed tonight.

Candidates to become the new president and board members of the Public and Commercial Services union include Marion Lloyd, who is backed by the Broad Left Network and the Militant Left group.

Promotional material from Broad Left endorses her for president, saying the group wants 'Tories out'  and Jeremy Corbyn back in.

It adds: 'We should only support candidates who are anti-austerity and support the interests of our members and our policies. Corbyn is banned  he stands with us and we would support him standing independently.'

Mr Corbyn was kicked out of the parliamentary party after a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2020 was highly critical of how Labour dealt with antisemitism under his stewardship.

Promotional material from Broad Left endorses her for president, saying the group wants 'Tories out'  and Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) back in

Members of the PCS union march on Whitehall as part of a national strike on March 15

But the decision to ban him from standing for Labour at the next election was condemned by Ms Lloyd, who leads the PCS branch in the Department for Business.

She wrote on Facebook at the time: 'Solidarity to Jeremy Corbyn. I really hope and would support him if he stood to give a fighting alternative for workers and show the need for a new party for working-class people.'

READ MORE HERE: Fresh strike chaos as more than 130K civil servants walk-out amid fears pupils will face disruption in Autumn as head teachers hold ballot Advertisement

In another post she said: 'Let's fight for a world free from poverty and oppression. A socialist world. Solidarity!'

The PCS has around 200,000 members and is the biggest union in Whitehall.

A Conservative source said an 'impartial civil service shouldn't be pursuing party political ambitions'.

The Broad Left Network, whose PCS election poster features an image of and a quote from Ms Lloyd, demands the creation of 100,000 new civil service jobs, as well as a double-digit pay rise for workers.

It is also endorsing candidates for positions on its national executive committee from across Government departments, including the Cabinet Office and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Militant Left, formerly known as Committee for a Workers International Ireland, has also backed Ms Lloyd.

It says it stands 'for ending the misery of capitalism and for the fundamental socialist reorganisation of society'.

A Conservative source said: 'Sir Keir Starmer needs to distance himself from these hard-left activists who are trying to politicise the civil service.

'It is essential that an impartial civil service can support whatever government is elected and shouldn't be pursuing party political ambitions.'

It comes as Labour continues to be pressed on Sir Keir's planned appointment of Partygate investigator Sue Gray, the veteran mandarin who is believed to have held secret talks to become the Leader of the Opposition's chief of staff, in possible breach of civil service rules.

The current PCS president, Fran Heathcote, is standing for re-election.

She is a familiar face on picket lines and has been backed by the pro-socialist group Left Unity.

The PCS, which is not affiliated to Labour, said its membership numbers grew by nearly 5 per cent last year.

More than 100,000 PCS members went on strike across scores of government departments earlier this year in long-running disputes over pay and conditions.
Ron DeSantis scored another massive win for his conservative agenda Wednesday when the Florida Republican supermajority passed an expansion of his so-called 'don't say gay' law to cover all public school students Kindergarten through 8th grade.

The newly expanded Parental Rights in Education bill was sent to DeSantis' desk Wednesday afternoon for his signature after it passed the legislature by a 27-21 vote.

It follows the Florida State Board of Education voting last month to ban the topic of sexual orientation and sexual identity in all public schools for all grades up through graduating high school.

The Florida governor is expected to make a bid for president in coming weeks and has made education and fighting leftist 'woke-ism' a cornerstone of his agenda.

DeSantis' education-related law originally passed last year and restricted the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades Kindergarten through 3rd. But DeSantis and other hard-liner Republicans in the Florida legislature didn't think the law went far enough.

The Florida legislature passed on Wednesday an expanded version of the so-called 'don't say gay' law, to include restrictions on in-classroom discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation for all public school grade-levels. The bill will now go to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' desk for signature

Critics have dubbed the bill the 'don't say gay' law, claiming that it could hurt gay and transgender students by keeping the discussions off limits in public school classrooms.

Additionally, the new law also makes the process easier for parents to make sure books they feel are inappropriate are taken off their childrens' bookshelves.

Any person can challenge a book for any reason within their county. Once a challenge is levied, the book in question must be pulled from the shelves during the review process, which could take weeks or months.

Not only does the new law expand the current range of the ban from capping out at third graders to now including middle schoolers, it also restricts teachers from addressing students by the pronouns that don't align with the gender in which they were born.

While there is more flexibility with high schoolers, teachers and instructors for these grade levels are restricted to only discussing these topics in a manner that is 'age appropriate or developmentally appropriate' for their students.

'This bill promotes parental rights, transparency, and state standards in Florida schools. It requires that lessons for Florida's students are age-appropriate, focused on education, and free from sexualization and indoctrination,' Republican Florida State Rep. Adam Anderson previously stated regarding the impending law.

The original version of the Parental Rights in Education law signed last March sparked DeSantis' war with Walt Disney Co. after the CEO-at-the-time spoke out against the measure.

Since then, DeSantis has taken several moves to strip, what he calls, the 'corporate kingdom' of special privileges and tax-exemptions it was awarded with the development of the Reedy Creek Improvement District in 1967.
An aspiring model jumped to her death from the top of a Times Square hotel moments after getting into a brawl with her boyfriend.

Dezirae Andersen, 20, was found dead after plunging from the roof of the OYO Times Square hotel on West 47th Street around 10.30pm on Tuesday.

Andersen and her boyfriend Tyler Griffen, 24, had been staying in the hotel with their eight-month-old baby girl after traveling from Littleton, Colorado.

Hours before her death, Andersen - who also had ambitions to be an actress - posted a video of Times Square on her social media, with her friends paying tribute to the 'beautiful soul'.

Police say that Andersen and Griffen got into a fight in their hotel room on the 10th floor of the building.

Dezirae Andersen, 20, was found dead after plunging from the roof of the OYO Times Square hotel on West 47th Street around 10.30pm on Tuesday

Andersen and her boyfriend Tyler Griffen, 24, had been staying in the hotel with their eight-month-old baby girl after traveling from Littleton, Colorado

Griffen is accused of punching Andersen repeatedly before their brawl spilled out into the hallway.

He then reportedly yanked the baby's arm forcefully, causing the little girl to fall down a flight of stairs, according to the New York Post.

A hotel guest caught the infant, who miraculously did not sustain any injuries in the fall, but was hospitalized for an evaluation.

Authorities say that Andersen then made her way to the roof before jumping to her death. Police responded to a 911 call of an assault.

When officers arrived, they discovered the young woman on the second-floor scaffolding outside of the hotel, unconscious and unresponsive.

A GoFundMe has been set up for the young mother to help her family return her body to Colorado.

Friends and family have paid tribute to Andersen, writing that she was a 'great mama' and that her 'name will live on in your daughter.'

One said: 'My heart hurts in disbelief got me ballin my eyes out!! You were such a beautiful young soul & a great mama.

Friends and family have paid tribute to the aspiring actress, writing that she was a 'great mama'

Hours before her death, Andersen posted a video of Times Square on her social media

A GoFundMe has been set up for the young mother to help her family return her body home to Colorado

'You didn't deserve this at all mann!! imma miss you girlie fly high beautiful.'

Another said: 'Bro my heart hurts so much. I loved you so much, I'll make sure your name lives on and your baby is taken care of.

'You were turning 21 this month and we had so many plans to travel. You were my sister. I can't believe you're gone,' one mourner wrote.

An NYPD spokesperson told DailyMail.com that 'further investigation determined that a female and 24-year-old male had an altercation at the hotel room at location where an 8-month-old female child was present.'

Griffen was taken into custody and arrested on charges of assault, reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17.

Bystanders at the grim scene where a 20-year-old woman's body was found outside the second-floor scaffolding. The woman's identity has not yet been released

Police responded to a 911 call of an assault in progress at the Oyo Hotel (pictured) in Times Square located at 157 West 47th Street on Tuesday night around 10:27pm

Police are investigating whether the woman had accidentally fallen or was pushed. The Medical Examiner was present. They have not yet determined the manner and cause of death

He was described as being in an emotionally disturbed state and had to be shocked with a stun gun in the lobby of the hotel as they took him into custody.

An NYPD spokesperson told DailyMail.com that a preliminary investigation has determined the woman's injuries are indicative of a fall from an elevated position.

The city's Medical Examiner's office has not yet determined the manner and cause of death. No other details are available at this time.

Griffin's arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday.

Police said the 8-month-old baby will be under the care of The city's Administration for Children's Services.
A homeless man's death has been ruled a homicide as protesters took to New York City's subway system to demonstrate his death at the hands of Marine veteran.

Jordan Neely, 30, was shouting and pacing aboard an F train in Manhattan on Monday afternoon, witnesses and police said, when he was taken to the floor by a 24-year-old US Marine veteran from Long Island who is between deployments.

His death has now been ruled a homicide caused by compression of the neck. The decision of whether or not to charge the Marine will be made by the district attorney's office.

Video of the altercation posted online showed the man lying beneath Neely, holding him in a headlock position for several minutes as Neely tried and failed to break free.

A second passenger pinned Neely's arms while a third held down his shoulder. It was unclear why the group had moved to restrain him. Neely lost consciousness and was pronounced dead at a Manhattan hospital shortly afterwards.

On Wednesday, protesters began assembling at New York City's Broadway-Lafayette subway station, where Neely was taken to the hospital from, to protest his death. Chants of 'black lives matter,' 'justice for Jordan Neely,' 'F*** Eric Adams' and 'the homeless matter' could be heard, reports Gothamist.

Jordan Neely's death was ruled a homicide, his death was caused by compression of the neck

Protesters have taken to New York City's subway system to protest the death of a beloved homeless Michael Jackson-impersonator at the hands of Marine veteran

Protesters began assembled at New York City's Broadway-Lafayette subway station, where Neely was taken to the hospital from, to protest his death

NYPD officers could be seen entering the subway platform carrying bundles of zip-ties

The 24-year-old Marine veteran from Long Island who is accused of killing Neely has not been identified

NYPD officers could be seen entering the subway platform carrying bundles of zip-ties. At the time of writing, as many as four arrests have been made at the protests, reports independent journalist Liam Quigley.

According to a flyer circulating on Facebook, the protest was scheduled to start at 3pm on Wednesday.

The subduer was taken into custody and released without charges. His name has not been released publicly. A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney said an investigation was ongoing.

Contacted by the New York Daily News on Wednesday, the Marine refused to answer questions.

'I'm not answering any questions. I appreciate it, but I'm not answering any questions,' he said.

Also on Wednesday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul addressed the video saying it was 'deeply disturbing' but declined to say if the state would be investigating it as a criminal matter.

As news of Neely's death spread online, some New Yorkers recalled encountering him during the years he spent performing as a Michael Jackson impersonator, often inside the Times Square transit hub.

Chants of 'black lives matter,' 'justice for Jordan Neely,' 'F*** Eric Adams' and 'the homeless matter' could be heard

A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney said an investigation was ongoing

According to a flyer circulating on Facebook, the protest was scheduled to start at 3pm on Wednesday

At the time of writing, as many as four arrests have been reported at the protest

New York Governor Kathy Hochul addressed the video saying it was 'deeply disturbing' but declined to say if the state would be investigating it as a criminal matter

His death comes amid a period of heightened public attention to both homelessness and mental illness on New York City's streets and subways.

Following several high-profile incidents, including a shooting on a subway that left 10 people wounded last year, Mayor Eric Adams promised to deploy additional police officers and mental health workers throughout the transit system.

Video of Monday's encounter evoked strong reactions from New Yorkers and officials, with some describing the act as a lethal overreaction to a person in the throes of mental illness and others defending the Marine's actions.

The freelance journalist who recorded the incident, Juan Alberto Vazquez, told the New York Post that Neely was screaming 'in an aggressive manner' and complaining of hunger and thirst.

Neely did not physically attack anyone, Vazquez said, adding that the 24-year-old approached the man after he threw his jacket to the ground.

The video opens with Neely already on the subway car's floor, with the man's left arm around Neely's neck, locked into his other arm positioned against the man's head.

A second man holds Neely's outstretched arm while pinning the other hand against his body. Neely is mostly still, but half a minute later tries to struggle out of the headlock. Eventually, he goes limp.

Dave Giffen, the executive director at Coalition for the Homeless, blamed city and state officials for an inadequate response to the mental health crisis and questioned why the Marine was not facing criminal charges.

'The fact that someone who took the life of a distressed, mentally-ill human being on a subway could be set free without facing any consequences is shocking,' he said. 'This is an absolute travesty that must be investigated immediately.'

Those calls were echoed by several Democratic elected officials, who described the incident as a low point for the city.

A spokesperson for the mayor touted his administration's investment in mental health initiatives, but declined to comment directly on Neely's death, noting, 'There's a lot we don't know about what happened here.'

Tribute videos posted online show a loyal fanbase who enjoyed crossing paths with Neely on their daily commutes. Some grew concerned when he went missing early last year, according to YouTube comments.

Jason Williams, an actor, recalled encountering Neely when he first moved to the city in 2007. Then a teenager, Neely was an agile Michael Jackson impersonator, Williams said, soliciting donations as he moonwalked through the subway and lip-synced to 'Billie Jean.'

'He embodied the hustle spirit of New York,' Williams said. 'He was a great performer and it's a real tragedy that he was killed so senselessly.'
The number of thugs, drug offenders and other serious criminals told to have therapy or an education course instead of prosecution spiralled last year.

Home Office data shows a 128 per cent leap in offenders given diversionary, educational or intervention activity programmes in 2022.

Police handed out 31,230 of the punishments last year compared with 13,718 in 2021.

Criminals who agree to a course, including therapy sessions to address offending, do not have to go to court. Last year 16,000 violent offenders chose to do so, along with 2,000 vandals and arsonists, 1,400 thieves and 5,000 drugs criminals.

Incredibly 93 robbers and 1,000 sex offenders escaped prosecution this way. The diversionary, educational or interventional activity category  also known as Outcome 22  was introduced in 2019 on the recommendation of Labour frontbencher David Lammy, who carried out an official review.

Home Office data shows a 128 per cent leap in offenders given diversionary, educational or intervention activity programmes in 2022. Police handed out 31,230 of the punishments last year compared with 13,718 in 2021. Criminals who agree to a course, including therapy sessions to address offending, do not have to go to court

Police take no further action if a criminal agrees to take a course to prevent reoffending or change behaviour by addressing the root cause of the offending.

The Youth Justice Legal Centre says this might include a victim awareness course, engagement with addiction services or referral to a domestic abuse perpetrator programme. It might also include some form of restorative justice.

Crime figures published by the Office for National Statistics last week showed the overall number of offences logged by police hit 6.6million in 2022 for the first time. Violent crime surged by 20 per cent compared with pre-Covid levels to a record 2.1million offences. Sex offences hit a new high with 189,731, up 19 per cent over the same period. Only 7.1 per cent of recorded crime led to court action.

The Mail revealed last week that thousands of sex offenders dodged prosecution in 2022 and were handed a slap on the wrist.

A total of 629 sex criminals got away with an informal out-of-court settlement, such as making an apology to their victims. Another 666 escaped prosecution by accepting a formal out-of-court settlement, such as police caution. A further 1,082 were handed an Outcome 22 punishment.

A Home Office spokesman said: We are focused on cutting crime, and building stronger communities.

Weve delivered our pledge to put 20,000 more police officers on our streets, and were taking action across the board to bring more offenders to justice, better protect victims, and equip the police with the powers they need to prevent crimes from happening in the first place.
The Kings tailor and the UKs oldest family jeweller last night warned that the controversial tourist tax is discouraging investment in the UK.

Business leaders said the absence of a VAT-free shopping scheme for holidaymakers was not only deterring shoppers from spending money but influencing retailers to shun the UK too.

Household brands including Burberry and Harrods are among names on a 150-strong letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, organised by hotelier Sir Rocco Forte, arguing the move is an own goal for Britain.

The Mails Scrap The Tourist Tax campaign  urging the Government to bring back tax-free shopping  has also been backed by MPs from across the parties.

Anda Rowland, who heads the Royal suitmaker Anderson & Sheppard in Savile Row, said the tax was one of several challenges for European businesses setting up shop in the UK and she would certainly think twice about coming to London if in their shoes.

Pictured: Anda Rowland, who heads the Royal suitmaker Anderson & Sheppard in Savile Row (file photo). Ms Rowland said the tax was one of several challenges for European businesses setting up shop in the UK and she would certainly think twice about coming to London if in their shoes

She described Chancellor Jeremy Hunts refusal to re-introduce the scheme, ditched after Brexit, as an own goal that could drive businesses, as well as wealthy shoppers, to Paris and Milan.

Last week, footfall in the West End  including in Oxford St and Bond St  was down 23 per cent compared to the same week in 2019. Dee Corsi, boss of the New West End Company, which shared the figures, said a Covid recovery was being held back by the tax.

Although international visitors were slowly returning to London, they were hesitant to go on shopping sprees to the same extent, she said, adding: The harmful impact of this tourist tax is being amplified as international visitors return in greater numbers.

Peggy Porschen said she would consider expanding her cake cafe business in countries other than Britain.

She said she always imagined strengthening our foothold here but there were too many challenges to further entertain this plan, including a dramatic drop in both European and Asian customers since the tax was scrapped.

And Henry Deakin, who runs Britains oldest family jeweller Deakin & Francis, told The Mail: If I was a tourist, doing a world-wide tour, Id hold back on splurging in the UK.

Pictured: Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt (file photo). Household brands including Burberry and Harrods are among names on a 150-strong letter to Mr Hunt, organised by hotelier Sir Rocco Forte, arguing the move is an own goal for Britain

He said he would 100 per cent consider opening a store in Paris over London. I certainly wouldnt want to lose my Mayfair store, but I wouldnt think about opening a second UK one.

Their remarks come as John Dickie, chief executive of industry group BusinessLDN, writes in todays Mail that the Coronation will be a missed opportunity because tourists will be deterred from spending by the VAT levy.

The Treasury claims that reinstating tax-free shopping would cost the nation 2billion a year, but research suggests there would be a net annual gain of around 350million because of the knock-on benefits.

Coronation is missed chance to make most of visitor boom

By John Dickie

ANALYSIS

This weekend the UK will host a spectacle that will be watched by millions across the globe  the Kings Coronation. It is the first time in 70 years that people have had the chance to see history being made in the capital.

Thats why visitors from the UK and beyond will descend on London to soak up the atmosphere.

The Coronation will provide a much-needed boost for Londons leisure, hospitality and retail businesses badly hit by the pandemic.

However, despite the scale of the occasion, we are not doing everything we should to attract high-spending visitors to this event or to maximise the capitals attractiveness to overseas tourism, which, in turn, will support jobs and growth.

In 2019, according to Visit Britain, tourism in England contributed 106billion to the British economy and supported 2.6million jobs.

Pictured: Shopping centre decorated for the Coronation (file photo). Britain is competing in the global race for tourism with our shoelaces tied together. We must act now to restore VAT-free shopping so, for example, we are an attractive hop across the Channel for visitors to the Olympics in Paris next summer

After Brexit, the Government inexplicably decided to stop overseas visitors from being able to reclaim VAT on goods purchased here and then taken home. This puts us at an enormous disadvantage to the EU.

American, Chinese, Indian and other visitors to continental European countries can claim back VAT when they leave. As can we Brits. But no visitors to the UK can.

We are seriously losing out as a result. Figures from Global Blue show that 10 per cent of UK spending by international shoppers in 2019 has now moved to EU countries, which have kept VAT-free shopping.

We are also lagging behind other European cities in attracting visitors from key markets. For example, spending by American shoppers in the UK is now back at 2019 levels, a welcome recovery from the dark days of the pandemic.

But our figure lags starkly behind France, Spain and Italy, which have virtually doubled their American spending. This is an issue that matters for the whole of the UKs flatlining economy.

A week after the Coronation, Liverpool will host the music industrys biggest night  the Eurovision Song Contest. The event is predicted to be worth around 25million to the regional economy.

Events like this in the UK would attract even more international visitors that would help turbocharge our economy if we brought back VAT-free shopping.

By doing so, it would strongly support growth, generate 4.1billion gross added value annually, and create 78,000 jobs, according to Oxford Economics.

Re-introducing the scheme would boost spending from visitors and more than compensate for the short-term loss of VAT receipts  delivering an extra 350million in tax revenues for the Exchequer every year.

This would ultimately be a win-win for business, the economy and the country.

Britain is competing in the global race for tourism with our shoelaces tied together.

We must act now to restore VAT-free shopping so, for example, we are an attractive hop across the Channel for visitors to the Olympics in Paris next summer.

The Government missed a trick by failing to seize the opportunity to bring back VAT-free shopping for international visitors ahead of the Coronation.

We need to act now to show the world that Britain is open for business.

John Dickie is the chief executive of BusinessLDN
It is a role he has been in training for since the day he was born.

But as he faces his very public moment of destiny on Saturday, King Charles III could be forgiven for a frisson of nerves.

How will he step into the shoes of his late mother, whose remarkable reign spanned 70 years and saw her become one of the most loved and admired heads of state in the world?

It may come as a crumb of comfort to learn, however, that much the same thoughts were going through Queen Elizabeth IIs own mind as she struggled to come to terms with the death of her beloved father, King George VI, in February 1952 and her own accession to the throne.

Remarkably she, too, was praying for the strength to follow his wonderful example during my reign.

Queen Elizabeth II struggled to come to terms with the death of her beloved father, King George VI, in February 1952 and her own accession to the throne

The Daily Mail has been given exclusive access to a never-before-seen letter written by the late sovereign to a close friend in March 1952, just a few weeks after her fathers passing on February 6 aged 56

The Daily Mail has been given exclusive access to a never-before-seen letter written by the late sovereign to a close friend in March 1952, just a few weeks after her fathers passing on February 6 aged 56.

Although he had been unwell for many months, his death still came as a shock to his family and left his eldest daughter, then a mother of two young children, Queen at the age of just 25.

Written in her familiar looping hand at Clarence House  the London residence she occupied at the time with her husband, the late Duke of Edinburgh and their young family  Elizabeth thanks the writer for their own kind letter of sympathy. We have been greatly comforted by the knowledge that so many people have been thinking of us at this sad time, she says.

She continues: My father will be very much missed, for it has been a source of great pride to us to know that so many people thought of him as a friend, as well as their king.

In a sign that she, too, felt the weight of responsibility bearing down on her shoulders, she continues: I trust I shall be given the strength to follow his wonderful example during my reign. She signs the letter using her private family nickname, Lilibet.

Queen Elizabeth utterly adored her father and his death, when she was on a trip to Kenya with Prince Philip, hit her hard

As he faces his very public moment of destiny on Saturday, King Charles III could be forgiven for a frisson of nerves

It is not known if King Charles was ever aware of the existence of the letter.

But the fact that his mother, who went on to rule for an extraordinary seven decades, faced her own destiny knowing she had much to live up to, will no doubt provide reassurance on the eve on his own coronation.

Queen Elizabeth utterly adored her father and his death, when she was on a trip to Kenya with Prince Philip, hit her hard.

But she had little time to mourn, having to step up and immediately take over his responsibilities as head of state.

So diligent was she in her duties that Charles later complained she was not just a physically distant mother, often travelling abroad as part of her official duties, but an emotionally distant one too.

The King was just three years old when he became Heir Apparent and four by the time his mother was crowned more than a year later.

But he always doted on her  and she him  and mother and son became much closer in the years before her death.

Charles would often pop in to spend time with her at Windsor when he was there on official business, such as investitures, and the pair would sit talking companionably in her private compartments.

The King was also at Balmoral when his mother died in September last year, along with his sister, Princess Anne.
The cemetery is the final resting place of soldiers stationed at Fort Jefferson

Only one grave has been identified, but records show dozens are there

An underwater cemetery off the coast of Florida has been discovered

A large slab of rock marked with the name of a man who died in 1861 is one of several graves found in an underwater cemetery off the coast of Florida.

The cemetery holds the remains of soldiers and laborers who died at a 19th-century quarantine hospital on a now-submerged island in Dry Tortugas National Park.

Only the grave of John Greer, a laborer who died on November 5, 1861, has been identified, but historical records show dozens of people were laid to rest at the site in the Gulf of Mexico.

Many were soldiers stationed and prisoners housed at Fort Jefferson who were treated and died at the hospital.

The National Park Service explained there were disease outbreaks, including yellow fever, on the island that killed dozens of people from the 1860s to 1870s - and archaeologists plan to uncover each of the lost graves.

Archaeologists discovered an underwater cemetery off the coast of Florida. Only one grave has been identified. It features the name John Greer, a laborer who died on November 5, 1861

Dry Tortugas National Park is comprised of seven islands, coral protected reefs and is home to the 19th-century Fort Jefferson.

The surrounding islands became a naval outpost, a lighthouse station, a naval hospital, a quarantine facility and a site for military training.

The risk of infectious diseases, including outbreaks of mosquito-borne yellow fever, increased as the fort's population grew with military personnel, prisoners, enslaved people, support staff and their families.

The fort was abandoned in 1873, but the Marine Hospital Service occupied it again between 1890 and 1900, and an isolation hospital was set up on a nearby island.

Josh Marano, a maritime archeologist for the South Florida national parks and the survey's project director, said in a statement: 'This intriguing find highlights the potential for untold stories in Dry Tortugas National Park, both above and below the water.

'Although much of the history of Fort Jefferson focuses on the fortification itself and some of its infamous prisoners, we are actively working to tell the stories of the enslaved people, women, children and civilian laborers.'

Fort Jefferson was built to protect one of North America's most strategic deepwater anchorages. And remains of the structure are still standing today.

Construction of the fort began in 1846 and continued for 30 years - even though it was never entirely finished.

The cemetery holds the remains of soldiers and laborers who died at a 19th-century quarantine hospital on a now-submerged island in Dry Tortugas National Park. Pictured is the only image of the cemetery and hospital

Historical records show dozens of people were laid to rest at the site in the Gulf of Mexico

The structure was set up to protect one of North America's most strategic deepwater anchorages during the Civil War.

The fort also housed prisoners after the Civil War, with the most famous being Samuel Mudd, who was sent there for his involvement in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Mudd was pardoned in 1869 by President Andrew Johnson, in part for his life-saving work during a yellow fever epidemic at Fort Jefferson.

During its time, Fort Jefferson held over 2,500 prisoners.

Historical records show the site of the hospital, Key West Quarantine, was approved by Congress on August 2, 1888.

After its use as a prison, Fort Jefferson became a quarantine station for the Marine Hospital Service from 1888 through 1900, during which the location was also used in the Spanish-American War.

Fort Jefferson was built to protect one of North America's most strategic deepwater anchorages

And remains of the structure are still standing today

'The find also highlights the impacts of climate change on resources in the Dry Tortugas,' the National Park Service said in the announcement.

'While the facilities identified in this survey were originally built on dry land, the dynamic conditions caused many of the islands to move over time.

'Climate change and major storm events have even caused some islands to settle and erode beneath the waves.'

Archaeologists are now hoping to uncover more about Geer and other indvidiuals buried at the bottom of the Gulf.

The remains of the hospital as well as the surrounding cemetery have been documented as an archeological resource and will be routinely monitored by members of the South Florida National Parks Cultural Resources Program.
This is a period of frenzied excitement and aggression among large mammals

Dribbling urine and huge hormonal surges are two key - albeit unromantic - signs that it's time for an elephant to mate.

Now, scientists have drawn significant parallels between these modern-day giants and their extinct mammoth relatives who may have exhibited similar signals.

Analysis of tusks from over 30,000 years ago has unveiled that woolly mammoths experienced enormous surges in testosterone during mating season.

This state, known as 'musth', comes from the Hindi word for intoxicated, marking a period of frenzied sexual excitement and aggression among larger mammals.

The University of Michigan-led research is a historic landmark for uncovering the past mysteries of mammoths, being the first piece of evidence to prove they underwent musth.

Experts have drawn parallels between today's elephants and woolly mammoths

Pictured: An assortment of woolly mammoth tusks, teeth and bones collected on Wrangel Island, Russia, by authors of the new research

'Temporal patterns of testosterone preserved in fossil tusks show that, like modern elephants, mature bull mammoths experienced musth,' said study lead author Michael Cherney, a research affiliate at the U-M Museum of Paleontology.

Woolly mammoth: Basic facts Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is an extinct species of elephant found in fossil deposits in Europe, northern Asia, and North America. The species was known for its large size, fur, and imposing tusks, which were curvier than today's elephants. Thriving during the Pleistocene ice ages, woolly mammoths died out after much of their habitat was lost as Earths climate warmed in the aftermath of the last ice age. Advertisement

He also told MailOnline: 'For the first time, we can see these testosterone surges in an extinct species of elephant, the woolly mammoth.

'This might be as close as we're going to get to having direct evidence that these ice-age animals experienced the entire suite of attributes that we associate with musth, including aggressive behavior, dribbling urine, secretions from the temporal gland behind the eye, and even a change in posture and how they walk.'

Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) were one of the last in a line of mammoth species to exist before their extinction around 4,000 years ago.

The species co-existed with early humans, who hunted them for food and used their bones and tusks for making weapons and art.

The cause of their extinction is currently uncertain, with intense debate on the roles of human hunting and severe climatic change.

In this study, scientists used the bony material of dentin to help reconstruct the histories of mammoths.

This tissue not only makes up human teeth but the bulk of elephant and woolly mammoth tusks, preserving hormone fluctuations.

'Tusks hold particular promise for reconstructing aspects of mammoth life history because they preserve a record of growth in layers of dentin that form throughout an individual's life," said study co-author Daniel Fisher, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

'Because musth is associated with dramatically elevated testosterone in modern elephants, it provides a starting point for assessing the feasibility of using hormones preserved in tusk growth records to investigate temporal changes in endocrine physiology.'

The African elephant tusk analysed in the University of Michigan-led testosterone study

To get a full picture, the team looked at the tusks of a 55-year-old male mammoth that lived between 38,866 to 33,291 years ago and a female that lived nearly 6,000 years ago.

READ MORE - Experts grow mammoth flesh to make a meatball Scientists have grown mammoth flesh in a lab to make a prehistoric meatball (shown) Advertisement

The male's right tusk was discovered by a diamond-mining company in Siberia around 16 years ago.

The female's was also found off the coast of Russia at Wrangel Island - the last known place where woolly mammoths survived.

These were compared with the tusk of a 30-to-40-year-old modern day African elephant that was killed near Maun, Botswana in 1963.

This elephant was understood to have experienced testosterone 20 times higher during musth than any other point in the year.

On the flip side, male mammoth surges were seen to be just 10 times higher than other points in the year - half of that experienced by elephants.

The female mammoth showed even lower but more stable testosterone levels, according to the researchers based in Russia, France, the Netherlands, and the US.

'Lower mean hormone levels in the mammoth tusks compared with those in the elephant tusk might be a result of degradation or other technical factors associated with preservation, but patterns of relative abundance appear to persist and are similar in modern and fossil records,' the study said.

The scientists hope their research will pave the way for further exploration into the lives of ancient organisms, humans and extinct apes.

They stress that teeth and tusks are vital tools for piecing together history as they do not decay or become contaminated like hair and nails.

'With reliable results for some steroids from samples as small as 5 mg of dentin, these methods could be used to investigate records of organisms with smaller teeth, including humans and other hominids,' the authors wrote.

'Endocrine records in modern and ancient dentin provide a new approach to investigating reproductive ecology, life history, population dynamics, disease, and behavior in modern and prehistoric contexts.'

The male woolly mammoth tusk had been cut into segments before parts of it were acquired by the University of Michigan

Scientists examining woolly mammoth tusks collected on Wrangel Island, Russia

The latest mammoth research comes just a month after scientists found that woolly mammoths were perhaps not as fluffy as history remembers them.

The new study was conducted by researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

'We wanted to know what makes a mammoth a woolly mammoth,' said lead author David Diez-del-Molino at the Centre for Palaeogenetics.

'Woolly mammoths have some very characteristic morphological features, like their thick fur and small ears, that you obviously expect based on what frozen specimens look like.

'But there are also many other adaptations like fat metabolism and cold perception that are not so evident because they're at the molecular level.'
United Nations  The United Nations has consistently been a vociferous advocate of freedom of the press - and, most importantly, the right of journalists to report without fear of reprisals.

But regrettably, the UN is also one of most opaque institutions where transparency is never the norm.

Journalists, rarely if ever, were able to get any on-the-record comments or reactions from ambassadors, diplomats and senior UN officials because most of them follow the advice given to Brits during war-time censorship in the UK: "Be like Dad, Keep Mum".

As Winston Churchill once remarked: "Diplomacy is the art of telling people 'to go to hell' in such a way that they ask for directions."

But as a general rule, most ambassadors and diplomats did not tell us either to go to hell or heaven- but avoided all comments on politically-sensitive issues with the standard non-excuse: "Sorry, we have to get clearance from our capital".

But that "clearance" from their respective foreign ministries never came. Still, it was hard to beat a response from a tight-lipped Asian diplomat who told me: "No comment" - and as an after-thought, added: "And Don't Quote Me on That".

And most senior UN officials, on the other hand, never had even the basic courtesy or etiquette to respond to phone calls or email messages even with an acknowledgment. The lines of communications were mostly dead.

When I complained to the media-savvy Shashi Tharoor, a former UN Under-Secretary-General, head of the one-time Department of Public Information (DPI) and a prolific author, he was explicit in his response when he said that every UN official - "from an Under-Secretary-General to a window-washer"--has the right to express an opinion in his or her area of expertise.

The US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which dates back to 1967, has provided the public and mostly the press in the United States the right to request access to records from any federal agency--and has been described as "the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government".

As a result, some of the newspaper scoops and insider information in the US mainstream media have come following requests from American journalists under the FOIA.

But a longstanding proposal for a FOIA at the United Nations has failed to get off the ground due largely to the inaction by the 193-member General Assembly, the UN's highest policy making body, resulting in the lack of transparency in the inner workings of the UN and its Secretariat.

So has the proposal for a UN Special Envoy to deal with safety of journalists--dead on arrival (DOA).

Andreas Bummel, Executive Director, Democracy Without Borders, told IPS: the UN is an institution that exercises public authority directly and indirectly with over 30,000 working in the Secretariat (plus the UN system worldwide).

"As such, it needs to be accountable not only to its member states but to citizens and the public at large.

Establishing a proper freedom of information procedure at the UN will be an important tool to enhance this, declared Bummel, co-author of "A World Parliament: Governance and Democracy in the 21st Century."

Martin S. Edwards, Professor and Chair, School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University in the US, told IPS: "I must admit I don't know the legal angles here. This having been said, it's pretty clear to me that the only way forward for the UN in an era of political division is greater transparency"

Greater efforts to "tell your story better" are not enough. You can't advocate for "effective, accountable, and inclusive" institutions at the national level without it, within the UN system too. Things like access to information are an essential step in that direction, he added.

In the US, federal agencies are required to disclose any information requested under the FOIA unless it falls under one of nine exemptions which protect interests such as personal privacy, national security, and law enforcement.

In Australia, the legislation is known as Right2Know; in Bangladesh, the Right to Information (RTI) provides resources for those seeking to file a request with government agencies; in Japan, the Citizens' Centre for Information Disclosure offers help to those interested in filing requests; in India, the Right to Information: a Citizen Gateway is the portal for RTI; Canada's Access to Information Act came into force in 1983 and Kenya's Access to Information Act was adopted in August 2016, according to the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD).

And Sweden's Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 has been described as the "oldest in the world."

While FOIA covers access to federal government agency records, the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) guarantees access to state and local government records. All 50 states in the US also have freedom of information laws that govern access to these documents, though the provisions of the state laws vary considerably.

The Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which is mandated to oversee press freedom, defines Freedom of Information (FOI) as the right to access information held by public bodies.

According to UNESCO, the FOI is an integral part of the fundamental right of freedom of expression, as recognized by Resolution 59 of the UN General Assembly adopted in 1946, as well as by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which states that the fundamental right of freedom of expression encompasses the freedom to "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers".

FOI has also been enshrined as a "freedom of expression" in other major international instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) and the American Convention on Human Rights (1969).

In an interview with IPS back in 2017, Samir Sanbar, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General who headed the one-time Department of Public Information (DPI), said the right to information is an integral part of U.N. principles.

But providing that right--even the basic information available in the public domain- has been stymied both by member states and the UN bureaucracy, he added.

He pointed out that the need to "inform the peoples" is implicitly indicated in the UN Charter.

But implementing it was "a basic issue I had experienced throughout my work, with both certain government officials- including those publicly claiming open channels- and many senior U.N. Secretariat colleagues".

Those who believed "Information is Power" were very hesitant, to what they perceived was sharing their authority with a wider public, said Sanbar who served under five different UN Secretaries-General.

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"It was most evident that when I launched the now uncontested website www.un.org, a number of powerful Under-Secretaries-General (USGs) and Permanent Representatives cautioned me against "telling everyone what was happening" (in the UN system) and refused to authorize any funds."

"I had to raise a team of DPI volunteers in my office, operating from within the existing budget, to go ahead and eventually offer computers loaned from an outside source, to certain delegations to realize it was more convenient for them to access news releases than having to send one of their staffers daily to the building to collect material from the third floor."

Eventually, everyone joined in, and the site became one of the ten best official sites worldwide.

"We had a similar difficulty in prodding for International World Press Freedom Day through the General Assembly. It seems that even those with the best of intentions- since delegates represent official governments that view free press with cautious monitoring- are usually weary of opening a potentially vulnerable issue," said Sanbar, author of the book "Inside the U.N. in a Leaderless World'.

This article contains excerpts from a 2021 book on the United Nations--largely a collection of political anecdotes- titled "No Comment - and Don't Quote Me on That," available on Amazon. The link to Amazon via the author's website follows: https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/

IPS UN Bureau Report

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Artificial intelligence (AI) could have as big an impact on careers as the Industrial Revolution, Sir Patrick Vallance has warned.

The Government's former chief scientific advisor stressed that MPs need to 'get ahead' in the midst of a global technological boom.

While he acknowledged its potential benefits within industries such as medicine, Sir Vallance raised concerns over the distortion of truth and erasure of jobs.

'I think everyone's been surprised by how much the large generative models have done things that people didn't expect them to do,' he said in a committee meeting.

'And then I think there are three areas of society that needs to be thought about.

Sir Patrick Vallance answering questions in front of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee at the House of Commons

READ MORE: 'Godfather' of AI quits Google amid fears tyrants like Putin could use the growing intelligence of robots for 'bad things' - as bitter Silicon Valley civil war over dangers of the tech rages on Debate: The 'godfather' of artificial intelligence Geoffrey Hinton has tossed a grenade into the raging debate about the dangers of the technology  after sensationally quitting his job at Google and saying he regrets his life's work. Some of those who and against AI are pictured Advertisement

'The first is, with the large models and the potential, how do you determine what's true and what's not? As you can get replication of all sorts of things.

'And the second is there will be a big impact on jobs. And that impact could be as big as the industrial revolution was.

'How are we going to think about that, over a slightly longer timeframe?

'And the third, of course, is what happens with these things when they start to do things you really didn't expect and what are the risks associated with that? That may be a slightly longer-term question.'

The former advisor's thoughts come after the man widely seen as the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, quit his job at Google and said some of the dangers of AI chatbots were 'quite scary'.

Mr Hinton drew comparisons with the 'father of the atomic bomb' Robert Oppenheimer, who was reportedly ashamed of his invention and dedicated the rest of his life to stopping its proliferation.

In the midst of Silicon Valley's AI explosion, Sir Vallance said that governments now need the ability to probe major tech giants and understand them better.

He believes the initial effect of this boom will see a decline in economic output as people lose jobs and realign themselves, then an eventual benefit.

'I think we need to get ahead of that actually. Which are the jobs, the sectors that will be most affected,' he continued.

'And what are the plans to retrain and give people their time back to do a job differently, because there will be jobs that can be done by AI, which can either mean lots of people don't have a job, or it can mean actually lots of people have a job that only humans can do.

Sir Vallance said that governments now need the ability to probe major tech giants to understand the technology advancements better

TOP 20 OCCUPATIONS MOST LIKELY TO BE REPLACED BY AI Rank Job 1 Call centre operators 2 English language and literature teachers (higher education) 3 Foreign language and literature teachers (higher education) 4 History teachers (higher education) 5 Law teachers (higher education) 6 Philosophy and religion teachers (higher education) 7 Sociology teachers (higher education) 8 Political science teachers (higher education) 9 Criminal justice and law enforcement teachers (higher education) 10 Sociologists 11 Social work teachers (higher education) 12 Psychology teachers (higher education) 13 Communications teachers (higher education) 14 Political scientists 15 Area, ethnic and cultural studies teachers (higher education) 16 Arbitrators, mediators and concilliators 17 Judges, magistrate judges and magistrates 18 Geography teachers (higher education) 19 Library science teachers (higher education) 20 Clinical, counselling and school psychologists

'And in the area I know most about in this  in medicine  that could be that you actually get more time with your doctor rather than being pressurised. So that could be a good outcome.'

Despite this, recent studies indicate that ChatGPT can provide higher quality answers with more empathy than real doctors.

The world famous bot recently caused a stir in the medical community after it was found capable of passing the gold-standard exam required to practice medicine in the US, raising the prospect it could one day replace human doctors.

While acknowledging that AI is a 'global issue', Sir Vallance stressed that slowing down its progression did not seem sensible either.

He said: 'There's no point thinking you can protect yourselves against something that you might view as a harmful effect individually, because you won't. And therefore there does need to be an international position on how to think about this.

'And also, in terms of regulation, what do you actually want to regulate? My own view is you don't regulate the advance of technology, but you want to think very carefully about the application.'

In the face of these issues, the former advisor emphasised that one of the most immediate problems was a distortion of the truth.

He said: 'How do you make sure that the output of AI doesn't distort the perception of truth?

Sir Vallance stressed that MPs need to 'get ahead' in the midst of a global technological boom

The former advisor's thoughts come after the man widely seen as the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton (pictured), quit his job at Google and said some of the dangers of AI chatbots were 'quite scary'

'And that seems to me something that can be looked at, and there would be ways of thinking about marking something as an output of AI where it's appropriate to do so, so you didn't end up with people inadvertently thinking that something was something that it wasn't.'

As part of coping with this, he also added that not being a part of EU's Horizon would be 'a mistake'.

This programme is a scientific research initiative, helping to tackle issues such as climate change in addition to funding societal aspects of AI.

'I think we would be causing ourselves a problem not to continue to be part of it,' he said.

His thoughts come as around 15 Nobel laureates have written to the Prime Minister following reports of a potential UK-led research programme.

This initiative referred to as Pioneer would be a 'Plan B' put together by ministers.

Asked about Pioneer, Sir Vallance said he liked some aspects but 'Horizon is plan A and you're better off going with plan A'.

'The European funding programme probably took a decade to get going well, so that tells you how long it takes to set up these schemes,' he said.

'So the idea that you can instantly set up something equivalent is, I think, flawed.'
They found that adding a 'surfactant' molecule made them rise in a straight line

When enjoying a glass of Champagne, most of us are only concerned that the direction the bubbles are going in is down our throats.

Scientists from Brown University, however, couldn't stop wondering why they go straight upwards, while those in other carbonated drinks do not.

To work it out, they poured out containers of Champagne, beer, sparkling water and sparkling wine, and pumped in gas at the bottom.

They then altered the bubble size and added different ingredients to the drinks, all the while noting down how the bubbles were affected.

It was found that larger bubbles and the addition of special proteins in Champagne stabilise the bubble chains, allowing them to rise in a straight line.

Scientists from Brown University have worked out why bubbles in Champagne (left) flow upwards in a straight line, but those in other carbonated drinks, like beer (right) do not

It was found that larger bubbles, and the addition of special proteins that are present in Champagne, stabilise the bubble chains, allowing them to rise in a straight line. Pictured: Bubble chains forming from a capillary in a clean fluid, increasing flow rate from left to right. When the frequency of gas bubbles are increased to the rate of bubble chains in Champagne, the chain quickly loses stabilisation

'This is the type of research that I've been working out for years,' said the study's senior author Professor Roberto Zenit.

WHY DO CHAMPAGNE BUBBLES RISE IN A STRAIGHT LINE? Champagne contains proteins that act as 'surfactant' molecules, which can stabilise bubbles and allow them to rise in a straight line. Surfactants have two ends - one that is attracted to water (hydrophilic) and the other that is repelled by water (hydrophobic). When gas is blown into a liquid which contains surfactants, the molecules align themselves at the surface of the bubble it forms. The hydrophilic end remains in the liquid, and the hydrophobic end pokes into the gas, creating a barrier between the two. This stabilises the bubble by reducing the surface tension and preventing it from popping and helping it rise smoothly. Advertisement

'Most people have never seen an ocean seep or an aeration tank but most of them have had a soda, a beer or a glass of Champagne.

'By talking about Champagne and beer, our master plan is to make people understand that fluid mechanics is important in their daily lives.'

Fizzy drinks have bubbles due to the dissolved carbon dioxide gas in the liquid.

This is added to create a fizzy texture, enhance the flavour and, sometimes, preserve the shelf life by inhibiting bacterial growth.

When the drink is opened, the pressure is released, causing the carbon dioxide to come out of the solution in the form of bubbles.

The bubbles rise to the surface one after the other, forming a chain with a direction that depends on the individual beverage's fluid dynamics.

In Champagne and sparkling wine, the gas bubbles rise in a single-file line that goes straight upwards, and is what's known as a 'stable' bubble chain.

In beer, sparkling water and other carbonated drinks, however, the bubbles can veer off to the side as they come up in an 'unstable' bubble chain.

An unstable chain makes it look as though they are not in a chain at all, and that multiple bubbles are rising at once.

For their study, published today in Physical Review Fluids, the researchers wanted to see what elements affected bubble chain stability.

WHY DON'T BUBBLES RISE IN A STRAIGHT LINE IN SPARKLING WATER? Bubbles in sparkling water always form unstable chains - where they do not follow each other in a straight line - because it does not contain any surfactant molecules. This means that they are not protected from the wake left by the bubble that came before them in their chain. The wake knocks them out of line and causes them to veer off to the side. Advertisement

Firstly, they poured out a drink - either Pellegrino sparkling water, Tecate beer, Charles de Cazanove champagne or a Spanish-style brut - into a rectangular container.

They then inserted a needle into the bottom through which they pumped a steady stream of air to create a bubble chain.

The researchers then gradually changed the bubbles size by increasing or decreasing the air flow, and studied its impact on the chain.

They also added a special sort of molecule called a 'surfactant' which are known to help stabilise bubbles.

They do this because they have two ends - one that is attracted to water (hydrophilic) and the other that is repelled by water (hydrophobic).

When gas is blown into a liquid which contains surfactants, the molecules align themselves at the surface of the bubble it forms.

The hydrophilic end remains in the liquid, and the hydrophobic end pokes into the gas, creating a barrier between the two.

This stabilises the bubble by reducing the surface tension and preventing it from popping and - in a carbonated drink - helping it rise smoothly.

The researchers found that larger bubbles form more stable bubble chains, even without any surfactant present.

This explains why the bubbles form unstable chains in most carbonated drinks, because they tend to have smaller bubbles.

The addition of surfactant molecules also created stable bubble chains, because they stop them from being knocked out of line by the wake of the bubble in front.

This is thought to be the main reason why Champagne bubbles rise in a straight line - the proteins inside it act as surfactants.

Surfactant molecules help stabilise bubbles because they have two ends - one that is attracted to water (hydrophilic) and the other that is repelled by water (hydrophobic). When gas is blown into a liquid which contains surfactants, the molecules align themselves at the surface of the bubble it forms. The hydrophilic end remains in the liquid, and the hydrophobic end pokes into the gas, creating a barrier between the two. This stabilises the bubble by reducing the surface tension and preventing it from popping and - in a carbonated drink - helping it rise smoothly

The addition of surfactants created stable bubble chains, because they stop them from being knocked out of line by the wake of the bubble in front. This is thought to be the main reason why Champagne bubbles rise in a straight line - the proteins inside act as surfactants

'The theory is that in Champagne these contaminants that act as surfactants are the good stuff,' said Professor Zenit.

'These protein molecules that give flavour and uniqueness to the liquid are what makes the bubbles chains they produce stable.'

It is also why, despite their small size, bubbles in some beer varieties rise in straight and stable chains - they too contain some proteins that act as surfactants.

Bubbles in sparkling water always form unstable chains, because it does not contain any surfactant proteins to protect the bubbles from each other's wakes.

'This wake, this velocity disturbance, causes the bubbles to be knocked out,' said Professor Zenit.

'Instead of having one line, the bubbles end up going up in more of a cone.'

After the physical experiments, the researchers also created computer simulations of the bubbles in each drink.

This told them how much of the surfactants go into the gas bubbles, the weight of the bubbles and their velocity.

They hope that their findings will help those designing aeration tanks and other bubble-induced mixing technologies.

An improved understanding of bubble flows may also help explain ocean seeps, where methane and carbon dioxide emerges from the seabed.

Professor Zenit said: 'We're interested in how these bubbles move and their relationship to industrial applications and in nature.'
QR codes have become the new default for accessing restaurant menus across the US post-Covid  but scammers are seizing upon the new practice.

The FBI warns thieves are creating fake QR codes and planting them at eateries, retail shops and even parking meters.

Instead of taking you to an online menu or checkout, the links instantly download malware onto your device, stealing your location and personal information

The FBI has urged consumers to look out for typos or misplaced letters in URLs accessed through QR codes and ask restaurants for a physical menu.

The FBI and experts are warning the public to beware of fake QR codes placed on top of real ones at restaurants, retail shops and parking meters

QR, which stands for 'quick response', codes are machine-readable codes made up of black and white squares that store URLs, payment options and other online services accessed by a smartphone camera.

They have been around since 1994 but made a huge comeback during the COVID pandemic to cater to the contactless society.

The FBI first sounded the alarm on QR scams in January 2022, but more reports are flowing in of people being duped by fake barcodes.

Carrie Kerskie, president of Kerskie Group in Naples, Florida, told Local ABC 7 that another major QR scam is with parking meters.

The malicious QR codes can contain malware, allowing criminals to access devices that scan them and steal the user's location and personal information

Fraudulent QR codes are being placed on the back of meters, leading people to assume that is how they pay to park

Fraudulent QR codes are being placed on the back of meters, leading people to assume that is how they pay to park.

READ MORE: 'Massive and dangerous' data breach sees more than 500,000 QR code check-in addresses published In total, 566,318 location details collected by the NSW Customer Services Department through its QR code system were made public through a government website. Advertisement

'The criminals know that every single person in that parking lot is gonna be clicking on that QR code or taking a picture of it and they might make a website that looks very similar to the legitimate parking website..but it's not,' Kerskie said.

A report from Marcum, a New York-based accounting and advisory service, shows that QR code scams are among the top five cybersecurity threats observed in April.

The group highlights scammers are using fake codes to carry out phishing scams in emails and social media messages.

'Scammers might also approach you through an online marketplace claiming they are trying to purchase goods that you are selling and ask you to scan a QR code,' according to Marcum.

'Avoid making payments from a website accessed via a QR code. To make the payment, manually input a recognized and trustworthy website.'

Another area seeing fake QR codes is in the cryptocurrency industry.

'Crypto transactions are often made through QR codes associated with crypto accounts making these transactions easy marks,' according to a press release from the FBI.

'If you happen to scan a scammers bad code, you could end up giving him access to your device.

'He can access your contacts, download malware, or send you to a fake payment portal.

'Once there, you can inadvertently give him access to your banking and credit card accounts. If you make a payment through a bad QR code, its difficult if not impossible to get those funds back.'
Cafe Prinder is 'one of the most venerable establishments in Marseille', he says

Keen to improve Frances image abroad in former times, local tourism authorities persuaded members of the travel industry in every arrondissement to sign a hospitality contract.

This included an undertaking to adopt a friendlier approach to visitors, with bonjour and bienvenu signs displayed about hotels and restaurants.

It had mixed success. The welcoming sign tended to be used as a substitute for bonhomie. When a visitor appeared, the maitre d or receptionist would retain their air of studied insouciance, merely jerking a thumb in the general direction of the sign.

But I like that attitude. And I like the French all the more for it. And it is Marseille writ large.

Of course, this kind of outlook does put you on your guard. On my last visit I was queuing at one of the cabanes at LEstaque, the next beach up from the Old Port, where stalls serve street food such as chichi fregi  a type of fried dough, a bit like churros but lighter.

Enticing: Mal Rogers reflects on how he has watched Marseille, pictured, 'change and grow into an exciting and welcoming destination' over the years

Dusted with sugar and accompanied by black coffee, its the perfect snack. I paid, and departed the stall, when there was an almighty roar from the lady behind the counter. What had I done? And would I be able to get out of what promised to be an uncomfortable confrontation. Maybe I had unintentionally insulted French culture.

I turned to see the woman looking at me and giving the universal bonkers sign  a forefinger tapping her head.

I approached; she looked stern. Then with a huge smile she handed me six euros. My bill had come to four, but Id given her ten and not five, as I had thought. My chichis fregi tasted even sweeter.

You might tend to think of Marseille in terms of The French Connection or The Count Of Monte Cristo. But maybe not as a holiday resort.

Locals queuing for street food at one of the cabanes at LEstaque

Yet Ive spent time there over the decades, and watched this city change and grow into an exciting and welcoming destination.

With a history no more chequered than you might expect from any port earning its living sandwiched between Europe and North Africa for 26 centuries, Marseille is a place where life is lived large.

For more information on the backstory, step into the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations. This new centre takes in every local nook and cranny of Western culture.

For perhaps a more exciting evocation, Marseille has a slew of festivals over the summer. My own personal choice runs July 8-25.

The Marseille Jazz Festival will feature augmented minor chords from five continents. The Festival de Marseille takes place from June 17 to July 9 with dance, theatre and music along with plenty of Ooh La La, if my memory serves me correctly.

For information on Marseille's backstory, Mal recommends that you step into the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations. Above is the museum's al fresco eatery

But you can just as easily be a flaneur as a festival-goer.

The old medieval quarter, Le Panier has effortlessly segued into something less hard-edged. Regeneration has seen the winding streets become home to quirky boutiques and bistros  and cats sleeping in the sun.

Marseilles main drag La Canebiere is one of the most famous streets in maritime history. Lying at the heart of the city, the name alludes to the hemp grown here and spun into rope in the Middle Ages. At least thats their story.

A five-minute stroll from La Canebiere to the Noailles quartier will take you to Cafe Prinder on Rue du Marche des Capucins. One of the most venerable establishments in Marseille, it has been run by the same Italian family since 1925.

Sip coffee or mint tea on the terrace overlooking the Capucins market square and watch the baroque pantomime of Marseille life.

'Combining Gallic cool, Mediterranean panache and North African exuberance, the Marseillaise are an attractive bunch  generous, gregarious and shouty,' writes Mal

Pictured is bouillabaisse seafood soup, which is served throughout Marseille

TRAVEL FACTS Hotel La Residence du Vieux-Port has double rooms from 160 (hotel-residence-marseille.com). London Stansted to Marseille with Ryanair from 40 (ryanair.com). For more information, go to marseille-tourisme.com. Advertisement

To the north is the ramshackle Quartier Belsunce  an exuberant area of street food, stalls and shops, with everything you could conceivably want to buy  bling, leather goods etc  and much you wouldnt.

Meanwhile, on the Quai des Belges, the fishing boats disgorge their catches, as they have done for centuries.

Fishwives holler out their wares, soon to be grilled, fried, braised, baked and transformed into one of the many legendary Marseillaise dishes that are available in the cafes that jostle round the old port  including bouillabaisse.

Combining Gallic cool, Mediterranean panache and North African exuberance, the Marseillaise are an attractive bunch  generous, gregarious and shouty.

But by and large anywhere Ive wandered Ive pretty much been treated the same as a local. And a traveller can ask for little more than that.
READ MORE: The 20 breakfast fails that annoy Brits the most revealed

The U.S is the country outside the UK that loves the Royal Family the most, according to new research.

Travellers from the U.S have booked the highest number of flights to the UK for King Charles' Coronation weekend, followed by tourists from India (second) and Australia (third).

Canada and Italy also appear to share a passion for the British monarchy, ranking fourth and fifth respectively.

The research also analysed the countries that registered the biggest surges in searches for flights to the UK within 24 hours of the Coronation date being announced. The Republic of Ireland tops this ranking, with searches for UK flights up 580 per cent after May 6 was confirmed as the Coronation date.

The second biggest search surge came for domestic travel within the UK (442 per cent), followed by searches from Italy (third, 355 per cent), Spain (fourth, 349 per cent) and the Netherlands (fifth, 313 per cent).

The U.S is the country that loves the Royal Family the most, based on bookings for UK-bound flights for the Coronation weekend

The rankings are based on trend data from Travelport, a global technology company that powers bookings for international travel suppliers.

The remaining top 10 countries to have booked the most UK-bound flights are Nigeria (sixth), South Korea (seventh), Germany (eighth), Thailand (ninth) and Spain (10th).

Notably, though there was a high volume of flight searches from the Irish, they didn't appear to follow through with booking a trip.

In general, bookings for UK-bound flights for the Coronation weekend increased by 149 per cent within 24 hours of the announcement of the Coronation date.

Looking to the rest of the top 10 countries that searched for flights after the Coronation date was confirmed, the U.S ranks sixth with searches up by 293 per cent compared to the day beforehand.

WHICH COUNTRIES LOVE THE ROYALS? TRAVEL DATA FOR THE CORONATION WEEKEND REVEALED SEARCHES FOR INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS TO THE UK WITHIN 24 HOURS OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT Republic of Ireland (up 580 per cent in the day after announcement) Domestic travel within the UK (up 442 per cent) Italy (up 355 per cent) Spain (up 349 per cent) Netherlands (up 313 per cent) United States (up 293 per cent) Germany (up 257 per cent) Switzerland (up 231 per cent) Singapore (up 175 per cent) Canada (up 172 per cent) BOOKINGS FOR INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS TO THE UK FOR THE CORONATION United States India Australia Canada Italy Nigeria South Korea Germany Thailand Spain Source: Travelport Advertisement

Bookings for UK-bound flights for the Coronation weekend increased by 149 per cent within 24 hours of the announcement of the Coronation date

Germany, meanwhile, is seventh with a surge of 257 per cent in searches, while Switzerland is eighth with a 231 per cent boom in searches.

The remainder of the top 10 is comprised of Singapore (ninth, searches up 175 per cent) and Canada (tenth, searches up 172 per cent).

Overall, the majority of searches for flights to the UK during the Coronation weekend originated from Europe.

Travelport says of the Coronation: 'Nearly 70 years after the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953, this landmark event is expected to draw thousands of spectators from around the world to celebrate the new monarch.'
Padma Lakshmi, Issa Rae, Edward Norton, Daniel Dae Kim and Chris Tucker were among the celebrities on hand at the 26th annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California on Tuesday.

The four-day event, from April 30 through May 3, promises to bring together the 'best minds in the world to tackle its most urgent challenges.'

Lakshmi, 52, looked amazing in a denim button-up shirt over a tan top with black pants and off-white chunky heel boots.

The Chennai, India-born beauty, known for her stint on Top Chef, wore her black locks parted and accessorized with earrings.

Lakshmi sat on a panel alongside actor Daniel Dae Kim, 54, at the event, where a number of global issues were discussed by leaders in a number of fields.

The latest: Padma Lakshmi, 52, and Issa Rae, 38, were among the celebrities on hand at the 26th annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California on Tuesday

The South Korea-born actor, who has been seen on Hawaii Five-0 and Lost, was clad in a casual ensemble of a black leather jacket over an off-white top with gray slacks and white sneakers.

Insecure star Issa Rae appeared on a panel donning a cream pantsuit with a white top and gold sandal heels.

The Los Angeles native, 38, wore her brown locks in a ponytail and accessorized with gold hoop earrings.

Other notable celebrities at the event included Edward Norton and Chris Tucker, while political personalities such as Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also appeared on panels.

The annual event consists of celebs, Wall Street investors, dealmakers and chief executives strategizing on how to make money given the concerns swirling around markets, with talk will revolve around the letter R - as in regional banks, rates, regulatory regimes and recession.

Other topics on the agenda at the 26th annual Milken Institute Global Conference include reconstruction efforts related to the year-old Ukraine War, as well as the U.S. debt ceiling and the post-lockdown environment with more employees returning to offices.

Banking executives including Citigroup Inc CEO Jane Fraser and Wells Fargo & Co CEO Charlie Scharf will mix with investment industry leaders including Franklin Resources CEO Jennifer Johnson, pension fund CalSTRS chief investment officer Christopher Ailman, Carlyle Group Inc CEO Harvey Schwartz and Peng Zhao, CEO of market making firm Citadel Securities.

Lakshmi looked amazing in a denim button-up shirt over a tan top with black pants and off-white chunky heel boots

The Chennai, India-born beauty, known for her stint on Top Chef, wore her black locks parted and accessorized with earrings

Insecure star Issa Rae appeared on a panel donning a cream pantsuit with a white top and gold sandal heels

Rae appeared on a panel alongside journalist Ari Melber and businesswoman Sherrese Clarke Soares

Actor Daniel Dae Kim, 54, spoke at the event, where a number of global issues were discussed by leaders in a number of fields

The South Korea-born actor, who has been seen on Hawaii Five-0 and Lost, was clad in a casual ensemble of a black leather jacket over an off-white top with gray slacks and white sneakers

As last year's runaway consumer prices are moderating, attendees said they expect one more Federal Reserve rate hike before debate turns to when the central bank will start cutting again.

Talk will also center on the vulnerability of smaller U.S. banks holding swaths of office building loans even as many employees around the country are still working from home. And more resilient corporate earnings will lead to forecasts about market movements later this year, several people said.

But mostly people said they want to hear how to profit in uncertain markets.

Fight Club star Edward Norton donned an olive green long-sleeved top over a black shirt to the luxe proceedings

Rush Hour stalwart Chris Tucker wore a cream suit with a white top to the conference

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was among the speakers at the event in LA, donning a blush dress with her brown locks parted

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin donned a navy blue suit to the event

California Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared at the event, donning a black suit with blue tie

The four-day event, from April 30 through May 3, promises to bring together the 'best minds in the world to tackle its most urgent challenges'

'Investors are asking, "How do I get through the storm with my house still standing?"' said Max Gokhman, a senior vice president at Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions who helps invest $45 billion. 'We are at the inflection point of an unprecedented business cycle and people are looking for which way the wind is blowing before their assets get swept up.'

A Milken spokesman said roughly 3,500 guests are expected this year, about the same number as last year.

Part of the Milken appeal, said several repeat guests, are the exclusive parties where executives can rub shoulders with some of the world's most prominent investors.

But some said the mood feels more muted this year with more invitations for smaller dinners at nearby restaurants instead of invites to lavish affairs at private mansions.
Celebrity chefs Colin Fassnidge and Manu Feildel have both said that they're struggling to come to terms with the death of their late friend, Jock Zonfrillo.

And during a break from filming the upcoming season of their show My Kitchen Rules this week, the pair enjoyed a shot of whiskey in honour of MasterChef judge Jock, who died this week at the age of 46.

Colin, 48, shared a black and white shot of himself and Manu, 50, sipping from a flask on Instagram on Tuesday, alongside a tribute to Jock and his MasterChef co-stars.

'Late night filming having a whiskey for our late but forever friend. Love from our My Kitchen Rules team to our MasterChef team,' Colin captioned his post, alongside a heartbroken emoji.

Fassnidge had been friends with Zonfrillo for 20 years. He told Daily Mail Australia earlier this week that he and the 'entire community' is struggling to process the tragic news.

Colin Fassnidge and Manu Feildel took a break from filming MKR on Tuesday to have a drink in honour of Jock Zonfrillo after his shock death at 46

A Victoria Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they found Zonfrillo's body at about 2am on Monday after they were called to a hotel on Lygon Street in Carlton for a welfare check.

No cause of death has been disclosed, but police say his death is not being treated as suspicious.

'It's so shocking. I'm sitting on a rock right now trying to take it in, I don't know what to say. I'm floored,' Colin said.

Jock Zonfrillo's death was announced by his heartbroken family on Monday

'Late night filming having a whiskey for our late but forever friend. Love from our My Kitchen Rules team to our MasterChef team,' Colin captioned his post, alongside a heartbroken emoji.

'I've had to call my wife straight away when I heard.'

Fassnidge said there was no indication anything was wrong for Zonfrillo, and the news was a complete surprise.

The pair would speak to each other regularly, but their last in-depth conversation was six months ago.

'He was flying, he was doing a great job, he had a great show, he was on top of the world,' Colin explained.

'Jock was normal, he was healthy and he was living a good life.

'I just feel so sorry for his other half.'

Fassnidge had been friends with Zonfrillo for 20 years. He told Daily Mail Australia earlier this week that he and the 'entire community' is struggling to process the tragic news

Manu previously told 7News he was devastated for the Scottish-born chef's wife and children.

'I just turned fifty and I'm still feeling young so I'm telling you, forty-six... it's far too young to go,' Feildel said.

'I feel really sorry for his wife and his kids... I've got kids myself and I'm finding it hard to find my words right now.

Manu previously told 7News he was devastated for the Scottish-born chef's wife and children

'He's had a really successful career and suddenly it's all stopped. You just wonder how and why.'

Jock's family announced his shock death in a statement released on social media on Monday.

A report will be prepared for the coroner after Zonfrillo's body was found at about 2am on Monday.

'With completely shattered hearts and without knowing how we can possibly move through life without him, we are devastated to share that Jock passed away yesterday,' his family said in a statement on Monday.

Jock's shock death was announced in a family statement on Instagram on Monday and underneath a number of celebrities expressed their condolences

'So many words can describe him, so many stories can be told, but at this time we're too overwhelmed to put them into words.

'For those who crossed his path, became his mate, or were lucky enough to be his family, keep this proud Scot in your hearts when you have your next whisky.'

They continued: 'We implore you to please let us grieve privately as we find a way to navigate through this, and find space on the other side to celebrate our irreplaceable husband, father, brother, son and friend.'

The Scottish-Australian chef and restaurateur became a host of the popular Channel 10 cooking show in 2019 alongside Andy Allen and Melissa Leong.

The Scottish-Australian chef and restaurateur became a host of the popular Channel 10 cooking show in 2019 alongside Andy Allen and Melissa Leong

Zonfrillo is survived by his third wife, Lauren Fried, and his four children: Ava and Sophia, from his first two marriages, and Alfie and Isla, with Fried.

The hotel where he died is metres away from his former inner-city home in Carlton.

He and his family had moved out of the four-bedroom townhouse to start a new life in Rome three weeks earlier.

Their old home went back on the rental market in April for $3,000 a week.

Before he died, Zonfrillo had come back to Australia to promote the fifteenth season of MasterChef, which was due to premiere at 7:30pm on Monday night but has since been postponed.
Bam Margera says he was never legally married to former partner Nicole Boyd amid her filing for separation from him months back.

The 43-year-old TV personality submit documents to a California court reviewed by People Tuesday, that asked court officials to dismiss the separation attempt on the basis of his claim.

'Boyd and I have never been married, legally or otherwise,' the embattled celeb told the court, noting that his ex, 39, has never used his legal name.

The Viva La Bam star told the court, 'To my knowledge, Boyd has never legally changed her name in any state to "Nicole Margera." Every driver's license or other form of identification I have seen Boyd possess bears the name "Nicole Boyd."'

The Jackass alum and Boyd - who are parents to son Phoenix, five - took part in a wedding ceremony on October 5, 2013 in Reykjavik, Iceland that Margera went on to post to YouTube.

The latest: Bam Margera, 43, says he was never legally married to former partner Nicole Boyd, 39, amid her recent filing for separation from him. Pictured earlier this year

It was not immediately clear if the former duo acquired a wedding license in the U.S.

Margera told the court that he and Boyd, on 'numerous occasions,' spent time away from one another amid their 'turbulent and unstable' relationship.

Said Margera: 'During these breaks Boyd would leave my home and go stay with her family in California. However, Boyd would always come back to Pennsylvania soon thereafter and we would resume our dating relationship.'

Margera said in legal docs that both he and Boyd 'knew and understood' that they were not married following their Icelandic ceremony, as she verbally acknowledged such to him at one point.

Boyd's lawyer David Glass told Page Six that 'it was not until just recently that Nikki had ever heard Bam's claim that they were never married.

'She was told that the wedding would occur in Iceland and that it was all taken care of. She had a wedding ceremony, and then returned to the U.S. and lived like a married couple with Bam for years.'

Boyd was under the impression that all of the legal paperwork had been 'taken care of' part and parcel to the ceremony in Europe.

Glass told the outlet that in 'good faith,' Boyd thought she was wed to Margera and 'at the very least' falls under the classification of a 'putative spouse' under legal statutes in California, where she filed for the separation.

Boyd filed in Los Angeles to legally separate from Margera this past February, saying the cause was irreconcilable differences, and requesting the court award her spousal support

Margera and Boyd were pictured in LA in 2013, the year they were in a marriage ceremony

Boyd is 'entitled to division of property and spousal support, in addition to child custody and support,' her lawyer told the outlet.

Boyd filed in Los Angeles to legally separate from Margera this past February, saying the cause was irreconcilable differences, and requesting the court award her spousal support.

Glass told TMZ in February that Boyd had concerns about Margera's conduct around their young son, saying he could act 'inappropriately' when he was under the influence of substances.

Boyd 'made the hard choice' to pursue the separation from Margera 'to protect herself and their son.'

Boyd and Margera split up in 2021, and in September of that year, Boyd went to court to request full custody of their son.

In the recent docs he filed, Margera said that Boyd relocated to California 'to take advantage of the putative marriage laws that exist in California but not Pennsylvania.'

Boyd's lawyer Glass told Page Six 'the plain facts are that the parties, together, moved to California and lived here for months before Bam was placed into rehab by his parents,' as she 'continued to live in California with Phoenix while Bam has bounced around - living in Florida, living in California, and for a few weeks, being back in Pennsylvania.'

He added that 'California is the only venue for this divorce action.'

Margera has made headlines in recent weeks amid a spate of legal issues, including an altercation with his brother, who has accused him of drug use. Margera has denied the accusations.
Imogen Anthony has lashed out at her critics after she drew backlash for her petty response to her ex-partner Kyle Sandilands' extravagant wedding to Tegan Kynaston.

The model, 32, who dated Sandilands for eight years until 2019, told her haters 'I'm not your f**king punching bag' and urged critics to think before they speak.

She expressed her frustration on Instagram on Wednesday, warning she would no longer tolerate her kindness and understanding being taken for granted.

'No more, if you keep assuming you know a situation that I guarantee you have no idea about, then the culling will begin,' she wrote.

Anthony went on to say she wouldn't think twice about blocking followers.

Imogen Anthony (pictured) has lashed out at her critics after she drew backlash for her petty response to her ex-partner Kyle Sandilands' extravagant wedding to Tegan Kynaston

The model, 32, who dated Sandilands for eight years until 2019, told her haters 'I'm not your f**king punching bag' and urged critics to think before they speak

'I don't care for follower numbers. I care for genuine people who see things below surface level and don't have a basic mindset,' she wrote.

Her comments came after an unidentified troll sent her a private message apologising for having been rude to her previously.

The sender expressed remorse for their behaviour, admitting they were going through personal issues and had reacted impulsively to Anthony's post.

'I am so incredibly sorry I was rude to you on your post... I am just so very sorry for being a troll. If you knew me, I am just not that person on at all,' they said.

'I don't care for follower numbers. I care for genuine people who see things below surface level and don't have a basic mindset,' she said

It comes after Anthony reignited her long-running feud with Kynaston on Monday by sharing a video on Instagram of herself sipping on a large cocktail with her new partner in the background, alongside a lengthy caption in which she spoke of not 'settling' for a bad relationship.

'You'll never know heaven 'till you've been to hell,' she wrote.

'Please don't assume you know anything when it's taken this long to overcome. People are exactly what you think they are, conniving, vindictive and manipulative.'

It comes after Anthony reignited her long-running feud with Kynaston and Sandilands on Monday with this cryptic post saying: 'You'll never know heaven 'till you've been to hell'

Anthony went on to emphasise the importance of living life on her own terms, before saying she harbours no hard feelings towards anyone.

'My life is about making it a special one, living under zero control of others, doing and being as I please with no ill intent,' she said.

Anthony also seemingly hinted at the lack of appreciation she received from Sandilands during their former relationship, writing: 'It's not my fault if someone didn't know how to treat or appreciate something while they had it.'

She also posted a video of herself sipping on a cocktail with her new partner in the background

She went on to express her desire to live life for herself and not to settle for anything less than what she feels she deserves.

Her post concluded with Anthony asking others to 'leave her out' of the situation, stating: 'If someone else is willing to settle, that's on them. I ain't. So leave me out of it.'

While Anthony's message did not specifically mention Sandilands or Kynaston, the timing of her post strongly suggested it was in reference to the newlyweds.

Anthony and Sandilands (pictured in 2014) called time on their relationship in 2019

She had earlier tried to steal the spotlight on the couple's wedding day by sharing a series of racy photos from her 'honeymoon' in Thailand with her new partner.

She uploaded the snaps on the very day Sandilands and Kynaston said 'I do' in a ceremony rumoured to have cost the KIIS FM host a cool $1million.

In one of the photos, the words 'H. Moon' were spelled out in rose petals; however, it is unclear whether Anthony has actually legally married her new man.

She had earlier tried to steal the spotlight on the couple's wedding day by sharing a series of racy photos from her 'honeymoon' in Thailand with her new partner
The Great British Bake Off's Prue Leith has said she hopes 'sensible' new host Alison Hammond will help end the show's and her co-star's saucy innuendoes.

The judge, 83, declared her new colleague 'charming and funny' as she prepares to replace comedian Matt Lucas, 49, on the beloved Channel 4 competition show.

Despite the series being known for it's cheeky jokes with 'soggy bottoms' and 'hot baps' Prue revealed she hopes Alison will help raise the tone.

Speaking about hosts Matt, Noel Fielding, 49, and fellow judge Paul Hollywood, 57, she said: 'I never get the jokes, you know... all this stuff about innuendo and things'.

'I feel I'm really glad Alison's coming, cause at least she's a woman and she'll be a little more sensible'.

Speaking out: The Great British Bake Off's Prue Leith, 83, has said she hopes 'sensible' new host Alison Hammond will help end the show's saucy innuendoes

Changing of the guard: She declared her new colleague Alison 'charming and funny' as she prepares to replace comedian Matt Lucas on the show

Cheeky: Speaking about hosts Matt (right) Noel Fielding, 49 (centre) and fellow judge Paul Hollywood, 57 (left) she said: 'I never get the jokes, you know... all this stuff about innuendo and things'

Telling Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett on their Dish podcast, she laughed: 'Those three men, they're like three children,'

Before adding: 'The word sausage puts them into...'

However Prue failed to finish her sentence when the hosts collapsed into fits of giggles.

Back in March Alison confirmed she would replace Matt Lucas as the host of The Great British Bake Off.

The This Morning presenter had originally been mooted as a potential replacement for Little Britain star, who announced he would be stepping down as host last year, in February.

Matt co-hosted the Channel 4 show alongside Noel Fielding since 2020 but he decided his time on the programme is over

Lucas joined the show in series 11, replacing fellow comedian Sandi Toksvig who left the programme after three seasons.

Taking to Instagram she confirmed her new role on the Channel 4 show by sharing a video of herself and co-host Noel Fielding alongside judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith as iced figurines atop a large Bake Off-themed cake.

Official: Back in March Alison confirmed she would replace Matt Lucas as the host of The Great British Bake Off

Icing on the cake: Taking to Instagram, she confirmed her new role by sharing a short video of herself and co-host Noel Fielding alongside judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith as iced figurines atop a large, Bake Off-themed cake

Breaking news: Staging a mock press conference, Hammond's voice is heard as she centres on the new line-up

Welcome: Paul Hollywood took to social media to congratulate Hammond on Friday

Seeing double: The presenter, who is pictured with her figurine, had originally been mooted as a potential replacement for Lucas, who announced he would be stepping down as host last year, in February

Staging a mock press conference, Hammond's voice is heard as she films the figurines.

'Breaking news everyone,' she announces. 'Alison Hammond is joining the team of the Great British Bake Off. Alison, have you got any words whatsoever?'

Zooming in on her iced caricature, she adds: 'Do you know what? I'm just so very excited. As you can see, all my colleagues are absolutely speechless. We're so very happy and we can't wait to get started!'

Captioning the post, she wrote: 'Its OFFICIAL!!! Its happening The Great British Bake off! Lets have it!'

The new host was given an additional welcome from show regular Hollywood, who admitted he was looking forward to working with her.

Taking to Instagram, he wrote: 'welcome!!!!! looking forward to seeing you in the tent, youre going to love it.'
Abuja  President Muhammadu Buhari has explained that the current repositioning of the military, through training, networking and equipping, will turn it into a force of global reckoning.

He has, therefore, urged officers to keep giving their best to the nation.

Speaking at the inauguration of a Nationwide Secure Defence Headquarters Communications Network, GIWA 2 Project, Phase One, in Abuja on Tuesday, Buhari assured Nigerians that the government will sustain its role in meeting the demands of the Armed Forces by evolving necessary initiatives to enhance their position.

He said: "As the Armed Forces of Nigeria continue to reposition to provide the enabling environment for enhancing the security and well-being of the citizens, I implore all our troops to give their best in the service of the nation."

The president said the GIWA 2 Project would provide real-time secure means of communication and incident reporting, as well as information exchange between the Armed Forces and other security agencies.

"It also stands to enhance collaboration between our defence, intelligence and security community while providing the platform for the denial of freedom of action to all perpetrators of insecurity across Nigeria," he further said.

Buhari noted that the project initiative was in alignment with some of the main focus areas of the federal government in security, economic progress and technological development.

"These benefits of the GIWA 2 Project informed the timely support of the federal government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria, to ensure that the centre is commissioned as one of the proud landmarks and enduring achievements of the Armed Forces of Nigeria under this administration," the president further said.

Buhari directed the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to collaborate and support the Defence Headquarters in the project, which could impact on rural telephony.

"To this end, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy is to support the Defence Headquarters in ensuring that the infrastructure available for rural telephony are fully deployed for the attainment of GIWA 2 Project deliverables. The federal government shall support the full actualisation of the other phases of GIWA 2 Project," he added.

The president hailed the Armed Forces for their patriotism, loyalty, sense of duty and gallantry.

According to him, "Nigeria is blessed with professional and vibrant Armed Forces, which have continually displayed the unflinching capacity to protect the territorial integrity of our country.

"Our Armed Forces have continually demonstrated the resolve to provide a safe, secure and enabling environment to promote national security."

Buhari said his government had made significant strides to enhance the capacity and capability of the Armed Forces to tackle the multiple security challenges.

The president listed some of the efforts including the establishment of Joint Task Forces and the creation of several new military formations to facilitate the conduct of decisive operations against all threats.

"Other efforts to reposition the Armed Forces of Nigeria include acquisition of new armaments and technology platforms to enhance the conduct of military operations and massive infrastructural development to provide our personnel with befitting accommodation, as well as formulation of policies and initiatives to improve the welfare of troops and their families," he further stated.

Buhari commended the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor, other service chiefs and stakeholders for the conceptualisation and remarkable work in the establishment of the GIWA 2 Project.

He urged the CDS, service chiefs and all personnel to work assiduously towards enhancing national security.

He said: "I am confident that together we can pave the path for creation of new opportunities to usher Nigeria into a bright future driven by a safe and prosperous environment."

Earlier in his welcome address, Irabor stated that the inauguration of the GIWA 2 Project was the culmination of Buhari's directives in 2021 that the Defence Headquarters must ensure that farmers displaced by insurgency went back to their farms, noting that the project would ensure a secure communication for the military in carrying out its responsibilities.

Irabor extolled the president's sterling leadership that had enabled the Nigerian Armed Forces to accomplish so much in the nation's fight against insurgency and other criminalities across the country.

Buhari: Current Upgrading of Nigeria's Military Will Make It A Force of Global Reckoning

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari has explained that the current repositioning of the military, through training, networking and equipping, will turn it into a force of global reckoning.

He has, therefore, urged officers to keep giving their best to the nation.

Speaking at the inauguration of a Nationwide Secure Defence Headquarters Communications Network, GIWA 2 Project, Phase One, in Abuja on Tuesday, Buhari assured Nigerians that the government will sustain its role in meeting the demands of the Armed Forces by evolving necessary initiatives to enhance their position.

He said: "As the Armed Forces of Nigeria continue to reposition to provide the enabling environment for enhancing the security and well-being of the citizens, I implore all our troops to give their best in the service of the nation."

The president said the GIWA 2 Project would provide real-time secure means of communication and incident reporting, as well as information exchange between the Armed Forces and other security agencies.

"It also stands to enhance collaboration between our defence, intelligence and security community while providing the platform for the denial of freedom of action to all perpetrators of insecurity across Nigeria," he further said.

Buhari noted that the project initiative was in alignment with some of the main focus areas of the federal government in security, economic progress and technological development.

"These benefits of the GIWA 2 Project informed the timely support of the federal government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria, to ensure that the centre is commissioned as one of the proud landmarks and enduring achievements of the Armed Forces of Nigeria under this administration," the president further said.

Buhari directed the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to collaborate and support the Defence Headquarters in the project, which could impact on rural telephony.

"To this end, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy is to support the Defence Headquarters in ensuring that the infrastructure available for rural telephony are fully deployed for the attainment of GIWA 2 Project deliverables. The federal government shall support the full actualisation of the other phases of GIWA 2 Project," he added.

The president hailed the Armed Forces for their patriotism, loyalty, sense of duty and gallantry.

According to him, "Nigeria is blessed with professional and vibrant Armed Forces, which have continually displayed the unflinching capacity to protect the territorial integrity of our country.

"Our Armed Forces have continually demonstrated the resolve to provide a safe, secure and enabling environment to promote national security."

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Buhari said his government had made significant strides to enhance the capacity and capability of the Armed Forces to tackle the multiple security challenges.

The president listed some of the efforts including the establishment of Joint Task Forces and the creation of several new military formations to facilitate the conduct of decisive operations against all threats.

"Other efforts to reposition the Armed Forces of Nigeria include acquisition of new armaments and technology platforms to enhance the conduct of military operations and massive infrastructural development to provide our personnel with befitting accommodation, as well as formulation of policies and initiatives to improve the welfare of troops and their families," he further stated.

Buhari commended the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor, other service chiefs and stakeholders for the conceptualisation and remarkable work in the establishment of the GIWA 2 Project.

He urged the CDS, service chiefs and all personnel to work assiduously towards enhancing national security.

He said: "I am confident that together we can pave the path for creation of new opportunities to usher Nigeria into a bright future driven by a safe and prosperous environment."

Earlier in his welcome address, Irabor stated that the inauguration of the GIWA 2 Project was the culmination of Buhari's directives in 2021 that the Defence Headquarters must ensure that farmers displaced by insurgency went back to their farms, noting that the project would ensure a secure communication for the military in carrying out its responsibilities.

Irabor extolled the president's sterling leadership that had enabled the Nigerian Armed Forces to accomplish so much in the nation's fight against insurgency and other criminalities across the country.
Countdown host Colin Murray has shared his thoughts on Anne Robinson's alleged feud with Rachel Riley.

The Northern Irish presenter, 46, officially took over hosting duties from the former Weakest Link star, 78, earlier this year after she quit after just a year amid tensions with her co-stars.

And briefly addressing the much-published feud, Colin hinted that there were some tensions but they've now disappeared following Anne's departure.

He diplomatically said to The Mirror: 'The atmosphere has changed and thats huge.'

Colin's fair response may be due to the fact that he's not actually met Anne in person.

Comment: Countdown host Colin Murray has shared his thoughts on Anne Robinson's alleged feud with Rachel Riley

Awkward: The Northern Irish presenter, 46, officially took over hosting duties from the former Weakest Link star, 78, earlier this year after she quit after just a year amid tensions with her co-stars

Elsewhere, Colin opened up about his joy at landing his dream job, admitting he initially turned down the role as he didn't want to be a stop-gap again.

The radio star's hopes were initially dashed after Anne was given the top job following Nick Hewer's departure as host.

So when Anne quit and Channel 4 producers came knocking, Colin revealed that he'd issued an ultimatum to ensure his longevity on the show.

He said: 'I said, no. I couldnt bear the thought of just being a one-night stand again. It would have been professionally heartbreaking. I think my words were, "Youve got to give me a run of three months".'

Colin added that he'd previously felt 'down' while filling in on the show following Anne's exit, ahead of him bagging the permanent position this year.

He said: 'I was so down when we recorded the first episodes of series 87. I thought, if they havent given it to me now, theyre not going to."

It comes after Colin reportedly split from his wife of over ten years Carly Paradis.

The host is said to have parted ways with his composer wife after struggling to juggle their busy work schedules.

Changes: Briefly addressing the much-published feud, Colin hinted that there were some tensions but they've now disappeared following Anne's departure

Not acquainted: Colin's fair response may be due to the fact that he's not actually met Anne in person

Decision: Elsewhere, Colin opened up about his joy at landing his dream job, admitting he initially turned down the role as he didn't want to be a stop-gap again

He stepped in for former presenter Anne Robinson last year, while Carly has worked on the music for popular shows such as Line Of Duty.

According to The Sun, sources shared that the pair split last year, shortly after Colin took on hosting duties on Countdown.

Also hosting a BBC Radio 5 Live show, sources claimed that the duo were 'pushed apart' by work commitments.

'Colin and Carly have been open with their friends and family about their break-up and are trying to move on as best they can,' alleged the source.

While the host appeared to confirm that he was living alone during a chat with Radio Times magazine, as they asked who controlled the television remote in his house, and he replied: 'Its just me, so me. Im master of my domain.'
Kevin Costner's wife Christine Baumgartner has filed for divorce from the Yellowstone star after 18 years of marriage and three children together.

The split is said to be due to 'irreconcilable differences,' with Baumgartner asking for joint custody of their kids - Cayden, 15, Hayes, 14, and Grace, 12.

Costner filed his response to the divorce on Tuesday, and he is also seeking joint custody of their children.

The 68-year-old actor and 49-year-old Baumgartner, a model and fashion designer, started dating in 2000 and tied the knot at Costner's Aspen, Colorado ranch in 2004.

'It is with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action,' a statement from Costner's rep read.

Watch the complete season of Yellowstone available now, only on Stan.

Split: While the drama continues to unfold over his reported clash with Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan , Kevin Costner has even more drama happening at home

Joint custody: The split is said to be due to 'irreconcilable differences,' with Baumgartner asking for joint custody of their three children - Cayden, 15, Hayes, 14, and Grace, 12 (seen in 2019)

'We ask that his, Christine's and their children's privacy be respected as they navigate this difficult time,' the statement concluded.

Baumgartner is not said to be filing for spousal support, with Costner's response filed by Laura Wasser.

'Spousal support to be payable to petitioner pursuant to the terms of the parties' Premarital Agreement,' Wasser said, indicating there is a pre-nuptial agreement between Costner and Baumgartner.

TMZ was the first to report the divorce news.

Costner was previously married to Cindy Silva from 1978 to 1994 and they share three children - Annie, 39, Lily, 36, and Joe, 35.

He also shares a son Liam Costner with Bridget Rooney, who he dated after his split with Silva.

The divorce news comes weeks after DailyMail.com reported new details about Costner's rift with Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan.

Sources claimed Sheridan developed a 'God complex' which left Costner reportedly frustrated with the development of the hit Paramount Network series.

The insider also alleged that Costner was left frustrated at how his concerns over the direction the series was taking were dismissed by Sheridan - saying that the actor, who also serves as an executive producer on Yellowstone - was told to 'stick to acting' when he raised questions about the future of the show.

'Kevin will forever be proud of and grateful for Yellowstone and the cast is like family to him,' the source said of Costner, who recently nabbed a Golden Globe Award for best actor for his portrayal of John Dutton.

'He just felt like Yellowstone is headed in a direction that was not in line with their initial vision and he was met with criticism, including that he should just stick to acting.'

Adding to the uncertainty around the series is the fact that a date has not been set for when filming will commence for the second half of the latest season, which could be disrupted by an impending writers strike after members of the Writers Guild of America voted to authorize a shutdown over pay issues.

Last month, the New York Post reported that Costner's desire to cut down his workload on the fifth season to focus on other projects was also to blame for the tension between him and Sheridan.

'Its the same as with any show runner and big star  theres respect, but theres friction,' a source described as 'well-placed' within the production told the outlet.

Costner is currently directing and starring in Horizon, a western film series consisting of four separate movies that will be released three months apart from each other.

Each film is close to three hours long and after the quadruple release, Horizon is going to be broken into a series for television - each with 42-minute episodes.

Another 'highly placed' Hollywood source told the outlet that some of the blame for the 'friction' on set lies with its creator.

'Taylor is the star of his show. Hes the most important person on all of his shows,' they said.

Deadline reported in February that Costner wanted to shoot for only a week on the second half of season five, after he had already shortened his work on the first half.

The apparent reason was that the actor wanted to focus on his upcoming Western film franchise Horizon.

But Costner's attorney Marty Singer shot back after the report and claimed to Puck News that it was an 'absolute lie' that his client would only shoot for a week.

'As everyone who knows anything about Kevin is well aware, he is incredibly passionate about the show and has always gone way above and beyond to ensure its success,' he said at the time.

Other inside sources have claimed that Sheridan's lack of preparation has caused major delays with the production of the show - with one suggesting that Costner had made himself readily available to shoot, only for the creator's own 'overburdened' schedule to get in the way.

They added that Sheridan was 'overburdened' and 'nothing was ready' even after Costner 'made himself available.

They said that Costner was prepared to shoot the second half of the season sometime last year, as well as in January of this year, but there were allegedly no completed scripts to shoot at the time.

'Kevins been extremely cooperative with working with Taylor and his production company, 101 Studios. They were supposed to shoot the second chapter of Season five late last year, but they just didnt have the scripts,' a source told the Post.

'Kevin had already committed to making his other movies. He had given the producers his schedule. There was nothing to shoot.'

There have also been reports that Costner's beloved character John Dutton will be killed off in the back half of Yellowstone's current fifth season.

It's unclear when production will begin on the new episodes for Yellowstone Season 5, or if those episodes will feature the death of John Dutton.

Along with tensions with Sheridan, it was also reported last year that Costner's wife Baumgartner was fed up with her husband's demanding work schedule.

'It's really knocked a hole in their family life,' a source told RadarOnline. 'The show is such a mega-hit, producers want it to go on forever!'

It was further reported that Christine's patience was wearing thin which led to her posing an ultimatum to Costner.

Kevin's older kids: Costner was previously married to Cindy Silva from 1978 to 1994 and they share three children - Annie, 39, Lily, 36, and Joe, 35 (seen in 2008)

The divorce news comes weeks after DailyMail.com reported new details about Costner's rift with Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan; Costner pictured as 'John Dutton'

'God complex': Sources claimed Sheridan developed a 'God complex' which left Costner reportedly frustrated with the development of the hit Paramount Network series; seen in 2021

Frustration: The insider also alleged that Costner was left frustrated at how his concerns over the direction the series was taking were dismissed by Sheridan - saying that the actor, who also serves as an executive producer on Yellowstone - was told to 'stick to acting' when he raised questions about the future of the show; seen together in 2018

Killed off? There have also been reports that Costner's beloved character John Dutton (right) will be killed off in the back half of Yellowstone's current fifth season

'However, Christine wants her husband to hang up his cowboy hat,' the source divulged.

'She wants a firm commitment this is his last season  or he might have to hit the dusty trail!'

Meanwhile, Costner has been busy directing his epic Western saga Horizon, a film series consisting of four separate movies that will be released three months apart from each other.

Each film is close to three hours long and after the quadruple release, Horizon is going to be broken into a series for television - each with 42-minute episodes.
Savannah Chrisley has shed more light on the 'Southwest saga' that resulted in her getting kicked off a flight following an alleged altercation with a flight attendant.

Chrisley, 25, first opened up about the incident on her Instagram Stories last month, alleging she was booted from the flight after she refused to check her carry-on bag as she called out an attendant.

However, Southwest Airlines hit back at a statement claiming she was tardy to her flight and insulting to staffers.

Speaking on her podcast Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley, the reality star admitted to boarding the plane late and acknowledged her busy schedule led to her being less patient than she normally would have been.

Savannah also addressed calling the attendant an 'a**hole', admitting a switch inside her 'flipped' after a pilot stepped in and help - only to be shut down by the attendant.

'Something in me just flipped': Savannah Chrisley recounted her 'Southwest saga' after she was kicked off a flight following a confrontation with a flight attendant

She explained she was returning home from a full day of meetings in New York, and wanted to make it back by 8:30PM to put her niece Chloe to bed.

Chrisley became Chloe's primary guardian after her parents, Todd, 54, and Julie Chrisley, 50, were sent to prison for tax fraud last November. She is also the legal guardian to her 16-year-old brother Grayson.



'I went to get on the flight and he immediately looks at me and goes, "You'll have to check that bag." And just his tone and attitude was immediately angry,' Chrisley explained.

'And I was like, "Okay, well I didn't check it in on the way here, so I would really like to see if there's room for it." He goes, "That's not how it's going to work." I was like, "Okay." And I was like, "Well then why don't we put a tag on it as if I'm going to check it."

'I was like, let me put a tag on it as if I'm going to check the bag, and if there's not room for it then we'll just check it.'

Imitating the attendant, she said in a deeper voice: 'Ma'am, you won't be flying on this flight if that's how you want to do it." 'And I was like, "Okay." And so I walk down the jet bridge,' she said, adding she was with her bag with a tag on it.

She then alleged the attendant came down the jet bridge and attempted to take her bag. 'Just to prove a point, just to prove a little bit of power, he comes down the jet bridge and tries to take my bag.'

Chrisley was also speaking with a pilot who she claimed offered to take the bag himself.

'And the pilot that was standing next to me, he was just sparking conversation, come through,' she said. 'The pilot and I were talking and super, super nice guy, and the attendant comes up to try and take my bag, and the pilot goes, "Hey ma'am, I'll find a place for her bag, it's not a big deal."

Travel fiasco: Chrisley, 25, first opened up about the incident on her Instagram Stories last month, alleging she was booted from the flight after she refused to check her carry-on bag as she called out an attendant

Losing her patience: Savannah also addressed calling the attendant an 'a**hole', admitting a switch inside her 'flipped' after a pilot attempted to step in and help - only to be shut down by the attendant

'And the attendant literally was like this close to the pilot,' she said, holding out her hand a little over a foot away from her face. 'And goes "No you won't, stay out of it."'

She said she had a 'tough, rough' few day and acknowledged she may not have been her 'most patient self' as she had been up for nearly 24 hours.

'When he said that to the pilot though, something in me just flipped,' she said.

'So that is when I had choice words, and I said, "Dude, come on. There's no need to be an a**hole."'

'At that point, oh gosh, you would have thought I threatened to bomb the place. He was not having it. He was like, "Ma'am, what did you say?" I was like, "There's no need to be an a**hole." And he goes, "You're off. You're off. Let's go."'

Not her best self: She said she had a 'tough, rough' few day and acknowledged she may not have been her 'most patient self'

'You will not be flying!' She also claimed the attendant was adamant about kicking her off the flight

'I will say I did board late,' she said. Her friend added, 'So that makes the baggage thing more understandable.'

She also claimed the attendant was adamant about kicking her off the flight even after she attempted to compromise.

'I told the attendant, "You know what? We all have tough days. Clearly, you're in a mood. I'm in a mood. I apologize. I should not have called you an a**hole. Let's check my bag and call it a day."'

But according to Chrisley, the attendant replied: '"Nope, nope, you're off this flight! You will not be flying! Do I need to have whatever police come and get you!?"' she claims he said. 'And I was like, "Please do sir."

Two sides: However, Southwest Airlines hit back at a statement claiming she was tardy to her flight and insulting to staffers

Savannah then gets off the plane and in hindsight realizes she could have used 'classier language' rather than call him an 'a**hole.'

'I do not think I'm better than anyone else. I do not think I'm better than to not have to check my bags. All I asked was let me see if there's room because we've all been on a plane before [where] some people just don't play Tetris that well, and there's a lot of wasted space,' she said.

Savannah also claimed she told the attendant she needed to make it home to her niece, who was still under the care of her 78-year-old grandmother. When he allegedly replied 'don't care', she called him an 'a**hole' again.

'Should I have called him an a**hole? Probably could have steered away from that. But it is what it is.'

'At the end of the day, Southwest, you won. You won because I ended up on a connecting flight going home till 3am.'

After Chrisley posted her video describing the alleged fiasco last month, a rep for the airline issued a statement detailing its side of the situation, saying the reality star had been tardy to her flight, and insulting to staffers once she arrived.

'Our initial reports indicate a different story than the one from the Customer's account, as she arrived at the gate late in the boarding process,' the rep said, according to People, 'and repeatedly insulted our Employee after being asked to gate-check her bag.'

The airline said that 'as a result' of Chrisley's conduct, she 'was denied boarding on her original flight, and we booked her on a later flight the same day.'

The rep said that the airline was 'aware' of a video Chrisley posted to Instagram Stories and was 'looking into the situation.'
Miranda Kerr was seen exiting the swanky Carlyle Hotel in New York City on Tuesday.

The 40-year-old Australian supermodel - who attended the Met Gala one day earlier - looked refreshed as she stepped out with a smile on her face.

The mother-of-three, who shares a son with ex-husband Orlando Bloom, donned a black leather jacket and glossy onyx sunglasses.

Miranda waved to fans as she put on a fashionable display in high-waisted jeans and red heels.

She carried a brown leather Louis Vuitton purse with the brand's classic logo over her shoulder.

Stepping out: Miranda Kerr was seen exiting the swanky Carlyle Hotel in New York City on Tuesday

Miranda's jacket was adorned with gold hardware accents in the form of coin-like buttons.

She layered the stylish outerwear over a shrunken black crew neck sweater with thin white, gold, and red stripes.

The bombshell looked better than ever with her blonde highlighted hair styled in a precise center part.

The lustrous locks flowed over her shoulders in a slightly textured wavy pattern.

The fashionista commanded attention as she left the hotel in pointy-toe perspex and fire engine red open-back shoes.

Kerr, who hails from Sydney, flaunted a clean, short, pink nude manicure as she smiled, flashing her dimples.

Underneath her rectangular eyewear she glowed in a face of soft makeup complete with a soft pink lip stain.

During the day she took to Instagram to reshare a recording of herself leaving the Big Apple lodge with the caption, 'And we're off!'

Good spirits: The 40-year-old Australian supermodel - who attended the Met Gala one day earlier - looked refreshed as she stepped out with a smile on her face

Her look: The mother-of-three, who shares a son with ex-husband Orlando Bloom, donned a black leather jacket and glossy onyx sunglasses

On the move: Miranda waved to fans on the street as she made her way to a luxury vehicle

It comes after Miranda, who is married to billionaire Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, turned heads at the Met Ball.

She was as pretty as a princess in an off-white gown from designer Dior with pearl embellishments.

The glamorous garment was cinched in at the waist and featured a tastefully low-cut neckline to reveal the model's decolletage.

The floor-length gown had a modest train for a touch of drama and elegant straps on the shoulders.

Kerr paired her frock with a diamond choker, along with matching earrings and a ring.

She carried a rose gold clutch in one hand and had streaks of blonde through her brown hair.

The star's followers were blown away by her stunning look, with one commenting that she was the 'best dressed' of the night.

Monday night: The beauty was a vision in a white gown that cinched at her trim waistline for the 2023 Met Gala

Stunner: Kerr was a vision in an ornately beaded princess-like Dior Couture gown

'Miranda is actually a real life Disney princess,' gushed another admirer.

Earlier in the day she received an IV drip of vitamins and hydration infusions.

Sharing the moment to Instagram, the ex-Victoria's Secret stunner sat with her arm outstretched as she took a dose before the anticipated fashion event.

'Quick IV with Samir,' she wrote alongside the smiling photo.
Christine McGuinness showcased her toned back as she watched the sunset during her idyllic getaway on Tuesday.

The model, 35, slipped into a black halter neck dress for the Instagram snaps, which perfectly highlighted her slim figure and bronzed tan.

Christine was sure to set pulses racing as she showed off a hint of sideboob after going braless beneath the slinky summer dress.

In another shot, Christine turned to the camera and beamed away while sitting on a sun bed.

The beauty looked radiant as she basked in the sunshine while taking in the stunning view.

Flaunt: Christine McGuinness showcased her toned back as she watched the sunset during her idyllic getaway on Tuesday

Stunner: The model, 35, slipped into a black halter neck dress for the Instagram snaps, which perfectly highlighted her slim figure and bronzed tan

She tied her blonde locks into a ponytail for the day, while highlighting her features with a sleek make-up palette.

Captioning her snaps, Christine shared a thoughtful quote which read; 'We all have two lives, the second starts when we realise we only have one.'

It comes after Christine looked nothing short of sensational as she showed off her incredible figure during her recent getaway on social media.

The TV personality flaunted her frame in a skimpy black bikini as she posed up a storm in front of the mirror of her lavish hotel room during the getaway.

The mother of three worked her angles as she held a hand up to her blonde locks, which were styled in a high ponytail.

Christine's snap came just before she stripped off for a topless photograph beside the pool, sporting just a pair of bikini bottoms.

The thong-style bottoms showcased her peachy bottom as she flashed plenty of sideboob in the jaw-dropping image.

Clearly having the time of her life, Christine posed with her arms in the air, flashing a backwards peace sign to the camera.

Bikini babe: It comes after Christine looked nothing short of sensational as she showed off her incredible figure during her recent getaway on social media

Hot, hot, hot! Christine's snap came just before she stripped off for a topless photograph beside the pool, sporting just a pair of bikini bottoms

Work it! Christine flaunted her frame in a skimpy black bikini as she posed up a storm in front of the mirror of her lavish hotel room during the getaway

The backdrop in Christine's saucy snap was a swimming pool surrounded by plush loungers, looking out onto the sea and cloudless blue sky.

It is unclear who the TV personality is holidaying with, but she was recently pictured putting on a cosy display with her pal Chelcee Grimes.

The close friends couldn't hide their excitement as they met up in Liverpool during the Bank Holiday weekend.

Christine and Chelcee, who were spotted kissing and walking hand in hand at a night out together in London in December, met up at Ten Streets Socials bank holiday club event and filmed the female dancers there.

The duo, who have been pictured publicly on a number of occasions following Christina's split from husband Paddy, were thrilled to see one another and embraced each other at the event.
Popular streaming service Amazon Prime has announced it will increase its monthly and annual membership fees.

Users on a monthly plan will see their subscription increase from $6.99 to $9.99, while the annual membership will go up from $59 to $79.

These price hikes are the first time Amazon Prime has raised its fees since launching in Australia in 2018.

The new prices will come into effect from May 24 for new members, while existing customers will feel the pinch from June 28.

Despite the price increase, Amazon Prime is still cheaper than Netflix's basic plan ($16.99 a month), Binge ($16 a month) and Disney+ ($13.99 a month).

Popular streaming service Amazon Prime has announced it will increase its membership fees by 40 per cent. (Pictured: a scene from the Amazon Prime Video series The Power)

Amazon Prime members also get the benefit of free delivery for items bought on Amazon, and access to Amazon Prime deals on the Prime Day sales.

The new fees come after the streaming platform recently released its new spy thriller series Citadel, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden.

Citadel is the second most-expensive TV series ever made, with the six-episode first season costing a total of $300million, or $50million per episode.

The big-budget show is said to be a passion project for Jennifer Salke, the Head of Amazon Studios.

Part of the reason for the inflated cost is the fact Citadel was renewed for a second season before the first season even dropped.

Amazon Prime Video is looking to expand Citadel into a franchise with spin-offs.

Users on a monthly plan will see their subscription increase from $6.99 to $9.99, while the annual membership will go up from $59.99 to $79.99. (Pictured: a scene from Amazon Prime Video series Daisy Jones and the Six)

Other factors also drove the cost up, including the break in production caused by Covid-19 and the high cost of pandemic protocols, which were not factored into the budget when the series was greenlit.

Priyanka also fought for equal pay with her male co-star Madden.

'If your contribution, time and what you bring to the table is the same as your male counterpart, there is a very serious conversation to be had about compensation,' she said.

'It was not a conversation I was encouraged to have for a very long time because it was just a given when I started out in movies that your male counterpart would have a substantially larger pay check.'

'I think my generation of female actors really stood up for themselves,' she added.

The Indian actress, who is married to Nick Jonas, plays the character of Nadia Sinh.

The new fees come after the streaming platform recently released its new spy thriller series Citadel, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden (both pictured)
Married At First Sight groom Daniel Holmes has decided to quit the adult subscription site OnlyFans after making over $100,000 in just nine months.

The 31-year-old TV groom shared the news with his followers on Instagram stories on Tuesday night, explaining that he has deactivated his OnlyFans profile.

Holmes initially joined the platform to capitalise on the increased attention following his appearance on the Channel Nine dating show last year.

'I just did it for a quick bag [of cash]. I knew coming off MAFS there would be a large influx of eyes, so I just capitalised on that,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.

Holmes went on to clarify that while he made over $100,000 from the website, being on OnlyFans did not align with his long-term goals or personal identity.

Married At First Sight groom Daniel Holmes (pictured) has announced he has decided to quit adult subscription site OnlyFans after making over $100,000 in just nine months

The TV groom, 31, shared the news with his followers on Instagram stories on Tuesday night, explaining that he has deactivated his OnlyFans profile. Pictured with ex Carolina Santos

'It's not really my identity or something I'd see long-term purpose in,' he added.

The decision to leave OnlyFans marks a significant shift for the personal trainer, who had previously gained a stable income through the platform.

It comes just weeks after Holmes admitted that he 'regretted' getting the Covid-19 vaccine so he could appear on last year's season.

Daniel, at first said he would 'never' get the jab but changed his tune when MAFS producers enforced a vaccine mandate for all cast members.

It comes just weeks after Holmes admitted that he 'regretted' getting the Covid-19 vaccine on April 13 so he could appear on last year's season

Now, almost two years after getting the shot without any adverse side effects, Daniel says he wishes he hadn't agreed to roll up his sleeve.

He wrote on Instagram on April 13: 'I honestly wish so bad that I had never got the jab. Oh well, too late now, but definitely a regret.'

Endemol Shine, the production company behind MAFS, had required all cast and crew to be fully vaccinated while filming season nine in late 2021.

Endemol Shine, the production company behind MAFS, had required all cast and crew to be fully vaccinated while filming season nine in late 2021

About a month before entering the experiment as an intruder, Holmes had shared a fiery Facebook post claiming he would never get the Covid shot because it took away his 'freedoms'

About a month before entering the experiment as an intruder, Holmes had shared a fiery Facebook post claiming he would never get the Covid shot because it took away his 'freedoms'.

'They're gonna have to tie me down before I get vaccinated,' the Brisbane native wrote in the now-deleted post on September 25, 2021.

'Not because I don't believe in it, but because they're taking away my freedoms if I don't. It's the oldest rule in the book of sales. Get the prospect saying yes and they're easier to convert,' he added.

But as soon as Holmes was cast on Married At First Sight in October 2021, he promptly agreed to get both Covid-19 jabs.
David 'Kochie' Koch scored a major royal scoop when he reported on a man 'throwing shotgun cartridges' into the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

The Sunrise host, who is currently in England to cover the Coronation of King Charles III, found himself in the right place at the right time Wednesday morning.

As police arrested the man who was heard shouting, 'I'm going to kill the King,' in the nights leading up to the incident, a 7News crew caught the whole ordeal on camera.

Kochie and his team were camped outside performing obligatory pre-coronation coverage in preparation for King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla's arrival.

A well-placed cameraman spotted the drama unfolding at the gates of Buckingham Palace and whipped his camera out just in time to film the man's arrest before another news station could catch wind of it.

David 'Kochie' Koch was in the right place at the right time Wednesday morning when he scored a major royal scoop, reporting on a man 'throwing shotgun cartridges' into the grounds of Buckingham Palace

The man was held by police this morning on suspicion of possessing a weapon after 'throwing shotgun cartridges' into the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

Met Police detained him at around 7pm today after he approached the gates of the palace in central London as Coronation rehearsals took place.

Witnesses said the man was seen throwing a 'number of items' in the residence grounds before he was arrested.

As police arrested the man who was heard shouting, 'I'm going to kill the King,' in the nights leading up to the incident, a 7News crew caught the whole thing on camera as they waited for King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla to arrive

7News footage shows how the handcuffed suspect hung his head as officers took him into custody. Police later carried out a controlled explosion on a suspicious bag as a precaution.

A witness told The Sun that the suspect had stationed himself outside the palace over the 'last few nights' and was heard shouting: 'I'm going to kill the King.'

Police say they are not currently treating the incident as terror-related. It is understood it is being treated as an isolated mental health incident.

Buckingham Palace confirmed the King and Queen were not in residence when the incident occurred, but a Royal spokesperson would not answer whether any other relatives or family members were there when it unfolded.
Despite attending the Met Gala the day before, Kylie Jenner showed no signs of slowing down as she glammed up for another fashion event in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old Kylie Cosmetics CEO was joined by her adorable daughter Stormi, five, as they strolled hand in hand out of The Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Opting for complementary colourful ensembles, all eyes were on the pair as they headed to the Jean Paul Gaultier x The Webster launch of the ready-to-wear Flowers Collection, which drops Friday at noon.

The mother-of-two fronted the French luxury house's latest campaign, which was photographed by Elizaveta Porodina and creative directed by Florence Tetier.

Kylie - who relies on stylist Jill Jacobs - flashed her bra and corset beneath a sheer Jean Paul Gaultier floral frock and white ankle-strap heels.

Busy week! Kylie Jenner and her daughter Stormi Webster got glam for yet another fashion event in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday

Hairstylist Jesus Guerrero coiffed Kylie's updo and make-up artist Ariel Tejada fully contoured her complexion and applied her glossy pout.

Little Stormi - who Kylie shares with Travis Scott - was equally colorful in her ruched long-sleeve top and floral leggings, which she paired with white low-top sneakers.

Kylie is also mother to 15-month-old son Aire during her on/off five-year relationship with 32-year-old Travis (born Jacques Webster), which ended in December.

The Kardashians star made sure to tag Jean Paul Gaultier guest designer Haider Ackermann, whose best friend/collaborator just so happens to be her rumored flame, Oscar nominee Timothee Chalamet.

There have been unconfirmed reports that Kylie and Timothee, 25, met as far back as 2019 at Nobu Malibu before ringing in the New Year in Aspen, attending Paris Fashion Week in January, and dining on Tito's Tacos in LA as recent as April 14.

Also joining Kylie at the soiree was her momager Kris Jenner, 67, who brought along her toyboy Corey Gamble, 42.

The grandmother-of-12 opted for a monochromatic pastel yellow ensemble and snakeskin purse while her former tour manager boyfriend donned a white suit over a grey shirt.

That smile! The 25-year-old Kylie Cosmetics CEO and her five-year-old child held hands as they left The Ritz-Carlton near Central Park

In bloom: Kylie - who relies on stylist Jill Jacobs - flashed her bra and corset beneath a sheer Jean Paul Gaultier floral frock and Haider Ackermann heels

Cutie: Little Stormi was equally colorful in her ruched long-sleeve top and floral leggings, which she paired with white low-top sneakers

Dropping this Friday at noon! Jenner stepped out to attend Jean Paul Gaultier x The Webster's launch of the ready-to-wear Flowers Collection

'She's a JPG girl': The Calabasas socialite fronted the French luxury house's latest campaign, which was photographed by Elizaveta Porodina and creative directed by Florence Tetier

Looking good: Hairstylist Jesus Guerrero coiffed Kylie's moist-looking updo, which was secured with a decorative clip

Ready for her close-up! Make-up artist Ariel Tejada fully contoured her complexion and applied her glossy pout

'@h.a': The selfie enthusiast made sure to tag Jean Paul Gaultier guest designer Haider Ackermann, whose best friend/collaborator just so happens to be her rumored flame, Oscar nominee Timothee Chalamet

'My big bro': Timothee (L, pictured in 2021) proclaims to styles himself, but he's been perpetually wearing Haider Ackermann's (R) designs as far back as 2017

On the down low: There have been unconfirmed reports that Kylie and Timothee met as far back as 2019 at Nobu Malibu before ringing in the New Year in Aspen, attending Paris Fashion Week in January, and dining on Tito's Tacos in LA as recent as April 14

Sweet embrace: Aside from Stormi, Jenner also mothered 15-month-old son Aire during her on/off five-year relationship with the 32-year-old rapper (born Jacques Webster), which ended in December

Mirror, mirror: Jenner posted numerous vainglorious Instastories and two Instagram slideshows capturing her big night

Kris (born Kristen Houghton) reportedly met Corey in August 2014 while attending Riccardo Tisci's 40th birthday bash in Ibiza hosted by her former son-in-law Kanye West.

Just one month later, Jenner decided to file for divorce from Kylie's father - two-time Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner - after 22 years of marriage.

On Monday night, Kylie was denied entrance to Diddy, Doja Cat, and Richie Akiva's Met Gala after-party at the Box because it was 'over capacity' - according to Page Six.

Celebrities who were not turned away from the bash included Gisele Bundchen, Emily Ratajkowski, Mary J. Blige, Lil Nas X, Paris Hilton, Naomi Campbell, Jared Leto, Chris Rock, and Teyana Taylor.

Kylie and her famous family will next compete for the best docu-reality show trophy at the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards, which air next Sunday.

The Kardashians face heavy competition against Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Family Reunion: Love & Hip Hop Edition, and Vanderpump Rules.

In the trailer for season three - premiering May 25 on Hulu - the Kylie Skin CEO surprisingly told her sisters: 'All of us just need to have a bigger conversation about the beauty standards that were setting.'

Kylie - who's only ever admitted to having lip fillers - cryptically said she didn't want her daughter 'to do the things I did' seemingly to adapt the same hip and rear-boosting tactics as her half-sisters Kim and Khloe Kardashian.

Familial support: Also joining the GLOW paid partner at the soiree was her momager Kris Jenner, who brought along her toyboy Corey Gamble

Eight years strong! The 67-year-old grandmother-of-12 opted for a monochromatic pastel yellow ensemble and snakeskin purse while the 42-year-old former tour manager donned a white suit over a grey shirt

Oh well! On Monday night, Kylie was denied entrance to Diddy, Doja Cat, and Richie Akiva's Met Gala after-party at the Box because it was 'over capacity'

Will you vote? Jenner and her famous family will next compete for the best docu-reality show trophy at the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards, which air next Sunday

In the trailer for season three - premiering May 25 on Hulu - the Kylie Skin CEO surprisingly told her sisters: 'All of us just need to have a bigger conversation about the beauty standards that were setting'

Jenner - who's also an executive producer - admitted to her similarly-enhanced gal pal Anastasia 'Stassie' Karanikolaou in the preview: 'I wish I'd never touched anything to begin with.'

The Sierra Canyon School alum told Homme Girls on April 18 that her precious princess Stormi is 'perfect the way that she is' and would only advise her to 'always be confident in herself.'

'I think a big misconception about me is that I've had so much surgery on my face and that I was some insecure person, and I really wasn't!' Kylie told the mag.

'Yeah, I love full lips and wanted full lips, but growing up I was always the most confident person in the room. I was the girl performing for everyone. I had my one lip insecurity thing, so I got lip filler, and it was the best thing I've ever done. I don't regret it. But I always thought I was cute.'
President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that his government's promise of change for home owners in the country has been fulfilled.

Speaking Tuesday at the presentation of keys to some new homeowners at the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) Zuba, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the president urged the home owners to live together in peace and harmony.

'I convey my hearty congratulations to the new homeowners in this estate. Our promise of change has been fulfilled for you," Buhari said in his speech at the inauguration of the estate, which covers a total of 18.5 hectares of land, consisting of 748 units of various house types in 75 blocks.

The president charged residents of the estate to consciously work together with the FHA to ensure the maintenance of the property and safety of the environment.

Commending the chairman, managing director, members of the board and staff of FHA on the successful completion of the estate, Buhari noted that the project was another testament of his administration's commitment to lift people out of poverty.

He said: "Housing supply is one of the indices of multi-dimensional poverty that challenges our people and the completion of this estate provides a solution for the beneficiaries.

'The new home owners who benefit from this estate have taken a step up on the ladder of prosperity and away from poverty."

Buhari, who acknowledged that more Nigerians are waiting to benefit from the mass housing project, urged the management of FHA not to relent in delivering other projects at various stages of construction and development across the states.

"One of the measures that we have consciously deployed to attack poverty, create prosperity and develop our economy is the aggressive provision of infrastructure nationwide," he said, noting that such investments also lead to creating employment opportunities for artisans and other skilled members of the society.

Earlier in his speech, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said the completion of the project was a product of team work and leadership by the president, who gave approval for appointments into the leadership of FHA board and management.

According to him, "Instead of abandoned projects, we now have 748 completed housing units for Nigerians and their families to shelter."

He added that 75 contractors were engaged in the course of the project, while over 13,000 Nigerians were employed both directly and indirectly.

Fashola told the president that the five beneficiaries who received keys to their flats, including Tina Orkpe, Salisu Iliyasu, Ado Maude, Rabina Abdulkadir and Flight Sgt. Musa Mohammed, subscribed through FHA Rent-to-Own delivery model.

"Although many of the beneficiaries of this project will never meet the president personally, your policies and programmes have met them personally at the point of their needs," he said.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of FHA, Senator Shuaibu Lawal, thanked the president for providing the grant of N7.5 billion for the project to commence in May 2018.

'Without that grant, which served as the seed money, this project would not have been possible. Mr President, you take all the credit for what we are seeing here today," he said.

Lawal, who noted that the estate is ideal for Nigerians who cannot afford houses in areas such as Maitama and Asokoro in the FCT, lauded the Minister of Works and Housing, FCT Minister, Mohammed Bello, for their passionate commitment to the project.

Also speaking, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of FHA, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, described the inauguration of the project as a manifestation of the visionary and deliberate housing policy of the president, who in keeping with the promise of providing shelter for Nigerians approved the grant to FHA.

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According to him, the Authority delivered the project at a total cost of N9.5 billion with the subvention of N7.5 billion from the federal government.

He explained that the balance of N2 billion of construction cost came from the Authority's other projects which was ploughed in to complete the estate.

Ashafa disclosed that the FHA has also commenced the development of Bwari Estate, Abuja near the Nigeria Law School, which will deliver 336 units of various houses under the first phase of the project.

He added that the proposed Diaspora City initiative, which targets Nigerians in the Diaspora, is in progress, with the intention of extending the programme to all the regions of the country, with Abuja as the pilot scheme.
Olivia Wilde and Vogue China editor-in-chief Margaret Zhang donned versions of the same Chloe dress to Monday night's Met Gala.

And on Tuesday the 39-year-old House actress and 29-year-old fashion journalist took to social media to make light of the occurrence.

The Don't Worry Darling director appeared on Instagram to share a post featuring three images - one of her, one of Margaret, and one of a model wearing the original design from the 80s.

Showing she was not upset by what some considered a faux pas, she noted, 'Great minds,' with an emoji wearing sunglasses.

Remaining cool, calm, and collected, she added, 'If you're gonna twin with anyone, make it @margaretzhang.'

Same look: Olivia Wilde and Vogue China editor-in-chief Margaret Zhang donned versions of the same Chloe dress to Monday night's Met Gala

Thinking alike: Showing she was not upset by what some considered a faux pas, Olivia noted, 'Great minds,' with an emoji wearing sunglasses

And Margaret, who began her career as a blogger, reshared the post and added a clever response of her own.

Referencing the violin-inspired gowns, she wrote, 'Cue the strings,' along with bicep and instrument emojis.

The reactions didn't end there - Olivia took it one step further as she reposted a meme in her Instagram Stories.

A fan account shared a photo of each woman and next to Olivia's picture wrote, '1:1 with my boss.'

Then, next to Margaret's snapshot, 'Zoomies with my fave coworker.'

The mother-of-two, who shares kids with ex Jason Sudeikis, added a crying laughing emoji, displaying her sense of humor about the whole thing.

Although the women arrived to fashion's biggest night in the same look, they each brought their own sense of style to it.

The actress wore a white variety with longer sleeves and patterned gold cuffs on her forearms.

Lighthearted: Referencing the violin-inspired gowns, Margaret wrote, 'Cue the strings,' along with bicep and instrument emojis

Sense of humor: The reactions didn't end there - Olivia took it one step further as she reposted a meme in her Instagram Stories

Olivia's take: The actress wore a white variety with shorter sleeves and patterned gold cuffs on her forearms

And Margaret rocked the frock in black - hers with abbreviated sleeves, plus a long cape.

She skipped the cuffs and also made a loud statement with her signature bright blue hair styled in a long, straight bob.

She accessorized with gold jewelry and rocked precise, black, winged liquid eyeliner.

On Monday evening, fans on social media couldn't help but make jokes about the ensembles, while others wondered how it happened in the first place.

'I can't tell if it's supposed to be a guitar or a maxi pad with no wings,' wrote one person about the Karl Lagerfeld design.

'FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT,' read another tweet. And another said: 'Omg RIP to whoever is getting fired for this.'

'Well that's embarrassing,' someone else tweeted.

'I'd be pissed,' a different user wrote. Another agreed, 'They should hide away for the next year.'

Unique spin: Margaret rocked the frock in black - hers with abbreviated sleeves, plus a long cape

Commentary: 'I can't tell if it's supposed to be a guitar or a maxi pad with no wings,' wrote one person about the Karl Lagerfeld design

Thoughts: One person dubbed the occurrence as 'embarrassing,' while another said the stylists should be fired

A vote for Margaret: Another Twitter user said that Margaret wore it better opine

Second look: For a Met Gala after party, Wilde slipped into another Chloe design - a metallic silver netted dress that showed off her gym-honed figure

Carefree: And once again proving she was utterly unfazed by wearing the same dress as Zhang, on Tuesday morning she shared a selfie from the comfort of her bed

Someone else asked, 'How is this even possible?'

'I thought all the outfits were approved beforehand? Someone's in trouble,' read another post.

Other social media users argued over who wore it better, while some slammed the dress - branding it as 'ugly.'

For a Met Gala after party, Wilde slipped into another Chloe design - a metallic silver netted dress that showed off her gym-honed figure.

And once again proving she was utterly unfazed by wearing the same dress as Zhang, on Tuesday morning she shared a selfie from the comfort of her bed.

The star wore a plush white robe as she held the camera overhead and squinted her eyes.

She playfully wrote across the snapshot, 'Oh good morningftrnoon.'
Kim Kardashian took to Instagram on Tuesday to share memories of her 'first fashion shoot ever' with the late Karl Lagerfeld.

The 42-year-old mogul  who was recently spotted outside her office in Calabasas  posted photos from a 2013 CR Fashion Book shoot.

The star, who was pregnant with her firstborn child North at the time, recalled the career highlight via the app's Stories feature.

She wrote alongside one image, 'My 1st fashion shoot ever with North in my belly. I gave birth a few weeks after this.'

It comes one day after A-list celebrities honored the German fashion designer at the 2023 Met Gala.

Memory lane: Kim Kardashian took to Instagram on Tuesday to share memories of her 'first fashion shoot ever' with the late Karl Lagerfeld

Glamor: Kim joined A-list celebrities honoring the German fashion designer at the 2023 Met Gala in New York on Monday

In one snapshot Kim, who was dating Kanye West at the time, wore a long white coat as she chatted with Karl.

The designer, who designed for fashion houses Chloe and Chanel during his career, stood next to Kim in his signature black blazer and fingerless gloves.

His white-gray hair was pulled back into a small ponytail and he wore dark sunglasses.

In another outtake Kardashian, who hadn't yet built her empire, was dressed in black pajamas as she posed on a bed with black sheets.

She looked stunning in the satin pants set and a matching bra, exposing her burgeoning baby bump.

In the behind-the-scenes shots Kim was doted on by a glam squad on the set, which was in Paris.

In another photo from the shoot, Kim donned an oversized cream turtleneck sweater as she lay on a white bed.

And the mother-of-four also shared an image of Lagerfeld with her mom Kris Jenner, who at the time stole the spotlight from her daughter during her big day.

Flashback: The 42-year-old mogul  who was recently spotted outside her office in Calabasas  posted photos from a 2013 CR Fashion Book shoot

Speaking to The Cut, a subset of New York Magazine, in 2019, the former E! personality recalled how upset she was with Jenner at the time.

The Keeping Up With the Kardashians alum was excited about her first photoshoot with the fashion designer and had been tipped off by friends that he usually gifted his models with a special accessory.

However, Kim was horrified when her mother turned up to their meeting and struck up an instant bond with the Chanel legend.

She detailed the situation as she said, 'I go to Paris. My mom comes with me. I sit there; I wait. I do the fitting...'

'I had told one of my girlfriends that I'm doing this with Karl, and she's like, "Oh my God, he's going to give you a bag. He gives everyone of his models, especially on their first shoot, a bag."

'Halfway through the shoot, my mom walks in and she's wearing Chanel leggings, Chanel thigh-high boots, blazer, turtleneck, dangling earrings, Chanel cuffs, gloves, sunglasses, beret: She was decked in Chanel from the '80s.

'Karl stops the shoot and walks over to her and is like, "Oh my God, are you her mother? I remember this jacket! I remember these gloves! I did those earrings!"

'The two of them have this love affair like I've never seen before.'

Precious: She wrote alongside one image, 'My 1st fashion shoot ever with North in my belly. I gave birth a few weeks after this'

Kim recalled feeling 'embarrassed' that her mom had stolen her special moment.

She continued: 'I'm like, This is so embarrassing, and this is so annoying. I remember texting my sisters and being like, 'Guys, mom is stealing my shiiiine. This is my first fashion shoot!'

'So then the shoot's over, and he comes out with something behind his back. And I'm like: "THE BAAAAAG. IT'S HEEEERRE. OH MY GOD."

'I'm thinking: I will cherish this forever, and I'm pregnant, so one day I'll give this bag to my daughter.

'Then he comes up and he's like, "Kim, this was the best shoot. Thank you so much. But Kris, here is a bag for you," and he gives the f***ing bag to my mom. And it was a LEGO clutch.'

She explained: 'They were like ten grand, and you could never get one. And this was all Swarovski crystal with hand stones that was just a sample that never made it to production.'

Angelic: In another photo from the shoot, Kim donned an oversized cream turtleneck sweater as she lay on a white bed

Momager: Kim also shared an image of Lagerfeld with her mom Kris Jenner, who at the time stole the spotlight from her daughter during her big day

Kim said she cried afterwards as she felt Kris had taken over her day.

She added: 'So I go into the bathroom and start crying. I was like, "Oh my God, she fully stole my life. She stole my whole day today! This was my biggest moment ever in fashion, with Carine, Riccardo, and Karl!"'

And Kim - who has North, nine, Saint, 7, Chicago, 5, and Psalm, 3, with ex-husband Kanye - regularly reminds Kris to leave the bag to her oldest daughter when she dies.

She said: 'To this day, she has the bag in her closet. And I've said to her: "Just so we're clear, in your will, this goes to North." I don't need it. That bag was for my daughter.'
She's been fuelling engagement rumours with actor Billy Crudup for months.

But Naomi Watts concealed the massive diamond ring on her left hand as she stepped out to attend The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything Festival in New York City on Tuesday.

The King Kong actress, 54, wore a smart black suit with a reverse lapel and a white blouse.

She accessorised with a pair of black heels and a bold pendant necklace and earrings.

The blonde beauty's short, bob-cut hair was styled with a slight wave and her makeup was minimal with a pale pink blush.

Naomi Watts (pictured) concealed the massive diamond ring on her left hand as she stepped out to attend The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything Festival in New York City on Tuesday

Naomi kept her right hand tucked into her suit pocket while her left hand with her ring remained hidden as she posed alongside WSJ Deputy Editor Elisa Lipsky-Karasz.

Later on, during her talk onstage, the British-Australian actress was seen wearing the diamond sparkler.

Naomi continued to showcase the ring last week when she was spotted out in lower Manhattan with her beau Billy.

The Mulholland Drive actress and the Almost Famous star, also 54, have been dating for six years.

The King Kong actress, 54, wore a smart black suit with a reverse lapel and a white blouse

Naomi kept her right hand tucked into her suit pocket while her left hand with her ring remained hidden as she posed alongside WSJ Deputy Editor Elisa Lipsky-Karasz (right)

Naomi appeared on The Today Show last Thursday where she laughed off engagement speculation.

Towards the end of the chat, host Hoda Kotb joked that her 'eye was hurting,' implying it was from the 'glint' of the massive ring on Watts' left ring finger.

'It's like a big glint coming from some ring over here,' Kotb said with a smile, as Watts started laughing.

'It just struck me, but it's beautiful,' Kotb said, as they showed a close-up of the ring many are speculating is her engagement ring... though she wouldn't confirm.

Later on, during her talk onstage, the British-Australian actress was seen wearing the diamond sparkler

The blonde beauty's short, bob-cut hair was styled with a slight wave and her makeup was minimal with a pale pink blush

Savannah Guthrie clarified, 'Hoda is asking if you're engaged,' as Watts joked, 'So, the brain fog...'

Guthrie added, 'You wear it well,' as Kotb added, 'You do, whatever you're wearing, you wear it beautifully.'

The Aussie actress hasn't publicly addressed the speculation that her boyfriend has popped the question.

She was first spotted wearing the ring last month, when she was spotted going on a road trip with some friends.

The road trip also was her first time spotted out since her ex Liev Schreiber, 54, announced he's expecting his first child with 31-year-old girlfriend Taylor Neisen.

Watts and Schreiber share two children, Alexander 'Sasha', 16, and Samuel Kai, 15, from their 11-year relationship that came to an end in 2016.

Watts and Crudup first met on the set of the Netflix series Gypsy in 2017 and they've been together ever since, though they largely keep their relationship out of the public eye.

The Mulholland Drive actress appeared on The Today Show last Thursday where she laughed off engagement speculation

Since their split, Naomi and Liev have continued to co-parent with their blended families. Last year in May, Naomi and her partner, Billy, were seen in an Instagram selfie in celebration of Kai's graduation.

Also in the snap was their other son, Alexander, as well as Naomi's ex, Liev and his girlfriend, Taylor, as they all flashed cheerful smiles towards the cameras.

During a past interview with PorterEdit in 2019, The Impossible actress opened up about their blended families and co-parenting together. 'We're doing things very differently.'

'I'm pretty proud of us, corny as that may sound. We've made it our absolute priority to be good and kind to each other and we're absolutely committed to that.'
An 11-year-old millionaire has opened up about her lifestyle of expensive gifts, swanky events and being ferried around by nannies in luxury cars.

Pixie Curtis, from Sydney, earned her fortune as the face of accessories range Pixie's Bows and toy brand Pixie's Pix - businesses set up by her mother Roxy Jacenko.

She is already 'semi-retired' from her toy empire in order to focus on her education.

Speaking to News.com.au on Wednesday, Pixie opened up about her daily life, as well as some of the more extravagant trappings of being so rich at such a young age.

She spoke of receiving a $3,000 Goyard handbag for Christmas from her parents, and saving for a Range Rover for when she's old enough to drive.

Eleven-year-old millionaire Pixie Curtis (right, with her mother Roxy Jacenko and brother Hunter) has opened up about her lifestyle of expensive gifts, swanky events and being ferried around by nannies in luxury cars

Pixie, who is a mini influencer in addition to being the face of merchandise, already owns a a $267,000 Mercedes-Benz GLS, which her nannies use for the school run.

She also has no qualms about admitting she is a 'nepo baby' who wouldn't have had the same level of success without her ambitious mother.

'My parents have given me lots of opportunities, so I suppose I am a nepo baby,' Pixie said.

'The Goyard bag that I got for Christmas from my parents was really cool and pretty pricey. I put it on my list, but I didn't think I would actually get it.'

Pixie Curtis (pictured), from Sydney, earned her fortune as the face of accessories range Pixie's Bows and toy brand Pixie's Pix - businesses set up by her mother Roxy Jacenko

She added: 'Any money earned from my toy business was reinvested or put into savings. I am not allowed to use it.'

Pixie said her father Oliver Curtis, who spent a year in prison for insider trading, puts money in her Spriggy account - a pocket money app for kids - for when she goes out with her friends.

Elsewhere in the interview, Pixie described herself as a 'night owl' who goes to bed at 11pm and is a 'nightmare' in the mornings.

She also maintains an active social life, and is known to get spray tans on a Thursday night with her mother if they have a big weekend ahead.

Speaking to News.com.au on Wednesday, Pixie opened up about her daily life, as well as some of the more extravagant trappings of being so rich at such a young age

Pixie insisted her friends 'don't think I am any different to anyone else', despite having a bank balance most adults could only dream of.

But one thing that sets her apart from most kids her age is her entrepreneurial spirit.

'I love thinking of ideas to make money. My friends and I even started making bracelets and selling them to our friends. I love doing things like that,' she said.

She spoke of receiving a $3,000 Goyard handbag for Christmas from her parents, and saving for a Range Rover for when she can drive

Pixie insisted she's just like any other child in most ways, and is a fussy eater when it comes to her school lunch box - much to her mother's annoyance.

In February, Roxy announced her daughter was 'semi-retiring' from her online toy empire to focus on school.

The PR guru, 43, said that while Pixie's fidget toy brand was once raking in $200,000 a month, she has decided it is time to 'refocus' her priorities.

Pixie, who is a mini influencer in addition to being the face of merchandise, already owns a a $267,000 Mercedes-Benz GLS, which her nannies use for the school run

'Pixie has decided to hang her online toy store shoes up to focus on her impending entry into high school,' she told News.com.au at the time.

'Over the past few months, we have been discussing the business plans going forward as a family and decided it was time to refocus with high school just around the corner.'

The mother of two said her daughter's fidget spinner store and accessories label Pixie's Bows won't be shutting down, but will be scaling back operations so Pixie can focus on her education.

Roxy previously said her daughter's savvy entrepreneurial skills would set her up for life and predicted she would retire in her teens.

In February, Roxy announced her daughter was 'semi-retiring' from her online toy empire to focus on school. The PR guru, 43, said that while Pixie's fidget toy brand was once raking in $200,000 a month, she has decided it is time to 'refocus' her priorities

'You won't need to worry; you can retire at 15 the way you're going,' she said to her daughter in a joint interview in Stellar magazine in December.

The Ministry of Talent founder went on to say Pixie is a natural businesswoman.

'You know, what is the most exciting for me is the entrepreneurial spirit she has at such a young age,' she told the publication.

'So I guess to me the biggest thing is her drive as an entrepreneur. Yes, I've enabled it, but she's still got it, which is for me the most rewarding part.'

In May last year, Pixie's line of fidget toys generated $200,000 in revenue in their first month on sale in Australia.

Roxy shares two children, Pixie and son Hunter, eight, with husband Oliver Curtis.
Zoe Ventoura has found love with her former Home And Away co-star Kristian 'Ditch' Davey, almost three years after her split from ex-husband Daniel MacPherson.

The notoriously private actress, 42, was spotted holding hands with Davey, 46, as they went shopping in Sydney on Saturday, all but confirming their blossoming new relationship.

The pair were joined by their respective children. Ventoura bought her three-year-old son Austin, who she welcomed with MacPherson, while Davey was joined by his youngest son Taika, 11, who he shares with ex-wife Sophia Dunn.

The couple looked relaxed as they herded the youngsters through the busy shopping centre, making stops at Zara and Foot Locker to pick up a few items.

At one point, Ventoura allowed little Austin to sit inside a coin-operated car ride.

Zoe Ventoura, 42, (right) was spotted holding hands with her former Home And Away co-star Kristian 'Ditch' Davey Davey, 46, (left) as they went shopping in Sydney on Saturday, all but confirming their blossoming new relationship

Both Ventoura and Davey watched on lovingly as Autsin sat behind the child-sized steering wheel and pretended to beep the horn.

Ventoura dressed down for the casual outing, sporting a grey V-neck top and black skinny jeans.

Davey, best known for his role as Evan Jones in Blue Heelers and as Dr Christian Green in Home And Away, meanwhile wore a white T-shirt, acid washed jeans and white sneakers.

The pair were joined by their respective children. Ventoura bought her three-year-old son Austin, who she welcomed with MacPherson, while Davey was joined by his youngest son Taika, 11, who he shares with ex-wife Sophia Dunn

The couple looked relaxed as they herded the youngsters through the busy shopping centre, making stops at Zara and Foot Locker to pick up a few items

At one point, Ventoura allowed little Austin to sit inside a coin-operated car ride

Davey was previously married to Neighbours actress Sophia Dunn.

The couple wed in 2010 and welcomed two sons, Taika and Eden, 19, but it seems they have quietly split in recent years.

Saturday's sighting came one week after Ventoura's ex MacPherson went 'Instagram official' with his new girlfriend, AFL WAG and House Rules star Jessica Dover.

Both Ventoura and Davey watched on lovingly as Autsin sat behind the child-sized steering wheel and pretended to beep the horn

Ventoura dressed down for the casual outing, sporting a grey V-neck top and black skinny jeans

Davey, best known for his role as Evan Jones in Blue Heelers and as Dr Christian Green in Home And Away, meanwhile wore a white T-shirt, acid washed jeans and white sneakers

Last Tuesday, Dover confirmed swirling romance rumours by sharing a series of photos to Instagram to mark the Neighbours actor's 42nd birthday.

'Happy Birthday @danmacpherson. Adore you,' she wrote in the caption.

MacPherson announced his split from Ventoura after five years of marriage in December 2020.

The pair shared almost identically worded posts on Instagram at the time, revealing they had mutually decided to separate.

Davey was previously married to Neighbours actress Sophia Dunn. The couple wed in 2010 and welcomed two sons, Taika and Eden, 19, but it seems they have quietly split in recent years

Saturday's sighting came one week after Ventoura's ex MacPherson went 'Instagram official' with his new girlfriend, AFL WAG and House Rules star Jessica Dover
Neighbour Scott Ayer tells what he knows about Zonfrillo family

Police sources reveal what they believe was cause of death

Jock Zonfrillo is believed to have died of natural causes and nothing unusual or suspicious was discovered in the hotel room where he was found dead, Daily Mail Australia understands.

The MasterChef star, 46, was found dead by police at Zagame's House hotel in Melbourne at about 2am on Monday, just metres away from his former inner-city home in Carlton.

The Glasgow-born chef had left his family behind in Italy, where they had recently emigrated, to return to Australia for the launch of the new season of the hit cooking show.

Daily Mail Australia can reveal that when the police entered the hotel room to conduct a welfare check, officers believed that Zonfrillo had died of natural causes and didn't find anything that suggested otherwise.

There was also no drug paraphernalia found in the hotel room, sources said.

It will now be for the Coroner to determine the celebrity chef's specific cause of death.

Daily Mail Australia understands that when the police entered the hotel room, they believed that Jock Zonfrillo (pictured) had died of natural causes and found nothing unusual or suspicious

Pictured: Jock Zonfrillo with his wife Lauren and their two kids, Alfie, six, and Ava, two

On Tuesday, Daily Mail Australia revealed that Zonfrillo had secretly battled bowel cancer for years.

A source said he kept his health problems from most friends and colleagues, usually receiving treatment when the Network Ten cooking program was not filming.

It is not suggested Zonfrillo died of cancer, only that he had told very close friends he was suffering from the disease.

It comes as the Ten Network announced that MasterChef's 15th season will premiere on Sunday, with the full support of the chef's grieving family.

The network and sponsors had been determined to respect the will of Zonfrillo's grieving wife Lauren.

A close friend and neighbour of Zonfrillo has since revealed that the celebrity chef sometimes opened up to him about his 'demons' over a glass of scotch.

Stuart Ayer told Daily Mail Australia he and his wife struck up a close relationship with the TV star's family during the three years they were next-door neighbours.

'I was a bit choked up when I found out he died, and I still am,' Mr Ayer said.

'We used to sit and talk about our demons - he was open about his demons in his book, but I have my own and we'd chat about them over a scotch.

'I found it really helpful - he was a great guy.'

Zonfrillo's neighbour Stuart Ayer said he and the chef spoke about their 'demons' over scotch

The Zonfrillo's lived in a two-storey rental in Carlton until a few weeks ago, when they packed up and moved to Italy

The Glasgow-born chef (pictured with wife Lauren) had left his family behind in Italy, where they had recently emigrated, to return to Australia for the launch of the new season of the hit cooking show

Zonfrillo opened up about his battle with heroin addiction, his rise to the top of the culinary world, and about his relationship struggles in his 2021 memoir, Last Shot.

In the book, he spoke candidly about how he began working for celebrated British chef Marco Pierre White at 17, when he was homeless and addicted to heroin.

When his boss realised he was sleeping in the restaurant, he found him accommodation and lent him cash.

Zonfrillo moved to Australia aged 20 in 1996 and gained work at Forty One in Sydney's central business district. He was using cocaine, pills, LSD and cannabis, but kept a raging heroin addiction hidden from everyone.

He went back to the UK when his visa ran out in 1997. Two years later he took his last shot of heroin in the toilets at Heathrow airport before returning Down Under, and used the experience as inspiration for his book title.

Arriving in Sydney, he stayed at his then girlfriend Kelly's parents' house as he went cold turkey, a process he describes as 'horrific'.

'For 10 days I was vomiting and screaming and s**ting all over the place before the fever finally broke,' he wrote.

The MasterChef star, 46, was found dead by police at Zagame's House hotel in Melbourne (pictured) at about 2am on Monday

The hotel is just metres away from his former inner-city home in Carlton

'I've always said, "If it wasn't for food, I would've died".'

Speaking with Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday, Mr Ayer said they kept each other company during Melbourne's lengthy Covid lockdowns, and would pop their heads over the fence to ask how the other was going.

'Then after lockdown, Jock would say "I've made some food, do you want to come round?" and we'd have dinner or something.'

Speaking about Zonfrillo's relationship with his wife, Mr Ayer said 'they were a really solid couple'.

'The kids were the light of his life,' he said. 'They're great kids and it's such a tragedy.'

Mr Ayer gushed about the Zonfrillo family and talked about how they were 'wonderful people' and good neighbours.

The Zonfrillo's moved out of their two-storey $3000-a-week rental and moved to Italy a few weeks ago.

MasterChef hosts Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Zonfrillo appearing at the 2022 AACTA Awards

A source told Daily Mail Australia the chef 'wanted to live in Italy for a while', but his wife was initially reluctant.

'It was something he was planning, then she changed her mind,' the source said. 'She wanted change.'

Zonfrillo was just settling into their new life when he had to return to Melbourne to undertake promotional work for the new season of MasterChef, which was supposed to start airing on Monday evening.

Zonfrillo was also in the early stages of planning a new restaurant and had started working on a cookbook prior to his shock death.

His wife and kids stayed in Rome and were expecting Zonfrillo to re-join them once his work with Channel 10 this week was complete.

The family are understood to have returned to Melbourne on Tuesday night.
Stars of two of Bravo's Real Housewives reality shows came out in force to support author Rori Sassoon at the launch of her new book The Art of Marriage.

Real Housewives of New Jersey stars Melissa Gorga, Joe Gorga, Margaret Josephs and her husband Joe Benigno were joined by Real Housewives of New York star Dorinda Medley at the event, held at T Bar NYC in Manhattan.

They were joined by Divorce Court bailiff Nick Barrotta, Tom Ierna, Brian Atwood, Dr. Jake Deutsch, Franco Lacosta and Amy Rosenblum.

Melissa Gorga stepped out in a sleeveless peach mini-dress with a number of gold necklaces dangling from her neck.

She also wore a black leather jacket at times during the event with a gold watch and a number of rings.

Support: Stars of two of Bravo's Real Housewives reality shows came out in force to support author Rori Sassoon at the launch of her new book The Art of Marriage

All smiles: Real Housewives of New Jersey stars Melissa Gorga (right), Joe Gorga, Margaret Josephs (left) and her husband Joe Benigno were joined by Real Housewives of New York star Dorinda Medley at the event, held at T Bar NYC in Manhattan.

Gorga completed her look with a pair of black knee-high heeled boots while carrying a black leather Christian Dior purse.

She posed with the author Rori Sassoon, who wrote The Art of Marriage with Dr. Errol Gluck, who opted for a black and silver Dolce & Gabbana halter top under a black coat and wide-legged black pants.

Gorga's RHONJ co-star Margaret Josephs, who opted for a white blouse with gold link necklace and large hoop earrings, with a black skirt and gold platform heels.

Josephs also posed with her husband of 10 years Joe Benigno, who opted for a powder blue t-shirt under a blue plaid coat.

Benigno also posed with another Joe - Melissa Gorga's husband Joe Gorga - who rocked a black shirt with a silver chain under a white coat, while posing with Nick Barrotta, clad in a black suit.

Real Housewives of New York star Dorinda Medley also stopped by, donning a black suit coat, black pants and black heels, while holding a black YSL clutch.

The author also posed with Tom Ierna, Franco Lacosta and Amy Rosenblum at the launch party.

Sassoon and Dr. Errol Gluck were also seen signing copies of their new book at the launch event.

Gorga and Tom Ierna also posed with guests Brian Atwood and Dr. Jake Deutsch at the book launch.

Author: She posed with the author Rori Sassoon (middle), who wrote The Art of Marriage with Dr. Errol Gluck, who opted for a black and silver Dolce & Gabbana halter top under a black coat and wide-legged black pants.

Margaret and Joe: Josephs also posed with her husband of 10 years Joe Benigno, who opted for a powder blue t-shirt under a blue plaid coat

Two Joe's and a Nick: Benigno also posed with another Joe - Melissa Gorga's husband Joe Gorga - who rocked a black shirt with a silver chain under a white coat, while posing with Nick Barrotta, clad in a black suit.

Dorinda: Real Housewives of New York star Dorinda Medley also stopped by, donning a black suit coat, black pants and black heels, while holding a black YSL clutch

Guests: The author also posed with Tom Ierna, Franco Lacosta and Amy Rosenblum at the launch party

Sign: Sassoon and Dr. Errol Gluck were also seen signing copies of their new book at the launch event

Pose: Gorga and Tom Ierna also posed with guests Brian Atwood and Dr. Jake Deutsch at the book launch

Bravo is currently airing the 13th season of Real Housewives of New Jersey, which airs Tuesday nights.

Real Housewives of New York City is getting ready to kick off its 14th season on Sunday, July 16.

Both Melissa and Joe Gorga were focal points of Tuesday night's episode of Real Housewives of New Jersey.

The married couple were surprisingly excluded from Teresa Giudice's pre-wedding dinner during the episode.
Madame Tussuads has brutally snubbed Meghan Markle as it unveiled a waxwork of King Charles III in Sydney on Wednesday.

Ahead of his coronation this weekend, the museum had a special ceremony outside Sydney's Queen Victoria Building to show off the uncanny figure of King Charles.

He was displayed alongside his wax figure family, William, Kate, and Harry, as uniformed guards stood at their sides.

However, Meghan's waxwork was notably missing, while Harry's figure was placed to the side on his own, off the red carpet.

This is despite Madame Tussauds Sydney having a Meghan figure in its collection, as it advertises on its website that customers can 'feel like royalty' by standing next to her.

Madame Tussuads has brutally snubbed Meghan Markle as it unveiled a waxwork of King Charles III in Sydney on Wednesday

The museum likely decided not to include Meghan's waxwork because she will not be attending King Charles' coronation on May 6.

Harry will be attending his father's ceremony while Meghan will stay at home in Montecito, California, with one-year-old Lilibet and Archie, whose fourth birthday is on the same day.

However, it is unlikely that Harry will have any role in the coronation or stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony.

King Charles was displayed alongside his wax figure family, William, Kate, and Harry, as uniformed guards stood at their sides, however, Meghan's waxwork was notably missing

It was announced that Meghan would not be attending the coronation following months of tension between the Sussexes and the rest of the royals following the release of Prince Harry's memoir Spare.

The couple's friend Omid Scobie confirmed Archie's birthday 'played a factor in the couple's decision' for Meghan not to attend and that he expected it would be a 'fairly quick trip to the UK' for Harry.

An anonymous friend told People that while Meghan wanted attend the coronation to support her father-in-law 'the scrutiny she receives outweighs the support.'

It was announced that Meghan would not be attending the coronation following months of tension between the Sussexes and the rest of the royals following the release of Prince Harry's memoir Spare

They added: 'There's always going to be that other side challenging their reasoning, and who wants to put themselves in that position?'

Construction for the wax figure of King Charles that was unveiled in Sydney on Wednesday began nine months ago in Madame Tussauds' London studios.

Madame Tussauds Sydney has been contacted and asked why Meghan Markle's wax figure wasn't included at Wednesday's ceremony.
Idina Menzel kept it classy in an all-black outfit on Tuesday while attending the 15th annual Music Will benefit in Los Angeles.

The 51-year-old singing star was honored at the benefit held downtown at The Novo along with Tom Morello and Babyface.

Idina looked lovely in a black jumpsuit that featured black button embellishments on top and loose flared trousers.

The Tony Award-winning entertainer accessorized with large sparkling earrings and accentuated her natural beauty with smoky eye makeup and pink lipstick.

Idina carried a round black purse while walking the carpet at the benefit presented by the Hot Topic Foundation.

Singing star: Idina Menzel kept it classy in an all-black outfit on Tuesday while attending the 15th annual Music Will benefit in Los Angeles

The New York City native was selected as an honoree for her impact as an entertainer and philanthropist.

Idina co-founded A BroaderWay Foundation in 2010 with former husband Taye Diggs, 52, to support young people in the arts.

She also co-wrote a 2022 children's book with her sister, Cara Mentzel, called Loud Mouse about a mouse named Dee who loves to sing loudly.

Babyface, real name Kenneth Brian Edmonds, looked sharp at the event in a light blue suit that he wore along with a white undershirt and black dress shoes.

He accessorized with sunglasses and necklace while walking the carpet.

Babyface, 64, was accompanied by his girlfriend Rika Tischendorf, 33, who wore a long pink dress with a high-thigh slit.

Rage Against The Machine musician Tom, 58, kept it casual in a black T-shirt, matching jeans and boots.

Tom was honored for his political activism while Baby was recognized for his impact as a songwriter, producer and mentor.

Babyface and Tom at the event got together with Chuck D for a group photo.

Classy look: The 51-year-old singing star looked lovely in a black jumpsuit that featured black button embellishments on top and loose flared trousers

Blue suit: Babyface, real name Kenneth Brian Edmonds, looked sharp at the event in a light blue suit that he wore along with a white undershirt and black dress shoes

Cute couple: The 64-year-old producer was accompanied by his girlfriend Rika Tischendorf, 33, who wore a long pink dress with a high-thigh slit

Casual style: Rage Against The Machine musician Tom Morello, 58, kept it casual in a black T-shirt, matching jeans and boots

Group photo: Babyface and Tom at the event got together with Chuck D, center, for a group photo.

Music Will, formerly known as Little Kids Rock, makes popular music more accessible to children.

The New Jersey-based non-profit previously has honored such acts as Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Smokey Robinson, and Joan Jett, among others.

Babyface in support of Music Will has committed to focus on launching programs in his hometown of Indianapolis, Tom has committed responsibilities among 20 schools between Los Angeles and Chicago and Idina will be spending her time between schools in Los Angeles and New York.

The program dates back to 1996 when David Wish, a first grade teacher in East Palo Alto, California, started giving free guitar lessons to his students after becoming frustrated with the lack of music education at his school.
During his trip to Ethiopia and Kenya, the German chancellor will focus on reaffirming strategic alliances and calling for a peaceful solution in Sudan.

When Chancellor Olaf Scholz begins his East Africa trip in Ethiopia on Thursday, it should not just be about shaking hands, said Jurgen Cosse, a member of the Chancellor's SPD party.

"The fact that you not only want to support a sustainable peace process, but also travel to this country is a strong signal," Cosse told DW.

For Cosse, that means stating clearly: "We stand by the people who want peace and stability where they were born."

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed -- once a beacon of hope -- spent two years waging war against insurgents in the northern Tigray region. In addition, Abiy also enlisted support from Ethiopia's former enemy, Eritrea.

The Tigray conflict significantly strained Addis Ababa's relations with Berlin. However, after the rival parties reached a peace agreement in November 2022, the signs now point toward warmer relations.

Restart in Ethiopia-Germany relations

According to human rights activist Befekadu Hailu, this is crucial for the government in Addis Ababa.

"Germany has been one of the biggest financial supporters of Ethiopia and its relationship with the government has been for the most part very friendly," Befekadu told DW.

Regarding trade, Ethiopia was the ninth-largest coffee exporter in 2021, with $1.16 billion (1.05 billion) in exports. In the same year, coffee ranked as Ethiopia's top export.

According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), Germany is the world's leading importer of Ethiopian coffee, followed by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea, respectively.

"The Ethiopian government wants to normalize relationships so that it can, again, be beneficiary of these opportunities," Befekadu said.

Sudan's crisis looms large

Germany has another item on its agenda in the Horn of Africa: The German government announced the meeting with PM Abiy and President Sahle-Work Zewde would also focus on regional and international security, particularly the crisis in Sudan.

For more than two weeks, a power struggle between army and coup leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander, General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, has taken many by surprise, said SPD politician Cosse, who is also the rapporteur for East Africa.

Cosse believes there are still many opportunities for Germany to exert influence.

"It starts with the issue: can we make sure that no more weapons are supplied to this country?" Cosse also recommended talking to parties to the conflict and always considering that Sudan's civil society needs to be supported.

Peace and stability in the region

Peacekeeping in the region will also be on the agenda when Chancellor Scholz talks to Moussa Faki Mahamat, President of the African Union (AU) Commission based in Addis Ababa.

The meeting with the AU chief will also play a role at Scholz's last stop in Kenya. The East African nation is considered an anchor of stability in the region and has often distinguished itself as a conflict mediator.

But it is not only the opposition in the German parliament that is keeping a close eye on the government's actions in international conflicts. According to activist Befekadu Hailu, it is also a matter of striking the right tone with African partners.

"European countries like Germany must always listen first to what Africans are saying and not appear to be the purveyors of solutions," Befekadu said, adding that they [European countries] must act as mediators, as partners -- not as saviors, saving people from themselves.

A thin line between external support and internal interference

However, Kenyan political analyst Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha, said urging the parties to the Sudan conflict to hold talks cannot be seen as interference in internal affairs.

"It's not internal affairs when people are killed," Nyaigotti-Chacha told DW.

"After all, among the dead were citizens of other countries," he said, stressing that the Sudanese also have a right to be protected. "First by their country and then also by neighboring countries in the Horn of Africa together with our friends like Germany."

"For us, the main focus is strengthening sustainable economic partnerships and providing visible political support for the German economy and its projects in Kenya," Sabine Dall'Omo, newly elected Chairperson of the German-African Business Association, who will accompany the Chancellor on his trip, said in a statement.

"During the visit to Ethiopia, we hope for further support from the German government in the peace process and the major pan-African economic projects -- especially the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area."

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Kenya-Germany relations on a solid foundation

Olaf Scholz should have a pleasant end to his Africa trip in Kenya. After all, Kenya's new President, William Ruto, only a month ago made his inaugural visit to Berlin.

Germany was the first country to establish an embassy in independent Kenya in 1963.

President Ruto has distanced himself from China as an economic partner and has explicitly opposed Russia's war in Ukraine, which may also have endeared him to Germany and the West.

Kenya was one of the few African countries to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the UN Security Council. Chancellor Scholz is now coming -- with a large business delegation -- at the direct invitation of Ruto, also to reaffirm a new energy partnership.

The visit to a German-supported geothermal plant in the Rift Valley, which is particularly suitable for this purpose, is intended to make this visible.

Kenya generates about 90% of its electricity from renewable energy sources.

"For German companies, Kenya remains among the top five export markets in sub-Saharan Africa, with 260 million in 2022," Dall'Omo said.

This article was initially written in German
Lila Moss enjoyed a low-key stroll in NYC with pals on Tuesday a day after her glamorous appearance at the Met Gala.

The model, 20, went makeup free for the casual outing where she wore a navy jumper and light blue denim jeans.

She completed the look with a brown leather jacket and chunky black boots while accessorising with a gold necklace.

Lila was seen enjoying a green energy juice while sitting on a bench with her friends.

The beauty wore her blonde tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and opted for a no makeup look.

Chilled: Lila Moss enjoyed a low-key stroll in NYC with pals on Tuesday a day after her glamorous appearance at the Met Gala

Stunning: The night before she stunned in a quirky fluffy frock that featured a sheer panel to showcase her tiny waist as she posed on the red carpet

The night before she stunned in a quirky fluffy frock that featured a sheer panel to showcase her tiny waist as she posed on the red carpet with famous mum Kate, 49.

The ensemble featured a voluminous skirt and plunging top, the blonde beauty wore her locks slicked back and accessorised with statement earrings.

Lila was joined by her mother Kate at the event held at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday evening.

The supermodel oozed sophistication in a pink lingerie inspired gown, which hugged every inch of her svelte figure.

The satin frock boasted a plunging neckline and lace trim which the catwalk queen teamed with a flowing sheer cape.

Kate, who shares her daughter with ex Jefferson Hack, accentuated her features with a radiant palette of make-up and lashings of mascara by Charlotte Tilbury while opting to wear her blonde hair loose.

She completed the look with a diamond necklace and matching bracelet, while adding height to her frame with heels.

The biggest night in fashion took place on Monday night with a slew of the industry's most notable stars walking the red carpet to showcase their glamorous and daring looks.

Low-key: The model, 20, went makeup free for the casual outing where she wore a navy jumper and light blue denim jeans

Ensemble: She completed the look with a brown leather jacket and chunky black boots while accessorising with a gold necklace

Twins: Lila was joined by her mother Kate at the event held at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday evening.

Pretty: The ensemble featured a voluminous skirt and plunging top, the blonde beauty wore her locks slicked back and accessorised with statement earrings

The 2023 Met Gala returned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, with everyone from Kim Kardashian to Paris Hilton attending the fundraising event.

Since 1948, stars have ascended the majestic staircase into a very exclusive party where no selfies are allowed.

In keeping with tradition, the event was held on the first Monday of May and the annual extravaganza kicked off at 6:30PM EST on May 1.

The ball's theme was Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty. The late German designer was Chanel's long-time creative director. He passed at age 85 in 2019.

His beloved cat, Choupette, was even invited to the festivities.

The decision to honor Karl sparked controversy given the many offensive remarks he has made over the years, from slamming the #MeToo movement to opposing same-sex marriage.

'I'm against it for a very simple reason: In the 60s they all said we had the right to the difference. And now, suddenly, they want a bourgeois life,' he told Vice of same-sex marriage.

'It's difficult to imagineone of the papas at work and the other at home with the baby. How would that be for the baby? I don't know. I see more lesbians married with babies than I see boys married with babies. And I also believe more in the relationship between mother and child than in that between father and child.'

While he ultimately showed his support for same-sex marriage at his spring 2013 Chanel haute couture show, he still said he was 'less keen' on same-sex couples adopting children, according to AP.

Along with the Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, who runs and hosts the annual event, the 2023 MET Gala was co-hosted by Penelope Cruz, Dua Lipa, Michaela Coel and also Roger Federer.

While the show may be known for its glitzy and over-the-top red carpet - with details of what occurs inside often remaining mysterious - at its heart, it is a fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute.

Last year, the 2022 MET Gala alone raised a grand total of $17.4 million, reported Billboard.

This year the price of admission was raised from $30,000 to $50,000, according to Page Six. But even if you have the funds, that doesn't guarantee you entry into the party.

Every guest has to be invited, and a waiting list exists for the coveted golden ticket.

And status matters, according to The New York Times, meaning the hottest stars are a shoo in for an invite.

Heiress Paris was among the biggest names to attend the event, in what marked her first ever Met Gala.

However it didn't go off without a hitch, as her grand Met Gala entrance was blocked by angry climate change protestors who laid in front of her vehicle.

But the small disruption didn't stop the billionaire from arriving on the red carpet and stunning an off-the-shoulder leather dress.

The best dressed of the night included Met vet Kim, who wowed in an incredible pearl dress, as she seemingly revisiting her Playboy look from 2007 by accident.

Kim wore custom Schiaparelli, covered in 50,000 pearls that were hand-strung and draped onto her body.

The mother of four revealed that she wanted pearls because 'what is more Karl' than 'iconic Chanel pearls,' she said during her interview on Vogue.com's livestream.

Pose up a storm: Kate oozed sophistication in a pink lingerie inspired gown, which hugged every inch of her svelte figure

Family: Lila has followed in her famous mother's footsteps with a hugely successful career in modelling

Pregnant Rihanna, Gisele and Emily Ratajkowski also honored Karl in their statement gowns as they brought their A-game to the red carpet.

Meanwhile, Blake Lively, a frequent attendee, announced she would not be attending the party this year. 'I will be watching,' she said, according to People.

As for Wintour's role in the bash, Vogue's editor-in-chief organizes the party and oversees the guest list and even the menu.

She has served as the Met Gala's chairwoman since 1994 and continues to serve look after look at every event.
Emily Ratajkowski looked stunning in a series of photos shared to Instagram on Tuesday.

In the snaps, the 31-year-old model showed off her enviable curves in a daring, plunging minidress decorated with purple sequins  one of her many outfit changes from her Met Gala night.

The day before, the My Body author attended the exclusive affair hosted at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and hit up extravagant after parties following the event.

The High Low with EmRata podcast host rocked the same hairstyle that she sported on the red carpet  blunt, straight bangs and voluminous ringlets that were pinned back.

In the caption, the former actress used a clever play on the French phrase for 'after party' and wrote: 'Apres Met'.

Sultry post: Emily Ratajkowski, 31, looked stunning in a series of photos shared to Instagram on Tuesday

After making her red carpet appearance in a plunging semi-sheer taupe gown, she did a quick outfit change out of a sheer, black corset dress.

In her photos, she documented her third outfit of the night and was seen posing in an elevator.

She also modeled while leaning against a wall and showed off various angles of the sexy ensemble. The snaps showed Ratajkowski putting on a sultry display in a halter-style dress with a flared micro skirt.

The Gone Girl alum paired the daring outfit with a white, sparkling mini purse and black, pointed-toe stiletto heels.

For jewelry, she accessorized with a few dainty bracelets, diamond stud earrings, and silver rings.

She looked glamorous in a dramatic cut-crease, smokey eyeshadow look paired with a nude lip. The iCarly vet appeared radiant and subtly flushed with a warm wash of coral blush across her cheeks.

For her Met Gala red carpet appearance, she donned a semi-sheer taupe gown made out of tulle and delicate black ribbon details.

The tight-fitting gown featured a plunging neckline and a dramatic, floor-sweeping train as part of the sheer skirt.

Cheeky pose: In the snaps, the model showed off her enviable curves in a daring, plunging minidress decorated with purple sequins  one of her outfit changes from Met Gala night

Headed to the party: In her photos, she documented her third outfit of the night and was seen posing in an elevator

Bouncy locks: The High Low with EmRata podcast host rocked the same hairstyle that she sported on the red carpet  blunt, straight bangs and voluminous ringlets that were pinned back

Mesmerizing: The day before, the My Body author attended the exclusive affair hosted at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and hit up extravagant after parties following the event

Sexy and sweet: She made her red carpet appearance in a semi-sheer taupe gown made out of tulle and delicate black ribbon details

Sparkling: She accessorized with a hard gold clutch and a dazzling pair of dangling earrings with teardrop-shaped diamonds

She carried a hard, rose gold clutch and sported a dazzling pair of dangling earrings with teardrop-shaped diamonds.

The mother-of-one was also photographed heading to the star-studded after party at Zero Bond sometime during the night in a figure-hugging, entirely sheer midi dress.

She paired the show-stopping garment with sheer opera gloves and a clutch adorned with black feathers.

Ratajkowski further accessorized the outfit by covering herself with a lavish amount of pearls and silver jewelry  including a belt that read 'EMRATA'. To finish off the cheeky look, she donned a pair of black heels with thin straps.
Kim Kardashian has revealed that daughter North West helped to save the day when she suffered a wardrobe malfunction on the way to the Met Gala.

The reality star, 42, looked sensational in a gown made from 50,000 freshwater pearls, courtesy of Schiaparellis Daniel Roseberry.

Yet as she made her way to fashion's biggest event on Monday, disaster struck when some of her pearls began to fall off.

Thankfully, nine-year-old North was in the car with her mum and was quick to help save the day.

Speaking to Vogue on the red carpet - where North was watching on from a car - she revealed: 'Some popped on the way, and I told my daughter to grab them all.'

Helping hand: Kim Kardashian has revealed that daughter North West helped to save the day when she suffered a wardrobe malfunction on the way to the Met Gala

Oops: The reality star, 42, looked sensational in a gown made from 50,000 freshwater pearls, courtesy of Schiaparellis Daniel Roseberry but disaster struck when it began to unravel

She added: 'They're real pearls, and she was putting them all in her purse.'

While Kim has not disclosed the price of her gown, fine quality freshwater pearls can fetch between $65 and $5,000, so it's not surprising she wanted to save the gems.

Although Kim looked incredible at the start of the night, wearing a strings of beads proved to be not the most practical choice on an evening out.

As she headed home from the event, The Kardashians star looked like could easily trip up over the strands of pearls in her killer heels.

And sadly she did get herself in a bit of a taffle, because minutes later, the strings of pearls were pictured looking broken and hanging from the garment in shreds.

The fashion icon left a trail of pearls on the floor and shocked Kim could be seen looking down at the damage as she ran inside the hotel, cutting her night short.

Speaking about the inspiration for her look, she revealed: 'I wanted pearls. I thought, "What is more Karl [Lagerfield]?" You know, the iconic Chanel pearls is what I always thought of. So we wanted to just be dripping in pearls.'

Earlier in the night, Kim had all eyes on her while walking the red carpet - including daughter North who watched on from a nearby car.

Making a mess: Although Kim looked incredible at the start of the night, wearing a strings of beads proved to be not the most practical choice on an evening out as they unraveled

According to The Hollywood Reporter, an age restriction mandating that attendees be at least 18 years old was first put in place in 2018.

Prior to that year, children such as Willow Smith had been invited to the star-studded event.

The theme for the 2018 iteration of the Met Gala was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, and it's organizers provided a statement to express that the function was 'not an appropriate event for people under 18.'

It was also reported that exceptions could be made for guests accompanied by their parents.

The theme for this year's Met Gala was Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, which served to honor the late designer, who passed away in 2019.

Although North did not get to spend time on the event's red carpet, she wore a vintage Chanel jacket and a pair of slightly distressed blue jeans while leaving the Ritz-Carlton.

The daughter of Kardashian and Kanye West also carried a conch shell-shaped clutch as she spent time with her mother.
Ed Sheeran broke down in tears as his wife Cherry Seaborn admitted she feared she would die when she was diagnosed with cancer.

Doctors discovered Cherry, 30, had a tumour in her arm in February last year while she was six months pregnant with their second child, daughter Jupiter.

In his Disney+ documentary, The Sum Of It All, the couple recalled their 'horrible' start to 2022 which saw Cherry battle cancer, Ed's best friend Jamal Edwards die suddenly and a court case launched over his song Shape Of You, where Ed was accused of plagiarising and which he later won.

'I got diagnosed with cancer at the start of the year, which was a massive s*****r,' Cherry said of why she said yes to letting the cameras into their notoriously private life.

'But it made me massively reflect on our mortality. We're all human. I was saying to Ed I would have never agreed to do anything like this but it made me think, this whole year "If I die, what's people's perception of me? What do you leave behind?".

Emotional: Ed Sheeran broke down in tears as his wife Cherry Seaborn admitted she feared she would die when she was diagnosed with cancer

Tough: In his Disney+ documentary, the couple recalled their 'horrible' start to 2022 which saw Cherry battle cancer

'For Ed he wants to say "I'm not just this music machine, a robot trying to get number ones. I'm a father. I'm a son, husband, friend". And I've massively reflected. It wasn't until this year where I thought "I might die". It was horrible.'

When Cherry first sought medical help, she was initially told by a doctor 'this is really bad' and that she had cancer.

The mother-of-two immediately rang Ed telling him to cancel all of his plans, while they waited an agonizing month long wait for the full report.

But Cherry, who was six months pregnant at the time, was told there were no treatment plans that would work with her pregnancy.

After a sequencing test was done on the tumour, the couple found it was much less severe than what was thought originally and surgery could be done after she had given birth to Jupiter.

Cherry said: 'It was the most incredible news. I nearly threw up when the surgeon told us we could wait to the end of the pregnancy to get the tumour out.

'We didn't have to worry about delivering the baby early.'

But the couple faced the most devastating blow, when a day later, Ed's best friend Jamal died suddenly aged 31.

The music mogul died from a cardiac arrest after a late night cocaine and drinking session.

Health scare: 'I got diagnosed with cancer at the start of the year, which was a massive s*****r,' Cherry said as doctors were unable to treat her due to her pregnancy

Hard: When Cherry first went to the doctors, she was initially told 'this is really bad' and that she had cancer, but after initial scans they found she could be treated after pregnancy

The pair became close after Jamal's YouTube channel SBTV helped to propel Ed into the spotlight, and the entrepreneur gave the aspiring musician a place to sleep when he was 18 and had no place to live in London.

'I was hit by heavy stuff one after the other. They found a tumour in Cherry's arm. The diagnosis wasn't good,' Ed said.

'She was pregnant and they can't do anything. Then suddenly I'm in this three week court case. Then Jamal dies.

'The moment you find out that the worst thing in the world has happened to someone you truly love with all your heart, you feel like you're drowning and can't get out from under it.

'I remember being sat in this specialists waiting room thinking the worst was going to happen. I'm worried about Cherry.

Heartbroken: The couple faced the most devastating blow, when a day after discovering Cherry could have treatment after the birth of their daughter , Ed's best friend Jamal died

' I was hit by heavy stuff one after the other. They found a tumour in Cherry's arm. The diagnosis wasn't good,' Ed said. 'She was pregnant and they can't do anything', he said

Soulmates: Ed and Cherry were childhood sweethearts, having grown up together in the same town. They tied the knot in 2019

Surprise! Ed and Cherry went on to welcome Jupiter and announced her arrival in May with a sweet Instagram post. The couple are also proud parents to Lyra, two

Tragedy: Ed lost his best friend Jamal Edwards last February. Jamal died suddenly aged 31

Moved: Fans were in tears watching the documentary, which hit the streaming platform on Wednesday

'The unborn daughter, that's in her. You start writing a song and you vent a little bit and that's why songs get written.'

Ed and Cherry went on to welcome Jupiter and announced her arrival in May with a sweet Instagram post. The couple are also proud parents to Lyra, two.

Later in the documentary, Cherry gave an update on her health after going for a check-up appointment months after the initial surgery - and was thrilled when she was told the tumour hadn't come back.

She said: 'Yesterday I had follow up scan in my arm to see if the tumour had come back. We were silent in the car as we were worried it would be bad.

'It was super triggering being in the same room when things weren't so positive at the start of the year. The surgeon looked at the scans and it all looks good. The Lymph nodes have all calmed down. That was amazing. it was massive for us.'

Fans were in tears watching the documentary, which hit the streaming platform on Wednesday.

One wrote: ' just have seen the @edsheeran @DisneyPlus documentary, and wooow it was amazing. loved every f*****g second of it.'

Another added: 'That documentary for Ed Sheeran... all I can say is have tissue ready.'

A third viewer chimed: 'just watching your documentary on Disney+ mad me laugh had me in tears. Thankyou for sharing.'

Earlier this month, Ed revealed the opening track to his forthcoming album encapsulates his feelings towards depression as he sings, 'The more that I love, the less that I feel.'

Ed, whose album Subtract is released on May 5, has dedicated Boat, the first song on his sixth body of work, to the uphill struggle he's faced in recent years against grief, illness, and addiction.

Accompanying the new track, which was written by the English seaside, Ed premiered a video in which he is lashed by waves on a shore.

The father of two, who has documented his overwhelming feelings of depression in his upcoming series, sings 'but the waves won't break my boat', symbolic of his hope and determination as he recovers from a series of hard-hitting events.

In artwork captured by Annie Leibovitz, Ed can be seen running free from the crashing waves.
Channel 10 has revealed the premiere date for the new season of MasterChef Australia following the tragic death of judge Jock Zonfrillo.

Season 15 of the show had been due to launch on May 1 but it was pushed back after the Scottish chef was was found dead by police at a Melbourne hotel at 2am on Monday.

'With the full support of Jock Zonfrillo's family, MasterChef Australia will air at 7.30pm on Sunday, 7 May,' read a Channel 10 statement shared to Instagram on Wednesday.

'It is with Jock in our hearts that we cherish this season and remember the charismatic and big-hearted Judge and Chef who we knew and loved,' it went on.

'Jock will be remembered in the MasterChef Australia kitchen for years to come.'

Channel 10 has revealed the premiere date for the new season of MasterChef Australia following the tragic death of judge Jock Zonfrillo. Pictured

The network added that a special edition of The Sunday Project will pay tribute to Jock from 6.30pm on Sunday before the new series airs.

'With contributions from friends, he held closely, the show will honour Jock by reflecting on his personal and professional life in a celebration of his incredible achievements,' the statement continued.

Production wrapped on the 62-episode season at MasterChef HQ in Flemington, Melbourne, last month.

'With the full support of Jock Zonfrillo's family, MasterChef Australia will air at 7.30pm on Sunday, 7 May,' read a Channel 10 statement shared to Instagram on Wednesday

The new season reportedly cost 'millions' to make, and producers are now looking to add a special 'tribute' episode to Zonfrillo before confirming his replacement.

The chef died at age 46, and is survived by his third wife, Lauren Fried, and his four children: grown-up daughters Ava and Sophia, from his first two marriages, and six-year-old Alfie and two-year-old Isla, with Fried.

A Victoria Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: 'Police attended a Lygon Street address for a welfare check and located a man deceased about 2am on May 1.

'The 46-year-old man's death is not being treated as suspicious. A report will be prepared for the coroner.'

The new season reportedly cost 'millions' to make, and producers are now looking to add a special 'tribute' episode to Zonfrillo before confirming his replacement

Zonfrillo filmed season 15 alongside fellow judges Melissa Leong and Andy Allen, who both pulled out of their scheduled media interviews after his sudden death.

Allen and Leong were locked in for several TV and radio appearances this week to promote the launch of the culinary competition.

The publicity blitz had already begun on Monday morning in the hours before the network and production company Endemol Shine had learned of Zonfrillo's death.

Channel 10's entertainment reporter Angela Bishop was a guest on The Project on Monday evening - where Zonfrillo was scheduled to appear before his death - and said she had heard his co-stars were struggling to come to terms with the news.

'It is a loss of a member of the family here at 10... [He was] only 46. That is why this is such a shocking piece of news,' Bishop said.

The chef died at age 46, and is survived by his third wife, Lauren Fried (pictured) and his four children

'As you say, they would work 16-hour days together for MasterChef. You couldn't find closer work mates and confidantes.

'They are devastated. 'Broken' is the word described to me. They are trying to process this news.'

Zonfrillo's MasterChef colleagues did not seem to know he died until shortly before the news broke on Monday afternoon, as the publicity machine for the new season was in motion as late as 11.30am when Leong posted a countdown clock for the premiere on her Instagram account.

For confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14.
Binky Felstead has detailed her feelings of 'mum guilt' over her older two children as she battles sleepless nights with her newborn son Wilder.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 32, posted a teary-eyed selfie as she told her Instagram followers she was 'exhausted', felt like she was about to get sick and 'still bleeding' from the birth just over two weeks ago.

The TV personality opened up on her parenting struggles as she revealed Wilder was up 'every hour of the night' in a candid post on Tuesday.

Binky has Wilder and son Wolfie, who turns two next month, with her businessman husband Max Darnton, 33, and daughter India, five, with her Made In Chelsea co-star ex Josh Patterson, 33.

The mother-of-three said she had been 'over compensating' to make sure Wolfie and India are having the same amount of attention as normal, but it has now left her exhausted.

'Week three is the hardest': Binky Felstead has detailed her feelings of 'mum guilt' over her older two children as she battles sleepless nights with her newborn son Wilder

'Exhausted': The former Made In Chelsea star, 32, posted a teary-eyed selfie on Tuesday as she told her Instagram followers she was 'exhausted'

Posing with Wilder lying on her chest fast asleep, Binky admitted the last week had been the toughest.

She wrote: '"Week 3 is the hardest" someone said to me today on my walk.. not that I can remember the other two week 3s.

'I'm exhausted, feeling like I'm getting sick and still bleeding. Wilder was up every hour or so last night and today refusing to be put down for long.

'He's hungry ALL the time and I'm starting to feel guilty I'm not being my best self for the other two.

'I'm defiantly over compensating by trying to do everything still with them and making sure they can't tell the difference, but I feel like today it's starting to bite me in the a**e!

'I'm going to listen to my body and try to remember to be kind to myself. He's only been in the world for two days over two weeks!'

After sharing her exhaustion and mum struggles she revealed many of her 1.4 million followers reached out with 'empowering messages'.

Binky gushed how 'lucky' she is to have her social media fans and joked that it really does 'take a village'.

'It takes a village': The TV personality opened up on her parenting struggles as she revealed Wilder was up 'every hour of the night' in a candid post

Binky penned alongside a second adorable photo of her cuddling Wilder: 'Wow wow you lot are amazing.

'Never received so many incredible, empowering messages so quickly! Thank you, thank you. God hormones are out of CONTROL.

'They say it takes a village hey.... How lucky am I to have you all xxx thank you.... 4th trimester!'

Later in the evening, the reality star shared a third picture of the newborn fast asleep and revealed she has 'given into the dummy' which has been a 'game changer' for Wilder's sleep.

Binky added: 'Just had to give into the dummy this eve!!! So far game changer! India had one and I hated it as it was a nightmare to get rid of!

'Wolfie found his thumb! ... and needs must right now for this little guy! Picking my battles.'

Binky gave birth to her third child on April 17 in the plush 5,900-a-night Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, central London.

The reality star has been with her husband since February 2019, and they tied the knot in a lavish three-day celebration on the Greek island of Corfu in July 2022.

Binky and Max welcomed their first child together, Wolfie in June 2021.

Proud parents: Wilder is Binky's second child with businessman husband Max Darnton, 33, they are already parents to Wolfie, 23 months
The Crown and Game Of Thrones star Charles Dance has often raised eyebrows when pictured shirtless on the beach.

And the age-defying actor has revealed the brutal way he manages to stay in shape - swimming in freezing cold water and lifting weight.

He has said he enjoys going wild swimming at Hampstead Heath in north London for much of the year because he is able to stand the cold temperature.

He told The Mirror: 'Ive managed March until November, but theres a point six degrees is about my limit. Its quite cold, it takes you a long time to warm up. But you feel great afterwards.'

Acknowledging that he is lucky he has been blessed with good genes, he added: 'I try to eat sensibly and I do a range of basic weightlifting exercises to work on different bits of your body, but Im not bodybuilding.'

Swoon! Charles Dance, 76, has revealed his brutal secret to keeping his toned physique - pictured in Venice with his partner Alessandra Masi, now 54, in 2020

Blimey: Charles goes wild swimming in Hampstead Heath during much of the year but won't swim if it's less than six degrees - he also lifts weights (pictured as Lord Mountbatten in The Crown)

Character: Charles pictured as his character Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones

'Its just, you get to an age where you have to look after yourself, because your muscles begin to diminish. Dont stand me next to Arnold Schwarzenegger.'

Saying he thinks he looks OK, he said he has 'love handles' now and was surprised as he didn't think that would be something he would get.

But he said he has no problem with people swooning over him saying he prefers to be looked at rather than overlooked.

Charles was pictured on the beach in 2020 while attending the Venice Film Festival with younger girlfriend Alessandra Masi, now 54 - and is 22 years his junior.

They met on the set of his newly released film, The Book of Vision. Former actress Ms Masi was working as a production manager on the surreal historical movie which was shot on locations in Italy and Belgium.

The film features Dance as two doctors  one in modern London and the other in 18th century Prussia.

Asked what was his main memory of the movie, he said: To be honest, its meeting Alessandra.

The couple have now been together for around three years.

Couple: Charles pictured with Alessandra at Picturehouse Central on back in November

Movie: The couple met in 2018 when he acted in art movie The Book Of Vision, which opened at the Venice film festival (pictured in September 2020)

Charles - who starred as Tywin Lannister in the first four series of Game of Thrones - and as Lord Mountbatten in the third season of The Crown, was married to Joanna Haythorn from 1970 to 2004, and they have two grown-up children.

He then dated actress Sophia Myles, then in her 20s, who has starred in films including Thunderbirds, but they split in 2005.

Charles was also linked to French-born ex-Gucci model Shambhala Marthe, and then dated artist Eleanor Boorman for four years.

Despite welcoming baby daughter Rose together in 2012 and even getting engaged, the couple split months later.
Alison King's ex-fiance David Stuckey is expecting a baby with his new girlfriend in just a matter of weeks, MailOnline can exclusively reveal.

The Coronation Street star, 50, split with her toyboy partner, 41, just 12 months ago, parting ways 'amicably' after drifting apart.

But it can now be revealed the IT consultant has moved on with small business owner Jenny Burr - with a baby boy due later this month.

David is living with his new girlfriend, a single mum from Wilmslow, and they even enjoyed a family getaway to Santorini last August with her son from a previous relationship. David also shares two sons with a former partner.

He had been set to marry Alison, 50, in a Greek ceremony three years ago before their plans were thwarted by coronavirus restrictions.

EXCLUSIVE: Alison King's ex-fiance David Stuckey is expecting a baby with his new girlfriend in WEEKS... after splitting with the Coronation Street star just 12 months ago

Exes: The soap star had planned to exchange vows with the IT consultant in Greece before coronavirus restrictions forced them to cancel their May 2020 ceremony with just weeks to go (pictured in 2019)

A source told MailOnline: 'It seems David has moved on, with a baby boy due this month.

'There are loads of pictures on Facebook of him with his new girlfriend. They even went on a family holiday to Santorini in Greece.'

It was on the Facebook account for her handmade stationery business that Jenny announced her pregnancy last month.

She wrote: 'So for those of you that dont knowwe have some exciting news at SSD HQ!

'Im due mid May, so in 4 weeks I will be taking a little break which means youve got the next few weeks to get your orders in!

'Watch this space as we will be offering lots of discounts and last chance to buy items over the next couple of weeks!

'I will of course keep you updated when baby arrives and when we open back up I have some very exciting news and new products to share with you!'

MailOnline has contacted David and Jenny for comment, as well as representatives for Alison.

Oh no! Coronation Street's Alison split with David just 12 months ago, parting 'amicably' after drifting apart (pictured in-character)

David's split from Alison was revealed last May.

The soap star had planned to exchange vows with the IT consultant in Greece before coronavirus restrictions forced them to cancel their May 2020 ceremony with just weeks to go.

But the couple - who began dating in March 2018 - soon 'grew apart' and 'parted amicably'.

A source said: 'Alison and David have sadly decided to separate. They were very much in love for a long time but have ended up growing apart.

'They parted amicably and both wish each other the best in the future.'

David popped the question with a ring he designed himself during a romantic sunset cruise in Portugal - which they nearly had to cancel thanks to a slew of ominous clouds on the horizon.

Officially introducing her fiance during an interview with OK! Magazine in 2019, the star also revealed that she had 'an inkling' David was going to propose and made sure she brought along a Rolex on the trip as an engagement present for him.

Shame: But the couple - who began dating in March 2018 - soon 'grew apart' and 'parted amicably' (pictured in 2019)

Happier times: A source said at the time: 'They were very much in love for a long time but have ended up growing apart' (pictured in 2019)

Revealing that the proposal happened just a few days before their one-year anniversary, she explained: 'I had an inkling he was going to pop the question because he kept putting something on my finger and going: "right, close your eyes and forget this ever happened!"'

'Wed also discussed marriage, too. I think we both went from "no, we dont ever need to get married" to "oh, we really want to get married!"'

Alison explained that the lead-up to the proposal wasn't all smooth sailing, as they were met with 'black clouds over the sea while driving towards the port at Albufeira.'

However, with a team of dedicated crew-members, the cruise carried on as planned, and IT Salesman David got down on bended knee to pop the question with a ring he had designed himself.

Alison gushed: 'Id bought him a Rolex as an engagement present too. I said: "Yes please," and then I gave him the watch! It was perfect, even though it didnt go to plan!'

Discussing their age gap, she claimed that he's 'already very mature' and wanted someone with children, as he was a father himself.

With the proposal happening over the summer, a source told The Sun at the time that Alison is 'very excited' after her partner popped the question.

Onto the next: 'They parted amicably and both wish each other the best in the future' (pictured in 2016)

The source said some of Alison's closest friends in the cast such as Kym Marsh and Jane Danson were thrilled to learn of her engagement news.

They said: 'Ali is so popular with everyone on the cobbles. They think it's wonderful.

Detailing their love story, the actress, who is known for playing Carla Connor on Corrie, revealed that they met in March 2018 after being set up by their mutual personal trainer.

'The engagement is a lovely surprise. Ali is over the moon. Ali has obviously endured heartache in the past. But she is hoping those days are now firmly behind her. She is very excited about what the future holds.'

It comes after Alison broke off her engagement to Corrie sound technician Adam Huckett in 2012. The couple share daughter Daisy, ten.

Despite getting engaged in September 2011 on a trip to Paris, it was revealed in October 2012 that the pair had split.

Alison then dated Hollyoaks assistant director Paul Slavin, after the couple were spotted together in 2016.
The official coronation of King Charles III is drawing ever closer.

From free TV licenses to extended coverage packages and deep dive documentaries, leading broadcasters have announced their plans for the coronation.

This will be only the second-ever coronation to be televised, as King Charles is crowned as the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom.

As the historic day gets underway, here is a full breakdown of how to watch the coronation.

King Charles will be officially crowned as the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, whilst Camilla will also be crowned as Queen

BBC coronation coverage

The BBC will broadcast proceedings across its network, with the coronation available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Coverage commences at 7:30am.

The broadcaster will also show a version with sign language on BBC Two, with Petroc Trelawny hosting accessible coverage via the Red Button.

The broadcaster has also confirmed a special one-off TV licence dispensation for the Coronation of HM King Charles III.

If you are hosting an event, you wont need a TV licence to screen coverage of the Coronation on 6 May 2023, or the Coronation Concert on 7 May 2023.

However, there will not be screens along the procession route.

If you wish to watch the broadcast of events (including the Coronation service), you should visit one of the screening sites.

These will be located in Hyde Park, The Green Park or St James Park.

If you are travelling into London, be aware that London Victoria station should be used for the Hyde Park screening site only, with closures in operation around the station.

Sky News coronation coverage

Sky News' coverage is led by presenter Kay Burley, who is reporting live from Westminster Abbey as troops who have a role to play in the coronation assume their positions.

From 9am, Anna Botting will report live from Buckingham Palace in the build-up to the ceremony. This coverage will include the procession to Westminster Abbey.

As the day draws to a close, Mark Austin will look back on the day's events from Buckingham Palace between 5pm and 8pm.

From 8-9pm, Gillian Joseph will recap the best bits of the day, including a look at celebrations across the UK.

Sky will round off its coverage with a special coronation highlights package from 9pm to 10pm.

Kay Burley seen on a live set for Sky News. She will lead the broadcaster's coverage of the coronation, reporting live from Westminster Abbey

ITV coronation coverage

It has been confirmed that Tom Bradby will lead ITV's coverage alongside Julie Etchingham.

The News at Ten anchor, who is friends with the Duke of Sussex, will present from a special studio outside Buckingham Palace.

ITV's list of presenters covering the event includes Mary Nightingale, Nina Hossain, Charlene White and James Mates, who will be at important locations across the country.

ITV's coverage for the coronation will begin at 8.30am.

From 6am, Good Morning Britain presenters Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard will be live from Westminster Abbey, while Ranvir Singh will be in position speak to guests at the coronation ceremony as they arrive.

Kate Garraway will be live from Buckingham Palace, Charlotte Hawkins will be with the Armed Forces and Laura Tobin will be live from the Long Walk in Windsor.

Spice Girl Mel B and Jonathan Dimbleby are among the guests to feature for ITV.

Former Spice Girl Mel B will make a guest appearance on ITV for the network's coverage of the coronation

Tom Bradby, a close friend of the Duke of Sussex, will lead ITV's coverage of King Charles' coronation

Julie Etchingham, photographed here at the Women of the Year lunch, will lead ITV's coronation coverage alongside Bradby

Charlene White will form part of ITV's team of reporters stationed across the country for coronation reporting and reaction

Laura Tobin (left), Kate Garraway (centre) and Charlotte Hawkins (right) will all feature as reporters for ITV's live coverage of the coronation

Good Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid will report live from Buckingham Palace alongside Ben Shepard

Ranvir Singh will be in position speak to guests at the coronation ceremony as they arrive

From 8.30am, Bradby and Etchingham will present King Charles III: The Coronation from a studio outside Buckingham Palace. The programme can be viewed on ITV1.

There will be commentary from Nightingale outside Westminster Abbey and Mates will explain the ancient traditions and rituals shown on screen.

Hossain will be with the crowds at the Mall and White will report from RAF Waddington where the Red Arrows will be preparing for a flypast.

A dedicated section of ITVX will feature documentaries from the broadcaster's catalogue about the monarch.

Michael Jermey, ITV's director of news and current affairs, said: 'ITV's uninterrupted coverage on coronation day will capture every significant moment of an historically important event. We will provide viewers with a close-up view of all the pageantry and public celebration', according to iNews.

'Our guests will reflect a range of views on what the new reign will mean for Britain and the Commonwealth.'

Channel 4 coronation coverage

Channel 4 will offer viewers an alternative coronation viewing experience, including a documentary focusing on Prince Andrew's notorious Newsnight interview.

'Andrew  The Problem Prince' will be broadcast in two parts and former BBC journalist Emily Maitlis will reveal how she came to question Andrew over his relationship with the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The deep dive will also feature archive footage, an interview with former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister and snippets with palace insiders.

Channel 4 will air a special documentary entitled 'Andrew  The Problem Prince', which will examine how former BBC journalist Emily Maitlis came to question Andrew over his relationship with the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein

Harry Enfield as Charles in Channel 4 sitcom The Windsors. The show will return for a one-off special, which will be broadcast on the day of King Charles' coronation

In 'Andrew  The Problem Prince', former BBC journalist Emily Maitlis (pictured) will reveal how she came to question Andrew over his relationship with the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein

Frankie Boyle's Farewell To The Monarchy will air on Channel 4, which has planned a list of alternative viewing options on the day of the coronation

The broadcaster will also air Frankie Boyle's Farewell To The Monarchy, which sees the Scottish comedian, 50, take a look back at its more than 1,000-year history and ask if the royal family 'has a place in today's world' and 'should it continue?'.

The Windsors Coronation Special will see Harry Enfield, as King, invite the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to his special day, as the comedy show returns for a one-off special.

On the day Saturday, Channel 4 says its schedule 'will provide an escape from the pomp and ceremony'.

It will be showing films including Johnny English, The Italian Job, Star Trek Beyond, and Con Air, as well as episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens.
Bec Judd never puts a foot wrong in the style stakes.

And the star, 40, looked incredible yet again on Wednesday as she flaunted her trim pins in a pricey ensemble in Melbourne.

The mother-of-four dazzled in an outfit by Sydney designer By Johnny which included the brand's Mika marble miniskirt for $240.

Bec paired it with an ivory gather top which was priced at $180, along with a Mika marble jacket in lilac, priced at $300.

The star finished her outfit with high-heeled fold over knee boots in cream worth $112, and later added a Fendi bag worth $5,100.

Bec Judd, 40, looked sensational on Wednesday when she flaunted her trim pins in a $6,000 ensemble. Pictured

The mother-of-four dazzled in an outfit by Sydney designer By Johnny which included the brand's Mika marble miniskirt for $240

Back in April, Bec was left surprised when she was refused service at a bottle shop.

She took to Instagram to reveal she'd been turned away from a liquor store in New Zealand because she did not look 'old enough' to buy a bottle of wine.

The influencer said she and her sister Kate had been refused service because they could not produce ID to prove they were over 18 - the legal age to purchase booze.

Bec paired it with an ivory gather top which was priced at $180 along with a Mika marble jacket in lilac, priced at $300

The sisters wanted to purchase a bottle of NZ Wairau River Rose.

She also included a photo of herself posing with her sister Kate and included the caption: 'Just a couple of under-agers trying to get a bottle of rose.'

The sisters were joined for the trip by Bec's husband Chris and their four sports-mad children, Oscar, Billie, Tom and Darcy.

The Judds celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary at the start of the year.
Bilan has provided the first opportunity for Somali women journalists to exercise complete editorial independence, deciding what they want to report and how.

Established with support from the United Nations Development Programme, Bilan has provided the first opportunity for Somali women journalists to exercise complete editorial independence

'Bilan' has provided the first opportunity for the women journalists to exercise complete editorial independence, deciding what they want to report and how. They have already used this freedom to break some of Somalia's first major stories.

Somalia's groundbreaking all-women media team, Bilan, in April 2023 celebrated a year of smashing taboos and blazing a trail for women journalists in a country ranked as one of the most dangerous places to report the news.

Established with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bilan has provided the first opportunity for Somali women journalists to exercise complete editorial independence, deciding what they want to report and how.

They have already used this freedom to break some of Somalia's first major stories on a range of challenging issues, spurring public debate and official reaction.

This includes reports on HIV-positive Somalis living in fear, the abuse of female orphans, schools for autistic children and teachers, an epidemic of opiate use among women in Mogadishu and how drought hits women and families.

"Somalia hasn't seen anything like Bilan before and we have opened people's hearts and minds to the power of women in the media and the importance of having stories told from our perspective," said Bilan's Chief Editor, Fathi Mohamed Ahmed. "I am very proud to be the Chief Editor for Bilan because it provides a voice for the voiceless."

Inside Somalia, Bilan's reports have reached millions via the radio, TV and social media channels of Dalsan Media Group, which hosts Bilan at offices in Mogadishu.

Somalia hasn't seen anything like Bilan before and we have opened people's hearts and minds to the power of women in the media and the importance of having stories told from our perspective. I am very proud to be the Chief Editor for Bilan because it provides a voice for the voiceless.

Bilan's reports have also appeared regularly in international media, including the Guardian, BBC and El Pais, raising the profile of Somali women journalists and proving they can compete at the top of their profession, even while dealing with challenges that range from discrimination and threats of violence to interviewing high-profile figures with new-born children in tow.

Despite Bilan's meteoric rise, all of its journalists have faced a difficult road to their current success and their individual stories show how tough it can be for Somali women to make it in journalism.

Chief editor Fathi had to pretend to her parents she was studying IT while taking journalism courses and faced abuse in the streets this year for going to work while pregnant.

Bilan showcases the talent of Somali women journalists and disproves stereotypes. It has provided me with a safe and secure environment in which to work and shows how a group of women journalists can manage a media unit and produce successful content.

Reporter Kiin regularly covers stories about refugees and IDPs but herself grew up in a refugee camp in Kenya.

Youngest of them

Youngest team member, Shukri had to face down social pressure when leaving her home in Baidoa for the first time to work at Bilan in Mogadishu.

"Over the last year, Bilan has provided a safe space where Somali women journalists can call the shots. They've used that power to bring new stories to light, covering issues like HIV/AIDS and gender violence, that have sparked some of the very first public debates on these subjects and transformed public attitudes to women in journalism," said UNDP Somalia's Deputy Resident Representative, Sophie Kemkhadze.

Over the last year, Bilan has provided a safe space where Somali women journalists can call the shots. They've used that power to bring new stories to light, covering issues like HIV/AIDS and gender violence, that have sparked some of the very first public debates on these subjects and transformed public attitudes to women in journalism.

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UNDP provides funding for Bilan and a programme of capacity building that has seen some of the most familiar names in media offer virtual masterclasses, including Lyse Doucet, Rageh Omaar, Lindsey Hilsum and Mishal Husain, helping to boost Bilan's skills and confidence.

"Over the next year, we will be expanding the Bilan project to bring support to more women journalists in Somalia," added Kemkhadze.

The women journalists of Bilan, she said will play a key role in this by sharing their skills and experience, working on joint stories with Somali women journalists across the country and through the ongoing internship programme that sees Bilan host final-year students from Somalia's top journalism faculties.

"Bilan showcases the talent of Somali women journalists and disproves stereotypes," said Bilan reporter Hinda Abdi Mohamoud. "It has provided me with a safe and secure environment in which to work and shows how a group of women journalists can manage a media unit and produce successful content."
Love Island stars Ekin-Su and Davide were pictured strolling hand in hand during a romantic getaway on Wednesday.

The couple have returned to Palma de Mallorca, where the ITV series was filmed and they went on to win the show together.

Smitten Ekin-Su and Davide looked lovingly into each other's eyes as they walked along the harbour following THOSE 'fling' rumours.

Ekin-Su, 28, wore a racy cut-out white top with denim shorts and showcased her slender figure.

Meanwhile, Davide wore an unbuttoned grey shirt and shorts, revealing a hint of his toned abs.

Cute: Love Island's Ekin-Su and Davide strolled hand in hand during a getaway to Mallorca as they returned to where their love story began on Wednesday- a year after winning the show

Glam: Ekin-Su, 28, wore a stylish cut-out white top with denim shorts and showcased her slender figure while cosying up to her man following those 'fling' rumours

Ekin-Su and Davide looked happy and carefree as they relaxed on their holiday.

In their series of Love Island, the couple got together early in the show after Ekin-Su entered as a bombshell - but their romance was not without its ups and downs.

One particularly stormy moment in the show saw Davide label Ekin-Su a 'liar and an actress' and dump her after she snuck a kiss with newcomer Jay.

Even though they were unhappy with each other, they still flirted with each other a lot during the next episodes.

Eventually, they found their way back together in a recoupling which saw Ekin choose Davide instead of Charlie Radnedge.

Despite some other tricky situations and stolen kisses, Davide and Ekin-Su finally went official, going on to win their series of Love Island.

Their sun-soaked trip away to Mallorca comes after Ekin-Su is said to have branded Harriet Wilson, 24, a 'f***ing s**g' over a suspected fling with Davide.

According to The Sun on Sunday, Ekin-Su was said to have also called the model 'disgusting' and fumed 'youre finished' in angry messages after allegedly finding texts from her on Davide's phone.

The publication reported that Ekin-Su also lashed out at a second woman, Phoebe Wintle, after also reportedly discovering her texts on his mobile.

Ekin-Su's alleged outburst came after she returned from a trip to Belfast earlier this month and had feared that Davide had hooked up with Harriet and Phoebe.

Drama: In their series of Love Island, the couple got together early in the show after Ekin-Su entered as a bombshell- but their romance was not without its ups and downs

In messages reportedly seen by The Sun on Sunday, Ekin-Su is said to have ranted: 'You f***ing s**g. Sleeping with my boyfriend! Disgusting. Why would you do that?

'You and Phoebe are gonna be shown to everyone s***s. Pretending nothing happened. Just wait for it. You cow. Youre finished mate.'

A source is said to have told the publication that Harriet was 'taken aback' by the Instagram messages, adding: 'What makes it worse is that they knew each other before this all kicked off.

'Harriet used to keep an eye on Davide for Ekin-Su on his nights out in Manchester and report back to her.'

The couple headed on a make-or-break trip to Amsterdam earlier this month, and while Davide shared a snap of Ekin-Su at breakfast, she failed to upload an image of him.

Ekin was reportedly also left furious earlier this month after finding messages and pictures from two models on Davide' s phone.

The reality star is said to have been 'fuming and upset' as she suspected Davide had a romantic rendezvous with the pair, who are said to be regulars on the Manchester party scene.

Actress Ekin-Su allegedly messaged one of the girls to ask what had gone on after the reality star returned from a trip to Belfast.

A source told The Sun at the time: 'It all exploded last Sunday after she found messages on Davides phone discussing their time together.

'He had been messaging both of the girls and she suspected they had all met up one night.

Accusations: Their sun-soaked trip away comes after Ekin-Su is said to have branded Harriet Wilson, 24, a 'f***ing s**g' over a suspected fling with Davide

'Ekin-Su contacted one of the girls to tell them she knew about things. She was furious and really upset.'

Television personality Ekin-Su posted a number of cryptic social media messages, including a tweet which appear to mock Harriet's Instagram snaps.

The post, which has since been deleted, read: 'No man will ever take u seriously with just half naked pictures of u in a bikini and lingerie'.

The pair moved in together after winning Love Island last year but earlier this year were forced to dismiss claims their relationship was a show-mance.
Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson looked as loved up as ever as they held hands during sightseeing tour in Barcelona on Tuesday.

The couple, who rang in their 35th wedding anniversary earlier this week, continued to celebrate their milestone with the trip to the Spanish city.

The actor, 66, wore a white T-shirt tucked into a pair of smart black trousers and donned a stylish grey fedora hat.

He shielded his eyes with a pair of sunglasses and slung a black quarter zip sweater over his shoulder.

Rita, also 66, looked effortlessly stylish in a cream blazer with a matching pair of linen trousers and a coordinating hat.

Tourists: Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, both 66, looked as loved up as ever as they held hands during sightseeing tour in Barcelona on Tuesday

Out and about: The couple, who rang in their 35th wedding anniversary earlier this week , continued to celebrate their milestone with the trip to the Spanish city

Her blonde hair fell down from beneath her wide brimmed hat, choosing to complete her look with a silk neckerchief.

Soaking up the historic sights they took a guided tour of the Sagrada Familia before stopping off for dinner.

Tom and Rita celebrated 35 years of wedded bliss Sunday, marking the occasion with a cake.

Sharing some photos to Instagram, Tom looked lovingly at his wife as they sat on a patio.

'35 years of marriage,' Rita wrote. 'April 30 1988. Love is everything.'

The pair first met when Rita was cast in an episode of the TV sitcom Bosom Buddies and could never have imagined they would end up at one of Hollywood's most respected couples.

Tom was marred to his first wife at the time he co-starred in the comedy with Peter Scolari.

The show followed two junior advertising executives who dressed as women so they could live in the one apartment they could afford.

Taking it all in: The actor wore a white T-shirt tucked into a pair of smart black trousers and donned a stylish grey fedora hat

Holiday: Rita looked effortlessly stylish in a cream blazer with a matching pair of linen trousers and a coordinating hat

Sunny trip: Soaking up the historic sights they took a guided tour of the Sagrada Familia before stopping off for dinner

Happy Anniversary: Tom and Rita celebrated 35 years of wedded bliss Sunday, marking the occasion with a cake

They met again a few years later when Rita was cast as Tom's love interest in 1985's Volunteers.

The future Oscar winner starred as a spoiled rich kid who joined the Peace Corps to avoid a gambling debt.

After he divorced in 1987, the Money Pit star began dating his future wife and they married in 1988.

Tom had two children from his first marriage, Colin, 45, and Elizabeth, 40. They expanded their family, welcoming in sons Chester, aka Chet, 32, Truman, 27.
Sam Armytage has revealed her beloved dog's pet peeve.

The Sunrise star, 46, took to Instagram on Wednesday to share an image of Banjo, her faithful Labrador Retriever, covered in a blanket.

'He gets annoyed when the TV's too loud,' Sam wrote beside the image.

Sam often shares details of her adventures with Banjo who got a fright during a trip to the car wash in March.

The dog appeared alarmed when the water and soap started to spread across the windscreen.

Sam Armytage has revealed her beloved dog's pet peeve. Pictured

'He's never been through the car wash before, and I'm not sure he enjoyed it,' Sam wrote.

Banjo looked back at his owner as if for reassurance, and appeared as though he wanted to leave the vehicle immediately.

Sam has been living in the country with her husband Richard Lavender for the past few years.

The Sunrise star, 46, took to Instagram on Wednesday to share an image of Banjo, her faithful Labrador Retriever, covered in a blanket

Sam often shares details of her adventures with Banjo who got a fright during a trip to the car wash in March

The former Sunrise presenter admitted in a recent interview she and her husband preferred a quieter lifestyle these days.

She wed her Richard, 61, on New Years' Eve in 2020 at his Southern Highlands home.

After signing off on Sunrise in March 2021, she was replaced by long-serving newsreader Natalie Barr.

In July 2020, Sam sold her home in North Bondi, Sydney for $2.8million, which suggested she was planning to move to Bowral full time.
Margot Robbie showed off her chic sense of style as she departed the Carlyle hotel in New York City on Tuesday night.

After dazzling at the star-studded Met Gala the night before, the Babylon star, 32, looked fresh-faced as she rocked a stylishly casual ensemble.

Margot opted for an oversized black blazer and rolled up denim blue jeans.

She paired the look with platform chunky black shoes and toted her belongings in a black Prada bag.

Making a beeline to her car outside, she chose to go makeup free, highlighting her flawless complexion, and styled her long blonde hair straight.

Gorgeous: Margot Robbie showed off her chic sense of style in an oversized black blazer and jeans as she departed the Carlyle hotel in New York City on Tuesday after the Met Gala

The beauty appeared in good spirits as she carried her wrapped up dress alongside her and smiled at onlookers.

The sighting comes after Margot made a show-stopping appearance at the 2023 Met Gala in NYC.

The Oscar nominee showed off her abs in a clear PVC and black corseted gown while honouring the late Karl Lagerfeld by dressing in head-to-toe Chanel.

Her dress was in a black silk chiffon from the label's haute couture spring/summer 1993 collection, and featured gold chains running down Margot's waistline.

She wore her hair in classic Hollywood waves and accessorised with Chanel heels and 'Impression Florale' gold and diamond earrings from the Coromandel collection.

She opted for a minimal makeup look with soft neutral eyeshadow and a nude lip.

Margot, a longtime Chanel ambassador, walked on the red carpet solo; her husband Tom Ackerley was absent from the star-studded fashion event.

The Suicide Squad star displayed her wedding ring on her right hand, and a bold gold ring on her left.

Toning it down: After dazzling at the star-studded Met Gala the night before, the Babylon star, 32, swapped her heels for chunky black shoes

The big night: The sighting comes after Margot made a show-stopping appearance at the 2023 Met Gala in NYC the night before

Supermodel Cindy Crawford wore the original version of Margot's Met Gala dress and was seen showcasing the look on the runway at the Chanel Haute Couture show during Paris Fashion Week in January, 1993.

'I'm wearing Chanel, this dress was worn by Cindy Crawford in 1993. They remade it for me and it's obviously a Karl design. I feel really great in it, actually,' Margot told La La Anthony for Vogue of the ensemble.

'It's incredible, obviously the Met is always an exciting night, but I had the great privilege of getting to know Karl to an extent,' she added of the night.

'I was the last Channel ambassador that he picked, actually. It is an honor. I'm thrilled that they're honoring him tonight because he was exceptional.'

Later in the evening, Margot and Cara Delevingne and continued the Met Gala celebrations as the BFFs rocked up together at an after party.

But just six months ago, the Australian actress was forced to set the record straight after being pictured crying, seemingly outside Cara's house.

Margot's teary-eyed outing in September came after the British model sparked health concerns with a series of disheveled public appearances.

Cara had failed to show in NYC for the launch of her fashion collection honoring late designer Karl Lagerfeld held at chic restaurant Saga in the Financial District.

Nor was she present at the Emmy Awards, alongside her fellow Only Murders In The Building stars.

The actress toted her essentials around in a black-and-white handbag while adding inches to her enviable frame with black heels.

Here come the girls! Cara Delevingne and Margot Robbie continued the Met Gala celebrations as the BFFs rocked up together at an after party on Monday night

Out of this world: But six months ago, the Australian actress was forced to set the record straight after being pictured crying, seemingly outside Cara's house

The distressing pictures came a week after the one-time 'it girl' drew concern from her devoted fans by appearing erratic and out of sorts at Van Nuys Airport.

But in a November interview with Vanity Fair, Margot insisted she wasnt at Caras house at all and that she'd only had something in her eye.

Explaining how her mum wanted to know if both she and Cara were ok, she told the magazine, Im like, First of all, yes and yes.

"And second of all, Im not at Caras house, Im outside an Airbnb that I was renting for five days! And Im not crying!

I had something in my eye. Im trying to grab my face mask, trying to hold a coffee cup, and I couldnt get a hair outta my eye.

Half a year later, Cara and Margot seemed to have moved on from the drama as they were seen for the first time together again.

The supermodel, 30, continued to showcase her bold new platinum look as she arrived clad in a skintight black gown with a leg-flashing thigh-split.

Accessorising with a collared tie around her neck and cuffs, Cara elevated her height with platform boots.

Her dress boasted a daring thigh-high split and she accentuated her height with platform lace-up boots.
Broadchurch star Sarah Parish paid tribute to her late daughter Ella-Jayne on what would have been her 15th birthday on Wednesday.

The actress, 54, took to Instagram to share a picture of the funeral order of service which showed her little one - who passed away at eight months old.

In 2009 she and her husband, the actor James Murray, lost Ella-Jayne to a congenital heart defect.

In her tribute post Sarah wrote: 'Today you are 15. How lucky we are to have known you. Who knew such a little girl could make such a big difference.

'We love you, forever and always. @thejimmurray @themurrayparishtrust.'

Mother: Broadchurch star Sarah Parish paid tribute to her late daughter Ella-Jayne on what would have been her 15th birthday on Wednesday

Difficult: The actress, 54, took to Instagram to share a picture of the funeral order of service which showed her little one - who passed away at eight months old

She was sent support from her kind followers on the post including from Amanda Holden who wrote: 'Sending you both a big cuddle x.'

In 2014 her and James set up the Murray Parish Trust, dedicated to advancing paediatric emergency medicine in the south of England.

Working with another local charity, they've succeeded in raising over 2.5 million for Southampton University Hospital, which the government matched and it paid for a new children's emergency and trauma department.

Sarah has previously said that before the death of her daughter she had a 'very easy life' and that the harrowing experience 'made me a better person'.

In the aftermath of her death, they went to Cambodia and spent two months working in an orphanage.

It turned out to be the first step on a new path and in 2014 they set up the Murray Parish Trust, dedicated to advancing paediatric emergency medicine in the south of England.

Working with another local charity, they've recently succeeded in raising over 2.5 million for Southampton University Hospital, which the government matched; it paid for a brand new children's emergency and trauma department.

'I'd had a very easy life before that,' Sarah said in 2019. 'Nothing awful had ever happened to me. But with something like that, I know it's a real cliche, but it has made us.

Terrible: In 2009 she and her husband, the actor James Murray, lost Ella-Jayne to a congenital heart defect

Family: She and James have a second daughter, Nell, who is now 13 years old (pictured together in 2019)

'And the charity  especially running alongside careers as actors  is perfect. It's the ideal thing to do, because as an actor you really do have the space to become an awful person if you want.

'Because everything is based around you and what you need. It's a great job and we're very lucky. Then when you work on a charity alongside it, and you see what life is, the really bad side of life, it just makes what you do [for a living] amazing, you know. My job is my holiday and the charity is my job.'

Speaking about her relationship with James and the impact the death had on them, she added: 'It changed us as people, definitely. It has to. And actually, the older you get, the more people you meet who have lost children.

'A lot of people lose children in far worse circumstances than Jim and me. Ella-Jayne was only eight months old, she was very poorly anyway, so we were already prepped for what could happen.

'Whereas I've met people along the way who had a healthy child, everything was good, and suddenly they've gone.

Journey: Sarah has previously said that before the death of her daughter she had a 'very easy life' and that the harrowing experience 'made me a better person' (pictured with second daughter Nell)

'I've known people who have lost their children at the age of 16. It's just unbearable. It will always change you as a person. It's changed us for the better, I think.'

She and James have a second daughter, Nell, who is now 13 years old.

Sarah played the character Dawn Rudge in the ITV drama series Peak Practice in 1993, but more recently starred in the third and final series of Broadchurch as Cath Atwood.

She also played Katie Roden in the BBC One series Mistresses between 2008 and 2010.
Maria Menounos has revealed her secret battle with pancreatic cancer - six years after the TV star was forced to have surgery to remove a benign brain tumor.

The 44-year-old - who is currently expecting her first child this summer with husband Keven Undergaro - told People magazine on Wednesday that she had battled stage 2 pancreatic cancer after being diagnosed in January.

Menounos has stated that she underwent a successful surgery to remove a 3.9-centimeter tumor and is now hoping that sharing her story will encourage others to seek answers for their health problems.

'I need people to know there are places they can go to catch things early,' she told the publication.

Her latest health battle follows her heartbreaking ordeal in 2017, when she had golf-ball sized brain tumor removed, at the same time that she was caring for her mother who was battling stage 4 brain cancer. Her mother passed away in 2021.

Last June, Menounos was also diagnosed with type 1 diabetes - which runs in her family.

Speaking about her cancer battle, she added: 'You can't let fear get in the way. I had that moment where I thought I was a goner but I'm okay because I caught this early enough.'

Opening up: Maria Menounos (pictured in January 2020) has revealed her secret battle with pancreatic cancer to People as she and her husband Keven Undergaro are expecting a baby

Earlier this year she and her 55-year-old TV writer husband revealed they were expecting a child via surrogate.

She said: 'This whole year has been trauma, stress, crisis.

'There was a minute when we were planning something, and then it became too much. I thought, "I just need to heal."'

After suffering severe leg cramps last year, Menounos was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, but as the pain continued she agreed to do whole-body MRI scan.

The results of the scan revealed a 3.9 cm. mass on her pancreas. A later biopsy identified it as a Stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor - which is a form of cancer.

Menounos said: 'I'm like "How in the freaking world can I have a brain tumor and pancreatic cancer? All I could think was that I have a baby coming.'

However, she had caught the cancer at an early stage, and underwent surgery to have it removed on February 16. She does not require chemotherapy or any treatment other than annual scans for the next five years.

She said: 'I'm so grateful and so lucky. God granted me a miracle. I'm going to appreciate having her in my life so much more than I would have before this journey.'

Tough times: Earlier this year she and her 55-year-old husband Undergaro revealed they were expecting a child via surrogate amid her cancer battle; they are pictured together in June 2018

'You can't let fear get in the way': Menounos (pictured in December) underwent a successful surgery to remove a 3.9-centimeter tumor

What is pancreatic cancer? Pancreatic cancer begins in the tissues of your pancreas  an organ in your abdomen that lies behind the lower part of your stomach. Your pancreas releases enzymes that aid digestion and produces hormones that help manage your blood sugar. Several types of growths can occur in the pancreas, including cancerous and noncancerous tumors. The most common type of cancer that forms in the pancreas begins in the cells that line the ducts that carry digestive enzymes out of the pancreas (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma). Pancreatic cancer is seldom detected at its early stages when it's most curable. This is because it often doesn't cause symptoms until after it has spread to other organs. Pancreatic cancer treatment options are chosen based on the extent of the cancer. Options may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy or a combination of these. (via Mayo Clinic) Advertisement

The podcast host has been open about her health battles in recent years as she had a brain tumor removed back in 2017 while caring for her mother Litsa who had Stage 4 brain cancer.

She was diagnosed with meningioma, which is a tumor of the meninges, which is the tissue that surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

However, it is classified as a brain tumor because it puts pressure on cranial nerves. The tumor generally forms in the head and about 85 percent of cases are benign.

Because the tumors are slow-growing, a patient can live with a meningioma for years before it's spotted.

Meanwhile her mother Litsa had battled stage 4 brain cancer since 2016, specifically glioblastoma, but unfortunately passed away in May 2021.

On Tuesday, Menounos paid tribute to her mother on the second anniversary of her death as she shared a sweet snap of the two of them with a lengthy caption which read: '

'For standing up to Dad , the strict Greek father, when he said no to all of it. [laughing while crying emoji] For teaching me how to cook. How to be selfless and brave. For showing me how to face a brain tumor and smile all the way through.

'I thought the health journeys ended there but from the other side you have helped me in through more. I feel you and I hear you. And if I miss your voice speaking to me you speak to me through others. Loudly. I love you and miss you and am just so grateful I got you for a mom. I hope I can be 10% of what you were for my daughter. [red heart emoji]'

Bonded: The podcast host has been open about her health battles in recent years as she had a brain tumor removed back in 2017 while caring for her mother Litsa who had Stage 4 brain cancer

'I love you and miss you and am just so grateful I got you for a mom': On Tuesday, Menounos paid tribute to her mother on the second anniversary of her death as she shared a sweet snap of the two of them with a lengthy caption

Meanwhile, last week the couple announced on Maria's podcast, Heal Squad x Maria Menounos, that they are expecting a girl.

'We're having a girl! We're very excited to announce we that we have a baby girl coming,' Maria gushed.

'Little Gertrude,' her husband joked.

While Maria insisted they were not naming their daughter Gertrude, she did reveal they already had a name selected.

Oh baby! Maria Menounos and her husband Keven Undergaro have going to have a girl

'We do have a name picked out,' she said. 'We've been thinking about names for years because as you may or may not know, this has been almost a 10 year journey for us, so we've thought about names forever, and I think we've come up with the perfect name.'

However, the name is not set in stone.

'I do reserve the right to seeing her and making any last minute decisions,' she added.

The couple also had a display of pink balloons and a matching elephant she purchased for her daughter in the studio.

Maria shared video of their announcement to her Instagram, captioning it: 'a girl!!!! We are over the moon excited! We are reading baby books, working on the nursery and just overall preparing for this beautiful new addition to our lives. She is already so loved and we cannot wait to meet her. And her name isnt Gertrude. Lol any guesses on her name? Any great suggestions?'

Maria and her husband announced their baby news back in February, revealing they were expanding their family with the help of a surrogate.

They started IVF in 2012 but it did not take, so they turned to surrogacy several years ago, and after a hiccup, they feel confident they will be parents this year.

'Just after a decade of trying everything, we are so grateful to the beautiful family helping us conceive our baby,' she told People in February. 'Keven, my dad and I are all beyond excited for this soul to come into our lives. What a blessing.'

She also shared that her longtime friend Kim Kardashian - who welcomed two child via surrogate - helped her with understanding the process.

It's a girl! The couple also had a display of pink balloons and a matching elephant she purchased for her daughter in the studio

Good news: Maria and her husband announced their baby joy back in February, revealing they were expanding their family with the help of a surrogate. Seen in 2018

The couple started thinking about surrogacy in 2018 after IVF did not work for them.

Maria then got advice from her Kardashian, who welcomed Chicago and Psalm via surrogates with her then husband Kayne West.

Sister Khloe also used a surrogate to welcome a son with Tristan Thompson.

'I was grateful that I had her to share and help me,' Menounos said of Kim, 42. 'She was just so lovely and so amazing and very patient with us,' added the One Tree Hill star.

After surrogacy did not work out in 2021, Maria and Keven tried again, and it has been successful, she said.

10 years of work: In 2022 she said, 'I definitely didn't think it was going to take this long. It's been years. We've used different services, different people,' said the TV host. 'It's just been a very frustrating process.' Seen in 2018
Rylan Clark has credited the breakdown of his marriage to Dan Neal in 2021 for making him 'stronger.'

The presenter, 34, suffered a mental health breakdown following his marital split that year from now ex-husband Dan, who he was with for five years.

Speaking to Elizabeth Day on her podcast How To Fail, Rylan said he is 'glad that it nearly killed him' as he is now happy with the person he has become.

He candidly explained: 'It killed me. But looking back on that now I'm so glad that it nearly killed me

'I'm so thrilled that I can say that two years on because I didn't think I would be here two years on.'

Growth: Rylan Clark, 34, has credited the breakdown of his marriage to Dan Neal in 2021 for making him 'stronger'

Healing: The presenter suffered a mental health breakdown following his marital split that year from now ex-husband Dan, who he was with for five years

Recalling hitting 'rockbottom' he continued: 'It was extremely traumatic. I was so ill. I'm 6 foot 4 and I went down to 9stone, which is grossly underweight for someone of my height.

'Now to be able to sit here and say I got to the lowest of lows, when someone said rockbottom I never really understood that what that was, until then.

'When you know you have been rockbottom. That's when you sit there and go I will never let anyone or anything to get to that state I was in, not even myself I will never let that happen to me again.

'Because of that trauma it has genuinely made me so much stronger. I think, "I'm alright, you've got your health, you've got a little bit of money in the bank, you're cool."

'I think that the break down of my marriage has made me the person I am now and I am really, really happy with the person I am now, I can sleep very well at night.

It comes after Rylan credited Eurovision for helping him get over his divorce after having to pull out of covering the annual competition for the BBC in 2021 because he was so devastated by his split.

Following the breakdown of his marriage the telly favourite took five months away from the spotlight due to his deteriorating health.

But he said flying out to Italy for last year's musical extravaganza was exactly what he needed to feel back to himself again.

Smiles: Speaking to Elizabeth Day on her podcast How To Fail , Rylan said he is 'glad that it nearly killed him' as he is now happy with the person he has become

He told the Daily Star Sunday newspaper: 'Last year I needed to get away from the UK and the Eurovision bubble was perfect for that.

'It was what I needed on a personal level. Being there was a full circle moment for me. It was like, 'I'm back, I'm ready to go'.

'That's why Eurovision is so important to me. If you cut me open, it's there.'

But while Rylan enjoyed flirting with the locals in Italy, he has vowed to behave himself this year.
According to the DG, "NAFDAC did not ban Indomie Instant Noodles produced in Nigeria. NAFDAC has registered several local manufacturers and the Indomie noodles have been certified safe for consumption. The Taiwan and Malaysia noodles have nothing to do with our local producers."

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has refuted reports making the rounds online that it has banned Indomie Instant Noodles. The regulatory body said this on Monday through its Director-General, Mrs Mojisola Adeyeye, a pharmacist and professor. She remarked that the products flagged by both Taiwan and Malaysian health authorities for having traces of ethylene oxide are not registered in Nigeria. NAFDAC has said it will conduct tests on noodles produced in Nigeria to ensure that they do not contain ethylene oxide.

According to the Director-General, "NAFDAC did not ban Indomie Instant Noodles produced in Nigeria. NAFDAC has registered several local manufacturers and the Indomie noodles have been certified safe for consumption. The Taiwan and Malaysia noodles have nothing to do with our local producers."

The statement offers assurance to consumers who have been exposed to a series of misleading publications that the product was banned by the regulator. The flood of local publications came up after the alleged detection of ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing substance found in Indomie's "special chicken" flavour in Taiwan, and Malaysia by health officials in both countries.

Speaking on the issue, the Group Corporate Communications and Event Manager, Dufil Prima Foods Limited, Tope Ashiwaju, said, "We would like to assure our valued customers in Nigeria that all packs of Indomie Instant Noodles consumed in Nigeria are produced locally under strict international best manufacturing procedures with ISO certified standards.

Our commitment to international good manufacturing processes is unwavering and the quality in every pack of instant noodles produced in all our factories in Nigeria is non-negotiable."

"We adhere strictly to the standard procedures set by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) in all our manufacturing processes. "We use only the finest ingredients, sourced from reputable suppliers, and our production facilities are regularly inspected and audited to ensure that they meet the highest standards," he said.

The Indomie Instant Noodles consumed in Nigeria is produced locally by Dufil Prima Foods Limited and had produced Indomie Instant Noodle in Nigeria for almost three decades.
Gillian McKeith's daughter Afton has claimed that she once had a fling with Brooklyn Beckham.

The 23-year-old claimed she dated the famous son of Victoria and David, 24, when she was younger - but added she no longer 'keeps up' with what he's doing.

She also told how she recently had an awkward run in with Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz at an LA supermarket.

She told The Sun: 'I didn't watch any of his wedding. I actually don't keep up with what he does.

'But I actually bumped into him not so long ago in Los Angeles at my local supermarket - Erewhon - and her as well. It was extremely awkward.

The past: Gillian McKeith's daughter Afton has claimed that she once had a fling with Brooklyn Beckham

Fling: The 23-year-old claimed she dated the famous son of Victoria and David, 24, when she was younger - but added she no longer 'keeps up' with what he's doing

'You know, they seem good. I wish them the best. I hope they have a really long and happy marriage.'

Afton has previously told how Brooklyn blocked her on Instagram.

Their fling was reportedly in between Brooklyn's relationships with Madison Beer and Chloe Grace Moretz.

A source told The Star at the time: 'The romance didn't last too long but Afton definitely grew feelings for Brooklyn.'

Reps for Brooklyn have been contacted by MailOnline for comment.

Back in 2018, Brooklyn denied dated Scottish singer Tallia Storm, finally broke his silence in an Instagram story after she claimed they had been together.

His words spurred the Celebs Go Dating star on to launch a seething attack him in an interview with MailOnline.

The songstress confessed it felt like the eldest son of David and Victoria had dumped her again but this time in front his 10,800,000 Instagram followers.

'We dislike each other,' she divulged to MailOnline at the time. 'I couldn't be more angry. It's like he's dumped me again! You dump me once, three years ago, and now you dump me again!

Mixed messages: Back in 2018, Brooklyn denied dated Scottish singer Tallia Storm, finally broke his silence in an Instagram story after she claimed they had been together

His side of the story: 'I hate him, it's like he's dumped me again!' Tallia hit back after Brooklyn Beckham DENIED he ever dated her in an Instagram story back then

'I couldn't be angrier': It spurred the Celebs Go Dating star on to launch a seething attack on the aspiring photographer in an exclusive chat with MailOnline back then

'Why does he feel the need to do it again three years later? Why is he bringing it back up again. It's exhausting!'

Tallia was left fuming when she watched Brooklyn's very public denial with the rest of his followers.

She explained: 'I saw the video last night  you can tell hes so bothered. So yeah, he was cooler than me back then. Now that Im finally doing well, its an exciting time for me as Im on television and Im looking for love again, and he is bitter about it.

'I feel like he knows my weakness because he knows all the songs I wrote were about him. It was my mistake to speak so openly about my heartache.'

In an Instagram Live video back then, the son of Victoria and David Beckham addressed fans' questions about his relationship with Tallia.

Tallia had claimed they had a romance starting in 2014, when the pair were both 15 and Brooklyn said it's not true.

She had gushed: 'We dated, it was puppy like. We kept our love all very private. We were only spotted together once.

She gushed: 'We dated, it was puppy like. We kept our love all very private. We were only spotted together once.

'He came to see me perform. We kept it very private. It was real. We spent a lot of time together.

'His dad used to drop him off at my house and I'd go to his. I have nothing but respect for his mum and dad.'

Discussing the end of their romance, she added: 'It came to an end when I saw him in the papers with another girl. I was like, 'Oh my goodness'.

Tallia channelled her heartbreak into songwriting, and revealed hat her single, Still In Love, is all about her 'puppy love' with Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, last week Afton revealed she does not go out with English men because they know her mother from You Are What You Eat.

The nutritionist's role on the show involved studying other people's poo and saw her labelled the 'Poo Lady'.

Afton told the Mirror: 'I get nervous dating men from England as they know my mum from TV. I stopped going out with them because it was too weird.'

Meanwhile, her elder sister Skylar, 28, revealed she was bullied at school because of her mother's role on the show.

Oh no! She also told how she recently had an awkward run in with Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz at an LA supermarket

Candid: She said: 'I actually bumped into [Brooklyn] not so long ago in Los Angeles at my local supermarket - Erewhon - and her as well. It was extremely awkward'

She said: 'I was at secondary school in London and I had people shouting down the hallway, "Skylar, I saw your mum sniffing poo on TV last night." They were horrible and made fun of me. I really struggled.'

She continued: 'One day, a boy pushed me against a wall and held a lighter to my face. I was like, 'I'm done', and was homeschooled for a bit.'

Both sisters spoke to the publication after their mother and Shaun Ryder lost their trial and left I'm A Celebrity.

They also revealed that they think their mother is 'misunderstood' and 'not irritating' and gushed about her.

Afton studied musical theatre at The Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London which was attended by famous alumni including Sharon Osbourne, Naomi Campbell and Russell Brand.

She now lives in Texas, and regularly shares modelling snaps to her 42k Instagram followers.

Meanwhile, Skylar lives in South Dakota with her husband Aaron and their son Landon, two.

Last year, Afton won Miss USA Spokesmodel and looked sensational as she posed up a storm competing in the glamour event.

The red headed dancer told MailOnline that she 'worked really hard' preparing for the pageant - entering as the Sioux Falls contestant.

Fame: It comes after last week Afton revealed she does not go out with English men because they know her mother from You Are What You Eat

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Afton shared: 'I am really proud to win because I worked hard preparing for the pageant. I got to also showcase my acting skills which was a major factor in my win and a passion of mine.

'The platform is a great way to bring awareness to the importance of health and fitness which was my main focus as there was a also fitness portion in the competition.'

Gillian also shared her pride for daughter Afton, explaining she was 'absolutely delighted' with the win.

The Scottish TV personality detailed: 'I am absolutely delighted that Afton won the competition. I am so proud of all her achievements!
Priyanka Chopra has opened up about the botched face surgery in the early 2000s which led to her being called 'Plastic Chopra'.

The 40-year-old actress - who attended the Met Gala with husband Nick Jonas on Monday - got candid during a recent appearance on SiriusXMs The Howard Stern Show about about the removal of a polyp in her nasal cavity that went wrong .

She explained: 'This thing happens, and my face looks completely different, and I went into a deep, deep depression.'

Chopra said that she was fired from movie projects and even had fears that the botched surgery would prematurely end her career.

At the time she was hesitant to go under the knife but it was her late father Ashok - who happened to be a doctor himself - who persuaded her to undergo a corrective surgery.

Red-dy for her close up: Priyanka Chopra (seen last week) has opened up about the botched face surgery in the early 2000s which led to her being called 'Plastic Chopra'

 Slide me  Before and after: Priyanka is seen in London back in November 2000 on the left; pictured last week in Los Angeles on the right

She explained: 'I was terrified of that, but he was like, "I will be in the room with you."

'He held my hands through it and helped me build back my confidence.'

As far as getting back her confidence on the big screen, Chopra credited Bollywood director Anil Sharma for helping her assuredly get back in front of the camera.

She explained: 'I was supposed to play this lead, and I was shifted to a supporting character. That filmmaker was very kind.

'He, while the tide was against me, said, "It will be a small part but give it your all." And I did.'

Chopra went into more detail about the botched surgery and aftermath in her autobiography - titled Unfinished - which was released in February 2021.

At the time she said it led to some haters calling the former beauty pageant queen 'Plastic Chopra.'

She was a young adult when she noticed a benign growth in her nasal cavity that needed surgery to be removed.

Chopra (pictured in 2000) explained: 'This thing happens, and my face looks completely different, and I went into a deep, deep depression.'

Sad: Chopra said that she was fired from movie projects and even had fears that the botched surgery would prematurely end her career; she is seen at the Miss World final in London back in November 2000

'He held my hands through it and helped me build back my confidence': Her late father Ashok - who happened to be a doctor himself - persuaded her to undergo a corrective surgery; they are seen together in March 2010

'Fortunately, a polypectomy sounded like a pretty routine procedure. Unfortunately, it wasn't,' she wrote in her book.

The surgeon 'accidentally shaved the bridge of my nose and the bridge collapsed.' And the star, who had already became famous in her native India for her looks, was left 'horrified.'

'My original nose was gone,' Priyanka shared. 'My face looked completely different. I wasn't me.'

The bad surgery lost her work - she says in the book she was fired from two movies.

'All the talk of body parts and skin tone collectively made me feel devalued and unseen and uncertain about my future,' said the Baywatch star.

'Having experienced the aftermath of a supposedly simple polyp removal, I knew I wasn't willing to follow the course he'd laid out for me, even if he, as the highly successful expert, was right,' she added.

' My difference is my strength. If I looked like other "classically beautiful" girls, then I wouldn't stand out, and more important, I wouldn't be me.'

Priyanka had 'several corrective surgeries' and has now 'gotten accustomed to this face.'

Support system: She is pictured with husband Nick Jonas at the Met Gala on Monday

Chopra had went into more detail about the botched surgery and aftermath in her autobiography - titled Unfinished - which was released in February 2021 as she said she was called 'Plastic Chopra'

'Now when I look in the mirror, I am no longer surprised; I've made peace with this slightly different meI'm just like everyone else: I look at myself in the mirror and think maybe I can lose a little weight; I think maybe I can work out a little more. But I'm also content. This is my face. This is my body. I might be flawed, but I am me,' she added.

And at the time the red carpet favorite refused to explain what happened.

'I was dared to give an explanation for the obviously different nose, but I chose a course then that I've followed in all the years since. I decided that there was a line I was going to draw in my life,' wrote the wife of boy bander Nick Jonas.

She felt she did not owe anyone an explanation.

'I am an entertainer,' she began. 'That's what I've signed on to do, and that's what I love doing. I will say my lines, dance my dance, hit my mark. I'll do my best to make you laugh, and I'll do my best to make you cry, but just because I'm a public person doesn't mean everything about my life has to be public knowledge. I get to choose what I share and when I share it.'

Chopra can currently be seen starring alongside Richard Madden in spy thriller television series Citadel which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
A blood-pumping new trailer for Dune: Part Two dropped Wednesday - dominated by Florence Pugh as a new arrival to the cast.

Florence stars as Princess Irulan, a character from the original 1965 novel by Frank Herbert, which has been adapted into a sprawling two-part film epic.

Now in the second movie, she is finally making her appearance amid a glittering returning cast led by Timothee Chalamet as the dashing Prince Paul.

Prince Paul is sure to set fans aflutter in the new trailer, which sees him share a kiss with Zendaya's character Chani - a tribal fighter who in Part One is a siren from his dreams but who is now his comrade in an armed struggle of resistance.

Paul has united with Chani's desert tribe in their mutual battle against the imperial forces who have oppressed her people and killed his father Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac).

Star turn: A blood-pumping new trailer for Dune: Part Two dropped Wednesday - dominated by Florence Pugh as a new arrival to the cast

Royalty: Florence stars as Princess Irulan, a character from the original 1965 novel by Frank Herbert, which has been adapted into a sprawling two-part film epic

At war: Now in the second movie, she is finally making her appearance amid a glittering returning cast led by Timothee Chalamet as the dashing Prince Paul

The trailer sees Paul hellbent on retribution for the duke's death, despite his mother (Rebecca Ferguson) admonishing him: 'Your father didn't believe in revenge.'

Florence's Princess Irulan meanwhile appears to imagine that Paul's entire family was wiped out, referring to 'the end of House Atreides.'

As the trailer progresses the princess experiences a dawn of realization, wondering incredulously: 'What if Paul Atreides were still alive?'

Paul meanwhile is far from his wealthy, verdant planet of Caladan and is training with Chani's tribe in their hostile desert climate of Arrakis.

Despite its forbidding appearance and the threat posed by the colossal worms that wreak havoc through the landscape, Arrakis turns out to be a goldmine.

The planet is lusted after for its massive quantities of 'spice,' a substance that does double duty as fuel for interstellar travel and a hallucinogen.

Paul, now on Arrakis, has joined forces with Chani's people, the Fremen, led by a warrior called Stilgar (Javier Bardem), to rebel against the empire that rules them all.

As they prepare for their revolt, the romance between Paul and Chani blossoms, and he tells her about bodies of water that she on her desert world has never seen.

Zendaya at war: Dune: Part Two, like its prequel, is directed by the acclaimed Denis Villeneuve whose films include Sicario, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049

Look of love: Prince Paul is sure to set fans aflutter in the new trailer, which sees him share a kiss with Zendaya's character Chani

Union: Chani is a tribal fighter who in Part One is a siren from his dreams but who is now his comrade in an armed struggle of resistance

Remembered: Paul has united with Chani's desert tribe in their mutual battle against the imperial forces who have oppressed her people and killed his father Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac)

Matriarch: The trailer sees Paul hellbent on retribution for the duke's death, despite his mother (Rebecca Ferguson) admonishing him: 'Your father didn't believe in revenge'

Exile: Paul meanwhile is far from his wealthy, verdant planet of Caladan and is training with Chani's tribe in their hostile desert climate of Arrakis

Desired: The planet is lusted after for its massive quantities of 'spice,' a substance that does double duty as fuel for interstellar travel and a hallucinogen

Silver fox: Paul, now on Arrakis, has joined forces with Chani's people, the Fremen, led by a warrior called Stilgar (Javier Bardem), to rebel against the empire that rules them all

Bonding experience: As they prepare for their revolt, the romance between Paul and Chani blossoms, and he tells her about bodies of water that she on her desert world has never seen

'It's breathtaking,' Paul says to Chani as they sit on a dune together. 'When you see sand here, imagine water. When you dive in, you cant reach the bottom.'

'You DIVE in?' says Chani doubtfully, and when Paul assures her that the activity he has described is called 'swimming,' she laughs: 'I don't believe you.'

Against the backdrop of his love affair, Paul is also being trained by Stilgar in the skills necessary to become a warrior in Arrakis' brutal environment.

In one heart-stopping sequence, Paul has to learn how to ride one of the gigantic worms that periodically rise to the surface and destroy their surroundings.

'Don't try to impress anyone,' Stilgar instructs Paul, assuring him: 'You are brave, we all know that - be simple, be direct, nothing fancy.'

Paul is then seen sprinting across the dunes as a worm begins to surface beneath him, the ground shaking and clouds of sand billowing.

Ultimately Paul finds himself swept up by a full-blown sandstorm that whisks him off the ground and threatens to fling him to his death.

But with Stilgar's advice and the pair of harpoons in his hands, he manages miraculously to attach himself to the back of the leviathan.

'I don't believe you': 'It's breathtaking,' Paul says to Chani as they sit on a dune together. 'When you see sand here, imagine water'

Learning experience: Against the backdrop of his love affair, Paul is also being trained by Stilgar in the skills necessary to become a warrior in Arrakis' brutal environment

Adapt or die: In one heart-stopping sequence, Paul has to learn how to ride one of the gigantic worms that periodically rise to the surface and destroy their surroundings

Making it: With Stilgar's advice and the pair of harpoons in his hands, he manages miraculously to attach himself to the back of the leviathan

A joyful smile breaks out on Chani's face when she sees Paul, alive, riding the worm, and her countrymen erupt into cheers.

However his most serious physical foe, it appears, will not be his habitat but another man - Feyd-Rautha, Austin Butler's character.

A stone-cold warrior with a fully shaved head and gleaming, predatory eyes, Feyd-Rautha is a scion of the Harkonnens, an enemy family to the Atreides.

Feyd-Rautha is known for his fearsome skill in duels, shown in the trailer when he fights in an arena resembling the Colosseum.

Paul himself is seen near the end of the sneak peek, preparing to face off in what promises to be a hair-raising one-on-one battle with Feyd-Rautha.

Raising his blade before his face in a pre-fight salute, Paul whispers a saying he learned from the Fremen: 'May thy knife chip and shatter.'

A new character played by French screen siren Lea Seydoux also puts in an appearance, draped in a plunging black frock with a beguiling hood.

At the very end of the trailer, Paul is seen standing at a precipice, raising his sword and rallying the massive army gathered below into a cacophony of applause.

Triumph: A joyful smile breaks out on Chani's face when she sees Paul, alive, riding the worm, and her countrymen erupt into cheers

Incoming: However his most serious physical foe, it appears, will not be his habitat but another man - Feyd-Rautha, Austin Butler's character

Who's who: A stone-cold warrior with a fully shaved head and gleaming, predatory eyes, Feyd-Rautha is a scion of the Harkonnens, an enemy family to the Atreides

Clash: Feyd-Rautha is known for his fearsome skill in duels, shown in the trailer when he fights in an arena resembling the Colosseum

Picturesque: Paul himself is seen near the end of the sneak peek, preparing to face off in what promises to be a hair-raising one-on-one battle with Feyd-Rautha

Blonde bombshell: A new character played by French screen siren Lea Seydoux also puts in an appearance, draped in a plunging black frock with a beguiling hood

To war: At the very end of the trailer, Paul is seen standing at a precipice, raising his sword and rallying the massive army gathered below into a cacophony of applause

Dune: Part Two, like its prequel, is directed by the acclaimed Denis Villeneuve whose films include Sicario, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049.

The movie is slated for release on November 3 this year, having filmed last year between July and December in Abu Dhabi, Budapest and Italy.

A glittering set of actors from the first movie have returned from the second, including Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista and Stellan Skarsgard.

Frank Herbert's original novel has become a sci-fi classic and was previously adapted in the 1980s by David Lynch, whose widely derided movie featured such stars as Kyle MacLachlan, Patrick Stewart, Jose Ferrer, Brad Dourif and Sting.
Daisy Lowe has shared an array of adorable snaps of a countryside walk with her baby daughter Ivy.

The model, 34, was glowing as she held Ivy Love, four weeks, who she shares with fiance Jordan Saul, in a baby carrier.

Daisy held her newborn close to her heart as she wistfully looked into the distance, while keeping Ivy's face hidden from the camera.

The new mother looked radiant in a leopard-print jumper, while her raven tresses were styled with chic bangs.

Penning alongside her Instagram post on Wednesday, she said: 'I love having Ivy close to my heart, and being hands-free.

Adorable: Daisy Lowe, 34, cuddled up to her four-week-old baby daughter Ivy on Wednesday

Gorgeous: Daisy welcomed Ivy Love in April with her fiance Jordan Saul and has shared multiple insights into being a new mum

'Its given me so much more freedom which feels like such a gift 4 weeks into my mum hood.'

Fans were quick to praise how quickly Daisy has adapted to motherhood, with one commenting: 'Beautiful pictures', while a second said: 'Beautiful photos Daisy, wishing you both a wonderful day.'

A third fan praised how quickly she has adapted to being a new mum, saying: 'Motherhood looks good on you babe.'

Daisy took to Instagram in April to reveal she had given birth to her daughter as she shared a picture of her bundle of joy.

In the caption of her post, Daisy gushed: 'Our Easter egg finally hatched! Ivy Love Saul you have made all my dreams come true - our dream girl.

'I have never known happiness or love like this. I cant stop crying tears of joy. Happy Easter Loves.'

Her property developer partner also shared a post following their daughter's birth, writing: 'Welcome to the world Ivy Love Saul.'

At the end of the month, Daisy shared an update with fans as baby Ivy reached two weeks.

Close bond: Daisy has adapted well to motherhood and looked stylish in a leopard-print jumper, while she kept baby Ivy's face hidden from the camera

Snapping a selfie, the model looked radiant as she posed for the camera with her bundle of joy laid on her chest.

Alongside the stunning snap, Daisy also posted pictures of the sky, an image of her 'first time baking as a mumma' and also a snap of her placenta pills.

Her caption read: 'Postcards from the newborn bubble that are soothing my soul no end... Ivy cuddles... Chasing the sunshine, blue skies and blossom... Placenta encapsulation from @birthbetter_withelona... My first time baking as a mumma'.

She had a Tiba + Marl x Etta Loves Sensory Muslin close by to wrap her little one in.

She shared yet another a candid snap giving a peek into motherhood as she pumped milk from her breast and uploaded photos of her fiance doting over their baby girl.

Daisy called the breast pump her 'new secret weapon' and a 'game changer', five days after she announced she had given birth.

The former Strictly star also said seeing Jordan become a father has been the most 'beautiful and emotional experience'.

She wrote: 'Daddy appreciation post watching you for the past week dote on our baby girl has been the most beautiful & emotional experience.

Happy news! Announcing their daughter's birth in April, Daisy wrote: Our Easter egg finally hatched! Ivy Love Saul you have made all my dreams come true - our dream girl'

Happy days: Daisy took to social media once again to share sweet snaps with her baby daughter Ivy

'Your care for us both is beyond anything I could have ever wished for you are the greatest wind machine- keeping Ivy's tummy free and easy going

'You have made our home so clean and serene, filled my tummy with the yummiest meals & all the fuel to feed our girl & been such unwavering support for my hormonal tears, all the giggles and all the cuddles.

'Thank you for doing everything in your power to keep our ship sailing peacefully. We are so lucky you are ours. We love you more than words could ever express x x x.'

The former Strictly contestant also shared a photo of Jordan pushing their daughter in a pram.

The couple headed to Babington House to support Daisy's mother Pearl Lowe who was running a fair.

Daisy captioned the snap of proud dad Jordan out and about with their little one all snuggled up in a pram: 'More dad life diaries'.
EastEnders fans were delighted with Sharon Watts as she watched nasty Ravi Gulati get arrested for the attempted murder of Keanu Taylor on Wednesday - although some predict trouble could be on the way.

Sharon (Letitia Dean) watched Ravi (Aaron Thiara) get handcuffed and put in the back of a police car after Sharon grassed him up to cops following his brutal attack of Keanu (Danny Walters) after a drug deal went wrong during Tuesday's episode.

In the dramatic scenes, Ravi attacked Keanu on a dark Bridge Street by Kathy's cafe after it was hinted he revealed information about Ravi's criminal activities as part of a deal with police.

With Ravi working for dark drug lords, he ordered Keanu to do the drop, but when it went wrong, Ravi's bosses ordered him to beat up Keanu.

After Keanu was left for dead and rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung, a devastated Sharon called the police on Ravi when she learned it was him behind the attack.

Job done: EastEnders fans were delighted with Sharon Watts as she gave a wicked smirk while watching nasty Ravi Gulati get arrested during Wednesday's episode

Nasty: Sharon (Letitia Dean) watched Ravi (Aaron Thiara, centre) get handcuffed and put in the back of a police car after he brutally beat up Keanu (Danny Walters)

After blue-lighting it to Albert Square, cops grabbed Ravi and handcuffed him, while Sharon looked on and smirked.

Viewers were delighted after watching Sharon take charge, with many taking to Twitter to praise her for her actions.

However, others expressed their concern for the character, suggesting she could have made herself the target for an attack herself.

One person wrote: 'The smirk by Sharon. She's in her boss era I'm here for it.'

While someone else shared: '"Icon" is now spelt "Sharon Watts".'

'No one gives a look quite like Sharon Watts. An absolute master,' wrote another viewer, while someone else shared: 'Sharon got Ravi arrested yas queen. That smirk though.'

'SHARON IS SUCH A BADDIE YES GIRL,' exclaimed another viewer.

While someone else posted: 'Absolutely obsessed with Sharons smirk as she watches Ravi being arrested #eastenders.'

Opinion: Fans took to Twitter to express their views on Sharon's action, with some being delighted she took charge while others feared it may leave her in trouble

Another soap fan tweeted: 'Oh noooo Sharon now I'm more worried ... wasn't the best idea to get Ravi arrested. He will come back to get after you #EastEnders.'

While someone else commented: 'Uh oh, Sharon may have made a massive mistake by calling the police on Ravi. Especially if Cristos has a police informant. This could end badly for Sharon, her family and the Taylor family #Eastenders @bbceastenders.'

'I do like Sharons "dont mess with me" look. But I think shes going to regret that #EastEnders,' remarked another viewer.

It comes after EastEnders fans predicted a grave end Ravi as he descended deeper into London's criminal underworld following a drug deal gone wrong during Tuesday's gripping episode.

Ravi left Keanu for dead after brutally attacking him in a dark corner next to the cafe and devotees of BBC soap insist he is now a frontrunner to be the character killed off this coming Christmas.

Just moments earlier, Keanu was sacked from his job as a doorman at Phil Mitchell's (Steve McFadden) nightclub Peggy's after Keanu was arrested when it turned out a drugs delivery job Ravi had booked him for involved cocaine as well as cannabis and he was found out by police.

And, while Keanu was let go by cops after they came to a deal with him to reveal who had ordered him to carry out the job and to dish up further information, it became apparent he wasn't safe when he returned home to Albert Square for his Albie's christening in the Queen Vic.

As the residents of Albert Square celebrated in the pub, Ravi was seen on the phone outside, declaring 'there's no need for that' as he appeared to receive orders from a mystery called on the phone.

Trouble: EastEnders fans have predicted a grave end Ravi as he descended deeper into London's criminal underworld following a drug deal gone wrong during Tuesday's episode

Attack: Ravi left Keanu (pictured) for dead after brutally attacking him in a dark corner next to Kathy's Cafe on Bridge Street

And, as the episode drew to a close, Ravi was seen dressed in dark clothing with his hood pulled up before he attacked Keanu while Keanu made his way to Sharon Watts' (Letitia Dean) in a bid to make up after they had an argument earlier in the day following his arrest.

As Keanu lay bloodied and unconscious on the pavement, Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy) appeared on the street, prompting Ravi to make a dash for it to save himself from being caught.

Taking to Twitter during Tuesday's instalment, viewers predicted drug kingpin Christos (Alexander Theo) was pulling the strings behind the scenes, with some soap fans insisting Ravi would be six feet under by Christmas.

'So we can agree Ravi will be the dead body at Christmas?', wrote one person.

While someone else posted: 'I think Ravi is the dead man on the floor in the Vic at the Christmas Flash back/Flash forward.'

Another viewer wrote: 'Sharons found out it was Ravi who set up the drugs deal that got Keanu arrested and shes fuming! Another one of The Six Ravis crossed.'

And someone else shared: 'Ravi's enemies are growing ahead of Christmas.'

One other soap fan commented: 'Probably unlikely but I've just thought all the signs point towards Ravi being the one on the Vic floor at Christmas but what if we're being mislead and he is involved but he's the killer and he's killed Christos.'

And someone else wrote: 'Why would Ravi beat up Keanu and then tell him to get up and act like nothing happend? It's clear that Christos has Ravi on a tight leash and is feeding him instructions. Poor Keanu dosnt deserve this.'

Horrific: As the episode drew to a close, Ravi was seen dressed in dark clothing with his hood pulled up before he attacked Keanu

Gueswork: On Twitter, viewers predicted drug kingpin Christos was pulling the strings behind the scenes, with some soap fans insisting Ravi would be six feet under by Christmas

EastEnders made history with an epic end to a February episode when they teased a flashforward of a Christmas murder.

In the shocking scenes, Sharon, Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), Denise Fox (Diane Parish), Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) and Suki Kaur Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) were seen surrounding a dead body, but the identity of the corpse and the killer were kept secret.

Viewers will have to wait months to see exactly what unfolds on the Christmas Day episode, with each woman and the men in their lives set to undergo dramatic storylines that will explain the night's drama.

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
Emmerdale's Mary Goskirk flew into a furious rage and swore revenge on conwoman Faye after being attacked and scammed.

On Tuesday's episode, the former journalist uncovered the shocking truth that her girlfriend was nothing but a liar who can conned her out of thousands of pounds with a ruse about needing money for her women's shelter in Ecuador.

She confronted Faye after finally cottoning on thanks to Suzy's concerns, but Mary (Louise Jameson) was left unconscious after Faye (Jane Gurnett) attacked her and fled with her cash and camera.

A heartbroken and humiliated Mary refused to call the police after the attack and vowed to pay back the other scammed villagers' money with her own funds as she blamed herself for what happened.

But in Wednesday's instalment, her daughter Rhona (Zoe Henry) took things into her own hands and called the police on her mother's behalf, prompting Mary to finally release her anger and vow to bring her ex to justice.

Livid: Emmerdale's Mary Goskirk flew into a furious revenge and swore revenge on conwoman Faye after being attacked and scammed

Shocking: On Tuesday's episode, the former journalist uncovered the shocking truth that her girlfriend was nothing but a liar who can conned her out of thousands of pounds

After speaking with the police and being advised to seek help from 'victim support', Mary lashed out in a furious rant as she told her daughter that she refused to be a victim.

The angry mum declared that Faye would not take away her self-esteem and promised to pay back all the victims who had been duped by Faye's lies.

Violently throwing out the items in her suitcase that Faye persuaded her to buy for their fake trip to Ecuador, Mary told how she would throw the village 'the biggest party' when Faye was finally arrested.

She also made a threat against the scammer, seething: 'I only hope the police find her before I do!'

Viewers watching the dramatic scenes unfold were quick to express their joy that Mary was finally fighting back, after initially believing nothing should be done.

Taking to Twitter, one viewer shared: 'Go Mary. Use that anger but save a massive smile for when you see Faye in court.'

While another said: 'Glad Mary finally got her fight back and wants to get miss con woman arrested!!! Was worried just let it go and give wrong impression it's ok to con people! Hope they catch miss dodgy very soon!!!!!'

'Mary turned into a roaring lion' commented a third watcher.

Tough: A heartbroken and humiliated Mary refused to call the police after the attack and vowed to pay back the other scammed villagers' money with her own funds as she blamed herself for what happened

Anger: Her daughter Rhona (Zoe Henry) took things into her own hands and called the police on her mother's behalf, prompting Mary to finally release her anger and vow to bring her ex to justice

Revenge: Violently throwing out the items in her suitcase that Faye persuaded her to buy for their fake trip to Ecuador, Mary told how she would throw the village 'the biggest party' when Faye was finally arrested

Fuming: She also made a threat against the scammer, seething: 'I only hope the police find her before I do!'

Reaction: Viewers watching the dramatic scenes unfold were quick to express their joy that Mary was finally fighting back, after initially believing nothing should be done

'Oh go on Mary! Brilliant stuff! Seeing her kick off like that' enthused a fourth fan.

With another adding: 'Mary has went off the deep end. Cannae say a blame her.'

Tuesday's show saw Mary found unconscious on the floor my Rhona's ex-husband Gus, who proceeded to call the ambulance.

While being treated for her injuries by a paramedic, Mary recalled the horrifying incident to a concerned Suzy, who'd called in after spotting the ambulance, prompting the paramedic to ask if they should involve the police.

To which Mary insisted: 'No police. It's my fault, it's all my fault!'

Later as her daughter Rhona rushed home after getting a message from Suzy, a gutted Mary broke down as he lamented how silly she'd been.

The former journalist sobbed that she feels like 'a joke' and 'vulnerable' as she struggled to comprehend how she fell for all of Faye's lies.

Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
Their path to the throne can scarcely be described as conventional  and has certainly been far from untroubled. So I trust that King Charles and Queen Camilla wont discern an ill omen in the accident that has befallen one of Camillas Pages of Honour  an accident which, I can reveal, will force him to carry out his duties one-handed at the Coronation on Saturday.

The lad in question is Gus Lopes, 13-year-old son of Camillas daughter, Laura, and her husband, Harry Lopes. Abetted by his twin brother, Louis, and their cousin, Freddy Parker Bowles, 13, Gus will be responsible for holding aloft his grandmothers Coronation robes  likely to weigh as much as 15lbs, as Queen Elizabeths did in 1953  as she progresses down the aisle at Westminster Abbey.

Gus will have to manage this without the use of his right arm, which will be in a sling  just as it was earlier this week when he and Louis were at Buckingham Palace for rehearsals.

Gus broke his arm in a bike accident while on holiday, a family friend tells me. The cast has been removed, but he must have it in a sling on the big day.

Gus Lopes, 13, (right) will have to carry out his duties one-handed at the Coronation on Saturday after breaking his arm. He and his twin brother Louis (left) are pictured arriving at Buckingham Palace for rehearsals earlier this week

Abetted by his twin brother, Louis, and their cousin, Freddy Parker Bowles, 13, (foreground) Gus will be responsible for holding aloft his grandmothers Coronation robes as she progresses down the aisle at Westminster Abbey

Camilla says her grandchildren developed a bond with her husband, King Charles, at a young age. She is pictured with Gus and Louis in 2012

Gus and Louis and their sister, Eliza, (pictured together last year) were among the extended family group at Sandringham, in Norfolk, over Christmas

Though this is far from ideal, Gus has the appreciable consolation of being completely at ease with his step-grandfather. The bond between them developed when Gus and Louis were very young, as Camilla explained to my colleague Rebecca English six years ago.

When we are with my husband in Scotland, he reads them Harry Potter, said the then Duchess of Cornwall. And he does all the voices, because he is a brilliant mimic. They sit spellbound. They love it.

More recently, Gus and Louis and their sister, Eliza, 15  youngest bridesmaid at Prince William and Kate Middletons wedding in 2011  were among the extended family group at Sandringham, in Norfolk, over Christmas.

Should Gus seek inspiration for remaining steady on parade on Saturday, he need only think of the bravery and stoicism of his great-grandfather, Camillas father, Bruce Shand, who was awarded two Military Crosses, as well as being wounded, during his wartime service.

Guss grandfather, Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, who commanded the Blues and Royals, will be in the abbey to provide him with encouragement.
She may not have scored an invite to the prestigious Met Gala.

But Lara Worthington still turned heads as she rocked up for the after-party at The Box nightclub in New York City on Monday night.

The 35-year-old model attended the famously riotous event with Margaret Zhang, the Australian-born editor-in-chief of Vogue China.

Lara went braless in a semi-sheer dress with red polka dots, and completed her edgy look with knee-high platform boots.

The Met Gala after-party at The Box, a trendy windowless club on the Lower East Side, was hosted this year by Doja Cat and Diddy.

She may not have scored an invite to the prestigious Met Gala, but Lara Worthington still turned heads as she rocked up for the after-party at The Box nightclub in NYC on Monday night

A-listers started to arrive at about midnight, but Diddy didn't take to the stage until 2:30am, according to Vogue.com.

The theme of this year's Met Gala was late designer Karl Lagerfeld.

Lagerfeld, the designer for hire at Chanel, Fendi, Chloe and more, died in February 2019 after 65 years in fashion.

Few designers have made the deep cultural impact he did, especially within the confines of carrying on historic heritage legacies.

The 35-year-old model attended the famously riotous event, hosted by Doja Cat and Diddy, with Margaret Zhang (right), the Australian-born editor-in-chief of Vogue China

Lara shares three sons, Rocket, seven, Racer, six, and River, two, with her actor husband Sam Worthington.

The family spent most of 2021 in Australia, after living in the U.S. for several years.

However, they have since returned to America and are living in New York City.

Lara has become known for her bold fashion sense ever since she reinvented herself from swimsuit model to chic socialite.

Lara shares three sons, Rocket, seven, Racer, six, and River, two, with her actor husband Sam Worthington (pictured together in Los Angeles on January 28, 2023)

She is known for wearing lots of black, and often adds a tomboy twist to her ensembles with oversized blazers, sneakers and T-shirts.

In a recent interview Stellar magazine, she said she has a relaxed attitude when it comes to fashion.

'I wear whatever the hell I want and I don't care!' she said.

The mother of three also told The Daily Telegraph her must-haves include a 'black dress in a statement silhouette' and 'a leather dress [that] stands the test of time'.
Guy Fieri put on his philanthropic hat with his two sons, Hunter and Ryder Fieri, at a Special Olympics event at at school in Northern California on Tuesday.

The 55-year-old kitchen extraordinaire - who recently got in shape - served up food at the event at Windsor High School alongside Hunter, 26, and 17-year-old Ryder.

Students there worked with the three to prepare lunch for about 575 athletes and volunteers.

Teaching pupils to make Mexican rice and beans for the charitable event, Fieri first paid a visit last week.

Upon his return to the school this week, the media personality shared photos from the regional Special Olympics on Instagram.

Giving back: Guy Fieri put on his philanthropic hat with his two sons, Hunter and Ryder (pictured left image) , at a school in Northern California on Tuesday (Fieri pictured R image at the event)

Helping hand: The 55-year-old kitchen extraordinaire served up food at a Special Olympics event at Windsor High School

Outtakes from the day of volunteering showed Hunter and Ryder packing meals into boxes, and there were also lot of group pictures featuring the Food Network star.

The Guy Fieri Foundation regularly gives attention and shares resources with underserved communities.

In 2020 Guy headed to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in California to feed more than 1,000 first responders and healthcare workers.

Additionally, he extended himself by adding a personal touch with a handwritten thank you note with his initials penned on the lids of carryout boxes.

Also in 2020, he teamed up with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation to spearhead the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, People reported.

With a notable campaign, the group was able to raise money for one-time $500 grants giften to workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Fieri has instilled great values in his sons, Hunter, 26, and Ryder, 17, as evidenced by their routine volunteer efforts.

Last year Guy surprised Ryder with a truck after he drove his grandparents' minivan for a year.

Hands-on: Students there worked with the the three to prepare lunch for about 575 athletes and volunteers

Doing good: Teaching pupils to make Mexican rice and beans for the charitable event, he first paid a visit last week

Speaking to People last fall, the foodie said, 'He got my parents' old, used 259,000-mile Chrysler minivan.'

The father-of-two explained, 'I'm not buying Ryder a car, and I refuse to let him buy a car until he spends one year with no tickets, no accidents, driving the minivan.'

Rider's good behavior paid off, but only after his dad dared him to a scavenger hunt as a final challenge before revealing the gift.

Guy said Ryder and his friends went to extensive measures for one clue.

The hunt was arranged at the longtime TV host's Northern California ranch.

'The second to last clue sent them all the way up the mountain to the lookout, and they had to find the clue,' he dished.

'And then it said, "Come down where it's deep and cold" or whatever. And I had opened the pool  now granted, it's 34 degrees up at the ranch in the wind  and in the pool tied to a pipe is the final clue,' Fieri continued.

Group effort: Upon his return to the school this week, he shared photos from the regional Special Olympics on Instagram

Outtakes: The Guy's Foundation Instagram account featured photos from the day of giving back

When using a pool skimmer was to no avail, Ryder and his friends resorted to braving the cold water.

'They all strip down to their boxers and they all jump in and he pulls it out and he gets it.

'The water had leaked in the envelope a little bit, so it was a little bit wet and he's trying to read it,' Guy recalled. 'It was [revealing] this truck that he's wanted.'

The truck in mention was Guy's initially, and has continued to stay in the family.

'Hunter wanted my truck, so Hunter bought my truck and we made Ryder buy Hunter's truck,' the media personality added.

Making sure to teach his son the value of hard work, he noted that he made his younger son pay for half.

He and his wife Lori paid for the remaining half. He said to the publication, 'I mean, what is the gift?

'The gift is, "Hey, you have to pay half the money we'll pay the other half." But he was really excited.'

Speaking about a more recent memory he remembered, 'I saw him the other night. I was getting home about the same time he was.

'I say, "You back in?" He goes, "Oh, yeah. Truck looks way cooler when you look at it from the front."'

Pat on the back: On Instagram, Guy's Foundation gave a shout out to the Windsor high students for their hard work

Family moment: Ryder pictured with his mom and dad before his high school prom

Ryder recently took to social media to share a slew of outtakes from his junior prom.

The high schooler donned a spiffy black suit with a red bowtie and corsage, coordinating with his date's dress.

Ryder, who entertains more than 11,000 followers on the app, wrote in the caption: 'Out of the ordinary.'

His big brother dropped in the comments to support him as he wrote, 'Baller!!'
The project is a secured and dedicated communication domain that provides real-time audio and video communication for military operations.

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, inaugurated an advanced communication infrastructure, code maned, 'Giwa 2 Project' for the operations of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the project is a secured and dedicated communication domain that provides real-time audio and video communication for military operations.

It is a defence communications networks coordinate project executed by Defence Headquarters.

Mr Buhari said the communication infrastructure was designed to provide secure means of communication, real-time instant reporting as well as information exchange between the armed forces and other security agencies.

He said it would lead to enhanced collaboration between the defence, intelligence and security communities while providing the platform for the denial of freedom of action to perpetrators of insecurity across Nigeria.

According to him, Giwa 2 project initiative is in alliance with some of the main focus areas of the federal government in the areas of security, economic progression and technology development.

"These benefits of Giwa 2 project informed the timely support of the federal government through the Central Bank of Nigeria to ensure that the centre is commissioned as one of the proud landmarks and enduring achievements of the armed forces of Nigeria under this administration.

"It is evident from what we are witnessing here today that you have the infrastructure designed to stand the test of time and deliver on its mandate," he said.

Mr Buhari said the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy would support the Defence Headquarters in ensuring that the infrastructure available for rural telephony were fully deployed for the attainment of the project.

He pledged that the government would support the full actualisation of other features of the project to ensure professional and vibrant armed forces with the capacity to protect the territorial integrity of the country.

He said the armed forces had continually demonstrated resolve to provide safe, secure and an enabling environment to promote national security.

The president said his administration had made significant strides to enhance the capacity and capability of the armed forces to tackle the multiple of security challenges confronting the country.

He urged troops to continue to give their best in the service of the nation.

He also challenged the armed forces to continue to break new ground and remain at the forefront of mainstreaming, technological and other cutting-edge initiatives to facilitate the provision of a safe, secure and peaceful environment for Nigerians.

The Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ibrahim Kana, commended the DHQ for the successful completion of the secure nationwide defence communication network infrastructure.

Mr Magashi said the project was a remarkable breakthrough in the technological advancement of communication systems in the armed forces of Nigeria.

He said the network had the capability of providing voice, data and video as well as other value-added services for the armed forces locations in and outside Abuja.

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, said the deployment of the new network would support the nation's security institutions to build trust and enhance their reputation.

Mr Pantami said the deployment would go a long way in consolidating the achievements of the Buhari administration in security and also open new opportunities for addressing the security challenges in Nigeria.

"As we all know, all the systems that have been used today in security, need effective networks, including control systems, computer systems, communication systems, intelligence systems, information systems, surveillance systems, recognising systems, all of them.

"They need a very secure network to communicate and I believe with this project as part of the Giwa 2 project.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, said the project was supported by the apex bank because of the impact of insecurity on agriculture.

Mr Emefiele said that improved security would help in addressing the challenge of food scarcity occasioned by the inability of farmers to go to farms.

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The Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor, said the project was borne out of the fact that the entire fields of electronic warfare, information warfare, and cyber warfare were inter-related.

Mr Irabor said that every commander would wish to have both technical and operational control of his own communications, as well as the capacity to influence those of his adversaries.

He said the armed forces had over the years been desirous of having a dedicated and secure communication platform that could be deployed to enhance administrative, logistical, and operational activities.

"Consequently, the National Communications Commission allocated 20 megahertz bandwidth to the DHQ for the establishment of a secure nationwide defence communication network in 2013.

"Following years of planning and consideration of various funding and operating models, DHQ began establishing the secure nationwide communication network code named Giwa 2 Project infrastructure in May 2021."

He thanked Mr Buhari for his unflinching support for the actualisation of the project.

(NAN)
Reeta Chakrabarti has revealed that becoming a newsreader in her 50s was 'invigorating' in a new interview.

The BBC presenter, 58, started out as a producer on BBC Radio 4 working on the Today programme, and later held roles such as education and political correspondent.

She is now known for presenting BBC News at One, Six and Ten - even travelling to Ukraine last year to cover Russia's invasion.

But in an interview with Good Housekeeping, Reeta revealed that she hadn't ever expected to become a newsreader.

She said: 'It's quite astonishing, actually... I didn't start presenting until I was 49, which might have ordinarily been a stage when I thought being a correspondent was it.

Speaking out: BBC presenter Reeta Chakrabarti, 58, has said becoming a newsreader in her 50s was 'invigorating'

Career change: The star was previously a correspondent and said she hadn't expected her new role

'But instead, I was given this new opportunity in my 50s and I found it very invigorating, it's been a sort of turning point in my career.'

Reeta met King Charles - then Prince Of Wales - in 2007, revealing that she was 'very impressed' with what she saw.

She said: 'I met him in 2007 during a reception at Clarence House  I was standing with Clare Balding, who knows him very well, and when he came to us, he was very relaxed.

'I was reporting on politics at the time, and he was very interested in my work. I remember thinking: "Gosh, he must have to remember who everybody is in this room of 150 guests"  and it seemed like he did. I was very impressed.'

In March 2022, she presented from Lviv in Ukraine as Russia's invasion unfolded.

But the decision to leave the UK was not an easy one - especially after discussions with her husband and children.

Reeta is married to Paul Hamilton, a professor at Queen Mary University of London. The couple share three children.

Future hopes: As she looks to enter her 60s, the newsreader is once more looking forward to a 'fresh start'

Familiar face: Reeta often presents BBC News at Ten, but also appears at other times of the day

The BBC legend says she is now looking forward to what is to come for her career in her 60s.

She added: 'It doesn't make any sense to me that I'll be 60

The June 2023 issue of Good Housekeeping is on sale from the 4th May

'I've tended to find that the numbers at the beginning of a decade are much better than those at the end because when you enter a new decade, it feels like a fresh start.'

Reeta then dished the dirt on whether she would ever appear on a series of Strictly Come Dancing, where she would follow in the likes of fellow BBC stars Naga Munchetty, Carol Kirkwood and Chris Hollins.

She admitted that as much as she would love to do the show, she doesn't think she would get involved because it wouldn't suit the 'serious' aspect of her job.

In April top BBC presenters, including Reeta, were targeted by redundancy letters.

Huw Edwards, Clive Myrie and Sophie Raworth were also understood to have been sent the letters.

Some of the corporations most famous names were hit with the requests to consider voluntarily ending their careers as part of cost-cutting measures.

The June 2023 issue of Good Housekeeping is on sale from the 4th May.
She looked as pretty a princess at this years Met Gala.

And Miranda Kerr sexed up her look for the fashion extravaganzas after party in New York City.

The 40-year-old showed off her endless legs in a Dolce & Gabbana glittering silver mini dress.

The diamond theme continued in her accessories, with the mother-of-three boosting her already statuesque height in a pair of sparkling stilettos and some seriously stunning bling from Dior's HAUTE JOAILLERIE collection - including a diamond choker necklace decorating her decolletage and huge stud earrings.

She rocked the same Nineties-inspired hairstyle as she did at the gala, and a fresh application of makeup.

Miranda Kerr showed off her long supermodel legs in a Dolce & Gabbana mini dress at the Met Gala after party this week

Miranda's frock comes from Dolce & Gabbana Fall 2021 collection and was once also worn by Heidi Klum's model daughter, Leni, 18.

He looked utterly breathtaking at the 2023 Met Gala in New York City on Monday.

Miranda was as pretty as a princess in an off-white gown from designer Dior with pearl embellishments.

The glamorous garment was cinched in at the waist and featured a tastefully low-cut neckline to reveal the model's decolletage.

The floor-length gown had a petite train for a touch of drama and elegant straps on the shoulders.

Miranda looked utterly breathtaking at the 2023 Met Gala in New York City on Monday

Miranda was as pretty as a princess in an off-white gown from designer Dior with pearl embellishments

Kerr paired her frock with a diamond choker, along with matching earrings and a ring.

She carried a rose gold clutch in one hand and had streaks of blonde through her brown hair.

The star's followers were blown away by her stunning look, with one commenting that she was the 'best dressed' of the night.

'Miranda is actually a real life Disney princess,' gushed another admirer.

Earlier that day, the model looked youthful and rejuvenated as she received an IV drip of vitamins and hydration infusions.

Sharing the moment to Instagram, the ex-Victoria's Secret stunner sat with her arm outstretched as she took a dose before the anticipated fashion event.

'Quick IV with Samir,' she wrote alongside the smiling photo.

The stunning supermodel was the belle of the ball as she posed for photographers

The floor-length gown had a petite train for a touch of drama and elegant straps on the shoulders

The model has been keeping fans up to date while she prepares to walk the Met Gala at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday evening.

In fact, the model-turned-beauty brand founder even did her own skincare prep for the glittering event, using a host of products from her own company, KORA Organics.

Miranda 'created a flawless, glowing makeup base' using the brand's newly-launched Plant Stem Cell Retinol Alternative Serum, after de-puffing her face with the KORA Rose Quartz Heart Facial Sculptor to 'lift and sculpt' while also 'bringing about a calm, soothing energy' ahead of the red carpet.

To perfect her Met Gala glow, Miranda applied the Turmeric Glow Moisturizer, the Noni Glow Face Oil, then finished off her skincare routine with the Minty Mineral Hydration Mist 'to keep skin hydrated and dewy' throughout the night.

Turning to makeup, Miranda relied on another all-natural brand: Ilia. Using products from the brand, celebrity beauty pro Ericka Verrett created a 'high glamour' look that was inspired by the Chanel runway shows of the 90s.

'I was inspired by the high glamour girls of the 90s Chanel runway shows,' Ericka shared. 'I love how everything was everything. Hair was having a moment, (overdone and accessorized), and makeup felt like it had no rules. There was an eye, a lip, a cheek the whole kitchen sink!'

To that end, Ericka gave Miranda a natural, glowing base using the Ilia Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40 then added a flush to the cheeks with the brand's Multi Stick, before adding some serious sparkle to the eye with the Liquid Powder Chromatic Eye Tint in Mythic.

Miranda's bold lip for the night was created using a mix of the Ilia Color Block Lipstick in Tango and Ultra Violet, with Ericka describing the hue as her 'favorite' aspect of the look.

The model flaunted her impeccable makeup in a selfie on Instagram just hours before the event

The 40-year-old provided a closer look at the pearl embellishments on social media

Ericka was also responsible for Miranda's 'do for the evening - which she created using products from az Craft Luxury Hair Care, including the Elevate Luxe Mousse, the Intense Volume Mist and the Amplify Texture Spray, which gave the stunning style plenty of oomph.

To ensure the style stayed locked in place all night, Ericka finished it off with the az Craft Luxury Hair Care Obey Hairspray. Et voila!

The cover girl, known for her elegant and timeless fashion, has previously attended the Met Gala in 2011, 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2022.

Last year, Kerr oozed elegance in a strapless ivory tulle Oscar de la Renta gown, which was custom made by designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia.

Ahead of her recent milestone 40th birthday, the businesswoman took to her company Kora Organics' Instagram to gush about her secret to happiness and youth.

Additionally, she raved that being a mother to her three sons 'is really the most incredibly rewarding experience' of her life.

In addition to her eldest, Flynn, 12, who she shares with ex-husband Orlando Bloom, Kerr and Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel welcomed their first child, Hart, four, in 2018, and his younger brother Myles, three, the next year.

'Being a mum has its challenges for sure. Not all days are so easy, but I really try my best to be patient and kind and nurturing,' she said in her post.

The Sydney native continued: 'Being a mother has taught me that I'm so much more capable of more than I actually thought I was capable of. More love, more patience, more resilience.'
Just weeks after the first public screening of The Flash - where critics called it one of the best superhero movies ever - the film's production designer is making another bold claim.

Production designer Paul Austerberry - who won an Oscar for his work on Best Picture winner The Shape of Water - opened up on the film in a new interview with CBC News.

While the movie has been earning rave reviews, others are still troubled by Warner Bros. sticking with Miller after a slew of legal troubles including charges of assault and burglary and faced accusations of grooming children.

Still, Austerberry revealed in this new interview that once fans see the movie in theaters starting June 16, that, 'People will forget that,' referring to Miller's controversial behavior.

He added that Miller played two different versions of Barry Allen/The Flash, from two different universes, adding he had to shoot the film in, 'two different chunks,' which required him to switch roles every few days.

Bold claim: Just weeks after the first public screening of The Flash - where critics called it one of the best superhero movies ever - the film's production designer is making another bold claim

Legal troubles: While the movie has been earning rave reviews, others are still troubled by Warner Bros. sticking with Miller after a slew of legal troubles including charges of assault and burglary and faced accusations of grooming children

Switch roles: He added that Miller played two different versions of Barry Allen/The Flash, from two different universes, adding he had to shoot the film in, 'two different chunks,' which required him to switch roles every few days

Austerberry revealed Miller had, 'a lot of pressure,' adding he filmed for six days a week, and on Saturdays he spent in stunt rehearsals, claiming Miller only had three days off during the entire shoot.

'So, a lot of pressure,' Austerberry said of Miller, who has been in more than his fair share of legal troubles over the past few years.

The 30-year-old actor was arrested several times earlier this year for assault and burglary, faced accusations of grooming children, and reportedly provided housing for a mother and three young children at an unlicensed cannabis farm in Vermont despite opposition from their father.

The actor issued a statement in August apologizing for his behavior while revealing that he was seeking treatment for 'complex mental health issues.'

His reps told Variety in a statement: 'Having recently gone through a time of intense crisis, I now understand that I am suffering complex mental health issues and have begun ongoing treatment.'

The statement continued: 'I want to apologize to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behavior. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe and productive stage in my life.'

Miller was arrested and charged earlier in August with felony burglary after police claim the actor broke into an area home and stole bottles of liquor in May.

The future of The Flash franchise was uncertain after the actor was arrested for the third time this year in August, following earlier arrests in April in Hawaii.

Pressure: Austerberry revealed Miller had, 'a lot of pressure,' adding he filmed for six days a week, and on Saturdays he spent in stunt rehearsals, claiming Miller only had three days off during the entire shoot

Arrested: The 30-year-old actor was arrested several times earlier this year for assault and burglary, faced accusations of grooming children, and reportedly provided housing for a mother and three young children at an unlicensed cannabis farm in Vermont despite opposition from their father

Apologized: The actor issued a statement in August apologizing for his behavior while revealing that he was seeking treatment for 'complex mental health issues'

Miller has been accused of disturbing and violent behavior going back to at least 2020.

That year, a video circulated that allegedly showed the actor choking a woman while at a bar in Reykjavik, Iceland.

A source told Variety the incident took place after 'pushy fans' approached Miller and the actor lost their temper.

The Flash director Andy Muschietti also offered an update on Miller, which began, 'Were all hoping that they get better.

'[They're] taking the steps to recovery, [they're] dealing with mental health issues, but [they're] well. We talked to them not too long ago, and [they're] very committed to get better,' Muschietti concluded.
Jamie Foxx remains in hospital after after suffering a medical emergency over three weeks ago.

The actor, 55, is at a medical facility in Georgia where he is undergoing tests after taking in Atlanta where he is filming his upcoming Netflix movie Back in Action.

Sources close to Jamie told TMZ he 'needs all the prayers and well-wishes his fans can muster'.

They added that Jamie, who is the host of the hugely popular Beat Shazam music lyric game show on FOX, will not be on the newest season as filming has already begun.

Last Friday, People spoke with a source who confirmed Foxx (born Eric Bishop) was 'awake and alert' in a 'Georgia medical facility.'

'Pray for him': Jamie Foxx remains in hospital after after suffering a medical emergency over three weeks ago

'He's OK, thank God,' the source said. 'He's still in the hospital and doctors are running tests but he's awake and alert. They're keeping him under observation.'

Foxx was taken ill last Tuesday in Atlanta where he is filming his upcoming Netflix movie Back in Action, alongside Cameron Diaz and Glenn Close .

While his family has shared news of his health scare, they have not provided any details.

However a source previously told People that Foxx was steadily improving.

Fans were initially alerted about the health scare when the actor's daughter Corinne Foxx shared a grave statement on social media earlier this month.

The 29-year-old actress wrote, 'We wanted to share that, my father, Jamie Foxx, experienced a medical complication yesterday.

'Luckily, due to quick action and great care, he is already on his way to recovery,' she continued.

'We know how beloved he is and appreciate your prayers. The family asks for privacy during this time,' the statement concluded.

At the time, sources confirmed to TMZ that Foxx's condition was serious enough to require him to go to a hospital.

Limited details have been shared and it's unclear what symptoms the comedian may have been suffering from.

Tough: Sources close to Jamie told TMZ he 'needs all the prayers and well-wishes his fans can muster'

CNN previously reported tests were being conducted to determine what led to his health scare and that the actor was under observation at the hospital.

'They are running tests and still trying to figure out what exactly happened,' an insider said.

Despite his improving condition, there's no word yet on when he will be able to leave the hospital or get back to filming.

The film has been marketed as the return to acting for his co-star Cameron Diaz, whom he helped to lure out of retirement, though she reportedly plans to retire for good after a string of catastrophes on the film set.

Glenn Close is also featured in the film.

The hospitalization was serious enough that the actor's family came from out of town to be with him.

One source told TMZ, 'He's communicating now, and that's good news,' which may imply that he was at one point unable to communicate due to the medical emergency.

Foxx shares his daughter Corinne with his ex-girlfriend Connie Kline. He also has a 13-year-old daughter Annalise, whom he shares with Kristin Grannis.

His latest film shoot in Atlanta appears to have been a surprisingly stressful ordeal for the Baby Driver actor, as well as his colleagues.

Breaking: Fans were initially alerted about the health scare when the actor's daughter Corinne Foxx shared a grave statement on social media this past Wednesday; pictured in 2019

Grave: The 29-year-old actress wrote, 'We wanted to share that, my father, Jamie Foxx, experienced a medical complication yesterday'

It was reported last month that Foxx 'had an absolute meltdown' while the film was shooting in the UK, which led to the firing of multiple people.

He reportedly booted an executive producer from the project, along with two directors and even his own driver.

According to The Sun, one staffer was fired in relation to an apparent scam to access 33,000 in cash from the actor, which was reportedly in relation to the sale of a Rolex watch.

There was even more drama when it was revealed that production was paused last month after an unexploded WWII-era bomb was discovered on the film's set in London, just before two major action scenes were set to be filmed.
Jamie Foxx has broken his silence after suffering a medical emergency three weeks ago which caused him to be hospitalized.

The Oscar-winning actor, 55, took to Instagram on Wednesday with a post which read: 'Appreciate all the love, feeling blessed' followed by praying hands, heart and fox emojis.

Foxx is at a medical facility in Georgia where he is undergoing tests after taking ill in Atlanta on April 11 - where he was filming his upcoming Netflix movie Back in Action alongside Cameron Diaz.

The star also gave a shout-out to friend Nick Cannon who has filled in hosting duties for him on popular game show Beat Shazam.

Jamie's daughter Corinne Foxx, 29, serves as DJ on the program but will also take leave to aid in her famous father's recovery.

'Feeling blessed': Jamie Foxx has broken his silence after suffering a medical emergency three weeks ago which caused him to be hospitalized

The Oscar-winning actor, 55, took to Instagram on Wednesday with a post which read: 'Appreciate all the love, feeling blessed' followed by praying hands, heart and fox emojis

Resharing a post from Corinne about Nick taking over the presenting mantle, Foxx wrote on his stories: 'Appreciate ya my boy @nickcannon, see you all soon'.

Corinne will be replaced by Kelly Osbourne who shared a video from the DJ booth on set of the reality competition show recently.

Sources close to Jamie recently told TMZ he 'needs all the prayers and well-wishes his fans can muster'.

Last Friday, People spoke with a source who confirmed Foxx (born Eric Bishop) was 'awake and alert' in a 'Georgia medical facility.'

'He's OK, thank God,' the source said. 'He's still in the hospital and doctors are running tests but he's awake and alert. They're keeping him under observation.'

Foxx was taken ill on April 11 in Atlanta where he is filming his upcoming Netflix movie Back in Action, alongside Cameron Diaz and Glenn Close .

While his family has shared news of his health scare, they have not provided any details.

Positive: The star also gave a shout-out to friend Nick Cannon who has filled in hosting duties for him on popular game show Beat Shazam

Before: Foxx and Cameron Diaz are pictured filming Back In Action on March 22 - weeks before the actor was hospitalized

Well-wishes: Celebrities including AJ McLean and Ludacris sent messages of support

However a source previously told People that Foxx was steadily improving.

Fans were initially alerted about the health scare when Corinne shared a grave statement on social media earlier this month.

The actress wrote, 'We wanted to share that, my father, Jamie Foxx, experienced a medical complication yesterday.

'Luckily, due to quick action and great care, he is already on his way to recovery,' she continued.

'We know how beloved he is and appreciate your prayers. The family asks for privacy during this time,' the statement concluded.

At the time, sources confirmed to TMZ that Foxx's condition was serious enough to require him to go to a hospital.

Limited details have been shared and it's unclear what symptoms the comedian may have been suffering from.

Tough: Sources close to Jamie told TMZ he 'needs all the prayers and well-wishes his fans can muster'

CNN previously reported tests were being conducted to determine what led to his health scare and that the actor was under observation at the hospital.

'They are running tests and still trying to figure out what exactly happened,' an insider said.

Despite his improving condition, there's no word yet on when he will be able to leave the hospital or get back to filming.

The film has been marketed as the return to acting for his co-star Diaz, whom he helped to lure out of retirement, though she reportedly plans to retire for good after a string of catastrophes on the film set.

Glenn Close is also featured in the film.

The hospitalization was serious enough that the actor's family came from out of town to be with him.

One source told TMZ, 'He's communicating now, and that's good news,' which may imply that he was at one point unable to communicate due to the medical emergency.

Foxx shares his daughter Corinne with his ex-girlfriend Connie Kline. He also has a 13-year-old daughter Annalise, whom he shares with Kristin Grannis.

His latest film shoot in Atlanta appears to have been a surprisingly stressful ordeal for the Baby Driver actor, as well as his colleagues.

Breaking: Fans were initially alerted about the health scare when the actor's daughter Corinne Foxx shared a grave statement on social media last month; pictured in 2019

Grave: The 29-year-old actress wrote, 'We wanted to share that, my father, Jamie Foxx, experienced a medical complication yesterday'

It was reported last month that Foxx 'had an absolute meltdown' while the film was shooting in the UK, which led to the firing of multiple people.

He reportedly booted an executive producer from the project, along with two directors and even his own driver.

According to The Sun, one staffer was fired in relation to an apparent scam to access 33,000 in cash from the actor, which was reportedly in relation to the sale of a Rolex watch.

There was even more drama when it was revealed that production was paused last month after an unexploded WWII-era bomb was discovered on the film's set in London, just before two major action scenes were set to be filmed.
Sir Michael Palin's late wife Helen was his strength and stay over their 57-year marriage and as of one of TV's most enduring couples she remained by his side as he rose to fame in the world of showbusiness.

Describing her as the 'bedrock' of his life, the TV legend announced that Helen Gibbins had died after 'suffering with chronic pain for several years' on Tuesday.

Talking about his 'indescribable loss', the Monty Python star turned explorer opened up about their meeting as childhood sweethearts during a summer holiday which lead to nearly six decades of marital bliss.

The couple first met when they were 16 years old in the seaside town of Southwold, but thanks a shared sense of humour, Sir Michael said that their relationship 'got better as time went on.'

In recent years Sir Michael would regularly be asked in interviews about the secret to a long and happy marriage and his heartwarming answers would usually focus on how well they got on.

Describing her as the 'bedrock' of his life, the TV legend announced that Helen Gibbins had died after 'suffering with chronic pain for several years' on Tuesday

The childhood sweethearts first met when they were just 16 years old during a summer holiday and married years later in 1966 (pictured) when they were in their 20s

'What we liked about each other then we still like now. I can't imagine life without her,' he told the Telegraph in 2018.

It was a whirlwind romance which he later used as the basis for his loosely autobiographical 1987 drama East of Ipswich, which is set to air tonight on BBC Four.

Speaking on The Jonathan Ross Show in 2019, Sir Michael recounted the sweet moment he first met Helen, who would go on to be his life partner.

READ MORE: Michael Palin announces his beloved wife Helen has died... just weeks after the childhood sweethearts marked their 57th wedding anniversary Advertisement

He said: 'I met his girl on holiday when I was 15 years old, she was 16. We had a holiday romance.

'A year later, she was back in the same little Suffolk town and the romance got a bit more intense, we held hands.

'And then the third year she wasnt there, we didnt see each other during the year because we lived in separate parts of the country.'

'We did write each other lots of letters and I was very much in love with her.'

Despite another chance encounter the following year, the pair lost touch for many years but in a twist of fate, were reunited on Michael's first day at Oxford University, where he studied modern history.

He explained that Helen was visiting her friend for the weekend, and as the pair saw each other again rekindled their romance which would lead to five decades of happy marriage.

He continued: 'The first man I met there had a girlfriend who worked at a Teachers Training College in London and he said, come up to Oxford.

'And she said, can I bring my friend?, shes called Helen and I think she says 'she knows Michael from way back'.

'So she came back and the whole relationship started again and weve been married 53 years.'

Sir Michael, who rose to fame in Monty Python but is known to younger audiences for his travel documentaries, told how his wife had always been supportive of his career.

His desire to travel the world while he filmed Life Of Brian in Tunisia launched a whole host of travel documentaries, including Around the World in 80 Days and the Himalayas with Michael Palin.

Teacher Helen, who went on to be a therapist and bereavement counsellor, even joined him on some of his incredible ventures.

She also featured on Around The World in 80 Days, as the couple appeared on screens to explore all corners of the world on the show, based on the book by Jules Verne.

Helen starred with her husband on his travel documentary Around The World in 80 Days

He once joked that Helen was 'always suspiciously tolerant of my trips.'

But there was one location which Helen was not happy about his visiting, Michael revealed in 2019, and even urged him not to go.

Sir Michael said that Helen was not keen on his trip to North Korea for a inside look of the Hermit Kingdom, which aired on Channel 5 in 2018.

He said: 'There was never a moment when I said, I dont want to do this.

But there was a time when I thought it would be rather foolish and, quite uncharacteristically, my dear wife said, I dont really want you to do this.

Away from showbusiness, the couple lived in the same house in Hampstead, north London, for more than 50 years, enjoyed watching Scandi detective dramas together and would holiday in Mallorca every year.

Together they welcomed three children, Thomas, 54, William, 52 and Rachel, 48 - and four grandchildren.

Talking to the Times in 2020 about how the couple had made it through lockdown while other marriages faltered, he said: 'Helen and I have been married so long, we've long been through the period where you bristle at everything about the other person that irritates you.

During their 57-year marriage, Sir Michael and Helen welcomed three children together - Thomas, 54, William, 52, and Rachel, 48 (pictured in 1980)

Michael has previously given an insight into his marriage to Helen (pictured in 1993), with his loving comments resurfacing following the devastating news of his wife's death

'We've learnt over the years just not to go into those areas. So I think we got on amazingly well.'

Prior to the pandemic the pair were both 'doing so many things' but lockdown restrictions saw the couple start to enjoy the slowing pace of life.

Reflecting on their marriage up until that point, he said: 'She's been brilliant all these years I've been away at rallying the family and keeping things going.'

When asked about the key ingredient to an enduring marriage, Sir Michael's answers rarely stray from their shared sense of humour, their want to spend time together and how well the couple got in.

Speaking to Sunday Times magazine in 2018, he said that they 'got together largely because we had a similar sense of humour'.

Teacher Helen pictured joining her husband on some of his incredible ventures including Around The World in 80 Days (pictured)

Helen and Sir Michael meet at the age of 16 and were reunited during a chance meeting at Oxford University

He said: Of course there was love and affection and all that, but it wasnt the most earth-shatteringly passionate affair, it was simply that we enjoyed things together.'

And in 2015 he told the Telegraph:' What is the really important thing in a relationship, what is the main thing? Sex, or going to the theatre, or having lots of friends, or whatever?'

'None of that matters, there's something underneath that works, that you're happy to be with somebody for an awful lot of the time.'

'The more time you spend together, the more things you have to share, the less likely it is that you want to throw all that away,' he poignantly added.

Michael and his wife Helen pictured at a 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' special screening in New York in 2015

Sir Michael and Helen tied the knot in 1966 after six years together and went on to start a family.

As they built upon their romance, Michael then found huge fame in Monty Python, but despite all the huge changes in their lives that came with his fame, they remained steadfast through it all.

Sir Michael gave an intimate insight into their married life while speaking to MailOnline in 2012, saying how he would sooner run up and down Oxford Street with his underpants on his head than cheat on Helen.

Describing how he balances his work and his family life, Michael said: 'Over the last year, I discovered a rather enjoyable equilibrium, a balance between work and relaxation that for the first time in my life favoured the latter.'

National treasure Michael soared to fame and quickly got a reputation for being a 'nice' man in the TV and film industry, but the writer confessed it is a term which annoyed his wife Helen.

'I have never claimed to be the nicest man in the world. That's a cliche that has somehow come to be widely accepted. It drives Helen mad,' he told The Independent in 2012.

'As she and my children will testify, I have a short fuse over certain things. Like if the one-inch nails are not where they should be in the box, and they've been moved to the three-inch section. Who did this?'

The Monty Python star and his wife Helen pictured at the BAFTAs in 2005

On Tuesday, Michael announced the sad news that his wife Helen had passed away just weeks after they celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary

Early on in his career, Michael found a way to bring his love for the world into his work, launching his first ever travel documentary - Great Railway Journeys Of The World: Confessions Of A Train Spotter - in 1980.

Though his jetting off around the globe could have proved an obstacle for Michael and Helen, as he jetted off for long periods of time to film, Michael told how his wife remained supportive through it all.

'Helen's always been really tolerant of my travels,' he said. 'If she said, 'You've got to stay home' she'd just have a frustrated man kicking chairs in the kitchen and looking at atlases.

'So she's always been very happy to let me go. I see no reason to rupture such an extraordinary relationship. I don't like a life that's edgy and uncomfortable. I'm restless in other ways  in terms of work.'

Announcing Helen's death, Michael described her as the 'bedrock of my life' in an emotional tribute (he is pictured with his kids William and Tom in September 1973)

But things haven't always been plain sailing for the couple as the comedy genius recently spoke about how he had to have heart surgery in 2019 and the struggles that came with it.

Speaking to Radio Times, he said of his surgery: 'Coming home has always been the best part of the process. We live near Hampstead Heath in London and near friends.'

'The great surprise is that I've been extremely content to be in the same place for some time,' he added.

Bereavement counsellor Helen also suffered with her health in recent years, with Michael telling of her struggles with chronic pain before her death.

Sharing his fears for his beloved wife, Michael told how Helen had to be moved into respite care from the London home they had shared for 50 years and told how they 'live life with our fingers crossed'.

'I don't think you can cure it, but they will help her manage it,' he told the Telegraph of Helen's condition last September.

'It's such a bore. She was so active and still is mentally. But the body is declining. We live life with our fingers crossed.'
New Delhi has abandoned the democratic forces in Myanmar, practising realpolitik to deal with the Govt of the day, not the elected Govt

Military coups usually end in instant success or instant failure. The coup in Myanmar has lasted more than two years and has reached a stalemate. The Resistance forces consisting of the National Unity Government (erstwhile National League for Democracy and Peoples Defence Forces allied with Ethnic Armed Organisations) are putting up a stiff fight. They appear to have some external support. The junta is in control mainly in urban centres while PDF and EAO control most of the rural areas. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is the undisputed leader with his corps commanders loyal to him although desertions have taken place  6000 police and 2000 Army have crossed over. But elite units are intact. On 10 April military air strikes killed 100 civilians supporting the opposition. On 17 April of 17500 prisoners, 3000 were released to mark the lunar new year.

At one stage, there was speculation the army's high command could split and the coup dissipate. But that has not happened because the stakes are very high for soldiers. For the last 78 years, they have run the country bar a decade 2011-2020 when hybrid civil-military rule was in place. Military casualties are known to be high  one estimate puts army/police at 10,000 and PDF at 1200. The State Administration Council runs the country of 54mn people which is the poorest in South East Asia. Nearly 4 to 5mn people have fled the country excluding 1mn Rohingyas who were forced out before the coup. Another 1.2 mn have become internally displaced persons.

As both sides call each other terrorists there is little hope of reconciliation as direct talks between junta and NUG have not materialized. The Asean Five-Point Consensus brokered in April 2021 has failed to take off as Asean is badly divided with Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia pro-military and remaining Indonesia (current chair) Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and the Philippines taking a hard line. Last month a Track 1.5 level dialogue was held in Bangkok with all stakeholders besides Asean members attending. Here too, there were more divergences than commonalities. The immediate need is a ceasefire, the release of prisoners and humanitarian assistance for people trapped in the fighting.

The junta has pledged to hold elections in August and the Election Commission has decreed new electoral laws. Political parties were to register by 31 March and as NLD did not, it was dissolved. By military courts awarding 76-year-old NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi 33 years in jail, the junta has ensured the elimination of the most popular party which won the 2020 elections overwhelmingly. The new laws relating to funding, banning parties with links to terrorist groups, securing 100,000 members within three months, and establishing offices in half of 330 towns. Election laws will be altered to ensure Union Solidarity Development Party (Military) wins as it did in the 2010 elections.

There are as many as 90 political parties in the fray. As the junta has ruled for more than two years under emergency rule, acting President Myint Swe said on state TV that it was against the constitution. Elections if held will be a sham as the juntas writ runs only across only 20 per cent of the territory though it has been negotiating with certain EAOs and declared a unilateral ceasefire. The military admires the Thai model where three former Army chiefs run a civilian party that wins elections. But Myanmar will have its own model with changes in the 2008 constitution which was drafted by the military.

At the recent Director General Police conference in New Delhi, three papers circulated dealt with North East and Act East policy. They recalled how China exploited Indian insurgencies and provided weapons to insurgents. The biggest casualty of the civil war in Myanmar is Indias Act East policy. Former Army Chief, Gen MM Naravane at a seminar in March on Myanmar: Two Years After the Coup, said that the Act East policy has an inner and external dimension. Both have to be addressed with a focus on the development of the northeast. He said India should provide electricity to villages across the border to have friendly population there.

As a consequence of violence, more than 100,000 refugees including some lawmakers have crossed over into Mizoram and Manipur. Mizoram acted with alacrity and humanity to welcome refugees while the central government had ordered they be pushed back. Similarly, fencing the border has been opposed by people on both sides. One of the reasons for insurgency was the mishandling of people residing along the border.

Indias premier projects central to Act East Policy like the trilateral highway connecting India with Asean and the multimodal Kaladan road/port project are in a mess though Ports and Shipping Minister S Sonowal said recently Sittwe port will be inaugurated soon. It is key to the development of the northeast but is stuck due to fighting in the Rakhine state. The investment at Sittwe port can fructify only once the Arakan Army which Indian security forces engage, can pacify Rakhine.

A truce between the Arakan Army and Junta will allow the projects to prosper. Chinese presence on Myanmars Coco Island will pose a threat. New Delhi has made hard choices virtually abandoning NLD and democratic forces, and practising realpolitik to deal with the government of the day, not the elected Govt. Keeping other options is a prudent policy.

(The writer, a retired Major General, was Commander, IPKF South, Sri Lanka, and founder member of the Defence Planning Staff, currently the Integrated Defence Staff. The views expressed are personal)
King Charles would need to show the world that his reign would be modern and the Commonwealth would be inclusive

Viewers worldwide will witness the coronation ceremony of British King Charles and his Queen Camillaon on May 6. The critical moment in modern British history will be 70 years after Queen Elizabeth 11 coronation in 1952. Though Charles succeeded Queen Elizabeth 11 in September 2022 after her death, the coronation will only occur now. From the investiture ceremony to the big coronation day, it will be a long weekend of many events, lunches, and community events. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was a "unique moment" for the country.

The ceremony will include the Recognition, the Coronation Oath, the Anointing, the Investiture, and the Enthronement and Homage. While most other world monarchies have discontinued this pompous event, Britain continues. King Charles now also heads the Commonwealth, a group of 54 independent countries comprising 2.4 billion people. He needed to show the world his reign would be modern and the Commonwealth would be inclusive. There is a growing demand for reparation payments and an apology for slavery.

The guest list for Charles' ceremony has been slashed from 8,000 to just 2,000. Other monarchs like Monaco's Prince Albert and Princess Charlene, Japan's Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, Poland's President Duda, and President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will participate for the first time in 900 years. Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar will represent India at the coronation.

Most British royal family members will attend, including William, Prince of Wales, his wife Katherine, and their children. Notable absentees include Meghan Merkel, but her husband, Prince Harry, will be present, and so will Prince Andrew. US President Joe Biden will be absent, but his wife, Jill Biden, will lead the US delegation. The service will include different faiths and community groups following the King's wishes. Indian-origin peer Lord Indarjit Singh will represent the Sikh community and Lord Patel will represent the Hindu community. Charles has long expressed interest in all religions, regardless of race or religious beliefs.

That brings us to the larger question of whether such an event holds the significance it once did, and does the monarch need one. There has been a debate in the country on this issue. While some would like the continuation of the monarchy, others consider it a burden on the country's economy, particularly the younger generation, when there is an economic crisis. Some anti-monarchy groups feel it might seem out of place in 2023.

The latest YouGov opinion poll to assess the public mood before the coronation revealed that Charles is not unpopular but is certainly less popular than his mother and son, Prince William. The survey suggests broad support for the monarchy, with 58% preferring it to an elected head of state - which was supported by 26%.

There were doubts about how effective Charles would be. He impressed the royalists and non-royalists during his first six months on the job. He has reshuffled royal residences. He would like to slim down the royal household. The new postage stamps bearing the image of King Charles III without the crown were released by the Royal Mail. Also, Charles rejected Heathrow's offer to name Terminal 5 after him, an honour it also extended to his mother. Terminal 2 became the Queen's Terminal in 2014.

In the past, Charle's broken marriage with Diana left him unpopular. Now this is changing. People are willing to accept Charles and his Queen Camilla. As the Prince of Wales, King Charles started The Prince's Trust in 1976 with his severance pay from the British Navy. This provides first grants for people with disadvantaged backgrounds. His other interests include climate change, employment prospects for young people, and interfaith relations.

There is an Indian connection, too, with the coronation. So far, the queens have worn the famous 105-carat Koh-i-Noor diamond, mined in Golconda in Andhra Pradesh, to coronations. The Kohinoor was put in a cross on Queen Mary's crown in 1911. Still, the diamond was removed from the crown and sent to the Tower of London for public display to avoid controversy.

After the coronation, the King plans to downsize the royal household and the number of working royals. Also, the Sunday Times reported Charles wanted Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Windsor Castle, and Balmoral to be transformed into public places. Politically, too, the King would like to be more flexible than his mother. He has developed a good rapport with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He has already said he will abide by the constitutional principle to avoid controversy as King. Overall, King Charles aims to be a modern king in line with the changing times.

(The author is a senior journalist)
Parambrata Chatterjee, the Bengali actor who won hearts in his debut Hindi film Kahaani' a decade ago, will be seen in the role of Feluda, the iconic detective character created by Satyajit Ray, for a new web series.

The series, 'Shabash Feluda', will be streamed from May 5, three days after the 102nd birth anniversary of Ray, director Arindam Sil said.

'Shabash Feluda' will be a 10-episode series based on Ray's story Gangtok-e Gondogol' (Problems in Gangtok) in which the detective, who has been vacationing in the scenic capital of Sikkim, will end up the mysterious death of a businessman.

"On the occasion of Ray's 102nd birth anniversary, we are announcing this as a tribute to the great filmmaker and gifted writer and illustrator," Sil told PTI.

Gangtok-e Gondogol' was first published in a literary magazine in 1970 but this series will see the characters in the present time.

"Now, Feluda will be in sync with contemporary times. And from the beginning, I wanted to cast Param (Parambrata Chatterjee) in the lead role. We want to connect with the audience of today," Sil said.

In the original stories, Feluda used to smoke cigarettes without a filter, but now he will be seen puffing filtered cigarettes, he said.

Rwitobroto Mukherjee will play the character of Topse (Tapesh Ranjan Mitter), Feluda's cousin and Man Friday. Chatterjee himself had essayed the role of Topse earlier.

A female character of an IB officer was introduced in the series which was not there in the original story, said Sil whose earlier works on detective characters include other popular sleuths such as Byomkesh Bakshi and Sabar.

This is, however, Chatterjee's second stint as Feluda. He essayed the character earlier on another OTT six years ago.

That was an Indo-Bangladesh joint venture which did not work out after a few episodes. This time, it is being done in a much bigger way, Chatterjee said.

Earlier, Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Indranil Sengupta were made Feluda for big screens and television at different times. Tota Roy Chowdhury also essayed the iconic character for a web series.

"I know there will be comparison with others who had been cast as Feluda earlier. This is quite normal as people are emotionally involved with immensely popular literary works," Chatterjee said.

From the 35 Feluda stories written by him, Satyajit Ray had directed two films  Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress, 1974) and Jai Baba Felunath (The Elephant God, 1979). However, the maestro's first detective film was Chiriakhana' (The Zoo, 1967) which was centred on Byomkesh Bakshi, another popular sleuth created by Saradindu Bandyopadhyay.
Signifying close defence ties between the two countries, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday handed over a fast patrol vessel and a landing craft to the Maldives as Indias gift at an event in Male. Rajnath also held talks with Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to expand the already close bilateral strategic ties. The defence minister is on a three-day visit to the island nation beginning Monday.

Addressing the top civil and military brass at the ceremony, Rajnath said the India-Maldives relationship is truly special and that it has evolved as a model for the entire region to follow.

The defence minister also highlighted the need for India, the Maldives and other like-minded nations of the region to enhance cooperation in addressing the common challenges in the Indian Ocean Region(IOR).

At the handing-over ceremony, Solih commissioned the offshore patrol vessel into the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF).

Rajnath said the relationship between the two countries has evolved as a model for the entire region to follow. There is a need for India, Maldives and other like-minded nations of the region to enhance our cooperation, towards addressing the common challenges of the Indian Ocean Region, he said.

We must, therefore, ensure a collaborative effort, towards ensuring that the maritime expanse of the Indian Ocean is peaceful and the maritime resources therein are optimally harnessed, for ensuring regional prosperity, he added. Indias handing over of the two platforms to one of its strategically key maritime neighbours came amid Chinas increasing efforts to enhance its strategic influence in the Indian Ocean Region.

We wish to create symbiotic relationships, where we can learn from each other, grow together and create a win-win situation for one and all. We also want to assure you that Indias commitment to support MNDF and Maldives will only get better and stronger with time, Rajnath said.

He said India has significantly enhanced its defence capabilities that has enabled it to further support the capacity building initiatives of its partner countries.

India offers an enhanced defence partnership to friendly foreign countries, that is accommodative of their national priorities, he said.

Indias strong and vibrant defence cooperation with the Maldives emanates from our twin policies of Neighbourhood First and SAGAR -- Security and Growth for All in the Region, he noted.
The coalition says it has no candidate yet, but it is waiting for the APC zoning arrangement for the position of Speaker and deputy.

A coalition of members of the House of Representatives from the eight parties that will be represented in the 10th House has agreed to respect the zoning of the leadership of the House by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The lawmakers made the commitment on Tuesday during the inauguration of the coalition, known as "Joint Task," in Abuja.

The members of the coalition are drawn from the APC, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Young Progressive Party (YPP). However, not all the members of these parties are part of the coalition.

Speaking at the inauguration of the coalition, the co-chairman, Bello Kumo (APC, Gombe), said the lawmakers within the coalition have no candidate yet, but they are waiting for the zoning of the ruling party.

"Our message to Nigerians at this point is that we are ready to work for the betterment of our country and the citizens. To achieve that, we have to work harmoniously with the Executive Arm, without compromising our independence.

"Let me emphasise in conclusion that our concern is Nigeria's unity and the stability of the 10th House of Representatives. I thank you very much for your time, and we hope you will work with us to make our country better," he said.

Also speaking on the coalition, Aliyu Madaki, a member-elect on the platform of NNPP, said the lawmakers are not going to be a rubber stamp to any speaker, rather they are giving the APC the opportunity to decide the presiding officers based on international best practices.

He explained that a party with the majority is expected to produce presiding officers.

"What we want to do is to bring harmonious relationships between the executive and the legislature. I want to state very clearly, we are not going to be a rubber stamp to anybody. But we intend to do what is the world's best practice.We recognize the fact that anywhere you go in the world, the party with the majority produces who will be the presiding officer.

"For someone like me who is a member of the minority party, I will assure Nigerians that we will provide a robust opposition but we will do it in a way and manner that will add value to the Nigerian people," he said.

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The ruling APC has 177 members-elect, while the PDP has 116 members. LP and NNPP have 36 and 19 members-elect respectively.

Others are APGA with five, ADC two, SDP two and YPP one.

Composition of officials of the Joint task

The coalition also announced that Mr Kumo and Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) are the co-chairmen of the group while Mr Madaki is the Secretary.

Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo (APC, Ondo) is the Finance Secretary, Babajimi Benson (APC, Lagos) is in charge of Contact and Mobilisation, and Dennis Idahosa (APC, Edo) is in charge of monitoring and intelligence.

Zoning

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the governors of the ruling APC have proposed the zoning of the speakership to the North-west or North-central geopolitical.

While the lawmakers await the decision on zoning, 11 lawmakers have declared interest in the position. They are the incumbent Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase (APC, Plateau), Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau), Muktar Betara (APC, Borno), Sada Soli (APC, Katsina), Tunji Olawuyi (APC, Kwara) and Abubakar Makki (APC, Jigawa) have all declared interest.

Others are Tajudeen Abbas (APC, Kaduna), Aminu Jaji (APC, Zamfara), Ben Kalu (APC, Abia), Muktar Betara (APC, Borno) and Miriam Onuoha (APC, Imo)
Lashing out at the Congress for its appeasement politics and making every attempt to insult Karnatakas great legacy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said, People of Karnataka should never forget Congresss history and thinking. Congresss history is about appeasing terror and terrorists.

When the Batla House encounter happened in Delhi, there were tears in the eyes of Congresss top-most leader, hearing about the death of terrorists, and when surgical strikes happened, Congress raised questions on the capability of the countrys defence forces, Modi said at Chitradurga rally.

The Prime Minister, who addressed three rallies, campaigning for the May 10 Assembly polls in Karnataka, also hit out at the Congress for promising to ban Bajrang Dal in its election manifesto, saying it wanted to lock up those who worship Lord Hanuman.

Congress had earlier locked up Lord Rama and now it wants to lock up those who chant Jai Bajrang Bali (Hail Hanuman), Modi claimed while addressing a rally in Hospet in Vijayanagara district.

His attack came within hours of the Congress releasing its election manifesto, in which it has promised to take decisive action as per law, including imposing a ban on organisations such as the Bajrang Dal and PFI.

The Congress accused Modi of hurting religious sentiments of devotees by equating Lord Hanuman with the Bajrang Dal, and demanded an apology from him. Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said, The prime minister is insulting our faith in Lord Hanuman. He should apologise to the country as he has hurt our religious sentiments as well as of crores of devotees of Bajrang Bali. No one has given the prime minister the right to insult Bajrang Bali.

I have come to the land of Hanuman. I am fortunate that I got the opportunity to pay obeisance to the land of Hanuman, but see the misfortune that when I have come to pay my respect to Hanumans land, at the same time Congress in its manifesto has decided to lock up Lord Hanuman.

Initially, they locked up Prabhu Shri Ram (Lord Ram). And now they want to lock up people who say Jai Bajrang Bali, the Prime Minister remarked. It is the misfortune of the country that the Congress had a problem with Prabhu Shri Ram and now it has a problem with the people who say Jai Bajrang Bali, he added.

The Vijayanagara empire of mighty ruler Sri Krishnadevaraya is considered by some historians as the Kishkindha Kshetra, the monkey kingdom of Vaali and Sugreeva of Treta Yuga or Ramayana era.

Right next to Hampi is Anjanadri, the Anjaneya Hill at Gangavathi in Koppal district, which is believed by many to be the birthplace of Lord Hanuman. The BJP has decided to build a grand Hanuman temple at Anjanadri hill and develop the region.

Congress general secretary in-charge for Karnataka Randeep Surjewala charged that the prime minister and his associates refuse to speak about scams under the BJPs 40 per cent commission government and are merely looking for excuses for polarisation.

He said Lord Hanuman depicts piousness and commitment to reverence and duty and symbolises service and sacrifice.

To compare Lord Hanuman with any individual or organisation is an insult and PM is hurting the feelings and sentiments of millions of devotees of Hanuman ji. Of course, these canards were manufactured in the factory of B L Santhosh, the self-nominated Chanakya, he said, in a swipe at BJP national general secretary Santhosh.

PM must apologise for equating Lord Hanuman with Bajrang Dal. Millions of Hanuman bhakts will fight this with full rigour.... For Modi ji and the BJP, each election is about divisions on grounds of religion instead of answering the basic issues of nauseating corruption, back-breaking price rise, rampant unemployment, ugly and unacceptable concentration of wealth and an all pervading atmosphere of hate, he tweeted.
Wadia group-owned air carrier Go First Airways on Tuesday filed for insolvency resolution proceedings in the National Company Law Tribunal, claiming it has been forced to move NCLT due to serial failure of Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines resulting in grounding of 50 per cent of the fleet. The airline grounded 25 aircraft due to non-supply of engines by Pratt & Whitney (P&W).

According to the airline, it is no longer in a position to continue to meet its financial obligations and has taken the step to approach the NCLT to protect the interests of all stakeholders. The airline, which has been grappling with engine issues since January 2020, said the situation came to such a pass as P&W refused to comply with an order issued by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), an emergency arbitrator.

The grounding of close to 50 per cent of its fleet due to the serial failure of Pratt & Whitneys engines, while incurring 100% of its operational costs has set Go First back by Rs 10,800 crore in lost revenues and additional expenses, the airline said.

Taking note of the development, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday issued a show-cause notice to Go First after the airline decided to cancel flights for two days (May 3 and 4) amid a severe financial crunch.

The DGCA has sought an explanation within 24 hours from date and time of issue the notice.

Whereas no prior intimation has been given to DGCA for such cancellations which is non-compliance with conditions for approval of schedule. Thus Go First has failed to report in writing the cancellations and reasons thereof. Further, M/s Go First is also directed to submit the details of the steps taken to mitigate the inconvenience caused to the-passengers booked on flights for 3rd & 4th May 2023, and submit their plan of action to operate flights as per the approved schedule from 05th May, 2023 onwards, DGCA said in its notice.

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said it was unfortunate that the operational bottleneck related to engine supplies has dealt a blow to the airlines financial position.

Against the backdrop of the airline filing an application for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings, the Minister said, It is prudent to wait for the judicial process to run its course.

Go First has been faced with critical supply chain issues with regard to their engines. The Government of India has been assisting the airline in every possible manner. The issue has also been taken up with the stakeholders involved, Scindia said in a statement.

In a detailed statement, Go First said promoters have infused funds worth Rs 3,200 crore into the airline in the last three years and out of the total amount, Rs 2,400 crore was injected in the last 24 months. An amount of Rs 290 crore was pumped in April this year.

This brings the total investment in the airline since its inception to approximately Rs 6,500 crore, the statement said. Further, Go First said it has received significant support from the governments Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).

Even this collective and significant support has not been adequate to prevent the enormous damage caused by Pratt & Whitneys defective engines. The grounding of close to 50 per cent of its fleet due to the serial failure of Pratt & Whitneys engines, while incurring 100% of its operational costs has set Go First back by Rs 10,800 crore in lost revenues and additional expenses, it said.

Go First said it has lost revenue worth Rs 10,800 crore due to the grounding of close to 50 per cent of its A320neo fleet. The company said it has paid Rs 5,657 crores to lessors in the last two years of which approximately Rs 1600 crore was paid towards lease rent for non-operational grounded aircraft from the funds infused by the Promoters & Government of Indias Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme.

The airline has also sought compensation worth Rs 8,000 crore in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre. In case the arbitration is successful, the company will be able to address the liabilities of its creditors, small and large.

Go Airlines (India) Ltd, which operates under brand Go First, has applied to the NCLT for resolution and protection under Section 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code due to the ever-increasing failure of the Pratt & Whitney engines that power its fleet, the statement said.

The arbitrator had ordered P&W to take all reasonable steps to release and dispatch without delay to the airline at least 10 serviceable spare leased engines by April 27 and another 10 spare leased engines per month until December 2023, as per the statement.

If Pratt & Whitney had followed the directions laid down in the award, Go First would have been able to return to full operations by August/September 2023 leading to Go Firsts financial rehabilitation and survival.

Pratt & Whitney has failed to provide any further serviceable spare leased engines at all at the date of this press release and has stated that there are no further spare leased engines available, the statement said.

The airline also said that it regrets the disruption and inconvenience that the latest move will cause to its customers, travel partners, creditors, and suppliers and, in particular, to its own employees.
The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday refused to grant interim relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on his plea for a stay on conviction in a criminal defamation case over his all thieves have Modi as the common surname remark, saying it will pass its final order post-summer vacation in the first week of June.

Rahuls counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi cited extreme urgency to request the HC for an interim or a final order after arguments from both sides in the matter concluded during the day.

The court of Justice Hemant Prachchhak, however, said no interim protection can be granted at this stage. In final submissions, Singhvi said there was hardly any instance in criminal defamation where an accused was sentenced to more than 3 to 6 months in jail, and that his client was a first-time offender.

The complainants lawyer opposed Singhvis prayer for interim relief to the former Congress president, sentenced to two years in jail by the trial court in Surat, and said if the disqualified MP cannot apologise for his defamatory utterances, then he should also not approach the HC for stay on conviction.

Rahul had prayed in the HC for a stay on conviction, which if granted, will pave the way for his reinstatement as a Member of Parliament. Justice Prachchhak said he will pass a final order only after going through the records and proceedings, and posted the matter for verdict after reopening of the HC post- summer vacation, which will be from May 8 to June 3.

Advocate Nirupam Nanavati, who appeared for Gujarat BJP MLA Purnesh Modi, the original complainant in the case, opposed Singhvis prayer for interim relief to the Opposition politician who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala in 2019.

Being a leader of a national political party, which has ruled the country for over 40 years, Rahul must learn a lesson that using abusive language for his political opponents cannot be tolerated, the counsel for Purnesh said.

If Gandhi cannot apologise for his defamatory utterances, then he should also not approach the court with prayer for relief for stay of conviction, Nanavati said. He further said even after the pronouncement of conviction and his subsequent disqualification as an MP, Rahul continued to stand by his statement and refused to apologise, and cited a newspaper report in which the Congress leader had said he will not apologise as he is a Gandhi and not Veer Savarkar.

Nanavati said Rahul neither apologised before the commencement of the trial in Surat nor said sorry or expressed regret and offered no explanation even during hearing on sentencing. Coincidentally, the surname of the Prime Minister of the country is also Modi. What message are you giving by this utterance to the world -- that an Opposition leader of India brands the PM as a thief in a public rally attended by thousands of people? Is this the language? he asked during his submission.

Nanavati said Rahul is facing 12 criminal defamation cases for his remarks in different courts across the country. He said it is Parliament which made the law regarding disqualification of an MP.

Singhvi said the category for defamation makes it the simplest offence, and CrPC section 389 (for stay of conviction) will not find a simpler conviction to suspend than defamation which is non-cognizable, which is simple imprisonment, bailable and not anti-society.

If there is a classic offence which is the mildest form of offence which must lead to section 389 suspension then it is this, said the senior counsel. Singhvi said a parliamentarian has a greater irreversible prejudice than a non-MP convict, because the former happens to lose his seat due to two-year imprisonment, and that is a point in my favour and not against me for relief under section 389 (of CrPC).
In a stunning political development that sent shock waves through his party circles, Sharad Pawar on Tuesday announced his decision to step down as the president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Pawar founded and built NCP after breaking away from the Congress as a rebel leader in 1999 and remained at its helm for the last 24 years.

After having been in active politics for a long time, it is essential for me to think that I should stop somewhere. Thats why I have decided to step down from my post as the NCP president, the 82-year-old Pawar said, while speaking at a function organised to release the revised version of his political autobiography in Marathi Lok Majhe Saangati.

In a high-drama that unfolded after the announcement at the YB Chavan Centre in south Mumbai, hundreds of party workers rooted for Pawar withdrawing his resignation, by way of emotional outbursts, sit-dharna and threats to quit from party posts.

Earlier, agitated party workers raised slogans like Sharad Pawar Zindabad, Take Back Your Decision, We Need You, The Country Needs You and We Are Orphaned.

Pawar and his wife Pratibha, who was present when the former made the announcement, sat quietly and helplessly watched the drama that lasted for nearly two hours.

After his announcement, senior party leaders, including his nephew and leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Ajit Pawar and State party president Jayant Patil, requested Pawar to reconsider his decision or even continue in the post till the working president of the party is appointed.

In their bid to prevail upon Pawar to change his decision, some workers lay in front of his car as he headed home from the venue. However, Pawar was in no mood to relent and left for his residence Silver Oak with his family members. Earlier, Pawar had told his senior party colleagues: If they (party workers) are vehement in their demand, I am more stubborn.

Notwithstanding the immense pressure mounted on him by his party leaders and workers, it is quite unlikely that he would reconsider his decision.

After announcing his decision to step down from his post, Pawar said that a committee of party leaders  comprising senior leaders like Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, KK Sharma, PC Chacko, Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Supriya Sule, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse-Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, Dr. Jitendra Awhad, Hasan Mushrif and Dhananjay Munde  would oversee the election/appointment of the new NCP president.

Addressing the agitated party leaders and workers and leader in senior Pawars presence, Ajit Pawar and senior NCP leader Praful Patel asked them to calm down, reconcile with the situation and allow him to go home. We will meet him once again in the evening and try to convince him to reconsider his decision, Ajit Pawar said.

Pawar saheb may not be party president from now on, but he will definitely there to guide us and the party. We cannot imagine the NCP without Pawar saheb. We will seek his guidance in electing the partys new president, Ajit Pawar said.

Earlier, speaking at his autobiography release function, Sharad Pawar recalled his political journey lasting 63 years. Maharashtra was founded on May 1, 1960 under the leadership of late YB Chavan. I became a member of the Pune Youth Congress on the same day. Later on, I worked for the party in various capacities.... Since 1967, I have been a member of Maharashtra Assembly, Council, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Apart from being the Chief Minister of the State for four terms, Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly and Lok Sabha, I worked as Defence Minister in the Narasimha Rao Government and later as the Agriculture Minister in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government. I have been peoples representative for the last 56 years, Pawar said, as he made a special mention of late Chief Minister Vasantrao Naik, who encouraged him as a young legislator and inducted him in his Cabinet as Minister of State for Home and General Administration Department (GAD).

I can never forget the amount of support and love I have received from the people during my six decades of public life, he said.

I am left with three more years of tenure as the Rajya Sabha member. During this period, I will concentrate on important State and national issues. But I will not accept any responsibility. I will devote more time for institutions like the Rayatshikshan Sansthan (Satara); Vidya Pratishthan (Baramati), Maratha Mandir (Mumbai), Nehru Centre (Mumbai), Mahatma Gandhi Sarvodaya Sangh (Urali Kanchan, Pune), vasantdada Sugar Institute (Pune) Shivnagar Vidya Prasarak Mandal (Baramati); and Akhil Bharatiya Maratha Shikshan Parishad (Pune) with which I am associated, Pawar said.

I may have stepped down as the NCP president, but I am not quitting public life. I will continue among the people. In fact, I will now get more time to work for the people... I will continue to strive for the growth of the party organization, to take the ideology and goals of the party to the people, and to serve the people, as they deem fit. Even though I am stepping down from the post of president, I am not retiring from public life, Pawar said.

He said that he would continue attending public events, meetings, and would be available to all -- whether in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Baramati or any other part of India.
Dreaded gangster Sunil Mann alias Tillu Tajpuriya was killed on Tuesday morning after rival gang members attacked him with an iron rod and stabbed him with a sua (a big needle often used to break slabs of ice) 40 times in high security Tihars Mandoli jail. To carry out the murder, the gangsters cut the iron grill of their cell and reached the ground floor with the help of bedsheets.

This is the second case of violence and gang rivalry in Tihar jail in a month. Last month, Prince Tewatia, a close aide of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, was killed in Tihar jail by rival gang members.

Tajpuriya was the main accused in the Rohini Court shootout case of September 2021. Police said Tajpuriya was rushed to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital where doctors declared him dead. Another prisoner, identified as Rohit, was injured in the attack. He is said to be out of danger now.

Today, at around 7 am, information was received from Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital regarding two undertrial prisoners brought to the hospital from Tihar Jail. One of them, Sunil alias Tillu was brought in an unconscious state. He was later declared brought dead. Another person, Rohit is undergoing treatment and is out of danger, said additional DCP West district, Akshat Kaushal.

According to prison officials, the Gogi gang members were lodged on the first floor of the high-security ward, while Tajpuriya was lodged on the ground floor of the same ward.

He was attacked by Deepak, Yogesh, Rajesh and Riyaz Khan at around 6.15 AM. Prison officials said

Asked how an incident like this has happened again, a jail official said the attack was completed within one-and-a-half minute and the assailants exploited dark spots, where no cameras could see, to enter Tajpuriyas cell.They (attackers) did not enter the barrack directly, or else they would have been caught, he said.

When Tajpuriya saw the attackers, he ran towards another inmates cell. The inmate (named Rohit) also tried to save him... Everything happened within a span of one-and-a-half-minute, he added.

According to police, Tajpuriya and Gogi were once friends, but became rivals during a student union election at Delhis Swami Shraddhanand College as they supported different candidates. Over the next decade, the two men and their gang members targeted each other for area dominance.

Tajpuriya hailed from Tajpur Village, a hub for local gangsters and had ties with gangsters Neeraj Bawania, Sunil Bali, Cheenu and others. He was arrested in 2016 after being involved in over 11 cases of murder, the Arms Act, extortion, robbery etc. The Special Cell of Delhi Police also booked him under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).The police said Tajpuriya managed to run his gang from inside the jail for years and orchestrated several killings. He is survived by his parents and three siblings. His father was employed at the Delhi Municipal Corporation and retired recently.

Sources said Tajpuriya was involved in murder and dacoity cases in Delhi and Haryana. In 2015-16, Gogi, along with gangster Kuldeep Fajja, was planning to eliminate Tajpuriya and made several attempts to send associates to jail to kill Tajpuriya. However, the police arrested Gogi and Fajja, and their plan failed. Though Fajja was freed from police custody at GTB Hospital by gang members, he was later killed in a police encounter. Gogi was killed in a shootout at the Rohini court, said an officer.

It is also said that Jitendra Gogi gang has supplied pistol to Sunny who killed Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf. The jail officials said they are suspecting gangster Rohit Mois hand in the brutal murder of Tillu. Rohit Moi is believed to be Gogis right-hand. Many gangsters from the Gogi gang are lodged in Tihar jail. It is also being said that Gogis gang worked with Lawrence Bishnoi and his henchmen.
Days after India took exception to the inappropriate depiction of Goddess Kali by Ukraine, its Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova on Tuesday expressed regret and said her country respects unique Indian culture and highly appreciates support from India.

She added the depiction had been removed. Her comments came after the tweet in question by the Ukraine Defence Ministry sparked outrage among netizens.

We regret @DefenceU depicting #Hindu goddess #Kali in a distorted manner. #Ukraine & its people respect unique #Indian culture and highly appreciate support. The depiction has already been removed... Is determined to further increase cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect & friendship, she tweeted.

This came after an image of a female above blast smoke was tweeted by the Ukraine defence ministry triggering outrage with social media users pointing out the resemblance of the image to the depiction of Goddess Kali.

On April 30, Ukraines Defence Ministry tweeted with the caption Work of art, and shared a picture of a blast with an improvised picture by Ukrainian artist Maksym Palenko.

In the picture, the artist depicted the blast in a unique yet offensive blend of famous American actress Marilyn Monroe in her flying skirt pose with the face and detailing resembling Hindu Goddess Maa Kali.

Kanchan Gupta, senior advisor, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting called the image an assault on Hindu sentiments. Gupta was among the many netizens who demanded an apology from Ukraine over the image.

Recently Ukraine Dy Foreign Minister was in Delhi soliciting support from India. Behind that fakery lurks the real face of Ukraine Govt. Indian goddess Ma Kali has been caricatured on a propaganda poster. This is an assault on Hindu sentiments around the world. @UkrembInd, Gupta tweeted on April 30 while sharing the tweet by Ukraines Ministry of Defence.

Gupta also said Ukraine has mocked Goddess Kali in a manner no foreign government or country has ever done.

He also branded the Ukraine ministrys actions as brazen hate speech.

After posting the picture, the tweet triggered a massive backlash, forcing the Defence Ministry to delete the Twitter post. One Twitter user posted, Shocking! Official handle of the Ukraine Defense Ministry is portraying Maa Kali in a demeaning pose. This is not a work of art. Our faith is not a matter of joke. Take it down and apologise @DefenceU Meanwhile, another Twitter user said, Hurting sentiments of 1.4 billion Indians is not Okay @DefenceU. This is a blatant display of Hinduphobia by Ukraines defence ministry. Please remove this. Dzhaporava had recently visited India, the first visit by a Ukrainian minister to India since the start of the Ukraine war in February last year.

During the visit the Ukrainian minister held talks with Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi. The Ukrainian minister handed over a letter from President Volodymr Zelenskyy addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lekhi seeking Indias intervention in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict. The Ukraine defence ministrys tweet, which has now been deleted, was captioned Work of art with an image of Goddess Kali superimposed over a blast fume. Some Twitter users even sought External Affairs Minister S Jaishankars intervention. Please take note of this defamatory post that shows Maa Kali in a bad light, a user said tagging Jaishankar.

Absolutely disgraceful behaviour from @DefenceU (Defense of Ukraine) with their distasteful depiction mocking Maa Kali. India has given aid to Ukraine and this is how they repay them. Hindus demand an apology NOW, another Twitter user wrote. Shocking! The official handle of the Ukraine Defence Ministry portrays Maa Kali in a demeaning pose. This is not a work of art. Our faith is not a matter of joke. Take it down and apologise @DefenceU, another user tweeted.

Since the Ukraine conflict began in February last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy several times. In a phone conversation with Zelenskyy on October 4 last year, Modi said there can be no military solution and that India is ready to contribute to any peace efforts.
A delegation of Aam Aadmi Partys teachers wing AADTA met with Delhi State OBC Commission Chairman Jagdish Yadav and demanded an inquiry into the death of Samarveer, a former ad hoc teacher of Hindu College.

Delhi University teachers have alleged that the massive displacement of ad hoc teachers was the reason behind the death of the young faculty member Samarveer. Samarveer allegedly died by suicide on April 26 in the Rani Bagh area.

A delegation of Academic for Action and Development Delhi Teachers Association (AADTA) led by its national incharge Aditya Narayan Misra met Yadav on Monday.

The delegation demanded inquiry into the suicide by Samarveer, who was a former ad hoc teacher of Hindu College and belonged to the OBC community, the AADTA said in a statement. They also made a written submission in the case, it added.

Samarveer had been an adhoc teacher under the OBC category in the Hindu College since 2017 till he was unceremoniously removed from the interviews for permanent positions on February 9 this year, the statement alleged.

Massive displacements of ad hoc and temporary teachers in the ongoing interviews in the University of Delhi (DU) have taken a very heavy toll by taking away the life of a young faculty member, Samarveer, who committed suicide on April 26 in Rani Bagh, the AADTA said in the written submission.

Samarveer represents that stellar breed of brilliant scholars who are star teachers, intensely admired by the students and colleagues. A quiet, prolific reader and deep, original thinker, Samarveer was often seen reading in a corner of the otherwise noisy staff room of Hindu College, the submission noted.

After the OBC expansion plan in 2004, thousands of teachers from socially weaker sections joined DU as ad hoc teachers and have been working for a long time with job insecurities, it claimed.

Most of these teachers are first-generation learners coming from poor and rural backgrounds without many elite connections. After a long struggle, they have reached so far, and loss of a job at this juncture leaves them in the lurch with depression and desperation, the submission stated.

So, we request you to inquire into factors and forces holistically which has driven a well-qualified OBC faculty member to commit suicide. Justice should be dispensed to Samarveer so that such fateful incident doesnt recur, the submission added.

The delegation comprised Anand Prakash, Member DU Teachers Association Executive, Ramkishore Yadav, Member of Academic Council and DUTA Executive, Prem Chand, Member, the AADTA National Committee, and Assistant Professor Sarvendra Kumar.
Central Coalfields Limited hosted a 'Shramik Samman Samaroh' at its headquarters, Darbhanga House, Ranchi to mark labour Day. More than 70 prizes were given to miners including contractual workers during the programme.

Prior to it, a floral tribute was paid at Shaheed Ashmarak, situated at Darbhanga House, Ranchi to honor the contribution of coal miners towards the nation's development. This May Day was aimed to acknowledge the contribution of coal miners to the nation's economy and the hardships they face while working in mines.

On this occasion, CMD CCL, P.M. Prasad, Director Technical (Operations), Ram Baboo Prasad, Director (Personnel), Harsh Nath Mishra, Director Technical (Planning/Projects), B. Sairam, Director (Finance), Pawan Kumar Mishra, the CVO, Pankaj Kumar, member of JBCCI amendra Kumar, honourable representatives of Joint Consultative Steering Committee, Welfare Board, Safety Board, ST, SC and OBC Cell, Manoj Rajak, Kamlesh Singh and General Managers of various departments and a large number of CCL employees were present.

The event commenced with the lighting of the lamp and the playing of the companys corporate song. More than 70 winners across different categories from across the company were felicitated on the occasion.

CMD P.M. Prasad extended labour day greetings to everyone. He stated that CCL's achievement of its production target of 76 million tonnes for the fiscal year 22-23 is because of the dedication and hard work of regular workers as well as outsourcing workers. He stated that collectively, we will undoubtedly meet the target for the current fiscal year. Prasad stated that production has increased in both open cast and underground mines and there is immense potential for further growth.

R.B Prasad, Director Technical (Operations), in his address stated that all forms of labour are respected and are the foundation for the nation's development. He also emphasized that workforce working with the company should be given promotion so that their career growth is maintained.

Director (Personnel), Harsh Nath Mishra stated that the workers of Coal India are united and that nothing can prevent them from achieving their objective. Both directly and indirectly involved labourers are accorded respect by the company. He further added that the company is undertaking various initiatives for the holistic development of stakeholders.

Senior union leader Ramendra Kumar talked about the best policy of Coal India Ltd, which has taken care of its workforce during COVID-19 pandemic and paid Rs 15 lakh for demise during such period. He further added that the company is still paying jobs in the case of death of employees and this compensatory employment is not practiced in other PSUs. Other union leaders- Manoj Rajak and Kamlesh Singh- also talked about the importance of May Day.

Rashmi Dayal, General Manager (Personnel & Industrial Relations), delivered the welcome address. A cultural programme was also organized. Earlier in the day, CMD CCL along with Directors , CVO and other employees paid tributes to the martyred employees at Shaheed Smarak. The programme of Samman Samaroh was compered by Dibya Singh and Rakhi Gupta.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the pleas by the Delhi Police against the bail granted in June 2021 to three student activists in a case related to the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots, saying they are out on bail for almost two years and it sees no purpose in keeping the matter alive.

A bench of Justices S K Kaul and A Amanullah passed the order while hearing the pleas filed by police challenging the Delhi High Courts June 15, 2021 verdicts granting bail to activists Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Asif Iqbal Tanha in a case related to communal violence during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
For beating the heat and the power blues, the Punjab Government on Tuesday launched its early-come-early-go plan by changing the office timings from 7:30 am to 2 pm instead of the usual 9 am to 5 pm for the next two-and-a-half months  a move expected to save 350 megawatt (MW) daily.



Even as the new timings are sans any lunch break, the employees will still work an hour less than the usual eight-hour timetable.



The unprecedented decision, described as the dawn of a new era by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, is estimated to save approximately Rs 40-45 crores in the next two and half months. The new work hours will ensure that maximum sunlight is utilized in government offices, said Mann, who reached his office in Punjab Civil Secretariat well before 7:30 am.



Besides Mann, most of the Cabinet Ministers, including Aman Arora, Brahm Shankar Jimpa, Harbhajan Singh ETO, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, other than bureaucrats, superintendents, other employees, also reached office on time. Even the officials, including Deputy Commissioners, and employees also reached their offices in the districts well before the scheduled time.



On the first day of the changed timings, the secretariat staff was in full strength, and the corridors of powers were abuzz with hectic activity during the morning hours.



Mann, who was among the first few to arrive in the office, first went to his office; and later addressed the media. I wanted to lead by example as I myself reached the office at 7.28 am, he said.



This initiative would help save powerThough we have no shortage of power, this will help save 350 MW of power in a dayThis reduction in power consumption, if monetized, will ensure that Rs 16-17 crore is saved per month as power bills, he added.



He said that as per statistics of Powercom, 1:30 pm to 4 pm is the peak hour of power usage. But as now the offices will be closed at 2 pm, it will help in cutting power usage, he added.

Listing the benefits of the novel move, the Chief Minister said that apart from saving power, the decision would facilitate the people, enhance government employees efficiency, enable the employees to have social life and devoting more time to their families and children, besides managing the traffic, among others.



Apart from facilitating the people, the landmark move will also help in enhancing the efficiency of the government employeesThe decision will act as a catalyst in saving the people from scorching heat that is expected to be witnessed in the coming months, said Mann.



Though the tradition of setting watches in accordance with change of weather has been a routine feature in many western nations, in India, this historic initiative has been taken for the first time, he said.



Adding, the Chief Minister said that it will enable the common man to do his work early in the morning without taking leave from his work. This will also facilitate the employees as they will be able to attend the social functions after the office hours. Similarly, they will also be able to spend more time with their children who will also come home at the same time, he said, while adding that it will also help in managing the traffic movement efficiently.



Stating that the initiative has been taken after taking consent of majority of the stakeholders, including employees and people, in a series of deliberations, Mann said that after July 15, the decision will be reviewed after taking feedback from all the stakeholders, especially the common man. Mann assured the people that the State Government will take more such citizen-centric decisions in the coming days too for which advance planning has already been done.



Punjab Chief Minister Mann said that Union Coal Minister RK Singh was keenly looking at the State Governments decision to change the office timings, which may be replicated in the entire country.



He told me that if Punjab could succeed with this decision, it would be replicated in other parts of the country also, said Mann while interacting with the media after reaching his office in Punjab Civil Secretariat before 7:30 am.



He said that many other states have also been enquiring about this step and it is likely to be replicated in other states too.



Mann envisioned that in big cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and others, such steps can help in streamlining the traffic chaos thereby giving much-needed respite to the common man.

At the same time, the Chief Minister clarified that they would not impose any power cuts on the industry and domestic consumers. I want to clarify that we are not imposing any cut on industry or domestic power consumers like we used to see earlierWe have enough power to be diverted to the agriculture sector for the paddy season, he said.



We have enough power for industry. There will be no cuts in the domestic sector. The paddy farmers will also not face any power issues. We will divide the area into zones so that the farmers get zone-wise supply, said Mann.



He categorically said there was no dearth of power in the state as abundance of electricity is being generated to cater to needs of all the sectors whether it is agriculture, domestic or industry. Citing an example, he said that the Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Power Plant at Ropar has coal for 35 days instead of 35 hours earlier when the threat of darkness loomed large due to acute shortage of coal in the state.



Responding to remarks by Haryana Power Minister Ranjit Singh who had said that Punjab will face a shortage of electricity in the coming days, Mann advised him to refrain from putting his nose in affairs of Punjab and focus on his own state. We have no shortage. Pachhwara coal mine is functional. Ropar thermal plant has enough coal for 35 days, he added.



With the changed timings, the Civil Secretariats staff canteen has also modified their menu. Providing the breakfast instead of lunch now, the government employees can now savour paranthas and dahi (curd) in the canteen at 11th floor from 8:30 am to 9:30 pm.



Mann assured that soon, the village residents would get better connectivity and reach the government offices early. We will allot new routes of buses to the unemployed. We will start local buses connecting villages with cities, he added.



Employees, coming from far-off places like Kharar, Mohali, Panchkula, Zirakpur, faced problems to reach office on time. Morning rains added to their woes.



It took me about 30 minutes to reach Secretariat from KhararIts comfortable to drive down during early morning hours as there is less traffic movement, but a couple of my colleagues faced difficulty as they could not get the bus on time and were late by a few minutes, said an employee.
Temperature is rising among music revelers as award-winning contemporary artist Jah Prayzah is set to release a double album in the country's main cities this month.

Basking in the glory of his debut appearance at the recently held Victoria Falls Carnival, Jah Prayzah will launch his albums on May 12 and 13 in Harare and Bulawayo respectively.

With each passing day he seems to be painting a clear picture of the latest project, after announcing the titles 'Chiremerera' and 'Maita baba'.

In 'Chiremerera', loosely translated to dignity, Jah Prayzah is probably looking back at the journey he has traversed in the music industry and how he has transformed himself into a force.

As aptly summed up by a video posted by the muso recently on his social media, Jah Prayzah's name carries 'chiremerera' from humble beginnings in Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe to an internationally recognised artist.

In 'Maita Baba', Jah Prayzah is grateful for how he has blazed the trail beyond the confines of Zimbabwe.

He is basking in the glory of a collaboration with Grammy award winning Jamaican ensemble, Morgan Heritage on a track 'Maria' off 'The Homeland' album.

The double album launch in partnership with Gateway stream will potentially explode the music landscape.

Supporting acts for two launches are yet to be revealed.

Jah Prayzah last released an album, Gwara in 2021, exhibiting sheer creativity in the 16 track project.
A Maoist carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakhs on his head was killed on Tuesday in a gun battle with security forces in Gariaband district of Chhattisgarh.

The gunfight took place around 9.30 am near the Karlajhar and Nagesh hills with the Central Reserve Police Force and local police, Gariaband Superintendent of Police Amit Kamble told The Pioneer. After the battle ended, the body of the Naxalite, identified as Nand Lal alias Amlu Netam, was recovered, the officer said. Netam was the Udanti Local Squad Organisation commander and Area Committee Member of the outlawed Maoist organization and he carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head. A .303 rifle and explosives were recovered from the spot.

Maoists kill villager

BIJAPUR : Naxalites allegedly abducted and hacked to death a 28-year-old man on suspicion of being a police spy in Chhattisgarhs Bijapur district, police said on Tuesday.

The body of Hadma Avlam of Tarrem village was found on a farmland on Tuesday, Bijapur Additional Superintendent of Police Chandrakant Governa told The Pioneer.

The Maoists abducted the victim when he and his friends were returning from a nearby forest on a tractor after collecting wood on Monday night, the official said.

The Naxalites hacked the victim with an axe.
To make Bhopal number 1 in cleanliness by ensuring the cleanliness system of the city according to the prescribed standards of the Swachh Survekshan 2023 and improving the cleanliness of drains as well as motivating the people for active cooperation in the activities of cleanliness, Bhopal Mayor inspected several localities.

In view of this, Mayor Malti Rai is inspecting various areas of the city and directing them to ensure cleanliness, garbage collection and execution and better cleaning of drains.

In the same sequence, Mayor Rai inspected drains, markets and residential areas in Zone No. 12 in the morning and Zone No. 15 in the evening on Tuesday and instructed to get the big drains cleaned through Pokland machines and other resources.

Mayor Malti Rai visited Anand Nagar, Vardhaman Green City, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Sabzi Mandi Ayodhya Bypass Marg, Kalpana Nagar, Indrapuri, D.K. Tower and inspected drains, residential settlements, market areas located in Subhash Nagar, Rachna Nagar, Gautam Nagar, Anna Nagar, Security Line, Mahadev Complex, MP Nagar Gayatri Mandir, Durga Nagar, Rajeev Nagar etc. in the evening and Received detailed information regarding the cleanliness system and also discussed with the local residents and businessmen.

Mayor Rai gave instructions to clean the big drains through the Pokeland machine, as well as to clean all the other drains through the necessary resources and to organize the flow of water more.

Mayor Rai said that the cleaning and drainage of drains should be ensured in such a way that the situation of water-logging does not arise anywhere.
Bhopal Mayor Malti Rai, while reviewing the complaints received on the mayor helpline and their redressal weekly, discussed the pending complaints with the officials of the corporation on the phone and directed that the mayor should resolve the pending complaints of the helpline immediately and this arrangement should also be ensured.

The complaints received daily through the mayor helpline should be resolved within 24 hours. During the review, Mayor Rai took feedback from many complainants on the telephone regarding complaints and their redressal.

The complainants also expressed their gratitude to Mayor Rai for quick and satisfactory action taken to resolve their complaints. During the review, Mayor Rai was informed that 2154 complaints were received in the month of April, out of which 2042 complaints have been satisfactorily resolved and action is in progress to resolve the rest.

Mayor Rai reviewed the Mayor Helpline on Tuesday in the control room located at Smart City. During the review, Mayor Rai observed the complaints received on the helpline and the proceedings for their redressal on the computer and also took feedback regarding the redressal of complaints and problems over the telephone from many complainants.

Mayor Rai discussed the pending complaints with the officers on the phone and directed that the mayor helpline should take immediate action to resolve the pending complaints and normally the complaints received within 24 hours be sure to do.

During the review, Mayor Rai was informed that 2154 complaints have been received on "Mayor Helpline" in the month of April, out of which 2042 complaints have been resolved satisfactorily and at a speedy pace, action is being taken to resolve the remaining complaints.
NTPC Ltd signed a Supplementary Joint Venture Agreement with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) in New Delhi for development of Nuclear Power Projects.

Initially, the JV company shall develop two Pressurized Heavy-Water Reactor (PHWR) projects at Chutka, Mandla distrtict of Madhya Pradesh Atomic Power Project 2700 MW and Mahi Banswara Rajasthan Atomic Power Project 4700 MW, which were identified as a part of fleet mode nuclear projects.

The agreement was signed by Ujjwal Kanti Bhattacharya, Director Projects, NTPC Ltd. and Ranjay Sharan, Director Projects, NPCIL in the presence of R.K. Singh, Minister of Power, New & Renewable Energy, K.N. Vyas, Secretary DAE & Chairman Atomic Energy Commission, Alok Kumar, Secretary,Ministry of Power, Gurdeep Singh, CMD NTPC, B C Pathak, CMD NPCIL and senior officials of Ministry of Power and Department of Atomic Energy.
Former MLA & Samajwadi Party leader Mukesh Srivastava, and his brother have been booked for allegedly duping a man by promising him a job at a yet-to-be built medical college in Payagpur in Bahraich, police said on Tuesday.

The allegation has been levelled against Mukesh Srivastava and his brother Balendra Srivastava, whose wife Parul Srivastava is contesting the upcoming civic polls for the post of chairperson in the Payagpur Nagar Panchayat.

Mukesh, who was earlier a Congress MLA from Payagpur and had joined the Samajwadi Party in 2016 when he and his wife Pooja Srivastava were facing a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.

In the fresh case, Payagpur Station House Officer (SHO) Rajkumar Pandey said an FIR under Sections 420/206 & 506 of Indian Penal Code were registered against Mukesh and Balendra on Monday. The case was registered based on a complaint given by Brijesh Kumar Singh, who alleged that Rs 5 lakh was demanded from him for a job in the medical college and he gave Rs 50,000 to Mukesh Srivastava, according to the police.

Singh said that the Uttar Pradesh government had not yet given approval to the former MLA to build the medical college, and hence when he demanded his money back, he was shooed away.

Mukesh Srivastava had laid the foundation for Babu Bachchu Lal Institute of Medical Sciences which was proposed to be built at a cost of Rs 400 crore.

It may be mentioned that during the NRHM probe in 2014, the then Congress legislator from Payagpur in Bahraich, Mukesh Srivastava, and his wife Pooja Srivastava were declared absconders and notices of their non-bailable warrants (NBWs) were pasted outside their residence by the sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Both Mukesh and Pooja were allegedly involved in the multi-crore scam in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), and they were not turning up before the CBI, following which a court declared them absconders.

The CBI had later arrested Mukesh and two of his family members, who were lodged at Dasna jail in Ghaziabad.

Besides Mukesh, the CBI had also arrested a former minister in Mayawati government, Babu Singh Kushwaha, then MLA RP Jaiswal, and ex-principal secretary (health and family welfare) Pradeep Shukla besides many other senior officers and doctors in the NRHM scam.

According to sources, large-scale irregularities galore in the supply of medicines and equipment in large quantities by the firm owned by Pooja Srivastava. In 2012, CBI had lodged a case of cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy against Mukesh and his wife. Later in an effort to come out clean, they left Congress and joined the then ruling Samajwadi Party in 2016. However, Mukesh lost the assembly election to a BJP candidate in 2017.
The killing of a second gangster in less than a month inside the Tihar jail here has once again put a serious question mark on the security at one of the largest prisons in Asia despite officials claiming they were implementing a detailed plan to avoid such incidents.

Sunil alias Tillu Tajpuriya (33), lodged on the ground floor of the high-security prison, was killed by members of the Gogi gang with an improvised weapon around 6.15 am on Tuesday.

On April 14, Prince Tewatia (33), an associate of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, was killed similarly in an early-morning attack inside the jail by rival gang members following an altercation with an inmate. An under-trial prisoner, he was lodged in ward no. 6 of the jail no. 3 which has around 380 inmates.

Officials claimed they were carrying out intensive searches in wards for improvised weapons and other illegal items, such as mobile phones, after the Tewatia incident. They were also maintaining a strict vigil through CCTV cameras.

Asked how an incident like this has happened again, a jail official said the attack was completed within one-and-a-half minute and the assailants exploited dark spots, where no cameras could see, to enter Tajpuriyas cell.

They (attackers) did not enter the barrack directly, or else they would have been caught, he said.

When Tillu saw the attackers, he ran towards another inmates cell. The inmate (named Rohit) also tried to save him... Everything happened within a span of one-and-a-half-minute, he added.

Asked why cameras were not installed to cover the dark spots, the official said cameras are not installed in some areas, such as washrooms, to ensure privacy of the prisoners.

An inquiry has been ordered into the incident to find out the lapses, officials said. They said they are working on a detailed plan to improve the response time in case of a clash between inmates and taking other steps to make security fool-proof inside the premises.
A major train accident was averted on Tuesday morning, as tracks near Sonua station of Chakradharpur railway division developed cracks.

In upline, Utkal Express had screeched to a halt. The incident took place at 8:15 am. Due to the presence of mind of the trackman and the driver, a major accident was averted. Meanwhile, the trackman saw a broken railway track between Sonua-Tuniya railway station of Chakradharpur railway division.

At the same time Utkal Express was passing through the same track. The information about the breaking of the rail track was immediately communicated to the driver of Utkal Express. After which the driver stopped the train showing understanding. After which the railway employees got involved in the work of repairing the track. After repairing the track, the train was dispatched after about an hour delay.

According to the railway officials, the crack on the railway track was spotted by a railway worker who was conducting a routine inspection of the track. The worker immediately informed the railway authorities, who took swift action to stop the train and divert it to a different track.

The railway authorities have praised the worker's alertness, saying that his quick thinking and prompt action averted a major disaster. The crack on the railway track was reportedly caused by heavy rainfall in the area, which had weakened the track.

In the wake of the incident, the railway authorities have ordered an immediate inspection of all railway tracks in the region to ensure that they are safe for use. They have also urged all railway workers to be vigilant and report any irregularities or defects they may come across during their routine inspections.

According to railway officials, a cut on the railway track made it extremely dangerous for the train to pass through the section. Fortunately, the train driver noticed the irregularities in the track and immediately applied the brakes, bringing the train to a halt.

Upon inspection, railway officials discovered a cut in the railway track, which could have caused the train to derail if it had not been stopped in time.

Speaking about the incident, a railway official said, "We are grateful that the trackman noticed the problem and acted quickly to avoid a disaster. We are also investigating how this happened and will take steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future."

The incident has highlighted the need for regular maintenance and inspection of railway tracks and infrastructure. Railway officials have assured the public that they are taking steps to improve the safety of the tracks and prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.

Overall, the incident serves as a reminder of the importance of safety and the need for vigilance in ensuring the safe operation of our transportation systems. The quick thinking of the train driver and the diligence of the railway officials in investigating the incident have prevented what could have been a major disaster.
In an attempt to provide nutritious food to students in the state-run schools, the state government has announced an increase in the amount for mid-day meals served to children in primary schools. The revised rates will be applicable with effect from April 1, 2023.

According to the Mid-Day Meal Authority, the cost of cooked meals served to children in primary schools has been increased to Rs 5.45 per student per day from the earlier Rs 4.97.

Similarly, for upper primary schools, the cost has been increased to Rs 8.17 per student per day from Rs 7.45 per student.

Thus, the revised rates are 48 paise more per student per day for primary students and 72 paise more per student per day for juniors.

All the district magistrates have been informed about the revised rates by the authority.

On the face of it, the increase looks marginal but when it is looked at in totality, it is enough to add some nutritious grain to the meal, a senior official of the Basic Shiksha Parishad said here on Tuesday.

However, there is uncertainty in some districts regarding the date of implementation of the new rates as they have raised concerns about the order issued by the Basic Shiksha Adhikari and are seeking clarification on the same.

Director of School Education Vijay Kiran Anand said that a meeting with the government would be held soon regarding the revised rates, and a decision would be taken.

It is noteworthy that the department is also planning to include more grains to the mid-day meal scheme, and a decision on this is expected to be taken soon.

This move by the Uttar Pradesh government is expected to benefit millions of children who depend on mid-day meals as a primary source of nutrition. The revised rates are aimed at ensuring that quality meals are provided to children and that they receive adequate nutrition to help them grow and learn, Anand said.
The Uttar Pradesh government is contemplating setting up manufacturing and logistics clusters spread over 600 hectares alongside the expressways. UP has the longest network of expressways in the country.

MOUs for these proposed clusters, to be set up at the cost of Rs 10 lakh crore, were signed during the UP Global Investors Summit earlier this year in Lucknow.

The proposed mega clusters will come up around Purvanchal and Bundelkhand expressways apart from the Gorakhpur Link Expressway. The government has identified 600 hectares of land in six districts  Barabanki, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Gorakhpur, Banda, and Jalaun.

About 100 hectares of land parcels have been identified in each of the six districts for the proposed manufacturing and logistics clusters, a government official said. The projects, to be launched in the coming months, are part of the Rs 35 lakh crore investment proposals by more than 19,000 investors which were received at the investors event held in February.

Of the total investment proposals of Rs 35 lakh crore, Purvanchal (Eastern UP) and Bundelkhand regions hold a share of Rs 9.54 lakh crore and Rs 4.27 lakh crore, respectively. They collectively account for almost 40 per cent of the total value of the MoU.

Since investors need large swathes of land to set up manufacturing units or for warehousing and logistics needs, the state is moving fast to ramp up the land bank for allotment to companies.

In the first phase, 600 hectares of land will be acquired. More land will be arranged in accordance with the requirements of investors in future, a government spokesperson said.

The land will be acquired within a 10-km radius of the expressways as it will provide seamless road connectivity to the upcoming projects and benefit the local population by creating jobs, thereby spurring the local economy.

Since the Yogi Adityanath government is focusing on promoting socio-economic development in the laggard Purvanchal and Bundelkhand regions, various policies provide a slew of incentives and subsidies to private investors in these areas.

Besides, UP is also preparing a blueprint to achieve its ambitious goal of becoming a $1-trillion economy in the next five years.

In this regard, the state government has identified 10 key sectors, including law & order, agriculture, social security, infrastructure & industrial development, urban development, rural development, medical & health, education, tourism & culture, and revenue collection.
India is the world's most vibrant democracy and its image cannot be allowed to be tainted or tarnished by anyone, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar said on Wednesday.

Some people are trying to tarnish India's democratic image outside the country by spreading a false narrative that people do not enjoy their rights in the country, the Vice President said while addressing the 21st convocation of the Dibrugarh University here.

"When all is going well, why should some decry our democracy, talk outside as well as inside the country that we do not have democratic values. I dare say with confidence and without fear of contradictions, India is the most vibrant functional democracy on the planet on this date", he said without taking any names.

He appealed to students, youth, intelligentsia and media to act as "ambassadors of the country. Believe in nationalism and run down this narrative".

This is a narrative with no factual basis and "we cannot support those who inside and outside the country, tarnish and taint our growth trajectory and democratic values".

The Vice President also said that the Parliament is a "place for dialogue, discussion and debate" and not a place for disru
Sudanese refugees shelter under a tree in a village 5 kilometres across the border in neighbouring Chad

The United Nations migration agency says at least 334,000 people have been internally displaced in Sudan since deadly fighting broke out last month between two military factions.

The data was released Tuesday by the International Organization for Migration at a news conference in Geneva. At the same press briefing the U.N. refugee agency said that more than 100,000 people have fled from Sudan to neighboring countries.

The new figures come a day after the U.N. refugee agency made an ominous prediction that the fighting could force more than 800,000 people to flee the north African country.

Raouf Mazou, the deputy head of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Monday that the agency was planning for 815,000 people to flee Sudan into seven neighboring countries. He said that included 580,000 Sudanese along with foreign refugees now living in Sudan.

Mazou said around 73,000 people have already left Sudan.

UNHCR head Filippo Grandi said in a tweet Monday that the agency hopes its planning figures turn out to be too high, but said "if violence doesn't stop, we will see more people forced to flee Sudan seeking safety."

Fighting between Sudanese government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued Tuesday despite the extension of yet another cease-fire agreement. Sudan's health ministry says more than 500 people have reportedly been killed and more than 4,000 wounded since the fighting began on April 15 after relations between army chief Abdel Fattah al Burhan and RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The two generals were once allies in Sudan's transitional government after a 2021 coup.

The fighting has led to the seizure of a public health laboratory in the capital Khartoum by one of the warring factions. The lab holds samples of infectious diseases such as cholera and other hazardous materials. The World Health Organization said Tuesday the seizure posed a "moderate risk" of biological hazard after conducting risk assessment. The U.N. agency warned last week the seizure potentially posed a "high risk" of biological hazard.

A string of temporary truces has been widely ignored by both sides. The cease-fires were established by the two warring factions to allow people safe passage and to open a means for the country to receive humanitarian aid. However, while fighting has abated in some parts of the capital, heavy fighting has continued elsewhere. Each side has blamed the other for the infractions.

The top U.N. official in Sudan, Volker Perthes, told The Associated Press Monday that Sudan's warring generals have agreed to send representatives -- potentially to Saudi Arabia -- for negotiations.

The Sudanese ambassador to the United States, Mohamed Abdalla Idris, told VOA he hopes the cease-fire will eventually lead to meaningful long-term peace talks.

He said, "a cease-fire, truce, is a two-way traffic," and said peace can only be realized if all parties respect the terms of any deal.

The fighting has led the United Nations and other aid organizations to cut services to Sudan. However, the World Food Program said Monday that it was resuming operations to some areas of the country after a pause of more than two weeks prompted by the killing of three staff members.

The WFP said in a statement that distribution of food is expected to commence in the states of Gedaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile in the coming days to provide life-saving assistance.

The agency said, "We will take utmost care to ensure the safety of all our staff and partners as we rush to meet the growing needs of the most vulnerable."

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dispatched U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths to Sudan to assess the situation there.

Writing on Twitter from Nairobi Monday, Griffiths described the situation in Sudan as "catastrophic."

He said the warring parties must, "protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. Ensure safe passage for civilians fleeing areas of hostilities. Respect humanitarian workers and assets. Facilitate relief operations. Respect medical personnel, transport and facilities."

The fighting in Sudan has forced foreign governments to pull its citizens from the country.

Russia's military announced Tuesday that more than 200 people will be evacuated on four military transports.

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Hundreds of Americans reached the eastern city of Port Sudan this weekend, watched over by U.S. military drones. Saudi officials said Monday that a U.S. Navy ship took more than 300 evacuees from Port Sudan to the Saudi port of Jeddah.

The U.S. State Department said Monday that three U.S. convoys evacuated over 700 people since Friday and said a total of over 1,000 U.S. citizens have been evacuated since the violence started in Sudan last month.

Britain's government announced Sunday that it was offering an additional evacuation flight for its nationals in war-torn Sudan.

A late Saturday flight out of Wadi Seidna Airport had been set to be the last flight out of the African country for British nationals. However, Britain's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced Sunday that another flight was leaving Monday from the airport in Port Sudan.

Michael Atit in Khartoum; Margaret Besheer at the United Nations; Anthony LaBruto; John Tanza, Nike Ching at the State Department contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who convened a meeting on Afghanistan in Doha that was attended by India, on Tuesday said that participating nations have expressed serious concerns over persistent presence of terrorist groups in the war-torn country that pose a risk for the region and beyond.

Guterres arrived in the Qatari capital on Monday to host the two-day meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan to reach points of commonality on key issues, such as human rights, in particular women's and girls' rights, inclusive governance, countering terrorism and drug trafficking.

The meeting is intended to achieve a common understanding within the international community on how to engage with the Taliban on these issues.

India is among the countries and organisations participating in the meeting, according to a note issued by Guterres' office here.

The meeting was about developing a common international approach, not about recognition of the de facto Taliban authorities, Guterres said in Doha at a press encounter.

The UN chief said that participants in the meeting are worried about the stability of Afghanistan and have expressed those serious concerns.

They relate to the persistent presence of terrorist organizations  a risk for the country, the region, and further afield, he added.

The other participants in the meeting are from China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkiye, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, European Union and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Guterres stressed that it was important that we all understand each other's concerns and limitations, but agreed that it was in everyone's interest, foremost the Afghans, to work together.

The participants agreed on the need for a strategy of engagement that allows for the stabilization of Afghanistan but also allows for addressing important concerns.

He noted that concerns were also raised over the lack of inclusivity, which importantly includes human rights, in particular those of women and girls, severely undermined by recent Taliban decisions and the spread of drug trafficking with all its dramatic consequences.

While different countries placed different priorities on these concerns, according to their own situation, there is a general recognition that they are intertwined. That prioritizing one issue was not to ignore the importance of the others, which allows for an overall shared approach, he said.
Pakistans Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the government to produce the record of parliamentary proceedings regarding a bill aimed at depriving the office of the chief justice of powers to take suo motu notice in an individual capacity and form a panel of judges for hearing of cases.

Relations between the judiciary and the ruling coalition have soured ever since the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz led government has been pushing for the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023.

The bill was initially passed by both houses of parliament and sent to the president for his assent. However, the president sent it back, saying that the proposed law travelled beyond the competence of parliament.

The bill was, however, passed again by a joint sitting of parliament with certain amendments on April 10 and sent to the president.

But three days after the passing of the bill by the joint parliament session, an eight-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC), including CJP Bandial, issued an order that bars the government from implementing the bill after it becomes a law.

On Tuesday, the eight-member larger bench led by Chief Justice Bandial heard the case and instructed the attorney general to provide copies of Parliament proceedings regarding the bill.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Bandial said that the law was the first of its kind in Pakistan that impacted the judiciary  the third pillar of the state.

It is, for the first time, claimed that a necessary element of the Constitution is violated through legislation, he said.

He rejected a plea to remove a judge from the bench as a complaint was pending against him. The chief justice also rejected another plea to form a full court to hear the case.
ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT  Get Rating) will be issuing its quarterly earnings data before the market opens on Thursday, May 4th. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.49 per share for the quarter.

ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT  Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 9th. The basic materials company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.33 by $1.04. The company had revenue of $16.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $15.62 billion. ArcelorMittal had a return on equity of 19.11% and a net margin of 11.65%. On average, analysts expect ArcelorMittal to post $4 EPS for the current fiscal year and $6 EPS for the next fiscal year.

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ArcelorMittal Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of MT opened at $28.21 on Wednesday. The stocks 50-day moving average is $29.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.85. The stock has a market cap of $22.72 billion, a PE ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.89. ArcelorMittal has a 12 month low of $19.25 and a 12 month high of $33.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

ArcelorMittal Announces Dividend

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 22nd. ArcelorMittals dividend payout ratio is presently 3.23%.

MT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com began coverage on ArcelorMittal in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Bank of America raised ArcelorMittal from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report on Thursday, March 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on ArcelorMittal from $36.00 to $33.00 in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. Barclays lowered ArcelorMittal from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, April 3rd. Finally, UBS Group raised ArcelorMittal from a sell rating to a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, March 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $28.68.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ArcelorMittal

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MT. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC acquired a new stake in shares of ArcelorMittal during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Clear Street Markets LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ArcelorMittal during the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in shares of ArcelorMittal by 166.1% during the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,381 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 862 shares during the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of ArcelorMittal by 199.0% during the 4th quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 5,139 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $134,000 after acquiring an additional 3,420 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of ArcelorMittal in the second quarter valued at $204,000. 5.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About ArcelorMittal

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ArcelorMittal SA is a holding company, which engages in steelmaking and mining activities. It operates through the following business segments: NAFTA; Brazil; Europe; Africa and Commonwealth of Independent States (ACIS), Mining, and Others. The NAFTA segment consists of flat products such as slabs, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil, coated steel, and plate.

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StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of China Green Agriculture (NYSE:CGA  Get Rating) in a report published on Sunday morning. The firm issued a sell rating on the basic materials companys stock.

China Green Agriculture Stock Performance

NYSE:CGA opened at $3.23 on Friday. China Green Agriculture has a fifty-two week low of $3.16 and a fifty-two week high of $9.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 1.98. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $4.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $4.50.

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China Green Agriculture (NYSE:CGA  Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 21st. The basic materials company reported ($0.27) earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $24.54 million for the quarter. China Green Agriculture had a negative net margin of 37.35% and a negative return on equity of 36.71%.

Institutional Trading of China Green Agriculture

About China Green Agriculture

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in China Green Agriculture stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in China Green Agriculture, Inc. ( NYSE:CGA Get Rating ) by 67.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,051 shares of the basic materials companys stock after purchasing an additional 7,700 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned approximately 0.22% of China Green Agriculture worth $192,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. 0.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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China Green Agriculture, Inc engages in the research, development, production, and sale of various types of fertilizers and agricultural products. It operates through the following segments: Jinong, Gufeng, and Yuxing. The Jinong segment includes fertilizer products, with focus on humic acid-based compound fertilizer.

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Circassia Group Plc (LON:CIR  Get Rating) shares were down 6.8% on Tuesday . The company traded as low as GBX 33.75 ($0.42) and last traded at GBX 34 ($0.42). Approximately 4,513 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 99% from the average daily volume of 773,465 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 36.50 ($0.46).

Circassia Group Trading Down 6.8 %

The stocks 50-day simple moving average is GBX 34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is GBX 34.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.50. The firm has a market capitalization of 142.66 million and a P/E ratio of 3,400.00.

Circassia Group Company Profile

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Circassia Group Plc, a medical device company, focuses on the respiratory diagnostics and monitoring products in the United States, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It offers NIOX and NIOX VERO, a fractional exhaled nitric oxide measurement and monitoring products for use in asthma diagnosis and management.

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Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. (NYSE:HLX  Get Rating) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,440,000 shares, a growth of 5.1% from the March 31st total of 8,030,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,950,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.3 days. Currently, 5.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Helix Energy Solutions Group Price Performance

NYSE HLX traded down $0.34 on Tuesday, reaching $6.79. 3,958,644 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,961,326. The stock has a market cap of $1.03 billion, a PE ratio of -21.61 and a beta of 2.77. Helix Energy Solutions Group has a 12 month low of $2.47 and a 12 month high of $9.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 1.55. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.18.

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Helix Energy Solutions Group (NYSE:HLX  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 20th. The oil and gas company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $287.82 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $244.70 million. Helix Energy Solutions Group had a negative return on equity of 2.25% and a negative net margin of 5.23%. As a group, research analysts predict that Helix Energy Solutions Group will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Helix Energy Solutions Group announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, February 20th that authorizes the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the oil and gas company to reacquire up to 16.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the companys board believes its stock is undervalued.

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Helix Energy Solutions Group from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Saturday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $7.80.

Institutional Trading of Helix Energy Solutions Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HLX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Helix Energy Solutions Group by 157.0% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,173,934 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $5,611,000 after buying an additional 717,074 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Helix Energy Solutions Group by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,810,612 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $32,555,000 after buying an additional 401,949 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in Helix Energy Solutions Group during the 1st quarter valued at $76,000. Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in Helix Energy Solutions Group by 11.9% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 123,076 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $588,000 after purchasing an additional 13,099 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in Helix Energy Solutions Group by 39.0% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 23,276 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $110,000 after purchasing an additional 6,527 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.78% of the companys stock.

About Helix Energy Solutions Group

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Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc is an international offshore energy company. It focuses on subsea construction, maintenance and salvage services to the offshore natural gas and oil industry. The firm also provides specialty services to the offshore energy industry, with a focus on well intervention and robotics operations.

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Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN  Get Rating) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,290,000 shares, a drop of 13.2% from the March 31st total of 4,940,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,410,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.8 days. Approximately 2.4% of the companys shares are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Huntsman from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 23rd. UBS Group lifted their target price on Huntsman from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Huntsman from $33.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Mizuho assumed coverage on Huntsman in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. They set a neutral rating and a $27.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on Huntsman in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $30.42.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Huntsman

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Huntsman by 33.6% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 27,472 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $1,030,000 after acquiring an additional 6,907 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Huntsman by 42.3% during the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 13,414 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,986 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Huntsman during the first quarter worth about $155,000. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Huntsman by 0.4% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 12,672,792 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $475,358,000 after acquiring an additional 47,739 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its stake in shares of Huntsman by 9.0% during the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 14,250 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $565,000 after acquiring an additional 1,173 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.57% of the companys stock.

Huntsman Stock Down 1.6 %

HUN traded down $0.44 on Tuesday, hitting $26.29. The company had a trading volume of 1,338,452 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,251,049. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $27.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.43. Huntsman has a 12-month low of $23.53 and a 12-month high of $37.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.13.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN  Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 21st. The basic materials company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.11 by ($0.07). Huntsman had a net margin of 5.47% and a return on equity of 16.03%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.95 EPS. Huntsmans revenue for the quarter was down 21.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Huntsman will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Huntsman Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th were paid a $0.2375 dividend. This represents a $0.95 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Huntsmans previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Huntsmans payout ratio is 43.98%.

Huntsman Company Profile

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Huntsman Corp. engages in the manufacturing of differentiated organic chemical products. It operates through the following segments: Polyurethanes, Performance Products, and Advanced Materials. The Polyurethanes segment manufactures and markets polyurethane chemicals, including MDI products, PO, polyols, PG, TPU, aniline, and MTBE.

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Model N, Inc. (NYSE:MODN  Get Rating) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,490,000 shares, an increase of 9.7% from the March 31st total of 2,270,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 361,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 6.9 days.

Model N Trading Down 1.9 %

NYSE MODN traded down $0.58 on Tuesday, reaching $29.70. 352,870 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 352,908. The businesss fifty day moving average price is $32.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -41.25 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a current ratio of 2.85, a quick ratio of 2.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. Model N has a fifty-two week low of $20.95 and a fifty-two week high of $43.18.

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Model N (NYSE:MODN  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The software maker reported ($0.05) EPS for the quarter. Model N had a negative net margin of 11.65% and a negative return on equity of 7.52%. The business had revenue of $59.15 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $57.51 million. Analysts forecast that Model N will post -0.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Insiders Place Their Bets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. BTIG Research boosted their price target on Model N from $42.00 to $48.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM reissued an initiates rating on shares of Model N in a report on Thursday, April 27th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Model N from $45.00 to $52.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Model N from $42.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada initiated coverage on Model N in a research report on Thursday, April 27th. They issued a sector perform rating and a $35.00 price objective for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $44.63.

In other Model N news, CRO Christopher Lyon sold 6,556 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.04, for a total value of $229,722.24. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 152,600 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,347,104. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Jason Blessing sold 20,304 shares of Model N stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.04, for a total transaction of $711,452.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 695,506 shares of the companys stock, valued at $24,370,530.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CRO Christopher Lyon sold 6,556 shares of Model N stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.04, for a total value of $229,722.24. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 152,600 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,347,104. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 53,238 shares of company stock valued at $1,832,671. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Model N

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Model N during the 1st quarter worth about $201,000. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. lifted its stake in Model N by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 52,984 shares of the software makers stock worth $1,773,000 after acquiring an additional 1,104 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in Model N by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 9,742 shares of the software makers stock worth $326,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. Legal Advantage Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in Model N during the 1st quarter worth about $335,000. Finally, Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Model N by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,792,154 shares of the software makers stock worth $126,923,000 after purchasing an additional 19,242 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.63% of the companys stock.

Model N Company Profile

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Model N, Inc engages in developing and monetizing revenue management solutions. It offers cloud revenue optimization and compliance to pharmaceutical, medical technology, semiconductor, and high-tech companies. Its products provide business processes such as pricing, quoting, contracting, regulatory compliance, rebates and incentives.

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Salzhauer Michael purchased a new stake in The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TRV  Get Rating) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,200 shares of the insurance providers stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Investment Management of Virginia LLC boosted its holdings in Travelers Companies by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Investment Management of Virginia LLC now owns 8,007 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $1,227,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in Travelers Companies by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,269 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $613,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund boosted its holdings in Travelers Companies by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund now owns 33,578 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $5,144,000 after purchasing an additional 1,882 shares during the period. Resources Investment Advisors LLC. boosted its holdings in Travelers Companies by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Resources Investment Advisors LLC. now owns 3,882 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $595,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Travelers Companies by 200.4% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 670 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $103,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the period. 81.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Travelers Companies from $182.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, April 21st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Travelers Companies from $181.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 5th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Travelers Companies in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Travelers Companies from $196.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Travelers Companies from $190.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $191.73.

Insider Transactions at Travelers Companies

Travelers Companies Stock Down 0.0 %

In other news, EVP Andy F. Bessette sold 11,572 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.14, for a total value of $2,061,436.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 17,361 shares in the company, valued at $3,092,688.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link . In related news, CEO Alan D. Schnitzer sold 150,829 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.53, for a total transaction of $28,435,791.37. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 196,914 shares in the company, valued at $37,124,196.42. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website . Also, EVP Andy F. Bessette sold 11,572 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.14, for a total transaction of $2,061,436.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 17,361 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,092,688.54. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 228,051 shares of company stock worth $42,423,406. Corporate insiders own 1.07% of the companys stock.

NYSE:TRV traded down $0.04 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $180.49. 301,279 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,482,544. The Travelers Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $149.65 and a one year high of $194.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.33 and a quick ratio of 0.33. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $175.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $181.75. The company has a market cap of $41.69 billion, a PE ratio of 15.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.60.

Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 19th. The insurance provider reported $4.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.64 by $0.47. Travelers Companies had a net margin of 7.41% and a return on equity of 13.41%. The business had revenue of $9.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.98 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.22 earnings per share. Travelers Companiess quarterly revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that The Travelers Companies, Inc. will post 14.24 EPS for the current year.

Travelers Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 9th will be paid a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 8th. This is an increase from Travelers Companiess previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Travelers Companiess dividend payout ratio is currently 34.10%.

Travelers Companies declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, April 19th that authorizes the company to buyback $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the insurance provider to buy up to 12.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the companys leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Travelers Companies Profile

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The Travelers Cos., Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of commercial and personal property and casualty insurance products and services. It operates through the following business segments: Business Insurance, Bond and Specialty Insurance, and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment provides an array of property and casualty insurance, and insurance related services to its customers primarily in the U.S., as well as in Canada, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and throughout other parts of the world as a corporate member of Lloyds.

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AGCO (NYSE:AGCO  Get Rating) issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The industrial products company reported $3.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.64 by $0.87, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $3.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $3.15 billion. AGCO had a return on equity of 25.75% and a net margin of 7.03%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.39 EPS. AGCO updated its FY23 guidance to $14.40 EPS.

AGCO Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AGCO traded up $1.27 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $129.22. The stock had a trading volume of 247,744 shares, compared to its average volume of 648,563. The company has a market capitalization of $9.67 billion, a PE ratio of 10.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $129.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $130.38. AGCO has a 1 year low of $88.55 and a 1 year high of $145.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

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AGCO Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be given a $0.29 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 12th. This is an increase from AGCOs previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. AGCOs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.77%.

Insider Activity

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AGCO

In other news, SVP Torsten Rudolf Willi Dehner sold 744 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.71, for a total value of $104,688.24. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 26,867 shares in the company, valued at $3,780,455.57. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink . In related news, CAO Lara Thrush Long sold 1,623 shares of AGCO stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.76, for a total transaction of $225,207.48. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 782 shares in the company, valued at $108,510.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link . Also, SVP Torsten Rudolf Willi Dehner sold 744 shares of AGCO stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.71, for a total value of $104,688.24. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 26,867 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,780,455.57. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Insiders have sold a total of 27,142 shares of company stock worth $3,671,940 over the last quarter. 16.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in AGCO during the first quarter worth $306,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in AGCO by 42.5% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 3,059 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $294,000 after acquiring an additional 913 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new stake in AGCO during the first quarter worth $277,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in AGCO during the first quarter worth $267,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in AGCO by 118.1% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,758 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $256,000 after acquiring an additional 952 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.48% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AGCO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on AGCO from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on AGCO from $140.00 to $137.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on AGCO from $122.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on AGCO from $169.00 to $165.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on AGCO from $185.00 to $189.00 in a report on Tuesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $154.33.

About AGCO

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AGCO Corp. engages in the manufacture and distribution of agricultural equipment and related replacement parts. It operates through the following geographic segments: North America, South America, Europe and Middle East, and Asia, Pacific, and Africa. The Asia/Pacific/Africa segment includes the regions of Australia and New Zealand.

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Yaounde, Cameroon  Authorities in Cameroon say anglophone rebels have attacked military posts near the country's port city of Douala, killing several people. The attack is the closest the separatist conflict has come to Douala since fighting broke out in 2017.

Officials in Cameroon say at least 15 heavily armed rebels attacked a military post Monday in Matouke, a farming village less than 40 kilometers west of Douala.

Officials say the separatists killed at least six people and wounded many others without giving a figure.

The government said it is yet to confirm the identities of victims but rebels and villagers said they killed five troops and a civilian.

Speaking via a messaging app, Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, governor of Cameroon's Littoral region, which includes Matouke and Douala, said he visited the injured in a military hospital Monday night.

Diboua said both the military and civilians will not accept separatists extending attacks and disorder to Douala, an economic hub in central Africa. He said the military presence has been increased on the border between Cameroon's Littoral region and the English-speaking Southwest region, where the fighters came from. He said civilians have been mobilized to denounce suspected fighters in their towns and villages.

It's the first time rebels have attacked so close to Douala, a seaport of about four million people that supplies 80% of imported goods for the landlocked Central African Republic and Chad.

On several occasions, troops have reported suspected fighters in the city and made arrests.

Speaking via a messaging app, Francis Mbah, a clearing agent at the Douala seaport, said any attacks on the economic hub would impact all of Cameroon and central Africa.

"This attack close to the economic capital of Cameroon is a sign that the government still has a lot to do to reinforce security permanently," he said. "It is a bad signal given that there are many citizens, Cameroonian citizens, living in the economic capital. This is a call for the government to step in and say this crisis must be stopped."

Cameroon's English-speaking separatists have been fighting since 2017 to carve out an independent state from the French-speaking majority nation.

The rebels have vowed to attack all military posts along the borders with Cameroon's Francophone regions.

The military says separatists have attacked their positions in the French-speaking West region at least 40 times since the conflict erupted.

The International Crisis Group estimates that six years of fighting has killed about 6,000 people and displaced more than half-a-million.
AGCO (NYSE:AGCO  Get Rating) updated its FY 2023 earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $14.40-$14.40 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.60. The company issued revenue guidance of $14.50 billion-$14.50 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $14.06 billion.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of AGCO from $122.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AGCO from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Friday, April 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on AGCO from $140.00 to $137.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on AGCO from $169.00 to $165.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on AGCO from $185.00 to $189.00 in a report on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $154.33.

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AGCO Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of AGCO stock opened at $127.95 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $129.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $130.38. The stock has a market cap of $9.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.78, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.34. AGCO has a 12-month low of $88.55 and a 12-month high of $145.53.

AGCO Increases Dividend

AGCO ( NYSE:AGCO Get Rating ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 2nd. The industrial products company reported $3.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $0.87. AGCO had a net margin of 7.03% and a return on equity of 25.75%. The company had revenue of $3.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.39 earnings per share. AGCOs revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that AGCO will post 13.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be issued a $0.29 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.91%. This is a boost from AGCOs previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 12th. AGCOs payout ratio is presently 9.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Lara Thrush Long sold 1,623 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.76, for a total transaction of $225,207.48. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 782 shares of the companys stock, valued at $108,510.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, SVP Luis Fernando Sartini Felli sold 9,150 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.38, for a total transaction of $1,257,027.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,833 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,175,137.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lara Thrush Long sold 1,623 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.76, for a total transaction of $225,207.48. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,510.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 27,142 shares of company stock worth $3,671,940 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 16.60% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AGCO

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AGCO in the first quarter worth $306,000. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in shares of AGCO by 42.5% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 3,059 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $294,000 after purchasing an additional 913 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new position in shares of AGCO in the 1st quarter valued at about $277,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AGCO during the 1st quarter worth about $267,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in AGCO by 118.1% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,758 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $256,000 after purchasing an additional 952 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.48% of the companys stock.

AGCO Company Profile

(Get Rating)

AGCO Corp. engages in the manufacture and distribution of agricultural equipment and related replacement parts. It operates through the following geographic segments: North America, South America, Europe and Middle East, and Asia, Pacific, and Africa. The Asia/Pacific/Africa segment includes the regions of Australia and New Zealand.

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Fortis (NYSE:FTS  Get Rating) and Spine Injury Solutions (OTCMKTS:SPIN  Get Rating) are both utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Fortis and Spine Injury Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

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Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Fortis 1 3 1 0 2.00 Spine Injury Solutions 0 0 0 0 N/A

Fortis currently has a consensus target price of $58.75, suggesting a potential upside of 34.29%. Given Fortis higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Fortis is more favorable than Spine Injury Solutions.

Valuation & Earnings

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Fortis $11.04 billion 1.92 $1.07 billion $2.13 20.54 Spine Injury Solutions $30,000.00 445.48 -$810,000.00 N/A N/A

This table compares Fortis and Spine Injury Solutions gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Fortis has higher revenue and earnings than Spine Injury Solutions.

Profitability

This table compares Fortis and Spine Injury Solutions net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Fortis 12.20% 6.48% 2.16% Spine Injury Solutions N/A -145.94% -109.56%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

49.6% of Fortis shares are held by institutional investors. 16.4% of Spine Injury Solutions shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Fortis beats Spine Injury Solutions on 8 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fortis

(Get Rating)

Fortis, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the electric and gas utility industry. It operates under the Regulated Utilities and Non-Regulated segments. The Regulated Utilities segment includes ITC Holdings (ITC), UNS Energy Corporation (UNS Energy), Central Hudson, FortisBC Energy, FortisAlberta, and FortisBC Electric. The Non-Regulated segment focuses on energy infrastructure and corporate and other. The company was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in St. Johns, Canada.

About Spine Injury Solutions

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Spine Injury Solutions, Inc. provides a suite of revolutionary electrical power generation technologies. The company intends to offer Evirontek Integrated Platform to the cryptocurrency mining industry to reduce the exorbitant high cost of electricity. It also provides spine injury diagnostic services; and owns, develops, and leases the Quad Video Halo video recording system used to record medical procedures. The company is based in Costa Mesa, California.

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BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund, Inc. (NYSE:MUC  Get Rating) declared a monthly dividend on Wednesday, May 3rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.0335 per share on Thursday, June 1st. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.74%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 12th.

BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund Price Performance

Shares of MUC stock traded down $0.01 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $10.76. 214,131 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 212,597. BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund has a 52 week low of $9.95 and a 52 week high of $12.96. The stocks 50-day moving average is $10.86 and its 200-day moving average is $10.88.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund in the first quarter valued at approximately $262,000. UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 254,426 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,328,000 after buying an additional 13,215 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund during the first quarter worth $1,024,000. Guggenheim Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund by 3.9% during the first quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 1,178,881 shares of the companys stock valued at $15,420,000 after acquiring an additional 44,371 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund by 9.7% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 46,060 shares of the companys stock valued at $602,000 after acquiring an additional 4,071 shares during the last quarter. 44.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund Company Profile

BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund, Inc operates as a closed-end investment fund. The companys investment objective is to provide shareholders and investing primarily in municipal obligations exempt from federal income taxes and California income taxes. The company was founded on February 27, 1998 and is headquartered in Wilmington, DE.

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Arizona State Retirement System boosted its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Rating) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 581,796 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after purchasing an additional 3,061 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement Systems holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $41,860,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 103.1% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 10,166,384 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $725,297,000 after buying an additional 5,161,226 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 174,002,852 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $12,369,862,000 after purchasing an additional 3,357,590 shares in the last quarter. Edmp Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 6,884.3% during the 4th quarter. Edmp Inc. now owns 3,343,588 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $46,471,000 after purchasing an additional 3,295,715 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 1.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,886,585 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $14,209,937,000 after purchasing an additional 3,058,491 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cowa LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 9,777.8% in the first quarter. Cowa LLC now owns 1,657,894 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $1,211,000 after purchasing an additional 1,641,110 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.51% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BMY has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. 51job reissued a maintains rating on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Credit Suisse Group decreased their target price on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $78.00 to $72.00 in a report on Friday, April 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a report on Tuesday, January 17th. They set an overweight rating and a $95.00 price target for the company. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a report on Monday, March 6th. They issued a hold rating and a $62.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $66.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $79.43.

Insider Activity

Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Down 1.5 %

In related news, CEO Giovanni Caforio sold 240,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.65, for a total transaction of $17,916,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 236,104 shares in the company, valued at $17,625,163.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link . In related news, CEO Giovanni Caforio sold 240,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.65, for a total transaction of $17,916,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 236,104 shares in the company, valued at $17,625,163.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website . Also, EVP Ann Powell sold 11,183 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $835,258.27. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,043 shares in the company, valued at $1,721,081.67. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Company insiders own 0.09% of the companys stock.

Shares of NYSE BMY traded down $1.01 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $67.09. The companys stock had a trading volume of 2,271,916 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,873,420. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $141.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.45. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $68.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $72.68. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a 1 year low of $65.28 and a 1 year high of $81.43.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $11.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $11.50 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a net margin of 15.95% and a return on equity of 51.63%. The firms revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.96 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 8.06 EPS for the current year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 10th were given a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.40%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 6th. Bristol-Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio is currently 66.47%.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Bristol Myers Squibb Co engages in the discovery, development, licensing, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of biopharmaceutical products. It offers chemically-synthesized drugs or small molecules and products produced from biological processes called biologics. The company was founded in August 1933 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding BMY? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Rating).

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Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Rating) by 35.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,794,089 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after purchasing an additional 3,627,705 shares during the quarter. Bristol-Myers Squibb makes up approximately 1.3% of Boston Partners holdings, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Boston Partners owned about 0.65% of Bristol-Myers Squibb worth $992,048,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BMY. My Personal CFO LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Clear Investment Research LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. VitalStone Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Miller Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 101.3% in the 4th quarter. Miller Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 481 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Western Pacific Wealth Management LP boosted its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 878.6% during the 3rd quarter. Western Pacific Wealth Management LP now owns 548 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 492 shares during the period. 75.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Price Performance

Shares of BMY traded down $0.88 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $67.22. The stock had a trading volume of 3,536,382 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,892,703. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a 52 week low of $65.28 and a 52 week high of $81.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The firms 50 day moving average price is $68.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $72.68. The company has a market capitalization of $141.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.45.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

Bristol-Myers Squibb ( NYSE:BMY Get Rating ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.98 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $11.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.50 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a return on equity of 51.63% and a net margin of 15.95%. Bristol-Myers Squibbs revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.96 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 6th. Bristol-Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.47%.

Insider Transactions at Bristol-Myers Squibb

In other news, CEO Giovanni Caforio sold 240,000 shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb stock in a transaction on Monday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.65, for a total transaction of $17,916,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 236,104 shares in the company, valued at $17,625,163.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Bristol-Myers Squibb news, EVP Ann Powell sold 11,183 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $835,258.27. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,043 shares in the company, valued at $1,721,081.67. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Giovanni Caforio sold 240,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.65, for a total value of $17,916,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 236,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,625,163.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.09% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BMY. StockNews.com began coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a strong-buy rating for the company. Credit Suisse Group reduced their price objective on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $78.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Atlantic Securities boosted their price objective on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Barclays reduced their price objective on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $66.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Monday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research report on Monday, March 6th. They set a hold rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $79.43.

About Bristol-Myers Squibb

(Get Rating)

Bristol Myers Squibb Co engages in the discovery, development, licensing, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of biopharmaceutical products. It offers chemically-synthesized drugs or small molecules and products produced from biological processes called biologics. The company was founded in August 1933 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

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Capital Insight Partners LLC grew its stake in KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY  Get Rating) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,577 shares of the financial services providers stock after buying an additional 1,060 shares during the period. Capital Insight Partners LLCs holdings in KeyCorp were worth $446,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in KEY. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of KeyCorp by 2,228.2% in the third quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,593,491 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $41,548,000 after buying an additional 2,482,098 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in KeyCorp by 4.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,201,153 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $820,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,399,018 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. grew its stake in KeyCorp by 211.6% during the first quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 3,274,208 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $73,277,000 after purchasing an additional 2,223,588 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its stake in KeyCorp by 5.6% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 32,450,273 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $520,135,000 after purchasing an additional 1,718,852 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in KeyCorp by 1.7% during the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 84,008,314 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,345,815,000 after purchasing an additional 1,414,839 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.11% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on KEY. Piper Sandler raised KeyCorp from an underweight rating to a neutral rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $18.50 to $16.50 in a research note on Friday, March 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on KeyCorp from $21.00 to $14.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on KeyCorp from $23.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Friday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on KeyCorp from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 21st. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their price objective on KeyCorp from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, KeyCorp has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $16.55.

KeyCorp Stock Performance

Shares of KeyCorp stock opened at $9.71 on Wednesday. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $13.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.25. KeyCorp has a 12 month low of $9.57 and a 12 month high of $20.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.92.

KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY  Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 20th. The financial services provider reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts consensus estimates of $0.44. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. KeyCorp had a return on equity of 15.63% and a net margin of 19.09%. KeyCorps quarterly revenue was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that KeyCorp will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Amy G. Brady sold 45,000 shares of KeyCorp stock in a transaction on Friday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.58, for a total transaction of $701,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 119,121 shares in the company, valued at $1,855,905.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other KeyCorp news, insider Amy G. Brady sold 45,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.58, for a total value of $701,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 119,121 shares in the company, valued at $1,855,905.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela G. Mago sold 5,352 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.95, for a total value of $106,772.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 194,280 shares in the company, valued at $3,875,886. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have acquired 12,700 shares of company stock worth $149,907. 0.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

KeyCorp Company Profile

(Get Rating)

KeyCorp is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of financial services. It provides a range of retail and commercial banking, commercial leasing, investment management, consumer finance, student loan refinancing, commercial mortgage servicing and special servicing, and investment banking products and services to individual, corporate, and institutional clients.

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Clorox (NYSE:CLX  Get Rating) had its price target increased by analysts at Raymond James from $165.00 to $185.00 in a report released on Wednesday, The Fly reports. Raymond James target price would suggest a potential upside of 10.30% from the stocks previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Clorox from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Clorox from $137.00 to $151.00 in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Clorox in a report on Thursday, February 16th. They issued a neutral rating and a $155.00 price objective for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Clorox from $147.00 to $149.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 18th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Clorox from $140.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a sell rating in a report on Thursday, April 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $147.92.

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Clorox Price Performance

CLX stock opened at $167.72 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.47. Clorox has a one year low of $120.50 and a one year high of $168.71. The stock has a market cap of $20.72 billion, a PE ratio of 47.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.30. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $157.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $149.46.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Clorox ( NYSE:CLX Get Rating ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 2nd. The company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.29. Clorox had a net margin of 6.16% and a return on equity of 89.97%. The business had revenue of $1.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.31 EPS. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Clorox will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLX. Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new position in Clorox in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Hallmark Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Clorox in the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Clorox in the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Delta Asset Management LLC TN purchased a new stake in shares of Clorox in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Financial Avengers Inc. grew its position in shares of Clorox by 86.0% in the 4th quarter. Financial Avengers Inc. now owns 225 shares of the companys stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. 79.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Clorox Company Profile

(Get Rating)

The Clorox Co engages in the manufacture and marketing of consumer and professional products. It operates through the following business segments: Health and Wellness, Household, Lifestyle, and International. The Health and Wellness segment consists of cleaning products, professional products and vitamins, minerals and supplements mainly marketed and sold in the United States.

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Deutsche Bank AG lifted its stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO  Get Rating) by 15.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,966,809 shares of the utilities providers stock after buying an additional 264,226 shares during the quarter. Deutsche Bank AGs holdings in Southern were worth $140,450,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bell Investment Advisors Inc grew its position in shares of Southern by 127.6% during the 4th quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc now owns 421 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 236 shares during the period. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN acquired a new stake in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. VitalStone Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC grew its position in Southern by 192.0% in the 4th quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 511 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares during the period. Finally, Miller Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Southern by 66.7% in the 4th quarter. Miller Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 500 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.78% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.89, for a total transaction of $359,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 146,284 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $10,516,356.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 1,282 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.60, for a total transaction of $85,381.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,512 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,832,299.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.89, for a total value of $359,450.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 146,284 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $10,516,356.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 7,134 shares of company stock valued at $502,179 in the last quarter. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Southern Stock Performance

Southern stock traded up $0.77 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $73.92. The stock had a trading volume of 1,059,786 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,189,899. The Southern Company has a 12 month low of $58.85 and a 12 month high of $80.57. The firms 50-day moving average price is $68.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $68.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.69 billion, a PE ratio of 23.60, a P/E/G ratio of 5.09 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Southern (NYSE:SO  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.08. Southern had a return on equity of 10.80% and a net margin of 11.53%. The business had revenue of $6.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $6.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. The firms quarterly revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 3.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 12th. This is a positive change from Southerns previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Southerns payout ratio is presently 87.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on SO shares. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $71.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 17th. Credit Suisse Group lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Southern from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, April 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Southern from $79.00 to $78.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Southern from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $73.14.

About Southern

(Get Rating)

The Southern Co is a holding company, which engages in the generation and sale of electricity. It operates through the following segments: Traditional Electric Operating Companies, Southern Power and Southern Company Gas. The Traditional Electric Operating Companies segment refers to vertically integrated utilities that own generation, transmission and distribution facilities, and supplies electric services in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi.

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Dominion Energy, Inc. (NYSE:D  Get Rating) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,280,000 shares, an increase of 8.3% from the March 31st total of 6,720,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,540,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on D shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Dominion Energy from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Dominion Energy from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Thursday, April 20th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Dominion Energy from $66.00 to $61.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 27th. Credit Suisse Group lowered their target price on Dominion Energy from $67.00 to $58.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Dominion Energy from $76.00 to $66.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $64.18.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in D. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Dominion Energy by 93,554.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,865,509 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $604,953,000 after purchasing an additional 9,854,975 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in shares of Dominion Energy by 486.1% in the 3rd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 10,364,622 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $716,299,000 after purchasing an additional 8,596,097 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Dominion Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $332,276,000. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Dominion Energy by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 58,954,665 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $4,074,356,000 after purchasing an additional 3,051,912 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Dominion Energy by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 73,953,046 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $5,110,895,000 after purchasing an additional 2,767,626 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.30% of the companys stock.

Dominion Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE D opened at $55.53 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.73. Dominion Energy has a fifty-two week low of $52.03 and a fifty-two week high of $86.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.38 billion, a PE ratio of 50.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.43. The stocks 50-day simple moving average is $56.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.78.

Dominion Energy (NYSE:D  Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $4.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.21 billion. Dominion Energy had a return on equity of 13.35% and a net margin of 5.79%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 26.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Dominion Energy will post 3.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dominion Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.6675 per share. This represents a $2.67 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 2nd. Dominion Energys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 244.95%.

About Dominion Energy

(Get Rating)

Dominion Energy, Inc engages in the production and distribution of energy. It operates through following business segments: Dominion Energy Virginia, Gas Distribution, Dominion Energy South Carolina, Contracted Assets, and Corporate and Other. The Corporate and Other segment focuses on corporate, service company, non-controlling interest in Dominion privatization, and non-regulated retail energy marketing operations.

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Eaton (NYSE:ETN  Get Rating) had its target price upped by stock analysts at Barclays from $145.00 to $159.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, The Fly reports. Barclayss price target indicates a potential downside of 8.23% from the companys previous close.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Eaton from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 13th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Eaton from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, March 3rd. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Eaton from $160.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, January 13th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Eaton from $180.00 to $200.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 8th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Eaton from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, April 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $174.17.

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Eaton Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of Eaton stock opened at $173.25 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a 50-day moving average of $166.84 and a 200 day moving average of $161.97. The firm has a market cap of $69.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.12. Eaton has a 1 year low of $122.50 and a 1 year high of $178.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Eaton

Eaton ( NYSE:ETN Get Rating ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 8th. The industrial products company reported $2.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.34 billion. Eaton had a net margin of 11.86% and a return on equity of 18.31%. Eatons quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.72 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Eaton will post 8.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other Eaton news, insider Joao V. Faria sold 2,000 shares of Eaton stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.00, for a total transaction of $338,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 67,166 shares of the companys stock, valued at $11,351,054. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Joao V. Faria sold 2,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.00, for a total value of $338,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 67,166 shares of the companys stock, valued at $11,351,054. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Joao V. Faria sold 5,204 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.55, for a total transaction of $908,358.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 76,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,320,608.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 33,377 shares of company stock valued at $5,864,193 over the last 90 days. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Eaton

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ETN. RB Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Eaton by 3.5% in the first quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 2,759 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $419,000 after buying an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in Eaton by 74.8% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 101,412 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $15,390,000 after purchasing an additional 43,381 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Eaton by 0.6% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 374,204 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $56,790,000 after purchasing an additional 2,057 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. increased its position in Eaton by 9.1% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 2,682 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $407,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC bought a new stake in Eaton in the first quarter worth $1,188,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.19% of the companys stock.

About Eaton

(Get Rating)

Eaton Corp. Plc is a power management company, which provides energy-efficient solutions for electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical power. It operates through the following segments: Electrical Americas and Electrical Global, Aerospace, Vehicle, and eMobility. The Electrical Americas and Electrical Global segments engage in sales contracts for electrical components, industrial components, power distribution and assemblies, residential products, single and three phase power quality, wiring devices, circuit protection, utility power distribution, power reliability equipment, and service.

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Soldiers of the Somali National Army (SNA) are silhouetted against the setting sun in the town of Jawahar in Middle Shabelle region, north of the Somali capital Mogadisu, December 10, 2010.

Mogadishu, Somalia  Somalia's army said it has killed 67 al-Shabab militants and seized large amounts of explosives in an operation in the north-central Mudug region.

Brigadier General Mohamed Tahlil Bihi told reporters Tuesday the military was acting on intelligence about movements of the al-Shabab group.

Bihi said the operation in the Harardhere district of central Mudug region took place at around 1 a.m. when 120 jerrycans containing improvised explosive devices were offloaded from a boat and carried in a vehicle that was guided by 69 militants. Bihi said Somalia's National Army fired rocket-propelled grenades at the vehicle and destroyed it. He said only two militants were captured alive.

VOA could not independently verify the army's casualty figures.

Somalia's army has been conducting joint offensives with local militias against the Islamist militants since last July as part of an all-out war against the group.

In a town hall meeting Monday night, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared that al-Shabab would be eliminated by the end of the year.

Mohamud said the second phase of the operation would soon begin in Somalia's South West State and in the Jubaland region.

Somalia is also depending on troops from Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya after the neighboring countries in January agreed to jointly launch military operations against al-Shabab strongholds.
Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund II (NYSEARCA:EOS  Get Rating) declared a monthly dividend on Tuesday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 22nd will be paid a dividend of 0.1152 per share on Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $1.38 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 19th.

Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund II Stock Down 0.9 %

EOS stock opened at $16.18 on Wednesday. Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund II has a twelve month low of $15.10 and a twelve month high of $19.65. The business has a 50 day moving average of $16.13 and a 200 day moving average of $16.65.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EOS. Captrust Financial Advisors bought a new stake in Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund II during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund II in the 1st quarter worth $147,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund II by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,766 shares of the companys stock worth $226,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund II in the 4th quarter worth $179,000. Finally, Money Concepts Capital Corp bought a new stake in shares of Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund II in the 4th quarter worth $194,000.

Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund II Company Profile

Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund II is a diversified, closed-end management investment fund. Its investment objective is to provide current income, with a secondary objective of capital appreciation. It aims to invest primarily in a portfolio of mid- and large-capitalization common stocks. The company was founded on January 31, 2005 and is headquartered in Boston, MA.

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Everest Re Group (NYSE:RE  Get Rating) had its price objective increased by Wells Fargo & Company from $435.00 to $445.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, The Fly reports. Wells Fargo & Companys price target would suggest a potential upside of 16.46% from the stocks previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Everest Re Group in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. They issued a market perform rating and a $380.00 target price on the stock. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Everest Re Group from $385.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, February 13th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Everest Re Group in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Everest Re Group from $455.00 to $468.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Everest Re Group presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $410.60.

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Everest Re Group Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE RE traded up $0.12 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $382.12. 17,756 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 283,260. The company has a market capitalization of $16.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 0.60. Everest Re Group has a 52-week low of $244.57 and a 52-week high of $394.99. The company has a current ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $365.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $345.45.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Everest Re Group

Everest Re Group ( NYSE:RE Get Rating ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 1st. The insurance provider reported $11.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $12.48 by ($1.17). Everest Re Group had a return on equity of 12.36% and a net margin of 4.96%. The firm had revenue of $3.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $10.31 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Everest Re Group will post 46.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Savant Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Everest Re Group by 13.4% in the first quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 693 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $248,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Wakefield Asset Management LLLP acquired a new stake in Everest Re Group in the first quarter worth about $376,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Everest Re Group by 204.7% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,465 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $883,000 after acquiring an additional 1,656 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Everest Re Group by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 3,105 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $1,112,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Everest Re Group by 11.0% in the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,836 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $8,892,000 after acquiring an additional 2,462 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.38% of the companys stock.

Everest Re Group Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Everest Re Group Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of reinsurance and insurance services. It operates through the following segments: Reinsurance, and Insurance. The Reinsurance segment writes property and casualty reinsurance and specialty lines of business, including marine, aviation, surety, and accident and health business, on both a treaty and facultative basis, through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies primarily within the U.S.

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ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW  Get Rating) and Data443 Risk Mitigation (OTCMKTS:ATDSD  Get Rating) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for ServiceNow and Data443 Risk Mitigation, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

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Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score ServiceNow 0 2 26 0 2.93 Data443 Risk Mitigation 0 0 0 0 N/A

ServiceNow presently has a consensus price target of $526.33, indicating a potential upside of 18.63%. Given ServiceNows higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe ServiceNow is more favorable than Data443 Risk Mitigation.

Earnings and Valuation

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio ServiceNow $7.25 billion 12.48 $325.00 million $1.96 226.37 Data443 Risk Mitigation $3.61 million 0.00 -$6.47 million N/A N/A

This table compares ServiceNow and Data443 Risk Mitigations revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

ServiceNow has higher revenue and earnings than Data443 Risk Mitigation.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.3% of ServiceNow shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of ServiceNow shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.3% of Data443 Risk Mitigation shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares ServiceNow and Data443 Risk Mitigations net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets ServiceNow 5.25% 10.18% 4.01% Data443 Risk Mitigation -179.41% N/A -214.69%

Volatility and Risk

ServiceNow has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Data443 Risk Mitigation has a beta of -4.77, meaning that its share price is 577% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ServiceNow beats Data443 Risk Mitigation on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ServiceNow

(Get Rating)

ServiceNow, Inc. engages in the provision of enterprise cloud computing solutions. The firm delivers digital workflows on a single enterprise cloud platform called the Now Platform. Its product portfolio is focused on providing Information Technology, Employee and Customer workflows. The company was founded by Frederic B. Luddy in June 2004 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.

About Data443 Risk Mitigation

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Data443 Risk Mitigation, Inc. engages in the data security and privacy management business in the United States. The company offers Data443 Ransomware Recovery Manager to recover a workstation immediately upon infection to the last known business-operable state; Data Identification Manager, a data classification and governance technology that performs sophisticated data discovery and content search of structured and unstructured data; Data Archive Manager, which provides enterprise data retention management, archiving, and management solution; and Sensitive Content Manager, a cloud-based platform for the management, protection, and distribution of digital content to the desktop and mobile devices. It also provides Data Placement Manager, a data transport, transformation, and delivery product; Access Control Manager that enables access controls across myriad platforms at scale for internal client systems and commercial public cloud platforms; Data Identification Manager that protects blockchain transactions from inadvertent disclosure and data leaks; and Data443 Global Privacy Manager, a privacy compliance and consumer loss mitigation platform. In addition, the company offers IntellyWP, a purveyor of user experience enhancement products for webmasters; Data443 Chat History Scanner, which scans chat messages for compliance, security, PII, PI, PCI, and custom keywords; and GDPR Framework, CCPA Framework, and LGPD Framework WordPress Plugins that enables organizations comply with European, California, and Brazilian privacy rules and regulations. It serves clients in industries, including financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, technology, and telecommunications. The company was formerly known as LandStar, Inc. and changed its name to Data443 Risk Mitigation, Inc. in October 2017. Data443 Risk Mitigation, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina.

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Four Seasons Education (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:FEDU  Get Rating) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,100 shares, a decline of 8.7% from the March 31st total of 2,300 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.8 days.

Four Seasons Education (Cayman) Stock Performance

FEDU remained flat at $10.80 on Wednesday. 82 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,716. Four Seasons Education has a 12-month low of $5.70 and a 12-month high of $18.88. The companys fifty day simple moving average is $9.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $8.42.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Four Seasons Education (Cayman)

A hedge fund recently bought a new stake in Four Seasons Education (Cayman) stock. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Four Seasons Education (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:FEDU  Get Rating) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 41,024 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $27,000. Virtu Financial LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Four Seasons Education (Cayman) at the end of the most recent quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 5.19% of the companys stock.

Four Seasons Education (Cayman) Company Profile

Four Seasons Education (Cayman), Inc is an after-school education service provider for students in Shanghai. It unlocks students intellectual potential through education that can benefit students academic, career and life prospects. The firm provides educational programs that are primarily focused on elementary-level math, and have expanded in recent years to also include other subjects, including physics, chemistry, and languages, and other grade levels, including kindergarten-level and middle school-level programs.

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Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF  Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,050,000 shares, an increase of 7.6% from the March 31st total of 975,500 shares. Approximately 2.2% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 504,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.1 days.

Griffon Trading Up 3.7 %

NYSE:GFF traded up $1.04 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $29.45. The companys stock had a trading volume of 217,686 shares, compared to its average volume of 515,145. The companys fifty day simple moving average is $31.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.86, a current ratio of 3.03 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Griffon has a twelve month low of $22.55 and a twelve month high of $43.74. The stock has a market cap of $1.68 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.64 and a beta of 1.55.

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Griffon (NYSE:GFF  Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 3rd. The conglomerate reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $710.98 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $723.23 million. Griffon had a positive return on equity of 35.32% and a negative net margin of 5.58%. The firms quarterly revenue was down 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.37 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Griffon will post 3.52 EPS for the current year.

Griffon Cuts Dividend

Analysts Set New Price Targets

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 25th will be paid a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Griffons dividend payout ratio is currently -243.16%.

Several research firms have issued reports on GFF. TheStreet cut Griffon from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 15th. StockNews.com upgraded Griffon from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Griffon

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GFF. ARS Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in Griffon by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. ARS Investment Partners LLC now owns 7,840 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $281,000 after acquiring an additional 651 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in Griffon by 7.2% during the third quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 142,600 shares of the conglomerates stock valued at $4,210,000 after buying an additional 9,600 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in Griffon during the third quarter valued at $667,000. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. acquired a new position in Griffon during the third quarter valued at $87,000. Finally, Parian Global Management LP acquired a new position in Griffon in the 3rd quarter worth about $620,000. 74.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Griffon Company Profile

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Griffon Corp. is a diversified management and holding company, which conducts business through its subsidiaries. It provides direction and assistance to its subsidiaries in connection with acquisition and growth opportunities. It operates through the Consumer and Professional Products and Home and Building Products segments.

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Local Bounti (NYSE:LOCL  Get Rating) is one of 34 publicly-traded companies in the Agricultural production  crops industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Local Bounti to related businesses based on the strength of its risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

65.3% of Local Bounti shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.4% of shares of all Agricultural production  crops companies are held by institutional investors. 36.3% of Local Bounti shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.2% of shares of all Agricultural production  crops companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

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Risk & Volatility

Local Bounti has a beta of 1.71, indicating that its share price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Local Bountis peers have a beta of -23.30, indicating that their average share price is 2,430% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio Local Bounti $19.47 million -$111.07 million -0.41 Local Bounti Competitors $1.63 billion $21.77 million 0.65

This table compares Local Bounti and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Local Bountis peers have higher revenue and earnings than Local Bounti. Local Bounti is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Local Bounti and its peers net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Local Bounti -570.35% -95.94% -47.68% Local Bounti Competitors -339.13% -25.58% -15.99%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Local Bounti and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Local Bounti 0 1 4 0 2.80 Local Bounti Competitors 103 172 491 23 2.55

Local Bounti presently has a consensus price target of $2.85, suggesting a potential upside of 448.71%. As a group, Agricultural production  crops companies have a potential upside of 57.27%. Given Local Bountis stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Local Bounti is more favorable than its peers.

Summary

Local Bounti peers beat Local Bounti on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

About Local Bounti

(Get Rating)

Local Bounti Corporation grows fresh greens and herbs in the United States. It produces lettuce, herbs, and loose-leaf lettuce. The company sells its products to food retailers and food service distributors. Local Bounti Corporation was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Montana.

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John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund (NYSE:HTD  Get Rating) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, May 1st, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.138 per share on Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 10th.

John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund Stock Up 0.5 %

HTD traded up $0.11 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $21.02. The companys stock had a trading volume of 18,967 shares, compared to its average volume of 56,623. John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund has a 52 week low of $19.77 and a 52 week high of $26.05. The companys 50-day moving average is $21.70 and its 200-day moving average is $22.63.

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Institutional Trading of John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of HTD. Captrust Financial Advisors bought a new stake in shares of John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund during the second quarter worth about $86,000. Neuberger Berman Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund during the 3rd quarter valued at $208,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund by 11.5% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,851 shares of the companys stock worth $249,000 after purchasing an additional 1,120 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund in the 1st quarter valued at about $271,000. Finally, SMH Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. SMH Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 13,561 shares of the companys stock worth $310,000 after acquiring an additional 1,069 shares during the last quarter.

About John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund

John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund is a closed ended equity mutual fund launched and managed by John Hancock Investment Management LLC. It is co-managed by John Hancock Asset Management and Analytic Investors, LLC. The fund invests in the public equity markets of the United States. It seeks to invest in stocks of companies operating across diversified sectors, with an emphasis on the utilities sector.

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Rainbow Rare Earths Limited (LON:RBW  Get Rating)s share price traded up 3.1% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as GBX 8.50 ($0.11) and last traded at GBX 8.25 ($0.10). 1,788,858 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 69% from the average session volume of 1,056,359 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 8 ($0.10).

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Berenberg Bank restated a buy rating and issued a GBX 10 ($0.12) price target on shares of Rainbow Rare Earths in a report on Monday, March 20th.

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Rainbow Rare Earths Trading Down 3.2 %

The company has a market capitalization of 41.59 million, a P/E ratio of -910.00 and a beta of 1.67. The business has a fifty day moving average price of GBX 9.39 and a 200 day moving average price of GBX 10.20. The company has a quick ratio of 3.79, a current ratio of 3.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.53.

Rainbow Rare Earths Company Profile

Rainbow Rare Earths Limited engages in the mining and exploration of rare earth minerals. It explores for neodymium, dysprosium, terbium, and praseodymium deposits. The company primarily holds a 90% interest in the Gakara project covering an area of approximately 135 square kilometers located in Western Burundi.

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Sanford Advisory Services LLC lessened its stake in shares of iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:IVV  Get Rating) by 7.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 76,657 shares of the companys stock after selling 6,343 shares during the quarter. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF comprises approximately 7.0% of Sanford Advisory Services LLCs holdings, making the stock its 4th largest position. Sanford Advisory Services LLCs holdings in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF were worth $29,454,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 11.3% during the 4th quarter. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. now owns 5,419 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,082,000 after purchasing an additional 552 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund lifted its position in shares of iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 181.1% in the 4th quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund now owns 95,225 shares of the companys stock worth $36,586,000 after acquiring an additional 61,352 shares during the period. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of iShares Core S&P 500 ETF in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,637,000. Highland Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC now owns 90,991 shares of the companys stock worth $34,960,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares during the period. Finally, Insight 2811 Inc. raised its holdings in shares of iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 29.0% in the 4th quarter. Insight 2811 Inc. now owns 2,280 shares of the companys stock worth $876,000 after buying an additional 513 shares in the last quarter.

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iShares Core S&P 500 ETF Price Performance

Shares of IVV traded down $0.17 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $412.52. The company had a trading volume of 870,773 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,189,691. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has a twelve month low of $349.53 and a twelve month high of $434.03. The companys 50-day moving average is $404.74 and its 200-day moving average is $398.34. The company has a market capitalization of $307.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.43 and a beta of 1.00.

iShares Core S&P 500 ETF Company Profile

iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Standard & Poors 500 Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of the large-capitalization sector of the United States equity market.

Further Reading

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Teranga Gold Co. (TSE:TGZ  Get Rating)s stock price fell 0.2% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as C$12.08 and last traded at C$12.33. 960,887 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 57% from the average session volume of 613,685 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$12.36.

Teranga Gold Trading Down 0.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 37.77, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The company has a market cap of C$2.07 billion and a PE ratio of 122.08. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of C$12.33.

Teranga Gold Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Teranga Gold Corporation engages in the exploration, development, production, and sale of gold in West Africa. The company's flagship project is the Sabodala gold mine covering an area of 291 square kilometers mine license and 629 square kilometers exploration land package located in the Republic of Senegal.

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Three imprisoned Iranian women journalists - whose reporting helped spark the revolution surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody - are the recipients of an award that celebrates press freedom, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced on Tuesday.

Niloofar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohammadi and Narges Mohammadi have been named as the laureates of the 2023 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize at a time when women journalists are increasingly under threat.

"Now more than ever, it is important to pay tribute to all women journalists who are prevented from doing their jobs and who face threats and attacks on their personal safety. Today we are honouring their commitment to truth and accountability," said Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO Director-General.

Paying a hefty price

The three journalists were selected following the recommendation of an international jury of media professionals.

"We are committed to honoring the brave work of Iranian female journalists whose reporting led to a historical women-led revolution," said Zainab Salbi, the jury Chair.

"They paid a hefty price for their commitment to report on and convey the truth. And for that, we are committed to honoring them and ensuring their voices will continue to echo worldwide until they are safe and free."

Niloofar Hamedi writes for the leading reformist daily newspaper Shargh. She broke the news of the death of Mahsa Amini, the young woman who died in detention on 16 September 2022, three days after being arrested by Iran's morality police for allegedly failing to properly cover her hair.

She has since been held in solitary confinement in notorious Evin Prison, located in the capital, Tehran, since last September.

Elaheh Mohammadi covers social issues and gender equality for the reformist newspaper, Ham-Mihan. She reported on Ms. Amini's funeral and has also been detained in Evin Prison since September 2022. She had previously been barred from reporting for a year in 2020 due to her work.

Ms. Hamedi and Ms. Mohammadi are joint winners of both the 2023 International Press Freedom Award by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), and the 2023 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism, presented by Harvard University in the United States. They were also named as two of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2023.

Narges Mohammadi has worked for many years as a journalist for a range of newspapers and is also an author and Vice-Director of the Tehran-based civil society organization Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC). She is currently serving a 16-year sentence in Evin Prison.

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Ms. Mohammadi has continued to report in print from prison. She has also interviewed other women prisoners, and these interviews are included in her book White Torture. Last year she won the Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) Courage Prize.

Ensuring press freedom

UNESCO has a mandate to ensure freedom of expression and the safety of journalists around the world.

Globally, women journalists and media workers face increasing attacks, whether in real life or online, including stigmatization, sexist hate speech, trolling, physical assault, rape and even murder.

The agency advocates for their safety and collaborates with partners to identify and implement good practices and share recommendations aimed at countering these attacks.

About the award

The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize was established in 1997.

It is presented annually to a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to press freedom, and especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.

The award is named in honour of Colombian journalist Guillermo Cano Isaza, who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogota, on 17 December 1986.

Previous laureates include Maria Ressa of the Philippines, joint winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize alongside fellow journalist Dmitry Muratov of Russia.
Texas Permanent School Fund boosted its stake in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH  Get Rating) by 0.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 132,753 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock after acquiring an additional 402 shares during the period. UnitedHealth Group accounts for approximately 1.1% of Texas Permanent School Funds holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Texas Permanent School Funds holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $70,383,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in UNH. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in UnitedHealth Group by 1.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 82,969,869 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock valued at $41,903,103,000 after buying an additional 851,994 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 7,276,059 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock worth $3,674,701,000 after purchasing an additional 367,153 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,147,368 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock worth $2,625,004,000 after purchasing an additional 132,461 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 28.3% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,752,598 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock worth $2,400,252,000 after purchasing an additional 1,047,892 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Credit Suisse AG raised its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Credit Suisse AG now owns 2,731,683 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock worth $1,379,610,000 after purchasing an additional 68,160 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.31% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

UNH has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $617.00 to $627.00 in a report on Monday, April 17th. Raymond James restated a strong-buy rating and set a $630.00 price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Friday, April 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and set a $592.00 price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Monday, April 17th. StockNews.com upgraded UnitedHealth Group from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Monday, April 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an outperform rating and set a $610.00 price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Monday, April 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Buy and an average target price of $600.88.

Insider Transactions at UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group Stock Down 0.3 %

In other news, CEO Andrew Witty sold 6,160 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.49, for a total value of $3,002,938.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 86,564 shares of the companys stock, valued at $42,199,084.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink . In related news, CEO Andrew Witty sold 6,160 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.49, for a total transaction of $3,002,938.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 86,564 shares in the company, valued at $42,199,084.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link . Also, EVP Erin Mcsweeney sold 1,008 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $484.58, for a total value of $488,456.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 10,359 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,019,764.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Insiders have sold 8,852 shares of company stock valued at $4,313,962 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.40% of the companys stock.

UnitedHealth Group stock traded down $1.60 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $491.79. The companys stock had a trading volume of 278,019 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,502,941. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 52-week low of $449.70 and a 52-week high of $558.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $458.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.56, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The stocks 50-day simple moving average is $486.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $505.49.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH  Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 14th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.24 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $91.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.77 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 27.05% and a net margin of 6.16%. UnitedHealth Groups revenue for the quarter was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.49 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 24.98 EPS for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 13th were paid a $1.65 dividend. This represents a $6.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 10th. UnitedHealth Groups dividend payout ratio is presently 30.18%.

UnitedHealth Group Profile

(Get Rating)

UnitedHealth Group, Inc engages in the provision of health care coverage, software, and data consultancy services. It operates through the following segments: UnitedHealthcare, OptumHealth, OptumInsight, and OptumRx. The UnitedHealthcare segment utilizes Optums capabilities to help coordinate patient care, improve affordability of medical care, analyze cost trends, manage pharmacy benefits, work with care providers more effectively, and create a simpler consumer experience.

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Thomson Reuters Co. (TSE:TRI  Get Rating) (NYSE:TRI) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 2nd, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.49 per share on Thursday, June 15th. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th.

Thomson Reuters Stock Down 3.2 %

Shares of TSE:TRI traded down C$5.70 during trading on Wednesday, hitting C$172.42. 96,349 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 326,165. The stock has a market capitalization of C$81.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.79, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 42.04, a current ratio of 0.57 and a quick ratio of 0.52. Thomson Reuters has a 12-month low of C$119.23 and a 12-month high of C$180.93. The firms 50 day moving average price is C$172.43 and its 200-day moving average price is C$160.33.

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Thomson Reuters (TSE:TRI  Get Rating) (NYSE:TRI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 9th. The company reported C$0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$0.86 by C$0.13. The business had revenue of C$2.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$2.36 billion. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 20.19% and a return on equity of 10.82%. On average, research analysts predict that Thomson Reuters will post 4.5787715 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Thomson Reuters Company Profile

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. TD Securities downgraded shares of Thomson Reuters from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a C$175.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 16th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Thomson Reuters from C$165.00 to C$161.00 in a research report on Friday, February 10th. National Bank Financial cut shares of Thomson Reuters from an outperfrom under weight rating to a sector perform under weight rating in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Finally, National Bankshares cut shares of Thomson Reuters from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and set a C$170.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, February 28th.

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Thomson Reuters Corporation provides business information services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in five segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates, Tax & Accounting Professionals, Reuters News, and Global Print. The Legal Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on legal research and integrated legal workflow solutions that combine content, tools, and analytics to law firms and governments.

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Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Rating) by 15.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,261,692 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after acquiring an additional 172,210 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank owned 0.06% of Bristol-Myers Squibb worth $90,725,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dakota Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb during the 1st quarter worth approximately $332,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 111.5% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,052 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $150,000 after buying an additional 1,082 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 53.2% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 165,336 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $12,075,000 after buying an additional 57,444 shares in the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC bought a new position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,997,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 25.1% during the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 338,563 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $24,725,000 after buying an additional 68,018 shares in the last quarter. 75.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Ann Powell sold 11,183 shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $835,258.27. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,043 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,721,081.67. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Bristol-Myers Squibb news, CEO Giovanni Caforio sold 240,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.65, for a total value of $17,916,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 236,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,625,163.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Ann Powell sold 11,183 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $835,258.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,043 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,721,081.67. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb stock opened at $68.10 on Wednesday. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a 1 year low of $65.28 and a 1 year high of $81.43. The firm has a market cap of $143.23 billion, a PE ratio of 19.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $68.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $72.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.07. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a return on equity of 51.63% and a net margin of 15.95%. The firm had revenue of $11.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.50 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.96 EPS. The businesss revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 8.06 EPS for the current year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 10th were issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.35%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 6th. Bristol-Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 66.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on BMY shares. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a report on Tuesday, January 17th. They issued an overweight rating and a $95.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com started coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a strong-buy rating on the stock. Atlantic Securities increased their target price on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd. 51job reiterated a maintains rating on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a report on Friday, April 28th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group cut their target price on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $78.00 to $72.00 in a report on Friday, April 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $79.43.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Profile

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Bristol Myers Squibb Co engages in the discovery, development, licensing, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of biopharmaceutical products. It offers chemically-synthesized drugs or small molecules and products produced from biological processes called biologics. The company was founded in August 1933 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

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"All shops and business premises along Rumuola to Rumuokwuta Roads in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state shall remain closed from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., on Wednesday."

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has declared Wednesday a public holiday while urging the people to turn out en masse to receive the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, who is on a two-day visit to the oil-rich state.

Governor Wike disclosed this in a state-wide broadcast which lasted for 167 seconds. A clip of the broadcast is posted on Facebook.

Mr Wike in the broadcast described Mr Tinubu's visit to the state as both historic and an honour to the state.

While in the state, the president-elect will commission projects including a court building and a flyover -- the 12th constructed by Mr Wike's administration since he became governor in 2015.

"It is an honour to the government and people of Rivers State to host the President-elect on this historic visit. Consequently, I will urge all Rivers citizens to come out en mass to receive our President-Elect and display the traditional Rivers hospitality as he commissions these legacy projects to God's glory and the advancement of our development.

"I hereby declare Wednesday, 3 May a public holiday to enable the people of Rivers State to receive our President-elect in rousing welcome. All shops and business premises along Rumuola to Rumuokwuta Roads in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state shall remain closed from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., on Wednesday.

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"I urge all labour unions and security agencies to comply with the closure order," Mr Wike said.

Mr Wike said during Mr Tinubu's presidential campaign visit to the state, he indicated his intention to have him (Mr Tinubu), then-presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), commission some strategic projects in the state after the general elections.

Governor Wike, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led a group of PDP governors to rebel against his party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar on the grounds that he (Wike) and others were in support of a power shift to the south. They argued that since outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari is from the north, his successor should come from the south.

Mr Tinubu, the APC candidate, was on 1 March declared the winner of the 25 February presidential election.

According to the result announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Mr Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State emerged winner of the election and also won in Rivers, a traditional PDP state for the first time since 1999.
Zanzibar  ZANZIBAR has for the first time joined the world to mark the 'Medical Laboratory Professionals Week' with President Hussein Mwinyi promising to improve labs for reliable tests and studies in the country.

Dr Mwinyi made the remarks in a speech read on his behalf by the Second Vice-President of Zanzibar Mr Hemed Suleiman Abdulla when he officiated at the 'World Lab Week forum' held at Sheikh Idriss Abdulwakil Hall, Kikwajuni area.

He said his government and that of the United Republic of Tanzania have been increasing allocation of funds to improve and modernise labs in hospital and health centres by providing modern machinery and equipment, which has helped reduce the need to send specimens to be examined abroad.

Medical Laboratory Professionals Week (April 23rd to 29th) is an annual celebration to highlight and show appreciation for laboratory professionals and also to recognise clinical and public health laboratory professionals for their contributions to health and research. The theme for Lab Week 2023 is 'The Future is Lab.'

Dr Mwinyi said in his speech that his government has established a mechanism to engage private institutions and companies in the provision of health laboratory services in hospitals with the aim of increasing the availability of laboratory services and reducing operating costs.

He also noted that by establishing 'Zanzibar Laboratory Week,' they would enable Zanzibar to organise forums that will bring together laboratory experts at home and from abroad which will provide an opportunity to share experience and expertise in conducting tests.

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On the issue of employing labs professionals, Dr Mwinyi said the government would continue to employ the experts in accordance with the needs. He explained that existing and new hospitals being constructed need to be equipped with skilled labour and modern facilities to provide better services to the people.

In addition, Dr Mwinyi said the government has developed a plan to improve laboratory services for livestock and fishing, so that safe meat, milk and fish are provided for human health.

For his part, the Minister for Health Mr Nassor Ahmed Mazrui said the labs are important because they make significant contribution to promoting social welfare by ensuring the health and safety of citizens.

Zanzibar Association of Medical Laboratory Science Officers (ZAMELSO) Chairperson Mr Hamad Bakar Magarawa said Zanzibar has for the first time joined other countries in celebrating the week, where it would help promote the country's labs profession.

Before reading the speech, the Second Vice-President visited the exhibition tents where students explained how laboratories work as he witnessed various efforts made by the experts and students commending them for good work.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said Bhogapuram International Airport would change the face of north Andhra ushering rapid development in tourism, medical tourism, IT sector and infrastructure. (Photo: By Arrangement)

Visakhapatnam: Exuding confidence that he is getting a second term, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Wednesday that he would inaugurate the Bhogapuram Green field International Airport in 2026.

"I laid the foundation stone for the airport, a historic step for north Andhra development, and by Gods grace and with your blessings I will inaugurate this airport, Jagan Mohan Reddy said addressing a public meeting in Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram district after laying the foundation on Wednesday morning.

Calling the airport crown of north Andhra, the chief minister said he set the ball rolling for the major development of north Andhra with the airport playing central role in the development for Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam district.

The airport is located about 45km northeast of Visakhapatnam and GMR group is developing the airport with an estimated cost of 4,592 crore and this will be the groups 12th airport. The airport will be developed in PPP mode for which a MoU was signed between AP Airports Development Corporation and GMR Group.

Stating that the rain gods have blessed him on the occasion with a drizzle to mark the occasion, the chief minister said Bhogapuram International Airport would change the face of north Andhra ushering rapid development in tourism, medical tourism, IT sector and infrastructure.

"Within one month, we laid stones for the Mulapeta seaport in Srikakulam, the Bhogapuram and the Adani Data Centre and I am sure north Andhra will become a job hub in the ensuing years, Jagan Mohan Reddy said.

He said people will stop migrating to other states rather unemployed youngsters from other states would arrive in north Andhra for jobs.

He said the first phase will have seven aerobridges, two runways which is rare in India, aircraft maintenance wing, plant quarantine centre, aviation academy, cargo terminal. In the first phase, the airport will handle 60 lakh passengers and after completion of the third and final phase, the turnover is expected to reach four crore passengers. The airport will be developed with cutting edge technology facilitating landing of bigger aircrafts like double decker A380 and A320.

"This world class facility will increase the connectivity of north Andhra with various parts of the world giving impetus to growth of industries and service sector in the region, Jagan Mohah Reddy said.

Jagan Reddy said he would also lay the foundation this June for the six-lane road between Visakhapatnam and Bhogapuram, costing 6,500 crore. "I held talks with the Union road transport minister, Nitin Gadkari, recently," he said.

He said the airport would create five lakh jobs directly and indirectly after completion of all the phases.

Blaming the opposition for creating hurdles to this project, the chief minister said the government overcame legal cases in NGT, high court and Supreme Court and finally laid the foundation stone.

The chief minister also laid the stone for the pending works of Tarakarama Thirtha Sagaram which would cost 194 crore and supply five million litres of water to Bhogapuram airport, and drinking water to 49 villages as also irrigate 30,000 acres.

Jagan Reddy laid another stone for the fish-landing centre at Chintapalli village in Vizianagaram district to be built at a cost of 23.73 crore.

GMR group chairman Mallikarjuna Rao said it gave him immense satisfaction to build an airport in his home district of Vizianagaram. Nellimarla MLA Bandikonda Appala Naidu requested the chief minister to name the airport after YSR Rajasekhara Reddy.
Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting ahead of the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections, in Mudbidri, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. (Photo: PTI)

MANGALURU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a rally in Mulki, expressed the Bharatiya Janata Party's resolve to make Karnataka the number one state in every field of development. He accused the Congress of wanting to make the state an ATM for the royal family (Shahi Parivar) in Delhi.

"We want to make Karnataka No. 1 in every field of development. The Congress party, on the other hand, wants the state to be the number one ATM for the 'Shahi Parivar' in Delhi, taking an 85% commission in every project," he said.

"BJP is committed to making Karnataka the top state in every field. We want the state to be number 1 in modern infrastructure, manufacturing, and all fields. This is our roadmap for the future," he said.

"In contrast, the Congress party is seeking votes because one of its leaders is retiring and is trying to undo the pro-people programs, initiatives, and decisions made by the BJP government for the welfare of the people," he added.

Modi said that during his election campaign in the last 3-4 days, he has seen peoples support in Karnataka and heard the slogan- E Bariya nirdhara- Bahumatada BJP sarakara. (The decision this time is to bring the BJP government with complete majority).

Without mentioning the Congress manifesto or the proposed ban on Bajrang Dal, Narendra Modi started and ended his speech with Jai Bajrangbali, along with Bharat Mata Ki Jai.

Modi was delighted when the audience declared that they didn't require a translator for his Hindi speech. "Your love and blessings mean a lot to us. You are our remote controls, and I will heed your direction," Modi said before continuing his speech in Hindi.

Modi also warned the people of Karnataka about the Congress party's appeasement politics and using the divide-and-rule principle. He urged the first-time voters in the state to think about their future and the future of Karnataka when casting their votes.

"I want to tell them an important thing to the youth (Bete betiya) who are going to vote for the first time. If you aspire to build a successful career and seek opportunities, then Congress is not the solution. He added that if there is instability in the state, their future is also uncertain. Calling Congress an adversary of peace and development, he stated that investors flee when Congress is in power."

The Prime Minister accused the Congress party of being corrupt, stating, "Congress is the enemy of peace and development. When Congress is in power, investors run away. Congress tries to protect those arrested in terror cases. If they are protected, will there be peace?"

Modi also repeatedly referred to Congress as the "Reverse Gear Congress" for withdrawing cases and protecting those involved in terror activities.

Modi concluded his speech by outlining the various schemes and programs initiated by the BJP for the welfare of women, fishermen, youth, and the poor.
Bajrang Dal workers protest against Congress' manifesto for Karnataka elections, in Bengaluru, Wednesday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: While the Congress manifesto promise to ban the Bajrang Dal if it came to power in Karnataka has raised many eyebrows within the organisation, the party believes that the move will "not damage" its electoral prospects.

The Congress assurance in its manifesto released Tuesday was aimed to stem the split of Muslim votes among the "secular" forces in the state. The partys spin doctors believe that the 13 per cent Muslim vote may have split between the JD(S) and the Congress.

The Congress also feels that the promise to ban the Bajrang Dal will attract a major chunk of civil society and young voters in the state. Besides proposing to ban the Bajrang Dal, the Congress also promised to restore the four per cent Muslim quota scrapped by the BJP government.

Regardless of the partys confidence, however, a section in the Congress believes the move has the "potential to work as a double-edged sword". While it may consolidate the Muslim votebank, it could also alienate the majority community from the party.

After the Congress poll promise to act against the Bajrang Dal, the BJP and other Sangh Parivar units have swung into action to put the Congress on the mat over the issue. For the saffron outfits, "dharma is in danger". After Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of trying to "lock up" worshippers of Hanuman, state chief minister Basavaraj Bommai warned: "If the devotees of Lord Hanuman rise, the Congress will be wiped out from the nation." He claimed that the Bajrang Dal "upholds the countrys heritage, culture, history and religion". The BJP described the Congress poll plank as a "PFI manifesto". The Bajrang Dal has decided to conduct "Hanuman Chalisa" recital programmes across Karnataka on Thursday.

It may be recalled that the Congress manifesto stated: "We believe that the Constitution is sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and organisations like the Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among the majority or minority communities."

Speaking to this newspaper, a Congress functionary from Karnataka felt that the poll assurance to ban the Bajrang Dal, which was being viewed as a "regressive force", would attract first-time voters among liberal-minded youth in the state. It was argued that the Bajrang Dals activities had "disturbed" the cosmopolitan nature of Karnataka. The Congress poll manifesto has sent a clear signal that the party was going to "fight the terror unleashed by the Bajrang Dal".

The Congress is, however, well aware that the planned move against the Bajrang Dal could hurt the party to an extent in coastal Karnataka. Incidentally, coastal Karnataka has been a BJP bastion. The region is often called the "Hindutva lab" of Karnataka, a Congress leader said. Of the 19 Assembly seats in three coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada, the BJP had won 16 seats, leaving only three for the Congress, in the last Assembly elections. The Congress spin doctors felt while coastal Karnataka could remain a BJP bastion, the party was going to record "major gains" in north and central Karnataka.
Indian airline Go First, which filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, owes financial creditors Rs 6,521 crore ($798 million), its bankruptcy filing showed.

As of April 30, Go First Air had not defaulted on any of these dues, it said in the filing, which was seen by Reuters.

"However, considering the present financial situation of the corporate applicant, defaults to financial creditors would be imminent," the filing said.

Lenders were not aware of the airline's plans to file for voluntary insolvency and will meet soon to take stock of the situation, said two people familiar with the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not allowed to speak to the media.

Also Read | Aviation regulator DGCA issues show cause notice to Go First

The filing lists Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Axis Bank and Deutsche Bank among Go First's financial creditors.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment. Emails sent to the other banks were not immediately answered.

The airline's total liabilities to all creditors stand at Rs 1,14,63 crore, the filing shows. This includes dues to banks, financial institutions, vendors and aircraft lessors.

"Currently, the assets of the company are not sufficient to meet its liabilities," the airline said in the filing.

The company has defaulted on payments to operational creditors, including Rs 1,202 crore to vendors and Rs 2,660 crore to aircraft lessors.

It has received notices from lessors for termination of aircraft lease agreements and some have started actions against the company to ground or repossess aircraft, the filing said.

Six lessors have also invoked letters of credit issued to them by lenders, it said.
Twitter chief Elon Musk has "threatened" to reassign National Public Radio's Twitter account to another company, the US-based broadcaster said on Tuesday.

Musk suggested that he would reassign the network's main account, under the @NPR handle, to another organization or person, NPR said.

NPR stopped posting content to its 52 official Twitter feeds last month in protest against a Twitter designation that implied government involvement in its editorial content.

Musk, in an email to an NPR reporter, asked about its engagement with Twitter, the public broadcaster said.

Also Read | Twitter-like Bluesky is becoming popular among users

"So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?" NPR quoted Musk as saying.

"Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant," he said in another email. "Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR."

NPR and Twitter did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.

According to Twitter's policy, users should log in to their account at least once every 30 days to avoid permanent removal due to prolonged inactivity.

PBS and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation followed NPR and stopped posting on Twitter following similar labeling.

Twitter later dropped the labels but the outlets that were targeted have not resumed activity, their profiles showed on Tuesday.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has spoken to a 103-year-old voter in Karnataka's Belagavi district over the phone to thank him for exercising his franchise using the home voting facility, officials said.

Mahadeva Mahalinga Mali recently cast his vote from home at Chikkodi in Belagavi for the Karnataka assembly elections.

Voting for the assembly polls in Karnataka will be held on May 10. Home voting takes place before the actual election date in full secrecy in presence of poll officials and representatives of political parties.

Following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Election Commission has allowed home voting facility to voters who are 80 years and above, and those suffering from the infection or are under quarantine.

Also Read | 'Is it wrong to act against those spreading hate?,' Congress spokersperson on Bajrang Dal ban promise

CEC Kumar telephoned the centenarian voter on Tuesday to thank him for voting in the state polls.

According to the officials, Kumar told Mahadeva that elderly voters like him are an inspiration for young and urban voters to participate in the festival of democracy.

Mahadeva, they said, thanked the CEC for the facility of voting from home.

He also recalled that in the previous elections, he had gone to the polling station in a wheelchair to cast his vote.

Earlier, during the Himachal Pradesh elections last year, the CEC had visited Kalpa and Kinnaur to pay his condolences to the family of Shyam Saran Negi, independent India's first voter who had participated in each and every election and also voted in the state polls using the home voting facility before his demise.
Mohammed Azhar holds his baby niece next to a storm drain full of plastic and stinking black sludge, testament to India's failure to treat nearly two-thirds of its urban sewage.

"We stay inside our homes. We fall sick if we go out," the 21-year-old told AFP in the Delhi neighbourhood of Seelampur, where open gutters packed with plastic and sickly greyish water flow alongside the narrow lanes.

"It stinks. It attracts mosquitoes. We catch diseases and the kids keep falling sick," he added. "There is no one to clean the filth."

India at the end of April was projected to have overtaken China as the world's most populous country, according to the United Nations, with almost 1.43 billion people.

Its urban population is predicted to explode in the coming decades, with over 270 million more people forecast to live in its cities by 2040.

Also Read | Unchecked garbage dumping, polluted water leave residents in distress in northeast Bengaluru

But of the 72 billion litres of sewage currently generated in urban centres every day, 45 billion litresenough to fill 18,000 Olympic-sized swimming poolsaren't treated, according to government figures for 2020-21.

India's sewerage system does not connect to about two-thirds of its urban homes, according to the National Faecal Sludge and Septage Management Alliance (NFSSM).

Many of the sewage treatment plants in operation don't comply with standardsincluding 26 out of Delhi's 35 facilities, according to media reports.

Coupled with huge volumes of industrial effluent, the sewage is causing disease, polluting India's waterways, killing wildlife and seeping into groundwater.

Although India has made major progress in reducing child mortality, diarrhoeacaused mostly by contaminated water and foodremains a leading killer.

More than 55,000 children under five died of diarrhoea across India in 2019, according to a study published last year in the scientific journal BMC Public Health.

The Yamuna in Delhi is one of the world's filthiest rivers and is considered ecologically dead in places, although people still wash clothes and take ritual baths in it.

It often billows with white foam, and facilities processing drinking water from the river for Delhi's 20 million people regularly shut down because of dangerous ammonia levels.

Despite some bright spots, as well as efforts to plant more trees alongside rivers, the situation elsewhere is often no better in big cities including Mumbai and Chennai.

In Bengaluru, massive Bellandur Lake has on occasion caught fire when methane, generated by bacteria feasting on sewage in the oxygen-depleted water, ignited.

Mridula Ramesh, author of a book about India's water woes who lives in a "nearly" net-zero-waste home, said properly treating sewage into useable water would help solve the crisis.

According to the World Bank, India is one of the most "water-stressed" countries in the world, with plummeting water tables and increasingly erratic monsoon rains.

Chennai nearly ran out of water briefly in 2019, and other cities may see similar calamities in the coming years due to excessive groundwater pumping and rainfall volatility.

Also Read | '1,200 metric tonnes of garbage removed from Yamuna,' says V K Saxena

"India is headed for a water crisis. Sewage can so easily be co-opted to fight that and help us to a very large extent solve the problem in our cities," Ramesh told AFP.

This could be achieved with decentralised treatment plants partially funded by the private sector or non-governmental organisations, with some of the fully treated sewage reused or released into local lakes.

"India's water is so seasonal. Many cities in India get 50 rain days... but sewage is available every day because you go to the bathroom every day... It's such a powerful weapon," she said.

For Khalil Ahmad, standing by the revolting open drain in Seelampur as flies buzz around, a solution can't come soon enough.

"Children keep falling sick... If they don't get treatment and medicine, the children will die," he told AFP.
Assam Rifles will enhance vigilance along the 510-km stretch of the India-Myanmar border in Mizoram in a bid to prevent the influx of illegal immigrants from the neighbouring country, officials said.

They also expressed concern over "rising number of crime incidents, including murder cases", after Myanmarese people started taking shelter in the northeastern state following a military coup in the neighbouring country.

"We will cease most of the crossings along the Indo-Myanmar border to prevent illegal influx which is hampering the law and order situation in Mizoram," an Assam Rifles official said here on Tuesday.

Also Read: Myanmar junta pardons 2,153 prisoners jailed for dissent against military

Three Mizoram residents were killed recently in Myanmar side contiguous to south Mizoram's Siaha district and one in Serchhip by Myanmar nationals, he said.

He also alleged that several groups in Myanmar's Chin state have been "indulging in drug trafficking" to India.

"Many refugees or illegal immigrants from both Bangladesh and Myanmar have acquired fake Indian identity cards," he said.

Mizoram shares a 318-km-long border with Bangladesh and the Border Security Force (BSF) guards the international boundary with the neighbour.

Assam Rifles, the central paramilitary force, would shift its battalion headquarters from the heart of Aizawl to Zokhawsang in a phased manner after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry Home Affairs and the state government, another official said.

Zokhawsang is 15 km away from the state capital.

As of now, there is no time frame for the relocation, and the MoU is being prepared, he said.
Curfew was imposed in eight districts of Manipur and mobile internet services were suspended in the entire northeastern state over violence during a tribal agitation on Wednesday, officials said.

Violence broke out during 'Tribal Solidarity March' called by All Tribal Student Union Manipur (ATSUM) in Torbung area of Churachandpur district to protest the demand of non-tribal Meiteis, who dominate the Imphal Valley, for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Thousands of agitators took part in the rally, during which violence between tribals and non-tribals was reported in Torbung area, a senior police officer said.

Police fired several rounds of tear gas shells to control the mob, the officer said.

The situation remains tense but many agitators have started returning to their homes in different parts of the hills, he said.

Agitated youths were seen gathering at Canchipur in Imphal West district and Soibam Leikai in Imphal East in the Valley calling for retaliation but heavy police deployment has been ensured and the non-tribal agitators have been asked to return to their homes, the official said.

Also Read | Miscreants torch govt building in Manipur's Churachandpur; night curfew from April 29

In view of the situation, curfew has been imposed in non-tribal dominated Imphal West, Kakching, Thoubal, Jiribam and Bishnupur districts and tribal-dominated Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Tengnoupal districts.

Mobile internet services were suspended across the state for five days with immediate effect but broadband services were operational.

"To thwart the design and activities of anti-national and anti-social elements and to maintain peace and communal harmony and to prevent any loss of life or danger to public and private property, it had become necessary to take adequate measures to maintain law and order in public interest by stopping the spread of misinformation and false rumours through various social platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter on phone," an order issued by Commissioner (Home) H Gyan Prakash said.

"The order is being passed ex-parte in view of the emergent situation and shall be in force for the next five days with immediate effect," it said.

Separate orders declaring curfew were issued by the administrations of the eight districts.

The ATSUM had called for the march in all the 10 hill districts in the state to oppose moves for inclusion of the majority Meitei community in the ST category.

Lawmakers of the Valley have earlier openly endorsed the demand by some Meitei organisation for ST status for the majority community in Manipur, alarming communities who figure in the Scheduled Tribe list.

The Meiteis, who make up 53 per cent of the state's population, inhabit the Valley, which accounts for about a tenth of the former princely state's land area. They claim they are facing problems in view of "large scale illegal immigration by Myanmarese and Bangladeshis".

The hill districts which account for much of the state's land mass is inhabited mostly by tribals -- including the Nagas and Kukis  and are protected from encroachment by various laws.

Tribal villagers from remote areas came in buses and open trucks to nearest hill district headquarters to attend the rallies.

In Naga-dominated Senapati town, the district headquarters with the same name and located about 58 km from Imphal, the local bodies forced total shutdown of markets and suspension of public transport from 10 am to 1 pm to ensure that maximum number of demonstrators participate in the rally.

Thousands of tribals -- who make up about 40 pr cent of the state's population -- joined the processions, waved placards and raised slogans opposing ST status for the Meitei community.

Representatives of the Senapati District Students' Association also met the deputy commissioner and apprised him of their concerns.

At Churachandpur, the second-largest town in the state, people defied prohibitory orders and gathered at the public ground and took a rally till Tuibong.

Prohibitory orders were clamped for an indefinite period in the town last week following violent protests against a drive to evict villagers from reserved forest areas. Security forces were rushed to the town from other parts of Manipur to control the situation after the vandalisation of a venue where Chief Minister N Biren Singh was scheduled to address a programme.

Similar rallies were also held at Tengnoupal, Chandel, Kangpokpi, Noney and Ukhrul, where even school students were seen among participants, police said.

Meanwhile, counter-blockades were put up in the Valley districts, including at Sugnu in Kakching district, in support of granting ST status to Meiteis. Protesters shouted slogans demanding ST status for the majority community as well as for protection of reserved and protected forests.

The Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee Manipur (STDCM), which is spearheading the movement for the inclusion of Meiteis in the ST category said the demand is being made not merely for reservation in jobs, educational institutions and tax relief but "more to protect our ancestral land, culture and identity", which they claimed was being "threatened by illegal migration from Myanmar, Bangladesh and by people from outside the state".
The Delhi Police began conducting raids at more than 20 locations in the Delhi-National Capital Region on Wednesday morning, a day after gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was killed inside Tihar Jail allegedly by four rival gang members.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) M Harhsa Vardhan said the raids and searches were being conducted in Delhi and Haryana.

Also Read | Minor girl molested in Delhi mall, accused salesperson held

Police raided hideouts of gangsters and their associates, another official said. Around Rs 20 lakh cash and weapons have been seized and some people detained, he added.

The search operation is underway, police said.

Tajpuriya, an accused in the 2021 Rohini court shootout in which gangster Jitender Gogi was killed, was stabbed "92 times" with an improvised weapon in the early hours of Tuesday allegedly by four members of the Gogi gang.
analysis

It turns out that pop stars Drake and The Weeknd didn't suddenly drop a new track that went viral on TikTok and YouTube in April 2023. The photograph that won an international photography competition that same month wasn't a real photograph. And the image of Pope Francis sporting a Balenciaga jacket that appeared in March 2023? That was also a fake.

All were made with the help of generative AI, the new technology that can generate humanlike text, audio and images on demand through programs such as ChatGPT, Midjourney and Bard, among others.

There's certainly something unsettling about the ease with which people can be duped by these fakes, and I see it as a harbinger of an authenticity crisis that raises some difficult questions.

How will voters know whether a video of a political candidate saying something offensive was real or generated by AI? Will people be willing to pay artists for their work when AI can create something visually stunning? Why follow certain authors when stories in their writing style will be freely circulating on the internet?

I've been seeing the anxiety play out all around me at Stanford University, where I'm a professor and also lead a large generative AI and education initiative.

With text, image, audio and video all becoming easier for anyone to produce through new generative AI tools, I believe people are going to need to reexamine and recalibrate how authenticity is judged in the first place.

Fortunately, social science offers some guidance.

The many faces of authenticity

Long before generative AI and ChatGPT rose to the fore, people had been probing what makes something feel authentic.

When a real estate agent is gushing over a property they are trying to sell you, are they being authentic or just trying to close the deal? Is that stylish acquaintance wearing authentic designer fashion or a mass-produced knock-off? As you mature, how do you discover your authentic self?

These are not just philosophical exercises. Neuroscience research has shown that believing a piece of art is authentic will activate the brain's reward centers in ways that viewing something you've been told is a forgery won't.

Authenticity also matters because it is a social glue that reinforces trust. Take the social media misinformation crisis, in which fake news has been inadvertently spread and authentic news decreed fake.

In short, authenticity matters, for both individuals and society as a whole.

But what actually makes something feel authentic?

Psychologist George Newman has explored this question in a series of studies. He found that there are three major dimensions of authenticity.

One of those is historical authenticity, or whether an object is truly from the time, place and person someone claims it to be. An actual painting made by Rembrandt would have historical authenticity; a modern forgery would not.

A second dimension of authenticity is the kind that plays out when, say, a restaurant in Japan offers exceptional and authentic Neapolitan pizza. Their pizza was not made in Naples or imported from Italy. The chef who prepared it may not have a drop of Italian blood in their veins. But the ingredients, appearance and taste may match really well with what tourists would expect to find at a great restaurant in Naples. Newman calls that categorical authenticity.

And finally, there is the authenticity that comes from our values and beliefs. This is the kind that many voters find wanting in politicians and elected leaders who say one thing but do another. It is what admissions officers look for in college essays.

In my own research, I've also seen that authenticity can relate to our expectations about what tools and activities are involved in creating things.

For example, when you see a piece of custom furniture that claims to be handmade, you probably assume that it wasn't literally made by hand - that all sorts of modern tools were nonetheless used to cut, shape and attach each piece. Similarly, if an architect uses computer software to help draw up building plans, you still probably think of the product as legitimate and original. This is because there's a general understanding that those tools are part of what it takes to make those products.

In most of your quick judgments of authenticity, you don't think much about these dimensions. But with generative AI, you will need to.

That's because back when it took a lot of time to produce original new content, there was a general assumption that it required skill to create - that it only could have been made by skilled individuals putting in a lot of effort and acting with the best of intentions.

These are not safe assumptions anymore.

How to deal with the looming authenticity crisis

Generative AI thrives on exploiting people's reliance on categorical authenticity by producing material that looks like "the real thing."

So it'll be important to disentangle historical and categorical authenticity in your own thinking. Just because a recording sounds exactly like Drake - that is, it fits the category expectations for Drake's music - it does not mean that Drake actually recorded it. The great essay that was turned in for a college writing class assignment may not actually be from a student laboring to craft sentences for hours on a word processor.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, everyone will need to consider that it may not have actually hatched from an egg.

Also, it'll be important for everyone to get up to speed on what these new generative AI tools really can and can't do. I think this will involve ensuring that people learn about AI in schools and in the workplace, and having open conversations about how creative processes will change with AI being broadly available.

Writing papers for school in the future will not necessarily mean that students have to meticulously form each and every sentence; there are now tools that can help them think of ways to phrase their ideas. And creating an amazing picture won't require exceptional hand-eye coordination or mastery of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

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Finally, in a world where AI operates as a tool, society is going to have to consider how to establish guardrails. These could take the form of regulations, or the creation of norms within certain fields for disclosing how and when AI has been used.

Does AI get credited as a co-author on writing? Is it disallowed on certain types of documents or for certain grade levels in school? Does entering a piece of art into a competition require a signed statement that the artist did not use AI to create their submission? Or does there need to be new, separate competitions that expressly invite AI-generated work?

These questions are tricky. It may be tempting to simply deem generative AI an unacceptable aid, in the same way that calculators are forbidden in some math classes.

However, sequestering new technology risks imposing arbitrary limits on human creative potential. Would the expressive power of images be what it is now if photography had been deemed an unfair use of technology? What if Pixar films were deemed ineligible for the Academy Awards because people thought computer animation tools undermined their authenticity?

The capabilities of generative AI have surprised many and will challenge everyone to think differently. But I believe humans can use AI to expand the boundaries of what is possible and create interesting, worthwhile - and, yes, authentic - works of art, writing and design.

Victor R. Lee, Associate Professor of Learning Sciences and Technology Design in Education, Stanford University
The Union Health Ministry plans structural changes in the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation seeking to increase organ donations, whose numbers even though increased by three times in nine years but are still abysmally low for the worlds most populous nation.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday reviewed the status of organ donation and transplant programmes during which he asked the officials to pick up best practices from hospitals abroad.

The number of organ transplants has tripled across the country as it rose from about 5,000 in 2013 to more than 15,000 in 2022. But the figures are too little when compared against the need.

Also Read | Gujarat government body to get PM's award for innovative steps in organ donation sector

For instance against a requirement of one to two lakhs kidney transplants each year just about 5000 transplants take place and that too mostly in metro cities. Similarly, against a requirement of 30,000 liver transplants, Indian doctors are doing just about 1,000 plus such transplants every year, according to an official.

The main reason for such poor organ transplantation numbers is extremely low cadaver donations due to myths, misconceptions and religious beliefs surrounding organ donations though the demand for organs continues to rise due to higher incidences of lifestyle diseases.

The ministerial review comes in the backdrop of the Centre introducing special casual leaves of up to 42 days to central government employees, who donate an organ to another human being.

In February, the national organ transplantation guidelines were modified to allow even those above 65 years of age to register for transplantation. Also the states were asked to do away with domicile requirements and fees while registering a patient.

The minister has asked the officials to carry out more reforms to encourage organ donation, which is still very rare.

As a part of the reforms, the NOTTO is working on a transplant manual, which will serve as a guide for implementation of organ donation and transplantation programmes in the hospitals. A standard course for training of transplant coordinators is also being designed. Both these documents will be completed and released shortly.

The national organisation will create four separate units for coordination, information sharing and awareness, training and human resources for better implementation.

The review serendipitously coincides with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi announcing successful harvesting of heart, liver and kidney of a brain dead individual benefiting four patients.
A day after Sharad Pawar resigned from the NCP as president, senior party leader Jitendra Ahwad resigned from the post of National General Secretary.

"I have sent my resignation to NCP chief Sharad Pawar. All office bearers of Thane NCP have also resigned after Pawar Saheb's announcement," NCP leader Jitendra Awhad told news agency ANI.
Carntogher Sinn Fein Councillor Sean McPeake has spoken of the disappointing news received by the School Principal and Board Of Governors of St Brigids Primary School in Mayogall that a planned major extension and refurbishment works to the school was now being shelved due to Stormont budget cuts.

Speaking to the County Derry Post, Councillor McPeake, who himself is a member of St Brigids Board of Governors, said: St Brigids Primary School in Mayogall is a fantastic school, led by exemplary staff working within a vibrant and tight knit school community. It was first opened in 1972 with an enrolment of 150 pupils. Now, just over 50 years later the school has an intake of 250 pupils and the fabric of the school is busting at the seams. Most of the schools pupils are now housed outside the main school building in 6 mobile classrooms, corralled into a restricted area with little or no amenity play space.

The Board of Governors had for many years been lobbying for a new-build school within a new site. This preferred option has been steadfastly refused by the Department of Education. However under Department Education School Enhancement Programme (SEP) in 2020 approval was given for a significant school extension (circa 4m) within an extended site curtilidge. This proposal in itself was welcomed by the school.

In November 2020 Minister of Education Peter Weir visited the school and pledged his support for the SEP scheme. Since then, the St Brigids Principal and Board of Governors have been working diligently with Department Education and CCMS in developing up the proposals in preparation for the construction works commencing.

Continuing, Councillor McPeake said: Last weeks letter from Department of Education to St Brigids School Principal Mrs Mary O'Kane stating that their school extension project was effectively going to be suspended because of departmental cuts to funding for capital building projects, came as a complete bombshell to the school community.

Whilst the budgetary pressures on public expenditures are recognised It is nevertheless hugely disappointing to receive such devastating news that an already committed scheme with funding earmarked such as this is now being proposed to be axed. This is coming at a time when there is no government in place here with no Education Minister in charge lobbying for the fulfilment of commitments already made.

The situation around the budgetary shortfall cannot be allowed to continue with pupils being taught in corridors of overcrowded and in schools that are not fit for purpose.

Both St Brigids School Principal and I have spoken with First Minister designate Michelle O'Neill on the situation around the funding shortfall for The school and Ms O'Neill has pledged her full support to the St Brigids school community in having this current funding situation reversed and stated that is by no means the end of the road for this much needed project

More than ever we need a functioning Executive with an adequate budget to make our public services such as our schools and our health services etc function for the citizens who very much depend on such

Councillor McPeake concluded: St Brigids School community will simply not accept the scrapping of SEP plans for the future development of their school.

As we look towards the future, we owe it to our young people of the parish to have this catastrophic situation reversed and we will fight tooth and nail to do so.
The Assistant Inspector General of Police, Interpol, Garba Umar, who heads the Election Planning Monitoring and Evaluation team, had written to Mr Ari, inviting him for an 'interview' scheduled for Friday 5 May.

The suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa State, Hudu Ari, is now in the custody of the police, the force spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, said Tuesday.

Mr Adejobi said in a statement that the Election Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Team of the police has arrested Mr Ari.

Mr Ari is the INEC official who illegally declared Aishatu Dahiru of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the winner of the Adamawa State governorship election, a day after the supplementary election.

Since he made the illegal declaration, Mr Ari has not been seen in public and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it was unaware of Mr Ari's whereabouts as he had neither responded to letters, messages and phone calls to his line nor responded to the commission's directive that he should present himself at the INEC headquarters.

But the suspended REC in an interview aired on Tuesday told the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Commission, BBC Hausa, that he had written to INEC.

He also said he was going to honour an invitation he got from the police.

"I wrote a letter to INEC. I was told they did not receive it, but I'm sure they've received it," he said. "This invitation from the police, I will honour it," he said, claiming he never went into hiding.

Mr Ari also claimed to have declared Ms Dahiru, popularly called Binani, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the election because she polled 428,173 votes. He also claimed that Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 422,303 votes.

Police Invite and Arrest

The Assistant Inspector General of Police, Interpol, Garba Umar, who heads the Election Planning Monitoring and Evaluation team, had written to Mr Ari, inviting him for an 'interview' scheduled for Friday 5 May.

"This Bureau is investigating a case of Conduct likely to Cause Breach of Peace, Violation of Oath of Neutrality, Impersonating a Collation/Returning Officer, Disobedience to lawful Order/Directive, Impersonation and Announcing False Governorship Result of the just concluded Adamawa State Governorship supplementary election of 15th April, 2023 in which your name featured prominently," part of the invitation date, 27 April and sighted by PREMIUM TIMES, reads.

"In view of the above, you are hereby requested to report at the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB) Abuja office, Police Force Headquarters, Shehu Shagari Way, Central Area, Abuja to interview the Assistant Inspector General of Police, INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB), Abuja on Friday 5 May, 2023 at 1000hrs."

The police have, however, confirmed that Mr Ari is in custody, adding that other officials and individuals culpable in the saga are being interrogated by the Election Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Team.

"Barrister Ari, who was arrested by the Police Election Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Team in Abuja on Tuesday 2nd May, 2023, is currently in police custody and is being grilled to ascertain the motives and motivations behind his alleged improper actions during the supplementary elections in Adamawa state," the force spokesperson said.

"The inspector-general of police has given clear assurance that every individual involved/indicted in the matter will be apprehended and investigated in line with the provisions of the law for possible prosecution."

Backstory

A day after the supplementary governorship election that was held on 15 April, Mr Ari, who was not the official empowered by law to declare results, declared Binani as the winner of the elections.

At the time, Binani was trailing the incumbent and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmadu Fintiri.

The commission's headquarters quickly reacted by saying Mr Ari's declaration was null, void and of no effect.

Both INEC and President Buhari have authorised Mr Ari's suspension from office and his investigation and possible prosecution by the police.

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The Inspector General of Police also ordered the removal of the Commissioner of Police in Adamawa, Mohammed Barde, who was present at the collation centre when Mr Ari made the illegal declaration.

The Returning Officer, Muhammad Mele, who is the official with the powers to declare the results according to the electoral act 2022, later continued the collation of results and announced the incumbent governor, Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election.

He said Mr Fintiri polled a total of 430,861 votes to defeat Binani, who scored 398,788 votes.

Mr Finitiri and his deputy governor-elect have also been presented with certificates of return by INEC.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe
A candidate in the upcoming local council elections has said she will not be deterred after some of her posters were removed from parts of South Derry.

Noreen McEldowney, an Aontu candidate for Carntogher, was shocked to discover a number of her posters were removed in the Moneyneena area last Tuesday.

Towards the end of last week, she discovered that six more posters were taken down in the Maghera and Slaughtneil areas.

Mrs McEldowney believes that some of the posters may have been targeted due to their rural location, preventing those responsible from being detected.

My husband had helped put the posters up around Moneyneena on Sunday 23rd of April. The following Tuesday he had went to Dungiven and he noticed immediately they had been taken down. On Friday I was travelling to Slaughtneil and I was immediately aware coming into Maghera that posters were missing and as I headed on towards Slaughtneil my heart sank as there was not a poster of mine to be seen. I do not know when these were removed but both areas had been postered twice since Good Friday, said the Draperstown woman.

The first time candidate says she believes the theft of the posters was a 'direct attempt to sabotage' her election campaign.

To be honest I was shocked when my husband told me posters were down in Moneyneena, I couldnt believe it at all, she continued.

We replaced them very quickly and I didnt think no more about it. In an era when politicians are constantly shouting about a womans choice, I thought it very ironic, because I am a woman and a mother and it is my choice who I vote for and who I support politically. I am only one of two female candidates in this ward, so I always find women are easy targets in politics. However, when I discovered more had been removed in Maghera and Slaughtneil, my heart sank a little because I realised that this is much more than just someone acting the lig. This was direct attempt to sabotage my campaign. This is my first time running in an election. It isnt an easy gig, on top of this I am still a mother and a wife, so it is hard enough without having to go out and replace posters.

The mother-of-three says since the theft she has been inundated with support from locals.

I have no idea who would have done this or why anyone would feel it was necessary. The fact it happened in three different areas would certainly suggest it is not one person doing this. I am not aware of any of the other candidates having their posters removed in these areas. I also know the removal of my posters is in no way a reflection of the people in Moneyneena, Maghera or Slaughtneil, who have only been extremely welcoming and supportive to me in my campaign.

I have had so much support from the local community, I told a few people at the doors when I was canvassing and they were horrified and a lot were not happy at all about it. I also shared a few posts on social media which have had a huge response. So, for that Im very grateful. Unfortunately I have not heard of or seen any of the local representatives condemning the removal of my posters.

The incidents have now made the Aontu candidate 'more determined' and she is continuing on her campaign.

I do have a lot on. I am a mother of three young children, all under the age of five, my husband is a sheep farmer and we are in the height of lambing season and on top of that Im in full time study in Queens with my solicitor exams coming up at the end of May. So, this was something I could have done without. It wont deter me at all though, if anything it has spurred me on and has made me more determined in my political campaign. We were actually back in Slaughtneil on Saturday because our eldest son was participating in the Feis Charn Tochair and already there were men back on the ground putting my posters back up. It was great to see because it reminded me that there are people out there who are grateful for Aontu and they deserve to have a voice as well.

Mrs McEldowney says she feels nothing but 'pity' for those responsible.

They have more time on their hands than me, thats for sure. I honestly think that whoever was responsible will not have any luck for it and deep down they will not have got any real pleasure from it either. Its a pity of them really, she said.

I will continue to knock as many doors as possible. I am a person who thrives under pressure and prefers to keep busy. Aontu is a wonderful Irish party and I am so proud to be part of it. It has come as second nature to me, I knew I would enjoy the campaign but I didnt realise I would enjoy it this much. I just want to keep focus on May 18th and have no regrets. A favourite quote of mine is 'do your best and God will do the rest'.
A group of young people from the Bogside & Brandywell Health Forum hosted a human experience library in Creggan last week. The unique event, held in Sean Dolans GAC, was organised by the Health Forums Youth Ambassadors, bringing together notable figures from the community to share their life experiences.

Young people from across the city had the chance to borrow a person as opposed to a book for ten minute blocks and ask relevant questions, listen and interact with figures such as Children in Crossfires Richard Moore, and 10 in 10 triathlete and mental health advocate, Danny Quigley.

Michaela OHagan, Youth Services Manager at the Bogside & Brandywell Health Forum, (BBHF), said it was inspiring to watch the young people engaging and listening to individual stories often of struggle and perseverance.

We are so proud of our Youth Ambassadors, who wanted to organise this event for their peers, she said.

I think what made the event such a success was the diverse line-up of human books to choose from. The young people in attendance had the chance to ask questions that were important to them and giving them that autonomy I feel, made it more of an authentic experience for all involved. It also gave our young people access to people from different cultures that normally they wouldnt get the chance to interact with.

The human experience library also benefited from the attendance of North West Spectrum, a group for autistic young adults, members from the Museum of Free Derry, breast-feeding advocacy and perinatal support group; North West BAPS and Eritrean native; Zeweldi Geresus.

With other human books from across the community in attendance, there was a rich tapestry of experiences to choose from for the young people.

Some of the mothers from North West BAPS share their lifes experiences with the Youth Ambassadors on Friday.

Michaela also said: This event is just one of the many events our Youth Ambassadors have planned with lots more to come in the coming months. We are lucky to have a group of young people eager to shape not only their own futures, but the communities they come from for the better.

At BBHF, we will continue to nurture their ambitions to help improve the health & wellbeing of communities here in the North West.
Pictured above, left to right, Deborah McGinn, Informing Choices NI, Roisin Mclaughlin, NW Community Network, Claire Mulrone, Ulster University, Paula McCool Developing Health Communities, Dr Ben Fitzpatrick, Professor Mark Tully and Professor Malachy O Neill, Ulster University.

Ulster University is working with community partners Developing Healthy Communities and the North West Community Network on a new mental wellbeing research project, with the partnership securing 90,000 from the Ideas Fund, a grants programme run by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome.

The project will see Ulster University and community partners set up a joint community research and innovation collective, with the principle aim to build on learning from individual community projects that the Ideas Fund have already funded. The collective will also seek to take a more strategic approach in creating systems which support community partners and university-based researchers' collaboration more effectively.

After an initial mapping exercise, the collective will hold a series of events inviting community partners onto Ulster Universitys Derry campus to showcase existing work and developing opportunities to foster new collaborative projects. A core part of the work of is to build the capacity of community groups and the sector, and to provide necessary infrastructure supported by the community and Ulster University.

The other partners involved in the bid include Derry City and Strabane District Council, Northern Ireland Public Health Research Network, UK Research and Innovation, and CHOICE Community Advisory Board.

Welcoming news of the funding, Malachy O Neill, Director of Regional Development at Ulster University, said: We are delighted to secure this funding from the British Science Association, with partners, Northwest Community Network and Derry Healthy Cities, to develop a formal community and university research consortium.

Together we are committed to co-creating and collaborating on new research opportunities, to share existing university and community-based research, to strengthen and establish new connections with community partners and to develop an innovative approach to collaborative research that has real impact in and for our local communities.

Edel ODoherty, Chief Executive of Developing Healthy Communities, said: The investment from the Ideas Fund provides an opportunity for community-based organisations to access valuable expertise from researchers in Ulster University.

The unique approach adopted by the Ideas Fund offers multiple benefits to the partners involved, including forging genuine relationships across the sectors, creating new perspectives, and taking an evidence-based approach to grassroots community health improvement.

Roisin McLaughlin, North West Community Network added: We are very excited about this work and are looking forward to strengthening relationships between community and the university and to develop an environment where community-university equitable partnerships will thrive.

We hope this work will leave a legacy as community and university work in partnership together to develop a community research collective.

Chris Manion, Head of Grants, Ideas Fund, said: Were delighted to be supporting this new project, building on the incredible momentum that has developed around The Ideas Fund so far. Weve seen so many examples of the brilliant things that can happen when communities take the lead in working with researchers  this new grant will help the partners to explore how to embed the approach as a way of working.

"North West Community Network, Developing Healthy Communities and Ulster University have shown great commitment to working together and were excited to see how this work develops in the coming months.
A man has been given his 'absolute final warning' at Derry Magistrate's Court today after breaching his bail for the second occasion within a month.

William Fisher (57) of Fanad Drive in Derry was charged with breaching his bail by being at an address he is excluded from and having contact with the alleged injured party in the case, his son.

A police officer told the court that police found Fisher in the kitchen of the property and he had been allowed in by his son.

The officer said that this was the second breach within a month but the defendant had no real history of breaching bail.

Defence solicitor Keith Kyle said his client 'took a chance' and went to the family home.

He said there were no new offences committed.

District Judge Barney McElholm said that he would re-release Fisher on bail but with a final warning.

The case was adjourned until June 7.
A nurse has told the inquest into the death of 9-year-old Raychel Ferguson that she would not answer some questions on the grounds she could incriminate herself.

The nurse was giving evidence on the second day of the resumed inquest into the death of the Derry girl.

Earlier there had been some discussion about the issue of self incrimination.

Counsel to the Coroner, Michael Chambers, had said that the PSNI were carrying out an investigation into 'everyone and everything' to do with the Hyponatraemia Inquiry.

He said that the police were keeping 'a watching brief' on the inquest to see if anything arose.

The inquest was told that witnesses were entitled to be warned if there was a 'real or appreciable risk' they could incriminate themselves.

The inquest heard that nothing witnesses told the Hyponatraemia Inquiry could be used as part of a criminal case.

Raychel died in June 2001 a day after having an operation to remove her Appendix.

Her death was one of those considered in what was termed the Hyponatraemia Inquiry which examined the deaths of five children.

A new inquest was ordered in the case of Raychel Ferguson and today a nurse told how she was working on Ward 6 at the time.

The nurse said that at the time she would have had more than 10 years experience.

She told the hearing that it was the norm to use a fluid called Solution 18 which would be ordered by a doctor.

The nurse said she did not know how the preference for Solution 18 came about.

The inquest was told that decisions on fluids were taken by doctors and administered by nurses.

However, when asked specific questions in relation to the treatment Raychel received the nurse said she was refusing to answer on the grounds she may incriminate herself.
SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan said an agreed pay deal for NHS staff in England will prove bittersweet for health workers in Northern Ireland, whose pay continues to lag far behind their counterparts across the UK.

It follows news that unions in England have agreed to a 5% increase as well as one-off payment for nurses, ambulance workers, porters and physios.

The Foyle MLA said: Health staff were already paid less than their counterparts in England, Scotland and Wales- now this 5% increase across the water will see wages here slide further behind. The move could potentially compound existing staff pressures within our health service as workers opt to take more lucrative positions elsewhere. And who would blame them?

It's disgraceful that our health staff have been left behind at every juncture.

"Blame cant be laid entirely on the DUPs siege of Stormont but is a direct consequence of the 300 million overspend and years of financial mismanagement by the parties who have held the purse strings, the DUP and Sinn Fein.

Mr Durkan continued: Health workers deserve real, tangible recognition of the invaluable role they continue to play amid immense pressures, pressures which existed long before the pandemic.

In financial terms this workforce is among the most undervalued across these islands. Regardless of the Herculean tasks put to them, our health staff have remained steadfast in their commitment to providing care and ultimately saving lives. Yet their pay does not adequately reflect the invaluable nature of their service.

In the last few years, health staff here have been forced to take to the picket lines to demand safe staffing levels. That is completely unacceptable.

"The SDLP has repeated calls for meaningful intervention from the Secretary of State to deliver an acceptable pay rise for our battle worn health workers.
Independent candidate in the upcoming council election, Niall Murphy has said if elected he will pledge to fully support the development of St. Patricks College and St. Canices Primary School in Dungiven, including much need upgrades to both schools  safeguarding these indispensable local services for the next 50 years.

St. Canices and St. Patricks hold a special significance for me, as I attended both  like many other people from this area going back 50 years, said the Dungiven man.

Having a primary and secondary school in Dungiven is absolutely essential and as numbers continue to grow for both, I am fully committed to ensuring they have the facilities they need to serve the community for the next 50 years.

Dungiven now has the benefit of both mainstream and Irish language speaking schools, providing children and parents with incredible choices. The development of the Irish language schools is a credit to all involved, especially in securing the massive investments in a number of new premises including a 22 classroom facility at the Castle. I have no doubt everyone will want to see this investment extended to our other schools, St. Canices and St. Patricks which are both in need of upgrades ensuring that the choice families in the area currently enjoy can be safeguarded for future generations.

Mr Murphy believes a dedicated youth facility in Dungiven would help young people 'thrive'.

I think with a building upgrade to St. Patricks in particular we could also look at folding in a dedicated custom built youth facility for Dungiven  a service which young people in this area are crying out for, he continued.

As many people will know, I ran The Warehouse Youth Centre in Dungiven for a number of years, before moving to youth mental health charity LATCH. The Warehouse is still fondly remembered by all those who attended, creating bonds of friendship and in at least a couple of cases, bonds of marriage. Such services are absolutely essential particularly in rural areas not just for their recreational value but as a skills development hub. We need one back here.

Mr Murphy added: By supporting the schools and a youth facility, ensuring they have what they need to thrive in the future makes complete sense if we want to have a strong and cohesive community. I would ask people who strongly believe in this mission to throw their weight behind me in the upcoming election.
Maintaining pay parity for public sector workers in Northern Ireland with the rest of the UK will be extremely challenging, the head of the civil service has told MPs.

Jayne Brady told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that permanent secretaries were working through the implications of the budget set last week by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

On Tuesday, it was announced that more than one million NHS staff in England are to receive a 5% pay rise, after health unions backed the deal.

However, Neil Gibson, the permanent secretary at the Department of Finance, told the committee that it was his understanding that any Barnett consequentials arising for Northern Ireland would have to go to pay off a 297 million Stormont overspend.

In the absence of devolved ministers in Belfast, Mr Heaton-Harris set a budget for Northern Ireland in a written ministerial statement at Westminster last week.

Devolution is in abeyance as a result of a DUP boycott of the institutions in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements.

The Northern Ireland secretary said a Treasury 297 million advance payment to help plug a financial blackhole in Stormonts finances could be repaid using any future in-year funds allocated to the region by the Government through the Barnett system.

Raising the issue at the committee, DUP MP Carla Lockhart asked what the implications of this were for health workers in Northern Ireland.

She said: In relation to the repayment of the overspend, the Secretary of State has brought forward that it will be taken from the Barnett consequentials in the year.

We are all very keen to ensure our healthcare workers are rewarded appropriately and there was a deal struck yesterday in England.

The Barnett consequential will come from that to Northern Ireland. Will that Barnett consequential have to be used for paying back our overspend and will we then have to find that money for our healthcare workers from within our budgets?

Mr Gibson said: It is our understanding at the moment that there wouldnt be exceptions.

Any form of Barnett consequential would be used to repay that overpayment, so we would have to find that elsewhere.

Ms Brady added: We have got the revised budget from last Thursday, the permanent secretaries of all departments are working through the implications of the 297 million amelioration.

But keeping parity with public sector pay overall with the UK will be extremely challenging with the budget settlements that are provided.

Thousands of public sector workers in Northern Ireland, including those in health and education, have taken industrial action in recent months as part of ongoing disputes over pay.

Alliance Party MP Stephen Farry said: One of the short-term dangers is around what is happening with public sector pay settlements and the ability of Northern Ireland to deliver on those if there is a first call on Barnett consequentials elsewhere to balance our books.

Mr Gibson said: The public pay pressures are very real. We saw that with the industrial action across different parts of public service.

He added: It is one of the most significant pressures weighing upon us. It is right up at the top of all permanent secretaries radar.

Ms Lockhart said there needed to be a serious conversation about how Northern Ireland is funded.

She said: There is an issue around Stormont and the restoration of Stormont, but the reality is if Stormont was back in the morning there is no change in terms of the funding envelope, there is no change in relation to how Northern Ireland is funded to make the transformation that is needed.

Would you agree there needs to be a serious conversation around the Barnett formula and how it is applied to Northern Ireland?

Mr Gibson said: Yes, a conversation is required. As the fiscal council evidence suggests, we are rapidly if not already at the point at which the funding per head is not at the level of measured need.

There is a debate to be had about that measurement of need.
The Realme 11 Pro series is slated to debut in China on May 9. The Realme 11 Pro and Realme 11 Pro+ versions are part of the series. The devices' specifications and designs have officially been teased. For instance, the business has revealed the smartphone's colour selections.

In addition to unofficial teases, a number of leaks and sources have suggested important details and characteristics of upcoming smartphones. The smartphones have also been seen on certification sites, which may provide additional information. Recently, a purported live image of the Realme Pro 11+ was released by a Twitter user.

Before the unveiling of the rumoured Realme 11 Pro+ phone, Evan Blass (@evleaks) posted a live image of it on Twitter. The design cues from earlier leaks and official teasers are reinstated in the image. A smooth honeysuckle-textured leather back design can be observed on the smartphone's rear panel. A weaved 3D seam line is also visible, running straight through the centre of the phone.

Also read: Realme 11 Pro+ leak reveals camera module, back panel and specifications

The primary sensor is encased within an even smaller golden circle that is positioned in the centre, towards the upper portion of the smartphone's rear panel and is surrounded by three rear camera units, an LED flash, and a raised, round, black camera module.

Matteo Menotto, a former designer for Gucci Prints who professes to have been influenced by Milan, collaborated with the Realme Design Studio to create the Realme 11 Pro series. Astral Black, Oasis Green, and Sunrise Beige are the three colorways that the company has already stated will be available for the series debut. The Sunrise Beige version is anticipated to be the one seen in the live image on Tuesday.

Realme revealed that the Realme Pro 11+ will have a 6.7-inch curved AMOLED screen featuring a refresh rate of 120Hz along with a 61-degree curvature in an earlier teaser. The teaser also mentions that the phone would feature a 2.33mm wide chin.

Also read: Google Pixel 7a is launching soon, check out its top features

The Realme 11 Pro+ is expected to be driven by a chipset with a model number of MT6877V/TTZA, which is most likely MediaTek's latest Dimensity 7050 SoC and 12GB RAM, according to a recent Geekbench listing. The phone is probably going to start with Android 13 OS out of the box.

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in or head to our Google News page.
Flipkart has announced the sale price of the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE for Big Savings Days. You could get it at 29,999 during the sale days starting May 4, 2023. However, should you buy it or consider its alternatives? Lets find out.

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE specs and features

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE launched in India in January 2022 featuring a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and FHD+ resolution. The phone ships with Android 12 but you can upgrade it to Android 13-based OneUI 5.1. The company promises 3 OS updates and 4 years of security updates. The processor inside is a 5nm Exynos 2100 SoC. This particular media has 8GB RAM and 128GB storage.

On the camera front, you are getting a 32MP selfie camera and the rear setup includes a 12MP main camera, an 8MP (3x optical zoom) telephoto shooter and a 12MP ultrawide snapper. You can record up to 4K 60fps from the front and back of the phone.

The Samsung phone is powered by a 4500mAh battery backed by 25W charging. You also get a 15W wireless charging facility.

The other goodies in the mix include WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, an in-screen fingerprint reader, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, stereo speakers, and IP68 dust and water resistance. The phone has got Gorilla Glass Victus on the front, aluminium frame and plastic on the back.

3 Samsung Galaxy S21 FE alternatives

1. Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G (8+256GB)

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ comes with Gorilla Glass 5 on the front, Android 12 with MIUI 13, 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 1080 SoC, a 200MP+8MP (ultrawide)+2MP (macro), a 16MP selfie camera, Bluetooth 5.2, an infrared port, and a 5000mAh battery with 120W wired charging.

It was released in India in January 2023. On launch, the company had assured 2 years of Android upgrades and 4 years of security updates.

2. iQOO Neo 7 5G (8+128GB)

iQOO Neo 7 ships with Android 13-based Funtouch OS, a 4nm Mediatek Dimensity 8200 processor, a 64MP+2+2MP triplet, a 16MP selfie snapper, WiFi, Bluetooth 5.3, an under-display fingerprint reader, an infrared port, and a 5000mAh battery with 120W wired charging support.

It was launched in India in February 2023. The company assures 2 years of platform updates and 3 years of security patches.

3. Nothing Phone 1 (8+128GB)

Nothing Phone 1 has got a Gorilla Glass 5 front, a unique design with LED lights at the back, Gorilla Glass 5, closer-to-stock Android 12 (but upgradeable to Android 13, a 50MP+50MP duo at the back, 4K30 fps video recording, 16MP selfie shooter, Bluetooth 5.2, and a 4500mAh battery with 33W wired charging and 15W wireless charging.

It came to India in July 2022. The company had promised 3 years of Android updates and 4 years of security updates.

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in or head to our Google News page.
On April 15, Francis Kihumuro, his wife, and two children found themselves trapped in a war zone in Sudan's capital Khartoum. For about two weeks, they stayed in their home, located about 300 metres from the presidential palace, one of the first targets of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Then, on April 25, thanks to a ceasefire between the RSF and the Sudanese army, Kihumuro's family was able to leave the war-torn capital and board a bus to Egypt.

Kihumuro and his family were among 42 Rwandan and foreign nationals who safely arrived in Kigali from the Egyptian city of Aswan in the early hours of Tuesday, May 2.

"Back in Khartoum, when you made it today, you wouldn't hope to survive the next day," said Kihumuro, who worked as a teacher at an international school.

"Every time there was the sound of gunfire and of heavy machinery. And at some point, even our house was hit by a rocket."

On his arrival at Kigali International Airport, Kihumuro couldn't contain his relief. "Finding ourselves back in Rwanda is really a miracle. Our leaders have been following up on our situations and we thank the President, and the embassy and immigration officials."

Kihumuro's family arrived in Kigali with their Ugandan friend.

More than 500 people have been killed and thousands wounded in clashes between the Sudanese army and the RSF.

Countries are racing to evacuate their citizens and tens of thousands of Sudanese who are escaping the war-ravaged country for safety. Some governments arrange with diplomatic missions of friendly countries to evacuate their citizens.

Along with Kihumuro on board the chartered RwandAir flight were five Syrian nationals and five citizens from Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, and Burundi.

Khaled Al-Alem, a Syrian with investments in Rwanda, said the country's leadership showed the best sign of love anyone needs to see in times of war.

"I have the feeling of deep happiness after arriving in Rwanda and joining my family," he said. "We've been really at high risk. Now we are happy, grateful, and thankful."

Al Alem said living in Rwanda as people of other nationalities and as investors, they always felt at home. "And this has been especially emphasised during this period, where the country treated us as Rwandese," he said.

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Daniel Ogendo, a Kenyan national arrived in Kigali with his Rwandan wife, a six-year-old son, and a three-week-old baby.

"We thank God for everything. It will take time to even reflect back on what has happened. It's been a rollercoaster of events, with things getting worse by the hour," Ogendo said.

By the time the war broke out, the baby was about one week old and had no papers yet. Ogendo thanked the Rwandan government for giving them an emergency travel document, which made it possible for them to cross the Egyptian border in spite of a bureaucratic process.

"As a family, we are happy to be back home again," he said, adding he would consider applying for Rwandan citizenship.

All Rwandans who lived in Sudan have been evacuated, except for two who chose to stay in the country, said Clementine Mukeka, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"As a government, we remain committed to helping any Rwandans who are stranded in zones of conflict to be evacuated," Mukeka said.

"We evacuated foreign nationals as well because we cannot leave behind anyone in need of help. When they approached us, it was natural to welcome them home to Rwanda as a country that is open."

Mukeka said the foreign nationals were free to choose whether to stay in Rwanda or go back to their countries or Sudan.
As a follow-up to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, which was released in November of last year, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is anticipated to make its debut in the upcoming months.

Despite the fact that Qualcomm has not yet released any information on this CPU, it has purportedly been discovered on two well-known benchmarking websites. These benchmarks imply substantial performance improvements over its predecessor. In the meantime, a new report has also made some of the claimed flagship chipset's specifications public.

The octa-core CPU may consist of one prime core paired with five performance cores and two efficiency cores, or it may consist of two prime cores, four performance cores, and two efficiency cores, according to a Weibo post that has been translated from Chinese. The message also includes a screenshot of another user, Hi My, who lists the Geekbench and AnTuTu test results of the alleged Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC.

Also read: Realme 11 Pro+ design leaks ahead of launch, inspired by a Gucci designer

The chipset performed well on the Geekbench 6 single- and multi-core tests, earning 2,563 and 7,256 points, respectively, according to the information shown in the screenshot. The GPU test has a score of 8.621 points, although it's unclear from the post if this refers to the OpenCL or Vulkan exam. Similarly to this, the AnTuTu score of 1,712,271 indicates that it will be significantly faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.

It is advised to take these assertions with a grain of salt since these are benchmarks without accompanying entries that can be confirmed. The Weibo article that purports to have the benchmark results also states that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 launch is "just over 200 days" away. This schedule coincides with the November release of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. However, Qualcomm has not yet made any official statements in this regard.

Also read: Google Pixel 7a is launching soon, check out its top features

According to a recent MyDrivers story quoting tipster Digital Chat Station, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will have five performance cores, two efficiency cores, and a sophisticated Cortex-X4 prime core with a maximum clock speed of 3.7GHz. Developer and tipper Kuba Wojciechowski (@Za_Raczke) made such claims in March. The business may announce the top-tier smartphone chipset at its yearly summit, which is anticipated to take place in Hawaii shortly thereafter.

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in or head to our Google News page.
Nio to equip EVs with NXP's 4D imaging radar technology

China-based EV company Nio will adopt NXP Semiconductors' 4D imaging radar technology, according to an announcement on May 2. Only last month, the carmaker invested in a domestic startup developing the same solution.

NXP said on Tuesday that Nio will leverage its 4D imaging radar solution but did not reveal details such as the model that will adopt the technology. It added that the imaging radar solution will enable cars to detect and classify objects like other vehicles and vulnerable road users at distances of up to 300 meters in highway or urban scenarios.

According to NXP, the solution enhances radar's capabilities to measure direction, angle of arrival, and elevation, in addition to distance and speed. The fine-resolution clouds also advance environmental mapping and scene understanding, broadening the range of detection and object classification. NXP said its imaging radar technology can measure an object's velocity under almost all weather and light conditions.

Kevin Pan, assistant vice president of NIO supply chain development, said in the announcement that the EV maker will be able to take the next step toward developing high-level, assisted intelligent driving experiences with NXP's solution.

Nio just invested in radar technology in April. According to CnEVPost, Nio Capital and Xiaomi's investment fund led a series-A funding round of Sinpro, a China-based 4D imaging radar manufacturer. William Li, Nio's founder, chairman, and CEO, is Nio Capital's managing partner.

Nio debuted its new all-round SUV, ES6, at the Shanghai auto show last month and plans to launch it in late May. The EV company said it delivered 6,658 cars in April, making deliveries in the first four months of this year reach 37,699 vehicles, a 22.2% increase from 2022.
The management and staff of Bank of Kigali (BK) Group Plc on Friday, April 28 paid tribute to 15 former staff killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The commemoration event was held at Kigali car free zone located near the Bank's head office, where staff and former employee's families laid a wreath on the memorial monument of former staff killed in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The event included a discussion related to Rwanda's history before, during, and after the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, as well as elaborated achievements made so far, such as a strong justice system, and the gains made towards reconciliation.

Addressing the participants, Beata Uwamaliza Habyarimana, the Chief Executive Officer of BK Group Plc, said that every Rwandan should adopt a habit of not forgetting atrocities of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi so that it doesn't happen again.

"It should be adopted as habit to every Rwandan not to forget the tragic history that our country went through before and during the 1994 Genocide because that is when we will ensure that this never happens again, now and in the generations to come," she said.

She urged remembering and paying to tribute to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi's victims empower and give strength of fighting genocide ideology and genocide denial.

She also commended the efforts of genocide survivors in rebuilding themselves and work hard to become resilient.

"As we are commemorating victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi I appreciate the strength and commitment of genocide survivors who chose to move forward despite the grief left by the genocide and now they are working hard for the better of our country."

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Valens Bimenyimana who represented the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement (MINUBUMWE) at the event, pointed out that more efforts are needed to fight genocide ideology and urged that it should be everyone's responsibility.

"We need to put in more efforts to fight those denying and trivializing the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, be it those in the country and abroad, let us fight for the better of the country and ensure that genocide denial and genocide ideology are uprooted"

He also hailed Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) for having stopped the genocide and for the unity, peace and unity it has rebuilt in the nation in the post-Genocide era.

Speaking on behalf of families of the deceased BK employees, Ambroise Rugambwa commended BK group for always remembering their family members and RPF Inkotanyi for stopping the Genocide.
The Special Criminal Court has admitted into evidence a back tattoo featuring images that are alleged to be "almost a glorification" and a "pictorial admission" of involvement in the robbery that resulted in the shooting dead of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe.

Brendan Treanor's lawyers had argued that the tattoo, featuring images of guns, bullets, gangsters, money, knuckle dusters and a car similar to one that is alleged to have been used in the robbery, was irrelevant and should not form part of the prosecution case.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt today, Wednesday, ruled that the court will consider the tattoo as part of the overall evidence in the case, saying that it would be a failure of logic, reason and common sense to disallow it.

Brendan Treanor (34), previously of Emer Terrace, Castletown Road, Dundalk, Co Louth, and James Flynn (32) from South Armagh are charged with the robbery of 7,000 at Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan, Co Louth, on January 25, 2013.

Both men are also charged that between September 11, 2012, and 23 January 2013, they conspired with convicted Garda-killer Aaron Brady and others to enter residential premises with the intention of stealing car keys.

The prosecution alleges that Mr Treanor and Mr Flynn were part of a group of young men who conspired to break into houses to steal car keys and then quietly make off with the cars.

They have pleaded not (NOT) guilty to each charge.

Brady (31) previously of New Road, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, is serving a life sentence with a 40-year minimum having been found guilty of murdering Det Gda Adrian Donohoe and of the robbery at Lordship.

He denied any involvement in the robbery and is awaiting an appeal against his conviction.

David Davies today, Wednesday, told Michael Lynn SC, for Brendan Treanor, that he runs a tattoo parlour in Newtownabbey in north Antrim.

In 2018 Mr Treanor came to his studio looking for a tattoo to cover up an existing tattoo of a woman's name, possibly an ex-girlfriend, on his back.

The new tattoo had a "gangster theme," the witness said, something that has become trendy in recent years.

He added: "People don't have original ideas, it's just this looks good; I want something like that.

"It blew up a few years ago and it's still going. We would have images like that all the time."

He said the images are often from the 50s and 60s or the "old school mob" era with figures like Al Capone or guns, roles of money, or cars and clothes from that period.

Mr Davies said he did not draw Mr Treanor's tattoo but was involved in the design process.

He said the car in the image, a BMW X5 with the registration plate 'Boss BFT', was based on Mr Treanor's own car which was parked facing the window of the shop.

A knuckle duster in the image, he said, is a common piece of body art.

Mr Davies pointed to a tattoo on his own face of a knuckle duster.

He said it does not suggest an "anti-social" message, and added: "I'm not that person. I'm not a violent person."

He said much of the imagery on Mr Treanor's back, including bank notes, bullets, a long firearm, a handgun and a woman wearing a balaclava while blowing smoke from the barrel of a gun, would be sourced from the internet.

"It all ties in to the gangster imagery, the theme. I'm tattooing these on all types of people," he said.

Mr Davies agreed with prosecution counsel Brendan Grehan SC that Mr Treanor would have suggested images that he wanted including that he wanted his own car rather than an image taken from the internet.

He agreed that to the left of the tattoo there appeared to be four gangsters wearing trilby or fedora hats.

The one in the middle, he agreed, was holding a long barrel gun pointing over the roof of the BMW.

Mr Davies said the image of the woman wearing the balaclava and blowing smoke from the gun is a common type of image on Pinterest. "It's cool, it's a trend, it's not really a lifestyle," he said.

During legal argument, Mr Grehan told the court that the prosecution relies on the tattoo as a piece of circumstantial evidence.

He said the tattoo was "almost a glorification" of what happened at Lordship and pointed to five elements that he said a jury could consider as amounting to a "pictorial admission" that Mr Treanor was involved in the Lordship robbery.

The evidence, he said, suggested four raiders entered the credit union car park, one armed with a long-armed firearm which was fired across a car, fatally injuring Det Gda Adrian Donohoe.

The driver of the getaway vehicle was alleged by one witness to have been a woman.

There was also evidence that the raiders had a handgun and they left with a large sum of cash.

One of the cars that allegedly "played a critical role" before and after the robbery was a BMW 5-Series, counsel said, similar to the car that forms the "centrepiece" of the tattoo.

Mr Grehan said that in those circumstances, the tattoo is "an item of circumstantial evidence which a jury are entitled to take into account in assessing the overall prosecution case."

He said it is "a very curious matter" that in 2018 Mr Treanor decided to have that image tattooed on his back when in 2013 he had gone to a police station in Northern Ireland to make a statement because of suspicions circulating that he had been involved in the Lordship robbery.

He said the fact Mr Treanor went "perhaps when he thought this was all behind him" to get this particular tattoo is a matter for a jury, in this case the three judges of the Special Criminal Court, to consider.

Mr Lynn told the court that the tattoo should not be admitted into evidence as it was irrelevant and has "no probative value going to any possible finding of guilt".

It was, he said, a "coverup tattoo" featuring common imagery with "nothing unusual".

Mr Justice Hunt said that it was an odd way to cover up the tattoo given the background of the case.

In the court's ruling, Mr Justice Hunt said it would be a failure of logic, reason and good sense for a jury not to be allowed to consider the tattoo as evidence.

He said it "comfortably passes any threshold" for consideration in the trial.

The trial continues tomorrow, Thursday.
The Waters and Communities Special Award is now open for 2023 via their online portal made accessible through the home website of the Local Authority Waters Programme  lawaters.ie.

The closing date is Friday, 9 June 2023. This special award has been a regular feature in the main SuperValu TidyTowns competition since 2017.

Applicants can avail of the opportunity to highlight how they promoted a local stream, river, estuary, canal, lake, or beach and what winning this award would mean to their local community.

In previous years, the range of community initiatives along local waterbodies has been impressive, a spokesperson said.

Examples include, enhancement of public amenities, litter picks, conservation of biodiversity and heritage, citizen science, promotion of angling and water-based activities, education and awareness raising, promotion of local actions in support of water, biodiversity, and climate action goals.

This year, applications which demonstrate innovations in Nature Based Solutions to address local problems are particularly encouraged.

A panel of judges appointed by the three partners, Inland Fisheries Ireland, Waterways Ireland, and the Local Authority Waters Programme, will assess each application under the following headings:

Awareness raising (15 Marks)

Community involvement (20 Marks)

Stakeholder engagement (15 Marks)

Project benefits (40 Marks)

Highlights to share (10 Marks)

The Waters and Communities Special Award is open to all community groups.

The three partners are committed to the success of this award and provide an annual prize fund of 7,000, which is divided across the four regions for the TidyTowns competition.

The overall award winner receives 2,000 to support their local project or initiative.

To apply and to read about other special awards see the TidyTowns website: www.tidytowns.ie
O Fiaich Institute in Dundalk were delighted to win a top award at the Education Awards 2023.

The prestigious event, which was held on Thursday, 27th of April at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry Co. Dublin, recognized the outstanding achievements and contributions of education providers in Ireland.

O Fiaich Institute was shortlisted for two categories at the Education Awards 2023, Best Education Provider and Best Erasmus Programme.

The anticipation was high as Principal Padraig Mc Govern, Deputy Principal Conor Rafferty, and a number of teachers from the college attended the awards ceremony.

In a moment of great excitement, it was announced that the winner of the Best Erasmus Programme Award 2023 was O Fiaich Institute.

This was a remarkable achievement for the college and a testament to the hard work and dedication of its students and staff.

Each year, between 30 to 50 OFI students are given the opportunity of a lifetime to take part in the Erasmus Programme, which consists of a two-week trip to Malaga, Spain, a spokesperson for O Fiach Institute said.

During this time, students go on work placement, experience a new culture and society, and socialise in a new country.

The Erasmus Programme is a fantastic opportunity for young people as they get to live independently, meet new people, and gain valuable experience in an international setting.

All students applying to O Fiaich Institute in September 2023 will have the opportunity to take part in the Erasmus Programme next year, which is an exciting prospect for the college community, the spokesperson continued.

The Best Erasmus Programme Award is a significant achievement for O Fiaich Institute, and it highlights the college's commitment to providing its students with a world-class education.

The college has a proud tradition of excellence in education, and this award is a testament to the hard work and dedication of its staff and students.

O Fiaich Institute's Best Erasmus Programme Award 2023 is a remarkable achievement for the college and a testament to its commitment to providing its students with the best possible education.

The college is looking forward to another successful year, and all eyes will be on them to see what they achieve next.
Two north-east primary schools are celebrating this week as they were announced as the winners of the recent Setanta Wind Park art competition.

SSE Renewables ran the competition in celebration of the renamed Setanta Wind Park and to acknowledge the community feedback shared during public consultation across Louth, Meath East and North Dublin last year, a spokesperson said.

Fourth Class pupil Ruby Durnin from Scoil Mhuire na Trocaire, Ardee, Co. Louth and Ava OConnell from Sixth Class in Scoil an Spioraid Naoimh, Laytown each won 3,000 for their school, to be used for the purchase of digital technology equipment.

Their artworks depicting folk legend Setanta were chosen as the winning entries.

Deirdre Sweeney, Principal, Scoil Mhuire na Trocaire, Ardee said: Thanks to SSE Renewables for this IT funding which will be put to very good use in our school, and well done to our own Ruby Durnin who created such a beautiful artwork to submit to the competition.

I also thank the class teacher Ms Mason for her work with the class preparing all their entries.

Bryan OConnor, Project Manager, SSE Renewables said: Congratulations to Ruby and Ava and to their schools for supporting them to create such wonderful artworks.

We were bowled over by the standard of artistic talent shared with us from schools across the Setanta Wind Park catchment area.

Thank you to all the students and schools who took part and we hope to be offering more opportunities like this locally as we continue to develop the project.

Blaithin Maguire, Principal, Scoil an Spioraid Naoimh, Laytown said: We are very proud of Ava and all the students who took part in this competition.

It is wonderful to receive a prize that can make a real impact and through a project that can get us thinking and talking about renewable energy.

SSE Renewables renamed the formerly known Braymore Wind Park to Setanta Wind Park last November based on local feedback that the existing name was not identifiable with the wider communities that the wind park covered, a spokesperson explained.

The name Setanta was the given name of one of the great champions of the ancient Irish sagas, Cu Chulainn who dominates as a giant of Irish mythology including in the series of epic tales collectively known as The Ulster Cycle.

Setanta was the name used until he was bestowed with the warrior badge-of-honour title Cu Chulainn.

The battles, skirmishes and scrapes in the closing sections of the Tain, as the poem/saga is usually more briefly referred to, took place in the present-day counties of Meath and Louth.

In fact, most of the action took place between present-day Drogheda and Dundalk, overlooking the section of sea in which Setanta Wind Park will be situated.

The proposed Setanta Wind Park site is situated off the northeast coast of Ireland in the Irish Sea between Dunany Point in County Louth at its most northern point and Braymore Point in County Dublin and secured a foreshore licence to facilitate surveys of the seabed to enhance understanding of the prevailing conditions at the site.

Once operational, Setanta Wind Park will be capable of generating up to 1GW of renewable energy, powering over 1 million homes and offsetting up to 1 billion kgs of carbon annually.
Louth County Council's pothole machine, JCB Pothole Pro, is in operation in north Louth today, with work currently being carried out in Greenore.

Dundalk Municipal District councillors had been pressing the Council on when it would be in the north of the county to carry out work on potholes locally, after operating in the south of the county for some time.

Cllr Maeve Yore sought an update on when it would be arriving in the north of the county at the Dundalk Municipal District May meeting, with Senior Executive Engineer, Paddy Connolly confirming that it would be arriving the following day.

Louth County Council became the first local authority in Ireland to introduce the new pothole fixing machine, which is said to dramatically reduce the cost of pothole repair work.

The innovative, high-powered technology works by cutting, planning and sweeping the road before filling defects with hot asphalt for a long-lasting result.

Designed to operate safely and efficiently in congested urban areas, Louth County Council say the Pothole Pro, which can cover up to 250m2 per day, will maximise performance across Louths 1,614km road network.

Cllr Antoin Watters shared photos on social media today of the machine in operation in Greenore. Commenting on Twitter today, Cllr Watters said. "Great to see @louthcoco New JCB Pro on site in Greenore this morning dealing with a large pothole that I raised back in January."
A 44 year old man who stole the personal property of staff during a burglary at a Japanese restaurant, has been jailed for 18 months at Dundalk Circuit Court.

Robert Maguire of St Helenas, Dundalk had pleaded guilty to entering Atami, Park Street, Dundalk as a trespasser with intent to commit theft on November 13th 2020.

The court had previously heard how the defendant had entered the staff area via a fire exit and had taken their wallets, which included Garda National Immigration Bureau ID cards, bank cards, cash and a mobile phone.

The defendant had 110 previous convictions 46 of which are for theft  with 20 of those related to burglary.

Judge Dara Hayes noted Mr. Maguire had no work history and has battled a drug addiction for a significant period.

He imposed a two and a half year sentence backdated to January 21st last when he went into custody, but the judge added in order to encourage him and incentivise him to address his addiction issues, he suspended the final 12 months on him entering a bond to be of good behaviour for a year on his release from prison.
The bill seeks to extend the retirement age of High Court judges from 65 to 70 years.

The National Assembly has directed its Clerk to transmit the Constitution Alteration Bill 20 which approves a uniform retirement age for judicial officers in Nigeria to the president for assent.

This followed the adoption of a motion titled: "Passage of Constitution (Fifth) Alteration Bill No. 20 (Uniform Retirement Age for Judicial Officers), 2023" at plenary on Tuesday.

The bill seeks to extend the retirement age of High Court judges from 65 to 70 years.

Currently, the mandatory retirement age of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court justices is 70. Therefore, the bill seeks to bring the retirement age of High Court judges to be at par with that of the justices of the two appellate courts.

The motion which was sponsored by the Chairman of the Senate Ad hoc Committee on Constitution Review, Ovie Omo-Agege, was in line with provisions of the Authentication Act.

"Recall that on Tuesday, April 4, the Clerk to the National Assembly was directed to transmit Constitution Alteration Bill No. 47 (Establishment of State Security Council) after it met the requirement of Section 9(2) of the Constitution to Mr President for his assent.

"Recall also that Sokoto State House of Assembly was among the State Houses of Assembly that were yet to forward their resolution. Others are Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kwara, Plateau, Sokoto and Taraba State Houses of Assembly.

"Aware that Sokoto state House of Assembly has forwarded its resolution; and convinced that with the approval of Sokoto State House of Assembly, the Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 20 (Uniform Retirement Age for Judicial Officers), has met the provisions of Section 9(2) of the Constitution, for passage," Mr Omo-Agege said.

The Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (APC - Niger), supported the motion.

"This is one of the key elements of the Ninth Senate legislative agenda to reform the judiciary.

"Having a uniform retirement age for the Judiciary will remove the backlog of cases and ensure speedy dispensation of justice," he said.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan expressed delight over the development.

"This is very important amendment to the Constitution and we are happy that it is going to be part of our legacy as the 9th National Assembly," he said,

(NAN)
The Department of Education has confirmed that as of the end of April, 442 Ukrainian pupils are enrolled in schools across Louth.

Out of that figure, 267 of these pupils are attending primary schools while 175 pupils have enrolled in post-primary schools.

The figure represents a slight decrease on the 444 Ukrainian pupils enrolled in schools across Louth at the end of March.

Nationally, the Department of Education has confirmed that 15,458 Ukrainian pupils are currently enrolled in Irish schools

Out of that figure, 9,987 of these pupils had been accommodated in primary schools while 5,471 pupils had enrolled in post-primary schools.

There is an enrolment rate of 89% among Ukrainian children aged between five and18, according to the Department of Education.

To assist with the transition of Ukrainian students and their families into Irish schools Regional Education and Language Teams (REALT) continue to operate, hosted by the 16 regional education and training boards around Ireland and staffed by regionally-based education support personnel.
Medicinal cannabis helps relieve cancer pain and can cut down how many drugs people need, research suggests.

A new study by Irish and Canadian researchers found that products with an equal balance of the active ingredients tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) seemed to be the most effective for pain.

In the latest study, published in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, researchers including from the School of Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons Dublin and the Medical Cannabis Programme in Oncology at Cedars Cancer Centre in Canada concluded that medicinal cannabis is a safe and effective complementary treatment for pain relief in patients with cancer.

Existing evidence suggests around 38% of all patients with cancer experience moderate to severe pain, while 66% of patients with advanced, metastatic or terminal disease suffer pain, they wrote.

While traditional painkillers are commonly used, a third of all patients are thought to still experience pain.

The team studied 358 adults with cancer whose details were recorded by the Quebec Cannabis Registry in Canada over a period of 3.5 years (May 2015 to October 2018).

The patients average age was 57, nearly half (48%) were men, and the three most common cancer diagnoses were genitourinary, breast and bowel.

Pain was the most frequently reported (73%) symptom that prompted a prescription of medicinal cannabis.

Around a quarter of patients took THC-dominant products in the study, 38% took THC:CBD-balanced drugs and 17% took CBD-dominant products.

Patient pain intensity, symptoms, total number of drugs taken and daily morphine consumption were then monitored quarterly for a year.

Medicinal cannabis seemed to be safe and generally well-tolerated in the study. The two most common side-effects were sleepiness, reported by three patients, and fatigue, reported by two.

The study found that at three, six and nine months, there were statistically significant drops in worst and average pain intensity, overall pain severity, and pain interference with daily life.

Overall, THC:CBD-balanced products were associated with better pain relief than either THC-dominant or CBD-dominant products.

The particularly good safety profile of [medicinal cannabis] found in this study can be partly attributed to the close supervision by healthcare professionals who authorised, directed, and monitored [the] treatment, the researchers said.

The total number of drugs taken also fell at the check-ups, while opioid use fell over the first three check-ups.

The researchers said their study was observational and a significant number of patients were lost to follow-up over the course of the 12 months.

But they concluded: Our data suggest a role for medicinal cannabis as a safe and complementary treatment option in patients with cancer failing to reach adequate pain relief through conventional analgesics, such as opioids.

It comes as a clinical trial of an oral spray containing cannabinoids to treat the most aggressive type of brain tumour has opened at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester.

The trial, funded by the Brain Tumour Charity, will investigate whether combining nabiximols (a cannabis medicine) and chemotherapy can help extend the lives of people diagnosed with recurrent glioblastoma.

It will recruit more than 230 glioblastoma patients at 14 NHS hospitals across England, Scotland and Wales in 2023 including Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Liverpool (Wirral), Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford and Southampton.

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive form of brain cancer with an average survival of less than 10 months after recurrence.
press release

Beirut  Salah Soltan Should be Immediately Released, Offered Treatment

The Egyptian authorities should immediately release Salah Soltan, the arbitrarily detained father of a prominent US human rights defender, 51 human rights organizations said today. The authorities should ensure his immediate and urgent access to life-saving health care and conduct effective and transparent investigations into reports that he has been tortured and otherwise ill-treated.

Soltan, 63, said in a letter leaked on March 20, 2023, that the authorities in Badr 1 prison, east of Cairo, have deprived him of adequate health care even though he suffers from life-threatening heart and liver diseases among other complex medical conditions. The deliberate denial of health care may amount to torture. Independent doctors said in letters addressing the Biden administration, which the family shared with rights groups, that they fear Soltan is at "increased risk of sudden death" a decade after his initial arbitrary arrest and subsequent unfair conviction on politicized charges.

"On top of railroading him in an unfair trial, Egyptian authorities are deliberately abusing Salah Soltan's rights by failing to provide him with health care," said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities should at minimum transfer him to a qualified medical facility where independent health professionals can treat him without hindrance."

Before moving to the United States, Soltan was a professor of Islamic Law at Cairo University. He later founded and served as the president of the Islamic American University in Dearborn, Michigan from 1999 to 2004. As a legal US permanent resident, Soltan lived and worked in the US for over a decade before his arrest in Egypt in September 2013 for opposing the military's ousting of elected president Mohamed Morsi. A court sentenced Soltan to life in prison in September 2017 in a mass trial marred by extensive due process and fair trial violations. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined in 2018 that his arrest was arbitrary, as the authorities failed to provide credible evidence of wrongdoing, and that his prosecution violated the right to political participation and freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression.

In recent years, Soltan's family said, the authorities have not provided him with sufficient health care for chronic and new conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, hepatitis C, and a spinal disc condition, among others. The authorities have held him incommunicado several times, sometimes for months, during which the family knew nothing about his health or whereabouts.

The Freedom Initiative, a DC-based human rights organization, has documented that the authorities in Badr 1 prison intentionally denied Soltan health care during two incidents in which he lost consciousness and had other serious symptoms. On December 18, 2022, Soltan said during a family visit that he had suffered from extreme chest pain the previous week and had called for help multiple times, before losing consciousness.

Other prisoners heard his screams and called for help. Eight hours later, prison officials came to his cell and, again, refused to take him to a doctor despite him clearly needing medical attention, intentionally denying him health care, sources told Freedom Initiative. Soltan, the sources said, continued to report that he was having increasing chest pains, numbness in his extremities, and limited mobility in his fingers.

Several sources, including former detainees, said that Soltan collapsed in his cell and was immobile on another occasion, during the first half of January 2023. Other inmates were screaming for help for approximately seven hours, all to no avail. The Badr 1 prison authorities ultimately came to him in his cell, and denied him health care, refusing to move him to a prison hospital or provide him with medications.

In addition to denying him access to timely health care, including medical examinations, prison authorities have complete discretion over provision of his vital medications and medical devices. Soltan has reported being denied medications entirely or given pills inconsistently.

In April 2022 and January 2023, 20 US-based medical professionals and specialists sent private letters to the Biden administration - and shared them with rights groups and Egyptian officials - detailing Soltan's medical condition and the risks posed to his life by the continued denial of health care. In the letter, doctors assessed Soltan's condition based on his US medical history and documents and the scant information available during his detention.

Doctors said that Soltan is most likely suffering from coronary heart disease, poorly controlled hypertension, and kidney stones, and that his diabetes lacks "objective assessment of glycemic control." They said that Soltan is "at imminent risk of developing significant complications, including cardiac events (heart attacks, strokes, heart failure); liver fibrosis/cirrhosis; irreversible neurological damage; and increased risk of sudden death."

Soltan's deteriorating health condition and the continued denial of health care by prison authorities is particularly concerning given reports that at least five prisoners have died in custody in Badr prison complex since June 2022 - when the authorities began transferring prisoners there - where authorities have held Soltan in a solitary cell since September 2022. Local Egyptian media recently reported that several inmates have attempted suicide in Badr prison complex based on leaked letters by prisoners about inhumane detention conditions.

A March 20 statement by more than 30 human rights organizations shed light on serious allegations of denial of health care and other abusive conditions of detention at Badr prison complex. The abuses include 24/7 surveillance of cells with CCTV cameras, exposure to florescent lighting around the clock, and chaining prisoners to the walls of their cells without food and water for days at a time.

The co-signing organizations believe that the authorities' abuse of Soltan appears to be in retaliation for the human rights work of his son, Mohamed Soltan, who lives in the US. The authorities' retaliation has included detention of other family members, and direct threats and harassment in the US.

The Egyptian authorities have recently embarked on a public relations campaign, asserting that prison conditions in Egypt have improved, while deliberately leaving inmates with serious medical issues to suffer in prison, in some cases leading to death. In November 2019, following the unexpected death of former President Mohamed Morsi in abusive detention, UN experts wrote that due to Egypt's detention conditions, "thousands more detainees across Egypt may be suffering gross violations of their human rights, many of whom may be at high risk of death."

In recent years the Egyptian government has deployed lobbyists to cite decades old problematic remarks by Salah Soltan to dissuade policymakers from advocating for his release, but his detention and trial in Egypt are unrelated to these remarks and solely based on his peaceful political affiliation.

In recent years, the US Congress has routinely listed Salah Soltan, along with other prisoners, in the Explanatory Statements of its annual appropriations bills as a case for the secretary of state to "consider" in determining whether to certify that the Egyptian government has met specific human rights benchmarks. The statements also urged "that humane treatment and fair trials be afforded to [those specific names listed] and other prisoners in Egypt." Additionally, on the campaign trail, then-candidate Joe Biden condemned Egypt's exile of Mohamed Soltan and the threats to his family as "unacceptable."

The right to life is non-derogable - that is, a right that cannot be suspended under any circumstances, including in times of emergencies or war - and inherent to everyone, including those in custody. The Human Rights Committee, which interprets the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, has said that the right to life "should not be interpreted narrowly."

It also said that the deprivation of life involves "intentional or otherwise foreseeable and preventable life-terminating harm or injury, caused by an act or omission." The obligations of states to protect lives "extends to reasonably foreseeable threats and life-threatening situations that can result in loss of life." In this context, the organizations said, if Soltan dies in prison due to the systemic denial of health care and sustained ill-treatment, the authorities would be directly responsible for the arbitrary deprivation of his right to life. According to the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, "violations of the right to life stem not only from an intentional act of deprivation of life (murder) by the State..., but also from State's negligence in providing basic conditions and services that guarantee life, such as access to food, water, health services and housing."

The US should urge Egypt to release Salah Soltan immediately, and to seek urgent treatment for his health conditions.

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"The Biden administration has prioritized efforts to bring home Americans who have been wrongfully detained abroad, and it is long past time for Salah Soltan to be reunited with his family in the US," said Allison McManus, the Freedom Initiative's Managing Director. "As long as Soltan remains behind bars, his American family cannot feel truly safe and secure. The US should not only stand up for Soltan's rights, but it should also protect the rights of his family."

Signatories:

ACAT-France

African Centre for Biodiversity

Amnesty International

Association for Farmers Rights Defense, AFRD Georgia

ASSOCIATION JEUNES AGRICULTEURS

British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES)

CAFAGB

Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)

Citizens International

CIVICUS

Committee for Justice (CFJ)

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)

DIGNITY, Danish Institute Against Torture

Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms

Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR)

Egyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF)

Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)

EgyptWide for Human Rights

El Nadeem Center

Emgage

EuroMed Rights

Freedom House

Gulf Center for Human Rights

HEDA Resource Centre

Human Rights First

Human Rights Watch

Humanity for Sustainable Development

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

International Network of Liberal Women (INLW)

International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)

International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW AP)

MENA Rights Group

Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA)

Omani Human Rights Association

Open Society Foundation

People in Need

Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)

Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR)

Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR)

Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP)

The Freedom Initiative

The McCain Institute

The Rafto Foundation for Human Rights

Their Right

Till The Last Prisoner Campaign

UnidOSC, Mexico

US Committee to End Political Repression in Egypt

WeRecord

World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Young Shapers
Vocal opposition lawmaker Yekeh Kolubah has appealed to Unity Party (UP) standard bearer Amb. Joseph Nyumah Boakai to reconcile and bring back disenchanted opposition allies.

Boakai's pick of a running mate last Friday angered some of his loyalists who had hoped he would have considered them instead.

There are fears that Grand Bassa County Senator and Liberty Party leader Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, All Liberian Party leader Benoni Urey, Montserrado Senator Abraham Darius Dillon, and others could withdraw their support from Boakai.

They boycotted the ceremony at which Boakai announced Nimba County Senator Jeremiah Koung as his running mate.

But Kolubah has urged the former Liberian Vice President to demonstrate leadership in ensuring that all those aggrieved are consoled and brought back on board.

"The decision made by you today will either break the UP down or make you president. We still have work to do," Mr. Kolubah told Amb. Boakai.

The Montserrado Electoral District #10 Representative stated that Boakai's team still has people that are dissatisfied.

"You have to take the responsibility and demonstrate leadership to have the problem resolved. Because if we don't solve that problem it will be dangerous for us during the October elections," he continued.

According to Kolubah, everybody can't be vice president at the same time right. He said people will be dissatisfied, but Mr. Boakai should solve the problem with them.

"Is the problem able to be solved? Yes, we can solve the problem. We have to push our political leader and the vice president in waiting," Kolubah pleaded.

He said Boakai's camp should move to those that are unhappy, and talk to them.

He believes that the ability to solve the problem with the dissatisfied opposition members is the ability to win the current government.

"We need everybody's vote. Please don't let anybody tell you that we don't need their votes. My uncle, I will not lie to you, we need everybody's vote. When we get everybody's vote, we will win," said Mr. Koluba.

He alleged that the ruling Coalition for Democracy Change (CDC) is currently worried and trembling because it is seeing that the opposition is getting ready to take over the country.
THERE was a full house at the Castle Hotel in Macroom recently to hear a presentation from Alzheimers Ireland and a new strategy to make Macroom a Dementia Friendly Town.

Carers, those with the disease, business owners and locals attended in great numbers, along with local TD Aindrias Moynihan.

Making Macroom Dementia friendly is an initiative which will hopefully have a meaningful impact on families affected by the disease.

The speakers were author Kevin Quaid, who lives with Lewy Body Dementia; Donal Murphy, operations project manager for Alzheimers Ireland; Vanessa Bradbury, a dementia adviser; and Siobhan O Connor, the head of operations.

All spoke passionately about this disease and offered some harrowing statistics.

4,000 people with dementia in Ireland are under 65 years of age.

There are 500,000 families in Ireland that are affected by this disease.

Half of all costs in caring for someone with dementia are covered by their family, which saves the state 807million per annum.

There are 30 people diagnosed every day in Ireland - 11,000 new cases every year - and the figures are similar worldwide. This number is expected to rise exponentially as we get better diagnoses and as the population lives longer.

There are more than 400 types of dementia, with the most common being Alzheimers disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia and Lewy body dementia.

Kevin Quaid spoke about how the disease has affected his life and the lives of his family. How, even though he seems a confident man, he is terrified of large spaces and unfamiliar settings.

He spoke of how, having announced his diagnosis at his book launch, the townspeople of Kanturk accepted the effects of dementia as part and parcel of their friend, which gives him great comfort and a sense of security as, if he ever feels flustered while in town, the locals know what to do.

Kevin says this has changed his life as he can now go for a pint or a coffee or a walk and not worry about feeling overwhelmed. He dedicates all of his time to raising awareness about the disease as part of the Irish dementia working group.

DatSCAN can differentiate between Lewy body disease and Alzheimers desease, he says. We have DatSCAN in Ireland, many countries dont. We need proper diagnosis in order to treat correctly.

Vanessa Bradbury highlighted difficulties experienced by those with a dementia diagnosis every day. From the fear of getting lost or disorientated, to finding neither awareness nor help in shops because of a lack of understanding and training.

She spoke about the hardships suffered by carers and the heart-breaking difficulties they endure. Vanessa also talked about the importance of early diagnosis, as some forms of dementia can be reversible with the right care. Many still believe dementia and alzheimers disease are the same thing and delay going to their GP out of fear.

Many suffer and endure in silence because of the stigma around the disease, and a lack of knowledge on how people in the community can help, said Vanessa. Many people end up in long-term care because of family burn-out. We aim to address this issue.

Siobhan OConnor hopes a weekly meeting for those with the disease and their carers, on Wednesdays at Coolcower House in Macroom, will soon be moved to a more suitable location. Both she and Aindrias Moynihan have spoken with Mary Butler, Minister for Mental Health and Older People, about getting this done.

Donal Murphy talked about how Macroom can become dementia friendly.

We need an action plan to make living with dementia easier for people in the community and we will set up a leaders group this evening to get this done, he said.

Donal went on to quote the World Health Organisation, which said that dementia is not just a health issue, but a social issue, and therefore needs a community response.

He says the people that help to build their communities deserve a decent response from these communities. So, with the HSE, WHO, community groups and Alzheimers Ireland, they have been working to reach their goals.

He highlighted the Dementia Understand Together Campaign from 2014, which Kevin Quaid and others are championing. Posters and ad campaigns are in bus and train stations and Kevin has discussed the issue with Claire Byrne on her radio show.

So, what is a dementia friendly community?

Basically, it is where people with the disease and their families can participate in society. They have choice and control over what they want to do. They live free of stigma. This takes training and awareness. The first steps are to create a group of volunteers with leaders to meet regularly and follow the next steps.

Donal says the stigma can be overcome by a community being proud to be dementia friendly. To advertise it and highlight it, monitor progress, and remember that everyone can be involved. Community awareness workshops with shops, hotels, banks, representative of groups like the GAA, etc, and also putting up signs to indicate that the business is dementia friendly. This can be achieved over a cross section of the community.

Donal said the response locally has been fantastic and the work will begin immediately as people are eager to volunteer.

To learn more, visit www.alzheimers.ie or call 1800 341 341. Check out their Facebook and Twitter page or attend a tea day at Aindrias Moynihans office and at Killian Lynchs office on May 5 to learn more.
FOLLOWING an enforced absence of three years the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) South West Region held their youth day 2023 for Transition Year students from Cork and Kerry.

Up to 34 schools across both Cork and Kerry came together to celebrate the social justice projects that they have carried out throughout the year under the SVP Youth for Justice programme.

Some of the projects submitted helped to raise awareness of issues pertaining to disadvantage, inequality, support for senior citizens, and the establishment of St Vincent de Paul youth conferences in their schools.

Pictured at the recent South West Region YSVP Youths Day in the Clayton Silversprings Conference Centre were Anita Kelly, Youth Development Officer; Rose McGowan SVP National President and Paddy O'Flynn, Regional President SVP. Picture: Howard Crowdy

SVP South-West regional president Paddy OFlynn praised the students for their commitment in helping other people in their community.

Your inspiring projects are great, and it gives me great hope for the future to see your commitment to helping others in your communities. Across Cork and Kerry, there are 102 local SVP groups quietly working in their communities to help families and individuals in need, he said.

Mr OFlynn gave a detailed breakdown of the supports the national charity organisation provided in both Cork and Kerry last year.

Members of the Ballincollig Youth Reach Group pictured at their stand at the recent South West Region YSVP Youths Day in the Clayton Silversprings Conference Centre. Picture: Howard Crowdy

We provided 14,000 food hampers and 28,500 vouchers for food and essentials. 545 homes were assisted with electricity and gas bills and more than 9,425 bags of coal and blocks were delivered to heat homes. 620 families were assisted with education costs at primary and second level. 186 students were assisted through the SVP Education Bursary Fund to enable them to go to or stay in college.

The SVP regional president concluded his speech with advice for the TY students.

We live in a challenging world but one where you have many opportunities. Giving up is far too easy. Its often said that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Kristine Vilnite and Kirsten O'Mahony from the Ballincollig Youth Reach Group pictured with their own designed tee shirt at the recent South West Region YSVP Youths Day in the Clayton Silversprings Conference Centre. Howard Crowdy

Do you respond to your challenges or let them overcome you and become stuck in self-doubt? You already have the strength and tools to overcome any challenge you may face, he added.

SVP national president, Rose McGowan then addressed the students from the secondary schools in Cork and Kerry. She praised the students for their work and wished them well in their future careers and lives.

Ms McGowan said the St Vincent de Paul continues to address needs within their local communities. You all know the story about the Good Samaritan who helped a man who had been attacked by robbers and left for dead while others simply passed him by. Frederick Ozanam and St Vincent de Paul were both like the Good Samaritan.

Attending the recent South West Region YSVP Youths Day in the Clayton Silversprings Conference Centre were Patrick Daly, Ian Brophy and Luke Kelleher from Millstreet. Howard Crowdy

"They did not ignore disadvantage when they saw others turn away but helped those in need. To this day members, volunteers, and staff of Vincent de Paul continue this mission worldwide, working together to address needs within their local communities, she said.

She outlined the many benefits that are provided to families and communities by St Vincent de Paul.

Mia Gonzalez aand Emma Forde from Mount Mercy College seen at the South West YSVP Youths Day in the Clayton Silversprings Conference Centre in Cork. Picture: Howard Crowdy

We provide food, housing, education, and family supports to those in need so that they can become self-sufficient and not dependent on charity to survive. We also call out discrimination and inequality through our work in social justice.

The Youth for Justice programme gives young people like you an opportunity to play your part. After all you are the next generation. I wish you well in your future and I hope in time you play your part again in helping those in need. No doubt some of you may become members, she added.
A Cork city councillor has been left "surprised" and "disappointed" following news that a proposed zebra crossing at a busy junction near Scoil Padre Pio in Churchfield has been unsuccessful in securing funding from a Department of Transport scheme.

The need for a pedestrian crossing had been highlighted by local councillors and by parents of pupils in the school, who in 2021 petitioned for the crossing to be developed.

A public consultation process for a pedestrian crossing at the junction of St Colmcilles Road and Churchfield Way Lower commenced last August.

No submissions or observations were received by the deadline and the proposed crossing was subsequently approved by city councillors in September.

However, local representatives in the city's North-West ward were recently informed that the crossing has been unsuccessful in securing funding under the Department of Transports low cost safety improvement scheme.

Speaking to The Echo, Sinn Fein councillor Mick Nugent said he was surprised and disappointed by the update.

It went out for Section 38 planning process, which is a public consultation process.

My understanding was that it wouldnt have went out for Section 38 unless it was going to be funded."

I think there was a good case made for it [the pedestrian crossing] and the public engaged on the issue as well looking to see it happen and now its not happening, at this stage anyway," he said.

Mr Nugent said he will be seeking further information at the next council meeting and will be enquiring as to whether there are other funding streams the council could secure finance through to progress the crossing which he described as "much-needed" for the area.

He said local councillors were informed in recent days that the cost estimate for the crossing is 53,000.

Cork City Council previously stated that it recognised the need for the crossing to improve road safety at the location.

A report to councillors following the public consultation said the crossing would bring about a substantial improvement in pedestrian safety and connectivity in this area.
Tanaiste Micheal Martin recently launched an internet and technology safety agreement in a Cork city primary school.

Scoil Phadraig Naofa Primary School, Rochestown has established a whole school agreement that is designed to get the best possible use out of their IT and social media needs for the entire school community.

Scoil Phadraig Naofa principal, Edward McCarthy, explained: We worked over a period of 18 months with our pupils and parents to come and develop whole school guidelines. It brought the whole school community together to work for the best outcomes for the pupils. It wasnt about banning anything, it was about giving pupils the message that all technology isnt bad, he added.

Dr Maureen Griffin, who is a forensic psychologist and expert in the area of online safety, held several workshops with pupils and seminars with the school parent body.

(back row) Ashleigh O'Brien, Reiltin Flynn, Cillian McAuliffe, (front row) Chris Macklin, Sophie Leonard, Hugh O'Sullivan, all sixth class pupils at Scoil Phadraig Naofa, Rochestown, Cork.

This culminated in the Scoil Phadraig Naofa Internet and Technology agreement, explained Mr McCarthy, adding the agreement was compiled with the views of parents, staff and pupils all taken on board.

What came back really was the need for support for all, he said. Our focus was aimed at simplifying how best we can help our pupils and families. The main areas that people requested support in were the age of use, screen time, sleep guidelines, unknown online friends, and security privacy. We now have a document and school guidelines in respect of these areas.

This agreement will hopefully be able to protect the pupils online and enables the parents and teachers to give the same consistent message, he added.

It makes it easier for parents when they know what age they should perhaps introduce technology to their children.

"We will give advice on the amount of screen time, sleep guidelines, and what they should do if they encounter unknown people trying to contact them. It is all about getting that healthy balance between using it properly rather than giving the message about not using it at all.
Authorities near Houston, Texas, say they have caught a man suspected of killing five of his neighbours.

A nine-year-old boy was among those fatally shot with an AR-style rifle after the family confronted him late at night about firing rounds in his yard.

Francisco Oropeza, 38, was arrested on Tuesday, four days after the shooting late on Friday in the town of Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.

Mr Oropeza was arrested without incident not far from the site of the shooting, Sheriff Henderson said.

Acting on a tip, authorities said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.

Police had used drones and scent-tracking dogs during the wide search for Mr Oropeza that included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Mr Oropeza had fled the scene after the attack that also left four adults dead.

He said his deputies had been called to the suspects house at least one other time previously over shooting rounds in his yard.

Mr Oropeza will be charged with five counts of murder. His bond has been set at five million US dollars.

They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars, Sheriff Capers said of the families of the victims.

He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.

The arrest happened near Conroe, ending what had become a widening dragnet that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions and had seen $80,000 in reward money offered.

As recently as Tuesday morning, the FBI said that Mr Oropeza could be anywhere, underlining how investigators for days struggled to get a sense of his whereabouts and candidly acknowledged they had no leads.

The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15pm, and a little more than an hour later, Mr Oropeza was in custody, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul.

The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to US immigration officials.

All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Mr Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, nine.
With industrial action by city firefighters ongoing, a city councillor has called on the chief executive of Cork City Council to knock heads together and restore full service to Ballincollig Fire Station.

Ballincollig councillor Derry Cantys comments come as SIPTU members at Cork City Fire Brigade have said they will not engage with the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) until Cork City Council makes plain its proposals to resolve the current industrial dispute.

Members of Cork City Fire Brigade have taken to the picket lines over the past fortnight in an dispute over staffing levels, and the union has warned that the current work-to-rule will escalate.

SIPTU has said the dispute centres on the failure of Cork City Council to reinstate Ballincollig Retained Fire and Rescue Service, or to provide additional resources to Cork City Fire Brigade to cover Ballincollig.

It has been claimed that since Cork citys 2019 boundary extension, Cork City Fire Service now covers an area five times the size of its previous territory, with double the population of the old city while operating with the same number of trucks and personnel on each shift as before the citys expansion.

Ballincollig Fire Station closed in November 2021 as a result of staff shortages and firefighters are calling for it to be reopened with full-time employees and an additional fire truck to service the city.

A spokesperson for Cork City Council told The Echo: Cork City Council has fully engaged with the WRC and has accepted an invitation to attend a meeting with the unions in respect of the current industrial relations dispute.

However, a spokesperson for SIPTU said the union was ready, willing and able to engage but, as advised to the council both verbally and in writing, we require sight of the proposal that is being referred colloquially as Plan B before we engage with the WRC.

This is a mandated position by the affected SIPTU members and it is being taken because of previous and prevailing industrial relations circumstances within Cork city fire and rescue services, the spokesperson said.

Derry Canty, a Fine Gael city councillor, called on Cork City Councils chief executive to intervene and resolve the issue.

I am calling on Cork City Council management, and especially our chief executive Ann Doherty, to knock heads together and dont city council be blaming the union or the union be blaming city council, sit around the table and talk to each other, it can be sorted out, Cllr Canty said.

Mr Canty, who for many years before the city merger represented Ballincollig as a member of Cork County Council, expressed his frustration at the pace of works carried out by Cork City Council in Ballincollig since the town was incorporated into the city.

The most aggravating thing with Cork City Council as far as I can see is how long it takes to get anything done, he said.

I was inside with the chief executive, Ann Doherty, over two years ago, and I raised a number of issues, first of all the fire brigade, the next was the weir below in the Regional Park, and the straight road not being resurfaced, and everything is being put onto Oh thats not our department, this is their department.

What is annoying me and getting me more and more frustrated is the answers Im getting back. Cllr Canty said the closure of Ballincollig Fire Station could be blamed directly upon the city merger, and with it, he claimed, Ballincolligs retained fire brigade being recruited into the city.

I am being told by a lot of firemen in Cork city that if there is a major fire in the city, in Cork, if there are four appliances or three appliances, they would have to stay at that fire, and if there was a fire in Ballincollig at the same time, we would have to rely on Carrigaline, or Bandon, or Macroom, to come into Ballincollig, Cllr Canty said.

People here in Ballincollig are worried if there was a major fire in Ballincollig and there was something else happening in the city at the same time, where would priority go?

Cllr Canty said he and Fianna Fails Batt OKeeffe, who were both members of Cork County Council at the time, had been instrumental in securing a fire station for Ballincollig three decades or more ago.

Ballincollig was the biggest town in Cork County Council at the time and we fought for that fire station, and as soon as we went into the city at the time of the boundary extension, things went downhill with the fire service, and Im calling for them to restore our fire station.

Mr Canty said those who championed the merger with Cork city had won their argument and must now provide Ballincollig with the fire service it needed.
GARDAI carrying out a search of a Dubliner in Cork saw a bundle of 50 notes fall out of a duvet cover in a Penneys bag, and it turned out that it was money he had collected on a heroin debt.

Now Paul Geraghty, of 23 Swan Grove, Ranealagh, Dublin, faces sentencing for money-laundering over 3,000 by attempting to conceal the proceeds of illegal activities.

Detective Garda Robert Kennedy described 36-year-old Paul Geraghty as a convicted drug-dealer heavily involved in dealing heroin in Cork.

The incident occurred on Tuesday, October 5, 2021, when Garda Conor Cronin and Garda Noel Harrington were on plainclothes duty at the bus station on Parnell Place. They saw a man making his way to the Dublin bus, but before he stepped on to the bus, gardai identified themselves to Paul Geraghty.

Det Garda Kennedy testified at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that Geraghty was nervous and agitated and carrying a Penneys shopping bag. Because of his nervous behaviour he was informed he was going to be searched.

He had over 2,000 in cash in his jacket and shorts pockets. He refused permission to search him. He was handcuffed and brought to the Bridwell garda station.

During the search of the Penneys bag, the duvet cover set was removed from the back and as it was opened a roll of 50 notes in two hairbands fell out on the floor.

CCTV was then harvested which tracked the Dubliners movements from the moment of his arrival in Cork. He went to Penneys on Patrick St and bought some bedroom clothing and childs pyjamas.

He travelled by taxi to Cork University Hospital and then to Blackpool Shopping Centre where he went to Woodies. CCTV at the DIY store showed him meeting a known, convicted drug dealer from Cork.

They walked around the store and interactions between them were seen.

Later he got a Toyota Rav taxi to the bus station where gardai approached him. He told them he was in Cork to visit someone at CUH.

His phone was seized and examined. One text sent by him the previous day stated: Do your best for tomorrow. I will give you extra time. In another text, he wrote: I dont have much. Ill go for 200 grams of ted there.

Interviewed on six occasions following his arrest, Geraghty replied no comment to most of the questions asked.

Paula McCarthy, defence barrister, said: He exercised his right to silence but ultimately he came forward on a signed plea of guilty.

He had addiction issues. He is motivated to attend the Probation Service. He was collecting a drug debt  he was being paid for his role in that.

"That has not been contradicted by the evidence.

Donal OSullivan, prosecuting, said the State was concerned about the defendants lack of follow-through with the Probation Service, which put him at high risk of reoffending.

Judge Helen Boyle noted the plea of guilty to the charge which stated that on Tuesday, October 5, at the Bridewell Garda Station, in relation to property that is the proceeds of criminal conduct, namely 3,315, he was involved in concealing or disguising the true nature, source, location, disposition, movement or ownership of the property, contrary to Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010.

Judge Boyle said: You were collecting money from heroin users  collecting a drug debt. This conduct was intended to assist a criminal organisation. [The evidence is] that you were heavily involved in the sale or supply and collecting money from a heroin dealer.

The judge acceded to a defence application to adjourn sentencing until June 19 for the defendant to put in place certain arrangements for minding a relative but added: I will be imposing a custodial sentence.
PEPSI is expanding its production plant in Cork after Cork County Council gave the green light for the project on Tuesday.

Portfolio Concentrate Solutions UC (Pepsico Ireland) lodged plans for the expansion on December 9, 2022, at its site in Little Island Industrial Estate, Ballytrasna, Little Island, Co Cork.

The plans involve an expansion to the existing production building to provide an additional 3,252 sq m of floor space over four operational levels to a maximum height of 28.1m.

This will include the construction of 200 sq m of new concrete pavement at the south-west corner of the proposed building, and works in relation to 120 sq m of concrete paving at a site entrance on the north-east corner of the proposed building.

The plans entail the decommissioning and demolition of an underground surface water attenuation tank adjacent to the existing food flavours building, which requires the temporary removal and later reinstatement of car-parking space adjacent to the tank.

The development works include landscaping and underground services provisions with an overall site area of 1.07 hectares, including the provision of underground pipe connections to an existing underground tank for surface water management.

Cork County councillor Alan OConnor of the Green Party submitted that, should planners approve the application, that it be made a condition of any such grant that all lighting within the sites curtilage be directed downward and cowled, so as to limit any potential light pollution effect.

Such light should be temporally managed as well so as to be off when not in use.

He said that well-designed lighting of this nature should not interfere with passing traffic or cause any glare or additional light spill to adjoining properties.

The harbour area in particular has seen a good deal of development over the last decade and more, with associated light pollution, he said, adding that light pollution is a major contributory factor to environmental degradation and is relatively easily managed.

As such, it is one of the few potential quick fixes in the environmental crisis, he said.
A KERRY man and his adult son who own a house in Cork have rejected allegations made against them in a case where they were accused of ejecting tenants from this house  under counts for trespass, assault, and attempted theft of a phone.

Joseph Cuddigan, defence solicitor, said today that there had been widespread publicity about the case since the allegations were first described recently at Cork District Court.

I want to make it clear, my clients are pleading not guilty and do not accept the allegations that appeared in the general media concerning them, said Mr Cuddigan.

Judge Colm Roberts said to the solicitor: You have made your point  the media can duly note what you are saying.

Mr Cuddigan said earlier in the brief hearing that both defendants could be taken together and that a hearing date would be required for the case.

I would have thought the case will take half a day, he said.

Judge Roberts adjourned the case until June 20, with the two men remanded on continuing bail.

The judge said the defendants would be excused from appearing in person on that date, as it would only be mentioned for the purpose of setting a date for a district court trial.

Sergeant John Kelleher previously outlined that the alleged incident at the centre of the case occurred on August 11, 2022.

At 8am on that date, Daniel Lynch  accompanied by his son Donal  went to the property that they owned at 4 Nursery View, Glasheen Rd and changed the locks on the premises, he said.

They allegedly ejected the tenants by force and in the process allegedly assaulted a male and a female and attempted to steal a mobile phone from the male tenant.

Daniel Lynch, aged 62, from Moanmore, Castleisland, Co Kerry, and his son, 32-year-old Donal Lynch, of the same address, face the same four charges.

They have been charged with assaulting a man and a woman, attempting to commit theft  namely the mans mobile phone  and trespassing with intent to commit theft at the property at 4 Nursery View on Glasheen Rd, Cork.
-PYJ reacts to dismissal of Cooper Kruah

Speaking in an interview with the Voice of America Day Break Africa, on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR) Senator Prince Yormie Johnson, described President Weah's dismissal of Posts and Telecommunications Minister, Cllr. Cooper Kruah, as a political retaliation, but Liberia's Minister of Information Ledgerhood Rennie says, it is the sole prerogative of the President to hire and fire as provided by the Constitution.

Cllr. Kruah is chairman of Senator Johnson's MDR party, which has parted company with President Weah and joined the opposition Unity Party.

On Friday, April 28, 2023 he attended an opposition program in Monrovia during which former Vice President Joseph Boakai, picked MDR Standard Bearer, Senator Jeremiah Koung, as his vice running mate for the October elections.

But the minister crossed the red line with his presence at the opposition rally that enraged the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) with call for his dismissal.

Responding to the dismissal in an interview with the Voice of America early Tuesday, Senator Johnson revealed that he had advised Minister Kruah long time ago to resign, given that the marriage with the ruling CDC has since ended.

"You can't be a chairperson of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR) that is now opposed to George Weah government and at the same time you are a Telecommunications Minister in the very government that we oppose", he says.

He adds that if Minister Kruah could have listened to his advice, the minister could have resigned ever since.

According to PYJ, who is also a preacher, even on Sunday, April 30, he called Minister Kruah to the church office and few members of the Deacon board to advise him to resign, and the Minister promised to have resigned by today, Wednesday, or tomorrow, Thursday when he was booted out.

"For me, I don't think it was proper for Minister Kruah to have gone at the Executive Mansion to tell the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs to inform President George Weah that he will be resigning this week."

He recalls that former President Sirleaf employed opposition members in her administration and never dismissed them, but this is the style of the CDC-led government.

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He notes that MDR is a political party registered under the law of Liberia with incorporators from all 15 counties, so the party is open to collaboration and has no regret in having the opposition Unity Party choosing its political leader, Senator Jeremiah Koung as running mate to former Vice President Boakai, a decision he describes as good news for the people of Nimba County, for development and good news for the Liberian people who want to see a real fight for change.

However, Information Minister Ledgerhood Rennie, counters that members of the cabinet and the executive serve at the pleasure of the President, as provided for in Articles 54,55 and 56 of the Constitution so, the President can hire and dismiss at will.

Minister Rennie further argues the timing doesn't matter because the Constitution provides that anytime the President can exercise this constitutional authority.

He says the suggestion of political retribution by Sen. Johnson is obscene because the President is simply exercising his constitutional powers, adding that the President doesn't need to consult anyone before acting.


THE current closure of Ballincollig Fire Station and the resulting decrease in the number of operational fire trucks in the city is a health and safety issue for every man, every woman, and every child in Cork City, a Cork TD has claimed.

Socialist Party TD for Cork North Central Mick Barry raised the ongoing dispute over the station in the Dail today, backing calls for it to be immediately reinstated.

Ballincollig Fire Station has been closed since late 2021 as efforts to recruit for a retained fire service have been unsuccessful.

Siptu members employed as firefighters in Cork City commenced limited industrial action a fortnight ago in a bid to see the station reopened, with members claiming that a lack of resources is endangering members and public safety.

Speaking in the Dail, Mr Barry pointed to claims that since the citys boundary extension in 2019, Cork City Fire Service covers an area five times the size of the old city with the same number of full-time staff and now one less fire appliance since Ballincollig has been closed.

I believe that this is a health and safety issue for every man, every woman and every child in Cork City, he said.

Mr Barry said the stringent criteria associated with the retained fire service is not realistic for those in an urban environment.

It may be possible to recruit retained firefighters in smaller, rural communities  though clearly the wages will need to be raised  but in urban areas, the requirement to be able to report for duty within three to five minutes is not realistic and there are simply no takers, he said.

Cork City firefighters have volunteered to staff Ballincollig and to bring the fourth fire truck into play while the council recruit more staff, be they full-time or retained, but for more than two years now their offer has been spurned.

Mr Barry said there is now a crisis around the recruitment and retainment of retained firefighters and that the State must step up recruitment of full-time staff.

He also asked Taoiseach Leo Varadkar if he has concerns over the ongoing dispute in Cork City.

This is a live issue and because its an industrial relations matter, Im limited as to what I can say in the House, but I do understand that Cork City Council has invited Siptu to talks with a view to finding a solution to this dispute and remain available to meet staff representatives, Mr Varadkar said in relation to the latter.

The city council is also engaging with the Workplace Relations Commission, he said.

Regarding the retained fire service generally, Mr Varadkar said he understands that there are negotiations ongoing with unions and representatives of the retained fire service.

It relates to rostering, it relates to pay and conditions and it relates to recruitment and all of these things are on the table and I know Minister [Darragh] OBrien is actively involved in this and hopes that it can be concluded by the summer, he said.

In respect to the current industrial relations dispute, a spokesperson for Cork City Council said: Cork City Council has fully engaged with the WRC and has accepted an invitation to attend a meeting with the unions in respect of the current industrial relations dispute.
A motorist has been jailed for a month and banned from driving for eight years for driving a black Saab car while already disqualified.

36-year-old Jason Ring of 60 Bride Valley View, Fairhill, Cork, pleaded guilty to driving without licence or insurance on April 11.

Sergeant John Kelleher outlined the background to the recent incident.

He said the accused was stopped by gardai on April 11 when he was driving a black Saab at speed on Kilmore Road, Cork, and that he had no insurance and was disqualified from driving at the time. That was a five-year disqualification.

Judge Colm Roberts said motorists put themselves at risk of a custodial sentence when they drove while disqualified.

I will always listen to exceptional circumstances (that require driving) that cannot be resolved by getting a taxi, Judge Roberts said.

After listening to the submission in mitigation made by the defendants solicitor, Frank Buttimer, the judge said it was not being advanced that any need for transport could not have been resolved by getting a taxi.

In those circumstances the judge said, He has to go to prison.

The judge imposed a sentence of four months  last three months suspended.

Furthermore, an eight-year disqualification was imposed on Jason Ring at Cork District Court.
Eimear Dodd

A rucksack and an iPad were found near a church in Sligo the day after an alleged attack on security men at a repossessed farm in Co Roscommon, a trial has heard.

The jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told that at around 5am on December 16th, 2018, a group of approximately 30 armed men, some wearing balaclavas, arrived at a repossessed rural property at Falsk, just outside Strokestown, Co Roscommon and attacked four of the security guards present.

Patrick Sweeney (44), of High Cairn, Ramelton, Co Donegal; Martin O'Toole (58), of Stripe, Irishtown, Claremorris, Co Mayo; Paul Beirne (56), of Croghan, Boyle, Co Roscommon; and David Lawlor (43), of Bailis Downs, Navan, have pleaded not guilty to 17 charges each at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Each man is separately charged with false imprisonment of and assault causing harm to four security personnel at Falsk on December 16th, 2018. Each defendant is also charged with aggravated burglary, as well as four charges of arson concerning a car and three vans allegedly set alight.

The four men are also each charged with criminal damage to a door of the house, violent disorder, robbery of a wristwatch from security guard John Graham and, finally, causing unnecessary suffering to an animal by causing or permitting an animal to be struck on the head.

At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday, Noel Fairbanks gave evidence that he found items including books, loose papers and a bag in a drain at Aughanagh Church, Co Sligo at around 2pm on December 17th, 2018. He said the church is around 50 yards off the N4/Dublin to Sligo road.

Mr Fairbanks told Anne Rowland SC, prosecuting, that he does not recall seeing a plastic box at the scene, but that he didn't look too closely. He said he called gardai and waited with the items until officers arrived. A black rucksack was shown to Mr Fairbanks and he agreed it was the same bag.

Gda Patrick Ruddy confirmed that he went to Aughanagh Church, met Mr Fairbanks and was shown a black rucksack with a plastic box beside it. The garda said there was black iPad and cover in the bag, while the box contained letters, papers and three books. These objects were shown to the garda witness, who agreed they were the same items found at the scene.

Gda Ruddy said he attempted to access the iPad, but it was password-protected. Under cross-examination, Gda Ruddy confirmed these items had not been sent for forensic analysis.

An ambulance driver gave evidence that he attended the property at Falsk on December 16th, 2018, and took Ian Gordon, owner of GS Agencies, to hospital. He said Mr Gordon complained of rib pain at the scene and had cuts to his head and arm and had suspected smoke inhalation.

Jurors also heard evidence from an engineer about the locations of telecommunication base stations and their potential areas of coverage. Maps were provided to the jurors.

Under cross-examination, the engineer said he used a tool employed by network operators to generate the maps and had not carried out any measurements in the field. He agreed with Seamus Clarke SC, for Mr Lawlor, that it was possible for a handset to change between telecommunication base stations while remaining static, but that it was more likely that a change between cell sites would indicate movement.

The trial continues before Judge Martina Baxter and a jury.
Eimear Dodd

An American actor who harassed an Irish woman over a three-year period has been sentenced to two years in prison, with the final year suspended.

Steven Spenneberg (55), of Oakshire Drive, Los Angeles, California, was sent forward on a signed plea from the District Court for harassing a woman on dates between May 10th, 2020 and January 3rd, 2023.

Passing sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Orla Crowe described Spennebergs harassment as unwanted, unwarranted, persistent and repeated and noted it had a profound impact on the woman.

Judge Crowe said like so many Irish students, the woman had travelled on a J1 visa to the United States in 2003.

The court heard the woman had formed a brief romantic relationship with Spenneberg, during which they exchanged contact information, but on her return to Ireland, the woman told him she no longer wished to continue their relationship.

However, Spenneberg, who was living in Los Angeles, continued to contact her directly and indirectly by various means, including phone, email and social media. The woman complained to gardai, who took the matter seriously and got in touch with Spenneberg to tell him to stop contacting her.

Judge Crowe said Spenneberg was told clearly and unequivocally by third parties, including gardai and Kentucky police, on several occasions to stop contacting the woman, but he persisted.

The woman blocked him from all her social media accounts and changed her contact details, but he changed his account name and made further contact.

Podcast

Garda Shauna Ferncombe gave evidence that Spenneberg emailed the woman on May 10th, 2020 asking her to appear on his podcast with a view to promoting a project she was involved with.

The court heard the woman received two voicemails, one email, two Instagram friend requests and one message on social media during 2020, asking her to unblock an account from Spenneberg.

The woman also made a report to gardai on June 17th, 2022, about a voicemail from Spenneberg on June 13th in which he said he had lost his job and asked her: What he was waiting for?

Gda Ferncombe confirmed she listened to the voicemail, in which Spenneberg also said he was desperate, adding: Desperate people do desperate things.

Spenneberg came to Ireland on December 31st, 2022, and went to a commercial premises connected with the woman's family in Munster.

He made enquiries about her and spoke with her parents. The court heard that when the woman's father asked him what his business was, Spenneberg walked away.

Spenneberg was arrested on January 7th, 2023, at a location in the south of the country. He has been in custody since.

When interviewed, Spenneberg told gardai he wasn't inclined to stop, as he wanted to hear from the woman herself that she did not want any further contact. He told gardai he did not take their calls seriously as it seemed insane that an international police force would contact him.

He said he would have stopped all contact if the woman had told him directly to stop.

Spenneberg told gardai he thought some of the woman's social media posts were a way for her to contact him without other people knowing. He accepted he had tried to contact her on several social media platforms.

Gda Ferncombe disagreed with a suggestion put forward by Kieran Kelly BL, defending, that Spenneberg was chivalrous in going to speak with the woman's family.

Spenneberg told gardai he visited the Wild Atlantic Way and Dublin between December 31st, 2022, the date of his arrival in Ireland, and his arrest on January 7th. Gda Ferncombe said she was not aware if Spenneberg made any attempts to contact the woman during that period.

Regret

Gda Ferncombe disagreed with Mr Kelly's suggestion that Spenneberg was motivated by a genuine belief to see if there had been something worth re-kindling between the woman and himself. She also did not accept that his voicemail to the woman could be interpreted in other ways.

Mr Kelly said his client regretted his actions and was now aware there was no prospect of a relationship with the complainant.

Mr Kelly said there was no malicious intent behind Spennebergs actions, but rather a misdirected perception and that he was sorry.

Counsel said Spenneberg has described himself as pro-women and pro-feminism. Spenneberg has a career as an actor and a podcast host. He also worked as an entertainer in Disneyworld and Seaworld, the court heard.

Judge Crowe set a headline sentence of three years, but reduced this to two years with 12 months suspended on the basis of mitigating factors, including Spennebergs guilty plea and the fact that he would be in custody far from home.

The sentence was backdated to January 7th this year.

Spenneberg was ordered to stay away from and have no contact, directly or indirectly, with the injured party, on a permanent basis, by any means whatsoever.

He was further ordered to stay away from her family, friends, co-workers and professional cohort, and not publish or upload any photos or details pertaining to the woman, including her name, address or any identifying details.

The final 12 months of the sentence were suspended for a period of three years.
AHMADI Muslim Women of Ireland held a centennial celebration event in Ballincollig Community Hall to commemorate the completion of 100 years of their womens organisation.

The celebration was attended by 35 members and 10 guests, including Cork City Lord Mayor Deirdre Forde, members of An Garda Siochana, local school principals, and women from various backgrounds.

The event began with the recitation of the Holy Quran, followed by English and Irish translations.

After that, a presentation was given on the founding of the womens organisation, its charitable work in Cork, and its efforts to promote integration in line with the slogan of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association: Love for All, Hatred for None.

The Lord Mayor, Deirdre Forde, congratulated the Ahmaddiya womens group and said: Your ideas and your objectives are of the highest order. I want to commend you for playing your role and your part in making our community better in Ballincollig or wherever you are from throughout the city and the county.

"I want to commend you for what you give back to us, to our citizens, and to our community. I wish you many happy years, and I hope I will have the opportunity of coming again.

The National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Women Association, Najia Malik said: Many women and girls travel tens of miles to collect water for their families every day, which is often contaminated with dangerous pathogens. So, we have decided to donate 10 water pumps in Mali, providing clean and sustainable water, reducing disease, freeing families, and giving children back their childhood.

The session concluded with a silent prayer, followed by lunch and gift distribution to all guests. The guests appreciated the Asian dinner and treats which were prepared by the members of AMWA.

AMWA has been working tirelessly to spread love, generosity, sisterhood, and peace around the world. All Ahmadi Muslims adhere to two guiding principles: honoring the rights owed to God and fulfilling the obligations toward Gods creation

The Lord Mayor with members of the South west Region Ahmadi Muslim Women of Ireland.

A representative of the group, Ballincollig-based Faiza Shahid says women have an important role in this branch of Islam.

The women of the community have a huge role and responsibility. We are responsible for the moral training of the next generation so that they grow up to be responsible members of society, giving back to their communities. Education and learning is promoted by the women.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is a revival movement within Islam that was founded in 1889.

It is the only Islamic organisation that believes the Messiah has come in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908).

Jesus Christ was our prophet, explains Faiza.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, born in India, was sent by God to end religious wars and reinstate morality, justice and peace. A century ago, Ahmad declared that an aggressive Jihad by the sword has no place in Islam. In its place, he taught his followers to wage a bloodless intellectual Jihad of the pen to defend Islam. With this goal, Ahmad wrote over 80 books and tens of thousands of letters as well as delivering lectures and taking part in public debates. His rational defence of Islam is a source of disquiet for conventional Muslim thinking. And the Ahmadiyya Community is the only Islamic organisation to endorse a separation of mosque and state.

Faiza says there are about 40 members of the Ahmadiyya group in Cork out of more than 3,500 Muslims here. She and her fellow members believe that Ahmad was the reformer of this age. Other Muslims are still waiting for the Messiah.

Born in Dubai, Faizas family have been members of the Ahmadiyya organisation since her grandfather joined it.

The teachings of Islam are an integral part of my life.

She adds that her beliefs give her clarity, peace and contentment as well as the drive to become a better person.

Islamic extremists have given the religion a bad reputation with terrorist atrocities carried out in the name of Islam.

Faiza said: Islam means peace. The terrorism is unrelated to Islamic teaching. Terrorism in the name of Islam is less than 50 years old despite the fact Islam is about 1,400 years old. There is a lot of evidence that (terrorist organisations) have a political objective. They justify their actions through political motives rather than religious ones.

"The majority of Muslims worldwide live in peace and condemn terrorism because its not part of our teaching.

With the world in a precarious state given the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Sudan and the rise of the far-right, Faiza says: We are on the edge of World War III. We have to be peaceful, we have to talk to each other and control the situation.

The Lord Mayor Cllr Deirdre Forde with AMWA members and other guests.

On the differing roles of the sexes, Faiza says that Islam places the responsibility for providing food, clothing and shelter on men.

If the wife is earning, she can keep her money for herself. One of our members in Dublin is a primary school teacher. Its difficult to get a job as a primary teacher if you are a Muslim in Ireland. Another female member, a Harvard graduate, is a professor of neuroscience in Dublin. All women in our organisation are allowed to work.

Mother-of-two, Faiza, who is married to a German Muslim, chooses to stay at home to look after her children aged seven and nine.

Faiza wears a hijab and a long coat when she goes out. While the world was convulsed in anger when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in Iranian police custody following her arrest by the countrys morality police for violating hijab laws, Faiza insists: There is no law that punishes a woman for not wearing the headscarf. No-one has the authority to deliberately force a woman to wear a hijab.

But why wear a hijab and Burqa at all?

Women in my community are educated so they can understand the wisdom and benefits of the beautiful teaching of Islam in relation to modesty. Out of their own free will, they choose to follow the example of Mary, mother of Jesus, who is always shown covered modestly.

I choose to cover myself. I actually feel more confident covered. I dont have to worry about my physical appearance.

I cover my head  but not my brain. Covering yourself completely is what modesty is all about.

Islams goal is to summon mankind to the one God almighty to spread the message of morality and righteousness.

Faiza believes that death is followed by a day of judgement. She says that God/Allah is very forgiving.
THERE are people who walk among us who have lived a life full of stories. Chapter after chapter of adventure and happiness, tragedy and redemption.

Dorothy OTuama is the founder of OTuama Tours. These days, she is best known for leading tours of Johnny Lynchs buffalo farm near Macroom. How this came to be is an epic tale of hard work, determination, loss and love.

Born in Inchigeelagh in 1963, Dorothy is the fourth eldest of 11 siblings. Her parents took over the running of her fathers family business there, The Lake Hotel, in 1957.

After they married, Dorothys mother moved to Inchigeelagh working in the hotel kitchen and her father worked front of house. The 11 children were all roped in: Maybe thats why they had so many of us! she quips.

I was desperately close to my mother, an aunt said I was always hanging onto her. She worked in the hotel her whole life; she was a wonderful cook and chef. I loved being in the kitchen with her.

Dorothy and her siblings were sent to boarding schools across Munster. She first went to Bruff, Limerick and later to Macroom. With family ties stretching to Sheeps Head, Glengarriff, Gougane Barra, Cork city and Kanturk, Dorothys life is intimately woven into the fabric of the region.

I always knew I wanted to be in the hotel, she says. I saw an ad in the paper for a hotel management course at the Metropole in Cork. I stayed there for three years; it was a stepping stone: I was planning on going to England. At the time, thats where everyone was going because there was no work here.

I witnessed Ella Fitzgerald falling over her fur coat coming into the Metropole; I checked Phil Lynott into reception, and he told me I had beautiful green eyes. I met Rita Coolidge at the start of the Jazz (festival). It was an incredible time, and we worked so hard.

I woke up every morning with Thompsons bakery across the way and the smell of fresh bread. It just seemed to me I was in the right place and on the right track.

Dorothy learned her passion was in the food and hospitality business. But, at the time in Ireland, the kitchen was no place for a woman, a male dominated space where even a publicans daughter like Dorothy, couldnt find a foothold in the heat of a commercial kitchen.

Dorothy O'Tuama. Picture: Kate Ryan

She left Cork and travelled to London with a good friend in 1981, just 18 years old, and stayed working for two and a half years, going hotel to hotel. Eventually, she saved up enough money to buy an Interrail ticket and took off around Europe for two months.

A few years before, Dorothy had met Padraig OTuama, a Ballingeary man, at a Ceili dance.

We kept in touch in letters while I was in London. Then, one year I came home for Christmas, and he asked me to marry him.

Padraigs job as a Coillte forester meant their early married life was spent moving frequently from place to place. Wherever Padraig went, Dorothy followed, picking up work easily in hotels in Blarney, Avoca in county Wicklow, Limerick and Clonmel.

I went for an interview at Clonmel Arms Hotel with Brendan Petit, very famous hotelier, and got a job as a housekeeper. Before I knew it, I was back in the kitchen. I loved working there, and Clonmel was a vibrant town, but I was 27 and I thought it was time to settle down. I was getting broody, I suppose.

Dorothy and Padraig welcomed their first son, Tadgh, in 1993, followed by their daughter, Ailish, two years later. When Ailish was nine months, Dorothy got itchy feet.

Soon after, it was announced the Irish supermarket chain, Superquinn, were coming to town.

They were looking for staff, I knew they did good food, and I loved their Dublin shop. I got the job of deli supervisor in the Clonmel branch.

Dorothy recalls her time working at Superquinn as one of the most supportive of her career. But her memories are tinged with a great tragedy. While there, she fell pregnant with her third child, Eamonn.

I had a desperate chest infection when I had him and had to go straight to Cork. When he was born, he seemed to be unwell, but everyone said he was fine, so we went home.

The next few weeks, Dorothys son was repeatedly with doctors who were trying to understand why he was struggling with breathing and moving one moment, and then hyperactive the next. She knew something was wrong.

My sister visited us one day and commented Eamonn was breathing too fast - he was blue in the face from it. He almost died on the way to hospital. A few days later, I ran to the doctor and said theres something wrong with my son; hes dying in my hands.

Eamonn was rushed to Crumlin hospital where, eventually, he was diagnosed with a mitral valve heart defect, but couldnt be operated on until he was two years old.

Superquinn were just unbelievable, she recalls. Whatever time I needed; they gave.

"For seven months, it went between being at home and everything well, to Eamonn going into heart failure and rushed to Crumlin.

As his health deteriorated, Eamonn was scheduled for surgery. Although the operation was successful, the long-term effect of his condition and repeated episodes of heart failure left him too weak to recover, and tragically, Eamonn lost his battle for life.

We had a precious window of five hours; he died in our arms at 1.33am. In time, we came to think of him like a racehorse: he was in prime condition, this was his life, he had nine and a half months, he affected so many people with his gorgeous smile, and he just did the best he could.

I was desperately upset and really broken, but I didnt want to finish the family on a death. So, we threw caution to the wind, and nine months later we had another baby  Fionn. Thats what saved my life.

Dorothy O'Tuama.

While the tragedy left her broken, its also the fuel that keeps driving her on. After Superquinn, her career went from employee to employer when she took over the lease of a coffee shop in Clonmel and opened OTuamas Cafe.

It was on Market Place in Clonmel. I wanted to get away from what I was doing, and any chance I could get to be in a kitchen and cook, Id take it.

OTuamas Cafe opened its doors in 1999 and it snowballed into this amazing restaurant that was really busy, Bridgestone Guide awarded, we made everything on site, there were queues out the door and it became an enormous success.

Dorothy ran the business successfully for seven years before selling it as a going concern in 2006.

I walked out the door. I did feel relief in one way, but I also felt awful. I had some amazing customers who had supported me through thick and thin. But I thought, no, family first now. My parents were getting elderly; daddy had vascular dementia and I knew mummy would need help with him, so we came back.

I just loved being free. I knew I could always make biscuits and cakes if I was stuck for a few bob, but Padraig was doing very well at work, we had a lovely life, a lovely home and things were going great.

Dorothys father passed away peacefully aged 86, but after she noticed her mothers mental health declining.

Mummy was struggling afterwards, and every now and again she would be crying, recalls Dorothy. We had become great friends, she loved what I was doing, and shed listen to all my stories, but she was definitely a little bit depressed.

One night in 2014, on the way home from working as a consultant at Blarney Woollen Mills, Dorothys brother, John, called.

My mother hadnt been great, and Id asked my brother to come down from Dublin because I was concerned. John was inside the house, door wide open. Her coat and keys were there, but no sign of mammy. I knew something wasnt right, she wouldnt go out without her coat. It was February. She was found the next day in the river  she had turned herself in.

After that, Dorothy says, she felt even more driven to her family, to get on with yourself and do what you want to do to get by.

Buffalo Cheese Platter. Picture: Kate Ryan

Once again, an advert in the local paper caught Dorothys eye - for a tour guide course.

I knew I was never again going to work in a hotel or a kitchen  there was no going back to that life without my mother, my son, or the old me. There was too much of my experience of growing up with her and the expertise she gave me. But I love to talk! I love tour guiding; I love this place. I dont want to be waffling on about Cromwell, I want to talk about food and culture and whats its like to be Irish today. I have a passion for telling a story and learning, and I didnt need a degree in English or history; its about the guide, the story and having the craic. Its about bringing culture to life for people.

In search of a place that embodied Dorothys interests, she approached Johnny Lynch and asked if he was interested in having an accredited tour guide giving tours of his buffalo farm.

He said absolutely, and would I look after all of it for him? Johnny could see there was an interest and something there he could do to share the story of the farm, but he didnt have the time. We got on straight away.

That collaboration developed into a successful tour business for both Dorothy and Johnny and is the only way to visit this unique farm enterprise.

Its been such a positive experience, she says.

For Dorothy now, life is about simplicity and drawing every ounce of enjoyment from what she does.

I should be proud of it all. Im extremely proud of my children and my husband: My Four. These are the things that shape you; the beautiful way people minded us, and the families that came around us.

Ive always got an ear out for someone who loses a child, or who dont or cant have children.

Im grateful for what I have; Ive worked hard at it, and Ill never take any of it for granted.

For more on the tours and tastings see https://www.otuamatours.ie/




UK introduces ASF communication campaign reaching out to Romanian community

The United Kingdom's Defra has introduced a new African swine fever (ASF) communications campaign targeting the UK's Romanian community, in response to concerns over the specific of imported pork from Romania.

Romania has one of the highest ASF infection rates in Europe. It reported 34 outbreaks in domestic pigs between late-January and late-April, including a farm with more than 16,000 pigs. The virus was also detected in 219 wild boar during the period, according to the Animal and Plant Health Agency. The whole of Romania remains under ASF restrictions.

A recent UK government report outlining the government's plans to finally introduce new checks on imports from this autumn, under its Border Target Operating Model (TOM), admitted that insufficient import controls currently in place have resulted in meat being on sale in UK retailers that poses a "serious and immediate" ASF disease threat to the UK pig herd.

The products were commercial exports properly pre-notified on the UK imports system, brought in by two UK importers and linked to over 280 retail outlets in the UK.

Writing in the latest issue of Pig World, NPA senior policy adviser Charlie Dewhirst pointed out that the illegal importation of pigmeat from countries unable to export due to ASF, such as Romania, pose an equally big threat.

"These loads are never going to be officially certified and are most likely arriving in vehicles using the tourist lanes through ports," he said.

Following advice from NPA, Defra has now an awareness campaign specifically targeting this risk. "There has been advertising to those searching for flights to the UK from Eastern Europe and geotargeting for those using devices around common points of entry such as Luton and Stansted airport, as well as areas with a known population of Romanian people," Dewhirst said.

The government is also working with a specialist marketing agency on other communications with the Romanian community, such as Romanian language publications and signage at ports and airports, all of which the NPA has been engaged with.

"Ultimately, it shows that the battle to prevent ASF reaching the UK will have to be fought on two fronts. The TOM will hopefully go a long way to addressing any unlawful activity in the commercial supply chain but tackling the illegal importation of pork will be far harder," Dewhirst added. "It is not feasible to stop every vehicle in the tourist lanes coming into the UK without causing chaos at the ports. However, better targeting will help and the government must continue and expand its current work on border checks and ASF awareness."

- Pig World




Davao, Philippines, plans to deliver chicken products to Sennan City, Osaka, Japan

The city government of Davao, the Philippines, aims to export chicken products to Sennan City, Osaka prefecture, Japan, this year, a city councilor said.

"Right now, we see that the potential product to export to Sennan City is chicken because their restaurants are finding it hard to find sources for chicken," said Bernard E. Al-ag, trade, commerce and industry chair of the Davao City council.

Al-ag pointed out that restaurants in Sennan City are experiencing chicken shortage as most of their chickens are imported from Brazil in South America. He added that Davao City can produce enough to export to neighboring countries.

Sennan City prefers ready-to-cook chicken cuts, according to Al-ag.

"Yes, we are capable (of exporting chicken cuts) we also need laborers to cut these (chicken)," he said.

The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shows that the Davao Region produced 38,856,985 dressed poultry as of 2021. Of that number, around 99.88% came from Davao del Sur, which includes Davao City.



- SunStar




Taiwan's Consumers' Foundation opposes lifting ban on Canadian beef imports

Taiwan's Consumers' Foundation opposed the country's Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) proposal to lift a ban on imports of Canadian beef from cattle older than 30 months, Taipei Times reported.

Taiwan's FDA issued a draught amendment to the Directions for Imported Beef and Beef Products from the US and Canada on Thursday, kicking off a 30-day public comment period.

According to the foundation, it has only been about a year since the last case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, was reported in Canada, and concerns have yet to be addressed.

Lifting the ban now would jeopardise public health and government accountability, it said.

The foundation said FDA's assessment process is flawed, and it urges people to boycott the products if the ban is lifted.

In 2015, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed the presence of mad cow disease in Canadian cattle, which was later linked to contaminated feed. Another case was reported in 2021, prompting South Korea, China, and the Philippines to suspend Canadian beef imports.

In response, the FDA said that data suggests that Canadian beef from cattle older than 30 months poses no health risk.

FDA Director-General Wu Shou-mei said the decision was made in accordance with appropriate procedures, including a risk assessment and specialist advisory committee, and data suggests that only about one in every five billion people would be at risk from eating BSE-infected cattle.

- Taipei Times




Dutch livestock farmers to receive compensation for closing breeding sites

The European Commission has approved two new schemes proposed in the Netherlands that would compensate livestock farmers in certain areas who choose to close their breeding sites voluntarily, Agriland reported.

The primary goal of the new Dutch schemes, which will cost EUR 1.47 billion (~US$1.62 billion; EUR 1 = US$1.10) in total, is to reduce nitrogen deposition on nature conservation areas.

Because any farmer who signs up for the new schemes must agree that their decision to stop breeding is definitive and irreversible, the proposed schemes will effectively reduce livestock numbers in the Netherlands.

They must also agree not to initiate a similar breeding programme elsewhere in the Netherlands or the European Union (EU).

The proposed schemes were evaluated by the European Commission under EU State aid rules, which allow aid for the full or partial closure of production capacity for environmental reasons.

The new Dutch schemes will be limited to small and medium-sized livestock farmers in the Netherlands who agree to stop breeding voluntarily if their current nitrogen deposition load exceeds certain minimum levels.

The new schemes, LBV and LBV, will compensate livestock farmers who agree to the definitive closure of livestock husbandry sites in Natura 2000 areas voluntarily.

Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission's executive vice-president in charge of competition policy, said the EUR 1.47 billion (~US$1.62 billion) Dutch schemes approved will make voluntary closure of livestock farming sites with significant nitrogen deposition on nature conservation areas possible.

Farmers who participate in the EUR 500 million (~US$552 million) LBV scheme will be compensated directly for 100% of the losses incurred by the closure of their dairy cattle, pig, and poultry breeding sites, particularly those relating to the loss of production capacity and production rights. The breeding site must meet certain minimum levels of nitrogen deposition load per year to be eligible for the compensation package.

The EUR 975 million (~US$1.07 billion) LBV plus scheme will only be available to peak-load emitting breeding sites that emit a high level of nitrogen per year as a minimum.

- Agriland
-Neufville condemns Gray, Chie's attack against U.S. Ambassador

Amb. Rufus Neufville has condemned Liberian Senate President Pro-Tempore Albert Chie's verbal attacks against U.S. Ambassador Michael McCarthy as reckless, useless, childish and unnecessary.

In an exclusive interview with this paper Tuesday, 2 May 2023 in Monrovia, Neuville, a former Montserrado Representative, warned Mr. Chie and Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC)-led government to stop attacking the U.S. Ambassador and address the problems he raised.

In his attempt to react to Amb. McCarthy's report about how the elite in Monrovia treats destitute citizens with neglect, Chie claimed that it has been alleged that the Ambassador is an opposition supporter.

Additionally, Chie accused the U.S. Envoy of allegedly spreading falsehood to strengthen the opposition because this is an election year.

Mr. McCarthy released a report last week and said the elite in Monrovia are treating destitute citizens in the leeward counties 'with a neglect that borders on contempt.'

The U.S. Envoy said in a press statement that while hospitals went without, and service centers withered on the vine, Liberia's 30 senators and 73 representatives spent sixty-five million U.S. dollars feathering their nests.

Contrary to Chie's assertions, Mr. Neufville, Liberia's former Chief of Protocol, extended an open apology to McCarthy and the United States Government at large on behalf of the Liberian people.

He said what Chie and the CDC regime did was 'high level of ingratitude' displayed.

"What the ambassador said is true and I am particularly concerned about the Pro-Tempore's statement, referring to the Ambassador's statement and his personality as an opposition supporter," Neufville said.

"I am also disappointed in Representative Moses A. Gray for such a reckless and irresponsible statement he made against the US Ambassador," Neufville added.

He further condemned the Ministry of Information for its recent press statement.

Neufville claimed that over the past twelve years, Rep. Gray has not given the people of Montserrado Electoral District #8 any report, but talks about a transparent and objective man.

"This man is unfit to question anything concerning good governance in this country," Mr. Neufville noted.

He believes that if the United States withdraw support from Liberia today, the country will collapse because Liberians depend on foreign aids to survive and run their government.

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Mr. Neufville reminded Chie, Gray and the CDC regime that the United States is Liberia's biggest partner.

He cautioned them that it will be a blow for Liberia if the U.S withdraws its support.

Neufville suggested that it's true that Liberians are suffering and they are not receiving the necessary healthcare and living conditions they deserve.

According to Neufville, various government hospitals in Monrovia including the JFK, and Redemption, among others, are also out of drugs while citizens are dying of curable diseases.

"The United States Ambassador raised the red flag that what the people should get ... they are not getting it."

"Lawmakers in this country, I need not tell you about their level of corruption. I have often said that there [is] 5% good lawmakers, and 95% thieves and hustlers," Neufville alleged.




Freshly slaughtered pork returns to Singapore shelves after supply disruption

Koh Poh Koon, Singapore's to Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment, said freshly slaughtered pork has returned to Singapore supermarket shelves and will be distributed to wet markets, Channel News Asia reported.

Dr Koh said that operations at the local abattoir have resumed with shipments of live swine from Sarawak, Malaysia.

The supply of freshly slaughtered pork was temporarily disrupted beginning April 23 when the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) suspended the import of live pigs from Pulau Bulan in Indonesia after African swine fever (ASF) was detected in some swine carcasses from a livestock consignment.

SFA collaborated with the abattoir to clean the premises and surrounding area.

Dr Koh said that while investigations at the Pulau Bulan farm are ongoing, the supply of freshly slaughtered pork has resumed.



He thanked the industry and stallholders for their resilience during this period by adapting to alternative pork options such as chilled or frozen.

- Channel News Asia




FAO works with Laos to boost cattle exports to China

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is partnering with Laos' Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to facilitate safer cattle trade between the country and China, with the key objective of increasing cattle exports to China.

Through the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Project on Transboundary Animal Disease Control in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, the FAO's Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases has provided the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry with disinfectant, disinfectant sprayers and vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease and goat pox for cattle, Lao News Agency reported on April 26.

Technical experts provided technical know-how and training courses on animal quarantine management to Lao animal quarantine and health officers, farmers, livestock traders and village veterinary workers in the Sing district of Luang Namtha province, a border area between Laos and China.

At least 40,000 cattle will be protected against livestock diseases through the vaccination campaigns in all five districts of Luang Namtha province, according to the FAO.

- Xinhua
About 57 Liberians are benefiting from the capacity-building opportunity provided by the People's Republic of China.

The Program is part of China's Aid Human Resource Program.

Those benefiting from such a golden opportunity were selected from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and they are 25 persons. Another 25 were selected from the Liberia National Police, (LNP), and 7 from the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Medical Center's Chain-Liberia Paired Hospital Cooperation Project, Cardiology Medical Staff Training Course has seven persons.

These 57 Liberians who are going for the short-term course are expected to depart the country on May 5, 2023, and are expected to study in their various areas of specialties.

Speaking at the pre-departure reception at the Boulevard Palace Hotel in Sinkor, Liberia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dee-Maxwell Saah Kermayah on behalf of the Government of Liberia thanked the Embassy of China for its kindness towards the people of Liberia.

He noted that such an opportunity has boosted the human resource capacity of the Government.

The Foreign Minister stressed that these opportunities will have positive feedback for the young people.

Minister Kemayan expressed his in delight in the fact that Liberians are benefiting from such an opportunity.

The pre-departure reception was graced by an array of Government Officials, including the Health Minister, the Inspector-General of Police, the Medical Director of JFK, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs among others.

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All who spoke openly praised the Chinese Government for the timely endeavor.

They called on the beneficiaries to cultivate high moral standards that will guide their academic pursuit.

For her part, the Health Minister praised the Chinese Government for such an opportunity.

She recalled the turbulent days when Liberia was grappling with health crises and the intervention made by China.

"China has always been a friend to Liberia," Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah said.

Mr. Xu Kun, Charge d'affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Liberia promised China's continued support to the Government people of Liberia.

The Charge d'Affaires of the Chinese Embassy near Monrovia, H.E Xu Kun characterized the event as a concrete manifestation of China

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Manxman officially named at ceremony in South Korea



Credit: James Taylor.

The Isle of Man Steam Packet Companys new flagship vessel has officially received its name, ahead of joining the fleet next week.

Manxman, the third vessel in the Companys history to bear the name, was christened at a ceremony at the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard where she was constructed in Ulsan, South Korea.

As a special touch, the vessels name has been painted in gold to mark her first year of service with the Company, a tradition that has roots in the fleets history.

Adhering to local South Korean custom, Geraldine Ugland, wife of the Chairman of the Board of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, Lars Ugland, had the privilege of ceremonially axing the vessel to signify its completion and the naming of Manxman.

The 133m long vessel is the largest in the history of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, with space for approximately 10% more freight and vehicles than Ben-my-Chree.
Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service praised by UK peers

The results of an independent peer review of the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service (IoMFRS) have now been published.

While making some recommendations for improvements, the peer review group praised staff for their passion and dedication to protecting our Island community.

A group of senior Fire and Rescue officers from across the UK, led by an officer from the Local Government Association (LGA), visited the Island in January 2023 to undertake the review.

The peer group found that the IOMFRS leadership was aware of the challenges faced in delivering a modern service on an Island, geographically isolated in relation to other Fire & Rescue Service partners.

In total 15 recommendations were made, focussing on improving and modernising the service in line with UK standards.

One of the biggest issues identified within the Island service was resourcing, with Officers on-Island often having multiple roles or responsibilities given the nature of a smaller service.
Amsterdam / New York  Despite five failed ceasefires, Sudan's current clashes have now entered its 17th consecutive day of conflict leaving at least 538 civilians dead, 4,599 injured, and almost 75,000 displaced. As the humanitarian situation worsens in Sudan by the day, the plight of press freedom still remains under an ever-present threat. Over the past decade, Sudan has consistently ranked near the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index. This is one of the reasons Radio Dabanga has been forced to operate in exile from Amsterdam, since the height of the former Omar Al Bashir dictatorship. This year's theme for the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is suitably centred around "freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights".

The UN General Assembly proclaimed *May 3 as an international day for press freedom 30 years ago, and under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 75 years ago, the right to freedom of opinion and expression was entrenched.

However, whilst this essential preservation emphasising an adversarial and pluralistic media landscape is present in most democracies in the world, Sudanese journalists and media professionals, especially women in the field, have faced increasing violations and threats in recent times.

Earlier this year, the journalist Safaa El Fahal at Sudan's El Jareeda newspaper, received threats from an extremist Islamic group via Facebook, after she wrote a column on military training taking place in Quran schools.

El Fahal told Radio Dabanga that she had covered the story of a woman who told her that women and girls were receiving military training in Quran schools.

In a message via Messenger, a person who stated that he belongs to the Missionary Movement for Preaching and Fighting, declared her an infidel and threatened to "seize and slaughter her", adding that she 'had better repent before we get you".

Similarly, the female investigative journalist Zamzam Khater was threatened by the North Darfur State Police Director, after she published news of a crime allegedly related to the involvement of individuals affiliated with the police.

The director threatened Khater with verbal violence in a text message: "The news you published will condemn you."

In an interview with the Sudan Today programme on Radio Dabanga, Khater expressed her fear that she would be targeted by the police or that she would be framed for publishing this news.

Several months ago, female reporter Hafida Abdallah Mousa was detained by police in Zalingei the capital of Central Darfur. The authorities reportedly did not adhere to any legal procedure when arresting Mousa.

She was arrested covering a vigil of vegetable traders in a local market. Eyewitness told Radio Dabanga that before she was arrested, the police prevented her from filming and covering the event and took her phone before taking her to the police station and detaining her "without following any legal procedures".

According to today's statement by the European Union for World Press Freedom Day, "women journalists are particularly vulnerable to threats and increasing attacks, both offline and online". They add that women in the field are exposed to "stigmatisation, sexist hate speech, trolling, sexual and gender-based violence and even murder".

Journalists Association for Human Rights in Sudan

Regrettably, incidents against journalists have become commonplace in Sudan. The Journalists Association for Human Rights (JAHR) in Sudan highlighted a number of significant abuses against Sudanese press freedom on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists last year on November 2.

In their statement, JAHR pointed out that since the junta coup d'etat of October 25, 2021 an "increasing brutal restriction" on the press has taken hold through a slew of "repressive policies and practises".

According to Faisal El Bagir, coordinator of JAHR, as well as journalists facing "harassment, kidnapping and false imprisonment", methods such as "blocking the internet, cutting off telephone services, and hacking digital devices" have become well established tools to silence dissent by Sudan's security service.

El Bagir renewed the association's commitment in continuing their efforts with the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate, the Women's Journalists Entity, and all parties in the journalistic arena, in order to "establish the largest coalition" of both men and women journalist organisations against impunity.

JAHR held the junta authority responsible for their crimes against journalists, adding that they also used their power "to cover up their crimes legally".

Press freedom

Last year, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the October 25 coup, the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate (SJS) lamented that the press and media in Sudan have faced unprecedented targeting since the October 2021 coup, and that that the press and media in Sudan have been facing "a terrible regression in terms of press freedom".

Sudan is ranked 151 out of 180 in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index, and is ranked as 29 out of 100, i.e. 'Not Free', in Freedom House's Internet Freedom Index. "Anti-journalist predators enjoy total impunity and are protected by the authorities," according to Reporters Without Borders. On its website, the organisation states that "journalists are working in a worsening climate of violence" since the military coup d'etat of October 25, 2021.

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*Every year, May 3 is a date which celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom, to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession. World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO's General Conference in 1991. This in turn was a response to a call by African journalists who in 1991 produced the landmark Windhoek Declaration(link is external) sur le pluralisme on media pluralism and independence.

At the core of UNESCO's mandate is freedom of the press and freedom of expression. UNESCO believes that these freedoms allow for mutual understanding to build a sustainable peace.

It serves as an occasion to inform citizens of violations of press freedom - a reminder that in dozens of countries around the world, publications are censored, fined, suspended and closed down, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained and even murdered.

It is a date to encourage and develop initiatives in favour of press freedom, and to assess the state of press freedom worldwide. (Source: UNESCO)

#WorldPressFreedomDay
The Morning After: Apple and Google team up to combat Bluetooth tracker stalking Samsung and Tile are backing the proposed industry standards.

Apple and Google have announced a partnership to tackle unwanted tracking through the likes of AirTags and Tile devices. The companies have proposed industry standards "to help combat the misuse of Bluetooth location-tracking devices for unwanted tracking."

Apple and Google submitted the draft specification to the Internet Engineering Task Force, a notable standards development organization. Over the next three months, interested parties will review the documentation and weigh in on it. Beyond Apple and Google, the proposal has received backing from Samsung, Tile, Chipolo, Anker's Eufy brand, Pebblebee, and several safety and advocacy groups.

 Mat Smith

The Morning After isnt just a newsletter  its also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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The company behind Pornhub is challenging age verification laws.

Utah's age verification law, which targets publishers distributing material deemed to be "harmful to minors on the internet," has gone into effect. As a response, MindGeek, parent company to multiple adult sites, has blocked everyone in the state from accessing its websites, including Pornhub. As Motherboard reports, if somebody with a Utah IP address accesses Pornhub, they'll now get a video of adult performer Cherie DeVille. In it, DeVille explains the company believes requiring users to submit their government IDs isn't the most effective solution to protecting its users and could even put their privacy at risk.

Continue reading.

Days of Thunder meets War Games meets a tired-looking Orlando Bloom.

Sony

If you like cars and Gran Turismo, this might be the movie for you. This is not your standard video game adaptation  its pretty much grounded in reality and a world obsessed with the racing sim. Even weirder? This is all based on a true story. Even weirder again? It features Geri Halliwell Horner, AKA Ginger Spice. Now youre going to watch it out of morbid curiosity, arent you?

Continue reading.

Streaming services have led to a "gig economy" for writers, the union said.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has called for a strike starting today, largely over streaming productions, saying studios are effectively creating a "gig economy" within the union. On the other side of the table, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said the WGA was "unwilling" to compromise on key issues, like mandatory staffing. Well feel the effects of the breakdown in negotiations immediately, with talk shows like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live! already shutting down. The strike will also freeze film and TV production, affecting hubs like Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta.

Continue reading.

More importantly, there's actually a chance you can buy one.

The crossover SUV's starting price has dropped $3,000 to $42,995 (before a $3,750 federal tax credit) for an RWD Standard Range trim, with a matching price cut for its $45,995 all-wheel drive (AWD) counterpart. Ford says its also scaling up Mustang Mach-E production for the second half of the year to help better meet demand.

Continue reading.
The UK plans to buy long-range missiles for Ukraine. And the United States will discuss with the allies the acceleration of the production of weapons for the Ukrainian army. To end the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine, Kyiv needs modern weapons. This will help protect peaceful Ukrainian cities from Russian terrorist attacks and liberate the territories temporarily occupied by the Russian army. The only way to stop Russian terror in Ukraine and save people is with weapons.
People are living in houses that don't cater for their needs

Associations representing disabled people in Musina, Limpopo, say there are not enough houses adapted to their needs.

The provincial Department of Human Settlements says RDP houses are adapted to take into account the needs of disabled people.

But the Association for Persons with Disability in Limpopo, says none of the more than 500 people with disabilities on their database live in appropriate houses.

Lucia Ndou and her daughter Takalani Munakisi, who is disabled, are lucky to be alive. The shack where they lived in Matswale in Musina caught fire in 2017. Neighbours carried Munakisi to safety and saved her wheelchair, but not much else, from the flames. After the escape, the family moved to another shack. But the rooms are small and the only place which can accommodate Takalani and her wheelchair is next to a plastic table and a pole with electric wires.

Ndou is afraid of another fire. She and her daughter use an outside toilet and Ndou has to push the wheelchair to the toilet and then lift Munakisi. "I have to carry her to the toilet seat and it is too heavy for me," said Ndou.

She wishes the municipality would build houses that cater for the needs of a disabled person in a wheelchair.

According to Lehlohonolo Raphono from the Association for Persons with Disability in Limpopo, none of the more than 500 people with disabilities on the association's database live in appropriate houses.

Raphono said people in wheelchairs found it difficult to move inside the shacks or RDP houses. "The government should build these people special houses."

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In 2016, according to Yunsa Mbewe, director of the Musina Disability Forum, the Musina municipality promised to build special houses for disabled people. Nothing has been done, says Mbewe, who is also disabled.

Wilson Dzebu, Musina municipality spokesperson said it is not the municipality's responsibility to build houses. "It is the responsibility of the Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA)," said Dzebu.

Hitekani Magwedze, of Limpopo COGHSTA, told GroundUp that Musina had been allocated 445 houses for the current financial year. He said modified houses were supplied to disabled people who applied. "The department builds the same house plan for everyone, however, where there is a disability noted, for example a person using a wheelchair for mobility, we erect a ramp and a special toilet."

But Mbewe said they have members who all live with disabilities in shacks, back rooms or RDP houses, and none of the RDP houses have been modified to cater for their needs. "The rooms are small in such a way that it becomes very difficult for the disabled to move around with a wheelchair," said Mbewe.

In Mushongo Ville, also in Musina, GroundUp spoke to Albert Netshianda who was busy washing dishes in his RDP house. Netshianda, 67, was in a car accident and lost both legs below the knee. He was allocated the house in 2016 but the rooms are too small for his wheelchair. Inside the house he walks on his knees, which is very painful, he says.

"I plead with the municipality to redesign the house so that the rooms are bigger so that I can move around in my wheelchair," says Netshianda.
A Texas family injured in March when part of a tree fell on them during a spring break visit to the San Antonio Zoo has filed a negligence lawsuit seeking more than $1 million in damages.

Crystal and Librado Rodriguez allege the San Antonio Zoological Society, which operates the zoo, failed to maintain the premises in a safe condition, free from hazards.

The couple, of Temple in Bell County, filed the complaint Tuesday in state District Court in San Antonio on behalf of themselves and their two children. They account for four of the seven people injured when a large part of a cedar elm tree broke and fell onto a walkway below. All were hospitalized.

Now Playing: Tree falls on people at San Antonio Zoo Video: Video courtesy of Nina Ryan

Mike Johanson, a Sugar Land attorney representing the zoo, responded to the lawsuit in an emailed statement.

This was an unfortunate accident that was not caused by any action or inaction by San Antonio Zoo or its employees, he said. We look forward to demonstrating that through the legal process.

MORE ON ZOO INCIDENT: Child in critical condition, 6 others injured at tree limb falls on family at San Antonio Zoo

Also named as a defendant is Alamo City Arbor Care Inc., which the suit says provided inspection and maintenance of the trees at the zoo.

All we did was clean up the tree when it fell, said Jon Chalker, Alamo City Arbor Cares owner. The work it performs at the zoo is on an on-call basis, he said.

Chalker added he is a certified arborist but has not been trained to conduct tree-risk assessments. He disputed the lawsuits assertion that his company was negligent in failing to identify dangerous trees at the zoo.

I dont know if weve ever looked at that tree, he said.

Injuries

All four members of the Rodriguez family were hurt March 15 while visiting the zoo, but daughter Jordyns injuries were particularly severe, according to the lawsuit. She suffered a traumatic brain injury, was in a coma for several days and required surgery.

Court document

Her injuries were life threatening, are severe and lifelong, the suit says.

Crystal Rodriguez suffered severe and permanent injuries to her head, arms, shoulders, back, legs and other parts of her body. Librado Rodriguez suffered injuries to his back, shoulders and elsewhere. Their son, identified as C.R., suffered injuries to his knee, head, back and elsewhere.

A GoFundMe campaign created to help the Rodriguez family raised $15,670.

GOFUNDME PAGE: GoFundMe campaign started for Rodriguez family injured by falling tree limb at San Antonio Zoo

The family is suing for past and future medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of earnings, punitive damages and other damages.

According to the complaint, the tree that broke and caused injuries overhung walkways.

The tree branch that broke off and struck the Rodriguez family has been estimated to weigh between 1500 and 2000 pounds, the suit says. It adds that a sign stated the tree was being preserved  an indication that the Zoological Society was aware of its condition.

It is apparent from the condition of this tree and the limb that broke off that it was rotted and in a dangerous condition that had been developing for some time, the lawsuit alleges.

As part of the suit, the Rodriguez family seeks a temporary restraining order to prevent the defendants from taking any action that might alter, damage or destroy any evidence  including, but not limited to, ALL REMNANTS OF THE TREE INVOLVED IN THE INCIDENT. The emphasis is included in the lawsuit.

The family also wants all surveillance videos and maintenance records to be preserved, as well as any information relating to previous incidents of decaying or overweight trees.

Alamo City Arbor Cares crew cleaned all the debris and threw it in the companys wood chippers, Chalker said. But he added he has saved a broken piece of wood that he said was about 21 inches in length.

The zoo has done its due diligence of keeping up after their tree work, said Chalker, who has worked with the zoo for 12 years.

Robert P. Wilson, a San Antonio attorney with Thomas J. Henry Law, who represents the family, didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Dan Patrick brought out the heavy artillery this past weekend for his battle with Dade Phelan.

Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Sunday and declared his support for the lieutenant governors plan for property tax relief over the one favored by the Texas House speaker.

Patrick wants to increase the states homestead exemption  the amount of a homes value that cant be taxed  for school-district property taxes from $40,000 to $70,000 (and $100,000 for those 65 and older)

Phelan would like to lower the cap on annual property appraisal increases from 10 percent to 5 percent.

In backing Patricks proposal, Trump even embraced the California Dade nickname that Patrick recently bestowed on Phelan.

I fully support Dan Patricks, and the Senates, $100K senior homestead exemption & $70K for those under 65, Trump wrote. California Dades plan is a disaster for Texas.

I think its safe to assume that the former president hasnt devoted a lot of study to the nuances of these two competing tax plans.

Related: Homestead exemptions vs. property appraisal limits: Texas lawmakers fight over property tax relief

Trump evaluates elected officials (and their policy ideas) on the basis of their willingness to kiss his posterior on demand.

Consider the effusiveness with which the former president routinely proclaims that Trump-worshiping Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is a patriot who is doing a fantastic job. The same Ken Paxton who has been under securities-fraud indictment for eight years and been accused by former staffers of bribery and abuse of office.

Trump loves Patrick because the lieutenant governor affirms all of Trumps narratives, including the former presidents delusion that widespread voter fraud cost him the 2020 election.

Trump dislikes Phelan purely because the House speaker refused to back Trumps sore-loser crusade to get a Texas forensic election audit bill passed in 2021. In a statement released that year, Trump suggested that Phelan was a disloyal Republican and added, He is not fighting for the people of Texas.

While Trump might view the Texas GOP tax-plan squabble purely through the prism of his own self-interest, Patrick is a true believer.

When he dubbed Phelan California Dade, Patrick meant to tag him with the baggage of a disastrous 1978 California ballot measure, Proposition 13, which, among other things, instituted strict appraisal caps for property owners. That proposition not only upended the California housing market, it created revenue shortfalls for municipalities and school districts across the state.

The strange part of Patricks derision for Phelans plan is that Patrick was for property-appraisal caps before he was against them.

When I say Patrick once supported appraisal caps, Im underselling things quite a bit. He was an evangelical missionary for the concept.

In 2003, as the host of a right-wing radio talk show, Patrick got into a verbal confrontation with a fellow Republican, Richardson Rep. Fred Hill, over Hills opposition to appraisal caps.

Patrick urged his listeners to melt down Hills Capitol phone lines with complaints. When Hill held a committee hearing on appraisal caps at a Capitol auditorium, Patrick filled the place with two busloads of irate Houstonians.

During his successful 2006 campaign for the Texas Senate, Patrick argued  as Phelan is doing now  that the state needed to reduce appraisal caps from 10 percent to 5 percent.

A tax cut without a cap is basically meaningless, because it will all disappear in two years, Patrick said at the time.

Patrick doesnt see it that way anymore. Regardless of what caused his change of heart, hes on the correct side of this debate.

The word progressive is rarely uttered in the same sentence with Patricks name, but a homestead-exemption increase is undeniably a more progressive approach than the one favored by Phelan.

More from Gilbert Garcia: Roland Gutierrez gets little help from Senate Democrats in his rebellion against Dan Patrick

It will offer particularly strong (and much-needed) relief to working-class families in this state.

If you have a home valued at $100,000, Patricks proposal would slash 70 percent off the taxable value of your home for school taxes (which make up roughly half of our property tax bills). If you have a home valued at $1 million, Patricks proposal would cut only 7 percent from the taxable value of your home.

Phelans plan suffers from the same weaknesses that we see in most appraisal-cap proposals.

Appraisal caps are essentially government price controls that artificially suppress the growth of the housing market. Because they reserve the biggest tax benefits to those whove held their properties for the longest time, caps lead to wild inequities in housing appraisals.

They also create shortages of available housing because homeowners cling to their properties as a way of preserving their tax benefit.

If theres one thing this state doesnt need right now, its legislation that will exacerbate our housing shortages.

ggarcia@express-news.net
Oprah Winfreys admiration for Abraham Vergheses new novel The Covenant of Water knows no bounds.

Winfrey announced today on CBS Mornings that the book, the long-awaited follow-up to Vergheses acclaimed first novel Cutting for Stone, is the new Oprahs Book Club pick.

I felt transported. I felt like I lived in a different land for a while. I felt expanded, she said. I came away humbled that someone could have a mastery of words the way Dr. Verghese does. I think this is an offering to the world.

Ten years in the works, The Covenant of Water follows three generations of a South Indian family afflicted with a peculiar and deadly curse. It also delves into family secrets and charts the advances in medicine over the books span, from 1900 to 1970.

Related: Larry McMurtry auction includes signed books

Associated Press

Winfrey noted she has been reading since she was 3 years old and has a room full of first-edition novels.

This goes on my list of Top 3 books of all time, she said. And that includes Ms. Toni Morrison. I have never felt this way about a book."

Remarking on the books 750-page length, she said shell forego a July book club pick so readers can devote the whole summer to The Covenant of Water.

But thats not all. Winfrey said she would do a podcast on the book, a first for her for a work of fiction, and would like to see it turned into a TV series.

As CBS This Morning host Gayle King noted, Winfrey has the power to make that happen. She has produced movies such as Selma and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as well as TV series like Queen Sugar for the Oprah Winfrey Network.

More on books: San Antonio author says kids deserve the truth

Verghese, a physician and educator, served as the founding director of The Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio from 2002 to 2007. That tenure overlapped with his writing of Cutting for Stone, which was published in 2008 and eventually sold more than 1.5 million copies. Verghese now is vice chair for the theory and practice of medicine at the School of Medicine at Stanford University.

He read from the novel in progress when he was honored at Gemini Inks 2006 Inkstravaganza gala.

"I think all physicians are involved in the stories of their patients' lives," Verghese told the Express-News. "But I feel that kind of old-fashioned bedside examination conveys something critical to our patients: an attentiveness.

If you are trained in that kind of medicine, a kind of training that characterized a generation of physicians but which is fast disappearing in the technological age, you have had great training for being a writer. After all, a good writer is not about what computer or word processor he or she uses: it is about attentiveness, observation, detail, imagination and stamina."

The Covenant of Water (Grove Press, $32) is on sale now.
We all have that neighbor down the street whose cats seem to multiply inexplicably. Or the dog lover who cant resist a sweet stray. Some have turned to backyard chicken coops as an alternative to buying eggs  but just how many chickens do they have?

There have been some extreme cases of pet ownership in San Antonio over the years. Like the time 18 dogs, seven cats, two tortoises, a chicken and a turtle were seized from a Southeast Side home. Or the time 54 pets were found in a house on the South Side.

But those cases paled compared to the San Antonio woman who had more than 100 pets, including dogs, exotic birds and pheasants, taken from her home.

But how many are too many? At what point does an animal lover turn into an animal hoarder?

It helps to know city regulations.

Cats

The total number of cats allowed is eight per home.

Dogs

A maximum of five dogs is permitted at a home. Note: A combined number of eight cats or dogs are allowed at a residence.

Domestic Fowl

Eight domestic fowl (one may be a rooster) are permitted at a residence. Fowl must be kept in a coop with a run that is at least 24 square feet in size and at least six square feet of space per fowl, whichever is larger.

Livestock

The number of livestock allowed at a residence is two animals from the following type of livestock: Equines; bovines; llamas; goats and sheep.

Livestock must be kept in a corral with the nearest point at least 100 feet from a business building or dwelling owned by any resident other than the owner.

Rabbits

A total of 10 rabbits are allowed at a residence.

Snakes

To keep a non-venomous snake over 3 feet and or 15 pounds, a pet owner must keep the snake in an enclosure or cage big enough to prevent the pet from getting loose. The enclosure should be big enough for reasonable free movement.

Prohibited animals

 Any ape or other non-human primate.

 Wolf, hybrid wolf, coyote, jackal or fox and similar species except for Canis familiaris.

 Leopard, lion, panther, tiger, lynx, bobcat, cheetah, ocelot, margay, jaguarundi and any similar species except Felis domesticus.

 Mustelids, other than the domestic ferret.

 Skunk

 Any venomous or poisonous reptile or venomous species except bees.

 Crocodile, alligator, caiman or related species.

 Swine

 Ostrich or any other Ratites.

 Bear

 All other mammals that live in a natural state of undomesticated freedom, including the armadillo, opossum, raccoon and squirrel.

Animal Care Services spokeswoman Lisa Norwood said the laws are not random numbers restricting residents from owning dogs, cats or other allowed animals.

Theyre based on a humane standard of care also outlined in the law, she said. That standard should be considered the bare minimum pet owners must provide their companion animal.

Norwood said care includes providing pets access to fresh air, shade from direct sunlight, species-specific food, fresh water and shelter. Further care includes exercise and veterinary care when needed or required, such as state and city-mandated vaccinations.
The King William Fair will return to using paper tickets for food and beverage purchases, following Saturdays debacle with the BlastPass wristband purchasing system at the Fiesta event.

The 2023 King William Fair did not deliver to fairgoers the experience they've come to know and love, King William Association Executive Director Lisa Lynde said in a statement Wednesday. While we had a wonderful parade, amazing entertainment, and talented arts and crafts people, everyone's experience with the BlastPass overshadowed the many positives.

That is not what the Association wants. We look forward to re-establishing the King William Fair as one of the premier events of Fiesta San Antonio with the return to paper tickets.

Fairgoers flooded social media with complaints about the cashless wristband system, which was the only method of payment for food and drinks at the fair.

Many complained of long lines to load the wristbands, booths unable to process purchases, lost credits that could not be shared and a $2 fee tacked on to purchasing credits for the device.

Screenshot

The King William Fair takes responsibility for the many BlastPass issues on Fair Day, and we apologize to our fairgoers, food/beverage vendors, and volunteers who experienced disappointment and frustration with their credit and purchasing issues, the statement read. The KWF is continuing to rectify affected accounts which were unable to access funds during the Fair and is committed to resolving negative issues our fairgoers faced.

According to Wednesday's statement, the King William Association Boards Executive Committee decided to discontinue using the wristbands after "numerous issues" with the BlastPass system used in the 2022 and 2023 fairs. Organizers attributed Saturdays technical woes to power cables damaged by the previous nights storms and Wi-Fi dead zones that delayed credit uploads to wristbands.

The Wednesday statement noted the pandemic prompted King William Fair organizers to investigate digital-ticketing systems as a cashless option. A Night in Old San Antonio (NIOSA) used the wristbands in 2021 during the pandemic-shortened Fiesta, only to return to paper coupons.

Next years King William Fair will get back to similar basics.

Keeping the fairgoers experience as the top priority, the 2024 KWF will return to an 'Old-Fashioned Fair' and give fairgoers what they are asking for  paper tickets, King William Association Board President Shawn Campbell said in the Wednesday statement.

rguzman@express-news.net
Hyundai and Kia vehicles have been stolen so frequently that New York City is giving away Apple AirTags to deter thefts in its communities.

And while recent data shows that auto thieves in San Antonio also are targeting those makes, local police advise discretion in the use of Apples technology, which enables people to locate whatever the devices are attached to using a mobile app.

Instead, victims of vehicle thefts are urged to report such crimes as soon as possible, said officer Ricardo Guzman, a spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department. The sooner a vehicle is reported stolen, the sooner officers can start looking for it.

ALSO READ: Man suspected of killing person he believed stole truck

Meanwhile, if a person finds a stolen vehicle independently from law enforcement, the police should be called immediately with that information.

The SAPD recommends that people not confront potential suspects, saying that doing so could result in harm.

On March 29, police said, a man who sought to retrieve his stolen pickup on the Southeast Side fatally shot the person accused of stealing it, claiming that the person he confronted pulled out a gun. Police said an encounter like that should not have happened.

In March, Kia models topped the list of most stolen cars, with five models among them  Optima, Soul, Forte, Rio and Sportage. Hyundais also appeared on the list with the Sonata and Elantra, which was the most stolen vehicle. The Ford F-series trucks were the second-most stolen vehicles.

San Antonio police said certain online videos on social media may be contributing to the increase in vehicle thefts, demonstrating how to steal Kia and Hyundai model cars that were designed without an engine immobilizer, an electronic security device that prevents a car from being started without the correct key.

ALSO READ: Mitsubishi Outlander most frequently targeted by catalytic converter thieves in San Antonio

In recent weeks, police have been directing people who own Hyundai vehicles to the automakers free anti-theft software upgrade campaign. Thirteen models are eligible for the upgrade, spanning different model years, some as far back as 2011.

Motor vehicle theft was up 59 percent overall, with 4,292 reported thefts reported from January to March, up from 2,697 thefts reported during the same period last year, according to the departments uniformed crime report data.

Rank Make Model 1 Hyundai Elantra 2 Ford F-Series 3 Kia Optima 4 Hyundai Sonata 5 Dodge Ram Series 6 Kia Soul 7 Chevrolet Silverado 8 Kia Forte 9 Kia Rio 10 Kia Sportage

Guzman also warned that vehicle thefts can occur anywhere at any time of day. Such thefts and vehicle burglaries are crimes of opportunity.

People can take these steps to make breaking into their vehicles less appealing:
A Cibolo City Council candidates TikTok video series  called "HOA Chronicles"  is stirring up controversy in the Northeast Side-area city.

The videos depict Jeff McGlothin, who is also an area homeowners association president, driving around his neighborhood saying the types of things that someone who always demands to speak to the manager would say.

In one video, McGlothin lambastes people about bulk pickup violations, unauthorized vehicles parked on the street, and an unauthorized Porta Potty. In another video, he jokes about foreclosing on someones home because they have too many Christmas lights and too much holiday spirit.

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Apparently, some in Cibolo took him seriously and started to complain. After blowback, McGlothin, 35, took to a community Facebook group on April 20 to say the videos were intended to be a parody and a lighthearted jab at the sometimes overbearing rules and regulations enforced by homeowners associations.

McGlothin said some have taken the videos seriously and have attempted to paint him as mean and unfair. He also expressed concern that some people may be spreading misinformation about him for nefarious purposes.

Courtesy of Jeff McGlothin

I feel that these individuals either dont understand parody or, more maliciously, that they do know its parody, yet are trying to frame it as me being serious and an attempt to make me look like a mean HOA ogre, McGlothin wrote on Facebook.

McGlothin served two years on an HOA board as the president and vice president. He declined to mention the name of the neighborhood or the homeowners association in an interview with the Express-News.

McGlothin had been posting the videos to his TikTok account since April. Part of the controversy has to do with McGlothins ties to the HOA, something he thought added more context and comedic value to the videos. Others have taken issue with him making light of foreclosures.

People can decide that they dont appreciate my sense of humor, he said. Its not for everybody.

Most of McGlothins supposed violations were made up, including ones for too many weeds. Others were over the top. Hes joked about a homeowner having so much patriotism that he no longer had to pay dues (McGlothin has served 15 years in the U.S. Air Force).

He has since deleted the account but thats not because of criticism, he said.

McGlothin is an intelligence analyst. The U.S. Department of Defense and other government agencies have declared TikTok as a potential cybersecurity risk, and he deleted it for that reason.

McGlothin is one of four candidates for City Council District 5, a seat left vacant by Mark Allen, who was elected mayor earlier this year. Hes running on a ticket of increased infrastructure, meaning in part that he wants the city to build sidewalks in neighborhoods to boast public safety. The election is on May 6.

timothy.fanning@express-news.net
Court records detail police investigators suspicions that a love triangle resulted in a San Antonio man being fatally shot by his wifes lover and that the two tried to dispose of the body.

Carlos Alvarez, 50, was charged with murder and Maryann Demetro, 50, was charged with altering, destroying or concealing a human corpse in connection with the shooting death of 31-year-old Nick Hallam.

Demetro called 911 on April 30, about 9 a.m., to report the shooting and that Alvarez had been holding her hostage, saying that he took her phone and forced her to stay at the apartment. Demetro said she was able to escape on foot, return to her apartment and call for help.

ALSO READ: San Antonio woman who said she fatally shot her boyfriend in self-defense arrested on murder charge

She later told police that she was with her husband drinking at Alvarezs apartment when Alvarez suddenly shot and killed Hallam, an arrest affidavit said.

Police arrested Alvarez without incident after they arrived at his apartment, in the 4000 block of Medical Drive, to find Hallam dead inside with a gunshot wound to the neck.

Officers noted that it appeared someone had tried to clean the crime scene.

Alvarez told police that he shot Hallam in self-defense, the affidavit said. He also said that he and Demetro tried to dispose of the body but that it was too heavy.

ALSO READ: Man arrested in fatal shooting of his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend at South Side apartment

After being unable to remove Hallams body, Alvarez took Demetro to her apartment upon her request. He then tried to enlist another friend to help move the body but was arrested before he could do so.

According to Alvarez, he and Demetro had been in a sexual relationship for months before the shooting. She said that Alvarez admitted to shooting Hallam because Alvarez loved her and wanted to be with her, according to the affidavit.

When questioned, Demetro initially told police that she feared for her life and remained in the apartment after the shooting because Alvarez told her to do so. At that time, she didnt mention that she helped try to remove the body, and she was released from custody after making a statement.

ALSO READ: 1 child dead, 2nd child and mother injured after shooting near Alamo Heights

Shortly after, however, detectives obtained Ring video footage that showed the pair carrying the body out of the apartment and noted that she didnt appear to be under duress or try to run when she had an opportunity. They issued an arrest warrant for Demetro, who was arrested Monday at the San Antonio Airport.

After she was confronted with the video, Demetro admitted that she helped clean the crime scene and had Alvarez drive her home.
UPDATE (as of 12:30 Wednesday): The Cleveland mass shooting suspect, Francisco Oropeza, was captured by police Tuesday night, ending a four-day manhunt that involved more than 200 law enforcement officials from multiple agencies. Heres the latest since news broke of Oropeza's arrest.

Federal officials leading the search for the man accused of killing five people in the San Jacinto mass shooting on Tuesday said he could be anywhere, including across the border in Mexico.

The FBI is working with local, state, nationwide and international law enforcement agencies to try to find Francisco Oropeza, 38, according to the agencys Houston office.

The acknowledgment was the latest indication the search for the man, who remained at large as of Tuesday despite an arrest warrant carrying a $5 million bond, might expand beyond the immediate vicinity.

Gregory Fremin, a retired Houston Police Department captain and a professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, said while it remained possible Oropeza had hunkered down in the woods or in an abandoned home nearby, it seemed increasingly likely he had fled further afield.

Being on the run for four days, I doubt very seriously hes in the area, Fremin said Tuesday, the fourth day of the search. Fremin has experience coordinating manhunts and spoke to the Chronicle about how the process might unfold.

Given the seriousness of the crime and the media attention on the search, deputies and other law enforcement officers likely would continue the in-person search near the site of the shooting for another week or so, Fremin said. Although it might not seem like a long time, given the resources agencies must expend to staff the search 24 hours per day, seven days per week, it's significant, he said.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers previously said the search had expanded to well over 200 officers going door-to-door, searching for tips. Yet as days went by, it became less likely Oropeza had remained in the immediate vicinity, Fremin said.

Fremin explained even as deputies continued the in-person search, some investigators were working simultaneously to track down Oropezas relatives and anyone who might be in regular contact with him. That will help detectives determine how far away he might have fled, Fremin said.

San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon told the Chronicle that investigators were concerned Oropeza might have fled to Mexico. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the suspected shooter had been deported four times and had re-entered the United States illegally.

Its possible Oropeza got help from someone and made it to the border, Fremin said. But if he didnt have help, he would have had to steal a car and someone likely would have reported it.

Fremin compared the case to the May 2022 escape of an inmate, who later killed five members of a Tomball family in the deadliest escape in Texas prison history. That man, Gonzalo Lopez, spent three weeks on the run before killing the five people.

Oropeza could be hiding out in the Sam Houston National Forest, but it would be a matter of attrition before he showed up somewhere else, Fremin said. That might be a break-in, another shooting, or something else.
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP)  Feuding Mexican cartels briefly blocked roads Tuesday in the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

At one point, gunmen forced middle-school students off a school bus and used the vehicle as a blockade.

Roads were quickly cleared and officials claimed that one death reported early Tuesday morning was not related to the blockades.

At about a dozen points in and around the city, gunmen carjacked vehicles and left them parked across roadways. The military deployed about 700 troops and two helicopters to quell the violence.

Officials in the northern state of Tamaulipas said the blockages were caused by battles between two rival cartels. Matamoros has long been dominated by the Gulf cartel, but it has splintered into warring factions, one of which is reportedly allied with the Jalisco cartel.

State police chief Sergio Hernando Chavez told local media that there was a confrontation between rival organized crime groups.

He said all the children aboard the hijacked bus were unharmed.

On Monday, in the same area, police said they had arrested a top lieutenant of the violent Metros faction of the Gulf cartel implicated in 23 attacks on police and nine against military personnel.
President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, declared that his government's promise of change for homeowners in the country had been fulfilled. Buhari spoke during the presentation of keys to some new homeowners at the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Zuba, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The presentation happened the same day the president approved the partial exclusion of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) from the Treasury Single Account (TSA). He also granted MOFI permission to charge management and transaction fees.

In another development, Buhari explained, yesterday, that the current repositioning of the military, through training, networking, and equipping, would turn it into a force of global reckoning. He urged the officers to keep giving their best to the country.

Speaking at the presentation of keys to the new homeowners in Zuba, FCT, the president urged the homeowners to live together in peace and harmony.

Buhari said in his speech at the inauguration of the estate, "I convey my hearty congratulations to the new homeowners in this estate. Our promise of change has been fulfilled for you."

The estate is on 18.5 hectares of land, and comprises 748 units of various house types in 75 blocks.

The president charged residents of the estate to consciously work together with the FHA to ensure the maintenance of the property and safety of the environment.

Buhari congratulated Chairman, Managing Director, Members of the Board, and Staff of FHA on the successful completion of the estate. He stated that the project was another testament of his administration's commitment to lift people out of poverty.

He said, "Housing supply is one of the indices of multi-dimensional poverty that challenges our people and the completion of this estate provides a solution for the beneficiaries.

"The new homeowners who benefit from this estate have taken a step up on the ladder of prosperity and away from poverty."

Buhari acknowledged that more Nigerians were waiting to benefit from the mass housing project. He urged the management of FHA not to relent in delivering other projects at various stages of construction and development across the states.

He said, "One of the measures that we have consciously deployed to attack poverty, create prosperity and develop our economy is the aggressive provision of infrastructure nationwide."

The president said such investments help to create jobs for artisans and other skilled members of the society.

Earlier, Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said the completion of the project was the product of teamwork and leadership by Buhari, who gave approval for quality appointments into the FHA board and management.

"Instead of abandoned projects, we now have 748 completed housing units for Nigerians and their families to shelter," Fashola said.

He disclosed that 75 contractors were engaged in the course of the project, while over 13,000 Nigerians were employed both directly and indirectly.

Fashola told the president that the five beneficiaries, who received keys to their flats, including Tina Orkpe, Salisu Iliyasu, Ado Maude, Rabina Abdulkadir, and Flight Sgt. Musa Mohammed, subscribed through FHA Rent-to-Own delivery model.

"Although many of the beneficiaries of this project will never meet the president personally, your policies and programmes have met them personally at the point of their needs," the minister said.

In his remarks, Chairman, Board of Directors of FHA, Senator Shuaibu Lawal, thanked the president for providing the grant of N7.5 billion for the project to commence in May 2018.

Lawal said, "Without that grant, which served as the seed money, this project would not have been possible. Mr President, you take all the credit for what we are seeing here today."

Lawal stated that the estate was ideal for Nigerians who could not afford houses in areas, such as Maitama and Asokoro, in the FCT. He lauded the Minister of Works and Housing as well as FCT minister, Mohammed Bello, for their commitment to the project.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of FHA, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, described the inauguration of the project as a manifestation of the visionary and deliberate housing agenda of the Buhari administration. Ashafa said the president, in keeping with the promise of providing shelter to Nigerians, approved the grant to FHA.

According to him, the authority delivered the project at a total cost of N9.5billion, with the subvention of N7.5 billion from the federal government.

He explained that the balance of N2 billion construction cost came from FHA's other projects, which were ploughed to complete the estate.

Ashafa disclosed that FHA had commenced the development of Bwari Estate, Abuja, near the Nigeria Law School, which would deliver 336 units of various houses under the first phase of the project.

He added that the proposed Diaspora City initiative, which targets Nigerians in the Diaspora, was in progress. He said the intention of the government was to extend the programme to all the regions of the country, with Abuja as the pilot scheme.

President Okays Partial Exclusion of Finance Ministry from Treasury Single Account

Buhari, yesterday, approved the partial exclusion of MOFI from TSA.

According to a statement issued by the media adviser to the president, Femi Adesina, the president also granted the request of the Board of MOFI to charge management and transaction fees; and to include the Minister of Power in the Governing Council.

Buhari, who conveyed the approval at the First Governing Council meeting of MOFI, recalled that the new MOFI was launched on February 1, 2023, to transform it from a registry of investment records to a world-class asset and investment management company.

As a government-owned investment company, the president stressed that MOFI must be supported to exercise its responsibility of achieving strong returns on investment, while also contributing to broader economic development of the country.

He commended the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, Chairman, Board of MOFI, Shamsuddeen Usman, and the entire Executive Team of MOFI for the job well done, three months after inauguration.

According to him, "MOFI's mission is to generate strong risk-adjusted returns, contribute to the well-being of Nigerians, and be a trusted steward of our nation's assets and investments.

"With a vast portfolio and strategic investments that span across multiple sectors, MOFI has the potential to shape industries, spur innovation, and support economic growth.

"I am glad to note, from the Board and Management update, the crucial activities and positive engagements by MOFI in just three months after inauguration."

Buhari advised staff and management team of the investment company to continue to work closely with other government agencies, the private sector, Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), and other stakeholders to ensure that they achieved shared goals and objectives.

On the restructuring of MOFI, the president explained that it was a clear indication of the government's commitment to harnessing and creating value from its assets and investments. He added that the federal government was now positioned to optimise its assets, make strategic investments, diversify the economy, generate more revenue, revive public enterprises, and increase transparency in the public sector.

The president reminded members of the council that they had been carefully chosen because of their expertise, experience, and dedication to serving the nation.

Buhari expressed confidence in the abilities of each council member to bring unique perspectives, insights, and skills that would enrich collective decision-making.

The president said, "Our role as the Governing Council is many-sided. We must ensure that MOFI's investments are aligned with Nigeria's economic objectives.

"We must ensure that we put in place strong governance policies; we must uphold the highest standards of governance and transparency.

"We must engage with MOFI to understand their aspirations, needs, and challenges, we must continue to adapt and innovate in a rapidly changing world."

Buhari: Current Upgrade of Military Will Make It Force of Global Reckoning

The president explained that the current repositioning of the military, through training, networking and equipping, would turn it into a force of global reckoning.

He has, therefore, urged officers to keep giving their best to the nation.

Speaking at the inauguration of a Nationwide Secure Defence Headquarters Communications Network, GIWA 2 Project, Phase One, in Abuja, Buhari assured that the government would sustain its role in meeting the demands of the armed forces by evolving necessary initiatives to enhance their position.

Buhari stated, "As the Armed Forces of Nigeria continue to reposition to provide the enabling environment for enhancing the security and well-being of the citizens, I implore all our troops to give their best in the service of the nation."

The president said the GIWA 2 Project would provide real-time secure means of communication and incident reporting, as well as information exchange between the armed forces and other security agencies.

"It also stands to enhance collaboration between our Defence, Intelligence and Security Community while providing the platform for the denial of freedom of action to all perpetrators of insecurity across Nigeria."

Buhari noted that the project's objective was in alignment with some of the main focus areas of the federal government in security, economic progress and technological development.

"These benefits of the GIWA 2 Project informed the timely support of the federal government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria, to ensure that the centre is commissioned as one of the proud landmarks and enduring achievements of the Armed Forces of Nigeria under this administration,"

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Buhari directed the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to collaborate and support the Defence Headquarters in the project, which could impact on rural telephony.

He stated, "To this end, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy is to support the Defence Headquarters in ensuring that the infrastructure available for rural telephony are fully deployed for the attainment of GIWA 2 Project deliverables. The federal government shall support the full actualisation of the other phases of GIWA 2 Project."

The president hailed the armed forces for their patriotism, loyalty, sense of duty and gallantry.

According to him, "Nigeria is blessed with professional and vibrant armed forces, which have continually displayed the unflinching capacity to protect the territorial integrity of our country.

"Our armed forces have continually demonstrated resolve to provide a safe, secure and enabling environment to promote national security."

Buhari said his government had made significant strides to enhance the capacity and capability of the armed forces to tackle the multiple security challenges.

The president listed some of the efforts to include the establishment of Joint Task Forces and the creation of several new military formations to facilitate the conduct of decisive operations against all threats.

He stated, "Other efforts to reposition the Armed Forces of Nigeria include acquisition of new armaments and technology platforms to enhance the conduct of military operations and massive infrastructural development to provide our personnel with befitting accommodation as well as formulation of policies and initiatives to improve the welfare of troops and their families."

Buhari commended the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, and other service chiefs and stakeholders for the conceptualisation and remarkable work in the establishment of the GIWA 2 Project. He urged the Chief of Defence Staff, service chiefs and all personnel to work assiduously towards enhancing national security.

He said, "I am confident that, together we can pave the path for creation of new opportunities to usher Nigeria into a bright future driven by a safe and prosperous environment."

Earlier in his welcome address, Irabor stated that the inauguration of the GIWA 2 Project was the culmination of Buhari's directives in 2021 that the Defence Headquarters must ensure that farmers displaced by insurgency went back to their farms. He stated that the project would ensure secure communication for the military in carrying out its responsibilities.
One of the stranger features of the politics of the war in Ukraine is that the most vocal opposition to it tends to come from the hard right. In some ways, that right sounds like the hard left it used to oppose so fiercely.

On April 20, 19 Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Rand Paul, Mike Lee and J.D. Vance, sent a letter to President Joe Biden decrying unlimited arms supplies in support of an endless war. Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis have each expressed their opposition to Western support for Ukraine (though the Florida governor seemed to walk his opposition back); both are keenly attuned to what they think will play well in GOP primaries.

Opposition also comes from what passes for an anti-war conservative intelligentsia. Peter Hitchens, the brother of Christopher Hitchens, is a fierce critic, as is Orbanist American writer Rod Dreher, whose manner of critique is Russia is wrong, but   Tucker Carlson routinely used his prime-time pedestal to disparage Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling the Ukrainian president a dictator and comparing his dress style to that of the manager of a strip club. The Buchananite American Conservative is against the war on principle; the Trumpian Federalist is against it as a matter of political opportunism.

While forcing his own people  and those whose migration keeps the cartels supplied with the billions to buy military-grade weaponry  to suffer murder, rape and other heinous crimes, Biden is abroad encouraging ongoing violence in Ukraine, wrote The Federalists executive editor, Joy Pullmann, giving readers a taste of the quality of both her thinking and her prose.

Is there a coherent philosophical grounding for these anti-war conservatives? On the surface, no.

From Vietnam to Iraq, the anti-war left (both in the United States and abroad) tended to be united by a kind of instinctive pacifism, a belief that war was almost never the right answer. There has also often been a fair amount of anti-Americanism on the left  the Chomskyite view that Washingtons foreign policy is generally a force for neo-imperialism and rapacious capitalism.

But thats not the case with the anti-war right.

Some of the more dovish conservative voices on Ukraine, who fear that the war could set off a nuclear conflagration with Moscow, are uber-hawks when it comes to China: They argue that the resources we are pouring into Ukraine should be held in reserve for a looming battle with Beijing over Taiwan. They are also the same people who fault Bidens shambolic withdrawal from Afghanistan for making America seem weak, without appearing to be the least bit concerned about the signal that an American abandonment of Ukraine might also send.

Some of the Tuckerite conservatives who accuse Zelenskyy of illiberal policies in Ukraine  such as banning pro-Russian political parties that could be expected to serve as Vladimir Putins puppets in the event of a Russian military victory  go out of their way to celebrate the illiberal policies of the government in Budapest, Hungary.

Some of the historical revisionists who embrace Putins pretext for invasion  that he was provoked by the West into coming to the defense of ethnic Russians who were stranded in a Nazi Ukraine after the breakup of the Soviet Union  would never accept those arguments in any other context: Theyre the people who believe in the absolute inviolability of Americas southern border when it comes to the invasion of Latin American immigrants.

Much of this incoherence is partly explained via the George Costanza school of modern conservatism: If a Democrat is for it, theyre against it.

But something darker is also at work. In Putins cult of machismo; his suppression of political opposition; his almost sublime contempt for truth (Joseph Conrads memorable line about Russian officialdom); his opportunistic embrace of religious orthodoxy; his loathing of decadent Western culture; his sneering indifference to international law; and, above all, his contempt for democratic and liberal principles, he represents a form of politics the Tuckerites glimpsed but never quite got in Trumps presidency.

It isnt new. In the 1930s, there was Ezra Pound and Charles Lindbergh and Diana and Oswald Mosley. The hard rights reverence for the principles of raw strength and unblinking obedience runs deep.

This is not true of every conservative. The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, remains firmly on Ukraines side, as do the editorialists at the Wall Street Journal and National Review and even conservative firebrands like Mark Levin. A narrow plurality of Republican-leaning voters feel the same way. To tar the entire American right as pro-Putin is a slur, much as old right-wing allegations about liberal softness on communism used to be. But theres also more than a nugget of truth to it.

Certain conservative readers of this column will no doubt feel insulted and claim that it should be possible to oppose U.S. support for the war on strategic grounds without being labeled pro-Putin.

Its worth reminding them what George Orwell wrote in 1942 about the position of Western pacifists vis-a-vis Nazi Germany: Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help that of the other.
The San Antonio Police Department appears to have entrenched morale issues, and we wonder how much of this is rooted in the unpredictable manner in which Chief William McManus determines disciplinary actions.

The adage perception is reality looms over McManus and his personnel decisions in holding police accountable  or not. Current policy affords him wide latitude, but in light of similar cases of officer misconduct with disparate outcomes, there are legitimate questions about fairness and process. Its clear SAPDs disciplinary process needs to be reviewed, and the Complaint and Administrative Review Board should have greater authority and transparency, as recommended in 2020 by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University.

This is a concern District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran, a member of the public safety committee, recently raised. Meanwhile, the San Antonio Police Officers Association and at least one other council member have raised concerns with our Editorial Board about at least a perceived culture of favoritism.

In a recent incident, McManus decided not to discipline his personal driver for misconduct while on duty. That officer, Robert Gonzales Jr., admitted having a sexual encounter with his then-girlfriend, in his pickup while parked near police headquarters in May 2021. He violated SAPD policy barring officers from sexual encounters while on duty, in uniform or representing the department.

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McManus overruled the citys Advisory Action Board, now known as the Complaint and Administrative Review Board, a panel of seven officers and seven civilians that reviews allegations of officer misconduct and makes disciplinary recommendations to the chief. In Gonzales case, the seven officers on the board unanimously voted to sustain the allegation of misconduct, splitting 5-1 in recommending a 30-day suspension. The seven civilians on the board voted against sustaining the allegation and did not recommend disciplinary action.

The chief has the right to overrule a recommendation, and while its important to remember the incident came to light only after it was reported by the officers ex-girlfriend, the situation is a bad look for the citys police department given Gonzales closeness to McManus.

At the very least, McManus decision perpetuated perceptions of a double standard, especially when he has meted out harsher disciplines in the past for other similar incidents.

Gonzales also faced allegations of driving 120 mph on a local highway and posting a photo of the speedometer to social media. The chief upheld those allegations but overrode the panels suspension recommendations in favor of written counseling.

In a separate incident, the Express-News reported Sunday that the chief suspended Lt. Christopher Johnson, a supervisor at the Southwest Texas Fusion Center, for 30 days without pay after making sexual comments to a subordinate in the fall of 2021.

Here, the chief went against the Action Advisory Boards recommendations of a five- or 10-day suspension and possible demotion. McManus did not demote Johnson, but he did impose a longer suspension.

Johnsons case is in arbitration, and during testimony last week, the chief defended his decision based on Johnsons rank and the nature of the comment.

Episodes of misconduct not only reflect poorly on the department, they also inflict damage to morale, cohesion and public trust. The spectacle ultimately distracts from the tough job of policing and keeping the community safe.

The systems in place to hold officers accountable must prove efficacious without damaging morale. What good is an advisory board if its recommendations are ignored? The inconsistency isnt fair to officers or transparent to the community, and it leaves open the possibility of not holding officers who break rules to account. McManus and City Council should not ignore such concerns.

Leadership needs to recognize that it has systematically created an unfair caste system where rules dont apply to all equally and access to resources is limited based on who you are or what unit you are assigned to, wrote Deputy Chief Gus Guzman, a 30-year veteran of the force who retired in October, in his exit questionnaire.

In a statement to the Express-News, McManus asserted his decisions are based on facts and fairness, not favoritism.

As chief, I make administrative decisions with input. I understand that not everyone will agree with every decision made, but I prioritize the safety and well-being of the community and our officers.

Maybe so. But the reality is that the process made to determine these decisions must be unimpeachable. Clearly, that is not happening.
Cascade County Election poll photographed on June 7, 2022. (Photo by Nicole Girten/Daily Montanan)

Larry Winship and his wife Cheryl went to the Montana ExpoPark in Cascade County to vote before work at 7 a.m. Problem was: No ballots were ready.

Winship said they were asked if they could take a seat for a while, but they both had to get to work.

I dont know when well get back, if well get back, to vote on this one, Winship said.

Poll watcher and former Cascade County Commissioner Jane Weber said ballots were put out an hour late at 8 a.m. on Election Day, and a handful of voters who came in to submit ballots before work couldnt do so.

Winship said in his 40 years of voting in Cascade County, hes never had an issue. Cascade County Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant, a businesswoman, took office in January after beating 16-year incumbent Rina Moore by less than 40 votes last fall.

The Elections Office has been under public scrutiny after Merchant told the Great Falls Public School District and other districts with upcoming elections in February that she would be unable to hold an all mail-in ballot election.

According to a Great Falls Public School District press release Tuesday, the Elections Office reached out to the school district Thursday requesting it take the registers for the upcoming election, but didnt say where to take them.

Cindy Gordon with the school district said registers referred to the voter list per precinct.

Brian Patrick with the school district picked them up, with the release saying there were no instructions from the Elections Office on what to do with them. The school district said the misunderstanding resulted in the box being delivered Tuesday morning, after polls already opened, leading to the delay.

On Election day, May 2 at 7:10 a.m., the Superintendents administrative assistant received a telephone call from Sandra Merchant asking where the registers, were, the districts press release said. Upon learning for the first time that the registers were needed at the Expo Park, Brian Patrick immediately delivered them to the Expo Park at approximately 7:25 a.m.

As previous elections were conducted by the County Elections Office, the district has never requested nor received the voting registers before an election.

Merchant did not respond to an emailed request for comment in time for publication.

Merchant is holding a hybrid poll and absentee ballot election for the school board and special district election Tuesday, as was presented in late March.

She said the poll election was necessary to keep costs down given the closure of a local ballot sorting company. However, the vast majority of the county votes absentee, and the office was required by the state to send those ballots to those voters.

Absentee ballot voters have had issues sending their ballots back, as they didnt fit inside the return envelope. County Attorney Josh Racki told the Daily Montanan any ballot that comes back in the secrecy envelope and the return envelope will be counted.

Elliot Merja, who owns property in the Fort Shaw Irrigation District, said he received ballots that werent printed on traditional ballot paper stock, but on thin, 8.5- by- 11 computer paper, as first reported by The Electric. Merja is also the Irrigation District Board chairperson.

Merja and his brother both received ballots as the acreage of his land provided for two ballots. Property owners vote in irrigation and water districts and receive a number of votes based on property size.

The Election Protection Committee, a recently formed group dedicated to oversight of the elections process under Merchant, recently filed an ethics complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices. The complaint was against Merchant and other county officials alleging electioneering and more than 20 untrained volunteers working in the Elections Office.

Commissioner Chris Gallus responded to the complaint on April 21, saying his office does not have jurisdiction but to forward concerns to County Attorney Racki. Gallus said the issue of a public employee soliciting support of a candidate or ballot issue did not have enough specifics for him to take further action.

The post Cascade County ballots put out an hour late, COPP complaint rejected appeared first on Daily Montanan.
Fairfield, MT (59436)

Today

Cloudy with occasional showers. Thunder possible. High 57F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 37F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Montana State Representative Zooey Zephyr walks towards the exit of the house chamber after a motion to bar Zephyr from the chamber passed at the Montana State Capitol in Helena, Montana on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. Rep. Zephyr will still be able to vote on bills remotely. (Photo by Mike Clark for the Daily Montanan)

District Court Judge Mike Menahan said Tuesday he wont put an emergency stop to Speaker of the House Matt Regiers censure of Rep. Zooey Zephyr.

On a party-line vote, the House censured the Missoula Democrat last week alleging a breach of decorum after a protest in the gallery broke out by people who wanted Regier to recognize Zephyr to speak on the floor.

As a result, Zephyr has been barred from floor debate or setting foot in the chamber since last Wednesday.

Monday, the ACLU of Montana filed a lawsuit on behalf of Zephyr and some of her constituents alleging Regier, a Republican, and Sergeant of Arms Brad Murfitt are violating her First Amendment rights.

In the complaint, the plaintiffs asked for a temporary restraining order, among other relief. But the judge declined to grant it.

Plaintiffs requested relief would require this Court to interfere with legislative authority in a manner that exceeds this Courts authority, wrote Menahan, of Lewis and Clark District Court. Plaintiffs also seek injunctive relief which far outpaces the facts at issue here.

The judge said even if the plaintiffs win, the court doesnt have as much power over the legislature to grant the relief Zephyr requested in the lawsuit.

The Senate adjourned for the session Tuesday and the House is expected to do so as well.

In a statement, Regier said the House will continue its work for the people of Montana.

The Montana courts have recognized that the judicial branch has no power to revise or overrule the power expressly held by the Montana State Legislature to conduct its business, Regier said.

However, Alex Rate, legal director the ACLU of Montana, said all options are on the table, including an appeal to the Montana Supreme Court, even if relief would not immediately help Zephyrs situation.

The lawsuit said in prohibiting Zephyr from floor debate, the punishment meant she couldnt weigh in on arguably one of the most consequential bills of the session, the big budget bill, touching all corners of government and affecting every citizen in the State.

Tuesday afternoon, the House had yet to put its final stamp of approval on that bill, House Bill 2.

We cant idly stand by while a supermajority votes to strip individuals of their constitutional rights  and not just individuals but individuals and their 11,000 constituents, Rate said, referring to the Republican supermajority.

In a tweet, Zephyr said the decision undermines the democratic principles the country was founded on.

I vow to continue standing for my constituents & community to fight for our democratic institutions, Zephyr wrote. If we cant get justice in the courts, we will get it in the ballot box.

The lawsuit said a people are affected by the actions in the House against Zephyr, and attacks against her community came to a head with the silencing.

Montanas 68th Legislative Session is blighted with attacks on vulnerable individuals and communities in Montana, the complaint said. Those attacks are perhaps felt most acutely by members of the 2S (Two Spirit) LGBTQIA+ community. The Legislature has passed numerous bills attacking and marginalizing transgender and nonbinary Montanans.

The censure of Rep. Zephyr reflects the culmination of those attacks.

Last Wednesday, the House voted to discipline Zephyr, the first openly transgender woman elected to the Montana Legislature.

Those who supported the motion to punish her said Zephyr should have walked off the floor Monday when a protest broke out in the gallery or told her supporters to stop chanting when they started calling for Regier to allow her to speak.

Regier hadnt recognized Zephyr since she made comments that Republicans would have blood on (their) hands in approving a bill that bans gender affirming care for minors.

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill last week.

Gender-affirming medical care can be lifesaving treatment for transgender individuals, including minors, experiencing gender dysphoria, the lawsuit said. Gender dysphoria is a medically recognized condition defined by a marked incongruence between a persons gender identity and the sex they were assigned at birth. It is a serious medical condition. Some, but not all, transgender people have gender dysphoria.

But Zephyrs remark that Republicans should be ashamed went too far, Regier said, and he said he would recognize her if only she would apologize, as he said other representatives from both parties have done when theyve crossed the line.

Zephyr has held her ground, and Monday, the protest broke out in the gallery, leading to the censure.

In his order, Menahan said plaintiffs argued a temporary restraining order was necessary to prevent irreparable injury to Plaintiffs fundamental rights which plaintiffs allege would result from enforcement of the censure and Defendants continued refusal to recognize Rep. Zephyr in debate on the House floor.

The judge disagreed, in part citing a new law passed this session for the way courts decide injunctions. He referenced Senate Bill 191, which revised preliminary injunction rules, took immediate effect, and was signed by Gianforte in March.

The new standard amends Montanas statutory standards for preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders, the judge said. The Montana Legislature intended for this standard to mirror the federal preliminary injunction standard, and closely follow United States Supreme Court case law.

Rate, with the ACLU, said in the past, a judge could grant a temporary injunction if just one of the multiple prongs of a test were satisfied, such as if not doing so would result in irreparable harm. Now, however, Rate said all the prongs need to be satisfied.

In the order, Menahan said the Montana Constitution grants authority to three branches of government, and the separation of powers is fundamental to the United States system of government.

No person or persons charged with the exercise of power properly belonging to one branch shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except as in this constitution expressly directed or permitted, the order said.

He also noted the Montana Constitution explicitly grants each house of the Montana legislature the authority to expel or punish a member for good cause.

Because the constitution explicitly reserves this power for the legislature, the courts powers are conversely limited, Menahan wrote.

The judge said the plaintiffs are unlikely to succeed on the merits because the ultimate relief they seek includes broad permanent injunctions clearly outside the scope of this courts authority.

The plaintiffs asked the court to stop Regier from refusing to recognize her; they also asked the court to stop him and the sergeant at arms from prohibiting her full participation in the House proceedings on behalf of her constituents. In part, they alleged the censure violates freedom of assembly and the right to petition for redress.

But even if the plaintiffs win and the court finds the House of Representatives, Speaker and sergeant at arms acted unlawfully, the judge said the court does not have the authority to issue a broad permanent injunction to effectively remove all legislative authority in relation to a single member.

Editors note: Daily Montanan reporter Nicole Girten contributed to this report.

The post Judge denies temporary injunction request by Zephyr, ACLU of Montana appeared first on Daily Montanan.
The Senate shortly after it voted to adjourn on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (Photo by Blair Miller)

The Montana Legislature adjourned the 2023 session on Tuesday  the 87th day of the session  finishing up the budget and signing off on millions of dollars worth of major infrastructure, pension and other spending projects.

The session involved lofty goals from a Republican supermajority, a surplus that topped $2 billion, a series of major tax cuts, long discussions over LGBTQ+ rights and attacks on them, a Medicaid provider rate saga that lasted four months, the censure of a transgender lawmaker, one of the longest sessions in recent history, and major deals over the last couple of weeks.

On the final day, there was one more surprise in store : The fight over Montanas marijuana tax revenue might continue beyond the final gavel.

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte vetoed Senate Bill 442 Friday afternoon sometime around the time the Senate voted to approve a sine die motion from the minority leader to end the bodys work for the 2023 session.

The timing of the veto was still unclear late Tuesday, but it set off a flurry of activity at the Capitol on Day 87, as lawmakers, lobbyists and legal officials tried to figure out if the broadly supported bill was totally dead or if legislators still had other options to make it law.

Sen. Mike Langs bill redisperses the $50+ million in marijuana tax revenues to county roads, a Habitat Legacy Fund, trails, parks and recreation, the HEART Fund, and veterans services. It passed the Senate Monday in a 49-1 vote after it got 82 votes in favor in the House.

But Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, has said repeatedly over the past week that the governor would veto the bill, and a spokesperson for the governor said Monday Gianforte had substantial concerns about it.

From the start of 2022, when recreational marijuana sales started, through March, the state brought in $58 million in tax revenue, and sold around $25 million each month.

But legislators disagree on how the money should be spent and whether voters appropriated money by the I-190 that legalized marijuana. Competing bills aimed to put nearly all the money to the general fund, or to law enforcement, but were killed off during the process.

The concerns from the Governors Office involved the ongoing funding of the Habitat Montana through the revenue as well as the legislatures decision not to put more of the money toward the Department of Justice.

Over the past couple of weeks, bills that have passed both chambers have generally taken a few days to be enrolled, signed by the Senate president and House Speaker, and then delivered to the governors desk. But SB442 went through all of those steps within 24 hours  which some lawmakers also said was not atypical for priority bills.

On late Tuesday afternoon, Kaitlin Price, a spokesperson for the Governors Office, said she believed the governor signed the veto letter sometime in the 2 oclock hour.

The Senate had been on a break during that hour, but the body came back to do third readings on a series of bills at 2:45 p.m. About half an hour later, at 3:18 p.m., Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, made the motion to sine die, which was agreed upon in a 26-23 vote at 3:19 p.m.

Many of the Republicans who voted in favor of adjourning were also supporters of Langs bill who appeared with the Malta Republican at a news conference on Monday urging the governor to sign the bill.

Before floor sessions, lawmakers were seen gathered devising plans for how to make Langs bill the final one standing, and some met changes made to other senators bills  to try to revive different policies  with swearing in the hallways at times.

As lawmakers cleaned out their desks to head home, word trickled out that Gianforte had vetoed the bill backed by a wide swath of groups and organizations spanning the political spectrum, along with the 131 lawmakers who supported the legislation.

Fitzpatrick said he believed lawmakers who voted in favor of the sine die motion wanted to adjourn before Gianforte could veto the bill so they could take the override to a poll post-session that Lang said he thought would overrule the governors decision.

The governors veto came in time, and because theyve sine died now, all those guys just lost a chance to have a veto override, he said about an hour after the Senate had adjourned.

Those guys just screwed themselves, so it really is kind of an ironic twist to it all.

The legislature is allowed to try to override a veto from the governor through physical polls mailed to them if the veto happens after both chambers adjourn. It can also override a veto if both chambers are in session still, and each chamber votes with a two-thirds majority in favor of the override.

But Fitzpatrick and others with deep knowledge of the legal and legislative processes said the veto, and the Senates adjournment, have killed the bill entirely.

We are not still in session, right? That bill is dead, Fitzpatrick said.

Lang, who is term-limited, said he was surprised the bill had moved to the governors desk so fast and that he did not know it had been enrolled when he and others voted to adjourn. He said he believed the bill would get vetoed after the legislature adjourned, and that the Senate and House had the votes to override the veto.

Im very disappointed; I think its a setback for Montana, Lang told reporters. What we tried to do with the bill was get everybody together to build some habitat, build some good relations out there in the land.

Several Democratic supporters of the bill were upset about how it got vetoed. And some lobbyists who supported the bill said they felt the governors veto letter contained falsehoods  first, claiming it did not contain an appropriation though that money is appropriated in House Bill 868, and second, that the money is coming from the general fund when it is coming from the marijuana state special revenue account.

While Langs bill became a broader effort over time, two of the groups that had worked the hardest to keep the Habitat Montana funding from the marijuana tax revenue intact issued a statement saying they were incredibly disappointed by the governors veto but would press forward to try to override it.

SB442 is a shining example of how democracy is supposed to work, and vetoing it ignores this will of over 130 legislators, numerous counties, farmers, ranchers, veteran groups, conservation groups, and thousands of other Montanans who supported SB442, said the two groups, Wild Montana and the Montana Wildlife Federation, in a statement. Well keep working to get this bill over the finish line, and we look forward to continuing working with county commissions, our neighbors in agriculture, and so many others who fought to build a bill that invests in all of us.

What happens from here remains to be seen, but some in the building discussed possible legal action despite a consensus from some that the bill is dead for good.

The House and Senate leadership will hold news conferences and interviews on Wednesday morning to talk about the session, described by several lawmakers in their final words as one to remember in many ways.

But Lang is disheartened that his work on the bill  which has been praised by many lawmakers of both parties and local governments  is not likely to be made into law.

Ive had defeats in my life before. Theres lots of worse defeats in the world. Youve got to go on and hope these guys will pick it up and go the next time, he said. Im really discouraged Montanas not going to get a chance to work through this process.

The post Montana Legislature adjourns, but fight over marijuana money continues after governors veto appeared first on Daily Montanan.
Pennsylvania is inching closer to a long-awaited reform to its over-order premium on milk.

After more than three years of talk about how to change the outdated system, there is a plan now. Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding proposed that retailers collect the entire premium at the point-of-sale, instead of the premium being collected through a wholesale minimum price build-up.

This would allow a more equitable distribution of the premium to all dairy farmers in the state, Redding said, as he presented his plan during the April 25 hearing of the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee.

At the end of the day, its about the dairy farmer, he said. We do something extraordinary here in Pa. That is go to the marketplace and ask every consumer in Pa. to pay a premium to access the milk in Pa. We have an obligation to get all of that money back to the dairy farmer.

Background. The over-order premium, conceived in 1988, is built into the minimum retail milk price, which is also set by the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board, or PMMB. It was viewed as a way to help struggling dairy farmers get a little more money for their product.

Whether it still works as intended and how to fix it has been a hotly debated topic among dairy farmers and other groups for years. According to the PMMB, the over-order premium has distributed more than $800 million to dairy farmers since its inception. The current premium is $1 per hundredweight of milk.

Currently, milk qualifies for the premium only if it is sold as a fluid product. This is a problem because farmers generally have no control over how their milk is used by the processor, and the market for fluid milk has been on the decline for years.

Additionally, only milk that stays in state for processing and retail sale is eligible for the premium. Some say this strands some of the premium dollars with processors that should be going to farmers. The PMMB said $24 million premium dollars were collected by milk dealers last year, but only $14.5 million was paid out to Pennsylvania farmers.

The milk marketing board began holding hearings on the over-order premium in 2019. Since then, nine hearings have been held, but no changes have been made. The Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board voted in December to extend the current $1 per hundredweight premium until June. Most changes to the premium system would require legislative action.

Reaction. Under Reddings plan, the premium would then be gathered by the states Department of Revenue and set aside in a designated fund. The General Assembly would establish how to allocate money to farmers and processors.

This new strategy would fit the three criteria Redding laid out before as being essential to a reformed system: premium dollars be evenly distributed among dairy farmers; the amount charged to Pennsylvania consumers not be substantially more than what is distributed back to farmers; and the distribution system not provide incentives for processors to avoid paying premiums by selling or purchasing milk across state lines.

Rob Barley, chairman of the PMMB, said theyd like to develop a new premium system to benefit all parties involved in the states dairy industry, but that would require the legislature giving the board more power.

Barley said he agreed with Reddings proposal was the best way to get money more evenly distributed among dairy farmers, and to make the system more fair, even though he didnt like it.

We dont have any other choice, he said, during his testimony. Its about the only way that we have figured out that you can do it. Because of interstate commerce laws, we cant grab the money and give it right back to the farmers if it is not produced, processed and sold in Pennsylvania.

Barley suggested looking to the federal programs, like Dairy Margin Coverage, for how the General Assembly could figure out how to distribute the premium fairly among farmers.

I would not be opposed to having a tiered system, he said. Itd probably be the easiest thing to piggyback on what they have. You dont have to recreate the wheel.

(Reporter Rachel Wagoner can be reached at 724-201-1544 or rachel@farmanddairy.com.)
Denver  Phoenix Capital Group Holdings, LLC, a leading oil and gas mineral rights acquisition and non-operated working interest enterprise, is excited to announce it has launched a new scholarship program.

The Phoenix Capital Group Scholarship was created to help empower students pursuing a career in the oil and gas industry. The scholarship program recognizes and rewards academic excellence, offering a $15,000 scholarship to students enrolled in a degree program that aligns with a career path in the field. This includes degree programs such as petroleum engineering and provides a crucial opportunity for students to achieve their educational and career goals.

Those who wish to apply for the Phoenix Capital Group Scholarship must submit their high school GPA on a 4.0 scale and their GPA for any college courses they have taken to date.

As part of the application process, candidates are also required to submit an essay of no more than 2,000 words that communicates their interest in pursuing a career in the oil and gas industry, as well as their vision for making a meaningful contribution to the field. This essay should also address the challenges they expect to face in the industry in the years ahead and outline a strategy for overcoming them.

Prospective college freshmen are also eligible to apply for the Phoenix Capital Group Scholarship. If the applicant has not yet declared a major, students can indicate their status as undeclared but express their intent to pursue a field of study that pertains to the oil and gas industry.

The deadline to apply for the scholarship is Friday, June 30, 2023.

After the deadline, Phoenix Capital Group will select one winner of the $15,000 scholarship. The winner will be notified via email and will have one week to accept the award. If they dont accept in that timeframe, a new winner will be selected.

Those interested in applying can complete the Phoenix Capital Group Scholarship application form online. All fields in the form, plus the essay, must be submitted by June 30th to qualify.
The Meadow Quality bursary to support an agricultural student with their studies has opened for applications, offering 250 annually.

The Clive Mahony Bursary will award the sum to a student to help them with their studies  such as travel, study books, student accommodation or similar.

The award is named in honour of Clive Mahony, an industry leading cattle specialist who passed away suddenly in 2018.

Meadow Quality, a livestock marketing business, said Clive was a "fantastic ambassador" to the UK agricultural sector.

The loss of Clive to the sector had "left a real void; he is missed greatly by both family and colleagues".

Matt Nightingale, chief executive of Meadow Quality, said: Clive was a brilliant and knowledgeable livestock trading specialist.

"Therefore it is an honour to launch a bursary in his memory that help educate the next generation of the livestock industry.

"Clive had a thirst for knowledge and a fantastic understanding of the ever-changing livestock industry and supply chains.

"We hope that this bursary will help a similarly passionate person further their education."

The bursary will be awarded annually with 250 presented to an agricultural student under 35 to assist with their ongoing education.

With the deadline at the end of May, students who wish to apply need to complete the online form.

Applications should be received no later than 31 May 2023.
The International Crimes Division of the High Court in Kampala has confirmed terrorism charges against Jamal Kiyemba, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee .

Kiyemba, also known as Tonny Kiyemba, 44 the Imam for Masjid Taqwa Zzana, Kirimanyaga zone, Makindye Ssabagabo in Wakiso district was arrested last year and arraigned before the Chief Magistrates Court and charged with belonging to a terrorist organization contrary to section 11(1) (a) and (b) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2002.

"Jamal Kiyemba and others still at large between 2021 and January 2022 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda belonged or professed to belong to Allied Democratic Forces(ADF) a terrorist organization," the court read the charges.

He was later committed to the International Crimes Division for trial.

The pretrial

At the International Crimes Division, a pretrial conducted by Lady Justice Alice Komuhangi Khaukha listened to the evidence presented by the state against Kiyemba.

It is also alleged that Kiyemba solicited or invited support for ADF on January 29th, 2022, at the Old Taxi Park in Kampala City.

The prosecution led by Jacquelyn Okui alleges that between 2021 and January 2022, while in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kiyemba belonged or professed to belong to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a designated terror organization, by recruiting persons for it, along with others still at large.

It is also alleged that Kiyemba solicited or invited support for ADF on January 29, 2022, at the Old Taxi Park in Kampala.

In the evidence produced to court during the pretrial session, prosecution told court that Kiyemba has been radical since 1999 and that he has openly expressed his admiration, belief, and support for terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda, Alshabaab, and ADF.

The evidence says in 2006, he got in touch with Jamil Mukulu and joined his ADF organization, became an active member of the group and also got involved in recruiting and training members of the terrorist organization.

According to evidence produced before court, in January, 2022, Kiyemba was at Ben Kiwanuka Street in Kampala heading to Bugiri District when he shouted "Long live ADF" and advocated for people to support ADF lest blood continues to shed in Kampala.

It is also alleged that he then went to the Old Taxi Park, where he boarded a taxi heading to Jinja-Iganga-Kamuli and was arrested from there and that while under arrest, he said he was a member, supporter, and recruiter of ADF, and that his most recent recruitment was his son Jamil Abdallah Buyondo.

The International Crimes Division on Tuesday said this was evidence enough to sustain the three charges against the former Guantanamo Bay detainee.

"I find that the accused knew what he was doing when he made or chanted the words 'Long live ADF' both in English and in Luganda," the pretrial judge, Lady Justice Alice Komuhangi Khaukha said in her ruling.

According to the lady judge, it was foolhardy for Kiyemba's lawyer, Geofrrey Turyamusiima to claim that his client could have been in an improper mind when he uttered the above statements.

The judge insisted that the ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee knew very well what he was doing.

" I find that he was very deliberate if not calculative to make sure he uttered his support for ADF near a UPDF soldier. The evidence tendered is sufficient enough to prove the ingredients of the case and he doesn't deny them in his both the charge and caution statements he recorded with police," she said.

According to the lady judge, upon arrest, Kiyemba admitted that he had told police he was an ADF member and that he had decided to enter negotiations with government to end bloodshed.

"This statement is corroborated by the statement of Mugamba Anthony who heard the accused chant, utter or talk about the ADF. Also, the call matrices and the technical analytical reports of the subscriber numbers indicates that the accused was communicating with a one Musa Yousa among others who is an ADF recruiter in Busia."

Consequently, after confirming the charges, the pretrial judge forwarded the file to the panel of three judges who will handle the trial.

Kiyemba was remanded to Luzira as he awaits fixing of a date for hearing of the case.

About Kiyemba

Born Anthony Kiyemba in Uganda 43 year ago, he converted to Islam aged 20 and changed his name to Jamal Abdullah.

When his family moved to Britain following the death of his father in 1993, Kiyemba refused to pally for British citizenship.

According to US military files, he was later in 2002 arrested near Peshawar in Pakistan after allegedly trying to enter Afghanistan in the company of 'a probable al-Qaeda operative, a suspected al-Qaeda operative and a low-level jihadist'.

It is said that Kiyemba had lived in the UK for eight years before travelling to Pakistan.

The former pharmacy student at a university in Leicester was held at Guantanamo Bayo for four years until he was released in 2006 but since he was not a British citizen, he was not allowed back to the UK.

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Consequently he was deported to Uganda by the US.

In 2015 he was arrested in connection with the shooting of prosecutor Joan Kagezi who was leading prosecutions in the case of the men accused of masterminding the July 2010 Lugogo twin bombings.

Uganda police then said Kiyemba had been arrested with the help of US officials but there was no conclusive evidence to link him to the shooting.

ADF links

Kiyemba is accused of having links with ADF which was in 2021 blamed for the double bomb blasts in Kampala at the Central Police Station and along Parliamentary Avenue killing more than six people including police officers.

The ADF was a few years ago declared as a terrorist group in 2014 swore allegiance to the Islamic State, a radical Sunni military group.

According to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the ADF has used the name Madina at Tauheed Wau Mujahedeen (City of Monotheism and Holy Warriors--MTM) to emphasize its links to the Islamic State.

In 2019, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for an ADF attack and first referenced a "Central Africa Province.
The government has followed advice from the pig sector to introduce an African swine fever (ASF) campaign targeting the UK's Romanian community.

Defra is working with a specialist marketing agency on communications with the Romanian community, such as Romanian language publications and signage at ports and airports.

The National Pig Association (NPA), which has been engaging with the roll out of the communications, said better targeting would help curb ASF in the UK.

The deadly pig disease continues to circulate in Europe, with Romania having one of the highest infection rates.

It reported 34 outbreaks in domestic pigs between late-January and late-April, including a farm with more than 16,000 pigs.

Meanwhile, ASF was also detected in 219 wild boar during the period, according to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

The whole of Romania remains under ASF restrictions.

Writing in the latest issue of Pig World, NPA senior policy adviser Charlie Dewhirst pointed out that the illegal importation of pigmeat from countries unable to export due to ASF, such as Romania, posed a 'big threat'.

"These loads are never going to be officially certified and are most likely arriving in vehicles using the tourist lanes through ports," he said.

"There has been advertising to those searching for flights to the UK from Eastern Europe and geotargeting for those using devices around common points of entry such as Luton and Stansted airport, as well as areas with a known population of Romanian people."

Mr Dewhirst added: "It is not feasible to stop every vehicle in the tourist lanes coming into the UK without causing chaos at the ports.

"However, better targeting will help and the government must continue and expand its current work on border checks and ASF awareness."

It follows recent research by the AHDB which warned that disease outbreaks were currently costing the British pig industry over 850 million a year.

This figure represents more than two times the approximate value of the industry.

Earlier this year, Red Tractor warned that the UK would be 'devastated' if African ASF were to reach its shores.

The chair of the pig sector of Red Tractor, Stewart Houston urged farmers to take action to help keep the deadly pig disease out of the country.
Individuals with a love of fashion and a link to farming are being sought after to model for the Royal Highland Show taking place in Edinburgh in June.

British Wool is encouraging people from an agricultural background to come forward, with the individuals selected to be cast to showcase outfits on the catwalk.

British wool products will be showcased across a wide range of brands at the four-day event, including one of the late Dame Vivienne Westwoods favourites, Harris Tweed, and Lochcarron of Scotland.

Graham Clark, marketing director at the co-operative, explained that British wool was integral to the UK's fashion and interior industries.

He said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for people to model in front of thousands of people, wearing some of the most well-known brands in the UK.

Consumers are becoming more conscious of sustainability when it comes to purchasing clothing, which is great to see, and brands have a responsibility to be transparent when it comes to the origin of their fabrics and materials.

There will be exclusive special discounts at the show for people to shop their favourite British wool brands whilst supporting our British farmers.

The Royal Highland Show takes place on Thursday 22nd  Sunday 25 June, with the fashion show taking place each afternoon of the show.

How do I apply?

To be in with a chance, email marketing@britishwool.org.uk and include the following:

 Your name, address, phone number

 Your link to farming and or rural life

 Your profile picture

Entries for fashion models will close on Friday 12 May.
The Scottish governments land reform plans could "fail rural Scotland for generations" if the private business sectors economic and environmental contribution is not embraced.

This is according to the Scottish Land & Estates (SLE), which has warned today (3 May) that Scotland was "on the brink of yet more land reform legislation".

The Scottish government is bringing forward a new Land Reform Bill, which intends to subject farms and estates to new regulations to address what it describes as adverse impacts of large-scale landownership.

The bill is seen as an important step forward in ensuring Scottish land is owned and used in the public interest, and to the benefit of the people of Scotland.

The Scottish government said "those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden in reaching our goals of net zero and nature restoration".

But the SLE said it was important that the legislation "gets the balance right" of enabling rural businesses to deliver benefits without stifling innovation and investment.

Mark Tennant, chairman of the organisation, said at the annual conference today: The investment needed to reach net zero is huge and goes way beyond what government can do alone.

"It will require serious amounts of investment from the private sector and this is best delivered at scale, as opposed to a counter-productive political pursuit of increasing fragmentation of landownership."

Earlier this year a landmark report was produced BiGGAR Economics on the contribution of estates to Scotlands Wellbeing Economy which includes measuring social, economic and environmental achievement.

The report found that farms and estates are delivering on seven out of 11 benchmarks set by Scottish government on progress towards a successful wellbeing economy.

Farms and estate also generate around 2.4bn GVA, provide homes for nearly 13,000 families and land for around 14,000 rural enterprises.

The reports authors said that estates were "providing the kind of private investment that will allow the Scottish government to deliver on its priorities".

Mr Tennant said: "We believe the Scottish government must seriously consider what exactly it wants to achieve with its current land reform proposals.

"There is a simple question for government about what it considers more important  achieving fragmentation of ownership or attracting large-scale investment to achieve net zero?

Recent research confirmed the huge role estates play in supporting approximately 57,300 jobs  around 1 in 10 rural jobs  and generating an estimated 2.4 billion GVA per year.

"Yet the proposals risk endangering the substantial finance needed for landscape level projects to reach net zero," he warned.
There are 'concerning' levels of anxiety among women in UK farming, with financial pressures, long working hours and isolation contributing to growing stress, researchers have warned.

The stresses of balancing childcare, caring responsibilities and non-farming work, and gender inequalities within agriculture could also be exacerbating mental health issues, according to a new study.

A total of 23% of women who took part in the research had anxiety, a further 34.6% were experiencing mild anxiety whilst 42.1% were not suffering from anxiety.

The factors found to have the strongest relationship with moderate and severe anxiety were concerns about the future of the farm; financial pressures; workload, isolation and relationships with family.

The study, published in the Journal of Agromedicine, was carried out by Dr Rebecca Wheeler and Professor Matt Lobley from the University of Exeter and funded by the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institute (RABI).

They surveyed 15,300 members of the agricultural community and the results for this study came from a subsection of nearly 3,500 female respondents.

Dr Wheeler said the study had found 'concerning' levels of anxiety among farming women in the UK, and this should be seen as a call to action.

She said: "There are clear associations between anxiety, stress and loneliness and, although we cannot ascertain causality, these point to issues that demand attention in efforts to improve mental health.

Professor Lobley added that addressing only the symptoms of mental health problems would be insufficient.

"There is a need to reduce some of the stressors commonly affecting farm women by, for instance, providing greater business-related support and seeking opportunities to help farm women build and maintain stronger social relationships.

Levels of loneliness were highest among women aged 25 to 34, and markedly higher than equivalent levels in the wider population. This group was also the most likely to be anxious.

Working-aged women appeared more likely to be stressed by feeling isolated, family relationships and workload than older women  all factors that were identified as most strongly associated with moderate/severe anxiety.

Dr Wheeler said: It is easy to imagine how any confluence of strained family relationships, long working hours, and feeling isolated might be associated with a person also feeling lonely and/or anxious.

"The addition of numerous other common farming stressors  many of which concern factors lying outside the control of individual farmers and farming families  can only add to this burden.

Younger women were more stressed by financial pressures, and to a lesser extent concerns about the future of the farm/farming, than older women.

Half of those aged between 25 and 44 said they were stressed quite a lot/to a large extent by financial pressures.

There was a statistically significant association between anxiety levels and how often respondents said they felt lonely.

A total of 64.5% of those who were often or always lonely were classified as having moderate/severe anxiety, compared to just 7.4% of those who were never lonely.
Artificial intelligence is capable of creating a new religion.

AI could create a new religion for the human race

The historian Yuval Noah Harari - known for his best-selling book 'Sapiens' - is convinced that software such as ChatGPT could attract worshippers by writing sacred texts.

Harari told a science conference that AI is "gaining mastery" of human language and is now capable of using it to shape our culture.

He said: "In the future we might see the first cults and religions in history whose revered texts were written by a non-human intelligence.

"Of course, religions throughout history claimed that their holy books were written by unknown human intelligence. This was never true before.

"This could become true very, very quickly, with far-reaching consequences."

The academic has added his voice to growing calls for more regulation over the sector.

Harari said: "We need to act quickly before AI gets out of our control. Drug companies cannot sell people new medicines without first subjecting these products to rigorous safety checks."
Xi Jinping has been accused of betraying Vladimir Putin by Russian state TV.

Xi Jinping has been accused of betraying Vladimir Putin

The Chinese leader recently spoke with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time since the Russian invasion started but the move has infuriated some of Putin's biggest cheerleaders.

War analyst Sergei Mardan said on SolovyevLive that Xi had undermined the Kremlin with his "long and meaningful" discussions with Zelensky.

Mardan said on his show: "What are we supposed to think? Are we friends or what?

"(We had) joy and confidence in believing that Xi Jinping saw Zelensky as a puppet, definitely will not call him.

"And then boom - this."

Xi and Putin have formed a close alliance but the Russian despot's supporters are aggrieved that Beijing has not done more to help the war effort and the talks with Zelensky have been seen as a step too far for some.

Mardan added: "How do we take this call? Why did he call our enemy?

"Comrade Xi Jinping, why did you come to Moscow? And spend three days here, interrupting Putin's work?

"So as a result of his three-day stay in Moscow, he goes back to Beijing, spends a week talking to his advisors - and then decides to call Zelensky."
Ukraine tried to assassinate Vladimir Putin with a kamikaze drone.

Ukraine tried to assassinate Vladimir Putin

Secret service agents launched the UJ-22 drone, laden with 17 kilograms of explosives, from Ukraine with the aim of reaching a newly-built industrial estate that Putin was due to visit on Sunday (23.04.23), according to claims made by the German newspaper Bild.

However, the deadly drone crashed merely miles away from the Rudnevo industrial park as it failed its mission to assassinate the Russian despot.

Bild cited a tweet from Ukrainian activist Yuriy Romanenko, who claims to have close ties to Kyiv's intelligence services.

Romanenko alleged the Ukrainian secret service agents received 'information' about Putin's trip to the industrial site and decided to launch the deadly drone to kill the Russian president.

In a tweet, Romanenko said: "Putin we are getting closer. Everyone saw the news about the drone that flew to Moscow, but did not explode. So, this drone flew for a reason.

"Last week, our intelligence officers received information about Putin's trip to the industrial park in Rudnevo. Accordingly, our kamikaze drone took off, which flew through all the air defenses of the Russian Federation and crashed not far from the industrial park."

Kyiv has yet to officially comment on Bild's reports.
Ukraine planned an audacious attack on Moscow to mark the first anniversary of Russia's invasion.

Kyrylo Budanov had plans to attack Moscow

The attack was ultimately called off after an intervention from the United States that warned Kyiv that it could spark World War III.

The plans for the February 24 attack on Moscow by Ukraine's HUR military intelligence were revealed in leaked spy documents seen by the Washington Post newspaper.

Intelligence boss Major General Kyrylo Budanov instructed his officers to prepare for "mass strikes", the National Security Agency documents have revealed.

As well as attacking Moscow, the Ukrainians also considered hitting the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

However, officials in Washington seemed to have discovered the plans and became worried that the strikes could spark a wider military conflict.

Initial attempts to persuade Kyiv appeared to be unsuccessful but two days before the attack the CIA said that HUR "had agreed, at Washington's request, to postpone strikes".

While Ukraine ultimately held off from an attack on Russia on the anniversary, a Russian airbase was rocked by massive explosions following a suspected drone strike shortly after the milestone day.

The spy documents indicate that US intelligence has been eavesdropping on Budanov's communications and reveal tensions between Kyiv and Washington over the extent to which American weapons can be used to carry the war into Russia itself.
On March 14th, 2023, Kenya's Agriculture and Livestock Development Permanent Secretary Harry Kimtai announced the suspension of the ban on the milk powder imports from Uganda. "Take note that the importation of products under the East African Community (EAC) protocol refers to goods being imported from outside the East African Community, while goods traded within the EAC are referred to as transfers," Mr Kimtai said.

However, Uganda's milk industry players continue to grapple with non issuance of export permits and sometimes delays in issuance of the same by the Kenya Dairy Board. Sources are indicating that some processors are not getting the permits at all questioning the criteria Kenya dairy daily board is using to award the permits. Musafari Hamidu, a truck driver of one of the leading milk companies in Uganda says that initially, each milk processor would get permits for 5 trucks a day through the Kenyan border although right now, only a few trucks can be cleared for an entire week. 'As a truck driver, I have been rendered idle because most times, am seated for close to a week waiting for the permits clearance before milk products can be loaded onto my truck from the factories."

Kenya has been the leading buyer of Uganda's milk products, although the trade relations have not been consistent due to several barriers, prompting Uganda to search for new markets for its milk and milk products. According to Uganda's Dairy Development Authority, the country has established new markets for its milk, which include the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Zambia and Algeria. Others are United Arab Emirates, Syria, Japan, Oman, USA, Nepal and Bangladesh.

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Currently, DDA reports over 880 licensed dairy businesses. Of these, some of the major producers include Pearl Dairies, Brookside Limited/ Fresh Dairy, Jesa Farm Dairy, Amos Dairies Uganda Limited, Paramount Dairies Limited, GBK Dairy Products Limited and Lakeside Dairy Limited among others.

Kenya Dairy Board issued a statement dated 6th March 2023 stating that the Government of Kenya had stopped the importation of milk powders to cushion the industry from surplus production and low producer prices. Consequently, the Kenya Dairy Board said that it would monitor the production and demand for milk and milk products in the country and advise its Government accordingly.

This announcement directly reinstated the 2021 ban of Ugandan milk products importation into Kenya which went against Kenyan President Ruto's directive to lift a ban on Ugandan agricultural produce such as milk, eggs and chicken. This followed a meeting between President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Kenyan Trade Minister Kuria Moses in Kampala, late January 2023.

According to the Dairy Development Authority (DDA) of Uganda, Milk production is estimated to have increased from 2.08 billion litres in 2015 to 2.64 billion litres in 2020. By the end of 2021 milk production was estimated to reach 2.81 billion short of the target of 3.0 billion litres. Dairy exports in the country reached a record high of 358.6 billion UGX in the last four years and nearly doubled compared to last FY 2019/20 with dairy equipment valued at 18.9 billion UGX being imported in the country to support the growing trade. This implies that milk production in Uganda is on the increase with massive investments by dairy producers and farmers.
Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the US did not tell him about the leak of highly classified intelligence documents.

Volodymyr Zelensky wasn't told about the Pentagon leaks

The Pentagon leaks came to light last month, showing Washington's approach to the Ukraine war, and Zelensky was frustrated that he was not advised about the disclosure.

The Ukrainian president was quoted by the Washington Post newspaper as saying: "I did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand.

"It is unprofitable for us. It is not beneficial to the reputation of the White House, and I believe it is not beneficial to the reputation of the United States."

Despite his annoyance, Zelensky admits that he cannot put his nation at risk by straining relations with the US.

He said: "I cannot risk our state. Where I can speak frankly, I do it. But there are high risks.

"If it were my war against Putin, and there were two of us on the battlefield, I would tell everyone what I think of them. But here the story is a little different. We are all responsible."

In response to the Ukrainian leader's comments, a spokesperson for the White House national security council said: "We are in constant communication with our Ukrainian counterparts about a range of issues, including over the unauthorised disclosures, but we aren't going to get into the details of those private discussions."
Kate Bush and George Michael are among the stars being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Kate Bush is among the inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year

The two pop icons have been included in the list of inductees for 2023 alongside Missy Elliott, Sheryl Crow, Rage Against the Machine, The Spinners and Willie Nelson - and the artists will officially join the coveted club at the induction ceremony which is due to be held in Brooklyn, New York on November 3.

John Sykes, chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said in a statement: "This years incredible group of Inductees reflects the diverse artists and sounds that define rock and roll. We are honoured that this Novembers Induction Ceremony in New York will coincide with two milestones in music culture; the 90th birthday of Willie Nelson and the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop."

Artists can be nominated to join the Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first single and Bush has previously been nominated in 2018, 2021 and 2022 but missed out on all three occasions. Missy Elliott became eligible in 2023 and managed to win induction with her first nomination while George Michael - who died in 2016 - won a fan vote to help secure his induction. Sheryl Crowe and Willie Nelson both managed to score induction with their first nomination.

Other honours will go to superstar Chaka Khan who will receive the Musical Excellence Award alongside songwriters/musicians Al Kooper and Bernie Taupin.

DJ Kool Herc and Link Wray have both landed the Musical Influence Award while Ahmet Ertegun Award for non-performing professionals will go to late 'Soul Train' creator Don Cornelius.

Nominees for the class of 2023 who didn't make the cut include Cyndi Lauper, the White Stripes and Joy Division/New Order.

The 38th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on November 3.
Prince Harry is said to have been back touch with his father King Charles since the release of his tell-all book 'Spare'.

Prince Harry has reportedly been in regular contact with his father King Charles since the release of his book Spare

The Duke of Sussex dropped the bombshell autobiography in January - just four months after his dad ascended to throne on the death of Queen Elizabeth - and reports suggested the royal rift had widened because of the prince's controversial tome which included criticism of his stepmother Camilla, Queen Consort.

However, 'Finding Freedom' author Omid Scobie has now claimed Prince Harry has been back in regular contact with King Charles ahead of the coronation on May 6. Speaking during an appearance on 'This Morning' on Wednesday (03.05.23), Scobie said: "Obviously this [the coronation] is the first time he [Prince Harry] sees his family face-to-face since the release of 'Spare'. But I don't think people know there has been a somewhat regular pattern of conversation between him and his father since the release of that book.

"Now have they discussed the details and the points that he wanted to go into? From what I hear, no. But he has had contact with his dad."

Scobie said some of the conversations have been about Frogmore Cottage - the Windsor home granted to Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex by the late Queen - as they have been asked to vacate the property since moving to California.

The journalist added: "They lose the keys to that any week now and he would have spoken to his father about that."

However, Scobie suggested relations between Prince Harry and his brother William, Prince of Wales remain frosty, saying: "There has been minimal contact [with the Prince of Wales] since the Queen's funeral."

Prince Harry will be attending the coronation solo as Meghan is to stay behind in the US with the couple's two children, Princess Lilibet and Prince Archie, who will mark his fourth birthday on the day his grandfather is crowned.

Scobie said of the decision for Meghan to stay behind: "She is aware just how much of the spotlight goes on her when she sets even a foot near the story.

"It's portrayed as intentional. Should she come over and just stand next to her husband, the commentary and the narrative of the day would have been very different ... If you look back at some of Harry and Meghan's biggest problems it was all down to the fact that the attention was always on them at times when it shouldn't of been."

He added of Harry's decision to attend: "From what I understand the Sussexes had to wait for some time to really get the confirmation whether they were 100 per cent welcome at this event. Of course this all follows the release of 'Spare'.

"But for Harry there was certainly no question about [attending]. Ultimately he is fifth in line to the throne. He is a Councillor of State.

"There is a serious constitutional reason for him to be here and he takes that seriously, even though hes not a working member of the royal family ... As we have heard from him time and time again in his interviews, despite the pain that he has experienced from his own family, he still cares for them.

"So much can happen over time and I don't think he would want to look back and regret not being there for that moment."

Scobie went on to say: "Unfortunately there is nothing carved out in the ceremony for him and I would imagine if Harry and Meghan were working royals still, and everything had worked out differently, there may have been some way for them to have been orchestrated into it, or at least to be visible on that big balcony.

"But obviously that's not the case and people are wondering where Harry will be. Will he be with the civvies or will he be with his family members, and if he is what row will he be in?

"I think people will be watching to see that almost as a reflection of where he stands with his family today, but he gets no say in it."
Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas spent their Met Gala after party on Monday evening by partying with actors Florence Pugh, Ashley Park and Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director of Valentino.At the Met Gala event in New York, A picture of these five went viral on social media and was captured by photographers at the event held at the Standard Hotel in New York City.The picture was shared by a fan account on Twitter.In the picture, Nick Jonas is seen sitting alongside Pierpaolo Piccioli, Florence Pugh and Ashley Park, while Priyanka is sitting on the ground holding Florence's hand as they posed for the picture.Priyanka donned a long red dress shirt with a black tie and styled her hair up for the occasion, while Nick opted for a black suit paired with casual sneakers. Several other Hollywood stars also made an appearance at the after-party, including Janelle Monae, Ariana DeBose, Jenna Ortega, and Olivia Rodrigo.Meanwhile, Priyanka Chopra attended the event with her husband Nick Jonas dressed in a black strapless dress by Valentino.On the Met Gala red carpet, Nick and his partner were being interviewed, and he expressed that the event is very meaningful to them. Nick revealed that it has become a 'date night' tradition for them over the years. He also shared that the Met Gala holds a special significance as it marks the beginning of their love story, which started around six or seven years ago.
Ali Fazal In Kandahar: Since the time the trailer of Ali Fazal's Hollywood movie Kandahar was released, there have been a lot of questions surrounding Ali's role in the movie.

The trailer clearly shows glimpses and silhouettes of Ali Fazal in the middle of the desert riding a dirt bike and getting off a helicopter, but a lot of Ali is kept as the mystery man in the film.

ALI FAZAL GLIMPSES IN KANDAHAR TRAILER

The trailer features many shots of a man doing stunts, riding a bike in the desert, and getting off a helicopter. This suave, stylish man is our very own Ali Fazal, who is playing a major role in the Gerard Butler starrer.

Shot extensively in Saudi Arabia, the trailers mystery man has everyone talking and the makers are keeping Ali's role under wraps as they want it to have a strong impact as his part will be seen doing some high-octane stunts and action.

ALI FAZAL SURPRISE ELEMENT OF KANDAHAR?

A source revealed, "Since the trailer had been out, there have been questions about Ali's character been kept under wraps. Fans ask us questions like, 'Why are the makers of Kandahar, keeping Ali's character under wraps?' The intention is to keep the audience guessing and have a large part of the role as a visual surprise on screen. All the glimpses of a man riding the bike, and getting off the helicopter shows Ali's silhouette against a deserted backdrop, with his ardent fans smartly recognizing him. Basically, Ali plays the role that is leading a key operation in Kandahar which has multiple shades and goes up against the character of Gerard Butler".

Ali's character, being the enigmatic figure in the spy thriller movie, will gradually unfold before the audience, thereby creating a sense of suspense.

Ali's latest international project, Kandahar, which stars top international actors like Gerard Butler, Travis Fimmel and Navid Negahban, is set to be released in the US on May 26 and soon after globally.

Here's the trailer:

Keep watching this space for more updates!
Alia Bhatt Mistaken For Aishwarya Rai At Met Gala 2023 Red Carpet: Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt made a mesmerizing debut on the red carpet of the New York City's extravagant annual fund-raising event, Met Gala 2023.

ALIA BHATT LOOKED BREATH-TAKING IN A WHITE BALLERINA GOWN AT MET GALA 2023

The Gangubai Kathiawadi actress floored everyone as she made her presence felt at the event in a white ballerina gown from the shelves of ace designer Prabal Gurung. Alia's 'Disney Princess' flowy gown featured 100,000 pearls.

Now, a video from the red carpet of the Met Gala has surfaced on the internet in which the foreign paparazzi can be heard addressing Alia for Aishwarya Rai. Netizens reacted to the video and said that the American paps took revenge for the time when international celebs got clicked by the Indian paps at the NMACC launch.

NYC PAPARAZZI MISTOOK ALIA TO BE AISHWARYA RAI

Met Gala 2023 was hosted at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on May 1 (May 2 for India). Celebs from across the globe graced the red carpet of the event. Alia Bhatt made her debut looking stunning in a white gown. A video being shared on social media, shows the actress posing for the paparazzi while walking the prestigious steps.

As she entered the event with her designer Prabal Gurung, some of the paps kept calling her 'Aishwarya'. Alia continued to pose for the camera without any reactions, flashing her million-dollar smile. Check out the video:

Recently when #AishwaryaRai's video calling out #Aliabhatt's privilege went viral Alia fans were mocking Aishwarya for her acting skills, BO pull, etc ! Now we have nepo  being called Aishwarya on an international platform like #MetGala2023  #KatrinaKaif #DeepikaPadukone pic.twitter.com/wkB9h1cp8h   .  (@Instajustice14) May 2, 2023

HERE'S HOW NETIZENS REACTED TO THE VIDEO

As soon as the video surfaced, netizens started expressing their views as they were reminded about the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre launch event where the Indian paparazzi called out the wrong names to the international celebs.

A user commented, "American paps taking their "yeh shakira hai kya" revenge." "They are taking revenge for jhandeya and tommy," wrote another. "Jhandeya ikde ikde" ka badla le rhe h," commented a third user.
Another wild card entry has arrived in the Bigg Boss house. Anu Joseph, who is well-known to the miniscreen audience came as a wild card entry this time. Host Mohanlal introduced her the other day. Anu Joseph is the third wild card entry in Bigg Boss season five. The first is Hanan. But Hanan had to leave the show before the week was over. Director Omar Lulu came in second.

After her entry, the audience saw Anu Joseph fulfil the task given by Bigg Boss for the first time. The task was to change the sleeping places of the three people who seem to be having a very comfortable and enjoyable life in the Bigg Boss house and the three who seem to be having a hard time there. Anu Joseph performed this task in the living area of the Bigg Boss house.

The first thing Anu Joseph did was replace Reneesha and Cerena, who are best friends in the Bigg Boss house. Anu Joseph suggested that Nadira and Reneesha sleep together and Cerena and Maneesha sleep together. Anu Joseph tried to separate Sagar and Junaiz like this. But Sagar clarified that he and Junaiz already sleep in different beds.

Now, Anu Joseph's new vlog features clothes specially designed for her appearance in Bigg Boss Malayalam season 5. The video comes out after all the audience members have seen Anu after reaching Bigg Boss. The actress also says that this is a vlog that was shot earlier.

Anu is also shown wearing some clothes designed for the show. Everything is designed particularly for Anu. The actor says that only half of the clothes are ready now, and the rest will be delivered according to the situation. Meanwhile, the actor is also requesting the support of the audience. Anu Joseph also says that "no matter what happens, you should not worry others; you should stand for the truth no matter how far you go."

Anu Joseph is a native of Kasaragod. When she was studying in class 9, she did a Gulf show for Kalabhavan for the first time. Then Anu participated in many shows, including Kalabhavan's World Show. Anu first appeared in front of the camera through Doordarshan's album "Ithente Mannu Ithente Thalam".

Her first serial was "Eka Chandrika", but this wasn't aired. In the Chithralekha that followed, Anu appeared in front of the audience on the miniscreen. Then she acted in many serials, including the superhit Minnukettu. Anu Joseph's performance in the serial 'Karayam Nissaram' has made Anu Joseph a favourite among family audiences. Anu's debut movie is Padam Onnu Oru Vilapam. After that, Anu acted in more than 10 films, like Pathemaari, Vellimoonga, etc.
Tanzanian health authorities say that an 18-month-old child died of Marburg virus disease in the northwestern region of Kagera, Xinhua reports.

The death of the child brought the country's Marburg death toll to six since its outbreak in the region on March 21, 2023, the Minister of Health Ummy Mwalimu announced when she released an update on the disease.

She said the child belonged to a woman who had been diagnosed with the disease and was undergoing treatment in an isolation centre.

Ms Mwalimu said since the disease outbreak, nine cases have been reported of which three patients recovered and six, including the child and a health worker, died.

She said 211 of the 212 people who put in isolation were released after being monitored for 21 days and found not to be affected by the haemorraghic fever.

Ms Mwalimu said the government was observing guidelines by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on monitoring epidemics, including Marburg. She also said the government would announce total control of the disease after 42 days since the last suspected patient tested negative as per WHO guidelines, adding that the date will be May 31, 2023.
Manobala, the multi-faceted celebrity in Tamil Cinema, passed away today due to ill health. Meanwhile, the last tweet he posted along with Yogi Ramsuratkumar's picture is going viral on the internet now.

Manobala was one of the prominent figures in Tamil cinema. Cinema fans of this era know him only as an actor, but he has directed about 40 films.

He has also directed 16 TV serials. Manobala is a multi-faceted producer, director, comedian and character actor. Especially as a comedy actor, he was attracting Tamil cinema audience for a long time.

Manobala, who was an assistant to director Bharathiraja, has directed many important films like Agaya Gangai, Pillai Nila. He made his debut in 1994 with the film Thaimaman and has acted in hundreds of films since then. Manobala, who was busy acting like this, passed away unexpectedly today. Manobala was said to have been suffering from ill health for a long time.

Especially since he had a liver problem, for which he was being treated at a private hospital. While he was resting at home after the treatment, he suddenly developed shortness of breath. He is said to have died today due to severe chest pain. It is noteworthy that Manobala underwent angio treatment last January. Manobala had been suffering from ill health for some time.

Due to this, Manobala, who was obsessed with social media, has not posted any post for the past few weeks. He had last posted a picture on Twitter on March 16. Since then no picture has been posted.

With Manobala's death, his last picture is now trending on the internet. In it, Manobala wearing a red t-shirt is standing with a picture of Yogi Ramsuratkumar. With the picture now trending on Twitter, many are mourning his demise.

Actor Rajinikanth expressed his condolences saying that the death of his dear friend Manobala is very painful. Similarly, director Bharathiraja expressed his condolences, "The death of my student Manobala is an irreparable loss for me and our Tamil film world."

Also, many celebrities are also condoling the demise of Manobala. Now that actor Manobala's body has been kept at his residence in Saligram, many people are paying their last respects to Manobala.
Sarath Babu Death News: The Kollywood industry witnessed a massive jolt this evening after the news of renowned actor Sarath Babu surfaced online. It was reported that the ace actor passed away in Hyderabad while undergoing a medical treatment. While his massive fan following was heartbroken with the news, it turned out to be mere rumours.

Sarath Babu Dead Or Alive?

Sarath Babu's sister cleared the air about his death reports and stated that the actor is alive and recovering. "All the news about Sarath Babu on social media are coming wrong. Sarath Babu has recovered a bit and the room has been shifted. I hope that Sarath Babu will recover completely soon and talk to the media. My request is don't believe any news on social media," the actor's sister said in a statement.

Sarath Babu Hospitalised

For the uninitiated, Sarath Babu was rushed to the hospital last week in Hyderabad. His condition was said to be critical and he was reportedly put on a ventilator. The media reports suggested that the 71 year old actor was battling multiple organ damage.

To note, this happens to be the second time Sarath Babu was hospitalised this year. He was earlier hospitalised in Chennai.

Sarath Babu's Movies

Talking about the work front, Sarath Babu has made a mark in the Tamil, Telugu and Kannada film industries with his stupendous work. He made his debut with the 1973 release Rama Rajyam and has worked in over 200 movies so far. In fact, Sarath Babu has also won the Nandi Award for Best Supporting Actor thrice for Seethakoka Chilaka, O Bharya Katha and Neerajanam respectively.

Sarath Babu has been a part of movies like Kannevayasu, Thirumulla Bandham, Seethakoka Chiluka, Samsaram Ok Chadarangam, Annayya, Apadbhandavudu, etc. He was last seen in Bobby Simha starrer Vasantha Mullai which was a psychological action thriller and hit the screens early this year.
If we had an award for the cutest friends in telly land, we would happily give it to Priyanka Choudhary and Ankit Gupta. There's no doubt that the duo has given us serious friendship goals. From supporting each other to showcasing their sizzling chemistry, PriyAnkit grabbed several eyeballs during their stint in Bigg Boss 16.

Salman Khan's BB 16 might be over but the duo has managed to remain in headlines for different reasons. From working in a music video to dropping comments on each other's Instagram posts, Priyanka Chahar Choudhary and Ankit Gupta have been hogging all the attention on social media.

When Priyanka shot for an interview, Ankit shared a special message for her, leaving her stunned. The actor might be in Chandigarh, shooting for Junooniyatt, but he didn't let distance affect their bond. He shared the sweetest voice message for PCC, making everyone gush over them.

ANKIT GUPTA MESSAGE FOR PRIYANKA CHOUDHARY

In his audio message for Priyanka, Ankit talked about their bond, mentioning that he was lucky to have found a person like her. Calling her hardworking, the Udaariyaan actor revealed what he loved the most about her.

"The bond that me and Priyanka share is a very special bond as everybody knows. Life me bahut mushkil se aapko aise log milte hain jinke saath aap you can be yourself and you feel secure and safe. Luckily I found that person in Priyanka and I am so happy and so lucky to have her in my life. She is very hardworking and persistent, I love that about her. She is very clear in her head about what she wants and where she wants to go," he said.

"I love when she smiles, I love when she laughs. She looks the beautiful when she laughs and if I am the reason behind her laughter, I feel very good and happy. The kind of bond we share, it can't be described in words. It is something that you feel and it is a very special bond. I just want her to be happy and she always smile and laughs like that," Ankit added.

PRIYANKIT FANS REACT TO ANKIT GUPTA MESSAGE

Fans couldn't help but gush over Ankit Gupta's message for Priyanka Choudhary. One user shared the two scenarios where Priyanka mentioned that Ankit never gave a thought about things.

"Ankit's message for priyanka reminds me when after the mud task, she said, "tu apnay mai rehta hai, tujhe apnay sai matlab hai, tujhe kisi cheez sai matlab nahi hai"oh just how fast the night changes," one user tweeted.

"I loved Ankit's words for Priyanka. It proves how strong their bond is," another user wrote.

ankits message for priyanka reminds me when after the mud task, she said, tu apnay mai rehta hai, tujhe apnay sai matlab hai, tujhe kisi cheez sai matlab nahi hai



oh just how fast the night changes. #priyankit  . (@huffsaaa) May 2, 2023

Keep watching this space for more updates.
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Raghav Chadha : Meet Parineeti Chopra's Rumoured Boyfriend

After creating buzz on social media platforms, actress Parineeti Chopra and politician Raghav Chadha have gained the attention of their fans on their wedding rumours. Reports revealed that the two have had a Rokha ceremony on the last month and plan to make it official on the last week of May 2023. If you are interested to know more about her rumoured boy friend and politician Raghav Chadha , read the article given below.

Born Raghav Chadha was born to Sunil Chadha and Alka Chadha in Delhi. He completed his school education from Modern School Barakhamba Road New Delhi. Later he earned a Bachelor's Degree from Delhi University. After completing graduation, he moved to London to pursue chartered accounting from London School Of Economics.



Entry Into Politics After completing studies from London, later he returned to India. Raghav Chadha who made his entry into politics by joining hands together with Anna Hazare 's anti-corruption movement in 2011. Later he joined in the political party 'Aam Aadmi Party' with the support of Arvind Kejriwal. He then appointed as a AAP Punjab co-in-charge for the Punjab Legislative Assembly election in 2020.

Youngest MP In Rajya Sabha AAP nominated seven members to Rajya Sabha from Punjab earlier this year. Raghav Chadha, who is the youngest member in the list. According to reports, the party has a total of 10 members in Parliament, all in Rajya Sabha

Chartered Accountant Apart from being a politician , Raghav Chadha is a Chartered Accountant. Before entering into politics he worked as an accountant for several multinational financial companies across the world.



Friends Turned Lovers According to the reports, Raghav Chadha and actress Parineeti Chopra were friends during their college days. Parineeti studied at Manchester Business School while Raghav studied at the London School of Economics. Both Parineeti and Raghav attended the first India UK Outstanding Achievers award event in London in January 2023.



Wedding Rumours Around Raghav and Parineeti Raghav and Parineeti who were spotted together for several events. Recenetly, AAP's former colleague, Sanjeev Arora, congratulates Raghav Chadha, Parineeti Chopra on their union and shared a post on Twitter. Later, it made headlines and went viral on social media platforms. As per the latest resources, they didn't opened up about their relationship to media.



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Schlatter Industries AG / Schlagwort(e): Personalie

Daniel Fransson ubernimmt Leitung Technik



03.05.2023 / 06:00 CET/CEST

Veroffentlichung einer Ad-hoc-Mitteilung gemass Art. 53 KR

Fur den Inhalt der Mitteilung ist der Emittent / Herausgeber verantwortlich.



SCHLATTER INDUSTRIES AG - SIX SWISS EXCHANGE: STRN - ISIN: CH0002277314





Ad hoc-Mitteilung gemass Art. 53 KR S c h l i e r e n, 3. Mai 2023. Die Schlatter Gruppe hat Daniel Fransson zum Mitglied der Gruppenleitung und neuen Leiter Technik der Schlatter Industries AG ernannt. Der 52-jahrige Schweizer ubernimmt die Funktion am 1. Januar 2024. Daniel Fransson ist Diplom-Ingenieur im Maschinenbau und war in den letzten 18 Jahren in verschiedenen Fuhrungs- und Projektleitungspositionen fur die Schlatter Gruppe in der Schweiz tatig. Beat Huber, bisheriger Leiter Technik der Schlatter Industries AG und seit 23 Jahren fur die Schlatter Gruppe tatig, wird per Ende Januar 2024 in den vorzeitigen Ruhestand treten. Beat Huber hat die Leitung des Bereichs Technik vor 12 Jahren ubernommen und die Entwicklung der Schlatter Gruppe in dieser Zeit entscheidend mitgepragt. Der Verwaltungsrat, die Gruppenleitung sowie die Mitarbeitenden danken Beat Huber herzlich fur seinen grossen Einsatz und seine Leistungen, die er fur die Schlatter Gruppe erbracht hat, und wunschen ihm alles Gute im wohlverdienten Ruhestand. Weitere Informationen Schlatter Industries AG Werner Schmidli Chief Executive Officer Telefon +41 44 732 71 70 Mobile +41 79 343 62 62 werner.schmidli@schlattergroup.com Agenda 04.05.2023 Ordentliche Generalversammlung 17.08.2023 Publikation Halbjahresergebnis 2023 29.03.2024 Publikation detailliertes Jahresergebnis 2023

Schlatter Gruppe (www.schlattergroup.com)

Die Schlatter Gruppe ist ein weltweit fuhrender Anlagenbauer fur Widerstandsschweisssysteme, Web- und Ausrustungsmaschinen fur Papiermaschinenbespannungen sowie Drahtgewebe und -gitter. Mit ihrem langjahrigen Know-how in der Anlagentechnik, Innovationskraft und zuverlassigem Kundenservice garantiert die am Swiss Reporting Standard der SIX Swiss Exchange kotierte Unternehmensgruppe fur leistungsstarke und werthaltige Produktionsanlagen.



Diese Medieninformation enthalt bestimmte in die Zukunft gerichtete Aussagen, z.B. Angaben unter Verwendung der Worte "glaubt", "geht davon aus", "erwartet" oder Formulierungen ahnlicher Art. Solche in die Zukunft gerichtete Aussagen unterliegen bekannten und unbekannten Risiken, Ungewissheiten und anderen Faktoren, die dazu fuhren konnen, dass die tatsachlichen Ergebnisse, die Finanzlage, die Entwicklung oder die Performance der Gesellschaft wesentlich von denjenigen abweichen, die in diesen Aussagen ausdrucklich oder implizit angenommen werden. Zu diesen Faktoren gehoren unter anderem: der Wettbewerb mit anderen Unternehmen, die Auswirkungen und Risiken neuer Technologien, die laufenden Kapitalbedurfnisse der Gesellschaft, die Finanzierungskosten, Verzogerungen bei der Integration von Akquisitionen, die Anderungen des Betriebsaufwands, die Gewinnung und das Halten qualifizierter Mitarbeiter, nachteilige Anderungen anwendbaren Steuerrechts und sonstige in dieser Kommunikation genannte Faktoren. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Ungewissheiten sollte sich der Leser nicht auf derartige in die Zukunft gerichtete Aussagen verlassen. Die Gesellschaft ubernimmt keinerlei Verpflichtung, solche zukunftsgerichteten Aussagen fortzuschreiben oder an zukunftige Ereignisse oder Entwicklungen anzupassen. ------------------------------

Diese Medienmitteilung kann auf folgendem Link als PDF heruntergeladen werden:

Schlatter Ad hoc-Mitteilung gem. Art.53 LR



Falls Sie keine Medieninformationen der Schlatter Industries AG mehr erhalten mochten, bitten wir Sie um eine Nachricht an: pascale.lehmann@lehmanncom.ch

Ende der Adhoc-Mitteilung
SINGAPORE, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Talented young minds from universities in China, Spain and Singapore have been hailed as winners of the 2023 Alibaba Global E-commerce Challenge organized by Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group ("AIDC") after a series of rigorous competitions both at the regional and the global levels.





The 2023 Alibaba Global E-commerce Challenge aimed to identify young talent from around the world that can help shape the future of AIDC. Open to university students and recent university graduates worldwide, participants were tasked to develop creative solutions to problems inspired by some of AIDC's real day-to-day businesses scenarios.

Since launching in March, this year's competition has received an overwhelming response with around 3,500 individuals representing 141 renowned universities from 59 countries and regions participating. After the intense regional rounds held in Europe, the Americas, East Asia and Southeast Asia, nine teams were selected to enter the global finals held in Singapore from April 27-28. The finalists vied for the top three spots by pitching live to a judging panel formed by AIDC executives, to present their proposals around market opportunities and strategies for some of the businesses under AIDC, including Alibaba.com, AliExpress and Lazada.

Team "Chunyi Capital", formed by students from Peking University, took first place of the global finals for their innovative approach and teamwork, while Team "Checkout Champs" and Team "Merlion Consulting", formed by students from ESADE Business School and National University of Singapore respectively, earned second and third place. The three winning teams were awarded prizes worth up to RMB50,000. In addition, AIDC will extend internship offers to select participants of the global finals.

"We were impressed by the insightful and innovative proposals by the finalists in the Alibaba Global E-Commerce Challenge. AIDC is committed to nurturing young talent in the international digital commerce space and we are excited to welcome some of the bright minds from the competition as interns with our company. We look forward to seeing their future success," said Lilian Jiang, Chief People Officer of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group.

"We are humbled and elated to have won the Alibaba Global E-Commerce Challenge. This competition has been an incredible journey, pushing us to our limits and helping us develop a deeper understanding of the digital commerce sector. We look forward to applying the knowledge and skills we have gained to drive positive change in the industry. Thank you to the organizers and judges for this opportunity," said Chunyi from Team Chunyi Capital at Peking University.

Several earlier participants of the competition, including HUA Wen, who placed third in the previous edition of the competition, have joined AIDC and made significant contributions to the team. Sharing her advice with this year's winners, Hua said: "When opportunities arise, don't be afraid to challenge yourself and don't let societal expectations dictate your choices. Life is about experiences, not just fulfilling a purpose."

To enhance the finalists' experience during their time in Singapore, AIDC arranged a tour of its Singapore office for all participants to allow them to gain a deeper understanding of its organization, interact with the AIDC team, and witness its operations in action. The experience provided valuable learning opportunities for the finalists and helped them gain a more comprehensive understanding of the e-commerce sector.

AIDC operates multiple international commerce retail businesses, including Lazada, AliExpress, Trendyol and Daraz, which provide commerce infrastructure and local market insights to support brands and merchants in serving local consumers with a wide product selection and unique customer experiences. The company also operates Alibaba.com, a leading platform for global business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce founded in 1999 that aims to make it easy to do business anywhere.

To find out more about the 2023 Alibaba Global E-commerce Challenge, please visit: https://www.alibabagec.com/













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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/alibaba-international-digital-commerce-group-unveils-winners-of-2023-global-e-commerce-challenge-301814152.html
CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Southern Energy Corp. ("Southern" or the "Company") (TSXV:SOU)(AIM:SOUC)(OTCQX:SOUTF) has extended the expiration date of its common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") issued under the non-brokered private placement (the "April 2021 Private Placement") of units (each, a "Unit") of the Company, which closed on April 29, 2021, from April 29, 2023 to December 31, 2023. This amendment is being implemented by the Company to encourage the exercise of the Warrants and to aide in the liquidity and trading of the common shares ("Common Shares") of the Company.

Each Unit issued under the April 2021 Private Placement was comprised of one Common Share and one Warrant. Each Warrant entitled the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of CAD0.32 anytime prior to April 29, 2023. This amendment permits holders of such Warrants to exercise their Warrants anytime prior to December 31, 2023.

As of the date hereof, of the 17,078,125 Warrants issued under the April 2021 Private Placement, 8,331,250 have been exercised and 8,746,875 remain unexercised. Of the Warrants that remain unexercised, 1,943,750 are held by Directors/PDMRs of the Company. The extension remains subject to final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange.

Total Voting Rights Update

Further to the Company's announcements on 6 May 2022 and 23 August 2022 regarding the application to AIM for a total block admission of 18,863,750 new Common Shares in the Company (the "Block Admission"), a monthly update to the Company's total voting rights as a result of the exercise of instruments subject to the Block Admission during April 2023.

As at 30 April 2023, Southern had 139,041,285 Common Shares in issue. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company, under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules. There are no Common Shares held in treasury and each Common Share entitles the holder to a single vote at general meetings of the Company.

For further information, please contact:

Southern Energy Corp. Ian Atkinson (President and CEO) +1 587 287 5401 Calvin Yau (CFO) +1 587 287 5402 Strand Hanson Limited - Nominated & Financial Adviser +44 (0) 20 7409 3494 James Spinney / James Bellman Canaccord Genuity - Joint Broker +44 (0) 20 7523 8000 Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor / James Asensio Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited - Joint Broker +44 (0) 20 7710 7600 Callum Stewart / Ashton Clanfield Tennyson Securities - Joint Broker +44 (0) 20 7186 9033 Peter Krens / Pav Sanghera Camarco +44 (0) 20 3757 4980 Owen Roberts / Billy Clegg / Hugo Liddy

About Southern Energy Corp.

Southern Energy Corp. is a natural gas exploration and production company. Southern has a primary focus on acquiring and developing conventional natural gas and light oil resources in the southeast Gulf States of Mississippi, Louisiana, and East Texas. Our management team has a long and successful history working together and have created significant shareholder value through accretive acquisitions, optimization of existing oil and natural gas fields and the utilization of re-development strategies utilizing horizontal drilling and multi-staged fracture completion techniques.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Southern Energy Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/752569/Southern-Energy-Corp-Announces-Warrant-Amendment-and-Total-Voting-Rights-Update
EQS-News: Dolkam Suja a.s. / Key word(s): AGM/EGM

Dolkam Suja a.s.: CONVOCATION OF ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING



03.05.2023 / 08:30 CET/CEST

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





CONVOCATION OF ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING The board of directors of the company D O L K A M Suja a.s. with seat at Suja, 015 01 Rajec, Slovakia, company ID No.: 31 561 870, registered with the commercial registry of the District Court Zilina, Section Sa, Insert No. 73/L (the "Company") in accordance with Sec. 184 et seq. of the Slovak Act No. 513/1991 Coll. Commercial Code as amended ("CC") and Art. XI. Para. 11.1 of valid Articles of Association of the Company convenes ordinary general meeting of the Company to be held on 07.06.2023 at 11:00 am ("OGM") at the seat of the company Schonherr Rechtsanwalte GmbH, o.z. at the address Prievozska 4/A, 821 09 Bratislava, Slovakia (in the premises of Apollo Business Center II, block B, on the 6th floor) in the conference room with following agenda: Opening Election of a chairman of the ordinary general meeting, minutes clerk, two minutes verifiers and scrutinizers Debate on: ordinary individual financial statement for year 2022 annual report for year 2022 independent auditor's report on audit of the financial statement for year 2022 supplement to independent auditor's report on the annual report for year 2022 proposal for distribution of profit for year 2022 statement of the supervisory board on the financial statement for year 2022 and proposal for distribution of profit for year 2022 report of the supervisory board on results of its supervisory activities for year 2022 Approval of: ordinary individual financial statement for year 2022 annual report for year 2022 proposal for distribution of profit for year 2022 Debate on Business plan for 2023 Election of auditor's company for performance of statutory audit for the Company for year 2023 Closing The record date under Sec. 156a CC and Sec. 180(2) CC for exercising the shareholder's right to participate in OGM, vote, request information and explanations and to submit proposals, or to exercise other shareholder's rights, is 04.06.2023. Registration of shareholders and entry into attendance list will be held between 10:00 am and 10:45 am on the day and at the place of OGM. During the registration, it is necessary to submit: Natural person being shareholder: valid identity document (ID card or passport); Natural person being proxy holder: written proxy with officially verified signature of the principal - shareholder (or person(s) acting on behalf of the principal - shareholder), valid identity document (ID card or passport) of the proxy holder; Legal entity being shareholder: commercial registry excerpt (original or officially verified copy) not older than 3 months, or if not registered in commercial registry, excerpt from similar registry or document proving legal capacity including document attesting the person authorized to act on behalf of the shareholder (original or officially verified copy) and valid identity document (ID card or passport) of statutory body or member of statutory body of the shareholder; Legal entity being proxy holder: written power of attorney with officially verified signature of the principal - shareholder (or person(s) acting on behalf of the principal - shareholder), up-to-date commercial registry excerpt (original or officially verified copy) of the proxy holder not older than 3 months, or if not registered in commercial registry, excerpt from similar registry or document proving legal capacity including document attesting the person authorized to act on behalf of the proxy holder (original or officially verified copy) and valid identity document (ID card or passport) of statutory body or member of statutory body of proxy holder. Shareholder whose shares of the Company are held via trustee holding the shares for shareholder on holder's account established at central depositary of securities under Sec. 105a of the Act No. 566/2001 Coll. on Securities as amended or his/her proxy holder shall submit, in addition to documents stated above, also written confirmation of the trustee that the shareholder is owner of the specified number of shares of the Company held by the trustee on holder's account of the trustee as at the above record date. During registration, documents mentioned in sections i) to v) above, except for identity documents, must be given to the person in charge of entries into the attendance list for record-keeping purposes. Apart from identity documents, all submitted or delivered documents in foreign language (except for Czech language) must contain also official translation into Slovak language. Each shareholder participates in OGM at own expenses. Advice pursuant to Sec. 184a CC: Shareholder has the right to participate in and vote at general meeting. Shareholder has the right to request at OGM information and explanations regarding matters of the Company or matters of persons controlled by the Company relating to the subject-matter of OGM and submit proposals as stated under Sec. 180(1) CC. The board of directors of the Company ("BoD") is obliged to provide each shareholder, upon request, with complete and true information and explanations relating to the subject-matter of OGM. If the BoD is unable to provide a shareholder with complete information at OGM, or if at OGM a shareholder so requests, the BoD is obliged to provide the shareholder with the information in writing within 15 days from the day of OGM. The BoD shall send the written information to the shareholder to the address he/she stated; otherwise, it shall provide the information at the seat of the Company. If the BoD refuses to provide the information, upon shareholder's request, the supervisory board of the Company ("SB") shall decide about duty of the BoD to provide the requested information during the OGM. If the shareholder is not provided with the requested information, or if the provided information is incomplete, shareholder is entitled to file a petition with the court which shall decide about duty of the Company to provide the requested information. This shareholder's right expires unless exercised within one month from the day of OGM at which he/she requested BoD or SB to provide such information. A shareholder or shareholders holding shares with nominal value of at least 5% of the registered capital has/have the right to request the BoD in writing to put items on the agenda of OGM and OGM is obliged to discuss these. The request for supplementation of the agenda must be accompanied by a justification or a draft resolution to be adopted; otherwise, OGM is not obliged to attend to such request. If the request for supplementation of the agenda is delivered after the convocation of OGM was published, the BoD shall publish a supplement to the agenda of OGM in a manner stipulated by law and determined by the Articles of Association of the Company ("AoA") for convening the general meeting at least ten days before OGM. If such a notice on supplementation of the agenda of OGM is not possible, the item in question can be put on the agenda of OGM only if all shareholders of the Company participate in OGM and consent thereto. If the request for supplementation of the agenda is delivered 20 days before OGM at the latest, the BoD is obliged to publish the notice on supplementation of the agenda not later than 10 days before OGM. A shareholder attends the general meeting personally or represented by proxy holder based on a written proxy pursuant to Sec. 184(1) CC and Sec. 190e CC. The signature of the principal - shareholder, or in case of shareholder - legal entity, of the person authorized to act on behalf of the principal - shareholder, shall be officially verified. If the shareholder grants the proxy to exercise voting rights attached to the same shares at one general meeting to more proxy holders, the Company shall allow voting to the proxy holder who was registered in the attendance list at the general meeting at first. If more shareholders granted a written proxy for representation to the same proxy holder, such proxy holder may vote at the general meeting on behalf of each of the represented shareholders independently. A SB member may act as shareholder's proxy holder as well; however, he/she shall notify the shareholder of all facts that might influence shareholder's decision on granting the proxy for representation at the general meeting to a SB member. The proxy shall contain specific instructions for voting on each decision or item of the agenda of the general meeting on which the SB member shall vote as the proxy holder on behalf of the shareholder. If a shareholder has shares on more than one securities accounts under a special act, the Company shall allow the shareholder to be represented by one proxy holder in relation to each securities account, whereas the proxy shall specify the amount of the Company's shares and the respective securities account of the shareholder covered by the proxy. Template of the written proxy which can be used for proxy voting is attached to this convocation. This template is also available on website of the Company at www.dolkam.sk in section "VALNE ZHROMAZDENIE" and subsection "RVZ 07.06.2023". Electronic means by which the Company receives notices of appointment of proxy holder, change of granted proxy and of revocation thereof is e-mail sent by shareholder to electronic (e-mail) address of the Company dolkam@dolkam.sk . E-mail sent by shareholder shall contain an attachment - a scanned copy of a sufficiently certain expression of will of shareholder (if in other than Slovak or Czech language, official translation into Slovak language required) regarding appointment of proxy holder, change of granted proxy or revocation thereof, in format "pdf" or "tiff". This does not affect duty of the proxy holder to submit and hand over the written proxy with officially verified signature of principal - shareholder (or person(s) acting on behalf of the principal - shareholder) during registration. A shareholder exercises delivery of the notice of appointment of proxy holder, change of granted proxy or revocation thereof at own risk and notices are considered to be delivered to the Company when delivered at the above electronic (e-mail) address of the Company. Since the AoA regulate neither the possibility of absentee voting by mail pursuant to Sec. 190a CC nor the shareholders' participation in and voting at the general meeting by electronic means pursuant to Sec. 190d CC, a shareholder does not have the right to vote at OGM by mail or the possibility to participate and vote by electronic means. Consolidated versions of materials, documents and draft resolutions of OGM to be discussed as a part of the agenda of OGM can be obtained or inspected personally at the seat of the Company at the address Suja, 015 01 Rajec, Slovakia, in the room Economist's Office (Kancelaria ekonomky) on working days during the period from the day of publishing of this convocation of OGM until 07.06.2023 between 8 am and 12 noon. Data and documents pursuant to Sec. 184a (2) let. c) to e) CC, including consolidated versions of all documents to be discussed as a part of the agenda of the general meeting, draft resolutions of OGM pursuant to individual items of agenda of OGM and statement of the BoD to each item of agenda of OGM to which no draft resolution is submitted and template proxy will be published on the website of the Company at www.dolkam.sk in section "VALNE ZHROMAZDENIE" and subsection "RVZ 07.06.2023". Electronic means by which the Company publishes the information under special regulation is internet, i.e. website of the Company at www.dolkam.sk . Any electronic communication with the Company shall be performed by sending an e-mail to electronic (e-mail) address of the Company dolkam@dolkam.sk . Notice for the shareholders pursuant to Sec. 192 (1) CC: The ordinary individual financial statement for year 2022 is available to shareholders for inspection at the seat of the Company at the address Suja, 015 01 Rajec, Slovakia, in the room Economist's Office (Kancelaria ekonomky) on working days during the period from the day of publishing of this convocation of OGM until 07.06.2023 between 8 am and 12 noon and will be published at least thirty days prior to OGM on website of the Company at www.dolkam.sk in section "VALNE ZHROMAZDENIE" and subsection "RVZ 07.06.2023". A shareholder being holder of bearer shares and who has established a pledge over at least one share of the Company as a security for recovery of costs related thereto in favour of the Company has the right to ask for sending copy of the ordinary individual financial statement for year 2022 to the address stated by the shareholder at his/her expense and risk. This right can be exercised by shareholder by written request sent to the address of the seat of the Company or personally at the seat of the Company at the address Suja, 015 01 Rajec, Slovakia in the room Economist's Office (Kancelaria ekonomky) on working days during the period from the day of publishing of this convocation of OGM until 07.06.2023 between 8 am and 12 noon. Since the Company has issued bearer shares, the main data of the ordinary individual financial statement for the year 2022 are part of this convocation of OGM: Main data of the ordinary individual financial statement

of the company D O L K A M Suja a.s. for the year 2022

Balance sheet as at 31.12.2022 Profit and loss statement as at 31.12.2022 in EUR in EUR Total assets 12 298 027

Production 5 539 381

Receivables from subscribed own equity - Purchased consumables and services 3 661 403

Fixed assets 5 126 618

Added value 1 877 978

Current assets 7 168 685

Staff costs 828 136

Other assets 2 724

Taxes and charges 58 268

Depreciation of intangible and tangible fixed assets 496 372

Total liabilities and equity 12 298 027 Sales of fixed assets and material 116 680

Carrying value of fixed assets and material sold 113 919

Share capital 937 828 Other operating income 133 114

Other operating expenses 38 233

Statutory funds 10 446 Operating profit or loss 592 844

Funds from profit 9 947 113

Financial income 8 338 Profit or loss for the current period after tax 410 399

Financial expenses 60 554

Profit or loss of prior periods - Financial profit or loss -52 216

Liabilities 979 910

Profit or loss from ordinary activities prior tax 540 628

Other liabilities 12 331

Income tax on ordinary activities 130 229 Profit or loss for the current period after tax 410 399

In Suja on 17.04.2023 Board of Directors of the company D O L K A M Suja a.s. Template proxy (please complete legibly in block letters) PROXY for participation in the ordinary general meeting of the company D O L K A M Suja a.s. Undersigned principal: title, forename, surname / business name: ..............................................................., permanent residence / registered seat: ...................................................................., birth certificate No. / company ID No.: ..................................................................., date of birth (only natural person): ........................................................................., personal ID No. / passport No. (only natural person): ................................................, registered in the commercial registry or other similar registry (only legal entity): ..........................................................................................................................., forename, surname and position of the person authorized to act on behalf of the shareholder (only legal entity): ................................................................................................................, (the "Principal") as a shareholder of the company D O L K A M Suja a.s., with seat at Suja, 015 01 Rajec, Slovakia, company ID No.: 31 561 870, registered in the commercial registry of the District Court Zilina, Section Sa, Insert No. 73/L (the "Company") hereby grants proxy to the proxy holder: title, forename, surname / business name: ..............................................................., permanent residence / registered seat: ...................................................................., birth certificate No. / company ID No.: ..................................................................., date of birth (only natural person): ........................................................................., personal ID No. / passport No. (only natural person): ................................................, registered in the commercial registry or other similar registry (only legal entity): ..........................................................................................................................., (the "Proxy holder"), to act as a proper and authorized proxy holder of the Principal performing the following: to represent the Principal in relation to: all shares of the Company belonging to the Principal** shares of the Company which the Principal has on securities account(s):** Securities account No. Where the securities account is maintained (name of the member of central depositary of securities is sufficient) Number of shares of the Company on the securities account

**Delete as appropriate. In case that no option is deleted as appropriate or otherwise unambiguously chosen, option 1.a) is valid and the proxy is held for all shares of the Company belonging to the Principal as the Company's shareholder. If option 1.b) is chosen and the securities account(s) was/were sufficiently specified, it is held, that the proxy relates to all shares that the Principal has on this/these securities account(s). In case option 1.b) is chosen, it is necessary to specify the securities account(s) on which the Principal has shares of the Company and to which this proxy relates; otherwise this proxy can be invalid due to uncertainty. The Principal and the Proxy holder confirm by signing this proxy that they agree with these rules. and that to full extent and without any limitation as a shareholder of the Company at the ordinary general meeting of the Company to be held on 07.06.2023 at 11 am ("OGM") at the seat of the company Schonherr Rechtsanwalte GmbH, o.z. at the address Prievozska 4/A, 821 09 Bratislava, Slovakia (in the premises of Apollo Business Center II, block B, on the 6th floor) in the conference room, in particular but not limited to, to exercise voting rights at OGM to full extent and without any limitation, to request information and explanations, to submit and apply proposals and to execute any and all other acts which the Principal as a shareholder of the Company is entitled to exercise at OGM, in particular but not limited to, pursuant to the Articles of Association of the Company, the Slovak Act No. 513/1991 Coll. the Commercial Code as amended and/or pursuant to other applicable laws of the Slovak Republic; to act, sign and/or execute for and on behalf of the Principal any and all legal and/or other actions relating to and/or connected with actions stipulated in section 1. above, and all that also in cases in which pursuant to generally binding legal rules of Slovakia a special proxy is required; to comply with the following specific voting instructions, if the Proxy holder is also supervisory board member of the Company: Item of Agenda of OGM: Instruction: 2. 4. 6.

In the case the Proxy holder is also supervisory board member of the Company, the Principal and the Proxy holder confirm by signing this proxy that the Proxy holder has informed the Principal about all facts that might affect the decision of the Principal as a shareholder to grant proxy for representation at OGM to a supervisory board member of the Company. The Proxy holder is entitled neither to grant power of substitution to a third party nor to grant to him/her any authorization, whether individual or in the entirety of the proxy granted to him/her. The Principal hereby confirms everything and anything that the Proxy holder lawfully executes and/or arranges pursuant to and in accordance with this proxy during the validity of this proxy. This proxy supersedes any and all prior, oral and written, proxies granted by the Principal to the Proxy holder in the matters falling under the scope of the Proxy holder's authorization according to this proxy, and these previous proxies are considered hereby revoked and invalid. This proxy is governed by applicable laws of the Slovak Republic. In ................................., on ................................. The Principal: Forename, surname / business name: ...................................................................... Signature: ..................................................................... (please do not forget to have your signature verified) I agree with my appointment as a Proxy holder and I accept this proxy in the above scope. The Proxy holder: Forename, surname / business name: ...................................................................... Date of acceptance of the proxy: ............................. Signature: .....................................................................



03.05.2023 CET/CEST Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



The EQS Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

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Regulatory News:

Valbiotis (FR0013254851 ALVAL, PEA SME eligible), a commercially oriented Research and Development company, committed to scientific innovation for preventing and combating metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, announces its Combined Annual Shareholders Meeting was held on May 2, 2023 at Espace Encan, La Rochelle, under the chairmanship of Sebastien PELTIER, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

All resolutions were adopted by a very large majority of shareholders, with the exception of resolutions 10 to 13 and 16 to 19 presented on an extraordinary basis.

Shareholders voted in particular to renew the terms of office of two of the members of the Supervisory Board and extend the terms of office of all members of the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board from three to four years.

Sebastien PELTIER, co-founder, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Valbiotis, comments: On behalf of the Board of Directors of Valbiotis, I would like to express our gratitude to our shareholders for the trust they have shown us during this General Meeting by adopting almost all the resolutions. This demonstrates their commitment to our business plan and our strategic vision for the future. With the renewed support of our shareholders, we are ready to meet the challenges ahead of us and continue our development in a promising market environment and looking forward to communicating on the next key steps, including the results of the Phase II/III Reverse-It study on TOTUM63, expected before the end of the first semester 20231. We are perfectly in line with the announced schedule and prepared to advance alongside our shareholders to make Valbiotis a leading company in the field of healthcare."

All information related to this Shareholders' Meeting is available at: https://www.valbiotis.com/en/general-assemblies/.

About Valbiotis

Valbiotis is a commercially oriented Research Development company, committed to scientific innovation for preventing and combating metabolic and cardiovascular diseases in response to unmet medical needs.

Valbiotis has adopted an innovative approach, aiming to revolutionize healthcare by developing a new class of health nutrition products designed to reduce the risk of major metabolic diseases, relying on a multi-target strategy enabled by the use of plant-based terrestrial and marine resources.

Internationally, its products are intended to be the subject of licensing and/or distribution agreements with global or regional health and nutrition players. In France, Valbiotis will be responsible for marketing its own products.

Created at the beginning of 2014 in La Rochelle, the Company has forged numerous partnerships with leading academic centers. The Company has established three sites in France Perigny, La Rochelle (17) and Riom (63) and a subsidiary in Quebec City (Canada).

Valbiotis is a member of the "BPI Excellence" network and has been recognized as an "Innovative Company" by the BPI label. Valbiotis has received major financial support from the European Union for its research programs via the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Valbiotis is a PEA-SME eligible company.

For more information about Valbiotis, please visit: www.valbiotis.com

Name: Valbiotis

ISIN code: FR0013254851

Ticker symbol: ALVAL

EnterNext PEA-PME 150

This press release contains forward-looking statements about Valbiotis' objectives. Valbiotis considers that these projections are based on rational hypotheses and the information available to Valbiotis at the present time. However, in no way does this constitute a guarantee of future performance, and these projections may be affected by changes in economic conditions and financial markets, as well as certain risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Valbiotis Universal Registration Document filed to the French Financial Markets Regulator (AMF) on April 26, 2023, this document is available on the Company's website (www.valbiotis.com).This press release and the information it contains do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe, or a solicitation to purchase or subscribe to Valbiotis' shares or financial securities in any country.

1Press release of March 13, 2023: https://www.valbiotis.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023-03-13-PR_VALBIOTIS_TOTUM63_LPLV-site.pdf

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230502005945/en/

Contacts:

Corporate communication Valbiotis

Carole ROCHER

Communication and Public Affairs Director

+ 33 6 77 82 56 88

Marc DELAUNAY

Communication Manager

media@valbiotis.com

Financial communication Seitosei Actifin

Stephane RUIZ

Associate Director

+33 1 56 88 11 14

sruiz@actifin.fr
One Education, the specialist provider of professional services for schools, academies, and multi-academy trusts, has commissioned and implemented a customised version of the Really Simple Systems CRM to streamline their operations.

PETERSFIELD, England, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading cloud CRM software vendor, Really Simple Systems, has been appointed by the UK specialist educational services provider, One Education, to implement a customised CRM to streamline their business operations.





One Education works exclusively with the education sector, providing business management services, welfare services and teaching and learning strategies to schools, academies, and multi-academy trusts across the UK. Their team of educational specialists, including former headteachers, teachers, school business managers and other professionals, provides support to leadership teams and teachers, allowing them to dedicate their time to teaching and creating exciting opportunities for children and young people.

Before seeking help from Really Simple Systems, One Education was using a more limited CRM product. They needed a CRM that was user friendly but allowed for customisation to meet the needs of the business, and with the level of support they needed to make it a success.

Mark Seddon, Director of IT and Business Development at One Education explains, "During an initial meeting with Really Simple Systems, we were impressed with the capabilities of the CRM and the flexibility of the team. We started out by implementing the CRM and case management system for one department and then rolled it out to our HR and sales and marketing teams."

Mark continues, "From there, various CRM customisations have been built for different departments within the business and we now have over 130 people using the system. Some work has been quick ?xes while others have been bespoke and thought-out customisations. That's been the key to it all - an easy-to-use CRM with the ability to customise - this has made all the difference, resulting in a significant improvement in our operations."

To meet business needs, Really Simple Systems implemented an online document signing tool with a custom user interface. Now, with everything in one place and online, the teams at One Education can have a complete end-to-end view of the full contract lifecycle.

Really Simple Systems continues to work closely with One Education, regularly reviewing and implementing further bespoke solutions to improve their operations.

Mark concludes, "Our growth and future plans are intertwined with the Really Simple Systems CRM. It's not only a great product to work with, but the team has been a great organisation to collaborate with."

About Really Simple Systems

Really Simple Systems is one of the world's largest providers of cloud-based CRM software. Designed for SMEs businesses operating B2B, its customers range from single user start-ups to 200 user systems, including the Royal Academy of Arts, The National Trust for Scotland, British Museum, local government, plus a myriad of small businesses. Featuring integrated modules for email marketing and customer service, Really Simple Systems CRM is credited as being super-easy to use with excellent customer support with a high level of flexibility for customisation.

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A census has been planned to identify the number of Aldabra giant tortoises in captivity to allow relevant authorities to better understand the reptiles' population on the inner islands of Seychelles. This will allow for better protection and conservation of the species.

The census was initiated through the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Biodiversity Conservation and Management Division of the Environment Department and the Indian Ocean Tortoise Alliance (IOTA) on Friday, April 28.

The census was kicked off at the Cap Lazare Nature Reserve, home to an estimated 65 tortoises and 20 to 30 hatchlings in its nursery.

Signed by the principal secretary for environment, Denis Matatiken, and IOTA's project director, Rich Baxter, the agreement is set to facilitate Aldabra giant tortoise protection, conservation, management, research, and welfare.

IOTA is a regional not-for-profit organisation based in Seychelles, primarily focused on researching Aldabra giant tortoises, to understand their ecology and what they do in the wild. It seeks to re-populate tortoises on inner islands and possibly outer islands, as well as to bolster those populations should anything happen to the population on Aldabra.

At the moment Seychelles' population of Aldabra giant tortoises in captivity and the wild is not completely known. Baxter told reporters that on Aldabra there are around 100,000 tortoises in the wild.

Fregate Island, which is home to the second largest population in Seychelles, and the largest population of re-wilded giant tortoises in the world, has about 2,500 to 3,000 tortoises.

"There are other islands with a couple of hundreds here or there, and we would like to see what these numbers are on these other islands. We would like to know what the situation is on the other islands in Seychelles, primarily Mahe, Praslin, and La Digue. For the number that are in institutions like hotels and guesthouses, but also private owners, because it's a big part of the Seychelles culture having giant tortoises as pets and we would like to understand the situation there as well," said Baxter.

He said that by knowing the population "we can then try to understand more about how to manage the population."

Through the census, which is expected to take a year to complete, tortoises privately owned will be microchipped. Each microchip has a unique serial number which will be logged along with other details of the chipped tortoise. Matatiken outlined that the microchipping of captive tortoises will be for research purposes and allow for follow-ups.

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"Once a tortoise is microchipped, there is also the benefit of locating if it gets lost. Through the microchip, we will be able to identify each tortoise," said Matatiken.

A total of 5,000 microchips, the size of a grain of rice, were donated by Parco Natura Viva, a safari park and zoo in Italy, to the ministry for the census.

The census will also allow the partners to see how people treat their tortoises as pets and whether basic necessities like living conditions and food are properly provided.

Matatiken outlined that "if we identify at any point that the manner in which tortoises are being kept is correct, it will be our responsibility to educate the owner, and together with the alliance, to come up with protocols and basic things that a person can do to ensure the tortoises' wellbeing."
Budget Ratings has released a comprehensive guide about rent-to-own properties. Renters and other interested parties can find the guide online at https://www.budgetratings.com/rent-to-own-houses/.

Aldie, Virginia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - Brand Ambassador business, Budget Ratings, has published a new comprehensive guide dedicated to helping renters. The guide is intended to help interested parties understand the ins and outs of this process to home ownership.

This guide has information useful to anybody facing the challenge of becoming a home owner. The guide contains information intended to help readers navigate the challenge of applying for rent-to-own because of low income, bad credit, or no credit.

Interested parties are invited to review the how-to guide in full on their website: https://www.budgetratings.com/rent-to-own-houses/.

Rent-to-Own Comprehensive Guide to Home Ownership and Pros and Cons Released



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Budget Ratings states that this accessible, easy to follow guide provides most of the information that is necessary to understand the topic, apply for rent-to-own home listings, and start one's journey towards house ownership.

The guide covers topics such as building credit, opportunities to save for a down payment and the ability to test out a neighborhood.

When asked for more information and the reasons behind creating a guide on rent-to-own and its pros and cons, Senthil Natarajan, Founder of Budget Ratings, said, "Home ownership can be possible through the rent-to-own process, even if one has low income or has bad credit or no credit. The first step is to apply for rent-to-own to kick-start the process."

Renters, tenants, lessee's and anybody interested in owning their home or other rent-to-own properties near their area are invited read this guide by clicking https://www.budgetratings.com/rent-to-own-houses/.

Contact Info:

Name: Senthil Natarajan

Email: senthil@senasky.com

Organization: SENASKY LLC

Address: 42020 Village Center Plz Ste 120151, Aldie, VA 20105, United States

Website: https://www.budgetratings.com/rent-to-own-houses/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164512
SAN FRANCISCO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The global non-alcoholic beverages market size is anticipated to reach USD 1,185.30 billion by 2030, expanding at 6.4% CAGR from 2023 to 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Owing to factors such as rising disposable income, population growth, and changing lifestyles. Increasing concerns regarding obesity and health awareness are expected to trigger the growth of low-sugar carbonated drinks, tea & coffee, and bottled water.





Key Industry Insights & Findings from the report:

Asia Pacific is expected to contribute a majority of the share to become the largest division in the global revenue in 2021. The preference for healthier non-alcoholic beverages among consumers is increasing the demand for such beverages in the region.

is expected to contribute a majority of the share to become the largest division in the global revenue in 2021. The preference for healthier non-alcoholic beverages among consumers is increasing the demand for such beverages in the region. The bottled water segment is projected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period from 2022 to 2030.

The retail distribution channel segment is expected to register faster growth during the forecast period. An increase in product availability by various brands in the hypermarkets, and supermarkets coupled with the increase in internet penetration is likely to bode well with the future segment growth.

Read full market research report for more Insights, "Non-alcoholic Beverages Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Water, Bubble/Sparkling Water), By Distribution Channel (Retail, Food Service), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2023 - 2030", published by Grand View Research.

Non-alcoholic Beverages Market Growth & Trends

Brands globally have been innovating new products with new flavors and premium flavors in product categories, such as carbonated beverages, bottled water, and tea & coffee, which would further support the category growth. For instance, in May 2021, Danone S.A. launched the first flavored and sparkling line from its Evian bottled water brand in the U.S., available in four flavors such as Raspberry & Ginseng, Lime & Ginger, Grapefruit & Basil, and Cucumber & Mint.

In terms of product, the bottled water segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period. Product launches in this segment by key players in the market are likely to supplement the overall segment growth. For instance, in July 2020, Dutch-based brand Bottle Up launched its product offering in the U.K. with its pre-filled, reusable, BPA-free, and plant-based water bottles. The bottles would be available in 438 WHSmith locations across U.K., including the train station and airport locations, such as Manchester Piccadilly, Euston, Heathrow, Luton, Waterloo, Victoria, and several hospitals.

The retail distribution channels held the largest share in 2021 and are expected to remain dominant during the forecast period. The rise in demand for non-alcoholic beverages or zero-alcohol drinks by the consumers has made these retailers hold a larger share of such products by different brands such as Welch, Budweiser, Busch, and Great Value, especially in supermarkets such as Aldi, Whole Foods, and Walmart.

The non-alcoholic beverages market is consolidated in nature with the presence of a large number of international players and few regional players. Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., The Coca-Cola Company, Cott Corporation, Danone S.A., SUNTORY BEVERAGE & FOOD LIMITED, Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd., and Red Bull are among the prominent players in the global market.

Non-alcoholic Beverages Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the global non-alcoholic beverages market based on product, distribution channel, and region

Non-alcoholic Beverages Market - Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2017 - 2030)

Carbonated Soft Drinks

Water

Sports & Functional Drinks

Tea

Bubble/Sparkling Water

Non-alcoholic Beverages Market - Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2017 - 2030)

Food Service

Retail

Non-alcoholic Beverages Market - Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2017 - 2030)

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

U.K.



Italy



Spain



France



Germany

Asia Pacific

Indonesia



Malaysia



Singapore



Thailand



China



Vietnam



Philippines

Central & South America

Brazil

Middle East & Africa

& South Africa

List of Key Players in the Non-alcoholic Beverages Market

Nestle

PepsiCo

Unilever

Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc.

The Coca-Cola Company

Jones Soda Co.

Danone S.A.

Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd.

Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd.

Red Bull

Check out more market research studies published by Grand View Research:

Non-Alcoholic Concentrated Syrup Market - The global non-alcoholic concentrated syrup market size is expected to reach USD 33.82 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is estimated to register a CAGR of 5.9% from 2019 to 2025 on account of increasing product demand across the globe. Moreover, rising consumption of non-carbonated drinks in developed countries including U.S., Mexico , and Canada is expected to boost the product demand further.

The global non-alcoholic concentrated syrup market size is expected to reach by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is estimated to register a CAGR of 5.9% from 2019 to 2025 on account of increasing product demand across the globe. Moreover, rising consumption of non-carbonated drinks in developed countries including U.S., , and is expected to boost the product demand further. Non-alcoholic Drinks Market - The global non-alcoholic drink market size is expected to reach USD 1.6 trillion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 5.3% over the forecast period. Rising concerns over adverse effects associated with consumption of alcoholic beverages are expected to expand the use of functional beverages as alternatives. Moreover, increasing demand for healthy and nutritious on-the-go beverages has propelled the demand for wide variety of natural beverages in the market.

- The global non-alcoholic drink market size is expected to reach by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 5.3% over the forecast period. Rising concerns over adverse effects associated with consumption of alcoholic beverages are expected to expand the use of functional beverages as alternatives. Moreover, increasing demand for healthy and nutritious on-the-go beverages has propelled the demand for wide variety of natural beverages in the market. Cannabis Beverages Market - The global cannabis beverages market size is expected to reach USD 2.8 billion by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 17.8% during the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is highly fragmented in nature, owing to the presence of several small and medium scale companies. The majority of the companies are based in Canada , owing to the legalization of marijuana for medical and recreational purposes in the country. The rise in legalization of marijuana in order to eradicate the black market and to boost the tax revenue from legal sales of marijuana products is anticipated to positively influence the growth.

Browse through Grand View Research's Consumer F&B Industry Research Reports.

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research Helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com

Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com

Grand View Compass | Astra ESG Solutions

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Wide-Spread Clinical Evidence using the MolecuLight Imaging Platform Reveals

its Significant Global Adoption and Proven Utility in Wound Care

TORONTO and MILAN, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- MolecuLight Inc., the leader in point-of-care fluorescence imaging that detects and locates elevated bacterial loads in wounds, announces that its MolecuLight wound imaging platform is featured in an unprecedented 24 presentations and posters at the European Wound Management Association (EWMA) 2023 Annual Conference, being hosted from May 3 - 5, 2023 in Milan, Italy. Held annually, EWMA is the largest wound care conference in Europe and one of the largest events globally for wound care professionals.





"We are humbled by the number of clinicians globally that have made our MolecuLight point-of-care device an invaluable tool in their wound care practices", says Anil Amlani, MolecuLight's CEO. "The impressive collection of 24 talks and posters from so many facilities globally shows how the MolecuLight imaging device is becoming a new standard-of-care in wound care. This clinical evidence is echoed in the 75+ peer-reviewed publications, showing the significant benefit of the MolecuLight i:X and DX to clinical wound assessment, practice, and outcomes."



"The MolecuLight imaging platform is a "must have" device for wound care clinics and is a standard of care in our clinics. The abundance of published clinical evidence showing improvements in bioburden detection, better clinical decision making, and improved outcomes is clear validation for its medical necessity," says Dr. Thomas Serena, the Founder and Medical Director of The SerenaGroup and author and presenter of 2 talks and posters featuring MolecuLight at EWMA 2023. "There are tangible clinical benefits for using the MolecuLight alongside a broad range of wound care procedures, in all wound care settings. Evidence now proves that clinical signs and symptoms underperform and contribute to haphazard prescribing of antimicrobials and antibiotics. When added to clinical assessment, information from MolecuLight images flags at risk wounds earlier. This leads to proactive bacterial infection management, reduced antibiotic overprescribing, fewer infection complications, and faster healing."

The collection of 9 presentations and 15 posters featuring the MolecuLight imaging devices show how the devices inform clinical decision-making through its digital wound measurement feature, detection of high bacterial burden in wounds at the bedside, and its ability to monitor and track wound size and bioburden over time. Presented studies span the wound care continuum, including:

Accelerated wound healing results as shown in RCT findings,

Accuracy of MolecuLight across all skin pigmentations and chronic wound types,

Fluorescence-targeted wound debridement,

Novel diagnostic approaches using MolecuLight to detect wound-associated cellulitis and to monitor unexpected or difficult to access bacterial locations, and

Enhanced patient adherence and engagement

The results being presented illustrate the significant clinical improvements to multiple aspects of wound care provided by the MolecuLight platform.

A selection of the clinical posters and presentation featuring the MolecuLight i:X and DX from European Wound Management Association (EWMA) 2023 Annual Conference are as follows:

(a) Select ClinicalPosters citing the MolecuLight point-of-care device include:

AUTO-FLUORESCENCE IMAGING AS A PREDICTOR OF CONTAMINATED/INFECTED DIABETIC ULCERS' OUTCOMES

Nicola Riitano , Pisa - Italy



Thursday May 4 th , 10.00-11.15 E-POSTER SCREEN 1, DIABETIC FOOT 2





, - , 10.00-11.15 E-POSTER SCREEN 1, DIABETIC FOOT 2 UNDERAPPRECIATED BACTERIAL BURDEN IN PRESSURE ULCERS: CLINICAL TRIAL AND REAL-WORLD EVIDENCE

Charles Andersen , USA



Thursday May 4 , 11.45-13.15 E-POSTER SCREEN 4 PRESSURE ULCER 1





, , 11.45-13.15 E-POSTER SCREEN 4 PRESSURE ULCER 1 FLUORESCENCE-BASED EVALUATION OF BACTERIAL LOAD IN CHRONIC WOUNDS AND PERILESIONAL SKIN: A COMPARISON BETWEEN COMPRESSIVE MULTILAYER BANDAGE AND ZINC OXIDE BANDAGE

Alessandra Michelucc i, Pisa - Italy



Wednesday May 3rd , 20:48 - 20:51, E-Posters On Display





i, - , 20:48 - 20:51, E-Posters On Display EVALUATION OF AN AUTO-FLUORESCENT SPECTOMETRY ANALYZING DEVICE FOR WOUND INFECTION DIAGNOSTIC

Aharon Wanszelbaum, Jerusalem - Israel



Wednesday May 3 rd , 11.45-13.15 E-POSTER SCREEN 1 - DEVICES & INTERVENTION





- , 11.45-13.15 E-POSTER SCREEN 1 - DEVICES & INTERVENTION FLUORESCENCE LIGHT ENERGY AND WOUND HEALING: A NEW ERA?

Carlotta Scarpa , Padova - Italy



Wednesday May 3 rd, 11.45-13.15 E-POSTER SCREEN 1, DEVICES & INTERVENTION

(b) Select Clinical Presentations citing the MolecuLight point-of-care device include:

"Wound Imaging" Workshop,

Presentation on MolecuLight by Dr. Valentina Dini (University of Pisa , Pisa , Italy) and

Dr. Thomas Serena , Founder, Serena Group , USA



Thursday 4 th May, 13:00 - 14:00, Room Amber 8





Presentation on MolecuLight by (University of Pisa , Pisa , Italy) and , Founder, , Thursday 4 May, 13:00 - 14:00, Room Amber 8 12-WEEK RCT EVALUATING IMPACT OF ROUTINE FLUORESCENCE IMAGING OF BACTERIA ON DFU HEALING RATES

Laura Jones , Toronto - Canada



Friday May 05 th , 13:30 - 14:30, Free paper session: Diabetic Foot 5, Room BROWN 1





, - , 13:30 - 14:30, Free paper session: Diabetic Foot 5, Room BROWN 1 PATIENT PERSPECTIVE: HOW FLUORESCENCE IMAGING OF CHRONIC WOUND BACTERIA SUPPORTS PATIENT ADHERENCE AND EMPOWERMENT

Charles Andersen , Joint Base Lewis-McChord - United States



Thursday May 4 th , 11:30 - 12:30, Free paper session: Quality of Life, Room AMBER 7





, Joint Base Lewis-McChord - , 11:30 - 12:30, Free paper session: Quality of Life, Room AMBER 7 USE OF A BACTERIAL FLUORESCENCE IMAGING DEVICE FOR BACTERIAL DETECTION AND GUIDANCE OF WOUND DEBRIDEMENT

Rosemarie Derwin , Dublin - Ireland



Thursday May 4 th , 08:30 - 09:30, Free paper session: Wound Assessment, Room AMBER 7





, - , 08:30 - 09:30, Free paper session: Wound Assessment, Room AMBER 7 FLUORESCENCE IMAGING PROMPTS MORE THOROUGH DEBRIDEMENT OF

BACTERIA & BIOFILM: REAL-WORLD DATA FROM 1000 WOUND ASSESSMENTS ACROSS 36 STATES

Laura Jones , Toronto - Canada



Thursday May 4 th, 10.00-10.45 E-POSTER SCREEN 4 WOUND ASSESSMENT

The complete listing of the 24 presentations & posters is available here.

The MolecuLight i:X and DX are the only imaging devices for the real-time detection of elevated bacterial burden in wounds that are FDA-cleared, CE-Marked and approved by Health Canada. With clinical evidence including over 75 peer-reviewed publications, the devices are used by leading wound care facilities globally.

About MolecuLight Inc.

MolecuLight Inc., a privately-owned medical imaging company that has developed and is commercializing its proprietary fluorescent imaging platform technology in multiple clinical markets. MolecuLight's suite of commercial devices, which include the MolecuLight i:X and DX fluorescence imaging systems and their accessories, are point-of-care handheld imaging devices for the real-time detection and localization of bacterial load in wounds and digital wound measurement. MolecuLight procedures performed in the United States benefit from an available reimbursement pathway which includes two CPT codes for physician work to perform "fluorescence imaging for bacterial presence, location, and load" and facility payment for Hospital Outpatient Department (HOPD) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) settings through an Ambulatory Payment Classification (APC) assignment. The company is also commercializing its unique fluorescence imaging platform technology for other global markets with relevant unmet needs in food safety, consumer cosmetics and other key industrial markets.

Download for Image:

https://moleculight.box.com/s/4vylb3usvppskmse6d3g7chal2uodbkl

Rob Sandler, Chief Marketing Officer, MolecuLight Inc., T. +1.647.362.4684, rsandler@moleculight.com, www.moleculight.com

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OTCQX: SHWZ

NEO: SHWZ

DENVER, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Medicine Man Technologies operating as Schwazze, (OTCQX: SHWZ) (NEO: SHWZ) ("Schwazze" or the "Company"), will hold a first quarter earnings webcast on May 10, 2023, at 5:00 pm ET.

Investors and stakeholders may participate in the conference call by dialing 416-764-8650 or by dialing North American toll free 1-888-664-6383 or listen to the webcast from the Company's website at https://ir.schwazze.com The webcast will be available on the Company's website and on replay until May 17, 2023, and may be accessed by dialing 416-764-8677 or North American toll free 1-888-390-0541 / 613777 #.

Following their prepared remarks, Management will answer investor questions. Investors may submit questions in advance or during the conference call itself through the weblink: https://app.webinar.net/8JdExl9XLGb This weblink has been posted to the Company's website and will be archived on the website. All Company SEC filings can also be accessed on the Company website at https://ir.schwazze.com/sec-filings

About Schwazze

Schwazze (OTCQX:SHWZ, NEO:SHWZ) is building a premier vertically integrated regional cannabis company with assets in Colorado and New Mexico and will continue to take its operating system to other states where it can develop a differentiated regional leadership position. Schwazze is the parent company of a portfolio of leading cannabis businesses and brands spanning seed to sale. The Company is committed to unlocking the full potential of the cannabis plant to improve the human condition. Schwazze is anchored by a high-performance culture that combines customer-centric thinking and data science to test, measure, and drive decisions and outcomes. The Company's leadership team has deep expertise in retailing, wholesaling, and building consumer brands at Fortune 500 companies as well as in the cannabis sector. Schwazze is passionate about making a difference in our communities, promoting diversity and inclusion, and doing our part to incorporate climate-conscious best practices. Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. was Schwazze's former operating trade name. The corporate entity continues to be named Medicine Man Technologies, Inc.

Schwazze derives its name from the pruning technique of a cannabis plant to enhance plant structure and promote healthy growth.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements may be preceded by the words "plan," "will," "may,", "predicts," or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events or performance, are based on certain assumptions, and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control and cannot be predicted or quantified. Consequently, actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with (i) our inability to manufacture our products and product candidates on a commercial scale on our own or in collaboration with third parties; (ii) difficulties in obtaining financing on commercially reasonable terms; (iii) changes in the size and nature of our competition; (iv) loss of one or more key executives or scientists; (v) difficulties in securing regulatory approval to market our products and product candidates; (vi) our ability to successfully execute our growth strategy in Colorado and outside the state, (vii) our ability to consummate the acquisition described in this press release or to identify and consummate future acquisitions that meet our criteria, (viii) our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and realize synergies therefrom, (ix) the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, (x) the timing and extent of governmental stimulus programs, (xi) the uncertainty in the application of federal, state and local laws to our business, and any changes in such laws, and (x) out ability to satisfy the closing conditions for the private finding described in this press release. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law.

Investors: Joanne Jobin, Investor Relations, Joanne.jobin@schwazze.com, 647 964 0292; Media: Julie Suntrup, Schwazze, Vice President | Marketing & Merchandising, julie.suntrup@schwazze.com, 303 371 0387

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/schwazze-announces-first-quarter-earnings-call-301814243.html
The growth of the global contact lenses market is driven by factors such as rise in prevalence of vision impairment, increase in number of geriatric populations, and presence of market players who manufacture contact lenses.

PORTLAND, Ore., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Contact lenses Market by Material (Silicon Hydrogel, Hydrogel, and Others), by Design (Spherical, Toric, and Others), by Usage (Daily Disposable Lens, Disposable Lens, Frequently Replacement Lens, and Traditional Lens), by Application (Vision Correction and Cosmetic), by Distribution Channel (Online Store & Pharmacy, Retail Store & Pharmacy, and Hospital Pharmacy): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2023-2032". According to the report, the global contact lenses industry generated $15.5 billion in 2022, and is anticipated to generate $24.2 billion by 2032, witnessing a CAGR of 4.6% from 2023 to 2032.





Request Sample Report- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2802

Prime determinants of growth

The growth of the global contact lenses market is driven by factors such as rise in prevalence of vision impairment, increase in number of geriatric populations, and presence of market players who manufacture contact lenses. However, side effects of contact lenses are hampering the contact lenses market growth. On the contrary, increase in number of adoptions of key strategies by market players and rise in product launches and product approvals for contact lenses are expected to offer remunerative opportunities for expansion of the contact lenses market during the forecast period.

Report coverage & details:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2023-2032 Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 $15.5 billion Market Size in 2032 $24.2 billion CAGR 4.6 % No. of Pages in Report 156 Segments covered Material, Design, Usage, Application, Distribution Channel, and Regions Drivers Rise in prevalence of vision impairment Increase in number of geriatric populations Presence of market players who manufacture contact lenses Opportunities Increase in number of adoptions of key strategies by market players Rise in product launches and product approvals for contact lenses Restraints Side effects of contact lenses

Covid-19 Scenario

The COVID-19 outbreak had a negative impact on the growth of the global contact lenses market, owing to a significant decrease in the use of contact lenses.

However, the market recovered by the end of 2021.

Procure Complete Report (220 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, and Figures) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/checkout-final/Contact-lenses-market

The silicon hydrogel segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on material, the silicon hydrogel segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for around half of the global contact lenses market revenue and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period. This segment is also projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 5.0% from 2023 to 2032, due to rise in number of market players who manufacture silicon hydrogel and rise in number of product launches & product approvals for silicon hydrogel.

The spherical segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on design, the spherical segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for nearly three-fifths of the global contact lenses market revenue and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period, owing to rise in adoption of spherical lenses and increase in prevalence of vision impairment. However, the others segment is also projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 5.4% from 2023 to 2032, due to rise in adoption of multifocal lenses and increase in prevalence of vision impairment.

The daily disposable lens segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on usage, the daily disposable lens segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for more than two-fifths of the global contact lenses market revenue and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period. This segment is also projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 5.3% from 2023 to 2032, owing to rise in awareness among the people regarding effectiveness of traditional lenses.

For Purchase Inquiry- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/2802

North America to maintain its dominance by 2032

Based on region, North America held the highest market share in terms of revenue in 2022, accounting for more than two-fifths of the global contact lenses market revenue and is likely to dominate the market during the forecast period, owing to increase in number of market players who manufacture contact lenses, availability of well-developed healthcare infrastructure, and surge in prevalence of vision impairment. However, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 5.3% from 2023 to 2032, owing to increase in awareness among the people regarding availability & advantages of contact lenses, rise in prevalence of refractive error, and increase in disposable income.

Leading Market Players:

Johnson & Johnson

The Cooper Companies, Inc.

Alcon

Baush & Lomb

Hoya Corporation

Carl Zeiss AG

EssilorLuxottica SA

Menicon Co. Limited

SynergEyes Inc.

SEED Co. Limited

The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players of the global contact lenses market. These players have adopted different strategies such as acquisition, product approval, and product launch to increase their market share and maintain dominant shares in different regions. The report is valuable in highlighting business performance, operating segments, product portfolio, and strategic moves of market players to showcase the competitive scenario.

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About Us

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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LISBON, Portugal, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hovione, the specialist integrated CDMO, leader in spray drying and particle engineering, and H&T Presspart have entered in a strategic partnership to advance the development of Presspart's Sunriser Capsule-based Dry Powder Inhaler platform. The demand for inhalable drugs that require higher drug loads and the delivery of cohesive materials has increased, making it necessary to develop more efficient solutions. To meet this demand, the two companies will work together to develop the Sunriser Dry Powder Inhaler. This innovative and best-in-class capsule-based platform is flexible enough to address both the challenges of classic carrier-based and spray-dried engineered formulations.





This partnership is an extension of a successful collaboration that has spanned several years on developing and commercializing innovative dry powder inhalation devices. As part of the joint development agreement, Hovione will exclusively partner with Presspart to exploit the Sunriser device in the field of engineered formulations for dry powder inhalation. Presspart will remain responsible for the manufacturing of the Sunriser device. To provide further insights into the benefits of this partnership for the industry, a joint workshop will be held today, May 3rd, at the Respiratory Drug Delivery (RDD) Europe 2023.

"New inhalable therapies are often requiring delivery of higher doses of cohesive and sensitive powders. Our priority is to ensure maximum efficiency in delivering these drugs to the right locations in the lung," says Dr. Jean-Luc Herbeaux, Hovione's CEO. He adds: "We are thrilled to expand our current partnership with Presspart and combine our expertise in the fields of engineered particles and inhalers for the benefit of our customers and patients."

Christian Kraetzig, President of H&T Presspart, commented "Following our successful collaboration with Hovione on the PowdAir Plus DPI device development, we are once again extremely pleased to be working with Hovione in developing this next generation high performance DPI device. As the market leader in respiratory components and devices, this strategic partnership will allow H&T Presspart to expand its portfolio within the growing field of dry powder technology."

Pharmaceutical companies partnering with Hovione to develop their new inhalable drugs using the Sunriser device can leverage Hovione's unparalleled expertise in inhalable APIs, formulation, filling, and analytical characterization. Additionally, with H&T Presspart's state-of-the-art device manufacturing and supply, from lab to commercial cGMP scale, companies can benefit from a comprehensive approach to drug development. This partnership enables pharmaceutical companies to access top-notch expertise and cutting-edge technology, ensuring the successful development and commercialization of innovative inhalable drugs.

About Hovione:

Hovione is an international company with over 60 years of experience in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing operations. As a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) it has a fully integrated offering of services for drug substances, drug product intermediates and drug products. The company has four FDA inspected sites in the USA, Portugal, Ireland and China and development laboratories in Lisbon, Portugal and New Jersey, USA. Hovione provides pharmaceutical customers services for the development and compliant manufacture of innovative drugs, including highly potent compounds, and customized product solutions across the entire drug life cycle. In the inhalation area, Hovione offers a complete range of services, from API, formulation development and devices.

Hovione's culture is based on innovation, quality and dependability. Hovione was the first Chemical/ Pharmaceutical Company to become a Certified B Corp, is a member of Rx-360, EFCG and participates actively in industry quality improvement initiatives to lead new global industry standards.

About H&T Presspart:

H&T Presspart is a market leading manufacturer of drug delivery devices and components with more than 50 years' experience and enjoys a worldwide reputation for competence, quality and innovation in the pharmaceutical market. With more than 30 engineers and scientists, H&T Presspart supports its customers in bringing to market new drug delivery devices. H&T Presspart has 4 European manufacturing sites in Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the UK and also has sales representation in China, India, the U.S.A. and Uruguay.

For more information, please visit www.hovione.com or contact:

Vanessa Romeu | Communications Director | vromeu@hovione.com | Tel: +351 21 982 9000

Or visit www.presspart.com or contact:

Anselm Ebert | Business Development Director | Anselm.ebert@presspart.com

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Investigating Potential to Commence Small Oxide Mining Operations

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - Compass Gold Corp. (TSXV: CVB) (Compass or the Company) is pleased to provide an update on additional assay data on recently completed deep reverse circulation drilling, and surface channel and grab sampling at the Tarabala prospect, located on the Company's Sikasso Property in Southern Mali (Figure 1).

Highlights

Coarse-grained "nuggety" gold is confirmed at Tarabala, and likely present at other locations along the Tarabala Trend

Best interval with increased gold: 19 m at 1.68 g/t Au (from 170 m), compared to 0.84 g/t Au from cyanide extraction (an increase of 200%)

Nuggety gold shown to occur in fresh rock at depth, and not solely in the near-surface weathered laterite

Metallic screen fire and cyanide extraction assay results are in good overall agreement

Reconfirms that mineralization remains open at depth and along strike

The Company is considering the development of a small mining operation on high-grade near-surface gold mineralization to generate a near-term revenue stream

Compass CEO, Larry Phillips, said, "While our primary goal has always been to discover a large, open-pittable gold deposit in Mali, our technical team has successfully identified several exciting wide, near-surface mineralized trends typically containing gold grades of about 1 g/t Au. These are outstanding results, as many of the largest mines in West Africa are producing gold at grades of between 0.75 and 1.1 g/t Au. In fact, the drilling and assaying we have recently completed on our Tarabala prospect have clearly demonstrated the potential to develop one or more small, near-surface mines which could generate ongoing revenue to fund the exploration work required to develop a far larger, open-pittable gold resource."

Dr. Madani Diallo, Director and Country Manager, added, "During our ongoing quest to uncover an open-pitiable, high-grade gold deposit, we have completed 20,000 m of drilling and intercepted several large sections of lower-grade mineralization along the 20 km long Massala-Tarabala-Moribala trends. We are excited about working to define open pittable low-grade gold resources that are easy to mine and process with an appropriate plant as done elsewhere in the region, such as AngloGold Ashanti's Siguri mine in Guinea, which has been mining gold from a series of 18 pits at average grades of less than 1 g/t Au since 2008. Such operations are particularly attractive at a time when the gold price is approaching US$2,000/oz."

Dr. Sandy Archibald, PGeo, Technical Director, added, "Our latest results are extremely encouraging and continue to validate our view that, due to the presence of nuggety gold along our mineralized trends, conventional fire assaying has very likely under-reported gold grades within the main target zones like Tarabala. We look forward to further testing the open structure along strike and down dip."

Next Steps

Compass plans to collect and test a series of large (10-15 kg) channel samples from existing surface workings at the Tarabala prospect to test gold recoveries from the near-surface zone. If results are positive, additional channel samples will be collected at prospects along the Tarabala and Moribala trends.

The Company is also finalizing plans for a deep trenching and pitting program at the main Tarabala prospect to develop the optimal scenario for mining gold from the near-surface laterite. This program will involve the excavation of five 5-m deep, and 100-m long trenches, and the collection and analysis of the recovered 1 m channel samples. In addition, a series of 5 m deep pits will be dug every 20 m between the trenches and the channels sampled and analysed for gold.





Figure 1: Location of drilled prospects and artisanal workings along the Tarabala and Massala faults.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1861/164641_895eaef1c4db4a5b_001full.jpg

Recent Tarabala Drilling Results

Six RC drill holes (1,036 m) were drilled in early March at the Tarabala prospect to test the down-dip extension of mineralization previously identified by near-surface drilling (Figure 1). The 1-m sample intervals were analysed for gold using cyanide-leach (LeachWELL) analysis and the results reported in a Compass press release on April 18, 2023. The analysis identified a wide zone of gold mineralization (greater than 10 m) in five of the six holes (Table 1). The widest intercept was 19 m @ 0.84 g/t Au (from 170 m, SARC022), and the highest grade was 13 m @ 3.30 g/t Au (from 84 m, SARC019), which included a 1 m @ 18.90 g/t Au (from 86 m). The presence of high-grade gold samples in fresh rock is indicative of coarse-grained ("nuggety") gold. To investigate the presence of nuggety gold, duplicate sample intervals were analysed using the Metallic Screen Fire Assay (MSFA) technique, which uses different crushed and sieved fractions to determine the presence of coarse-grained gold. The results of the Metallic Screens are tabulated in Table 1.

Table 1. Comparison of Cyanide extraction and Metallic Screen Fire Assay of mineralized intervals identified during recent RC drilling at the Tarabala prospect.

Hole ID From (m) To (m) 1,2 Interval (m) Cyanide (g/t Au) MSFA (g/t Au) % Difference SARC017 145 150 5 0.60 1.13 188.3 SARC018 119 129 10 0.39 1.34 3446 SARC019 84 97 13 3.30 1.14 -35 SARC020 125 128 3 0.99 0.58 -59 SARC020 134 136 2 0.52 0.55 107 SARC022 170 189 19 0.84 1.68 200

1True thicknesses are interpreted as 70-90% of stated intervals.

2 Intervals use a 0.2-gram-per-tonne gold cut-off value.

The greatest increase in grade was present in SARC018 where 10 m @ 0.39 g/t Au (cyanide) became 10 m @ 1.34 g/t Au (MSFA), a 344% increase. The widest drilled intercept was encountered in SARC022, where 19 m @ 0.84 g/t Au (from 170 m, SARC022), (cyanide) increased to 19 m @ 1.68 g/t Au (from 170 m, SARC022), (MSFA), which doubles the grade of the interval. Increases were also seen in intervals in SARC017 and part of a narrower interval in SARC022. The largest decrease was present in SARC019, where 13 m @ 3.30 g/t Au (from 84 m), was reduced in grade to 13 m @ 1.14 g/t Au (from 170 m, SARC022). This reduction is expected since the nature of coarse gold means the variability (heterogeneity) is likely to be high even in duplicate samples from the same interval. What is promising about this sample interval is that the MSFA showed gold was still above 1 g/t Au in the bedrock.

Important takeaways from the work are: coarse gold is present in bedrock samples, grades are generally higher in the MSFA samples, and grades in the widest intervals are greater than 1 g/t Au.





Figure 2: Summary map of drilling on the Tarabala Trend and the location of the recently completed RC drill holes. The cross-section shows both down-hole cyanide leach and MSFA results for SARC022.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1861/164641_895eaef1c4db4a5b_002full.jpg

Tarabala Channel Sampling Results

A total of twenty-two, 5 kg surface samples (12 channel and 10 quartz vein grab) were collected from four areas over a strike length of 600 m of artisanal workings at Tarabala in March 2023. The samples were analysed for gold using cyanide leach extraction ("cyanide") and metallic screen fire assaying (MSFA). The aim of the sampling was to compare assaying techniques for surface samples, and determine if the samples displayed coarse gold. The channel samples collected from artisanal workings on the surface projection of mineralization from SARC017-19 contained 8 m @ 1.72 g/t Au (cyanide leach) and 8 m @ 1.08 g/t Au (MSFA). Due to safety considerations, it was not possible to sample the complete 12 m mineralized zone. The highest-grade sample analysed by cyanide leaching contained 9.83 g/t Au, whereas the same sample analysed by MSFA contained 3.71 g/t Au. The average grade of the zone, excluding the high-grade interval, was 7 m @ 0.56 g/t Au (cyanide) and 7 m @ 0.71 g/t Au (MSFA).

Four samples collected 80 m north of the channel samples on the main north-south veins system averaged 0.58 g/t Au (cyanide) and 0.50 g/ Au (MSFA). Two samples collected to test east-west cross-cutting veins contained 0.10 g/t Au (cyanide) and 0.09 g/t Au (MSFA).

Two samples of mineralization sampled 450 m south of the channel sample location averaged 0.78 g/t Au (cyanide) and 0.56 g/t Au (MSFA). The final samples collected were an additional 50 m to the south, with the highest grade recorded being 5.38 g/t Au (cyanide) and 7.35 g/t Au (MSFA). The sampling locations are close to where an air core drill hole intercepted 5 m @ 2.86 g/t Au (from 8 m, SAAC083) in December 2020.

Statistical analysis of the surface and drilling cyanide versus MSFA assay results showed that coarse gold was slightly more abundant in surficial samples (one in four, or 25%), compared to one-in-six (17%) of the bedrock samples.

Technical Details

All six RC holes at the Tarabala prospect were drilled at dips of 55, with azimuths of 270 (towards the west). Hole lengths varied from 115 to 200 m, for a total depth of 1,036 m. Drilling was performed by FTE Drilling, a Canadian company with a Malian subsidiary based in Bamako. All samples were prepared by Compass staff, and an appropriate number of standards, duplicates and blanks were submitted and analysed for gold using cyanide-leach (LeachWELL) analysis at ALS (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso), and follow-up metallic screen fire assay at SGS (Bamako, Mali).

AngloGold Ashanti's Siguri mine has been in production since 2008, with the ore being exploited from 18 pits. As of 2019, the total ore reserves in the Proven and Probable category at Siguiri were estimated to be 72.33 Mt graded 0.76 g/t Au, containing 1.76 Moz of gold. The mineral resources (Measured, Indicated and Inferred) stood at 185.6 Mt with a grade of 0.95 g/t Au, and a total contained gold of 5.7 Moz. Production details are from the AngloGold Ashanti website and annual report.

About Compass Gold Corp.

Compass, a public company having been incorporated into Ontario, is a Tier 2 issuer on the TSX- V. Through the 2017 acquisition of MGE and Malian subsidiaries, Compass holds gold exploration permits located in Mali that comprise the Sikasso Property. The exploration permits are located in three sites in southern Mali with a combined land holding of 1,173 sq. km. The Sikasso Property is located in the same region as several multi-million-ounce gold projects, including Morila, Syama, Kalana and Komana. The Company's Mali-based technical team, led in the field by Dr. Madani Diallo and under the supervision of Dr. Sandy Archibald, P.Geo, is conducting the current exploration program. They are examining numerous anomalies first noted in Dr. Archibald's August 2017 "National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Sikasso Property, Southern Mali."

Qualified Person

This news release has been reviewed and approved by EurGeol. Dr. Sandy Archibald, P.Geo, Compass's Technical Director, the Qualified Person for the technical information in this news release under National Instrument 43-101 standards.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the Company's planned exploration work and management appointments. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by such information. The statements in this news release are made as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law.

For further information please contact:

Compass Gold Corporation

Larry Phillips - Pres. & CEO

lphillips@compassgoldcorp.com

T: +1 416-596-0996 X 302

Compass Gold Corporation

Greg Taylor - Dir. Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

gtaylor@compassgoldcorp.com

T: +1 416-596-0996 X 301

Website: www.compassgoldcorp.com

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164641
Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - Metals Creek Resources Corp. (TSXV: MEK) (FSE: M1C1) (the "Company" or Metals Creek) is pleased to announce that the Company has initiated a prospecting, geological mapping and soil sampling program on its recently acquired Shabaqua Corner property.

The property is located within the Shebandowan Greenstone Belt, approximately 54 km west of Thunder Bay, Ontario near Shabaqua Corner and on trend to Delta Resources Delta 1 project. The property has seen very little exploration work.

Initial field activities will consist of prospecting to further evaluate known gold showings as well as further expanding known carbonatization with associated quartz carbonate veining commonly associated with gold mineralization on the Shabaqua Corner Gold Property. Historic surface grab samples range from nil to 54.51 grammes per tonne (g/t) Gold (Au) with Visible Gold (VG) present. The project is underlain by mafic volcanics with interbedded sediments. Gold mineralization is hosted within an east-west trending zone of pervasive carbonate alteration with associated quartz carbonate veins and pyrite. (See Image 1, quartz/carbonate vein at Shabaqua Corner Gold Property). (Note: The surface grab samples described in this news release are selective by nature and are unlikely to represent average grades of the property. Assay results from the Property in this news release are historical in nature and have not been verified by the Company).

The eastern boundary of the property is located 1.57 kilometers(km) west of Delta Resources (DLTA) drill hole DL-22-18 which returned an intercept of 5.92 g/t Au over 31m (Source: Delta New Release October 31, 2022). Trenching conducted on Delta's ground 390m east of the property boundary, returned an interval of 2.22 g/t Au over 8m (Source: Delta Resources Website).

Michael MacIsaac, P.Geo and VP Exploration for the Corporation and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for this release, and supervised the preparation of the information forming the basis for this release.

About Metals Creek Resources Corp.

Metals Creek Resources Corp. is a junior exploration company incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario, is a reporting issuer in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, and has its common shares listed for trading on the Exchange under the symbol "MEK". Metals Creek has earned a 50% interest in the Ogden Gold Property from Newmont Corporation, including the former Naybob Gold mine, located 6 km south of Timmins, Ontario and has an 8 km strike length of the prolific Porcupine-Destor Fault (P-DF).

Metals Creek also has multiple quality projects available for option which can be viewed on the Company's website. Parties interested in seeking more information about properties available for option can contact the Company at the number below.

Additional information concerning the Company is contained in documents filed by the Company with securities regulators, available under its profile at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Alexander (Sandy) Stares, President and CEO

Metals Creek Resources Corp

telephone: (709)-256-6060

fax: (709)-256-6061

MetalsCreek.com

Twitter.com/MetalsCreekRes

Facebook.com/MetalsCreek

Image 1 Quartz/Carbonate vein at Shabaqua Corner Gold Property

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/943/164652_f2390705046f8bfd_002full.jpg

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164652
History-making accreditation extended to an online learning platform validates the use of AI instructors and heralds a new era for student to AI instructor models

FORT MILL, S.C. and TEL AVIV, Israel, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Skilldora, an Ed-Tech startup and eLearning platform and app, and D-ID the world leader in Generative AI and creative media, today announced a milestone in generative AI learning with the accreditation of its online certification programs instructed by AI Avatar Presenters. The unique offering makes Skilldora the first and only officially accredited eLearning provider teaching using only AI instructors. D-ID's Creative Reality technology creates the digital human instructors who are programmed to teach courses of all types.

The accreditation shows the maturity and viability of AI instructor-led education and marks a turning point in the digital transformation of education, demonstrating an increasing openness to utilizing advanced technologies to provide tailored, efficient learning experiences and outcomes.

"D-ID's Creative Reality technology is being rapidly adopted across all sectors and eLearning stands to gain massively from the advances of generative AI," said Gil Perry, CEO and Co-founder of D-ID. "Skilldora's use of digital humans presents a powerful opportunity for engagement and consistency in online teaching. The accreditation shows how seriously the eLearning market can adopt this model."

"Skilldora's ability to pioneer the use of AI presenters in education and earn global accreditation in the process is a win for all educators, institutions and universities across the world who seek a more sustainable future amidst teacher shortages and learning loss recovery efforts post Covid," said DeMario and Dawn Nicole McIlwain, Skilldora's Co-Founders. "We're proud to have used D-ID's generative AI technology to introduce AI-based education with truly professional outcomes and a quality of learning as solid as a traditional third-party accreditation."

In eLearning digital human teachers are acting as an extension of human teaching to meet a wide range of needs including teacher shortages, burn out, ESOL (English to speakers of other languages), digital tutoring and accelerating learning loss recovery.

The awarding body, the CPD Standards Office, means that learners will now earn accredited professional certifications through any of Skilldora's online programs across five learning categories (i.e. personal development, professional development, leadership development, career advancement, entrepreneurship, etc.) earning Continuing Professional Development credits or CPDs upon successful completion.

About D-ID

D-ID is a Creative Reality company specializing in patented video reenactment technology using AI and deep learning. D-ID's products range from animating still photos, to facilitating high-quality video productions, and creating viral user experiences. With funding from tier 1 VCs, D-ID aims to radically disrupt the time, hassle and costs involved in video production, allowing for the creation of highly personalized media using AI, specifically in e-learning, corporate training, marcoms, AI assistants, history and the Metaverse. With international customers, D-ID's core competencies in the human face and deep learning technology enable its partners to create exciting and engaging content that was until now unimaginable. To find out more, visit D-ID.com

About Skilldora

Skilldora is a membership-based modernized e-Learning platform and app, and accredited continuing-education provider who uses digitally created AI Presenters to produce and deliver its online programs on-demand. Skilldora offers its online professional certification programs direct to its community of adult learners, and opportunities for third-party organizations to license Skilldora's online certification programs as well. Through collaborative strategic partnerships with SHRM, PMI, etc., and its unique competitive advantage of being first in the world to earn accreditation using AI Instructors, Skilldora is on track to virtually disrupt the eLearning industry paving the way for the future of education. To find out more, visit myskilldora.com.

D-ID Media Contact:

Gina Shaffer

Si14 Global Communications

Email: d-idpr@si14global.com

Skilldora Media Contact:

Dawn McIlwain

dawnnicole@myskilldora.com

myskilldora.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/skilldora-and-d-id-in-world-first-accreditation-for-ai-based-elearning-301814282.html
SHANGHAI and CLINTON, N.J., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- HuidaGene Therapeutics (????; HuidaGene), a global clinical-stage genome-editing company focused on developing CRISPR-based programmable genomic medicine, today announced nineteen (19) presentations on Company's various gene replacement and gene-editing platforms to unlock the full potential of genome medicines at the upcoming American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) Annual Meeting taking place in Los Angeles from May 16-20, 2023.





"This is the first time that HuidaGene has participated in ASGCT since the Company was founded 4 years ago. With the 100% acceptance rate for the 19 abstracts including 4 oral presentations, our presence at ASGCT showcases our leadership of technology advancement in gene replacement and genome-editing therapies to address their challenges and limitations. These presentations underscore our commitment to the unmet needs for patients and families living with devastating diseases around the world," said Xuan Yao, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HuidaGene.

"Based on our unique HG-PRECISE platform, our team has developed various new genome editing tools (hfCas13X/Y, hfCas12Max, and eRBE etc), which not only have independent IP rights but also have advantages such as smaller size, higher editing efficiency and higher specificity. Therefore, our independently-developed genetic tools demonstrate improved editing efficiency and reduced off-target effects while making gene-editing therapy more effective, safer, and accessible to broader populations living with devastating diseases worldwide," stated Hui Yang, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of HuidaGene. "I look forward to attending this international forum with my team to share the newest gene-editing advancement."

HuidaGene's presentations at 26th ASGCT Annual Meeting include:

Genetic Tools Abstract # Title Date/Time Format Ophthalmology Gene

replacement 713 Restoration of retinal function and structure in an RPE65- deficient murine model via. gene replacement therapy 5/17/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster Cas12f 712 Compact CRISPR/Cas12f-based mutation independent therapy strategy for rhodopsin-associated autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa via single AAV 5/17/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster Cas13 1663 Development of a Cas13-based RNA targeting therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME) 5/19/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster Gene

replacement 313 Preclinical safety assessment of an investigational gene replacement therapy for the treatment of RPE65-mediated inherited retinal dystrophies 5/20/2023 08:15-08:30 Petree Hall C Oral Neurology Cas12i 694 Gene editing therapy in a humanized SOD1G93A mouse model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis 5/17/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster Cas13 34 RNA editing therapy in a humanized mouse model of MECP2 duplication syndrome and non-human primates 5/17/2023 16:15-16:30 Petree Hall D Oral Cas13 1624 A high-fidelity RNA-targeting Cas13 restores paternal Ube3a expression and improves motor functions in Angelman syndrome mice 5/19/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster Cas12i 1285 Gene editing therapy in a humanized mouse model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis 5/19/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster Otology RNA base-

editor 342 Rescue of OTOF Q829X mutation-induced hearing loss by in-vivo delivery of mini-dCas13X-derived RNA base editor 5/20/2023 08:30-08:45 Room 502 AB Oral Myology DNA base-

editor 667 Precise correction of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy with exon 51 deletion by adenine base editing-induced exon skipping in a humanized mouse model 5/17/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster RNA base-

editor 841 Efficient mini dCas13-mediated base editing for personalized treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy 5/18/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster Cas12i 951 Single-cut gene editing therapy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy via a single AAV vector 5/18/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster Hepatology LNP-based

Cas12i 1128 Targeting the hepatitis B cccDNA with the hfCas12Max nuclease to eliminate hepatitis B virus in-vitro and in-vivo 5/18/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster Technology Cas12i 495 An engineered xCas12i with high activity, high specificity, and broad PAM range 5/17/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster RNA base-

editor 978 Development of a compact and efficient RNA base editor (ceRBE) by fusing ADAR with engineered EcCas63 5/18/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster Cas12f 1555 Engineering the novel type V-F CRISPR-Cas system as versatile and efficient genome editing tools delivered by a single AAV 5/19/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster Cas13 1419 Engineered Cas13 with minimal collateral effect and improved editing efficiency for targeted RNA degradation 5/19/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster AAV 1464 A comprehensive AAV tropism profile in mice, crab-eating macaques, and marmosets 5/19/2023 12:00-19:00 Poster DNA base-

editor 257 Programmable A-to-Y base editing by fusing an adenine base editor with an N-methylpurine DNA glycosylase 5/19/2023 16:00-16:15 Concourse Hall 152&153 Oral

Accepted abstracts and full program is available at ASGCT website (https://annualmeeting.asgct.org/abstracts).

"This is the first time that HuidaGene has presented information on the progress of the scientific research in gene replacement and genome-editing therapies at the ASGCT annual meeting. Having 19 abstracts accepted for presentations with 4 oral presentations reflect the significant progress made by the teams and the strength of the R&D team's innovation and drug development in this field," commented by Alvin Luk, Ph.D, MBA, CCRA, Scientific Advisory Board Member of HuidaGene. "I'm very proud to be part of the groundbreaking work by the teams. I'll attend this ASGCT annual meeting with Prof. Yang and Dr. Yao. We're happy to have deep discussions with experts or companies wishing to advance gene therapy and gene editing technology. Together with Drs. Yang and Yao, we'll continue to advance the therapeutic pipeline and genome-editing research from discovery to bedside and bring more treatment options to patients globally."

About HuidaGene - ????

HuidaGene Therapeutics (????) is a global clinical-stage biotechnology company focusing on discovering, engineering, and developing CRISPR-based genetic medicine to rewrite the future of genomic medicine. Based in Shanghai and New Jersey, HuidaGene is committed to addressing patients' needs globally with various preclinical therapeutic programs covering ophthalmology, otology, myology, and neurology. We are currently advancing clinical programs in RPE65 mutation-associated inherited retinal dystrophies and our preclinical pipeline, including programs in neovascular age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, hereditary hearing loss, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and MECP2 duplication syndrome. Company's CRISPR-based therapeutics offer the potential to cure patients with life-threatening conditions by repairing the cause of their disease. HuidaGene is committed to transforming the future of genome-editing medicine.

For more information, please visit http://www.HuidaGene.com

or follow us on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/HuidaGene

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1990114/4017443/Huidagene_Logo.jpg

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The government of Rwanda on May 2, successfully evacuated 42 people, including 32 Rwandans and 10 people of five different nationalities, from Khartoum, the capital of Sudan ravaged by weeks of armed conflict.

The group including 11 children, arrived safely at Kigali International Airport in the early hours of Tuesday aboard a chartered RwandAir flight from the city of Aswan in Egypt.

At the airport, they were received by officials including the Director of Rwandan community abroad in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

Additionally, 10 other Rwandan nationals have returned home, while others are safe in other countries on their way to Rwanda with the support of friendly countries and international organizations, the government said in a statement.

"Our national institutions worked around the clock with our Diplomatic Missions in Khartoum and Cairo to ensure the success of this evacuation," the statement reads in part.

The Government of Rwanda is particularly grateful to the Arab Republic of Egypt and its people for the warm hospitality and support accorded to its citizens under difficult circumstances, it added.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Vincent Biruta, said: "Our hearts are with the people of Sudan at this difficult time. The Government of Rwanda remains ready to support all measures by the African Union and international partners for a political and amicable solution to the current civil war in Sudan."

Rwanda thanked Sudan and other friendly countries and international organizations that facilitated the evacuation.

The government has been monitoring the situation in Sudan.

The government of Rwanda is committed to assisting Rwandans stranded in areas of conflict and other difficult situations, the statement said.

More than 500 people have been killed and thousands wounded in clashes between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began on April 15.

The United Nations and the African Union have called for a ceasefire and urged the warring parties to protect civilians and allow safe passage for those fleeing hostilities.

Foreign countries are racing to evacuate their citizens, and tens of thousands of Sudanese who are escaping the war-ravaged country for safety.
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
AtlasJobs' talent discovery and engagement platform helps National healthcare provider stand out as a leading employer in a competitive job market

LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Los Angeles-based technology company Pod , parent company to AtlasJobs , a talent discovery and engagement platform, today published AtlasJobs Helps PAM Health Drive More Qualified Candidates and Speed Up Talent Acquisition, a case study developed in partnership with PAM Health . The case study displays an increase in engaged job applicants and reduced sourcing time as a result of utilizing AtlasJobs.

PAM Health, a nationwide healthcare leader with a network of over 100 specialty hospitals and outpatient clinics across the United States, experiences a unique set of challenges when it comes to staffing across multiple locations. To meet their objectives of attracting high-quality talent and promoting company culture during recruitment, PAM Health recognized the need to revise their hiring approach. In late 2022, PAM Health implemented the AtlasJobs people engagement platform to solve their talent acquisition challenges.

"Using traditional candidate sourcing companies and tools, we had been getting 6,000 to 7,000 candidates per month throughout 2022," said Carmen Pivoda, Vice President of Talent Engagement at PAM Health. "When we saw the number of candidates jump to over 12,000 in the first month with AtlasJobs, we thought this was a fluke. However, when we tracked December and January and saw the number of candidates was over 12,000 each month, we knew this wasn't a fluke, it was a trend."

After implementing AtlasJobs, PAM Health experienced a substantial improvement in the recruitment process. The platform led to an increase in the quantity and engagement of qualified candidates, particularly in the nursing sector, where a 12 times increase in engagement was observed. For more details, see the full case study here: http://www.atlasjobs.com/case-study-pam-health

"People are the lifeblood of companies and particularly for PAM Health who need qualified and dedicated staff on premises," said Dr. Jo Webber, CEO of AtlasJobs. "Our AI-powered platform is designed to simplify the recruitment process for both employers and candidates, and we are happy to see it make a significant impact for PAM Health across their multiple locations."

About Pod and AtlasJobs

AtlasJobs is a web and mobile app simplifying talent acquisition by enabling leading companies to better position themselves as employers of choice while making it easy for global job-seekers to discover, explore, and engage with opportunities including jobs, internships, mentorships, and scholarships. This mobile-first, white-label platform leverages a map-centric search mechanism and AI technology to meet Generation Z where they are with an intuitive, engaging design enhancing the discoverability of jobs globally. AtlasJobs integrates seamlessly and securely with all major ATS applications allowing for fast deployment. By connecting today's talent with the best opportunities, AtlasJobs is elevating recruitment outcomes for both employers and candidates. For more information, visit https://atlasjobs.com or connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

About PAM Health

Based in Enola, Pennsylvania, PAM Health provides specialty healthcare services through more than 70 long-term acute care hospitals, medical rehabilitation hospitals and Behavioral Health Hospitals, as well as wound clinics and outpatient therapy locations, in 22 states. PAM Health is committed to providing high-quality patient care and outstanding customer service, coupled with the loyalty and dedication of highly trained staff, to be the most trusted source for healthcare services in every community it serves. Its mission is to serve people by providing compassionate, expert care, and to support recovery through education and research. Learn more at www.PAMHealth.com .

Press Inquiries:

Erika Siemasko

JMG Public Relations

212-206-1645

Erika@jmgpr.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/pam-healths-talent-acquisition-gets-a-boost-with-atlasjobs-ai-powered-engagement-platform-according-to-new-case-study-301814177.html
AUBURN, AL / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Georgia-Pacific has contributed $100,000 to Auburn University to help fund a new state-of-the-art digester that will give engineering students the ability to test and improve a newly patented innovation in papermaking.

The current digester in the Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering (AC-PABE) at AU is over 30 years old with many operational issues and no longer meets teaching and research needs. That's why the AC-PABE contacted Georgia-Pacific, a long-time partner of AU and the pulp and paper program.

"We have developed a new additive for the kraft pulping process and have been granted a US patent for this technology," said Dr. Zhihua Jiang, Auburn Pulp and Paper Foundation associate professor and director, AC-PABE. "The new digester will allow us to systematically evaluate the effect of the new additive under various operating conditions and optimize and make the technology ready for a commercial scale trial. It will also be used in our other research projects to further improve the pulping efficiency."

A digester is a key piece of equipment used in the paper-making process. Pulp mill digesters use heat and chemicals to break down wood chips into pulp. The pulp is then further refined and processed to produce paper products.

Johnnie Pearson, director of pulp power and recovery center of excellence for Georgia-Pacific, graduated from AU with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and knows how important this donation is to the school, students and future generations of Georgia-Pacific.

"I still use all my experiences from Auburn every day. It's the fundamental basis of how I came into the industry and evolved," said Pearson. "I worked on the old digester when I was in school, and the new equipment will dramatically impact the students and advance their cooking techniques. To this day, I still go back to my hands-on experiences."

Once the new digester is installed sometime in 2023, students will be able to operate the digester, produce pulp from wood chips and evaluate the effect of reaction conditions on yield and pulp properties. In addition, the digester will allow students, for the first time to effectively study and learn the kinetics of the pulping process by evaluating the changes in liquor compositions.

"Georgia-Pacific values our commitment to our community partners like Auburn University," said Hudson Pope, senior vice president of Georgia-Pacific operations and president of the Auburn Pulp and Paper Foundation. "AU is rooted in outstanding instruction and meaningful research. The educational experience that donations like this can provide for students is invaluable and critical to their success after graduation, something Georgia-Pacific is proud to be a part of."

While the digester used in the AC-PABE is on a much smaller scale than what's used in a Georgia-Pacific mill, it's an integral part of the hands-on education for students at Auburn.

"I think anybody within this pulp and paper program will benefit," said Bradley Lowery, an AU chemical engineering student. "The new digester will be state of the art. The hands-on learning capability goes much further than what you can get from a textbook."

Bradley will graduate in May 2023 and take his education and experience to Georgia-Pacific's Alabama River Cellulose mill, where he'll be doing mechanical reliability.

"My father has worked for Georgia-Pacific for the last 15 or so years. So, I've learned a lot about how they do business," said Bradley. "Once I came to Auburn, I was fortunate enough to be on the pulp and paper scholarship, which I am very grateful for. Georgia-Pacific has put many meals on my family's table and has really brought things full circle for me. The learning I gained at Auburn and now going to work for Georgia-Pacific after graduation: it's really been such a blessing in my life. I can't thank Georgia-Pacific enough."

View original content here

Students working in the Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering (AC-PABE) at Auburn University.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Georgia-Pacific on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Georgia-Pacific

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/georgia-pacific

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Georgia-Pacific

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/752680/100000-Funding-for-Auburn-University-To-Help-Advance-Papermaking-and-Research
TORONTO, ON, and NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Sekur Private Data Ltd. (CSE:SKUR)(OTCQX:SWISF)(FRA:GDT0) ("Sekur" or the "Company"), a leading Swiss hosted secure and private communications platform, is pleased announce its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2023.

To view the Company's financial results please go to our Company filings on SEDAR or go to https://sekurprivatedata.com .

Alain Ghiai, CEO of Sekur Private Data said: "We are very pleased to announce that our fiscal year end results for 2022 have been filed on May 1, 2022, and to report our increased sales for 2022 of 220% compared to sales in 2021. We finished the year with over 4 million CAD in cash and no long term debt and have announced in December 2022 our budget of 3.2 million CAD for FY 2023. This means that we have ample cash to run our program for 2023. We have launched our new SekurVPN solution and improved on our SekurMessenger and SekurMail solutions this year so far, and we are expecting increased sales for 2023 because of those improvements and new solutions. We also want to thank all our shareholders for their support, and we look forward to presenting even better financial results for 2023."

On April 7th 2023, the Company launched its privacy VPN solution called SekurVPN available through https://www.sekurvpn.com , or through https://www.sekur.com , and started commercial sales of its highly anticipated SekurVPN privacy and security VPN solution. SekurVPN is priced at US$ 7/month/user and US$ 70/year/user for the service. The solution is also offered in USD, CAD, NZD, AUD, SGD, CHF, EUR and GPB. The Company plans to launch SekurVPN in the coming weeks to existing shareholders and Sekur users with a special offer, and move to a larger audience of 1,000,000 people in the USA, through several digital and email marketing campaigns.

SekurVPN is especially meant for privacy enthusiasts and users wanting to mask their IP address from hackers. An example would be users going to their e-banking or shopping online, using their emails, using messaging applications and wanting to have full privacy and protection from hackers hyjacking their location and signal. The service guarantees not to use Big Tech or Hyperscalers for its functioning or hosting, it guarantees that there are no third party bundles sold with it, so no data is leaked or sold to third parties, it guarantees no traffic pulling or monitoring, and no phone number required to register to the service.

According to a study and publication on forbes.com, 66% use a VPN to help protect personal data, 80% use a VPN for increased security and 33% use a VPN to mask their internet activity. More statistics can be found on this VPN Statistics And Trends In 2023 article.

Private:

SekurVPN uses its own proprietary infrastructure and does not use any Hyperscaler or Big Tech hosting providers, unlike most other VPNs. It offers Swiss IPs only, and this guarantees that it is using only SekurVPN's own servers and routing. Other VPNs offer 100s of locations and are using Big Tech providers, compromising users' privacy. SekurVPN never monitors users' activity and never shares any data with third party service providers. By being a pure VPN, without bundled outside services, such as anti-virus, and ad-blockers, SekurVPN keeps users' information private without sharing their data with third party service providers. With SekurVPN, users do not register their phone number on the App or the web, rendering users invisible from hackers or snoopers. No phone number to register, anonymous Swiss IPs only, no data mining or traffic sharing with anyone.

Secure:

SekurVPN's secure VPN routes all your Internet traffic through SekurVPN's privately owned servers, in multiple locations in Switzerland only, and using the highest encryption industry standards, combined with its proprietary HeliX technology for added security. Encryption keys are not stored on devices and are unique at every connection. Users' passwords, confidential data and Internet surfing stay encrypted even over public untrusted internet connections.

Easy to use:

SekurVPN is extremely easy to setup and deploy. There is no country list and our interface is simplified, just tap or click the connection button. SekurVPN's no-frills but highly secure and private service gives users peace of mind without thinking about geo-locations.



Currently SekurVPN is available to use with iOS and Android devices. A MacOS version and a Windows version are planned to be launched in the coming weeks.

In addition to SekurVPN , the company offers a bundled Sekur plan, which includes SekurMessenger and SekurMail, as a bundle of email, messaging and file transfer into one application, and includes the Company's latest SekurMail technology, which includes proprietary anti-phishing and privacy feature called SekurSend. SekurSend lets a user send an email to any other recipient, whether they have Sekur or not, in full privacy and security as the email never leaves Sekur 's encrypted email servers based in Switzerland. The recipient can then click on the notification and reply in the same manner using SekurReply, without the recipient having to register for a Sekur account. The sender can also decide to protect any email sent by adding a password to open it, a read-limit and a self-destruct timer as well. Sending an email with the SekurSend feature allows the senders and recipients to add limitless size attachments to the emails without crowding the recipients' email box. This also eliminates BEC attacks for businesses and email phishing attacks. Additionally, SekurMail includes full control of email delivery, automatic data export for large Enterprises and an automatic Data Loss Prevention technology ("DLP") with real time continuous archiving.

Recent data breaches in messaging applications have created a certain urgency for businesses and data privacy advocates to protect their communications from cyber-attacks and identity theft via mobile and desktop devices.

SekurMessenger comes with a proprietary feature and technology called "Chat-By-Invite". This feature allows a SekurMessenger user ("SM user") invite via email or SMS, a non-SM user, or a group of non-SM users, to chat in a fully private and secure way, without the recipient ever having to register to SekurMessenger or download the app. At the end of the chat, the initiator of the conversation can remotely terminate the conversation and all traces of the conversation are deleted from all users, including the recipient. This unique feature is now fully deployed and functional on all iOS and Android devices and web platforms. The target sectors are numerous, including but not limited to real estate, legal, finance, insurance, medical, government, energy, manufacturing, trade and pharmaceutical sectors.

SekurMessenger also eliminates many of the privacy and security risks by not only not requiring a phone number, which would divulge a user's phone device ID, but also by not social engineering a user's phone or computer contact list and infecting the contacts by default as well, eliminating a huge loophole in security and privacy. SekurMessenger issues each user a username and a Sekur number. The Sekur number is the contact ID a user would disclose in order for other Sekur users to be added. The service comes with a self-destruct timer and other features as well, including Sekur's proprietary VirtualVaults and HeliX technologies with all data stored in Swiss hosted encrypted servers.

Sekur's Data privacy solutions are all hosted in Switzerland, protecting users' data from any outside data intrusion requests. In Switzerland, the right to privacy is guaranteed in article 13 of the Swiss Federal Constitution. The Federal Act on Data Protection ("FADP") of 19 June 1992 (in force since 1993) has set up a strict protection of privacy by prohibiting virtually any processing of personal data which is not expressly authorized by the data subjects. The protection is subject to the authority of the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

Under Swiss federal law, it is a crime to publish information based on leaked "secret official discussions." In 2010 the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland found that IP addresses are personal information and that under Swiss privacy laws they may not be used to track Internet usage without the knowledge of the individuals involved.

About Sekur Private Data Ltd.

Sekur Private Data Ltd. is a Cybersecurity and Internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure and private communications. The Company distributes a suite of encrypted e-mails, secure messengers, and secure communication tools. Sekur Private Data Ltd. sells its products through its own website at https://www.sekur.com, and approved distributors, and telecommunications companies worldwide. Sekur Private Data Ltd. serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.

On behalf of Management

SEKUR PRIVATE DATA LTD.

Alain Ghiai

President and Chief Executive Officer

+1.416.644.8690

corporate@sekurprivatedata.com

For more information, please contact Sekur Private Data at corporate@sekurprivatedata.com or visit us at https://www.sekurprivatedata.com

For more information on Sekur visit us at: https://www.sekur.com or https://www.sekurvpn.com

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "achieve", "could", "believe", "plan", "intend", "objective", "continuous", "ongoing", "estimate", "outlook", "expect", "project" and similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes or that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guaranteeing future performance. Sekur cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Sekur's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the future of the Company's business; the success of marketing and sales efforts of the Company; the projections prepared in house and projections delivered by channel partners; the Company's ability to complete the necessary software updates; increases in sales as a result of investments software development technology; consumer interest in the Products; future sales plans and strategies; reliance on large channel partners and expectations of renewals to ongoing agreements with these partners; anticipated events and trends; the economy and other future conditions; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Sekur's prospectus dated May 8, 2019 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available on www.sedar.com. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Sekur undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

SOURCE: Sekur Private Data Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/752603/Sekur-Private-Data-Ltd-Releases-Audited-Financials-and-MDA-for-the-Year-Ended-December-31-2022-Sales-Increase-220-Y-O-Y
CHARLOTTE, N.C. and MELBOURNE, Australia, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Kinetics, the global leader in digital health solutions for neurological conditions, today announced the appointment of?Zach Henderson as its new Chief Executive Officer. Zach will also join the Board of Directors.

Zach joins Global Kinetics with over 25 years of healthcare software and big data experience and will lead Global Kinetics' continued growth and global expansion. Zach recently served as the Chief Commercial Officer of?Glooko, where he led the rapid growth of the business with life science partners and healthcare providers. Prior to Glooko, he held senior management roles with various public and private equity backed healthcare companies quickly growing their businesses while meeting his personal mission of bettering healthcare systems around the world.

"With the largest body of published clinical evidence and over 35,000 patients treated, Global Kinetics has the deepest clinical data set in the neurology field," said Zach Henderson, newly appointed CEO of Global Kinetics. "I am excited to lead this next phase of the company helping patients, their caregivers, healthcare professionals and innovative life science companies better treat and research complex neurological conditions using the latest digital health technology and analytics," he continued.

Global Kinetics will expand its partnerships with companies developing pharmaceutical products and medical devices targeting neurological disorders using their novel algorithms to inform patient selection, dose titration, adherence and ongoing therapy management.

"After an extensive search, we are excited to welcome Zach to Global Kinetics as he brings a wealth of expertise in scaling healthcare businesses by partnering with life science companies and providers," said Executive Chairman,?J. Leighton Read MD, Brandon Capital Venture Partner who will continue with Global Kinetics as Non-executive Chair of the Board of Directors. "I'd also like to welcome Dr. David Atkins of BioScience Managers to the Board of Directors. His extensive experience in both operational and investor roles, including in digital health, will be valuable to the business going forward."

Mr. Henderson's appointment as CEO follows several exciting announcements for Global Kinetics. In January 2023, the PKG was reported by NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) in the UK to reliably measure bradykinesia and dyskinesia and other movement disorder measures, and provide useful information that leads to significant improvement in clinical management for patients. NICE cited the extensive clinical evidence using the PKG System compared to other wearables which was reported to lead to clinical improvements for patients when compared to standard management, in terms of reductions in UPDRS scores, the standard Parkinson's Disease rating scale. Therefore, NICE supports the use of the PKG as a complement to clinical care in both clinical and remote settings. The PKG System is already being used extensively across the NHS in the United Kingdom by over 35 sites. This NICE announcement follows the December 2022 publication, Measurement of Bradykinesia and Chorea in Huntington's Disease using Ambulatory Monitoring which used the PKG System to correlate UHDRS, the standard Huntington's Disease rating scale, clinical measures to the PKG scores. The study reported a strong correlation between clinical chorea scores and the PKG dyskinesia score among other findings.

About Global Kinetics

Global Kinetics is committed to improving the lives of patients with neurologic conditions using advanced digital health technologies. The company was formed in 2007 to commercialize its lead product, the Personal KinetiGraph (PKG). The PKG System including its proprietary, clinically proven algorithms, enables the precise monitoring, quantification, and reporting of movement disorder symptoms. To date, Global Kinetics has supported clinical research and treatment decisions by healthcare professionals who have treated more than 35,000 patients, generating more than 9,000,000 hours of clinical data from the FDA-cleared, CE-marked, TGA-approved PKG System. Global Kinetics is a privately held company, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia with offices in the United Kingdom and the United States. For more information, visit www.pkgcare.com .

For more information contact info@pkgcare.com.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/healthcare-veteran-zach-henderson-to-lead-global-kinetics-as-ceo-301813861.html
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - InZinc Mining Ltd. (TSXV: IZN) ("InZinc" or the "Company") is pleased to outline the 2023 exploration program at the Indy project (100% interest) ("Indy" or the "Project") located 100 kilometres (km) southeast of Prince George in central British Columbia. The fully-funded, two-phased 2023 program will follow-up on the discovery of nickel-cobalt-copper mineralization intersected in the 2022 drill program and several new geochemical anomalies highlighted in the area as a result of the discovery. The upcoming program will also focus on large, untested zinc targets identified by previous geochemical and geophysical surveys.

Phase 1 will focus on groundwork on five targets - three new nickel-cobalt-copper targets and two zinc targets - in the northern area of the 7 km Main Trend (Figure 1). Groundwork, including soil profiling, sampling, mapping and access requirements, is necessary to further evaluate and prioritize the targets. Phase 2 will drill priority targets outlined in Phase 1 and elsewhere on the property. The Company will commence Phase 1 exploration in mid-June with Phase 2 drilling anticipated in July-August.

Nickel - Cobalt - Copper Targets:

Keel Red : In 2022 drill hole IB22-020 (news release January 25, 2023), exploring between the Keel and Echo Central geochemical targets, intersected 27.1 metres (m) of buried oxide material starting at 47.3 m downhole and averaging 0.67% zinc and 0.13% nickel . Named Keel Red, the upper part of the core interval (from 47.3 m to 55.0 m) also returned 0.11% copper over 7.8 m . Additionally, the 27.1 m interval returned cobalt content averaging 163 ppm with values up to 962 ppm (0.10%) over a 1 m core length .

: In 2022 drill hole IB22-020 (news release January 25, 2023), exploring between the Keel and Echo Central geochemical targets, intersected of buried oxide material starting at 47.3 m downhole and averaging . Named Keel Red, the upper part of the core interval (from 47.3 m to 55.0 m) also returned . Additionally, the 27.1 m interval returned cobalt content averaging 163 ppm with values . TJ: The new TJ target, located 425 m west of Keel Red, comprises a 500 m long, high contrast (>95 percentile), coincident nickel-cobalt-copper in soil signal.

The new TJ target, located 425 m west of Keel Red, comprises a 500 m long, high contrast (>95 percentile), coincident nickel-cobalt-copper in soil signal. Delta Ni: The new Delta Ni target, located 100 m east of the Delta Horizon, comprises a 600 m length of high contrast (>95 percentile), coincident nickel-cobalt-copper in soil signal.

Zinc Targets:

Echo: The 1.9 km long Echo target is a continuous high contrast, multi-element (Zn, Pb, Ba, +/- As and Cu signatures) soil geochemical anomaly discovered in 2021.

The 1.9 km long Echo target is a continuous high contrast, multi-element (Zn, Pb, Ba, +/- As and Cu signatures) soil geochemical anomaly discovered in 2021. Delta Horizon: The 1.5 km long Delta Horizon target, a high contrast, multi-element soil geochemical anomaly defined by distinctive Sedex pathfinder elements and rock exposures, was discovered in 2019.

The Company is fully-funded for the planned groundwork and drilling program during 2023. Expenditures are eligible for a 30% rebate under the BC Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (BCMETC).





Figure 1: Indy Project - Nickel-Cobalt-Copper and Zinc Targets

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6480/164616_540088d034a98ace_001full.jpg

About InZinc

InZinc is an active explorer and, through its Indy project (100% interest), equity and royalty interests, is exposed to a diverse portfolio of active North American base metals and precious metals projects. Since the 2018 discovery of high grade, near surface mineralization at the Indy project, InZinc has outlined over 10 km of high quality exploration base and precious metals targets and has expanded its mineral tenure to 200 km2 in a new and unexplored mineral region of central British Columbia, Canada. In late 2021, a Canadian subsidiary of South32 (ASX, LSE, JSE) became a major tenure holder in the belt by staking approximately 200 km2 of adjacent claims. InZinc has a significant equity investment in American West Metals (ASX) which is advancing multiple North American base metals projects. In addition, InZinc has a production royalty and will receive 50% of the revenue (NSR) from the sale of indium mined from American West's West Desert project.

InZinc Mining Ltd.

Wayne Hubert

____________

Chief Executive Officer

Phone: 604.687.7211 Joyce Musial

Website: www.inzincmining.com

For further information contact:

Vice President, Corporate Affairs

Phone: 604.317.2728

Email: joyce@inzincmining.com

Qualified Person

Brian McGrath, B.Sc., P.Geo. a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has approved the technical content of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information includes, but are not limited to, statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "design", "postulate" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results, performance, or actions and that actual results and actions may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, those risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 filed with certain securities commissions in Canada and other information released by the Company and filed with the appropriate regulatory agencies. All of the Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164616
Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - TrustBIX Inc. (TSXV: TBIX) (OTCQB: TBIXF) ("TrustBIX" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the signing, on April 18, 2023, of a 2-year agreement with Old Strathcona Farmers' Market (OSFM) to use the BIX Platform module, BIX Impact, to provide greater assurance and transparency about OSFM's vendors. The BIX Platform provides a comprehensive solution for businesses to verify and trace products across supply chains.

"We are excited to work with TrustBIX; offering customers greater assurance about the source of food and products offered at our market," said Keith Persaud, Market Manager of Old Strathcona Farmers' Market. "BIX Impact is an innovative solution that will help us verify and give added exposure to our community of trusted vendors."

"We are very pleased to work with OSFM to promote vendors, and provide better assurances and information to market customers, utilizing the capabilities of BIX Impact," said Hubert Lau, CEO of TrustBIX. "As consumers become more conscious of their health and environmental impact, it's important to support their desire to buy local."

About Old Strathcona Farmers' Market

OSFM is Edmonton's original, indoor farmers' market with a mix of locally grown and produced food, as well as providing small, independent, local businesses a venue to showcase their locally produced products. The market is located just off historic Whyte Ave in Edmonton, Alberta, and has been operating every Saturday since 1983.

www.osfm.ca

About TrustBIX

The vision is to create a world where we trust more and waste less by leveraging BIX and the use of its technology solutions. TrustBIX delivers independent validation of provenance and sustainable practices within multiple supply chains and industries.

BIX Location Services offer solutions to supply chains that bring asset situational awareness for high value assets.

ViewTrak Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, provides a suite of hardware and software solutions to the livestock industry in North America and China.

www.TrustBIX.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mr. Hubert Lau

President and CEO

Telephone: (780) 456-2207

Email: info@trustbix.com

Twitter

LinkedIn

Facebook

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164603
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - Dynasty Gold Corp. (TSXV: DYG) (FSE: D5G1) (OTC Pink: DGDCF) ("Dynasty" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, subject to Exchange approval, it has closed an oversubscribed non-brokered private placement for total gross proceeds of $3,743,889. This includes a Flow-Through component of 4,761,905 units for proceeds of $1,428,571. Each unit consists of one Flow-Through share at $0.30 and one common share purchase warrant at $0.27 for a period of 24 months. The underlying common share purchase warrant will not qualify as "flow-through shares". The non Flow-Through component consists of 11,025,327 units for proceeds of $2,315,318. Each unit consists of one common share at $0.21 and one common share purchase warrant at $0.27 for a period of 24 months. All units issued under the private placement are subject to a four-month hold period from the date of closing. Finder's fees of $91,966 and 437,933 warrants, with the same terms as the private placement warrant terms, are payable to registered dealers.

The proceeds from the Flow-Through financing will be used for further drilling, including delineation of the high-grade gold mineralization discovered on the Company's Thundercloud property last fall. Please see press releases of January 10, January 16, and February 13, 2023.

The Company welcomes Mr. Robert McEwen, who joined the Company as a significant shareholder. Mr. McEwen has acquired 5,714,286 units (36.2%) of total units issued under this private placement. The founder and former Chairman of Goldcorp, Mr. McEwen had discovered, built, and operated the Red Lake Mine in Ontario. The Red Lake mining district has produced over 26 million ounces of gold through 2020. Mr. McEwen is the Executive Chairman and Chief Owner of McEwen Mining Inc.

"We are honored to have Mr. McEwen as a significant shareholder, as he is very experienced in orogenic gold systems from his past success in Red Lake, not far from our Thundercloud project near Dryden, Ontario. We look forward to Mr. McEwen's input as we develop and expand the Thundercloud resource," states Ivy Chong, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

Participants in this private placement include insiders of the Company, for which the Company is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements provided under sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of Multilateral Instrument 61-101, on the basis that participation in the Offering by insiders does not exceed 25% of the fair market value of the Company's market capitalization.

About Dynasty Gold Corp.

Dynasty Gold Corp. is a Canadian exploration company currently focused on gold exploration in North America, with projects located in the Manitou-Stormy Lake greenstone belt in Ontario and in the Midas gold camp in Nevada. The Company is currently advancing its Thundercloud gold resource in northwest Ontario. A NI 43-101 Independent Technical Report, September 27, 2021, can also be found on the Company and SEDAR websites. The 100% owned Golden Repeat gold project in the Midas gold camp in Elko County, Nevada, is surrounded by a number of large-scale operating mines. For more information, please visit the Company's website, www.dynastygoldcorp.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DYNASTY GOLD CORP.

"Ivy Chong"

_________________________________

Ivy Chong, President & CEO

For additional information please contact:

Ivy Chong, Dynasty Gold Corp.

Phone: 604.633.2100. Email: ichong@dynastygoldcorp.com

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164645
Announced a month ago, the new electric hypercar manufacturer Laffite Automobili will create a revolution this Wednesday, May 3, 2023 by unveiling its first models in a historic and resounding event at the Miami Grand Prix. At the very heart of the F1 village, Laffite Automobili will present its three first models, the LM1, the Atrax, and the Barchetta, as well as their first two variations, the Atrax Stradale and the Barchetta Coupe. These first vehicles embody the philosophy and soul that Pascal Cohen and Bruno Laffite, the two founders, have instilled in this incredible brand: race cars homologated for the road. Laffite Automobili, which draws its DNA from competition, luxury, lifestyle, and human values. Their two founders, nicknamed the "Gemelli" (twins in Italian), worked to bring together a prestigious team capable of bringing their vision to life. After five years of massive investments, research and development, the two partners and their collaborators have managed to meet the most extreme requirements in terms of design, engineering, and performance, and thus fundamentally redefine the world of Hypercars.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005603/en/

Copyright Laffite Automobili

"For Bruno as for me," declares Pascal Cohen, co-founder and CEO of Laffite Automobili, "our primary goal was to create a brand that brings together the large family of motorsports. It's something unique, historic. That's why I immediately had at heart not to produce one, but three cars and to immediately create this exceptional range of products. We are currently the only ones to offer these three types of cars, two of which are positioned in two completely innovative segments, the LM1 and the Atrax. We wanted to meet the very different expectations of our collectors. And the best is yet to come."

Drawing on the talent and experience of their partners GFG Style for the design and LM Gianetti for research, development, and production, Laffite Automobili has created a range of stunning cars inspired by motor racing but intended solely for the road.

Combining aesthetics, elegance, and performance while blending luxury, comfort, and technology, Laffite Automobili Hypercars are in tune with the times 100% electric, yet also 100% audible. A revolutionary sound system, coupled with the motor, generates the melody of the most beautiful race engines to deliver the emotion that accompanies the passion for automobiles. They are also all equipped with Pirelli tires, the official Italian supplier of the brand.

A true work of art, delivered in a very limited edition (between 24 and 26 copies), each model from Laffite Automobili is designed as a unique car. Each part that makes up the vehicles of the Italian company has been thought out, designed and approved with unparalleled selectivity. The hypercar manufacturer also wants to extend this invitation to excellence beyond the automotive world. Laffite Automobili wants to expand its vision of luxury and lifestyle into different universes where it can celebrate and showcase the brand's identity in terms of refinement and exclusivity.

Live streaming webcast:

"To satisfy as many enthusiasts as possible and those who could not attend this historic event in Miami, Laffite Automobili is making available to everyone a video streaming system to follow the launch live, starting at 11:45 p.m. Central European Time (or 5:45 p.m. Eastern time)."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMqAn1NlWBk

Download the Press kit:

To be able to provide more detailed information on each vehicle in the Laffite Automobili range, please follow the link below and download the press kits made available to you

http://laffitte.com/press-media/

About Laffite Automobili

Laffite Automobili is a hypercar brand based in Turin and founded by Pascal Cohen and Bruno Laffite. This company, which draws its DNA from competition, luxury, and lifestyle, offers a range of three vehicles (accompanied by two variations) produced in very limited quantities (between 24 and 26 units depending on the model), the LM1, the Atrax, and the Barchetta. Two of these hypercars are completely new and positioned in two innovative segments in the automotive industry. The production line set up with LM Gianetti will deliver the first models, already ordered, to their happy owners during the winter of 2024.

Follow Us

On internet: www.laffite.com

On instagram: @laffiteautomobili

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005603/en/

Contacts:

MEDIA

Arnaud BRIAND

arnaud.briand@laffite.com

+ 33 682 45 86 73
HELSINKI, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Happiness Report has anointed Finland as the world's happiest country for the six straight year. Now Helsinki, Finland's capital, reveals three ways in which art and culture play pivotal role in fostering a good life from early childhood. Studies have attributed Finnish happiness to high-quality education, affordable healthcare, social stability, and work-life balance. Making art and cultural services accessible to a wider audience has also positively contributed to overall happiness. The City of Helsinki has been a leader in making cultural experiences more affordable and appealing to a broader audience, all while maintaining world-class standards.

HAM Helsinki Art Museum, is a shining example of this commitment, looking after a vast collection of 10,000 works of art that belong to all of Helsinki's residents. Roughly, 2,500 of these pieces can be found in public spaces across the city, from schools and day-care centers to public parks. This is thanks in part to Helsinki's Percent for Art policy, which has allocated approximately one percent of construction project budget for public art since 1991.

"Events and cultural experiences in Helsinki are designed for everybody, regardless of their socioeconomic status. We call it a Nordic approach to art and culture - a key enabler of a good life", says Mari Mannisto, Culture Director at the City of Helsinki. "To make the impact real - and the ensuing happiness long-lasting, Helsinki is singularly focused on serving its residents from retirees to toddlers", she continues.

To better understand the Nordic approach to art and culture and to maybe inspire other cities and countries, Helsinki is featuring three real-life stories on the topic.

Introducing Culture to Children at an Early Age

Helsinki'sCulture Kids Program is a unique initiative inviting all children born in and after 2020 to participate, it has already attracted 13.167 participants and counting. Impressively, between 66-69% of children born in 2020 or 2021 and living in Helsinki are currently involved in the program. Each child is assigned a cultural operator who sponsors them and offers their family personal experiences with the arts, including invitations to at least two cultural events each year that are tailored to the child's developmental stage and designed to promote their family's well-being.

"Every child has an assigned cultural institution, which becomes the familiar go-to place for the child and its family. More than 30 art and cultural organizations are engaged. The kids are annually invited to two events until they start their free basic education. For them, these cultural events are free of charge", explains Mari Mannisto.

Co-creation with Cultural Actors, Schools, and Libraries

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra is doing more than just playing music for concert-goers, it also has innovative outreach programs. The Orchestra is part of the Culture Kids program - the whole program was originally their idea - and it regularly collaborates with schools, music institutes and educators in the Helsinki area.

"We invite schools and student groups to general rehearsals for free and collaborate with music institutes to organize Little Overture - concerts before symphony concerts. In addition, we are taking part in the Orchestra Academy of the Helsinki Music Centre. It creates a unique learning environment in orchestral music for future professionals, studying in the world-famous Sibelius Academy", Aleksi Malmberg, General Manager of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

There are also multiple free chamber music concerts in public libraries free-of-charge for all ages. Helsinki's 700,000 residents are served by an exceptionally wide library network: 37 in total across the city.

Helsinki Biennial - an international contemporary art exhibition organized for the second time this coming summer - also provides an excellent example of this co-creation approach. They have developed teaching materials on the Thinglink platform that are available to teachers, and they form part of the cultural curriculum for fifth graders in Helsinki inviting all 5th graders to visit the Biennial free of charge.

Giving Space for Youth to Have Their Own Voice Heard

Amos Rex, one of the most popular art museums in Helsinki, is currently showcasing, Generation 2023, an exhibition which features the thoughts of young people in today's unpredictable world. The exhibition shows art by 50 artists aged 15-23.

"This triennial was born out of joint discussions between Amos Rex and the Helsinki Youth Services. Now every three years we give space to very young artists. This is one of our boldest ventures. In their works, young artists seek new ways to approach the most pressing issues of our time; the state of nature and its coexistence with humankind, norms related to gender identity and appearance, and digital exhaustion", explains Kai Kartio, Director of Amos Rex.

The exhibition is open until August 20th in Helsinki.

Unleash your curiosity about Finnish culture in Helsinki

While the above examples showcase Helsinki's rich cultural offerings from the perspective of children and youths, the city has much to offer people of all ages throughout the year. With a diverse range of unique cultural events and experiences planned for 2023, there is something for everyone to enjoy.

There are multiple great exhibition openings, such as Albert Edelfelt a key figure of Golden Age of Finnish art, in Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, and world-famous Tom of Finland in Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art, and Helsinki Biennial, a contemporary art event, taking place for the second time in summer 2023, June until September.

When traveling to Helsinki, MyHelsinki.fi, the official website of the city marketing company Helsinki Partners, is the local guide for discovering the most inspiring sights, events, and novelties in Helsinki.

More Information

Leena Karppinen

Senior Manager, PR and Communications

tel. +358 40 334 6384

leena.karppinen@helsinkipartners.com

https://www.helsinkipartners.com/

MyHelsinki.fi, your local guide to Helsinki's hottest restaurants, saunas, sights and events.

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Public/12019/3763068/841ed161b3c108d7_org.jpg Amos Rex, Generation 2023,Ritni-Alen,StellaOjala https://mb.cision.com/Public/12019/3763068/8b47ab9388a4262e_org.jpg Finland Helsinki events, Julia Kivela https://mb.cision.com/Public/12019/3763068/a9a5b0033bb9c7d9_org.jpeg Amos Rex Mika Huisman https://mb.cision.com/Public/12019/3763068/a7d93018c175d701_org.jpg Culture Kids, Helsinki City Museum 2023 Maarit Hohteri https://mb.cision.com/Public/12019/3763068/a7b6eb5324dc4555_org.jpg Children drawing Vallila, Aleksi Poutanen https://mb.cision.com/Public/12019/3763068/bae9b91e29c96b25_org.jpg Alicja-Kwade-Big-Be-Hide-37 HAM/Maija Toivanen https://mb.cision.com/Public/12019/3763068/a301f793a3faa376_org.jpg Adrian Villar Rojas,The Theater of Disappearance, 2017, NEON Foundation,Photo_Jorg Baumann https://mb.cision.com/Public/12019/3763068/8afe042d5ca51499_org.jpg Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Culture Kids, Petri Anttila

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/helsinkis-cultural-renaissance-how-the-citys-unique-programs-are-enhancing-lives-from-childhood-and-beyond-301814732.html
Nairobi  Interior cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has ordered a probe into the killing of George Kaliunga, the former Member of County Assembly of Antubetwe Kiongo Ward, Meru County following a banditry incident on Sunday.

The ward representative lost his life to armed criminals who had executed a livestock theft raid early morning last Sunday.

Kindiki made the announcement Tuesday when he condoled with the family and friends of the late former ward representative.

The CS said that investigating team will be tasked with identifying his killers and recover stolen livestock.

"George Kaliunga the former MCA did not die accidentally. It clearly looks like there was a plan to eliminate him. I assure you that his killers will be apprehended and prosecuted," he said.

Reports indicate that the MCA was allegedly killed by bandits believed to be from neighboring Isiolo county as he went after his stolen livestock.

He was pronounced dead on arrival at Maua Hospital on Sunday evening after he was shot in the chest.

The former ward representative had accompanied police officers who went after his stolen livestock.

He was reportedly shot at Kinna, Isiolo county when they were caught in an ambush by the suspected bandits.

To tame the wave of cattle rustling between Meru and Isiolo Counties, CS Kindiki ordered immediate deployment of Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) in the area.

Kindiki, who was addressing a security public baraza at Ndoleli Chief's Camp in Igembe North Constituency, Meru County, also declared the Meru North region a security operation zone, similar to the North Rift where a multi-agency team is waging a war against banditry.

"I am ordering Meru County Commissioner and his Tharaka Nithi counterpart to meet today and immediately come up with a plan to resolve border and land disputes between residents in the two counties. You must submit a comprehensive plan by tomorrow (Wednesday)," Kindiki said.
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / GRI

On 1 April, Carol Adams commenced her role as the new Chair of the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), the independent body responsible for setting the GRI Standards.

Prof. Adams has written to GRI reporters and supporters, to share insights into her priorities as she takes on leadership for developing and maintaining the world's most widely used sustainability reporting standards:

"This is an exciting time to be involved in sustainability reporting. The discussion about corporate accountability, and the role organizations play in sustainable development, is more widespread than ever before. The Global Reportign Initiative is right at the heart of the debate. The continued development of the GRI Standards to facilitate the achievement of sustainable development - as called for by our stakeholders, including investors - has never been more relevant and necessary than it is today.

I have supported and actively contributed to GRI's mission since the early years. As a previous Chair of the GRI Stakeholder Council (2017-19), I also have a deep understanding of the constituency groups that use and rely on our leading standards. I firmly believe the diverse, multi-stakeholder ethos that is at the core of the GSSB's ways of working is essential to developing standards that assist the sustainability transition.

Over a 30-year career in sustainability research, academia and leadership roles, I have championed the benefits of evidence-based and impact-focused reporting - which encompasses disclosures on management approach, governance oversight, targets and strategy. I have wide-ranging expertise in the analysis and application of sustainability reporting, policy and practice, all of which I intend to bring to the fore in my capacity as GSSB Chair.

What GRI has achieved so far - with the support of our reporters, stakeholders and input from technical experts - is significant. Most major companies around the world voluntarily use the GRI Standards. That includes 78% of the 250 largest global companies, according to recent KPMG analysis. Meanwhile, new IFAC research found that 39% of GRI reports are subject to external assurance, a number which is growing.

Looking ahead, we are committed to achieving interoperability between the GRI Standards and the IFRS Foundation's sustainability-related standards, being developed by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The two standards come from different perspectives, with GRI addressing how an organization impacts economies, environment and people for a multi-stakeholder audience (including investors), while the ISSB is focused on reporting of financially-material matters for investors. Combined, I believe these approaches strengthen corporate reporting and increase transparency.

For the past two years, GRI has worked with the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) to support the development of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Encouragingly, these efforts are paying off - with the impact disclosure requirements in the first set of ESRS confirmed as closely aligned with the corresponding GRI disclosures. This offers reassurance to the thousands of companies for which the ESRS will become mandatory that they can expect to utilize existing GRI reporting to meet EU requirements. We are optimistic this will apply to developing impact reporting requirements in other jurisdictions.

As GSSB Chair, I will seek to deepen our relationships with reporting standard setters, disclosure frameworks and other partners around the world. Not only does this reinforce the applicability and integration of the GRI Standards in global markets, it will minimize reporting burden for organizations. Balancing our aims for ever improved reporting on impacts, including processes for integrating them into decision making, with standards that are practical and usable, is crucial. I encourage your input through the further development of your reporting, responses to GSSB consultations or involvement in technical working groups.

Recent years have seen steady growth in GRI adoption, alongside the expansion and improvement of the suite of Standards - commendable progress that we will endeavor to continue. Under the current GSSB work program this includes a revised Biodiversity Standard, the continued roll-out of Sector Standards, and significant updates covering all climate and labor related Standards. The Standards Division continues to expand in order to facilitate this work.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the excellent work of my predecessor as chair, Judy Kuszewski. The advancement of the GRI Standards under her astute guidance is clear for all to see, and is a legacy on which I intend to build."
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth:

The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth

GDP is, at once, a broad and narrow lens. It is a powerful indicator of the strength of the economy at large, but offers little insight into the day-to-day conditions of the tens of thousands of communities that power it.

"There is a sense of places being left behind," says Arturo Franco, a development economist and senior vice president at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. In 2018, the Center developed a data tool called the Inclusive Growth Score to help local leaders in the U.S. measure those conditions and make smarter decisions to ensure equitable distribution of resources and opportunity, boosting the potential for all citizens to reach their economic potential.

The Inclusive Growth Score is now available for all census tracts in the U.S. and has expanded to the U.K. A finalist for Fast Company's World Changing Ideas award, the score blends open-source data with proprietary insights based on Mastercard's aggregated and anonymized transaction data.

Now a new report from the Center that measured changes in the scores in the U.S. between 2017 and 2022 found that lower-income areas are seeing more inclusive growth than higher-income areas. It suggests those areas are more focused on measures leading to shared prosperity, Franco says, and it also challenges the notion that big cities are faring better in terms of economic and social health - levels of urbanization had no clear relationship to inclusive growth.

The Mastercard Newsroom spoke to Franco to learn how the Inclusive Growth Score has evolved, how the new report can help leaders better understand the factors that drive equity and what's next.

What propelled the Center for Inclusive Growth to develop the tool initially?

Franco: The Center has always thought of place as one of the ways in which we can approach economic inclusion. When Opportunity Zones were created in 2017, we were really interested in understanding how our data could help tell the story of which underserved places needed the most investment. Literally we had a room in our New York City Tech Hub with a big map of the U.S. with our aggregated and anonymized data, and we started questioning how much we could say with spending data about economic development. That led to the need to contextualize spending in a much bigger conversation about what a thriving neighborhood looks like.

What do you miss when you just look at spending data?

Franco: When we look at spending even at a very granular level, we are averaging the richest and the poorest households that live in that place. What we want to do is to also show how well or badly resources, quality jobs, capital for small businesses, and economic opportunity are distributed in that place. And so we decided to include a whole set of metrics meant to give color to the differences that averages can mask.

To measure inclusion, we weigh indicators such as early education enrollment, health coverage and affordable housing, and to measure growth, we look at economic development conditions like small business loans, business openings and consumer spending pattern.

How has thinking about inclusive growth evolved since the score was first developed?

Franco: Between the time when we started doing this work, in 2018, and today, two things have happened. One is that the pandemic really showed the bare bones of our economy, and where the places that need the most support are. And two, there were the powerful conversations we had around racial equity following the murder of George Floyd. It added a new objective to public policy. It used to be about growth, and now it's really about growth with equity. It used to be about productivity. Now it's really about the quality of jobs, inclusion and opportunity. We know that's happening because we see all of these new citywide equity plans coming out. We see these new positions of chief equity officer, which didn't exist in 2018. So these kinds of tools that we have been investing in since 2018 have finally found their purpose.

What are some tangible ways that communities have been using the Inclusive Growth Score?

Franco: We've seen cities and local communities use the score for diagnosing their challenges. We've seen cities use it to benchmark other census tracts that are similar to theirs that have seen inclusive growth and look at those for best practices. During the pandemic, we saw cities using it to target programs, and we've seen it used for other kinds of public investment. And we're starting to see it as a measure of progress.

In downtown Erie, Pennsylvania, it's been used to show the economic potential of a place that hadn't seen any investment in decades - driving new funds into the poorest zip code in the country. We've also seen it used to address concerns by residents of rapidly gentrifying areas. We got an email from someone from California asking to help him interpret some of the metrics, because he was literally about to go to city hall to say, "There is this thing happening to my community and I'm afraid we're going to be displaced."

The report that's coming out this week is a first attempt to use the score to look back at six years of data and actually ask ourselves, "Is the U.S. growing inclusively or not?"

What's next for the Inclusive Growth Score? Where do you take it from here?

Franco: After a very successful launch in the U.K. in 2021, the Inclusive Growth Score will be coming to Australia next, where we are also adding a climate change lens, because a lot of places there are prone to climate-related natural disasters. Some of Mastercard's consulting practices doing work on the fringes of financial services, including working with NGOs, are finding the Inclusive Growth Score useful in their own projects. So it's becoming not just a Center tool but a Mastercard tool.

The data is available, but one challenge is helping local leaders better understand how to use these new tools. New equity objectives require new management skills, and that part is hard to scale. We recently partnered with the Centre for Public Impact to launch Data for Equity, a 10-week program that brought together equity, technology and data officers from seven cities to teach them how to harness these data tools to propel economic inclusion. We can train seven equity officers, but now we need to train 700 - or 7,000.

We want to make sure we are bringing this tool to as many places as we can. We're talking to community organizations, economic development agencies and others that are doing work on the ground to ask what is useful to them, what kind of data they need, and how do they use it to achieve their objectives. We have data, and we can make observations with this data, but we need local communities to help us bring that data to life.

Originally published by The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth

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Contact Info:

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European fashion brand C&A has launched a new spring/summer 2023 collection made with Recover, a high-quality recycled cotton fiber produced from textile waste.

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C&A has partnered with Recover to launch a new collection integrating recycled Recover cotton (Photo: Recover)

The collection is the result of the 4-year strategic partnership established by the two companies last year, which aims to place recycled cotton as the core ingredient of a more sustainable fashion industry. Comprised of youthful wardrobe staples in seven styles, including floral basic tees, laced vests, and spaghetti-strap crop tops, each piece contains 20% Recover recycled cotton fiber, and can be bought in stores across Europe or online at c-and-a.com.

It is the latest to come from the long-term collaboration in which both Recover and C&A double down on their commitment to circularity by coupling the use of recycled raw materials with powerful educational messaging. The new collection, and its campaign, is yet another step in their ongoing journey to inform consumers about circular fashion while providing them with stylish and affordable options.

Alejandro Rana, Chief Business Development Officer at Recover, stated: "Collaborations with global brands such as C&A bring our vision of circular fashion at scale to life, and the necessary demand to make a lasting impact on the industry."

Suzanne McKenna, Chief Range and Sustainability Officer at C&A Europe, stated: ''Harnessing innovation to increase the availability of high-quality recycled materials is an important step towards a circular economy. Our latest collaboration with Recover demonstrates our commitment to connect 7/10 products to a principle of circularity by 2028.''

About C&A Europe

With over 1,300 stores in 17 European countries and more than 27,000 employees, C&A is one of Europe's leading fashion retailers. Every day, C&A welcomes millions of visitors to its stores in Europe and to its online shop. C&A offers quality and long-lasting fashion at affordable prices for all. For further information, please visit our website.

Follow us on social media:

www.twitter.com/ca_europe

www.linkedin.com/company/c&a/

www.instagram.com/ca

www.facebook.com/ca

About Recover

Recover is a leading materials science company and global producer of low-impact, high-quality recycled cotton fiber and cotton fiber blends. Its premium, environmentally friendly, and cost-competitive products are created in partnership with the supply chain for global retailers and brands, offering a sustainable solution to achieve circular fashion for all. As a fourth-generation, family-owned company, and backed by recent investment from STORY3 Capital and Goldman Sachs, Recover is on a mission to scale its proprietary technology to make a lasting positive impact on the environment and partner with brands/retailers and other change-makers to meet the industry's sustainability targets.

For more information, visit www.recoverfiber.com and follow @recoverfiber on social media.

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Contacts:

C&A Europe

Press contact:press@canda.com

Recover

Press contact: press@recoverfiber.com
Industry Veteran Assumes Leadership of Fast-Growing Software Engineering Services Company

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Encora, a global next-gen product engineering provider, today announced that Anand Birje has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer, effective May 15, 2023. Birje will work closely with Encora's founding CEO Venu Raghavan, who will remain at the company as Executive Chairman. Birje joins Encora from HCL Tech, where he has served most recently as the President of the Digital Business Services division.





"It is my great honor to welcome Anand to Encora as our next CEO. His deep experience in fast-growing tech and in scaling global businesses through exponential growth, makes him the ideal leader for Encora," said Venu Raghavan, founder and CEO, Encora. "Speaking personally, I am heartened to entrust the future of Encora - a company that has been my enduring privilege to build - to a leader of Anand's experience, insight, integrity, and compassion. I look forward to working closely with Anand to help drive Encora's strategic priorities."

"I am thrilled to join Encora, one of the world's fastest growing digital engineering services companies," said Birje. "As new and emerging digital technologies transform the global economy, there is a growing need for technology partners with mastery across technical, strategic, and industry-specific domains. Encora stands out as a paragon of what is possible when unparalleled technical expertise is cultivated in a people-centric culture that is truly global and authentically diverse."

During his time at HCL, Birje focused on digital applications & platforms, cloud native development, data engineering & analytics, data consulting, and UX design practices. In the last three years, the Digital Business Services division has been the fastest growing of HCL Tech's divisions. Birje was responsible for driving global go-to-market strategy, practices, and delivery teams across all industry verticals spanning the US, Europe, Asia Pacific and LatAm. As a founding member of HCL Tech's Infrastructure Services division, Birje played a pivotal role in growing that business to over $2.5BN in under a decade. In addition to his executive leadership roles, Birje spearheaded a range of strategic acquisitions to expand delivery and consulting capabilities across U.S. and Europe.

"We are excited to welcome Anand to Encora," said Shweta Jalan, Managing Partner, Advent International, Encora's principal investor. "His proven track record of leadership and transformational growth are perfectly matched with Encora's vision and aspirations. We also extend our deepest gratitude to Venu for his visionary leadership. Encora has a bright future, thanks to the incredible team and business that Venu has created."

Encora provides digital and software engineering services to innovative companies across tech-enabled industries. The company has delivered industry-leading growth (+46% 3-year revenue CAGR) through disciplined focus on technical skill development, metrics-driven governance and the cultivation of an inspiring workplace environment. 90% of Encorians work in an office that is certified as a Great Place to Work, spanning all six Latin American countries with business operations, as well as India.

Encora is backed by private equity firms Advent International and Warburg Pincus and hosts offices in 14 countries around the world. To learn more about the global next-gen product engineering provider and its new CEO, please visit the website at www.encora.com.

About Encora

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and backed by private equity firms Advent International and Warburg Pincus, Encora is the preferred innovation partner to some of the world's leading technology companies. It provides next-gen services such as Predictive Analysis, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Cloud, and Test Automation. Encora has deep cluster vertical capabilities in HealthTech, FinTech, HiTech, IAM & Cybersecurity, Digital Commerce, Travel & Hospitality, Supply Chain & Logistics, Telecom and other specialized industries. Encora is an established leader in outsourced product development services that specializes in innovation acceleration for leading-edge technology companies. With over 9,000 associates in 40+ offices and innovation labs across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, India, and Asia Pacific, Encora's global talent pool, micro-industry vertical expertise and proprietary agile engineering capabilities enable clients to improve their speed to impact. For more information, please visit www.encora.com.





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Andrew G. Arnott appointed to global head of retail

Colin Fitzgerald joins as global head of institutional

BOSTON and LONDON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Manulife Investment Management, the global wealth and asset management brand of Manulife, has announced new appointments to its institutional and retail channels. Andrew G. Arnott has been appointed to global head of retail, with responsibility for the organization's global retail business, and Colin Fitzgerald has been named global head of institutional, with the vision of creating a unified presence for our institutional customers across both public and private market investment solutions.

Mr. Arnott and Mr. Fitzgerald are accountable for the strategy, growth, and overall success of the retail and institutional organizations, respectively. They join Aimee R. DeCamillo, global head of retirement, in delivering the global strength of Manulife's wealth and asset management business and, together, serve more than 17 million customers across five continents. Mr. Arnott, Ms. DeCamillo, and Mr. Fitzgerald report to Paul R. Lorentz, CEO, Manulife Investment Management, and are members of the leadership team.

"I'm pleased to announce Andy and Colin in these new positions to support our investors' objectives and our overall global growth strategy," said Mr. Lorentz. "They join Aimee DiCamillo, our global head of retirement, who was appointed last year, in pivotal roles for our firm. Together, they'll enhance the overall experience we're delivering to our institutional, retirement, and retail clients. Our investors' success and the value we provide to them is dependent on our ability to take the best ideas from all our regions and investment teams and apply them on a global scale. I have confidence in Aimee, Andy, and Colin and in their leadership, which will bring collaborative innovations and solutions to our customers."

Global head of retail

Mr. Arnott has held multiple leadership roles at Manulife Investment Management, including head of wealth and asset management, United States and Europe, and president and CEO, John Hancock Investment Management, the U.S. retail brand of Manulife Investment Management. Mr. Arnott brings a wealth of organizational and industry expertise to his position, including more than 25 years of experience in the asset management industry. Since 2012, he's led all aspects of John Hancock Investment Management's business, from investments, sales, marketing, finance, and product development to operations and technology. During this time, he oversaw a more than 300% increase in the U.S. retail business's assets under management. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Boston University and a master's in finance from Northeastern University.

"I'm excited to focus on the global product and retail strategy at a time when evolving our business to meet the growing needs and expectations of individual investors is paramount. I'm confident that these global enhancements to our operating model will bring new opportunities to investors. "Working with the leaders of our public and private markets investment teams on additional solutions for our retail investors is just one of the ways we'll find more synergies to leverage our diverse investment capabilities and global footprint," said Mr. Arnott.

Based in Boston, Mr. Arnott will work in collaboration with regional heads to ensure the retail strategy reflects the nuances of local markets while focusing on expanding global distribution relationships and increasing global efficiency. Through a product development pipeline strengthened by investment teams in 19 markets, as well as one of the largest subadvisor platforms in the world, and overseen by a global manager research team, the firm is well positioned to meet the growing needs of individual investors.

Global head of institutional

Mr. Fitzgerald joins Manulife Investment Management from Credit Suisse, where he was global head of distribution, asset management, responsible for expanding the company's global distribution footprint. Prior to that, he was at Invesco where he served as CEO of Invesco Asset Management Limited, head of EMEA distribution, and head of EMEA institutional. He also spent time as head of institutional for Fidelity and as global head of key accounts and consultants at Robeco. His extensive experience in sales, business development, and international institutional markets extends back many years through roles in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Malaysia, and the United States.

"I am truly delighted and humbled to have the opportunity to contribute to Manulife Investment Management's ongoing success. Throughout the years, it has built upon a foundation of making decisions easier and lives better to provide investment solutions to clients around the world," said Mr. Fitzgerald. "By consistently engaging with our clients and leveraging technology, we strive to deliver a seamless and personalized experience that surpasses expectations. I look forward to growing the institutional business hand in hand with our teams and delivering the expertise and capabilities that meet investors' current and future needs."

Based in London, Mr. Fitzgerald will work closely with the institutional leadership team to build on the growth of Manulife Investment Management's institutional business, which serves clients across the globe. The firm's global set of capabilities include asset allocation, specialized fixed-income and equity investing, and private markets expertise, which includes agriculture, timberland, infrastructure equity, private equity and credit, and real estate equity. It manages over $400 billion of institutional client assets with a team of more than 650 investment professionals.

About Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management is the global brand for the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than a century of financial stewardship and the full resources of our parent company to serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Headquartered in Toronto, our leading capabilities in public and private markets are strengthened by an investment footprint that spans 19 geographies. We complement these capabilities by providing access to a network of unaffiliated asset managers from around the world. We're committed to investing responsibly across our businesses. We develop innovative global frameworks for sustainable investing, collaboratively engage with companies in our securities portfolios, and maintain a high standard of stewardship where we own and operate assets, and we believe in supporting financial well-being through our workplace retirement plans. Today, plan sponsors around the world rely on our retirement plan administration and investment expertise to help their employees plan for, save for, and live a better retirement. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com.

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CHICAGO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The market for Digital Education appears to have a bright future as technology continues to change how we teach and learn. The adoption of digital education has been expedited by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is anticipated that this trend will continue in the post-pandemic age.





The globalDigital Education Market size to grow from USD 19.4 billion in 2023 to USD 66.7 billion by 2028, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 28.0% during the forecast period, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets.

The Digital Education Market is fuelled by rising demand for online learning. With the microlearning approach, digital education vendors can design courses which can be taken by learner at own pace and with the assistance of an instructor as well, not requiring to assign a large amount of dedicated time to a learning process. Instead, students from academic institutions can learn short lessons during past time or breaks. Microlearning is one of the best learning methods for enterprises that want to train their employees without losing significantly on the production end. Corporate employees who want to upskill themselves while continuing the job can also use this method to manage work and learning simultaneously.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Digital Education Market"

239 - Tables

47 - Figures

230 - Pages

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Scope of the Report

Report Metrics Details Market size available for years 2019-2028 Base year considered 2022 Forecast period 2023-2028 Forecast units Value (USD Million/Billion) Segments covered By Type, Course Type, End User, and Region Regions covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America Companies covered Coursera (US), edX (US), Pluralsight (US), Udemy (US), Udacity (US), Edureka (India), Alison (Ireland), LinkedIn Learning (US), Jigsaw Academy (India), Iversity (Germany), Miriadax (Spain), Intellipaat (India), FutureLearn (UK), Edmodo (US), SWAYAM (India), Novoed (US), Xuetangx (China), Khan Academy (US), Kadenze (US), Federica Web Learning (Italy), My Mooc (France), Treehouse (US), Skillshare (US), CreativeLive (US), CXL (US), Go1 (Australia), Byju's (India), Datacamp (US), Platzi (US), Thinkful (US)

By End Users, government and public sector segment to record significant growth during the forecast period

Enterprises are majorly adopting digital education as a part of their employee engagement and development programs. These companies implement digital education platforms for various purposes, such as training and development, professional certification, and professional courses, to develop their employee's strategic thinking abilities and improve the company's production and brand value. Digital education courses act as a cost-effective learning platform to enhance employees' skills and enable organizations to track their employees' progress. An organization can opt for tailor-made courses which accomplish the company's objectives. Digital education also provides the necessary flexibility to train employees without compromising productivity. Online learning approaches, such as microlearning and nanodegrees, provide employees with the skills needed without consuming much of their time.

By Type, the Self-paced Online Education segment to exhibit significant growth during the forecast period

Between the Type, the Self-paced Online Education segment courses do not follow a set schedule. Hence, all the learning resources are readily available, allowing end users to absorb and retain information faster than in a classroom setting. Self-paced online courses do not require instructors and students to be available simultaneously during the entire course. Instructors can record videos or provide content that students can learn without the instructor's involvement. Unlike self-paced digital education courses, instructor-led digital education courses follow a particular set of schedules with a specified time for the availability of learning resources. More and more educational institutes and companies are using self-paced online education to provide their students and employees with constant access to information. This also provides learners with complete control of their progress.

By region, North America to account for the highest market share during the forecast period

North America has an advanced communication infrastructure that helps digital education solution providers offer quality services to their clients. The need to upskill employees and students has prompted universities and educational organizations in the region to deploy digital education platforms and services. In the education sector, owing to the advanced technologies offered by several key vendors present in the region, students are more digitally connected and aware of eLearning and interactive course content. Even teachers and parents are sensing the need to shift from traditional teaching methodologies to modern and advanced teaching methods to improve the learning experience and educational technology. The region is also one of the earliest adopters of 5G technology, which has helped the early adoption of digital education solutions. Countries such as US and Canada are expected to be key revenue contributors in the North American Digital Education Market. North America is home to most crucial market vendors, such as Coursera, edX, Udacity, and Udemy, in the Digital Education Market.

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Digital Education Market Dynamics

Driver:

Growing internet penetration

Reduced infrastructure cost and increased scalability using online learning.

Increased self-efficacy, greater convenience, and more flexibility

Rising demand for microlearning

Remote access anytime, anywhere

Restraint:

Lack of face-to-face interaction and direct monitoring

Health concerns due to more screen time

Opportunities:

Rising demand for game-based learning

Growing inclination toward adaptive learning

Challenges:

Unreliable infrastructure in developing countries

Need for additional training

Key Market Players:

Major vendors in the Digital Education Market include Coursera (US), edX (US), Pluralsight (US), Udemy (US), Udacity (US), Edureka (India), Alison (Ireland), LinkedIn Learning (US), Jigsaw Academy (India), Iversity (Germany), Miriadax (Spain), Intellipaat (India), FutureLearn (UK), Edmodo (US), SWAYAM (India), Novoed (US), Xuetangx (China), Khan Academy (US), Kadenze (US), Federica Web Learning (Italy), My Mooc (France), Treehouse (US), Skillshare (US), CreativeLive (US), CXL (US), Go1 (Australia), Byju's (India), Datacamp (US), Platzi (US), Thinkful (US).

Recent Developments:

In February 2023 , edX partnered with AWS, with an aim to launch its first Professional Certificate program. The Professional Certificate program in Cloud Solutions Architecture provides the knowledge and skills required/desired to start building a career in cloud architecture and helps prepare learners for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate exam.

, edX partnered with AWS, with an aim to launch its first Professional Certificate program. The Professional Certificate program in Cloud Solutions Architecture provides the knowledge and skills required/desired to start building a career in cloud architecture and helps prepare learners for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate exam. In May 2022 , Coursera launched Clips, a software that offers over 10,000 bite-sized videos and lessons from leading companies and universities; the company seeks to upscale to over 200,000 videos by 2023 end. With Clips, companies can make the most valuable, in-demand skill development content more accessible to their employees, allowing them to begin learning new skills in under 10 minutes.

, Coursera launched Clips, a software that offers over 10,000 bite-sized videos and lessons from leading companies and universities; the company seeks to upscale to over 200,000 videos by 2023 end. With Clips, companies can make the most valuable, in-demand skill development content more accessible to their employees, allowing them to begin learning new skills in under 10 minutes. In September 2021 , Udemy enhanced its Udemy Business Pro, which will enable business customers to boost their skill development with in-depth learning experiences for employees through new features like Udemy Paths, skills assessments, workspaces, and hands-on labs across critical skills in IT, software development, data & analytics.

Digital Education Market Advantages

The accessibility of digital education is among its most important benefits. With digital education, students can access learning materials whenever and wherever they want via any internet-connected device. People who live in remote areas, have disabilities, or have busy schedules will now have easier access to education.

With the help of digital education, students may customize their learning to meet their own needs. The resources available to students include films, podcasts, interactive simulations, and tests. They can also study at their own speed, pausing or fast-forwarding when necessary.

Compared to traditional education, digital education is frequently less expensive. The costs of textbooks, transportation, and other school-related fees can be avoided by learners.

Teachers can customise each student's learning experiences thanks to digital education. Using digital resources, teachers can monitor student progress, pinpoint areas where they need more help, and give focused feedback.

Report Objectives

To describe and forecast the size of the Digital Education Market by type, course type, end user, and region.

To describe and forecast the size of the market segments with respect to five main regions: North America , Europe , Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America .

, , (APAC), & (MEA), and . To provide detailed information regarding drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges influencing the growth of the Digital Education Market.

To analyze the impact of Recession on the Digital Education Market.

To analyze micro markets with respect to the individual growth trends, prospects, and contributions to the overall Digital Education Market.

To analyze opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high-growth segments

To profile key market players, including top vendors and startups, provide comparative analysis based on business overviews, regional presence, product offerings, business strategies, and key financials, and provide a detailed competitive landscape of the market

To analyze competitive developments, such as mergers and acquisitions; new product launches and product enhancements; partnerships, collaborations, and acquisitions; business expansions and agreements; and Research and Development (R&D) activities in the market.

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EINDHOVEN, the Netherlands, LAUSANNE, Switzerland, and BOSTON, MA, USA, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ONWARD Medical N.V. (Euronext: ONWD), the medical technology company creating innovative therapies to restore mobility, function, and independence in people with spinal cord injury, today announced that it will host a webcast to discuss its Q1 2023 business highlights.

The webcast will be held on May 16, 2023, at 2:00PM CET / 08:00AM ET. It will be hosted by CEO Dave Marver and CFO Lara Smith Weber, who will discuss highlights from the first quarter and provide a business update.

To join the webcast via Zoom, please register using this link.

Participants may also join by phone:

+32 2 290 9360



Webinar ID: 840 0768 4745

A recording of the webcast will be available on the Company's websitefollowing the live event.

About ONWARD Medical

ONWARD is a medical technology company creating innovative therapies to restore mobility, function, and independence in people with spinal cord injuries. The Company's work builds on more than a decade of basic science and preclinical research conducted at the world's leading neuroscience laboratories. ONWARD ARC Therapy, which can be delivered by implantable (ARC-IM) or external (ARC-EX) systems, is designed to deliver targeted, programmed spinal cord stimulation to restore movement and other functions in people with spinal cord injury, ultimately improving their quality of life.

ONWARD has received eight Breakthrough Device Designations from the US FDA encompassing both ARC-IM and ARC-EX. ARC-EX is an external, non-invasive platform consisting of a stimulator and wireless programmer. Positive top-line data were reported in 2022 from the Company's first pivotal study, called Up-LIFT, evaluating the ability of transcutaneous ARC Therapy to improve upper extremity strength and function. The Company is now preparing marketing approval submissions for the US and Europe. ARC-IM consists of an implantable pulse generator and lead placed near the spinal cord. The Company completed the first-in-human use of the ARC-IM neurostimulator and reported positive interim clinical outcomes for ARC-IM Therapy for improved blood pressure regulation following SCI in 2022.

ONWARD is headquartered in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. It maintains a Science and Engineering Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has a growing US presence in Boston, Massachusetts. The Company has an academic partnership with .NeuroRestore, a collaboration between EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and Lausanne University Hospital. To access our 2023 Financial Calendar, please visit IR.ONWD.com.



For Company Enquiries:

info@onwd.com



For Media Enquiries:

Aditi Roy, VP Communications

media@onwd.com



For Investor Enquiries:

Lara Smith Weber, CFO

investors@onwd.com



Disclaimer

Certain statements, beliefs, and opinions in this press release are forward-looking, which reflect the Company's or, as appropriate, the Company directors' current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve several risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties, and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. A multitude of factors including, but not limited to, changes in demand, competition, and technology, can cause actual events, performance, or results to differ significantly from any anticipated development. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. As a result, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any update or revisions to any forward-looking statements in this press release as a result of any change in expectations or any change in events, conditions, assumptions, or circumstances on which these forward-looking statements are based. Neither the Company nor its advisers or representatives nor any of its subsidiary undertakings or any such person's officers or employees guarantees that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does either accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or the actual occurrence of the forecasted developments. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Regions Bank

By Kim Borges

As part of Regions Bank's Earth Day celebration, Doing More Today is highlighting ways Regions associates, customers and community partners are making life better by helping protect our environment. Here, we see the impact of clothing waste and two nonprofits helping keep textiles out of landfills.

Purge, purge, purge.

Many of us have streamlined our closets during the past three years due to changes in work attire.

Next time - consider this:

The average American throws away more than 80 pounds of clothes every year, the weight of an 11-year-old child.

The World Economic Forum cited the fashion industry as the world's third-largest polluter in 2021, contributing 1.2 billion tons - or 10% of annual carbon dioxide emissions - into the atmosphere.

And the fast fashion trend of mass clothing production at cheaper prices is predicted to continue increasing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.

But there are ways to reduce environment impacts - while enhancing community impacts.

One Regions Bank community partner extending the shelf life of clothing is Connections to Success in St. Louis, Missouri. The nonprofit provides people living in poverty with a comprehensive network of resources to become economically self-sufficient.

Regions associates are all-in, providing financial donations, teaching financial education, assisting with mock interviews and conducting clothing drives for the organization's boutique.

"Each client we serve receives an average of 10 items," explained Lynda Keeton, director of Resource Development for the nonprofit's St. Louis and Central Missouri region. "Many of our clients have to make hard decisions every day on how to spend the little amount of money they have and are not in a position to purchase professional interview clothing, whether new or from a thrift shop. Our workwear program empowers the self-esteem and confidence of our clients and can be the difference in them securing employment."

Linda Lockwood from Regions' Institutional Services group has been plugged in with Connections to Success for over a decade. Five years ago, she facilitated a connection between the organization and a large department store to provide thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise to the nonprofit's clients.

"One of the best things about this relationship is that it's expanded the reach of Connections to Success," said Lockwood. "The boutique has provided purses, and it's also provided undergarments, a need that is often overlooked. Those generous donations have resulted in increased self-confidence for clients."

The impact Connections to Success has made since opening its doors 25 years ago is significant.

"We've distributed more than 132,000 items to help those we serve secure employment opportunities," said Keeton.

And even the items Connections to Success can't provide directly to clients are still being put to use.

"There are several ways we redirect items our clients can't use," said Keeton. "Twice a year, we host a pop-up style sale featuring items that are considered more casual wear, as well as overstock inventory or out-of-season items. These items are sold at a very low cost so they are accessible to everyone we serve. Funds raised allow us to replenish our boutique with shoe polish, bags, and other operational items. We also provide overstock and other items we are unable to use to fellow local charities."

The result is creating a brighter - and a greener - future.

"Repurposing clothing, handbags and shoes is a win-win," said Keeton. "Anytime we can take an item that could potentially end up in a landfill and instead allow it to inspire a journey to economic independence, we've created a win for that woman and a win for the environment. It's a way we can all do our part to support the earth and to be kind to one another."

See the impact another nonprofit is making thanks to donated items: Goodwill is another place where many turned to donate items during the pandemic. Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont in Charlotte, North Carolina, a Regions Foundation grantee, resold and gave a second life to nearly 17 million items in its retail stores and more than 132,000 items via e-commerce in 2022 alone. It also recycled or refurbished more than 1.1 million pounds of electronics. The Regions Foundation is a nonprofit primarily funded by Regions Bank.

"When you donate to Goodwill, you're not only giving items a second chance, but you're also helping people in your community on their pathway to prosperity," said Jose Luis, chief operating officer for Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont. "As a social enterprise, proceeds from the sale of donated goods fund job training and employment services offered free of charge. In 2022, Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont provided support to more than 7,700 people in the Charlotte region thanks to donors and shoppers in our community."

About the Regions Foundation

The Regions Foundation supports community investments that positively impact the communities served by Regions Bank. The Foundation engages in a grantmaking program focused on priorities including economic and community development; education and workforce readiness; and financial wellness. The Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation funded primarily through contributions from Regions Bank.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Regions Bank on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Regions Bank

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/regions-bank

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Regions Bank

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/752754/Extending-the-Fashion-Runway
Article 223-16 of the General Regulations of the Financial Markets Authority (AMF Autorite des Marches Financiers)

Regulatory News:

MaaT Pharma (EURONEXT: MAAT the "Company"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company and a leader in the development of Microbiome Ecosystem TherapiesTM (MET) dedicated to improving survival outcomes for patients with cancer, today published the number of shares comprising the share capital and the total number of voting rights (Article L. 233-8 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) and Article 223-16 of the General Regulations of French Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF)) on April 30, 2023.

Listing place: Euronext Paris

ISIN code: FR0012634822

Website: www.maatpharma.com

Date Total number of shares comprising the share capital Total number of

theoretical voting rights (1) Total number of effective voting rights (2) 04/30/2023 11 551 380 11 551 380 11 551 380

(1) In accordance with Article 223-11 of the AMF General Regulation, this number is calculated on the basis of all shares to which voting rights are attached, including shares whose voting rights have been suspended.

(2) Effective voting rights correspond to the total number of voting rights that may be used at a General Meeting. The total number of effective voting rights is calculated without taking into account the shares with suspended voting rights.

About MaaT Pharma

MaaT Pharma, a clinical stage biotechnology company, has established a complete approach to restoring patient-microbiome symbiosis in oncology. Committed to treating cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a serious complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation, MaaT Pharma has launched, in March 2022, a Phase 3 clinical trial for patients with acute GvHD, following the achievement of its proof of concept in a Phase 2 trial. Its powerful discovery and analysis platform, gutPrint, supports the development and expansion of its pipeline by determining novel disease targets, evaluating drug candidates, and identifying biomarkers for microbiome-related conditions. The company's Microbiome Ecosystem Therapies are produced through a standardized cGMP manufacturing and quality control process to safely deliver the full diversity of the microbiome, in liquid and oral formulations. MaaT Pharma benefits from the commitment of world-leading scientists and established relationships with regulators to support the integration of the use of microbiome therapies in clinical practice.

MaaT Pharma is listed on Euronext Paris (ticker: MAAT).

Forward-looking Statements

All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release about future events are subject to (i) change without notice and (ii) factors beyond the Company's control. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as "target," "believe," "expect," "aim," "intend," "may," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "project," "will," "can have," "likely," "should," "would," "could" and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control that could cause the Company's actual results or performance to be materially different from the expected results or performance expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005606/en/

Contacts:

MaaT Pharma Investor Relations

Herve AFFAGARD

Co-Founder and CEO

Sian CROUZET, COO/ CFO

+33 4 28 29 14 00

invest@maat-pharma.com

MaaT Pharma Media Relations

Pauline RICHAUD

Senior PR Corporate Communications Manager

+33 6 14 06 45 92

media@maat-pharma.com

Trophic Communications Corporate and Medical Communications

Charlotte SPITZ or

Stephanie MAY

+49 171 351 27 33

maat@trophic.eu
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Lenovo

Each year, April 22nd marks an important day for our planet - Earth Day - a day dedicated to honoring the achievements of the environmental movement and raising awareness of the need to protect Earth's natural resources for future generations. As a global technology powerhouse operating across the globe, Lenovo understands the role we have in raising awareness and taking action to protect our planet.

Lenovo's investments in sustainable materials and use of biofuels for shipments align with this year's "Invest in our planet". In January 2023, Lenovo announced its commitment to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with science-based targets validated through the Science Based Targets initiative's Net-Zero Standard. To know more about our Journey to Net-Zero, visit our Net-Zero page here

Happy Earth Day!

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Lenovo on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Lenovo

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/lenovo

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Lenovo

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/752786/Earth-Day-2023
The Accra High Court yesterday dismissed a contempt application brought against the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

The court presided over by Justice Charles Gyamfi Dankwa awarded GH10,000 cost against the applicant, Secretary of the Board of National Cathedral, Kwabena Adu Gyamfi, also known as Reverend Kwabena Kusi Boateng.

Justice Dankwa stated that the applicant failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the alleged contemnor dragged the administration of justice into disrepute.

The court said there was no evidence on record that the lawmaker was served with the contempt motion and that the person who allegedly served the respondent was not a judiciary approved bailiff pursuant to a directive issued by the Chief Justice in November, 2022.

The court noted that there were inconsistencies with the chronology of events as narrated by the applicant.

The court stated that Kwabena Adu Gyamfi and Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng were two different people and subject to a pending investigation by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The court had already stated in a ruling two months ago, that the MP had not been properly served and ordered that the right procedures be followed in serving the respondent.

Rev. Gyamfi sued Mr Ablakwa in February this year and filed an interlocutory injunction to bar the MP from running commentary on alleged criminal activities about the Cathedral involving the applicant.

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Rev. Gyamfi asked the court to commit the legislator to prison for allegedly stepping on an interlocutory injunction served him on the premises of Metro Television.

Before the instant action initiated by Rev. Gyamfi, Mr Ablakwa petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), to investigate Rev. Victor Kusi-Boateng, over conflict of interest, including possession of multiple identities and other alleged criminal dealings.

Mr Ablakwa alleges that there was a transfer of GH2.6million from the National Cathedral Secretariat to JNS Talent Centre Limited, owned by Rev. Kusi-Boateng, under a secondary identity - Kwabena Adu Gyamfi.

The petition is seeking to invoke the mandate of CHRAJ, under Article 218 of the 1992 Constitution, to investigate the "odious conflict of interest" in regard to Rev. Victor Kusi-Boateng's position on the national cathedral board as he "literally paid his own company a staggering GH2.6million for no work done."

Rev. Kusi-Boateng, who is also the founder of Power Chapel Worldwide, according to Mr Ablakwa, was the same person as Kwabena Adu Gyamfi, who received GH2.6 million from the national cathedral board.
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Medtronic climbed to No. 2 on DiversityInc's 2023 Top 50 Companies for Diversity, up 8 spots from last year's ranking of 10. This is our highest-ever ranking on the prestigious list.

A commitment to inclusion, diversity, and equity (ID&E) accelerates innovation, improves the wellbeing of our employees, and creates more opportunities to bring our life-saving technologies to more patients around the world.

"Being recognized in this way and steadily moving up the list is a huge accomplishment," said Dr. Sally Saba, Medtronic Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer and President of the Medtronic Foundation. "It's another proof point of the progress we continue to make together to better serve all patients around the world through a diverse and inclusive employee community."

Medtronic was also named a top company for executive women (#1), Latino executives (#1), Native American/Pacific Islander executives (#1), mentoring (#2), talent acquisition for women of color (#3), Asian American executives (#4), environmental, social & governance - ESG (#5), sponsorship (#6), supplier diversity (#7), employee resource groups (#7), LGBTQ employees (#9), people with disabilities (#13), Black executives (#19), and executive diversity councils (#22).

This year's rankings and specialty lists were unveiled during the annual DiversityInc Top 50 event. Medtronic Chairman and CEO Geoff Martha helped kick off the event during a fireside chat, "Navigating the Evolving Challenges of ESG," facilitated by DiversityInc CEO Carolynn Johnson.

The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity is the leading assessment of diversity management in corporate America and benchmarks organizations' programs, practices, policies, and outcomes to hire, retain, develop, and promote women, people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+, and veteran employees.

Our unwavering commitment to ID&E means zero barriers to opportunity within Medtronic and a culture where all employees belong, are respected, and feel valued for who they are and the life experiences they contribute. Learn more about our commitment to ID&E in the Global Inclusion, Diversity & Equity 2022 Annual Report.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Medtronic on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Medtronic

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/medtronic

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Medtronic

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/752794/Medtronic-Jumps-to-No-2-in-DiversityInc-Top-50-Companies-List
Odoo's campaign continues: the Belgian firm is to open its ninth European office in Milan, Italy

Odoo (www.Odoo.com) is an all-in-one open-source software firm valued at USD 3.2 billion. In May 2023 it plans to open a new office in Milan, Italy. The company is seeking to strengthen relations with local Italian businesses; Odoo's mission is to help SMEs in their digitalization processes, supporting them with suitable technological tools. It will create new jobs through its target of achieving a team of 15-20 individuals by year-end.

Odoo, the cutting-edge software firm, has just announced it is to open a new office in Europe, located in Milan. This strategic decision is based on the need for a local presence in a business environment like Italy, which has specific challenges and is dominated by SMEs. These SMEs require major investments and suitable technological solutions to enable them to meet their growth targets and strengthen their market positions.

Intuitive and modular, Odoo software helps firms digitalize their processes quickly, providing the right amount of flexibility. Many Italian businesses have not yet begun their digital transformations, and they are often cautious about investing because of recent economic instability. Through its unique and fully integrated software, attractive rates, and convincing value proposition, Odoo plans to take on the market and speed up Italy's digital transformation.

In search of new talent

To launch this adventure, Odoo has chosen the lively city of Milan to be its strategic HQ. International and dynamic by nature, the hub in Lombardy offers the perfect environment to support Odoo's rapid growth, sustain a strong brand awareness and create local networks. To promote Odoo's ambitions, the Italian team plans to hire 15-20 new talents by year-end. In addition, it will strengthen relations with Odoo partners already present in Italy and will foster new collaborations with the aim of expanding the network in the future.

"The firm's culture will respect the mission and values of the parent company in Belgium, promoting a stimulating and inclusive working environment that encourages growth and creativity. The firm is looking for dynamic individuals who are ready to put themselves to the test in a constantly-changing environment that demands a considerable capacity to adjust, and rewards initiativeMiriam Bastianello, Managing Director of Odoo Italy.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Odoo.

Odoo in numbers:

Founded in 2002 with annual turnover of EUR 169 million in 2021 annual organic growth of 71% 2,200 staff members worldwide (970 in Belgium), of whom 230 are developers 2 new employees per day in the last 12 months 4,100 partners with over 30,000 jobs linked to Odoo created in 130 countries 16 offices (Belgium (5), Luxembourg, Spain, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Australia, United States (2), Mexico, Kenya, Dubai) 10 million users worldwide. www.Odoo.com

The original source-language text of this announcement is the official, authoritative version. Translations are provided as an accommodation only, and should be cross-referenced with the source-language text, which is the only version of the text intended to have legal effect.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230502006137/en/

Contacts:

Press contact:

maro@odoo.com

Business survey:

Odoo direct sales:

info@odoo.com

Head of Italian Office:

mib@odoo.com
Uplift Education's Annual Science Fair Challenges Students Across the Nationally Recognized Charter School Network

DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Earlier this year, Uplift Education hosted its annual network Science Fair in partnership with UT Southwestern. Student science enthusiasts from across the network came together to showcase their Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) talents to UTSW staff, local elected officials, and other judges to compete for a spot to represent Uplift in the Regional Science Fair. This year's theme, A Moment of Science, consisted of 1,000 Uplift Education science students who presented their months of research and hypothesis at the event.

"The Uplift Science Fair is something we look forward to every year. We get to see our scholars in action sharing their research to judges, all while they get to practice their public speaking and presentation skills," said Yasmin Bhatia, CEO of Uplift Education.

Students who placed at the Uplift Network Science Fair continued to Regionals, and those winners moved on to the State Science Fair. Uplift Summit International Preparatory 9th grader, Denise Rios, advanced to the State Science Fair. Rios represented Uplift Education with her project focused on creating batteries from bacteria that generate electricity from food waste. The competitive progress from the network-wide fair, to Regionals and eventually State, gave her the opportunity to improve her project along the way. "I feel like I gained confidence in my speaking abilities, so I could better articulate such a complex project to the judges," said Rios.

While Rios did not place in the State Science Fair, it has encouraged her to continue her research and consider pursuing a career in STEM.

When asked about how the Uplift Education Science Fair prepared her for the progression beyond the network-wide event toward Regional and State competitions, Rios said, "I learned how to navigate interviews and I learned how to project myself in a way that would allow me to feel confident and allow another person to understand such a complex project. It also gave me a boost of confidence knowing that what I did had some substantial results. It encouraged me to go on. I plan to participate in next year's fair by expanding on this year's project and trying to incorporate carbon dioxide into the equation creating a more efficient cell. And I will most likely pursue a career in STEM."

"We are so very proud of all our scholars who both participated and advanced. We are thrilled to see these amazing minds at work and hope that the support of Uplift fundamentally prepares them year after year," said Bhatia. "In addition to the awards given at the Science Fair this year, our Board of Directors hosted a special event for all the winners at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. This memorable evening allowed many of our supporters and friends of Uplift to meet the scholars in person and learn about the myriad of science experiments while the scholars further honed their presentation skills."

ABOUT UPLIFT EDUCATION:

Uplift Education is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the lives of teachers, families, and, most importantly, students. With a network of 45 college preparatory, public charter schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Uplift offers students of any background the powerful chance to study within a multidisciplinary curriculum and prepare for the college or career they deserve. Established in 1996, the network has grown to serve over 23,000 students in Pre-K- 12th grades, with the majority being low-income and minority students who will be the first in their family to attend college. The incredible educators in the Uplift network guide and teach over 23,000 students, with the majority being low-income and minority students who will be the first in their family to attend college. For more information Uplift's mission and how to apply, visit uplifteducation.org or facebook.com/uplifteducation

Contact

Kimberly Esparza

Marketing Manager | Uplift Education

3000 Pegasus Park Blvd

Suite 1100

Dallas, TX 75247

Office: 469.621.8500 Ext:211136

Cell: 469.358.6924

SOURCE: Uplift Education

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Innovative space exploration company adds leader in aerospace engineering and manufacturing to portfolio of capabilities

DENVER, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Voyager Space , a global leader in space exploration, has acquired ZIN Technologies, Inc. (ZIN), a leading engineering, design and integration company with decades-long experience providing critical human-rated spaceflight systems and monitoring solutions, propulsion, and more to NASA, national security agencies, and leading aerospace and defense companies. Voyager Space's acquisition of ZIN is an essential step in expanding the company's space infrastructure and technology capabilities to further its Starlab development efforts.





ZIN has a storied history having worked with NASA for more than 50 years. ZIN provides systems and highly engineered solutions to multiple launch vehicles, low-Earth orbit infrastructure projects, and spacecraft, including the U.S. Space Shuttle, the MIR space station, the International Space Station (ISS), Dream Chaser, and Starlab. ZIN is a recognized global leader in developing microgravity research equipment, having participated in over 400 research activities on the ISS, and for supporting the human-rated structural monitoring systems for the Lunar Gateway under NASA's Artemis program.

ZIN also brings extensive expertise in the integration of complex space-rated hardware and the development of rendezvous, docking, and related capabilities. These solutions have direct applications to the Starlab space station and complement Voyager Space's portfolio of leading space infrastructure and technology capabilities.

Voyager and its operating company, Nanoracks, were awarded a $160 million Space Act Agreement from NASA in December 2021 to create Starlab, a continuously crewed, free-flying space station to replace the ISS. Leveraging innovative technologies, Starlab is designed with accessible infrastructure tools to conduct investigations, advance scientific discovery, and foster industrial activity in microgravity.

"ZIN's aerospace expertise, strong reputation in the industry, and legacy working with NASA and the ISS, makes them a perfect fit for Starlab and the growing Voyager Space technology ecosystem," said Matthew Kuta, President and COO of Voyager Space. "ZIN has already played a crucial role as a capability provider to Starlab and as a founding leadership team member of the George Washington Carver (GWC) Science Park. We look forward to working with them further as part of the Voyager Space family."

"The idea of combining our advanced engineering and manufacturing capabilities with Voyager Space's business savvy and propensity for innovation made this partnership extremely appealing to us," said Daryl Laisure, CEO of ZIN Technologies. "We look forward to being a part of Voyager Space's mission to better the future of humanity through sustainable space efforts while also continuing to be a leader in providing our services to NASA, the national security community, and private industry."

Voyager and Nanoracks are one of three companies selected and awarded Space Act Agreements by NASA . Blue Origin-Sierra Nevada and Northrop Grumman also received funding to develop space stations as part of NASA's larger effort to maintain an uninterrupted U.S. presence in LEO by transitioning from the ISS to other platforms.

"ZIN marks the seventh acquisition by Voyager Space since January 2020, and our largest to date," adds Dylan Taylor, Chairman and CEO of Voyager Space. "We are also excited about the prospect of furthering our ties in Ohio. Last week, we officially opened the first facility of the GWC Science Park at The Ohio State University, and the addition of ZIN emphasizes our belief in the Ohio aerospace industry."

For more information on Voyager Space please visit: https://voyagerspace.com/

About Voyager Space

Voyager Space (Voyager) is a space technology company dedicated to building a better future for humanity in space and on Earth. With nearly 20 years of spaceflight heritage and over 1550 successful missions as of March 2023, Voyager delivers space station infrastructure and services and technology solutions to commercial users, civil and national security government agencies, academic and research institutions, and more, with the goal to accelerate a sustainable space economy.

About ZIN Technologies

ZIN Technologies, Inc., powered by Voyager Space, is a dynamic and experienced advanced aerospace engineering company. A registered AS 9100 small-disadvantaged business (SDB) located in Northeast Ohio, ZIN is an industry leader providing advanced engineering services and product development solutions for NASA, the Department of Defense, and private industry. ZIN has enabled and supported unique research and the advancement of aerospace technologies for over sixty years. ZIN provides systems design, development, engineering and integration, test and evaluation, advanced aerospace systems modeling and simulation and support the full life-cycle development of aerospace hardware and software.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." All statements, other than statements of historical fact, including those with respect to Voyager Space, Inc.'s (the "Company's") mission statement and growth strategy, are "forward-looking statements." Although the Company's management believes that such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that such expectations are, or will be, correct. These forward-looking statements involve many risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Company's future results to differ materially from those anticipated. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, general economic conditions and conditions affecting the industries in which the Company operates; the uncertainty of regulatory requirements and approvals; and the ability to obtain necessary financing on acceptable terms or at all. Readers should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve these known and unknown uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects the Company's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Bacardi Limited

Originally published by View the VIBE

Bombay Sapphire is known for its smooth gin and iconic blue bottle. But the popular spirit has also made a name for itself on the sustainability front, with a mission to become the world's most sustainable global gin. Bombay Sapphire's commitment to sustainability is reflected from botanical to bottle, bar, and beyond. Every drop of the famed, high-quality gin - which dates back to 1761 - is produced at Laverstoke Mill in Laverstoke, England. It opened for business in 2014 when the brand relocated operations from northern England.

With an agenda to discover more about the beloved gin brand straight from the source, I journeyed across the pond to check out the celebrated facility. Located about 87 kilometres from London, the distillery sits on the sprawling site of a former paper mill. It features beautifully restored brick Victorian and Edwardian buildings, with the trout-filled River Test flowing through them. These are juxtaposed by new modern elements, including two botanical-filled glass houses (more on those later).

Continue reading here

Image courtesy of VIEW the VIBE

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Bacardi Limited on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Bacardi Limited

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/bacardi-limited

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Bacardi Limited

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/752839/Sipping-Sustainably-A-Look-Inside-Bombay-Sapphires-Stunning-UK-Distillery
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - Mistango River Resources Inc. (CSE: MIS) ("Mistango" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed a non-brokered private placement for aggregate proceeds of $1,173,709.73 (the "Offering"). Upon closing of the Offering, the Company issued 14,335,996 flow-through units (the "Flow-Through Units"), at a price of $0.06 per Flow-Through Unit for gross proceeds of $860,159.76, where each Flow-Through Unit consists of one flow-through common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional share of the Company at a price of $0.10 for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance; and 6,967,777 units (the "Hard Dollar Units"), at a price of $0.045 per Hard Dollar Unit, for gross proceeds of $313,549.97, where each Hard Dollar Unit consists of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional share of the Company at a price of $0.10 for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance.

Under applicable securities laws in Canada, the common shares and warrants issued as part of the Flow-Through Units and the Hard Dollar Units under this Offering will be subject to a four-month and one-day hold period from the date of closing of the Offering.

In consideration for introducing certain subscribers to the Offering, the Company has paid arms length finders an aggregate of $63,821.19 cash and 1,263,546 finder's warrants. Each finders warrant entitles the holder, on exercise thereof, to purchase one common share at a price of $0.10 for a period of 24 months.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws, unless an exemption from such registration is available.

About Mistango's Goldie Project

Goldie is located within the Shebandowan Greenstone Belt and covers a 17km strike on the Shebandowan Structural Zone, which also hosts Goldshore Resources Inc's low-grade high-tonnage Moss Lake gold deposit, 50 km to the west. Goldie is also adjacent to Delta Resources Delta-1 Project.

To learn more about Mistango, the Ore Group, and all things mining, please go to our YouTube Chanel: youtube.com/@theoregroup

Mistango is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) under the symbol MIS.

To Speak to the Company directly, please contact:

Stephen Stewart, Chairman

Phone: 416.644.1567

Email: info@oregroup.ca

www.mistango.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain information in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. This information is based on current expectations that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. Mistango assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking-statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to Mistango. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in filings by Mistango with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available under Mistango profile at www.sedar.com.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164719
La Defense, May 03, 2023

Indigo strengthens its presence in South America by taking the majority control in City Parking in Colombia

Indigo Group, the world leader in parking and urban mobility solutions, has announced the majority takeover of City Parking, the leading parking operator in Colombia, through its subsidiary Indigo Infra Colombia. Its stake in the company has increased from 50% to 87.5%.

City Parking, founded 25 years ago in Bogota, employs 920 people, and operates 170 parking lots in 18 Colombian cities, with a total of nearly 44,000 parking spaces, including 7,800 spaces for motorcycles and 7,400 spaces for bicycles.

Indigo Group has confirmed Juan Felipe Luque Velasquez as Managing Director of the company that he joined in 2019.

This acquisition is in line with Indigo Group's international strategy, notably in South America, which aims to be a market leader where it operates with majority stakes in the companies it owns.

By acquiring 100% of City Parking in the near term, Indigo demonstrates its confidence in the company's continuous growth, particularly since the end of the pandemic.

Edouard Risso, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Americas for Indigo Group, comments: "This majority control allows us to assert our confidence in the potential of the Colombian market after more than 6 years of presence with our partner. The recovery of the activity has been very strong post-COVID, and we have full confidence in the new management of the company to continue the development of the business which will allow us to consolidate our leadership position in this country."

**********

Indigo Group

Analyst / Investor contact: Press contact: Mathieu Barnavon Benjamin Voron ir@group-indigo.com benjamin.voron@group-indigo.com

About the published financial data

In order to improve the readability and presentation of its performance, the Group presents operating data (revenues, EBITDA, Operating Income) referred to as "Global Proportionate" (GP), defined as the IFRS consolidated data presented in the Group's statutory consolidated financial statements adjusted for the share of the contribution of the Group's activities in the joint ventures it owns (mainly in Colombia and France, in Smovengo) or that it owned until December 30, 2021 in the United States (LAZ Parking), as if they were proportionally consolidated and not accounted for by the equity method, the latter being applied for the preparation of the consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS.

For more information on the published financial and operational data, you can click on the following link: www.group-indigo.com

About Indigo Group S.A.

The Indigo Group, which owns nearly 100% of Indigo Infra, Indigo Neo and INDIGOweel, is a global player in parking and urban mobility, managing more than 1.4 million parking spaces and their associated services in 9 countries.

Indigo Group is indirectly 47.83% owned by Credit Agricole Assurances, through Predica SA and Credit Agricole Assurances Retraite, 33.38% owned by Vauban Infrastructure Partners and 14.44% owned by MR Infrastructure Investment GmbH (MEAG), and held 0.34% of its own shares in treasury, with the Group's management owning the remainder of the shares.

www.group-indigo.com

Notice

The information contained herein has been included in good faith but is intended for general information purposes only. All reasonable precautions have been taken to ensure that the information contained herein is not false or misleading. It should not be relied upon for any specific purpose and no representation or warranty is made as to its accuracy or completeness. This press release should be read in conjunction with the information about Indigo Group S.A. (the "Company") published on its website at www.group-indigo.com.

This press release does not constitute or form part of any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for, any securities. Its preparation does not constitute a recommendation regarding securities. Nothing in this document may be used as the basis for entering into a contract or agreement.

This document may contain objectives and forward-looking statements concerning the Company's financial condition, results of operations, business activities and expansion strategy. Although based on reasonable assumptions, these objectives and statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including factors not presently known to the Company or that it does not currently consider material, and there can be no assurance that the anticipated events will occur or that the stated objectives will be achieved. All forward-looking statements are the current expectations of the Company's management regarding future events and are subject to several factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The information is current only as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Additional information about the factors and risks that could affect the Company's financial results is included in the documents filed by the Group with the Autorite des Marches Financiers and available on its website at www.group-indigo.com.

Neither the Company nor any of its affiliates, officers or employees shall be liable for any loss, damage or expense arising out of access to or use of this document, including, without limitation, any lost profits, indirect, incidental, or consequential loss.

No part of this document may be sold or distributed for commercial purposes or modified.

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Redaptive, a Denver, CO-based provider of Energy-as-a-Service solutions, received an additional investment in its series E funding round from long-term investor Linse Capital.

This latest investment follows recent contributions made by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Honeywell, CBRE, and others  bringing the total amount raised for this round to approximately $250m.

This funding represents another significant step towards expanding Redaptives offerings and supporting more customers. With this, the company will continue to support enterprise customers with data-driven energy generation and efficiency programs including HVAC, LED lighting, solar, EV, as well as Data Solutions, and other utility upgrades that can be deployed at large sites or across distributed real estate portfolios.

Founded in 2015 and led by CEO Arvin Vohra, Redaptive is an Energy-as-a-Service provider that funds and installs energy-saving and energy-generating equipment. Its programs help sophisticated organizations reduce energy waste, optimize cost, lower carbon emissions, and meet their sustainability goals across their entire real estate portfolios. With Redaptive, customers can overcome capital and resource barriers to achieve energy-saving benefits quickly, all with continuous data powered by Redaptives proprietary metering technology.

FinSMEs

03/05/2023
According to the US State Department report titled Country Reports on Terrorism 2020: India, There were 66 known Indian-origin fighters affiliated with ISIS, as of November (2020). Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tells the makers, It may be your Kerala story. It is not our Kerala story. The Kerala Story has become a topic for discussion around the numbers being exaggerated in the trailer of the film. 32,000 or 3; how flawed is the statistics of The Kerala Story.

Helmed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the film is all set to hit the theatres on May 5, 2023.The Kerala Story stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani in the lead roles.

The trailer of Sudipta Sens film The Kerala Story came under fire as it claimed that 32,000 girls from the state went missing and later joined the terrorist group, ISIS. Leader of Opposition in Kerala Legislative Assembly VD Satheesan recently said that the film The Kerala Story should not be granted permission for screening.

The film, The Kerala Story which falsely claims that 32,000 women in Kerala converted and became members of the Islamic State, should not be granted permission for screening. The trailer clearly shows what the film intends to say, Satheesan said in a Facebook post.

He also alleged that the film is part of an attempt to implement Sangh Parivars agenda and create a social divide by casting a shadow of doubt over the minority groups. The Kerala Story an attempt to spread hate propaganda, says Pinarayi Vijayan. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday said the upcoming movie The Kerala Story was a product of the Sangh Parivars factory of lies. He said legal action would be taken against those involving themselves in antisocial activities.

In fact when the trailer itself was surfaced on the internet, it garnered severe criticism on the internet. Congress leader VD Satheesan called the teaser of the film as a clear case of misinformation and said, I have seen that teaser. Its a clear case of misinformation. There is nothing like that happening in Kerala. This is to tarnish the image of Kerala in front of other states. This is a Sangh Parivar agenda. They are consistently trying to spread hatred among people. On what basis is the film made, and on what information?

He added, There is no record with the state police. If there is anything with central intelligence, they have to bring it to the public. These are the records, these are the list of women, these are the addresses of the women who joined the IS, they were recruited from Kerala. Now we are opposing all the communalists, both minority and majority. There are extreme outfits from both sides, they are helping each other. We might think they are fighting but they are helping each other. When one outfit is giving some misinformation or spreading hatred that will help the other side. Amidst all this, director of the film Sudipto Sen has raised the eyebrows of the audience with the hard-hitting promo of The Kerala Story.

What does the trailer of The Kerala Story show?

On 3rd November 2022, the teaser of the new film The Kerala Story was released. The film produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah and directed by Sudipto Sen depicts the heartbreaking and gut-wrenching stories of 32000 women from Kerala who were radicalized to join the ISIS (Islamic States of Iraq and Syria) terrorist ranks. It is notable that many of these Muslim women from Kerala joining ISIS were converted with the motive of sending them to the terrorist organization ISIS.

The trailer shows a Muslim woman in front of the international border narrating her story. The character played by actress Adah Sharma says that earlier she used to be Shalini Unnikrishnan and wanted to be a nurse. She further adds how she was by force converted to Islam and renamed Fatima Ba, and was made to join ISIS to become a terrorist and was then locked up in an Afghanistan jail.

The Supreme Courts Take

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea seeking a stay on release of the movie The Kerala Story on grounds that its a worst kind of hate speech and an audio-visual propaganda.

A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna was told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Nizam Pasha that the trailer of the movie, which is scheduled to be released on Friday, has garnered 16 million views. Pasha said, This movie is the worst kind of hate speech. It is a completely audio-visual propaganda.

The bench said, There are varieties of hate speeches. This film has got certification and has been cleared by the board. Its not like a person getting on the podium and starts giving uncontrolled speech. If you want to challenge the release of the movie, you should challenge the certification and through appropriate forum.

Sibal then said that he will do whatever necessary. Justice Nagarathna said the petitioner should first approach the high court. Pasha said there was no time left as the movie is scheduled to release on Friday. This is not a ground. Otherwise everyone will start coming to the Supreme Court, the bench said. Pasha said that is why he has filed an intervention application in the hate speech matter. Justice Joseph said though he may not be advising the petition but for seeking appropriate remedy a substantial writ petition needs to be filed.

32,000 or 3 is not important, what is important is that while most would shy away from the subject, producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah was determined to bring this horrifying tale to the big screen backed by 4 years of extensive and thorough research. Director Sudipto Sen travelled to the state and even to the Arab countries , met with the locals and families of the victims and was shocked with the findings.

In his earlier statement producer Vipul Shah shared I was in tears in the first narration meeting itself.

(With inputs from agencies)

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Actor Adah Sharma is gearing up for filmmaker Vipul Amrutlal Shahs new film The Kerala Story hes the co-producer of. The film is directed by Sudipto Sen. The film has been in the news ever since the teaser was shared by Sharma, who plays Shalini Unnikrishnan in the film, who later becomes Fatima Ba. How and why?

The story of The Kerala Story

The film centres around forced religious conversion and reportedly claims that approximately 32,000 women in Kerala were converted to Islam and many were taken to ISIS-ruled Syria when the terror group was at the peak of its power. The trailer and makers of the film claim this depiction is their side of the story, the story of their horror and trauma, and how their once-peaceful lives were demolished.

Vipul Shahs statement

According to an interview in Times of India, producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah said, The Kerala Story is based on a true story about a girl who got converted and was going to Syria. On the way, she realized that it was a mistake and she escaped. Today, she is in an Afghanistan jail. There are many girls in Afghanistan jails. At least four are on record. So, thats how we got to know about this story and then we started our research and found that there are many more.

The backlash and controversy

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor recently told the makers, It may be your Kerala story. It is not our Kerala story. The Kerala Story has become a topic for discussion around the numbers being exaggerated in the trailer of the film.

ISIS. Leader of Opposition in Kerala Legislative Assembly VD Satheesan recently said that the film The Kerala Story should not be granted permission for screening.

The film The Kerala Story which falsely claims that 32,000 women in Kerala converted and became members of the Islamic State, should not be granted permission for screening. The trailer clearly shows what the film intends to say, Satheesan said in a Facebook post.

He also alleged that the film is part of an attempt to implement Sangh Parivars agenda and create a social divide by casting a shadow of doubt over the minority groups.

The Kerala Story an attempt to spread hate propaganda, says Pinarayi Vijayan. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday said the upcoming movie The Kerala Story was a product of the Sangh Parivars factory of lies. He said legal action would be taken against those involving themselves in antisocial activities.

The Supreme Courts Take

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea seeking a stay on release of the movie The Kerala Story on grounds that its a worst kind of hate speech and an audio-visual propaganda.

A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna was told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Nizam Pasha that the trailer of the movie, which is scheduled to be released on Friday, has garnered 16 million views.

Pasha said, This movie is the worst kind of hate speech. It is a completely audio-visual propaganda.

The bench said, There are varieties of hate speeches. This film has got certification and has been cleared by the board. Its not like a person getting on the podium and starts giving uncontrolled speech. If you want to challenge the release of the movie, you should challenge the certification and through appropriate forum.

Sibal then said that he will do whatever necessary.

Justice Nagarathna said the petitioner should first approach the high court. Pasha said there was no time left as the movie is scheduled to release on Friday.

This is not a ground. Otherwise everyone will start coming to the Supreme Court, the bench said.

Pasha said that is why he has filed an intervention application in the hate speech matter. Justice Joseph said though he may not be advising the petition but for seeking appropriate remedy a substantial writ petition needs to be filed.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Nsawam  Christians have been admonished to make the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ beneficial to them.

According to Reverend Samuel Bonney, the Adoagyiri District Pastor of the Church of Pentecost, the death of Jesus Christ 'The Saviour' was beneficial because he had given hope to Christians and the world.

Rev. Bonney stated this at the Easter convention organised by the Church of Pentecost, Nsawam Area, Adoagyiri zone in the Eastern Region last Sunday.

The occasion brought together thousands of congregants mostly clad in white apparel from 12 local assemblies' from Sakyikrom Adoagyiri, Teacher Mantey in the three Districts to the Sakyikrom Park.Also in attendance were district pastors, presiding elders, deacons and deaconess who danced and sang praises to God to remember the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

The programme was held on the theme "The Blood Still Speaks" with a bible reference from Hebrews 12:24.

Rev. Bonney in a sermon, dubbed "Apply the Blood," said there was power in the death and resurrection of the son of God (Jesus Christ) for which reason Christians were to apply the blood in all that they do.

"As Christians let's believe the blood works, and in everything thus praying, eating and sleeping, apply the blood to ensure His protection" he added.

Rev. Bonney said the resurrection power was a proof of salvation to the world, and urged them to keep the faith to ensure they were not swayed away.

The Adoagyiri District Pastor urged Christians to keep trusting God and pray without ceasing.

Rev. Bonney called on Christians to seek refuge in God at all times and abide by the biblical teachings.
Christy Staats thought her nightmare was over when she learned that a red spot beneath her eye was innocuous.

But mere moments later, a fresh spot on the same cheek alarmed her dermatologist in the United States.

The tiny spot, which was 0.65 mm in size and nearly imperceptible to the human eye, was identified as melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, according to NDTV.

Since the melanoma was small due to the early detection of this skin cancer, the team was awarded the Guinness World Record for the Smallest Detected Skin Cancer.

More importantly for Staats, early detection meant treatment of cancer before it spread.

The melanoma was discovered by Dr Alexander Witkowski, an assistant professor of dermatology at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), in Portland, Oregon.

A spot on the cheek measured 0.65 mm and was almost invisible to the human eye. With help from non-invasive technology, our dermatology team confirmed the spot was melanoma. Catching it early earned the team the @GWR for Smallest Detected Skin Cancer. https://t.co/a6E0QnzxlG  OHSU Knight Cancer Institute (@OHSUKnight) May 1, 2023

Also read: Explained: Can gel manicures cause skin cancer?

How the worlds skin cancer was detected?

Staats had been worried for a while about a red spot under her eye. But dermatologists repeatedly reassured her that she didnt need to worry.

However, after it grew larger and developed a leg, she scheduled a second appointment.

Dermatologist Dr Witkowski diagnosed Cherry angioma, a relatively typical, non-cancerous skin growth, during her appointment. But, while performing that examination, he also picked up on a problematic spot on her right cheek.

He took a photo of the spot using the $150 (~Rs 12,273) Sklip smartphone attachment which he designed for doctors to take close-up pictures of skin growths. In a subsequent scan, he performed reflectance confocal microscopy (RFM), which uses a laser to illuminate a spot and highlight the cells beneath it.

Results revealed atypical cells, which are usually present in melanoma patients.

According to IFL Science, Dr Witkowski recalled telling Staats at the bedside, I think this could be the smallest skin cancer ever detected.

A recent case report suggests a group of medical professionals and researchers used staining and molecular testing to confirm the diagnosis following a sample.

The experts determined that the area was stage 0 melanoma in situ, often known as melanoma in situ.

A Guinness World Records judge paid the university a visit on May 1 to present certificates for each team members freshly attained record.

The work that our team completed together, according to Dr Witkowski, embodies my personal mission statement: Catch the inevitable, early.

Also read: Hugh Jackman is urging people to wear sunscreen: Can it prevent skin cancer?

What is melanoma?

According to the American Cancer Society, melanoma is a type of skin cancer that develops when melanocytes (the cells that give the skin its tan or brown colour) start to grow out of control.

It explains that cancer starts when cells in the body begin to grow out of control. Cells in nearly any part of the body can become cancer, and can then spread to other areas of the body.

Melanomas can appear anywhere on the skin, but in men and women, they are more likely to begin on the trunk (chest and back). Other frequent areas are the neck and face.

Melanoma is a most serious type of skin cancer which is usually caused by ultraviolet (UV) light that comes from the sun and is used in sunbeds.

Additionally, having more moles can also pose a greater risk of getting melanoma.

What are the symptoms?

The main symptom is a new mole or changes in an existing one, which can be anywhere on the body but are most common in areas often exposed to the sun.

Dailymail quoted Dr Leachman, director of the universitys Knight Cancer Institutes Melanoma Program as saying, the case truly demonstrates the power of new technology to identify potentially dangerous spots early.

She said, With melanoma, your eyes really can be your best tool. A mole or spot on your skin that is changing in appearance  size, shape, colouration  is a key indicator for melanoma.

Another important sign is a spot that looks different from all of the other spots on your skin (known as the ugly duckling sign).

Other warning signs are a sore that doesnt heal, the spread of pigment, redness or swelling of the mole.

Also read: Can the most severe form of skin cancer be cured? Understanding the latest breakthrough

Can it be cured?

Early cancer diagnosis refers to the presence of cancer cells in the epidermis, the outermost layer of skin, but their confinement and lack of deeper skin penetration.

In order to ensure that all abnormal cells are eliminated, the melanoma is removed along with a border of good skin.

Dr Witkowski said that Staats cancer was found before it had the opportunity to spread to other parts of the body due to the early detection.

Also read: How skin can be a potential indicator for lung diseases

How common is it?

It only accounts for one per cent of skin cancer cases, yet it results in the greatest number of fatalities from the disease, according to OHSU.

Each year, melanoma is found in over 17,000 Britains and 100,000 Americans, leading to 2,300 and 8,000 deaths, respectively.

According to the American Cancer Society, 97,610 new melanoma cases will be detected in 2023.

To give patients the best chance of survival, it is essential to diagnose these instances as soon as feasible.

With inputs from agencies

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Indias aviation sector was hit with turbulence on Tuesday when Mumbai-based Go First, earlier known as Go Air, filed for voluntary insolvency and announced cancellation of flights for three days starting 3 May.

The Wadia group-owned carrier, which first took to the skies 17 years ago, will cancel flights for three days  3, 4 and 5 May  and promised to make a full refund to the customers. The carrier operates around 185 flights daily, ferrying an estimated 30,000 passengers across the country.

The airlines CEO Kaushik Khona in a statement said that they were grounding 28 planes, half of their fleet, due to the non-supply of engines by Pratt & Whitney (P&W), and that has resulted in a fund crunch. It is an unfortunate decision (filing for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings), but it had to be done to protect the interests of the company, he was quoted as telling news agency PTI.

The move to cancel flights without any prior intimation, however, caused the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue a show cause notice to the embattled carrier.

But what is the connection between P&W engines and Go First opting for bankruptcy? Heres what we know.

All about P&W engines

Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with its headquarters in East Hartford, Connecticut. A subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, P&W aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation and military aviation.

Founded in 1925 by Frederick B Rentschler, Pratt & Whitney today has more than 85,000 engines in service and more than 16,000 customers worldwide.

Notably, Connecticut-based Pratt & Whitney is the exclusive engine supplier for Go Firsts Airbus A320 neo aircraft fleet.

In a tailspin

Go Firsts decision to opt for insolvency stems from the serial failure of Pratt & Whitney engines, said the airline. In a statement, the Wadia Group-owned no-frills airline said, The percentage of grounded aircraft due to Pratt & Whitneys faulty engines has grown from seven per cent in December 2019 to 31 per cent in December 2020 to 50 per cent in December 2022. This is despite Pratt & Whitney making several on-going assurances over the years, which it has repeatedly failed to meet.

The airline says it has been forced to apply to the National Company Law Tribunal after engine supplier Pratt & Whitney refused to comply with an award issued by an emergency arbitrator appointed by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). That order directed Pratt & Whitney to release and dispatch without delay at least 10 serviceable spare leased engines to Go First by 27 April 2023, and a further 10 spare leased engines per month until December 2023.

If Pratt & Whitney were to comply with the orders in the emergency arbitrators award, Go First would be able to return to full operations by August/September 2023. Despite the emergency arbitrators order, however, at the date of this press release, Pratt & Whitney has failed to provide any further serviceable spare leased engines at all, and has stated that there are no further spare leased engines available for it comply with the emergency arbitrators award, the airline further stated.

Also read: Bad Air Days: Pee-gate, mid-air fist fights and other horror stories from airlines in India

Go First added that the grounding of nearly 50 per cent of its A320neo fleet while continuing to incur all the operational costs had set the airline back by Rs 10,800 crore in lost revenue.

The airline further had to pay Rs 5,657 crore to lessors in the last two years of which approximately Rs 1,600 crore was paid towards lease rent for non-operational grounded aircraft from the funds infused by the Promoters & Government of Indias Emergency CreditLine Guarantee Scheme.

Uncertain future

For the three days that it has cancelled operations, Go First has announced a full refund to passengers. However, it seems that non-operations could be extended for many more days to come.

The sudden announcement threw a wrench in peoples travel plans. A passenger named Harinder Singh told news agency ANI that he had booked his ticket with Go First Airlines for Wednesday early morning but came to know about flight cancellation when he reached Delhi. I left Meerut around 3 am, but after reaching Delhi I got to know that my flight has been cancelled no one is ready to say anything clearly.

Another passenger who booked his ticket with Go First Airlines said, With lot of difficulties we managed to plan a holiday to Leh and booked all the tickets and now they are saying, if you want to take a refund, you can, otherwise we dont care.

Reacting to the turbulence, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said it was unfortunate that such a situation had arisen and that they would keep a close watch on the developments that will take place at the NCLT this week. Unfortunate that this operational bottleneck has dealt a blow to the airlines financial position. It has come to our knowledge that the airline has applied to the NCLT. It is prudent to wait for the judicial process to run its course, he said.

Will Go Air be able to get wings again? Only time will tell. As of now, it becomes the second airline after Jet Airways to be grounded in India in the last four years.

With inputs from agencies

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Russia on Wednesday accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin claimed Kyiv sent two drones overnight to kill Putin in what they described as a terrorist attack and said their forces disabled the UAVs.

The Ukrainian government has denied any involvement.

Lets take a look at the previous assassination attempts on Putin:

2022  Attempt on Putins life

In May 2022, Ukraines top military intelligence official said there was an attempt on Putins life shortly after he invaded Ukraine in February, as per Business Insider.

Major General Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine told the newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda there was an attempt to assassinate Putin in March.

Budanov added, There was an attempt to assassinate Putin.  He was even attacked, it is said, by representatives of the Caucasus, not so long ago. This is non-public information. [It was an] Absolutely unsuccessful attempt, but it really happened.  It was about 2 months ago.

I repeat, this attempt was unsuccessful. There was no publicity about this event, but it took place.

2012  Putin shrugs off assassination plot

Russian TV in February 2012 aired footage of two men with Chechen links confessing to the plot, as per BBC.

The men were arrested in Ukraines Odessa in January 2012.

The state-run Channel One TV reported that the men had been taking orders from Chechen Islamist warlord Doku Umarov.

Opposition members at the time dismissed the plot as a cheap trick and the invention of spin doctors.

Putin, himself, remained unmoved.

You cannot live with constant fear  let them fear us, Putin said, as per BBC.

2003  Plot foiled in Britain

In 2003, Sunday Times reported that Scotland Yard detectives had arrested two men for a plot to kill Putin.

The outlet quoted anti-terror branch SO13 as saying that one of them was a former KGB major and a trained hitman.

The duo  aged 40 and 36  were attempting to ensnare Russian nationals in Britain in the conspiracy.

Arrested after a tip-off, the pair were held for five days at a high-security police station in Paddington Green under the Terrorism Act 2000.

They were finally released on condition that they return to Russia.

2002  Motorway

As per news.com.au in November 2022, an attempt on Putins life was thwarted yet again  this time when the Russian leader was to drive on a motorway near the Kremlin.

A group claimed to be installing new signs on the route  only for a report to emerge that 40 kilos of explosives had been placed along the road.

Putins route was changed and the devices then disappeared.

The Kremlin has kept mum on he matter ever since.

2002  Iraqi man arrested in Azerbaijan

An Iraqi man was arrested in Azerbaijan in 2002 for plotting to kill Putin, as per News.com.au.

An attempt on Putin, who was on a state visit, was set to occur in January.

The man who was arrested reportedly had links to forces in Afghanistan and Chechnya and was ready to deliver explosives to a co-conspirator.

The plan was foiled by security forces and the man and his accomplice were both arrested.

The duo were sentenced to prison for a decade.

With inputs from agencies

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Prince Harry is attending, Indias vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar is going and so is US First Lady Jill Biden. Even Mumbais famous dabbawalas are going to be in attendance. What are we talking about? We are talking about the list of attendees at King Charles IIIs coronation in Westminster Abbey in London, scheduled for 6 May.

Britain is gearing up for the historic event, which comes with an estimated price tag of 100 million, and it is being ensured that no stone is left unturned for it.

While last-minute preparations continue for the coronation, far away from London, even Mumbais dabawalas are putting the final touches to the gifts they wish to give King Charles and his wife Queen Consort Camilla. According to news agency ANI, they have bought Britains 74-year-old monarch a Puneri Pagadi and a shawl from the Warkari community.

Besides this, they will also distribute sweets at nearby civic hospitals on Saturday to celebrate the day. We are also planning to distribute sweets at nearby civic hospitals to celebrate the day. He is one of the reasons why our community got recognised across the world. We are thankful to him and will be happy to celebrate his crowning day," said Subhash Talekar, the spokesperson of the Mumbai Dabbawala Association to Mid Day.

We take a look back at the endearing friendship between the famed delivery men of the financial capital of India and the British monarch.

Beginning of a royal friendship

Mumbais dabawalas, who are known as the countrys finest delivery system, has a long history with Britains royal family. It dates back to 2003 when the then Prince Charles visited India on a 10-day trip.

It is reported that Charles, the then Prince of Wales, had seen a BBC documentary on the dabbawalas and was fascinated by the system the men had developed to serve over 24 million people in the metropolis. Charles was impressed with the punctuality that the dabbawalas possessed within their delivery system, despite the various hardships. It was then that he decided that he would meet the dabbawalas on his next visit to India, and that came in November 2003.

On the last leg of his visit after visiting then President APJ Abdul Kalam and travelling on the Delhi Metro, on 4 November 2003, Charles met hundreds of the dabbawalas at Churchgate in Mumbai and spent around 20 minutes with them, understanding their flawless management system of picking up, sorting and delivering dabbas.

Subhash Talekar, a dabbawala, told Rediff.com that his father had met the then prince. In their interaction, Talekar says that Charles had enquired how they rode their bicycles, how they lift crates full of tiffins and if they had some special code to deliver meals without ever mixing them up.

A royal wedding and breakfast

The friendship between the dabbawalas and King Charles didnt stop at his Mumbai visit. Two years later in 2005, when the British monarch announced his nuptials with Camilla Parker Bowles, he invited two members of the dabbawala community to attend the wedding in London.

Raghunath Medge, an office bearer with the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association, was one of the two dabbawalas who attended the royal wedding. He said all the travel and other expenses for their London trip were borne by Charles.

Sopankaka Mare, the other dabbawala at the wedding, recalls to Rediff how welcoming the royal family was during the nuptials. He made us feel we were a part of his family, said Mare about his 2005 visit to London.

Recalling the same, Medge added that they duo also played an important part in Charles wedding. He was quoted as telling The Telegraph, On Queen Elizabeth IIs request, we scattered rose petals over Charles and Camilla soon after they formally married, as is customary in India.

All the big stories from King Charles III's coronation

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A two-hour ceremony, 2,200 guests, and more: Get ready for King Charles' coronation on 6 May

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Tone-deaf gesture? Why a pledge of allegiance to King Charles has stirred a row

The dabbawalas had also been invited for a special breakfast with Queen Elizabeth II at the time and they said that she too was welcoming and had told them that their gifts of a golden sari and Kolhapuri sandals were the best she had received all wedding.

The dabbawalas also presented Charles elder son Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton with special gifts  a Paithani sari, considered an auspicious gift for a Maharashtrian bride, a headgear for Prince William, and a statuette of the Lord Vitthal, the presiding deity of the dabbawalas.

Similarly for Harrys wedding to Meghan in 2018, they selected traditional Maharashtrian attire comprising a Paithani saree and kurta-pagdi as gifts.

Mourning the Queen

When Queen Elizabeth II died last year in September, the dabbawala community mourned her loss. We are very sad to hear about the death of Queen Elizabeth II and all dabbawalas pray that her soul rests in peace, Subhash Talekar, the president of Mumbai Dabbawala Association had said as news about the British monarchs death broke.

Medge, who had visited the Queen in 2005, added, We feel like we have lost one of our family members, she showed us so much love and respect and we are just common people.

Mumbai Dabbawala Association has had a very close relationship with British Royal Family ever since Prince Charles visited India. We're very sad to hear about the death of Queen Elizabeth II & all Dabbawalas pray that her soul rest in peace: Subhash Talekar, Association Chairman pic.twitter.com/z767pNJ01K  ANI (@ANI) September 9, 2022

And asked what they expect from the new king, they said that they were optimistic about the monarchy under Charles and wished him many years of happiness on the throne.

All of us Dabbawalas pray for him and to wish him every success in his reign, Medge was quoted as telling The Telegraph.

With inputs from agencies

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Tinder owner Match Group has said it will quit Russia by 30 June, citing the need to protect human rights, one of many Western firms to leave since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine last year.

We are committed to protecting human rights, Match said in an annual impact report published on Monday. Our brands are taking steps to restrict access to their services in Russia and will complete their withdrawal from the Russian market by 30 June, 2023.

Many digital services providers with few staff in Russia, such as Spotify and Netflix, pulled out shortly after Moscow began its military campaign in Ukraine in February 2022.

Match, whose brands include dating applications such as Tinder, Hinge and PlentyOfFish, has made few public statements about its Russian operations, but flagged negative impacts on its European business in March 2022.

Match did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.

Match shareholder Friends Fiduciary Corp said Match had set an example for others to follow in tying its decision to the human rights risks faced by the Ukrainian people.

Also Read: Tinderbox: Russian spies using dating app Tinder to target German politicians for intel on Ukraine war

The European police agency Europol said in September that dating apps were among the online platforms being hijacked by individuals for human trafficking purposes, drawing attention to the plight of Ukrainian refugees.

Jeff Perkins, executive director at Friends Fiduciary, told Reuters that a business that trades on trust had good reason to leave Russia:

Its not a good look for a trusted brand to be continuing operations in a nation where the head of state has been indicted by the International Criminal Court.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant on 17 March against Russian president Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.

Moscow denies committing war crimes including forced deportations of children, and says the ICC decision is meaningless as Russia is not a member.

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Its the most talked-about film in India right now. The Kerala Story, whose trailer was released last week and is scheduled to hit theatres on 5 May, has stirred a political storm. The film tells the story of a group of women from Kerala who were forcefully converted to Islam and then joined the terror group Islamic State.

The film has been dubbed propaganda with Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan slamming the makers of the film and the locals calling for a ban. But is The Kerala Story fact or fiction? We take a look.

What is the film about?

The Kerala Story, directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutul Shah, created a furore from the time the teaser dropped in November last year.

In the one-minute-19-second long teaser, a burkha-clad woman, played by Bollywood actor Adah Sharma, says her name was Shalini Unnikrishnan and she wanted to serve humanity by becoming a nurse. Now I am Fatima Ba, an ISIS terrorist in Afghanistan jail, she was seen saying in the November teaser, adding that there are 32,000 girls like me who have been converted and buried in the deserts of Syria and Yemen.

The recently released trailer also revolves around Shalini Unnikrishnan. It shows how she was brainwashed and lured by Muslim friends. It depicts her conversion, wedding and then how she was trafficked to Pakistan.

I am not alone, there are thousands of girls from Kerala who ran away from home, Shalini says as the trailer ends.

The film, which claims to be based on real events, revolves around girls from Hindu and Muslim communities who went missing from Kerala and were recruited into the Islamic State after they were converted. These women were then later sent to Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria to fight for the cause of Islam.

. #TheKeralaStory isnt about, elections , agenda, religion vs religion.. it is about something much bigger. LIFE and DEATH ! It is about Terrorism vs Humanity. Calling it propaganda is covering up the story of each girl whose life was destroyed  pic.twitter.com/T4fkBRGB9D  Adah Sharma (@adah_sharma) April 29, 2023

Did thousands of women flee Kerala?

It's the figure 32,000, which raised an eyebrow first. However, since the uproar, the questionable number which also was mentioned in the YouTube description of its trailer has been changed to three.

Addressing the press conference on Tuesday, director Sudipto Sen said the 32,000 figure used in the movie was an arbitrary number but backed with some facts.

The 32,000 figure doesnt matter. Even if one girl faced conversion, the story needs to be told. You have watched the film, does the number actually matters, he asked during the interaction with the media.

Former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy spoke about conversions. They said that 900 girls were converted in 2014. Then in 2016, there was no figure for 2015. We have back-calculated and also added the number of years after that and arrived at the figure. But people in Kerala say that number is more than 50,000, he claimed.

Also read: The Kerala Story: Brutal reality of love jihad, weaknesses of Hindu society hit hard enough to trigger a rude awakening

In an interview with CNNNews18, producer Vipul Shah said, This (The movie) is based on true stories, because every scene tells something that has happened to somebody.

#TheKeralaStory: Love Jihad conspiracy & radicalization, actor Adah Sharma (@adah_sharma) & Producer Vipul Shah clear the air 'This is based on true stories, because every scene tells something that has happened to somebody,' he says. Listen in#ABillionIdeas | @maryashakil pic.twitter.com/rmRrOd3V3J  News18 (@CNNnews18) April 29, 2023

Is the story of the four women real?

The Kerala Story is said to be based on four women who converted to Islam and travelled with their husbands to Afghanistan to join the terror group between 2016 and 2018. They are currently languishing in a prison in the country.

Actor Adah Sharma claims that she has spoken to some of these women. There will be testimony from those who will be brave enough to come in front of cameras, she told India Today.

In December 2019, the website StratNewsGlobal published interviews of four women from Kerala, Nimisha alias Fathima Isa, Merin alias Mirriam, Sonia Sebastian alias Ayisha and Rafael, were published under the title Khorasan Files: The Journey of Indian Islamic State Widows, The Indian Express reports.

Using this story, the film throws light on the alleged recruitment by the Islamic State in Kerala.

Did the Islamic State recruit people from the state?

In 2013, reports from Syria suggested that some Indians were fighting for the Islamic State. Several Indians have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join the terror group.

In a written reply to Parliament in 2019, then Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the state police forces have registered cases against ISIS operatives and sympathisers, and have arrested 155 accused from across the country so far, reports The Indian Express.

In July last year, the NIA court sentenced to imprisonment three men who were convicted in a case about recruitment to the Islamic State terrorist group. In October, another man from the state was convicted in the IS recruitment case and given five years in jail.

Why Kerala politicians are slamming the film?

The Bharatiya Janata Party has claimed that recruitment into IS from the southern state cannot be denied and Chief Minister Vijayan was aware of the exact figures.

IS has a very strong presence in Kerala... You cannot deny the IS recruitment from the state, BJP state president K Surendran claimed on Monday, adding that if the figures cited in the film were the bone of contention, then that could be discussed.

The CM said on Sunday that the makers of The Kerala Story were taking up the Sangh Parivar propaganda of projecting the state as a centre of religious extremism by raising the issue of love jihad, a concept rejected by the courts, probe agencies and even the Union home ministry.

According to him, the trailer of the Hindi film, at first glance, appears to be deliberately produced with the alleged aim of creating communal polarisation and spreading hate propaganda against Kerala.

In the trailer of the movie, we see a hoax that 32,000 women in Kerala were converted and became members of the Islamic State. This bogus story is a product of the Sangh Parivars lie factory, the CM contended in his statement.

Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor had also challenged the 32,000 figure earlier and criticised the films makers for gross exaggeration and distortion of the Kerala reality. He pointed out that Western intelligence sources suggested that the number of Indians joining ISIS was less than 100.

Tharoor responded to the change in the films trailer on Twitter, saying, "The plot thickens. The filmmakers have updated the movies description on YouTube and changed 32,000 women' to 3 women... I rest my case.

. The plot thickens. The filmmakers have updated the movie's description on YouTube and changed '32,000 women' to '3 women'. Earlier, they said the movie is about the "heartbreaking and gut-wrenching stories of 32,000 females in Kerala". Now it says: "The Kerala Story is a  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 2, 2023

While Tharoor has not called for a ban on the film, he said, Keralites have every right to say loud and clear that this is a misrepresentation of our reality.

So is the film releasing?

So far yes.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea seeking a stay on the release of the movie on grounds that its a worst kind of hate speech and an audio-visual propaganda.

A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna said, There are varieties of hate speeches. This film has got certification and has been cleared by the board. Its not like a person getting on the podium and starts giving uncontrolled speech. If you want to challenge the release of the movie, you should challenge the certification and through appropriate forum.

The censor board has given the move an A certificate and reportedly deleted 10 scenes from the move, one of them an interview with a former Kerala chief minister and another which made inappropriate references to all Hindu gods.

The film stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani.

With inputs from agencies

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After overturning a womans federal right to have an abortion in America, some conservatives have another target in their sights  no-fault divorce.

Steven Crowder, who has been going through a divorce since 2021, is just among a slew of right-wing personalities in the US taking aim at no-fault divorce.

No, this was not my choice, Crowder told his followers last week. My then wife decided that she didnt want to be married anymore and in the state of Texas, that is completely permitted.

This after Crowder last year called for reform in divorce laws.

But what is a no-fault divorce? How does it work? And why do some US conservatives want it outlawed?

Lets take a closer look:

What is it? How does it work?

According to the Cornell law school website, a no-fault divorce is the most common type of divorce.

While a traditional divorce seeks to assign blame on one party in court for the breakdown of a marriage  physical or mental cruelty, adultery and desertion are the most common examples  a no-fault divorce requires no such proof be furnished.

The party that wishes to leave the marriage just files a case saying the union has broken down.

According to The Week, the US first no-fault law was signed by then California governor Ronald Raegan.

Over the years, other states slowly began bringing in laws that allowed no-fault divorce. New York, incidentally, was the last state to bring in such a law  in 2010!

All US states now recognise no-fault divorce.

In all, 17 states including California, Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Nebraska, Montana, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, Kentucky, Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, Hawaii, Florida, and Colorado have adopted pure no-fault divorce  meaning that fault divorce is not an option.

What do proponents of no-fault divorce say?

That it gives women options and has vastly improved the lot of women since it was introduced.

They point to a large decline (around 20 per cent) in the number of women committing suicide since it was introduced and a drop in domestic violence, as per The Week.

According to Rolling Stone, the cases of spousal homicide against women have also decreased.

As one researcher told the outlet this is not just because abused women (and men) could more easily divorce their abusers, but also because potential abusers knew that they were more likely to be left.

Critics also say that taking aim at no-fault divorce is simply another means of controlling women  and their bodies.

So why do some conservatives want it outlawed?

The more traditional conservatives and outlets like National Review have linked such divorces to the decline of marriage as an institution and the break-up of the American family.

Some, like Crowder, think women are gold-diggers.

As he told his followers last year, If youre a woman that comes from meager means, and you want to get wealthyyouve never worked, you didnt get a degree, you have no skill set, but youre good-lookingyour best path to victory is simply to marry a man, leave him, and take half.  We need to reform divorce laws in this country.

Oh, its no-fault divorce, which, by the way, means that in many of these states if a woman cheats on you, she leaves, she takes half, Crowder added. So its not no-fault, its the fault of the man.

There need to be changes to marital laws, and Im not even talking about same-sex marriage, he added. Talking about divorce laws, talking about alimony laws, talking about child support laws.

Others, like YouTuber Tim Pool, claim it destroyed the confidence of men in the institution of marriage.

Daily Wire writers Matt Walsh and Michael Knowles have repeatedly taken aim at no-fault divorces.

People are scandalized by this opinion but wait until they find out that I also think no fault divorce should be abolished https://t.co/lRMozCvuoj  Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) March 13, 2022

We see the weakening of marriage through no-fault divorce, Knowles said as per Media Matters. This is a very bad turn of events.

Do you think society has gotten much better since the social and sexual revolutions of the 1960s? Or has it gotten a little bit worse? Knowles asked. Are we in a period of ascendancy or a period of decline?

JD Vance, who was running for the US Senate in 2022, accused people of changing spouses like they do their underwear and argued for partners remaining in violent marriages.

This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is the idea that like, well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy. And so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, thats going to make people happier in the long term, Vance was quoted as saying by Vice.

And maybe it worked out for the moms and dads, though Im skeptical. But it really didnt work out for the kids of those marriages, Vance continued. And thats what I think all of us should be honest about, is weve run this experiment in real time. And what we have is a lot of very, very real family dysfunction thats making our kids unhappy.

And this isnt just talk.

According to Rolling Stone, the Texas GOP last year called for an end to no-fault divorce.

We urge the Legislature to rescind unilateral no-fault divorce laws, to support covenant marriage, and to pass legislation extending the period of time in which a divorce may occur to six months after the date of filing for divorce.

The Louisiana Republican Party is thinking on similar lines, while the Nebraska Republicans have said only childless couples should be able to get no-fault divorces.

In 2016, the RNC considered adding to its party platform language that called for no-fault divorces to be replaced by fault-based divorce.

With inputs from agencies

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America is sending 1,500 additional troops to its border with Mexico.

These troops will bolster the 2,500 National Guard members already at the border as well as support the work of the US Border Patrol.

But why is America doing so? And what does Title 42 have to do with it?

Lets take a closer look:

The Joe Biden administration is sending troops to the border in anticipation of a surge of migrants ahead of COVID-19 border restrictions set to be lifted in May.

This also comes as Title 42 restrictions are set to lapse on 11 May.

According to PBS, Title 42 gives the US government emergency powers to stop the introduction of communicable diseases.

While the code itself has existed for years, the previous Trump administration used Title 42 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to restrict border crossings from Mexico.

It also gives the US government powers to rapidly expel non-Mexican migrants to Mexico without giving them a chance to seek asylum.

Theresa Cardinal Brown of the Bipartisan Policy Center told PBS the Trump regime essentially overrode immigration law by citing a risk to public health.

Biden, a Democrat running for reelection in 2024, has grappled with record numbers of migrants caught illegally crossing the US-Mexico border since he took office in 2021.

BBC quoted US Customs and Border Protection official Troy Miller as saying that his agency estimates more than 10,000 migrants will cross the border after Title 42 expires.

That predicted figure is more than twice the March daily average.

According to BBC, 2022 witnessed more than 2.76 million immigrants illegally cross over into the United States. That, after 2021 saw the highest number of immigrants crossing over since 1960.

According to PBS, more than 2 million expulsions have been seen under Title 42  many of them trying to cross and being sent back multiple times.

Brown said,  we do believe that Title 42 was one of the reasons why we saw people trying multiple times, [which] increased the numbers.

The troops will arrive on 10 May, as per BBC.

This comes in the backdrop of Mexico agreeing to take back on humanitarian grounds Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants from the United States post 11 May, as per CNN.

Mexicos support is critical to any push by the US to clamp down at the southern border, particularly as migrants from nations from as far away as Haiti are making the trek on foot up through Mexico, and are not easily returned back to their home countries.

CNN quoted DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as saying, We do expect that encounters at our southern border will increase as smugglers are seeking to take advantage of this change and already are hard at work spreading disinformation that the border will be open after that. High encounters will place a strain on our entire system, including our dedicated and heroic workforce and our communities.

Let me be clear: Our border is not open and will not be open after 11 May.

The 90-day deployment of active-duty troops will supplement the work of the US Border Patrol but not carry out law enforcement duties, Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement.

They will conduct ground-based monitoring, data entry and warehouse support to free up border agents and fill critical capability gaps, Ryder said.

Biden, who announced his Democratic reelection campaign a week ago, is trying to signal his administration is making a serious effort to tamp down the number of illegal crossings, which has been a potent source of Republican attacks. He also is trying to send a message to potential border crossers not to attempt the journey.

But Republicans have criticized Biden for rolling back the hardline policies of Republican former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for his partys nomination.

Some Democrats and immigration activists also have lambasted Biden for gradually toughening his approach to border security.

Unacceptable

Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Bidens decision to send troops was unacceptable.

Trying to score political points or intimidate migrants by sending the military to the border caters to the Republican Partys xenophobic attacks on our asylum system, Menendez said in a statement.

The Pentagon is looking at ways to replace the active-duty personnel with those from the reserve force, he said.

Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, when asked about the troop deployment in a news conference, said the US is a sovereign nation and that Mexico respects its decisions.

US military troops have been used to help secure the border during previous presidential administrations, including Republican George W. Bush, Democrat Barack Obama and Trump, who deployed thousands of active-duty and National Guard troops

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called such deployments a common practice.

Pentagon leaders have long been frustrated about military deployments to the border, privately arguing that the mundane tasks are better suited for law enforcement agencies and can affect military readiness.

Immigration advocates have criticized previous efforts to send troops to the border.

People seeking asylum should be met with humanitarian professionals, welcoming volunteers, and medical and mental health professionals. Not soldiers, tweeted Bilal Askaryar, interim campaign manager of the #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign.

With inputs from agencies

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Immensely popular Bengaluru eatery Vidyarthi Bhavan, known for its iconic masala dosas and filter coffee, has jumped into the poll bandwagon to encourage citizens to vote sensibly and in full strength in the upcoming elections to the Karnataka assembly.

In a message it posted on its Twitter handle, the eatery shared a memorable quote written on a poster of Thomas Shelby from Peaky Blinders: The mouse dies in the mouse trap because it cannot understand why the cheese is free. Vote for development, the message read.

The message appears to urge voters not to fall for poll freebies and instead focus on development while casting their votes. A picture accompanied the tweet and it read Just 1 more week to go Please cast your vote without fail and sensibly.

The post triggered discussions on Twitter, with one netizen claiming that Vidyarthi Bhavan was trolling the Congress party. In response, the eatery, established in 1943, clarified that it was not targeting any particular political party and that all parties were offering freebies to woo voters. The message was simply a request to everyone to vote sensibly.

Just 1 more week to go

Please cast your your vote without fail and sensibly. pic.twitter.com/MeLKkU0jC3  Vidyarthi Bhavan (@VidyarthiBhavan) May 2, 2023

All parties are offering freebies. Why do you single out one? We are only requesting everyone to cast their votes and that too sensibly, the eatery, known for its iconic south Indian breakfast dishes, replied to the person.

The Karnataka Assembly elections due later this month are expected to be fiercely fought, with the chief political parties vying for a majority and the BJP looking at retaining power in the state. The state has a history of close electoral battles, and voter turnout is expected to play a significant role in deciding the outcome of the polls. There is also a strong anti-incumbency wave against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the state.

Over time ahead of polls, freebies and populist schemes have become an essential tool for political parties to win voters. However, critics argue that such tactics often distract people from the real issues and do not contribute to long-term development.

Vidyarthi Bhavan's message resonates with this sentiment, reminding citizens that they have the power to elect representatives who will work towards the development of Karnataka.

The eaterys unique approach is a refreshing reminder of the role that citizens, businesses, and establishments can play in shaping Indias democratic processes.

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In a bid to provide flexible travel options and seamless connectivity across multiple destinations to passengers in India, the countrys two leading airlines Vistara and Air India have come together to sign a bilateral interline partnership. As a part of their agreement, the two airlines will collaborate to benefit passengers by giving them a wider choice of destinations with flexible options to choose from. Notably, this comes at a time when Vistara and Air India already have interline cooperation for irregular operations (IROPs). The announcement comes months after the Tata Group in November last year announced its plans to merge Vistara with Air India.

Meanwhile, the latest announcement will come with a number of benefits for passengers. Beginning from receiving boarding passes to having the option of travelling on both airlines on a single ticket, the partnership aims to offer greater convenience and enhanced connectivity across their joint network.

How will passengers benefit from Vistara-Air Indias bilateral interline partnership?

To increase connectivity: In a bid to enhance connectivity, passengers can book their tickets on either airline and further travel to a range of domestic and international destinations. As a part of this, Air India customers will be able to access Vistaras domestic network, while Vistara customers can connect to Air Indias international network.

Travelling on a single ticket: The interline partnership will help passengers to receive their boarding passes at the first point of departure for all the travel sectors on a single ticket through the Inter Airline Through Check-in (IATCI) implementation. Passengers can also have their baggage checked-in through to their final destinations, thus saving the hassle of having to check-in again at connecting airports.

Better on-ground travel experience: With Air India and Vistara operating at the same terminals at most Indian airports, it will ease the on-ground travel experience for passengers having interline itineraries.

Uninterrupted transfer of passengers during emergencies: As a part of their partnership, Air India and Vistara will be implementing Interline Considerations on Irregular Operations (IROPs) or the disruption transfer functionality which will allow them to seamlessly transfer passengers to each others alternative flights in case of any sort of emergency or operational disruptions.

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While there is no established causal relationship between climate change and tuberculosis (TB), studies have begun to highlight the potential impact its effects could have on the spread of the disease.

Undernutrition, HIV/AIDS, overcrowding, poverty, and diabetes have all been identified as TB risk factors that are worsened by climate change. Worryingly, many countries with high burdens of TB, including, for instance, drought-hit Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, and Peru, have suffered from the kind of extreme weather associated with a heating planet.

But despite vying with COVID-19 for the grim distinction of the world's deadliest infectious disease, claiming 1.6 million lives in 2021, TB is not often talked about in connection with climate change, with the link often overlooked by policymakers.

TB experts say this must change as the climate crisis accelerates.

"The effects of climate change, such as its impact on migration, for instance, are getting attention. What we want to see is for that attention to also get drawn to its effects on TB," Maria Beumont, Chief Medical Officer at TB Alliance, a global nonprofit organisation developing TB drugs, told IPS.

In recent years, disease experts and climatologists have sounded increasingly dire warnings about the potential impact of the climate crisis on the spread of lethal diseases.

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned of the health impacts of global heating, including an increase in the incidence of infectious diseases. Meanwhile, other research has shown how changes in climate have aggravated the risks of hundreds of infectious diseases worldwide.

But much of the discussion around that has focused on how higher temperatures and increased incidence of flooding and drought could drive more vector, food and water-borne diseases with diseases.

What has often been overlooked in these conversations, say Beumont and others, is how the effects of the climate crisis could worsen what is de facto a global TB pandemic.

Part of this is because of the nature of those effects in relation to TB.

"The potential impact of climate change [on TB] is more indirect than with some other infectious diseases," Dr Mohammed Yassin, Senior Disease Advisor, TB, at the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told IPS.

TB experts point to how more frequent and more devastating natural disasters linked to climate change, or simply places on the planet becoming too hot to be habitable, are leading to mass displacement, which can create ideal conditions for TB to spread.

"Mass displacement can lead to overcrowding and poor living conditions of those displaced. If some of those people already have symptoms of TB, there is a higher chance of it spreading. There would also be people living under stress, and facing malnutrition, which are factors adding to the potential for TB to spread," said Yassin.

Displacement also raises issues with access to healthcare for the displaced, which can negatively affect the management of treatment for those with TB because patients need to take treatment daily. Interruption of treatment can leave them infectious for longer and at risk of developing drug-resistant TB, which in turn is much more difficult and expensive to treat.

But displacement would also impact the treatment of those with other conditions, such as HIV and AIDS and diabetes, which weaken immune systems and leave people more susceptible to TB.

Meanwhile, displaced people are likely to find themselves living in crowded areas where, in the absence of adequate screening and diagnostic procedures, TB could spread.

But displacement is far from the only problem. Both extreme droughts and flooding can impact food security, devastating crops and killing livestock and leading to malnutrition and undernutrition--known risk factors for TB.

The impact of extreme weather on health, particularly TB, is already being seen in some parts of the world.

Somalia is in the grip of severe drought following five consecutive failed rainy seasons--something which the UN has said has not been seen for four decades--with five million people facing acute food shortages and nearly two million children at risk of malnutrition, according to the UN.

TB is a major cause of death in Somalia, and late last year, with TB services largely non-existent in settlements for displaced persons, the Global Fund committed US$ 1.9 million for food support for thousands of TB patients and outreach activities in settlements. Officials at the time emphasised the importance of such action to help reach the most vulnerable and stop TB from spreading.

Meanwhile, the devastating floods in Pakistan last year, which affected an estimated 33 million people, not only brought an immediate threat of diseases such as malaria and dengue but interrupted vital vaccination programmes, including TB.

"The impact of flooding on TB is usually seen sometime later, but it, of course, has an immediate impact in disrupting treatment which can lead to problems such as drug-resistant TB," said Yassin.

TB experts are calling for governments and leaders within the TB community itself to begin paying more attention to the issue and start thinking about current TB programs and where changes need to be made to deal with these potential impacts.

Some groups, like TB Alliance, are looking to mitigate some of these impacts through treatment developments. The group recently developed a new TB treatment regimen, BPaL, with a much shorter treatment length and fewer of the sometimes very toxic side effects of previous regimens.

An oral-only regimen involving only a few pills a day, it has been widely praised by patients and experts for the relative ease with which it can be taken, notably in Ukraine, where it has recently been rolled out programmatically and used among the many millions displaced there because of the Russian invasion.

"What we are focusing on is trying to find solutions to make treatment safer and shorter, which would overcome some of the negative effects of climate change related to TB, for instance, displacement, as there would be less chance of treatment interruption with shorter treatment," said Beumont.

assin said that investment in health systems, especially in low-income countries which have some of the world's highest TB burdens and where healthcare is already under-resourced, is also crucial.

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"We learnt from Covid that health systems can't cope with a pandemic, and TB is actually a pandemic. It is very important for countries to think about strengthening their health systems and making them more resilient. There needs to be investment now to prepare the systems for a pandemic, including climate change-driven TB," said Yassin.

"There was a collapse of some healthcare systems during Covid, and because of that, all resources in some countries went to dealing with that, and TB was forgotten, and the TB burden of those countries rose. We need to invest now, not wait for another pandemic. We need more resources," he added.

Meanwhile, others say that alongside these measures, individual, non-climate-specific interventions could help.

Dr Krishnan Rajendran of the ICMR-National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) in India, which has the highest burden of TB in the world according to the World Health Organisation, told IPS that lessons learnt from the Covid pandemic could be used to reduce TB spread.

"National and local authorities could take preventive measures, such as at least encouraging people to wear masks in seasons where TB incidence is high," he said.

Whatever efforts are made to deal with the impact of climate change on the disease, they need to be made soon, said Yassin.

"We shouldn't wait for climate change impacts [to fuel the spread of TB] before we act--we should do something now and deal with TB to prevent more deaths and disabilities," he said.
In the coming years, India has the potential to increase global clinical trials in the country by five times, according to a report.

In the joint report by the USA India Chamber of Commerce & PwC India titled, Clinical Trial opportunities in India, experts have highlighted the significant opportunities for biopharma companies to leverage Indias rich diversity and robust healthcare infrastructure to develop innovative treatments.

The report will be released at the virtual edition of the 17th annual BioPharma & Healthcare Summit 2023 to be held on Wednesday in Boston.

It also indicates that through several key drivers, India is emerging as a favourable destination to conduct clinical trials.

According to the report, the private sector is a well-suited channel for the top biopharma to conduct more efficient clinical trials with easier and faster access to investigators and patients.

According to the report, India has the potential to increase global clinical trials in the country by five times in the coming years.

Indian states with high disease prevalence (e.g., cancer) also have the most number of tier-1 cities, with advanced medical infrastructure and availability of investigators. Targeting these states can provide biopharma companies with faster access to patients, sites, and investigators.

The total number of investigators has increased by twice between 2015 and 2020, with the majority of the increase occurring in the internal medicine and oncology specialisations.

However, the growth in the number of investigators is largely restricted to tier-1 and 2 cities, the report said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged the people of Karnataka to say Jai Bajrangbali when they cast their vote to punish the Congress for its culture of abuse, as BJP leaders stepped up attack on the Opposition party over its election manifesto promise of banning the Bajrang Dal.

Addressing a public meeting in Uttara Kannada district, Modi said the Congress and its leaders hate and abuse him because he has crashed their corrupt system.

In this election, Congress is seeking votes in the name of its leader who is retiringthe other way in which they are seeking votes is by abusing Modi.

Will anyone in Karnataka accept this culture of abuse? What will you (people) do this time? Will you punish them? Will you punish the abusers? When you press the button in the polling booth, punish them by saying Jai Bajrangbali, he added.

Prime Minister Modi also urged the audience at all his rallies to raise the chant of Bajranjbali ki Jai with him, besides his usual slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai and  Vande Mataram, hailing the motherland.

#KarnatakaElections2023 | Amid row over Congress manifesto mentioning ban on Bajrang Dal outfit, PM Modi concluded his rally with Bajrangbali chants in Mudbidri, Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/Hw067pTNUL  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

Congress promises to ban Bajrang Dal

Modi had come down heavily on the Congress on Tuesday after its poll promise of banning Bajrang Dal, saying the Congress in its manifesto has decided to lock up Lord Hanuman. Initially, they locked up Prabhu Shri Ram (Lord Ram). And now they want to lock up people who say Jai Bajrang Bali (Hail Hanuman). On Wednesday, he made it a point at the beginning as well as at the end of his speech to raise the slogan praising Lord Hanuman in Mulki in Dakshina Kannada district, Ankola in Uttara Kannada and Bailhongal in Belagavi.

The BJP, its Karnataka unit and other party leaders also tweeted on Wednesday with the hashtag HanumaBhaktaModi.

The BJP had termed the Congress move as an insult to Lord Hanuman and the height of appeasement.

The Bajrang Dal has, meanwhile, announced it will conduct Hanuman Chalisa recital programs across Karnataka on Thursday.

This is the time when Dharma is in danger and standing together is the only way forward. We should set aside our differences and come together to protect dharma, and hold hands together, the right-wing organisation said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said that the Constitution and law are clear  any individual or organisation spreading hatred or enmity must be proceeded against in accordance with law.

The duty to follow Raj darma is of the prime minister and chief minister but they refuse to do so, he tweeted.

He said Lord Hanuman depicts piousness, service and sacrifice. Comparing him as synonymous to any individual or organisation is an insult, the Congress leader said and asked the prime minister to apologise.

Kannadigas are ready for 40% Bhrastasura Dahana!, he tweeted.

The Congress also alleged that PM Modi and his party are refusing to speak about the scam-ridden BJP government in Karnataka and are merely looking for lame-duck excuses to polarise the election. The party defended its stand against the Bajrang Dal, saying the Constitution prescribes action against any individual and organisation spreading hatred or enmity.

Congress wants to appease Muslims: BJP

However, Karnataka Energy Minister V Sunil Kumar, who was the state convenor of Bajrang Dal, said the Congress move is aimed at appeasing the Muslims.

In a series of tweets, the minister said Bajrang Dal is not an anti-social organisation and it strives for the protection of the Hindu community and gomata (mother cow). He wondered whether the Congress wants to ban Bajrang Dal just because the BJP banned the Popular Front of India last year.

The political row over the issue has spread to other states too.

In BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state home minister Narottam Mishra said Congress state chief Kamal Nath should clarify his stand on the issue as he is a devotee of Lord Hanuman.

What is its (being a Hanuman devotee) relation with this (banning Bajrang Dal)? Nath retorted when reporters asked him about the BJP leaders remarks.

Asked if a similar poll promise will be made by the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, he said, That will be decided by the manifesto committee. Even the Supreme Court and the entire state are saying that those who spread hatred and create controversies should face action. This is a matter of our social unity.

In a letter to Nath on Wednesday, Mishra said, The Congress may go to any extent for the politics of appeasement. I have written a letter to Kamal Nath. I have seen his many tweets in which he posed himself as a Hanuman devotee. Congress equated Bajrang Dal with PFI. Nath should clarify his stance, he said.

He said that this politics of appeasement of Congress has hurt the sentiments of Rashtra bhakts and devotees of Ram and Hanuman.

Chouhan called Bajrang Dal a staunch nationalist organisation.

Asking Nath to clarify his stand, he said, No one will forget those who were pampering the network of SIMI in Madhya Pradesh. Those who opposed the surgical strike and glorified terrorists are now talking about banning Bajrang Dal.

They are talking of banning Bajrang Dal, which is a staunch nationalist organization, opposes terrorism and love jihad. The organisation that creates a sense of patriotism, is involved in social service, and works for self-respect and awareness towards ones religion and culture is being compared with a terrorist organisation like PFI? Congress Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh too posted several tweets targeting Bajrang Dal.

Modi jis Religion is Hindutatva and not Hindu or Sanatan Dharm. As Savarkar ji has said Hindutva has nothing to do with Hindu Religion Bajrang Dal has nothing to do with Lord Hanuman. It is an organisation of goons (sic), Singh alleged.

Rajasthan minister Govind Ram Meghwal said the Congress is not against Bajrangbali (Lord Hanuman), but is against the people who are committing a crime by forming an organisation in the deitys name.

Rajasthan Food and Civil Supplies Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said that he is an ardent devotee of lord Hanuan.

The Congress itself is a devotee of Bajrangbali. It bans those who try to create a situation of conflict in the name of religion, Khachariyawas said.

Chouhan said that Congress was opposed to the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and had called Ram-Setu imaginary. The Congress opposed Hindutva on every occasion and now it stands exposed, he said.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur also targeted the Congress.

For vote bank, they used to say that Lord Ram is imaginary On the other hand, under the Narendra Modi government, Kartarpur Corridor was opened, ropeway reached Hemkunt Sahiband now a grand Lord Ram temple is being built in Ayodhya. No power in the world has been able to stop Bajrangbali or his followers, he said.

The Congress, in its election manifesto for the May 10 Karnataka polls, on Tuesday said it will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on organisations like Bajrang Dal and PFI and alleged that they were promoting enmity among communities.

Bajrang Dal is a right-wing Hindu outfit and has often courted controversies over vigilante action. Bajrang is another name for Lord Hanuman and the outfits insignia carries the picture of the Hindu deity.

With inputs from PTI

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Women have broken down many stereotypes and achieved employment in professions formerly thought to be the domain of men. Their journey teaches us how to deal with setbacks and get back on our feet. And the story of a female Uber driver from Kolkata, which has now gone viral on social media platforms, is a valuable addition to the genre of fearless women.

The viral post, uploaded on Facebook by Param Kalyan Singh, tells the inspiring story of Dipta Ghosh, a female Uber driver from Kolkata.

Singh in his post wrote that he booked a cab to Lake Mall and Dipta Ghosh called him to know about the exact pickup location. As the journey began, he was impressed by her personality and then tried to inquire about her educational background. Ghosh said that she has a BTech degree, and has worked for six years at several companies.

The caption read, Yesterday booked an App cab for going to Lake Mall. Received call from a female driver. She just asked in polite tone regarding the pickup location. Yes she was Dipta Ghosh as I found out from her profile. After journey started I asked her that, your tone is that of an educated person, whats your educational background. I was surprised and you guys will be too.

In 2020, Ghoshs father passed away. She stated that all the suitable jobs for her were based out of Kolkata, and she didnt wanted to leave behind her mother and sister behind. Instead, she got a commercial license and bought an Alto car. Since 2021, she has been driving for Uber, and earns around 40,000 a month driving about six to seven hours daily for six days a week.

The viral post has now received a lot of praise from people. Commenting on the post, one user wrote, Sooo inspiring!! made my day more beautiful.

Another wrote, This is called self empowerment.

With inputs from agencies

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The Manipur government on Wednesday suspended mobile internet across the state and imposed a curfew in Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts as well as the capital Imphal for the next five days.

The decisions were taken after fresh violence erupted in Bishnupur and Churachandpur following a rally by the All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM) in protest against the demand for inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes category.

Thousands of tribals on Wednesday turned up at a Solidarity March organised by ATSUM in all the ten hill districts of the state, PTI reported.

Illegal immigration by Myanmarese & Bangladeshis threatens Meiteis

The Meiteis who make up 53 percent of the states population inhabit the Manipur valley, which accounts for about a tenth of the former princely states land area. The tribals make up about 40 percent of Manipurs population.

In April, the Manipur High Court directed the state government to consider the inclusion of the Meiteis in the ST list.

Lawmakers of the Valley have earlier openly endorsed the demand by some Meitei organisation for ST status for the majority community in Manipur.

The Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee Manipur (STDCM), which is spearheading the movement for the inclusion of Meiteis in the ST category said the demand is being made not merely for reservation in jobs, educational institutions and tax relief but more to protect our ancestral land, culture and identity, which it claimed was being threatened by illegal migration from Myanmar, Bangladesh and by people from outside the state.

With inputs from agencies

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The International Leopard Day is celebrated on 3 May every year to make people aware about the big cats. These majestic creatures are mostly found in the Indian subcontinent, Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southern Russia.

They can be seen in different sizes depending on their habitat. These creatures are also great climbers.

Population of these big cats has been decreasing in recent years due to external factors, and keeping that in view, the International Leopard Day is celebrated each year.

To spread more awareness about this day and these big cats, IAS officer Supriya Sahu, IFS officers Parveen Kaswan and Susanta Nanda shared some interesting posts.

IFS officer Parveen Kaswan posted, The black panther straight from Jungle book. This we captured two years back in camera trap. Black panthers are just melanistic common leopards. They are found in many states in #India. In America melanistic Jaguars are called as black panther. Today is international #LeopardDay.

The black panther straight from Jungle book. This we captured two years back in camera trap. Black panthers are just melanistic common leopards. They are found in many states in #India. In America melanistic Jaguars are called as black panther. Today is international #LeopardDay. pic.twitter.com/Q2vdX3FG7a  Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) May 3, 2023

Susanta Nanda in his post wrote, Follow the motherThe most prosecuted big cat & certainly gorgeous & urbanised.Did you know that the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, has the highest documented density of leopards in the world, at about 26/100km2? #World leopard day

Follow the mother

The most prosecuted big cat & certainly gorgeous & urbanised. Did you know that the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, has the highest documented density of leopards in the world, at about 26/100km2?#World leopard day pic.twitter.com/E3BNedFFuu  Susanta Nanda (@susantananda3) May 3, 2023

IAS officer Supriya Sahu shared an incredible video of a face off in 2021 between Scarface and Saya, the iconic leopards of Kabini.

What better day than today to share this incredible video of a face off in 2021 between Scarface and Saya, the iconic leopards of Kabini. Happy world Leopard Day #worldleopardday #InternationalLeopardDay

video courtesy-Vijay Prabhu pic.twitter.com/gCxNWAaFDo  Supriya Sahu IAS (@supriyasahuias) May 3, 2023

With inputs from agencies

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The number of incidences of internet fraud has increased in recent months, and this time, the scammers have targeted the famed Badrinath-Kedarnath shrine. Its one of Indias holiest Hindu pilgrimage sites, and a new scam includes adding phoney QR codes to trick tourists into making fraudulent payments.

The scam is carried out by planting phoney QR codes in various locations both within and outside the temple grounds, which are comparable to the authentic QR codes used by temple administration for contributions. Donations are directed to a bank account controlled by the fraudsters rather than the temples authentic account using these counterfeit codes.

Devotion mocked

This fraudulent behaviour has come to light as many devotees report being deceived by con artists. Temple authorities have issued an official statement advising worshippers to be cautious and pay only through genuine channels, such as the temples website, donation boxes, or physically passing over cash to authorised temple staff.

The temple administration has also encouraged the public to stay watchful and promptly report any suspicious activities to the authorities. They have also committed to punish individuals implicated in the scheme severely.

This latest scam aimed at the Badrinath-Kedarnath temple is a sad reflection of the growing tendency of con artists to prey on the weak and manipulate their faith for financial gain. It serves as a warning to be careful and cautious when making gifts, particularly to religious organizations, and to always use legitimate channels to do so.

Avoid falling for a fake QR code

Public awareness and education about QR code fraud, particularly spotting and avoiding bogus QR codes, are crucial. Scammers can take advantage of our confidence if we remain watchful. By remaining vigilant, we can protect ourselves and our communities against fraud.

Look for tampering signs: Scammers frequently alter authentic QR codes with their own counterfeit ones. Examine the code to determine whether it is on a sticker above another, or if there is evidence that it has been tampered with.

Never download a new QR code scanning app: Use only your phones camera. A QR code does not require any additional instruments to be used. If upon scanning a code it is asking you to download another app, in all likelihood the app will be malware, or worse, a trojan horse.

Check the name of the account holder carefully: Before you enter the pin to approve your payment, take a moment and carefully read the name of the account or wallet holder of the recipient. Normally, it is very difficult to create a UPI account/wallet using a fake name.

Ask the recipient to confirm if thats his wallet: Once you have scanned the QR code and have been shown the name of the recipients wallet name or account name, take a moment and ask one of the representatives to confirm whether the account is authentic or not.

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Beant Singh Assassination Case: The Supreme Court has refused to commute the death sentence of Babbar Khalsa terrorist Balwant Singh Rajoana who was convicted for the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.

In its ruling on Wednesday, the Supreme Court refused to commute the death sentence of the Khalistan activist to life imprisonment and directed the Centre to take a decision on his request for compassion.

The ruling was handed out by a three-judge panel made up of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath, and Sanjay Karol, who had on March 2 reserved their decision on Rajoanas petition for the commutation of his death sentence on the grounds that the Centre had taken an unusually long time to decide on his mercy petition.

What we have decided is that the stand of the Ministry of Home Affairs to defer the decision on the mercy petition of the petitioner is also the decision for decision given thereunderit actually amounts to a decision declining to grant the same for the present. Therefore, we have directed that the competent authority in due course of time would again, as and when they deem necessary, may deal with the mercy petition and take a further decision, Justice Nath, who pronounced the verdict, said, disposing of Rajoanas petition.

Rajoana has spent the last 25 years in prison while awaiting execution after being found guilty of killing Beant Singh in 1995. In an explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh in 1995, the former chief minister of Punjab and 16 other people perished. A specialised court handed down the death penalty to him in 2007. His pleading for compassion has been unanswered for more than eight years.

Senior attorney Mukul Rohatgi had argued on behalf of Rajoana that it was a violation of his fundamental rights to detain Rajoana on death row while deliberating over his mercy request for so long.

Rajaonas mercy petition was filed by a different organisation than Rajoana himself, and the Ministry of Home Affairs Additional Solicitor General KM Natraj argued that it cannot be taken into consideration until the Supreme Court has ruled on the appeals of other prisoners.

Its interesting to note that Rajoana has not contested his guilt or punishment. The Bench, however, claimed that Rajoana has received a number of official messages from the authorities.

Earlier, the Centre had refuted the petitioners claim that a final decision to commute his death sentence was made in 2019.

The top court had earlier noted that Rajoana had filed a plea under Article 32, which can be interpreted as an endorsement of the mercy petition. Throughout the hearing, the top court had repeatedly urged the Centre to clarify its position on Rajoanas mercy appeal.

We cant force you to take what decisionbut you have to take a decision, a Bench led by the then Chief Justice of India UU Lalit had told the Centre in September last year.

The petitioner stated with reference to Devender Pal Singh Bhullars case that Delay caused by circumstances beyond the prisoners control mandates commutation of death sentence. Rajaona claimed that the excessive delay hurt and had a negative impact on his physical and mental well-being.

Rajaona had claimed that the excessive delay hurt and had a negative impact on his physical and mental well-being.

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The Income Tax Department on Wednesday raided the house of Subramania Rai in Mysore, Karnataka, and seized Rs 1 crore cash hidden in a tree. He is the brother of Ashok Kumar Rai, the Congress candidate from Puttur constituency.

In the viral search video, fat stacks of cash packed in a box hidden in a tree can be seen.

WATCH:

In the past few weeks, the Karnataka police have conducted a string of raids in the poll-bound state. Agencies have seized around Rs 110 crore cash since the enforcement of the model code of conduct in Karnataka. According to the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka, 2,346 FIRs have been filed in connection with the seizures.

Additionally, moving a large amount of cash without proper document is not allowed in the state.

According to India Today, the move comes a day after the Income Tax Department raided two residences of former Congress leader Gangadhar Gowda and an educational institution in Dakshina Kannadas Belthangady. Ranjan Gowda, who is Gangadhar Gowdas son, owns the educational institute.

Last month, I-T teams raided the office of private real estate developer Ankita Builders and its owner Narayan Acharyas home in Hubballi.

The Karnataka elections are scheduled to be held on 10 May and the results will be out on 13 May.

With inputs from agencies

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A 38-year-old Pune-born architect and teacher is among the few Indians who have been invited to attend the coronation of Britains new monarch, King Charles III.

Sourabh Phadke, stunned by the invitation, says the news is yet to sink in. The charity champion was chosen for his association and great success through the causes supported by the Princes Foundation, the charity founded by Charles when he was the Prince of Wales.

Its still sinking in and I dont know what to expect considering Ive never been to a Coronation before. Its with that spirit in mind that Im approaching it, Phadke said, reacting to his royal invitation to Westminster Abbey on Saturday.

A trained architect, Phadke joined the foundations Traditional Building Skills programme and expanded his repertoire by specialising as a stonemason. It was during this course that Phadkes work stood out as he was based for four months at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, the Scottish headquarters of the Princes Foundation, and he and his fellow students built a new education pavilion on the estate.

Earlier, Phadke also received an Albukhary Foundation Scholarship to do a Masters Course at the Princes Foundations School of Traditional Arts, where he now works as a tutor. After travelling from place to place teaching and also building schools in India, Phadke moved to the United Kingdom a few years ago when his wife Persis won a scholarship to do a geography PhD at Kings College in London.

It was an opportunity for me to become a student again and become part of the [Princes Foundation] programme. I was really happy that I got the opportunity. Even though Id done stonework in the past, I hadnt trained as a stone mason, he says.

In India, he lived and worked in communities around the country  helping design and construct buildings using local materials such as mud, stone and bamboo.

It could be houses, toilets, schools, anything that a community needed. It could be in deprived communities, schools, farmers, or womens collectives. I basically lived where I was working and moved from place to place. The circumstances would differ widely but in some cases, we would reach a place and start building, lets say a toilet in open land where there was no toilet, and we would camp outdoors. It taught me a lot, he shares.

Crafts and skills are opportunities to reflect. I might be building a toilet in India or working with a student on a project in the United Kingdom, but its still the same. We need to be able to respect everything in the same way and it can offer us the same joy and the same love, he said.

The Princes Foundation was set up to provide holistic solutions to challenges facing the world and champion a sustainable approach to communities  a subject close to the heart of the 74-year-old monarch.

Gordon Neil, Executive Director of the Princes Foundation at Dumfries House, said: We are so proud of Sourabhs achievements, before he arrived to study with us at Dumfries House, all the way through our traditional craft skills programme, and while at the Princes Foundations School of Traditional Arts. His selflessness and dedication to study are being greatly rewarded by being a guest of ours at this weekends Coronation, which is sure to be a special day for our charity founder His Majesty the King as well as Sourabh and his fellow guests.

The monarchs charity works across the world focussing on the heritage-led regeneration of the Dumfries House estate in Scotland as well as the wider community.

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After extensive negotiations over the last year, Papua New Guinea agreed to jointly host with India, the 3rd edition of the Forum of India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) Summit in Port Moresby, between 21 to 23 May 2023. This included a high-level business delegation coming from India along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Papua New Guinea and undertake investments into key areas of oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, education, satellite and space industry, renewable energy projects like solar and hydroelectricity, defence cooperation and agricultural sectors.

Now, Papua New Guinea, for unknown reasons, has agreed to allow POTUS (President of the United States) to gatecrash this important FIPIC Summit. This has resulted in the cancellation of the Indian business delegations plans to visit Papua New Guinea. These actions by Papua New Guinea and the US are being perceived in India as a serious breach of established diplomatic protocols. It is pretty much resulting in the second-grade treatment being given by Papua New Guinea to Prime Minister Modi, who is a democratically elected leader of the largest populated country in the world, and has the third-largest GDP of the world.

Now, the latest revelations in MSM are that POTUS has instructed the prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand to attend the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Summit in POM on 22 May 2023, when POTUS will be in Papua New Guinea for only three hours!! This effectively has changed what was meant to be a full day FIPIC Summit in Papua New Guinea between the Indian prime minister and the PIF leaders into only a 90-minute event!! All this is because the Papua New Guinea prime minister couldnt say NO to POTUS bulldozing his way for a meeting with PIF on the same day as FIPIC Summit and Papua New Guinea prime minister decided to accommodate POTUS demands at the last minute!

Nobody can understand the urgency of this gatecrashing and bullying initiatives by POTUS in Papua New Guinea, especially considering hes meeting other world leaders at G7 Summit in Japan a few days before 22 May and then QUAD Leaders Summit in Sydney on 24 May, after which he will travel to the South Pacific region countries to meet individually with the PIF Leaders in their respective countries!

This will, unfortunately, reflect very poorly on Papua New Guinea as a country thats desperate to align with the West but at the same time wants to grow its business with the fastest-growing Asian economy of India! Also, the fact that Papua New Guinea is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) where India is the founding country of Papua New Guinea, reflects poorly on Papua New Guineas commitment to NAM!

Since many countries have now signed up or applied for BRICS membership, Papua New Guinea has lost a good opportunity to benefit from such BRICS grouping membership. The BRICS economies have combined GDP far greater than G20 economies combined. The BRICS Summit in South Africa is expected to announce an alternative reserve currency for all developing countries to move from their current dependence on USD, which has been weaponised by US & Western countries to retain economic colonial hegemonic control over weak and poor, resources-rich developing countries like Papua New Guinea!

This sequence of events reflects a fear amongst US and Western allies of the Indian prime ministers visit to Papua New Guinea for engaging with South Pacific region countries through an important FIPIC Summit! It also reflects the importance of Prime Minister Modi in the current global climate thats got fast-moving geopolitical issues impacting humanity at large. The Chinese government will leverage these dramatic diplomatic changes and breaches of protocols to increase its footprint in an unstable South Pacific region. This will increase the isolation of these small countries from their traditional colonial power countries hegemonic control as they seek to focus on important matters of global warming and economic growth through partnerships with Asian countries and the future largest economies of the world!

Hopefully, Papua New Guinea will reflect seriously on these actions and the potential damage this serious breach of protocols could cause including reputation damage by giving Prime Minister Modi a second place to POTUS, especially after a full year of negotiations for the FIPIC Summit objectives and deliverables, that should have been the focus to grow Papua New Guineas economic ties with the largest economies in Asia. Currently, the Papua New Guinea-India trade is only approximately US$200mn, but with targeted approaches into sectors of LNG, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and resources exports, this trade could grow into billions within a few years!

The author is based in Australia and is a core committee member, CASA and Adjunct Fellow, National Maritime Foundation of India. Views expressed are personal.

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Bolgatanga  President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has insisted that his government has done enough to demonstrate to workers unrelenting resolve in cushioning them against hardships following the aftermath of the global economic crisis and the Russia invasion of Ukraine.

He explained that the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, coupled with COVID-19 pandemic scuttled a lot of economies on the African continent and it took his visionary economic management team to devise measures in mitigating the impact of the crisis on the citizenry.

According to him, "all the measures deployed to tackle the ailing economy following the external factors is clear manifestation that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration has the plight of workers, their dependants and every Ghanaian at heart, and will continue to shoulder the responsibility towards restoring hope and confidence to the economy".

President Akufo-Addo was addressing this year's national May Day marked in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region on Monday which attracted workers' unions across the country-including the Coalition of Concern Teachers of Ghana ((CCT), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Railway Workers Union of Ghana (RWU), General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), among others,who thronged the Jubilee park in Bolgatanga to grace the occasion.

This year's national May Day parade was observed on the theme: Protecting incomes and pensions in an era of economic crises-Our responsibility'.

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Some workers were given awards by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in recognition of their diligence and hard work and they wore T-shirts, carried placards, some of which read, 'Government pay proper attention to Free SHS', 'Lands Commission needs a new salary structure' and 'Workers need better conditions of service'.

PresidentAkufo-Addo urged workers to remain patient in the wake of the recent economic turbulence, as his government had the character to turn round the fortunes of the country in all areas of national life in spite of the damaging effect of the crisis, it managed to protect lives, livelihoods and jobs.

"Incomes, pensions, and investments are equally affected as a result of the multifaceted crisis, global pandemic was dire, the worst crisis the world had ever been confronted with in the past 15 years, hence the need for workers to bear with the government, as it showed total commitment to introducing innovative economic policies targeted at rescuing the economy.

"We will restore micro-economic stability to address the long-term structural challenges, to pave the way for sustainable economic growth and development since my government is a listening government and issues of labour agitations brought to my attention has always been resolved amicably.
Despite Bakhmut facing one of the most intense battles, the Russian claim of its siege and control and Ukraines assertion of pockets holding out, the war in Ukraine has seen more standoff attacks by missiles, drones and artillery shelling, with hardly any major ground offensive in the recent past. Russian cruise missile barrage and Ukrainian drone attack on Crimean Oil Depot are part of this design. Both Russia as well as US-led NATO fighting a proxy war through Ukraine, are feeling fatigue of war, but dont find negotiation as an attractive enough option, due to unfinished agendas.

While the kinetic, contact, hybrid war between Russia and Ukraine was heading towards stalemate with sporadic standoff strikes, offensive actions are happening in the US-led NATOs undeclared, non-kinetic, non-contact war against Russia in the economic, information, diplomatic, and political spheres such as the renewed push of G7 for more sanctions (hypocritically keeping nuclear fuel, fertilisers, critical minerals out of it), the threat to extend Black Sea grain deal beyond 18 May 2023. Efforts are on to keep NATO together amid signs of internal frictions and mitigating the impact of the Pentagon intelligence leaks, which took some steam away from much-publicised propaganda of the West lauding Ukraines capability to launch a spring offensive to recapture entire lost territory, exposing some its glaring weaknesses. Under such circumstances, it remains to be seen which side could launch the next major ground offensive.

The maximal of war in Ukraine

Certain stark realities decide the maximum limits of the war, which both sides are hesitating to accept. Firstly, Russia with the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles under Putin will not get annihilated/decisively defeated without using any of these major weapons. Secondly, the US will not risk the annihilation of Washington/New York to save Volodymyr Zelensky/Poland. Thirdly Russia will not be able to annihilate Ukraine supported by NATOs without a serious breakdown internally. Fourthly Europe will have to follow American diktat as it knowingly fell prey to American design of cutting off its dependency on Russia and ignored its own security and Russian security concerns for too long. Fifthly, Ukraine cant recapture entire lost territory without NATO getting fully involved, meaning Third World War and Nuclear Armageddon risk. The war is therefore likely to be prosecuted within these maximal limits.

NATO would like the war to be confined to Ukraine, for which it has little choice but to support it for as long as it takes. It cant afford any spillover of war to any NATO country, which implies posing an existential threat to Russia, forcing it to make the unpleasant decision of nuclear catastrophe or forcing the US to selectively shy away from NATOs security obligations to affected member States to save Washington and New York. NATO, therefore, echoes that Putin must not win; hence, boosting Ukraines will to fight by creating a hope of winning an unwinnable war seems to be its effort with a willing Zelensky to do so. During NATOs meeting at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany besides discussing further assistance to Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg extended an olive branch to Ukraine by reaffirming that Kyiv will eventually join NATO, as Zelensky reiterated his demand of fast-tracked admission into NATO of Ukraine, fully knowing that its a dream with many practical difficulties.

Possibilities of Ukraines spring offensive

While the Russians are downplaying the drone attack in Crimea having put an oil depot on fire by announcing no casualties, Ukrainians without owning it publicly, have hailed long-lasting punishments to Russians for cruise missile strikes claiming 25 lives, going ahead advising civilians in Crimea to remain away from military installations, indicating an offensive design.

NATO claims to have met 98 per cent of Ukraines need to launch counteroffensive, provided 1,550 armoured vehicles and 230 tanks to form units, trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian armoured brigades. Some aircraft, anti-aircraft weapons & systems, and ammunition has been given by NATO allies. NATOs Secretary-General asserted that it will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory, thereby encouraging it to launch an offensive, although Zelenskys wish list demands better air defence and aircraft.

Notwithstanding the boost in the military arsenal, professionals know that collection of hardware doesnt necessarily mean a battle-winning force! During Ukraine Defense Contact Group Meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, General Mark Milleys remarks indicate that additional weapons issued by NATO can help Ukraine defend itself longer, but its not a silver bullet to defeat Russia. Speaking aside Lloyd Austin, its not the first time he has cautioned NATO to be realistic on its expectations; hence, his words need serious consideration.

President Zelensky, has been primed to believe in the missions (counteroffensives) success and that we will be able to de-occupy our territories. With the cumulative aid over $100 billion poured into Ukraine Zelensky has no choice, but to continue fighting, as any compromise will jeopardize his survival; hence he is overly obligated to carry out Washingtons plan into action of prolonging the conflict, short of pushing them into nuclear war or inviting an attack on NATO, till last Ukrainian standing, despite having displaced more than 6 million people internally, sent nearly 8 million refugees outside, suffering significant casualties and having destroyed half of its infrastructure.

Will Russia launch major offensive?

Russia still finds itself well short of achieving its overall strategic aim of annexing the entire Donbas region, capturing the entire southern corridor to link it to Crimea and extend it to Transnistria to ultimately landlock Ukraine to secure the Black Sea for its maritime movements. With a heavy burden of economic cost and casualties, Russia is struggling with its desired end state for conflict termination. Currently, Russias residual combat capability is quite limited to making significant gains in any ground offensive towards its strategic aim. It has adopted standoff attack options to minimise casualties of men and material. It needs time to build its combat power to regain the initiative.

It makes strategic sense for Russia, to consolidate occupied territories, create a viable defence line and rebuild its economy and hardware to add to overall combat capability. Russia has already built up multiple layers of defence as seen in many satellite imageries, in parts of Donbas and southern Ukraine like layers of anti-tank ditches, obstacles, minefields and trenches. The superiority of air assets with Russia is also a significant factor.

Ukraine appreciates that Moscow wants to bleed Ukraine dry through the risk of the wars renewal that would scare off investors and prompt people to flee and then to attack again which may well be true. Russia will therefore rely on standoff attacks to destroy the maximum newly inducted arsenal of Ukraine and its critical infrastructure, instead of a hard slogging ground offensive, unless inescapable. Preparation of absorbing the attack and responding with a strong counter-offensive may be part of the plan, should Ukraine take the initiative of launching an offensive. The option to use nuclear weapons, in case of existential threat will continue to be a powerful tool to prevent NATO from entering into contact war with Russia in future too.

Conclusion

While Russia can choose its time and place for its offensive/counteroffensive, Ukraine is under pressure to launch its overhyped spring offensive. NATO will like to see Zelensky delivering Bang for the Buck, having met his 98 per cent requirements of military hardware, and shaping the battlefield accordingly. It is interesting to note that the arms dealers from US, working like a deep state will continue pushing the US administration to continue with the war, who in turn will push NATO and Ukraine to continue till the last Ukrainian standing.

Pentagon knows that ultimately Ukraine will have to make some compromises to its territorial integrity, as its not possible to fully evict Russians from there. However, Russia winning an additional 15 per cent of Ukraine after Crimea, is an unpalatable pill for NATO, which can encourage Russia to grab more in future; hence it would like to give offensive a chance with a willing Zelensky, overhyped to show Russians their weakness, more so when NATO carries no burden of body bags. President Zelensky has no choice but to continue the war, with Western propaganda depicting him as the undisputed winner, overplaying the poor morale of the Russian military, having shaped the battlefield accordingly.

Apparently, Ukraine may be pushed into an offensive soon and Russia and Ukraine will see some more destruction before coming to terms with the reality of changed territorial alignment, after delaying it as long as it takes!

The author is a veteran of the Indian Army. Views expressed are personal.

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Mulki (Karnataka): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a direct attack on the Congress, alleging that the partys entire platform is based on the divide and rule doctrine and accused it of spreading false information about India while its democracy and development are praised and respected around the world.

The Prime Minister referred to Congress as the enemy of peace and development and charged it with insulting and abusing Indias defence forces.

Congress is an enemy of peace and development. When Congress is there, investors will flee. Congress protects aakas (boss) of terror, they encourage appeasement, Modi said at a public meeting in Dakshina Kannada district of coastal Karnataka, which is a BJP stronghold.

He said Congress only identity is appeasement politics.

Will you (people) allow such Congress to come to power, will you allow Karnataka to get ruined? he asked.

Across the country whichever state wants peace and development, the first thing people there do is to oust Congress from there. If there is peace in society and the country is progressing, Congress cannot sit peacefully or will not be able to digest it. Congress entire politics is based on divide and rule policy, he added.

This was the Prime Ministers first poll rally today ahead of the high-stakes Assembly elections in Karnataka with Modi scheduled to address two more meetings later in the day.

Alleging that the Congress tries to save those who were arrested for conspiring to spread terror, Modi claimed that it not only withdraws cases against such anti-social elements, but also releases them.

The reverse-gear Congress also takes electoral help from anti-national forces, the Prime Minister further alleged.

Noting that the whole country respects and honours our defence forces, Modi said the Congress insults and abuses the military brass and soldiers.

The whole world appreciates and respects Indias democracy and development, he said, but the Congress is going across the world defaming the country.

America, Australia, Japan, UK, in every corner of the world India is being appreciated or not? Why? It is not because of Modi, it is happening because of your (peoples) votes. Its the strength of your votes, which formed a strong and stable government in Delhi, he added.

Highlighting that BJP wants to make Karnataka number one in India, the Prime MInister said: We want Karnataka to become number one in industrial and agriculture development, fisheries and port. We are working on it. He charged the Congress of looking to make Karnataka the number one ATM for its Shahi Parivar (royal family) sitting in Delhi.

Karnataka BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel and Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje among other BJP leaders were present at the rally.

With inputs from agencies

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16:19 (ist)

Karnataka Election 2023 LIVE

Punish 'abuse culture' of Congress by chanting 'Jai Bajrangbali' while casting vote, PM urges electorate in Karnataka

Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged Karnataka voters to punish individuals who engage in abuse while casting their ballots in voting places on May 10 while accusing Congress of having an "abuse culture" on Wednesday.

According to him, Congress's leaders despise and mistreat him because he has overthrown their "corrupt system".

"In this election, Congress is seeking votes in the name of its leader who is retiring...the other way in which they are seeking votes is by abusing Modi, whoever feels like is abusing," Modi said.

Addressing a public meeting here in Uttara Kannada district, he said: "Will anyone in Karnataka accept this abuse culture? Will anyone like abusing someone? Does anyone like even a small man being abused? Will Karnataka forgive those abusing?"
Pakistans former prime minister Imran Khan has been advised to take complete rest for 10 days to avoid further complications with his injured leg, a leader from his party said on Wednesday, a day after he was reportedly injured during a chaos at the Lahore High Court.

In November, Imran Khan, 70, was wounded in his lower leg after a gunman opened fire on a convoy carrying the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. He was leading a march on Islamabad to demand snap elections.

PTI Senator Shibli Faraz said in a tweet that Imran Khan was injured again during his appearance at the Lahore High Court on Tuesday.

He wrote: Imran Khans leg got injured again yesterday at the Lahore High Court due to the jostling brought about because of the lack of security provided by the government.

Doctors have advised [Imran] to rest for 10 days, the PTI Senator tweeted.

A medical board of the Shaukat Khanum Hospital has also advised Imran Khan complete rest, sources were quoted as saying by Geo News.

Officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, warned that if the PTI chief does not rest then his leg, hit by bullets in Wazirabad during the long march last year, may swell.

Swelling is a sign of threat and he may require another surgery in such a scenario, said the sources within the medical board. It also advised the PTI chief from avoiding moving unnecessarily and not to put pressure on his affected leg.

More than 100 cases have been registered against Imran Khan since he was voted out of office through a no-confidence motion in April last year. But he has not been arrested in any of the cases so far.

After sustaining injuries, Imran Khan has sought relief on medical grounds and skipped a number of court appearances.

Reacting to the latest development, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah took a jibe at the former premier, alleging that a fake report was secured from Shaukat Khanum Hospital to avoid court appearances.

The advice of 10-day rest is actually advice to avoid cases, the election petition was also to avoid lawsuits, and the assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were also dissolved to avoid lawsuits. After the bucket, box, dust bin, Shaukat Khanums false report has been presented, said the interior minister.

Sanaullah said that as soon as the court ordered Imran Khan to appear before the police, the report was presented as a medical excuse.

Imran Niazi has to answer in Toshakhana, Tyrian  and other theft cases, said the minister. When the garbage can did not work, then the excuse of complete rest is being used to avoid court appearances and not give answers.

Earlier in the day, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) expressed annoyance over the non-appearance of Imran Khan in a case.

The court warned former Khan that it may cancel his interim bail as it expressed its staunch dissatisfaction over his persistent absence from court hearings in various cases.

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Throwing its weight behind the Philippines, the United States (US) government has asserted that remains deeply concerned about intimidation by Chinese coast guard vessels in the disputed South China Sea.

According to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel J. Kritenbrink, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.s visit to the US this week shows how solid and lasting the two nations friendship is.

In a new maritime dispute between the two nations, the Philippines accused Chinas coast guard on Friday of dangerous manoeuvres and aggressive tactics in the South China Sea. China claimed that the Philippine boats made deliberate provocative moves.

We remain deeply concerned by (Chinas) continued intimidation and harassment of Philippine vessels as they continue to undertake really routine patrols within the Philippine exclusive economic zone, he said in a teleconference from the United States.

Such actions and behaviour on the part of Beijing are truly unacceptable.

Kritenbrink added that the United States and its allies understood how crucial it was to keep the Taiwan Strait peaceful.

In a trip that represents a significant change in their relationship, the Philippines and the US reaffirmed their long-standing security alliance on Monday. Both nations are looking for measures to counter Chinas assertiveness in the South China Sea and close to Taiwan.

US President Joe Biden told Marcos on Monday said the U.S. commitment to defending its treaty ally was ironclad. Marcos said the region had arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now.

Relations deteriorated under Marcos anti-American predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who openly criticised Washington while trying to attract China.

Kritenbrink expressed being exceptionally confident about the two countries relations.

(With agency inputs)

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China wants the international community to respect Myanmars sovereignty and assist it in achieving peace and reconciliation while encouraging Myanmar to choose its own path towards development. This was stated by Chinas foreign ministry on Wednesday.

Since the military toppled an elected government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2001 and suppressed widespread pro-democracy protests that erupted after the coup, Myanmar had been mostly ostracised by Western nations.

However, neighbouring China has kept close ties with Myanmars generals, and on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who was visiting Myanmar for the first time as a senior foreign official, met Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw.

China supports Myanmar in exploring a development path with Myanmar characteristics that suits to its national conditions, Qins ministry cited him as saying in the talks.

China supported Myanmar in advancing its political transition process and backs relevant parties  to properly address differences and seek national reconciliation under the constitutional and legal framework, Qin said.

According to him, the international community should respect Myanmars sovereignty and work to aid it in bringing about peace and reconciliation.

Since the coup, violence in Myanmar has increased as pro-democracy activists have taken up arms to fight the well-equipped army, in some cases alongside ethnic minority forces fighting for self-determination.

Southeast Asian neighbours of Myanmar have made vain attempts to start a dialogue.

China is a significant consumer of Myanmars natural resources, such as jade, tin, and lumber, and on occasion has had to take in refugees who have fled violence between insurgents and government troops in Myanmar across the border.

Regarding economic development, Qin declared that China would push ahead with projects in agriculture, education, and health care as well as investments related to a China-Myanmar Economic Corridor.

The Chinese foreign minister stated that China assisted Myanmar in enhancing its ties with its western neighbour, Bangladesh.

According to MRTV, conversations covered expanding border trade and collaborating on energy.

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Notable scholar, author and historian Yuval Noah Harari believes that the world is on the verge of getting a new religion that will be completely generated by artificial intelligence. The scholar, widely known for his best-selling books such as Sapiens and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, believes that software like ChatGPT may draw devotees by creating its own sacred texts in the not-so-distant future.

Also read: ChatGPT has excellent Emotional Intelligence, often prefers emotions over facts finds researcher

Speaking at a science conference, he stated that AI had achieved mastery of our language and was now capable of shaping human society. Harari used the occasion to lend his voice to mounting calls for immediate regulation of the industry, which experts say is in the midst of a dangerous arms race.

ChatGPT will make cults and sects of its own

In the future, we may see the first cults and sects in history with treasured scriptures created by a non-human intelligence, he added.

Of course, religions throughout history claimed that their holy books were written by unknown human intelligence. This was never true before. This could become true very, very quickly, with far-reaching consequences, he added.

He cautioned that robots now had the capacity to cocoon us in a Matrix-like realm of illusions, referring to the 1999 sci-fi thriller.

Also read: ChatGPTs Horror Story: Redditor asks ChatGPT to write a horror story, AI bot delivers big time

For those who are unaware of The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves, the film depicts a dystopian future in which mankind is inadvertently locked inside a virtual world built by clever robots to divert humans while utilising their bodies as a source of energy.

AI can influence societies in unimaginable ways

Contrary to what certain conspiracy theories believe, you dont actually need to implant chips in peoples brains to control or influence them, he stated. For thousands of years, prophets, poets, and politicians have utilised language and stories to manipulate and control people while reshaping society, he added.

AI is now likely to be capable of doing it. And once it can, it wont have to deploy killer robots to shoot us down. It can get humans to pull the trigger, he went on to say. We need to act rapidly before AI gets out of our hands, he warned, calling for tighter regulation of AI and companies working with AI. Drug companies cannot sell people new medicines without first subjecting these products to rigorous safety checks.

Similarly, governments must immediately ban the release into the public domain of any more revolutionary AI tools before they are made safe, he said.

Hararis advocacy against AI

Harari has been a very vocal advocate for those who believe that AI will spell the doom of mankind. He was one of the thousands of dignitaries who had signed an open letter calling for a halt on the development of AI, and asked for regulations before developers are allowed to work further on the technology.

Also read: TruthGPT: What exactly does Elon Musk plan to do with his AI bot that is supposed to rival ChatGPT

Harari shares his fears with tech billionaire Elon Musk, who also is very apprehensive about how quickly AI is developing. Once an initial investor at OpenAI, the people who created ChatGPT, Musk has then gone on to denounce the companys founder and ChatGPT. Musk is now in the process of creating his own version of ChatGPT that would only emphasise on the truth.

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Refrain from unnecessary comments and innuendoes about the visits of US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape appealed commentators and people of his country.

I want to appeal to all Papua New Guinea commentators, on both social and mainstream media, to refrain from unnecessary comments and innuendoes about the visits of President Biden and Prime Minister Modi, Marape said on Wednesday.

The appeal of Papua New Guinea PM came in the wake of increasing number of comments, on both social and mainstream media, ahead of the visits of both the world leaders.

Modi, Bidens Papua New Guinea visit

The visit of Biden to Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the Pacific on 22 May, on his way to Australia for the Quad summit will coincide with PM Modis first visit to PNG on 21-22 May.

The Indian Prime Minister is also visiting the Pacific island nation on his way to Australia for the Quad meet.

The Quad summit will be held on 24 May.

Marape had earlier said that he had invited Biden when they met in Washington last year, and was very honoured that he has fulfilled his promise to me to visit our country.

Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Marape and have a meeting with 18 Pacific Island leaders of the Pacific Island Forum, who will be in Port Moresby at the same time for the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC).

Dont take Modi-Bidens visits for granted

PM Marape told Papua New Guineans that such visits are not easy to put together, as Papua New Guinea is not the only country in the Indo-Pacific region that PM Modi and Biden could have chosen to visit, especially at a time like this.

The leaders of the USA and India chose to visit us when they could have easily gone elsewhere, so let us respect their choice to visit us, he added.

Let us not take such visits for granted. I appeal to all commentators on both mainstream and social media to refrain from making unnecessary inferences, especially on matters that you know little of, such as global geo-politics and various other issues, PM Marape said.

Put on a fitting welcome for Modi, Biden

Marape said Papua New Guineans should appreciate that Modi and Biden, leaders of the two of the biggest economies in the world, have chosen to visit the country.

Papua New Guinea remains friends to all and enemies to none  a foundational policy that was deeply Pangu Patis at the time of Independence in 1975. Being friends to all and enemies to none, we have relationships with all countries. These relationships are invaluable, Marape said.

India is a huge country  a global economic powerhouse  and it is good for PNG that we have a good relationship with them. India is currently ranked as the fourth-largest economy in the world and will continue to grow bigger. USA is the No. 1 economy in the world, he added.

Let us put on a fitting welcome for these world leaders, as well as those from the Pacific, and make their stay a memorable one. I thank President Biden and Prime Minister Modi for this huge vote-of-confidence in PNG, Marape concluded.

Papua New Guinea will jointly host with India, the 3rd edition of the Forum of India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) Summit in Port Moresby, between 21 to 23 May 2023.

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On Tuesday, a woman testified in a civil trial in New York that Donald Trump had sexually attacked her on an American flight in the late 1970s.

In her testimony for the writer E. Jean Carrolls rape and defamation case against the former president, Jessica Leeds described the alleged assault.

Leeds testified in federal court in Manhattan that Trump had his hand up her skirt while they were travelling in business class on a trip to New York in 1978 or 1979.

There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue, said Leeds, now 81.

He was trying to kiss me, grabbing my breasts, she added.

Trump has vehemently and repeatedly refuted any charges of sexual assault, and he has never faced legal action as a result of any such allegations.

To persuade the nine-person jury that Trump has participated in a history of sexual misconduct, Carrolls attorneys brought Leeds to testify.

Carroll, 79, has filed a lawsuit against Trump, claiming that in the middle of the 1990s, he sexually attacked her in a changing room at the upscale Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan.

She further asserts that after she made the accusation public in 2019, Trump slandered her by calling her a complete con job.

Before Trump was elected president in 2016, Leeds first made her accusations in an interview with The New York Times.

About a dozen women came forward accusing Trump of sexual misconduct in the run-up to the vote.

Leeds went public with the accusation after Trump refuted sexual assault allegations during a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton.

I was furious because he was lying, Leeds recalled.

Jurors also watched a video of Trumps previous denial of Leeds accusation, where he said, Believe me, she would not be my first choice.

Trumps lawyers confirmed that the ex-president would not be testifying.

Narcissistic sociopath

A friend of Carrolls also testified Tuesday, telling jurors that Carroll called her shortly after the alleged attack, in 1996, to confide in her.

I want the world to know she was telling the truth, Lisa Birnbach testified.

Trumps lawyers argued Birnbach was motivated by politics, citing comments she has made on podcasts calling Trump a narcissistic sociopath, a Russian agent and an asset of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Carroll filed her lawsuit late last year after a law took effect in New York that gave victims of sexual assault a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers decades after attacks may have occurred.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and asks that Trump retract his comments.

No criminal prosecution can stem from Carrolls civil case but if Trump loses, it will be the first time he has ever been held legally liable over an allegation of sexual assault.

The case is one of several legal challenges facing Trump as the 76-year-old Republican seeks a return to the White House in next years election.

Last month he pleaded not guilty in a criminal case related to a hush-money payment made to a porn star just before the 2016 vote.

Trump is also being investigated over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the southern state of Georgia, his alleged mishandling of classified documents taken from the White House and his involvement in the storming of the US Capitol by his supporters on 6 January 2021.

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A freight train derailed on Tuesday in Russias Bryansk region bordering Ukraine due to an explosive device on the tracks, the local governor said.

Firefighters were working at the scene and two recovery trains had been dispatched to the area, Tass news agency, citing law enforcement agencies, said, adding that local prosecutors had begun an investigation into the derailment.

Operator Russian Railways earlier said around 20 wagons had come off the tracks due to unauthorised interference. Snezhetskaya is just to the southeast of Bryansk.

Russian territory and Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, have been hit in recent days by a series of attacks. The last four days have seen two trains derailed by explosions, a suspected drone hitting an oil depot in Crimea that caused a huge blaze and power lines blown up near Saint Petersburg.

Ukraine has followed its usual line of not claiming responsibility for the attacks, which came as Kyiv said it is finalising preparations for a spring offensive announced weeks ago.

Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of Russias western Bryansk region, said Tuesday the train was derailed by an unidentified explosive device.

He said it went off at Snezhetskaya station, outside the regional hub of Bryansk, a city of around 370,000 people near the Ukraine and Belarus borders. A locomotive and several wagons of the train derailed, he said, adding that there were no casualties.

On Monday, a similar explosion caused a train to derail and catch fire near Unecha, in the same region but closer to the Ukraine border. Throughout its more than year-long offensive, the Kremlin has sought to portray Russia as safe while its troops fight in Ukraine.

Earlier on Tuesday it acknowledged a security threat.

Of course, we are aware that the Kyiv regime, which is behind a number of such attacks  terrorist attacks  plans to continue this line, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

All our intelligence services are doing everything necessary to ensure security.

A freight train derailed around 150 km (90 miles) to the west of Bryansk on Monday after a blast. Pictures of that incident shared on social media showed several tank carriages lying on their side and dark grey smoke billowing into the air.

Rail sabotage

Russian Railways also put out a statement saying the train had derailed due to the intervention of unauthorised persons in the work of rail transport.

It did not mention an explosive device.

The state operator said the incident took place at 7:47 pm local time (1647 GMT) between Snezhetskaya and the nearby village of Belye Berega.

It said the trains front locomotive and around 20 wagons were derailed and that rail traffic in that section had been suspended. There have been many reports of sabotage on railways in Russia since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive, but this week is the first time officials confirmed attacks.

More than 65 people, including a third of minors, have been detained since the fall in around 20 regions of the country alone on charges of railway sabotage, according to a count by the independent media Mediazona published in mid-April. Ukraine says it has been preparing for months a counteroffensive aimed at repelling Russian forces from the territory they currently hold in the east and south.

Denmark meanwhile said it was sending 1.7 billion kroner ($250 million) worth of military aid to Ukraine to support the forthcoming Ukrainian offensive,

The package included mine clearing vehicles, ammunition and financial support for the procurement of air defence, the Danish defence ministry said in a statement.

The equipment is essential to pave the way for Ukrainian tanks and mechanised infantry on the front line, acting defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen said.

With inputs from agencies.

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Ugandan troops under the East Africa Community Regional Force (EACRF) on Monday, May 1, deployed in Mabenga in eastern DR Congo, completing the contingent deployment in the Joint Operation Area.

Uganda has troops in Bunagana, Chengerero and Rutshuru/Kiwanja to enhance the protection of civilians, opening up of the Bunagana-Rutshuru-Rumangabo-Goma main supply route for the free flow of people and goods, and enhance humanitarian support to the population, the EACRF said.

"Full deployment of troops into the Eastern DRC has seen observance of the ceasefire," the regional force said.

"EACRF remains resilient, committed and determined to the peace and stability process in Eastern DRC while upholding and respecting the DRC constitution, sovereignty, and territorial integrity."

1/3 Ugandan Contingent troops under the East Africa Community Regional Force (EACRF) on Monday, 1st May 2023 deployed in Mabenga, completing the contingent's deployment in the Joint Operation Area. pic.twitter.com/jH45ro42v6-- EACRF DRC (@eacrf_DRC) May 1, 2023

The regional force has troops from Kenya, Burundi, Uganda and South Sudan. It deployed in November 2022, and since December has occupied positions vacated by the M23 rebels in North Kivu province.

The EAC Secretariat said on Sunday the regional force has made "tremendous progress" in efforts to restore peace and stability in eastern DR Congo, including the withdrawal of armed groups.
Five people out in search of Himalayan Viagra or the Yarsagumba are suspected to be buried in an avalanche in Darchula district of the far-west.

The missing people include 4 females and a male. The weather condition is also not good, confirmed Deputy Chief District Officer Pradip Singh Dhami to ANI over the phone.

An avalanche hit the Byans Village Council- 01, Bolin at around 3 pm (Local Time) on Tuesday, an official familiar with the matter said, adding that five people are confirmed to be missing with the search team at the spot carrying out the search and rescue operations.

A caravan of people climbs higher up the snow-capped mountains for weeks during the annual Yarsagumba harvesting season. This year the harvest is about to start in the Himalayas of Nepal which is later sold at a higher price.

Scientists have found that a spindly fungus sprouts from the dead caterpillar hosts head. Two to six centimetres long, the fungus shoots above the soil, acting as a tiny, finger-shaped flag for harvesters to find. It is found at altitudes between 3000 and 5000 meters in Nepal, India and Bhutan. Yarsagumba also is known as the Himalayan Viagra which is found only in the Tibetan Plateau.

As many as 80 teams from the Armed Police Force along with the Nepal Police have been deployed to the site, said Pradip Singh Dhami, the Deputy Chief District Officer of Darchula.

One of the mountainous districts of Far-West Nepal bordering the Uttarakhand of India from the West and Tibet from the North, Darchula is situated at an altitude ranging from 518 to 7132 meters from the sea level.

With inputs from agencies.

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As generative AI technologies such as GPT-4, ChatGPT, Microsofts Bing AI etc. become more common, there is a growing concern about the technologys possible misuse and risks. Chief executive officers from tech companies such as Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Sundar Pichai of Google, and Sam Altman of OpenAI are slated to meet with US Vice President Kamala Harris and other government authorities to discuss these issues.

According to an official invitation received by Reuters, US President Joe Biden wants to meet with CEOs to make sure their products are safe before making them available to the public. This comes after numerous prominent tech entrepreneurs, including Teslas Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, signed a letter requesting a halt in AI research for the remainder of the year.

Also read: ChatGPT roasted: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calls his AI chatbot a horrible product

According to the article, US Vice President Harris will meet with technology CEOs on Thursday, May 4. Bidens Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Director of the National Economic Council Lael Brainard, and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo are expected to attend the meeting.

It is also possible that tech CEOs may discuss AI rules with the US government. Following the public release of ChatGPT late last year, OpenAIs CEO, Sam Altman, requested regulation. He has stated this multiple times in interviews. Weve got to be careful here, Altman told ABC News in March, adding, I think people should be happy that were a little bit scared of this (generative AI).

Also read: AI is dangerous, can threaten national security, society needs to adapt, says Google CEO Sundar Pichai

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella have similar worries. In an interview with CBS, Pichai stated that AI may be very harmful if used incorrectly. In a separate interview, he mentioned Musk and others writing an open letter opposing AI. He stated that unless multiple governments interfere, computer corporations will be powerless to halt AI progress.

Interestingly, Geoffrey Hinton, referred to as the godfather of AI, announced his departure from Google after working at the company for over a decade. Metz now wants to talk to stakeholders about the risks of AI. He went on to say that Google is operating responsibly.

Also read: AIs Godfather Quits: Googles leading AI expert quits, starts warning about the techs future

The Biden administration said earlier this month that it is soliciting public input on the hazards of AI and potential laws. At the same time, US Vice President Joe Biden stated that it remains to be seen if AI is harmful. Due to privacy concerns, several governments have prohibited the use of AI technologies such as ChatGPT.

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Google India has officially announced that they will be launching their upcoming mid-range smartphone, in India sometime this month. The tech giant posted on Twitter that a new Pixel phone would be available for purchase on Flipkart on May 11.

Although Google hasnt revealed the phones name, but the teaser image and launch date clearly suggest that the Pixel 7a will be available in India this month.

Google Pixel 7a Launch in India

Googles official graphic reveals the design that weve seen on Pixel A and flagship phones. The Pixel 7a is expected to be unveiled by Google at its forthcoming Google I/O event on May 10. As a result, it makes perfect sense for the corporation to make it available in the Indian market the day after the launch.

According to the teaser image, the Pixel 7a will keep its twin camera arrangement on the rear. The back panel will continue to have a horizontal camera module, as seen on previous Pixel phones. It is also comparable to the Pixel 6a. Google appears to be shunning design experimentation.

As of now, the tech company is not working on any other phones, and the Pixel 8 series is unlikely to be unveiled anytime before the end of the year.

The tech company generally releases its low-cost or mid-range Pixel A series phone in the middle of the year. The new Pixel 7a appears to be arriving a bit sooner. The Pixel 6a was released in India in July 2022, and the Pixel 7a will come two months earlier.

Google Pixel 7a: Specifications

So far, reports indicate that the Pixel 7a will be powered by Googles Tensor G2 processor, which is not surprising given that the firm began employing its own CPU with the Pixel 6 series. It is believed to be equipped with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. The device will have upto 11 5G bands and may be equipped with a 6.1-inch OLED screen with FHD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 90Hz, a minor improvement above the Pixel 6as 60Hz screen.

Recent leaks also suggest that the Pixel 7a will have a 4410mAh battery, which is marginally bigger than the 4,306mAh battery from its predecessor. According to recent leaks, Google may continue to support 18W wired charging, but there will be no charger in the retail package.

We think it is time for smartphone manufacturers like Google and Samsung to move away from sub-25W charging standards and invest in supporting greater charging rates, especially when we have a bunch of Android smartphones that have set the standard for at least 65W or 80W charging.

We are also likely to see a triple camera arrangement at the rear, which will be headlined by a have a 64MP, Sony IMX787 sensor.

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The World Bank on Wednesday confirmed Indian-origin Ajay Banga as its next president. He will take over the role from David Malpass on 2 June.

Bangas appointment comes at a pivotal time for the development lender as it looks to better address climate change.

The Board looks forward to working with Mr. Banga on the World Bank Group Evolution process, the bank wrote in a statement published shortly after the board voted to approve his leadership for a five-year term.

In February, president Joe Biden said that the US was nominating Banga to lead the World Bank, after its current chief Malpass announced plans to step down early.

Who is Ajay Banga?

63-year-old Banga is an Indian-American. He served as Mastercards executive chairman, after having previously served as the companys CEO.

Banga was born in Khadki Cantonment, Pune. His father served in the Indian Army. Banga graduated in Economics from St Stephens College, Delhi and went on to receive an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

He was conferred with Indias fourth highest civilian honour Padma Shri in 2016.

With inputs from agencies

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Damascus, Syria: As regional cooperation between the two allies grows, Irans Ebrahim Raisi will make his maiden trip to Damascus as president on Wednesday. This will be the first visit by an Iranian leader since the start of the civil war in Syria.

Tehran has supported Syria economically, politically, and militarily during the 12-year conflict, assisting Damascus in regaining lost ground and putting Iran in a prominent position as President Bashar al-Assad attempts to concentrate on reconstruction.

The visit takes place amid a bustle of diplomacy in the Middle East as regional relations with Iran and Syria shift, only weeks after Iran reached a historic accord to reestablish ties with regional adversary Saudi Arabia.

Raisi and Assad would discuss bilateral ties, shared economic and political issues, and positive developments in the region, AFP quoted Syrias state news agency SANA as saying.

Preparations for Raisis visit have been underway for days in the Damascus district housing Irans embassy, with concrete barriers in front of the mission removed.

Irans president would lead a senior economic-political delegation for his two-day trip at Assads invitation, Iranian state media reported.

The last Iranian president to visit Damascus was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in September 2010, while Assad has officially visited Tehran twice since the war broke out, the last time in May 2022.

Damascus-based analyst Osama Danura said the visit will open a new page in the close relationship between the two countries.

It could focus on long-term economic strategies, he added, noting Iran has put itself forward strongly as a contributor to the reconstruction phase.

Deals expected

Syrias war has claimed more than 500,000 lives, displaced millions and ravaged the countrys infrastructure and industry.

Swathes of territory remain outside government control.

A large number of agreements and memoranda of understanding will be signed during Raisis visit, including on energy and electricity, Syrias pro-government Al-Watan newspaper reported.

There would also be discussions on a new Iranian credit line for Syria for investment in the power sector, the daily added, in a country where blackouts can last around 20 hours a day.

In January 2019, Syria and Iran signed 11 agreements and memoranda of understanding, including a long-term strategic economic cooperation deal.

Both Tehran and Damascus remain under heavy Western sanctions.

The regional atmosphere following the Saudi-Iran rapprochement has made Raisis visit more appropriate, analyst Danura said.

Assad is hoping full normalisation of ties with wealthy Gulf monarchies and other Arab states will also help finance reconstruction.

In April, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan made the first visit to Damascus by a Saudi official since the start of the war.

On the ground, Iran-backed groups including Lebanons Hezbollah continue to bolster Assads forces, while Iran says it only deploys military advisers in Syria.

Fighting terrorism is one of the successful examples of cooperation between the two countries, Irans foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said this week.

We were with the Syrian nation during the difficult years caused by the organised attacks of multinational terrorists and we will be with the Syrian nation during the construction period, he added.

Damascus considers all those who oppose it as terrorists.

Analyst Danura said he also expected Syria-Turkey relations to be discussed.

Tehran has been part of four-way talks with Damascus, Moscow and Ankara seeking to repair Syria-Turkey ties, which were severed at the start of the conflict.

With inputs from agencies

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Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen will be on a three-day visit to India next week ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus trip to New Delhi later this year.

During his visit from May 9 to 11, Cohen will hold discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He will visit Mumbai for a day.

It is the third high-level visit by senior Israeli officials in less than three months, coming in quick succession after Knesset (Israeli parliament) speaker Amir Ohanas trip at the end of March-early April and also Economy Minister Nir Barkats visit to India last month.

Cohen will be accompanied by a business delegation. Collaboration in the field of innovation with a focus on agriculture and water management is likely to prominently feature in discussions during the Israeli foreign ministers visit.

He will also be advancing a consular agreement being worked out to bring Indian workers to Israel to work in the construction sector.

The high-level visits are being seen as a prelude to the much-anticipated visit of Prime Minister Netanyahu to India later this year.

In January, Modi invited Netanyahu to visit India at an early date.

His visit to India in 2019 during his previous stint as the prime minister was called off due to scheduling issues. Both sides were working on a plan for his visit to India in 2021 but that did not materialise as he was ousted from power in June that year.

Netanyahu came back as the prime minister in December after his Likud party formed a coalition with some other parties following the elections.

The 73-year-old political veteran was sworn in as Israels prime minister on December 29 in a comeback at the head of a hard-right cabinet.

The ties between India and Israel have been on an upswing in the last few years in a range of sectors including defence, agriculture and water management.

(With inputs from PTI)

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Autopsies have suggested that some of the victims who reportedly starved themselves in a bid to follow the Kenyan cult leader were allegedly killed.

The information became public after investigators submitted autopsy reports of the deceased persons in court at the time cult leader in question was also brought in for trial.

At least two childrens remains, according to a government pathologist, showed evidence of suffocation, indicating they werent just starved to death like many of the other victims, he claimed on Tuesday.

According to officials involved in the exhumation, 110 bodies have so far been retrieved from the tombs in eastern Kenya.

According to the Associated Press, a court ordered on Tuesday that the churchs leader, Paul Mackenzie, remain in custody until Friday.

Also Read: Police find 26 more bodies connected to Kenyan cult under investigation

Mackenzie had been released on bond by one court last week before being re-arrested.

He has been sent to a court in Shanzu, close to the port city of Mombasa, on terrorism charges and accused of urging members of his Good News International Church to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus.

According to the nations Interior Ministry, more than 460 people have so far been reported missing, raising the potential that there are many more bodies in the forest.

The government also said that efforts to exhume dead at the isolated 800-acre site in a jungle to the north of Mombasa had to be put on hold because to inclement weather. It said that the search for survivors was being conducted using aircraft and drones.

Former member Titus Katana, who managed to flee the organization, said, The youngest victims were the kids. Then, after the kids, they turned to the singles. The mothers and the elderly were next in queue after that, he continued.

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On Tuesday, police apprehended a guy in London who was reportedly armed with a knife and accused of tossing suspected shotgun ammunition onto the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

A vast security operation will be in place for King Charles IIIs coronation, which will be visited by nobility from around the world and international leaders. The arrest will take place at around 7:00 pm (1800 GMT).

The man was carrying a suspicious bag, which police as a precaution decided to blow up under controlled circumstances, according to the Metropolitan Police. Later, it clarified that it was not currently treating the incident as having any connection to terrorism.

The man has been arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon after he was searched and a knife was found, the London force said in an update some three hours after the incident.

Officers worked immediately to detain the man and he has been taken into police custody, Met Police chief superintendent Joseph McDonald said in a statement.

There have been no reports of any shots fired, or any injuries to officers or members of the public.

Officers remain at the scene and further inquiries are ongoing.

British media reported that neither Charles, 74, nor his wife Queen Consort Camilla, 75, were at the palace at the time.

Buckingham Palace officials declined to comment.

The drama unfolded Tuesday evening after the man approached the gates to the palace and threw several items into the grounds suspected to be shotgun cartridges, according to the Met.

They have been recovered and will be taken for specialist examination.

The Mall, leading to Buckingham Palace, has been closed off to traffic in preparation for Saturdays coronation, which is the first to take place in Britain for 70 years.

Thousands of ceremonial troops will take part in a procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey as part of the coronation, with huge crowds expected.

The security operation to protect the route to and from the abbey  dubbed Operation Golden Orb  is one of the biggest in recent years.

It will include rooftop snipers and undercover officers, as well as airport-style scanners, sniffer dogs and a no-fly zone over central London.

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New Delhi: Media freedom is in dire health in a record number of countries, according to the World Press Freedom Index, which warns that disinformation, propaganda and artificial intelligence pose mounting threats to journalism.

The index, released by the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), revealed a shocking slide, with an unprecedented 31 countries deemed to be in a very serious situation, the lowest ranking in the report, up from 21 just two years ago.

According to the list, increased aggressiveness from governments coupled with massive disinformation or propaganda campaigns has caused the situation to go from bad to worse.

There is more red on the RSF map this year than ever before, as authoritarian leaders become increasingly bold in their attempts to silence the press, The Guardian quoted RSF secretary general, Christophe Deloire, as saying.

The international community needs to wake up to reality, and act together, decisively and fast, to reverse this dangerous trend, Deloire added.

Wednesday marks the 30th anniversary of the first World Press Freedom Day, which was created to remind governments of their duty to uphold freedom of expression.

Media freedom decreased in last five years

However, according to RSF, the current state of journalism is deemed bad in seven out of ten nations and satisfactory in only three. According to the UN, 85% of people reside in nations where media freedom has decreased during the last five years.

The survey evaluates the state of the media in 180 nations and territories and examines journalists freedom to report on matters of public concern without interference or fear for their safety.

It shows rapid technological advances are allowing governments and political actors to distort reality, and fake content is easier to publish than ever before.

The difference is being blurred between true and false, real and artificial, facts and artifices, jeopardising the right to information, the report said.

The unprecedented ability to tamper with content is being used to undermine those who embody quality journalism and weaken journalism itself.

Artificial intelligence was wreaking further havoc on the media world, the report said, with AI tools digesting content and regurgitating it in the form of syntheses that flout the principles of rigour and reliability.

This is not just written AI content but visual, too. High-definition images that appear to show real people can be generated in seconds.

Govts fighting propaganda war

Governments are escalating their propaganda war at the same time. As state media slavishly repeats the Kremlin line while opposition outlets are driven into exile, Russia, which already fell in the rankings last year after the invasion of Ukraine, fell another nine places.

Last month, Moscow arrested the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the first US journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the cold war.

Meanwhile, three countries: Tajikistan, India and Turkey, dropped from being in a problematic situation into the lowest category. India has been in particularly sharp decline, sinking 11 places to 161.

In Turkey, the administration of the hardline president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had stepped up its persecution of journalists in the run-up to elections scheduled for 14 May, RSF said.

Turkey jails more journalists than any other democracy.

With inputs from agencies

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After a student brought an Airsoft gun to class, a Florida elementary school has banned backpack use for the remainder of the academic year.

Parents at Hammett Bowen Jr. Elementary were notified Monday night by recorded message that a first-grade kid had just brought an Airsoft gun to school.

A pupil arrived at school with an unacceptable item. The inappropriate item was a small black Airsoft BB gun, the warning stated.

With three and a half weeks left in the academic year, Marion County Public Schools reported that the no-backpack policy went into effect on Tuesday.

The 7-year-old girls parents, Joe and Kristin Katich, said they found out about the inappropriate item from their daughter mere hours before the school informed them of the incident.

The problem, according to Kristin, is not the Airsoft gun; rather, it would be just as simple to bring a real weapon into class, she told FOX 35 Orlando.

She claimed that because of the incident, her daughter was afraid, and they pulled her out of school.

When guns are reported on campus, administrators and school resource officers take immediate action, according to a representative for Marion County Public Schools, and they have lots of decisions and determinations to make before informing parents.

The spokeswoman stated, While this investigation may have taken longer than others, the administrators had to make sure protocol was followed and information was verified.

This was the third occurrence of a student bringing an inappropriate object to campus that has been reported so far this academic year. There is no information on the other two objects brought before.

When guns are reported on campus, administrators and school resource officers take immediate action, according to a representative for Marion County Public Schools, and they have lots of decisions and determinations to make before informing parents.

The spokeswoman stated, While this investigation may have taken longer than others, the administrators had to make sure protocol was followed and information was verified.

This was the third occurrence of a student bringing an inappropriate object to campus that has been reported so far this academic year. What the other two items were is unknown.

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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday inaugurated a newly established vehicle assembly plant of Rana Motors at Amasaman in the Ga West Municipality with a pledge to introduce sector specific initiatives to drive Ghana's industrial transformation.

The facility, which occupies 13.5 hectares of land is the largest amongst the five vehicle assembly plants operating in the country.

Currently, the plant has an operational capacity of 30,000 cars annually, rising to 70,000 when operating at full capacity.

According to the President, the government was working to create the enabling environment for businesses, particularly those under the 10 strategic anchor industries to thrive, provide employment opportunities and contribute to national development.

He said, the establishment of the vehicle assembly plant was in line with government's efforts to industrialise the country and make Ghana an automobile hub within the West African sub-region.

In this regard, he stated that, the government championed the national automobile development policy to create the enabling environment to attract global automotive manufacturers into the country.

President Akufo-Addo commended Rana Motors for the investment which would compliment government's efforts to attract more Ghanaians into the automobile industry and increase Ghana's local vehicle assembly capacity to 100,000 per year.

In support of the local vehicle assembly industry, he said, the government had prioritised the purchase of locally-assembled cars and called on the private sector and individuals to patronise locally-made products to create the necessary demand and market.

President Akufo-Addo noted that, the government was developing a vehicle financing scheme to enable Ghanaians, who currently do not have financial capacity, purchase locally assembled cars.

Already, the President said, that the government had waived Value Added Tax (VAT) on the sale of domestically-assembled vehicles as a strategy to drive down cost and make it affordable.

He indicated that, the Ministry of Finance was working on outstanding measures to ensure the full implementation of the amended customs Act to drive further investments into the country.

President Akufo-Addo said Ghana would play its part in ensuring that Africa meets the target of 1.5 million locally assembled cars by 2023 to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) for enhanced market.

He urged all assemblers and original vehicle manufacturers to support government's plan to build an integrated automotive development industry saying that work was being done of the Ghana Automotive Component Manufacturing Policy which provides incentives to attract investors into the sector

Incentives should translate into competitive pricing to allow more Ghanaians to purchase locally assembled vehicles.

In a speech read on his behalf, Minister of Trade and Industry, K.T Hammond, said, the opening of the Rana Motors assembling plant, was the third vehicle assembly plant established for commercial production of global brands in Ghana adding that, in addition to Kantanka Automobile Limited, there were five new assembly plants producing nine brands of vehicles.

He noted that, the investment in the new plant further cements Ghana's growing position as the go-to destination for investors in the automotive industry within the sub-region.

Under the newly proposed Components Manufacturing Policy, he said, the government would provide support to the private sector to invest in the local manufacturing of components and parts including electric harnesses and wires, rubber extrusion parts, air and oil filters, lead acid batteries, shock absorbers, exhaust systems, steel wheel rims, brake system components, windscreens and wiper blades.

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He noted that the Ministry would engage the Ministry of Finance on the Legislative Instrument announcing the effective date of implementation for all outstanding commitments in the provisions in the Customs (Amendment) Act, 2020 (Act 1014) saying that, that was a fundamental provision for major investment in local component manufacturing to commence.

Mr Essam Odaymat, Chief Executive Officer of Rana Motors, expressed gratitude to the government for creating the environment for assemblers to operate in the country.

He noted that, the assembly plant would provide employment to more than 300 people and had already provided training to about 3,000 personnel to be able to provide automobile services.

MrOdaymat said the company was ready to provide modern and technology-driven automotive services in support of the agenda to make Ghana an automobile hub in West Africa.
Islamabad: The Pakistans coalition government and Imran Khans party achieved big progress when they decided to hold the nations general elections on the same day, although they differed on the date of the polls.

The decision was made in late-night negotiations to break a political impasse on when to hold provincial and federal elections, which had been roiling the nations politics for months.

There was no longer any confusion about whether there should be separate elections in one or two provinces and the two sides have agreed that holding elections in the country on the same day was for the betterment, Ishaq Dar was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

The discussions were taking place against the backdrop of a dispute between the government and Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which is pushing for early elections, particularly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where assemblies were dissolved in January.

The third and key round of talks between the coalition government and PTI began on Tuesday night to discuss proposals for holding elections on the same day in the country.

Dar said that another positive outcome of the talks was that elections would be held under caretaker setups.

However, he added, a consensus was yet to be reached on the date of the elections.

We have narrowed down on the date but we have yet to reach an agreement, he said, adding that both sides would consult their leadership on the matter.

He termed the consensus on holding one-day elections in the country as big progress.

The minister said both sides have shown flexibility and if they continue to work towards a resolution with sincerity, the third stage (finalisation of the election date), which will be the final stage, will also be successful.

Speaking alongside him, PPPs Yousuf Raza Gilani said it was also agreed that both sides would accept the election results.

The government side included Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Azam Nazeer Tarar and Sardar Ayaz Sadiq from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and they are joined by Yusuf Raza Gilani and Syed Naveed Qamar from the Pakistan Peoples Party and other parties in the coalition government.

The PTI, which is the main opposition party, fielded its Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry and Senator Ali Zafar for talks.

Meanwhile, PTIs Qureshi said while briefing the media about the meeting that his party has agreed to the governments proposals of holding elections on the same day under caretaker setups.

But, he added, an agreement was yet to be reached on the date for dissolving the National Assembly and Sindh and Balochistan assemblies, as well as the date for elections.

Qureshi said the PTI has proposed that these assemblies be dissolved before or on 14 May before polls were held simultaneously across the country.

The talks being held in the Parliament House were scheduled to begin at 11.00 am on Tuesday but were delayed until 9.00 pm. As the two sides announced last week, they would discuss each others proposals to end the deadlock over elections.

Earlier, Khan said that the government should dissolve all assemblies by 14 May to pave the way for holding elections in the entire country on the same date. However, the government is not ready to dissolve assemblies.

The first round of talks was held on 27 April which went on for two hours and the rivals decided to meet again after consulting their party heads. It was followed by the second round on 28 April when two sessions were held and at the end Dar said each side had tabled two proposals, which would be presented to the respective leadership.

The issue of elections has rocked Pakistani politics as Khan demanded snap polls when he was voted out of power in April last year. As he failed to get his goal through protest, Khan dissolved the assemblies in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in January by using his partys governments in the two provinces.

He wanted to put pressure on by the law, elections should be held within 90 days of the dissolution of an assembly.

However, the government used delaying tactics by citing a lack of funds and a rise in terrorism to set a date for polls in the two provinces while pushing the narrative that the elections should be held on the same day in the country after the completion of the term of the National Assembly in August.

The problems began when the issue landed in the Supreme Court which after a hearing ordered that elections should be held in Punjab on 14 May and the government should provide Rs 21 billion for its to the Election Commission of Pakistan. It had set April 27 as the last date for the provision of funds.

The government has not provided the funds and openly announced to defy the order to hold the elections on 14 May.

The talks began when the apex court indicated that it was ready to show flexibility on the election date if the political parties agreed on a consensus to hold elections in the entire country on the same date.

With inputs from agencies

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New Delhi: Russias neighbour Finland and the United States are allegedly holding talks on a Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) that would allow US troops to freely deploy to the newly-admitted NATO state, according to a report.

According to a Russia Today report, citing Helsingin Sanomat (HS) newspaper, Mikael Antell, who serves as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy director-general for political affairs, is leading the bilateral negotiations for Finland and that the latest round of discussions took place in the Finnish capital last week.

Antell reportedly told Helsingin Sanomat (HS) newspaper that the agreement is meant to augment Finlands current NATO membership, which it was granted in April, and to solidify the countrys deterrent and defence capabilities through US presence and advance stationing of defence equipment.

The most important thing is that the agreement enables smooth cooperation with the United States in all security situations and also at short notice, he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

He said that the agreement would allow for the admission and stay of US forces, the storage of supplies in advance, and potential infrastructure developments thanks to the funds provided to the Pentagon by the US congress.

Although the agreement might open up investment opportunities in Finland, Antell noted that it was too early to speculate on specific investments. He did, however, make the suggestion that this might resemble the funding of a centre for F-35 fighter jet maintenance.

The senior diplomat also stressed that the US is not currently aiming for a permanent presence in the country, but is seeking to operate on the principle of rotation, as in moving troops in and out for various durations.

It was also noted that the pact does not cover nuclear weapons.

According to the newspaper, the official-level negotiations between Finland and the US are expected to run into next year, after which a draft of the agreement will undergo parliamentary considerations.

Similar DCAs with Denmark, Sweden

The US is currently pursuing similar DCAs with Denmark and Sweden.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price stated back in January that such agreements would deepen Washingtons security partnership with these countries and strengthen transatlantic security.

A perceived danger from Russia as a result of its military action in Ukraine spurred Sweden and Finland to reject their long-standing neutrality and submit applications to join the US-led military bloc in May.

On April 4, Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO, but Turkey and Hungary continue to block Swedens entry due to concerns about national security.

With inputs from agencies

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Ukraine on Wednesday denied Moscows claims that it was behind an assassination attempt on Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Kyiv also suggested that the drone attacks were staged by Moscow.

Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin, presidential spokesman Mikhaylo Podolyak said.

Such staged reports by Russia should be considered solely as an attempt to prepare an information background for a large-scale terrorist attack on Ukraine, Podolyak said.

As for the drones over the Kremlin. Its all predictable Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist attack. Thats why it first detains a large allegedly subversive group in Crimea. And then it demonstrates drones over the Kremlin. First of all, Ukraine wages an    (@Podolyak_M) May 3, 2023

Planned terrorist act by Ukraine, claims Russia

Russia on Wednesday announced the incident after a series of extraordinary sabotage attacks in the run-up to celebrations for the nations most important holiday on 9 May, marking the Soviet victory over the Nazis.

Today at night, the Kyiv regime attempted to strike the Kremlin residence of the President of the Russian Federation with unmanned aerial vehicles, the Kremlin said.

Terrorist attack: Kremlin on unsuccessful drone strike targeting Putins residencehttps://t.co/kI53PTykdk pic.twitter.com/A8zJKXjBDK  RT (@RT_com) May 3, 2023

Two unmanned vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin the devices were put out of action, a Kremlin statement said.

The operation was described as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation.

Moscow said Putin was not hurt and there were no casualties.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was working at his residence near Moscow on Wednesday and would still take part in a scheduled World War II Victory Day parade on Red Square next week as planned.

With inputs from AFP

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After multiple reports of stalking via Apples AirTag emerged from around the world, the cell phone giant has reportedly collaborated with Google to formulate prevention plan.

According to reports, the two companies on Tuesday submitted a proposal to establish guidelines for preventing secret tracking through the Bluetooth devices which were aimed at helping in finding lost keys, monitoring luggage, and locating other items that are prone to being misplaced.

By the end of this year, the two companies want to have a strategy in place. The fix will reportedly come via software upgrades for iPhones and Android phones, which would be released by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), an organisation that develops internet standards.

The manufacturers of monitoring goods like the AirTag, such as Tile, Chipolo, and Pebblebee, as well as Samsung, which sells the most Android smartphones globally, also support the idea.

Since its launch in 2021, the $30 AirTag has gained popularity. However, police have received reports of stalkers using the gadgets to follow former romantic interests and other individuals who are unaware they are being followed.

As stated by Dave Burke, Googles vice president of engineering for Android, Bluetooth trackers have produced tremendous user benefits, but they also bring the potential for illegal tracking, which requires industry-wide action to solve.

Apple has also acknowledged the danger of misusing the gadgets. In response, the business has launched a number of features, such as notifications that alert iPhone owners if a location tag that is not connected to their devices is travelling with them and a software for Android smartphones that can identify unauthorised AirTag tracking.

However, Apple and Google now want to take a new industry standard  one that they claim will help fight surveillance  a step further.

The Safety Net Projects senior director, Erica Olsen, praised the initiative to establish an industry standard because she believes it will assist protect victims of abusive relationships and other persons who have been the target of stealth technologies.

These new standards will minimize opportunities for abuse of this technology and decrease the burden on survivors in detecting unwanted trackers, Olsen said.

The tech-giants have also announced that they will accept recommendations and suggestions for two months before starting to address and incorporate changes.

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Juba, South Sudan: The warring parties in Sudan have consented to the seven-day cease-fire, the South Sudanese foreign ministry in Juba announced on Tuesday.

The warring parties agreed to the seven-day cease-fire, which would last from May 4 to May 11, over the phone with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit.

The two principals, General Abdel Fatah Al Burhan, the Chairman of the Sovereign Council and Commander in Chief of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo Leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4th to 11th. They also agreed to name their representatives to the talks, the statement read.

In the telephone conversation, South Sudans President stressed the importance of a longer ceasefire and naming of representatives to peace talks to be held at an agreed venue.

This statement came as Sudan continues to face bloodshed as a result of clashes between the army and paramilitary forces.

President Salva Kiir, who is the team leader of the IGAD Assembly of Heads of State tasked with consultations with the Sudanese leaders, has urged the Sudanese leaders to name their representatives and propose a date to commence the talks as soon as possible, the statement read.

The rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Khartoum makes it imperative for the leaders to de-escalate, President Kiir told the Sudanese leaders. While expressing his appreciation to General Al Burhan and General Dagalo for heeding regional

and international calls for a ceasefire, President Kiir urged them to take advantage of the 7-day truce to name representatives and propose the date for beginning the talks, the statement added.

In line with the initiatives of South Sudans President, the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and International has also been in contact with his counterparts regionally and internationally.

The Acting Minister conferred with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, Uganda, Kenya, and Canada, in addition to the British Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, dwelling on the issues of ceasefire, cessation of hostilities, humanitarian situation and evacuation of affected Sudanese and foreign nationals as well as the coordination efforts at various levels.

President further discussed the humanitarian situation with the Regional Director of the World Food Program, which has recently resumed their operation in the country.

The Government continues to engage with the leadership of the Republic of Sudan to explore the prospects of narrowing the gap between the two parties in the hope to achieve a sustainable ceasefire and cessation of hostilities that can pave the way for an amicable political settlement. South Sudan also welcomes assistance from its International Partners in helping the People of the Republic of Sudan, especially with the anticipated influx of refugees, returnees and foreign nationals entering South Sudan, the statement read.

With inputs from agencies

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Lahore: Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan told the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday that a third attempt at his murder had been planned and requested the dismissal of all political cases against him, claiming that continuing to appear in court would put his life at risk.

Khan has petitioned the LHC asking it to overturn all 121 cases filed against him in various locations across the country on allegations ranging from treason, blasphemy, perpetrating and inciting violence, and terrorism.

According to the petition, the cases have been instituted on political grounds.

Khan, 71, appeared before the LHC amid high security. During the case hearing he requested the court to allow him to speak.

The court acceded to his request.

Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chairman told the court that his life is in danger.

Regular appearances in courts will expose my life to danger. I survived two assassination attempts on my life  one in Wazirabad, Punjab, and the other at Islamabad Judicial Complex Islamabad where the ISI had taken charge of the building, a court official told PTI quoting Khan as saying.

They (a reference to powers that be) want to kill me and a third assassination attempt is in the offing, Khan told the court.

He said in 70 years of his life, there was not a single case against him and all these cases were filed after he was ousted as prime minister in April last year.

The official said the five-member bench of LHC headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi directed Khan to join police investigations into these cases on 5 May.

The court did not entertain the request of Khan to appear before the police investigation through a video link. However, the court will resume its hearing on 8 May, the official said.

Earlier, Khan claimed that he had identified a total of six persons in the country in a video who wanted to kill him.

Among the six, three are those whom I had named in the FIR after an assassination attempt on my life in Punjab in November last year, Khan said on Thursday.

After the 3 November gun attack on his rally in the Wazirabad area (some 150kms from Lahore) in which he suffered bullets injuries to his leg, Khan blamed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and ISIs top officer Major General Faisal Naseer for hatching a plot to assassinate him.

Interior minister (Sanaullah) says my life is under threat from foreign agencies. Let me make it clear to the entire country that the only threat to my life is from the 3 people I named after the Wazirabad assassination attempt. Same 3, + 3 more I have identified in a video statement, tried to eliminate me on 18 March in ICT Judicial Complex, Khan said in a series of tweets.

If any attempt is made now on my life, these same people will be responsible. Just as they tried to pin the blame for the Wazirabad attack on a religious extremist  a mere smokescreen  they are now trying to create another deception of foreign agencies, he said

With inputs from agencies

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The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of attempting a drone strike overnight with the aim of assassinating Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian forces disabled the drone which attempted a strike to kill Putin, the Kremlin added.

Kremlin shoots down Ukrainian drones

The Kremlin said it shot down drones which were launched by Ukraine.

Two unmanned vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin the devices were put out of action, the Kremlin said in a statement.

It called the the operation a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the 9 May Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned, it said.

#BREAKING: Ukraine tried to hit the Kremlin with a drone attack overnight  RIA pic.twitter.com/Cw1GaNAaT1  Faytuks News  (@Faytuks) May 3, 2023

The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit, the statement said.

President Putin was not injured and there was no material damage to the Kremlin building, the statement added.

The Kremlin said fragments of the drones had been scattered in the vicinity.

Ban on use of drones in Kyiv

A report by Bloomberg said ahead of the Kremlin statement, Moscow city authorities issued an order banning the use of drones in the capital.

In a statement, Moscow City mayor Sergei Sobyanin said drone flights would be prohibited unless a special permit had been obtained from "government authorities". He added that the ban was meant to prevent unauthorised drone flights that could "obstruct the work of law enforcement".

Local media reports said the Kremlin confirmed that the 9 May Victory Day parade would go ahead in Moscow despite the incident.

Ukraine calls its 'Russian propaganda'

Reacting on the Kremlins claims, Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko said, I cant say anything on the Kremlin claims. It can be a Russian propaganda."

With inputs from agencies.

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Helsinki, Finland: The Finnish presidency said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid a surprise visit to Finland on Wednesday to take part in a summit of the leaders of the five Nordic countries.

In order to be in NATO and support alliances to gain support, fundamental diplomatic work must be done. Ukraine is doing it today, Daria Zarivna, Ukraines presidential communications adviser wrote on Telegram.

Zelensky is scheduled to meet with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, whose nation joined NATO in April, to talk about Ukraines defence struggle.

The Ukrainian leader will also hold bilateral talks with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Norways Jonas Gahr Store, Denmarks Mette Frederiksen and Icelands Katrin Jakobsdottir.

All of the Nordic countries have pledged both financial and military support to Ukraine following Russias invasion in February 2022.

Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway have also joined in the international effort to supply heavier weapons to Ukraine by donating some of their own Leopard 2 tanks or offering financial support to acquire them.

On Tuesday, Denmark said it was sending 1.7 billion kroner ($250 million) worth of military aid, its biggest donation to date, to support the forthcoming Ukrainian offensive.

With inputs from agencies

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Following a tip-off, authorities in Texas said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in a closet, ending a four-day manhunt for the shooter who is accused of killing five of his neighbours.

Francisco Oropeza, 38, was apprehended without a hitch near the town of Conroe, some 20 miles (32 kilometres) north of Houston and close to his home in the small hamlet of Cleveland. Just before midnight on Friday, according to authorities, he went next door and used an AR-style gun to shoot his neighbours.

According to authorities, Oropeza had been shooting rounds on his land when the attack took place. Neighbours had begged him to move away because the noise was keeping a baby awake.

Sheriff Greg Capers of San Jacinto County announced that Oropeza would be charged with five charges of murder. A $5 million surety bond was set.

They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars, Capers said of the families of the victims.

He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.

The arrest puts an end to a dragnet that had expanded to include more than 250 people from several jurisdictions and for whom a prize of $80,000 had been offered. Oropeza could be anywhere, the FBI declared as recently as Tuesday morning, underscoring how agents had laboured for days to determine his whereabouts and openly admitted they had no leads.

Oropeza was taken into custody a little over an hour after the tip that put a halt to the chase was received, according to FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul. According to US immigration authorities, the alleged shooter is a Mexican national who was deported four times between 2009 and 2016.

One of more than 200 tips, according to FBI spokesman Connor Hagan, investigators received, this tips callers identity will not be released. Authorities withheld information about the homes owners, whether Oropeza knew them, and whether anybody else was present when he was discovered.

They also declined to clarify whether Oropezas friends or relatives had assisted him in avoiding capture or where he had been since leaving the Cleveland scene, where authorities had earlier stated he was most likely to have fled on foot.

According to Hagan, the US Marshals, Texas Department of Public Safety, and the US Border Patrols BORTAC unit were the three agencies that intervened to arrest Oropeza.

Drones and scent-tracking dogs had been used during the widening manhunt, which included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott offered a $50,000 reward as the search dragged late into the weekend, while others offered an additional $30,000 in reward money.

Capers said that prior to Fridays shooting deputies had been called to the suspects house at least one other time previously over shooting rounds in his yard.

All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velasquez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and her husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras migrant protection service.

Osman Velasquez, Dianas father, said Tuesday that his daughter had recently gotten residency and had traveled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister, who was already living there.

Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and thats true, he was quoted as saying by news agency AP.

But I never imagined it was just for this.

In offering the reward, Abbott called the victims illegal immigrants, a partially false statement that his office walked back and apologized for Monday after drawing wide backlash over drawing attention to their immigration status. Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said they had since learned that one of the victims may have been in the country legally.

(With inputs from agencies)

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The top American ambassador in China has requested Beijing to clarify the recently modified Counterespionage Law, which he claims might make some routine activities of American academics, journalists, and businesspeople in the nation unlawful.

On April 26, the National Peoples Congress (NPC) standing committee approved a modification to the countrys anti-spy statute. The new legislation will go into force on July 1.

The phrase join or accept tasks from an espionage organisation will be changed to take refuge in it in the definition of offenders. Additionally, the scope of the coverage will be expanded from state secrets and intelligence to other documents, data, materials, and items related to national security and interests.

This is a law that could potentially make illegal in China the kind of mundane activities that businesses would have to do, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said Tuesday during a webinar organized by The Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank.

We need to know more about it so we are asking questions here in Beijing.

Before agreeing to significant investment projects in China, American businesses must conduct due diligence, according to Burns, and they also need full access to economic data in order to make estimates.

The law could possibly imperil academic research. Professors and journalists could get caught up on this. But what we know so far is not positive, he said.

Five Chinese employees of the US due diligence company Mintz Group were detained in Beijing in March.

The Boston-based management consulting firm Bain & Company revealed last week that during an operation three weeks prior, Chinese police had interrogated its employees in Shanghai and seized some computers and smartphones.

We are very concerned about this. We have made our concerns known, Burns said. We think American businesses here ought to be free of intimidation from the government. And the rule of law should prevail. Businesses should not be targeted simply on account of political differences and competitive differences in the US-China relationship.

He stated that the US expects that American scholars, journalists, and businesspeople can feel secure while carrying out their duties in China.

Companies of all countries are welcome to have economic and trade cooperation in China, Mao Ning, a spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, had said last Friday. We are committed to fostering a market-oriented, law-based and world-class business environment. China is a law-based country. All companies in China must operate in accordance with the law.

Mao then stated that due to a lack of knowledge, she was unable to comment on the Bain issue.

According to a Wall Street Journal report published on Sunday, the Chinese government has recently restricted or completely blocked off access from abroad to databases containing data on corporation registration, patents, procurement papers, academic publications, and official statistical yearbooks.

In a statement on April 28, the US Chamber of Commerce stated that the Chinese governments anti-spy law change is a matter of serious concern for the investor community and likely is as well for their local business partners in China.

It said that in a setting where risk cannot be accurately assessed and legal ambiguities are growing, international investment will not feel welcome.

We are closely monitoring the heightened official scrutiny of US professional services and due diligence firms in China, it said. The services these firms provide are fundamental to establishing investor confidence in any market, including China.

The Wall Street Journal reported on April 28 that Exante Datas study showed that over the five trading days last week, foreign investors withdrew a net US$3.17 billion from Chinese stocks via Hong Kongs Stock Connect.

The Chinese government shut off all communication with the US for several months after Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the US House, disregarded Beijings warning and visited Taiwan in August of last year. Following the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bali in November of last year, the two sides started talking again about Taiwan, Ukraine, climate change, and trade issues.

After a Chinese spy balloon appeared in North American airspace in late January, US-China tensions rose once more. Falling orders and sluggish investments from the West also upset Beijing.

According to dollar-denominated statistics provided by the General Administration of Customs on April 13, Chinas exports to the European Union decreased by 7.1% year over year in the first quarter, while shipments to the US decreased by 17%. The rise in shipments to ASEAN nations, Africa, and Russia more than offset the loss.

Chinas foreign direct investment (FDI), measured in US dollars, increased year over year in the first quarter by only 0.5%, a substantial decrease from 32% during the same time last year.

China will give soliciting foreign investment a higher priority, according to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, in order to increase economic growth and domestic demand.

At present, our countrys economy continues to improve but the endogenous driving force is still not strong enough while domestic demand remains insufficient, the politburo said in a statement after a meeting chaired by General Secretary Xi Jinping this past Friday.

Chinas economic transformation and upgrading is facing new obstacles while the promotion of high-quality development still needs to overcome many difficulties and challenges.

Attracting foreign investment should be placed in a more important position, and foreign trade and investment should be stabilized, it said.

It is necessary to help qualified free trade pilot zones and ports meet the requirements of international high-standard economic and trade rules so that they can carry out reform and opening up.

The Shanghai government announced that it will enhance its financial services and promote foreign investors involvement in Chinas financial markets, supporting Chinese technology, commerce, and maritime companies fundraising efforts.

According to media sources from last month, Biden will soon sign an executive order prohibiting US businesses, private equity funds, and venture capital funds from funding Chinese initiatives and businesses in the fields of microchips, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, and clean energy.

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Kumasi  The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, (MOTAC) has organised a tourism-oriented training programme for some selected taxi drivers in the Kumasi metropolis.

With support from the Ghana Tourism Development Company (GTDC) and the Ghana Tourism Development Project (GTDP), the day's training was designed to transfer critical information about tourism to the drivers amongst others.

It addressed the low level of appreciation of the key role drivers' play in the tourism eco-system.

It also used to discuss concerns by tourists about the lack of customers' service in the delivery of services by some transport operators in the country.

About 100 taxi drivers drawn from various Taxi Unions such as Abuakwa, Ayigya, and KNUST attended the training programme.

Deputy Minister of the MOTAC, Mr Mark Okraku Mantey, addressing the meeting claimed that there had been incidents where taxi drivers had unfortunately been unfairly portraying the country in a negative light.

According to the Deputy Minister, the government was poised to promote tourism in the country and that taxi drivers were key stakeholders, hence training them was vital.

"... So let us make the best out of it, every individual in the value chain needs to be aligned with the President's vision to make tourism the number one contributor to the country's gross domestic product," he emphasised.

He told them of the importance of tourism as an important source of national income and job creation.

About 3,000 taxi drivers, he said would undergo the special training programme dubbed, "Tourism Product Knowledge Training for Transport Service Providers."

The Chief Executive Officer of the GTDC, Mr Kwadwo Antwi, thanked the drivers for their enthusiasm to make the programme a success.

Mr Kwadwo Asante, Chairman of the Hiatopre Drivers Union, was full of praise for the MOTAC for the training.

He said "since I started driving taxi in 1980, I have not attended such a training programme, this is the first time and I thank the government."

Each of them took home tourism branded T-shirts, certificate and driver's tourism brochure.
A Russian journalist received huge backlash on social media over a video from the battlefield where he was reportedly gone to cover war, but was seen loading and firing a rocket launcher on Ukrainian soldiers.

While critics called him out for violating journalistic codes of reporting a war, the journalist touted as a propaganda reporter, justified his act by saying its a special case because hes helping his nations army to fight Nazis.

Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor general for Ukraine, posted the video on Twitter and it shows the journalist on the front lines of warfare.

According to the English-translated captions, he discusses the use and operation of a multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) in the video.

While doing that, the journalist starts helping the army load the multiple launch rocket. He even acknowledges his fault as a journalist by saying, It is considered a violation of journalistic ethics, and Russia has always adhered to these norms, but I am sure it is a special case, he said.

He then continues assisting soldiers with loading missiles. He says, So, heres my hello to them. This is mine.

On this video, the journalist of the propaganda channel shoots from the Grad MLRS. Journalists are called out to cover the war, and not become a part of it, taking a gun. Thus, they rudely violate journalistic standards, IHL and transform the journalist into an alleged pic.twitter.com/t1zs1xadOw   /Gyunduz Mamedov (@MamedovGyunduz) May 1, 2023

Because Russia is fighting for our homeland and against the Nazis, it is a special case, the journalist claims without any support.

Russia and its official media have often stated without evidence that Ukrainians are fascists and that Russia invaded Ukraine to de-Nazify the nation.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, made the claim that he was striving to de-Nazify Ukraine at the outset of his invasion last year.

The Jewish president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has consistently refuted Putins allegations.

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Xiaomi launched the Xiaomi 13 Pro in India in February. The company only launched the Mi 11 Ultra in the country last year. This has flagship specs including a 2K+ E6 AMOLED display, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, triple 50MP cameras. Is the phone worth the price of Rs. 79,999? Let us dive into the review to find out.

Box Contents

Xiaomi 13 Pro 12GB + 256GB in Ceramic White colour

120W fast charger (5V-3A/9V-3A 11V-6A Max/17V-6A Max/20V-6A)

6A USB Type-C Cable

SIM Ejector tool

Clear protective case

Screen protector (Pre-installed)

User guide

Display, Hardware and Design

Starting with the display, the Xiaomi 13 Pro has a 6.73-inch Quad HD+ E6 AMOLED display with a pixel resolution of 3200 x 1440 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio curved glass screen and a pixel density of about 522 PPI. The display is bright, thanks to 1200 nits (typical), 1900 nits peak brightness, much higher than the 1500 nits peak brightness in the 13 Pro. It has 16000 level brightness adjustment. It supports DCI-P3 wide colour gamut, JNCD0.21, Delta E0.28, so the colours are vibrant.

The phone has an LTPO display, so the fresh rate can vary between 1-120Hz. The company says that the AdaptiveSync Pro display feature can switch between 1Hz/10Hz/30Hz/60Hz/120Hz according to the content. It has 240Hz touch sampling rate.

This offers a buttery smooth user experience, especially when you are scrolling through the UI and when gaming. It also has HDR 10+ support, which works for YouTube and there is Dolby Vision which works for Netflix. You can also reduce the display resolution to FHD+ to improve the battery life.

The phone also has 1920Hz high-frequency dimming technology. In dark environments where the brightness is low, the phone will automatically switch to 1920Hz PWM dimming mode to maintain accurate colors on display with a more comfortable eye experience.

Under the display options, there are different options to adjust colours and contrast based on your preference. There is also a reading mode that lets you reduce the displays blue light emission, so it doesnt cause eye strain when you are reading at night, but this will be disabled when you play HDR videos. There is Dark mode, similar to other Xiaomi phones.

It also has AI image enhancement feature that is used when viewing images in the gallery app and AI HDR enhancement. The phone comes with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection. The phone has an always-on-display option, which can be enabled from display settings.

The phone has a tiny punch-hole that houses a 32-megapixel camera, which doesnt disturb when watching videos since it just occupies a small space. Above the display there is an earpiece on the top edge which also doubles up as a secondary speaker.

Coming to the button placements, the power buttons and volume rockers are present on the right side of the phone. There is nothing on the left side. On the top there is a secondary microphone and an infrared sensor. The dual SIM slot, primary microphone and USB Type-C port and the loudspeaker grill are present on the bottom. The phone features an X-axis linear vibration motor, which enables custom vibration patterns across the UI for the best haptic experience.

The back of the phone also has a ceramic finish which offers a smooth finish, so it is slipper, so it is recommended to use the case. In addition to the Ceramic White colour that we have, the phone also comes in Ceramic Black colour. The phone is just 8.38mm thick, slightly thicker than the 13 Pro. It weighs 229 grams, making it heavier than the 12 Pro by 24 grams, since it has a ceramic back compared to a glass back.

The Indian version doesnt have IP ratings officially, but the company says that it offers protection equivalent to IP68 certification.

Camera

50MP rear camera with 1 Sony IMX989 sensor, f/1.9 aperture, Hyper OIS

50MP 115 ultra-wide angle lens with ISOCELL JN1 sensor, f/2.2 aperture

50MP 3.2X telephoto camera with f/2.0 aperture, 10cm~infinity focus distance, OIS

32MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture

The camera UI is familiar with other Xiaomi smartphones running MIUI 14. You get all the features such as Pro, Night, 50MP, Short Video, Panorama, Documents, VLOG, Slow motion, Time-lapse, Dual video, AI watermark, Long exposure and Pro mode lets you adjust white balance, focus, shutter speed (1/4000s to 30 seconds), ISO (50 to 12800) and option to select main, ultra-wide and telephoto lens. You can also shoot in RAW in Pro mode and enable focus peaking, exposure verification and more options.

Supermoon offers 5x, 10x, 20x, 30x and 60x options for shooting the moon, but it is not as good as the Xiaomi 11 ultra which has up to 100x zoom. There is movie frame mode works both rear camera front cameras and for video, and there is also portrait video mode which is limited to 720p 30 fps. Xiaomi has enabled Cam2API by default, so you can side-load ported Google Camera APKs for advanced editing, including RAW capture.

The Leica Vario-Summicron 1.19-2.2/14-75 ASPH camera system offers a brilliant output. Coming to the image quality, daylight shots came out well with good dynamic range. After pixel binning technology, you get 12.5MP output from all the rear cameras. HDR shots are better with improved dynamic range.

50MP wide-angle shots are good, and the 2X portrait shots are the best with good edge detection, thanks to the dedicated 50MP camera for portraits. The 3.2X telephoto lens can capture brilliant macro shots in addition to portrait shots. Beyond 3.2X, it is digital zoom which can go up to 70x, but the images dont have details. The 32MP front camera is good, and you get full 32MP output. Lowlight camera performance is brilliant from all the rear cameras.

Check out the camera samples.

It can record videos at 8k resolution at 24 fps, 4K at up to 60 fps, and it also has slow motion 1080p at up to 480 fps. There are also 960fps and 1920fps options, which should be converted. You can also shoot 4K 60 fps videos using the ultra-wide and telephoto cameras. However, the front camera is limited to 1080p 30fps.

Software, UI and Apps

It runs Android 13 out of the box, with MIUI 14 on top. It still has January 2023 Android security patch recently. Xiaomi has also confirmed 3 Android OS updates and 4 years of security updates. MIUI 14 includes more efficient with optimized storage, offers more intuitive interactions, has new on-device privacy features and lets you be more connected than before.

Since the phone has an infrared sensor for remote function, it comes with Mi Remote that lets you control your home appliances easily. Out of 12GB LPDDR5X RAM, you get 10.90GB of usable RAM, and about 4GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. It also as up to 7GB of memory extension or virtual RAM, which you can disable from additional settings. Out of 256GB, you get about 224GB of free storage. It has UFS 4.0 storage that offers sequential write speeds of 2729.7 MB/s and sequential write speeds of 3523.48 MB/s.

Apart from the usual set of utility apps, Google apps and Xiaomis own set of apps, it comes preloaded with Facebook, Netflix, LinkedIn, and Spotify apps. It also asks for additional app installation during setup, which you can skip. You can easily uninstall these apps, but these come up when you reset the phone. Even though there is personalized ads option during set up and recommendations in all the apps, you dont get any ads in apps.

Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock

It has an optical in-display fingerprint sensor that immediately unlocks the phone. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. You can also use the fingerprint for app local and payments in apps. The phone also has face unlock, but it is not as secure as fingerprint.

Music and Multimedia

The Mi Music Player is the default music player with usual Xiaomi audio effects and equalizer. It also doesnt have FM Radio. There is Dolby Atmos, and the symmetrical dual speakers that offer crisp audio output. Audio through earphones is good as well.

It has Widevine L1 support, so you can play HD content on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other streaming apps without any issues. It also supports Dolby Vision for Netflix.

Dual SIM and Connectivity

It supports 5G, and has support for n1/3/5/7/8/20/28/38/40/41/66/ 71/75/77/78/79 5G bands. 5G works for both Reliance Jio and Airtel. There is also Dual 4G VoLTE and carrier aggregation as well. Other connectivity options include Dual-Band Wi-Fi 7. It has VoWiFi / Wi-Fi calling support, Bluetooth 5.3 LE, GPS (L1 + L5), Glonass, Beidou, NavIC and NFC. It also has USB OTG support that lets you connect USB drives. Call quality is good, and we did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume was loud.

The Xiaomi 13 Pros body SAR is 0.633W/Kg (Distance 15mm) and head SAR is at 0.881/Kg, which is slightly higher than the 12Pro, but it is well under the limit of 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g) in India.

Performance and Benchmarks

The phone is powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform that has a 1 + 4 + 3 microarchitecture that uses 1 x Kryo Prime Arm Cortex-X3-based CPU at up to 3.2GHz, 4 x Kryo Performance CPUs that has 2 x A710-based and 2 x A715-based CPUs at up to 2.8GHz and 4x Kryo Efficiency A510-based CPUs at up to 2GHz.

It is fabricated using the TSMC 4nm Process Technology, same as Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. The phone has a 3400mm Vapor Chamber cooling. We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact. It reached maximum 44 in our testing indoors in Wi-Fi, but this might vary outdoors in 5G. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.

Battery life

Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 4820mAh (typical) built-in battery, which is slightly bigger than the 4600mAh battery in the Xiaomi 12 Pro. It lasts for a day with Wi-Fi, but with 5G and dual SIMs, and average, but with heavy use and with WQHD+ resolution in 120Hz it might not last the whole day. I got about 4 hours of screen on time with over a day of use on Wi-Fi and in QHD+ resolution in 120Hz, and it might last longer in FHD+ resolution.

The phone has support for 120W fast charging and also comes with 120W charger in the box. It uses graphene, dual charge pump, Mi-FC technology, MTW technology to achieve 100% charge in about 19 minutes.

There is a separate Boost Charging Speed option in the battery settings that is off by default. When enabled, it charges the phone at the highest wattage for the first 5 minutes, but the phone also gets hot. I even tried the 67W charger to charge the smartphone, which took about 37 minutes to charge from 0 to 100%.

The phone also has 50W wireless turbo charging and 10W reverse wireless charging.

Conclusion

At a price of Rs. 79,999, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is a good upgrade in almost every aspect. The E6 AMOLED display is brilliant, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 offers a good performance and doesnt get heated, the 50MP triple cameras with the new IMX989 main sensor and 3.2X telephoto are brilliant. The battery department also gets a minor upgrade while retaining the 120W fast charging with bundled fast charger in the box.

The ceramic back is a good upgrade compared to the glass back, but the phone gets heavier, and it is slippery to use without the case.

Pricing and availability

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is available from mi.com, Amazon.in, and Mi Home stores and Mi Retail Partners. There is a Rs. 8000 Instant discount with ICICI Bank Credit and Debit cards and EMI. Buyers also get an additional exchange Bonus for Redmi & Xiaomi Phones.

Alternatives

The latest vivo X90 Pro is a direct competition, but it is costly. The Pixel 7 Pro is also a good alternative, offering a good camera experience for those who need a stock Android experience. There are always Galaxy S23 series and iPhone 14 series.

Pros

10-bit E6 AMOLED LTPO display with Dolby Vision is brilliant

Smooth performance

Brilliant cameras

Solid build quality

Stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos

Good battery life with 120W fast charging

Cons

Ceramic back makes the phone heavy and slippery

Front camera is limited to 1080p 30fps recording
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Superior



Lake Superior is the largest of the North American Great Lakes and borders the USA and Canada. Lake Superior is the second largest lake in the world after the Caspian Sea and has an area of 31,700 square miles. The volume of Lake Superior is so large that it contains more water than all the other Great Lakes combined.

2. Huron



Lake Huron is also one of the North American Great Lakes and borders Canada and the USA. Huron has a surface area of 23,000 square miles. Manitoulin Island is located in the Canadian portion of Lake Huron and is the largest island in the world located inside a lake.

3. Michigan



Lake Michigan is one of the North American Great Lakes and is entirely located within the USA. Lake Michigan is bordered by the USA states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Lake Michigan is the only one of the North American Great Lakes that does not border Canada and is the largest lake, according to area, located within only one country. Lake Michigan is one of the North American Great Lakes and is entirely located within the USA. Lake Michigan is bordered by the USA states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Lake Michigan is the only one of the North American Great Lakes that does not border Canada and is the largest lake, according to area, located within only one country.

4. Great Bear



Great Bear Lake is the largest lake entirely located in Canada and is found in the north of the Northwest Territories. The line of the Arctic Circle runs through the lake and the lake ices over in winter.

5. Great Slave



Great Slave Lake is Canada's second largest lake and like Great Bear Lake is located in the Northwest Territories. The name of the lake comes from the term Slavey, a name used by the Cree people for their enemies, the Dene people. Great Slave Lake is the deepest lake in North America with a depth of 2,014 ft.

6. Erie



Lake Erie is another of the North American Great Lakes and sits on the border between the USA and Canada. The USA city of Cleveland in the state of Ohio is located on the shore of Lake Erie. During the War of 1812 a naval battle was fought on Lake Erie during which Oliver Hazard Perry captured the British fleet despite being outnumbered.

7. Winnipeg



Lake Winnipeg is a lake in the Canadian province of Manitoba located about 34 miles north of the city of Winnipeg. Lake Winnipeg has a large surface area of 9,465 square miles but is quite shallow with a mean depth of only 39ft making it quite a small lake in terms of overall volume of water.

8. Ontario



Lake Ontario is the smallest of the North American Great Lakes in terms of area, with a surface area of 7,340 square miles. The lake is located between the Canadian province of Ontario and the US State of New York. Although Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes in terms of surface area it actually has a larger volume than Lake Erie. Lake Ontario is the smallest of the North American Great Lakes in terms of area, with a surface area of 7,340 square miles. The lake is located between the Canadian province of Ontario and the US State of New York. Although Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes in terms of surface area it actually has a larger volume than Lake Erie.

9. Titicaca



Lake Titicaca is the largest lake in South America and is located in the Andes mountains between Peru and Bolivia. The surface of the lake is at an altitude of 12,057ft above sea level and the lake is usually regarded as the highest lake in the world that is suitable for use by commercial watercraft.



The national rail operator in Peru, PeruRail, runs a train ferry across the lake linking the city of Puno in Peru with Guaqui in Bolivia.

10. Nicaragua



Lake Nicaragua is the largest lake in Central America and is located in the country of Nicaragua quite close to the border with Costa Rica. The Tipitapa River connects Lake Nicaragua to Lake Managua. Lake Nicaragua is home to freshwater sharks who make their way from the ocean to the lake by navigating the San Juan River.

Source: Author Stoaty This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
Many of you are well familiar with Fred Again, of that I am sure, but therell be a few of you who have never heard of Brian Eno. If you ever started a Windows PC though, youve heard his music.
Former Governor of Ekiti State and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ayodele Fayose has visited Bola Ahmed Tinubu upon his return to Nigeria. The act which has got reactions from many Nigerians.

See the comment below...
Poe seeks probe, long-term solutions to Panay Island brownouts

Sen. Grace Poe has sought an inquiry into the power interruption plaguing Panay Island for years to identify measures that would ensure continuous supply to consumers.

In filing Senate Resolution No. 579, Poe said it is time to put in place a long-term solution to the power woes which have been severely impacting on the daily lives of residents and economic activities in the region.

"Recurring power interruptions and massive blackouts should not be a way of life for our people in Panay Island," the chairperson of the Senate committee on public services said.

"Concerned agencies must get a handle on the problem to end the intolerable suffering of the residents," she added.

Poe stressed the need to determine the root cause of the grid disturbances reported by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) allegedly due to the tripping of distribution utilities (DUs).

At the same time, the inquiry should delve into the position of electric cooperatives in Panay and Negros pointing to the NGCP as the cause of the problem.

An electric cooperative cited a voltage fluctuation and frequency imbalance in a line under the management of the NGCP.

"There is an urgent need to determine the root of these grid disturbances, implement remedial measures and determine who shall be held liable to finally put an end to the blame-shifting between NGCP and the DUs, and ascertain possible franchise violations," Poe said.

"There is also a need to look into the long-term solutions to the power interruptions and outages within the backdrop of the 'thin' supply of power in the Visayas grid," she added.
Swiggy Introduces Platform Fee for Food Delivery Orders Features lekhaka -Anu Joy

Swiggy has added an extra charge to your online meal order by way of a "platform fee." This additional fee will only be applicable to food orders at the moment. The platform fee, priced at 2 per order, has been implemented in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

Platform Fee for All Swiggy Users?

Popular food delivery app Swiggy is currently charging users a platform fee of 2 for each order, regardless of the cart value. This new charge is only applicable on Swiggy food orders and not on other services like Instamart and Genie.

Swiggy explained in a statement, "The platform fee is a nominal flat fee charged on food orders. This fee helps us operate and improve our platform and enhance app features to deliver a seamless app experience."

As of now, the platform fee has rolled out to customers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. It's unclear whether the new charge will make its way to Swiggy users residing in other cities in the future.

Swiggy Customers Unhappy With Platform Fees

Online food delivery apps have made it easy to order your favorite foods at the press of a button. Although delivery charges are applicable on each order, the fee is waived off if you purchase the Swiggy One membership.

As Swiggy stacks a new platform fee on top of government taxes and other charges, many disgruntled customers took to Twitter to express their discontent. One such user complained about being made to pay a platform fee even after purchasing the Swiggy One subscription.

Hey @Swiggy, why am I being charged a platform fee to use your app when I've already paid a membership fee?  pic.twitter.com/rAnjOzzC5K  Yashodhara (@poetrynerd) April 23, 2023

Swiggy customer support replied to the tweet saying, "[The] platform fee is levied on all food orders to guarantee the provision of convenient services to customers by Swiggy. This fee also serves to facilitate service continuity and prevent technological disruptions."

It seems absurd that Swiggy is adding a small platform fee on all food orders, even for members paying for a Swiggy one subscription. To recall, the Swiggy One membership promises free delivery and exclusive discounts. It costs 399 for three months and 1,499 for a year.

This development follows reports of Swiggy incurring losses and laying off many employees. The company also shut down Handpicked, Swiggy's premium grocery delivery service, just six months after its pilot run in Bangalore. Other services such as Instamart and Genie are still operational.

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Google Pixel 7a full specifications leaked: Marketing material suggest major camera overhaul News oi -Carlsen Martin

The Google Pixel 7a release date is set for next week. The Pixel 7a will arrive at Google I/O 2023, which kicks off on May 10. And while few details about the device have been revealed, the Pixel 7a specifications were recently leaked in their entirety.

The most recent leak comes courtesy of Roland Quandt, who has leaked marketing material for the Pixel 7a. Additionally, the Pixel 7a was also spotted on Geekbench 6, confirming flagship-grade performance with a single-core score of 1380 points and a multi-core score of 3071 points.

Google Pixel 7a Launch Details

The Google Pixel 7a launch date is set for May 10 globally. Additionally, the Google Pixel 7a launch date in India will take place on May 11. The Pixel 7a will be available for pre-order in India through Flipkart, according to an official teaser by Google India.

Apart from the Google Pixel 7a, the company is also set to launch a new tablet and foldable smartphone at Google I/O 2023. The Pixel Fold and Pixel tablet will also be unveiled at the event. Now, let's look at the Google Pixel 7a full specifications.

Google Pixel 7a Full Specifications

According to Quandt's leaks, the Pixel 7a will be powered by the Tensor G2 SoC, which first debuted on the flagship Pixel 7 series back in October 2022. The chip will be paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, according to the Geekbench listing. It will also run stock Android 13 out of the box.

The marketing material also confirms that the Pixel 7a will feature a 6.1-inch FHD+ OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. The phone is expected to pack a 4,400 mAh battery with both wired and wireless fast charging support. The phone will also feature some sort of IP rating for water resistance.

Google Pixel 7a Cameras

For optics, the Google Pixel 7a will feature a dual-camera setup on the back with a 64 MP primary sensor, which is an upgrade over the 12 MP sensor for the Pixel 6a. Moreover, the main camera will be paired with a new 13 MP ultrawide camera.

Up front, the Pixel 7a will get a new 13 MP selfie camera. The camera system will also feature an improved Super Res Zoom, Night Sight with low-light portraits and starry skies, and photo unblur. The camera hardware suggests a major upgrade over the Pixel 6a.

Google Pixel 7a Price in India

The Google Pixel 7a price is expected to cost $499 (roughly 40,800) in the US. However, given the recent price cuts for the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, we expect the Google Pixel 7a price in India to fall under the 40K mark.

This also suggests a price hike for the Google Pixel 7a in India over last year's Pixel 6a. The Google Pixel 7a will be available for purchase in India through Flipkart, with pre-orders expected to begin on May 11.

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Google Pixel Tablet Revealed in Official Image Leak Ahead of I/O 2023 News oi -Kabir Jain

Google's annual I/O event is set to begin on May 10th. During the upcoming developer event, the search giant will reveal its ongoing work on AI and ML, discuss the next version of Android-Android 14-and reveal a slew of hardware for all of us to geek out on.

Even though Google has been tight-lipped about which products it will showcase, the rumor mill has our back, and this time the long-awaited Google Pixel tablet appears, giving us a good look at how the device looks from the front.

The Pixel Tablet, along with the Pixel 7 series, was teased last year. However, Google did not reveal much about the tablet at the time, but it now appears that the company's new Pixel tablet will be released later this month.

Google Pixel Tablet Gets Leaked

The leak comes courtesy of prominent tipster Evan Blass, who shared the image of the tab on his Twitter account. We can see from the image that the tablet has slightly thick bezels around the display. When held vertically, we can also see the front camera on the tablet's right bezel.

Because Google wants people to use the tablet with a dock, the placement of the front camera is quite precise, as it can also assist with video calls. The dock has pogo pins and magnets to help it easily attach the tablet to it. There is a single camera sensor located on the back panel.

Furthermore, the device's body appears to be beige in color, as opposed to the white-colored bezels. Last year, Google showcased the Pixel tablet in a green colorway with black bezels, and reports suggest that the device will be available in four colors.

The tablet will have an aluminum body made of recycled materials with a porcelain-like nano-ceramic finish.

Google Pixel Tablet: Rumored Specifications

The upcoming Google Pixel tablet's key specifications have also been leaked. The tablet is expected to come with a 10.95-inch display featuring a 1600 x 2560-pixel resolution and will be powered by Google's in-house Tensor G2 processor, which is also found in the Pixel 7 series.

It will feature an 8MP front and rear camera, and support 18W fast charging, although the battery capacity remains unknown. The Pixel tablet will launch with at least 8GB of RAM and two storage options, with the base 128GB model priced between EUR 600-650 (roughly 54,100-58,600) and will run on Android 13 out of the box.

Via

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Apple Faces Legal Battle In The UK: Class-Action Lawsuit Accuses iPhone Maker Of Hiding Defective Batteries? Tech Biz oi -Alap Naik Desai

Apple Inc. is facing a class-action lawsuit in the United Kingdom. The iPhone maker has been accused of hiding information about defective batteries.

A mass lawsuit against Apple Inc. has been filed in the UK. The class-action lawsuit essentially drags the company into the same legal wrangles it managed to wriggle out in the US by settling the case. Let's look at the fresh case involving old allegations against Apple Inc. in a new country.

Apple Inc. Faces $2 Billion Lawsuit Because Of Planned Obsolescence?

A class-action lawsuit filed in the UK is asking the judicial system of the country to make the iPhone maker pay up to 1.6 billion pounds (approx. $2 billion) plus interest. At the heart of the lawsuit is an old lawsuit, which was settled, not dismissed.

The mass lawsuit claims Apple used software updates to "throttle" older iPhone models. It further accuses the company of knowingly limiting the performance of millions of iPhones that were sold in the UK.

The lawyers are expected to argue that Apple concealed battery issues in certain phone models. Incidentally, the legal team behind the new class-action lawsuit appears to be referring to the one that was filed in the US.

Back in 2020, Apple settled a class-action lawsuit and a regulatory action by US states over iPhone battery issues. The legal team battling Apple Inc. in the UK is confident presumably because the iPhone maker did not deny or fight these allegations outright.

Back when Apple was facing a lawsuit in America, the company's lawyers had attempted to downplay the techniques, which were later dubbed to be "Planned Obsolescence", wherein the performance of the older iPhone devices was intentionally downgraded to protect their internal batteries from thermal overruns.

Apple Inc. Denies Misleading Consumers But Had Throttled Performance Of iPhones

London's Competition Appeal Tribunal is yet to certify the case and allow it to proceed towards a trial. In other words, Apple is yet to face a UK court.

Apple maintains that its controversial "Power Management" update, introduced in 2017, reduced the performance of an iPhone 6 by an average of just 10 percent. But the company acknowledged that a small percentage of iPhone 6s models had defective batteries, and stressed that it offered free battery replacements for those.

Apple has always denied misleading its customers. However, the company issued a public apology in 2017. Apple offered cheaper battery replacements to affected customers.

Apple Inc. may have taken remedial steps to boost transparency about the battery health of iPhone devices. However, the company did try to address the issue secretly, and its steps did affect the performance of the iOS smartphones. Perhaps those who filed the mass lawsuit in the UK are hoping Apple Inc. may try and settle here as well.

For the time being, Apple has denied the accusations. The company has branded the case as "baseless". Apple's lawyer, David Wolfson, reportedly pointed out that the lawsuit claims that "not all batteries could deliver the peak power demanded in all circumstances at all times." These are facts, and the circumstances, are common to all battery-powered devices, he said.

Best Mobiles in India
China Proposes Legislation That Critics Say May Increase Overseas Surveillance

By Xiaoshan Xue, Adrianna Zhang May 02, 2023

Concerned over its shrinking population, China is proposing new legislation to encourage ethnic Chinese around the world to relocate to China, bringing with them technical and entrepreneurial skills learned abroad.

Changes aimed at creating a more welcoming environment for millions of "the Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad" are laid out in an April 24 report to the National People's Congress. However, critics fear the new policy could also open a back door to increased monitoring and harassment of overseas Chinese.

The proposed legislation comes after China reported in January that its population had fallen for the first time in six decades, a decline that began a decade or so earlier that will have profound implications for its economy and the world.

Frederic Rocafort, an attorney and former U.S. consular officer in Guangzhou, said while declining population numbers may not reach a level of concern that calls for large-scale immigration, any country can benefit from adding talent to its workforce.

"Overseas Chinese could also play a role in increasing Han populations in certain areas. Meanwhile, Overseas Chinese could help China address demographic challenges by encouraging settlement in China by members of the diaspora," Rocafort, international practice group chair at Harris Bricken, a law firm based in Seattle, told VOA Mandarin via email on April 26. "At the same time, there are also economic reasons, such as encouraging the diaspora to invest in China a it is also a way of accelerating technological development. Members of the diaspora could also contribute favorably to China's economic agenda."

Han are the dominant ethnic group within China.

Overseas Chinese total 10.7 million, according to a UNESCO report. If the descendants of Chinese immigration that began on a large scale in the 16th century are included, there are about 60 million overseas Chinese, according to the report. The UNESCO report says, "Since the 1980s, over two-thirds of the foreign investment accepted by the Chinese government has come from expatriates."

The government-affiliated Global Times, says the 60 million overseas Chinese are found "across 200 countries and regions." The proposed legislation does not define who is "overseas Chinese," saying only that "the profound Chinese culture is the common soul."

It is unclear whether the new legislation will regulate the details of the overseas activities of Chinese government organizations.

The report also suggested continuing to promote "the construction of harmonious overseas Chinese communities and guiding overseas Chinese to abide by the laws of the country where they live."

Last month, the FBI arrested two New York City residents for allegedly operating an underground, illegal police station for China's Ministry of Public Security in one of the city's Chinese enclaves. Both men are American citizens and one had "a long-standing relationship of trust" with the Chinese government, according to prosecutors.

The station, one of more than 100 that China operates worldwide, allegedly monitored and harassed Chinese activists and dissidents in the United States as part of what U.S. prosecutors call China's "transnational repression" campaign.

Rocafort said strengthening ties to the diaspora is a way of counteracting the increasing negativity toward the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in countries like the U.S.

"Overseas Chinese might be perceived within China as more receptive to more nuanced views on the CCP, which they could then transmit to audiences in other countries where they have ties," he said.

Rocafort believes that irrespective of how this proposed law may define overseas Chinese, it is almost certain that many American citizens who are ethnically Chinese will fall under the category.

He urged the United States government to consider the implications of American citizens being more tightly brought into the Chinese government's orbit and to take notice of any provisions that call for activities overseas by any Chinese government organizations (or organizations potentially linked to the Chinese government), "even if ostensibly benign, as they could help deepen CCP influence abroad."

"Countries like the United States must be vigilant and carefully monitor any attempts by the Chinese government to increase its influence abroad under the guise of protecting diaspora communities," he said. "Their potential as advocates for the CCP is likely part of what is behind efforts to promote integration by overseas Chinese."

Teng Biao, a former human rights activist in China who is now a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, told VOA that one purpose of the legislation is to protect Chinese people who break local laws in foreign countries.

He said if the legislation passes, China's "infiltration and overseas surveillance will be intensified. The lure of overseas Chinese, including foreign citizens of Chinese descent, always functions together with the harassment and attacks against overseas activists and dissidents."

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Army sustainers talk logistics and contracting in Africa at summit

By Maj. Cain Claxton May 2, 2023

VICENZA, Italy -- Members of the 414th Contracting Support Brigade hosted a gathering of Army sustainment professionals April 11-18 in Padova, Italy, and Dakar, Senegal. The assembled participants discussed how to deliver troops and supplies to Africa in support of contingency operations.

"A minute talking logistics is never a minute wasted," said Col. Scott Shore, 79th Theater Sustainment Support Operations division chief. "We spent a lot of minutes talking about logistics, specifically contracting challenges on the African Continent."

The 414th CSB kicked off the summit with a thorough run-down of contracting options and considerations for providing life-support and sustainment capabilities in Africa.

"What made this so special is the combination of getting ideas on how the 414th and 79th can partner to bring special solutions to (U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa's) unique problem set in Africa," Shore said. "Africa is a difficult operating environment and we are responsible for a large area with few resources. The 414th's approach in having (contracting) professionals in the room with the 79th and the customer, SETAF-AF, made for a powerful approach to leveraging the LOGCAP program for exercises and for contingency operations."

Following the discussion on contracting considerations, the 79th Theater Sustainment Command led the group through a scenario exercise to identify requirements for providing that support in a country where the U.S. does not have an existing contingency site location (CSL) established.

"We had a scenario in Padova where we discussed the contracting solutions that 79th TSC would need to rely upon to support a joint task force (deploying to Africa)," said Maj. Justin M. Berry, lead contracting officer in the 414th CSB Regional Contracting Office-Africa.

"This helped to develop the problem statement that 79th TSC will use" during a larger exercise next month, Berry said.

To get a clearer picture of operating conditions troops in Africa could face, more than 30 of the participants traveled to Dakar, Senegal, to tour a nearby CSL.

"(The trip to Senegal) provided all the stakeholders shared situational understanding of all the components required to establish, maintain and then operationalize CSL Dakar," said Col. Douglas A. LeVien, director, SETAF-AF G4 logistics directorate.

A CSL is a modest facility strategically located so that the U.S. military can efficiently establish a base of operations when required. The requirements for a CSL depend on many factors including the size of the region they support and the kinds of military activities they will support, from humanitarian assistance and disaster response to counter-violent extremist operations. The number and locations of CSLs in Africa changes depending on requirements.

"By bringing all our sustainment partners together we were able to clarify expectations and improve our communications with each other in order to enhance our responsiveness, create options for commanders and accelerate the readiness of units to respond to AFRICOM exercises or contingency operations on short notice," LeVien said.

About SETAF-AF

U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) is responsible for achieving U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Army Campaign Plan objectives while conducting all U.S. Army operations, exercises and security cooperation on the African continent. The 79th Theater Sustainment Command (Forward) provides mission command and operational-level sustainment support to SETAF-AF and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The 414th CSB's mission is to provide direct contracting support to EUCOM, AFRICOM, CENTCOM, SETAF-AF and supporting units in the Vicenza and Darby military communities.

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May 2, 2023

Transcript

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder Holds a Press Briefing

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder

BRIGADIER GENERAL PAT RYDER: Good afternoon, everyone. Just a few items to pass along at the top, and then we'll get right to your questions.

As some of you may be aware, the Department of Defense released a statement earlier today regarding support to the Department of Homeland Security, which I'll reiterate here from the podium.

At the request of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Austin approved a temporary Department of Defense increase of an additional 1,500 military personnel to supplement U.S. Customs and Border Protection efforts on the U.S. southwest border.



For 90 days, these 1,500 military personnel, who will be sourced from the active-duty component, will fill critical capability gaps such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry and warehouse support until CPB can address these needs through contracted support. Military personnel will not directly participate in law enforcement activities.

It's important to note that the department is also evaluating options on how we might replace these deploying forces in stride with other sources, to include, potentially, forces from the Reserve component and contracted support. And while this request is for 90 days, I would point out that DOD has supported DHS on the southwest border for 18 of the last 22 years and every year since 2006.

Shifting gears, the Department of Defense, through U.S. Africa Command, remains committed to supporting the Department of State's efforts in Sudan. Over this past weekend, this support involved organizing and synchronizing transportation from Khartoum to Port Sudan and on to Saudi Arabia for U.S. citizens and others who wished to depart Sudan.

Today, the USNS Brunswick, along with the USS Truxtun and USS Polar, remain in the vicinity of Port Sudan and are able to provide support to the evacuation mission as needed. Additionally, ISR assets continue 24/7 overwatch over potential land evacuation routes, and AFRICOM's deconfliction cell continues to distribute relevant information to the Department of State, our allies and partners, and international NGOs to help enable informed decision-making.

Looking ahead, Secretary Austin looks very forward to welcoming Philippines' President Marcos to the Pentagon tomorrow. It's important to point out that we're standing at a transformational moment in the U.S.-Philippines alliance. We've made great strides recently in advancing our bilateral defense relationship, from announcing four new Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement sites to successfully completing the largest ever iteration of our annual bilateral exercise, Balikatan.

Secretary Austin and President Marcos will discuss a wide range of security topics, including support for the Philippines defense modernization efforts and expanding operational cooperation in the South China Sea.

Separately, the Department of Defense is joining with the U.S. Small Business Administration and our interagency partners in celebrating National Small Business Week, April 30 through May 6. As many of you know, small businesses play an absolutely vital role in securing our nation. In fact, more than 70% of the U.S. industrial base is made up of manufacturing companies with 20 or fewer employees.

The department released a new Small Business Strategy in February of this year and has a range of programs to both the -- both assist and encourage small companies to do business with the DOD. More information on DOD's small business initiatives can be found on the DOD website.

Finally, the Department of Defense Outreach Office is proud to announce the premiere of "Chopped: Military Salute" on the Food Network, hosted by Tim* Allen. The five-part tournament features 16 active-duty chefs from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army competing with their service for a slot in the final joint service competition. "Chopped: Military Salute" premiered Tuesday, April 25, and we would encourage everyone to tune in every Tuesday from now until May 23rd to see these talented service members in action.

And with that, we'll get to your questions. We'll go to A.P., Lita Baldor.

Q: Thanks, Pat. Can you say when you expect these troops to arrive at the border, even in a range of days, in the coming week, or presumably by May 11? Would that be accurate? Do you expect these will be active-duty troops or are you going to try to have to pull some from the Guard?

And third -- sorry -- in the past, DOD requested that DHS provide quarterly reports updating as to when and how DHS was going to be able to take over these jobs on the border. Is DOD getting these quarterly updates? And is the department confident or concerned that DHS will or won't be able to meet this requirement by the end of the fiscal year?

GEN. RYDER: Yes, thanks, Lita. So on -- on your first question, right now, I think we'll see -- you -- these troops arrive as early as May 10 and then in the coming weeks. Again, these will be active duty forces, although, as I mentioned at the top, we continue to explore other options so that we could return those active duty forces back to their home stations in stride with potentially Reserve component or contracted entities. Again, that's work that we'll -- we'll continue to do.

As far as quarterly reports, I'll have to take that question for you. I can tell you that, you know, as a matter of course, we do regularly communicate with DHS, and I think, again, we're -- we're in a situation here where DHS has requested assistance and the Department of Defense is assisting on this important issue. So thank you.

Q: Is it your -- I'm sorry -- is it -- are you saying, just for clarification, that within this 90 day period ...

GEN. RYDER: Correct.

Q: ... you would like to replace or you will look at replacing some of these active duty troops with National Guard or Reserve or potentially beyond that?

GEN. RYDER: Exactly, so within that 90 day period. Again, we're -- we are -- Secretary Austin has approved the deployment of 1,500 active duty troop -- troops, but again, we are looking and evaluating options, should we be able to replace those in stride. OK?

Jen and then we'll go to Will.

Q: Thank you, Gen. Ryder. So just which troop -- units will these troops be coming from? And will they be helping with drug enforcement? Because that's what the original executive order from the president said.

GEN. RYDER: Yes, so in -- in terms of the types of work that they'll be doing, as I highlighted at the top, these will be very much focused on support tasks to CBP. So no -- and I -- I'll just leave it at that. I mean -- I mean what I said.

In terms of the specific units, these forces will come from the Army and the U.S. Marine Corps, but I'd refer you to the services to talk about specific units that will be tasked.

Q: And in 2018, just before the midterm elections, President Trump ordered 5,200 U.S. troops to fortify the border. At the time, Democrats and former military officials and officers came out against that, saying they were being used for political reasons. How is this different?

GEN. RYDER: Yes, so, you know, really, my focus here is on talking about what we've been asked to do and -- and what we're doing. Clearly, DHS felt that there was a need for the Department of Defense to assist so that they can continue to do their important work. Secretary Austin approved that request, and so that's what we're focused on.

Q: Thanks.

GEN. RYDER: Thank you. Yes, Will?

Q: Thank you. Two questions on the -- on the border situation. First, what -- what is the current number of troops who were there prior to the 1,500 being deployed? And what necessitated this additional deployment now? Is it -- was it the changes on May 11 that are coming up or was there any other reason regarding it?

GEN. RYDER: Yes, that's correct. So in light of the changes on May 11 and the anticipated surge, DHS did reach out and -- and request this support.

In terms of the number of U.S. military that are there now, there are approximately 2,500 U.S. military, who are National Guard forces. They are focused, again, on supporting CBP with detection and monitoring and aviation support.

Tony?

Q: I have a couple non-border questions. Ukraine -- are there any PDAs or Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative contracts in the works that may be released in the next couple weeks to help the potential spring invasion -- spring offensive?

GEN. RYDER: So -- so first of all, I -- I don't have anything to announce today in regards to any upcoming security assistance packages, although broadly speaking, we will continue to support Ukraine with security assistance going forward and -- as we have been doing.

I'm not going to get into the specifics on timing, in terms of any potential counter-offensive, other than to say, from the very beginning, we've been working closely with Ukrainian leaders, with our allies and partners, to assess what Ukraine needs to defend their sovereignty and to take back their -- their sovereign territory.

Q: A different part of the world, South Korea -- last week, the White House announced a -- a nuclear -- you -- a nuclear-powered submarine would visit. Just to clarify that, roughly when might that happen? And will this be an Ohio-class that carries nuclear missiles or it will be one of those SSGNs that just carries Tomahawks?

GEN. RYDER: Yes, so in terms of the timing, Tony, I'm not going to get ahead of or -- or announce any timing of a deployment. It will be a -- an Ohio-class SSBN model but that's about as specific as I can get.

Q: But it'll carry nuclear weapons though?

GEN. RYDER: I -- I'm not going to get into the specific payloads, other than the -- the type of submarine will be an SSBN.

Q: OK, thanks.

GEN. RYDER: Thank you. OK. Yes, sir?

Q: Thank you very much, General. A question from Syria -- the killing of the Daesh leader on Saturday in an operation by the Turkish Intelligence -- this was announced by the Turkish President -- does the United States have any comment on that -- confirmation, comment, or what do you know about this?

GEN. RYDER: Certainly. At this time, we can't corroborate those reports. Certainly, that would be welcome news if true. You know, broadly speaking, we do appreciate what Turkey has done to counter ISIS but -- but that's about as much as I have.

Q: Just a quick follow-up on that -- you know, you have times when the United States said that the Turkish military presence in the region is being -- hampering the fight against Daesh. So, like, looking at the overall, how would you assess your NATO allies' efforts against Daesh or tackling Daesh terrorism?

GEN. RYDER: Yes, well, certainly, as -- as you know, in the -- in the border regions there in -- in northern Syria, Turkish forces have engaged with ISIS in the past. And again, I think anything that -- that the international community can do to help with the enduring defeat of ISIS is very helpful. Thank you very much.

Let me go back to Fadi and then we'll come to Kasim.

Q: Thank you, General. So a question on -- on Sudan. You mentioned the -- the three Navy ships supporting the evacuation from Port Sudan to Saudi Arabia. So I was wondering if you can give more details on the type of activities they were involved in throughout the -- the weekend and up until now in -- in this supporting role?

GEN. RYDER: Sure. So to my knowledge, we had -- the Brunswick was able to assist with the evacuation of approximately 300 people from Port Sudan to Jeddah, where they were obviously met by U.S. consular affairs officials. Again, the Brunswick has returned to Port Sudan to be available to transport any additional citizens or others who may require transport out of Sudan.

Q: And the other two ships are just in the sea in case they were called upon to -- to be involved?

GEN. RYDER: Correct -- correct, just to -- to provide -- to provide us with options should we need that capability.

Q: Thank you.

GEN. RYDER: Thank you. Kasim.

Q: Thank you, General. I have two questions actually, one follow-up. So have -- has there been any communications between Turkish and American militaries with respect to the killing of the ISIS leader?

GEN. RYDER: I don't have that -- I -- I don't know, Kasim. I would refer you to CENTCOM -- or, sorry, to EUCOM to ask them what -- what type of communication there may have been.

Q: OK. And, second question -- we have seen Russians have increased the barrage of missile strikes in Ukraine. Can you update us on the battlefield currently in Ukraine?

GEN. RYDER: Sure. I mean, broadly speaking, we continue to see heavy fighting in Bakhmut. Again, it -- it's been tenuous for a while there now. As you highlight, we've seen Russia firing missiles into civilian infrastructure -- again, nothing new, unfortunately, for them -- but largely along the front lines, it continues to remain static. Thank you.

Let me go to Ryo and then go back here and then I'll come back to you, Jennifer.

Q: Thank you very much, General. Yesterday, the U.S. and the Philippines agreed to -- agreed to establish a framework of trilateral cooperation with Japan and Australia respectively. So can you share a little bit more details, more -- a little bit more specifics on the -- what the Pentagon wants to do with this new trilateral format militarily moving forward?

GEN. RYDER: Yes, sure. Well, I don't -- I don't have anything specific to announce today, Ryo. I would tell you that the Philippines, Japan and Australia continue to remain very essential allies for us. We obviously share a common focus and common values when it comes to promoting peace, stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region, and so we're going to continue to look at ways that we can work together to achieve that end. Thank you very much.

Go back here and then we'll go to Ryo over here.

Q: Hi. Caitlin Kenney with Defense One. Tomorrow is World Press Freedom Day, and it's been more than 10 years since reporter Austin Tice was captured in Syria. Can you provide an update on what the Pentagon's efforts are to help bring Tice home? And can you explain what may be hindering the government's effort to bring him back? Thank you.

GEN. RYDER: Yes, thanks very much. So first of all, I would just offer, again, our -- our thoughts and prayers to the Tice family. While I don't have an update to provide today from the Pentagon in terms of efforts to -- to recover or -- or find Austin, I would say that we do continue to recognize the important work that journalists like Austin or Evan Gershkovich and many others have done and continue to do around the world to report on important issues as part of a free and independent press. Thank you.

Ryo?

Q: Thank you, General. I have a follow-up question on the visit of Philippine President Marcos to the U.S. So yesterday, White House announced that two countries are adopting a new defense guideline. So through this new defense guideline, how can U.S. and Philippine prepare for the potential contingency in the region, including the invasion of Taiwan?

GEN. RYDER: Sure. So we'll -- we'll obviously have much more to provide tomorrow after the president's visit to the Pentagon.

To underscore your point, you've heard the White House talk about the fact that the United States and the Philippines will be adopting bilateral defense guidelines, and what these will do is help to institutionalize key bilateral priorities, mechanisms and processes that will help deepen our alliance.

We're -- what we're looking to do here is look at enhanced bilateral planning, information sharing, accelerated defense capability development and collaboration on emerging security technology. So again, we'll have much more to provide in the -- in the days ahead. Thank you.

Jennifer? And then I'll go to Mike.

Q: Just a quick follow-up, Gen. Ryder, why are these active-duty troops being sent to the border and not National Guard? Is this just an effort to message to the tens of thousands of migrants on the other side of the border not to come across by using active duty troops? Because I seem to remember a few years back when the Trump administration wanted to send troops down there, that there was concern, by using active duty troops, that you would affect readiness.

GEN. RYDER: Yes, so really this is about being responsive. DHS has asked us for this support. And so the ability to rapidly provide support from our active duty forces is -- is really the key here. Again, we are -- as I mentioned, we're evaluating options to look at potentially replacing some of those forces with Reserve or contracted support.

And as you know, calling up Reserve component forces involves some time associated with that. And so by tasking the active-duty forces, we're able to meet this request very urgently and -- and support DHS.

Q: And so it won't affect readiness?

GEN. RYDER: It will not affect readiness.

Phil?

Q: Hey there. Just to -- wondering if you've now -- if the DOD assesses that it now knows the totality of the material leaked by Airman Teixeira and whether or not you've initiated or completed a damage assessment? Thank you.

GEN. RYDER: I'm sorry, Phil, can you say that first part again?

Q: Yeah, whether or not the DOD now knows that -- assesses that it knows the totality of the material leaked by Airman Teixeira and whether or not you've initiated or completed a damage assessment? Thank you.

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, so that work is ongoing. The -- as you know, the Secretary directed that we do a comprehensive review of -- of the impact of that leak, and so that work is ongoing, as is the criminal investigation into the Airman specifically.

Q: So then -- to be clear then, you're not quite sure yet -- it's not -- it's not clear yet whether or not you know the totality of the ...

GEN. RYDER: We continue to -- we continue to evaluate just exactly what was leaked out -- leaked as part of this unauthorized disclosure.

Q: Thank you.

GEN. RYDER: Yes.

Yes, sir? Go here and then over to Mike.

Q: Thank you, sir. On Ukraine, in January and in November, Gen. Milley stated that there are well over 100,000 Russian casualties, and then yesterday, NSC's Kirby stated that there was, since December, about 100,000 Russian casualties, with 20,000 dead. So is it safe to assume that there are now well over 200,000 Russian casualties in Ukraine?

GEN. RYDER: Again, I'm not going to have anything to add beyond what Mr. Kirby provided yesterday, other than to say this -- this conflict has been bloody from the beginning. Russia's -- Russia's invasion has caused the death of -- of thousands and thousands of people, and again, another reason why we would call on Russia to end this -- cease this needless and senseless war as quickly as possible, immediately. Thank you.

And last question, we'll go to Mike here.

Q: Change the subject a bit -- Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Military Archdiocese sent out a letter a couple of days ago criticizing Secretary Austin's policy, saying that it mandates federal funding for abortion travel and compels military commanders to authorize such undertakings. He said the policy fails to incorporate basic conscience protection and creates First Amendment pitfalls for military commanders. I was wondering if the Pentagon has any thoughts on -- any comment upon the Archbishop's ...

GEN. RYDER: Yes, I -- I don't -- I don't have a comment to provide on the Archbishop's letter. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it.

[* Eds. Note: "Chopped" is hosted by Ted Allen.]

https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3382261/

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May 2, 2023

By David Vergun , DOD News

DOD Aims to Improve Network Security, Leverage New Technologies

The Defense Information Systems Agency and the Department of Defense Information Network are looking for ways to repurpose cutting-edge technology like artificial intelligence; development, security and operations; and zero-trust assets to protect the Defense Department's global network, the director of those organizations said.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert J. Skinner, DISA director and commander of the Joint Force Headquarters-DODIN, told attendees of this year's TechNet Cyber conference that DISA is currently going through some new structural developments.

DISA is restructuring its organization to more functionally align with the DOD warfighting functions to provide more capabilities, Skinner said.

"We've got to be more agile and more capable against the strategic threat ..., and the strategic threat is China," he said.

DISA will also become more aligned with the Joint Staff and combatant commands, he said.

Air Force Col. Jennifer Carns, Future Operations Division, Joint Forces Headquarters-DODIN at Fort Meade, Maryland, gave an analogy to what DODIN is up against in protecting its network.

Some homes have everything  including computers, telephones, refrigerators and security alarms  connected to a central hub.

"A simple change to a device can change the network and have far reaching effects and impact everything else in that home network," she said, meaning hackers and other malicious actors can compromise that home network.

These types of bad actors are continually working to seek ways to compromise DOD's networks, she said.

"Unlike other domains, cyberspace is not constrained to geographic boundaries. We need to be on top of our game and focus on cybersecurity all the time. There's no time off when it comes to defending our networks," Carns said.

The DODIN is the foundational platform for every military operation in the cyber domain. It's a fast-paced environment where persistent engagement is required, she said.

Among its tasks are increasing shared situational awareness and collaboration, enforcing cybersecurity standards, hardening networks, working with allies and partners, advancing defensive capabilities, modernizing critical systems, and optimizing operations, Carns said.

DISA manages a global network with a workforce of about 19,000 service members, civilians and contractors who plan, develop, deliver and operate joint, interoperable command-and-control capabilities and defend an enterprise infrastructure in more than 42 countries.

This mission directly supports the president, secretary of defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, combatant commanders, DOD components, and other mission partners across the spectrum of competition, combat and combat-support operations.

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Latvia - Naval Strike Missile Coastal Defense System

Media/Public Contact: pm-cpa@state.gov

Transmittal No: 23-28

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2023 -- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Latvia of Naval Strike Missile Coastal Defense System and related equipment for an estimated cost of $110 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.

The Government of Latvia has requested to buy a Naval Strike Missile Coastal Defense System (NSM CDS), including tactical, telemetered, and training missiles; containers; mobile operational platforms; integration equipment; ordnance handling equipment (OHE); training equipment and aids; technical publications and data; training; spares; U.S. Government and contractor technical and product support or assistance; and other related elements of logistical and program support. The estimated total cost is $110 million.

This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a NATO ally that is an important force for political stability and economic progress in Europe.

The proposed sale will improve Latvia's capability to meet current and future threats in the Baltic Sea maritime domain. Latvia's increased coastal defense capability and interoperability with U.S. and NATO armed forces will contribute to both U.S. and Latvian defense and security objectives in the Baltics. Latvia will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The principal contractor is to be determined. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Latvia.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law. The description and dollar value are for the highest estimated quantity and dollar value based on initial requirements. Actual dollar value will be lower depending on final requirements, budget authority, and signed sales agreement(s), if and when concluded.

All questions regarding this proposed Foreign Military Sale should be directed to the State Department's Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, pm-cpa@state.gov.

-30-

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Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue: Statement by the High Representative on the Political Declaration on Missing Persons

European External Action Service (EEAS)

02.05.2023

Brussels

EEAS Press Team

Today, under EU Facilitation, President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia and Prime Minister Albin Kurti of Kosovo have reaffirmed the importance of resolving the fate of the remaining Missing Persons, to bring closure to the suffering of their loved ones and to foster lasting reconciliation and peace.

Both Parties have recognised the issue of Missing Persons as a humanitarian one, and noted the urgent need for additional joint efforts to alleviate the situation of the affected families and the wider community.

They have acknowledged the important work done through the Working Group on Missing Persons, chaired by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). As a sign of their joint resolve to ensure full implementation of their respective commitments in the field of Missing Persons, they have endorsed the Declaration on Missing Persons.

They have also committed to agree on the operational details at the next meeting of the EU-facilitated Dialogue on normalisation of relations, at Chief Negotiators level.

Of the 6.065 cases of persons who have gone missing in the period 1 January 1998 - 31 December 2000, 1.621 remain unresolved. More than twenty years after, their families continue to live in grief, unaware of the whereabouts of their loved ones. Families have the right to know the fate of their relatives as does society at large.

Resolving the issue of Missing Persons is not only a humanitarian obligation. It is also a crucial enabler for reconciliation and trust between people. It has become urgent to ensure that the process of identifying burial sites is concluded as soon as possible. Memories are fading and individuals, places and events are more difficult to investigate.

This is why the EU welcomes the Parties' endorsement of the declaration and expects that the Parties make tangible progress on bringing to a closure the outstanding cases of Missing Persons and on fulfilling their respective obligations towards the families. The EU-chaired Joint Monitoring Committee overseeing the implementation of the Agreement on the path to normalisation between Kosovo and Serbia and its Implementation Annex will regularly review the progress made.

The Declaration can be found here

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Declaration of President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Missing Persons

European External Action Service (EEAS)

02.05.2023

EEAS Press Team

Emphasizing the importance of resolving the fate of the remaining Missing Persons to bring closure to the suffering of their loved ones and to foster lasting reconciliation and peace,

Bearing in mind that this Declaration follows the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) understanding of Missing Persons, which includes persons forcibly disappeared,

Recalling that all categories of Missing Persons, will be treated with equal priority,

Acknowledging the important work done through the Working Group on Missing Persons, chaired by the ICRC,

Encouraging cooperation with other relevant actors in the field of Missing Persons, in particular International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP),

Recognising the issue of Missing Persons as a humanitarian one,

Noting the urgent need for additional efforts to alleviate the human suffering of the families,

We jointly commit

To ensure full implementation of respective commitments in the field of Missing Persons,

to closely cooperate on identifying burial sites and follow-up on the excavations,

to ensure full access to reliable and accurate information that helps to locate and identify the remaining Missing Persons within the timeframe 1 January 1998 - 31 December 2000. This includes all materials, notes, orders, documents, videos, audio recordings, and any other documents including those having classified status, under the possession of institutions of both parties, relevant to this context,

to make available all domestic and international documentation of significance in determining the fate of the remaining Missing Persons,

to use satellite data, LIDAR and other advanced technology in detecting mass graves,

to enable and encourage active engagement of families of Missing Persons in the process of identifying their fates,

to adequately ensure the rights and address the needs of the families of Missing Persons,

to establish and work together through a Joint Commission chaired by the European Union and observed by the ICRC with the aimof supporting the effort to resolve the fate of the remaining Missing Persons,

to monitor and support the work and the progress made by the Working Group on Missing Persons through the Joint Commission. In this context, the parties will review and update the Terms of Reference and General framework of the Working Group.

The operational details will be agreed in the next meeting of the EU-facilitated Dialogue on normalisation of relations.

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Launch of the Somalia - EU Joint Operational Roadmap: A Renewed Focused Engagement

European External Action Service (EEAS)

02.05.2023

Mogadishu

Strategic Communications

The Federal Government of Somalia and the European Union have today launched a Joint Operational Roadmap setting the path for a renewed focused engagement for the next two years. The Joint Operational Roadmap is the culmination of extensive high-level and technical exchanges between Mogadishu and Brussels throughout the past months, including the Somalia-EU Political Dialogue held on March 06, 2023.

The High Representative/Vice-President of the European Union, Josep Borrell Fontelles, lauded the joint elaboration and endorsement of an Operational Roadmap, stating: "The EU and Somalia are long-term partners and this truly inclusive process in defining joint priorities is an example of a successful partnership." He also further stated: "I want to commend the Federal Government's serious efforts and progress in building peace and development in Somalia benefitting the Somali population. The strategy and successful ongoing operations to fight al-Shabaab are remarkable. Together, the EU and Somalia are promoting sustainable peace, security and development along the principles of the international rules-based order."

On his part, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre applauded this historic milestone acknowledging the significance of these efforts to deepen the partnership between Somalia and the EU as he stated: "The operational framework launched today setting the path for a renewed focused engagement is a testament to our dedication to utilizing our partnerships to deliver tangible benefits that touch the lives and livelihoods of ordinary citizens. The EU has been a reliable friend and a close partner, and I am certain, that this Joint Operational Roadmap will enable more progress in the critical areas of state-building, peace and security, economic development and service delivery."

The Joint Operational Roadmap (annexed below) represents a concrete plan of action along the areas of focus as agreed between the Federal Government of Somalia and the European Union for the upcoming 24 months. It is centered around Inclusive Politics and Democratisation, Security and Stabilisation and Socio-economic Growth.

Background

The launching event took place at Villa Somalia and was presided by the Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Hamza Abdi Barre, and the EU Ambassador to Somalia, Tiina Intelmann. Distinguished Members of the Cabinet, senior government officials and representatives from the diplomatic corps were also present. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Abshir Omar Jama, delivered a statement on behalf of the Somali government while the EU Special Representative (EUSR) for the Horn of Africa, Annette Weber, delivered a statement on behalf of the EU.

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Norwegian Government plans to meet NATO's 2 % goal by 2026

Government of Norway

Press release | Date: 02/05/2023

Strengthening defence and emergency preparedness is one of the Government's main priorities in the years to come.

'Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has changed the security landscape in Europe. We must continue to strengthen the Norwegian Armed Forces and the defence alliance that we are a part of. We are therefore announcing that Norway will increase its defence spending to a minimum of 2 % of our gross domestic product by 2026 and we will draw up a plan setting out how we will achieve this,' said Prime Minister Jonah Gahr Stre.

In 2014, all NATO member countries agreed to meet the 2 % of GDP defence investment guideline by 2024. Nearly ten years have now passed since this goal was set without the specification of a clear Norwegian commitment of 2 % of its GDP. Norway will announce its plan to meet this goal and outline how that will be done at the NATO Summit in Vilnius in June.

'For decades we have enjoyed the benefits of peace and now the price of our insurance premium has gone up. We must devote more of our common resources to defence, security and emergency preparedness. It is necessary to further increase allocations to the Norwegian Armed Forces in the years ahead. And it is necessary for Norway to commit to reaching the 2 % goal by 2026,' said Minister of Finance Trygve Slagsvold Vedum.

The exact amount of funding this will require will depend on the GDP forecast for Norway for 2026, among other things. This is difficult to predict.

'A Norwegian commitment to NATO's 2 % target is vital to our national security. We are now working on a revised Long-term Defence Plan to be presented next year. It will set out the plan for further strengthening the Norwegian Armed Forces. It is already clear that we need to expand our Armed Forces, and use more resources to enhance our presence throughout our area of national responsibility, particularly in our territorial waters,' said Minister of Defence Bjrn Arild Gram.

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Data on interceptions of aircraft completed near the Baltic States' borders on April 24-30, 2023

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of National Defence

2023-05-02

International cooperation

On April 24-30 fighter aircraft conducting the NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic states were scrambled seven times to identify and escort aircraft of the Russian Federation flying in violation of flight rules in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.

On April 24 fighter aircraft of the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission Detachment were scrambled to intercept one IL-20 and two SU-27 aircraft in international airspace flying from Kaliningrad and back. None of the aircraft had pre-filed flight plans, onboard transponders switched on or communication with the regional air traffic control centre.

On April 25 NATO air policing fighter jets intercepted one IL-20 and two SU-27s. The IL-20 was flying from Kaliningrad to the mainland of the Russian Federation through international airspace without having pre-filed a flight plan, not using the onboard transponder, though maintaining radio communication with the regional air traffic control centre. The two SU-27 flew out of Kaliningrad into international airspace and then returned. The flight had no plans filed in advance, neither of aircraft had their onboard transponders on, nor did the crews keep radio communication with the regional air traffic control centre.

On April 26 NATO fighter aircraft were scrambled to intercept two SU-27 en route from and then back to Kaliningrad via international airspace, their onboard switched off, no flight plans, no radio communication with the regional air traffic control centre.

NATO fighters also intercepted one TU-134 on the same scramble. The aircraft was flying through international airspace from Kaliningrad to mainland Russia, without the flight plan, its onboard transponder was switched on and the crew was maintaining radio communication with the regional air traffic control centre.

In addition, NATO fighter jets also identified and escorted one AN-26 flying from mainland Russia to Kaliningrad through international airspace. The flight had no pre-filed plan, the crew kept the onboard transponder on and maintained radio communication with the regional air traffic control centre.

On April 27 NATO fighter aircraft were scrambled to intercept one TU-134 flying out of and back to Kaliningrad via international airspace. It had no flight plan, the crew kept the onboard transponder switched on and maintained radio communication with the regional air traffic control centre.

On April 28 NATO air policing fighter jets identified and escorted two SU-27s flying into international airspace from Kaliningrad and then heading back, without the flight plans, no onboard transponder signal nor radio communication.

While on the same scramble, NATO fighter jets intercepted one AN-72 on a flight from mainland Russia to Kaliningrad through international airspace. It had no pre-filed plan, the crew was maintaining radio communication with the regional air traffic control centre but the onboard transponder was switched off.

On April 28 NATO fighter aircraft were scrambled to identify and escort two SU-27s on the way from Kaliningrad into international airspace and then back. There was no plan pre-filed for the flight, aircraft crews did on use the onboard transponders and were not maintaining radio communication.

Other aircraft intercepted in the course of the same scrambled were one AN-72 flying from Kaliningrad to mainland Russia without the flight plan, onboard transponder off, through maintaining radio communication with the regional air traffic control centre, and one AN-26 en route from mainland Russia to Kaliningrad via international airspace - without a pre-filed fight plan, though maintaining radio communication and with the onboard transponder switched on.

On April 29 NATO air policing fighter aircraft were scrambled to intercept two SU-27s flying from the mainland Russia to Kaliningrad without the pre-filed flight plans, not using the onboard transponders and not maintaining radio communication.

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Joint Statement of the Leaders of the Philippines and the United States

Republic of the Philippines - Department of Foreign Affairs

02 May 2023

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. is honored to welcome Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to Washington, DC. The leaders recognize the remarkable ties of friendship, community, and shared sacrifice that serve as the foundation of the U.S.-Philippines alliance.

President Biden and President Marcos welcome the historic momentum in U.S.-Philippine relations, and resolve to continue expanding engagement and cooperation on all issues of common concern. In efforts to promote inclusive and broad-based prosperity, invest in the clean energy transition and the fight against climate change, uphold international peace and stability, and ensure respect for human rights and the rule of law, the United States and the Philippines will remain the closest of allies, working together to deliver a better future for our citizens and tackle the emerging challenges of the twenty-first century.

Partnering for Peace and Security: Strengthening our Alliance, Upholding International Law, and Expanding Regional Collaboration

President Biden reaffirms the United States' ironclad alliance commitments to the Philippines, underscoring that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea, would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.

The leaders welcome the identification of new sites pursuant to the U.S.-Philippines Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which will strengthen Philippine security and support the Armed Forces of the Philippines' modernization goals, while driving U.S. investment to local communities across the Philippines and improving our shared ability to rapidly deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

The leaders underscore their unwavering commitment to freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, and the importance of respecting the sovereign rights of states within their exclusive economic zones consistent with international law. The leaders support the right and ability of Filipino fisherfolk to pursue their traditional livelihoods. The leaders note the ruling of the 2016 arbitral tribunal, constituted pursuant to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). They affirm the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of global security and prosperity. The leaders convey support for Ukraine's sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, noting that the conflict has adversely affected food and energy security in the Indo-Pacific.

The leaders welcome cooperation with partners that share the United States' and the Philippines' commitment to international law and mutual respect, and in that spirit, they reaffirm their strong support for ASEAN centrality and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. They look forward to establishing trilateral modes of cooperation among the Philippines, Japan, and the United States, as well as the Philippines, Australia, and the United States. Furthermore, they welcome the Quad's commitment to support a peaceful and stable, rules-based region with ASEAN at the center, through its efforts to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Delivering Prosperity and Resilience: Driving Broad-Based Economic Growth, Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition, and Promoting the Well-Being of Our Citizens

President Biden and President Marcos resolve to draw on the strength of their partnership to promote enduring economic growth and prosperity in the United States, the Philippines, and the broader Indo-Pacific region. To that end, President Biden will dispatch a Presidential Trade and Investment Mission to the Philippines on his behalf, to enhance U.S. companies' investment in the Philippines' innovation economy, its clean energy transition and critical minerals sector, and the food security of its people. Furthermore, the leaders announce that the United States and the Philippines will co-host the 2024 Indo-Pacific Business Forum - the United States' marquee commercial event in the region - in Manila, which will further establish the Philippines as a key hub for regional supply chains and high-quality investment. Additionally, the two countries will pursue engagements with stakeholders, including in the business and social sectors, regarding opportunities to enhance bilateral economic engagement in a manner that is worker-centered, sustainability-driven, fair, and transparent, focusing on sectors in which it is critical to develop resilient supply chains and in which significant and meaningful economic value-added and employment can be generated in the United States and the Philippines.

The leaders welcome their countries' plans to prioritize bilateral economic cooperation through the U.S.-Philippines Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). The leaders also applaud progress in developing the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which will deliver concrete benefits to our workers, families, and businesses by promoting trade, supply chain resilience, clean economy development, and anti-corruption throughout the region. The two leaders look forward to seeing one another again in San Francisco this November for the APEC Economic Leaders' Week, to advance sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the region.

Recognizing that the climate crisis poses an existential threat to the world, and the Philippines' particular vulnerability to the effects of climate change, the leaders reaffirm they will undertake urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They resolve to expand collaboration on renewable energy production to accelerate the clean energy transition while bringing down energy costs and expanding energy access for families. The leaders hail progress in negotiating a U.S.-Philippines civil nuclear cooperation agreement ("123 agreement"). The United States and the Philippines will also pursue an ambitious program of cooperation on wind, solar, and geothermal energy, while enhancing cooperation on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the waste, road, and shipping sectors.

The leaders further resolve to expand cooperation on environmental protections, including enhanced domain awareness, marine conservation, and protecting coastal areas from environmental degradation. Acknowledging the paramount significance of science and technology in propelling our countries forward, the leaders pledge to promote increased cooperation and knowledge sharing between the United States and the Philippines through the Science and Technology Agreement (STA), and they welcome U.S. plans to establish an Open-RAN Interoperability Lab in Manila. Recognizing the importance of enhancing and sustaining joint efforts in outer space activities, the leaders also welcome their countries' plan to prioritize and strengthen bilateral space cooperation, including by convening their first bilateral Civil Space Dialogue this year.

The leaders underscore the importance of strong democratic institutions, rule of law, and respect for human rights, including freedom of expression, press, and association, and they note the importance of countering any form of violence in our societies, such as that against civil society, women, children, and marginalized groups. The leaders welcome the establishment of a bilateral Labor Working Group as part of the U.S.-Philippines TIFA, which will provide an important opportunity for the United States and the Philippines to work together on implementation of internationally recognized labor rights, and to facilitate exchange and dialogue among U.S. and Philippine governments and labor unions, as well as employer organizations.

The leaders recognize that the people-to-people ties between the two countries are an indispensable pillar of our partnership, manifested in their immense contributions to both the United States and the Philippines. The leaders note the service and sacrifice of Filipinos in World War II, and more recently, the significant contributions of Filipino Americans on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking to the future, President Biden and President Marcos express the utmost confidence that the special ties between their nations and their people will only grow stronger with time, as the United States and the Philippines continue to realize their shared vision of partnership, peace, and prosperity. END

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Sudan's fighting factions agree to seven-day ceasefire

Iran Press TV

Tuesday, 02 May 2023 6:04 PM

Sudan's regular army, led by the de facto leader of the country Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo's army, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have agreed to a seven-day ceasefire.

The two rival generals agreed to a new ceasefire on Tuesday after the previous one expired a day before, the foreign ministry of South Sudan said in a statement.

The two sides also said they would send representatives for peace talks "to be held at an agreed venue of their choice," it added.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir, who had offered to mediate in the conflict, had named envoys to peace talks, to which both sides of the conflict had agreed.

The shaky and partial ceasefire has been renewed multiple times since the fighting began.

Military forces loyal to Burhan and Dagalo, popularly known as Hemedti, started fighting one another in mid-April, sparking a mass exodus of refugees from the conflict-ridden country and leading to the death of hundreds of people and injury of thousands more.

Prior to the fighting, the plan was to let political power to transit from the junta to a civilian government

However, Burhan and Hemedti, who seized power together, have shown an unwillingness to transfer power to civilian elements in Sudan's political system.

Meanwhile, UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths, who was named as an envoy to the region on Sunday, said the country's "humanitarian situation is reaching breaking point."

Sudanese families are struggling to access water, food, fuel and other commodities, with some unable to relocate due to the cost of transportation out of the worst-hit areas, Griffiths reported.

Overnight hospitals reported strikes on their premises.

In Khartoum's twin city, Omdurman, volleys of airstrikes and sounds of gunfire were audible as clashes raged throughout the capital, and were particularly heavy in areas around major government and military infrastructure in the city center.

An airstrike on the area outside East Nile hospital in north Khartoum killed at least three tea vendors as well as a child, leaving behind only a crater.

Griffiths warned that urgent health care "is severely constrained, raising the risk of preventable death."

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UN will deliver aid to Afghans, but funding drying up: Guterres

Iran Press TV

Tuesday, 02 May 2023 3:46 PM

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the United Nations will stay in Afghanistan to deliver aid to millions of desperate Afghan citizens but warned that funding is drying up.

Guterres held a second day of talks with world powers in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday, saying the UN will deliver aid to desperate people despite the Taliban's restrictions on female staff.

"We will never be silent in the face of unprecedented systemic attacks on women's and girls' rights," he said.

He also warned of a severe shortfall in financial pledges for UN humanitarian appeal this year, which is just over 6% funded, falling short of the $4.6 billion requested for a country in which most of the population lives in poverty.

Ahead of the Doha meeting, Afghan women held protests against any possible recognition of the Taliban administration that returned to power in August 2021.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, however, said on Monday that it "is not up for discussion" at the talks and Guterres also stressed that the meeting had not been aimed at recognizing the Taliban's administration.

The UN chief, however, said he was open to meeting Taliban officials when it was the "right moment to do so, but today is not the right moment."

The meeting involved the United States, Russia, China and 20 other countries, and 20 other countries and organizations, including major European donors and neighbors such as Pakistan, but excluding the Taliban government.

Meanwhile, the head of the Taliban political office in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, warned that any meeting without the participation of their representatives "is unproductive and even sometimes counter-productive."

"How can a decision taken at such meetings be acceptable or implemented while we are not part of the process? It is discriminatory and unjustified," Shaheen said.

The Taliban said last month that women employed by the UN mission could no longer report for work.

The UN described the measure as an extension of the Taliban's restrictions imposed in December last year to ban Afghan women from working for non-governmental national and international organizations.

Last week, the UN Security Council unanimously condemned the ban on its Afghan women staff, which the world body says has seriously threatened its efforts to aid the population.

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Kosovo, Serbia Agree To Cooperate On Resolving Cases Of Missing Persons From 1998-99 War

By RFE/RL's Balkan Service May 02, 2023

The leaders of Kosovo and Serbia have pledged to work together to locate people who went missing during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who mediated talks on May 2 in Brussels between Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, welcomed the agreement.

According to the European Union, 1,621 people remain missing from the war that left more than 13,000 people dead. The majority of those killed and still missing are ethnic Albanians.

"More than 20 years after, their families continue to live in grief, unaware of the whereabouts of their loved ones," Borrell said in a statement. "Families have the right to know the fate of their relatives as does society at large."

He said that solving the issue is not only a humanitarian obligation but also a "crucial enabler for reconciliation and trust between people."

Borrell added that it has become urgent to ensure that the process of identifying the burial sites is completed as soon as possible.

"Memories are fading and individuals, places and events are more difficult to investigate," he said in the statement.

The two sides committed to agree on the operational details at the next meeting as part of the dialogue on the normalization of relations at the level of the main negotiators.

The meeting on May 2 was the first between Kurti and Vucic since their March 18 meeting in Ohrid, North Macedonia, where they reached agreement on ways to implement an EU-backed deal on the path to the normalization.

Under the declaration, the parties will cooperate closely on the identification of grave sites and will ensure full access to reliable and accurate information that helps in locating and identifying missing persons from the time frame from January 1, 1998, to December 31, 2000.

The operational details of the declaration will be agreed upon at the next meeting of the EU-mediated dialogue on the normalization of relations in Brussels.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kosovo-serbia-agree- missing-persons-cases-war/32390495.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Former Moldovan Prime Minister Among Eight Charged By Anticorruption Prosecutor Over Airport Contract

By RFE/RL's Moldovan Service May 02, 2023

Former Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca is among eight people charged on May 2 in a corruption case over a concession that gave control of the country's main airport to a company associated with businessman and politician Ilan Shor, who fled Moldova in 2019 after the election of pro-Western President Maia Sandu.

The Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office announced the abuse of power charge against Leanca, saying former Economy Minister Valeriu Lazar, former director of the Public Property Agency (APP) Tudor Copaci, and five other former officials face similar charges in the criminal case.

All the accused pleaded not guilty, said Veronica Dragalin, head of Moldova's Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office, at a news conference in Chisinau. They face between four and eight years in prison if convicted.

The 2013 concession handed control of Chisinau International Airport for a 49-year term to a company associated with Shor, who has lived abroad since he left the country in 2019 following fraud and money laundering convictions.

The Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office said damages to the state were more than 392 million lei ($21.8 million).

Other defendants are the interim general director of the airport, Petru Jardan; the former deputy director of APP, Angela Susanu; another official within the APP, Maria Sendila; the former financial director of the airport, Alexandru Ciutac; and head of the economic analysis service of airport, Alla Tubari.

The prosecutor's office said in a statement that the accused issued the concession in 2013 in the interest of a "criminal group" and "criminal organization."

Prosecutors say Leanca was to receive money from Shor and would have benefited from flights with private planes paid for by Shor.

Leanca, 59, has held several high-level political positions representing the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM). He was deputy prime minister and foreign minister from 2009-13 before becoming prime minister in 2013 and serving through 2015.

After leaving the PLDM, he created a new "political project" and ran unsuccessfully in the European Parliament elections on the list of a Romanian party.

As part of the investigation, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the Agency for the Recovery of Criminal Assets seized the assets and capital of Avia Invest, the former company granted the concession to run the airport. Defendants' assets, including those from abroad, also were seized.

Chisinau International Airport returned to state ownership on March 27 based on a decision of the Chisinau Court of Appeal. Avia Invest had been accused of not making the promised investments in the development of the airport.

Avia Invest has said it would sue the government over the transfer of the airport to state management.

The return of the airport to the state management was welcomed by Sandu and other Moldovan leaders as an important result in the fight against corruption.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/former-moldovan-pm-charged- anticorruption-prosecutor-airport/32390472.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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U.S.-Hosted Talks Between Armenia, Azerbaijan Enter Second Day

By RFE/RL May 02, 2023

Dialogue between Yerevan and Baku is key to achieving lasting peace in the South Caucasus, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said ahead of the second day of a U.S.-hosted meeting of delegations from Armenia and Azerbaijan aimed at reaching "lasting peace" in the region.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and their delegations resumed the meeting on May 2, an Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson told RFE/RL's Armenian Service, as Washington spearheads efforts to quell long-standing tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Dialogue is key to reaching a lasting peace in the South Caucasus region," Blinken tweeted on May 1 as the talks opened. The tweet included photos of Blinken warmly greeting Mirzoyan and Bayramov.

Tensions have flared in recent weeks over a checkpoint installed by Azerbaijan on a key road linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inside Azerbaijan populated mostly by ethnic Armenians.

After the talks got under way on May 1, U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Washington is optimistic that peace and stability between Armenia and Azerbaijan can be achieved.

"The secretary believes that direct dialogue is key to resolving issues and reaching a lasting peace," Patel added.

No details were released after the first day of discussions, which are being held at a new State Department facility in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington. U.S. officials familiar with the negotiations described the discussions as "constructive" in comments to reporters. The talks are expected to last several days.

Arman Yeghoyan, chairman of the European Integration Committee, said the negotiations cover the entire spectrum of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.

Yerevan has the highest possible expectations from the negotiations, said Yeghoyan without elaborating.

The Kremlin responded to the talks by saying any effort to resolve the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is welcome but the basis of any long-term solution should be a Russian-brokered peace agreement signed in 2020.

There is "no alternative" to that deal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 2.

"For the moment, there is no other legal basis that would help a resolution," Peskov added. "There is no alternative to these trilateral documents," he told reporters in Moscow.

Armenia says the checkpoint, set up on April 23, is a violation of the 2020 Moscow-brokered cease-fire. Azerbaijan said it established the checkpoint in response to what it said were Armenian weapon supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan denies that charge.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over Nagorno-Karabakh -- in 1990 and 2020 -- and regularly clash over the territory.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian Service, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/armenia-azerbaijan-talks- second-day-us/32389619.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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HRW Says Actions By Kyrgyz, Tajik Forces In 2022 Conflict 'Likely Amount To War Crimes'

By Chris Rickleton May 02, 2023

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Actions carried out by Kyrgyz and Tajik forces during a four-day conflict along the Central Asian countries' contested border that left more than 100 civilians and soldiers dead in September included "serious violations of the laws of war by both sides," Human Rights Watch said.

The report, released on May 2, is the first by a major rights watchdog since the most lethal incident yet in a conflict that has its roots in border disagreements originating from when both countries were part of the Soviet Union.

HRW said many of the actions by the countries "likely amount to war crimes," in what was at the time the second large-scale conflict between the two neighbors in 18 months.

Incidents highlighted in the report included attacks on civilian vehicles and ambulances, the "indiscriminate" use of explosives, extrajudicial killings by military forces, and arson attacks on homes and civilian infrastructure.

In a series of recommendations, the group called on both governments to hold perpetrators to account for "serious violations of international humanitarian law" and train their armed forces personnel on the application of international humanitarian law in conflict situations.

The group also said that any agreement reached in ongoing border demarcation talks should acknowledge the rights of local populations "to education, adequate housing, and water" in the fertile but densely populated and water-stressed region.

HRW's 89-page report drew on 86 interviews, including 69 with eyewitnesses, victims, or relatives of victims; 10 days of onsite investigations in October and November 2022; a review of medical records and other documents; an analysis of satellite imagery; the verification of 12 videos showing attacks and their aftermath; and 3D modeling to analyze the impact of a laser-guided bomb attack and attacks on medical vehicles.

The focus of the report was the conflict's impact on civilians rather than military personnel.

HRW documented 37 civilian deaths, five of them children, and injuries to 36 others on both sides. But "considering media reports and official victim lists, the full number could reach 51 civilians killed and 121 injured," HRW said, not including casualties among military personnel.

Well over 100,000 people were displaced in Kyrgyzstan during the conflict. Tajikistan has not released a figure for the number of people displaced in the conflict.

Prior to April 2021, when dozens died in brutal clashes, conflicts tended not to spread or to result in full-scale military mobilizations along the frontier.

The report does not draw a conclusion as to who started the September conflict.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly just days after the conflict, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said that Tajikistan "attacked" Kyrgyzstan.

The Tajik Foreign Ministry accused Kyrgyzstan of "an attack on the territory of Tajikistan along the entire line of the border with Kyrgyzstan."

In an interview with RFE/RL ahead of the report's release, HRW's Senior Crisis and Conflict Researcher Jean-Baptiste Gallopin said that international humanitarian law "applies equally to all parties of a conflict."

"Whether an army is attacking or defending, it has the same duty not to violate the laws of war," Gallopin said. "That means in particular the principle of distinction between military and civilian targets and the principle of proportionality in the use of force."

HRW said that the third day of the conflict -- September 16 -- was particularly packed with violations.

"At around 5 p.m. that day, the evidence indicated that Kyrgyz forces used a Bayraktar TB-2 drone to deliver a laser-guided bomb near Tajik forces minutes after they arrived in the central square in Ovchi Kalacha, a Tajik town on the border," HRW wrote.

The explosive hit at a time when local civilians were gathering next to a mosque after a funeral, killing 10 and wounding 13 others, HRW said, describing the strike as a "disproportionate and apparently indiscriminate attack."

On the same day, Tajik soldiers repeatedly fired on cars carrying Kyrgyz civilians fleeing the fighting, the report stated.

One Kyrgyz woman interviewed said that her family crawled out of their car "to avoid being killed in it if it exploded" after Tajik soldiers shot at them, injuring her husband and son.

The family lay still for some time, but Tajik soldiers opened fire again when they moved, she said.

The report also said Kyrgyz combatants likely fired at ambulances, which enjoy special protection under humanitarian law.

One attack on two "clearly marked" ambulances and a private car carrying civilians on a bridge near the Tajik village of Chorbog in Tajikistan left 10 people dead, including four children and two medical workers.

HRW used 3D modeling to reconstruct the attack and judged that the fire had come from the Kyrgyz village of Dostuk, some 110 meters away.

The group noted that "to intentionally direct attacks against [the ambulances] when they are clearly marked is recognized as a war crime in an international armed conflict, under the statute of the International Criminal Court."

HRW's report documented that Tajik forces occupied Kyrgyz villages during the conflict, leaving several virtually destroyed.

On September 16, "Tajik forces overran Kyrgyz forces and, accompanied by Tajik-speaking people in civilian clothes, entered Kyrgyz villages on the border. During this brief occupation, Tajik forces killed at least six civilian men, including three while they were apparently fleeing, and two in apparent extrajudicial executions," HRW said.

The brief seizure saw wide-scale looting by Tajiks in plainclothes "under the watch of Tajik forces," with hundreds of homes as well as kindergartens, schools, medical facilities, and administrative buildings burned "in an apparent attempt to clear the area of its population," the group added.

Human Rights Watch issued a separate recommendation to Tajikistan to investigate these events.

Almost half of the 970-kilometer Kyrgyz-Tajik border has yet to be demarcated, and Kyrgyz President Japarov said on April 17 that progress on border demarcation had "slowed," and blamed Tajikistan's commitment to a map from 1924 as the reason for the lack of progress.

"In the past year, I said that we will finish everything by May, because the parties were agreed and work was moving quickly. Unfortunately, nothing has been completed yet," he said.

Tajikistan has not commented on the progress of the talks.

HRW's Gallopin said that Tajiks and Kyrgyz living at the border were weary and hungry for peace after having their lives turned upside down by conflicts in successive years.

"Our interviews with people on both sides of the border showed that local populations are tired of these terrifying conflicts and are really yearning for peace," Gallopin told RFE/RL.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan-tajikistan- border-clashes-war-crimes-hrw/32388720.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's response to a media question about the first round of the gubernatorial elections in the Moldovan region of Gagauzia

2 May 2023 10:45

833-02-05-2023

Question: Elections for the Baskan (governor) of Gagausia took place on April 30. The first round did not produce a winner. Now, the second round is coming up. What can you say about this?

Maria Zakharova: We are carefully following the developments in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia (ATUG) with which our country maintains close cultural, humanitarian, spiritual, trade, economic and interregional ties.

Russian representatives have always taken part in observing the gubernatorial elections in this region. Unfortunately, this time the Russian Embassy in Moldova was not granted this opportunity as distinct from the diplomatic missions of some other countries. The applications submitted to the Moldovan authorities were rejected.

Naturally, inviting international observers to take part in national or local elections is the domestic affair of any state. However, Moldova is a party to the Convention on the Standards of Democratic Elections, Electoral Rights and Freedoms in the CIS. As such, it has assumed a commitment to facilitate access for international observers to observe electoral processes below the national level, down to the municipal (local) level. The OSCE 1990 Copenhagen Declaration includes a similar commitment. The OSCE has repeatedly confirmed this in other documents. Thus, Chisinau has once again demonstrated its unfriendly approach towards Russia and its tendency towards double standards.

We are waiting for the second round of elections in the hope the voters will have a real opportunity to freely express their will. We also hope the new leaders of Gagauzia will continue developing traditional ties with our country and its regions.

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Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Czech Republic Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky Before Their Meeting

Remarks

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Thomas Jefferson Room

Washington, D.C.

May 2, 2023

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good morning, everyone. It's a real pleasure to have Jan Lipavsky here, and all our friends from the Czech Republic. We honestly could not ask for better partners, stronger partners. The Czech Republic is a highly valued NATO Ally for the United States and a democratic stronghold. And we deeply appreciate the remarkable collaboration we've had across a wide range of issues over the last couple of years.

Of course, the extraordinarily strong response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine is at the top of the list and we are working hand-in-hand to continue to support Ukraine, to continue to exert pressure on Russia for its aggression against Ukraine, and of course to work on supporting refugees, humanitarian assistance, economic reconstruction. The Czech Republic has some 500,000 refugees from Ukraine, and that support is quite extraordinary.

At the same time, we - today, we'll have a strategic dialogue, the annual strategic dialogue. We're grateful that such a strong team is here, and Under Secretary Nuland will be leading that effort as well. And I also commend to you a statement we're putting out, appropriately this week on World Press Freedom Day, on our joint commitment - longstanding, shared commitment - to media freedom around the world. And of course, the Czech Republic has, since 1995, hosted RFE/RL - something we are deeply grateful for, and sustaining that presence I think is more important than ever, particularly given the Russian aggression.

But to show the breadth and depth of this relationship, as the minister was saying, he's going to head to NASA later to sign the Artemis Accords for our collaboration in space. And we're also finalizing a defense cooperation agreement. So in these areas and so many others, we couldn't be more grateful, including the Czech Republic's engagement in Africa, in Asia as well.

So Jan, it's wonderful to have you here, and I look forward to, as always, a very good conversation. Welcome.

FOREIGN MINISTER LIPAVSKY: Thank you. Mr. State Secretary, dear Tony, I would like to thank you for having this very important bilateral meeting, and also for the opportunity to again have an annual strategic dialogue between our countries, which shows that our relationship has never been as strong as in this moment. And of course, in a time of Russian imperial aggression against Ukraine, to recall the strength and durability of our relations is something which is very important. And we share values such as democracy, freedom, and respect for human rights, and that what makes our relationship special, and that's why we so value it. And I'm great that during this meeting and the other meetings we will show that.

We will present the joint statement on media freedom during your visit here in Washington. So it's a good opportunity to, again, reiterate what you have already mentioned, that we are proud to host Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague. And of course, independent media is one of our long-term priorities, as also precious legacy of our first president, Vaclav Havel. We have a special program for dissidents from Russia and Belarus for people who are fleeing from totalitarian regimes, and we are looking for new ways how to help in that matter.

So thank you very much again.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you, Jan. Thanks, everyone.

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Joint Statement on the Strategic Dialogue between the United States and the Czech Republic

Media Note

Office of the Spokesperson

May 2, 2023

Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Lipavsky, on behalf of the Governments of the United States and the Czech Republic, released the following joint statement.

Begin text:

The Governments of the United States and the Czech Republic renewed the U.S.-Czech Strategic Dialogue in Washington on May 2, 2023. The Strategic Dialogue demonstrates the strength of our bilateral relationship based on common values and our unwavering commitment to uphold the rules-based international order and to promote democracy, civil society, and human rights, as partners and Allies, fostering our security and economic prosperity.

The 11th round of the Strategic Dialogue was launched following the meeting of Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. The discussion was opened by the Foreign Minister and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland.

The Strategic Dialogue focused on reaffirming our strong and expanding bilateral cooperation on a broad range of topics. The Czech Republic and the United States stand resolutely with Ukraine and its people. In concert with our partners, we are supporting efforts by Ukraine and its people to defend itself and its democracy against Russia's brutal war of aggression. We also discussed our work with partners and Allies to help Ukraine maintain economic and financial stability and support its recovery and reconstruction efforts.

Together with democratic allies and partners, we must stand united against authoritarian regimes' attempts to re-define international rules. Russia must be held accountable for its actions in Ukraine. We will work together also to limit Russias malign activities around the world. The Czech Republic and the United States call on Russia to cease its military offensive and completely withdraw its forces from the territory of Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, and to respect internationally recognized borders.

The unity and solidarity of NATO is of vital importance. We support strengthening NATO's deterrence and defence posture, particularly on the Alliance's Eastern Flank. We welcome Finland's membership in NATO and fully support swift membership for Sweden. We stand behind NATO's open door policy. We look forward to this year's Vilnius Summit. We will ensure NATO serves as the unique, essential, and indispensable transatlantic forum to consult, coordinate, and act on all matters related to our collective security. We appreciate deepening practical synergies and strategic unity between the EU and NATO.

On sanctions, the Czech Republic and the United States underscored our continuing coordination to promote accountability and use financial sanctions and export controls to limit Russia's ability to continue its brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. We discussed working with our Allies and partners to hold the Russian Federation and the Lukashenka regime in Belarus accountable for Russia's aggression against Ukraine and the Lukashenka regime's complicity in it.

On energy security, the Czech Republic and the United States discussed diversification from Russian energy sources, limiting Russian income from oil sales, and opportunities to accelerate renewable investment and development while also fostering cooperation on nuclear energy. Making bold investments to build clean energy economies and industrial bases is critical for achieving shared climate goals.

On the Indo-Pacific region, the Czech Republic and the United States discussed the current situation and the challenges posed by the People's Republic of China to the rules-based international order and to our shared interests, security, and values. In the face of those challenges, we are working with our partners in and beyond the region to realize our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific that is more connected, prosperous, secure, and resilient. We also affirmed our commitment to preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and to deepen support and cooperation with democratic partners in the region, including Taiwan. We reaffirm that transatlantic and Indo-Pacific security is indivisible.

On trade and investment, the Czech Republic and the United States reconfirmed our commitment to building collective, long-term, resilient supply chains based on international partnerships that are transparent, diverse, secure, and sustainable. We intend to consult on approaches to ensuring economic security, with the aim to increase strategic resilience against coercive pressures.

On cybersecurity and digital policy, the Czech Republic and the United States discussed further steps to ensure that digital technologies strengthen democracy and respect for human rights. We intend to increase capacity building in third countries to counter cyber threats, including from authoritarian state actors. We reiterated our commitment to fair and open digital trade and the need to oppose digital protectionism. We intend to continue our cooperation on ICT supply chain security and security of next-generation networks, including by promoting the Prague Proposals. We recognize ransomware as a serious and growing threat and are committed to continue cooperation in the framework of the International Counter Ransomware Initiative.

We reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC). The TTC will continue to play a key role in facilitating transatlantic trade and aligning transatlantic policy on critical emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, which offer tremendous potential benefits to humanity but also create new risks to be mitigated.

In conjunction with the Strategic Dialogue, the Czech Republic and the United States issued a joint statement on media freedom. Media freedom and a vibrant independent press is a cornerstone for any healthy democracy. The United States and the Czech Republic are proud to work to rally a broad coalition of friends, partners, and allies around the world to advance media freedom.

The Czech Republic and the United States expressed a strong interest in continuing to deepen our strategic partnership. We intend to implement concrete activities in areas discussed before the next Strategic Dialogue, to be hosted in Prague in 2024.

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Statement Marking Six-Month Anniversary of the Cessation of Hostilities in Northern Ethiopia

Press Statement

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

May 2, 2023

Today marks six months since the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) between the Government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in Pretoria on November 2, 2022, which ended two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia and began a process of peace and recovery that continues today. The success of this African Union (AU)-led process, in which the United States participated as an observer, is a tribute to the AU's campaign to "Silence the Guns" and to AU Commission Chairperson Faki's leadership as well as the extraordinary efforts of the AU's High-Level Panel.

The United States commends the parties for the significant progress on COHA implementation, which has led to the restoration of essential services, flow of humanitarian aid, TPLF turnover of heavy weapons, release of detainees, the initiation of a comprehensive and inclusive transitional justice process, and establishment of an interim regional administration in the Tigray Region. The United States urges continued follow-through, including by deploying additional monitors for the protection of civilians and conducting an effective disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration process. The complete withdrawal of Eritrean and non-federal forces from the Tigray Region and a credible transitional justice process, including accountability for those responsible for human rights violations and abuses, will be key to achieving sustainable peace in northern Ethiopia.

The successful peace process in northern Ethiopia highlights the opportunity to bring peace to the Oromia Region as well. The United States welcomes the beginning of talks in Tanzania, announced by Prime Minister Abiy, between the government of Ethiopia and members of the Oromo Liberation Army and encourages all parties to negotiate in good faith toward a mutually acceptable resolution.

The United States reaffirms the importance of its partnership with Ethiopia and commitment to work together on these and other issues of mutual interest.

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UK hands operations at Wadi Seidna airfield back to Sudanese authorities after successful evacuations

Royal Navy, Army, and RAF handed international evacuation operations back to Sudanese authorities after leaving the airfield in good order

2 May 2023

The UK military's evacuation Joint Task Force has handed over the coordination of evacuation operations at Wadi Seidna airfield to Sudanese authorities, after more than 20 evacuation flights.

The airfield, located to the north of Khartoum, had been the UK's primary location for evacuating UK nationals and their dependents, with further flights continuing on Monday from Port Sudan.

While the final UK flight from Wadi Seidna departed on Saturday, members of the three services of the UK Armed Forces remained on site into Sunday to ensure the airfield was left in good order.

Members of the Royal Engineers carried out urgent repairs to the runway between flights, due to deterioration of the runway surface as a result of the volume of international flights, handing it back to Sudan's senior representative in a better condition than when the UK took over the coordination of evacuations at the airfield.

Before departing the facility for the final time, the UK's Joint Task Force Commander held a call with his Sudanese counterpart to thank him for their close working relationship, which allowed his team to safely conduct the operation to evacuate more than 2,000 people.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said:

Yet again our Armed Forces are leading the way. I am extremely grateful to all our personnel, as well as the contributions of our international partners, including the US, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, who have helped ensure the safe evacuation of more than 2,000 civilians, including those from more than 20 other nations.

The dedicated work of all those deployed on this operation at short notice has seen the biggest and longest evacuation effort from Sudan of any Western nation. First in, last out. Defence gets things done.

Significant background work was required to ensure that people fleeing the current conflict could be managed with dignity, compassion and as much comfort as was possible in such an austere and challenging environment.

Speaking after his return to the UK's Forward Mounting Base in Cyprus, the UK ground commander at Wadi Seidna, Lt Col Oliver Denning RM, said:

I am extremely proud of each and every member of the UK Rapid Extraction Task Force, who were operating in a high-pressure environment and in austere conditions, amid temperatures of more than 45 Celsius.

Personnel from all Services - in support of FCDO and Home Office colleagues - demonstrated an extraordinary level of compassion and care to enable the extraction of personnel aged between 5 days and 92 years, and of more than 20 different nationalities".

As well as ensuring the evacuees were protected and had access to food, water and shelter, UK civilian and military personnel at the evacuation facility also distributed children's toys, comforts and sanitary products.

The airfield underwent the first operational runway repair conducted by British forces since the Falklands conflict in 1982, and the mobile medical facility provided care to 130 people, including life-saving surgical interventions.

Major Mark Borley, Commanding Officer of 51 Parachute Squadron RE, said:

The works to the runway were conducted at night and in challenging conditions, but the team's work provided a real boost to military aircrew confidence when landing, allowing our aircraft to operate safely and get vulnerable people to safety.

The work was hot and demanding. But fulfilling a role which for which we train hard alongside a significant number of other stakeholders was incredibly rewarding, particularly on operations and in support of vulnerable people. I am extremely proud of the team; their determination and professionalism was superb and their success has made a real difference.

HMS Lancaster remains docked in Port Sudan, where her crew continue to provide support to evacuees and officials.

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Sudan latest: Over 100,000 have now fled says UNHCR

2 May 2023 - More than 100,000 people have now fled Sudan to neighbouring countries in search of safety, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.

Those fleeing the fighting include Sudanese refugees as well as people who were themselves refugees in Sudan. UNHCR estimates that the number of refugees and returnees may rise to over 800,000.

UNHCR spokesperson, Olga Sarrado, told journalists in Geneva that many of the seven neighbouring countries are already hosting large refugee, and internally displaced populations.

"The majority remain severely underfunded. Asylum countries will need additional support to provide protection and assistance. Among the urgent needs are water, food, shelter, healthcare, relief items, gender-based violence response and prevention, and child protection services."

WHO warns of many more deaths

With civilians continuing to be caught in the crossfire between the warring militaries - with much of the fighting taking place in urban areas - the World Health Organization (WHO) is warning that "many will die" due to lack of essential services, as well as disease outbreaks, said UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, at the regular briefing in New York on Tuesday.

"Medical stockpiles are running critically low in areas ravaged by the fighting - including in the capital Khartoum, and West and Central Darfur. And the prices of basic commodities, from fuel to food staples and bottled water, has risen by 40 to 60 per cent or more in some areas."

More than 330,000 displaced

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 334,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan, since the conflict between the national armed forces of Sudan's ruling general, and that of his deputy's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, erupted more than two weeks ago.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has provided critical water, sanitation and hygiene support to six hospitals in Khartoum, as well as water trucking to a hospital in North Darfur, continued Mr. Haq. The agency has also directed health and nutrition kits to health centres in the state capital, El Fasher.

The Deputy Spokesperson said that in Chad and Sudan, the UN planned to bring in roughly 70,000 core relief items, from global stockpiles.

"And in Egypt, UNHCR and other UN agencies are conducting a mission to assess the needs of people coming from Sudan. The UN and Egyptian Red Crescent are delivering water, food, wheelchairs, and hygiene and sanitary kits to new arrivals", he added.

Interagency response plan

UNHCR plans to launch an interagency regional refugee response plan to address urgent financial needs, as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, in an appeal to donors, the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said on Tuesday that aid agencies and partners are facing a huge funding gap of $1.5 billion for the Sudan response.

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, is in the region and due to be in the UN humanitarian hub of Port Sudan, shortly.

Senior humanitarians are temporarily based in the Sudanese city on the Red Sea coast, after relocating from the capital Khartoum, pledging to remain and rebuild the UN aid effort to serve the millions of Sudanese in need.

Supporting women: UN News interview

In an in-depth interview with UN News, the Sudan Representative for UN Women, Adjaratou Fatou Ndiaye, said that they were providing financial and technical support to young Sudanese women, who are using app technology to keep themselves safe, and track the availability of food and medicine, along with finding safe routes away from the fighting.

She said the UN was tracking cases and allegations of gender-based violence, working closely with the UN rights office OHCHR, and taking measures to support victims and ultimately, bring perpetrators to account.

She said after five years living in Sudan, she felt strongly that the Sudanese "deserve a peaceful country. They deserve development. They deserve safety." Listen to the full interview here:

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Secretary-General's opening remarks at press encounter on Afghanistan

United Nations Secretary-General

02 May 2023

Salam alikom.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press - thank you very much for your presence.

I am pleased to be back in Doha.

Let me begin by thanking the Government of Qatar for the exemplary hospitality.

I have come to Doha to convene a meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan for a frank and constructive exchange of views.

And I am so pleased that we were able to enter this meeting with the unanimous Security Council resolution 2681 of 27 April calling for full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in Afghanistan.

The spirit of unity shown in the adoption of the resolution was carried over into the meeting we just had.

The meeting was about developing a common international approach, not about recognition of the de facto Taliban authorities.

And what was important is that we all understand each other's concerns and limitations, but agreed that it was in everyone's interest, foremost the Afghans, to work together.

Participants agreed on the need for a strategy of engagement that allows for the stabilization of Afghanistan but also allows for addressing important concerns.

The participants are worried about the stability of Afghanistan and have expressed those serious concerns.

They relate to the persistent presence of terrorist organizations  a risk for the country, the region, and further afield.

The lack of inclusivity, which importantly includes human rights, in particular those of women and girls, severely undermined by recent Taliban decisions.

And the spread of drug trafficking with all its dramatic consequences.

While different countries placed different priorities on these concerns, according to their own situation, there is a general recognition that they are intertwined.

That prioritizing one issue was not to ignore the importance of the others, which allows for an overall shared approach.

To achieve our objectives, we cannot disengage. Many called for engagement to be more effective and based on lessons which we have learned from the past.

The UN will continue to use its convening power to advance a forward leaning approach, which puts the Afghan people first, and in a manner that is complementary to existing regional platforms and initiatives.

After a round of consultations, I am ready to convene a new similar meeting.

I was pleased to be accompanied by my Special Representative, Ms. Roza Otunbayeva, who has been leading our engagement effort in Kabul during this complicated, challenging time.

We look forward to the independent assessment mandated by Security Council Resolution 2679 that calls for forward looking recommendations for an integrated and coherent approach by the international community to the current challenges facing Afghanistan.

Special Coordinator for the Assessment, Ambassador Feridun Sinirlioglu was introduced to the meeting and has begun his work in earnest.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press,

Allow me some comments in my capacity as Secretary-General of the United Nations.

It is difficult to overestimate the gravity of the situation in Afghanistan.

It is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today.

Ninety-seven percent of Afghans live in poverty. Two-thirds of the population - 28 million - will need humanitarian assistance this year to survive.

Six million Afghan children, women, and men are one step away from famine-like conditions.

Meanwhile, funding is evaporating.

Our Humanitarian Response Plan, seeking $4.6 billion, has received a mere $294 million - 6.4 per cent of the total funding required.

But funding is not the only concern.

The vast majority of our personnel providing vital assistance are Afghan nationals.

And many are women aid workers.

The current ban on Afghan women working for the United Nations and national and international NGOs is unacceptable and puts lives in jeopardy.

Let me be crystal clear: we will never be silent in the face of unprecedented, systemic attacks on women and girls' rights.

We will always speak out when millions of women and girls are being silenced and erased from sight.

This is a grave violation of fundamental human rights.

It also violates Afghanistan's obligations under international law, namely, human rights law, and infringes on the principle of non-discrimination, which is a core tenet underpinning the United Nations Charter.

And it deliberately undermines the development of a country that desperately needs the contributions of all, in order to achieve sustainable peace and contribute to regional stability.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press,

Throughout the past decades, we stayed, and we delivered. And we are determined to seek the necessary conditions to keep delivering.

Humanitarian aid is a fragile lifeline for millions of Afghans.

The United Nations will not waver in our commitment to support the people of Afghanistan.

Thank you.

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U.S. Navy Hosts Qatar's Top Naval Leader in Bahrain

US Navy

02 May 2023

From Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Mark Mahmod, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Public Affairs

MANAMA, Bahrain - U.S. 5th Fleet hosted Qatar's top naval leader May 2 at the U.S. Navy base in Bahrain, marking strengthening ties between U.S. and Qatari maritime forces.

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Central Forces Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), welcomed Commander of the Qatari Emiri Navy Maj. Gen. Abdullah Hassan Al-Sulaiti and other senior Qatari officers for discussions on regional maritime security cooperation.

"We were deeply grateful for this opportunity to host our Qatari partners at U.S. 5th Fleet headquarters here in Bahrain," said Cooper. "Strengthening and expanding maritime collaboration with the Qatari Emiri Navy is essential for regional security and stability."

Qatar is one of 38 nations that make up CMF, the world's largest multinational naval partnership. The organization is co-located at U.S. 5th Fleet headquarters.

During the visit, the senior Qatari military officials met with U.S. 5th Fleet staff and attended a briefing on new unmanned systems the U.S. Navy has recently integrated into regional operations.

The meeting in Bahrain came on the heels of Cooper's daylong trip to Qatar where he met with Qatar Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. (Pilot) Salem bin Hamad bin Aqeel al-Nabit near Doha.

The U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses approximately 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal and Strait of Bab al Mandeb.

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UN Chief Lambasts Taliban for 'Systemic Attacks' on Afghan Women's Rights

By Ayaz Gul May 02, 2023

Participants at a United Nations-convened international meeting on Afghanistan in Qatar agreed Tuesday to work together to find a way to engage with the country's fundamentalist Taliban authorities on issues such as human rights, governance, counterterrorism and anti-drug efforts.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and special envoys on Afghanistan from nearly two dozen countries, including the United States, China and Russia as well as international organizations, attended the talks that began on Monday. The Taliban criticized the session for excluding them.

At the outset, Guterres told a post-meeting conference in the Qatari capital of Doha that it was about developing a "common international approach" and not about recognition of the Taliban government.

The clarification stemmed from a senior U.N. official's suggestion in the run-up to the Doha meeting that attendees would also discuss recognizing the Taliban's men-only government.

Taliban takeover

The Taliban seized power in August 2021 when U.S. and NATO troops departed the country after nearly two decades of involvement in the war with the then-insurgent Taliban.

No foreign government has recognized the new administration in Kabul, known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, in part because of its bans on women's access to work, education and public life.

"The current ban on Afghan women working for the United Nations and national and international NGOs is unacceptable and puts lives in jeopardy," Guterres said Tuesday. "Let me be crystal clear, we will never be silent in the face of unprecedented, systemic attacks on women and girls' rights."

The Taliban government has banned girls' education beyond the sixth grade and barred most women from workplaces, including those working with the U.N. and nongovernmental organizations.

"When it is the right moment to do so, I will obviously not refuse that possibility. Today is not the right moment to do so," Guterres said when asked if he would be willing to hold a direct meeting with the Taliban.

The U.N. chief noted that delegates at the meeting were worried about the stability of Afghanistan and expressed serious concerns over "the persistent presence of terrorist organizations" and "the spread of drug trafficking that posed a risk for the region and beyond.

"Participants agreed on the need for a strategy of engagement that allows for the stabilization of Afghanistan but also allows for addressing important concerns," he said.

"To achieve our objectives, we cannot disengage. Many called for engagement to be more effective and based on lessons which we have learned from the past," the secretary-general said without elaborating.

The United Nations is due to conclude by Friday its ongoing review of Afghan operations in the aftermath of the Taliban ban on its female staff, prompting fears the global body could be preparing to withdraw from the country.

Guterres stopped short of ruling out the withdrawal possibility, while noting that Afghanistan is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with 97% of Afghans living in poverty.

"Two-thirds of the population  28 million  will need humanitarian assistance this year to survive. Six million Afghan children, women, and men are one step away from famine-like conditions. Meanwhile, funding is evaporating," he said.

The U.N. chief noted the world body has received only $294 million, or 6.4%, of its $4.6 billion Afghan humanitarian response plan for 2023.

Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban permanent representative-designate to the U.N., hailed Guterres' announcement that the meeting participants had agreed to maintain engagement with Afghanistan.

"I believe a major flaw of the meeting was the exclusion of the IEA, the main party to the issue. Any meeting without their participation can neither be productive nor help in solving issues," Shahen, who currently heads the Doha-based Taliban political office, told VOA by phone.

He said that Afghanistan faces many challenges, and the Taliban would want to resolve them in line with "our own principles." Shaheen pointed out that the Afghan nation had also been demanding the removal of international financial sanctions that were imposed on the country after the Taliban takeover.

"But there was no discussion on the issue at the just concluded meeting. These sanctions are inflicting collective punishment on the poverty-stricken Afghan people. We welcome any gathering that aims to resolve issues, but if the purpose is to put pressure on us, it won't work. The IEA is a reality, and no one should ignore it."

Hibatullah Akhundzada, the reclusive Taliban chief, has repeatedly rejected international calls for removing bans on women and girls, saying he will not allow any foreign interference in his Islamic governance.

The Taliban previously controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Only three countries recognized their government then, including neighboring Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The hardline group had at the time wholly banned girls from receiving an education and women from working outdoors.

They had also hosted al-Qaida leaders blamed for plotting the deadly September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

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Fighting Factions in Sudan Agree to New Weeklong Truce

By VOA News May 02, 2023

Sudan's warring military factions agreed Tuesday to a new, weeklong cease-fire starting Thursday, South Sudan announced, although more airstrikes and shooting in the Khartoum region continued to shatter the latest short-term truce.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir stressed the importance of a longer truce and the naming of envoys to peace talks, to which both sides agreed.

But the eventual results of the May 4-11 cease-fire deal between Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces' General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo was unclear because of the extensive violations that undermined previous truce agreements that ran from 24 to 72 hours.

With fighting now in its third week, the conflict has forced 100,000 people to flee Sudan for safety and is creating a refugee crisis in neighboring impoverished countries, the United Nations said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said his government would support talks in Sudan between the rival factions but also was "being careful about not interfering in their domestic matters."

"The entire region could be affected," he said in an interview Tuesday with a Japanese newspaper, as an envoy from Sudan's army chief, met with Egyptian officials in Cairo.

The U.N. World Food Program said Monday it was resuming work in the safer parts of Sudan after a pause earlier in the conflict after some aid workers were killed.

The agency said in a statement on Monday that distribution of food is expected to commence in the states of Gedaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile in the coming days to provide life-saving assistance.

"The risk is that this is not just going to be a Sudan crisis, it's going to be a regional crisis," said Michael Dunford, the aid agency's East Africa director.

Even though they agreed to a new cease-fire, the commanders of the army and RSF, who had shared power as part of an internationally backed transition toward free elections and civilian government, have shown no definitive sign of backing down.

But neither seems able to secure a quick victory. That has raised the specter of a prolonged conflict that could draw in other countries.

The United Nations migration agency said in Geneva that at least 334,000 people have been internally displaced in Sudan since deadly fighting broke out last month between two military factions, in addition to the 100,000 who have fled the country.

The new figures come a day after the U.N. refugee agency made an ominous prediction that the fighting could cause more than 800,000 people to flee the northeastern African country.

Raouf Mazou, the deputy head of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Monday that the agency was preparing for 815,000 people to flee Sudan into seven neighboring countries. He said that included 580,000 Sudanese along with foreign refugees now living in Sudan.

UNHCR head Filippo Grandi said in a tweet Monday that the agency hopes its planning figures turn out to be too high, but he said that "if violence doesn't stop, we will see more people forced to flee Sudan seeking safety."

Fighting between Sudanese government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continued Tuesday despite the extension of yet another cease-fire agreement. Sudan's health ministry says more than 500 people reportedly have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded since the fighting began on April 15 after relations between the two factions fell apart. The two generals leading the warring parties were allies in Sudan's transitional government after a 2021 coup.

A string of temporary truces has been widely ignored by both sides. The cease-fires were established by the two warring factions to allow people safe passage and to open a means for the country to receive humanitarian aid. However, while fighting has abated in some parts of the capital, heavy fighting has continued elsewhere. Each side has blamed the other for the infractions.

The top U.N. official in Sudan, Volker Perthes, told The Associated Press on Monday that Sudan's warring generals have agreed to send representatives  potentially to Saudi Arabia  for negotiations.

The Sudanese ambassador to the United States, Mohamed Abdalla Idris, told VOA he hopes the cease-fire will eventually lead to meaningful long-term peace talks.

He said, "a cease-fire, truce, is a two-way traffic," and said peace can only be realized if all parties respect the terms of any deal.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dispatched U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths to Sudan to assess the situation there.

The fighting in Sudan has forced foreign governments to pull their citizens from the country.

Russia's military announced Tuesday that more than 200 people will be evacuated on four military transports.

Hundreds of Americans reached the eastern city of Port Sudan this weekend, watched over by U.S. military drones. Saudi officials said Monday that a U.S. Navy ship took more than 300 evacuees from Port Sudan to the Saudi port of Jeddah.

The U.S. State Department said Monday that three U.S. convoys evacuated more than 700 people since Friday and more than 1,000 U.S. citizens have been evacuated since the violence started.

Michael Atit in Khartoum; Margaret Besheer at the United Nations; Anthony LaBruto; John Tanza, Nike Ching at the State Department contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

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Cameroon Separatists Stage Attack Near French-Speaking City of Douala

By Moki Edwin Kindzeka May 02, 2023

Authorities in Cameroon say anglophone rebels have attacked military posts near the country's port city of Douala, killing several people. The attack is the closest the separatist conflict has come to Douala since fighting broke out in 2017.

Officials in Cameroon say at least 15 heavily armed rebels attacked a military post Monday in Matouke, a farming village less than 40 kilometers west of Douala.

Officials say the separatists killed at least six people and wounded many others without giving a figure.

The government said it is yet to confirm the identities of victims but rebels and villagers said they killed five troops and a civilian.

Speaking via a messaging app, Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, governor of Cameroon's Littoral region, which includes Matouke and Douala, said he visited the injured in a military hospital Monday night.

Diboua said both the military and civilians will not accept separatists extending attacks and disorder to Douala, an economic hub in central Africa. He said the military presence has been increased on the border between Cameroon's Littoral region and the English-speaking Southwest region, where the fighters came from. He said civilians have been mobilized to denounce suspected fighters in their towns and villages.

It's the first time rebels have attacked so close to Douala, a seaport of about four million people that supplies 80% of imported goods for the landlocked Central African Republic and Chad.

On several occasions, troops have reported suspected fighters in the city and made arrests.

Speaking via a messaging app, Francis Mbah, a clearing agent at the Douala seaport, said any attacks on the economic hub would impact all of Cameroon and central Africa.

"This attack close to the economic capital of Cameroon is a sign that the government still has a lot to do to reinforce security permanently," he said. "It is a bad signal given that there are many citizens, Cameroonian citizens, living in the economic capital. This is a call for the government to step in and say this crisis must be stopped."

Cameroon's English-speaking separatists have been fighting since 2017 to carve out an independent state from the French-speaking majority nation.

The rebels have vowed to attack all military posts along the borders with Cameroon's Francophone regions.

The military says separatists have attacked their positions in the French-speaking West region at least 40 times since the conflict erupted.

The International Crisis Group estimates that six years of fighting has killed about 6,000 people and displaced more than half-a-million.

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Somali Army Kills 67 al-Shabab Militants, Seizes Explosives

By Ahmed Mohamed May 02, 2023

Somalia's army said it has killed 67 al-Shabab militants and seized large amounts of explosives in an operation in the north-central Mudug region.

Brigadier General Mohamed Tahlil Bihi told reporters Tuesday the military was acting on intelligence about movements of the al-Shabab group.

Bihi said the operation in the Harardhere district of central Mudug region took place at around 1 a.m. when 120 jerrycans containing improvised explosive devices were offloaded from a boat and carried in a vehicle that was guided by 69 militants. Bihi said Somalia's National Army fired rocket-propelled grenades at the vehicle and destroyed it. He said only two militants were captured alive.

VOA could not independently verify the army's casualty figures.

Somalia's army has been conducting joint offensives with local militias against the Islamist militants since last July as part of an all-out war against the group.

In a town hall meeting Monday night, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared that al-Shabab would be eliminated by the end of the year.

Mohamud said the second phase of the operation would soon begin in Somalia's South West State and in the Jubaland region.

Somalia is also depending on troops from Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya after the neighboring countries in January agreed to jointly launch military operations against al-Shabab strongholds.

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Readout of Vice President Harris's Meeting with President Marcos of the Philippines

May 02, 2023

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris met with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. at the Vice President's Residence in advance of a brunch with President Marcos, the Second Gentleman, First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos, U.S. and Philippine government officials, and representatives of the Filipino-American community, including business and civic leaders. This meeting built on the Vice President's meeting with President Marcos in Manila in November 2022.

The Vice President reaffirmed the strength of the alliance between the United States and the Philippines and emphasized the importance of further expanding our security, economic, and people-to-people ties. Following on their discussions in Manila, the Vice President welcomed President Marcos' announcement of four new sites pursuant to the U.S. Philippines Enhanced Defense Cooperation agreement, which will enhance the Philippines' security and drive investment to local communities. The Vice President also reiterated the United States commitment to upholding international rules and norms, including in the South China Sea, and reiterated the United States commitment to the defense of the Philippines under Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty. Building on the Vice President's visit to Palawan, where she launched new initiatives to support Philippine maritime law enforcement agencies, the Vice President and President Marcos discussed strengthening our Coast Guard partnership and U.S.-Philippine maritime cooperation.

The Vice President and President Marcos also discussed strengthening the U.S.-Philippines economic partnership and noted President Biden's plan to dispatch a Presidential Trade and Investment Mission to the Philippines to grow investment between our countries.

The Vice President also emphasized our commitment to the rule of law and respect for human rights, including labor rights, freedom of expression and the press, and other democratic principles and the importance of these areas for the U.S.-Philippines partnership.

###

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Remarks by Vice President Harris and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines at Arrival Greet

May 02, 2023

Vice President's Residence

United States Naval Observatory

Washington, D.C.

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS: Mr. President, welcome to our home. Madam First Lady, it is good to see you again. Of course, you gave such a warm welcome during my visit in November of last year. And the Second Gentleman was honored to be with you for your inauguration.

And I know the President and you had a very 

PRESIDENT MARCOS: Yes.

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS:  meaningful and good meeting yesterday, and I'm looking forward to our time together this morning.

But I want to thank you, because the strength of the alliance between the United States and the Philippines is probably stronger than ever.

Under your leadership, we have been able to continue to do the work that we have that is a priority around our mutual prosperity and security.

During my visit to the Philippines, we discussed many issues, including the importance of a clean energy economy. You and I share a passion for that 

PRESIDENT MARCOS: That's right.

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS:  as well as issues that relate to food security and what we must do around digital inclusion.

And on the issue of security, of course, the work that our countries are doing together as it relates to the South China Sea, as it relates to what we must do in terms of continuing to work together through our coast guards.

I was honored to go to Palawan. And I went there after you and I met.

PRESIDENT MARCOS: That's right. Yes.

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS: And met with the fishers there and met with the Coast Guard, which the U.S. and the Philippines  our coast guards are working together 

PRESIDENT MARCOS: Are working together very closely.

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS:  in that region, very closely.

So, again, welcome. Welcome. And it's good to see you both.

PRESIDENT MARCOS: Thank you, Madam Vice President. And I can say that the  the visit  this visit of ours to the United States to see President Biden and yourself  you laid the groundwork for it, really. Mr. Emhoff was also part of the process. And I think that has given us the very  very  very attractive opportunity to continue to strengthen the relationship between our two countries in the face, in the context of all of the difficulties and complexities, the rising tensions in our region and the world.

And, once again, we turn to our American partners. You are our only treaty partners 

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS: Yes, of course.

PRESIDENT MARCOS:  in the world.

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

PRESIDENT MARCOS: It is natural, after all the different cycles of  like as in any friendship is  but I was telling Secretary Blinken yesterday that, like any friendship, they go through  you go through many cycles. And I think this is an upside in that cycle.

And we're very, very happy to be here to get this opportunity to speak with you and to have spoken with your President.

So, thank you very much.

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS: Welcome. Welcome. Yes, please come in.

Q Mr. President, how concerned are you with the continued provocation in the South China Sea  of China?

PRESIDENT MARCOS: I'm sorry?

Q How concerned are you with the continued provocation from China (inaudible)?

PRESIDENT MARCOS: As concerned as you can possibly be. It is one of the major issues that we have to face back home.

Q And do you believe cooperation with the Vice President and President Biden will get you closer to protecting the region?

PRESIDENT MARCOS: Well, cooperation with the United States certainly is something that we are building upon. That has been going on for many, many, many decades. And we just keep going.

END

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Russo-Ukraine War - 02 May 2023 - Day 433

Su M Tu W Th F Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While GlobalSecurity.org takes utmost care to accurately report this news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

On 24 February 2022, Ukraine was suddenly and deliberately attacked by land, naval and air forces of Russia, igniting the largest European war since the Great Patriotic War. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" (SVO - spetsialnaya voennaya operatsiya) in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the "Donbass republics" for help. That attack is a blatant violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Putin stressed that Moscow's goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. The military buildup in preceeding months makes it obvious that the unprovoked and dastardly Russian attack was deliberately planned long in advance. During the intervening time, the Russian government had deliberately sought to deceive the world by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

"To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." [Judgment of the International Military Tribunal]

The UK Ministry of Defence reported that on 27 April 2023, Russian military-linked social media claimed that Russia's Deputy Defence Minister, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, had been dismissed. Mizintsev held the military logistics portfolio, and had only been in post for eight months.

Mizintsev's sacking was not immediately confirmed, but speculation about his future highlights how logistics problems remain at the heart of Russia's struggling campaign in Ukraine. Russia does not have enough munitions to achieve success on the offensive. Paucity of ammunition drives internal divisions, most notably between Russia's Ministry of Defence and Wagner Group.

Russia continues to give the highest priority to mobilising its defence industry, but it is still failing to meet war time demands. While Russia's political leaders persist in demanding success on the battlefield, Russia's logistics professionals are stuck in the middle.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russian forces launched 3x missile strikes, 30x air strikes and carried out about 8x attacks from MLRS on the positions of Ukrainian troops and populated areas. There are wounded among the civilian population, destroyed and damaged private houses and other civilian infrastructure. The threat of launching missile and air strikes on the entire territory of Ukraine remains high.

Russia continues to focus its main efforts on conducting offensive actions on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mar'yinka axes. Units of the defense forces of Ukraine repelled more than 20x Russian attacks on the specified areas of the front during the day. The fiercest battles are going on for Bakhmut and Mar'yinka, Ukrainian soldiers are steadfastly defending.

Volyn' and Polissya axes: no signs of the formation of Russian offensive groups were detected. Certain units of the armed forces of the Russian Federation continue to be located on the territory of the Tepublic of Belarus.

Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna axes: Russia maintains a military presence in the in the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions bordering Ukraine. During the day, they carried out artillery and mortar shelling of the settlements of Hasychivka, Yeline, Bleshnya, Karpovychi, Tymonovichi, Leonivka, Muravya of the Chernihiv Oblast; Znob-Novgorodsk, Uralov, Seredyna-Buda, Kucherivka, Rivne, Vorozhba, Volfine, Mykolaivka, Myropillia in the Sumy Oblast, as well as Veterinarne, Vilkhivka, Gatyshche, Vovchansk, Potykhonov in the Kharkiv Oblast.

Kupyansk axis: Russian forces did not conduct offensive operations. Krasne Pershe, Figolivka, Novomlynsk, Lyman Pershyi, Kupyansk, Kislivka, Krokhmalne, Berestov of the Kharkiv Oblast were subjected to Russian artillery and mortar attacks.

Lyman axis: Russian forces conducted unsuccessful offensive actions on the axis south of Dibrova. Makiivka of the Luhansk Oblast, Belogorivka, Verkhnokamianske, Spirne of the Donetsk Oblast were hit by artillery fire.

Bakhmut axis: Russia continues to conduct offensive actions. Heavy fighting continues for the city of Bakhmut. In addition, during the day, Russian forces conducted unsuccessful offensive actions near the settlements of Ivanovske and Predtechine. Vasyukivka, Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Novomarkove, Hryhorivka, Khromove, Bakhmut, Ivanivske, Chasiv Yar, Kostyantynivka, Predtechine, Diliivka and Pivdenne of the Donetsk Oblast were affected by Russian shelling.

Avdiyiv axis: Russian forces carried out unsuccessful offensive actions in the vicinities of Pervomaisky. Shelled the settlements of Novokalynove, Avdiivka, Severne, Tonenke, Karlivka, Netaylove, and Pervomaiske of the Donetsk Oblast.

Mar'yinka axis: Ukrainian defenders repelled numerous Russian attacks in the Mar'yinka area during the day. Krasnohorivka, Georgiivka, Mar'yinka, Pobyeda and Novomykhailivka of the Donetsk Oblast got under Russian fire.

Shakhtars'ke axis: during the current day, Russian forces did not conduct offensive operations. They shelled the settlements of Novoukrayinka and Prechistivka in the Donetsk Oblast.

Zaporizhzhia and Kherson axes: Russian forces continue to conduct defensive operations. At the same time, during the day, theyshelled more than 30x settlements bordering the frontline. Among them are Vremivka, Novosilka, Donetsk Oblast; Gulyaipole, Biloghirya, Mala Tokmachka, Novodanilivka, Novoandriivka and Kamianske of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast; Nikopol', Dnipropetrovsk Oblast; Zolota Balka, Dudchany, Kachkarivka, Vesele, Lviv, Ivanivka, Mykilske, Antonivka, Dniprovske, Kizomys of the Kherson Oblast and the city of Kherson.

In the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, there are still cases of violent abduction of the pro-Ukrainian civilian population, as well as the construction of new torture camps for their detention. In particular, Russian terrorists set up one of these torture chambers in the police department of the temporarily captured Chaplynka of the Kherson Oblast. Up to ten civilians, including minors, are being illegally detained there at the moment. The Russian occupiers keep people in harsh, inhumane conditions and torture them. There are cases when kidnapped people were tortured to death by Russian terrorists.

Aviation of the Defense Forces per day made 5x strikes on areas of concentration of Russian personnel. Ukrainian defenders also shot down three Russian UAVs of different types. Missile and artillery units hit one command post, twelve manpower concentration areas, four ammunition depots, one anti-aircraft defense and one more important Russian target.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.

In Kupyansk direction, aviation and artillery of the Zapad Group of Forces have engaged the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Novoselovskoye, Stelmakhovka (Lugansk People's Republic), Novomlynsk, Timkovka, and Kamenka (Kharkov region). In addition, actions of two sabotage and reconnaissance groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been thwarted near Sinkovka and Berestovoye (Kharkov region).

Up to 60 Ukrainian troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, one D-20 howitzer, and a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery unit have been eliminated in this direction during the day. Moreover, an ammunition depot of the 14th Mechanised Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was destroyed close to Kislovka (Kharkov region).

In Krasny Liman direction, Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery of the Tsentr Group of Forces engaged the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Chervonaya Dibrova, Nevskoye (Lugansk People's Republic), and Serebryanka and Grigorovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

Up to 65 Ukrainian personnel, two armoured fighting vehicles, two motor vehicles, and two D-20 howitzers. An ammunition depot of the 81st Airmobile Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has been hit close to Grigorovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

In Donetsk direction, the assault detachments continue fighting in the west part of the city of Artyomovsk. ?? The Russian aviation have made 7 sorties in this area during the day. The Group's artillery have performed 74 firing missions.

Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, artillery, and heavy flamethrowers of the Yug Group of Forces have foiled enemy's attempts to counter-attack from the areas of Chasov Yar, Bogdanovka, and Grigorovka (Donetsk People's Republic). Russia's Airborne Troops have been paralysing the enemy's action on the flanks of the assault detachments.

The enemy's losses in this direction during the day amounted to up to 290 Ukrainian servicemen and mercenaries, one tank, four armoured fighting vehicles, six motor vehicles, and a D-20 howitzer.

In South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, aviation and artillery of the Vostok Group of Forces inflicted a fire damage on AFU units close Ugledar (Donetsk People's Republic), and Temirovka, Gulyai Pole, and Orekhov (Zaporozhye region).

Up to 50 Ukrainian troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, four motor vehicles, and one D-30 howitzer were destroyed.

In Kherson direction, up to 30 Ukrainian servicemen and three motor vehicles have been neutralised by fire. Moreover, an ammunition depot of the 124th Territorial Defence Brigade was neutralised close to Antonovka.

Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have neutralised 92 AFU artillery units at their firing positions, enemy manpower and hardware in 124 areas.

Russian air defence facilities have shot down three Ukrainian airplanes. Two Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jets have been shot down near Ulyanovka (Donetsk People's Republic) and Mirolyubovka (Kherson region). In addition, a Su-25 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down near Veletenskoye (Kherson region).

Air defence systems have also intercepted eight HIMARS projectiles and two HARM anti-radiation missiles during the day. In addition, six Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been destroyed in the areas of Zhytlovka (Lugansk People's Republic), Malaya Belozerka (Zaporozhye region), and Korsunka and Kakhovka (Kherson region).

In total, 416 airplanes and 230 helicopters, 3,919 unmanned aerial vehicles, 321 air defence missile systems, 8,938 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 1,095 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 4,709 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 9,911 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.





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May 2, 2023

By Jim Garamone , DOD News

Austin Approves Homeland Security Request for Troops at Border

In response to a request from the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has approved a temporary increase in the number of service members supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection on the Southwest border.

DOD will send 1,500 service members in response to the request, said Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder today. There are already 2,500 National Guardsmen assisting CBP, a Homeland Security agency.

These will be active-duty soldiers and Marines who will deploy for 90 days. They will fill critical gaps, such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support "until CPB can address these needs through contracted support," Ryder said. "Military personnel will not directly participate in law enforcement activities."

The general said DOD is evaluating options on replacing these forces with other sources a potentially forces from the Reserve components and contracted support.

"While this request is for 90 days, I would point out that DOD has supported DHS on the southwest border for 18 of the last 22 years and every year since 2006," Ryder said.

Ryder also discussed the evacuation efforts from embattled Sudan. U.S. Africa Command is committed to supporting the Department of State's efforts. "Over this past weekend, the support involved organizing and synchronizing transportation from Khartoum to Port Sudan and on to Saudi Arabia for U.S. citizens and others who wished to depart Sudan," Ryder said.

The USNS Brunswick, the USS Truxton and the USS Puller remain in the vicinity of Port Sudan to provide support to the evacuation mission as needed, he said.

The U.S. has also deployed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets in the region to mount a 24/7 watch of potential land-evacuation routes. "AfriCom's [U.S. Africa Command] deconfliction cell continues to distribute relevant information to the Department of State, our allies and partners, and international [nongovernmental organizations] to help enable informed decision making," Ryder said.

He noted that the USNS Brunswick evacuated approximately 300 people from Port Sudan to Jeddah, where they were met by U.S. consular affairs officials. "The Brunswick has returned to Port Sudan to be available to transport any additional citizens or others who may require transport out of Sudan," he said.

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Largest International Operation Against Darknet Trafficking of Fentanyl and Opioids Results in Record Arrests and Seizures

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, May 2, 2023



Today, the Department of Justice, and its Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) team and international partners, announced the results of Operation SpecTor, which included 288 arrests - the most ever for any JCODE operation and nearly double that of the prior operation. Law enforcement also conducted more seizures than any prior operation, including 117 firearms, 850 kilograms of drugs that include 64 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and $53.4 million in cash and virtual currencies.

Operation SpecTor was a coordinated international effort spanning three continents to disrupt fentanyl and opioid trafficking on the darknet, or dark web. The operation was conducted across the United States, Europe, and South America, and was a result of the continued partnership between JCODE and foreign law enforcement against the illegal sale of drugs and other illicit goods and services on the darknet. Operation SpecTor builds on the successes of prior years' operations and takedowns of marketplaces, which result in the seizure of darknet infrastructure providing investigators across the world with investigative leads and evidence. JCODE and Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) continue to compile intelligence packages to identify entities of interest. These leads allow U.S. and international law enforcement agencies to identify darknet drug vendors and buyers, resulting in a series of coordinated, but separate, law enforcement investigations, resulting in the statistics announced today.

This year's law enforcement operation was accompanied by a public awareness campaign called Operation ProtecTor aimed to promote public safety and spread awareness of resources for those struggling with substance abuse and who go through extreme lengths to obtain opioids. JCODE has worked with every FBI field office in the country to facilitate outreach to households that have purchased individual amounts of opioids from the darknet. The interagency efforts are aimed to both identify those who use anonymizing technologies to purchase illicit narcotics and direct them to available resources.

"Operation SpecTor was a coordinated international law enforcement effort, spanning three continents, to disrupt drug trafficking on the dark web and represents the most funds seized and the highest number of arrests in any coordinated international action led by the Justice Department against drug traffickers on the dark web," said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. "Our message to criminals on the dark web is this: You can try to hide in the furthest reaches of the internet, but the Justice Department will find you and hold you accountable for your crimes."

"The availability of dangerous substances like fentanyl on dark net marketplaces is helping to fuel the crisis that has claimed far too many American lives," said FBI Director Christopher Wray. "That's why we will continue to join forces with our law enforcement partners around the globe to attack this problem together. The FBI is proud to stand with our domestic and foreign partners as we continue to shine that light into the deepest corners of the dark net and hold those accountable who continue to peddle this poison around the world."

"The Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels, and the global networks they operate are killing Americans by sending fentanyl into the United States. Their associates distribute this fentanyl into communities across America by every means possible, including the dark web," said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. "The DEA is committed to shutting down the fentanyl supply chain from beginning to end, and we will relentlessly pursue the associates of these cartels wherever they hide, even in the dark corners of the internet."

"Our coalition of law enforcement authorities across three continents proves that we all do better when we work together," said Executive Director Catherine De Bolle of Europol. "This operation sends a strong message to criminals on the dark web: international law enforcement has the means and the ability to identify and hold you accountable for your illegal activities, even on the dark web."

"Collaboration with our law enforcement partners is key to combatting fentanyl and opioid trafficking," said Chief Jim Lee of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). "Under the JCODE umbrella, law enforcement agencies across the globe have joined forces to take down criminals who use the darknet to buy and sell narcotics. Our team at IRS-CI plays an integral role in these investigations by following the money trail, whether it's in fiat currency or digital assets on the blockchain."

"The illicit movement of opioids poses a significant threat to public health and safety - whether by known transnational criminal gang members across international borders or anonymously through darknet spaces," said Senior Official Performing the Duties of Deputy Director P.J. Lechleitner of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). "Our HSI special agents, alongside federal and international partners, continue to aggressively investigate, disrupt, and dismantle networks responsible for trafficking dangerous, deadly narcotics and other contraband across global communities we are charged with protecting. We will continue to pursue bad actors engaged in these crimes to ensure they face justice, while protecting victims from these lethal substances."

"The U.S. Postal Inspection Service leverages our specialized knowledge of the postal system as part of sophisticated dark web investigations such as Operation SpecTor with great results," said Chief Postal Inspector Gary R. Barksdale of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. "We are committed to taking all necessary actions to combat illicit drugs in the mail. And we thank our law enforcement partners for working with us to achieve this; removing dangerous illicit substances from the mail and American communities saves lives."

"Addressing our nation's drug overdose crisis and epidemic of substance use disorders is an issue of great concern and remains a top public health priority for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)," said Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D., of the FDA. "The FDA has undertaken strategic and impactful actions to prevent drug overdoses and reduce deaths and is committed to using all of our cyber-resources to shed light on the darkest corners of illicit medical supply chains for the health and safety of all Americans."

Operation SpecTor resulted in over 100 federal operations and prosecutions, including:

On Dec. 1, 2022, Anton Peck, 29, of Boca Raton, Florida, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances, including fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin. According to court documents, between May 2021 and May 2022, Peck distributed narcotics from various darknet markets using the vendor profile "Syntropy." After the transactions were carried out using cryptocurrency, Peck and co-conspirators Kevin Fusco and Vincent Banner mailed parcels containing fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine to cities around the country using the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Fusco, 35, of West Palm Beach, Florida, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiring to distribute fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine. Banner, 31, of Boynton Beach, Florida, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 8 after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin. Law enforcement recovered kilogram quantities of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin from business and storage locations in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and New York City. Peck possessed a list of more than 6,000 customers living across the United States. The DEA, FBI, USPS Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG), U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office investigated the case. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida is prosecuting the case.

On Nov. 18, 2022, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Christopher Hampton, 36, of Cerritos, California, with heading an organization that obtained bulk fentanyl, operated labs in California that used high-speed pill presses to create fake pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine, and sold millions of pills to thousands of customers on the darknet. Hampton was named in an 11-count indictment that charges him with various narcotics and weapons offenses that could result in a sentence of life in prison. According to court documents, he was active on at least nine darknet marketplaces where he typically used the moniker "Narco710." Hampton allegedly sold nearly $2 million worth of narcotics on two of these darknet marketplaces alone. He was arrested on Nov. 2, 2022, at which time federal law enforcement executed search warrants that led to the discovery and seizure of 450 pounds of suspected narcotics; six pill press machines, some of which were capable of producing thousands of pills per hour; and illegal firearms that included assault rifles and a machine gun. Agents later located a storage unit linked to the drug conspiracy and seized over 80 pounds of pressed fentanyl pills, eight guns, and precursor materials to press additional pills. The FBI JCODE and DEA HIDTA Tactical Diversion Squad investigated the case. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California is prosecuting the case.

On May 12, 2022, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Holly Adams, 31, and Devlin Hosner, 33, of Indio, California, with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine, and with conspiracy to launder money. According to court documents, Adams and Hosner operated the vendor accounts "igogrrawwr" and "its4real" on the darknet marketplaces ToRReZ and Darkode, respectively, through which they sold tens of thousands of counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl in exchange for cryptocurrency. Adams and Hosner shipped these fentanyl pills to buyers throughout the United States, using the USPS, UPS, and other means of delivery. In the course of their conspiracy, Adams and Hosner finalized over 1,100 transactions of narcotics and other contraband and received more than $800,000 in cryptocurrency. Federal law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at a hotel in Riverside county where Adams and Hosner were residing and recovered more than 10,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills as well as approximately 60 grams of methamphetamine. The IRS-CI, HSI, FBI, USPIS, and USPS-OIG investigated the case. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California is prosecuting the case.

Operation SpecTor was a collaborative initiative across JCODE members, including the Department of Justice, FBI, DEA, USPIS, HSI, IRS-CI, ATF, Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), and the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations. This operation was aided by non-operational supporting participation from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Local, state, and other federal agencies also contributed to Operation SpecTor investigations through task force participation and regional partnerships. The investigations leading to Operation SpecTor were significantly aided by support and coordination by the Justice Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF); multi-agency Special Operations Division; the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section's Digital Currency Initiative, Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section, and Fraud Section; the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs; Europol and its Dark Web team; and international partners. The international partners include Eurojust; Austria's Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt); France's Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes (Douane); Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt), Central Criminal Investigation Department of Oldenburg (Zentrale KriminaIinspektion Oldenburg), General Prosecutor's Office in Frankfurt/Main - Cybercrime Center (Generalstaatsanwaltschaft Frankfurt/Main, Zentralstelle zur BekAmpfung der InternetkriminalitAt), Berlin Police (Polizei Berlin), various police departments (Dienststellen der LAnderpolizeien), German Customs Investigation (ZollfahndungsAmter); the Netherland's National Police (Politie); Poland's Central Cybercrime Bureau (Centralne Biuro Zwalczania CyberprzestApczoAci); Brazil's Civil Police of the State of PiauA (PolAcia Civil do Estado do PiauA), Civil Police of the Federal District (PolAcia Civil do Distrito Federal), National Secretariat of Public Security - Directorate of Integrated Operations and Intelligence - Cyber Operations Laboratory (LaboratArio de OperaAAes CibernAticas da Diretoria de OperaAAes Integradas e de InteligAncia - Secretaria Nacional de SeguranAa PAblica); Switzerland's Zurich Cantonal Police (Kantonspolizei ZArich) and Public Prosecutor's Office II of the Canton of Zurich (Staatsanwaltschaft II); and the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA) and National Police Chief's Council (NPCC).

Federal investigations and prosecutions are being conducted in more than 30 federal districts, including the District of Arizona, the Central District of California, the Eastern District of California, the Northern District of California, the Southern District of California, the District of Colorado, the District of Connecticut, the District of Columbia, the District of Delaware, the Southern District of Florida, the Northern District of Georgia, the Southern District of Indiana, the Eastern District of Kentucky, the District of Maryland, the District of Massachusetts, the Eastern District of Michigan, the Western District of Michigan, the Eastern District of Missouri, the Western District of Missouri, the District of Nebraska, the District of Nevada, the District of New Jersey, the Eastern District of New York, the Southern District of New York, the Western District of North Carolina, the Northern District of Ohio, the Southern District of Ohio, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the District of South Dakota, the Eastern District of Tennessee, the Eastern District of Texas, the Northern District of Texas, the Southern District of Texas, the District of Vermont, the Eastern District of Virginia, and the Western District of Washington.

The Justice Department established the FBI-led JCODE team to lead and coordinate government efforts to detect, disrupt, and dismantle major criminal enterprises reliant on the darknet for trafficking opioids and other illicit narcotics, along with identifying and dismantling their supply chains.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Topic(s): Cybercrime

Opioids

Drug Trafficking

Component(s): Criminal - Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section

Criminal - Criminal Fraud Section

Criminal - Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section

Criminal - Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section

Criminal - Office of International Affairs

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Office of the Attorney General

Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces

USAO - California, Central

USAO - California, Eastern

USAO - Florida, Southern

Press Release Number: 23-501

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Treasury Designates Terrorist Financing Facilitators Jointly With TArkiye

U.S. Department of the Treasury

May 2, 2023

WASHINGTON -- Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in a joint action with authorities in the Republic of TArkiye, designated two financial facilitators of Syria-based terrorist groups Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Katibat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (KTJ), both of which are sanctioned by the United States and the United Nations. This action continues the cooperation between the United States and TArkiye to counter the financing of terrorist groups that perpetuate violence and instability throughout the region. Concurrently, the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the Turkish Ministry of Interior have implemented an asset freeze against these terrorist facilitators.

"As terrorist groups continue to seek access to the international financial system, collaboration with our partners increases our ability to more effectively disrupt these facilitation networks," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. "Treasury remains committed to working with TArkiye and others in the region to disrupt the flow of funds to terrorist groups and to degrade their capacity to operate."

Today's designations follow the joint U.S.-Turkish action on January 5, 2023 that disrupted critical nodes of a key financial facilitation network of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). These individuals are being designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, which targets terrorist groups, their supporters, and associated assets.

OMAR ALSHEAK

Omar Alsheak, more commonly known as Abu Ahmed Zakour, has been a leader or official of HTS and its predecessor terrorist group al-Nusrah Front in various roles since at least 2003. Omar Alsheak continues to occupy a position of leadership in HTS as a Shura council member, emir of the Aleppo army, and supervisor of the HTS economic portfolio abroad under the umbrella of the financial arm of HTS. As of March 2022, Omar Alsheak served as the HTS security department emir, and as of February 2019, as the financial leader of HTS's predecessor terrorist group, al-Nusrah Front. As of October 2022, Omar Alsheak functioned as the General Relations Office chief and received situational updates from HTS military commanders.

Presently, HTS is a coalition of northern Syria-based religious extremist groups that evolved from al-Nusrah Front, al-Qa'ida's former branch in Syria. During the initial years of Syria's civil war, infighting among al-Nusrah Front, ISIS, and other factions aligned with these terrorist groups led some leaders to shift allegiances. Most notably, U.S.- and UN-designated al-Nusrah Front leader Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani broke with al-Qa'ida in 2016 because of strategic disagreements, and in 2017, al-Nusrah Front merged with other groups opposing the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad in northwestern Syria to form HTS. On May 14, 2014, the U.S. Department of State designated al-Nusrah Front pursuant to E.O. 13224, and on May 31, 2018, HTS was added as an alias of al-Nusrah Front. On June 5, 2018, the UN Security Council (UNSC) 1267 ISIL and al-Qa'ida Sanctions Committee amended the al-Nusrah Front listing to include HTS as an alias.

Omar Alsheak is being designated for having acted for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, al-Nusrah Front, a person whose property and interests are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13224.

KUBILAY SARI

Since early 2018, Istanbul-based Kubilay Sari has received funds in TArkiye from donors on behalf of KTJ fundraisers for the purchase of weapons systems such as firearms and mortars. Multiple Syria-based members of KTJ have identified Kubilay Sari and his bank accounts as their conduit for financial transfers for terrorist operations, including for purchasing military equipment, such as motorcycles and night vision. A member of HTS also identified Kubilay Sari as a trusted contact for funds transfers.

KTJ is a predominantly Uzbek jihadist group affiliated with al-Qa'ida; it operates primarily in Idlib Province, Syria, and cooperates with other designated terrorist groups active in Idlib, including HTS. In addition to engaging in terrorist activities in Syria, KTJ has been responsible for conducting external attacks, such as the April 2017 Saint Petersburg, Russia, metro bombing in April 2017 and the August 2016 suicide car bombing of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. KTJ remains loyal to al-Qa'ida; in 2019, the group renewed its loyalty pledge to al-Qa'ida's now deceased leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. On March 7, 2022, the U.S. Department of State designated KTJ pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, and the UNSC 1267 ISIL/AQ Sanctions Committee listed KTJ.

Kubilay Sari is being designated for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, goods or services to or in support of, KTJ, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended.

SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS

As a result of today's action, all property and interests in property of the individuals and entities named above, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by them, individually, or with other blocked persons, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC or otherwise exempt, OFAC's regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within the United States, including transactions transiting the United States, that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.

Furthermore, engaging in certain transactions with the individuals designated today entails risk of secondary sanctions pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended. Pursuant to this authority, OFAC can prohibit or impose strict conditions on the opening or maintaining in the United States of a correspondent account or a payable-through account of a foreign financial institution that knowingly conducted or facilitated any significant transaction on behalf of a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

The power and integrity of OFAC sanctions derive not only from its ability to designate and add persons to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List), but also from its willingness to remove persons from the SDN List consistent with the law. The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior. For information concerning the process for seeking removal from an OFAC list, including the SDN List, please refer to OFAC's Frequently Asked Question 897. For detailed information on the process to submit a request for removal from an OFAC sanctions list, please refer to OFAC's website.

View identifying information on the individuals designated today.

####

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Pavlograd Chemical Plant - Russo-Ukraine War

Ukraine became the scene of some of the worst mass-scale violence, including destruction of infrastructure, that Europe has witnessed in decades. Russia attacked energy and water infrastructure in Kharkiv, Zmiiv, and Pavlograd on September 11th and 12th, 2022, that caused mass blackouts and water cut-offs.

There was a massive explosion in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad on the night of 01 May 2023 following a series of Russian strikes. According to General Valeri Zaluzhny, who commands the Ukrainian military, 11 Russian strategic bombers fired 18 missiles at targets in Ukraine. Zaluzhny claimed 15 of these were destroyed by air defenses, including all those aimed at Kyiv, but confirmed Pavlohrad was struck, injuring 34 people including three children. The chemical plant used to store old Soviet-era missiles was believed to be among the targets hit in the barrage that injured dozens.

The Russian military launched a large-scale missile attack against Ukraine's military industry, disrupting production of weaponry and munitions, the Defense Ministry said on Monday. "...[T]he Russian Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a group missile attack with long-range precision weapons, air- and sea-based, on the military-industrial complex of Ukraine," the ministry said during its daily media briefing, adding "all assigned targets were hit." While the Russian military did not specify which locations had been targeted exactly, Ukrainian media reported strikes in Kiev, Sumy and Dnepropetrovsk regions. The latter has apparently experienced the worst, with a massive explosion reported on the outskirts of the city of Pavlograd.

On 01 May 2023, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the missile strikes were allegedly aimed at Ukrainian military-industrial facilities. And they made it possible to successfully disrupt the production of resources that the Ukrainian army uses. The Russian Defense Ministry had recently shifted its rhetoric and was actively describing strike campaigns, likely trying to portray a proactive approach to rising concerns in the Russian media about the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russian military correspondents boasted of the success of rocket attacks, saying that missiles fired from strategic aviation managed to hit the Ukrainian air defense systems and the transport hub in Pavlograd.

As a result of the attack on Pavlograd, two people were killed. Also, 40 people were injured. As noted by the head of the Dnepropetrovsk OVA Serhiy Lysak, the youngest victim girl is 8 years old. According to him, the victims have bruises, fractures, incised and lacerated wounds, contusions, poisoning by combustion products. It is also known that two women, aged 45 and 55, were taken to intensive care.

A new video of the explosion in Pavlograd allegedly confirms that the factory where the old SS-24 accelerators were stored was damaged in the Russian strike. Although it is not good, it was a better scenario," said OSINT analyst Oliver Oleksandr. According to GeoConfirmed, more than 1.8 thousand tons of expired solid rocket fuel are stored at the landfill. "It's been 20 years since the deadline," the source noted.

The OSINT project refered to a January 2020 report by the Ukrainian BBC service, which stated that an explosion at this plant could lead to an environmental disaster not only in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, but also in four other regions. On May 2, GeoConfirmed analysts published a satellite image with the location of the storage facilities and the chemical plant.

The city authorities of Pavlograd on 30 April 2023, denied rumors about a dangerous situation in the city. The executive committee urged Pavlograd residents not to believe Russian propaganda and not to respond to fake information. "There is no chemical danger in the city. Don't panic. Do not spread fakes. Don't ignore further air alarms!"

Yevgeny Yakovlev, a senior researcher at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Doctor of Technical Sciences, explained the risks of an environmental disaster in the event of an explosion at a chemical plant in Pavlograd to journalists from the I-UA.tv channel. "The main environmental danger is that rocket fuel is stored there and the water supply system is located nearby. "The Pavlograd industrial-urban agglomeration is very vulnerable, given its saturation with potentially dangerous objects: a landfill for toxic rocket fuel residues (heptyl, and possibly hydrazine), a missile and artillery range, a metallurgical plant, a railway junction, etc.," he noted.

In addition, according to him, the city has a developed river network, which can contribute to the accelerated migration of pollutants and their entry into local sources of drinking water supply (soil wells, shallow wells, ponds, springs). Therefore, he noted, attention should be paid to the predominant use of protected artesian water resources, in particular the Pavlograd water supply.

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China updates military recruitment rules to prepare for a high-tech war: experts

A former lieutenant colonel says the army lacks the stomach for war, as anti-war comments circulate online.

By Hsia Hsiao-hwa for RFA Mandarin 2023.05.02 -- China has upgraded its military recruitment rules to focus on "preparations for war" and the short-notice enlistment of qualified personnel, a move analysts said was due to Beijing's need for soldiers ready to fight a high-tech regional war.

The People's Liberation Army's newly amended recruitment guidelines, which took effect from May 1, says conscription should "focus on preparations for war," and on recruiting highly skilled personnel, including former soldiers.

Former People's Liberation Army Lt. Col. Yao Cheng said Beijing needs more recruits capable of operating high-tech weaponry, and is hoping to re-enlist former military personnel to cut training time and costs.

"Veterans will be allowed to return to combat positions if they re-enlist," U.S.-based Yao said in an interview with Radio Free Asia. "This is a radical and effective measure, particularly for the navy, air force, rocket corps and other special units."

President Xi Jinping has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan, which has never been ruled by Beijing and whose 23 million people have no wish to give up their democratic way of life.

The amended rules require the recruitment of "high-quality soldiers" in a "lawful, precise and efficient manner."

There is scope for wider mobilization of the population in the event of war, including the recruitment of women to active service if numbers require it, as well as previously demobilized soldiers, who may return to their old posts and rank "if they meet the requirements."

There is also provision for qualified recruits to join as sergeants, the rules say.

"During wartime, the State Council and the Central Military Commission may adjust the requirements and methods used to enlist citizens to active service," according to Article 64 of the rules as published by state news agency Xinhua.

2 million strong

The rules seem aimed at attracting reservists with previous training and experience, as well as fresh graduates, to join the People's Liberation Army's existing 2 million active personnel, said Kung Hsiang-sheng, associate researcher at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

He said war in the Taiwan Strait, which could follow if Beijing tries to annex the democratic island, wouldn't just be fought against the island's armed forces.

"If there's a war in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan isn't the only enemy they are thinking about," Kung said. "They include the United States and Japan, South Korea and any other allies that could join in."

"They will also need some troops to maintain [domestic] stability," Kung said.

According to Yao, the 1 million-strong People's Armed Police adds to China's current standing army, while there are some 8 million professional reserves under the age of 45 who have already served.

Adding a potential reservoir of 10 million students and regional reserves, national mobilization could produce an army of around 30 million in varying states of training and readiness, with some 10 million ready for combat in a relatively short time, he said.

"A war in the Taiwan Strait would mostly involve the navy, air force, rocket corps and involve high-tech combat," Yao said. "But Taiwan is so small, so it wouldn't need that many soldiers."

"The Central Military Commission has determined that 500,000 troops would be enough from across all of the services including the marines," he said.

No stomach for war

But he said many in the People's Liberation Army don't want to fight.

"People in China are generally anti-war and are unwilling to fight," Yao said. "I personally think that no one is going to give their all for the Communist Party. They are mostly waiting and watching."

He said there is scant esprit de corps in the People's Liberation Army, where the lower ranks are subjected to constant brainwashing, while the officers are typically motivated by the desire for promotion rather than for victory.

According to Yao, this is in stark contrast to democratic Taiwan, where ordinary citizens are likely to be highly motivated to defend their way of life from invasion and suppression by the Chinese Communist Party.

"The generals don't believe that they can win a war in the Taiwan Strait, and are unwilling to fight one," he said, drawing parallels with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

His comments came after an anti-war post circulated widely on Chinese social media last month, in which the writer vowed not to take part in any invasion of Taiwan.

"I won't go, and I won't let my children go, either," the post said. "I am at the lowest level of society ... where nobody remembers us when we're in trouble - they only think of us when they're in trouble."

The post garnered more than 3.27 million views and more than 10,000 comments, according to a report by Taiwan's Central News Agency.

"Anyone starting a war or advocating for war is a national criminal," read one comment on the article, while another said: "If it's about fighting so the rich can hold onto their assets, then forget it!"

Another commented: "Why should I let them cut me down like a leek, shed my blood and my life for these high-ranking officials, whose wives and kids have all left for the United States?"

"Send the children of top officials -- they all have good, red genes," quipped another, while one comment said: "I will be first in line to fight for the enemy."

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Copyright 1998-2023, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content May not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Released citizen journalist who reported on COVID bounced between Beijing and Wuhan

Meanwhile, authorities put pressure on two rights lawyers and their families to leave.

By Gu Ting and Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin 2023.05.02 -- Beijing authorities have refused to accept Wuhan-based citizen journalist Fang Bin for relocation after he was bundled onto a high-speed train for the capital shortly after his release from a three-year jail term on Sunday.

Fang was sentenced to three years' imprisonment at a secret trial on orders from Beijing after filming from hospitals and funeral homes early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Radio Free Asia reported last week.

After his release, he was turned around and sent right back again by Beijing police as the authorities stepped up "stability maintenance" measures aimed at getting rid of other politically sensitive figures who have made their homes in the capital.

The Wuhan authorities had believed they were relocating Fang to live with his son, but his son was himself under huge political pressure from the authorities not to have Fang Bin live with him, according to a person familiar with the matter.

"His son was apparently under pressure, and that made his father unwilling to stay in Beijing, so the son took Fang Bin out to eat, bought him some clothes, then Beijing police bought Fang Bin a high-speed train ticket and sent him back to Wuhan on the train that same evening," said the person, who asked to remain anonymous.

Fang was scheduled to arrive in Wuchang, one of the cities in the Wuhan conurbation, at around 9.00 a.m. on Monday, where he was reportedly met by relatives, according to another person who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

However, repeated attempts to contact him were unsuccessful on Monday.

"The police told Fang Bin that he's not allowed to give any interviews or post videos online," the person said.

"He went to the traditional Chinese clothing store that he used to run in Hankou North this afternoon, but found that everything in it had been taken away," the person said. "I heard that Fang Bin lost a tooth in prison, but I don't know exactly how."

His release comes amid reports that Fang's sister is unwilling to have him living with her, according to someone familiar with the matter who gave only the surname Liu.

"Fang Bin's sister is likely under pressure [from the authorities], and doesn't want Fang Bin living with her," Liu said. "He will stay with his sister [Monday] night, then will find somewhere else to live in Wuhan later."

"But the Wuhan police don't want Fang Bin to stay in Wuhan either," Liu added.

Cut off water, power and gas

Meanwhile, Beijing police are putting further pressure on a prominent human rights lawyer and his family to leave the city where they have made their home, and where their son attends school.

Li Wenzu, wife of Beijing-based rights attorney Wang Quanzhang, has moved out of the family home with the couple's son after the authorities cut off water, gas and electricity supplies to their apartment, they said.

"There was no water, electricity or gas in the place we used to live," Wang said in an interview on Monday. "It was impossible to carry on living there."

"Now it's surrounded by people [police and officials] who follow us everywhere, and stop us from finding a new place," he said.

A nationwide police operation under the administration of President Xi Jinping has targeted more than 300 lawyers, law firms, and related activists for questioning, detention, imprisonment, debarring, and travel bans since it launched in July 2015.

Li, who has been staying at a bed-and-breakfast with the couple's son since Saturday, said state security police are now putting huge pressure on the family to go and live in the eastern province of Shandong, effectively kicking them out of the capital.

"Whenever we go anywhere, we are followed by a lot of people, who ask us what we're doing, and talk about how great Shandong is," Li said. "I think their intention this time is to drive us out of Beijing."

"This is how they treat people they don't like."

Li said the family are unlikely to be allowed to leave the country, however.

"They won't let me and Quanzhang apply for passports," she said, adding that she fears for the impact of the eviction on her son Quanquan.

"He is a little irritable and emotional but ... suppresses it when talking to me, because he says his parents have to deal with so many people," she said. "He feels like he has to be good because it's not easy for us."

"We sent him to a friend's house ... but they live far away, and his journey to school would take several hours from there, so this is a temporary arrangement," she said.

Break up and isolate

Wang Qiaoling, wife of fellow rights attorney Li Heping, said she was also followed when she visited Li Wenzu at the B&B, by people implementing China's "stability maintenance" system targeting dissidents and others deemed potential troublemakers by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

"Stability maintenance has been upgraded, and the use of forced eviction is now more common than before," Wang told Radio Free Asia. "The means they use to relocate people are also worse than they used to be."

She said Li Wenzu and Qianqian had gone to stay with her, but then the landlord of the apartment she and Li Heping rented had said they would evict them in two weeks' time.

Li Wenzu and Wang Qiaoling were also targeted for eviction in 2021 after they declared they would stand as candidates in local elections in a public challenge to the ruling party while their husbands were still in prison.

Current affairs commentator Li Fatian said the authorities in Beijing are looking to disperse "politically sensitive" activists and dissidents from the city.

"They want to break up these people ... and isolate them," Li said. "The authorities feel they are being successful if they can maintain stability."

He said similar moves have been afoot in other major cities in recent weeks, including the southern city of Guangzhou and the eastern city of Hangzhou.

Wang Quanzhang was released from Shandong's Linyi Prison at the end of a four-and-a-half year jail term handed down on Jan. 28, 2019, by the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, after being held in pretrial detention for more than three years with no access to a lawyer or family visits.

He was initially held in his hometown in Shandong before traveling to Beijing to be reunited with his family.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Copyright 1998-2023, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content May not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Rallies In Tehran Again Call For Change Of Leadership As City Enforces Hijab Law

By RFE/RL's Radio Farda May 02, 2023

Demonstrations erupted in various parts of the Iranian capital of Tehran as the city steps up enforcement of the mandatory hijab rule, angering residents who for months have protested over what they see as the government's intrusion into their daily lives.

Rallies took place late on May 1 in the capital's districts of Sattarkhan, Aryashahr, Tehranpars, and Gohardasht Karaj, as citizens chanted "Death to the oppressor, long live the worker," "Woman, life, freedom," and "Death to Khamenei," a reference to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Similar protests were held in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, where demonstrators chanted slogans supporting workers, political prisoners, and the imprisoned Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi.

Slogans like "We've come again, the uprising continues" and "It's time for the clerical government to end" rang through the streets in Isfahan.

Meanwhile, in Tehran's western neighborhood of Aryashahr, protesters shouted slogans against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and decrying deteriorating living conditions.

The upsurge in unrest comes as Tehran tries to crack down on women appearing in public without the mandatory hijab.

Tehran's mayor, Alireza Zakani, has said the city is gradually increasing surveillance in areas such as subway stations where women without a hijab are being barred from entering public transport.

"We will proceed according to the country's laws in this regard," he recently told City Council.

The death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran in September, which officials blamed on a heart attack, touched off a wave of anti-government protests that authorities have met with a harsh crackdown that rights groups say has killed more than 500 people, including 71 children.

Officials, who have blamed -- without providing evidence -- the West for the demonstrations, have vowed to crack down even harder on protesters, with the judiciary leading the way after the unrest entered a fourth month.

At the same time, many local authorities, especially in larger cities, are trying to ratchet up enforcement of the hijab law.

The protests pose the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.

Several thousand people have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/tehran-rallies- leadership-hijab-law/32389281.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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China's foreign minister arrives in Myanmar with eye on stability, trade

China is Myanmar's closest ally amid international sanctions on junta.

By RFA Burmese 2023.05.02 -- China's foreign minister arrived in Myanmar's capital on Tuesday for meetings with military junta leaders, the latest visit by a top Chinese official to the embattled nation in recent months.

The three-day trip by Foreign Minister Qin Gang follows a meeting held in Beijing on Monday with Noeleen Heyzer, the United Nations' special envoy on Myanmar, where a possible resolution to the country's internal conflict was discussed.

China has been Myanmar's staunchest ally since the February 2021 military coup d'etat. Investment and trade have continued even as most Western nations have shunned the junta and despite international sanctions.

Qin Gang arrived in Naypyidaw at about 2 p.m. and immediately met with junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, a source close to the military council confirmed to Radio Free Asia.

The foreign minister remarked that Myanmar's internal conflict is complicated and won't be easy to resolve, adding that China is interested in promoting stability in Myanmar because it shares a border, according to China's state media CGTN news agency.

Earlier on Tuesday, the foreign minister visited the China-Myanmar border, according to Chinese and Hong Kong-based news media.

Eye on the U.S.

Qin Gang was also scheduled to meet with former military leader, Than Shwe, who ruled Myanmar from 1992 to 2011. The foreign minister was scheduled to have dinner with Min Aung Hlaing Tuesday evening, the source said.

The visit could be partly linked to Beijing's desire to counter U.S. influence in Myanmar. In December, President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which included assistance to Myanmar's democratic forces.

Among the provisions in the act are programs designed to provide technology and non-lethal assistance to those fighting the better-equipped military - including the country's shadow National Unity Government, anti-junta People's Defense Force paramilitary groups and various ethnic armies.

Last month, the director of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China, Peng Xiubin, suddenly arrived in Naypyidaw and met with Than Shwe and Thein Sein, the president of the country's quasi-civilian government from 2011 to 2016.

Special Envoy for Asian Affairs Deng Xijun, visited Naypyidaw twice in February and March and held talks with Min Aung Hlaing. He also met with several ethnic armies from northern Myanmar - across the border from China's Yunnan province - in December 2022 and again in February.

Political stability, economic interests

"Peace and stability in Myanmar is their key interest and they have been involved in this regard for a long time," said China-based Burmese analyst Dr. Hla Kyaw Zaw.

"The number one thing is they want to prevent the Myanmar issue from becoming a sparking point amid U.S. and Chinese tensions," she said. "Second is economic interests."

China would eventually like to oversee a supply-chain market out of the 10 Southeast Asian and five East Asian countries, Hla Kyaw Zaw said.

"Myanmar is part of this process as well," she said.

Zin Mar Aung, minister of foreign affairs for National Unity Government, told RFA that her initial comment on Qin Gang's visit is that the international community - "including our neighbors" - shouldn't give legitimacy to the military junta.

"But we cautiously keep an eye on the visit and the impact of it. We hope the approach would not alienate the desire and wishes of the people of Myanmar," she said.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

Copyright 1998-2023, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content May not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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'Do They Fear Large Crowds?': In The Shadow Of War Against Ukraine, Kremlin Scales Back Victory Day Commemorations

By Robert Coalson May 02, 2023

With Moscow deeply embroiled in a costly invasion of neighboring Ukraine that has no clear resolution in sight, Victory Day on May 9 will look starkly different in Russia this year.

Across the country, parades and public gatherings to honor the Soviet contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II have been cancelled, with the authorities citing security concerns.

The national Immortal Regiment spectacle -- in which hundreds of thousands of Russians across the country have joined President Vladimir Putin and other officials in marching with photographs of their relatives who gave their lives or otherwise contributed to the Soviet war effort in World War II -- has been called off.

The glorification of Soviet -- particularly, Russian -- sacrifices in defeating Germany has been a cornerstone of Russia's nationalist resurgence during Putin's decades in power. But now, many observers say, the Kremlin's efforts to inflate Russian military might have run up against its need to conceal the enormous costs in lives and equipment that Russia has paid since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

"What if someone comes out carrying portraits of relatives who were killed in the war against Ukraine?" asked historian Maksim Kuzakhmetov. "What if hundreds of people do? That would be a shock."

"The Kremlin is trying to foster a sense that 'we will win', with a smile and laughter, as well as a sense of 'all for the front,'" he told Current Time, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. "And in this regard, the Immortal Regiment can only cause ideological harm."

'All Too Mortal'

In many cities, officials have urged residents to mark the occasion by displaying the portraits in their cars.

"Not only residents can participate in this demonstration, but entire entities," a press statement by the government of Nizhny Novgorod stated. "Public transportation, city vehicles, fire brigades, ambulance services, and others."

Officials in Kazan, the capital of the central Tatarstan region, have called on residents to display the portraits on badges on their clothing or on their cars. People have also been encouraged to post statements on the official Victory Day website or to create memorial bulletin boards in their workplaces.

In Moscow, the world-famous parade of military equipment on Red Square will be strictly closed off to the public, although the proceedings will be given wall-to-wall coverage on state television channels.

Historian Kuzakhmetov is skeptical about the Kremlin's reasoning for closing the Red Square parade, noting that ordinary Russians had little chance to witness the event even during normal times. Instead, he attributes the closure to Putin's "paranoia," saying the Russian president likely remembers the 1981 assassination of Egypt's Anwar Sadat by his own officers during a military parade.

"What if something like that happened?" he said. "What if one of the armored vehicles had a live round? Putin sees betrayal everywhere. He is afraid."

Regarding the Immortal Regiment march, Moscow political activist Elvira Vikhareva is not the only commentator who notes the Kremlin was not afraid of a "terrorist" attack when it gathered tens of thousands of people for a pro-war rally in Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium in March.

"People would come out not bearing the portraits of their great-grandfathers," she wrote in a Facebook post on April 18. "People would come out with portraits of their fathers, sons, brothers. The regiment would turn out not to be immortal at all but all too mortal. The scale would be evident -- the 'special military operation' is not being conducted without cost. That is why they canceled it."

The Russian government calls its war on Ukraine a "special military operation," and citizens who publicly call it a war can be prosecuted under legislation Putin signed shortly after he launched the large-scale invasion in February 2022.

"Trillions of rubles have been spent on security, which, it turns out, they can't ensure," actor and blogger Alisa Kovalyova wrote on Telegram. "Or do they fear large crowds?"

Fear Of Crowds

"There is a fear that people will carry portraits of people who have been killed in Ukraine and the real casualty figures -- not the ones presented by the Defense Ministry -- will be visible," historian Ivan Kurilla told RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities. "That is the most likely reason. But more generally, the authorities are afraid of any mass demonstration by the people in public. The authorities are obviously afraid."

During the 2022 Victory Day events, 125 people were detained for anti-war protests, many of them during the Immortal Regiment events.

The Russian government has not provided reliable information on the country's losses in Ukraine. On September 21, 2022, the military reported 5,937 soldiers killed since the invasion seven months earlier, a figure that has not been updated since. Western experts estimate the total number of Russian killed and wounded at over 200,000.

At the same time, the authorities have ramped up their crackdown on anti-war dissent, handing down long prison terms and opening an unprecedented number of "treason" cases in recent weeks.

The Immortal Regiment commemoration began in the Siberian city of Tomsk in 2011 as a genuine grassroots movement that stemmed from a group of friends solemnly paying their respects at the city's Eternal Flame memorial, as a way to honor the sacrifices of the Soviet people -- including their own relatives -- and to connect the current generation with the events of a rapidly receding past.

"We wanted to return the holiday to the main hero -- to the person who experienced the war and to whom we are ultimately grateful for the fact that we are alive," co-founder and journalist Sergei Lapenkov told RFE/RL in 2017.

Within a couple of years, the idea had been co-opted by Putin's government -- which, according to Lapenkov, turned it into "a completely artificial organization."

One Russian commentator on social media speculated on what would happen if Russians ignored the Kremlin's cancelation of the official Immortal Regiment and filed out into the streets anyway.

"Imagine this picture," the commentator wrote on Telegram. "People come out for an unsanctioned Immortal Regiment and the riot police smash them and the portraits of their great-grandfathers. Madness."

Written by Robert Coalson based on reporting by Current Time and RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-victory-day- immortal-regiment-suppressed/32389426.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Paraguay president-elect pledges to continue formal ties with Taiwan

ROC Central News Agency

05/02/2023 12:26 PM

Taipei, May 2 (CNA) President-elect Santiago Pena of Paraguay has pledged to continue to strengthen ties with Taiwan after winning his country's presidential election Sunday in a race in which Paraguay's formal recognition of Taiwan was at stake.

In retweeting President Tsai Ing-wen's () congratulatory message, the candidate of Paraguay's ruling Colorado Party expressed his thanks to Taiwan's leader.

"Thank you very much for the good wishes President Tsai Ing-wen! We are going to continue strengthening our historic ties of brotherhood and cooperation between our countries," Pena said in a Spanish language tweet.

In her earlier tweet, Tsai congratulated Pena on his victory.

"I look forward to furthering our countries' longstanding relationship and to seeing the government and people of Paraguay prosper under your leadership," Tsai said in the tweet.

Pena, a 44-year-old economist and former finance minister who has pledged to maintain Paraguay's six decades of diplomatic relations with Taiwan, grabbed 43 percent of the votes in Sunday's election to win a comfortable victory against a split opposition.

His main center-left rival Efrain Alegre, who campaigned on a pledge to switch Paraguay's allegiance to China, garnered 27 percent of the votes, and populist Paraguayo Cubas received 23 percent.

The result eased fears that Taiwan, officially named the Republic of China (ROC), would lose another formal diplomatic ally to the People's Republic of China (PRC) after seeing the number of states officially recognizing it dwindle to 13 in recent years.

Paraguay, the ROC's only diplomatic ally in South America, has had official relations with the ROC since 1957.

The PRC does not allow countries to recognize both it and the ROC because it considers Taiwan to be part of its territory, making Taiwan's fight for formal diplomatic allies a zero-sum game.

The most recent Taiwan ally to defect to the PRC was Honduras in late March. It was the ninth diplomatic ally, and fifth in Latin America, that Taiwan has lost to Beijing since Tsai took office in May 2016.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman Jeff Liu () said Tuesday that the ministry was planning to send representatives to attend the new leader's inauguration to be held in August.

He would not disclose, however, if Tsai or Vice President Lai Ching-te () would lead the delegation.

He also said ROC ambassador to Paraguay Jose Han () met with Pena in person on Monday night to relay Tsai's congratulatory messages to the president-elect.

(By Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ls

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Tsai welcomes victory of pro-Taipei candidate in Paraguay's presidential election

Taiwan has diplomatic ties with only 13 countries as China tries to isolate island

By Chen Meihua for RFA Mandarin and Fong Tak Ho for RFA Cantonese 2023.05.02 -- Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday called for "furthering" friendship with Paraguay after Santiago Pena, a candidate who favors continuing ties with Taiwan rather than Beijing, declared victory in his country's presidential elections.

"Congratulations to @SantiPenap on his landslide election victory, making him the next president of Paraguay," Tsai said via her Twitter account.

"I look forward to furthering our countries' long standing relationship & to seeing the government & people of #Paraguay prosper under your leadership," she tweeted.

Pena, a former finance minister who has pledged not to break with six decades of diplomatic relations with Taiwan, garnered 43% of the vote, compared with the 27% won by his center-left opponent Efrain Alegre, who had backed switching diplomatic recognition to Beijing.

Taiwan now has formal relations with only 13 countries, including Belize, Nauru and the Vatican, after Kiribati and the Solomon Islands broke off diplomatic ties with Taipei in 2021.

Beijing has been stepping up its campaign to isolate Taiwan diplomatically since President Tsai Ing-wen, whose growing ties with U.S. officials has prompted military saber-rattling from China, was elected in 2016.

Honduras announced it would switch ties last month as Tsai began a trip to Latin America that ended with a meeting with the U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.

Pena's victory came amid fears that Paraguay would switch allegiance to Beijing.

Taiwan's foreign ministry said the island, which split with the mainland amid civil war in 1949 and has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, is "resolved to further deepen and cement its relations with Paraguay," the island's Central News Agency reported.

"Based on the shared values of democracy, freedom and traditional ties between the two sides, Taipei will continue to strengthen bilateral cooperation and exchanges with the new Paraguayan government to create maximum benefits for the people of the two countries," it quoted the foreign ministry as saying.

Important ally

Ambassador to Paraguay Jose Han immediately relayed the congratulatory messages of President Tsai Ing-wen and Vice President Lai Ching-te to Pena, shortly after the candidate of Paraguay's ruling Colorado Party was declared the country's new president-elect in Sunday's presidential race, the agency said.

Taiwan's presidential spokesperson Olivia Lin said Paraguay remains an important ally of Taiwan's in Latin America, with ongoing cooperation and exchanges in the areas of women's empowerment, agriculture and fisheries, public health and medicine, education, and cultural affairs.

Beijing insists that its diplomatic partners accept its claim on Taiwan, which it calls the "one China" policy, effectively forcing them to cut ties with the democratic island.

But Taiwan's 23 million people have repeatedly shown through public opinion polls that they have no wish to give up their sovereignty or democratic way of life to be ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Copyright 1998-2023, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content May not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Russia says German arms supplies to Ukraine pushing Berlin deeper into war

Iran Press TV

Tuesday, 02 May 2023 7:15 PM

Russia has warned that Germany is increasingly getting involved in the Ukraine war due to arms supplies Berlin has offered to Kiev.

The Kremlin on Tuesday also warned that the German government had no way of ensuring that German-supplied weapons would not be used against Russian territory.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that such supplied weapons by Berlin were already being used in the Donbas region.

The Donbas industrial region (composed of Donetsk and Luhansk) along with Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia were added by Moscow to the Russian Federation following referendums in the said regions in September 2022.

Ukraine and its Western allies, including Germany, have dismissed the move as illegal, denouncing it as Russia's imperial land grab. However, much of the territory in the Russian-annexed regions still remains in Ukrainian hands.

A day earlier, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Berlin had insisted, like other NATO member states, that the weapons it is supplying to Ukraine must not be used against Russian territory.

Nevertheless, Peskov rejected Berlin's claim, saying, "First, Germany doesn't have a way to check. Second, the weapons supplied by Germany to the Kiev regime are already firing at Russian territory, because the Donbas is a Russian region."

He also warned that Germany's "direct and indirect involvement" in the conflict was increasing, adding, "The German chancellor should take that as his starting point."

Russia launched a full-scale war against neighboring Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Since then, the United States and the European Union have supplied Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons, including rocket systems, drones, armored vehicles, tanks, and communication systems despite Russia's repeated warnings that the Western military assistance will only prolong the war.

Germany, along with the US, has been one of the biggest suppliers of weapons for Ukraine.

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Ukraine Determined To Hold Bakhmut, Commander Says As Shelling Kills Four In Kherson

By RFE/RL May 02, 2023

A Ukrainian military commander on May 2 vowed not to give up the eastern city of Bakhmut as Russian forces shelled the southern Kherson region for the second night in a row and as an explosion caused another freight train to derail in Russia.

With indications that the start of a long-promised counteroffensive is near, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, commander of Ukraine's ground forces, underlined the importance Kyiv attaches to holding Bakhmut.

"Together with the commanders, we have made a number of necessary decisions aimed at ensuring the effective defense and inflicting maximum losses on the enemy," Syrskiy said in remarks released after visiting troops in Bakhmut.

"We will continue, despite all the forecasts and advice, to hold Bakhmut, destroying Wagner and the other most combat-capable units of the Russian Army," he said.

Ukraine still holds some parts of the city after months of fierce fighting against regular Russian troops and mercenaries belonging to the Wagner group.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said control of some parts of Bakhmut had changed hands recently.

"There are positions lost, and positions we are driving the enemy out of. Fierce fighting continues -- as of now, the city is controlled by our armed forces," she told a Ukrainian television channel.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the paramilitary group, said Wagner units advanced up to 160 meters in some directions on May 2, repeating claims on Telegram that Ukrainian forces now control less than 3 square kilometers of Bakhmut.

It was not possible to verify the battlefield claims of either side.

Prigozhin also repeated his complaints that Moscow was not supplying his forces with enough ammunition.

According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Russian forces have received sufficient ammunition and Russia's domestic defense industry generally meets the military's needs. Shoigu made the comments in a conference call with military commanders on May 2, TASS reported.

Russia also launched a rocket attack on the eastern city of Kramatorsk overnight, wounding at least one person and causing damage to a school, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, reported on May 2, without providing further details.

Separately, a spokesman for the Russia's southern battle group said Russian forces struck a railway station on Kramatorsk with rockets fired from a Tornado multiple-rocket launcher and claimed a railcar full of ammunition was destroyed. The Russian account could not be independently verified.

In April last year, 61 people were killed in a Russian strike on the Kramatorsk main railway station, an attack that Human Rights Watch has called "a clear war crime."

Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians since the start of its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, despite air attacks often hitting hospitals, residential buildings, schools, and other civilian infrastructure.

In Donetsk, Ukrainian defenders repelled 41 attacks over the past 24 hours, most of them concentrated in the Bakhmut-Avdiyivka-Maryinka direction, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said in its daily report on May 2, adding that Russia carried out a number of air strikes in the area.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin on May 2 rejected a U.S. assessment of Russian military casualties in Ukraine, saying it had been "plucked from thin air."

The White House on May 1 said it estimates that since December Russia has suffered 100,000 casualties, including more than 20,000 killed in fighting for control of Bakhmut and other parts of eastern Ukraine.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said nearly half those killed since December were Wagner group mercenaries, many of them convicts who were released from prison to join Russia's fight.

The regional military administration in Kherson said late on May 2 that Russian forces struck the town of Kozatske on the Dnieper River, killing a 66-year-old man.

"Only today (May 2) the Russian Army took the lives of four residents of the Kherson region; seven more people were injured," said the government of the Kherson region.

The deaths of three people were reported earlier by the Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office. They were killed earlier on May 2 by artillery fire and air strikes in Kherson city and the Bilozerka suburb several kilometers to the east.

Ukraine retook parts of Kherson in November as the Russian troops withdrew eastward across the Dnieper River. Russia kept on shelling the region from across the river regularly and recently stepped up such attacks.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said on Ukrainian television that Moscow has reverted to deliberately targeting residential areas with missile strikes.

"There's no doubt that they are conducting direct attacks on civilian residential houses or locations with many houses belonging to the civilian population," Podolyak said.

This could be a tactic to try and provoke a rushed counteroffensive, Podolyak said. The latest missile strikes are also intended to test whether Ukraine is able to protect its own air space, he said.

The railway explosion and derailment occurred in the evening on May 2 in the Bryansk region of Russia, according to regional Governor Aleksandr Bogomaz.

"An unidentified explosive device went off near the Snezhetskaya railway station. There were no casualties," Bogomaz said on Telegram. He did not say who was responsible.

Russian Railways (RZD) said that "illegal interference by outsiders" caused the train to derail around 7:45 p.m. A locomotive and about 20 wagons of a freight train derailed, the rail company said on Telegram.

TASS reported that local prosecutors had begun an investigation, citing law enforcement agencies.

A similar explosion in Russia on May 1 caused a freight train to jump the tracks west of Bryansk.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Reuters, and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-bakhmut- shelling-deaths/32388751.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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'Human Flesh, It Cannot Survive': Russian Infantry 'No Match For Western Weapons,' British Analyst Says

By Vazha Tavberidze May 02, 2023

British Army Colonel Hamish Stephen de Bretton-Gordon is a military analyst who formerly commanded NATO and U.K. chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear reaction troops.

He is a regular commentator for Britain's The Telegraph and elsewhere on Russia's 14-month-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

He spoke recently with RFE/RL's Georgian Service about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin's nuclear threats have "backfired," a devastating mobilization that targets Russia's most vulnerable communities, and argues that Russia's "irrelevance" is inevitable once the Ukraine war is over.

RFE/RL: In a recent piece in The Telegraph, you argued that Putin "knows his only hope of victory...is the total militarization of Russia." Before we discuss such a military dictatorship, can we define what "a Russian victory" would look like in that context? What's "victory" on Putin's terms and is it achievable?

Hamish Stephen de Bretton-Gordon: I don't even know what a "Russian victory" would look like. I assume the "special military operation" that was started in February last year, where Putin said it was to prevent the expansion of NATO, of NATO moving further eastwards, and also to reclaim Ukraine for Russia. If that is what Putin is still trying to achieve, then he has no chance of victory. On the expansion of NATO, his actions have had exactly the opposite effect. Only two weeks ago, Finland joined NATO, the most powerful army in Europe, and also gave Putin another 832 miles (1,339 kilometers) of borders to worry about. He galvanized the whole of NATO, if not the Western world, to support Ukraine to throw the Russians out of Ukraine. So, I don't think there is any chance of Putin gaining victory from what he was trying to achieve in February last year.

RFE/RL: Let me rephrase it a bit, then: What could Putin perceivably sell as a "victory"?

De Bretton-Gordon: I'm not very sure what victory he can claim. Because his army has been decimated [and] it will take him years and years to rebuild it. For example, allegedly, he's lost 2,000 tanks; that is a massive force. It's difficult to get the actual casualty rates. But the British government and the U.S. government, who I tend to believe, say the casualties are over 220,000 dead or wounded young, Russian, predominantly men. This is a huge, huge cost.

Some commentators seem to think that maybe the Ukrainians will come to the negotiation table and maybe negotiate Crimea. I don't think so at all. I think [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy has been very clear that for him victory is Russian troops pushed out to the boundaries back from 2014, which would mean out of the Donbas and out of Crimea. What Putin can claim as victory, I just don't know.

RFE/RL: Putin too probably realizes all of this? Why go on, then?

De Bretton-Gordon: In the history of warfare, commanders, when they have set out so clearly an objective for victory and have already spilt so much of their young people's blood -- now it would be an almost worse defeat. So, I think Putin and his generals are in the vain hope that they can eke out some sort of victory.

There is also the nuclear question here, which I've written about in The Telegraph and elsewhere. I think Putin's nuclear threats have backfired, because the idea of the threatening nuclear attack, which really started at the very beginning of the conflict, was to keep NATO out. And clearly that has not happened, quite the opposite. So, the nuclear threat to me is completely hollow. In fact, I don't believe that he can use even his tactical nuclear weapons, because they're either out of range or I'm pretty certain that NATO would prevent them being fired, with some of the sophisticated weaponry that NATO has at its disposal. My greatest concern at the moment, actually, is the nuclear power stations in Ukraine, which could be attacked to create a nuclear accident and a contamination hazard across Europe far worse than we saw with Chernobyl back in 1986.

The Russian psyche and the sort of Western psyche are completely different. I don't think NATO's commanders and leaders in the U.K. and France, or certainly the U.K. and the U.S., they absolutely can't bow down to further bullying, if you like, from Russia. The populations won't allow it.... It seems to me a lot of Putin's threats are more for the audience in Russia rather than in Europe, to show that he's still this strongman and all the rest of it. Outside of Russia he's seen as a gangster and a tyrant.

RFE/RL: You also write that the only way he can win in Ukraine, whatever that victory might look like, is to prolong it. And the only way to prolong it is to continue feeding the "meat grinder" until actually, as grotesque as it sounds, Ukrainians run out of bullets. So, he is betting that he won't run out of cannon fodder. But then again, if Bakhmut is anything to go by, it might not net Russia anything but a Pyrrhic victory in its poorest sense, if even that.

De Bretton-Gordon: I agree with your assessment that the longer this goes on, Putin probably feels better. Because next year there are elections in the U.S. and also the U.K. and other Western countries, and our politicians are very sensitive about how much this is costing, and they're more interested in getting reelected in their own countries. So, if the war is still going on in 12 months' time and there's been no progress, then you could see that some countries might start to waver. And perhaps that's what Putin is hoping for.

The meat grinder is almost medieval, it's certainly World War I, the amount of manpower that Russia is throwing into it. I've had credible information that the Russians are identifying lots of young men who they think will not be noticed if they're lost, because they are either homeless or of low intelligence, or they might be suffering drug problems. And throwing those into the front, as you say. In Bakhmut, the casualty rates are unbelievable, astronomically high.

I find it amazing that the mothers of Russia are not causing more of a stir. I get the feeling that I expect most of these young men are not from the elites in Moscow or St. Petersburg; they're probably from far in the east where people are less in communication with social media to be able to complain about these things. And of course, we know in Russia, if anybody complains, they tend to get put down. We just saw Vladimir Kara-Murza being sentenced to 25 years in jail for being a dissident, and of course Aleksei Navalny is in jail, the main opposition leader, and unlikely to ever come out.

RFE/RL: This ragtag army of 4 million recruited "souls" that you write about, it's not just about Moscow elites; there is a creeping suspicion that it would also heavily "favor" not Russians but the myriad of ethnic minorities that Russia has. What does it spell for those people or, to use an example closer to my home in Georgia, from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have been under pressure to send fighters to fight Russia's war there?

De Bretton-Gordon: Absolutely. It's shocking that those people have even lesser a voice in Russia. Ethnic minorities are being used as cannon fodder. I think I called it an "own goal," an "own genocide" that Russia is creating. But not [against] the...elite Russians -- I expect predominantly white -- but at the cost of people from the Far East who have less of a vote in Russia, probably less educated, and certainly less of a voice, that Russia is using to try to prolong this war almost to use up Ukrainian bullets until they run out. And it is a shocking state, which is why I and all sorts of others are calling on NATO to do everything it can to ensure that Ukraine prevails as quickly as possible so we can get to a peace, and to stop the bloodshed on absolutely unbelievable scales.

RFE/RL: Four million is an imposing, intimidating figure [for mobilization]. But what can it actually translate into on the battlefield?

De Bretton-Gordon: Well, sadly, I think it will just turn into more dead bodies, the "meat grinder" as we call it. An infantry soldier with a rifle is no match for the modern Western weaponry that Ukraine has at [its] disposal -- the tanks, the armored vehicles, etc. Human flesh, it just cannot survive.

And I think one of the interesting factors -- having only just heard that Russia is claiming to put its newest, most modern tank, the T-14, on the battlefield in very small numbers, for example. There's the difference between a Russian tank and a Western tank: a lot of it is in the protection that they have. So, having spent many years in Challenger tanks in the British Army, I know these tanks are very strongly armored and could take many, many hits from a T-72 or even a T-80. Whereas a T-80 or even a T-14, because they're lightly armored, will be taken out very easily by the Leopard tanks and the Challenger 2 tanks, but they can't take out the Western tank.

So going back to your question about this manpower, I think it is just suicide, it is a genocide. Because there is no way that these young men are going to be able to survive. It's almost like a circus shooting gallery. It is unimaginable that it is allowed to happen. (Editor's note: de Bretton-Gordon has written elsewhere about the atrocities and other war crimes allegedly committed on a massive scale by Russian troops against Ukrainian civilians and others.)

RFE/RL: What would be a role model of military dictatorship for Putin? We have seen many, ranging all the way back from the Roman Empire, which he allegedly finds fascinating, to the more recent Soviet mold, embodied by Josef Stalin.

De Bretton-Gordon: From what we read and learn, he sees himself very much as a Peter the Great of the modern era, being able to expand Russian influence across the rest of Europe. And undoubtedly, he's been focused on how Stalin ruled Russia in World War II, with an absolute iron grip. And those people around him seem to be of a similar type of stance and idea. But it is this sort of totalitarian, autocratic rulership, which is to rule with a rod of iron and fear....

Putin's rule is an autocratic dictatorship and maybe born out of his time in the KGB, where you could get away with anything as long as it's successful. He is now 70 -- whether he's ill or not, who knows -- but he's in the last part of his life and probably feels he must achieve something like the great Russian leaders. And at the moment, it's all going the wrong way. So, he will presumably try to do everything he can to eke out some sort of victory. But I'm not quite sure how you can do that. He's operated very much like [Adolf] Hitler in World War II and he may well have a similar end.

RFE/RL: One of the trademark signs of military dictatorship is brutal quashing of any dissent, and also, if you take the Soviet example, it was at every level of society. Should we expect any sort of mass purges?

De Bretton-Gordon: It's very difficult to see. I think the purges of the dissidents and the elites is happening anyway. If we turn back a few years, we see the dissidents outside of Russia, [Aleksandr] Litvinenko in London, Sergei Skripal and others who've opposed the regime, being taken out.

As far as the purges within Russia, I think at the moment things are working out just as Putin would see fit. I'm sure if there is any widespread dissension in Russia, and people start refusing to go to the front in any great numbers, then one would expect widespread purges. When there was a big conscription six to nine months ago, we saw a lot of young men leaving Russia at a rapid rate. That seems to have dried up. And perhaps by recruiting people from the east, it's not so noticeable. But I don't think anything is off the cards to keep Putin and the elite where they are. I just hope their time is limited.

RFE/RL: And last question: What does Russia as a military dictatorship spell for the rest of the world?

De Bretton-Gordon: I think at the moment, it is a real concern, because there are so many resources being used up to help Ukraine defeat the Russians. Interestingly enough, you will have seen the evacuations in Sudan from the war there.

Now I think Britain and other countries have sort of sleepwalked into this; they've been so focused on Ukraine that they haven't noticed what else is going on in the world. I'm sure we could talk about China for several hours.

But I think once this conflict is over, Russia is going to become more irrelevant. And I say that because economically, apart from their fuel, they are of no great interest. I think Putin has destroyed their military in the Ukraine fight, and now that NATO has been strengthened with Finland, probably Sweden fairly soon, and probably Ukraine too, the threat of Russia is minimized. And again, I don't think the nuclear issue is a huge issue. I don't see the nuclear [issue] becoming a problem. I'm more worried about North Korea's nuclear weapons than I am about Russia's nuclear weapons.

I think, actually, as soon as this war is over, Russia will become more and more irrelevant. The world will want its gas and oil, but we are rapidly weaning ourselves off that. It's a huge worry at the moment, which is why people like myself want this over as soon as possible, so that we can concentrate and get back to more savory things.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-putin- military-dictatorship/32389614.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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We are preparing a large sanctions package, the decision will be made soon - address by the President of Ukraine

President of Ukraine

2 May 2023 - 20:05

Good health to you, fellow Ukrainians!

A brief report of the day.

The first point is the military cabinet. This is a special work with key commanders and those who provide defense. Obviously this is confidential work, its details are undisclosed. But just like the meetings of the Staff, the military cabinet also works regularly to synchronize our most important defensive and offensive actions.

The second point is sanctions. I held a meeting on strengthening sanctions regimes, both our own and those of our partners.

We are closely monitoring how the terrorist state is trying to circumvent sanctions, recording each such direction, and working together with our partners to block it. We are preparing a large sanctions package. The decision will be made soon.

Third, international events. This May and the following months will be quite active for Ukraine in the international sphere. There will be a lot of negotiations-related work, international events that will strengthen our defense. We are working on everything. Today I held several meetings on what is planned for this week and for the near future.

Fourth, I held a meeting with Prime Minister Shmyhal. Coordination and preparation of decisions. We are preparing conceptual security solutions for the development of Ukraine and our infrastructure, both now and after the war. We are also preparing for the planned international meetings on the reconstruction of Ukraine and relevant negotiations with partners.

And fifth, today's international meetings and conversations.

I met with a delegation of the Portuguese Assembly headed by the President of the Assembly. It was a productive meeting.

I thanked them for supporting our country and people. The topic of the conversation is quite broad, but the main thing is what unites us... Security for all Europeans, stability, and therefore further development and strengthening of the European and Euro-Atlantic community. In this context, I noted what decisions we expect from the partners' summit in Vilnius in July, the NATO summit.

Today I spoke with the Chairperson of the African Union, the President of the Comoros. It was an important conversation and important mutual understanding. I thanked for the support on global platforms, in particular at the UN. I invited him to join the implementation of our Peace Formula and assured that Ukraine is ready to be a reliable guarantor of food security. We are doing everything to eliminate any damage from Russian aggression both for our people and all our partners.

I thank everyone in the world who supports Ukraine!

Glory to all our warriors who are now in combat for the sake of our country, at combat posts and on combat missions!

Today I would like to especially celebrate the warriors of the 77th separate airmobile and 93rd separate mechanized brigades defending the Bakhmut direction. They are really effective! Thank you, guys!

Glory to Ukraine!

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President of Ukraine had a meeting with President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal

President of Ukraine

2 May 2023 - 18:55

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva who is on a visit to Kyiv at the head of a parliamentary delegation.

The Head of State thanked Augusto Santos Silva, the Parliament and the Government of Portugal for the decisions and practical steps in support of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia. In particular, the President emphasized the importance of Portugal's support for the decision to grant Ukraine the status of the EU candidate, the Euro-Atlantic course of Ukraine and the strengthening of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy also expressed gratitude to Portugal for providing shelter to tens of thousands of Ukrainians who were forced to flee the war. "Most importantly, I would like to thank your society, which, thanks to the actions of the government and parliament, was united in support of Ukraine and Ukrainians. This is a very important signal of faith in Ukraine," he said.

The President of Ukraine and the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal discussed the interaction between Ukraine and Portugal on the path of Ukraine's integration into the European Union and NATO. The Head of State emphasized the importance of starting negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU by the end of this year.

"This will be a powerful incentive for Ukrainian society and Ukrainian defenders who have been holding back the aggressor for more than 14 months," Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized.

The President outlined Ukraine's expectations from the NATO Summit in Vilnius, in particular, the creation of a mechanism of effective security guarantees for the period until Ukraine's membership in the Alliance.

Special attention was paid to the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula. The President thanked for Portugal's support of Ukraine's peace initiatives, particularly within the UN.

"Ukraine is interested in involving as many countries as possible in the holding of the Global Peace Summit," the Head of State noted. He expressed hope that Portugal would actively support Ukraine's efforts in the preparation of the Peace Summit.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked for the security support provided by Portugal, including the transfer of Leopard 2 tanks. He informed the delegation of the Portuguese Parliament about the priority needs of Ukrainian defenders in the context of preparing for a counteroffensive. The President expressed hope that the Government and the Parliament of Portugal would be able to make the necessary decisions to enhance the capabilities of Ukrainian defenders on the frontline.

The President emphasized the willingness of our country to enhance political dialogue with the Portuguese Republic. The parties also discussed the upcoming high-level bilateral events.

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The decision on Ukraine's accession to NATO is the best way to speed up the end of the war and guarantee peace in Europe - Andriy Yermak in an interview for the Dutch media

President of Ukraine

2 May 2023 - 13:47

Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak emphasizes that Ukraine will not stop until it liberates all the temporarily occupied territories, and for this purpose it is important to continue and strengthen support from partner countries. He said this during a conversation with journalists of the Dutch national TV channel NOS and the NRC newspaper.

Andriy Yermak said that the troops of the aggressor state - the Russian Federation - continue to launch missile attacks on civilian infrastructure and civilians in Ukrainian cities, and this has been going on for more than 14 months. In particular, he recalled the recent attack on Uman, which is a world-famous Hasidic pilgrimage site.

"This is a terrible war against the values of the entire free world, our common values, against freedom. They want to destroy Ukrainians, the Ukrainian nation. But our people, our military are heroic and brave, and we continue not only to defend our land, but also to liberate the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories. We will not stop until we liberate all our territories within internationally recognized borders," he emphasized.

The Head of the President's Office noted that Ukraine is currently preparing for important counteroffensive operations.

"Of course, we need more and more weapons. And we are extremely grateful for the assistance we receive from our partners, in particular from the Netherlands, and we look forward to further support. The relevant work on the part of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and members of our team does not stop," said Andriy Yermak.

He noted that Ukraine needs long-range missiles and modern aircraft to liberate the temporarily occupied territories and to protect the free and de-occupied regions of our country, as well as our airspace.

"Everything changes, and Ukraine has changed many things. I am confident that our partners will make the necessary decisions and we will receive the F16," the Head of the Presidential Office said.

Answering the question about expectations from this summer's NATO Summit in Vilnius, Andriy Yermak emphasized that our country hopes for a powerful signal about Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic future, not another repetition of the statement about "open doors" to the Alliance.

"The people of Ukraine have made a decision - we want to be in NATO. Now about 80% of our population supports this move," he added.

According to Andriy Yermak, the decision on Ukraine's accession to NATO is the best way to speed up the end of the war and guarantee peace in Europe.

"Ukraine has proven its ability to stand up to Russia and is defending not only itself, but also the whole of Europe. And in the future, as a member of NATO, Ukraine together with its partners will be able to protect all European countries and other regions of the world even more effectively," he said.

In addition, as the Head of the Presidential Office noted, on its way to NATO membership, Ukraine needs specific, effective security guarantees that will protect it from the repeat of such aggression. And the international working group chaired by Andriy Yermak and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has developed the Kyiv Security Compact, which offers such security guarantees for Ukraine before it becomes a member of the Alliance.

"When we talk about NATO, I can say that Ukraine is interested in being in NATO, and the Alliance is also interested in our country being a member. During the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine proved that it is able to defend itself, and therefore, it is able to help protect other NATO members," Andriy Yermak is convinced.

He also emphasized that the Netherlands is a true friend of Ukraine. The Head of the President's Office thanked the Dutch government and people for supporting our country and people, particularly forcibly displaced persons, from the first days of the full-scale war.

"Thank you for this historic help and support. Ukrainians will never forget it," added Andriy Yermak.

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US sending $300 million in new arms aid to Ukraine including air-launched rockets

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 03 May 2023 2:47 AM

The United States is sending a $300 military aid package to Ukraine, including, for the first time, short-range air-launched rockets, deepening its involvement in the war in defiance of repeated warnings by Russia.

Two US officials said on Tuesday the package includes Hydra 70 rockets, which are unguided projectiles fired from aircraft, Reuters reported.

It also includes artillery rounds, 155-mm Howitzer cannons, anti-tank missiles and mortars as Ukrainian officials say they are planning a counteroffensive.

The Pentagon has also sent at least 20 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine. HIMARS systems, which are made by Lockheed Martin, are intended to be a "core component of Ukraine's fighting force in the future," according to a senior US defense official told reporters.

The funds for the new military shipment to Ukraine were provided once more by using the Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, by which the President of the United States can legally authorize the shipment of military equipment and services from US stocks without gaining congressional approval in response to an emergency.

The package brings the total amount of US military aid to about $36 billion dollars.

The US and its Western allies have kept feeding Ukraine with massive amounts of arms since the start of the war last year.

Moscow has time and again warned that military assistance will only prolong the war and add to the suffering of the Ukrainian people.

US President Joe Biden has said he expects American aid to Ukraine will continue without interruption despite opposition by Republicans.

Republican lawmakers have voiced concerns about the haphazard military shipments to Ukraine.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said Washington's military aid to Ukraine was a US-led "proxy war" against Russia.

She said the Ukraine war had placed a heavy financial burden on the shoulders of Americans, who were already grappling with poverty.

However, the lawmaker also admitted that war was "a deadly profitable industry" for the US government.

Last month, a group of 19 Republican lawmakers in the US Senate and House of Representatives called on President Biden to try seeking a diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine conflict rather than insisting on extending the war by supplying billions of dollars in weaponry to Kiev.

"A proxy war with Russia in Ukraine is not in the strategic interest of the United States and risks an escalation that could spiral out of control," said Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and other Republican legislators in a letter sent to Biden on Thursday.

"Unrestrained US aid for Ukraine must come to an end, and we will adamantly oppose all future aid packages unless they are linked to a clear diplomatic strategy designed to bring this war to a rapid conclusion," read the formal letter, further insisting that "our national and economic security demand an alternative."

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., May 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ocwen Financial Corporation (NYSE: OCN) (Ocwen or the Company), a leading non-bank mortgage servicer and originator, today issued the following statement in response to rulings entered on May 2, 2023 by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in the Companys pending litigation with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In those rulings, the district court granted in full Ocwens motion for summary judgment on the CFPBs remaining claims, entered final judgment in the Companys favor, and closed the case.



We are pleased that the district court has ruled in our favor, acknowledging that the CFPB cannot unilaterally ignore the provisions of a prior settlement agreement. Throughout this litigation we have remained steadfast in our belief that the CFPBs claims regarding Ocwens past servicing practices were without merit. Should the CFPB decide to file an appeal, Ocwen will continue to vigorously defend itself, as we have done throughout the course of this litigation.

About Ocwen Financial Corporation

Ocwen Financial Corporation (NYSE: OCN) is a leading non-bank mortgage servicer and originator providing solutions through its primary brands, PHH Mortgage and Liberty Reverse Mortgage. PHH Mortgage is one of the largest servicers in the country, focused on delivering a variety of servicing and lending programs. Liberty is one of the nations largest reverse mortgage lenders dedicated to education and providing loans that help customers meet their personal and financial needs. We are headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, with offices and operations in the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, India and the Philippines, and have been serving our customers since 1988. For additional information, please visit our website (www.ocwen.com).

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements may be identified by a reference to a future period or by the use of forward-looking terminology. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as expect, believe, foresee, anticipate, intend, estimate, goal, strategy, plan target and project or conditional verbs such as will, may, should, could or would or the negative of these terms, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Readers should bear these factors in mind when considering such statements and should not place undue reliance on such statements.

Forward-looking statements involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. In the past, actual results have differed from those suggested by forward looking statements and this may happen again. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, further appeals by the CFPB relating to this matter, the outcome of any such appeals, including continued litigation and the ultimate resolution of such litigation whether by negotiated settlement or otherwise, the timing of such ultimate resolution, the impact of such resolution on our operations and financial condition, and the reaction of investors, contractual counterparties, and regulators, as well as other risks and uncertainties detailed in Ocwens reports and filings with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 and current and quarterly reports since such date. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and, Ocwen disclaims any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For Further Information Contact:

Dico Akseraylian, SVP, Corporate Communications

(856) 917-0066

mediarelations@ocwen.com
NORTH VANCOUVER and WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations -- This afternoon, the Government of British Columbia, Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) of North and West Vancouver and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) are kicking off Mental Health Week (May 1-7) with the launch of Recovery College YVR (RC YVR), a community learning centre offering free courses to address transitional gaps across the mental health and substance use system.



The BC provincial government has invested $421,000 to support the development of Recovery College YVR. RC offers various virtual and in-person workshops, groups, webinars, educational events, and community connection points to enhance mental health literacy, provide peer-to-peer support and aid in developing meaningful personal goals.

Our government is building a continuum of care for mental health and addictions services from the ground up, said Honourable Jennifer Whiteside, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. With Recovery College in Vancouver, more people will have access to support and information to educate and empower practitioners, everyday people, and those struggling with mental health. Programs like this go a long way in ensuring people can access the services they need where and when they need them.

Many acute mental health services focus only on people with complex clinical presentations. As a result, 20 percent of Canadians with mild to moderate mental health and/or substance use problems cannot access appropriate resources and support. This service gap leads to many residents of British Columbia waiting until they reach a state of crisis before seeking treatment, resulting in an estimated annual cost of $6.6 billion to the economy.

Julia Kaisla, Executive Director of CMHA North and West Vancouver Branch, explains: Offering options with minimal barriers to entry like the Recovery College approach is vital to fill the voids in mental health and recovery systems. Following the success of sixteen Recovery Colleges in other Canadian provinces, were pleased to launch the first in Greater Vancouver to provide individuals grappling with mental health issues access to free courses and social support groups without any referral or diagnosis needed. This program empowers people to develop resourcefulness and support their social, spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental wellness.

Recovery College YVR, a partnership between CMHA North and West Vancouver and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), is based on a thriving community mental health model from the United Kingdom that emphasizes personal recovery in mental health and well-being. Recovery Colleges (RCs) provide a unique approach to learning that differs from traditional methods. They are self-directed, free, and readily available, emphasizing non-clinical advice from service providers and peer mentors who have personal experience with recovery. RCs aim to establish a secure environment where people can explore their mental health and develop meaningful connections while feeling empowered throughout their recovery. Course and group categories include art therapy, pet therapy, guided meditation, self-discovery, self-management for addiction and social connection. Some courses are available in Farsi as well as English.

Andrew MacFarlane, Regional Director, Mental Health and Substance Use, Vancouver Coastal Health, said: We are thrilled to partner with CMHA on the creation of Recovery College YVR to fill a gap in mental health service provision between in-patient care and outpatient recovery within the community. We will continue working closely with healthcare experts, people with lived experience and their families to ensure that those facing mental health and substance challenges can easily access these important resources to support their or a loved ones recovery.

To mark the launch, CMHA North and West Vancouver and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) hosted a media lunch event at the Joseph & Rosalie Segal & Family Health Centre to spotlight the significant collaboration and partnership behind the new initiative. Speakers included: Honourable Jennifer Whiteside, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions; Julia Kaisla, the Executive Director of CMHA North and West Vancouver Branch; Andrew MacFarlane, Regional Director, Mental Health and Substance Use, and MJ Moore, a Recovery College YVR Peer Support Worker with lived experience.

MJ Moore, Recovery College YVR Peer Support Worker, said: Ensuring that individuals facing mental health or substance use challenges have access to meaningful support and tools to aid their recovery journey is crucial. As a person with lived experience, I think back to my recovery journey and cant help but wonder how much better I would have felt knowing I was not alone and had these amazing people and resources to call on. The peers I have the honour of working alongside bring so much wisdom and insight into this work and this project. I am so proud of Recovery College YVR and the brilliant minds that made it happen.

If you are over 18 years old, learn, connect and grow by signing up for a Recovery College course here.

About Recovery College YVR  A Community Wellness Hub.

In partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association, North & West Vancouver Branch and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), the YVR Recovery College is the 17th location in Canada. The college offers various educational courses, including art therapy for wellness, chronic pain management, and SMART Recovery  Self Management for Addiction. Additionally, several social support groups are available, such as self-discovery, wellness, training, and social connection groups, including the Circle of Hope  Farsi Speaking Women's group and the Men Lets Talk peer-guided mental health space.

Our vision is for RC YVR to address significant service and transitional gaps across the mental health and substance use system through a community-based delivery. RC YVR effectively reaches people in settings where access to mental health and substance use services is limited by offering in-person, virtual courses and social support groups.  Recovery College YVR.

Click here to find out more about Recovery College YVR.

About Canadian Mental Health Association, North and West Vancouver

CMHA North and West Vancouver is a branch of Canadas most established mental health charity. CMHA helps people access resources to maintain and improve mental health. Each year in BC, CMHA serves more than 100,000 people. For mental health and addiction information and resources, visit www.northwestvancouver.cmha.bc.ca.

About Vancouver Coastal Health

VCH is committed to delivering exceptional care to 1.2 million people, including the First Nations, Metis and Inuit in our region, within the traditional territories of the Heiltsuk, Kitasoo-Xai'xais, Lil'wat, Musqueam, N'Quatqua, Nuxalk, Samahquam, shishalh, Skatin, Squamish, Tla'amin, Tsleil-Waututh, Wuikinuxv, and Xa'xtsa. VCH is British Columbias hub of healthcare innovation, research and academic excellence, providing specialized care to patients throughout the province. Learn more at vch.ca.

MEDIA KIT: here

Contact:

For more information, contact:

Alicia Collyear

cmha@yulupr.com

604-558-1656

VCH Public Affairs

media@vch.ca

604-202-2012 (after-hours)

_________________________________

 CMHA Barrier Report 2019, p 7: https://vancouver-fraser.cmha.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/cmha_barrierreport2019_onlineissn_final_SINGLE.pdf

 CMHA North and West Vancouver Branch, Facts and Figures: https://northwestvancouver.cmha.bc.ca/facts-and-figures/
NEW ORLEANS, May 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until May 30, 2023 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT), if they purchased the Companys shares between August 18, 2021 and May 17, 2022, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.



What You May Do

If you purchased shares of Target and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-tgt/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in the class action, you must petition the Court by May 30, 2023 .

About the Lawsuit

Target and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On May 18, 2022, the Company announced its Q1 2022 financial results, disclosing among other things, a decrease in operating income to $1.3 billion from $2.4 billion in the prior year, a 40% drop in adjusted earnings, and a decrease in gross margin of nearly 4.3%, with approximately 3% of that due to the combined impact of impairments, markdowns, and other actions taken to rightsize our inventory position in categories that were too heavy, as well as a decrease in full-year 2022 operating margin guidance to a range centered around 6% from a margin rate of 8% or higher.

On this news, shares of Target plummeted nearly 25% or $53.67 per share, or from a closing price of $215.28 per share on May 17, 2022, to a closing price of $161.61 per share on May 18, 2022.

The case is Perez v. Target Corporation, et al., No. 23-cv-00769.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nations 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 http://ksfcounsel.com/.

Contact:
NEW ORLEANS, May 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until May 8, 2023 to file lead plaintiff applications in securities class action lawsuits against Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE: CS), if they purchased the Companys securities between February 18, 2021 and March 20, 2023, inclusive (the Class Period). These actions are pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.



What You May Do

If you purchased securities of Credit Suisse and would like to discuss your legal rights and how these cases might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-cs/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in the class action, you must petition the Court by May 8, 2023 .

About the Lawsuits

Credit Suisse and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On February 9, 2023, the Company disclosed that, contrary to its prior statements, it had continued to experience large customer outflows through yearend 2022, specifically, outflows of 110.5 billion Swiss francs in the final three months of 2022, a figure which far exceeded market expectations. On this news, shares of Credit Suisse fell $0.56 per ADS, or 15.64%, to close at $3.02 on February 9, 2023.

Then, on March 15, 2023, news media sources revealed that the Companys biggest backer, Saudi National Bank, would not buy any more of the Companys shares due to regulatory grounds. On this news, shares of Credit Suisse fell 13.94% to close at $2.16 per ADS.

Finally, on March 20, 2023, the Company announced a merger agreement with UBS, stating that it represents the best available outcomewe are forced to reach a solution today that provides a durable outcome. On this news, shares of Credit Suisse fell 52.99% to close at $0.9450 per ADS on March 20.

The first-filed case is Calhoun v. Credit Suisse Group AG, et al., 23-cv-01297. A subsequently-filed case, Turner v. Credit Suisse Group AG, et al., 23-cv-01476, expanded the class period. A third case filed, Linhares v. Credit Suisse Group AG, et al., 23-cv-02246, further expanded the class period.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nations 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 http://ksfcounsel.com/.

Contact:
Dublin, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Critical Minerals & Energy Investment Conference and Exhibition" conference has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Explore Australia's Critical Minerals Strategy & Hydrogen Energy Opportunities Spurring Investment & Innovation As Well As Discover the Potential Of Critical Energy Resources in Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe For Mining, Renewable Energy, Automotive, Aerospace, Defence, Telecommunications And Agritech Industries

Critical Minerals & Energy Investment Conference and Exhibition is Australia's only event dedicated to critical minerals sector discussing all aspects of exploration opportunities for traditional and emerging commodities, investment strategies, development of new technologies from mobile phones to fighter jets, critical infrastructure, transport, security & renewable energy and expansion of downstream processing to meet future global demand.

Australia has been blessed with extraordinary reserves of critical minerals and produce around half the world's lithium, is the second-largest producer of cobalt and the fourth-largest producer of rare earths. The Government has plans to grow Australia into a critical minerals powerhouse to support supply chain diversification and security of supply on a global scale.

Up to now, production has been concentrated in a few countries and is subject to disruptive geopolitical & market challenges, while rapidly rising demand could result in shortages. The event looks at key elements to responsible sourcing and processing, green investment economy, as well as hydrogen that plays a crucial role in the global energy market's transition to a low-carbon economy.

We anticipate 300 senior-level executives, including over 25 mining companies ranging from explorers, juniors to mid-tier producers, majors and processors for two days of partnering, networking and business matching.

Join us at an invaluable platform to get access to agenda covering the latest industry issues, and exhibition floor as well as a 1-2-1 meeting matching tool for new partnerships & business opportunities including Presentation Opportunities & Panel Discussions, Ministerial Luncheon, Special Critical Minerals in Defence & Security Industry Breakfast, Networking Drinks, Bespoke Event Partnership & Sponsorship Options.

MINERS MEET INVESTORS

Our investors come from private equity, asset & investment management companies, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, venture capital, family offices or are HNWIs and private investors.

They join from all over Australia, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Americas to look out for the latest mining projects and investment opportunities.

KEY THEMES

Mining Investment Strategies & Trends

Bridging Mining, Energy, Automotive, Space & Defence Industries

Critical Materials Strategy, Supply & Trade

Resources Security, Sustainability & Hydrogen

Global

Commodity Trends

Battery Metals (Lithium, Vanadium, Cobalt, Nickel and Graphite) & Electric Vehicles

Platinum Group Metals Developments

Rare Earth Minerals

Emerging Metals

M&A, Capital Raising & Financing Environment

Risk, Government Regulations & Policy Developments

Junior Miners, New Exploration Projects & Discoveries

Renewable Energy Prospects

Mining Technology Advancements

IoT, Blockchain & Future of Mining

Speakers

Dr Bronwyn Camac

Acting Director

Geological Survey of South Australia

Peter Nicholson

Senior Advisor Australia and Asia

Appian Capital Advisory LLP

Sam McGahan

Marketing Manager

Australian Vanadium Limited

Alex Dorsch

Managing Director & CEO

Chalice Mining Limited

Andrew Hutchinson

General Manager

Critical Minerals Office

Dan Smart

Director, Project & Structured Finance

Export Finance Australia

Stephen Gauld

Managing Director & CEO

Infinite Green Energy

Ron Mitchell

Chairman

London Metal Exchange Lithium Committee

Miranda Taylor

CEO

National Energy Resources Australia (NERA)

Peter Clifford

Director

Paradigm Fuels

Noel Ong

Managing Director

Samso Capital

Hon. Bill Johnston MLA

Minister, Mines, Petroleum, Energy & Industrial Relations

Government of Western Australia

Gavin Lockyer

Managing Director

Arafura Resources Limited

Adam Myers

Partner, Corporate Finance

BDO

David Tasker

Managing Director

Chapter One Advisors

Sarah Sargent

Mineral Investment Specialist

Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety

Luke Cox

Chief Executive Officer

Green Technology Metals

Phil Hearse

Executive Chairman

International Graphite Ltd

Kylah Morrison

General Manager - Western Australia & South Australia

METS Ignited Australia

Frank van Rooyen

Senior Director - Resources & WA

Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility

Peter Pham

Managing Director & Principal Fund Manager

Phoenix Capital Group

Henk Ludik

Executive Chairman

Suvo Strategic Minerals Limited

Megan Joyce

Head of Corporate Finance, WA

ANZ

Graeme Testar

Executive Director, Corporate Finance

Argonaut Securities

Sonia Scarselli

Vice President

BHP Xplor

Rob Wilson

Head of Western Australia & Resources

Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC)

Andrew Spinks

Managing Director

EcoGraf

Michael Brady

Partner, Commercial Contracting, Energy & Resources,

HWL Ebsworth Lawyers

Colin Locke

Executive Chairman

Krakatoa Resources

Richard Beazley

Non-Executive Chairman

MetalsGrove Mining

George Bauk

Executive Director

PVW Resources

Sam Rodda

Managing Director & CEO

Podium Minerals

Daniel Hynes

Senior Commodity Strategist

ANZ Research

Dr Amanda Murphy

Senior Advisor, Critical Minerals

Austrade

Bart Kolodziejczyk

Associate Director - Hydrogen and Clean Technologies

Boston Consulting Group

Dr Chris Golding

Manager, Semiconductors, Electrification and Europe Team

Critical Minerals Office

Behyad Jafari

CEO

Electric Vehicle Council

Peter Kasprzak

Director

Hydrogen Society of Australia

Kristie Young

Non-Executive Director

Lithium Australia Ltd - ChemX Materials Ltd - Tesoro Gold Ltd

Mohan Yellishetty

Associate Professor

Monash University

Matt Fifield

Managing Partner

Pacific Road Capital

Robert Gray

Chief Commodities Strategist

Resource Capital Fund

For more information about this conference visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/eubkz8

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
Dublin, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Agrochemical Tank Market by Type (Conical, Vertical, Horizontal), Size (200-500, 500-1,000, 1,000-15,000, 15,000-30,000, and >30,000 Liters), Application (Water Storage, Fertilizer Storage, Chemical Storage), and Region - Forecast to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.





The Agrochemical Tanks market is projected to reach USD 1.6 billion by 2027 from an estimated USD 1.3 billion in 2022, at a CAGR of 4.5% during the forecast period. The global agrochemical tanks market is likely to expand in the next years as crop protection and plant nourishment become more popular.

Agrochemicals such as insecticides, herbicides, and fertilisers are stored and transported in these tanks. The market is growing due to the expansion of the agriculture industry and the necessity for effective agrochemical storage and transportation solutions. The market is divided into four sections: type, size, application, and geography. Vertical, conical, horizontal, and other types are included in this part. The size ranges are 200-500, 500-1000, 1000-15000, 15000-30,000, and 30,000.

Water storage tanks, chemical storage tanks, and fertiliser storage tanks are among the application segments. The market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Middle East and Africa.

The Water storage tanks segment, by application , is expected to be the largest and the fastest-growing market from 2022 to 2027

The global agrochemical tanks market is expanding due to increased demand for agricultural water storage solutions. The demand for water storage tanks is being driven by the need for efficient water management in agriculture, rising food demand, and an increasing population. The expansion of the agricultural industry and the demand for efficient water storage systems are also driving growth in this area. Because of the enormous agriculture industries in countries such as China and India, this market is expected to grow significantly in the Asia Pacific area.

The Vertical tanks, by Type, is expected to be the fastest-growing market from 2022 to 2027

Vertical tanks are predicted to be the fastest expanding segment in the agrochemical tanks market due to its efficient storage capacity and low cost. Vertical tanks are narrow and tall, making them excellent for storage in compact locations. Furthermore, these tanks are less difficult to instal and maintain than other types of tanks. This has expanded their appeal among farmers, resulting in an increase in demand for vertical agrochemical tanks. Vertical tanks are composed of high-quality materials like plastic and fibreglass, making them long-lasting and corrosion-resistant. They are also available in a variety of sizes, making them suited for both small-scale and large-scale applications.

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Rising Adoption of Agrochemical Tanks due to Limited Availability of Water

Growing Trends in Water Harvesting

Restraints

Stringent Regulations Governing Production of Agrochemical Tanks

Opportunities

Surge in Investments in New Technologies

Growing Use of Hydroponics and Aquaponics in Agriculture

Challenges

Fluctuation in Commodity Prices

Limited Availability of Raw Materials

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 156 Forecast Period 2022 - 2027 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2022 $1.3 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2027 $1.6 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 4.5% Regions Covered Global

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

5 Market Overview

6 Industry Trends

7 Agrochemical Tanks Market, by Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Vertical

7.2.1 Rising Demand for High-Capacity Agricultural Storage Tanks

7.3 Horizontal

7.3.1 Increasing Need for Fertilizer Transportation

7.4 Conical

7.4.1 Rise in Demand from Commercial and Manufacturing Sectors

7.5 Other Types

8 Agrochemical Tanks Market, by Size

8.1 Introduction

8.2 200-500 Liters

8.2.1 Appropriate for Small and Medium-Sized Farms

8.3 500-1,000 Liters

8.3.1 Growing Demand for Tanks with High Tolerance Toward Temperature Changes

8.4 1,000-15,000 Liters

8.4.1 High Use of Chemicals and Fertilizers

8.5 15,000-30,000 Liters

8.5.1 Growing Demand for Tanks with Strong Walls

8.6 >30,000 Liters

8.6.1 Increase in Water Harvesting

9 Agrochemical Tanks Market, by Application

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Water Storage

9.2.1 Increasing Concerns Regarding Rainwater Harvesting

9.3 Chemical Storage

9.3.1 Growing Use of Chemicals in Agriculture

9.4 Fertilizer Storage

9.4.1 High Consumption of Fertilizers to Increase Agricultural Output

9.5 Other Applications

10 Agrochemical Tanks Market, by Region

11 Competitive Landscape

12 Company Profile

13 Appendix

Companies Mentioned

Agrochem Inc.

Assman Corporation

Balmoral Tanks Ltd.

Balson Polyplast Pvt. Ltd.

Bnh Gas Tanks

Enduramaxx

F.Lli Savi Di Savi Dario & C.Snc

Forti Technology Group

Grupo Rotoplas S.A.B. De C.V

Highberg Solutions

Joshi Agro Industries

Lf Manufacturing

Meridian Manufacturing Inc

National Tank Outlet

Nel Tanks

Poly Processing Solutions

Polymaster

Prettech Machinery Making Co. Ltd.

Sherman Roto Tank

Siegen Philippines Corporation

Sintex

Snyder Industries

Stafco

Tank Holding Corp.

Tce Plastics

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/bqtp62

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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Toronto, ON, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cookin, the homemade food delivery app that launched in Toronto last year, is expanding across the Greater Toronto Area including Etobicoke, Thornhill, North York, and parts of Mississauga, Scarborough, Richmond Hill, and Markham.

Starting today, residents across the GTA who live within Cookins delivery radius can order meals made by professional home cooks, delivered ready-to-eat with all the personal touches that make home-cooking so special. Known for its diversity, the GTA was a natural next choice for Cookin, where home cooks can share authentic homemade meals from biryani to dumplings.

Cookins expansion to new communities throughout the GTA is a big step forward. said Morley Ivers, CEO of Cookin. When Cookin first surpassed 10,000 meals delivered in Toronto, it was a big moment for our team, and it was also a signal that we were ready to expand. Today, we are excited to help over 4,000 talented food creators who have applied to build their small business on Cookin. With every order delivered, we take pride in sharing amazing food from professional home chefs, and its momentous that we can now share that experience beyond Torontos core.

For Cooks in Toronto, building a successful food business became much simpler with the support of the Cookin team, as they gained access to a community of customers, business development and marketing support.

Cookin has given me a low-risk way to pursue a dream of building a business around the foods and flavours I love the most. said Sunta Sem, Founder of Soup & Hustle, which serves Cambodian food on the Cookin platform. They have an incredibly supportive team that is always cheering you on, they are there for my questions and open to my feedback. It's a surreal feeling to know that so many people in Toronto, whom I've never met before, have ordered and enjoyed my cooking.

To celebrate the expansion of Cookin, new users can use the promo code GTA45 to get $45 off their first order.*

*Valid on your first order only. Order value of $45 before fees and taxes required. Cannot be combined with other offers and discounts. Expires May 31, 2023.

About Cookin:

Cookin is a home-cooked food delivery app where customers can discover a diverse variety of food made by the folks that know how to make it best, whether theyre passionate home cooks or trained chefs building a business. Whether its a taste of home you havent had in years or just a hot meal that hits the spot, we deliver more than just locally-made home-cooked meals. Were creating a new kind of economy for talented cooks who cant front restaurant costs. And delivering exactly what you need at the end of yet another wild day: a home-cooked meal. To learn more visit: cookin.com or download the app from the App Store or Google Play.

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Townsend, Tennessee, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Townsend, Tennessee -- Company Distilling announces the second release within its experimental product lineup, Tennessee Three Wood, a Straight Tennessee Whiskey Finished with Apple Wood. This is the second exploratory offering by Company Distilling, the first (Seismic Rye Single Barrel) was announced in November of 2022.

"Tennessee Whiskey was the logical next addition to our product portfolio. At 86.5 proof, we feel it is the perfect complement to our tasting lineup and brings some welcomed sweet notes to the spiciness of our rye," said Founder & Master Distiller Jeff Arnett. "The proof point (86.5) is the area code for the Knoxville area, which we think is a fun hidden fact and continues to create a sense of place for our products in East Tennessee."

Tennessee Three Wood (86.5 proof / 43.25% ABV) has aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg, and golden raisins. The flavor is a subtle blend of sweet vanilla, cinnamon, cloves and plums, and a soft warm oak finish.

Mellowed through maple charcoal, matured in charred white oak, and finished with toasted apple wood, Company Distilling's Tennessee Three Wood celebrates the whiskey-making heritage of Tennessee. Through the "Lincoln County Process," this recipe explores some of the diversity of fruit and hardwood trees in Tennessee.

A decade ago, the State of Tennessee passed legislation that defined what could be labeled as "Tennessee Whiskey." If you compare the points of this 2013 state law to the federal code for bourbon, Tennessee Whiskey cannot be made in just any U.S. state but must be made in Tennessee. It also adds one additional process requirement beyond bourbon: the new make distillate must be filtered through hard sugar maple charcoal after distillation and before entering the new charred oak barrel for maturation.

Company Distilling invites you to celebrate International Tennessee Whiskey Day on May 21 with the following opportunities to Gather AroundTM, meet Master Distiller Jeff Arnett, and purchase the newly released Company Distilling Tennessee Three Wood.

Wednesday, May 17, 2023  Dinner with Ellington's Restaurant

Join good friends and good company for a 5-course paired dinner at Ellington's Restaurant (Nashville, TN) with exceptional spirits from Company Distilling, a Tennessee Whiskey distillery. Your dining experience will be curated by Executive Chef Christopher Ayala and his culinary team with new dishes and offerings special for this spirit event. Save your seat for this guided experience, only to be found in the heart of Nashville on the 4th floor of the immaculate Fairlane Hotel. Company Distilling is giving away two tickets. To enter, visit Company Distilling Instagram or Facebook.

Friday, May 19, 2023  Tennessee Three Wood is available for purchase in Company Distilling tasting rooms in Thompson's Station and Townsend, TN.

Reservations for tastings and experiences can be made online at CompanyDistilling.com. The premium tasting includes Tennessee Three Wood Whiskey Finished with Apple Wood, Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished with Maple Wood, and Seismic Rye Single Barrel Finished with Cherry Wood.

Saturday, May 20, 2023  Tennessee Whiskey Trail Experience at The Ascend Amphitheater (Nashville, TN)

Join Company Distilling at the Tennessee Whiskey Trail Experience. Meet Master Distiller Jeff Arnett, sample and purchase the newly released Tennessee Three Wood, and listen to live music. Admission includes souvenir tasting Glencairn glass. Purchase tickets here.

Sunday, May 21, 2023  International Tennessee Whiskey Day

Celebrate International Tennessee Whiskey Day at Company Distilling tasting rooms in Thompson's Station and Townsend, TN. With a production area, bottle/retail shop, and bar with portfolio tastings and a signature cocktail menu, you can spend some time with your best of company.

For more information or to schedule a follow-up interview, contact the media department at media@companydistilling.com.



About Company Distilling

Company Distilling is based in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, founded by a group of friends with a history of building distilleries, crafting exceptional spirits, and bringing people together.

Kris Tatum and Jeff Arnett have changed the course of Tennessee distilling over the last 20 years and look forward to continuing to do so with the formation of Company Distilling.



So, when you pour a glass of Company, you are experiencing something new. But one sip and you will know it is not Company Disilling's first go around.

Company Distilling | Instagram | Facebook



Company Distilling currently offers the following premium spirits:

Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished with Maple Wood

A straight bourbon whiskey fully matured in oak barrels and finished with maple wood. A complex and smooth column and pot stilled, wheated bourbon opens with sweet notes of caramel and cinnamon toast paired with green apple and finishes with a silky blend of oak and maple.

750ml | Proof: 90 | ABV: 45%

Available at Company Distilling tasting rooms in Thompson's Station & Townsend, TN and distributed in Tennessee, Georgia, and Texas.

Cask Strength Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Limited Release

The original wheated bourbon recipe was made available uncut for maximum flavor with a bold maple finish. The aroma has hints of tobacco and leather accented by sweet baking spices. With cinnamon toast and baked apple flavors, this liquid is surprisingly approachable and balanced on the palate when served neat or with a few drops of water.

750ml | Proof: 121 | ABV: 60.5%

Available exclusively at Company Distilling tasting rooms in Thompson's Station & Townsend, TN.

Seismic Rye

Rye Single Barrel Finished with Cherry Wood

The first in the experimental product lineup, Seismic Rye Single Barrel, opens with aromas of rye grass, black licorice, oak, and vanilla with the addition of dark cherry, black pepper, and leather flavors. It finishes with warm and lingering hints of toasted cherry and oak wood.

The Rye Single Barrel pays homage to the community roots in East Tennessee. It is named after monitoring station AS107, established in 1978. The station was built in the Tuckaleechee Caverns of Townsend, TN, to measure and report seismic activity for the eastern half of the United States.

750ml | Proof: 107 | ABV: 53.5%

Available at Company Distilling tasting rooms in Thompson's Station & Townsend, TN, and extremely limited availability in retail stores in Tennessee.

Ghost Rail

Tennessee Dry Gin

Ghost rails are abandoned train tracks, disappearing into our valleys, mountains and forests. They mark where we have been and leave where we are going up to each of us. Ghost Rail is our attempt to slow down, extract some deeper meaning out of life, and make real connections with the people and places around us. A whole lot of heart and soul goes into making this spirit in the simplest of ways, and we are pleased for you to try it.

With Ghost Rail Tennessee Dry Gin, we take a different approach. Using just six botanicals, we distill our award-winning gin on a small, open fired, Alembic still. All flavors and aromas in perfect balance, Ghost Rail transports you on a journey all your own. Pour yourself a glass and set off for somewhere else.

750ml | Proof: 88 | ABV: 44%

Available at Company Distilling tasting rooms in Thompson's Station & Townsend, TN and distributed in Tennessee and Georgia.

Ace Gap Flavored Spirits

A hundred years ago, Tennessee loggers gathered at Ace Gap in the Smoky Mountains to play cards and sip spirits from a makeshift still. And while these spirits are a bit more refined, they bring the same collective joy as their storied predecessor.

750ml | Proof: 60 | ABV: 30%

Available exclusively at Company Distilling tasting rooms in Thompson's Station & Townsend, TN.

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New York, US, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a Comprehensive Report by MRFR/Market Research Future (MRFR),  Hydrogen Fuel Cells Market Research Report Information by Type, Region, and Application - Forecast Till 2030, the global Hydrogen Fuel Cells market is predicted to bolter substantially during the assessment timeframe from 2022 to 2030 at a healthy growth rate of approximately 25.09%. The reports further project the market to attain a valuation of around USD 11.87 billion by the end of 2030. As per the reports, the genset market was worth nearly USD 1.98 billion in 2021.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells Market Overview:

The global market for Hydrogen Fuel Cells has showcased tremendous development in the last few years. The main parameter supporting the development of the market is the increasing government and private investments in developing and founding hydrogen fuel cell-producing facilities. Furthermore, the lowered dependency on non-conventional energy sources is also likely to enhance the development of the market over the review era.

Moreover, the factors such as growing ecological concerns, production of emission-free energy, substantial investments in green energy development, power generation solutions in residential & commercial sectors, and rising applications in heating and power generation solutions are also anticipated to enhance the growth of the market over the coming years.

Competitive Analysis

The listing of the prominent leaders across the global hydrogen fuel cells market includes players such as:

Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies (Singapore)

Panasonic Corporation (Japan)

Doosan Fuel Cell (U.S.)

Intelligent Energy Holdings plc (U.K.)

Ballard Power Systems (Canada)

FuelCell Energy Inc. (U.S.)

Nedstack fuel cell technology B.V. (Netherlands)

Plug Power Inc. (U.S.)

Pearl Hydrogen (China)

Hyster-Yale Group (U.S.)

Hydrogenics Corporation (Canada)

Among others.





Buy Premium Research Report Now:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=5947



On the other hand, certain parameters may impede the performance of the market. The market's main restricting aspect is the shorter durability of the Hydrogen Fuel Cells.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells Market USP Covered

Market Drivers

The global market for Hydrogen Fuel Cells has recently displayed massive development. The main aspect causing a surge in the performance of the market is the lowered dependency on non-conventional energy sources. Furthermore, factors such as the need for alternative energy sources, the benefits of producing emission-free energy, and substantial investments in green energy are also likely to impact the market's performance over the review era positively.

Market Restraints

On the other hand, certain aspects may impede the Hydrogen Fuel Cells market's growth. The primary parameter restricting the market's growth is low durability.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells Market Report Scope:

Report Metrics Details Market Size 2030 2030: USD 11.87 billion CAGR during 2022-2030 25.09% CAGR Base Year 2021 Forecast 2022-2030 Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Type, Application and Region Key Market Opportunities Rising government and private investments in the development and establishment of Hydrogen Fuel Cells Key Market Dynamics Stringent carbon emission norms across the globe Increasing efforts to augment hydrogen refueling stations



Browse In-depth Market Research Report (120 Pages) on Hydrogen Fuel Cells Market:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/hydrogen-fuel-cells-market-5947



Hydrogen Fuel Cells Market COVID-19 Impact

Global industrial activities and business operations experienced a major setback given to the rise of the global health crisis in the form of COVID-19. The pandemic affected public health across nearly 225 countries, along with all industrial operations. All these situations led to the imposition of full or partial lockdowns across most regions worldwide. Subsequently, the industry operations were halted, and some businesses shut down. Given the sudden fall in demand for construction activities during the pandemic and the halt of most industrial operations, the Hydrogen Fuel Cells market experienced many sudden & unexpected issues throughout the pandemic. On the contrary, now that the majority of the globe is being rapidly vaccinated and industrial operations are returning to normal, the market is predicted to witness a considerable expansion and recovery in revenue generation over the assessment period.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells Market Segment Analysis

Among all the types, the water-cooled type segment secured the top spot across the global market for hydrogen fuel cells in 2021, given the cooling effect these cells offer. Condenser cooling enables the fuel cell stack to operate at higher temperatures than other cooling types. On the other hand, the air-cooled type will likely showcase the maximum growth rate over the coming years, given that it warms up much faster and doesn't risk coolant freezing.

Among all the application areas, the stationary segment held the leading position across the global market for hydrogen fuel cells in the year 2021 owing to the aspects such as the ability to utilize a variety of fuels and high efficiency. On the contrary, the transport segment is anticipated to grow at the highest pace over the review ear given to the rising applications of Hydrogen Fuel Cells in the transportation industry and rising demand for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles & hydrogen fuel cell powered forklifts.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells Market Regional Analysis

The global market for Hydrogen Fuel Cells is analyzed across five major geographies: South America, the APAC region, the Middle East & Africa, the European nations, and North America.



(*If you have any special requirements, please let us know)

Ask for Customization:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/ask_for_customize/5947



The MRFR analysis reports suggesting that the North American region secured the top spot across the global hydrogen fuel cell market in 2021 with the largest contribution of around USD 0.84 billion. The main parameter supporting the development of the regional market is the growing research and development programs. Furthermore, the incentives and subsidies offered by the government for Hydrogen Fuel Cells vehicles, along with government funding and expenditure, will also likely enhance the market's performance over the coming years. The region has the U.S. and Canada as the leading growth contributors.

The Asia-Pacific Hydrogen Fuel Cells market is anticipated to showcase substantial development over the coming years. The main aspect causing a rise in the performance of the market is the rapidly expanding population coupled with the rising disposable income. Furthermore, the rapidly growing economies are also predicted to boost the regional market's development over the coming years.

The European regional market for hydrogen fuel cells is anticipated to grow substantially over the assessment period, given aspects such as increasing user base, quick commercialization of FCEVs, and public & commercial organizations.

Related Reports:

High-Performance Fuel Cells Market Research Report Information by Type, Application, End-Use and Region - Forecast till 2030

Fuel Cell Technology Market Research Report Information By Type, Application, And By Region - Market Forecast Till 2030

Marine Fuel Injection Market Research Report Information by Component, by Application, by HP Range, and Region  Forecast till 2030

About Market Research Future:

Market Research Future (MRFR) is a global market research company that takes pride in its services, offering a complete and accurate analysis regarding diverse markets and consumers worldwide. Market Research Future has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.
Los Angeles, CA, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blank Rome LLP is pleased to announce that Germain D. Labat has joined the firm as a partner in the Corporate Litigation practice in Los Angeles. An experienced trial lawyer, Germain represents public and private companies in state and federal trial and appellate courts. Before joining Blank Rome, Germain was a partner at Greenspoon Marder LLP.

Germain is the latest addition to Blank Romes national litigation team, which comprises more than 300 attorneys across the firms 14 offices and has welcomed partners Barak A. Bassman, Basileios Bill Katris, Gregory J. Moore, and David A. Moreno, Jr., as well as the Honorable Judith J. Gische as senior counsel since 2022. Germain also continues the firms strategic growth in California, joining the recent additions of partners Travis K. Jang-Busby and Joseph Welch, senior counsel Robert Handler, and numerous associates across practice areas in the firms Los Angeles and Orange County offices, which have grown to more than 70 attorneys combined over the last two years.

I am excited to welcome Germain to Blank Rome and our nationally recognized litigation team, said Grant S. Palmer, Blank Romes Chair and Managing Partner. Germain is a top-notch, highly regarded litigator with significant trial experience that will greatly benefit our clients who seek skilled representation to navigate their high-stakes, complex litigation matters across a variety of industries.

Germain handles a wide range of litigation matters, including securities litigation, commercial real estate litigation, residential foreclosure litigation, control disputes and other corporate governance matters, non-competes and other restrictive covenant matters, intellectual property litigation, breach of fiduciary duty claims, franchise disputes, and misappropriation of trade secrets. Germains clients are active in the healthcare, commercial real estate, retail, energy, technology, financial services, food and beverage, and cosmetics industries. Though much of his practice focuses on defense work, Germain also represents plaintiffs and has obtained multimillion-dollar verdicts on his clients behalf.

I am thrilled to welcome Germain to our Corporate Litigation group and Los Angeles office as we continue to expand our highly regarded trial team, both nationally and on the West Coast, said Gregory M. Bordo, Partner and Co-Chair of Blank Romes Litigation Department and Los Angeles office. The breadth of his trial experience, including litigating one of the longest bench trials in California history, lasting nearly 300 days, makes him an excellent addition to our deep bench of litigators and we look forward to working with him to deliver successful outcomes for our clients.

Blank Romes established Los Angeles office and strong national platform was an attractive combination for me. I am also looking forward to working with Greg, whom I have known and respected for many years, added Labat. Additionally, the firm is known for being a powerhouse in the courtroom and I am excited to join this incredible team and draw upon the firms wide range of industry teams and practice areas to continue to grow my practice here.

Germain earned his J.D., cum laude, from Boston College Law School and his B.A., with honors, from the University of California, Santa Barbara. For over ten years, Germain served on the board of governors of LA Works, a nonprofit organization that develops community service projects for the greater Los Angeles area.

About Blank Rome

Blank Rome is an Am Law 100 firm with 14 offices and more than 650 attorneys and principals who provide comprehensive legal and advocacy services to clients operating in the United States and around the world. Our professionals have built a reputation for their leading knowledge and experience across a spectrum of industries and are recognized for their commitment to pro bono work in their communities. Since our inception in 1946, Blank Romes culture has been dedicated to providing top-level service to all our clients and has been rooted in the strength of our diversity and inclusion initiatives. For more information, please visit blankrome.com.

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Cologne, Germany & Brussels, Belgium, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HRS, the leading global corporate lodging and payment technology platform, announced the addition of Radisson Hotel Group to HRS groundbreaking Green Stay Initiative (GSI). As more corporate hotel procurement leaders prioritize a hotels sustainability-related credentials during the bidding process, Radisson Hotel Groups choice to participate in the global GSI program enhances their opportunities to win more corporate volume. Radisson Hotel Groups 1,100+ properties across 95+ countries will gradually participate in GSI, beginning with an initial group of properties in Europe this quarter.

The timing of this announcement aligns with the increasing number of government proclamations requiring corporations to report their progress on reducing carbon emissions. The most recent example is the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, adopted by the European Union parliament in November 2022. This EU-wide regulation, mandating more detailed reporting, begins in January 2024.

Launched just two years ago, HRS Green Stay Initiative has recorded impressive traction in the global corporate hospitality ecosystem. The technology enables corporate hotel procurement leaders to efficiently view and consider sustainability metrics and information amid other categories (i.e. room rates, cancellation policy, etc.) as they make preferred supplier decisions. More than 600 hotel brands across 170-plus nations participate in GSI today, including seven of the top 11 hotel chains in the world. Dozens of Fortune 500 corporations use the solution as part of their hotel procurement process, with some companies mandating hotels to use the technology in order to secure preferred supplier status.

Radisson Hotel Group: Early Leaders in Adopting Sustainable Practices

Radisson Hotel Group cares for people, communities and planet and airms to be Net Zero by 2050 based on the approved near-term Science Based Targets. With unique solutions such as 100% carbon neutral Radisson Meetings, the Group makes sustainable hotel stays easy. To faciliate sustainable travel choices, all Radisson Hotel Group hotels are becoming verified on Hotel Sustainability Basics. Dozens of individual properties have won green awards in recent years, and EcoVadis honored Radisson Hotel Group with the Silver award for sustainable supply chain paractices across its brands.



We continue to our Net Zero transition while delivering a unique sustainable lodging experience in our hotels worldwide with a combination of Hotel Sustainability Basics, recognized eco-labels and unique value propositions such as 100% carbon neutral Radisson Meetings, said Gianni Di Fede, Senior Vice President Revenue Management, RevGen Analytics and Distribution at Radisson Hotel Group. HRS Green Stay solution makes it easier for our properties to convey their green attributes to corporate procurement audiences. Using this technology simplifies RFP-related administrative processes with HRS corporate clients, which supports our hotels at a time when corporate transient and meeting volume ramps up in 2023.

Radisson Hotel Group has always been a leader when it comes to adopting technologies that enhance services to all their guests. Weve collaborated with Radisson Hotel Group on several automation-focused projects in recent years, so were pleased to move forward with GSI, said HRS CEO Tobias Ragge. Resource-challenged hotels gain from precisely this type of automation as they seek to compete for corporate room nights even as they tightly manage their sales-related expenses.

Corporate hotel program leaders, hotel executives and media can learn more about the impact of sustainability-related trends in lodging procurement via this recent report from HRS.

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About Radisson Hotel Group

Radisson Hotel Group is a leading international hotel group, operating in EMEA and APAC with over 1,100 hotels in operation and under development in over 95 countries. The Radisson family of brands includes Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Radisson Individuals, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson, Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, and prizeotel brought together under one commercial umbrella brand Radisson Hotels and the loyalty program Radisson Rewards. The Groups overarching brand promise is Every Moment Matters delivered with its signature Yes I Can! service.

Radisson Hotel Group cares for people, communities and planet and aims to be Net Zero by 2050 based on its approved near-term Science Based Targets. With unique solutions such as 100% carbon neutral Radisson Meetings, the Group makes sustainable hotel stays easy. To facilitate sustainable travel choices, all Radisson Hotel Group properties are becoming verified on Hotel Sustainability Basics.

For more information, visit our corporate website or connect with Radisson Hotels on

LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

About HRS

HRS is reinventing how businesses and governments work, stay and pay in todays evolving global marketplace. Our technology brings together hotel procurement, booking, payment and reconciliation data to drive newfound transparency and savings for program management while making everyday business travel better for employees. HRS unique platform approach to corporate lodging elevates hotel automation to new heights, while the companys award-winning Green Stay Initiative technology helps companies achieve their climate targets. Find out more about why one-third of the Fortune 500 work with us today at www.hrs.com/enterprise and follow HRS on LinkedIn.

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Union City, Tenn., May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (Union City, Tennessee, May 3, 2023) Discovery Park of America announced new major gifts today to help fund a $1 million permanent exhibit, Duck, Duck, Goose: Waterfowl of the Mississippi Flyway. It will open for the public on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023, at the 100,000-square-foot museum and 50-acre heritage park in Union City, Tennessee.

The family of William A. (Bill) Homra has made a significant gift for the exhibit in memory of Homra, a businessman who had a passion for the sport of duck hunting.

Homra was born and made his home in Fulton, Kentucky. His successful business ventures included Fultons Leader Sporting Goods, The Sportster, Capones Restaurant, Bucks Party Mart and the Hollywood Showcase Theater. An avid hunter and fisherman, Homra began his career selling fishing gear from the back of his van to small grocery stores from Hickman, Kentucky to Reelfoot Lake. Homra was a charter member of the Fulton and South Fulton chapter of Ducks Unlimited.

The Homra family joins Ducks Unlimited, the worlds leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation, as a premier sponsor of the exhibit, which was designed and built by Louisville, Kentucky firm Solid Light. Under the leadership of George Dunklin, Ducks Unlimited past president, the exhibit will include the Ducks Unlimited Conservation Theater in memory of William A. (Bill) Homra and his late son, Allen Homra.

Allen was one of my closest friends, Dunklin said, and I believe he and his father having such a prominent role in the creation of this exhibit on conservation and waterfowl is a tribute and legacy in which they would take great pride.

Allen Homra moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas on a temporary assignment with Edward Jones in 1988, shortly after graduating from the University of Mississippi. He made the area his home for the remainder of his life. Homra built one of the country's Top 10 Edward Jones financial consulting practices. He was a passionate duck hunter and, in addition to supporting numerous nonprofit and faith-based organizations in his community, was a Ducks Unlimited sponsor for 25 years.

Other significant contributions to the exhibit have been made by The George H. Dunklin Jr. Family Foundation, the Deupree Family Foundation, Commercial Bank and Trust Company, Ann and Steve Reynolds, Marisa and Collin Cahill, Dr. Amy and Doug Cahill, Sam Hamra, Todd Endl, Doug Leech, Lisa and Kent Hutchins and Janet and Mike Gossum.

Partners in the exhibit also include the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Five Oaks Lodge, Final Flight Outfitters Inc., First Choice Farm and Lawn, Parkers Outfitting, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Robert E. and Jenny D. Kirkland Foundation. For a complete listing of all donors, visit DiscoveryParkofAmerica.com/duck.

At a recent update with exhibit stakeholders, including associates from Discovery Park and Ducks Unlimited, the designers and exhibit production team at Solid Light presented some of the early exhibit details. The general theme is an exploration of the intersection of waterfowl hunting and conservation and the importance of the Mississippi Flyway. Featured in the exhibit will be:

Research provided by the Cohen Wildlife Research Lab, leading conservationists and researchers in waterfowl migration, illustrating migration patterns and other facts about waterfowl

Interactive touch stations that bring cutting-edge data to life in a fun way

Immersive experiences that give visitors an opportunity to discover waterfowl biology and habitats, along with the sights and sounds of the various types of ducks and geese

The Ducks Unlimited Conservation Experience in memory of William A. (Bill) Homra and Allen Homra, an immersive, scenic world where the latest technology brings to life the stories of the people of Ducks Unlimited and the conservation values for which they are known

An exploration of the art of waterfowl hunting featuring duck and goose calls and decoys that are as much works of art as they are tools

A look at hunting gear used in the sport and its evolution through the years

A recreation of Theodore Roosevelts Maltese Cross Cabin telling the story of the conservation president and his enduring impact on the sport of hunting

A recreation of a Reelfoot Lake-style duck blind on the museums North Lake, providing a one-of-a-kind experience for visitors, especially those unfamiliar with hunting

One stakeholder who participated in the presentation was Kelley Powers, one of the founders and owners of Final Flight Outfitters Inc., a mail-order catalog company, e-commerce site and waterfowl retail store in Union City, Tennessee, and a partner in the exhibit.

Im very impressed with the work Solid Light has done and how they are presenting the information in a fun, interactive way, Powers said. Im sure many will leave with a new appreciation for waterfowl hunting and the work being done in the field of conservation. Im especially grateful this will be in my hometown to add to the overall experience of our visitors from around the world.

Visit DiscoveryParkofAmerica.com/duck to learn more about the exhibit. To partner with Discovery Park on this exhibit or for more information, email Mary Nita Bondurant at mbondurant@discoveryparkofamerica.com or call 731-676-3556.

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About Discovery Park of America

The mission of Discovery Park of America, a premier world-class museum and heritage park located in Union City, Tennessee, is to inspire children and adults to see beyond. Included is a 100,000-square-foot museum featuring 9 interactive exhibit galleries with additional space for temporary exhibits from around the world and a 50-acre heritage park. Discovery Park of America is a 501(c)(3) public charity funded by generous individuals, corporations and foundations including its principal funder, the Robert E. and Jenny D. Kirkland Foundation. For more information, visit DiscoveryParkofAmerica.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

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Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cross Keys Capital, a leading independent investment banking firm providing M&A advisory services to physician group practices and healthcare services companies, is pleased to announce it acted as the lead financial advisor to Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA") and its affiliated entities, headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, in its strategic relationship with The US Oncology Network.

RCCA is one of the largest independent oncology practices in the United States with 94 physicians, 59 advanced practice providers, and 22 locations across New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, and the Washington, D.C. area. RCCA operates community-based oncology practices throughout its geographies as well as co-manages the John Theurer Cancer Center, an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center located in Hackensack, New Jersey.

Throughout the entire transaction process Cross Keys Capital provided the RCCA board and broader partnership with assistance and advice every step of the way. This advice was invaluable to RCCA and Cross Keys Capital ensured the transaction was completed with the best outcome possible for all shareholders, said Denis Fitzgerald, M.D., Board Chairman, RCCA. We would recommend Cross Keys Capital to any medical organization contemplating a partnership or sale without hesitation.

Reflecting on the development of the deal between RCCA and The US Oncology Network, Terrill Jordan, CEO of RCCA stated, "Cross Keys Capital was of great assistance in guiding us through this entire process. Cross Keys Capitals extensive knowledge and committed approach throughout the entire process was instrumental in achieving a very successful outcome that met all of our transaction objectives.

Cross Keys Capital is currently working with multiple other medical and radiation oncology groups nationally to help them explore their strategic options. Cross Keys Capital and The Bloom Organization represented Regional Cancer Care Associates in its strategic relationship with The US Oncology Network. Cross Keys Capitals deal team consisted of Bill Britton, Co-Founder and Managing Director, and Roy Barnes, Associate. When asked about the transaction, Bill Britton said, We are very pleased to have been able to assist RCCA in this journey. For over two years we have worked hand in hand with RCCAs executive leadership and physicians to help them find the right partner. The US Oncology Network is a partner that shares RCCAs vision and values and will provide the resources and support necessary to further enhance and grow RCCA in the communities that it serves.

About Cross Keys Capital

Cross Keys Capital is a leading middle-market investment bank providing a full range of investment banking services including sell-side and buy-side M&A, recapitalizations, and restructurings to businesses in the healthcare services, niche manufacturing, aerospace/defense, business services, specialty contracting, consumer products, distribution, and logistics sectors.

Cross Keys Capital is nationally recognized for its healthcare advisory practice that provides merger and acquisition advisory services to independent physician practices, healthcare services companies, and healthcare technology companies. The firms healthcare practice is a leader nationally in representing private physician group practices including Allergy, Anesthesiology, Cardiology, Dental, Dermatology, ENT, Home Health, Infusion, Internal Medicine, OBGYN, Oncology, Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, Pediatrics, Physical Therapy, Plastic Surgery, Primary Care, Radiology, Retina, Rheumatology, Urgent Care, Urology, and Veterinary, as well as a variety of other healthcare services providers. The firms extensive experience and track record advising physician practices are unrivaled by any other middle-market investment banking firm in the nation  Cross Keys Capital has completed over 200 transactions. For more information on Cross Keys Capitals perspectives on Healthcare M&A and the sale of physician practices, please visit our website at www.ckcap.com or contact Bill Britton, Managing Director, at 954-410-1936.
NEW YORK, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IndexBox, a renowned market research firm, has published a new comprehensive report on the global water filter market titled "World Machinery for Filtering or Purifying Water Market: Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends, and Insights." The report is available on the IndexBox website and can be accessed through this link: https://www.indexbox.io/



The latest research offers trial access to market data on the IndexBox platform, providing valuable insights into the global water filter market, including market forecasts up to 2030, key growth drivers, challenges, and factors affecting demand.

According to the report, the global water filter market is anticipated to witness significant growth through 2030, driven by factors such as increasing water pollution, rapid urbanization, and growing concerns over waterborne diseases. However, challenges such as high installation and maintenance costs, along with stringent regulations in certain regions, could hinder the market growth to some extent.

The report highlights major consuming industries, including municipal water treatment plants, food and beverage industries, pharmaceuticals, and power generation, which play a crucial role in driving demand for water filter systems. These industries require water filters to meet specific quality standards, ensuring safe and efficient operations.

The global water filter market can be segmented based on technology, product type, end-user, and region.

Technology:

Reverse Osmosis (RO) Ultrafiltration (UF) Activated Carbon Ion Exchange Others (UV, Ozonation, etc.)



Product Type:

Under Sink Filters Faucet-mounted Filters Countertop Filters Whole House Filters Pitcher Filters Others (Shower Filters, Portable Filters, etc.)

End-User:

The end-user segment can be broadly classified into residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal sectors. The residential sector dominates the market due to the increasing need for safe and clean drinking water in households. The commercial sector includes hotels, restaurants, offices, and other establishments requiring filtered water for daily operations. The industrial sector encompasses industries such as food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and power generation, where water filtration plays a crucial role in meeting strict water quality requirements. The municipal segment consists of water treatment plants that utilize water filters for large-scale purification before distribution to consumers.

Region:

The global water filter market can be analyzed across five key regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa.

North America - The United States and Canada are major markets in this region due to increased health awareness, stringent water quality regulations, and a growing preference for eco-friendly solutions. Europe - Western European countries such as Germany, France, and the United Kingdom contribute significantly to the market, driven by high water quality standards, environmental concerns, and government initiatives. Asia-Pacific - This region is expected to witness the fastest growth in the water filter market, with countries like China , India, and Japan leading the way. Factors such as rapid urbanization, water scarcity, and increasing disposable income contribute to this growth. Latin America - Countries like Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina are emerging markets in this region, with growth driven by increased awareness about water quality and an expanding middle class. Middle East and Africa - The demand for water filters in this region is primarily driven by water scarcity issues and the need for water treatment solutions in countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates , and South Africa.



The largest manufacturers in the global water filter market:

The 3M Company (United States) - A global technology company that offers a wide array of water filtration systems for residential, commercial, and industrial applications. A.O. Smith Corporation (United States) - A leading provider of water heaters and water treatment products, including reverse osmosis, whole house, and under-sink water filtration systems. Culligan International Company (United States) - A well-known brand in the water treatment industry, offering solutions such as whole house filters, under-sink filters, and water softeners. Pentair plc (United Kingdom) - A global water technology company that provides water treatment solutions, including filtration systems, reverse osmosis membranes, and ultraviolet disinfection systems. Evoqua Water Technologies (United States) - A leading provider of water and wastewater treatment solutions, offering a wide range of filtration products for various applications, including industrial, municipal, and residential markets. GE Appliances, a Haier company (United States) - Offers a range of water filtration products, including whole house filters, under-sink filters, and refrigerator filters. Brita GmbH (Germany) - A leading manufacturer of water filtration products, best known for its pitcher filters, faucet-mounted filters, and dispensers. Katadyn Group (Switzerland) - A global provider of water treatment systems, including portable water filters, desalination systems, and water purification tablets for outdoor enthusiasts, travelers, and military personnel. Panasonic Corporation (Japan) - A global electronics company that offers a range of water filtration products, including countertop water purifiers, faucet-mounted filters, and shower filters. LG Electronics (South Korea) - A leading global electronics company that provides water filtration products such as refrigerator filters and water purifiers for residential use.

For more information please visit https://www.indexbox.io/store/world-machinery-for-filtering-or-purifying-water-market-analysis-forecast-size-trends-and-insights/




VANCOUVER, May 3, 2023 - Tarachi Gold Corp. (CSE: TRG) (OTCQB: TRGGF) (Frankfurt: 4RZ) ("Tarachi" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated January 26, 2023, it has signed a definitive agreement dated May 2, 2023 (the "Agreement") with Compania Minera de Atocha S.A. de C.V. ("Atocha") for the sale of the Company's Magistral Project (the "Magistral Project") in Mexico (the "Transaction").

Pursuant to the Agreement, Tarachi expects to receive cash payments totaling US$5,700,000 (approximately C$7.6 million) from Atocha as follows:

US$2,550,000 will be paid directly from Atocha to Tarachi on or before closing.

US$500,000 of the US$1,000,000 currently held in a Canadian escrow account will be released to Tarachi on or before closing.

The remaining US$500,000 in the escrow account will be released to Tarachi when Atocha concludes negotiations with the Ejido Magistral, or after 12 months, whichever occurs first.

US$500,000 will be paid to Tarachi six months from closing, less any contingency costs, if any, that arise after closing that were incurred by Tarachi but not identified during due diligence.

US$500,000 will be paid to Tarachi when 50% of the tailings located on the Magistral Project (the "Magistral Tailings") have been mined, sold and/or processed or after the first complete calendar year of operation at the Magistral Project, whichever occurs first.

US$500,000 will be paid to Tarachi when 100% of the Magistral Tailings have been mined, sold and/or processed or after the second complete calendar year of operation at the Magistral Project, whichever occurs first.

The amount of value-added tax currently owing as that tax benefit is realized by Atocha during operations and product sales from the Magistral Project will be paid to Tarachi, estimated to total approximately US$650,000. Tarachi anticipates the tax benefit will be realized by Atocha and paid to Tarachi within the first year of commercial operations at the Magistral Project.

The schedule of payments, but not the total sum, differs slightly from the letter agreement announced by Tarachi on January 26, 2023.

In connection with the execution of the Agreement, Tarachi has also agreed with Manto Resources S.A. de C.V. ("Manto") to settle all outstanding obligations owed to Manto relating to the Magistral Project in exchange for 15% of all payments Tarachi receives from Atocha.

The Company and Atocha expect to close the transaction on or before May 17th, 2023.

The Company would also like to announce that Todd Roth has stepped down from his role as VP Operations to pursue other opportunities. The Company would like to thank Mr.Roth for his efforts in helping Tarachi develop the Magistral project over the past year.

About Tarachi Gold Corp.

Tarachi is a Canadian-listed junior gold exploration company focused on exploring and developing projects in Mexico.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "will", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "hope", "target", "plan", "forecast", "may", "would", "could", "schedule", "potential" and similar words or expressions, identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information relate to, among other things: completion of the Transaction; receipt by Tarachi of all amounts owed to it pursuant to the Agreement; the actual amount of tax benefits payable to Tarachi; and payment by Tarachi to Manto of amounts owed to Manto.

Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information relating to any future mineral production, liquidity, timing of completion of reports and studies, enhanced value and capital markets profile of Tarachi, future growth potential for Tarachi and its business, and future exploration plans are based on management's reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the price of silver, gold and other metals; no escalation in the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic; costs of exploration and development; the estimated costs of development of exploration projects; Tarachi's ability to operate in a safe and effective manner and its ability to obtain financing on reasonable terms.

These statements reflect Tarachi's respective current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of other assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information and Tarachi has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: the Company's dependence on one mineral project; precious metals price volatility; risks associated with the conduct of the Company's mining activities in Mexico; regulatory, consent or permitting delays; risks relating to reliance on the Company's management team and outside contractors; risks regarding mineral resources and reserves; the Company's inability to obtain insurance to cover all risks, on a commercially reasonable basis or at all; currency fluctuations; risks regarding the failure to generate sufficient cash flow from operations; risks relating to project financing and equity issuances; risks and unknowns inherent in all mining projects, including the inaccuracy of reserves and resources, metallurgical recoveries and capital and operating costs of such projects; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties; laws and regulations governing the environment, health and safety; the ability of the communities in which the Company operates to manage and cope with the implications of COVID-19; the economic and financial implications of COVID-19 to the Company; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; employee relations, labour unrest or unavailability; the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine; the Company's interactions with surrounding communities and artisanal miners; the Company's ability to successfully integrate acquired assets; the speculative nature of exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities or grades of reserves; stock market volatility; conflicts of interest among certain directors and officers; lack of liquidity for shareholders of the Company; litigation risk; and the factors identified under the caption "Risk Factors" in Tarachi's management discussion and analysis and other public disclosure documents. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Although Tarachi has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. Tarachi does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or forward-looking information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.

SOURCE Tarachi Gold Corp.
CALGARY, May 3, 2023 - CVW CleanTech Inc. (the "Company" or "CVW CleanTech") (TSXV: CVW) today announced the appointment of Joshua Grant as Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary effective May 22, 2023. Mr. Grant succeeds Ingrid Meger who has notified the Company of her intention to pursue other opportunities. Ms. Meger will remain with the Company until mid-May 2023.

"We are very pleased to welcome Josh to CVW CleanTech. He is a well-rounded and experienced professional with extensive finance and accounting experience, and I am confident that his expertise will be an asset to the team," said Akshay Dubey, CEO of CVW CleanTech.

Joshua Grant has over 14 years of experience across the manufacturing, distribution and natural resource sectors. Mr. Grant joins CVW CleanTech from Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. where he was the finance leader responsible for banking and treasury management, external financial reporting and oversight of the controllership functions. Mr. Grant has also worked at the Director and Controllership levels for a multitude of organizations including Pathways to Education Canada, Multimatic and DoALL Canada, Inc. Mr. Grant started his career with Deloitte as an accounting professional and is a Chartered Professional Accountant in Canada.

"Ms. Meger has been an important part of the leadership team at CVW CleanTech since 2021 and was a key contributor as the Company embarked on its transformation from Titanium Corporation. On behalf of the Company and our Board, we thank her for her dedication and efforts, and wish her well on her future endeavours," added Mr. Dubey.

The Board of Directors of the Company has approved a grant of 300,000 stock options to Mr. Grant. The options will vest after a minimum of 18 months and after attaining certain performance and market-based conditions. The options will have a term of 5 years to expiry and will have an exercise price equal to the closing price of the Company's common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange at the end of the second clear trading following the announcement of the Company's results for the three month period ended March 31, 2023 (or such later dated as may be required by the Company's policies or applicable securities laws).

About CVW CleanTech Inc.

CVW CleanTech is a clean technology innovator that has focused on providing solutions to the mining sector of Canada's oil sands industry. The Company's CVW technology provides sustainable solutions to reduce the environmental footprint of the oilsands industry.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE CVW CleanTech Inc.
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VANCOUVER, May 3, 2023 - Nevada King Gold Corp. (TSXV: NKG) ("Nevada King" or the "Company") is pleased to announce an increase to its previously announced $5-million non-brokered private placement financing (the "Non-Brokered Private Placement") initially announced on May 1, 2023.

Highlights:

Nevada King has increased the Non-Brokered Private Placement primarily due to significant demand from existing shareholders and intends to raise gross proceeds of $10-million (previously expected to be $5-million) through the issuance of 22,222,222 common shares (the "Common Shares") of the Company priced at $0.45 per Common Share.





There are no changes to the Company's agreement with Canaccord Genuity Corp. on behalf of a syndicate of agents (collectively, the "Agents") in connection with a brokered financing of up to 11,111,111 Common Shares at a price of $0.45 per Common Share to raise additional gross proceeds of up to $5-million (the "LIFE Offering" and together with the Non-Brokered Private Placement, the "Offering").





Company Founder & Chief Executive Officer Collin Kettell is subscribing for $2,000,000 of the Non-Brokered Private Placement. The majority of the $10-Million is being taken up by existing shareholders of the Company.





Upon completion of the Offering, and assuming the completion of the LIFE Offering for $5,000,000, Nevada King will have working capital in excess of $20-million to support advancement and drilling at the Atlanta Gold Mine Project, Nevada.

Collin Kettell, CEO of Nevada King, stated: "As Nevada's third largest mineral claim holder and one of Nevada's most active explorers, Nevada King is built to be big in every way. I am excited to announce a fully allocated increase to the non-brokered portion of the Offering to continue to support our high-grade discovery at the Atlanta Gold Mine Project. We have a dedicated shareholder base that is subscribing for the majority of the offering. This has allowed us to complete an at-market financing without a warrant, despite difficult market conditions. Nevada King is now positioned for an aggressive and fully funded 2023 as we unlock the discovery potential of Atlanta."

The net proceeds of the Offering are intended to be used to advance Nevada King's development and exploration stage assets and for other general corporate purposes.

Closing of the Non-Brokered Private Placement is expected on or about May 18, 2023. Closing of the LIFE Offering is anticipated to occur on or about the week of May 8, 2023, or such other date as the Agents and the Company may agree upon. The issuance of the Common Shares under the Offering and the payment of the Agents' commission on the LIFE Offering portion remain subject to customary conditions, including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals, inclusive of the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V").

The Common Shares to be issued under the LIFE Offering are expected to be offered by way of the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption under Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions ("NI 45-106") to purchasers in all the provinces of Canada, except Quebec. The Common Shares to be issued under the Non-Brokered Private Placement are expected to be offered by way of applicable prospectus exemptions in accordance with NI 45-106 to "accredited investors". The Common Shares offered under the LIFE Offering will not be subject to resale restrictions pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws or the policies of the TSX-V. The Common Shares issued pursuant to the Non-Brokered Private Placement will be subject to the statutory hold period of four months from the date of issuance in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws.

The Agents will receive an aggregate cash fee equal to 5.0% of the gross proceeds of the LIFE Offering.

There is an amended and restated offering document related to the LIFE Offering and taking into account the increased size of the Non-Brokered Private Placement that can be accessed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at https://nevadaking.ca. Prospective investors should read this offering document before making an investment decision.

The securities offered have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy of any securities in the United States. The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to available exemptions therefrom.

Related Party Participation in the Offering

Certain insiders of the Company, including Collin Kettell (CEO and Director), expect to participate in the Non-Brokered Private Placement. The participation by insiders in the Offering constitutes a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is relying on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as neither the fair market value of the Common Shares purchased by insiders, nor the consideration for the Common Shares paid by such insiders, will exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization. The Company expects that the closings of the Offering will occur within 21 days of this announcement and that it will not file a material change report in respect of the related party transaction at least 21 days before the closings. The Company deems this circumstance reasonable in order to complete the Offering in an expeditious manner. The Offering has been unanimously approved by the Company's board of directors. Further information regarding the interest in the Offering of every related party and the effect that the Offering will have on their percentage of securities of the Company will be provided once finalized.

About Nevada King Gold Corp.

Nevada King is the third largest mineral claim holder in the State of Nevada, behind Nevada Gold Mines (Barrick/Newmont) and Kinross Gold. Starting in 2016 the Company has staked large project areas hosting significant historical exploration work along the Battle Mountain trend located close to current or former producing gold mines. These project areas were initially targeted based on their potential for hosting multi-million ounce gold deposits and were subsequently staked following a detailed geological evaluation. District-scale projects in Nevada King's portfolio include (1) the 100% owned Atlanta Mine, located 100km southeast of Ely, (2) the Lewis and Horse Mountain-Mill Creek projects, both located between Nevada Gold Mines' large Phoenix and Pipeline mines, and (3) the Iron Point project, located 35km east of Winnemucca, Nevada. The Company is well funded with cash of approximately $7.25 million as of April 2023.

The Atlanta Mine is a historical gold-silver producer with a National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") compliant pit-constrained resource of 460,000 oz Au in the measured and indicated category (11.0M tonnes at 1.3 g/t) plus an inferred resource of 142,000 oz Au (5.3M tonnes at 0.83 g/t). See the NI 43-101 Technical Report on Resources titled "Atlanta Property, Lincoln County, NV" with an effective date of October 6, 2020, and a report date of December 22, 2020, as prepared by Gustavson Associates and filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Calvin R. Herron, P.Geo., who is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

NI 43-101 Mineral Resources at the Atlanta Mine

Resource Category Tonnes (000's) Au Grade (ppm) Contained Au Oz (000's) Ag Grade (ppm) Contained Ag Oz (000's) Measured 4,130 1.51 200 14.0 1,860 Indicated 6,910 1.17 260 10.6 2,360 Measured+Indicated 11,000 1.30 460 11.9 4,220 Inferred 5,310 0.83 142 7.3 1,240

Please see the Company's website at www.nevadaking.ca.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information

This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or" should" occur or be achieved. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation, statements relating the closing of the Offering, TSX-V approval of the Offering, the use of proceeds with respect to the Offering, and the results of the mineral resource estimate on the project are forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by Nevada King, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation, the ability to complete proposed exploration work given the global COVID-19 pandemic, the results of exploration, continued availability of capital, and changes in general economic, market and business conditions. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these items. Nevada King does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Nevada King Gold Corp.
Vancouver, May 3, 2023 - Avanti Gold Corp. (CSE: AGC) (FSE: X37) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Colin Porter as CEO effective as of May 1, 2023.

Colin Porter

Dr. Colin Porter is a geologist with over 25 years' experience in exploration, project management and applied structural geology across Africa. Dr. Porter's expertise spans a wide range of gold mineralization systems including Archaean, Proterozoic and Pan-African orogenic deposits and districts of Africa. Previous roles include Structural Geologist for Anglogold Ashanti, Africa Region with extensive experience in the Birimian craton of West Africa, which included planning and implementation of deposit scale and brownfields exploration at several of Africa's largest mines including (Obuasi, Geita, Sadiola, Morila, Siguiri). Dr. Porter is also well experienced in target generation, design and implementation of exploration programmes at numerous African gold projects including Banfora, (Burkina Fas, Salman/Anwia (Ghana) and Konongo, Ghana. Dr. Porter was the head of exploration and managed all exploration activities at the Zani-Kodo gold project in NE DR Congo, from instigation to definition of a 3Moz resource.

Dr. Porter holds a BSc (Hons) in geology from Queen's University Belfast, a PhD in geology from University of Southampton and is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

Dr. Porter replaces Tony Louie, the Company's former Interim CEO. Mr. Louie will continue to serve as a member of the Company's board of directors. The Company thanks Mr. Louie for his past service as the Company's Interim CEO and ongoing commitment to the Company's success.

About Avanti Gold Corporation

Avanti Gold Corp. is a mineral exploration company working on a Tier-1 gold opportunity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ("DRC"), located in the Fizi territory of South Kivu province, in the DRC. The Misisi Gold Project (or the "Project") has a contained Inferred Mineral Resource of 3 million ounces of gold as reported in the Company's National Instrument 43-101 technical report on the Misisi Gold Project (the "Technical Report").

The Project is located 250 kilometres south of Bukavu, the provincial capital of the South Kivu Province, in the DRC. The Project is comprised of three contiguous 30-year mining leases, valid until 2045, covering 133 square kilometres of prospective exploration ground along the 55-kilometre-long Kibara Gold Belt. The Kibara Belt is a well-known metallogenic province and hosts a number of other deposits including the Twangiza (5.1 Moz oz Au, source: S&P Global) and Namoya (1.9 Moz, source: S&P Global) gold mines. The Project is host to the Akyanga deposit, which is the subject to Inferred Resource of 44.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.16 grams per tonne gold containing 3.0 million ounces.

Qualified Person

Ephraim Masibhera, a "Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), has reviewed the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release and has approved the disclosure herein. Historical information contained in this news release cannot be relied upon as the Company's Qualified Person, as defined under NI 43-101 has not prepared nor verified the historical information.

This news release also includes references with respect to the Twangiza (5.1 Moz oz Au, source: S&P Global) and Namoya (1.9 Moz, source: S&P Global) gold mines, which are located near the Misisi Gold Project. The Company advises that, notwithstanding their proximity of location, discoveries of minerals on such properties, any promising results thereof are not necessarily indicative of the mineralization of, or located on the Misisi Gold Project, or the Company's ability to commercially exploit the minerals claims which comprise the property or to locate any commercially exploitable deposits therefrom.

For more information on the Misisi Gold Project, please refer to the Technical Report filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Email: info@avantigoldcorp.com

Office: +1 (604) 908-1679

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164640
Toronto, May 3, 2023 - Palladium One Mining Inc. (TSXV: PDM) (FSE: 7N11) (OTCQB: NKORF) ("Palladium One" or "PDM") and MetalCorp Limited (TSXV: MTC) ("MetalCorp" or "MTC") are pleased to announce the successful completion of their previously-announced statutory plan of arrangement under the provisions of the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (the "Arrangement"). Pursuant to the Arrangement, among other things, Palladium One acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of MetalCorp. The Arrangement became effective at 12:01 a.m. (Toronto time) on May 2, 2023 (the "Effective Time"), resulting in MetalCorp becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Palladium One.Under the terms of the Arrangement, each former MetalCorp shareholder ("MTC Shareholders") is entitled to receive, in exchange for each common share in the capital of MetalCorp (a "MTC Share") held, 0.30 of a common share in the capital of Palladium One (each whole share, a "PDM Share") (the "Exchange Ratio"). Further, under the Arrangement, all options to acquire MTC Shares outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time are exchanged for stock options to purchase PDM Shares at the Exchange Ratio."The deemed value of the MetalCorp acquisition is approximately $3.3 million paid in shares, and for that Palladium One assumes approximately $1.8 million of cash and for the remainder of the purchase price being approximately $1.5 million obtains optionality on both precious metal and critical mineral projects in Ontario, Canada. Importantly, Palladium One assumes a significant pool of assessment credits and therefore has no spending obligations for many years to come," commented Derrick Weyrauch, President and Chief Executive Officer of PDM.In order to receive the PDM Shares in exchange for their MTC Shares, registered MTC Shareholders are reminded that they must complete, sign and return the letter of transmittal to Computershare Investor Services Inc., in its capacity as depositary under the Arrangement, together with their certificate(s) or DRS statement(s) representing their MTC Shares, in accordance with the tender procedures described in MTC's management information circular dated March 22, 2023 (the "Circular") which is available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under MTC's issuer profile. Any MTC Shares held in the CDS system were automatically deposited under the Arrangement and the beneficial shareholders thereof will receive the PDM Shares at the Exchange Ratio in respect of such MTC Shares.If you have any questions or require more information with regard to the procedures for receiving the PDM Share consideration, please contact Computershare Investor Services Inc., by (i) telephone within North America at 1-800-564-6253 or (ii) email at corporateactions@computershare.com.Bennett Jones LLP is acting as Palladium One's legal advisor. Dickinson Wright LLP is acting as MTC's legal advisor.Palladium One also announces that its board of directors has granted:(i) 275,000 restricted share units ("RSUs") to certain employees, advisors and consultants of Palladium One, which vest in three years;(ii) 1,525,000 stock options to certain officers and directors of Palladium One, which are exercisable for five years at a price of $0.11 per PDM Share with 1/3vesting immediately and 1/3annually thereafter; and(iii) 550,000 stock options to certain employees, advisors and consultants of Palladium One, which are exercisable for five years at a price of $0.11 per PDM Share with 1/3vesting immediately and 1/3annually thereafter. Palladium One Mining Inc. (TSXV: PDM) is focused on discovering environmentally and socially conscious Metals for Green Transportation. A Canadian mineral exploration and development company, Palladium One is targeting district scale, platinum-group-element (PGE)-copper-nickel deposits in Canada and Finland. The Lantinen Koillismaa (LK) Project in north-central Finland, is a PGE-copper-nickel project that has existing NI43-101 Mineral Resources, while both the Tyko and Canalask high-grade nickel-copper projects are located in Ontario and the Yukon, Canada, respectively. Follow Palladium One on LinkedIn, Twitter, and at www.palladiumoneinc.com.Derrick Weyrauch, President & CEOEmail: info@palladiumoneinc.comTelephone:647-612-6466Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.This press release is not an offer or a solicitation of an offer of securities for sale in the United States of America. The common shares of Palladium One Mining Inc. have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration.

Information set forth in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address a company's expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release include, without limitation, statements with respect to: the expected synergies and benefits of the Transaction, the future price of nickel, copper, gold, and cobalt, the estimation of mineral resources, costs and timing of the development of projects and new deposits, success of exploration, currency fluctuations, requirements for additional capital, government regulation of mining operations, and environmental risks. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.



Such factors include, among others, risks associated with the results of regulatory approvals for the Arrangement, the integration of MetalCorp with Palladium One, the quality of the title of MetalCorp to its assets and the extent of any known, unknown or contingent liabilities of MetalCorp, the results of the exploration at Hemlo East or North Rock Copper, the accuracy of the mineral resource estimates at Hemlo East or North Rock Copper; project development; the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in palladium and other commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume; and tax consequences to Canadian and U.S. shareholders. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.
TORONTO, May 3, 2023 - The Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders (the "Meeting") of Aclara Resources Inc. ("Aclara" or the "Company") (TSX: ARA) was held today in Toronto, Ontario. Each of the matters voted upon at the Meeting is discussed in detail in the Company's management information circular dated April 3, 2023 (the "Circular"), which can be found under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

The total number of votes cast by shareholders of the Company in person and by proxy at the Meeting was 116,084,228 votes, representing 71.12%. Each of the matters put forward before shareholders for consideration and approval at the Meeting, as described in the Circular, was duly approved by the requisite number of votes. These matters included the election of directors, the appointment of the auditor and the approval of certain amendments to the Omnibus Long-Term Incentive Plan (the "LTIP"), the full text of which is set out in Appendix A of the Circular. The voting results are detailed below:

1. Election of Directors

Name of Nominee

Votes FOR

%

Votes WITHHELD

% Eduardo Hochschild

104,811,204

95.36

4,518,489

4.13

Ramon Barua

105,349,211

96.36

3,980,482

3.64

Paul Adams

109,249,590

99.93

80,103

0.07

Ignacio Bustamante

105,338,725

96.35

3,990,968

3.65

Catharine Farrow

109,302,025

99.97

27,668

0.03

Maria Recart

109,308,742

99.98

20,951

0.02

Sanjay Sarma

109,245,388

99.92

84,305

0.08

Nicolas Hochschild

105,271,591

96.29

4,058,102

3.71





2. Appointment of Auditor

Name of Auditor

Votes FOR

%

Votes WITHHELD

% EY Servicios Profesionales de Auditoria y Asesorias SpA

116,016,538

99.94

67,690

0.06



3. Approval of Amendments to the Omnibus Long-Term Incentive Plan

Approval of LTIP Amendments

Votes FOR

%

Votes AGAINST

%



102,105,423

93.39

7,224,270

6.61



The Company has filed a report of voting results on all resolutions voted on at the Meeting under its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

About Aclara

Aclara is a development-stage rare earth mineral resources company located in Chile. Aclara is initiating the development of its resources through a project called the Penco Module (the "Penco Module"), which covers a surface area of approximately 600 hectares and which has ionic clays that are rich in rare earth elements. Aclara is currently focused on the development and on the future construction and operation of the Penco Module, which will aim to produce a rare earth concentrate through a processing plant that will be fed by clays from nearby deposits. Aclara's unique extraction process offers several advantages such as: no blasting, crushing or milling required; no tailings dam; minimal water consumption due to a high level of water recirculation; amenable leaching with a fertilizer; and no radioactivity.

SOURCE Aclara Resources Inc.
Press Release

May 3, 2023 Zubiri to DOE, NGCP: Step Up and Solve Visayas Blackouts Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri is calling on the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to solve the recurring blackouts in Western Visayas, "The DOE and the NGCP must step up and answer for the massive blackouts hitting Western Visayas. These are no longer just an inconvenience. They are a major problem, affecting the economy and endangering the wellbeing of our people," said Zubiri. In late April, Western Visayas was hit by extensive blackouts, coinciding with the height of the summer season. The blackouts have also led to many smaller businesses cutting down their operating hours. In February, the region also suffered a power outage that lasted ten hours, caused by a snake intrusion in the Panay Diesel Power Plant 1, according to the NGCP. "The frequency of these blackouts is alarming, and it is on the DOE and the NGCP to get their act straight and find long-term solutions already. A few minutes of power interruption every once in a while is understandable, but frequent outages that last for hours and hours and cause loss of income is unforgivable. The DOE and the NGCP must answer to consumers. "If they find that we need to amend the EPIRA, then we are open to that. The law is over two decades old, and can definitely be improved to help the power sector serve consumers better, and to help prevent recurring region-wide blackouts like this," said Zubiri. "We have received the administration's suggested amendments to the EPIRA, and we are already studying these, and seeing how these amendments can be further refined to best respond to the problems that we are hearing about from the power sector and especially from consumers. "But the DOE and the NGCP must still come forward with a clear explanation behind the blackouts, and more importantly, outline a solution. We cannot let this be the norm. Our people deserve better than this kind of service."
Formula 1 might have to look at the regulations in order to make the sport more competitive amid Red Bull's current utter dominance.

That is the view of Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, as his counterparts at Ferrari and Aston Martin also agree that the gap to the frontrunners appears insurmountable for now.

That is despite the fact that Mercedes will unveil a new sidepod design at Imola for its unique but flawed basic car concept that debuted in 2022.

"We are talking so much about the upgrade but we are not going to put it down on the track and drive circles around Red Bull," Wolff said.

Similarly, while Frederic Vasseur says Ferrari is "on the right track" with its recent improvements, Italian insider Leo Turrini thinks "the glass is still half empty" at Maranello.

"I sincerely do not understand why Ferrari still cannot find a balance between people and finances," he said on Quotidiano.

"Vasseur is solving this problem, but it's not just about signing the right experts. The team also must be more courageous in changing the ideology in order to make better technical decisions."

Aston Martin boss Mike Krack, meanwhile, thinks nothing will change in the short term in terms of trying to beat the two Red Bulls to the highest spots on the podium.

"We have a team that is well ahead of everyone," he said. "Only third place remains.

"We have to be positive, but we also have to be patient."

Mercedes' Wolff is careful not to actually blame Red Bull for the problem, but he said even F1's newly tweaked sprint weekend format did not spice up the Azerbaijan GP.

"It's about asking ourselves why it wasn't entertaining," he said.

"We basically have two cars that are sailing off into the sunset on merit. So we either have to do a better job, all of us together, to catch them up, or we have to change the regulations.

"And I don't think we should be doing the second. We have to win on merit and that means being more clever."

Opinions are divided as to how exactly Red Bull is the smartest team at present, but many think the extraordinary effectiveness of the DRS rear wing is a factor.

"If you're stuck in traffic, that's it," said Wolff. "None of us have a DRS as powerful as Red Bull's."

And at present, no rival team has figured out exactly how the Red Bull DRS works.

"We have to find out because this is a clear competitive advantage," said Vasseur.

(GMM)
Andreas Seidl is not solely concerned about the transition of Formula 1's Hinwil-based team to full Audi control by 2026.

That is the insistence of Alessandro Alunni Bravi, who this year became 'team representative' of the Sauber-run outfit currently known as Alfa Romeo.

The 'team representative' label is because Alfa Romeo is currently without an actual team principal at the grands prix - with the similarly newly-appointed German Seidl operating as Group CEO and based at Hinwil.

At the same time, Alfa Romeo is notably struggling with its 2023 car.

"Something has gone horribly wrong" at Hinwil, according to the Finnish newspaper Ilta Sanomat, noting that former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas is also failing to shine so far this season.

So with Seidl, who was poached from McLaren, more focused on the buyout by Audi and transition to full works status by 2026, one interpretation is that the team has taken its eye off the ball this year.

"As I always said, his focus is not just on our future but he's working on a daily basis for this year and now," team representative Alunni Bravi insisted.

"So it's a work that is going on in parallel. We want to deliver strong results in the next three years because we build our future now. We cannot wait for 2026 as many are thinking. Andreas is focused on both," he added.

At the same time, Bravi says Sauber needs to be laying the groundwork for the future as Audi.

"Of course we have targets - we need to grow as a team," he said. "We needed to prepare our structure for when Audi will join in 2026 and we will become a works team.

"But we cannot wait for this time to make changes and to improve. Andreas is a very clever guy and he found a good organisation. We are just analysing where to improve and in what areas.

"Changes have already been put in place from the very beginning."

(GMM)
I did not take my music career seriously- Oheneba Kissi

Kofi Duah Showbiz News May - 02 - 2023 , 17:53

Despite his songs being loved by a lot of Ghanaians, veteran Highlife artiste Oheneba Kissi has admitted that he did not take his music career seriously at the initial stage.

In an interview with Graphic Showbiz, he said that possibly his lack of commitment to his music endeavors was a significant reason why he had not been able to get the necessary traction in the Ghanaian music sector.

Oheneba Kissi explained that he would have been more famous and probably made more money if he was releasing more albums like Daddy Lumba and the likes did because he had the means to do that.

The 65-year-old musician said it took Mark Okraku Mante who was then his producer to get him to shoot the video for ABC of Love, which pushed him into the limelight.

The Highlife musician, who released his first album Suzy in 1990 and followed it up with other albums making it a total of 13, said his songs were more popular than his name and his name was more popular than his image.

With all his many popular songs, Ohenena Kissi has no awards from any of the main awards schemes yet but he said he was not bothered at all so far as Ghanaians loved his music and he kept getting gigs that made him comfortable.

I have no awards yet from the popular awards scheme such as Vodafone Ghana Music Awards(VGMA), 3Music Awards, etc.

It was the University of Education- Winneba that honoured me for my contribution to Highlife music some time ago, he said.
Messy high-profile divorce exposes Robert Mugabe familys vast wealth

International News May - 03 - 2023 , 16:14

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabes daughters high-profile divorce has revealed that the late rulers family owned at least 21 commercial farms and vast tracts of land in the capital-Harare.

Mr Mugabes daughter Bona Ouma Mugabe filed for divorce against her husband of nine years - Mr Simbarashe Mutsahuni Chikore, in March Mr Chikore claimed that the property he listed was just a drop in the ocean compared to what Ms Mugabe owned.

Defendant (Mr Chikore) is not claiming even a third thereof, read Mr Chikores plea filed in response to his wifes application for divorce at the High Court.

Defendant contributed to acquiring the properties through his savings from his former jobs as a pilot and the farming venture.

He said he contributed to the wealth through earning and donations from his father-in-law for work, jobs and special assignments done on behalf of the late Mr Mugabe.

There is much input through direct and indirect contribution wherein defendant contributed to the assets, both movable and immovable, acquired during the subsistence of the marriage, Mr Chikore added.

The couple tied the knot on March 1, 2014 in a lavish ceremony that was attended by several African heads of State and government.

Their wedding was broadcast live by the countrys State broadcaster.

According to court papers, the couple who have three children have been living apart for more than nine months.

Ms Mugabe is demanding the custody of the children and is seeking maintenance of $2,700 monthly per child until they reach the age of 18.

She wanted the court to delay dealing with the property issues arguing that it would delay the granting of the divorce decree.

In his counter claim, Mr Chikore wants all properties acquired during the subsidence of their marriage or donated to them as a couple to be shared equally.

Mr Mugabe died in September 2019, two years after he was toppled in a military coup.

He ruled the southern African country with an iron fist for 37 years where he spearheaded a violent land reform programme with a one household one farm policy.

Three years ago, a list filed in court by his daughter while seeking to register her fathers estate claimed Mr Mugabe only left $10 million held in a local bank, four houses in Harare, 10 cars, a farm, his rural home and orchard.

A former minister in Mr Mugabes government Jonathan Moyo described the revelations about the wealth as staggering.
Amy Tetteh wins 2023 World Art Day Painting and Textiles challenge

Graphic Online Life May - 02 - 2023 , 19:09

Amy Tetteh, a multimedia artist has won the 2023 World Art Day Painting and Textiles challenge in Accra.

The challenge was organised by the Women's Arts Institute Africa (wAiA) in celebration of this year's world art day.

The event was held at the Airport residential area in Accra on April 29, 2023.

Amy Tetteh, a self-taught mixed media artist has over 10 years experience in the visual arts.

Her areas of specialty include illustrations for books, children's books, posters, comic and cartoon drawings, character design, album covers, custom design, and merchandise.

Announcing the award, Akwele Suma Glory, the President of wAi Africa said, the works met significant elements of painting and the winner delivered on the theme of the challenge, Symbiosis of feminine energy, the sun and water.

Presenting the award, Madam Franka-Maria, the founder of Antique Lemonade Concept Store said the artists came into the challenge with determination and creativity.

She explained that not everyone is an artist, and she is proud of Amy for using her gift.

Madam Franka-Maria said gifts are meant to be shared and help people.

She congratulated Amy Tetteh for winning and producing such a masterpiece and urged her to continue practicing her gift.

In her acceptance interview, Amy said she came into the competition wanting to win.

She explained that the topic of the challenge spoke to her themes of works, and she wanted to put herself to the test.

As it was her first live painting, she was concerned about not completing the work, but quickly overcame that.

The judges of the competition were Madam Akwele Suma Glory President of wAi Africa, Joana Lekia Nelson, CEO of Craftsman Studio and Madam Yaa Asabea Ntiri Owusu, CEO of ASA-YA-NTI Clothing.

The judges assessed the winner of the challenge considering Interpretation of the theme, Purpose, Technique, Personal Expression, Creativity and Organization.

The first runner up was Barbara Butler, a painter and professional nurse.

Mabel Amoako the second runner up of the competition both are graduates of Ghanatta Collage of Arts and Designs.

The awards were presented by Mr. Robert Patrtick Andoh and Sylvia Aseidu, manager of Josie Cuppa Cappuccino respectively.



Other artists who took part in the competition were Emmanuella Addico, Ruth Adjanor, Samoah Pokua Sandra, Sena Ahadji, Mensah Naa Korkor Rebecca, Agboli Christiana, Eunice Lamptey, Dorothy Kyeraah and Ahadji Makafui.

The contestants were supported by younger artists namely Nana Yaa Ntiri Owusu and Akosua Ntiri Owusu.

The coordinator of the challenge, Yaganoma Baatuolkuu welcomed the contestants to the challenge and encouraged them to express their understanding of the challenge on canvas.

She explained that the challenge theme focuses on the feminine energy of the sun and water, which is a symbiotic relationship in which the sun's warmth and light provide the necessary nourishment for growth, while the water's cool and reflective energy provides the calm and nurturing environment to promote growth.
Christian Service University College Communication Department Head calls for increased press freedom

GraphicOnline Education May - 03 - 2023 , 08:35

As the world marks the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, Mr Asuamah Adade-Yeboah, the Head of the Communication Department at the Christian Service University College in Kumasi, has advocated for more press freedom.

Mr Adade-Yeboah urged media practitioners to hold those in power accountable by presenting facts and hard truths.

He further urged media practitioners "not to embellish information but to deal with the issues as they are in order to earn the trust of the people" in exercising their freedom of expression.

He also emphasized the importance of prioritizing functional or everyday English in communication to ensure effective understanding, adding that it is a powerful tool for development.

The theme for this year's World Press Freedom Day is "Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights."
Develop institutional framework for graduate research  Prof. Sam Afrane

Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor Education May - 03 - 2023 , 08:17

The President of the Christian Service University College (CSUC), a private university in the Ashanti Region, Prof. Sam K. Afrane, has called for collaboration among the ministries of Education, Environment, Science and Technology, Trade and Industry to develop an institutional framework for graduate research.

This is to help meet local needs for the benefit of the country.

He said there were too many research work wasting away on shelves at the academic institutions, and that could not be allowed to continue.

He therefore, suggested that government scholarships should be given to students researching projects of immense importance to the nation.

Speaking at the 46th Special Congregation of Postgraduate students of the CSUS in Kumasi, Prof Anane expressed the belief that there was the need to take a second look at the management of research projects in the country to enable the country to derive the full benefit from such research projects.

He appealed for support for universities and research institutions to monitor and design mechanisms for the utilisation of research findings and ongoing research works that were geared towards development.

He congratulated the graduates for their efforts and encouraged them to make the university proud by contributing effectively and positively to the development of the country.

Intellectual Property

The Immediate Past Director-General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ghana, Prof. Victor Agyemang, said the country must add values to its minerals in order to earn more from them.

He said a natural resource rich like Ghana earned very little for what she produced and expressed the belief that focusing on intellectual property was what was needed for national development.

Any country that places emphasis on postgraduate education ends up with citizens with a higher standard of living, the immediate past CSIR director-general added.

He asked the graduates to use the skills acquired from the studies to create jobs and venture into entrepreneurship to contribute their quota to national development.

Graduation Ceremony

In all, 206 students made up of 162 males and 44 females graduated from the various disciplines from the School of Postgraduate Studies of CSUC.

The ceremony was on the theme: Postgraduate education and national development .

The programmes offered at the postgraduate school include MA Christian Ministry with Management, MSc Accounting and Finance, MSc Monitoring and Evaluation, MSc Corporate Planning and Governance and Postgraduate Certificate in Theology.
60+ Foundation launches Age with a smile project for the aged

GraphicOnline May - 03 - 2023 , 16:02

A non-governmental organization (NGO) called the 60+ Foundation has launched a relief project aimed at providing healthcare benefits, financial assistance, accommodation, and other forms of support to persons aged 60 and above.

The project, which is named "Age with a Smile," is expected to bring hope to the elderly population as they approach retirement.

The President of the 60+ Foundation, Felix Osom Boafo, explained that the project was inspired by an encounter he had with an elderly man on the streets of East Legon.

He noted that the neglect of the aged in society is often attributed to superstitious beliefs that they are witches and wizards, which leaves them living in abject poverty.

The 60+ Foundation aims to address this issue by providing specialized care services, including health screening, home-based nursing, food hampers, clothing, and recreational facilities.

The project will first begin in the Adentan Municipality and subsequently be replicated in other parts of Ghana, with a facility that will contain a clinic, two pharmacies, a restaurant, a cinema, a grooming center, a physiotherapy center, a gym, counseling rooms, mentorship offices, a recreational area, and guest rooms.

These services will be provided to the elderly once every month upon identification.

The Municipal Chief Executive of the Adentan Municipal Assembly, Daniel Alexander Nii Noi Adumuah, commended the 60+ Foundation for the initiative and urged community members to support the project as the Adentan Municipality has an aging population.
Aisha Huang forged marriage certificate for permit  Witness

Justice Agbenorsi May - 03 - 2023 , 07:16

The 11th prosecution witness in the trial of Aisha Huang has testified that the accused forged documents to obtain a residential permit.

According to the witness, Superintendent Divine Ahumah Ocansey, an officer of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Huang forged her marriage certificates to acquire permits.

Ms Huang has been charged with undertaking a mining operation without a licence, facilitating the participation of persons engaged in a mining operation, the illegal employment of foreigners and entering Ghana while she had been prohibited from re-entry.

Evidence-in-Chief

Explaining further, Superintendent Ocansey told the Court that the accused, who is also known as En Huang, was admitted into the country on May 28, 2010, and was granted a 30 days visitor's visa.

The witness noted that Aisha travelled in and out of the country on visitor's visas until she obtained a dependent permit on November 25, 2010, as the wife of Mr Anthony Fabien, a Ghanaian.

The dependent permit, he said, restricted the accused from working in the country but was renewed on April 28, 2015, when she obtained an indefinite residence permit as the wife of Anthony Fabien.

The 11th witness added that En Huang conducted mining operations at Bepotenten where she engaged the services of Lu Qi Jun, Gao Jin Cheng, Habin Gao and Zhang Zhipeng to mine at the mining site where the four Chinese nationals were arrested by the Obuasi GIS District Command on May 5, 2017.

Untrue report

During investigations, the witness explained that Aisha told security officers that she was not mining but rather rendering mine support service to one Aunty Maggie at her concession at Bepotenten, adding: But this was found to be untrue.

Following the arrest of En Huang, the process leading to her acquisition of the indefinite residence permit was reviewed and it was found that most of the documents supporting her application like the Ghana passport biodata pages of Anthony Fabien and the marriage certificate of her alleged marriage to Anthony Fabien were forged.

The Passport Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Births and Death Registry, Accra, did not have any records on the accused person's husband, Anthony Fabien, he added.

Accused

En Huang has been accused of being deeply involved in illegal mining, commonly called galamsey, especially in the Ashanti Region.

She was deported from the country in 2018 after the state decided to discontinue her trial, in which she was accused of engaging in small-scale mining without a licence.

However, she was said to have sneaked back into the country to allegedly engage in the same activities.

The Attorney-General, then, decided to prosecute her for the alleged crimes before her deportation and new ones committed since her return to the country.

It is the case of the prosecution that Huang had an illegal mining concession at Bepotenten in the Amansie West District in the Ashanti Region and also operated a mining support services company.

She has denied the charges levelled against her and has since been remanded in police custody.
Central University refurbishes KATECO library

Benjamin Xornam Glover May - 03 - 2023 , 12:38

The Central University (CU) Library Directorate has refurbished the library of Kaneshie Senior High Technical School (KATECO) in the Greater Accra Region.

The renovation was a gesture of social service offered by the universitys library directorate as part of its 25th anniversary and the Library Week Celebration of the university.

The Librarian in charge of the CU Library Directorate, Francisca Yaba Asante, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of the 25th Library Week celebration of the Central University, said the refurbishment of the KATECO library was in line with the universitys objectives of impacting lives in society.

She explained that the directorate settled on KATECO library because the school was closer to where the Central University library started 25 years ago.

The importance of a school library cannot be overemphasised, and that is what motivated us to undertake this project as a directorate, she said and added that a library was a storehouse of knowledge, a vital and an indispensable aspect of every academic or scholarly institution.

Commendation

Mrs Asante commended the management of Central University for supporting the Library Directorate to refurbish the KATECO Library which, she said, had been adopted by the CU Library and entreated the staff and students who would be the users of the facility to take very good care of it and make maximum use of the resources.

The Headmaster of KATECO, Paul Agyiri Mensah, was grateful to CU for the intervention.

The 25th Library Week celebration of the CU Library Directorate was on the theme: 25 years of raising virtuous and transformational leaders, the role of CU Library.

Mrs Asante disclosed that the CU Library had grown from a single or one library on one campus 25 years ago to nine libraries on three campuses.

According to her, the library, as part of its growth, had been teaching Information Literacy Skills as part of the university-wide courses for level 100 students for close to five years.

This course, she explained, imbibed in students a lifelong skill that enabled them to do effective and efficient learning and research in their academic work at the Central University and beyond.

She said the CU Library in 2020 created a motivational corner in the CU libraries to serve as a Counselling Centre and a place for users of the facility to distress, a move which was yielding positive outcomes.

Knowledge bank

The Chairman of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries, Dr Mac-Anthony Cobblah, in a speech read on his behalf by the Librarian of the Accra Technical University, Dr Florence Dedzoe-Dzokoto Plocky, appealed to the management of Central University to make the library a facility of choice and the knowledge bank, and contribute to the raising of transformational leaders for the nation and the world.

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor of CU, Prof. John Ofosu-Anim, said libraries were the nerve centres of most academic institutions; thus it was important for the students to cultivate the habit of visiting the library to access information and build on the stock of knowledge acquired from the lecture halls.
Cyber Security, Association of Banks discuss accreditation regulations

Daily Graphic May - 03 - 2023 , 10:39

The Cyber Security Authority (CSA) has held discussions with the Ghana Association of Banks (GAB) on issues of licensing and accreditation regulations.

This followed the commencement of licensing of cyber security service providers and the accreditation of cyber security establishments and professionals on March 1, 2023.

They are, therefore, dialoging on the importance and benefits of regulations being implemented by the authority, especially for the banking sector.

Leading the discussions were the Director-General of the CSA, Dr Albert Antwi-Boasiako, and the Chief Executive Officer of the GAB, John Awuah.

Sensitisation

Dr Antwi-Boasiako said the meeting, which was primarily to initiate the development of the cyber security industry, needed the support of the association to sensitise its members to the ongoing licensing and accreditation regulatory exercise to safeguard critical information infrastructure and also protect gains made in the sector.

He said without the right regulatory environment, the banking industry, which was one of the most cyber-dependent sectors, could be crashed by criminals and other malicious actors at the click of a button.

Dr Antwi-Boasiako, therefore, said there was the need for understanding and collaboration among industry players to prepare properly for the regulatory regime.

According to him, the regulatory exercise would serve as a credibility launch pad for professionals who took up contracts in other countries, provide professional visibility and also serve as eligibility criteria for Industry Forum Membership, among other benefits.

He added that the banking industry, one of the largely compliant sectors, was highly prone to attacks due to the surge in online activities.

Dr Antwi-Boasiako said the regulatory interventions would foster information sharing within the industry and oblige the sector to ensure proper cyber security practices in their operations.

He also said that the country was well positioned to serve as a trailblazer for other countries on cyber security.

Information assets

The parties further acknowledged the significance of securing information assets in the financial industry that had been designated as the Critical Information Infrastructure sector under Section 35 of the Cyber security Act, 2020 (Act 1038) and Gazette Notice No.132, dated September 23, 2021.

It recognises the CSA as the lead public agency overseeing the development of cyber security in the country.

Mr Awuah expressed gratitude to the Director-General of the CSA for leading a positive change in the sector, and assured him of the support of the banking industry.

He said the regulatory process of the CSA was one way of creating proper entry barriers to safeguard the banking ecosystem, especially licensing and accreditation of cyber security establishments and cyber security professionals.

According to Mr Awuah, the exercise by the CSA was an important step to safeguard the digital infrastructure of the country, particularly the banking sector, and to ensure that cyber security services were provided by qualified and competent individuals and organisations.
Fida supports Justice Torkornoos nomination

Daily Graphic May - 03 - 2023 , 06:47

THE International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Ghana) has congratulated Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo on her nomination as the Chief Justice of the country.

According to FIDA, the leadership shown by Justice Torkornoo in presiding over judiciary reforms had been expansive.

The impact of the Business Environment Engineering Project(BEEP) is a classic example of your exemplary leadership.

Your penchant for reforms under this project and other progressive senior roles as the lead in the judiciary, having oversight of several reform projects will undoubtedly serve the judiciarys determination to make groundbreaking reforms and restore confidence and pride in the legal system FIDA said.

A statement signed on behalf of the President of FIDA, Lydia Lariba Bawa, said from the long list of achievements to which many have acknowledged, there is no doubt that another stellar performance is in the making that will carve an excellent path for the Judicial service.

FIDA -Ghana said it was pleased to note that certain legal precedents had already been set which were great examples of gender equitable jurisprudence in the country, saying the rise of females to the highest position of the Judiciary has also brought attention to the country in the scholarship on judicial politics in Africa FIDA added.

Affirmative Action Law

Ghana, it said, had been recognised in academic narratives as one of the countries in Africa with an increasing number of women appointees to the judiciary.

At the same time, it has been established that Rwanda and Ghana are the first two African countries to have elected women to the position of Chief Justice respectively.

However, it went further to state that governments needed to be held accountable under compelling legislation to ensure that these appointments were the norm.

While FIDA-Ghana is excited that Ghana is once again on the cusp of appointing a new female Chief Justice, we would like to reiterate the importance of the passage of an affirmative action law, which will ensure gender equity and equality in the appointment of women to decision-making positions.

Justice Torkornoo

On April 25, President Akufo-Addo, in a letter, informed the Council of State about his decision to nominate Justice Torkornoo, and impressed on the Council to expedite action on the nominee for onward submission to Parliament for approval, in conformity with Article 144 (1) of the 1992 Constitution.

When she gets the nod from Parliament, 60-year-old Justice Torkornoo will become the countrys third female Chief Justice, after Justices Georgina Theodora Wood and Sophia Akuffo.

A native of Winneba in the Central Region, Justice Torkornoo was born in Cape Coast on September 11,1962 and had her O Level at the Wesley Girls High School and A Level at the Achimota School.

She is an alumnus of the University of Ghana and graduated from the Ghana School of Law in June, 1986.

In 2001, she obtained a Post-graduate Diploma in International Law and Organisation from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), part of Erasmus University in the Netherlands and further graduated from the Golden Gate University, USA in 2011, with an LLM in Intellectual Property Law.

She also served as a volunteer at the FIDA Legal Aid Service and did an internship at Nabarro Nathanson in London.

She became a Justice of the High Court from May, 2004 to October 2012. She was appointed to the Court of Appeal from October 2012 to 2019 when she was elevated to the Supreme Court.
Jail Ato Essien "A-G tells court"

Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson May - 03 - 2023 , 04:57

The AttorneyGeneral (A-G) has filed a motion at the High Court in Accra seeking the imprisonment of the Founder of the defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien.

The motion filed yesterday and signed by a Chief State Attorney, Evelyn D. Keelson, followed the failure of Essien to meet the last Friday, April 28 deadline of paying GH20million to the state as part of a restitution agreed between him and the A-G and affirmed by the court.

Essien, who has been convicted for stealing and dissipating over GH90 million of liquidity support given to the Capital Bank by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), is under obligation to pay GH60million in three instalments to the state, with the deadline for the first instalment on April 28, 2023.

Custodial sentence

The convict risks going to prison if he defaults in paying the money in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

In the motion, the A-G contends that its checks at the Controller and Accountant General Department revealed that Essien failed to pay the money by the deadline.

That, in a response dated May 2, 2023, the Controller and Accountant General informed the applicant [A-G] that no such payment had been made by the respondent [Essien].

That, having failed to fulfil a condition imposed on him by this Honourable Court under Section 35 of the Courts Act, the outstanding amount under the agreement has become due and the respondent is liable to a custodial sentence by the court, the A-G averred.

Guilty

On December 13, last year, Essien pleaded guilty to 16 counts of stealing and money laundering and was accordingly convicted on his own plea by the court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour.

However, the convict avoided a non-custodial sentence after the court accepted an agreement between him and the prosecution for him (Essien) to pay the GH90 million as restitution

The agreement was pursuant to Section 35 of the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459), which allows accused persons standing trial for causing financial loss to the state to pay the money and possibly avoid a custodial sentence.

Based on the agreement, Essien has already paid GH30 million (out of the remaining GH90 million) to the state and will pay the remaining GH60 million in three instalments of GH20 million by the close of this year.

Consequence of default

The court ordered him to pay the first instalment on or before April 28, 2023, the second on or before August 31, 2023, and the last instalment on or before December 15, 2023.

In that event, the prosecution shall cause the immediate apprehension of the convict and produce him before the court as soon as practicable for a custodial sentence to be passed on him according to law, Justice Kyei Baffour ordered.

By virtue of pleading guilty, the court also barred Essien from being appointed as a director or holding any key management position in any bank or financial institution in line with the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930).

Pursuant to section 58(1) of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930), the 1st accused person is prohibited from being appointed or from accepting an appointment as director or key management person of a bank, specialised deposit-taking institution or financial holding company, Justice Kyei Baffour ordered.

Not guilty

The two others accused of conspiring with Essien to steal the money were acquitted and discharged after the court found them not guilty.

They are a former Managing Director of Capital Bank, Fitzgerald Odonkor, and Tettey Nettey, the Chief Executive Officer of MC Management, a company said to be controlled by Essien.

Justice Kyei Baffour held that the evidence on record showed that Odonkor and Nettey did not act in any way with the belief or intention that they were helping Essien to commit a crime.

Second and third accused persons are found not guilty of all the charges against them and are accordingly acquitted and discharged, the judge ruled.
Japan supports Accra Initiative with $500m

Donald Ato Dapatem May - 03 - 2023 , 10:30

The Japanese Prime Minister, Kishida Fumio, has committed $500 million to the Accra Initiative to help deal with the emerging insurgents of terrorists in the Sahel region and also secure peace and security in the coastal states in the Gulf of Guinea.

He said the money would be provided within the next three years, and added that there would be more support for the initiative.

The PM applauded President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his role in introducing the initiative and other efforts to secure peace and stability in the region.

Economic growth would not be attained without peace and stability, he said.

Mr Fumio announced this at a dinner held in his honour at the Jubilee House in Accra as part of his two-day official visit to the country.

It is the first visit by a Japanese Prime Minister in the country in 17 years.

The initiative is the pooling of efforts and intelligence gathering by coastal and Sahelien West African states to coordinate efforts to deal with rising terrorism cases in some member countries.

It is also aimed at strengthening security through the exchange of operational information and intelligence.

It was started in September 2017 by Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger and Togo, and later joined by Nigeria.

Tour

Mr Fumio is on a four-nation tour of Africa where he would hold talks with their leaders.

He is currently in the country after visiting Egypt in his seven-day tour.

The rest are Kenya and Mozambique, and will stop over in Singapore on his way back to Japan.

Agreement

The two leaders later signed two agreements.

The first was on rice production while the second agreement is on human resource development training in Japan.

Mr Fumio also described infrastructure as a foundation of development and, therefore, said Japan would cooperate with Ghana to secure the phase two of the Tema Motorway Roundabout project.

He said that had become necessary because roads served as a link to communities and cities, including major highways such as the Abidjan-Lagos corridor road.

The PM further said that he was holding discussions with some Japanese businesses that were interested in investing in Ghana.

He said the Honda company would be establishing its plant in the country by the end of this year after Toyota and Suziki which were already assembling cars in Ghana.

Japanese companies are introducing business models that are deeply rooted in Africa, and I am hopeful that our business relation will further blossom, the PM said.

He said due to the unique bond between Dr Hideyo Noguchi and the country, Japan had over the years supported Ghana in the health sector, including the Noguchi Memorial Research Institute.

The PM said although Dr Noguchi died in Ghana in 1928, he had established cooperation between the two countries which, he said, was growing stronger.

Also, Japan has long been providing assistance in capacity-building of young administrative officers, and Ghana is the first African country to engage in the programme under which 100 officials had so far benefited, Mr Fumio added.

He said his presence in the country was a demonstration of the strong collaboration between the two countries, he said.

President Akufo-Addo expressed gratitude to Japan for its continuous assistance to Ghana through programmes under the Africa Business Education Initiative, the oversees development assistance scheme, including its support during the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, among others.

The President said Ghana was a great admirer of the Japanese model of development and technological advancement, and gave the assurance that the country will collaborate with Japan to find solutions to poverty, irregular migration, insecurity, human rights violations and drug trafficking, among others.

He added that the country had benefited from the wealth of knowledge and experience from the Japanese to boost development.

President Akufo-Addo also said that Ghana was counting on the support of Japan to reach a favourable agreement with the International Monetary Fund to pave the way for the economic recovery of Ghana's economy.
Ministry of Railways Development denies theft of rail tracks and steel sleepers

Kweku Zurek May - 03 - 2023 , 06:29

The Ministry of Railways Development has refuted reports of theft of rail tracks and steel sleepers that were believed to belong to the Ghana Railway Development Authority.

Two suspects who were seen transporting the items in a viral video were arrested, and allegations were made that the items were being taken to Ferro Fabrik illegally.

The suspects claimed that their company had been contracted by the Ministry of Railway Development to transport the items to Tema.

The Ministry in a press release confirmed that it indeed contracted the company, Messrs Xingrui International Development Limited, to transport the rail tracks and steel sleepers.

The Ministry stated that the vehicle seen in the viral video was authorized by the Ministry and not carrying stolen items.

Additionally, the Ministry said it had informed the Ghana Police Service that only Messrs Xingrui International Development Limited has been authorized to remove abandoned railway tracks and steel sleepers along specific rights-of-way, and any other person found removing or transporting rail tracks will be dealt with accordingly.

"Thus, the vehicle seen in the viral video transporting some of the rail tracks harvested by Messrs Xingrui International Development Limited, was authorized by the Ministry and not stolen item," the release said.

"Further, we wish to kindly state that, the Ministry duly informed the Ghana Police Service that apart from Messrs Xingrui International Development Limited who has been authorized to harvest or remove abandoned railway tracks and steel sleepers along right-of-ways from Mempeasem to Mrayem on the Western Line, and from Nnadieso to Juaso on the Eastern Line any other person(s) found removing or transporting rail tracks must be arrested and dealt with accordingly.

"We further wish to conclude that, Messrs Xingrui International Development Limited, is not undertaking the harvesting and transporting of the rail tracks illegally as being purported in the video under reference, but are working under the directives of the Ministry".
Parliament approves $750 million financing agreements

Nana Konadu Agyeman May - 03 - 2023 , 07:09

PARLIAMENT yesterday reconvened for an urgent business and approved seven loan agreements totalling $750 million to enhance public sector reforms, food security, COVID-19 response measures and digital acceleration agenda.

The facilities, which were approved during the emergency sitting, were an on-lending agreement between the Government of Ghana (GoG) and the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group for an amount of $150 million to finance the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme phase two under the Multipurpose Programme Approach.

Also approved were a 170 million between the GoG and the Development Bank of Ghana for the establishment of the Development Bank of Ghana, a $60.6 million agreement between the GoG and the IDA of the World Bank Group as a third additional financing for the Ghana COVID-19 emergency preparedness.

Again, a $30 million response project and an agreement between the GoG and the Government of the Republic of Korea [acting through the Export-Import Bank of Korea-Government Agency for the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF)], an agreement between the GoG and the IDA of the World Bank for an amount of $150 million to finance the Primary Healthcare investment Project and a $150 million agreement between the GoG and the IDA to finance the Public Financial Management for service delivery project, were all approved.

Additionally, the House approved a financing agreement between the GoG and the IDA for an amount of $200 million to finance the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project.

Urgent business

The loan agreements, which had been on the books already, were supposed to have been approved by the House before it adjourned sine die on March 31, 2023.

On April 20, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, sent out notice to recall Members from recess for a one-day emergency sitting.

A recall instrument signed by Mr Bagbin said the Members of Parliament (MPs) were to report to the legislative assembly on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, to consider urgent parliamentary business.

Approval

When they reconvened, the loan agreements were approved after the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Kwaku Kwarteng, had submitted the reports of the Finance Committee on the agreements and informed the House that the agreements were endorsed by a Majority decision at the committee level, though all the members of the Minority voted against the agreements.

After presenting the report, he moved the motion for the House to adopt the committees reports and approve the facilities.

Why Minority opposes agreements

Contributing to the debate, the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, said given the enormous impact of loans on the country, he did not think it was time for the government to take additional loans.

He said Ghana was currently insolvent and had defaulted in the repayment of its external and domestic debts.

Citing an example, he said just last week, one of the rating agencies that the Ghana government had contracted had downgraded Ghana to restrictive default.

Mr Speaker, simply put, we are in a deep hole and what I know is that when you are in a hole the first thing you do is to stop digging, but
Settle bill in 2 weeks or face disconnection - ECG warns

Alberto Mario Noretti May - 03 - 2023 , 07:24

THE Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the Volta Region has issued an ultimatum to all defaulting customers to settle their bills within two weeks or face power disconnection.

The acting Regional Manager of the company, Michael Buabin, disclosed this to the media in Ho last Tuesday after the month-long revenue mobilising exercise.

He explained that electricity bills were usually to be settled within two weeks after each month had ended, failure of which would lead to disconnection.

Mr Buabin explained that disconnection from the power grid was always a last resort for the ECG, and was carried out to prevent customers from accruing bigger debts.

He said it was important for power consumers to settle their bills in good time to enable the ECG to operate smoothly.

Settle bills

Mr Buabin made it clear that although the company had officially ended the national revenue mobilisation exercise, it would continue to prevail upon customers to settle their bills without delay.

He revealed that defaulting customers who prevented ECG staff from entering their premises were engaging in unlawful acts which were undermining the smooth operation of the company.

He condemned illegal power connections to homes and other sites by some unpatriotic public, saying it was not only dangerous but causing massive losses of revenue to the ECG.
Weija Dam spillage: Municipal NADMO advises residents downstream to relocate

Emmanuel Bonney May - 03 - 2023 , 09:02

THE Weija-Gbawe Municipal Office of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has advised residents of the downstream section of the Weija Dam to relocate immediately as a safety and precautionary measure against flooding which occurs downstream as a result of the opening of the dam to spill excess water.

Last Saturday, the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) began the spillage of the dam, and NADMO says the onset of the rainy season will increase the water volume in the dam, which would compel authorities to open the gates to save it from collapse.

The Municipal Director of NADMO, Emmanuel Adu-Boahen, in an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday, explained that the caution was to help avert a recurrence of incidents last year when Weija and its environs experienced heavy flooding following the spillage of water from the dam due to the increased volume of water.

This resulted in one death and the destruction of properties running into millions of Ghana cedis.

We dont want to be overtaken by events, hence the need for the education and caution, Mr Adu-Boahen said.

GWCLs warning

Last Friday, the GWCL gave an early warning that it was going to undertake a spillage exercise to allow excess water in the dam to flow out.

It, therefore, cautioned people living downstream of the dam to be on the alert.

"The level of the dam as of Friday, April 28, 2023 is 46ft, 1 feet (ft) below the maximum safe operating level of 47ft.

The dam levels are monitored on an hourly basis and the GWCL will not hesitate to open the spill gates should the level go above 46.5ft, so as not to compromise the integrity of the dam and to avert any disaster."

It said communities that were likely to be affected because of the spillage of water from the dam included Tetegu, Oblogo, Pambros Salt, Lower McCarthy Hill, Lower Weija, Bojo Beach, Adakope and surrounding communities.

Meanwhile, the company has carried out its resolve to open the dam.

Precautionary measures

The Weija-Gbawe NADMO boss also said as part of its precautionary measure, it had created seven safe havens as well as impressing upon the municipal assembly to demolish structures along water ways.

Again, he said NADMO had begun educating and informing community members through the various information centres about the opening of the dam and the need to relocate to higher grounds.

Also, the estuary would be opened to ensure the free flow of water into the sea.

That, however, will be the last intervention after assessing the situation when it arises, Mr Adu-Boahen indicated, hinting further that a meeting involving the authorities of the GWCL, Greater Accra Regional NADMO, the Weija-Gbawe NADMO, the Ga South Municipal Assembly NADMO and the Weija-Gbawe Municipal Assembly, would be held to fashion other strategies in the event of flooding.

Safe havens

Mr Adu-Boahen named the areas the safe havens had been created to include Devine Grace School at SCC, the Weija-Gbawe Municipal Assembly, Pentecost Prayer Camp at Tetegu, Pentecost Prayer Camp at SCC, Choice, Top Base and Gbawe.

So if something happens today, we carry people to these places, he emphasised and called on public-spirited organisations and individuals to endeavour to support the organisation to deliver its mandate of saving lives and property.

After that we would go to the estuary to assess the situation and that would inform our decision of whether to open it or not, he said.

Water level

The Weija-Gbawe NADMO boss said as of yesterday (May 2), the level of the opening of the dam at gates two and four were 46.3 ft., a reduction from the initial 46.4ft levels as of last Saturday and Sunday.

Yes, the spillage exercise has begun and so far, there has not been able any problem, Mr Adu-Boahen stressed.
World Facility Management Day launched

Juliet Akyaa Safo May - 03 - 2023 , 07:40

THIS years World Facility Management Day has been launched in Accra, on the theme: Facility management, making a real difference in Ghana.

The global facility management community celebrates the event annually.

This year, the day will be commemorated in Kumasi at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on May 10, 2023.

The International Facility Management Association, Ghana (IFMA- Ghana) launched the programme in Accra last Friday where they called on the government and other institutions to engage facility managers to take proper care of buildings in the country.

The President of the association, Sampson Opare-Agyemang, said members were qualified professionals with the capability to manage buildings from the design stage to completion.

The challenge today in our built environment is not just bad maintenance culture as we always say, it is the lack of trained manpower and understanding of the value of facility managers by the government, business owners and financial institutions, he said.

About event

Mr Opare-Agyemang said the event would bring together speakers from the government, academia and industry players who would make presentations on the role of stakeholders in making a real difference at the workplace.

They would also share experiences and discuss relevant trending topics in the industry.

The speakers will also recognise important contributions, positive impact and achievements the facility management community had made on the lives of the people.

World FM is a day of celebration and recognition of facility managers and the entire FM profession.

Its a time to celebrate the behind-the-scene heroes of the built environment and share well deserved thanks to them for keeping our facilities healthy, safe and productive, the president added.

Sensitisation

A facility management professional, Prince Botwe, told the Daily Graphic that there was the need to sensitise the public to the profession which included management of buildings, people and technology in buildings.

The government recently built a barracks for the Police, but within five years if a facility manager is not engaged to take care of the buildings, it will not be in good standing, he said.

According to Mr Botwe, structures and the environment at the workplace had a great impact on workers and, therefore, called on employers to give credence to facility managers.

Some people go to their workplaces and are unable to work because they do not feel comfortable; this is known as sick building syndrome.

This is where the work of a facility manager comes in to ensure that the building is conducive to work in, he said.
Ablakwa not guilty of contempt  High Court

Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson Politics May - 03 - 2023 , 08:50

The Accra High Court has thrown out a contempt case filed against the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, by the Secretary to the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral, Reverend Victor Kusi-Boateng.

After dismissing the contempt application, the court, presided over by Justice Charles Gyamfi Dankwa, slapped Rev. Kusi-Boateng with a cost of GH10, 000 in favour of the MP.

Rev. Kusi-Boateng, who had initially sued Mr Ablakwa for defamation following some allegations against him in relation to the National Cathedral project, filed a contempt application against the legislator.

In the contempt application, Rev. Kusi-Boateng accused the MP of refusing to be served with the defamation suit processes and kicking the documents when a court bailiff attempted to serve him.

It was said that when the court bailiff attempted to serve Mr Ablakwa on the premises of Metro TV on February 3, 2023, he rejected the documents with the explanation that he was on his way to Parliament and, therefore, the bailiff should follow the proper procedure in serving MPs with court processes.

The applicant described the actions of the MP as disrespecting and undermining the court and bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.

Case dismissed

However, in a ruling yesterday, the court dismissed the contempt application on the basis that it was flawed with inconsistencies, was irregular and failed to meet the threshold of the law.

Firstly, the court held that the bailiff - Elis Armah, who served the court processes on the MP, was not a recognised officer of the judicial service.

Such a move, the court held was against a directive by the Chief Justice that court processes should be served by official bailiffs of the Judicial Service.

Again, the court said Mr Ablakwa had argued that he was on his way to Parliament and, therefore, the service should be done properly, which was for it to be served on the Clerk of Parliament.

The applicant, the court held, could not convince the court that the MP was not on his way to Parliament when he was served with the court processes

Justice Dankwa further dismissed the application on the basis that there were inconsistencies in the affidavits filed by Rev. Kusi-Boateng and the said bailiff who was supposed to serve the court process.

According to the court, whereas the purported bailiff claimed he put the court process in the MPs car and the legislator threw it away, Rev. Kusi- Boateng said the process was put at the side of the MP and he kicked it.

The application for contempt is dismissed as the applicant could not prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt, Justice Dankwa held.

Mr Ablakwa has petitioned the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate Rev. Kusi-Boateng over an alleged conflict of interest, including possession of multiple identities and other alleged criminal dealings.

The MP alleged that there was a transfer of GH2.6 million from the National Cathedral Secretariat to JNS Talent Centre Limited owned by Rev. Kusi-Boateng under a secondary identity - Kwabena Adu Gyamfi.

According to Mr Ablakwa, the petition is seeking to invoke the mandate of CHRAJ under Article 218 of the 1992 Constitution to investigate the odious conflict of interest with regard to Rev. Kusi-Boatengs position on the national cathedral board as he literally paid his own company a staggering GH2.6 million for no work done.

Rev. Kusi-Boateng, who is also the founder of Power Chapel Worldwide, according to Mr Ablakwa, was the same person as Kwabena Adu Gyamfi who received the GH2.6 million from the National Cathedral Board.

Rev. Kusi Boateng subsequently filed the defamation suit against Mr Ablakwa and further applied for an interim order to prevent the defendant from further commenting on the subject.
Hyundai Motor Company premiered its new XCIENT Fuel Cell tractor, the commercialized class 8 6x4 fuel cell electric model, for the North American commercial vehicle (CV) market at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo.





The company is exhibiting the XCIENT Fuel Cell tractor and the hydrogen fuel cell system at ACT Expo 2023 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California through tomorrow.

First launched in 2020, XCIENT Fuel Cell has been deployed in five countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Korea and New Zealand, and has successfully accumulated more than 4 million miles so far. The model shown at the event is the 6x4 tractor equipped with two 90 kW hydrogen fuel cell systems (total 180 kW power) and a 350 kW e-motor. Its gross combination weight is a maximum 82,000 lbs and offers a driving range of more than 450 miles per charge even when fully loaded.

XCIENT Fuel Cell implements the hydrogen fuel cell system offered by HTWO, Hyundai Motor Group's hydrogen energy dedicated business brand. HTWOs business includes application of Hyundais proprietary fuel cell systems for various forms of mobility, such as advanced air mobility, automobiles, vessels and trains, as well as for stationary power generation.

Mark Freymueller, Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial Vehicle Business Innovation at Hyundai Motor, revealed the companys plan for XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks, underlining the companys local partnerships to form a solid hydrogen value chain as building blocks toward accelerating the deployment of clean fleets in the US.

The company aims to foster partnerships and future businesses to provide fleet operation solutions for hydrogen truck customers and expand the hydrogen value chain in the US, using its initial business entry as a bridgehead.

To that end, Hyundai Motor shared its outlook for an eco-friendly CV business incubation project at the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA), the dedicated electric vehicle factory being built in Georgia. The project is centered on the development of a hydrogen mobility value chain.

HMGMA will be able to produce up to 300,000 EVs annually using an innovative production platform, developed and demonstrated by the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICS). Through the project, the Metaplant will incorporate an eco-friendly logistics system integrating hydrogen fuel cell trucks and a complete hydrogen value chain.
Apple could face yet another lawsuit regarding the purposeful throttling of the iPhone 6 and 6s, colloquially known as batterygate.

The suit in question is worth 1.6b and is by Justin Gutmann on behalf of UK-based users affected by Apple's "throttling" of the iPhone 6 and 6s. Gutmann's lawyers argue that Apple concealed issues with the older iPhones' batteries by limiting performance.

Apple is trying to block the suit by appealing to a London tribunal. Cupertino's lawyers claim the suit is "baseless", and that only a small number of old iPhone batteries are defective, for which Apple offered free battery replacements.

Gutmann's lawyers point to Apple's 2020 settlement of a class action suit in the US as evidence that Apple was guilty of throttling iPhones.

Apple, on the other hand, points to the public apology it issued in 2017 and the cheaper battery replacements it offered as a result.

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The Guam Congress building in Hagatna. Local senators have joined the governor and delegate in pushing the federal government to reinstate the annual funding that help Guam and other jurisdictions in covering the cost of hosting citizens of the Compact of Free Association nations.
Demolition work on an apartment building that will be used as a homeless shelter is finished, and renovations of the units are now underway by Guam National Guard troops.

Guard members were put on territorial active duty by the Office of the Governor in March to support the Office of Homelessness Assistance and Poverty Prevention, the lead government agency for the project.

Its progressing well, and the Guard is doing an exceptional job, said Rob San Agustin, director of the Office of Homelessness Assistance and Poverty Prevention.

Appliances and other materials are being ordered, and the project should be completed in about six months, he said.

Renovations include new electrical wiring, plumbing, drywall work, painting, water heater installation and new windows, said Spc. Keo Taianao.

The building was bought last year by GovGuam, and is on Bradley Place in the Anigua area of Hagatna.

The 18 two-bedroom units will serve as a temporary shelter for people. The goal is to move residents into more permanent housing.

The project is financed through a $3 million grant from the Investment Para Hamyo program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Its a great and very humbling experience to be able to give back to our community and home. It means a lot and its heartwarming to know that we are able to shelter the less fortunate, said Senior Airman James Quenga.

The Guam Army National Guards 1224th Engineer Support Company, the Guam Air National Guards 254th Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers and the Department of Military Affairs are working together to renovate the building.
The Pacific Basin Group of Rotary Clubs conducts a cleanup at the Gov. Joseph Flores Beach Park and along the shoreline of Ypao Beach in Tumon on March 22, 2023. The Saint Paul Christian School Key Club is sponsoring a cleanup at Jimmy Dees Beach at 9 a.m. May 6, 2023.
By William Schwartz | Published on 2023/05/02

At first glance, "in water" seems to be a mean-spirited parody. Seong-mo (played by Shin Seok-ho) is a director who's using all of his savings to film a short movie on Jeju Island. His two fellow travelers, Sang-gook (played by Ha Seong-guk) and Nam-hee (played by Kim Seung-yun) don't seem to like him all that much. All three of these characters are fairly boring. The bulk of the movie rather bewilderingly is shot out of focus, rendering all three of our stars as vague blurs.

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But there is a method to all this madness, which is to showcase Seong-mo's ongoing depression. Along these lines, "in water" is surprisingly subtle as far as Hong Sang-soo films go. The fact that we can't really tell whether Sang-gook and Nam-hee are actually Seong-mo's friends is part of the point. Seong-mo doesn't really know either. Are they humoring him? Did they just come along for the free snacks? How serious are any of them about film?

Seong-mo tries to be as serious as he can. Yet when questioned about what exactly he wants to accomplish, Seong-mo admits to wanting glory and recognition, while not sounding entirely all that sure whether such a feat is attainable even if his movie is any good. These are bleak times for film, and short film in particular. HanCinema doesn't even publish short film reviews anymore. It's not that they're bad, the target audience is just too absurdly small since they usually only play at film festivals.

Seong-mo is really just struggling for meaning any place he can find it, and making a short film is at least a goal, even if it doesn't appear to be a very good one. In one inspired bit of loneliness, Seong-mo calls his presumed ex-girlfriend (voiced by Kim Min-hee) who's in Malaysia for reasons she doesn't bother to explain and he doesn't ask. The request Seong-mo has seems more motivated by it being an excuse to talk to her than it actually being all that relevant to the movie.

Given his personality as one of the earliest internationally known South Korean film directors, "in water" inevitably begs the question of what commentary Hong Sang-soo is trying to make with this project. Despite his relative fame, Hong Sang-soo has gone increasingly low budget in recent years. The weird result of this is that his films are somehow less pretentious, not really about self-pity as about desperately trying to avoid wallowing in self-pity and not really succeeding.

Take away the Hong Sang-soo brand name, and "in water" isn't really that different from the typical millennial produced independent film in South Korea these days. It's slightly more metatextual, in that we're led to believe that the in-focus scenes are the movie-within-a-movie, easier to grasp and comprehend than Seong-mo's actual life, particularly from Seong-mo's own perspective. Perhaps only Hong Sang-soo could get away with such a narrative structure. Although more significantly, only Hong Sang-soo could get such a movie to play at international film festivals.

Written by William Schwartz

___________

"in water" is directed by Hong Sang-soo, and features Shin Seok-ho, Ha Seong-guk, Kim Seung-yun, Kim So-ryung, Kim Min-hee. Release date in Korea: 2023/04/12.
Published on 2023/05/02 | Source

Actors Ko So-young (50) and Jang Dong-gun (51) celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary.

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Ko So-young released a family photo on the 2nd with the caption, "13th wedding anniversary and Children's Day". The released photos showed Jang Dong-gun and Ko So-young posing affectionately in front of the camera for the first time in a long time.

The sight of a harmonious family on an outing together makes even the viewers happy.

Ko So-young and Jang Dong-gun married in 2010 and have one son and one daughter.
Published on 2023/05/02 | Source

Actors Lee Dong-wook and Kim Hye-jun will work together with Disney Plus's new original drama "The Killer's Shopping Mall".

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Disney Plus said on the 2nd, "We will unveil the new original series "The Killer's Shopping Mall" in 2024", adding, "We have decided to cast Lee Dong-wook and Kim Hye-jun as the main characters".

"The Killer's Shopping Mall" is an action drama in which a niece, who lost her parents and grew up in the hands of an uncle who runs a shopping mall, faces a new truth after her uncle's sudden death, and is based on a novel of the same name written by Kang Ji-young.

In this work, the two will play the role of uncle Jeong Jin-man and niece Jeong Ji-an, respectively, and will show off their award-winning yet unconventional character performances.

Meanwhile, Disney Plus's new original series "The Killer's Shopping Mall" be released worldwide next year.
Published on 2023/05/02 | Source

Director Eom Tae-hwa, the older brother of actor Um Tae-goo and the creator of the films "Ingtoogi" and "Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned" married an interior designer. Lee Byung-hun, Park Seo-joon and Park Bo-young of the new "Concrete Utopia", which will be released this year, attended and celebrated the wedding.

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As a result of OSEN coverage on the 2nd, director Eom Tae-hwa invited only his family and close acquaintances to a wedding at a luxury restaurant located in Gangnam, Seoul, on April 29th. Director Eom Tae-hwa's wife is an interior designer and CEO of a design studio, and the two, senior and junior colleagues at the university, got married after two years of dating.

In particular, stars such as Lee Byung-hun, Park Seo-joon, and Park Bo-young, as well as Um Tae-goo, director Eom Tae-hwa's younger brother, also attended the wedding.

Director Eom Tae-hwa will present his comeback film "Concrete Utopia" seven years after "Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned" this summer. It stars Lee Byung-hun, Park Seo-joon and Park Bo-young, and it is a masterpiece with a production cost of 15 billion won. Ahead of the release, all the leading actors attended the director's wedding and showed off their loyalty.

"Concrete Utopia", scheduled to be released in August, is a disaster thriller about Seoul, which was devastated by a major earthquake, and the only remaining palace apartment that begins with survivors gathering. It was newly adapted based on the second part of Kim Soong-nung's popular webtoon "Cheerful Bullying", which has been well-received since its serialization in 2014.
Namings recognize leadership and philanthropy of Mary Bickers, Christine Petti and Edith S. Peiser

App States Turchin Center for the Visual Arts has renamed two of its galleries to honor longtime arts supporters Mary Bertini Bickers, Christine Petti and Edith S. Peiser. The Mary Bickers Family Gallery and the Christine Petti and Edith S. Peiser Gallery will have work on display during the Turchin Centers 20th anniversary celebration on May 5. Pictured is an aerial view of the Turchin Center. Photo by Wes Craig and Marie Freeman

BOONE, N.C.  Appalachian State Universitys Turchin Center for the Visual Arts (TCVA) has new names for two of its galleries, honoring longtime arts leaders and philanthropists Mary Bertini Bickers, Christine Petti and Edith S. Peiser.

These gifts are important investments in the future of the Turchin Center and its advancement of App States mission, said Hank Foreman, App States vice chancellor of external affairs and strategic initiatives, who was also the founding director and curator of the Turchin Center. When we opened the Turchin Center 20 years ago, we had a vision to make the arts accessible through engaging with the community. The legacy of these women will ensure this vision continues.

We are proud to name galleries after these remarkable individuals in recognition of their tremendous and ongoing investments in App State and the Turchin Center, said Denise Ringler, App States director of arts engagement and cultural resources. They are helping to ensure a bright financial future for the Turchin Center and sustaining it for decades to come.

The Mezzanine Gallery, pictured, is now known as the Mary Bickers Family Gallery in App States Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. Photo submitted

App States Turchin Center for the Visual Arts has named one of its galleries for Mary Bertini Bickers, pictured, in honor of her recent gift to the centers endowment. The Mezzanine Gallery is now known as the Mary Bickers Family Gallery. Photo submitted

Mary Bickers Family Gallery

The Mezzanine Gallery is now known as the Mary Bickers Family Gallery, in honor of Bickers, who recently made a significant gift to the TCVA endowment.

When asked why she supports the arts, Bickers said, For me, art isnt just visual. Of course I enjoy viewing art, but I also appreciate visual art that evokes a physical or sensory experience  a feeling of being part of the landscape, experiencing a certain smell or even a memory that the image may bring up for me.

A Charlotte native, Bickers serves as president and founder of Bickers Consulting Group, an Atlanta-based advisory firm. She has more than 40 years of experience as a specialized business consultant who guides clients through processes such as mergers and acquisitions, estate and business succession planning and buy-sell/shareholders agreements.

Philanthropy is at the heart of Bickers service. She supports organizations that include the Womens Fund of the Blue Ridge, the Griffin-Spalding Historical Society, Stepping Stones School, the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Greensboros Humane Society of the Piedmont and the North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry.

App States Turchin Center for the Visual Arts has named one of its galleries in honor of Christine Petti, pictured, who recently donated funds to the centers endowment and to arts education programming through the Turchin Center and the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. Gallery B will now be known as the Christine Petti and Edith S. Peiser Gallery. Petti requested to share the naming of the gallery with Peiser, who was a key leader during the Turchin Centers creation and development. Photo submitted

In App States Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Gallery B is now known as the Christine Petti and Edith S. Peiser Gallery. Petti requested to share the naming of the gallery with Peiser, pictured, who was a key leader during the Turchin Centers creation and development. Photo submitted

The Christine Petti and Edith S. Peiser Gallery

Gallery B also bears a new name: the Christine Petti and Edith S. Peiser Gallery. Pettis gift included funds for the Turchin Centers endowment as well as arts education programming through the Turchin Center and App States Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts.

Petti, an avid watercolor artist, came to the High Country in 1979 with her husband, Dr. Alfonso Petti. She previously served as the head nurse in the pediatric ward of a regional hospital in Florida and later became a nurse practitioner. She serves on a number of boards and supports charitable causes from coast to coast, including the Seby B. Jones Regional Cancer Center, the Appalachian Regional Healthcare Foundation, the Ronald McDonald Family Room at Ventura County Medical Center and the Womens Fund of the Blue Ridge.

Petti began to paint while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer in 1999.

I was taught by a friend, she recalls, and had no prior art experience. I thought it would be a disaster, but I found it to be relaxing and restorative, and it continues to be part of my life to this day. She believes that everyone should have access to the beauty and power of art, and that students of all ages can learn through art, which provides important insights into history, humankind, and the world around us.

For Petti, this gift is the most recent in a long-standing legacy of investment in App State. In 2021, Petti contributed a significant, multiyear pledge in response to a $1 million challenge gift from Nancy and Neil Schaffel  both of whom supported the endowment fund for An Appalachian Summer Festival, App States annual celebration of the performing and visual arts.

At Pettis request, the gallery is also named for her dear friend, Edith Edie Peiser, of Highland Beach, Florida, who played a pivotal leadership role during the Turchin Centers creation and development.

From the very beginning of our work to create a world-class visual arts center, Edie was a strong and positive voice for the important role that art plays within the lives of individuals, a university and a community, said Foreman. It is wonderful to see Edie  for whom the visual arts have been so fully intertwined throughout her life  honored with a naming at the Turchin Center.

Gallery B, pictured, is now known as the Christine Petti and Edith S. Peiser Gallery in App States Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. Photo submitted

Works on display

The exhibition Altered Environments/Tidalectics: April Flanders, Guest Curator is on display in the PettiPeiser Gallery through May 6.

The 20th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Celebration is on display in the Bickers Family Gallery through June 3.

The Turchin Centers 20th Anniversary Celebration will feature new works in the renamed galleries, on display beginning Friday, May 5, from 5 to 8 p.m.

The celebration, which is scheduled in conjunction with downtown Boones First Friday festivities, is free and open to the public, and will include live music and refreshments. Attendees will also have opportunities to meet exhibiting artists and to share their favorite memories and reflections on the past two decades of Turchin Center exhibition, education and outreach programming in the visual arts.

May 5, 2023

May First Friday: Turchin Centers 20th Anniversary Celebration!

Turchin Center for the Visual Arts

May 5, 2023

5  8 p.m.

The Turchin Center turns 20, celebrating two decades of excellence in exhibition, education and outreach programming in the visual arts. Join us on the first Friday of every month as the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts (TCVA) is open late as part of the Downtown Boone Art Crawl. Residents, visitors and the Appalachian State University community are invited to TCVA to experience the exhibitions featured in its six galleries.

About the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts

Located on 423 W. King St. at the crossroads of campus and community, the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University engages visitors in dynamic and accessible exhibition, education, outreach and collection programs. These programs inspire and support a lifelong engagement with the visual arts and create opportunities for participants to learn more about themselves and the world around them. Learn more at https://tcva.appstate.edu/about/visit.

About Appalachian State University

As the premier public undergraduate institution in the Southeast, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls nearly 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.

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(CNBC) A group led by several prominent Democratic lawmakers is calling on the Federal Reserve to halt rate hikes to avoid risking too much damage to the economy. The 10 senators and representatives, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Reps.

To read this article:
(Diesen Artikel gibt es auch auf Deutsch.)

In the age of machine learning, our notions of intellectual property and copyright are facing a radical upheaval. First lawsuits against AI companies offering generative AI systems raise the question of what exactly art and creativity are and why (also in which way) we should protect as well as promote them.

Guest article by Rene Walter Rene Walter is a blogger, graphic designer, typographer and journalist from Berlin. Among other things, he worked for Napster as an art director for three years. He has been writing on the Internet for around 20 years. With his award-winning blog Nerdcore he ran one of the most successful private websites in Germany, and in 2009 he initiated the first nationally sensational meme "Und alle so Yeaahh!". For more than 10 years, he has explored meme theory, algorithmic art, the impact of the digital on human psychology, and the latest developments at the intersection of science, technology, and creativity. Today he runs the newsletter GOOD INTERNET, where he critically follows developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Good Internet: Blog and Newsletter by Rene Walter

Good Music: Blog and Newsletter by Rene Walter

Twitter-Account under @rawxrawxraw

In mid-January 2023, stock photo provider Getty Images initiated initial legal action against Stability AI in the UK, and finally in early February, also in the US. Previously, three artists had filed a lawsuit accusing the company of violating their copyrights with Stable Diffusion (based on the study "Extracting Training Data from Diffusion Models," for example, which MIT Technology Review had reported). In initial reactions to ChatGPT, publishers are calling for an extension of ancillary copyright to generative AI systems.

Collecting societies such as GEMA or VG Wort, which manage the copyrights of their members, face a daunting task. Their distribution mechanisms are becoming a potential plaything for fraudsters through these novel systems, who can deceive them with easy-to-use software and boost distributions in their own favor: with AI-generated content capable of blowing up existing systems  through the automated media synthesis of plausible but not real texts, images and audio data.

Stochastic box of chocolates

Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology and philosophy at Berkeley, calls the new generative AI models library-like cultural technologies that provide access to and multiply knowledge. The comparison is obvious, if inaccurate, and I would describe the interpolable data spaces computed by algorithms, called latent spaces, from this as "stochastic libraries": a library where you describe to a robotic librarian what book you want, and it picks out an approximate match. Put another way, "AI is like a box of chocolates  you never know what you're going to get."

Stochastic libraries are interpolable databases of their training data: AI systems learn various characteristics of the input through pattern recognition and store them as so-called weights, which can be controlled via parameters. In the case of Stable Diffusion, there are 870 million parameters; in the case of ChatGPT, there are 175 billion. For example, if you create an AI model for paintings by Pablo Picasso, the neural network stores the patterns recognized in the training data for stylistics in brushstrokes, coloring or proportions.

I can control these in turn via the text prompt and if you now want to create a picture in the style of the master in the Picasso AI, you activate the parameters for "Vase", "Flowers", "Fruit" and "Picasso" and the model creates a still life based on the weights of these patterns in its database. The same thing happens in ChatGPT when I remix a Heise IT text in the style of a Ramones song. It is precisely this molecular, interpolative remix principle of generative AI that creates a huge explosive force for existing systems of copyright.

Interpolative nature of AI models

By the very nature of prompt input, which decomposes its input into various tokens - syllables and groups of letters - many of these weights and parameters come together in any image generation. This is another reason why artists' advocates refer to them as "collage tools of the 21st century." This choice of words, however, obscures the view of the interpolative character of the models: each image is generated based on many different parameters, which were previously obtained in AI training from millions of image analyses.

Each synthetic image, the AI music or the generative text are always the result of a multidimensional interpolation of the latent space, in which one generates a five-dimensional space full of possible image syntheses from the parameters "robot", "dog", "meadow", "Picasso" and "flowers", from which syntheses are selected at random (in diffusion models) or according to a reward algorithm. Thus, through the text prompt, I can combine any pattern contained in the database with other patterns to create novel remixes, and so our AI Picasso is suddenly painting robots and spaceships as he never did in real life.

This ability to interpolate between data points poses unprecedented problems, and not just for copyright law: Currently, synthetically generated AI voices are causing displeasure among voice actors, who have recently found clauses in their contracts demanding rights to use their voice data to train synthetic voices. Unions advise against signing such contracts, but it's only a matter of time before movie producers can create any voice imaginable in any tonality, purely by interpolating between the individual learned patterns in the data set. The new villain of the Marvel universe is supposed to sound like Ted Brolin, but with the voice coloration of Bruce Willis and the rhythm of Pee Wee Herman? AI makes it possible.

The training data of generative artificial intelligences, which often contain copyrighted works, are thus converted into parameter banks for "new" synthetic outputs. The well-known science fiction author Ted Chiang, whose short story "The Story of Your Life" provided the template for Denis Villeneuve's film "Arrival," compared Large Language Models in the New Yorker magazine to the lossy data compression of JPGs  a metaphor that seems entirely appropriate considering the dissolution of culture in the atomized Grey Goo of latent space.

What will become of Copyright?

The randomness of a stochastic library and the interpolative nature of AI synthesis fundamentally contradict the principles of U.S. and European copyright laws, which require individual, identifiable works by natural persons and a certain level of creation to operate. How such copy rights should respond to an interpolatable latent space in which I can freely combine patterns of existing works at a creative molecular level is entirely unclear, and it depends, as a lawyer would say, "on the individual case."

However, two studies have strongly suggested that diffusion models are capable of exactly replicating the image data used to train them (arXiv preprints: "Investigating Data Replication in Diffusion Models" and "Extracting Training Data from Diffusion Models"), which on the one hand allows copyright infringement and on the other hand can lead to privacy violations.

Complicating matters further is the commercial exploitation of these AI systems. It is true that they were created in a scientific framework and can therefore rely on exceptions in property rights in Europe and the USA, at least during their development. However, these exceptions are subject to higher legal requirements for commercial applications, and both Stability AI and OpenAI and Microsoft have already brought their AI systems to market. This is one reason why the Federal Trade Commission is now investigating OpenAI for breaching due diligence during the launch of ChatGPT.

Endless mash-ups of atomized culture

Copyright holders' collecting societies have so far no approaches to counter these endless stochastic mash-ups of generative AI systems based on atomized culture. Even if creators and rights managers find ways to regulate the stochastic nature of these novel cultural synthesizers in copyright reform, black markets will exist for models that allow users to freely explore the new synthetic worlds. Already, there are hundreds of checkpoints (CKPTs) for Stable Diffusion, derivative AI models that have been trained on the style of specific artists or outright aesthetics.

There is even a Stable Diffusion model for the movie "Cats". It is also already possible today to build your own image generator based on Stable Diffusion, in which you can mix new image worlds with different checkpoint files like ingredients in cooking: "Once specialized CKPT with Cats, Star Trek and Ghibli please", and out comes a gigantic Latent Space, specialized on anime cats from the planet Vulcan and guaranteeing infinite image worlds. Thinking even further into the future, brain-computer interfaces appear on the horizon, allowing real-time visualization of thoughts  digitally enabled lucid dreams while awake. The thought of Disney controlling thoughts, at least in visualized output, is not far off: "I can't show that, Dave."
South Africa: President Ramaphosa to deliver a keynote address at Presidential Health Summit

President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to deliver the keynote address at the second Presidential Health Summit at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.

According to the President's spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, the summit, which starts on 4 May, brings together key stakeholders from various constituencies within the health sector to review the implementation of interventions agreed to during the first meeting held in 2018.

Magwenya held a media briefing in Cape Town, detailing President Ramaphosas schedule for the week.

11th High-Level Segment of the Regional Oversight Mechanism

The President will then travel to Bujumbura, Burundi, to participate in the 11th High-Level Segment of the Regional Oversight Mechanism (ROM) of the Peace, Security and Cooperation (PSC) framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Great Lakes region.

The PSC frameworks key mandate is to end the recurring cycles of devastating conflict in eastern DRC which impact stability and development in the Great Lakes region.

The framework also aims at addressing the root causes of conflict in the region, he explained.

The summit, according to the spokesperson, will take place against the backdrop of the worsening political and security situation in Eastern DRC caused by a resurgence of the M23 rebel movement.

He said the gathering will deliberate on the deployment of East African Community (EAC) troops and their role in dealing with negative forces in the eastern DRC, especially the M23.

The PSC framework, otherwise known as the Addis Ababa Agreement, was signed on 24 February 2013 through an African Union/United Nations-brokered Framework aimed at stabilising the DRC.

At the time, signatories to the agreement included Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, the DRC, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

In early 2014, Kenya and Sudan became the 12th and 13th signatories of the framework.

Extra-ordinary Organ Troika Summit Plus

On Monday, 8 May, President Ramaphosa will attend the Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit Plus and Force Intervention brigade troop-contributing countries in Windhoek, Namibia.

The extraordinary Organ Troika Summit Plus will receive a report from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Field Assessment Mission in the Eastern DRC, consider the regional response to the worsening security and humanitarian situation and establish a SADC common position on coordination of interventions and multiple deployments in the Eastern DRC.

Parliamentary questions

On Thursday, 11 May, President Ramaphosa will reply to questions in the National Assembly as part of his ongoing commitment to openness, transparency and accountability.

Working visit by Bulgarian President

On Friday, 12 May, President Ramaphosa will host the President of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, for a working visit which will focus on the building of political and trade ties, as well as cultural exchanges between South Africa and Bulgaria.

Official Visit by Singapore Prime Minister

President Ramaphosa will receive the Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, on 16 May.

South Africa values its bilateral relationship with Singapore and President Ramaphosa is looking forward to working closely with the Prime Minister in further strengthening the existing relationship between the two countries.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2023-05-03. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
The press service of the Parliament of Georgia has announced that Nikoloz Samkharadze, who serves as the Chairman of the Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee, has held a meeting with Mark Clayton, the Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Georgia.During the meeting, the parties discussed the current state of bilateral relations between their respective countries and explored opportunities to further strengthen these ties at the parliamentary level. Additionally, they highlighted the upcoming visit of a delegation from the Georgian Parliament to Great Britain as significant.Samkharadze discussed Georgia's aspirations towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration with the ambassador, and also shared details about the progress made and reforms implemented towards achieving these goals.In addition, the Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Georgia, Mark Clayton, and Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Chairman of the Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee, engaged in a conversation regarding regional security concerns, including the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine and its potential impact on the security of Georgia and Europe. They also underscored the peaceful role played by Georgia in the ongoing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia."We had an interesting meeting with the ambassador of our strategic partner country, Great Britain. At the meeting, we discussed regional and global security issues, Georgia's European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations, and steps taken. We talked about the upcoming NATO summit and the expectations of the Georgian government in this direction," said Samkharadze.
The incentives came under considerable scrutiny last month, following the release of the remuneration report of Fortum for 2022. The Finnish government, the majority owner of the energy company, rejected the report in the general meeting on grounds that the incentives do not comply with the terms of the bridge financing arrangement made with Solidium.

FORTUM on Tuesday reported that its board of directors has re-examined the short and long-term incentives of the executive management accumulated in 2022 and 2023.

Solidium is a wholly state-owned investment firm.

The terms stipulate that the fixed wages of the executive management must not be raised in 2022 and that the management must not be paid short or long-term incentives accumulated in 20222023. The board of directors, however, interpreted the terms such that the long-term incentives for 20202022 and 20212023 would have been determined based on performance in 2020 and 2021  without the heavily loss-making fiscal year of 2022.

Fortum reported a loss of 2.4 billion euros for last year.

After re-examining the incentives, the board of directors has decided that although no years will be excluded when determining the incentives, members of the executive management cannot accumulate share-based incentives in 2022 and 2023. The decision signifies that the members will receive at most a third or two-thirds of the original incentives depending on the incentive plan, according to the company.

For the performance period of 20202022, this results in an outcome of nine per cent and the delivery time for the shares accumulated according to it would be in spring 2024, the press release reads.

The Finnish government has expressed its support for the decision, viewing in a press release that the decision aligns with its interpretation of the bridge-financing terms and with the spirit of the arrangement.

Fortum stated that its executive management has additionally informed the board that it will voluntarily forgo incentives scheduled for delivery in spring 2024.

I respect their decision, said Mikael Silvennoinen, the board chairperson at Fortum.

The energy company reminded that the bridge financing arrangement is no longer valid as it has repaid the financing it withdrew fully and no longer needs additional financing due to its stable financial position. The limitations on incentive plans nevertheless remain in effect, however.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
The geese, including forest and tundra geese, are being monitored by several organizations, including BirdLife Finland and the North Karelia Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment.



The migration of barnacle geese in Finland is progressing at a fast pace, and although the numbers are still in the four digits, it is estimated that over one-third of the Arctic breeding population is already in Finland, Sweden, and especially Estonia. The migration has been occurring daily, with both incoming and domestic movement. Although the majority of sightings have been in the eastern regions of Finland, there have been sightings of over a thousand geese in southern and northern Karelia.



While the cold weather in the coming days may slow down the migration process, the situation is expected to change next week, according to a migration forecast by Jarmo Koistinen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. A cold northern airflow with nighttime frosts and possible snow showers is expected to give way to a slow-moving high-pressure system approaching from the west. The wind and visibility are expected to be favorable for the barnacle geese, allowing them to continue their migration from the Netherlands, Denmark, and the Baltic region to Finland. However, the cold weather may also slow down the growth of green grass, which could affect the migration of the geese in southern and southeastern Finland.



Several organizations, including BirdLife Finland and the North Karelia Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, are monitoring the migration of barnacle geese. They are using bird watching services such as Tiira and migration weather forecasts from the Finnish Meteorological Institute, as well as the tracking of GPS transmitter geese to monitor their movements. Overall, the arrival of thousands of barnacle geese in Finland is an important event for birdwatchers and conservationists, who are studying the migration patterns and habitats of these magnificent birds.

HT
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, exports from European Union (EU) countries to Russia have significantly decreased, with the January-February period seeing only half the amount of exports as in previous years. Finnish exports to Russia have declined even more than the EU average. In contrast, EU exports to Central Asian countries have been on the rise. The increase in Finnish exports to Central Asia is due to differences in statistical methodology, new entrants to the market, and potential circumvention of sanctions.

According to Eurostat, the EU's exports to Russia decreased by 38% or 34 billion from the previous year. The downward trend has continued, with EU exports to Russia in January-February 2023 being 7.2 billion, a 50% drop compared to the previous year.

On the other hand, EU exports to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Armenia, and Uzbekistan increased by 88%, or 9.6 billion, from the previous year. In 2022, EU exports to Kazakhstan increased by 4.9 billion, Uzbekistan by 1.5 billion, Georgia by 1.2 billion, Armenia by 1.1 billion, and Kyrgyzstan by 0.9 billion. In January-February 2023, EU exports to these Central Asian countries were 3.8 billion, which is 98% higher than the previous year. (See Annex Tables 1 and 2.)

The growth in EU exports to Central Asia in January-February 2023 was 26% higher in euros than the decline in exports to Russia.

"Although the EU's exports to Russia have halved, countries such as Latvia and Slovenia have increased their exports to Russia. Finnish exports to Russia have declined much more sharply than the EU average," said Statistics Director Olli-Pekka Penttila.

Finnish exports to Russia have declined more than the EU average, and new companies registered in other EU countries have appeared in Finland's exports to Central Asia.

In January-February 2023, Finnish goods exports to Russia decreased by 78%. Russia's share of Finland's total exports was only 1.3%. In the same period last year, Russia's share was 5.5%.

In 2022, Finnish exports to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan increased by 0.2 billion, or 104%, from the previous year. In January-February 2023, Finnish exports to these Central Asian countries amounted to 0.1 billion, an increase of 260% from the previous year.

"The growth in Finnish exports to Central Asia is partly due to increased customs clearance by companies registered in other EU countries in Finland. New players have also entered the market. For example, of the companies that exported to Central Asia in January-February 2023, 257 were companies registered in other EU countries that had no exports to these countries from Finland in 2021. These companies accounted for roughly half of our exports to Central Asia," explained Olli-Pekka Penttila.

In conclusion, Finland's exports to Russia have significantly decreased, and EU exports to Central Asia have increased. Finnish companies are facing increased competition from new entrants to the Central Asian market. However, the statistical methodology differences make it challenging to compare these numbers directly. Nevertheless, Finnish companies should explore opportunities in new markets to stay competitive.

HT
We didnt solve any intricate questions today, but we established a shared understanding of where the country is and what must be done so that Finns have it better tomorrow, summarised Petteri Orpo , the chairperson of the National Coalition.

REPRESENTATIVES of the National Coalition, Finns Party, Swedish Peoples Party and Christian Democrats began the coalition formation talks yesterday with a seminar where experts and government officials provided an overview of their area of expertise.

The talks have been had in good spirits with a focus on solutions, weve rolled up our sleeves and will get to work.

Orpo, who is in charge of the coalition formation process as the head of the largest party in the Finnish Parliament, reminded that the public economy is not on a sustainable footing, reiterating the need to make fiscal adjustments in order to prevent the debt burden from growing and the welfare state from crumbling.

The coalition formation negotiations will begin in earnest today as representatives of the four parties are divided into issue-specific working groups in order to find common ground on the main themes of the next government programme. YLE on Tuesday reminded that the group assignments usually provide no indication of the distribution of ministerial portfolios between the ruling parties.

Well look to put together a solid programme. It wont be until the next phase that we divide the portfolios to the parties and then to people within the parties, confirmed Orpo.

He reiterated that he intends to complete the process by early June.

The experts and officials who spoke at the opening seminar were Juha Majanen, the permanent state secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Olli Rehn, the governor of the Bank of Finland, Petteri Taalas, the secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Anita Lehikoinen, the permanent state secretary at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Timo Kivinen, the commander of the Finnish Defence Forces, Markku Keinanen, the permanent representative of Finland to the EU, Ombudsman for Older People Paivi Topo, Ombudsman for Children Elina Pekkarinen, and Risto Siilasmaa, the chairperson of the Technology Advisory Board.

A shift on carbon sinks?

Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday wrote that the expert selections could provide an indication of how the government intends to approach and emphasise different challenges.

Taalas replacing Markku Ollikainen, the chairperson of the Finnish Climate Chanel, as the expert providing an overview of the climate crisis could forebode a different approach to carbon sinks and land use, for example.

While both Taalas and Ollikainen take climate change extremely seriously and call for further action, they do not see eye to eye on carbon sinks, the role of Finland and EU obligations. Taalas has questioned the national debate on carbon sinks, viewing that it would be more important to cut fossil emissions and prevent deforestation outside Europe.

He described the discussion on carbon sinks as a national trait in an interview with YLE on 25 March.

He stated to the public broadcaster that carbon sinks have collapsed as a result of slowing tree growth and the age structure of forests, omitting rising felling volumes  the first cause highlighted in a study by Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

Weve maybe started with wrong assumptions and thought that with carbon sinks we can take care much of the problem that should be taken care of by reducing fossil energy, he said to YLE.

The Finnish economy, he also declared, revolves around the forest cluster. Forestry accounts for roughly four per cent of the gross domestic product of Finland, Helsingin Sanomat reminded on Tuesday.

Taalas yesterday warned lawmakers that the climate crisis raises the likelihood of heatwaves, stationary weather fronts and winter precipitation, according to documents published relating to his presentation. He also continued to refer to the national goal of making sure carbon sinks at least offset all emissions by 2035 as a national speciality, even though carbon-sink targets have been imposed also on other members of the EU.

The significance of forests for the economy, employment and funding of the welfare state has not been taken sufficiently into consideration, reads one of the presentation documents.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
A nurses story of a life of service to her community

Elsie McLean, who retired after serving for 44 years as a nurse at Pardee, poses with her daughter, Courtney, currently a nurse there.

Its not often you find folks who have spent their entire career at the same company. For Elsie McLean, a registered nurse, its a badge of honor to have dedicated more than 44 years serving as a nurse with UNC Health Pardee.

As we celebrate Nurses Week  were highlighting Elsies career with Pardee, from her years volunteering as a candy striper to becoming a bedside nurse and now in retirement, she has experienced and given so much of her life to Pardee.

From student volunteer to nurse



Elsies relationship with Pardee began when she was a student at East Henderson High School and joined the candy striper program. As a candy striper, Elsie volunteered more than 300 hours during her stint. She spent most of that time in the radiology department, where she formed wonderful relationships with her mentors who, along with her guidance counselor encouraged her to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse.

They were like a family and such supporters, Elsie said. I had a team behind me as I went to nursing school. After finishing school in Charlotte, Elsie returned to Pardee, this time as a registered nurse, I felt called to nursing and always knew I wanted to come back; I never thought of going anywhere other than Pardee.

It wasnt long into her new career Elsies supervisor noticed how competent she was as she watched how Elsie handled a delicate and emergent situation. Recognizing her skills, her supervisor encouraged Elsie to move to the Emergency Department  where shed go on to spend 17 years.

Though she saw her fair share of difficult situations as an emergency room nurse, Elsie said the pandemic was the biggest challenge of her career.

It was a hard time to be a nurse as these nurses were dealing with more death and dying than I had ever experienced, she said.

Though it was extremely difficult, Elsie said she was also proud to be a Pardee nurse during such a monumental time in healthcare as the organization was doing everything possible for its COVID patients.

We were rendering the most innovative care  what you saw on the news about these large hospitals is what we were doing at Pardee and we saved a lot of lives, she said.

Experiencing innovation



There is no doubt Elsie has seen her fair share of change and innovation over a career spanning four decades. She jokes that shes from the Flintstone Era as she recalls standing in line to hit a punch clock and using paper charts. Moving to an electronic health record and the computer system was the biggest change she saw during her time as a nurse.

When I think back, its unreal, she said. We used to have one sheet for patient information that used varying ink colors to differentiate the shifts  now it takes me several clicks to put in a patients height and weight. Though she saw many changes over her 44-year career as a nurse, Elsie said one thing has remained constant, my entire path I have been provided with wonderful team members who share a common goal of helping patients. Its what has made my career so great.

Leaving a legacy



It was more than just my work; my whole life centered around Pardee, from meeting both of my husbands to having my daughter, everything comes back to this place, Elsie said. While she is entering a new chapter and looks forward to the slow-paced life of retirement, her legacy at Pardee lives on through her daughter, Courtney, a registered nurse in the surgical services unit. Pardee has given me so much over the years and I am happy that she is the gift I can give back, Elsie said. She expressed that nurses like Courtney are who are going to make the hospital continue to thrive. I am proud of the care I was able to provide and to be a part of Pardees history and it feels good to still have a piece of me still there.

Nurses like Elsie are what make Pardee so unique and steadfast. When you are being cared for at Pardee, you can be assured you are in the hands of the most compassionate team of individuals. We extend our gratitude to Elsie for dedicating so much of her life to serving and caring for the community that raised her and we wish her all the happiness in her retirement.

* * * * *

Marilee Arnold is interim chief nursing officer at UNC Health Pardee.
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy Calls for Action to Address Public Health Crisis,

Lays Out Framework for a National Strategy to Advance Social Connection

Today, United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new Surgeon General Advisory calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection in our country. Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately half of U.S. adults reported experiencing measurable levels of loneliness. Disconnection fundamentally affects our mental, physical, and societal health. In fact, loneliness and isolation increase the risk for individuals to develop mental health challenges in their lives, and lacking connection can increase the risk for premature death to levels comparable to smoking daily.



The Surgeon Generals Advisory on Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation lays out a framework for a National Strategy to Advance Social Connection, which has never been implemented before in the United States. It details recommendations that individuals, governments, workplaces, health systems, and community organizations can take to increase connection in their lives, communities, and across the country and improve their health.

Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation has been an underappreciated public health crisis that has harmed individual and societal health. Our relationships are a source of healing and well-being hiding in plain sight  one that can help us live healthier, more fulfilled, and more productive lives, said U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy. Given the significant health consequences of loneliness and isolation, we must prioritize building social connection the same way we have prioritized other critical public health issues such as tobacco, obesity, and substance use disorders. Together, we can build a country thats healthier, more resilient, less lonely, and more connected.

The physical health consequences of poor or insufficient connection include a 29% increased risk of heart disease, a 32% increased risk of stroke, and a 50% increased risk of developing dementia for older adults. Additionally, lacking social connection increases risk of premature death by more than 60%.

In addition to our physical health, loneliness and isolation contribute substantially to mental health challenges. In adults, the risk of developing depression among people who report feeling lonely often is more than double that of people who rarely or never feel lonely. Loneliness and social isolation in childhood increase the risk of depression and anxiety both immediately and well into the future. And with more than one in five adults and more than one in three young adults living with a mental illness in the U.S., addressing loneliness and isolation is critical in order to fully address the mental health crisis in America.

While the epidemic of loneliness and isolation is widespread and has profound consequences for our individual and collective health and well-being, there is a medicine hiding in plain sight: social connection.

Social connection is beneficial for individual health and also improves the resilience of our communities. Evidence shows that increased connection can help reduce the risk of serious health conditions such as heart disease, stroke, dementia, and depression. Communities where residents are more connected with one another fare better on several measures of population health, community safety, community resilience when natural disasters strike, prosperity, and civic engagement.

This Surgeon Generals Advisory lays out a framework for the United States to establish a National Strategy to Advance Social Connection based on six foundational pillars:

Strengthen Social Infrastructure: Connections are not just influenced by individual interactions, but by the physical elements of a community (parks, libraries, playgrounds) and the programs and policies in place. To strengthen social infrastructure, communities must design environments that promote connection, establish and scale community connection programs, and invest in institutions that bring people together. Enact Pro-Connection Public Policies: National, state, local , and tribal governments play a role in establishing policies like accessible public transportation or paid family leave that can support and enable more connection among a community or a family. Mobilize the Health Sector: Because loneliness and isolation are risk factors for several major health conditions (including heart disease, dementia, depression) as well as for premature death, health care providers are well-positioned to assess patients for risk of loneliness and intervene. Reform Digital Environments: We must critically evaluate our relationship with technology and ensure that how we interact digitally does not detract from meaningful and healing connection with others. Deepen Our Knowledge: A more robust research agenda, beyond the evidence outlined in the advisory , must be established to further our understanding of the causes and consequences of social disconnection, populations at risk, and the effectiveness of efforts to boost connection. Cultivate a Culture of Connection: The informal practices of everyday life (the norms and culture of how we engage one another) significantly influence the relationships we have in our lives. We cannot be successful in the other pillars without a culture of connection.

Surgeon General's Advisories are public statements that call the American people's attention to a critical public health issue and provide recommendations for how it should be addressed. Advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that need the American people's immediate attention. As the Nations Doctor  the 21st Surgeon General of the United States  Dr. Murthy has focused much of his work, research, and public platform on how the nation can emerge from the pandemic stronger than before, including his recently-issued Surgeon Generals Advisories on Youth Mental Health and Health Worker Well-Being, and the Surgeon Generals Framework on Workplace Well-Being.

You can read the full Advisory here. For more information about the Office of the Surgeon General, please visit www.surgeongeneral.gov/priorities.
New Delhi (India), May 3: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on businesses, with restrictions on in-person gatherings and social distancing guidelines, many training centres had to adapt to online training programs to stay afloat during the pandemic. However, Cleancode training centre not only survived but thrived during the pandemic by utilising the power of technology and now plans to expand into offline training centres.

Cleancode, a trademark of Curiosity iTech Private Limited is renowned for its comprehensive, well-structured, and high-quality technical courses designed specifically for beginners with no previous experience in the subject. Its courses transform students into professionals in the field. With a dedicated placement team, community support and having 500+ hiring partners in their network, they are committed to providing 100% job guarantee. Cleancode, provides IT education courses, such as Advance Full Stack Web Development Course and Advance Full Stack QA Testing Course, to individuals aspiring to pursue a career in the IT sector.

The pandemic outbreak and subsequent lockdowns forced the Cleancode to suspend its in-person training programs back in 2020, which formed the majority of its income. However, rather than surrendering, Cleancode promptly adjusted to the altered circumstances and initiated online training courses to serve its current pupils as well as entice fresh ones. The faculty members put in considerable effort day and night to guarantee that the online programs were equally efficient as the ones conducted in person.

Cleancode virtual training courses quickly became popular among its students who appreciated the convenience and flexibility of attending sessions from their homes. Additionally, Cleancode drew the attention of new students who were in search of excellent IT training programs, notwithstanding the pandemic situation.

As the pandemic situation improved and restrictions were lifted, Cleancode began receiving requests from students who wished to resume attending in-person training sessions. Cleancode recognized that there was still a need for face-to-face training and saw this as an opportunity to broaden its operations. Cleancode resolved to proceed with its strategy to establish physical training centres in various parts of the country. To provide courses for beginners with zero prior knowledge in the subject and add value in the lives of maximum people of the country. Cleancode has already identified suitable locations where they want to establish their franchisee centres in order to provide offline training to students. Cleancode Aims for Expansion by opening 100 Training Centers Across India.

One great aspect of Cleancode is that they handle all the major departments such as advertising, marketing, lead generation, student engagement, student placements, notes and curriculum structuring, so you as a franchisee can focus solely on managing day to day operations.

The Franchise Owner is estimated to get their complete return on their investment, which includes both capital and operational expenses, within 8-12 months of starting their operations.

Moreover, Cleancode provides franchise owners with a Franchisee Dashboard which can monitor a student's performance, attendance, progress, growth and take necessary steps to improve it. It also helps to strengthen Students and the Franchisees involvement by knowing about the daily updates, notifications, status, notices, etc.

While the pandemic was a challenging time for many businesses, Cleancode managed to turn the situation around by adapting to the new normal and leveraging technology. By providing quality online training programs and now expanding to offline training centres, Cleancode has positioned itself for continued success in the future.

The best and unique thing about Cleancode is that their curriculum is designed specifically for beginners who have no previous experience or knowledge in the subject and transform them into professionals in the field. With their dedicated placement team, community support and 500+ hiring partners, Cleancode is committed to providing our students with a 100% job guarantee.

Cleancode's success has earned them numerous accolades such as Best IT Educational Institution of the Year at the International Awards for Educational Excellence, Best IT Training Service Provider in India at the Educational Excellence Awards and Conference, Best Innovation in IT Training Course in India at the Indian Excellence Awards, and Best IT Certification Program of the Year at AI Global Excellence Awards. Cleancode's courses transform students into professionals in the field, with a dedicated placement team and community support committed to providing 100% job guarantees. To date, Cleancode has over 1,000 success stories of students who have learned to write their first line of code and over 4000+ members who are connected with Cleancode over these years.

If you want to know about Cleancode, their story, their team, franchise details, course details, and more, you can visit their website https://cleancode.club/.

Disclaimer: This article is a paid publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times does not endorse/subscribe to the content(s) of the article/advertisement and/or view(s) expressed herein. Hindustan Times shall not in any manner, be responsible and/or liable in any manner whatsoever for all that is stated in the article and/or also with regard to the view(s), opinion(s), announcement(s), declaration(s), affirmation(s) etc., stated/featured in the same.
A new book by debutante author Soma Basu aims to celebrate the lives of regular non-working home maker women, who spend their lives looking after their families, yet is not given the due credit.

Frenny and Other Women You Have Met are stories of five different women and their experiences.

A lot of times there has been a discrimination between working women and not working women. It is always that people who are working are given accolades and people who arent working are not given any value. So, I really wanted to focus on the women who are at home looking after their families. They are doing a tremendous job and this book is for them. This book celebrates them, Soma Basu told HT on the sidelines of the book launch at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi recently. Eminent actors Mita Vasisht and Swastika Mukherjee unveiled the book at a program attended by eminent persons of the capital.

She further adds,  the book explores subtle and intricate emotions of women, hoping that the readers will appreciate womens lives and their contributions in all their richly varied forms.

The stories of Frenny, Mrinalini, Shreyasi, Amiran, and Ananya are every womans stories as they navigate through life bearing their respective responsibilities towards their fathers, husbands, children and teachers. Soma Boses book, titled Frenny and Other Women You Have Met explores subtle and intricate emotions, hoping that her readers appreciate womens lives and contributions in all their richly varied forms. The motivation to write such human-centric stories comes from Somas experience of growing up in the coal-mining town of Dhanbad in Jharkhand, India.

Debutante author Soma Bose is a creative writer and visual storyteller. Her affinity for storytelling inspires her to find stories behind the most mundane aspects of life. This talent has led to her website www.somTales.com , where she weaves thought-provoking tales around photographs.

Expressing their delight both the actors Mita Vasisht and Swastika Mukherjee echoed their excitement about the book and opined that the women characters portrayed in the book were very real and readers would easily relate them.

Frenny and Other Women You Have Met talks about the 5 different characters located in different parts of the world and their experiences.

Frenny

Sucharita, rich and charming, is an award-winning writer and philanthropist. Her son and husband are her emotional mainstays. She has everything and yet she misses something. This missing link is aggravated when Sucharitas son moves out to university. At about the same time, she runs into Frenny, an aged woman who works at a tiny, old stationery shop. The two strike an unlikely friendship. The story explores these two characters through their conversations, reveling in the richness that each brings to the others life.

Mrinalini

Set in Shimla and New York, this story explores the vicissitudes of obsessive maternal love. After her husband leaves their family, Mrinalini brings up her son, Rohan, by herself with the help of her supportive mother-in-law. He grows up not just into a supportive son, but also as Mrinalinis emotional anchor and her most precious possession. Unable to rationalize the mother-son bond, Mrinalini does not realize when her love for her son grows into an unremitting obsession.

Shreyasi

In Calcutta, newly-married Shreyasi takes music lessons from a much-older David Sir. The lessons end soon but their bond endures through the ups and downs of life. When David Sir loses his music to dementia, he can only remember one name: Shreyasi. The role of teacher and student is reversed as Shreyasi helps him regain his lost melodies.

Amiran

The story is about a Kashmiri shawl, that is lovingly embroidered by Amiran, for her grand-daughter Sarah. As the shawls nears its completion, it is sold off to a tourist by Sarahs father Rashid for a hefty sum. Amiran and Sarah are extremely saddened by this. The entire story is narrated by the shawl, as it changes hands several times, to finally rest in the hands of Sarah, while she gets married.

Ananya

Ananya is in a loveless marriage. She spends the largest part of her life fulfilling her marital responsibilities. Life seems like a sacrifice until she meets Alok. Blessed with supportive children and an understanding mother-in-law, Ananya faces no great obstacles to getting out of her marriage and starting a new life with the man she loves. However, even before she can make her choice, life takes an unexpected turn, making her reconsider all her plans.

As with all her creative work, in this book too, Soma explores subtle and intricate emotions, hoping that her readers appreciate womens lives and contributions in all their richly varied forms. Soma says, The motivation to write such human-centric stories comes from my experiences of growing up in the coal-mining town of Dhanbad in Jharkhand, India. Soma has extended her flair for storytelling into the world of films as well. She has written scripts that have been appreciated by acclaimed filmmakers and luminaries like Shyam Benegal and Shonali Bose. Whether it is in films or literature, Soma tirelessly seeks new ways of conjuring powerful emotions through novel ideas.

Disclaimer: This article is a paid publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times does not endorse/subscribe to the content(s) of the article/advertisement and/or view(s) expressed herein. Hindustan Times shall not in any manner, be responsible and/or liable in any manner whatsoever for all that is stated in the article and/or also with regard to the view(s), opinion(s), announcement(s), declaration(s), affirmation(s) etc., stated/featured in the same.
Cash-strapped domestic carrier Go First's move to suspend flights for 72 hours starting Wednesday may give rivals a chance to grab chunks in a congested market, analysts told Reuters this morning. "If the suspension is prolonged, other airlines (that are adding capacity) will look to avail slots vacated by Go First and grab the market share," a Jefferies analyst said in a note to clients. Go First has filed for bankruptcy and cancelled all flights for May 3, 4 and 5 (File)

Shares of IndiGo rose by over eight per cent this morning - after Go First halted flights and filed for bankruptcy. The airline blamed American manufacturers Pratt & Whitney for non-delivery of jet engines that forced it ground 28 planes and cost 10,800 crore 'in lost revenues and additional expenses'.

Go First operates a cash-and-carry model - it pays oil marketing companies daily per flight - and grounded flights means it lacks funds to pay OMCs' dues.

The Jeffries note said Indigo faces a similar P&W engine issue but has handled the crisis because of its larger fleet size and better negotiations with the vendor.

A second note - by Credit Suisse analysts - pointed out lessors may be more included to allocate some of the grounded Go First aircraft to rivals IndiGo.

This will benefit IndiGo in terms of market share and stronger yields in a capacity strained environment, the note explained.

Another rival - SpiceJet - plans to revive 25 grounded aircraft and said it had raised around 400 crore 'to make the most of upcoming peak travel season'.

READ | Amid Go First bankruptcy, SpiceJet plans to revive 25 grounded aircraft

Go First's lenders - including the Central Bank of India and Axis Bank, to whom the airline owes $798 million - dropped 1.1 per cent to 6.8 per cent Wednesday.

Go First is owned by the Wadia Group, which also runs bread and biscuits-maker Britannia and textile firm Bombay Dyeing; their shares dropped up to 1.5 per cent and 5 per cent this morning, respectively.

In fiscal 2022 the airline posted its biggest annual loss, leading to reports the Wadia Group is talking to partners to either sell a majority stake or exit.

What happened?

On Monday Go First chief executive Kaushik Khona announced the cancellation of flights for May 3, 4 and 5, and the filing of a voluntary insolvency application before the National Company Law Tribunal.

READ | Go First files for voluntary insolvency. What happened to the airline?

He told news agency PTI the 'unfortunate' decision had been taken to protect the interests of the company, which is understood to employ over 5,000 people.

Row with P&W

In a detailed statement released shortly afterwards, the airline said it had been 'forced' to apply for insolvency as P&W had 'refused to comply with an award issued by an emergency arbitrator' directing the supply of 10 engines by April 27 and 10 more per month till end-2023.

READ | Blamed for faulty engines, Pratt & Whitney says Go First has

Pratt & Whitney hit back claiming Go First has a 'lengthy history of missing financial obligations' and that it is complying with a March arbitration ruling by a Singapore tribunal.

Govt's response

Notice of the cancellation of flights for three days prompted a 'show cause' notice by the Director-General of Civil Aviation, which said the airline had failed to inform it in writing.

The airline was given 24 hours - which ends later today - to respond.

READ | Govt will help 'unfortunate' Go First, says aviation minister Scindia

Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia seemed more sympathetic, assuring the airline of all possible help. " unfortunate that this operational bottleneck has dealt a blow to the airline's financial position.  the airline has applied to the NCLT. It is prudent to wait for the judicial process to run its course," he said.

Go First to quit market?

Go First dismissed reports it plans to exit the market, pointing out promoters had injected 'substantial funds' - 3,200 crore - over the past 36 months; 2,400 crore was injected over the last 24 months and 290 crore in April.

And this morning the airline told Reuters in an exclusive interview the Wadia Group remains committed and has no plans to exit the company.

"The Indian government is very keen we should not fail," Khona told Reuters.

'Doing everything possible'

Meanwhile, Khona has told airline's staff the carrier will care for them.

Addressing them as 'Go Getters', he said, "We want to reassure you we are doing everything possible to navigate this situation with utmost care for all"

READ | 'Crippled by P&W...': Go First CEO slams engine maker in staff note

With input from agencies

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S&P Global, a leading business intelligence provider, has announced new employee benefits catering to health and wellbness, flexibility, support and rewards.



The People First 9.0 initiative will affect more than 12,500 employees in India and the company said it is committed to lead with care and empathy to enable the people to thrive at work, home and life.



According to a statement issued by the company, the new policy has been framed on the basis of employee feedback and includes benefits like increasing increasing parental leave to 26 weeks, annual health checks, flexible paid time off, care leave and multiple enhancements to support ones lifestyle, time, pay, family, and career. The S&P Global logo is displayed on its offices in the financial district in New York City.(REUTERS)

The S&P Global's People First 9.0 benefits include securing the salary of any employee who is unable to work due to a diagnosis of cancer or other chronic disease or serious illness for up to one year, so they can stay focused on their treatment and recovery.



The company provides Nursing Parents support including milk shipping in case of business travel. The company will provide hospital grade Medela pump in every office location.

S&P Global announced Menopause support for female employees. The facilities include temperature controlled rooms, flexible working, and unlimited paid leaves for managing menopausal symptoms.

The company has proposed avoiding Friday meetings out of respect for global time zones and peoples schedules. S&P Global has decided to contine its five additional Annual Wellness Days off above the existing leave policy

The new benefits include continued learning and digital tool adoption for growth and development including a Global Education Support programme for current and past employees with Cornell and Emeritus.

Flexible and Hybrid working across all offices in India and globally are among the People First 9.0 policy announcements.

Our people are at the foundation of our business. They make S&P Global the innovative and forward-thinking place it is. Leading with compassion enriches the lives of our people and their communities, and in turn, enables our people to perform with a growth-mindset and customer-centric approach", Dimitra Manis, Chief Purpose Officer of S&P Global, said in a statement.

India caters to over 35% of the S&P Global workforce worldwide. Our People First philosophy gives us a chance to understand the needs of our people and build an environment that gives them a chance to thrive and belong. We are committed to inspire our people to learn and build teams that help foster trust and belonging", Nilam Patel, Head- India Operations at S&P Global said.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a packed schedule this week as he is busy touring parts of Karnataka ahead of the crucial May 10 assembly election in the state. He was in Dakshina Kannada district on Wednesday morning in the Moodabidri area when he attacked the opposition Congress party and alleged it shields terror backers. PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday during an election rally in Karnataka's Moodabidri.

Congress aligns with the 'Anti-nationals' and takes help from Anti-India forces for the polls. They take back cases on the Anti-nationals and shield terror backers, he said. "If there is instability in Karnataka, your fortune will also remain unstable. Congress is the enemy of peace and development in Karnataka. Congress protects the masterminds of terror and promotes appeasement," he added.

READ | Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023 LIVE Updates: Cong protects terror & promotes appeasement, says PM Modi

"Those who are going to vote for the first time in their life are going to decide the future of Karnataka. My sons and daughters who are going to vote for the first time, if you want to make your career, do the work of your mind, then it will not be possible with the Congress," PM Modi said.

BJP's resolve is to make Karnataka number one in the country, to strengthen the modern infrastructure in Karnataka, to make Karnataka a manufacturing super power. This is our road map whereas the Congress wants your vote because it wants to reverse the schemes of the BJP and the work done for the development of the people here, he claimed.

READ | Karnataka polls: 'BJP's manifesto has roadmap to make state no. 1', says PM Modi in Chitradurga

Congress wants to make Karnataka the number one ATM for its 'Shahi Parivar' (royal family) sitting in Delhi, whereas BJP wants Karnataka to become number one in industrial and agri development, fisheries and port, he further stated.

The PM also addressed a public meeting in Mulki, where he said, The whole nation respects the country's defence forces, but Congress insults and abuses our military and soldiers. Congress's entire politics is based on 'divide and rule' policy.

Karnataka is due to vote next Wednesday and the counting of votes will take place on May 13.

(With ANI inputs)
S. no Name of the candidate Name of the constituency 1. Kakasaheb Patil Nippani 2 Babasaheb D. Patil Kittur 3 Vishwas Vasant Vaidya Saundatti Yellamma 4 Ramappa Balappa Timmapur Mudhol 5 J.T. Patil Bilgi 6 Bheemasen B. Chimmannakatti Badami 7 Hullappa Y. Meti Bagalkot 8 Abdul Hameed Kajasaheb Mushrif Bijapur City 9 Vitthal Katakadhond Nagthan 10 M.Y. Patil Afzalpur 11 Channareddy Patil Tunnur Yadgir 12 Baburao Chinchansur Gurmitkal 13 Allamaprabhu Patil Gulbarga Dakshin 14 Vijay Dharam Singh Basavakalyan 15 Iqbal Ansari Gangawati 16 B.R. Yavagal Nargund 17 Vinay Kulkarni Dharwad 18 Santosh S. Lad Kalghatgi 19 Bhimanna Naik Sirsi 20 V.S. Patil Yellapur 21 Dr. Srinivas NT Kudligi 22 N.Y. Gopalakrishna Molakalmuru 23 Chitradurga K.C. Veerendra Chitradurga 24 Holalkere Anjaneya H 25 Basavaraju V. Shivaganga Channagiri 26 Kimmane Rathnakar Tirthahalli 27 Prasadraj Kanchan Udupi 28 Anand K.S Kadur 29 Iqbal Ahmed Tumkuru City 30 S.R. Srinivas Gubbi 31 Keshava Rajanna B Yelahanka 32 S. Balraj Gowda Yeshvanthapura 33 Keshava Murthy Mahalakshmi Layout 34 V. Raghunatha Naidu Padmanaba Nagar 35 Mandya P. Ravi Kumar 36 Krishnarajpet B.L. Devraja 37 B. Shivram Belur 38 Dr. Mantar Gowda Madikeri 39 Siddhegowda Chamunderhwari 40 A.R. Krishna Murthy Kollegal 41 Ganesh Hukkeri Chikkodi - Sadalga 42 Bharmgoud Alagowda Kage Kagawad 43 Mahendra K. Thammannavar Kudachi 44 A B Patil Hukkeri 45 Satish Laxmanrao Jarkiholi Yemkanmardi 46 Smt. Laxmi Ravindra Hebbalkar Belgaum Rural- 47 Dr. Anjali Nimbalkar Khanapur 48 Mahantesh Shivanand Koujalagi Bailhongal 49 Ashok M. Pattan Ramdurg 50 Anand Siddu Nyamagouda Jamkhandi 51 Vijayanand S. Kashappanavar Hungund 52 Appaji Alias CS Nadagowda Muddebihal 53 Shivanada Patil Basavana Bagevadi 54 M B Patil Babaleswar 55 Yashvanth Rayagoud V Patil Indi 56 Dr. Ajay Dharam Singh Jevargi 57 Rajavenkatappa Naik Shorapur 58 Sharanabasappa Gowda Shahpur 59 Priyank Kharge Chitapur 60 Dr. Sharanaprakash Patil Sedam 61 Subash V. Rathod Chincholi 62 Smt. Kaneez Fatima Gulbarga Uttar 63 B R Patil Aland 64 Rajashekar B Patil Humnabad 65 Ashok Kheny Bidar South 66 Rahim Khan Bidar 67 Eshwar Khandre Bhalki 68 Basanagouda Daddal Raichur Rural 69 Basanagouda Thurvihal Maski 70 Amaregouda Patil Bayyapur Kushtagi 71 Shivaraj Sangappa Thangadagi Kanakagiri 72 Basavaraj Rayareddi Yelburga 73 K. Raghavendra Koppal 74 H.K. Patil Gadag 75 G.S Patil Ron 76 Prasad Abbayya Hubli - Dharwad-East 77 R.V.Deshapande Haliyal 78 Satish Krishna Sail Karwar 79 Mankal Subba Vidya Bhatkal 80 Srinivas V. Mane Hangal 81 Rudrappa Lamani Haveri 82 Basavaraj N. Shivannanar Byadgi 83 U.B. Banakar Hirekerur 84 Prakash K. Koliwad Ranibennur 85 P.T. Parameshwara Naik Hadagalli 86 L.B.P. Bheema Naik Hagaribommanahalli 87 H.R. Gaviyappa Vijayanagara 88 J.N. Ganesh Kampli 89 B. Nagendra Bellary 90 Tukaram Sandur 91 T. Raghumurthy Challakere 92 D. Sudhakar Hiriyur 93 Govindappa B.G. Hosadurga 94 S.S. Mallikarjun Davanagere North 95 Shamanur Shivashankrappa Davanagere South 96 K.S. Basavaraju Mayakonda 97 Sangameshwara B.K. Bhadravati 98 S. Madhu Bangarappa Sorab 99 Gopalakrishnna Bulur Sagar 100 K Gopal Pujari Byndoor 101 M. Dinesh Hegde Kundapura 102 Vinaya Kumar Sorake Kapu 103 T.D. Rajegowda Sringeri 104 Kiran Kumar Chikanayakanhalli 105 K Shadakshari Tiptur 106 Kanthraj B.M Turuvekere 107 Dr. H.D. Ranganath Kunigal 108 Dr. G. Parameshwara Koratagere 109 T.B. Jaya Chandra Sira 110 H.V. Venkatesh Pavagada 111 K.N. Rajanna Madhugiri 112 Shivashankar Reddy N.H Gauribidanur 113 S.N. Subba Reddy Bagepalli 114 Dr. M.C. Sudhakar Chintamani 115 K.R. Ramesh Kumar Srinivaspur 116 S.N. Narayanaswamy Bangarapet 117 K.Y. Nanje Gowda Malur 118 Krishna Byregowda Byatarayanapura 119 Smt. Kusuma H Rajarajeshwarinagar 120 Anup Iyengar Malleshwaram 121 Suresha B.S Hebbal 122 K.J. George Sarvagnanagar 123 Rizwan Arshad Shivajinagar 124 N.A. Haris Shanti Nagar 125 Dinesh Gundu Rao Gandhi Nagar 126 Puttanna Rajaji Nagar 127 Priyakrishnna Govindraj Nagar 128 M. Krishnamppa Vijay Nagar 129 B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan Chamrajpet 130 U.B. Venkatesh Basavanagudi 131 Ramalinga Reddy B T M Layout 132 Smt. Sowmya R Jayanagar 133 Nagesh T Mahadevapura 134 B. Shivanna Anekal 135 Sharath Kumar Bachegowda Hosakote 136 K.H. Muniyappa Devanahalli 137 T. Venkataramaiah Doddaballapur 138 Srinivasaiah N Nelamangala 139 H.C. Balakrishna Magadi 140 Iqbal Hussain H A Ramanagaram 141 D.K. Shivakumar Kanakapura 142 P.M. Narendraswamy Malavalli 143 A. B. Ramesh Bandisiddegowda Shrirangapattana 144 N. Chaluvarayaswamy Nagamangala 145 Shreyas M. Patel Holenarasipur 146 Murali Mohan Sakleshpur 147 Rakshith Shivaram Belthangady 148 Mithun M. Rai Moodabidri 149 U.T. Abdul Khader Ali Fareed Mangalore 150 Ramanatha Rai B Bantval 151 Krishnappa Sullia 152 A.S. Ponnanna Virajpet 153 K. Ventakesh Piriyapatna 154 D. Ravishankar Krishnarajanagara 155 H.P. Manjunath Hunsur 156 Anil Kumar C Heggadadevankote 157 Darshan Dhruvyanarayana Nanjanagud 158 Tanveer Sait Narasimharaja 159 Siddaramaiah Varuna 160 H. C. Mahadevappa T. Narasipur 161 R. Narendra Hanur 162 C. Puttaranga Shetty Chamarajanagar 163 H.M. Ganesh Parasad Gundlupet 164 Laxman Savadi Athani 165 Mahaveer Mohith Raybag 166 Arvind Dalwai Arabhavi 167 Asif Sait Belgaum Uttar 168 Prabhavathi Mastmardi Belgaum Dakshin 169 Diddappa Ramappa Konnur Terdai 170 Sharanappa T Sungar Devar Hippargi 171 Ashik M Managuli Sindgi 172 Revu Naik Belamgi Gulbarga Rural 173 Dr Shinde Bhimsen Nayak Aurad 174 G Hampayya Nayak Manvi 175 Shreedevi R Nayak Devadurga 176 Hampan Gowda Badarli Sindhanur 177 Sujatha N Doddamani Shirahatti 178 NH Konareddy Navalgund 179 Kusumawathi C Shivalli Kundgoi 180 Nivedit Alva Kumta 181 BM Nagaraj Siruguppa 182 Nara Bharath Reddy Bellar City 183 B Devendrappa Jagalur 184 N Kotresh Harapanahalli 185 DG Shanthana Gowda Honnalli 186 Dr Sreenivas Kariyana Shimoga Rural 187 HC Yogesh Shimoga 188 GB Malatesh Shikaripura 189 Uday Shetty Karkal 190 Nayana Jyothi Jhawar Mudigere 191 GH Srinivasa Tarikere 192 GH Shanmukhappa Yadav Tumkur Rural 193 Pradeep Eshwar Ayyar PE Chikkaballapur 194 Kothur G Manjunath Kolar 195 Dhanajaya Gangadharaiah Dasarahalli 196 RV Devaraju Chickpet 197 Umapathi Srinivas Gowda Bommanahalli 198 RK Ramesh Bangalore South 199 Gangadhar S Channapatna 200 KM Uday Maddur 201 KM Shivalinge Gowda Arsikere 202 Banavasi Rangaswamy Hassan 203 John Richard Lobo Mangalore City South 204 Ashok Kumar Rai Puttur 205 MK Somashekara Krishnaraja 206 K Harish Gowda Chamaraja 207 Durgappa S Hoolageri Lingsugur 208 Jagadish Shettar Hubballi - Dharwad East 209 Nandagavi Srinivas Harihar 210 HD Thammaiah Chikmagalur 211 Dr BC Muddugangadhar Mulbagal 212 DK Mohan KR Puram 213 AC Srinivasa Pulakeshinagar: 214 Mohammed Shalem Raichur 215 BV Rajeev Gowda Sidlaghatta 216 S Anand Kumar CV Raman Nagar 217 HP Sridhar Gowda Arkalgud 218 Inayath Ali Mangalore City North 219 MA Gopalaswamy Shravanabelagola 220 Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan Shiggon 221 Bheemasen B. Chimmannakatti Badami 222 Madhu Bangarappa Sorab 223 Rudrappa Lamani Haveri

In Melukote constituency, the Congress party has not fielded anyone and it extended support to Darshan Puttaiah of Sarvodaya Karnataka, a regional party.

On Wednesday, the Congress party has released the manifesto for the assembly polls and promised multiple welfare schemes for the people of Karnataka, if voted to the power. The party has proposed schemes like Gurha Lakhmi, Gruha Yojane, Yuva Nidhi, Anna Bhagya etc. The grand old party also promised that the state run bus rides will be made free for the women in Karnataka.

It also proposed Krishi Sarvodaya Nidhi, under which it will allocate Rs. 50 lakh crore in five years inorder to modernize the agriculture, subsidy, loan and insurance.

For women voters, the Congress promised to support 5,000 women entrepreneurs every year. It has also announced to nurture 5,000 Stree-Shakti micro-enterprises over five years and encourage them to take up modern needs like food processing, catering, mobile canteens, solid waste management etc.

Meanwhile, the BJP too focused on the welfare schemes in it's manifesto. The ruling party promised three free cooking gas cylinders every year to all BPL (Below Poverty Line) families in the state. Each cylinder will be provided during the months of Ugadi, Ganesh Chaturthi and Deepavali. The Atal Aahara Kendra scheme will provide an affordable and hygienic food by setting up a canteen in every ward of all municipal corporations in the state. The manifesto also promised that every BPL family in the state will get a free half a liter of Nandini Milk every day.

The elections in Karnataka will be held on May 10 and the results will be declared on May 13. The BJP has also put out the list of 224 candidates for assembly elections.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi chanted Jai Bajrang Bali during all the three public meetings he addressed in poll-bound Karnataka on Wednesday, in what is seen as a counter to the Congress, which has promised to ban right-wing outfit Bajrang Dal in its election manifesto. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting ahead of the Karnataka assembly elections in Mudbidri of Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka on Wednesday.(ANI)

Along with Bharat Mata Ki Jai in praise of 'Mother India', Modi also made a point at the beginning as well as at the end of his speech to raise Jai Bajrang Bali in Mulki in Dakshina Kannada district, Ankola in Uttara Kannada distinct and Bailhongal in Belagavi district.

READ | Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023 LIVE Updates: PM Modi begins rally with Bajrangbali chants

The Congress in its manifesto for May 10 assembly election in Karnataka said it was committed to take firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred amongst communities on grounds of caste and religion.

The Congress said, We believe that law and Constitution is sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities. We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on such organisations".

READ | Cong shields terror backers, says PM Modi during Karnataka poll rally

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his public meeting at Hospet in Vijayanagara district on Tuesday too had come down heavily on the Congress promise of banning Bajrang Dal saying, The Congress in its manifesto has decided to lock up Lord Hanuman. Initially, they locked up Prabhu Shri Ram (Lord Ram). And now they want to lock up people who say Jai Bajrang Bali'.

The Bajrang Dal on Wednesday decided to conduct Hanuman Chalisa recital programme in Karnataka on Thursday, a day after the Congress held out a promise to ban the outfit in its election manifesto.
Despite the BJP-led Centre terming the imposition of water cess on hydel projects in Himachal Pradesh illegal and unconstitutional and directing the Congress government in the state to withdraw its decision last month, 27 companies have registered themselves on the portal set up for the purpose to operate in the state. Despite the BJP-led Centre terming the imposition of water cess on hydel projects in Himachal Pradesh illegal and unconstitutional and directing the Congress government in the state to withdraw its decision last month, 27 companies have registered themselves on the portal set up for the purpose to operate in the state. (HT File Photo)

The 27 companies include two public sector undertakings of the Government of India, namely National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) and the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC). NHPC runs the Chamera project in Chamba, while NTPC operates the Koldam power project.

The Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government has kept 500 as the registration fee.

Besides the Centres opposition, a case has been filed against the state governments decision in the Himachal Pradesh high court. The petition was first filed by Mallikarjuna Rao of GMR Energies for promoting the Holi Bajoli power project in Chamba but was withdrawn on technical grounds. Thereafter, the Allain Duhangan Power Project filed a petition on which the court issued the state and the central government a four-week notice.

The high court did not stay the registration process.

Many companies have registered themselves on the portal and many others will do so in future, said a high-level official of the state jal shakti department. The portal will c,lose on may 20 , its clear in the act that if the power project dont register themselves on the portal they will be deemed registered

During its maiden budget session, the state government passed a Bill for imposing a water cess on March 16. After the governor gave his assent, the new law became applicable to 172 power projects and all future ones in the state.

Earlier, deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri introduced the water cess Bill in the House. The government set up a three-member committee with the aim to generate 4,000 crore from the water cess. There sre 172 power projects in the state which are both small and micro ones.

The state did not consult neighbouring Punjab and Haryana before imposing the cess. The central government said that no state can take such a unilateral decision as it would lead to an increase in electricity tariff in other states.

The Himachal Pradesh government argued that it has not imposed the tax not on electricity, but on the water of the state. Agnihotri, being the jal shakti minister, introduced the Himachal Pradesh Water Cesson Hydropower Generation Bill, 2023, which was passed by voice vote on March 16.

He argued that the state has every right to decide on the matter within its jurisdiction and only the court can call its decision unconstitutional. He said that the government will seek legal recourse against the Centres direction.

The state government cited a similar cess being imposed in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand and neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir. Sikkim in the Northeast has also imposed a similar tax.

The Centre remained silent when BJP-ruled Uttarakhand enacted a similar law to impose water cess, Agnihotri said, adding that the law was enacted to generate revenue. The debt burden in the state has increased to 75,000 crore and the state aims to generate 4,000 crore by collecting the water cess, he said.

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The Pakistani Rangers on Wednesday handed over the body of Vipan Kumar (38) of Una in Himachal Pradesh to Border Security Force (BSF) personnel at Attari-Wagah border. Sources said Vipan, who was mentally unstable, had inadvertently crossed over to Pakistan around eight years ago. (Representational Photo (Getty Images/iStockphoto) )

Vipan had died in a hospital in Lahore on April 4, said Punjab Polices protocol officer at the Attari border, Arun Pal. He said, The body of Vipan has been further handed over to his brother in presence of Una Tehsildar by the Attari Tehsildar.

Sources said Vipan, who was mentally unstable, had inadvertently crossed over to Pakistan around eight years ago. His family members had lodged a missing report in Una. However, later on, it was confirmed that Vipan was arrested and sentenced in Pakistan under the Foreign Act.

Arun Pal said, It is not yet clear that how many years he was sentenced in Pakistan for crossing the border, but he was being treated in a Lahore hospital when he died. It took around one month to complete the paper work to bring his body back to India, he added.
Continuing their special drive to nab proclaimed offenders (POs), the Chandigarh Police have arrested two more accused wanted in separate criminal cases. Notably, Chandigarh Police, under the supervision of SSP Kanwardeep Kaur, SP (City) Mridul and DSP Davinder Sharma, apprehended a total of 60 proclaimed offenders in April. (Getty images)

Among them, Munna, a resident of Dhanas, was booked in December 2017 for kidnapping two minor girls from Khuda Lahora while they were headed to their tuition class.

Declared a PO by the court on April 25, 2023, Munna was arrested from Labour Camp, Wave Estate, Sector 85, Mohali. He was produced before a court and sent to judicial custody.

Another PO, identified as Manpreet Singh, hailing from Gurdaspur, Punjab, was arrested from ISBT, Sector 43. He was wanted for two cases of mobile phone snatching and motorcycle theft. He was declared a PO in the vehicle theft case in January 2020 and in the snatching case in February 2023.

Notably, Chandigarh Police, under the supervision of SSP Kanwardeep Kaur, SP (City) Mridul and DSP Davinder Sharma, apprehended a total of 60 proclaimed offenders in April.
A double barrel gun and some valuables were stolen from a soldiers house in Ambala Cantonments Defence Colony, police said on Wednesday. The soldiers wife told the Ambala police that she was away to visit her husband since March 16. When she returned on Tuesday, she found her house ransacked, and a gun, along with 12 brass utensils, missing. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The house was locked when the theft took place, as Sarwajeet Kaur, wife of the soldier, Harjinder Singh, who is posted with the Defence Security Corps (DSC) in Bhopal, was away to visit him since March 16.

Kaur told the police that when she returned on Tuesday, she found her house ransacked, and a gun, along with 12 brass utensils, missing. She said the thieves entered the house after breaking the window grilles. A theft case has been registered at the Panjokhra police station.
Following inputs of a possible terror strike to disrupt G20 meets in Jammu and Kashmir, security was beefed up in and around military installations along the Jammu-Pathankot national highway on Wednesday and army schools were shut as a precautionary measure. Special operations group and CRPF personnel check vehicles on the Jammu-Pathankot highway amid a high alert, on the outskirts of Jammu, on Wednesday. (PTI)

Following intelligence inputs of a terror strike, a high alert has been sounded in all defence installations along the Jammu-Pathankot national highway. At least a dozen army schools, including in Sunjuwan and Domana besides those on the highway, were shut for the day as a precautionary measure, said defence officials privy to the development.

Several defence installations dot the Jammu-Pathankot national highway.

Five soldiers were killed on April 20 after terrorists ambushed their truck in Tota Gali in Poonch district.

The Jammu-Pathankot highway has been put under constant surveillance with quick response teams (QRTs) deployed at various places.

The special operations group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police that combats terrorists along with CRPF men has also been stationed at vantage points on the highway.

The Indian Air Force station in Satwari was also put on high alert. On June 27, 2021, two explosive-laden drones from Pakistan had crashed into an airforce station building during the early hours that left two IAF personnel injured.

The attack on an Indian Air Force base in Jammu, the first-ever offensive use of drones to target an Indian military facility, had set alarm bells ringing in the South Block.

The Border Security Force that guards the 198 km long Indo-Pak International Border was also put on high alert.

As per sources, Shakargarh in Narowal district of Pakistans Punjab province has witnessed heightened activity of Pakistani terrorists, who may try to infiltrate from across the border and target military installations on the Jammu-Pathankot highway.
Wrongly rejecting a 92-year-old mans medical claim has cost an insurance firm dear. The 92-year-old alleged that despite the fact that the claim was fully covered as per the terms and conditions of the policy, the company wrongly repudiated it, which amounted to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice. (Getty images)

Holding New India Assurance Co. Limited, Chandigarh, guilty of unfair trade practice, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-1 has directed the firm to settle the patients hospital bill worth 29,000 with interest at 9% per annum from the date of repudiation of the claim, March 15, 2022, till realisation of the same.

The firm has also been directed to pay the patient, Sita Ram, a resident of Sector 19, Chandigarh, 10,000 as compensation for causing mental agony and harassment, and 10,000 as cost of litigation.

Ram, who is able to walk only with support, approached the commission with the complaint that he bought a New India Mediclaim Policy from the insurance company by paying a premium of 33,223. The policy was valid from March 12, 2022, to March 11, 2023. He submitted that he had been purchasing the individual policy from the insurer regularly since 2001.

On October 23, 2021, he suffered severe back pain and was rushed to Trinity Hospital, Zirakpur, and on the advice of the doctor, he was hospitalised for supportive therapy and treatment for two days.

On discharge, he submitted the hospital bill for medical claim, but it was repudiated by the insurer, citing there was no hospitalisation.

Ram alleged that despite the fact that the claim was fully covered as per the terms and conditions of the policy, the company wrongly repudiated it, which amounted to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice.

Appearing before the commission, the insurance company claimed that there was no deficiency in service or unfair trade practice on their part. The claim was not covered under the terms and conditions of the subject policy, and was hence rightly repudiated by the company.

But after perusing the policy, the commission observed, It is safe to hold that the case of the complainant is fully covered under the subject policy, especially as no insurance company can decide the line of treatment to be given to a patient, rather it is only the doctors who can decide about the treatment and also whether the patient was required to be admitted in the hospital or not.

It added, Not only this, the opinion of the doctor who treated the patient is more truthful than the TPAs opinion that is based on examination of the case papers.

Allowing the nonagenarian patients claim, the commission directed the insurer to reimburse his hospital bill.

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The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday granted bail to Ludhiana businessman Neeraj Saluja, an accused in 1,530 crore alleged fraud case. The court further directed that he would not sell the property except to repay loan amount. (Shutterstock)

He was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on October 28, 2022.

The CBI had arrested Saluja, director of Ludhiana-based SEL Textiles, for defrauding a consortium of 10 banks, led by Central Bank of India, of 1,530.99 crore.

The CBI had booked the yarn and fabrics manufacturing company, which has units at Malout and Nawanshahr in Punjab, Nemrana in Rajasthan and Hansi in Haryana, on August 6, 2020, along with its directors based on a complaint from the bank.

It has been alleged that huge amounts of bank loans were diverted by the accused to its related parties and subsequently, adjustment entries were made. It is also alleged that Saluja had shown procurement of machineries from non-reputed suppliers and thereby over-invoiced the bills, as per CBI.

Saluja had pleaded that stringent conditions be imposed on him, but he be given bail as pre-trial incarceration would cause an irreversible injustice to him and his family.

The court has given him bail on the condition that he would declare all his assets through notarised affidavit alogn with his wifes affidavit as well as of his children. Also the family would voluntarily declare all their assets, including foreign accounts.

The court further directed that he would not sell the property except to repay loan amount and in case of extreme necessity, he would sell his property only with the permission of court. He also cannot withdraw an amount more than 10 lakh per month for his expenses.
Char Dham yatra towards Kedarnath Dham was suspended on Wednesday after continuous rainfall in the region, authorities said. Fresh snowfall was reported in Kedarnath Dham area. (Rameshwar Gaur | HT)

Director general of police Uttarakhand Ashok Kumar said Kedarnath Yatra will remain suspended on Wednesday given the inclement weather in the area.

The yatra movement has been stopped from Rishikesh Srinagar and Sonprayag. For Thursday, the pilgrims should wait for the advisory and not embark on the yatra till then, he said

The DGP also appealed to pilgrims for cooperation in view of the inclement weather.

Also Read: Inclement weather impacts this years Char Dham yatra

There is heavy snowfall in the Kedarnath area, which is making it difficult to stay here, he said.

Kumar said all the pilgrims should stay in safe places and stop travelling towards Kedarnath Dham.

The DGP reached Phata on Tuesday evening to take stock of the yatra arrangements on the Kedarnath route.

On Wednesday, the DGP reached Kedarnath Dham.

After reviewing arrangements and the weather in the area, he gave instructions that arrangements be made so that no pilgrim is inconvenienced.

Along with crowd control, we also have to provide relief to the pilgrims to ensure their journey is smooth.

The DGP also interacted with the police force deployed in Kedarnath Dham and reviewed the arrangements for their stay, food, among others.

Meanwhile, the weather forecast according to the Indian Metrological Department Dehradun Centre said the three districts where the Char Dham shrines are located, Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag and Chamoli-received 2.5mm, 8.7mm and 4.7mm rainfall respectively.

Kedarnath shrine is located in Rudraprayag district, while Badrinath is in Chamoli district. Yamunotri and Gangotri shrines are located in Uttarkashi district.

For Thursday, the IMD has also predicted subzero temperatures due to the accumulation of light to moderate snowfall at places with 3200 metres height.

Over 3.1 lakh pilgrims have visited Char Dham shrines so far including 1.1 lakh to Kedarnath and 60,855 to Badrinath Dham.

For the next six days, 1.2 lakh pilgrims have registered themselves for Kedarnath and over 99,000 for Badrinath.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday sought the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)s response to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodias plea for interim bail in view of his wifes illness. Sisodias regular bail application is pending before the court and coming up for a hearing on Thursday. AAP leader Manish Sisodia. (PTI)

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma issued a notice to the CBI asking it to file the reply on the interim bail plea while posting the matter for hearing on Thursday.

Senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, representing Sisodia, told the court the AAP leaders wife has been hospitalised. He submitted a report about the illness from the doctor treating Sisodias wife for 20 years.

Justice Sharma asked him to approach the trial court for an opinion. He added he is hearing the regular bail application and would decide the same on merits. Justice Sharma said deciding the interim bail plea would not be feasible.

Aggarwal said since the regular bail petition is pending in the high court, the interim bail application has also been filed there. He added going to the trial court can further delay the process. Aggarwal sought at least the CBIs reply.

The CBIs lawyer told the court they may not be able to file a reply within a day.

Earlier while seeking regular bail, Sisodia said he was neither a flight risk nor the CBI found anything incriminating against him in its probe into the alleged irregularities related to the now-scrapped 2021-21 Delhi excise policy.

The CBI arrested Sisodia in February before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) took him into custody over money laundering charges. Last week, the trial court rejected his bail plea in the ED case.

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GORAKHPUR Chief minister Yogi Adityanath reached Gorakhpur on Wednesday evening to cast his vote for the high-profile Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation election on Thursday (May 4). Chief minister Yogi Adityanath reached Gorakhpur and offered prayers at Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur on Wednesday. (Sourced)

Adityanath will cast his vote at booth number 797 near Jhoole Lal temple at 7am and urge people to exercise their franchise, according to the CM camp office. Voting for the first phase of urban local body polls will start from 7am on Thursday.

Authorities have sealed the Indo-Nepal border for 48 hours, apprehending influence on the elections by hard core criminals taking shelter in Nepal. Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) jawans are patrolling the 83-km border while the police have also made elaborate security arrangements.

Border Security Force (BSF) and Provincial Arms Constabulary (PAC) jawans have been deployed at polling stations, as per requirement, said Mahendra Pal Singh, SP and nodal officer for force deployment for free and fair elections.

Officials said 818 booths have been set up for polling in Gorakhpur where 1048462 voters will cast their votes, apart from 2,245 polling stations for 11 town areas of the district.

In Maharajganj district, ADM Pankaj Verma said around 2,44,801 voters will exercise their franchise at 340 polling booths.

In Kushinagar district, 235 stations have been set up for polling in three municipalities and 13 town areas. In Deoria municipality election, 125 booths and 197 polling stations have been set up for polling in 15 town areas.
The Lucknow district administration and the police have made elaborate arrangements to conduct free and fair civic polls in the state capital on Thursday. Polling officials collect EVMs and other voting materials at a distribution centre ahead of the urban local bodies elections, in Lucknow on Wednesday. (PTI PHOTO)

Security has been beefed up at all the 770 polling stations in the state capital where the first phase of the urban local bodies elections will be held on Thursday, officials said on Wednesday.

Police are deployed in adequate numbers. Out of 770 polling stations, 114 are marked sensitive, 145 very sensitive and 75 as ultra-sensitive, district magistrate Surya Pal Gangwar said on Wednesday.

Five companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and a company of the Border Security Force (BSF) have been deployed for the sensitive polling stations in the city.

The district administration is fully prepared to tackle unruly elements. Thats why CCTV cameras are installed at these centres, the district magistrate said.

No one will be allowed to use mobile phones inside the polling stations or paste or distribute any election-related material. If campaign material is pasted on the walls of the polling place or distributed by any party, candidate or worker, then legal action will be taken against them, he added.

Entry of vehicles would be prohibited within a 200-metre radius of polling stations on the voting day.

If a person repeatedly comes to vote in his vehicle, he will be considered a campaigner of a party and legal action will be taken against him. Only elderly people can be dropped near the polling stations in vehicles, he said.

He made it clear that the polling stations would be tobacco-free premises.

No use of gutkha, tobacco products, cigarettes would be allowed inside the polling stations. Their consumption would invite legal action, he said.

Eight pink booths have been made in each zone for women. Children would have kids zone, he said.

The Lucknow Municipal Corporation has been directed to clean the area around polling stations and the Jal Sansthan has been directed to ensure supply of drinking water.

Arrangements for drinking water and toilets would be made at the polling stations for staff and voters, he said.

To check fraud, veiled women will be checked by women police personnel. Strict action will be taken against anyone found spreading rumours, he said.

Giving details of security arrangements, DCP, Central, Aparna Rajat Kaushik said,

As many as 10 DCPS, 11 ADCPs, 23 ACP will remain deployed.

Kaushik also said, 188 inspectors, 1371 sub inspectors, 330 trainee sub- inspectors, 9225 head constables and constables, along with 5400 home guards (will also be deployed).

The 770 polling stations have been divided into 12 super zones, 35 zones and 128 sectors where police, sector and zonal magistrates have been deployed.

Each police station has been given Quick Response Team vehicles for patrolling. For effective monitoring, police in civil uniform will guard strategic crossings and polling stations.

Liquor shops will remain closed on the polling day and enough traffic personnel have also been deployed for the smooth flow of traffic in the city, DCP added.

Lucknow is among the 37 districts where the first phase of polling will be held on Thursday. The second phase is scheduled in the remaining 38 districts on May 11. Votes for both phases will be counted on May 13.
LUCKNOW Four people were injured after a portion of the roof of their house in a government colony at Dalibagh collapsed around 8pm on Wednesday, said officials. The incident was believed to have been caused by rains in the state capital. Hydraulic ladders used by fire fighters in the rescue operation at Dalibagh, Lucknow, on Wednesday. (Sourced)

On January 24, the five-storey Alaya apartment building on Wazir Hasan Road had collapsed, claiming three lives.

A portion of the buildings roof collapsed. All the four persons buried in the rubble were rescued, said Rajkumar Vishwakarma, DGP, UP. Firefighters used a hydraulic ladder to rescue those trapped under the debris while a few residents were rescued through the stairs.

The injured were rushed to a hospital and their condition was stated to be stable. In a tweet, the Uttar Pradesh Police said, It has been found out that in old residences of the government behind Tilak Marg, a chhaja has fallen down, and four persons have been evacuated. No one is under rubble. Senior police officers are on the spot monitoring.

Around 3-4 families were living in the old building for a long time, said locals. District magistrate Suryapal Gangwar also reached the site to take stock of the situation.
From tactical alliances to voting patterns, political parties are looking at the ongoing urban local bodies polls, the first phase of which will be held in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, to assess the larger picture ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, now just about a year away. Officials collect EVMs ahead of the first phase of polling for the urban local bodies elections in Lucknow. (HT Photo)

Its an interesting paradox. A party like the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), which has for long been projected as anti-Muslim, has fielded the biggest batch of Muslims in these elections. Then, there is former chief minister and BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) leader Mayawati whose decision to name 11 Muslims for 17 mayoral seats has surprised many, said political analyst AP Tiwari.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has not fielded a single Yadav in the mayoral polls, which is another interesting political experiment to watch out for. As for the Congress, its leaders tell us that possibly even Priyanka Gandhi had been approached for the campaign in some of the seats in these polls. This means that the Congress is not taking these polls lightly either, Tiwari added.

Political analysts are watching keenly how the Muslims vote in these urban polls in which about 4.23 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise on May 4 and 11.

The BJP hasnt just fielded its biggest batch of Muslim candidates. It also has perhaps the biggest batch of minority campaigners who are out to remind their community how the new MY (Modi-Yogi) combination has helped the poorest of the poor. We have fielded 395 (Muslim) candidates in these elections and mind you, the results will surprise many, said Javed Malik, the chief of BJPs minority wing in west UP.

Mayawatis decision to name 11 of the 17 mayoral candidates from Muslim community has come in for much criticism from the SP and the Congress leaders, who claimed that this was another proof of the BSP being the BJPs B team.

The criticism rests on the premise that the move would scatter the minority vote to the BJPs advantage, a repeat of the Azamgarh Lok Sabha bypoll in June last year.

The BSPs decision to name a local Muslim in the Azamgarh bypoll fray was held responsible for the Samajwadi Partys surprise loss in the Muslim-dominated Lok Sabha constituency though the SP holds all the 10 assembly seats that make up the Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency. The BJP also won the Muslim-majority Rampur Lok Sabha seat in another bypoll in June last. Months later, it bagged the Rampur (Sadar) assembly seat for the first time.

The SP-RLD decision to back the Congress- supported candidate for the mayoral seat in Mathura is another interesting development. I do not know the circumstances in which it has come about. Surely given the recent developments to forge opposition unity, the Mathura development appears significant, said Irshad Ilmi, a political observer.

This one-against-one talk to take on the BJP makes it clear that the opposition now realises that Modi cant be defeated unless there is a joint effort and since that absolute unity appears elusive, it is anybodys guess on what may happen in the 2024 polls. Nevertheless, these things make urban local body polls even more interesting from the larger political perspective, added Ilmi.

In Mathura, Congress leader Shyam Sunder Upadhyaya Bittu filed his nomination for the mayoral polls against the partys official nominee. A technicality led to Bittu, however, being allotted the Congress partys hand symbol. After this, the official Congress nominee Raj Kumar Rawat decided to contest as an independent and was allotted jeep as his election symbol. The local SP-RLD leaders announced the party leadership had decided to back the Congress-backed Rawat. The official SP candidate has turned rebel.

For the first phase seats that go to polls on May 4, the parties are also testing caste appeals.

Along with Muslims for non-mayoral seats, the BJP has stuck to upper castes, bania and kayastha communities while deciding candidates for mayoral seats. The Samajwadi Party appears to be re-engaging with non-Yadav OBCs  a strategy that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav aggressively pursued in the 2022 UP polls when three non-Yadav OBC ministers, along with several other lawmakers in the BJP government, had joined the SP.

The SP chiefs recent decision to unveil a statue of BSP founder Kanshiram in a fresh bid to attract the Dalit voters considered loyal to Mayawati, appears to be a key reason for the BSP deciding to field several Muslims.

Despite its dominance in urban local body polls, the swiftness with which the BJP got the SPs mayoral candidate Archana Verma to defect and named her as its candidate from Shahjahanpur in what was described as an overnight coup indicated to many the importance that the BJP was attributing to these polls.

In the same way, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav joining the civic poll campaign, for the first time, indicated that the opposition too was unwilling to allow the BJP an easy win.

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Mumbai: In order to overcome lack of infrastructure, lack of good teachers and provide better education to students with modern facilities, the school education department will implement cluster schools across the state. This will involve more than 4,500 schools with less than 20 students enrolled. HT Image

According to the sources from the education department, during a recent workshop held in Amby Valley, the education commissioner raised the issue in the presence of school education minister Deepak Kesarkar. There are currently 4,895 such schools across the state, with 8,226 teachers and around 50,000 students. Although it is the governments responsibility to provide education for all of these students, the department believes that the low number of students poses challenges to their quality of education and overall development.

With a successful pilot experiment of cluster schools near Panshet in the Pune district, the education department is considering implementing it statewide.

According to the sources, The proposed cluster schools will bring together students from several schools to a central school located some distance away from the low enrollment area, where they will be provided with educational facilities. The government is also considering covering the travel expenses of these students to ensure they can attend the cluster schools without difficulty. Teachers in low enrollment schools will be accommodated in either the cluster schools or other schools.
Sharad Pawars unexpected decision to quit the post of party chief comes against the backdrop of two issues in the NCP. The first of these is his nephew Ajit Pawars reported insistence on joining forces with the BJP, and the second is Pawars plan to put his daughter, Baramati MP Supriya Sule, in charge of the party. Mumbai, India - May 02, 2023: NCP leaders, workers, supporters of Sharad Pawar protest in solidarity against his resignation as party president urging him to reconsider his decision, at Y.B. Chavan Centre, Nariman Point, in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, May 02, 2023. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

The veteran politicians stepping down as party chiefalbeit with plans to do backseat drivingcould prove to be a turning point for the party, provided he sticks to his decision. If he steps down and Sule becomes his successor, the NCP will not remain a unipolar party, which it is till now. But for now, Pawar has also shown that he is still in command of the party.

Tuesdays developments assume significance against the background of the speculations that Ajit is keen to go with the BJP. Unlike in 2019, when he formed a short-lived government with the BJP, Ajit has more support in the party now for such a move. Several senior leaders such as Praful Patel, Ramraje Nimbalkar, Chhagan Bhujbal and MP Sunil Tatkare have been advising the senior Pawar to seriously consider Ajits idea, which he has refused so far. Although both he and Ajit have dismissed the speculations publicly, the uneasiness within the NCP is clearly visible, with at least a dozen of its leaders facing investigation by different central agencies and clearly fed up.

With pressure mounting on him, Pawar has announced his resignation and even appointed a committee to decide who will be the next chief of the party. Pawars move has forced Ajit and other seniors to step back, said a senior NCP legislator. With the party rank and file expressing support for him and urging him to withdraw the resignation, the message is loud and clear: that he is still in command in the party. The reaction on the faces of the leaders who are in favour of the NCP going with the BJP said it all. They were surprised by his decision. Whether this will prevent the MLAs from siding with Ajit remains to be seen. For now, Pawar has scored over them.

Since 2019, Pawar and Ajit have been involved in a power tussle within the party. First, it was over giving Lok Sabha candidature to Ajits son Parth. Pawar was not keen on this but had to give in to the pressure mounted by Ajit. After the 2019 assembly elections, as the MVA was being established, Ajit tried to form a government with the BJP which was short-lived. Now there have been speculations about him trying to join forces with the BJP.

Since Ajits rebellion in 2019, Pawar has ensured more involvement of Sule and state president Jayant Patil in organisational matters of the party. Several key appointments have been made by them. It was more or less clear to party insiders that Sule, not Ajit, would be his political heir, and this has been by and large accepted by senior leaders of the party. It has been clearly visible for some time that Sule was being groomed to take up a bigger role in the party.

Pawars decision and the possible elevation of Sule could mean two power centres in the NCP in the coming days, and the party could be torn between Ajit and Sule if both are not on the same page. This is particularly significant as in the current circumstances, Sule is among those who are strongly against joining hands with the BJP. Ajits aides insist that the majority of party MLAs will stand by him because he has been handling the party on ground, especially election management, for years now.

Going by what happened on Tuesday, Pawar has shown that he calls the shots in the NCP, opined Padmabhushan Deshpande, a Mumbai-based political analyst. He will continue to give directions to the party. However, in the long term, this means he will be taking a backseat, paving the way for the new leadership.

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Mumbai: The buzz in the political circles after Sharad Pawar announced his resignation from the position of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president, is that if his daughter and three-term member of Parliament from Baramati, Supriya Sule may assume the responsibility, either now or at a later stage. Sules inclination towards national rather than state politics has been clear. Pune, India - June 10, 2018: Supriya Sule and Ajit Pawar during NCP Rally at Shinde high school ground, Sahakar Nagar in Pune, India, on Sunday, June 10, 2018.-HT photo

On Tuesday, she looked unfazed when Pawar announced his resignation from the post, in sharp contrast to the time when she became hyperactive as her cousin Ajit Pawar chose to split the party in November 2019 by joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party to form a government that lasted only 80 hours.

Sule was a picture of calm, amid a sea of emotions expressed by party leaders, who requested the NCP supremo to reconsider his decision.

Her ascent in the party in recent years has been viewed as a father grooming his daughter for significant responsibilities. As part of the party top brass, she is involved in major decisions. She keeps a hectic travel calendar across multiple districts in short spans and attends all the programmes. She censures the central government and the Shinde-Fadnavis led state government.

Pawar in an interview to Lokmat, a Marathi daily, in 2020, had indicated that she was up for a larger role in the party in future. She more interested in national politics and working in the Parliament. She was graced with the award of the best parliamentarian as well. Everyone has their own field of interest; she does too, Pawar had said.

Pawar sahib wants to define clear roles for Supriya Sule and Ajit Pawar. This may be the right time to do so to avoid any clashes in the party in future, said a senior NCP leader, anonymously.

Another senior party leader said, It was Supriya tai, who opposed the idea of joining hands with the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre in 2017, when the proposal was discussed in the core committee meeting. She stood her ground despite a group of senior NCP leaders pushing for it.

Pawar has groomed many young leaders, including his daughter and nephew Ajit Pawar and state NCP chief Jayant Patil  they are now the partys frontline leaders. But, it is not clear who will assume the mantle of the leader.

Over a period of time, Ajit Pawar seemed the heir apparent, as he was the most popular leader in the party, until his unsuccessful bid to split the party.

Sule was introduced to active politics with her election as Rajya Sabha MP in September 2006. Later in 2009, she took over the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, represented by Pawar until then. She has also formed Rashtravadi Yuvati Congress, a wing of young women, to connect with the youth and build a network across the state.

For now, NCPs founder president is holding his cards close.

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Ten days after the Noida authority sealed a private school in Noida over non-payment of land cost dues amounting to 20 crore, the school was de-sealed after the school management paid 4.19 crore towards the dues. Parents of students at Uttarakhand Public School with the Noida authority order. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

The Uttarakhand Public School in Sector 56 was sealed by the authority on April 24, leaving at least 1,500 students of the school in a lurch. The parents of these children met several officials of the district administration and the Noida authority demanding a speedy resolution so that their childrens studies are not affected.

Vandana Tripathi, officer on special duty (OSD), Noida authority, said the school was de-sealed after an assurance from the school management that it would pay the remaining dues soon.

After the school was sealed, the Uttarakhand Jan Kalyan Parishad, in whose name the land was allotted, has paid 4.19 crore to the Noida authority between April 27 and May 1. They have also assured the authority that the remaining dues will be paid within a time of six months. Hence, the authority has restored the seized institutional plot and de-sealed it. If the dues are not paid by the end of six months, the authority would again take action against the plot allottees, she said.

Harish Papne, president of Uttarakhand Jan Kalyan Parishad, said the school management does not want any child to suffer over this. We have arranged funds and deposited 4.19 crore to the Noida authority and requested the authority to de-seal the school as closure was affecting the studies of 1,500 students. We have assured the authority that we will repay the remaining dues within six months. The school management as well as parents of students are eagerly waiting for classes to commence, he said.

By 5pm Wednesday, the school was de-sealed. Several parents gathered at the spot in the rain, donning umbrellas. to witness the de-sealing. We are extremely happy and relieved that the school will commence classes from Thursday. We were disheartened and worried for the future of our children but we are reassured now, said Jyoti Devrani, a parent.

Manoj Kataria, founder of the Gautambudhnagar Parents Welfare Society (GPWS), said, Since April 25, our children are sitting at home since the school was sealed. We have been meeting several officials requesting them to de-seal the school. We are grateful to the Noida authority for allowing the school to reopen, he said.

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Allahabad University (AU) now has a fully in-house revamped website. The new-look website of the university https://allduniv.ac.in/was launched by vice chancellor Prof Sangita Srivastava, on Tuesday. Homepage of AUs revamped website. (HT Photo)

Public relations officer of AU, Prof Jaya Kapoor said, The revamped website has been fully developed in-house and this new website of AU is a dynamic one built by using Wordpress (a content management system) with a number of new features.

She further added that the website is easy to use as it provides a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for anyone authorised by the varsity to create and manage a webpage, even without any major technical skills.

Besides, the move was quite cost effective for AU as it has been built using open-source software (wordpress), which allows customisability at lower cost without the requirement of any license to be purchased, she added.

She informed that users with different permission levels can be added as per the requirement with needed permission, so that many site users can work/update/modify data without compromising site security and changes.

Moreover, the revamped website is mobile friendly as this website is designed to be mobile responsive. It can function well on any device, including smartphones and tablets, she explained.

This website can be easily scaled to meet any future requirement of the university, she added.
The Assam Police have recovered a large cache of illegally smuggled firearms, including AK-47 rifles, a 9mm pistol, magazines and bullets from Udalguri district, which falls under the Bodoland Territorial Region. Police personnel with the illegal arms recovered during the operation. (HT Photo)

Huge cache of weapons recovered by Udalguri Police. We remain committed to free Assam of all unlawful weapons, director general of police GP Singh informed in a tweet on Wednesday morning.

Udalguri superintendent of police Supriya Das said a team led by additional SP (crime) Jyoti Prasad Pegu conducted the operation in Shikaridanga area under Mazbat police station. Arms and ammunitions were recovered in the presence of independent witnesses, she stated.

Das informed that they recovered six AK-47 rifles, eight AK-47 magazines, one 9mm pistol, 74 bullets of 7.62mm calibre, among other things. No arrests have been made so far as the police said the matter is under investigation.

This is a serious issue, and we are investigating it from various angles. As of now, there is no arrest in this case, but we are trying to find if there was a bigger plan with these firearms. Once we catch the people involved in this, well be able to get more information, she said.

In another operation, the Udalguri police seized narcotic substances from a vehicle and arrested one suspected drug peddler. According to the police, 85.5 kg of cannabis were recovered at Naoherua under Lalpani police outpost in the district.
LUCKNOW For over three decades, mafioso-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who is accused in more than 50 criminal cases, resorted to delaying tactics to stall court proceedings, thereby evading imprisonment and conviction. According to officials, he stonewalled the efforts of courts to frame charges against him even after being named in several chargesheets. In the last eight months, the gangster-turned-politician has been found guilty in four cases. (PTI)

Ansaris delaying tactics finally fell short in September last year when the Allahabad High Court overturned the local courts order to acquit him and awarded him a seven-year jail term in the case relating to threatening the then jailor of Lucknow district jail SK Awasthi in 2003. Subsequently, he was convicted and sentenced in three other criminal cases. Parallelly, court proceedings were expedited in nine other cases after charges were framed against him, said Prashant Kumar, special director general (SDG), law and order, U.P. Police.

Sharing further details, additional director general (ADG) of U.P. police prosecution wing, Ashutosh Pandey, said Ansari used delaying tactics to evade the framing of charges against him in the cases he feared conviction. He added that Ansari, who served as the MLA from Mau constituency for five consecutive terms from 1995 to 2022, managed to retain his assembly membership for nearly 27 years by not getting convicted in any of the cases using dilly-dallying tactics.

The senior cop added that Ansari, who is currently lodged in Banda jail, did not contest the 2022 assembly polls and handed over the baton to his elder son Abbas Ansari. And while Abbas was elected MLA from the same constituency in 2022 assembly election, he is also lodged in the Kasganj jail in a disproportionate assets case registered against him by Enforcement Directorate.

Lack of evidence led to acquittals

Lower courts acquitted Mukhtar Ansari in most of the cases due to a lack of evidence. Many-a-time, witnesses would turn hostile fearing for their lives. Besides, in a few cases, they were allegedly paid to make a favourable statement. Consequently, at least 25 criminal cases are still pending against him, added the ADG.

Pandey further said that Ansari was charge-sheeted along with half-a-dozen of his aides in several cases but each of them used to hire separate lawyers to delay the process of the framing of charges against him. Their lawyers used to skip court dates to evade framing of charges against them by citing personal or medical reasons. Whenever a judge asked their lawyers to remain present for the framing of charges, they would ensure that courts in distant districts fixed the same date in connection with some other pending case, said the senior cop.

ADG Pandey added, Before getting convicted for the first time in September last year, Ansari got acquittal in several cases as witnesses turned hostile. While some of the witnesses died during the course of the trial, many others stopped pursuing the case after losing the hope for justice due to the delay.

The official also pointed out that delay tactics helped Mukhtar and his aides to evade conviction in many cases where government servants like police officers were witnesses. Many of these witnesses retired from service or died during the trial, which went on for decades. Retired officers usually dont turn up in courts due to health issues.

Citing a case of Ansaris delay tactics, the ADG said charges were framed against him nearly after 32 years ago on July 16, 2022, in the case pending against him at MP/MLA court since 1990. Similarly, charges were framed against him in another 1997 case registered at Bhelupur police station, Varanasi, after nearly 24 years on August 24, 2021.

In another case registered against Mukhtar at Jagdishpura police station of Agra in 1999, charges could only be framed after 23 years on October 8, 2022, said Pandey. Apart from this, charges were framed against Ansari after 21 years on March 28, 2021 in yet another case registered against him with Alambagh police station of Lucknow in 2000. Also, charges were framed in four other cases registered against him in 2020 and 2021.

Fell like a house of cards

While the attempts of Mukhtars legal team managed to save him for decades using lacunae in the judicial system, his world crashed like a house of cards after charges were framed against him in several cases. The prosecution cell started monitoring cases aggressively to counter Ansaris delay tactics since 2020 and got charges framed in old cases pending against him. Thereafter, he was convicted in four cases back-to-back as courts also expedited the proceedings after the framing of charges, the ADG said.

Most recently, the Ghazipur MP/MLA court gave Ansari 10 years of imprisonment in the 2007 case lodged under Gangster Act in connection with the killing of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in November 2005 and kidnapping and murder of businessman and BJP leader Nand Kishore Rungta in January 1997. Mukhtars MP brother Afzal Ansari was also imprisoned for four years.

The court also imposed a fine of 5 lakh and 1 lakh on Mukhtar and Afzal, respectively. On December 15, 2022, Mukhtar was convicted in another case lodged under the Gangster Act. This case was filed at the City Kotwali police station of Ghazipur district in 1999. Hearing the case, the Ghazipur MP/MLA court sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment.

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LUCKNOW At a time when large sections of voters are polarised along party lines, their shared love for tea is the common thread binding the poll-bound city of Lucknow. The indulgence, prevalent among residents, has turned tea stalls in the City of Nawabs into what Prime Minister Narendra Modi once adoringly described as Footpath Parliaments. The reasonably cool weather has added to the joy of citys favourite past time -- discussing politics with hot cuppa tea. (HT Photo)

From party politics to civic woes plaguing the city, residents are seen discussing all kinds of issues at these tea points, especially in the wake of the urban local body polls. The reasonably cool weather has added to the joy of citys favourite past time -- discussing politics with hot cuppa tea.

At Tandoor Chai, a popular tea stall near the Chota Imambara, youngsters, including several first-time voters, assemble every evening to discuss the merits of candidates in the fray and the poll issues at large. According to a group of youths at the stall, traffic bottlenecks, dilapidated roads, encroachments, and waste management are among the major issues in the old city area. They said that the candidate who proposes a good plan to get the area rid of these troubles will get their vote.

Slow pace of traffic is a big challenge in Lucknow, especially in the old city area. Already narrow roads are further congested due to encroachments. I often reach late for my college classes due to this menace, said 24-year-old Aryan Mishra. Meanwhile, Mohit Pal, 21, thinks garbage disposal and tackling the stray cattle menace should be the top priority of the authorities. Commuters become prone to accidents due to cattle straying on roads, particularly in the streets that are not properly lit by streetlights. I have met with minor accidents several times after dusk, he added.

On the other hand, Pankaj Yadav, Altamash, and Dishan -- all first-time voters -- want their representative to ensure that parks and old structures in the old city are not neglected. Parks are hardly cleaned. Littering and stray cattle are common in many of these public spaces. We cant even go there for a run or just sit on park benches with our friends, said Pankaj and Dishan. Im voting for an independent candidate this time. I feel independents understand civic problems much better than party-affiliated corporators, added Altamsh.

Similarly, citys iconic tea stall Sharma Ki Chai in Lalbagh also remains abuzz with political discussions throughout the day. Lots of parks along the Gomti where youngsters visit regularly should be cleaned. Even though a lot has changed in the city, a lot still needs to be done, said Sumit Ojha, a college graduate. Another city resident and tea lover, Pooja Yadav, said, The incumbent government has done a lot to ensure ease of doing business. As a consequence, several new startups have come up. I welcome this change and hence, will vote for the ruling party.
The finance departments of Bihar and Jharkhand have finally fallen back on the banks to extract details of the pensioners to resolve the decades-old issue of division of pension liability between the two states, which has been awaiting resolution since Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in November 2000, officials familiar with the matter said. Bihar Vidhan Sabha. (HT file)

As per the latest direction of the ministry of home affairs (MHA), which is arbitrator with respect to deciding assets and liabilities between the two states under the Bihar Reorganisation Act (BRA) 2000, Bihars additional chief secretary (finance) S Siddharth called on his Jharkhand counterpart Ajay Kumar Singh in Ranchi last week and agreed to resolve the contentious issue of pension liabilities after matching the Bihar governments claim for 843 crore to settle the issue.

Citing the provision in the BRA to determine the pension on the basis of employees ratio, Bihar government had been asking for payment of 3,100 crore from Jharkhand, which it claimed to have paid to the natives of Jharkhand who retired from Bihar. However, the Jharkhand government has been disputing the criterion as envisaged under the BRA, and challenged it in the Supreme Court. The Jharkhand government had pleaded that it should be decided on the population ratio, as were followed in many other cases. The court had finally directed both the governments to resolve the issue through mediation by the MHA.

Siddharth said that the Bihar government had provisionally settled the issue for 843 crore up to 2019-20 as per the MHA instruction in keeping with the Jharkhand governments contention (based on the population ratio). He said the all nationalised banks had been asked to furnish the details of pensioners, who have been drawing their pension from banks, to buttress the claims.

Principal secretary, Jharkhand, Ajay Kumar Singh, said they had agreed to the Bihars claim, based up on the population ratio, but the Bihar government needed to authenticate it from the pension payment receipts issued by the banks. On our part, we have directed the banks to provide the details of pensions paid to the retired officials of in Bihar and Jharkhand, said Singh.

A senior officer of the finance department in Bihar said it is going to another difficult exercise to extract the details of pension from thousands of bank branches. Pension was being paid through the banks till 2012. However, after that, the system for pension payment was changed and the district treasuries were made nodal authority to make the payments, he said.

Bihar government has been making a provision of 300 crore in the annual budget for pension payment to the retired employees, who worked and settled in Jharkhand after retirement.

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Bharatiya Janata Party's Bihar unit president Samrat Choudhary on Wednesday accused the ruling Janata Dal (United) of an illicit liquor scam worth 10,000 crore, even naming chief minister Nitish Kumar.



Today alcohol has reached every home & Nitish Kumar is getting money through home delivery. Nitish Kumars party is doing a scam to the amount of 10,000 crores in illicit liquor. The administration is collaborating with the liquor mafia and sending all the money to the JD(U) account...Thats why today we take a vow that in 2024 we will win with a full majority in Bihar, Choudhary was quoted by ANI as saying. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

The Bihar government in 2016 had implemented prohibition policy which bans the manufacture, trade, storage, transportation, sale, and consumption of liquor in the state. However, the dry state has been plagued by deaths of people due to consumption of spurious liquor in the past seven years.

In March this year, a Bihar government data stated that 7,49,000 people were arrested in the state under liquor prohibition law till January 2023, while the conviction rate in cases related to violation is 21.98% till February 2023.

Recently, chief minister Nitish Kumar announced conditional payment of ex-gratia of four lakh rupees each to the next of the kin of those who died due to spurious liquor.

His statement had come on a day when 26 people had died due to the same in Motihari. We have decided to provide ex gratia of 4 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased. But, the amount will only be given if their family members say in writing to the district magistrate concerned that the death took place after consuming illicit liquor. They will have to disclose the source from where the alcohol was procured, too, Kumar was quoted by PTI as saying.

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A female Great Indian Bustard (GIB), an endangered species, was spotted in Solapurs Nannaj neighbourhood in the last week of April, close to a water source. The female GIB has finally returned to her habitat, according to forest officials, and this is encouraging for the grassland ecosystem restoration in the area. A female Great Indian Bustard was spotted at a water source in the last week of April. (SOURCED)

The department also sighted other endangered species like Lesser Florican and even fox in the same area. These species were earlier part of the grassland ecosystem in Nannaj, however, they were categorised as endangered due to the habitat loss here.

According to officials, there were at least 35 GIBs that existed in Maharashtra a decade ago, however, a state-wide survey by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in 2017 found the bird had gone extinct.

Currently, only one female GIB exists in the area. The bird which also migrates to Karnataka for some time has been seen after around 4 to 5 years into its traditional sighting area.

Tushar Chavan, conservator of forest (wildlife), Pune, said, Birds used to congregate in a 100-hectares region in Nannaj as a customary showcase location during the breeding season. However, in recent years, the birds have not been present here, primarily as a result of habitat loss.

Not only GIB, but many other animals and birds have been affected due to habitat loss in the area. After realising the issue, the department took the initiative for habitat conservation at the Nannaj GIB sanctuary. With the successful efforts of the conservation programme, the bird has returned to its conventional habitat, he said.

The efforts made by the forest department to restore the grassland ecology at Nannaj Sanctuary include the installation of firelines, grazing control measures, building and maintaining water holes, and encouraging the population of prey animals. The conservation initiative will continue, said Chavan.

At Nannaj Sanctuary, the department also intends to establish a GIB breeding facility. They are currently in discussions with several interested parties, including the Rajasthan Forest Department, from whom they are requesting eggs because Rajasthan has the highest number of GIBs (20), and the department runs a successful GIB habitat there.

We are also in talks with the Wildlife Institute of India, the Bombay Natural History Society, and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. We are expecting a nod soon, said Chavan.
Police have booked four inmates of Yerawada Central Prison for allegedly assaulting another prisoner. The incident occurred around 1 pm on Tuesday. Police have booked four inmates of Yerawada Central Prison for allegedly assaulting another prisoner. (HT FILE PHOTO)

The accused identified as Aslam Bashir Mujawar, Sidharth Ankush Yampure, Ajay Vijay Paygude and Saurabh Ganesh Salave attacked Nana Gaikwad and injured him.

The accused reportedly manhandled the victim, leading to physical altercation. One prisoner sustained head injuries in the incident and was taken to hospital.

A police official said that two of the four accused are serving jail sentence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), while the others were incarcerated on charges under Sections 395 and 385 of the IPC. The jail official lodged a complaint with the Yerawada police station, following which a case has been registered against the accused under Sections 324, 323, and 34 of the IPC.
Pune: Even as several leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) gathered at Y.B. Chavan centre in Mumbai a day after Sharad Pawar announced relinquishing the chiefs post, the partys state unit chief Jayant Patil was in Pune on Wednesday. In the afternoon, he was called to Mumbai by Pawar, leaders said. In Mumbai, senior NCP leader Praful Patel denied that the state NCP chief was upset with the party. (HT PHOTO)

Reacting to reports about why he was not attending the meeting in Mumbai and whether he is being sidelined, Patil said there was no meeting scheduled and he was attending a programme in Pune as per pre-decided plan.

There were initial reports that a meeting of top NCP leaders was being held in Mumbai and Patil had not been invited to it. However, party leaders denied reports of meeting.

I got a call from Supriya Sule and she told me that there was no meeting scheduled. As far as I am concerned, I am attending Pune event as per pre-decided schedule, said Patil.

In Mumbai, senior NCP leader Praful Patel denied that the state NCP chief was upset with the party.

Patil said that he was among several people who had joined the NCP after being inspired by Pawar sahebs leadership, a day after the veteran leader announced he would be stepping down as NCP chief.

Asked if he would work under Pawars daughter Supriya Sule as the national president as her name is doing the rounds for the top post, Patil said whatever decision the party takes, everyone has to accept it.

To a question, if he was one of the contenders for the national president, Patil said he doesnt consider himself eligible to work at the national level. I would like to continue working in the state. Our demand is that Pawar saheb continues as the national chief. So, it is inappropriate to discuss other names, he said.

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The Pune police have busted a gang involved in distribution of fake Secondary School Certificate (SSC) marksheet of Maharashtra State Open School. The Pune police have busted a gang involved in distribution of fake Secondary School Certificate (SSC) marksheet of Maharashtra State Open School. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

The accused have been identified as Saiyad Imran Saiyad Ibrahim from Sambhajinagar, Altaf Sheikh from Paranda in Dharashiv district, Krushna Sonaji Giri from Bidkin in Sambhajinagar and Sandeep Dyandev Kamble from Sangli district.

The gang had been operating for several months and used to ask huge amount from students for fake marksheet.

According to police sources, the gang was demanding 60,000 for SSC certificate of open school. The gang had intermediaries who identified potential consumers and sent their information to primary operators.

Based on a tip-off, the crime branch unit organised a dummy customer and nabbed Kamble from Swargate on April 30. The rest were held on May 2.

ACP Narayan Shirgaonkar said, Accused Kamble and Sonaji used to search customers and Ibrahim and Sheikh were involved in producing fake certificates.

According to the police, the accused have sold 35 fake SSC open schooling certificates till date. The police are probing the involvement of others in the racket.
A special court in Ranchi on Wednesday rejected Congress leader Rahul Gandhis plea to exempt him from personal appearance in a hearing on the Modi surname case in which he was convicted by a Gujarat court in March this year and subsequently disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha. Rahul Gandhi (HT file)

The defamation case in Ranchi court was filed by an advocate, Pradip Modi, for Gandhis alleged remark that all Modis are thieves at an election rally in Ranchi in 2019.

Gandhis counsel Pradeep Chandra said the special MP/MLA court rejected their petition for exemption from personal appearance in the case. The court has fixed May 22 as the next date of hearing in the case. But we will challenge the order in high court before that, he said.

Earlier, Gandhi had challenged the lower courts summon in Jharkhand high court, which rejected his quashing petition on July 2, 2022.

Subsequently, the lower court had issued fresh summons to Gandhi.

In effect, if Rahul fails to seek relief from a higher court, he shall have to appear before the lower court.

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At least four persons were killed, while around a dozen got injured after a pick-up van carrying a wedding party overturned near Zarda village under Jari police station limits in Gumla district of Jharkhand on Tuesday night, officials said. Representational image.

The accident occurred around 10 pm when the overcrowded van, carrying the family members of the bride, was returning from Sangardih in Dumri after the wedding ceremony.

The van was returning from a marriage function when it met with the accident. Four died on the spot, while around a dozen got injured. The injured have been sent to Gumla for better treatment, Gumla superintendent of police Ehtesham Waquarib said.

Deputy SP Vikas Anand said nine persons who suffered serious injuries are under treatment at the Gumla district hospital.

Over two dozen people were in the van. We arranged alternate vehicles and sent around 13-14 persons with minor injuries back home, he added.
Actor Jimmy Shergill is enjoying his OTT run and balancing it well with films. The Rangbaaz Phir Se actor is happy that irrespective of the mediums, makers are taking risks and doing interesting projects. Jimmy Shergill on his visit to Lucknow.

I have been experimenting throughout my career. Thankfully, I have never been in a situation where I had to worry about anything. I have earned recognition for my work irrespective of whether the film worked or not! So, for me its important to live up to my image of doing interesting roles and thankfully Im able to do that, says the actor on his recent visit to Lucknow.

Shergill making the most of the ongoing phase with his back-to-back OTT stints as well as other projects

Actor Jimmy Shergill at La Martiniere College during his recent visit to Lucknow.

OTT ka toh mazedaar time hai kyunki aap khul ke bahar aa sakte hain. You dont need to fear that chalega ya nahi chalega. Anything new and interesting is being lapped up by the audience. For web space I feel writers, makers and actors all have a little edge and freedom to be more creative. But not all are creative, as there are few who set the trend and a big lot follow it up with similar content. In our series Your Honour we had set the tone and in the second season we raised the level a few notches up!

Shergill remembers many advised him against playing a mature guy for his OTT outing. When I did Your... many were like why are doing such role and playing such role but thats what intrigued me. More than the outcome, I enjoy the process of preparing and shooting. Like, when I read the script of film Aazam, I was blown always by director Shravan Tiwaris script and the fact that it needed my 35 nights of shoot. So, its the script and challenging work that thrills me, he adds.

The Mukkabaaz actor has multiple projects lined up. I have completed shoot of Pushpendra Nath Mishras OTT series Chuna, that we shot in Lucknow, a sequel of film Haseen Dillruba, Santosh Singhs action-thriller series tentatively titled Grey Wars and Neeraj Pandeys film Auron Main Kaha Dham Tha with Ajay Devgn and Tabu. So, its a good mix of work that will come one after another, concludes the actor.
On May 1 (May 2 in India), actor Alia Bhatt made her Met Gala debut. For her first-ever appearance at the star-studded event, Alia went all out in a white gown by Prabal Gurung and the internet couldnt get enough. On Wednesday, the actor was spotted at Mumbai's Kalina Airport as she returned to India after making a splash at Met Gala 2023 in New York. Also read: Alia Bhatt gets mistaken for Aishwarya Rai by New York paparazzi at Met Gala 2023, Reddit says badla le rahe hai Alia Bhatt at Mumbai airport (left), and at Met Gala 2023 (right).

Photos of Alia from the airport showed the actor smiling and waving as paparazzi captured her leaving for home. Alia wore a black airport look in the photos that saw her seated inside her car. Alia will be reuniting with actor-husband Ranbir Kapoor and their daughter Raha Kapoor after her brief US trip. Before leaving for the Met Gala, Alia had shared a cute photo of the father-daughter duo.

Alia Bhatt at Mumbai's Kalina Airport. (Pic: Varinder Chawla)

At Met Gala 2023, the new mom perfectly delivered on the theme, which paid homage to the late designer Karl Lagerfeld, in a white princess gown drenched in pearls and featuring a long train. Alia had been documenting her Met Gala journey on Instagram. Moments before she made her debut, the actor teased her Instagram followers with a silhouette shot of herself, and she wrote, "And here we go." After the event, Alia shared photos of herself from the Met Gala.

Sharing her red carpet pictures, Alia spoke about her dress. A part of her caption read, "I wanted to do something that felt authentic (hello, pearls!) and proudly made in India. The embroidery, made with a 100,000 pearls is a labour of love by @prabalgurung. Im so proud to wear you for my first Met..." Her sister Shaheen Bhatt also posted photos of the actor's red carpet appearance and summed up her look with one word  Angel.

Met Gala takes place on the first Monday of May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This year, apart from Alia Bhatt, actor Priyanka Chopra, socialite-entrepreneur Natasha Poonawalla and billionaire heiress Isha Ambani attended the event.

Alia Bhatt will soon make her Hollywood debut with the Netflix film Heart Of Stone, co-starring Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan. Next, she will be seen in Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani with Ranveer Singh. The film will also feature veteran actors Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, and Shabana Azmi. Alia also has Jee Le Zaraa with Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif as one of her upcoming projects.

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Celina Jaitly recently shut down a troll who taunted her for enjoying life amid nature in Austria instead of India. The actor had written a long post summing up her experience of living in a historic village in Austria and driving occasionally to bigger cities for some me time. She had also talked in depth about her lovely drive through scenic locations. However, one of her followers slammed her for living abroad and called it hypocrisy'. Also read: Celina Jaitly gets marriage proposal on Twitter, says I will ask my husband Celina Jaitly shared a picture from her drive to a city in Austria.

Commenting on Celina's post--a picture of her posing in front of an electric car--the Twitter user wrote, Lol.. Thats what called half baked knowledge. You want to live with the nature you don't go Austria but you go to India. Living with fancy battery car, fancy shoes jackets etc.. This is western hypocrisy.

Responding to him, Celina tweeted, "Chitaji my clothes & shoes are Made in India. Husband and kids are made in Austria. This is not hypocrisy its globalisation. PS: Dil (heart) and passport dono (both) Hindustani."

Celina Jaitly reacted to a troll.

Celina lives in Austria with hotelier husband Peter Haag and their three sons: 11-year-old twins Winston and Viraaj and five-year-old Arthur. She regularly shares pictures of her life amid nature in Austria.

On Tuesday, Celina had shared a picture of herself from one of her drives to a city. She had written, "One of the best things that I have learnt living in Austria is living with the goal of a life in agreement with nature. While I live in a scenic historic village in the very high altitude alpine area of central Austria I do often take trips to the bigger cities like Graz, Vienna & Salzburg for some ME Time."

She continued, These historic cities have tiny beautiful lanes that tell tales of centuries & going through them is like a journey snaking through time periods, from past into present the only drawback however is finding a place to park. While I only feel most comfortable driving all terrain SUVs, one of my favourite things to do is rent this amazing two-seat electric microcar & enjoy a day of European city pleasures while feeling good about my carbon footprint (and finding the best parking spots). Austria is considered to be the environmental flagship of Europe and I have learnt so many wonderful things here. Not only have I grown so much in Austria, I regained my soul in its nature, Hence contributing to its fairyland nature and environment I feel like I am protecting my own soul. #celinajaitly #CelinaJaitley #austria #LabourDay.

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Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui recently talked about rumours and shared why he prefers not reacting to them. The actor in the last few months kept making news with his personal life. In a new interview, he said one cannot do anything about rumours. He feels everyone is living in their shells. He pointed out that people often enjoy out of others' misery. Also read: Case filed against Nawazuddin Siddiqui for 'hurting' Bengali community with Sprite ad Nawazuddin Siddiqui at the Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes on Tuesday. (ANI)(ANI)

Nawazuddin Siddiqui landed in controversy when his estranged wife Aaliya alleged that the actor's mother harassed her. She further claimed that Nawazuddin disowned their children. Last month, a court ordered their kids, Shora and Yaani to return to Dubai for their studies. Aaliya and Nawazuddin engaged in ugly public fights for a long time on the matter.

Talking about rumours, without any specific reference, Nawazuddin recently told ETimes, You can't do anything about rumour. It has happened even earlier that one rumour was spread by someone purposely to make a person into a villain. The way a rumour spreads, others also keep adding fuel to fire and people start believing it. Thus, the person in question becomes a villain. By the time the truth comes out, his career is over. Everyone is in their shell. Agar ek ki pit rahi hai, toh sab maze le rahe hai (Everyone takes pleasure out of a person's misery)

Ganda aadmi aapko lalkarta hai aur jab aap uske paale mein jaate hain, wahan woh aapse smart hota hai (A bad person provokes you, and almost gets you to their territory. That's where you know that you've been outsmarted.) So it's better to let the rumours spread and not react, he reasoned.

Nawazuddin will be next seen in Sudhir Mishra's Afwaah. It also has Bhumi Pednekar and is said to focus on the subject of rumour-mongering and misinformation. It is set to release on May 5.

Besides this, Nawazuddin also has Jogira Sara Ra Ra with Neha Sharma, lined up for release. It is touted to be a romantic comedy with a twist. It will release in theatres on May 12. The actor also has Tiku Weds Sheru, Noorani Chehra, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Haddi as his upcoming projects.

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Actor Neha Dhupia has a new address in Mumbai as she shifted to a new house recently. Announcing the milestone, the actor penned a long and emotional note about leaving her old house where she spent about 19 years of her life. She has become the new neighbour of her good friend Soha Ali Khan. Also read: Anushka Sharma smiles wide as she and Virat Kohli pose with Neha Dhupia, Angad Bedi at event Neha Dhupia moved to a new house in Mumbai.

Neha posted a bunch of memories from her old place on Instagram. From hosting house parties with friends to her baby shower to spending time with her family, the old photos summed up her emotions. She added a long caption and wrote, Yes its a true story  a place I called home for almost 19 years of my life  saying good bye was just the hardest 

"I still remember as a 23 year old as soon as I walked into this little house I knew I would call it mine forever.. and we did stick to that promise . All Im doing now is going away for a little bit just so that we both get a little breathing space. Its been just a day and gosh I miss it so much already

"Every room, every side, every wall, every nook, every corner has a story to tell  this place I called home saw me grow, laugh, cry, scream from rooftops literally and figuratively. From my first piece of slightest success to my heart breaks to those crazy games nights and those gorgeous Diwali lights and my obsession with multiple things that I would hoard, it just embraced everyone and everything with love and positivity and a view to write home about.

"My crazy casting calls to my endless fittings to my evenings with friends and my midnight munchies and those occasional lovers tiffs to many unreasonable conversations with my team I never ever wanted to be anywhere else but home.

"No complaints as I sit and write this in a brand new home with a promise of brand new beginnings but I feel there will be no bigger and more adventurous story to tell in my life than my time spent there.

These walls welcomed me home after a long day and sometimes kept me home endlessly with the hope of having long days  this home welcomed our love and our babies and I would have wanted any other corner to keep our cot than by the view of the famous mango tree  I would not want any room to be occupied by my parents and family and friends each time they visited than they did and I could not have asked for a better set of neighbours and friends in the building (very little chatter but we always knew we were there for each other). I miss, I miss, I miss it all, she added.

Soon after she made the announcement, several celebrities rushed to the comments section and sent their love. While Sonu Sood dropped red heart emojis for Neha, Soha commented, Hello neighbour!! Karan Johar added, To new beginnings with the best baggage of memories. All the best Neha !! Lots of love, said Bhavana Pandey.

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In a new interview, Sonam Bajwa opened up about one thing she wants to steal from Sara Ali Khan and Ananya Panday. The actor, who is gearing up for the release of her Punjabi film Godday Godday Chaa, is busy with the movie's promotions. During a recent interview, Sonam spoke about how Bollywood actors have direct access to filmmakers, unlike her. Also read: Sonam Bajwa recalls industry people calling her just pretty face Sonam Bajwa spoke about Ananya Panday and Sara Ali Khan in an interview.

Sonam, who has carved a niche for herself in Punjabi films and has also acted in Tamil and telugu films, has stayed away from Hindi films. She recently opened up about star kids such as Sara and Ananya Panday having easy access to filmmaker Karan Johar.

In an interview with Bollywood Bubble, Sonam was asked if there was 'one thing' she would want to steal from 'young-age actresses'. When Sara Ali Khan and Ananya Panday's names were taken, Sonam responded with nothing. But then added, They can go to Karan Johars house and discuss and get to audition. If I get to do all of that, then yeah

During another recent interview, Sonam had opened up about Hindi films, and revealed how she was disheartened with the behaviour meted out to her by Bollywood. She was supposed to appear in the song Sip Sip 2.0 for Varun Dhawans Street Dancer 3D (2020). However, her song was axed from the movie.

In an interview with Siddharth Kannan last month, Sonam had said, I felt very bad. Firstly, I never wanted to do a song. But the team was so looked up to. Remo is such a senior artist, director, and choreographer. Varun Dhawan is loved by everyone. I was in two minds, should I do the song, should I not do the song. But theyd reached out to me, so I decided to go ahead. And when the song didnt make it to the final edit of the film, I was very disheartened.

Sonam was recently seen in the US Tour of The Entertainers along with actors Akshay Kumar, Disha Patani, Nora Fatehi, Mouni Roy, and others. This year, she will also be seen in Carry On Jatta 3. In the film, she will be reuniting with Gippy Grewal. Directed by Smeep Kang, it also has Binnu Dhillon.

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Hollywood actor Kevin Costner and his wife, Christine Baumgartner, have called it quit after almost 17 years of marriage. Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner Split. (Image Credit: Shutterstock)

Baumgartner, 49, has filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The couple has three children together: Cayden, 15, Hayes, 14, and Grace, 12. Costner, who is 68 years old, has four other children from previous relationships.

In a statement to the media, Costner's representative confirmed the split, saying, "It is with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action." The representative also asked that the couple and their children's privacy be respected as they navigate this difficult time.

The news was first reported by TMZ. In November 2022, Costner spoke fondly of his wife, saying, "My wife does things that just completely... It just helps. The house is prettier because of her. Everything is warmer because of her. There's these little things that she does and I think it's the power of love, but that she makes her home that way."

Costner and Baumgartner tied the knot in September 2004, after dating for six years. Baumgartner was upfront with Costner about wanting to start a family, and the couple welcomed their first child together in 2007.

In an interview with Extra, Costner revealed that Baumgartner gave him an ultimatum before they got married, saying, "If you're going to be with me, you need to know that kids are at the end of the road for me with you, if that's going to happen."

The pair have three children together. (Image Credit: Getty Images)

This is Costner's second marriage, after his 16-year marriage to Cindy Silva ended in divorce in 1994. Costner has been keeping busy with his role in the popular television series "Yellowstone," where he plays Montana patriarch John Dutton. Rumors began to swirl earlier this year that Costner might be leaving the show to focus on directing and starring in an upcoming Western film, "Horizon."

While it's unclear whether Costner will continue with "Yellowstone," Paramount's Keith Cox, president of development and production, said during a panel at PaleyFest last month that he's "very confident" Costner will return to the show. The second half of season 5, which was expected to return with new episodes in the summer of 2023, has not yet resumed production.

Last April, it was confirmed that McConaughey would be a part of the Yellowstone franchise in a new spinoff.

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, Costner has been optimistic about his relationship with Baumgartner.

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In an interview last year, he said, "Our partnership has really come into focus about what we do for each other and how we deal with our family." He added, "Our house is like a river: You've just got to get into the flow of it. And whatever you thought it was going to be, maybe it still can, but it's going to have to work with what the day brings."
Jamie Foxx continues to be hospitalized for undisclosed "medical complications". While Foxx's actual condition remains unknown, his friend Charlie Mack, took to Instagram on Monday and asked his fans to pray for the Oscar-winning actor. Jamie Foxx (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

In an emotional and inspiring post, Charlie shared a picture with the message "Pray for Foxx!!!".

Good morning IG, I need you all to constantly keep our beloved brotha @iamjamiefoxx up whom we all loe & care for dearly in our Hearts, Minds & Prayers!!!! We need you back Bro. As I always state a true champion isnt the one that wins, its the one that meets & overcomes adversity!! Youre test becomes your testimony!! We all cant wait to receive you back home to celebrate, laugh with and applaud you!! With the mercy from Allah The Creator of the Heavens & Earth!!! Oh Allah I come before you yet once again humbly asking please heal & restore our brotha @iamjamiefoxx stronger & better than before!!! I have absolutely no shame in asking pleading & begging for your merciful healing powers over our brotha now in your time not ours for miracle. I must & will thank you in advance your gracious humble servant Kareem Abdullah aka Charlie Mack Ameen!," posted Charlie.

In the second week of April, the 55-year-old had got hospitalized in Atlanta, Georgia where he was present for the filming of his upcoming movie Back in Action". Back then, Foxx's 29-year-old daughter, Corinne had informed fans about the actor's health situation and requested privacy.

Few weeks ago, comedian and actor Martin Lawrence while attending his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, had spoken about Foxx's health in an interview to Extra.

"I hear he's doing better My prayers go out for him every night and just wishing the best for him, one of the best that we got in Hollywood," Lawrence had said.

"Not only one of the best entertainers but a good person," he added.
Actor-filmmaker Manobala, who began his film career as an assistant director and went to direct over a dozen films, died on Wednesday at a private hospital in Chennai. As per his publicist, he was hospitalised 10 days ago, and was undergoing treatment for liver-related ailment. He was 69, and is survived by his wife and son. Also read: Rajinikanth pays a visit to Uddhav Thackeray and his family in Mumbai Actor-filmmaker Manobala died on Wednesday; Rajinikanth remembered him.

Veteran actor Rajinikanth paid his tribute on Twitter in Tamil as he remembered his 'dear friend' Manobala. Rajinikanths tweet can be translated as, "I am deeply saddened by the passing away of my dear friend Manobala, a famous director and actor. My condolences to his family. May his soul rest in peace."

Producer G Dhananjayan also took to Twitter and wrote that hes shocked to learn about Manobalas death. He tweeted, Shocking and it's unbelievable such a sweet person and a good friend Manobala sir passed away. Heartfelt condolences to the family. May his soul rest in peace (sic). Actor Gautham Karthik also tweeted, Heartbreaking to hear that director/actor Manobala sir is no longer with us. Was a true pleasure to work with you sir! You will be surely missed! Condolences to family, friends and loved ones...

In 1979, Manobala started his film career as an assistant director with Bharathirajas Puthiya Vaarpugal. He also played a small role in the film. He made his directorial debut with 1982 Tamil film Aagaya Gangai. He had also directed the Hindi film, Mera Pati Sirf Mera Hai, starring Jeetendra. Some of his other directorial films include Pillai Nila, Sirai Parvai and Oorkavalan among others. His last directorial project was 2002 Tamil film Naina.

Over the last two decades, he was active as an actor. Mostly popular for character roles with a comic side, he had acted in over 200 films. His last on screen appearance was in Kajal Aggarwals Tamil horror comedy, Ghosty.

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She recently won the Indian Telly Award for her performance in Ekta Kapoor's popular supernatural fantasy show Naagin, but Maheck Chahal was once told she may not be able to work in the show as she did not know Hindi. (Also read: Pratik Sehajpal thanks Ekta Kapoor for giving him his first TV show Naagin 6) Maheck Chahal recalls being told her Hindi is not good enough for her to feature in Naagin 6.

Maheck bagged the Fan Favourite Negative Actress award at the recently held Indian Telly Awards for Naagin 6. She spoke about working really hard on her Hindi for the show.

Maheck told IndiaToday in an interview, When I started Naagin 6, a lot of people said, 'tujhe toh Hindi bolne nahi aati, tu kaise karegi Naagin?' So it was like 'mil gaya jawab?' (You can't even speak Hindi, how will you work in Naagin? But the award was like the perfect answer to those people). I used to have a tutor on the sets. I really worked hard.

Maheck also said that initially, the show's director had to explain the meaning of words from her dialogue. She added that she may have worked in Hindi films, but Naagin uses a vocabulary that is not too commonly used. "Because I have been born and raised in Norway, right? So, my Hindi has been fine because I have been working in Hindi movies. But in a show like Naagin, the vocabulary is very different. The words which are used are not normally used in web series and films. So, that was very difficult. I worked really hard."

Soon after she bagged the award last week, Maheck thanked her fans and wrote a long note on Instagram. Posing with her award, Maheckk wrote, Thank you fans for this honor and giving this award in my hand FOR BEST ACTRESS IN A NEGATIVE ROLE, it makes me feel great on being rewarded for the hard work that one does. She also named and thanked all her family, friends, producer Ekta and directors Ranjan Kumar and Dharmesh Shah for being part of her journey.

A screenshot of Maheck's post.

She added, "I feel overwhelmed and emotional and I am at a loss for words, this is a very special moment in my life. And most of all thank you god for always Being by my side and giving me strength to not give up and keep going.."

Maheck Chahal has been working in the TV and film industry for a long time now. Making her debut in 2002 with the Telugu film Neetho, she featured with Salman Khan in his 2008 film Wanted. She also worked with him in the movie Main Aur Mrs Khanna. She often features in special dance songs in various films, these include Chameli and Yamla Pagla Deewana.

Maheck also participated in the fifth season of Salman Khan's reality show Bigg Boss and emerged as the first runner-up for the show on Bigg Boss 5. She also appeared on Rohit Shetty's adventure reality show Khatron Ke Khiladi 11 as a participant.

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All eyes will be on Prince Harry at the upcoming coronation ceremony of King Charles III. A few weeks ago, it was revealed that Prince Harry will be attending the coronation without wife Meghan Markle. Now, a royal commentator has shared that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex might call for a 'last-minute stunt' ahead of the ceremony. (Also read: King Charles extends olive branch to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ahead of May coronation) Prince Harry: Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry are seen.(AP)

It was earlier also reported that Prince Harry will be seated 10 rows behind the royal family and will make a quick exit at the May 6 coronation of his father King Charles III amid the ongoing feud between the royals. Former royal butler Paul Burrell, who served William and Harry's mother, the late Princess Diana, had said that Prince Harry is going to King Charles IIIs coronation just to 'show face'. The coronation festivities are expected to extend over a three-day period, but Harry will reportedly only attend the actual crowning ceremony.

Now, as per a report by GB News, royal commentator Tom Bower has shared his opinion that there are chances that Prince Harry might reverse his decision to join the ceremony. He said, "I think there is more to come... I'm sure that when Harry is here, or just before he arrives, something else will come out of California. And unfortunately, it'll overshadow what the Coronation is meant to be about... I've always suspected that [Harry] didn't want to come. I didn't think he would come and I think he's looking for an excuse not to come because quite clearly he has been put back into the guest list area of the Abbey rather than the front. I suspect he'll look for an excuse until the very last moment not to come. And that'll be the stunt they'll pull But unfortunately he's played into their hands on this."

The coronation will be the first time that Harry will meet the Royal Family since the release of his controversial memoir Spare. Harry and Meghan were last spotted with the rest of the members of the royal family during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth back in September 2022. Since Meghan and Harry announced in January 2020 that they would step down as senior working royals, they have been open about their life in the royal family, and moved to the US, where they now live with their two children.

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Hours after actor Sheezan Khan was granted permission to travel abroad for the upcoming season of Khatron Ke Khiladi, late actor Tunisha Sharma's mother Vanita Sharma strongly reacted against the decision of the show makers. Sheezan was granted bail after arrest in Tunisha Sharma's death case. Recently, Maharashtra's Vasai court allowed police to return Sheezan's passport to him with travel permission for Khatron Ke Khiladi 13. Also read: Sheezan Khan allowed by court to travel abroad for Khatron Ke Khiladi 13 Tunisha Sharma was found dead on December 24, 2022. (Photo- ANI)(ANI)

Reacting to the news of Sheezan's participation in the show, Tunisha's mother was quoted by news agency ANI saying, I have heard that Sheezan has been offered reality shows, including Khatron Ke Khiladi. What message are these channels wanting to impart to society by giving a chance to someone undertrial for a serious offence u/s 306 of IPC and against whom the police have submitted a chargesheet of 524 pages?

Our children & aspiring actors will feel that committing crimes is the easiest way to get through these reality shows, she also said.

After Sheezan's release from jail last month, the actor had filed an application before the court seeking to get his passport back while citing the shoot of a TV serial. It turned out to be for the show Khatron Ke Khiladi 13. The court has allowed him to travel abroad till 10th July 2023.

The Times Of India quoted Sheezan's lawyer, "We are grateful to the honourable court that has permitted Sheezan to travel abroad for Khatron Ke Khiladi. Sheezan also said that he had full faith that justice wouldnt be denied.

Sheezan was arrested on the charges of abetment to suicide. He was reportedly dating his Ali Baba Dastaan-E-Kabul co-star Tunisha who was found dead on the sets of the show, weeks after the duo broke up ending their months-long relationship.

Sheezan was arrested in December last year. He was under judicial custody and was released on bail from Thane Central Jail earlier on March 5. His bail came with 1 Lakh surety bond. The court had asked the actor to submit his passport as well.

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Elnur Enveroglu

Azerbaijans Hiroshima - Aghdam was known also as a ghost town since it was occupied by Armenian forces in the First Karabakh War in July 1993. Founded in the 18th century, it was granted city status in 1828 and grew considerably during the Soviet period. Aghdam lies 26 km (16 miles) from Azerbaijans Kahnkendi at the eastern foot of the Karabakh Range, on the outskirts of the Karabakh plain.

By the time it was occupied and ruined by Armenian separatists, Aghdam had been famous for its butter, wine and brandy, machine, and silk factories, an airport and two railway stations functioned there. Today, this city, which looks like a ghost town, was once the home of 23,100 Azerbaijani Turks, and after 1989, the city was gradually abandoned as a result of provocations by Armenian separatists. The heavy fighting forced the city's population to flee eastwards, and upon the seizure, Armenian forces sacked the town. Until 2020, it was almost entirely ruined and uninhabited.

As part of an agreement that ended the 2020 Second Karabakh War (known as also The Patriotic War), the town and its surrounding district came under Azerbaijani control on 20 November 2020.

Today, Aghdam replaces its former ghost town name with the status of a rebuilt, flourishing Aghdam and enters a new era of its development. This was clearly reflected by the participation of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva in the groundbreaking ceremonies of a number of large-scale infrastructure works during their recent visit to Aghdam.

First up, the President laid a foundation stone for the Digital Management Center and Training-Education Complex owned by "Azerishig" OJSC in the city of Aghdam.

President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva then laid the foundation stone for the Aghdam Mugham Center, the 2nd and 3rd residential quarters to be built in the city of Aghdam, and an administrative building in the city center.

The head of state also viewed the progress of construction of the Barda-Aghdam railway line.

New Digital Management Center, Training-Education Complex of Azerishig in Aghdam was founded by President Ilham Aliyev.

As informed by Chairman of "Azerishig" OJSC Vugar Ahmadov to the President at the groundbreaking ceremony, the Digital Management Center will meet the electricity needs of the city's multi-purpose infrastructure.

It is noteworthy that the Training-Education Complex will be enabled to host international events with necessary conditions to be created soon. Besides, according to Ahmadov, the Regional Training Center of the complex will consist of a training hall and a training ground.

Azerbaijani President was also informed of the works done by "Azerishig" OJSC in order to build the electric power distribution network in the liberated territories.

It should also be mentioned that Karabakh is the cradle of culture. Mugham is also an integral cultural gem of Azerbaijan. A number of important steps taken by Azerbaijan's Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva in the direction of keeping mugham alive are also of particular importance. In this regard, the opening of the new mugham center in Aghdam is a symbol of the great concern for the development of mugham art.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva have attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the Aghdam Mugham Center during the visit.

Noting that special Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the liberated territories of the Karabakh Economic Region (except Shusha district) Emin Huseynov briefed the President and First Lady on the project.

Having a cafe, cinema, library on its first floor, the Center will comprise 637-seat concert hall and two dancing halls. With its administrative rooms projected on its second floor, the center will also have 15 classrooms, an exhibition hall, convention hall, rooms for teachers and managers and a large open-air amphitheater.

President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva laid the foundation stone for the Aghdam Mugham Center as well.

Aghdam is no longer a ghost town, Aghdam is being rebuilt to become the most prosperous and most beloved abode of new residents. Yes, the 2nd and 3rd residential quarters to be built in Aghdam and the groundbreaking ceremony was held in the presence of the head of state and his wife, were for the realization of this goal.

President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva have attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the 2nd residential quarter to be built in the city of Aghdam.

As the President and the First Lady were informed of the new construction, a large part of the territory of the residential quarter, which occupies a total area of 14 hectares, will consist of a green zone. The quarter will be built on the central street of Aghdam. A total of 1,268 apartments comprised of 114 one-room, 464 two-room, 536 three-room, and 154 four-room will be built in the residential quarter. The Azerbaijani President and the First lady also attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the 3rd residential quarter to be built in the city of Aghdam.

The President and the First Lady were informed of the construction progress of a new building of the 960-seat Aghdam city school No1. It is worth to note that the foundation stone for the school was laid by President Ilham Aliyev on May 28, 2021. The school, which was founded in 1883, is the oldest educational institution in the Karabakh region.

As regards the construction of the residential area, the quarter occupies an area of about 17 hectares. Besides, a total of 1,239 apartments comprised of 25 one-room, 396 two-room, 533 three-room, and 285 four-room are planned be built in the residential quarter.

Laying the construction of a robust and multifaceted administrative building

With its five-storey building Aghdams newly constructed administrative building will occupy a total area of 24,500 square meters. This was reported by Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the liberated territories of the Karabakh Economic Region (except Shusha district) Emin Huseynov to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva as attended the buildings groundbreaking ceremony in the city of Aghdam.

The building will house a parking lot, technical rooms, a kitchen, auditorium, the district statistical office, the district department of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the local department of the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, the district culture office, the DOST Center, meeting rooms, a secretariat, the headquarters of the special representative office of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, a banquet hall, offices and other rooms.

A parade square, a park with an area of 17,500 square meters and a town square will be built in front of the administrative building.

Firm steel rails that will extend to Agdam

Aghdam will no longer be separated from the districts of Azerbaijan. The strong steel rails connecting it will extend to many regions as well.

Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev viewed the construction progress of the Barda-Aghdam railway line in his recent visit to Aghdam.

As he was informed, the construction of the railway line is scheduled to be finished in 2023. The single-track railway is 47.1 kilometers long. The area along the railway line was cleared of mines.

The Barda-Tazakend and Tazakend-Aghdam sections of the railway are 80% and 71% complete respectively.

President Ilham Aliyev was also briefed about the Aghdam city railway and bus terminal complex. The railway and bus terminals are scheduled to handle respectively 1000 and up to 1500 passengers daily.

All this once again shows that it is not a problem for Azerbaijan to bring any destroyed areas back to life. Armenia turned every place it occupied into ruins, and made Agdam and other areas like it uninhabitable. However, Azerbaijan's determination and optimistic view of the future put an end to all this black page. Long live Aghdam, long live Azerbaijan!
Additional director general (ADG) of police, Abhay Kumar Singh, has been made the new head of the Vigilance and anti-corruption wing of Tamil Nadu, the state home department announced on Tuesday. ADG Abhay Kumar becomes new head of DVAC. (DVAC website)

The new posting was necessitated after P Kandasamy (who had arrested BJP leader Amit Shah in the fake encounter case of Soli Sohrabuddin Sheikh in 2010) retired from the post on April 30.

After the DMK formed the government in 2021, the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) went on an offensive cracking down on former AIADMK ministers.

DVAC has registered cases against former ministers SP Velumani (three cases), C Vijayabhaskar, KP Anbazhagan , MR Vijayabhaskar, P Thangamani, R Kamaraj (food) and former MLA KPP Baskar, but the cases have been in limbo. All of them are considered to be close to AIADMKs general secretary and leader of opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS).

The DMK promised in its election manifesto to establish a special court to try graft charges against AIADMK ministers from the previous regime. But, after close to two years and with the DVAC head retiring on April 30 and there have been no arrests made so far, officials said.

Chief minister MK Stalin on Tuesday explained that to take investigations forward, they require certain pre-investigation approvals and sanctions for prosecution as per the amendments made to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2018. After these procedures, all the corruption cases against former AIADMK ministers will be taken to court, said Stalin, responding to a question in the monthly programme- Ungalil Oruvan (one amongst you) on Tuesday on what action will be taken regarding the DVAC cases and a CAG report pointing to corruption charges in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) central government scheme under the previous AIADMK regime.

People are aware of the corrupt AIADMK regime. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has confirmed the same. Further investigation will be conducted, said Stalin.

The reports of the CAG were tabled in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly on April 22 pointing to corruption charges from 2016 to 2021 under the AIADMK government. On April 25, health minister M Subramanian held a press conference detailing the charges of corruption in the departments of school education, public works and rural development. Citing the CAG report, Subramanian said that honest contractors were prevented from participating in bidding in the highways department and 490 tenders submitted from the same IP address were accepted and the bids were awarded to the family members and those close to Palaniswami who held the portfolio. He added that the state government will consult legal experts on the matter.

The AIADMK has dismissed the charges. Since the DMK came to power they have only been indulging in vendetta politics instead of focussing on peoples issues, said a senior AIADMK leader. He added that soon more audio clips will be released after their ally the BJP has released two claiming to be the voice of finance minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan allegedly making corruption charges against Stalins son and son-in-law. If the audio clips are fake, why has the DMK government not filed a police case yet? The DMK is on the backfoot after their own minister has accused them and #DMKFiles have also been released.

Stalin also criticised that AIADMK general secretary Palaniswami and his partymen acting heroic before going to Delhi referring to the opposition partys meeting last week with Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda. They return like a deflated balloon, said Stalin.

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India on Wednesday witnessed slightly higher cases compared to the day before with 3,720 new infections in the last 24 hours. On Tuesday, the country saw a total of 3,325 cases. tally of Covid cases in the country now stands at 4.49 crore (4,49,56,716). The health department in Lucknow has asked all hospitals to prepare staff for rotation Covid duty. (HT Photo)

According to the union health ministry data, the active cases have dropped to 40,177 - comprising 0.09 percent of the total caseload.

The death toll due to Covid has increased to 5,31,584 with 20 more fatalities - including five reconciled by Kerala. The fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of people who have recuperated from the disease has surged to 4,43,84,955. The recovery rate stands at 98.73 percent, according to the health ministry data.

A total of 20.66 crore doses of Covid vaccines have been administered so far, the data said.

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Bajrang Dal national convener Neeraj Doneriya on Wednesday hit out at the Congress over its promise to ban the outfit in its Karnataka poll manifesto. Calling it shameful, Doneriya alleged that the Congress has always divided society in the name of religion. Right-wing outfit Bajrang Dal members tried to purify deputy commissioners office by sprinkling cow urine. (Represtative Image)

Congress issued the party manifesto for the Karnataka election and has connected Bajrang Dal with the PFI in it. This is very shameful that they are comparing a dal that is working for the development and benefit of society with a group that has promoted several terrorist acts, Doneriya told news agency ANI.

Adding that the Congress is trying to get Muslim votes by banning us, the outfit's national convener said, Bajrang Dal will protest against this shameful thing of Congress.

Earlier in the day, several Bajrang Dal workers staged a protest near the Congress office in Karnataka. In Hyderabad, some workers have also been detained.

Notably, the Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the RSS-affiliated Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

As a part of its manifesto released on Tuesday, the Congress proposed a ban on organisations that promote enmity or hatred such as the Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and Bajrang Dal. We believe that law and Constitution is sacrosanct and can not be violated by individuals and Organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI, or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities. We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on any such organisations, the party said.

Meanwhile, the VHP also hit out at the Congress calling the move highly objectionable. Sonia Gandhi cannot cheat the people of the country. The way Congress has wrongly tried to defame Bajrang Dal, the country's people will not accept it and Bajrang Dal workers are taking it as a challenge. We will answer that too and will not let your plans succeed, VHP International Joint General Secretary Surendra Jain said.

(With inputs from agencies)
Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday said appropriate action will be taken against the Bajrang Dal based on the prevailing situation in the state. Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel addressing media on Wednesday.(ANI)

According to ANI, when questioned by the media about the Congress party's inclusion of a ban on the Bajrang Dal in the election manifesto in Karnataka, Baghel said, Decisions will be taken based on the situation in the state. If needed we will think about a ban on it in Chhattisgarh.

Baghel further clarified that any decisions or actions taken in Karnataka regarding the organisation may not necessarily apply to Chhattisgarh as the circumstances in both states may differ.

Also Read | Shameful: Bajrang Dal after Congress vows to ban outfit in poll manifesto

In its manifesto for the May 10 Karnataka assembly elections, the Congress stated that it will take decisive action in accordance with the law, including imposing a ban on organisations such as the Bajrang Dal and the PFI, alleging that they were promoting enmity among communities. In response, BJP has accused the Congress of insulting Lord Hanuman with its manifesto promise to go tough on Bajrand Dal if elected.

The Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the RSS-affiliated Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

Also Read | Bajrang Dal stages protest against Congress manifesto to ban organisation

The promise has also sparked a war of words in Madhya Pradesh, with the state home minister questioning the state Congress chief, Kamal Nath's Hanuman bhakti (devotion to Hanuman).

When asked about the ban on Bajrang Dal in the Karnataka manifesto and whether it will be included in Madhya Pradesh's manifesto, Nath told reporters, That will be decided by the manifesto committee. Even the Supreme Court and the entire state are saying that those who spread hatred and create controversies should face action. This is a matter of our social unity.

Bajrang Dal national convener Neeraj Doneriya slammed the Congress on Wednesday for promising to ban the outfit and called it "shameful" He alleged that the Congress has always divided society in the name of religion.

Congress issued the party manifesto for the Karnataka election and has connected Bajrang Dal with the PFI in it. This is very shameful that they are comparing a dal that is working for the development and benefit of society with a group that has promoted several terrorist acts, Doneriya told news agency ANI.

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to commute the death penalty of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh's assassin Balwant Singh Rajoana to life imprisonment. Rajoana, a convict in the 1995 assassination case of Beant Singh, has been in jail for the past 26 years. Balwant Singh Rajoana.

A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol said the competent authority will decide the plea of the convict seeking mercy.

On March 2, the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on the plea of Rajoana after hearing the submissions of senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the convict, and Additional Solicitor General KM Natraj.

Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was convicted for his involvement in the explosion that took place outside the Punjab civil secretariat on August 31, 1995, killing Beant Singh and 16 others.

A special court sentenced him to death in July 2007.

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Three years before the Russians barged in a flying detachment of 4,000 Austrian cavalry under command of daring General Haddick razed a Berlin suburb and forced the capital under threat of similar treatment to pay ransom. Within 12 hours Haddick wheeled his troops and was gone before the Prussians discovered the meagre size of his forces. HT This Day: May 04, 1945 -- Russians return to Berlin after 185 years

Gustavous Adolphus the Swedish soldier of the Cross was in Berlin in 1631.

Napolean swept in from the West in 1806 and exacted heavy levies to till his empire war chest.

The following are the landmarks in over seven centuries of Berlins history:

1230-No specific record of the founding of Berlin exists. The first recorded mention of a city by that name in its present location appears in 1230. At that time there were two towns, Kolin and Berlin. Neither was of treat importance except that they guarded a crossing of the river Spree, a small stream flowing through the North German plain.

1448-Kolin and Berlin were combined in a preliminary unification. As a member of the Hanseatic League the city steadily grew more important as a commercial centre

1539-The Hohenzollern family made the city the seat of their power, beginning an identification of family and city which was not to end until the abdication of Kaiser William II to 1918. As the capital city of the electorate of Brandenburg, Berlin became stabilized. Previously she had been embroiled in many internal struggles resultant from conflicts between dynasties and antagonisms which arose between princes, nobles and cities

1631-King Gustavus Adolpnus at Sweden marched into the city with banners flying in defence of Protestant aspirations in Northern Europe. With this action Berlins part in the 30 Years War became intense. Conscription of men and wealth was a severe drain on the resources of the still insignificant city

1675-Berlin again was threatened with Swedish invasion to the tangled Web of intrigue among small states arising out of the collapse of German efforts to make their rulers world emperors in the manner of the Roman Empire

1757-City was plundered by Austrians

1760- City was plundered by Russians

1806- Napolean marched into the city after the battle of Jena

1848-Riots continuing for a week marked Berlins participation in the great reform movement of that year

1861-The old walls were torn down considerable suburban territory was annexed and the real development of Berlin as a world municipality was begun. Emperor William I came to power in that year and he gave increasing freedom to the city

1874-Municipal control of the streets was obtained and a short time later city official gained control of the river Spree. The opening of the city and its communications was the initial step in the development of a governmental setup which made Berlin unsurpassed in municipal organization. It was called the most modern and perfectly organized city. The Spree is still an important part of the outstanding transportation network which makes Berlin the dominant city of Germany

1900-The census showed a population of 1,884,345 as compared with 825,389 in 1871. This represented the citys growing participation in the expansion programmes of the Emperor William II

1911-Greater Berlin was formed including many suburban areas

1914-With the outbreak of World War I Berlin became the centre of the war programmes of the Central Powers

1919-The war ended and Berlin became the centre of rioting, disorganization and political bickering which marked the early post-War years. In that year the new government was moved to Weimar but Berlin was never replaced as the heart of Germany

1932- Adolf Hitler, a leader of a political party called the National Socialists (Nazis) was brought to trial in the city on charges of slander.

1933- Hitler gained control on the Government

1939-45- Berlin found herself in the midst of a new world War and bombings by British planes presaged the storm to come.
Welcome to hindustantimes.com updates platform where you can find breaking news from India and across the world. Find fast updates about the latest news as it breaks.

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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh handed over two Made in India defence platforms and held bilateral talks to enhance defence cooperation and strengthen the partnership between India and Maldives when he met his counterpart Mariya Didi during his three-day visit to the neighboring country. This is Singhs first visit to the Maldives as the defence minister. (Rajnath Singh | Twitter)

Singh described the handing over of the two Made in India platforms as a symbol of the shared commitment of both nations and their objectives towards peace and security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

India has emerged as a leading defence exporter in recent years. A defence manufacturing ecosystem has been created which has the advantage of abundant technical manpower. We produce world-class equipment to meet not only our own needs, but also for exports. Indias commitment to supporting the Maldives will only get stronger with time, Singh had said during the handover ceremony which was also attended by President of Maldives HE Solih.

Also Read: Rajnath Singh hands over fast patrol vessel, landing craft assault ship to Maldives

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the provision of the replacement ship for the aging Huravee, during President Solihs visit to India back in 2022.

On Singhs meeting with Solih, the defence ministry in Delhi said the Maldivian President expressed gratitude for Indias continued aid and support to the country in various sectors, stating that it is a testament to New Delhis special regard for it.

In his remarks, Singh also said Indias commitment to support the Maldives will only get stronger with time and noted that the handing over of the two Made in India platforms to the MNDF is a symbol of the shared commitment of the two countries towards peace and security in the Indian Ocean Region.

The India-Maldives relationship is truly special. Our relationship has withstood the test of time and we have always supported each-other in the hours of need, Singh said. The fast patrol vessel, capable of coastal and offshore surveillance at high speeds, was commissioned as MNDF Coast Guard ship Huravee.

This is Singhs first visit to the Maldives as the defence minister.
External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will meet his Chinese counterpart Qi Gang on the sidelines of the SCO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Goa tomorrow to push for resolution of remaining boundary issues in East Ladakh. The pending resolution of Depsang Bulge and Demchok in East Ladakh is holding back normalization of bilateral ties between the two Asian giants. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar with Chinese Foreign Minister Qi Gang at a G-20 meeting.

There, however, is no bilateral meeting scheduled between EAM Jaishankar and Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is expected to attend the SCO FM meeting also. While EAM Jaishankar has always raised the issue of cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, Zardari has gone well beyond his brief and spewed venom against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular and against India in general in the context of Kashmir. FM Zardari comes to India at a time when his deputy Hina Rabbani Khar is in news for asking Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to dump ties with the US and in favour of a strategic partnership with China in a secret communique leaked to western media.

While the SCO FM meeting is expected to finalize the agreements to be signed in the July SCO summit, the meeting between EAM Jaishankar and Chinese FM Qi Gang is an indicator that both sides are keen to resolve outstanding border issues and have the patience to deal with the problem without further aggravating the border tensions. Even during the April 23, 2023, senior military commanders meeting at Chushul, the Chinese military commander made it clear that the PLA wanted the issue to be resolved but wanted to seek directions from Beijing on both Depsang Bulge and Demchok area. The Indian Army commander reiterated that the border issue does not get resolved till both the friction points are resolved followed by de-escalation and de-induction of PLA forces packed across the East Ladakh LAC in occupied Aksai Chin region. It is quite evident that the PLA commanders are awaiting instructions from the top leadership to resolve the two remaining friction points.

However, the positive aspect of these on-going talks is that both sides understand each others positions on the border and are willing to address the issue without any time limit. Fact is that the 1986 Sumdorong Chu issue was settled between India and China after eight years with both sides conceding to accommodate each other.

Unlike in the past, the Narendra Modi government has no intentions of backing out on either Depsang Bulge and Demchok issues as in both cases it was the PLA which was the aggressor and not the Indian Army. The PLA in fact has consolidated its ground positions in both the sectors post May 2020 transgressions.

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China Covid whistleblower Fang Bin returns home to Wuhan after jail: Report Chinese whistleblower- Fang Bin- who documented the initial Covid outbreak in China's Wuhan, has been freed from jail after three years, BBC reported. Read more The citizen journalist was reported to be jailed after he shared videos of scenes in Wuhan- the epicentre of Covid pandemic. (Sanchit Khanna / HT Photo)

Tamil Nadu CM Stalin slams Amit Shah, BJP over Muslim quota row in Karnataka

Union home minister Amit Shahs defence on scrapping 4 per cent reservation for Muslims in Karnataka is a breach of the Constitution which envisions secularism and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) believes are imposing a hate agenda, said Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Tuesday. Read more

Air India, Vistara sign interline partnership; to help domestic, global flyers

Air India on Wednesday announced that it has entered into an interline partnership with full-service carrier, Vistara, enabling passengers to travel between the two airlines network seamlessly. Read more

Priyanka Chopra says she's the only millennium Miss World: 'There won't be another one in our lifetimes'

At the Miss World 2000 beauty pageant, Priyanka Chopra, who was then 18, was crowned the winner. The actor recalled her Miss India days, and also reflected on her Miss World title as she spoke about the pageant that was held at the Millennium Dome in London, United Kingdom. Read more

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'You've decided it is my last': MS Dhoni recreates 'definitely not' moment with blockbuster statement on IPL swansong

Will MS Dhoni bid farewell to Indian Premier League (IPL) at season end? Is the demigod of IPL set to call time on his illustrious career after being the beating heart of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for more than a decade? Read more

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When foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) gather in Goa this week, the focus will be on the bilateral meetings held by external affairs minister S Jaishankar on the margins of the gathering. External affairs minister S Jaishankar. (File Photo)

The foreign ministers of the eight SCO member states are set to arrive in Goa on Thursday for a meeting on May 5 that will prepare the grounds for the summit of heads of State and government to be hosted by India in July.

Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang, Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov have all confirmed their participation in the meeting of the SCO council of foreign ministers. Bhutto Zardaris participation has set up the first visit by a Pakistani foreign minister to India since 2011.

People familiar with the matter said Jaishankar is expected to hold bilateral meetings with his Chinese and Russian counterparts on Thursday. There has, however, been no official word from India and Pakistan on a possible bilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of the two sides.

The Pakistani side has also dismissed reports that Islamabad has sought such a meeting. Bhutto Zardari has said he is visiting India for a multilateral engagement.

Jaishankar will host a cultural event and a dinner on Thursday evening for his counterparts from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. This event could also bring the Indian foreign minister face to face with his Pakistani counterpart, the people said.

Also Read | EAM Jaishankar to meet Chinese FM Qi Gang in Goa tomorrow

Jaishankar last met Qin and Lavrov when they visited India in March for a meeting of foreign ministers of G20 states.

As at the last meeting with Qin, the Indian side is expected to push for the resolution of the military standoff in Ladakh sector on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and disengagement of troops at remaining friction points in order to facilitate the normalisation of bilateral ties, the people said.

The meeting between Jaishankar and Lavrov will be an opportunity for the two sides to assess steps taken by India and Russia to bolster trade, including the problem of payments in the face of extensive Western sanctions. With Russia emerging as one of the top suppliers of crude for India, the balance of trade is skewed in favour of Moscow. Both sides are exploring new ways to operationalise a rupee-ruble payment system and to ramp up exports from the Indian side.

However, diplomatic circles are focused on the visit of the Pakistani foreign minister, given that relations between New Delhi and Islamabad are at an all-time low following the 2019 Pulwama suicide attack, which killed 40 Indian troopers and brought the two sides close to hostilities.

Russias foreign ministry has said the meeting of the SCO council of foreign ministers will focus on finalising substantive content for the upcoming summit scheduled for July 3-4 in New Delhi. The meeting will also discuss drafts of relevant documents and decisions.

The Chinese foreign ministry has said Qin will use the SCO foreign ministers meeting to exchange views with his counterparts on the regional and international situation and cooperation in different fields to prepare for the SCO Summit.

The situation in Afghanistan and the economic fallout of the Ukraine war, especially on developing countries, is also expected to figure in the SCO foreign ministers meeting. Russia has used recent SCO meetings, such as a recent gathering of defence ministers in New Delhi, to criticise blocs such as Quad and AUKUS and to defend Chinas actions in the Taiwan Strait.

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Amid a row over Sudipto Sen's 'The Kerala Story', BJP's Amit Malviya cited former Kerala chief minister VS Achuthanandan who in 2010 said, "Their move is to make India... Kerala, a Muslim-majority country after 20 years.." Sharing the video of his statement which at that time too stirred a row, Malviya said Achuthanandan was a hardcore communist, 'not someone who can be accused of parroting the saffron worldview". The official poster of The Kerala Story which will be released on May 5. (PTI)

"Not just him, even Congress CM Oommen Chandy, who was Kerala CM between 2004-2006 and then again from 2011-2016, is on record on the floor of Kerala Assembly admitting to more than 7,000 conversions to Islam between 2006-12," Malviya wrote adding that The Kerala Story is a grim reminder "of what lies ahead, if we don't act now".

Read | 'If there were so many ISIS female members...': Shashi Tharoor on 'Kerala Story'

The movie to be released on May 5 has run into controversy for claiming that thousands of Kerala women have been indoctrinated by the ISIS. The premise of the movie has drawn criticism from the opposition with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan calling the movie a Sangh propaganda. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor vehemently opposed this portrayal of the state and said the movie exaggerated the reality.

Amid this tussle, Malviya wrote: "Love Jihad is real and dangerous. Our girls are being lured away and used as cannon fodder for radical terror organisations. We can bury our heads in sand, like an ostrich, at our own peril. It will engulf the rest of us sooner than we think."

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Defence minister Rajnath Singh and his Maldivian counterpart Mariya Didi on Wednesday laid the foundation of a harbour for the coast guard of that country at Sifavaru to boost its maritime security capabilities, at a time when China is attempting to step up its presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) by sending more warships on deployments and also taking up projects in the region, officials familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The ministers agreed to explore additional avenues for cooperation, including defence trade & joint exercises. (Rajnath Singh | Twitter)

India and the Maldives signed a pact for the development of the coast guard facility in 2021 when New Delhi also extended a $50 million line of credit to the Maldives for defence projects.

The development of the coast guard Ekatha harbour and repair facility at Sifavaru is one of the biggest grant-in-aid projects of India, the two sides said in a joint communique on the concluding day of Singhs three-day visit to the archipelago.

Also Read: Rajnath Singh hails India-Maldives ties after gifting 2 defence platforms to Male

The ministers agreed to explore additional avenues for cooperation, including defence trade, capacity building and joint exercises. They also discussed the need to promote people-to-people contacts and exchanges between the armed forces of both countries, it said.

The coast guard facility is expected to end the practice of the Maldives sending its vessels abroad for maintenance.

In the absence of a navy, the coast guard functions as the armed maritime component of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), which has received patrol vessels and maritime surveillance aircraft from India.

Indias maritime diplomacy in the IOR has capacity building, capability enhancement and collaborative efforts as some of its key pillars, and the paradigm that New Delhi follows is very different from other big powers and is premised on cooperation rather than competition, partnership not power games, said maritime affairs expert Commodore Srikant Kesnur (retd).

While some distant hegemonic powers seek to create seemingly attractive projects that result in debt and long-term entrapment, India offers an alternative based on meeting common threats in the IOR, building on shared values and interests, Kesnur said. In what many experts describe as Chinas debt-trap diplomacy, mounting debts have led countries such as Sri Lanka, and Pakistan to give control of territories, which are of strategic significance, to China.

Our ties with the Maldives are special and after Operation Cactus in 1988 the two countries have been particularly close, he added.

In November 1988, the Indian Air Force airlifted the Indian Army contingent that took part in Operation Cactus that was launched to help thwart a coup attempt involving mercenaries in the Maldives.

The operation was carried out at extremely short notice, and by night, to an unfamiliar airfield in a foreign country.

Singh on Tuesday handed over a fast patrol vessel and a landing craft assault to the MNDF and described the delivery of the two indigenous vessels as a symbol of the shared commitment of the two countries towards peace and security in the IOR.

The fast patrol vessel, capable of coastal and offshore surveillance at high speeds, was commissioned as MNDF Coast Guard ship Huravee.

During Singhs visit, both ministers reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability and security in the region and recognised the need to work together to address common security challenges, the joint statement said.

They underscored the importance of respecting international law and rules-based international order and expressed their commitment to upholding these principles.

India, which is keeping tabs on Chinas moves in the South China Sea, is taking steps to ensure that the Chinese navy doesnt muscle its way into the Indian Ocean where combat-ready Indian warships are carrying out round-the-clock surveillance for any unusual activity.

From carrying out naval drills with like-minded countries to reaching out to states in the IOR, the Indian Navy is focusing on checking Chinas rising ambitions in the region and sending out a strong message that Beijings power play in South China Sea cannot be replicated in the Indian Ocean.
Press freedom in India has gone from problematic to very bad, with the country slipping 11 ranks in the World Press Freedom Index, an analysis released by Reporters Without Borders, an organisation that evaluates the environment for journalism across countries said. A college student participates in a protest to defend press freedom.(AFP Photo/Representative)

The situation has gone from problematic to very bad in three other countries: Tajikistan (down 1 at 153rd), India (down 11 at 161st) and Turkey (down 16 at 165th), said the report released on Wednesday, celebrated globally as World Press Freedom Day.

The index ranks 180 countries.

HT reached out to the information & broadcasting ministry for comment but did not get one immediately.

The Indian government does not agree with the country rankings of the World Press Freedom Index, information & broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur said in Parliament in March, in a written response to a question.

He added that the government also does not agree with the inferences of the index, citing low sample size, little or no weightage to fundamentals of democracy, and a questionable methodology.

To be sure, the relative rankings of some countries -- Pakistan rose up seven ranks, and was placed at 150 , and Afghanistan was ranked 152nd -- do raise some questions about the methodology.

The latest report said that in India media takeovers by oligarchs close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi have jeopardised pluralism, while the Erdogan administration in Turkey has stepped up its persecution of journalists in the run-up to elections scheduled for 14 May.

The reference is to the acquisition of NDTV, a TV channel now owned by the Adani Group.

For the seventh year in a row, Norway ranked 1st on the Index.  But  unusually  a non-Nordic country is ranked second, namely Ireland (up 4 places at 2nd), ahead of Denmark (down 1 place at 3rd). The Netherlands (6th) has risen 22 places, recovering the position it had in 2021, before crime reporter Peter R. de Vries was murdered, the report stated.

According to the report, of the 180 countries and territories analysed  the situation is very serious in 31 countries, difficult in 42, problematic in 55, and good or satisfactory in 52 countries.

In other words, the environment for journalism is bad in seven out of 10 countries, and satisfactory in only three out of ten, it noted. The World Press Freedom Index shows enormous volatility in situations, with major rises and falls and unprecedented changes, such as Brazils 18-place rise and Senegals 31-place fall. This instability is the result of increased aggressiveness on the part of the authorities in many countries and growing animosity towards journalists on social media and in the physical world. The volatility is also the consequence of growth in the fake content industry, which produces and distributes disinformation and provides the tools for manufacturing it, Christophe Deloire, RSF Secretary-General said in the report.

It also added that the last three slots were occupied by Asian countries. The last three places are occupied solely by Asian countries: Vietnam (178th), which has almost completed its hunt of independent reporters and commentators; China (down 4 at 179th), the worlds biggest jailer of journalists and one of the biggest exporters of propaganda content; and, to no great surprise, North Korea (180th), the report said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accused the opposition of using Gaali politics or politics of abuse to target him.



Addressing a rally in Ankola in Uttara Kannada district of poll-bound Karnataka, the prime minister said," Opposition only knows 'Gaali politics'. They cannot defeat us so they abuse us. The people of Karnataka reject abuse politics and all the voters will teach them a lesson to Congress for abusing me".



You know why does Congress so desperately, so frequently and so highly abuse me? Because I am the one who has CRUSHED the Corrupt System 'nurtured' by the Congress for years and years!, Modi told the gathering.



Karnataka election LIVE coverage



What will Karnataka do to Congress? I know, Karnataka will punish Congress! When you head for voting, before you press the button, just chant 'Jai Bajrang Bali' and punish it! he added.



The prime minister has invoked Jai Bajrang Bali against the Congress' Karnataka poll manifesto wherein it had proposed to ban the Bajrang Dal along with radical outfit Popular Front of India.



Amid the ongoing slugfest, the Election Commission on Tuesday issued an advisory to the political parties and their star campaigners, asking them to exercise caution and restraint in their utterances and not to vitiate the election atmosphere. Prime Minister Narendra Modi address a poll rally in Ankola in Karnataka.(Twitter/BJP)

The EC referred to the instances of "inappropriate vocabulary and language" used during the ongoing campaign by persons, "in particular, by those invested with the statutory status of star campaigner".

"Such instances have occasioned various complaints, cross complaints and have also attracted negative media attention," the EC said in a statement.

"It is imperative for all parties and stakeholders to remain within the confines of the Model Code of Conduct and the legal framework in their utterances while campaigning so as to maintain the dignity of the political discourse and not to vitiate the campaign and the election atmosphere," the advisory read.



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Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Wednesday slammed the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for clearing the movie 'The Kerala Story" which he said spreads 'venom and demonises an entire community'. Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal.

"The Kerala Story Cleared by the Censor Board Spreads venom and demonises an entire community & The PM in Karnataka says Congress follows  politics of dividing society ". Sounds unreal !", the former Union minister tweeted.

Sibal's remark comes in wake of the criticism faced by the Sudipto Sen-directorial ahead of its theatrical release on May 5. The film chronicles the incidents of young women being brainwashed into joining the Islamic State (IS) and heading off to countries like Syria and Afghanistan.

A massive political controversy rages on in Kerala, with the ruling Left, the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Congress opposing the film.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has hit out at the makers of the film, accusing them of pushing the propaganda of the Sangh Parivar.

"In the movie trailer, we see a hoax that 32,000 women in Kerala were converted and became members of the Islamic State. This bogus story is a product of the Sangh Parivar's lie factory," the CM contended in his statement.

Also read | War of words, cash rewards over The Kerala Story film. Top points

While questioning the censor board of clearing the film, Sibal took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remark accusing Congress of using divisive politics to win votes.

PM Modi during an election rally in the poll-bound Karnataka had urged people to remain distant from both Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) as both parties are dynastic, and do politics to divide people.

Asking people to be "alert" about the Congress and JD(S), Modi said, "Both are 'parivarwadis' (dynasts), both support corruption and indulge in divisive politics, and Karnataka's development is never their priority."

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Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's son Priyank Kharge has been issued a show cause notice by the Election Commission for his comment on PM Modi in which Priyank called PM Modi 'nalayak'. "Aisa nalayak beta baitha to kaise hota bhai? Ghar kaise chalega? (If an inept son is sitting in Delhi, how can you run the family?), he said addressing a rally in poll-bound Karnataka. Citing the model code of conduct, the Election Commission said that it has received a complaint on May 2 against Priyank's public speech where he used abusive language against PM Modi. The political discourse ahead of the Karnataka Assembly election touched a low with name-calling. (HT_PRINT)

Karnataka Assembly Election 2023: Full coverage

"Whereas the video of the said speech was examined in light of the provisions of Model Code of Conduct and the following part has been found to be violative," the notice said, highlighting the 'nalayak' part.

"You are hereby called upon to show cause by 17.00 hrs of 04.05.2023 as to why appropriate action for violation of Model Code of Conduct should not be taken against you. Take notice that in the event of no response from your side within the stipulated time, it will be presumed that you have nothing to say in the matter and the Election Commission will take appropriate action or decision in the matter without making any further reference to you," the notice said.

Priyank is a Congress MLA seeking reelection from Chittapur in Kalaburgi district. When you (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) came to Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) what did you tell the people of Banjara community? Aap sab log dariye mat. Banjara ka ek beta Dilli mein Baitha hai (You do not be afraid. A son of Banjara is sitting in Delhi.)," Priyank said before launching the 'nalayak' (inept) jibe. The BJP hit back at Priyank questioning his credential apart from being the son of Mallikarjun Kharge

Priyank's 'nalayak' comment triggered a row at a time when the BJP and the Congress leaders are engaged in an intense war of words, name-calling ahead of the Karnataka election. Mallikarjun Kharge compared PM Modi with a venomous snake and later clarified that he targetted the party and not an individua. A Karnataka BJP MLA then called Sonia Gandhi 'vishkanya' and then Priyank used 'nalayak' to describe PM Modi.

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GUWAHATI: The Manipur government on Wednesday imposed a ban on mobile internet services across the state for five days following reports of clashes in various parts of the northeastern state. Earlier, security forces were rushed to the town from other parts of Manipur to control the situation after vandalism at a venue where chief minister N Biren Singh was scheduled to address a programme (ANI)

The decision came on a day when thousands of people took part in a solidarity march called by tribal groups in all the 10 hill districts of the state to oppose a move to include the majority Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category. Led by the All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM), the protesting groups also forced a shutdown in those areas from 6 am to 4 pm.

During this rally and total shutdown, there are reports on incidents like fighting amongst volunteers/youths of different communities and situation is tense and volatile in the districts of Bishnupur and Churachandpur, the order issued by H Gyan Prakash, commissioner (home), read.

The order, seen by HT, stated that some anti-social elements were using social media for sharing images, hate-speeches and hate videos inciting passions of the public. It added that such acts could incite the public and have serious repercussions for law and order.

The order mentioned that there was an imminent danger of loss of life and damage to public and private property and in order to thwart the designs and activities of anti-national and anti-social elements and to maintain peace and tranquility mobile internet services have been suspended across Manipur.

Earlier in the day, thousands of members of tribal communities took part in the solidarity march in the 10 hill districts. ATSUM, which organised the march, said it was done to oppose inclusion of Meiteis in ST category. Meiteis comprise around 53% of Manipurs population and are based primarily in Imphal Valley.

The people in the hills believe that reservation to Meiteis will deprive them of government jobs and admissions in educational institutions, as the latter will corner most of the reservation. The current flashpoint relates to a Manipur high court order on April 14, asked the state government to submit its recommendations preferably within four weeks on inclusion of Meiteis in ST category.

News agency PTI reported that in Naga-dominated Senapati town, the headquarters of the district with the same name and located about 58 km from the capital town of Imphal, local bodies forced total shutdown of markets and suspension of public transport from 10 am to 1 pm to ensure maximum participation of demonstrators in the rally. A large number of tribals, who make up about 40% of the states population and include the Nagas and Kukis communities among others, joined the processions, waved placards and raised slogans opposing ST status for the Meitei community.

At Churachandpur, the second largest town in the state, people defied prohibitory orders and gathered at the public ground and took a rally till Tuibong peace ground to show their support to ATSUM, police said. Prohibitory orders were clamped for an indefinite period in the town last week following violent protests against a drive to evict villagers from reserved forest areas.

Security forces were rushed to the town from other parts of Manipur to control the situation after vandalism at a venue where chief minister N Biren Singh was scheduled to address a programme.

According to PTI, no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the state till early evening.

The Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee Manipur (STDCM), which is spearheading the movement for the inclusion of Meiteis in the ST category, said the demand is being made not merely for reservation in jobs, educational institutions and tax relief, but more to protect our ancestral land, culture and identity, which they claimed was being threatened by illegal migration from Myanmar, Bangladesh and by people from outside the state.

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New Delhi The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has directed police chiefs of all states, Union territories and central paramilitary forces to use codes and cipher instead of plain language while sharing messages over radio wireless sets regarding the movement of VVIPs, security convoys, official meetings, details of areas of national importance, and locations of battalions and training manoeuvres near the border, to prevent interception by the enemy and undesirable elements. MHA has directed police chiefs of all states, Union territories and central paramilitary forces to use codes and cipher instead of plain language while sharing messages over radio wireless sets regarding the movement of VVIPs, security convoys. (File photo for representation)

The police authorities have also been told to monitor radio communications on a daily basis as these are prone to breaches, according to official documents and people aware of the matter.

Police organisations use radio wireless sets extensively for communication and coordination purposes for day-to-day policing. Police radio communications are prone to interception. In order to prevent leakage of information to enemy and undesirable elements, it is essential to secure classified information using codes and cipher before transmitting on radio, MHA said in an advisory sent few weeks ago to the director generals of police of states and central armed police forces (CAPFs). HT has seen the document, dated March last week.

The advisory said that many of the breaches pertained to messages passed over radio in plain language, including movement of VVIPs who enjoy Z or Z-plus security cover such as the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, chief ministers, governors etc.

While MHA did not cite a particular incident, there have been some instances of security breaches during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visits in recent months  in Punjabs Hussainiwala in January 2022, when farmers blocked his convoy; in July 2022 when black balloons flew past Modis chopper in Vijayawada; and on April 30 this year when a man threw a mobile phone towards Modi in Mysuru.

To be sure, it is not known if these incidents were linked to any radio communications security breach.

Besides VVIP movement, the MHA advisory said that messages related to the movement of armed police units and paramilitary forces, their strength, location of their camps/battalion units, training manoeuvres near the border and sensitive areas, places of national importance, if leaked, could jeopardise intelligence operations by revealing details of frequencies, call signs, codes, work schedule, and other details to enemy agents and infiltrators

It is often seen that bystanders, who could be anyone, listen to police wireless messages which are not coded. State sponsored elements are also capable of intercepting radio sets messages and thats why proper coding and review of cipher is necessary, said an officer aware of the advisory who asked not to be named.

A former DG of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), K Durga Prasad, said radio communications literacy among the police officers is essential. A policeman with a radio set with no knowledge how to use it very dangerous. There is a term in security parlance  radio silence. We advise personnel not to say anything unless spoken to. And when it comes to operations, VVIP movements and sensitive issues, there are codes and protocols, which need to be followed. Every police officer in the country needs to be groomed on radio communications security, he said.

The home ministry has decided, according to the advisory, that the Directorate of Coordination Police Wireless (DCPW), an advisory body under it, will advise states and CAPFs on strengthening their internal monitoring for effective monitoring and preventing of breaches of radio communication security of their respective organisations. DCPW will also impart training to police personnel to strengthen their technical skills in monitoring breaches.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday stepped up his attack on the Congress, calling it the enemy of peace and development, as campaigning for the May 10 assembly elections in Karnataka entered the final stretch. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting in support of BJP candidates, ahead of assembly polls, in Bailhongal in Karnataka on Wednesday. (PTI)

Addressing a public meeting at Mulki in Dakshina Kannada district, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stronghold, the prime minister claimed that the Congress tried to save those who were arrested for conspiring to spread terror. The opposition party not only withdraws cases against such anti-social elements, but also releases them, he added.

Congress is an enemy of peace and development. The people who want progress will first kick out Congress from their state. Congress immediately comes to the aid of those who get arrested for conspiring to spread terror in Karnataka, he claimed, adding that the Congress also takes electoral help from anti-national forces.

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Modi said the entire politics of the opposition party is based on divide and rule policy, and charged it with going across the world defaming the country, when Indias democracy and development is being appreciated and respected globally. America, Australia, Japan, UK, in every corner of the world India is being appreciated or not? Why?... It is not because of Modi; it is happening because of your (peoples) votes. Its the strength of your votes, which formed a strong and stable government in Delhi, he said.

Emphasising that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to make Karnataka number one state in India, he said: We want Karnataka to become number one in industrial and agriculture development, fisheries and port. We are working on it.

The Congress, however, is looking to make Karnataka the number one ATM for its Shahi Parivar (royal family) sitting in Delhi, in an indirect reference to the family of former party president Sonia Gandhi.

Polling for the 224-member Karnataka assembly will be held on May 10 and counting of votes on May 13. The BJP is aiming to repeat its previous performance in the Dakshina Kannada district, where the party had won seven of the eight assembly seats in 2018.

Continuing his attack on the opposition party, the prime minister said the Congress disrespects the armed forces of the country. When the entire nation respects our soldiers and the armed forces, the Congress disrespects them and abuses the seniors. When the whole world congratulates India for its democracy and developments, the Congress badmouths the country, he added.

Addressing another rally at Ankola in Uttara Kannada district, the prime minister accused the Congress of using politics of abuses to target him. The Opposition only knows Gaali politics. They cannot defeat us so they abuse us. The people of Karnataka reject abuse politics and all the voters will teach a lesson to the Congress for abusing me, he said.

What will Karnataka do to Congress? I know, Karnataka will punish Congress. When you head for voting, before you press the button, just chant Jai Bajrangbali and punish it, he added.

Lord Hanuman is called Bajrangbali by devotees.

In its election manifesto released on Tuesday, the Congress proposed a ban on organisations such as Bajrang Dal and Popular Front of India (PFI), saying it was committed to taking firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred among communities on grounds of caste and religion. Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), an affiliate of BJPs ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

It, however, stoked a political row just a week ahead of the high-stakes assembly elections in the southern state.

Hitting back at the prime minister on Wednesday, state Congress president DK Shivakumar said: We are also devotees of Hanuman. We chant Hanuman Chalisa daily. Let Prime Minister Narendra Modi stop criticising us unnecessarily and tell us what the double engine government has contributed to the state.

He added: What is the relationship between Bajrang Dal and Hanuman? Hanuman is different, Bajrang Dal is different. Bajrang Dal is just an organisation Bajrang Dal was abusing the legal system and violating it with moral policing. Our intention is that they should be within the rule of law. You have misunderstood the point of our manifesto.

Amid the political slugfest, the Election Commission on Tuesday issued an advisory to the political parties and their star campaigners, asking them to exercise caution and restraint in their utterances and not to vitiate the election atmosphere.

(With inputs from agencies)
In a fresh setback to Rahul Gandhi, a special court in Jharkhand on Wednesday rejected his plea to be exempt from appearing in a hearing on the 'Modi surname case' - over which he was convicted by a Gujarat court in March and subsequently disqualified from the Lok Sabha. Rahul Gandhis conviction by a Surat court led to his disqualification from Parliament (HT)

This comes a day after the Gujarat High Court refused Rahul Gandhi interim protection over his conviction in the 'Modi surname'-criminal defamation case in that state. The ex-Congress chief had sought a temporary stay on his conviction till the High Court ruled on his petition.

Gandhi had moved the high court in prime minister Narendra Modi's home state to challenge a Surat sessions court order denying his plea to stay the 'Modi surname' case conviction.

He was represented by party colleague and senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who argued the offence for which Gandhi had been sentenced did not involve 'moral turpitude' but the consequences of denying him a stay on the verdict could be irreversible.

"In the case of a public servant or a legislator, it has very serious additional irreversible consequences - to the person, the constituency, and also drastic consequences of re-election," Singhvi said, referring to a potential bypoll for the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, which was Rahul Gandhi's till he was disqualified.

The 'moral turpitude' argument was countered by advocate Nirupam Nanavaty, who was appearing for the complainant - BJP leader and ex-Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi. "When you say all Modis are thieve... is it not moral turpitude? What message are you giving to the world? That an opposition leader brands his PM as a thief before thousands?"

The Jharkhand case was filed at a MP/MLA court in capital Ranchi by a Pradeep Modi.

The opposition leader has been sentenced to two years in jail for his comment at an election rally in Karnataka in 2019, in which he referred to wanted fugitives Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, and asked voters 'how come all thieves have Modi surname in common...'

He appealed the verdict at the sessions court and then approached the Gujarat High Court, where Justice Hemant Prachchhak will deliver his verdict after the summer vacation.

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Same-sex marriage Supreme Court hearing LIVE updates: A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday began hearing the arguments for and against seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriages in India. This is the seventh day of the hearing.

On April 27, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre to come up with a response on May 3 about the social benefits that the same-sex couples can get even without the legal recognition of marriage. To this, the Centre now has said that it will form a committee to examine the administrative steps it can take to address some of the concerns of same-sex couples.
A day after Sharad Pawar announced his decision to step down as chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), party leaders on Wednesday huddled up in an attempt to convince him to reconsider his decision, even as a section of them hinted that there was growing consensus in favour of his daughter Supriya Sule to take over the post. NCP chief Sharad Pawar. (ANI)

As NCP workers, who were gathered at south Mumbais YB Chavan Centre, continued to raise slogans demanding withdrawal of his resignation, Pawar met party MLAs and leaders for over three hours at the premises and even held a slew of meetings at his residence Silver Oak in the evening.

In response to an ultimatum by party workers that they will resign from their posts if no decision is taken by May 5, the 83-year-old veteran told reporters: I will accept whatever decision will be taken by the committee.

Pawar was referring to a committee that he had announced, after his resignation, on Tuesday to decide on the next president of the party.

I took the decision without informing anyone. You would not have allowed me to take the decision if I would have told anyone, he told the protesting workers.

Pawar, one of Indias tallest and senior-most political leaders, on Tuesday announced his decision to step down as NCP chief. The development came amid swirling rumours about a section of party leaders breaking away to ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra.

Pawars announcement, made at the Mumbai launch of his autobiography Lok Mazhe Sangati, left his party reeling, with many senior leaders breaking down as others clambering onto the dais entreating him not to quit. Such was the pressure mounted on him through the day that he finally asked for another two to three days to consider his decision more deeply.

NCP MLA from Thane Jitendra Awhad on Wednesday said he had resigned as the partys national general secretary following Pawars announcement that he was stepping down as the party chief.

Pawar saheb always takes his decision with due diligence and has remained firm on it. He must have thought a lot before reaching this conclusion. I dont think he will step back and, in all likelihood, will remain firm on his decision, a senior NCP leader and a close aide of Pawar said, seeking anonymity.

Amid speculation over talks about the next party chief, senior NCP leader Praful Patel said there was no question of picking Sharad Pawars successor until there was a final decision on his announcement to quit the post.

Pawar yesterday said there should be a generational change. Maybe he wanted a new generation to step forward. None of us knew about it beforehand. He has asked for some time and we should grant him that, he said.

Pawars daughter Supriya Sule, who is a Member of Parliament (MP) from Baramati, is considered to be the frontrunner to replace him.

A second senior NCP leader said: It is known within the party that Pawar wants Sule as his political heir. However, since Ajit Pawar controls a significant number of MLAs, the best possible solution is to work out an arrangement between the two. In that way, both can be guided by Pawar.

Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal spoke in favour of Sule, saying she was ideal for a national role.

She has been doing well as a parliamentarian. So there will be no problem in deciding the new (NCP) president. Ajit Pawar should handle the responsibility of the state (Maharashtra). The division of work is already there, he said.

On Tuesday, Pawars nephew and the man widely believed to have prompted his uncles drastic move in the first place, Ajit Pawar, had requested NCP MLAs and office-bearers to stop bombarding his uncle with their own resignations.He was the only prominent leader who supported Pawars decision to step down. If he is not the president, it does not mean he is not in the party. He is looking to create new leadership... The new party chief will work under sahebs leadership, said Ajit Pawar, who only last week took a dig at Sharad Pawars advancing years, saying that some leaders step away when they get old.

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Stating that it is for the Union government to take a call on such a sensitive issue, the Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to commute Babbar Khalsa terrorist Balwant Singh Rajoanas death sentence to life imprisonment, adding the Centre may in due course of time consider his mercy plea in connection with former Punjab chief minister Beant Singhs assassination in 1995. Balwant Singh Rajoana.(HT_PRINT)

Read here: SC declines to commute death penalty of Beant Singh's killer Balwant Singh Rajoana to life imprisonment

A bench led by Justice BR Gavai noted that the stand of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to defer the decision on the mercy petition for commutation of Rajoanas death penalty on grounds of national security and the law and order situation actually amounts to a decision declining to grant the same for the present.

It would not be within the domain of this court to delve upon the decision of the competent authority to defer taking of any decision at present. It is within the domain of the executive to take a call on such sensitive issues. As such this Court does not deem it appropriate to issue any further directions, said the bench, also comprising justices Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol.

Rajoanas sister Kamaldeep Kaur said the judgment was unfortunate, and added that her brother no longer posed any threat to society. What threat does he pose to society after being in jail for 28 years, of which he has been on death row for 16 years, asked Kamaldeep, who unsuccessfully contested for the Sangrur parliament constituency in 2022 on a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ticket.

The judgment, authored by justice Nath, further noted that the Centre cannot be accused of an inordinate delay in the matter since Rajoana never filed a mercy petition himself and the one pending before the President was moved by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), a Sikh religious body, in 2012.

In the communication issued by MHA in September 2019 commuting Rajoanas death sentence to a life term coinciding with the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, the court noted, MHA did stipulate that his case would be processed under Article 72 of the Constitution of India that gives clemency powers to the President.

After the directions issued by this Court on December 4, 2020 and May 2, 2022, the matter was again considered by the competent authority and it was decided to defer the question of commutation in view of the reasons given in the affidavit filed by MHA. Thus, it cannot be alleged that there has been an inordinate delay in disposal of the mercy petition, said the top court.

Refusing to allow Rajoanas petition seeking commutation of his death penalty in view of the delay and the prolonged period of his incarceration, the bench directed that the competent authority, in due course of time, would again as and when it is deemed necessary, may deal with the mercy petition, and take a further decision.

Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was convicted for his involvement in an explosion outside the Punjab civil secretariat that killed Beant Singh and 16 others in 1995. A special court in July 2007 awarded the death sentence to Rajoana, along with another terrorist Jagtar Singh Hawara, in the assassination case. Rajoana was the second human bomb in case the first one would have failed in killing the Congress leader.

Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged on March 31, 2012  two years after the Punjab and Haryana high court confirmed his capital punishment. The execution was however stayed on March 28, 2012, by the then Congress-led government at the Centre after SGPC filed a mercy petition with the President. The Shiromani Akali Dal, which was then in power in Punjab, also campaigned against his execution.

The President at that time forwarded the mercy plea to the MHA, which is still pending. In its September 2022 affidavit, the central government told the Supreme Court that a decision on the mercy plea has to be deferred for the time being because it has a serious potential of compromising the security of the nation or creating a law-and-order situation. This affidavit stated that Punjab being a border state, any decision on the mercy petitions filed on behalf of Rajoana has to be taken keeping in view the overall security scenario and terrorism perspective of the state.

The government and the Central Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the 1995 assassination case, opposed Rajoanas plea filed in 2020 for commutation of his sentence arguing that President is the final authority in the matter of granting clemency and that the September 2019 communication by MHA does not confer any right on Rajoana. CBI also added any decision on Rajoanas clemency must await the outcome of three criminal appeals pending before the Supreme Court in relation to the co-accused in the case.

Read here: SC order unfortunate, my brother not threat to society, says Rajoanas sister

Representing Rajoana, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi emphasised that his client was entitled to commutation in light of the 2019 communication and also because he has been on death row for 15 years and incarcerated for 26 years. He cited the case of another terror case convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, whose life term was commuted by the Supreme Court in 2014 over an inordinate delay by the government in deciding his mercy plea.

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to commute Babbar Khalsa terrorist Balwant Singh Rajoanas death sentence to life imprisonment, leaving it for the Union government to consider his mercy plea in connection with former Punjab chief minister Beant Singhs assassination in 1995. Balwant Singh Rajoana. (HT Photo)

A bench led by Justice BR Gavai noted that the delay by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) in deciding Rajoanas mercy plea can be construed as its disinclination to commute his sentence.

The bench, which included justices Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol, held the MHA could consider the request again at an appropriate time.

The Supreme Court on March 2 reserved its verdict on a petition filed by Rajoana in 2020 for commuting his punishment in view of a communication issued by the MHA in September 2019 to Punjab for commuting his death sentence to a life term coinciding with the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was convicted for his involvement in an explosion outside the Punjab civil secretariat that killed Beant Singh and 16 others in 1995.

A special court in July 2007 awarded the death sentence to Rajoana, along with another terrorist Jagtar Singh Hawara, in the assassination case. Rajoana was the second human bomb in case the first one would have failed in killing the Congress leader. Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged on March 31, 2012.

The execution was stayed on March 28, 2012, by the then Congress-led government at the Centre after the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), a Sikh religious body, filed a mercy petition with the President. The Shiromani Akali Dal, which was then in power in Punjab, also campaigned against his execution.

The President at that time forwarded the mercy plea to the MHA. Since then, the petition has been pending.

During hearings before the top court, the bench questioned the delay in a decision on Rajoanas mercy plea one way or the other.

But the Union government and the Central Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the 1995 assassination case, opposed Rajoanas plea on the grounds that he never filed any mercy plea himself and that such representations only came from organisations such as the SGPC

It added that the President is the final authority in the matter, arguing that the September 2019 decision by MHA will not confer any right on the petitioner since it was not a final decision.

The Union government added any decision on his clemency must await the outcome of the appeal filed by co-accused Hawara pending before the Supreme Court.

Representing Rajoana, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, emphasised his client was entitled to commutation in light of the 2019 communication and because he has been on death row for 15 years and incarcerated for 26 years.

He cited the case of another terror case convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, whose life term was commuted by the Supreme Court in 2014 over an inordinate delay by the government in deciding his mercy plea.

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain pleas for stalling the release of the movie The Kerala Story on Friday and directed the petitioners seeking it to approach the Kerala high court where similar petitions are pending. The Supreme Court asked the petitioners to approach the Kerala high court. (Shutterstock)

We have seasoned judges manning our high courts. Our high courts have absolute control over such situations, said a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha while hearing senior advocate Vrinda Grover, who appeared for Muslim clerical body Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind.

Grover said the movie, which was slated for a pan-India release, is intended to cause hatred and enmity between different sections of society.

The Jamiat in its plea said the movie demeans the entire community and will endanger the lives and livelihood of Muslims. The movie begins by flashing a note that it has been inspired by true events.... it is falsely stated that 32,000 girls have left Kerala for West Asia to join ISIS even though the United Nations, the Union Home Ministry, police sources, and experts agree that the number of Indians who left to join ISIS is around 66 and the maximum number of pro-ISIS persons who may have shown inclination towards ISIS is in between 100 and 200, the petition said.

It said a wrong impression was being created that apart from extremist clerics, ordinary Muslims play a role in luring non-Muslims and radicalising them by posing as friendly and good-natured. With this trend being referred to as love jihad, Jamiat said the movie spreads malicious propaganda.

Besides seeking a stay on the movies release, the petition additionally sought a disclaimer stating that it is a work of fiction and its characters bear no resemblance to any person living or dead.

Grover told bench that the Kerala high court is hearing petitions challenging the movies release on May 5 when it will be released across India.

The bench said Article 32, which gives the Supreme Court powers to enforce fundamental rights, cannot be a solution for everything. Why should we become super 226 courts, referring to the power provided to high courts to issue writs under Article 226 of the Constitution.

We are not inclined to entertain the petitions. We grant liberty to approach the high court, the bench said. Since the release of the movie is on May 5, we allow the petitions to be mentioned for early hearing.

Advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for the makers of the movie, objected to the petitions being mentioned when the issue is pending before the high court. He opposed the idea of any new disclaimer.

Advocate Nizam Pasha mentioned a second petition against the movie in the Supreme Court, arguing it is aimed at spreading hate speech through an audio-visual medium. We are not on disclaimer but on a larger issue of hate speech, Pasha said.

The CJI-led bench asked if this matter was pending before another bench of the top court.

Pasha said he mentioned an application to stall the films release on Tuesday before a Justice KM Joseph-led bench but it was not entertained. He said he was asked to file a substantive writ petition and approach the high court.
Nudged by the Supreme Court, the Union government on Wednesday agreed to set up an interministerial committee, headed by the cabinet secretary, to examine the administrative steps that the Centre can consider for ensuring social security and other welfare benefits for same-sex couples even in absence of a legal recognition of marriage. The court clarified that it is ready to go into the legal issues relating to the communitys right to marry.(AP)

The Constitution bench, on its part, appreciated the governments offer calling it a big step, and added that it does not want to leave same-sex couples with nothing in their hands if the top court eventually decides against their petitions for the legal recognition of such unions under the Special Marriage Act (SMA). It also advised the petitioners against an all-or-nothing approach.

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While there is no certainty of how things will go, Wednesdays developments perhaps indicate the steps the government is willing to take to address the issues raised by same-sex couples  without legally recognising their union  as well as the direction of the courts thinking. In April, the five-judge bench hearing the case said it will not be touching upon the aspects of personal laws, adding that an incremental approach to the process of judicial determination in the case will reflect sage wisdom.

Last week, the court implored the Centre to mull over certain benefits and rights that same-sex couples could be granted in view of governments statement that they have a fundamental right to cohabit and celebrate their unions.

Read here: VHP to hold nationwide protests against same-sex marriage plea

Appearing on Wednesday before a Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta submitted that the government is positive about making efforts to address some of the human concerns of same-sex couples, wherever legally permissible.

What we have decided is that it will need coordination between different ministries. Therefore, a committee will be formed and this will be headed by nobody less than the cabinet secretary. The petitioners can give their suggestions to this committee so that whatever is legally permissible can be done, the SG told the bench, which also comprised justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, S Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha.

Acknowledging the first step taken by the government, the bench suggested that the petitioners should have a meeting with the SG and some other law officers from the government to zero in on issues that can be looked into by the proposed committee even as the hearing on the legal issues that the petitions have raised could go on in the court.

At this point, senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Menaka Guruswamy and Saurabh Kirpal raised red flags. The lawyers pointed out that some administrative tweaking in a few circulars may not be enough since granting meaningful rights to same-sex couples would necessarily entail changes in the law. They added that in spite of the governments offer, the moot question looms large why same-sex couples should continue facing discrimination in recognition of their marital status and why they should settle for anything else.

The bench, however, responded by elucidating the courts limitations in making legislative changes and added that the petitioners should not stress on all or nothing since even the smallest changes today can be the building blocks of greater movements in future.

He (Mehta) may say administrative changes, but they can bring about many substantial changes. Sometimes, the beginnings are small but they can prove to be very substantial in various aspects. As the SG argued on the last day, the government accepts that same-sex couples have a right to cohabit, and it has been accepted as a social reality. Based on that, there may be some incidents like the right to reside, bank account, insurance etc. From your perspective, this can be very important. This cant be all-or-nothing, it told the lawyers.

The court clarified that it is ready to go into the legal issues relating to the communitys right to marry but it may not be prudent on the petitioners part to undermine or reject the governments offer.

Singhvi, on his part, pressed that the real meaning of marriage is a juristic question that only this court can decide.

The court replied: The conceptual domain requires legislative changes and it is completely beyond our domain. So, we have to see how we frame the conceptual doctrine... We are saying that we will decide this issue as a concept but the government taking the first step forward will be to recognise the cohabitation of same-sex couples and thats a big step.

Kirpal and Guruswamy, however, emphasised that a vast majority of same-sex couples want to get married and that they do not want to keep being treated as second-class citizens.

To this, the bench replied that the Supreme Court cannot be guided by popular or segmental morality but it is only the constitutional morality that can guide its decisions. There is a constitutional problem with the argument on what young people feel because then we will have to also go by what other people feel. This is why the salutary safeguard that we have is what the Constitution guides, it added.

The bench told the lawyers that everything achievable can be an incremental step. This is a social institution which is evolving and the court, as a facilitator, can ensure that there is some development. If we dont recognise same-sex marriage, we do not want you to be with nothing in your hand, it observed.

The court added: If you gain only a few things out of it, this will still be really big. These gains are also not to be belittled. Just sit back and think about it... To the extent to which the government takes the first step, it will be substantial advancement in the status of cohabitational relationships. If this results in gains that may not be as substantial as you may want, it will still be building blocks for some future courses of action. If there is some quietus to it, this is not the end.

The lawyers then submitted that they will hand over the draft of the changes desired by the petitioners to SG Mehta.

After Mehta concluded his submissions on the seventh day of the hearing, attorney general R Venkataramani argued for a brief time. The AG argued that the court should not fundamentally alter the basic text of the statute (Hindu Marriage Act), adding that it was never intended for non-heterosexual couples.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Madhya Pradesh government, submitted that preparedness of society is very important for bringing such changes, suggesting the court must not rush into anything.

There is nobody stopping them from forming associations or getting married. But there is no fundamental right to seek legal recognition. The regulations that we have come to protect women and children. If a change in those regulations has to come, social evolutions involving elected representatives can do it. A cultural revolution brought by courts cannot do it. Parliament understands the pulse of society and they will know what to do, when to do and how to do it. These are not matters to go with speed. Slowness is the way forward, contended Dwivedi.

Read here: Tripura VHP writes to Chief Justice of India against same-sex marriage pleas

He added that heterosexual couples do not depend on any law for validation of their marriage since there is acceptance of society and thus, even a striking down of SMA will not affect their status.

The court will resume hearing the case next week.

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Tamil Nadu is on high alert ahead of the pan-India release of the controversial film The Kerala Story on May 5, officials close to developments said on Wednesday. A banner from The Kerala Story film,

Some groups have called for protests. Our intelligence wing has taken note of their messages on social media, said a top government official on the condition of anonymity.

Some Islamic groups have also approached the police in a few districts seeking a ban. But the government is not banning it. Even Kerala has not banned it. We have, however, relayed the alerts to all the law enforcement agencies to remain on high alert, the official added.

(Also Read | Muslim body, lawyer announce 1.11 crore reward for proving The Kerala Story claims)

The official also confirmed that reports that the intelligence wing has recommended that the government must not release The Kerala Story are incorrect.

The Intelligence officers have not given us any such recommendation, and the government has not taken any decision on it, the official said.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain pleas for stalling the release of The Kerala Story and directed the petitioners to approach the Kerala high court, where similar petitions are pending.

The Muslim clerical body Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind approached the top court after the films trailer was released.

(Also Read | Shashi Tharoor clarifies stance on The Kerala Story film: Not calling for ban, but)

The petitioners have said that the film demeans the entire community and will endanger the lives and livelihood of Muslims. Besides seeking a stay on the movies release, the petition sought a disclaimer stating that the film is a work of fiction and its characters bear no resemblance to any person living or dead.

The movie begins by flashing a note that it has been inspired by true events.... it is falsely stated that 32,000 girls have left Kerala for West Asia to join ISIS even though the United Nations, the Union Home Ministry, police sources, and experts agree that the number of Indians who left to join ISIS is around 66 and the maximum number of pro-ISIS persons who may have shown inclination towards ISIS is in between 100 and 200, the petition said.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan accused the Sangh Parivar and the makers of the film of sowing the poisonous seeds of communalism describing the film as propaganda.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday offered 1 crore to anyone who can prove that 32,000 women in Kerala were forced to convert to Islam. National award-winning cinematographer P C Sreeram from Tamil Nadu tweeted on Wednesday, What is this The Kerala story Is it the same as the famous obscene propaganda film Kashmir files?

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Top women wrestlers told Supreme Court on Wednesday that the Delhi police has not taken any action after registration of a first information report (BJP) on their complaint accusing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual harassment. The police was also directed to submit an affidavit of compliance by May 4. (PTI file image)

Appearing before a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and justice PS Narasimha, senior advocate Narender Hooda representing the women wrestlers said, They (Delhi police) are doing absolutely nothing on our complaint. The police is yet to record our statement under Section 161 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

He sought permission of the Court to place additional material in this regard in a sealed cover ahead of the hearing on Thursday.

Also Read: Will remain till Brij Bhushan goes to jail: Wrestlers after meeting PT Usha

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta appeared for the Delhi police and suggested to the Court that the petitioners could submit the same material directly to the police.

He said, Why dont they go and show this (material) to the investigation agency. An investigation is already on.

The bench told the petitioners, You give a copy to the solicitor general.

Hooda said that he had no objection to share the contents of the sealed cover with the solicitor general but did not want the same to come out in public domain.

After receiving the documents, the Court allowed Mehta to share the information with the investigating officer of the case.

It was on April 28, the Delhi police had agreed to register an FIR on the complaint of seven women wrestlers (including a minor) after three of them moved the top court for direction to register their complaint of sexual harassment submitted at Connaught Place police station in Delhi on April 21.

Even before arguments on the petition could commence, the police agreed to register FIR.

The same day, two FIRs were registered, one including offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the other exclusively dealing with the minor girls complaint registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The Court had also directed the Delhi police to make a threat perception assessment of the seven women complainants and provide necessary security arrangements.

The police was also directed to submit an affidavit of compliance by May 4.

The wrestlers have been staging a protest at Capitals Jantar Mantar seeking action against Singh.

In their petition before the top court, women wrestlers had submitted that their complaint disclosed a cognizable offence and by not registering FIR, the Delhi police violated a 2014 constitution bench decision of the top court requiring mandatory FIR in cognizable offences.

The refusal to register such a case would invite prosecution of police officials under Section 166A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the petition added.

In January, the wrestlers went public with their complaint against Singh by staging a protest in the national Capital.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win a clear majority in Karnataka, surprising everyone, Union home minister Amit Shah said in an interview, adding that while, from the outside, the elections may look polarised, on the ground, it is the development work done by the BJP that is talking. Shah also dismissed opposition parties coming together to take on the BJP as a photo-op and said that it would have no impact on votes. Edited excerpts PREMIUM Union home minister Amit Shah dismissed opposition parties coming together to take on the BJP as a photo-op and said that it would have no impact on votes

What are the prospects of the BJP in Karnataka?

Even before the elections were announced, I visited the state for about 11 days, and after the polls were announced, I have been visiting the state every two or three days. I have visited about 70% of the districts in Karnataka and I have felt a surge in support for the BJP everywhere. The enthusiasm of our cadre to ensure that the BJP gets a majority is also at its peak. There is an overall sentiment that Karnataka has to remain a stronghold of the BJP in the South.

Based on my feedback and my experience, I am confident that the party will win reach the halfway mark and win a minimum of 15 additional seats over the halfway mark (there are 224 seats in the assembly). The elections results will surprise everyone.

Will the BJP be able to buck the trend of the incumbent not returning to power?

There is no such trend...the Congress returned to power four times and the Janata Dal (Secular) also returned to power three times.

Read here: BJP will get 15 seats more than halfway mark: Shah

But since 1999 there has been a change...

It is meaningless; each result comes with its own electoral dimensions. It is not correct to link it to any date. Parties come and go, but electoral history is based on the comprehensive political situation, and I feel now people in the state want both stability and the BJP in power.

In the Karnataka election manifesto, you promised the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). Why not have a central law to implement the code?

UCC has been on the BJPs agenda since the day our party was formed. Even when we were not in a position to form the government, we used to include it in our manifesto, and we used to do so as a public opinion building exercise. But the constituent assembly also favoured the UCC... it had expressed hope that Parliament and the state assemblies will implement a common code at the right time, after widespread consultations. BJP governments in Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh have set up committees that have begun public hearings.

It is valid to ask why there is no central law for its implementation... but this is a subject that is in the domain of the state as well as the Centre. Second, it is a critical issue with wide ramifications and can have a revolutionary impact on social life. So, we want there to be extensive discussion on the issue on the ground, and one or two states should formulate the law, which can withstand legal scrutiny and then, with maturity, after wide discussions, UCC should be implemented. Such a big decision should not be rushed.

You did away with reservation for Muslims in Karnataka. If this reservation was unconstitutional, why was the decision not taken earlier?

I have said this several times publicly that we delayed the scrapping of the quota and should have done this before. Reservation based on religion is unconstitutional. Our Constitution grants reservation to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and on the basis of backwardness, not religion. There are many Supreme Court judgments that have made it (reservation policy) very clear. There is no scope for reservation on a religious basis.

There are several states, including Telangana, where such reservation is prevalent.

The BJPs stance is clear that since the Constitution does not permit reservation on the basis of religion, wherever we form the government, we will end the practice. I said so recently in Telangana also.

You have also mentioned NRC (National Register of Citizens) in the Karnataka manifesto. Is there a problem of (illegal) outsiders in the state?

It is not exactly an NRC, but a sort of a survey. A state government has the right to conduct a survey of its citizens.

Will rebels affect your chances in Karnataka ?

In the last three elections there have been rebel candidates...this time, there has been a drastic reduction in their numbers.

Why were the senior leaders denied tickets, was it winnability or generational change?

It is not about winnability. [Jagdish] Shettar had himself decided that he will not work as a minister under BS Bommai, so then why does a senior leader like him want to come a legislator? But we could not succeed in making him understand that a new leader should get a chance.

[Laxman] Savadis term as MLC (Member of Legislative Council) ends in December 2028, why does he want to be a member of the assembly? And if he wanted to be a legislator, why did he accept the MLC ticket a year ago?

These are decisions based on principles that we could not make them understand. But I am saying this, both Shettar and Savadi will lose.

You have banned the Popular Front of India (PFI); do you see this benefitting the BJP in the Karnataka polls?

It will have a big impact on the nations internal security. It (ban) helps enforce the rule of law and also acts as a speed breaker... when so many people are jailed at once, they need to create a new cadre, create new outfits and expand their work, so it stalls their pace. The governments approach of zero tolerance for such organisations that are a threat to the internal security of the country becomes apparent to the last man in the queue. I feel there is an advantage...all state governments and the Union government took the decision to act against PFI and imprison its members at the same time. The court too has upheld the ban.

The Congress has spoken about its intent to ban the Bajrang Dal.

I feel the reason for this decision is the policy of appeasement that the Congress party follows. From any which way the Bajrang Dal cannot be accused of being a threat to the countrys internal security or anti-national activities. But this has been the policy of the Congress for years, they put a lock on the Ram Temple (in Ayodhya) ...

Going by the narrative, the election looks very polarised.

If we analyse from just one point of view then it seems so...but when we are on the ground, then you see the effect of the BJP governments work -- the 14 irrigation schemes that were fast-tracked, the expansion of the metro from 6km to 56km in Bengaluru, the impact of the suburban railway, the construction of eight-lane roads from Bengaluru to Chennai and Hyderabad and six-lane road to Mysuru. There are scores of such development projects that the BJP will benefit from. When we view it from a distance and from the prism of news headlines, then we feel there is (polarisation)...but 48 lakh (4.8 million) families have got toilets, 37 lakh (3.7 million) houses for the poor were constructed,1.4 crore (14 million) get free ration and all BPL (below poverty line) families get health insurance of up to 5 lakh. And in toto, the effect of the ban on PFI will have an impact on Bengaluru and Karnatakas security.

There is a perception that caste impacts voting preference in Karnataka. Do you think that the work that the BJP government claims to have done in the state will change that? Will development trump caste preference?

After Narendra Modi became PM in 2014,a new caste has emerged in the country, that of beneficiaries. This new caste has broken all the previous bindings of caste. In Karnataka alone, excluding overlaps, there are at least 40 lakh (4 million) families that have benefitted from one scheme or the other of the BJP and they feel that after 70 years, this government has brought a change in their lives. We have not distributed revadis (sops), we have raised their living standard. A family now gets a house, they get a toilet, power, water, cooking gas, health insurance and free foodgrain, so, the entire income is used for educating the children and for starting new businesses. Earlier, the income used to be spent on just getting these things and there used to be a single dream -- to get a house. I believe the welfare schemes have broken all caste barriers. The importance of caste does remain in the countrys political system -- but the BJP represents all castes. We are in a win-win situation, we have representatives of all castes and irrespective of castes, we have a new vote-bank that is Narendra Modis fanbase.

Read here: Siddaramaiah speaking against Lingayats as he has sensed defeat: BSY

The BJP and the Congress both accuse each other of corruption. The BJP says if the Congress returns to power it will use the state as an ATM. How will the BJP tackle the allegations against the state government?

The Congress should spell out the schemes where there was corruption and who was involved. There has to be a basis for levelling the charge, just as there was when the 2G (spectrum) scam came to light. All the scams and scandals during the Congress regime had a basis, either the court took notice, or the vigilance commission did, or CBI had to inquire. And if they claim that we (BJP government) do not take action, then they can approach the court.

I want to ask, what about the Congress president in the state (DK Shivakumar) , there is an FIR, he went to jail and is out on bail. People are not swayed by utterances alone, it (the allegation) sticks only when there is proof.

The Opposition blames the government for misusing agencies.

They can go to the court. All the investigations into the scams during their rule were ordered by the courts. And as Opposition, when we raised the issue in Parliament, we used to give concrete proof, which the court used to take cognisance of and issue orders.

The Karnataka polls are largely being seen as a tussle between the BJP and the Congress. Both the BJP and the Congress have also dubbed the JD(S) as Team B of the other. Do you think this is a bipolar contest between the BJP and the Congress?

The JD(S) is nowhere in the picture. In the last election, it was the party with the smallest mandate, and they took support from the Congress to form government and get the CMs post. Now, people have realised that they dont want to vote for the Congress so, voting for the JD(S) is pointless because, in the end, it will go to the Congress itself. Those who do not want to vote for the Congress will naturally come to the BJP.

The BJP seems confident that the rejig in the internal reservation will help shore up its numbers; however there are castes such as the SC Left and the Banjaras who are not happy with the changes.

We ended 4% reservation for Muslims and by default, the quotas for Vokkaligga and Lingayats went up. The reservation for Dalits was as per the report that was pending for long, but the Congress did not have the courage to implement. We did it and the people of Karnataka have welcomed the move.

The Congress is trying to turn it into a political issue, but it will not succeed.

There is a lot of pressure from certain groups such as the Lingayats to announce a chief ministerial candidate.

Bommai is the sitting CM, where is the question of announcing a name?

But the state seems to favour personalities over other aspects. A lot of people feel former CM BS Yediyurappa is still the tallest leader...

He is a tall leader but he himself said he does not want to continue as CM. The party also has a rule (on age) and he had followed it. Just because he is not the CM, does not mean he is not our partys leader. Even at this age, he addresses five rallies a day, yesterday he was with me for three rallies and he speaks fluently. I sometimes wonder -- when I am his age, will I be able to speak like that?

The Congress has complained to the Election Commission (EC) about your statement on there being riots if it comes to power.

The EC will take a call. Such complaints are made during poll season, but I think I have not violated the model code of conduct

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is planning a meeting of Opposition parties after the Karnataka polls. Do you see an alliance taking shape nationally?

Opposition unity in the current political context seems like an impossible feat. All the parties that are contesting against the BJP are mostly regional parties and their acceptance and the ambit of their work is limited to one state. What will be the impact if Nitish Kumar goes to address a meeting in Punjab or Mamata Banerjee goes to Gujarat in support of Congress or Akhilesh Yadav seeks support for Trinamool Congress in West Bengal? All these people are competing against us in their own states and if they come together, there will be a photo op and will be good for newspaper headlines. But there will be no impact on the transfer of votes.

If the Congress and regional parties put up consensus candidates ?

The Congress now has a limited impact...what difference will it make if the party allies with any party in UP or Bengal? They have zero and one seat in both states. The Congress is now barely surviving in states. In this political landscape, there is no relevance of Opposition unity, it exists only in for optics and for media consumption.

A lot of Opposition parties have said that an alliance cannot be formed without the Congress. But given the partys political heft, is there any other party that can take its place in the Oppositions alliance?

Even if there is a grand alliance, what will the Congress give Mamata Banerjee in Rajasthan, in Madhya Pradesh, in Chhattisgarh or Gujarat? Over a period of time, the areas of operation for all these parties have segregated, they cannot help each other, they can only make a bid to unite pre-poll.

But I feel all this is unnecessary since we will win with 2/3rd majority.

It has been four years since the reading down of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Are you satisfied with the work that has been done on the ground? Has the Union Territory been mainstreamed?

Success in J&K can be seen in three aspects -- percolation of democracy, development and control on terrorism. For 70-plus years after Independence, democracy did not percolate, there was no evidence of development and terrorism too was at its peak. I feel in all three aspects, the lieutenant governors (LGs) administration under central rule has done well. Today, more than 30,000 local body representatives, who were elected, are working on the ground, the infrastructure that they need, such as a tehsil panchayat, has been provided. Earlier, democracy was limited to only 87 MLAs and six MPs. There was no implementation of Panchayati Raj rules under the ruse of Article 370 before.

There has been a reduction in terror cases as well; under various heads, there has been a dip of between 30-70%. For sometime now, you would not have seen people throng funerals of terrorists, this means that people now have distanced themselves from terrorists. Instances of stone pelting that were commonplace earlier cannot be seen anymore. There is data to support these claims...We have also taken stern steps, for instance, if anyone wants to apply for a government job, they will need a certificate from the police station to state that they did not take part in stone pelting. Strict action has been taken against relatives of terrorists killed. All this has resulted in a dip in terror acts and also shrunk the terror ecosystem.

It is a big achievement that 1.8 crore (18 million) tourists visited the UT in just one year.

The third aspect is development; the work to provide tap water in every household is now complete; during the past two winters, instances of power cuts were fewer than 3%. Under the industrial policy, investment is flowing into Kashmir. Work to provide infrastructure is underway and institutions are being established. When I met IIT and IIM students, it felt nice to hear students from Kerala and Gujarat studying in Kashmir. This is changing the situation on the ground.

Comparatively a lot of work has been done, but development is a continuous process, and we should not remain satisfied...so lots must be done still. But the disha and gati (direction and speed) are right.

The next step is elections in J&K...

I cannot say when the elections will be held as it is decided by EC. As of now they (EC) are preparing the electoral rolls and the objections that they invited shows that earlier rolls prepared under previous governments have left out the names of the many displaced Kashmiris. Till the time that is rectified, and the process of their registration is not complete, I feel the electoral rolls will not be complete. When EC feels that the work is complete, election will be held immediately.

The former LG of J&K, Satyapal Malik, has made some allegations about the governance and administrative issues.

I only want to say that Satyapal ji should have said all this (the allegations) while he was in office. When he speaks about all these issues a year-and-a-half after demitting office and ahead of elections, it is natural for people to think that these utterances are political.

You were in Arunachal Pradesh recently. On the one hand there is the issue of border dispute with China in the Northeastern region and on the other, a focus on development. What do you think is the impact of resolving simmering issues in the region?

There has been a reduction of 60-70% in incidents of violence in the Northeast. Approximately 8,000 insurgents have surrendered. There has been a 70% reduction in the notified area under AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Power Act) since 2019. The Congress in its 2019 manifesto promised the repeal of the act, I was then the BJP president and I said I wont repeal it but we will ensure that there is no situation that calls for its implementation. The peace on the ground shows this clearly. Apart from this, pending issues between states over boundaries have been resolved. We have done good work for the development of the states and the region. Narendra Modi is the only PM who has visited the region more than 50 times in the last nine years. He has not only reduced the physical distance between the region and Delhi, but also the distance between hearts.

We spoke of caste and elections earlier; will the barrier of caste be broken in Bihar ?

Absolutely, look at the growing acceptance of the BJP in the state. In the last election the BJP emerged as a bigger party than Nitish Kumars (Janata Dal United); had caste been a factor, then it wouldnt have been so. We have broken these barriers in UP and Bihar, it is a long fight but the results are good. Earlier, governments used to be decided on the basis of caste, dynasty and appeasement, now we have been successful in installing the politics of performance.

Is Khalistani sentiment reviving in Punjab? Did the government take action against Amritpal at the right moment?

What is seen on surface does not mean that the Khalistani sentiment has found acceptance among the ordinary Sikhs and Punjabis. We feel when Waris Punjab De (Amritpals outfit) breached all limits...then the government of India and the government of Punjab took the right decision at the right time.

Read here: Shah hands out job letters to civic staff in Delhi

There is a perception that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that criticise the government or work in the area of environment lose their FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) licence.

I dont think more than 10% of the NGOs would have lost their licence. Working in the environment sector does not mean that they will not abide by the law of the land. Money coming into the country from abroad is a sensitive issue and there is a law for that, no one should transgress that. If anyone does that, then surely there will be action.
Vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday said that some false narratives about India and its democracy were emanating from some foreign universities and cautioned those criticising their own country outside, asserting that the freedom of expression here is not subject to any enforced silence. Vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar (File Photo)

As Chairman of Rajya Sabha, I know the freedom of expression in our country, is not subject to any enforced silence. Those who think so need to revise their opinion. Such false narratives are emanating from some universities outside, Dhankar said, speaking at the 21st convocation of Dibrugarh University in Assam.

It was apparent that Dhankar was referring to the controversy surrounding Congress leader Rahul Gandhis remarks at UKs Cambridge University earlier this year, where he said democracy in India was under attack and microphone in Parliament was switched off. Earlier too, he had slammed the former Congress chiefs remarks.

You will not find another example where a faculty member, student of a country criticising their own country outside their country. Youll not find a politician who will trot all around the globe to tarnish our democratic values. And this is not Indian culture, Dhankar, also the chairman of Rajya Sabha, said in Assam, without taking names.

I dare say with confidence and with fear of contradiction that India is the most vibrant and functional democracy on the planet as on date. No country in the world can claim to have a constitutional democratic mechanism for the village, municipalities, states and Parliament, he said.

The onus lies on you, you have to find a way out so that such kind of pernicious, sinister narratives are nipped in the bud. I call upon the intelligentsia, media, it is time in Amrit Kaal, we help generate an ecosystem so that our parliamentarians respond positively to the spirit and essence of the founding fathers of our Constitution, he added.

After Dibrugarh, the VP went to Manipur where he interacted with students and faculty of Dhanamanjuri University.

He also interacted with faculties and scientists of central institutions and master crafts persons and national award winners.

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Among the many issues that have come up for discussion and debate in poll-bound Karnataka is the particularly contentious one surrounding reservation for Muslims in the state. In March, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Karnataka government scrapped the four per cent reservation for backward Muslims shortly before the announcement of the date of the assembly elections to be held next month. The state gave two per cent additional reservation to each of the dominant communities, the Lingayats and Vokkaligas, who were already getting 5% and 4% reservation under the OBC category. PREMIUM Reservation or affirmative action in India is neither region-based, nor religion based. (Shutterstock)

The decision was challenged before the Supreme Court, and the Karnataka government assured the court that it will not implement its decision till May 9  the day before polling, and the date set by the court to continue its hearing.

Last month, at a rally in Telangana, Union home minister Amit Shah promised to scrap the reservation if the BJP comes to power in one of the youngest states in India. He called the reservation to Muslims under the backward classes unconstitutional.

Reservation or affirmative action in India is neither region-based, nor religion based. The Constitution of India guarantees reservation to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities on account of the historical injustice they have faced due to caste discrimination. Other backward classes also receive reservation on account of the deprivations faced due to social and economic discrimination. Nevertheless, Muslim communities have reservation under OBC category in many states. The issue has been a bone of political contention in some of them; in others, the law has taken exception to the quota. Lets take a look.

West Bengal

In 2010, the government headed by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya announced 10% reservation in state jobs for economically, socially and educationally backward Muslims who fall within the OBC-A (most backward) category. Muslims under OBC-B (backward) category have 7 % reservation.

The 10% reservation in the OBC-A category was based on the recommendations of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities whose report was tabled in Parliament in December 2009.

The report said that since minorities, especially Muslims, are under-represented, and sometimes wholly un-represented in government offices, they should be regarded as backward in this respect within the meaning of that term as used in Article 16 (4) of the Constitution. The report said 15 % posts in all cadres and grades under Central and state governments should be earmarked for backward classes and within this recommended 15 %, 10 % reservation shall be for Muslims.

When the Left Front government enforced this in 2010, 49 out of 56 most backward communities in the OBC-A category in Bengal were Muslim. In the backward OBC-B category, there were four Muslim groups out of 52 communities, who received 7% reservation. Of the 108 communities in the OBC (A and B) lists, 53 were Muslim communities.

In 2011, the states Muslim population stood at 27.01 % according to the census. After coming to power following the assembly polls that year, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee included more communities in the OBC lists in phases.

At present, there are 81 communities under OBC-A and 99 under OBC-B category according to the state backward classes welfare department. Of these, 56 Muslim communities are listed under OBC-A and 41 Muslim communities are listed under OBC-B category.

Professor Moidul Islam from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences said: The states and the Centre have separate OBC lists. This quota does not provide any platform for competition in public sector jobs because Muslim OBC people will only compete with people from a similar OBC category.

Since 2010, four cases challenging these reservations have been filed at the Calcutta High Court by people affiliated to Hindu organisations. The BJP was made a party in three of these petitions. The litigation is continuing.

Only a handful of Muslim communities in Bengal are left to be included in the OBC lists. Mamata Banerjee has left the Marxists far behind. The Constitution does not permit reservation on the basis of religion. Moreover, Muslims claim that Islam is a religion of brotherhood and such casteism is fake, Bengal BJPs chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.

TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar argued that if BJP claims that only Hindus are entitled to OBC status then the party is admitting its failure to uplift the social and economic status of the majority community.

Religion never interferes with caste classification. In Bengal, there are tribal people and lower caste Hindus who have embraced other religions, such as Islam and Christianity. Does it mean they cease to be economically and socially backward and hence, should be dropped from the OBC lists? The same applies to Muslims as well. This reservation is based purely on social and economic parameters, he said.

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

In Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Muslims have had 4% reservation in education and employment under OBC category since 2007, when the two states were united. Soon after coming to power in May 2004, the then Congress government led by late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy provided a 5% quota to Muslims by including them under OBCs, in a category called BC-E. This was quashed by the high court in 2005 after Vishwa Hindu Parishad secretary of then combined Andhra Pradesh filed a writ petition challenging it.

The government then enacted a legislation based on the recommendation of the AP Backward Classes Commission, but the law was struck down by a five-judge bench of the high court on various grounds including the argument that there was no provision for religion-based reservation under the Constitution.

An expert committee headed by retired IAS officer P S Krishnan in July 2007 suggested that the government give four per cent reservation to only 15 backward groups of the Muslim community to avoid the legal complications.

While implemented by the government, this too was quashed by the high court. The state moved the Supreme Court in 2010, and the top court passed an interim order upholding the constitutional validity of the governments policy. The matter has since been referred to a special Constitutional bench and continues to exist in AP till further orders.

After Telangana was formed, the KCR government enacted a legislation to increase the Muslim reservation to 12% and sent it to the Centre for approval  which it didnt get. Muslims get 4 % reservation in the state, and this has not been challenged in the SC.

Bihar

Muslims are recipients of reservation under the category of extremely backward classes or castes classified in annexure -1 as EBCs.

Former chairman of the state backward classes commission, Bihar Uday Kant Choudhary said there were around 32 castes in Muslims classified in EBCs list who receive reservation. Only three castes among Muslims  Syed, Sheikh and Pathan  who are classified as upper castes, do not get reservation benefits, he said.

One caste among Muslims is categorised in other backward classes. The various caste groups categorised in EBCs among Muslims are getting benefits of reservation in educational institutions, Panchayati Raj institutions and jobs, he added.

The reservation policy for Muslims by putting backward classes among Muslims in EBCs was introduced as part of the 'reservation formula' by former chief minister Karpoori Thakur in 1978. There was no backlash against the decision at the time.

Last October, the Supreme Court found that the current OBC reservation in the state did not pass the mandated triple test. As a result, earlier this year, the Bihar government started an exercise to collect caste and religion information, which will then form the basis on which reservation can be granted.

Tamil Nadu

The composition of the 69% reservation in Tamil Nadu is as follows: Backward Caste (BC) are eligible for 30% reservation, which includes 3.5% reservation for Muslims.

In the 1990s, BC Muslims were part of the BCs, but this was carved as a separate sub-category during the DMK regime in 2007. Most Backward Caste (MBCs) are eligible for 20% reservations, broken down into 10.5% for Vanniyars, 7% for Denotified Communities (which constitute 28 castes) and 2.5% for others (41 castes). Scheduled Castes in the state have 18% reservations, and Scheduled Tribes have one per cent, taking the total up to 69%. This reservation was granted before the Supreme Court verdict in 1993 which capped reservation to 50%. It is the only state in which the SC order does not apply.

Gujarat

In Gujarat, 27% of the seats in government and education are reserved for OBC, 7.5% for Scheduled Castes and 15% for Scheduled Tribes for a total of 49.5% of all seats. Some Muslim communities like Siphai, Pinjara, Ghanchi, Dafer and Bafan fall under the OBC reservation category in Gujarat.

There are close to 25 such sub-castes of Muslims that get reservation under Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) declared by the Gujarat state.

Muslims in Gujarat are about 9% of the total population. Of the 6.5 crore population of the state, if there are 60 lakhs Muslims, not more than 5 lakhs would be covered in the SEBC list. The population of Muslims covered under OBC is scattered and are very less in numbers, said sociologist Gaurang Jani. There are close to 150 sub-castes in the OBC category list.

There is no recent data on the socio-economic condition of Muslims and the last available information from the 2006 Sachar committee, said Ghanshyam Shah, a political analyst and retired professor from JNU.

A majority of Muslims in Gujarat are poor but there are also small strata that fall in middle or upper middle class, he added.

There has not been any major political debate raised in the past few years around Muslim reservations in Gujarat.

Haryana

The Haryana government proposed up to 16% of the total 27% reservation for backward classes in the state for Nat and Meo Muslims, who mostly live in the Mewat region that falls in Gurugram and neighbouring southern districts of the state. Muslims received reservation on the basis of the recommendation of the backward classes commission in 1995, when the reservation quota was increased from 10% to 27 %. However, the Punjab and Haryana high court stayed the reservation for certain Muslim communities such as Muslim Jats in 2017.
Alia Bhatt made a stellar debut at fashion's biggest night on the first Monday of May (Tuesday IST). Alia walked the Met Gala 2023 red carpet as designer Prabal Gurung's muse, and they paid their tribute to Karl Lagerfeld, who inspired the dress code - In Honour of Karl. Now, Prabal Gurung is revealing all the details that went into making the moment possible. He shared that Alia's dress was hand-embroidered in India, where he first met the actor, and how this was not the first time Alia had got a chance to attend the Met Gala. Keep scrolling to find all details about Alia Bhatt's debut revealed by her designer. Alia Bhatt's Met Gala debut dress featured 1 lakh pearl, hand-embroidered in India. (Instagram)

All details about Alia Bhatt's Met Gala look

Alia Bhatt wore a white bridal dress for her debut at the Met Gala, a nod to Karl Lagerfeld's genius and infamous bridal collection. Alia's dress took inspiration from supermodel Claudia Schiffer's 1992 Chanel bridal look, which Dua Lipa wore to the red carpet. Alia and Prabal connected Karl's genius with a touch of India to create the perfect look. Her white gown featured 1 lakh pearls, hand-embroidered in India on silk tulle and made in Atelier Prabal Gurung in New York. Additionally, they paid an ode to the designer's sunglasses by opting for smudgy-defined eyes with Kajal on the inside. Lastly, a pearl-embellished bow on her half-tied hairdo gave the finishing touch.

Prabal Gurung also took to Instagram to reveal how Alia's debut could finally be a reality. He disclosed that he first met the actor at Karan Johar's 40th birthday party and had heard rave reviews about her from his brother and Karan. "I was immediately taken by her when I met her. A petite ingenue whose simmering fire within her was palpable to all of us. One film after another, she has surpassed anyone's expectations and thrilled us with her creative genius. She's a powerhouse performer. To me, she is one of the finest actors we have right now globally," he wrote.

Prabal also revealed that he had invited the actor to the Met Gala before, but she had always asked him to wait for the right moment. "We've talked about a Met moment for a long time. I have invited her before, but she's always been wise enough to say let's wait. This time, however, she felt it was the right moment, so she said yes and off we went to our wildest imaginations," he added.
Narasimha Jayanti is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth anniversary of Narasimha who is considered by devotees as an incarnation of Vishnu. It is observed on the 14th day of the Hindu month of Vaishakha, which falls between April and May in the Gregorian calendar. Narasimha Jayanti 2023: Date, history, significance and celebration of the Hindu festival (Photo by Twitter/Real_Maitreyi)

According to Hindu mythology, Narasimha is the fourth incarnation of Vishnu and was born to the sage Kashyapa and his wife Diti. Narasimha is depicted as a half-man and half-lion form, symbolising the balance of power and wisdom and he is believed to have appeared on earth to protect his devotees and destroy evil forces.

Date:

This year Narsimha Jayati will be observed on May 4.

History:

According to Hindu mythology, the story of Narasimha Jayanti is associated with the demon king Hiranyakashipu, who had become powerful and tyrannical due to a boon he had received from Lord Brahma. The boon made him invincible and he believed himself to be immortal. Hiranyakashipu was opposed to the worship of Lord Vishnu and had vowed to kill his own son, Prahlad, who was a devout follower of Vishnu.

Despite Hiranyakashipu's efforts to kill him, Prahlad continued to worship Lord Vishnu and refused to abandon his faith. Finally, Hiranyakashipu decided to challenge Lord Vishnu himself and asked Prahlad if his god Vishnu was present in a nearby pillar. When Prahlad said yes, Hiranyakashipu struck the pillar with his mace, and Lord Narasimha emerged from it.

Narasimha, being half-man and half-lion, was neither human nor animal and had the power to kill Hiranyakashipu, who had neither boon for death by any living being nor an animal. Narasimha killed Hiranyakashipu, thus saving Prahlad and restoring the balance of good over evil.

Narasimha Jayanti is celebrated as the day of Narasimha's birth anniversary, symbolising the victory of good over evil and the triumph of faith over adversity. It is believed that worshipping Lord Narasimha on this day can grant protection, prosperity, and blessings to devotees. The festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm and devotion across India and is particularly significant in the southern parts of the country.

Significance:

Narasimha Jayanti is a significant festival in Hinduism that celebrates the birth anniversary of Narasimha and the festival holds great importance for devotees of Narasimha as it has several significant meanings and symbolisms associated with it. The story of Narasimha Jayanti is associated with the victory of good over evil. Narasimha incarnated on earth to protect his devotees from the tyrannical demon king Hiranyakashipu, who symbolises evil forces. By killing Hiranyakashipu, Narasimha restored the balance of good over evil and taught the importance of standing up for what is right.

Narasimha Jayanti is believed to be a day when Narasimha's blessings are especially powerful. Devotees offer prayers to seek protection from evil forces, good health, and prosperity. Many people observe fasts and visit temples to seek the blessings of Narasimha. Lord Narasimha is depicted as a half-man and half-lion, symbolising the balance of power and wisdom. He represents the ideal of strength and courage combined with wisdom and restraint. Devotees of Lord Narasimha strive to embody these qualities in their own lives.

The story of Prahlad's devotion to Vishnu despite the opposition of his own father Hiranyakashipu teaches the importance of faith and devotion. Narasimha Jayanti is a reminder to remain steadfast in one's beliefs and to have faith in the power of the divine. Narasimha Jayanti is a significant festival in Hinduism that celebrates the victory of good over evil, the importance of devotion and faith, and the blessings of Lord Narasimha. It is a day to seek protection, prosperity, and blessings from the divine and to reflect on the qualities of power, wisdom and courage.

Celebration:

Devotees of Narsimha fast on the day of Narsimha Jayanti and eat a single meal a day before. All types of grains and cereals are prohibited during Narasimha Jayanti fasting. The fast concludes the next day on Parana day as per muhurat. Devotees take sankalp during Madhyahna or afternoon and perform Narasimha Pujan during Sanyakal before sunset.

On Narasimha Jayanti, devotees of Lord Narasimha offer prayers and perform rituals to seek his blessings for prosperity, good health and protection. Many people observe fasts on this day and visit temples to participate in special prayers and rituals. The festival is particularly important in the southern parts of India, where it is celebrated with great enthusiasm and devotion.
Qantas Airways Ltd.s premium lounge at Hong Kong airport reopened Wednesday after a three-year closure, a further sign the city is gradually returning as an international travel hub after the pandemic. Qantas premium Hong Kong lounge reopens after 3 years as international flights return (Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg)

The reopening is part of a A$100 million ($67 million) investment by Qantas into its global lounge network. The spruced-up Hong Kong site has new furniture, fresh colors, and there are local dishes on the menu.

Flights in and out of Hong Kong slowed to a trickle under its Covid-19 restrictions and the worlds airlines largely abandoned the city. Qantas has seen strong demand for flights to Hong Kong since they resumed in January, Chief Customer Officer Markus Svensson said Wednesday.

The Australian carrier currently operates daily return flights between Sydney and Hong Kong. The Melbourne-Hong Kong route will be reinstated from June, starting from three days a week, before increasing to four weekly services from mid-July.

Qantas on Tuesday picked Vanessa Hudson as its first female chief executive officer. She will replace Alan Joyce, who has led the airline for 15 years, from November.
The White House plans to meet with top executives from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic on Thursday to discuss the promise and risks of artificial intelligence. Vice President Kamala Harris and other US administration officials will discuss ways to ensure consumers benefit from AI while being protected from its harms.

Vice President Kamala Harris and other US administration officials will discuss ways to ensure consumers benefit from AI while being protected from its harms, according to a copy of an invitation seen by AFP.

US President Joe Biden expects tech companies to make sure products are safe before being released to the public, the invitation said.

US regulators last month took a step towards drawing up rules on AI that could see the White House put the brakes on new technologies such as ChatGPT.

The US Department of Commerce put out a call for input from industry actors that would serve to inform the Biden administration in drafting regulation on AI.

"Just as food and cars are not released into the market without proper assurance of safety, so too AI systems should provide assurance to the public, government, and businesses that they are fit for purpose," the Commerce Department said in a statement at the time.

The United States is home to the biggest innovators in tech and AI -- including Microsoft-backed OpenAI, which created ChatGPT -- but trails internationally in regulating the industry.

Google in March invited users in the United States and Britain to test its AI chatbot, known as Bard, as it continues on its gradual path to catch up with ChatGPT.

Biden has urged Congress to pass laws putting stricter limits on the tech sector, but these efforts have little chance of making headway given political divisions among lawmakers.

The lack of rules has given Silicon Valley freedom to put out new products rapidly -- and stoked fears that AI technologies will wreak havoc on society before the government can catch up.

Billionaire Elon Musk in early March formed an AI company called X.AI, based in the US state of Nevada, according to business documents.

Musk, who is already the boss of Twitter and Tesla, is listed as director of X.AI Corporation, a state business filing indicated.

Musk's founding of what appears to be a rival to OpenAI came despite him recently joining tech leaders and AI critics in calling for an overall pause in the development of artificial intelligence.

Google, Meta and Microsoft have spent years working on AI systems to help with translations, internet searches, security and targeted advertising.

But late last year San Francisco firm OpenAI supercharged the interest in the AI sphere when it launched ChatGPT, a bot that can generate natural-seeming text responses from short prompts.
Controversial social media influencer and businessman Andrew Tate has been dealt another massive blow as his house arrest has been extended for another 30 days by the Romanian court. Andrew Tate has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation. (Image Credit: Twitter)

The former kickboxer, has been vocal on social media about his eagerness to clear his name and move past the legal issues that have been charged against him. However, the latest extension of Tates house arrest means they will be unable to leave their homes till May 29, 2023.

The Tate brothers were arrested in December 2022 at their residence in Bucharest, and their imprisonment has continued ever since. While the 'Top-G' was transferred from custody to house arrest on March 31st, some recent development prolongs their confinement. The prosecution team is precisely investigating the Tate brothers for potential crimes related to human trafficking, rape, and running a criminal clan.

Despite the prolonged investigation, no charges have been brought against the brothers and the Romanian associates who were arrested along with them. However, the prosecution is continuing to investigate the matter.

Tate responded to the latest developments in his legal dispute earlier in April. In a Twitter post, he shared his thoughts on the matter, which could be described as a mix of frustration and resistance.

"30 more days on house arrest. 30 more days suppressed. No EMs. I haven't been free for a single day this year. The battle rages against Shaitan," the tweet read.

Tate brothers' house detention is a significant development in the case that has attracted considerable media attention. While, these legal disputes Tate has garnered a sizable following on social media, where he is known for his controversial and misogynist views on a range of topics. He has previously sparked controversy for his views on gender, LGBT, race, Islam, and many sensitive issues.

The allegations against the Tate brothers are serious and have been the subject of intense scrutiny by the Romanian authorities. The investigation has been going on for the past couple of months, and it is unclear when it will come to an end line.

ALSO READ| | Try the Quran if you're so brave, Andrew Tate sparks outrage with controversial Tweet

Tate has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation. He has used social media (especially Twitter) to defend himself against several allegations and to express his frustration at the slow pace of the investigation.
Police said a man opened fire inside the waiting room of an Atlanta medical facility, killing one woman and injuring four others Wednesday as authorities swarmed the citys bustling midtown neighborhood in search of the 24-year-old suspect. Officers set up near the scene of an active shooter on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 in Atlanta. (AP)

Read here: Atlanta Hawks star Dejounte Murray suspended for game 5 against Boston Celtics

Authorities said the gunman, who police identified as Deion Patterson, stole a car and fled after shooting five women on the 11th floor of a Northside medical building shortly after noon. The facility is in a commercial area filled with office towers and high-rise apartments and news of the shooting prompted workers and lunchgoers to shelter in place for hours.

We believe (Patterson) carjacked a vehicle a short distance away and was able to flee the scene as the law enforcement agencies were descending on this area, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said during a news conference.

Schierbaum said a 39-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting. The four injured victims were also women, aged 25, 39, 56 and 71.

Those four are fighting for their lives at Grady Hospital, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens told reporters.

Police asked anyone with information about Pattersons whereabouts to call 911 and not approach him.

After getting information that the shooter may have entered Cobb County, investigators checked surveillance and traffic cameras, and found that the vehicle that appeared to be the one he was driving had entered Cobb County around 12:30 p.m., Cobb County police Sgt. Wayne Delk said. That discovery set off a massive search in the county just northwest of Atlanta, but there had not been a confirmed sighting on camera or by any eyewitness since then, Delk said.

We do believe that he might still be in the area, he said, stressing that people should not approach if they see Patterson but should call 911.

Delk said Atlanta police recovered the vehicle in a parking garage near the Battery, a mixed-use development which is next to the stadium where the Atlanta Braves play.

This is a very active search, Schierbaum said. Were following up on credible leads that are currently active in Cobb County, as well as some here in the city.

Schierbaum added that Pattersons family is being cooperative with investigators.

In a statement, the US Coast Guard said Patterson had joined the service in 2018 and was discharged from active duty in January. He was an electricians mate second class at the time.

Read here: Frequent shootings put US mass killings on record pace

Crime Stoppers was offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and indictment of the suspect.

Around the time of the shooting, Cassidy Hale, a medical device representative, said she was driving to the facility to check on a machine in the buildings 12th floor outpatient surgery center.

Hale saw firetrucks but didn't realize anything was wrong until after she parked and found the elevator wasnt working. Hale said she called the operating room manager, who told her there was an active shooter and she should go back to her car.

Hale said police kept her from leaving the parking garage and later checked each car and escorted her out to be interviewed.

She then gathered with other employees and patients in a building across the street, where she said everyone was really in shock and trying to process what was going on.

The shooting comes as cities around the U.S. have been wracked by gun violence and mass shootings in 2023.

Shortly after the shooting, US Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia took to the Senate floor to decry gun violence and to urge his colleagues to advance gun reform.

There have been so many mass shootings ... that, tragically, we act as if this is routine, Warnock said during a 12-minute speech. "We behave as if this is normal. It is not normal."

The Atlanta pastor added: I shudder to say it, but the truth is, in a real sense, it's only a matter of time that this kind of tragedy comes knocking on your door.
Brazilian police on Wednesday raided former President Jair Bolsonaro's home, arrested his trusted aides, and seized his cell phone as part of a probe into his Covid-19 vaccination records. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.(REUTERS)

The investigation may answer questions about how Bolsonaro, a strident coronavirus skeptic who vowed never to get a Covid vaccine, was registered as vaccinated in health records made public in February.

Read Also: Brazil suspends Telegram app for failing to disclose 'neo-Nazi' groups details

Supreme Court documents showed federal police had found evidence of tampering with Bolsonaro's vaccine records in his last weeks as president in late December, before he flew to the United States, where most foreign visitors must be vaccinated.

Bolsonaro confirmed the raid on his home in Brasilia to journalists and reiterated that he had never taken a COVID vaccine. He denied any role in allegedly forging documents.

"For my part, there was nothing falsified. I didn't take the vaccine. Period," he said, adding that his phone was seized.

The vaccine probe is one of many putting the former far-right leader under pressure, including investigations into alleged voter suppression, his attacks on the legitimacy of Brazilian elections, and embezzlement of foreign gifts.

Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing in those cases.

Federal police in a statement said they were serving 16 search warrants and six preventive arrest warrants in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro as part of the operation, without naming those targeted.

The Supreme Court, which is overseeing the case, released court documents on Wednesday that included an arrest warrant for Mauro Cid, one of Bolsonaro's personal assistants when he was president, who stayed on as an aide after he stepped down.

Police cited evidence that Cid designed a scheme in which Bolsonaro was registered on Dec. 21 as vaccinated against COVID, court documents showed. The entry, made in a public health office in suburban Rio de Janeiro, was removed a week later, according to the documents.

Bolsonaro's personal security officers Max Guilherme and Sergio Cordeiro, who have stayed on as part of his detail, were also arrested in Wednesday's operation over accusations they falsified their vaccine records before flying with Bolsonaro to the United States.

Cid and the other aides could not immediately be reached for comment.

Police said they were investigating a scheme to insert "false data" in a national COVID-19 database between November 2021 and December 2022.

"As a result, they were able to issue vaccine certificates and use them to circumvent restrictions imposed by public authorities in Brazil and the United States," police said.

Read Also: Ex-Brazil President Bolsonaro appears before police, denies role in riots

The investigation points to "ideological" reasons for circumventing vaccination rules, police said, "in order to keep up a discourse of attacking vaccination against COVID-19."

"We trust that all legal doubts will be cleared up and it will be proven that Bolsonaro did not commit illegal acts," Valdemar Costa Neto, the head of Bolsonaro's political party, wrote on social media.
Beijing: Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang has reiterated Beijings offer to mediate between Myanmar and Bangladesh in improving their bilateral ties in Chinas latest attempt to both project itself as a negotiator in global conflicts and emerge as a key player in Indias neighbourhood. Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing (right), head of Myanmars military council, shakes hands with Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang during their meeting in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Tuesday. (AP)

Qin, who is the highest-ranking Chinese official to meet Myanmars top leadership since the military coup over two years ago, also pledged to support the country in exploring a development path with Myanmar characteristics.

China has maintained close ties with the internationally isolated junta government and refused to condemn the military takeover.

Hailing China-Myanmar ties, visiting foreign minister Qin told the countrys military leader General Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw that Beijing was also ready to expand ties among China, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Qin, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement, told the Junta general: China supports Myanmar improving its relations with Bangladesh, with related issues to be resolved through consultation, adding that China is willing to work with the two countries to expand China-Myanmar-Bangladesh pragmatic cooperation.

China has worked with both countries to resolve the Rohingya refugee crisis since it erupted in 2017 partly to keep its own border with Myanmar safe and protect its economic interests across the boundary.

Qins latest announcement, however, is bolstered by the role China recently played in bringing about rapprochement between rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Ties between Naypyitaw and Dhaka have been strained since 2017 over the Rohingya refugee crisis with hundreds of thousands from the marginalised ethnic Muslim community fleeing to Bangladesh from Myanmar to escape persecution.

New Delhi has maintained ties with the military junta as well and is part of the recent conversation to repatriate Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar.

Beijing, however, is using its economic heft to forge closer ties with Myanmar.

China supports Myanmar in advancing its political transition process and backs relevant parties in the country to properly address differences and seek national reconciliation under the constitutional and legal framework, Qin said.

The international community should respect Myanmars sovereignty and play a constructive role in helping Myanmar achieve peace and reconciliation, he added, according to the ministry statement.

Referring to the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, Qin said: China will continue to provide assistance within its capacity for the development of Myanmar, accelerate the promotion of key cooperation projects in the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, and carry out projects benefiting the people such as agriculture, education and medical care.

Qin also met Myanmars foreign affairs minister, Than Swe, during his visit.

Myanmar is ready to work with China to safeguard security and stability in the border areas, and to promote the China-Myanmar-Bangladesh economic corridor with China and Bangladesh, Than Swe told Qin.

The 2021 coup in Myanmar deposed elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering widespread peaceful protests, which were violently suppressed by security forces. Thousands were killed in the crackdown, leaving the country in a volatile situation.

Meanwhile, reports from Yangon said Myanmars military regime on Wednesday pardoned 2,153 prisoners jailed for criticising the junta following the coup.

The amnesty follows the release of more than 3,000 prisoners last month, Bloomberg said in a report from Yangon, adding: The regime has been accused of using increasingly brutal tactics to subdue its opponents as it struggles to curb a reinvigorated civil conflict, which has seen ethnic armed groups and resistance forces take on a military unable to stabilise the country since the coup.

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Chinese whistleblower- Fang Bin- who documented the initial Covid outbreak in China's Wuhan, has been freed from jail after three years, BBC reported. The citizen journalist was reported to be jailed after he shared videos of scenes in Wuhan- the epicentre of Covid pandemic. He disappeared in February 2020 and was sentenced to three years in jail at a secret trial in Wuhan, the report claimed. China Covid Whistleblower Fang Bin: Fang Bin has been released from jail, reports claimed. (AFP )

He was released and is in good health, it added.

The video which resulted in his arrest showed eight body bags outside a Covid hospital in just five minutes. He was the detained but later released.- Later, a video with the message from him came out.

All people revolt - hand the power of the government back to the people, he had urged, leading to his arrest again. Another whistleblower - Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, was detained in May 2020 and jailed for four years in December 2020.

She was convicted for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", according to activists. "Maybe I have a rebellious soul... I'm just documenting the truth. Why can't I show the truth?" Zhang Zhan said in an interview.

Two other citizen reporters Chen Qiushi and Li Zehua also disappeared in Wuhan in February 2020. Although they surfaced months later.

Videos by the citizen journalists offered glimpse into Wuhan in the early months of 2020 while Covid cases were climbing and lockdowns had come into force. Wuhan's 76-day lockdown put the city under severe strain.

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The Israeli military conducted air strikes and traded fire with Gaza militants on Tuesday in a flare-up of violence following the death in Israeli custody of a Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike. The army said it hit Gaza with "tank fire" in response to rockets from the Palestinian enclave

The army said it hit Gaza with "tank fire" in response to rockets from the Palestinian enclave, sparking a renewed volley from Gaza witnessed by AFP journalists.

The army late on Tuesday said it was carrying out air strikes on Gaza. The raids targeted several sites, including one belonging to Islamist movement Hamas that controls the territory, according to security sources and Palestinian witnesses.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it responded by firing surface-to-air missiles.

The exchange of fire came after 45-year-old prisoner Khader Adnan died, nearly three months after being detained in the occupied West Bank over his ties to the Islamic Jihad militant group.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh described his death as a "deliberate assassination", charging Israel had killed him "by rejecting his request for his release, neglecting him medically and keeping him in his cell, despite the seriousness of his health condition".

News of his death was initially followed by three rockets fired by militants from Gaza, the Israeli army said.

Israel's retaliatory tank fire was met with a further 22 projectiles launched from Gaza, the military reported.

A joint statement by militant factions in Gaza, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said the rocket fire was an "initial response" to Adnan's death.

The Magen David Adom emergency service said three people were wounded with shrapnel in the Sderot area, near the Gaza border.

Gaza mortar fire

After meeting with the military chief, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned "anyone who attempts to harm the citizens of Israel will be sorry."

Adnan was the first Palestinian to die as a direct result of a hunger strike, according to advocacy group the Palestinian Prisoners' Club.

Other Palestinian detainees have died "as a result of attempts to force feed them", said the group's director Qaddura Faris.

Palestinians launched a general strike in West Bank cities in response to Adnan's death.

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said prison officials decided to close cells to "prevent riots".

"The directive to the prisoner service is zero tolerance towards hunger strikes and disturbances in security prisons," he said.

In the evening, six mortar shells were fired towards Israel, falling in Gaza and in the area of the security fence, the Israeli army said.

'Pay the price'

A senior Israeli official described Adnan as "a hunger striker who refused medical attention, risking his life".

"The military appeal court decided against releasing him from detention solely on the merit of his medical condition," said the official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly to the media.

Adnan was described by the official as an "operative" of Islamic Jihad, who was facing charges related to his activities within the militant group.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War and its forces regularly detain Palestinians, who are subject to Israeli military courts.

Islamic Jihad, which is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States, warned Israel would "pay the price for this crime".

Israel's prison service said Adnan was in jail for the 10th time and his wife, Randa Mousa, previously told AFP her husband had carried out multiple hunger strikes in detention.

Family against Gaza rockets

Speaking on Tuesday, Mousa said she was proud of her husband's "martyrdom" which the family wears like "a crown on our heads".

But she cautioned militants against launching a violent response.

"We don't want a drop of blood to be shed," she told journalists in the family's hometown of Arraba in the northern West Bank.

"We don't want anyone to respond to the martyrdom. We don't want someone to launch rockets and then (Israel) strikes Gaza."

In his final message, Adnan said he was "sending you these words as my flesh and fat has melted".

"I pray that God accepts me as a faithful martyr," he wrote, in a message published Monday by the Palestinian Prisoners' Club.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel said its medic visited Adnan and raised his "life-threatening condition and the need for immediate hospital transfer".

Israeli rights group BTselem described his hunger strike as "a form of non-violent protest against his arrest and the injustices of the occupation".

"The fact that a person whose life was in danger remained in prison despite repeated requests to transfer him to a hospital reflects the absolute disregard Israel held for his life," the organisation said.
When Meghan Markle visited UK to attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral, even her presence was criticised, royal expert Omid Scobie said reflecting on his friend's decision to not attend King Charles' coronation. As Prince Harry is set to fly to London this week ahead of his King Charles' coronation, his wife Meghan Markle has opted to remain at home in California. Meghan Markle(Getty Images)

People around the Sussexes guided press at the time that this is very much about Archie's fourth birthday, Omid Scobie said.

I disagree with that to some extent because I also know from friends of hers that she's protecting her peace as well. She is aware of how much the spotlight goes on her when she sets a foot near the story, the royal expert said.

A lot of that, although its portrayed as intentional that she wants to steal the spotlight but, in this case if she had come over and simply stood next to her husband, I would imagine the commentary and the narrative on the day would very different for the days that follow, Omid Scobie explained.

When asked how the royal family feels about Meghan's decision not to attend the historic ceremony, Omid Scobie claimed, "I would say so, and I would put it down to the fact that so much of the attention goes on someone they would rather didn't go on. If you look back at some of Meghan and Harry's biggest problems, it was all down to the fact that everyone was always talking about them and the attention was on them at times when it shouldn't have been."

The royal expert also said that there has been a "somewhat regular pattern of conversation" between Prince Harry and his father.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday he is highly skeptical of any allegations made by Russia, after Moscow claimed Kyiv had launched a drone attack on the Kremlin. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Reuters)

Read here: Russian strikes hit southern Ukraine's Kherson, 21 killed

"I've seen the reports. I cannot validate them, we simply don't know," Blinken said at an event in Washington. "I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt."

Russia said Wednesday that two drones had targeted President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin residence overnight, describing it as a Ukrainian "terrorist attack" ahead of the important May 9 holiday, when Russians celebrate victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Kyiv denied the claim, suggesting the attack was "staged" by Moscow.

"Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin," presidential spokesman Mikhaylo Podolyak said.

Blinken, at the event hosted by the Washington Post for World Press Freedom Day, reiterated calls for the release of US journalist Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in Russia on charges of espionage and whom Washington considers a hostage.

Blinken said wrongful detentions of foreign citizens by Moscow only serve to further isolate it.

"Increasingly, the message is, don't come here, don't travel," Blinken said. "Whoever you are, you risk being pulled off the street, thrown in jail."

Blinken also discussed the recent embarrassing leak of top-secret US documents, which revealed Washington's unease about a coming Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian troops as well as concerns about the nation's air defenses.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky complained in a Washington Post interview published Tuesday that his government had not been warned about the leak, calling it "a bad story."

Blinken said he told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba at the time that "we very much regretted the unauthorized exposure of these documents, that we took very seriously our obligations and responsibility to protect information."

The top US diplomat also spoke positively about last week's telephone call between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Zelensky.

"It's vitally important that China and other countries that have been seeking to advance peace hear from the victim, not just the aggressor," he said.

At one point during Blinken's appearance, activists briefly interrupted the discussion and called for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The Australian activist has been imprisoned for four years in London and is awaiting an appeals hearing against an order to extradite him to the United States.

Read here: Where was Vladimir Putin amid attack on Kremlin? Bunker or different residence

The activists were promptly escorted from the room by security personnel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not get injured in the overnight drone attacks on Kremlin, Moscow said adding that Russia considers the drone attacks an attempt on the President's life, Russia Today reported. Ukraine launched two drone attacks overnight with the intention of assassinating Vladimir Putin, Moscow said. Kremlin Drone Attack: A view of the Moscow Kremlin in Moscow, Russia.(AP)

"The head of State was not in Kremlin at the time of "Ukrainian UAV attack" on Tuesday night," Kremlin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said adding that Vladimir Putin is working from his residence near Moscow and that his schedule remains unchanged.

The drones were destroyed using electronic warfare measures and caused no casualties or damage, Kremlin informed, warning that the Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures as it sees fit.

As a result of this terrorist act, the President of the Russian Federation was not injured. His work schedule has not changed, it continues as usual, Russia Today reported.

Meanwhile, Dmitry Peskov told news agency RIA Novosti that the Russian president Vladimir Putin was working today from the bunker of his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow.

The incident won't interfere with the Victory Day parade that is scheduled to take place on May 9 on Red Square, Kremlin's spokesperson said.

Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services using radar warfare systems, the devices were disabled, Kremlin said in a statement.

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Prince Harry's stepmother queen Camilla was miffed with him after the release of his memoir "Spare", as per a recent report by Fox News Digital. In "Spare", Harry accused Camilla of leaking private conversations involving the royal family to the media in lieu of favourable stories about herself. Harry, Charles III and Camilla (Getty Images)

Notably, several well wishers and fans of the royal family once held Camilla responsible for King Charles' divorce with Princess Diana, Prince Harry and Prince Williams mother. In interviews to promote "Spare", Harry accused Camilla of trying to refurbish her image with the British people by getting positive stories about herself published in lieu of providing private information about the royal family.

ALSO READ| Any woman who isnt: Andrew Tate posts yet another 'misogynistic' tweet

True Royalty TV co-founder Nick Bullen who has been producing programs about the British royal family for 20 years, has talked about Camilla's reaction to the accusations by Harry.

"I know from various people who are close to her [that] she was pretty furious with what was being said about her," Bullen claimed to Fox News Digital.

"But she is not someone that is going to be phoning Harry or [his wife] Meghan [Markle] and shouting down on the phone at them." he added.

Bullen further highlighted that although Camilla had moved on from the bombshell episode, she won't forget it and won't forgive Harry for the accusations.

"She just moves on. I dont think shes necessarily going to forgive, and I dont think shes necessarily going to forget. But it is not something that she dwells on, Im told. She plays a much longer game, and she plays with a much straighter bat. She was, Im told, annoyed by what was said but moved on pretty quickly from what was said," shared Bullen.

Bullen also provided insight into Camilla's principle of "never complain, never explain" akin to Queen Elizabeth II's motto in public.

"Weve made a number of documentaries with the Duchess of Cornwall, now the queen. It was the only time shes ever allowed cameras to follow her. Weve done both of those documentaries. What you find from her is shes incredibly matter-of-fact. She is the classic never complain, never explain. She just gets on with it. But shes tough," shared Bullen.

Meanwhile, King Charles' coronation after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, is set to happen on Saturday, May 6, 2023. As per reports, Prince Harry will attend the coronation ceremony while his wife Meghan Markle will be at their home in California with their two young children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
The United States on Wednesday approved GSK's Arexy vaccine against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), which can cause severe pneumonia and bronchiolitis in infants and the elderly. It marks the first such approval globally, with similar vaccines from other makers including Pfizer expected to follow soon.(Representative image)

Read here: Jair Bolsonaro's home raided in Brazil vaccine records probe: Report

It marks the first such approval globally, with similar vaccines from other makers including Pfizer expected to follow soon.

"Today's approval of the first RSV vaccine is an important public health achievement to prevent a disease which can be life-threatening," said senior US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official Peter Marks in a statement.

RSV normally causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but can be serious for people with weak immune systems.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it leads to approximately 60,000 to 120,000 hospitalizations and 6,000 to 10,000 deaths among adults 65 years of age and older.

The vaccine was approved for people aged 60 and older, based on a study of 25,000 people that showed a single dose was 83 percent effective against disease caused by RSV, and more than 94 percent effective against severe disease.

The most common side effects included injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and joint stiffness.

An irregular heartbeat was a less common side effect, occurring in 10 participants who received Arexy and 4 participants who received placebo.

GSK's Arexy has been recommended for approval by the European Union's drug watchdog, the European Medicines Agency, whose positive opinions are normally formally followed by the European Commission.

Pfizer has said that it expects a decision from the FDA in May for its own over-60s RSV vaccine.

In January, Moderna said it hopes its RSV vaccine would be approved and available for the Northern Hemisphere's winter later this year.

Read here: Covid vaccine requirement for international travelers ends May 11: W.House

Last year, the EU approved a preventative antibody treatment against RSV, developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca and France's Sanofi.
Prince Harry feels that his elder brother Prince William "was more calculated" which is why he reduced him to be a spare, royal expert Tina Brown claimed as the brothers are set to reunited later this week at King Charles' coronation in London. Prince Harry is returning to the UK - without his wife Meghan Markle - to join celebrations for the historic event. Prince Harry: Britain's Prince William and Britain's Prince Harry are seen.(AP)

The brothers are totally estranged, Tina Brown said, adding, "The longer Harry dwells on what happened in his life, the more he feels resentment against William. He feels, I think, that William was even more calculated, essentially, in making him the number two, making him the spare, and feel like the spare at all time.

Organisers have been told [that] Harry won't be attending the concert with the rest of the Royal Family, which is a shame as it will be such a spectacular event," the royal expert informed.

Earlier a columnist claimed that Prince Harry and Prince William "won't exchange a word" at the coronation as the relationship between the brothers is now "on its knees".

News Corp columnist Angela Mollard said, The fact is that apparently this relationship [between Harry and William] is worse than we think. Its just on its knees, the relationship between William and Harry.

There is a lot of thought about how they will be positioned at Westminster Abbey during the Coronation. I dont think well see them sitting next to each other. In fact, I dont think they will exchange a word over that day, the columnist added, saying, He won't get back to Los Angeles until 7pm and that is ludicrous.

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As Prince Harry is set to attend King Charles' coronation in London while his Meghan Markle gives the historic ceremony a miss, royal expert Omid Scobie reflected on Prince Harry's involvement in the event. Prince Harry will soon be seen at his father King Charles III's coronation in the UK.

This is the first time Harry sees his family face-to-face since the release of Spare but I don't think people know that there has been somewhat regular pattern of conversation between him and his father since the release of that book, Omid Scobie said.

Now, have they discussed the details and the points that he wanted to go into? From what I hear, no but he has had contact with his dad and of course, there have been some negative moments with the loss of Frogmore Cottage, they lose they keys to that any week now, he added, saying, He would have spoken to his father about that but he also discussed his attendance at the Coronation with his dad and made it clear he wanted to be apart of it, which I think was really well received.

Talking of Prince Harry's and William's relationship, the royal expert said, "It's interesting to compare that with where William and Harry are, which is in the exact same place as where we last saw them."

On Meghan Markle's decision to not attend the ceremony, the royal expert explained, "People around the Sussexes guided press at the time that this is very much about Archie's fourth birthday. I disagree with that to some extent because I also know from friends of hers that she's protecting her peace as well. She is aware of how much the spotlight goes on her when she sets a foot near the story."

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A retired US general on Wednesday urged Taiwan to heed lessons from Russia's war in Ukraine and bolster its unmanned drone defences, with the island facing increasing military threats from China. Retired US Marines lieutenant general Steven Rudder.(Twitter/ Aboluowang)

Democratic Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by China, which views the island as part of its territory to be reclaimed one day -- by force, if necessary.

Also Read: US says naval destroyer sailed through Taiwan Strait after China's war games

Retired US Marines lieutenant general Steven Rudder was part of a delegation of American defence contractors in Taipei on Wednesday to discuss the development of military hardware -- including unmanned aerial systems (UASs) -- with Taiwanese companies.

Speaking on the sidelines of the defence industry forum, Rudder told reporters that Taiwan -- along with the rest of the world -- "is learning from" Russia's war in Ukraine.

"We've seen smaller UASs take a very prominent role and we've seen ground forces in distributed manners are able to create a factor of defensive firepower within an urban environment in ways that we haven't explored before," he said.

This technology "allows you to create coverage in areas where you don't have conventional forces".

Street-to-street urban warfare has been part of a wider Ukrainian counteroffensive since Russia invaded the country last year -- which has deepened fears a continent away that Beijing could follow through on threats to annex Taiwan.

Also Read: China launches weather satellite, flights avoid no-fly zone in northern Taiwan

Taipei's military last year incorporated urban warfare into its annual war games, with reservists guarding sandbagged trenches in drills aimed at blocking enemies from gaining access to the capital.

A growing number of Taiwanese civilians have also attended urban warfare workshops to learn combat skills.

"The current geopolitical situation in the region has created an urgency for (US-Taiwan) defence industrial cooperation," said Max Lo, head of the Taiwan National Drone Industry Association, during the forum.

Urging the US to sell more advanced UASs to Taiwan, Lo said that the technology provided "a valuable tool for gathering intelligence, carrying out precision strikes, and conducting a wide range of military operations" in a flexible manner.

The forum came the same day Taipei announced that China's military sent a drone to circle the island for the second time in a week -- a new surveillance tactic added to Beijing's near-daily war-plane flights into Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ).

Also Read: China hopes and believes Germany will support peaceful Taiwan reunification

The BZK-005 drone, a long-range reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle, flew from the north to the island's east before it headed south and back west, according to a map released by Taiwan's defence ministry.
Russian strikes on Ukraine's southern Kherson region killed 21 people and wounded dozens on Wednesday, Kyiv said, as authorities introduced a curfew in the main city of Kherson starting Friday. Russia-Ukraine war: The strikes came as Ukraine prepares for a spring offensive.(AFP)

The strikes -- which hit both the city and nearby villages -- came as Ukraine prepares for a spring offensive.

Read here: Where was Vladimir Putin amid attack on Kremlin? Bunker or different residence

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes hit "a railway station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a grocery supermarket and a gas station."

Kherson city -- from which Russian forces withdrew last November -- lies near the frontline in southern Ukraine.

"As of now, 21 people have been killed! 48 wounded!", Zelensky said on Telegram.

He published images of bodies and wounded people on the floor of a vegetable aisle at a supermarket, with debris around them.

"The world needs to see and know this," Zelensky said.

Kherson prosecutors had called the attack "massive", noting 12 of the victims were killed in the city and others in nearby villages.

"On the morning of May 3, Russian troops began the massive shelling of the city of Kherson and the region's settlements," the prosecutors said.

Officials had earlier said three people died in a strike on Kherson's only working hypermarket.

The prosecutors said shelling killed three employees of a "power engineering team" between the nearby villages of Stepanivka and Muzykivka.

Officials also announced Wednesday that Kherson will be under curfew from Friday to Monday.

Long curfews have been used in Ukraine in the past to facilitate troop and arms movements.

The head of Kherson's regional military administration Oleksandr Prokudin said the curfew would last from 1700 GMT on Friday until 0300 GMT on Monday.

"During these 58 hours, it is forbidden to move on the streets of the city. The city will also be closed for entry and exit," Prokudin said on Telegram, advising residents to stock up on food and medicine.

People could go for short walks near their houses or visit shops but should carry identity documents with them.

"Such temporary restrictions are necessary for the law enforcement officers to do their job and not put you in danger," he wrote.

Read here: Destroy Kyiv: Russian parliament speaker's call for action over Putin attack

Kherson was captured by Russian troops last year in the first days of the invasion and remained under Russian occupation until November 2022.

Russian forces withdrew from the city, crossing to the eastern side of the Dnipro River which now delineates part of the front line in southern Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday denied Moscow's claim that Ukraine had attempted to assassinate Russian leader Vladimir Putin after Russia said two drones were shot down over the Kremlin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. (AFP)

Read here: Kyiv, other regions announce air alerts after alleged Kremlin drone strike

"We didn't attack Putin... We fight on our territory, we are defending our villages and cities," Zelensky told reporters at a press conference with Nordic leaders in Helsinki.

"We don't attack Putin or Moscow. We don't have enough weapons for this," he added.

Russia said Wednesday it had shot down two drones targeting Putin's Kremlin residence in what it called a Ukrainian "terrorist" assassination attempt.

"The devices were put out of action," a Kremlin statement said.

Moscow said Putin was not hurt and there were no casualties.

Asked about why Moscow would accuse Kyiv, Zelensky replied, "Russia has no victories."

"He (Putin) can no longer motivate his society and he can no longer send his military to die for nothing," he said.

The Ukrainian leader on Wednesday participated in a summit in Helsinki gathering the leaders of the five Nordic nations.

Zelensky reaffirmed that Ukraine aims to become a member of NATO, while the Nordic NATO members issued a statement declaring they would "continue to support Ukraine on its path towards future membership."

Read here: Vladimir Putin unharmed in drone attack by Ukraine, Russia says

"Ukraine is already a de facto member of NATO and we are actually cooperating for the sake of common defence," Zelensky said.
Russia may sabotage undersea cables to punish Western nations for supporting Ukraine, NATO's intelligence chief warned on Wednesday, as the alliance boosts efforts to protect undersea infrastructure following the Nord Stream attacks. Russia-Ukraine war: The gas leak at the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as it is seen from the Danish Defence's F-16 rejection response off the Danish Baltic island of Bornholm.(File/ AFP)

Read here: Destroy Kyiv: Russian parliament speaker's call for action over Putin attack

"There are heightened concerns that Russia may target undersea cables and other critical infrastructure in an effort to disrupt Western life, to gain leverage against those nations that are providing security to Ukraine," David Cattler told reporters.

"The Russians are more active than we have seen them in years in this domain," he said, adding they were patrolling more throughout the Atlantic than in recent years and had also stepped up activities in the North and Baltic seas.

Threats to undersea cables and pipelines have become a focus of public attention since, in September 2022, as-yet unexplained explosions crippled the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, built to ship gas from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea.

Citing ongoing investigations, Cattler declined to speculate about who was behind the attacks.

As concerns grow over the security of undersea cables, Western countries are setting out to turn the North Sea into a green power engine, planning a spate of new wind parks that will be linked to the mainland by cables.

Other undersea cables transport some 95% of internet traffic around the world at speeds of about 200 terabytes per second, with 200 of these 400 cables deemed critical, according to NATO.

"Altogether, they carry an estimated 10 trillion U.S. dollars worth of financial transactions every day, so these cables really are an economic linchpin," said Cattler, NATO's assistant secretary general for intelligence and security.

He warned NATO's adversaries were realising the huge strategic advantage of being able to threaten the security of Western internet, energy and financial systems.

"Russia is actively mapping allied critical infrastructure both on land and on the seabed," Cattler said, describing the procedure as part of an underwater reconnaissance program run by part of the Russian defence ministry.

However, NATO allies are closely monitoring Russian vessels equipped with sensors that can collect electronic or acoustic information from the seabed, he underlined, saying the spy ships can be identified by their antennae or unusual activity near critical areas.

NATO significantly increased the number of ships patrolling the North and Baltic seas after the Nord Stream blasts, and established a Critical Undersea Infrastructure Protection Cell to improve cooperation with industry, capitals and experts.

Read here: Where was Vladimir Putin amid attack on Kremlin? Bunker or different residence

"The threat is real, and NATO is stepping up," said German Lieutenant General Hans-Werner Wiermann who has been in charge of the new cell since February.

Asked what industry can do to make new wind parks more resilient to attacks, he suggested linking them to the mainland with several cables instead just one.
The UN chief on Wednesday said "we failed" to stop war from erupting in Sudan, where persistent fighting between rival generals undermined efforts to firm up a truce. A view shows a fire at the industrial area given as Omdurman, Sudan.(via REUTERS)

"The UN was taken by surprise" by the conflict, because the world body and others were hopeful that negotiations towards a civilian transition would be successful, Antonio Guterres told reporters in Nairobi.

"To the extent that we and many others were not expecting this to happen, we can say we failed to avoid it to happen," the secretary general said.

"A country like Sudan, that has suffered so much... cannot afford a struggle for power between two people."

Deadly urban combat broke out on April 15 between Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who commands the regular army, and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

At least 550 people have been killed and 4,926 wounded, according to the latest health ministry figures which are likely to be incomplete.

Since the fall of strongman Omar al-Bashir in 2019, international mediators have sought to bring civilians and the military to the negotiating table.

But in the process, analysts believe, they gave too much credit to Burhan and Daglo, who worked together in a 2021 coup that derailed the post-Bashir democratic transition.

The two generals later fell out in a power struggle.

Sudan expert Ernst Jan Hogendoorn, writing for the Atlantic Council, said international and regional leaders must "begin to strategically apply pressure" by freezing bank accounts and blocking business activities of Sudanese leaders and their forces.

Heartbreaking

Guterres spoke on the same day his top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, was in Sudan, after neighbouring South Sudan announced on Tuesday that the warring sides had agreed "in principle" to a seven-day ceasefire from May 4.

Griffiths arrived in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan -- so far untouched by the fighting -- on an urgent mission to find ways to bring relief to the millions of Sudanese unable to escape.

He called for security guarantees "at the highest level" to ensure desperately needed aid deliveries to war-ravaged parts of the country.

The aid chief said he had been informed by the UN's World Food Programme that six trucks bringing aid to the country's western Darfur region had been "looted en route" Wednesday, "despite assurances of safety and security".

Both Griffiths and the UN's Sudan envoy, Volker Perthes, spoke to Burhan and Daglo over the phone about the necessity for aid to reach people, Griffiths tweeted.

Sudan's warring sides have announced multiple truces but none has effectively taken hold, with the latest 72-hour ceasefire due to expire on Wednesday at 2200 GMT.

UN rights commissioner Volker Turk described the situation as "heartbreaking" and "catastrophic." He pointed to a military airstrike in the vicinity of a hospital and the RSF using civilian buildings as bases.

Multiple hospitals have been struck during the war, and the UN says only 16 percent of Khartoum's hospitals remain fully functional.

Despite the truce efforts, witnesses reported warplanes over north Khartoum and fierce clashes near the state broadcaster's headquarters in the capital's twin city of Omdurman.

"We heard again loud gunfire and anti-aircraft firing at a fighter jet this morning," a resident of south Khartoum said.

Saudi Arabia condemned an attack "by an armed group" on Tuesday against the premises of its cultural centre in Khartoum, and called for an end to the violence.

They burned our houses

Nearly 450,000 civilians have fled their homes, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said, including more than 115,000 who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

Mahamat Hassan Hamad, one of more than 30,000 Sudanese refugees who crossed to neighbouring Chad on Sudan's western border, said fighters "killed people and burned our houses."

Another refugee, Hawa Ahmat, said she had not eaten or drunk anything for five days before reaching Chad after "soldiers came, they shot at us at home."

The failure of the warring generals to abide by their commitments in efforts to end nearly three weeks of fighting has drawn mounting international criticism.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Tuesday that the fighting in neighbouring Sudan was affecting "the entire region".

Griffiths also called for the lifting of "bureaucratic impediments to delivering assistance", pointing out that even he had had difficulty obtaining visas for his trip.

In addition to the capital Khartoum, violence has engulfed the Darfur region where at least 99 people have been killed in fighting, according to Sudan's doctors union.

Of the more than 330,000 people displaced inside Sudan, most are from West and South Darfur states, IOM said.

Social media video from El Geneina, West Darfur, showed the ash-covered ground at a burned out camp beside buildings which appeared to be charred. It was unclear who had stayed at the camp.

Toby Harward, who was a UN refugee agency official in Darfur, said "there was very widespread damage done to many of the major cities" in Darfur, not only El Geneina.

Darfur is still scarred by a war that erupted in 2003 when Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, against ethnic minority rebels.

The Janjaweed -- whose actions led to war crimes charges against Bashir and others -- later evolved into the RSF.
The UN's humanitarian chief arrived in Sudan's main seaport on Wednesday, as thousands of Sudanese and foreign nationals gathered there in hopes of fleeing the conflict-torn east African country. UN's humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths.(File photo)

Martin Griffiths, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator at the UN, tweeted that his visit to the city of Port Sudan is to affirm the body's commitment to the Sudanese people.

His arrival came on the last day of a shaky truce, meant to expire at midnight, that has done little to quell the fighting.

Also Read: Sudan crisis risks exodus of 8,00,000 people due to ongoing conflict, says UN

It also comes amid increasing concern about the humanitarian situation for those trapped and displaced by the fighting, which is the result of a power struggle between the country's two top generals. But questions remain over how UN agencies can operate with limited staff and supplies.

More than a week after the brutal violence broke out in the country's capital Khartoum of April 15, thousands of UN workers evacuated the city via a land convoy to Port Sudan.

Some UN offices' paused their services, such as the World Food Programme, after two of its workers were killed in the fighting in the south of Sudan. The WFP has since said it will resume operations.

The battle for control of Sudan erupted after months of escalating tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

The conflict has so far killed 550 people, including civilians, and wounded more than 4,900. The fighting has displaced at least 334,000 people inside Sudan, and sent tens of thousands more to neighbouring countries  Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia, according to UN agencies.

More than 42,000 Sudanese who fled the war in their country have crossed into Egypt along with 2,300 foreign nationals since the crisis began, according to the UN refugee agency.

Aid workers are increasingly concerned about lack of basic services in these areas, and also in Port Sudan, which is located on the Red Sea some 400 kilometres (520 miles) from the capital.

Also Read: Sudan waring parties agree to 7-day truce starting May 4: Top Updates

Many western countries have completed evacuations for their citizens from the country, with France, the UK and now the US using Port Sudan as a base for those looking to leave. But citizens of other nations are still struggling to find a way out. An estimated hundreds of Syrians, who came to Sudan fleeing their own country's civil war over the past decade, are among the last foreigners to leave.

Tariq Abdel-Hameed, a Syrian in Port Sudan, said a second Damascus-bound flight with a around 200 Syrians mostly pregnant women and sick people, is scheduled to take off from Port Sudan later Wednesday.

He said the first flight landed in the Syrian capital early Wednesday, with some 200 people, including 21 children, on board. He said more flights are scheduled in the coming days.

On Wednesday, the fighting continued in and around Khartoum. Clouds of smoke were seen over areas of active fighting, and residents-hiding in their homes-still heard sounds of explosions, with the battles still seemingly centred around key government buildings, such as the presidential palace.

Also Read: Operation Kaveri: Nearly 3,000 Indians evacuated so far from crisis-hit Sudan

There were increasing signs of lawlessness in many of the city's neighbourhoods, with reports that more diplomatic facilities were being targeted. Armed men stormed the building housing the office of Saudi Arabia's cultural attache in Sudan, the kingdom said Wednesday.

A statement on the state-run Saudi Press Agency said an armed group destroyed equipment and cameras, seized some of attaches property and disrupted the attache's systems and servers.
A man accused of massacring five neighbors after they asked him to stop firing his rifle in his yard in Texas was captured Tuesday after a days-long manhunt, US media reported. Law enforcement officials in the neighborhood where a mass shooting occurred in Texas. (AP)

Francisco Oropesa had eluded Texas authorities after the shooting Friday in the small town of Cleveland.

The victims were between the ages of nine and 31.

Oropesa was arrested in the Texas town of Cut and Shoot, about 17 miles from the Cleveland, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon told broadcaster NBC.

As authorities deployed hundreds of law enforcement officers to look for the 38-year-old, they also offered an $80,000 reward for information leading to his capture.

Friday's attack, the latest in a line of US mass shootings which have intensified conversations around the country's gun politics, quickly became fodder for America's acrimonious debates on immigration.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott referred to the suspect as having "killed five illegal immigrants," though their immigration status was not immediately clear and Abbott later said at least one victim "may have been in the US legally."

The victims were all from Honduras.
TikTok said on Tuesday its head of US trust and safety, Eric Han, will depart the company on May 12, leaving the popular short-form video app without a key executive as it fights the threat of a ban in the US. The icon for the video sharing TikTok app is seen on a smartphone.(AP)

Read here: North Carolina teen left severely disfigured with 80% burns after dangerous TikTok challenge goes wrong

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, has already been banned from government-issued phones in countries such as Canada and Australia over concerns about whether the Chinese government can access user data or influence what people see on the popular app. It also faces calls from some U.S. lawmakers to ban the app across the country.

TikTok has long said that it has never shared data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked.

Han, who has been at TikTok since 2019, oversaw efforts like improving content moderation and reducing election misinformation. He ran trust and safety for the company's US Data Security (USDS), a division that was created to store US data in the country on servers controlled by Oracle, in an effort to appease security concerns.

His upcoming departure also comes as TikTok is preparing to hold a presentation for advertisers in New York on Thursday.

Read here: TikTok's algorithm ticks off parents and lawmakers as lawsuits pile up. Here's why

The Verge first reported the news of Han's upcoming departure.
UK security services are "ready to deal" with the challenges presented by the coronation, the government said Wednesday, after the arrest of a man suspected of throwing shotgun cartridges into the grounds of Buckingham Palace. Britain's King Charles.(Reuters)

Police arrested the man, who was allegedly armed with a knife, at about 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Tuesday, causing concern just days before King Charles III's coronation, which will be attended by global royalty and world leaders.

Also Read: King Charles III's coronation will be different from his mother, Queen Elizabeth

Security minister Tom Tugendhat sought to reassure the public on Wednesday, telling Times Radio that police were "all over" the challenges presented by the historic event.

"Our intelligence and other security forces are extremely aware of the challenges that we face and ready to deal with them as the police did quite brilliantly yesterday," he said.

The Metropolitan Police said officers conducted a controlled explosion on a suspicious bag the arrested man was carrying "as a precaution".

It later added that it was not treating the matter as terrorism-related.

The man was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon after he was searched and a knife was found, the London force said.

"Officers worked immediately to detain the man and he has been taken into police custody," Met Police chief superintendent Joseph McDonald said in a statement.

"There have been no reports of any shots fired, or any injuries to officers or members of the public."

British media reported that neither Charles, 74, or his wife Queen Consort Camilla, 75, were at the palace at the time.

Buckingham Palace officials declined to comment.

The drama unfolded Tuesday evening after the man approached the gates to the palace and threw several items into the grounds suspected to be shotgun cartridges, according to the Met.

Also Read: Mumbai Dabbawalas to attend King Charles' coronation? Here's what they will gift

They have been recovered and will be taken for specialist examination.

The Mall, leading to Buckingham Palace, has been closed off to traffic in preparation for Saturday's coronation, which is the first to take place in Britain for 70 years.

Thousands of ceremonial troops will take part in a procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey as part of the coronation -- dress rehearsals for which took place overnight Tuesday to Wednesday -- with huge crowds expected.

The security operation to protect the route to and from the abbey -- dubbed Operation Golden Orb -- will include rooftop snipers and undercover officers, as well as airport-style scanners, sniffer dogs and a no-fly zone over central London.

Senior Metropolitan Police officers told reporters on Wednesday that 9,000 officers will be on duty on the day of the coronation in "one of the most significant security operations" that the force has led.

Buckingham Palace has rejected reports that the security operation would cost at least 100 million ($125 million), raising eyebrows -- and complaints -- as many Britons struggle with the soaring cost of living.

"I've seen a number of different estimated figures floating around, some more fanciful than others," a palace spokesperson told reporters.

"A national occasion like this, a great state occasion, does attract huge global interest that more than repays the expenditure that goes with it."

New police powers to stop protests have been brought forward to ensure that roads and footpaths remain open during the celebrations, said Tugendhat.

Also Read: In coronation, King Charles carries on a medieval tradition

The streets of the capital have in recent years been blocked by environmental protesters, and republicans opposed to the monarchy say they will stage a demonstration on the procession route.

"The police need to have extra powers to move people on. I think that's perfectly reasonable," said Tugendhat.
Russia accused Ukraine of attempting a drone strike on the Kremlin with the aim of killing president Vladimir Putin, news agency Reuters reported quoting Russian news agencies. The Kremlin said it considered the attack to be a "planned terrorist action", RIA reported, adding that two drones had been used in the attack. Both had been disabled by Russian defences, the Kremlin was quoted as saying. Russian President Vladimir Putin.(AFP)

"Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were put out of action," the Kremlin said in a statement.

We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the president's life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned, it said.

The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit, the statement added.

Vladimir Putin was not injured, and there was no material damage to the buildings, the Kremlin said. Videos shared widely on social media appeared to show a plume of smoke over Kremlin.

Shortly before the Kremlin statement, Moscow city authorities issued an order banning the use of drones in the capital, Bloomberg reported.

The Kremlin also said as per local media reports that the May 9 Victory Day parade would go ahead in Moscow despite the incident.

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Moscow's mayor on Wednesday announced a ban on unauthorised drone flights over the Russian capital, just as the Kremlin said it had shot down two Ukrainian drones targeting President Vladimir Putin. Kremlin said it had shot down two Ukrainian drones targeting President Vladimir Putin.(AFP)

In a statement, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said drone flights would be prohibited unless a special permit had been obtained from "government authorities". He added that the ban was meant to prevent unauthorised drone flights that could "obstruct the work of law enforcement".

bur/giv
The speaker of Russia's parliament- Vyacheslav Volodin- demanded the use of "weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime" after an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin. Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to attack the Kremlin with two drones overnight with the aim of assassinating Russian President Vladimir Putin, promising retaliation for what it termed a terrorist act. Kremlin Drone Attack: People gather on the dome of the Kremlin Senate building.(Reuters)

"Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were put out of action," the Kremlin said.

"We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the president's life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned," it stated.

Ukraine denied any involvement, saying that Moscow could use it for further escalation of the war.

Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said, Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin, adding that the claims would provide a pretext for Russia to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities in coming days.

The Russian parliament also called for a retaliatory missile attack on the residence of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as State Duma deputy from the Crimean region Mikhail Sheremet called for a missile strike on the residence of the Ukrainian leader in Kyiv.

In a statement posted on Telegram, Vyacheslav Volodin said that Russia should not negotiate with Ukraine after the attack.

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Ukraine on Wednesday said it had "nothing to do" with an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, which Moscow said was a Ukrainian attempt on President Vladimir Putin's life. A "No Drone Zone" sign sits just off the Kremlin in central Moscow as it prohibits unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) flying over the are.(AFP)

"Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin," presidential spokesman Mikhaylo Podolyak said. "Ukraine does not attack the Kremlin because, firstly, that does not solve any military aims," he added.
Half Moon Bay, CA (94019)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 57F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low 49F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Today Hampton by Hilton London City opens its doors to guests. The 278-room hotel, located in Osborn Street, East London, is the latest addition to the growing Hampton by Hilton portfolio and boasts unique Hampton by Hilton design elements to create a relaxing stay for business and leisure guests in the heart of the city.

Enviably located on the east side of the historic City of London district, Hampton by Hilton London City offers excellent proximity to some of London's most iconic attractions, such as the Tower of London, The O2, St Paul's Cathedral and Millennium Bridge. The new hotel is also within easy reach of Brick Lane and the vibrant and artistic neighbourhood of Shoreditch and its fashionable clubs, bars and eclectic dining scene.

The hotel offers a variety of accommodation types, from spacious king rooms to its 30 family-friendly rooms, each decorated in fresh and calming neutral tones with bold textiles and modern touches. In-room amenities include HDTV, complimentary Wi-Fi, Chromecast, and tea and coffee making facilities.

There is an open-concept communal lounge with soft seating and a bar area, offering guests a comfortable space to mingle and relax any time of the day. A fully equipped fitness centre provides high-quality strength training, core and cardio equipment, including treadmills, elliptical fitness training, recumbent cycles and a state-of-the-art Peloton Bike, helping guests maintain their health and fitness goals while travelling.

The contemporary on-site restaurant offers a free hot breakfast, including the Hampton by Hilton signature fresh breakfast waffles. For guests on the go, Hampton by Hilton offers On-the-Run breakfast bags.

Hotel website
TRIBE Table is a traditional cuisine with a modern twist. Fresh and seasonal ingredients meet an Italian-Mediterranean menu of gourmet dishes. Great value is placed on lean workflows and the most positive ecological balance possible. From Monday to Saturday, a fine selection of dishes can be enjoyed in the panoramic restaurant from 7 pm. The menu highlights the best regional produce, always with an Italian touch, such as Aveyron veal a la Bocconcini, Tartare or Insalata di Mare - a delicious salad of octopus, cuttlefish, mussels, cockles, penne and vegetables. Typical South-Western dishes have not been left out and foodies can enjoy a deconstructed Cassoulet (a typical French stew) reinvented by the Chef.

In addition, TRIBE Table now also offers an Italian brunch on Sunday lunchtime - the ideal opportunity for locals and travellers to sit down together and start the weekend once again with pleasure.

Guests can also look forward to one of the low-alcohol cocktails created by renowned mixologist Matthias Giroud or try the signature cocktails specially created by TRIBE Carcassonne's bartender. In warmer weather, the refreshing drinks can be enjoyed at sunset on the rooftop terrace overlooking the medieval city. In winter, the fireplace tempts to linger. The bar also stocks a wide selection of local beers and wines showcasing small producers from the area.

A cosy design hotel

With a contemporary and new understanding of travel, TRIBE reinvents the rules of the premium hotel industry at affordable prices. Tailored to the desires and needs of modern travellers, the brand's properties are functional yet innovative and design oriented.

Since its renovation in 2021 by the designer Didier Versavel, TRIBE Carcassonne has provided the essentials of a top-of-the-range experience but without overdoing it. The 70 double rooms combine style and well-being and range in size from 19 to 23 square metres - ideal for relaxing and getting away from it all. The balconies of the comfort rooms open up unforgettable views over the city. A Nespresso machine with plant-based, compostable capsules is available in all rooms. The cosmetics are by the Australian celebrity hairstylist Kevin Murphy and the refined and high-quality TRIBE beds promise restful sleep. Not forgetting the heated indoor swimming pool, which provides even more relaxation and also offers a breath-taking panoramic view of the town wall.

A versatile and cosmopolitan space found in all TRIBE hotels is the Social Hub. It consists of a cafe open daily until 6 pm, which is also equipped as a coworking area - a comfortable solution for all digital work nomads. Nearby roasted and freshly ground coffee, homemade pastries, paninis, pizzas and Italian-style sandwiches are available at the Grab & Go throughout the day and can be enjoyed on site or taken away.

Three modular meeting rooms (120 square metres) are available for companies wishing to hold their events at TRIBE Carcassonne.

"TRIBE brings something new and modern to the hotel offer in Carcassonne by providing a cosy, refined design setting which lives and changes throughout the day. Everyone feels at home with us," says Anthony Julve, General Manager at TRIBE Carcassonne. "Our spaces have been devised to welcome all types of guests, for leisure or business, in groups or alone. The restaurant is open to all visitors. The dishes from the Italian-influenced kitchen are rich and delicious with fresh ingredients from the region. And let's not forget our greatest asset: the unique view over the medieval town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site."

Carcassonne

Located in the heart of the Bastide Saint Louis district, the hotel is the ideal base for exploring the medieval town, which is only a 10-minute walk away. The TGV train station is just one kilometre away, and Toulouse and Montpellier can be reached in one and a half hours respectively. This makes Carcassonne ideal for a break in the South of France.

Hotel website
The Karl Lagerfeld Macau hotel is a five-star extravaganza at the Grand Lisboa Palace Resort Macau, China, designed by the late fashion mogul and set to open in July 2023.

At the world's only hotel tower entirely designed by the late fashion icon, you can immerse yourself in a world of Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star hospitality, award-winning amenities and bold design. Experience the transcendent world of Karl: a world of unrivalled creativity expressed in a unique mix of Chinese and Western aesthetics that redefines the mastery of luxurious living.

Originality beyond the realm of fashion is infused into the very heart of THE KARL LAGERFELD. Each aspect of the 271 rooms and suites at the hotel tower showcases the designer's inimitable style. Every feature, pattern and material in each guestroom was personally conceived or selected by the designer, offering an exclusive view into his distinctive, bespoke vision. Throughout your stay, you will find constant amazement in the creative expression of a talent which knew no bounds.

Hotel website
Thailand based ONYX Hospitality Group, has signed a business alliance agreement with Walton Asset Management Co., Ltd., to manage Shama Luxe Sukhumvit Bangkok, a luxury serviced apartment in the heart of Bangkok. The signing marks an important milestone for ONYX Hospitality Group as it expands its Shama brand and launches the Shama Luxe brand into the luxury serviced apartment market.

Inspired by the opulent style of the Knightsbridge area in London, Shama Luxe Sukhumvit offers 52 refined spaces, ranging from the contemporary and spacious One- and Two-Bedroom Suites to the esteemed Two Bedroom Walton Suites. Each residence is thoughtfully designed to cater to the needs of all guests. Located in Soi Sukhumvit 39 in the Thonglor-Phrom Phong area, each apartment is equipped with a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom with bathtub, and a spacious working area. Guests can enjoy communal facilities such as a fitness centre, a kids' playroom, and a swimming pool with city views. Free Wi-Fi is available to support both long-term and short-term stays.

The signing of this agreement is a crucial step for ONYX Hospitality Group in leading the Shama brand in the serviced apartment market in Thailand, which is continuously expanding. The launch of Shama Luxe Sukhumvit will bring the number of Shama's in Bangkok to six, equalling the number of properties in Hong Kong, where the serviced hospitality brand first began. By the end of the year, three more locations will be added to the portfolio in Hong Kong and Malaysia, with Shama Johor Bahru, Shama Medini Iskandar and Shama Hub Metro South Hong Kong. This will bring the brands total inventory to 19 properties in 2023.

Hotel website
The 4th International Conference themed "Shaping the Geopolitics of Greater Eurasia: from Past to Present to Future", dedicated to the centennial anniversary of the national leader Heydar Aliyev, has kicked off in Shusha, Azerbaijan, Azernews reports.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the conference.

Opening the conference, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said:

- Good Morning. Dear guests, welcome to Karabakh. Welcome to Shusha. Very glad to see you here.

First of all I want to express gratitude to ADA University for organizing this conference dedicated to the memory of the architect of independent Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev. I was invited, and decided to meet here in Karabakh.

I've been at many events organized by ADA University, meeting with international experts, public figures in Baku, and first time here. I hope you will enjoy your visit to Azerbaijan, your trip to Shusha. Shusha has a special place in the history of Azerbaijan. And now Shusha is being rebuilt almost from scratch.

This year was announced the Year of Heydar Aliyev in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of our Great Leader. And throughout the year, we organize numerous events, conferences in Azerbaijan and abroad, paying respect to the memory of the founder of independent Azerbaijan, and at the same time addressing the important issues of our domestic politics, regional development, international affairs. We wanted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Heydar Aliyev not by kind of a formal events, but by addressing real issues, which need a special attention, because the geo-politics in the region has changed, and the topic of the conference also is covering this issue.

Heydar Aliyev was always a person who was protecting the interests of the people of Azerbaijan. Regardless of the time, regardless of the political situation, during the times of Soviet Azerbaijan, when he was for more than ten years the leader of the Soviet Azerbaijan even in the framework of those ideological barriers, he was defending the interests of the Azerbaijani people. He was trying to do everything so that we keep our identity. And many steps he took during the times of 1970s and beginning of 1980s. Now we see that they were targeted to the time when Azerbaijan would be independent. So, throughout the year, and of course the events dedicated to his memory will continue until the end of the year. We wanted to fill this space with practical steps, with exchange of views, ideas, mainly with respect to the future development of Azerbaijan and also regional development. Because we cannot ignore situation in our region and though, we dont have any risks anymore after liberation of Karabakh inside the country, but we are not living on an island. Meeting here in Shusha, has of course a special meaning for all of us. Last year, by the way, I announced the Year of Shusha, because it was the 270th anniversary of the foundation of the city by Karabakh khan Panah Ali, and Shusha always was the Azerbaijani city. Only during the times of occupation, for more than 28 years, Shusha was under foreign domination, but I know that you will be making a city tour after our meeting and you will see that during the times of occupation Shusha was almost totally destroyed. Though it once again demonstrates that Shusha has never been a native city for Armenians.

If it was, they would have kept it, they wouldn't have destroyed it. They would have developed it. All what you've seen or what you will see, most of what you will see - the buildings are either been renovated during the last two years and a half, or built from scratch. Heydar Aliyevs biggest dream was to see Shusha free and we made his dream come true. So, we are proud of that. We are happy, all Azerbaijanis, not only citizens of Azerbaijan, but all Azerbaijanis of the world are proud of our victory. That was a victory of justice, historical justice, victory of international law. So, once again, thank you for making a trip here. The weather is not very friendly, but this is how Shusha is, as we can never predict. It can be storming, raining and then sunshine comes all of a sudden and I hope you will enjoy your trip. Thank you.

Read more: https://www.azernews.az/nation/209383.html












































































Peachtree Hospitality Management ("PHM") announced the appointment of Kathleen "Kat" James to vice president of sales, responsible for managing and overseeing the sales strategies that support the overall profitability and growth of PHM's portfolio of hotels. She will report to Vickie Callahan, PHM's senior vice president of revenue generation.

James, an experienced hotelier with over 20 years in the hospitality industry, has direct experience overseeing sales and marketing for national hotel brands and management companies. Before joining Peachtree, James was senior director of sales and head of focused service sales for Sonesta International Hotels. She also held leadership positions with Starwood Hotels & Reports, InterContinental Hotels Group and LodgeWorks.

A division of Peachtree Group, PHM operates premium-branded, limited-, select- and compact full-service hotels primarily in the upper-midscale and upscale segments. Today, the company manages 95 hotels across 28 brands with 11,574 rooms in 22 states.
Laurent Kleitman has been appointed as Group Chief Executive of Mandarin Oriental International Limited with effect from 1 September 2023. He will succeed James Riley who has been the Group Chief Executive of Mandarin Oriental since 2016 and will be stepping down.

Laurent was most recently the President and Chief Executive of Parfums Christian Dior, the largest luxury fashion beauty business of LVMH. He was responsible for the business globally, managing the luxury brand's perfume, make-up, and skincare categories.

Prior to joining LVMH in 2019, Laurent was President of the Consumer Beauty division of Coty, a NYSE listed leading beauty company with a portfolio of well-known brands across fragrance, colour cosmetics, and skin and body care. Prior to that, he spent 25 years at Unilever and held global and regional leadership roles covering the UK, Europe, and Asia, across its personal care, home care, and food businesses.

Laurent's career has centred on building iconic brands. He has led the creation and evolution of new and historic brands as well as growth strategies focused on customer-centric innovation and experience. He has also built digital platforms for brands, and expanded brands into new markets and new product lines.

Ben Keswick, Chairman of Mandarin Oriental International Limited, said, "With Laurent's leadership, we will continue to grow our global portfolio of luxury hotels, resorts and residences. Building on Mandarin Oriental's renowned legendary service, he will further evolve our brand for our guests - delivering 21st century luxury hospitality and lifestyle experiences steeped in a rich and proud Asian heritage. I am delighted to welcome Laurent to Mandarin Oriental."

"I would like to thank James for his 30 years of valued service to the Jardine Matheson Group. I especially want to highlight his significant contribution as Group Chief Executive Officer of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group over the past seven years. James has been instrumental in continuing to expand Mandarin Oriental's development pipeline and elevating the Mandarin Oriental brand globally. James has also made substantial progress embedding sustainability into the way in which we operate and make decisions at Mandarin Oriental. Today, Mandarin Oriental operates 36 hotels and nine residences in 24 countries and territories, and has a pipeline of 25 properties under development which are expected to open in the next five years."

James will step down as Chief Executive on 31 July 2023, however he will be available to support the management team until Laurent begins on 1 September 2023.
Ottawa, Ontario  Hotel Communication Network (HCN) has developed a NEW program that is turning traditional room service operations from a loss leader to a profit center. Rather than placing more stress on limited staff or requiring guests to use a mobile app delivery service such as DoorDash or Uber Eats that requires them to meet drivers in the lobby, HCN has developed an alternative service that is boosting revenues and satisfaction scores.

Called DineIN, the fully hosted and outsourced digital in-room dining service enables travelers to order food-and-beverage items via its in-room Navigator 2.0 tablets or without tablets via a QR code placed in the guestroom. What makes the program unique is that:

DineIN features only local restaurants that are handpicked by hotel staff based on positive personal experiences.

Orders can be paid via one of three secure methods: bill to room, bill to mobile wallet, or input credit card on the tablet.

Upon arrival at the hotel, orders can be delivered to guests at the front desk, at a location of their choice, or to the room (successfully proven during pilot testing to meet hotel security protocols).

ALL delivery drivers are vetted by HCN and trained by the hotel to follow brand foodservice delivery practices.

HCN self-manages the full room service operation and shares profits with the hotel.

Proven Early Adopter and Current Deployment

DineIN was first piloted in more than 1,000 hotel rooms in San Francisco. By dropping money-losing, self-managed room service and replacing it with DineIN, more than $500,000 in newly generated foodservice revenue was achieved over a 12 month period. A new pilot is underway at 3,000 hotel rooms in Chicago showing similar results.

Prior to launching DineIN, we put the Eat Street app on our tablets (similar to Uber Eats) and never got above 50% guest satisfaction. After taking over the service and managing it ourselves, we never achieved less than 80% guest satisfaction Guests got a better meal and a better deal. They loved having the best of local restaurants handpicked by the hotel, delivered to the room, and billed to their folio like a room service order. The fact that guests paid the same amount as if they had walked into the restaurant was the icing on the cake that made this program the industry's first viable replacement for room service. The fact that we proved this and succeeded with it at a 1,500-room flagship property shows the industry that a viable solution to the room service problem has finally arrived. HCN President Kevin Bidner

This is just one example of the success that can be achieved through DineIN. On average, 5% of guests will order food through room service or a meal delivery service. Using a conservative 3% of guests ordering meals through DineIN, the net benefit comes in at $6 per room per month, a portion of which is shared with the hotel. It's a bottom line improvement for the hotel and a great service for guests.

Study Shows Guests Want DineIN

According to the 2022 Customer Engagement Technology Study, hotel guests crave convenience and value more than ever. That means an unprecedented demand for innovative tools that allow customers to drive their own  dining experiences, including food delivery, mobile ordering  and more.

The report shows when ordering food for delivery, 72% of guests said they prefer to order directly from a restaurant (via the hotels delivery service or restaurants delivery service). The study also showed that 57% of hotel guests want the ability to order room service via a hotels website or app, and 45% of restaurant patrons said they want the ability to place food orders via a tablet/touchscreen at the table. More than two-thirds of hoteliers said they embrace self-service mobile features to drive their hotel bookings, payments, and loyalty.

Even though room service is a challenge to run cost effectively, hotel guests still expect it in full service properties. Therefore, someone must provide it and manage it. HCNs DineIN delivers room service without traditional hotel operating costs and makes it a net operating profit. Operators love the efficiency and profitability, and guests love that they can get a taste of the local market affordably and delivered their way  and its showing in hotels satisfaction scores. Neil Schubert, HCN Chief Product Officer

Unlike money-losing room service, or its alternate, leaving guest on their own to order on local delivery apps, HCN has now proven out a bespoke hotel delivery service that protects guest satisfaction and provides a rev-share back to the property to help cover the cost of the tablets. This guestroom technology breakthrough solves the room service problem once and for all.

To experience DineIN LIVE, pre-schedule a meeting with HCN in Booth 1237 at HITEC Toronto, to be held June 26 to 29. For more information on HCN, visit www.hcn-inc.com.

About The Hotel Communication Network (HCN)

Founded in 2008, with headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, The Hotel Communication Network has built on years of research and development to provide an innovative high-value guest amenity that keeps each guest connected to their hotel, city and each other. For more information, visit www.hcn-inc.com.

Barbara Worcester
This is the only event that addresses this topic. It will feature more than 50 leaders from Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

Organizations such as NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Spanish Space Agency, JAXA and companies such as Fabien Cousteau's PROTEUS, Axiom Space, Triton Submarines and Halo Space have already confirmed their attendance.

Organized by Les Roches, one of the world's four leading specialized hotel training schools, SUTUS by Les Roches reaffirms the academic institution's ability to be an asset providing innovation and talent within the tourism sector.

The celebration at the two Les Roches campuses in Spain and Switzerland, endows SUTUS (Space & Underwater Tourism Universal Summit) with a new international dimension, as well as the involvement of new companies and leaders.

Marbella/ Crans-Montana - On 26, 27 and 28 September, coinciding with the autumnal equinox, the headquarters of Les Roches in Spain and Switzerland will become the epicenter of the most avant-garde tourism. Future, space and the underwater universe will meet and mingle at the Space & Underwater Tourism Universal Summit (SUTUS), the world's foremost space and underwater tourism event  and indeed the only one of its kind.

The fourth edition of the meeting, organized by Les Roches  a school specializing in hotel training and luxury tourism  and Medina Media Events, will welcome more than 50 speakers from Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

Under the title "Beyond Borders", SUTUS by Les Roches will explore new territories for moving towards emerging business models in luxury tourism. An opportunity for a constantly growing sector capable of mobilizing millions of travelers, renewing companies from within and boosting the innovative efforts of agents and companies involved.

A 2019 report by Swiss financial service company UBS estimates that commercial flights to outer space could become a $23 billion industry by 2030. This upwards tendency also applies to the underwater field that has experienced significant growth in recent decades due to the search for transformative, unforgettable journeys. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), tourism currently accounts for 40% of the blue economy, the largest share in export value terms.

There has been the possibility of journeying to the International Space Station as an individual tourist since 2001. While space and underwater tourism were already a reality in 2019 when SUTUS was born, there was no discussion forum anywhere in the world designed to address these issues in a profound way. Carlos Diez de la Lastra, CEO of Les Roches

Hybrid syllabus and locations in Spain and Switzerland

Featuring a hybrid format and two face-to-face daylong sessions in Marbella (Spain) on 26 September and in Crans-Montana (Switzerland) on 28 September, the SUTUS by Les Roches program will be structured around specific panels of experts on subjects such as the role of the commercial industry, types of space flight, travelers profiles, new territories in the ocean, cultural heritage underwater and sustainability.

SUTUS by Les Roches was born in 2019 in Les Roches Marbella with the aim of representing a benchmark for experience tourism, reinforcing the prominence of an institution such as Les Roches  the worlds fourth most important hotel training school  where students develop in the realms of multiculturalism, leadership and entrepreneurial skills. The year 2023 marks the beginning of a new stage for SUTUS by Les Roches, which will extend its activities to Switzerland, thus achieving a new international dimension.

At Les Roches we are working to train those who will be the leaders of tourism in a decade or two, so we strive to create events and establish synergies with the experts and entrepreneurs who are already designing that future. SUTUS by Les Roches reflects this commitment. The space and underwater tourism industry, which is still in its infancy, needs to be supported by professionals who can provide added value. Expanding SUTUS to the Crans-Montana campus in Switzerland will enable us to connect with a new entrepreneurial ecosystem, expand our networking and reach more participants. It is a magnificent opportunity for all of us and a source of pride for those of us who ten years ago dreamed of building an event like this. Carlos Diez de la Lastra

Over the next few months, the organizers will be announcing new developments for SUTUS 2023 (www.sutusummit.com) until the event's agenda is complete.

About Les Roches

Les Roches is a Swiss institution focused on creating the innovative and entrepreneurial minds of tomorrow. Founded in 1954, Les Roches offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Hospitality and Tourism Management following the Swiss model of education. With campuses across Switzerland and Spain; a student body of more than 100 different nationalities, the institution provides students with a unique culturally diverse experience. As of 2021, Les Roches also has an academic alliance with the Indian School of Hospitality (ISH) with a partner campus in Gurugram (Delhi NCR).

Les Roches ranks 4th in the world's higher education institutions for hospitality and leisure management (QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2023). Part of Sommet Education, worldwide leader in hospitality education, Les Roches is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE).

For more information, visit Les Roches.

Anouck Weiss

Chief Communication Officer, Sommet Education

Les Roches

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The Les Roches School of Hotel Management will bring together 200 former students from 57 nationalities from May 5 to 7 at the Marbella campus. The attendees are part of large hotel and tourism companies, and luxury companies such as Rami Sayess, president of hotel operations Asia Pacific of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Carlos Erburu, general director cluster Thompson & Hyatt Centric Madrid, Madeleine Barck, director of Grand Hotel Stockholm or Jesus Ernesto Rivera, CEO of Upwind Sarl.

Les Roches has a global network of more than 14,000 alumni and is committed to standing by alumni as they develop their professional careers and after graduation. Through the Les Roches Alumni Association, graduates can further develop their personal and professional relationships and exchange new ideas with other alumni. Employability rates are close to 100%. The Les Roches Alumni Association embodies Andre Nierdermann (President), Carola Eckert (General Secretary), Nikoleta Hroncova (Treasurer), Kaiz Patel (CEO), Majd Abdul Khalek (entrepreneur), Walid Abou Diwan (owner of WGAD Consulting), and Elton Dalmedo (regional director Spain and Portugal of Smy Hotels). The Board of Directors of the Les Roches Alumni Association consists of Andre Nierdermann (President), Carola Eckert (General Secretary), Nikoleta Hroncova (Treasurer), Kaiz Patel (CEO), Majd Abdul Khalek (entrepreneur), Walid Abou Diwan (owner of WGAD Consulting), and Elton Dalmedo (regional director Spain and Portugal of Smy Hotels).

This is an excellent opportunity to reconnect with former and current colleagues from both campuses, establish contacts with industry professionals, alumni and Les Roches networking. Carlos Diez de la Lastra, CEO of Les Roches

Among the educational offer of Les Roches, the BBA Degree in Global Hotel Management and Tourism Companies stands out with five specializations that allow developing a detailed knowledge in a specific professional discipline (Entrepreneurship in the hotel sector, Digital Marketing Strategies, Management of hotel financial performance, Sustainable developments and practices and Development and Management of resorts); and the postgraduate and master's area with the Postgraduate Diploma in Hospitality Management, the Master in International Hotel Management, the Master in Marketing Management for Luxury Tourism, MBA in Global Hospitality Management, the Master in Hotel Strategy and Digital Transformation; as well as the Executive Master in International Hotel Management, and the Executive MBA in Global Hospitality Management, both designed exclusively for active professionals, with hybrid formats or 100% online.

About Les Roches

Les Roches is a Swiss institution focused on creating the innovative and entrepreneurial minds of tomorrow. Founded in 1954, Les Roches offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Hospitality and Tourism Management following the Swiss model of education. With campuses across Switzerland and Spain; a student body of more than 100 different nationalities, the institution provides students with a unique culturally diverse experience. As of 2021, Les Roches also has an academic alliance with the Indian School of Hospitality (ISH) with a partner campus in Gurugram (Delhi NCR).

Les Roches ranks 4th in the world's higher education institutions for hospitality and leisure management (QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2023). Part of Sommet Education, worldwide leader in hospitality education, Les Roches is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE).

For more information, visit Les Roches.

Anouck Weiss

Chief Communication Officer, Sommet Education

Les Roches

View source
Singapore  Cendyn, a catalyst for digital transformation in the hospitality industry, is excited to announce that Carlton City Hotel Singapore has selected Cendyns eInsight CRM to help them consolidate their data, streamline their guest communication efforts and provide them with a true 360-degree view of each guest. Cendyns eInsight CRM will put Carlton City Hotel Singapore in control of their data and provide them with the ability to personalize the experience for every guest, build long-lasting relationships with their guests and drive profitability through their direct booking channel.

Carlton City Hotel Singapore was looking for a hospitality-specific CRM that would empower their team to segment and target their guests effectively with the right communications, at the right time, through the right channel. Cendyns eInsight CRM was the platform they selected to achieve just that; with the ability to maximize personalization efforts through their email marketing channel and ensure consistency across their brand, eInsight CRM provides them with a central source of truth for each guests interests, previous spending, and behaviors. Through real-time reporting and CRM Analytics, Carlton City Hotel Singapore also gains access to reporting insights that help them refine and enhance their marketing strategies in the future.

We knew the eInsight CRM platform was right for us when we saw the breadth of capabilities available and the opportunities for us that lay ahead with this software. We are excited to start leveraging the eInsight CRM platform to its full capabilities. We believe this powerful platform will help us reach new audiences and provide our guests with an elevated level of personalization throughout their journey to enhance their stay and keep them coming back, said Niall Cowan, General Manager at Carlton City Hotel Singapore.

Were delighted that Carlton City Hotel Singapore choose our eInsight CRM to enhance their guest experiences and marketing capabilities. As hotels and resorts around the globe continue to embrace digitization, our award-winning CRM provides an unmatched level of actionable insights, including the personalization, automation, and reporting tools that drive direct bookings and increase ROI, said John Seaton, Chief Revenue Officer at Cendyn.

Learn more about eInsight CRM on the Cendyn website and if you're looking to enhance your email marketing capabilities, take a look at our email design best practices guide.

Carlton City Hotel Singapore selects Cendyns industry-leading platform to power their CRM Source: Cendyn

About Carlton City Hotel Singapore

Carlton City Hotel Singapore is conveniently located on Gopeng Street off Tanjong Pagar Road, along the fringes of Chinatown, Raffles Place and within the Central Business District. The hotel offers guests an upscale and stylish experience, resonating well with international business and leisure travelers. Designed by reputed leading international interior design company Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA), the hotel exudes designer-conceived touches and furnishings from the grand lobby to its spacious guestrooms. With 29 floors and 386 guestrooms, the hotel is primed to be the preferred hotel for discerning business and leisure travelers. Website: www.carltoncity.sg

About Cendyn

Cendyn is a catalyst for digital transformation in the hospitality industry. We help hotels around the globe drive profitability and guest loyalty through an integrated technology platform that aligns revenue, eCommerce, distribution, marketing, and sales teams with centralized data, applications, and analytics, so they can capture more demand and accelerate growth. With operations across the globe, in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Singapore, Bangkok, and India, Cendyn serves tens of thousands of customers across 143 countries. To find out more, visit www.cendyn.com.
Radisson Hotel Group and La Vie Hotels & Resorts have strengthened their partnership through the signing of a Master Collaboration Agreement to add over 30 hotels to the Groups portfolio over the next 10 years.

The two leading hospitality companies have penned a Master Collaboration Agreement that will see Radisson Hotel Group become La Vies Hotels & Resorts preferred partner, enabling La Vie to develop, manage and operate properties under five industry-leading brands: Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson, Park Inn by Radisson, and Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, under a non-exclusive brand license.

La Vie Hotels & Resorts is an owner-centric hospitality management company and is a subsidiary of La Vie Hospitality Group, which provides end-to-end innovative hospitality solutions across multiple disciplines, including Education, Asset Management, Procurement, Building Management, Hospitality Services, and Hotel & Resorts.

The collaboration with La Vie will drive the expansion of the Groups portfolio in its key strategic growth markets including Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Fiji and Vanuatu.

The collaboration builds upon Radisson Hotel Group and La Vies existing relationship which started in 2022 through the successful rebranding and conversion of three hotels in Sri Lanka. These hotels under the Radisson Blu and Radisson brands are located in the prime tourist destinations of Galle, Colombo and Kandy which are managed and operated by La Vie Hotels & Resorts.

Weve enjoyed a strong partnership with La Vie Hotels & Resorts with successful property conversions in Sri Lanka to-date. This latest news marks the next step on our journey together and the expansion of our partnership across key regional markets. Radisson Hotel Group is known for delivering the highest standards of hospitality, and the expansion of our portfolio will enable more guests to enjoy all that our brands have to offer. Ramzy Fenianos, Chief Development Officer Asia Pacific, Radisson Hotel Group

This is a major partnership for our group and one that we are incredibly proud of. With the team at Radisson Hotel Group, we launched three landmark hotels under the Radisson Blu and Radisson brands in Sri Lanka in 2022 and within the space of 12-months they have enjoyed immense success. To now be extending our partnership and signing a Master Collaboration Agreement is a nod of confidence to our amazing team and we look forward to building on our successes together in the years to come. Our end-to-end innovative hospitality solutions, coupled with the strength of Radisson Hotel Groups distinctive brands and distribution, will enable us to offer exceptional experiences to guests across Asia Pacific, as we work towards our common goal of creating memorable moments. La Vie Hotels and Resorts CEO, Jerry Xu

The arrangement with La Vie is just one example of how Radisson Hotel Group strives to create flexible and innovative business models that meet the needs of the owners and developers through partnerships with leading third-party management operators.

With the growth of the Groups portfolio across the region, a centralised franchising service will soon be extended into Australasia, enabling independent and small-scale hotel companies to harness the power of Radisson Hotel Groups global network.

The centralised franchising service model will create opportunities for owners in the region to maximise efficiencies by streamlining operations. We are pleased to be able to offer our owners a dynamic range of offerings and business models that suit their unique needs, further strengthening our collaboration and driving success and revenue. Andre de Jong, Area Senior Vice President for South East Asia & Pacific

Providing numerous and flexible benefits to seasoned owners to independently operate their hotel, the centralized franchising services model will enable owners to leverage the support, brand recognition and global distribution of Radisson Hotel Group through proprietary systems and business intelligence tools. In addition to the Groups standard franchising services, additional resources will be made available for owners which includes revenue management, 24-hour reservations support, as well as advisory support that will enhance revenue and reduce their operating costs.

The Club of Revenue Management by Radisson Hotel Group (The Club) will be expanded into region, enabling hotels to revolutionize their revenue management with cost-effective, cutting-edge system for maximum efficiency and rate optimization. The Club offers successful models for owners and partners to deliver results and uncover new business opportunities in every revenue stream.

The signing of pioneering agreements with trusted partners will support Radisson Hotel Groups strategy to grow exponentially in Asia Pacific over the next decade.

About Radisson Hotel Group

Radisson Hotel Group is one of the world's largest hotel groups with nine distinctive hotel brands, and more than 1,600 hotels in operation and under development in 120 countries. The Group's overarching brand promise is Every Moment Matters with a signature Yes I Can! service ethos.

The Radisson Hotel Group portfolio includes Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Radisson Individuals, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson, Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, and prizeotel brought together under one commercial umbrella brand Radisson Hotels.

Radisson Rewards is our international rewards program that delivers unique and personalized ways to create memorable moments that matter to our guests. Radisson Rewards offers an exceptional experience for our guests, meeting planners, and travel agents at over 550 hotels in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Radisson Meetings provides tailored solutions for any event or meeting, including hybrid solutions placing guests and their needs at the heart of its offer. Radisson Meetings is built around three strong service commitments: Personal, Professional and Memorable, while delivering on the brilliant basics and being uniquely 100% Carbon Neutral.

The health and safety of guests and team members remain a top priority for Radisson Hotel Group. All properties across the Group's portfolio are subject to stringent health and safety requirements, as outlined in the Radisson Hotels Safety Protocol.

More than 100,000 team members work at Radisson Hotel Group and at the hotels licensed to operate in its systems. For more information, visit our corporate website. Or connect with Radisson Hotels on:

LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
LONDON - Global travel marketplace Skyscanner is publishing a new report exploring the latest trends in global travel. Titled Skyscanner Horizons: Destination & Booking Insights Q1 2023, the report unpacks and explores extensive flight search and booking data from each region  the Americas, APAC and EMEA  to provide a unique view of how travellers are thinking about travel over the next six months.

Analysis of key indicators including booking windows segmented by haul type and trending destinations provides unrivalled insights for any business within the travel ecosystem.

The report also features exclusive expert commentary on these trends from industry thought leaders such as Mike Ferguson from Skyscanner, Centre for Aviations Marco Navarria, and Nick Hall of Digital Tourism Think Tank.

Globally, were seeing more travellers come to Skyscanner than ever before. Its indicative of both the sectors continued recovery and the exceptional travel demand across all regions. Destinations, particularly in APAC, are benefitting from increased search volumes compared to last year and, at the same time, long-haul booking windows are lengthening. Long-haul international travel has been slower to recover than other segments, but 2023 looks set to change that. Mike Ferguson, Director of Destination Marketing at Skyscanner

Skyscanners important Horizons report once again reaffirms the industry results CAPA has seen within the Aviation industry. The report has highlighted that the majority of trending destinations for summer travel are in Asia Pacific. CAPA data shows that Asia Pacific airlines posted a +376.3% increase in Jan-2023 international traffic compared to Jan-2022, by far the strongest year-over-year rate among all the worlds regions, but off a very low base. Capacity rose 167.1% and the load factor increased 36.6 percentage points to 83.3%, the highest among the regions. Marco Navarria, Global Content and Marketing Director at CAPA

The resurgence of long-haul travel globally is a key opportunity for destinations to seize, competing to win over high-value travellers undeterred by a challenging economic climate. Nick Hall, CEO of Digital Tourism Think Tank

Key report findings for each region include:

GLOBAL

The majority of trending destinations for Q2 and Q3 travel are in APAC, with Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan benefitting

+90 day booking windows for long haul travel are up across all regions signalling both traveller confidence and demand, with search share moving in line with pre-pandemic seasonal norms

EMEA

EMEA travellers looking ahead to summer as longer booking windows increase for both short and long haul travel

All booking windows are tracking close to 2019 search behaviour as trip planning normalises

EMEA travellers are eager to return to destinations in Asia with Taiwan, Japan and Laos seeing surging search demand compared to 2022. Destinations such as Saudi Arabia and China see high demand in the short term, with Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam also trending throughout Q2 and Q3

Albania, the only trending European destination in the top 10, sees increased search demand year-on-year

AMER

AMER travellers looking ahead as longer booking windows, particularly 60-89 days, increase for all haul types

Fluctuations in short haul booking windows vs 2019, while long haul returns to pre-pandemic norms

AMER travellers are eager to return to destinations in Asia as the regions sees surging search demand compared to 2022. Other long-haul destinations such as Morocco, New Zealand and Norway are also trending throughout Q2 and Q3

Bucket list destination Fiji also sees increased year-on-year search demand particularly in July and August

APAC

Long haul travel top of mind for APAC travellers as booking windows increase in all segments from <1 week to +90 days

APAC booking windows some way off returning to 2019 patterns across all haul types

Taiwan, Laos and Japan are trending destinations for APAC travellers, with significant increases in search volumes compared to 2022

APAC travellers also looking for inspiration with Everywhere a top trending search term, whilst European destinations Austria and Hungary see rising year-on-year search demand

Japan, Thailand and Vietnam make up over two thirds of trending search volumes in Q2 and Q3

Visitors to Skyscanner are now surpassing 2019 levels, with more than 100m+ travellers accessing the companys app, desktop and mweb platforms every month.

To view the report online or download a PDF copy, visit https://reports.skyscanner.net/.

Report methodology: analysis of Skyscanner Travel Insight search and redirect data, based on Q1 2023 activity for travel in Q2 and Q3 2023 with selected comparisons to the equivalent pre-pandemic period (2019). Year-on-year comparisons for trending destinations are based on the same 2023 parameters and the equivalent search and travel period in 2022. Analysis conducted between 10-16th April 2023.

About Skyscanner

Skyscanner is a global leader in travel connecting over 100m travellers in 52+ markets and 30+ languages to more than 1200 flight, hotel and car hire partners every month.

Skyscanner's global audience provides unrivalled reach into geographies and deep insight into traveller search and redirect behaviour in almost every market. Skyscanner's app, desktop and mweb metasearch platforms offer next generation, best-in-class brand and performance capabilities to deliver on partners strategic priorities. Skyscanner is using the latest technology to build dynamic distribution and advertising solutions to connect businesses with highly qualified audiences, using real-time, actionable intelligence.

Founded in Edinburgh in 2003, Skyscanner has offices worldwide, in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America. Skyscanner is committed to helping shape a more responsible future for travel in collaboration with our partners, so that every traveller can explore our world effortlessly for generations come.

For more information visit: https://www.partners.skyscanner.net/.

Skyscanner Limited. Registered in England & Wales (Company No. 04217916). Registered Office: Level 5, Ilona Rose House, Manette Street, London W1D 4AL. Skyscanner Private Limited. Registered in Singapore (Registration No. 201317279D). Registered Office: 9 Battery Road, #16-121, Singapore 049910

Matt Bradford

Senior Communications Manager

+44 785 066 5563

Skyscanner Ltd
Speak With Confidence: Four Fixes That Work

In this Nano Tool for Leaders, Wharton's Jonah Berger shares four tips for confident communication in the workplace.

The Goal

Project greater confidence and power through your choice of words.

Nano Tool

Whether choosing a money manager, hearing a witness testify, or picking a president, listeners are more persuaded when communicators seem more certain or confident about what they are communicating. Scientists have refined the exact components of powerful language, but at its core, the main idea is that speaking with power makes people seem more self-assured and knowledgeable, which in turn makes audiences more likely to listen and be persuaded. But you dont need to be born with the ability to speak with power or confidence  its something you can learn. New research on the science of language reveals four specific changes that will help you speak with greater power.

Action Steps

1. Ditch the hedges.

When someone says around, arguably, I believe, generally, kind of, maybe, presumably, rarely, or usually, theyre hedging. Theyre expressing uncertainty in one way or another. Hedging undermines your impact, because while youre sharing your thoughts or recommendations, youre simultaneously suggesting that youre not sure they are worth considering.

2. Use definites.

Instead of hedges, use words like definitely, clearly, and obviously, which remove any shred of doubt. These definites do more than signal a lack of uncertainty. They indicate that things are 110 percent clear. You project confidence, making listeners more likely to follow you and whatever you suggest doing.

3. Dont hesitate.

In everyday speech, most of us say things like uh, um, and er a lot. We use this common verbal tic when were collecting our thoughts or deciding what to say next. But when you use them too often, they can weaken what you say. In fact, research shows hesitations make you seem even less confident, less powerful, and less effective than hedges. Instead, try pausing more. It gives you time to figure out what to say and makes you seem more competent. Studies find that pausing leads speakers to be perceived more positively. It not only gave the audience time to process what was said, but also encouraged them to respond in agreement, which led them to like the speaker more overall.

4. Turn pasts into presents.

Past tense suggests something was true at a point in time for a particular person. Saying The solution worked well indicates that you thought the solution was effective when you implemented it. Present tense  saying works well, for example  suggests stability, something more general and enduring that you are relatively certain about. Not only did it work well in the past, but it will also do so in the future. Want to increase your impact and influence? Change how audiences see whatever you share by describing the results of a big project as what you find rather than what you found. Talk about how people are doing something rather than how they were doing it.

How Leaders Use It

Sales executive Lindsey Samuels makes almost a dozen presentations a week to existing and prospective clients and to internal colleagues and management. But her impact was minimal, only sometimes persuading people to take her advice or go along with her suggestions. The content wasnt the issue: her presentation decks were strong. But transcripts showed that she was saying uh, um, and er a lot. To cull these hesitations, she practiced what she was going to say, scripted answers to questions in advance, and paused when necessary to get back on track. It worked. Using fewer ums and uhs made her pitches sharper, and the next month, she converted almost a third more potential prospects into clients.

The CEO of a major corporation told a linguistics researcher that the decisions he has to make in five minutes are often about projects others have worked on for five months. To do that, he relies on a simple rule: If the person seeking approval sounds confident, he supports them. If not, he denies them. Once those who work for him understand the rule, they can most easily convey the kind of certainty and decisiveness needed to get their project approved, avoiding any hint of humility or hedging, by using definites such as clearly, unquestionable, irrefutably, absolutely, and undeniable.

In April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson had to reverse the isolationist, anti-war position that defined his presidency. In an address to Congress, he called for declaration of war against Germany. Ultimately successful, he convinced Congress that America had a moral duty to enter the war by using the present tense, indicating with certainty that the decision will be made, rather than relying on previous military victories or hypothetical future ones: We act without animus, not in enmity toward a people or with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right.

Download this Nano Tool as a PDF







Jonah Berger, associate professor of marketing, the Wharton School, and best-selling author of The Catalyst: How to Change Anyones Mind; Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior; and Contagious: Why Things Catch On. This Nano Tool is based on his new book Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way (Harper Business, 2023).

This article is reprinted with permission from Knowledge@Wharton.




Mustafa Bulmus - General Manager - Bodrum EDITION Hotel

The Bodrum EDITION announce the appointment of Mustafa Bulmus as the new General Manager. Having been Hotel Manager at the resort previously and a General Manager at the W Istanbul and Ritz-Carlton Residences Istanbul, Mustafa is set to bring a wealth of experience as he returns to the Bodrum EDITION in his new role.

Responsible for the acclaimed opening of The Ritz-Carlton Residences Istanbul, whilst also being an integral part of the pre-opening task force as the commercial lead at The Reykjavik EDITION and the Times Square EDITION, Mustafa is fueled by his agility and ambition. Mustafa, through his impressive hotel experience, has grown to be a results-driven leader, with an unwavering passion for operational excellence and guest satisfaction.

As he begins his new role, Mustafa Bulmus commented, "I'm proud to be leading such an incredible team at The Bodrum EDITION and I am excited to begin this new journey. I am looking forward to igniting the sixth season at The Bodrum EDITION."
Selina Paros, Greece

The international Airport of Athens recorded a significant increase of 10% in international arrivals during Q1 2023 compared to Q1 2019, with domestic traffic at similar levels. Comparing the same quarters for the International Airport of Thessaloniki, international arrivals registered a small increase of 2%, while domestic arrivals declined.

GBRs revenue index for the Greek hotel sector, which includes city hotels and a limited number of resort hotels during Q1, recorded for Q1 2023/2019 an increase 9.3%, but a decline of 4.9% in room nights. International arrivals at airports located at the main tourist islands sextupled in March 2023 compared to same month in 2019, albeit at low levels still at nearly 90,000.

Source: GBR Consulting

Click here (Adobe Acrobat PDF file) to download the complete article.

GBR Consulting is a leading Greek business consultant firm. GBR Consulting supports clients develop their businesses in a structured manner leading to growth. The firm offers their clients, who are mainly active in the tourism, retail, food, construction and energy sectors, lasting solutions in the field of strategy, marketing, organisation and finance, while also delivering litigation support.

GBR Consulting

4 Sekeri Street, 106 74 Athens, Greece

T (+30) 210 36 05 002

F (+30) 210 36 06 935

www.gbrconsulting.gr

gbr@gbrconsulting.gr
Carlton City Hotel Singapore

The Singapore-based hotel has chosen eInsight CRM to consolidate and enrich their guest data, including enhanced segmentation and reporting capabilities.

Cendyn, a catalyst for digital transformation in the hospitality industry, is excited to announce that Carlton City Hotel Singapore has selected Cendyns eInsight CRM to help them consolidate their data, streamline their guest communication efforts and provide them with a true 360-degree view of each guest. Cendyns eInsight CRM will put Carlton City Hotel Singapore in control of their data and provide them with the ability to personalize the experience for every guest, build long-lasting relationships with their guests and drive profitability through their direct booking channel.

Carlton City Hotel Singapore was looking for a hospitality-specific CRM that would empower their team to segment and target their guests effectively with the right communications, at the right time, through the right channel, Cendyns eInsight CRM was the platform they selected to achieve just that; with the ability to maximize personalization efforts through their email marketing channel and ensure consistency across their brand, eInsight CRM provides them with a central source of truth for each guests interests, previous spending, and behaviors. Through real-time reporting and CRM Analytics, Carlton City Hotel Singapore also gain access to reporting insights that help them to refine and enhance their marketing strategies in the future.

We knew the eInsight CRM platform was right for us when we saw the breadth of capabilities available and the opportunities for us that lay ahead with this software. We are excited to start leveraging the eInsight CRM platform to its full capabilities and we believe this powerful platform will help us reach new audiences and provide our guests with an elevated level of personalization throughout their journey to enhance their stay and keep them coming back, said Niall Cowan, General Manager at Carlton City Hotel Singapore.

Were delighted that Carlton City Hotel Singapore choose our eInsight CRM to enhance their guest experiences and marketing capabilities. As hotels and resorts around the globe continue to embrace digitization, our award-winning CRM provides an unmatched level of actionable insights, including the personalization, automation, and reporting tools that drive direct bookings and increase ROI. said John Seaton, Chief Revenue Officer at Cendyn.

Learn more about eInsight CRM on the Cendyn website and if youre looking to enhance your email marketing capabilities, take a look at our email design best practices guide.

About Cendyn

Cendyn is a catalyst for digital transformation in the hospitality industry. We help hotels around the globe drive profitability and guest loyalty through an integrated technology platform that aligns revenue, eCommerce, distribution, marketing and sales teams with centralized data, applications, and analytics, so they can capture more demand and accelerate growth. With offices located across the globe, in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Singapore, Bangkok, and India, Cendyn serves tens of thousands of customers across 143 countries. To find out more, visit www.cendyn.com.

About Carlton City Hotel Singapore

Carlton City Hotel Singapore is conveniently located on Gopeng Street off Tanjong Pagar Road, along the fringes of Chinatown, Raffles Place and within the Central Business District. The hotel offers guests an upscale and stylish experience, resonating well with international business and leisure travelers. Designed by reputed leading international interior design company Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA), the hotel exudes designer-conceived touches and furnishings from the grand lobby to its spacious guestrooms. With 29 floors and 386 guestrooms, the hotel is primed to be the preferred hotel for discerning business and leisure travelers.

Website: www.carltoncity.sg
IHG Hotels & Resorts Signs MOU with the Saudi Tourism Authority to Accelerate Growth of Tourism Sector in the Kingdom

IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) at the Arabian Travel Market 2023.

The MOU provides a framework for both entities to explore methods to increase inbound visitation to Saudi Arabia from key markets across Middle East and Africa region. This includes developing customised promotions, joint marketing campaigns, and promotion through loyalty programs which will showcase Saudi Arabia as one of the worlds most exciting destination to an international audience.

The MOU was signed at the Saudi pavilion at the Arabian Travel Market 2023 held in Dubai, by James Britchford, Vice President Commercial at IHG for India, Middle East and Africa, and Munirah Abanomy, Head of Marketing Partnership for Middle East & Africaat Saudi Tourism Authority.

With Saudi Arabia targeting 100 million visitors by 2030, the Kingdom is a priority market for IHG Hotels & Resorts in the Middle East. The hospitality group aims to support the tourism sector in the country by growing the footprint of its existing brands, as well as introducing new brands from its global portfolio, in addition to running campaigns to promote various destinations within the country. IHG also plans to further support the Kingdoms economic Vision by investing in developing Saudi talent in the Kingdom, with an ambition to hire 6,000 nationals across its growing portfolio by 2030.

James Britchford, Vice President, Commercial, India, Middle East & Africa, IHG Hotels & Resorts said: As a reflection of our commitment to support the growth of the tourism industry within the Kingdom, we are delighted to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Saudi Tourism Authority. Collaborations with key government entities, such as the STA, enable us to position and promote attractive destinations and exciting tourism offerings that the country has developed, to our guests across markets.

Abdulkarim Aldarwish - President of Middle East & Africa Markets at the Saudi Tourism Authority, commented: Signing of an MOU with IHG comes within the framework of the Saudi Tourism Authoritys keenness to strengthen strategic partnerships with major international companies and prestigious brands with global reach. Such partnerships enhance the efforts of the Saudi Tourism Authority in attracting tourists and enriching their experience by providing best-in-class products, offers and packages.

To expand its presence in key cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah, Madinah, Makkah, Dammam, Al Khobar and Mega projects, IHG Hotels & Resorts is positioned to add over 10,000 additional rooms to its portfolio in the next 2-3 years. This is set to significantly boost the tourism infrastructure in the country and provide a diverse range of accommodation options  across luxury, leisure, religious and business tourism.

IHG Hotels & Resorts currently operates 37 hotels across five brands in Saudi Arabia, including: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites, and voco, with 31 hotels in the development pipeline set to open within the next three to five years.
Eli Lilly's shares climbed in early U.S. trading after its experimental drug for Alzheimer's slowed the progress of the disease in a final-stage trial, paving the way for the company to apply for U.S. approval.

The drug, donanemab, slowed the disease by 35% over a year and a half in a trial of 1,182 patients with early-stage Alzheimer's, Lilly said Wednesday in a statement. About 24% of subjects on the drug experienced brain swelling and an overlapping 31.4% had bleeding in the brain, side effects that have been seen with similar drugs. The company said it plans to apply for U.S. approval this quarter, and the shares rose as much as 5.1% at the New York market open.

The results represent the second time Alzheimer's was slowed in a final-stage trial by a drug that clears a brain protein called amyloid. They bolster the controversial theory that the abnormal protein plays a key role in the disease. The success means patients and their caregivers could soon have another therapy shown to slow the disease alongside Eisai's Leqembi, which was approved in January. The study is also a vindication for Lilly, which has spent billions of dollars and decades of research time on Alzheimer's drug development.

"We think this is actually a level of efficacy not seen in previous trials," said Mark Mintun, Lilly group vice president for neuroscience R&D, in an interview.

The price of the new drug will be in the range of similar therapies, Chief Executive Officer Dave Ricks told CNBC. Leqembi, the product from Eisai and partner Biogen that was the first to slow Alzheimer's in a final-stage trial, received expedited U.S. approval in January and has a list price of $26,500 a year. The partners have applied for full approval based on a final-stage trial that showed it slowed cognitive and functional decline by 27% on a slightly different scale. Biogen rose 1.7% in New York.

Full approval is important for Alzheimer's drugs, because the U.S. Medicare program has indicated it won't broadly cover amyloid-lowering drugs without it. The Medicare program that covers U.S. older and disabled people has said it will only cover the new dementia drugs in tightly limited clinical trials until more evidence that they work is available.

Most analysts praised the results. Citigroup's Andrew Baum called it the "new gold standard" in Alzheimer's drugs, while Paresh Malhotra, professor of clinical neurology at Imperial College London said "we are now entering the treatment era of Alzheimer's disease."

---

One significant drawback of amyloid-lowering antibodies such as donanemab is that they can cause brain swelling and bleeding. While most of these cases do not cause symptoms, they can lead to hospitalization - or worse.

In Lilly's final-stage trial, three patients who had received donanemab died after experiencing such side effects. The company didn't release details as to whether these patients had brain swelling, brain bleeding or both.

Bloomberg Intelligence analysts John Murphy and Sam Fazeli said the trial suggests Lilly's drug doesn't have a strong competitive edge versus rival Leqembi.

"While reduction in the pace of disease progression with Lilly's donanemab was similar to Leqembi over 18 months, the rates of serious complications were worse," they wrote in a note. They also pointed to a higher rate of brain bleeding in the Lilly trial.

The trial also looked at a population of 552 patients who were deemed to be at a greater level of disease severity based on brain scans. When that group was combined with the larger, less acute population, the drug showed less impressive results, slowing the progress of the disease by 22% over 18 months.

Lilly had tried to get accelerated approval for donanemab based on its ability to lower amyloid in the brains of patients. A mid-stage trial published in 2021 showed that donanemab slowed decline from Alzheimer's disease by 32%. But in January, the Food and Drug Administration said it wouldn't clear the drug because not enough of the subjects had received the drug for a full 12 months. That setback put the focus on Lilly's larger, final-stage trial.

Over the years, most human studies of amyloid-lowering drugs have fallen short or produced mixed results in Alzheimer's patients, despite research linking the abnormal protein to the disease. Companies have begun testing drugs at earlier stages of Alzheimer's, hoping to show greater impact on cognitive decline, and have developed more-potent amyloid removers such as donanemab.

Lilly will present the results of the trial at an Alzheimer's conference in July.
AUSTIN  Texans could face brownouts if record demand this summer causes extreme scenarios, the states power grid operator is forecasting.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Wednesday its projecting peak demand for the summer at 82,739 megawatts and that the system has enough generating capacity to meet that seasonal demand.

But that came with a caveat: Extreme weather could test the system, according to ERCOTs highest risk scenario. Record demand during such a scenario could trigger shortfalls if there are a significant number of unplanned power-plant breakdowns and little power available from wind turbines and solar farms.

BUILDING PLANTS: Texas Senate pushes to add natural gas power plants, curb growth of renewables

The report and what happens through the summer could have major political implications as state lawmakers debate numerous proposals that could increase residents electric bills, use taxpayer dollars to build fossil fuel plants to boost reliability or both.

The shaky grid was on display during last years record-hot summer as demand broke records 11 times with demand that topped out near 80,000 megawatts. That included several close calls that led ERCOT and local utility officials to call for customers to conserve energy as power reserves plummeted.

That came after ERCOT, in its 2022 Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy demand report, undershot the level peak demand would eventually reach. It had estimated peak demand of 77,317 megawatts.

By mid-June, record heat had pushed demand to an all-time record. Five weeks later, demand on the Texas grid topped 80,000 megawatts for the first time in history.

Wednesday, ERCOT said more than 97,000 megawatts of capacity is expected to be available during this summer's peak for the grid, which serves more than 26 million customers.

Driving demand

Electricity use in Texas has been rising along with economic growth, an influx of people and a surge in energy-intensive Bitcoin mining. Texas has been working to make its grid more robust during extreme weather since a deadly winter storm in 2021 crippled the system. But the network was further tested last summer when intense heat triggered soaring consumption.

Most of Texas has a 50 percent to 60 percent chance of above average temperatures from May to July, according to the U.S. Climate Prediction Center.

IN THE COLD: Ready to go: CPS says its ready to keep the lights  and heat  on ahead of expected mild winter

For more than a decade, renewable energy has been thought of as a low-cost alternative for the Texas grid. But as the net capacity of dispatchable energy  coal, natural gas and nuclear power  has stagnated in the state for the past 15 years as the states population and economy have surged, wind and solar is no longer a bonus but required to keep the lights on.

Were now getting to a place where the peak demands require the availability of renewables in order to meet the energy needs of Texans, and that is going to continue to grow, ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said in February.

A major push is underway in the Texas Senate to subsidize natural gas power plants in particular. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the chamber, said he wont let legislators go home until they can guarantee new steel in the ground.

Subsidizing power

On Tuesday, Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, issued a new proposal for a program that would use taxpayer dollars to finance and subsidize new natural gas power. The bill would create a no interest loan program for private companies to build new natural gas fired plants and then pay them roughly 10 percent of construction costs if construction begins before December 2024 and is putting power on the grid within three years.

IN SAN ANTONIO: CPS approves plan to shut coal-fired plants, turns eye toward rate increases to make it reality

Its the senators second proposal to use taxpayer money to put new steel in the ground for power plants. The Senate passed another bill he authored that would use at least $10 billion of taxpayer money to build a fleet of natural gas plants to be used as a backup generator for the power grid.

Texas largest electricity generator operators have opposed the plan as disruptive and have threatened to scrap plans for new natural gas plants if Schwertners bill becomes law. They are also lining up against another Schwertner bill that would place a market cap on the market design they prefer, which is the performance credit mechanism that was adopted by the Public Utility Commission in January.

The backup generator plan appears to have fizzled out in the Texas House, where Corpus Christi Rep. Todd Hunter has yet to hold a hearing on the Senate bill. Hunter and his office spokesman have not returned messages seeking comment on the bills fate.
I wrote last week that helping Ukrainians survive and resist the Russian invasion is the most philanthropically worthy project I can think of right now.

But a question remains: How else can I help?

I found at least one answer in a surprisingly easy and satisfying way, through an organization called Safe Passage 4 Ukraine.

With an easy-to-use online form, Safe Passage 4 Ukraine collects donations of hotel points, credit card rewards points and airline miles. If you only have a small number of saved miles, the organization can aggregate donations from many people to buy travel or hotel stays for refugees from the war zone.

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I filled out the form with my pledge, and when I clicked a button, the website took me to my airline miles account where I logged in and clicked the charity to initiate the transfer of miles. The organization then sent me an email, asking me to click to confirm. It was less than five minutes of work.

Airlines have varying minimums for the number of miles you can give: 500 for JetBlue and 1,000 for United Airlines, for example. I had roughly 2,000 and 2,500 to give with those airlines, respectively.

I had an even cooler experience, however, when I made a much larger donation of points I had accumulated with another airline.

Soon after pledging at least 30,000 American Airlines points, a travel specialist from Safe Passage 4 Ukraine emailed that my donation made me eligible to buy a transatlantic flight for a Ukrainian refugee.

Two days later, my assigned travel specialist sent me the profile of a Ukrainian woman Id be helping, including her itinerary  Warsaw to London to Philadelphia to Orlando, with flight numbers and times. The specialist had arranged for this one-way transatlantic flight to be purchased with my 30,000 points plus a reasonable $96.15 from me. By the time this column goes to print, this refugee will be in the U.S.

Assessing need for safe passage

Rachel Jamison, the founder and director of Safe Passage 4 Ukraine, told me last week via Zoom that her organization had flown 505 Ukrainians fleeing the war. They have flown or housed  with hotel points  41 injured volunteers. They have flown 39 wounded soldiers receiving prosthetics.

They have aggregated 17 million airline miles and roughly 2 million hotel points. Because they mostly work with points and miles, their actual financial donations have remained small, an estimated $350,000 to date.

By day, Jamison is a New York University law professor based in United Arab Emirates. With 21 volunteers at Safe Passage, she retains her full-time job.

Ive been in a lot of tough places, but (Ukraine) is the hardest environment, she said. I come in as an atypical person, not from Ukraine. But this is what Im most proud of, professionally. Safe Passage 4 Ukraine is also atypical, in that it involves Ukrainians working in partnership with foreigners, and military folks working with civilians. Thats very rare.

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Because the organization has many more people trying to flee the war than it can serve, its partners on the ground in Ukraine asses criteria for safe passage flights, considering a safe landing destination, legality and need.

To determine a safe destination, Jamison said the most common thing is people have family in the U.S. or Canada, and they need to be reunited with them. This is especially true as most people they help are women and women with children.

TYLER HICKS, STF / NYT

Next, its partners on the ground in Ukraine assess peoples legal status.

Every person we help move to the United States or Canada has a documented legal right to move, and has a sponsor when they arrive, usually a family member, Jamison said.

With all that, the most needy are prioritized.

Theres an overall needs assessment that starts with: If we dont help this person, what will happen?  All of them have been through things that you and I have never experienced, Jamison said. So we are drawing the line at who really needs our help.

That often means the recipients of the flights are ill and in need of treatment, or they are people traumatized by bombing or Russian occupation. In the next phase of the war  which may result in towns being liberated from the Russian army  Jamison expects a huge uptick in people desperate for help.

Right after Kharkiv was liberated (in September 2022), there were suddenly many people with serious needs. We are going to need everything we can get, she said.

Unique way to give

Chris Schools is a former Marine with operations experience who lives north of Dallas. He has known Jamison since before she went to law school. Schools deployed to Afghanistan with the Marines in 2010-11 as an ordinance specialist and has been out of the military since 2011. When Russia invaded Ukraine, he wanted to help but asked himself how.

I asked him whether he considered going to Ukraine?

It runs through your head, he said, but with a 6- and a 3-year-old now, my life is different. I cant be going into combat zones.

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So when he heard about what Jamison was doing, he asked he how he could help. As he told me, Nobody is more action-oriented than Rachel, in everything she does. It was very easy for me to get bought in and know we were on a worthy mission.

In April 2022, he volunteered to work on partnership outreach, and he extended his work to helping, along with others, set up the organizations financial systems, managing its PayPal account for incoming donations, as well as making disbursements, such as to reimburse partners in Ukraine.

As a logistics guy with a background in working in a complicated war zone, Schools was effusive in praising what Jamison created in a short time.

The organization is unique in that they found a way to give back that hadnt been done, he said. Anybody can say they need money, but they put together a complicated system in a manageable way, to be innovative and move quickly.

The appeal

This charity really appeals to me. I had spare resources  airline miles  that Ive found difficult to use. Safe Passage 4 Ukraine did the hard work to find and vet a person from a war zone who most needed them. It found a flight that could serve her needs on the day she needed it. All I had to do was book it with my miles under her name. Safe Passage 4 Ukraine did the rest.

I dont know the back story of the woman whose ticket I bought with my airline miles, only that she was from Mykolaiv, a previously Russian-occupied and now Ukrainian-liberated city. Thats all I need to know.

Without this organization as a matchmaker, I would have virtually no way to personally help an person in the Ukrainian war zone. I found it very emotionally satisfying doing my small part to help remove one person, desperate to get out of a war, get to a safer place in the U.S.
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Construction and engineering giant Fluor is moving its Houston-area hub to the Energy Corridor after almost 40 years in Sugar Land, the company said Wednesday.

Irving-based Fluor recently signed a 12-year lease for the entire 308,186-square-foot office building known as Three Eldridge at 737 Eldridge Parkway, according to landlord Plano-based real estate firm Granite Properties. The lease is one of the largest publicly known new office leases signed this year in the Houston area, according to Cushman and Wakefield, the real estate brokerage that represented Fluor in the transaction.

Fluor plans to move more than 1,300 employees to the 13-story building in summer 2024 from the firms campus at 1 Fluor Daniel Drive in Sugar Land, said Jennifer Kim, vice president and general manager of Fluors Houston office. The company is hiring 170 people this year and looking to fill another 400 positions, she added.

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The Irving-based firm has long looked to modernize its Houston offices, originally planning to build a 50-acre campus near the Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land. But as the company has been trying to shrink its worldwide real estate footprint, and instead it sold the land in late 2022 to Sugar Land real estate firm Dhanani Private Equity Group.

Fluors relocation represents the loss of a major employer in Sugar Land, which in years past has offered a variety of incentives to try to retain the Fortune 500 company in the southwest Houston suburb. But Fluor wasnt able to find a newer office building with the square footage it needed in Sugar Land, Kim said.

It's not about moving from Sugar Land; it's really about optimizing our footprint. And this is something we've been looking at globally  understanding today's workforce, in terms of anticipated workload and growth in the organization, as well as this flexible workplace that has evolved over the past several years, Kim said.

On any given day, about 85 percent of its Houston workforce is coming in the office, with about 15 percent operating on flexible or remote schedules, she said.

Fluor built its 1.2 million-square-foot offices in Sugar Land in 1984 to accommodate some 5,000 people, although the campus never reached its full capacity, Kim said. The company hasnt owned the Sugar Land campus for a number of years, she said. The firm planned to stay there until 2026, but now will move out by late June 2024, she added.

Its future West Houston building can accommodate up to 1,600 employees. There is also room for Fluor to grow into nearby buildings as needed, Kim said.

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Fluors Houston operations also are the home for its energy solutions business, so relocating to the Energy Corridor will put the company closer to many of its clients, as well as top talent at nearby engineering firms.

We see this as strategic for being able to retain and recruit employees, Kim said.

Fluor's is the latest in a flurry of large office deals signed in recent months in the Energy Corridor, including deals by Kiewit Engineering, Technip Energies and Modec International. Nearly 19 percent of all Houston-area office deals signed in the first quarter were in the Energy Corridor, edging out the rate of activity downtown, which accounted for 16 percent of leases last quarter, according to real estate firm CBRE.

I think were seeing a resurgence in the Energy Corridor, said Scott Martin, executive managing director at Granite Properties, in part because employers are trying to cut commute times for West Houston-area employees.

Granite Properties bought the three-building Eldridge office complex for $78.4 million in 2019. At the time Granite was aware British oil major BP would be vacating Three Eldridge (where Fluor is now going), Martin said. Since then, Granite has poured some $10 million into upgrading and modernizing the complex.

If you walk in there today, youd feel like this is a brand-new building inside stylistically, said Martin.

Jon Dutton and Andrew Elliott of Granite represented the landlord in lease negotiations. Rick Kaplan, David Guion, & Chris Oliver of Cushman & Wakefield represented Fluor.
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In a major real estate shakeup in downtown Houston, chemicals giant LyondellBasell plans to move its U.S. headquarters from its namesake tower to a landmark Galleria-area skyscraper, the company said Wednesday.

LyondellBasell recently signed a lease for 318,504 square feet at the 64-story Williams Tower developed by Hines and owned by Invesco Real Estate, according to real estate brokerage CBRE.

The Rotterdam, Netherlands-based Lyondell  with regional headquarters in London and Houston, where it has about 1,300 employees  said it expects to begin moving into its new offices at 2800 Post Oak by late 2024 or 2025. The company said it plans to occupy floors 37 through 51.

Visual essay: How the Waterwall, outside of Williams Tower, became a Houston landmark over nearly 40 years

A Lyondell spokesperson said the move was part of our new strategy to step up company performance and culture.

Lyondell has long had a major presence in Houston as one of the 20 largest private employers in downtown as of 2021, according to research from Central Houston, the districts business organization.

The companys predecessor moved into the tower at 1221 McKinney in 1986. The tower, previously 1 Houston Center, was renamed LyondellBasell Tower after the company signed a 2012 lease renewal and expansion for nearly 360,000 square feet.

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The decision (to move to Williams Tower) is due to the companys new office work landscape, which has changed dramatically over the past few years  including the adoption of a more flexible work policy, a Lyondell spokesperson said in a statement.

The company, which had more than $50 billion in revenue last year, adopted a hybrid workplace strategy in 2021, and now allows employees to work remotely three days a week.

Lyondells current downtown landlord Brookfield Properties recently completed a multiyear renovation to modernize the 1970s and 1980s era buildings in Houston Center in southern downtown. The work at LyondellBasell Tower, the Highlight at Houston Center, 3 Houston Center, 2 Houston Center and 4 Houston Center brought new plazas and gathering areas, reclad sky bridges, replaced facades and updated lobbies and meeting facilities.

Williams Tower has been the tallest building in the Uptown area since it was completed in 1983. Invesco Real Estate, a global real estate investment manager, acquired it in 2013.

Lyondells lease is a major win for the West Loop/Galleria area, which had an office vacancy rate of about 26 percent in the first quarter, slightly higher than the broader Houston average, according to CBRE.

The lease is believed to be the Houston regions largest office deal signed so far in 2023, eclipsing a 308,000-square-foot deal in which engineering firm Fluor will move to the Energy Corridor from Sugar Land.

Craig Beyer and Kevin Saxe with CBRE represented LyondellBasell in lease negotiations. Nina Seyyedin and Warren Savery with CBRE represented Invesco.
Netflix, founded more than 25 years ago to rent movies on DVD through the mail, began allowing customers to stream them in 2007. I was a DVD customer back then, and I didnt try streaming until three years later. My first Netflix streamed video was The Spanish Prisoner, a 1997 film, on Jan. 10, 2010. I dont remember watching this, but I know that it was my first title.

I also know that the first TV series I binge-watched on Netflix was Friday Night Lights, which my wife and I started on July 19, 2010. By the end of the month, we had finished season one and took a break by watching Dead Snow, a Scandinavian comedy film about zombie Nazis terrorizing a group of medical students at a remote cabin in the snowy Norwegian woods (4 of 5 stars, highly recommended for those who enjoy a mix of horror and humor). Afterward, we dived back into Friday Night Lights by devouring season two.

How do I know this? Because, like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, Netflix lets you download your personal data, including viewing history. And among the 27 files included in the download package is a small glimpse of the password-sharing crackdown Netflix plans to bring to the United States before the end of this quarter.

While the streaming history is certainly a trip down Memory Lane, unfortunately its a road thats shorter than Id like. Missing from the file labeled ViewingActivity.csv are the movies and shows I watched on the rented DVDs. (The company still rents DVDs, but said last week it will end the service in September.) A Netflix spokesperson told me this is available for those who used the same email address during the DVD and streaming eras, but I was unable to track it down for my account. Bummer.

You can download your Netflix data by logging into your account on a web browser (its not accessible in a mobile or smart-TV app). Choose your profile, then click on its icon in the upper right corner of the web page. Choose Account, and about midway down the page youll see Download your personal information. Click that to begin the process. (You can also just go to www.netflix.com/account/getmyinfo once youre logged in on the Web.)

As is often the case with personal-data downloads that include a lot of information, it takes several days for Netflix to compile it. When its ready, youll receive an email with a link that lets you access the download. It will come as a ZIP file.

The file unzips to a folder containing many subfolders and files. Depending on how you use Netflix, some of these files will be empty, containing only the phrase We found no information for this table. Most that have content are CSV files, which is a rudimentary form of spreadsheet. Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets will open these on Windows and Mac operating systems; Numbers and Preview will open it on a Mac.

(There is a way to see your viewing history without downloading anything. On the Account page, click your profiles avatar, then click Viewing Activity. Theres less information here, and you cant sort it in reverse-chronological order as you can with the spreadsheet version. Theres also a link there for quickly downloading this limited version of your activity data.)

Unless you live in one of the handful of countries in which Netflix has started cracking down on password sharing, youll see a text file called ExtraMembers.txt that contains the aforementioned no information line. In the countries where Netflix has implemented restrictions  such as Canada, Spain, Portugal and a few others  customers who have shared their credentials with people outside their physical household are invited to pay extra to keep them on the account. That empty ExtraMembers file then becomes a CSV file with information about those paid-sharing users, if any.

Some things to know about the information Netflix has on you:

 The full Viewing Activity file shows the streaming history for all those using your account in their respective profiles (Netflix allows up to five per account), so assume there are no secrets. In fact, the more limited Viewing Activity page on the website for each profile is available to anyone with the accounts credentials. This should give you pause if you are sharing your password, because anyone with your login can see what you watch  and vice versa.

 A Devices file lets you see the hardware thats been used to watch TV and movies with your account, including computers, Web browsers, smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and streaming boxes. Older entries are dated and arent detailed, but newer listings show you the model of the smartphone or streaming box you used. Mine go back as far as the original Apple iPad in 2010, and a Boxee Box streaming device from D-Link I reviewed in 2011.

 Perhaps the creepiest file in the batch is one called Clickstream, which is a record of actions taken by users on your account. You can see when someone looked at episode titles, read the description of a movie, clicked playback, or entered through the profile-selection screen. My copy of this file only goes back through last year, even though Ive been using Netflix for much longer than this.

I found all this data fascinating, but you may find it disconcerting. Many people have let their Netflix credentials spread far and wide  such as former roommates who passed it on to others, or former romantic partners who gave it to their new partners, and so on. Downloading your accounts data may open your eyes to the downside of sharing passwords, and inspire you take action before Netflix brings down the hammer.
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Vance Howard says Cafe Texan should still be considered the state's oldest coffee shop.

"Were claiming it because COVID shut down everybody," he said. "If someone disagrees with me, theyre itching for a fight."

Cafe Texan was born in 1936 along Sam Houston Avenue, just a hop and skip away from the Waller County Courthouse and the infamous "Walls Unit" state prison in Huntsville. It has played host to a variety of patrons, both notables and nobodies, looking for a hot coffee and a chicken fried steak.

Until it didn't. Cafe Texan closed in late July 2020 during the pandemic.

"It was kind of unfortunate: The cafe was staying open and the former owner was still paying employees, but he found out that he could save some money by shutting down some of his services," said Michelle Lyons, a local author who is working on a coffee-table book about Cafe Texan. "When it came time to reopen, he found out he would have to reapply for permits. Bringing up some of the services to current code would have been more money, so he just opted for closing."

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When new owner Howard  the CEO of an investment firm  walked in, it was like entering a time warp. The restaurant was essentially unplugged, dirty dishes and all.

"Im a longtime resident. I started going (to Cafe Texan) 20 to 25 years ago when I was in my 30s," Howard said. "It was a central meeting place, and a lot of business owners would go there before going to work. A lot of them have passed on now, but they were terrific individuals."

The following two-and-a-half-year renovation saw the space gutted to its studs. In its place is what appears to be a small cafe and bistro. Along the wall, portraits showed various Huntsville landmarks through the years, and a projector casts an old silent film near the kitchen. A giant map of Texas from the 1930s hangs on the opposite wall.

But perhaps the real magic is what's on the other side of the wall. The cafe has been split in two, with a restaurant on one side and a full-fledged museum on the other.

"When I first got involved, I thought it was going to be a museum of Cafe Texan," Lyons said. "It's a unique museum full of artifacts from all over the world  pieces that are a thousand years old from the Ming dynasty all the way to letters from Abraham Lincoln."

Howard insists it is perhaps the best museum for its size. The collection, worth millions, he said, is an eclectic variety of swords, guns, helmets, letters and other curios. One display case features armaments from Japan's Edo period, and another holds a piece of Napoleon Bonaparte's hair and his personal pistols.

"France wasn't eager to send those over," he said.

The artifacts have been authenticated by third-party sellers, such as Sotheby's. Others were purchased from individual families or other collectors looking for some extra cash, or as Howard puts it, the three Ds: debt, divorce and/or death.

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However, one display in the collection hits much closer to home. The "Lone Survivor" exhibit honors two Sam Houston State University alumni and Navy SEALs: Marcus Luttrell and U.S. Rep. Morgan Luttrell. The former was the sole survivor of ill-fated Operation Red Wings, which resulted in the deaths of 19 special forces members during the Iraq War.

"We have his actual pants, uniform and coat on that horrific day," Howard said. "It came complete with the bullet holes and everything else."

The aim of the museum is to promote more foot traffic to Cafe Texan, which is now a nonprofit restaurant. Howard says much of the money generated will be given to various charities, scholarships and boosting staff salaries.

The restaurant is currently under a soft opening as employees get used to the new schedule and operating procedures. The official opening is May 9.

"Let's see if we can give it another 100 years," Howard said.
In March 2020, Laura and Greg Davis were disappointed that they couldn't meet their new grandchild, born to their eldest daughter in Denver. Flying wasn't really an option as the world struggled to cope with a new strain of virus with a funny name.

Instead, daughter Brianna Cook, her husband and their three children  their youngest was born in the pandemic and recently celebrated a third birthday  decided to make their way to Houston and stay with their parents for eight weeks. After they arrived, sister Chelsi Shoup  who lives in Houston  decided that she and her husband and their kids would come, too, because they also wanted to meet the new baby.

Not wanting to miss out on the family fun, their oldest, son Austin Davis, brought his two children since they were on spring break and could extend it a second week.

Later, when Brianna and her family decided to move back to Houston, they lived with the Davises for nearly a year and a half while they waited out a hot real estate market and searched for a house.

All of their children are grown, but the Davises reveled in their ability to bring their entire family, three generations, back home to weather the early days of the pandemic and demonstrate the strength of their family bond. There were 13 of them under one roof, and their 14th family member is on the way now.

When Laura Davis agreed to move into the 10,000-square-foot Memorial home, it was slightly under duress. The couple already had a 6,000-square-foot home not far away, and she imagined that if they ever moved it would be into a smaller house  not a larger one. But this was a spec home that Greg had invested in and, for whatever reason, it was sitting on the market unsold.

Brianna and Chelsi convinced Laura to agree to sell their existing home  which they'd lived in nearly three decades  and it was gone in a day.

Initially, Laura wasn't excited about the move since, size-wise, it was going the wrong direction. But when COVID hit and she realized that this house could comfortably house her children and grandchildren, too, it felt like a gift.

Their old home was darker inside and their furniture was more rustic. Chelsi encouraged her mother to hire two friends who in recent years had launched their own design firm, Kiley Jackson and Aileen Warren of Jackson Warren Interiors.

It would take a lot of shopping and the ability to understand the scale of this large home to fill its many rooms, including seven bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and three powder bathrooms. Of course the Davises  known as Lolly and Pop to the grandkids  wanted one of the bedrooms to be a bunk room, so the little kids have a special place to sleep or even nap.

With limestone floors and creamy white walls, this home begged for a lighter color palette and more sophisticated styles. And because the home was brand new, they didn't have to change much, except for some lighting to suit their personal taste, along with counters in the kitchen  the kind of things that help customize a spec home.

Jackson and Warren started the process by taking Laura to Matt Camron Rugs to choose the rugs for each room. Designers start the process for a room or home with different things; for Jackson and Warren it's rugs  the foundation of a room.

"We always start with the rug when we can because its easier to pull fabric off of a rug than the other way around," Warren said. "The rug in the living room is from Matt Camron, a reproduction Oushak. It had pretty pastels, and Laura wanted to keep the room light and bright and airy, so thats what we did with the fabric, kept it neutral but interesting with a pattern on the wing chairs and sheer draperies on the patio doors to give the wall some interest."

The home needed to be comfortable, too, since the Davises get together a lot, and overnight sleepovers aren't unheard of, even though two of their daughters live here. The family has a Christmas tradition where all of Austin's, Brianna's and Chelsi's children gather at the top of the stairs for Christmas morning photos, then they let them loose to open gifts in the living room  a wrapping-paper-and-ribbon free for all.

The three young parents did this when they were children, too, gathering in a different family home in Kansas with their cousins. Both Laura, 63, and Greg, 65, are Kansas natives who met as college students at Kansas State University. Greg is now retired from a career working as a trader and later a broker in the oil and gas industry. They also lived in London, England, and Greenwich, Conn., before returning to Houston for good in 1991.

The new home had space for a formal dining room, but Laura didn't want anything too formal. Jackson and Warren turned that room into a TV room by adding sliding doors, so it can be closed off, and adding built-in cabinets to the wall where a TV was installed. The room got some new furniture  a sofa, side tables and a leather-topped ottoman  while chairs from their old house were updated with new fabric.

Jackson and Warren took and old-new, mix-and-match approach to the room, using two different side tables, one an antique and the other a Rose Tarlow table that looks like it could be. They combined mismatched lamps, one a curvy, new table lamp and the other a metal, antique floor lamp.

In the kitchen, Segreto was brought in to put a glaze on the cabinets and to faux paint the range hood to look like zinc with brass trim. While one of the two islands has a wood top with a walnut stain, the island closest to the range  with a sink and food preparation space  has new Perla Venata quartzite that was added to the perimeter counters and backsplash, replacing spotty brown granite that the Davises didn't like.

When their children visit, it's not unusual for several people to be in the kitchen doing prep work, and several cooks can fit in this kitchen.

The substantial living room got an antique chandelier, two new couches and was big enough to handle four armchairs. Two are new club chairs from Lam Bespoke and two are reupholstered highback chairs that came from their old home.

On one end, a pair of antique consoles and antique mirrors flank the fireplace.

Between the living room and kitchen is a massive room with no easily identifiable function. What was supposed to be a dining room was elsewhere, and no one would put a living room and family room back to back.

So the Davises and Jackson and Warren devised a plan to make this a dual purpose dining room. Against the back wall a soft green velvet banquette resides behind a long trestle-style table with upholstered chairs on the ends and the other side of the table. But this room has plenty of floor space, so they also created a spot with four cozy club chairs and ottoman.

In the morning, it could be a place to enjoy a cup of coffee. In the evening, it's perfect for a glass of wine or a cocktail.

"I love that everything is so soft," Laura said of these main living areas. "I look at these chairs and those cabinets and they are so soothing. I did not want a formal house. I wanted a livable house. It all just goes together, the whole house."

The home has two powder bathrooms downstairs, and Jackson and Warren helped the Davises make them very special, going antique and old school in one, with wallpaper in a tone-on-tone pattern that evokes centuries-old Fortuny patterns, and bright and lively in the other, with a green and orange chinoiserie pattern.

"We treat powder bathrooms like jewel boxes. Its a small space that can pack a punch. You can have some fun and take a risk, and we dont have a problem getting clients on board with that concept," Warren said. "Wallpaper is also an easy way to give a spec home personality."

Greg doesn't use his home office much, but it was designed with heavy wood paneling, and everyone decided to embrace the warmth of the wood rather than paint it.

"Home offices are becoming more important since COVID. Even though this home was finished pre-COVID, it would still function the same for someone who works from home," Warren said. "You need adequate space for screens and lots of shelving. For the Davises, the shelving houses their antique book collection and a collection of blue and white china. Shelves are a great place to group collections of things and to store your essentials."
Santiago and Ricardo Jr. Bojorquez-Jaramillo approached the all-abilities inclusive playground in Houston on a sunny day in March, their parents following closely behind them.

Walkers support each of the 4-year-old boys' steps. They both have cerebral palsy, a congenital disorder that limits movement, balance and posture. Ricardo Jr. gripped his fathers hands as they made their way to a slide. His father stashed the walker nearby and rushed back to help his son up the steps.

When they zoomed to the bottom, Ricardo Jr. only had one thing to say to his father: Lets do it again. Children ran past him as they began the slow climb again. Ricardo Jr., however, kept his eyes on the steps in front of him and squeezed his fathers hands tightly.

Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer

Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer Left: Nathalia Jaramillo and Ricardo Bojorquez hold their 4-year old sons Santiago and Ricardo Jr. Bojorquez-Jaramillo for a 360 video as part of an event for children with disabilities at an all abilities inclusive playground on Monday March 27, 2023 in Houston. R:Ricardo Bojorquez helps his 4-year old son Ricardo, who has a kind of cerebral palsy that restricts mobility in his legs, get to the slide Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer Left: Nathalia Jaramillo and Ricardo Bojorquez hold their 4-year old sons Santiago and Ricardo Jr. Bojorquez-Jaramillo for a 360 video as part of an event for children with disabilities at an all abilities inclusive playground on Monday March 27, 2023 in Houston. R:Ricardo Bojorquez helps his 4-year old son Ricardo, who has a kind of cerebral palsy that restricts mobility in his legs, get to the slide Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer

The Bojorquez-Jaramillo family came to Houston from their Dallas home for an innovative surgery called selective dorsal rhizotomy. The operation involves cutting a selection of sensory nerve fibers that connect muscles to the spinal cord and can promote independent walking for children with cerebral palsy. The procedure is only offered by a couple of surgeons in the region.

Parents Ricardo and Nathalia Bojorquez-Jaramillo had long searched for a permanent treatment option for their sons.

They were warned about the high risk of cerebral palsy after premature births and with multiple babies. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cerebral palsy is the most common motor disability in childhood, and globally, prevalence estimates range from 1 to nearly 4 per 1,000 births.



Their triplets  Ricardo Jr., Santiago and Elena  were monitored from the moment they were born. For example, Ricardo Jr. would try to crawl but was not able. Instead, he would push with his hands and shoulders in a move akin to an army crawl. His legs were stiff and straight. By 9 months, Santiago and Ricardo Jr. had a conclusive cerebral palsy diagnosis. Elena proved to be unaffected. The news felt like a shock, Nathalia explained.

When you hear those words, you imagine the worst, she said in her native Spanish.

Nathalia and Ricardo also learned that the symptoms of cerebral palsy varied extremely. They would have to wait until their sons were 2 years old to learn how severe the cases would be.

Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer

Finding a solution

After the diagnosis, Ricardo and Nathalia said they did not get much information from their doctor about practical and therapeutic ways to treat the disorder. We looked for an orthopedist, a neurologist, a neurosurgeon, and each one operated on their own, so we felt like we didnt have a team, Ricardo said. There was no coordination, and we didnt know who or what the best option was.

They then took to social media and began searching through hashtags in hopes of finding answers.

The parents you find on social media blogs are the ones who openly tell you about their experiences, Nathalia said. And that gives me an idea of how far I can go.

Blogs offered tips about the best ankle braces and walkers, as well as specialists offering various types of solutions. Through the support group online, they eventually connected to Dr. Janice Brunstrom-Hernandez, a pediatric neurologist who has cerebral palsy. She helped us coordinate and improve their treatment journey, Ricardo said.

Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer

Brunstrom-Hernandez directed the family to Dr. Manish Shah in Houston, who serves as director of UTHealth Houstons Texas Comprehensive Spasticity Center and is a professor at McGovern Medical School. Shah is also the director of Pediatric Spasticity and Movement Disorder Surgery at Childrens Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Brunstrom-Hernandez served on the faculty of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where Shah trained under world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Tae Sung Park. Park is known for his pioneering work on selective dorsal rhizotomy.

He refined an existing operation, making it safer and less invasive. The original surgery technique required a 15-centimeter incision through five to six vertebral levels. Parks operation uses instead a one-inch incision around the first bone of the spine.

Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer

Shah came to Houston in 2014 to become the first doctor in the region to start performing selective dorsal rhizotomy. Hes also the only one who follows Parks specifications. He launched the Texas Comprehensive Spasticity Center, which continues to provide the highest number of dorsal rhizotomy surgeries in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Shah has performed about 200 such procedures since 2014.

Shah said that patients are better even before they leave the operating table.

Immediately after surgery, their legs are looser, he said. You can see the difference right away. Its one of the most rewarding procedures to perform.

Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer

Ideal candidates for an innovative surgery

Typically patients undergo the operation at age 3 or 4. The sooner we find out that children arent meeting their motor milestones, the better they will do, Shah said.

Candidates for the surgery cannot exhibit dystonia or spasms. Having previous orthopedic surgery can also be a barrier to the procedure. The Bojorquez-Jaramillo brothers were ideal candidates and the right age.

Patients with cerebral palsy can be categorized into five different levels using the Gross Motor Function Classification System, Shah said. For instance, Level 1 individuals can walk and run but have trouble with balance and coordination. Ricardo Jr. is a Level 3, meaning he needs to use a handheld mobility device to walk inside. Santiago is more on the cusp of a Level 4, which would make him more dependent on a wheelchair.

Cerebral palsy symptoms can worsen over time due to the loss of muscle control, Shah said. Theres no relaxation, he said. This results in hyperactive stretch reflexes, or spasticity, which adversely affects the joints and tendons as well, which can cause premature aging.

If you dont do anything, you end up being far more debilitated than you should be, Shah said. Thats where selective dorsal rhizotomy can radically alter the course of the disorder.

He explained that there are two groups of nerve roots in the spinal canal  the ventral spinal roots that send information to the muscles and the dorsal spinal roots that transmit sensation back from the muscles to the spinal cord.

During the selective dorsal rhizotomy operation, the neurosurgeon divides the roots and checks them electronically to examine their responses.

Shah tests the nerve roots and severs the most spastic ones. We cut three-fourths of them after testing, he said. Were able to preserve the ones needed for sensation and focus on eliminating the hyperactive stretch reflex, which is the root of the problem.

The normal roots are left intact, allowing signals to still be sent to the muscle but reducing the messages muscles send back. A better balance results for the patient.

Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer

Day of the operation

The operations were planned back-to-back for Ricardo and Santiago on March 27 at Childrens Memorial Hermann.

Ricardo Jr. went first at 5:30 a.m. Nathalia waited with him in a small hospital room, as nurses guided them through the next steps. When Ricardo started to become impatient, she reminded him why they were there.

I explained to Ricardo that we are coming to a hospital to see a doctor who is going to help him walk and be able to run with his sister, Nathalia recalled. You must speak to them with the truth and not disguise anything.

Nathalia headed with Ricardo Jr. into the operating room. He was connected to machines and monitors to keep track of his vital organs. As the anesthesia started, he began to cry. Nathalia was quickly walked out of the surgical room by a nurse and embraced outside of the operation room.

Once Shah arrived, the overhead lights flipped off, except those pointed like spotlights at a small incision in Ricardo Jr.s back just above the spine. Shah lowered his microscope and sifted through hundreds of tiny string-like nerves for the ones creating the tension in Ricardo Jr.s legs. The medical team gazed at the screens showing Shah cutting those nerves.

The procedure lasted about two and a half hours. Then, the preparations immediately reset for Santiago, who arrived at 8 a.m. to prep for surgery. Ricardo held his son in his arms before he was rolled into the operating room.

Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer

An immediate, dramatic improvement

The day after surgery, both brothers immediately began physical therapy designed to train their minds to adapt to the newly obtained mobility in their legs and feet. When Nathalia and Ricardo were shown the flexibility in their sons ankles, they both stared wide-eyed, shocked at how quickly and dramatic the change was  literally overnight.

By the end of that first physical therapy session, they sat on their knees, holding up their own body weight, for short periods of time. After three days in the hospital, Shah said the boys had met mobility milestones and were ready to be discharged.

Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer

Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer L: 4-year old, Ricardo Jr. Bojorquez-Jaramillo is held up by a physical therapist during a physical therapy session aimed at training him to utilize the newfound mobility in his legs due to a selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery he received the day before at Memorial Hermann Hospital Childrens Hospital on Monday March 27, 2023 in Houston. R: 4-year old twins, Santiago and Ricardo Jr. Bojorquez-Jaramillo draw with Pilot, a hospital dog as part of their recovery program. Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer

The boys will continue in-patient therapy at the Childrens Medical Research Institute at UT Southwestern in Dallas. They will work on core strength, repatterning their gait and learning to walk without spasticity. The recovery time varies for each child and could last from two weeks to six weeks, Shah said.

Shah explained that while there is no guarantee that the two will no longer need a cane or walker for assistance, the surgery will give them more mobility. Well see what happens, he said. The kids have an amazing spirit, as do their parents. They both are going to do great. Theyre going to be very mobile, Im sure of it.

Having the procedure at such a young age gives the parents hope.

The skys the limit, Ricardo said. We want them to have the fullest life they can. Enjoy, be happy. This will give them a much better quality of life.
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The countdown is on for the final days of campaigning for the school board races in Humble ISD and Position 6 candidates shared their reasons for running and their goals for the district.

Here are their responses at the Humble Area Retired Teachers Association candidate forum held on April 18 at Humble High School.

INSIDER NEWSLETTER: Stay updated on important stories and news to know around Kingwood, Humble and Atascocita

Marques A. Holmes (incumbent)

Incumbent Marques A. Holmes has worked in the technology field for most of his career and currently works at a digital infrastructure company, Equinix, according to his campaign website.

Teachers are at the heart of why Im doing this campaign, he said. Teachers really matter to me.

POSITION 2: Meet the Humble ISD board candidates

He recalled examples of educators who positively affected his life, including a teacher at Albuquerque High School who encouraged him to attend the University of New Mexico.

Following a two-year stint at UNM, he transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and graduated with an electrical engineering degree.

Holmes said his campaign is based on three things: Keep it about the students, the teachers, and keep it about the community.

Teachers need to feel safe. Teachers can't teach unless they feel safe. Parents don't feel safe if their students, their children, their lineage, their heritage, is not feeling safe, he told the crowd.

His top priority is security, which he said is the top agenda item on the superintendents evaluation.

The number one budget item for being on the board is security. We're going to continue to advance that agenda. We're one of the first school districts in the country that do certain things and we're going to continue that, he said.

Audra Deaver

Audra Deaver is a small business co-owner and graduate of the University of Houston Clear Lake where she received a Bachelor of Science degree, according to her campaign website.

Deaver is a parent, married for 26 years with three children that have gone through the district. She has spent 18 years in the district. She has two 2017 graduates and one current graduate now.

Within that six-to-seven-year timespan, I have seen declines in the district, she said.

She focused on two main areas: academic rigor and declines in test scores.

Deaver said she was concerned about what she described as Marxist ideology being incorporated into curriculum.

I have a problem with that. We need to focus on perseverance rather than victimization. That victim mentality is no good for anyone's mental health, she said.

Deaver listed what she felt were urgent issues in the district.

The first one has everything to do with education in the classroom, we need to focus on the basics. Teachers need support inside those classrooms, she said.

She also said a solution needed to be found on why teachers may be leaving the district.

We also need to figure out how to bring back classroom discipline inside those classrooms so students can learn all the time inside the classroom, and teachers need to feel supported, whether that means support in the classroom or with safety, she said.

Holly L. Ham

Holly is a corporate executive with 29 years of experience across multiple industries, multiple technologies and cultures. She was a presidential appointee by President Donald J. Trump.

I served his entire four years in education, commerce, Housing and Urban Development, and I was the executive director for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, she said.

Her family immigrated to America when she was seven years old.

I'm Chinese and I was born in Vietnam. When we came to America, we settled in Pasadena, Texas, south of here, she said.

She attended public schools and received her bachelor's and master's in business administration, both from the University of Houston. Her family move to Humble in 2021.

Ham served on the 2022 bond committee and graduated from the districts Community Leadership Academy in the spring of 2022.

We selected Humble ISD. This is why my family is here. However, we have challenges, she said.

Ham said shes running to bring her nearly three decades of business and public service leadership to address some of the districts most complex issues.

Those include teacher retention, curriculum rigor, and how do we address and ensure that our students are ready for the real-world post-graduation, she said.

She also believes the board and administration need to provide more transparency and accountability.

Early voting ended on Tuesday. Election Day is Saturday, May 6. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. For the most up-to-date information regarding voting locations, visit harrisvotes.com/Vote-Centers.
After shuttering its doors due to bankruptcy six years ago, Dairy Queen is making a comeback to Conroe with a new location.

According to information from the city of Conroe, the iconic small-town restaurant will open its new location this summer at 1980 North Loop 336 West, next to Montgomery Park Dental.

The new building, which is under construction, will span 3,400 square feet.

On YourConroeNews.com: Americas Country Store site in Conroe to become roofing company headquarters

I cannot tell you how many citizens are excited about Dairy Queen coming back to Conroe," said Nancy Mikeska, assistant city administrator and director of community development for the city of Conroe. "Who doesnt love a Blizzard? With summer coming, it is the perfect timing."

Dairy Queen was founded in 1940 in Joliet, Illinois. Today the company is headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota and has about 6,800 locations worldwide.

The former Dairy Queen on Frazier Street closed in 2017 after franchise owner Vasari filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October of that same year. The bankruptcy resulted in the closing of 24 locations in Texas, two in New Mexico and three in Oklahoma.

The company, which owned dozens of Dairy Queen locations, listed a category of debt between $10 million and $50 million. Assets were listed as between $10 million and $50 million.

The reasons why the locations failed ranged from Hurricane Harvey damage in 2017 to a slowing oil industry in the cities where the locations once thrived, according to a previous Houston Chronicle article.
A Delta Air Lines flight in Houston was delayed Wednesday afternoon after the airplane was swarmed by some unticketed passengers.

Twitter user Anjali Enjeti documented her delayed trip from Bush Intercontinental Airport to Atlanta, which hit unexpected turbulence when thousands of bees covered the airplane wing, preventing travelers from boarding the plane.

According to Enjeti, the captain reportedly announced multiple hurdles stood in the way of clearing the bee-sieged wing: a bee keeper was not allowed to touch the airplane, pest control was not allowed to spray the airplane and the airport was not able to spray the bees with water.

Enjeti said shortly after 2:30 p.m., Delta decided to move the plane so another flight could use the gate. The bees reportedly departed once the plane's engine was turned on.

In a statement Wednesday night, Delta said the flight was delayed nearly three hours while the "friendly" bees were removed. The bees were removed by pushing the plane back, which caused the insects to fly away. The 92 passengers were then allowed onto the flight, which reached Atlanta with no other problems.

Last year, millions of honeybees died on a Delta Air Lines flight when a plane traveling from California to Alaska was diverted to Atlanta, where bees were left in crates for hours while the plane waited in the heat. In that incident, the bees were, in fact, ticketed passengers. Alaska beekeepers were expecting to receive a $48,000 shipment of bees.

jen.rice@houstonchronicle.com
A four-day manhunt for the suspected shooter who killed five people in San Jacinto County ended Tuesday evening under a pile of laundry in a city called Cut and Shoot.

MORE ON THE MASS SHOOTING: Suspected Texas mass shooter arrested after days-long manhunt, officials say

The city has around 1,139 residents.

The city includes about 2.7 total miles.

Mayor: Nyla Akin Dalhaus, term ends in 2025

City of Cut and Shoot

Where is Cut and Shoot?

Cut and Shoot is located six miles east of Conroe and 40 miles north of Houston in eastern Montgomery County.

How did Cut and Shoot get its name?

Cut and Shoot got its unusual name during a church dispute in 1912, when a boy reportedly said "I'm going to cut around the corner and shoot through the bushes in a minute," according to the Texas State Historical Association. The origin story posted on the city's website concluded no cutting or shooting actually took place during the dispute. Cut and Shoot was incorporated as a town in 1969.

How far is it from where the Cleveland mass shooting happened?

It is about 17 miles west of Cleveland, where the shooting occurred.

Ken Ellis / Houston Chronicle

How far is it by car? Foot?

It is a 25-minute drive from Cleveland or a roughly seven-hour walk.

MORE ON THE ARRESTS: 2 more arrests in Cleveland mass shooting, including suspect's wife who police say helped him hide

In what part of town was Oropeza found?

The suspected shooter, Francisco Oropeza, was found at his sister's home, hiding under a pile of laundry in a closet. Law enforcement arrested Oropeza after earlier having recovered the firearm. Oropeza's wife also was arrested and accused of helping to arrange transportation to the residence where he was found, along with another individual who was arrested on suspicion of marijuana possession and who had not yet been charged in connection with the shooting.

Oropeza faces five murder charges in connection with Fridays shooting on a quiet street in a rural part of Texas near Cleveland, officials said. He had been transferred to a detention facility in the San Jacinto County seat of Coldsprings.

jen.rice@houstonchronicle.com
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The man accused of killing five people in a rural Texas home Friday night spent four days evading law enforcement before police captured him at a relatives house Tuesday night, concluding a manhunt that spawned a growing number of arrests Wednesday of those accused of aiding the fugitive.

Officials found Francisco Oropeza under a pile of laundry in a closet in a home in Cut and Shoot, a small town 45 miles north of Houston. Police say Oropeza, 38, stormed into his neighbors house Friday evening and fatally shot five people with an AR-15 rifle. The shooting began after one of the neighbors asked Oropeza to stop shooting his gun so close to his home because his 6-week-old baby was trying to sleep, said survivor Ramiro Guzman. Guzman hid under a blanket in a closet with his wife and 6-month-old child and survived the shooting that killed three mothers, a teenager and a 9-year-old child.

Oropezas wife, Divimara Lamar Nava, 52, was charged Wednesday with hindering the efforts to find him. (Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson said the court document referred to Lamar Nava as Oropezas wife, but it wasnt immediately clear if they were married or common-law spouses.) Police say she was at the home where her husband was arrested. Police had previously said she was cooperating with the search effort.

Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson said several other arrests had been made, which suggests a wider network of friends or family might have been helping Oropeza remain on the run.

REMEMBERING: Five victims killed in Friday shooting

Oropeza, who is charged with murder, does not have a set date for his initial court appearance. He is being held at the San Jacinto County jail. (Some official documents also spell his name Oropesa.) The case will remain in state court so prosecutors can seek the death penalty, according to a federal law enforcement official.

Melissa Phillip/Staff Photographer

The district attorneys office has 90 days in which to file additional charges against Oropeza, said District Attorney Todd Dillon. Authorities arrested Domingo Castilla, a friend of Oropeza, in the neighborhood where the victims were shot, Dillon said. Castilla is charged with marijuana possession, but authorities could add other charges, he said.

BACKLASH: Abbott's tweet sparks furor

The five people killed Friday were Diana Velasquez Alvarado, 21, Sonia Argentina Guzman Taibot, 25; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Daniel Enrique Lazo Guzman, 9. They were members of four families, connected by blood, marriage and friendship, who had gathered at the house on Walter Drive in Cleveland Friday evening.

Oropezas capture brought relief to the small Cleveland community in San Jacinto County. But it didnt lessen their grief.

Of course Im happy, but not much, survivor Jeffri Rivera, 23, whose girlfriend, Velasquez Alvarado, was among those killed. This isnt going to bring my woman back.

Melissa Phillip/Staff Photographer

Four days on the loose

Four families had gathered Friday night at a house on a quiet, pockmarked street in the small Trails End neighborhood in Cleveland. By the end of the night, five of them would be shot to death in what San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers described as execution style.

The details of what happened between the shooting Friday and Oropezas capture Tuesday are still fuzzy. Although law enforcement told the public that Lamar Nava, Oropezas wife, was cooperating with them, instead, the district attorney said Lamar Nava helped Oropeza flee to the house where he was eventually captured. Its unclear whether she drove him or he walked or had other transportation. The house where Oropeza was captured is about 13 partly rural, wooded miles from the site of the massacre.

ARRESTS: Two more arrested after Cleveland mass shooting

Authorities believe Oropeza fled from the scene on foot. A neighbor, Adrian Browning, said Oropeza dumped some things in his yard as he ran from the scene of the shooting. As the search fanned out into the nearby woods and beyond, scent-tracking dogs lost his trail Saturday.

Lamar Nava told police Oropeza arrived at the house where he was arrested at about 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, according to testimony Wednesday in a Montgomery County hearing for Lamar Nava. She went to get him food and then delivered a message from Oropeza to his cousin, who lives in Conroe, asking the cousin to help him get to Mexico, according to testimony. The cousin, Lamar Nava said, declined to assist him.

Last June Lamar Nava had asked a judge for a restraining order against Oropeza, Dillon said. Deputies were unable to find him to serve the order, and ultimately she withdrew the complaint.

The FBI got a tip-off by phone at around 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday about his location. Oropeza was arrested sometime after 6 p.m.

I dont want us to forget

Yazmin Salinas, who lives a few houses down from where Oropeza was arrested, said she had panic attacks as the manhunt dragged on over the weekend and into Monday. She and her son, Emilio, stayed with her mother Monday just to be safe after her siblings experienced a lockdown at Caney Creek High School.

I was just crying (after his arrest), Salinas said. I dont know if it was joy that they got him or something. Just relief. I hugged my husband, everybody, my whole family.

Her godmother and neighbor, Mari Cruz Rosas, took video from the scene of Oropezas arrest. She was one of the first to move into the neighborhood nine years ago. She didnt know the people living in the house where Oropeza was hiding.

Brett Coomer/Staff photographer

A SMALL FAVOR: How one ask led to a deadly night

Everything has been really calm around here, Cruz Rosas said in Spanish. I never would have imagined that Id be this close to that person.

About 20 miles away, people in the Cleveland community are still processing their grief. Northside Elementary, where 9-year-old Daniel was a student, still has crisis counselors on hand, said principal Pete Armstrong. The school held a vigil Sunday night and is trying to be a place where students can both grieve and have normalcy.

The most important thing is we kept school, school, Armstrong said. Were going to keep them safe, get them fed, teach them and get them home.

Armstrong didnt know Daniel personally, but in the days since his death hes learned little details about the boy: how he was always smiling in pictures, how he was the number-one choice for goalie in any pickup soccer game.

Its important that we have that monument out there for our students, Armstrong said. I dont want us to forget Daniel. Thats what thats about.

He said he will water the flowers at Daniels memorial every day.
A Houston man pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in scheme involving him taking $39 million from medical companies amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in exchange for high end personal protection equipment he never provided.

Caleb Jordan McCreless, 32, of Richmond, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in relation to the scheme. He admitted to lying to medical companies that he and Luke McGinnis, 39, who is awaiting trial for his role in the scheme, had access to a high-end medical-grade nitrile gloves with the brand name "Uniglove," according to a U.S. Attorney's news release. The puncture-resistant gloves they were offering are the most commonly used for handling volatile or dangerous chemicals in laboratories and in medical environments, according to glove manufacturer Ventyv.

McCreless told the medical companies the gloves were produced in the United Kingdom and Malaysia, court records show. The duo were accused of trying to peddle the gloves at the start of the pandemic around March 2020 and continued until about March 2021.

Nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals were expected to use the gloves during the COVID-19 pandemic. One company victimized by the scheme lost over $13 million, a Justice Department news release said.

McGinnis is awaiting trial on charges he served as a logistics operator, delaying or stalling deliveries when companies voiced concerns about their gloves not arriving, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Around September 2020, McCreless lied to medical companies again by telling them "McCreless Enterprises" had a dedicated line of Hongray-equivalent gloves for sale, according to court documents. Actual Hongray gloves are produced by a company in China and are coveted by medical professionals because they can be used during complicated surgeries, including chemotherapy port implantation procedures.

By October 2020, McCreless had multiple buyers lined up and took their money as an initial deposit. Nearly all the buyers never received deliveries, except one, but that customer found that the quality of the gloves wasn't on par with Hongray as advertised by McCreless, documents show.

McCreless continued to sell low quality gloves and paid over $70,000 to pass off the inferior gloves to buyers who actually showed up to pick up the packages after multiple delays and excuses, according to court records.

At the time of his indictment on July 8, 2022, McCreless forfeit his $2 million home in Fort Bend County, based on the idea that house was purchased with money obtained through the scheme. As a part of the plea agreement, he will also have to pay more than $16 million to the medical companies he swindled, documents show.

McCreless faces to up to 20 years in federal prison at his sentencing on Aug. 17.
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The gunman could be anywhere.

Thats the official statement from the FBI four days after police say a man entered a household on a quiet unpaved street in rural Texas on Friday evening and massacred five people: three mothers, a teenager and a 9-year-old boy.

The assailant could be anywhere in the U.S. or outside the country, the federal agency said in a Tuesday afternoon tweet.

The manhunt continued Tuesday as officials searched across Texas and beyond the U.S.-Mexico border for the suspect, 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza. Police say Oropeza stormed into his neighbors house on Friday and started firing at members of the four families who had gathered that evening. Ramiro Guzman, who survived the massacre hiding under a blanket in a closet with his wife and 6-month-old, said beforehand his brother-in-law had asked Oropeza to stop shooting his AR-15 rife so close to their front yard because the noise disturbed his sister and brother-in-laws 6-week-old baby.

Remembering: Five killed in Cleveland shooting

The five people killed were Sonia Argentina Guzman Taibot, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Daniel Enrique Lazo Guzman, 9.

Being on the run for four days, I doubt very seriously hes in the area, said Gregory Fremin, a retired Houston Police Department captain and a professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. As the search expands beyond the vicinity of the neighborhood, Fremin said, investigators would be looking to track down Oropezas relatives and anyone who might be in regular contact with him. (Some official records list his last name as Oropesa.)

One small ask: How a simple request led to tragedy

In the days since the slaughter, family members demanded answers about what they say was a slow police response time. Jeffri Rivera, who survived the rampage, said he called 911 multiple times before the shooting started and told dispatchers the neighbor was acting threateningly. As the gunman fired inside the home, Rivera said he called 911 several more times.

I told them to hurry up because he was killing everyone, Rivera said. His girlfriend, Velazquez Alvarado, was among the dead. Police found her body protecting the children  including two of her own  who survived uninjured.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers has not responded to repeated requests for comment on response times, nor has the office produced 911 call logs or dispatch records.

Response times: Family members ask for answers

Experts said that the secluded nature of the neighborhood, the condition of the pockmarked road, lack of available officers and overlapping jurisdictional boundaries could have impacted law enforcements response time. On Tuesday morning, two Montgomery County Precinct 4 work trucks filled potholes on the bumpy road.

On Tuesday, three large banners with Oropezas face and reward information in English and Spanish hung at the entrance to the neighborhood, at an intersection by the home and another intersection farther up the street where the killing took place, Walter Drive (the FBI put up digital billboards across the Houston area and said theyd soon be up across the state). Balloons and stuffed animals from a vigil the night before lined the front lawn of the cream house; a vase of fresh flowers perched on the porch. Two young women dropped off a yellow bouquet.

The neighbors standing in front of the home said theyd pleaded for law enforcement to pay attention to their communitys needs.

Dale Tiller, who has lived in the neighborhood for 13 years and is the head of the Trails End neighborhood watch group, said the area is known as a place with little police oversight.

I could be in Galveston sipping a margarita before they get here, Tiller said. Its not because of guns or bad people, its because people know they can get away with it.
Five Houston men were sentenced to federal prison Tuesday for holding nearly 100 migrants in a home and forcing them to live in "deplorable conditions." Migrants are usually held in stash houses until smugglers can exact a fee from their relatives for their release.

The 97 migrants were found April 2021 in the two-story home in the 12200 block of Chessington. All the migrants were men and were clothed in just underwear, according to court records. Many of the migrants were starving and at least five tested positive for COVID-19.

Godofredo A. VAsquez/Staff photographer

This is very unnecessary and very cruel, Patricia Cantu, assistant chief of the Houston Police Department, said in April 2021. It is heartbreaking to see people treated that way. They are human beings, and regardless of citizenship, they deserve to  be treated respectfully.'' The migrants were living in "deplorable conditions," she added.

The smugglers charged May 1, 2021, are Marina Garcia-Diaz, 22, El Salvador; Henry Licona-Larios, 31, Copan, Honduras; Kevin Licona-Lopez, 25, Santa Barbara, Honduras; Marco Baca-Perez 30, Michoacan, Mexico; and Marcelo Garcia-Palacios, 21, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Licona-Larios admitted to orchestrating the smuggling conspiracy. He pleaded guilty May 24, 2022, and was sentenced on Tuesday to 41 months.

Garcia-Diaz received a 27-month sentence, while Garcia-Palacios, Licona-Lopez and Baca-Perez were ordered to serve 30 months. All five men could be deported after they finish their sentences.

Witnesses said Baca-Perez arrived to the stash house on Chessington with migrants. The stash house had doors with dead bolts, so the migrants couldn't escape. If the migrants made noise and didn't cooperate, Licona-Larios would hit and push them, according to court records. Licona-Lopez threatened the migrants with a firearm and told them get undressed and hand over their phones. Garcia-Palacios would tell the migrants to be quiet or he would make their families pay more, documents said.

Homeland Security Investigations began investigating the operation April 30, 2021, after a woman called authorities and said she paid five men $11,000 for her brother to be smuggled into the United States.

Godofredo A. Vasquez/Staff photographer

The smugglers demanded an additional $6,300 before they would release the woman's brother. They also threatened to harm him if the money was not paid, officials said.

"If the (migrants) did not live, it was because the family did not pay," a witness to the operation told investigators Licona-Lopez said. One of the men being held at the stash house was told that if the money wasn't paid then he would be put in "four pieces of wood," according to a Justice Department news release.

When Homeland Security investigators entered the home, they found money and a ledger containing names of migrants and human smuggling payment records, court records show. Houston police initially entered the home after detaining Licona-Lopez and Licona-Larios during a traffic stop.

The five smugglers will remain in custody pending a transfer to federal prison.

You cannot trust a human smuggler. Giving them money will put your life in danger, U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani said in a news release. These five people preyed on the desperation of foreign nationals hoping to get into the country. This sentence makes it clear  we will not allow the victimization of people for profit.
Gov. Greg Abbott's "parent empowerment tour" stopped Tuesday evening at a southeast Houston church, where the governor pushed his plan for school vouchers as a group of protesters demonstrated outside.

The roughly two dozen protesters dubbed Abbott's circuit of Texas schools and churches the "Takeover Tour," positioning the state takeover of HISD as part of a broader effort by Texas Republicans to weaken local, democratically elected government. Parents, teachers, students and advocates stood outside Reflections of Christ's Kingdom Church to denounce school vouchers, STAAR testing and charter schools ahead of Abbott's speech inside.

HISD EXODUS: HISD Police Chief Pedro Lopez among at least three senior staff departing ahead of state takeover

"The value of public education cannot be undermined. Public education has given me everything I've ever known, everything that I know now," said Amarian Porterie, a senior at Austin High School in the East End.

"Gov. Abbott cannot do this to us, he cannot defund us the way he is... he can't take away these rights that he's taken away," Porterie said.

Abbott, for his part, did not mention the state takeover during his remarks later Tuesday evening in the church auditorium, but did assert that school vouchers, in which public funds are used to subsidize tuition payments for private education, were a matter of parents' rights. He was joined in front of a diverse crowd of over 100 people by former boxer George Foreman and Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, among others.

The governor said that vouchers would allow parents, and especially those with low incomes, to remove students from public schools where they might be bullied or exposed to leftist agendas by allowing them to access up to $8,000 in public funds for enrollment in a private school or homeschool materials. The $8,000 would not be enough to cover tuition at most private schools.

Opponents of school vouchers say they weaken public schools by removing money from campuses that see a drop in attendance, while Abbott said that it was not an "either-or" situation.

"What you should be given is a choice to find a school that's right for your child, and that's why I am here," Abbott said.

Abbott's remarks were interrupted by a handful of protesters who made their way inside the auditorium, shouting "Abbott's got to go" and calling him a "traitor" before they were forcibly removed by security. The governor was also confronted as he posed for photos after the rally by family members of slain Santa Fe High School students, who demanded to know why he hadn't taken action on gun violence in schools nearly five years after 10 people were shot to death at the school.

Abbott accused the first group of protesters of being paid by lobbyists. His press office could not be reached for comment Tuesday night regarding the second confrontation.

Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer

Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer Protestors are removed by security while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott addresses attendees of the Parent Empowerment Night at Reflections of Christs Kingdom on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 in Houston. Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer Protestors are removed by security while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott addresses attendees of the Parent Empowerment Night at Reflections of Christs Kingdom on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 in Houston. Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer

EDITORIAL BOARD: Texas school vouchers will cost us. Hear that $1 billion sucking sound?

Ruth Kravetz, co-founder of Community Voices for Education, which was among the organizers of Tuesday's protest, said they "invite the governor to have a face-to-face meeting with the families he slandered" when he said they were "supported by lobbyists."

"We stand united against the governor's illegitimate attempts to dismantle public education and our democracy," Kravetz said.

Abbott's attempts to pass school vouchers came to a standstill last month after the Texas House nixed vouchers from their school budget while the Texas Senate passed its own voucher plan. He and other Texas Republicans have less than a month to convince about two dozen more state representatives to vote in favor of vouchers, though Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has suggested he could call a special session this summer to get vouchers passed if the House does not act by the time the legislative session ends at the end of May.

Abbott urged his supporters at R.O.C.K. Church to call their state representatives and pressure them to pass the "school choice" plan.

"If you do that, it may be you who is responsible for bringing school choice to the great state of Texas," Abbott said.
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Sharon Almaguer walked to her Honda Fit covered in sand-colored specs. The mystery material had fallen from the sky shortly after SpaceX launched the worlds most powerful rocket in Boca Chica, more than 6 miles from her Port Isabel home.

Almaguer worried about breathing in the material, not knowing if it was toxic, but she had a luncheon with other female executives that she didnt want to miss. So she got in the car and drove nearly 20 miles before turning on the air conditioner.

MORE: Elon Musk brings exploding rockets and real estate to South Texas. Not everyone is happy.

We are miles away, she said. Stuff should not be falling on our heads.

She later learned the specks on her car, walkway and outdoor furniture could have been tiny bits of the launch pad or sand from underneath it. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the pad was shattered April 20 when the Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft launched from the South Texas coast and over the Gulf of Mexico.

Chunks of concrete and sheets of stainless steel flew thousands of feet, some creating a six-story-high splash in the water. The rocket and spacecraft were supposed to separate, but they instead began tumbling together and exploded about four minutes after liftoff.

Two weeks later, a variety of people have become invested in the fallout.

Scientists are researching what fell from the sky and whether it was harmful to breathe. Theyre documenting how this flight test affected wildlife in nearby state parks and National Wildlife Refuge lands.

Federal regulators are investigating what went wrong and determining how SpaceX can prevent these specific issues in the future (though another explosion is not off the table). Environmental groups are suing the regulators for not requiring a more thorough review before giving SpaceX permission to launch.

Musk is working to ensure the flight termination system that caused the floundering spacecraft to explode doesnt have the roughly 40-second delay seen with the April 20 launch. He said this system took way too long to rupture the tanks.

And he pledged adjustments that would prevent the launch pad from shooting debris across South Texas.

We dont want to do that again, he said Saturday during a conversation on Twitter Spaces. We should not have a rock tornado with the next flight.

The volcano effect

Philip Metzger, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida, did not believe a sand-like material could travel 5 miles from Boca Chica. It should be too heavy.

But then he saw the pictures shared on Twitter. Sand covering a Tesla couldnt have come from the rockets explosion  that happened way out over the Gulf of Mexico  so it had to be from the launch pad.

It must have started with a tremendously high velocity to be able to go 5 miles, Metzger said, and that's the thing that we don't understand. How did this rocket exhaust get the sand up to such a high velocity?

Metzger is an expert in how rocket engines blow soil when spacecraft land on the moon or Mars. He uses this information to study how landing pads could be built on other celestial bodies.

Now, hes digging into a physics phenomenon here on Earth.

Three people from South Texas are shipping him material collected from vehicles and outdoor furniture after the SpaceX launch. Metzger plans to measure the shape and size of these particles and then conduct a chemical analysis.

Ultimately, he wants to know if the material is sand from beneath the launch pad, bits of concrete or some type of foam. It would make sense for foam to travel that far as its light enough to be carried by wind or a rain cloud. Metzger doesnt yet know how sand would travel that far, though he has theories.

His favorite theory compares the launch to a volcanic eruption. Volcanoes are powerful enough to send sand incredibly far, maybe 100 miles, Metzger said. The SpaceX launch might have created a similar effect.

He said its possible the rockets engines cracked the launch pad, and gas got trapped between the sand and concrete pad. Pressure built up until it erupted upward with more force than the rockets engines were pushing downward.

Its unsolved physics, he said. Nobody has ever fired such a large rocket into a material that exploded before.

The particulates have been described as a variety of colors and sizes, but this didnt surprise Metzger. He said different materials could be found at different locations because their density determined how far they traveled.

And understanding their size could provide information on whether the material was hazardous to breathe.

Metzger, who is in charge of safety for his lab, said sand-sized particles arent generally a respiratory hazard. They get stuck on the inside of a persons nose or airway and then get sneezed or coughed out of the body. He worries about dust measuring between 1 and 10 microns  basically 1/10 the width of a single human hair  because that can get trapped in the bottom of a persons lungs and cause cancer.

Its probably OK to breathe material that size on occasion. Metzger would be more worried if someone was exposed to large concentrations at the launch pad immediately after liftoff (before wind mixed the material into the atmosphere) or if a dense cloud of this small-particle dust was blown to a nearby community at ground level.

Mudflats showered with debris

SpaceX and local officials kept the area around the launch pad closed for two days, citing safety concerns.

That means the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service couldnt begin its assessment until 10 a.m. April 22. Its staff found chunks of concrete, stainless steel sheets and other objects thousands of feet from the launch pad. A plume cloud of pulverized concrete deposited material up to 6 miles northwest of the pad.

Debris was found on about 385 acres of land at the SpaceX facility and Boca Chica State Park. A fire ignited by the blastoff burned 3 acres of the state parks land.

The government agency said it did not find dead birds or wildlife on lands owned or managed by the refuge.

Justin LeClaire, an avian conservation biologist with the nonprofit Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, arrived at Boca Chica around 2 p.m. April 22. He found a northern bobwhite nest scorched by the 3-acre fire (the largest of three fires he documented).

That was the only wildlife he found directly killed by the launch, but it doesnt mean other animals werent killed. If birds had been killed in the launch, LeClaire said, coyotes, vultures or raccoons could have eaten them in two days.

I really wish we were able to get in that day, that afternoon, LeClaire said, meaning the afternoon SpaceX launched. It could have been a completely different story, or it could have been the same. We don't know what we don't know. And thats a big issue.

Boca Chica is a haven for birds. Algal mudflats, like those in the areas immediately north and west of the launch pad, provide invertebrates and mollusks for shorebirds to eat. Federally threatened piping plovers forage Boca Chica for nine months of the year. Roughly 300 of these birds  4 percent of the population  have been spotted in Boca Chica on flats near the launch pad and elsewhere.

After the SpaceX launch, LeClaire found debris in these mudflats. It takes decades to develop a productive algal layer, and he said the habitat has been partially destroyed by this and previous launches.

Other shorebird species build nests in Boca Chicas sand flats, like those south of the launch pad, and LeClaire found debris just a few feet from where snowy plovers had begun creating a nest. He also found a Wilsons plover nest and two snowy plovers nests where birds were scared off by the launch, but they later returned to continue incubating the eggs.

Nests are down overall. Last year, the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program found just one snowy plover nest and six Wilsons plover nests within a quarter-mile of the launch pad and state highway leading to the launch pad. In 2017, it had spotted 27 snowy plover nests and 12 Wilsons plover nests in that same area.

There's only so much habitat, LeClaire said, and they were at Boca Chica for a reason because it was really good breeding habitat.

Past FAA reviews criticized

Musk said SpaceX wasnt aware of any meaningful damage to the environment. And the debris was basically sand and rocks. He said there wasnt anything toxic.

SpaceX had been building a water-cooled steel plate to go under the rocket, but that wasnt ready in time for last months launch. The company wrongly thought the launch pad could survive one Super Heavy liftoff without the steel plate; itll be ready before the next launch.

This did not ease the concerns of environmentalists and the native people called Estok Gna. The Center for Biological Diversity, American Bird Conservancy, Surfrider Foundation, Save RGV and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas filed a lawsuit Monday in federal district court in Washington, D.C.

Theyre suing the Federal Aviation Administration for failing to fully analyze and mitigate the environmental harms caused by the Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft. Activists have long requested a more thorough environmental review before launching this behemoth.

The FAA, which issues commercial launch licenses, said it does not comment on ongoing litigation. But it did confirm that a mishap investigation began on the day the Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft exploded.

The agency has conducted similar investigations for four other SpaceX flight tests that exploded in South Texas. The FAA said these investigations help to determine the root cause of the anomaly and identify mandatory corrective actions to avoid a recurrence.

But Almaguer, who found the mystery debris on her car, does not think the FAA is doing its job. She said its not protecting the public. Almaguer and others have pointed out potential risks. Theyve told the FAA that its underestimating the noise, vibrations and environmental impacts of launching a rocket with 33 engines.

Last months launch, which ignited 30 engines at liftoff, was nowhere near a worst-case scenario. What if the rocket exploded at a lower altitude? Almaguer worries that people, not just property, could be hurt.

It's as if were an afterthought in all of this, she said. The regulators should not treat us as a sacrifice zone. We're worth more than that.
A man accused of punching a flight attendant on a plane scheduled to leave San Francisco for Houston was arrested and charged with battery.

On Sunday night, our team at San Francisco International Airport immediately contacted law enforcement after a disruptive customer assaulted one of our customer service employees during boarding, said officials at United Airlines in an emailed statement.

MORE ON LOCAL: Eleven injured in crash between Metro buses in west Houston

Naya Jimenez, who boarded the United Airlines flight Sunday night, reportedly asked 47-year-old Cody Benjamin Lovins of Montgomery and his wife seated beside him to move from the seat she was assigned, she told ABC13.

Lovins reportedly responded angrily and Jimenez took out her cellphone, recording the moment he punched a flight attendant multiple times.

MORE ON LOCAL: Cleveland shooting: Francisco Oropesa's wife arrested

After passengers and flight personnel tried to help restrain him, Jimenez said Lovins attempted to jump out of the plane after successfully opening an emergency exit door.

San Francisco police arrested Lovins, and he was cited then released for battery.

Lovins has also been banned from any future flights with United Airlines.

This customer's behavior was unacceptable, he has been banned from future United flights and we are working with local law enforcement in their investigation, the airline said in the statement. Were grateful to our team for their professionalism and for looking out for the safety of our customers and their fellow United employees.
Houstonians know the Texas heat is no joke with a long stint of above 90-degree days to come.

Temperatures are forecast to hike up above 90 degrees this weekend, the first of many hot days this season. And with the high humidity the city is known for, it's likely to feel even hotter. There are ways to prepare to make sure you're staying cool as temperatures increase.

When does summer start?

Summer doesn't start until June 21, but someone forgot to tell Texas that. Temperatures in Houston will exceed 90 degrees Friday and Saturday, but the heat index, which combines temperature and humidity, will exceed 100 degrees, the National Weather Service reported.

The average high temperatures in the 2022 summer months floated in the mid- to high-90s. In May, it rested just above 90.

Keeping yourself cool this summer

Stay indoors and avoid high-energy activities during midday heat, if possible. Instead, opt for early morning hours to work out and exercise.

If air conditioning is not working or available in your home, make sure to take frequent showers and seek out a public cooling center like a public library or recreation center. Any air conditioned facility will work to stay cool, including malls and movie theaters.

On days where the heat index reaches above 108 degrees for more than two-consecutive days, expect the city of Houston's Health Department to open up additional cooling centers during the hottest part of the day, 1-5 p.m. It will also provide free Metro rides to those centers.

The city's health department recommends wearing light-colored, loose fitting clothing during peak heat hours, as well as drinking plenty of water.

Outdoor workers should make sure to take breaks in the shade and wear a hat. Also, wear sunscreen to protect yourself from the sun's rays.

And don't forget about your dogs. If they're outside, make sure they have plenty of cool water and comfortable shade. Additionally, be careful with where they may step as pavement can get very hot and hurt their paws.

Brett Coomer/Staff photographer

Preparing your home for extreme heat

To make the most of your air conditioned home during the summer, prep your home to keep the cool air in and hot air out.

The Department of Homeland Security's Ready site recommends:

Covering windows with drapes and shades

Weather-stripping doors and windows

Using window reflectors specifically designed to reflect heat back outside

Adding insulation

Using a powered attic ventilator to regulate the the heat level of a building's attic

If costs are an issue, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program will help with cooling costs for low-income households.

Signs of heat related illnesses

Symptoms of heat exhaustion include faintness, dizziness, excessive sweating, cool or clammy skin, nausea or vomiting, muscle cramps and a rapid, weak pulse. People experiencing these symptoms need to lower their body temperature by getting to a cooler place, drinking water, taking a cool shower or bath and resting.

Signs of a heat stroke include confusion; a throbbing headache; lack of sweat; red, hot and dry skin; nausea or vomiting; loss of consciousness; and a rapid, strong pulse. These symptoms call for a trip to a hospital or calling 911.
A sunny day, when weather is least of your concerns, is the best time to start preparing for a hurricane.

As the years go by, climate disasters are becoming more frequent and intense. Hurricanes are potentially life-threatening, and taking precautions and knowing what to do when one arrives in or near the Houston region is the best way to ensure the safety of yourself and loved ones.

National Hurricane Preparedness Week began Sunday, about a month before hurricane season actually begins on June 1.

SIGN UP FOR BREAKING NEWS: Get realtime alerts on the biggest stories in Houston

How to prepare for hurricanes

During a hurricane, it's common to lose typical forms of communication, so it is important to come up with plans if you find yourself in a situation where you cannot easily text or call for help in an emergency.

Important numbers and emergency contacts should be written down or memorized. This list should include utilities and other potentially critical services.

Make a hurricane evacuation plan

You and those you live with will also need to make an evacuation plan. You need to decide where you will go and how to get there  it is advised to have multiple routes planned. Routes can be planned with reference to evacuation route maps.

Choose a meeting place for your loved ones and include an out-of-town spot in case you need to evacuate. The destination could be the home of a family member or friend who lives outside flood prone areas.

Get emergency storm alerts

Look into the emergency communication plans for your work and schools to know what coordination with them will look like in a disaster.

People should also have a method to receive emergency communication from their city.

For Houston residents AlertHouston is the system for the city to communicate timely information on current conditions, expected impacts and protective actions, according to Houstons Emergency Operations Center. The alerts are delivered through email, text message, voice call or app notifications. The app is available for download from the Apple or Android app store. When you get the app you can register an address for geo-targeted alerts.

GUIDE: Emergency contacts in the event of a hurricane

Find sources for weather information that are trustworthy and work for you. There is typically a lot of information available before a storm arrives, and this could help you plan better. The National Hurricane Center Forecast uses a variety of data to give people the most accurate forecasts possible.

Help with evacuating for a hurricane

Another way to prepare that may be more enjoyable than the other chore-like tasks, is getting to know your neighbors. There may be vulnerable people in your community who need help preparing for a disaster or who would need assistance evacuating in an emergency.

People in vulnerable communities can also register for the states STEAR program. It is free and was created to give emergency responders more information about their communities' needs in emergencies. The program can help people with disabilities, those who are medically fragile and those with limited mobility.

Stock up on hurricane supplies

Every longtime Houstonian has a list of must-have hurricane supplies. Items range from generators and battery-powered radios to dust masks and a manual can opener. Here's a list that's been updated over the years.

Houston readers also shared their best hurricane tips that they didn't learn about until they lived through a storm.

How to prepare your home for a hurricane

Before the next hurricane comes knocking at your door, trying to wreck your home, there are ways to prepare and minimize potential damage.

People are advised to trim trees and install storm shutters, accordion shutters, or impact glass. Any outside wall openings should also be sealed and anything that is loose or could be blown away on the outside of your house should be repaired. If you need to board up windows when a hurricane arrives, the proper materials like plywood, steel or aluminum panels should be purchased before it's too late.

Those who rent should work with their landlords to prepare their homes for a storm. Mobile homes are noted by NOAA to be especially vulnerable to a hurricanes impacts.

HURRICANE CHECKLIST: Items you need if a severe storm hits Houston

Checking in on insurance coverage is also essential to make sure you are financially ready to take on whatever damage a hurricane brings. Flood insurance is separate from home or renter's insurance and requires a 30 day waiting period, according to NOAA. If you end up needing to file an insurance claim you may need photos and serial numbers on hand. Basements are vulnerable to storm surge and flooding.

In your home, you should also make a hurricane preparedness kit with essentials that will help you weather the storm.

What to do in a hurricane

Hurricanes will not show up unannounced, if one arrives there will be watches and warnings communicated in advance.

The National Hurricane Center will warn those in threatened communities 48 hours before the hurricane hits. A hurricane watch will be issued if hurricane conditions are possible in the upcoming 48 hours. If this occurs, you should begin securing your home. As things progress, a hurricane warning will be issued signaling hurricane conditions are expected within the next 36 hours. If you are faced with a hurricane warning, this is the time to shelter in place or move to a safer location. If there is an evacuation order, it will likely start in coastal areas and be staggered.

HURRICANE HUNTER: NOAA provides peek at hurricane hunter aircraft ahead of upcoming season during Ellington visit

If a storm is forecasted to hit where you live residents are advised to get moving on additional preparation measures.

Short term storm preparation can include boarding up windows and securing loose items in your yard. Make sure your car has gas and fill up any tubs or sinks in your house with water for flushing toilets. If water is out, you can draw from the filled tub to aid in flushing. Keep your phone charged and stay alert for emergency communications from officials.

If you are evacuating, you should unplug any electronics, including refrigerators if there is a risk of flooding. If you are staying home, make sure you know the safest places.

You should have a bag ready in the case you need to leave with supplies you may need.

If you are sheltering in place during the storm, you should stay indoors away from any windows or glass fixtures. People should seek safety in a small interior room, according to the Harris County Flood Control District. If your home begins to flood while the electricity is still on, avoid standing water. In any instance when your home is flooded, wait for emergency officials to rescue you and do not try to walk or drive in the floodwater.

What to do after a hurricane

After the hurricane passes the threats of heavy rain and intense winds may be gone, but they are replaced by a whole new set of dangers accompanying the damaged landscape and clean up process.

There are more hazards to be aware of in the wake of the storm.

Even if the storm is downgraded to a lower category, the impacts of rainfall and storm surge often continue, according to NOAA.

If you are evacuated do not return to your home until instructed to do so by proper authorities.

AFTERMATH: Feds won't force Texas to adjust its 'discriminatory' plans for $1B in Harvey flood funds - for now

Floods and debris are dangerous after a storm

If you are in a flooded area, be vigilant when on the move. It can be hard to accurately judge the speed or depth of water just by looking at it, and all it takes is 6 inches of moving water to knock a person down, according to the National Weather Service. Houstonians can track their own flood risk and high water in real time with the Texas Flood Map and Tracker.

You may also come across structural damage when walking or driving after a hurricane. There could be loose power lines, gas leaks and dangerous debris around your home.

Keep your distance from downed power lines  these could be tricky to spot if they are on the ground, in the water or dangling above eyesight. Standing water may be electrically charged from power lines. Floodwaters are also contaminated with bacteria, chemicals and other elements that may be harmful. Ensure any pets are not drinking contaminated water.

Leave your home if you smell gas, if there is shifting or you hear unusual noises.

Driving is also dangerous after a hurricane, and flooded roads should be avoided. All it takes is 12 inches of water to float a car, according to the weather service. Roads and bridges can also be damaged by flooding.

When cleaning, stay hydrated and be weary of straining yourself. Additional dangers come with exhaustion and overworking your body. Protect yourself by dressing properly for the clean-up. This outfit may include rubber gloves and rubber boots.

If using a portable generator during an outage, exercise caution. Carbon monoxide poisoning from generators can be deadly. Only use generators in outside, well ventilated spaces.

Take photos of damage to your home to help when filing any insurance claims.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the second such capture by Tehran in under a week amid heightened tensions over its nuclear program.

The taking of the oil tanker Niovi renewed concerns about Iran threatening maritime traffic in the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude passes. It also comes amid the disappearance of a crude oil tanker in Southeast Asia believed to be carrying Iranian crude oil amid reports it may have been seized by the United States.

The U.S. Navy published surveillance footage shot by an aerial drone of about dozen Guard vessels swarming the tanker on Wednesday morning. The drone had been on a routine patrol in the area and saw the seizure, though the Navy did not receive a distress call from the Niovi itself, 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins said.

Those Guard ships forced the oil tanker to reverse course and head toward Iranian territorial waters off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran, the Navy said.

Irans actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability, the 5th Fleet said in a statement. Irans continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are unwarranted, irresponsible and a present threat to maritime security and the global economy.

Iran acknowledged the seizure, with the judiciary's Mizan news agency quoting the Tehran prosecutor's office as saying that a judge ordered it impounded over an unspecified complaint.

Shipping registries show the Niovi is managed by Smart Tankers of Piraeus, Greece. A woman who answered the phone at the firm declined to immediately comment on the seizure. The Niovi had been coming from dry-dock repairs in Dubai, bound for Fujairah on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates without carrying any cargo, according to the data firm Refinitiv.

Last week, Iran seized an oil tanker carrying crude for Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, California, amid wider tensions between Tehran and the U.S. over its nuclear program. The Advantage Sweet had 23 Indians and one Russian on board.

Iran has accused the Advantage Sweet of colliding with another vessel, while offering no evidence to support its claim. Iran has offered a variety of unsupported claims in the past when seizing foreign-flagged ships amid tensions with the West.

The taking of the two tankers in under a week comes amid the disappearance of the Marshall Island-flagged Suez Rajan, which had been in the South China Sea off Singapore for over a year after a report alleged it to smuggling sanctioned Iranian crude oil. Tracking data for the Suez Rajan last showed it off East Africa, moving in a direction that could take it to the Americas.

The Financial Times, as well as the maritime intelligence firm Ambrey, both have reported the Suez Rajan was seized on order of American authorities. The ship's manager has not responded to queries from The Associated Press about the status of the ship. U.S. officials also have not commented.

However, the Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs acknowledged Wednesday recently sending a warning to Greek ships in the Mideast to be on alert when going through the Persian Gulf. The ministry did not say what prompted the warning.

In Washington, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel criticized Iran for seizing the ships.

Candidly, Irans harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional and international waters are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional stability and security, he said.

The seizure by Iran of two ships in the last week was the latest in a string of ship seizures and explosions to roil the region.

The incidents began after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Irans nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. They've continued under President Joe Biden and as diplomatic efforts at finding a way back to the accord remain stalemated.

Also, the U.S. Navy has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021.

Tehran denies carrying out the attacks, but a wider shadow war between Iran and the West has played out in the regions volatile waters. Iranian tanker seizures have been a part of it since 2019. The last major seizure before recent days came when Iran took two Greek tankers in May 2022 and held them until November.

In the wider Mideast, Iranian-backed militias in Syria have carried out attacks on U.S. forces, including one that killed an American contractor in March. The U.S. responded with airstrikes. It also has deployed A-10 Thunderbolt IIs into the region, as well as announced the presence of a guided-missile submarine in recent weeks.

Since the collapse of the nuclear deal, Iran now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned that Tehran now has enough of a uranium stockpile to build several nuclear weapons if it chooses. Iran long has insisted its program is for peaceful purposes, though the IAEA and Western intelligence agencies believe Tehran had a secret military nuclear program through 2003.

Iran also has restricted the ability of IAEA inspectors to monitor its program. However, the IAEA on Wednesday acknowledged that work is ongoing to reinstall monitoring equipment at Iranian nuclear sites following a March visit by its director-general to Tehran. The agency did not elaborate and Tehran did not acknowledge the work.

___

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.
Regarding Suspected Texas mass shooter arrested after days-long manhunt, officials say, (May 2): Very good news to hear. This is more detailed reporting than can be found in TV media.

However, I have some concerns on presentation, content and balance. While I understand the medias preoccupation with mass shootings, I feel that it minimizes the daily murders that also happen and that result in many more deaths than any mass shooting. How about putting some additional emphasis on that statistic? These murders should never be accepted as normal.

Also, why cant the Chronicle shine a little light on the very significant problem of felons in possession of a firearm being given bonds and then committing additional crimes, including murder with unlawfully obtained firearms?

Richard Patyrak, Missouri City

Illegal immigrant label

Regarding Ted Cruz, John Cornyn join Texas Republicans in blaming Cleveland killings on illegal immigration, (May 1): Gov. Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz and others in the Republican Party are trying to blame the tragedy in San Jacinto County on illegal immigrants in general and Joe Bidens border policies specifically. They hope everyone will forget that the shooter was deported four times, twice in 2009, then in January 2012 and again in July 2016.

The police were called to the home over complaints of similar bursts of gunfire several times. They allegedly did nothing. Somehow, I get the idea that Bidens immigration policies had nothing to do with it.

Meanwhile, despite Republican repetition of their open border lies, the border is crawling with Border Patrol agents, the Biden administrations immigration policies have correlated with a drop in encounters, and Republicans continue refusing to work with Democrats to offer legislation that addresses immigration.

Bruce Ellis, Houston

Regarding Abbotts Cleveland shooting response breaks my heart (Opinion), (May 1): I am amazed at the level of naivete shown by Jerry Poscovsky and Jacqueline Clark in attacking Abbott and others who use the term illegal immigrants, which applies to the millions of people that Biden has let in and continues to let in. Do Jerry and Jacqueline think these people should be called citizens or legal immigrants? The people coming across our border are neither. The Chronicle is correct in differentiating between people who enter this country legally and follow the laws and those who dont. There is a huge lack of common sense among too many Americans today when it comes to our national security, including a secure border.

Eric Johnson, Houston

Abbotts response

Regarding Cleveland victims deserve more than Abbotts illegal immigrant label (Editorial), (May 1): Once again in Texas, we are confronted by a horrifying and senseless killing of innocent victims with military-style weapons. Five family members were killed in their own home for having the temerity to ask a neighbor to stop shooting his gun late at night. They tried to appeal to his humanity by telling him that his gunfire was waking their sleeping baby. The neighbor, showing his complete lack of humanity, invaded their home with an AR-15 and promptly executed four people, including the babys mother, and sent an 9-year-old boy to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Two women sacrificed their own lives to save the lives of two other small children.

In abysmal and inhumane fashion, Greg Abbott, our governor, called the five innocent victims illegal immigrants, denigrating their humanity and that of their surviving family members.

This act follows his continuing cowardice in the face of the NRA and GOP extremists after the horrifying Uvalde elementary school shooting. Abbott continues to refuse commonsense gun regulations such as red flag laws, background checks and an age restriction of 21 to purchase this often misused military-style weapon.

Resign, Greg Abbott. You are morally unfit for the job of the governor of Texas.

Kathryn Aguilar, La Porte

The de-evolution of Abbott is only getting worse. For years, he has embarrassed himself by pandering to Tucker Carlson, Fox News and Donald Trump supporters. Abbott was once a courteous, well-liked Harris County state district judge. His elevation by then-Gov. George W. Bush to the Texas Supreme Court heralded a new chapter for Abbott as he proved to be an enthusiastic pawn for big business and insurance companies.

As Texas attorney general, Abbott showed time and again that he wasnt above filing frivolous lawsuits against the federal government to score political points with Obama-hating Texas Republicans. Anyone who has watched his descent into the depths of MAGA world knows that no matter the amount of carnage, suffering and tragedy, Abbott will always do the wrong thing and use it to score points with his political base.

Rand Nolen, Houston
The day after Republican lawmakers offered their first alternative budget since 2017, majority Democrats began to list some proposals they are likely to oppose when bipartisan negotiations begin.

But overall, the GOP proposal will be hopeful during the upcoming weeks of budget talks.

"There are obviously some short comings," said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, on Wednesday. He warned that some of the Republican plans would shift away support for lower-income residents, including the rejection of HUSKY benefits for young immigrants. "But they deserve credit for putting out a budget list."

While praising the GOP for presenting a wide-ranging $50.7 billion spending-and-tax package for the biennium starting July 1, House Speaker Matt Ritter and House Majority Leader Jason Rojas on Wednesday said it was good to see Republicans offer more spending than Gov. Ned Lamont's $50.5 billion package.

Prior to a business day in the General Assembly that included the confirmation of 21 judicial candidates, Rojas and Ritter said they expect as much as $250 million in new spending to become the focus of talks.

Rojas, D-East Hartford, noted that the Republican budget did not go through the same type of public scrutiny as the Democratic proposals.

"Is that fair to the taxpayer to have the budget come out in May as opposed to February?" Rojas said. "It makes it difficult to evaluate."

Democrats have comfortable 98-53 and 24-12 majorities in the House and Senate, respectively.

Asked about a seemingly dead $90 million proposal to create a free-lunch program for all Connecticut school students, Ritter, D-Hartford, said that unspent American Rescue Plan Act money could help salvage the possibility, which was not included in the recent $50.9 billion budget approved in the Appropriations Committee.

"Like everything else, it's in limbo," Ritter said of the free lunch proposal, which advocates say would remove the stigma and potential bullying issues around free lunches. Some students do not accept the lunches out of social and physical fears. "The best way to describe it is we need to meet with the governor and get comments on the budget that we passed. We want to look at what the House Republicans have put out there; we'll see what the differences are and what the similarities are."

Ritter described the current budget scene as "touch and go" for a lot of issues, including free lunches. "Our caucus is very supportive of that issue and a lot of others that we talk about: nonprofits, higher education, and we've just got to figure it out. When you poll the caucus on an individual issue, they all get a 98-percent approval rating. But when you say 'pick the four you want,' it gets a little dicey. And now we have to do it with the governor and Republicans, it's going to take a lot of negotiations."

Ritter said long-term health care and nursing home workers need pay raises as well. "They might go on strike soon," he said. "They might have a right to go on strike."

Rojas, a former co-chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee, said much of the $1.16 billion tax breaks in the GOP budget seem directed at higher-income families, particularly a proposed $2,000-per-child tax credit would actually become a tax deduction. "We're trying to reach the people who are impacted at the bottom of the income scale," Rojas told reporters.

"I'm sure there is some stuff we can take and there will be some stuff that will be hard for us to swallow," Ritter said. "We have to get to a balance. The last $20 million could be the hardest to negotiate."

Ritter and Rojas pointed out the proposed Republican savings of $200 million through a pause on filling some of the estimated 3,500 job openings in state government.

"We need staffing in certain agencies," Ritter said. "There are certain agencies that are woefully under-staffed and so when you're telling (the Office of Policy and Management, the governor's budget office) they can't hire people, right? There might be a problem with that. But they pointed to some statistics where there hasn't been hiring. We need to figure out why that is and why it's taking so long."

"You look at the state Department of Education, you look at (the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services), you look at a lot of the health care professions and I don't think we can afford to not hire," Rojas said.

Ritter said he hopes that a $210 million-to-$250 million battleground in negotiations could be five things. He noted that Republicans on the Appropriations Committee voted in favor of the Democratic budget. And school spending was unanimously approved in the Education Committee.
Texas Republicans have batted down efforts to restrict access to firearms in response to the Uvalde school massacre of last year, and some are now making the case that introducing more Christianity in public education could help to reduce the risk of future mass shootings.

Bills have advanced in the Legislature to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in each classroom, create periods of prayer or Bible study at schools and allow chaplains to be hired as school employees.

IN-DEPTH: Texas GOP eyes separation of church and state in schools after Supreme Court prayer ruling

As part of the chaplain bill, school safety and security funds could be used to hire members of the clergy instead of paying for security cameras, physical barriers, security officers and active shooter plans.

It's left open what roles or jobs the chaplains could do, but part of the pitch from proponents of the bill has been that there are not enough mental health counselors at public schools.

On Tuesday morning in the House, the Public Education Committee held a hearing for the Ten Commandments bill, which has also already been passed by the Senate and has a strong chance of becoming law.

Timothy Barton, president of the Christian-conservative group Wallbuilders, was invited by the committee to testify. He said the world is experiencing moral decay, including crime and violence in schools, and the situation calls for a return to the Ten Commandments as the basis of morals of all Western civilization.

He went on to say that displaying the religious text in classrooms could deter mass shootings.

If we had more people following the Ten Commandments, we would solve as many of the issues we are seeing today. It was not so long ago we saw a shooter going to a Christian school in Nashville, and this shooter shot up the Christian school, Barton said. If more students were learning things like, 'dont kill other people,' the world would be a far better place.

After 19 children and two teachers were killed in Uvalde last year, there were widespread calls for the Legislature to address gun violence.

Although Democrats  as well as the families of the Uvalde victims  have argued gun control measures would be the most effective way to stop future shootings, Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans have instead laid groundwork to spend up to $1 billion on measures to make schools more secure or to protect the mental health of schoolchildren.

Civil liberty groups and public education advocacy groups have opposed the bills bringing more religion into schools, saying they violate the Constitution and push Christianity on kids.

"Every time on this committee that we tried to teach students values like empathy, or kindness, we're told we can't, because that's the parent's role. Every time on this committee that we tried to teach basic sex education to keep our kids safe, we're told that's the parent's role. But now you're putting religious commandments  literal commandments  in our classrooms, and you're saying that's the state's role," said Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, during the hearing.

"Instead of living out the way of Jesus, we're instead imposing our beliefs on other people. Instead of leading by example, we're leading by mandates. I am very offended by this piece of legislation."

IN-DEPTH: Uvalde families forced to wait 13 hours for Texas House hearing on AR-15 changes

In legislative hearings, State Board of Education member Julie Pickren, R-Manvel, espoused placing chaplains on campus as a way to address stress and violence.

Pickren, who served as a trustee at Alvin Independent School District until 2021, said the district saw 'incredible' results when it allowed pastors and youth pastors in the community to come to school and interact with students.

The data that came afterwards was incredible. We saw decreased violence on our campuses. We saw increased test scores, she said. We can see a benefit of chaplains steering children on a path that will lead to success basically.

Its unusual, although not unheard of, for members of the State Board of Education to testify for particular bills, as the members are independently elected. Pickren was not authorized to speak for the full board, so she said she was speaking on her own behalf. However, she did not mention during either her House or Senate testimony that she is a board member of the National School Chaplain Association, the main professional group pushing the bill.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Pickren said it doesnt make sense that the Texas Capitol, prisons and even airports have chaplains, but schools do not. She said chaplains could help make schools safer, including reducing the risk of mass shootings.

Chaplains and their training, they are trained for active shooters. Thats part of a chaplain's training. Also part of a chaplain's training is risk assessment. It would be a great benefit to our schools in the school safety and the mental health piece, she said.

The bill does not include any certification process for chaplains, so such trainings would not be required. Pickren said it would be a step up from the status quo regardless, where schoolchildren often dont have access to mental health resources. She said chaplains are trained to see every child, which could help them reach kids who have been exposed to trauma or who are more likely to commit violent acts.

Generally from studies that we have, children that are hidden like that, children that dont want to be seen, those are the children that experience the most amount of trauma in their life, she said.
A day after Chicagos mayor asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to stop sending busloads of migrants to her city, the Republican has refused in a strongly worded letter saying its President Joe Bidens fault he has to keep doing it.

Until Biden secures the border to stop the inflow of mass migration, Texas will continue this necessary program, Abbott said in the letter to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

IN-DEPTH: We followed one of Abbotts migrant buses from Texas to Chicago. Heres what we learned.

His letter comes after Lightfoot, a Democrat, had sent him a letter warning that Chicago doesnt have the resources to care for more migrants.

We simply have no more shelters, spaces, or resources to accommodate an increase of individuals at this level, with little coordination or care, that does not pose a risk to them or others, Lightfoot said.

Since April 2022, Abbott has bused more than 16,000 migrants to northern cities where Democrats are mayors. Abbott has said the program only sends migrants who volunteer to go and after they have signed waivers and have been processed by federal border officials.

Chicago has received more than 1,500 migrants from Texas, according to Abbotts office. But Lightfoot in her letter said her city is caring for more than 8,000 people since last August when Abbott first started sending people to her city.

In his letter to Lightfoot, Abbott shows little sympathy for Chicagos difficulty in handling the 1,500 migrants his office said they sent there.

As the mayor of a self-declared sanctuary city, it is ironic to hear you complain about Chicagos struggle to deal with a few thousand illegal immigrants, which is a fraction of the record-high numbers we deal with in Texas on a regular basis, he said. Texas border towns like Eagle Pass, Brownsville, and Laredo  and even bigger cities like El Paso  cannot handle the flood of illegal immigrants rushing across our southern border.

Lightfoot lost her reelection and her term ends on May 15.
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Debate over a bill to ban transition medical care for transgender youth snowballed into a dramatic scene Tuesday in the Texas House after protesters began chanting and the speaker called for troopers to clear the gallery.

BACKGROUND: Texas Republicans likely have the votes to outlaw transgender care for minors

Democrats had just made their first attempt to obstruct or at least delay the bill using a procedural tactic when a protester in the gallery shouted Trans kids deserve more. Others quickly joined in. After being escorted out, at least one protester was physically detained by state troopers inside the Capitol.

While Democrats succeeded in delaying the bill, a Republican-led committee quickly convened in the afternoon to correct a technical issue, and House leaders promised the bill would return to the floor later this week. It has the support of the majority of members in the GOP-dominated chamber, meaning it will likely sail through to the governors desk.

Senate Bill 14 would stop doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone medications and performing surgeries to treat minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria, or with psychological distress about their gender identity being different from their sex at birth.

Tuesdays scene underscored the emotional uproar the legislation has elicited among many Texans who view the proposed ban as discriminatory and an overreach into health care decisions typically between doctors, young patients and their parents.

Republicans have argued minors are not old enough to make what can amount to life-altering medical decisions and that the care can lead to negative physical and mental side effects.

The bill is a top priority for the Texas GOP and Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

By early Tuesday, hundreds of demonstrators for and against the bill had crowded the halls of the Capitol. LGBTQ advocates carried signs saying, My faith does not discriminate and God loves trans people and held a banner from the upper level of the rotunda reading LET TRANS KIDS GROW UP.

Supporters also flocked to the building wearing red shirts reading, Save Texas Kids and held signs saying, Stop child gender mutilation.

House rules forbid any kind of noise from the gallery, even clapping.

Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan, of Beaumont, immediately made the call for sergeants-at-arms to clear the gallery, which was filled with demonstrators both in favor and against the bill. The majority left peacefully; however, there were some altercations between protesters and troopers, and at least one activist was put in handcuffs.

Opponents of the bill chanted Were here, were queer, we will not disappear and What do we want? Trans rights. When do we want it? Now, as troopers herded them toward the Capitols south exit.

The Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond when asked if any arrests were made. Left-leaning advocacy group Texas Freedom Network tweeted that a staff member was taken into custody.

The last time the gallery was cleared was in 2017 on the last day of session amidst protests against a bill that banned sanctuary cities.

taylor.goldenstein@houstonchronicle.com
WFO BOSTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, May 5, 2023

_____

FLOOD WARNING

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED

Flood Warning

National Weather Service Boston/Norton MA

1224 PM EDT Wed May 3 2023

...The National Weather Service in Boston/Norton MA has issued a

Flood Warning for the following rivers in Connecticut...

Connecticut River At Middle Haddam affecting Middlesex County.

.For the Connecticut River...including Montague, Northampton, Holyoke

Dam, Holyoke, Springfield, Thompsonville, Hartford, Middle Haddam...

Minor flooding is forecast.

For the Connecticut River...including Montague, Northampton, Holyoke

Dam, Holyoke, Springfield, Thompsonville, Hartford, Middle Haddam...

Minor flooding is forecast.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

Additional information is available at www.weather.gov.

The next statement will be issued late tonight at 1230 AM EDT.

...FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM THIS AFTERNOON TO LATE FRIDAY

MORNING...

* WHAT...Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast.

* WHERE...Connecticut River at Middle Haddam.

* WHEN...From this afternoon to late Friday morning.

* IMPACTS...At 7.0 feet, Flooding is likely in the vicinity of

Meadow Road, Route 17A, in the Gildersleeve section of Portland. A

portion of this roadway will likely be closed. This includes the

Exchange Club of Portland Fairgrounds. Boating interests should

prepare for a period of swift river flows during this period.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...

- At 11:55 AM EDT Wednesday the stage was 7.1 feet.

- The river is in minor flood stage.

- Recent Activity...The maximum river stage in the 24 hours

ending at 11:55 AM EDT Wednesday was 7.1 feet.

- Forecast...The river will oscillate around flood stage with a

maximum value of 7.5 feet just after midnight tonight.

- Flood stage is 7.0 feet.

- Flood History...This crest compares to a previous crest of

7.5 feet on 11/01/2017.

- http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood

_____

Copyright 2023 AccuWeather
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Crane NXT Completes Separation from Crane Co.

DALTON, Mass.  The former Crane & Co. has gone through a variety of changes in recent years from being acquired in 2017 by Crane Co. of Stamford, Conn., to now being separated from Crane Holdings.

The separation was a year in the making and allows both companies to focus on their different fields and makes it easier for investors to research what they are investing in, say company officials.

Crane Co. will continue its work as a purveyor of pipes and steam pumps, and manufacturing, electronics, aerospace and technology.

Crane Payment Innovation and Crane Currency became subsidiaries of the new business Crane NXT that focuses on authentication, security, and detection. Crane NXT began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "CXT."

Despite the separation, the sizes of the two businesses is significant. "They're not massively large but they're still billion-U.S. dollar-plus entities in their own right," Crane Currency Global Marketing Director Tod L Niedeck said, and their size is still attractive to investors.

With the separation, the company has smaller management so things are more streamlined and can focus on their priorities for investment for future growth.

Crane NXT will focus on what it does well, which is securing products, banknotes, identification and then work more closely with its sister company Crane Payment Innovation.

Max Mitchell will remain the president and chief executive officer of Crane Co and will be on the Crane NXT Board of Directors.

Aaron Saak was appointed Crane NXT president and CEO in November 2022.

In the last 25 years, Crane has grown to focus beyond United States currency by producing and designing banknotes, and innovating security features for different central banks around the world, Niedeck said.

The knowledge that it gets from meeting the needs and preferences of customers from around the world are transferrable to any customer.

"So it's that sort of international group I think also really helps our discussions with the U.S. government  what has Crane been seeing, what are we doing for designing different banknotes for different countries, what are the needs there  because U.S. currency is really a world currency," Niedeck said.

"You know, those are the kinds of discussions that happen with the U.S. government, I think are enjoyed by them because we have that sort of worldview."

The company no longer makes banknotes for its international customers in the United States  that is where the Swedish mill comes into play.

Crane has been supplying currency paper to the United States since 1879. The Dalton mill is very specialized, strictly focusing on U.S. currency

Crane Co. was founded by a different Crane  Richard  in 1855 and has had, until recently, no affiliation with the Dalton papermaking company that Zenas Crane moved from the Boston area back in 1801.

Where Zenas' company concentrated on fine papermaking and currency, Richard was a Chicago purveyor of pipes and steam pumps, and his company expanded into manufacturing, electronics, aerospace and technology in the ensuing century.
Lenox Library to Host Mental Health Awareness Programs

LENOX, Mass.  In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Lenox Library will partner with two local organizations to offer free public programs that support mental health throughout the community.

First, on Tuesday, May 9, 2023 at 5:30 p.m., the Berkshire Coalition for Suicide Prevention will present their program Talk Saves Lives: A Brief Introduction to Suicide Prevention. This presentation will cover what is known about this leading cause of death, the most up-to-date research on prevention, and what everyone can do to fight suicide. Participants will learn the common risk factors for suicide, how to spot the warning signs in others, and how to keep ourselves, our loved ones, and those in our community safe.

Established in 2009, The Berkshire Coalition for Suicide Prevention (BCSP) is a grassroots 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to providing suicide prevention resources, loss and healing programs, professional trainings, advocacy efforts, and hope to our local community. BCSP is a regional coalition of the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention, an organization dedicated to creating awareness and mobilizing community action in response to the public health crisis of suicide in the Commonwealth.

Then, on Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 5:30 p.m., Lenox Library will partner with The Brien Center for their Community Conversations series. The Brien Center's President and CEO, Christine MacBeth, and Dr. Jennifer Michaels, Medical Director will address the impact of the pandemic on mental health across our community and region, as well as provide strategies and suggested techniques to manage and care for oneself or a loved one. Their presentation will be followed by a question and answer period.

The Brien Center is a community-based, nonprofit agency providing behavioral health and addiction treatment services throughout Berkshire County. As the county's largest provider of services, The Brien Center serves about 10,000 children, teens, and adults each year.
To open more doors for students to become future-ready, Quipper, one of the leading edtech and LMS platforms in the Philippines, launched their first Student BootQamp last April 1, with the theme Equipping Learners with 21st Century Skills that go Beyond the Classroom. The main objective of the webinar was to upskill the students with modern skills for them to be employable in the future and to empower them to embrace technology as an integral part of their learning process.

To create more future-ready learners, Quipper launched its first Student BootQamp that empowers all learners in the country.

Senior High School students, teachers, and admins from different schools in the country attended the webinar, where they learned how the newest technologies could affect their future career goals while delving more into how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing industries and shaping the future of work.

To kickstart the first Student BootQamp, Senior Director and International Expansion of ELSA Corp., Natalie Do discussed the importance of AI technology to generate conversation about its benefits and functions in various processes.

She reiterated how AI would significantly change the system in various sectors, deeming it a monumental development of our existing technologies. The use of AI provides automation that is beneficial to make things easier for us. It is a revolutionary tool that can create more opportunities for people to improve their work, Natalie shared.

Regarding its benefits in the education sector, Natalie highlighted that AI is not there to replace educators in the classroom and to make students rely solely on AI knowledge. Instead, it aims to integrate intelligent tutoring systems into students learning and apply adaptive assessments for teachers to give lessons and tests suitable for student learning.

The fear of AI replacing our work will not happen because, despite its power to generate knowledge, it doesnt do fact-checking well. However, it can make a difference in transforming our operations or day-to-day work by designating repetitive tasks, like grading exams, creating modules or lessons, drafting emails for work, and more to AI, said Natalie.

Furthermore, Natalie shared how ELSA Speak hones and uses the power of AI to teach English communication skills to their different users worldwide. We aim to enable different English learners worldwide to create more opportunities. And I believe that Quipper and ELSA Speak share the same mission, thus making AI and technology, in general, an integral part of learning, Natalie added.

To learn more about Quipper Philippines and its other programs and initiatives, visit www.quipper.com/ph.
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The broad-daylight shooting of a prominent Laos government critic that was captured on camera has sparked confusion over the fate of the activist as reports now suggest he could be alive.

A day after human rights groups said Anousa Jack Luangsuphom, 25, was killed after he was shot twice from point-blank range, reports on Thursday said he receiving treatment in a hospital.

Mr Luangsuphom was shot twice by a gunman on Saturday at around 10.39pm in an attack that was captured on CCTV cameras.

Human Rights Watch said that Mr Luangsuphoms family has confirmed that he survived the shooting and is now receiving medical treatment in a hospital in Vientiane.

It said in a statement that the reports from multiple sources that Mr Luangsuphom died on the way to the hospital proved to be false.

Amnesty International, which also previously said Mr Luangsuphom was killed, said: His current medical condition is unclear.

Mr Luangsuphom, a vocal critic of the Laos government and civil rights activist, was shot by an unidentified person in a coffee shop in the Chanthabuly district of the Laos capital Vientiane on Saturday.

A screengrab from the CCTV footage from outside the coffee shop shows the gunman who shot down Anousa Luangsuphom (Screengrab/@Reaproy)

The chilling security camera footage of the attack showed a man dressed in a brown shirt and wearing a black cap opening the door using a white handkerchief. It showed the moment when Mr Luangsuphom is shot from point-blank range in the face and chest and collapses to the floor.

Mr Luangsuphom used to run the Kub Kluen Duay Keyboard (Driven By Keyboard) Facebook page, a popular platform in and outside Laos for people to express dissenting views about the Laos government.

Friends and family basically told people he was dead because they were worried if the gunman knew that they had not succeeded in killing him, they would return to finish the job, said HRW spokesperson Phil Robertson, according to BBC.

Mr Robertson shared three pictures of Mr Luangsuphom lying on a hospital bed. The activist appeared unconscious in the pictures with a wound on his face and a bandage on his chest.

Human Rights Watch emphasises the responsibility of the Lao government to ensure protection for Anousa while he recovers, and to undertake a thorough and impartial investigation into the shooting, HRW said in an updated statement.

Luangsuphom ran Kub Kluen Duay Keyboard (Driven By Keyboard) Facebook page (Human Rights Watch)

Amnesty International called out the Laos government for not identifying the perpetrator despite the available footage.

Lao authorities must urgently launch a prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigation into the brazen shooting of a young activist who dared to speak out about human rights issues in the country, said Joe Freeman, Amnesty Internationals interim deputy regional director for communications.

No human rights defenders should be violently targeted for their work.

Laos is one of the most politically repressive countries in Asia and the Communist-ruled, single-party country is known to stifle dissenting voices or political opposition.

It is the latest attack on a political activist that has put a rare spotlight on the nations governance and human rights record.

In 2012, Sombath Somphone, a prominent social activist, went missing after he was last seen at a police checkpoint in the capital.

More than 10 years after his disappearance his whereabouts remain unknown. Human Rights Watch noted Mr Somphones enforced disappearance and said, even activists who have fled persecution in Laos to neighbouring countries have not been safe.

Od Sayavong, a Lao activist living in Bangkok, Thailand, remains missing since August 2019.

The Laos government has denied any knowledge of both disappearance cases.

Update: The Independent earlier reported that Anousa Luangsuphom had died. This story has now been updated to reflect his familys new statement saying he survived the shooting.
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When she was a child, Bushra Afreen would hear of people leaving her hometown of Dhaka for opportunities to study or work abroad.

Now, dangerous, suffocating heat is driving those who can afford it out of Bangladeshs capital city.

Dhaka is my home but its not a city that I recognise anymore because of the unbearable heat, Afreen told The Independent last week. Unlivable  thats the word which commonly gets associated with Dhaka now.

Bangladesh experiences some of the highest temperatures in Asia. The monthly average of 30C regularly feels even hotter when combined with the regions high humidity.

Dhaka hit 40.6C during a heatwave last month, its highest temperature in six decades. Rising global greenhouse gas emissions, from burning fossil fuels, will continue to make life there even hotter.

Bangladesh is moving towards an almost permanent state of heat wave, according to a 2021 World Bank report.

Its a crisis that Afreen is facing head-on after she was announced as Dhakas first chief heat officer on Wednesday. She is also the first CHO in Asia to join an all-female squad in cities around the world.

I want to push more engagement and work with all communities but especially those who are really vulnerable, Afreen said.

CHOs are already in place in Miami, Florida; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Athens, Greece; Santiago, Chile; Monterrey, Mexico; and Melbourne, Australia. (Los Angeles also has a CHO after the city took a liking to the idea and decided to fund the position for themselves.)

The roles have been created by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre, an international think-tank with a goal to make 1 billion people more resilient to extreme heat by 2030.

Heat is a silent and insidious killer that claims the lives of more people than any other climate disaster and is particularly dangerous for the elderly, young children, the poor, and those with existing health conditions.

Cities are chosen to be part of the Arsht-Rock pilot scheme not just because of their propensity for extreme heat but also because they have mayors and local governments receptive to innovative solutions.

CHOs tailor their plans to best suit each individual place  whether that be farm workers in the US southeast; market traders in Sierra Leone; or pensioners in Greece.

Hundreds of Muslims congregated at an open field in central Dhaka in April to offer special prayers for rains as a heatwave swept the country (AFP/Getty)

Afreen says shes keen to learn from her fellow CHOs, noting the secret WhatsApp message group that the women share.

Im really looking forward to getting to know them and working with them, she said. They have so much experience that Im sure will help me work in a much more impactful way.

Women were deliberately selected for the roles because women are disproportionately impacted, Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of Arsht-Rock and the mastermind of the CHO programme, told The Independent.

The number of dangerously hot days is estimated to double by 2050, and the greatest burden will fall on women and girls.

Not only does extreme heat disproportionately impact womens health, but they are the backbone of the informal economy around the world  in piecework, domestic duties and care-taking for children and the elderly.

Having women leading the work, it makes sense, Baughman McLeod said. Its just a good investment.

Many major cities in poorer countries face overlapping climate and environmental threats and Dhaka, the worlds fourth-largest with more than 22 million people, falls firmly in that camp.

The city is fast-growing and densely populated with temperatures that can be more than 10C higher than rural areas.

Eugenia Kargbo, the chief heat officer in Freetown, Sierra Leone, speaks with market traders (Atlantic Council)

People really are at risk of dying, I dont know how else to say it, says Afreen, who has a background in the public and private sector across social welfare, government and micro-finance. You cant sweat enough to release all that heat from your body.

The recent heatwave led to large fires in Dhaka adding to its already dire air pollution.

It became a very hostile environment to even step outdoors in, she added.

More than 2,000 people are arriving in Dhaka every day with no choice but to live in informal settlements. Many are from rural farming and fishing communities forced to leave their homes because they have experienced other climate disasters, Afreen explained.

Two-thirds of Bangladesh is less than 15 feet above sea level and the rising ocean and heat-amped cyclones have claimed hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

Afreen describes a harm chain where people live largely without access to proper sanitation or drinking water. To survive, they must work with little protection in extreme temperatures.

The kicker is that these housing quarters are composed entirely of metal  the worst thing under heat, she said. During this [latest] heatwave, the thing I kept hearing was that no one was able sleep at night, the houses felt like ovens.

Only the wealthy can afford air conditioning and for many in informal dwellings, there are no cool showers for relief. Even the drinking water lines end up boiling hot.

Its a public health crisis, Afreen said. People dont have access to their basic human right to be able to cool themselves down.

Cristina Huidobro, the chief heat officer in Santiago, Chile, where the local mayor is backing a $2m urban reforestation plan to cool the city (Atlantic Council)

While long-term infrastructure changes take time, Baughman McLeod said, the first priority of CHOs is to raise public awareness. That's the quickest life-saving feature there is, she said.

In Miami, the worlds first-ever CHO Jane Gilbert worked with the city to designate May/October as official heat season, piggybacking on a public campaign already in place for hurricane preparedness.

In Florida, radio was discovered to be particularly popular in certain communities so multilingual public service announcements were broadcast on Haitian and farmworkers radio channels, Gilbert told Fast Company last year. In parts of town with the highest numbers of heat-related illnesses, billboards and bus shelter posters warned about heat exposure.

In Santiago, CHO Cristina Huidobro is overseeing a $2m urban tree-planting programme to help cool neighbourhoods after it was greenlit by the regions governor.

And Freetowns CHO Eugenia Kargbo found out from market traders that their greatest need was coverings for stalls. Its a relatively simple, rapidly-deployed solution that not only protects them but also the goods from which they earn a living.

With summer fast approaching, Afreen is similarly focused on public awareness in Dhaka and discussing with local groups how to rapidly reach the most vulnerable.

Im so grateful to work on heat, its high time honestly. Everyone is at risk, she said. I want to create a cooler, more equitable future not just for my own daughter but for all the other kids.
A journalist arrested after Belarus forcibly diverted his Ryanair flight was sentenced to eight years in jail on Wednesday after what opposition leaders called a fake trial.

Roman Protasevich, 27, was flying from Greece to Lithuania almost two years ago when Belarussian air traffic controllers ordered the pilots to land in Minsk on the false pretext of a bomb threat.

Ryanair flight FR9478, between two EU nations, was escorted to the ground by Belarus fighter jets in an unprecedented hostile act. No explosives were found on board but Mr Protasevich, a Belarusian citizen who lived in exile, was detained in an apparently pre-planned move.
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Nearly a third (31%) of older people with bank accounts feel uncomfortable with online banking, according to a new survey by Age UK.

The charity, which polled more than 1,000 people aged 65 and over in Britain in March and April, said nearly four in 10 (39%) are not managing their money online. Many prefer in-person dealings, with 75% wanting to undertake at least one banking task in branch.

Age UK says the findings indicate many older people could be at risk of financial exclusion, with charity director Caroline Abrahams saying: We need to face up to the fact that huge numbers of older people, the oldest old, especially, are not banking online.

Our new research also shows that even older people who do bank online often want the ability to talk to a bank employee in the flesh about some kind of transaction.

As the world becomes increasingly digital, the report highlights the importance of protecting in-person banking services for those who rely on them.

But for those who do want to increase their online banking confidence, what are the options?

Find an IT skills course in your area

Lack of IT skills was cited as one of the main reasons for older people not engaging with online banking, Age UKs survey found.

As Rajan Lakhani, money expert at smart money app Plum, points out: There are resources available to help [older people] build their IT skills, so they have the foundations and confidence to be able to use online banking.

Have a look at whats on offer in your area. Your local council may offer free training to help build your digital skills. Many of these courses are specifically directed towards older people, says Lakhani. This support is often delivered in local libraries.

Community centres and hubs, including places of worship, could also be a good place to look  check out their notice boards or give them a call to see whats available.

Charity support

Some charities provide free training, too. Age UK has a page on online banking on its website, as well as a directory where people can search for the charitys computer training sessions nearest to them.

As the UKs leading digital inclusion charity, Good Things Foundation offers lots of resources to help people who are over 65 gain the confidence and digital skills to manage their money online, says Natasha Bright-Wray, associate director of communications, campaigns and advocacy at the Good Things Foundation.

Learn My Way, our free learning platform for basic digital skills, helps people set up and access online banking and gives them the confidence to stay safe online.

I would encourage anyone who feels they need support to get online safely to visit one of the National Digital Inclusion Network community hubs across the UK, where they will find services to enable them to get online, help to develop their digital skills and to improve their life through digital, she adds.

Talk to your bank

Many of the high street banks now offer support to help older people build their digital skills, says Lakhani. For example, Lloyds Bank and Halifax offer the Digital Helpline, which provides tailored support to people looking to build their IT skills as well as understand how to use online banking confidently. Booking sessions can be arranged over the phone.

Barclays also offers support in local communities via its Digital Eagles initiative, with live events streamed virtually. Ask your bank for more information.

Security fears

According to Age UKs research, lack of trust in online services and not wanting to fall victim to scams were key concerns for older people.

Although banking online may be a fearful place for some people, it offers more protection and security than traditional banking options. There is, however, a level of confidence needed to fully adapt to this way of manging finances and to know how to steer clear of any red flags, says Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at European cyber firm, ESET.

It can be a huge safety net to install antivirus software on your computer, ideally with in-built banking protection which verify legitimate banking sites. If you choose to use mobile banking, it helps to confirm the genuine app before downloading, with due diligence such as looking for high download numbers and reading the reviews.

Secondly, it is worth making sure all passcodes and passwords used for online banking are unique [using an online password manager can help]. Thirdly, dont be afraid to ask questions at your bank or Post Office, as they will be happy to guide you to a safer online experience, Moore adds. There is also a lot of help and support online at government and not-for-profit websites, as well as at local libraries and police forces offering cybersecurity awareness advice.

Support from family members

Lakhani says: Family support is essential to helping older people boost their digital skills and help grow their confidence. Often the biggest hurdle is just getting started. When theyve set up their account, they can then see how relatively straightforward it can be to bank online.

As well as helping them set up and showing how it works, its important to give them guidance on how they can stay safe online, like making sure to log out and having a strong password.

Often, many older people use going to their local bank branch to experience a change of environment and personal contact, Lakhani adds, So support shouldnt simply be setting them up online. Helping them exercise to maintain both their physical and mental wellbeing and supporting them in finding a new routine is also essential.
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Anna Wintour and Andrew Bolton, who is the curator at the Mets Costume Institute, revealed that if celebrities break certain rules inside the annual fundraiser, they will not be invited back the next year.

Wintour and Bolton spoke about the policies in the annual gala during an interview with CBS News Gayle King published 1 May ahead of this years event. The British museum curator pointed out the two major rules that could not be broken in the museum: no smoking or touching the artwork.

Those would be no-nos, Bolton said when recalling how stars have smoked in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts restrooms.

In 2017, celebrities like Bella Hadid, Dakota Johnson and Marc Jacobs were pictured smoking cigarettes in the bathroom at the Met Gala. It was later reported that board members and donors had expressed their dismay over guests smoking at the event, with one saying it was disrespectful to the art collection.

After those complaints were made, guests at the 2018 Met Gala were informed that it was illegal to smoke in the museum, according to Page Six.

Regardless of the rules breaks that have occured in the past, Wintour noted that she thinks quite carefully when curating her star-studded guest list.

Were always interested in trying to reflect a cultural moment, and what we feel is happening at the world in any given time, she told King.

When King asked how she responds to stars who are upset about not getting an invitation, Wintour said: Every year is different and we try and curate the guest list in a way that makes sense for whatever the theme of the exhibition is.

She continued: Every year we try and make it different, have different people come. So obviously theres always next year.

This year, the Met Gala was in honour of Wintours late friend and fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld. The dress code was also In honour of Karl and saw celebrities dressed in different brands that Lagerfeld worked with throughout his career.

Notably, the theme also sparked widespread backlash due to Lagerfelds controversial past. Along with making derogatory comments about marginalised groups and public figures, he also frequently criticised women.

Actor Jameela Jamil condemned the decision for the Met Gala to be dedicated to Lagerfeld shortly after it was announced last year. On Instagram at the time, the actress recalled the distinctly hateful way the designer used his platform, most towards women.

Just before the gala took place on Monday, many models protested Anna Wintours decision to honour Lagerfeld through the theme of the gala.

During Wintours appearance on CBS Mornings, King brought up the backlash over the theme. In response, Wintour described Lagerfeld as a complicated man and defended Boltons choice to highlight his designs in the Mets Costume Institute.

I think Andrews decision [was to] really focus on the work. Its not a biography. There are documentaries and books that cover all sides of Karls life, she said. Were really focusing on his work.
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Gwyneth Paltrow has opened up about the first time she met Brad Pitt and the heartbreak that followed their brief engagement.

Speaking to Alex Cooper on the latest instalment of the Call Her Daddy podcast, the 50-year-old explained the first time she met the Fight Club actor.

I met Brad on the set of Seven, and I think I was only 22 years old at the time, she said recalling her role in the crime film alongside stars Pitt and Morgan Freeman in 1994.

I had seen him in Thelma and Louse and whatever movies he had been in and obviously everyone knew he was the most gorgeous movie star in America.

Paltrow then recalled the moment they approached each other and set and it was love at first sight.

And I got this little part in Seven and I was so excited to meet him and Morgan Freeman who I had grown up adoring as an actor, and we sort of said hi on set and it was major major love at first sight.

She added: It was crazy

They dated for two years before Pitt proposed to her in December 1996. But the pair never made it down the aisle  just six months later, they called it quits.

The pair started dating after they met filming Seven 1995 (AFP via Getty Images)

It felt like we had been going out for what felt like a long time and I was ready to get married. We were down in Argentina and he was filming down there, Paltrow said.

And one night we were on the balcony of this house we were renting in this little town in Argentina. I wish I remember what he said but he proposed and it was fantastic, she said, adding that she was around 24 years old at the time.

The Goop founder then reflected on why they eventually broke up and never got married.

There was a number of things.he was nine years older than I am. He was ready to do it and I was all over the place. So it was really like one of those difficult things but I thought oh my god, not only am I not ready but Im not living up to the standards.

She added that she had a lot of development left to do in hindsight.

In a lot of ways, I didnt really fully start to come into myself until I was about 40 years old, she said, sharing that she had an issue where she felt like she constantly had to please other people and didnt prioritise her own emotions.

So when I look back, I think I was really a kid. I really had not explored who I was, what was important to me, what my boundaries are. I was totally heartbroken when we broke up but it was the right thing at that time.
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Actress Vanessa Kirby has opened up about overcoming self-doubt in her childhood, and starring as a villain in the latest Mission: Impossible film.

The Crown star spoke to Harpers Bazaar about finding confidence through acting, as she prepares to play White Widow in the American action franchise.

Kirby, who played Princess Margaret in The Crowns first and second series, said she knew she wanted to act from a young age.

I had so much self-doubt growing up  oh my goodness, I still do. I have made peace with the fact that it is there Vanessa Kirby

She told the magazine: I was very sensitive. I had no idea how I would become an actress, but I knew it was what I wanted to do; it was what made me feel happiest, it was what made me feel most free, least judged somehow.

I had so much self-doubt growing up  oh my goodness, I still do. I have made peace with the fact that it is there.

Its the practice of letting it be in the passenger seat. You have to say: You are not going to drive but you can be here.

The 35-year-old Bafta-winning actress said Christopher McQuarrie, director of Mission: Impossible  Dead Reckoning Part One, gave her loads of books on power to prepare for her role as the villain.

Speaking about White Widow, she said: She comes from an underground crime family, so I wanted to know, how did they get into arms?

I did all sorts of research, and Christopher McQuarrie gave me loads of books on power and how to transmit power, how calm is the thing that is most powerful  the more you reel it in, the more intimidating it is.

Kirby said her co-star Tom Cruise is the most passionate actor.

He knows more about cinema, cares more about it, than anyone I have ever met, she said.

He also believes anything is possible, and that really inspires everyone around him to believe in what their own mission is.

Mission: Impossible  Dead Reckoning Part One will be released by Paramount Pictures on July 12 in the US and two days later in the UK.

The June issue of Harpers Bazaar UK is on sale from May 4.
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Heidi Klum has faced backlash over her new ingerie photoshoot that she did with her daughter Leni.

The supermodel took to Instagram on Tuesday to share pictures of her and her 18-year-old daughter as part of their campaign with Italian lingerie fashion brand Intimissimi. In the photos, Heidi posed in a purple and white bra and matching underwear.

Leni wore a white lace bra and underwear, along with a cream-coloured shirt.

Heidi celebrated the achievement and sent a message to her fans in the caption, writing: If you see me and @leniklum on billboards all over Germany  tag us and well share our favourites on our stories!

While the Americas Got Talent judge has the comments on her Instagram post off, critics concerns about the photoshoot have gone to Lenis Instagram.

When Leni shared a picture from the campaign on her account, people went to the comments to share why they were not comfortable with the photoshoot.

I would not be proud to show my daughter off in this way. I would feel embarrassed and sad, one wrote.

Somehow its weird to see mother and daughter in underwear, another added. I mean, how many were photographed like this with their mother.

A third sarcastically wrote: First thing I think of when I want to pose in my intimates: My mom should be here!

Other commenters went on to praise the duo for modelling together.

Legend and legends daughter, one wrote, while another commented: QUEENS, with a red heart emoji.

A third added: Sorry but Im in love.

This isnt the first time that one of Leni and Heidis photoshoots has sparked backlash. Whe they did a different campaign with Intimissimi in October 2022, fans once again went to social media to claim that this was a bit weird. They doubled down on claims that it was off putting to see a mother and daughter pose in lingerie together.

Weeks later, Leni addressed criticism about the campaign and said that she doesnt read online comments that have been made about her work.

I honestly didnt look at a lot of the reactions, she said, during an interview with Page Six in October 2022. I am overall happy with the campaign and I had an amazing day with my mom. I think the photos turned out great, and we had an amazing time.

She emphasised that she wasnt aware of the backlash at the time, adding: I just dont look at it, honestly. If I dont look at it, I dont have to pay any attention to it, so I just dont know what is there.
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Jameela Jamil has again condemned the decision to honour Karl Lagerfeld with the theme for the 2023 Met Gala.

Following Mondays (1 May) event, the actor posted on her Instagram Story to condemn the famous feminists who were in attendance.

She wrote: Last night, Hollywood and fashion said the quiet part out loud when a lot of famous feminists chose to celebrate at the highest level, a man who was so publicly cruel to women, to fat people, to immigrants and to sexual assault survivors. And all the womens publications, and spectators online, chose to gleefully ignore it.

She continued: Suddenly your appetite to find someones tweets from when they were 12, has gone. Nobody has perfect morals, least of all me, but Jesus Christ we had a year to course correct here, and not award the highest honor possible to a known bigotand everyone just decided all of a sudden we can separate the art from the artist when *convenient*.

And its one rule for us, and another rule for everybody else. Last night we relinquished our right to be taken at all seriously about anything important.

Ahead of this years Met Gala, Vogue announced that the theme for the annual event would be: Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty. In line with the theme, the accompanying exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute will examine the life - and creative legacy - of the late designer, who shaped the face of fashion for more than half a century.

The Good Place star previously spoke out against the Met Gala theme in October 2022, when she called out the German designer for the many instances he spoke in a distinctly hateful way, which she acknowledged was mostly towards women.

In a separate post shared to her Instagram Story ahead of the event, the 37-year-old actor reiterated her opposition to the Met Gala theme.

This is why so many people hate and mistrust Hollywood elite liberals. Because of our rampant selective outrage and hypocrisy. If someone makes good art we turn a blind eye. Why else did [Harvey] Weinstein get away with decades of abuse?

She added in a second post: Watching people who preach social justice online, the entire media, and the people on social media *willfully* celebrating, and ignoring the deplorable behaviour of a bigoted man at the Met Gala who consistently used his platform to degrade women, sexual assault survivors, fat people etc...with no apology...is so laughable...could have been Chanel themed, instead of him specifically, or could have been a theme that celebrated other designers who were less bigoted and hateful? But no.

Jameela Jamil speaks out against Met Gala 2023 theme (Instagram / Jameela Jamil)

While Jamil emphasised in a following post that shes not saying dont buy Chanel, she maintained that her issue with the Met Gala theme was that celebrities turn a blind eye and spend money/time on honouring someone who relentlessly perpetuated the very behaviour they demonise on the right.

Jamil says support for the Met Gala 2023 theme is a prime example of why the right win (Instagram/ Jameela Jamil)

Back in October, Jameela Jamil criticised the Met Galas decision to honour Karl Lagerfeld for its annual fashion event when she shared a black-and-white portrait of the late designer, writing: Nope.

In her caption, she said: Karl Lagerfeld is the theme for the entire Met Gala next year. This man... was indeed, supremely talented, but used his platform in such a distinctly hateful way, mostly towards women, so repeatedly and up until the last years of his life, showing no remorse, offering no atonement, no apology, no help to groups he attacked... there was no explanation for his cruel outbursts, she wrote in the caption at the time.

Jamil condemns celebrities who turn a blind eye to Lagerfelds controversial comments (Instagram / Jameela Jamil)

The actor included receipts with the post, noting examples of instances where Lagerfeld, who had worked as the creative director of the French fashion house Chanel, was fatphobic, sexist, and xenophobic.

In the second photo of the album, Jamil included a reference to Lagerfelds 2009 interview with German magazine Focus where he claimed that no one wants to see curvy women. The series of photos also included examples of the comments Lagerfeld made about women who came forward with their experiences during the Me Too Movement. If you dont want your pants pulled about, dont become a model! Join a nunnery, therell always be a place for you in the convent, he reportedly told Numero in 2018.

Jamil said in her post that she was well aware that it would probably end [her] relationship with Vogue, before noting that she was amazed to see the entire Met Gala and all the famous celebrities and models celebrating someone who said this sh*t about women so often.

In another slide, Jamil included additional comments Lagerfeld made about Me Too, in which he had claimed that he was fed up with it. Another post again referenced harmful and fatphobic comments the designer made about thin models and real women.

Jameela Jamil condemns decision to honour Karl Lagerfeld with Met Gala theme (Jameela Jamil)

Youve got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly, Lagerfeld told Focus during the same interview in 2009, according to Vox. The world of beautiful clothing is about dreams and illusions.

The post also included references to Lagerfelds anti-immigration comments and his admission that he was not keen on gay couples being allowed to adopt.

Jamil included examples of moments where Lagerfeld publicly criticised the appearances of public figures such as Pippa Middleton, Adele, and Lana Del Rey as well.

Those groups were women who were sexually assaulted, the entire Me Too movement, gay couples who wanted to adopt, all fat people, specifically fat women, and some of his greatest harm was against Muslim refugees, and the disgusting way he spoke about people fleeing their homes for fear of their lives, Jamil continued in the caption. Why is THIS who we celebrate when there are so many AMAZING designers out there who arent bigoted white men?

The actor also questioned what happened to everyones principles and advocacy.

You dont get to stand for justice in these areas, and then attend the celebration of someone who reveled in his own public disdain for marginalised people, she said, before concluding the post with: Sorry, but no. This isnt the 90s. We didnt fight all this shit just to throw it all away because some white guy made some pretty clothes for peoples skinny faves... come on now.

Jamil says criticism isnt about cancel culture, but about setting a precedent (Jameela Jamil )

Jamil said she chose to make her feelings about Lagerfeld clear because of her political leanings: One of the many hypocrisies the left is accused of is double standards. This is the exact sort of incident that implies that.

Mass outrage when people on the right make fun of Lizzos body, or refugees, or Muslims or interfere with gay rights but when its a man who made pretty dresses that liberals like to wear suddenly its fingers in the ears and hands over the eyes? she continued. What are we doing? How do we expect to be taken seriously?

The Independent has contacted Vogue for comment.
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King Charles IIIs coronation, which takes place on Saturday 6 May, is set to be attended by 2,000 guests, including foreign monarchs across the world.

The coronation will be held in London at Westminster Abbey, which can seat up to 2,200 people. The limited guest list marks a departure from the late Queen Elizabeth IIs coronation, which was attended by 8,000 guests with 129 nations and territories officially represented at the ceremony.

In early April, Buckingham Palace unveiled the official invites for King Charles and Queen Camillas coronation. The elaborate invitation, which was reportedly sent to 2,000 people, invited guests to attend The Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III & Queen Camilla  By Command of the King the Earl Marshall is directed to inviteto be present at the Abbey Church of Westminster on 6th day of May 2023.

As the Kings coronation fast approaches, theres been much speculation over who will be attending the slimmed-down service. While members of the British royal family are likely to attend, many royal families throughout the world are also expected to attend the coronation.

The move marks a break from royal tradition. According to The Telegraph, the coronation was considered a sacred ceremony between a monarch and their people in the presence of God, but Charles is set to do away with the tradition and invite his counterparts from around the world.

Heres a list of all the foreign royals who have confirmed their attendance so far.

On 11 April, Crown Prince Fumihito and his wife Crown Princess Kiko of Japan confirmed they will be attending the coronation of King Charles III on May 6, according to local media.

The Imperial Household Agency announced they received an invitation from the British royal family in March requesting that the head of state or proxy attend the ceremony. The crown prince will represent his brother, Emperor Naruhito, at the coronation, seeing as the emperor doesnt attend foreign royal coronations per protocol. However, Emperor Naruhito and his wife, Empress Masako, attended the Queens funeral last September.

Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko confirm attendance at Kings coronation (Getty Images)

The Danish royal family also confirmed their attendance at the coronation earlier this month. In an announcement shared to the Danish Royal Houses website, Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark said they will participate in the coronation of HRH King Charles III and Queen Camilla of Great Britain at Westminster Abbey in London. Frederik attended Queen Elizabeths funeral in September with his mother, Queen Margrethe II.

In addition to Denmarks royal family, the Swedish Royal Court has also confirmed the coronation attendance of King Carl XVI Gustaf, along with his daughter and heir, Crown Princess Victoria. The Swedish monarch is one of the few foreign rulers to attend the British kings coronation, rather than sending a consort to represent him.

Prince Albert II of Monaco was the first foreign head of state to confirm he would be attending the Kings coronation. In January, Monacos reigning sovereign told People that he and his wife, Princess Charlene, will be among the guests at Westminster Abbey.

Im certain that its going to be an incredible ceremony and a very moving one, the 64-year-old royal said. Weve maintained contact since His Majesty became King, but I havent talked to him personally since the Queens funeral.

Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 (Getty Images)

The prince shared that hes certain the King will add his own personal touches to the coronation. However, he was unsure whether their eight-year-old twins, Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, will be invited.

King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain confirmed their attendance on 11 April, as well as King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands will also attend the coronation, while their daughter, Princess Catharina-Amalia, and Willem-Alexanders mother, Princess Beatrix, will attend the reception at Buckingham Palace on 5 May.

Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit will represent Norway at the coronation, following their recent visit to the UK where they were hosted by the Prince and Princess of Wales at Windsor Castle in March. Grand-Duke Henri of Luxembourg and Grand-Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg will also attend, along with Queen Anne-Marie of Greece and her son and daughter-in-law, Crown Prince Pavlos and Crown Princess Marie-Chantal.

A source previously told The Mail on Sunday: At the Queens Coronation there were no crowned monarchs, only the protectorate rulers like the Queen of Tonga. Its been a tradition for centuries. Inviting the King of Jordan, the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman and the Scandinavian royals  who are all friends of Charles  will be a good bit of soft power and diplomacy.

Buckingham Palace previously announced that King Charles III has invited more than 850 community and charity representatives to his and Queen Camillas coronation. More than 450 British Empire Medal (BEM) recipients were invited to see the service from inside Westminster Abbey, while some 400 young people representing charities will be able to watch the coronation and procession from a special private viewing at the nearby St Margarets Church.

Although not a foreign monarch, President Joe Biden has confirmed that he will not be attending King Charles IIIs coronation. Instead, his wife First Lady Jill Biden will be going on behalf of the United States.
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The Duke of Sussex is fifth in line to the throne and the youngest son of King Charles III and the late Princess Diana.

In 2020, he made the decision to step back from his royal duties but still retains his Duke of Sussex title. He now lives in California with his wife Meghan Markle and two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilbet.

After months of speculation over whether the duke will attend his fathers coronation on 6 May, Buckingham Palace confirmed in April that he would be attending the coronation, but without his wife Meghan. The coronation will mark the first time Prince Harry will appear in public with senior members of the royal family since the release of his tell-all memoir Spare.

Here is a timeline of Prince Harrys life ahead of the coronation:

Dealing with his mothers death

His parents divorced in 1996, and the following year he was hit with the news that his mother died in a car crash in Paris. At Dianas funeral, aged 12, he walked behind her hearse in the funeral procession.

In his memoir Spare, Harry wrote of the moment he learnt of Dianas death. He also revealed that, in 2007, he drove through the tunnel that his mother died in, as a way to gain closure over the loss.

The duke claimed his father did not hug him and he later felt like a politician as he greeted members of the public in the wake of her death.

Prince Harry was 12 years old when Princess Diana died (1987 AP)

Harry was subjected to close media attention in his youth that he would later decry.

Harrys blunders are published

In January 2005, the Duke of Sussex attended a friends fancy dress-themed birthday party in a Nazi uniform, wearing a swastika armband.

The royal, who was 20 at the time, later apologised, saying that he was very sorry if I caused any offence or embarrassment to anyone, adding: It was a poor choice of costume and I apologise.

In his book Spare, released in January, Harry claimed that William and his then-girlfriend Kate Middleton had encouraged him to wear the costume and howled with laughter at the suggestion.

Harry has since said that wearing the costume was probably one of the biggest mistakes of his life. He also said in his memoir that he was probably a bigot before his met his wife Meghan.

Continuing his mothers legacy

Harry has taken part in a number of philanthropic campaigns that channel the interests of his late mother Diana.

In 2016, Harry underwent a public HIV test at Guys and St Thomas Hospital to raise awareness and promote how easy it is to get tested, as part of his on-going efforts to eradicate stigmas associated with HIV/AIDS. Diana famously shook the hands of HIV patients in the Nineties when many still believed the virus could be passed on by physical contact.

Harry also spearheaded the Heads Together mental health campaign with his brother William, leading a coalition of eight mental health charities with the aim of changing the conversation on mental health.

Harrys military service

He spent a decade working in the Armed Forces, ending his operation duties in 2015. During his service, he conducted two tours of duty to Afghanistan with the British Army.

The prince at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan (Getty Images)

After leaving the British Army in 2015, the duke spent three months working on a number of such projects in Nambia, Tanzania, South Africa and Botswana.

He later founded the Invictus Games, an international multi-sport event for wounded, sick and injured servicemen and women who are in active service or veterans.

Harry meets Meghan Markle

Harry met Suits actor Meghan Markle on a blind date at Soho House in London after being set up by a mutual friend, Violet von Westenholz.

They instantly hit it off. Despite the distance between them (with Meghan living in the US and Harry in the UK), they continued to see each other. For their third date, Harry whisked Meghan away to Botswana, where the pair camped under the stars.

Harry and Meghan met on a blind date in 2016 (Jeremy Selwyn - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The couple later returned to Botswana for Meghans birthday the following year.

Their relationship was made public in November of that year when Harry made an appeal to the media on behalf of Meghan. In the rare statement, he noted that Meghan had received sexism and racism and asked for privacy.

The couple made their official debut in 2017 at the royals Invictus Games, which were held in Toronto, Canada. In November of that year, they announced their engagement after months of speculation.

Harry said at the time that he proposed at home over a roast chicken dinner. Harry went on to say that Meghan and his late mother would have been thick as thieves.

In May 2018, Harry and Meghan wed at St Georges chapel as the new royal wore a satin boat neck gown designer by Clare Waight Keller of Givenchy, with Queen Marys Diamond Bandeau tiara.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wave from the Ascot Landau Carriage during their carriage procession on the Long Walk as they head back towards Windsor Castle in Windsor, on May 19, 2018 (AFP via Getty Images)

In May 2019, they welcomed their first child Prince Archie. Their second child, Princess Lilbet Diana was born in June 2021.

Harrys comments about the press

Prince Harry has been vocal about his dislike of the tabloid presss interest in his personal life and has often criticised how the press treated him, Meghan and his late mother, Princess Diana.

The Sussexes have publicly struggled with media coverage of their relationship, with the duchess launching privacy action against the Mail on Sunday while Harry pursued the owners of The Sun and The Daily Mirror over alleged phone-hacking.

At no point did I have a girlfriend or a relationship with anyone without the tabloids getting involved and ultimately ruining it, or trying to ruin it, using whatever unlawful means at their disposal, the princes witness statement said in the recent phone-hacking court trial.

Harry steps back from royal duties, 2020

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced in January 2020 that they were to step back as senior members of the royal family.

The couple said they wanted to become financially independent and would split their time between North America and the UK.

In the statement, Harry and Meghan said: After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution.

The Queen was very clear that she wanted both grandsons to go to war, a former head of the military has said (Paul Grover - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

We intend to step back as senior members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.

It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment.

Harry and Meghan opened their own production company Archewell Productions and worked with Netflix to create their documentary titled Harry & Meghan, which released in January 2023. In it, they made several claims about the way they were treated by members of the royal family throughout their relationship.

Relations between Harry and senior members of the royal family became fraught following the decision to step back.

Despite this, Harry was present at the Queens platinum jubilee in June 2022, but did not appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace since he is no longer a working royal.

When Queen Elizabeth II died in September, Harry flew to London with his wife Meghan to attend the funeral.

Harry releases his tell-all memoir Spare, January 2023

In January of this year, Harry released his tell-all memoir Spare, in which he made several allegations about his family.

He revealed personal details about his own life, including the story of how he lost his virginity. He also detailed his drug use as a young adult, how many people he killed while on military tour in Afghanistan and said he wanted further investigation into his mothers death.

At the time, clips of the audiobook version of Harrys memoir went viral as they circulated on the internet, with the book becoming the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever, recording figures of 400,000 sold on its first day of publication.

One of the strongest statements made by Harry in the book was perhaps the claim that his brother William physically attacked him.

Harry wrote: (William) called me another name, then came at me. It all happened so fast. So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor.

I landed on the dogs bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.

William and Harry arriving for the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace, London (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Wire)

Harry later spoke of a red mist that came over his brother during this altercation.

Harry later told ITVs Tom Bradby: What was different here was the level of frustration, and I talk about the red mist that I had for so many years, and I saw this red mist in him.

The Duke claims William urged him to hit back, citing fights they had as children, but Harry refused and his brother left before returning, looking regretful and apologising.

Harrys attendance at his fathers coronation on 6 May will mark the first time he will see senior members of the royal family since Spares release.
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As King Charles IIIs coronation approaches, Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton, will be in attendance.

Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana was born at St Marys Hospital in Paddington, London on 2nd May 2015, and on the day of Charless coronation, she will be eight years old.

As the second child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, she is third in line to the throne, after her older brother and father, since King Charles is her grandfather.

Due to the introduction of the Perth Agreement, which replaced male preference in the line of succession with absolute primogeniture  when the child of the sovereign has the same right to the throne no matter their gender  Charlotte did not move down the line of succession when her younger brother, Louis, was born. This makes her the first British princess to rank above her brother in the line of succession.

When she was born, her official title was Charlotte, Princess of Cambridge, before her parents took the Wales title following the death of Charlottes great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September.

She is affectionately called Lottie by her parents.

In March 2016, William and Kate took Prince George and Charlotte to the French Alps  their first holiday as a family of four before Louis was born.

Later in June, she made her first public appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Trooping the Colour parade.

That Christmas, Charlotte and George both attended their first Sandringham Christmas Day Service at St Mary Magdalene.

Later that year, she joined her parents and her big brother on her first overseas tour  an official visit to Canada.

Charlotte also accompanied her family on their official visit to Poland and Germany in July 2017.

To mark her second birthday, the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge shared a photograph of Charlotte at their home in Norfolk, which was taken by Kate. The family lived primarily in Anmer Hall in Norfolk during Charlottes infancy, before moving primarily to Kensington Palace in 2017.

The royal family at the late Queens Platinum Jubilee in 2022 (Getty Images)

In January 2018, Charlotte started at Willocks Nursery School in South Kensington, London.

In April of the same year, Charlotte became a big sister to Louis. Charlotte and her big brother George went to visit their mother at the hospital to greet the newborn.

Charlotte began attending school at Thomass Battersea Preparatory School in London, joining George, in September 2019.

Along with her older brother, Charlotte met David Attenborough in September 2020. A video was released of the children asking Attenborough questions regarding environmental conservation.

Later that year, the children made their first red carpet appearance accompanying their parents to the London Palladium for a performance of a pantomime held to celebrate key workers for their efforts during the pandemic.

Charlotte made her debut in a royal carriage procession at her great-grandmothers platinum jubilee celebration weekend and joined the Trooping the Colour carriage procession in 2022.

On the same weekend, Charlotte and George made their first official visit to Wales with their parents, where they attended concert rehearsals in Cardiff Castle. The next day, Charlotte accompanied her parents, the late Queen, Charles and Camilla on the Buckingham Palace balcony.

In September 2022, Charlotte and her older brother Prince George accompanied their parents to the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

William and Kate have kept efforts to shelter their children from the press and only appears on official visits or in officially released photographs. The family currently reside in Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Home Park.
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A Jesuit priest and a scientist are appearing before a German court Wednesday charged with coercion in connection with a climate protest last year.

The Rev. Joerg Alt and Cornelia Huth, a biologist and member of the group Scientist Rebellion, blocked a road in Munich on Oct. 28.

Numerous similar protests have taken place across Germany and other countries recently as climate activists try to draw attention to the urgency of tackling global warming.

The public and political response to such road blockades has been mixed. While some German mayors have said they support the protesters' cause. if not their means, activists have also faced violence from enraged motorists and calls for tough punishment from conservative politicians.

So far, most courts have acquitted the protesters or handed down fines, though in at least one recent case a judge sentenced three activists to prison terms ranging from three to five months.

Also appearing before the Munich regional court is Luca Thomas, a student from Bayreuth.

The trial comes as Germany hosts a key diplomatic meeting aimed at paving the way for greater international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions at this year's U.N. climate summit.

Activists accuse the government of failing to do enough to put Germany on course to meet its goal of cutting emissions to net zero by 2045.

___

Follow AP's coverage of climate issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
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A new Covid strain behind a surge of infections in India has sparked fears it could also lead to a rise in cases in the UK.

Research indicates Arcturus could be one 1.2 times more infectious than the last major sub-variant.

Also known as Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, the strain was first identified in January and has been monitored by the World Health Organisation (WHO) since 22 March, which upgraded it to a variant of interest in mid-April.

Addressing Arcturuss emergence at a press conference on 29 March, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHOs technical lead for Covid, said: Its been in circulation for a few months.

We havent seen a change in severity in individuals or in populations, but thats why we have these systems in place. It has one additional mutation in the spike protein, which, in lab studies, shows increased infectivity as well as potential increased pathogenicity.

The sub-variant, one of 600 spawned from Omicron so far but seemingly no more lethal than others, has been detected in 34 countries so far, including Britain and US.

In India, the countrys health ministry reported 40,177 active Covid cases on 3 May, part of a steady seven-week rise that has prompted compulsory face masks to be introduced in some states, hospitals to carry out mock drills and vaccine production to be ramped up.

India was devastated by the Delta wave in 2021 and suffered a total of 4.7m excess deaths, according to WHO estimates.

Dr Vipin Vashishtha, a paediatrician and former head of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Immunisation, told The Hindustan Times that Arcturuss symptoms include a high fever, a cough and itchy conjunctivitis or pinkeye.

Five deaths and around 135 cases have been detected in the UK so far, according to the latest update from the UK Health Security Agency, but Professor Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia has told The Daily Mail it is too soon to say that Britain could face a fresh surge in infections driven by Arcturus.

Commuters wear face masks amidst the spike in Covid cases in Chennai, India (EPA)

Although in India it has taken off in the past few weeks so far it has not been increasing rapidly globally, Professor Hunter said.

I suspect we will see a wave of infections with this variant but I doubt it will cause a big wave probably not even as great as the one we have just had in the UK and so probably not put as great a pressure on health services than recently.

The professor was alluding to the Kraken strain of Covid, also known as XBB.1.5, which was the dominant form of the disease in Britain until February.

Scientists at the University of Tokyo comparing the Kraken and Arcturus sub-variants have suggested that the newer strain spreads about 1.17 to 1.27 times more efficiently than its relative, warning that it will spread worldwide in the near future aided by the fact that it seems robustly resistant to antibodies lingering in the body from previous Covid infections.

In the US, Arcturus is now responsible for 11.7 per cent of American Covid cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO.

Virologist Professor Lawrence Young from the University of Warwick told The Independent that the rise of the new variant in India is a sign that were not yet out of the woods.

We have to keep an eye on it, he said. When a new variant arises you have to find out if its more infectious, more disease-causing, is it more pathogenic? And whats going to happen in terms of immune protection.

These kinds of things highlight the importance of genomic surveillance but a lot of countries including our own have let our guards down a bit and we cant be sure what variants are around and what level of infection theyre causing until we see a significant outbreak.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had a warm meeting with the King and respected him as the countrys head of state, despite being a republican.

The politician, in the UK ahead of the coronation, spoke after joining Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to tour the BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, where nuclear submarines will be built as part of the Aukus agreement announced earlier this year by UK, Australian and US leaders.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Albanese was asked about meeting the King the previous day.

I support an Australian as Australia's head of state Anthony Albanese

He said: I support an Australian as Australias head of state.

That doesnt mean that I dont respect the institutions and it certainly doesnt mean I dont respect King Charles, both as a person but also as Australias head of state.

That is our constitutional arrangement that we have.

As the Australian Prime Minister I will respect the arrangements that we have across the board.

He said he could not go into details of the meeting because of protocol.

He added: I can say though that it was very warm, I appreciated the discussion that we had and that King Charles has a great love for and affection for Australia.

He said he told the King that he and the Queen Consort would be welcome visitors to Australia, as would any other member of the royal family.

He added: I certainly am looking forward to being at the coronation on Saturday and Im sure it will be successful.

Asked if he would swear an oath of allegiance to the monarch, he said: I do it every time that Im sworn into Parliament.

Mr Albanese and Mr Wallace spoke to staff and apprentices at the shipyard, where Australians will train to build the SSN-AUKUS submarines.

Mr Albanese said: The Aukus arrangements are about our national security and about our common interests between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, to uphold the international rule of law, to co-operate in both the development of nuclear-powered submarines for Australia, but also with other technological co-operation, with the engagement as a part of Aukus phase two, going forward.

But also, its about something more than our national security, its about jobs and economic prosperity.

Mr Wallace said: The SSN-AUKUS submarines will protect the Euro-Atlantic region for decades to come and with their interoperable submarine design, will ensure mutual compatibility with our Australian and US allies alongside supporting jobs across the UK and demonstrating the experience and skill which embodies British industry.
Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza have agreed to a ceasefire after a night of Israeli air strikes that pounded the besieged coastal enclave, while rockets were launched towards Israel following the death in prison of prominent Palestinian hunger striker, Azernews reports via Aljazeera.com.

The reciprocal and simultaneous ceasefire went into effect at 3:30am (00:30 GMT) and was brought about with efforts from Egyptian, Qatari and United Nations officials, two sources told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

Islamic Jihad spokesman Tareq Selmi said fighting had ended by dawn on Wednesday.

Hamas had engaged in talks with Egyptian, Qatari and UN officials to end Israeli aggression on Gaza, the group said in a statement earlier on Wednesday.

Hamas said its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, held talks with officials from both countries and the UN to end Israels attacks, which saw Israeli fighter jets and tanks attack targets in Gaza late on Tuesday, and Palestinian fighters fire rockets into Israel, following the death of Adnan after he spent 87 days on hunger strike in an Israeli jail.

A Palestinian source told Al Jazeera Arabic that the ceasefire was the result of several parties entering talks to prevent Israels attack on Gaza from escalating. Hamas also praised the performance of the Palestinian armed groups that had jointly responded to Adnans death, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

A joint statement by factions in Gaza on Tuesday, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said the rocket fire was an initial response to Adnans death.

The Israeli military said at least 30 rockets were fired from Gaza. Two landed in the small Israeli city of Sderot just east of Gaza. Israels Magen David Adom emergency service said three people were wounded by shrapnel in the Sderot area.
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Religious and community leaders with roles in the Kings coronation service have urged Britons to take part in a planned volunteering drive.

The multi-faith group, set to participate in a greeting to the King at the end of the Westminster Abbey service on Saturday, have encouraged communities to get involved in the Big Help Out on Monday May 8.

Organisers say thousands of organisations across the country are set to unite for a day of community volunteering to mark Charles historic coronation.

The Archbishop of Canterbury said he is delighted to support the volunteering drive because helping others is a key theme of the Coronation weekend.

Justin Welby added: As we celebrate the coronation, I joyfully encourage everyone to help out in all kinds of creative ways.

I pray we take this opportunity to come together, support those around us and unite our communities.

Lets build a legacy of love for one another.

The Dean of Westminster, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, KBE, The Most Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala, The Rt Hon The Lord Singh of Wimbledon, CBE, Radha Mohan das and Aliya Azam, MBE have also backed the Big Help Out.

Sir Ephraim urged everyone to take part in this day of national volunteering.

Sir Ephraim was installed in his role in September 2013 during a ceremony attended by Charles when he was prince of Wales, the first time a member of the royal family was present.

He said: By taking part in The Big Help Out campaign, volunteering our time and energy, we can make a positive impact on our communities, help those in need, and promote social cohesion.

I urge everyone, regardless of their faith or background, to embrace this opportunity and take part in this day of national volunteering.

May The Big Help Out be a source of inspiration and hope, and may it strengthen the bonds that unite us as a people.

Mr Seelawimala, head monk of the London Buddhist Vihara and Chief Sangha Nayaka of Great Britain, echoed their calls by urging Buddhists in the UK to come together to celebrate the coronation through volunteering.

Lord Singh of Wimbledon CBE, a prominent member of the Sikh community, sitting as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, said: Seva or selfless service is central to Sikhism.

The Big Help Out with its focus on volunteering for the public good on the Coronation bank holiday, rightly pays tribute to King Charless longstanding commitment to public service.

Radha Mohan das, a Hindu representative based at the Bhaktivedanta Manor Temple, a mock-Tudor Hertfordshire mansion in 78 acres donated by former Beatle George Harrison, called the Big Help Out a fantastic initiative.

Let everyone work and serve together for the betterment of our country, its environment and all its communities, he said.

Muslim Aliya Azam MBE is an interfaith co-ordinator at the Al-Khoei Foundation which organises a number of events encouraging people of different religions to interact, the most prominent is the Big Iftar which brings people of all faiths and none together during the Islamic month of Ramadan.

She said: Volunteering is not just about lending a helping hand, its about spreading kindness, building connections and spiritual growth.

Joining the Big Help Out initiative is an opportunity to make a meaningful positive impact on the lives of others.

Lets come together for the coronation weekend and show that even the smallest acts of kindness can make a big difference.

It comes as, for the first time, representatives from the nations faith communities are set to play an active role in the coronation of a monarch.

At the end of the coronation, the King will receive a greeting in unison from leaders and representatives from Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Buddhist communities.

They will tell the newly crowned King: Your Majesty, as neighbours in faith, we acknowledge the value of public service.

We unite with people of all faiths and beliefs in thanksgiving, and in service with you for the common good.

Charles will acknowledges the greeting.
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A British pub in California will be the place to be for expats wanting to celebrate the Kings coronation this weekend, its manager has said.

Preparations have begun at Ye Olde Kings Head pub in Santa Monica, California, in anticipation of the big event on May 6.

The pub often marks significant royal events and celebrations, having put on events for the Platinum Jubilee and funeral of the Queen.

The coronation is due to be televised between 2am and 7am local time in Los Angeles, so replays and highlights of the ceremony will be shown throughout the day from 10am.

Celebrations will include a special King Charles afternoon tea, an all-British hits DJ set and a Beatles tribute band.

The pubs gift shop is already stocked with commemorative merchandise, which includes mugs, postcards, flags and tea towels, with Union flag bunting already proudly displayed.

A large cardboard cutout of Charles is in pride of place, ready for guests to take photos with to mark the occasion.

Operations manager Lisa Powers said the pub was already at capacity for bookings on the afternoon tea.

If you cant be in England and you are in Los Angeles, then we are the place to come and feel like youre in England, she told the PA news agency.

Youll be with like-minded people having a good time.

All the girls are going to be dressing up in their crowns and tiaras and their fascinators and all of that  it will be fun.

Ye Olde Kings Head has previously featured a Queen impersonator, although Ms Powers suggested the actress may now need to be recast as the Queen Consort.

We have the King Charles cutout so people can come and have a picture taken with King Charles, but we still need to find a Camilla, she said.

Established in 1974, the venue has been visited by scores of Hollywood celebrities over the years including Kate Beckinsale, Pierce Brosnan and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Rocker Ozzy Osbourne reportedly used to frequent the gift shop and has been rumoured to spend thousands of dollars on British-brand chocolate.
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The King will reign in his own way with the support of the Queen Consort and his family, the man in charge of the coronation has said.

The Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk, who is overseeing the historic occasion, described Charless crowning as a proud moment in our national history.

He said Charles was providing continuity by following in the late Queens footsteps and serving as monarch, but would do it in his own way.

With just days to go until the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, the duke said the event was a chance to bring the UK, the Kings overseas realms and the Commonwealth closer together by plugging into the power of the past.

He described the coronation as blending the best of tradition and history while reflecting the nation we are today.

More than 2,300 guests, including for the first time at a British coronation 100 heads of state, will gather on Saturday to see Charles and Camilla anointed and crowned in the UKs first coronation for 70 years.

The duke, whose family has had the responsibility of organising state occasions since 1483, said: This is a proud moment in our national history.

During the coronation, the King will swear before God and the nation to serve our country as head of state, upholding our laws and maintaining justice for all.

But this is also a time to remind ourselves of the pride we have in our great country and our unwritten constitution, which has served us so well for over 1,000 years during our long history.

The late Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned for 70 years and who dedicated her life to service, earned the admiration and respect of the world.

Now we have the continuity of a new King who will follow in her footsteps, but do it in his own way with his wife and family carrying out their loyal service alongside His Majesty.

It is a system which has constantly evolved over time, helping to secure the freedom we enjoy today.

The coronation is an opportunity to bring our great nation, the realms and Commonwealth closer together, plugging into the power of the past, promoting our shared values to the wider world with all that we have to offer.

The duke is responsible for the main coronation organising group, made up of more than 100 representatives from the Government, Buckingham Palace, the heralds, the church, the military, the police, the BBC and other representatives.

However, the baton of responsibility rests with me, he said.

He said the Kings coronation would be different to Queen Elizabeth IIs in 1953.

This coronation has at its heart a Christian service, but it is also about service, the duke said.

The service the King is proud to perform as sovereign and the service so many selfless individuals devote to their communities for the public good around the nation, realms and Commonwealth.

To that end, the main coronation service in Westminster Abbey will be different to 1953.

At the Queens coronation there were more than 8,000 guests and the abbey closed for five months in preparation, rather than for a week and half.

In the abbey this time, the congregation will reflect a broad cross-section of national and international guests including local heroes, British Empire medallists and others who have contributed to British society, the duke said.

He also highlighted the representatives from other faiths taking part and reflecting the diversity of modern Britain, although the ceremony remains a sacred Anglican one.

The duke said the coronation procession back from the abbey to Buckingham Palace featuring 7,000 troops on ceremonial duties would be a glorious display of pageantry.

And he described the Big Help Out volunteering drive being staged on the bank holiday Monday as a wonderful legacy for the weekend of celebration.
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A man asked to speak to a soldier outside Buckingham Palace before launching shotgun cartridges into the grounds, police have said.

The suspect approached the gates of the royal residence shortly after 7pm on Tuesday evening, amid a heavy police presence in the lead-up to the Kings coronation.

Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan said he spoke to a police officer on guard and asked to speak to a soldier.

They said that wasnt possible, at which point he threw some shotgun cartridges over the gates, he added.

They grabbed him in seconds, he was detained, he was searched and he was found to be in possession of a lock-knife.

Mr Adelekan said that while being arrested, the man raised officers suspicions about his backpack by telling them it needed to be handled correctly.

The bag was destroyed in a controlled explosion, but police have not confirmed what was inside, or finished analysis of the shotgun cartridges.

The suspect remains in custody, after being arrested for possession of ammunition and the knife.

Mr Adelekan said the incident was not being considered as terror-related at this stage, and a mental health incident had been carried out.

He had no knowledge of reported previous incidents where the same man allegedly said he wanted to kill the King, and that he made no mention of the King on Tuesday.

The incident came amid an increased police presence around Buckingham Palace and other major London sites for rehearsals ahead of Saturdays coronation.

Hundreds of thousands of people are flooding into London to celebrate, while protests are also expected to take place.

Security has been heightened around Buckingham Palace ahead of the coronation (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The security services are working to stem any threat from jihadists, neo-Nazis and other extremists who revile the royal family as a symbol of the British state, while police are also monitoring fixated individuals.

Recent years have seen several terror cases and threats aimed at the royal family, including specifically targeting the late Queen and Prince Harry.

In February, a man admitted taking a loaded crossbow to Windsor Castle and threatening to kill the Queen while dressed like something out of a vigilante movie.

Jaswant Singh Chail was caught in the private grounds of the royal residence on Christmas Day in 2021 and informed officers at the scene that he intended to kill the Queen.

He pleaded guilty to a rare charge under the Treason Act 1842 over the incident, which Chail said was revenge for a 1919 massacre by British colonial troops in India.

Chail was detained under the Mental Health Act and has not yet been sentenced.

In August 2017, an Isis-inspired terrorist attempted an attack on police officers outside Buckingham Palace, slashing them with a sword while shouting Allahu akbar.

Mohiussunnath Chowdhury originally planned to target soldiers at Windsor Castle but changed his plan after an apparent sat-nav error.

He was initially acquitted of terror charges over the attack, but was later jailed for mounting another plot after being freed from prison.
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A man has admitted keeping a pensioners body in a freezer for nearly two years but denies using his bank card to obtain cash.

Damion Johnson pleaded guilty at Derby Crown Court on Tuesday to keeping 71-year-old John Wainwrights body in the freezer of a property in Birmingham.

Mr Wainwright died in September 2018 and was discovered in August 2020.

The offence is believed to have taken place when the pair lived in a flat in Cleveland Tower, Holywell Head, in Birmingham city centre, but Mr Wainwrights cause of death is yet to be ascertained.

Wearing a Las Vegas Raiders jacket, a chequered shirt, patterned trousers and deck shoes, Johnson, of Sun Street, Derby, admitted one count of preventing the lawful and decent burial of a dead body between September 1 2018 and August 22 2020.

But the 52-year-old denied three counts of fraud by false representation concerning using Mr Wainwrights bank card to withdraw money from cash machines, pay for goods and transfer money to his own account between September 23 2018 and May 7 2020.

Judge Shaun Smith KC told Johnson he will face trial on November 7.

When asked by the judge what Johnsons defence will be, Raglan Ashton, mitigating, said: He says he was not acting dishonestly, namely that he maintains that he was entitled to the funds in Mr Wainwrights account.

The arrangement was that monies would be paid jointly into Mr Wainwrights account, so essentially he maintains that it was his funds in Mr Wainwrights account and in short he was entitled to them.

Johnson remains on bail.
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A child murderer will be sentenced on television for the first time in England and Wales following a successful legal challenge by the media.

Marques Walker, 17, can now be identified as the killer of Jermaine Cools, who at the age of 14 was the youngest victim of fatal knife crime in 2021.

Jermaine was stabbed as he lay defenceless on the ground outside a chicken shop in Croydon, south London, on November 18 2021.

At the time of the killing, Walker, then aged 16, was on bail for carrying a large knife, the Old Bailey was told.

Earlier this year, Walker, now 17, pleaded guilty to Jermaines murder and possessing a knife.

There is a very strong argument in this case in support of the lifting of reporting restrictions Prosecutor Caroline Carberry

Ahead of his sentencing, a joint application was made by the PA news agency, The Times, The Sun and The Daily Mail newspapers to lift a court order banning Walker from being identified.

A separate bid was made for permission to film Walkers sentence and broadcast the footage on news channels and online.

Jermaines parents Lorraine Dudek and Julius Cools attended the legal hearing by video link on Wednesday to discuss reporting of their sons case.

Walkers lawyer attended court and the media was represented by a barrister.

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC said: There is a very strong argument in this case in support of the lifting of reporting restrictions and once it is deemed in the public interest for reporting restrictions to be lifted the hearing may be recorded for broadcast unless there is a reason not to. We bear in mind the defendant would not be filmed.

She argued that in the circumstances of the case the widest reporting would act as a very powerful deterrent and that Jermaines parents were fully supportive of the widest possible reporting.

Judge Sarah Munro KC lifted the legal restriction on naming Walker and agreed to allow his sentence to be filmed despite his young age.

In her ruling, she said: Jermaine was the youngest victim of fatal knife crime in 2021.

The defendant was 16 at the date of the murder. He is 17 now and will be 18 in four months time. The reporting restriction would, in any event, lapse upon his attaining 18.

In this highly fact-specific case I have no hesitation in concluding that the restriction should be lifted and I hereby revoke the S45 order.

In all the circumstances of this case the welfare of this defendant does not outweigh the public interest in open justice and a reporting restriction is no longer necessary.

Outlining her reasons, she said: The serious nature and increasing prevalence of knife crime, knife-related homicide and violent crime; the consequent need for deterrence; the promotion of public confidence that the criminal justice system is addressing the problem; and the proximity of the defendants 18th birthday all outweigh any minimal impact upon the welfare of defendant.

She added: Having decided to revoke the reporting restriction, I will also grant the application for the sentence to be filmed and televised.

Jermaine was fatally injured in London Road, near West Croydon railway station, following a fight involving a number of people on November 18 2021.

Police have previously said that at 6.41pm, a member of the public reported the incident outside a chicken shop.

Walker was caught on chilling CCTV calmly walking towards the fight and drawing a large knife from his coat.

Jermaine appeared to fall over and the youth ran towards him while he was on the ground.

Walker was seen to repeatedly lunge at Jermaine with the knife while his victim was frantically trying to avoid being stabbed.

Jermaine received multiple stab wounds and the defendant ran off from the scene with the knife.

A member of the public approached Jermaine, who was bleeding heavily, and helped him into a car and drove him to Croydon hospital, where he later died.

A post-mortem examination found he had suffered seven stab wounds to his body, with the fatal wound to his chest piercing a lung.

A murder investigation began and the defendant was quickly identified from CCTV.

However, he had left his home and police hunted for him for nearly six weeks.

On December 27 2021, he was found hiding behind a bed and gave a false name to officers.

It was while on the way to the police station that he finally provided his real name and was arrested for murder.

At the station he refused to answer any questions but was charged with Jermaines murder and possession of an offensive weapon.

Judge Munro will sentence Walker, from Bromley, Kent, at the Old Bailey on May 9.

In July last year, Judge Munro made legal history when she became the first judge to be broadcast as she sentenced a defendant for manslaughter at the Old Bailey following the change in the law.
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Russian racing driver Nikita Mazepin has begun a High Court fight with British government ministers after being made subject to sanctions in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Mazepin, 24, who used to drive for the Haas Formula 1 Team, wants sanctions lifted and has taken legal action against Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

A judge considered preliminary issues at a High Court hearing in London on Wednesday.

Mr Justice Chamberlain heard that Mazepin and his father Dmitry Mazepin  a Russian businessman  had been made subject to sanctions in mid-March 2022.

In September 2022, Mazepin had requested revocation of his designation but ministers had decided to take no action.

A judge is due to oversee a further hearing in London in June.

Mr Justice Chamberlain was told that Mazepin was involved in a similar bid to get sanctions lifted in Canada.

Neither Mazepin nor his father were at the hearing.

Barrister Tom Leary, who represented Mr Cleverly, told the judge that Haas had terminated its relationship with Mazepin in early March 2022, following the outbreak of war.

He said Mazepin had not driven for a Formula 1 team since.

Mazepin and his father were subject to an asset freeze and travel ban, the judge was told.

Mr Leary indicated that one of the reasons Mazepin wanted sanctions lifted was so that he could travel to Britain to negotiate with race teams for the 2024 season.

Mr Justice Chamberlain suggested that a trial judge might have to stage part of the proceedings in private in order to consider any closed material presented by ministers.

(Mazepin) missed the 2022 season and, almost certainly, the 2023 season and, whilst those sanctions are in place, no Formula 1 team will take him on as a test, reserve or full driver Barrister Rachel Scott, representing Mazepin

Barrister Rachel Scott, who represented Mazepin, told Mr Justice Chamberlain in a written case outline: The UK sanctions to which he has been made subject, alongside the imposition of restrictive measures at EU level, effectively ended his racing career.

He missed the 2022 season and, almost certainly, the 2023 season and, whilst those sanctions are in place, no Formula 1 team will take him on as a test, reserve or full driver.

She added: The claimant will, in effect, be unable to negotiate a place on a Formula 1 team for 2024 unless he is free to travel to and from the UK to attend negotiations at teams bases in the UK, bearing in mind that seven of the 10 teams are based in the UK.

Negotiations to join a Formula 1 team usually begin in May or June of the previous year. Thereafter he must be able to enter the UK, not just for the British Formula 1 race, but for briefings, ergonomics design work, training and attending the teams base.
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Donald Trump has accused his successor Joe Biden of disrespecting the King by opting not to attend the coronation.

The former US president speculated that the 80-year-old White House incumbent would be sleeping at his American home instead of taking up the invitation to be at the Westminster Abbey ceremony on Saturday.

The billionaire businessman, who was defeated at the 2020 US presidential election by Mr Biden, said his Democrat rival was not physically up to being the countrys leader.

When you have somebody that's going to be sleeping instead of coming to the coronation as President of the United States, I think it's a bad thing Donald Trump

Mr Trump, in an interview with Nigel Farage for GB News during his recent visit to Scotland, said: I was surprised when I heard that he wasnt coming.

I think its very disrespectful for him not to be (at the coronation).

Mr Biden carried out a tour of Ireland last month to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the peace deal that helped quell the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The US President also travelled to London in September for the late Queens funeral but has opted not to attend her son Charles coronation, with his wife and First Lady Jill Biden representing him instead.

During the interview, Mr Trump predicted that he had a very good chance of winning the next election if he secures the Republican nomination to take on Mr Biden.

Bemoaning the performance of Mr Bidens administration, he said: When you have somebody thats going to be sleeping instead of coming to the coronation as President of the United States, I think its a bad thing.

Mr Trump was also critical of former prime minister Boris Johnson  previously seen as an ally of the former president  and former Scotland first minister Nicola Sturgeon.

He argued that Mr Johnson changed a lot in office, suggesting policies under the former Conservative Party leader were literally going far-left.

Mr Johnson won a landslide election for the Tories in 2019 but revelations about parties held in Downing Street during the coronavirus pandemic and his handling of sexual assault allegations against one of his ministers led to him being ousted.

Questioning the policy direction Mr Johnsons administration had been going in before he left office at the end of last year, Mr Trump said: What were they doing? I can tell you they were not Conservative policies in the end.

On Ms Sturgeon, Mr Trump said he did not think that the former SNP leader, who announced her intention to step down in February, loved her country.

Mr Trump, whose mother was Scottish, has business interests in Scotland, including owning a golf course in Aberdeenshire, which he visited during his stay this week.

Asked about Ms Sturgeons handling of the Isla Bryson case, the transgender woman who was held in a female prison after being convicted of raping two women before her transition from a man, the 76-year-old said: I know that case, and I thought it was terrible, and I guess it helped ruin her career.

I think she had other reasons also, but I just felt she didnt love Scotland.

Mr Trump said he did not know the new First Minister Humza Yousaf but said that he was sure hes going to be a lot better than Sturgeon.

On international issues, the former Western leader said he would be able to put a stop to the Ukraine conflict in a single day if he wins power again.

He also suggested Russian president Vladimir Putin would not have decided to invade Ukraine if he had still been in the White House, claiming he knew the Kremlin leader very well and that he never mentioned wanting to attack Kyiv.

If I were president, I will end that war in one day, Mr Trump continued.

Itll take 24 hours. I will get that ended. It would be easy.

That deal would be easy. A lot of it has to do with the money. That war has to be stopped. It is a disaster.
Anti-ageing supplements need to be clinically tested, but the answer to a longer healthy life may already be available, an expert has said.

Professor Cynthia Kenyon, an expert in ageing and longevity, said that while many supplements are easily accessible and inexpensive, there is little evidence to show they are effective.

However, clinical trials may reveal that one of the supplements already in circulation holds the answer to people remaining healthy as they age.
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Falklands war veteran Simon Weston has warned no one will want to risk their lives to support British efforts abroad in future if an Afghan pilot is deported to Rwanda.

Mr Weston, who suffered 46 per cent burns when the British ship Sir Galahad was bombed and set alight in 1982, said he was genuinely saddened and upset by the Home Offices threat to remove the Afghan war veteran, who served alongside British troops, to the east African country.

The pilot, who came to the UK via small boat, fled Afghanistan after spending months in hiding from the Taliban and said he was unable to find any safe and legal route to come to the country.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet Simon Weston and Welsh secretary Alun Cairns during a reception at Buckingham Palace in London (PA)

His plight was revealed by The Independent, which is calling on Rishi Sunak to support Afghan war heroes who served alongside Britain.

Mr Weston, who served in the Welsh Guards, said that the pilot had done nothing wrong by coming to the UK this way.

Hes shown courage, endeavour and ingenuity to get here. This is all about humanity and he deserves to be here because of the risks he took. This is not a political thing, its not about one side or another. The only side we should come down on here is humanitys side, he said.

Mr Weston added that the pilot had clearly shown intelligence and ability by training to join the Afghan air force and would be a benefit to this country as a result.

He asked what message it would send if the government failed to help the veteran, adding: What message are we giving to people around the world if we do not help this pilot? We dont know where the next conflict will be or who we will need help from.

The Independent has launched a petition calling for the UK to support Afghan war heroes who served alongside Britain.

What message are we giving to local people who agree with our local values? What are we saying to potential supporters and collaborators? Are we telling them that once its all over well just abandon you to whatevers left? Are we saying that in the end we will turn our back on you and leave you to be tortured and murdered? That we will leave your family in harms way?

We cant do that and we must honour these people.

Mr Weston joins more than 20 senior military chiefs and politicians backing The Independents campaign. The Royal British Legion, which represents tens of thousands of armed forces personnel, veterans and families, has also urged Britain to honour its commitment to help Afghan war heroes who worked with the British in Afghanistan.

Others who have added their support include Admiral Lord West, former head of the Royal Navy, Air Marshal Edward Stringer, former head of RAF Intelligence, and General Lord Richard Dannatt, former head of the army.

General Lord David Richards of Herstmonceux, the British former commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, also backed the campaign, saying it would be a travesty of justice if the airman, who arrived in the UK via small boat, was to be kicked out.

An Afghan pilot who arrived in the UK on small boat is being threatened with deportation to Rwanda (The Independent )

The general resettlement scheme for at-risk Afghans has only rehoused 22 people since the initial evacuation, government data shows.

Charities and politicians have warned that the lack of functioning legal routes to the UK for Afghans is fuelling Channel crossings. Afghans were the highest nationality crossing the Channel on small boats during the first three months of this year - with 909 people making the journey, data released last week shows.
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Police will not stop anti-monarchy protests during the coronation unless they cause serious disruption or break the law, a senior officer has said.

Republican groups are planning a series of Not My King demonstrations on Saturday, and officers fear some factions may attempt to cause disruption.

Several anti-monarchy demonstrators were arrested or spoken to by police during proclamation ceremonies for King Charles III that followed the Queens death in September.

But Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan said officers would not intervene over someone merely holding a placard in London.

Protest is lawful, he told a press conference on Wednesday. If at any point any protest, either during the coronation or afterwards, moves from being a protest that is lawful into criminal intent then you will see extremely swift action from us.

A controversial package of new laws came into force when the Public Order Act received royal assent on Tuesday, making it illegal for protesters to lock onto objects or each other, or interfere with key national infrastructure.

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, called for police to make full use of the new powers and hit out at so-called eco-warriors causing disruption and wasting millions of pounds of taxpayer money.

We are giving our police and courts the tools they need to stop this chaos, she added.

The law creates a new threshold for police intervention against serious disruption, including hindrance to journeys, deliveries and services, allowing the arrest of demonstrators who break any conditions imposed.

Mr Adelekan said the new law was open to interpretation, adding: That doesnt apply for someone whos holding a placard and the new laws do not deal with that at the present time. If it moves into serious disruption or into criminal matters, then we will deal with those.

The police and intelligence agencies are mounting a very complex security operation around the coronation (PA)

We are confident that you will get the appropriate response that has the right legal framework, which delivers the results that we want, and a great celebration for all of us.

Following a wave of heckling and protests at ceremonies for the proclamation of King Charles III in September, there was confusion about application of the Public Order Act to signs and statements that some found offensive.

A man who shouted who elected him? during a proclamation ceremony in Oxford was later charged under the law, with threatening or abusive words or behaviour  within the hearing of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress.

Symon Hill told The Independent the charge was not an accurate description of anything I said or did.

The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges after a review, but the application of powers against harassment, alarm or distress for anti-monarchy protests could arise again.

The policing and security operation around the coronation, codenamed Golden Orb, is one of the largest ever seen in Britain.

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There will be more than 29,000 police officer deployments over the coming week in the lead-up to the coronation, with officers drawn from across the UK, crown dependencies and overseas territories.

The day of the coronation itself will see over 11,500 officers on duty, in the largest one-day mobilisation seen in decades.

They will be lining the processional route, managing crowds and road closures, protecting royals and dignitaries, and carrying out searches with specialist teams.

Armed protection officers, snipers, dog teams, marine units and officers trained in behaviour detection techniques will be on duty to protect both the coronation itself and the crowds packing the streets.

Mr Adelekan urged people to report anything suspicious to police, adding: Our officers are here to help you, if you feel like something doesnt look right please speak with us.

The appeal came after a man was arrested outside Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening.

He allegedly asked a police officer whether he could speak to a soldier, and when told he could not started throwing shotgun cartridges over the gates.

No one was injured and the man is being held in custody following a mental health assessment.
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Jacob Rees-Mogg's GB News show descended into chaos last night as he broadcast near Buckingham Palace while police carried out a controlled explosion.

The former minister was joined by royal commentator Michael Cole in a portable cabin being used as a makeshift studio when a loud bang interrupted the broadcast.

A man was arrested last night after suspected shotgun cartridges were thrown into the grounds of Buckingham Palace, days before the Kings coronation.

The suspect was detained at about 7pm on Tuesday after he approached the palace gates in central London and threw a number of items, the Metropolitan Police said.

He is being held on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon after a knife was found, the force said. A suspicious bag was also discovered.

Police carried out a controlled explosion, heard live on GB News, while cordons were put up in the area just hours before a major rehearsal of the coronation procession.

Jacob Rees-Mogg and Michael Cole were at the helm of the bizarre broadcast (GB News)

Mr Rees-Mogg said on his show: Im very sorry to say it is good evening from me for the time being  as I think that was a controlled explosion in the background, that what it sounded like to me, we will no doubt find out later.

Having kept calm during the explosion, Mr Rees-Mogg went on to suggest that his composure may have come too hastily and that the boom could have a more sinister origin, adding: Perhaps my sangfroid has been unduly sang and not enough froid, if Ive got my French right.

A man was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Mr Cole stood his ground and pushed back against an apparent evacuation order, insisting he had been in many, many war zones under pressure, beaten up, covered civil wars, great disturbances, all out wars around the world. Beirut for 10 years, civil war.

He added: Can we just find out because overreaction is not what the British are about. We do have a certain amount of decorum on occasions like this. And so I want to hear the final word. I want to see a policeman or woman here telling us that we can no longer broadcast.

Mr Rees-Mogg then chimed in, asking for an officer to confirm that the show must be taken off the air. We need someone to confirm this officially, he said.

Several people then began to speak over one another out of shot. A short while later, a verdict comes. Guys, we have to leave, one of the voices rules.

Addressing his viewers, Mr Rees-Mogg offers his thanks for their patience. This is the state of the nation tonight, he concludes.

Police carried out a precautionary controlled explosion on Tuesday night (REUTERS)

Scotland Yard said yesterday it was not treating the incident as terror-related. It is understood it is being treated as an isolated mental health incident.

Neither the King nor the Queen Consort were at Buckingham Palace at the time of the incident.

Footage from the scene in the aftermath showed police cars parked outside the palace, with officers and sniffer dogs patrolling near the gates.

Officers could also be seen examining a number of items strewn across the floor just outside the gates.
A Conservative MP has vowed to fight on against the use of a barge to house 500 asylum seekers in Dorset, as it is towed to the UK.

The Bibby Stockholm is due to arrive in Cornwall later this week, and will be refitted and undergo checks before being moved to Portland Port.

The Independent understands that asylum seekers are not expected to be moved on board until late June or July, as the Home Office continues a divisive campaign to transfer asylum seekers out of hotels into ships and military bases.
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Thousands of British nationals have fled Sudan as violence sweeps the country, killing hundreds of civilians.

On 25 April, the first UK government evacuation flight rescued Britons trapped in the capital, Khartoum after a 72-hour ceasefire between warring factions was negotiated.

The government announced final flights for evacuees would leave on Saturday evening after fears that the armistice between the two rival generals was wearing down.

Thousands of Britons have fled the violence that has erupted in Sudan (UK MOD  Crown copyright 2023)

However, an additional flight was made available on bank holiday Monday for Britons desperate to flee the country.

British nationals were given until noon to reach an airport in Port Sudan to be processed for the extra flight out of the conflict zone as rescue efforts shift to the east of the country.

Here is a look at what we know about the evacuation plans, so far.

Why are people being evacuated from Sudan?

Hundreds of people have died and thousands hurt in a bloody conflict between the Sudanese army and a powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.

The prospect of airlifting large numbers of people out of Sudan has been complicated by the fact that most major airports have become battlegrounds, while movement out of the capital has proved perilous.

The current explosion of violence comes after two generals fell out over a recent internationally brokered deal with democracy activists, which was meant to incorporate the RSF into the military and eventually lead to civilian rule.

Hundreds of people have been killed so far in the conflict (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

A stream of European, Middle East, African and Asian military aircraft flew in all day Sunday and Monday to ferry hundreds of diplomats out.

For many Sudanese, the departure of foreigners and closure of embassies is a terrifying sign that international powers expect a worsening of the fighting that has already pushed the population into disaster.

Sudanese have desperately sought ways to escape the chaos, fearing that the rival camps will escalate their all-out battle for power once evacuations are completed.

Who has been evacuated so far?

The first flight with UK citizens landed at Larnaca airport in Cyprus with 39 people on board on Tuesday, the BBC reported.

Since then, some 2,122 people on 23 flights have been evacuated from the Wadi Saeedna airfield near Khartoum.

The RAF has airlifted nearly 2,200 people from an airfield near the capital Khartoum (PA Media)

How many Britons remain in Sudan?

As of the morning of Monday 1 May, it was believed that more than 1,000 British passport holders may remain.

Members of the military are working round the clock to assist UK citizens and others trying to escape the war-torn nation amid an uneasy ceasefire, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said.

The Foreign Office has urged British nationals to head to Port Sudan where an exceptional extra flight will take off and would repatriate a limited number of Britons left in the country who wish to leave.

Evacuees, believed to be British nationals, arrive at Stansted Airport following evacuation from Sudan (REUTERS)

Who is helping British citizens escape the fighting?

The armed forces and border force staff have been supporting the FCDO with the evacuation mission, with HMS Lancaster and the RAF redirected to the area.

Flights have been touching down in Cyprus, which has activated a humanitarian rescue mechanism for evacuating third-country civilians, before arriving in the UK hours later.

Relief is clear on the faces of the evacuees arriving in London (REUTERS)

Is the airbase safe and secure?

Downing Street said the British military stands ready to defend the airfield in Sudan but said efforts would be made to avoid active engagement with other forces.

The prime ministers official spokesperson said: Its worth emphasising that international evacuations have been taking place since Sunday and we havent seen any significant issues or large crowds appearing.

How long do British citizens have to fly out of Sudan?

Foreign secretary James Cleverly said on Monday 1 May: Evacuation flights have ended from Wadi Saeedna but our rescue efforts continue from Port Sudan.

Rishi Sunak said he could not guarantee the long-term safety of the air route being used given the volatility of the ceasefire, but other options were being considered.

The evacuation of UK nationals from Sudan is inherently dangerous as it remains unclear how long the ceasefire will hold, according to Mr Cleverly.

The UK will continue to advocate for a long-term end to the conflict along with its international allies, he added.
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First Minister Humza Yousaf has come under fire after failing to attend Holyrood for a debate on transparency within the SNP.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross accused the SNP, which has been in power for 16 years in Scotland, of secrecy, spin and cover ups.

He said while Mr Yousaf has been happy to answer questions from the press, he is unwilling to give a statement to MSPs about the turmoil within Scotlands governing party.

With a police investigation into the SNP finances ongoing and following the resignation of senior figures in the party after the media was misled about membership numbers, the Tories brought forward a debate in Holyrood calling on the First Minister to make a statement about SNP governance.

Mr Ross said such matters are in the public interest and should be properly scrutinised and debated in the national Parliament.

Insisting there are still crucial questions to be answered weeks into this sorry saga, the Scottish Tory leader said Mr Yousaf should answer questions from fellow MSPs.

Mr Ross said: The First Minister seems quite happy to answer these questions outside the chamber. He always stops to speak to the press to give his views on a whole host of issues.

If the First Minister is happy to give those answers to the press just a few metres from this chamber, why is he not happy to come in here to answer those questions?

Not just is he unwilling to answer questions in this chamber, he is unwilling to even attend today to respond to these points.

Today marks 16 years since the SNP were elected into Government.

During that time we have seen secrecy, spin and cover ups from the heart of Government.

Today is an opportunity for SNP members to say enough is enough.

With Mr Yousaf absent from the chamber, parliamentary business minister George Adam spoke for the Government.

He made clear that transparency and scrutiny of this Government is important, and he hit out at the Tories over their own refusal to reveal their current membership figures  saying Mr Rosss party wont practice what they are trying to preach.

Mr Adam added: The absolute hypocrisy from the Conservatives is almost laughable.

You just cannot take the Tories seriously on this issue George Adam, parliamentary business minister

You have to admire someone who has that level of brass neck, to complain about a lack of transparency when you lead the Scottish Conservative Party.

He recalled how the Conservatives at Westminster had illegally prorogued the UK Parliament to avoid debate and scrutiny, and he said that at the Scottish Conservative conference last weekend Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would only agree to speak to the Scottish press if he could handpick the media.

Mr Adam continued: The Tories come to us here in the Scottish Parliament and they talk about our integrity.

This party, the Conservatives, have received hundreds of thousands of pounds from unincorporated associations that do not reveal their origin of funding, and they question the integrity of others.

You just cannot take the Tories seriously on this issue.

He also noted that within days of being elected SNP leader, Mr Yousaf had announced a review of governance within the party.

The minister told MSPs: I am not going to stand here and claim that there are not issues in the SNP which need to be addressed.

But I can stand here and say these issues are going to be addressed.
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Soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland performing at the Kings coronation have said it has been hard to find the time to practice during a seriously busy few months of combat training and exercises.

Four servicemen will join a full band of 100 soldiers on Saturday as part of the pomp and pageantry in London.

Drummer and Fusilier Declan Tytler, 26, from Penicuik in Midlothian, and piper Lance Corporal Ryan Steele, 29, from Auchenheath in South Lanarkshire, have spent the last few weeks learning and rehearsing new music to be performed at the historic occasion.

But the soldiers said practice has not been on their minds much amid an intensive programme of combat training and exercises over the last few months.

Fusilier Tytler said: Yes we perform at ceremonial events, but most of the time were either training, out on deployment, or jumping into whatever mission or military aid were needed for. And when this is the case, drumming just isnt on the mind.

I think it can be easy for the public to forget the other things we do when we arent on their screens.

L/Corp Steele said it has been a juggling act to fit everything in.

The lead up to the coronation is certainly nothing like the ceremony and pageantry that youll see on the day, he said.

In fact, its a pretty quick transition from being in armoured vehicles and walking around in full 30kg kit in sweltering heat to being polished and presentable, stood in front of our new King.

Both men, who also performed at the Queens funeral last year, have recently returned from a military training exercise in Oman where they spent three months developing their core skills in challenging temperatures and terrain.

Private Graeme Thomson, 22, from Eyemouth in the Borders, and Lance Corporal Ryan McAllister, 22, from Gourock, Inverclyde, will be marching as part of the ceremonial parade on Saturday.

While the pressure is on to keep their steps in line, their day jobs have not stopped either.

They recently engaged in a Nato readiness test with the Canadian Army, undertaking hundreds of hours of training across a vast area with challenging terrain, weather and obstacles, including mine fields and enemy camps.

Pte Thomson said it had been gruelling, adding: Theres very little time for a break and you never know whats coming round the corner at any point.

Theres no bed or restful sleep at the end of a day either  its constant.

We set up tents and slept outside in the hours we could manage, but with the low March temperatures and the next test always around the corner, youre in a perpetual state of being on red alert.

L/Cpl McAllister said: Finding time to practice for the coronation has had to fit in around a seriously busy few months full of exercises and our wider combat training regime.

But I wouldnt have it any other way.

I joined the Army for the challenge and the opportunities it brings, and getting to step into these events that will be marked in the history books forever is definitely a bonus.

Its something I never thought Id be doing when I signed up.
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Cyber security experts are expected to help protect Eurovision Song Contest voting from possible Russian interference, MPs have heard.

Science and technology minister Paul Scully declined to comment on the details, but flagged the work of the National Cyber Security Centre and said the aim was to keep resilience in our voting process.

Ukraine won last years competition but Russias renewed invasion means Liverpool will host this year.

Conservative MP Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) told the House of Commons: Last year during the Eurovision Song Contest, Russian agents attempted to interfere with the voting that was being made for Ukraine.

I'm not able to discuss the details but the National Cyber Security Centre are world experts at understanding attacks and providing incident response for the most serious of attacks Science and technology minister Paul Scully

This year, of course, were hosting the Eurovision Song Contest.

What is (the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) doing to ensure that the integrity of the voting will be maintained?

Mr Scully replied: The Government is always aware there are a number of possible threats to our systems and our events.

Im not able to discuss the details but the National Cyber Security Centre are world experts at understanding attacks and providing incident response for the most serious of attacks.

We want to make sure that all organisations are aware so we can indeed keep that resilience in our voting process.
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Voters in the UK will be required to present photo identification to prove they are who they say they are when they arrive at polling stations from May 2023, after a change in the law instigated by the UK government.

The new stricture came in as part of the Elections Act 2022, first trailed in the Queens Speech of May 2021 and passed by Parliament last April in the interest of improving election security. It will not apply to those voting by post.

Members of the public voting in person will be able to present 21 different forms of identification deemed valid but fears have nevertheless been expressed that the change could deter some from casting their ballot and lead to greater disenfranchisement.

Research carried out by the Cabinet Office in 2021 found that 9 per cent of the British public do not currently hold any form of photo ID that is both in-date and clearly recognisable.

In accordance with the Acts stipulations, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has launched a Voter Authority Certificate as an alternative, a document that individuals can apply for online and which is free but requires that you already be registered to vote and supply a recent digital photo, your date of birth and National Insurance number to claim.

Voters can apply for the certificate online here, with the government site also providing information on how to register for it by post.

The 21 alternative forms of ID you can present at polling stations from May, which volunteers will be asked to check, are as follows:

A driving licence (full or provisional) issued by the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man or EEA state.

A blue parking badge.

An older persons bus pass.

A disabled persons bus pass.

An Oyster 60+ card.

A Freedom Pass.

A Scottish National Entitlement Card.

A 60 and Over Welsh Concessionary Travel Card.

A Disabled Persons Welsh Concessionary Travel Card.

A Senior SmartPass issued in Northern Ireland.

A Registered Blind SmartPass or Blind Persons SmartPass issued in Northern Ireland.

A War Disablement SmartPass issued in Northern Ireland.

A 60+ SmartPass issued in Northern Ireland.

A Half Fare SmartPass issued in Northern Ireland.

An identity card bearing the Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) hologram.

A biometric immigration document.

A Ministry of Defence Form 90 (Defence Identity Card).

A national identity card issued by an EEA state.

An Electoral Identity Card issued in Northern Ireland.

An Anonymous Electors Document.

Local elections will next take place in England on Thursday 4 May 2023, which you will only be able to take part in if you have one of the above pieces of documentation to hand.

The photo ID law will then apply to all UK general elections from October 2023, with the next set to be held no later than 25 January 2025.

According to Dr Ben Stanford, a professor of law at Liverpool John Moores University, the introduction of the requirement is massively controversial, with arguments in favour of voter ID generally stressing the improved security and integrity brought by eliminating voter fraud.

Those against criticise the true motivations of the changes amidst concerns that the demographics least likely to possess ID are generally not Conservative Party voters.

Dr Stanford notes that the exclusion of university ID cards from the list of approved IDs only adds weight to criticisms that the new voter ID requirement is politically-motivated and that the list of acceptable identification has been deliberately limited, ultimately disadvantaging younger people and minorities.

He has also warned that the Voter Authority Certificate could prove vulnerable to delays in processing, citing the recent backlog seen in passport application approvals since the pandemic and the squeezed budgets of government departments in response to the present cost of living crisis, which will only place further pressure on the administrative functions of crucial state service providers.

Speaking to The Independent, Dr Stanford said that voter ID pilot schemes in 2018 and 2019 had delivered a mixed picture of their likely impact on voter turnout but added that a substantial number of people were turned away for lacking the required ID in both tests.

The voter ID requirements being implemented in the UK are certainly more strict than they could and need to be to meet policy objectives, he said.

They resemble the strictest laws seen in some states in the US. Preparations to introduce voter ID have undoubtedly been rushed through, with numerous stakeholders expressing concern at the speed of implementation.

Other things that could be put in place to mitigate these risks, such as provisional voting where people lacking ID can vote subject to later verification, or vouching for another person, are not being implemented.

Dr Stanford continued: I do worry that turnout will substantially decrease in the most socially-deprived areas and especially those where political engagement may be weakest.

The change is unprecedented on a national scale meaning that an unprecedented amount of publicity and awareness is needed but currently lacking.

In my view, even putting to the side political arguments, the negligible evidence of impersonation at polling stations cannot justify the democratic cost of voter disenfranchisement and the financial cost of implementing voter ID.

Passports and driving licences among documentation considered valid for voting from May (Getty)

Bob Watt, a retired academic concerned with public law formerly of the Universities of Essex and Buckingham and a visiting fellow of the Bonavero Centre of Human Rights in Oxford, told The Independent that improved election security was a goal worth pursuing: My view is that even the smallest amount of personation is a very serious matter. Even if it does not affect the result.

The whole point of an election is that it should be free, fair and secret. To have a relatively simple way of subverting that principle  turning up at a polling station now staffed by relatively junior people and claiming to be someone else  is destructive of democracy because it lessens peoples faith that their vote should be counted.

My view is that we should have automatic electoral registration  as soon as you become the age at which you are able to vote  you should automatically be on the register.

The system being introduced here is being done without proper publicity and without proper funding. All households  and every step should be taken to ensure that unhoused people are included  should be contacted and individually told that they must have electoral ID.

Electoral authorities should be properly funded to issue electoral ID cards. This needs a one year lead-in time. It is too rushed.

OpenDemocracy reported in December 2022 that the Electoral Commission had written to ministers warning that it felt their plans for voter IDs were not fully secure, accessible or workable, citing letters obtained by Freedom of Information requests, only for those concerns to be dismissed in response.

The Guardian subsequently reported that the development of the central government website via which people are being asked to apply for the Voter Authority Certificate was unlikely to be ready in time for the rollout of a national advertising campaign in January, which has already provoked anger over its 5.6m cost, suggesting concerns about the process are not unfounded.

The governments rush to implement voter ID requirements against the advice of all those who have to run the scheme and the Electoral Commission themselves is dangerous and will close down our democracy to many, Labours shadow levelling up minister Alex Norris has warned.

His Liberal Democrat counterpart, Helen Morgan, added: Every second that the government delays these applications, another person will lose their chance to vote in May.

Every council will have thousands of these applications to process before May, with no guarantee they can process them in time  taking critical council resources during a cost of living crisis.

The Conservative government have taken away peoples unobstructed right to vote. These delays are nothing short of voter suppression.

Responding to their criticism, a government spokesperson said: We cannot be complacent when it comes to ensuring our democracy remains secure. Everyone eligible to vote will have the opportunity to do so and 98 per cent of electors already have an accepted form of identification.

Speaking to BBC Radio Norfolk on 12 January, Conservative MP and former Cabinet member Brandon Lewis said it was not unreasonable for the government to ask people to present ID to vote, just as they would if they were going to a Post Office [to] collect a parcel or take a book out from the library, in order to just give that extra bit of protection to our democratic process.

His analogy was criticised as disingenuous given the additional obstacles the demand for voter IDs creates.
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The final UK evacuation flight is expected take off from Sudan on Wednesday, the Foreign Secretary has announced.

James Cleverly urged British nationals still wanting to leave the war-torn nation to make their way to Port Sudan.

It was previously thought the evacuation airlift had ended on Monday when planes left Sudan for Cyprus.

So far during the airlift  the longest and largest by any western nation in Sudan  2,341 people have been evacuated on 28 flights, according to the Government.

Downing Street said 1,195 were British nationals, with other nationalities, including Sudanese dependants of British nationals, also helped to leave.

No 10 confirmed that, as of Monday, 18 Sudanese clinicians had left the country as part of the UK evacuation.

In updated guidance on its website on Tuesday, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: The UK government will run final evacuation flights from Port Sudan on 3 May.

If you plan to leave Sudan, you should arrive at the Coral Hotel in Port Sudan by 10am on 3 May to be processed to travel.

After that, no further British evacuation flights will operate from Port Sudan.

Mr Cleverly tweeted: After the successful evacuation of 2341 people on 28 flights, the last UK flight is expected to leave Port Sudan tomorrow.

I urge British Nationals still wishing to leave the country to go to the Coral Hotel in Port Sudan and continue to follow our Travel Advice.

Earlier, the Foreign Secretary said there was still a British military presence at the countrys main seaport on the Red Sea coast as the situation remained dangerous.

As well as officials and military personnel in Port Sudan, the HMS Lancaster warship is off the coast to support Britons.

The international focus is shifting to preventing a wider humanitarian catastrophe in the region and Mr Cleverly warned that any further fighting would hamper relief efforts.

The United Nations said Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan and his rival General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have agreed to send representatives to the negotiation table in a bid to establish a more stable truce.

Generals Burhan and Dagalo, both with powerful foreign backers, were allies in an October 2021 military coup that halted Sudans fraught transition to democracy, but they have since turned on each other.
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Royal enthusiasts often go to great lengths and travel long distances to make sure they get the best view of major ceremonial events at Buckingham Palace.

But not many will have made a decision like 34-year-old Bartley Graham, who arrived at The Mall on Wednesday after discharging himself from hospital.

He has joined dozens of people gathered in front of the Palace ahead of the Kings Coronation, with tents set up to enable them to get a prime spot.

Mr Graham, from County Durham, said: I should have been here earlier, but the hospital scenario made it impossible.

I self-discharged this morning purely so I could be here.

Its important Im here to get a good view of the procession, as I did for the Jubilee.

I came out for Prince Phillips funeral even though there was a risk I might be fined at the time.

I queued for 30 hours at Balmoral to see the Queens coffin a first time, and I queued 30 hours a second time at the Houses of Parliament.

Then I passed out and had a stroke, and all I could blame was exhaustion.

If it happens again, Im in the right place, Londons hospitals are the best in the country.

I love being out here.

Mr Graham came wearing a suit printed with Union Jacks and carrying a cardboard cut-out of Charles, who he thinks will be a fantastic King.

I like King Charles, and I definitely like Lady Camilla, he said.

Charles will be a fantastic King and will do a great job, he has some really strong values, and I think Lady Camilla has fallen into the role very well.

Kerry Evans, 58, from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, who also arrived at The Mall on Thursday said she would rather die than miss the Kings Coronation.

I cant camp out like I used to, Ive got a heart condition and small vessel disease, she said.

Every time I come out to an event like this I end up in casualty, because I just exhaust myself, but Ive really paced myself this time.

Nothing would stop me, I would rather die supporting the Royal Family than not be part of all this, she continued.

Ill probably suffer for three or four months after an event like this.

Ms Evans, who is a writer and a full-time carer, says that she hopes the King will be a champion for diversity.

The King is being very quiet at the minute, I think hes waiting to see what people want, she said.

I hope hell be a strong King in terms of change and diversity, race, disability.

Other fans of the Royal Family have travelled from further afield to see the coronation.

Carol Bush, 62, who comes from California but now lives in London, and Ardis Ryburg, 61, from Arkansas, came out to The Mall together to support the late Queen.

We loved her, and she wanted her boy to do this, so we want to support her, Ms Bush said.

The Queen just gave and gave and gave, and really took her job as a monarch seriously.

Were going to come back in 20 years for her grandson, well be old in our wheelchairs and well be here for William, she continued.

I cant wait for the carriage, I want to see the golden carriage come back out again.

Celebrations for the Kings coronation will take place over the course of this weekend.

The ceremony itself will take place in Westminster Abbey on Saturday, with the Coronation Big Lunch and Coronation Concert happening on Sunday.

Members of the public have been encouraged to take part in The Big Help Out on Bank Holiday Monday by volunteering for organisations in their local areas.
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British families are begging the government to reunite them with loved ones left behind in war-torn Sudan, after they were turned away from evacuation flights or faced trouble picking up travel documents.

Rishi Sunak has praised his government for the successful operation to evacuate British nationals who wished to leave, their dependents and other nationalities from Sudan. added that it was the largest and longest evacuation of any Western country and one that those involved can be proud of.

However British citizens and their MP say relatives are still stuck in the fighting and say repeated calls for them to be rescued have gone unanswered.

Mohamed, 27 a civil engineering student in Cardiff, said he now fears for the lives of his heavily pregnant Sudanese wife and unborn child, trapped and displaced in the capital Khartoum. Her family home was bombed at the start of the three-week conflict.

Manahil, 26, who is due to give birth next month, had been applying for a family reunion in the UK when fighting broke out between Sudans top two generals. She has yet to be granted an emergency visa to be with her husband, and cannot evacuate to neighbouring countries as her passport and documents are trapped in the British Embassy in Khartoum which is now empty, with staff having been evacuated.

Her home was bombed by a fighter jet, she is sleeping on a sofa of a relatives house, and Im terrified as there are no functioning hospitals near her, said Mohamed, who asked for his full name to be withheld for the safety of his wife on the ground.

The explosions and gunfire are happening all around her. Im scared she will go into labour early. He said the government hotlines were not working and no one has answered his desperate calls.

My wife doesnt even have access to her passport because it is with the British embassy.

Now the evacuation flights have ended she is crying every day. There is no way to get her out. There is no way to express how I feel

Now the evacuation flights have ended... There is no way to express how I feel Mohamed, 27 from Cardiff who pregnant wife is stuck in Khartoum

Anna McMorrin, Mohameds MP in Cardiff and Labours shadow justice minister, said the situation was desperate for several of her constituents. She urged the government to immediately work with third-party countries to get family members out of danger so their papers can be processed and they can get to the UK.

To leave a heavily-pregnant wife in the fighting is just horrific. This is an incredibly hostile response to people who are dependent on British families, she told The Independent likening the UKs response to failed efforts to airlift citizens from the Afghan capital Kabul after it fell to the Taliban in summer 2021.

This happened in Afghanistan where we couldnt repatriate people that were stuck and it is happening now in Sudan.

We should be stepping up and showing leadership as a country, she added.

A UK government spokesperson said: The UK has carried out by far the longest and largest evacuation of any Western country from Sudan, bringing 2,341 people out in under one week. It has always been the case that the evacuation has been open to British nationals and their eligible family members, with a later exemption for NHS clinicians.

Preventing a humanitarian emergency in Sudan is our focus right now. Alongside the UK evacuation effort, we are working with international partners and the United Nations to bring an end to fighting.

More than 500 civilians have been killed, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced since fighting erupted in April between the commanders of Sudans army and a rival paramilitary the Rapid Support Forces, who had previously shared power.

Both sides have blamed each other for repeated violations of a series of ceasefire. Khartoum has faced intense fighting, including repeated volleys of artillery and airstrikes. Although South Sudan announced on Tuesday afternoon that the warring factions had agreed in principle to a seven-day ceasefire starting from Thursday.

The final UK government evacuation flights were thought to have left Sudan on Monday for Cyprus, but the government announced that people should make their way to the Coral hotel in Port Sudan by 10am local time (9am BST) on Wednesday for a last evacuation flight, adding that there would be no further British flights from the city.

United States Sudan American Doctor (UK MOD  Crown copyright 2023)

But many will still not be able to make it to the evacuation point at Port Sudan in time for the deadline. It means those left in Sudan must now make their own way along the perilous road to Port Sudan or land borders with neighbouring countries.

Alaa, 29, a British teacher in Cardiff said her father Ahmed, 62 risked his life to get his daughter Sara and wife Nagla, to one evacuation point at a military airbase near Khartoum. When the family got there Sara, 23 and Nagla, 59  both British passport holders  were permitted to board the escape flight but the father had to stay behind.

After camping at the airbase for a night, the pharmacist and father-of-five was forced to return to Khartoum alone through gunfire and shelling, where he is now trapped.

He has no supplies because they had gave the food and water away before they left, thinking they wouldnt come back, said Alaa with desperation.

Yesterday they bombed a factory right next to the family home, we are scared for him.

She said the family was desperate.

Weve been told he has to go to Egypt and apply from there but that is a dangerous and long journey, he cannot do that at his age alone.

We had one chance, he was right there at the airport and now that chance is gone.

We had one chance, he was right there at the airport and now that chance is gone Alaa, a British teacher, whose father is trapped in Sudan

More than 100,000 people have been forced to flee the country via Egypt a border, which is hundreds of miles north of Khartoum.

Sudanese and foreign nationals who made the perilous journey described being shot at, shelled and robbed along the way.

At the border, they told The Independent there was no water or food supplies and the wait could be two or three days long.

Despite claims by the British authorities that dependents had been evacuated the reality on the ground is different, according to Ms McMorrin  who is set to raise the issue in parliament.

You have British family members being split up, they are being so strict about having a British passport, she said. Even husbands and wives are not given automatic rights.
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Fighting has erupted in Sudans capital city Khartoum and across the country this month as powerful rival military factions battle for control of the African nation and its future.

The sudden slide into violence between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group called Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stranded thousands of foreigners, including diplomats and aid workers in the country, with the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states among those closing embassies and racing to evacuate their nationals.

Follow our live blog for latest updates

More than 450 people have been killed in the conflict and another 4,000 wounded so far, according to the World Health Organisation.

A brief 72-hour ceasefire has been declared to allow for the evacuations to take place, with negotiations currently underway to extend its duration.

British families caught up in the fighting had initially accused the UK government of abandoning them, despite reassurances from prime minister Rishi Sunak and the Foreign Office that talks were underway to bring them home.

After the truce was agreed between the two factions, the UK was able to airlift 536 citizens to safety, with foreign secretary James Cleverly now urging British nationals who may be hesitant or weighing up their options to make their way to Wadi Seidna, where there are planes and capacity in place to get people out.

Alicia Kearns, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that the number of British people hoping to be evacuated could total 3,000, 4,000 plus, adding that those on the ground were living in abject fear, had little food and water left and even been reduced to killing their pets in some cases because theyre worried theyre going to starve.

Whats going on in Sudan?

Tension had been building for months between Sudans army and the RSF, which together toppled a civilian government in an October 2021 coup.

The friction was brought to a head by an internationally-backed plan to launch a new transition with civilian parties. A final deal was due to be signed earlier in April, on the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising.

Both the army and the RSF were required to cede power under the plan and two issues proved particularly contentious: one was the timetable for the RSF to be integrated into the regular armed forces, the second was when the army would be formally placed under civilian oversight.

When fighting broke out on 15 April, both sides blamed the other for provoking the violence. The army accused the RSF of illegal mobilisation in preceding days and the RSF, as it moved on key strategic sites in Khartoum, said the army had tried to seize full power in a plot with Bashir loyalists.

Who is fighting who?

The protagonists in the power struggle are General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the army and leader of Sudans ruling council since 2019 and his deputy on the council, RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti.

As the plan for a new transition developed, Hemedti alligned himself more closely with civilian parties from a coalition, the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), that shared power with the military between Bashirs overthrow and the 2021 coup.

Smoke clouds the sky over Khartoum (Maheen S/AP)

Diplomats and analysts said this was part of a strategy by Hemedti to transform himself into a statesman. Both the FFC and Hemedti, who grew wealthy through gold mining and other ventures, stressed the need to sideline Islamist-leaning Bashir loyalists and veterans who had regained a foothold following the coup and have deep roots in the army.

Along with some pro-army rebel factions that benefited from a 2020 peace deal, the Bashir loyalists opposed the deal for a new transition.

Whats at stake?

The popular uprising had raised hopes that Sudan and its population of 46 million could emerge from decades of autocracy, internal conflict and economic isolation under Bashir.

Conflict could not only destroy those hopes but destabilise a volatile region bordering the Sahel, the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa.

It could also play into competition for influence in the region between Russia and the United States and between regional powers who have courted different actors in Sudan.

What about other countries?

Western powers including the US and the UK had swung behind a transition towards democratic elections following Bashirs overthrow. They suspended financial support following the coup, then backed the plan for a new transition and a civilian government.

Energy-rich powers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also sought to shape events in Sudan, seeing the transition away from Bashirs rule as a way to roll back Islamist influence and bolster stability in the region.

Gulf states have pursued investments in sectors including agriculture, where Sudan holds vast potential and ports on Sudans Red Sea coast.

British nationals remain trapped in Sudan as fighting continues (Marwan Ali/AP)

Russia has been seeking to build a naval base on the Red Sea, while several UAE companies have been signing up to invest, with one UAE consortium inking a preliminary deal to build and operate a port and another UAE-based airline agreeing with a Sudanese partner to create a new low-cost carrier based in Khartoum.

Burhan and Hemedti both developed close ties to Saudi Arabia after sending troops to participate in the Saudi-led operation in Yemen. Hemedti has struck up relations with other foreign powers including the UAE and Russia.

Egypt, itself ruled by military man President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who overthrew his Islamist predecessor, has deep ties to Burhan and the army and recently promoted a parallel track of political negotiations through parties with stronger links to the army and to Bashirs former government.

What could happen?

International parties have called for a ceasefire and a return to dialogue but there has been little sign of compromise from the warring factions.

The army has branded the RSF as a rebel force and demanded its dissolution, while Hemedti has called Burhan a criminal and blamed him for visiting destruction on the country.

Though Sudans army has superior resources including air power and the RSF expanded into a force estimated at 100,000 men that had deployed across Khartoum and its neighbouring cities as well as in other regions, raising the spectre of protracted conflict on top of a long-running economic crisis and existing, large-scale humanitarian needs.

The RSF can also draw on support and tribal ties in the western region of Darfur, where it emerged from the militias that fought alongside government forces to crush rebels in a brutal war that escalated after 2003.

Additional reporting by Reuters
 Close Dust storm causes massive wreck on I-55

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The first victim has been identified after a dust storm caused a 72 vehicle pile-up on the I-55 outside of Springfield, Illinois.

The massive pile-up occurred during a dust storm with low visibility on Monday (May 1) morning.

Seven victims were killed while 37 were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening, and those hurt are two to 80 years old, Illinois State Police said in a statement.

Shirley Harper, 88, was named as the first victim killed in the tragedy. The death toll was initially reported as six but rose to seven on Tuesday as investigators asked for the publics help in identifying two yet-to-be-named victims.

The Montgomery County Coroners office is working to identify the five others and notify their families.

Kevin Schott, the director of Montgomery Countys Emergency Management Agency, said that efforts to rescue victims were hampered by the thick dust on the scene as well as multiple vehicle fires which made it difficult to get to victims in a rapid manner.
 Close Atlanta shooting: Police set up cordon as suspect still at large

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The woman killed in the mass shooting at an Atlanta medical centre has now been identified as a 38-year-old CDC worker.

Amy St. Pierre was killed on Wednesday when suspected gunman Deion Patterson opened fire at Midtown Atlantas Northside Hospital.

The shooting unfolded when Mr Patterson, who used to be in the US Coast Guard, was attending an appointment with his mother. He allegedly pulled out a handgun and opened fire in the waiting room, shooting five women.

St Pierre died while the four other victims  aged 25 to 71  are fighting for their lives in hospital.

Mr Patterson, 24, fled the scene by carjacking a vehicle close to the hospital, police said.

A huge manhunt ensued before he was tracked down to Cobb County, just northwest of Atlanta, where he was arrested

A local resident told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the suspect was found hiding near a condo complexs pool after dogs began barking at him.

Mr Pattersons mother, Minyone Patterson, said her son had some mental instability going on from medication he received from the Veterans Affairs health system that he began taking on Friday.
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Donald Trumps lawyers will not present a defence case at the E Jean Carroll trial.

Mr Trumps expert witness wont be testifying in the proceedings, Ms Carrolls attorney Roberta Kaplan said in court, meaning that the former president has no witnesses on his side.

Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina later confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the defence team would not put forward a case, according to Law & Crime.

Mr Tacopina went on to mention the Carroll legal team including the Billy Bush tape in their case.

We all know what youre talking about, Judge Lewis Kaplan said, referring to the Access Hollywood tape released during the 2016 campaign in which Mr Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women.

Mr Trump later claimed that it was simply locker room talk and that he didnt behave as such.

Judge Kaplan said that the jury should receive the case by early next week.

Ms Carroll, the former Elle magazine advice columnist, sued Mr Trump in 2019 and 2022. The current trial is a civil case in which Ms Carroll is alleging that Mr Trump is guilty of battery and defamation in connection to a rape allegation.

Ms Carroll has claimed that Mr Trump sexually assaulted her in a fitting room at the Berghof Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

On Wednesday, a psychological expert hired by the Carroll legal team, Dr Leslie Lebowitz, said that Ms Carroll showed signs of PTSD but that she didnt fulfil the full criteria.

Dr Lebowitz said that a high level of harm is required for such a diagnosis.

Youre talking about a pretty severe mental illness, which is often chronic, she said, according to Law & Crime.

What happens to a persons brain when they experience trauma? a lawyer for Ms Carroll asked.

When your brain is flooded with stress hormones, our normal functioning is altered, Dr Lebowitz said, adding that Ms Carroll testifying about adrenaline going through her body is consistent with that.

She added that the brain being affected by stress hormones can take over other usual reactions.

They dont scream, even if theyre being raped in a fitting room, Dr Lebowitz said, Law & Crime reported.

Ms Carroll testified previously during the trial that she didnt scream during the alleged attack.

The writer grew emotional at times during her testimony earlier in the trial when she outlined Mr Trumps alleged rape in graphic detail.

Dr Lebowitz said on Wednesday that people with trauma tend to hyper-attend to certain elements, and ignore other ones.

She added that people may also have detailed recollections of what happened at the start of an incident, but that they may forget how they exited the situation, according to Law & Crime.

Speaking about memories detailing the time and place of traumatic incident fading over time, Dr Lebowitz said that those kind of details are context. Theyre the other things. Our brain doesnt hold on to things that at the time didnt seem important.

She said the brain holds onto things that appear to be salient or life-threatening.

Intrusive memories are like flags that are planted where unresolved and traumatic memories lie, she said. You dont choose to think about it  it just enters.

Asked about triggers for intrusive memories, Dr Lebowitz said, I think most of us would assume that theres some sort of a trigger, but one does not always know what it is.

Dr Lebowitz mentioned the example of a combat veteran having a panic attack but not knowing what the trigger may have been.

A veteran of the Vietnam War may pass a Vietnamese restaurant and the smell of the food may serve as the trigger, but they may not be aware of it, she said.
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The encounter, as recalled by E Jean Carroll, was friendly at first.

Ms Carroll, then a magazine feature writer and TV host, bumped into Donald Trump in the upmarket New York department store Bergdorf Goodman.

As Ms Carroll wrote in her 2019 memoir What Do We Need Men For?, he recognised her as that advice lady. She knew him as that real-estate tycoon.

Mr Trump supposedly told her that he was there to buy a gift for a girl, and asked for help to choose an appropriate item. She placed the incident in either late 1995 or early 1996, when the future president was married to Marla Maples.

The pair made their way to the lingerie section, where Mr Trump suggested that she try on a lace bodysuit. She claims she jokingly said that he should try it on instead.

As they reached the dressing rooms, Ms Carroll alleges that Mr Trump shoved her against a wall, put his hands underneath her dress and pulled down her tights.

He then unzipped his pants, and forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway  or completely, Im not certain  inside me, she wrote.

A colossal struggle ensued, she said, and Ms Carroll eventually pushed him away and ran out of the dressing room. The episode was over in under three minutes, she wrote.

Former President Donald Trump has not yet confirmed whether he will testify in the E Jean Carroll rape and defamation trial (Associated Press)

After the allegations were first made in a book excerpt in New York magazine in June 2019, Mr Trump angrily denied it.

"I've never met this person in my life. She is trying to sell a new book  that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section, he said in an official White House statement that month.

Then days later in an interview in the Oval Office with The Hill, Mr Trump went even further.

Ill say it with great respect: Number one, shes not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?

Ms Carroll then filed a defamation lawsuit against Mr Trump alleging he had damaged her reputation, substantially harmed her professionally, and caused emotional pain.

After writing her Ask E Jean column for Elle magazine for nearly 30 years, the magazine terminated her contract abruptly in December of that year. The magazine denied it was related to Ms Carrolls allegations.

Months after Ms Carroll filed against Mr Trump, the Department of Justice intervened and transferred the case to federal court, arguing that he was immune from prosecution as president at the time of the initial defamation.

But the federal court disagreed with the position of the DoJ and allowed discovery in the case to continue.

When the former president failed to have the case dismissed last October, he took to Truth Social to again unleash his denial, and unwittingly at the same time allowed Ms Carroll to file the new defamation claim.

In 2022, New York passed the Adult Survivors Act which allowed adult sexual assault survivors one year to sue their alleged abusers.

Ms Carroll filed a second lawsuit against Mr Trump for rape and for additional alleged defamatory statements made by him in October 2022 where he called her a complete con job. It is this second case for which court proceedings began on 25 April.

In a court filing earlier this year, Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote that the central issue in both cases is the same  whether Mr Trump raped Ms Carroll.

E Jean Carroll in New York in 2019 (Associated Press )

If he did not, then Ms Carrolls sexual assault claim ... and her libel claims in both cases likely would fail. If he did, then little would remain in either case except perhaps a few minor issues related to Mr Trumps statements and determination of damages, it read.

Ms Carrolls attorney Roberta Kaplan said they tried for three years to obtain Mr Trumps DNA sample to compare it with stains found on the dress she was wearing on the day.

After refusing to provide a sample, Mr Trumps attorneys then made an 11th-hour offer to do so earlier this year. Judge Kaplan rejected the offer.

As the case is being tried in civil court, the jury will likely be asked to find whether there is a preponderance of evidence to prove Ms Carrolls claims, rather than the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt.

Over the course of the trial so far, Ms Carrolls witnesses have included the columnist herself, friends who she spoke to about allegations at the time, mental health experts, and a few of the more than two dozen women who have accused Mr Trump of sexual assault.

Ms Carroll took the stand on 26 April, testifying that she and Mr Trump were shopping around the department store at the time when he asked her to try on a piece of lingerie that he was looking to purchase  a blue bodysuit.

He was having a good time, and so was I, Ms Carroll said, adding that the two were harmlessly flirting with one another.

As the two reached the dressing room, Ms Carroll said Mr Trump shut the door and shoved me up against the wall.

I was confused. I laughed, Ms Carroll said.

She said she pushed Mr Trump back but he thrust her into the wall again.

From there, Ms Carroll described how Mr Trump pulled down her tights and inserted his fingers into her vagina.

It was extremely painful, Ms Carroll recalled emotionally. It was a horrible feeling. He put his hand inside me and curled his finger. As I sit here today, I can still feel it.

When asked if she screamed for help or told Mr Trump to stop, Ms Carroll said, Im not a screamer. Im a fighter.

Ms Carroll alleges Mr Trump then inserted his penis and began to rape her.

I wonder why I walked in there, to get in that situation... Im proud to say I got out of there, Ms Carroll.

After the assault, Ms Carroll said she left the department store quickly and called her friend, Lisa Birnbach. Later on, Ms Carroll would tell Carol Martin, an anchorwoman at ABC, about the assault, but did not confide in many others.

Ms Carroll said she felt very stupid for going into the dressing room. She described how the alleged rape left her unable to ever have a romantic life again.

Later on, Ms Carroll elaborated on her inability to form and maintain romantic relationships saying that because she was allegedly raped by Mr Trump after flirting with him, it hindered her ability to engage with men.

For the defence, Mr Trumps attorneys initially included him, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, and several others on their list of potential witnesses. But on 3 May, his lawyers announced that they would not be presenting any witnesses  or a defence case.

After the legal teams rested their cases on 4 May, Judge Lewis Kaplan gave Mr Trump until 5pm on 7 May to decide if he was going to testify in the trial. The judges comments came after Mr Trump said he would cut his golfing trip to Scotland and Ireland short to confront Ms Carroll, but the deadline passed without the Trump legal team filing a motion to include Mr Trump in the proceedings.

Ariana Baio contributed to this report.
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A teenage sleepover turned to tragedy this week when seven people were found dead at the Oklahoma home of a convicted rapist.

Jesse McFadden, 39, had been scheduled to appear in court on the same day that the bodies were found on his rural property.

He is believed to be among the dead.

Also killed were two teenagers who were reported missing and endangered on Monday morning after they failed to return home after being in his company.

The identities of the other four victims are yet to be publicly confirmed, but relatives named then as McFaddens wife Holly Guess and her teenage children Rylee Elizabeth Allen, Michael James Mayo, and Tiffany Dore Guess.

So who is the man at the centre of this horrific tragedy?

Who is Jesse McFadden?

Jesse McFadden is a convicted rapist who was scheduled to appear in court on new charges on the day that the bodies were found.

McFadden was convicted in 2003 for first-degree rape, and served nearly 16 years before being released in 2020, according to Oklahoma prison records.

On Monday, he was due to appear in court for the start of his jury trial on charges of soliciting sexual conduct with a minor and possession of child pornography.

The charges were filed back in 2017 when he was still in prison for his rape conviction.

Amber Alert issued for missing teens (AP)

While behind bars, he allegedly exchanges nude photos and videos with an underage girl from behind bars.

When he failed to appear in court on Monday morning, police began searching for him.

Missing girls

On Monday morning, an Amber Alert was issued to find two missing teenagers  14-year-old Ivy Webster and 15-year-old Brittany Brewer  after they failed to return home from a sleepover at McFaddens home.

Ivys mother told KJRH that the two girls had gone to McFaddens house for a sleepover with his teenage daughter over the weekend and had been planning to go swimming on a ranch in McAlester.

They never showed at the ranch and failed to return home by 5pm on Sunday as had been expected, Okmulgee County Sheriffs Office said.

The two teens were last seen at around 1.30am on Monday travelling with McFadden in a white Chevrolet pickup.

Missing girls Brittany Brewer, 15, left, and Ivy Webster, 14, right, were found dead in Oklahoma in May 2023 (Brewer family / Webster family via Facebook)

Ivys mother said her daughters cellphone tracking had been turned off and that it was unlike her daughter not to respond to messages or calls.

After the Amber Alert was issued, authorities went to McFaddens property on the outskirts of Henryetta.

Investigators discovered the bodies of seven people there not in the residence, but just on the property, said Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Gerald Davidson.

The victims

While the bodies are yet to be officially identified, Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice said they were believed to include McFadden and the two missing girls Ivy and Brittany.

We believe that we have found the persons, he said.

We are no longer looking. We believe to have found everything that we were seeking this morning. Our hearts go out to the families and friends, schoolmates and everyone else.

The missing endangered person advisory was canceled on Monday afternoon by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

Brittanys father Nathan Brewer confirmed that his daughter was among the victims.

Seven bodies found in search for two missing Oklahoma teens, police say

At a vigil held on Monday night, he said his daughter had dreams of being a teacher or a veterinarian.

Its just a parents worst nightmare, and Im living it, he said. I am just lost.

While the four other victims have yet to be officially identified, they were named by a relative on Tuesday.

Janette Mayo, 59, told the Associated Press that the Okmulgee County Sheriffs Office notified her about the deaths of her daughter, Holly Guess, 35, and her grandchildren, Rylee Elizabeth Allen, 17, Michael James Mayo, 15, and Tiffany Dore Guess, 13.

In a Facebook post, Ms Mayo said that her daughter was married to McFadden. Authorities have not confirmed a cause of death for the seven victims, but Ms Mayo said they were shot at various locations across McFaddens property.

My daughter loved her children and yes she married the man who killed them but she was fooled by his charm, Ms Mayo wrote. I hurt just like the other families but he took my world from me. My grandchildren and my daughter. I have a hole in my heart ...

Ms Mayo described Ivy as a sweet girl, and said she didnt have the chance to meet Brittany.

I really didnt know Brittany but she must have been a sweet girl for my Tiffany to care for her, the grieving grandmother wrote. My prayers are there for both of the other families. I just ask that people remember my family as well, and that they had names too.

Judy White-Allen, the grandmother of victims Rylee and Michael, also confirmed their deaths to The Independent on Tuesday.

All I can tell you is my kids are hurting, she said. My son lost his daughter and son. My other kids lost their niece and nephew. My other grand kids lost their cousins. Rylee and Michael have four other siblings that will never know them.

Holly was a great mother. She had a big heart.

Unanswered questions

Questions are being asked about McFaddens ability to be around the teenage victims due to his prior rape conviction and pending sex offender charges.

During the search for the mising girls, Ivys parents said that they were unaware of McFaddens criminal history.

Justin Webster told a local outlet they were shocked to learn about his past.

Recommended Grandmother shares heartbreak after two grandchildren identified among seven bodies found in Oklahoma

He should not have been out and its our justice system that needs to be harder, he said.
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An Oklahoma convicted rapist texted his alleged soliciting victim the night before seven bodies were found on his property.

The Oklahoma State of Bureau Investigations (OSBI) announced on Monday that seven bodies were found on the Henryetta property of 39-year-old Jesse McFadden. The gruesome discovery was made after two teens went missing in the area on Sunday.

McFadden, who was on the sex offender registry, failed to show up in court on Monday morning to stand trial on charges of soliciting sexual conduct with a minor and possession of child pornography. The victim in that case has since revealed that McFadden reportedly texted her the night before authorities found the seven victims.

I did exactly what I promised I would do when I got out, the text, exclusively obtained by FOX 23, read. I got a marketing job making great money and was being advanced been there 2 years now and made a great life like I promised I would do with you.

Now its all gone, I told you I wouldnt go back ... This is all on you for continuing this, another set of texts stated.

McFadden was convicted of rape in 2003, according to records from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, and was released in 2020. His pending trial stemmed from charges brought against him after he was accused of sexting a minor while in prison in 2017, according to FOX.

Although the seven bodies have not been officially identified by authorities, relatives have said that McFadden, his wife Holly Guess, 35, and her children Rylee Elizabeth Allen, 17, Michael James Mayo, 15, and Tiffany Dore Guess, 13, are among the deceased. Tiffanys friends Ivy Webster, 14, and 15-year-old Brittany Brewer also died in the tragedy, according to their parents.

Guess former mother-in-law Judy White-Allen said her family is still processing the devastating tragedy. Ms White-Allen, who is the grandmother of Rylee and Michael, described Guess as a great mother, with a big heart.

My kids are hurting. My son lost his daughter and son, Ms White-Allen told The Independent. My other kids lost their niece and nephew. My grandkids lost their cousins. Rylee and Michael have [four] other siblings that will never know them.

In a Facebook post, Guess mother Janette Mayo said that her daughter was married to McFadden. Authorities have not confirmed a cause of death for the seven victims, but Ms Mayo said they were shot at various locations across McFaddens property.

My daughter loved her children and yes she married the man who killed them but she was fooled by his charm, Ms Mayo wrote. I hurt just like the other families but he took my world from me. My grandchildren and my daughter. I have a hole in my heart ...

Missing girls Brittany Brewer, 15, left, and Ivy Webster, 14, right, were found dead in Oklahoma in May 2023 (Brewer family / Webster family via Facebook)

Ms Mayo described Ivy as a sweet girl, and noted she didnt have the chance to meet Britanny.

I really didnt know Brittany but she must have been a sweet girl for my Tiffany to care for her. the grieving grandmother wrote. My prayers are there for both of the other families. I just ask that people remember my family as well, and that they had names too.

Guesss sister Heather Pettigrew has started a GoFundMe account to cover funeral expenses.

This is a huge tragedy not just for my family but all of our friends and the community, Ms Pettigrew wrote in the description of the fundraiser. So much was lost so quickly and any help is greatly appreciated.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Gerald Davidson said his agency will not officially release the identity of the victims until results from the medical examiners office are back.

An Amber alert was issued early on Monday after Ivy and Brittany failed to return to their homes on Sunday, as they had planned. The advisory was cancelled on Monday afternoon by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

The two teens were last seen at around 1.30am on Monday morning travelling with McFadden in a white Chevrolet pickup. McFadden, who was convicted of first-degree rape in 2003 and released in October 2020, was on the states sex offender registry

In an interview with told KOTV , Brittanys father Nathan Brewer said she had visited McFaddens home several times before, and that he was not aware he had been convicted of rape in the past.

(KOTV-DT)

Brittany was an outgoing person. She was actually selected to be Miss Henryetta ... coming up in July for this Miss National Miss pageant in Tulsa. And now she aint gonna make it because shes dead. Shes gone, Mr Brewer said.

At a Monday night vigil, Mr Brewer told hundreds of people that the circumstances surrounding his daughters death are just a parents worst nightmare, and Im living it. He said Brittany had aspired to be a teacher or a veterinarian.

Henryetta Public Schools also posted on Facebook and its website that it is grieving over the loss of several of its students.

At this time we are all grieving over the tragedy of the loss of several of our students, the statement said. Our hearts are hurting, and we have considered what would be best for our students in the coming days.
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Elsie John buried her 30-year-old son Jason in Austin, the city he breathed and loved and where he died on the night of 5 February. He is among four people who have been discovered drowned in Lady Bird Lake just this year  all of them male, young and said to have died by a combination of alcohol and easy access to the water.

We only buried him in Austin because he loved Austin, Ms John, who raised her son in New York, tells The Independent. Jason only lived in Austin for two years and the reason why we left him there is because when he left the bar [on the night he died], he said, Oh, I love Austin. I never want to leave Austin.

An alarming number of Lady Bird Lake drowning victims bear striking similarities: they were last seen leaving bars in the downtown area, were labelled missing for several days, and resulting search efforts met the same devastating end. Those similarities have sparked speculation about a potential serial killer in the area - a possibility that authorities have categorically refuted.

Much of the speculation is fueled by a lack of conclusive answers. Victims loved ones are left wondering what exactly happened during their last moments alive, as there is barely any physical and video surveillance near the lake, Mitchell Gutierrez tells The Independent.

Four years before Jasons death, Mr Gutierrezs little brother, 25-year-old Martin, was pulled from the lake. Mr Gutierrez has since become a loud advocate for more police presence and safety measures in the Lady Bird Lake area, while coming to terms with what he says is a lack of initiative by authorities to even explore the possibility of foul play or a link between any of the more than 18 bodies found since the year Martin died.

You try to cope with the loss and push forward and then theres another death and then another death, Mr Gutierrez says. It just rips off the band-aid of all the therapies Ive gone to, all the things that Ive worked on. It just keeps coming back. All of us whove gone through this deserve some form of justice.

He was my best friend

Martin Gutierrez moved to Austin in 2018. His brother, who had moved to the Texas capital from their hometown of Big Spring years before, was ecstatic to have him join in the fun of living in a city known for its vibrant music and food scene.

He was my gym buddy, Mr Gutierrez says of his late brother. We went six days a week like clockwork. He was my best friend ... He was the happiest kid, such a good kid.

The night Martin went missing, he had dinner with Mr Gutierrez before meeting friends at the Luster Pearl Bar. Martin was wearing his Patagonia jacket and blue jeans, the same clothing that would be featured in news reports about his disappearance and which he was wearing when he was found floating in the water just seven days after he was last seen.

An autopsy determined that Martin had drowned, but calls by his family for further investigation were ignored, Mr Gutierrez said. Martin also had a contusion in the back of his head and a toxicology report found alcohol but no drugs in his system.

Mitchell Gutierrez (left) and his brother Martin (right) (Mitchell Gutierrez/Facebook )

In this day and age, there are so many agents that just arent traceable on a basic screen, Mr Gutierrez told The Independent, addressing speculation online that Lady Bird Lake drowning victims may have been drugged, which the Austin Police Department has denied.

Most concerning, Mr Gutierrez said, was Martins behaviour after he left a second bar, called Alibi, that night.

He was like, frolicking, Mr Gutierrez said. Its not his mannerisms at all, something was wrong. He made his way around towards the end of Rainy Street and the last bit of surveillance that we got and gave to the police, you see Martin walking in [the lakes] direction and thats the last we have of him.

What happened to our son?

Elsie John and her husband flew into Austin from New York City the day after her son went missing in February. But for the first 48 hours, she said, she was unable to get any help from law enforcement.

We were not even able to see an officer. Some clerk at the front desk gave us a number, Ms John said. We called multiple times, left a message. Then we went to another police station. Nothing happened.

Relatives and friends of Jason organised search parties and several groups, including the Indian Council Organization and members from the Marthoma Church, also reached out with resources. Police eventually conducted searches in the water that did not immediately yield any results, but Mr Gutierrez, who had gone through the same nightmare when his brother went missing, told the Johns that their son was probably in the lake.

On 13 February, eight days after Jason went missing, his remains were finally found in the water. Although his family says that an investigation into his death will conclude in May, preliminary findings by authorities labelled it an accidental death by drowning.

Jason John was found drowned at Lady Bird Lake on 13 February (John Family/Obituary)

But Ms John, who visited Jason during Christmas last year and walked the trail along Lady Bird Lake to his apartment, says that her son knew the area like the back of his hand. She believes something else may have happened on the tragic night that her son died, but will likely never know the full picture due to the lack of surveillance, police presence or witnesses.

Sometimes I still feel its a nightmare and the nightmare is over and hes still working in Austin, Ms John tells The Independent. Some days, me and my husband both feel like hes working in Austin and then you look at the picture in front of you and think, Oh, hes gone, and you know, What happened to him?

Every day we are asking ourselves this question. For the rest of our lives, we have to live with the misery that something happened to our son. We just have to live the rest of our life with this pain and this misery.

Nothing out of the ordinary

At least 18 people have drowned in Lady Bird Lake since 2018, according to a review of local coverage by The Independent.

While a few of the victims were swimmers who frequented the lake, where swimming is prohibited, the circumstances surrounding the bulk of the drownings were not immediately clear.

Jasons marked the first Lady Bird Lake death of this year. Weeks later, 40-year-old Cliff Axtell was discovered in the lake in March.

Next came Jonathan Honey, a 33-year-old who was found dead on 1 April after last being seen alive at a food truck on Rainey Street, which is home to a string of popular bars near the water. The latest victim was 30-year-old John Christopher Hays-Clark, who was found on 15 April.

The Austin Police Department has maintained that all four men likely stumbled off the dark trail while intoxicated and couldnt swim to shore. Officials say none of the victims showed any signs of trauma, although autopsy reports have not been made publicly available.

Speculation that the deaths could be linked by foul play has exploded in recent weeks through the Facebook group Lady Bird Lake Serial Killer/ Rainey St Killer, which has grown to more than 84,000 members since its launch in February.

Members of the group dont subscribe to police denials of foul play.

Although these cases are still under investigation and evidence is being analyzed, at this time, there is no evidence in any of these cases to support allegations of foul play, the APD said. While each incident has occurred at the lake, the circumstances, exact locations, and demographics surrounding these cases vary.

Reacting to comments by APD Chief Joseph Chacon that the drownings are tragic but nothing out of the ordinary, Ms John says that authorities seemingly nonchalant attitude is especially painful.

For them, its just a number, its just a body. He was saying a lot of things that made sense but I really was very disappointed with the way he said that, Ms John says. My question to him is, Do you just want to be an ordinary police chief, or do you want to be an extraordinary officer who can make a difference in the lives of Austin people?

The APD declined to address Mr Chacons comments when approached by The Independent, saying in a statement on 3 May: We will not release any further information.

But whether there is an unlikely chance that there is a killer on the loose or all the victims coincidentally met the same tragic and accidental death, their loved ones are sure of something: there is plenty more that can and must be done to avoid more deaths.

I use my spiritual strength and remember verses from the Bible, you know, you try to go back to normal life, Ms John tells The Independent. And then the next week, you hear another person is found dead [in the lake] and then its like inflicting the wound over and youre re-traumatised.

In this aerial view from a drone, residents paddle board and kayak in Lady Bird Lake on May 20, 2020 in Austin, Texas (Getty Images)

Bonding over their personal tragedies and with the help of some organisations and city council member Zo Qadri, Ms John and Mr Gutierrez have advocated for several changes, including potentially having EMS and Park Rangers in the area from 6pm to midnight. Mr Gutierrez says Ms John has brought him and his wife on board to city council meetings, where they push for those safety measures together.

We just want to support each other in every way possible, Mr Gutierrez says. Elsie texts me, she checks in on me and I check in on her. Shes the sweetest woman in the world and no mother should ever have to bury her kid.

Their work has already seen some victories, such as small safety improvements like more lighting, temporary fencing, and Halo cameras that will be implemented later this year. The Trail Conservancy told KVUE in a statement that pedestrian poles, bollards, and dock lighting have been approved.

Ive been to two City Council meetings to speak with the mayor, all the city council members, the chief of police, just telling my story and what needed to be done and what could have been done four years ago when Martin died, Mr Gutierrez said.

Finally, for the first time, I feel like my voice is being heard and not only just mine, but Jasons and other victims families.
 Close Lori Vallow trial: Gilbert detective testifies

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The trial of doomsday cult mom Lori Vallow continues for another week at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, where the mother-of-three is accused of killing her two youngest children and her new husband Chad Daybells first wife.

The 49-year-old is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, and grand theft over the deaths of her daughter Tylee Ryan, 16, son Joshua JJ Vallow, 7, and Mr Daybells wife Tammy, 49.

Tylee and JJ were last seen alive in September 2019. In June 2020, their remains were found buried on the Daybell property. Tammy died one month after their disappearance in October 2019.

On Monday, jurors were shown chilling text messages between Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell around the time of the murders of their spouses and her two children.

In one message in August, Ms Vallow wrote: We r both so tired of taking care of demons. We are weary. Please ask the Lord to take them. The following month, Tylee and JJ were killed.

Meanwhile, the court is eyeing June 2024 as a possible start date for Mr Daybells trial.
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Lori Vallow threatened to kill her friend, cut her up and then bury her remains in a place nobody would ever find one month after her two children disappeared, according to bombshell testimony at the doomsday cult moms murder trial.

Ms Vallows friend Audrey Barattiero took the stand at Ms Vallows trial in Ada County Courthouse on Wednesday, revealing disturbing details about the alleged threat her former friend once made to her life.

Ms Barattiero testified that  one day in October 2019  she had asked Ms Vallow is there was anything weird going on.

Ms Vallows son JJ and daughter Tylee had vanished one month earlier while her husband Charles Vallow had been shot dead by her brother Alex Cox that July.

Is there anything weird going on that I dont know about? Ms Barattiero said she asked her friend.

Ms Vallow allegedly insisted that there wasnt but then, following the confrontation, burst into laughter and told Ms Barattiero that she was naive  before threatening to kill her.

As soon as I turned to go upstairs, she started laughing  like if you were laughing at someone, she testified.

She said: Youre so naive and too trusting. Youre like a little child. You think the world is all unicorns and rainbows. You go around helping people and serving them. Well, Ive got news for you. Not everyone is a good person and not everyone can be so kind.

Then she threatened to kill me. She said she would cut me up and wasnt in the mental place to do it but would get herself in a place to do it.

Ms Vallow then allegedly went into detail about how she would kill Ms Barattiero.

There would be blood and bleach and something about trash bags. She would bury me in a place nobody would ever find me, said Ms Barattiero.

The stunning moment caught many in court by surprise with Ms Vallow herself reportedly looking shocked. Her defence attorney Jim Archibald challenged Ms Barattiero, first reminding her she was under oath and stating that none of this testimony had come up in the grand jury proceedings ahead of the trial.

Asked why she had not revealed this exchange with the defendant until now, she said she had been scared.

Nothing of this sort was talked about. You want the jury to believe that you just didnt make this last crap up? he said.

An adamant Ms Barattiero stood by her claims and replied: I did not make it up.

Lori Vallow is charged with murder of children Tylee and JJ and Chad Daybells wife Tammy (AP)

Testimony about the chilling alleged encounter comes after jurors have heard more than four weeks of testimony about the horrific killings of her children JJ and Tylee and Mr Daybells first wife Tammy  including the attempted dismemberment of Tylee and the burying of both children on the Daybell property.

JJ and Tylee were last seen alive in September 2019 and for months Ms Vallow refused to reveal their whereabouts.

One month later, Tammy died suddenly aged 49 and Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell flew to Hawaii and married on a beach.

In June 2020, JJ and Tylees remains were discovered buried in Mr Daybells backyard.

JJ died by asphyxiation with multiple layers of plastic bags wrapped around the little boys head and duct tape over his mouth, jurors heard at trial.

Tylees cause of death was impossible to determine because her remains were so badly burned and mutilated.

Now, Ms Vallow is now on trial charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Tammy, and first-degree murder, conspiracy and grand theft in connection with the deaths of JJ and Tylee. She is also charged with related financial crimes.

In court on Wednesday, Ms Barattiero testified how she first met Ms Vallow in November 2018 when they both attended a religious conference along with Mr Daybell, Ms Vallows friend Melanie Gibb and Coxs future wife Zulema Pastenes.

She said she and Ms Vallow became good friends but in early 2019 she began talking about zombies and possession.

Prosecutors allege that Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell conspired with Cox to murder Tammy, JJ and Tylee as part of their doomsday cult beliefs  but also for financial purposes so that they could collect Tammys life insurance money and the childrens social security and survivor benefits.

As part of their cult beliefs, the couple believed in a rating system of light and dark for how they ranked the spirits of the people around them.

Over time, this evolved into the belief that some people  including the children  were zombies and the only way to get rid of the zombies was for the human body to be destroyed.

Mr Daybell is also charged over the murders but is due to stand trial separately at a later date.

Cox, meanwhile, died before he could face charges.

On 11 December 2019, Cox died suddenly at the age of 51. His death was also ruled natural causes, with indications of a blood clot wedged in the arteries of his lungs. However the overdose drug Narcan was also found in his system.

Ms Vallow is also facing charges in Arizona of conspiring with Cox to murder her fourth husband Charles Vallow.
 Close Seven bodies found in search for two missing Oklahoma teens, police say

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Jesse McFadden is believed to have texted the mother of one of his victims posing as the murdered teenager, it has been revealed.

Ivy Websters mother told NewsNation that she got a final message from her daughters phone on Sunday morning but now thinks McFadden wrote the message pretending to be her daughter.

Authorities said on Wednesday that McFadden shot his six victims in the head with his wifes gun before staging the grisly scene on his rural property.

The victims were identified as McFaddens wife Holly Guess, 35, her children, Rylee Elizabeth Allen, 17, Michael James Mayo, 15, and Tiffany Dore Guess, 13, as well as two other teenagers Ivy, 14, and Brittany Brewer, 15  both of whom were friends with Guesss children.

McFadden was a convicted sex offender who was sent to prison in 2003 for raping Krystle Strong. He was released early in 2020.

Ms Strong told The Independent that she begged several Oklahoma state agencies to halt his early release  which came despite McFadden being hit with fresh charges in 2017 after he was caught using a contraband cell phone to exchange nude photos with a minor.
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The gunman accused of shooting dead five neighbours in Texas after they made a noise complaint against him has been captured hiding in a closet under laundry after four days on the run.

Francisco Oropesa, 38, was arrested in the city of Cut and Shoot, Texas, the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office confirmed on Tuesday evening.

Authorities said that Mr Oropesa was found hiding under laundry in a closet at his sisters house that had been previously searched following a fresh tip to an FBI tip line, reported The Houston Chronicle.

Officials say that he was arrested without incident at around 7pm CT at the address on Summer Hollow Drive. Task force agents moved on the home after a tip was received on the FBI tip line.

On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, at about 7.00pm, Francisco Oropesa, who was wanted in connection with shooting that occurred in Cleveland, Texas, was taken into custody in Montgomery County without incident. We would like to thank all local, state, and federal agencies who collaborated in this effort, MCSO said in a statement.

The San Jacinto County Sheriffs Office said that after being processed Mr Oropesa would be brought back to their jail and held on a $5m bond.

#RCVNoticias ULTIMA HORA



Momento en que detienen a Francisco Oropesa, sospechoso de matar a cinco hondurenos en Estados Unidos. pic.twitter.com/7bEJt4ONRK  Radio Cadena Voces (@RCVHonduras) May 3, 2023

Officials say that a woman, who has not been identified, was also detained at the scene.

The suspect had been on the run since the horrific attack in Cleveland, Texas, on Friday night and earlier on Tuesday authorities had intensified their search near the border with Mexico.

In total, five victims  Sonia Argentina Guzman, Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, Julisa Molina Rivera and Jose Jonathan Casarez  were killed in the shooting which began when the family living next door asked Mr Oropesa if he could stop firing his gun because their baby was trying to sleep.

Survivors said they called the police multiple times before the shooting occurred, leading to criticism about local authorities initial response time.

A person believed to be Francisco Oropesa, 38, was arrested in the city of Cut and Shoot, Texas, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said



FBI holding a press conference at 8:30 PM CT#breaking #breakingnews #news #cleveland #clevelandtexas pic.twitter.com/4ZaSqL0Qmf  Crime With Bobby (@crimewithbobby) May 3, 2023

The youngest victim, nine-year-old Daniel, was friends with Mr Oropesas son who is about the same age, according to new reports.

Mr Oropesa, allegedly an undocumented immigrant from Mexico according to Texas Governor Greg Abbotts office, had been apprehended and removed from the US several times, according to an unnamed source within US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

A state trooper vehicle passes a posted wanted sign for the mass shooting suspect (AP)

According to the source, Mr Oropesa, whose full name is reportedly Francisco Oropesa Perez-Torres, was first removed by an immigration judge in March 2009.

Mr Oropesa is said to have reentered the United States but was removed again in September 2009, January 2012 and July 2016, according to the report.

The Honduran Foreign Ministry has said that the bodies of the Honduran nationals killed in the shooting will be repatriated to the country.

The Government of Honduras deeply regrets the loss of these valuable lives and accompanies all their loved ones in their pain, the statement said.

We demand that the pertinent authorities arrest the perpetrator of this terrible event and apply the full weight of the law.
 Close 5 killed, including 8-year-old in San Jacinto County, shooter at large

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Francisco Oropesa and his partner were allegedly plotting their escape to Mexico after he killed five of his neighbours in a horror mass shooting in Cleveland, Texas.

Authorities said on Wednesday that the suspected gunman hid out in a home near Conroe just miles from the massacre while Divimara Lamar Nava brought him donuts from a local store.

Ms Lamar Nava also allegedly delivered a message to Mr Oropesas cousins asking them to help in their escape over the border  all the while she was pretending to cooperate with investigators.

She is now facing charges for helping Mr Oropesa following his capture on Tuesday.

The accused gunman had been the focus of a dramatic four-day manhunt in the wake of Fridays shooting which unfolded when his neighbours asked him to stop shooting near their home because a baby was trying to sleep.

He allegedly stormed into his neighbours home with an AR-15-style rifle and opened fire on people inside.

Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, her nine-year-old son Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18, were all killed in the shooting.
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Multiple people have been arrested in connection to a mass shooting that left five people dead in Cleveland, Texas, including the partner of the suspected gunman Francisco Oropesa.

The San Jacinto County Sheriffs Office said on Wednesday that several arrests were made after law enforcement captured Mr Oropesa at the end of a four-day manhunt the night before.

One of those taken into custody was Mr Oropesas partner, Divimara Lamar Nava, according to the Associated Press.

Ms Nava reportedly denied any knowledge of Mr Oropesas whereabouts but authorities believe she may have hidden him at the home where he was arrested.

Chief Deputy Timothy Kean said fewer than five people were arrested but he couldnt go into detail about the specific number during a press conference.

Mr Kean added that others are hinging on whats going on right now.

The additional arrests come just hours after law enforcement officers announced they captured Mr Oropesa while he was hiding under a pile of laundry in a closet at a home in Cut and Shoot, Texas - a town outside of Conroe and near Cleveland.

More than 200 members of law enforcement including those in the Houston FBI and San Jacinto County Sheriffs Office, were engaged on a four-day manhunt looking for Mr Oropesa.

An $80,000 reward was offered for information and tips leading to Mr Oropesas arrest.

According to authorities, an anonymous tip is what led them to him.

Mr Oropesa is accused of opening fire in his neighbours home after being asked to stop shooting his gun in his yard as it was keeping a baby awake.

Five people, including a nine-year-old boy, were killed.

Police are still waiting to learn whether the weapon used in the shooting was the one recovered.

As of now, we may have the weapon, but we have to wait for ballistics (testing), Mr Kean said.
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A family asked their neighbour to stop firing his gun so that their baby could sleep.

Minutes later, five people  including a nine-year-old boy  were dead.

Four days on from the horror mass shooting, their alleged killer was finally taken into custody at a home close to the nearby city of Cut and Shoot.

Francisco Oropesa was discovered on Tuesday (2 May) hiding under a pile of laundry in a closet of a house linked to one of his family members. He is now facing five murder charges.

The massacre unfolded on Friday night (28 April) in Cleveland, Texas, when the family asked their neighbour Mr Oropesa to stop shooting rounds in his yard because they had children trying to sleep.

Mr Oropesa then allegedly entered his neighbours home with an AR-15 style rifle and opened fire on anyone in his path.

Five victims  Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25,her nine-year-old son Daniel Enrique Laso, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Josue Jonatan Caceres, 18  were shot dead execution style from the neck up, police said.

Heres everything we know about the shooting:

The motive

The shooting was reported at around 10.30pm on Friday night (28 April) on the 100 block of Walters Road in the Trails End area in the community about 45 miles (72 kilometres) northeast of Houston.

Night shift patrol deputies were dispatched to a residence in reference to a harassment complaint.

Five dead, including eight-year-old, in Texas shooting

Authorities have said that a family member walked up to the fence and requested the gunman stopped shooting rounds in his own backyard. The suspect then allegedly refused saying that it was his property.

Around 10 to 20 minute later, he entered the property armed with an AR-15 and opened fire.

The neighbours walked over and said  Hey man, can you not do that, weve got an infant in here trying to sleep or whatever, Mr Capers said.

They went back in their house and then we have a video of him walking up their driveway with his AR-15.

On their way there, they received multiple 911 calls of an active shooter incident at the dispatch location.

Deputies arrived on the scene to find three children covered in blood were transported to the hospital, where they were determined to be uninjured, while two other witnesses at the scene were evaluated by first responders and released.

The SJCSO also said that Mr Oropesa has been known to shoot his 223 out in his front yard, which is evident by the shell casings that are laying in the front yard.

The victims

Ten people were in the residence at the time of the tragedy.

The fatal victims have been identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and her nine-year-old son Daniel Enrique Laso, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Josue Jonatan Caceres, 18, according to 12 News.

All five victims were originally from Honduras.

Velazquezs husband Jefrey Rivera told the Honduran network HCH that his wife died protecting their children. He said she hid in a closet with some of the children in the home. The two other deceased women were found lying on top of two children covered in blood. Police said on Saturday that they died protecting the two minors, who are both believed to have survived.

The house where the shooting took place (AP)

Recounting the terrifying moments leading up to the massacre, Mr Rivera said that someone in his household asked Mr Oropesa to stop shooting rounds in his yard because they had several children in the home who were trying to sleep.

Mr Rivera said that when he saw his very intoxicated neighbour approaching with an AR-15 rifle, he threw a machete at him in an attempt to protect other relatives in the home.

I realised he was coming in our direction while armed with a rifle, so I tried to find something to defend myself with and found a machete. Mr Rivera told HCH in Spanish. But by the time I found the machete, shots had already been fired.

Mr Oropesa and Mr Rivera then had a brief confrontation, in which the gunman allegedly said, Im going to kill you today.

Mr Rivera then reportedly said: Im going to kill you first because youve already killed my family. He said he managed to escape the violence and called authorities.

Guzman, meanwhile, was killed when she heroically confronted the gunman at the doorway to her home, according to her grieving husband Wilson Garcia.

Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and her son Daniel Enrique Laso, nine (Sourced)

Mr Garcia spoke at a vigil for his son Daniel on Sunday night where he revealed how his wife Guzman bravely thought she could stop the gunman opening fire.

He said he saw the suspect running towards his house while reloading his AR-15-style rifle with ammunition and urged his wife to get inside away from the gunman. But she refused  and went to confront Mr Oropesa instead.

I told my wife, Get inside. This man has loaded his weapon, said Mr Garcia, according to The Associated Press.

My wife told me to go inside because He wont fire at me, Im a woman.

Guzman was wrong and she became the first victim shot and killed in the horror attack that has sent shockwaves across the country. Mr Oropesa then went room to room opening fire on the victims, said Mr Garcia.

Mr Garcia also revealed that the family had made five separate calls to police in the 10 to 20 minutes between the initial confrontation and the massacre unfolding.

During each call, Mr Garcia said police reassured them that help was on its way.

But officers had not yet arrived when Mr Garcia said he saw the suspect entering his family home and opening fire.

Guzmans cousin told HCH that she had moved to the US eight years ago, while her son had spent five years living in America.

Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, Daniel Enrique Laso, 9, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Josue Jonatan Caceres, 18, were all killed (GoFundMe)

The mother of three leaves behind a two-year-old daughter, a six-month-old baby and her husband.

Her family has created a GoFundMe to raise funds so Guzman and her sons remains can be repatriated.

I just spoke with her on the phone yesterday and now theyre sending her back to me in a casket, Guzmans mother Francia Guzman also told HCH through tears.

The suspect

Mr Oropesa is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who had been deported from the US four times before the shooting.

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) source told The Independent that Mr Oropesa, whose full name is reportedly Francisco Oropesa Perez-Torres, was first removed by an immigration judge in March 2009.

After that, Mr Oropesa reentered the United States at an unknown time and location but was removed again in September 2009, January 2012 and July 2016.

It is not clear what the married fathers status is at present.

Authorities were forced to admit on Sunday that they released an incorrect photo of Mr Oropesa  and had been spelling his name incorrectly as Oropeza.

Prior to his arrest, FBI Special Agent James Smith described him as armed and dangerous.

We're still out there trying to find this individual. We consider him armed and dangerous. And we're not going to stop until we actually arrest him and bring him into custody. But he is out there, and he is a threat to the community, he said.

Francisco Oropesa, 38 (KHOU11)

So I don't want anyone to think something different than that. He is a threat to the community, and we need the community's help to hopefully locate him and soon and take him off the streets tonight.

But however, I will say this, we do not ask the community to take the matters into their own hands. Please call 911 if you happen to see this individual out there.

Mr Oropesa is described as approximately 58 tall, last seen wearing blue jeans with a black shirt and work boots and with short black hair.

An arrest warrant charged him with five counts of murder and burglary.

The manhunt

Mr Oropesa was said to be armed and dangerous, with police admitting on Sunday (30 April) that they had zero leads as to his whereabouts.

Earlier reports by NPR suggested police had located and surrounded the suspect somewhere in the Houston area, but this later turned out to be incorrect.

On Sunday night (30 April), the FBI said in a statement that Mr Oropesa was considered armed and dangerous and the public was advised not to approach him.

Authorities continued searching in the vicinity of the crime scene. Mr Capers said that authorities had widened the search to as far as 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the scene of the shooting.

Francisco Oropesa was tracked down to Cut and Shoot on Tuesday (Especial)

Mr Oropesas cellphone was initially being tracked but it was found abandoned along with some clothing on Saturday (29 April).

Tracking dogs managed to pick up his scent before losing it in the waterways.

Despite the efforts, SJCSO Sheriff Greg Capers said on Sunday (30 April) that investigators had zero leads and admitted he could be anywhere,

A reward of $80,000 was offered for information leading to his arrest and the reward was advertised on Spanish-language billboards in the hopes that someone would speak out. Investigators said they believed he was in contact with friends.

Mr Oropesas wife was said to have been in constant contact with investigators.

The capture

Mr Oropesa was captured on Tuesday (2 May) following a dramatic four-day manhunt, after the FBI received a tip-off about his whereabouts and carried out surveillance on his wife.

The 38-year-old accused gunman was found hiding under a pile of laundry in the closet of a home in Cut and Shoot, a city close to the town of Cleveland.

Sheriff Greg Capers, of San Jacinto County, said at a press conference that the coward was taken into custody without incident.

He was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry, the sheriff said. They effectively made the arrest. He is uninjured.

A woman was also detained at the scene.

Press Conference: Texas man accused of killing 5 people captured

Authorities said that a mystery tipster helped lead them to the suspected mass killer.

FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said that the bureau received a tip to its tip line at 5.15pm local time on Tuesday.

Officials acted on the tip and also tracked Mr Oropesas wife to a home near Cut and Shoot that was linked to one of his family members.

Mr Oropesa was arrested at 6.30pm local time.

We just want to thank the person who had the courage and bravery to call in the suspects location, said Agent Paul.

Mr Oropesa is scheduled to appear before a magistrate in San Jacinto County on Wednesday, CNN reported.

He was arrested on five counts of murder and is being held on $5m bond.

Greg Abbott slammed for response

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been slammed for his response to the latest incident of gun violence in his state.

The Republican governor, who has severely relaxed gun laws in Texas since taking office, failed to address the mass shooting for almost two days.

Then, on Sunday, he finally broke his silence, with a statement on social media in which he announced his office was contributing a $50,000 reward to catch the suspect  and labelled the victims illegal immigrants.

Announcing a $50K reward for a @TxDPS top 10 fugitive who is in the country illegally and killed five illegal immigrants Friday night. I also directed #OperationLoneStar to be on the lookout for the criminal and any attempts to flee the country, he said.

The statement sparked an instant backlash with social media users quickly correcting his use of the words illegal immigrants with the term people.

Star Trek actor George Takei was among those to slam Mr Abbott, tweeting: This is despicable. I would have thought bringing up the immigration status of the innocent victims of this senseless violence would be beneath even you. But I was wrong.

Mr Abbott was later forced to walk back his comments in an admission that it was not even a factual statement.

Weve since learned that at least one of the victims may have been in the United States legally, his spokesperson Renae Eze said in a statement on Monday.

We regret if the information was incorrect and detracted from the important goal of finding and arresting the criminal.

Prior to the inflammatory statement about illegal immigrants, Mr Abbott had come under fire for his radio silence on the incident.

The political leader, who tweeted a picture of his pet dog along with the caption all smiles for the weekend on Saturday, waited almost two days before commenting on the matter.

This is the Governor of Texas tweet AFTER learning that a gunman armed with an assault rifle opened fire on a family in his state, killing five people, including an 8-year-old, Ms Watts tweeted.

Brett Cross, who lost his son Uziyah in a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde last year, also lashed out at the Republican governor for not making mention of the deadly shooting.

Mr Abbotts response is a far cry from the stance of local officials.

In Sundays press conference, Sheriff Capers became emotional as he said I dont care if the victims were in Texas legally or illegally.

My heart is with this eight-year-old little boy, I dont care if he was here legally, I dont care if he was here illegally, he was in my county, he said.

Five people died in my county. And thats where my heart is, in my county protecting my people to the best of my ability.

More than 170 mass shooting in the US this year

The US is setting a devastating record pace for mass killings in 2023, according to the Associated Press. The violence is sparked by a range of motives: murder-suicides and domestic violence; gang retaliation; school shootings and workplace vendettas. All those listed as mass killings in the report have taken the lives of four or more people since 1 January.

Reacting to the deadly violence on Friday night, gun safety advocates slammed lax weapon laws in Texas.

Assault rifles were designed to be used by highly trained soldiers in battle, not marketed to violent men to carry out revenge fantasies, gun violence prevention activist and Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts tweeted on Saturday.

From Newtown to Nashville, Las Vegas to Uvalde, these weapons of war are chosen and used to inflict as much harm as quickly as possible.

Greg Abbott has relaxed the states gun laws (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

In total, Texas has been rocked by at least six major mass shootings under Mr Abbotts watch, according to a Texas Tribune database.

It was November 2017  two years into his first term  when 26 people were murdered and another 20 wounded when a 26-year-old gunman opened fire during Sunday service at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs.

Just six months later in May 2018, a 17-year-old student killed eight classmates and two students at Santa Fe High School.

One year later in August 2019, a domestic terrorist attack at a Walmart in El Paso left 23 shoppers and store workers dead and dozens more injured.

Then, on 24 May 2022, 19 students aged just nine to 11 and two teachers were shot dead at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde by an 18-year-old gunman who had legally bought an AR-15-style rifle in the state just days after his birthday.
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The US Supreme Court has a credibility problem.

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committeehosted a hearing exploring whether the high court needs to adopt stricter ethics scandals, following a series of revelations that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted lavish travel and accommodations from a Republican megadonor named Harlan Crow.

Senators from both parties have proposals in the works that would impose new rules on the high court, which has long been left to police itself and prides itself on a culture of confidentiality and independence from politics.

The highest court in the land should not have the lowest standards, Judiciary Committee chair Dick Durbin said on Tuesday.

In January, less than half of respondents to a poll approved of the job the high court was doing.

The focus on Justice Thomas may be recent, but the court has a long history of ethics scandals. Heres what you need to know.

Clarence Thomas and a Billionaires Hospitality

The scandal that broke open this debate ties back to Harlan Crow, a conservative Texas billionaire and major donor to conservative causes.

Investigative outlet ProPublica found that Mr Crow had flown Justice Thomas and his family around the world on a private jet and hosted annual summer holidays at his Adirondacks resort, trips which the jurist failed to disclose.

As friends do, we have joined [Mr Crow and his wife] on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them, Justice Thomas said of the trips in a statement.

Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable, he added.

The ties went deeper than just vacations though. Mr Crow also bought a group of properties from Justice Thomas in Georgia, and currently owns the house where the high court judges mother lives.

Justice Niel Gorsuch, meanwhile, sold a $2m property to the owner of a law firm with regular cases before the Supreme Court.

The additional scrutiny against Justice Thomas also yielded news the conservative jurist failed to accurately report hundreds of thousands of dollars of income from a family real estate holding company.

Ginni Thomas and the Big Lie

In the throes of the 2020 election season, where the Supreme Court would eventually hear cases from Donald Trump challenging election results, Ginni Thomas, wife of Clarence Thomas, lobbied the White House to continued falsely claiming Mr Trump won the contest.

Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!! reads one message from November of that year she sent to Mr Trumps chief of staff, Mark Meadows. You are the leader, with him, who is standing for Americas constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.

Such messages landed Ms Thomas in front of the congressional January 6 committee, where she denied exerting any improper influence over her husbands work at the Supreme Court.

Clarence Thomas gifts scandal: US Senate panel to examine Supreme Court ethics

Its not the first time Ms Thomass work as a conservative activist has raised eyebrows.

In 2011, Justice Thomas, under scrutiny from watchdog groups, updated years of disclosure forms to include the fact that Ms Thomas, a conservative activist, earned more then $686,000 in income from the right-leaning Heritage Foundation between 2003 and 2007, a discrepancy Mr Thomas attributed to a misunderstanding of filing instructions.

Chief Justice John Roberts and his Million-Dollar Headhunter Wife

Jane Roberts, wife of Chief Justice John Roberts, has also come in for scrutiny for her business activities.

Between 2007 and 2014, she made more than $10m working as a legal recruiter, matching attorneys with top firms, at least one of which argued before her husband, Insider reports, citing information from a whistleblower complaint. The windfall made her one of the highest-paid legal recruiters in the country at the time.

"When I found out that the spouse of the chief justice was soliciting business from law firms, I knew immediately that it was wrong," the whistleblower, former colleague Kendal B Price, told Insider. "During the time I was there, I was discouraged from ever raising the issue. And I realized that even the law firms who were Janes clients had nowhere to go. They were being asked by the spouse of the chief justice for business worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there was no one to complain to. Most of these firms were likely appearing or seeking to appear before the Supreme Court. Its natural that theyd do anything they felt was necessary to be competitive."

Ms Robertss firm at the time said in a statement to the outlet she maintained "the highest standards: Candidate confidentiality, client trust, and professionalism."

An unprecedented leak

In May of 2022, the Supreme Court found itself in an unprecedented position: investigating a leak. Somehow, a copy of a draft opinion that would form the basis of the courts eventual decision to overrule Roe v Wade and abolish the constitutional right to an abortion became public. It was a massive breach of court norms, where the justices, who have lifelong tenure, pride themselves on collegiality and discretion.

Officials have been investigating the source of the leak, including interviewing high court law clerks, ever since.

Sexual harassment

Other scandals imperiling the courts credibility have had to do with the alleged conduct of justices before they were appointed to the nations top bench.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh was accused by three women of sexually assaulting them or others before his confirmation, and Justice Thomas was accused during his confirmation process in 1991 of harassing Anita Hill while she worked under him at the US Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Both men denied the allegations.

Impartial advocates or partisan appointees?

Outside of their personal conduct, Supreme Court justices have come in for criticism for their ties to legal advocacy organisations like the conservative Federalist Society, which has spent decades and millions of dollars building a pipeline of ideologically aligned recruits for the federal judiciary.

All of the courts six current right-leaning justices have ties to the organisation, which played an outsized role under the Trump administration supplying candidates for judicial nominations in districts across the country.

During one Federalist gathering, Justice Samuel Alito openly complained about the advance of liberal values, a seeming affront to the high courts self-styled representation as a court above the fray of politics.

You cant say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman, Justice Alito said. Until very recently thats what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now its considered bigotry.

A Justice who would do anything if you take him hunting

Clarence Thomas isnt the only high court judge who has come under scrutiny for his lavish travel and elbow-rubbing with the conservative elite.

Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016 while at an $800-a-night hunting lodge in Texas, took as many as 85 undisclosed hunting and fishing trips during his tenure, often in the company of conservative donors, politicians, and people with business before the Supreme Court, Slate reports.

His reputation for such jaunts was so notorious that Texas lawyer and GOP donor Mark Lanier said he heard Justice Scalia would do anything if you take him hunting. The attorney later took Justice Scalia on a charter plane to a private boar hunting ranch after the jurist gave a speech at Texas tech.

A cushy relationship with the press

For decades, radio listeners have been turning to the legal affairs reporting of Nina Totenberg, who has long chronicled the Supreme Court for NPR.

They were shocked to find out, once Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, that Ms Totenberg had a decades-long friendship with the liberal stalwart, a fact that wasnt acknowledged in NPR coverage, but was the subject of the reporters memoir, Dinners with Ruth.

The broadcasters public editor later concluded the closeness of that Totenberg-Ginsburg relationship was never fully disclosed, and raises the question of whether journalistic independence  also vital to NPR consumers  was as solid as listeners have a right to expect.

Confirmation, or confirmation bias?

Another area where critics see room for reform is the Supreme Court confirmation process.

Republicans famously refused to consider Barrack Obamas nominee Merrick Garland in 2016 after the death of Scalia, arguing such an appointment would be inappropriate during an election year.

Four years later, when Justice Ginsburg died, Amy Coney Barrett was appointed about a week before election day.

Conservatives have their gripes about the process as well.

Reagan nominee Robert Bork was so famously torn apart  in television ads, in speeches from senators  in his failed nomination bid that getting Bork-ed is now a Washington verb for the total destruction of ones reputation in public.
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LGBT+ protesters were forcefully restrained and detained as hundreds of them entered the Texas Capitol in Austin to protest a bill that would seeks to ban gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth.

Activists for LGBT+ civil rights led heated protests inside the Texas state house throughout the day before being thrown out as senators were poised to vote on Senate Bill 14 (SB 14).

The SB 14 bill would prohibit the provision of procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender reassignment or gender dysphoria by use of public money or public assistance to transgender children.

Video captured from the Texas Capitols House gallery showed police officers forcefully restraining a person by pinning them down as other protesters chanted slogans.

The protests began as soon as the bill was brought to the floor, prompting House speaker Dan Phelan to order the protesters to be cleared from the chamber.

What do we want? Trans rights. When do we want it? Now, protesters chanted.

One of the top activists was arrested and another was banned for a year from entering Capitol grounds, reported the Courthouse News Service.

The Transgender Education Network of Texas, one of advocacy groups that led the protest, said its board member Sofia Sepulveda was barred from entering the state Capitol for a year for flashing a banner in the buildings main rotunda.

Equality Texas leadership drops a banner in the Capitol rotunda reading "let trans kids grow up" (AP)

Let Trans Kids Grow Up, read the banner.

I am a proud Texas resident, a Mexican-American, and a transgender woman, and I deserve to have my voice heard just like any other Texan invested in the policies shaping our lives, Ms Sepulveda said in a press release.

Rules matter in the TX House, Mr Phelan said in a tweet on Tuesday evening. Todays outbursts in the gallery were a breach of decorum & continued after I warned that such behaviors would not be tolerated. There will always be differing perspectives, but in our chamber, we will debate those differences w/ respect.

Medical groups have said that blocking transgender kids from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy is critical to those who are already facing a higher risk of depression and suicide than others.

The bill, which has been already passed by the state senate, was sent back to a committee in the house following demonstrations, KEYE-TV reported. A substitute bill was considered and approved by a 6-5 vote.

The bill will reportedly be back on the floor on Thursday.
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Another mass shooting in Texas.

More innocent lives lost.

And another shock-stirring response from Governor Greg Abbott.

On Friday, five people  including a nine-year-old boy  were shot dead in a horror attack at a home in Cleveland.

Around 15 family members, friends and godparents had gathered together to prepare for a church event when neighbour Francisco Oropesa allegedly stormed into the home with an AR-15-style rifle.

Going room to room, the 38-year-old suspect gunned down anyone in his path.

Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, her nine-year-old son Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18, were killed in the shooting.

Two of the women died after they threw their bodies over small children to protect them from the gunfire.

In the eyes of their alleged killer, the victims crime was asking him if he could stop shooting his firearm so close to their home while their baby was trying to sleep.

But in his initial response to the shooting, Governor Abbott pointed out something else entirely, describing the victims as illegal immigrants.

Silence and a photo of a pet dog

It took two days for the Republican governor to even acknowledge the latest mass shooting in his state  which came less than a year after 21 young students and teachers were murdered in a massacre in Uvalde.

On Saturday, while the Cleveland community and devastated families grieved and a huge manhunt was launched to find the killer, Mr Abbott took to Instagram to post a photo of his pet dog.

All smiles for the weekend, he wrote.

On Sunday, he finally broke his silence over the shooting in a statement where he announced his office was contributing a $50,000 reward to catch the suspect.

Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and her nine-year-old son Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman (Family handout)

But in the statement, he also chose to label the five people killed not as victims but illegal immigrants.

Announcing a $50K reward for a @TxDPS top 10 fugitive who is in the country illegally and killed five illegal immigrants Friday night. I also directed #OperationLoneStar to be on the lookout for the criminal and any attempts to flee the country, he said on Twitter.

The following day, Mr Abbott was forced to walk back his comment after it turned out it was not even a factual statement.

Weve since learned that at least one of the victims may have been in the United States legally, Mr Abbotts spokesperson Renae Eze said in a statement on Monday.

We regret if the information was incorrect and detracted from the important goal of finding and arresting the criminal.

Mr Abbotts silence and then perceived anti-immigrant rhetoric sparked an instant backlash from public figures, gun control activists and immigration advocates.

Its below the dignity of the governor to impugn the victims of a mass shooting about their legal status, Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told NBC News.

All of the victims are Latino and so is the suspected gunman. This is a tragedy that involves another serial killing and a weapon for war that was used in the killing. Thats the issue, not the legal status of the victims.

But the criticism may have little effect on Mr Abbott.

After all, he has been here many times before.

Mass shootings under Abbotts watch

It was November 2017  two years into his first term  when 26 people were murdered and another 20 wounded when a 26-year-old gunman opened fire during Sunday service at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs.

Just six months later in May 2018, a 17-year-old student killed eight classmates and two students at Santa Fe High School.

One year later in August 2019, a domestic terrorist attack at a Walmart in El Paso left 23 shoppers and store workers dead and dozens more injured.

Then, on 24 May 2022, 19 students aged just nine to 11 and two teachers were shot dead at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde by an 18-year-old gunman who had legally bought an AR-15-style rifle in the state just days after his birthday.

A vigil held for the nine-year-old boy Daniel who died on Friday (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

In total, Texas has been rocked by at least six major mass shootings under Mr Abbotts watch, according to a Texas Tribune database.

And, after each, he has come under fire for inaction.

Mr Abbotts response  or lackthereof  was especially audible after Uvalde.

As the nation reeled from one of the deadliest school shootings in American history, the governor continued with his plans to attend a campaign fundraiser that same day.

Records show he spent three hours at the event, drumming up up to $50,000 in donations for his re-election campaign.

When he finally addressed the horror attack the next day, he infamously told the community that had just lost 21 members that it could have been worse.

He then appeared  via pre-recorded video message  at the NRA convention that weekend where he claimed gun safety laws have no impact on reducing gun violence.

He then failed to attend any of the victims funerals.

And he refused the pleas of the grieving families and state lawmakers to call a legislative session to even discuss the possibility of introducing gun safety measures in the state.

Anti-immigration rhetoric

Following the Uvalde massacre, gun control advocates suggested that Mr Abbotts ongoing anti-immigration rhetoric may have contributed to his unwillingness to take action.

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, former US Representative for Florida and senior adviser for gun control advocacy organisation Giffords, told The Independent in September that his response revealed a discrimination towards the low-income, Hispanic community situated close to the US-Mexico border.

Uvalde is a predominantly Hispanic community and I wonder if his response would have been different if the community was of a higher income bracket and more representative of his base, she said.

She added: Is it because of the colour of their skin and their appearance that Republicans have completely dismissed one of the most disgusting tragedies where children were massacred?

Each of the five victims killed last week were Honduran nationals.

Critics say Mr Abbotts first comments about that shooting make it clear he is trying to make the massacre about immigration.

In his only statement to date, he referred to both the victims and the suspect in terms of what he believed to be their immigration status.

Mr Oropesa was described as a fugitive who is in the country illegally while his alleged victims were labelled illegal immigrants.

The states access to firearms  including the AR-15-style rifle used in the attack  didnt feature at all in his comments.

The reality is that it has become increasingly easy for people to get their hands on guns in Texas in recent years  in large part thanks to Mr Abbott.

Lax gun laws

Less than one year before Uvalde, in June 2021, the Texas governor signed a bill into law allowing Texans without a licence to open carry handguns.

At the bill signing was NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and NRA president Carolyn Meadows.

Mr Abbott  and the Texas GOP  have long enjoyed a cosy relationship with the gun lobby group and this relationship appears to play a major part in the unwillingness to enact gun safety measures.

From 2017 to 2022, the NRA spent more than $2m lobbying Texas state lawmakers, data from Open Secrets reveals.

Ahead of his gubernatorial reelection race in the November midterms, data compiled by Giffords shows that Mr Abbott received $20,700 in career gun lobby contributions  one of the highest of all candidates in gubernatorial races.

So long as he keeps that cosy relationship with the NRA, it seems unlikely Mr Abbott will take action  or even give a more meaningful response  to the constant cycle of mass shootings and gun violence in his state.

Children play outside the scene of the mass shooting in Cleveland (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

As Cal Jillson, professor of political science at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, told The Independent in September: Hes been through this many times.

As Texas governor, hes had about 10 mass shootings and each time there are calls for dramatic action and hes dealt with calls in a particular way which is concluding that hes not going to take significant action so theres no need to go through the pretence.

Its now five days since the latest horror mass shooting in Texas.

Children have been left to grow up without their mothers, fathers without their sons.

And the governor who made it easier for people to buy firearms in Texas is yet to visit any of the victims families.
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Donald Trump lashed out at Joe Biden in an interview on Wednesday over his successors decision not to attend the coronation of King Charles III, calling it disrespectful.

It comes as Mr Biden has been invited to make a state visit to the UK by the new monarch, who will officially be coronated later this week. While Mr Biden will not make the trip, first lady Jill Biden is expected to attend the festivities.

"I was surprised when I heard that he wasn't coming, said the former president. I think it's very disrespectful for him not to be there.

Mr Trump was speaking with British broadcaster and former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, and during the interview gave his own reasoning for the supposed snub: Mr Bidens physical endurance.

"I think that it's hard for him to do it physically...getting over here for him, said Mr Trump. But certainly he should be here as a representative of our country.

For all the ex-presidents apparent outrage, no US president has actually attended the coronation of a British monarch. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 was attended by a delegation selected by then-President Dwight Eisenhower, but not by Mr Eisenhower himself.

And if Charles did view the presidents decision as disrespectful, it hasnt shown in the monarchs public statements. Meanwhile, the White House confirmed this week that Mr Biden would travel to the UK for a state visit in the near future.

"The president was appreciative of the offer by the King and looks forward to that state visit," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing.

Mr Bidens age and stamina have long been a target of the right, but the criticism failed to stop the oldest president to ever be sworn in from defeating then-President Donald Trump in 2020. The president has also made a number of international trips since taking office, including most recently to Ireland just last month.

Nevertheless, questions about Mr Bidens age persist on the right and from some reporters, especially as he is now officially running for reelection. Should he serve a full two terms in office, the president would be 86 when he finally left office.

Mr Trump himself was one of the oldest candidates to ever take office when he did so in 2017, a fact which has drawn calls for new leadership and for younger generations to take the reigns in both parties.
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Donald Trump fumed at Fox News on Wednesday in his first public comments discussing the Dominion Voting Systems settlement with a reporter.

The ex-president was speaking with British broadcaster and onetime politician Nigel Farage in an interview when the two broached the subject, typically a topic that conservative newscasters shy away from when speaking to the former president.

As he lambasted the network for the insult of reaching a settlement with Dominion, the ex-president complained that Rupert Murdoch was wrong to believe that he could not successfully defend the conspiratorial nonsense that the Trump campaign was spreading in 2020 (and which Mr Trump continues to push) in court.

The election was rigged, and Rupert Murdoch should have talked about it, Mr Trump insisted.

"But Rupert Murdoch doesn't believe he can win a court case on that, his interviewer responded.

Mr Trump then shot back: "But Rupert Murdoch is wrong."

FoxCorp chairman Rupert Murdochs admittance that key personalities at the network had endorsed election conspiracies, beyond merely platforming them, was a key part of the testimony produced during the bruising months-long discovery phase of Dominions $787m lawsuit against the conservative news giant. During that testimony, Mr Murdoch admitted that his network could have done more to make clear that the conspiracies being pushed by the Trump campaign and its allies in 2020 and 2021 were simply not true.

In that same discovery phase, however, the groundwork was laid for the defeat of any attempt, as Mr Trump had apparently wished, by Fox lawyers to argue that there had been some truth to the charges of widespread election fraud or voter fraud that Trump-aligned Republicans claimed was responsible for the former presidents defeat to Joe Biden.

To the contrary, Fox primetime opinion personalities -- like the now-fired Tucker Carlson -- were found in text messages and other formats to have been privately denigrating the very claims made by Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and others on their shows.

Theres also the issue of the numerous statements from Mr Trumps former lead attorney, Rudy Giuliani, admitting that the Trump campaign never had any evidence to prove the existance of the kind of wide-scale fraud that the former president alleged had occurred.

Mr Trump nevertheless continues to insist at every available opportunity that the 2020 election was rigged or stolen and uses the issue to determine whether other members of his party are sufficiently loyal. That insistence on support for his election conspiracies is now thought to have played a part in the GOPs poor performance in the 2022 midterm elections, where the party failed to take the Senate and squeezed by with only a paper-thin majority in the House.

Polls have indicated that candidates like Kari Lake who supported Mr Trumps falsehoods about 2020 underperformed other Republicans in their respective general election contests by several percentage points.
 Close Related video: Trump suggests stars have committed sexual assault for a million years

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The jury in E Jean Carrolls civil rape trial against Donald Trump will soon decide whether or not the former president raped and defamed the magazine columnist.

Both sides delivered closing arguments in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday, with Ms Carrolls lawyer Roberta Kaplan using Mr Trumps own words  grab em by the pussy  against him.

In a real sense, Donald Trump is a witness against himself, she said.

Mr Trumps attorney Joe Tacopina countered that while his comments in the infamous Access Hollywood tape are rude and gross, he claimed that doesnt make Ms Carrolls unbelievable story believable.

The judge will now instruct the jury on Tuesday morning before they will begin deliberations in the case.

Ms Carroll has claimed that Mr Trump raped her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s.

In other legal troubles, the judge in Mr Trumps hush money case issued a gag order on Monday banning him from posting information about the evidence and witnesses on social media.
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Decades after she was allegedly raped by a New York real estate mogul who would go on to be the 45th President of the United States, E Jean Carroll has had her day in court.

Ms Carroll, a writer and former advice columnist for Elle magazine, is the plaintiff in a pair of civil lawsuits against former president Donald Trump.

One of those lawsuits is now being presented in a New York City federal courtroom under the supervision of US District Judge Lewis Kaplan. The proceedings began on 25 April, with closing arguments beginning on 8 May.

The jurors in the trial remained anonymous on Judge Kaplans orders due to the risk of threats, intimidation or outright violence against anyone seen as an enemy by Mr Trump and his supporters.

Ms Carroll claimed during her testimony that Mr Trump raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

The magazine columnist spoke out about the allegations for the first time in 2019 when Mr Trump was president.

After he denied the allegations and accused her of lying in a bid to bolster sales of her forthcoming book, she filed a defamation lawsuit against him in November 2019. That suit stalled in the courts for years and is yet to make it to trial.

Then, last year, New York lawmakers passed the states Adult Survivors Act, giving sexual abuse victims a one-year window to sue attackers for assaults that took place years ago.

That law paved the way for Ms Carroll to file a second lawsuit against the former president in November accusing him of both raping her and then defaming her years later by denying the assault took place.

That second lawsuit  seeking damages and a retraction of his denial  has now played out in a New York court.

What Carroll said about the alleged dressing room rape

The allegations against Mr Trump were first laid out in an excerpt from her book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, that ran in New York magazine in June 2019.

In the book excerpt, she said she was shopping at a Bergdorf-Goodman in New York when Mr Trump approached her and struck up a conversation. He asked her for help picking out a gift for a woman.

She then alleged that he took her to the lingerie section of the store and asked her to try on an item for him in a dressing room before pinning her up against a wall and sexually assaulting her for three minutes.

At the time, Ms Carroll said the emergence of the #MeToo movement in late 2017 motivated her to tell her story publicly.

Mr Trump addressed the allegations days later when pressed on them by reporters at the White House.

He claimed he had never met her and denied raping her by telling the White House press corps that Ms Carrol was not [his] type.

He also accused her of lying to boost sales of her memoir.

She is trying to sell a new book  that should indicate her motivation, the then-president said, adding that her book should be sold in the fiction section.

Ms Carroll pushed back on his claims, sharing a photo of herself and Mr Trump together with his then-wife Ivana Trump and her then-husband John Johnson at an NBC party in 1987 to show they had met.

In her 2019 defamation suit against Mr Trump, she alleged his denials had caused her to suffer reputational, emotional, and professional harm and said she was suing to obtain redress for those injuries and to demonstrate that even a man as powerful as Trump can be held accountable under the rule of law.

Ms Carroll took the stand on 26 April, testifying that she and Mr Trump were shopping around the department store at the time when he asked her to try on a piece of lingerie that he was looking to purchase  a blue bodysuit.

He was having a good time, and so was I, Ms Carroll said, adding that the two were harmlessly flirting with one another.

As the two reached the dressing room, Ms Carroll said Mr Trump shut the door and shoved me up against the wall.

I was confused. I laughed, Ms Carroll said.

She said she pushed Mr Trump back but he thurst her into the wall again.

From there, Ms Carroll described how Mr Trump pulled down her tights and inserted his fingers into her vagina.

It was extremely painful, Ms Carroll recalled emotionally. It was a horrible feeling. He put his hand inside me and curled his finger. As I sit here today, I can still feel it.

When asked if she screamed for help or told Mr Trump to stop, Ms Carroll said, Im not a screamer. Im a fighter.

Ms Carroll alleges Mr Trump then inserted his penis and began to rape her.

I wonder why I walked in there, to get in that situation... Im proud to say I got out of there, Ms Carroll.

After the assault, Ms Carroll said she left the department store quickly and called her friend, Lisa Birnbach. Later on, Ms Carroll would tell Carol Martin, an anchorwoman at ABC, about the assault, but did not confide in many others.

Ms Carroll said she felt very stupid for going into the dressing room. She described how the alleged rape left her unable to ever have a romantic life again.

Later on, Ms Carroll elaborated on her inability to form and maintain romantic relationships saying that because she was allegedly raped by Mr Trump after flirting with him, it hindered her ability to engage with men.

Justice Department involvement delayed the defamation suit

Although a Clinton-era Supreme Court case, Jones v Clinton, allows presidents to be sued for conduct which occurred before the start of their time in the White House, Mr Trumps legal team asked the Department of Justice to aid in his defence of the 2019 case.

The department filed papers seeking to shield him from liability on the grounds that he was acting in an official capacity as president when he made the allegedly defamatory statements about Ms Carroll. But Judge Kaplan rejected those arguments and said the suit could proceed. An attempt by Mr Trump to appeal that decision failed in September 2021 as well.

His legal team took up another approach in February of last year when they moved to countersue Ms Carroll.

Judge Kaplan blocked that bid in a scathing decision on 11 March 2022, in which he slammed Mr Trumps continuing attempts to delay the case as futile and in bad faith.

The defendants litigation tactics, whatever their intent, have delayed the case to an extent that readily could have been far less, Judge Kaplan wrote. Granting leave to amend without considering the futility of the proposed amendment needlessly would make a regrettable situation worse by opening new avenues for significant further delay.

Letting Mr Trump countersue would make a regrettable situation worse, the judge added.

Carroll suing Trump for alleged rape

Last year, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Adult Survivors Act, which created a one-year suspension of statutes of limitations for rape and other civil claims arising from allegations of sexual misconduct.

The law allows sexual assault survivors to sue their attackers regardless of when the alleged assault may have taken place.

In November 2022, shortly after the bill signing, Ms Carroll filed a second lawsuit against Mr Trump for rape.

The new case accused him of battery  and also added a new defamation claim based on recent posts in which he called her a con job.

Judge Kaplan rejected Trumps last-minute delay bid

After Mr Trumps lawyers made an 11th-hour attempt to once again postpone the long-delayed civil trial on the grounds that publicity surrounding his recent indictment necessitated a cooling-off period to ensure an impartial jury, Judge Kaplan said the one-month delay Mr Trumps attorneys had asked for would have no impact on the potential jury pool in the case, which was tried in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

There is no reason to assume that a sufficient number of fair and impartial jurors cannot be found on April 25, 2023 or that it would be materially easier to find such jurors on May 23, 2023, he said.

Former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll walks into Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, in New York (AP)

Is Trump attending?

Mr Trump missed the deadline to testify in the civil rape trial brought against him by writer E Jean Carroll.

The Sunday 5pm ET deadline passed without Mr Trumps lawyers filing a motion to inform the court of any change in plans  despite the former president saying last week that he was cutting his trip to Scotland and Ireland short to head back to New York and confront Ms Carroll.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan had warned Mr Trump that once the deadline passed, he would no longer have the opportunity to testify in the case.

That ship will be irrevocably sailed, he said.

Judge Kaplan issued the Sunday 5pm deadline on Thursday giving Mr Trump an extension to appear and testify in court.

This came after Mr Trump told reporters in Ireland that he would probably shorten his trip and return to the US to attend the trial.

Im going to go back, and Im going to confront this, Mr Trump said, adding that this woman is a disgrace and it shouldnt be allowed to happen in our country, according to The Daily Beast.

He also attacked Ms Carroll, calling her fake and saying that Judge Kaplan was extremely hostile.

I have to leave early. I dont have to but I choose to, Mr Trump said, according to the New York Daily News. I was falsely accused by this woman. I have no idea who she is. Its ridiculous.

He doesnt like me very much, Mr Trump added of Judge Kaplan. Its a disgrace but we have to do it. Its a part of life.

Judge Kaplan mentioned Mr Trumps comments in Ireland when saying that the jury needed the opportunity to hear from him personally.

In the interests of justice, the judge said he would allow the case to be reopened for a short period of time to give Mr Trump an opportunity to testify.

If he has second thoughts, Ill at least consider it, the judge said as he announced the deadline.

But, despite Mr Trumps comments, his lawyer Joe Tacopina said on Thursday that he wouldnt be attending the trial.

Ariana Baio and Gustaf Kilander contributed to this report
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Despite being barred from the floor of the Montana House of Representatives for speaking out against a gender-affirming healthcare ban; despite being intentionally misgendered by colleagues; despite Republican colleagues falsely claiming she led a violent riot; despite her supporters being arrested by riot police for protesting peacefully; despite anonymous strangers calling in fake threats about her and her girlfriend to police in the hopes of unleashing a lethal SWAT team; despite Montana legislators passing a suite of bills targeting transgender people; despite the fact that the legislative session is now over and the Republican lawmakers at the front of this crusade hold a supermajority in the state legislature, Zooey Zephyr  the state lawmaker at the centre of the resistance to Montanas swirling anti-LGBTQ+ campaign-slash-battle over democracy  hasnt lost hope.

The Missoula Democrat told The Independent on Wednesday shes more fired up than ever.

I am determined, she said.

I think the people of Montana and more broadly the country saw the extent to which the far-right in this country will throw away our democratic principles to achieve their ideological goals. We saw the way that our communities looked to the actions of this legislature and said thats not OK. We need to stand up for democracy. I feel hope and determination to go back to my community after this legislative session.

Zooey Zephyr stands in protest as demonstrators are arrested in the House gallery at the state capitol in Helena, Montana on 24 April (AP)

For Montanas LBGTQ+ community, the stakes of this last legislative session, which ended on Tuesday, couldnt be higher. Republican lawmakers passed a set of bills banning gender-affirming care, drag performances, and writing the very existence of trans, non-binary, and intersex people out of the state code.

As Shawn Reagor of the Montana Human Rights Network told The Independent, These bills are aimed at impacting every aspect of life.

They go from how we are born to how were identified in our death, he added. They are deeply concerning.

In the face of this onslaught of bills, activists and lawmakers alike in Montana leapt into action, including Rep Zephyr, the first transgender lawmaker in state history.

In late April, she pointedly told her GOP colleagues that if they passed the gender-affirming healthcare ban for youth, they would have blood on their hands, as such treatments can be a lifeline for young LGBTQ+ people struggling to find themselves.

Her supporters joined the fight too, packing the capitol viewing gallery and chanting, Let her speak! once House Republicans started refusing to let Rep Zephyr participate in floor debate.

The combination of the two resulted in her eventual expulsion from the House floor, forcing the representative to work from a hallway, where family members of Republican lawmakers heckled her and tried to steal her seat.

The exile mirrored developments in other states like Tennessee, where a group of Democratic lawmakers who joined in an anti-gun violence protest at the capitol were stripped of their seats in a move observers said was totally unprecedented in state history.

Rep Justin Jones raises his fist on the floor of the Tennessee House chamber after being expelled from the legislature on 6 April (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Even after the censure vote, Rep Zephyr said she wasnt deterred.

I show up every day to represent my constituents and the people who sent me to be their voice in government, she said. That means when I show up, I show up with my head held high, ready to do the work for the people who sent me here. Im not bothered by any misgenderings or targeted attacks or the like. I go in and there are people who voted for my censure that when I saw them in the hallway, I was lobbying them on bills.

With the session now closed, Rep Zephyr said shes going to take this spirit of action and carry it forward, travelling around the state and meeting with organisers and community members in the coming months. She said a conversation with former state senator Bryce Bennett, Montanas first openly gay legislator, inspired her to think of her time work as a way of finding the room that my voice can do the most good in.

Montanas legislature meets in full every other year, so for now that room is somewhere out in the community, or out on the media airwaves, not at the capitol, at least until Rep Zephyr seeks re-election for 2025.

Protesters rally in support of LGBTQ+ people at the Montana capitol (Thom Bridge, Independent Record)

The work begins, as all work does, at the community level, she said. Its why Ill be going around the state talking to people.

The Democrat said she hopes those paying attention to Montana understand that while Republicans around the country may be getting bolder about silencing their critics, the right has a long history of trying to making certain groups into bogeymen. But with enough visibility, activism, and a refusal to give in to hate, those groups can shift the culture from demonising them to recognising their full humanity.

I think the right is trying to create a bogeymen out of trans people in the same way they tried to create bogeymen out of gay people in the 1990s, she said. What they will find is the same thing that they found when they attacked gay people in the 1990s. Trans people are not bogeymen. We are a part of your communities. We are your neighbours. We are your colleagues. We are your friends. You are never far from a trans person or someone who cares deeply about us. Thats true whether your are in Memphis or Miles City, Montana, whether you are in a coffee shop, an office, or the governors mansion.

The battle for societal acceptance doesnt move according to a legislative calendar, and for Representative Zooey Zephyr, the work of making Montana a safe, democratic place for LGBTQ+ people to live and thrive continues apace. She hopes everyone in the state and beyond feels empowered to raise their voice, even if the odds are stacked against them.

Everyone in our communities can stand up themselves and work to make this state of Montana and this country a place we can be proud to call home.
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Montana state Rep Zooey Zephyr and her girlfriend thwarted hoax swatting attempts, following the transgender lawmakers protests against state legislation that outlaws gender-affirming care for trans youth.

On 2 May, Ms Zephyrs partner, journalist Erin Reed, said somebody just attempted to SWAT me for my reporting on transgender legislation and events.

Thankfully, Ive worked closely with the police in my community anticipating this, and the attempt failed, she added. I will never stop advocating for my community and will never be silenced.

That night, Rep Zephyr announced that someone just attempted to SWAT me as well.

I am fine, she added. An individual reported an anonymous tip targeting my home in Missoula, and the police recognized that it was likely a hoax and called me. I will say again. We will not be deterred. The fight for trans rights goes on.

A spokesperson for the Montgomery County Police confirmed the threat to Ms Reed; the departments Fifth District station received an email, and officers responded to Ms Reeds residence, according to a statement to The Advocate.

They spoke with Ms Reed, and she stated that she was fine and that her information got leaked. She stated that she provided her information to the police department because she figured something like this might happen, the spokesperson added.

The Independent has requested additional comment from the Missoula Police Department.

The threats follow similar swatting incidents  in which prank calls to emergency responders prompt law enforcement to deploy heavily armed officers to the victims home  and other online-driven abuse against prominent trans people and their advocates.

Rep Zephyr was barred from the states House of Representatives for the rest of the legislative session following her protests against legislation that would ban gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth. On 2 May, a judge rejected her attempt to regain access to her seat.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana and Rep Zephyr argued in lawsuits that her expulsion violated her constitutional rights and the rights of her constituents.

On 2 May, Lewis and Clark County District Court judge Mike Menahan ruled that the judicial branch does not have the authority to reverse a disciplinary decision of the state legislature, holding that such a remedy far outpaces the facts at issue here.

The session adjourned that night. Rep Zephyr prompty returned to her seat in the House chamber.

Last month, Rep Zephyr  Montanas first-ever trans representative in Montana  told House colleagues their support for a ban on gender-affirming healthcare will leave blood on their hands, referencing a mountain of evidence from leading medical groups and LGBT+ advocates that denying access to age-appropriate, medically necessary and potentially life-saving gender-affirming healthcare can be emotionally and mentally debilitating.

After GOP lawmakers refused to recognise Rep Zephyr in the House chamber and silenced her microphone, supporters rallied in the state capitol, demanding that they let her speak.

House lawmakers later voted on party lines to sanction Rep Zephyr through the duration of the 90-day session, barring her from the chambers. Since then, she has worked from a bench in an adjoining hallway or other nearby rooms where she can vote remotely but is unable to join debates, effectively removing her voice from the House.

This week, that bench was occupied by a handful of women who identified themselves to the Daily Montanan as the wives of legislators. Ms Reed identified one of the women as the mother of Republican House Speaker Matt Regier. The women were also joined by Darin Gaub, the director of the states so-called Freedom Caucus Network, which has repeatedly denounced and intentionally misgendered Rep Zephyr over the last few weeks.

As The Independent has previously reported, opponents of the sanction see the campaign against Rep Zephyr as part of a larger attack against trans people in the state of Montana and another display of antidemocratic efforts among Republican lawmakers more broadly.

In Montana, GOP lawmakers have also introduced bills to effectively ban drag shows, allow schools to misgender or deadname students, redefine and strip antidiscrimination protections from state law, and allow medical providers to deny people care for personal reasons, among other measures.

We have seen violence and hate targeted at the trans community in recent months, and the attempt to SWAT me and my partner is just another example of that, Ms Reed said in a statement shared with The Independent.

Representative Zephyr is doing amazing work in Montana, and for that, she has received vitriol from the right, she added. They are willing to do anything to silence their fiercest critics. Their attempts to do so will not succeed  the fight for rights for the transgender community is too important, and we will push forward undeterred.

Additional reporting by Josh Marcus
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Police say the search for a man missing for several days in Australia has come to a tragic ending after his remains were found inside a crocodile.

Kevin Darmody, 65, was reported missing on Saturday after he went on a fishing trip with friends.

He was last seen on the banks of the Kennedy River, which is infested with saltwater crocodiles, at Rinyirru (Lakefield) national park in a remote part of northern Queensland.

The police zeroed in on two large crocodiles in the river after two days of searches did not yield any results.

The two crocodiles were shot dead and a necropsy revealed the presence of human remains inside the stomach of one of the reptiles.

While the remains were found in only one crocodile, another was killed as both were believed to be involved in the attack.

The two crocodiles, measuring 4.1m (13.4 ft) and 2.8m in length, were located upstream from where the man went missing in the park.

The remains found inside the reptile are yet to be identified but police have ended their search for the man.

His friend John Peiti, who was with him on the fishing trip, said he heard his last screams and reached the site within a minute.

He said he didnt believe the crocodile lunged out of the water to grab Darmody, speculating that a monitor lizard may have made him lose his balance and fall into the river.

I heard Kev roaring about three times and I tried to look down to see what was going on, Mr Peiti told Cape York Weekly.

Next minute, I heard a big splash and I raced down. I reckon it only took me half a minute to get where he had been but there was no sign of him, just his thongs on the bank and nothing else.

I think Kev might have been roaring at this goanna and maybe hes lost his balance and gone in (the water), Mr Peiti said. Thats the only explanation I can think of.

Darmody grew up in Sutton on the outskirts of Canberra before he moved to Laura in Queensland.
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Police have arrested more than 100 suspects  including high value figures  and raided homes across Europe in a crackdown on the Italian 'ndrangheta organised crime syndicate

We think that among the arrests were several persons of a high value who played a huge role in the organisation, not only in Belgium but in other European countries, said Belgian federal prosecutor Antoon Schotsaert.

The swoop was part of an investigation spanning Italy, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Romania as well as Brazil and Panama, according to EU law enforcement agency Europol. The network was devoted primarily to international drug trafficking from South America to Europe and Australia, Europol said in a statement.

In Germany, more than 1,000 officers searched dozens of homes, offices and stores in the states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia, prosecutors said in a joint statement.

Todays raids are one of the largest operations carried out so far in the fight against Italian organised crime, said Germanys interior minister, Nancy Faeser, adding they had dealt a serious blow to the `Ndrangheta.

In Italy, carabinieri police backed by helicopters served arrest warrants on 108 people who were accused, among other things, of mafia association; possession, production, and trafficking of drugs and weapons; and money laundering.

European authorities have been waging a campaign against the Calabria-based 'ndrangheta, arguably the world's richest organised crime group, in recent years. The 'ndrangheta, which has its roots in the southern region of Calabria, the toe of Italy's boot, has surpassed Cosa Nostra as the most powerful mafia group in the country, and one of the largest criminal networks in the world.

The group has exploited tens of billions of dollars in cocaine revenues over decades to extend its criminal reach across Europe and into several continents as the Sicilian Mafia lost influence.

State police in Bavaria said the arrests were the result of more than three years of an investigation dubbed "Operation Eureka".

They said Italian and Belgian investigators believe that the crime group smuggled close to 25 tonnes of cocaine between October 2019 and January 2022 and funnelled more than 22m (19.4m) from Calabria to Belgium, the Netherlands and South America.

The ndrangheta clans were also involved in running weapons from Pakistan to South America, supplying Brazilian criminal group PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) in exchange for cocaine shipments, Europol added.

In Germany, the 'ndrangheta has been firmly established since the 1970s. It is considered the strongest of the Italian organised crime groups in the country, and is mainly focused on international narcotics trafficking, according to Germany's Federal Office of Criminal Investigation.

More than 30 suspects who had outstanding warrants were arrested in Germany.

Among other things, the suspects are accused of money laundering, gang tax evasion, commercial gang fraud, and narcotics smuggling, a statement from the German state office of criminal investigation in North Rhine-Westphalia said.

A press release from carabinieri in Regio Calabria, where the 'ndrangheta is based, said arrest warrants were also served in Belgium, France, Portugal, Romania and Spain. Raids were also conducted in Slovenia, German security officials said.

In Germany, the main focus of the operation was in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, with around 500 officers deployed in each state.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, 51 houses, apartments, offices and business premises were searched and 15 suspects were arrested.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, police searched 50 premises and arrested 10 suspects.

The task forces in Rhineland-Palatinate were supported by special units of the federal government and other states as well as customs and the tax investigation department, German news agency dpa reported.

The state interior minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Michael Ebling, called the raids an "effective blow" against organised crime.

"Today sends out a very clear signal: There is no place for organized crime in Europe and there is certainly no place for it here with us in Rhineland-Palatinate," he said, according to the dpa news agency.

Reuters contrbuted to this report
Russia has been accused of taking its propaganda war to new heights after Moscow claimed Kyiv had tried to assassinate president Vladimir Putin in a drone strike targeting his residence in the Kremlin.

Ukrainian premier Volodymyr Zelensky vehemently denied the allegation, saying we dont attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory as other Kyiv officials suggested Russia might be setting the scene for further escalation of the war as it threatened retaliatory measures.

As Kyiv prepares for a counteroffensive against Russian forces that Mr Zelensky said would be launched soon, Mr Putins presidential office said two drones were downed overnight, with the Russian leader having not been in the complex at the time. The RIA state news agency said Mr Putin spent Wednesday working at his Novo Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.
?? En vivo | La presidenta Dina Boluarte, junto con el titular del @MidisPeru, sostiene un encuentro con lideresas del programa Vaso de Leche.

?? Ver transmision: https://t.co/qsKJPvZVdW #ConPunchePeru pic.twitter.com/GBKmhjR3DV
 Close Vladimir Putin accuses the West of creating real cult of Nazism

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Vladimir Putins forces were still attacking the eastern city of Bakhmut today, missing a deadline to capture the highly contested site before Russias Victory Day.

A Ukrainian general said on Sunday that Russian forces were hoping to capture Bakhmut before the annual holiday when Russia marks the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.

The enemy has not taken Bakhmut, Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for Ukraines eastern command, said by telephone. There are no significant changes in positions.

Ukraines military is preparing a widely anticipated counteroffensive to try to recapture Russian-occupied territory in the south and east.

Russian and Ukrainian forces have been fighting over Bakhmut for months. Russia sees capturing Bakhmut as a stepping stone to taking other Ukrainian cities.

It comes as Putin addressed the Victory Day parade this morning, centred on the West encouraging Russophobia.

The president said: Today we have a real war waged against us but we will be defending ourselves against international terrorism.
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One of the creators of ChatGPT has added to a growing chorus of researchers warning of the potentially catastrophic consequences of artificial intelligence development.

Former OpenAI worker Paul Christiano, who now runs AI research non-profit Alignment Research Center, said he believed there was a significant chance that the technology would lead to the destruction of humanity.

The main danger, he claimed, will come when AI systems reach and surpass the cognitive capacity of a human. Dr Christiano predicts there is a 50/50 chance of doom once this moment arrives.

I tend to imagine something like a years transition from AI systems that are a pretty big deal, to kind of accelerating change, followed by further acceleration, et cetera, he told the Bankless podcast.

I think once you have that view then a lot of things may feel like AI problems because they happen very shortly after you build AI.

Former OpenAI researcher Paul Christiano now runs the Alignment Research Center (Screengrab/ YouTube)

He added: The most likely way we die involves  not AI comes out of the blue and kills everyone  but involves we have deployed a lot of AI everywhere... [And] if for some reason, God forbid, all these AI systems were trying to kill us, they would definitely kill us.

The comments come amid increased concerns surrounding the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence in recent months, with the so-called godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton quitting Google to sound the alarm about the dangers of AI.

Speaking to The New York Times, he said he regretted the work that he had contributed to the field due to the unpredictable future we now face.

The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people  a few people believed that  but most people thought it was way off. And I thought it was way off. I thought it was 30-50 years or even longer away. Obviously I no longer think that, he said.

I dont think they should scale this up more until they have understood whether they can control it.

His stance has been praised by other researchers, with AnthropicAIs Catherine Olsson saying it may encourage others within the field to speak up.

In college I stopped eating meat, on the spot, when a friend asked why I hadnt yet. Social checks on our ethics can be so influential, she tweeted. I often think about when I would quit Anthropic or leave AI entirely. I encourage others to. I can already tell this move will influence me.

Other prominent figures have also urged AI firms to pause development on advanced systems, most recently through an open letter signed by thousands of experts that urged governments to step in if artificial intelligence development was not paused for at least six months.

Among the signatories was Elon Musk, who has frequently spoken about the existential threat posed by AI. The tech billionaire, who co-founded OpenAI, tweeted on Monday: Even benign dependency on AI/Automation is dangerous to civilization if taken so far that we eventually forget how the machines work.
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Until this week, Geoffrey Hinton was mostly known by the technologies he had helped produce. As a pioneer of deep learning  which allows computers to acquire knowledge in a similar way to humans  his research over decades helped build the foundations upon which todays ChatGPT and other technologies are built.

Dr Hinton was born in the UK, and received his first degree experimental psychology from Cambridge University in 1970, and went on to work at Edinburgh and Sussex before moving to the US and Canada.

His work is primarily focused on machine learning algorithms, and he has aimed both to create tools that allow computers to find structures in complex data, as well as showing that is how the human brain learns. He is most famous for pioneering the back-propagation algorithm that helps train neural networks, but he and his students have helped build an array of technologies that underpin todays artificial intelligence.

For that work, he was recognised with awards from across the world, including the Turing award, often referred to as the Nobel prize of computing. And he was rewarded with an array of high-powered jobs, including serving as a professor at the universe of Toronto and a job as vice-president at Google which came after it bought his company in 2013.

He was also given the nickname of the godfather of AI, or godfather of deep learning, in recognition of the role he had played in helping develop and shape the technology.

This week, his reputation changed, all in a moment. He resigned from that job at Google  so that he could more freely warn about the danger posed by the products it and other companies are creating.

That warning was stark. He said that artificial intelligence was developing too quickly, and without enough safeguards  leaving the world at risk of widespread unemployment and in danger of attack from artificially intelligent robots, among other threats.

Those risks could wipe out humanity, he suggested in interviews. As such, it is important that the world works to make those systems safer, he warned.

He said that a part of him now regrets his lifes work because of the state of AI. And he suggested that companies could be developing even more powerful systems than we realise in secret.

Dr Hinton had been vocal about the ethics of artificial intelligence before. In 2017, for instance, he was a signatory to a Canadian open letter that demanded the countrys prime minister Justin Trudeau urgently address the challenge of lethal autonomous weapons, or killer robots.

But the warning he gave this week was notable in part because he had left such a high-powered role within Google, and also that he voiced concern not just with specific examples of artificial intelligence but the technology as a whole.

It also came at a time of increasing concern about the development and nature of artificial intelligence. Dr Hintons resignation came as many other experts and pioneers within AI gave warnings of their own  such as a letter in March that called for a halt to development, and was signed by one of Dr Hintons fellow godfathers of AI, Yoshua Bengio.

Dr Hinton has received some criticism, even from those who agree with him that the current approach to artificial intelligence may be harmful. Critics have argued that Dr Hinton could have raised the alarm earlier.

Meredith Whittaker  a former Google employee who is now the president of secure messaging app signal  said that previous attempts to ring the AI alarm had led to negative consequences for the women who did so.

Where were these guys when we spent months + thousand$ on lawyers? Where were they when we were organizing to stop it before it reached this point? Where were they when Sundar lied about us & diminished the risks we demonstrated? Im not interested in dissent without solidarity, she wrote on Twitter.

This isnt about credit, this is about the fact that there was a moment to act together, when the power these Men of AI wield could have been used in solidarity with a movement that was gaining ground to stop the worst of AI. They didnt use their power that way. And here we are.
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Geoffrey Hinton, known as the godfather of AI, has quit Google with a warning about the dangers the technology poses.

Geoffrey Hinton worked at Google for more than a decade and developed technology that paved the way for current AI systems such as ChatGPT. However, the tech expert has since quit the company so that he could sound the alarm about the dangers of artificial intelligence.

He told The New York Times that he regrets the work he contributed to the field. I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadnt done it, somebody else would have, he said.

In the short term, he fears the technology will mean that people will not be able to know what is true anymore because of the proliferation of fake images, videos and text, he said.

But in the future, AI systems could eventually learn unexpected, dangerous behaviour, and that such systems will eventually power killer robots. He also warned that the technology could cause harmful disruption to the labour market.

The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people  a few people believed that, he says. But most people thought it was way off. And I thought it was way off. I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away. Obviously, I no longer think that.

He warned that regulation is required to ensure that companies such as Google and Microsoft do not get locked into a dangerous race. Those companies might already be working on dangerous systems in secret, he suggested.

I dont think they should scale this up more until they have understood whether they can control it, he said.

Dr Hinton is not the first artificial intelligence expert to sound the alarm on the dangers of the technologies that they have built. In recent months, two major open letters warned about the profound risks to society and humanity that it poses, and was signed by many of the people who had helped create it.

Like many others, Dr Hinton said he had become more concerned about the risks of the technology over the last year, with the development of technologies such as OpenAIs ChatGPT and Googles Bard. His view changed when he came to believe that the systems were beginning to behave in ways that were not possible in the human brain.

Maybe what is going on in these systems is actually a lot better than what is going on in the brain, he told the New York Times.

That is likely to become even more true in the years to come, as companies further refine and train their AI systems. As they do, the systems become more dangerous, he fears.

Look at how it was five years ago and how it is now, he said of the technology. Take the difference and propagate it forwards. Thats scary.
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Dozens of competitors are expected for the inaugural Trans-European Race, a journey from London to Istanbul using only public transport and walking.

These international travellers will depart at 10am on 5 August for a trip that the organisers believe will take around five days. Some could take considerably longer: besides a prize for the fastest, there will be extra prizes for the lowest-cost contestant and the most countries visited.

The race is being organised by a Wigan-based firm, Lupine Travel, whose main business is sending hardy explorers to normally off-limits destinations such as Yemen and North Korea.

The first to reach Istanbul will will a grand prize of 2,000-worth of travel from the company.

Contestants will be required to check in at a series of secret checkpoints along the way  which will strictly limit the amount of advance planning they can do. The first checkpoint will be in Paris, but the remainder will be revealed only one at a time.

Dylan Harris, the founder of Lupine Travel, said: We dont want to make it too easy, so people cant just pre-organise everything in advance. Its not just a case of getting to Istanbul as quickly as you can. The first checkpoint is going to be Paris, but youll only find out where the next checkpoint is once you arrive in Paris.

Anyone who plots a route from the French capital via Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade and Sofia, and books overnight trains in advance, could find instead that they are routed via Italy and Greece.

The distance as the crow flies is 1,550 miles, but the overall distance is likely to be much further  especially for contestants who divert to smaller countries to increase the tally of nations, such as Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and San Marino. The former Yugoslavia could also provide a useful haul in the shape of Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and North Macedonia.

Mr Harris said: We wanted to do something different. Weve been running trips to really unusual offbeat destinations all around the world. But we felt we wanted to make something more accessible, and get away from group travel and more about like real challenges.

Getting people to have real experiences not just fly somewhere and not not experience the journey, just get, get out there and have real experiences trying to try to go by, by rail by, by bus or meeting real people along the way.

The entry fee is 99 in addition to the cost of all the trains, buses and accommodation, as well as the flight home (unless you choose to go overland again).

Hitchhiking, flying and taking taxis are banned  except when a taxi is used for the purposes of going from a station to a hotel and back again.

Listen to race organiser Dylan Harris on the daily travel podcast from The Independent
A wheelchair user was left humiliated after he was forced to crawl off a Ryanair flight and down plane steps after an unacceptable delay in assistance.

Adrian Keogh, 37, said he wants airports and airlines to do more for people with disabilities after his ordeal at a Landvetter Airport in Sweden on Saturday.

Mr Keogh, from Wicklow in Ireland, said he had booked for priority to ensure he got the support he needed when flying.
A father and his young son were rescued off the coast of Florida after being caught in a rip current.

Footage shared by Manatee County Sheriffs Office shows marine deputies arriving in a boat to rescue the swimmers off the coast of Anna Maria Island on 23 April.

The man can be seen in the water holding onto his small son, who is wearing a floatation vest with sleeves.

Deputies pulled the boy aboard the boat first and as he begins to cry for his father, deputies reassure him that he is coming up next.

The father and son were then ferried safely back to shore.

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Rishi Sunak described the UK as having a proud history of welcoming refugees during Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, 3 May.

It comes after the government proposed the Illegal Migration Bill, which would mean those who arrive in the UK illegally will be detained and promptly removed and will not be able to return or claim British citizenship.

Official government figures show that in December 2022 there were 166,261 people with asylum applications awaiting an initial decision, almost nine times higher than the 18,954 people in June 2010 - the latter figure reported by the UK Statistics Authority.

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The last government-arranged flight carrying British nationals out of Sudan has arrived back in the UK.

Evacuees arrived at Birmingham airport at 4.58pm on Tuesday 2 May after a four-hour and 40-minute flight from Larnaca, Cyprus, having been taken out of Port Sudan on Monday.

The group arrived on a Titan Airways Airbus A321 and were the last of 2,341 people evacuated by the government on 28 flights since fighting broke out in the African nation three weeks ago.

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Footage appears to show an alleged Ukrainian drone exploding in Moscow on Tuesday night (2 May).

Russia has accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin with two drones that were targeting the Kremlin.

A Kremlin statement described an alleged attack attempt as a pre-planned act of terrorism and an attempt on the life of the Russian president, according to Russian state media reports.

Drones were stopped before they could strike, Russian authorities said.

Ukrainian officials have not commented on the allegations.

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In Representative Colin Allreds announcement that he would challenge Senator Ted Cruz, he addressed the unspoken question everyone thought but few would say.

Some people say a Democrat cant win in Texas, he said. Well, someone like me was never supposed to get this far.

In the minds of many Democrats, Texas should be fertile territory. In recent years, Democrats have turned other Sun Belt states like Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico into places they can be competitive, if not solidly blue territories. With a large Hispanic population as a holdover from when the state was part of Mexico and tons of college-educated voters migrating to the state in the past decade, it should present an opportunity for the party.

Hillary Clinton got within single digits of Donald Trump and her victories in Dallas County and Harris County, which includes Houston, showing that Democrats might be able to make headway in the Lone Star State. In 2018, Mr Allred, buoyed by Beto ORourkes barnstorming campaign against Mr Cruz, beat longtime Represetative Pete Sessions and flipped the 32nd District, which includes Dallas and had voted for Ms Clinton, as part of the suburban revolt against Mr Trump.

He held it in 2020 despite Democrats shedding seats elsewhere and failed attempts to win other House seats. Of course, that same year, while Joe Biden got within 5.6 points in Texas and improved on the margins in Harris and Dallas Counties, Democrats crumbled in the largely Hispanic Rio Grande Valley as part of the larger shift rightward of Latinos nationwide that year.

Ever since then, Democrats have put much of their hopes of winning in Texas on ice. Even after Republican Governor Greg Abbott passed an unpopular six-week abortion ban, he routed Mr ORourke in his re-election campaign last year, largely by keeping the focus on immigration from the US-Mexico border and busing migrants to blue states.

At the same time, despite the fact he has won two elections in the state, Mr Cruz, a former presidential presidential candidate who led efforts to try and overturn the 2020 presidential election results, has cut a uniquely polarising persona in Texas and has underperformed compared to other Republicans.

Stories have abounded about Mr Cruzs unlikeability within the larger Republican conference, given his efforts to shut down the government in 2013 and calling Mitch McConnell a liar in 2015. It reached its zenith when Mr Trump dubbed him Lyin Ted and accused him of being a phony Christian, when he said Mr Cruz was always walking in with the Bible held high but puts it down, then he lies.

That image is a bit outdated since Mr Trumps presidency as the senator has mostly become a reliable footsoldier for Republicans and aggressively questions Biden administration nominees and officials. Even today, Mr Cruz and Senator Lindsey Graham chatted on the Senate subway only a few years after Mr Graham famously said If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.

In 2018, two years after Mr Trump won Texas by a little less than 10 points, Mr Cruz only won his race by less than three points, even as Mr Abbott won by double digits.

Hispanic voters have typically prevented Democrats from outright drowning, but without sufficient support from Hispanic voters, they risk falling farther. Mr Allred also isnt the only Democrat who will likely be in the race to unseat Mr Cruz: State Senator Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde and is Hispanic, is planning to run for Senate as well. A Hispanic candidate from near the US-Mexico border might have a better shot at outreach with the demographic that increasingly does not trust Democrats.

Democrats have another huge problem in Texas: low voter turnout. In 2022, 45.7 per cent of all registered voters went to the polls in the general election, slightly below the national 52.2 per cent citizen-age participation rate.

Still, Mr Cruzs national persona will likely lead to an influx of cash for any Democrat who becomes the senators main challenger.

But while campaign cash can make a difference in tight races like Arizona or Georgia in 2022, where Senators Mark Kelly and Raphael Warnock, respectively, had massive fundraising advantages, it cannot alone win campaigns.

Were Mr Allred to win the Democratic nomination, hed need exorbitantly high turnout from the suburbs of Houston, Dallas and San Antonio to compensate for low Hispanic turnout or a rightward shift, plus Mr Bidens low approval ratings in the reliably Republican state.
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If someone tells you who they are  say, for example, by delivering white nationalist talking points to an audience of millions on national television every evening  you should believe them.

When someone explicitly endorses the white nationalist Great Replacement theory , almost word for word, and earns praise from literal Nazis, you shouldnt try to explain away their words as legitimate political debate.

When someone lauds authoritarian leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban , and questions why his country would support democracy over autocracy, you should perhaps not rush to give them the benefit of the doubt.

In other words, if someone is trying to desperately to out themselves as a racist and you consistently ignore their dog whistles, you will look foolish when they eventually, inevitably, stop talking in code.

This week, the inevitable arrived. A series of text messages sent by Tucker Carlson and entered into evidence as part of a lawsuit against Fox News offered a less filtered version of his television persona  and may have played a part in his downfall.

In one of those messages, reportedly sent to a producer, he describes the emotion he felt while watching a group of people beat up an Antifa kid, among other things.

It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. Its not how white men fight," he wrote.

The not-so-subtle implication here is that white people fight honourably, while other races fight dirty.

The text, according to The New York Times, contributed to a chain of events that ultimately led to Mr. Carlsons firing, from Fox News. It followed another set of embarrassing messages from Carlson revealed in a lawsuit brought by Dominion voting systems which ended in a $787.5 million payout by Fox News, the highest known payout in a defamation case.

But doesnt the suggestion that Fox News really fired Carlson for expressing the same views he espoused on his television show, just in clearer language, stretch credulity? That single message, which Carlson likely thought would remain private, is more explicitly racist than what he would say on Fox News, but no one would be bold enough to describe it as out of character. Every evening, on prime time, Carlson made the minimum effort to conceal his racism. He hid it with as much enthusiasm as a rhinoceros playing hide and seek behind a thin lace curtain.

How can anyone claim to be surprised that a man who described Iraqis as semiliterate primitive monkeys, called white supremacy a hoax and railed against diversity in America would consider white people superior to other races?

The more pertinent question here is why Carlsons racism was accepted by Fox News executives for so long. Why did the company maintain the absurd position that Carlson was just asking questions?

Take the response of Fox News CEO Lachlan Murdochs to a letter from the Anti-Defamation League about Carlsons white replacement tirade in 2021. The organisation said Carlsons rhetoric was not just a dog whistle to racists  it was a bullhorn.

Mr Murdoch replied to the organisation: ...we respectfully disagree. A full review  indicates that Mr Carlson decried and rejected replacement theory. As Mr Carlson himself stated during the guest interview: White replacement theory? No, no, this is a voting rights question.

Carlson would later contradict Murdochs defence numerous times, including categorically in 2022 : The great replacement. Yeah. Its not a conspiracy theory . Its their electoral strategy and we know that because they see it all the time.

That sums up Carlsons entire career: he makes racist dog whistles while his superiors and supporters try to tell concerned advertisers and viewers what he really meant. To think of all the time and money and lawsuits Fox News might have saved if they had watched Carlsons show just once, and believed him.
Claret Capital, a tech-focused investment firm that has funded several Irish businesses, has raised 72m in follow-on capital to put into companies it has already financed.

The fund, which closed in late April, is providing funding to strongly performing start-ups in Clarets existing stable of 80 growth companies, including Dublin peer-to-peer currency exchange CurrencyFair.

Claret co-founder David Bateman, who is based in Dublin, said the fund would be used on businesses that are still consuming capital but not yet profitable and on opportunistic investments.

He said that while the market for tech finance had become fairly bleak in recent months, the entrepreneurs in Clarets portfolio were resilient.

However, in recent weeks there had been a shake-up in the venture debt market, with more companies moving their credit facilities and looking for new lending.

Where the marketplace for venture debt has been hit by Silicon Valley Bank imploding, we continue to raise capital into our platform and support key companies in the ecosystem and [are] able to expand our operations, he said.

The Opportunities Annex Fund follows Clarets announcement of its third European growth fund last August.

That fund raised 297m including 15m from the Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) and another 10m from AIB.

That money, together with a potential 200m more in co-investments from partner firms, will be put into about 50 European tech and life sciences firms over the next three years, including targeted lending to Irish companies.

One of its first investments was a debt financing deal with Dublin-based intelligent energy distribution services start-up firm GridBeyond to fund international expansion.

Mr Bateman said 30pc of the new fund Claret just raised has already been deployed and the remaining 50m was expected to be allocated by the end of this year.

Claret has at least 600m in managed assets, with Irish businesses making up less than 10pc of the total.

Mr Bateman said the new fund includes commitments from a range of institutional investors, including a subset that backed last years fundraising or earlier funds, as well as a small group of high-net-worth individuals. The European Investment Fund is the only institution that has publicly disclosed its participation.

Claret was formed in 2020 when Mr Bateman and co-founder Johan Kampe bought out the European growth funds they ran for Harbert Management Corporation, a US institutional investor.

The firm invests via loans of 1m to 50m secured on business assets for up to five years, plus an equity component. The money is typically used to support businesses with growth potential that generate significant revenue but burn through a lot of cash or have negative earnings.

Claret has a track record of supporting Irish start-ups, alongside its commitments to firms from the UK, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Singapore and Spain.

Apart from CurrencyFair, its Irish investments include mobile marketing solutions firm Swrve, e-health start-up Altratech, data flow manager Cloudsphere and workforce accommodation booking platform Roomex.
Corporation tax receipts are 55pc ahead of where they were this time last year, Exchequer returns show. The state collected 3.5bn in corporation taxes in the first four months of 2023, up more than 1.3bn ahead of the same time last year. Tax receipts in the month of April alone, however, were down 100,000 on last year. Total tax receipts have reached 24.1bn for the year so far, 14.2pc ahead of the same time last year. Income tax is still by far the biggest contributor to the tax take, with revenues growing 9.4pc compared to the first four months of 2022, reaching 10.4bn.

For the month of April alone, income tax amounted to 3.1bn, well ahead of the same month last year. Vat receipts have grown 16pc to just over 7bn in the first four months of the year. April is a non-Vat due month. Gross revenue to the end of April - which includes taxes as well as capital resources, returns from shares in state-owned banks and other items such as TV licence fees - was 30.6bn, up 2.4pc on last year. Total spending so far this year amounts to 34.2bn. It brings the public finances Overall, the Exchequer recorded a deficit of 3.7bn in the four months to April, up on last year because of a transfer of 4bn to the national reserve fund. It brings fund to 6bn after an initial transfer last year. The Government has pledged to create a new longer-term fund to save and invest future windfall corporation tax revenues. But the budget is in a surplus of 2.4bn when measured on a 12-month rolling basis, a more accurate indication of the state of the public finances. However, the Department of Finance believes it has an underlying deficit of approximately 4bn if it excludes excess corporation tax receipts, transfers to the reserve fund and proceeds from the disposal of bank equity.
A Donegal tech company, whose artificial intelligence platform was set up to help detect looming business failures, has collapsed.

But the founders of Cerebreon Technologies  CEO Gillian Doyle and Kenneth Doyle  set up a new company called Finnius Intelligence just days before an extraordinary general meeting of Cerebreon in Donegal last month at which a liquidator was appointed to the firm.

Finnius states that its activity is the development of software used by insolvency practitioners in the UK, specifically for IVAs.

IVAs are Individual Voluntary Arrangements in the UK that insolvent people there can enter into.

The other director of Finnius is UK-based accountant Justin Moore.

Cerebreon Technologies had raised about 2m in backing from Enterprise Ireland and other investors since it was established in 2016.

Cerebreon developed an AI platform that scanned paper documents to help clients such as financial institutions to manage debt portfolios.

The predictive system helped those clients to identify when indebted customers including consumers could face challenging financial circumstances that affect their ability to repay debt.

The platform allowed clients to pinpoint customers that might need payment breaks or other assistance with their debt.

It had targeted the UK market and in 2020 the firm was selected to take part in Accentures high-profile global fintech accelerator programme.

Accenture described the Irish firm has having a unique proposition that can transform debt recovery for creditors.

However, despite the promise the company showed as well as significant funding received, Cerebreon was unable to survive.

It has been proved to the satisfaction of this meeting that the company cannot, by reason of its liabilities, continue its business and that it is advisable to wind up same and that accordingly, the company be, and is hereby wound up voluntarily as a creditors voluntary winding up, according to a notice in the official register, Iris Oifigiuil.

The company held an extraordinary general meeting in Donegal late last month at which the liquidation was approved.

Cerebreon raised 1.7m in 2020 in a seed funding round that was led by Delta Partners.

Other backers in the round included the Western Development Commission, business angel network Hban, Growing Capital and Consilience Ventures.

Enterprise Ireland had invested more than 500,000 in the firm.
Positions of chief executive Margaret Sweeney and chief financial officer Brian Fagan in most danger

The board of Ires Reit is facing an existential annual general meeting on Thursday as a group of dissident investors seek to oust senior management and force a sale of the company.
Michelle Obama sings with Patti Scialfa (centre) at the Bruce Springsteen concert in Barcelona

Bruce Springsteen fans have already started queuing outside the RDS ahead of his trio of sold-out shows starting this weekend.

Anticipation has reached fever pitch as 114,000 ticket holders prepare to watch The Boss perform in Dublin at his shows on Friday, Sunday and Tuesday.

Promoter Peter Aiken said they were forced to move a couple of hundred fans from outside the Ballsbridge venue in order to minimise disruption to local residents.

He said the throngs outside Croke Park last September ahead of the Garth Brooks shows were nothing on the scale of Bruce.

Read more Bruce Springsteen at the RDS: Everything you need to know

The people outside wanting to queue, theyre coming earlier and earlier, he said.

We had hundreds of people here yesterday. We had to send them away.

The official queue will start in a couple of days but they want to be in the pit. They are the people that create the atmosphere.

They were sitting and reminiscing. They all know each other and a lot of them are going two nights, so we may have three queues.

Fans were queuing up in the hopes of securing a coveted wristband to the pit area near the stage, but the official system will not come into operation until closer to the concert dates.

But it is part of the whole thing about Bruce and they love it, Mr Aiken said.

Ive never seen a happier queue in all my life.

These wristbands are like gold dust.

Springsteen, who has won 20 Grammys to date, has played the RDS 11 times and last performed here nearly seven years ago.

In addition to his own performances at the RDS, his show-jumper daughter Jessica has previously competed there in the Dublin Horse Show.

Michelle Obama joins Bruce Springsteen on stage during concert in Barcelona

Promoters said the venue held a special place in his heart and Ireland was like a second home for him.

Shane Mates, head of operations at Aiken Promotions, said fans could expect to have a fantastic time watching Springsteen and his 18-piece E Street Band.

He will be on stage for three hours, its only him up with the E Street Band. Theres no support act. Fans will have a brilliant time, Mr Mates said.

There will be lots of his classic hits and some new stuff too.

Gates will open at 5pm and the shows will begin at 7pm and end at 10.30pm due to a strict curfew.

Attendees are urged to use public transport and make sure their ticket is downloaded before arriving at the venue. Screenshots of digital tickets will not be accepted for entry.

Springsteen is due to fly into Dublin this week, fresh from opening his European leg in Barcelona last weekend, where Michelle Obama walked out on stage as a surprise guest.

However, Mr Mates said he was not aware of any special guests that may be joining Springsteen on stage during his Dublin gigs.

Thats not to say that there wont be  Im certainly not aware of any, he said.
A Small Light: Four out of Five stars

Jan and Miep Gies, played by Joe Cole and Bel Powley, are visited by Mr Van Pels, played by Andy Nyman

Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank and Bel Powley as Miep Gies, who helped hide and protect the Frank family from the Nazis

MOST people will be broadly familiar with the story of Anne Frank, the German-born Jewish girl who, with her parents and older sister Margot, spent two years hiding from the occupying Nazis in the Netherlands in a secret annexe above the familys jam-making business in Amsterdam, before being betrayed in 1944.

Anne perished, aged 14, in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The posthumously published book The Diary of a Young Girl, assembled from Annes daily entries by her father Otto, who was the only member of the Frank family to survive the concentration camps, became a global bestseller in 1947.

Its never been out of print and remains an invaluable first-hand historical document of the darkest chapter in human history.

Annes story has been told multiple times in other forms  stage plays, films, TV dramas, documentaries and even a graphic novel  keeping it alive for generation after generation.

The eight-part Disney-National Geographic miniseries A Small Light (Disney+) is not another straightforward retelling, however. Anne features in it, played engagingly and without too much precocity by Billie Boullet, but shes by no means the primary focus.

This is the story of Miep Gies, the young woman who, with the help of a few other extraordinarily courageous Dutch citizens, was instrumental in hiding and protecting the Frank family.

Making such a famous historical figure as Anne Frank effectively a supporting character in her own story could easily have gone horribly wrong.

But in the hands of husband-and-wife writing and producing team Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, the drama is a compelling triumph.

The shining light of A Small Light is English actress Bel Powley, whos simply astonishing as Miep. Shes given terrific support by Joe Cole  who made the right decision when he quit his increasingly thankless role in Peaky Blinders  as her charming, bookish husband Jan, whose idea of a little light reading over a few beers is Franz Kafkas Metamorphosis.

Jan and Miep Gies, played by Joe Cole and Bel Powley, are visited by Mr Van Pels, played by Andy Nyman

Also superb is Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank, a man who saw the fascist darkness descending before many German Jews did and fled to the Netherlands with his family as soon as Adolf Hitler came to power. In fact, the entire cast, which includes Noah Taylor as Jewish dentist and friend of the Frank family Dr Pfeffer, is outstanding.

The first episode (two are available now with the rest following weekly) opens, in gut-twistingly tense fashion, in 1942, as Miep escorts the terrified Margot (Ashley Brooke) through a Nazi checkpoint to (relative) safety.

Then it reels back nine years. The Amsterdam of 1933 is a bright, breezy, carefree city full of life and vigour. Uppermost in Mieps mind is drinking, dancing and romancing.

Like many other Dutch people, shes naive enough to believe the countrys neutrality will protect it from Nazi invasion. This, after all, is what Queen Wilhelmina  who would flee to London after the Dutch surrender to Germany  had assured her subjects.

Mieps serious-minded parents think shes too much of a party girl for her own good. They suggest she should either find a job (they arent exactly plentiful) or marry her brother.

This is not as bizarre or grotesque as it sounds. Miep, who was born in Austria, is their adopted daughter, so theyd be breaking no law, biological or otherwise. Her parents might have thought differently if theyd known, as Miep did, their son was gay.

Despite having no skills or qualifications to speak of, she appeals to Otto, whos won over by her charm and humour, to give her a job. He will later appeal to her to protect his family after his visa application to move to the USA is rejected.

As Miep becomes the Franks protector, taking more and more risks, A Small Light conveys the mounting sense of terror in chillingly routine ways, such as Miep being warned to be careful not to buy too many groceries in a single shop, in case it arouses the suspicion of a quisling shopkeeper wholl happily betray anybody for Nazi money.

This is a riveting profile of incredible courage and humanity in the face of barbaric tyranny that manages to be intimate and epic at the same time.
AN abandoned dog helped gardai prosecute its owner when it escaped custody and led officers to where she was staying.

Gardai had found the dog tied to a fence in central Dublin and were bringing it back to a station when it slipped the leash, ran off and found the woman in a nearby flat.

Dublin District Court heard Shauna Baxter (34) would never have been apprehended by gardai without the assistance of the dog.

Baxter, a mother-of-three from Pinewood Green Avenue, Balbriggan, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to animal cruelty by abandoning the dog, causing it unnecessary suffering. A crack cocaine user, she was jailed for six months for a separate drugs offence.

Sergeant Michelle Lynch told Judge Bryan Smyth on the morning of April 16, gardai became aware that a dog was tied to a fence at Swifts Alley and had been there overnight.

Gardai took the dog from the fence and made their way with it back to Kevin Street Garda Station.

En route, the dog slipped the lead, entered an address and went into a flat. Baxter was there and when questioned about the dog, she accepted ownership.

The dog was not chipped and Baxter would not have been apprehended if the dog hadnt slipped the leash and returned to the address, defence solicitor Niall OConnor said.

It was not Baxters own address but she was staying there at the time.

Judge Smyth asked Mr OConnor if the dog had assisted the prosecution. Effectively, yes, he replied.

There were other occupants in the flat but Baxter was happy to accept responsibility and plead guilty, Mr OConnor said.

The accused admitted separate charges of possession of drugs and stolen property and being a passenger in a stolen car. Gardai found her acting suspiciously on a bicycle at Merchants Quay on April 1, 2020. As they spoke to her, she failed to make eye contact and gave vague and dubious answers about the bike before stating that it belonged to a relative of hers. Gardai suspected it was stolen and seized it. When arrested, later, she said she had been holding the bike for one of the lads.

On May 30 last year, she was found slumped over asleep in a stolen car. Gardai knocked on the window to wake her and she was under the influence of an intoxicant and had a metal pipe and tin foil. She admitted she had fallen asleep after smoking crack cocaine.

The cars number plate had been altered with a black marker to change a 0 to an 8.

Baxter was found in possession of seven deals of crack cocaine worth 90 on Talbot Street on May 5 last year.

The accused had had her own difficulties in the past, Mr OConnor said. She was welcome to return to the family home when free of drugs. She had employment when not in the midst of her addiction difficulties.

Baxter had been in custody for two weeks when she appeared in court - this was her first time and it had been a wake-up call for her, Mr OConnor said.

Judge Smyth imposed the six month sentence on a drugs charge and took the animal welfare and other offences into consideration.
En conferencia de prensa, la presidenta Dina Boluarte sostuvo que el Gobierno continuara en sus esfuerzos por afianzar la #democracia con todas las peruanas y todos los peruanos, poniendo en el centro de todo al ser humano. pic.twitter.com/NfvbAyaye6
Regency shooting drivers face long stretch  but who were they outside of their lives of crime?
I question everything I did as his father  there are days I just sit by myself and cry  Ireland golf legend David Feherty on sons overdose
A Dublin woman has been refused bail and sent forward for trial to the Central Criminal Court accused of sexually assaulting another woman during a robbery at a Luas stop.

The accused, in her 40s, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was served with a book of evidence last week. Today at Dublin District Court, Judge Paula Murphy refused to grant bail following garda objections.

The woman is accused of aggravated sexual assault and robbery in the early hours of January 26 at the Drimnagh Luas stop.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has directed that she face trial on indictment.

Today Judge Murphy granted a return for trial order sending the woman, yet to enter a plea, forward for trial in custody to the Central Criminal Court.

A date has yet to be set for her next hearing.

Garda Thomas Wafer objected to her application to be released pending trial and cited the seriousness of the case and witness intimidation fears.

It was alleged that a man and a woman argued with the complainant about money.

The man allegedly stood on her neck and held her legs while the woman penetrated her vagina for a number of minutes as she believed she had money in her vagina.

Gda Wafer said the complainant was told that she would be killed.

The bail hearing was told the incident lasted about minutes, and the attackers fled when people approached.

Gardai had obtained CCTV evidence from the Luas stop and footage taken on a mobile phone.

Gda Wafer alleged the complainant had received threats since the incident.

The co-defendant, a man in his 30s, appeared at Cloverhill District Court last week. Gardai also served him with his copy of the book of evidence, and the presiding judge granted an order sending him forward for trial to the Central Criminal Court. Legal aid was granted.
Police have arrested 88 alleged stalkers and charged 47 in the 12 months since the legislation was introduced.

Richard McFarland 45, from Plumbridge, Co Tyrone, has been charged with stalking a high profile female personality

A farmer has become the first person to be charged under new stalking laws in the North.

Richard McFarland is accused of stalking a well-known female public figure.

However, the media are not allowed to name the alleged victim because of a reporting ban imposed by the court.

McFarland, (46), was charged under new legislation introduced last year.

The PSNI this week said they have arrested 88 alleged stalkers and charged 47 in the 12 months since the legislation was introduced.

McFarland is accused of engaging in a course of conduct amounting to stalking the woman which caused her to suffer fear, alarm or substantial distress over several months in 2022.

It is further alleged during the same time he breached a restraining order by contacting her.

He first appeared in court in July 2022.

An investigating PSNI officer told the court the alleged injured party contacted police to report McFarland had been sending her messages through a Facebook account.

She said she recognised his profile image due to ongoing alleged harassment stretching back over a year, for which she had obtained a restraining order against him.

Despite this, the woman reported receiving further messages, none of which she answered.

She also reported McFarland attending her home address uninvited. He was spoken to by police and warned not to contact her again.

However, the court was told he continued to contact her.

The officer said the woman became very insecure in her own home, investing in CCTV and additional security measures.

When she declined to engage with the messages, McFarland began contacting her family, including her mother, causing further distress.

After being arrested, McFarland denied the allegations but when shown screenshots of the messages, he admitted creating the account but continued to deny sending anything to the injured party.

A defence barrister said his client had sought help from his GP and was to start counselling sessions.

At the initial court hearing, a bail application was refused and McFarland was remanded in custody.

However, he was released on bail a few weeks later and warned to adhere to a number of conditions.

These included a ban on him possessing or accessing any internet-capable device and he is also not allowed to access or create social media accounts.

McFarland was warned not to contact the alleged victim by any means.

At McFarlands home near the village of Plumbridge this week, he declined to comment on the stalking allegations against him.

Meanwhile, at a further court hearing last week at Strabane Magistrates Court, a magistrate questioned why a reporting restriction had been imposed in relation to the case.

The restriction, which was put in place at the initial hearing on July 8, 2022, stated that no details pertaining to the identification of the complainant be published in any publication of any sort.

At last weeks hearing, the magistrate, who was not involved in the initial hearing, asked for clarification on why the reporting ban was put in place.

The case is due before Strabane court for a further update next month.

The legislation under which McFarland has been charged was introduced in April 2022.

To mark the first anniversary of the introduction of the new laws, the PSNI this week revealed almost 50 people have been charged with stalking offences in the last 12 months.

Detective Superintendent Lindsay Fisher, from the PSNIs Public Protection Branch, urged victims or their loved ones to come forward with information about stalkers.

We are asking the public to not ignore the red flags, she said.

If someones behaviour towards you is fixated, obsessive, unwanted and repeated, this is stalking.

I think many people when they hear the word stalking will think of someone lurking in the shadows.

Stalking can actually take many forms and can be online as well as in person and could be someone known to you or a complete stranger.

It is an insidious crime that takes over and destroys lives. Statistics show that people will suffer up to 100 incidents before reporting to police.

It often results in fear, trauma and a reduction in the victims quality of life, in some tragic cases it has resulted in murder.

We dont want victims to suffer in silence. Stalking is a crime, which will not be tolerated or accepted within our communities.

Over 4,500 officers and staff have now been trained to recognise and respond to these crimes and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to bring offenders to justice.

Sarah Mason, chief executive officer of Womens Aid Federation NI, said there are clear links between domestic abuse and stalking.

Many of the women we support would often experience stalking behaviours from their perpetrator as they try to break free from the abusive relationship, she said.

Now that stalking is a specific offence in Northern Ireland, we expect to see many more perpetrators charged under this new offence as the knowledge of the law change becomes more common amongst the public.
We figured the Ukrainians needed it more than we did. We donated it to help the people and it was subsequently driven over.

Ukrainian soldiers fire near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region (Libkos/AP)   Libkos

Ukrainian soldiers have been photographed using an Irish companys pick-up truck on the battlefield in the warzone.

Southeast Contractors (SEC) are driveway restoration specialists who typically cover the Wicklow, Kildare, Kilkenny and Wexford areas.

However, this week one of their trucks was snapped far from Irelands sunny south-east.

The photograph of the vehicle was posted online with armed Ukrainian soldiers standing beside it in the ruins of a destroyed village.

An SEC spokesperson said they donated the vehicle after observing the humanitarian catastrophe taking place in the Ukraine.

We had been observing events over in the Ukraine and seeing the horrific loss of life. We decided to make a charitable donation of our truck, the representative said.

Somebody showed us that image this morning actually. It was our Ford Ranger truck, which we had great use of, its a reliable vehicle.

We figured the Ukrainians needed it more than we did. We donated it to help the people and it was subsequently driven over.

We werent sure where it would end up, we just wanted it to be put to good use. I understand the truck is with the army now, the spokesperson said.

Transfer of 75 Ukrainian refugees from Cahersiveen in Kerry halted after outcry.

The charitable company boss also mentioned the humanitarian cost which the Ukrainian people are suffering as a result of Russian aggression.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights verified a total of 8,574 civilian deaths as of April 24, 2023.

A total of 14,441 people were reported to have been injured. However, OHCHR specified that the real numbers could be higher. Many Ukrainian cities have been reduced to rubble due to the Russian armys constant artillery.

There are currently around 73,000 refugees from Ukraine currently seeking shelter in Ireland.

As a comparison, the number of people receiving temporary protection in Czech Republic is 485,775 and in France, the figure is 118,994.

Up to two million Irish were accommodated by the United States during the Great Famine on approximately 5,000 boats which crossed the Atlantic.

SEC Contractors are based in Wicklow, Kilkenny, Kildare and Wexford.

They are experts in exterior renewal - painting, power washing, roof services,  including repointing, cleaning and gutter maintenance.

The team look after driveway cleaning, repairs and resealing as well as new driveways and patio installation -tarmacadam, gravel, paving etc.

SEC never expected any kind of publicity from this whatsoever, the spokesperson added.
It is the third visit by a US president to this country in just over as many weeks. But on a rainy evening in west Clare, the preparations for this particular arrival were more low-key than the guest himself might, possibly, have liked.
Patient safety is being endangered because of overstretched and unsafe staffing levels on hospital wards, nurses warned today.

Seven in ten nurses surveyed said quality of care is being put at risk very often or always because of inadequate staff numbers to provide proper cover.

The findings emerged in a survey by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) in advance of the unions annual conference in Killarney today.

The wellbeing survey comes against a background of unprecedented health pressures during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing high levels of overcrowding as hundreds of patients wait on trolleys every day for a bed.

Almost nine in ten nurses said staffing levels and skill mix on various shifts are too low in the face of high clinical and patient demands.

More than seven in ten said they thought of quitting their post in the last month ,mostly due to stress with others feeling exhausted and undervalued.

And there is pressure on a majority to work extra hours and shifts.

Most feel physically exhausted  always or very often with 94pc saying their work is having a negative impact on their psychological health and half saying it is negatively affecting them physically.

High numbers also said they had worked when they should have taken annual leave over the last year.

Almost seven in ten day also revealed they suffered aggressive behaviour in the workplace. INMO President Karen McGowan described the findings as very stark and unfortunately they dont seem to be getting better.

There has been no opportunity for nurses and midwives to regain a stable footing since 2019, as its just been crisis after crisis in the health service since then, it was claimed.

A pandemic that was bookended by absolutely staggering levels of overcrowding means theres been no recovery time at all. This type of sustained stress over years and years has an absolutely crushing and traumatic effect on people, and these are the same people who are being asked to step up again and again to fill in the gaps. Its just not sustainable.

As a society weve become more aware of the importance of protecting peoples mental health at work, except it seems when it comes to people who work in healthcare. Our members are just not being protected from the long term physical and psychological effects of stress, and its simply irresponsible.

INMO General Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha added that the extent of stress and burnout reported is devastating for individuals, but it also has a knock-on effect for the whole health service.

Almost three out of four of the nurses and midwives who responded to this survey have considered leaving their current work area.

She claimed that means the fate of the entire health service is dependent on those people deciding to stick it out for another month or another year, whatever they feel they can do.

Unsafe staffing has become the norm and that hospitals are not safe for patients on any day of the year, she suggested.

Staffing is the biggest issue currently facing the health service, and this is the time to deal with it. The failure to legislate on safe staffing is putting nurses and their patients at very serious risk, and action needs to be taken to address this once and for all."
Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave has said Tanaiste Micheal Martins comments about him in the Dail are entirely false.

Mr Cosgrave has sent a letter to the Clerk of the Dail saying he has been adversely affected in reputation by Mr Martins comments.

Last week, the Fianna Fail leader accused online news website The Ditch of running an orchestrated and organised campaign against the Government.

There is a political organisation attacking the Government and wanting to undermine confidence in it, he said.

"I see how all of this is being organised and set up by people who are very clear in their campaign against me and my party.

Mr Martin said he did not regard The Ditch as an independent media platform.

He also used Dail privilege to name Web Summit businessman Mr Cosgrave and his associate Chay Bowes in connection with the website.

In his letter, Mr Cosgrave said Mr Martin breached the Dails standing orders.

He said the Tanaiste claimed he funded a media organisation that is not independent, that he is backing an organisation whose agenda is to take down the Government.

He also said Mr Martin claimed he is backing an organisation which is co-funded and/or backed by the Russian government.

Mr Cosgrave listed the Tanaistes comments in the letter and said all of the above claims and/or suggestions made by Deputy Martin are entirely false.

At no point during the course of the above utterances did the Ceann Comhairle intervene or warn Deputy Martin that he was abusing Dail privilege and/or breach of Dail standing orders.

The Ditch is funded by Mr Cosgraves Web Summit and other funders have not been disclosed.

An Oireachtas spokesperson said the Dail clerk would now pass on Mr Cosgraves letter to the Ceann Comhairle, Sean O Fearghail, a Fianna Fail TD.

The issue may be referred to the Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Oversight (CPPO).

The Ceann Comhairle determines the action to be taken on the submission  and may decide to refer it to CPPO for consideration, said the spokesperson.

Mr Cosgrave said Dail privilege should not be abused to make false allegations against people.

I have made a submission to the clerk regarding the Tanaistes comments last Thursday, in accordance with Dail standing orders. I look forward to hearing what action, if any, will be taken by the Ceann Comhairle, he said in a statement to Independent.ie.
Tracey Corbett-Lynch says she has been lucky to receive support and wants to help others. Photo: Don Moloney

A woman who lost her brother in a brutal murder, her mother to Covid-19 and a beloved sister-in-law to an asthma attack has set up a bereavement network in a bid to help others.

Tracey Corbett-Lynch helped found Limerick Bereavement Network (LBN) to share with others the support that helped her get through the tragedies which have hit her family.

The new group aims to provide a focal point for people who have suffered losses to share their grief, draw strength from solidarity and support each other in their individual recoveries.

I have been so lucky with the enormous support I have received over the years that I just wanted to give back, Ms Corbett-Lynch said.

I want to do what I can to support people who are grieving.

I went to some colleagues of mine in TUS [Technological University of the Shannon], Limerick Mental Health Association and so it began.

We began late 2022 working with TUS  loss and research group, University Hospital Limerick [UHL] HUGG [Healing Untold Grief Groups], Milford Hospice, Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) and Limerick Mental Health Association.

The Irish Hospice Foundation provided a little funding.

Our first event was a Death Cafe with thanatologist [a death and loss expert] Jennifer Moran Stritch (TUS) last month which we hosted as part of the Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival and we were delighted to see it was fully booked out.

LBNs next event will be hosted by UHL and is called Loss and Living. It will feature Estelle McGinley, from Milford Care Centre, noted author Dr Amanda Roberts and TED speaker Kevin Toolis.

The focus will be on the process of grief and the ways people can support each other.

It is a free event supported by the IHF and will take place this Saturday at the UHLs CERC building.

The event coordinator is Rebecca Lloyd who is UHLs end-of-life care coordinator.

Ms Corbett-Lynch has written two best-selling books about grief and loss, the latest of which was Loss and What it Taught Me About Living.

Her brother, Jason Corbett (39), a widower, was beaten to death by his second wife and father-in-law in August 2015 at his home in North Carolina in the United States.

Tom and Molly Martens were convicted of second-degree murder after a high-profile trial in 2017 and sentenced to 20-25 years in prison.

Ms Martens met Mr Corbett when she travelled to Ireland to work as a nanny for his two young children.

Her father, Tom Martens, is a former FBI agent and a counter-intelligence operative with the US Department of Energy.

They were released after serving more than three and a half years in prison after winning an appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court.

A full second-degree murder retrial was scheduled to start on June 26 but has been postponed until November 6.

Ms Corbett-Lynchs mother, Rita, died from complications after contracting Covid-19 in 2020 during the early months of the pandemic.

Her sister-in-law, Margaret Mags  her brother Jasons first wife  died from a freak asthma attack in November 2006 despite frantic efforts by Mr Corbett and paramedics to save her.

The death of Mags left her devastated husband with two children aged two years and under to care for.
A father was diagnosed with fast onset dementia due to the unresolved grief at not being able to see his sons body, which was only identifiable by his monogrammed belt, the inquest into the Stardust Ballroom fire heard today.

The fire claimed the lives of 48 people when it broke out in the Stardust premises in Artane in the early hours of February 14, 1981. Portraits of the victims are being presented to the Dublin District Coroners Court currently sitting in the Pillar Room of the Rotunda Hospital.

Today Patricia Dunne delivered a detailed pen portrait of her late brother Brian Hobbs, in which she described him as someone who loved music and clothes, and studied in Rockwell Hotel and Catering College in Co Tipperary.

When he finished his two years, he was sought after to join a catering team going to Zurich in Switzerland. He celebrated his 21st birthday in Zurich and one of the gifts he received was a handmade leather belt with the letter B as the buckle. He returned home to continue his career.

Brian had grown into a fine young man, good looking, full of charm, the chat, very confident and he loved clothes and to look well  in other words, he fancied himself, said Patricia.

On the night of the Stardust dance competition, Brian had friends taking part. None of the family knew he was going. The next morning, as she was listening to the news reports of the fire, Patricia said she felt a sense of doom. Her brother Peter rang around some friends and then rang Brians work, who informed him that Brian had gone to the Stardust.

And so started the day that was to change our lives forever, she said.

Brian was later identified at the morgue when her brother Peter and sister Ann saw a leather belt with a buckle containing the initial 'B'.

Mam and Dad wanted to see Brian at the removal, but I had to tell them that the coffin was closed as Brians face was very badly bruised. Mam accepted this as much as she could  she was quite a practical woman. My Dad did not accept it. He really wanted to see Brian, said Patricia.

The cemetery was the hardest part for us all. Dad was inconsolable. Mam was just very stunned and shocked by the magnitude of it all, as were all the rest of us, she said.

Patricia said that her father had the beginning of dementia, and just after Brians death he was diagnosed with fast onset dementia due to the unresolved grief of not having seen Brians body.

She concluded by saying that it is important for her to find a certain closure for all of her family, some answers and, finally, justice.

Meanwhile the inquest heard how Eugene Hughie Hogan (24) was just one day away from beginning a new job and a new life in Kerry with his young family when he died in the fire.

A pen portrait of Hughie, written by the Hogan family, was read out by Mark Hogan, nephew of the deceased.

Hughie had a beautiful voice and loved to sing everything from Bowie to Bob Marley. He could even hit the high notes of The Stylistics love songs. He loved to dance and would go to all the local dance halls in Artane and Coolock as a teenager, moving on to the downtown nightclubs as a young man. He was slim and good looking; he loved to dress sharp in the latest styles.

Mark said that Hughie fell in love with Marie, who lived just up the street. They married on March 18, 1977, and had two beautiful daughters, Andrea and Sonia May.

With the economic depression in Ireland at the beginning of the 80s, Hughie found himself out of work. He got an offer of a job and a new life, but he would have to move his wife and family to Kerry. They were to move to Kerry on February 15, 1981.

On February 13, while his younger sisters would babysit his little girls, Hughie and Marie would celebrate with his brother Declan and wife Geraldine, saying goodbye to Dublin and toasting their future. Later that evening Hughie and Marie would join his younger brother Bernard at the Stardust. The rest is the horrible nightmare we have all been living for the last 40 years, said Mark.

He said that the days following the fire were a blur of disbelief, shock and sorrow. Hughie's parents drove to the hospitals trying to find the boys, and after many hours they located Bernard at the Mater Hospital, with burns to his head, face and hands.

It was three days later when his older brother Edmund would identify Hughies body. Identity was confirmed by his belt and tattoo, said Mark.

The circumstances of Hughies death are unspeakable  indescribable to be trapped and burnt alive, Mark concluded.
Similarly, the high-ranking official explained that foreigners who do not have their documents in order will not be allowed to enter Peruvian territory.

The Cabinet chief explained that the Government is also providing support for honest foreigners so as to regularize their situation in the country.

"To face the wave of citizen insecurity and address the immigration crisis, we will expel the undocumented (citizens) from the country, and people who do not have their documents in order will not be allowed to enter (Peru). These are the first measures that we take as a Government," Otarola expressed via his official Twitter account.

The Prime Minister clarified that this measure is not aimed at any specific group, but rather seeks to protect Peru and confront the current wave of violence.

In this sense, the Cabinet chief recalled some cases of compatriots who had lost their lives at the hands of foreigners.

"For them, we take the bull by the horns, because all these crimes were execrable violence and criminal rage, the likes of which had never been seen before in the country. We do not want them to occur once again. We cannot allow one more family to be plunged into mourning over crimes like these," he noted.

Sabemos que hay extranjeros que trabajan honradamente, y por ellos damos facilidades para que regularicen su situacion. Todos somos migrantes y por eso les recalco: nuestra politica no es contra un grupo, es una medida para proteger al Peru y enfrentar la ola de violencia.
Finbar Cafferkey, from Achill Island in Co Mayo, was killed on the front line in the east of Ukraine, helping to defend a sovereign nation from invasion by the neighbouring power of Russia.

He volunteered to serve with Ukraines army as he wanted to help the Ukrainian people. His family said he was against all forms of imperialism, be it US, British or Russian. And he was strongly opposed to Irelands support of US troops and any moves towards joining Nato.

Mr Cafferkeys motivations were similar to those brave Irishmen who fought oppression in previous wars in the last century  with the republicans in the Spanish Civil War and the allies in World War II  while their country remained neutral.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin paid tribute to Mr Cafferkey as obviously a young man of clear principles. But the hostile reaction of the Russian embassy to Ireland was to claim the Government and media bear responsibility for his death by promoting anti-Russian propaganda and distorting the truth about the conflict in Ukraine, misleading people like Finbar Cafferkey.

The Russian embassy warned Ireland will suffer all consequences if Irish citizens are encouraged to fight in Ukraine or if Russia considers Ireland a direct participant in the war. The Department of Foreign Affairs said Irelands position on Russias brutal and illegal aggression against Ukraine was clear. While Ireland is militarily neutral, the country is not politically neutral. We support Ukraine and subscribe to its right to defend against this attack on its territory, in line with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The belligerent response from the Russians to a mere expression of sympathy for a citizen who chose of his own free will to fight with another country is a small illustration of the threats this country can face.

The concept of our national security goes way beyond policing, military defence and participation in UN peacekeeping missions. National security now takes in new threats from pandemics, climate crises, human rights, economic shocks, and cyber and hybrid attacks. Although the internet, technology and travel has shrunk the world, it also means threats can move far faster, which means global insecurity is no longer a question of geography.

An attack can take many forms and come from many places. The most significant cyber attack in the State happened two years ago when the HSE was targeted, causing computer systems to be shut down or curtailed in the midst of the pandemic.

Arguably, the largest known attack against a health service computer system was perpetrated by a criminal gang operating out of St Petersburg in Russia  and may have been either sanctioned or tolerated by agencies in that country.

The Tanaiste is seeking to broaden the debate on Irelands global security and the relationship with China. Notably, he is speaking within the context of our membership of the EU and co-operation with our partners. Ireland is small non-militarily aligned nation, but that doesnt mean we should not work with others to fulfil our duty to enhance security on the global stage.
Adam Harris (above), CEO of the Irish national autism charity As I Am, will be the guest speaker at Mallow Chambers Making Mallow Autism Friendly workshop.

WHILE April was officially Autism Awareness month, autism is something that impacts on thousands of families across Ireland throughout the year.

Thats the view of Mallow Chamber, who will host a free Making Mallow Autism Friendly workshop for local business owners and managers at the Springfort Hall Hotel on Thursday, May 11 from 6pm-8pm.

The guest speaker at the workshop will be Adam Harris, CEO of Harris, the CEO of the Irish national autism charity As I Am.

Speaking ahead of the event Mallow Chamber president Sharon Cregg said that with more than 50,000 families in Ireland living with autism it was essential that inclusion becomes part of daily life across all spheres.

Those affected face barriers to inclusion because of the attitudes of people who may not have first-hand experience of autism, or simply do not have the knowledge to accommodate the autistic community, said Ms Cregg.

She said the workshop would address these barriers by demonstrating strategies for local business to be more autism friendly through practical demonstrations and training ideas.

Mallow Chamber is committed to raising understanding of autism and introducing supports and learning strategies to give our business community the tools it needs to become inclusive, said Ms Cregg.

Small changes can often make a big difference, giving everyone the same chance to live, work, shop and play in Mallow, she added.

Registration ahead of the workshop by following the Making Mallow Autism Friendly link at www.eventbrite.ie is essential for catering purposes.

For more information about the event contact info@mallowchamber.ie or call 089 230 8828.
An illustration of Napoleon mounted on Marengo which the British National Army Museum describes as 'Arab' on its website but is in fact an Irish horse, purchased in north Cork.

A NORTH Cork Councillor has called for a complete audit of all artefacts taken from the county and from throughout Ireland and now on display in museums in the UK and elsewhere.

Cllr Bernard Moynihan of Fianna Fail made his call following the revelation that a British museum was refusing to hand over the skeleton of Marengo, the mount of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo, as they claim it was a trophy of war. It also follows a request for the repatriation that a chalice, the OKeeffe Chalice, would be be repatriated from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London where it has been on display since being purchased in 1929.

The Kiskeam based councillor believes, however, it should be returned to Ireland as it is strongly believed to have been purchased at Cahirmee Horse Fair in Buttevant. There are other claims to suggest that it was purchased at Bartlemy Horse Fair .

Officials at Britains National Army Museum, NAM, have refused to accede a request from Cllr Moynihan and his colleagues who requested that the skeleton be repatriated in 2017.

Its not good enough to get a blank refusal like this - the bones of Marengo should be returned to its home, said Cllr Moynihan.

I believe its time for a complete audit of artefacts in museums abroad - particularly, for instance, so called war trophies taken from Cork by British forces during or before the War of Independence and now in UK museums.

The conservative UK newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, published comments recently from the director of the NAM, Brigadier Justin Maciejewski, in which he rejected efforts to decolonise the remains of Napoleons horse.

This followed a furious exchange on social media in which it was suggested that the Irish were riding into battle to reclaim the artefact and some of them described it as a war trophy.

However the battle for Marengo and other artefacts is being fought against a backdrop of claims from many countries throughout Europe and Africa seeking the return of artefacts currently on display in British museums having been removed from their homeland during military campaigns and colonial rule by British forces in previous centuries.
Deputy Sean Sherlock has warned the backlog of people in Cork waiting for driving tests may not be cleared until "well into 2024.

APPLICANTS seeking to take a driving test in North Cork are being left in limbo as they face a wait time of up to five-months weeks for a test appointment.

Thats according to the Mallow-based Cork East Labour TD Sean Sherlock, following the release of the latest Road Safety Authority (RSA) figures on driving test wait times.

The figures show that the estimated wait time for an appointment at the Mallow centre is a minimum 24 weeks, with the RSA estimating that people applying now will have to wait until the second week in November to sit their test.

Then RSA figures show that there are currently 1,157 applicants waiting to take their test at the Mallow centre.

Elsewhere in Cork, the RSA figures show there are 3,490 and 485 applicants waiting for a test appointment at the Wilton and Ballincollig centres respectively.

While the RSA did not give a waiting time for the Ballincollig centre, applicants at Wilton will also have to wait for a minimum of 24-weeks for a test appointment.

Once again, the wait times in all test centres are extraordinary. However, Mallow is the only test site in North Cork and a minimum 24-weeks wait is simply too long for people from the area who need to take their test, said Deputy Sherlock.

He said the suggestion that people from North Cork could take their test in the city does not stand up to scrutiny, given the long wait time at the Wilton test centre.

Deputy Sherlock raised the backlog issue through a parliamentary question to Transport Minister Eamon Ryan, who said the National Driving Test Service was coming under pressure to meet unprecedented demand, which he said was up by 21% on the 2021 figure.

Minister Ryan said that following a request for additional resources in March, approval has been granted for an additional 75 driver testers in addition to the 30 previously sanctioned n July 2022.

He said that once the new testers have been trained and deployed, the backlog would start to reduce form October.

However, Deputy Sherlock said the new testers needed to brought on stream much quicker than is currently envisaged.

Those awaiting driving tests are now in limbo, said Deputy Sherlock.

At this rate the backlog will not be cleared until well in 2024, he added.
CORK County Councils Chief Executive Officer Tim Lucey has claimed that a letter from the Department of Housing vindicates its position on the availability of funding for vacant housing officers.

This follows a dispute over whether or not funding was available for officers to be recruited by local authorities.

The availability of such funding was the back drop from a remark in Dail Eireann by Kieran ODonnell, the Junior Minister for Housing, in response to a query from Cork East TD David Stanton asking why had Cork County Council received no funding to recruit vacant housing officers.

Minister ODonnell responded that he had made enquiries himself on the issue. Cork has yet to make that application, he said. It is important the Deputy goes back to that local authority. We are awaiting these requests, which have not yet come in.

When Deputy Stanton responded with incredulity, Minister ODonnell went further.

If they are complaining to Deputy Stanton that the resources are not in place and if he gets a commitment from the Government that the resources are there, then I am sorry but the local authority needs to get the finger out and make the application.

In the latest twist to the controversy, Cork County Council officials sent a copy of the letter received from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) to each councillor following last weeks meeting of the authority.

The letter from the Council accompanying the Departments letter highlighted one extract from the letter from the Department dated March 29.

The Department is currently examinining the resources needed to enable local authorities to carry out the important work of activing vacant and derelict properties and engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform in this regard. On agreement of resourcing requirements, the Department will communicate with all local authorities.

According to the letter sent by Council CEO Tim Lucey to elected members dated April 17, this extract clearly shows that there was no fund in place, nor an application process for additional funding, for additional resources for local authorities.

This is the matter which was of most concern to this Council, in that the Council was wrongly presented in a particular light which was, and continues to be, damaging to its reputation on its commitment to this aspect of our business.

In this regard I will again reiterate that we have applied considerable resources ourselves to the matter of addressing vacancy, have been specifically selected by the DHLGH to participate in a pilot measure to properly map and assess vacancy levels, and have been asked specifically to advise the DHLGH on their preparation of CPO (Compulsory Purchase Order) Guidance for local authorites.

This clearly shows recognition for the work we are progressing, a matter which has never been alluded to by the DHLGH in this debate.

As advised last week, despite no funding stream, nor application process being in place for additional resource support, we have made a request for a considerable uplift in staff numbers and funding support, and we await response to same.

Members might again note the particular circumstances of Cork County.

The population of Cork County as per the 2022 Census at 358,898 is equivalent to the combined population of the counties of Cavan, Roscommon, Sligo, Monaghan, Longford and Leitrim, which have a population of 367,568.

Allied to that, the number of town settlements of Cork County is of an equivalent level.

Members might note that this matter again received front page news on the Irish Examiner this morning, thus my wish to ensure that Members are kept informed.

After the Dail remarks were made, Cork County Council prepared a detailed application seeking funding of more than 1m for up to 18 additional staff to work on the housing issue, a significant proportion of whom would be focused on vacancy and dereliction.

The Corkman has reported previously that Cork County Council is failing to collect up to 100m annually from vacant and derelict site levies.
Continuing Traditions to be screened in Baile Mhuirnes Ionad Culturtha on Friday

A FILM which explores the links between Irish and Indian traditional music is to be screened in Baile Mhuirnes Ionad Culturtha on Friday night.

Continuing Traditions was directed by Macroom born film-maker Donal O Ceilleachair and features local musician and composer Peadar O Riada and Ustad Wajahat Khan, acclaimed as a virtuoso on the Indian Sarod instrument

In 1981, members of the renowned Ustad Imrat Khan Indian classical music family travelled to the West Cork village of Cuil Aodha. They were invited to perform at the 10th anniversary commemorations of Irish composer Sean O Riada. The events were officially opened by President Patrick J. Hillery and attended by leading national and international musicians, cultural figures and dignitaries.

Now, 40 years later, Ustad Wajahat Khan and Peadar O Riada have come together to continue the conversation through a creative collaborative exploration of what their respective traditions share in common and what makes them so radically different.

For these master musicians this film, Continuing Traditions is an exploration firmly rooted in a mutual heritage of musicianship and composition modulated through structure, melody, rhythm and time.

The film gets underway at 8pm in the Ionad Culturtha. Booking is advised: 026 45733

BO 18 briefs head

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Speaking in the Dail Cork North West Fianna Fail TD Aindrias Moynihan said the planned new Garda divisional headquarters in Macroom needs to be prioritised and urgently advanced without delay.

THE Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has conceded that the planned new Garda station is needed in Macroom quite urgently in light of a major shake up of Garda operations across the county.

The issue of a new Garda station for the town has been raised in the Dail by Cork North West Fianna Fail TD Aindrias Moynihan, who has urged the Taoiseach to intervene to speed up the construction of the new station.

Planning permission for the new Garda station, which will serve as the new divisional headquarters when following the amalgamation of the Cork West and Cork North Garda divisions, was granted back in March of 2021.

Addressing the Taoiseach in the Dail, Deputy Moynihan said the new Macroom Garda regional HQ needs to be urgently advanced.

He pointed out that a new policing model has been rolled out across many parts of the country and is now being rolled out in County Cork.

However, Deputy Moynihan said that an obvious part of that model seems to be missing in County Cork.

While a (divisional) headquarters has been identified in Macroom, with planning permission obtained and the sire ready, the matter is not being advanced, said Deputy Moynihan.

He pointed out the Macroom station had been bundled with two other projects, a Garda station in Clonmel and the court complex in Dublins Hammond Lane.

He asked if there was a way that the projects could be decoupled in order to advance the construction of the new Macroom station.

It needs to be prioritised and urgently advanced without delay, said Deputy Moynihan.

In response, The Taoiseach said officials were working on the matter and the project was heading in the right direction.

A new station is needed in Macroom quite urgently, as well as one in Clonmel, said The Taoiseach.

He said Deputy Moynihan was correct is saying the difficulty was that it had been rolled into a wider Public Private Partnership (PPP) involving the two Garda stations and the Hammond Lane complex.

It may have been a good idea at the time, but it has clearly not worked out, admitted the Taoiseach.

He said that officials were currently working to decouple the trio of projects, which would allow both the Macroom and Clonmel stations to proceed to construction within months.

We are working on that, said the Taoiseach.

It is heading in the right direction, but I am not in apposition to confirm that we can do it just yet. We are working on it, he added.
A LAMENT composed by his widow at the side of her dead husband, slain by shots fired by soldiers paid for by a local sheriff, was being discussed at a conference in Cambridge University on Wednesday on the 25oth anniversary of the killing of Art O Laoghaire near Carriganima.

The conference in the UK university is one of several events to mark the anniversary of the untimely death of Art O Laoghaire at the hands of soldiers acting on behalf of Abram Morris, the County sheriff, who envied O Laoghaire his horse which he had been gifted by the Empress of Austria, Marie Therese.

O Laoghaire had gone to fight in the Austrian Army after his father, a relatively wealthy landowner from Toomes Bridge, had purchased a commission for him. The widowed Empress was keen to recruit soldiers for an army to defend her against other European rivals who were keen to seize her lands - and maybe claim her hand in marriage. The Cork man, a gallant soldier by all accounts, was reputed to be a particular favourite of the Empress.

However the reason Art O Laoghaire is famous today, 250 years after his killing, is the lament composed on the spot where he died by Eibhlin Dubh Ni Chonaill, his widow and the aunt of Daniel OConnell. When O Laoghaires horse returned riderless to the family home in Raleigh, EIbhlin mounted him and arrived at the scene of the killing.

The lament she composed on the spot, beginning with the lines Mo Ghra go daingean thu, on la da bhfaca thu/My love completely, from the day I saw you, has been described as the most important poem written in the 18th century in the UK or Ireland. The lament was passed by word of mouth and was eventually compiled and published as a book in 1960 by the late Professor of Irish at UCC, Sean O Tuama, himself a noted poet. The poem has now been set to music by Peadar O Riada, a polyphonic choral work which took 15 years to complete and will be performed by Cor Ban Chuil Aodha at the Ionad Culturtha in Baile Mhuirne this evening (Thursday) at 8pm.

Earlier this evening in Carriganima a floral wreath will be laid at the spot where O Laoghaire met his death on the evening of May 4, 1773.

On Sunday next, a Mass to remember Art O Laoghaire will be celebrated in the church in Carriganima to be followed by a wake in the local pub in the village in memory of the man.

Local historian Seamus O Laoghaire told RTE Raidio na Gaeltachtas Saol O Dheas programme that the remains of his namesake had been waked in an old mill which is now in ruins and it was there that Eibhlin Dubh started composing her caoineadh.

There isnt much left of it now, he said. The women of the area laid him out in there and they helped Eibhlin when she came on the scene to find her husband murdered.

He can trace his own ancestry back to the that wake as his own grandmother was the great grand daughter of a woman at the wake.

People had great respect for the Caoineadh because they admired Art O Laoghaire for his stand against the British and respected Eibhlin Dubh also, he said. Thats why the Caoineadh survived until it was collected by an tAthair Peadar O Laoghaire.

Carriganima man David O Ceilleachair can trace his lineage back to Eibhlin Dubh thanks to the expert knowledge of Seamus. Its hard to believe but I am descended from Eibhlin Dubh Ni Chonaill - Im very proud of that of course.

Two hundred and fifty years after his death, the legend of Art O Laoghaire lives on, a testament to the power of poetry.

According to many, its quite possible that Art O Laoghaire, despite his gallantry, would be barely remembered otherwise.
Data compiled by the Department of Education shows that Cork has the second highest number of Ukrainian pupils behind Dublin.

ACCORDING to the latest data released by the Department of Education have revealed the number of Ukrainian children enrolled at schools across Cork city and county has risen to 1,606,

Broken down, the figures show that as April drew to a close, 1,075 Ukrainian pupils had been enrolled in primary schools across Cork, with a further 530 attending second level schools.

Nationally, the figures showed there are currently 15,458 Ukrainian children enrolled in schools across the country, 9,987 of these in primary schools and 5,471 in post-primary education.

The latest county-by-county figures show that Dublin still has the largest concentration of pupils at 1,734, followed by Cork (1,606), Donegal (1,300), Galway (946) and Clare (940).

Monaghan has the lowest amount of any county 102 pupils.

A spokesperson for the Department said current data indicates an enrolment rate of 89% among Ukrainian children aged between five and 18.

Last summer education minister Norma Foley said that while it would be quite difficult quantify how many school places would be needed to accommodate children arriving in Ireland from Ukraine, figures had indicated here would be significant capacity to cope with demand.

This after research had indicated there were more than 40,000 spare places in primary and secondary schools across the country, based on a 75% response rate.

While the number of newly arrived pupils is well short of those figures, the challenge remains to match accommodation with spare capacity within the education system.

With this in mind, schools in all 26 counties have enrolled Ukrainian children, and where possible, families have been moved away from the capital to areas where more capacity exists such as Cork, Donegal, Kerry and Clare.

Hundreds of schools across the country have also successfully applied for additional hours and teaching posts to meet demand.

Minister Foleys department said that Regional Education and Language Teams (REALT), established under the umbrella of the 16 regional and Educational Boards (ETBs), will continue to play a key role in both helping families secure school places and support schools to meet the requirements of pupils.

The department said the focus of the teams, which include representatives from Tusla, school psychological services, special education needs specialists and school management bodies will build on the existing support structures to assist families in finding school places.

These teams are ensuring that clear, accessible information flows are in place between schools, local education support services and national support structures in relation to people arriving from Ukraine, said a department spokesperson.

Information for parents in Ukrainian and Russian on accessing school places is available on gov.ie/Ukraine, they added.
Documentary peaked presidents interest in events at Clonbanin where his father fought

Retired Sergeant Michael Kelly, Mallow, chatting to President Higgins Aide de Camp Officers, Captain Peter Dunne and Sergeant Paul Mulligan at Aras an Uachtarain during the Clonbanin Centenary Commemoration visit last week.

Corney Vaughan, Boherbue, presented President Higgins with a copy of the Documentary Clonbanins Journey through the War of Independence

Sheila Fitzgerald and Mike Sheehan pictured with Sabina Higgins and President Higgins after performing a set of Irish themed songs for the gathering at Aras an Uachtarain. Photo by Sean Radley

Charlie Drake, Derinagree, who coordinated the visit to Aras an Uachtarain chatting to Sabina Higgins and President Higgins

Clonbanin Ambush Centenary Commemoration Committee members with their spouses and guests pictured with President Michael D Higgins and Sabina Higgins during their visit to Aras an Uachtarain last week. Photos by Sheila Fitzgerald

President Higgins welcoming his cousins Donal and Cormac Canty, Liscarroll, to Aras an Uachtarain last week during the Clonbanin Ambush Centenary Commemoration Committee visit

What was described as the visit of a lifetime took place last week when members of Clonbanin Ambush Centenary Commemoration Committee and their spouses and friends visited Aras an Uachtarain and enjoyed a wonderful reception hosted by President Higgins and Sabina Higgins.

The invitation to Aras an Uachtarain came about as a result of President Higgins interest in the recent historical Documentary DVD Clonbanins Journey Through the War of Independence which was produced by the Committee in the autumn of 2022.

After personally welcoming all present, President Higgins addressed the gathering and reiterated his own close links with North Cork. The Presidents father, John Higgins, who was a member of the Charleville Battalion, fought at the Clonbanin Ambush and took part in numerous other engagements around the North Cork area.

In addition, his mother Alice Canty, a native of Liscarroll, was a very prominent member of Cumann na mBan.

The President spoke at length about the War of Independence, the ensuing Civil War and the long term effects these conflicts had on families, communities and the population in general. He commended the Clonbanin Committee for their commitment and professionalism in compiling a documentary that contains such an in depth historical account of one of the most important engagements of the War of Independence.

In reply, Charlie Drake from Derinagree, who co-ordinated the visit, said he was extremely honoured and privileged to be trusted to represent the group in Aras an Uachtarain.

President Michael D. Higgins, you have bestowed on us what we regard as the highest honour in the land  to be invited to Aras an Uachtarain. This is testament to your understanding of the ordinary people.

You are a noble professor, a distinguished politician, a renowned and respected historian and poet, statesman and leader of our country, yet President you are one of the boys and that is what we like about you.

You have travelled to many lands and addressed the leaders of those nations with honesty, dignity and integrity. I can honestly state on behalf of everyone here, you make all of us Irish citizens very proud of our very own President and Mrs Higgins, Charlie continued before adding his thanks to Kevin McCarthy and the Aras staff for their help in organising the visit.

Following the official speeches, Chair of Clonbanin Ambush Centenary Commemoration Committee Corney Vaughan presented a copy of the DVD documentary to President Higgins. Pat O Brien presented a specially commissioned framed photograph of the Centenary Commemoration Monument. Retired Army Sergeant Michael Kelly presented a copy of his book Life Stories and Sabina Higgins was delighted to receive a bouquet of flowers from Ellen Drake.

The President then invited the guests to join him in the State Dining Room for lunch where the gathering enjoyed a selection of Irish themed songs performed by Sheila Fitzgerald and Mike Sheehan.

Later, to round off a great day, the group was treated to a tour of the State Rooms and the grounds of Aras an Uachtarain.
YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has refused to comment on the foreign ministerial talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the United States 'because these negotiations are proceeding without Russias participation'.

Zakharova said at a press briefing that Moscow will be able to express its opinion when there will be statements released by the parties.

She once again stressed the importance of implementing the trilateral agreements.

We remain committed to the implementation of all terms of the trilateral agreements reached between the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020-2022, Zakharova added.

Regarding prospects of a planned meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Russia, Zakharova noted that both Yerevan and Baku have expressed readiness for such a meeting. We will inform about the timeframes later, Zakharova said.
The renting crisis has meant many people can only afford to live a house share. Stock image

Graffiti on the fence of a construction site in Dublin this February as rents continue to increase in the capital   Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The renting crisis in Dublin has meant many people can only afford to live a house share, which has left some anxious due to a potential toxic atmosphere and no privacy.

Eddie, from Offaly, is in his 40s. He works in Dublin but moved back in with his parents in an attempt to save for a mortgage. But now, everything is out of his price range, so he has been forced back to the renting market.

He told Independent.ie: I moved to Dublin in 2012, I wanted to buy a house, but I couldnt. I moved back to Offaly, moved in with my parents to save a deposit and I started looking at houses.

I had to keep renting; everything was above my budget. Im stuck here and Im trying to move out. To rent in Tullamore, prices are just like Dublin.

Half of your life is not your own, youve your own bedroom but its not in your own house. I get along with my parents great, but I dont have my independence.

I have been looking to rent again. Im not hopeful. Im on HAP and I dont think anyone will accept it. They have to say they will, but I dont think they will.

Diary of a Dublin renter - '1,750 a month and it smells like s**h'

If I want to move to Dublin Ill probably have to move into a house share. But how long should I do that? Im 43 now. Theres no privacy.

The Government is full of excuses, what do they want to happen with house prices? he added.

Meanwhile, Orla, in her mid-twenties from Co Meath, has dealt with everything from an alcoholic housemate to a mushroom growing on the bathroom floor.

I was living in Dundrum for two years. It was convenient for me; it was on the Luas line, and I worked in the city centre. It was disgusting, but it suited me.

A mushroom grew out of the bathroom floor; I couldnt believe it. We had mould, my bedroom wasnt too bad.

My rent was 600, any time a new tenant moved in hed up the price of their room each time.

A box room was 700, there was black mould all over the walls in there. The guy living in there was evicted, he was an alcoholic and did drugs.

He got really aggressive one night and we nearly had to ring the guards on him.

He got really violent, I was the only girl living with all guys. Luckily, they were there that night. I wouldnt like to think what would happen if they werent.

None of us had locks for our doors either. When I wasnt there, one of the lads would come into my bedroom. I found cigarette butts in my room from him too.

We noticed the full extent of the room when he moved out, it was disgusting. The landlord said it was because he never opened the window, it was black mould.

We had to advertise the room, he said hed say nothing about the mould for people viewing the room and would paint over it later.

The black mould was dripping down the wall, he didnt think anything was wrong with it. People walked into the room and walked straight out.

Orla also spoke about how her house was advertised as not owner occupied, despite her landlord staying at least once a month and sleeping in the shed.

The landlord moved to London, but hed come home once a month or so and semi lived with us.

It was half owner occupied, it did my head in. He always advertises as not owner occupied when it is.

Hed come home, use all the facilities, the Wi-Fi, the cooker, washing machine and TV. He wouldnt contribute to the bills.

It was awkward living with him, everyone was on edge when he was home. He lived in a shed in the back.

He brought home a woman once; she was in the kitchen in a dressing gown after being in the shed with him.

The anxiety in that house. It was toxic, she added.
A series of rainbow steps, similar to those above, will be introduced in areas of south Dublin. Pic: Getty images   Getty Images/iStockphoto

Subtle but vibrant rainbow steps are set to be placed throughout south Dublin to tackle diversity and inclusion issues.

Emma Murphy, Mayor of South Dublin County Council, tabled the motion that asked the council to implement rainbow steps.

With everything that is happening on diversity and inclusion issues, I thought this would be great, she said.

Its not just flying a flag once during the year, this is permanent and shows that south Dublin is very welcoming to anyone who would like to live here, from whatever background or minority group they come from.

It brings in the socially inclusive and welcoming society were trying to advocate for. Theres an LGBTQI perspective, but also inclusivity in terms of people of mixed abilities, those of different backgrounds, migrant communities.

Its something subtle, but vibrant. At the same time, its quite low maintenance and highlights the inclusive society were trying to build in south Dublin, she added.

Cllr Murphy received a huge amount of positive feedback on the motion with Independent councillor Alan Edge supporting the idea.

It might be small in the grand scheme of all the work the county does, but to provide visibility for people is hugely important, he said.

This is particularly so at a time when were seeing an increase in hate crimes, hate speech directed at people across all sectors, particularly in respect of our trans friends and family.

Meanwhile, cllr Ronan McMahon spoke about his thoughts on the words diversity and inclusion during the motion discussion.

Probably wont be popular for saying this, but Im always fascinated by the words diversity and inclusion when members here or indeed members of the general community have promoted anything to do with the LGBT and Trans community, cllr McMahon said.

Diversity and inclusion only seem to be applicable to certain segments and minorities in our community.

A few years ago, I proposed we fly the papal flag on the occasion of Pope Francis visit to the city for a day or two.

The same members who flaunt diversity and inclusion were the very ones who adamantly spoke and voted against diversity and inclusion on that time. My mind boggles slightly.

The only issue I have with this motion is that its used to promote diversity and inclusion, which I am 100pc in favour of.

I would be a little bit nervous of various locations, that theres no limit on them and they can be put everywhere.

I think there should be a limit on the budgets, whether its four or five of them around the county. But it shouldnt be limitless and on every steps in the county, he added.

It is hoped that the initiative will be rolled out within the next few months.

90pc were in favour and there was very positive feedback, cllr Murphy said.

I did get challenged by one particular member in relation to inclusivity in general and the need for it. All and all, it was a positive discussion and welcomed by the members of SDCC.

We should be expecting them in a few months. Im working with councillors from each of the local areas to get one in each local electoral area, so we have a presence right throughout the county.

Weve large villages like Lucan, Tallaght and Clondalkin, but Id like to see some of our smaller areas like Firhouse.

Were looking for stairwells already in existence. I think theyll start to creep up this year. Its a very simple infrastructure so I think itll be rolled out very quickly, she added.
Tallaght Community Council collected an average of 10 bags of litter on their many National Spring Clean clean-ups during April

More than 15,000 people removed 85 tonnes of rubbish across Dublin last month, with an increase in vaping materials found.

The national Spring Clean campaign, running for the past 24 years, takes places throughout the month of April and communities are encouraged to take part and tackle litter in their local areas.

This year, more than 400 Dublin groups registered to carry out clean-ups throughout the county, making Spring Clean 23 one of Irelands largest anti-litter campaigns to date.

More than 15,000 volunteers in Dublin removed an estimated 85 tonnes of litter.

Included in the clean up was Tallaght Community Council, who collected an average of 10 bags of litter for each clean-up.

However, the group noticed an increase in smoking related litter, particularly vaping materials.

Volunteers from Stoneybatter Pride of Place were among 400 groups who got together for a National Spring Clean in Dublin

Balbriggan Tidy Towns hosted their National Spring Clean event at the start of April, and since then they have been out every Saturday at 11am.

Drinking cans were the most common litter items found by the group that were cleaned and recycled.

Volunteers from Stoneybatter Pride of Place also hosted a clean-up on March 26 as part of the National Spring Clean, removing a considerable amount of litter from the area and planting pollinators.

More than 80 groups and communities all across Dublin joined forces for a county wide clean-up on April 22. This year, 35pc of all waste collected was recycled.

Minister for Environment, Eamon Ryan said: An Taisces National Spring Clean continues to showcase the dedication of volunteers all over the country.

The commitment of volunteers in continuing to organise local clean-ups each year is a testament to the spirit in Irish communities.

Balbriggan Tidy Towns found a number of discarded drinking cans on their National Spring Clean clean-up

My Department will continue to support the campaign and An Taisce, whose role in organising this successful campaign each year, deserves to be acknowledged.

I look forward to the many events that will be held all over the country in the coming months.

Emlyn Cullen, National Spring Clean manager said: This was one of our biggest years ever with regards to people taking part.

We cant thank the volunteers enough for giving up their time and energy to make Ireland a cleaner, greener country this April.

Huge credit also goes to the local authorities who work hard during the month to collect the full bags after events.

Also Id like to thank the Dept of Environment, Climate and Communications and our sponsors, Mars Wrigley Ireland.
West Kerry people had an opportunity to witness a rare and wonderful phenomenon over the weekend when dozens of basking sharks swam into Ventry Harbour, attracted by the clean waters and an abundant supply of food.

Basking sharks  which feed on plankton  at up to eight metres long are the second-largest shark species and are a common sight along the coast of West Kerry, but they have never before been recorded in such numbers in Ventry Harbour.

On Sunday morning, 25 basking sharks were counted in the harbour, and on the previous morning landscape photographer Florian Walsh, who captured stunning drone footage of the sharks, said he counted approximately 40, some of which came in very close to the beach.

Its phenomenal, fantastic, brilliant to see such numbers of basking sharks in Ventry. Theyre attracted by an abundance of food and its a very good sign of the quality of the water, said marine biologist Kevin Flannery from Dingle, who added that, contrary to local speculation, there was no evidence that the sharks were mating in Ventry.

Kevin said basking shark numbers have been increasing along the west coast of Ireland since the then Taoiseach, Charlie Haughey, set a European precedent by declaring Ireland a whale and dolphin sanctuary in 1991.

The drift-net ban of 2007 also helped, although Kevin said accidental catches of basking sharks in salmon nets were never very significant.

Before that, basking sharks took an awful slaughtering by the Danes and Norwegians who came here to hunt them with harpoons, Kevin said.

They were only interested in the oil from their livers, which was used in the aeronautics and cosmetics industries, and the carcasses would be dumped at sea and often washed up on Inch beach and elsewhere around the coast.

Basking sharks were also hunted in Achill island up to the 1970s, but thankfully thats all gone now and people have respect for them, said Kevin.

However, basking sharks dont find peace everywhere, and Kevin said that last year a single basking shark fin was recorded as selling for 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (11,600).

Meanwhile, Florian Walshs stunning drone video and photographs of the basking sharks in Ventry are now reaching a worldwide audience.

Florian, who is a highly regarded landscape photographer, said he was out on Ventry beach with friends on Saturday when they first saw the sharks. He dashed home for his camera equipment and captured images that have since been taken up by Australian media, amongst others.

As soon as I got the drone up, my jaw dropped. It was just absolutely mind-blowing to see so many [basking sharks] in one place, said Florian.

We get basking sharks here every year, but this was a very special and rare moment to be able to capture an image with at least a dozen in one shot, he added.

Florians drone footage of the basking sharks is on facebook (search for florian walsh photography) and his landscape photography can be seen on florianwalshphotography.com
Carly Brownrigg, Grace Shannon and Amy Carroll were at the tractor run in Colaiste Bhride, Carnew on Wednesday. Pic: Jim Campbell

Pictured at the tractor run in Colaiste Bhride, Carnew on Wednesday were Fionn Crowe and Louie Judge. Pic: Jim Campbell

At the tractor run in Colaiste Bhride, Carnew on Wednesday were Luke Byrne, Charlie O'Keeffe, Adam Kenny, Sean Doyle and Callum Kenny. Pic: Jim Campbell

Pictured at the tractor run in Colaiste Bhride, Carnew on Wednesday were Lilly Doyle, Lauren Carter, Amy Redmond, Grace Stone, Clodagh Doyle and Stephanie Chard. Pic: Jim Campbell

Pictured at the tractor run in Colaiste Bhride, Carnew on Wednesday were Mikey Kehoe, Caolan Breslin, Conor Grannell, Ross Byrne and Alan Donegan. Pic: Jim Campbell

At the tractor run in Colaiste Bhride, Carnew on Wednesday were Aaron Cullen, Conor Lambert, Johnny Gleeson, Ronnie White and Rory Butler. Pic: Jim Campbell

There was great excitement in Carnew recently as 30 tractors rolled out of Colaiste Bride school grounds to participate in the annual Tractor Run.

Always a much-loved event in the local calendar, the Colaiste Bride tractor run was organised by students in conjunction with Mr. Gleeson. Organised as part as WellFest 2023  an immersive outdoor health and wellness festival with events in Dublin and London  the event had student wellbeing at its core, with all funds raised on the day donated to Jigsaw Wicklow.

This mental health organisation provides support and counselling to students across the region. Over 1500 was raised at the Carnew event to help to support the organisations continued work.
Booksmart (2019) BBC1, 10.40p.m.

High school student Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and best friend Molly (Beanie Feldstein) have studiously forsaken partying to achieve their academic dreams. As graduation looms, Amy is destined for Columbia while Molly has been accepted into Yale.

The gal pals are gob-smacked to learn that lazy peers have also secured places at coveted Ivy League institutions. Its a bitter pill to swallow: Amy and Molly have needlessly missed out on extra-curricular lessons in drunken bonding. The over-achievers resolve to make amends on the night before Molly delivers her valedictorian speech.

Booksmart is a raucous rites-of-passage comedy, which pens an unapologetically forthright and tender valentine to the glorious final hours of carefree abandon before adulthood comes a-knocking.

THURSDAY

A Fish Called Wanda (1988) BBC4, 9p.m.

Stuffy British barrister Archie (John Cleese) has his well-ordered world thrown into chaos when he meets Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis), a sultry American thief who wants to know where his client George (Tom Georgeson) has hidden a stash of diamonds.

While being seduced by Wanda for inside information may have its upsides, Archie becomes entangled with her thuggish lover Otto (an Oscar-winning Kevin Kline), who is also busy terrorising Georges animal-loving sidekick Ken (Michael Palin).

This comedy is one of the funniest Britflicks ever committed to film, largely thanks to the cast. Cleese and Palin are terrific, but the American contingent nearly beat the Pythons at their own game. And if it feels like an updated take on the classic Ealing comedies, that may be down to director Charles Crichton, who helmed The Lavender Hill Mob.

FRIDAY

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) BBC1, 10.40p.m.

Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is abducted from Earth as a child and raised by alien mercenaries Consequently, he becomes a thief for hire and steals a mystical orb sought by sadistic warlord Ronan (Lee Pace) and his army.

When Peter learns the orb has the power to destroy the universe, he puts selfish desires to one side and aligns himself with a motley crew of renegades  green-skinned assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana), genetically engineered raccoon Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), his tree-like sidekick Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and vengeance-seeking warrior Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista)  to repel Ronan.

From its visually stunning opening set to the funky strains of Come and Get Your Love, James Gunns film is a blast.

SATURDAY

Road to Perdition (2002) ITV, 10.55p.m.

Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) is a devoted husband and father who lives a secret life as a mob hitman in Depression-era Chicago. When his son witnesses his involvement in a killing it results in a fellow gangster attempting to kill off Sullivans entire family  forcing him and his surviving son, Michael Jr (Tyler Hoechlin), to go on the run. His desire for revenge eventually leads him to cross the infamous mob boss Al Capone  with terrible repercussions.

Based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins, director Sam Mendes follow-up to American Beauty is a very different affair. This dark period chase drama is meticulously constructed and boasts an incredible cast, most notably a suitably restrained, cast-against-type Hanks as Sullivan and the downright eerie Jude Law as assassin Harlen Maguire.

SUNDAY

Carmen Jones (1954) BBC2, 2.40p.m.

An updated version of Bizets opera Carmen, telling the story of a seductive girl who raises the temperature at the military base where she works making parachutes.

Although she could have her choice of the soldiers, the one Carmen really wants is upstanding pilot Joe, who happens to already have a sweet fiancee. However, he finds it hard to resist Carmens sultry charms and they embark on a passionate affair that looks set to have tragic consequences.

As if rewriting a classic opera wasnt daring enough, this musical also features an all-black cast  a rarity for a mainstream film of the time. However, the results speak for themselves, as the late Harry Belafonte and the Oscar-nominated Dorothy Dandridge do a great job of capturing the passion of the tale.

MONDAY

1917 (2019) BBC2, 9p.m.

Practice makes nail-bitingly tense perfection in Sam Mendess real-time thriller, inspired by stories of The Great War told by the directors grandfather, who served as a lance corporal.

Shot in several exquisitely staged single takes, which are seamlessly stitched together by editor Lee Smith into a continuous fluid shot, 1917 is the product of six months of intense rehearsals and preparation, which included a physically gruelling training camp for hundreds of actors including leads Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay.

They play a pair of British soldiers who must travel by foot into enemy territory to deliver a vital message  if they fail, 1,600 men will walk straight into a trap set by the Germans.

TUESDAY

Downton Abbey (2019) ITV3, 8p.m.

Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and his wife (Elizabeth McGovern) receive written communication from Buckingham Palace via motorcycle messenger, informing them of the arrival of King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James).

The visit is part of a royal tour of Yorkshire, which will reunite the King and Queen with their daughter, Mary, Princess Royal (Kate Phillips). Downton Abbey is a crowd-pleasing frippery of froth, which assiduously ties up loose narrative threads from the acclaimed TV series and unpicks a few new ones.

Michael Englers film is comfortingly familiar, welcoming back most of the main cast. Screenwriter Julian Fellowes serves up bite-size morsels of intrigue and romance to generate a steady trickle of conflicts, resolutions and cliffhangers.
I found this project was more important than the Wexford rose because it is so beneficial to people

AN SNA from Fethard on Sea has been teaching people across the New Ross district about how to use Lamh sign language.

Lamh supports communication - between parents and child, between siblings, between friends. It can be a stepping stone to communicating with the world for children who find it difficult to speak.

Roisin works as an SNA in St Patricks special needs school in Enniscorthy where Lamh is used with the children.

"As part of my job I wanted to learn Lamh. I remember seeing a little girl outside the school signing to another child that she liked her clothes. The child didnt know what she meant. I went out and explained what she was saying.

This inspired Roisin (25) to try to teach Lamh to people outside the special needs school setting.

"A lot of people dont know what it is. Because Fethard is such a tourism area I said Id start showing people how to say hello.

She said Lamh is a manual sign system used by children and adults with intellectual disability and communication needs in Ireland.

Using Lamh encourages eye contact and attention to movement. These are skills that are important for speech development. Using Lamh signs can help with developing vocabulary and language skills. Persons who use Lamh signs have a way to try out and practice how language works.

Many children and adults with communication needs can understand much more than they can express verbally.

Describing it as an easier version of Irish sign language. Hand positions wouldnt be as complex. There are less words in sentences. When we are signing we still speak. Its about encouraging children to speak. Roisin works with some children who are non verbal who have learned how to speak with the help of Lamh.

"Some children will never be verbal but they sign words to us. These children all have their hands so they can always communicate. She said she is the first person to run such a programme. She has more than 40 businesses who want to get involved in the initiative.

The school helped me. I just did this off my own back. When I have spare time I wanted to give something back. Ive gotten a huge response. Initially I said Id just do it for one or two businesses. Now I have businesses reaching out to me who want to get involved. Roisin applied to the Rose of Tralee contest and Lamh was her talent. I found this project was more important than the Wexford rose because it is so beneficial to people.

Having introduced Lamh to people at pubs, shops, Hook Lighthouse, Fethard RNLI and Coast Guard and more, Roisin said she plans to do likewise in New Ross.

"Ive gotten such a good response. Lamh also have an official programme that they run. I just wanted to make it more for my area because there are children in this area in special needs units like in Poulfur. I just want everyone to now how to say hello.

During her introduction she gives a background about Lamh and teaches everyone how to say Hello.

I was surprised some people were trained in Lamh but had forgotten about it. I was in Dillons shop (in Fethard) and a child came in and was signing in the shop and the girl behind the counter said hello with Lamh and the child's face was just lie she had won the Lotto. The staff member reached out to me later that that to say thank you. I thought Id never be as good at Lamh as the people in school but if you just practice it will come to you easily.

She said she learned by observing the pupils, adding that with RTE Jnr broadcasting a show called Dizzy Delivery using Lamh this year it could really take off.

Businesses can contact Roisin on her Instagram page, roisinsutton and on Facebook.
Emily Crowdle and Cora Cousins at the New Ross Rugby Club dinner dance in the Brandon House Hotel.

Tintern Review

The 2023 Tintern Review is being compiled and the committee would welcome contributions for the 13th issue of a magazine which is growing in popularity.

If you have any photos of people/events of high interest from times gone by or more recent times, we would be grateful if you could let us have them. Also of interest to us are the names for inclusion in a Births, Marriages and Deaths column. These can only be accepted from the families in question. Some people may have some funny real-life true stories to share and these are particularly welcome.

Committee members may be contacted at these email addresses: tinternreview@gmail.com , tallaughtfarm@yahoo.com , paudieforan5@gmail.com and eileen1leacy@hotmail.com

Plant Sale

Ballycullane Veggie Growers are having their annual plant sale in Ballycullane Parish Hall on Saturday 13th May at 10am to 2pm. Fruit, flowers and vegetable plants will be for sale. Teas also served. The Ballycullane Veggie Growers grow vegetables and fruit in a community plot. If you are interested in joining, come along to the plant sale and talk to any of the members or ring 087 6788652.

GAA Events

Gusserane GAA club is now very much focused on two upcoming fundraisers and social events.

Gusseranes Fittest Family takes place in Tom Somers Park on Sunday 7th May. The teams of four (which must include at least one female) are currently in training and would welcome all support as they take on the various obstacles on the course that day.

Then on Sunday June 4th the Hooley in the Park returns to Gusserane. This year the hugely popular Corner Boy will headline the outdoor event with traditional Irish fusion band, Tulua, in support beforehand. The inaugural Hooley was a great success last year and this year the organisers hope to build on that success. Tickets will be going on sale in the coming weeks.

Finally, the club would like to thank all those who supported the annual Club and County draw. The first of three draws took place last week and congratulations to Cormac Kiely who won a 50 Co Wexford Chamber shopping voucher.

Lotto

There was no jackpot winner in the Tintern Lotto draw last week when the numbers drawn were 5, 15, 27 and 28. The match three winner was Tricia Doran of Tintern. This weeks jackpot now hits 12,800.

Day Care Centre open day

St Louis Day Care are holding an open day at the Day Care Centre on Thursday, May 4, from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. in conjunction with the annual Alzheimers Tea Day. Call in for an informal chat, a cup of tea, meet our staff and see what services we have to offer. There is a guest speaker from ALONE at 11 am and Senior Social Worker with HSE at 11.30 a.m. to launch a Dementia Cafe which will commence on May 11 in St Louis Day Centre 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. All proceeds go to the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. Please drop in and support this worthy cause.

Drama in Campile Hall

Theatre Vamps Drama group Tramore presents When Harry met Sally, a modern take on a romantic comedy classic in Campile Hall on Saturday May 13 at 8 p.m. Tickets are 15 available on Eventbrite or pay on the door on the night.

BANNOW-BALLYMITTY

First Holy Communion

Best wishes to all the children making their First Holy Communion on Saturday.

Memories of St Patricks Day

Photo albums of this years St Patricks Day parade are in Seabreeze laundry if you want to look at them and you can order any that you would like.

Sad Passing

Deepest sympathy to Audrey Quirk and family, Grantstown on the death of her husband Jerry last weekend. Jerry was 80 years of age and is survived by his wife Audrey, daughter Kim, son Marc, grandchildren, great grandchildren, relatives, his neighbours and staff in Grantstown court and his friends.

Jerry was waked in Ryans funeral parlour on Monday evening and his remains were brought to Mount Jerome crematorium on Tuesday for service at 2.15 p.m. May he rest in peace.

Split-the-pot

This weeks winner was Ash Waters winning 177.

Grantstown News

Trip to Knock  If anyone would like to visit Knock please get your name into the office as soon as possible as we need to have enough people interested to book the trip.

We plan to go in July or August and the cost will be 200 which will include transport to and from Knock, all meals and an overnight stay in Knock House Hotel. Please phone 051561016 to book your place.

Community Employment Scheme vacancies  If you are in receipt of a social welfare payment, Tus or have been unemployed for one year or more, then you may be eligible for a CE Scheme.

We currently have vacancies for a Driver, carers, Kitchen Assistants, childcare, Maintenance and Groundskeeper. Please note no qualifications are needed for the above positions as full training will be provided free of charge which will enable you to find work in the future. We have had great outcomes in getting people back to full-time employment.

Phone us at 051 561016 for more information.

Meals on Wheels  Would you like to have Delicious and Nutritious meals delivered to your door? Grantstown Day Care Centre operates a Meals on Wheels service every Tuesday and Thursday for a small fee. Why not give us a call at 051 561016 for more details.

Volunteers  We need volunteers with class D1 driving license who are willing to drive our minibus to collect our clients from their homes in the morning and or drop them home in the afternoon. You would be accompanied by one of our carers to look after the clients and show you the route.

We also need volunteers to deliver our meal on wheels on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you have a couple of hours to spare before lunch either day and would like to help please call us at 051 561016.

Social dancing

Dancing continues in Carrig-on-Bannow community centre for May as follows: Friday 5th, no dance; Friday 12th, T-Bone Country; Friday 19th, Ashling Rafferty; Friday 26th, Bernie Heaney.

Dancing in the Horse and Hounds on Wednesday night May 3 with Teddy and Cathal Barry.

Bridge Results

1st Patsy OFarrell & John Reville; 2nd Joseph Wallace & Mick Harpur; 3rd Imelda Crosbie & Margaret Cullen; 4th John Hosey & Sean O Riordain.

CAMROSS

Church news

Check out our Caroreigh Community Page for all Church Notices.

St Garvans NS

St Garvans National School is now open for enrolments for September 2023.

Camross Hall News

Dancing at Camross  The very popular Theresa and the Stars will provide the music and song for the May dance which will be held in Camross Hall on Friday, May 5. Adm. 10 including the tea.

Check out Camross Hall Facebook page for further details on all upcoming events or contact Kay Doyle at 087 2680273.

Camross ICA

ICA Has Got Talent  A great night of fun and nostalgia was enjoyed in Camross Hall on April 20, as Wexford ICA held their ICA Has Got Talent contest, with all proceeds going to the Wexford Womens Refuge.

A large number of acts were judged by the well-known Ray Quigley, who showed his stage skills as he announced the results. Thanks Ray, for the extra fun. The audience also enjoyed the talents of local entertainers, Vicky Barron on clarinet, Joan Quigley on piano accordion and vocals, and Sean Sinnott, who brought the house down with his wonderful Irish dancing.

Fifth place went to Ballyfad Guild, with their novelty act, Free Power. Fourth place went to Nuala Wickham, Kilrane-Rosslare Harbour Guild, with her Free Travel song. Third place went to Callie Doyle, Adamstown Guild, with her song This House is a Home. Second place went to Marie Kehoe, Duncannon Guild, with her recitation of They Should Have Asked My Husband. First place went to Camross Guild, with their Mumming/Folk Dance.

Wexford ICA president, Breda Cahill, presented a generous cheque to Vicky Barron, CEO of Wexford Womens Refuge, and she also presented awards to the winners and adjudicator. The cup of tea and chat followed and Camross Hall rocked.

Federation AGM  The AGM of Wexford Federation ICA, was held in Camross Hall on Monday the 23rd last.

The competition, Display of Flowers in a Jug, was won by Ballyfad Guild, Taghmon Guild came second, and Davidstown Guild were third.

A most informative and somewhat sobering talk was given by Alice Doyle, chairperson of IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Committee, on the HSE Fair Deal Scheme.

Mary DArcy, Ballyfad Guild, was the very deserving winner of the Kay OLeary, Wexford ICA Person of the Year Award. Thank you, Mary, for all that you do for ICA at national and county level.

Keep a note in your diary for the Ann Power Memorial Walk, on May 28 next, which will be in aid of New Ross Search and Rescue.

Active Retirement Association

A decision was made at the last meeting of Taghmon-Camross Active Retirement Association to visit Cappoquin and Lismore Heritage Centre on May 16. Bus will leave the church car park at 8.30 a.m.

Details regarding price and itinerary to follow our next meeting on Thursday, May 4. Payment for the tour will be collected at that meeting. Any member wishing to travel should contact our secretary.

Your Correspondent

If you would like a notice included, please contact Kay Doyle at 087 2680273 or email kaynolandoyle@gmail.com.

CLONGEEN

Contacts & Deadlines

Can you please send any information to be put in the Clongeen Notes via email. The normal deadline is 9am on Mondays prior to the Wednesday publication but on a Bank Holiday weekend, the deadline is earlierits midday on Friday. Either way, the email to use is: grooney@hotmail.comthanks.

First Holy Communion

We send the boys and girls our very best wishes as they prepare for their First Holy Communion, which takes place in St Aidans church in Clongeen this Saturday 6th May.

Parish Patron

The annual Patron will take place in the New Cemetery Clongeen on Sunday 14th May at the usual time of 2pm. The graves in the Old Cemetery opposite the Church will be blessed afterwards.

Clongeen Hall Dance

Another 70s/80s style dance is scheduled for Clongeen Hall and next up to take to the stage is Dermot Lyons and his band, all the way from Limerick who will be playing there on Saturday 6th May. Dancing will take place on the night from 9pm until 11:30pm. The cost of entry again will be 10 per person and teas & refreshments will be served on the night.

Thanks to all those who came to the last few dances and really enjoyed themselves and we hope to see you all there again over the Easter weekend. Bring a few friends too and enjoy a few steps as a great night again is expected and all are welcome, young and old alike.

Split The Pot

The winner of Split the Pot on Monday 24th April was Rita Power who won 225 and the seller was Whites Bar in Foulksmills. So congratulations to both Rita on the win and to Frances and crew for selling the winner. Thank you all for supporting the draw in aid of the continued maintenance and development of the hall in Clongeen. The next draw will take place on Mon 8th May in the hall @ 8pm.

Remember that you can get your tickets for the draw from the usual outlets which are: Sinnotts Day-To-Day shop & Carrolls Bar, both in Clongeen; Foxe Hair, the Fast Food Takeaway, Foulksmills Stores & Whites Bar, all in Foulksmills. You can also get them in the Out House in Rourkes Cross or McDonaghs Bar in Geoffsbridge. Finally, in Wellingtonbridge you can get them from: Lloyds Chemist, Staffords Chipper and Wallaces Drapery. They can also be bought from any committee members such as Marie Mythen in Mythen Construction, Larry Whelan in Clongeen and several more.

Also just to add that the 1st draw of the Parish Silver Circle will take place on Mon 22nd May, so please make sure you get your entries between now and the from any member of the Parish committee.

Plant Sale

Ballycullane Veggie Growers are having their annual plant sale in Ballycullane Parish Hall on Saturday 13th May from 10am until 2pm. Fruit, flowers and vegetable plants will be for sale and teas also be served at the event. The Ballycullane Veggie Growers grow vegetables and fruit in a community plot. If you are interested in joining, come along to the plant sale and talk to any of the members or ring 087 678 8652.

Campile Hall Event

Theatre Vamps Drama group from Tramore presents When Harry met Sally, a modern take on a romantic classic comedy and it takes place in Campile Hall on Saturday May 13th at 8pm. Tickets cost 15 and are available on Eventbrite or you can pay at the door on the night.
Luca O'Connor reading the New Ross Standard on Thursday.

NEW ROSS was represented at the No Name Club annual gathering in Kilkenny with Luca OConnor contributing to interviews on and off stage.

The Kilkenny based initiative ran its 37th national awards in the Lyrath Estate hotel.

Nine teenagers met at the finals including the New Ross CBS student.

The finalists all spoke of their volunteering work without their communities, club and school and discussed their interests from musicals to reading to philosophy.

They were treated to a three-course meal and disco that allowed club members from communities across Ireland to celebrate their involvement in the No Name Club and party in a safe, alcohol free, supervised setting.
NEW ROSS is to be fast tracked for an upgrade to its water pipe network following a major water outage in late April.

Businesses and home owners were left without water for up to 38 hours when two raw pipes burst, leading to a review of the towns water infrastructure. A raw pipe burst twice between Ballylee and Castlemoyle in New Ross on Saturday, April 22, once in the afternoon and again in the evening  the first incident of its kind to happen for many years in New Ross. Water tankers were installed by council staff at the Apex pool entrance and at Marsh Lane.

Director for Services with Wexford County Council, Eamonn Hore said: Irish Water have moved New Ross up on their agenda because the infrastructure in New Ross is old, stretching back 60 years. It needs to be upgraded.

Read more Hundreds of homes in New Ross were without water for days after pipe burst in two places

Mr Hore said compared to other Wexford towns, New Ross residents have not had to endure boil water notices. This is because of the quality of the water. With New Ross its a mix of the old and the very new: old pipes and new ultra violet treatment.

New Ross has a good water supply. The problem with New Ross is the very old pipes which over the years have worn away with the pressure, so Irish Water has given a commitment that we will get funding in the next couple of years to improve the water infrastructure.
By Azernews

Qabil Ashirov

Azerbaijan and Turkiye will build a pharmaceutical factory to produce medicaments, Azernews reports, citing the Azerbaijani Economy Ministry.

The Economy Ministry held the meeting with "Gen ?lac ve Sa?l?k Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.?.", which specializes in the field of pharmaceutical production in Turkiye. The meeting discussed the expansion of cooperation with the company.

The meeting heard the political will of the heads of state, friendly and brotherly relations, and the implementation of the tasks given by them are important in effectively using the potential of economic cooperation. It was brought to our attention that a successful economic trade and investment partnership has been implemented between Azerbaijan and Turkiye. Expanding the scope of the Preferential Trade Agreement with the brotherly country, which is one of the main trade partners of our country, will create an additional incentive to strengthen our economic and trade cooperation. It was reported that effective steps are being taken towards the development of partnerships with Turkish companies and the implementation of mutually beneficial joint projects. Cooperation in the field of pharmaceuticals is also important in this regard. Cooperation in this field can increase the possibilities of the production of pharmaceutical products in Azerbaijan.

At the event, Azerbaijan Investment Company OJSC and Gen ?lac ve Sa?l?k Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.?. signed a cooperation agreement. The main goal of the project is to contribute to the replacement of imports of important pharmaceutical products at the expense of local production and their availability in the consumer market under favorable conditions. According to the document, it is planned to build a factory for the production of pharmaceutical products in Azerbaijan. In addition to the domestic market, the products produced by the plant are expected to be exported to neighboring countries.
YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. Edmon Marukyan, Ambassador at-Large of Armenia, in his "Twitter" page referred to the statement of the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, that Armenia removed the wording "condemnation of separatism" from the document proposed by Azerbaijan.

"Today, the president of Azerbaijan complained that Armenia removed the wording "condemnation of separatism" from the document proposed by Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, he did not say that the word "separatism" is not an international-legal term and does not have an international-legal definition of what should be understood under it. He did not say that Armenia asked for an explanation and clarification of what the application or existence of that provision means. Otherwise, the document to be signed in the future can be overloaded with wordings that have multiple interpretations, and then endlessly claim that according to the interpretation of one of the parties, the agreement has been violated," ARMENPRESS reports, Marukyan wrote.
A Wexford based consultant in Emergency Medicine has branded our health system inhumane having spent three nights between chairs and a trolley during a medical emergency of his own in another Emergency Department (ED).

Although usually on the other side of things in the ED, Dr Mick Molloy found himself in need of medical attention at another hospital which he declined to name. Having been outspoken on the issue of bed capacity in hospitals across the country in the past, Dr Molloy was appalled by the situation over the bank holiday weekend, branding it completely inhumane.

"Were in a situation now where its inhumane for patients. Its inhumane for staff, he said, speaking to Alan Corcoran on South East Radio. Staff are facing very angry relatives and patients, which we can understand, but theres very little the staff can do about that.

"Im a person who is inside the system. I know most doctors and nurses around. Id know how to ask for a bed if theres one available, but (on this occasion) there simply was not one available. There was nothing they could do or nothing I could do and I didnt hold it against them. But the difficult part was being 48 hours without going to sleep and without proper meals because ED structures are not set up to have proper meal arrangements. As well as that, there's no showering and very limited access to toilets. Its an absolutely horrible position to be in.

Dr Molloy compared the ordeals that patients are being put through in Emergency Departments the length and breadth of the country as being akin to torture.

"The World Medical Association and World Health Organisation have recognised for years that sleep deprivation is a form of torture, Dr Molloy said. Thats effectively what we expose people to when they get admitted to Emergency Departments and can't move from there to a bed on a ward.

While Dr Molloy was quick to praise his colleagues who provided him with medical attention, he noted his gripe was with a failing health system.

"None of my comments are a reflection on any of the staff, he said. The treatment I got was fantastic. The difficulty was in the accommodation.

Outlining his experience, Dr Molloy said:

Initially, I was on a chair. I was promoted at one point to a trolley on a corridor. I was moved into a room. I was moved from that room to another room when I needed an invasive medical procedure done. I was taken out of that room and put into a cubical with curtains around it. On one side of me was a person who had been arrested by the guards. On the other side was somebody who had a stroke and dementia and was very upset at being out of their normal circumstances. It was very loud, lights are on all night. You just cant sleep in that environment and theres constantly a new flow of people coming in needing treatment.

Having spoken on several occasions in the past in relation to a major shortfall in bed capacity across the entire country, Dr Molloy cut a frustrated figure as he outlined his experience of A&E from the other side.

I dont know how else to get this message across, he said. I've been spouting this message for 20 years and nobody listens. Im now the patient and Im speaking from having that bitter personal experience and Im currently living that experience for the last three or four days and it is horrendous, absolutely horrendous. The one thing Id ask people is not to take it out on staff.

Dr Molloy went on to express his frustrations with the government for its continued inaction in terms of addressing major shortcomings in the health system.

"We havent had the increase in beds despite all these press releases from the HSE and Department of Health talking about 200 beds here and 400 beds there, he blasted. I would love to see where those numbers are on those beds and to prove that they did not exist last year.

"There was a report published by the current Tanaiste when he was Minister for Health in 2002 promising 5,000 beds by 2011. That never happened. And the population has a million more than it was then. We needed far more beds than that. We have constant promises that X will be done and Y will be done, but very little action.

Dr Molloy also resents that the burden is constantly and consistently placed on the shoulders of overworked staff in hospitals up and down the country.

We cannot provide a room for people if the rooms are not physically there," he said. If I worked 168 hours a week in the hospital, it wouldnt make any difference. If the rooms arent there at the hospital, people will still back up at the ED. Thats not a safe way to do things.

"You dont attend Emergency Departments to be held there for long periods of time. They're not places that are set up to have people for 12, 24 or 48 hours or even longer. Unfortunately, with the limited bed capacity in our country, that's what is happening right now.

Dr Molloy added that while media interest tends to increase around bank holiday weekends, there are patients on trolleys in Emergency Departments across the country every single day. He even casts major doubts as to the accuracy of the trolley figures published.

"Id question the figures that the media would get from the Department of Health or the HSE because most hospitals are instructed not to count patients when they are in certain parts of the hospital, he said. That means that the figure you see, the highlight figure, is still way below what the actual figure is, because the hospital is not permitted to record if a person is in the day care unit when they should be admitted to a ward.

Without wishing to go into much detail, Dr Molloy said that he is coming out the other side of his own personal medical ordeal. However, having experienced the ordeal that is endured by thousands of patients across the country on a weekly basis, he felt compelled to speak out and voice his frustrations with the system.
All across Wexford, in places where music can usually be heard, silence descended on Wednesday as news broke of the passing of local musical maestro Fintan Cleary.

Having put decades into his passion, both performing and enabling other stars of the stage to flourish, Fintan touched the lives of many before his battle with illness began earlier this year.

Fintan had only brought the curtain down on a 33-year career as a music teacher in St Peters College in November of last year when he was sadly diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.

Over three decades in the classroom, he crafted a legacy and tradition that will live on in the school for generations to come, and his colleagues told him as much at his retirement party in Kellys Hotel.

Fintan had a long and fruitful association with Wexford Light Opera Society. In 2007, he took over the role of musical director. It was a role he cherished and thrived in, nurturing generation after generation of Wexford talent.

He was to the fore in the minds of everyone at Wexford Light Opera Society as they staged their production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame last week, as Fintan had been slated to take up the baton as musical director once more, but illness prevented him from seeing the show out.

Having a long association with Fintan both on and off stage, Cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council George Lawlor was shocked and saddened by the news of his friends passing.

"Theres huge sadness right across Co Wexford and beyond today, he said. Fintan was one of the greatest musical exponents Ive ever encountered. He really was a musical genius. Ive never encountered anything like him.

"Fintan could read and play a full orchestral score, but also busk along to any song or tune you cared to throw at him. He was truly remarkable. He just had a raw talent for music.

Offering his sincerest sympathies to Fintans wife Colette and their three daughters Niamh, Jenny and Nicola, Cllr Lawlor said that he leaves behind him a huge void, but also a massive legacy.

"Theres no doubt about it, Fintan leaves a huge void behind him in the world of music, Cllr Lawlor said. That goes for Wexford and beyond. Also he leaves a massive void for his heartbroken family, his wife Colette in particular who was a constant presence at Fintans side at many musical occasions. Hell be greatly missed.

In a moving statement issued by Fintans beloved Wexford Light Opera Society, they said: Words cannot even express the sorrow and sadness that is currently being felt across Wexford today and especially within Wexford Light Opera Society on the passing of our maestro, musical genius, musical director and dear friend Fintan Cleary.

"Fintan was a musical genius, with a passion for music that was contagious and extraordinary. He dedicated his life to the pursuit of excellence in musical performance and was renowned through Ireland for his talent, his creativity and dedication to the art of music. He had only recently retired from St. Peters College last September and looking forward to the next chapter in his life with his family who he loved dearly and looked forward to concentrating on making more music.

Within the Wexford Light Opera Society, Fintan was a shining beacon and was a driving force behind Wexford Light Opera Society having served as musical director for almost 20 years and prior to that was involved under the baton of the late Fr. John OBrien and working in our Orchestra each year. He has played a pivotal role in shaping the society into what it is today.

During his tenure, Fintan, brought his unique vision and incredible musicianship to countless productions, always pushing the boundaries of what was possible with his boundless creativity and attention to detail.

"He worked tirelessly to develop the musical skills of the societys members and he helped produce some of the most memorable and beloved productions in the Societys history. His passion was infectious, and he inspired all those who worked with him to strive for excellence and to reach new heights in their musical performances.

His contribution to Wexford Light Opera Society and other groups from which he played was truly immeasurable. Fintans work was instrumental in inspiring generations of young musicians and his influence and legacy will continue to inspire future generations of musicians for years to come.

The statement went on to point out the esteem in which Fintan was held by his musical peers and also his kindness, generosity and dedication  traits that all added up to a true gentleman.

Having missed out on being physically present at the recent production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Fintan certainly inspired everyone involved.

Each night he spurred us all on and was so proud of every cast member on stage last week, WLOS said. And Fintan, we were so proud of you too for your determination, positivity, encouragement, and love for our little society.

Our hearts are breaking today, as another one of our dear friends is taken too soon, the WLOS spokesperson concluded. We loved you dearly Fintan and thank you so much for your generosity, care, passion, and love. We hope that WLOS will continue to make you proud as you smile down upon us continuing to inspire each one of us in the future.

Fintan was the beloved husband of Colette, father of Nicola, Niamh and Jenny; son of Polly and Jack; brother of Sean, Jem, Marie and Helen.

His remains will repose at Mackens Funeral Home, Distillery Road, on Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Removal will take place at 10.30 a.m. on Saturday to St Catherines Church, Murrintown for funeral mass at 11 a.m. followed by burial afterwards in Murrintown Cemetery.

May he rest in peace.
Annacurra GAA & LGFA will host an information evening highlighting the supports ALONE can provide to older members of the community on Friday, May 12.

ALONE, the charity that helps people age at home, is proud to partner with the GAA to deliver a unique information evening at Annacurra GAA Club. The evening will offer ALONE the opportunity to outline the supports and services they offer to those aged over 60 while also highlighting what the club and community can do to support their older members.

A spokesperson for Annacurra GAA said: The Annacurra club is hosting this event as part of their involvement in the Irish Life GAA Healthy Clubs Programme. It is one of a series of such information sessions being hosted across the four provinces by GAA Healthy Clubs as part of a pilot between the GAA and ALONE.

Join us for an information evening about the national organisation ALONE. Learn about the supports they offer to those aged 60+ and what you can do to support older members in the community.

The talk will take place in the Annacurra Community Hall on Friday, May 12 at 7.30 p.m.

For more information about ALONE visit www.alone.ie
Acclaimed Dublin singer-songwriter Damien Dempsey will play a mixture of old favourites and new tunes at a highly-anticipated gig in the Arklow Bay Hotel on Friday, May 19.

The Donaghmede native's importance as a songwriter of great passion, conviction and beauty has never been more prominent. A former boxer, Dempsey is a rare gem of an artist with the soul of a poet whose heroes and influences are as diverse as Christy Moore, Shane McGowan, Luke Kelly and Bob Marley.

With themes of addiction, loss, hope and positivity, Dempseys music often reflects his fans' pain, alleviates their anguish and ultimately provides peace as they sing all their cares away.

In Dempseys words, singing and music are two of the few spiritual entities in the physical world, so we need to harness them and get people immersed in them, because when people lose themselves at a gig when everyone sings together, they carry a vibration away from the gig that spreads out like a ripple into others, its a way of healing.

His earliest musical influences were the post-pub singsongs that his parents used to have at home when he was a toddler. Good, bad or indifferent, everyone had to sing. Today his unique sound reflects the influence of traditional sean-nos and his musical heroes: Bob Marley and Elvis Presley.

Dempsey's debut 2000 album, They Dont Teach This Shit in School, set him apart as a unique voice. The follow-up, Seize the Day, marked the beginning of his relationship with producer John Reynolds, producing many more albums, picking up awards and leading to extensive international tours.

Dempsey has earned the passionate support of his peers, one of whom is Morrissey, who invited Damien to support him on various UK and Irish dates and his autumn 2004 US tour. Morrissey went on to sign Damien to his Attack label, and Seize the Day had its U.S. release in October 2004.

Among all the plaudits Damien has won over the years, one of the most notable came in Morrisseys autobiography. Describing Dempsey performing at a session in Dublins Four Seasons Hotel, Morrissey wrote: Damien captivates and enchants with all the love of one blessed and unselfish. I see myself crying at his funeral, missing him already.

Damien Dempsey will play at the Arklow Bay Hotel on Friday, May 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets are 32.50 each. Book at www.arklowbay.com/events
A delegate from Holyhead with Cadwaladr, the red dragon, at this year's St Patrick's Parade in Greystones.

The future of the twinning partnership between Greystones and Holyhead has been secured, after the monthly meeting of the Greystones Municipal District heard that Councillor Stephen Stokes and Kathleen Kelleher, who served for three terms as a Greystones councillor, having also served a term as a Wicklow County Councillor from 2004 to 2009, are co-leads for the initiative.

Ms Kelleher noted the passing of Keith Thomas, a former Holyhead councillor, on April 15, 2023. Mr Thomas, she said, was extraordinarily supportive of the partnership, especially while he served as Lord Mayor. Acknowledgments from the Greystones St Patricks Committee were also noted, with the committee thanking members from Holyhead who participated in the Greystones St Patricks parade this year and received a warm welcome.

A delegate from Holyhead with Cadwaladr, the red dragon, at this year's St Patrick's Parade in Greystones.

A special mention was given to Cadwaladr, the Welsh Red Dragon, who breathed smoke as he travelled through the town on a purpose-built float. Cadwaladr was accompanied by a team dressed in traditional Welsh costume.

Cllr Stokes met up with the Holyhead contingent while on a visit to Holyhead earlier this month to discuss future co-operations, with the potential for Greystones RFC and Greystones Rowing Club to form partnerships in Holyhead.

A formal twinning partnership was concluded between Greystones and Holyhead in 2012 and over the past 10 years numerous groups have participated in twinning activities including cultural, maritime and sport.

Tawnia Kearns and Kay Coughlan, from Wicklow County Council, have also been instrumental in working to ensure a stable relationship between the two towns over the past decade.

Meanwhile, there is an open invitation for interested parties to travel to Holyhead for the Annual Festival, which takes place over the last weekend in July. The trip would involve travel by ferry and a two-night stay. If anyone is interested in taking part, you can contact Kathleen Kelleher at kk@kathleenkelleher.com
The issue of erosion at Greystones north beach was raised at Aprils meeting of Greystones Municipal Council, with Councillor Lourda Scott pointing out the crumbling access path and the worsening state of the beach itself.

In March, the Greystones/Wicklow Coast Guard Unit warned the public that the north beach had become impassable at high tide and should be avoided at all times due to cliff collapse and erosion.

District Engineer Ruairi O Hanlon said erosion is a constant threat on the north beach, and while it can erode by as much as one metre per year, it doesnt happen every year and was not overly concerned for the time being. But he added that at some stage the situation will indeed worsen and the correct authorities have been advised. The cliff erosion is not so much caused by the sea, but in fact comes from water run-off from above, he said.

He pointed to the environmental assessment commissioned last year by Irish Rail, which concluded some 230m is needed to fund a programme to protect major sections of the line from Dublin to Rosslare from erosion, with the most vulnerable stretch being the 60km section from Merrion Gates, in Dublin, to Wicklow town, which includes the cliffs along Bray Head and the north beach at Greystones.

Works at Bray Head and Greystones north beach will cost in the region of 10 to 20m and will significantly benefit the existing railway line. The works will include an upgrade of Bray Head structures and a detached breakwater system at Greystones north beach, while beach nourishment will also take place. According to Irish Rail, the works would be undertaken in phases and are likely to be completed in seven years.

Separately, Councillor Mark Barry asked Mr OHanlon about the state of the steps used by swimmers at the cove in Greystones, which have become treacherous due to the growth of algae, with the path itself down to the steps not in the best state either.

Mr OHanlon said the area in question had never been adequately completed, since it was a project undertaken by FAS workers many years ago. The steps are under water for so much of the time that to treat them effectively would mean using an environmentally friendly chemical on a daily basis, which wasnt practical.

In the absence of a solution in the short term, Cllr Barry suggested a warning sign could be erected to alert swimmers to the danger at the steps.
The number of new housing units completed in the first three months of this year was 6,716, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show, which is an increase of 19.1% on the numbers completed in the same period last year.

More than one-third (37.6%) of completions in Q1 2023 were in Dublin, with close to a fifth (19.9%) in the Mid-East, which includes Wicklow, with north Wicklow in particular having seen a surge in building, especially in the Greystones area.

However, there have been growing concerns that the supply of homes is not in tandem with much-need community facilities.

There is a broad range of homes on the market, from one-bed apartments and three-bed semis to five-bed detached homes in Greystones, one of the most recent additions to the landscape being Cairn Homes Hawkins Wood and Archers Wood, in Delgany, which include social and affordable homes and cost-rental homes.

At the end of last year, the Approved Housing Body, Tuath, bought 174 apartments in two blocks at the Hawkins Wood scheme  numbers 1-84 Aldoborough Hall and 1-90 Aldoborough Manor.

Tuath worked in collaboration with Wicklow County Council and the development has seen the creation of a mixed-tenure community, allowing Tuath to provide much-needed homes at affordable rents to individuals and families unable to afford to buy or rent in the private market.

At Archers Wood, homes came on stream through the Governments cost-rental scheme. The Land Development Agency (LDA) opened applications for 24 low-cost duplex homes earlier this year in phase one of the project. At the beginning of March, phase two was launched, adding 24 units consisting of 12 two-beds and 12 three-beds. Phase Three opened last month, with a total of 94 apartments, including 37 one-bed apartments, 53 two-beds, and four three-beds.

However, while the growth in residential development has been welcomed, criticisms have been levelled at the failure to provide sufficient community facilities to complement the burgeoning growth of homes.

Greystones Councillor Lourda Scott has now lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanala following the decision by Wicklow County Council to allow the removal of a planning condition for a community building in Archers Wood.

Cllr Scott has previously raised community concerns over shortfalls in infrastructure and community facilities and in 2021 had instructed the Council to commission an audit to highlight deficiencies in this area.

Speaking on the matter, Cllr Scott said: Greystones and Delgany have seen huge growth over the past number of years. It is well known by people who live locally that the social infrastructure hasnt kept pace with the number of houses built.

This was confirmed by an independent audit published that I asked the Council to carry out. The key audit findings confirmed what people have been telling me from their own experience. Specifically, the need for more community indoor spaces was highlighted, she said.

It is incredibly disappointing to then see the Council permit a much-needed facility to be removed from a planning permission that was granted four years ago. It simply doesnt make sense.

Since being elected, the lack of amenity buildings is an issue I have highlighted constantly. I am always asked by local groups for more community space to rent and I am constantly pushing the Council about this issue on their behalf.

I simply couldnt go back to my constituents and say that I allowed this planning decision to go unchallenged. The matter is now in the hands of An Bord Pleanala and I look forward to hearing their decision in due course, she added.

Meanwhile, Cairn has also applied for permission to develop land at Coolagad, in Greystones. The initial plans were for almost 600 houses at a 26-hectare site which surrounds the Temple Carrig School. This is now being progressed on a phased basis, beginning with 98 two-storey houses on an 8.47-hecatre site, with plans for a creche building, with 23 car parking spaces and 12 bicycle parking spaces.

Plans also include a new vehicular entrance, with signalised junction and pedestrian crossing provided off Rathdown Road; cycle lanes will be provided along this section on both sides. A footpath will also be provided on its western side, with car parking in the east of the R761 in front of Redford Cemetery. A planning decision is due on May 30.
SENATOR Pat Casey has welcomed extra measures under the Housing for All Plan to make it cheaper to build and refurbish homes, speed up home building and drive down building costs across the board.

The new measures will build on the momentum of Housing For All this year with work starting on a record 7,349 homes in the first three months of 2023.

The Fianna Fail Senator said: Im very pleased to see these additional initiatives and measures to support the Housing For All plan which is beginning to deliver for people across the country.

Development levies will be scrapped for a limited period of time which will cut the cost of building a home and increase delivery of houses. Vacant and derelict property grants are being increased as bringing those properties back into the housing stock is the fastest way of increasing supply.

The government has also committed 750 million via the Land Development Agency and other providers as part of this initiative to complete 4,000 to 6,000 additional affordable apartments under the Cost Rental system. This will be a massive boost to our rental stock and will put downward pressure on rental prices across the country.

ibec, the group that represents Irish business, welcomes the Governments decision to suspend development levies for new homes. This delivers on a key recommendation set out in Ibecs Better Housing, Better Business report which outlines ten key measures to improve the delivery of affordable and viable homes.

Fergal OBrien, Ibec Executive Director of Lobbying and Influence said: Development levies are a material cost in the delivery of new homes. Section 48 and 49 special and supplementary levies often add tens of thousands directly to the cost of building new homes and are fully passed through to the homebuyer. Ibec has long lobbied for comprehensive reform of a system in which new homebuyers have ended up subsidising the delivery of utilities, amenities and infrastructure which benefits users right across the local community.

This decision will support viability of new homes and substantially reduce development costs. Whilst the announcement is to subvent levies through the Exchequer temporarily, ultimately reform of local government funding should see utilities, amenities and infrastructure funded by the Local Property Tax (LPT) where it benefits users across the local community rather than just the new home purchaser. The reform is a good example of the type of tangible policy change which will support new home affordability and availability and Government is to be commended for its openness in exploring new measures to address our housing challenges.

The measures comprise of a reduction in the cost of construction: by scrapping the development levies required to connect new homes with roads, water and other services, and subsidising development levies, saving up to the value of 12,650 per home on average. This will cut the cost of building a home and apply for a limited time only to act as an incentive.

It will also increase the pace at which vacant and derelict properties are renovated for new housing by beefing up grants to cut the cost of restoring empty homes and making it easier to apply. The Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant will be increased from 30,000 to 50,000 for vacant properties and from 50,000 to 70,000 for derelict properties, extended to cover houses built up to 2007, and will be available for properties intended for rental as well as owner-occupied.

Another aspect of the extra measures is Government financing of the construction of affordable apartments under Cost Rental to get work started on thousands of affordable apartments to rent which have planning permission but which are not being progressed  again, a substantial subsidy for a limited time only to speed up construction. The Government has agreed to commit up to 750 million via the Land Development Agency and other providers as part of this initiative to complete 4,000 to 6,000 additional affordable apartments under the Cost Rental system. Any person who has applied for the grant but who has not yet drawn down funds can avail of the increased rates.
He was a much valued member of the St Patricks Missionary Society. Fr Maurice Kelly was born on June 22, 1929 in Pallasgreen, Co Limerick, to Bridie (nee Langan) and Frank Kelly.

Maurice was the eldest of two sons. His brother Kenneth predeceased him. The family moved to Galway when Maurice was a very young boy. He attended Presentation National School, Galway from 1932 to 1937 and Nuns Island Primary School from 1937 to 1942. He had his secondary education in St Josephs Secondary School, Galway from 1942 to 1948.

In September 1948 Maurice joined the Spiritual Year in Kiltegan. From 1949 to 1952 he studied for his B.A. degree in University College Cork and then proceeded to Kiltegan for theology from 1952 to 1956. Maurice was one of ten priests ordained for the Society by Bishop Patrick Cleary SSC (exiled bishop of Namcheng, China) in Killamoat on Easter Sunday, April, 1956.

After ordination Maurice was appointed to Ogoja Diocese, Nigeria where he remained until 1981. He spent many years teaching in St Thomas Teacher Training College in Ogoja. Maurice was always interested in the contemplative aspect of missionary life and spent 18 months with the Cistercians monks in Mount St Bernards Monastery, Leicestershire, England. He returned to Ireland and worked in the Diocese of Galway before returning to Nigeria to work again in the Diocese of Ogoja.

In 1990 Maurice was appointed to the Archdiocese of Lagos. He was transferred to South Africa in 1999 where he worked as Parish Priest in Maryvale Parish and St Josephs Parish, Primrose in the Archdiocese of Johannesburg.

Maurice took his priestly commitments very seriously and constantly updated himself on Church life. He consulted several sources in the preparation of his homilies, always trying to get it right. Maurice had a very enquiring mind and was alert right up to the end.

He was a very keen amateur ornithologist. He had an extensive collection of books on birds  which were well thumbed in the various parts of the world where he lived.

Maurices particular trait was his good sense of humour which he never lost. He constantly searched magazines and newspapers to keep his supply of jokes up to date. Mischievous, faithful to his friends far and wide and with a twinkle in his eye Maurice will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

In 2012 Maurice returned to Kiltegan as his health began to decline. He is predeceased by his parents, Bridie and Frank, and his brother Kenneth. He is survived by his sister-in-law Maura, his nieces and nephews and their families, and his Society family.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam uasal.
The Trading Online Seminar is free to attend but you must register in advance.

THERE are still some places left for those wishing to participate in a free Trading Online Seminar taking place on Wednesday, May 25.

The online workshop is being provided by Local Enterprise Office Wicklow and will be delivered by The Entrepreneurs Academy.

Online trading is increasing rapidly with the change in consumer behaviour. Statistics suggest that only 32 per cent of small companies are engaged in e-commerce sales in Ireland and that 70 per cent of the 850,000 spent online by Irish consumers per hour is going overseas.

The Trading Online Voucher scheme, financed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, aims to encourage small businesses to develop their online presence through a website or digital marketing strategy by availing of a Trading Online Voucher of up to 2,500 or 50 per cent of their eligible expenditure. Businesses looking to apply for the voucher must be trading for a minimum of 6 months to qualify and be located in County Wicklow.

The seminar will help participants to understand and determine the best approach to establish and increase their online presence and trade online. Applicants for the Trading Online Voucher must attend one of these TOV Information Seminars.

The free online workshop takes place on Wednesday, May 24 from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. You can register at https://www.localenterprise.ie/Wicklow/Training-Events/Online-Bookings/Trading-Online-Voucher-Seminar-24-05-2023.html.
The United States remains committed to promoting a peaceful future in the South Caucasus, State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel has said when asked on the ongoing trilateral foreign ministerial talks in Washington D.C. involving Armenia and Azerbaijan.

May 3, 2023, 11:37 United States remains committed to promoting a peaceful future in the South Caucasus  State Department spox

STEPANAKERT, MAY 2 , ARTSAKHPRESS: We remain committed to this process and remain committed to promoting a peaceful future in the South Caucasus. We believe that direct dialogue is key to resolving the issues, but Im just not going to get ahead of the meetings themselves, Patel said, refusing to release updates on the meetings.

But we obviously have had a number of officials from the U.S. side deeply engaged on this. Obviously, Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations Lou Bono has been deeply engaged in this not just through these meetings but through his continued engagement in the South Caucuses. You know that Secretary Blinken attended the plenary session yesterday morning and had the opportunity to host these ministers for a dinner Sunday night. And so its something that we will continue to be deeply engaged on, he added.

Patel declined to comment whether or not Blinken has plans to hold another meeting with the foreign ministers.
James Bond star Britt Ekland has said the King will have his dream fulfilled when he is crowned on Saturday.

The 80-year-old actress, who starred opposite Sir Roger Moore in 1974s The Man With The Golden Gun as Mary Goodnight, was a close friend of Charless aunt Princess Margaret, who died in 2002.

Ekland, who was speaking around the 50th anniversary of horror film The Wicker Man, recalled her first meeting with Charles, who was a big fan of the BBC radio comedy show The Goon Show, which starred her then-husband Peter Sellers.

The Swedish actress told the PA news agency: I met Prince Charles first when he was 16.

Theres a picture of me and him and Peter Sellers because he was a great Goon fan and he came out and had lunch and hung out with them.

And then in the 90s when I lived in London all the time, I was part of the Princes Trust, so I met Prince Charles many times in that capacity.

A picture of the King taken in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace (Hugo Burnand/Royal Household 2023/PA)   Hugo Burnand/Royal Household 2023

He was always a very approachable young man very polite, very easy to talk to.

Speaking about the Kings coronation on Saturday, she added: He will have his dream fulfilled.

Ekland  who also appeared in British films Get Carter, alongside Sir Michael Caine, in 1971 and Scandal, with Sir John Hurt, in 1989  said she will be watching the coronation on TV in Sweden.

Britt Ekland with the late Duke of Edinburgh (PA)   PA

She told PA: I love the fact that I can see it, but I dont have to be there and be pushed and shoved. I like that.

I dont have a friendship with the royal family any more.

The Wicker Man 50th Anniversary restoration will be in cinemas on June 21.
A Kenyan taxi driver-turned-pastor accused of inciting followers to starve themselves to death to gain salvation will face terrorism charges after the deaths of more than 100 people.
Sudans warring military factions agreed to a new and longer seven-day ceasefire from tomorrow, neighbour and mediator South Sudan said, even as more air strikes and shooting in the Khartoum capital region undercut their latest supposed truce.
Lindy McDowell: Not quite ostracised, but still an awkward day for Spare Harry who walked up aisle of Westminster Abbey on his own
Donald Trump again referred to Covid-19 as the "China Virus" in his latest interview. Photo: PA Media.

Former US president Donald Trump said he would be able to put a stop to the war in Ukraine in a single day if he was re-elected to the White House.
Ukrainian soldiers rest in a shelter at the frontline positions near Vuhledar, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, April 30, 2023. Photo: AP Photo   AP

Russias defence chief has urged a state company to double its missile output, as a possible Ukrainian counter-offensive looms and with both sides in the 14-month war reportedly feeling an ammunition crunch.
A man has been arrested outside Buckingham Palace after throwing suspected shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds, police said. The Metropolitan Police said he was detained at around 7pm on Tuesday after he approached the palaces gates in central London and threw a number of items.
A friend of writer E Jean Carroll has backed up her account of being raped by Donald Trump, testifying during a civil trial that she got a call about the alleged attack minutes after it occurred.
Registered sex offender Jesse McFadden was due to stand trial on further sex-offence charges last Monday

Grieving parents Ashley Webster and Justin Webster speak to the media about their daughter Ivy Webster who was murdered along with six others by a convicted sex offender in Henryetta, Oklahoma, on Monday, May 2, 2023. Photo: Reuters/Nick Oxford   REUTERS

A registered sex offender found dead on a rural Oklahoma property with his wife, her teenage children and two visiting teenagers, was quiet but kept the family under lock and key and always had to know where they were, the wifes mother has said.
The spokesperson of the Turkish president reflected on the closure of Turkish airspace for Armenian aircraft, news.am informs, citing Hurriyet.

May 3, 2023, 17:51 Presidential spox: We will not leave unanswered the move accusing Turkey of genocide

STEPANAKERT, MAY 3 , ARTSAKHPRESS: Ibrahim Kalin stated that it was impossible for Turkey not to react to Armenia's latest movereferring to the unveiling of a monument in Yerevan dedicated to Operation Nemesis.

"Let them not expect that Turkey will leave unanswered the move of accusing Turkey of genocide. This would naturally lead to the closing of the airspace," said the Turkish presidential spokesman.

A monument dedicated to Operation Nemesis members, who exacted revenge on the organizers of the Armenian Genocide, was unveiled on April 25 in downtown Yerevan.

The names Operation Nemesis members are engraved on this monument.

The decision to install this monument was made on September 14, 2021 at the meeting of the Yerevan Council of Elders.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

The World Bank said in an official announcement that Ajay Banga has been appointed as its next president.

Banga will be assuming the top role during a crucial time for the development bank, as it seeks to improve its efforts to tackle climate change.

"The Board looks forward to working with Mr. Banga on the World Bank Group Evolution process," the bank wrote in a statement.

The statement was published soon after the board approved his leadership by voting for a tenure of five years.

He will take the baton from David Malpass on June 2. Malpass expressed his desire to step down from the bank's helm in February.

Ajaypal Singh Banga (63) has served as Vice Chairman at General Atlantic and previously held the position of President and Chief Executive Officer at Mastercard for a period of 11 years.

He began his career at Nestle SA where he spent more than 10 years working in various roles related to marketing, sales, and management.

Bangas father was an Indian Army officer and he lived in various parts of the country during his childhood.

He was born in Khadki cantonment located in Pune, India. He completed his undergraduate studies at Delhi University and went on to obtain his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

After working at Nestle SA, Ajay Banga joined PepsiCo Inc and enabled the launch its fast-food franchise in India.

In 1996, he started his tenure at Citigroup and quickly climbed the ranks to become the business head of CitiFinancial and the US consumer-assets division within four years.

By 2005, he was appointed to lead the entire bank's international consumer operations.

Ajay Banga assumed the position of head of the Asia-Pacific region at Citigroup in 2008, which he left to become the President and Chief Operating Officer at Mastercard in 2009. Within a year of joining Mastercard, Banga was elevated to the position of CEO.

The Indian government conferred Padma Shri on Banga in 2016 in the field of trade and industry.

He was also felicitated with the Foreign Policy Association Medal in 2012.

In 2019, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Business Council for International Understanding's Global Leadership Award and the Distinguished Friends of Singapore Public Service Star in 2021.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Nagaland will soon host a 2-day tribal artisan mela in Wokha region to identify new artisans, media reports said.

The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited will hold a two-day tribal artisan mela from May 9.

In this regard, a meeting was held with NGOs, civil societies, entrepreneurs, the Wokha Chamber of Commerce and Industries and others at the Wokha deputy commissioners office on Saturday to chalk out modalities for the smooth conduct of the mela, reports North East Now.

Highlighting the aims and objectives of the mela, Wokha skill development officer Anuranjan Singh said the mela will focus on expanding the tribal producers base and products of tribal origins of different communities of the northeastern states.

It will also aim to empower individuals to become self-employed.

He said artisans can exhibit textiles and handloom, metal crafts, jewellery, organic food and paintings in the mela.
India in Saudi Arabia Twitter page

New Delhi/Khartoum: India has so far evacuated 3,195 Indians from violence-torn Sudan, ferrying them over 850 km from Khartoum to the Port of Sudan in over 60 buses.

Five Indian Naval Ships and 13 Indian Air Force aircraft have been used in the operation so far, the Indian Embassy in Sudan said giving an overview of Operation Kaveri.

The Embassy, which was today shifted temporarily to the Port of Sudan in view of the fighting going on in Khartoum, in a series of tweets said: 8th day of Operation Kaveri."

The conflict in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan started on 15th April 2023. Government of India launched Operation Kaveri and swiftly stationed Indian Naval Ships and Indian Air Force Aircrafts for evacuation of Indians stranded in Sudan.

Embassy of India facilitated the first evacuation of Indians in 6 buses on 23rd April 2023 from Khartoum to Port Sudan (850 Km). With the help of Indian Sisters in Comboni School and the Indian community in Port Sudan, Embassy of India established a centre at the Comboni School to accommodate Indians and facilitated evacuation of Indians by air and sea. The first batch of Indians were evacuated in INS Sumedha on 25th April 2023.

MEA Team arrived at Port Sudan on INS Teg on 25th April 2023 to strengthen the operations. Presently, the Indian School in Port Sudan is being used as the Facilitation Centre, where registration of Indian nationals and transit accommodation for Indians are being provided.

During the 8 days of Operation Kaveri, so far 3,195 Indians have been evacuated. Embassy of India mobilized and facilitated movement of 62 buses from various parts of Sudan to reach Port Sudan. Embassy of India also facilitated movement of Indians to South Sudan, Egypt, Chad and Djibouti.

Embassy also guided and assisted in evacuating foreign nationals including Sri Lankans, Nepalese and Bangladeshis.

So far Indians have moved out of Port Sudan using 5 Indian Naval Ships and 13 Indian Air Force aircrafts including one from Wadi Sayyidna military airbase.

MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi in a tweet said: 20th batch of evacuees departs from Port Sudan. IAF C-130J flight with 116 passengers is en route to Jeddah.

EAM S Jaishankar in a tweet said: 328 more passengers have landed in New Delhi. #OperationKaveri moving steadily forward as around 3000 have reached India now.

(With UNI inputs)
New Delhi/UNI: The Supreme Court in its verdict on Wednesday refused to grant relief to Babbar Khalsa terrorist, Balwant Singh Rajoana, seeking commutation of his death penalty to life imprisonment, but it asked the Centre to take a call in his mercy plea at an appropriate time in future.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice B R Gavai and also comprising Justice Vikram and Sanjay Karol, passed the order, after hearing Rajoana's plea seeking commutation of death penalty to life imprisonment in the 1995, former Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh assassination case.

"We ask the competent authorities to take a decision as and when they deem necessary, on the mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana," the Bench led by Justice Gavai, read out the judgement.

The Apex Court had reserved its verdict on March 02 this year after hearing from convict- Rajoana, Centre and other respective parties.

For killing the Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh in 1995, Rajaona was sentenced to the gallows in 2007 by a lower court in Punjab, and it was also upheld in 2010 by the Punjab and Haryana High Court and also finally by the Supreme Court in 2012.

Former Attorney General (AG) of India and Senior Supreme Court lawyer, Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Rajoana, had said that the death row convict- Rajoana has served 27 years in jail since 1996 and his mercy petition was filed in 2012 but still not decided.

"Keeping a prisoner on death row for so long violates their fundamental rights," Rohatgi told the Supreme Court and pleaded for leniency in converting his death penalty to life imprisonment.

He prayed to the Supreme Court to commute his death sentence on the ground of the long delay in considering the mercy petition.

"This man (Rajoana) is suffering only due to the inordinate delay. His (Rajoana's) death sentence has to be commuted," Rohatgi told the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court was hearing the plea filed by former Punjab Police constable and pro-Khalistan militant, Rajoana, who has been in jail for the past 26 years, for his involvement in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.

After serving 26 years in jail, including around 10 years on death row, Rajoana, desperately pleaded to the Top Court and sought its mercy in passing orders for his commutation from death penalty to life imprisonment, in the former Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh's assassination case.

The convict, Rajoana had knocked the doors of the Supreme Court and filed the writ petition in 2020, on the ground that the Central Government had in 2019 announced its decision to commute his death penalty to life imprisonment and grant remission to 8 other convicts to mark the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.

Rajoana, in his petition, had sought for the implementation of this Centre's decision. He also sought an alternate prayer to commute his death sentence on the ground of long delay in considering the mercy petition.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had said the mercy petition cant be considered as it was filed by another organisation and not Rajoana himself and that it cant be decided until the appeals of other convicts were decided by the top court.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) K M Nataraj, representing the Centre, has argued that the mercy petition cannot be decided until the appeals filed by other convicts in the case before the apex court are not disposed of. Also, Rajoana has not challenged his conviction or sentence, either before the high court or the Supreme Court.
Image: Social media

Chennai: Intelligence agencies have issued an alert in Tamil Nadu, cautioning that the release of 'The Kerala Story' film may lead to large-scale protests in the state, media reports said.

The movie is scheduled to release on May 5 and portrays how a large number of young women were lured and indoctrinated into joining the Islamic State (IS) and eventually travelled to countries such as Syria and Afghanistan.

The release of 'The Kerala Story' has sparked a political controversy. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has accused the film's makers of promoting the agenda of the Sangh Parivar.

He criticized the film for painting Kerala as a hub of religious extremism and spreading hate propaganda against the state.

Congress MP from Keralas capital Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor has slammed the film, stating that it misrepresents the state.

He has also accused the filmmakers of exaggerating and distorting the reality of the state.

Let me stress, I am not calling for a ban on the film. Freedom of expression does not cease to be valuable just because it can be misused. But Keralites have every right to say loud & clear that this is a misrepresentation of our reality. https://t.co/sEIG91mjSP  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 1, 2023

Meanwhile, the BJP has expressed support for the movie. BJP state president K Surendran dubbed the Kerala CM and ruling CPI(M)s stand against the movie as double standards and slammed their "selective freedom of expression approach".





The movie, "The Kerala Story", is directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. It stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani, and Sonia Balani in the main roles.

The trailer of the film received backlash due to its claim that 32,000 girls from Kerala had disappeared and joined the Islamic State.

The CPI(M) and Congress in Kerala have accused The Kerala Story of falsely asserting that the women were radicalized and involved in terrorist activities across India and the world.

The film has been given an 'A' certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) after removing 10 scenes from the movie.
Image: Facebook/Priyank Kharge

Bengaluru/IBNS: The Election Commission Wednesday issued a showcase notice to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's son Priyank Kharge for his comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Calling his remarks "abusive" and prima facie, a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, the Commission said it will take appropriate action without any response from his side.

He has been asked to respond by Thursday.

Addressing a poll gathering in Karnataka last week, Priyank Kharge quoted from a speech of the Prime Minister.

"When you (PM Modi) came to Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) what did you tell the people of Banjara community? 'Do not be afraid. A son of the Banjaras is sitting in Delhi. But if an inept son is sitting in Delhi, how can you run the family?," he had said.

The BJP had been furious with Kharge's remarks coming on the heels of his father's derogatory comment about the Prime Minister.

Union minister Anurag Thakur on Monday said Priyank Kharge is "outdoing" his father Mallikarjun Kharge in "abuse politics".

"Congress leaders are frustrated to see people of Karnataka extending overwhelming support to PM Shri Narendra Modi ji. Hence Cong leaders have again resorted to abuse Modiji, his family and community," he had tweeted.

Congress leaders are frustrated to see people of Karnataka extending overwhelming support to PM Shri @narendramodi ji. Hence Cong leaders have again resorted to abuse Modiji, his family and community. After Congress president Mallikarjun Kharges poisonous snake remark, son  Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) May 1, 2023

The BJP had filed a complaint with the Election Commission, alleging a "smear campaign" against PM Modi.
Russia will be forced to take military-technical and other retaliatory measures if NATO uses Finlands territory, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, Tass informs.

May 3, 2023, 15:56 Russia to retaliate in case NATO uses Finnish territory. Zakharova

STEPANAKERT, MAY 3 , ARTSAKHPRESS: "We are closely following NATOs plans regarding Finland. We confirm that Russia will be forced to take retaliatory measures of both military-technical and other nature to curb threats to our national security that appear in this connection," the diplomat said at the briefing on Wednesday, commenting on the plans to conclude an agreement allowing the US military to use Finnish territory.

The spokeswoman also pointed out that Moscow regarded such plans as Helsinkis loss of sovereignty. "However, both Finland itself and NATO must realize that pumping Northern Europe with troops will only contribute to growing military and political tensions in this region as well," Zakharova concluded.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Hailed as an engineering marvel, the Chenab Rail Bridge is a steel and concrete arch bridge between Bakkal and Kauri in the Reasi district of the Jammu Division of Jammu and Kashmir, spanning the Chenab River at a height of 359 m above the river, making it the world's highest rail bridge.

In November 2017, the base supports were declared completed allowing for the start of the construction of the main arch. The bridge was fully completed and was inaugurated in August 2022 amid expectations that it would open to rail traffic by Dec 2023 or by Jan/Feb 2024.

CNN in its travel section this week paid a tribute to the bridge as it wrote: "India is now home to the worlds tallest railway bridge. Some 29 meters (over 95 feet) taller than the Eiffel Tower, the Chenab Bridge sits 359 meters (around 1,180 feet) above the Chenab River in Indias contentious Jammu and Kashmir region."

It wrote: "For Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept to power in 2014 on a ticket of nationalism and a promise of future greatness, investments in infrastructure like the Chenab Bridge and the broader rail link project can be seen as a powerful tool for social integration and political influence, connecting disparate regions with key cities"

Image: Wikimedia Commons

The bridge and the greater connectivity its meant to create will be projected by New Delhi as another big victory for the regions development, said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, quoted CNN.

While CNN like a trademark Western media did not forget to mention how the bridge is meant to control the restive region, it admitted it as a big leap forward for India's railway network and infrastructure development besides connecting Kashmir with mainstream India in a better way.

The bridge will boost agriculture and industry.

We are getting lot of problems going across the road, Anil Kumar Mehendru, vice president of the New Kashmir Fruit Association, told CNN. Once we will be connected by train with the rest of India, it will be a big boost to this industry, agriculture as well as fruit," he told the American TV network.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

After many deliberations, taking into account aesthetics, economy, and availability of local expertise and construction materials, the Chenab Rail Bridge was designed as a large span single arch steel bridge with approach viaducts on either side. The arch is two-ribbed, fabricated from large steel trusses.

The chords of the trusses are sealed steel boxes, internally stiffened and filled with concrete to assist in controlling wind-induced forces on the bridge. Another advantage of concrete filling is that internal painting will not be required.

Part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project (USBRL), the bridge set an important construction milestone with completion of the steel arch last year. This was one of the most difficult parts of the bridge over Chenab.

This achievement is a major leap towards the completion of the 111 k.m. long winding stretch from Katra to Banihal. It is arguably the biggest civil-engineering challenge faced by any railway project in India in recent history.

The 5.6-metre last piece of metal was fitted at the highest point in April 2021 and joined the two arms of the arch that currently stretch towards each other from both the banks of the river.

This completed the shape of the arch that will then loom over the treacherous Chenab, flowing some 359 metres below.

Unique Features of This Bridge:

Bridge designed to withstand high wind speed up to 266 Km/Hour.

Bridge designed for blast load in consultation with DRDO for the first time in India.

Bridge will remain operational at a restricted speed of 30 Km/Hour even after removal of one pier/trestle.

Bridge designed to bear earthquake forces of highest intensity zone-V in India.

First time on Indian Railways, Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing machine used for testing of welds.

First time on Indian Railways, NABL accredited lab established at site for weld testing.

Approx. 584Km welding is done to join the different parts of the structure, which is to the tune of distance between Jammu Tawi to New Delhi.

Height of the cable cranes pylon at Srinagar End is 127m, which is much taller than Qutub Minar of 72m.

Launching of curved viaduct portion done for first time on Indian Railways using End Launching Method.

Extensive health monitoring and warning systems planned through state of art instrumentation.
Image: Air India website

Gurugram/IBNS: Air India, one of Indias leading airlines and a Star Alliance member, has entered an interline partnership with full-service carrier, Vistara (a joint venture of Tata and Singapore Airlines).

The partnership enables Air Indias guests to travel seamlessly on Vistaras route network to and from over 80 points across Air Indias extensive domestic and global network.

The scope of the agreement between the two airlines includes Inter Airline Through Check-in (IATCI) implementation, which enables guests to receive their boarding passes at the first point of departure for all the travel sectors on a single ticket, and have their baggage checked-in through to their final destinations.

Air India and Vistara operate at the same terminals at most major airports in India, adding to the ease of the on-ground travel experience for guests with interline itineraries.

Air India and Vistara have also implemented Interline Considerations on Irregular Operations (IROPs) or the disruption transfer functionality. This enables the two airlines to seamlessly transfer passengers to one anothers first available alternative flights in case of operational disruptions such as delays, cancellations, diversions, etc. and minimise any inconvenience to their guests.

Campbell Wilson, CEO & MD, Air India, said: "We are pleased at our interline partnership with Vistara, which will provide greater connectivity and convenience to our joint customers travelling within and outside of India on both our expanding route networks. Our common commitment to excellence in safety and customer service lies at the forefront of this partnership.

Image Credit: twitter.com/airvistara

"We look forward to serving Vistaras customers with additional travel choices to Air India destinations across the Americas, Europe, Far East, Australia, and the Middle East."

Vinod Kannan, Chief Executive Officer, Vistara, said, "This partnership brings together two leading airlines in India to offer greater convenience and enhanced connectivity to customers traveling across our joint network.

"This is reflective of our deep-rooted commitment to offering our customers the finest and the most convenient way to fly across the world. We are delighted to further strengthen our relationship with Air India and connect our customers to new destinations in their wide network."

Air Indias interline partnership with Vistara comes in addition to over 100 interline agreements and close to 50 through check-in agreements it has with partner airlines globally, such as Lufthansa, United Airlines, Air Canada, and Singapore Airlines, among others.

Recently, Air India announced having entered the take off phase in Vihaan.AI (Air Indias 5-year transformation plan), which is focused on developing the platforms, processes, and systems needed to build toward excellence.
Image; UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt

New York: The UN chief has pledged that the Organization will never be silent when women and girls rights are under attack, as they are today in Afghanistan, and declared that the Taliban ban on Afghan women doing lifesaving humanitarian work is putting millions of lives in jeopardy there.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was speaking to reporters in Doha, Qatar, after convening an international meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan.

He said they had agreed on the need for a strategy of engagement with the Taliban, to help the countrys most vulnerable people.

No question of Taliban recognition

Mr. Guterres made clear that the gathering had not focussed on recognition of the de facto authorities, but rather on developing a common, international approach to burning interlinked issues, such as terrorism, the crackdown on human rights, and the spread of drug trafficking.

To achieve our objectives, we cannot disengage, he said. Many called for engagement to be more effective and based on lessons which we have learned from the past. The UN will continue to use its convening power to advance a forward-leaning approach, which puts the Afghan people first, and in a manner that is complementary to existing regional platforms and initiatives.

The UN chief said the current ban introduced last month by Taliban leaders on Afghan women working for the UN  following on from a ban on them working for national and international NGOs is unacceptable and puts lives in jeopardy.

Let me be crystal clear: we will never be silent in the face of unprecedented, systemic attacks on women and girls rights. We will always speak out when millions of women and girls are being silenced and erased from sight.

Collective interest

He said the envoys, which included UN Special Envoy, Roza Otunbayeva, had agreed it was important to understand each others concerns and limitations, but agreed that it was in everyones interest, foremost the Afghans, to work together.

They reached agreement on the need for a strategy of engagement that allows for the stabilization of Afghanistan but also allows for addressing important concerns.

While different countries placed different priorities on human rights, terrorism, or drug trafficking, there is a general recognition that they are intertwined, and needed to viewed as a whole.

Worlds biggest humanitarian crisis

He concluded speaking in his own capacity as Secretary-General, stating it was difficult to overestimate the gravity of the situation in Afghanistan. It is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today.

A staggering 97 per cent live in poverty, while 28 million Afghans, need some form of humanitarian assistance.

Funding is not forthcoming, with the Humanitarian Response Plan, seeking $4.6 billion, having received a mere $294 million so far.

The vast majority of the UN personnel delivering lifesaving aid, are Afghan nationals, he stressed and banning women workers deliberately undermines the development of a country that desperately needs the contributions of all, in order to achieve sustainable peace and contribute to regional stability.

Stay and deliver

He pledged the UN would never waver in its commitment to support the Afghan people, and the Organization is determined to keep on delivering to preserve the fragile lifeline

Throughout the past decades, we stayed, and we delivered. And we are determined to seek the necessary conditions to keep delivering.

Asked if there were any circumstances when he would meet Taliban leaders, Mr. Guterres said that while today was not the right moment, he would obviously not refuse that possibility.

He said he was personally invested in convening a follow up meeting of envoys at a future date.
FBI Houston Twitter page

Houston: Police have arrested a man who is suspected to have shot dead five of his neighbours near Houston city of the US on Friday.

Francisco Oropesa, 38, was arrested in the town of Cut and Shoot, Texas, in a home hiding "underneath some laundry", Sheriff Greg Capers was quoted as saying by BBC.

The arrested man allegedly killed his neighbours following his argument with them over practice-shooting with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle nearby.

The victims were from Honduras.

The deceased also included a minor.

The suspect was arrested for five counts of murder after a member of the public contacted the FBI tip line, officials said in a news conference on Tuesday evening, reports BBC.

Earlier, authorities had announced a reward of $80,000 (64,000) for information leading to the suspect's arrest.
ImageL Justin Trudeau twitter page

He attended the event on Saturday after a gap of seven years, media reports said.

The PM tweeted: "From Vancouver to Edmonton to Toronto, I have fond memories of attending Vaisakhi celebrations. Today, we were back in Toronto for this years Khalsa Day parade  celebrating with friends old and new. Happy Vaisakhi!"

According to reports, he was flanked by Cabinet colleagues, including Harjit Sajjan and Omar Alghabra as well as Liberal Party MPs from the Greater Toronto Area or GTA.

He had last attended the event in 2017.

Trudeau mentioned the Indian Government during his brief speech, though in the context of improving air connectivity between the two countries, reports Hindustan Times.

He said his Government had signed a new agreement with New Delhi to add more flights last year, and had continued to raise the matter of a direct flight to Amritsar.
Today in History: May 4th is the 124th day of the year (125th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 241 days remaining until the end of the year.

There are several notable events that happened on May 4 throughout history, and that's why it's an important day in Indian and world history.

May 4: This Day In History | Unsplash

If you're wondering to know about what happened today in History? Then you're in the right place. On this day, there are several notable events that have occurred throughout Indian and world history.

In this article, we have compiled a list of the important things that happened all around the world on May 4. Take a look:

Today in History: Notable Day on 4th May in Indian and World History

4 May - Coal Miners Day

Coal Miners Day is observed annually on May 4th to honour and pay tribute to coal miners and their contributions to society. Coal mining has been a vital industry for centuries, providing energy for homes, businesses, and industries worldwide.



4 May - International Firefighters Day

International Firefighters Day (IFFD) is observed annually on May 4th to honour and pay tribute to the brave men and women who risk their lives to protect communities from fires and other emergencies.

4 May - Star Wars Day

Star Wars Day is celebrated annually on May 4th to honour the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas.



What happened in World History on May 4

May 4: This Day In History | Unsplash

The Royal Canadian Navy was established

The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) was proclaimed as such by King George V on 16 August 1911. The anniversary is marked, however, on 4 May 1910, the date the Naval Service Act became law and established the Canadian Naval Service.



The United States began food rationing

On May 4, 1942, Americans started to receive the first ration books, also known as War Ration Book Number One or Sugar Book, stamps from which were turned in to obtain specific food items and other necessities.

The First Bank of the United States was listed as a National Historic Landmark

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966, along with the rest of Independence National Historical Park, and the bank was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 4, 1987. The landmark designation describes it as an initial masterwork of momentous Classical Revival design.

The 1st Annual Grammy Awards were held on May 4, 1959

The first Grammy inaugural ceremony was held on 4th May 1959; the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences was officially composed two years earlier before its existence. In fact, two ceremonies were held simultaneously; the first at Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills California, and the second in the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City.



Also on this day:

In addition to these historical events on May 4 events, there is also the birthday and death of several notable individuals that you must know about.

Famous People's Birthday on May 4

1767 - Tyagaraja, Carnatic musician and composer, born

1953 - Tinnu Anand, an Indian actor, born



1983 - Trisha Krishnan, an Indian actress, born

Famous People's Death Anniversary on May 4

1799 - Tipu Sultan, an Indian Muslim ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, died

2008  Kishan Maharaj, an Indian tabla player, died.

List of important days in May 2023

List of Important Days in May 2023 May 2023 Important Dates Important Days in May 1 May International Labour Day 1 May Maharashtra Day 1 May Gujarat Day 1 May World Laughter Day 3 May Press Freedom Day 3 May World Asthma Day 4 May Coal Miners Day 4 May International Firefighters Day 6 May International No Diet Day 7 May World Athletics Day 8 May World Red Cross Day 8 May World Thalassaemia Day 9 May Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti 11 May National Technology Day 12 May International Nurses Day 14 May Mothers Day 15 May International Day of Families 17 May World Telecommunication Day 17 May World Hypertension Day 18 May World AIDS Vaccine Day 18 May International Museum Day 20 May National Endangered Species Day 21 May National Anit-Terrorism Day 22 May International Day for Biological Diversity 31 May Anti-Tobacco Day





Month-wise Important Days List 2023

Important Days and Dates List 2023 January February March April May June July August September October November December




Right from the day Elon Musk took over Twitter in late October last year, it's been a chaotic journey.



From mass layoffs, battling the possibility of bankruptcy, failing to fulfil his promises, merging Twitters parent firm, and taking u-turns on some decisions, it's been a rollercoaster ride for the CEO, the social networking platform, and, of course, its users.

foxbusiness

Quite naturally, many brands, businesses, and individuals have been unhappy with Twitter in recent months, with its CEO, Elon Musk, being on the receiving end of lots of criticism as well.

Thats exactly where many other social media platforms are trying to crop up and take a bigger share of the market.

Curious to know? Read on as we list some of the social networking platforms that are aiming to grow bigger and become everything that Twitter users are using the platform for, or perhaps even better.

1.Bluesky

ap

Though it has not yet launched for everyone, Bluesky can be seen as the closest competitor to Twitter.

Bluesky, created by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, launched its beta test a few months ago on the Apple app store. It appears that Bluesky is a lot like Twitter, as TechCrunch reported. It asks "what's up?" instead of "what's happening," with a character limit of 256 characters and a simpler option to add images. Just like Twitter, it allows users to see updates on the home timeline with different feeds for just "posts" and "posts and replies."

Sounds like Twitter, right? It was probably supposed to be that way. Jack Dorsey reportedly first came up with the idea for Bluesky when Twitter banned former US President Donald Trump. Dorsey had said at that time in a tweet that content moderation efforts "can't erode a free and open global internet."

Dorsey also tweeted a few months ago to share his Twitter learnings. He had even taken on the responsibility of growing the company too quickly and apologised for that.

Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.  jack (@jack) November 5, 2022

There's a lot of conversation around the #TwitterFiles. Here's my take, and thoughts on how to fix the issues identified. I'II start with the principles I've come to believe based on everything l've learned and experienced through my past actions as a Twitter co-founder and lead:  jack (@jack) December 13, 2022

Also Read: Elon Musk Calls Meta 'Copycat' For Planning To Launch Twitter Rival

2.Plurk

googleplay

Founded in 2008, Plurk is a social networking and microblogging service that allows users to send updates through short messages or links. You'll find people discussing a broad range of topics, from knitting to Netflix, on it. Plurk reportedly allows anonymous posts, so you can share your thoughts with the world without sharing anything else. A useful Time Machine feature lets you see all of the plurks from days past, making it easy to search for old posts on the platform.

3.Mastodon

hbl

Founded in 2016, Mastodon is a relatively different platform due to its decentralised nature. Rather than offering one giant social media platform, it reportedly allows users to create, host, and run communities, or instances. Each instance has a different set of conduct policies determined by the hosts.



It is free and open-source software for running self-hosted social networking services. While it may seem tedious or complex at first, once you join some communities, you'll find that it can be a great tool for making new, like-minded friends.

4.Tumblr

getty

Founded in 2007 by David Karp, Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking website currently owned by the American company Automattic. The platform allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. Users can follow other users' blogs. It's widely said that if you see a meme on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, it was probably on Tumblr a month ago. Tumblr reportedly boasts a large community that shares photos, art, writing, and jokes.



Also Read: From Yahoo-Microsoft to Twitter-Facebook: 10 Big Mergers That Didn't Go Through

5.Hive Social

hive social

Founded in 2019, Hive Social is another social platform on this list. The app especially came into the limelight during the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk in October 2022. Hive Social is a mobile-only platform that's trying to recreate Twitter without any of the algorithms. Although it's been around for a few years, it took until late November 2022 for it to explode in popularity.

6.Reddit

getty

One of the most popular and oldest apps on this list is Reddit.

Founded in 2005, Reddit is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website where registered users submit content to the site, such as links, text posts, images, and videos, which are then voted up or down by other members. It is among the most visited websites in the world.

Reddit is also planning to go public by launching an IPO later this year.

7.Koo

shutterstock

Founded in 2020, Koo is an Indian microblogging social media platform that has been growing and is eyeing global expansion. Koo is a multilingual Indian microblogging platform.

Koo was founded by Mr. Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka to reportedly attract Indias non-English speaking mammoth population.

"Koo is a platform for non-English speakers around the world to express their views in their language, unlike Twitter," Mr. Radhakrishna had said.

In November 2022, Koo had even become the world's second-largest microblogging platform.

For more such interesting content and the latest financial news, keep reading Worth. Click here.
Hulusi Akar continues his proclivities. The Turkish Defense Minister gave an indirect answer to the Prime Minister, reiterating the position on joint exploitation of the Aegean
The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhasan Doguwa, on Wednesday, has said with his four wives and 28 children, he has the temperament to lead the 10th Assembly.

Doguwas statement was a response to criticism that he lacks the competence and right temperament to replace the current speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, owing to his erratic behaviour.

READ ALSO: 10th National Assembly Incapacitated, Filled With Inexperienced Lawmakers  Lawan

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, Dogunwa disclosed that those trying to portray him in bad light probably misperceived his attitude.

He said, Even as Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, I did not exhibit any high temperament. For those who refer to me as a high-level temperamental person, they have misperceived Ado Doguwa, the man who has four wives and 28 children. I have never had a divorce. That shows I have what it takes to excel as the next Speaker. I will be a carpet for Nigerians to march or walk on.

As a politician, I want to believe that every man is a political animal. And he could be subjected to one disposition or the other. The issue of temperament is about perception. What someone may perceive as high temperament, another will perceive otherwise.

But for someone like me who has been in the parliament right from July 4, 1992, to date have successfully secured the mandate of my people. But for time, I would have brought to you my seven different rates of return certificate to show to you my track record.

The lawmaker representing Doguwa/Tudun Wada Federal constituency in Kano is currently standing trial over alleged criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide, unlawful possession of a firearm, mischief, and public disturbance.
By Shilpashree Jagannathan

New Canadian Media

Mayor and council in Burnaby, B.C. have voted to add caste as a protected category in the citys code of conduct. The motion, tabled by Councillor Sav Dhaliwal, was passed unanimously to include caste as a protected category in city policies.

This follows two recent steps taken by Canadian jurisdictions to ban caste-based discrimination specifically.

Last month, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal penalized two people for using casteist slurs against a person belonging to a low caste $9,000. In March, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) also voted in favour of adding caste as a discriminatory category in its policies. TDSB has yet to write to the Ontario Human Rights Commission to create a framework for implementation.

I thought things are better in Canada. It was naive of me to believe so. I was made aware of people continuing to practice caste and was very disheartened to know, councillor Sav Dhaliwal told New Canadian Media over the phone on Tuesday. At Burnaby city council, we have included other categories of discrimination based on colour, last name, gender, faith and religion. Now caste will also be included.

As a minority, I understand what it means to be discriminated against, as I have experienced it myself. To learn that we are discriminatory is not ok, so we had to take some measures to include caste as a protected category, he added. Dhaliwal said he has been tracking recent developments like Seattle banning caste-based discrimination and the B.C. tribunal case.

These recent developments, of course, spurred action on our part. We hope more city councils in Canada will adopt similar action to ban caste, Dhaliwal said.

The caste system is a rigid South Asian social structuring system that has existed for thousands of years and separates people into different social groups based on a hierarchy at birth. A persons caste can be identified by their last name, family background, food habits, occupation, or racial profile. People in lower castes have historically been relegated to jobs that are deemed menial, and are afforded lower social status. In Hinduism, those at the bottom of the hierarchy are called Dalits or untouchables, and versions of the caste system exist among other religious groups in South Asian countries.

Burnaby Council will soon create a policy framework to teach its employees, councillors, and managers about what caste is and how discrimination based on caste looks. Staff will be trained to ensure they are aware of caste bias, if any, for internal city policies, hiring, promotion, rewards, and wages.

Caste-based policy changes have seen some opposition from certain South Asian communities. Canadians for Hindu Harmony and Canadian Organization for Hindu Heritage Education (COHHE), ran an online petition for parents in Toronto to mobilize support against the TDSB vote.

These organizations said they oppose caste discrimination being added to official policies because there is no data on the existence of casteist practices among South Asians in Canada. The groups believe current laws are adequate to address any caste-based bias, and that any further legislation could divide and paint South Asians and Carribeans as bigots.

I dont expect any pushback, Dhaliwal said. The city of Burnaby is quite progressive. In the event of any pushback, we will stand our ground; the city councillors have been sensitized about the issue, and we have had these conversations, so we are aware.

Globally and in B.C., anti-caste bias activists celebrate and observe April as Dalit History Month. A few years ago, Burnaby city council declared April 14 the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Equality Day to mark the birthday of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who oversaw the drafting of the Indian constitution and was a champion of minority rights and feminist movements in India.

Meanwhile, in the US

In March, a bill which if turned into law, would make California the first American state to recognize caste as a category for protection, alongside sex, ancestry, religion, and gender. The Senate is due to hear the bill on April 25.

Seattle and California are tech hubs, where many South Asians work in big tech companies. One of these, CISCO, has been involved in a lawsuit where an employee accused two of his supervisors of discriminating based on caste. This lawsuit sparked a discussion on caste experiences in the US and was highlighted by the activist group Equality Labs.

In 2018, Equality Labs published a study on caste in the United States. The results of the survey with 1,500 participants concluded that 60% of Dalits reported experiencing caste-based derogatory jokes or comments.

In another study, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found in 2021 that "roughly half of all Hindu Indian Americans" identify with a caste group. The study notes that "many Indian immigrants might have brought with them identities rooted in their ancestral homeland, while others have eschewed them in favour of a non-hyphenated 'American' identity. [But] this has not inoculated them from the forces of discrimination, polarization, and contestation over questions of belonging and identity."

The introduction of this bill  following the recognition of caste as a protected category by the Seattle City Council in February  has generated mixed responses.

Samir Kalra, a second-generation Indian American, is the Managing Director of the Hindu American Foundation. His experience as an Indian in the US is very different from Prems. He, and others he's talked to, "haven't seen or experienced" caste. "And that includes people that are coming from traditionally marginalized communities in India. They say that they haven't experienced any issues in the workplace. They don't want to be talking about their identity all the time because they came to America to get away from all of that," Kalra says.
Ahead of the May 29, 2023 inauguration of the new administration, Presidential Election Petitions Court has fixed Monday May 8 for the hearing of the petitions challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the President-elect.

According to Tinubus legal team, Mondays hearing is a pre-hearing session. The hearing is to clarify if there are any applications before the main hearing will start. The timetable will be set for the hearing of the substantive matters.

The court also stopped receiving replies from the petitioners on April 23.The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, had on March 1 declared Tinubu the President-Elect on the grounds that his party scored the majority of votes cast in the polls.

Recall that INFORMATION NIGERIA reported that Tinubu of All Progressive Congress (APC), polled 8.8 million to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 6.9 million, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who amassed 6.1 million and 15 others.

Disputing the Result, Atiku and Obi filed separate petitions seeking orders to annul the election or declare them the winners of the polls.

READ MORE: INEC Declares Tinubu As Winner Of 2023 Presidential Election

The PDP presidential candidate, who anchored his seven prayers on five grounds, asked the Presidential Election Tribunal to declare him the president-elect.

Alternatively, Atiku urged the court to cancel the election and order a fresh election due to alleged irregularities that marred the February 25 polls in thousands of polling units.

In their petition, Atiku and the PDP argued that as of March 1 when Tinubu was declared the winner of the election, the entire results and accreditation data from polling units had not been transmitted and uploaded by INEC.

Obi, who came third in the election, alleged that the election was characterised by various irregularities including the non-qualification of Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima to contest the election.

He also alleged that Tinubu failed to win the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, and just as he could not secure one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the FCT.
A 45-year-old Nigerian national has been arrested in Navi Mumbai, India, for allegedly possessing 116 grams of mephedrone (MD) worth 11.6 lakh.

The accused identified as Boniface Emenike, who neither had a valid passport nor a visa, was residing at Srikrupa Residency building in sector 2, Taloja, the outskirts of Navi Mumbai, Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.

Acting on a tip-off, we raided the flat of the accused, said police inspector Basit Ali Sayyed from Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC).

READ ALSO: Instagram Model Dies After Cocaine Bag Explodes In Her Stomach

Emenike initially evaded us, however, later, he was nabbed from within the society. He came to India using a business visa for selling apparel and started peddling drugs. In 2022, the Thane police arrested him in Mumbra in a peddling case. A few months ago, he came out on bail and restarted peddling.

Though he claimed to run a clothes business, the police have not found any proof of it, said the officer, adding, Most of the foreign drug peddlers enter India on a business visa under the pretext of selling clothes.

As per the police, during Emenikes interrogation, he revealed that he received the drugs from another Nigerian national, identified as Ogbona Paul who was his roommate in the flat.

Paul is on the run and we are trying to trace him. As of now, he could escape from the country and we suspect that he is still in the city, Sayyed said.

The owner of the flat had followed the protocol while renting out his flat. He had informed the local police about the stay of a foreign national at his flat. We would also be interrogating the owner of the flat to get more information.
A 53-year-old man identified as Olalekan Okeowo has been stabbed to death in an uncompleted building at Salvation Estate in the Owode community, Ajah area of Lagos State.

The deceased left behind seven children, including a seven-month-old set of twins.

The incident reportedly occurred around 1am on Sunday when the victim was asleep. It was learnt that Okeowo, who engaged in menial jobs, returned home on Saturday night, had his meal and went to bed.

READ ALSO: Vulcanizer Stabbed To Death While Trying To Settle Fight In Kogi

Tragedy, however, struck when a yet-to-be-identified assailant made his way into the building at midnight and stabbed him to death.

The deceaseds wife, Titilayo, who is nursing seven-month-old twins, said she heard her husband begging for his life when she woke up.

She said, We moved into the uncompleted building about 15 years ago and we covered one of the rooms where we sleep in the night but my husband does not sleep in the same room with us. He used to sleep in the other room which is more like a sitting room where he placed a bed with a mosquito net. He was outside on Saturday evening and he came in around 11pm.

When I stepped out of the room to check on him, I saw him eating. He later went to bed after his meal. We were asleep when I heard his voice saying, Please dont kill me. That was how I quickly rushed out of the room.

My first son who got to the room before me said he saw the shadow of someone exiting the entrance of the building. But when I saw my husband, he was already in a pool of blood. I quickly reached out to two young men who live close to our building to assist me. They also called someone who helped us with his car.

Titilayo said her late husband was rejected in the first hospital they took him to before he was later taken to the Lagos Island General Hospital.

When we got there, workers on duty said there was no bed space. At that point, my husband was telling us not to allow him to die. It was later that they provided a bed and started to treat him. It was around 3am that he died, she said.

Forty-one-year-old Titilayo said her husband was preparing to secure another apartment before the incident happened.

According to her, the owner of the building had called to inform them that he was ready to sell the property.

She said, On Thursday, April 27, the agent in charge of the building sent someone to inform him about the owners decision. He said my husband was given two weeks to leave. On the third day, the owner of the house called my husband and told him his intention and asked him to secure another apartment.

But he told the man that he needed some money before vacating the place. The man asked him to send his account number so that he can send the money to him. He was expecting the money when the incident happened. Now that my husband is dead, I dont know how I am going to take care of our seven children.

The corpse of the deceased had since been deposited in the mortuary while the premises of the building were besieged by sympathisers on Monday.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident.

He was killed in front of his house. An investigation is ongoing at the SCID, he said.
The Federal Government has debunked allegations that the Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, refused to arrange for the evacuation of Igbo citizens from the war-torn country.

An amateur footage making the rounds online showed some stranded Igbo students with their luggages, accusing the federal government of discrimination in the evacuation process.

The narrator in the footage claimed to have boarded one of the evacuation buses on Saturday but was ordered to come down so that other ethnicities could board the aircraft for evacuation.

He said: This appeal goes to Igbos. We are right here at the University of Khartoum in Sudan. They said they are doing an evacuation project in which Nigerians are to be evacuated out of Sudan. They came and carried some people and then abandoned us Igbos. We boarded the last bus that moved some Nigerians to Egypt, which left two days ago but we were asked to move out of the bus. Everything is now politics.

We are pleading with our Igbo people who can help us. Our brother Air Peace who brought Airplane to help evacuate Nigerians might be feeling that everything is moving on fine. Let them know that things are not going fine. See our bags here. This is where we are. Somehow, news has spread that we have been evacuated but thats not true.

READ ALSO: Sudan: House Of Reps Invites Foreign Affairs Minister, Others

We plead with people like Prince Arthur Eze, Obi Cubana, and all those that can help us out.

The footage however caused a stir online with many Nigerians condemning the development and demanding an explanation from the Nigerian authorities.

Reacting, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Francisca Omayuli, asserted that the allegation had been investigated and found to be untrue.

According to her, Igbos were among the first group of the 637 Nigerians who were evacuated to the Aswan Border in Egypt.

While urging the public to disregard the allegation, she said that they are now waiting for their eventual arrival back in Nigeria.

Omayuli furthered that though there were scuffles between the students and other Nigerian residents due to the limited number of buses, the issue had been resolved.

More buses were made available to accommodate every Nigerian national in Sudan who indicated interest to be evacuated.

It is, therefore, surprising that such a misleading allegation could be leveled against officials of the Embassy who had worked tirelessly on the evacuation exercise, she added.
Fatima Rahman, has been remanded to the Ikoyi Custodial Centre for the alleged murder of her co-wife, Adizat, at her residence in Alejo Street, Ijede, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

The 42-year-old woman, from Chad Republic was arraigned on Tuesday before Magistrate P. E Nwaka at a Magistrates Court sitting in Yaba on one count of murder.

She was said to have been angry when she learnt that her husband had married another wife.

READ MORE: Lagos Wife Beats Husband For Not Impregnating Her

She reportedly visited the pregnant woman in her residence under the guise of being a nurse and stabbed her to death.

It was gathered that a neighbor of the deceased who saw her when she arrived at the residence was said to have indicted her after deep wounds were found on the deceaseds neck and head.

According to the prosecutor, Thomas Nurudeen, the defendant committed the offence on April 9, 2023, around 12.40pm at 43, Alejo Street, Ijede Road, Ikorodu, Lagos State.

The charge read, That you, Fatima Abdul Rahman, on April 9, 2023, around 12.40 pm, at 43, Alero Street, Ijede Road, Ikorodu, Lagos State in the Lagos Magisterial District did unlawfully kill one Adizat Abdul Rahman, 28-year-old, by stabbing her with a knife and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 222 and punishable under Section 233 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2015.
A member of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Rafiu Akinwale, has allegedly killed an Akure Prince, Adesoji Adesida, in Ondo State.

According to Daily Trust, the incident occurred at a funeral held at the Dome in Akure on Friday, April 28, 2023.

Akinwale, who also came to the funeral, was reportedly beating his girlfriend over an accusation that she was exchanging phone numbers with another man.

READ ALSO: 22-Year-Old Man Demands Compensation After OPC Members Allegedly Tortured Him Over Stolen Money In Osun

It was gathered that an attempt by Adesida to prevent Akinwale from beating the girlfriend did not go down well with the OPC member, who out of anger, reportedly pushed the prince. He was said to have slumped.

An eyewitness, who spoke to DailyTrust on condition of anonymity, said the victim was rushed to the hospital where he was confirmed dead.

But I learnt that the suspect has been arrested by the policemen at Ala station in Akure, he added.

Confirming the incident, the spokesperson of the State Police Command, Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, said investigation was ongoing on the case.

She added that the suspect was still in police custody where he was being interrogated by detectives.

A cousin to the deceased, Prince Stephen Adeyinka Adeyinka, also confirmed the incident in a Facebook post on Monday, May 1, 2023.

Prince Adesoji Adesida was killed in Akure by an OPC member Rafiu Akinwale (a.k.a Slow) from Ibadan last Friday during a funeral ceremony of our beloved family member. He was arrested by by the police DPO at Ala, Akure, he wrote.

However OPC is trying to get him out of the police without him facing the full extent of the law. Please help us spread the message so OPC do not get away with this murder of a peacemaker Prince Adesoji Adesida. Thank you.

Regards Adeyemi Adesida Sent from my iPhone. Note: Soji is my cousin. He is ex ife nickname Stag. Please help any way you can to get him justice. OPC are trying to get the assailant out of custody and to evade Justice.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked Peter Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 presidential election, to allow his lawyers do their work.

Recall the former Anambra State governor who came distant third following the conduct of the elections, is currently challenging the outcome the polls that saw Bola Ahmed Tinubu become winner, as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, who gave the advise when he featured on Arise News Television on Wednesday, said Obi has in recent times been crossing the line with his accusations.

READ ALSO: 2023 Poll: Court Fixes Date To Begin Hearing Of Peter Obi, Others Petition Against Tinubu Victory

Information Nigeria reports that Morkas reaction stems from Obis allegation that the APC and its supporters have been attacking his personality over the petition he filed against the president-elect, Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).

He however described the accusations by the LP presidential candidate as ridiculous.

Peter Obi is really crossing the line, the campaigns are over, he needs to relax and allow his lawyers handle his case at the tribunal, accusing the APC of attacking his personal life is ridiculous.

Obi has been way too sanctimonious for someone who volunteered to venture into politics and run for the presidency.

He did not win the elections, he came a distant third, and he has made a political capital of exploiting peoples vulnerabilities, Morka said.
The senate has approved the sum of N22.7 trillion that was spent by the executive arm of government without the initial approval of the national assembly.

The upper legislative chamber approved the request on Wednesday, after Ibrahim Gobir, senate leader, presented a report.

Gobir said some of the beneficiaries of the funds are the office of the accountant-general of the federation, ministry of foreign affairs (ECOWAS national unit), Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading, Azura Power West Africa, Niger Delta Power Holding Company, and Accugas Limited.

READ ALSO: After China-Exim Bank Rejected FGs N$22bn Loan Request, Reps. Approve Request To Borrow $973m Loan From China Dev. Bank

The N22.7 trillion is money borrowed by federal government from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the ways and means advances.

President Muhammadu Buhari had asked the senate to approve the sum in December 2022, but some senators  mostly of the opposition  kicked against it.

They demanded that records of what the funds were spent on be provided before approval is given to his request.

The ways and means advances by the Central Bank of Nigeria to the federal government has been a funding option to the federal government to cater for short-term or emergency finance to fund delayed government-expected cash receipt of fiscal deficit, Buhari had said in his letter to the national assembly last year.

The ways and means, balances as at 19th December 2022 is N22.7 trillion.

Following the uproar the request caused in the senate, Ahmad Lawan, senate president, appointed Gobir to chair an ad hoc committee and liaise with relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) on the spending.

Though the Gobir-led panel was meant to have turned in its report since January, it was only able to do so at Wednesdays sitting.

Recall that in January, 2023, Buhari asked the senate to securitise the N22.7 trillion ways and means loan.

Securitisation is the practice of pooling together various types of debt instruments and selling them as bonds to investors.

Addressing the senate, Buhari said it would cost the federal government about N1.8 trillion in interest, if the national assembly failed to approve N22.7 trillion in extra-budgetary spending.

Speaking on the issue, Patience Oniha, director-general of DMO, said the securitisation of the ways and means advances would enable the agency to include the debt in the public debt stock, thereby, improving debt transparency.

Using the actual public debt stock of N44 trillion (at the time) as a basis, Oniha projected that the countrys public debt would hit N77 trillion, if the CBN loan is included.
Olabode George, former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has threatened to ban president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubus media aide, Bayo Onanuga, from Lagos State.

Information Nigeria had reported that Onanuga in a post after the last governorship election, asked Igbos never to get involved in Lagos State politics.

However, reacting on Tuesday, George accused the former News Agency of Nigeria boss of wanting crisis with his anti-Igbo comments.

Condemning the ethnic profiling against Igbo people, the PDP chieftain disclosed that Lagos elders, irrespective of political affiliation, will meet to restore the Lagos culture.

He said, I see that the misinformation grew because the Nigerian government stopped teaching history, which was a fundamental mistake on the part of our country. If you dont learn about your past, you will repeat the same mistakes going forward.

And until now, Bayo Onanuga has not apologised for the comment and I expect Prof Wole Soyinka to tell him to apologise rather than be abusing Datti Baba-Ahmed. That was mis-normal, senseless and insane to make that kind of comment in a country where we are still trying to build the nation.

READ ALSO: 2023 Election: Lagos Polls A Sham  Bode George

How can you tell them that they cant come here? Is that the culture of Lagos? Lagos is the commercial-nerve centre not only for Nigeria but for the whole of West Africa.

I believe that there is a new move in Lagos and the elders of the real Lagosians are going to meet because you dont come here to come and define our culture. The culture that has existed.

I want to apologise publicly for the statement by Bayo Onanuga. So, I want to apologise as a true born and genuine Lagosian that is not our style and attitude. We must stop it.

If Bayo Onanuga is not careful, we will also ban him from Lagos. He cant talk on behalf of Lagosians. What authority does he have to make such a comment?

I am sure that there is a move by elders too to get the real Lagosians, respective of political leaning, to come together, let us save the culture that was handed over to us by our forefathers. Nobody can start to manipulate or re-write the history of our state.
The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has distanced itself from the two-day visit of president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the State at the invitation of governor Nyesom Wike.

As reported earlier by Information Nigeria, the president-elect is expected to visit Rivers State on Wednesday and Thursday to commission a flyover and a court building constructed by Governor Wikes administration.

To its end, in a bid to encourage people to come out enmasse and welcome Tinubu, Wike declared Wednesday a public holiday.

But, the spokesperson of APC in Rivers, Darlington Nwauju, in a statement on Tuesday, wondered the reason for Wikes invitation considering that he once stated that he would never associate himself with the APC.

READ ALSO: May 29th: Wike Declares Wednesday Holiday For Tinubus Visit

The Party further urged Wike to stop trying to cause division among the opposition political parties.

Nwauju said, We challenge the Governor being an outgoing governor (Mr Wike) to play less divisive politics and exercise restraint in planting seeds of discord amongst opposition political parties.

We are aware that the governor has been working so hard to paint a false perception of the collapse of the APC structure in Rivers State even when he had in previous well-documented interviews vowed never to have anything to do with a cancer party (APC).
By Zak Vescera

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The B.C. government is considering making it easier for some workers to access financial and medical help for mental trauma linked to their jobs, The Tyee has learned.

Documents obtained through freedom of information legislation show the province may expand the job categories where workers arent required to prove a psychological condition is caused by their jobs.

Firefighters, police officers, nurses and other first responders in B.C. already benefit from the presumption their psychological injuries are work-related, which saves them from what can often be difficult and traumatizing testimony at WorksSafeBC hearings.

A December briefing note says the province is now considering expanding that presumption to other workers who frequently submit mental claims, which could include teachers, bus drivers and employees at harm reduction sites for people who use drugs.

Labour Minister Harry Bains wouldnt say which professions might benefit but confirmed government was examining the issue. He said workers who dont benefit from that law often face a very invasive examination of whether a mental health condition is a result of their work.

If you dont have the presumption for mental health [injuries], its very difficult to prove it is work-related, Bains said. Thats why many people dont report these types of injuries or they give up.

A growing number of British Columbia workers say they suffer from depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions because of their jobs. In 2017, workers submitted a total of 3,643 psychological injury claims to WorkSafeBC, the provinces worker compensation system. In 2022, there were 5,914. Those numbers and others referenced in this article refer to claims that involved only a psychological injury, and not claims that also involved physical harm.

But relatively few of those claims are actually accepted. Of the 3,701 claims in 2022 that made it to a decision adjudication stage only 54 percent succeeded, which is well below the rate of acceptance for physical injuries.

Kevin Love, a lawyer with the Community Legal Assistance Society, says thats because it is much harder for workers with psychological injuries to prove their condition is a direct result of their jobs. Workers have to be diagnosed by a psychologist or other mental health professional. They also have to prove their condition is the result of either a reaction to one or more traumatic events or that it is predominantly caused by a significant work-related stressor.

Love says that means WorkSafeBC often goes through parts of a workers personal life to determine if there is another potential cause for a mental health condition. He said the prospect of that testimony has a chilling effect on workers, who have to demonstrate that their job contributes more to their mental health condition than other factors. Its really often hard to unpack and assign percentages to what caused what, Love said.

In May 2018, the B.C. government changed the law so certain groups of workers no longer had to prove a mental health condition was related to work after a traumatic event. A December 2022 briefing note obtained by The Tyee indicates government was aware that the process was harming some workers so much that some died by suicide.

Government accepted that the process of applying for workers compensation for mental disorders was resulting in certain occupations being retraumatized in the process of establishing the disorder [and] its connection to work, including in some cases first responders taking their own lives as a result, the briefing note said.

Today, that presumptive exemption applies to firefighters; paramedics; police officers and sheriffs; correctional officers; nurses and a number of other first responders and healthcare workers.

But it doesnt apply to social and community service workers; teachers or bus drivers, all of whom were among the most likely to submit mental health injury claims in 2022.

That year, 508 social and community service workers submitted mental health injury claims to WorkSafeBC, second only to nurses.

Those include workers at harm reduction and supervised drug consumption sites in B.C., who are often at the frontline of responding to the toxic drug and homelessness crisis.

CUPE 1004, which represents many of those workers in Vancouver, has pushed for its members to benefit from the exemption, according to internal government briefing notes. The union has proposed that include all workers who support clients or residents at safe consumption or drug injection sites, as well as workers supporting clients or patients who use drugs at residential or healthcare facilities. The Tyee reached out to CUPE 1004 multiple times but did not hear back by publication time.

The Hospital Employees Association and Health Sciences Association of British Columbia have also asked the government to expand coverage to other groups of healthcare workers, the briefing notes said.

Not all claims came from first responders. Teachers and assistants submitted 251 mental health injury claims in 2022.

Workers in professions not covered by the presumptive legislation appear less likely to have their claims accepted. In 2022, for example, 84 percent of the 363 claims submitted by paramedics were accepted. In comparison, the acceptance rate for teachers was just 49 percent.

BC Teachers Federation president Clint Johnston said the union was monitoring the issue.

Teaching is a meaningful but mentally demanding profession, and British Columbias public educators work tirelessly each day under the added pressures of an understaffed school system, Johnston said in a written statement.

Different provinces have taken radically different approaches to the question of which workers benefit from the presumption.

Ontario provides the presumption to 18 professions but limits it to workers diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, not other psychological injuries. Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island provide the presumption to any worker who experiences a traumatic event, regardless of what they do.

Bains would not say precisely which criteria government would use to expand the presumption, or when that might happen. But he did say he would look at jobs where employees on a regular basis go to work and a face trauma as part of their work.

Bains said he would also take the number of claims from each profession into account.

If they fit the criteria, certainly they will be considered. But then we need to look at who else is out there, Bains said.

Love says he supports any step to help workers access help. But he argues expanding it wont do enough to address the central issue that mental health claims are not treated in the same way as physical ones.

A 2019 review of B.C.s workers compensation system by labour lawyer Janet Patterson argued workers should not need to be diagnosed with a mental health condition to get compensation for injuries that kept them off the job for 10 days or less.

She also recommended that government remove the test that work-related stressors are the predominant cause of a mental health condition. And she said B.C. should replace the narrow term mental health disorder with psychological injury.

Love says that even workers who benefit from the presumption may still need to be exposed to one or more traumatic events, which he pointed out could be hard to define in the case of some jobs.

They require for the stressors that it has to be unusual intensity and duration from what a worker in that position would normally experience. But a lot of workers experience inherently stressful occupations, Love said. He gave the example of an educator who might not experience one traumatic event, but a series of stressors that eventually cause a decline in mental health.

Its not going to help the teacher who is day after day exposed to significant workplace stressors unless there are some very broad changes, Love said.

When asked about broader reforms, Bains said he wants to stay focused on injuries that clearly result from employment. We need to work within the confines of the workers compensation system, which is to deal with injuries and illnesses that arise during the duration of the employment, Bains said.

Love, though, argues the current definitions are too strict.

A presumption is a good thing. But the concern is, its a good thing only for a certain category of workers, and thats for something the board accepts as trauma, Love said.
Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State, has reacted to the arrest of the embattled States Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Yunusa Hudu-Ari, by the police.

According to a statement by the governors Director General of Media and Communications, Solomon Kumangar, he noted that justice must be allowed to take its full course on the matter and everyone involved and found guilty be made to face the full wrath of the law.

Information Nigeria reported that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) on Tuesday, confirmed the arrest of the suspended Adamawa Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa Ari who had during the supplementary governorship election in Adamawa State, controversially declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Aisha Dahiru Binani, winner of the gubernatorial elections while the collation of results was still going on.

Reacting to the arrest, Fintiri said what Ari did is a failed electoral heist and a civilian Coup, adding that the arrest is a first step in maintaining the sanctity of the electoral law and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Police Confirm Arrest Of Suspended Adamawa REC, Yunusa

His words, Our demands as have been reiterated over and over again; its for justice to run its full course and for everyone involved in this electoral heist of the ignoble declaration of a failed candidate of the All Progressive Congress as the winner of the election when the collation of election results, yet to be concluded, to face the full wrath of the law.

The arrest of Yunusa Hudu-Ari is an important first step in maintaining the sanctity of the electoral law and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

It is also reassuring to our aggrieved citizens who have persevered through the sleight and sneer of those who believe willy nilly that our demand for justice may never see the light of day given the nations penchant for impunity and circumvention of the rule of law. We see hope that a new Nigeria is possible and welcome the arrest of Hudu and ask the police and all relevant investigating agencies to ensure due diligence in the prosecution of this case to its logical conclusion to serve as lesson for posterity.

The governor has said he wants justice. As far as Governor Ahmadu Fintiri is concerned, the arrest of Hudu is good news. So long as Hudu is at large, he has continued to sow the embers of discord, misinformation and half truths about the real motives for his actions and his ignominious role in the sad event of 16th April, 2023, where he tried with the assistance of compromised security agents, including the Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Barde; DSS Director Bulama and NSCDC Commandant to force an unpopular choice on the citizens of Adamawa State by way of a civilian coup,  Solomon further stated.
To really understand Apache Kafkaand get the most out of this open source distributed event streaming platformits crucial to gain a thorough understanding of Kafka consumer groups. Often paired with the powerful, highly scalable, highly-available Apache Cassandra database, Kafka offers users the capability to stream data in real time, at scale. At a high level, producers publish data to topics, and consumers are used to retrieve those messages.

Kafka consumers are generally configured within a consumer group that includes multiple consumers, enabling Kafka to process messages in parallel. However, a single consumer can read all messages from a topic on its own, or multiple consumer groups can read from a single Kafka topicit just depends on your use case.

Heres a primer on what to know.

Message distribution to Kafka consumer groups

Kafka topics include partitions for distributing messages. A consumer group with a single consumer will receive messages from all of a topics partitions:

Instaclustr

A consumer group with two consumers will each receive messages from half of the topic partitions:

Instaclustr

Consumer groups will balance their consumers across partitions, up until the ratio is 1:1:

Instaclustr

However, if there are more consumers than partitions, any extra consumers will not receive messages:

Instaclustr

If multiple consumer groups read from the same topic, each consumer group will receive messages independently of the other. In the example below, each consumer group receives a full set of all messages available on the topic. Having an extra consumer sitting on standby can be useful in case one of your other consumers crashes; the standby can pick up the extra load without waiting for the crashed consumer to come back online.

Instaclustr

Consumer group IDs, offsets, and commits

Consumer groups feature a unique group identifier, called a group ID. Consumers configured with different group IDs will belong to those different groups.

Rather than using an explicit method for keeping track of which consumer in a consumer group reads each message, a Kafka consumer keeps track of an offset: the position in the queue of each message it has read. There is an offset for every partition, in every topic, and for each consumer.

Instaclustr

Users can choose to store those offsets themselves or let Kafka handle them. If you choose to let Kafka handle it the consumer will publish them to a special internal topic called __consumer_offsets.

Adding or removing a Kafka consumer from a consumer group

Within a Kafka consumer group, newly added consumers will check for the most recently committed offset and jump into the actionconsuming messages formerly assigned to a different consumer. Similarly, if a consumer leaves the consumer group or crashes, a consumer that has remained in the group will pick up its slack and consume from the partitions formerly assigned to the absent consumer. Similar scenarios, such as a topic adding partitions, will result in consumers making similar adjustments to their assignments.

This rather helpful process is called rebalancing. Its triggered when Kafka brokers are added or removed and also when consumers are added or removed. When availability and real-time message consumption are paramount, you may want to consider cooperative rebalancing, which has been available since Kafka 2.4.

How Kafka rebalances consumers

Consumers demonstrate their membership in a consumer group via a heartbeat mechanism. Consumers send heartbeats to a special Kafka topic, which is read by a Kafka broker acting as the group coordinator for that consumer group. When a set amount of time passes without the group coordinator seeing a consumers heartbeat, it declares the consumer dead and executes a rebalance.

Consumers must also poll the group coordinator within a configured amount of time, or be marked as dead even if they have a heartbeat. This can occur if an applications processing loop is stuck, and can explain scenarios where a rebalance is triggered even when consumers are alive and well.

Between a consumers final heartbeat and its declaration of death, messages from the topic partition that the consumer was responsible for will stack up unread. A cleanly shut down consumer will tell the coordinator that its leaving and minimize this window of message availability risk; a consumer that has crashed will not.

The group coordinator assigns partitions to consumers

The first consumer that sends a JoinGroup request to a consumer groups coordinator gets the role of group leader, with duties that include maintaining a list of all partition assignments and sending that list to the group coordinator. Subsequent consumers that join the consumer group receive a list of their assigned partitions from the group coordinator. Any rebalance will restart this process of assigning a group leader and partitions to consumers.

Kafka consumers pull but functionally push when helpful

Kafka is pull-based, with consumers pulling data from a topic. Pulling allows consumers to consume messages at their own rates, without Kafka needing to govern data rates for each consumer, and enables more capable batch processing.

That said, the Kafka consumer API can let client applications operate under push mechanics, for example, receiving messages as soon as theyre ready, with no concern about overwhelming the client (although offset lag can be a concern).

Kafka concepts at a glance

Instaclustr

The above chart offers an easy-to-digest overview of Kafka consumers, consumer groups, and their place within the Kafka ecosystem. Understanding these initial concepts is the gateway to fully harnessing Kafka and implementing your enterprises own powerful real-time streaming applications and services.

Andrew Mills is an SSE at Instaclustr, part of Spot by NetApp, which provides a managed platform around open source data technologies. In 2016 Andrew began his data streaming journey, developing deep, specialized knowledge of Apache Kafka and the surrounding ecosystem. He has architected and implemented several big data pipelines with Kafka at the core.



New Tech Forum provides a venue to explore and discuss emerging enterprise technology in unprecedented depth and breadth. The selection is subjective, based on our pick of the technologies we believe to be important and of greatest interest to InfoWorld readers. InfoWorld does not accept marketing collateral for publication and reserves the right to edit all contributed content. Send all inquiries to newtechforum@infoworld.com.
Delaware County Memorial Hospital, in Upper Darby, closed its emergency room on Nov. 7, under a state health department order. Read more

A foundation that tried to block last years closure of Delaware County Memorial Hospital, part of Crozer Health, did not prove that the closure would cause irreparable harm to the community, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The Commonwealth Court ruling has no immediate impact, given that the Drexel Hill hospitals emergency department and its inpatient units have been closed since the state Department of Health in early November ordered the facility to stop accepting patients because it lacked staff.

Crozer, which was acquired by California-based Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. in 2016, said it was pleased by the appeals court ruling.

Last September, the company announced plans to turn Delaware County Memorial into a behavioral health facility, plus an urgent care center and other services. On Wednesday, the company did not say how quickly it would bring those plans to fruition.

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Crozer has said that Delaware County Memorial has consistently lost money. In a span of 10 years through 2021, the number of inpatient discharges at Delaware County Memorial fell by half, to 5,662, according an Inquirer analysis of state data.

Reversal of lower court ruling

The Foundation for Delaware County, which represents the legal interests of the nonprofit that sold Crozer to Prospect, won a preliminary injunction in the Delaware County Court of Common Please in October blocking Prospect from closing the emergency department and ending general inpatient services at the hospital. The foundation said the plan violated the 2016 sales agreement, which required Prospect to keep Crozers hospitals open for at least 10 years.

The Commonwealth Court, in a decision written by Judge Ellen Ceisler, said testimony by Melissa Lyon, the Delaware County Health Departments public health director, was insufficient.

This testimony is markedly devoid of the concrete evidence necessary to legally justify Common Pleas irreparable harm determination, Ceisler wrote. Judge Lori A. Dumas joined Ceisler in the 2-1 opinion.

Ceisler said in her opinion that in the future, more evidence might show that the closure of Delaware County Memorial endangered community members ability to receive emergency medical treatment in a timely manner, irreparably harming their health and, indeed, their lives.

The third judge on the panel, Patricia A. McCullough, dissented, saying that Ceisler and Dumas asked too much.

Frances Sheehan, president of the Foundation for Delaware County, said she was disappointed by the ruling.

We think that irreparable harm to the community is obvious. Well be regrouping and deciding our next steps, she said.
The Arthaus condominium (rear) is seen through the glass wall of the Kimmel Center, Sept. 14, 2022. Read more

When a successor to the Academy of Music Anniversary Concert and Ball makes its debut May 16, it wont look like the birthday bash that has celebrated the historic hall for more than six decades.

There wont be white-tie and tails, a sit-down dinner or dancing, or the ball book  that strangely alluring record of a certain stratum of Philadelphias social and business leaders in posed shots with their favorite charity projects. Absent will be a good deal of the 19th-century aura that made the Academy Ball uniquely Philadelphia.

The Great Stages Gala, as the new event has been dubbed, blends elements of the Academy concert and the former Kimmel Center gala. It signals a shift both generational and societal.

The tickets are still pricey, with sponsorships starting at $1,000 per person and going up to a $50,000 package allowing your group of 20 friends into two preconcert receptions in the Academy. But the concert happens in Verizon Hall, and, reflective of the 2021 merger of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, is meant to drum up support for the entire enterprise. Proceeds benefit the Academy of Music, the Miller Theater, and the Kimmel Center.

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The Academy of Music Anniversary Concert and Ball, a mainstay of the social calendar since 1957, has been shelved. Whether it will ever return is an open question.

Well, never say never. We could be doing another Academy Ball-type thing at some point in the future, says Matias Tarnopolsky, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, Inc. The Academy Ball is such an iconic Philadelphia institution, and one we have to be very respectful of, obviously. We had the interruption of the pandemic. And were revisiting how we do these types of really important fundraising events and make them meaningful for the community and make them successful financially.

The Academy Ball could reappear someday, perhaps as an event that happens every few years. It might happen in the spring instead of the last Saturday in January.

We could do something again in the future, said Tarnopolsky, but we have no concrete plans for now.

A timeout for the Academy Ball was called in February 2020, just before the COVID-19 shutdown. Some of the events planners quietly expressed concern over it being perceived as elitist. Publicly, they have cited high overhead as the problem.

As massive and exciting as the party was, says Tarnopolsky, it was very expensive and would only net about $200,000 to the organization. And wed spend months and months planning and wed have a great time. But ultimately, we need to raise money to support these wonderful Philadelphia institutions. The Great Stages Gala is already netting more money than the Academy Ball would.

A final net figure was not yet available, he said.

But the fundraising muscle of the Academy Anniversary Concert and Ball was hard to measure in toto since the event generated awareness and good feelings that paid off in gifts and bequests used to cover badly needed restoration work on the building. More than $80 million has been spent on various repairs and upgrades since 1994.

The May 16 Great Stages Gala  black-tie optional  features the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick Nezet-Seguin. Soprano Renee Fleming and vocalist Angelique Kidjo will sing separately and together. Veteran news anchor Jim Gardner is host.

Tarnopolsky hopes the gala, which is being thought of as an annual event, will continue one particular function of the Academy Ball. It was one of the few occasions each year that allowed people from various sectors to rub elbows.

We really do celebrate our role as a convener. And the fact that we can bring everybody together  Philadelphias business, philanthropic, civic, educational, and cultural community  in one place at one time is so important.

In addition to the expensive sponsorship tickets  which, depending on the level of support, include either one or both preconcert receptions  concert-only tickets are available at $50-$150.

One of the characteristics of the Academy Ball everyone will be happy to see gone is the possibility of snow that regularly made planners nervous. In 2016, an approaching blizzard compelled leaders to cancel the event for the first time in its history.

The current forecast for May 16 calls for a low of 63 degrees.

You definitely dont have to worry about snow, said Tarnopolsky, which is great.

Information: philorch.org; concert-only tickets at 215-893-1999, sponsorship tickets at 215-670-2386.
The Ram's Head Inn, 9 W. White Horse Pike, Galloway, N.J., had been on the market for at least three years. Read more

The Rams Head Inn, a once-popular restaurant and party venue at the Jersey Shore, apparently has new owners as of last week. The sale could not have come at a more auspicious time.

The White Horse Pike landmark was three or four days from the wrecking ball, said Richard Baehrle, a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach in Northfield, N.J., who represented the buyer.

Baehrle said the buyer, whom he would not name, intends to restore the restaurant, which sits on four acres in Galloway Township, 20 minutes outside of Atlantic City.

The Rams Head has been closed since 2019. Baehrle said the property had been vandalized and scavenged. He added that the new owner took immediate measures to secure the property.

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Citing a confidentiality agreement, Baehrle declined to disclose the sale price or identify the buyer, who he said is not in the restaurant or catering business. Atlantic County records had not noted the sale Tuesday.

A message left Tuesday at the home of Kurt Knowles Jr., part of the family that owned the inn, was not returned.

Baehrle said restoration was underway for at least a partial reopening in the fall.

The Rams Head started just after Prohibition as a roadhouse and later morphed into a splashier establishment owned then by Fred and Ethel Noyes, who had developed the nearby Historic Smithville.

From the moment Baehrle shared the news on Facebook, people have been posting messages of support. Normally on Facebook, I would get a half a dozen people responding to my stuff, he said Monday. I think literally, its been over 1,000 people sharing experiences of weddings and bar mitzvahs and confirmations and that type of thing.
THE PARENTS: Diane Billas, 37, and Matt Billas, 32, of Upper Dublin

THE CHILD: Luke Anthony, born Dec. 23, 2022

FIRST CONVERSATIONS: She was second chair in the Ambler Symphonys French horn section; he was fourth chair. The musician who had third chair was absent for a while, so Diane and Matt talked between measures.

Diane finally tossed the sticker charts  the ones shed used to log four years of attempting to get pregnant, with different colors marking ovulation, fertile days, and dont-even-bother times of the month.

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Theyd tried at first on their own, then with the counsel of a fertility specialist. Diane blamed herself with every negative pregnancy test. People kept saying, Itll happen when it needs to. But after six months, I thought: Theres something wrong. She tried taking supplements and being even more vigilant about tracking her cycle.

I was ashamed. Then I realized: Theres nothing to be ashamed of, she says. There would be times when people would ask, When are you going to have kids? At the beginning, Id say, Not sure yet. Hopefully, soon. Then I started saying, Were trying. 

Conception was starting to feel like machine-work, stressful and joyless. Still, they kept going, through the pandemic, not fully aware of the toll it was taking on both of them. Matt developed an eating disorder; he overexercised, obsessively lifting weights in their basement. There was so much that felt beyond my control, he remembers.

At the same time, Diane was wrestling with her sexuality. Shed told Matt early in their courtship that she was pansexual  at the time, he wasnt even sure what that meant  but she hadnt come out to her family. Also, she was shopping a queer YA manuscript  the book I wish Id had in high school, she says  and accumulating more and more rejections.

By the time they marked the four-year anniversary of trying to conceive, in December 2021, I was numb, Diane says. I couldnt even feel disappointment anymore. There were many times we thought we might not have kids. We were at the point where we were OK if it was just us. We had each other.

She continued taking fertility-boosting supplements, but stopped the obsessive testing to pinpoint fertile days. Matt sought outpatient therapy for his eating disorder. Diane got a new job, as a development writer for Penn Medicine.

And in March 2022, someone from Creative James Media called; they wanted to publish her book. A news release would certainly out her, so she opted to tell her family preemptively, and in person. They were great, she says. I want to be able to be authentic, to be comfortable in my own skin.

A month later, Diane felt odd after going for a run; she scurried down to the basement in her bathrobe, hair dripping wet, to show Matt the positive test. Both of them wept.

The thing we both realized in hindsight was how much stress we were going through and how that impacted fertility, he says.

When they first met in 2014  both played French horn in the Ambler Symphony, and Diane asked Matt out because he was too shy to initiate  she felt certain that she did not want kids. That was her resolve starting in high school, when students had to care for a baby doll for several days, carting it everywhere and tending to it as if it were a real infant.

After a first date at El Limon, Matt and Diane bonded deeply. When she went on a two-week trip to Australia, she talked about him nonstop; back home, he says, She was all I could think about. She was the piece that was missing.

He proposed in December 2015; they were married the following summer, on a sticky-hot day punctuated with a thunderstorm. The church, St. Martin in the Fields, lacked air-conditioning; Matt and the groomsmen were sweating in their tuxes. Diane calls it the best day of my life. Both were in tears when she walked down the aisle.

I didnt want to give up my career, my writing, or traveling for a kid, Diane says. But the more I was with Matt, I realized: Oh, we would do this together, and I wouldnt have to lose myself.

In retrospect, they say, the pregnancy happened at a perfect time. Dianes new job was remote, so she wouldnt have to commute to Center City while pregnant. Matts health and outlook were stable. All of a sudden, things shifted. It all clicked, he says.

Diane never had morning sickness; she continued running until her third trimester. It was 5 a.m. on a Friday, just before winter break, when her water broke in a slow trickle. At Jefferson Abington Hospital, doctors gave her medication to induce labor. First, she had some fierce contractions. Some relief from an epidural. Ninety minutes of pushing.

Then Luke was there. After everything wed gone through, the years of waiting and hoping, we both just broke down, Matt says.

It was 10 degrees outside the day they brought Luke home. Now what? Diane recalls thinking. I dont want to break him. I didnt want to carry him up and down stairs. He was so tiny.

The lack of sleep and the constancy of breast-feeding stunned them; Luke would nurse for 90 minutes, then need to eat again half an hour later. Id have to wake him at night to feed him, Diane says. He was 6 pounds, 12 ounces at birth, and 6 pounds, 6 ounces when we left the hospital. We had to get him back up to weight. It was difficult, trying to watch him and pump and learn breast-feeding.

The long road to parenthood taught them resilience, Diane says. And after worrying that she would have to give up writing in order to have kids, she managed to birth a baby and a book  Does Love Always Win? will be published in June  in rapid succession.

Everything that happened to us has made us better and positioned us in a better place, Matt says. If wed had Luke two years ago, we wouldnt have been the people we are now, better able to deal with the challenges of parenthood.
Alfonso Sanchez was convicted of two counts of first degree after a week long trial in Doylestown. Read more

Alfonso Sanchez was sentenced to death Wednesday after his conviction for killing two people during a violent outburst in a Warminster apartment in 2007.

Sanchez, 41, was found guilty on Monday of two counts of first-degree murder and related crimes in the deaths of Mendez Thomas and Lisa Diaz. He was also convicted of attempting to orchestrate a plot, from behind bars, to have a witness killed to prevent her from testifying against him.

The death sentence arose from the shooting of Diaz, whom he killed after first shooting Thomas at point-blank range. Prosecutors cited Thomas slaying as an aggravating factor as they argued that Sanchez should face the death penalty for the subsequent killing of Diaz. Sanchez will be sentenced on the remaining charges separately, sometime in the coming days.

District Attorney Matt Weintraub, who prosecuted the case, said afterward that the jury got it right.

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Im ecstatic that I could bring this to a close for the family after they waited patiently for 16 years, he said. It was a terrible ordeal for them to go through it again, but we feel vindicated that the jury rendered the verdict that they rendered.

Sanchezs lawyers, Frank Genovese, Mark Eastburn and Niels Eriksen, declined to comment outside of the courtroom, saying only that they respected the jurys decision.

Sanchezs trial before Bucks County Judge Alan Rubenstein was his second. He was convicted and sentenced to death in the case in 2008, but after a prosecutorial error regarding DNA evidence, he was granted a retrial.

Weintraub, in addressing the jurors Wednesday morning, said their work was already complete. By convicting Sanchez, he said, they had already established three aggravating circumstances required for the death penalty to be applied in the murder case.

Your job couldnt be more serious, Weintraub said. But the work, the effort, the decision, youve already done it.

Sanchez, he said, killed someone while committing a felony, in this case a burglary, after tricking Thomas into letting him into his Warminster apartment under the guise of buying marijuana. He then shot Thomas in the head, along with Diaz, who owed him money for cocaine. He put other peoples lives at risk while doing so, Weintraub said, including Jessica Carmona and her children, who were in the apartment at the time.

Weintraub also urged the jurors to consider the impact Diazs murder had on her family. In what he called heart-wrenching testimony, Diazs family described the everlasting impact they feel from her loss, one that has spanned generations.

In an unusual move, Sanchez prevented his lawyers from presenting any mitigating evidence that might have persuaded the jury to spare him the death penalty. As a consequence of that decision, lawyer Niels Eriksen briefly addressed the jurors Wednesday and urged them to sentence Sanchez to life in prison.

You have the ability to check life, and Im asking you do so in this case, Eriksen said.

Weintraub, seizing on that lack of competing evidence, told jurors the decision was clear.

There is no scale, theres nothing to weigh, he said. Theres no other side to this case.

Afterward, Weintraub said Sanchezs decision to require his lawyers to essentially provide no rebuttal was extraordinarily rare.

Ive been doing this for 30 years and argued many capital cases, and never has it occurred in any case Ive been connected to, he said. I cant speak for the defendant. He made the choice and hell have to live with it.

It remained unclear why Sanchez made that decision. Still, despite the jurys decision, it is unlikely that Sanchez will be put to death.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has called on the state legislature to abolish the death penalty, has said he will refuse to sign any death warrants.

Sanchezs previous death warrant was signed in 2015 by then-Gov. Tom Corbett but stalled by a moratorium on executions that was later put in place by Gov. Tom Wolf.

The last person to be executed in Pennsylvania was Philadelphia serial killer Garry Heidnik in 1999.
Melissa Ortiz-Rodriguez (left) pictured with her friend, Evie Ramos. Ortiz-Rodriguez was supposed to visit Ramos in Newark, N.J., where they met, but never showed up and was reported missing by her husband four days later in April 2013. Read more

Evie Ramos last spoke to her best friend, Melissa Ortiz-Rodriguez, more than a decade ago.

On an April day in 2013, the two women spoke on the phone and made plans to catch up at Ramos house in Newark, N.J., the following day.

Ortiz-Rodriguez never showed up.

Its been more than 10 years since the then-31-year-old Collingdale mom was reported missing. Since then, investigators have all but exhausted any leads to her whereabouts, interviewing neighbors and family members while conducting a series of searches of her Delaware County home  to no avail.

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Despite their hope for police to close the case, Ortiz-Rodriguezs loved ones are left only with memories.

Ramos, who met Ortiz-Rodriguez when they worked as pharmacy technicians at a CVS in Newark, described her missing friend as full of laughter and love for her children. Not knowing what happened to her has been an enduring source of pain, a wound that, she says, has only partially healed.

Ive learned to cope with it, Ramos said in a recent interview. Im not happy about it, but deep inside me I know shes living in my mind, definitely in my heart.

Looking for answers

Ramos believes shes one of the last people who spoke to Ortiz-Rodriguez before she was last seen by her husband, Jose Rodriguez, on Friday, April 19, 2013, before she left for Newark from their home on Lafayette Avenue.

Rodriguez waited four days to report her missing. The couple had separated, but the two were still living together, family members said, and Ortiz-Rodriguez was considering a divorce after discovering that Rodriguez had an infant son with another woman.

That February, Ortiz-Rodriguez had sought a protection-from-abuse order, alleging that Rodriguez locked her and her children out of the family home and damaged items inside. She withdrew the complaint two weeks later.

Police questioned Rodriguez about his wifes whereabouts, but after providing an initial statement, he refused to participate in further questioning and hired a lawyer.

His lawyer, Michael Diamondstein, told reporters in 2013 that Rodriguez had done everything he could to assist the investigation. When reached for comment this week, Diamondstein said he had no comment.

Investigators noted inconsistencies in Rodriguezs account.

For example, police said, Rodriguez told them he left the house early for work as an Amtrak engineer on the day his wife disappeared, but cellphone data obtained through a search warrant placed him at their Collingdale home at noon. Those records showed no calls between Rodriguez and Ortiz-Rodriguez, although police said he told investigators the two had spoken over the phone.

And puzzlingly for police, neighbors reported that Rodriguez told them his wife had been found even though she was still missing. Investigators were also surprised to learn from one of Rodriguezs coworkers that hed checked out a mop and cleaning supplies from their office that weekend.

Shortly after reporting his wifes disappearance, Rodriguez put the family home up for sale and moved with the children to Ocean Township, N.J. Hes not spoken to investigators since.

Rodriguez is in federal prison on a fraud charge and could not be reached. His lawyer in that case did not return a request for comment.

Ortiz-Rodriguezs aunt, Yolanda Ortiz, said her nieces disappearance was heartbreaking for the entire family, including her mother, Olga, who died two years ago without learning what happened to her daughter.

Ortiz said her niece was a devoted mother and a warmhearted woman who had a natural charm and loved to sing. As she grappled with the prospect of divorce, Ortiz-Rodriguez was about to start a new job on the Monday after she went missing, her aunt said.

Ortiz said her family hasnt been in touch with Rodriguez in recent years, and she said hes kept the couples children away from them. Years later, she said, the family is still struggling for answers.

What happened? Ortiz asked.

Only he knows that, she said of Rodriguez. He was the last person to see her.

Exhausting all efforts

After their initial inquiries yielded few clues, police pivoted to more intensive methods of investigation.

In the months following her disappearance, they dug up the backyard of the Rodriguez family home but found no traces of a body. A foreclosure on the home stalled further searches for years until police received permission from the bank to return.

In 2016, they combed the property with cadaver dogs  with no success. A subsequent search with ground-penetrating radar also ended without a trace of remains.

Cpl. Pat Crozier of the Collingdale Police Department was assigned to conduct a fresh review of the case in 2019. He said hes looking for any information that would help move the investigation forward.

As he delved into Melissa Ortiz-Rodriguezs disappearance, he learned in late 2021 that Rodriguez had been charged with stealing scores of chainsaws and other equipment from Amtrak, where he worked as a senior engineer.

Between 2012 and 2020, federal authorities said, Rodriguez stole  and later resold online  $76,000 in purloined goods to buyers across the country.

After learning of the thefts, Crozier got a a warrant to search Rodriguezs office at the Amtrak facility, but he said it didnt turn up anything that shed light on the missing wifes fate.

Rodriguez pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in 2022. He is expected to be released soon.

Ortiz-Rodriguezs children were just 8 and 10 years old when she went missing. They were about the same age as Ramos kids, and the two women arranged playdates and continued to socialize after Ortiz-Rodriguez moved to Pennsylvania and Ramos stayed in Newark.

Ramos, for one, dismisses any notion that Ortiz-Rodriguez may have simply run away. She is certain, she said, that harm befell her friend.

She was a very sweet girl, Ramos said. She would never abandon her kids.

Authorities ask that anyone with information about Ortiz-Rodriguezs disappearance i contact the Collingdale police at 610-586-0502 or Delaware County detectives at 610-891-4700.
A version of this story first appeared in Talk of the Town, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PAs State College regional bureau featuring the most important news and happenings in north-central Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.

A controversial proposal to fly fighter jets close to the ground in a part of Pennsylvania known for preserved wilderness is up for public comment again as military officials double-down on a claim the change will not have a significant impact on the area.

Residents, business owners, elected officials, and others in the Pennsylvania Wilds are still deeply distressed by the plan, while a Shapiro administration official said the militarys finding of no significant impact is premature and deeply flawed.

The Maryland Air National Guard currently operates at 8,000 feet above sea level and higher over all or part of Cameron, Clinton, Elk, McKean, Potter, and Tioga Counties in north-central Pennsylvania, as well as a small area of southern New York.

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In 2021, the ANG pitched a plan to dramatically lower that threshold to as low as 100 feet above ground level  approximately the height of a 10-story building.

Low-level training is necessary to allow our military pilots to proceed to their target area, destroy said target, and then return home safely, the ANG told Spotlight PA.

High-level, stand-off tactics are not as viable or survivable as they once were, due to our peer/near-peer adversaries reaching the United States militarys technological level when it comes to stealth and detection capabilities, it continued.

According to Nicole Faraguna, the director of policy and planning for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the portion of the Pennsylvania Wilds over which low-altitude flights would occur includes Cherry Springs State Parks, internationally renowned for its dark skies, and nine other state parks; 35,000 acres of state game lands; 395,000 acres of state forest; and one of the most remote natural areas in Pennsylvania, the Hammersley Wild Area.

I think some see that as a blank spot on the map, she said.

Faraguna said that flight training would occur as low as 500 feet above most of the state parks and 1,000 feet above Hammersley, which she still considered very low over pure wilderness.

The groups opposing the proposal worry about noise pollution, disruption to livestock, and negative effects on the tourism and recreation economy of the region. The ANG recently released a new version of its environmental assessment for public comment that better explains why it believes those concerns are unfounded, but it hasnt convinced local stakeholders.

We face many challenges in attracting and retaining a strong workforce, Carolyn Boser Newhouse, executive director of the Bradford Area Alliance, recently told the Bradford Era. Outdoor recreation in the form of hunting, fishing, hiking, etc. is one of our primary attractions. This application, if approved, puts our quality of life, as well as our real estate values at risk.

The low-altitude fighter jet training would occur on about 170 days of the year, with two one-hour sorties, or aircraft deployments, occurring each of those days, according to ANG materials. Those documents say aircraft would spend two to three minutes below 500 feet per activation. The aircraft would stay under supersonic speeds, and only two to four fighter jets would be flying at a time.

The ANG acknowledges that this will result in an increase in noise experienced on the ground.

The proposal was up for public review initially at the end of 2021. According to the Maryland ANG materials, 430 comments were made by community members, elected officials, special interest groups, and agencies.

As a result, substantial changes were made to the environmental assessment, according to the ANGs website.

Among those changes: The document was revised to clarify some of the information presented and provide further justification to support a Finding of No Significant Impacts (FONSI), the ANG wrote. A new Environmental Justice section was added to Chapter 3 that the public had not previously had an opportunity to review that includes the identification of low income and minority populations within the study area and the expected impacts to those populations if the Proposed Action was implemented.

According to the Maryland ANG, the low-altitude flights would have no significant effects on noise, biological resources, land use, socioeconomics, safety, cultural resources, environmental justice, and airspace management.

 The PA Wilds Center recently held an information session on the proposal. Concerns expressed during the meeting involved, among other things, the type of aircraft currently used by the military being phased out in the next decade.

Faraguna told Spotlight PA the release of the FONSI is premature and deeply flawed.

We dont believe that they have done a thorough review and analysis of the cumulative impacts, she said.

The proposal could have a significant impact on the Pennsylvania Wilds, Faraguna said, adding that the region might lose its identity as the very essence of wilderness if the flights are permitted.

Various interested parties have asked the Maryland ANG to host public meetings on the proposal, but officials have not scheduled any.

In-person public meetings arent being planned at this time because they arent required for an environmental assessment, the ANG told Spotlight PA.

Residents of rural communities already sometimes feel left out of politics.

You have this proposal thats basically being introduced and put forward without any real opportunity for the residents to speak and ask questions, Faraguna said.

It would be the ultimate flyover country, she added.

Next steps

After the public comment period closes in mid-May, the ANG will determine whether the proposal needs additional work or is ready to go to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA could incorporate all, part, or none of our documents into their own decision, the ANG said in a statement to Spotlight PA. Should the FAA modify the proposal, it would go back to the ANG for approval.

A spokesperson for the FAA told Spotlight PA that it could take eight months or longer to approve or deny the proposal, depending on the complexity. If its approved, it would likely go into effect about two months later.

How to comment

The draft final environmental assessment is on view at the Bradford, Coudersport, Green, and Galeton public libraries, and online. Public comments can be emailed to ngb.a4.a4a.nepa.comments.org@us.af.mil, or mailed to Kristi Kucharek, National Guard Bureau, 3501 Fetchet Avenue, Joint Base Andrews, MD 20762-5157.

Public comment is open until May 17.

SUPPORT THIS JOURNALISM and help us reinvigorate local news in north-central Pennsylvania at spotlightpa.org/statecollege. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability and public-service journalism that gets results.
This isnt Warren Blooms first attempt at office.

I think this may be my seventh or eighth contest, but when I simply looked over the political landscape when we came into this season, I said, you know what my chance is just as good as anyone elses, he told The Inquirer.

He continues, he said, because he was raised with his parents adage to never give up.

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Most people dont know that Abraham Lincoln ran 13 times. He didnt run for president 13 times, but he ran. If he wouldve gave up on the 12th time, we probably would never [have] known [of him].

When talking about the things that are wrong about Philadelphia, Bloom, an ordained minister, uses a spiritual lens to focus on family values to find his solutions.

My mother actually was raised by foster parents, but because of the trauma and turmoil she came up with and she survived, she had promised herself that her children would never go through the same anguish that she suffered, Bloom said.

Bloom emphasizes strengthening the family as key to improving the citys quality of life. Statistically most children who are born in poverty stay in poverty. Were seeing actually the breakdown of the family and an attack. This is actually an attack against the home, he said.

So I want to do everything I can to protect the home and make sure children are brought up in the best advantage.

 READ MORE: Watch all candidate videos from the series here.

Read more about Warren Bloom

At a forum in January, candidates were asked to answer yes or no: Would they retain Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw? Bloom said no. At an education-focused forum in March, Bloom earned the most laughs of the evening by frequently repeating rhyming campaign slogans. Speaking to fifth-graders from a Kensington elementary school in March, Bloom told them: Theres no Santa Claus.

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A subtle change from Beijing could have big implications for China's preparedness for war as speculation of military conflict over Taiwan continues to simmer.

China enforced new conscription rules on May 1 that allows retired veterans to be recalled and "highly qualified" university graduates to be recruited into the army which continues its focus on "combat preparation".

Chinese state media said the "necessary" move would allow China to "improve combat capability during wartime amid a turbulent world".

It's the latest move from President Xi Jinping who has funded an unrivalled military splurge as head of the Chinese Communist Party as he presses on with territorial advances in the South China Sea, and his unwavering desire to reunify the democratic island state of Taiwan.

China has moved to bolster its army with 'high-calibre' recruits. Source: Getty

China's army to capitalise on graduate influx

Fengming Lu of ANU's Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs told Yahoo News Australia that while the move shouldn't be interpreted by Taiwan, or the US and Australia, as a provocative move, it is another step to ensure China's readiness for conflict.

"Traditionally, the PLA (People's Liberation Army) used to prefer young, less educated men from the poorer countryside who are more obedient and willing to endure hardships. However, the PLA nowadays needs better educated soldiers and officers to operate sophisticated weapons and engage in modern warfare," he said.

"Of course, this subtle policy change is a stone that aims to kill two birds. The youth unemployment rate in China has risen to an unprecedented level of 20 per cent this year.

Xi Jinping has placed great focus on strengthening China's military. Source: Getty

"As roughly one in every two Chinese who were born after 2000 goes to university, joining the military may be an alternative for young college graduates in China who are struggling to find jobs."

The revised law will place a focus on "high-calibre" graduates with training in high tech areas including artificial intelligence and robotics and recruits will be required to work with space satellites and cyber drones, Nikkei Asia reported.

Story continues

China's defence ministry spokesperson Tan Kefei boasted the change would allow China to respond to conflict "swiftly and seamlessly".

China increases exit bans on citizens

Another controlling measure China is applying to residents involves placing bans on them leaving the country.

Scores of Chinese and foreigners have been ensnared by exit bans, according to a new report by the rights group Safeguard Defenders, while a Reuters analysis has found an apparent surge of court cases involving such bans in recent years, and foreign business lobbies are voicing concern about the trend.

"Since Xi Jinping took power in 2012, China has expanded the legal landscape for exit bans and increasingly used them, sometimes outside legal justification," the Safeguard Defenders report reads.

"Between 2018 and July of this year, no less than five new or amended laws provide for the use of exit bans, for a total today of 15 laws," said Laura Harth, the group's campaign director.

The group estimates "tens of thousands" of Chinese are banned from exit at any one time.

With Reuters

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

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Mafalda Thomas-Bouzy, 59, of Southwest Philadelphia, towers over spectators at the South Street Headhouse Districts 90th Easter Promenade in April. Read more

Meet Mafalda Thomas-Bouzy, a cultural dancer, storyteller, and stilt walker known as Sistah Mafalda.

 New heights: Im a tall woman, 5-foot-10, and I never liked being that tall, but when I got on the stilts I felt on top of the world. I felt at home in the air.

 Family tree: Kids ask if my legs are really that long and I say Yeah, my grandfather was a tree.

Mafalda Thomas-Bouzy was on a cultural exchange in Tobago studying folk dance when she was taken to the islands hills to meet a stilt walker.

Known as a moko jumbie in the West Indies, the stilt walker demonstrated his craft for Thomas-Bouzy and then urged her to try.

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My heart and soul was just willing and excited, she said. I walked like I do with my own two legs on my first try.

From 10 feet up in the air, Thomas-Bouzy could see over the treetops and look down at the village below. In that moment, she understood why the mokie jumbie, a tradition believed to have originated in West Africa that roughly translates to healer and spirit, was considered a keeper of the village.

It was like being on the top of a mountain, she said. You can see far down the road.

Thomas-Bouzy saw far down her own road, too, and brought a pair of stilts back with her to Philadelphia.

That was 22 years ago. Since then, Thomas-Bouzy, now 59, has performed on streets, runways, and weddings. But more importantly, shes teaching stilt walking to children, so they can become moko jumbies, too.

In concrete jungles, kids need a way to look down the road and see a brighter future, and stilts can do that, she said. It gives them a super power, it gives them a responsibility, a position, a role to protect their city, to look out for their community, and to be a keeper of the village.

Thomas-Bouzy grew up roller-skating in the streets of Jamaica, Queens, and listening to the music of the conga drummers in Spanish Harlem. Marriage brought her to Philly in 1982 and she eventually moved to Coatesville, where she raised her three kids. She currently resides in Southwest Philadelphia.

In her early 30s, Thomas-Bouzy took an African dance class with her children and developed what would become a lifelong passion for cultural dances of the African diaspora. Shes trained and taught around the world, from Senegal to Brazil, from France to Mali.

I was gathering stories. I had to feel it to know what I was talking about, she said. Ive traveled to these places and I can tell you what the sky looks like, what the onions being pressed smell like, and Im able to teach and tell the stories behind the dance.

For 20 years, Thomas-Bouzy ran a drum and dance troupe called the Kuumba Performers. Shes taught a variety of dance classes throughout the region and is one of the performers featured in the mural on the Philadelphia International Airports parking garage, How Philly Moves.

Shes held several residencies, including one at Villanova University where she taught rhythm and dance to honors students, so they got a chance to use the other side of their brain. And she served as an artist-in-residence in Chester, teaching kids and community members how to make stilts, and then, how to use them.

Thomas-Bouzy uses traditional wooden stilts that are four-and-a-half-feet tall and have tire rubber nailed to the bottom for shock absorbency. When she puts them on, she rises a towering 10 feet in the air.

She already knows youre wondering if shes ever fallen.

Yes, I have fallen, but I have never broken a bone or a fingernail, Thomas-Bouzy said.

She performs her stilt walking under the name Sistah Mafalda at schools, birthday parties, weddings, and community events. She doesnt just stilt walk, she stilt dances.

I have this dual training, so for me it all connects, she said. Its so infectious when people see a stilt walker that can move a crowd with rhythm and dance.

Recently, she made her first appearance in the South Street Headhouse Districts 90th Easter Promenade, revving up the crowds.

They were dancing and stepping, she said. I was showing the (people dressed as) bunnies how to hop. I was telling them You got to be a rabbit!

Thomas-Bouzy has even taken her stilts on the runway, voguing at events for fashion show producer Harvey Star Washington and at a charity fashion show in New York City.

And while she performs under the name Sistah Mafalda, around her Southwest Philly neighborhood, where she teaches kids to stilt walk at rec centers and parks, shes simply known as Mama M.

Thomas-Bouzy has also instilled a love of music and dance in her own three children (her son, Dom Thomas, is a drummer whos played with Jill Scott) and her three grandchildren.

They all know the voice of the drums, she said.

But sometimes, Thomas-Bouzy said, its lonely at the top. Shes been divorced twice and worries about how much longer her body can take the physicality stilt walking requires.

Its just like when the clown takes off the mask, when they go home they deal with their own things, she said. Physically, how can I continue with all this energy  its like an athlete, you need to know when its time to retire.

Thats why its important for Thomas-Bouzy to teach others her craft. Shed love to open a school one day, to train the next generation of moko jumbies.

Ill still be involved, just like dance, she said. Ill still be teaching it even if Im in a wheelchair.

Those interested in connecting with Thomas-Bouzy may contact her at mafaldatdance@gmail.com.

Want more We the People?

 For 20 years, Michael Cray has volunteered at the Philly childrens hospital where his son died.

 Valerie Bertsch turned her garage into a rabbit cafe. Bunny snugglers are welcome.

 Check out more We the People here.
David Robinson, president of Local 159 of AFSCME District Council 33, the correctional officers union, gets ready to speak with the media in front of the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center. The union has taken a 'no confidence' vote against city Prisons Commissioner Blanche Carney. Read more

Members of the union representing Philadelphia correctional officers were unanimous in a vote of no confidence in Prisons Commissioner Blanche Carney on Tuesday night, according to David Robinson, the unions president.

The vote, by Local 159 of AFSCME District Council 33, is likely only symbolic. However, it reflects ongoing tensions within a jail system that, amid severe staffing shortages, is failing to provide constitutionally required humane conditions for prisoners, a federal monitor has found.

This is an emergency, Robinson said. The chaos in the prisons, its gone too far. None of us feels safe. We dont feel safe for the incarcerated persons, and we dont feel safe for the staff. Its time that we take a stand and let the city know how we feel.

 READ MORE: 29 people died in Philly jails in the pandemic. City officials said they did 'a good job.'

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Carney did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney sent a statement on behalf of the administration, saying in part: We appreciate the concerns raised by staff and continue to work with Commissioner Carney, who has the administrations support and confidence, on our shared goal of ensuring good working conditions as well as safe, clean, humane environments for incarcerated people.

At City Council budget hearings last month, Carney acknowledged that the jails had vacancies for 820 officers, about 40% short of a full complement. But she said that the prisons had modified the recruiting process to attract more applicants, and she was optimistic about a new contract with the union that offered a starting pay boost from $44,135 to $57,370 for those willing to work 12-hour shifts.

Despite those efforts, advocates and the federal monitor describe an ongoing crisis in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons (PDP). At least five people have died in custody already this year, including a man who died by suicide and a 33-year-old man, Jamal Collier, who was fatally stabbed during a fight.

 READ MORE: Unit unsafe: Inside a week of riots, fires and destruction at Philadelphia jails

The Pennsylvania Prison Society, which interviewed dozens of incarcerated men during a walk-through of the jails in January, said in its most recent report that violence had surged, that lockdowns are frequent, and that many of the men had not been outdoors in months.

The report described dangerous and degrading facilities, vermin infestations, widespread hunger, and units left unstaffed  including a dorm where men shouted for help for half an hour during a medical emergency before anyone responded. The incarcerated people alleged that they were forced to sign false statements claiming they received recreation time.

In a memo, Carney pledged to investigate and address some of the issues, such as allegations regarding fabricated logs. She dismissed other concerns, saying that meals are adequate and sick calls are handled promptly.

Claire Shubik-Richards, the Prison Societys executive director, said there have been micro-level improvements, such as weekly clean laundry. But, in the big picture: It is almost the identical government-inflicted, perpetual human rights tragedy that it was two years ago.

 READ MORE: Panic attacks and 20-hour workdays: Why Philly correctional officers are quitting in droves

The organization had called for a crisis manager; the city contracted with a former Pennsylvania corrections secretary to consult on the jails, but its not clear what impact that has had, she said. Leadership matters, and weve had one leader through a never-ending tragedy.

The federal monitor, appointed in a federal class-action lawsuit that began over PDPs COVID-19 protocols and expanded to address numerous constitutional violations, said in her second quarterly report that the PDP is failing to comply with benchmark improvements.

The citys actions are not responsive to the enormity of PDPs staffing crisis, and fail to acknowledge the duty imposed on defendants by this court to improve working conditions for more than 1,600 employees and reduce the suffering of more than 4,200 people confined in PDP facilities, the monitor, Cathleen Beltz, wrote in a March 7 report.
A former juvenile lifer who was released from prison five years ago because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that called such imprisonment unjust is now back in prison, accused of overseeing a scheme to siphon funds meant to help tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vernon Steed, 55, has been charged with identity theft, forgery and related crimes after prosecutors in Montgomery County say he stole nearly $95,000 in public-assistance funds by filing phony paperwork using the names of his friends and relatives.

He remains in custody on $99,077 bail. His lawyer, Denise Marone, did not return a request for comment.

His wife, Mary Ann Steed, 49, faces similar charges for her role in assisting with the fraud, prosecutors said. She was released on $50,000 unsecured bail. Her lawyer, R. Emmett Madden, did not return a request for comment.

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Vernon Steed had served as a member of the Montgomery County Board of Prison Inspectors  a citizens oversight board for the county jail  since June 2022, when he was appointed by the county commissioners. A county spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that Steed resigned April 21, three days before the charges were filed against him.

But decades before that, he was a 17-year-old wielding a gun on the streets of North Philadelphia. Steed shot at a rival drug dealer one night in September 1985 and accidentally struck Serena Gibson, killing her. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. But a 2018 Supreme Court ruling made such sentences for juveniles illegal, and Steed was released.

His latest crime, prosecutors say, unfolded over the course of five months in 2021. During that time, landlords could apply for rental-assistance funds through county agencies if their tenants could not pay rent due to the pandemic.

As county officials scrutinized some of these applications, they noticed inconsistencies with 10 that came from the same landlord, Wendy Cushman, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Steeds arrest.

Investigators learned that none of the tenants lived at the addresses listed in Cushmans application. Nor did Cushman own any of the properties.

Investigators later learned that Cushman had died in 2019. And she was survived by a sister, Mary Ann Steed.

One of the tenants listed in the COVID relief paperwork told detectives in an interview that Vernon Steed had made a deal with him at Another Clean Day, a halfway house in Pottstown where Steed did counseling and ministry work. For $800, Steed bought the mans identity, and promised to get him some money from the government. Steed urged him to keep it quiet, he said.

Detectives found two other men who made similar arrangements with Steed at the halfway house. Other names listed in the fund applications were relatives of Steeds, including Cushmans son.

Surveillance footage from different banks in the region showed Steed and his wife depositing money into a bank account associated with the fraud, according to the affidavit.

When detectives confronted Steed with this information, he balked, saying he had no idea what the detectives were talking about, according the affidavit. Yet, as he was presented with more evidence  including the bank surveillance images  he asked to speak with them off the record.

Steed changed his tone, the detectives said, asking whether he could just pay back the money, though he still denied being involved with any fraud.

He told detectives that there are people who want to see him fail and go back to jail.
The remains of the White Horse statue that was vandalized and stolen on April 1 at White Horse Farms. Read more

Neil Pastore couldnt believe what he was hearing.

The horse was gone.

Not a real horse mind you, but an iconic piece of South Jersey road decor: the towering White Horse that has stood silent watch over a stretch of the White Horse Pike near Hammonton for 65 years. An instantly recognizable midway point for generations of Shore travelers. A proud symbol of an agricultural community. A storied statue that had weathered storms and braved vandalism.

It was April Fools. But Jennifer Pastore assured her older brother that it was no joke.

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The White Horse is gone, she said.

Neil Pastore hurried to White Horse Farms, the Winslow Township roadside market his family had recently purchased and where the horse had so long been a fixture. But now only shards of the hoofs and splintered legs remained atop the pedestal. Perhaps the statue had been damaged in the previous nights heavy storms, Pastore thought. But there were no signs of the White Horse in the tall grass. Then, Pastore found one of the horses fractured legs, made of heavy wood, in the shrubs. Hefting it, he knew the White Horse didnt simply blow away.

Thats when we realized this wasnt any accident, he said.

Security camera footage solved any mystery. Overnight, four teens hopped out of a pickup in the darkness. First, they tried pushing. The White Horse stood. Next, they used strapping and a winch, snapping the White Horse off at the legs. They loaded the landmark into the truck bed and were gone. The crime took 12 minutes.

Sgt. John Ervin of the Winslow Township Police said investigators believe the teens, all high school seniors, stole the White Horse as part of a prank or a scavenger hunt, and then threw its broken parts into a pond or lake in a nearby township. It has not been recovered. As part of an agreement worked out with the Pastores, Ervin said the teens, who were caught within days, will not be charged criminally  as long as they stay out of trouble and help pay for a new White Horse.

Initially, the Pastores decided against publicizing the theft.

Kids do stupid things, Neil Pastore said with a sigh, not wanting anyones future ruined over a wooden horse, especially since it feels like nearly everyone in Hammonton can share a childhood story of some horseplay at the White Horse. It took 65 years for them to destroy it, though. Thats the disappointing part.

Still, the jarring sight of the White Horses twisted remains now greet travelers along the pike. Whether at the counter of the Silver Coin Diner in town, or in posts on the local Facebook community page, Hammontians wanted to know: What the heck happened to the White Horse?

Long touted as the Blueberry Capital of the World, Hammonton was incorporated in 1866. The Pastores, fourth-generation farmers and owners of nearby Pastore Orchards, go back nearly that far. All to say, they had a good name to protect.

We DID NOT take down the White Horse, wrote Neil Pastore in a Facebook post late last month, informing residents of the statues theft and destruction. He reassured neighbors that they planned on replacing it.

In fact, the Pastores say they intended to refurbish the aging landmark before it was stolen by the teens, thinking it could make a cool restoration project for local art students. Now, they are searching the internet for a replacement.

It was Joanne Wiessner, 78, the daughter of the original owners of White Horse Farms, who first spotted the empty stump from her kitchen window on April 1.

In recent years, under White Horse Farms previous owners, the White Horses red wooden perch had fallen into disrepair. Wiessner made it her daily habit to peek out across the pike to see if the White Horse was still standing. Then, one morning it was gone.

Honest to God, it was very upsetting, very disturbing, said Wiessner, who was 14 when her father, Joseph Battaglia, bought the statue in 1958. Tell you the truth, it was like another family member.

Joseph Battaglia had purchased the wooden statue, about the size of a real horse, during a weekend antiquing trip to Pennsylvania Dutch Country with his wife, Anna. The couple, who operated the farm together from 1949 to 1999, figured it would be a fun way to set the family farm stand apart from the abundance of roadside markets then dotting the White Horse Pike.

Battaglia cleared a spot set back from the road. He built a brick foundation and planted marigolds. Soon, he snapped photos for customers and passersby wanting to pose by the White Horse, and sold postcards. In time, the White Horse was another familiar landmark along a 60-mile strip chock full of them, including the giant Renault Wine Bottle, and the huge Ideal clothing store sign.

When it needed whitewashing, Battaglia removed the White Horse from its pedestal with a forklift and added a fresh coat. But no matter how high Battaglia raised the pedestal, people still had their fun with the White Horse. Over the years, pranksters painted the White Horse with polka dots and stripes  and once painted the wooden stallions undercarriage red (They painted its personals, Wiessner whispered).

Less humorously, vandals snipped the White Horses tail, so often that Battaglia gave up trying to replace the original horse hair.

When the Battaglia family sold White Horse Farms after Joseph died in 2001, the new owners used the farm more for wholesale. The roadside crowds dwindled. Many days, it could feel like the only visitors were the county cops who used the parking lot as a turnaround spot (White Horse Farms straddles the borders of Camden and Atlantic Counties.)

Still, its sudden departure has stirred a certain amount of nostalgia, and yes, even a sense of loss in Hammonton.

Thats because everything, even roadside landmarks, mean more when theyre gone, said Gabriel Donio, publisher and columnist for the Hammonton Gazette, who saw the White Horses destruction as news fit to print.

Every community has its icons, Donio said.

It was emblematic of a pride of a place, he said.

For his part, Pastore said he gets that pride. After all, his great-grandparents, Frank and Michelina Pastore, began growing blueberries on 25 acres in 1906. Now, the Pastores tend 500 acres. He hopes to find a replacement near to the original statue.

Something where if youre driving by at 50 mph, youre not going to notice its not the same White Horse, he said.
AFSCME Local 427 endorse Cherelle Parker (podium) for Mayor at a press conference on Grays Avenue near 51st Street on Tuesday morning. Read more

When grocer Jeff Brown launched his campaign for mayor, he told supporters he would pick up the damn trash.

It turns out that didnt go over well with the city workers who already do pick up the trash.

Two unions that represent Philadelphias streets and sanitation workers announced Tuesday they are breaking with their umbrella unions endorsement of Brown and are instead backing former City Councilmember Cherelle Parker in the mayors race.

 READ MORE: The Inquirer's 2023 Democratic primary voter guide

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Their unusual and unexpected move comes two weeks before the May 16 Democratic primary and adds to an onslaught of bad news for Brown, who was considered a front-runner in the crowded field but has faced a series of controversies in recent weeks. It could also have long-term repercussions on the internal politics of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33, the largest union for Phillys city employees.

Charles Carrington, president of the sanitation workers Local 427, announced his support for Parker while standing outside a city facility in Southwest Philadelphia wearing a neon T-shirt that said, We do pick up the trash.

Theres no way that I can endorse someone that takes a shot at the hard work the men and women of this department does, said Carrington, president of of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. If he would have did his homework, he would have understood before, during and after the pandemic, we have been picking up the damn trash.

Carrington noted that, despite skyrocketing residential trash volume and staffing issues that disrupted collection during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the citys on-time pick-up rate is now 98%.

Local 427 and Local 403, which represents streets workers and is also switching its endorsement to Parker, are two of the 15 local unions that are part of D.C. 33, which represents about 9,000 blue-collar municipal workers and endorsed Brown in January. When city labor contracts need to be renegotiated, D.C. 33 bargains with mayoral administrations on behalf of the locals, and it usually operates with a united front when it makes political endorsements.

D.C. 33 President Ernest Garrett said Tuesday that he is standing by Brown. He pointed to the successful relationship that Brown, a ShopRite proprietor and first-time candidate, has had with the union for his employees, and he noted that the other candidates are all former city officials who did not deliver for D.C. 33 when they had the chance.

What resonated with us is what he did with his own business practices, Garrett said, pointing to Brown opening stores in underserved neighborhoods and hiring formerly incarcerated Philadelphians. The man, the body of work over 20 years, says volumes as to who he is.

Garrett, however, said he doesnt begrudge the leaders of the breakaway locals for their decision.

I didnt like what they were doing, but they were being the voice of the people that were hurting in sanitation, Garrett said. How can I get mad at that?

He objected to endorsing Parker because she championed an amendment to the citys Home Rule Charter in 2021 that eliminated a civil service hiring practice known as the rule of two, which required managers to pick from the two highest-scoring applicants for new hires and promotions.

The rule was established in the 1950s reform movement to make the city workforce more meritocratic and crack down on political patronage. But Parker and other critics of the rule, which was one of the most restrictive of its kind in the country, have said it hindered the citys diversity efforts and tied managers hands.

Garrett said that relaxing the hiring process has allowed favoritism to creep back into city agencies.

I begged her  begged her  not to change the rule of two, Garrett said. It just opened the pandoras box for managers and people to manipulate the hiring list.

Parker declined to respond to Garretts comments, but said Tuesday she was proud to have the locals support.

These are the men and women who are on the front line doing the work necessary to enhance the quality of life in our city and doing the job that not a whole lot of people in this city want to do, Parker said. They do it with grace. They do it with dignity.

She also took a dig at Brown while standing with Carrington and other union leaders at the event Tuesday.

When you have never had any experience in making a payroll in government and balancing a budget in government, you really dont know what you dont know, Parker said.

Brown said Tuesday that he has met with the union leaders of sanitation to address all of their concerns and to reinforce my commitment to them and all city workers.

My priority is to make sure our city workers have everything they need to perform their jobs safely, with the respect they deserve, Brown said. They should be paid wages that allow them to take care of their families and have a better life. I look forward to working with everyone, whether or not they share my priorities.

D.C. 33s endorsement of Brown provided an important early boost for his campaign. As a wealthy white businessman, Brown gained credibility from being backed by the only majority-Black union for city workers and the lowest-paid union of the four major municipal unions..

Since then, things havent gone as well for Brown. The Philadelphia Board of Ethics has accused Brown of illegally coordinating with a dark money political group called For A Better Philadelphia that raised $3 million to boost his campaign and has paid for lawn signs across the city reading, Pick up the damn trash.

Both Brown, who is not a direct party in the boards case, and the group, which as a super PAC is supposed to operate independently from Browns campaign, have denied wrongdoing.

AFSCMEs D.C. 47, which represents white-collar city workers, has backed former Councilmember Helen Gym in the mayors race. Meanwhile, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 has backed Brown. And the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 22 has yet to announce an endorsement.
ALBANY  Language included in the final state budget agreement terminates the appointment of every commissioner of the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp., a response to a series of audits and media reports finding misspending by the public benefit corporation.

In addition, the bills language outlines a new voting process that will give Erie County and Buffalo new strength in the corporations oversight, while diminishing the strength of smaller, rural counties with lesser population that previously had outsized influence.

Nursing homes, hospitals get Medicaid rate increase in state budget  just not as much as they wanted The hot-button issue of Medicaid reimbursement was among the highlights of the initial details that have trickled out since Hochul late Thursday announced a conceptual agreement on the fiscal year 2024 budget.

The budget languages insertion was driven by Democratic State Sen. Tim Kennedy of Buffalo, who last year introduced several bills seeking to reform the corporation. Two aspects of his proposals made it into the final budget: one terminating the current board members appointments, and another recalibrating its voting strength based on population.

This is a big victory for the people of Western New York, Kennedy said in an interview. We are rooting out corruption, and we are removing a board that demonstrated a blatant disregard for the public good. We are looking to ensure that there is a fresh voice with representation that is going to empower the people of the Western New York region that OTB represents.

Richard Bianchi, the current chairman of the Western New York Off Track Betting Corp., said in a statement Tuesday that the board was "disappointed" by the budget language.

No menthol ban; whistleblower suits; burial sites: What we're learning about the state budget A $1 tax increase on cigarettes, but no ban on menthols. A law allowing whistleblower lawsuits that claim wealthy people and corporations intentionally failed to pay taxes. The fine print of the state budget agreement is finally beginning to emerge.

"It was negotiated in secret with no open discussion, debate, or input from our member counties," Bianchi said. "In the short term, we will remain focused on fulfilling the responsibilities to our partners in local government as we look to evaluate potential next steps.

The betting corporation is owned by Buffalo, Rochester and 15 Western New York counties, and its profits are supposed to be split among those governments. The corporation operates Batavia Downs and a dozen local betting parlors.

But the corporation has faced scrutiny in recent years both in the media and from State Comptroller Tom DiNapolis office. In 2021, DiNapoli auditors stated in one report that the corporation spent at least $121,000 on tickets to sporting events, concerts, food and alcohol for board members, employees and other people without the oversight required by state rules.

In a second audit, DiNapolis office found the corporations CEO and president, Henry Wojtaszek, did not reimburse the organization for his personal use of an official vehicle in a timely manner.

DiNapoli found lax oversight of operations by the board of directors, and in a 2021 statement, said that the corporation needed to clean up its operations, adding that revenues were supposed to go to participating municipalities, not to give board members and employees generous perks and other benefits.

After a month delay, state lawmakers are now in a hurry to pass a budget At a briefing on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said the final budget bill containing many of its most contentious initiatives  known as the Big Ugly in Albany parlance  will be voted upon on Tuesday.

In addition, the Investigative Post reported in 2019 that the FBI was investigating the corporations awarding of contracts to politically wired companies.

Now, the state budget will allow for the entire boards replacement, which could well bring a shakeup of the bodys staff.

Kennedy declined to say whether he believed Wojtaszek and other staff would be retained by a new board of directors, saying that would be at the discretion of the board. The budget language also does not bar the reappointment of current board members.

The legislative language, included in this years final and most complex budget bill, was posted Monday evening. The Senate and Assembly are beginning voting on the budget on Tuesday, bypassing the normal three-day aging process for legislation  and giving opponents little chance to fight back.

Asked about the languages late public disclosure, Kennedy called the measure a common sense good-government reform that the people have been clamoring for, and said the reaction to similar proposals he made in 2022 had been overwhelmingly positive.

Republicans representing more rural areas have defended the corporation and said a shakeup ending the current voting rules would hurt rural communities.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, whose district covers a large portion of Central New York, issued a statement arguing that the changes sought by Kennedy would dismantle, politicize, and disadvantage rural communities.

I stand with local leaders across the district in calling on Kathy Hochul to drop this misguided plan, she said. It should be dead on arrival during budget negotiations in the Albany sewer."

Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt, a Republican whose district includes Niagara and Orleans counties and a portion of Monroe County, told The Buffalo News on Tuesday, "The Western Regional OTB language snuck into the state budget is Albany's latest attack on rural communities."

"Governor Hochul and Albany Democrats have conspired to eliminate the longstanding arrangement that allowed 15 counties and the cities of Rochester and Buffalo to have balanced representation on the OTB board," Ortt said. "The voice of rural counties is being smothered out simply because they are represented by Republicans. This is nothing more than a partisan power grab disguised as reform."

Kennedy said there was nothing partisan about his actions, and that his was simply responding to audits and reports finding reported malfeasance at the corporation.

When the public is forced to see that the state comptroller is conducting audits and finding misuse of power and funds, and that the FBI is continuing an ongoing investigation, it demonstrates a continuing pattern of corruption that needs to be rooted out, Kennedy said.

In 2022, Kennedy introduced three pieces of legislation seeking to reform the OTB: One revising the structure of the board based on population, a second capping the allowance of promotional items for members of the corporation and a third prohibiting corporation cars from being used as take-home vehicles.

A version of the first bill made it into the budget agreement, while the second two did not.

But Kennedy believes the measures left out  capping promotional items and prohibiting take-home vehicles  will pass the Senate in the coming weeks as stand-alone items, and says they also have support in the Assembly.

Under current law, each of the corporations 17 board members has had an equal vote on the board, according to Kennedy.

That means a county like Schuyler County, with 17,000 people, has the same weighted vote as Erie County, with nearly a million people, Kennedy said. Thats not a fair, level playing field.

The budget language set to be passed still provides that the corporation will be composed of 17 members: One for each of the 15 counties  appointed largely by county executives  one representing Rochester and one Buffalo, with their representatives appointed by mayors.

But the counties and cities will no longer have equal voting strength.

The representative of Erie County will have 24 votes. Monroe County has 20, Buffalo has 10 and Rochester has eight.

The representative of Niagara County also has eight votes; Chautauqua, five; Oswego, four; Steuben, Wayne, Cattaraugus and Cayuga, three; Livingston and Genesee, two; Wyoming, Orleans, Seneca and Schuyler, just one. The commissioners will serve four-year terms.

Bianchi, the corporation's chairman, defended the board's record. He said while many in the hospitality industry never recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, the corporation "not only grew, but set new records for revenue, leading to the largest distribution of profits ever to member counties and cities."

"That leadership came from the Board of Directors," he said. "We are proud we of the direction and leadership we provided during those historically difficult times.
Elsewhere in the firm, a new report revealed that the insurer is considering the sale of its life insurance business in the Southeast Asia region, a deal that could be valued at about US$1 billion.
He said that ideally, these practices should be employed before bushfire season. Roughly speaking, Australias bushfire season occurs between Autumn and Spring. However, a study published in the Review of Geophysics found that Australias bushfire season has lengthened by more than one month during the last four decades. The report, published last year, found that the annual bushfire season now lasts for 130 days.
His firm focuses on providing local, bespoke marine insurance solutions which, he says, helps set his agency apart from big insurers in the marine space. The online platforms that facilitate many of the marine focused insurance offerings from other insurers, he said, are handled by generalists rather than specialist marine underwriters and are unsuited, he suggested, to dealing with complex marine risks.
As we continue to expand and the demands of the US market evolve, it is essential that we continue to offer exceptional service and products to our clients and partners, said John Johnson, CEO of DUAL. I am thrilled about Jims promotion and wish both D.J. and John a very warm welcome to DUAL. Jims valuable experience within the company and wider industry will ensure our team is developing new products to support our partners continuously evolving needs. I am also confident that D.J. and Johns expertise and leadership skills will be instrumental in delivering innovative solutions for our partners and driving our business growth.
One of the things that was most attractive to us is just how natural this partnership is, Ricketts said. We're both in the business of protecting what's most important to our clients. We do that in different complementary ways.
"The illegal insurance scheme perpetrated by McClenny Moseley & Associates is frankly one of the most egregious cases that has ever come through this department," said Donelon. "The $2 million in fines should put all bad actors on notice that fraudulent behavior will not be tolerated in Louisiana."
The insurance industry is urging lawmakers to reconsider the bill and work with them to find solutions that will benefit consumers without driving up rates. They believe that now is not the time to enact legislation that could result in increased premiums for consumers, as it would only create severe barriers within the time-tested insurance system and force consumers to subsidize the risk of others.
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Hunter Joins Lockton Re in New Stamford Location

Jaimie Hunter has joined Lockton Re as a senior broker supporting client development with a focus on casualty business in North America. Hunter will be based in Lockton Res new Stamford, Connecticut location.

Before joining Lockton Re, Hunter spent more than 20 years at Guy Carpenter, most recently as a managing director in New York, New York, where she led treaties, facultative and hybrid/automatic facultative placements.

Lockton Re is headquartered in New York, New York.

Risk Strategies Appoints Rosenzweig New York Regional Leader

Risk Strategies has appointed Rob Rosenzweig as its New York regional leader.

Rosenzweig brings more than 15 years of insurance industry experience to his new role. He joined Boston, Massachusetts-based Risk Strategies in 2014 through the acquisition of DeWitt Stern and has held several leadership positions. Rosenzweig founded and led the companys cyber practice and, most recently, was responsible for leading the commercial lines property/casualty operations in the New York region.

Topics New York
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Richmond National Group, Inc., a specialty excess and surplus lines insurance company, said it will invest $350,000 to expand its headquarters in Virginias Henrico County. The company said it will add 7,200 square feet of office space to its existing operation.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said his state successfully competed with Chicago and North Carolina for the project, which promises to create more than 100 new jobs.

We chose to start our specialty insurance company in the Richmond, Virginia area primarily due to its deep talent pool of insurance and financial services professionals and its favorable business environment, said Richmond National Group President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph C. Kavanagh. So far, we have hired more than 75 highly talented employees and we are continuing to grow.

Richmond National Group is the holding company for Richmond National Insurance Co. In March, Richmond National Group raised more than $30 million in common equity capital from existing shareholders, including HF Capital, Bonhill Capital, WT Holdings, and employees, to support continued growth in the business. This brings the total equity capital raised for the company since its formation in 2021 to more than $100 million.

Topics Virginia
Nearly all Cayuga County-area school districts will reap the rewards of a $3 billion aid increase in the 2023-24 state budget.

The enacted budget includes $34 billion for state school aid, with $24 billion for foundation aid  the base funding for districts.

"All New Yorkers deserve access to a high-quality education, from prekindergarten through their college graduation," Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. She added that the state aid increase is an "unprecedented level of transformational investments."

The Auburn Enlarged City School District will receive $61.8 million in state aid, a 14.26% increase. The district's foundation aid level will rise more than $8 million, from $36.3 million last year to $44.4 million in 2023-24.

Two other school districts will get double-digit percentage increases in aid. Moravia's state aid for 2023-24 will be $18.3 million, a 10.01% increase. The district will receive 13.68% more in foundation aid, from $9.7 million last year to $11.1 million in the new fiscal year. Southern Cayuga will receive $10.8 million, a 10.06% increase, and $211,579 more in foundation aid, from over $7 million in 2022-23 to $7.26 million this year.

Weedsport's overall state aid will increase by 7.91%, from $11.1 million to just over $12 million. But its foundation aid will rise by $13.06%, from $6.5 million to more than $7.3 million.

Cato-Meridian will receive $17.1 million in total state aid, a 3.42% increase, and $10.6 million in foundation aid, a 3% increase. Union Springs will get 6.09% more in state aid ($12.3 million) and 3% more in foundation aid ($7.8 million).

The two school districts in neighboring Onondaga County that are part of the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES system, Jordan-Elbridge and Skaneateles will also receive more in state aid. Jordan-Elbridge is slated to receive $20.7 million, a 5.21% increase, and $11.7 million in foundation aid, a 5.33% bump. Skaneateles' aid levels will increase by 8.23% to $9.3 million, with nearly $4.5 million in foundation aid, a 3% hike.

While most Cayuga County-area school districts will see significant increases in aid, one will lose funding compared to last year's levels.

Port Byron Central School District will get $16.1 million in total aid, down from $16.3 million last year. A review of the state's school aid runs show that the district will receive $626,034 less in BOCES aid. No other district in the county lost BOCES aid.

The aid runs do not include an explanation for why Port Byron lost this funding.

Despite the overall cut, Port Byron will receive 3% more in foundation aid, from a little more than $10 million last year to $10.3 million in 2023-24.
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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. announced indictments charging eight individuals and six companies with fraud and corruption within the construction industry, including conspiring to fraudulently use minority and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs) as pass-through entities to obtain contracts for affordable housing developments.

The indictment charges the lead defendants, JM3 Construction and two subcontracting firms, and their principals with 60 total counts including workers compensation insurance fraud, money laundering, falsifying business records, and commercial bribing.

According to court documents, JM3 Construction is a non-union drywall and carpentry company that specializes in government-subsidized affordable housing projects in New York County and the greater New York City area.

During the course of the investigation, JM3 Constructions cash payroll typically amounted to $150,000 a week, which also included the company making weekly cash payments to certain subcontractors. According to investigators, none of the cash was reported to the companies workers compensation insurance providers or tax authorities.

The companies and their owners also allegedly took steps to hide and cover up workers injuries so that clients and insurance providers would not discover the cash payroll.

Both subcontractors  MGS Construction. and its JACG Construction  had workers compensation insurance policies with the New York State Insurance Fund (NYSIF). Prosecutors assert that the subcontractors made false statements to NYSIF about their companies workforce size and payroll amounts. The indictment alleges that MGS Construction defrauded NYSIF of more than $1.7 million and continued to work following the cancelation of its insurance policy, thereby putting its workers at risk. JACG Construction is alleged to have defrauded NYSIF of more than $360,000 in premiums.

The common factor in all of these alleged schemes is greed at all costs, said District Attorney Bragg. When the field is rigged, law-abiding companies and legitimate MWBEs are cheated out of much-needed contracts. And when executives care more about their bottom line than their employees and the law, hard-working New Yorkers suffer.

Insurance fraud, including workers compensation fraud, costs honest companies and employees tens of millions of dollars every year, said Gaurav Vasisht, NYSIF chief executive officer.

The indictments were the result of a long-term investigation that began with looking into suspicious check-cashing activity. In turn, this led to separate investigations into recipients of bribes and alleged Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises fraud schemes.

The charges contained in indictments are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Topics Fraud Construction
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A Holbrook, Massachusetts man has been found guilty and sentenced to two and a half years in the Norfolk House of Correction for damaging luxury cars bought under false pretenses in order to collect insurance proceeds.

Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced that Dion Augustin pleaded guilty in March 2023 in Norfolk Superior Court to larceny and motor vehicle insurance fraud.

In July 2020, Augustin was indicted by a grand jury on seven counts of larceny and eight counts of motor vehicle insurance fraud for a fraud scheme that he perpetrated between August 2016 and May 2017. The indictments alleged that Augustin obtained motor vehicle loans for luxury vehiclesincluding a Bentley, a Maserati, and two Fisker Karmasby misrepresenting his own creditworthiness and that of several straw purchasers. After securing insurance on the luxury vehicles, Augustin then deliberately staged motor vehicle collisions. He reported the collision to the police and insurance company as accidental and caused the insurance carriers to declare a total loss.

Court documents allege Augustin stole more than $136,000 from lenders and caused more than $201,000 in loss to the insurance carriers.

Superior Court Judge Douglas Wilkins sentenced Augustin to two and a half years in prison, followed by two years of probation. Augustin will also pay restitution in an amount to be determined at a later hearing.

The AGs Office began its investigation after a referral from the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts.

Topics Auto Fraud Massachusetts
The UK is to set to ban cold calls that sell financial products including insurance and cryptocurrencies in an effort to crack down on fraud, which costs the country around 7 billion ($8.7 billion) a year.

Announcing its new fraud strategy, the UK pledged 400 new jobs to update its approach to intelligence-led policing. The government will work with telecoms regulator Ofcom to use new technology to undermine phone number spoofing, so fraudsters cannot impersonate legitimate UK phone numbers.

Fraud is now the most common crime in the UK, with 1 in 15 people falling victim to it. The government aims to bring in laws that ensure more victims of fraud get their money back, by requiring financial institutions to reimburse victims of authorized fraud.

Scammers ruin lives in seconds, deceiving people in the most despicable ways in order to line their pockets, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement. We will take the fight to these fraudsters, wherever they try to hide.

The government also pledged to stop methods commonly used by scammers to reach thousands of people at once such as so-called SIM farms and review the use of mass-texting services to keep these technologies out of the hands of criminals.

Photo credit: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

Copyright 2023 Bloomberg.

Topics Trends Fraud
When UBS Group AG integrates Credit Suisse Group AG in the coming months, the Swiss bank plans to run staff from the scandal-prone former rival through what Chairman Colm Kelleher dubbed a culture filter to weed out potential bad apples.

The inconvenient truth for UBS is that the vetting wont do anything for the legal headaches already working their way through courts from Switzerland to Singapore. The cleanup will fall to UBS chief legal counsel Barbara Levi once the deal closes  expected later in May.

The long list of unresolved cases span an embarrassing criminal conviction for facilitating a Bulgarian cocaine traffickers money laundering to a half-a-billion dollar settlement in a bribery scandal related to a tuna fishing fleet in Mozambique.

Update: Credit Suisses String of Crises: Spies, Money Laundering, Takeover

All told, the civil liabilities could reach into the billions, and then theres criminal risks as well. The deal itself has also raised new issues as owners of at least $6 billion of bonds fight against getting wiped out.

While the price UBS is paying is low enough to allow the bank to absorb unexpected exposure, legal issues are among the key unknowns as Switzerlands two biggest banks merge. Spokespeople for both companies declined to comment on the status of key cases or how theyll evolve once the deal closes.

The litany of Credit Suisse issues comes as UBS winds down its own backlog, including an expected agreement with US authorities over residential mortgage-backed securities that date from the 2008 financial crisis. In France, UBS has lodged a top court appeal following a 1.8 billion ($2 billion) criminal conviction in a tax case in 2021.

Heres where things stand in the key cases:

Cocaine Conviction to Geneva Jeopardy

Credit Suisse had vowed to appeal the first-ever criminal conviction of a major Swiss lender in the countrys history. While a fight to overturn a verdict reached last June might have made sense to defend its reputation, the calculus will change after the takeover.

Given an appeal trial would again dredge up embarrassing details about Credit Suisses compliance practices, UBS may want to led it slide.

Getting rid of the other outstanding criminal case will be trickier. A Geneva prosecutor identified last June more than $60 million that he believes was laundered through Credit Suisse.

Yves Bertossa last year alleged Credit Suisse failed to prevent eight transactions perpetrated by former wealth manager Patrice Lescaudron between 2008 and 2014. Genevas top financial-crime prosecutor said the dealings constituted aggravated money laundering by the lender.

Credit Suisse has consistently maintained that Lescaudron, who was convicted of a long-running fraud scheme, was a lone wolf who hid his deceit. A spokesman for the Geneva prosecutor confirmed that Bertossas probe is still underway.

Under Swiss criminal law, theres scope for UBS to be held liable even if the infraction happened before its involvement, according to Katia Villard, a professor of criminal law at the University of Geneva.

Its quite clear that you can no longer prosecute a person after they die, but corporate criminal liability is different, she said. If Credit Suisse ceases to exist as a legal entity, UBS could then become, in my view, the new target.

Genevas prosecutor could instead choose to indict individual bankers rather than Credit Suisse, according to Kern Alexander, a professor of law and finance at the University of Zurich.

If authorities do go after the lender, Swiss corporate law doesnt allow an acquiring company to limit criminal liability that may arise from the target companys previous actions, he said. UBS may, however, have sought to secure immunity from any of Credit Suisses legacy criminal cases as part of the deal, he added. The company declined to comment.

Georgian Retribution

As part of the Lescaudron fallout, former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili is contesting cases in Bermuda and Singapore to recover losses stemming from the wealth manager dipping into the billionaires account in an effort to cover losses from other clients.

The Bermuda unit of Credit Suisse, which managed a sizable portion of Ivanishvilis fortune turned a blind eye' to Lescaudrons criminal behavior, a judge in the island nation ruled in early 2022. Credit Suisse is appealing the verdict, which set damages at more than $600 million.

A lawyer for the Bermuda unit argued during the appeal that the calculation is overly simplistic as it treats the entire portfolio as a single block. Moreover, he said its predicated on theoretical returns during an extended bull market, giving the billionaire a second bite of the cherry.

Theres a linked case in Singapore, where Ivanishvili is suing a Credit Suisse trust that managed a separate part of his fortune. The Georgians lawyers said theyre seeking about $800 million in total. The lawsuit wrapped up in Singapore in February, but a verdict is still months away.

CS Trust Singapores main lawyer surprised observers during the trial by conceding it had failed in its fiduciary duties and should have flagged unauthorized transfers. Although that may have been an attempt to limit the trusts liabilities, it could have a bearing on whether the judge rules in the tycoons favor.

Regardless of the deal, we expect all of Credit Suisses legal obligations in the ongoing litigation for recovery of losses resulting from mismanagement and fraud perpetrated by Credit Suisse personnel to be met, said a spokesman for Ivanishvili.

UBSs ultimate exposure might be limited. The two courts will likely adjust damages depending on the outcome at the other. Also, the funds covering the Bermuda judgment have been fully provisioned for. Credit Suisse declined to comment on whether any money for potential trial losses in Singapore has been set aside.

Tuna Bribes

Starting in London in September, UBSs legal team could face a 13-week civil trial over Credit Suisses role in the $2 billion tuna bond scandal. To resolve a US Justice Department criminal probe over a fundraising scandal that saw hundreds of millions looted from Mozambique, the bank agreed in 2021 to pay almost $475 million.

The loans were for three maritime projects including a tuna fishing fleet and a surveillance operation to protect Mozambiques coastline against pirates. Three former Credit Suisse bankers were convicted in the US for accepting bribes.

Authorities in Mozambique accuse Credit Suisse of ignoring multiple red flags when arranging the loans to state-backed companies. The Swiss lender denies those claims. In this case too, theres the possibility UBS chooses to settle to avoid the embarrassment of a lengthy London trial.

US Entanglements

In late March  just days after the forced sale to UBS  the US Senates finance committee said it had uncovered major violations of Credit Suisses $2.6 billion plea deal over helping Americans cheat on taxes. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who chairs the committee, said its investigation shows the bank didnt live up to the 2014 deal and that the pending takeover does not wipe the slate clean.

Credit Suisse has said it doesnt tolerate tax evasion and is actively cooperating with the Justice Department. Its not clear what penalties could result from the allegations.

The Swiss lender also suffered a legal setback in March. A New Jersey court rejected its bid to defeat class-action status in a $1.8 billion lawsuit from investors in its VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short Term exchange-traded notes. The potential cost of losing at trial makes a settlement likely and in the range of $500 million, according to Elliott Stein, Bloomberg Intelligences senior litigation analyst (Click here for the full report).

In another US issue, Credit Suisse faces private civil litigation that concerns some $2 billion in claims related to its role in selling residential mortgage-backed securities, which contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. Recent court decisions point to a potential settlement in the range of $400 million to $800 million, according to Stein.

Greensill Debacle

Credit Suisse said a year ago that investors should brace for a five-year fightwith insurers and some borrowers over the implosion of a $10 billion group of funds linked to disgraced financier Lex Greensill. That leaves nearly four years for UBS to contend with.

On top of efforts by former partners to claw back more of their cash, the UKs Serious Fraud Office is investigating allegations of money laundering by Sanjeev Guptas GFG Alliance, to which Greensill was a major lender.

Swiss banking regulator Finma began enforcement proceedings against four former Credit Suisse staffers after concluding in February that the lender seriously breached its risk-management obligations in the Greensill Capital supply-chain financing affair.

Archegos Fiasco

While Credit Suisse has settled with a clutch of US pension funds over losses related to the 2021 implosion of Archegos Capital Management, at least one more has sued the banks board for alleged reckless conduct that contributed to a $4.7 billion writedown.

Unlike other banks working with the family office that managed billionaire Bill Hwangs fortune, Credit Suisse was slow to unwind its positions and was caught with major losses.

Russian Sanctions Probe

UBS and Credit Suisse are connected on at least one issue. On March 23  just four days after the shotgun wedding was announced  it emerged that both were among those subpoenaed by the Justice Department in a probe into whether financial professionals helped Russian oligarchs evade sanctions.

The US inquiries are focused on identifying staff that dealt with sanctioned clients and how those clients were vetted over the past several years. Before fresh sanctions were imposed following President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine, Credit Suisse was a magnet for wealthy Russians. At its peak, the bank managed more than $60 billion for clients from the country and was still managing about $33 billion as recently as May 2022.

Bond Backlash

In addition to legacy legal issues, the combination has raised new ones. Some disgruntled owners of $17 billion in Credit Suisse bonds that were wiped out in the hastily arranged deal are gearing up for a fight. Switzerlands Federal Administrative Court confirmed its received four lawsuits representing at least $6 billion in additional-tier 1 debt, while hundreds have sued Switzerlands banking regulator Finma.

Credit Suisse Bondholders Who Lost $1.7B in UBS Deal File Lawsuits

This might be merely a nuisance for UBS, because the risk was clearly stated in the offering. Also, any litigation has to be brought under Swiss law, cutting off the potential for New York firms to sue in the US financial capital.

These lawsuits likely face low odds, said Bloomberg Intelligences Stein. My reading of the bond documentation is that it would be very hard for bondholders to succeed on the merits.

With assistance from Jonathan Browning, Marion Halftermeyer and Gaspard Sebag.

Photograph: Shareholders at the Credit Suisse Group AG annual general meeting in Zurich, on April 4. Photo credit: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg

Copyright 2023 Bloomberg.
wefox, the Berlin-based insurtech, has launched a global affinity business, which increases its existing distribution channel and extends the ability of the company to deliver insurance solutions through partners.

This core business vertical is part of the companys overall tech platform strategy in which wefox connects insurance companies with partners to distribute insurance products. The team, led by Tomaso Mansutti and Pierfrancesco Ricca, will be targeting a global market worth around US$3 trillion in just embedded insurance alone.

wefox explained that its affinity partners are businesses that do not have insurance as their core business and form a wefox partnership in order to distribute insurance as an extra source of revenue.

In Germany, the new country head, Guenther Blaich, will lead the local affinity business. Last November saw two additions to the team: Thomas Rettenwander is leading the affinity business for Austria, while Daniele Del Bo was appointed group business development director for Affinity Automotive. Other hires are in the process.

In taking our affinity business global we are not only endorsing our affinity knowledge and experience, but also ensuring every one of our partners benefits from more than just products and service solutions, commented Tomaso Mansutti, group head of International Partnerships at wefox.

We will continue to develop bespoke insurance products for our affinity customers, but for us, mutually successful affinity business is also about culture and authenticity. We collaborate and always place our customers at the heart of every decision we take together, he said.

wefox delivers innovative solutions across channels that empower our partners with new revenue streams and increase customer loyalty. The technology wefox offers creates new opportunities, from insurance embedded in electricity for new mobility, to new underwriting capabilities using totally new variables. All this is offered to insurance carriers for our partners, Mansutti added.

This is a perfect fit and a huge market opportunity for wefox. Through our existing capabilities, experience and industry knowledge across insurance, distribution and technology, we will deliver value for our customers and succeed in this space, said Pierfrancesco Ricca, group head of Affinity Partnerships.

We are an insurance business enabler. Through our extended platform model we are in a unique position to offer the customers the technology and services that are needed to build and to run successful programmes, Ricca continued.

wefox delivers end-to-end digital journeys, from promoting and selling products and services through our partners channels, to managing renewals, upselling and cross selling, claims and a detailed and regular reporting system on the progress of the entire program.

Our model enables our partners to make affinity insurance a core part of their business and ensure that they retain complete control, Ricca said.

This is achieved through our simple and transparent process. We have built solid systems and processes and can easily integrate with all the stakeholders to ensure robust compliance, customer satisfaction and the highest business performance, regardless of the complexity of the business in terms of product solutions, insurers  the best performing one for each product  channels and third parties or countries involved.

wefox said affinity partner businesses enhance their core businesses by selling embedded and/or stand-alone insurance solutions that allow them to generate additional revenues, increase customer loyalty and differentiate their offers. Some of them, with the right support, have the potential to become leading insurance players in their markets, wefox added.

About wefox

Founded in 2015 by Julian Teicke, Fabian Wesemann and Dario Fazlic, wefox is a full-stack insurtech that has doubled revenues every year to reach US$580 million in 2022. It serves more than 2 million customers across Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, The Netherlands and Switzerland where wefox currently operates.

In July 2022, wefox closed a US$400 million series D funding round at a post-money valuation of US$4.5 billion. In June 2021, wefox closed a record series C investment round for an insurtech of US$650 million with a post-money valuation of US$3 billion.

Source: wefox

Topics InsurTech Tech New Markets Germany
DIVERNON, Ill. (AP)  A windstorm in central Illinois kicked up dangerous clouds of blinding dust off farm fields Monday, causing numerous crashes that killed at least six people on Interstate 55, police said.

The late morning crashes involved 40 to 60 cars and multiple tractor-trailers, two of which caught fire, Illinois State Police Maj. Ryan Starrick said.

He said at least six people died, all in the northbound lanes, and more than 30 people on both sides of I-55 were transported to hospitals with injuries.

The only thing you could hear after we got hit was crash after crash after crash behind us, said Tom Thomas, 43, who was traveling south to St. Louis.

I-55 was shut down in both directions in Montgomery County, 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of St. Louis, and likely wont reopen until Tuesday.

Starrick told reporters that it was a spring version of a whiteout situation typically seen in winter snowstorms. Gov. J.B. Pritzker described the scene as horrific.

The cause of the crashes is due to excessive winds blowing dirt from farm fields across the highway, leading to zero visibility, Starrick said.

Dairon Socarras Quintero, 32, who was driving to St. Louis to make deliveries for his custom frame company based in Elk Grove Village, said after his truck hit the vehicle in front of him, he exited and moved to the side of the road to ensure his safety, then returned after the chain reaction crashes ended behind him.

Socarras Quintero said, however, that the dust continued to blow ferociously as he checked on other motorists and emergency personnel arrived. He held up his backpack, which was caked with dust even though it was inside a closed truck cab.

Winds at the time were gusting between 35 mph (56 kph) and 45 mph (74 kph), the National Weather Service said.

Its very flat, very few trees, meteorologist Chuck Schaffer said. Its been very dry across this area really for the last three weeks. The farmers are out there tilling their fields and planting. The top layer of soil is quite loose.

Evan Anderson, 25, who was returning home to St. Louis from Chicago, said a semi turned before striking his vehicle, sparing him from even more damage.

You couldnt even see, Anderson said. People try to slow down and other people didnt, and I just got plowed into. There were just so many cars and semitrucks with so much momentum behind them.

Kevin Schott, director of emergency services in Montgomery County, said it was a very difficult scene and one thats very hard to train for.

We had to search every vehicle, whether they were involved in the accident or just pulled over, to check for injuries, he said, adding that people were upset  visibly so, understandably so.

Authorities set up staging areas away from the crash site to help travelers reunite with friends and family.

Photo: First responders work the scene of a crash involving at least 20 vehicles that shut down a highway in Illinois, Monday, May 1, 2023. Illinois State Police say a windstorm that kicked up clouds of dust in south-central Illinois has led to numerous crashes and multiple fatalities on Interstate 55. (WICS TV via AP)

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Windstorm Illinois
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In striking contrast to last years double-digit rate hikes for public directors and officers liability insurance and 100-200% jumps for cyber coverage, some buyers renewing those coverages this spring wont see their insurance bills increase at all.

And many will see double-digit declines, according to the latest Insurance Marketplace Realities Report published by global broker and advisory firm WTW in late April. On the low end of the range of rate changes projected by WTW experts in this years report, public D&O insurance buyers could see rates actually drop as much as 10%, and cyber insurance buyers might experience flat renewals.

The strong financial market in the last few years has mitigated claims activity, and insurance carriers are aggressively pursuing market share, which is helping drive down pricing at rates unseen in more than a decade, John Drummond, WTWs head of Broking, North America, wrote in the executive summary to the latest report.

Separately, Aon reported the sharpest declines in D&O insurance pricing in more than a decade for the first quarter of 2023.

The broker view was supported by insurance carrier executives including RLI Corp. Chief Operating Officer Jen Klobnak, W.R. Berkley Corp. President Robert Berkley, Chubb Chief Executive Officer Evan Greenberg, and Markel Corp. Insurance Operations President Jeremy Noble, who called out the line as one they are cautious about during first-quarter earnings conference calls.

Klobnak reported a broker tally of the 20 newcomers to public D&O market in recent months. We believe these new entrants are late to the party and are providing brokers with more mouths to feed, she said, noting that premium for RLIs Executive Products Group dropped 14% in the quarter.

Berkley described the large account D&O marketplace as being in a state of free fall as far as rate adequacy or pricing. Like Klobnak, Berkley noted the new entrants and added that there isnt new demand to balance the new supply. We have seen a dramatic reduction in IPOs, Berkley said. Weve just seen a dramatic reduction in a lot of the activity that would drive D&O purchasing, he said.

The reality is that the demand has been reduced and the supply has increased, and that has led to an unattractive, competitive environment from our perspective.

Carrier View vs. Broker View. While Chubbs Greenberg was reporting the balance of his observations tilting in the direction of improved pricing from a carrier perspective, WTWs Drummond said, The long curve, the larger trend, is bending in a positive direction for buyers.

Said Chubbs Greenberg: There are a lot of players with no data and no experience, and theyre receiving, many of them, capacity by those who dont seem to have their eye on the ballWell always trade in that case, volume for the right underwriting. And its not an area that I think is devoid of risk, particularly as you look forwardeverything from recession and volatility in financial markets to climate change and claims of greenwashing and all of that, he said.

At Markel, Noble said his company is not comfortable with the pricing trend for the large account D&O space. As a result, we are shrinking, selectively allowing some business to lapse and being very discerning around new accounts.

Noble cited excess casualty lines as another area where Markel is pushing hard for rate and willing to let existing business lapse where they are unable to get it.

Chubbs Greenberg, who referred to a general reacceleration of commercial insurance pricing for North American P/C business, noted markets hiking prices in response to loss trends in property and excess casualty lines. Unpacking his overview of improved pricing line-by-line, he ended up declaring the trajectory of commercial insurance prices as a mixed bag.

Thats precisely the description that WTWs Drummond used in his introduction to the Marketplace Realities report. But while Greenberg was reporting the balance of his observations tilting in the direction of improved pricing from a carrier perspective, Drummond said, The long curve, the larger trend, is bending in a positive direction for buyers.

Noting that the financial markets remain strong, and unemployment is still low, Drummond said that while the economic environment remains uncertain for 2023, our insurance market is, for the most part, telegraphing positive signs for our buyers.

The summary of WTWs rate forecasts for casualty lines for April 2023, compared to April 2022 and year-end 2022 forecasts set forth below, bears that out, with greater levels of softening apparent as you move down the chart from standard casualty to management liability lines and cyber.

Property, on the other hand, continued to move in the opposite direction, with prices rising for both challenged and non-challenged occupancies.

This article first was published in Insurance Journals sister publication, Carrier Management.

Topics Trends Commercial Lines Business Insurance Willis Towers Watson
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This edition of People Moves details appointments at the broker Lockton and the managing general agent CFC Underwriting.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Lockton Promotes 5 Key Leaders Into Global Roles

Lockton, the independent, privately held insurance broker, has promoted five key leaders into global roles. These leaders will be working closely with the retail leadership team building innovative enterprise-wide solutions.

Lockton is attracting both complex clients and talented Associates all around the world, resulting in unprecedented growth, said Peter Clune, Lockton CEO. This new structure will be simple, collaborative and fast. The power of Lockton coming together on one global platform will help our people and clients reach their full potential.

Troy Cook will continue in his role as chief financial officer and will now also lead all finance and legal associates globally. After serving as an independent board member on Locktons board of directors since 2018, Cook joined Lockton as CFO in 2020. As an innovative finance executive, he has transformed the strategic finance function at Lockton to ensure long-term growth and private ownership perpetuation. During his time with the company, he has played a critical role in setting and executing business strategies while creating a new capital structure to ensure Locktons momentum and growth continues.

will continue in his role as chief financial officer and will now also lead all finance and legal associates globally. After serving as an independent board member on Locktons board of directors since 2018, Cook joined Lockton as CFO in 2020. As an innovative finance executive, he has transformed the strategic finance function at Lockton to ensure long-term growth and private ownership perpetuation. During his time with the company, he has played a critical role in setting and executing business strategies while creating a new capital structure to ensure Locktons momentum and growth continues. Julie Gibson , Locktons chief marketing officer, will prioritize expanding the reach of Locktons uncommonly Independent brand. Her efforts have been vital in highlighting Locktons authenticity and distinctive approach as a perpetually private brokerage with a long-term focus on its people, clients and communities. She will now oversee marketing and communications initiatives across the globe. Gibson has been an integral part of Lockton since 2018, where she has successfully launched a new brand identity, internal and external digital engagement platforms, and introduced innovative approaches to communicate the companys unique story.

, Locktons chief marketing officer, will prioritize expanding the reach of Locktons uncommonly Independent brand. Her efforts have been vital in highlighting Locktons authenticity and distinctive approach as a perpetually private brokerage with a long-term focus on its people, clients and communities. She will now oversee marketing and communications initiatives across the globe. Gibson has been an integral part of Lockton since 2018, where she has successfully launched a new brand identity, internal and external digital engagement platforms, and introduced innovative approaches to communicate the companys unique story. Trey Humphrey , chief legal officer, has been an essential part of Lockton since 2000, and as General Counsel, he has played a crucial role in managing the companys legal affairs in an increasingly complex business environment. His leadership has been instrumental in supporting Locktons growth from $300 million to $3 billion. Humphrey will lead a robust, global legal team that will work to help achieve Locktons aggressive global goals and safeguard the company.

, chief legal officer, has been an essential part of Lockton since 2000, and as General Counsel, he has played a crucial role in managing the companys legal affairs in an increasingly complex business environment. His leadership has been instrumental in supporting Locktons growth from $300 million to $3 billion. Humphrey will lead a robust, global legal team that will work to help achieve Locktons aggressive global goals and safeguard the company. Martyn Worsley has been appointed Locktons chief people officer after his significant successes over the past two years leading human resources across Locktons international business from London. In this new role, Worsley will lead Locktons global people strategy, driving initiatives to ensure Lockton wins the talent game and has the best culture in the industry. As a firm that grows one handshake at a time, Lockton has significant momentum in this area, which Worsleys leadership will continue to build upon.

has been appointed Locktons chief people officer after his significant successes over the past two years leading human resources across Locktons international business from London. In this new role, Worsley will lead Locktons global people strategy, driving initiatives to ensure Lockton wins the talent game and has the best culture in the industry. As a firm that grows one handshake at a time, Lockton has significant momentum in this area, which Worsleys leadership will continue to build upon. Byron Clymer, Locktons chief information officer, has been entrusted with leading Locktons strategy to develop global platforms that empower its people to deliver clients with industry-leading advice and insight and unparalleled service. Since joining Lockton in 2018 as U.S. CIO, Clymer has been instrumental in overseeing the transformation of U.S. IT strategy and will now scale transformation across the globe.

These newly appointed executives have a proven track record of success at Lockton, said Clune. They are the best of the best, and they know how to drive meaningful change and preserve our culture.

***

CFC Appoints Marino as Distribution Leader, USA

CFC, the specialist managing general agent, announced it has appointed Lori Marino as Distribution Leader, USA.

In this newly created role based out of New York, Marino will be responsible for broker relationship management and CFCs distribution strategy across the U.S. market.

Marino joins CFC with over 20 years experience in senior leadership in insurance, including significant stints as senior vice president at ACE USA, Crum & Forster and Valiant Insurance. Most recently, she was head of Carrier Relations and Revenue Growth at PCF Insurance Services and continues to hold several non-exec directorships in insurance

This is a significant hire that will support our wider growth strategy and have immediate impact on service delivery across our surplus lines and admitted businesses, said Pat Brice, distribution director at CFC. Lori will undoubtedly boost our U.S. distribution and broker relationship capability, while working closely with our underwriting teams and the wider CFC business to ensure we continue to deliver an outstanding proposition for our U.S. customers based on deep local knowledge.

Weve reached a stage that warrants building out our U.S. leadership team, and Loris deep industry experience and relationships will be incredibly valuable in helping us drive further adoption of both our surplus and admitted lines solutions throughout the country, commented Shannon Groeber, CEO at CFC USA.

Topics Leadership
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A longtime worker at a North Carolina furniture products company, described as a model employee, died in 2020 under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Co-workers described hearing a strange noise as Rodney Baker was cleaning around a running band saw machine.

Baker was found with bruises to his back and blunt force trauma and lacerations to his chest. A medical examiners report surmised that the man had been crushed between a moving part of the automated machine and a nearby steel girder, although the moving part was only three feet off the ground. No one saw the incident and security cameras were not in positions to record it, a recent court decision explained.

Bakers widow was awarded full workers compensation benefits: two-thirds of the mans weekly wages, for nine years, plus a $10,000 burial allowance.

Under North Carolina law, which is similar to statutes in many states, claimants can also pursue a tort claim against the employer or co-workers if they believe willful, wanton, reckless negligence or intentional acts were involved. A trial court in Catawba County dismissed the suit against the president of Dimension Wood Products but allowed it to proceed against the firms operations manager, Randy Reinhardt.

On Tuesday, a panel of the Court of Appeals of North Carolina reversed the lower court judge, finding that the plaintiffs had not presented enough evidence to show Reinhardt exhibited wanton negligence that would allow an exception to the exclusive remedy of the workers compensation statute.

This case involves an undeniable tragedy. We are cognizant of the heartbreak caused by Mr. Bakers death and the ensuing pain endured by his family, Appeals Court Judge Allison Riggs wrote in the opinion. But the State has guaranteed them some measure of recompense, however inadequate it may feel following the avoidable loss of a family member, through the guarantees of the Workers Compensation Act.

The decision once again highlights the high bar that plaintiffs must reach in proving an exception to the exclusive remedy, a bar that was established by the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1985 in the pivotal Pleasant vs. Johnson ruling. That decision recognized that reckless behavior and willful negligence can be equated with an intentional act, in keeping with the exception allowed under the workers comp statute.

In the Baker case, though, the employer had not exhibited such willful actions, the appeals court found. Although employees had testified that although one side of the band saw had been left exposed, allowing Baker to clean in that area, that side was normally blocked by movable barrels or carts.

Dimension Wood Products also had a sparkling safety record and had held regular employee meetings to address safety issues, the court noted. Baker had worked there for 15 years, knew the hazards involved, had not been directed by anyone to clean behind the saw and had been warned to stay away from the spot while the machine was in operation.

After the fatal incident, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the plant for a serious violation for failing to place guards around all sides of the machine. Dimension then installed an appropriate barrier gate.

The widows attorney, David Hood, of Hickory, North Carolina, argued that Reinhardt, the plant manager, knew of the hazard but management was too busy to complete the necessary fencing before the accident.

The appeals court judges said that was not enough.

Even if we take this evidence, accurately described, in the light most favorable to Plaintiff, it falls short of showing negligence so egregious as to be equivalent in spirit to actual intent,' the judge wrote, quoting from another decision that backed the Pleasant ruling.

Judges Hunter Murphy and John Arrowood concurred. Attorneys David Coats, David Wisz and Devon Collins represented the plant manager in the case.

In another workers comp-related opinion handed down Tuesday, the appeals court found that Travelers Insurance Co. must continue paying for medical treatment for a worker who fell from a stack of boxes at a Rent-a-Center in 2010. The employer/carrier did not produce enough evidence to rebut North Carolinas Parsons presumption, which holds that once an injury is accepted as the result of a compensable accident, additional medical treatment is usually considered directly related to the injury.

Topics North Carolina
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More rich and more poor residents will qualify for home-hardening grants under an expanded My Safe Florida Home measure approved by lawmakers.

House Bill 881, if signed into law, will raise the wind-mitigation grant level for low-income Florida homeowners from $5,000 to $10,000, the same as for more affluent residents. It also will allow mitigation funding for homes with insured values of as much as $700,000, up from $500,000. The Florida House of Representatives approved the bill last week with no dissenting votes, followed by the state Senate two days later.

As the 2023 hurricane season approaches, Floridians are looking for ways to harden their homes and reduce their insurance costs. The My Safe Florida Home program does just that, and I am proud to support HB 881, which will expand upon eligibility requirements, Floridas chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, said in a statement.

Patronis is hoping that a 2023-2024 state budget will include another $100 million in funding for the program, which helps pay for storm shutters, stronger roof-to-frame connectors and roof systems. With the legislative session set to adjourn on Friday, lawmakers have said they have negotiated a budget thats $6 billion larger than this years spending plan, according to news reports.

HB 881 would require free evaluations by trained inspectors before the retrofits are approved. The program would also be expanded statewide, no longer just for homes in a designated wind-borne debris area, according to a legislative analysis.

Low-income residents are defined by state law as those with an annual income of less than 80% of the median annual income in the state. The median household income in Florida was about $62,000 in 2021, according to the state Department of Health. Those homeowners were limited to just $5,000 in repairs under the previous program but can soon receive up to twice that much if the bill becomes law.

Homeowners must match the grants: For every $2 in program funding, the resident must provide $1.

The program began in 2006, but was defunded after just two years due to scandals and long waiting lists for the work, Florida Politics news site has reported. The plan was revived in 2022 and lawmakers provided a one-time appropriation of $150 million.

The program was criticized again late last year for a slow roll-out, but Patronis office said he ordered an expedited launch date in November. Between May 2022 and February 2023, 16,724 mitigation inspections were completed and 2,979 grant applications were approved, the bill analysis explains. Thats far fewer than the 11,000 grants that had been anticipated.

Residents can apply here for the grants.

Some sales-tax exemptions also are available for materials used for home hardening, through June of 2024.

Patronis Department of Financial Services has not said how much the retrofitting may reduce homeowner insurance premiums. But for one Pensacola home that is not in a flood zone, for example, wind mitigation work done in 2007 helped cut the annual premium from about $6,600 to about $2,500.

Other Southeast states have established similar programs in recent years. Alabamas Department of Insurance announced this week that its Safe Alabama Homes, begun in 2011, has retrofitted some 6,000 homes. That program requires no matching funds from homeowners and provides grants of up to $10,000. In 2019, the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association launched a Strengthen Your Roof grant program that has aided thousands of homes, officials said.

Topics Florida Legislation
As prison violence spiked after the implementation of a solitary confinement reform law, the Cayuga County District Attorney's Office prioritized cases involving assaults on correctional staff.

Cayuga County District Attorney Brittany Grome Antonacci informed lawmakers about the uptick in cases during a Cayuga County Legislature Public Safety Committee meeting in April. While there is not historical data available, Grome Antonacci confirmed to The Citizen that her office is seeing more cases stemming from "large-scale disturbances and inmates assaulting correctional officers with weapons."

In 2022, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision reported 1,489 assaults on staff and 1,486 assaults on incarcerated individuals, both records. DOCCS provided additional data to The Citizen showing that the rate of assaults on staff was 47.6 per 1,000, up from 36.8 per 1,000 in 2021. The rate of assaults on incarcerated individuals was 48.1 per 1,000, up from 34.6 per 1,000 in 2021.

Injuries to incarcerated individuals and staff both increased by 24%, according to the department, and 15% of assaults on staff occurred in residential rehabilitation units, which were established under the Humane Alternatives to Long Term Solitary Confinement Act. The law seeks to restrict the use of solitary confinement and limits how long incarcerated individuals may be kept in special housing units to no more than 15 consecutive days.

The increasing violence is occurring despite a declining incarcerated population. In 2022, the statewide prison population was 30,872, down from 39,243 in 2020.

DOCCS began collecting data on prosecutions of assaults on staff and incarcerated individuals, but a department spokesperson noted that "there is not enough complete data to draw any conclusions at this time."

In Cayuga County, though, Grome Antonacci is seeing more work for her office. She said that's due to the county having two state prisons: Auburn Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison, and Cayuga Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Moravia.

Grome Antonacci said her office is reviewing a mess hall disturbance that occurred at Auburn Correctional Facility in 2022 and involved an inmate assaulting a correctional officer. There was also an officer attacked by an inmate at Cayuga Correctional Facility in March. Another incarcerated individual who assaulted an officer at Cayuga in 2022 was recently indicted.

Before HALT took effect, there was a vicious assault at Auburn prison that left an officer with a severe laceration after he was slashed by an inmate. The inmate, Narada Matthews, pleaded guilty in March 2022.

When these assaults occur, Grome Antonacci explained that DOCCS and the New York State Police will investigate the crimes. When the investigation is completed, the state police will forward its materials to the district attorney's office, which determines whether a felony prosecution is warranted. Prosecutors then present the case to a grand jury for an indictment.

With HALT in place, Grome Antonacci said criminal charges are the "main deterrent to inmate assaults on staff."

"We have prioritized the review and prosecution of these cases with that factor in mind," she added.
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A former Florida college administrator has been sentenced to one year and three months in federal prison for defrauding the school out of $155,000 during a website redesign project.

Brian Carroll, 47, of New Market, Tennessee, was sentenced Monday in Tampa federal court, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in January to felony wire fraud. Carroll must also forfeit proceeds from the crime and pay $112,500 in restitution.

According to his plea agreement, Carroll was serving as the executive vice president of Southeastern University in 2016 when he became involved in a project to redesign the website and digital brand of the universitys President. The private university is in Lakeland, Florida, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Tampa.

Carroll set up an anonymous limited liability company based in New Mexico without the knowledge of other Southeastern University officials and then used that company to bid to the university to perform the web rebranding project for a total price of $185,000, his indictment shows. The school accepted the bid with Carrolls recommendation, and the university made five payments to Carrolls company over several months in late 2016, officials said.

Unbeknownst to university officials, Carrolls company contracted with an unrelated New York-based company to do the actual work on the project for just $30,000, leaving Carroll with the remaining $155,000, investigators said.

The indictment was returned against Carroll in August 2021, and he was arrested three months later. Prosecutors did not say how the scheme came to light.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics K-12 Education Universities
A measure to put up $30 million in state and city funds won initial backing from Nevada state lawmakers to help homeowners move from a once-segregated North Las Vegas neighborhood where geologic features made homes crack, sink and sometimes become unsafe.

Democratic state Sen. Dina Neal, the bill sponsor, also called for North Las Vegas officials to explain how more than $14 million that she said had been allocated in the late 1990s to help residents in the Windsor Park area has been spent.

They were seeking help. Theyre still seeking help, Neal said as she read into the legislative record North Las Vegas City Council minutes from 1993 and city budget documents entries since 2015 about Windsor Park  a middle-class tract of 241 homes built to accommodate Black families during an era of housing segregation.

Three North Las Vegas officials testified, including the city finance director and a spokeswoman, Candace Townsend, who acknowledged that geological faults and groundwater withdrawal issues (make) Windsor Park not suitable for the rebuilding of houses.

Neals bill, dubbed the Windsor Park Environmental Justice Act, would have the city put up $20 million and the state put up $10 million to pay for 90 remaining homeowners to move to comparable single-family homes of similar size and value at todays prices. The vacated area would be earmarked as a recreational park.

Neal represents the area and chairs the Revenue and Economic Development committee that voted unanimously to back Senate Bill 450. It next goes to the full Senate for a vote. If the Democratic-controlled Legislature passes it, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo will consider it, said Elizabeth Ray, the governors spokeswoman.

Neal said geologic surveys werent done or did not show that the sandy hillside  with a sweeping view of downtown Las Vegas and the skyline of the casino-lined Strip in the distance  sits atop geologic faults and an underground water table that has since been drained.

Homesites sank or subsided. Walls cracked. Sewer lines leaked. Some properties were condemned as unsafe. Insurance companies withdrew coverage.

Today, the neighborhood not far from North Las Vegas Airport is a patchwork including neatly maintained homes, vacant lots, uneven sidewalks, undulating roads, crumbled foundations and dilapidated houses.

Relocation funds established with city, state and federal funds in 1999 offered homeowners $50,000 to move  if they agreed to relocate in North Las Vegas. That fund was increased in 2004 to $100,000. More than 100 homeowners left.

Some who still live there recalled for lawmakers on Thursday a tight-knit community where schoolchildren played and families attended churches together. Some said they didnt want or couldnt afford to move from homes they now own outright.

Were too old to start all over again, said Myrtle Wilson, a resident since August 1965. I think we have been shortchanged, this $100,000. I dont want to leave my kids with a bill to pay, because I have taken care of everything.

Neal pointed to a letter titled Windsor Park History that Wilson received from North Las Vegas officials, postmarked September 2022. It totaled the amount of relocation funding the city received from the state, federal grants and the government-sponsored Fannie Mae mortgage enterprise, as of August 2019, at $14.4 million.

Jared Luke, the city economic development chief, noted that North Las Vegas had a huge budget deficit 10 years ago and narrowly averted a state financial takeover. He said officials welcomed attention now to the very complex and emotional Windsor Park resettlement issue. But he called it not a situation that we can fix right away. He said the city opposed Neals bill.

I think everyones on the same page, Luke said. You cant rebuild in Windsor Park. The soil condition is deplorable. But (the city) cant walk in and say, Windsor Park is uninhabitable. 

Neal would have none of it. She is the daughter of Nevadas first Black state senator, Joe Neal, himself a two-time candidate for governor who served 30 years in the Legislature and died in late 2020.

Im tired of the excuses, and Im tired of the statements that somehow these families missed their golden ticket to leave, Neal said, noting her own ties to residents in Windsor Park. She accused city officials of word games and omissions and recharacterizing truth to deflect city responsibility.

The remedy is still on the table because it has not been effective, Neal declared. You have neglected these families. They are aware of it.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
State emergency managers are projecting clean-up and repair costs of at least $10.6 million following severe winter storms that affected rural parts of Nevada in March.

Nevada Division on Emergency Management spokeswoman Gail Powell said the amount is expected to increase as state, tribal and local entities complete assessments and apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance.

The cost estimate came after President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration authorizing FEMA cost-sharing funds for damage from flooding, landslides and mudslides from March 8 to March 19 in Douglas, Eureka, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral and Storey counties.

All but four of Nevadas 17 counties and Yomba Shoshone tribal lands were included in an emergency declaration initially enacted March 9 by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo following a series of wet winter storms that swept off the Pacific Ocean, dumping extraordinary amounts of snow in the Sierra Nevada and rain on rangelands.

U.S. 95, a key highway between Las Vegas and Reno, was closed for several days due to a rock fall near Walker Lake in Mineral County.

Eric Holt, emergency services director in Lincoln County, said it will cost several million dollars just in his eastern Nevada county to repair roads, a washed-out spillway at the Echo Canyon dam and other infrastructure.

He pointed to a 75% cost share from FEMA and said there was no way Lincoln County would have been able to cover repair costs itself.

The declaration from the president, a Democrat, said federal funds also will be available for hazard mitigation measures statewide.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Windstorm
Supporting supercomputing in Europe, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) project helps fund expansion of supercomputing resources in the continent. Together, Cinecas and EuroHPC JUs aggressive supercomputing plans enabled the building of a new HPC resource at Cineca, called Leonardo, with next-generation data center and supercomputing technologies for a wide variety of traditional workloads, visualization, and AI.

Solution

Leonardo is the first of many HPC systems being deployed across Europe under the EuroHPC JU. With funding from EuroHPC JU, Cineca and other European HPC centers, are on track to deliver Exascale supercomputing in the near future to meet the demands of the worlds grand challenges.

Cinecas customers workloads present a range of demands on computing resources, including memory bandwidth, data throughput, floating point and matrix computation, and others. Such workloads include ab initio materials science and molecular modeling, weather and climate modeling, plasma physics simulation, large-scale bioinformatics, AI and ML, and many other demanding applications. Thus, Leonardo needed to offer both high performance general purpose HPC and AI capabilities in a balanced manner to eliminate bottlenecks for the various workloads. For Leonardo, Cineca chose a hybrid architecture with over a million CPU and GPU cores designed for compute-intensive and data-intensive HPC workloads.

System Summary

Leonardo was built by Atos on BULLSequana XH2000 supercomputer nodes. The system includes four partitions and more than 136 BULLSequana XH2000 Direct Liquid cooling racks. Leonardos partitions include a front-end/service tier, storage tier, compute accelerator (booster) tier, and compute (data-centric) tier. The two compute and booster tiers deliver nearly 250 petaFLOPS HPL and 10 exaFLOPS AI 16-bit floating point operations per second.

Front-end/service partition: These provide the login, service, and visualization nodes.

Storage partition: Designed to support both high data throughput and capacity, the storage partition includes a 5-petabyte fast tier and 100-petabyte capacity tier (Table 1). This architecture enables the system to address demanding I/O use cases with extreme bandwidth and IOPS, while providing capacity for the large datasets seen in todays computational problems and AI.

Computing (data-centric) partition: With 1,536 BULLSequana X2610 3-node compute blades built on 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (56 cores each), the compute (data-centric) partitions delivers nine petaFLOPS HPL, according to Cineca.

Compute accelerator (booster) partition: Each of the 3,456 BULLSequana X2135 DaVinci compute blades house an Intel Xeon 8358 Platinum processor (32 cores) and four custom-designed NVIDIA Ampere GPUs. This partition is designed to satisfy the computational demanding requirements of GPU-accelerated workloads.
Insurance companies provide risk management to individuals, businesses, and institutional clients. Although there are a multitude of different types of insurance companies, the protection guarantees payment or reimbursement in the event of losses for the insured.

Insurance companies offer policies offering coverage for losses related to accidents, health, property, homeownership, professional liability, malpractice, and casualty, among other areas.

These are the 10 biggest insurance companies by revenue as of Dec. 22, 2022. This list is limited to companies that are publicly traded in the U.S. or Canada, either directly or through ADRs.

Key Takeaways Berkshire Hathaway is the leading insurance company by revenue.

Insurance companies offer policies for losses due to accidents, health issues, property damage, and professional liability.

Some of the largest insurance companies hold market positions in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.



Some of the stocks below are only traded over-the-counter (OTC) in the U.S., not on exchanges. Trading OTC stocks often carry higher trading costs than trading stocks on exchanges. This can lower or outweigh potential returns.



Revenue: $253.9 billion

Net Income: -$1.3 billion

Market Cap: $663.6 billion

1-Year Trailing Total Return: 4.3%

Exchange: New York Stock Exchange

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a major conglomerate and one of the nation's premier insurance companies, with additional holdings in sectors such as rail transportation, utilities and energy, manufacturing, services, and retailing.

Berkshire provides primary insurance, as well as reinsurance of property and casualty risks through companies such as GEICO, Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies, Gateway Underwriters Agency, General Re, and National Indemnity Company.

Revenue: $156.2 billion

Net Income: $14.7 billion

Market Cap: $114.8 billion

1-Year Trailing Total Return: -7.5%

Exchange: OTC Markets

Ping An Insurance provides insurance, financial services, and banking. It is one of the top 50 companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Founded in 1988, it was China's first joint-stock insurance company. Its subsidiaries include Ping An Life, Ping An Property & Casualty, Ping An Annuity, and Ping An Health.

Revenue: $137.4 billion

Net Income: $7.8 billion

Market Cap: $85.3 billion

1-Year Trailing Total Return: -1.85%

Exchange: OTC Markets

Allianz is a leading global financial services company, providing products and services from insurance to asset management. It offers insurance products ranging from property and casualty policies to health and life insurance for corporate and individual customers. The company is headquartered in Germany.

Revenue: $107.6 billion

Net Income: $8.2 billion

Market Cap: $64.6 billion

1-Year Trailing Total Return: 5.8%

Exchange: OTC Markets

AXA is one of the world's leading insurance groups with major businesses in property and casualty insurance, life insurance, savings, and asset management. Several insurance companies merged to create AXA in the 1990s.

Revenue: $71.6 billion

Net Income: $2.4 billion

Market Cap: $56.3 billion

1-Year Trailing Total Return: 26.2%

Exchange: New York Stock Exchange

MetLife, Inc. is a leading global provider of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs. With its many subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife holds market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Revenue: $63.5 billion

Net Income: 328 million

Market Cap: $36.2 billion

1-Year Trailing Total Return: 1.2%

Exchange: New York Stock Exchange

Prudential PLC is a London-based insurance and investment services company offering products ranging from life, health, accident, property, and casualty policies to pensions, equity plans, mortgages, and other financial services. Prudential also caters to customers in all major global markets.





Revenue: $59 billion

Net Income: $13.8 billion

Market Cap: $46.7 billion

1-Year Trailing Total Return: 21.4%

Exchange: New York Stock Exchange

American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is a leading global insurance organization providing a wide range of property casualty insurance, life insurance, retirement solutions, and other financial services to customers in approximately 70 countries.

Revenue: $52.6 billion

Net Income: -$210 million

Market Cap: $35.5 billion

1-Year Trailing Total Return: 22.2%

Exchange: New York Stock Exchange

Allstate Corp. is a leader in personal property and casualty products such as auto, home, and life insurance. In 2020, Allstate delivered on its "You're in good hands" motto through the Shelter-in-Place Payback, which gave almost $1 billion back to auto customers over three months.

Revenue: $47.7 billion

Net Income: $852 million

Market Cap: $74.4 billion

1-Year Trailing Total Return: 25.7%

Exchange: New York Stock Exchange

Progressive Corp. was founded in 1937 and is a leader in the auto and homeowners insurance industry. The company also offers financial services and both commercial and personal insurance products with bundling options.

Revenue: $42.1 billion

Net Income: $6.1 billion

Market Cap: $89.1 billion

1-Year Trailing Total Return: 17.5%

Exchange: New York Stock Exchange

Chubb Ltd. is a publicly traded property and casualty insurance company and the leading commercial lines insurer in the U.S. with operations in 54 countries and territories. Chubb products include commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance, and life insurance.


Johannesburg, South Africa - May 3, 2023 (Newsfile Corp.) (Investorideas.com Newswire) Ivanhoe Mines' (TSX: IVN) (OTCQX: IVPAF) President Marna Cloete and Chief Financial Officer David van Heerden are pleased to present the company's financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2023. Ivanhoe Mines is a leading Canadian mining company that is advancing its four principal mining and exploration projects in Southern Africa: the Phase 3 expansion of the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that commenced commercial operations in July 2021; the construction of the Platreef palladium, nickel, platinum, rhodium, copper and gold project in South Africa, scheduled for first production in the third quarter of 2024; the restart of the historic Kipushi zinc-copper-lead-germanium mine in the DRC, also scheduled for first production in the third quarter of 2024; and the exploration for new copper discoveries on Ivanhoe's 2,407-square-kilometre Western Foreland exploration project, which is adjacent to Kamoa-Kakula. All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

Ivanhoe Mines recorded a profit of $82 million for Q1 2023, compared to a profit of $22 million for the same period in 2022. The profit in the quarter is net of a $31 million non-cash loss on the fair value adjustment of the embedded derivative financial liability of the convertible bond, resulting predominantly from a 14% increase in the share price from C$10.70 per share to C$12.21 per share at quarter end. The profit includes Ivanhoe Mines' share of profit and finance income from the Kamoa-Kakula joint venture of $130 million for Q1 2023.

Adjusted Q1 2023 EBITDA for the Ivanhoe Mines group of $168 million, compared to $145 million for the same period in 2022, and $162 million for Q4 2022, which includes an attributable share of EBITDA from Kamoa-Kakula.

During Q1 2023, Kamoa-Kakula sold 86,777 tonnes of payable copper and recognized record revenue of $689 million, with an operating profit of $416 million and record quarterly EBITDA of $452 million.

Kamoa-Kakula's cost of sales per pound (lb.) of payable copper sold was $1.25/lb. for Q1 2023 compared with $1.08/lb. and $1.08/lb. in Q4 2022 and Q1 2022, respectively. Cash costs (C1) per pound of payable copper produced in Q1 2023 totalled $1.42/lb., compared to $1.42/lb. and $1.21/lb. in Q4 2022 and Q1 2022, respectively.

Ivanhoe Mines has a strong balance sheet with cash and cash equivalents of $497 million on hand as at March 31, 2023, and expects Kamoa-Kakula's Phase 1 and Phase 2 cash flow to be sufficient to fund the Phase 3 expansion capital cost requirements at current copper prices.

Off-take and financing terms agreed with Gecamines and Glencore to return Ivanhoe's ultra-high-grade Kipushi Mine to production in Q3 2024; off-take term sheet for 100% of Kipushi's zinc concentrate, together with a $250-million facility to finance construction.

OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

Kamoa-Kakula produced 93,603 tonnes of copper in Q1 2023, including a record 34,915 tonnes of copper in March 2023, following the completion of the debottlenecking program in late February 2023, ahead of schedule and on-budget.

Kamoa-Kakula's Phase 1 and 2 concentrators have continued to perform strongly, achieving a daily mill throughput record of over 29,000 tonnes, and also achieving recoveries in excess of 88% during March and April, significantly higher than the design rate of 86%.

Construction for Platreef's Phase 1 concentrator is advancing well and is on track for first production in Q3 2024. The Shaft 2 headgear concrete structure is complete to a height of approximately 79 metres. Shaft 2's overall height will be approximately 100 metres above ground, including the steel structure housing the main winders.

Ivanhoe initiated an optimization study at Platreef to potentially accelerate production from the Phase 2 expansion. The study will consider the implications of converting the 5.1-metre-diameter ventilation shaft (Shaft 3), which is under construction, to a production shaft with the capability to hoist.

Surface construction activities and underground development of the Big Zinc orebody at Kipushi are advancing ahead of schedule, with first concentrate production expected in Q3 2024.

Ivanhoe continues its expansive copper exploration program on its Western Foreland licences that cover approximately 2,407 square kilometres adjacent to Kamoa-Kakula. Diamond drilling commenced in early January with a single contractor rig, which was increased to three rigs by the end of March, together with an Ivanhoe Land Cruiser mounted diamond drill rig. A total of 4,883 meters of diamond core was drilled during the quarter, which was wet season.

Ivanhoe Mines published its sixth annual Sustainability Report, underscoring the company's ongoing commitment to "mining with a greater purpose" and its pursuit to be a global leader in responsible mining. Please visit www.ivanhoemines.com to view the report.

Watch a Q1 2023 video of operations and construction activities at Kamoa-Kakula: https://vimeo.com/823071306/8b676323fb

Read Ivanhoe's First Quarter 2023 Sustainability Update: https://bit.ly/40XMxeC

Q1 2023 conference call for investors

Ivanhoe Mines will hold an investor conference call to discuss its Q1 2023 financial results at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time / 7:30 a.m. Pacific time on Wednesday, May 3. The conference call will conclude with a question-and-answer (Q&A) session. Media are invited to attend on a listen-only basis.

To view the webcast please use the following link: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/i6yyz97g

Analysts are invited to join by phone for the Q&A using the following link: https://register.vevent.com/register/BI639b8647ae7c4cf6802991597dd26b68

An audio webcast recording of the conference call, together with supporting presentation slides, will be available on Ivanhoe Mines' website at www.ivanhoemines.com.

After issuance, the Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis will be available at www.ivanhoemines.com and www.sedar.com.

Principal projects and review of activities

Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex

39.6%-owned by Ivanhoe Mines

Democratic Republic of Congo

The Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex operated as the Kamoa Holding joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines and Zijin Mining, has been independently ranked as the world's third-largest copper deposit by international mining consultant Wood Mackenzie in 2027. The project is approximately 25 kilometres southwest of the town of Kolwezi and about 270 kilometres west of Lubumbashi. Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex's Phase 1 concentrator began producing copper in May 2021 and achieved commercial production on July 1, 2021. The Phase 2 concentrator, which doubled nameplate production capacity, was commissioned in April 2022.

Ivanhoe sold a 49.5% share interest in Kamoa Holding Limited (Kamoa Holding) to Zijin Mining and a 1% share interest in Kamoa Holding to privately owned Crystal River in December 2015. Kamoa Holding holds an 80% interest in the project. Ivanhoe and Zijin Mining each hold an indirect 39.6% interest in Kamoa-Kakula, Crystal River holds an indirect 0.8% interest, and the DRC government holds a direct 20% interest. Kamoa-Kakula's employee workforce is currently 97% Congolese.

Aerial view of Kamoa-Kakula's Copper Complex, which is now operating at a recently increased processing capacity of 9.2 million tonnes per annum, and production capacity of up to 450,000 tonnes of copper per annum.

John Katumbwe, Scooptram (LHD) driver, developing the twin decline to the new Kamoa 1 and Kamoa 2 underground mines, which will be the source of copper ore for Kamoa-Kakula's Phase 3 concentrator. Total copper production from Kamoa-Kakula is expected to increase to 600,000 tonnes per annum in Q4 2024.

Kamoa-Kakula produced 93,603 tonnes of copper in Q1 2023, including a record 34,915 tonnes of copper in March 2023

Kamoa-Kakula's Phase 1 and 2 concentrators are now regularly operating at the increased processing rate of 9.2 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa), following the completion of the debottlenecking program. The $50-million Phase 1 and 2 concentrator debottlenecking program was completed on budget and ahead of schedule in late February 2023, increasing production capacity up to 450,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate per annum. All figures are on a 100% project basis and metal reported in concentrate is before refining losses or deductions associated with smelter terms.

Following the completion of the debottlenecking program in February, Kamoa-Kakula's Phase 1 and 2 concentrators had a record-breaking month in March for copper production, including a monthly production record of 34,915 tonnes of copper in concentrate, in addition to a weekly production record of 9,016 tonnes in mid-March, and a daily production record of 1,563 tonnes on March 25, 2023. These records were achieved following two scheduled plant shutdowns during the first quarter to tie in the new debottlenecking equipment. During the month of April, strong concentrator performance continued with a record daily mill throughput achieved of 29,206 tonnes of ore.

Kamoa-Kakula's Phase 1 and 2 concentrators milled approximately 1.93 million tonnes of ore during the first quarter at an average feed grade of 5.42% copper. This included approximately 255,000 tonnes of ore from the surface stockpiles.

(L-R) Chris Tshibanda, Control Room Supervisor; Linda Malumda, Senior Operator Larox; Rachelle Museka, Mill Operator; Serge Mukembe, Control Room Supervisor at Kamoa-Kakula's Phase 1 and Phase 2 concentrator facility, which is now operating at a throughput capacity of 9.2 Mtpa following the successful debottlenecking program.

The Phase 1 and Phase 2 concentrators also substantially outperformed design specifications in terms of copper recovery during the months of March and April. Copper recoveries averaged 88% and periodically exceeded 90% over a 24-hour periods. These record recoveries are significantly above Kamoa-Kakula's nameplate 86% recovery rate.

The record monthly production in March was also achieved despite previously reported instability within the southern DRC grid.

In response to the instability in the southern DRC grid experienced since December 2022, Kamoa-Kakula, together with DRC state-owned power company SNEL, completed a study to tackle the vulnerabilities exposed in the grid network.

Grid stability improved during the month of April, following some initial infrastructure management and maintenance initiatives that SNEL introduced with support from Kamoa Copper. In addition, 60 MW of additional generation capacity from the recently refurbished Nseke hydroelectric power station was introduced into the DRC network. Further initiatives will continue to be implemented over the coming year, benefiting not only the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex, but all users of the DRC's southern grid.

Kamoa-Kakula is also planning to protect operations from potential future grid instability with significantly increased on-site power generation capacity. The current installed backup generation capacity on-site is approximately 32 MW. Over time there is a plan to increase this to over 200 MW in a phased roll-out to achieve sufficient redundancy to meet the total power requirement for Phases 1, 2 and 3, excluding the smelter in situations where extended supply interruptions may occur.

(L-R) Johan Prinsloo, Mine Overseer, and Thabo Kgaladi, Foreman, inspecting newly-installed panels at the new Kamoa 1 underground substation.

In the roll-out plan, an additional 11 MW is expected to be commissioned in Q2 2023 with a further 49 MW planned to be delivered to site towards the end of 2023. Study work is underway on further options for additional on-site backup power capacity, including renewable options, such as solar and hydro, together with battery storage.

Discussions are well advanced to secure up to an additional 100 MW of power from Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) of Zambia, via the DRC-Zambia interconnector. An agreement is expected to be in place shortly.

Draw-down of surface ore stockpiles at Kakula continues as required; stockpiles hold approximately 4.2 million tonnes grading 3.9% copper, containing more than 161,000 tonnes of copper

Kamoa-Kakula's high- and medium-grade ore surface stockpiles totaled approximately 4.2 million tonnes at an estimated grade of 3.9% copper as of the end of March 2023. Excluding any stockpile material, during Q1 2023 the operation mined 2.02 million tonnes of ore from the Kakula and Kansoko mines, grading 5.2% copper. This comprised of 1.83 million tonnes of ore grading 5.6% copper from the Kakula Mine, including 0.75 million tonnes grading 6.7% copper from the mine's high-grade centre.

While the ongoing expansion of underground infrastructure at the Kakula mine takes place, ore will be drawn as required from the stockpile to maximize copper production.

Civil construction for the Phase 3 concentrator plant and associated infrastructure is well advanced

Kamoa-Kakula's ongoing Phase 3 expansion is expected to be commissioned in Q4 2024 and includes a new 5.0-million-tonne-per-annum (Mtpa) concentrator at Kamoa, which is approximately 10 kilometres north of the Phase 1 and 2 concentrators.

The process design of the Phase 3 concentrator is very similar to that of the Phase 1 and 2 concentrators, only larger. The front end of the concentrator (stockpile, crushing and screening) is being built to a capacity of 10 Mtpa, double the required capacity for Phase 3, in anticipation of the future Phase 4 expansion. This follows the same construction approach as that of Phase 1 and Phase 2. The bulk of the equipment is the same or similar to that installed in the Phase 1 and 2 concentrators, resulting in a commonality of spare parts, while leveraging prior operational and maintenance experience.

Detailed design is nearing completion and procurement activities are advancing on schedule with all major equipment ordered and the first steel erection expected around June 2023. Earthworks are essentially complete and civil construction is well-advanced. The structural steel, piping and plate work (SMPP) construction contract is expected to be rewarded shortly.

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For complete report: https://ivanhoemines.com/news/2023/ivanhoe-mines-issues-2023-first-quarter-financial-results-and-overview-of-construction-and-exploration-activities/

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Disclosure of technical information

Disclosures of a scientific or technical nature in this news release regarding the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex (other than stockpiles estimation), the Platreef Project and the Kipushi Project have been reviewed and approved by Steve Amos, who is considered, by virtue of his education, experience and professional association, a Qualified Person under the terms of NI 43-101. Mr. Amos is not considered independent under NI 43-101 as he is the Executive Vice President, Projects, at Ivanhoe Mines. Mr. Amos has verified the technical data related to the foregoing disclosed in this news release.

Disclosures of a scientific or technical nature regarding the Kamoa-Kakula stockpiles in this news release have been reviewed and approved by George Gilchrist, who is considered, by virtue of his education, experience and professional association, a Qualified Person under the terms of NI 43-101. Mr. Gilchrist is not considered independent under NI 43- 101 as he is the Vice President, Resources, at Ivanhoe Mines. Mr. Gilchrist has verified the technical data regarding the Kamoa-Kakula stockpiles disclosed in this news release.

Disclosures of a scientific or technical nature regarding the Western Foreland Project in this news release have been reviewed and approved by Stephen Torr, who is considered, by virtue of his education, experience and professional association, a Qualified Person under the terms of NI 43-101. Mr. Torr is not considered independent under NI 43-101 as he is the Vice President, Geosciences, at Ivanhoe Mines. Mr. Torr has verified the technical data regarding the Western Foreland Project disclosed in this news release.

Ivanhoe has prepared an independent, NI 43-101-compliant technical report for the Kamoa-Kakula Project, the Platreef Project and the Kipushi Project, each of which is available on the company's website and under the company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com:

Kamoa-Kakula 2023 IDP Technical Report dated March 6, 2023, prepared by OreWin Pty Ltd.; China Nerin Engineering Co. Ltd.; DRA Global; Epoch Resources; Golder Associates Africa; Metso Outotec Oyj; Paterson and Cooke; SRK Consulting Ltd.; and, The MSA Group.

The Kipushi 2022 Feasibility Study dated February 14, 2022, prepared by OreWin Pty Ltd., MSA Group (Pty) Ltd., SRK Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, and METC Engineering.

The Platreef 2022 Feasibility Study dated February 28, 2022, prepared by OreWin Pty Ltd., Mine Technical Services, SRK Consulting Inc., DRA Projects (Pty) Ltd and Golder Associates Africa.

These technical reports include relevant information regarding the effective dates and the assumptions, parameters and methods of the mineral resource estimates on the Platreef Project, the Kipushi Project and the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex cited in this news release, as well as information regarding data verification, exploration procedures and other matters relevant to the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this news release in respect of the Platreef Project, Kipushi Project and Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex.

The Kamoa-Kakula 2023 PFS and Kamoa-Kakula 2023 PEA were independently prepared by OreWin Pty Ltd. of Adelaide, Australia; China Nerin Engineering Co., Ltd., of Jiangxi, China; DRA Global of Johannesburg, South Africa; Epoch Resources of Johannesburg, South Africa; Golder Associates Africa of Midrand, South Africa; Metso-Outotec Oyj of Helsinki, Finland; Paterson and Cooke of Cape Town, South Africa; SRK Consulting Inc. of Johannesburg, South Africa; and MSA Group of Johannesburg, South Africa.

For the recently announced Kamoa-Kakula 2023 IDP (including the Kamoa-Kakula 2023 PFS and Kamoa-Kakula 2023 PEA), a new, independent NI 43-101 technical report was filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and the Ivanhoe Mines website at www.ivanhoemines.com on March 16, 2023.

Information contact

Follow Robert Friedland (@robert_ivanhoe) and Ivanhoe Mines (@IvanhoeMines_) on Twitter.

Investors

Vancouver: Matthew Keevil +1.604.558.1034

London: Tommy Horton +44 7866 913 207

Media

Tanya Todd +1.604.331.9834

Website www.ivanhoemines.com

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company, its projects, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such statements can be identified using words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled", "forecast", "predict" and other similar terminology, or state that certain actions, events, or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements reflect the company's current expectations regarding future events, performance and results and speak only as of the date of this news release.

Such statements include without limitation, the timing and results of: (i) statements regarding Kamoa-Kakula's Phase 3 expansion targeted for Q4 2024 completion, which is expected to increase copper production to a ten-year average of 620,000 tonnes per annum, at C1 cash cost of $1.22/lb, which expansion includes a new 5.0 Mtpa concentrator; (ii) statements regarding the ultra-high-grade Kipushi zinc-copper-germanium-silver mine being on track for first production in Q3 2024, and project financing being near completion; (iii) statements regarding the Platreef palladium, nickel, platinum, rhodium, copper and gold project in South Africa being scheduled for first production in Q3 2024; (iv) statements that the Kamoa 1 and Kamoa 2 mines will become the main providers of copper ore for Kamoa-Kakula's Phase 3 expansion to over 600,000 tonnes of copper production annually by Q4 2024; (v) statements regarding the installation of a state-of-the-art static compensation unit at the Kolwezi converter station to stabilize the entire southern grid network and provide a significantly improved electricity supply to Kamoa-Kakula; (vi) statements regarding the over-time increase of backup generation capacity on-site at Kamoa Kakula to over 200 MW in a phased roll-out to achieve sufficient redundancy to meet the total power requirement of the mine in situations where extended supply interruptions may occur, with additional 11 MW expected in Q2 2023 and a further 49 MW expected delivered to site toward the end of 2023, all of which is expected to be sufficient power for Phases 1, 2 and 3, excluding the smelter; (vii) statements regarding an agreement to secure up to an additional 100 MW of power from CEC of Zambia, via the DRC-Zambia interconnector, for Kamoa Kakula; (viii) statements that while the ongoing expansion of underground infrastructure at the Kakula mine takes place, ore will be drawn as required from the stockpile to maximize copper production; (ix) statements that commissioning of Phase 3 at Kamoa-Kakula will result in total processing capacity of over 14.2 Mtpa and that this will position Kamoa Copper as the world's third largest copper mining complex and the largest copper mine on the African continent; (x) statements regarding the 2023 exploration program at Western Foreland being approximately $19 million and including up to 70,000 meters of total drilling; (xi) statements regarding the planned release of a maiden Mineral Resource estimate for its Makoko and Kiala high-grade copper discoveries in the Western Foreland in mid-2023; (xii) statements regarding the optimization study at its Tier-One Platreef palladium, nickel, platinum, rhodium, copper and gold mine in South Africa potentially accelerating production from the Phase 2 expansion, which has the benefit of de-risking the development and ramp-up of the Phase 1 mine and may be used to accelerate the ramp-up of underground mining activities for Phase 2, in advance of the completion of Shaft 2, which is expected in 2027; (xiii) statements that the Lualaba Copper Smelter will produce between 650,000 and 800,000 tonnes per annum of high-strength sulphuric acid that is expected to be sold in the domestic DRC market; (xiv) statements that the on-site smelter will offer transformative financial benefits for the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex, most notably of which is a material reduction in logistics costs (which volume of shipments per unit of copper are expected to be more than halved by selling 99+%-pure blister copper anodes instead of copper concentrate), and to a lesser extent reduced concentrate treatment charges and local taxes, as well as revenue from the acid sales; (xv) statements regarding smelter commissioning being expected to drive a decrease in average cash costs (C1) over the first five years (from 2025) to approximately $1.15/lb. of copper, a 21% reduction from the midpoint of the 2023 guidance of $1.45/lb. of payable copper produced; (xvi) statements regarding the Phase 3 concentrator at Kamoa-Kakula being on track for first concentrate in Q4 2024 (which is planned to coincide with the commissioning of an on-site, direct-to-blister flash copper smelter capable of producing 500,000 tonnes per annum of copper anode), and that it will be fed with ore from the existing Kansoko Sud Mine (formerly Kansoko Mine), as well as new mines currently under development in the Kamoa area, known as Kamoa 1 and 2; (xvii) statements regarding the Phase 4 expansion of the Kamoa-Kakula concentrator taking total processing capacity up to 19.2 Mtpa, and that the Phase 4 concentrator will be fed by new mines in the Kamoa area; (xix) statements that the turbine replacement will supply an additional 178-megawatts of clean hydroelectric power to the national grid, and provide power for Phase 3; (xx) statements regarding the first steel erection with respect to the Kamoa Phase 3 concentrator being expected in June 2023;(xxi) statements regarding the Kamoa-Kakula Phase 3 expansion incorporating leading-edge technology supplied by Metso Outotec, which smelter is projected to be one of the largest, single-line copper flash smelters in the world, with a production capacity of 500,000 tonnes per annum of blister copper anodes; (xxii) statements regarding the Kamoa-Kakula Phase 3 smelter having a processing capacity of 1.2Mtpa of dry concentrate feed and being designed to run a blend of concentrate produced from the Kakula (Phase 1 and 2) and Kamoa (Phase 3 and Phase 4) concentrators; (xxiii) statements that Kamoa-Kakula will continue to toll-treat concentrates under a 10-year agreement with the Lualaba Copper Smelter, which is expected to account for approximately 150,000 tonnes of copper concentrate annually, with the balance of copper production being exported as concentrate; (xxiv) statements that construction of the twin declines to the Kamoa 1 and Kamoa 2 underground mines and excavation access to Phase 3 mining areas are advancing well; (xxv) statements that underground mining activities at Kamoa 1 are expected to commence in 2023 and at Kamoa 2 in 2025, and which both involved the same mechanized drift-and-fill mining methods employed at the Kakula mine; (xxvi) statements regarding the future expansions of the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex being powered by clean, renewable hydro-generated electricity which will be developed in partnership with the DRC's state-owned power company SNEL; (xxvii) statements that the refurbishment of the Inga II hydropower facility on the Congo River is on schedule; (xxviii) statements that the Phase 1 and 2 concentrators will continue to process ore from the Kakula Mine, as well as the new adjacent Kakula West Mine from 2029; (xxix) statements regarding Kamoa-Kakula 2023 guidance including contained copper in concentrate of 390,000 to 430,000 tonnes and cash cost (C1) of $1.40 to $1.50 per lb; (xxx) statements that a senior debt facility for Platreef is targeted for completion in the first half of 2023; (xxxi) statements that Shaft 3 at Platreef is scheduled to be completed in Q4 2023; (xxxii) statements that first production at Platreef's Phase 1 concentrator is scheduled for Q3 2024, with majority long-lead equipment orders scheduled for delivery in Q3 2023; (xxxiii) statements that an additional senior credit facility for Platreef is targeted for completion in mid-2023; (xxxiv) statements that the EC&I contract award at Platreef is planned for mid-2023 with site mobilization expected in Q3 2023; (xxxv) statements that the 10-metre diameter Shaft 2 currently under construction will have a hoisting capacity of 8 Mtpa and that Shaft 2 will be utilized in subsequent development phases and will be among the largest hoisting shafts in the world; (xxxvi) statements that the commissioning of Platreef's first solar-power plant is expected in 2023 and that the solar-generated power from the plant will be used for mine development and construction activities, and that the power generated by this plant will support development activities and operations, together with other renewable energy sources to be introduced over time; (xxxvii statements regarding the pilot drilling required for the raise bore center hole of Platreef's Shaft 2 being scheduled to finish during Q2 2023, after which reaming of a 3.1-meter diameter hole is planned; (xxxviii) statements regarding the raise-boring of the 5.1-meter diameter ventilation shaft (Shaft 3) expected to be completed in Q4 2023; (xxxix) statements that equipping Shaft 3 at Platreef with hoisting capacity will provide alternative option to remove ore and waste from the underground mine, which may accelerate ramp-up of underground mining activities for Phase 2; (xl) statements that underground mining activities for Phase 2 at Platreef are expected in 2027; (xli) statements regarding the off-take term sheet, and the entering into definitive agreements with respect thereof, between Kipushi Corporation SA and Gecamines, and the terms of a $250 million term financing facility for Kipushi from Glencore; (xlii) statements regarding the signed agreement between Kipushi Holding and Gecamines to return the ultra-high-grade Kipushi Mine to commercial production, which sets out the commercial terms that will form the basis of a new Kipushi joint-venture agreement establishing a robust framework for the mutually beneficial operation of Kipushi for years to come, which are subject to execution of definitive documentation; (xliii) statements regarding the impact of the joint venture agreement with Gecamines on Ivanhoe Mines' ownership in the Kipushi Project, which is expected to be reduced to 62%, with Gecamines holding the balance of 38%, and the highlights of the new agreement;(xliv) statements that long lead order equipment packages for Kipushi are expected to commence delivery to the site in late summer 2023, with the ball mill delivery planned for Q3 2023; (xlv) statements that first concentrate at Kipushi is on schedule to occur during Q3 2024; (xlvi) statements that Shaft 5 at Kipushi is planned to be the main production shaft with a maximum hoisting capacity of 1.8Mtpa; (xlvii) statements that mining at Kipushi will be performed using highly productive, mechanized methods and that cemented rock fill will be utilized to backfill open stopes with tailings from the surface to reduce surface tailings and maximize ore extraction at Kipushi, where ore is expected to be crushed underground and conveyed to the base of the P5 shaft where it will be hoisted to the surface and conveyed to the nearby run-of-mine stockpile, adjacent to the 800,000-tonne-per-annum concentrator; (xlviii) statements that stoping at the Big Zinc orebody is expected to commence in early 2024 to build a high-grade ore stockpile ahead of processing plant commissioning in Q3 2024; (xlix) statements that gravity survey at the Mokopane Feeder Exploration Project will commence in Q2 2023, and that diamond drilling will be conducted later in the year on targets to be identified from the results of the magnetic and gravity surveys; (l) statements that a new commercial border crossing between DRC-Zambia will provide significant advantage to Kipushi Mine as a direct means of importing materials and consumables and clearing customs, and that it will provide socio-economic benefits to the town and Province of Haut-Katanga; (li) statements that a new commercial border crossing between DRC-Zambia will benefit logistics for Kamoa-Kakula's operations; (lii) statements that diamond drilling is expected to be conducted on the Mokopane Feeder Exploration Project in 2023; (liii) statements that Phase 1 and Phase 2 operations at Kamoa-Kakula are anticipated to generate significant operating cash flows in 2023 and 2024, and are expected to fund capital cost requirements at current copper prices, and that the joint venture is arranging short-term financing facilities should a shortfall occur due to a significant decrease in copper prices; (liv) statements with respect to the Company's planned expenditures for 2023 and 2024; and (lv) statements that 2023 exploration activities have an initial budget of $31 million.

As well, all of the results of the feasibility study for the Kakula copper mine, the Kamoa-Kakula 2023 IDP, the Platreef 2022 feasibility study, and the Kipushi 2022 feasibility study constitute forward-looking statements or information and include future estimates of internal rates of return, net present value, future production, estimates of cash cost, proposed mining plans and methods, mine life estimates, cash flow forecasts, metal recoveries, estimates of capital and operating costs and the size and timing of phased development of the projects.

Furthermore, concerning this specific forward-looking information concerning the operation and development of the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex, Platreef and Kipushi projects, the company has based its assumptions and analysis on certain factors that are inherently uncertain. Uncertainties include: (i) the adequacy of infrastructure; (ii) geological characteristics; (iii) metallurgical characteristics of the mineralization; (iv) the ability to develop adequate processing capacity; (v) the price of copper, nickel, zinc, platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold; (vi) the availability of equipment and facilities necessary to complete development; (vii) the cost of consumables and mining and processing equipment; (viii) unforeseen technological and engineering problems; (ix) accidents or acts of sabotage or terrorism; (x) currency fluctuations; (xi) changes in regulations; (xii) the compliance by joint venture partners with terms of agreements; (xiii) the availability and productivity of skilled labour; (xiv) the regulation of the mining industry by various governmental agencies; (xv) the ability to raise sufficient capital to develop such projects; (xvi) changes in project scope or design; (xvii) recoveries, mining rates and grade; (xviii) political factors; (xviii) water inflow into the mine and its potential effect on mining operations, and (xix) the consistency and availability of electric power.

This news release also contains references to estimates of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. The estimation of Mineral Resources is inherently uncertain and involves subjective judgments about many relevant factors. Estimates of Mineral Reserves provide more certainty but still involve similar subjective judgments. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The accuracy of any such estimates is a function of the quantity and quality of available data and of the assumptions made and judgments used in engineering and geological interpretation (including estimated future production from the company's projects, the anticipated tonnages and grades that will be mined and the estimated level of recovery that will be realized), which may prove to be unreliable and depend, to a certain extent, upon the analysis of drilling results and statistical inferences that ultimately may prove to be inaccurate. Mineral Resource or Mineral Reserve estimates may have to be re-estimated based on: (i) fluctuations in copper, nickel, zinc, platinum group elements (PGE), gold or other mineral prices; (ii) results of drilling; (iii) metallurgical testing and other studies; (iv) proposed mining operations, including dilution; (v) the evaluation of mine plans after the date of any estimates and/or changes in mine plans; (vi) the possible failure to receive required permits, approvals and licences; and (vii) changes in law or regulation.

Forward-looking statements and information involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indicators of whether such results will be achieved. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements or information, including, but not limited to, the factors discussed above and under the "Risk Factors" section in the company's MD&A for the three months ended March 31, 2023, and its Annual Information Form, and elsewhere in this news release, as well as unexpected changes in laws, rules or regulations, or their enforcement by applicable authorities; the failure of parties to contracts with the company to perform as agreed; social or labour unrest; changes in commodity prices; and the failure of exploration programs or studies to deliver anticipated results or results that would justify and support continued exploration, studies, development or operations.

Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the company believes are reasonable assumptions, the company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Subject to applicable securities laws, the company does not assume any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this news release.

The company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of the factors outlined in the "Risk Factors" section and elsewhere in the company's MD&A for the three months ended March 31, 2023, and its Annual Information Form.

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Source: Streetwise Reports

May 3, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire) StrikePoint Gold Inc. is set to begin exploration plans for its 100%-owned Cuprite gold project in Nevada's Walker Lane gold trend.

StrikePoint Gold Inc. (SKP:TSX.V; STKXF:OTCQB) has announced its 2023 exploration plans for its 100%-owned Cuprite gold project in Nevada's Walker Lane gold trend.

The company will start with geochemical, geophysical, and structural vectoring at the site, techniques that led to the discovery of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd.'s (AU:NYSE; ANG:JSE; AGG:ASX; AGD:LSE) Silicon gold project 75 kilometers away, where a maiden resource of 3.4 million ounces gold (Moz Au) has been defined.

StrikePoint believes Cuprite is an analog to Silicon and plans to follow up the surface work with 2,000 meters of drilling in the second half of 2023.

"The similarities between Silicon and Cuprite are striking," StrikePoint President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Allen said.

Cuprite consists of about 574 unpatented claims covering 44 square kilometers about 15 kilometers south of Goldfield, Nev., and 75 kilometers northwest of Beatty, within the Walker Lane Trend.

It's a district-scale opportunity with more than 20 square kilometers of advanced argillic alteration visible at surface, constituting one of the largest steam-heated cells in the trend, the company said.

StrikePoint said it has begun the permitting process for drilling at the project. But Allen said his army of geologists and contractors are mobilizing at the site starting next week. Their work will help the company decide the right places to drill. It will get a drilling contractor lined up after the permits come in.

"We hope to be able to start announcing (drilling) results in 2024," Allen said.

The Catalyst: Cuprite Is 'Everything That You Want'

Allen said one of the things that makes the project so exiting is the fact that exploration work hasn't been done there.

"It's a huge alteration system," Allen told Streetwise Reports. "It's right by the highway. It's everything that you want."

StrikePoint filed a National Instrument 43-101 report for Cuprite in April, after acquiring a 100% interest in in the project from Orogen Royalties Inc. (OGN:TSX.V) in January.

At the time of the acquisition, the company's share price was CA$0.07. Technical analyst Clive Maund told Streetwise Reports that "we shouldn't expect any fireworks soon," but StrikePoint looked like a good value.

"It is down in a zone of strong support and oversold," Maund said.

The stock has sunk as low as CA$0.045 since then but was at CA$0.065 on Tuesday.

The project is underlain by Miocene and Oligocene tuff and is located on the western flank of the Stonewall Mountain Caldera. Several nearby gold deposits and mines are in similar locations within calderas of the Walker Lane Trend, including the Goldfield District Deposit, now owned by Centerra Gold Inc. (CG:TSX; CADGF:OTCPK)

"The Cuprite property includes areas of intense, steam-heated, advanced-argillic alteration with potential for gold-silver mineralization at depth, and the author believes that the Cuprite project is an initial-stage project of merit," geologist Steven I. Weiss wrote in the NI 43-101 report.

World-Class Neighbors

According to Orogen, Cuprite is one of the largest alteration cells in the Walker Lane trend, and prospective feeder structures are untested by historical drilling.

"The Cuprite property surrounds and overlaps a large area of steam-heated advanced-argillic alteration in the eastern portion of the Cuprite district," Weiss wrote. "This alteration zone is exposed for a minimum of 4.8 (kilometers) north-south, by about 2.2 (kilometers) in an east-west direction."

The Walker Lane belt itself is "a broad, northwest-southeast oriented zone of strike-slip and trans-tensional deformation between the Sierra Nevada and Basin and Range geologic provinces of Nevada and California," he wrote.

In the last year, AngloGold Ashanti also acquired Corvus Gold Inc. for US$370 million and the Sterling Project (formerly owned by Northern Empire, which was headed by StrikePoint Gold's CEO) from Coeur Mining Inc. (CDE:NYSE)) for up to US$200 million.

"These transactions highlight the conviction that world-class mining companies have of the prospectivity of the Walker Lane in the vicinity of the Cuprite project," Allen said.

In Canada, a Historic National Instrument 43-101 technical report estimated StrikePoint's Porter project in British Columbia has 11 Moz silver (Ag) at a grade of 868 grams per tonne (g/t) and inferred resources of 1.7 Moz Ag at a grade of 595 g/t.

StrikePoint acquired Willoughby, which is about 6 kilometers east of Ascot Resources Ltd.'s Red Mountain, in 2019 for US$85,000. The company said it had found a massive new sulfide mineralization that was previously under ice at the project.

Ownership and Share Structure

Some of the industry's biggest players are shareholders in StrikePoint, including Eric Sprott, who owns about 14.5%. Institutions own about 46.7% of the company, management and insiders own about 4.8%, and 33.9% is retail.

Some major institutional investors include Crescat Capital LLC, with 4.99% or 10.67 million shares, and U.S. Global Investors Inc., with 1.29% or 2.75 million shares.

Major insider shareholders include Board Executive Chairman and Director Shawn Khunkhun with 0.56% or 1.17 million shares, and Director Ian Harris with 0.29% or 0.61 million shares.

StrikePoint's market cap is CA$13.9 million, with 213.78 million shares outstanding, according to the company. It trades in a 52-week range of CA$0.12 and CA$0.045.

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Source: Streetwise Reports

May 3, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire) First Tellurium Corp. registers as a federal lobbyist to further its critical metals project in British Columbia, hoping to take advantage of new funding programs for critical minerals projects.

First Tellurium Corp. (FTEL:CSE), hoping to take advantage of new funding programs for critical minerals projects in the United States and Canada, has registered as a federal lobbyist to further its critical metals project in British Columbia.

The U.S. military is providing US$250 million for such projects in both countries, and Canada's federal 2023 budget announced in March earmarked CA$1.5 billion for a critical minerals infrastructure fund.

"We're probably the only junior mining company registered as a federal lobbyist," said First Tellurium President and Chief Executive Officer Tyrone Docherty. "We have been communicating with Natural Resources Canada about advancing our Deer Horn project, and we're very pleased with the prompt and enthusiastic response so far."

Tellurium's (Te) use as a semiconductor in solar photovoltaic (solar PV) panels has increased, the company said.

Recent International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts show that solar PV technology will generate more power by 2027 than any other source. Te and silver (Ag), also in demand for solar PV, are abundant at First Tellurium's flagship project, Deer Horn.



Source: First Tellurium Corp.

The market for Te is expected to grow by about 60 metric tons from 2020 to 2024, according to research by Technavio.

"Factors such as increasing urban population, rise in disposable income, strong supply chain, and high internet penetration are driving the growth of the global consumer electronics market," the research firm said in a release. "The increase in demand for consumer electronics will, in turn, drive the demand for tellurium over the forecast period."

Docherty said First Tellurium also has high-grade gold and silver projects, and a partnership with Fenix Advanced Materials enables the company "to integrate vertically to supply ultrapure tellurium."

"Our Deer Horn project also contains significant showings of silver and copper, both essential green metals, along with the critical metals bismuth and tungsten," he said.

The Catalyst: Reducing Dependance on China

Te is one of the least common elements on the planet, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Most rocks contain an average of about 3 parts per billion Te, making it eight times less abundant than gold. In addition to solar panels and thermoelectric applications, it's also used in lithium batteries and is to vulcanize rubber, tint glass, and manufacture rewritable CDs and DVDs.

The market has seen an increased push from both American and Canadian governments to apply more funding to Te mining. Docherty noted that U.S. President Joe Biden has banned solar panels coming from a Chinese company that uses forced labor. Both countries are trying to reduce their dependence on China for such critical metals.

Deer Horn was noted as a key tellurium project in a U.S. geological report on critical minerals in the country, the company said.

"The Deer Horn intermediate-sulfidation epithermal deposit in west-central British Columbia, Canada, contains high gold and silver grades with abundant base metal sulfides and telluride minerals," the report stated.

Deer Horn is known to have the only positive preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for a Te project in North America. It was named by First Solar Inc. (FSLR:NYSE) as one of only four world-class Te projects.

"There's a very decent chance tellurium will breakout this year because First Solar is using 60 to 70% of worldwide production to make a solar panel," said asset manager Chen Lin, author of the What's Chen Buying? What's Chen Selling? newsletter. "Their production has grown rapidly."

First Solar plans to double its solar panel manufacturing capacity and spend US$1.36 billion to lessen China's dominance of the market, according to S&P Global.

'A Looming, Massive Shortage'

Company Chairman Tony Fogarassy attended OECD's 2023 Forum on Responsible Mineral Supply Chains in Paris as part of First Tellurium's outreach on critical minerals.

"We know there's a looming, massive shortage of critical minerals needed for batteries, electric vehicles, solar power - any technology related to climate change and carbon reduction," Fogarassy said. "I'm here to better understand how tellurium and our company will fit into these issues and understand the emerging government policies and strategies to resolve these shortages. Canada is seen as a prime future supplier of critical minerals due to its stable political and economic structure, and also its world-leading knowledge about exploration and mining."

The company plans to continue exploration at Deer Horn this year. The project's Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) was calculated on 450 meters of a 2.4-kilometer gold-silver-tellurium vein system. Sampling in 2022 identified a possible 1.1-kilometer extension of the system, the company has said.

First Tellurium is drilling this year to confirm and enlarge the zone extension and to conduct infill drilling to expand the current resource. [OWNERSHIP_CHART-10739]

The company will also test new targets and do mapping and aerial surveys of the 5,133-hectare property. First Tellurium is also looking to get a permit for a 10,000-tonne bulk sample at Deer Horn, which is targeted for 2025.

In March, technical analyst Clive Maund rated First Tellurium as an immediate Buy.

In addition, the company's Klondike Tellurium Project in Colorado is considered one of America's top Te exploration projects and was previously owned by First Solar as a potential source of raw Te for its solar panels.

Ownership and Share Structure

According to the company, 11% of First Tellurium is owned by management and insiders.

Docherty owns 10.6% or 7.7 million shares, Director Josef Anthony Steve Fogarassy has 1.38% or 1 million shares, and Director Lyle Allen Schwabe has 0.73% or 0.53 million shares. There are no institutional investors, and the rest is retail.

The company has a market cap of CA$11.63 million, with about 73 million shares outstanding and 63.4 million free-floating. It trades in a 52-week range of CA$0.255 and CA$0.085.

Disclosures:

1) Steve Sobek wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC. He or members of his household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. He or members of his household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with: First Tellurium Corp. Please click here for more information.

3) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

4) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the decision to publish an article until three business days after the publication of the article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of First Tellurium Corp., a company mentioned in this article.

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The incidences of pesticide contamination in water halved last year compared to 2020.

There were 81 exceedances of the permissible limits of pesticides in water in 2020, but it was down to 40 in 2022.

In the latest Teagasc Environment Edge podcast, Paul O'Brien, Chair of the IFA Environmental & Rural Affairs Committee, attributed the improvements in part to farmer training and to proper calibration of sprayers, and spraying when weather conditions are suitable, as well as allowing adequate buffer zones when spraying adjacent to water courses.

O'Brien represents farmers on the National Pesticide & Drinking Water Action Group (NPDWAG), which was set up in 2017.

The NPDWAG is chaired by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, and members include the IFA, Irish Water, Teagasc, ICMSA, APHA, HSE, the National Federation of Group Water Schemes, local authorities, and many other organisations.

It was formed to provide a co-ordinated and collaborative approach to prevent pesticide contamination in catchments used for the abstraction of drinking water. The members meet three or four times annually to review progress, which includes identifying catchments that are exceeding acceptable levels, and/or identifying those that are coming under pressure.

O'Brien said two pesticides are particularly worrying, MCPA and Glyphosate.

MCPA (2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid) is found in products such as Agritox, Mortone. It is water soluble, it does not bind to soil, and therefore is more prone to leaching and run-off to nearby waterbodies.

It is the most commonly detected pesticide in water supplies in Ireland. Many weedkiller products contain MCPA, especially those used to control rushes. About 80% of all pesticide detections in drinking water in Ireland are of MCPA.

Glyphosate is found in Roundup and Gallup herbicides.

O'Brien said Irish farmers need to use pesticides, but that its imperative that they are applied correctly and in appropriate weather conditions. It makes no sense whatsoever from a farmers point of view, to be spraying the ditch when youre meant to be spraying the field.

Its simply wasting money, as well as harming the environment.

We are now dealing with a different mindset in Europe, O'Brien said. Theres a passion to deliver proper green credentials. He advocated a middle-ground approach but pleaded with farmers to exercise maximum care when using pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, or other powerful chemicals, with eyes wide open to potential environmental harm from the use of such products.

Always check the weather forecast. Always make sure youre clear of the buffer zones.

He explained that one drop of MCPA in an Olympic size swimming pool is enough for detectable contamination of the water. Its not only farmers. Farmers have a role to play, yes. But its everybody whos using pesticides. They have to realise the potential damage.

He warned that licences for certain pesticides and herbicides may be revoked, if levels exceeding what is deemed safe continue to be detected in drinking water.

Alternatives

Deirdre and Cathal asked Paul to comment on alternatives to pesticide use, such as Integrated Pest Management and other non-chemical options. Once you can clearly define the pathway where farmers can say yes, I can understand the direction were going; this is going to be good for the environment, its also going to be good for individual farm profitability, then at that stage, it makes common sense,

O'Brien said.

He said that if farmers can be assured that yields will not be negatively impacted and if the alternative technologies are very clearly explained to them, such alternatives could be accepted.

Pesticides and their use are regulated at EU-level. The SUD Directive established a framework to reduce the risks and impact of pesticide use on human health and the environment and to promote integrated pest management and alternative approaches.

A recent re-evaluation by the European Commission showed that implementation of the directive has been only "moderately effective" overall in achieving its objectives.

Hence, the EU Commission has proposed a SUD amendment.

The Commission is concerned that pesticides contribute to biodiversity decline. Furthermore, the European Green Deal aims to reduce both the use of and risk from pesticides by 50% by the year 2030.

The Commissions proposed SUD amendments are now being reviewed by member states.

The volume of pesticides used in Ireland is relatively low, at 0.64kg/ha of Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA), compared with the EU-27 average of 2.08 kg/ha UAA (2020 data).
One of Irelands top dairy farmers has said new nitrates banding regulations mean he will be forced to reduce his herd size by almost a third  expecting to sell 100 cows this summer.

A collection of the latest news, views and analysis from the farming desk on the topic of Dairy.

Monamore Holsteins, owned by Drogheda man Tom Kelly, is one of the best Holstein herds in the country.

The farm has won the breeds national herd competition so many times, no one can quite remember just how many its been.

Its consistently in the top three the years it hasnt won it, a staffer at the Irish Holstein Friesian Association tells me the night before our visit.

The herd is also one of the most-productive dairy farms in the country, with its rolling average milk yield 10,430kg of milk per cow, at 3.78% butterfat and 3.56% protein, across an average 305-day lactation.

More than 150 delegates visited the farm at the weekend as part of the European Holstein Conference, marking the first time the event has taken place in Ireland.

The dispersal sale will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for dairy farmers looking to upgrade the genetics of their own herds with some of Irelands most productive Holstein lines. However, its a decision, which, it is evident, comes with a lot of frustration for the Kelly family.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner Farming, Tom Kelly said: We have around 350 cows milking, and we will be forced now to reduce because of nitrates. We are going to sell 100 cows in June and reduce the size of the milking herd.

This is necessary to reduce the stocking rate and comply with all the new regulations.

I just hope the milk price keeps up when the volume goes down otherwise we will all be out of business.

Five generations ago, the Kelly family swapped pulling pints for milking them, when Toms great great grandfather sold the familys pub in pursuit of a life in farming.

He bought 10 hectares in that area, and for the four generations since then, we have grown the farm, Mr Kelly said.

Even 150 years ago, there was breeding mentality in the family, with neighbours bringing their cows to be served by the familys good bulls.

But possibly the biggest change came in 1949, when the herd moved from 100% Shorthorn cattle to introduce the first black and whites.

That year, my father (Seamus JJ Kelly) went on a young farmers exchange to Holland, where he got up close and milked Friesians for the very first time, Mr Kelly added.

Hugely impressed, he returned home and immediately purchased his first pedigree Friesian, and never looked back.

And the choices made more than 70 years ago have certainly had a lasting impact on the herd; some of the herds most prolific family lines today, such as the Torch family  the backbone of the herd, as herd manager Alan Dorian explains  can trace their origins back to Toms fathers very first Friesian purchases.

We currently have lines of this family with nine generations excellent  all homebred, he said.

The Torch family can be traced back through multiple generations of breeding to the first pedigree cows purchased by Seamus Kelly in 1950  Lurganboy Heatherbell and Lurganboy Jessie. Both were daughters of Lavenham Trainer, bred from the highly regarded Terling and Lavenham Torch family.

Likewise, other high-performance families, the Darlenes and Veras are also backed by multi-generations of top performance, with deep lineage to the herds earliest years of black and white breeding.

Strategic investments have also been made over the years to supplement the herd with key, highly regarded international families, such as the Raven and Ellymae lines.

Both Tom and Alan could name and talk through the biography and history of every cow in the herd.

But now the future is less clear. Mr Kelly says he sees challenges ahead for his son, James, who hopes to take on the farm someday.

He doesnt have quite the same enthusiasm for it, but who can blame him when the future looks like this? His friends and brother can travel whenever they like, while he is stuck at home with the cows, he said.

We need a fair price for what we produce. When we finally got a fair price, it was brought back down. We have lost 18c from the price paid for every litre since January.

The herd is split between two months in the spring and October and November to ensure year-round milk production.

While the majority, 55%, of the herd calves in February, March and April. Such is the extent of the farms vast grazing platform that the furthest fields are up to a kilometre away from the milking parlour.

The fact that Tom is radically downsizing is even more surprising when one hears his approach to breeding, focusing on improving the efficiency and sustainability of the herd.

Our milk price is very much based on butterfat and protein, so unless a bull is positive on both, we would be very, very slow to use him. We are less inclined to go for high volume, he said.

We want medium volume and long-lasting cows. If you had come here ten years ago, our cows would have been taller. But now I am happy that we have cows that are not extreme Holsteins  they are more balanced. And I think thats the same around the world. But Irelands approach to carbon emissions targets is clearly a sore point.

Its amazing how now they have started talking about carbon, all the information that people suddenly have, that we didnt know was there before.

They tell us that good cows like these produce a lot more carbon than smaller cows producing a lot less, but I would have to keep three of those small cows for two of these to meet the banding requirements.

I really think they have made a mistake in penalising cows like these, which are not extreme, he said.

Tom has also invested in sowing multi-species swards  such as plantain and white clover  in a bid to reduce his nitrogen usage.

Irish milk production is based on grazed grass and grass silage, which make up 60% of the feed fed on the farm here, he said.

We try to maximise our use of this system and complement it with maize, fodder beet, and grain in the winter.
Al Baraka Islamic Bank (AIB), one of the leading Bahraini Islamic financial institutions, has signed an agreement with Haffadh Specialised Dental Centre to provide exclusive financing packages for the banks customers. This is done through the bank's Medical Service finance scheme.

The two entities inked the deal at a signing ceremony attended by Ali Al Derzi, Acting Chief Retail Officer at AIB, and Dr Munem Haffadh, Chief Executive Officer of Haffadh Specialised Dental Centre, at the bank premises.

This agreement comes in alignment with the banks continuous role in community partnerships towards delivering tailored banking services and products that meet the needs of its customers.

Low profit rates

The exclusive financing offer from AIB includes low profit rates, over a maximum tenure of 3 years aiming to ease the medical payments for all of AIBs customers.

Al Derzi commented: Our initiatives are in line with our efforts to provide the customers with viable options to finance the cost of medical procedures and simplify the process of obtaining specialised medical services from the best medical facilities in the kingdom. Hence, we are pleased to have Haffadh Specialised Dental Centre among our dentistry health care network and look forward to further productive partnerships with them in the future, which will provide the banks valued customers with valuable services and amenities.

Dr Haffadh commented: We realise that healthcare is the first priority for every individual, thus, we decided to deliver a unique opportunity for a large segment of society members wishing to obtain dental treatments in easy installments and at a low profit rate through AIB Medical Finance programme. -- TradeArabia News Service
Article I, Section II of the U.S. Constitution outlines who is eligible to serve in the House of Representatives.

A representative must be at least 25 years old, a U.S. citizen for a minimum of seven years and a resident of the state where they are elected.

U.S. Rep. Brandon Williams checks those boxes  even if he doesn't live in the district he represents.

Williams' residency has been an issue since he decided to run in the 22nd Congressional District last year. He lives in the town of Sennett, Cayuga County. His house is less than two miles away from the 22nd district line.

After the congressional district maps were redrawn by a court-appointed special master, Williams was in the new 24th Congressional District  an area covering all or parts of 12 counties, including Cayuga. But someone else had their sights on the district. U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney quickly announced her intention to run in the new GOP-friendly territory.

Williams did not want to run in a primary against Tenney, so he continued his campaign in the 22nd district, which includes all of Onondaga, Madison and Oneida counties. A portion of Oswego County is also in the district.

In the Republican primary, he faced questions about his residency. At a candidates forum, he told the audience that he would explore moving into the district if he won the election.

Not long after he was sworn into office, Williams told The Citizen that he and his wife, Stephanie, were preparing to put their Sennett property on the market. In an interview with Syracuse.com, he said they looked at homes in Madison and Oneida counties.

But any action to follow through on his campaign pledge is on hold. Democrats have filed an appeal with the goal of having a court order the redrawing of congressional district lines. Williams wants to wait for that case to be decided before he relocates.

"I think it would be pretty silly of me, don't you, to sell my house without the lines being known," he said at a town hall meeting in Chittenango on April 10.

He reminded attendees that the Constitution only requires House members to live in their states, not the districts they represent, and that he lives "just under two minutes from the district border."

Williams' decision not to move into the district, at least not yet, has given his political opponents ammunition to use against him in what's expected to be one of the most competitive House races in the country.

Indivisible Mohawk Valley, a progressive group, delivered a letter to Williams' Utica office urging him to either "move into the district, or move out of Congress." The activists said his refusal to move into the 22nd district violates his campaign pledge and "shows a lack of interest in and commitment to your constituents."

"Now you're selfishly putting your political career first instead of keeping your word and serving your constituents," they wrote. "We are invested in this district because our families are here, our jobs are here and we live here. If you want to represent us, so should you."

Whether Williams' decision not to move into the district hurts him politically depends on how he is viewed by voters. Luke Perry, director of Utica University's Center for Public Affairs and Election Research, told The Citizen that it may not be a deal-breaker for most constituents, especially his supporters who are comfortable with his current residence. But he acknowledged that Williams' critics will continue to highlight the issue along with their concerns about his policy positions and votes.

In the long run, will it matter? Perry said there are three considerations. One is whether the law is being followed. Williams, by living in New York, is abiding by the requirements of his office. Another is representation. Optimally, he said, your representative will live within the district they represent. But, he added, members of Congress also represent more than 700,000 people and must travel regularly throughout their districts.

The third: Keeping one's campaign promises.

"I think, generally, that's important to do in thinking about democracy and keeping candidates and elected officials accountable to what they campaign on," Perry said.

For now, Williams is staying put. When he answered a question about his residency at the Chittenango town hall meeting, he told the audience that he and his wife, Stephanie, are using a "commonsense approach" as this new redistricting appeal works its way through the courts. He encouraged the crowd to think about what they would do in his situation and what would be best for their families.

"That's how I approach these (decisions)," he said.
For much of known history, human beings were considered property. Assaulting or killing a slave was a matter of property law, not a matter of human rights. Now, our concept of ownership has evolved and our attitudes and conscious approach, as a society, to fellow humans is radically different to what it once was.

We have even come so far as to universally recognise that all human beings have the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and more. When it was first proposed that these fundamental human rights would be enshrined in law, the idea was a radical one.

It was only in 1948 that the United Nations General Assembly agreed the first legal document setting out the fundamental human rights and how they were to be protected. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is now a foundation for a comprehensive body of human rights law applicable across the globe. Violations, while still widespread, are no longer morally acceptable in the 21st century and can be challenged because of a strong body of law.

The idea of nature having rights might seem a little strange, especially rights that could be underpinned by law. But all throughout history, what at first seem like radical ideas have shaped civilisation and transformed human attitudes and behaviour.

Not that long ago, slaves, women and children were considered property, now this approach is unthinkable. But until they too had rights, they were not seen as anything but a thing to be used and exploited at the preference of the owner.

The curlew is a winter visitor to wetlands throughout Ireland, as well as breeding in small numbers in floodplains and boglands. Numbers and range have declined substantially in recent decades. It is likely that increased afforestation and agricultural improvement are responsible for these declines, notes BirdWatch Ireland. Picture: Owen Murphy/CCP/NPWS

This is how we now see the natural world, with trees, woodlands, lakes, oceans all at our disposal to be used according to our needs and whims. Legal systems consider nature as property and the owners of this property are entitled to extract and utilise the resources in their possession. Exploitation of ecosystems to the point at which they become so degraded that they die is a purely economic decision.

The idea of giving legal recognition to the Rights of Nature is a concept rapidly gaining pace across the world. The Rights of Nature essentially re-frames wild species and the ecosystems of which they are part as entities with legal rights, such as a right to exist and flourish, in the same way that laws currently regard people and corporate entities.

With a legal framework, people, communities, and governments would have the authority to defend those rights on behalf of ecosystems and natural communities.

Considering that nature is the common foundation for all of our health and wellbeing, the Rights of Nature are closely interlinked with the principle of protecting the common good. Both for the benefit of human societies and for the intrinsic rights of non-human creatures to exist, it follows that we would ethically consider nature to have basic and inalienable rights.

The first country to formally recognise and implement the Rights of Nature was Ecuador, in 2008, when the Rights of Nature were enshrined in their constitution. Bolivia has also established Rights of Nature laws. In New Zealand a dispute between the Tuhoe people and the government was settled by an area of more than square kilometres being given legal recognition in its own right in 2014.

Read More Anja Murray: Turf continues to be illegally extracted from protected areas

Several US states have been working toward constitutional amendments to incorporate the rights of nature and many municipalities have formally recognised the rights of nature in respect of specific rivers and ecosystems, for example.

Last month in Ireland, the first-ever national Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss anywhere in the world launched its report with recommendations on how Ireland might best address the range of complex challenges facing nature. The 159 recommendations made by the Citizens' Assembly range from practical actions to strategic changes to Irish governance and constitutional amendments.

Among the recommendations are several which deal with establishing the Rights of Nature in the Irish constitution. Specifically, the Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss has proposed a referendum to amend the Constitution with a view to protecting biodiversity, to include the rights of humans to a clean, healthy, safe environment and the rights of future generations to these or other environmental rights.

The Citizens' Assembly report also calls for the Constitution to be amended to recognise nature as a holder of legal rights, comparable to companies or people. They call for us to recognise that nature has a right to exist, to flourish, perpetuate itself, and be restored if degraded. It also calls for nature to be a party in administrative decision-making and litigation.

Ireland had a very early set of rules, or legal tracts, called the 'Brehon Laws (also called the Laws of the Neighbourhood). These were laid down in writing in the 8th century with detailed prescriptions for the management and protection of trees, fisheries, wild birds, seaweed, and other resources that were essential for people.

In the Brehon Laws, trees and animals were categorised according to their value and utility and penalties for damage were stated accordingly. At the time, these Brehon Laws would have formalised the relationship between humans and the natural world, in the interest of fairness and what we now call sustainability.

An oak tree. One of the chieftain trees under Brehon Law

The Rights of Nature goes beyond the perception of nature as a thing that exists purely for our use, embedding a more evolved and ethical approach that recognises humans as part of a rich tapestry of life, without assuming our own authority to eliminate wild species and ecosystems for our own, primarily economic, benefit.

Given the context in the 21st century, this evolution in approach is very much needed. The Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss outlines also how only 2% of Ireland is covered in native woodland; how more than a quarter of regularly occurring bird species here are in danger of extinction; and how countless other habitats have been lost in the last two decades.

Enshrining the Rights of Nature into our Constitution would reflect a necessary evolution of how we frame our place in the world.
A representative for the Women of Honour group has said the draft terms of reference for a statutory inquiry into Defence Forces abuse

does not deal with accountability.

The group met with Tanaiste and Defence Minister Micheal Martin on Tuesday and said it was disappointed that the Government did not consult the group or victims prior to the draft.

The fear going into that meeting was that he would hand us the terms of reference and thats exactly what he did, said Diane Byrne.

We looked for engagement and asked for the drafting of the terms of reference to be a collaborative process. We were disappointed, to say the least.

The group has said it wants a public tribunal and said that concerns raised about anonymity could be addressed.

Ms Byrne said she does not feel that the draft deals with accountability.

Mr Martin met with six groups in total, including representatives for the Defence Forces, the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (Raco), PDForra, as well as the Women and Men of Honour group.

Following the meetings, he said the department circulated a draft terms of reference and that the groups can make suggestions.

'Further consultation'

There will be further engagement and further consultation before we firm up on an actual terms of reference, said Mr Martin.

The establishment of a statutory inquiry was one of the recommendations of the Independent Review Group (IRG) which published a report in March detailing widespread abuse, bullying, and discrimination in the Defence Forces.

Ms Byrne said the terms of reference are based on the IRG recommendations which are too narrow. She said the focus is on policies and procedures rather than wrongdoing and addressing concealment.

She said the group now has to do a body of work again on making submissions. She said Mr Martin keeps mentioning time but that she would rather get the text right than do it quickly. Perception is everything here, she added.

In a statement following the meeting, the Women of Honour said they remain with a feeling that the Government seeks to railroad through us and others without any courtesy or respect".

It smells of the same institutional abuse as victims endured in the Defence Forces.

Meetings should have been held to agree a process on terms of reference. Nothing less than a full public tribunal to ascertain the truth will work. The people of Ireland deserve the truth.
Gardai have made multiple arrests as part of a special operation targeting organised crime in Tallaght, Co Dublin.

Detectives attached to the Tallaght District were involved in five searches on Wednesday morning of residential properties in Dublin 24 area.

In the course of the searches 10,000 worth of suspected cannabis herb was seized along with 5,000 cash and a 221 registered BMW 320 car.

Four people, three males, two in their 20s and one in his 50s, and one female, aged in her 40s, were arrested.

A garda spokesperson confirmed that all five are currently being detained at stations across south-west Dublin.

They added that investigations were ongoing.
The Government has been accused of "acting as commentators" on rising energy prices.

Sinn Fein's energy spokesman Darren O'Rourke made the charge as the Dail debated a motion calling on the Government to provide financial relief to households by "returning energy prices" to their level, pre-war in Ukraine.

The motion, which is being countered by the Government, also calls for a reversal of carbon tax increases and new regulatory powers for the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU).

"The Government is merely acting as a commentator when action is needed," Mr O'Rourke said.

"The regulator, the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities does not even have the power to address standing charges, again a measure that is common among EU member states. This motion seeks to correct this absolute lack of power and scrutiny and reduce the risk of profiteering while ordinary people struggle to make ends meet."

His party colleague Pearse Doherty said wholesale electricity prices have fallen by more than 50% in the past year, but that "prices for households have not budged and remain sky high".

Prices have plunged for energy suppliers, but their customers continue to face extortionate bills. A constituent recently contacted me. Her recent electricity bill was over 620. She earns less than 250 per week. In her own words: 'Im just keeping my head above water. I need some help. Please help me. I just cant do it anymore'.

In response, Minister Eamon Ryan said that "the causes of this lie in international factors as well as our dependence on fossil fuels".

Setting things 'straight'

He added that the Government had introduced "a 2.4bn package of supports during the past year, and an additional package of once-off measures worth 2.5bn was included in budget 2023".

"To set the record straight, we very much supported the introduction of a windfall tax on super-normal profits of energy companies and electricity generators to help support our customers.

"That legislation is written and has been presented to the joint Oireachtas committee, which is doing its pre-legislative scrutiny. We will introduce it at the highest rates of any European country. It will be 75% on the profits of fossil fuel companies this year."

The debate came just hours after representatives from St Vincent de Paul (SVP) told the Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection that 377,000 people in Ireland are in energy poverty. SVP head of social justice and policy Tricia Keilthy said the charity is "seeing the levels and the concentration of need amongst people in energy poverty increase".

"People are seeing multiple bill cycles pile up and people are returning to SVP for support.

Although the heating season may be coming to an end, the situation continues to develop rather than abate. While usage may reduce into summer, it will not become affordable.

"Over this winter, people on low incomes have been facing impossible situations. Put simply, the choice has been between knowing that costs and arrears are spiralling and the next bill will be unpayable, finding money from the food bill to put twice as much in the prepay meter, or people having to cut back and go without the energy they need."
Former US President Donald Trump has been invited to attend a High Court case over sand trap fencing at his resort at Doonbeg in Co. Clare.

The invitation was made to Mr Trump, who is currently on a trip to his properties in Scotland and Ireland, by Irish Environmental protection group, Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE).

FIE has brought proceedings against sand trap fencing allegedly constructed by the Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in West Clare during 2022.

While the controversial former President arrives in Ireland on Wednesday for a short visit to Doonbeg, FIE has urged him "to stay on in Ireland until May 15th", when the case is due before the Irish High Court.

In its action, FIE claims that the defendants constructed a fence at the base of the dunes made of large wooden pallets set deeply into the ground side by side with a fine nylon mesh stretched across them.

The new fencing was removed after Clare County Council issued a warning letter and the environmental charity brought a case under Section 160 of the Planning Acts over unauthorised development.

However, FIE says a network of these fences remains along the top of the dunes, for which they want the court to make orders for their removal.

FIE's Director Tony Lowes said the group has written to Donald Trump, in a letter sent to the resort at Doonbeg suggesting that he stay on in Ireland and attend the hearing in Dublin's Four Courts. Mr Lowes claims that the hearing "would be an opportunity for you to learn about the concerns of environmental groups and the importance of conservation".

The letter from Mr Lowes which starts Dear Donald continues: We havent spoken since your kind offer in 2014 to support us in our opposition to a wind farm which we regretfully declined. It is good to see that we are both well.

"We wonder now if you would consider staying on in Ireland for the High Court hearing of the case we have brought against the sand trap fencing on the dune system at Doonbeg? It would be an opportunity for you to learn about the concerns of environmental groups and the importance of conservation.
A Kerry man and his adult son who own a house in Cork rejected the allegations made against them in a case where they are accused of ejecting tenants from this house  under counts for trespass, assault, and attempted theft of a phone.

On Wednesday, as the case was further adjourned until later next month, defence solicitor Joseph Cuddigan said there had been quite widespread publicity about the case since the allegations were first described at Cork District Court.

I want to make it clear, my clients are pleading not guilty and do not accept the allegations that appeared in the general media concerning them, Mr Cuddigan said.

Judge Colm Roberts said to the solicitor: You have made your point  the media can duly note what you are saying.

Mr Cuddigan said earlier in the brief hearing that both defendants could be taken together and that a hearing date would be required for the case.

I would have thought the case will take half a day, he said.

Case adjourned

Judge Roberts adjourned the case until June 20 with the two men remanded on continuing bail.

The judge said the defendants would be excused from appearing in person on that date as it would only be mentioned for the purpose of setting a date for a district court trial.

Sergeant John Kelleher previously outlined that the alleged incident at the centre of the case occurred on August 11, 2022.

At 8am on that date, Daniel Lynch  accompanied by his son Donal  went to the property that they owned at 4 Nursery View, Glasheen Road, and changed the locks on the premises.

They allegedly ejected the tenants by force and in the process allegedly assaulted a male and a female and attempted to steal a mobile phone from the male tenant, Sgt Kelleher said.

Daniel Lynch, 62, from Moanmore, Castleisland, Co Kerry, and his son, 32-year-old Donal Lynch of the same address, face the same four charges.

They are charged with assaulting a man and a woman, attempting to commit theft  namely the mans phone  and trespassing with intent to commit theft at the property at 4 Nursery View on Glasheen Road, Cork.
A father was diagnosed with fast onset dementia due to the unresolved grief at not being able to see his sons body, which was only identifiable by his monogrammed belt, the inquest into the Stardust Ballroom fire heard.

The fire claimed the lives of 48 people when it broke out in the Stardust premises in Artane in the early hours of February 14, 1981. Portraits of the victims are being presented to the Dublin District Coroners Court currently sitting in the Pillar Room of the Rotunda Hospital.

Brian Hobbs

Patricia Dunne delivered a detailed pen portrait of her late brother Brian Hobbs, in which she described him as someone who loved music and clothes, and studied in Rockwell Hotel and Catering College in Co Tipperary.

When he finished his two years, he was sought after to join a catering team going to Zurich in Switzerland. He celebrated his 21st birthday in Zurich and one of the gifts he received was a handmade leather belt with the letter B as the buckle. He returned home to continue his career.

Brian had grown into a fine young man, good looking, full of charm, the chat, very confident, and he loved clothes and to look well  in other words, he fancied himself, said Patricia.

On the night of the Stardust dance competition, Brian had friends taking part. None of the family knew he was going. The next morning, as she was listening to the news reports of the fire, Patricia said she felt a sense of doom. Her brother Peter rang around some friends and then rang Brians work, who informed him that Brian had gone to the Stardust.

And so started the day that was to change our lives forever, she said.

Brian was later identified at the morgue when her brother Peter and sister Ann stopped at what was left of someone with a piece of a leather belt with a buckle containing the initial 'B'.

Mam and Dad wanted to see Brian at the removal, but I had to tell them that the coffin was closed as Brians face was very badly bruised. Mam accepted this as much as she could  she was quite a practical woman. My Dad did not accept it. He really wanted to see Brian.

The cemetery was the hardest part for us all. Dad was inconsolable. Mam was just very stunned and shocked by the magnitude of it all, as were all the rest of us, she said.

Patricia said that her father had the beginning of dementia, and just after Brians death he was diagnosed with fast onset dementia due to the unresolved grief of not having seen Brians body.

She concluded by saying that it is important for her to find a certain closure for all of her family, some answers and, finally, justice.

Eugene 'Hughie' Hogan

24-year-old Eugene Hughie Hogan was just one day away from beginning a new job and a new life in Kerry with his young family when he died in the fire.

A pen portrait of Hughie, written by the Hogan family, was read out by Mark Hogan, nephew of the deceased.

Hughie had a beautiful voice and loved to sing everything from Bowie to Bob Marley. He could even hit the high notes of The Stylistics love songs. He loved to dance and would go to all the local dance halls in Artane and Coolock as a teenager, moving on to the downtown nightclubs as a young man. He was slim and good-looking; he loved to dress sharp in the latest styles.

Mark said that Hughie fell in love with Marie, who lived just up the street. They married on March 18, 1977, and had two beautiful daughters, Andrea and Sonia May.

With the depression in Ireland at the beginning of the 80s, Hughie found himself out of work. He got an offer of a job and a new life, but he would have to move his wife and family to Kerry. They were to move to Kerry on February 15, 1981.

On February 13, while his younger sisters would babysit his little girls, Hughie and Marie would celebrate with his brother Declan and wife Geraldine, saying goodbye to Dublin and toasting their future.

Later that evening Hughie and Marie would join his younger brother Bernard at the Stardust. The rest is the horrible nightmare we have all been living for the last 40 years.

He said that the days following the fire were a blur of disbelief, shock and sorrow. Hughie's parents drove to the hospitals trying to find the boys, and after many hours they located Bernard at the Mater Hospital, with burns to his head, face and hands.

It was three days later when his older brother Edmund would identify Hughies body. Identity was confirmed by his belt and tattoo, said Mark.

The circumstances of Hughies death are unspeakable  indescribable to be trapped and burnt alive, Mark concluded.
Government officials could not give a commitment on Tuesday night that 80 Ukrainian men, women, and children would be allowed to stay in a hotel in Co Kerry which has been their home since last year.

A pause remains on moving around 80 people out of the former Skellig Star hotel in Caherciveen after an outcry by the local community. The Government planned for 40 residents to move out of the hotel but remain in the area, while 35 were to be moved to Tralee.

It is understood the Skellig Accommodation Centre recently applied to accommodate international protection (IP) applicants and won the State tender.

The Government has been struggling to secure accommodation for IP applicants, or asylum seekers, in recent months. While it is challenging to secure accommodation for Ukrainians, officials are finding it harder to find shelter for asylum seekers, particularly single men.

The Citywest transit hub will remain closed for the foreseeable and there is no date in sight for when it may be open again to accommodate newly arrived asylum seekers, due to capacity constraints.

As of Tuesday night, 580 asylum seekers had not been offered state accommodation, the highest figure yet.

Landmark payout

It comes as the Government is concerned about the wider financial implications of a landmark compensation payout due to an Afghan teenager next week. The teenager came here seeking international protection but was not offered state accommodation on arrival.

It is understood department officials are working on papers for Integration Minister Roderic OGorman ahead of a Cabinet committee meeting on Ukraine on Thursday which will outline the State's response to the judgement.

Meanwhile, TDs and senators will be told on Wednesday that there is a feeling of nervousness in the tourism sector due to the Governments contracts with hotels to accommodate Ukrainians and asylum seekers.

Elaina Fitzgerald Kane, chair of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, will tell the tourism committee that outside Dublin, 35% of all beds have been given to the State to house those fleeing war.

She will tell politicians that over 50% of tourism beds in Donegal are contracted to the Government, 39% in Clare, and 37% in Kerry.

Modular homes

The first of 700 modular homes for Ukrainian refugees will be handed over in Mahon, Cork, in two weeks, with Ukrainian families expected to move in in mid-June.

Ciaran O'Connor of the OPW told the housing committee the units were designed to be "plug and play" and were delivered fully fitted out.

He said that the OPW has now "cracked" how to build the two- and three-storey modular homes and will soon go to tender on a site with two-storey homes.

It is estimated that the rapid-build homes will cost between 125,000 and 150,000 to develop and they are intended to house Ukrainians for up to three years, at which point they will be offered to the local authority for social housing.
The Government is hoping for a more coordinated response across the EU to help with the pressure on accommodating Ukrainian refugees.

The Cabinet committee on Ukraine will meet on Thursday to discuss the impact of housing refugees on tourism in the upcoming summer season.

Its understood Integration Minister Roderic OGorman will bring a paper to the meeting to set out the recent High Court case in which Mr Justice Charles Meenan ruled the Government was in breach of its legal obligations in failing to provide accommodation to a teenage asylum seeker from Afghanistan.

Next week, the judge is expected to deal with the costs associated with the case and there are major concerns within government about the wider financial implications of a compensation payout and the knock-on implications with hundreds of other potential cases in the pipeline.

A senior government source said fears over the compensation payout will be discussed at the meeting later today and any mitigation measures.

Currently around 580 refugees have not been offered State accommodation on arrival here.

Ministers will also be informed of the ongoing challenge to source accommodation and how many providers are reluctant to take international protection (IP) applicants. The use of student accommodation will soon come into play which will help the system.

The meeting is expected to hear there will be a far more coordinated response across the EU in terms of the number of Ukrainians travelling to countries for refuge. Options to support Ukrainians to go home when the time is right and to rebuild Ukraine will also be discussed.

However, officials are aware this will be some time in the future.

Temporary protection for Ukrainians has already been extended in Ireland by 12 months to March 2024 but its expected this could be extended further across the EU if the war does not end.

Tourism Minister Catherine Martin is to present a paper at the meeting on the impact the loss of beds in hotels and other providers will have on tourism.

Overall 28% of all Failte Ireland registered tourism bed stock is contracted to the State and while accommodation providers generally will trade well in 2023, there is concern regarding the potential downstream impacts on other core tourism businesses.

Justice Minister Simon Harris will tell the meeting there has been a 50% drop in IP applications between January and April.

Meanwhile, the Department of Integration has confirmed a number of Ukrainians can stay at a hotel in Caherciveen. There had been a public outcry over the weekend over plans to move some 80 Ukrainians, including 10 school-going children, from the Skellig Accommodation Centre, and replace them with international protection applicants.

Some Ukrainians will be moved out but to alternative accommodation in the town while others who wish to move, will go to Tralee.

The hotel will now be a mixed-use facility. Asylum seekers will move in, in place of the Ukrainians who move out.

The Skellig Star applied for and was successful in tendering to provide International Protection accommodation and these moves are necessary in order to maximise all available accommodation for IP applicants, given the severe shortage currently, a spokesperson for the department said.

The hotel will now be used as a mixed use facility to accommodate international protection applicant families and beneficiaries of temporary protection (BOTPs).
Last week was a bad one for big mouths and the big business that supports them.

Far-right populist Tucker Carlson was fired by Fox News. Over a seven-year stint, the networks most popular prime-time host was credited as mainstreaming whackjob ideas previously residing on the fringes of the alt-right.

His pet subject, the great replacement theory, is the ludicrous white supremacist idea that whites are being persecuted by Jews and liberals who are aiming to replace them in Western countries.

Recently, one commentator in The Atlantic magazine described Rupert Murdochs Fox network as having a marked effect on American politics and culture because Fox has become its own language. Its a language thats bad for anyone who isnt a white conservative.

Various theories are doing the rounds as to why Carlson, who was a ratings-getter, was ousted.

Good for ratings

Internal company communications brought to light during a defamation action against Fox exposed the fact that Carlson and other Fox hosts disbelieved that the 2020 presidential election was rigged in Joe Bidens favour despite what they said on air. The political utilitarian Rupert Murdoch may have been embarrassed by the revelation that nobody at Fox stopped the election denialism because it was good for ratings.

A discrimination lawsuit from a former Fox producer against Carlson and the network claims that male producers frequently made vulgar jokes about women and antisemitic jokes, which potentially opens up a further avenue for embarrassment and cost to Murdoch, although Fox denies the charges.

A further thesis is that advertisers ran a mile from Carlsons far-right ravings. Marina Hyde in The Guardian theorised last Saturday that nonagenarian Murdoch is becoming increasingly erratic, with Carlsons canning further proof of the media mogul losing his grip.

Another Fox ratings-getter with a dark and outsize influence has just gone on trial for sexual assault. Journalist E Jean Carroll claims that in the mid-1990s, former US president Donald Trump raped her. Trump denies all claims and says her case is politically motivated.

Trump, Carlson, and Murdoch make a striking trifecta. They have each used public platforms or, in Murdochs case, provided public platforms for others, to push sexist, racist, homophobic, and antisemitic narratives.

Recently, Fergus Finlay wrote in the Irish Examiner that it is men who have created systems and the rules and the culture and the mores that belittle and demean women. He could have added that also demean people of colour, the LGBTQ community, and Jewish people.

Certainly, in the western world, white men of a certain age have constructed many of the systems we live with. But ordinary people can also be changemakers and, when they band together, the reforms they effect can be striking.

Last week, it was reported that the National Library had acquired documents from the single-parent group One Family, formerly known as Cherish. Cherish was set up in 1972 by Maura ODea Richards, a single mother who wanted to keep her child, which was then a radical notion.

Archbishop McQuaid

Archbishop John Charles McQuaid died that year. He was an ideologue who had a pervasive influence on Irish society, one that was deeply inhospitable to single mothers or to anyone who didnt toe his narrow line and could also be described as a changemaker.

Single mothers were thrown out of their homes, lost their jobs, couldnt rent flats, were shunned by their families and communities, and, worst of all, sometimes had their children taken away from them under the auspices of so-called Christian family values.

ODea Richards put an ad in The Evening Herald, seeking to reach other unmarried Irish women who had children, and from this acorn grew Cherish.

Cherish campaigned for the introduction of the unmarried mothers allowance and the abolition of the status of illegitimacy.

This radical outsider organisation brought changes to society that were of great significance. These women reformed entrenched systems that said their faces  and the faces of their children  didnt suit the prevailing orthodoxy of the time.

The Cherish archive will be available to the public from the end of the year. It gives voice to the stories of women and children who were largely spurned by Irish society. It provides a record of what was done and shows how norms can change.

Of course, McQuaid, Trump, Carlson, and Murdoch are from different eras, backgrounds, nationalities, and social strata, but each man could be argued to have constructed a social reality with dark effects.

But every dog has his day, right? McQuaid must be spinning in his grave at the secular, liberal, outward-looking society Ireland has become. And while the anti-Catholicism that is fashionable at the moment is tedious, Amen to that.

Carlson was negotiating a new contract when he was ousted and was reportedly blindsided, although its highly unlikely that the world has seen the back of his hate-filled invectives. The wagons are circling for Trump. We will be shot of the orange-skinned self-described pussy-grabbing misogynist  the only question is when.

Fox is unlikely to soften its editorial tone post-Carlson because Carlson built an appetite for a certain type of content and the ratings beast must be fed. Although there is money in craven fear-mongering, Murdoch is not going to be around forever.

James Murdoch is reputedly horrified by Fox News and believed to be biding his time until his father exits the stage when he and his politically aligned sisters may try to wrest control and steer the empire towards the centre-right.

Nothing lasts forever. On RTE, Mary Kerrigan, a single mother who ran the Clare/Limerick branch of Cherish for years, spoke about being an unacceptable person to know.

She said: We went from people who were shunned to now being important, we are in the National Library of Ireland.

Determined champions

Determined champions like Maura ODea Richards, Mary Kerrigan, and all the other women who were part of Cherish agitated for change. They were neither rich nor powerful and they had to fight for a platform. We should salute their bravery as change-makers of the best kind.

And there are many more champions like them out there shaping the world and quietly taking over the public square. As the anthropologist Margaret Mead said: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
As young Native Americans took the leap from the cliff next to Pumpkin Springs into the cold waters of the Colorado River, Amber Benally knew the trip had been special.

It was the summer of 2022 and the last full day on the river as part of the Grand Canyon Trusts Rising Leaders Program. Throughout the journey, the 14 Native Americans had navigated through more than just the white water.

Benally said they, as a group, had developed a bond and been able not only to learn about the Canyon, but also embody emotional vulnerability and courageousness.

I've been working with young people for 10 years now, and that trip was probably the most transformative thing I've ever been a part of -- to see that our intention and community and vulnerability and courageousness, you know, pushed them to embody those things, too, Benally said. They feel like they can empower each other. But, more importantly, they feel like they can empower themselves. And I think that evening or jumping off the little cliff there into the water like showcased that.

Now, Benally said, the Grand Canyon Trust, collaborating with the Grand Canyon Youth, are organizing another trip as part of the Regional Intertribal Intergenerational Stewardship Expedition (RIISE).

Benally said they are currently taking applications for the free trip from Native Americans aged 16 to 20 years old and associated with one of the 11 tribes with connections to the Grand Canyon. They will be accompanied by the river guides and several Native American knowledge holders from throughout the region.

Benally said there had been 150 applications received for the trip last year to fill the 18 spots open for the journey.

The trip will represent the second annual RIISE trip and just the fourth Colorado River expedition dedicated to Indigenous youth.

The goal of the trip, as Benally sees it, is twofold -- first, to connect young Native Americans to the Colorado River and Grand Canyon, and second, to help create the next generation of conservation leaders.

To that end, the trip is as much about education as it is about experiencing the river, Benally said.

What we try to do is bring this group, this diversity of young people, down on the river and share with them the ecological knowledge of the region, of the Grand Canyon, the plant knowledge. One of the knowledge holders is an astronomer, so she'll share some stories of the stars, Benally said.

Benally added: From a Grand Canyon Trust perspective, I would be sharing the environmental impacts that are happening around the Grand Canyon right now: uranium mining, dam proposals, the new Grand Canyon National Monument.

In addition to the learning that happens in the Canyon, there are six weeks of pre-trip education and coursework.

Benally said that gives them the opportunity to place the groundwork for the education throughout the trip, and also allows the youth to get to know each other and start building community before they are thrust into the extreme conditions on the Colorado River.

She said they also ask the youth to open themselves up, debriefing what they are learning and experiencing so they can share their own thoughts throughout the journey.

Benally said RIISE got its start in early 2020, just prior to the pandemic.

But COVID-19, and the impact it had especially on tribal communities, showed her the importance of the program.

At that time the goal was really increasing Native youths accessibility to the Grand Canyon region. But with the onset of the pandemic, and I think me recognizing that tribal communities lost so many elders and knowledge holders, there was this more urgent, finite amount of time to provide Native young people with the opportunity, Benally said.

Benally added that she also sees the program as part of a larger effort to bring more Native American voices into the Grand Canyon.

Despite being on lands with deep historical and cultural importance to Indigenous peoples, the U.S. National Park System, land management generally, and even the environmental conservation movement has long been dominated by Anglo-Americans, and Grand Canyon National Park is no exception.

Likewise for outdoor industries such as commercial river guiding on the Colorado.

Benally said she hopes RIISE trips can represent one more step in correcting that.

There is more traction gaining around the Grand Canyon of how we increase Native representation; how do we ensure that the people's stories that are being told within the river community, and then above the rim are diverse, that they're not just John Wesley Powells story, Benally said.

In some ways, Benally said, the RIISE trip has already been a success on that account, recalled one young woman who took part in the trip last year. After experiencing the river, Benally said, it was great to see her become interested in becoming a river guide.

It just spoke to her being in that space and in that place, and she's going to come back with us on RIISE 2023 and serve as a peer mentor to this upcoming cohort, Benally said.

For more information on how to apply to the trip, visit grandcanyontrust.org. The application deadline is Monday, May 29.
When Northern Irelands political institutions were established in 1998, they were tailored to govern a two community society.

However, Northern Ireland is no longer merely two communities, but a plurality of demographics with little resemblance to its social fabric a quarter of a century before.

However, despite increased ethnic diversity, there remains a near-total absence of ethnic minority and migrant representatives in political and public life.

With less than three weeks until local elections, can a new wave of candidates change the face of politics there?

According to the 2021 census, more than 60,000 people in Northern Ireland are from an ethnic minority community, doubling the statistics presented in the 2011 census and quadrupling those from 2001.

Despite these trends, or the more-than-150,000 migrants living in Northern Ireland, there is no ethnic minority or migrant representation in the Assembly, and only a single councillor.

People Before Profit candidate Sipho Sibanda: 'The political landscape in Northern Ireland has really been set up in a way that it just caters for the two big groups.'

Originally from Zimbabwe, human rights activist Sipho Sibanda of People Before Profit is currently running for a council seat in the Botanic district electoral area (DEA) of Belfast. She says: The political landscape in Northern Ireland has really been set up in a way that it just caters for the two big groups."

Underrepresented groups

She says underrepresented groups need to be represented.

"For them and their needs to be catered for in our political spaces we need to intentionally create spaces for all [underrepresented] groups to be involved, to represent themselves, so that we actually shape the politics of this place so that it represents everybody.

This is a familiar sentiment echoed by fellow Belfast City Council candidate Elly Omondi, currently running for the SDLP in Titanic DEA. He says: We have to have a face that looks like us, we have to assert our presence, and I believe in the politics of representation. That is one of the reasons why I am standing.

Omondi, who moved from Kenya to Northern Ireland in 1999, previously ran as an independent candidate in South Belfast during the 2022 Assembly election, but ultimately found a home with the SDLP, saying he believes the party is trying to mould a different type of politics.

Green party candidate Ange Cruz didnt see herself as a political candidate, but after being encouraged by the party to run, she says:

I do think I have something to offer as a person who is an immigrant, a person of colour, with a daughter of colour that looks at things from a different perspective.

Originally from Canada, Cruz, who is running in the Oldpark DEA, says: Things are not set up to help people like us."

Tribal politics

The challenge is that Northern Ireland remains trapped in a cycle of tribal politics  political representatives are forced to select a community designation, of which there are only three categories  unionist, nationalist, or other.

SDLP candidate Elly Ormondi: 'We have to have a face that looks like us, we have to assert our presence, and I believe in the politics of representation.'

This can prove particularly challenging for migrants and those of other political ideologies or faiths. The SDLP designates as nationalist, but Omondi says: I dont believe in those tribal divisions about unionist or nationalist, but I respect that those traditions belong to those who believe in them.

For Sibanda, whose party designates as other, the labels also pose a challenge. I personally would like to see everyone as one I think for us to grow and embrace each others politics and move forward, we do need to find a way of not separating our politics and ensuring that our politics embraces everyone.

Cruz adds that while other is a recognised category and a growing community, some people really struggle to believe that a party can be other, and that were not secretly [a unionist or nationalist party]".

"You get accused of being one or the other depending on who you talk to.

The way to break this cycle, says Cruz, is through integrated education as "physical division from childhood is really where it all starts".

Omondi also speaks about education.

The apartheid system here where people are divided into two communities is something I want to change, Im very interested in working with people to stop the segregation in education.

A 2022 report by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on the experiences of migrant and ethnic minority communities in Northern Ireland concluded the politics of green and orange means that ethnic minority communities have often been overlooked in politics and policymaking.

Sibanda was motivated by this lack of representation. Our children are growing up here and I felt there was a lack of representation in politics and other spaces. I keep talking about wanting to see change, about wanting to see more ethnic minorities in Northern Irish politics. If not me then who?

The report by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee also called on political parties to do more to increase representation. Despite this, Sinn Fein, the largest political party in Northern Ireland, is running no ethnic minority or migrant candidates, nor is the DUP, UUP, or Alliance party.

Mimi Unamoyo, who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo in fear for her life and subsequently set up an organisation in Northern Ireland to help other refugees and asylum-seekers, was slated to run for the Alliance party but was pulled from the ballot at the 11th hour over what the party described as a paperwork error that affected her eligibility.

One would expect major political parties to be across the candidate criteria in order to avoid such regrettable outcomes. Unamoyo had already been leafletting in the weeks leading up to the announcement.
A woman has told a court that Donald Trump molested her with what seemed like 40 zillion hands on an airline flight in the late 1970s  years before writer E Jean Carroll says the former president sexually assaulted her at a Manhattan department store.

Jessica Leeds, 81, of Asheville, North Carolina, told jurors at a civil trial arising from Ms Carrolls lawsuit that Mr Trump grabbed her chest and ran his hand up her skirt as they sat side by side in first class on a New York City-bound jet.

After a few seconds, she said, she wriggled free of Mr Trump, told him I dont need this, and stormed to the back of the plane.

There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue. It was like a tussle, she told the court. He was trying to kiss me, trying to pull me towards him. He was grabbing my breasts. It was like he had 40 zillion hands. It was like a tussling match between the two of us.

Jessica Leeds leaves the federal courthouse (Seth Wenig/AP)

Ms Carrolls lawyers called Ms Leeds to give evidence in an attempt to show that Mr Trump has a history of assaulting women and that Ms Carrolls claims were part of a pattern, not a one-off incident. Another woman is also expected to say she was victimised by Mr Trump.

His lawyer said the former president has decided against giving evidence, answering the biggest outstanding question about the closely watched case. Mr Trump has given sworn deposition evidence, and excerpts could be played for the jury.

He has repeatedly denied the womens claims. He contends the allegations are politically motivated attempts to smear his reputation and deny him the White House. He has said Ms Carroll lied to sell books and that she is not his type.

Mr Trump used similar language in denying Ms Leeds allegations, telling supporters at a 2016 rally, Believe me, she would not be my first choice.

She first went public with her account of the alleged assault in the final weeks of Mr Trumps 2016 campaign, telling jurors she decided to do so because she was furious about his claim at a debate that he had never touched women against their will.

Ms Carroll, a former magazine advice columnist, publicly aired her allegations against him in 2019 when she published a memoir. She testified over three days that Mr Trump raped her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store.

Lisa Birnbach, a longtime friend, told the court that an emotional and hyperventilating Ms Carroll telephoned her minutes after her encounter with Mr Trump to report what occurred. She said she told Ms Carroll that she had been raped and urged her to go to the police, but Ms Carroll refused, leading them to argue before Ms Birnbach agreed never to speak of it again.

E Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan federal court (John Minchillo/AP)

Ms Leeds said she was in her late 30s, working in sales and sitting on a Braniff Airways flight from Dallas or Atlanta to New Yorks LaGuardia Airport, likely in 1979, when a flight attendant invited her to sit in the only empty aisle seat in the first-class cabin, next to Mr Trump.

He introduced himself, Ms Leeds said, but she did not know who he was at the time. Working then as a property developer, he had not yet achieved the height of his fame and was still a few years from opening Trump Tower in Manhattan.

Ms Leeds said she sat with him for several hours and ate a first-class meal, but that their conversation was otherwise forgettable. Then, she said, all of a sudden Trump decided to kiss me and grope me.

She said she fought back as he seemed to get more aggressive, pressing his weight into her, jostling her seat and pinning her in it. No passengers intervened, and no employees from the now-defunct airline came to her rescue, she said.

It was when he started putting his hand up my skirt that gave me strength. I managed to wriggle out of my seat and storm back to my seat in coach. I dont think there was a word or a sound made by either one of us, she recalled. She said the encounter seemed like forever, but it probably was just a few seconds.

After landing in New York, Ms Leeds said she stayed on the plane until everyone else had left to avoid running into Mr Trump again. She said she kept the incident to herself, regarding it as one of the rigours of travel.

She did not report it to the airline, the police or her boss because, she said, it was an era when women didnt complain about things in the workplace.

A few years later, Ms Leeds said she saw Mr Trump at a Manhattan gala with his first wife Ivana, who was pregnant, but did not say anything. Instead, she told jurors it was Mr Trump who piped up and used a crass word in recognising her as the woman from the airplane.
The presidents of Iran and Syria have signed a series of long-term cooperation agreements on oil and other sectors to bolster economic ties between the two allies.

Irans Ebrahim Raisi, leading a large economic and political delegation, met his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad after landing in the war-torn country for a two-day visit  an Iranian presidents first visit to Damascus since 2010.

Tehran has been a main backer of Mr Assads government since a 2011 uprising turned into full-blown civil war and has played an instrumental role in turning the tide of the conflict in his favour.

Tehran has sent scores of military advisers and thousands of Iran-backed fighters from around the Middle East to Syria to fight on Mr Assads side. Tehran has also been an economic lifeline for the Syria leader, sending fuel and credit lines worth billions of dollars.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, walks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the presidential palace in Damascus (Syrian Presidency/AP)

Syrian government forces have regained control of large parts of the country in recent years, with the help of its two main allies  Russia and Iran.

With Arab governments that once advocated Mr Assads downfall now slowly making amends with Damascus, Iran appears to be hoping to reap the rewards for its decades-long support of the Syrian president with investment and economic opportunities to help alleviate its own ailing economy.

Syrian state media said the two leaders signed agreements and memorandums of understanding related to several sectors, including oil, agriculture, railways and free trade zones.

Irans state-owned railway company has long aspired to expand its network through neighbouring Iraq and Syria, linking it to the Syrian port of Lattakia on the Mediterranean Sea to boost trade. Syrias opposition and Tehran critics see this as another Iranian attempt to grow its political influence.

The deals are also important for Syria, whose economy has hit an all-time low over the past decade, with spiralling inflation, a currency plunge and rampant power cuts.

Before his visit, Mr Raisi called for reconstruction efforts and for Syrian refugees who fled the countrys war to return home.

Syrias government and people have gone through great hardship, Syrian state media quoted him as telling Mr Assad during their meeting. Today, we can now say that you have overcome all these problems and were victorious, despite the threats and sanctions imposed against you.

The last Iranian president to visit Syria was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2010.

The two leaders in discussion (Iranian Presidency Office/AP)

Mr Raisis visit comes as some Arab countries, including Egypt and regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, have been opening up to Mr Assad and their foreign ministers have visited Damascus in recent weeks.

Syrias foreign minister also visited the Saudi capital of Riyadh in April, the first such visit since the two countries cut relations in 2012.

In March, Iran and Saudi Arabia, a main backer of Syrian opposition fighters, reached an agreement, brokered by China, to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions.

The Iran-Saudi reconciliation is likely to have positive effects on countries where the two fought proxy wars, including Syria.

Syria was widely shunned by Arab governments over Mr Assads brutal crackdown on protesters. The breakdown in relations culminated with Syria being ousted from the Arab League in 2011.

Syrias civil war has since killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the countrys pre-war population of 23 million.

Like Syria, Iran is under western sanctions which, alongside decades of mismanagement, have plunged its national currency to new lows.

Months of anti-government protests failed to unseat the ruling clerics and talks on Tehrans return to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which lifted sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Irans nuclear programme, have long become stalemated.
Elon Musk threatened to reassign National Public Radios Twitter account to another company, according to the non-profit news organisation, in a continuing dispute between Mr Musk and media groups since his 44 billion dollar acquisition of the social network last year.

So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company? he wrote in one email late on Tuesday to NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn.

NPR stopped tweeting from its main account after Twitter abruptly labelled the groups main account as state-affiliated media last month, a term that has also been used to identify outlets controlled or heavily influenced by authoritarian governments.

Twitter then changed the label to government-funded media.

NPR said both labels were inaccurate and undermined its credibility  noting that it operates independently of the US government. Federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting accounts for less than 1% of NPRs annual operating budget, the company said.

The last tweets on NPRs main account are from April 12 when it shared a thread of other places readers and listeners could find its journalism.

Twitter temporarily labelled other news organisations  including the BBC and PBS  as government-funded media. PBS also stopped using its Twitter account in response.

An article written by Allyn late on Tuesday detailed the messages the billionaire owner of Twitter sent regarding NPRs account. Mr Musk pointed to NPRs choice to stop tweeting as the reasoning behind possibly reassigning the account.

Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant, he wrote in one email. Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR.

According to Twitters online policy, the platform determines an accounts inactivity based on logging on  not tweeting. Twitter says users should log in at least every 30 days to keep their accounts active, and accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity.

Mr Musks comments and his actions do not always match and it is uncertain if he will reassign NPRs handle, regardless of Twitters published policy on account activity.

Asked by NPR who would be willing to use its Twitter account, Mr Musk replied, National Pumpkin Radio, along with a fire emoji and a laughing emoji, NPR reported.

Hard to imagine a more potent example of Musks willingness to use Twitter to arbitrarily intimidate and retaliate against any person or organisation that irks him

It is unknown if NPR has logged into its account, which currently has a blue tick without the previous government-funded media label, since April.

Mr Musk disbanded Twitters media and public relations department after the takeover.

It is the latest volley in what many experts describe as a chilling and uncertain landscape for journalism on Twitter since he acquired the company in October.

In addition to removing news organisations verifications and temporarily adding labels like government-funded media on some accounts, he abruptly suspended the accounts of individual journalists who wrote about Twitter late last year.

Liz Woolery, digital policy lead at literary organisation PEN America, said it is hard to imagine a more potent example of Musks willingness to use Twitter to arbitrarily intimidate and retaliate against any person or organisation that irks him, with or without provocation.

Its a purely authoritarian tactic, seemingly intended to undermine one of the countrys premier and most trusted news organisations  one that is especially important to rural communities across the US, she added.
Burma Chinas Visiting FM Vows to Stand by Myanmar Junta in Global Arena

Qin Gang and Min Aung Hlaing hold a ceremonial tea set during their meeting in Naypyitaw on Tuesday. / Cincds

China said its foreign ministers visit to military-ruled Myanmar reflects its support for the country in the international arena, where the regime has been condemned for its coup and subsequent atrocities against its own people.

Foreign Minister Qin Gang held talks with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw on Tuesday, becoming the first top-level Chinese government official to meet with the regime leadership since the coup in 2021. He also met with Myanmars former dictator Than Shwe.

Myanmar has been engulfed in violence since the military takeover sparked a nationwide armed uprising against junta rule. The regime has been shunned by most of the international community for frequent atrocities perpetrated on its own civilians.

However, Myanmars giant neighbor to the north, China, has been joined by Russia in refusing to condemn the takeover as both countries have strategic geopolitical and economic interests in Myanmar. The two countries have instead provided diplomatic protection at the UN, where China has pledged to support the junta no matter how the situation changes. Both countries also supply arms to the military regime.

Meeting with the junta chief on Tuesday, Qin Gang said his visit reflected not only good relations between their countries but also reveals that China stands by Myanmar in the international arena, according to a statement issued by Min Aung Hlaings Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services.

Chinas foreign ministry said the purpose of the visit was to follow up on outcomes of President Xi Jinpings trip to Myanmar in January 2020, deepen cooperation, and support Myanmars efforts to maintain stability, revitalize the economy, and realize sustainable development.

China is a major investor in Myanmar and places great importance on mines, oil and gas pipelines and other infrastructure projects that will give it access to the Indian Ocean. The projects include the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) scheme to connect Kunming in southwest China with Myanmars major economic hubs  linking first with Mandalay in central Myanmar, then forking east to Yangon and west to the Kyaukphyu SEZ in Rakhine State.

Some Chinese investment projects have been stalled since the coup, while others have resumed. On Tuesday, Qin signalled that almost all China-backed projects in Myanmar will resume soon, affirming that Beijing was committed to accelerating development of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, as well as agricultural and other projects.

Politically, China has backed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)s mediation efforts on Myanmar and said the international community should promote the implementation of ASEANs peace plan, which calls for an immediate end to the violence, dialogue among parties and other steps. The plan, known as the Five Point Consensus, was adopted in 2021 but has been largely ignored by the junta.

The Chinese foreign minister also paid a visit to Min Aung Hlaings predecessor, 90-year-old former dictator Than Shwe.

Qin told Than Shwe that China had always been a good neighbor, friend and partner, supporting Myanmar in maintaining stability and promoting development, according to Xinhua.

The former dictator said he appreciated Chinas neighborly friendship and its strong support for Myanmars socio-economic development, the Chinese state media agency reported.

This was the first time since the coup that China reported its officials contact with the former dictator.

The Chinese Communist Partys director-general for liaison, Peng Xiubin, met Than Shwe in April but the meeting was not publicized.

On the eve of his visit to Myanmar, Qin met with the UNs Special Envoy for Myanmar and said the international community should support all parties in Myanmar and resume the process of political transition through political dialogue to bring peace.
Burma Karen National Union to Probe 5 Senior Members Accused of Crime Hub Involvement

Buildings under construction in KK Park. / The Standard

The Karen National Union (KNU) will investigate five senior members accused of involvement in the notorious Thai-border crime hub of KK Park and other illegal activities, according to a senior member of the KNU Brigade 5.

However, the investigation will take place only after an election that could see the suspects take leadership positions in Myanmars oldest and most powerful ethnic armed organization (EAO).

The KNUs central executive committee pledged to take action against the five senior members in response to a complaint made by KNU Brigade 5 officials during the EAOs ongoing 17th Congress.

In a Karen-language reply dated April 27, the central executive committee said it would investigate five senior members suspected of being involved in illegal business activities including drug and human trafficking that violate KNU regulations.

The five members under investigation are the armed groups defense department chief Padoh Saw Roger Khin, KNU Brigade 7 commander Brigadier-General Saw Phaw Doe, KNU Brigade 4 secretary for Myiek and Dawei districts Saw Tin Soe, Colonel Saw Ba Chaw, and Saw Doe Soe, who is a son of Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) chief of staff General Saw Johnny. The KNLA is an armed wing of the KNU.

The central executive committee said individuals would be punished in line with its laws if found guilty, but did not clarify what penalties would be imposed.

Padoh Saw Roger Khin attended the ground-breaking ceremony for KK Park, a new city project located just north of Myawaddy, Karen State, in February 2020. The park has thrived since 2021 coup, becoming a hub of human trafficking and online scams for Southeast Asia. The defense department chiefs name is also signed on a KK Park project agreement document recently leaked on social media.

Brigade 5 officials proposed delaying the election of a new KNU leadership at the congress until allegations that some senior KNU figures are involved in controversial China-backed new city projects in Karen State are properly investigated.

The brigade warned that it would boycott the congress otherwise.

The KNU nonetheless continued with the congress, which elected Padoh Saw Kwe Htoo Win as the armed groups chairman on Tuesday. He was formerly vice chairman.

Forty-five members of the KNU standing committee were elected on Monday. Other positions, including vice chairman and secretaries, were scheduled to be decided on Wednesday.

The Irrawaddy has reached out to KNU central executive committee members but so far received no comment on how they will handle the allegations made against senior members.

The KNU has attracted widespread criticism over the border projects from Karen communities and civil society organizations, which have called on the entire central executive committee to quit.

A Karen political observer said any investigation would be impossible if the suspects were elected as new leaders.

The congress is electing the new leadership without questioning the suspects. And only after the congress finishes will the new leadership investigate the suspects and take punitive action. But the suspects hold key positions and are elected to the new leadership, it will be like asking the thief to investigate his theft. The truth will not be uncovered, the observer said.
Burma Over 5,000 Ye-U Township Villagers Flee Myanmar Junta Raids

Residents of south and west Ye-U Township flee their homes on Tuesday. / Ye-U Township Support Team

Over 5,000 residents from about 20 villages in Ye-U Township, Sagaing Region, have fled their homes after Myanmar junta troops burned houses in three villages, according to residents.

Troops raided Nga Yote Tone village on Sunday and burned down at least 15 houses. On Monday they raided Sal Gyi and Pauk Thar villages and burned houses, according to Ye-U Township Support Team.

There has been no fighting in the area. Residents on the border with Depayin Township are frightened and fled their homes, said a volunteer.

Around 80 troops entered Sal Gyi and Pauk Thar and burned houses, displacing more villagers.

Troops shot at the retreating villagers and injured a woman, according to Pauk Tha villager. They are sheltering in Depayin.

A member of the Depayin Township Brotherhood, which helps displaced civilians, said: The troops are in Vitakat Kya, based at the village monastery. We are unsure how many houses have been burned down in the other villages. We help all those coming into our township.

U Nyo of Aung Chan Thar village said: They are raiding villages without any clashes taking place in a deliberate attempt to oppress Ye-Us residents. The rains have started and it is very windy but we still have to escape on the country roads and in the forests.

The support teams in Ye-U and Depayin townships are struggling to provide shelter, food and medicine to people fleeing around 20 villages in the south and west of Ye-U.

Data For Myanmar, an independent research team, reported that the junta burned down over 47,000 houses in Sagaing Region by the end of February 2023 since the 2021 coup.
Guest Column Myanmar and China: The Citizenship Question

Chinese Lunar New Year is celebrated in Yangon's Chinatown in 2019. / The Irrawaddy

Citizenship issues are a vital element in any states sovereignty. Countries vary and individually adapt under the two generally recognized systems of law: jus soli (right of the soilwhere one was born) and jus sanguinis (right of bloodones heritage). States continuously redefine the qualifications, such as whetherand howthe male or female blood line applies, religious beliefs, historical records, and the issue of dual citizenship.

Myanmar has a unique system based on its 1982 citizenship law. Under it, only taingyintha (literally, sons of the land, called national races (actually ethno-linguistic groups) long and traditionally resident in Burma/Myanmar are full citizens with whatever rights such status stipulates. Members of other ethnic groups, such as Chinese or Indians, may, depending on a number of factors such as length and proof of family residence before 1823, become citizens, but that number must be small. The remainder may become associate or naturalized citizens with less status and rights. The Myanmar government until the coup of Feb. 1, 2021 has regarded the Rohingya as alien Bengalis. The issue is now under dispute. So, the system in Myanmar is a type of modified and combined jus sanguinis and jus soli system. But what happens when another country with extensive expatriates has a different system, and seems more intent on recognizing its perceived authority over them? The case is China, with important implications for Myanmar, and indeed far beyond Myanmar to those Chinese resident in the West.

In May 2019, in a highly significant event basically ignored by the international media, President Xi Jinping attended the 9th World Ethnic Chinese Association Conference in Beijing, jointly sponsored by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council and the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese. The conference called for the members of the association of Chinese in the world to follow the guidance of the Xi Jinping socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era (Xinhua News). He seemed to demand political and economic orthodoxy for worldwide Chinesesome 60 million in about 200 countries and regionsunder his and the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

This has historical Chinese roots. Starting in 1909, the Chinese Qing Dynasty regarded Chinese anywhere in the world as theoretically subject to Chinese central government authority to ensure perpetual allegiance to the state; i.e., jus sanguinis. This policy was reaffirmed under the Chinese Nationalist (KMT) government until it was overthrown in 1949 by the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), which continued the policy for half a dozen years after its founding.

The Burmese civilian government was disturbed by this policy, as China at that time was regarded by the Burmese military as its only external threat and indigenous Chinese as a potential fifth column. It regarded the status of Chinese residents in Burma as one of the four major problems with the new PRC, the other three being a disputed border demarcation, Chinese support for the Communist Party of Burma, and the residual KMT forces that had retreated into northern Burma. It was only after Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai reassured Prime Minister U Nu in the mid-1950s that the Chinese ought to obey Burmese law and customs that the Burmese governments fear of Chinese residents was assuaged, at least until China exported the Cultural Revolution into Chinese schools in Burma, resulting in anti-Chinese riots and many deaths in Rangoon in 1967.

The overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia are a critical component of governance and the individual and collective economies of the region. Ethnic Chinese residents in Myanmar and Southeast Asia are more than simply numerous. In Myanmar, illegal Chinese immigration has resulted in several million Chinese (perhaps 4 percent of the population), excluding Sino-Burmese who are also very numerous. Chinese play extensive roles in the retail trade, even though the Burmese census of 2014 has not released their figures but regards them as essentially minimal. By 2000, there were some 25,000 Chinese firms involved in the retail trade in household sundries. In Indonesia several decades ago, scholars estimated that overseas Chinese controlled 80 percent of private capital in that country. Although the Chinese in Thailand have been better integrated into that society than in any other regional state except Singapore, which is largely ethnically Chinese, they remain profoundly important in the region.

In at least the first two decades of the PRC, communist control over large swathes of the Chinese-language school system in Southeast Asia was evident, causing concern that they could be an internal fifth column for PRC influence or control. Attempts to counter this was evident through the supply of anti-communist textbooks to a large number of schools by Taiwan, Hong Kong, and third-force Chinese, often with foreign support.

Under Deng Xiaoping the tensions eased, shifting to the more recent soft power attributes of the Confucius Centers designed to teach Chinese language and culture essentially to the ethnically non-Chinese. But now Xi seems determined to bring the overseas Chinese into line. China does not allow dual citizenship, so in many countries in the region the PRC can only bring moral suasion to their expatriates, although the power of China and the forces of family, the economy, and group identity are important. In Myanmar, the situation is complex, as the Chinese are essentially not Burmese citizens. Given the alacrity and vigor with which the Chinese bureaucracy responds to perceived commands from the top of its very steep hierarchy, we may expect some additional pressures and tensions to surface. Recent reports have indicated increased official worldwide Chinese surveillance of Chinese, and current indications demonstrate the dictates of Xi cannot be easily ignored.

If China pushes the overseas Chinese in Myanmar to adhere to the dictates of the CCP, the problems of the past, which resulted in some riots but more recently strong anti-Chinese sentiments because of its aid program, may well intensify. Chinese surveillance and attempted control worldwide are dangers to expatriate host states. It needs to act more discreetly and carefully on these issues everywhere, but especially in fragile countries like Myanmar.

David I. Steinberg is distinguished professor of Asian studies emeritus at Georgetown University in Washington.
Dave Cheney will be taking the role of Northern Arizona Healthcare's (NAH) CEO in July.

On Wednesday a week ago, NAHs board of directors announced it had selected Cheney as its new leader, following the departure of Flo Spyrow, the previous president and CEO, in August.

Starting on July 10, Cheney will be leading the entire healthcare system in northern Arizona, including the Flagstaff and Verde Valley medical centers, a number of primary and specialty providers, and air and ground medical transportation.

He is currently the CEO of Sutter Health Hospitals in northern California.

Originally from Scottsdale, Cheney has spent all but the past six years in Arizona. His previous work in healthcare leadership at Sutter Health includes time as the CEO of Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento (since 2017), then Sutter Valley region CEO, as well as his current position, where he has overseen 24 acute care hospitals since January of 2022.

In Arizona, he spent eight years as CEO at Banner Health Boswell in Sun City, following many years in strategy and operations at Banners flagship teaching hospital in Phoenix, according to the 2022 announcement Sutter made about his previous role. Cheney began his career as a paramedic in the 1980s at Samaritan Health System, where he held various roles through the early 2000s.

He said his previous leadership work has given him a lot of learnings on how to inspire people and how to allow them to do their very best work ... how to integrate the healthcare system into the community."

Cheney said his priority for his first few months at NAH is a learning tour to listen and learn about the system, the people, the community. The familiarization includes spending time with employees of Flagstaff Medical Center (FMC) and Flagstaff residents, he said -- though the details of what those meetings might look like havent been decided yet.

I don't know the Flagstaff area that well yet, but Im guessing reaching out and meeting the needs of our community, and understanding what those needs are -- whether that's prevention or treatment of injury and illness, he said of the citys health needs.

As for the proposed move and new health and wellness village for FMC that was set to go before city council for the first time on Tuesday night, Cheney said he will be behind it 100%. He expected neither the project nor NAHs approach to it to change as a result of his appointment.

Though the project's proposed timeline currently goes through at least 2040, the citys approval process for phase one is expected to finish at a meeting Tuesday, May 16, almost two months before Cheney will be taking his role at NAH.

Im very excited to get involved in that once I get up there, he said.  ... Its an exciting project for the community. I just need to know more about what it entails, but I will be behind it 100% once I get up there.

Cheney said what drew him to NAH is its commitment to exceptional care and 50-year history.

When I started in healthcare in the early '80s, I was very aware of what was going on in northern Arizona, and it has this great reputation," he said. "I think what I bring is maybe a different look on things to get better, but they're doing a fantastic job right now.

Those areas of improvement, he said, havent been determined yet -- which is part of the reason for the listening tour. He added that he admired that NAH was fiercely independent and its work in bringing care to northern Arizonas underserved communities.

Its a wonderful opportunity, it's a wonderful community, its an amazing healthcare system; its mission resonates with me, he said. One of the big reasons I decided to throw my hat in is the whole concept of improving health and viewing people, I think, is exactly where healthcare should be. [Else]where, its been this focus on just healing people, but I think improving health should really be what healthcare should be all about, and Im planning to do a lot of work around it.

Josh Tinkle will continue in the interim CEO position through the transition period, after which he will return to his role of COO.
Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 (12:01 am) - Score 1,008

The first UK government-funded rural 4G mobile mast upgrade has today been completed in the Lockerbie area in Scotland, which forms part (75m) of their industry-led 1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project with EE (BT), Vodafone, Three UK and O2 (Virgin Media). A further 120+ masts in Scotland are also set for upgrades.

Just to recap. The SRN is an industry-led scheme  supported by a public investment of 500m and private funding of 530m from operators  that aims to help extend geographic 4G (mobile broadband) coverage to 95% of the UK  or 91% in Scotland  by the end of 2025 (it may also help the 5G rollout). The scheme involves both the reciprocal sharing of existing masts in certain areas, and the demand-led building and sharing of new masts in others.

NOTE: The SRN ( The SRN ( https://srn.org.uk ) states that it will aim to provide guaranteed coverage to an additional 280,000 UK premises, 16,000km of roads and boost in car coverage on around 45,000 km of road, as well as better indoor coverage for around 1.2 million premises.

However, the 95% SRN target is only when a 4G service is available from at least one operator, while the UK coverage forecast for SRN completion for all operators (i.e. geographic areas where youll be able to take 4G from all four operators) is actually just 84% for the same date  falling to 74% in Scotland. But further SRN coverage improvements are also planned in even harder-to-reach areas between 2026 and early 2027.

So far weve already seen a lot of commercial SRN deployments from the main mobile operators. But todays news highlights how 75m of public investment via the SRN is also being used to deliver more than 120 further 4G mast upgrades in rural parts of Scotland.

The first mast upgrade activated in Lockerbie from this pot of public money is thus intended to deliver 4G coverage to residents in the east of Dumfries and Galloway, while also benefitting people living in Boreland, Eskdalemuir, Lochmaben and other neighbouring villages. The new mast will also help to spread coverage via the 4G based Emergency Services Network (ESN), assuming they ever get it all working properly.

Chloe Smith, UK Science and Technology Secretary, said: We are investing in the things that matter to the people of the UK, and this includes funding strong, reliable 4G signal for rural communities struggling with poor coverage. Our 75 million investment means people across Scotland will benefit from upgraded infrastructure that is fit for the future, starting with the first mast upgrade in Dumfries and Galloway. Growing our economy is one of the Prime Ministers top priorities and this includes bringing fast, reliable mobile signal to wherever people are, giving them all the connectivity they need to work, shop and keep in touch online.

The upgraded mast also makes it usable by all four mobile operators (theyre all now live at the site), meaning they can host and share equipment on it for the first time, offering improved signal and greater choice of provider for residents and businesses.

As a side note, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) will provide 184m of the 500m UK government SRN funding to the Home Office and mobile network operators to upgrade Extended Area Service (EAS) masts being built as part of the ESN, to make them usable by the four operators and offer commercial connectivity for the first time. Overall, there will be 292 EAS sites across Great Britain (with 123 in Scotland), although not all will be commercially upgraded due to various technical or value for money reasons.

This is all separate from the Scottish Governments 4G Infill (S4GI) programme, which is delivering 4G infrastructure and services in up to 55 mobile notspots in rural and remote areas and has nearly completed. The SRN and S4GI programmes have, however, collaborated a little to ensure their work is complementary (here).
May 2, 2023



The first students to ever receive a masters from Idaho State University in Electrical and Computer Engineering will walk across the commencement stage on May 6.

Kiran Pandey and Shah Md Nehal Hasnaeen will have the honor of being the first to be handed their diplomas. In addition to his new masters, Pandey, from Arghakhanchi, Nepal, has earned an honors bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Idaho State. While at ISU, hes served as a student ambassador, tutor coordinator, and Associated Students of Idaho State University Vice President. Looking ahead, Pandey plans to continue his career at Virginia Transformer Corporation as a Test Engineer.

ISU has provided me with a remarkable range of opportunities, including community service, leadership, and academics, making for an unforgettable student life experience, Pandey said. The courses I have taken have allowed me to develop and solidify my technical skills, particularly in power systems, transmission, and clean energy - my areas of passion. I am forever thankful to my major advisor, Dr. Thomas Baldwin, whose constant motivation and ongoing conversations during and after research and projects have been invaluable in my academic and personal growth."

Meanwhile, Hasnaeen, from Bangladesh, has focused his research on the electromagnetic fingerprints of radio frequency identification tags. He has published three papers and submitted two others for publication while working in the lab of Assistant Professor Andrew Chrysler. Outside of the classroom, he has served as the President of the Bangladesh Students' Association at Idaho State University since August 2022. Hasnaeen will defend his thesis in the summer before heading to the University of Tennessee Knoxville to pursue a doctorate in Data Science and Engineering.

In addition to my masters coursework, I was able to take some additional classes on system modeling and machine learning, said Hasnaeen. When I was interviewing for doctorate programs, the additional courses and the papers I was able to publish helped me stand out compared to other candidates. Ill be working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as part of my doctoral studies, and it would not have been possible without ISU's academic offerings.

Two other students, Suman Neupane and Zayed Mohammad, will also wrap up their studies over the summer. Neupane will defend his masters thesis before moving into industry and specializing in the radio frequency identification and antenna design fields. Mohammad plans to pursue a career in industry and is also planning to earn a doctorate.

All four of these students have excelled in their academic careers and are truly a marvelous group to be our first graduates, said Steve Chiu, professor and chair of the electrical and computer engineering department. They have all worked closely with our faculty on their research and have served as mentors to our undergraduate students. As a department, we congratulate them on reaching this milestone.

The masters of Electrical and Computer Engineering is one of the newest academic programs at Idaho State. Students are able to specialize in power engineering, wireless radio frequency communications, electromagnetics, semiconductor circuit design, and more. Students will also select a concentration in either Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering for their research work. Faculty have designed the program to allow full-time and part-time students to complete their degrees within a reasonable amount of time. Additionally, a student's degree path can be customized to allow students already working in the field to integrate their in-progress research and development projects.

Electrical and computer engineers are at the forefront of tackling the most pressing issues facing us when it comes to sustainability, intelligent systems, and safeguarding critical infrastructure, to name a few, Chiu said. If tackling some of the big challenges of society interests you, Id encourage you to pursue a career in electrical and computer engineering.

For more information on Idaho State Universitys Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, visit isu.edu/ece.



Prospective students can book a campus tour at isu.edu/visit.
May 2, 2023



When Alexis Navarrete first started elementary school in American Falls, she spoke only Spanish. She still remembers struggling to learn a new language while keeping up with her schoolwork, and the isolating feelings that can come with it.

On Saturday, Navarrete will be graduating from Idaho State University with a bachelors degree in elementary education, with endorsements in English as a Second Language (ESL) and history as well as minors in Spanish and history. This spring, she returned to American Falls as a student teacher at Hillcrest Elementary. After graduation, she hopes to begin a career in the school district where she once struggled, and let other students know they are not alone.

I know the struggles ESL students go through in their education. I want to remind my future students that I am just like them, and they can accomplish anything they put their minds to, she said.

Over the past five years, Idaho State University has become part of Navarretes identity. Coming from a small, rural town and being the first in her family to go to college, she describes her experience as a challenging start that pushed her out of her comfort zone. Now, as she is nearing the end of her educational journey, she is excited to be starting a new chapter in her life, one that will make her family very proud.

It was not easy navigating through college, but luckily I had a great support system on campus and at home from my family, she said.

The faculty who have taught Navarrete are impressed with her perseverance, and cant wait to see what she accomplishes in the future.

"As a student in my classes, Alexis was always so focused and dedicated, said Dr. Cory A Bennett, one of her former professors. It was clear, early on, that the implications of learning to become a teacher went well beyond her own success and accomplishments; she knew she would be changing other people's lives, too."
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Today

Sunny skies. Becoming windy late. High 89F. W winds at 10 to 15 mph, increasing to 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.

Tonight

Clear and windy. Low 59F. Winds W at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.

Tomorrow

Sunny. High 81F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
The local government of Zibo, East China's Shandong Province, has issued two open letters in a short time to all citizens, extending its gratitude for their warmth and hospitality toward visitors who have come to enjoy the city's signature barbecue, which has recently become a hit across the country. Such an unexpected success has shown the city's spirit of unity and tenacity, which will surely further boost its tourism and economic development.

Since early March, Zibo local barbecue caused a sensation online. The little double-layer stove, small pancakes, green onions and sauce became icons among netizens. According to reports, Zibo received 4.8 million visitors in March, a year-on-year increase of 134 percent, and tourist revenue was up by 60 percent. A total of 1,288 barbecue businesses served 135,800 customers a day on average, most of whom were university students from across the province and nationwide.

According to a CCTV-2 report, many hotels in Zibo have been fully booked ahead of the May Day holidays, with reservations rising by 800 percent from 2019, ranking first in Shandong Province. Zibo's booming tourism has become a highlight of China's tourist market in 2023.

For a long time, Zibo was a "mediocre" city in almost all aspects on the Chinese scale. However, "taking the high-speed train to taste barbecue in Zibo" miraculously became a trending hashtag for this non-traditional tourist city. But how did Zibo rise to fame? This has not been some random coincidence.

First, it comes down to the ambition, determination and creativity of the city government. From July 2022 to February 2023, Zibo organized many trips to the city for university students. When the number of visits reached its peak, it did not panic but soon put forward several supportive policies, such as setting up a "Golden Stove Award," establishing a barbecue association, making a map of Zibo barbecue restaurants, and opening 21 fixed tourist routes in addition to barbecue. It also recruited many volunteers to guide tourists, and appointed personnel to ensure public safety.

Second, Zibo's sudden boom in popularity also resulted from the post-pandemic tourism revival China has experienced. What is different is that the city aims to both revitalize its tourist industry and promote its long-term development. To this end, it provided young people, especially university students, with convenient services and created a welcoming atmosphere. For instance, non-Zibo students can enjoy free stays three times a year for two nights each time at youth inns. It extended invitations to students including those of distinguished universities to visit Zibo for free, a sign showing its thirst for talented young people.

As Ma Xiaolei, Party secretary of Zibo, said, "I believe there will be two-way exchanges between young students in our city, and Zibo will have a brighter future."

Media reports suggested that at least 120,000 people from Beijing alone are expected to visit Zibo by train during the May Day holiday. This influx of tourists will present a significant challenge to the city's capacity so the letters from the Zibo government came just in time.

Zibo can be seen as an epitome of the whole country for their aspiration to do business and seek development opportunities. With the determination of its government and concerted efforts of its citizens, this conventional heavy industrial city is making every effort to grasp the tourism opportunity and flourish.










Bones found near Adams last month were determined to have not come from a human.

On Sunday, April 23 the Gage County Sheriffs Office was dispatched to an area east of Adams on East Birch Road for a suspicious incident involving a citizen who had come across some childrens shoes, a childs toy, and some skeletal bones in an area of trees south of Birch Road.

A press release stated the caller was concerned because the bones appeared to be a rib cage and spine of a small child.

An investigator responded to the scene, interviewed the reporting party, and was taken to the site where the person had found the items.

The investigator surveyed the scene and was able to consult with the Nebraska State Archeologist, who verified that the bones were not human, but were those of a small mammal.

The investigator notified the caller and the landowner, who was also on scene, that the remains were not human.
A Billings man pleaded no contest Tuesday to killing a woman at their home on the South Side last year.

David Antonio Rodas Sr., according to documents filed in Yellowstone County District Court, is claiming to have no memory of the day he shot and killed Gwen Marshall, but knows there is enough evidence to prove as much.

In late May 2022 deputies with the Yellowstone County Sheriffs Office responded to a report of a possible suicide at a trailer park home on Stone Street. Inside the home, they found the body of Marshall, a 48-year-old woman and the mother of Rodas 12-year-old son. She died of multiple gunshot wounds, prompting a homicide investigation.

Deputies found two vehicles at the Stone Street property, court documents said, one of which was registered to Rodas. He was named as a person of interest in the investigation, along with his older son David Antonio Rodas Jr. A day after deputies found Marshalls body, officers with the Billings Police Department responded to a man behaving erratically in the Heights, wandering into traffic and screaming at people. Officers arrested the man, later identified as Rodas Sr. on Wicks Lane near a walk-in clinic.

YCSO personnel assisted BPD in the arrest, according to court documents, and when they identified Rodas as a suspect in Marshalls death, he violently tried to escape custody. Crews eventually took him to Billings Clinic, where a toxicology test determined he had methamphetamine in his system.

That same day, detectives with the sheriffs office found Rodas 12-year-old son with Rodas Jr. at an apartment on Broadwater Avenue. Rodas Jr., court documents said, refused to cooperate with detectives, and the younger boy was placed in protective custody.

During a forensic interview, according to court documents, the boy said he was in his room at the Stone Street home when he heard gunshots. His father then came into the room and told them they needed to leave.

Yellowstone County prosecutors charged Rodas with deliberate homicide, and he has remained in custody at Yellowstone County Detention Facility for nearly a year on a $750,000 bond. With his trial scheduled for May, Rodas reached a plea agreement with prosecutors Tuesday.

Rodas pleaded nolo contendere before District Judge Michael Moses on Tuesday. In exchange for his no contest plea, prosecutors are recommending he be sentenced to 70 years in prison for deliberate homicide, plus an additional 10 years for using a weapon. In Montana, deliberate homicide comes with the possibility of up to 100 years in prison.

Law enforcement responded to 16 homicides in Yellowstone County last year, according to preliminary data from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, the majority of which were investigated by the Billings Police Department. While homicides in the county dropped compared to the record-setting 19 in 2020, violent deaths last year were well above the 10-year average.

Yellowstone County as seen at least six homicides in 2023, and prosecutors have filed criminal charges in connection to half of those cases. Most recently, a 20-year-old man was shot and killed late last month at a carnival east of downtown Billings. BPD detectives are still investigating the circumstances of the mans death.
A video played in a Yellowstone County courtroom Tuesday showing a little girl at a table with crayons and a few pieces of paper. The girl, a toddler named Amiya Fox, was coloring in butterflies. A man sitting across the tiny table from her explained what a voice recorder was, then asked Amiya if shed ever been hurt. She said yes.

She told the man, a forensic interviewer, shed been hurt bad on her head, her fingers and her hair. The man asked her repeatedly who did that to her.

Wi-wee, she said again and again while coloring in her butterfly.

Willie Antoine Redd was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for brutalizing Amiya in February 2021. Like every other major hearing in the 26 months since prosecutors filed assault charges against Redd, his sentencing hearing before Yellowstone County District Judge Brett Linneweber was exhausting, graphic and emotional over the course of its seven hours.

Members of Amiyas family, her mother, her aunts and her grandparents among them, crowded one side of the courtroom benches, watching the video of a 3-year-old girl asked to recall details of the night she was nearly killed. Before playing the video, county prosecutors asked some of them to share their own experiences in seeing the child injured and traumatized.

Taylor Morgan, Amiyas mother, held up two photos during her testimony, demanding that Redd look at them. One showed her daughter in bandages.

She trusted you and you did this to her, and I want this to be in your head for the rest of your life, she said.

The photo Morgan took of Amiya about six months ago. In it, Amiya is out of the hospital and smiling.

This is her now. Shes doing great. Shes a big sister, and you were 10 minutes away from robbing her of that.

Redd, who sat quietly through most of Tuesdays sentencing, was arrested in February 2021 by U.S. Marshals. At the time, Redd was in-and-out of custody on federal supervised release, previously sentenced as a felon in possession of a firearm for robbing a Billings resident at gunpoint.

On Feb. 3 of that year, Amiya, whom Redd was babysitting, needed to be Life-flighted from Billings Clinic to Childrens Hospital of Colorado. It took a team of doctors to determine the extent of her injuries. Along with bruises covering her body, including to the tips of her fingers, she was bleeding internally.

It wasnt until Taylor Morgan saw her daughter and insisted that the she needed to go to a hospital that Amiya was brought to the Billings Clinic. Doctors in Colorado determined her injuries were not accidental.

Mistie Mims felt her legs come out from under her when she heard her granddaughter was being treated in Denver for severe trauma. Mims, who has guardianship of Amiya, said in court the girl remained on pain medication for two-and-half months after returning from Colorado. She has started to physically heal, but Amiya remains in play therapy.

Shes come a long way, but shes got a long ways to go, she said in court.

Det. Robert Miller with the Billings Police Department testified it took about nine months to piece together what happened to Amiya. When he was supposed to be caring for Amiya while her mom was at work, Redd beat her over a period of several hours. He then created an alibi for the girls injuries, saying he was going through a drive-thru at a Billings restaurant with Amiya in his car when somebody fired shots at his vehicle. While fleeing from the shooting, he said, the girls body was knocked against the hard surfaces of the car.

Yellowstone County prosecutors charged Redd with aggravated assault Feb. 18, 2021. It took more than two years for Redds case to go to trial. He requested new counsel at least twice, and made several attempts to get the case dismissed. Following a five-day trial in March, a Yellowstone County jury convicted Redd.

Yellowstone County Deputy Attorney Jacob Yerger, who prosecuted the case along with Arielle Dean, asked Judge Linneweber to sentence the 36-year-old to 20 years in prison without the possibility for parole. Redd has consistently failed to take advantage of treatment and rehabilitation opportunities several times, he said, and refused to acknowledge the fact that he beat a 3-year-old girl nearly to death.

Robert L. Stephens, Redds attorney, called the request for 20 years without parole draconian. Although Redd needed to be held accountable, Stephens maintained that Redds addictions were the root of his crimes. Were it not for his addictions, which Redds federal probation officer said included heroine and methamphetamine, Amayas family would not be in the courtroom Tuesday.

When given a chance to speak, Redd took the time to turn and look at the more than a dozen people sitting behind the bar. He asked for their forgiveness. Not for his sake, he said, but for theirs.

Im sorry.  Thats all I got, he said.

Redd will not be eligible for parole until he is 15 years into his sentence, per Linnewebers ruling Tuesday. Addiction is a recurrent theme in Redds criminal history, Linneweber said, but not everybody with addiction turns to violence. Amiyas recovery since Redd attacked her in February 2021, he said, is a testament to her strength and that of her family.

Theres a concern that Amiya may be prone to seizures, her grandfather, Jaysun Sims told the Gazette, and patches of her hair have only just started growing back. But shes also started going to pre-school, and smiles a lot more than she used to.

Im starting to see my granddaughter again, he said.
Officials have identified the Billings man killed Saturday night at a carnival in downtown Billings.

Kian Manuel Banderas died of a gunshot wound to the head, Yellowstone County Deputy Coroner Rich Hoffman told the Gazette on Tuesday. He was 20 years old. Detectives with the Billings Police Department are still investigating the circumstances surrounding Banderass death, and have identified at least one person of interest.

Officers responded to calls of shots fired at a carnival in the parking lot of Berrys Cherries, the Gazette previously reported. There were previous reports of a large group of juveniles assaulting someone attempting to drive away in a vehicle. When they reached the parking lot, they found Banderas, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The carnival grounds were taped off by police into Sunday morning.

BPD Lt. Matt Lennick told the Gazette as of Tuesday detectives were still conducting interviews and have yet to label a suspect.

Banderas is at least the sixth homicide in Billings since the start of the year, the majority of whom were killed by gunfire.
Bahrain is projected to be the worlds leader in consumer adoption of real-time payments, according to the 2023 Prime Time for Real-Time report, published by ACI Worldwide, a global leader in mission-critical, real-time payments software, in partnership with GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

With consumers and businesses in the Middle East demanding cheaper, faster and more efficient ways to pay, and merchant acceptance of real-time payments on the rise, consumer and business adoption via popular new use cases is heating up.

The Middle East is the fastest-growing real-time payments market globally. Rapid consumer adoption and new, sophisticated use cases have made Bahrain a global and regional leader.

This years Prime Time for Real-Time report analyzes real-time payment transactions per head of population per month for the first time, highlighting where consumers and businesses most actively use them.

By 2027, Bahrain citizens are expected to make an average of 83.3 real-time transactions per month, which makes Bahrain the worlds leader, ahead of Brazil, Thailand and its closest regional competitors, Saudi Arabia and UAE.

The report highlights that real-time payments are strongly embedded in the everyday lives of consumers and businesses in Bahrain.

In 2015, the Central Bank launched Fawri+, a real-time payments system that sets the standard for instant payments in the region. Today, nearly 60% of electronic payments in the country are processed in real time, forecasted to rise to 78.6% by 2027.

With the support of the Central Bank enabling easier use through digital apps like BenefitPay, real-time payments are helping promote financial inclusion and increase financial stability across the economy, leading to stronger economic growth.

Total real-time payment transactions in the country are expected to grow from 276 million in 2022 to 1.3 billion in 2027, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.5%, outpacing any other market in the Gulf.

"Real-time payments growth and adoption in Bahrain has been remarkable, making it a regional and global leader in the field. Bahrains government and Central Bank support, as well as its innovative digital infrastructure, have made it an ideal environment for businesses and consumers to take advantage of real-time payments," said Santhosh Rao, Senior Vice President, MEASA, ACI Worldwide.

"ACI has worked across the world to support governments and banks as they roll out real-time payments, and we are committed to help the countries in the Middle East reap the full benefits of real-time payments," he noted.

The report finds that the Middle East is the fastest-growing real-time payments market globally, with transactions expected to grow from $675 million in 2022 to $2.6 billion by 2027, a CAGR of 30.6%. Saudi Arabia is currently the biggest real-time payments market in the region, closely followed by Bahrain.

As governments and regulators in the Middle East are setting new mandates for adoption, countries including UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman are expected to launch domestic real-time schemes soon, with innovative features and new services for consumers and businesses high on the agenda.

"This years report highlights how consumer and business adoption of real-time payments accelerates when the conditions are right," stated Rao.

"Bahrain as a relatively recent enabler of real-time payments shows that concerted industry collaboration, widespread merchant adoption, strong brand recognition for a scheme and related services, such as digital wallets, are the perfect combination for strong growth," he added.

The ACI Worldwide report confirms Bahrain's position as a leading fintech hub and highlights its commitment to promoting financial inclusion, supporting innovation and driving economic growth in the region.

ACI Worldwide powers 25 domestic and pan-regional real-time payment schemes across six continents - including nine central infrastructures - providing solutions to central banks, participant banks, fintechs and other payment service providers.
A Sidney man who admitted to trafficking large quantities of methamphetamine after law enforcement seized more than 6 pounds of the drug from his car was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release.

Markel Dean Brown, 60, pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute meth, possession with intent to distribute meth and distribution of meth, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.

U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters presided.

The government alleged in court documents that in January 2022, law enforcement learned that Brown was distributing meth in Sidney and coordinated a controlled purchase of a half-pound of meth from Brown for $1,500.

Investigators further learned that Brown would be traveling out of state to pick up a supply of meth and that Brown went to Texas. The Montana Highway Patrol conducted a traffic stop of Browns vehicle when it returned to Montana and ultimately served a search warrant on the vehicle.

Law enforcement seized three packages of 100 percent pure meth totaling 6.6 pounds. Agents also searched Browns cell phone and found messages that discussed the coordination of Brown picking up meth in Texas. The total amount of meth seized from Brown was 7.1 pounds, which is the equivalent of 25,730 doses.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie R. Patten prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Montana Division of Criminal Investigation.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make neighborhoods safer.

On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.
Today

Thunderstorms, some heavy during the morning hours, then skies turning partly cloudy during the afternoon. High 84F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 54F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Mostly sunny. High 76F. Winds light and variable.
The 26 royal treasure artefacts that France promised to return to Benin in 2021 will be returning to Abomey, the previous capital of the Danxome kingdom, in approximately five years.

Benins National Agency for the Development of Touristic Heritage is currently training 100 artisans on the restoration techniques for royal palaces in the region where the museum for the cultural artefacts will be established, to ensure that the treasures are displayed under the best conditions. reports.

Prior to the restitution of various masterpieces from French museums, the artisans at the Abomey vocational training centre began constructing this royal reception hall called an adjalala in the Fon language.

The work commenced earlier this year, led by the French Compagnons du Devoir, specialists in ancestral trades. At this vocational training centre, the Beninese artisans are learning new methods.

Before the training, we built our foundations without sketches, said artisan John Adido. But here, we respect specific dimensions. Everything is levelled and proportional. I find it very beautiful.

Our goal is not to teach how to build. They know all that. Were here to bring rigour by teaching them the basics of mathematics, geometry, sketching, how to work with axes, to make sure that tomorrow they have skills needed for sustainable restorations, added Dimitri Andriot, site manager of the French Compagnons du Devoir.

In a few months, the artisans will restore the site of the royal palaces. The Benin National Agency for the Development of Tourist Heritage, under the management of Expertise France, wants to promote this jewel of Benins cultural heritage.

Our most valuable possession is our culture, said Prince Ganse Agonglo, the president of the Ministers of the Royal Court. This work will preserve our historical heritage, but also boost our economy. It brings pride to the kingdom.

The restoration project and the construction of the museum is valued at nearly 45 million, with approximately 80% financed by the French Development Agency through loans and grants and the remainder covered by Benin.
In principle, the two conflicting generals of Sudan commit to a seven-day ceasefire.

The government of South Sudan announced on Tuesday that warring generals in Sudan have agreed in principle to a seven-day ceasefire, following repeated violations of previous truces.

Diplomatic efforts have intensified to end the war in Africas third-largest country as warnings of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis increase. More than 430,000 people have been displaced and hundreds have been killed or wounded.

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudans army chief, and his deputy turned rival, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have agreed in principle to a truce from May 4th to 11th.

Multiple truces agreed since fighting began on April 15 have been repeatedly violated. Despite the humanitarian needs, the UN stated on Tuesday that its 2023 aid appeal for Sudan was $1.5 billion short.
St. Vincent Healthcare, part of Intermountain Health, has received an A Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group for the 10th consecutive time. This national distinction celebrates St. Vincent Healthcares achievements in protecting hospital patients from preventable harm and errors.

St. Vincent was one of three hospitals in Montana to earn an A grade. Of the nearly 3,000 hospitals graded, only 29% percent of hospitals received an A.

Our commitment to providing high-quality, patient-centered care begins with putting patient safety first, said Jen Alderfer, President of St. Vincent Healthcare. Receiving this recognition for the 10th consecutive time demonstrates to our patients and community the level of care we strive for every day at St. Vincent. I am grateful for the work of our caregivers that allows us to meet the highest standards in the healthcare industry.

The survey considered anything that could bring possible harm to patients, such as infections, medical errors, accidents, or injuries. The LeapFrog survey also examines the systems hospitals have in place to prevent harm in the first place. It then assigns an A through F grade based on the hospitals performance.

Intermountain Health caregivers are continually training for all aspects of patient safety in healthcare. There are also protocols in place that encourage caregivers to speak up and raise concerns if they see something which could put someone at risk.

To see the full LeapFrog list of hospitals and their grade, click here.
The authorities in Burkina Faso are under increasing pressure after over 150 civilians were massacred by uniformed men in northern villages.

A representative for the victims spoke at a press conference, accusing members of the defence and security forces.

Many of the victims shared similar stories at another press conference, demanding that the perpetrators, sponsors and accomplices be prosecuted.

The men in military uniforms killed over 130 people in the village of Karma on the 20th of April, with the murderous raids continuing in surrounding villages.

The government condemned the acts and opened an investigation. However, survivors of the attack denounced the armys retaliatory operation against the villagers.

The countrys military has been struggling with an insurgency by groups associated with IS and al Qaeda, with attacks on civilians surging in the past year.

A UN statement suggested that the attacking militants were members of the defence and security forces and aided by the paramilitary auxiliaries known as Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland (VDP).
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the United States did not notify Kyiv about confidential documents that were leaked to internet chat rooms, exposing sensitive information about Ukraines war efforts.

The news broke last month in the media before any warning was given. Keep up with the latest developments by following s live blog. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

6am: Russia had another unsuccessful round of nightly strikes on Kyiv for the third time in six days. Even so, air defence equipment was able to destroy all drones. There were no immediate reports of casualties or destruction.

Air raid sirens were heard for several hours before skies cleared at dawn in Kyiv, the surrounding region and most of eastern Ukraine. According to Kyivs military administration, all enemy targets were identified and eliminated in the airspace around the capital. Initial details were provided on the Telegram messaging app.

3:49am: In the early hours of Wednesday, a fuel storage facility in Russias Krasnodar region caught fire. According to preliminary information from the governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev, there were no casualties. The Telegram messaging app reported that the fire has been classified as the highest rank of difficulty.

2:33am: President Volodymyr Zelensky informed the Washington Post that the United States didnt warn Kyiv about the top-secret documents leaked to internet chat rooms last month.

The documents contained sensitive information about Ukraines war efforts, and their exposure caused unease in the US about a coming counteroffensive by Kyivs forces against Russian troops as well as concerns about Ukrainian air defenses.

Zelensky said he didnt receive any information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand and that he found the situation unprofitable. Its definitely a bad story, he said in the interview in Kyiv Monday.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian forces shelled a village in the Russian Bryansk region bordering Ukraine. Additionally, the EU announced its plan to increase its production capacity of artillery shells to one million a year as it attempts to arm Ukraine and replenish its stocks after decades of under-investment in defence.

( with AFP, AP and Reuters)
A succession of events starting in Barcelona, Spain, in February, and followed in Liege, Belgium, and Oslo, Norway, in April sent a strong message to Israel: The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is alive and well.

In Barcelona, the citys Mayor cancelled a twinning agreement with the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. The decision was not an impulsive one, although Ada Colau is well-known for her principled positions on many issues. It was, however, an outcome of a fully democratic process, initiated by a proposal submitted by left-wing parties at the city council.

A few weeks after the decision was made, specifically on 8 February, a pro-Israeli legal organisation known as The Lawfare Project, announced its intentions to file a lawsuit against Colau because she, supposedly, acted beyond the scope of her authority.

The Lawfare Project meant to communicate a message to other city councils in Spain, and the rest of Europe, that there will be serious legal repercussions to boycotting Israel. To the organisations  and Israels  big surprise, however, other cities quickly advanced their own boycott procedures. They include the Belgian city of Liege and Norways capital city, Oslo.



Protest outside the Israeli Embassy on 14 August 2020 [BDS South Africa]

Lieges local leadership did not try to conceal the reasons behind their decision. The city council, it was reported, had decided to suspend relations with the Israeli authorities for running a regime of apartheid, colonisation and military occupation. That move was backed by a majority vote at the council, proving once more that the pro-Palestinian moral stance was fully compliant with a democratic process.

Oslo is a particularly interesting case. It was there that the peace process resulted in the Oslo Accords in 1993, which ultimately divided the Palestinians while giving Israel a political cover to continue with its illegal practices, while claiming that it has no peace partner.

But Oslo is no longer committed to the empty slogans of the past. In June 2022, the Norwegian government declared its intention of denying the label Made in Israel to goods produced in illegal Israeli Jewish settlements in Occupied Palestine.

Though Jewish settlements are illegal under international law, Europe did not mind doing business  in fact, lucrative business  with these colonies over the years. In November 2019, the European Court of Justice, however, resolved that all goods produced in Israel-occupied areas had to be labelled as such, so as not to mislead consumers. The Courts decision was a watered-down version of what Palestinians had expected: a complete boycott, if not of Israel as a whole, at least of its illegal settlements.

However, the decision still served a purpose. It provided yet another legal base for boycott, thus empowering pro-Palestine civil society organisations, and reminding Israel that its influence in Europe is not as limitless as Tel Aviv wants to believe.

The most that Israel could do in response is to issue angry statements, along with haphazard accusations of anti-Semitism. In August 2022, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt requested a meeting with then-Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, during the formers visit to Israel. Lapid refused. Not only did such arrogance make a little difference in Norways stance on the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but it also opened yet more margins for pro-Palestinian activists to be more proactive, leading to Oslos decision in April to ban imports of goods made in illegal settlements.

The BDS movement explained, on its website, the meaning of Oslos decision: Norways capital  announced that it will not trade in goods and services produced in areas that are illegally occupied in violation of international law. In practice, this means that Oslos procurement policy will exclude companies that directly or indirectly contribute to Israels illegal settlement enterprise  a war crime under international law.

Keeping these rapid developments in mind, The Lawfare Project would now have to expand its legal cases to include Liege, Oslo and an ever-growing list of city councils that are actively boycotting Israel. But, even then, there are no guarantees that the outcome of such litigations will serve Israel in any way. In fact, the opposite is more likely to be true.

A case in point was the recent decision by the cities of Frankfurt and Munich in Germany to cancel music concerts of pro-Palestinian rock and roll legend, Roger Waters, as part of his This is Not a Drill tour. Frankfurt justified its decision by branding Waters as one of the worlds most well-known anti-Semites. The bizarre and unfounded claim was rejected outright by a German civil court which, on 24 April, ruled in favour of Waters.

Indeed, while a growing number of European cities are siding with Palestine, those who side with Israeli apartheid find it difficult to defend or even maintain their position, simply because the former predicate their stances on international law, while the latter on twisted and convenient interpretations of anti-Semitism.

What does all of this mean for the BDS movement?

In an article published in Foreign Policy magazine last May, Steven Cook reached a hasty conclusion that the BDS movement has already lost, because, according to his inference, efforts to boycott Israel have made no impact in the halls of government.

While BDS is a political movement that is subject to miscalculations and mistakes, it is also a grassroots campaign that labours to achieve political ends through incremental, measured changes. To succeed over time, such campaigns must first engage ordinary people on the street, activists at universities, in houses of worship, etc., all done through calculated, long-term strategies, themselves devised by local and national civil society collectives and organisations.

BDS continues to be a success story, and the latest critical decisions made in Spain, Belgium and Norway attest to the fact that grassroots efforts do pay dividends.

There is no denying that the road ahead is long and arduous. It will certainly have its twists, turns and, yes, occasional setbacks. But this is the nature of national liberation struggles. They often come at a high cost and great sacrifice. But, with popular resistance at home and growing international support and solidarity abroad, Palestinian freedom should, in fact, be possible.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor or Informed Comment.
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Ann Arbor (Informed Comment)  Europes biggest solar farm has come online, and its location is a surprise. It is near Konya, Turkiye (Turkey).

Konya, a city of 1.4 million, is known for its religious conservatism. It is the site of the tomb of the famed mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273). Nowadays it is also a significant provincial manufacturing center, making everything from textiles to auto parts.

Rumi spoke a good deal about the divine light. There will now be another kind of light in the area. In the nearby small town of Karapinar (pop. 35,000), a huge new solar facility went live on Tuesday, with a nameplate capacity of 1.3 gigawatts. Run by Kalyon Enerji, it had originally been a joint project with a South Korean firm, Hanwha Energy, which withdrew before it was completed. Its 3 million solar panels will provide enough electricity to meet the needs of 2 million people. It is producing electricity for just over 6 cents a kilowatt hour, which is competitive with fossil fuels  especially given their price spike because of the Ukraine war.

Where the solar panels came from is also a big story. They were manufactured by the Kalyon Solar Energy Technologies Production Company, in Ankara, in partnership with the China Electronic Technology Group Corp. The factory has upped its capacity to 2 million panels a year.

Turkiye is now the worlds third-largest solar panel manufacturer, behind China and Cambodia. It has outstripped South Korea in this regard.

It is expected that in 2023 Turkiye will add 1 gigawatt of new wind power capacity and 1 gigawatt of new solar.

President Tayyip Erdogan is making his ability to provide the country with energy during the Ukraine crisis a pillar of his presidential campaign. Virtually all of Turkiyes coal is imported from Russia and it has doubled in cost in the past year.

Article continues after bonus IC video

Haber Lutfen: President Erdogan speaks at opening ceremony of Karapinar Solar Power Plant in Konya

Turkiye as a country spans Europe and the Middle East. It is a member of NATO and yet has extensive trade relations with countries like Iran, Iraq and Egypt. It is the worlds 19th largest economy by nominal GDP, with a gross national product of a little over a $1 trillion a year.

Turkiye is also emerging as a major force in green energy. This development is paradoxical because it still uses a lot of coal and the government is trying as hard as it can to develop oil and gas fields in the Mediterranean. Turkiye also, however, has 28.5 gigawatts of hydroelectricity, accounting for 30.3% of its electricity.

Its major sources of energy are: 30.3% hydroelectric, 24.3% fossil gas, 20.9% coal, 11% wind, 9.4% solar, 1.6% geothermal and 2.5% other sources.

Meanwhile, wind and solar capacity is growing. In 2022, some 11% of Turkish electricity came from wind, and another 5% derived from solar. Turkiyes wind power output is greater than, e.g., France, and is quite respectable in European terms. However, its solar sector has been a bit anemic, even compared to some European countries that dont have nearly as much sun. That is now changing, in a big way.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Ximen Mining Corp. (TSXV:XIM) (FRA:1XMA) (OTCQB:XXMMF) (the "Company" or "Ximen") is pleased to announce that in addition to trading on the TSX Venture Exchange, the OTCQB in the USA, several regional exchanges in Europe as well as the Frankfurt Exchange in Germany, the Company will now start trading on the Gettex Exchange a competing exchange in Germany under the symbol X1MA effective May 4th 2023.

"Over the past few weeks, Ximen has received final permits from both the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low-Carbon Innovation. These permits will allow the Company to advance the Kenville Gold Mine, which has been several years in the making. We are excited to share our progress and story as we move forward with our plans. As part of our strategy, we aim to expand our presence and share our developments with new audiences. We are pleased to announce that the Gettex Exchange has agreed to list our Company, allowing us to trade on their exchange. This move is a part of our overall information strategy, as we aim to build a presence in Europe," says Christopher Anderson, CEO of Ximen Mining.

The Company is also pleased to announce that it has arranged a non-brokered private placement of 6 million units at a price of $0.10 per unit for gross proceeds of $600,000. Each Unit consists of one common share and one transferable common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase, for a period of 60 months from the date of issue, one additional common share of the Issuer at an exercise price of $0.15 per share.

A finder's fee may be paid to eligible finders in accordance with the TSX Venture Exchange policies. All securities issued pursuant to the offering will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of closing. The offering and payment of finders' fees are both subject to approval by the TSX-V. There is no material fact or material change of the Company that has not been generally disclosed.

The Company anticipates closing on/or about May 8, 2023.

The net proceeds from the Offering will be used by the Company for exploration expenses on the Company's British Columbia mineral properties and general working capital.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Christopher R. Anderson"

Christopher R. Anderson,

President, CEO and Director

604 488-3900

Investor Relations: Sophy Cesar, 604-488-3900, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

About Ximen Mining Corp.

Ximen Mining Corp. owns 100% interest in three of its precious metal projects located in southern BC. Ximen`s two Gold projects The Amelia Gold Mine and The Brett Epithermal Gold Project. Ximen also owns the Treasure Mountain Silver Project adjacent to the past producing Huldra Silver Mine. Currently, the Treasure Mountain Silver Project is under a option agreement. The option partner is making annual staged cash and stocks payments as well as funding the development of the project. The company has also acquired control of the Kenville Gold mine near Nelson British Columbia which comes with surface and underground rights, buildings and equipment.

This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

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
VANCOUVER, BC, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Entree Resources Ltd. (TSX: ETG) (OTCQB: ERLFF)  the "Company" or "Entree") has today filed its interim financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023. All numbers are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

Q1 2023 HIGHLIGHTS



Oyu Tolgoi Underground Development Update

The Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia includes two separate land holdings: the Oyu Tolgoi mining licence, which is held by Entree's joint venture partner Oyu Tolgoi LLC ("OTLLC") and the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property, which is a partnership between Entree and OTLLC.

On March 13, 2023 , Rio Tinto announced the commencement of underground production from Oyu Tolgoi Lift 1 Panel 0 on the Oyu Tolgoi mining licence. Copper is now being produced from the underground mine. Production will ramp up over the coming years, with Oyu Tolgoi expected to become the fourth largest copper mine in the world by 2030.

, Rio Tinto announced the commencement of underground production from Oyu Tolgoi Lift 1 Panel 0 on the Oyu Tolgoi mining licence. Copper is now being produced from the underground mine. Production will ramp up over the coming years, with Oyu Tolgoi expected to become the fourth largest copper mine in the world by 2030. The Lift 1 mine plan incorporates the development of three panels, and in order to reach the full sustainable production rate of 95,000 tonnes per day from the underground operations all three panels need to be in production. The Hugo North Extension deposit on the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property is located at the northern portion of Panel 1.

Design optimization work for Lift 1 Panel 1 on the Oyu Tolgoi mining licence and the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property continues with the aim of minimizing risk and maximizing productivity. The Lift 1 Panel 1 design optimization study remains on track for completion in the first half 2023 and will incorporate any ventilation-related impacts resulting from Shaft 3 and 4 delays.

Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property

OTLLC advised the Company that in 2022 it completed 22 underground diamond drill holes totalling 4,459.9 metres on the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property targeting Hugo North Extension Lifts 1 and 2. In addition, four surface diamond drill holes (including two aborted holes terminated prior to reaching the target due to excessive deviation) totalling 4,366.1 metres were drilled on the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property targeting the northern portion of the Hugo North Extension deposit. The Company is still waiting for OTLLC to deliver results from the bulk of the underground holes and all the surface holes. Entree continues to collate and model data as it is received.

OTLLC is planning additional underground and surface drilling for Panel 1 on the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property for 2023. Details of the drilling program and budget have yet to be finalized and presented to the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Management Committee for approval.

OTLLC is in the process of finalizing an exploration program and budget for 2023 for presentation to the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Management Committee for approval. The program is expected to include both diamond and reverse circulation (" RC ") target drilling on the Shivee Tolgoi and Javhlant licences, including deep diamond drilling at the Airstrip, Castle Rock and South East IP targets, and RC drilling at Ulaan Khud.

") target drilling on the Shivee Tolgoi and Javhlant licences, including deep diamond drilling at the Airstrip, Castle Rock and South East IP targets, and RC drilling at Ulaan Khud. The Company continues to monitor the situation in Mongolia including with respect to possible delays to commencement of Panel 1. The Company will assess the potential impact of any delays as it becomes aware of them and will update the market accordingly.

including with respect to possible delays to commencement of Panel 1. The Company will assess the potential impact of any delays as it becomes aware of them and will update the market accordingly. On May 26, 2022 , the Company announced it had commenced binding arbitration proceedings to seek declarations and orders for specific performance relating to certain provisions of the Equity Participation and Earn-in Agreement (the "Earn-in Agreement") with Turquoise Hill dated October 15, 2004 , as amended and subsequently assigned to OTLLC and the Joint Venture Agreement appended to the Earn-in Agreement (the "Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JVA"). The parties have been operating under the terms of the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JVA since OTLLC completed its earn-in obligations on the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi joint venture property in Mongolia in 2008. Both Turquoise Hill and OTLLC are respondents to the arbitration proceedings. The commencement of arbitration proceedings followed protracted discussions with Rio Tinto and OTLLC to confirm the transfer of the Shivee Tolgoi and Javhlant mining licences to OTLLC, either in conjunction with finalization and execution of a restructured or amended agreement with OTLLC, or performance of certain provisions of the Earn-in Agreement and Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JVA. While the Company remains committed to seeking a commercial resolution with Rio Tinto and OTLLC and the parties continue to make progress, the Company's Board of Directors concluded that given the risks inherent with the existing structure, the already lengthy discussions between the parties, and the long lead-time to any arbitration award, it was in the Company's best interests to commence proceedings to enforce the Earn-in Agreement and Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JVA. A three-member Tribunal has now been appointed and a merits hearing has been set for April 2024 . The Company will provide updates on the arbitration as developments warrant.

Corporate

Q1 2023 operating loss was $0.9 million compared to an operating loss of $0.6 million in Q1 2022.

compared to an operating loss of in Q1 2022. Q1 2023 operating cash outflow before changes in non-cash working capital items was $0.7 million compared to operating cash outflow before changes in non-cash working capital items of $0.5 million in Q1 2022.

compared to operating cash outflow before changes in non-cash working capital items of in Q1 2022. As at March 31, 2023 , the cash balance was $5.9 million and the working capital balance was $5.9 million .

OUTLOOK AND STRATEGY

Entree's primary objective is to confirm the transfer of the Shivee Tolgoi and Javhlant mining licences to OTLLC as contemplated by the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JVA, either in conjunction with finalization and execution of a restructured or amended agreement with OTLLC, or enforcement of certain provisions of the Earn-in Agreement and Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JVA pursuant to binding arbitration proceedings. The Company is also advancing discussions with Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC regarding a potential acquisition by the Government of Mongolia of 34% of the Company's economic interest in the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property in connection with the transfer of the licences. The Company currently is registered in Mongolia as the 100% ultimate holder of the Shivee Tolgoi and Javhlant mining licences.

As previously disclosed by the Company, the contract area defined in the 2009 Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement among the Government of Mongolia, OTLLC, Rio Tinto and Turquoise Hill (the "Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement") includes the Javhlant and Shivee Tolgoi mining licences. However, at the time of negotiation of the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement, the Company was not made a party to the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement, and as such does not have any direct rights or benefits under the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement.

Entree has been engaged in discussions with stakeholders of the Oyu Tolgoi project, including the Government of Mongolia, OTLLC, Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC, Turquoise Hill, and Rio Tinto, since February 2013. The discussions to date have focused on issues arising from Entree's exclusion from the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement, including the fact that the Government of Mongolia does not have a full 34% interest in the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property; the fact that the mining licences integral to future underground operations are held by more than one corporate entity; and the fact that Entree does not benefit from the stability that it would otherwise have if it were a party to the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement. In order to receive the benefits of the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement, the Government of Mongolia may require the Company to agree to certain concessions, including with respect to Entree's economic interest in the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property.

The Company believes that amending or restructuring the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JVA to align the interests of all stakeholders, transferring the licences to OTLLC as contemplated by the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JVA, and resolving outstanding issues arising from Entree's exclusion from the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement would be in the best interests of all stakeholders, provided there is no material net erosion of value to Entree. No agreements have been finalized and there are no assurances agreements may be finalized in the future.

The Company's interim financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 are available on the Company's website at www.EntreeResourcesLtd.com, on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

QUALIFIED PERSON

Robert Cinits, P.Geo., consultant to Entree and the Company's former Vice President, Corporate Development, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has approved the technical information in this release. For further information on the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property, see the Company's Technical Report, titled "Entree/Oyu Tolgoi Joint Venture Project, Mongolia, NI 43-101 Technical Report", with an effective date of October 8, 2021, available on the Company's website at www.EntreeResourcesLtd.com, on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

ABOUT ENTREE RESOURCES LTD.

Entree Resources Ltd. is a well-funded Canadian mining company with a unique carried joint venture interest on a significant portion of one of the world's largest copper-gold projects  the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia. Entree has a 20% or 30% carried participating interest in the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV, depending on the depth of mineralization. Horizon Copper Corp. and Rio Tinto are major shareholders of Entree, beneficially holding approximately 25% and 16% of the shares of the Company, respectively. More information about Entree can be found at www.EntreeResourcesLtd.com.

This News Release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws with respect to corporate strategies and plans; requirements for additional capital; uses of funds and projected expenditures; arbitration proceedings, including the potential benefits, timing and outcome of arbitration proceedings; the Company's plans to continue discussions with OTLLC and Rio Tinto regarding a potential restructuring or amendment of the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JVA; the Company's plans to advance discussions with the Government of Mongolia regarding a potential acquisition by the Government of Mongolia of 34% of the Company's economic interest in the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property; the Company's ability to transfer the Shivee Tolgoi and Javhlant mining licences to OTLLC either in conjunction with finalization and execution of a restructured or amended agreement with OTLLC, or enforcement of certain provisions of the Earn-in Agreement and Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JVA pursuant to binding arbitration proceedings; the potential for Entree to be included in or otherwise receive the benefits of the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement; the expectations set out in OTLLC's 2020 Oyu Tolgoi Mongolian Statutory Study and the Company's 2021 Technical Report on its interest in the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property; timing and status of Oyu Tolgoi underground development; the expected timing of the first Panel 1 draw bell on the Oyu Tolgoi mining licence; the nature of the ongoing relationship and interaction between OTLLC and Rio Tinto and the Government of Mongolia and Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC with respect to the continued operation and development of Oyu Tolgoi; the re-design study for Hugo North (including Hugo North Extension) Lift 1 Panel 1 and the possible outcomes, content and timing thereof; the timing and progress of the sinking of Shafts 3 and 4 and any delays in that regard in addition to previously disclosed delays; timing and amount of production from Lift 1 of the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property, potential production delays and the impact of any delays on the Company's cash flows, expected copper, gold and silver grades, liquidity, funding requirements and planning; future commodity prices; the potential impact of COVID-19 on Oyu Tolgoi underground development and the Company's business, operations and financial condition; the estimation of mineral reserves and resources; projected mining and process recovery rates; estimates of capital and operating costs, mill and concentrator throughput, cash flows and mine life; capital, financing and project development risk; mining dilution; discussions with the Government of Mongolia, Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC, Rio Tinto, and OTLLC on a range of issues including Entree's interest in the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property, the Shivee Tolgoi and Javhlant mining licences and certain material agreements; potential actions by the Government of Mongolia with respect to the Shivee Tolgoi and Javhlant mining licences and Entree's interest in the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property; potential size of a mineralized zone; potential expansion of mineralization; potential discovery of new mineralized zones; potential metallurgical recoveries and grades; plans for future exploration and/or development programs and budgets; permitting time lines; anticipated business activities; proposed acquisitions and dispositions of assets; and future financial performance.

In certain cases, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budgeted", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "does not anticipate" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". While the Company has based these forward-looking statements on its expectations about future events as at the date that such statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee of Entree's future performance and are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies; the correct interpretation of agreements, laws and regulations; the commencement and conclusion of arbitration proceedings, including the potential benefits, timing and outcome of arbitration proceedings; the potential benefits, timing and outcome of negotiations with the Government of Mongolia, Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC, OTLLC, and Rio Tinto; that the Company will continue to have timely access to detailed technical, financial, and operational information about the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property, the Oyu Tolgoi project, and government relations to enable the Company to properly assess, act on, and disclose material risks and opportunities as they arise; local and global economic conditions and the environment in which Entree will operate in the future, including commodity prices, projected grades, projected dilution, anticipated capital and operating costs, including inflationary pressures thereon resulting in cost escalation, and anticipated future production and cash flows; the anticipated location of certain infrastructure and sequence of mining within and across panel boundaries; the construction and continued development of the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine; the status of Entree's relationship and interaction with the Government of Mongolia, Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC, OTLLC, and Rio Tinto; and the Company's ability to operate sustainably, its community relations, and its social licence to operate.

With respect to the construction and continued development of the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine, important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information include, amongst others, the nature of the ongoing relationship and interaction between OTLLC, Rio Tinto, Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC and the Government of Mongolia with respect to the continued operation and development of Oyu Tolgoi as and when the key agreements entered into between Turquoise Hill, Rio Tinto and the Government of Mongolia are implemented along with the implementation of Resolution 103; the continuation of undercutting on the Oyu Tolgoi mining licence in accordance with the Panel 0 mine plan and design; the lifting of restrictions by the Government of Mongolia on the ability of OTLLC to incur additional indebtedness; the amount of any future funding gap to complete the Oyu Tolgoi project and the availability and amount of potential sources of additional funding; the timing and cost of the construction and expansion of mining and processing facilities; inflationary pressures on prices for critical supplies for Oyu Tolgoi including fuel, power explosives and grinding media resulting in cost escalation; the ability of OTLLC or the Government of Mongolia to deliver a domestic power source for Oyu Tolgoi (or the availability of financing for OTLLC or the Government of Mongolia to construct such a source) within the required contractual timeframe; sources of interim power; OTLLC's ability to operate sustainably, its community relations, and its social licence to operate in Mongolia; the potential impact of COVID-19, including any restrictions imposed by health and governmental authorities relating thereto; the impact of changes in, changes in interpretation to or changes in enforcement of, laws, regulations and government practises in Mongolia; delays, and the costs which would result from delays, in the development of the underground mine; the anticipated location of certain infrastructure and sequence of mining within and across panel boundaries; international conflicts such as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict; projected commodity prices and their market demand; and production estimates and the anticipated yearly production of copper, gold and silver at the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine.

Other risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results, performance or achievements of Entree to differ materially from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements and information include, amongst others, unanticipated costs, expenses or liabilities; discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries; development plans for processing resources; matters relating to proposed exploration or expansion; mining operational and development risks, including geotechnical risks and ground conditions; regulatory restrictions (including environmental regulatory restrictions and liability); risks related to international operations, including legal and political risk in Mongolia; risks related to the potential impact of global or national health concerns, including the COVID-19 pandemic; risks associated with changes in the attitudes of governments to foreign investment; risks associated with the conduct of joint ventures, including the ability to access detailed technical, financial and operational information; risks related to the Company's significant shareholders, and whether they will exercise their rights or act in a manner that is consistent with the best interests of the Company and its other shareholders; inability to upgrade Inferred mineral resources to Indicated or Measured mineral resources; inability to convert mineral resources to mineral reserves; conclusions of economic evaluations; fluctuations in commodity prices and demand; changing foreign exchange rates; the speculative nature of mineral exploration; the global economic climate; dilution; share price volatility; activities, actions or assessments by Rio Tinto or OTLLC and by government stakeholders or authorities including Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC and the Government of Mongolia; the availability of funding on reasonable terms; the impact of changes in interpretation to or changes in enforcement of laws, regulations and government practices, including laws, regulations and government practices with respect to mining, foreign investment, royalties and taxation; the terms and timing of obtaining necessary environmental and other government approvals, consents and permits; the availability and cost of necessary items such as water, skilled labour, transportation and appropriate smelting and refining arrangements; unanticipated reclamation expenses; changes to assumptions as to the availability of electrical power, and the power rates used in operating cost estimates and financial analyses; changes to assumptions as to salvage values; ability to maintain the social licence to operate; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; global climate change; global conflicts; title disputes; limitations on insurance coverage; competition; loss of key employees; cyber security incidents; misjudgements in the course of preparing forward-looking statements; and those factors discussed in the Company's most recently filed MD&A and in the Company's Annual Information Form for the financial year ended December 31, 2022, dated March 31, 2023 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Torq Resources Inc. (TSXV:TORQ) (OTCQX:TRBMF) ("Torq" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of its 85% completed soil survey from the Santa Cecilia gold - copper project located in the world-class Maricunga belt in northern Chile, approximately 100 kilometres (km) east of the city of Copiapo. The project is located immediately adjacent to the Norte Abierto project held by Newmont and Barrick, which is comprised of the Caspiche and Cerro Casale gold - copper porphyry deposits (Figure 1).

The results of the soil survey are based on a total of 1,503 of 1,735 soil samples that have been collected on a 70 metre (m) by 70 m grid across the Santa Cecilia hydrothermal system. The results indicate a total of seven porphyry targets, one of which is being drilled in the current program. The soil geochemistry results, in conjunction with structural mapping, have divided the property into seven distinct structural blocks that are interpreted to represent different levels of an idealized porphyry system (Figures 2 - 3). Each of the blocks acts independently from the other with different levels of porphyry emplacement observed and with the block bounding structures representing prospective structural corridors for the emplacement of high-grade causative intrusions. The Company's technical team believes each target area has the potential for a major porphyry discovery.

A Message from Michael Henrichsen, Chief Geological Officer:

"The seven porphyry targets we have identified demonstrate the potential for multiple major porphyry discoveries at Santa Cecilia. We believe the adjacent Norte Abierto project owned by Newmont and Barrick is part of a cluster of porphyries that exist within the more than 10 square kilometre hydrothermal system that defines the Santa Cecilia project. The soil geochemistry has provided the Company with a clear data layer that can be used to target the mineral endowment. The positive correlation between mapped structures and geochemistry demonstrates that we are in a mineral system with high potential, predictive porphyries. We are currently completing our second drill hole on the project before pausing the program for the Chilean winter season. We look forward to refining our drill plan for the newly identified porphyry targets over the coming weeks, creating a pipeline of targets for the continuation of our first phase of drilling at the project, which is expected to commence in October."

Target Areas:

The target areas are primarily defined by the presence of gold and molybdenum, both immobile elements that are directly associated with observed porphyry mineralization in historical drilling and mineralized surface exposures. In addition, the presence of bismuth-selenium-tellurium (Bi-Se-Te) anomalies have been used to identify thermal plumes, which are associated with underlying porphyry systems. The presence of copper was also used to define target areas but is considered less reliable as it is highly mobile during the weathering and overprinting that takes place during hydrothermal events, which are associated with both the porphyry and epithermal style mineralization that has been observed across the property.

Gemelos:

The undrilled Gemelos target is located 1.5 km southwest of the Caspiche deposit and is characterized by a 600 m by 400 m area with strong gold and molybdenum soil anomalies (Figures 5 - 6). Within this anomalous gold and molybdenum area, banded quartz-magnetite veinlets are observed in both dacitic porphyries and overlying volcanics on surface, which indicates that the porphyry target is at shallow depths. In addition, a Bi-Se-Te anomaly is observed offset to the southwest of the gold and molybdenum anomaly that could be associated with the observed porphyries to the northeast, as it may represent a thermal plume associated with a different porphyry body at depth (Figure 4).

Pircas Norte:

The undrilled Pircas Norte target is characterized by a 1 km by 600 m gold - molybdenum - copper anomaly where dioritic to quartz dioritic porphyry bodies are poorly exposed on surface (Figures 5 - 6). Three historical rock samples taken from these porphyry bodies reported a best result of 1.4g/t gold and 0.5% copper associated with the sheeted quartz-pyrite-chalcopyrite and banded quartz-magnetite veinlets within the porphyry bodies that exhibit chlorite alteration after secondary biotite. The majority of the Pircas Norte block is under colluvium cover and therefore the soil anomalies have been critical in defining the scale of the target. Due to mineralized porphyry being present on surface no higher level Bi-Se-Te anomalies are observed in the Pircas Norte block.

Pircas Sur:

The Pircas Sur target area has five shallow (less than 150 m) historical drill holes, drilled by a major mining company between 1988-1990, testing for shallow oxide gold epithermal mineralization. These drill holes did not test the underlying porphyry targets that the Company has identified. Targets within the Pircas Sur block represent a higher level of the porphyry system, with two Bi-Se-Te anomalies overlapping with gold and/or molybdenum anomalies (Figures 4 - 6). The western and eastern target areas within the Pircas Sur block measure 700 m by 500 m and 500 m by 400 m, respectively. These anomalies are characterized geologically by extensive silicification, vuggy silica, quartz-alunite ledges and phreatic breccias that collectively represent a higher-level epithermal part of the system on the project. Copper is not anomalous in the Pircas Sur block, which is consistent with a higher level epithermal environment.

Cerro Anillo:

The Cerro Anillo block is characterized by a 250 m wide north-east trending structural zone that represents the boundary between the Pircas Norte and Sur blocks and the Cerro del Medio block. Both epithermal and porphyry styles of mineralization have been observed in this structural zone where dioritic porphyries with sheeted quartz-magnetite veinlets and abundant quartz-alunite alteration are present. The overlapping styles of mineralization have demonstrated that this structural block has acted as a focal point for both mineralizing hydrothermal fluids and porphyry bodies and is considered highly prospective for potential high-grade causative intrusions.

Cerro del Medio:

The Cerro del Medio block is characterized by the largest Bi-Se-Te anomaly on the property and is coincident with gold, molybdenum and copper anomalies that are concentrated along a northeast trend over a 1.2 km by 600 m area (Figures 4 - 7). The Cerro del Medio target area is geologically characterized on surface by epithermal style mineralization where vuggy silica, quartz-alunite ledges and pyrite-enargite have been observed. In addition, porphyry mineralization is observed within the target area where dioritic porphyries with sheeted quartz veins are cut by later quartz-limonite veins. The large-scale nature of the thermal plume Bi-Se-Te and molybdenbum anomalies demonstrate a large-scale porphyry system is present at depth, with the underlying 2012 discovery drill hole of 925.7 m of 0.21 g/t gold, 0.27% copper and 82 parts per million molybdenum within wall rock demonstrating the potential for a large-scale discovery associated with a higher-grade causative intrusion within the Cerro del Medio block.

Flanco Norte and Vetas Condor:

The prominent east - west trending structure that has been mapped across the project area exhibits coincident Bi-Se-Te, copper and gold anomalies over an area of approximately 1 km by 500 m (Figures 4, 5, & 7). A drill hole from 2012 tested this area at depth and returned an intercept of 868.8 m of 0.2% copper, 156 ppm molybdenum and 0.09 g/t gold. This intercept is hosted within wall rock and Torq's technical team believes there is the potential for a high-grade causative intrusion along these east - west trending geochemical anomalies.

At Vetas Condor a 500 m by 500 m gold anomaly is associated with east-trending quartz alunite ledges and associated gold - silver epithermal mineralization (Figure 5). A historical exploration tunnel oriented sub-parallel to the quartz alunite ledges totals approximately 1,100 m and has demonstrated consistent mineralization over several hundred metres. The first 32 m of the tunnel returned 2.38 g/t gold and 101 g/t silver and the next 132 m returned 0.66 g/t gold and 13.5 g/t silver. In addition, approximately 436 m into the tunnel, a high-grade vein sampled 58 g/t gold and 27 g/t silver over 2 m. Three short historical drill holes were drilled near the entrance of the tunnel and intercepted 20 m of 6.82 g/t gold and 16.8 g/t silver, including 2 m of 55 g/t gold and 121 g/t silver. Torq's technical team believes that the mineralization at Vetas Condor has not been adequately drill tested for the definition of a potentially high-grade epithermal system.

Figure 1: Illustrates the location of the Santa Cecilia project and the surrounding Caspiche and Cerro Casale deposits, held by Newmont and Barrick in the Norte Abierto joint venture, within the Maricunga belt.

Figure 2: Illustrates the presence of seven distinct structural blocks across the Santa Cecilia project. Each structural block has important characteristics which represent different vertical levels within an idealized porphyry. The Company's technical team believes that the structural corridors that define the individual blocks have the potential to host high-grade causative intrusions.

Figure 3: Illustrates an idealized porphyry section with the targets from each structural block identified. Gemelos and Pircas Norte are believed to be partially exposed porphyry systems and Cerro del Medio, Pircas Sur and Flanco Norte represent porphyry targets at relatively shallow depths. The Vetas Condor and Cerro Anillo blocks show the potential for higher level epithermal targets.

Figure 4: Illustrates bismuth-selenium-tellurium targets that represent thermal plumes above potential porphyry mineralization. Target depths for the porphyries are based on geophysics and are thought to be within several hundred metres from surface.

Figure 5: Illustrates gold anomalies and target areas across the project area. These gold anomalies can be directly associated with gold mineralization associated with outcropping porphyries, as highlighted by the blue target areas at Gemelos, Pircas Norte and Pircas Sur. The other gold anomalies associated with the thermal plumes are interpreted to have gold introduced into the mineralized system by both porphyry and epithermal events overprinting one another.

Figure 6: Illustrates molybdenum anomalies across the project area that are interpreted to be directly associated with either porphyry mineralization on surface or at shallow depths.

Figure 7: Illustrates copper anomalies across the project area. Potential porphyry mineralization is interpreted to occur at surface or at shallow depths where copper, gold and molybdenum anomalies overlap, such as at the Gemelos and Pircas Norte target areas.

Michael Henrichsen, P.Geo. (the Company's Chief Geological Officer), is the qualified person who assumes responsibility for the technical contents of this press release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,

Shawn Wallace

CEO & Chair

For further information on Torq Resources, please contact Natasha Frakes, VP, Communications, at (778) 729-0500 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

About Torq Resources

Torq is a Vancouver-based copper and gold exploration company with a portfolio of premium holdings in Chile. The Company is establishing itself as a leader of new exploration in prominent mining belts, guided by responsible, respectful and sustainable practices. The Company was built by a management team with prior success in monetizing exploration assets and its specialized technical team is recognized for their extensive experience working with major mining companies, supported by robust safety standards and technical proficiency. The technical team includes Chile-based geologists with invaluable local expertise and a noteworthy track record for major discovery in the country. Torq is committed to operating at the highest standards of applicable environmental, social and governance practices in the pursuit of a landmark discovery. For more information, visit www.torqresources.com.

Soil Sampling

Approximately 1-3 kg of soil material was collected on a 100 m x 100 m grid and sent to ALS Lab in Copiapo, Chile or La Serena, Chile for preparation and then to Santiago, Chile and Lima, Peru for analysis. All samples are assayed using 30 g nominal weight fire assay with AAS finish (Au-AA23) and multi-element super trace four acid digest ICP-AES/ICP-MS method (ME-MS61L). QA/QC programs for 2022-2023 soil samples using internal standard samples and duplicates, lab duplicates, standards and blanks indicate good accuracy and precision in a large majority of standards assayed.

Forward Looking Information

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking information in this release are statements that relate to plans for future exploration programs. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different (either positively or negatively) from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by some of the principal forward-looking statements. See Torq's Annual Information Form filed March 27, 2023 at www.sedar.com for disclosure of the risks and uncertainties faced in this business.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
VANCOUVER, BC, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Nevada King Gold Corp. (TSXV: NKG) ("Nevada King" or the "Company") is pleased to announce an increase to its previously announced $5-million non-brokered private placement financing (the "Non-Brokered Private Placement") initially announced on May 1, 2023.

Highlights:

Nevada King has increased the Non-Brokered Private Placement primarily due to significant demand from existing shareholders and intends to raise gross proceeds of $10-million (previously expected to be $5-million ) through the issuance of 22,222,222 common shares (the " Common Shares ") of the Company priced at $0.45 per Common Share.





has increased the Non-Brokered Private Placement primarily due to significant demand from existing shareholders and intends to raise gross proceeds of (previously expected to be ) through the issuance of 22,222,222 common shares (the " ") of the Company priced at per Common Share. There are no changes to the Company's agreement with Canaccord Genuity Corp. on behalf of a syndicate of agents (collectively, the " Agents ") in connection with a brokered financing of up to 11,111,111 Common Shares at a price of $0.45 per Common Share to raise additional gross proceeds of up to $5-million (the " LIFE Offering " and together with the Non-Brokered Private Placement, the " Offering ").





") in connection with a brokered financing of up to 11,111,111 Common Shares at a price of per Common Share to raise additional gross proceeds of up to (the " " and together with the Non-Brokered Private Placement, the " "). Company Founder & Chief Executive Officer Collin Kettell is subscribing for $2,000,000 of the Non-Brokered Private Placement. The majority of the $10-Million is being taken up by existing shareholders of the Company.





Upon completion of the Offering, and assuming the completion of the LIFE Offering for $5,000,000 , Nevada King will have working capital in excess of $20-million to support advancement and drilling at the Atlanta Gold Mine Project, Nevada.

Collin Kettell, CEO of Nevada King, stated: "As Nevada's third largest mineral claim holder and one of Nevada's most active explorers, Nevada King is built to be big in every way. I am excited to announce a fully allocated increase to the non-brokered portion of the Offering to continue to support our high-grade discovery at the Atlanta Gold Mine Project. We have a dedicated shareholder base that is subscribing for the majority of the offering. This has allowed us to complete an at-market financing without a warrant, despite difficult market conditions. Nevada King is now positioned for an aggressive and fully funded 2023 as we unlock the discovery potential of Atlanta."

The net proceeds of the Offering are intended to be used to advance Nevada King's development and exploration stage assets and for other general corporate purposes.

Closing of the Non-Brokered Private Placement is expected on or about May 18, 2023. Closing of the LIFE Offering is anticipated to occur on or about the week of May 8, 2023, or such other date as the Agents and the Company may agree upon. The issuance of the Common Shares under the Offering and the payment of the Agents' commission on the LIFE Offering portion remain subject to customary conditions, including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals, inclusive of the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V").

The Common Shares to be issued under the LIFE Offering are expected to be offered by way of the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption under Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106  Prospectus Exemptions ("NI 45-106") to purchasers in all the provinces of Canada, except Quebec. The Common Shares to be issued under the Non-Brokered Private Placement are expected to be offered by way of applicable prospectus exemptions in accordance with NI 45-106 to "accredited investors". The Common Shares offered under the LIFE Offering will not be subject to resale restrictions pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws or the policies of the TSX-V. The Common Shares issued pursuant to the Non-Brokered Private Placement will be subject to the statutory hold period of four months from the date of issuance in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws.

The Agents will receive an aggregate cash fee equal to 5.0% of the gross proceeds of the LIFE Offering.

There is an amended and restated offering document related to the LIFE Offering and taking into account the increased size of the Non-Brokered Private Placement that can be accessed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at https://nevadaking.ca. Prospective investors should read this offering document before making an investment decision.

The securities offered have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy of any securities in the United States. The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to available exemptions therefrom.

Related Party Participation in the Offering

Certain insiders of the Company, including Collin Kettell (CEO and Director), expect to participate in the Non-Brokered Private Placement. The participation by insiders in the Offering constitutes a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is relying on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as neither the fair market value of the Common Shares purchased by insiders, nor the consideration for the Common Shares paid by such insiders, will exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization. The Company expects that the closings of the Offering will occur within 21 days of this announcement and that it will not file a material change report in respect of the related party transaction at least 21 days before the closings. The Company deems this circumstance reasonable in order to complete the Offering in an expeditious manner. The Offering has been unanimously approved by the Company's board of directors. Further information regarding the interest in the Offering of every related party and the effect that the Offering will have on their percentage of securities of the Company will be provided once finalized.

About Nevada King Gold Corp.

Nevada King is the third largest mineral claim holder in the State of Nevada, behind Nevada Gold Mines (Barrick/Newmont) and Kinross Gold. Starting in 2016 the Company has staked large project areas hosting significant historical exploration work along the Battle Mountain trend located close to current or former producing gold mines. These project areas were initially targeted based on their potential for hosting multi-million ounce gold deposits and were subsequently staked following a detailed geological evaluation. District-scale projects in Nevada King's portfolio include (1) the 100% owned Atlanta Mine, located 100km southeast of Ely, (2) the Lewis and Horse Mountain-Mill Creek projects, both located between Nevada Gold Mines' large Phoenix and Pipeline mines, and (3) the Iron Point project, located 35km east of Winnemucca, Nevada. The Company is well funded with cash of approximately $7.25 million as of April 2023.

The Atlanta Mine is a historical gold-silver producer with a National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") compliant pit-constrained resource of 460,000 oz Au in the measured and indicated category (11.0M tonnes at 1.3 g/t) plus an inferred resource of 142,000 oz Au (5.3M tonnes at 0.83 g/t). See the NI 43-101 Technical Report on Resources titled "Atlanta Property, Lincoln County, NV" with an effective date of October 6, 2020, and a report date of December 22, 2020, as prepared by Gustavson Associates and filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Calvin R. Herron, P.Geo., who is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

NI 43-101 Mineral Resources at the Atlanta Mine

Resource Category Tonnes (000's) Au Grade (ppm) Contained Au Oz (000's) Ag Grade (ppm) Contained Ag Oz (000's) Measured 4,130 1.51 200 14.0 1,860 Indicated 6,910 1.17 260 10.6 2,360 Measured+Indicated 11,000 1.30 460 11.9 4,220 Inferred 5,310 0.83 142 7.3 1,240

Please see the Company's website at www.nevadaking.ca.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information

This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or" should" occur or be achieved. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation, statements relating the closing of the Offering, TSX-V approval of the Offering, the use of proceeds with respect to the Offering, and the results of the mineral resource estimate on the project are forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by Nevada King, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation, the ability to complete proposed exploration work given the global COVID-19 pandemic, the results of exploration, continued availability of capital, and changes in general economic, market and business conditions. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these items. Nevada King does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by applicable securities laws.
VANCOUVER, BC, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Tarachi Gold Corp. (CSE: TRG) (OTCQB: TRGGF) (Frankfurt: 4RZ) ("Tarachi" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated January 26, 2023, it has signed a definitive agreement dated May 2, 2023 (the "Agreement") with Compania Minera de Atocha S.A. de C.V. ("Atocha") for the sale of the Company's Magistral Project (the "Magistral Project") in Mexico (the "Transaction").

Pursuant to the Agreement, Tarachi expects to receive cash payments totaling US$5,700,000 (approximately C$7.6 million) from Atocha as follows:

US$2,550,000 will be paid directly from Atocha to Tarachi on or before closing.

will be paid directly from Atocha to Tarachi on or before closing. US$500,000 of the US$1,000,000 currently held in a Canadian escrow account will be released to Tarachi on or before closing.

of the currently held in a Canadian escrow account will be released to Tarachi on or before closing. The remaining US$500,000 in the escrow account will be released to Tarachi when Atocha concludes negotiations with the Ejido Magistral, or after 12 months, whichever occurs first.

in the escrow account will be released to Tarachi when Atocha concludes negotiations with the Ejido Magistral, or after 12 months, whichever occurs first. US$500,000 will be paid to Tarachi six months from closing, less any contingency costs, if any, that arise after closing that were incurred by Tarachi but not identified during due diligence.

will be paid to Tarachi six months from closing, less any contingency costs, if any, that arise after closing that were incurred by Tarachi but not identified during due diligence. US$500,000 will be paid to Tarachi when 50% of the tailings located on the Magistral Project (the " Magistral Tailings ") have been mined, sold and/or processed or after the first complete calendar year of operation at the Magistral Project, whichever occurs first.

will be paid to Tarachi when 50% of the tailings located on the Magistral Project (the " ") have been mined, sold and/or processed or after the first complete calendar year of operation at the Magistral Project, whichever occurs first. US$500,000 will be paid to Tarachi when 100% of the Magistral Tailings have been mined, sold and/or processed or after the second complete calendar year of operation at the Magistral Project, whichever occurs first.

will be paid to Tarachi when 100% of the Magistral Tailings have been mined, sold and/or processed or after the second complete calendar year of operation at the Magistral Project, whichever occurs first. The amount of value-added tax currently owing as that tax benefit is realized by Atocha during operations and product sales from the Magistral Project will be paid to Tarachi, estimated to total approximately US$650,000 . Tarachi anticipates the tax benefit will be realized by Atocha and paid to Tarachi within the first year of commercial operations at the Magistral Project.

The schedule of payments, but not the total sum, differs slightly from the letter agreement announced by Tarachi on January 26, 2023.

In connection with the execution of the Agreement, Tarachi has also agreed with Manto Resources S.A. de C.V. ("Manto") to settle all outstanding obligations owed to Manto relating to the Magistral Project in exchange for 15% of all payments Tarachi receives from Atocha.

The Company and Atocha expect to close the transaction on or before May 17th, 2023.

The Company would also like to announce that Todd Roth has stepped down from his role as VP Operations to pursue other opportunities. The Company would like to thank Mr.Roth for his efforts in helping Tarachi develop the Magistral project over the past year.

About Tarachi Gold Corp.

Tarachi is a Canadian-listed junior gold exploration company focused on exploring and developing projects in Mexico.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain "ForwardLooking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forwardlooking information" under applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "will", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "hope", "target", "plan", "forecast", "may", "would", "could", "schedule", "potential" and similar words or expressions, identify forwardlooking statements or information. These forwardlooking statements or information relate to, among other things: completion of the Transaction; receipt by Tarachi of all amounts owed to it pursuant to the Agreement; the actual amount of tax benefits payable to Tarachi; and payment by Tarachi to Manto of amounts owed to Manto.

Forwardlooking statements and forwardlooking information relating to any future mineral production, liquidity, timing of completion of reports and studies, enhanced value and capital markets profile of Tarachi, future growth potential for Tarachi and its business, and future exploration plans are based on management's reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the price of silver, gold and other metals; no escalation in the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic; costs of exploration and development; the estimated costs of development of exploration projects; Tarachi's ability to operate in a safe and effective manner and its ability to obtain financing on reasonable terms.

These statements reflect Tarachi's respective current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of other assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forwardlooking statements or forward-looking information and Tarachi has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: the Company's dependence on one mineral project; precious metals price volatility; risks associated with the conduct of the Company's mining activities in Mexico; regulatory, consent or permitting delays; risks relating to reliance on the Company's management team and outside contractors; risks regarding mineral resources and reserves; the Company's inability to obtain insurance to cover all risks, on a commercially reasonable basis or at all; currency fluctuations; risks regarding the failure to generate sufficient cash flow from operations; risks relating to project financing and equity issuances; risks and unknowns inherent in all mining projects, including the inaccuracy of reserves and resources, metallurgical recoveries and capital and operating costs of such projects; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties; laws and regulations governing the environment, health and safety; the ability of the communities in which the Company operates to manage and cope with the implications of COVID-19; the economic and financial implications of COVID-19 to the Company; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; employee relations, labour unrest or unavailability; the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine; the Company's interactions with surrounding communities and artisanal miners; the Company's ability to successfully integrate acquired assets; the speculative nature of exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities or grades of reserves; stock market volatility; conflicts of interest among certain directors and officers; lack of liquidity for shareholders of the Company; litigation risk; and the factors identified under the caption "Risk Factors" in Tarachi's management discussion and analysis and other public disclosure documents. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forwardlooking statements or forward-looking information. Although Tarachi has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. Tarachi does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forwardlooking statements or forward-looking information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - IMPACT Silver Corp. (TSXV: IPT) (OTC Pink: ISVLF) (FSE: IKL) ("IMPACT" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed the second tranche of its Non-Brokered financing originally announced on April 6th, upsized on April 12th, 2023 (the "Offering") and closed as a first tranche on April 19, 2023.

The Company received an aggregate proceeds of C$662,604.84 on the issuance of 2,454,092 units (the "Units") of the Company at C$0.27 per unit. Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one full Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Common Share (a "Warrant Share") at a price of C$0.35 per Warrant Share for a period of 24 months from the closing of the Offering. Aggregate gross proceeds from the entire Offering was C$9,006,418.08.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering for exploration, development and general corporate purposes.

In consideration for its services in the second tranche, the Company paid a registered dealer a cash commission equal to 6.0% of the gross subscription proceeds raised from certain subscribers for total commissions of $24,016.50. Additionally, the Company granted an aggregate of 88,950 non-transferable broker warrants to the registered dealer. Each broker warrant entitles the holder to acquire one common share at a price of $0.35 per common share until May 3, 2025.

The securities issued under the second tranche of the Offering are subject to a standard hold period of four months and one day, expiring on September 4, 2023, all in accordance with applicable securities laws. The Offering is subject to the Company's remaining filing requirements with the TSX Venture Exchange.

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and accordingly, may not be offered or sold within the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities requirements or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any securities in any jurisdiction.

ABOUT IMPACT SILVER

IMPACT Silver Corp. (TSXV: IPT) is a successful producer-explorer with two mining projects in Mexico.

Royal Mines of Zacualpan Silver-Gold District: IMPACT owns 100% of the 211 km2 Zacualpan project where four underground silver mines and one open pit mine feed the central 500 tpd Guadalupe processing plant. To the south, the Capire Project includes a 200 tpd processing pilot plant adjacent to an open pit silver mine with an NI 43-101 inferred mineral resource of over 4.5 million oz silver, 48 million lbs zinc and 21 million lbs lead (see IMPACT news release dated January 18, 2016 for details and QP statement, and footnote4 for report reference); Company engineers are reviewing Capire for a potential restart of operations. Over the past 17 years, IMPACT has placed multiple zones into commercial production and produced over 12 million ounces of silver, generating revenues over $241 million.

Plomosas Zinc-Lead-Silver District: IMPACT signed a purchase / sale agreement with Consolidated Zinc Limited (ASX: CZL) of Australia to purchase the Plomosas property and mining operations for US$6 million (cash and shares) plus a 12% NPI (net profit interest) and a third party 1% NSR royalty. Plomosas is a high-grade zinc-lead-silver producer with exceptional exploration potential. Upon closing of the transaction, IMPACT plans to upgrade the mill and mine with the aim to recommence operations in the near term followed by plans for expanding operations. Exploration potential at Plomosas is exceptional with only 600m of the 6 kilometre long structure assessed plus other exploration targets including untested copper-gold targets. Regionally, Plomosas lies in the same mineral belt as some of the largest carbonate replacement deposits in the world.

On behalf of IMPACT Silver Corp.

"Frederick W. Davidson"

President & CEO

For more information, please contact:

Jerry Huang

CFO | Investor Relations

(604) 664-7707 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(778) 887 6489 Direct

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

This IMPACT News Release may contain certain "forward-looking" statements and information relating to IMPACT that is based on the beliefs of IMPACT management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to IMPACT management. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included herein, including, without limitation, statements relating to future silver prices, interpretation of drill results, future work plans, the timing of closing of the Offering, proceeds received and use of funds, the potential of the Company's projects, and potential and plans for the Plomosas project, are forward looking statements. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "planned", "expect", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intends", "believe", "potential", and similar expressions, or describes a "goal", or variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "should", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the expected use of proceeds of the Private Placement.

Such forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks and assumptions, including with respect to, without limitations, exploration and development risks, expenditure and financing requirements, title matters, operating hazards, metal prices, political and economic factors, competitive factors, general economic conditions, relationships with vendors and strategic partners, governmental regulation and supervision, seasonality, technological change, industry practices, and one-time events. There are no assurances the Company will close the acquisition of the Plomosas project. Should any one or more risks or uncertainties materialize or change, or should any underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and forward-looking statements may vary materially from those described herein. IMPACT does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required by law.

The Company's decision to place a mine into production, expand a mine, make other production related decisions or otherwise carry out mining and processing operations, is largely based on internal non-public Company data and reports based on exploration, development and mining work by the Company's geologists and engineers. The results of this work are evident in the discovery and building of multiple mines for the Company and in the track record of mineral production and financial returns of the Company since 2006. Under NI 43-101 the Company is required to disclose that it has not based its production decisions on NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource or reserve estimates, preliminary economic assessments or feasibility studies, and historically such projects have increased uncertainty and risk of failure.

303-543 Granville Street Telephone (604) 664-7707

Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 1X8

www.impactsilver.com

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Vancouver, British Columbia  TheNewswire  May 3, 2023 - Radius Gold Inc. (TSXV:RDU) (Radius or the Company) provides an update on the application process for the Amalia 4 mining concession and announces it has filed a legal demand with a Federal Mexican Court to obtain title to the Amalia 4 concession.

The Companys Amalia project consists of 1,137 ha of core granted licenses and an 8,590 ha Amalia 4 claim application. Radius and project JV partner Pan American Silver Corp. have completed all the requirements, fee payments and surveys for the Amalia 4 application. The mining authority of Chihuahua has processed and approved the submission without fault and passed the license to the Mexico Mining Directorate proposing title issuance. The regulated time for the mining authority to comment and request revision has passed and granting of title is a legal requirement under the mining law. Radius has filed a legal demand to enforce the granting of title. Radius legal counsel believes the Company has clear legal right to the application and title. Legal counsel has been successful in obtaining granted concessions in similar situations recently.

Figure 1. Amalia tenure

Technical Information

Bruce Smith, M.Sc. (Geology), a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, is Radius Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Smith has approved the technical information contained in this news release.

Radius Gold Inc.

Radius has a portfolio of projects located in Mexico and Guatemala which it continues to advance, utilizing partnerships where appropriate in order to retain the Companys treasury. At the same time, management is seeking out additional investment and project acquisition opportunities across the globe. Radius is a member of the Gold Group of companies, led by Simon Ridgway.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Bruce Smith

President and CEO

Symbol: TSXV-RDU

Contact: Bruce Smith

200 Burrard Street, Suite 650

Vancouver, BC V6C 3L6

Tel: 604-801-5432; Toll free 1-888-627-9378; Fax: 604-662-8829

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.radiusgold.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward- looking statements and include, without limitation, statements about the Companys Amalia project. Often, but not always, these forward looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as estimate, estimates, estimated, potential, open, future, assumed, projected, used, detailed, has been, gain, upgraded, offset, limited, contained, reflecting, containing, remaining, to be, periodically, or statements that events, could or should occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Such uncertainties and factors include, among others, whether the Amalia 4 concession will be granted as anticipated; changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; the Company or any joint venture partner not having the financial ability to meet its exploration and development goals; risks associated with the results of exploration and development activities, estimation of mineral resources and the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; unanticipated costs and expenses; and such other risks detailed from time to time in the Companys quarterly and annual filings with securities regulators and available under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward-looking statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to: that the Amalia 4 concession will be granted as anticipated; that the Companys stated goals and the planned exploration and development activities at its properties will be achieved; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
1,519 g/t AgEq over 31.0m within 8.1m of 5,375 g/t AgEq including 0.7m of 47,119 g/t AgEq

HALIFAX, NS, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - GoGold Resources Inc. (TSX: GGD) (OTCQX: GLGDF) ("GoGold", "the Company") is pleased to announce additional drilling results from Los Ricos South, within the Eagle Deposit, including an exceptionally wide, high grade intercept from hole LRGAG-22-162. The hole intercepted 31.0m of 1,519 g/t silver equivalent ("AgEq"), within 8.1m of 5,375 g/t AgEq which also included a very high grade core of 47,119 g/t AgEq over 0.7m. This is one of the best holes drilled to date within the Los Ricos district. See Table 1 for breakdown of silver and gold values.

"Our drilling campaign at the Eagle deposit continues to provide us with excellent results, including the exceptional hole 162 which is one of the best holes drilled to date within the Los Ricos district. This hole exemplifies why we believe so strongly in this deposit with very wide, high grade intersections exceeding a kilo and a half of silver equivalent over 31 metres. We continue to intersect exceptional metal values with the drill bit at the Eagle deposit within Los Ricos South," said Brad Langille, President and CEO. "Our team continues to work toward our upcoming updated Los Ricos South Mineral Resource and Preliminary Economic Assessment, which we expect by the end of June."

Table 1: Drill Hole Intersections

Hole ID Area / Vein From To Length1 Au Ag AuEq2 AgEq2 (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) LRGAG-22-162 Eagle 100.7 131.7 31.0 6.07 1,063.9 20.26 1,519.2 including 105.7 113.8 8.1 19.38 3,921.7 71.67 5,375.2 including 107.7 108.4 0.7 144.00 36,319.0 628.25 47,119.0 LRGAG-22-147 Eagle 53.2 99.8 46.6 1.08 40.8 1.63 122.0 including 85.6 99.0 13.4 3.24 76.0 4.25 319.1 including 96.0 96.8 0.8 24.30 45.0 24.90 1,867.5 LRGAG-22-148 Eagle 138.3 143.3 5.0 1.13 137.1 2.96 221.7 LRGAG-22-150 Eagle 209.4 220.7 11.3 6.96 64.9 7.83 587.0 including 211.1 217.4 6.3 12.02 100.0 13.35 1,001.6 including 215.1 216.2 1.1 32.10 157.0 34.19 2,564.5 LRGAG-22-151 Eagle 194.4 201.7 7.3 1.77 74.9 2.77 207.8 including 195.0 196.3 1.3 3.48 154.2 5.54 415.3 LRGAG-22-152 Eagle 73.2 85.3 12.1 0.55 70.6 1.49 111.8 including 83.3 85.3 2.0 1.35 124.3 3.01 225.5 LRGAG-22-153 Eagle 65.1 66.6 1.5 0.35 143.5 2.26 169.8 LRGAG-22-154 Eagle 88.2 92.8 4.6 0.52 113.2 2.03 152.2 including 88.9 89.9 1.0 1.16 202.5 3.86 289.5 LRGAG-22-155 Eagle 205.0 211.0 6.0 1.93 30.4 2.34 175.3 including 205.0 205.6 0.6 9.20 74.7 10.20 764.7 and 229.3 233.6 4.3 2.79 64.8 3.65 273.8 including 231.6 232.6 1.0 8.19 52.1 8.88 666.4 LRGAG-22-156 Eagle 38.4 47.3 9.0 1.86 161.0 4.01 300.9 including 43.9 45.1 1.2 7.59 697.9 16.89 1,266.8 LRGAG-22-157 Eagle 153.1 155.4 2.3 0.46 86.9 1.62 121.6 LRGAG-22-158 Eagle 78.2 102.8 24.6 2.19 137.9 4.03 302.0 including 79.2 88.0 8.8 3.87 340.5 8.41 630.9 including 80.0 80.7 0.8 13.05 2,660.0 48.52 3,638.8 LRGAG-22-159 including 99.1 100.1 1.0 2.71 91.0 3.92 294.3 LRGAG-22-160 Eagle 173.9 175.4 1.5 2.09 176.9 4.45 334.0 and 200.4 202.5 2.2 5.77 50.1 6.44 483.0 and 214.9 227.7 12.9 2.13 70.2 3.07 230.3 including 219.7 220.5 0.8 14.30 255.0 17.70 1,327.5 LRGAG-22-161 Eagle 91.4 124.4 33.0 2.51 338.9 7.03 527.0 including 93.4 103.0 9.6 5.16 945.4 17.76 1,332.0 including 94.8 96.1 1.3 19.58 3,665.4 68.46 5,134.2

1. Not true width 2. AgEq converted using a silver to gold ratio of 75:1 at recoveries of 100%

The Eagle Deposit adjoins the Main Deposit and represents a northern extension of the previously defined Mineral Resource Estimate in the Los Ricos South PEA. The Eagle concession covers 1,107 hectares, including the area between the Main Deposit and the Company's Jamaica concession located 3km to the northwest, where the Company holds the rights to additional concessions. Drilling at the Eagle has returned the highest grade intercepts to date in the district. These wide high-grade intercepts are consistent with geophysical targets on the new concession.

Figure 3, above, provides a summary of the Los Ricos District, including both the Los Ricos North and Los Ricos South projects. The map includes an outline of the concession areas and a summary of the current Mineral Resource Estimates ("MRE") on the projects, as well as stars locating each of the deposits included within the current MREs.

Table 2: Drill Hole Locations

Hole ID Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Dip Length LRGAG-22-147 610054 2328536 1274 50 -87 155 LRGAG-22-148 610144 2328260 1312 50 -69 175 LRGAG-22-149 610231 2328101 1334 50 -50 160 LRGAG-22-150 609998 2328327 1264 50 -72 271 LRGAG-22-151 610036 2328260 1305 50 -53 258 LRGAG-22-152 610295 2328146 1344 50 -51 115 LRGAG-22-153 610202 2328299 1319 50 -72 110 LRGAG-22-154 610217 2328254 1331 50 -72 128 LRGAG-22-155 609997 2328326 1265 50 -76 304 LRGAG-22-156 610142 2328445 1312 50 -71 105 LRGAG-22-157 610146 2328029 1291 50 -56 193 LRGAG-22-158 610058 2328444 1278 50 -60 126 LRGAG-22-159 610107 2328342 1293 50 -61 177 LRGAG-22-160 610009 2328321 1268 50 -75 294 LRGAG-22-161 610058 2328443 1278 50 -74 156 LRGAG-22-162 610034 2328438 1270 50 -67 162

VRIFY Slide Deck and 3D Presentation



VRIFY is a platform being used by companies to communicate with investors using 360 virtual tours of remote mining assets, 3D models and interactive presentations. VRIFY can be accessed by website and with the VRIFY iOS and Android apps.

The VRIFY 3D Slide Deck for GoGold can be viewed at: https://vrify.com/companies/gogold-resources-inc and on the Company's website at: www.gogoldresources.com.

Los Ricos District Exploration Projects



The Company's two exploration projects at its Los Ricos Property are in Jalisco state, Mexico. The Los Ricos South Project began in March 2019 and an initial Mineral Resource was announced on July 29, 2020, which disclosed a Measured & Indicated Mineral Resource of 63.7 million ounces AgEq grading 199 g/t AgEq contained in 10.0 million tonnes, and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 19.9 million ounces AgEq grading 190 g/t AgEq contained in 3.3 million tonnes. An initial PEA on the project was announced on January 20, 2021, indicating an NPV 5% of US$295M. The Eagle Concession was acquired in October 2022 and is adjacent to the Main Area which contains the initial Mineral Resource.

The Los Ricos North Project was launched in March 2020 and an initial Mineral Resource was announced on December 7, 2021, which disclosed an Indicated Mineral Resource of 87.8 million ounces AgEq grading 122 g/t AgEq contained in 22.3 million tonnes, and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 73.2 million ounces AgEq grading 111 g/t AgEq contained in 20.5 million tonnes.

Procedure, Quality Assurance / Quality Control and Data Verification



The diamond drill core (HQ size) is geologically logged, photographed and marked for sampling. When the sample lengths are determined, the full core is sawn with a diamond blade core saw with one half of the core being bagged and tagged for assay. The remaining half portion is returned to the core trays for storage and/or for metallurgical test work.

The sealed and tagged sample bags are transported to the ALS Chemex facility in Guadalajara, Mexico. ALS Chemex crushes the samples and prepares 200-300 gram pulp samples with ninety percent passing Tyler 150 mesh (106m). The pulps are assayed for gold using a 30-gram charge by fire assay (Code AA23) and over limits greater than 10 grams per tonne are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (Code ME-GRAV21). Silver and multi-element analysis is completed using total digestion (Code ME-ICP61 Total Digestion ICP). Over limits greater than 100 grams per tonne silver are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (ME-GRA21).

Quality assurance and quality control ("QA/QC") procedures monitor the chain-of-custody of the samples and includes the systematic insertion and monitoring of appropriate reference materials (certified standards, blanks and duplicates) into the sample strings. The results of the assaying of the QA/QC material included in each batch are tracked to ensure the integrity of the assay data. All results stated in this announcement have passed GoGold's QA/QC protocols.

Mr. David Duncan, P. Geo. is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the technical information of this release.

About GoGold Resources



GoGold Resources (TSX: GGD) is a Canadian-based silver and gold producer focused on operating, developing, exploring and acquiring high quality projects in Mexico. The Company operates the Parral Tailings mine in the state of Chihuahua and has the Los Ricos South and Los Ricos North exploration projects in the state of Jalisco. Headquartered in Halifax, NS, GoGold is building a portfolio of low cost, high margin projects. For more information visit gogoldresources.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT



The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy of any of GoGold's securities in the United States.

This news release may contain "forward-looking information" as defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Los Ricos South and North projects, and future plans and objectives of GoGold, including the intention to undertake further exploration at Los Ricos North, and the prospect of further discoveries there, constitute forward looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information is based on a number of factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such information but which may prove to be incorrect, including, but not limited to, assumptions in connection with the continuance of GoGold and its subsidiaries as a going concern, general economic and market conditions, mineral prices, the accuracy of mineral resource estimates, and the performance of the Parral project. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from GoGold's expectations include exploration and development risks associated with GoGold's projects, the failure to establish estimated mineral resources or mineral reserves, volatility of commodity prices, variations of recovery rates, and global economic conditions. For additional information with respect to risk factors applicable to GoGold, reference should be made to GoGold's continuous disclosure materials filed from time to time with securities regulators, including, but not limited to, GoGold's Annual Information Form. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date of this release.
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

John Dalberg-Acton wrote that in 1887, and 136 years later Montanas Republican-controlled House of Representatives has proven the truth of that statement.

I approach this subject with an extensive background of legislative knowledge based on 32 years of working with legislators, first as a journalist covering the Montana Legislature for more than two decades and then as a member of a state agencys management team for eight years.

After knowing thousands of lawmakers and their chosen leaders, I can tell you what has occurred in the House this session is unprecedented.

Montanans handed Republicans such massive majorities in the House and Senate that party members came into this session believing they could do whatever they wished. With a puny Democratic presence and a GOP governor, Republicans had the power to pass anything.

One of the first actions of the Republican-controlled House was to harass one of their own so badly she resigned two weeks into the session, because she had voted differently than GOP leaders told her.

Then with barely two weeks remaining in the session, the House Republicans book-ended their dictatorship by punishing Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Missoula Democrat. Her crime: Speaking truth to power in criticizing the GOP majority for supporting a bill banning gender-affirming care.

While Republicans may not have liked Zephyrs remarks, nothing she said was out of line when considered with the thousands of comments made during House debates during the years I was there. Indeed, the words she chose were the same as have been uttered recently in political venues throughout the country without the draconian discipline handed out by Speaker Matt Regier, according to a multi-state analysis by the AP.

Regier, with unanimous backing of his lemmings, refused to let Zephyr, a transgender woman, speak on the House floor. Zephyr rightly pointed out the move disenfranchised her 11,000 constituents by denying them a voice. Citizens showed up to complain about that and Republicans decided to punish Zephyr for that, too. They claimed she had somehow signaled for the protest to begin in the House gallery, but they could not describe what they supposedly saw.

Zephyr was banned from the House chamber, foyer and gallery. Shutting her up wasnt enough; Republicans wanted her out of sight.

The next day, Zephyr took a seat on a bench in an area dominated by a popular snack bar between the House and Senate chambers. There, she planned to monitor the floor session and exercise her right to vote remotely on bills being debated.

But punishment wasnt enough; Regier decided to bully Zephyr. In a video, Regier tells Zephyr she could not work where she was sitting, even though he acknowledged it was a public space. He wanted her out of the public eye, hidden away in the House minority leaders office. The problem is that Regiers authority does not extend to the area he was trying to police.

House rules give him authority to maintain order in the House, its lobbies, galleries, and hallways and all other rooms in the Capitol assigned for the use of the House. The orderly area where Zephyr worked is a common area that has never been assigned to either the House or Senate. It is an area where citizens, lobbyists and legislators randomly gather and its no more an area assigned to the Houses authority than the local McDonalds.

Republican leaders went further, saying they would not allow any lawmaker to speak if they were not trusted to uphold the undefined decorum. In other words, legislators would be muzzled for even thinking about not toeing the GOP line. The thought police are alive and well in Montana.

This fiasco should scare the hell out of Montanans.

House rules give the speaker immense authority over behavior of members when it comes to decorum. But nowhere in the rules is the word defined. As a result, any speaker has the absolute power to decide what constitutes a breach of decorum. Doodling at ones desk? No microphone for you! Picking ones nose? Get out!

The point is such unbridled authority, backed by a speakers majority, can be used to hand out politically motivated punishment, whether deserved or not. No one should use such power to dictate who can effectively serve in the Legislature or to intimidate those with differing views.

Regiers ludicrous belief that he can decide which people may sit in which public hallways of the peoples Capitol is almost more frightening. It demonstrates a stunning ignorance of freedom and democracy and his inane willingness to embrace arrogance, intolerance and petty vindictiveness.

Congratulations Montanans. You created super-majorities with enormous power. Unfortunately for us all, they are using it to corrupt the democratic process by wielding an iron fist to silence opposition from within their own party and beyond.

Whos their next target?
Ahn Hyo Seop was asked to pick between his K-drama characters Kang Tae Moo and Seo Woo Jin, but instead he gave a diplomatic answer and revealed the reason for choosing one over the other.

Known for his versatility, playing a hotshot CEO in "A Business Proposal," a blind astrologer in "Lovers of the Red Sky," and of course playing the role of Kim Sa Bu's junior in "Dr. Romantic 3," the 28-year-old actor surely made viewers swoon over his K-drama roles.

However, during his interview with W Korea, the actor spoke about the differences between playing Kang Tae Moo and Seo Woo Jin.

Ahn Hyo Seop Reveals Why He Prefers to Live like Kang Tae Moo Over Seo Woo Jin

The South Korean heartthrob showed his undeniable charm as he graced W Korea's YouTube channel.

In an almost 7 minute video, Ahn Hyo Seop answered random questions from the selection.

Among the questions include his K-drama roles, particularly "A Business Proposal," and his current series, "Dr. Romantic 3."

When asked if he had to live as one of the drama roles for the rest of his life and choose only between Kang Tae Moo and Seo Woo Jin, Ahn Hyo Seop had no doubts and chose CEO Kang Tae Moo.

It seemed like its a no brainer question when he said, "Wouldn't it be comfortable?" since it is the main character in "A Business Proposal."

As mentioned, Kang Tae Moo is the CEO of Go Food, a subsidiary founded by his grandfather.

After finishing his degree at Harvard University, the third generation chaebol joined the conglomerate overseas but returned to South Korea to fulfill his grandfather's wish-and that was going on a blind date.

Although Kang Tae Moo lived a much more comfortable life as compared to Seo Woo Jin, Ahn Hyo Seop sees a similarity between him and his "Dr. Romantic 3" character.

He said that it is a role that is much like him, adding, "My personality has changed a bit after I always finish filming."

The 28-year-old actor reprised his role as Seo Woo Jin, Doldam Hospital's general surgeon, who first joined the medical K-drama in season 2, alongside Lee Sung Kyung.

In his previous interview, Ahn Hyo Seop shared what it's like to return to the set as Dr. Seo.

As obtained by a media outlet, the actor said that he managed to adapt to the character.

"I think I was able to quickly get back into the mindset of Woo Jin's life, which my body and mind remembered," he shared.

Moreover, he revealed that the reason for him to join the cast of season 3 is because playing his role in "Dr. Romantic" makes him "happy."

What to Expect in 'Dr. Romantic 3'

Airing every Friday and Saturday, via SBS and Disney+, viewers get to see the Doldam family reunite in "Dr. Romantic 3."

For the third sequel, Kim Sa Bu has established the trauma center, which has yet to be opened to the public.

Teacher Kim meets two rookie doctors who will join the hospital, along with a former colleague who happens to be Cha Eun Jae's father.

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Geca Wills
Disney+ revealed the cast lineup for its upcoming drama "The Murderer's Shopping Mall," a spin-off to the 2022 series "The Murderer's Shopping List"! It also confirmed its release date, much to fans' excitement. Keep on reading to know more!

'The Murderer's Shopping Mall' Confirms Cast Lineup

On May 2, Disney+ raised the tension for the forthcoming suspense horror comedy series "The Murderer's Shopping Mall" after confirming its cast lineup and release date!

The broadcast channel named Hallyu superstar Lee Dong Wook and Kim Hye Joon as its lead stars after the two were reported to take on the roles last year.

On the other hand, "The Murderer's Shopping Mall" serves as a spin-off to the 2022 mystery comedy series "The Murderer's Shopping List" which was led by Lee Kwang Soo and Seolhyun.

Based on Kang Ji Young's novel of the same name, the story follows a young woman who runs a shopping mall with his uncle after her parents face their sorrowful demise.

However, her life takes a darker turn when she gets overwhelmed with painful truths, following her uncle's sudden death.

Lee Dong Wook transforms into uncle Jung Jin, a reputable father figure to his niece and a shopping mall owner. Meanwhile, Kim Hye Joon plays Jung Ji An, an orphan who is deeply loved by her extraordinary uncle.

While Lee Dong Wook has cemented his name as a fan-favorite with his dramas "Goblin," "Bad and Crazy" and more, Kim Hye Joon is slowly building her filmography as a Hallyu actress. She recently worked with Lee Kwang Soo in the disaster comedy film "Sinkhole."

With the success of its predecessor, anticipation is high for the brand new drama. In addition to that, fans are also looking forward to seeing the chemistry between the lead actors who will work together for the first time!

'The Murderer's Shopping Mall' Announces Release Date

Besides confirming the participation of Lee Dong Wook and Kim Hye Joon, Disney+ also announced its release date.

The cable network stated that "The Murderer's Shopping Mall" is slated to be released in the first half of 2024 in South Korea and in the international channels.

Currently, the cast and crew of the series are gearing up for their principal filming with the intention to possibly release it on the target date or even earlier.

"The Murderer's Shopping Mall" is written and directed by "Save Me" creator Lee Kwon and "When Time Stopped" screenwriter Ji Ho Jin.

Moreover, actors Seo Hyun Woo, Park Ji Bin and Kim Hae Na also confirmed their appearances in the series, raising the expectations for the cast ensemble to a whole new level.

While you're waiting for the release "The Murderer's Shopping Mall," catch Lee Dong Wook as a gumiho in "Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938" this May. Watch the teaser here:

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
Song Hye Kyo and BLACKPINK Jennie's stunning appearances at the 2023 Met Gala earned massive attention as they both flaunted their curves and beauties at the prestigious event!

The two dazzling Hallyu superstars were two among many stars who graced the red carpet, much to fans' delight. Keep on reading to know more!

Song Hye Kyo & BLACKPINK Jennie Surprise Fans With Met Gala Selfie

On May 1 EST, stars and fashion icons gathered in New York City to celebrate fashion and beauty at the 2023 Met Gala!

Popular artists showed off their designer-helmed gowns and clothing, and paraded their beauty at the red carpet. Many stars were present at the prestigious event like Doja Cat, Jared Leto, Michelle Yeoh and more.

This year's Met Gala's theme is "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty." It celebrates the iconic works of Karl Lagerfeld who was a creative director for famous fashion houses like Balmain, Patou and Chanel.

Hallyu favorites Song Hye Kyo and BLACKPINK Jennie were also spotted at the celebration, donning gorgeous monochromatic dresses from Fendi and Chanel, respectively.

The two celebrities surprised the public when they posted an adorable selfie together on Instagram. It drew attention from fans all around the world, proving their popularity and influence.

In the photo, Song Hye Kyo flashes a warm smile and gentle gaze while Jennie exudes nothing but confidence and sophistication. Fans left thousands of lovely comments on the photo, praising the artists.

One fan described the photo as the "photo of the century" that features "two powerful women." With that, Song Hye Kyo and BLACKPINK Jennie have dominated the trends list on various social media platforms up until this writing.

Song Hye Kyo Named Best Actress of 2023

Song Hye Kyo adds another trophy to her collection of achievements this 2023!

The legendary actress has recently won the Best Actress in a Television Drama award at the 59th Baeksang Arts Awards for her outstanding performance in Netflix's "The Glory."

She beat fellow actresses Park Eun Bin ("Extraordinary Attorney Woo") and Suzy ("Anna") who were both nominated in the same category.

Song Hye Kyo made the audience laugh when she referenced her character with the line, "I received an award, Yeon Jin! I'm very excited now!"

In her speech, the Best Actress thanked her fans, co-stars and the production unit of "The Glory." She also expressed her gratitude to her mother, and promised to work harder in the future.

"The Glory" also won the Best Drama Award while Lim Ji Yeon, who was the main antagonist in the series, took home the Best Supporting Actress Award.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
Among the sterling releases in 2018, Lee Je Hoon and Chae Soo Bin's "Where Stars Land" left a heartwarming impact on the viewers as it showcased the inner workings of airport workers.

The two actors took home the Excellence Awards at the SBS Drama Awards for their exceptionally good performances.

If you miss Lee Je Hoon and Chae Soo Bin, then keep on reading. Here's where you can see more of them this 2023!

Lee Je Hoon

Earlier this 2023, fan-favorite actor Lee Je Hoon reprised his role as Kim Do Gi in the second season of the smash hit action crime series "Taxi Driver" with Pyo Ye Jin and Kim Eui Sung.

It is a direct sequel to the 2021 drama of the same name, which earned him a nomination for the Daesang (Grand Prize) at the SBS Drama Awards.

With two seasons wrapped neatly with a ribbon, Lee Je Hoon surprised the public with the announcement that "Taxi Driver" has been renewed for Season 3 due to its great reception.

On the other hand, he will also return to the big screen with the upcoming South Korean war film "Noryang" with Kim Yoon Seok, Baek Yoon Sik and more.

The movie is the third and final film in Kim Han Min's film series about the Yi Sun Sin's battles, which includes 2014 film "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" and 2022 release "Hansang: Rising Dragon."

"Noryang" is expected to hit the screen in December 2023. In particular, Lee Je Hoon also bagged the titular role in the drama "Chief Inspector 1963" which is currently in the works.

Chae Soo Bin

Chae Soo Bin last appeared in the small screen with SHINee Minho in the romance comedy series "The Fabulous" which aired in 2022.

The eight-parter Netflix series showcased the hectic life behind the glitz and glamor of the fashion industry.

In addition to that, Chae Soo Bin also made her long anticipated return to the theater stage as Viola de Lesseps in the musical "Shakespeare in Love" with Jung So Min and Kim Yoo Jung.

Currently, she's busy filming for her brand new action film "Hijacking" with Sung Dong Il, Ha Jung Woo and Yeo Jin Goo.

Chae Soo Bin was also cast as the lead actress in the series "Treat Her With Caution" (working title) earlier this year. It's an espionage drama that focuses on the life of an ordinary homemaker who is betrayed by a senior she wholeheartedly trusts.

Attention is focused on the actress as the drama's production unit guarantees that Chae Soo Bin will radiate a different charm from her previous acting roles. Stay tuned for more updates!

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
Every year, there are hundreds of K-Dramas that grace the small screen that vye for high praises and recognition.

However, only one drama takes home the trophy and gets recognized as the Best Drama at Baeksang Arts Awards, an anticipated and distinguished awards show that celebrates talents and brilliance.

Here are the Best Dramas in the past decade! Read to know more!

'Good Doctor'

Joo Won and Moon Chae Won's "Good Doctor" left a great impression on the public during its run, and was named the Best Drama of 2014 at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

It tells the life of a doctor who needs to prove himself as a doctor despite being diagnosed with autism.

'Heard It Through the Grapevine'

Yoo Jun Sang and Yoo Ho Jeong's black comedy series "Heard It Through the Grapevine" is one of the most underrated series in the history of K-Drama.

But because of its satirical yet effective narrative which focuses on South Korea's 1%, the series received great response from its domestic viewers.

The 30-parter drama was hailed Best Drama at the Baeksang Arts Awards in 2015.

'Signal'

"Signal," starring Lee Je Hoon and Kim Hye Soo, won over the hearts of the viewers for its amazingly written and resonating narrative.

During its run, it became the 11th highest rated series in South Korean history. It was also named the Best Drama in 2016, and even bagged the Daesang (Grand Prize) at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

'Beyond Evil'

In 2021, Shin Ha Kyun and Yeo Jin Goo swept the awards shows with their top notch drama "Beyond Evil"! The two actors transformed into dauntless men who break the law in order to capture a notorious serial killer.

With its perfectly written narrative, it was named Best Drama in 2021. Not only that but it also bagged the Best Screenplay and Best Actor for Shin Ha Kyun!

'D.P.'

Jung Hae In and Koo Kyo Hwan played the roles of military police in the 2022 Netflix series "D.P."!

The series boasted a gripping story that focuses on what happens inside the camp and military base. "D.P." beat "Squid Game" and "Twenty Five, Twenty One," and bagged the Best Drama award.

In addition to that, Cho Hyun Chul and Koo Kyo Hwan were hailed as Best Supporting Actor and Best New Actor, respectively.

This 2023, "D.P." returns to the small screen with its second installment, much to fans' delight!

'The Glory'

Earlier this month, the 59th Baeksang Arts Awars named the talents that shone the brightest in the past year.

Netflix's "The Glory" starring Song Hye Kyo, Lee Do Hyun and Lim Ji Yeon won Best Drama, all thanks to its realistic portrayal of the rampant bullying in South Korea, beating "Little Women," "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" and more.

Moreover, Song Hye Kyo and Lim Ji Yeon bagged the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Award, correspondingly, all thanks to their exceptionally amazing performances.

BONUS: "Hot Stove League," "My Mister," "Mother" and "Dear My Friends" were also awarded Best Drama in the 2010s.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
The Bismarck Forestry Division will host a community recognition program and ceremonial tree planting on Friday in honor of State Arbor Day.

National Arbor Day is on the final Friday in April, but in North Dakota it's always the first Friday in May. It's celebrated annually to recognize the importance of trees, and to promote tree planting and care.

Bismarck's event is at 1 p.m. at Sertoma Park, 300 Riverside Park Road. It will take place near the Amusement Park and Sertoma Community Center. The public is welcome. The 2023 Arbor Day theme is: Pay it Forward, Plant a Tree."

Each year a ceremonial Arbor Day tree is dedicated to a local resident whose efforts have made a significant contribution to Bismarck's urban forest. This year's tree planting will recognize retired Bismarck Parks Director Randy Bina for more than 33 years of service.

The Arbor Day Ceremony will include Apple Seed Awards presented for 2022 landscape beautification efforts on public property, Beautification Awards for 2022 landscape beautification efforts on private property, and recognition of 2022 Partners in Planting program sponsors.

Bismarck also will be celebrating 46 years as a Tree City USA. That program was started in 1976 by the Arbor Day Foundation in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters to recognize communities that effectively mange public trees.

Mayor Mike Schmitz will read the Arbor Day Proclamation and give remarks. The Innovation School Teal and Purple Bands will give presentations. The tree planting will take place at the close of the program, weather permitting.

For more information go to www.bismarcknd.gov/forestry.
Lee Do Hyun, Ra Mi Ran and Ahn Eun Jin's much anticipated family drama "The Good Bad Mother" finally made its debut on Netflix! To know what happened in the pilot episodes, then keep on reading!

Choi Kang Ho Is Born

"The Good Bad Mother" begins with Jin Young Soon (Ra Mi Ran) and Choi Hae Sik (Cho Jin Woong) welcoming their beautiful baby boy to the world.

The couple lived a peaceful life in a humble village as pig farmers. Unfortunately, their perfect lives face their sudden demise when thugs burn down their farm.

When he tries to appeal to the court, Choi Hae Sik gets captured by powerful thugs and kills him off while staging it as a suicide.

Jin Young Soon then moves to another village to move on and raise her child alone. At the clinic, she and another pregnant woman go into labor.

She gives birth to Choi Kang Ho while Jung Geum Ja (Kang Mal Geum) gives birth to a baby girl named Lee Mi Joo.

Choi Kang Ho & Lee Mi Joo's Young Romance

Choi Kang Ho (Lee Do Hyun) and Lee Mi Joo (Ahn Eun Jin) grow up being friends while Bang Sam Shik (Yoo In Soo), a friend who likes Lee Mi Joo, bullies Jin Young Soo's son.

At home, Jin Young Soon tells Choi Kang Ho to endure the bullying as it will make him a great prosecutor someday, leaving the impression that she's a bad mother.

Later that day, Choi Kang Ho and Lee Mi Joo celebrate their birthdays together. However, a jealous Bang Sam Shik locks them inside the school's supply closet.

The whole village think that they have eloped together, alarming Bang Sam Shik who "rescues" the two inside the school.

Bang Sam Shik and the locals unlock the closet at the moment where Choi Kang Ho performs the Heimlich maneuver to Lee Mi Joo, giving off a bad impression.

The two young kids become a couple. Lee Mi Joo cheers him up by giving him gifts before dropping him for his law exam.

However, a worried Choi Kang Ho misses his most important exam when Lee Mi Joo gets hit by a bike. He then shushes him into his arms, saying that he will take the exam next year.

Choi Kang Ho Transforms Into Ambivalent Prosecutor

A few years later, Choi Kang Ho becomes a successful prosecutor who now works with Director Song Woo Byuk (Choi Moo Sung), the same person who killed his father.

Choi Kang Ho spends his time trying to win Director Song's favor by clearing up his name. Director Song then thinks about passing his business to the former as his heir, Surprisingly, Choi Kang Ho accepts to be his son.

While Choi Kang Ho became a prosecutor, Lee Mi Joo is now a nail technician with two kids of her own.

In episode 2, Choi Kang Ho's new girlfriend Oh Ha Young (Hong Bi Ra) gets a pedicure from Lee Mi Joo. She throws a fit and accidentally gets cut.

Oh Ha Young berates Lee Mi Joo when the latter doesn't apologize. However, she refuses and scares her away with her martial arts moves.

Meanwhile, Jin Young Soon visits Choi Kang Ho in Seoul. Much to her dismay, her son refuses to meet with her.

Later that day, Choi Kang Ho and Oh Ha Young go on a date. Their precious time gets interrupted when he sees drugs inside his bag, which she refers to as a "panic disorder medicine."

Choi Kang Ho's Ill-Fated Life

Choi Kang Ho then runs to Director Song to reveal the dirt he found out about Oh Ha Young's father, who's a member of the National Assembly.

He is then introduced as Director Song's son who's about to be married to Oh Ha Young; this way, betrayal won't be possible for both parties.

Elsewhere, Lee Mi Joo opens her own nail salon. Choi Kang Ho and Oh Ha Young visit Jin Young Soon at their humble village.

Choi Kang Ho demands his mother to sign off the adoption papers, making Jin Young Soon cry in pain. When the couple leave for Seoul, a truck rams into Choi Kang Ho's car, making it fall off a cliff.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
Kieren Armour and his wife, Gale, who own Lakesider Brewing Co., show tall cans of their Sunkissed Apricot Wheat Ale during a fundraiser Saturday night. The Sunkissed Apricot Wheat Ale won Best Fruit Beer at the Penticton Fest of Ale in April.
Members of the Iranian community and their supporters rally in solidarity with protesters in Iran, after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody for allegedly improperly wearing a hijab, in Ottawa on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022. Canada has slapped fresh sanctions on Iranian officials whom Ottawa blames for the arrest of Mahsa Amini, whose death sparked widespread anti-regime protests last September. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
State lawmakers in the final week of the 2023 legislative session approved an attorney general budget some $11 million lower than originally requested, but its one Drew Wrigley says represents cooperation between his office and the Legislature.

We didnt ask for five of anything we needed three of, the attorney general said. Im very pleased with how the Legislature responded to our requests.

Wrigley at the start of the session put forth a budget request of $110 million, about 29% or $24.6 million higher than the previous biennium. That request included 26 additional full-time employees and additional space and equipment at the State Crime Lab. The approved 2023-25 budget total is just short of $99 million.

It provides for a $5 million litigation fund to pay attorneys hired on a per-case basis to represent state agencies. About $3.2 million of the pool will come from the gambling and excise tax allocation fund and be transferred by the Attorney Generals Office to state agencies.

The new budget includes 13 additional full-time employees. It provides for two firearms testers, two latent fingerprint scientists, and one scientist in each area of DNA, blood and drug testing at the State Crime Lab. Three BCI agents will assist other law enforcement in understaffed areas near American Indian reservations.

The budget also provides for two additional IT employees, four BCI cybercrimes investigators, additional attorneys in the Medicare Fraud Unit, and a number of support staff. The State Fire Marshal Division and its eight employees -- now under the AG's office -- will move to the Insurance Department.

The budget also includes a proposed interim study to examine whether the State Crime Lab should be kept administratively separate from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, a division of Wrigley's office.

Wrigley at the start of the session asked legislators to change a state law that states the lab must be administratively separated from BCI. He said the move would streamline both organizations and reduce testing backlogs at the lab. Opponents said BCI oversight could call the lab's credibility into question. The Senate killed an amended version of the bill -- which would have added a managerial position separate from the lab director -- in a 2-44 vote.

Also included in the budget:

$1.1 million for grants to organizations that provide prevention and treatment services related to human trafficking.

$400,000 in resiliency funding for mental health and wellness support for current and retired correctional and law enforcement personnel.

An attorney general salary of $179,300 through June 2024 and $186,400 after that. Wrigley's current salary is $165,800.

$2 million in justice assistance grants from federal COVID-19 funds.
Organizers of the planned Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library have over $100 million of cash on hand and pledges that double the total.

The library's CEO provided the figures to the Tribune after North Dakota lawmakers, who approved a $70 million line of credit from the state-owned bank for the Medora-area project, tossed around a wide range of figures last month.

Rep. Bob Martinson, R-Bismarck, put it at "over $100 million cash." Rep. Mark Sanford, R-Grand Forks, put pledges and cash at "in excess of $200 million, $250 million." Sen. Ron Sorvaag, R-Fargo, cited "close to $100 million of cash" and "commitments of $183 million and they have another $18 million or so outstanding." Gov. Doug Burgum during a recent state Industrial Commission said the project had "raised" $200 million.

The Legislature approved the line of credit after scrutiny of the project's intent for the loan.

Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, had raised concerns about the line of credit, calling it a $70 million slush fund that were expecting the people of North Dakota to maybe pay" if library organizers can't.

Library CEO Ed O'Keefe and key budget writers have said the Bank of North Dakota line of credit in the state parks budget is intended as a backstop to satisfy construction contractors as project organizers prepare for earth and foundation work in June.

"It's to secure the beginning of construction, nothing more," O'Keefe told the Tribune.

Construction costs are $170 million, according to O'Keefe, who said library organizers have no intent to use the line of credit, but would pay it back with interest if tapped.

The 2019 Legislature approved a $50 million operations endowment for the library, dependent on organizers raising $100 million in private donations to build the facility honoring the 26th president, who ranched and hunted near Medora in the 1880s. Organizers in October 2020 announced $100 million in commitments for the project.

O'Keefe on Tuesday said the project has "raised over $200 million, and we have cash on hand of over $100 million -- that's excluding the $50 million endowment." He had not publicly detailed fundraising figures since mid-2021.

Oil industry giant Harold Hamm last year donated $50 million cash to advance construction and development of the library.

Budget writers said the line of credit is similar to ones for water and higher education construction projects, to facilitate the project moving forward.

Kasper criticized the line of credit, noting the "number of understandings" the Legislature had in approving the library, and a potential deficiency appropriation tied to the line of credit. A deficiency appropriation would leave taxpayers on the hook if library organizers borrow the money and don't repay it.

Kasper said the intent could have been clearer in the bill, to collateralize the loan by the project's pledges.

"I have every confidence that that building will be built, but if they don't pay the loan back, we're stuck for it," Kasper told the House on Friday.

O'Keefe called it "highly unlikely that we would ever need to access the full ($70 million) amount. It's just to show that line of credit, essentially, on the pledges that are outstanding and come in on an average of four to seven years ... but mostly they're over the duration of the project."

OKeefe has said the only pledges or commitments to not come through is that of Walmart scions Rob and Melani Walton, who were to give $50 million to the project, but donated $15 million. Its unclear why.

The House on Friday voted 46-44 to accept a House-Senate conference committee report on the budget before voting 63-27 to pass the bill and send it to Burgum.

The Senate voted 38-9 to pass the budget. The Legislature adjourned early Sunday.

The library's grand opening is planned for July 4, 2026, the United States' 250th anniversary.
Dental implants have become a popular choice for tooth replacement, and Turkey has emerged as a sought-after destination for dental tourism due to its many advantages. In this article, we will delve into the advantages of getting dental implants in Turkey as a dental tourist, providing insights on why it has become a popular choice for patients seeking affordable and high-quality dental implant solutions.

Affordability and Cost Savings

One of the primary advantages of choosing dental implants in Turkey as a dental tourist is the affordability and cost savings compared to other countries. Dental implant procedures can be expensive in many countries, making it prohibitive for some patients. However, dental implants in Turkey offer a budget-friendly option without sacrificing quality.

In Turkey, the cost of dental implants is often significantly lower than in many other countries, including Western countries and other popular dental tourism destinations. This cost advantage is due to a combination of factors, including lower labor and operating costs, favorable exchange rates, and government incentives to promote medical tourism.

Despite the lower cost, the quality of dental implants in Turkey is on par with international healthcare standards. Many dental clinics in Turkey boast modern facilities, state-of-the-art equipment, and highly trained dental implant specialists who adhere to strict guidelines and protocols. In fact, Turkey has a robust regulatory framework for dental clinics and dentists, ensuring that patients receive high-quality dental care.

Patients who choose dental implants in Turkey as a dental tourist can save a significant amount of money while still receiving excellent dental care. This cost savings can make dental implants more accessible and affordable for patients who may have otherwise been unable to afford the procedure in their home country.

High Quality and Standards

In addition to affordability, another advantage of getting dental implants in Turkey as a dental tourist is the high quality and standards of dental care. Many dental clinics in Turkey, such as Dentakay dental clinic are equipped with advanced technology and follow strict guidelines to ensure the safety and success of dental implant procedures.

Dental implant specialists in Turkey are often highly trained and experienced, with many having received their education and training in reputable institutions abroad. They keep up-to-date with the latest advancements in dental implantology and adhere to international standards of practice.

Moreover, dental clinics in Turkey are subject to rigorous regulations and inspections by the Turkish Ministry of Health, ensuring that they meet or exceed international healthcare standards. This includes strict infection control protocols, sterilization procedures, and patient safety measures.

Patients can have confidence in the quality of dental implants in Turkey, as many dental clinics in the country have a strong track record of successful dental implant procedures. The combination of affordability and high-quality dental care makes Turkey an attractive destination for dental tourists seeking dental implant treatment.

Expertise and Experience

Turkey has a well-established reputation for its dental tourism industry, attracting patients from around the world seeking high-quality dental care at a fraction of the cost compared to other countries. One of the key advantages of getting dental implants in Turkey is the availability of skilled dental implant specialists with vast expertise and experience in performing dental implant procedures.

Dental implant specialists in Turkey are highly trained and qualified, often with international education and certifications.

Moreover, dental implant specialists in Turkey work in state-of-the-art dental clinics and hospitals equipped with modern technology and facilities. They adhere to strict international healthcare standards and follow stringent infection control protocols to ensure the safety and well-being of their patients.

Patients can expect personalized care and thorough evaluations before the dental implant procedure, including a comprehensive examination of the oral cavity, jawbone density assessment, and 3D imaging for precise treatment planning. Dental implant specialists in Turkey take the time to explain the procedure, discuss treatment options, and address any concerns or questions patients may have, ensuring that patients are well-informed and comfortable throughout the process.

State-of-the-Art Facilities and Technology

Turkey has emerged as a popular destination for dental tourism due to its cutting-edge facilities and advanced dental technology. Many dental clinics in Turkey are equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and modern facilities that rival those in other countries known for their dental expertise. From digital imaging and 3D cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans to computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technologies, Turkish dental clinics are at the forefront of dental innovation. These advanced technologies allow for more accurate diagnosis, treatment planning, and implant placement, resulting in efficient and effective dental implant procedures with optimal outcomes.

Travel and Tourism

One of the unique advantages of getting dental implants in Turkey as a dental tourist is the opportunity to combine dental treatment with an enriching cultural experience. Turkey is a country steeped in history and culture, with a rich heritage that spans thousands of years. From the bustling streets of Istanbul to the ancient ruins of Ephesus, Cappadocias otherworldly landscapes, and the pristine beaches of the Mediterranean coast, there is much to explore and enjoy in Turkey. Dental tourists can take advantage of their visit to Turkey for dental implant treatment to also immerse themselves in the countrys rich traditions, cuisine, and hospitality, making their trip a memorable and fulfilling experience.

In conclusion, getting dental implants in Turkey as a dental tourist offers several advantages, including affordability, high-quality standards, expertise of dental implant specialists, state-of-the-art facilities and technology, and the opportunity to combine dental treatment with a cultural experience. With these benefits, Turkey has become a popular destination for dental tourists seeking reliable and cost-effective dental implant solutions without compromising on quality and innovation.

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Journalists have been asked to get united and speak with one voice as they commemorate World Press Freedom Day.

The appeal has been made by the President of the Uganda Parliamentary Press Association, Ibanda Mugabi.

He has also appealed to security officers to stop the brutality they have meted on the media in the line of duty.

Last month, journalists were beaten and pepper-sprayed by police as they covered a pre-medical interns demonstration.

Journalists have also shared their thoughts on how their rights can be secured.

Together with MPs under the parliamentary forum on media and other rights activists, journalists will hold a joint press conference later this morning at parliament to commemorate the press day.
about shooting "Aim small. miss small"

Lisa Brenner for Anne Howard

Rables, peasants, farmers,



gabriel's mother' necklace: a north star, never move, constant, never wave, a guide, why men justify death? arrogant

is spoken by the character Benjamin Martin (played by Mel Gibson). In the scene, Martin is looking at a necklace that belonged to his deceased wife, who was Gabriel's mother. The necklace has a North Star pendant, and Martin explains its significance to his son Gabriel (played by Heath Ledger). Martin describes the North Star as a guide, always constant and never wavering, and he wonders why men feel the need to justify death, implying that arrogance is often a motivating factor in war and conflict. The quote reflects Martin's disillusionment with war and his desire for peace and stability.

"The Patriot" is a historical action-drama film set during the American Revolutionary War and features an ensemble cast led by Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger. The film tells the story of Benjamin Martin, a widower and war hero who is forced to take up arms against the British Redcoats to protect his family and his country's independence. Directed by Roland Emmerich, the film features stunning action sequences and memorable performances by its lead actors.

One of the strengths of "The Patriot" is its attention to historical detail and its portrayal of the realities of war. The film does not shy away from the brutal violence and atrocities committed during the conflict, and it offers a nuanced portrayal of the complex political and social issues at stake. At the same time, the film also explores universal themes such as family, loyalty, and sacrifice, making it a powerful and emotionally resonant viewing experience.

Overall, "The Patriot" is a well-crafted and entertaining film that offers a compelling mix of action, drama, and historical accuracy. Its stellar cast and strong direction make it a memorable addition to the genre of historical war films.

** The quote "Aim small, miss small. Boys, steady" @28:22/2:09:10 - is actually a line from the 2006 film "The Patriot," not a John Williams composition. In the film, the line is spoken by Benjamin Martin (played by Mel Gibson) as he teaches his sons how to shoot a rifle. The full quote is "Aim small, miss small. Meaning, aim for a specific part of your target. If you aim for the whole thing, you'll miss it completely." This quote has since become a popular mantra among shooters and hunters, emphasizing the importance of precision and focus in marksmanship.

** @49:49//2:09:10 The quote "A shepherd must defend his flock. At war, fight off its wolves" is from the 2000 film "The Patriot," which is set during the American Revolutionary War. The quote is spoken by Reverend Oliver (played by Rene Auberjonois) as he rallies a group of farmers and soldiers to join the militia and fight for their freedom against the British. The quote uses the metaphor of a shepherd defending his flock from wolves to inspire the men to take up arms and protect their homes and families from the dangers of war.

**

hwere did you learn riding, scavenging, shooting? my father taught me. did he teach humility? he tried. but it didn't take. He also taught you every deer path, and swan trail from here to Charleston. That's why I requested yuou to transfer to me.

This dialogue appears to be from "The Patriot" (2000), a historical action-drama film set during the American Revolutionary War. The quote reflects a conversation between Colonnel Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) and ), in which his son Corporal Heath Ledger questions Heath Ledger's skills as a soldier and Heath Ledger explains that he learned his survival skills from his father. The dialogue suggests that Martin's father taught him not only practical skills like riding, scavenging, and shooting, but also important values like humility (even if it didn't take) and an intimate knowledge of the surrounding landscape. This knowledge is what makes Martin an invaluable asset to the army, and why Captain Wilkins requests him to transfer to his unit.

**

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In 1776 South Carolina, widower and legendary war hero Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) finds himself thrust into the midst of the American Revolutionary War as he helplessly watches his family torn apart by the savage forces of the British Redcoats. Unable to remain silent, he recruits a band of reluctant volunteers, including his idealistic patriot son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), to take up arms against the British. Fighting to protect his family's freedom and his country's independence, Martin discovers the pain of betrayal, the redemption of revenge and the passion of love.

Release date

2000

Running time

2:09:33

Audio

English

Subtitle

English [CC]

Actors

Heath LedgerMel GibsonChris CooperJason IsaacsJoely Richardson

Director

Roland Emmerich

Music John Williams

Producers

Mark GordonDean Devlin

Genres

DramaAction & adventureWarDocumentaryEducation

Show less

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loex74xkoqc

Maestro Classico

1 day ago

This film set up Jason Isaacs as one of the best "bad guy" actors of all time! Boy Warner/JK/ and the Harry Potter Producers sure could cast the villains....Jason here, sadistic Col. Tavington, and Ralph Fiennes, sadistic Amon Goeth from Schindler's List.

12

Reply

[Donna Marie]

Donna Marie

18 hours ago

one of my favorite all time movies. Seen it 5-6 times..love it every time. almost as good as Gone with the wind...This one is about the love of a father to his kids and country



b r

22 hours ago (edited)

My ancestors were Patriots in the Great Revolution. One fought under General Greene. Many fought all ive found were Patriots. In their honor im a Constitutional Republican. Not the republicans we see today but Republicans like Lincoln and our Founders. Loyal to the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We almost didn't win.

Guts and guile were all we really had. And God. God saved us. Recently we've almost let fools destroy what we so narrowly won. At the moment we have a fragile balance. Pray we do not lose it 1:18:31 1:18:34

Donnie N

21 hours ago (edited)

Mel Gibson, Marlin Brando, Antonio Bandaras, and Omar Sharif were all magnificent in this movie!



Donnie N

21 hours ago (edited)

Mel Gibson, Marlin Brando, Antonio Bandaras, and Omar Sharif were all magnificent in this movie!
By AFP

Teargas canisters were launched at members of opposition leader Raila Odingas Azimio la Umoja (One Kenya) coalition near President William Rutos office in downtown Nairobi, according to footage of the incident.

Kenyas Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said there had been several acts of violence, arson and looting in the capital and in western Kenya by hordes of criminals masquerading as political protesters and insisted they would not be tolerated. Read more
The State Minister for Karamoja Affairs, Agnes Nandutu, has been further remanded to Luzira prison until tomorrow May 4, 2023, for the bail ruling.

Nandutu has this morning presented three sureties before the Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala including Hon. Nandala Mafabi but prosecution led by Jonathan Muwaganya objected to her release on bail saying the minister had disappeared before she handed herself to police for interrogation.

State prosecutor Mr. Jonathan Muwaganya added that the minister who also doubles as Bududa district Woman Member of Parliament during her disappearance abandoned her official vehicle, her home, and that none of her bodyguards knew where she was hiding.

Meanwhile, Justice Jane Kajuga has appointed three court assessors and set May 25, 2023, as a hearing date for the main case.

Nandutu is accused of dealing with suspected 2000 stolen iron sheets meant for the vulnerable people of Karamoja sub-region.

Prosecution led by David Bisamunyu and Jonathan Muwaganya states that during the month of June 2022, Minister Nandutu dealt with 2000 pre-painted iron sheets of gauge 28 marked Office of the Prime Minister by receiving and holding them with reason to believe that they were acquired as a result of loss of property.

The minister has been on remand since 19th April 2023.
President Yoweri Museveni has directed that fallen State Minister of Labour, Rtd Col. Charles Okello Engola, be accorded an official burial.

According to the Minister for Presidency, Milly Babalanda, the full burial program will be communicated later.

Engola was on Tuesday morning shot dead by his bodyguard identified as Private Wilson Sabiti at his home in Kyanja, a Kampala suburb.

The soldier then turned the gun on himself and took his own life. It is not yet clear whether there had been an argument between the two.

The army has since revealed that Sabiiti was assigned to the ministers security detail a month ago.

Before he took his own life, some eyewitnesses claimed the deceased army officer was disgruntled with the delayed payment of his salary.

Meanwhile, Robert Otim, an aide to the minister is still nursing gunshot wounds at Mulago referral hospital.

Joint security forces are still investigating the shooting.
The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) has commended journalists for the work they have done over the years in educating and informing communities.

Journalists in Uganda are today joining their colleagues across the globe to commemorate World Press Freedom Day.

The United National General Assembly declared May 3rd as World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness about the importance of freedom of the press and reminded governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression.

Journalists are celebrating the day under the theme Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights.

In his message to mark the day, Commissioner Crispin Kaheru urged state actors to prioritize the protection and justice of journalists so that they are able to act independently.

We have seen many journalists lately putting themselves at risk shining a light on sensitive but important service delivery, accountability, and human rights issues in their communities. We urge duty-bearers to view journalists as partners in the fight against crime and barriers to development, Kaheru said.
The Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) has urged government to set up a committee of inquiry into the murder of state Minister for Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations, Col (rtd) Charles Okello Engola who was shot dead on Tuesday this week.

The minister, who also doubled as Oyam North County Member of Parliament was shot dead at his home in Kyanja by his bodyguard.

Speaking to the media at the partys head offices in Kampala, the UPC spokesperson, Sharon Oyat, asked government to establish the said committee of inquiry, noting that the allegations of bodyguards delayed payment may not be true.

Meanwhile, she condemned the growing vice of aggrieved Ugandans taking the law into their hands which has led to the death of numerous citizens.
U.S. stresses need for 'Cold War'-era crisis mechanisms with China https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/efforts-to-build-floor-under-us-china-relations-not-yet-successful-us-official David Brunnstrom and Michael Martina Mar 30, 2023

WASHINGTON  Efforts to build a floor under U.S.-China relations have yet to be successful and coming months will determine if it is possible to reestablish constructive diplomacy with Beijing, a top White House official said on Thursday, stressing the need for Cold War-era hotlines and other crisis mechanisms. Speaking at a time of heightened tensions with China over a U.S. stopover by Taiwans president, U.S. Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell said Washington had made clear to Beijing it was ready to have another call between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Were prepared and, from our perspective, we want to keep lines of communication open and it is our intention to keep those lines open, he said at an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) think tank. Biden said last month after a U.S. fighter jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that he planned to speak to Xi about the episode and clear the air, but this has yet to happen and tensions have only risen since. Campbell said the Chinese had been reluctant to engage in discussions around confidence-building or crisis communications, or hotlines and it would be a responsible step to have such mechanisms, given that Chinese and U.S. military forces operated in proximity to each other.

We built those during the Cold War. We think that theyre appropriate now, he added.

Campbell said the U.S. was in the early stages of a new phase of competitive relations with China. Theres also a recognition that in many respects our efforts to build a foundation, a floor under the relationship and guardrails, have yet to be successful, he said, referring to U.S. priorities when Biden and Xi last spoke at a meeting in Bali in November. I think you will see in the coming months whether its going to be possible to reestablish effective, predictable, constructive diplomacy between the United States and China. Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen arrived in New York on Wednesday on her way to Central America. On her way back to Taipei next week, she will stop in Los Angeles, where she is expected to meet U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, an interaction China has warned could lead to a serious confrontation in U.S.-China relations.
Pope Francis has greeted the foreign envoy of the Russian Orthodox Church, just days after revealing a secret mission is under way to try to put an end to the war in Ukraine.

Metropolitan Anthony attended Francis weekly general audience in St Peters Square before greeting the Pope at the end.

He presented Francis with an icon, which the Pope blessed.

Anthony was later seen being led off the stage by one of Francis aides.

Francis devoted his remarks at the audience to a recap of his weekend visit to Hungary, during which he made repeated calls for an end to the war.

While in Budapest, he met with Metropolitan Hilarion, Anthonys predecessor as the foreign envoy of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian church who has strongly supported the Kremlins war and justified it on religious grounds.

During a press conference en route home, Francis praised both Hilarion and Anthony as knowledgeable, as well as being his main conduits to reach Patriarch Kirill.

He was asked if Hilarion and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has maintained relations with Moscow, could facilitate a mediation to the war.

You can imagine that in this meeting we didnt only talk about Little Red Riding Hood, right? Francis replied.

He repeated his willingness to do whatever it takes to end the war.

Also, there is a mission going on now, but it is not public yet. Lets see how  When it is public I will talk about it, he said.

The Vatican has a tradition of diplomatic neutrality, while working behind the scenes to end conflicts.

Last week, before Francis went to Hungary, Ukraines prime minister called on the pontiff and asked his help in particular to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia.
Sinn Fein TD Kathleen Funchion has called on Carlow-Kilkenny TDs to act to support struggling workers and families overwhelmed by the cost of energy.

Deputy Funchion was speaking ahead of a Sinn Fein motion, brought forward by the party's spokesperson on Climate and Energy, Darren O'Rourke, that calls on the government to intervene to reduce rip-off energy bills.

Households are struggling to keep their heads above water in this cost-of-living crisis as government continues to prioritise the profits of energy companies over workers and families at every turn," she said.

Carlow-Kilkenny TDs have an opportunity this week to show that they stand on the side of domestic consumers. I am calling on all local TDs to support Sinn Fein's proposals, which call on government to intervene to reduce rip-off energy costs.

Average gas and electricity bills have doubled over the last year to the point that the price of electricity here is the highest in Europe and the price of gas is eighth most expensive.

There is no excuse for this. Wholesale prices of gas and electricity have fallen significantly - electricity by half - yet there have been no efforts to pass these savings on to consumers.

As energy companies rack up eye-watering profits, the number of people living in energy poverty doubled over the last year and at its peak was a shameful record-breaking high of 40%. One in five Irish homes are now behind on their gas bills - of those 679,000 people that rely on gas to heat their homes, 139,785 were in arrears at the end of December with this rising to 152,276 by the end of February.

Sinn Fein is calling on the government to introduce a windfall tax which addresses the super-profits of energy companies.

Government must also provide financial relief and certainty to households by reducing domestic electricity prices to their pre-Ukraine invasion levels and capping them at that level - as has been done in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

They must also reverse the increase in carbon tax, and introduce new regulatory powers for the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities that empowers them to tackle instances of price-gouging and to ensure that it has the resources to do so.

These are all sensible measures that the government can and must introduce to protect struggling households from greedy profiteering. Carlow and Kilkenny TDs must stand up for their constituents.''
The annual Kilkenny College Transition Year Tractor Run rolled back into Kilkenny College, raising 5,779 for a worthy local charity.

The fundraiser was organised by a hardworking TY group headed up by Charlie Sixsmith. The nominated charity for this year was Cois Nore Cancer Support.

This would not have been possible without help from many people, said Charlie Sixsmith.

JVW Transport have been incredibly good to us for the last 11 years allowing us to gather safely and depart from their yard. Kilkenny Gardai Community Policing Unit have again supported us.

Id like to thank Garda Aidan Fitzpatrick and Garda Andrew Neill for their help. This year we had Garda Robbie Sparling join the event. Robbie is a past pupil of the College having left in 2015.

Behind the scenes, Denis McEvoy of Volvo McCarthy Commercials has always been on standby in the event of a breakdown but thankfully again we did not need him. It is re-assuring to know that he is there if needed. Finally there are a large number of college staff who assist in many ways to make the event possible.

The 50 tractors included a wide variety of makes and models. One of the College parents brought in a John Deer 9500i Harvester, the latest in John Deere technology. The 16km run came in the Carlow Road from Gowran along the hard shoulder before turning right down the Ring Road. It was a short run along the Castlecomer Road before a noisy reception awaited the drivers in Kilkenny College.

A large number of the school community turned out to welcome the drivers back to school.

In particular, four members of the original Tractor Run Committee stopped by to see how the event had grown from the inaugural event 11 years ago which had 16 tractors. Stephen Agar, George Coyle, Wesley Byrne and Dara Bulfin reflected on how the event had grown over such a short period of time.
Bill Blackbeard is now referred to an "eccentric scholar," and a hero, but I'm sure in his day he was referred to as an unrepentant hoarder.

CBS News Sunday Morning did a story about his incredible collection of newspaper comics art, which he donated in 1998 to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University, and which is currently the subject of an exhibit at the museum. Video below.

His collection of newspaper clippings, which he maintained in his Los Angeles rental apartment, consisted of 2.5 million pieces, weighing 75 tons, from newspapers dating back to 1893.

"Jenny Robb, head curator of comics and cartoon art, is overseeing a small team tasked with cataloging and properly storing all of Blackbeard's materials. 'We're at about 30 to 40 percent that has been processed,' she said. 'We have a lot of material that we still have to get through.'"

The social significance of newspaper comics in the 20th century is totally forgotten today. Syndicated newspaper comics were read by proportions of the U.S. population that would be unfathomable for any medium today.

Mr. Blackbeard passed away in 2011.

Hat tip: Derf
(Reuters) - As financial institutions face increased scrutiny, 10 consumer financial services attorneys have left U.S. law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in several cities, Morgan Lewis said Wednesday.

The litigation and regulatory team includes three partners: Arjun Rao in Los Angeles, Brian Frontino in Miami and Allen Denson in Washington, D.C.

Seven non-partner lawyers are based in those three locations, as well as Century City and New York, a firm spokesperson said.

Morgan Lewis is a Philadelphia-founded law firm with about 2,200 lawyers globally. Stroock, founded in New York, has about 230 lawyers.

The team helps financial services and fintech clients defend against banking class actions and manage state and federal regulatory matters, the firm said.

"The banking industry is at a crossroadfrom disrupters and new entrants to heightened regulation, litigation, and other economic challenges," Morgan Lewis chair Jami McKeon said in a statement.

The partners were not immediately available to comment.

A Stroock spokesperson said its financial services litigation, regulation and enforcement group "remains a major force," and wished the departing lawyers well.

Law firms have recently been pulled in to advise on high-profile financial institutions matters, such as the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

"In recent years, we've seen heightened attention on the financial industry from lawmakers and regulators, and seen courts weigh in on industry practices," Frontino said in an emailed statement.

Several other firms have also recently brought on lawyers that aid financial institutions in regulatory enforcement.

Davis Polk & Wardwell last month hired bank regulatory partner David Portilla from rival Wall Street law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, while Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher added two Paul Hastings lawyers who advise financial services and technology clients on regulatory matters and transactions.

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe in February combined with law firm Buckley in a bid to create a "financial services and fintech law powerhouse" and address demand by companies and financial institutions for regulatory and enforcement advice.
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(Kitco News) - In the world of digital assets, institutional adoption and integration with the traditional financial markets is a popular topic of conversation as the nascent asset class slowly gains adoption amid a concerted push by governments to regulate the industry.

At the recent Consensys conference held at the end of April, Kitco Crypto had a conversation with Jason Guthrie, head of digital asset products at WisdomTree, to get more insight into how regulated firms are approaching offering digital assets.

WisdomTree is a traditional asset management firm that has been in the exchange-traded fund (ETF) business for about 15 years, Guthrie said. The company manages roughly $92 billion worth of assets in traditional finance, and more recently, has begun moving into the digital asset arena.

We created a new division within a company focused on digital assets about two years ago, Guthrie said. We did a series of investigatory projects and test cases with the idea of exploring whether this technology is going be disruptive to our business model and came away with the conclusion that not only is it going to be disruptive to business models, its going to be disruptive to all financial services.

Since those initial investigations, WisdomTree has launched five crypto-based exchange-traded products (ETP) in Europe where the regulatory environment allows for those to be approved and listed. The total assets under management across the listed products is $250 million, he said.

The firm has also filed to launch a Bitcoin ETF in the U.S., but so far, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has yet to approve any spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Along with an investment in Securrency, a tokenization and financial logistics provider, WisdomTree has also been building out its own tokenization offering where we aim to bring traditional exposures into a blockchain native world, Guthrie said.

There are currently pilots running with dollars, gold, wrapped Bitcoin and Ether. WisdomTree also has nine SEC-approved funds  with more in the pipeline  offering traditional exposures to things like short-term fixed interest, short-term fixed income, longer-duration bond funds and equity funds in a blockchain-native way.

Guthrie said there are three categories of products: One that is direct-to-consumer, one focused on the digital asset ecosystem for distribution, and a third that is for institutional financial logistics.

WisdomTree is focused on direct-to-consumer products, he said. Were building out a mobile-first financial services application offering that allows people to be able to hold, send, and spend tokenized exposures and be connected to daily financial services. So give people a bank account number so they can get their salary deposited and debit cards so they can buy stuff. Then everything else is put on public blockchain infrastructure.

The new service is in beta currently and is expected to go live in the app store at the end of the quarter, barring any unforeseen roadblocks, Guthrie said.

When it comes to the adoption of the ETPs currently available in the European market, Guthrie said the primary user base is institutional clients, and that these types of products still make up a relatively small portion of peoples portfolio and the education adoption process is a process.

He went on to note that interest in these products is largely driven by market sentiment. Product development starts to decline at the end of bull markets as there is a drop off in interest, and once things start to rise again, conversations and interest come back to life. Thats the way investors work.

How blockchain will disrupt financial services

When asked what WisdomTree found in its investigations that indicated that blockchain and crypto were going to disrupt all financial services, Guthrie highlighted the power of tokenization and the power of making exposures available in an infrastructure that's ubiquitously available and can achieve great scale.

This is a similar process that happened with ETFs and the mutual fund industry, he explained. The big value prop was that when you made it available on a stock exchange in the equities ecosystem, it was then suddenly available to any investor that had a broker account. And not only would they access your product, they would access everyones products and every product that would ever exist after the fact.

This was a sea change in the industry, and blockchain holds the power to have a similar effect moving forward, he said. When you do something in tokenization, thats the internet. That is a market of billions and billions of people. So, where we can see the potential for orders of magnitude, more scale, more access, and more competitive business models, blockchain technology enables that.

WisdomTree was part of a disruptive industry in financial services, he said, and the firm sees blockchain as being just as impactful and doesnt want to get disrupted. Wed rather be the guys doing it. We see the benefit is there. It will lead to a better investing experience, a better saving experience, a better banking experience for people every day.

Institutional Interest

On the topic of institutional interest, Guthrie said that there are two main points of interest: Crypto as an asset class and blockchain as a technology for financial services.

Institutions investing in crypto is absolutely a thing, he said. Its growing. I think it will continue to grow. It is still niche. I will still represent 1% of the idiosyncratic market at the edge of their asset allocation, but that will continue to grow.

When it comes to blockchain as a technology for financial services, this is of interest to pretty much everyone. Guthrie pointed to private tokenization efforts by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgans internal chain as prime examples.

Weve recently announced that we are involved in an institutional testnet with Avalanche along with T. Rowe Price, Wellington, and a bunch of other big financial institutions looking for how we can make our processes, our sort of intercompany interactions more efficient, he said. And we see this technology driving that. We really want to start taking use cases, business models, and put them on-chain in order to do things like help reduce the amount of money that is lost in things like settlement fees, timing, and reconciliations.

Using ETFs as an example, Guthrie listed off the various parties involved in a purchase including the broker, a market maker, a clearing member, an exchange, a clearing house, and counterparties on the other side including the asset manager and the index provider.

Everybody gets paid in this system, he said. Now you might not see that directly, but no one came to work for free and you are the only one consuming something. That's on the price of the trade that you've got and that will come out of your return at the end of the day.

Blockchain has the capability of greatly reducing the number of parties involved, he said. Those efficiencies will go back to the returns in the portfolios, the investments, the cost of spending, the cost of consumption of the end user.

One specific use case mentioned by Guthrie was the integration of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) process. We've got a process in place where you can go through a KYC process, and once verified, we issue an NFT, a soul-bound NFT to your wallet. It signals that this wallet has been approved, and it will then be able to receive and transfer tokenized securities that weve made.

In the future, it's possible that other licensed financial institutions would also recognize the validity of this NFT, which means that the holder would not need to go through additional KYC checks to sign up for other platforms.

These soul-bound NFTs can also prevent the transfer of a registered financial product to wallets that do not contain one of these KYC NFTs, solving a major area of concern for a global financial market. These tokens could also be revoked by the issuer if the holder ever becomes known to be a bad actor.

Any other financial services provider, be it JP Morgan, Coinbase, Wellington, or whoever wants to recognize it, can join the system. Then you don't need to onboard with them because you're already on board with us, Guthrie said. You get the NFT, you get access to all those services. That makes things a lot simpler. You only have to do it once. That's really great for democratizing financial services.

Moving forward, WisdomTree plans to continue to expand its list of tokenized offerings beyond the 11 currently offered, which cover the gamut of asset classes including precious metals, bonds, equities and currencies. Guthrie said there are several things in the works with the SEC currently and to keep an eye out for some announcements in the coming months.

Artificial intelligence

Speaking briefly on the topic of artificial intelligence, Guthrie noted that systems like ChatGPT have so far served as really good productivity tools, and hold the ability to help modernize the financial system by revamping the old, outdated tech stacks that many firms operate with.

I think a lot of the reason that the legacy financial services players are so slow, or just really behind the times when it comes to technology, is that they have a huge, complicated system that has been built up over essentially the last 50 years, just like incrementally adding on top of it, he said. This is a moment in time where we have this new technology where we can just flatten that tech stack. Start from scratch with blockchain and build on top of it. And that means that as technologies like [ChatGPT] exist, I think we're gonna be in a position to more nimbly integrate things as they come up.

MiCA and regulation

Wrapping up the conversation on the topic of regulation and the recent passage of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation in Europe, Guthrie said that, in general, regulatory clarity is a good thing.

I think the idea that jurisdictions want to bring crypto under the regulatory umbrella as opposed to trying to ban it, which is what everyone was really worried about like 24 months ago, is a good thing.

Guthrie did express some concerns that the rules outlined in MiCA may be a little far-reaching a little too early on and could stifle innovation and development, but sees the bill as a good starting point for the regulation of the nascent asset class moving forward.
Dubai master developer Nakheel has launched Como Residences, a new exclusive residential development on Palm Jumeirah that will offer luxurious living experiences with privacy, exclusivity and extensive premium amenities to its residents.

The residences will redefine the skyline of Palm Jumeirah, with the 71-storey residential tower standing at over 300 m tall.

According to Nakheel, Como Residences is limited to just 76 residences consisting of two- to seven-bedroom apartments including a spacious duplex penthouse in addition to key amenities such as an elevated private sandy beach, a 25-m lap pool and a rooftop infinity pool.

The residences have been impeccably designed with luxury finishings, natural lighting and a wealth of space, with three-bedroom apartments spanning approximately 10,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor living space, it stated.

The tower features an innovative design that ensures each residence can take full advantage of the 180 to 360 views of Dubai and the Arabian Sea from wrap around balconies, said Nakheel in its statement.

The development of Como Residences underlines Nakheels commitment to enhance the quality of life for citizens, residents, and visitors of Dubai by providing elevated waterfront living experiences, it added.

Chief Commercial Officer Rasha Hasan said: "We are excited to be launching this project on Palm Jumeirah. Como Residences will be a key addition to the Nakheel portfolio and will set a new standard for luxury living. With the very best designs and features, this development will provide residents with an exclusive lifestyle like no other."

Each floor of the development will be occupied by one or two residences only, served by access controlled elevators leading to individual private lobbies, she stated.

According to Hasan, the residences have been designed with high ceilings in living rooms, floor-to-ceiling thermally insulated windows, and smart home features, with some apartments featuring private swimming pools.

The lobby will offer valet and concierge services while some residences will also have independent drivers quarters, for enhanced privacy.

"Como Residences will also have extensive landscaped areas as well as a variety of recreational spaces. Other amenities include multiple swimming pools, padel courts, squash courts, a gymnasium, a spa and wellness centre and secure storage spaces," she added.-TradeArabia News Service
After the Saints Row reboot came out to less-than-favorable reviews and the developer's parent company Embracer group started making ominous statements about future games having to 'earn the right to exist', it would have been a safe bet to assume that the series was done and dusted. Still, Volition haven't yet given up, if only because of a legal obligation to deliver season pass holders the content they've already paid for. The first expansion for Saints Row, The Heist and the Hazardous, has been officially revealed, and seems to center around a Tom Cruise-type action star:

When obnoxious movie star Chris Hardy double-crosses the Boss on a successful assassination hit, the Saints take sweet revenge.



The first #SaintsRow Expansion "The Heist and The Hazardous" will land on May 9 alongside the free Sunshine Springs district and update! pic.twitter.com/bOCgdKiSeg  Saints Row (@SaintsRow) May 2, 2023

It's apparently releasing alongside a complete overhaul of the core game's combat system- so in the upset of the century, Saints Row could actually turn out to be halfway decent by the time all is said and done. Not to be too much of an optimist, of course.
Maybe you've used a translation program powered by neural networks or artificial intelligence and ran into an embarrassing or amusing error.

Imagine how much more likely those kinds of errors could be if the language you were translating from or into was relatively obscure, with its speakers neither numerous nor economically powerful.

And now imagine that every nuance of that translation affected the health and well being of you and your family.

Afghan refugees applying for U.S. asylum are finding that just these types of errors can lead to rejected applications and dire consequences.

Human translators are expensive, but the cheaper alternative of AI translators can lead to disastrous consequences, according to an article in Rest of World.

"In 2020, Uma Mirkhail got a firsthand demonstration of how damaging a bad translation can be. "A crisis translator specializing in Afghan languages, Mirkhail was working with a Pashto-speaking refugee who had fled Afghanistan. A U.S. court had denied the refugee's asylum bid because her written application didn't match the story told in the initial interviews. "In the interviews, the refugee had first maintained that she'd made it through one particular event alone, but the written statement seemed to reference other people with her at the time  a discrepancy large enough for a judge to reject her asylum claim. "After Mirkhail went over the documents, she saw what had gone wrong: An automated translation tool had swapped the 'I' pronouns in the woman's statement to 'we.'"

Damian Harris-Hernandez, co-founder of the Refugee Translation Project, told Rest of World: "[Machine translation] doesn't have a cultural awareness. Especially if you're doing things like a personal statement that's handwritten by someone.  The person might not be perfect at writing, and also might use metaphors, might use idioms, turns of phrases that if you take literally, don't make any sense at all."

Despite these dangerous flaws, translation companies are marketing their services to U.S. government agencies and to refugee organizations.

At least one AI developer has recognized the risks.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Some sun this morning with increasing clouds this afternoon. High around 80F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph..

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Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 61F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
A drone exploded over the Kremlin, according to reports, and the Russian government was quick to announce that President Vladimir Putin was unharmed. Russia blamed Ukraine for the attack; Ukraine suggested Putin's own opponents likely did it. Others still pointed out that the drone did no apparent damage and may be a false flag. QED.

Mr Putin has very high personal protection and the BBC's Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg says it is astonishing to think that drones could have got anywhere near the Kremlin. The Russian leader was unhurt and his schedule would continue as normal, the Kremlin said. He was working in Novo Ogaryovo outside Moscow on Wednesday. Footage posted on Russian social media showed smoke over central Moscow in the early hours of Wednesday. Fragments of the drones had fallen on the Kremlin site but no-one had been hurt and there was no damage to buildings, the Kremlin said.
Francisco Oropesa, suspect in the killing of 5 people in a San Jacinto County mass shooting, was arrested Tuesday evening in Cut and Shoot, Texas. A number of other people were also taken into custody, alleged to have helped him hide out there.

The sheriff confirmed it was Oropesa who was spotted on Monday on Highway 105 East near Security Landfill Road. "We did confirm that was him on foot running, but we lost track of him. That was not a false alarm, that was him," Kean said. Authorities said Oropesa had a cellphone with him when he was found and that the people he had been contacting never left the area. "Anybody that helped this maniac definitely has some kind of issues as far as I'm concerned," Kean said. The search for him began on Saturday in Cleveland, Texas, after the shooting unfolded on Friday evening when neighbors asked Oropesa to stop shooting his AR-15 in his yard because a newborn was trying to sleep, authorities said.

He was found hiding in a closet "underneath a pile of laundry," reports ABC News.
Buzzi Unicem S.p.A. (OTCMKTS:BZZUF  Get Rating) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $24.11 and last traded at $24.11, with a volume of 836 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $24.11.

Buzzi Unicem Price Performance

The firms 50-day simple moving average is $23.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.90.

Buzzi Unicem Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Buzzi Unicem SpA engages in the production and sale of cement, ready-mix concrete and natural aggregates. The firms geographical segment Central Europe consists of Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Eastern Europe covers Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia. The company was founded in September 1999 and is headquartered in Casale Monferrato, Italy.

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Central Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE:CPF  Get Rating) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 709,900 shares, a growth of 5.2% from the March 31st total of 674,800 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 211,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.4 days. Approximately 2.7% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Central Pacific Financial Trading Down 9.0 %

NYSE:CPF traded down $1.42 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $14.37. 289,033 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 198,312. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market cap of $395.89 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.72 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.26. Central Pacific Financial has a 52-week low of $14.31 and a 52-week high of $25.18.

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Central Pacific Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 31st will be issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 30th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.24%. Central Pacific Financials dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.15%.

Insider Activity at Central Pacific Financial

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

In related news, Director Paul K. Yonamine sold 4,316 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.32, for a total value of $79,069.12. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $72,345.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink . Insiders have sold 9,228 shares of company stock worth $159,788 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 2.70% of the companys stock.

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Central Pacific Financial by 32.4% during the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 24,236 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $434,000 after acquiring an additional 5,931 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Central Pacific Financial during the 1st quarter worth $394,000. Polaris Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Central Pacific Financial by 25.5% during the 1st quarter. Polaris Capital Management LLC now owns 36,383 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $651,000 after purchasing an additional 7,400 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D purchased a new stake in Central Pacific Financial during the 1st quarter worth $405,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Central Pacific Financial by 31.3% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 267,374 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $4,786,000 after purchasing an additional 63,808 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com began coverage on Central Pacific Financial in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating on the stock.

About Central Pacific Financial

(Get Rating)

Central Pacific Financial Corp. is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of commercial banking services through its wholly owned subsidiary, Central Pacific Bank. It operates through the following segments: Banking Operations, Treasury, and All Others. The Banking Operations segment includes construction and real estate development lending, commercial lending, residential mortgage lending and servicing, indirect auto lending, trust services, and retail brokerage services.

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Invesco Value Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:IIM  Get Rating) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.0458 per share by the investment management company on Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $0.55 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.63%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 12th.

Invesco Value Municipal Income Trust Price Performance

NYSE IIM traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $11.88. 59,216 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 115,434. The companys 50-day moving average is $11.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.02. Invesco Value Municipal Income Trust has a one year low of $10.86 and a one year high of $14.24.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Invesco Value Municipal Income Trust

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IIM. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Invesco Value Municipal Income Trust by 22.8% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,474 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $202,000 after acquiring an additional 2,689 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Invesco Value Municipal Income Trust during the 1st quarter worth approximately $351,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Invesco Value Municipal Income Trust by 32.9% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 36,145 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $504,000 after acquiring an additional 8,943 shares in the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV bought a new position in shares of Invesco Value Municipal Income Trust during the 1st quarter worth approximately $335,000. Finally, UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of Invesco Value Municipal Income Trust by 8.1% in the 1st quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 378,886 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $5,282,000 after buying an additional 28,318 shares during the last quarter. 14.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Invesco Value Municipal Income Trust

Invesco Value Municipal Income Trust is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Invesco Ltd. The fund is co-managed by Invesco Advisers, Inc, INVESCO Asset Management (Japan) Limited, INVESCO Asset Management Deutschland GmbH, INVESCO Asset Management Limited, Invesco Canada Ltd., Invesco Hong Kong Limited, and INVESCO Senior Secured Management, Inc It invests in the fixed income markets of the United States.

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Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:NRO  Get Rating) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.0312 per share on Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $0.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.87%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 12th.

Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 8.0% annually over the last three years.

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Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund Stock Performance

NRO traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $2.91. The companys stock had a trading volume of 127,476 shares, compared to its average volume of 152,008. Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund has a 12 month low of $2.81 and a 12 month high of $4.76.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund Company Profile

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NRO. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund by 31.0% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 22,812 shares of the companys stock valued at $114,000 after acquiring an additional 5,398 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers bought a new position in Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund during the first quarter valued at $66,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund by 164.3% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 46,012 shares of the companys stock valued at $230,000 after acquiring an additional 28,600 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. bought a new position in Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund during the first quarter valued at $376,000. Finally, Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. bought a new position in Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund during the first quarter valued at $379,000.

(Get Rating)

Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund, Inc is a closed-ended equity mutual fund launched and managed by Neuberger Berman LLC. It is co-managed by Neuberger Berman Management LLC. The fund invests in the public equity markets of the United States. It typically invests in stocks of companies operating in the real estate sector including real estate investment trusts.

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Almaden Minerals Ltd. (TSE:AMM  Get Rating) (NYSEMKT:AAU)s share price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as C$0.16 and last traded at C$0.16, with a volume of 15500 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$0.17.

Almaden Minerals Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.30, a current ratio of 18.41 and a quick ratio of 23.78. The company has a market cap of C$22.64 million, a PE ratio of -1.89 and a beta of 1.07. The companys 50 day simple moving average is C$0.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$0.30.

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Almaden Minerals (TSE:AMM  Get Rating) (NYSEMKT:AAU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 24th. The company reported C($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter.

About Almaden Minerals

Almaden Minerals Ltd., an exploration stage company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, evaluation, and development of mineral properties. It primarily owns a 100% interest in the Ixtaca gold-silver project located in Puebla State, Mexico. The company was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

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Avantor (NYSE:AVTR  Get Rating) had its price objective lowered by stock analysts at Robert W. Baird from $27.00 to $24.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday, The Fly reports. Robert W. Bairds price objective suggests a potential upside of 21.64% from the companys current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, February 6th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $22.00 in a report on Monday. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Avantor from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Monday, February 6th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Avantor from $30.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Sunday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $28.75.

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Avantor Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AVTR opened at $19.73 on Monday. Avantor has a 52 week low of $17.91 and a 52 week high of $33.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.45 and a beta of 1.34. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22.

Insider Transactions at Avantor

Avantor ( NYSE:AVTR Get Rating ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 28th. The company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.01. Avantor had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 22.06%. The firm had revenue of $1.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.38 EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was down 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Avantor will post 1.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other Avantor news, EVP Christophe Couturier sold 1,498 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.18, for a total transaction of $31,727.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 98,650 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,089,407. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Avantor news, EVP Gerard Brophy sold 3,914 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $97,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 108,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,717,875. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christophe Couturier sold 1,498 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.18, for a total transaction of $31,727.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 98,650 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,089,407. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 19,829 shares of company stock valued at $488,344. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avantor

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cibc World Market Inc. grew its position in Avantor by 1.3% during the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 36,082 shares of the companys stock worth $1,220,000 after buying an additional 480 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 67,848 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,431,000 after acquiring an additional 521 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Avantor by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 9,674 shares of the companys stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in Avantor by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 6,566 shares of the companys stock valued at $138,000 after purchasing an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gulf International Bank UK Ltd grew its holdings in Avantor by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 121,185 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,555,000 after purchasing an additional 650 shares in the last quarter. 88.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Avantor

(Get Rating)

Avantor, Inc engages in providing mission critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education and government, and advanced technologies and applied materials industries. It sells materials, equipment, instrumentation, and offers specialty procurement. The firm operates through the following segments: the Americas, Europe, and AMEA.

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Money, money, money

The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency is in the news, with revelation of a dismissed 4-year-old lawsuit against the city over how the city managed the agency and doled out the federal HOME funds for which it was responsible. But it was business as usual for the agency last week.

Late last month, the agency awarded more HOME money to four projects  three of which had already received money, but needed more. And one of them was cited in the 2019 lawsuit, indicating how long it has been in the works.

That is the Fillmore Apartments at 2201-2209 Fillmore Ave., developed by Brenda Calhoun's Onyx Global Group, which received an extra $652,800 in community development block grant funds, and $306,891.33 in non-federal money.

Onyx is converting a pair of two-story commercial buildings at the corner of Fillmore and Jewett avenues into six second-floor affordable apartments and first-floor commercial space. The $2.2 million project previously received $850,000 in HOME funds, so it would now have a total of $1.81 million in support through the agency  or 82% of the cost. The residential portion of the project is 55% complete.

As for the others, the recipients are:

 People Inc.'s Folwell Apartments at 219 Bryant St., which received an additional $350,000 in support of its $14.8 million conversion of the former Maternity Building at the Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo campus in the Elmwood Village into senior housing. The project already received $500,000 from BURA in May 2021, so the total is now $850,000. BURA cited cost increases because of delays in starting and finishing the project, as well as cost overruns on materials. Upon completion, the vacant 49,410-square-foot facility will include 40 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom affordable rental apartments, all targeted for seniors 55 and older, with incomes below 60% of the area median. Five units will be aimed at households earning less than 30% of the AMI, while 30 will be reserved for those earning less than 50%. Seven apartments will be reserved for elderly, frail and homeless seniors.

 La Plaza de Virginia at 257 Virginia St., a new three-story senior apartment building with 46 affordable one-bedroom apartments, which gained another $555,905. Developed by Hispanos Unidos de Buffalo (Hispanics United of Buffalo), the $17 million project is targeted at those earning less than 60% of the area median income. It features a 4,000-square-foot communal courtyard, a lounge and laundry rooms on each floor, a community-service facility and access to health resources. Five units will be accessible, while two are adapted for those who are hard of hearing or visually impaired. It previously received $950,000 from BURA in November 2020, for a total of $1.51 million.

 Mt. Olive Senior Manor, a new $27.5 million senior housing project at 703 E. Delavan Ave., undertaken by People Inc. and Mt. Olive Baptist Church's development arm. The project will receive up to $2.01 million in HOME funds from the agency. Plans call for a three-story U-shaped building with 61 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom apartments, aimed at those age 55 and up with household incomes of no more than 50% to 60% of the area median income. Twenty units will be set aside for homeless, frail or elderly adults, with supportive services, while eight are accessible and three are for those hard of hearing or with visual impairments.

 Jonathan D. Epstein

Welcome to Buffalo Next. This newsletter from The Buffalo News will bring you the latest coverage on the changing Buffalo Niagara economy  from real estate to health care to startups. Read more at BuffaloNext.com.

DOWNTOWNS, DOWN SOUTH

The Chautauqua County Partnership for Economic Growth has awarded a series of grants for downtown master planning and Complete Streets projects to eight communities in the Southern Tier.

The partnership, an umbrella economic development group affiliated with the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency, awarded Downtown Revitalization Master Planning Grants to the villages of Falconer and Westfield to support efforts to enhance their downtowns. Both communities have struggled with vacancies and disinvestment, but have potential opportunities for more commercial and residential projects and historic reuse efforts, officials said.

Local leaders will work with the partnership and consultants from Barton and Loguidice to create a downtown vision, identify priority projects and develop a master plan that will serve as the basis for future state funding applications.

The partnership previously awarded funding and assistance to the Village of Sherman, Findley Lake and Imagine Forestville, and is supporting revitalization efforts in the cities of Dunkirk and Jamestown, and in the Village of Mayville.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING

The Buffalo Preservation Board has denied a request by Matthew LaFleir's Skywalker Properties to tear down a 113-year-old four-unit apartment building, which was heavily damaged in a fire. The owner and Empire Building Diagnostics had asserted that the blaze "ruined the building" and left it "irreparably damaged."

But Preservation Board members disagreed, asserting that the building could be rehabilitated.

The board did, however, allow demolitions of a single-family house at 240 Maple St. and a double at 995 Michigan Ave., both in the Fruit Belt. Both demolitions are needed in order to enable Symphony Property Management to construct its new Lawrence apartment building, with 133 units.

The $25 million project at 983 Michigan, across from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, would consist of a five-story wing on Michigan and a four-story wing on Maple, with 129,000 square feet of space.

The panel also permitted St. Luke's Mission of Mercy and Empire Building to take down a house at 1342 Sycamore St., which St. Luke's acquired to improve the neighborhood. According to the application, the "vacant home is a fire hazard filled with flammable debris, including papers, clothes, wood, and chemicals." There was also "evidence of frequent break-ins, vandalism, and drug use," as well as rats that St. Luke "has not been able to eradicate."

"The church is not prepared financially to deal with potential lawsuits stemming from the conditions," Empire wrote in the application. "The owners have determined that the structure needs to be demolished."

THE LATEST

The plan to raise the minimum wage in New York includes some escape hatches.

The state budget includes new ways to crack down on illegal pot shops.

The plan to add to Samuel's Grande Manor is changing.

A group that is critical of unions is using billboards to target Workers United.

A project to revamp the former Truck-Lite factory in Falconer is getting tax breaks.

A coalition of community groups continues to criticize KeyBank's community investment initiatives.

Companies are cutting office space as workers keep working from home. And that has implications far beyond the businesses themselves.

Moog executives are feeling optimistic.

SUNY Erie Community College is forming a committee to search for a new president.

M&T Bank is cutting 12% of its office space, but not any jobs.

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency is offering more incentives for projects that are more diverse.

Buffalo Bills executive Ron Raccuia thinks the new stadium will have more spin-off development.

If you're having a baby in Wyoming County, you'll have to drive a bit to deliver.

Consumer advocates say New York's car insurance rates use credit scoring and ZIP code ratings to charge high premiums, even for drivers with perfect records.

Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York is moving its downsized downtown offices to Seneca One tower.

Lake Shore Savings Bank named a new CEO.

ICYMI

Five reads from Buffalo Next:

1. How shopping has changed. These five trends are affecting consumers everywhere.

2. Part carnival, part sports: How the Buffalo Bandits turned a second-tier professional sport into a fan favorite.

3. The next war on weed: How unlicensed marijuana stores threaten to upend the state's legal cannabis retail program.

4. Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has paid $4.67 million to settle six discrimination lawsuits.

5. Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center hired a law firm to investigate accusations of racism. It wants to keep the report secret.

The Buffalo Next team gives you the big picture on the regions economic revitalization. Email tips to buffalonext@buffnews.com or reach Buffalo Next Editor David Robinson at 716-849-4435.

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ReShape Lifesciences (OTCMKTS:RSLS  Get Rating) and Sigyn Therapeutics (OTCMKTS:SIGY  Get Rating) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ReShape Lifesciences and Sigyn Therapeutics gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

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Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio ReShape Lifesciences $11.24 million 0.55 -$46.21 million ($197.50) -0.01 Sigyn Therapeutics N/A N/A -$2.93 million ($0.09) -1.68

Sigyn Therapeutics has lower revenue, but higher earnings than ReShape Lifesciences. Sigyn Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ReShape Lifesciences, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Profitability

ReShape Lifesciences has a beta of -0.05, suggesting that its share price is 105% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sigyn Therapeutics has a beta of -1.46, suggesting that its share price is 246% less volatile than the S&P 500.

This table compares ReShape Lifesciences and Sigyn Therapeutics net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets ReShape Lifesciences -411.16% -158.19% -117.41% Sigyn Therapeutics N/A N/A -762.03%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

3.3% of ReShape Lifesciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of ReShape Lifesciences shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 78.5% of Sigyn Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for ReShape Lifesciences and Sigyn Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score ReShape Lifesciences 0 0 1 0 3.00 Sigyn Therapeutics 0 0 0 0 N/A

ReShape Lifesciences presently has a consensus price target of $4.88, suggesting a potential upside of 107.45%. Given ReShape Lifesciences higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe ReShape Lifesciences is more favorable than Sigyn Therapeutics.

Summary

ReShape Lifesciences beats Sigyn Therapeutics on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ReShape Lifesciences

(Get Rating)

ReShape Lifesciences, Inc. is a medical device company, which focuses on technology to treat obesity and metabolic diseases. Its portfolio includes the Lap-Band Adjustable Gastric Banding System, ReShape Marketplace, Obalon Balloon System, ReShape Vest, and Diabetes Bloc-Stim Neuromodulation device. The company was founded in December 2002 and is headquartered in San Clemente, CA.

About Sigyn Therapeutics

(Get Rating)

Sigyn Therapeutics, Inc. is a development-stage company, which focuses on creating therapeutic solutions that address unmet needs in global health. Its product, Sigyn Therapy, is a broad-spectrum blood purification technology designed to treat pathogen-associated inflammatory disorders that are not addressed with approved drug therapies. The company was founded by James A. Joyce and Craig P. Roberts on October 19, 2019 and is headquartered in San Diego, CA.

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Invesco S&P 500 Top 50 ETF (NYSEARCA:XLG  Get Rating) saw unusually-high trading volume on Monday . Approximately 81,477 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 97% from the previous sessions volume of 41,258 shares.The stock last traded at $319.25 and had previously closed at $318.36.

Invesco S&P 500 Top 50 ETF Stock Down 0.9 %

The company has a market cap of $1.91 billion, a PE ratio of 19.22 and a beta of 1.00. The businesss fifty day moving average is $303.26 and its 200-day moving average is $292.46.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Invesco S&P 500 Top 50 ETF

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Invesco S&P 500 Top 50 ETF by 60.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 98 shares of the companys stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. raised its stake in Invesco S&P 500 Top 50 ETF by 150.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 100 shares of the companys stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in Invesco S&P 500 Top 50 ETF during the 1st quarter worth approximately $38,000. Worth Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Invesco S&P 500 Top 50 ETF during the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in Invesco S&P 500 Top 50 ETF by 71.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 171 shares of the companys stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period.

About Invesco S&P 500 Top 50 ETF

Guggenheim Russell Top 50 Mega Cap ETF (the Fund), formerly Rydex Russell Top 50 ETF, seeks to replicate as closely as possible the performance of the Russell Top 50 Index (the Index). The Index is an unmanaged capitalization-weighted index consisting of the 50 largest companies in the Russell 3000 Index.

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Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG  Get Rating) saw a large decline in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,860,000 shares, a decline of 7.4% from the March 31st total of 3,090,000 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,300,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on JHG shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Janus Henderson Group from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Credit Suisse Group lifted their price target on Janus Henderson Group from $20.00 to $20.50 and gave the company an underperform rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Janus Henderson Group in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating for the company. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Janus Henderson Group from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an in-line rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 13th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Janus Henderson Group from a sell rating to a neutral rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $24.60 to $25.30 in a research note on Thursday, April 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $22.60.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Janus Henderson Group

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Janus Henderson Group in the 1st quarter valued at $218,000. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of Janus Henderson Group by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,109 shares of the companys stock valued at $354,000 after purchasing an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Janus Henderson Group by 100.1% in the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 11,194 shares of the companys stock worth $392,000 after purchasing an additional 5,599 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Janus Henderson Group by 10.6% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,107 shares of the companys stock worth $215,000 after purchasing an additional 585 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Janus Henderson Group by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,695 shares of the companys stock worth $234,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares in the last quarter. 85.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Janus Henderson Group Stock Performance

Shares of JHG traded down $0.26 on Tuesday, reaching $25.79. 2,151,967 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,199,633. The stocks 50-day moving average price is $26.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.63 and a quick ratio of 2.65. The firm has a market cap of $4.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.25, a P/E/G ratio of 4.86 and a beta of 1.44. Janus Henderson Group has a 12 month low of $19.09 and a 12 month high of $31.53.

Janus Henderson Group (NYSE:JHG  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $515.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $470.84 million. Janus Henderson Group had a net margin of 15.52% and a return on equity of 9.79%. The businesss revenue was down 26.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.05 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Janus Henderson Group will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Janus Henderson Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 13th were given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.05%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 10th. Janus Henderson Groups dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 75.36%.

About Janus Henderson Group

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Janus Henderson Group Plc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of asset management services. It offers investment solutions including equities, quantitative equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternative asset class strategies. The company was founded on Jan 23, 1998, is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

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Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP  Get Rating) was the target of a large increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 346,700 shares, an increase of 8.1% from the March 31st total of 320,700 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the companys stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 94,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.7 days.

Koppers Stock Performance

Shares of Koppers stock traded down $1.05 on Tuesday, reaching $32.08. The stock had a trading volume of 162,406 shares, compared to its average volume of 91,645. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $33.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.97. Koppers has a fifty-two week low of $20.11 and a fifty-two week high of $38.42. The stock has a market cap of $667.58 million, a P/E ratio of 11.12 and a beta of 1.82.

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Koppers (NYSE:KOP  Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 27th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.19. Koppers had a net margin of 3.20% and a return on equity of 22.39%. The firm had revenue of $482.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $503.25 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.77 EPS. The companys revenue was up 19.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Koppers will post 4.38 EPS for the current year.

Koppers Increases Dividend

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. This is a positive change from Kopperss previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 9th. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. Kopperss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.05%.

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in Koppers by 50.4% during the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,176 shares of the specialty chemicals companys stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in Koppers by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 12,470 shares of the specialty chemicals companys stock worth $259,000 after acquiring an additional 423 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in Koppers by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 7,518 shares of the specialty chemicals companys stock worth $212,000 after buying an additional 425 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in Koppers by 46.8% during the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,477 shares of the specialty chemicals companys stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 471 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in Koppers by 14.2% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 3,933 shares of the specialty chemicals companys stock worth $111,000 after buying an additional 489 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.68% of the companys stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on KOP. Barrington Research raised their price objective on shares of Koppers to $40.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 28th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Koppers from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 14th.

Koppers Company Profile

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Koppers Holdings, Inc engages in the provision of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals and carbon compounds. It operates through the following segments: Carbon Materials and Chemicals, Railroad and Utility Products and Services, and Performance Chemicals. The Carbon Materials and Chemicals segment manufactures carbon pitch naphthalene, creosote, and carbon black feedstock.

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Wabash National Co. (NYSE:WNC  Get Rating)  Equities researchers at DA Davidson issued their Q2 2023 EPS estimates for shares of Wabash National in a note issued to investors on Friday, April 28th. DA Davidson analyst M. Shlisky forecasts that the company will earn $1.33 per share for the quarter. DA Davidson currently has a Buy rating and a $35.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Wabash Nationals current full-year earnings is $4.20 per share.

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Several other analysts have also commented on the stock. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Wabash National from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Wabash National from $17.00 to $27.50 in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Wabash National from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Friday, April 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average target price of $28.30.

Wabash National Stock Down 0.9 %

NYSE WNC opened at $25.48 on Monday. Wabash National has a 52 week low of $12.81 and a 52 week high of $30.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.30 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a fifty day moving average of $24.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93.

Wabash National (NYSE:WNC  Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 26th. The company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.59. Wabash National had a net margin of 5.88% and a return on equity of 39.80%. The company had revenue of $621.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $624.38 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.24 EPS. The firms revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. New York State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in Wabash National by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 49,304 shares of the companys stock worth $1,114,000 after purchasing an additional 3,967 shares during the period. Financial Advocates Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Wabash National in the 3rd quarter worth $326,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Wabash National by 9.9% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,894,284 shares of the companys stock worth $29,476,000 after acquiring an additional 170,835 shares during the period. Martingale Asset Management L P acquired a new stake in shares of Wabash National in the 3rd quarter worth $502,000. Finally, Mach 1 Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Wabash National in the 4th quarter worth $482,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.24% of the companys stock.

Insider Transactions at Wabash National

In other news, Director Larry J. Magee sold 13,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.15, for a total transaction of $339,950.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 111,874 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,925,505.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Wabash National news, Director Larry J. Magee sold 13,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.15, for a total value of $339,950.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 111,874 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,925,505.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael N. Pettit sold 36,020 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.19, for a total value of $979,383.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,474 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,215,278.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 243,249 shares of company stock valued at $6,687,674 in the last 90 days. 1.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wabash National Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 6th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 5th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Wabash Nationals payout ratio is 10.42%.

About Wabash National

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Wabash National Corp. engages in the design, manufacture and market of semi-trailers, truck bodies, specialized commercial vehicles, and liquid transportation systems. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Trailer Products, Diversified Products, and Final Mile Products. The Commercial Trailer Products segment manufactures van and platform trailers and other transportation related equipment to customers who purchase directly from the company or through independent dealers.

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Resideo Technologies (NYSE:REZI  Get Rating) issued an update on its FY23 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $1.80-2.00 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $2.43. The company issued revenue guidance of $6.20-6.55 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $6.40 billion. Resideo Technologies also updated its Q2 guidance to $0.41-0.51 EPS.

Resideo Technologies Trading Down 0.9 %

REZI stock traded down $0.15 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $17.21. The companys stock had a trading volume of 775,398 shares, compared to its average volume of 670,156. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $17.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The stock has a market cap of $2.53 billion, a PE ratio of 9.11 and a beta of 1.95. Resideo Technologies has a 52 week low of $14.95 and a 52 week high of $27.00.

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Resideo Technologies (NYSE:REZI  Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 15th. The company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $1.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.57 billion. Resideo Technologies had a return on equity of 11.69% and a net margin of 4.44%. The companys revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Resideo Technologies will post 2.01 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Insider Activity at Resideo Technologies

Several analysts have weighed in on REZI shares. TheStreet upgraded shares of Resideo Technologies from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 21st. William Blair restated a market perform rating on shares of Resideo Technologies in a research report on Wednesday, February 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Resideo Technologies from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 18th.

In related news, Director Nina Richardson sold 3,458 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.78, for a total transaction of $64,941.24. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 47,731 shares in the company, valued at $896,388.18. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP Jeannine J. Lane sold 14,903 shares of Resideo Technologies stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.39, for a total value of $274,066.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 118,600 shares in the company, valued at $2,181,054. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Nina Richardson sold 3,458 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.78, for a total transaction of $64,941.24. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 47,731 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $896,388.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Resideo Technologies

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its stake in Resideo Technologies by 72.5% during the first quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,467 shares of the companys stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 1,037 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in Resideo Technologies by 30.1% during the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 6,238 shares of the companys stock valued at $149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,443 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its position in Resideo Technologies by 9.9% during the third quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 10,553 shares of the companys stock valued at $201,000 after purchasing an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC bought a new stake in Resideo Technologies during the first quarter valued at approximately $266,000. Finally, Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new stake in Resideo Technologies during the first quarter valued at approximately $267,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the companys stock.

About Resideo Technologies

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Resideo Technologies, Inc operates as a manufacturer and developer of technology-driven products and components that provide critical comfort, energy management, and safety and security solutions. It operates through the Products and Solutions and ADI Global Distribution segments. The Products and Solutions segment includes temperature and humidity control, energy products and solutions, water and air solutions, smoke and carbon monoxide detection home safety products, security panels, sensors, peripherals, wire and cable, communications devices, video cameras, other home-related lifestyle convenience solutions, cloud infrastructure, installation and maintenance tools, and related software.

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Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII  Get Rating) Director Sherry Buck purchased 350 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $285.02 per share, for a total transaction of $99,757.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 2,388 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $680,627.76. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Lennox International Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE LII traded up $1.66 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $283.27. 426,258 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 317,865. Lennox International Inc. has a 1 year low of $182.85 and a 1 year high of $286.87. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $252.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $251.39. The stock has a market cap of $10.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.62, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.92.

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Lennox International (NYSE:LII  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 27th. The construction company reported $2.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.42 by $0.41. The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. Lennox International had a net margin of 10.76% and a negative return on equity of 200.13%. The firms revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.36 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Lennox International Inc. will post 14.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Lennox International Announces Dividend

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 14th. Investors of record on Friday, March 31st were paid a $1.06 dividend. This represents a $4.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 30th. Lennox Internationals payout ratio is currently 29.55%.

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LII. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Lennox International by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 662 shares of the construction companys stock worth $166,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lennox International by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 1,218 shares of the construction companys stock worth $291,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Tredje AP fonden increased its holdings in shares of Lennox International by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 6,447 shares of the construction companys stock worth $1,542,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its holdings in Lennox International by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 9,487 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $2,270,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA increased its holdings in Lennox International by 211.1% in the 3rd quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 112 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. 68.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Lennox International in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Lennox International from $300.00 to $283.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 13th. Oppenheimer began coverage on Lennox International in a research note on Monday, March 27th. They issued a market perform rating for the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Lennox International from $279.00 to $272.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 5th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Lennox International from $248.00 to $272.00 in a report on Friday, April 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $261.58.

About Lennox International

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Lennox International, Inc engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of products for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration. It operates through the following business segments: Residential Heating & Cooling, Commercial Heating & Cooling, and Refrigeration. The Residential Heating & Cooling segment manufactures and markets furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, packaged heating and cooling systems, equipment, and accessories.

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Camden Property Trust (NYSE:CPT  Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,770,000 shares, a drop of 6.8% from the March 31st total of 1,900,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 886,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CPT shares. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Camden Property Trust from $134.00 to $120.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 19th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Camden Property Trust from $117.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Camden Property Trust from $153.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 4th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Camden Property Trust from $143.00 to $130.00 in a report on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Camden Property Trust from $135.00 to $134.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Camden Property Trust currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $133.93.

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Camden Property Trust Stock Performance

Camden Property Trust stock traded down $1.96 on Tuesday, hitting $109.31. The companys stock had a trading volume of 974,172 shares, compared to its average volume of 875,290. Camden Property Trust has a one year low of $97.74 and a one year high of $153.45. The firm has a market cap of $11.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $107.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $112.86.

Camden Property Trust Increases Dividend

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 17th. Investors of record on Friday, March 31st were given a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.66%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 30th. This is a positive change from Camden Property Trusts previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. Camden Property Trusts dividend payout ratio is 71.17%.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Camden Property Trust by 9.6% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 2,365 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Camden Property Trust during the first quarter valued at approximately $961,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. boosted its holdings in Camden Property Trust by 14.3% during the first quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 11,555 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $1,920,000 after purchasing an additional 1,450 shares in the last quarter. Prudential PLC bought a new position in shares of Camden Property Trust in the first quarter valued at approximately $421,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of Camden Property Trust by 17.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 1,680 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $279,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.25% of the companys stock.

Camden Property Trust Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Camden Property Trust operates as a real estate investment trust. The firm engages in the ownership, management, development, reposition, redevelopment, acquisition, and construction of multifamily apartment communities. It focus on investing in markets characterized by high-growth economic conditions, strong employment, and attractive quality of life.

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A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS  Get Rating)  Equities researchers at William Blair lifted their Q2 2023 earnings per share estimates for shares of A. O. Smith in a report released on Thursday, April 27th. William Blair analyst L. De. Maria now forecasts that the industrial products company will post earnings of $0.89 per share for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $0.79. The consensus estimate for A. O. Smiths current full-year earnings is $3.42 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for A. O. Smiths Q3 2023 earnings at $0.85 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $0.82 EPS, FY2023 earnings at $3.50 EPS and FY2024 earnings at $3.85 EPS.

Get A. O. Smith alerts:

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $966.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $922.05 million. A. O. Smith had a return on equity of 28.78% and a net margin of 6.49%. A. O. Smiths quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.77 EPS.

A. O. Smith Price Performance

AOS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on A. O. Smith from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Friday, January 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on A. O. Smith from $46.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a sell rating in a research report on Thursday, January 12th. StockNews.com raised A. O. Smith from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Friday, April 28th. TheStreet raised A. O. Smith from a c+ rating to a b+ rating in a research report on Thursday, April 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on A. O. Smith from $70.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $67.13.

AOS opened at $69.78 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $67.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $62.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The firm has a market cap of $10.53 billion, a PE ratio of 44.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.28. A. O. Smith has a 1 year low of $46.58 and a 1 year high of $71.87.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 91.0% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 229,966 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $11,095,000 after purchasing an additional 109,564 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 55,205 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $2,681,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 30.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,024 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $244,000 after purchasing an additional 1,174 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in A. O. Smith in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $415,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC lifted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 9,893 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $481,000 after purchasing an additional 554 shares in the last quarter. 77.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at A. O. Smith

In related news, SVP Samuel M. Carver sold 4,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.65, for a total transaction of $278,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $80,376.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, VP Robert J. Heideman sold 12,283 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.31, for a total transaction of $826,768.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $768,141.72. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Samuel M. Carver sold 4,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.65, for a total value of $278,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,154 shares of the companys stock, valued at $80,376.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 57,883 shares of company stock worth $4,053,126 in the last three months. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

A. O. Smith Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 27th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.72%. A. O. Smiths dividend payout ratio is currently 75.95%.

A. O. Smith Company Profile

(Get Rating)

A. O. Smith Corp. manufactures residential and commercial gas and electric water heaters, boilers, tanks, and water treatment products. It operates through the North America and Rest of World segments. The North America segment manufactures and markets comprehensive lines of residential and commercial gas and electric water heaters, boilers, and tanks.

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It's not always easy for startup businesses or independent contractors to find space for new ventures, but veteran contractor John Valenti wants to fix that.

The owner of J&D's Sealtech Corp., located on Chandler Street in Buffalo, is proposing to construct a business incubator building on Grand Island for as many as 14 small tenants.

Sign up for the Buffalo Next free newsletter The News' Buffalo Next team covers the changing Buffalo Niagara economy. Get the news in your inbox 5 days a week.

The planned one-story warehouse building of 22 feet in height would contain 14 units of about 1,000 square feet each. Each unit would contain a 100-square-foot office and space for "general low-hazard storage," according to his application to the Grand Island Planning Board.

"These units will be ideal for small startup incubator contractors/businesses and will provide a center of operations for them to run their business and store their equipment," the application said.

No tenants have been identified for the project, but Valenti said he knows from his own experience that "people starting out need somewhere inexpensive to go to."

"It's for the guys starting out or the guys out there making a living who need some garage space," he said. "There's a lot of people out there like that."

The 14,000-square-foot building would take up part of a 4.8-acre property on Alvin Road, which Valenti would buy from an Irvine, Calif.-based land development company that currently owns it. The site is north of the Redbush Meadow Dog Kennel at 2120 Alvin Road and across Alvin from the New York State Thruway Authority's Western New York Welcome Center along the Niagara Thruway.

About 2.99 acres of the site will remain open greenspace.

If that's not enough storage, Josh Soto is seeking site plan approval for a proposed self-storage and commercial storage facility on Bedell Road in Grand Island.

If approved, Soto would construct three self-storage buildings of 6,300 square feet each and two commercial cold-storage facilities of 16,000 square feet each, according to plans submitted to the town and other town documents.

The two-phase metal-clad project, which will be adjacent to another self-storage facility, would be located on the front seven acres of a 43-acre parcel, and would also include 40 parking spaces.

Also on Grand Island, Thermo Fisher Scientific  which recently completed a $76 million expansion of its facility  needs to install a 10,000-liter formulation tank at the Life Technologies plant at 3175 Staley Road to support a manufacturing process for its Advanced Granulation Technology West addition. So it wants to build a 1,039-square-foot second-story addition to a building to house the tank and associated piping and pumps.

Thermo Fisher's $76 million expansion strengthens Grand Island ties The life sciences powerhouse still has high regard for its Grand Island manufacturing plant, where it just completed a $76 million expansion.

Designed by Scheid Architectural, the addition will be constructed of steel and insulated metal panel to match the existing facility. Additional support spaces will include rooms for acid storage and Nalgene mixing. No additional jobs will be created with the project.
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Brain Health

The big picture: Dr. Shelandra Bell says: "Hola, Bonjour, Hello! Your brain thanks you!"

In the news: New research is showing that speaking two languages helps with improved memory and cognition later in life!

The key point: The research shows that "successful cognitive aging" merits more investigation due to its positive impact on our mental and brain health.

This new research is important because it shows that targeted interventions in Terre Haute and Vigo County could help improve cognitive health in people as they get older.

Dementia is a serious health condition. Dementia impacts almost 10% of all Americans over the age of 65.

Living in Terre Haute, the following dementia and brain health facts impact you directly!

43.6% of men 65 years of age and older living in Vigo County are up-to-date on their preventative health services.

30.3% of women 65 years of age and older living in Vigo County are up-to-date on their health preventative services.

Dementia has an outsized impact on your health in Indiana.

The Health Standard Newswire.

Doctor's Expert Insight about Brain Health and Mental Health as You Get Older.

Know this: "Look, as a doctor, this study continues to highlight what we already know--keep your mind sharp and it should, generally, age well! This study highlights the importance of finding things we can do to actively delay cognitive decline. I also recommend to my patients that engaging in other activities like listening to music, learning a new musical instrument, remaining social, and even just talking to friends--all of these activities are proven ways to stave off cognitive decline." Dr. Puja Uppal, Family Medicine.

Next steps: If you're 65 and over, make sure you visit your doctor for an annual "Medicare Wellness Visit." Use this visit to talk to your doctor about your mental and cognitive health.

Did you know that 17.0% of the adults living in Vigo County have reported frequent mental distress?

11.0% of the adults living in Vigo County are uninsured.

Both of these variables can impact mental health outcomes.

What they're saying:

"Cognitive aging refers to the physiological processes of decline in cognition and brain functioning as age increases. Behaviorally, non-pathological cognitive aging is associated with a decrease in overall processing speed, certain types of memory (e.g., short term and episodic), language, visuospatial and executive control. Cognitive aging is marked by significant individual variation in cognitive performance." (Study Source)

"Learning a new languageat any age but perhaps especially for older adultsas opposed to other types of executive control training has greater real-world applicability. Acquiring new languages can increase individual social networks, encourages new leisure activities (e.g., travel), increases cross-cultural awareness and is transferable to the real world by opening new avenues for communication. Moreover, given that language embodies a large system and learning one requires incremental scaffolding of structure and engages many neurological subsystems, language learning could have keen, immediate and more diffuse effects in older age than bilingual language selection alone has after learning has taken place at younger ages. " (Ibid.)

Keep your brain engaged as you age.

The Health Standard Newswire

Sources:

The Journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience published the findings: Bilingualism and Aging: Implications for (Delaying) Neurocognitive Decline (Read it Here)

Graphic courtesy: ADI.

Dementia Facts & Stats for Terre Haute: (ADI)

Over 55 Million people are living with dementia worldwide.

Minorities & women are at a greater risk of getting dementia as they age.

The Health Standard Newswire
Brain Health

The big picture: Dr. Shelandra Bell says: "Hola, Bonjour, Hello! Your brain thanks you!"

In the news: New research is showing that speaking two languages helps with improved memory and cognition later in life!

The key point: The research shows that "successful cognitive aging" merits more investigation due to its positive impact on our mental and brain health.

This new research is important because it shows that targeted interventions in Muncie and Delaware County could help improve cognitive health in people as they get older.

Dementia is a serious health condition. Dementia impacts almost 10% of all Americans over the age of 65.

Living in Muncie, the following dementia and brain health facts impact you directly!

46.0% of men 65 years of age and older living in Delaware County are up-to-date on their preventative health services.

33.9% of women 65 years of age and older living in Delaware County are up-to-date on their health preventative services.

Dementia has an outsized impact on your health in Indiana.

The Health Standard Newswire.

Doctor's Expert Insight about Brain Health and Mental Health as You Get Older.

Know this: "Look, as a doctor, this study continues to highlight what we already know--keep your mind sharp and it should, generally, age well! This study highlights the importance of finding things we can do to actively delay cognitive decline. I also recommend to my patients that engaging in other activities like listening to music, learning a new musical instrument, remaining social, and even just talking to friends--all of these activities are proven ways to stave off cognitive decline." Dr. Puja Uppal, Family Medicine.

Next steps: If you're 65 and over, make sure you visit your doctor for an annual "Medicare Wellness Visit." Use this visit to talk to your doctor about your mental and cognitive health.

Did you know that 17.0% of the adults living in Delaware County have reported frequent mental distress?

10.0% of the adults living in Delaware County are uninsured.

Both of these variables can impact mental health outcomes.

What they're saying:

"Cognitive aging refers to the physiological processes of decline in cognition and brain functioning as age increases. Behaviorally, non-pathological cognitive aging is associated with a decrease in overall processing speed, certain types of memory (e.g., short term and episodic), language, visuospatial and executive control. Cognitive aging is marked by significant individual variation in cognitive performance." (Study Source)

"Learning a new languageat any age but perhaps especially for older adultsas opposed to other types of executive control training has greater real-world applicability. Acquiring new languages can increase individual social networks, encourages new leisure activities (e.g., travel), increases cross-cultural awareness and is transferable to the real world by opening new avenues for communication. Moreover, given that language embodies a large system and learning one requires incremental scaffolding of structure and engages many neurological subsystems, language learning could have keen, immediate and more diffuse effects in older age than bilingual language selection alone has after learning has taken place at younger ages. " (Ibid.)

Keep your brain engaged as you age.

The Health Standard Newswire

Sources:

The Journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience published the findings: Bilingualism and Aging: Implications for (Delaying) Neurocognitive Decline (Read it Here)

Graphic courtesy: ADI.

Dementia Facts & Stats for Muncie: (ADI)

Over 55 Million people are living with dementia worldwide.

Minorities & women are at a greater risk of getting dementia as they age.

The Health Standard Newswire
Brain Health

The big picture: Dr. Shelandra Bell says: "Hola, Bonjour, Hello! Your brain thanks you!"

In the news: New research is showing that speaking two languages helps with improved memory and cognition later in life!

The key point: The research shows that "successful cognitive aging" merits more investigation due to its positive impact on our mental and brain health.

This new research is important because it shows that targeted interventions in Kokomo and Howard County could help improve cognitive health in people as they get older.

Dementia is a serious health condition. Dementia impacts almost 10% of all Americans over the age of 65.

Living in Kokomo, the following dementia and brain health facts impact you directly!

40.5% of men 65 years of age and older living in Howard County are up-to-date on their preventative health services.

37.6% of women 65 years of age and older living in Howard County are up-to-date on their health preventative services.

Dementia has an outsized impact on your health in Indiana.

The Health Standard Newswire.

Doctor's Expert Insight about Brain Health and Mental Health as You Get Older.

Know this: "Look, as a doctor, this study continues to highlight what we already know--keep your mind sharp and it should, generally, age well! This study highlights the importance of finding things we can do to actively delay cognitive decline. I also recommend to my patients that engaging in other activities like listening to music, learning a new musical instrument, remaining social, and even just talking to friends--all of these activities are proven ways to stave off cognitive decline." Dr. Puja Uppal, Family Medicine.

Next steps: If you're 65 and over, make sure you visit your doctor for an annual "Medicare Wellness Visit." Use this visit to talk to your doctor about your mental and cognitive health.

Did you know that 16.0% of the adults living in Howard County have reported frequent mental distress?

9.0% of the adults living in Howard County are uninsured.

Both of these variables can impact mental health outcomes.

What they're saying:

"Cognitive aging refers to the physiological processes of decline in cognition and brain functioning as age increases. Behaviorally, non-pathological cognitive aging is associated with a decrease in overall processing speed, certain types of memory (e.g., short term and episodic), language, visuospatial and executive control. Cognitive aging is marked by significant individual variation in cognitive performance." (Study Source)

"Learning a new languageat any age but perhaps especially for older adultsas opposed to other types of executive control training has greater real-world applicability. Acquiring new languages can increase individual social networks, encourages new leisure activities (e.g., travel), increases cross-cultural awareness and is transferable to the real world by opening new avenues for communication. Moreover, given that language embodies a large system and learning one requires incremental scaffolding of structure and engages many neurological subsystems, language learning could have keen, immediate and more diffuse effects in older age than bilingual language selection alone has after learning has taken place at younger ages. " (Ibid.)

Keep your brain engaged as you age.

The Health Standard Newswire

Sources:

The Journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience published the findings: Bilingualism and Aging: Implications for (Delaying) Neurocognitive Decline (Read it Here)

Graphic courtesy: ADI.

Dementia Facts & Stats for Kokomo: (ADI)

Over 55 Million people are living with dementia worldwide.

Minorities & women are at a greater risk of getting dementia as they age.

The Health Standard Newswire
slide 2 of 6

aespa successfully wrapped up their first Japanese tour with a performance in Nagoya.

aespa held their first solo concert in Seoul in March, followed by the 2023 'Sync: Hyper Line' in Osaka, Tokyo, Saitama, and Nagoya, from March 15-16. They sold out all performances, proving their strong ticket power and global popularity.
BLACKPINK's Jennie faced a whirlwind of opinions and debates following her appearance at the 2023 Met Gala. The K-pop star's vintage CHANEL dress attracted criticism from those who felt it was too simple and failed to capture the event's theme.

The Dress Controversy

BLACKPINK's Jennie recently made her debut at the 2023 Met Gala, impressing fans with her stunning appearance. However, some users online and on social media criticized her outfit choice for being too simple compared to the extravagant looks that the Met Gala is known for.

tbh i think its okay that people are disappointed in what was pulled for her when there are looks like these that are much more on brand for the met gala. no, the theme isnt camp but met outfits are still known for being larger than life and extravagant. jennie deserved that. https://t.co/i3hSjO9jXN pic.twitter.com/DjwCGdFv6v  aspen  (@swithlight) May 1, 2023

BLINKs Defend BLACKPINK Jennie's Outfit

ITS CHANEL. chanel is supposed to be simple and pure, not over the top, extravagant or tacky. shes called human chanel for a reason too like  who cares if its simple? its elegant and on theme. jennie ATE   (@Y2KR0SE) May 2, 2023

Despite the criticism, many netizens came to Jennie's defense, arguing that not every outfit at the Met Gala needs to be dramatic to make an impact. They pointed out that the minimalist design, makeup, and hairstyle worked perfectly for Jennie, who is known for her unique fashion sense.

In Case You Missed It: Super Junior Heechul Bashed for 'Indecent' Behavior Towards LE SSERAFIM's Kazuha

In an interview on the red carpet, Jennie joked about the practicality of her outfit, saying she was curious about how people wearing larger dresses could sit down comfortably during the event. With her look, she was able to sit down properly, suggesting that she chose comfort over drama.

some people too quick to jump on jennie and her vintage chanel mini dress, just for fashion publications to choose her as one of the best dressed celebs at the met gala after seeing all the looks  as a bonus, they are also even recognizing her clean makeup as the best  gi (@jennieaceitgirl) May 2, 2023

Meaningful History Behind Jennie's Vintage CHANEL Outfit

While some found Jennie's outfit underwhelming, the dress holds a special significance that might not be immediately apparent. The retro gown was a reimagined version of an original design by the legendary Karl Lagerfeld from his tenure at CHANEL, which spanned from 1983 to 2019. It was part of his Fall/Winter 1990 Ready To Wear collection and was known as "Look 164."

As one of Karl Lagerfelds last handpicked muses for the house of #Chanel, one of the buzziest first-time #MetGala attendees is undeniably #JennieKim of #Blackpink. Watch more from the star's debut here: pic.twitter.com/QU1tkdVX1M  Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) May 2, 2023

As a global brand ambassador for CHANEL, Jennie was given the opportunity to wear the recreated dress to the Met Gala. During her Vogue interview, Jennie shared her appreciation for the chance to wear the vintage CHANEL outfit.

jennie literally gave a serve at the met some people just cant appreciate fashion unless people come out with extravagant dresses, huge jewelry, and heavy makeup #JENNIEatMETGala#MetGala



pic.twitter.com/IMZ6ljTp8t  gi (@jennieaceitgirl) May 2, 2023

"I'm so honored to wear a CHANEL piece from the 90s runway. I feel incredibly fortunate that the CHANEL team recreated Karl's original design for me. I couldn't be happier."

Unique Fashion Moment for BLACKPINK Jennie

Jennie's Met Gala outfit choice was not the first time she wore a design based on Lagerfeld's "Look 164" from his Fall collection. CHANEL created a similar outfit for her to wear during BLACKPINK's BORN PINK concert in Paris in December 2022.

the werent kidding when they said jennie got that face teenagers in twenty years would make gorgeous edits of #MetGala pic.twitter.com/mOkySpWb3r   (@jensamour) May 2, 2023



This unique fashion moment highlights Jennie's close relationship with CHANEL and demonstrates how the brand values her as a global ambassador. The controversy surrounding her outfit choice at the 2023 Met Gala ultimately serves as a reminder of her distinct fashion sense and the special connection she has with the brand.

In Case You Missed It: Viviz SinB, Fellow '98 Liners Accused of Exploiting Moonbin's Death, Faced Criticisms While Mourning

BLACKPINK Jennie's 2023 Met Gala outfit choice may have sparked controversy due to its simplicity, but the meaning behind her vintage CHANEL dress and the support from netizens show that she continues to be a prominent personality in the global fashion industry.

Her hairstyle, eye makeup is on point. Her face card never declines.



JENNIE MET GALA #JENNIEatMETGala #MetGala pic.twitter.com/biiQOBt5IN  JENNIE IS PRICELESS  (@jrjclown) May 2, 2023

Follow and subscribe to KpopStarz for more K-pop news and lists.

Cassidy Jones wrote this.

KpopStarz owns this article.
The state budget approved this week includes an eventual ban on natural gas hookups in newly built homes and many other types of buildings.

At the same time, the budget does not contain provisions for phasing out natural gas-powered furnaces and appliances in existing homes.

New York to become the first US state to ban fossil fuels in most new buildings Beginning Dec. 31, 2025, developers and builders will be required to comply with "zero emission construction" standards for most buildings of seven stories or fewer, said Katy Zielinski, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The final version fell short of the sweeping changes that Gov. Kathy Hochul had proposed for transforming the state's energy usage to reduce harmful emissions that are causing climate change.

Still, environmental groups praised the elimination of fossil fuels in many new construction projects as an important step toward reducing harmful emissions, while lamenting that it didn't include provisions to phase out natural gas heat.

Critics of the proposals that had emerged from the Climate Action Council were encouraged that the final version was less wide-ranging, and that it keeps natural gas in the energy mix.

The costs  and benefits  of New York's new energy roadmap While the plan lays out the projected benefits  making steep cuts in harmful emissions and protecting public health  there are potentially significant costs that come with achieving those ambitious goals, for homeowners, businesses and the state's power grid.

"Mandating all-electric new construction, a pioneering initiative that will drive the electrification of our building sector, is a crucial step towards reducing emissions and creating a sustainable future," said Conor Bambrick, director of policy for Environmental Advocates NY.

David Bauer, president and CEO of National Fuel, noted that the new law includes many exemptions for uses that include backup generators, hospitals and manufacturing and industrial facilities.

"It appears the state recognizes that natural gas is critical for both energy reliability and economic prosperity, which is encouraging," he said.

"In my view, its not a big leap to see this list of exemptions expanded to include hybrid heating solutions like weve proposed as part of an 'all of the above' approach to decarbonization," Bauer said. "Nor is it a stretch to see rules and regulations that consider regional differences in the state."

Here's a look at what had been proposed for state energy policy, and what actually was included in the budget passed by state lawmakers.

Poll finds Western New York opposition to energy shift, but statewide support The poll was commissioned by New Yorkers for Affordable Energy, a coalition of utilities, business groups and labor unions. The poll focused on elements of the state's energy roadmap, which calls for transforming energy use in homes and buildings.

New construction

Proposed: Starting in 2025 or 2026 (depending on the bill), smaller newly constructed buildings would have had to be all electric. The same requirements would have applied to all buildings a couple of years later.

Actual: Starting in 2026, newly constructed buildings of up to seven stories are prohibited from installing fossil fuel equipment for heating and cooking. Commercial and industrial buildings larger than 100,000 square feet are exempted. The rules apply to all newly built buildings starting in 2029.

But even that includes some wiggle room. Assemblyman Bill Conrad, D-Tonawanda, said regions "will need to show adequate grid capacity before this mandate can apply." The state Public Service Commission will make that determination of "reasonableness," Conrad said.

The new rules also contain exemptions for a host of users, including hospitals, manufacturing plants, laboratories, restaurants, manufactured homes, laundromats and car washes.

Will the state climate plan put you at risk during winter storms? Climate groups offer answers For thousands of Western New Yorkers, efforts to avoid a future environmental disaster  such as an en masse transition to electric vehicles and heat systems  raise a vital regional question: How will these technologies work in winter weather?

Home heating

Proposed: A prohibition on the sale of new gas- and oil-powered heating systems, such as furnaces, starting in 2030. After this date, owners of existing homes would have been required to switch to an electric system such as a heat pump when replacing a fossil fuel-powered system.

Actual: The approved budget does not contain future restrictions for gas- and oil-powered heating systems in existing homes.

Natural gas appliances

Proposed: Gas-powered stoves  and whether owners of existing homes would have to replace them with an electric stove when the gas stove wore out  became a flashpoint of the energy debate. Opponents of the proposed changes rallied around protecting gas stoves.

Hochul insisted early that gas stoves were never part of the plan, and that the proposed changes applied instead to replacing heating equipment.

"No one is being required to get rid of their gas stove," she said in January.

Amid New York climate battle, here's how opposing natural gas, electric grid plans would affect you With only days until the April 1 budget deadline, New York lawmakers are racing to find a compromise on a climate and energy plan. The outcome will fundamentally change the state economy and daily life for millions. Here is how each of the proposals would affect your household.

The fallout

The debate over energy usage hit home in Western New York, where over 90% of homes are heated by natural gas. Questions arose over the potential cost of converting a home to electric power, and the energy bills  and retrofit costs  homeowners would face if natural gas was no longer an option for them.

Conrad said many of his constituents feared an all-out prohibition on natural gas. He said the final version balanced their concerns with promoting the state's climate goals.

"With this budget, New York once again advanced environmental protections, and I believe we can emerge as the nations clean-energy leaders  but we must proceed in a way that is wisely timed and widely manageable," Conrad said.

Sweeping changes to state's energy policy gain approval The state is aiming to cut greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 40% by 2030, and 85% by 2050. Plans call for regulations stemming from the recommendations to be in place by 2024.

What's next?

Expect the debate over the state's energy plans to continue.

Richard Schrader, New York legislative and policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, praised the changes that will usher in electrification of new buildings. But he was disappointed lawmakers didn't pass companion legislation, called the NY HEAT Act, that goes further toward phasing out the use of natural gas.

"Gov. Hochul needs to lead on getting the NY HEAT Act passed in this session," Schrader said.

Bauer, of National Fuel, said he doesn't see the plan approved in the budget as having an impact on the utility for the "foreseeable future."

"While the threats of more gas bans and other ill-advised electrification actions will continue to exist as long as the legislature remains in session, it is clear that Albany legislators, and perhaps even the governor herself, are acknowledging the very real fact that imposing gas bans on an increasingly concerned public, especially when other more pragmatic solutions are known and achievable is, at best, premature and, at worst, too much of a risk to businesses and residents of New York," he said.
This is what Im thinking:

Were No. 1, were No. 1.

I am always amused by promos on WGRZ-TV (Channel 2) and WIVB-TV (Channel 4) proclaiming their news departments No. 1.

WGRZ-TV (Channel 2) is running promos claiming to be No. 1 in local news in all time periods and age groups. The source is in very small print and flashes across the screen too quickly for most people to see.

It is based on results from ComScore, the alternative ratings source to Nielsen. All three local news stations now use ComScore, which is gaining acceptance while Nielsen is losing clients. Channel 2 no longer subscribes to Nielsen; Channel 4 does.

Both ComScore and Nielsen have flaws when it comes to assessing demographics in different ways.

According to Channel 4 researcher Bob Gallivan, Nielsen provides separate household and demographic ratings. However, Nielsen gets its demos by modeling the viewing habits in similar households in its people meter markets. In other words, the demos arent registered locally.

Gallivan said ComScores demographics refer to people who reside in households. It doesnt claim to know who is in front of the set, only who is in the households. In other words, if a person age 18-49 is in a ComScore household, he would be included in the demographic even if he werent watching the program.

Channel 2 hasnt responded to Gallivans explanation.

Of course, Channel 4 runs its own promos thanking viewers for making it No. 1 based on Nielsen results during the February sweeps.

It also has more hours of daily newscasts on sister station WNLO-TV. An indisputable statement would be if Channel 4 declared itself the most watched news department because it has more hours of newscasts via its sister station WNLO-TV than Channel 2 carries.

WIVBs Ali Touhey is the latest example of a local anchor or reporter who benefited from a change of scenery. She appears to be much more confident and happier than she ever did when she worked at WKBW-TV (Channel 7).

One of my few favorite broadcast network programs, ABCs A Million Little Things, ends its run at 10 tonight on Channel 7.

I cant recall a bigger tearjerker than last Wednesdays episode dealing with my favorite character, wise-cracking Gary Mendez (James Roday Rodriguez), battling late-stage cancer as all his friends rallied to support him and his wife, cancer survivor Maggie Bloom (Allison Miller). The series finale tonight has to walk a fine line of mixing sadness with joy.

I didnt see this one coming. According to trade publications, writer-producer Chuck Lorre has hired Charlie Sheen as a recurring character in the upcoming HBO Max series starring Sebastian Maniscalco, How to Be a Bookie. Yes, thats the same Sheen who had a fallout with Lorre and was fired from Two and a Half Men. His character was killed off, too, when a piano fell on his head. Buffalo native Nick Bakay, who has worked on several Lorre comedies including Mom and The Kominsky Method, is the co-creator of Bookie with Lorre.

I know the scripts for the CBS family police drama Blue Bloods are written months in advance and it is a fictional program. But Im still surprised when Police Commissioner Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) and the mayor refer to the governor of New York State as a man.

Kathy Hochul has been governor since Aug. 24, 2021. It is time for the program to get with the times and refer to the governor as a woman.

WEBR (1440 AM) radio owner Bill Yuhnke has named veteran radio disc jockey Tony Venturoli as the station's new program director.

"Tony has a long record in radio and is a perfect fit for what we are doing at WEBR," said Yuhnke in a release. "We are committed to offering our listeners the best radio that we can and Tony fits perfectly with that effort."

In the same release, Venturoli said, There's no secret to my radio formula. Just be yourself and be who your are. I come from South Buffalo, and I've used my real name all the way, dating back to when I first started in radio at Top 40 station WNIA in 1972."

He worked at WHTT, 104.1, for 17 years before joining WEBR two years ago for the noon to 3 p.m. shift.
Celina Jaitly might be away from the acting front, but, her Twitter is making the buzz these days. Celina doesn't let the trolls go unnoticed. She retorts back with a befitting reply. Recently the actor was trolled for allegedly 'ditching' her Indian roots. She posted a picture of her at the scenic backdrop of Austria. Celina Jaitly Slams Twitter User Who Claimed She Slept With Both Feroze Khan and Fardeen Khan.

In a long tweet, Celina wrote, "One of the best things that I have learnt living in Austria is living with the goal of a life in agreement with nature. While I live in a scenic historic village in the very high altitude alpine area of central Austria I do often take trips to the bigger cities like Graz, Vienna & Salzburg for some "ME Time".These historic cities have tiny beautiful lanes that tell tales of centuries & going through them is like a journey snaking through time periods, from past into present the only drawback however is finding a place to park.

While I only feel most comfortable driving all terrain SUVs One of my favourite things to do is rent this amazing two-seat electric microcar & enjoy a day of European city pleasures while feeling good about my carbon footprint ( and finding the best parking spots) Austria is considered to be the environmental flagship of Europe and I have learnt so many wonderful things here. Not only have I grown so much in Austria, I regained my soul in its nature, Hence contributing to its fairyland nature and environment I feel like I am protecting my own soul. #celinajaitly #CelinaJaitley #austria #LabourDay". Celina Jaitly Hits Back at Troll Who Falsely Accused Her of Sleeping With Feroz Khan And Son Fardeen Khan.

Check The Tweet Of Celina Jaitly:

One of the best things that I have learnt living in Austria is living with the goal of a life in agreement with nature. While I live in a scenic historic village in the very high altitude alpine area of central Austria I do often take trips to the bigger cities like Graz, Vienna pic.twitter.com/Idv4aTYvxV  Celina Jaitly (@CelinaJaitly) May 2, 2023

Check Out The Reply Which Celina Posted:

Chitaji my clothes & Shoes are Made in India. Husband and kids are made in Austria. This is not hypocrisy its globalisation. PS: Dil and passport  Hindustani. #celinajaitly https://t.co/i7r7F7KoSG  Celina Jaitly (@CelinaJaitly) May 3, 2023

Referring to that post, a netizen tweeted, "Lol.. Thats what called half baked knowledge. You want to live with the nature you dont go Austria but you go to india. Living with fancy battery car, fancy shoes jackets etc.. This is western hypocrisy." Giving a solid punch to the netizen, Celina replied to the tweet, "Chitaji my clothes & Shoes are Made in India.... Husband and kids are made in Austria. This is not hypocrisy it's globalisation. PS: Dil and passport dono Hindustani." Few days back, Celina reacted to a troll who claimed that she had "slept with Fardeen Khan, Feroz Khan."
Azamgarh, May 3: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said that 431 people hailing from UP were brought back from crisis-hit Sudan.

Addressing a public meeting at Azamgarh for the second round of civic polls and appealing people to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates in order to add the third engine to the double engine government to ensure the best use of funds allocated by the Central and State Government levels, CM Yogi said, "Earlier in May, the temperature used to increase to 45-46 degree Celsius in Uttar Pradesh and today, the whole state has turned into a Mussorie or a Shimla. It shows that even nature is with us. It's the miracle of the double-engine government."

Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, he said, "We all know the situation inside the country nine years ago. Indians were looked at with suspicion wherever they went. India had lost its credibility. Under PM Modi's leadership we have witnessed the changing India. India's global prestige has gone up. Modiji is known as 'Sankat Mochan' (trouble-shooter). We have brought back our citizens safe from the crisis-ridden Sudan. A total of 431 people from UP have been brought back so far from the country that includes people from Azamgarh also."

Emphasising that, unlike the opposition governments, the double engine government believed in the progress of all sections of society and appeasement of none, CM Yogi said, "It is because of this, that Uttar Pradesh has got investment proposals of Rs 35 lakh crore, which will create employment opportunities for 1 crore people."

"Some people gave kattas (countrymade pistols) instead of pens to the youth, and we are giving them tablets. Times have changed today and we are taking the youth from sword to pen. We are making them skilled by connecting them with technology," CM Yogi added.

Seeking votes for the BJP candidates at an election rally held at SKP Inter College ground, CM Yogi took a jibe at Akhilesh Yadav and said, "Five years ago the former Chief Minister had come here for campaigning, but today if he came by road, he won't be able to recognize the district as it has completely changed." Operation Kaveri: 229 More Indians Leave Jeddah From Sudan in Bengaluru-Bound Flight (See Pics).

"Azamgarh was once known in the world for its saints, revolutionaries as well as its intellectual and artistic richness. There was a lot of expectation from the district after independence. However, the district moved in the opposite direction because of neglect. Until 2017, Azamgarh was struggling for its identity. Its people did not even get rooms in hotels and dharamshalas in other cities", he remarked.

"But, today Azamgarh has been linked with Purvanchal Express. An airport is being built here and now a university in the name of Maharaj Suheldev has also been started," he added.

The Chief Minister said that for the first time, an artist has become a Member of Parliament from Azamgarh, referring to film actor-turned-politician Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua', and added that Hariharpur Sangeet Mahavidyalaya has, therefore, been established here.

According to the CM, the district was getting its lost glory back in double-engine government. CM Yogi said that the government was taking the benefits of welfare schemes to all the needy people, irrespective of caste and creed and without appeasement.

"In double engine government, crores of people have got houses, toilets, LPG gas connections, electricity, safe tap water and health insurance under Ayushman Bharat. The government has been providing free ration to 80 crore people for last three years since the outbreak of Covid-19," he said. CM Yogi pointed out that Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the most progressive state in the country in recent times.

"Today our cities are seen as smart cities and not piles of filth. There is no terror of criminals and cities are being developed into safe cities. We consider PM's vision as our mission. Now there is no curfew and Kanwar Yatra is taken out peacefully. Earlier there used to be disturbance before festivals, now festivals are celebrated," CM Yogi noted.

"There is better connectivity of four lanes in Azamgarh and no one will be able to recognize Azamgarh after five years," the CM said pointing out that the third engine will ensure that there is no waterlogging and parks and cities look clean and beautiful and the people are proud to reveal their identities as a person from a village in Azamgarh district. Operation Kaveri: Around 2,300 Indian Citizens Brought Back From War-Torn Sudan, Says EAM S Jaishankar.

On this occasion, cabinet minister Surya Pratap Shahi, MP Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirhua, BJP's regional president Sahajanand Rai and the party's authorized candidates for all municipal bodies were present.

Nirahua also sang a couplet in the praise of CM Yogi that said, "Bulldozer Baba chaanp rahe hain, mafia haanf rahe hain, chor uchakke gunde mafia, dar se kaanp rahe hain" (Bulldozer Baba is crushing mafia and the criminals are panting and trembling with fear).

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mangaluru, May 3 (PTI) Decrying the promise in the Congress election manifesto that Bajrang Dal will be banned if they are voted to power, Karnataka Energy Minister V Sunil Kumar said the move is to appease the Muslims.

In a series of tweets, the minister said Bajrang Dal is not an anti-social organisation and it strives for protection of the Hindu community and gomata (mother cow).

Also Read | Wrestlers Protest: 'Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur Tried To Suppress the Matter', Alleges Vinesh Phogat.

Kumar, who was the state convenor of Bajrang Dal, said the organisation is a team of activists who are ready to undergo any sacrifice for the Hindu cause.

He wondered whether the Congress wants to ban Bajrang Dal just because the BJP banned the PFI last year.

Also Read | Supreme Court Collegium Brushes Aside Intelligence Bureau's Objection, Recommends Parsi Lawyer As Judge for Bombay High Court.

Social Welfare Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary said the Congress does not know the difference between a patriotic organisation and an anti-social outfit.

BJP MLAs and leaders in Dakshina Kannada district also deplored the pledge made by the Congress in its manifesto. Mangaluru North MLA Bharath Y Shetty said the assurance clearly proves that the Congress is totally 'anti-Hindu'.

Mangaluru South MLA Vedavyas Kamath said the Congress, as always, is resorting to appeasement politics, while BJP Dakshina Kannada district president Sudarshan Moodbidri said the promise has exposed the "mindset" of the Congress.

Meanwhile, Bajrang Dal workers on Tuesday evening carried out a protest in front of the district Congress office against the party's pledge to ban the organisation.

Raising slogans against the Congress move, they also burned a copy of the Congress manifesto.

The Congress on Tuesday promised a ban on Bajrang Dal in its Karnataka election manifesto, a move denounced by the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who alleged that the opposition party which had "locked up" Lord Ram now wanted to target Lord Hanuman's devotees.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Police team conduct raids at various places in Delhi (Photo/ANI)

New Delhi [India], May 3 (ANI): The massive early morning raids by Dwarka District Police in the national capital and Haryana concluded with the arrest of six people and detention of 20 others, officials said.

Those arrested have been identified as Nitin Narulla, Nikhil, Rajpal, Deepak, Mohit, and Jitender Dahiya.

Also Read | Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023: State Won't Pardon Abusers, Raise 'Jai Bajrang Bali' Slogan and Vote for BJP, Says PM Narendra Modi in Ankola.

"They have been arrested for various offences under the Arms Act and Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act", said officials.

The raids were carried out at around 21 places including 15 in the national capital, and six others in Haryana, in search of gangsters and their associates.

Also Read | Serbia School Shooting: Teenage Boy Kills Eight Children, Security Guard at Vladislav Ribnikar School in Belgrade.

The raiding teams also recovered a bulletproof luxury car, firearms, cash, and heroin in raids officials said.

"Dwarka District Police detained 20 people and arrested six others based on the recovery during the raids and searches today," Deputy Commissioner of Police M Harshawardhan told media after the massive operation.

DCP Harshawardhan also mentioned the recoveries made during the raids which included a bulletproof Fortuner car, 3 pistols with seven rounds, and Rs 20 lakh cash.

"22.4 gms heroin, 73 gms Amphetamine were recovered during the raids," DCP added.

Dwarka Police raided the hideouts of gangsters and their associates sitting abroad. Raids were conducted at some locations in Delhi including Sonipat and Jhajjar in Haryana.

The officials said that around 300 police personnel conducted raids at 15 locations in Delhi and around six locations in Haryana.

The massive action came a day after gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was allegedly killed by rival gang members in Tihar jail on Tuesday. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Even before he joined Lyft's board in 2021, David Risher had taken hundreds of trips as a passenger so he felt like he knew a lot about the ride-hailing service. But he never expected to be thrust into the driver's seat at a time when Lyft was running like a jalopy.

I really was gobsmacked, Risher said during an interview with The Associated Press as he recalled being recently asked to replace Lyft co-founder Logan Green as CEO.

Risher quickly shook off his initial shock and is now making an effort to reverse the San Francisco company's mounting losses and sagging stock price. Just days after taking over as CEO, Risher came up with a restructuring plan that includes laying off nearly 1,100 employees whose job losses could help him attain stock price incentives potentially worth nearly $1 billion.

Like any mass layoff, the payroll purge will uproot the lives of those suddenly out of a job while sowing uncertainty among Lyft's remaining 3,000 employees. But Risher believes the deep cuts had to be done so Lyft can afford to bring down its fares to the same levels as its longtime rival, ride-hailing leader Uber, which has rebounded from the pandemic much more robustly.

Its very important to our customers that when they open both (the Uber and Lyft) apps that they are not surprised by the prices being super different, Risher said. "We want to be in line with where Uber is."

The cost-cutting also will help Lyft pay drivers better, another element that Risher believes is needed for the service to offer more rides with quicker pick-up times.

Mobile tracking data compiled by wireless network testing firm GWS found Lyft's driver app now averages about 400,000 daily usages  half its pre-pandemic levels  while Uber's driver app boasts about 1.4 million daily users, roughly the same number that it had leading up to the pandemic.

More details about Risher's turnaround strategy are expected Thursday when Lyft releases what are expected to be lackluster financial numbers for the first three months of the year.

The problems facing Risher are an offshoot of pandemic-driven restrictions that dramatically curtailed travel during most of 2020 and much of 2021, shriveling demand for rides on Uber and Lyft.

But Uber had something that Lyft didn't  a food delivery business that had been aggressively expanding under Dara Khosrowshahi, who Uber hired in 2017 to clean up a mess that its previous CEO Travis Kalanick had created. Uber's disarray had also alienated many of its passengers, helping Lyft to steadily gain market share leading up to the pandemic in March 2020.

Khosrowshahi's decision to transform Uber into a go wherever you want, get whatever you need operation paid off during a pandemic that ignited explosive growth in food delivery. That demand kept millions of people using Uber's app even when they weren't going anywhere, forming habits that helped Uber's ridership return to pre-pandemic levels while Lyft fell out of favor.

No one was opening their Lyft app, so when the world reopened it just seem easier to get an Uber, said Tom White, an analyst for D.A. Davidson.

Because Uber's food delivery service also helped retain drivers on its platform during the pandemic, that made it more difficult for Lyft to lure them back when the pandemic eased. The driver shortage was compounded by a fare structure that resulted in its service frequently demanding significantly higher prices for the trips than Uber  a gap that consumers who kept both apps on their phones could quickly see.

Brian Blitzstein used to drive for Lyft but says he is now focused primarily on Uber because of all the ridership momentum that it gained from its food delivery service during the pandemic. But he could be convinced to come back to Lyft if he earns more pay.

Money talks, Blitzstein, 39, said. But I definitely think its going to be challenging for Lyft. Are they going to be cutting down to the bone? That would be like cutting off your arm to lose weight.

The widening chasm between Uber and Lyft has been showing up in their respective financial results. Uber shares surged nearly 12% Tuesday's after the company more ridership, food delivery and revenue gains during the first three months of the year.

Under a benchmark tracked by investors known as adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization," Uber posted a profit of $1.7 billion last year while Lyft sustained a loss of $406 million and management in February issued an outlook that made things look like they were worsening. Uber posted a $761 million profit during the January-March period under the same metric, more than quadrupling from a year ago.

That's one of the key reasons that Lyft's stock has lost two-thirds of its value during the the past year while Uber's shares have climbed 20%.

The stark difference led Green, Lyft's long-time CEO, and fellow co-founder John Zimmer to step down from day-to-day management to make way for Risher, best known for helping lay the foundation Amazon's e-commerce empire as the company's top U.S. retail executive in its early days. His contributions were so significant that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wrote him a thank you note that's posted on the company's website as a permanent tribute.

But before Lyft asked him to take over as its CEO, Risher had spent more than a decade running Worldreader, a non-profit organization devoted to helping young children learn to read.

That made Risher seem like a puzzling choice to many investors wondering what can this guy do, White said. Wall Street doesn't know a ton about him.

Risher's hiring initially spurred speculation that he may be grooming Lyft for a sale, but he doesn't think that makes sense while the company is still struggling.

Lets put it this way: We will be more valuable as a partner of any type organization if we have a business thats 10 times bigger and profitable, Risher said.

Risher, 57, will make a huge windfall if he can turn things around. Besides paying Risher a $3.25 million signing bonus on top of a $725,000 salary, Lyft awarded him an incentive package consisting of 12.25 million shares of stock that will vest when the shares hit a range of staggered price targets. If Lyft's stock rises from its recent price hovering around $10 and hits nine targets ranging from $15 to $80, Risher will reap about $980 million, estimated the investment research management firm VerityData.

For now, Risher is focused on ensuring Lyft remains a viable alternative to Uber.

There was a loss of Lyft relevance, Risher said. "So now it becomes our challenge to say, Hold on, were back and we are a really important choice.
Ahmedabad, May 3: Gujarat Minister of State for Panchayat Bachubhai Khabad on Wednesday said his department will recruit as many as 10,000 employees through direct recruitment in the next two years.

Khabad was addressing an event at the Mahatma Mandir convention centre in Gandhinagar where 1,760 youngsters, who were recently selected as multipurpose health workers, were handed over appointment letters. 10,000 Jobs in India: Swiggy Joins Hands With Apna To Make Ten Thousand Job Openings for Instamart in 2023.

Panchayat employees play a crucial role in delivering government schemes and benefits to each and every citizen. These 1,760 youngsters who received appointment letters today were selected in a very transparent manner by the Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board. In the next two years, the Panchayat department will recruit 10,000 employees, said Khabad.

At the event, Gujarat Energy and Finance Minister Kanubhai Desai handed over the appointment letters in the presence of Khabad, Health Minister Rushikesh Patel and other dignitaries, said an official release.

Desai said the Gujarat government has prepared a recruitment calendar to fill up the vacant posts in various government departments. He added that the state government is committed to filling up all the vacant posts very soon. Layoffs To Continue Worldwide! 14 Million Jobs Could Be Shed Globally by 2027, Says World Economic Forum Report.

The Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board had chosen 1,760 youngsters from nearly 41,000 candidates through a competitive exam held in June last year. The list of selected candidates was published in March, said the release.

Of the selected candidates, 26 belong to the general category, 337 are from Scheduled Castes, 245 from Scheduled Tribes, 884 from Other Backward Classes (OBC), while 268 belong to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), the release said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jaipur, May 3 (PTI) A day after the Congress promised a ban on Bajrang Dal in its Karnataka election manifesto, Rajasthan minister Govind Ram Meghwal on Wednesday said people having criminal background are being inducted into the youth wing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

Meghwal said that the Congress is not against 'Bajrangbali' (Lord Hanuman), but is against the people who are committing crime by forming an organisation in the deity's name.

Also Read | Hailstorm Hits Rajasthan: MeT Department Issues Orange Alert After Severe Hailstorm Batters Northern Parts of State.

Our party (Congress) has not opposed Bajrangbali. But, the decision has been taken in Karnataka against those who make organisation in the name of deities and commit crime, the cabinet minister told reporters here.

He further said, I feel sad that the Constitution is being shredded by the people in the RSS. People who have criminal background are being taken into Bajrang Dal. Those who have serious cases lodged against them are being selected to join the outfit.

Also Read | Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023: BJP Looted Rs 1.5 Lakh Crore From State, Says Congress Leader Priyanka Gandhi in Vijayapura.

The Congress, in its election manifesto for the May 10 Karnataka Assembly polls, said it will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on organisations like Bajrang Dal and PFI and alleged that they were promoting enmity among communities.

The Congress' poll promise has sparked a political row in the country.

Rajasthan Food and Civil Supplies Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said that he is an ardent devotee of Bajrangbali and no party can put a ban on Lord Hanuman.

The Congress itself is a devotee of Bajrangbali. It puts a ban on those who try to create a situation of conflict in the name of religion, Khachariyawas said.

He said that such organisations have been given the responsibility (by the BJP) to create a rift in the society, but the Congress will not allow anyone to create a riot in the name of Bajrangbali.

Meanwhile, BJP MP from Alwar, Baba Balaknath, said comparing Bajrang Dal with the organisations like PFI is wrong. He said that there are several proofs against PFI for its unethical practices and anti-national activities.

This is the same Congress which denied existence of Lord Ram. They had said that Lord Ram was an imaginary character. It is their objective to ban Bajrang Dal and Lord Hanuman. And this will turn out a misfortune for the Congress, Balaknath said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ranchi, May 3: MP/MLA court in Ranchi rejected Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's plea for exemption from personal appearance in 'Modi surname case'. Meanwhile, the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday reserved its order on Rahul Gandhi's plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the defamation case.

Justice Hemant Prachchhak will pronounce the verdict after vacation. The court refused to grant any interim relief to Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi had moved the Gujarat High Court on April 25 challenging the Surat sessions court order which declined to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case. Modi Surname Remark Case: Gujarat High Court Reserves Orders on Rahul Gandhi's Plea Seeking Stay on His Conviction in Defamation Case.

During the hearing on April 29, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Rahul Gandhi, had sought time to produce certain documents on record after which the court adjourned the hearing to May 2. The Surat sessions court had on April 20 rejected Rahul Gandhi's plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the 2019 criminal defamation case.

In his judgement, Additional sessions judge Robin P Mogera had cited Gandhi's stature as an MP and former chief of the country's second-largest political party and said he should have been more careful. He cited prima facie evidence and observations of the trial court and said it transpires that Gandhi made certain derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi apart from comparing people with the same surname with thieves.

Mogera said the surname of the complainant in the case, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Purnesh Modi, is also Modi. "...the complainant is [also an] ex-minister and involved in public life and such defamatory remarks would have certainly harmed his reputation and caused him pain and agony in society," he said.

Mogera cited the disqualification criteria under the Representation of the People Act and added that removal or disqualification as MP could not be termed irreversible or irreparable loss or damage to Gandhi. Following his conviction by a lower court in the criminal defamation case, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as Lok Sabha MP. He had been elected to Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala. Defamation Case Over Modi Surname Remark: Surat Court on Dismissing Rahul Gandhis Appeal, Says Statements Made Only for Seeking Political Gain.

The lower court sentenced the Congress leader to two years in jail on March 23 under sections 499 and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in a case filed by Purnesh Modi. At a rally in Karnataka's Kolar in April 2019, Rahul Gandhi, in a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said, "How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?". Following the session's court verdict, Congress had said it will move the Gujarat High Court.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Benaulim (Goa) May 3 (PTI) India will host the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) nations at a two-day conclave in Goa beginning Thursday amid the escalating confrontation between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine and concerns over China's expansionist behaviour.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Russia's Sergey Lavrov and Pakistan's Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari are among those set to attend the meeting that will be chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Also Read | Delhi Excise Policy Scam Case: AAP Leader Manish Sisodia Moves High Court Seeking Bail in Money Laundering Case; Hearing Tomorrow.

The overall situation in Afghanistan including apprehensions that the country may turn into a breeding ground for terrorism under the Taliban rule as well as the fast evolving regional security situation are expected to figure prominently during the deliberations.

However, the spotlight is expected to be also on whether there will be a bilateral meeting between Jaishankar and Bhutto-Zardari on the sidelines of the SCO conclave.

Also Read | 10,000 Government Jobs in Gujarat: State Govt to Recruit Ten Thousand Panchayat Employees in Two Years, Says Minister Bachubhai Khabad.

People familiar with the preparations for the conclave said Jaishankar will hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from China, Russia and some other member nations of the grouping. The bilateral talks with Qin and Lavrov are likely to take place on Thursday at a beach resort in Benaulim on Thursday.

But there is no indication yet of such a meeting between Jaishankar and Bhutto-Zardari.

The people said while Qin and Lavrov are set to arrive in Goa in the first half of the day on Thursday, Bhutto-Zardari's flight is expected to touch down late afternoon.

Jaishankar is set to welcome his counterparts from the SCO countries at a gala reception on Thursday evening while the main deliberations of the conclave will take place on Friday.

India is emerging as a key player among the SCO countries though China and Russia are seen as the major drivers of the grouping that is increasingly seen as an "alternative" to NATO.

In a way, New Delhi has been uniquely placed in the SCO as it is also a member of the four-nation coalition Quad. The other members of the Quad are the US, Japan and Australia.

Both Russia and China have been severely critical of the Quad.

People familiar with the preparation of the conclave said ways to expand overall cooperation including in areas of trade, investment and connectivity will figure prominently in the discussions.

It is expected that challenges of terrorism as well as dealing with implications of the war in Ukraine will also be discussed.

India is hosting the SCO conclave when its ties with China are under severe strain in view of the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh.

The sources said the foreign ministers will deliberate on overall challenges facing the region in the backdrop of the current geo-political turmoil and the state of bilateral ties between the member nations would not impact the discussions.

Pakistan has already announced that Bhutto-Zardari would be travelling to India to attend the SCO foreign ministerial meeting being hosted by New Delhi in its capacity as the current chair of the grouping.

If Bhutto-Zardari travels to India, then it will be the first such visit from Islamabad since 2011. The then Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar had visited India that year.

Khar is currently serving as the minister of state for foreign affairs.

India hosted the SCO defence ministerial meeting last week. The defence ministers of all the member nations of the grouping except Pakistan travelled to New Delhi and attended the meeting.

Special Assistant to Pakistan prime minister on defence affairs Malik Ahmed Khan joined the deliberations virtually.

The ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India's warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack.

The relations further deteriorated after India in August 2019 announced withdrawing special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the state into two union territories.

The SCO is an influential economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping, which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.

India has shown a keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS), which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 3 (ANI): In a major political development, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar on Tuesday announced that he has decided to step down as party chief drawing emotional reactions from thousands of NCP leaders, workers and supporters who urged him to reconsider the decision.

The move also came as a surprise in political circles with Pawar, a former Maharashtra Chief Minister and union minister, seen as a key architect of moves towards opposition unity ahead of 2024 electoral battle.

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Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar, who had earlier said that "Pawar Saheb himself had said about the necessity of change in guard a few days back" later said that the NCP veteran would take two to three days to rethink his decision.

Pawar, who founded the NCP in 1999, has held the post of party chief for the past 24 years.

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Sharad Pawar, while announcing his decision, said he will not contest elections. He recommended a committee of senior NCP leaders to decide on the future course of action.

The committee will include Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, PC Chacko, Narhari Zirwal, Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujabl, Dilip Walse-Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, Jitendra Awhad, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Jaydev Gaikwad and chiefs of party frontal cells, he said.

"Since the formation of the Nationalist Congress Party in 1999, I have had the privilege of being elected as its President, which today is in its 24th year. This entire journey of being in public life, which began on May 1, 1960, has continued unabated for the past 63 years, having served Maharashtra and India in various capacities during this period," Pawar said.

"I have three-year tenure remaining in Rajya Sabha. I will not contest elections henceforth. In these three years, I will concentrate more on issues concerning to state and the country. I will not take any additional responsibilities. I started my political career on May 1, 1960. Yesterday we celebrated May Day. After this prolonged political career, one must think about stopping somewhere. One must not be greedy. I will never take the position of sticking to a post after so many years. Therefore, you might feel uneasy. But I have decided to retire from the post of the NCP chief, " Pawar added.

Pawar,82, became an MLA for the first time at the young age of 27, before becoming the youngest Chief Minister of the state, at the age of 38, in 1978.

The four-time chief minister of Maharashtra has also served as Defence Minister. He was Agriculture Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

He was the first and former president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which was founded in 1999, after separating from the Indian National Congress.

Sharad Pawar had founded NCP after his ouster from Congress. He, Tariq Anwar and PA Sangma had raised a revolt in the Congress Working Committee on the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin leading to a split in the party.

NCP soon earned the recognition of a national party, after registering its presence in the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Meghalaya and Manipur. However, it lost the tag this year.

Pawar belongs to rural Maharashtra and is sometimes referred to as 'Chanakya' in political circles. He played a crucial role in the formation of Maha Vikas Aghadi, the alliance between Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP.

Speaking after the release of his autobiography, Pawar said that it was time for a new generation to guide the party and the direction it intends to take.

The NCP leader, however, said that he would not take retirement from public life even after resigning from the party post.

"Even though I am stepping down from the post of president, I am not retiring from public life. Constant travel has become an integral part of my life. I will continue attending public events, and meetings. Whether in Pune, Mumbai, Baramati, Delhi or any other part of India, I will be available to all of you as usual. I will continue to work round the clock to solve the people's problems," he said.

Moments after senior NCP leader Sharad Pawar announced his resignation from the party president's post, Ajit Pawar supported the decision saying that the next party chief will work under Sharad Pawar only.

"Pawar Saheb (Sharad Pawar) will always be the head of the NCP family. Whoever will be the new President will work only under Pawar Saheb's guidance," Ajit Pawar told the party cadre who were protesting against Sharad Pawar's decision urging him to withdraw it.

Party workers and leaders, however, demanded that Sharad Pawar withdraw his decision.

"We are not ready to accept your decision of resigning from the post of NCP president. We want you to reconsider your decision," said an NCP leader.

Those urging Pawar to reconsider his decision included Chhagan Bhujbal, Jitendra Awhad and Dilip Walse Patil.

Several leaders including Jayant Patil broke down after the Veteran politician's announcement.

NCP workers protested outside Mumbai's YB Chavan Centre, urging Pawar to take his decision back.

Ajit Pawar asked the party workers and leaders not to become emotional.

"Pawar Saheb himself had said about the necessity of change in guard a few days back. We should see his decision in the light of his age and health also. Everyone has to take a decision according to time, Pawar Saheb has decided and will not take it back."

Ajit Pawar said the members of the committee suggested by Sharad Pawar to elect the next party President are "not from outside, but are from within the NCP family itself".

Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule along with several other party leaders held talks with protesting party workers.

Ajit Pawar assured the protesting workers that the prominent leaders are going to meet Sharad Pawar, and urged the workers to go back home.

He later said that they conveyed to Sharad Pawar that workers want him to remain the party president.

"We told him (Sharad Pawar) that the workers are quite upset. We also told him that party workers want him to remain the party president along with having a working president. He said he will rethink his decision and needs 2-3 days..." NCP leader Ajit Pawar told reporters as he held talks with protesting party workers in Mumbai.

Party MP Praful Patel said they have requested Sharad Pawar with folded hand to withdraw the decision.

"I request him to withdraw the decision on behalf of all. The state and the country need his leadership."

"In an attempt to pacify agitated party workers, Patel said, "Repeating the same thing won't solve any purpose and its meaningless. We senior leaders will talk to Pawar Saheb."

Reacting to Pawar's decision, Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said Pawar's decision is NCP's internal matter.

"It is his personal decision. He is a senior leader and he has decided something. Brainstorming over several issues is going on within his party. So, it will not be right for us to react on this. We will keep an eye on the situation and react after a day or two".

The development has come amid some recent reports that Ajit Pawar may be warming up to BJP amid his ambitions to be chief minister. Ajit Pawar, a former state Deputy Chief Minister, has denied these reports. (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, May 3 (PTI) Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will inaugurate the new building of his party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the national capital on Thursday.

"The opening of the central office in the capital will accelerate the party's nationwide expansion," the party said in a statement.

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Rao, the national president of BRS, will inaugurate the office by worshiping in "Vedokta rituals". The four-storey building located in Vasant Vihar area of the national capital is built according to 'Vastu', the party said.

The BRS, which was earlier Telangana Rashtra Samithi, was rechristened last year after Rao declared that the party is looking at a larger role in central politics.

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"Telangana Building Construction Minister Prashant Reddy and Rajya Sabha MP Joginapalli Santosh Kumar are constantly monitoring the work related to the completion of the construction of this building in Delhi. This building will speed up the work of the party," BRS said.

The BRS Bhavan is built in eleven thousand square feet of land. There is a conference hall on the first floor and an office for the BRS President among other facilities.

So far the party was operating in Delhi from an office at Sardar Patel Marg.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader and MP T Thirumavalavan from Tamil Nadu and leaders of several other regional parties as well as farmer leaders from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Tamil Nadu had attended the inaugural ceremony held in December last year.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hyderabad, May 3 (PTI) The Telangana government would soon introduce 'ward-level administration' in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to help address people's issues expeditiously.

Under the system, ward-level offices would be set up in all 150 wards of the GHMC.

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State Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao, who held a meeting with officials here, said citizens could submit their complaints and suggestions within the wards itself without having to go to the zonal or circle offices of the GHMC (as per the present system).

This will help the government quickly learn about people's problems and work to address them, an official release quoted him as saying.

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About eight to 10 officers belonging to key departments, including sanitation, power supply, maintenance of roads, veterinary, town planning and water board, would work at the field level.

They would deal with implementation of government programmes and also receive complaints from citizens and work to address them expeditiously, the release said.

Rama Rao directed officials to put the system of 'ward administration' in place by the end of May, it said.

He suggested that the teams of personnel who would be working in the ward-level offices be readied by the second week of May. Training should be imparted to them on the aims and objectives and functioning of the 'ward administration' system.

Technology should be utilised to link the ward offices with social media, and each ward office with the others, the minister said.

Expressing confidence that citizens would get services speedily with the establishment of 'ward administration', he asked the officials to make foolproof arrangements for the system.

(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], May 3 (ANI): One of the accused in the murder of Tillu Tajpuria in Tihar Jail was already punished by the Tihar administration in the past for possessing prohibited articles, official sources from Tihar Jail said.

"A prohibited article was recovered from Deepak, who was among killers of Tillu Tajpuria, some time ago, after which punitive action was also taken against him. Such items were found during the search from Deepak. Prohibited items include sharp weapons, narcotics, mobiles etc," the senior jail official said.

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"Out of the four accused who killed Tillu Tajpuria, 2 were shifted to Kohi Tihar jail number 8 and 9 on March 30. Earlier he was lodged in other jails, the sources said.

The sources said that the jail authorities have been reviewing the security of the prisoners from time to time and location of the prisoners were changed in view of their safety.

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Following all the security manuals, Tillu Tajpuria was shifted to this jail 15 days ago, When he reached the jail, all the four accused were already there on the first floor," the official added.

Yogesh alias Tunda, who killed Tillu Tajpuria, had reached Tihar Jail on January 6 and then on March 30, he was shifted to Jail No. 8 and 9. Another criminal Rajesh is also in Tihar's records since 2007 and was also brought to this jail on March 30. Deepak, a criminal involved in murder, has reached Tihar many times in different cases since 2012 and this time on January 24, he was shifted to Jail No. 8 and 9 of Tihar, official said.

Riyaz, who was involved in this entire incident, is lodged in this jail number 8 and 9 since October last year.

Delhi Police on Tuesday booked four persons on murder charges in connection with the killing of jailed gangster Tillu Tajpuriya.

The Tihar Jail inmate was killed allegedly by rival gang members in Tihar jail, prison officials said on Tuesday.

Officials say that after the murder of Tillu Tajpuria, the investigation of the police and the magistrate is going on.

Apart from this, the Tihar administration has also started an internal inquiry to find out whether there was any laxity on the part of their staff or whether it should be considered a case of a lapse in security. (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], May 3 (ANI): Created with the aim of carrying out joint operations, the Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD) has set up its headquarters in Bengaluru.

"The Armed Forces Special Operations Division was set up in Agra in its early days under the Integrated Defence Staff and has now shifted to Bengaluru," defence officials said here.

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The AFSOD is now under the Department of Military Affairs and includes the officers and men from the Army Parachute Regiment, Marine Commandos from the Navy and Garud commandos from the Indian Air Force.

The AFSOD has been carrying out extensive war games for both internal and external operations and has also been deployed for counter-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

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"Bengaluru is also well suited for operations for a force like the AFSOD as there are multiple airstrips near their location," the officials said.

The AFSOD was one of the three defence agencies created in 2018-19 as part of the efforts to enhance jointness and integration among the forces.

The tri-services special forces recently carried out war games near the chickens' neck area near the Siliguri corridor and have been regularly practising operations in the Andaman and Nicobar Island territory.

The troops under the division have also held exercises near the Pakistan border in the Kutch area of Gujarat.

The AFSOD has also now started preparing for external exigencies like the one which happened in the 1980s in Maldives. (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, May 3 (PTI) Shares of edible oil major Adani Wilmar on Wednesday fell nearly 5 per cent after the company reported a 60 per cent decline in consolidated net profit for the March quarter.

The stock declined 4.30 per cent to settle at Rs 397.65 apiece on the BSE. During the day, it tanked 6.11 per cent to Rs 390.10.

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On the NSE, it fell 4.56 per cent to end at Rs 396.50 each share.

In volume terms, 6.79 lakh shares of the company were traded on the BSE and over 45.68 lakh shares on the NSE during the day.

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On Wednesday, Adani Wilmar reported a 60 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 93.61 crore for the quarter ended March 2023 on lower revenue amid a fall in prices of cooking oils.

Its net profit stood at Rs 234.29 crore in the year-ago period.

Adani Wilmar, an equal joint venture between Adani Group and Singapore's Wilmar, sells edible oil under Fortune brand. It also sells some food products like rice, wheat flour and sugar.

Total income fell to Rs 13,945.02 crore in January-March 2022-23 from Rs 14,979.83 crore in the year-ago period, Adani Wilmar said in a regulatory filing.

Consolidated revenue witnessed a decline due to fall in prices of edible oil, the company said.

During the full last fiscal, Adani Wilmar's net profit fell to Rs 582.12 crore from Rs 803.73 crore in the previous year. Total income, however, rose to Rs 58,446.16 crore from Rs 54,327.16 crore in the previous year.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Globally, workers are focused on developing their human skills, even as they see a future dominated by technology-driven work and automation, according to a new study from Pearson, the worlds leading learning company.

For the latest edition of the Pearson Skills Outlook series, Pearson partnered with Google to examine how and why people across different regions are looking to upskill as they face a rapidly changing economy.

Employee view

The survey of 4,000 workers, revealed that people are most interested in careers in the tech and business-related fields such as e-commerce, software services, data science, and financial services. However, they believe that they will need to focus on human skills to land these jobs or advance in their current role. They believe human skills  like problem solving, leadership, and teamwork  are the most attractive to employers now and in the future.

According to the report, problem solving, decision-making, teamwork, and leadership are the key human skills that workers are actively prioritising developing and maintaining to advance their careers. Looking to the future, most skills workers want to train for remain focused on human skills such as Leadership; Entrepreneurial skills and Project management [Tie], Problem solving, Language skills, Coding / Programming, Data processing, and Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning [Tie].

The report also signals that in non-English speaking countries, learning English is emerging as a key skill for employees to advance in their careers, according to 85% of Indians and 77% of Brazilians.

Human skills

This valuable new research shows that job seekers are prioritising human skills at a time when machine learning and artificial intelligence are having an increasing influence on work, said Mike Howells, president of Pearson Workforce Skills. Human skills are proving critical to personal and organisational success, and workers are motivated to sharpen and develop those skills to stay competitive and advance their careers.

The study also found that the majority of workers (73% of Americans, 68% of British, 89% of Indians and 70% of Brazilians) also say they prefer to learn via their employer. And an even higher number expect their employer will increase or maintain learning and development opportunities.

In a world where people are living and working longer, and having multiple careers, the Skills Outlook series provides guidance to employers, employees, and job seekers on where they should focus their training, education, and learning. While Pearsons second Skills Outlook report, conducted in September 2022, examined skilling through an employees lens, the first study identified the most in-demand skills from an employers perspective.-- TradeArabia News Service
Those who wanted a fundamental change to New York State's bail law expressed their exasperation Tuesday over a missing word: dangerousness.

And those who did not want any change came away displeased over two words taken out of the bail law as part of the New York State Legislature's budget approval: least restrictive.

Judges no longer will be required to use the least restrictive means to make sure a person charged with a crime returns to court.

"From our perspective, this is a significant step back," said Kevin M. Stadelmaier of the Erie County Bar Associations Aid to Indigent Prisoners Society and the Erie County Assigned Counsel Program. "It was completely unnecessary, done for absolutely the wrong reasons, and will put more people in jail."

As Albany's budget finally passes, a rare ray of sunshine The $229 billion state budget deal was approved by state lawmakers late Tuesday night, more than a month after the deadline for Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature to finalize the states spending plan.

Republican state lawmakers, however, complain judges still cannot weigh the dangerousness of a defendant when deciding whether to keep the person in pre-trial custody or set bail for release.

"I don't think that there's any substantive change," State Sen. Patrick M. Gallivan of the new language in the bail law.

"I think dangerousness is something that we should trust judges to make a decision on, and they should be able to consider that in their bail consideration," Gallivan said.

New York law provides for bail solely as a means to get a defendant to return to court  nothing else, Gallivan said.

New York remains the only state in the country that does not allow a judge to consider dangerousness and or some measure of public safety in determining whether to set bail or remand an individual, he said.

Two sides of the dangerousness issue emerged during the Senate floor debate over the bail law when Bronx Democrat Jamaal T. Bailey asked Long Island Republican Anthony H. Palumbo "what do you consider to be dangerousness?"

"Dangerousness, I think, is something that is somewhat subjective, in a way that it's an objective standard, but I think it depends on the particular set of facts because facts are different in every single criminal case," Palumbo answered.

"We should not be leaving room for subjective ideals when I as a Black man in America am considered to be dangerous by many," Bailey replied. "So I am not comfortable with the concept of dangerousness, which could be rather nebulous in nature."

Bailey, who answered questions about bail from Republicans on the floor, said the changes give judges "further discretion" to set bail, should they choose to do so, for those facing criminal charges in which bail can be required before their pre-trial release.

Bailey, chairman of the Senate Committee on Codes, made it clear the Senate majority would not pursue "dangerousness" among the criteria for considering bail.

"We have not contemplated dangerousness, and I'm certain that if someone desired to take that up, they could. We are uninterested in taking up the topic of dangerousness."

Any rollback at all on the state's bail law drew fierce opposition from others. Ahead of Tuesday's vote, the New York Civil Liberties Union called any rollback "another backslide on justice" that would cause more New Yorkers "to languish in jail while they await their day in court."

Bail reform has saved jobs, kept families together, and protected peoples health and lives," said Jared Trujillo, policy counsel for the NYCLU.

We must break the cycle of retreating from what is right and reversing landmark civil rights progress year after year," Trujillo said. "Lawmakers must protect criminal legal system reforms, listen to communities impacted by mass incarceration, and invest in initiatives and supports that prevent violence from happening in the first place."

The new language in the bail law allows judges to make an individualized determination about whether a defendant poses a risk of fleeing prosecution.

A judge would determine the kind and degree of control or restriction necessary to reasonably assure the defendant shows up in court again, according to the bill.

"What we're looking to give is the courts more autonomy in deciding the conditions for the kind of degree of control that is necessary to return to the court, Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters on Tuesday.

While judges already had the option of referring a defendant for pretrial services, including counseling and treatment, the new legislation specifies that such options include, but are not limited to, mental health and drug treatment.

Judges, too, could order a defendant be held at a hospital under mental hygiene law. The new legislation allows judges to send defendants to crisis stabilization centers.

"We weren't having people being sent to programs that could help them rehabilitate," Hochul said. "They weren't being sent to substance abuse programs. They weren't being sent to anger management programs. They weren't getting that kind of support. So by allowing an individual to go before a judge, the judge can now look at different factors, other ways to have electronic monitoring. So we've opened it up. And what we've opened it up is for the ability for a judge to look at the entirety of the picture of the individual. And there may be ways that this person, if they're not detained or paying bail, that they actually can get services available to them."

State Sen. George Borrello, a Chautauqua County Republican, said the bail law has "transformed our criminal justice system into a dangerous revolving door."

The changes to the bail law approved on Tuesday "are nothing but a shell game that will do nothing to reverse the tide of rising crime," Borrello said. "Ninety percent of crimes are still not eligible for bail. Judges still do not have the discretion they need to hold dangerous individuals, despite rewording of the least restrictive standard."
New Delhi, May 3 (PTI) Infrastructure solutions provider Vishnu Chemicals on Wednesday posted a nearly 25 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 36 crore for the March quarter.

It had clocked a net profit of Rs 29 crore during the January-March quarter of FY22, the company said in a statement.

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For the full financial year 2022-23, the company's net profit rose 68 per cent to Rs 137 crore from Rs 81 crore in FY22.

During the March 2023 quarter, its total income also rose to Rs 338.65 crore as against Rs 335.55 crore in the year-ago period.

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In FY23, the company's income rose to Rs 1,406 crore compared to Rs 1,075 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Krishna Murthy, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the company, said the positive numbers are the result of confidence of customers on the company and products.

Hyderabad-based Vishnu Chemicals manufactures chromic acid for the metals industry, and chrome oxide green and barium compounds for infrastructure applications.

(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], May 3 (ANI): China employs its overseas policing mechanism to target Chinese nationals, reported Indo-Pacific Center for Strategic Communications (IPCSC).

This illegal and extra-judicial international security apparatus - 102 Chinese Overseas Police Stations (COPS) --has its network in about 53 countries.

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These police stations are run as annexes under the control of the police organizations of the Chinese cities of Nantong, Wenzhou, Qingtian and Fuzhou. They are spread across all habitable continents and, in addition to countries subject to Chinese economic and political influence in South America and Africa, they are also present in countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, UAE, UK and US, reported IPCSC.

COPS are staffed by heterogenous groups from former police officials to high-ranking members of the diaspora without any position. Local diaspora not directly linked with COPS are used as informants and foot soldiers from time to time.

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Outwardly, they function through informal locations including local shops, restaurants, malls or apartments and also from external representation like small law firms or business associations and cultural entities having no direct link to the Chinese Embassy.

However, the hierarchy of a Centre-level Station, Service Stations and Liaison Posts is well established. These are headed by leaders of the overseas Chinese community who are loyal to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), reported IPCSC.

The COPS are overtly set up on the pretext of offering administrative services to overseas Chinese, much like consulates but lesser in scope and informal. However, their functions could include intelligence gathering and influence operations including scoping for international talent and recruitment, safeguarding BRI projects and employees (as in Pakistan) and exerting cultural and racial influence on overseas Chinese.

Some of these COPS are run with tacit consent and in certain cases such as Italy and Myanmar active cooperation of the host nation. Extradition treaties and Policing Cooperation Agreements form the statutory basis for the presence and activities of Chinese operatives in the host country, reported IPCSC.

However, the COPS process does not have the patience required for treaties and agreements to play out and, invariably, activities quickly take the form of passport cancellations leading to deportation, blackmail, kidnappings and in some cases even assassinations. The success of this enterprise has been tangible with 230 returnees in 2008-2009, 230 arrests in 2015, 283 in 2016, about 10000 returns as part of Operation Fox Hunt (official figures), 22 Kidnappings including in UAE and Australia, 395 Uyghurs repatriated, 2,30,000 people returned to China in case of the telecom fraud manhunt.

Assassinations, kidnappings and involuntary returns are driven by emotional blackmail. The phone call from your loved ones in China would highlight an alleged infraction of the law as an illegal, disloyal or treasonous act committed by you and bemoan about the shame as well as social and civic ostracisation that the extended family is enduring as a result of it. The pleading voice on the other end will request you to return to China and subject yourself to the law to make things right.

Concepts of sovereignty, legal jurisdiction, human rights and the due process lay prostrate in front of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) notions of self-aggrandisation and sense of justice, reported IPCSC.

According to Li Gongjing, a Shanghai police officer, who has been a part of China's involuntary return initiatives, you will invariably be persuaded to return to China after a twenty minutes conversation with your uninvited Chinese guests - about 57 per cent has. (ANI)

(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], May 3 (ANI): China's foreign minister Qin Gang on Tuesday visited the border area between Myanmar and China and stressed on advancing the cooperation between the two countries.

During an inspection tour in the China-Myanmar border area in Yunnan on Tuesday, Qin Gang emphasised the necessity to sincerely carry out the Chinese Communist Party's 20th National Congress's policies and uphold stability at the border region.

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He also stressed cooperation between China and Myanmar, and open up new prospects for border-related and Myanmar-related work.

The Chinese foreign minister also discussed issues to deepen practical cooperation in various fields including economy and livelihood.

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According to Qin Gang, Yunnan is at the forefront of efforts to advance China-Myanmar relations and plays a special role in this regard.

"Qin Gang called for efforts to manage the border between China and Myanmar based on the rule of law, strengthen the learning, publicity and implementation of the National Land Boundary Law of China, improve cooperation between the Party, government, military, police and civilians to strengthen the border security, maintain the clarity of the boundary line and stability of the border area, and crack down on cross-border criminal activities," an official release of Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

The Jiegao Border, the Mangman Passage of the Wanding Port, the comprehensive exhibit centre of the Ruili Demonstration Area, and border communities of "One Village, Two Countries" were also inspected by Qin Gang who is the Chinese State Councillor .

He also solicited feedback and suggestions from those working in primary-level units and on the front lines.

Qin Gang will also travel to India to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers' meeting that begins in Goa on May 4.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday that at the meeting Qin Gang will exchange views with other SCO member states' foreign ministers on the international and regional situation.

The SCO Foreign Ministers' Meeting will be held on May 4 and 5 in Goa.

"At the meeting, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang will exchange views with other SCO member states' foreign ministers on the international and regional situation and SCO cooperation in various fields, among other topics, to make full preparation for this year's SCO summit," the spokesperson said.

Qin Gang was appointed China's new Foreign Minister in December last year.

Qin Gang had met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in New Delhi and conveyed that the current state of the bilateral relationship was "abnormal" in the context of challenges especially that of peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

India and China have held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks for disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh following the actions of the Chinese Army which led to a standoff in May 2020.

China's Defence Minister General Li Shangfu also visited Delhi last month to attend the SCO Defence Ministers' meeting. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Paris, May 3 (AP) France's top constitutional body rejected on Wednesday a last-ditch effort by opposition lawmakers to undo President Emmanuel Macron's law to raise the retirement age to 64, deeming that a proposed bill doesn't meet the needed criteria.

It was the second time that the Constitutional Council has rejected the plan to restore the retirement age to 62, notably via a possible referendum or new bill. Had it passed muster, the process called for would be long and wouldn't stop Macron's law from taking effect.

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The council ruled that the proposed legislation doesn't address a required reform regarding social policy ... and therefore judges that it does not satisfy conditions set out in the French Constitution.

Opposition lawmakers, mainly from the left, wanted to launch a complex process in hopes of rejecting Macron's unpopular pension law that was enacted last month.

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The Constitutional Council's role was to assess whether the opposition's request meets the legal conditions for a potential referendum. Had it been accepted, supporters would have had nine months to collect signatures from at least 4.8 million, or 10%, of French voters.

Macron's government would then have been able to choose between sending the opposition's text to parliament for debate and eventually a vote, or waiting for six months to put the measure before voters in a referendum. The proposal would only have gone to a national referendum if it weren't debated by lawmakers.

The Constitutional Council rejected a similar proposal in April. The authors revised the measure to add language stating that a change in the financing of France's pension system is needed.

The process, established in 2015, has never yet led to a referendum.

A favorable ruling wouldn't have suspended the law that Macron's government pushed through by using a special constitutional power to raise the retirement age without a final parliamentary vote.

Macron has defended the reform, saying it's needed to keep the pension system afloat as the population ages.

The measure has prompted months of street protests from opponents who argue there are other ways to finance the pension system, including via a tax on the wealthy or employers instead.

For detractors of the retirement age increase, the battle continues despite the ruling.

A new bill aimed at repealing the retirement reform law is to be examined in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on June 8.

The leftist CGT union, among those leading more than a dozen nationwide protests against raising the retirement age, said defeating this unjust, unjustified and deeply unfair law can only come through continued mobilization. It renewed a call Tuesday by the country's main unions for another round of demonstrations and strikes on June 6. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jerusalem, May 3 (PTI) Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen will be visiting India next week in what is being seen as the build-up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to New Delhi later this year.

Cohen will be on a three-day visit to India from May 9 to 11 during which he will hold discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

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He will visit Mumbai for a day.

It is the third high-level visit by senior Israeli officials in less than three months, coming in quick succession after Knesset (Israeli parliament) speaker Amir Ohana's trip at the end of March-early April and also Economy Minister Nir Barkat's visit to India last month.

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Cohen will be accompanied by a business delegation. Collaboration in the field of innovation with a focus on agriculture and water management is likely to prominently feature in discussions during the Israeli foreign minister's visit.

He will also be advancing a consular agreement being worked out to bring Indian workers to Israel to work in the construction sector.

The high-level visits are being seen as a prelude to the much-anticipated visit of Prime Minister Netanyahu to India later this year.

In January, Modi invited Netanyahu to visit India at an early date.

His visit to India in 2019 during his previous stint as the prime minister was called off due to scheduling issues. Both sides were working on a plan for his visit to India in 2021 but that did not materialise as he was ousted from power in June that year.

Netanyahu came back as the prime minister in December after his Likud party formed a coalition with some other parties following the elections.

The 73-year-old political veteran was sworn in as Israel's prime minister on December 29 in a comeback at the head of a hard-right cabinet.

The ties between India and Israel have been on an upswing in the last few years in a range of sectors including defence, agriculture and water management.

(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, May 3 (AP) A bipartisan group of two dozen lawmakers is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to put the brakes on an initial public offering by Chinese fast fashion retailer Shein until it verifies it does not use forced labour from the country's predominantly Muslim Uyghur population.

Shein hasn't said whether it plans to go public this year, but some news outlets have reported in the past few months that the company is raising money in anticipation of a U.S. listing in the second half of this year.

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The letter also comes a few weeks after the launch of an anonymous coalition of "like-minded individuals and businesses called Shut Down Shein, which is aiming to increase scrutiny on the company in Washington and ultimately get it booted out of the U.S. marketplace.

Chapin Fay, a managing director at Actum, a consultancy firm that works with the group, said he's met with congressional offices to discuss Shein. Fay declined to disclose who funds Shut Down Shein," but said its members include American brands and human rights organizations.

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In the letter sent to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, lawmakers cited a Bloomberg report from November that said some garments shipped to the U.S. by Shein were made of cotton from China's Xinjiang region. They're asking the SEC to certify via independent verification" that the company does not use Uyghur forced labor.

We strongly believe that the ability to issue and trade securities on our domestic exchanges is a privilege, and that foreign companies wishing to do so must uphold a demonstrated commitment to human rights across the globe, lawmakers wrote in the letter.

Shein spokesperson Peter Pernot-Day said in a prepared statement that the company takes visibility across its entire supply chain seriously.

We are committed to respecting human rights and adhering to local laws and regulations in each market we operate in, Pernot-Day said. Our suppliers must adhere to a strict code of conduct that is aligned to the International Labour Organization's core conventions. We have zero tolerance for forced labor. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kyiv, May 3 (AP) Russia's defence chief on Tuesday urged a state company to double its missile output, as a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive looms and both sides in the 14-month war reportedly experience an ammunition crunch.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, speaking at a meeting with top military brass, said the state-owned Tactical Missiles Corporation had been fulfilling its contracts in a timely manner.

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But, Shoigu added, "right now it is necessary to double the production of high-precision weapons in the shortest possible time."

Analysts have been trying to figure out whether Russia is running low on high-precision ammunition, as its missile barrages against Ukraine have become less frequent and smaller in scale.

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The U.K. Defence Ministry noted in a Tuesday assessment that "logistics problems remain at the heart of Russia's struggling campaign in Ukraine."

"Russia does not have enough munitions to achieve success on the offensive," it said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday described Washington's latest estimate of Russia's losses in Ukraine as "spun out of thin air."

The White House said Monday it now estimated that Russia had suffered 100,000 casualties just since December, including more than 20,000 killed, as Ukraine rebuffed a heavy assault by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. estimate was based on newly declassified American intelligence. He did not explain how the intelligence community derived the number.

"Washington doesn't have the opportunity to give any correct numbers. They don't have such data," Peskov said.

Later Tuesday, the Ukrainian military reported that Russian forces launched 30 airstrikes, three missile strikes and eight attacks from multiple rocket launchers, resulting in casualties among the civilian population and damage to civilian infrastructure.

The General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces said Russia was continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraine's industrial east, focusing attacks around Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka in the country's Donetsk province.

The prosecutor's office in Ukraine's southern Kherson province reported that Russian shelling in the regional capital, also called Kherson, and several villages killed three people and wounded five.

Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, say they are readying their own counteroffensive  and stockpiling ammunition to sustain it along potentially long supply lines.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Monday that the "key things" for the assault's success were "the availability of weapons, prepared, trained people, our defenders and defenders who know their plan at their level, as well as providing this offensive with all the necessary things  shells, ammunition, fuel, protection, etc."

"As of today, we are entering the home stretch, when we can say: Yes, everything is ready,'" Reznikov said in televised comments.

In Russia's Bryansk region, which borders northern Ukraine, an "unidentified explosive device" derailed a freight train, Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said Tuesday evening.

Russian Railways confirmed that "illegal interference" caused 20 cars of the freight train to derail. No casualties were reported.

An explosive device also derailed a freight train in Bryansk on Monday.

There were no immediate indications who set off the explosives, but Bryansk has received sporadic cross-border shelling during the war. In March, two people were reported killed in what regional officials described as an incursion by Ukrainian saboteurs.

In recent months, amid winter weather, the conflict has become bogged down in a war of attrition that has depleted ammunition stocks.

The Kremlin's forces took aim at Ukraine's critical infrastructure with long-range strikes, while Kyiv zeroed in on Russian targets with precision artillery provided by its Western allies.

In February, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Ukraine was using up ammunition far faster than its allies could provide it.

According to some estimates, Ukraine was at that time firing up to 6,000-7,000 artillery shells each day, around a third of the daily amount that Russia was using almost one year into the war.

Sporadic nighttime Russian shelling continued to hit Ukrainian areas early Tuesday, officials said. At least seven civilians were wounded, authorities said.

As Ukraine's military prepares for a counteroffensive to take back Russian-occupied territory, Denmark said Tuesday that it was donating 1.7 billion kroner (USD 251 million) in aid to Ukraine, including mine clearance vehicles, munition, field bridges and money for air defences.

"We know that the Russians have entrenched themselves in the occupied territories of Ukraine with trenches, minefields and other obstacles to stop a Ukrainian offensive," acting Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said.

"The material in the donation package is important to pave the way for Ukrainian tanks and the armoured infantry in the front line."

Amid growing Russian influence in Africa, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visiting the continent twice this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that he had spoken with the chairperson of the African Union and President of the Comoros Azali Assoumani on Tuesday.

In the video update, Zelenskyy said he had invited Assoumani to join the implementation of Ukraine's "Peace Formula," and assured Assoumani that Ukraine was "ready to be a reliable guarantor of food security." (AP)

(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, May 3: The Supreme Court on Wednesday shot a volley of questions at the Centre in connection with the third extension of service given to ED Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra. A bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, "is there no competent person in the entire agency and can one person be so indispensable?" The bench, also comprising justices Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol, queried Mehta, "What will happen to the agency post-2023 when he does retire?"

The top court, in a 2021 judgment, had said that any extension of tenure granted to officers holding the post of director after attaining the age of superannuation should be for a short period, adding that no further extension will be given to Mishra.

Mehta submitted that Mishra's extension was vital for India's evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the next peer review of India's legislation on money laundering is to take place in 2023. Supreme Court Collegium Brushes Aside Intelligence Bureaus Objection, Recommends Parsi Lawyer As Judge for Bombay High Court.

Mehta contended that to ensure that the country's rating does not go down, continuity of the leadership in ED is crucial, added that "though no one is indispensable, in such cases continuity is required".

Mehta said, "We are not dealing with individuals, but with the performance of an entire country." Mehta also said that he has a serious objection with respect to the petitions filed by political persons whose party's senior functionaries are under investigation by the ED, saying that they have no locus standi in the matter.

Mehta said in one of the cases, the authorities had to get a cash counting machine because so much cash was recovered.

To this, the bench said that can a person being a member of a political party be a ground for not permitting him to file a petition? The top court will continue hearing the matter on May 8. The petitioners have challenged the third extension given to ED Director S.K. Mishra, and also the CVC Amendment Act 2021.

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that the PIL challenging the extension of Mishra has been filed with the intention of protecting Congress leaders, who are facing money laundering charges. Same-Sex Marriage: Centre Tells Supreme Court That Government Is Positive on Social Benefits for Gay Couples.

Pointing at the petitioners - Randeep Singh Surjewala (Congress), Jaya Thakur (Congress), Saket Gokhale and Mahua Moitra (both Trinamool Congress) - the affidavit said the eminent leaders of these parties are under the scanner of ED.

"It is respectfully submitted that certain leaders of the aforesaid political parties are under investigation by the ED. The investigation is strictly going on in accordance with law which is reflected from the fact that in most of the cases, either the competent courts have taken cognisance of the offence or constitutional courts have refused to grant any relief to such leaders of the above political parties," said the affidavit filed by the Centre in the apex court.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 03, 2023 10:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Serbian media have reported that the guard was killed in the shooting. Police gave no other details. Reports said terrified parents have arrived to the school trying to find their children.
San Francisco, May 3: Professional social networking platform LinkedIn has said that it is testing a new AI-powered personalised writing suggestions feature for job hunters, which will help write AI-based messages to hiring managers. LinkedIn Down: Users Report Issues Across Globe Including India As Microsoft Owned Social Media App Suffers Outage (Check Tweets).

The AI-powered writing suggestions feature is currently rolled out for the company's Premium subscribers. This new feature will generate brief, cover letter-like messages that candidates can send to hiring managers on the platform.

"Using generative AI with information from your profile, the hiring manager's profile, the job description, and the company of interest, we create a highly personalised draft message to get a conversation started," Ora Levit, Senior Director, Head of Core Growth + Premium at LinkedIn, wrote in a post.

"Customisation is still important, so take the time to review and edit the draft to make it your own and convey your voice, then send it onwards to the hiring manager, getting one step closer to your next opportunity," she added.

Additionally, the company said that this new feature is an extension to their recently released AI-powered writing tool for LinkedIn Profiles, which utilises existing content within a user's profile to create compelling Headlines and About sections.

In March, LinkedIn introduced a new feature called -- "collaborative articles", which will use "AI-powered conversation starters" to begin discussions between "experts" on the platform. The company will match articles with relevant members based on its skills graph, inviting them to contribute context, extra information, and advice for the articles. LinkedIn Hit by Scammers With Fake Recruitment Amid Massive Tech Layoffs.

The company believes the system will make it easier for people to contribute their perspectives because "starting a conversation is harder than joining one".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 03, 2023 05:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
A State Supreme Court jury has awarded a $100 million verdict to a local woman who was a victim of child abuse in what is believed to be the largest jury verdict in New York State for a lawsuit filed under the Child Victims Act, according to her lawyer.

Robert M. Corp of Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria law firm described his client, a Hamburg woman, as overwhelmed by the verdict and possessing a deep sense of appreciation toward the jury.

"She's a 26-year-old woman who endured this abuse from the time she was 12 until she was 16, and she has a clinical diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder," Corp said Tuesday.

"There's a lot of trauma here that we had an expert testify to at the trial and she's had difficulty talking about these events with other people. So it was a very hard day for her yesterday (Monday) to get up in front of a jury of strangers, of her peers and tell the story of the deepest, darkest moments of her life," he added.

According to court documents, the victim was sexually molested and assaulted from 2008 through 2012 by Joseph V. King of Buffalo, a man described as having been a close friend of the victim's family.

King was not represented by counsel when the trial commenced Monday, having fired his lawyer, Robert R. Radel, on April 20 and instructing him to take no further action the case. According to court documents, King was not represented by counsel from the inception of the case on Aug. 13, 2021, until he retained Radel's firm in January.

In January, Justice Daniel J. Furlong granted the plaintiff's motion for default judgment against King after he failed to appear in court.

King also was absent Monday when the jury rendered its verdict, awarding the plaintiff $30 million for past damages, $20 million for future damages and $50 million in punitive damages. Despite the immense sum, Corp said he was confident that he would be able to recover some amount of money for his client. According to Corp, King works for the state and earns an annual salary of $65,314.

"It may not be Jeff Bezos-level money, but he's making some money and we have the wheels in motion here to use our full toolbox to recover all possible sums that we can for our client," Corp said.

"The fact that the jury came back with this resounding verdict, I think, provided validation to my client that her community understands and recognizes what she's been through," he added, "and I think that it afforded a certain amount of closure for her and allows her to find some peace and solace as she tries to move forward, understanding that this is something that's going to affect her for the rest of her life."
From the Guardian

The KGB has adopted novel, brutal and apparently effective methods of dealing with terrorists who attack Soviet interests in the Middle East, an Israeli newspaper reported Monday.

The Jerusalem Post said the Soviet secret police last year secured the release of three kidnaped Soviet diplomats in Beirut by castrating a relative of a radical Lebanese Shia Muslim leader, sending him the severed organs and then shooting the relative in the head.

The incident began when four Soviet diplomats were kidnaped last September by Muslim extremists who demanded that Moscow pressure the Syrian government to stop pro-Syrian militiamen from shelling rival Muslim positions in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.

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The militiamen, the Jerusalem paper said, did not cease their attacks, and the body of one of the Soviet diplomats, Arkady Katkov, was found a few days later in a field in Beirut.

The KGB then apparently kidnaped and killed a relative of an unnamed leader of the Shias Hezbollah (Party of God) group, a radical, pro-Iranian group that has been suspected of various terrorist activities against Western targets in Lebanon.

Parts of the mans body, the paper said, were then sent to the Hezbollah leader with a warning that he would lose other relatives in a similar fashion if the three remaining Soviet diplomats were not immediately released. They were quickly freed.

The newspaper quoted observers in Jerusalem as saying: This is the way the Soviets operate. They do things--they dont talk. And this is the language Hezbollah understands.

Six Americans, missing for up to two years, are presumed to be kidnaping victims in Lebanon.
Times Staff Writer

The gate on Jim Schnicks neat little dairy farm is padlocked. The killings happened here and over at the Buckner place.

At first, everyone thought that 14-year-old Kirk Buckner had just gone berserk and killed his parents, his three younger brothers and Jim Schnicks wife. They had found the gun in Kirks hand as he lay dead on the floor of the Schnick home. Schnick said he had to kill the boy, his wifes nephew, to stop the rampage.

But now, Jim Schnick is in jail in Marshfield, the county seat, accused of all seven killings on that Sept. 25 morning.

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Having Schnick accused of the murders does not make for a tidy ending. True, Kirk Buckners name has been cleared. But Schnick was part of this community of 250 for a lot of years. He worked hard for the volunteer fire department, and Postmaster Jim Jacobs seemed to recall that he once had been a member of the Lions Club.

In a little town like this, everyone is sort of like a relative, Jacobs said. Everybody was kind of relieved to find out the boy didnt do it. Nobody really wanted to find out about Mr. Schnick, because he had a lot of friends, too.

The rolling country around Elkland is part of the Ozark foothills. At this time of year, the trees are beginning to turn and, at night, the thermometer dips to near freezing. Those who still work the land full time for a living, as the Schnicks and the Buckners did, mostly do so as dairy farmers. The Buckners, with four children, did not have much money left over after paying for the necessities.

When Webster County Sheriff Eugene Fraker drove down the gravel road to the Schnick farm that early morning, he saw two ambulances that had got there before him. Young Kirk Buckner was dead, and so was Schnicks wife, Julie. Schnick was bleeding from what appeared to be shots to the leg and abdomen.

Fraker noticed a couple of things, seemingly unimportant at the time, but relevant later.

He was overacting, Fraker said.

For one thing, he said, Schnick was thrashing about wildly, as if delirious from grief and his wounds. Two men had to pin his arms to the floor while a paramedic worked on him. And, when they both let go, Schnick continued to writhe but did not try to get up.

He was thrashing about, but it was like a little bantam rooster wanting to be held back from a fight, the sheriff said.

Suffered Flesh Wound

Another thing, Fraker said, was that Schnicks voice was very weak. That did not seem unusual then, but it did when the medical report came in. The shot to the abdomen was only a flesh wound.

A bullet in the leg doesnt make you lose your voice, Fraker said.

Of course, in all the excitement, he was not thinking about that at the time. After the other bodies at the Buckner home were discovered, the news media arrived in a swarm. It fell to the sheriff to comfort the senior Buckners, also dairy farmers here, who had lost a son, a daughter and four grandchildren.

It was not until Sunday, two days after the murders, that Fraker began to believe things were not as they appeared, when the evidence did not seem to fit together. Schnick, meanwhile, had done another unusual thing: His wounds had only been severe enough to warrant an overnight hospital stay, but he had told doctors he did not want to be released.

The sheriff called Sgt. Tom Martin of the Missouri Highway Patrol criminal division and asked for help.

I wondered when you were going to call, Martin said.

Plausible Explanation

The initial explanation that Fraker had put together and given to the press had seemed plausible. The boy, for whatever reason, had snapped. He had killed his mother, Jan, 36; brothers Dennis, 8, Timothy, 7, and Michael, 2; and his father, Steve, 35, whose 250-pound body he somehow moved three miles away to the Pleasant View Church cemetery. Then he had driven to the Schnick farm and killed his aunt before he was himself killed in a struggle with his uncle.

It was easy to believe the story that Kirk Buckner might have done it, said Gordon Nordquist, the editor and publisher of the weekly Marshfield Mail. I couldnt put it together any other way. It seemed like a believable tale.

Audie DeHart, principal of Marshfield Junior High, which Kirk had attended, said much the same thing: It looked like the boy did it. It looked pretty conclusive.

Shot and Stabbed

But Fraker was not so sure. For one thing, the autopsy report on Kirk showed that the boy had not only been shot through the heart but had been stabbed there as well. Either wound, the coroner told the sheriff, would have been almost instantly fatal.

As Fraker and Martin questioned Kirks friends and relatives, many stated adamantly that the boy could not have committed the murders. Some of his classmates said he had been acting strangely before the killing spree, but his closest friends said Kirk had been his usual self.

Then there was the question of finding the gun in his right hand, when Kirk was left-handed. And the problem of how a 90-pound boy managed to load his 250-pound father into a pickup truck and then dump him near the cemetery.

Neither police officer said anything to Schnick about all this. And the dairy farmer, having been released from the hospital, went to be looked after by the senior Buckners, who on the night of the killings had been taking care of the two Schnick daughters. Only after all the funerals had been held did Martin ask Schnick if he would take a polygraph test. Schnick agreed to take one the next Monday.

Got a Confession

Highway Patrol Sgt. Donny Smith came in from Poplar Bluff to administer the test. He got a confession from Schnick instead.

The question of motive is still something neither Fraker nor county prosecutor Don Cheever will discuss in detail. They will say only that it seems to involve a mix of things. For one, there was bad blood between Schnick and Steve Buckner. For another, there was a $50,000 insurance policy on Julie Schnicks life.

Loves a funny thing, Fraker said cryptically.

.22-Caliber Pistol

Cheever said that the working theory is that Buckner went to the Schnick house at about 4 a.m., armed with the .22-caliber pistol used in all the killings. There was a struggle. Buckner was killed and then dumped at the cemetery. Then the rest of the Buckner family was killed, the three younger boys apparently shot as they slept. Kirk Buckner was the only one dressed, probably doing chores, and police now say he may have died trying to save his family.

Julie Schnick is now presumed to be the last one to die, Cheever said.

Still, there is a cloud over this case, and answers may be hard to come by. Schnick confessed to the killings, Cheever said, but he really didnt explain why it happened.

I dont know if we will ever know exactly why it happened, he added.

Martin, though, still thinks it most important that the boy who was killed will not be branded a killer.

The most tragic thing would have been if we didnt clear Kirk Buckners name, he said.
From Reuters

Thousands of Pakistani Islamic scholars decreed Thursday that it is a must for all Muslims to join a jihad, or holy war, against Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region, organizers of a scholars convention said.

Jihad in Kashmir is the religious obligation of all Muslims, the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group said in a statement quoting a declaration issued by the convention.

The call--the first of its kind under the auspices of the group, which is fighting Indian rule in Kashmir--came as Pakistan dismissed remarks Wednesday by Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh that New Delhi would consider holding talks about talks with Islamabad.

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Lashkar-e-Taiba said more than 5,000 religious scholars attended the gathering at Muridke, in the central Punjab province.

The group said the convention was called to make it clear that jihad is a duty for all Muslims rather than any particular party and to assure support for militants fighting Indian forces.

India controls about 45% of Kashmir and Pakistan just more than a third of the region, which has been the focus of two of the countries three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947. China holds the rest of the territory.

Police and hospitals in the Indian-ruled part of Kashmir say more than 25,000 people have been killed in a decade-old separatist revolt there.
Since the 1966 epochal Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs helped cement the image of motorcycle clubs as a drug-addled danger to postwar society, the biker gang image has been largely defanged.

The Hells Angels are more likely to make news for suing the film Wild Hogs than the kind of drug-fueled bacchanalia for which they were once famous.

But Sunday's bloody confrontation in Waco, Texas, is a jolting reminder that some motorcycle gangs are still a violent force in some parts of the country.

This is not a bunch of doctors and dentists and lawyers riding Harleys, said Waco police Sgt. Patrick Swanton.

The Department of Justice has identified seven motorcycle clubs that it believes are highly structured criminal enterprises, many of them allied in one form or another against the best-known gang, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.

A Justice Department report classifies such organizations as outlaw motorcycle gangs, and federal law enforcement authorities are focused on their alleged drug activity and possible connections to Mexican cartels.

The Mongols

Mongols motorcycle club members are shown here. (U.S. Department of Justice) The Southern California-centered Mongols Motorcycle Club has earned a reputation for violence since taking Los Angeles area turf from the Hells Angels, according to the Justice Department.

A majority of the Mongols membership consists of Hispanic males who live in the Los Angeles area, and many are former street gang members with a long history of using violence to settle grievances, according to the report.

The Mongols have allied themselves with the Bandidos, Outlaws, Sons of Silence and the Pagans to compete for territory and members with the Hells Angels, the report says.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says it considers the Mongols the most violent motorcycle club.

The Bandidos

Photos of the Bandidos motorcycle gang are shown here. (U.S. Department of Justice)

The 900-member Bandidos Motorcycle Club is one of the two largest operating in the U.S., according to the Justice Department. The Bandidos are centered in the West and South.

The Bandidos are expanding in each of these regions by forming additional chapters and allowing members from supporting clubs, known as puppet or duck club members,' to join, according to the Justice Department report.

Such members wear the colors and patches of a small local club but do the "dirty work" of the larger "mother club," the government said. The smaller clubs can eventually become a new chapter of the larger club, in this case, the Bandidos.

The Outlaws

Photos of the Outlaws Motorcycle club are shown here. (U.S. Department of Justice)

The Outlaws Motorcycle Club has 700 members in 86 chapters and is centered in the upper Midwest, where they compete with Hells Angels for members. Some Outlaws chapter members have been accused of murder and kidnapping, and federal authorities say they believe much of the club's money is generated through the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine.

The Outlaws support club, the Black Pistons MC, was established as recently as 2002 but quickly expanded across the U.S. and into Europe. The Outlaws also use the Black Pistons chapters to conduct criminal activity, especially for the transportation and distribution of drugs, according to the federal report.

Hells Angels

Photos fo the Hells Angels Motorcycle club shown here. (U.S. Department of Justice)

The best known motorcycle club may no longer be the largest. The Hells Angels has 800 members and the Justice Department says it suspects that some members are leading extortion rings, committing murders and moving drugs.

The Pagans

The emblem of the Pagans Motorcycle club is shown here. (U.S. Department of Justice)

Primarily concerned with trafficking cocaine, methamphetamine and PCP, the smaller Pagans Motorcycle Club has 200 to 250 members who operate in 11 Mid-Atlantic states, according to the Justice Department.

The Pagans are tied to criminal enterprises in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and are connected to extortion rings, arson and murder, the government says.

Sons of Silence

The emblem of the Sons of Silence Motorcycle club is shown here. (U.S. Department of Justice)

Centered in the Midwest, the Sons of Silence are small but have a reputation for violence, according to the Justice Department. Numbering fewer than 250, the Sons of Silence have chapters in 30 states, and are dangerous enough that the Justice Department named them to its four motorcycle clubs of greatest concern.

[Sons of Silence] have been implicated in numerous criminal activities, including murder, assault, drug trafficking, intimidation, extortion, prostitution operations, money laundering, weapons trafficking, and motorcycle and motorcycle parts theft, according to the Justice Department.

Vagos

The emblem of the Vagos Motorcycle club is shown here. (U.S. Department of Justice)

Operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, the Vagos Motorcycle Club is active in the West and Southwest. Primarily concerned with the production and distribution of methamphetamine, Vagos members have also been charged with money laundering and insurance fraud, as well as more violent crimes, the Justice Department says.

The Cossacks

The Twin Peaks restaurant was the scene of a motorcyle gang shootout that left nine dead. The Cossacks gang was among as many as five gangs involved. (Erich Schlegel / Getty Images)

Though less is known about the Cossacks, one of the groups connected with Sunday's violence in Waco, they have a history with the Bandidos dating to at least 2013.

On Nov. 2, 2013, a fight broke out between the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs outside Logans Roadhouse in Abilene. Five men were injured. A grand jury later indicted two men on suspicion of assault. One of them was the leader of the Bandidos.

The Cossacks were not cited in the Justice Department report.
On 2 May Paraguays police chief Gilberto Fleitas said that at least 74 people had been arrested over violent protests which took place after Paraguayo Cubas, the populist third-placed candidate in the 30 April general election, alleged electoral fraud on his social media.

Analysis:

The protests, which took place in the capital, Asuncion, outside the electoral authority (TSJE), as well as other parts of the country, highlight deep polarisation following the election. This had produced a convincing victory for the ruling Asociacion Nacional Republicana-Partido Colorado (ANR-PC) and its presidential candidate Santiago Pena, who took 42.7% of the vote (to 22.9% for Cubas and 27.5% for Efrain Alegre of Concertacion para un Nuevo Paraguay). While many protesters are supporters of Cubas, who performed better than expected, Alegre and the fourth-placed candidate, Euclides Acevedo, have also questioned the result, calling for a recount. As well as the TSJE, foreign observation missions such as those of the Organization of American States (OAS) and European Union (EU) maintain the election was credible.

Fleitas said that there had been protests in various departments and numerous road closures, while clashes with the police left at least 10 police officers injured.

Also indicative of the disruption, the Asociacion de Transportadores del Interior del Paraguay (ATIP), an association grouping public transport companies in the centre of the country, announced yesterday that it was suspending services, citing a lack of guarantees for the safety of passengers and officials.

A preliminary report released yesterday by the OASs electoral observation mission (OAS/EOM) said it saw no reason to question Paraguays election results, citing the wide margin between candidates and the fact that it did not observe grave incidents [nor] interruptions in the processing of sensitive electoral information nor grave deficiencies in those guarding electoral material.

A report released yesterday by the EUs electoral observation mission said that it assessed the overall conduct of polling as good and described the process as transparent, albeit while highlighting that elections took place in a highly polarised environment where distrust in state institutions and political structures prevailed.

Looking Ahead: While yesterday the TSJE ruled out the possibility of fraud, Cubas has shown little sign of backing down while Alegre is calling for a manual recount of 10% of votes and an international audit of the computer programmes used in electronic ballot boxes.
On 2 May, representatives from the Colombian government and the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) guerrilla group began a third round of peace talks in Cubas capital Havana.

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In response to worries that tens of thousands of migrants may flood the country if Title 42 is lifted, the Joe Biden administration has authorized sending 1,500 active-duty US troops to the US-Mexico border in the coming days, sources told Fox News.

Two senior US officials who know the discussions say that the American troops will come from various active-duty Army groups and will serve for 90 days in mostly administrative and transport jobs. It will free up law enforcement and the Border Patrol.

National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby said that the deployment, which will last for 90 days, is consistent with past efforts to provide border support dating back to the George W. Bush administration.

The Department of Homeland Security requested the troops, according to the Pentagon, and they might come as soon as May 10.

The officials claimed the deployment of troops would be like the ones authorized by previous President Trump to the border. The troops would have weapons for self-defense, but they would not be helping law enforcement in any way.

READ NEXT: US Mexico Border Fire Update: Charges for Immigration Chief, Revealed

US Migrant Crisis

The fiscal year of 2021 had the highest number of unlawful border crossings into the United States since at least 1960. Another all-time high, 2.76 million, was reached last year, BBC noted.

CBP Director Troy Miller testified before Congress last month that his agency expects more than 10,000 migrants to cross the border every day when Title 42 expires, which is more than double the daily average in March.

To stop the spread of coronavirus, the United States government initially invoked Title 42 in early 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic began, allowing for the swift expulsion of anyone trying to cross its border with Mexico, including asylum seekers.

By mandating that adult asylum applicants use an app to organize a meeting with US authorities or first claim asylum in another nation before making the journey to the US, the Joe Biden administration has proposed a plan to make it harder for migrants to claim asylum.

CBP One, the associated mobile application, went live in the first week of January and will remain in operation regardless of Title 42.

If they do not comply, migrants will not be eligible when they reach the border, and authorities can deport them immediately.

Human rights organizations disapproved of the proposal and its rapid deportation of some migrants, including asylum seekers.

Another measure the White House has taken to minimize the number of undocumented migrants entering the United States is to declare last month that it will establish immigration processing centers in Latin America.

The centers will begin in Colombia and Guatemala, examining migrants to see if they meet US entrance requirements.

Republicans Slam Joe Biden for Lifting Title 42

Since taking office in 2021, Democratic presidential candidate Biden has dealt with unprecedented numbers of migrants apprehended while attempting to cross the US-Mexico border illegally.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has accused Joe Biden of softening his party's extreme views. On the other hand, Biden has been criticized by some Democrats and immigration advocates for taking a tougher stance on border security in recent years, Reuters reports.

Democratic senator and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez criticized Biden's decision to send soldiers.

Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said during a briefing that the 1,500 troops may arrive at the US-Mexico border as early as May 10.

He said the Pentagon is considering replacing active-duty troops with reserve members.

During a press conference, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador responded to questions about the deployment by saying that Mexico respects the United States' decisions because it is a sovereign nation.

There has been long-standing dissatisfaction among Pentagon leaders regarding military deployments to the border, with some officials privately contending that the humdrum chores are better suited for law enforcement authorities.

Immigration supporters have opposed previous attempts to send troops to the border.

"People seeking asylum should be met with humanitarian professionals, welcoming volunteers, and medical and mental health professionals. Not soldiers," tweeted Bilal Askaryar, interim campaign manager of the #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign.

READ MORE: Paraguay People Hope New President Santiago Pena Could Reboot Economy

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Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Biden administration sending 1,500 troops to US Mexico border - From CBS News
US debt default could be as early as June 1, if legislators fail to raise or suspend the nation's borrowing authority before then, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Yellen notified Congress about the possible US financial crisis in a letter, wherein she urged congressional leaders to "protect full faith and credit of the United States" through immediate action, as reported by Associated Press News.

Yellen said it would be impossible to predict when the certain date will be when the US runs out of cash.

There is also greater risk of the US running out of cash in early June, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.

CBO Director Phillip L. Swagel said that Treasury's "extraordinary measures will be exhausted sooner" than they previously projected.

It was due to the less-than-expected tax receipts this filing season, with a faster IRS having processed the received returns.

There are plans to increase borrowing during the April to June quarter despite the federal government closing to its debt limit.

READ NEXT: JPMorgan Chase Head Jamie Dimon Says Bank Is Preparing for U.S. Reaching Its Debt Limit As Lawmakers Race to Approve Spending Package

US Debt Default Impacts

CNN noted that a debt default does not mean all payments would stop. However, it will entirely depend on how long before there would be a response to the debt ceiling.

Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, noted that tens of millions of people across the country who expect payments from the federal government may not receive them on time.

In addition, US debt default could also affect Social Security payments. In a debt default situation, Social Security payments could be delayed.

Akabas said that it could be possible that the Treasury could continue making on-time payments through a trust fund.

U.S. investments would also take a direct hit. Stocks could shed as much as a third of their value even if the debt ceiling impasse is resolved soon after the debt default.

A debt default could also trigger an economic downturn, which could lead to a spike in unemployment.

Around one million jobs would be lost, including in the financial sector, if the US debt default persists for a week.

If it drags on for six weeks, more than seven million jobs would be lost, with the unemployment rate soaring above eight percent.

US Financial Crisis

Yellen wrote to legislators that they have learned from previous debt limit impasses that there could be serious harm to businesses and consumer confidence when it comes to "waiting until last minute" to address the matter.

Rachel Snyderman earlier told ABC News that the "clock is ticking" for them. He is a senior associate director of Bipartisan Policy Center for economic policy.

Snyderman made the comment referring to House having 12 legislative days left in May while being in recess this current week.

House Republicans previously argued that they will not raise the limit further without Democrats compromising on spending and the federal government's budget.

U.S. President Joe Biden declined and said it should be raised "without strings attached."

The US financial crisis occurred in the years 2007 and 2008, with home prices having already fallen in early 206.

Two big hedge funds failed in June 20017 and were weighed down by investments in subprime loans

It started with cheap credit and lax lending standards that triggered a housing bubble, which was then followed by "The Great Recession."

READ MORE: Social Security Payments Could Be Disrupted: Here's Why

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WATCH: U.S. Could Default on its debt by June 1 - from CBS Sacramento


Donald Trump's civil rape trial continues with more testimonies from witnesses brought about by plaintiff E. Jean Carroll. This includes Jessica Leeds, who testified under oath that Donald Trump molested her during a flight.

According to CNA, Leeds was called to testify during the trial by Carroll's lawyers to prove that the former president has "engaged in a pattern of sexual misconduct." In the run-up to the presidential elections in 2016, around a dozen women came forward and accused him of sexual misconduct.

During her testimony, Leeds told the jury that Trump placed his hand up her skirt while in the business class section of a flight to New York in 1978 or 1979. She stated that this happened out of the blue and without any conversation.

"He was trying to kiss me, grabbing my breasts," she added in her testimony. The 81-year-old first made that same allegation against the former president before the 2016 election, which Trump won. She went public after a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, where Trump refuted sexual assault allegations.

"I was furious because he was lying," Leeds recalled. However, Trump still denies all sexual misconduct allegations thrown at him, including Carroll's and Leeds's.

E. Jean Carroll Called Friend After Donald Trump Allegedly Raped Her

The lawyers for E. Jean Carroll also called Lisa Birnbach, a longtime friend of the former Elle Magazine columnist, to testify before the New York jury.

According to NBC News, Birnbach stated that in 1996, Carrol called her "minutes" after she was allegedly raped by Trump inside the Bergdorf Goodman luxury department store in Manhattan. Carroll allegedly told her friend, "You're not going to believe what just happened to me," and Birnbach added that "Her voice was doing all sorts of things."

READ MORE: Donald Trump Rape Trial to Move Forward After Judge Denies His Request to Delay

Birnbach testified that her friend sounded "breathless, hyperventilating," and "emotional." Carroll had reportedly told her that she had been shopping at the department store when she ran into Trump. He then accosted her in a dressing room and "penetrated" her.

"I said: 'Jean, he raped you. You should go to the police,' "she told the jury. However, she also claimed that Carroll did not want to go to the police and made her promise not to speak about the incident again. She kept that promise until they spoke about it again in 2019,

Donald Trump Will Not Testify in Own Rape Trial

Judge Lewis Kaplan asked lawyers from both sides for a forecast about the remainder of the case, with Trump attorney Joe Tacopina telling him that the defense only has one expert witness left.

ABC News reported that this made the judge ask Tacopina if his client, Donald Trump, was coming or not. To this, Tacopina replied that he is not coming and would not be testifying in this case.

"It's his call," the judge said. "I understand that. You understand that. He understands that."

At the start of the trial, Tacopina mentioned that Trump would decide on whether or not he would testify as the trial progressed.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Rape Case: Judge Allows Grab 'Em by the P*ssy' Tape as Evidence

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Trump assault accuser Jessica Leeds on taking the stand in E. Jean Carroll's Trump rape civil trial - MSNBC
A Florida woman was charged with battery after throwing wine at Rep. Matt Gaetz (R - Florida) during a food and wine festival on Saturday in Miramar Beach, Florida.

The controversial Florida Republican accused of being a pedophile who trafficked teens across state lines was attending the South Walton Beaches Wine and Food Festival, per ABC News. This was when the woman, who was identified by police as Selena Jo Chambers, spilled her drink at Gaetz.

The woman reportedly told investigators she tripped and accidentally spilled a drink on the congressman. However, witnesses to the incident said things happened differently.

The police report stated, "Representative Gaetz said Chambers and another female had been walking past him and his family cursing at them." The congressman reportedly believes that both women recognized him and knew that he is a United States Representative.

"Blaine Odom said he was speaking with Representative Gaetz and saw Selena Chambers swearing loudly at them. Chambers was carrying a drink in her right hand. Chambers thrust the container into the air and the beverage from the drink landed on Representative Gaetz and on Odom's right shoulder," said the police report, which also stated that Chambers flipped Gaetz off, with Odom also getting soaked.

The Florida woman admitted that she had been drinking, though she might also be facing charges from Odom.

READ MORE: Matt Gaetz Caught Pushing Chinese Propaganda, Gets Called Out by Pentagon Official

Matt Gaetz Questions Ron DeSantis' Motives on His Battles Vs. Disney

Gaetz is a known Trump supporter and defender, and his stances and political reactions have been controversial not just with Democrats but also with Republicans. With that, the Florida congressman took aim at Trump's chief Republican rival, Ron DeSantis, and his current feud with Disney.

According to Newsweek, Gaetz questioned whether DeSantis truly wanted to bring big corporations to heel or if it was part of a more cynical effort.

"The operative question in this whole saga between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Corporation is whether this is a true, sincere effort to crusade against corporate welfare, or whether it's just virtue signaling and professional wrestling," Gaetz said during his podcast.

Gaetz has been a very vocal critic of DeSantis as of late, even saying that he would advise the Florida governor not to run should his ally Donald Trump announce his candidacy.

Matt Gaetz Currently Working With Alexandria Ocasio Cortez on New Bill

Gaetz is surprisingly working on a bipartisan bill with leftist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York.

Axios reported that Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) introduced the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act on Tuesday, and it would ban members of Congress from trading stocks should it pass.

AOC stated that members of the House of Representatives being able to individually trade stocks "erodes the public's trust in government." She added, When Members have access to classified information, we should not be trading in the stock market on it. It's really that simple."

READ MORE: Republican Civil War Brewing? Matt Gaetz Turns on Marjorie Taylor Greene

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WATCH: Woman charged with throwing glass of wine at Rep. Matt Gaetz during event - WEAR Channel 3 News
After the death in March of Williamsville School Board member Teresa A. Leatherbarrow, 24 district residents applied to temporarily fill her seat until the election in May.

Leatherbarrow's board colleagues opted to leave her seat open. But the considerable interest in filling the vacancy foreshadowed the upcoming School Board race.

Williamsville changes course, decides to fill Leatherbarrow's board seat in May It was one of Teresa Anne Leatherbarrow's final wishes that her Williamsville Central School Board seat be filled, a board member said Tuesday. But the School Board voted 5-3 to leave the seat open until the annual board election May 16.

Fourteen candidates are campaigning for the four seats on the ballot.

"We appreciate the level of interest and excitement," Superintendent Darren Brown-Hall said in an email, "and look forward to continuing on a positive path forward through the end of the year and with whoever gets elected to the Board of Education."

Williamsville, widely considered a top area school district, has endured contentious debate in recent years.

Williamsville Central School District picking a new logo Parents, students, faculty and staff can cast their votes through the Williamsville Information Tracking System (WITS) portal.

A former superintendent was ousted. New, inclusive policies came under fire at School Board meetings. Even a new district logo drew criticism.

This month's election finds competing interests at play.

The Williamsville Teachers Association, whose endorsement can prove decisive, is backing two incumbents  but not Board President Susan McClary.

And the Williamsville Students First group, which formed during the pandemic to promote in-person learning, is supporting its own slate of candidates. The organization has injected controversy into the race by accusing a teacher-backed candidate  former Amherst Town Board member Mark Manna  of harassing Williamsville Mayor Deb Rogers one year ago at a school election polling place.

Manna denied wrongdoing and was never charged.

School leaders prepare for end of mask mandate, but questions and concerns remain Many school superintendents say the new requirements are being greeted with relief from many parents and staff, though some are concerned about the masks coming off so soon following winter break, when children may have had more exposure to Covid-19 due to travel.

"That is a year-old, frivolous, meritless police complaint," Manna said in an interview.

The lineups

This year, incumbents McClary, Michael Buscaglia and Crystal Kaczmarek-Bogner are seeking election to another three-year term.

The fourth spot on the ballot is for the remaining two years on Leatherbarrow's term. She resigned from the board effective March 6, five days before she died following a lengthy illness.

The School Board initially sought, and accepted, applications from candidates interested in filling Leatherbarrow's board seat through May. But a majority of board members reversed course because, they said, it wasn't necessary to fill the seat for just two months and it was unfair to grant one candidate the advantage of incumbency in the election.

Williamsville joins school districts in setting gender-neutral policies Local school districts have made an effort in recent years to ensure all students  including those who are transgender, nonbinary or gender nonconforming  are made to feel comfortable and included.

Of the 24 people who sought the temporary appointment, seven are running in this month's election.

Half of the 14 School Board candidates have won the endorsement of one or the other interest groups seeking to influence the outcome.

Williamsville Students First has endorsed Jonathan Rich, a leading member of the group; Saquib Ahmed, a professor of engineering technology at SUNY Buffalo State; and Melissa Rowland, a nurse with Kaleida Health.

The teachers' union has thrown its support behind Manna, a union representative with the United Food and Commercial Workers; Buscaglia, a social studies teacher in the Cheektowaga Central School District; Kaczmarek-Bogner, a former employee assistance program coordinator at the University at Buffalo; and Kerry L. Spicer, assistant vice president for student affairs at Daemen University.

Besides McClary, the other candidates are: Kayliee Bertrand-Henretta, Philip G. Danielson, Michael A. Heflin, Jason M. Miller, Endell J. Osuna and Brianne Williams.

Despite losses, national politics make inroads in school elections There was no question that school budgets were a big winner on Tuesday, as every proposal in Erie and Niagara County passed, as did 99 percent of spending plans across the state. National political issues did not score anywhere near the same kind of resounding victories in Western New York school board elections Tuesday, but candidates challenging incumbent school boards and administrations did make some inroads.

Atypical interest

It is not clear why so many candidates are running. Last year, for example, five candidates sought three board seats.

Is Williamsville successfully engaging with stakeholders or, conversely, are constituents concerned about the direction of the district?

One of the things weve worked hard to do is increase engagement and increase interest, Rich said. I do think there is a feeling that there needs to be change, and I do think that more parents feel that they could be a vehicle for that change.

The district has had challenges.

Williamsville teacher fired over 'insensitive' homework sues to get job back Karen Hamm brought legal action to overturn a decision to terminate her over an assignment that asked students to translate into Spanish a series of phrases that included the words "Mexican and ugly" and "pretty and American."

Parents and board members frustrated with the poorly planned return to the classroom during the Covid-19 pandemic spurred the removal of former Superintendent Scott Martzloff.

New gender-identity and diversity policies meant to make the district more inclusive to students and other community members drew vocal objections at School Board meetings.

The redesign of the district's logo also sparked criticism on the Students First Facebook page, which advocated to keep the existing one.

McClary has served as School Board president since last year. She said she doesn't know why the Williamsville Teachers Association declined to back her for re-election, but she stands by her record.

"I really just feel that my experience, in all the aspects of participation in board activities, will serve the community well as we continue to move forward," McClary said.

Union President Michelle Licht did not respond to a request for comment.

Lines drawn

As is the case in other districts, endorsement decisions by the teachers' union can sway elections.

The other group seeking to play a role in the race is an outgrowth of the Western New York Students First organization.

Williamsville Students First members have expanded their focus from in-person learning during the pandemic to take on a wider range of issues, including many that are part of the culture wars being waged in schools nationwide.

Critics say the group's Facebook page frequently hosts bias-filled speech. Group leaders say they simply want parents to have more of a voice in their children's education.

One of our goals is to get better people on the board and get more people involved," Rich said. "The other goal is to get higher voter turnout.

In the past two elections there was overlap between the Students First group and the teachers union in their candidate endorsements.

In 2022, the WTA's three candidates, including two also backed by Students First, won the election. One year earlier, the groups jointly backed one victorious candidate, while one teacher-backed candidate and one Students First-backed candidate also won.

There is no overlap this year.

Not surprisingly, the election debate is playing out on the Williamsville Students First public Facebook page, where Rich criticized the teachers union for backing Manna in spite of a complaint made to Amherst police one year ago.

After a term with political drama, Williamsville Mayor Deb Rogers decides not to seek re-election "I was just brave enough to state what a lot of people were thinking in elected office but were too afraid to say," Rogers said.

The incident took place May 17, school election day, outside the polling place at Williamsville North High School between Manna and Rogers, the Williamsville mayor, according to a police report posted to the Facebook group and interviews with them both.

Rogers said she was there as a volunteer and district parent handing out material promoting Students First candidates. Rogers ended up in front of Manna and introduced herself.

Manna said he knew who Rogers was and denounced remarks she had made at a recent Village Board meeting in opposition to a state public health mandate.

Rogers said Manna leaned in toward her, making her feel uncomfortable, and repeatedly cursed at her. Manna denied swearing at her during the exchange, calling the accusation "a complete and utter lie."

An Amherst police officer took Rogers' complaint as a possible case of harassment, but Manna never was charged.

Rogers said the incident demonstrates Manna lacks the temperament to serve on the School Board and she resents any suggestion that her outspokenness makes her fair game for this type of abuse.

"His behavior and his lack of self-control is the story here. Not what Deb Rogers put on Twitter, OK?" she said. "Because I talked to hundreds of people that day, and not one person came at me like he did."

Manna said he did nothing wrong and he blamed politics for the report coming out during the board election.

"I mean, as soon as somebody politely, but directly, tells Deb what they think of her she turns into 'Mayor Karen' and wants to complain to the manager," Manna said.

District residents met the candidates at a forum on Thursday.

The School Board and school budget votes take place on May 16.

News Staff Reporter Barbara O'Brien contributed to this report.
The fighting between some of Mexico's feuding drug cartels in the border city of Matamoros intensified as they blocked off several roads on Tuesday.

The warring cartel members used other cars to block traffic as they continued their feuds against one another. This includes cartel gunmen forcing middle-school students off a school bus at gunpoint and using it to blockade the road. The children were reportedly unharmed, according to police.

This happened around a dozen points across Matamoros, which is found right across Brownsville, Texas. Gunmen reportedly carjacked cars and forced drivers and passengers off as they used the vehicles to block roadways.

However, the Associated Press reported that officials quickly cleared the roads on Tuesday morning. There was one reported death, though it was not related to the drug cartels' blockades, according to official Mexican reports.

Tamaulipas state officials said that these blockades were caused by battles between two rival cartels. State police chief Sergio Hernando Chavez spoke at a news conference and stated there was "a confrontation between rival organized crime groups."

However, they did not officially identify which of the cartels operating in the area were responsible for the blockades. The most likely is the Gulf Cartel, which was responsible for the kidnapping of four Americans and the deaths of two of them earlier this year.

Matamoros is known to be their stronghold, and it has long dominated the city. The cartel is reportedly allied with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) right now, and infighting within the cartel has made it splinter into different factions.

READ MORE: Mexico Kidnapping: Gulf Cartel Blamed for Tragic Attack on 4 Americans

Matamoros and the Gulf Cartel

While the Gulf Cartel usually lived in the shadows of its more infamous counterparts, like the CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel, the kidnapping of the four Americans placed a spotlight on them and their activities in Matamoros.

The attack on the Americans was reportedly made by the Scorpions faction of the deadly drug cartel, though it may have been a case of mistaken identity as the cartel members reportedly thought that the victims were Haitian drug mules.

The cartel has had a strong grip on Tamaulipas state, though it has soon splintered into rival factions after their leaders fell to authorities both in the United States and in Mexico.

After Gulf Cartel leader Jose Alfredo Cardenas Martinez, also known as "The Accountant," was arrested, his replacement, Jose Alberto Garcia Villano, took over the operations in Matamoros. Garcia Villano, the alleged leader of the Scorpions faction, is reportedly linked to the kidnapping of the four Americans, according to Insight Crime.

Life Under Control of a Deadly Drug Cartel in Matamoros

Things have changed in Matamoros, with things growing even more violent through the years with the drug cartels slowly taking over. According to NPR, the members of the cartel, as called "old men" and citizens, do their best to get out of their way in Matamoros.

Several NPR guests have pointed out that the Gulf Cartel controls a lot in Matamoros, including the sales of cigarettes, as well as chicken, eggs, avocadoes, and beer. "For example, they came to your shop and say you cannot sell cigarettes," said one guest, with another adding, "They told shopkeepers, if you want to live, you can buy only the cigarettes we sell you, and at this price."

READ MORE: Mexico Kidnapping: Mourners Gathered for American Man Killed by the Gulf Cartel

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Cartel seemingly turns over its own members after kidnapping of 4 US citizens l GMA - Good Morning America
Law enforcement officials confirmed that the Texas man wanted for killing five people on Friday night has been arrested near the crime scene.

Suspect Francisco Oropesa, 38, fled the scene after killing five neighbors, which prompted law enforcement agencies to launch a massive manhunt over more than three days, NPR reported.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said Oropesa had been taken into custody on Tuesday evening "without incident." San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told the media that Oropesa was found hiding in a closet underneath a pile of laundry.

Authorities took the Texas man to Montgomery County Jail. Capers noted that Oropesa will be transferred to a facility in San Jacinto County.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Houston assistant special agent in charge Jimmy Paul said Oropesa was located after the FBI received information on their tip line.

Authorities had an $80,000 reward for information leading to the suspect's arrest and placed more than 250 officers on the case. Oropesa is currently being held on five counts of murder and a $5 million bond, according to the sheriff.

READ NEXT: Texas Woman Sarah Hartsfield Accused of Murdering Husband With Insulin Poisoning

Texas Man Francisco Opresa Arrested After Manhunt

The Washington Post reported that Francisco Oropesa was arrested by a team from the U.S. Marshals, U.S. Border Patrol's tactical unit, and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Lucia Guzman, the aunt of one of the victims, said Oropesa took everything from them, and now they are "living a nightmare from which we'll never wake up."

Guzman noted that the arrest "will never erase" what the suspect did to their family, but at least they can hope for some justice.

Law enforcement officials first believed that they had cornered the suspect after he allegedly fled the scene on Friday night from the home where several members of an extended family were killed.

Search dogs then lost his scent, with the FBI Houston office later saying that the Texas man "could be anywhere."

During the early search, officials found Oropesa's cell phone, pieces of clothing, and the gun they believed was used in the shooting. However, they were unsure whether he had another weapon, prompting them to believe he was "armed" and "dangerous."

Texas Man Shot Family Dead

The killings occurred in the Trails End area of Cleveland town. Some residents said neighbors often unwind by firing off guns. Capers noted that the victims were believed to be from Honduras.

The victims have been identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; her son Daniel Enrique Laso, 8; Josue Jonatan Caceres, 18; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; and Julisa Molina Rivera, 31.

The sheriff said the victims were shot "from the neck up," the Associated Press reported. Capers noted that there were 10 people in the house, with some members having just moved there earlier in the week.

The sheriff said two of the victims were found in a bedroom lying over two children in what seemed to be an attempt to shield them.

Meanwhile, a Fort Worth man and his family are living in fear after the FBI's wrongful release of his photo online amid the manhunt for Francisco Oropesa in the Trails End area.

New York Post reported that the agents corrected their error, but the family said damage was done. The man's sister-in-law noted that the family already received death threats.

READ MORE: California Man's Death Marks Second Fatal Davis Park Stabbing in 4 Days

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Video: Texas Mass Shooting Suspect Taken Into Custody - From KHOU 11
A 64-year-old California homeless woman is now fighting for her life after she was violently attacked in her tent near 2nd Street in Davis City on Monday night, police said.

The latest incident was the third stabbing in Davis in a week. The first two victims died. FOX2 reported that the Davis Police Department has not yet linked the three stabbings, and no arrests have been made.

Police Chief Darren Pytel said it appeared that the victim was inside her tent when "the suspect came up and stabbed her through the sidewall of the tent."

He added: "There were many and very significant knife wounds." The California homeless woman reportedly remains in critical condition at the hospital.

People familiar with her and those who reside in the area's encampments are concerned about this matter, especially since the suspect is still at large.

Meech, an unhoused inhabitant, said: "It seems like this person is getting a fixation or getting some kind of kick out of what he's doing," adding that the California homeless woman did nothing to anyone to deserve to be stabbed.

After speaking with four eyewitnesses, including the victim, and posting an image of a potential suspect in the attack on Monday, Pytel noted that investigators had received hundreds of leads.

"The suspect has been described as young and even college aged... [But] we don't know whether the suspect is a UC Davis student," he said.

READ NEXT: California Man's Death Marks Second Fatal Davis Park Stabbing in 4 Days

Davis Fatal Stabbings in California

David Henry Breaux, 50, a frequent visitor to Central Park, was named the first victim. Davis police responded to a call of a man discovered unconscious in the park on April 27.

Emergency responders found Breaux with several stab wounds, and he was later pronounced dead, Fox40 reported. According to Pytel, there were no eyewitnesses to the crime and no available surveillance footage.

Breaux had been a Davis resident since 2009 and was known in the city as the "Compassion Guy," police said.

Breaux would often meet and talk to passers-by on a busy corner in downtown Davis, asking them for their thoughts on compassion. As he became popular, the city installed a bench in Breaux's corner in 2013 called the "Compassion Bench."

On April 29, a concerned individual contacted 911 to report a disturbance in Sycamore Park, about 1.5 miles northwest of Central Park.

The caller said before calling 911, he went outside to find out what happened and found a man who appeared to have been stabbed numerous times.

The victim, a male in his early 20s, was found by police, and emergency workers pronounced him dead at the scene. Authorities identified the second victim as UC Davis student Karim Abou Najm, 20.

According to Pytel, there was a single witness who "exchanged some words" with the suspect before he fled.

Police Still Looking for the Davis Stabbing Suspect

After conducting a "detailed search" of downtown overnight, Davis police officers could not find the suspect, the department noted. According to CNN, residents were told to remain vigilant of their surroundings even if the shelter-in-place order was lifted.

City officials described the suspect as a light-skinned, thin man with curly hair between 5'6 and 5'9 tall. He was wearing a black or blue sweatshirt, and white-striped black pants, carrying a brown backpack.

According to Pytel, the description of the suspected attacker now matched the assailant in two of the recent stabbings.

Davis police said in a press release on Sunday that the suspect was a light-skinned man between 19 and 23 years old who may be a 5'7 to 5'8 tall Hispanic with long, loose, curly hair.

Pytel noted that the investigation focused on analyzing the physical evidence while examining the tips that quickly poured in after police described the suspect.

In a news conference on Tuesday, Pytel said, "We are looking for DNA that will help us find the offender," adding that physical evidence has already been sent to crime labs to identify a similar pattern.

READ MORE: CashApp Founder Bob Lee Stabbed to Death in California

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Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: 3rd Stabbing in Davis Leaves Victim in Critical Condition - From KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
African slaves developed the Afro-Brazilian religion called Candomble in Brazil during the 19th century. Brazil is one of the countries in the Latin America region with the largest black African populations in the world, following Nigeria.

More than half of the citizens of Brazil define themselves as black or mixed-race, called as Afro-Brazilian, NPR reported.

As a result, Afro-Brazilian cultural practices have influenced the Brazilian society, including its music. Samba and rap are examples of black culture now seen in Brazil.

Some of the Afro-Brazilian culture experienced in Brazil are manifested in its festivities, such as Carnaval and the martial arts Capoeira.

READ NEXT: Colombia: 5 Famous Religious Sites to Visit

Afro-Brazilian Religion Candomble in Brazil

The history of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble started with the first arrivals of slaves from the Congo, Angola, and Mozambique, who were known to worship ancestral spirits, in 1570.

Some slaves managed to escape. It resulted in some communities being created and coming into contact with other native Brazilian Indian elders and witch doctors, according to Pilot Guides.

These elders and witch doctors took part in joint sessions and as a result the two parties received both Indian and African spirits. They also shared each other's myths and knowledge of medicinal herbs.

Slaves from Nigeria, Benin, and Togo were brought to Brazil following the smallpox plague in Angola, resulting in more African cultures incorporated into Brazil's culture.

Candomble is developed in Salvador in Brazil's Bahia state but is practiced in different forms throughout South America and West Africa.

The Afro-Brazilian religion is considered to be one of the fastest-growing and most popular religions in Brazil, with ceremonies being conducted in the Yoruba language of West Africa.

The said religion combines the beliefs of African tribes and Brazilian Indian witch doctors.

Candomble Beliefs and Practices

Those who practice the Afro-Brazilian religion believe that there is one all-powerful god, supplemented by lesser deities. Individual initiates have their personal guiding deity, who can act as both an inspiration and protector.

In Candomble, there is no concept of good or evil but only believes in individual destiny. Women practicing this religion wear traditional dress, which is white, multi-layered skirts, and headscarves,

According to Britannica, the color white is a symbol of the spiritual teachings of the Candomble faith. The bright traditional dress also symbolizes the liberation from foreign rule and slavery.

The religion believes there is a greater chance of the goddess being present at high tide, with her presence often felt near the lighthouse, where she is said to seduce local fishermen.

Candomble believers also perform a ritual dance in the temple, wherein both the male and female dancers smoke cigars to honor their Native American ancestors who were familiar with tobacco consumption.

Iya Nasso, who was half-Nigerian and half-Brazilian, first founded the first Candomble temple in the 19th century in Salvador.

The group leader is a black woman who communicates with spirits through divination, per tradition.Candomble was first suppressed in the 19th century and only practiced openly until the 1970s.

READ MORE: Maya Civilization's Surprising Contributions to the Modern Latin America

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Brazil Religion: Candomble and Umbanda Worshipers Under Attack - From TRT World




The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is facing a new lawsuit, demanding the department to release the immigration records of Prince Harry to see if he lied about his drug use so he could enter the U.S.

According to Fox News, the DHS' lawsuit cited suspicions that the administration of President Joe Biden allowed the Duke of Sussex to enter the U.S. despite his admission to illegal drug use.

Drug use is usually a factor that would deny other people entry to the U.S. The Heritage Foundation filed the lawsuit on Monday, arguing that the DHS has failed to follow with previous requests for documents related to their decision to let Harry stay in the U.S.

The release of such document was requested through the Freedom of Information Act after the release of Harry's best-selling memoir "Spare." In his memoir, he admitted to using cocaine, psychedelics, and marijuana.

READ NEXT: Meghan Markle Feels 'Excluded' as Palace 'Is Only Fighting for Prince Harry' to Attend King Charles III Coronation

U.S. Visa Application of Prince Harry

The plaintiffs noted that the continued media coverage about the duke had sparked a question of whether the DHS has properly admitted Prince Harry after publicly admitting to drug offenses in the U.S. and abroad.

New York Post reported that it was also being questioned whether the duke's status in the country should be reevaluated.

Neama Rahmani said Harry should never have been granted entrance to the U.S. in the first place. Rahmani is a legal expert and former federal prosecutor.

She noted that an admission of drug use "is usually grounds for inadmissibility." Another expert argued that the duke should be in the clear as he was never criminally convicted of any drug-related charges.

The expert added that Harry did nothing to prompt DHS to investigate his status. The Heritage Foundation also noted that the issue could be beyond the case of the duke.

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, moved to Los Angeles in 2020 after deciding to step down from their royal duties.

Meghan Markle's Relationship with Father

Meghan Markle's father has once again released his opinion against his daughter. Thomas Markle Sr. told 7News Spotlight he would not let his daughter "bury" him while he is still alive.

Thomas noted that he suffered a stroke last year and was "disappointed" that the Duchess of Sussex did not reach out, The Independent reported.

He added that if Markle does not turn up for a stroke, "if that doesn't move her," he does not know what would. Thomas' statement came after Harry wrote in his tell-all memoir that his wife was "mourning the loss of her father."

In the interview, Thomas said, "She killed me and then mourned me... I refuse to be buried by her."

Markle's relationship with his father has been complicated, and it reportedly started after Thomas collaborated with the paparazzi to stage some photo shoots before Markle's wedding to Harry in 2018.

Thomas did not attend his daughter's wedding. He also leaked part of one of her daughter's private letters to a media outlet in 2018.

READ MORE: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Royal Titles Could Be 'In Danger' With New Monarch as King Charles - Royal Expert

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: New Lawsuit Demands Drug-Taking Prince Harry's U.S. Visa Records be Released - From Sky News Australia




A Newfane man is accused of stealing more than $230,000 in deposits from local property owners for home improvement projects that he never performed, according to information in a 15-count unsealed indictment released by the state Attorney General's Office.

Nathaniel Wagner, 40, was arraigned before Niagara County Court Judge Caroline Wojtaszek and charged with 12 counts of third-degree grand larceny, two counts of second-degree grand larceny and one count of first-degree scheme to defraud. The charges are the result of a joint investigation by the Criminal Enforcement and Financial Crimes Bureau of the the Attorney General's Office and the State Police following numerous complaints by local homeowners, which were addressed in a joint statement released by Attorney General Letitia James and acting State Police Superintendent Steven Nigrelli.

"Instead of fulfilling his promises and doing the work he was paid to do, Nathaniel Wagner allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting homeowners to line his pockets," James said.

Nigrelli added: "May this indictment serve as a reminder that we will not tolerate these types of fraudulent practices and hold accountable those who prey on innocent people."

The indictment accuses Wagner of fleecing more than a dozen homeowners in Western New York between December 2019 and July 2022, during which time he reportedly advertised his services on Facebook under his business, Wagner Built Construction, offering to build and install barns, garages and decks.

Investigators said Wagner solicited from his clients large deposits upfront for the home improvement work he was supposed to perform, but never performed the work. They said he also failed to deliver materials that he claimed to have purchased with the deposits, and refused to issue refunds to homeowners.

After one homeowner became suspicious following delays and excuses, Wagner reportedly went so far as to create fraudulent invoices of fake purchases from a reputable business in order to conceal his crime, authorities said. Wagner also attempted to appease unhappy customers by delivering to their homes minimal materials, which often turned out to be unusable, the incorrect item, and/or damaged goods. However, Wagner never returned to their homes to start construction work, investigators said.

Homeowners who believe they have been victims of his scheme and want to file a complaint against Wagner are encouraged to contact Attorney General's Office.
PNC Bank closed two New Jersey branches located inside Stop & Shop grocery stores.

The PNC banks at the Stop & Shop locations in Pohatcong Plaza on Route 22 and Flemington on Route 31 closed April 21, according to WFMZ.

The Pohatcong Plaza branch merged with the PNC at 755 Memorial Parkway in Phillipsburg. Meanwhile, the Flemington location merged with the branch at 240 U.S. 202/31.

PNC closed these two supermarket locations as part of a master plan to close about 127 branches located inside grocery stores.

The closings come as PNC is looking to consolidate their offerings as more people use their mobile phones for banking.

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Two Lehigh Valley firefighters killed last year in a three-alarm house blaze will be among those honored this weekend at a national memorial service for firefighters who died in the line of duty.

Marvin Gruber, 59, and Assistant Fire Chief Zachary Paris, 36, both members of the New Tripoli Fire Company Station 17 in Lehigh County, died in a Dec. 7 fire in West Penn Township, Schuylkill County.

They are among 144 firefighters who will be memorialized at the annual service for fallen firefighters Sunday at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation said the 144 include 79 firefighters who died in the line of duty in 2022 and 65 firefighters who died in previous years.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is scheduled to speak at Sundays memorial service, where each family is presented with an American flag that has flown over the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial and the U.S. Capitol, a badge, and a rose.

Each firefighters name will be inscribed on a bronze plaque and become a permanent part of the memorial.

The NFFF will livestream the candlelight service at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 6, and the memorial service at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 7 on its website here, YouTube channel here, and Facebook page here.

Gruber and Paris were remembered as dedicated fathers and public servants at their public service at Northwestern Lehigh Middle School in Heidelberg Township.

Gruber began volunteer firefighting in the 1980s with the Lynnport Community Fire Co. No. 1 and worked at Northampton Community College for 22 years, the last 15 in the schools Department of Public Safety.

When he was 15, Paris became a junior firefighter in Berks County and joined the New Tripoli Fire Co. in 2010. He was also a career firefighter and EMT in Marylands Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue.

On the afternoon of Dec. 7, a fire with entrapment was reported at a single family home in the 1100 block of Clamtown Road in West Penn Township, Pennsylvania State Police previously said.

The two people who were home at the time of the fire were able to get out safely, but a third person, a man who also lived there, was found deceased in the back of the property, authorities previously said.

Gruber and Paris became trapped during the fire and died from injuries.

The county coroner has said the manner of death is pending the police investigation into the blaze, and the fire is being investigated as suspicious.

The man found on the property had a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities previously told WFMZ-TV 69.

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Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.
A teen driver suffered serious injuries Monday evening when his car left the roadway, crashed into a parked vehicle and overturned in Forks Township, police said.

Township police acting Chief Michael C. Friel told lehighvalleylive.com the single-vehicle crash happened at 8:17 p.m. in the 1900 block of Bushkill Drive. The driver was headed south along Bushkill Drive in a 2012 Hyundai when he crossed into the northbound lane for an unknown reason, the acting chief said.

He then struck a parked work van and trailer, as well as damaged nearby property, before the car came to rest on its roof, Friel said. The teen was taken to an area hospital, where he was listed in serious condition Tuesday morning, Friel said.

There were no passengers or any other reported injuries, the acting chief said.

The crash remains under investigation by the Forks Township Police Department.

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A former GP has received a fully-suspended sentence of one years imprisonment for the possession and distribution of sexually explicit images of two children.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Ronan Keogan (51) was involved in thrill-seeking behaviour, was meeting many women for sex and had sent and received naked photos to and from many women of all ages.

The offending came to light after a woman who Keogan was meeting for sex went to gardai reporting that Keogan had sent her a sexually explicit image of a child and told her this girl is 15. He later told gardai the girl was aged 17.

When gardai searched his computer they found 383 folders of images of women on his phone, containing 10,000 images in total. Three of these images depicted a child in a sexually explicit position, one of which he had sent to an adult woman he was meeting for sex.

Keogan of College Square, Terenure pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly distributing child pornography at an unknown location within the State on March 26, 2017. He also pleaded guilty to one count of possessing three child pornography images at an address in Templeogue, Dublin, on May 15, 2017.

The married father-of-two has no previous convictions and has not come to the attention of the gardai since 2017.

During a garda interview, Keogan said anyone he has had sexual contact with was at or above the age of consent. He said he would not knowingly engage in sexual activity with someone not capable of giving consent.

Det Gda Byrne agreed with Lorcan Staines SC, defending, that at the time, his client was in his mid-forties and a GP who ran his own practice. He was an employer in the community, a very well-respected man in the community, and a married father.

The garda agreed with counsel that he had the task of trawling through all of Keogans devices and that there was a much different man behind the scenes compared to this outward persona.

Mr Staines said his clients marriage had broken down. He said his client had a huge appetite for sexual activity and was active on many online dating websites.

He said he was also suffering from stress due to a pending inquest. He was also under the care of a doctor and taking medication for anxiety and depression.

Mr Staines said his client was involved in thrill-seeking behaviour and was meeting many women for sex. Counsel said his client sent and received naked photos to and from many women.

The court heard that the sexually explicit image sent to the woman on Kik was a selfie taken by the girl in the image with no suggestion of any violence in the image. Two other images found on his phone were also selfies taken by the girl.

Mr Staines said his client's behaviour ultimately cost him everything. He has now been removed from the Medical Council, his practice has closed and he will never practice as a doctor again, all due to his own actions, counsel said.

He has also lost all forms of income and his practice was also previously vandalised due to media coverage, Mr Staines told the court. He asked the court to take into account that this was the lowest level of offending compared to what the court was used to dealing with.

After hearing evidence last month, Ms Justice Patricia Ryan adjourned the case to today (Wednesday) for sentencing.

She said that the evidence before her was that the images were at the low level in terms of child pornography, and didn't appear to involve any other persons. She said the images and the conversation with the woman amounted to child pornography, under the law.

She said the court had to take into consideration the personal circumstances of the defendant, including the fact that he was suffering from depression and was taking medication for anxiety. She noted that the tragic death of a patient had had a very bad effect on him at the time of the offending.

She noted the effect of the conviction on the defendant's career, his income, his professional and personal reputation, as well as on his marriage and his family relations.

She said there was nothing in the prosecution case that suggested Keogan had abused his position as a GP to carry out the offending. She noted that the prosecution was able to rely on Keogan's own admissions that the girl in one of the pictures was 15.

She imposed a one year prison sentence and suspended it on condition that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for that period. The judge said Keogan had already received a significant punishment as a result of the convictions, noting also that he would now be a registered sex offender.

When the case first came before Dublin District Court lawyers defending Keogan applied for an order restricting publicity of the case. In response to a query from a journalist, a State solicitor told the court the order should not be in place.

The gagging order remained in place when the case went to the Circuit Court. Following an informal query from a journalist and formal applications from lawyers acting on behalf of Mediahuis, RTE and other media outlets, the order was lifted.

Detective Garda Stephen Byrne told Eoin Lawlor BL, prosecuting, that on March 27, 2017, a woman presented to Clontarf Garda Station. She told gardai that the previous month she joined the Ashley Madison website, where people who want to have affairs can meet.

Det Gda Byrne said she began communicating with a man who went under a pseudonym, but told her that he was a GP in Templeogue. The pair continued to communicate on a different online platform called 'Kik', and discussed her dressing up like a schoolgirl; they arranged to meet, which resulted in them engaging in sexual activity.

The court heard that Keogan later sent the woman a text saying, This girl is 15, followed up with three pictures. He later claimed to gardai that the girl was 17.

The woman then asked Keogan, What is the lowest you would go? and he replied, 15, I think. The woman raised a concern over the sharing of the images, but Keogan told her, She was ok with me showing it, the court heard.

On the foot of this information, gardai obtained two search warrants for Keogans medical centre and his home. On May 15, 2017, at 6.45 pm, gardai executed the search warrant on the medical centre.

During the search, Keogan handed over his mobile phone and PIN and was fully cooperative with gardai. He was asked if he had sent images of a young girl to a woman, and he replied, Was she in a bath? She is from Cork. She is 17 years old. Thats what she told me.

Gardai also asked the accused if he ever gave the impression that he was into underage girls, and he said, No, 19 or 20, in school uniforms, but Im not into underage girls.

The court heard that a warrant was then executed on his family home, but nothing of evidential value was found.

The court heard that Keogan had 383 folders of images of women on his phone, resulting in over 10,000 images in total from women of all ages. Of these 10,000 images, three were of a child pornography nature.

These included one of the three images sent to the woman and another two were of a second underage girl.

Det Garda Byrne agreed with defence counsel that the three images he sent to the woman's phone seem to have been taken by the girl herself and that only one of the images was considered child pornography.

The other two images not categorised as child pornography, showed, respectively, the girl's face and the girl's naked body in a bath with her breast visible, the court heard.
News / International

by Staff Reporter

The Russian presidential press office has claimed that two Ukrainian drones tried to attack President Vladimir Putin's residence in the Kremlin late on Tuesday.The press office said that the drones were shot down by Russian air defense systems and that neither Putin nor his schedule was in any way affected by the attack.The Kremlin described the incident as a "planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt" and pledged to retaliate."Russia reserves the right to retaliate where and when it deems necessary," the press office said.The Ukrainian government has not yet commented on the alleged attack.The incident comes as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, which has been ongoing for more than two months.The war has caused a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, with millions of people displaced from their homes.The United States and its allies have imposed a series of sanctions on Russia in an effort to pressure the country to end the war.The alleged assassination attempt on Putin is a serious escalation of tensions between Russia and the West.It remains to be seen how the incident will impact the war in Ukraine or the broader relationship between Russia and the West.
A Laois village was singled out as one of just two locations in Ireland to win a Blue Dot Award for its water quality.

Camross Tidy Towns secured the award and was one of a number of Laois projects to receive funding under the Local Authority Waters Programme. The programme is designed to support local communities to enhance their waterways.

Camross Tidy Towns Group was allocated 2,210 to develop a Gallery Wall to display biodiversity themed posters pertaining to their aquatic outdoor classroom.

Other locations successful applicants in the county included Durrow Tidy Towns who received  2,982.75 to design prints for River Erkina riverside lecterns and The Heath Group Water Scheme who secured 1,683 for the Installation of a Drinking Water Fountain at The Heath National School.

Elsewhere, Killeshin Waterworks Committee was allocated 2,318.24 for improved waterbody access, fencing repairs and litter clean up.

A total of 523,000  through 142 individual grants  was awarded from the Community Water Development Fund, to support local community efforts to enhance water quality in streams, rivers, lakes, and coastal areas around the country.

The fund is administered by the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) with funding provided by the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage. The funding follows the 2023 open call that saw 142 successful applications from across the country.

Over 520,000 has been awarded to communities for initiatives to enhance water quality in their local area through the Community Water Development Fund. Well done to all the recipients ! See what was funded in your area at https://t.co/SFyGj4yVaq pic.twitter.com/MTtNTuRmKA  Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage (@DeptHousingIRL) May 3, 2023

Minister Pippa Hackett congratulated Camross on achieving the Blue Dot Award.

Community guardianship of local water catchments is playing a vital role in the protection and improvement of water quality in many localities in Laois. I am delighted to see the communities of The Heath, Camross, Durrow and Killeshin funded under the Community Water Development Fund this year, she said.

My congratulations to Camross Tidy Towns on achieving the Blue Dot Award. Blue Dots are catchments which are mostly unpolluted and contain Irelands best quality waters. I am aware of the huge local effort on this and send my gratitude to all involved. The Blue Dot tells visitors that this location is meeting targets under UN Sustainable Development Goal 6- Clean Water and Sanitation, added Minister Hackett.

Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan, also congratulated Camross and IRD Duhallow, the other Blue Dot Award 2023 recipient.

I want to congratulate IRD Duhallow and Camross Tidy Towns as they share the Blue Dot Award and commend all the successful applicants who will receive funding, and delivering our targets under UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation. Healthy, clean water is essential not just to communities but to sustain the plants and animals that depend upon sustainably managed water, he said.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh OBrien, TD said: These Community Water Development Fund grants will support local communities and groups to deliver projects that enhance the quality of local streams, rivers, lakes, and coastal areas. The fund is a fantastic support to encourage communities to take positive actions for water quality and biodiversity in their local area and recognises the great local initiatives led by communities to take care of water bodies in their local area.
A man had part of his finger severed by a propeller in a paramotor accident in Portlaoise.

The Air Accident Investigation Unit(AAIU) has released a final report into the accident at The Heath, Portlaoise on June 12, 2021.

During an exercise intended to teach the paramotor student to kite and control a paramotor wing (canopy) above his head, the paramotor inadvertently became airborne, the report noted.

The student who was being supervised by an instructor, released the throttle instantly but did not use the Kill switch/button to fully de-power the engine. On contacting the ground, the student fell over on his left side and his left hand made contact with the spinning propeller, injuring two of his fingers, the report stated.

It said the 40-year-old student was taken to a hospital Emergency Department for immediate treatment and later underwent surgery at another hospital.

The Student reported that his left index finger was amputated at the top joint and his left middle finger suffered a deep cut with tendon damage. On the evening of the accident, he attended a local hospital for an initial examination, and was then referred to a Dublin-based hospital for surgery on his injuries, the report said.

The AAIU first learned of this event when a completed AAIU Report Form was received from the Instructor ten days after the accident.

The instructor described the student as not being in a fully stand up position upon landing, and said that the Student rolled over on to his left hand side from the inertia. The Instructor reported that with the throttle still at approximately 30%, the Students hand contacted the spinning propeller, and the Student suffered injuries to the index and middle fingers of his left hand, the report said.

Investigators asked what qualifications and approvals the Instructor held. The Instructor stated that he had 22 years paraglider and tandem pilot, 22 years paramotor pilot and over six years of paragliding and international paramotor competition flying. Over 1700 pilot hours in total. 400 hours paragliding, 1300+ hours paramotoring. Mentoring many PPG pilots over the last 16 years.

The AAIU stated that weather is not considered to have been a factor in the accident.

In relation to a declaration to the IAA(Irish Aviation Authority) regarding a Declared National PPG Flight Training Organisation, pursuant to IAA AN P.35, the Instructor stated that he was working with the IAA to submit a new Declared Training Organisation [DTO] form, once it was available on their website. The IAA informed the Investigation that The use of application form in AN P.35 is incorrect, as there is no such application form in use. A declaration is made for the activities intended," the AAIU report said in its comments.

The IAA stated that this will be corrected in the next revision of AN P.35. However, the Investigation notes that AN P.35 references to an application form may have caused some confusion for the Instructor regarding the submission of a declaration, the AAIU report noted.

The full report is available here: http://www.aaiu.ie/sites/default/files/report-attachments/Report%202023-006_0.pdf
A Laois councillor, who was steeped in Fine Gael, has said leaving the party has left her "feeling lighter" after a tumultuous time as a public representative within the party at local level.

The Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District Councillor Cllr Aisling Moran formally resigned from Fine Gael on Monday, May 1.

Cllr Moran said she enjoyed the support of her party colleagues locally in her first year in office but things changed when she began asking questions about contracts and finances.

I was out on my own. If it wasnt for the technical group (which includes Sinn Fein and Labour) supporting my motions I would have got nothing done, she said.

I really believe we need to be more transparent in local government, said Cllr Moran. As soon as I started to look into things I was blocked, Cllr Moran remarked.

She said the spending of public funds by local authorities should be scrutinised.

It is not their (the council) money, it is the publics money, she pointed out.

She has pushed for the introduction of live streaming of council meetings and said if such measures were introduced attitudes would change in council chambers.

Cllr Moran said leaving Fine Gael was one of the most difficult decisions she has ever made. She said she was becoming increasingly frustrated and isolated. She claimed her party regional organiser was aware of the issues but she acknowledged that she hadnt documented her interactions with the party.

I have no intention of joining any other party, my core is Fine Gael, my belief is that the Fine Gael party is not the party I joined, Cllr Moran said.

Cllr Moran said the final straw was being unable to discuss two issues at a recent council meeting despite giving five days notice that she would be raising them during Any Other Business (AOB).

My job is to represent the people of the Graiguecullen-Portarlington area and I need to be able to do that to the best of my ability, she said.

Cllr Moran said the reaction to her departure from Fine Gael has so far been positive.

Everybody has supported me so far. I received texts and emails from Kerry, Cork and Dublin, she revealed.

She said people who didnt even know her had made contact to offer support.

It is going grand. I feel lighter, she said.

Cllr Moran is daughter of former Fine Gael councillor and general election candidate John Moran, she was elected in her first attempt in 2019.

Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan said he was sad to see Cllr Moran leave Fine Gael.

I acknowledge unhappy differences developed. I wish her well in future pursuits, Deputy Flanagan said.

A Fine Gael spokesperson said the party had noted Cllr Morans comments.

Councillor Aisling Moran informed Fine Gael HQ of her resignation late Monday night, they said.

Cllr Moran is aware of the partys complaints procedures for accusations such as bullying, but she never engaged with it. No complaint was ever received by the party, the spokesperson said.

It is obviously disappointing to the Laois voters of Graiguecullen-Portarlington that Cllr Moran, who was elected as a Fine Gael councillor, has left the party and is no longer a member.

Fine Gael is well represented and served on Laois County Council by current Cathaoirleach Thomasina Connell and colleagues; Conor Bergin, John King, Willie Aird, PJ Kelly and Barry Walsh, the spokesperson said.

The Fine Gael group of Laois councillors will continue their hard work on behalf of the people who elected them, the spokesperson added.

Fine Gael didnt respond when asked had any complaints had been made to it about Councillor Moran.
Anti gold-mining community group Treasure Leitrim are asking people to join them outside the Glasshouse Hotel in Sligo on Thursday evening May 4, before Green Party minister Eamon Ryan addresses a public meeting.

The group would like members of the public to join them from 7.30pm in voicing their opposition to gold-mining and the decision by Eamon Ryan to grant prospecting licenses for 47 Leitrim townlands to mining company Flintridge Resources. Treasure Leitrim have been at the forefront of opposition to prospecting and gold-mining in the region for the past 18 months having organised a range of events including public meetings, protests, petitions,and tractor runs amongst other events. Members of the group will also attend the public meeting to raise the issue directly with the Minister.

One of the groups' spokespersons Jamie Murphy said "People here were extremely disappointed when despite huge levels of community opposition that Minister Ryan continued to issue the prospecting licenses to Flintridge Resources. People expressed their concerns about lots of different issues including the potential negative impacts on the landscape, air and water quality,existing industries such as tourism and the wider climate impact.

"Gold mining is a carbon heavy, energy intensive process and it should not be allowed to get a foothold in the region. People are also naturally worried about the track record of the company involved considering they were recently convicted in court in Co.Tyrone for serious health and safety issues. It's also important to remember that this isn't just an issue in this region. Prospecting and mining is something which impacts the entire island with approximately 25% of land area available for prospecting. We are asking people to join us outside the Glasshouse Hotel from 7.30pm to raise these matters."


A FUNDRAISER night to mark the efforts of two University of Limerick graduates who completed a kayaking expedition for cancer will take place this Wednesday evening.

Gavin Sheehan and Maccullin Skelly raised over 20,000 for the Irish Cancer Society, when they took on a kayaking expedition of the river Shannon last month.

They covered a distance of more than 320km over the course of seven days.

The trip was recorded via drone, video and camera and some of the footage which will be shown to all attendees at the charity fundraiser night, as well as the information and the experience of the paddle from Gavin and Mac themselves.

The event takes place at the Castleoaks Hotel, Castleconnell at 7.30pm this Wednesday.

Gavin and Maccullin's insights following their expedition will be of interest and extremely beneficial for all users of Ireland's longest river.

There will be a big hamper raffle on the night and lots of other prizes which were donated for the cause. All proceeds on the upcoming night will go to the Irish Cancer Society.

Gavin works for Analog Devices in Raheen on the suburbs of Limerick city while Mac is living and working in Lusk, County Dublin.

Both men are friends from their university careers and both attended University of Limerick (UL), where they were heavily involved in the UL Kayak Club.

Like many, Gavin and Mac's families have both been affected by cancer in recent years and it's for this reason they chose the Irish Cancer Society as their fundraising beneficiary.
HOLIDAYING in Ireland is becoming increasingly popular with American visitors, and networking events specific to promotion of such travel have taken place over the past week.

A group of top US travel writers and editors has been enjoying a fact-finding visit in Limerick, as guests of Tourism Ireland and Failte Ireland.

On their business trip to Ireland, the travel professionals spent time in Limericks One Pery Square hotel and also visited King Johns Castle, Adare village, and had lunch in the Dunraven Arms Hotel.

The conference, called Travel Classics International writers event, brought together travel editors from a wide range of high-profile publications such as magazines Conde Nast (CN) Traveler and the National Geographic Traveler, which collectively reach hundreds of thousands of readers across North America.

Describing the visit a fantastic opportunity to showcase Ireland as a unique destination, Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Irelands Head of North America, said: We were delighted that these influential writers and editors were able to stay on after the Travel Classics International conference to visit Limerick  helping us to spread the good news about this part of Ireland through the media in the US.

With some of the most influential and prominent American travel and lifestyle editors and writers participating in this trip, it will bring huge exposure about what Limerick has to offer American holidaymakers.

The United States remains an extremely important market for tourism to the island of Ireland. In 2019, we welcomed 1.7 million American visitors, whose visits delivered 1.6 billion for the economy.
News / Local

by Staff reporter

Parliament in Uganda has passed a new amended draft of the anti-LGBTQI+ bill, maintaining the harsh punishments for same-sex acts.President Yoweri Museveni returned the bill to Parliament with recommendations that some provisions be toned down.The new version of the legislation will not outlaw people identifying as gay but if they are caught physically engaging in "acts of homosexuality", they could face life in prisonThe earlier bill also required people to report suspected homosexual activities to the police or serve six months in jail, but legislators amended this clause to report only children and vulnerable persons.The bill retains most of the severe punishments which include the death penalty for certain same-sex acts and a 20-year jail term for the promotion of homosexuality.Ugandan lawmakers say they have left the law largely unchanged to protect African culture.The proposed anti-gay law has received worldwide condemnation, with the European Union parliament and the United States government threatening to pull donor funds from Uganda.The bill will now be sent back to the president who will now make the decision to either reject or sign it into law.
UNIVERSITY Hospital Limerick (UHL) is to host a free public information meeting to help people who are "living with loss."

UHL is joining with the Limerick Bereavement Network and the Irish Hospice Foundation to host the event, entitled Living With Loss, where people across the county experiencing bereavements can find additional support to guide them through the difficult time of their lives.

During the event, there will be a number of keynote speakers who will discuss their journeys with grief, and who hope to provide support to those experiencing loss.

Rebecca Lloyd, End of Life Care Coordinator at UHL, said, the Living With Loss event aims to create a space where people who have experienced bereavement, or are concerned about a family member or friend who is grieving, will find connection, support and solace."

"There are a range of services available locally for people who are grieving, and there will be representatives from those services in attendance to deliver information about supports and living with bereavement," she added.

Included in the speakers list are; Estelle McGinley, Social Worker at Milford Care Centre, who will discuss the effects of bereavement, what can help how to help others, and where to look for additional support; Dr Amanda Roberts, Bereavement Development Officer with the Irish Hospice Foundation will speak on the specific theme of living with loss that gives this event its title; and Kevin Toolis, Artist in Residence at UHL and author of My Fathers Wake, will provide his own personal insights on living with loss.

This is the first information evening hosted by Limerick Bereavement Network, which includes UHL, Limerick Mental Health Association, HUGG, Milford Care Centre, Death Cafe Limerick, and the Loss & Grief Research Group at Technological University of the Shannon (TUS).

Anyone interested in hearing directly from these speakers, as well as meeting other people living through similar experiences, are being asked to register "as soon as possible."

The free event will take place on Monday, May 8 from 6.30pm to 9pm in the Clinical Education & Research Centre (CERC) at the hospital.

Admission is free, but due to limited places, interested people are asked to register online "as soon as possible" via Eventbrite.
THE council-backed initiative Film in Limerick has been nominated for a Global Film Award under the Emerging Location category.

The shortlist for the inaugural Global Production Awards which celebrates outstanding and sustainable work in the world of film and TV production, locations and studios, was unveiled by Screen International. The winners will be announced at the illustrious Cannes Film Festival on May 22.

Film in Limerick is a project developed by Innovate Limerick under the auspices of Limerick City & County Council to cater for the growing film industry in the Mid-West region. It acts as the film office for the Mid-West and works to promote the region as a location for film production and to support productions filming in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary.

The sector has gone from strength to strength in recent years and already this year the Mid-West has seen two TV series and a major feature film shoot locally.

The Global Film Awards recognise organisations and companies working in the film and TV industry including studios, production companies, film commissions, location, suppliers and manufacturers and any services involved in film and TV production.

The nomination follows the recent news that Limerick has also been selected to hold the prestigious Cineposium event in September.

Regional Film Manager at Film in Limerick, Paul C. Ryan said: "It is a huge honour to be nominated for another major industry award. We are delighted to be able to put the spotlight on all that the Mid-West has to offer for Film and Television productions. The sector has grown rapidly in recent years with the support of the Councils in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary, along with Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board and Screen Ireland. We have ambitious plans for the development of the sector. Being nominated for the award and selected to host Cineposium is a fantastic endorsement of our efforts to date."

Pat Daly, Chief Executive, Limerick City & County Council, added: The future looks bright for the screen sector in the region. Being nominated for a Global Screen Award and attracting Cineposium to Limerick are both excellent opportunities to showcase all that the Mid-West has to offer as a film-friendly location. Not only are we home to Irelands largest film studio, we have incredible scenic locations, unique cultural assets, talented crews and lots of resources to support major productions. I would like to congratulate everyone involved in Film in Limerick on their work behind the scenes and wish them every success at Cannes.

Film in Limerick is up against the City of Zagreb in Croatia, the New Mexico Film Office in the US, Film AlUla in Saudi Arabia and the Dominican Republic Film Commission in their category.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Cannes Film Festival on May 22, 2023.
A LIMERICK influencer has emphasised the importance of proper pet control after a 'traumatising' attack by a dog.

Lucy Fitz, originally from Askeaton, now living in Barcelona, uploaded the story of the incident on her social media this Tuesday.

After receiving an extensive bite on her leg from a neighbouring dog, Lucy says that the attack happened in the square near where she lives with her boyfriend, Dylan and two dogs. "The dog was off the lead even though he attacked me last year too," she stated on her Instagram story.

The dog in question is understood to be a Weimaraner breed. "He literally locked eyes with me from about seven meters away and just went for me," Lucy added in disbelief.

After the event, the tattoo artist told her followers that "every other dog l've met of this breed has been very gentle and sweet it's just him and just with me for some reason. Just beware when you're out and about, of all dogs!"

In a plea to her viewers and pet owners, she urges them to use muzzles and leads if they have a history of aggression. "Please, put your dog on a fe**ing lead [...] if you know your dog is vicious, even if it just happened one time before."

Lucy was accompanied by her partner, and their two dogs, which resemble small Dachshunds, Bruno and Bonny when the incident happened.

She said, "I had Bonny in her carrier bag on my shoulder and she got lose and everything, when I got free [from the dog] I ran across the square [to her].

"Thank god for Dylan picking up Bruno a few seconds before because Bruno would one hundred percent be gone now if he didn't do that."

The bite, or "chunk" as she coined it, resulted in the Askeaton girl spending several hours in the hospital, returning home at 3:51am on crutches, with a bandage around her injury.

In the aftermath, Lucy reflected on the incident, saying, "I'm just happy my two [dogs] are okay."

She added: "I keep thinking about all the different scenarios that could have happened and Im very grateful that this was the case, because honestly it could have been so so much worse."

Due to fly back to Ireland this Thursday, the artist admits that the event has been "so stressful."
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Starbucks said higher prices and more-efficient operations helped drive gains in sales and profit for its most recent quarter, while business in its China market improved.

The coffee giant said that better employee retention has helped keep drinks and customers flowing through its cafes, though the companys increased spending on wages and rising supply costs curbed some profits at Starbuckss North American stores.

Chief Executive Laxman Narasimhan said hes focused on expanding internationally and running Starbuckss cafes more efficiently to increase profitability. We also see opportunities for us to improve margins over time," he said during an investor call Tuesday.

Starbucks reported $8.72 billion in sales for the three months ended April 2, exceeding analysts expectations of $8.41 billion. Revenue in the chains fiscal second quarter increased by 14% from the year-earlier period.

The Seattle-based company said net income was $908 million, up 35% from the same quarter a year earlier. Earnings per share were 74 cents when adjusting for one-time items, ahead of analysts expectations of 65 cents, according to FactSet.

Mr. Narasimhan, speaking on Starbuckss first quarterly conference call after longtime leader Howard Schultzstepped down as interim CEO in March, reaffirmed the companys guidance for its fiscal year but said the business environment remains challenging.

Starbucks shares declined 5.7% to $107.95 in after-market trading. The companys stock is up around 15% so far this year.

Consumer companies such as McDonalds, PepsiCo and Kimberly-Clark have told investors in recent weeks that shoppers have continued to pay more for burgers, soda and other items in the beginning of the year. Companies have reported an increase in sales, though some executives warned that some lower-income consumers are curtailing purchases over cost concerns.

Starbucks has said that U.S. customers werent cutting back on buying its drinks despite higher prices, and they continued to spend extra on syrups, foams and other add-ons.

The companys U.S. same-store sales, which reflect company-operated stores open at least 13 months, were up 12% for the quarter compared with the same period last year. Starbucks said that overall global same-store sales increased 11%, while that metric increased 3% in its key China market.

The results for China represented an improvement from a year-over-year decline of 29% in the companys first quarter. China lifted many of its strict Covid policies late last year, and Starbucks executives said Tuesday that its sales in the country began to rebound during the most recent quarter as consumers resumed going out.

Mr. Schultz, who remains on Starbuckss board, is continuing to work with the companys stores in China and the release of a new olive oil-infused beverage.

Mr. Narasimhan said employee turnover in the U.S. has declined in recent months, and new equipment in stores is helping its workers become more productive.

Starbucks has more work to do on its supply chain, Mr. Narasimhan said, including decreasing the number of items that are out of stock in stores and duplicate goods that can be streamlined. The chain has 1,500 cup-and-lid combinations across stores, and cutting that number will save money and help the company operate more efficiently, he said.

We can buy different and we can buy better," he said.

Mr. Narasimhan said the company needs to do more to update its stores to accommodate demand, and the chains food and technology can also improve. He said he is seeking to improve employee scheduling, a complaint voiced by some baristas seeking more regular hours with the chain.
Tata Steel chief executive and managing director, T.V. Narendran, in an interview, discusses Q4 results, obstacles in European operations, and prospects for domestic steel demand and pricing in relation to Chinas economic recovery. He expects domestic demand to grow either at a rate matching or exceeding gross domestic product growth. Narendran expects Chinas 5-6% growth to be a major boon for the global economy. China's steel demand will be driven by consumption rather than investment, he said. Edited excerpts:

When do we expect recovery for European operations that remain under stress?

We are not back to normalized levels since the demand compression happened in Europe. But with energy prices falling, user and consumer industry will start doing better. Gas and electricity prices have remained very high and at multiple times of pre-Russia Ukraine war. While prices have started settling down, we have a policy where we hedge 25% of our requirements three quarters ahead. So, we will get the benefits of lower spot prices, and cost benefits will take a few quarters to reflect.

In Netherlands, a blast furnace realigning has just started, and we have been building stocks over the last few months. Thus, our working capital requirements have increased. This ongoing quarter may also not be so great. Production will be lower although sales will be higher because we have slab stocks. But if you have less production, costs are higher, as fixed costs get distributed over volumes. Therefore, we expect Europe to be a challenge till the second half of Q2, but Q3 and Q4 of FY24 should be much better as Netherlands comes back to its normal levels.

Has Chinas opening up helped the steel industry?

Demand in Europe is still quite fragile. After China opened, Europe was very optimistic, as a lot of the countries export capital equipment, among other things to China, particularly Germany and Italy. However, China has not taken off as expected. The steel companies in China have increased production in anticipation of rising demand and in March (90-95mt) its was the highest in a long time. But consumption did not keep pace with output. China exported 8 mt, which is 2 mt more than what they normally do, putting pressure on steel prices that have softened a bit. As China did not take off as per expectations, the iron-ore and coal prices also have softened. Chinese companies can further drop prices as input prices are declining, but for significant drop in steel prices, coal prices must go down further.

Will the recovery in domestic steel prices sustain?

Domestic, yes. We guided that Q1 steel prices will be at 1,200 better than Q4. The demand fundamentals are strong, but sentiments should improve. If sentiment is positive, offtake will be more than demand, if not, offtake will be less than demand, since consumers will postpone buying, assuming they may get better prices over time. So, inventory correction will take place. Tata Steel has reasonable inventory, after a planned shutdown in April.

After the Centre withdrew duty, did the export momentum improve?

Exports picked up after export duty got removed and that was one of the reasons why the last quarter was strong. Also, international prices improved so export opportunities were good. Everyone exported. We export 10-15%, but overall Indian exports did better. This is good, as we have iron-ore reserves, and we must utilize all export opportunities. China, Japan and Korea, which import iron-ore, export 150mt of steel. India must address this big market.

What about volume growth and debt reduction in FY24?

For the acquired Neelachal Plant, we had said we will reach 1 mt rated capacity in the first year; we have already done that. Kalinganagar expansion is going on, the pallet plant and cold rolling units are in production, while trial runs are ramping up. Within 12 months coke oven, blast furnace and others will be coming up, and in the next financial year we will start ramping up volumes, and contributions will start from FY25. This quarter we have reduced debt by 3,000 crore. For the year, debt increased as we acquired Neelachal. Working capital requirement was also higher with raw material prices moving up. But this year we are committed to reduce debt by a billion dollars. Last year, we spent 12,000 crore on acquisitions, besides working capital was higher by around 6,000 crore which will not be the case this year. So, we should achieve our debt reduction targets with cash flows.

What is the demand outlook for India and China?

India steel demand growth should match GDP growth, which is growing at 6-7%. Since we are spending so much on Infrastructure, ideally steel demand growth should be at 8-9%. In China when they were building infrastructure, the steel demand growth was 1.5 times Last year, we grew 10-12% against low base.

At 8-9% we are adding 8mt of steel demand every year. So, to maintain market share, Tata Steel needs to add 1-1.5mt capacities. Going from 20-25mt over two years we are not under any stress on volumes. Also, this year there is no export duty, which was there last year, so we have the option of higher exports in case domestic demand is slow.

China growing at 5-6% is a great story and will have huge positive impact on global economy. The only difference is China is pivoting to consumption-led growth, not investment-led growth, so intensity of steel growth will be lower than earlier. For me China steel demand should not drop and exports should not exceed 5-6mt.

What are the benefits accruing from specialty steel PLI scheme?

We have seven applications, and we may be getting most of it. But the limit is around 200 crore a year currently. So, honesty we do not decide on investments based on the PLI scheme.
New Delhi: The suspension of Go Firsts flight operations has inconvenienced thousands of travellers but has also opened a window of opportunity for rivals who are swiftly ramping up capacity to capitalize on the sudden reduction of available flights in the Indian aviation market.

With nearly 30 aircraft now out of commission, industry experts expect a slight uptick in already high airfares in the short term. However, the setback for Go First has turned out to be a boon for rival domestic airlines which are poised to reap the benefits of higher revenues and yields by expanding their capacity.

The Wadia Group airline voluntarily filed for insolvency resolution on 2 May and suspended operations, citing persistent technical issues with the Pratt & Whitney engines that power its 49 Airbus A320neo aircraft out of the total fleet of 54 aircraft. The airline said that the delivery of defective engines and the delay in repairing unserviceable engines caused a setback of 10,800 crore for the airline.

View Full Image Graphic: Mint

SpiceJet, which has struggled with a grounded fleet of over 30 aircraft, promptly announced plans to revive 25 of these planes out of its total fleet size of 61 in time for the summer peak travel season. The move is expected to bolster its position in the Indian market, where it has ceded share due to financial troubles triggered by the grounding of planes during the pandemic and thereafter because of snags.

We are meticulously working towards a return to service of our grounded fleet back in the air soon. The majority of the ECLGS (Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme for pandemic-hit businesses) funding received by the airline would be utilized for the same, which will help us capitalize and make the most of the upcoming peak travel season," said Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director of SpiceJet.

Travel websites have also seen the deployment of additional flights by Indias largest airline IndiGo on some routes where Go First was one of the major carriers.

Certain routes will have an impact in pricing. The fares on routes such as Delhi-Leh, Delhi-Bagdogra, Delhi-Srinagar, Mumbai-Goa, and flights to Port Blair may see a significant uptick as Go First had a strong presence on these routes with 5-6 flights a day," a senior executive at a low-cost airline said, requesting anonymity.

The ad-hoc distribution of slots at high-demand airports with limited capacity can also benefit some airlines in the interim for increased market share. Such a scenario is not new to the Indian aviation market. In 2019, the suspension of Jet Airways, which had a 13.6% share as of January 2019, led to a rise in the market share of all other players, with SpiceJet and IndiGo being the lead beneficiaries.

The market share of SpiceJet increased to 16.5% in December 2019 from 13.3% in January 2019, that of IndiGo rose to 47.5% from 42.5%, Go First saw an increase to 10.2% from 8.7%, and Vistaras share spiked to 6.1% from 3.8% in the domestic aviation market.

IndiGo and Air India were seen as the main beneficiaries of the suspension of flights by Go First. IndiGo has been extending leases on older planes and taking deliveries, albeit at a slower pace, while Air India is also looking to get a higher market share with group airlines. SpiceJet has also spotted the opportunity and revived plans to activate fleet," an executive at an airline said, also requesting anonymity.

Go First carried around 970,000 passengers a month this year, data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation showed. This translated to over 30,000 daily passengers.

Overall, while this may benefit the business of some airlines, this is not good for passengers and the industry...We needed more aircraft into the system and passengers," a senior government official said, declining to be named.
MUMBAI : Lenders to Go Airlines (India) Ltd will meet on Thursday to craft a plan to handle the potential resolution process, two bankers aware of the development said, even as they remain displeased that the airline filed for bankruptcy without informing them first.

The meeting was supposed to happen on Wednesday, but representatives from Bank of Baroda (one of the lenders) were not available and so, it had to be deferred," one of the two bankers said on the condition of anonymity.

Executives from these banks corporate loan departments have informally discussed the issue among themselves ever since the news broke on Tuesday evening.

According to a 19 January report by Acuite Ratings and Research Ltd, lenders to Go Airlines include Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank, IDBI Bank and Deutsche Bank. However, Axis Bank has clarified in a regulatory filing that it has no exposure to the airline.

Central Bank of India said on Wednesday that its exposure to Go Airlines was at 1,305 crore as on 31 March, and an additional 682 crore was sanctioned under the ECLGS scheme. The bank said its exposure is 0.91% of its total advances as of 31 March.

Though not entirely surprised by Go Airlines move, bankers said they are unhappy the airline did not keep them in the loop about such a step. In fact, bankers are miffed that even after issues related to the companys engine troubles were discussed in consortium meetings, it never hinted at plans for an insolvency filing.

The company has been making regular repayments, and we are not sure why they took this step," the second banker said.

A third banker said he believes that Go Airlines might be trying to bring its troubles to the attention of the government, hoping it intervenes. As per the Acuite Ratings report, the company owes banks 5,600 crore, including loans, and non-fund instruments like letters of credit.

According to the second banker, the company has already received assistance under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS). News agency PTI had reported in November that Go Airlines received 400 crore in loans under the scheme and could seek another 600 crore.

On Tuesday, the airline announced its decision to approach the insolvency tribunal. But bankers are in a spot because a company that has been repaying on time will not come under a moratorium once admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal.

According to Ajay Shaw, partner at law firm DSK Legal, one of the reasons why corporate debtors use Section 10 of IBC is to protect their cash flows from getting utilized in interest and other repayments.

Once admitted, repayments like bank loans would stop as part of the moratorium imposed by the tribunal. These repayments would be made later as part of the insolvency resolution process after creditors submit their claims and a successful resolution applicant is found," said Shaw.
A day after the recently GoFirst filed for bankruptcy, its CEO has made it clear that the company owner, Wadia Group, is in no mood of selling the airline and is completely committed to the company.

Go First airline filed for bankruptcy after blaming faulty" Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines for the grounding of about half of its fleet. The main purpose of filing for the insolvency was to revive the airline and not sell it, the CEO of Go First, Kaushik Khona, told Reuters on Wednesday. He also added that the company has made all payments to Pratt & Whitney.

The airline company was also trying to engage with lessors to dissuade them from taking any action, he added.

India's fifth largest budget airline, Go First, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday. Till March, the company enjoyed around 6.9 per cent of market share. The current financial crisis is the result of a dispute between Go First and its exclusive supplicer of engines for its Airbus A320 neo fleet.

Its bankruptcy was a necessary step due to the "ever-increasing number of failing engines supplied by Pratt & Whitney's International Aero Engines", which had led to the grounding of 25 aircraft, Go First said in a statement on Tuesday.

The company accused Pratt & Whitney of failing to complay with an arbitration order directing it to release spare leased engines.

Passengers who had booked their Go First flights are facing difficulty, as the airline had cancelled flights scheduled from May 3 to May 5 for operational reasons.

Civil aviation minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, had announced that the government will offer all possible assistance to Go First.

Notably, this is the first major airline collapse in India since that of Jet Airways in 2019. The recent merger of Tata owned airlines, ie, Air India, Vistara, under the Tata conglomerate has further intensified the fierce competition in India's airline sector.

Jet Airways collapsed in 2019 with $1.2 billion in debt after growing to become one of India's largest airlines. The company ended up leaving 20,000 employees out of work. Decade ago, Kingfisher airlines closed in 2012 after it failed to repay loans worth millions of dollars to state-owned banks. Its owner, Vijay Mallya, fled India and is facing financial fraud charges.

(With inputs from Reuters)
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI : As surprising as the Go First insolvency filing was its chief executives comment that the promoters remain committed to the airline. The twist has prompted questions about whether the airline intends to withdraw the filing and if so, how.

On Wednesday, a day after the low-fare airline moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), its CEO Kaushik Khona told a television channel that the promoters remain committed to the airline.

We have not filed for bankruptcy. We are filing for a resolution process...by making an application under Section 10... we have moved to NCLT to find out if we can protect our assets and resume operations under the act. The purpose of the application is for resolution," Khona told a television channel.

While Khonas statements may bewilder many, it is worth mentioning that he was registered as Insolvency Professional with IBBI (Insolvency & Bankruptcy Board of India) between December 2018 and August 2020, according to his Linkedin profile.

Promoters are still committed... we are ready to restart operations as soon as we have a moratorium available," he added.

This raises a key question on whether a company, which has filed for bankruptcy, can withdraw its application. Legal experts Mint spoke with said the proposal can be withdrawn before the Committee of Creditors (CoC) is constituted, which may take three to four weeks after NCLT accepts the application.

Withdrawal of insolvency filing can be done at any time prior to admission with permission of NCLT. Once admitted, withdrawal is under Section 12A of IBC, read with Regulation 30A of CIRP regulations pre- and post-CoC constitution. Post-CoC Constitution, it will require approval by 90% of CoC," said Piyush Mishra, a partner at Luthra & Luthra Partners.

While a voluntary insolvency application can be withdrawn by the company before admission, it gets a bit tricky after the tribunal admits it. There are two scenarios applicable to withdrawal after admission, involving Section 12A of the insolvency code.

Since this is a voluntary insolvency application, Go Air can withdraw it any time before admission. However, once admitted and the committee of creditors (CoC) is formed, withdrawal is only possible under Section 12A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, which requires 90% of the CoC members by vote share approving it," said Anindya Mazumdar, a partner at law firm Singhania & Co.
News / National

by Staff reporter

FORMER Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Petronella Kagonye is out of jail after serving an effective 16 months behind bars.Her lawyer Rungano Mahuni confirmed.Kagonye was jailed in June last year following her conviction over theft of trust property after she converted laptops donated by the Postal and Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) to personal use during her tenure.The laptops were meant for an e-Learning project put in place to support rural schools by providing vulnerable school children with computers.She was sentenced to three years in jail before 12 months of her sentence were suspended on condition of good behaviour and a further eight months on condition that she restitutes POTRAZ US$10,000 leaving an effective 16 months jail term.The trial court took into account that Kagonye was a cabinet minister at the time and one of her key result areas was to enhance social protection of vulnerable groups in the country but she acted in the contrary.She however filed appeals saying her sentence was harsh and excessive.These were turned down by the High Court.Judges of appeal Justices Rodgers Manyangadze and Benjamin Chikowero dismissed her application, ruling she was properly jailed."The sentence does not shock us. If anything, it appears to err on the side of leniency. But that is beside the point," said the judges.
De-risking" is the latest buzzword describing Western governments strategy toward China. While it sounds less ambitious than decoupling," the basic idea is similar: reducing reliance on China for manufacturing, especially for key technological goods.
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI : Employees of Go First airline, which filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, are wasting no time seeking new job opportunities as rival airlines expand operations, unlike employees of grounded Jet Airways, who held on to the futile hope of a revival for more than four years.

Adding to the uncertainty surrounding Go Firsts future, parent Go Airlines (India) Ltd has fallen behind on salary payments, with its 5,000 employees receiving Marchs pay as late as the end of April.

I have seen how some of my pilot friends were hopeful of Jet Airways resumption even when the writing was on the wall. They wasted a lot of time waiting and were not satisfied with the jobs they got later," a GoFirst pilot said, requesting anonymity.

The Wadia group-backed airline on Tuesday voluntarily filed for bankruptcy at the Delhi branch of the National Company Law Tribunal. The airline, which commanded a 6.9% share in the domestic aviation market, will now see its pilots and cabin crew heading to rivals Air India, IndiGo and Akasaall three have expansion plans in the domestic as well as international sectors.

Go First is the second airline in the last five years to file for insolvency in India after Jet Airways. Full-service carrier Jet Airways, which ceased operations in April 2019, is yet to return to the skies despite exiting insolvency proceedings.

The department heads in the airline have asked their team members not to report for work and start looking for jobs.

There has been no official communication from the human resource department, and we have been asked to look out for jobs by our functional heads," said another employee, who did not want to be identified.

Employees are also concerned that getting a job may not be easy, even in a market where all key airlines are expanding.

It will not be easy to get jobs, Go First pilots are trained on 320s while Air India is largely taking 737s," said a Delhi-based aviation consultant.

According to another pilot Mint spoke with, salary payments have become the primary concern among employees. Others have expressed concern that securing new employment or bargaining a good salary could be challenging when prospective employers know you are without a job.

In aviation, it is easier to get a job when there is a job since one can negotiate better. Now, it will be very difficult for us," said an employee in the marketing department.

Go First has blamed the bankruptcy on the persistent issues in engines supplied by manufacturer Pratt & Whitney.

The airline said that it had to ground 25 aircraft as of 1 May 2023, and as a result, this led to the grounding of approximately 50% of its Airbus A320neo aircraft fleet of 54 planes.

With such a depleted fleet size, your company is not able to generate revenue for the payment of lessors, and as a result, they are taking coercive steps against the company by invoking letters of credit, grounding notices and demanding the return of aircraft. In spite of this unprecedented capital infusion, the company has been crippled by the recurring Pratt & Whitney engine troubles. Pratt & Whitneys defiance in not supplying spare engines as instructed by the Emergency Arbitrator has ground your company to a halt," read an email sent by chief executive officer Kaushik Khona to its employees.
Workers have high expectations for raises this year. Their bosses have different ideas.
On the 30th World Press Freedom Day, journalists are set to discuss solutions on how to report in countries where press freedoms are eroding.

The number of journalists imprisoned worldwide has reached a 30-year high as of the end of last year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

World Press Freedom day on Wednesday coincides with Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovichs fifth week of detention in Russia. Jodie Ginsberg, the president of the CPJ, and Mr. Gershkovichs editor will hold an Ask Me Anything" chat on Reddit at noon ET, answering questions about Mr. Gershkovichs detainment by Russia and freedom of the press worldwide.

View Full Image RWB/WSJ

Mr. Gershkovich, 31 years old, was detained on March 29 by Russias Federal Security Service, or FSB, while he was on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg and held on an allegation of espionage that the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny.

Russian authorities havent publicly provided evidence to support the allegation, and the U.S. government has designated Mr. Gershkovich as wrongfully detained. Mr. Gershkovich was accredited to work as a journalist in Russia by the countrys Foreign Ministry at the time of his detention.

An updated World Press Freedom Index released Wednesday by Reporters Without Borders found that journalists are operating in poor environments in seven out of every 10 countries. The international nonprofit reviewed 180 countries and territories.

The U.S. fell three places in the ranking from the previous year, though still has a status of a satisfactory environment for reporting." The killings of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German and television reporter Dylan Lyons hurt the U.S. ranking, the report said.

The situation in countries including Tajikistan, India and Turkey fell from problematic" to very bad" for newsgathering, the report said. Turkeys parliament passed a law last year criminalizing the spread of alleged disinformation and forcing social-media platforms such as WhatsApp to hand over users personal information.

Reporters Without Borders is scheduled to discuss its updated index during a virtual event with the Washington Post and Secretary of State Antony Blinken at 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

View Full Image FILE - Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, April 18, 2023. The Biden administration on Thursday, April 27, sanctioned Russia's Federal Security Service and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence organization for wrongfully detaining Americans. They noted that Thursday's actions were in the works well before the arrest of Gershkovich in Russia, whose imprisonment was swiftly deemed unjust by the U.S. government. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) (AP)

Journalists face increased online harassment, technological surveillance and rising imprisonment and killings, speakers at the United Nations said Tuesday.

In addition to physical threats to safety, technological targeting of journalists is also threatening free speech, advocates say. An Israeli company, NSO Group, has faced years of international scrutiny for its selling of a mobile-device hacking tool known as Pegasus, which has been used to break into cellphones belonging to politicians, activists and journalists, according to Facebook-parent Meta Platforms and Citizen Lab.

When technology is used against us, we should use technology to push back against these nefarious actors," David Rohde, executive editor of the New Yorkers website and the incoming senior executive editor for national security at NBC News, said on Tuesday. He called on journalists and other organizations to work together to guard against technological surveillance.

The Journals editor in chief, Emma Tucker, is set to take part in a panel discussion on press freedom on Wednesday afternoon as part of the Journals Future of Everything Festival.
Oil plunged for a second day, dipping below $70 a barrel in New York as the prospect of a US recession triggered a flight from riskier assets and threatened to curb fuel demand.

Just days after OPEC began cutting production in an effort to stabilize crude markets, there was little indication that the group was having any success. Oil futures fell to the lowest since March, when the first tremors of a banking crisis were sending prices into a tailspin. There was renewed anxiety on Wednesday over financial stability in the US as well as signs of a cooling labor market.

Fears of a wider economic slowdown" are driving the market, Joe DeLaura, senior energy strategist at Rabobank, said in a note. Brent crude, which was trading near $80 a barrel on Tuesday, will be the next to test $70, he said.

Crude has had a rough ride in 2023 despite Chinas reemergence from its restrictive Covid Zero policy and sizable reductions in supply by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies. Those surprise cutbacks, announced just a month ago, were supposed to seize back control of the market from bearish speculators. Instead, a brief rally in April has fizzled

With short sellers back in control, prices may once again overshoot to the downside," said Ole Sloth Hansen, head of commodities strategy at Saxo Bank A/S. The Fed is expected to hike once again later today, and it continues to weigh on the demand outlook."

In the US, data from the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute offered a mixed picture about the current state of supply and demand. Nationwide crude inventories contracted by almost 4 million barrels last week and distillate inventories also dropped, but there was a buildup of crude at the key Cushing, Oklahoma hub, according to people familiar with the figures. The official government data comes later on Wednesday.

In Russia, meanwhile, there was no sign of a sustained drop in crude flows out of the country, despite its pledge to cut production by 500,000 barrels a day. Exports jumped back above 4 million barrels a day in the week to April 28, a level surpassed only once since Moscows troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
Numbers, Data and Statistics  The Cobra Effect of Goodharts Law Necessity is the mother of all invention, goes the old saying. Actually, sometimes its luck as well. Now take the case of something that happened to me in the seventh standard (or perhaps eighth). Our biology teacher Ms P.B.V. Lakshmi (all these years later, I really wonder what PBV stood for?), had distributed exam answer sheets for students to go through. I hadnt done terribly well on the paper. However, while going through the answer sheet, I realized that I had unknowingly answered one question twice and had been awarded marks for it twice as well. I should have pointed this out to the teacher in the normal scheme of things, and my marks would have been reduced accordingly. But I hadnt done well in the exam, and if the marks for the duplicate answer had not been considered, I would end up barely clearing the exam. A prospect I wasnt pleased about. So, I let things be. And I am not very proud to say this all these years later, but things didnt stop at that. I had figured out what I thought was a major chink in the system. In the years to come, I got into the regular habit of writing answers to a couple of questions in the exam twice. It was a lame attempt to transform myself from being an average student to becoming an above-average one. And except just once, I always got marks for the repeated answers. In fact, this tactic even helped me once pass a Hindi exam which I would have otherwise failed in. In my little head, it was a sophisticated and safe scam that I was carrying out. If any teacher caught on to it, I could always claim that it was an honest mistake and stop running the scam. Given that teachers had to correct many exam papers in a short time, one could bank on the fact that they would end up marking the repeated answers more often than not. Therefore, the probability of success was very high. The only time I got caught was in a maths exam. Due to some step-wise marking, even for questions I had got the answer wrong too, my total went over 100. When the teacher added the numbers again, he realized what had happened. I had repeated answers to two questions. One could be an honest mistake, but two was a scam, especially when the repeated answers came one after the other in the answer sheet. Anyway, he decided to deduct 10 marks and let me off with a warning. And thats how this honest scam came to an end. Dear reader, if you are wondering where we are going with this, things will soon be clear. In this issue of the newsletter, I wanted to talk about what economists refer to as Goodharts law. This law is named after the British economist Charles Goodhart, and it states: Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes. Like many things in economic theory, this geek-speak also goes over the top of most human minds, including mine.

The good thing is that anthropologist Marilyn Strathern rephrased Goodharts Law in plain and simple English, where she stated: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Now let me explain this in the context of my little exam scam. The marks scored in the exam are a target. They measure how good I or someone else is at academics. Given that exam marks are a measure of success, by that very fact, they become a bad measure. Indeed, one end-of-the-term exam instead of a regular appraisal encourages students to cheat or do other things (like I did) to get higher marks in the exam than they actually deserve. On a lighter note, I was practising economics even before I knew that a subject with such a name actually existed. In that sense, the measure influences the behaviour of those being measured, and that, in turn, leads to the measure becoming a bad measure. Interestingly, as Mervyn King and John Kay write in Radical Uncertainty: Decision-making for an unknowable future: The sociologist Robert K. Merton identified reflexivity as a distinctive property of social systems  the system itself is influenced by our beliefs about it.

Those who come up with a measure assume that those being measured will continue to behave in the same way as they were before they were being measuredthat is, they will remain stationarybut that doesnt turn out to be the case. As King and Kay write: This was the essence of Goodharts Law  any business or government policy which assumed stationarity of social and economic relationships was likely to fail because its implementation would alter the behaviour of those affected and therefore destroy that stationarity. The trouble with economists is that they like to talk to each other in code and not state something in as simple a way as it possibly can be. As Jerry Z. Muller writes in The Tyranny of Metrics: To put it another way [the Goodharts law, that is], anything that can be measured and rewarded will be gamed. In fact, Goodhart first expressed the core idea behind what became Goodharts Law in a 1975 article on central bank monetary policy. Nonetheless, examples of Goodharts Law even existed before the term was coined. Lets look at a few historical and more recent examples. 1) I am currently reading this book titled Bad DataHow Governments, Politicians and the Rest of Us Get Misled By Numbers, written by Georgina Sturge. The book has an excellent example of Goodharts Law, even though Sturge doesnt explicitly label it so. As she writes: In nineteenth-century China, European paleontologists would pay the locals for every dinosaur bone or fossil they brought them. As a result, people started smashing bones into smaller pieces to reap greater rewards. No one said they had to be whole or in the same state as found. The moral of the story is that the measure needs to be clearly defined. 2) This is one of my favourite examples of Goodharts law. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the French ruled Vietnam. The prosperous white areas of Hanoi, one of the largest cities in the country, had a European-style sewer system. The trouble was that the sewer system was an ideal breeding ground for rats. As Jevin D. West and Carl T. Bergstrom write in Calling BullshitThe Art of Scepticism in a Data-Driven World: Rats not only emerged from the sewers to terrorize the inhabitants but also spread diseases such as the bubonic plague. Clearly, the city administrators had a problem.

As the authors write: The colonial bureaucracy hired rat catchers to go into the sewers, and eventually offered a bounty on the creatures, paying a small reward for each rat tail delivered to the colonial offices. And this is where the problem started. The measure (that is, the rat tail in this case) started influencing how rat catchers and others behaved, eventually leading to the measure becoming a bad measure. Instead of killing the rats, the rat catchers simply cut the tail and submitted it for payment. This ensured that the rats could continue to reproduce, and in the process, more tails could be cut and submitted for payment. Further, some enterprising entrepreneurs began to import rats from other places. And some others started raising rats in captivity. Clearly, the system had been gamed. There is a similar story featuring the British government in India trying to reduce the cobra population by offering a reward to people who caught and culled the poisonous snakes. As Sturge writes: [This] led to a new enterprise of cobra-farming. Farmers would bring them in by the wheelbarrow-load to claim the money  but at the same time, cobras now posed a greater threat to the public in their greater numbers. Such behaviour came to be referred to as the cobra effect, basically a situation where a response to incentives leads to unintended (or perhaps even intended) behaviour shifts. 3) College rankings are gamed all the time. One parameter for the rankings is the acceptance rate. To drive down this rate, colleges advertise aggressively to get more applications, even from individuals who have no chance of getting in. This ensures that the denominator goes up while the numerator stays constant and, in the process, makes the college look more selective than others. 4) In fact, these days, one can even pay to get ones research published in a journal. As Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah write in In Service of the Republic: Once researchers were given career gains in return for publications, there was a strong incentive to increase the number of publications, even if this reduced the quality of research. In the extreme, predatory journals have sprung up which exchange money for publications. Also, the entire idea of publish or perish has led to a situation where there are many instances of researchers gaming the data to ensure that they come up with some interesting result that a good journal would be willing to publish. This has led to a situation where a lot of research, when replicated, rarely comes up with similar results. 5) Then there is the case of whether what teachers teach leads to actual learning or not. Again, the proxy to measure this might be exam scores. Once teachers and administrators know this is how they are being measured, they are more than likely to raise their students exam scores. Other than going easy on marking, this can be done in two ways. First, as West and Bergstrom write: They may teach to the test, for example, rather than teaching critical thinking. Second, as Tom Chivers and David Chivers write in How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them): The quickest and easiest way is to give them hundreds of past exam papers and tell them what to expect. 6) This is a disturbing example from the Vietnam War. During the War, the enemys body count became a key indicator of American success. The then US defence secretary Robert McNamara followed that metric closely. As Tim Harford writes in How to Make the World Add Up: The more of the enemy you kill, reasoned McNamara, the closer you are to winning. This was always a dubious idea, but the body count quickly became an informal metric for ranking units and handing out promotions, and was therefore often exaggerated. By generating statistics, McNamara was trying to control a situation geographically very far away from him in an area he had no experience. 7) This is another disturbing example of what Goodharts Law can lead to. How do you measure the performance of a cardiac surgeon? By looking at how many patients survive post-surgery. This is a metric that was introduced in the US state of New York, and it had unintended consequences. As Muller writes: After the metrics were instituted, the mortality rates did indeed declinewhich seems like a positive development. But only those patients who were operated upon were included in the metric. The patients who the surgeons declined to operate on because they were more high-riskand hence would bring down the surgeons scorewere not included in the metrics. The way the metric was set up ensured that the surgeons were less willing to operate on severely ill patients in need of surgery after the introduction of publicly available metrics. There is another interesting example featuring the medical community. In the UK, a target of eight minutes was set for ambulance arrival. This, as Sturge writes, led to some services switching their paramedics onto motorbikes or bicycles to clear the queue of cases quicker. What this actually did was to slow down the waiting time for those patients who needed to go to the hospital, since they could hardly be transported there on a bike. Another great example of the cobra effect. 8) The list will be incomplete without a corporate example. Lets take the case of all the pesky callers calling us from various financial and other institutions to sell us products we probably dont need. The measure they are targeting is probably how many times they are able to get through to a prospective customer. And this, in turn, is a function of how many calls they make. This explains the fact as to why they are relentless in their calling. Their incentive, their measure, has been set up in that way. Now lets consider what happened at the American bank, Wells Fargo. In 2018, it paid $480 million to settle a class action suit. The employees of Wells Fargo had been under great pressure to cross-sell financial products. They met their targets by creating fake new accounts. 9) This is by far my favourite example of Goodharts Law. It concerns the Soviet Union, the central planning model and the government setting measures of how glass should be manufactured. As Swaminathan Aiyar writes in From Narasimha Rao to Narendra Modi25 Years of Swaminomics: Soviet planners set physical targets of glass production in terms of weight, factory managers started producing the heaviest sorts of glasses to meet plan targets. This meant shortages in terms of square feet. The planners then decided to shift the targets from tonnes to square feet to correct this unintended consequence. Alas, this induced factories to produce the thinnest glasses to meet targets, and much of it shattered, writes Aiyar. The trouble was that there was no market for glass which was allowed to operate. If there had been a market, there would have been a demand for different types of glasses at different prices. This would have given the glass factories a good idea of what kind of glass to manufacture at what point in time. But that not being the case, the central planners set random measures, and this had unintended consequences. So, the question is, what can we do about this? As Sturge writes: We tend to assume that statistics are solid and objective We make the mistake of thinking things that have been measured are what they say they are. But things dont count and measure themselves. Everything that we measure has some imprint on it of the person doing the measuring. So, a lot depends on how they are calculated and presented. And this is a very important point to understand unless we want the cobra effect of Goodharts law to keep playing out. Of course, it is not possible to do it with each and every data, number and statistic that gets thrown our way, but it makes sense to drill down a little, at least in cases where we are using data points to make personal or executive decisions that impact our and other lives. As Sturge puts it, it makes sense to figure out whether we might not be measuring what we think we are measuring. West and Bergstrom say something similar when they write: If you are looking at quantitative indicators that others have compiled, ask yourself: Are these numbers measuring what they are intended to measure? And finally, as Tom Chivers and David Chivers put it: There are ways around Goodharts law, to some degree: changing metrics frequently, or assessing things using multiple metrics, can mitigate it. But no measurement will ever fully capture the underlying reality, which is always more complicated. At the end of the day, it is worth remembering that you may truly want a measure to measure what you think it is measuring, but there will always be individuals like me who will want to run their little scams and game the system as it exists. Just this realization is a good start if you have anything to do with numbers and measurement, which most of us have.
It was only a matter of time before these two hotheads clashed, and when they did, things got downright nasty. Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli, both notorious for their unfiltered opinions and mutual disdain, finally came to blows during a recent IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants.

According to insiders, the foul-mouthed fight was a sight to behold, with enough north Indian profanity to make even Ben Stokes blush! Some fans were left divided by the drama, with some calling it immature, while others relished the intense rivalry.

An eyewitness from one of the team dugouts spilled the beans to PTI, giving us a juicy lowdown on all the drama.

"You saw on TV that Mayers and Virat were walking side by side for a few metres post match. Mayers asked Kohli why he was constantly abusing them and Virat, in turn, questioned why was he (Mayers) 'staring' at him? Before that (Amit) Mishra had complained to the umpire about Virat constantly abusing Naveen (ul-Haq), who is a No. 10 batter.

"Gautam, sensing that things could turn ugly, pulled Mayers and told him not to have a conversation, when Virat made a comment. The heated exchange that followed seemed a bit juvenile," he said.

"Gautam asked 'Kya bol raha hain bol' (What were you saying?) and Virat replied, 'Maine aapko kuch bola hi naahin, aap kyon ghus rahein ho' (Why are you coming in between when I haven't told you anything).

"Gautam responded, 'Tuney agar mere player ko bola hai, matlab tune meri family ko gaali diya hai. (You abused my player and that's like abusing my family) and Virat's reply was, 'Toh aap apne family ko sambhal ke rakhiye'. (Then you take care of your family).

"Gambhir's final reply before they were separated was, 'Toh ab tu mujhe sikhayega...' (So now I have to learn from you...)."

Insiders say that their relationship remains complicated, with Gambhir known for his sharp tongue and Kohli not one to back down from a challenge. "Gautam is not the easiest person to handle," said a former India player who shared the dressing room with both players.

"He had no business gesturing to the crowd at Chinnaswamy, which swears by Virat's name. Now here, Virat got a chance to show one-upmanship, and he did."

(With PTI inputs)
Ultra-low-cost carrier Go First Airlines sought voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings on Tuesday, canceling flights and bookings for the next three days. Passengers who booked their tickets with the airlines are left in the middle of nowhere.

Currently, the no-frills airline has liabilities of nearly 9,000 crores and is plagued by a whole host of problems. It said that due to the non-supply of engines by the US-based Jet engines manufacturer, operations will remain canceled.

Here's a 10-point guide on the GoFirst crisis

1) Go First Airlines on Tuesday announced that its flight operations will remain cancelled from May 3 to May 5 adding that a full refund will be issued to the passengers. Counters of Go First Airlines lie deserted at Amritsar airport as the cash-strapped airlines ground their flights.

2) A passenger of Go First Airlines said that the airline is only talking about giving a refund but I have my flight to Mumbai, as I reached the airport there was nobody at the counter...we asked to adjust us to other flights but the airline is only talking about giving us a refund."

3) Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the Government of India has been assisting Go First Airlines in every possible manner but it is incumbent upon the airline to make alternative travel arrangements for passengers so that they do not face inconvenience.

4) DGCA on Wednesday issued a show cause notice to India's low-cost carrier Go First Airlines for not providing prior intimation of the cancelation of flights on May 3 and May 4 to DGCA.

5) India's low-cost air carrier Go First informed that the company has filed an application with National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

6) "Go First today filed an application with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Delhi for resolution under section 10 of the Insolvency Bankruptcy Code," the statement read.

7) The airline cites "serial failure" of Pratt & Whitney engines resulting in the grounding of 50% of the fleet as the reason behind its insolvency plea. It claimed that it was no longer in a position to continue meeting financial obligations.

8) Go First had been confident about receiving a major financial boost in the form of promoter equity and bank loan by the end of April. Reports indicate that this 600 crore loan is yet to come to fruition.

9) The amount will reportedly include 300 crore provided by the Wadia Group as well as funding from a consortium of banks. The company was expected to use the money to address its ongoing supply chain woes.

10) It is pertinent to note here that the company had earlier received around 1,000 crore from the government's Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme.

(With inputs from agencies)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address an election rally in Mulky, located in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, on May 3. The rally is expected to draw more than 2.5 lakh people from 13 Assembly constituencies of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

Prime Minister Modi is set to speak at 10:30 AM. Party workers and supporters from every booth in the two districts are expected to attend, and all arrangements, including parking and drinking water, have been made.

The venue for the rally is a 70-acre space at Kolnadu grounds, and a huge pandal is being erected to make seating arrangements for participants. The workers and supporters have been instructed to reach the venue by 9 AM due to security reasons. After the Prime Minister's speech, he will fly to Ankola and Kittur to address more rallies.

According to Sudarshan Moodbidri, president of Dakshina Kannada unit of the BJP, a special breakfast of Kudla chusine, including uppittu, avalakki, moode, neer dose, and other delicacies, will be served to the PM.

Moodbidri added that booth-level meetings of workers have been organised to make the rally a success, and the venue was handed over to the security personnel by noon on May 2. Helipads have been built at NMPA, NIT-K and Mulky.

With only nine days left for Karnataka Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fighting hard to retain its hold in the coastal region, which is termed the 'cradle of Hindutva politics'.

The BJP is looking to win in as many seats as possible, having overcome initial dissent from those who were denied tickets to contest. Two prominent individuals, K Raghupati Bhat in Udupi and Minister S Angara in Sullia (Dakshina Kannada), who revolted against the party as soon as they were denied the opportunity to contest, have already come back to the party fold, throwing their weight behind the official candidates.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sounak Mukhopadhyay Sounak Mukhopadhyay, who also goes by the name Sounak Mukherjee, has been producing digital news since 2012. He's worked for the International Business Times, The Inquisitr, and Moneycontrol in the past. He's also contributed to Free Press Journal and TheRichest with feature articles. He covers news for a wide range of subjects including business, finance, economy, politics and social media. Before working with digital news publications, he worked as a freelance content writer. Read more from this author
Amid Go First bankruptcy, SpiceJet has put its strategy in motion to resurrect 25 of its out-of-service planes. The revival expenses will be financed through the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) provided by the government and improved cash inflow.

The airline has already secured approximately 400 crore to facilitate the return of its idle fleet to the skies, which is expected to boost its revenue.

We are meticulously working towards return to service of our grounded fleet back in the air soon. Majority of the ECLGS funding received by the airline would be utilized for the same, which will help us capitalise and make the most of the upcoming peak travel season," Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director - SpiceJet, said.

Meanwhile, Go First has filed for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The low-cost airline will temporarily halt operations on May 3 and May 4, CEO Kaushik Khona informed PTI.

Go First is facing financial crunch due to non-supply of engines by P&W, that has forced the grounding of 28 planes," he said.

On May 1, SpiceJet said it had plans to operate more flights from Saudi Arabia to different Indian cities to bring back people evacuated from Sudan under 'Operation Kaveri'.

The airline operated a flight from Jeddah to Kochi on April 30 and brought back 184 Indians under Operation Kaveri.

In a release, the carrier said it is in regular touch with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia to coordinate further evacuation efforts.

"More evacuation flights from Saudi Arabia to different cities in India are being planned," it said.

The airline operates daily flights from Jeddah to Calicut, Delhi and Mumbai. It also has daily services from Riyadh to Delhi.

Under 'Operation Kaveri', 2,140 Indians have been brought back from strife-torn Sudan, according to official data.

Earlier, SpiceJet helped in evacuating more than 1,600 students from Ukraine under Operation Ganga by operating special flights to Budapest, Kosice and Suceava.

(With PTI inputs)
News / National

by Staff reporter

Law enforcement authorities have detained a truck that was ferrying illicit cigarettes worth some R20 million on Monday, after it was stopped in Bronkhorstspruit and the driver fled the scene.The illicit cigarettes were brought through the Beitbridge border, where the consignment was falsely declared as tea leaves, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on Tuesday.Around 1 000 master cases of illicit cigarettes, valued at a tax prejudice of R20 million, were found on the truck, according to the Revenue Service.Sars was part of the law enforcement team that intercepted the truck, together with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Tshwane Metro Police, after responding to a tip-off."The truck was stopped at Bronkhorstspruit. On being approached, the driver fled the scene and the truck and its consignment was detained," Sars said.It added that the truck and its content were moved to a secure Sars facility, pending an investigation.SmugglingSars Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said the smuggling of the cigarettes displaces legitimate manufactures and affect taxes and the country's fiscus."The country is battling the scourge of illicit cigarettes, smuggled from a neighbouring country, with a view to not only displace legitimate manufacturers but to also deprive fiscus of all taxes due," said Kieswetter."The message to crooks engaged in this criminal enterprise is that we will not tire to confront and deal with them decisively. The clarion call is, comply or face the consequences," he added.He further thanked the individual that reported the matter to law enforcement authorities that ultimately led to the impounding of the truck.
The trailer of The Kerala Story, which earlier claimed in its original trailer that 32,000 women from Kerala had joined ISIS, has been changed on YouTube to state that the movie tells the "true stories of three young girls from different parts of Kerala". Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor, who earlier challenged the 32,000 figure, has criticised the film's makers for "gross exaggeration and distortion of the Kerala reality".

Kerala political parties, both in government and opposition, demanded a ban on the film's screening after the original trailer's claims. An Indian union Muslim league youth wing offered a reward of 1 crore to anyone proving that 32,000 Kerala women had joined ISIS.

In response, a Hindu seva kendra founder offered 10 crore to prove that no Kerala woman had joined ISIS. Lawyer and actor C Shukkur also offered 11 lakh to anyone naming at least 32 Kerala women who had joined ISIS. The film's change of description has not ended the controversy.

The film, produced by Sunshine Pictures, tells the stories of three young girls from Kerala. However, the initial trailer claimed that the film depicted the "heart-breaking and gut-wrenching stories of 32,000 females in Kerala".

Tharoor earlier challenged this figure, pointing out that Western intelligence sources suggested that the number of Indians joining ISIS was less than 100. In response, the film's makers changed the trailer on YouTube, removing the 32,000 figure and replacing it with the "true stories of three young girls from different parts of Kerala."

The film's claims created a political controversy in Kerala, with both the ruling CPM-led LDF and opposition UDF demanding a ban on the film's release. The Indian union Muslim league youth wing offered a reward for evidence of the 32,000 women who had joined ISIS.

This offer was countered by a Hindu seva kendra founder, who offered a reward for proof that no Kerala woman had joined ISIS. Lawyer and actor C Shukkur also made a similar offer.

Tharoor responded to the change in the film's trailer on Twitter, saying, "The plot thickens. The filmmakers have updated the movie's description on YouTube and changed '32,000 women' to '3 women'... I rest my case."

The Kerala Story, starring Adah Sharma, is set to release on May 5.
Codelcos first-quarter copper production and sales slumped as the worlds biggest supplier of the metal struggles to recover from a dip in ore quality and setbacks at its mines and projects in Chile .

The state-owned behemoths output is near the lowest level in a quarter of a century, underscoring the copper industrys battle to maintain output as new deposits become trickier and pricier to develop. Thats fanning concern over a looming shortage as demand for the wiring metal takes off in the shift away from fossil fuels.

Codelco is attempting to get back on track at its operating mines after enduring mishaps including a rockfall, equipment malfunctions and a dam freeze. At the same time, its juggling four major mine overhauls in a bid to restore output toward the end of the decade. Project development is proving difficult across the industry amid logistical challenges exposed by the pandemic and exacerbated by Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Its a complex transition time, between deposits that are running out and projects that will come into operation," Chief Executive Office Andre Sougarret said in a statement Tuesday. But that will leave Codelco prepared for the next 50 years."

Codelcos wholly owned mines churned out 326,000 metric tons in the first three months of this year, down 10% from a year ago, the Santiago-based firm reported. That would put it just below annual guidance of 1.35 million to 1.42 million tons. The drop in output, lower prices and surging costs sent earnings tumbling in the quarter.

Chile, which accounts for a quarter of the worlds mined copper, has seen its output stagnate, stoking fears that global supply will be outpaced by demand for a metal thats used in batteries, solar panels and other green technologies.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
A woman's concern over a harmless tiny red spot on her face, led to the discovery of the world's smallest skin cancer under her eye by a team of dermatologists from the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

The hard-to-spot spot under her eye, on cheek, measured 0.65 millimetres or 0.025 inches. It was nearly invisible to human eye, but the tiny cancer was discovered by the team of skin specialists by using high-tech non-invasive technology.

View Full Image A clinical image of pigmented skin lesion (arrow) (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go)

Even after visiting multiple doctors to get her tiny skin spot underneath her eye examined, Christy Staats, was still worried about the growth. At last, she got an appointment with Dr Alexander Witkowski, an assistant professor of dermatology at the OHSU School of Medicine.

Luckily, nothing was found during her examination, but another tiny, hard to notice, spot garnered Dr Witkowski. Suspicious about the spot, the dermatologist used high-tech non-evasive machines and confirmed that the spot was indeed a melanoma, the most dangerous kind of skin cancer.

The early detection of the skin cancer earned Dr Witkowski and his OHSU team the Guinness World Record for the Smallest Detected Skin Cancer." On May 1, a judge from the Guinness World Records came to OHSU to award each team member a certificate for their newly-earned record.

Was there any need to cut the skin?

There was no need to cut the skin to identify the cancer as the dermatologists used the non-invasive technology to identify the cancer spot on Christy Staat's cheek.

Guinness World Record

To honour the effort of the doctor's team in the field of early detection of cancer, Guiness World Record awarded the them for detecting 'Smallest Detected Skin Cancer.' To felicitate them with the award, the judge from the Guinness World Records visited the OSHU and awarded each team member a certificate for the record.
On May 6, Westminster Abbey in London will be the venue for the formal Coronation of 74-year-old King Charles as the monarch. Mumbai's Dabbawalas, known worldwide for their lunchbox delivery and return system, will present Puneri Pagadi and a shawl of the Warkari community to the King.

The Puneri Pagadi is a unique style of turban, granted the Geographical Indication status in 2009, and is considered a symbol of pride and honour in Pune. According to Mumbai Dabbawalas Spokesperson Vishnu Kaldoke, they received invitations from the British Consulate and the British Embassy.

"Mumbai Dabbawalas have had good relations with British royalty. Two dabbawalas were invited to his wedding. It was an honour for us. He is about to become the King. So, we want to present King Charles with Puneri Pagadi and a shawl of the Warkari community," Kaldoke said, while speaking to ANI.

Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor is set to perform a spoken word at King Charles III's historical Coronation ceremony on May 7. Alongside other celebrities from around the world, including Joan Collins, Tom Jones, Bear Grylls, and Oti Mabuse, Kapoor will participate in pre-recorded video segments to commemorate the King's Coronation. The exact details of her performance have not yet been revealed, but sources claim that it is expected to be something related to the British Royal Family.

Buckingham Palace has planned a festive celebration that will last for three days. The celebration will include a concert featuring famous celebrities at Windsor Castle, a series of street parties across the country, and a volunteering campaign called "The Big Help Out".

Many news channels such as ABC, Sky News and Fox News will offer live streams of the event on their YouTube channels. The YouTube channels of BBC iPlayer and ITVX will also provide live-streaming coverage of the Coronation. The ceremony will start at 11:00 AM (4:30 PM in India).
KHARTOUM : UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Wednesday he was seeking assurances from Sudan's warring factions on the safe delivery of aid after six trucks of humanitarian supplies were looted and air strikes in Khartoum undermined a new ceasefire.

"We will still require agreements and arrangements to allow for movement of staff and supplies," Griffiths said from Port Sudan, where many people have fled as the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have battled for three weeks.

"We will need to have agreement at the highest level and very publicly, and we will need to deliver those commitments into local arrangements that can be depended on," he told reporters via videolink from the Red Sea port.

Air strikes were heard in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday even as warring factions agreed to a new seven-day ceasefire from Thursday, weakening chances for a lasting truce.

The conflict has created a humanitarian crisis, with about 100,000 people forced to flee with little food or water to neighbouring countries, the United Nations said.

Aid deliveries have been held up in a nation of 46 million people where about one-third had already relied on humanitarian assistance. A broader disaster could be in the making as Sudan's impoverished neighbours grapple with the influx of refugees.

Griffiths said he had been told by the World Food Programme that six of their trucks travelling to the western region of Darfur were looted en route despite assurances of safety and security. There was no immediate comment from WFP.

"It's a volatile environment, so we need those commitments," Griffiths said. "It's not as if we're asking for the moon. We're asking for the movement of humanitarian supplies, of people. We do this in every other country, even without ceasefires. It's a traditional humanitarian enterprise to go where others don't."

Saudi Arabia condemned what it said was the storming of the its cultural attache building in Khartoum. No further details were given.

Previous ceasefire agreements between the army and the paramilitary RSF, whose power struggle erupted into full blown conflict in mid-April, have ranged from 24 to 72 hours, but none have been fully observed.

Tens of thousands of people have left Khartoum and its adjoining cities at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile rivers, fearful of both air strikes and soldiers from the RSF.

Caught between army air strikes overhead and RSF soldiers on the ground, many citizens feel forced to take sides.

"If I hear the (army) air strikes I feel safe because at least I know the RSF won't come into my house," said Omdurman resident Salma, adding that the relentless fighting keeps her up at night. "I protested against (fallen autocrat Omar al-) Bashir and against army rule, but for now they're protecting me."

Several Khartoum neighbourhoods face severe water shortages due to blackouts, lack of fuel and damage to water supplies.

Third week of fighting

South Sudan's foreign ministry said on Tuesday mediation championed by its president Salva Kiir had led both sides to agree a weeklong truce from Thursday to May 11 and to name envoys for peace talks. The current ceasefire was due to expire on Wednesday.

It was unclear, however, how the army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, would proceed.

Army jets have been bombing RSF units dug into residential districts of the capital region.

Conflict has spread to Darfur where the RSF emerged from tribal militias that fought beside government forces to crush rebels in a civil war dating back 20 years.

The commanders of the army and RSF, who had shared power as part of an internationally backed transition towards free elections and civilian government, have shown no sign of backing down, yet neither side seems able to secure a quick victory.

Fighting now in its third week has engulfed Khartoum - one of Africa's largest cities - and killed hundreds of people. Sudan's Health Ministry reported on Tuesday that 550 people have died and 4,926 have been wounded.

Foreign governments were winding down evacuation operations that sent thousands of their citizens home. Britain said its last flight would depart Port Sudan on Wednesday and urged any remaining Britons wanting to leave to make their way there.
Texas authorities have arrested the wife and a friend of a man accused of killing five of his neighbors, saying the two helped the suspect evade capture for four days, a local prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Francisco Oropesa was apprehended on Tuesday after a manhunt conducted by local, state and federal officials. He was found in a closet under some laundry in a home in Montgomery County.

The bloodshed erupted on Friday in nearby San Jacinto County after neighbors asked the suspect to stop firing his semiautomatic rifle in his yard because it was keeping their baby awake. Instead, the 38-year-old man reloaded, entered the home of the neighbors and killed five, including an 8-year-old boy, officials said.

The suspect's wife, identified as Divimara Nava, 52, was arrested Wednesday morning and was being held in Montgomery County, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said at a news conference.

"We believe that Nava was providing him with material aid and encouragement, food and clothes, and had arranged transport to this house," Dillon said.

Nava was facing a felony charge of hindering apprehension and prosecution of a known felon, according to jail records.

A friend of the suspect was also arrested on a marijuana charge and will be charged with helping the suspect flee the neighborhood in Cleveland, Texas, where the crime took place, Dillon said.

A $5 million bond will be set for the suspected gunman when he appears later Wednesday before a judge in a local jail where he is being held on five counts of murder, San Jacinto County Chief Deputy Tim Kean said at an earlier news conference on Wednesday.

The suspect was arrested in the town of Cut and Shoot, Texas, roughly 17 miles (27 km) west of Cleveland. Both are about 50 miles (80 km) north of Houston.

Officials acted on a tip from an unidentified person who was eligible for an $80,000 reward offered for information leading to the arrest, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said on Tuesday.

Most of the victims were shot in the head. All were from Honduras and among the 10 people living at the address, but they were not all family members, Capers said.

The suspect is a Mexican national who was deported from the United States four times since 2009, U.S. immigration officials said.
TikTok's head of US trust and safety, Eric Han, will depart the company on May 12, leaving the popular short-form video app without a key executive as it fights the threat of a ban in the country, the company said in an official statement.

It is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance and has already been banned from government-issued phones in countries such as Canada and Australia over concerns about whether the Chinese government can access user data or influence what people see on the popular app.

The company also faces calls from some US lawmakers to ban the app across the country. TikTok has long said that it has never shared data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked, Reuters reported.

Han, who has been at TikTok since 2019, oversaw efforts like improving content moderation and reducing election misinformation.

He ran trust and safety for the company's US Data Security (USDS), a division that was created to store US data in the country on servers controlled by Oracle, in an effort to appease security concerns.

His upcoming departure also comes as TikTok is preparing to hold a presentation for advertisers in New York on Thursday. The Verge first reported the news of Han's upcoming departure.

Earlier in April, Montana lawmakers passed a bill to ban the popular short-form video app TikTok from operating in the state, the latest threat to the Chinese-owned app's existence in the US.

The bill, known as SB 419, prohibited mobile app stores from offering TikTok for download to users in Montana. The Montana House voted 54-43 to approve the ban.

Last month, a congressional committee grilled TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew about whether the Chinese government could access user data or influence what Americans see on the app.

(With Reuters inputs)
New Delhi: Defence minister Rajnath Singh visited the Maldives on Monday, meeting with his counterpart Mariya Didi to hold bilateral talks aimed at strengthening the partnership between the two nations. The ministers discussed a range of regional and global security issues and agreed to deepen their cooperation in defence and security, according to a statement from Indias defence ministry.

Both parties emphasized the importance of maintaining peace, stability, and security in the region, acknowledging the need to work together to address shared security challenges. They underscored the value of international law and rules-based order, expressing commitment to uphold these principles, according to a joint press communique.

The ministers welcomed ongoing defence cooperation, including joint exercises and military official visits. They noted the significance of sharing best practices and expertise in counterterrorism, disaster management, cyber security, and maritime security. They also agreed to explore additional avenues for cooperation, such as defence trade, capacity building, and joint exercises.

During the visit, Singh met with Maldives president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and foreign minister Abdulla Shahid, attended the commissioning ceremony of the replacement ship for Huravee, and laid the foundation stone for the MNDF Coast Guards Ekatha Harbour alongside Didi. Both parties reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening their partnership and enhancing regional security and prosperity.
CVS Health turned in a better-than-expected first quarter as revenue grew from all parts of its business. But the health care giant chopped its 2023 earnings forecast after closing a pair of multibillion-dollar deals that push it deeper into providing care.

The forecast cut on Wednesday came a day after CVS Health said it completed a roughly $10.6 billion acquisition of primary care provider Oak Street Health that it had just announced in February. It also closed in March an approximately $8 billion deal to buy home health care provider Signify Health.

Both deals reflect spending priorities for the company. CVS Health runs drugstores, provides insurance and manages prescription drug benefits.

But it also has been providing more care as part of a broad push to cut costs and improve patient health. That's something bill payers like insurers and employers want to see. That's especially true with Medicare Advantage plans, which are privately run versions of the federal government's Medicare program for people age 65 and older.

After closing the deals, CVS Health said Wednesday that it now expects adjusted earnings of $8.50 to $8.70 per share for the year. Thats down 20 cents on both ends of the range from a forecast it debuted in November and reaffirmed in February.

Its also short of the $8.76 Wall Street had been projecting, according to a poll of analysts by FactSet.

CVS Health runs a drugstore chain with nearly 10,000 locations. It manages prescription drug plans for big clients like insurers and employers, and it provides coverage for more than 25 million people through its Aetna arm.

Insurance enrollment grew by more than 1 million people in the first quarter as the company mostly added customers from state-based individual insurance marketplaces.

CVS Health also processed more pharmacy claims in the quarter as it added business and saw more claims from a cough, cold and flu season that turned out worse than last year.

A drop in COVID-19 vaccinations balanced those gains.

Sales also increased in the business that includes CVS drugstores. But CVS Health also said that segment was affected by a drop in coronavirus testing and continued to feel pressure from tight prescription reimbursement.

CVS Health has been adjusting its store count based on factors like population shifts and customer buying patterns. CEO Karen Lynch told analysts Wednesday that the company has shuttered more than 100 locations so far this year.

It's on track to close 300 this year and a total of 900 by 2024.

In the first quarter, total revenue jumped 11% to $85.28 billion. Earnings adjusted for one-time items came in at $2.20 per share.

Analysts predicted earnings of $2.09 per share on $80.79 billion in revenue.

CVS Health Corp. also said Wednesday that operating income fell nearly 3% to $3.45 billion in the quarter due to another write-down from its Omnicare long-term care business. Lynch said last fall that the company was exploring strategic alternatives for that business.

Shares of CVS Health, based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, fell 3% to $70.39 Wednesday morning after markets opened. Broader indexes were climbing.
News / National

by Simbarashe Sithole

There was drama at Concession magistrates courts yesterday after a senior citizen refused to leave the dock after being convicted of malicious damage to property.Robert Mucherure (71) roared the court and gallery with laughter after pleading guilty to the charge and demanding for his witnesses to testify before magistrate Mr Joshua Nembaware."Your worship l admit that l cut the fence but l do not want to be convicted because l have my witnesses so l will not leave the dock unless you allow my witnesses to come and testify," Macherure said.The magistrate responded saying since he had pleaded guilty to the charge his witnesses were nolonger necessary."You have pleaded guilty to the charge hence your witnesses are no longer necessary hence l find you guilty as charged," Nembaware said."The convict insisted that he had witness, "My worship l have witnesses l cannot leave this dock if my witnesses are not allowed to testify," he insisted.Macherure who was advised to come back to court on tomorrow for sentencing was eventually escorted out of the dock by a prison officer .The court heard that sometime in December 2019 John Gutu (62) mounted his fence at a farm in Concession and left for Gokwe.Macherure removed the fence and standard poles mounted claiming that the fence had been mounted on his farm.Value of the damaged fence is US$612.28.
By Ian Buruma

Penguin Press. 307 pp. $30

- - -

We live in an era of lies, it seems. A fabulist spewing "alternative facts" wins the American presidency. A candidate whose resume sported more inventions than the patent office wins a seat in the House of Representatives - and his fellow Republicans largely shrug off the lies. And let's not get started on conspiracy theories.

Ian Buruma's new book, "The Collaborators: Three Stories of Deception and Survival in World War II," reminds us that lying is among the most human of traits and that some lies are worse than others. But he also makes clear that circumstances can make deception not only necessary in the furtherance of a good, but also in remaining alive, with the practitioners often inhabiting a gray area, esteemed by some, reviled by others.

Buruma, a veteran journalist who grew up in the Netherlands and lived in and reported from Europe, Hong Kong and Tokyo, does a deep dive into three fabulists connected only by the fact that they were prodigious liars - and collaborators with enemy forces as war rolled over their nations.

The individual lives involve remarkable levels of contradictions and deflections as befits people with such a slippery embrace of truth and morality. But the level of grayness in their lives and actions is what drew Buruma to them, noting that resisters and collaborators alike - each pushing deceptions - can sometimes be both good and evil.

Buruma's subjects lived in places where Buruma himself has a history, though he writes that he chose to spotlight these lives because they "contain elements that mark the stories of many collaborators: greed, idealism, thrill seeking, power hunger, opportunism, and even a conviction, not always misplaced, that they were doing some good."

In Germany, and to a lesser extent Holland, there was Felix Kersten, a private masseur to such elites such as Prince Hendrik of the Netherlands and Benito Mussolini's son-in-law, Count Galeazzo Ciano, who was also the fascist regime's foreign minister. Kersten's reputation as a healer led to a 1939 meeting with Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler, who had chronic stomach pain. Kersten's ministrations relieved Himmler's agony, and Kersten continued to treat him through the war, using his connection to extract what he claimed were acts of mercy from one of the main architects of the Holocaust. But many of his assertions never happened. Kersten managed to elude any real comeuppance for his antics in part through forged records and aggrandizing books about his wartime role.

Also in Holland was Friedrich Weinreb, a Hasidic Jew who ran a scam selling spots on a list that supposedly protected his marks from deportation to death camps. Instead, he parceled out the names to the Nazis, who treated him for what he was - an informant passing on information used to arrest Jews and send many to the death camps - which gave Weinreb some protection for himself and his family. Weinreb managed to play his handlers for time until, feeling his luck and the Nazis' patience with him were running out, he fled to the countryside in 1944 to wait out the war in hiding. He eventually spent three years in prison, though supporters argued that the charges against him were little more than antisemitism.

Kawashima Yoshiko is the most interesting of the three. She was born in Beijing into the family of a Manchu prince who, after the violent 1911 collapse of the Qing Dynasty, sent her to be raised by his friend, a Japanese ultranationalist in Tokyo, who changed her name from Dongzhen. Pursuing a dream of reviving the Qing Dynasty with the help of the Japanese, Yoshiko - gender fluid and promiscuous - began spying for the Japanese military in the early 1930s in its puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria. Her exploits, including leading a battalion of guerrillas that may or may not have actually engaged in military actions, led to adulation in the Japanese press, which eroded her effectiveness as a spy. She returned to Tokyo in 1933 and, while living the life of a celebrity, began criticizing some of Japan's actions in China before she largely faded from public life.

Yoshiko paid the biggest price of the three. She returned to Beijing at the war's end and was arrested by nationalist police. She was convicted of treason in a public trial that involved evidence derived from fanciful accounts of her exploits and executed in March 1948 with a single bullet to the back of the head.

Her death underscores Buruma's primary focus: the nature of truth and the consequences that can befall liars entrapped by their own webs.

- - -

Scott Martelle, a former Los Angeles Times staff writer, will publish his seventh book, "1932: FDR, Hoover, and the Dawn of a New America," in November.
By Jonathan B. Losos

Viking. 390 pp. $28

- - -

My view, and that of many other die-hard cat lovers, is that the internet exists primarily to circulate pictures and videos of cats. Dogs, you may be surprised to learn, can also be found on the internet but curiously tend to remain stuck in remote corners of cyberspace. Cats fuel wildly viral memes; dogs seldom get beyond that family vacation picture on Facebook (with just three likes, all from elderly relatives). Both cats and dogs - especially the younger versions of both - have fuzzy, big-eyed appeal, but dogs apparently lack what it takes to snare a global audience. As the New York Times contended, cat pictures are "that essential building block of the Internet."

One prominent theory to explain this cat/dog disparity suggests that it's the residual wildness of cats that makes them so special. This accounts for their infinite capacity for aloofness. Cats were domesticated rather recently - about 10,000 years ago when humans were busy inventing agriculture. And DNA tells us that the ancestor of all house cats is the African wildcat Felis silvestris lybica, which looks much like a domestic tabby.

We don't know exactly how the human-cat connection was forged, but it's likely that the process had input from both sides. Wildcats with genes making them less wary of humans got access to an endless supply of juicy rodents attracted by the food stores produced by agriculture. Our ancestors, in turn, encouraged and rewarded feline rodenticide - and an eternally fraught relationship was born.

It's appropriate, then, that an evolutionary biologist should write the definitive book on the biology, ecology and evolution of the house cat. That would be Jonathan Losos, who, although best known for his studies of lizards, also owns three cats. Those cats, he found, were every bit as interesting as his lizards but had a marked advantage over the reptiles: Losos didn't have to leave his home to carry out field work. The result, "The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa," is a readable and informed exploration of the wildcat that lurks within Fluffy.

The first sign of a cat-human connection is the skeleton of an eight-month-old cat buried alongside humans in Cyprus about 9,500 years ago. The relationship developed quickly: Cats were fully domesticated in Egypt by 4,000 years ago. Impressively, given the ancient Egyptians' lack of internet, their cats were even more viral and culturally indispensable than they are today: They were actually deified in the form of cat gods like Bastet and Mafdet. Despite this, being a cat in ancient Egypt had its drawbacks: Millions of them were killed and mummified as sacrifices to the gods. Meanwhile, with the help of humans, cats were spreading rapidly. By 2,000 years ago, presumably accompanying human migrants, they had spread throughout Europe and even reached China. At the same time, Egyptian paintings show cats of diverse colors and patterns far removed from the familiar tabby - the products of artificial selection by breeders craving novelty.

The final phase of selection, by us, on cats was very recent: the creation of recognized breeds - now about 75 - beginning in the 19th century. Hence today's internetful of cat diversity: fluffy cats, skinny cats, tricolor cats, cats with floppy ears, hairless cats. But this is one area where dogs definitely eclipse cats; artificial selection on their wolf ancestor has, of course, produced a dizzying array of sizes, shapes and behaviors. Think Lhasa apso vs. Great Dane.

So, we come to a question every cat lover has surely pondered: Why are cat breeds so similar to each other while there are such big differences between dog breeds? Even the most outlier cats - Losos points to Persians - really aren't all that different from other breeds.

The most obvious explanation is that many dog breeds originated as working animals. They have been selected, in both body form and behavior, to retrieve dead ducks, herd sheep, drag badgers from their holes, haul sledges and even deliver brandy to avalanche victims. Cats, on the other hand, can't be easily trained to do anything at all, save listening for can openers, and tend to be haughtily resentful of any attempt to change that.

This difference is probably a legacy of each species's wild ancestors. Except for a single species of wildcat - the lion - all the rest are solitary, including the African wildcat, the ancestor of domestic cats. In contrast, nearly all wild dogs, including the gray wolf (the ancestor of domestic dogs) are social, and so had already evolved to cooperate. Watch footage of African wild dogs hunting as a pack and you'll be impressed by the degree of coordination, communication and division of labor among individuals. Dog breeders have simply capitalized on these preexisting propensities.

Losos imports some of his lizard interests to his cat study, devoting page after page to an analysis of the roaming behavior of cats, something we can now study using GPS tracking devices. The results are not surprising: Pet cats don't wander far, while feral cats go farther - surely because Fluffy has a secure food supply at home while Macavity the Mystery Cat has to range further afield in pursuit of dinner. At risk of sounding catty, I should add that Losos sometimes gets carried away with the arcane details of these experiments - the professional hazard of scientists enamored with data - but this is just a minor distraction in an otherwise engaging and wide-ranging narrative.

Many mysteries remain. Did meows (emitted only by domestic cats) really evolve, as has been seriously suggested, to resemble the cries of a distressed infant, to convert a hardwired human response - "I must take care of an unhappy baby" - into an ingenious ploy to get tuna? What is the real difference in the average life span between a cat allowed to roam outdoors and one kept inside? The traditional answer is five vs. 17 years respectively, but as Losos notes, "I have not been able to find the basis for this claim, and the discrepancy seems extreme to me."

And we remain abysmally ignorant about my two most pressing cat questions: why they wiggle their butts right before they pounce on prey, and why they "chatter" when they see birds. All they seem to be doing in each case is alerting their potential meal to its hazardous situation, surely not a good idea. One of the lessons of the book, in fact, is that mysteries abound in cat science. One of the largest is how many times cats were domesticated in the Middle East. Did house cats evolve in a single location, or in several places around the same time? We don't know, and the genetic data is ambiguous.

Like all good scientists, Losos admits that are many questions that will keep cat research active for years to come. Writing as a confirmed, and long-standing, cat lover, I look forward to an ever-expanding understanding of catness and to luxuriating, in quiet moments, in the joys of an infinite supply of online images, memes and videos of that most charismatic and beguiling of all domestic animals.

- - -

Jerry A. Coyne, emeritus professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, is the author of "Why Evolution is True" and "Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatible."
A U.S. citizen living in Nuevo Laredo has pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle more than 5,600 rounds of ammo into Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

On May 2, Jesus Alberto Olivarez, 32, pleaded guilty to smuggling goods from the United States.

U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo will sentence Olivarez on Aug. 9. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.

Homeland Security Investigations assigned to the HSI-Laredo Border Enforcement Task Force along with the Laredo Police Departments Texas Anti-Gang Unit conducted the investigation with the assistance of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Homero Ramirez is prosecuting the case. This case is being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state and local Project Safe Neighborhoods Program.

HSI, with law enforcement partners, is dedicated to making communities safer by bringing criminals to justice and seizing ammunition before it falls into the wrong hands, said Acting Special Agent in Charge Craig Larrabee of HSI San Antonio. HSI will continue to aggressively investigate those who attempt to circumvent our nations customs laws by concealing illicit goods destined to cross our borders.

All too often, the smuggling of illegal firearms and ammunition to Mexico is used to fuel a scourge of violence that threatens law enforcement and security officials, as well as the communities they serve, said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. To protect our law enforcement partners and the people of both our nations, the Justice Department will continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to stop those who would traffic illegal guns and ammunition to Mexico.

Olivarez was about to drive into Mexico with almost 6,000 rounds of live ammunition until the expertise and keen ear of a law enforcement officer thwarted his plan, said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani. Stopping the illegal flow of firearms and ammunition into Mexico saves lives and will always be a priority of the Southern District of Texas and our local, state and federal law enforcement partners.

The case unfolded when Olivarez arrived at the outbound lane of the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge at about 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27. He was on his way home in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico driving a black Chrysler PT Cruiser.

CBP officers conducting outbound operations identified the driver as Olivarez. He provided a negative declaration for weapons, weapon parts, ammo and more than $10,000 in cash.

CBP officers referred the vehicle to a secondary inspection. There, Olivarez provided an identification issued by a federal correctional facility and added that he was on federal probation, according to court documents.

During the inspection, CBP officers noticed that a passenger side door was unusually heavy. In addition, items could be heard when moving the door. CBP officers then discovered several ammo boxes hidden in the door panel, the plea agreement states.

An X-ray of the vehicle yielded additional anomalies within the side door panels and rear panels. A search of the vehicle resulted in the discovery of 5,680 live rounds of ammo: 3,600 rounds of .40 caliber S&W, 900 rounds of .380 caliber, 900 rounds of .45 caliber, 100 rounds of 9-millimeter and 180 rounds of .38 SPL +P ammunition, authorities said.

Homeland Security Investigations special agents took over the investigation. Special agents confirmed that Olivarez did not possess and had not applied for the required export license.

Olivarez admitted that a few hours before his arrest, he received the ammunition from an undisclosed person and personally concealed all the ammunition himself throughout the vehicle's door and rear panels. Olivarez admitted that his intention was to smuggle the ammunition in the car into Mexico from Laredo, states the plea agreement.
Construction on the north side of the Bob Bullock Loop indicates Laredo will soon be welcoming a Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers to the city.

Work is nearing completion on the new restaurant, with the "Freddy's" signage now mounted on the building, as well as lighted signs indicating some of the restaurant's offerings, including turtle sundaes and patty melts.

Louis San Miguel/Laredo Morning Times

As its namesake implies, Freddy's is best known for their frozen custard and steakburgers. Their custard is freshly-churned and the burgers are cooked-to-order daily at each Freddy's restaurant.

Their menu also includes Vienna beef hot dogs, crispy shoestring fries, onion rings and fried cheese curds.

The new restaurant is located on the north side of the Bob Bullock Loop, near the construction of three other restaurants as reported by LMT in back in March.

Louis San Miguel/Laredo Morning Times

The three restaurant plaza contains two eateries returning to the Gateway City  Papa Johns Pizza and Arby's  and a debuting restaurant in Laredo, a McAllster's Deli.

Permit filings obtained by LMT in July 2022, indicated the restaurant's construction started in July of last year, so the restaurant has been a long time coming for Laredo's burger fans.

A Facebook page for the restaurant sprouted up in at the end of 2022, indicating the restaurant was coming soon to Laredo, but further information has been sparse since then.

As of yet, no opening date has been announced yet, but we'll keep you updated as we learn more.
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A man died and a woman was injured in an apparent three-vehicle crash reported early Wednesday in northeast Laredo, according to authorities.

The incident occurred on Bob Bullock Loop 20 by Havana Drive.

The location is in on the street near the Pla-Mor Entertainment building.

A preliminary investigation revealed that a street sweeper and a black passenger car crash collided on the southbound lane of Loop 20.

Then, a male driving a white car avoided hitting the vehicles but lost control of his car. The male was thrown out from the vehicle after it rolled over.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. A female driving the black car was taken to Doctors Hospital. The driver of the street sweeper was unharmed.

Laredo police closed the southbound lanes of Loop 20 at Havana Drive following the crash.

Morning commuters were asked to seek alternate routes of travel. Significant delays occurred as The Loop was closed for until after 10 a.m. Wednesday.

The LPD Crash Team is investigating the fatal incident.
A man landed behind bars for punching a special needs individual, authorities said.

Ariel Alberto Benitez-Medina, 32, was arrested on the charge of injury to a special needs person.

Laredo police officers responded to an assault report on April 30 in the 2700 block of Santa Maria Avenue.

Officers encountered Benitez-Medina, who had a minor cut and swelling to his right cheek, states the arrest affidavit.

He seemed heavily intoxicated by exhibiting slurred speech and bloodshot eyes, authorities said.

Benitez-Medina claimed he had injured himself but never stated how.

Authorities then spoke to a 57-year-old man using a cane to walk. He stated that Benitez-Medina had assaulted him.

Benitez-Medina punched the male in the stomach and grabbed him by the neck, according to court documents.
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Three teens have been arrested in relation to a shooting that occurred in the Concord Hills Subdivision off of Texas 359, authorities said.

Alberto Lopez, 18, Alberto Ortiz, 18, and Jose Jaziel Silva, 19, were served with warrants on April 29 charging them with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

On April 15, Laredo police officers responded to a shots fired report by the 1100 block of Savannah Loop.

Authorities located two spent cartridges at the scene. Officers also found 11 .300 caliber spent cartridges and three 9mm spent cartridges by the intersection of Savannah and Concord Hills Boulevard.

Surveillance video from the area showed a white passenger vehicle traveling north on Savannah followed by a red Ford Taurus. It appeared that the Ford was chasing the white vehicle. Several shots fired were heard as the vehicles traveled north on Savannah.

A deadly conduct was reported at about 12:05 p.m. April 15 in the 5500 block of Marble Falls Drive.

A woman stated that her white 2016 Nissan Maxima had multiple gunshots. She stated that her son was involved in a fight with two people identified as Ortiz and Silva. She stated the altercation occurred at the Stripes by Concord Hills and Texas 359.

She suspected that Ortiz and Silva could have possibly shot her vehicle. She stated that her son was at the gas station when Ortiz and Silva instigated a fight, according to court documents.

A call history for service near Marble Falls revealed there were no shots fired near the location. No spent casings were found. Authorities then determined that the Nissan was the white vehicle in the video being chased down by the red Ford on Savannah.

Further investigation revealed that Lopez, Ortiz and Silva were riding in the red Taurus that was shooting and chasing the white Nissan, according to the affidavit.
National Park Service

One climber died and another was stranded over the weekend at a Texas national park. National Park Service officials said said they were notified on Saturday afternoon that a member of a climbing party was in distress after one climber had fallen off a cliff edge and appeared to be unresponsive, while another was stranded at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, according to a park news release.

Search and rescue teams worked through the night to access the remote site and on Sunday morning found the fallen climber dead, per the release. The stranded climber was also rescued on Sunday morning. One member of the park's rescue team was injured was taken to El Paso for care. During the rescue, access to the Pine Springs area was restricted for emergency traffic but has since been reopened.
UPDATE, 1.18am, May 3: The Australian and Canadian film and TV unions have joined the UKs writers guild in telling their writers to down tools on U.S. shows during the strike.

International sources have pointed to the possibility of the Hollywood studios looking to Australian, Canadian and UK writers to pick up U.S. work during the industrial action, but each guild has strongly advised its members against that course of action.

More from Deadline

The Australian Writers Guild today issued a statement throwing their weight behind the WGA. The Australian Writers Guild supports our fellow writers of the WGA in their current negotiations and in their decision to take strike action, said the AWG. The rights and conditions of screenwriters underpin any healthy and vibrant screen industry.

With strike action now in force, the AWG advises members not to work on active projects within the jurisdiction of the WGA, to pitch new projects designed for production within the jurisdiction of the WGA, or to cross picket lines, actual or virtual, for the duration of the strike.

In a statement to Deadline, the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) said it will support the WGA during its strike to the fullest extent possible, with a new set of rules introduced around the work members of the Canadian guild can undertake during the strike period.

The list of rules states that dual members of the WGC and the WGA that reside in the U.S. are bound by WGA strike rules. A WGC member and a Canadian resident can continue to work under the Independent Production Agreement (IPA), which remains in force until December 31, 2023. However, members are unable to accept struck work. This includes any projects that would normally fall under the WGA. Similarly, dual members of the WGC and the WGA who reside in Canada can continue to work for producers who fall under the IPA. Again, excluding any struck work.

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The WGC, along with writers guilds around the world, stands in solidarity with the WGA in their strike action for fair compensation for writers. We hope for a swift and fair resolution, said Victoria Shen, WGC Executive Director.

Alex Levine, WGC President, added: The compensation issues that pushed WGA members to strike apply to all writers in the digital streaming age. WGC members support WGA writers in their fight for fairness, and we applaud their strength and collective resolve.

The Writers Guild of Great Britain was among the first unions to call on its members to support the WGA and not take on U.S. work earlier this week. Streamers can work with overseas writers on local projects that are not WGA-affiliated  yesterday we revealed Paramount+ had commissioned two UK-based producers to create drama series The Castaways.

PREVIOUS, 11.16am PT, May 2: International unions representing film and TV writers across the world have begun sharing their responses to Hollywoods first writers strike in 15 years, as WGA members gear up to hit the picket lines.

Thousands of WGA members are set to walk picket lines across Los Angeles, New York and other major U.S. cities Tuesday afternoon after the WGA announced that it was unable to reach a last-minute deal with the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers on a new three-year contract to replace the one that expired Monday night.

Giorgio Glaviano, President of the Writers Guild of Italy, told Deadline the union has followed the negotiations of our American colleagues with great trepidation.

RELATED: Deadlines Full Strike Coverage

We express our solidarity with colleagues at the WGA, because their struggles are ours too, Glaviano said. All over the world, the figure of the screenwriter is threatened by ever tighter wages and increasingly vexatious working conditions.

Glaviano backed the WGAs concerns around the use of artificial intelligence, writing that the technology risks making the work of writers more and more a struggle for survival. During negotiations with AMPTP, the WGA sought regulation around the use of AI on MBA-covered projects. In response, the studios tabled the introduction of annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology.

Glaviano ended the letter: We will support our American colleagues in every way. Because the only thing that interests us and unites us all as authors is to tell the world, to make emotions live, and to give spectators dreams.

RELATED: What Went Wrong? Writers & Studios Reveal What They Couldnt (And Could) Agree On As Strike Is Set

Meanwhile in Israel, the nation that brought Fauda and Shtisel to the world, the Screenwriters Guild of Israel unequivocally backed the WGA.

SGI writers stand in solidarity with our WGA E/W brothers and sisters and support their fight for the survival of writing as a viable profession, said a statement on social media this morning. The SGI stands with all striking WGA E/W members on the picket line and calls upon the AMPTP to be reasonable and pay up.

Hugh Farley, Director of the Writers Guild of Ireland, pointed Deadline toward a statement from WGI Chair Jennifer Davidson issued on April 19.

The Writers Guild of Ireland stands firmly with our colleagues in the WGA in their negotiations for better conditions for their members, she said. The issues that they are raising are issues that we face as Irish writers, if not now, then in the near future.

RELATED: Striking Writers Rally On Social Media; Dont Believe The Spin Thats Already Coming Out. Were Going To Fight

WGA members deserve a deal that allows writers to share in the success of the content they create, Davidson added, pointing to the need for Irish writers to be executive producers on their own shows to ensure they are fairly compensated.

In line with International Affiliation of Writers Guilds agreements, both the Israeli and Irish unions said they would encourage any writer members on U.S. shows to down tools. The Writers Guild of Great Britain has issued a similar directive.

The CEO of the Writers Guild of Sweden, Susin Lindblom-Curman, told us that many of the issues that the Writers Guild of America have raised in their negotiations are relevant also to Swedish and European scriptwriters, and we are grateful that they have chosen to take collective action.

This fight will have a great significance for writers being able to support themselves, as well as for writers being able to exert artistic influence. The Writers Guild of Sweden wishes to express our full support for our colleges in The Writers Guild of America, and we urge our members to show solidarity during the conflict.

Frances biggest writers union and WGA-affiliate La Guilde, representing around professionals 250 film and TV writers, or roughly one-third of the national pool, also voiced its support for the strike action.

Our position is one of solidarity with WGA and were absolutely against anyone breaking the strike, said the bodys president Marie Roussin.

Weve seen a real deterioration in the working conditions for American writers, with rising precariousness and instability, and the introduction of the mini-room, which is destroying a system through which writers used to evolve and build a career.

She noted, however, that La Guilde could not stop its members or non-members from taking on work based in the U.S., even though its position was against such a move.

Not all screenwriters in France are members of La Guilde. As individuals, they can do what they like. We hold no sway over their actions. Even for our members, we cant make them refuse work, said Roussin.

La Guilde was a signatory last month of Frances first inter-professional accord between, the SACD (Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers) and French producer bodies SPI and lUPSA.

The landmark agreement introduced new guidelines for contracts between screenwriters and the first-ever minimum pay rate structure. Were a lot stronger than ever before but we today we could not strike [in France] because not all screenwriters in France are signed up, said Roussin.

Picket lines will go up at 1 p.m. PT on Tuesday at 10 Los Angeles studios from Amazon to Warner Bros, as well as at the Peacock NewFront presentation on 5th Avenue in New York City.

The last WGA work stoppage lasted 14 weeks in 2007-08.

Well be updating this story with more international reaction as it comes through.

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The incident has simultaneously occurred as the TBI is currently working with state and federal partners to determine the source of several hoax calls.
Container vessel Safeen Pride made its inaugural visit to Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait, which is part of the new weekly service recently launched by AD Ports Group to improve connectivity and facilitate trade with Kuwait.

Safeen Pride, part of the Safeen Feeders fleet, has a total tonnage of 15,636 tonnes, a carrying capacity of 16,855,210 tonnes of deadweight, capable of carrying 1,374 TEU.

The vessel was received by Dr Matar Hamed Al Neyadi, Ambassador of the UAE to the State of Kuwait, Captain Ammar Mubarak Al Shaiba, Acting CEO of the Maritime Cluster and Safeen Group at AD Ports Group and Issa Abdullah Al-Mulla - Acting Director General of the Kuwait Ports Corporation.

Trade exchange

Dr Matar Hamed Al Neyadi, Ambassador of the UAE to the State of Kuwait, said: "We are pleased to witness the launch of this new container shipping service from Khalifa Port to Shuwaikh Port, which will contribute to enhanced trade exchange between the UAE and Kuwait. Furthermore, we anticipate that this new service will provide the private sector with more transportation options for goods and merchandise."

He added: "The collaboration that delivered this new service is testament to the vision and aspirations of the wise leadership of both great nations. It will enhance economic cooperation, facilitate trade and drive logistical connectivity."

Captain Ammar Mubarak Al Shaiba, Acting CEO Maritime Cluster and Safeen Group, AD Ports Group, said: We are proud to see the arrival of Safeen Pride in Kuwait, marking the commencement of our recently launched service from Khalifa Port to Shuwaikh Port. This new route, which includes a Ro-Ro service, highlights our leading role as the regions premier facilitator of logistics, industry and trade. We are committed to establishing robust business ties and developing new forms of cooperation to continually enhance trade connectivity.

Fraternal relations

Issa Abdullah Al-Mulla, Acting Director General of the Kuwait Ports Corporation, said: We are pleased to welcome the first container shipping vessel coming from the UAE, which reflects the fraternal relations and the large volume of trade exchange between the two countries. Trade relations between the UAE and Kuwait have witnessed remarkable growth over the past few years, which reflects the relentless efforts to expand cooperation and enhance the volume of non-oil trade exchange."

The launch of the new container and Ro-Ro services to Kuwait come as part of AD Ports Groups continued drive for excellence and leadership in the field of maritime trade and logistics, strengthening commercial connectivity, providing economies of scale and facilitating global trade movement through its flagship Khalifa Port.

Following recent acquisitions, AD Ports Group has the third largest independent feeder company globally, by volumes carried, with a total container capacity of 100,000 TEUs, linking core markets in the Gulf, Indian Subcontinent, Red Sea and Turkiye.-- TradeArabia News Service
MONTREAL, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - LOGISTEC Corporation ("LOGISTEC") (TSX: LGT.A) (TSX: LGT.B) (the "Company"), a marine and environmental services provider, today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 25, 2023. As part of its strategic plan, LOGISTEC expanded its network of port terminals and marine services with the announcement of an important acquisition, bringing its total to 90 terminals and 60 ports across North America.

Logo: Logistec Corporation (CNW Group/Logistec Corporation)

Highlights From the First Quarter of 2023

Consolidated revenue reached $158.9 million, up $17.5 million or 12.3%;

Adjusted EBITDA (1) reached $7.9 million, up $0.1 million;

Total basic loss per share closed at $0.71;

Finalization of acquisition of Fednav's Federal Marine Terminals, Inc. and Fednav Direct, its logistics division, (collectively, "FMT");

Start of major environmental remediation project of the former Rayrock mine in Northern Canada.

"LOGISTEC completed the acquisition of FMT, expanding our network of ports across North America and allowing us to gain a significant foothold in key markets," said Madeleine Paquin, President and Chief Executive Officer of LOGISTEC. "We will leverage the strength of our terminal reach to support reliable supply chains for our customers and continue to drive growth. In our environmental services segment, the year started strong with the major environmental remediation project of the former Rayrock uranium mine in Northern Canada, contributing directly to a sustainable future."

"LOGISTEC reported revenue growth for the quarter, a continuation of the momentum gained in 2022. During the quarter, we invested resources to finalize the largest acquisition in our history, a strategic move for our marine services segment," added Carl Delisle, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of LOGISTEC. "Strong volumes in our cargo handling activities in the U.S. Gulf Coast region contributed to increased revenue. Our environmental services segment is capitalizing on key imperatives and market trends, and has a solid order book of over $192.9 million for the upcoming season. Both segments are well positioned for growth."

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Results From the First Quarter of 2023

During the first quarter of 2023, consolidated revenue totalled $158.9 million, an increase of $17.5 million or 12.3% over the same period in 2022. Revenue from the marine services segment reached $121.5 million in 2023, up $9.8 million or 8.7% compared with $111.7 million for the comparative period of 2022. Revenue from the environmental services segment was $37.4 million, up $7.7 million or 25.8% in the first quarter of 2023.

Adjusted EBITDA (1) for the quarter reached $7.9 million, an increase of $0.1 million compared with $7.8 million recorded in the comparative period. Adjusted EBITDA (1) was impacted by professional fees incurred in relation with the acquisition of FMT and costs incurred to analyze other business development opportunities. Loss attributable to owners of the Company for the first quarter amounted to $9.1 million, higher than last year's loss of $6.0 million. The loss attributable to owners of the Company translated into a total basic and diluted loss per share of $0.71, of which $0.68 was attributable to Class A Common Shares and $0.75 to Class B Subordinate Voting Shares.

(1) Adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS measure, please refer to the non-IFRS measure section.



Marine Services

Our marine services segment continued to see strong demand in the energy sector in the U.S. Gulf Coast region, which compensated for the slower start to the year in other ports. In terms of containers, our terminals suffered from lower volumes, which can be explained by significant inventories in the retail market. These are largely being depleted and we do expect volumes to resume at more normal levels in the coming quarters. With respect to bulk and general cargoes, we are confident with the remainder of the year given the diverse nature of the products we handle and the breadth of our network reach, we are able to adjust to market fluctuations and are optimistic about sales volumes going forward. With 11 additional terminals from our FMT acquisition, we are well prepared to deliver operational excellence to marine shippers across North America.

Environmental Services

Our environmental services segment performed better than expected, with a strong project backlog on hand. Additional contracts have been secured and we forecast a positive outlook for the balance of the year. We announced major remediation projects, including the former Rayrock mine and Aleris industrial site rehabilitation. Our team of experts deployed our robust and effective polyfluoroalkyl substances ("PFAS") concentration and removal technology, partnering with Waste Connections to remove PFAS from landfill leachates in North America. Our high-performing teams are positioned to accelerate profitable growth.

Outlook

"The outlook for 2023 is positive with good momentum for both our marine and environmental segments," indicated Madeleine Paquin. "We will be focusing on a smooth integration of our FMT acquisition, while offering new options to customers and connecting them to broader markets. As mentioned, although we are seeing a slowdown in containers during the first quarter, we do expect volumes to return to more stable levels, albeit with substantially reduced storage revenue. The strength of our activities in the U.S. Gulf is expected to continue, and should make up for some expected shortfalls in other general cargo and bulk terminals. In our environmental services segment, we expect to execute on a strong book of business in 2023, in both site remediation and ALTRA Water Technologies. Furthermore, we have obtained outstanding results from our pilots using our ALTRA PFAS solution and expect to launch several multiyear contracts in 2023. All of these factors combined give us a high level of confidence for the year ahead."

Dividends

On May 3, 2023, the Board of Directors declared a dividend of $0.11782 per Class A Common Share and $0.12959 per Class B Subordinate Voting Share, for a total consideration of $1.6 million. These dividends will be paid on July 7, 2023, to shareholders of record as of June 22, 2023.

About LOGISTEC

LOGISTEC Corporation is based in Montreal (QC) and provides specialized services to the marine community and industrial companies in the areas of bulk, break-bulk and container cargo handling in 60 ports and 90 terminals located in North America. LOGISTEC also offers marine transportation services geared primarily to the Arctic coastal trade as well as marine agency services to shipowners and operators serving the Canadian market. Furthermore, the Company operates in the environmental industry where it provides services to industrial, municipal and other governmental customers for the renewal of underground water mains, dredging, dewatering, contaminated soils and materials management, site remediation, risk assessment, and manufacturing of fluid transportation products.

The Company has been profitable and has paid regular dividends since becoming public and payments have grown steadily over the years. A public company since 1969, LOGISTEC's shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols LGT.A and LGT.B. More information can be obtained on the Company's website at www.logistec.com .

Non-IFRS measure

Adjusted earnings before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization expense ("adjusted EBITDA") is not defined by IFRS and cannot be formally presented in financial statements. The definition of adjusted EBITDA excludes the configuration and customization costs related to the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning ("ERP") system. The definition of adjusted EBITDA used by the Company may differ from those used by other companies. Even though adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS measure, it is used by managers, analysts, investors, and other financial stakeholders to analyze and assess the Company's performance and management from a financial and operational standpoint.

The following table provides a reconciliation of profit for the year to adjusted EBITDA:

For the three months ended (in thousands of dollars) March 25, 2023 $ March 26, 2022 $ Loss for the period (8,937) (5,898) PLUS:



Depreciation and amortization expense 14,454 12,797 Net finance expense 4,427 2,829 Income taxes (3,207) (2,410) Configuration and customization costs in a cloud computing arrangement 1,136 483 Adjusted EBITDA 7,873 7,801



Forward-looking statements

For the purpose of informing shareholders and potential investors about the Company's prospects, sections of this document may contain forward-looking statements, within the meaning of securities legislation, about the Company's activities, performance and financial position and, in particular, hopes for the success of the Company's efforts in the development and growth of its business. These forward-looking statements express, as of the date of this document, the estimates, predictions, projections, expectations, or opinions of the Company about future events or results. Although the Company believes that the expectations produced by these forward-looking statements are founded on valid and reasonable bases and assumptions, these forward-looking statements are inherently subject to important uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond the Company's control, such that the Company's performance may differ significantly from the predicted performance expressed or presented in such forward-looking statements. The important risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results and future events to differ significantly from the expectations currently expressed are examined under business risks in the Company's 2022 annual report and include (but are not limited to) the performances of domestic and international economies and their effect on shipping volumes, weather conditions, labour relations, pricing, and competitors' marketing activities. The reader of this document is thus cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF EARNINGS

(in thousands of Canadian dollars, except per share amounts and number of shares)



For the three months ended

March 25, 2023 $ March 26, 2022 $ Revenue 158,881 141,442 Employee benefits expense (78,723) (74,272) Equipment and supplies expense (44,113) (40,522) Operating expense (17,155) (12,092) Other expenses (11,990) (7,255) Depreciation and amortization expense (14,454) (12,797) Share of profit of equity accounted investments 585 947 Other losses (748) (930) Operating loss (7,717) (5,479) Finance expense (4,679) (2,941) Finance income 252 112 Loss before income taxes (12,144) (8,308) Income taxes 3,207 2,410 Loss for the period (8,937) (5,898) (Loss) profit attributable to:



Owners of the Company (9,052) (6,018) Non-controlling interest 115 120 Loss for the period (8,937) (5,898) Basic and diluted loss per Class A Common Share (1) (0.68) (0.44) Basic and diluted loss per Class B Subordinate Voting Share (2) (0.75) (0.49) Weighted average number of Class A Shares outstanding, basic and diluted 7,361,022 7,377,022 Weighted average number of Class B Shares outstanding, basic and diluted 5,455,591 5,680,669

(1) Class A Common Share ("Class A share") (2) Class B Subordinate Voting Share ("Class B share")



CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

(in thousands of Canadian dollars)









For the three months ended



March 25, 2023 $ March 26, 2022 $







Loss for the period

(8,937) (5,898)







Other comprehensive income (loss)





Items that are or may be reclassified to the consolidated statements of earnings





Currency translation differences arising on translation of foreign operations 3,137 (2,489) Unrealized (loss) gain on translating debt designated as hedging item of the net investment in foreign operations

(1,139) 845 Income taxes relating to unrealized gain on translating debt designated as hedging item of the net investment in foreign operations

 (112) (Losses) gains on derivatives designated as cash flow hedges

(62) 476 Income taxes relating to derivatives designated as cash flow hedges

100 (306) Total items that are or may be reclassified to the consolidated statements of earnings

2,036 (1,586)







Items that will not be reclassified to the consolidated statements of earnings





Remeasurement (losses) gains on benefit obligation

(714) 4,597 Return on retirement plan assets

551 (1,453) Income taxes on remeasurement of benefit obligation and return on retirement plan assets

43 (834) Total items that will not be reclassified to the consolidated statements of earnings

(120) 2,310







Share of other comprehensive income of equity accounted investments, net of income taxes





Items that are or may be reclassified to the consolidated statements of earnings

32  Other comprehensive income for the period, net of income taxes

1,948 724 Total comprehensive loss for the period

(6,989) (5,174) Total comprehensive (loss) income attributable to:





Owners of the Company

(7,129) (5,277) Non-controlling interest

140 103 Total comprehensive loss for the period

(6,989) (5,174)



CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION

(in thousands of Canadian dollars)







As at

March 25,

2023 $ As at

December 31, 2022 $ Assets



Current assets



Cash and cash equivalents 28,558 36,043 Trade and other receivables 174,069 198,247 Contract assets 14,019 14,912 Current income tax assets 19,402 11,245 Inventories 23,601 20,000 Prepaid expenses and other 9,997 8,756

269,646 289,203 Equity accounted investments 46,758 46,140 Property, plant and equipment 244,431 234,602 Right-of-use assets 171,231 167,274 Goodwill 188,624 187,430 Intangible assets 35,922 36,807 Non-current assets 1,755 2,030 Post-employment benefit assets 1,398 1,264 Non-current financial assets 6,161 6,114 Deferred income tax assets 13,700 12,808 Total assets 979,626 983,672 Liabilities



Current liabilities



Trade and other payables 148,831 128,019 Contract liabilities 10,442 11,107 Current income tax liabilities 6,324 5,095 Dividends payable 1,574 1,574 Current portion of lease liabilities 21,801 18,662 Current portion of long-term debt 10,200 10,925

199,172 175,382 Lease liabilities 158,936 157,500 Long-term debt 204,111 224,110 Deferred income tax liabilities 25,059 24,604 Post-employment benefit obligations 14,026 13,690 Contract liabilities 1,633 1,733 Non-current liabilities 25,381 25,562 Total liabilities 628,318 622,581 Equity



Share capital 49,443 49,443 Retained earnings 278,807 290,773 Accumulated other comprehensive income 21,314 19,271 Equity attributable to owners of the Company 349,564 359,487 Non-controlling interest 1,744 1,604 Total equity 351,308 361,091 Total liabilities and equity 979,626 983,672



CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

(in thousands of Canadian dollars)



Attributable to owners of the Company

Share capital issued $ Retained earnings $ Accumulated other comprehensive income $ Total $ Non-

controlling interest $ Total equity $ Balance as at January 1, 2023 49,443 290,773 19,271 359,487 1,604 361,091 (Loss) profit for the period  (9,052)  (9,052) 115 (8,937) Other comprehensive income (loss)











Currency translation differences arising on translation of foreign operations   3,112 3,112 25 3,137 Unrealized loss on translating debt designated as hedging item of the net investment in foreign operations, net of income taxes   (1,139) (1,139)  (1,139) Remeasurement losses on benefit obligation and return on retirement plan assets, net of income taxes  (120)  (120)  (120) Share of other comprehensive income of equity accounted investments, net of income taxes   32 32  32 Cash flow hedges, net of income taxes   38 38  38 Total comprehensive income for the period  (9,172) 2,043 (7,129) 140 (6,989) Net remeasurement of written put option liability  (1,359)  (1,359)  (1,359) Class B shares to be issued under the Executive Stock Option Plan  139  139  139 Dividends on Class A shares  (867)  (867)  (867) Dividends on Class B shares  (707)  (707)  (707) Balance as at March 25, 2023 49,443 278,807 21,314 349,564 1,744 351,308



















CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN EQUITY (CONTINUED)

(in thousands of Canadian dollars)







Attributable to owners of the Company





Share capital issued $ Retained earnings $ Accumulated other

comprehensive income $ Total $ Non-

controlling interest $ Total equity $ Balance as at January 1, 2022 50,889 254,621 9,051 314,561 1,048 315,609 (Loss) profit for the period  (6,018)  (6,018) 120 (5,898) Other comprehensive (loss) income











Currency translation differences arising on translation of foreign operations   (2,472) (2,472) (17) (2,489) Unrealized gain on translating debt designated as hedging item of the net investment in foreign operations, net of income taxes   733 733  733 Remeasurement gains on benefit obligation and return on retirement plan assets, net of income taxes  2,310  2,310  2,310 Cash flow hedges, net of income taxes   170 170  170 Total comprehensive (loss) income for the period  (3,708) (1,569) (5,277) 103 (5,174) Net remeasurement of written put option liability  (943)  (943)  (943) Repurchase of Class B shares (46) (205)  (251)  (251) Class B shares to be issued under the Executive Stock Option Plan  130  130  130 Dividends on Class A shares  (725)  (725)  (725) Dividends on Class B shares  (613)  (613)  (613) Balance as at March 26, 2022 50,843 248,557 7,482 306,882 1,151 308,033





















CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(in thousands of Canadian dollars)







For the three months ended March 25, 2023 $ March 26, 2022 $ Operating activities



Loss for the period (8,937) (5,898) Items not affecting cash and cash equivalents 16,473 13,017 Cash generated from operations 7,536 7,119 Dividends received from equity accounted investments  2,875 Contributions to defined benefit retirement plans (235) (210) Settlement of provisions (44) (124) Changes in non-cash working capital items 36,378 16,047 Income taxes paid (3,634) (7,292)

40,001 18,415 Financing activities



Net change in short-term bank loans  (5,723) Issuance of long-term debt, net of transaction costs  15,383 Repayment of long-term debt (23,170) (16,086) Repayment of lease liabilities (4,542) (3,736) Interest paid (4,715) (2,920) Repurchase of Class B shares  (251) Dividends paid on Class A shares (867) (724) Dividends paid on Class B shares (707) (614)

(34,001) (14,671) Investing activities



Dividends paid to a non-controlling interest  (8,699) Acquisition of property, plant and equipment (14,656) (8,423) Proceeds from disposal of property, plant and equipment 441 47 Acquisition of intangible assets (25)  Interest received 166 9 Acquisition of other non-current assets (26) (198) Proceeds from disposal of other non-current assets 14 27 Cash receipts from other non-current financial assets 63 292

(14,023) (16,945) Net change in cash and cash equivalents (8,023) (13,201) Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of year 36,043 37,530 Effect of exchange rate on balances held in foreign currencies of foreign operations 538 (344) Cash and cash equivalents, end of period 28,558 23,985 Additional information Acquisition of property, plant and equipment included in trade and other payables 2,695 4,553

SOURCE Logistec Corporation

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2023/03/c5073.html
This years home is located at 5987 Cashmere Lane in the Lake Breeze subdivision in Harrison.
Police say they have arrested a man accused of opening fire inside the waiting room of an Atlanta medical practice. One woman was killed and four were wounded. Authorities swarmed the citys bustling midtown neighborhood in search of the shooter. Police say the suspect was captured Wednesday evening. They identified him as 24-year-old Deion Patterson. Authorities did not say what they thought his motive was. A 38-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting. Workers and others in the bustling commercial district took shelter for hours during the manhunt.
A bold investment in our future and one that will ensure no community is left behind.

The stirring and emotive soundings which were uttered by Environment Minister Eamon Ryan within the confines of Corlea Trackway Centre last Friday as part of a 169m drive to revitalise tourism, underpin small business start-ups and breathe new life into towns and villages across the midlands.

To give it its more abbreviated dictum, Just Transition has encountered a somewhat varied welcome within the parameters of Co Longford since its first intimation at the back end of 2019.

Concerns surrounding its regulative and listless rollout to the wider south Longford area in the wake of the ESBs withdrawal over two years ago have refused to go away.

So too has the escalating irascible critique of a government, but more specifically of the man charged with addressing that negative tide in the shape of Environment Minister Eamon Ryan.

For a few hours at least, those misgivings appeared more than a tad tenuous as the Green Party leader took the wraps off a 169 million Irish/EU programme he and his fellow government leaders hope will safeguard the economic well being of Longford and seven other neighbouring counties.

It's a vast sum, unprecedented almost and from the evidence of planning and painstaking preparations that went into last Friday's launch, it's a message that came with one palpable goal attached - public buy in.

From the moment the Leader pulled up at the entrance to one of Longford's most popular tourist attractions, that overriding sentiment could not have been more apparent.

Journalists, upon their arrival were told to turn back and park their cars around half a mile away in a nearby car park where a local link bus was on hand to ferry reporters to and from the Kenagh based visitor centre.

Once inside, registration tags and media packs were handed out while a plethora of refreshments greeted dignataries from the world of local politics and various interest groups.

Add in the fact the occasion itself attracted the presence of not one, but six government ministers (one senior and five junior), and suddenly the weight placed by Ryan et al on delivering a positive message to the wider public was abundantly clear.

Mr Ryan himself, chose to use buzz words epitomised by the likes of bold, transformative and inspiring as central components of a scheme upon which the futures of several communities up and down the broader midlands region now rests.

This funding today is a vision, its a bold investment in this future so no community is left behind, he said.

Let's hope for this county's sake as well as his own, Mr Ryan is not left to rue those undertakings.
Planning permission is being sought to demolish a massive former Mink Farm in the Midlands.

VASA Ltd has applied for permission to remove the 74 buildings associated with the former Mink Farm from land at Ballymanus, Vicarstown, Stradbally.

The farming of Mink for fur was banned in Ireland last year. The farm in Stradbally was in operation since the 1960s and the total floor space for housing Mink amounted to 32,894 square metres. .

Now the operator has asked Laois County Council for permission for the demolition and removal of 74 mink farm related buildings and surface water facilities.

The different types of buildings formerly used to house mink at the site are outlined in the application.

There are 30 Type A Mink House buildings which are between 25 and 116 metres long with a total floor space of 12,494 square metres. There are 24 Type B Mink House buildings which are between 34 and 68 metres long with a total floor space of 6,831 square metres.

A further six Type C Mink House buildings which are between 106 and 113 metres long cover a total floor area of 3,415 square metres and seven Type D Mink House buildings that are between 108 and 120 metres long with a floor space of 7,746 square metres.

There are four Type E Mink House buildings each 120.4 metres long and with a total floor space of 2,408 square metres.

Along with the Mink House buildings, Vasa is seeking to remove a staff building covering 22 square metres and two storage buildings covering 118 square metres. Together with the Mink House buildings, the total square metres of floor space is 33,036.

The application also seeks to remove four feed silos with an overall capacity of 1008 m3 and a 40 foot shipping container.

The plan seeks permission to properly dispose of asbestos from the roof of existing buildings. Asbestos cladding is to be removed from a Fridge Building and replaced with concrete cladding.

The application seeks to modify three of the existing Mink House buildings in order to make them suitable to house cattle. There are also plans to bring in inert topsoil to restore the original ground level once the buildings are removed.

Laois County Council is due to decide on the application in June.
(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk, escalating his battle with media companies, suggested he may strip NPR of its Twitter handle because it had stopped tweeting.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The billionaire said in a series of emails Tuesday he may transfer the @npr handle  which has remained dormant for weeks  to another company, NPR reported. Twitter, which has fired its communications team, did not specifically respond to an emailed request for comment.

NPR quit Twitter last month after Musk stirred controversy by labeling its account state-affiliated media, along with those for the BBC, PBS and other publicly funded organizations. NPR Chief Executive Officer John Lansing said he lost faith with decision-making at Twitter following abrupt and seemingly arbitrary policy changes at the company. Musk later withdrew the label, but also took it off government-backed outlets including Chinas Xinhua News Agency and Russias RT.

So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company? the organization cited Musk as saying in an email.

Musks policy changes since taking over Twitter, from firing half its staff to demanding users pay for once-coveted verified check-marks, have disconcerted observers and users. Reassigning Twitter handles risks misleading users at a time critics have highlighted the growing potential for misinformation on the platform.

Musks argument, according to NPR, was that its consistent with Twitter policy to reassign dormant accounts. Asked who might take over its handle, the Twitter owner responded with National Pumpkin Radio and a couple of emojis, NPR reported.

Story continues

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School & Education, Community, Charity & Cause

By Jacob Alvear Published: May 03 2023

Winners of the upstander awards will each receive a $5,000 Scholarship

The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County (HMTC) annually honors middle and high school students on Long Island who confront intolerance, prejudice, or other forms of social injustice with the Friedlander Upstander Award. Winners receive a $5,000 scholarship. The 13th Annual Friedlander Upstander Awards will be presented at HMTCs 2023 Upstander Awards Event on Monday, May 15, 2023, at Westbury Manor, 1100 Jericho Turnpike, Westbury, NY 11590.

Due to the rise of antisemitism, hate speech, hate crimes, and bullying on Long Island and nationally, those who make a difference in their schools and communities by acting as upstanders are more important than ever. HMTC defines an upstander as a person who stands up for others and does not allow bigotry, hatred, or intolerance to happen without intercession. Every year we honor middle and high school students from across Long Island who have demonstrated the actions of an upstander. The students action could be one of intervention or prevention, big or small.

Those who applied needed to be enrolled in a middle or high school on Long Island, needed a brief nomination letter from a teacher, guidance counselor, or another adult who is not a family member. They also needed to write a five-hundred-word essay on what actions they have taken that make them upstanders.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: May 03 2023

$4.5 Million Phase One Includes Construction of the Eugene Sayan Visitor Center and Demolition of Unused Buildings.

Governor Kathy Hochul has announced the groundbreaking for the $20 million redevelopment of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe in Shoreham, Suffolk County. The 16-acre site is a U.S. National Historic Registered landmark and location of famed inventor Nikola Tesla's last existing laboratory. The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe is envisioned as an international destination for visitors interested in Tesla's legacy and science, technology, and innovation. The project's $4.5 million phase one includes the construction of the Eugene Sayan Visitor Center and the demolition of approximately 110,000 square feet of unused building. Empire State Development is supporting the transformation of the historic site with $1.25 million in capital grants.

"Nikola Tesla's visionary ideas and inventions have served as a catalyst for scientific progress, and his lab stands as a testament to his innovative spirit," Governor Hochul said. "By preserving this historic site, we help ensure that future generations can learn from his achievements and be inspired to pursue groundbreaking discoveries of their own."

"Nikola Tesla's lab is a physical embodiment of the power of imagination and creativity to change the world," said Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado. "It is a living reminder of his contributions to science and technology, and by preserving this site, we can inspire future innovators to dream big and achieve great things."

Nikola Tesla was an inventor and electrical engineer whose life-changing discoveries include the alternating current (AC) power, the Tesla coil, hydroelectric power, the induction motor, and more. The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe was established to transform Tesla's former lab into a hub that celebrates his innovative spirit and inspires the next generation of innovators. The center will offer tours as well as exhibits and educational programs that explore Tesla's groundbreaking work.

The redevelopment of the Tesla Science Center is a multi-phase project that includes the Eugene Sayan Visitor Center, a museum, science and education center, business accelerator and entrepreneur center, and the rehabilitation and preservation of Tesla's iconic lab. The Eugene Sayan Visitor Center will provide a dedicated space to showcase exhibits about Nikola Tesla's work and innovative approaches. It will offer exhibitions and programs both on-site and online, enabling visitors to discover Tesla's legacy through educational and interactive experiences. When complete, the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe will be a world-class destination that will provide an immersive experience for visitors of all ages to learn about Nikola Tesla and his discoveries and promote science education to inspire the next generation of inventors, scientists, and engineers.

In addition to funding from ESD, Governor Hochul announced the Tesla Science Center was awarded $1.47 million as part of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)'s Small and Mid-Sized Capital Project awards. Those funds will support the stabilization and restoration of Nikola Tesla's last standing laboratory, designed by McKim, Mead, & White.

Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight said, "Nikola Tesla's legacy serves as a reminder of the power of human ingenuity and the importance of scientific research in solving the challenges of the modern world. The Tesla Science Center will be a destination for visitors to learn of Tesla's inventions while inspiring future innovators to push the boundaries of what is possible."

Empire State Development Board Chairman Kevin Law said, "Redeveloping the Tesla Science Center is an investment in the future of innovation and progress. By preserving and building on Tesla's legacy, we are supporting new generations of entrepreneurs who will continue to drive transformational progress on Long Island and around the globe."

Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe Executive Director Marc Alessi said, "We are thrilled to see the groundbreaking for the redevelopment of Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, but our work is not yet done. With the construction of the Eugene Sayan Visitor Center and the demolition of unused buildings in Phase One, we are moving forward towards our vision of transforming this historic site into an international destination for innovation and education. We encourage the community to continue to support us through volunteering and fundraising to help us realize our goal of inspiring the next generation of innovators."

New York State Council on the Arts Executive Director Mara Manus said, "NYSCA is thrilled to support the renovation of Nikola Tesla's historic McKim, Mead & White laboratory, a testament to creativity, experimentation and learning. This cultural center will inspire visitors from all over the world for lifetimes to come."

Long Island Regional Economic Development Council Co-Chairs Linda Armyn, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Bethpage Federal Credit Union and Dr. John Nader, President of Farmingdale State College, said, "Nikola Tesla's lab is a testament to the power of science and technology to create a better world. The Tesla Science Center symbolizes humanity's boundless potential, and one the LIREDC is proud to both celebrate and to reimagine for the future." State Senator Anthony Palumbo said, "Today's groundbreaking ceremony is an important first step in redeveloping Nikola Tesla's laboratory into The Tesla Science Center. This transformation will create a global research institute dedicated to advancing new technologies while preserving the legacy and pioneering spirit of Nikola Tesla. I would like to thank Executive Director Marc Alessi, Tesla's Board of Directors, Eugene Sayan, donors, and Governor Kathy Hochul for their tireless efforts, dedication and support in advancing this important project here on Long Island." Assemblymember Jodi Giglio said, "The groundbreaking of the Tesla Science Center's new facility builds upon the groundbreaking work started by Nicola Tesla so many years ago. Be it fostering innovation or fostering education, the Science Center's continuing mission will inspire our future scientists to exceed and excel. I wish them the best in their future endeavors, and I look forward to watching their future unfold." Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said, "Today marks an incredible milestone for the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe as they continue the work of honoring and celebrating the legacy of one of history's most influential and important inventors. It has been our great pleasure to support the efforts of this institution and the vital work they do supporting science education and attracting visitors from around the world to Suffolk County. On behalf of all County residents, congratulations to TSCW and we look forward to many great things to come from your incredible organization." Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker said, "It is exciting to see the start of a new chapter for the Tesla Science Center. Thank you to the board, staff, and volunteers who are continuing the mission to make the center a place of learning for all to enjoy." Town of Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine said, "The Tesla Science Center is one of the most important, historical sites in the Town of Brookhaven and this groundbreaking starts the next phase of making it accessible to everyone. I am proud to support the efforts of the Board of Directors and staff who have been working for many years to remind us of what went on here and how it changed the scientific world view." Town of Brookhaven Councilwoman Jane Bonner said, "I have been a proponent of this journey to create the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe since day one and I am determined to help see this plan through to fruition. Prior to establishing the center, most residents were not even aware of the legacy that Tesla left for future generations to discover. I fully support the development of this site as a museum and learning center and I look forward to being here when it opens."

The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe's strategic location in the heart of Long Island's research corridor, alongside world-renowned scientific institutions such as Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Stony Brook University, presents exciting opportunities for the region's economy. The center is an important part of Long Island's tourism industry, attracting visitors from all over the world to learn about Tesla's life and work. New York State's investment in the restoration and redevelopment of Nikola Tesla's historic lab into a world-class museum and science center will create new jobs, generate revenue streams through tourism and education, and strengthen Long Island's position as a hub for innovation and progress.
Sports & Recreation

By Chris Boyle Published: May 03 2023

Worlds Largest In-Home Fitness Franchise Announces Recent Expansion Across 18 New Territories.

As demand for in-home services increases across the globe, GYMGUYZ , the worlds largest in-home and on-site personal image004.jpgtraining franchise, announces the addition of 18 new territories over the last year, contributing to its overall growth goal of another 75 territories by the end of 2023.

This news comes on the heels of the brands 15-year anniversary, paving the way for its next era of growth. To set the stage for accelerated development, GYMGUYZ recently opened a two-story, 18,000 square-foot headquarters in Melville, New York.

As the brand continues to grow in size, it also grows in its service offerings. GYMGUYZ has launched highly-successful new fitness programs outside of in-home workouts, offering B2B fitness programs at corporations, schools, and senior living centers. The brand has fast become a critical provider in the Corporate Wellness space, developing on-site and at-home fitness programs for some of the worlds largest corporations.

As the brand continues to grow in size, it also grows in its service offerings. GYMGUYZ has launched highly-successful new fitness programs outside of in-home workouts, offering B2B fitness programs at corporations, schools, and senior living centers. The brand has fast become a critical provider in the Corporate Wellness space, developing on-site and at-home fitness programs for some of the worlds largest corporations.

Were growing according to a clear strategic plan that leverages our core competencies of exceptional fitness expertise, mobile logistics, equipment distribution, and proprietary systems that can deliver complex corporate fitness programs, said Josh York, Founder & CEO of GYMGUYZ. As the global home fitness market is expected to hit $17.3 billion this year, were not only able to be at the forefront of that market, but also see an opportunity to capture share in an adjacent market as well with relatively low effort.

GYMGUYZ has expanded into 18 new territories, including: Toms River, Red Bank, and Freehold New Jersey; Eastern Long Island; Paradise Valley, Mesa/Tempe, and Scottsdale Arizona; West Hartford, Connecticut; Tampa, Florida, and Greenwood Village/Aurora, Colorado. Several of the franchisees behind these new territories are existing owners, validating the franchise opportunity and proving that multi-unit growth will continue to guide GYMGUYZs 2023 development strategy. These achievements have set the foundation for a remarkable 2023 as GYMGUYZ continues to prove itself as a standout, premium franchise thats winning by differentiating its brand experience.

The 15-year strong business model is transforming lives every day by offering convenient, customized, and creative workouts. Clients and companies in over 1,300 cities are being delivered a Certified Personal Trainer, state-of-the art equipment, and tailored workouts right to their homes, offices, corporate campuses, or other preferred settings. Key to GYMGUYZs strong performance in 2023 will be a brand new business intelligence system that will help franchisees manage their businesses, and several additional complimentary services.

Were the future of fitness because our business model performs better than fad fitness trends, such as tech-connected workout equipment. We provide the ultimate in workout accountability and directly eliminate the obstacles to getting fit, added York. Our franchisees are motivated every day to fulfill our mission of changing lives by delivering clients exceptional results, and we look forward to growing our franchise system with likeminded individuals as we continue to expand across the U.S.

To learn more about GYMGUYZ consumer and business services, visit https://www.gymguyz.com/. To learn more about franchising with GYMGUYZ, visit https://www.gymguyz.com/franchise-opportunities/.

About GYMGUYZ
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London. Picture date: Wednesday May 3, 2023.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London. Picture date: Wednesday May 3, 2023.

Rishi Sunak has been accused of blasting a giant hard-right foghorn about refugees fleeing warzones in an attempt to win votes.

Speaking during PMQs, Green MP Caroline Lucas attacked the toxic language being used by the government about immigration.

His governments vile and immoral refugee ban bill and the toxic language coming from the Home Office isnt even dog whistle politics, she said.

Its a giant hard-right foghorn blasting out a poisonous them-and-us narrative.

Lucas called for a bespoke refugee programme to help people escaping the war in Sudan, just as one had been created for people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

She said the government had plumbed new depths last week when immigration minister Robert Jenrick claimed migrants had completely different lifestyles and values to British citizens.

In a speech at the conservative Policy Exchange think-tank, Jenrick added that excessive, uncontrolled migration threatens to cannibalise the compassion of the British public.

Lucas asked Sunak: Can he explain what he thinks is so different about the values held by the people of war-torn Sudan?

The prime minister said the UK had a proud history of welcoming refugees, ut added: Our ability to do that is absolutely hampered when we have tens of thousands of people illegally crossing the channel every year.

Sunaks Illegal Migration Bill would change the law so people who risk the journey over the English Channel are detained and then promptly removed, either to their home country or a third country such as Rwanda.

The plan to send migrants to the east African nation  a policy ruled lawful by High Court judges  has so far been stalled by legal action and no flights have taken off.

Ministers have been unable to say whether the legislation complies with the European Convention on Human Rights.

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The Refugee Council and Barnardos estimated the Bill could lead to the detention of nearly 15,000 lone migrant children over the next three years.

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(Alliance News) - The UK Financial Conduct Authority said on Tuesday it intends to reform the listing rules in the UK to help attract a wider range of companies, encourage competition and improve choice for investors.

The FCA said it is proposing "significant" changes to the listing rulebook, including replacing its existing standard and premium listing segments with a single category for equity shares in commercial companies.

The financial watchdog said a single equity category would remove eligibility requirements that can deter early-stage companies, be more permissive on dual class share structures, and remove mandatory shareholder votes on transactions such as acquisitions to reduce frictions to companies.

"The proposed changes aim to provide a simpler and more accessible UK listing regime for companies, improving the attractiveness of listing in the UK and providing a wider range of investment opportunities for investors," it said.

The FCA noted that listings in the UK have reduced by 40% since 2008. Though it acknowledged that the decision by a firm to list is based on more factors than regulation alone, it said the listing regime in the UK has been seen by some as "too complicated and onerous".

"Our proposed reforms would significantly rebalance the burden of regulation to the benefit of listed companies and investors who are willing to set their own risk appetite and terms of engagement," said Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA.

The financial watchdog said it will also publish rule changes to improve how equity secondary markets operate.

By Heather Rydings, Alliance News senior economics reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Videndum PLC on Tuesday said it expects short-term demand for some of its products to be impacted by a writers strike in the US.

Videndum manufactures hardware and software for the content creation market, including broadcasters and film studios. It is based in London.

Shares in the firm closed 9.2% lower on Tuesday in London.

The Writers' Guild of America, which combines two different US labour unions representing TV and film writers in New York and Los Angeles, called a strike on Tuesday. The strike has caused some US cine/scripted TV productions to be paused, Videndum said.

Consequently, the company said that short-term demand for its cine and scripted TV products in the US - which represents around 20% of company revenue - has been affected. This, it said, will likely increase the second-half weighting of the company's performance in 2023 and is also creating a "wider range" of possible outcomes for the year than previously expected.

Videndum said if there is a prolonged writers' strike, its financial 2023 performance will likely be below expectations. It added, however, that it is "difficult" to forecast the possible length and impact of the strike.

Current company-compiled consensus for 2023 sees adjusted pretax profit in a range of GBP53.1 million to GBP55.3 million.

The last US writers' strike in 2007 lasted 100 days.

More positively, Videndum noted that it was performing well in some other regions and segments, such as Media Solutions where it noted a post-lockdown back in China as well as a return to growth in Europe.

Chief Executive Stephen Bird said: "The long-term drivers of the business, however, remain attractive and we continue to execute self-help actions to streamline our cost base, to ensure the business is even better positioned. [National Association of Broadcasters] was the largest global broadcast convention held in the last four years and we are extremely pleased with the response to our new product launches, which will drive growth. Products we have launched within the last three years are likely to account for about half of current year revenue."

The company said it will publish its first-half results on August 10.

By Heather Rydings, Alliance News senior economics reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
(Getty Images)

Karl Lagerfeld, who has died at the age of 85, was an icon.

Best known for his three-decade reign at luxury French fashion house Chanel, Lagerfeld will forever be known as one of the most prolific fashion designers of all time.

With his signature monochromatic ensembles, snow white ponytail and dark glasses, over the years the creative director became as recognisable as the brands he was in charge of.

Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1933, his father, businessman Otto Lagerfeld, and mother, lingerie saleswoman Elizabeth Bahlmann, emigrated to France when he was a child.

Lagerfeld's big break into fashion came in 1954 when, at the age of 17, he won first prize for a coat design in a contest organised by the International Wool Association. Following his win, the garment was produced by Pierre Balmain, founder of renowned luxury house Balmain, who offered Lagerfeld his first job as an assistant.

Karl Lagerfeld after winning the coats category in a design competition sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat on December 14, 1954 (Getty Images)

Just three years later he became art director for fashion designer Jean Patou. In 1962, Lagerfeld made the brave decision to go freelance and in doing so became one of the first freelancers in the modern fashion industry.

This stint as a freelancer allowed Lagerfeld to put his own mark on numerous brands, including a spring/summer collection for Chloe in 1964, which gained him worldwide recognition. This led to him to a collaboration with prestigious fashion house Fendi in 1965, which he continued right up until his death. During his time as creative director at Fendi the designer was responsible for the creation of the iconic double F logo, as well as the Baguette and Peekaboo bags.

It was Lagerfeld's appointment as artistic director of Chanel in 1982, which truly propelled him into the fashion hall of fame.

Over the decades he has shaped the brand, creating trendsetting collections that managed to change with the times, as well as lavish haute couture and numerous signature tweed suits which stayed true to the original DNA of the Coco Chanel brand.

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It's not just his designs that will go down in history, but also his spectacular runway shows. From a casino to supermarket, airport to space centre, no one could transform the Grand Palais in Paris quite like Lagerfeld.

The designer also raised the profile of the brand by using celebrity muses, which over the years included Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner, Kristen Stewart and Lily Rose Depp.

Seperate to his work with Chanel, Lagerfeld became a brand in his own right. Thanks to his signature dark sunglasses and long white hair, the recognisable image of which led to the creation of his eponymous label, Karl Lagerfeld, in 1984. The brand led Lagerfeld to become the first designer in the world to collaborate with high street brand H&M in 2004. The Karl Lagerfeld label often collaborated with his celebrity muses, the most recent - and last - being with daughter of Cindy Crawford, Kaia Gerber.

Along with his creative genius and inimitable personal style, Lagerfeld was known for his razor sharp wit and biting judgements - he famously stated that 'sweatpants are a sign of defeat'.

Up until his death, Lagerfeld continued to be at the helm of two of the most powerful fashion houses in the world, Chanel and Fendi. Reports state he had even been giving instructions on the Fendi autumn/winter 2019 show which is due to take place this Thursday during Milan Fashion Week.

Several times over the last few years Lagerfeld was asked whether he was writing his memoirs. "I have nothing to say." he'd reply. "I'm actually trying to make sure that I won't be remembered."
Greg Sukiennik has worked at all three Vermont News & Media newspapers and was their managing editor from 2017-19. He previously worked for ESPN.com, for the AP in Boston, and at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass.
Legal efforts to abandon a wide-ranging gag order issued by the judge overseeing the case against Moscow homicide suspect Bryan Kohberger have been renewed after a ruling last week from Idahos high court that denied one of the petitions.

Attorneys for more than two dozen media outlets, including the Idaho Statesman, resubmitted filings Monday evening in the 2nd Judicial District Court in Latah County after the Idaho Supreme Court dismissed the complaint on procedural grounds. They seek an end to the nondissemination order, arguing that it suppresses First Amendment rights.

Following the Idaho Supreme Courts guidance, intervenors now ask this court to vacate the gag order because it is vague, overbroad, unduly restrictive and not narrowly drawn, the complaint signed by Boise-based attorney Wendy Olson read. The gag order thus should be vacated.

The petition was initially filed with the state Supreme Court in February. The five justices, however, ruled against accepting the case, and unanimously decided they did not find extraordinary circumstances warranting the skipping of legal steps. The complaint should first be filed in Idaho district court, the opinion penned by Justice Gregory W. Moeller said.

Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall issued the gag order in January after Kohbergers arrest. Two weeks later, she expanded the parties to whom it applies. Presently, the order restricts law enforcement, attorneys for the prosecution and defense, as well as attorneys for witnesses, victims and the victims families from commenting about the case outside of court filings.

Four University of Idaho students were found stabbed to death at an off-campus rental home in Moscow in November. The victims were Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur dAlene; Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington.

Kohberger, 28, who at the time was a Washington State University graduate student, was arrested just under seven weeks later on Dec. 30. He is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in a case that qualifies for Idahos death penalty.

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Judge says gag order preserves right to fair trial

The shocking homicides almost immediately garnered national and international attention. In issuing the expanded gag order, Marshall said that it was necessary to preserve Kohbergers right to a fair trial.

There is balance between protecting the right to fair trial for all parties involved and the right to free expression as afforded under both the United States and Idaho Constitution, she wrote.

Kohbergers attorney, Anne Taylor, chief of the Kootenai County Public Defenders Office, and Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson supported maintaining the gag order as it is written in court filings.

Olson, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Idaho who is now with the private law firm Stoel Rives, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the media coalition. The group is led by The Associated Press and also includes The New York Times, Washington Post and a dozen Idaho news outlets.

While we are disappointed that the (Supreme) Court denied the petition, the media coalition now has a clear path under Idaho law to challenge the gag order and vindicate these important First Amendment rights, Cory Carone, Olsons co-counsel in the case, told the Statesman last week in an emailed statement.

Victims family also challenges gag order

Four days before Olson filed the media petition with the Idaho Supreme Court, the attorney for the Goncalves family filed a separate challenge to Marshalls order in her 2nd Judicial District Court. But Marshall put that petition on hold until after the high courts ruling.

Shanon Gray, the Goncalves attorney, requested that Marshall amend the gag order to remove attorneys for victims family from being barred from commenting. Gray argued that he is not a party to the case.

I am not an attorney of record involved in this case. I have played no part in the investigation, prosecution or defense of the case. Neither the state nor the defense has shared any information regarding the case, Gray wrote in his February filing, adding that Marshalls nondissemination order is overbroad and vague.

Following the state Supreme Courts decision, Grays case now moves forward, with the appeal scheduled for a hearing in Marshalls court at 10 a.m. on May 25. A date has yet to be set for the case involving the media coalition.
Starting on Thursday, May 4, pet product digital retailer Chewy is calling on pet owners for a social media casting call in search of pets resembling the Star Wars character Yoda.

The company, playing off the pop culture holiday established on May 4 thanks to the beloved film franchises phrase May the force be with you, is searching for animals near and far including Sphynx cats, French bulldogs, Corgis, Pugs, terriers and more which could look like the Jedi master.

The out-of-this-galaxy casting campaign is taking submissions until Wednesday, May 31, according to Chewy in a media release.

The winner of the Yoda-lookalike pet search will embark on an epic mission in which they will receive a custom professional photoshoot, a spotlight on Chewys website and on its social media along with fun items from the companys Star Wars Collection and its Personalized Shop, it said.

The VIP, or Very Important Pet prize package also comes with framed photoshoot pictures of the winner to remember the experience, Chewy added.

To enter, fans can share a photo of their Yoda-lookalike pet on social media, then tag @Chewy while also using the hashtags #ChewyCastingCall and #Maythe4thBeWithYou, according to Chewy.

Additionally, the company said it offers a host of Star Wars gear for pets to celebrate the pop culture holiday on Thursday including toys of characters like Grogu, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and more, along with other pet apparel and items.

Chewy noted the popularity of Star Wars among its customers, saying that more than 20,000 of them have named their pets after characters from the franchise, with Yoda as its fifth most popular name  particularly among breeds of smaller dogs and hairless cats.

Other popular names among its customer base include Chewie or Chewy, in reference to Chewbacca, along with Leia or Princess Leia and Kylo or Kylo Ren.
AMHERST  Voters on Tuesday approved a tax increase to fund the construction of a new elementary school, with unofficial results from the Office of the Town Clerk showing 3,272 in favor, 81%, and 771, 19%, opposed. There were seven blank ballots.

Plans will now progress on the building estimated to cost $99.2 million. Groundbreaking is set for next year, and officials hope the building will be completed in time for student occupancy in late August of 2026.

Construction of the 105,750-square-foot, three-story building for grades K-5 will occur at the current location of Fort River Elementary School, which will be demolished. Fort River will be combined with Wildwood Elementary School. Enrollment capacity at the new school is 575 students.

Town Councilor Cathy Schoen, who also chairs the Elementary School Building Committee, stated, With the positive vote, we can move forward to build a school for our children, our climate, and our communitys future. The school will be an exciting learning lab for the next generation about the environment and renewable, clean energy. On behalf of the Elementary School Building Committee, I thank voters for the strong endorsement and willingness to invest in our shared future.

Tuesdays turnout of 4,050 was 29.9 percent of Amhersts 13,551 registered voters.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority pledged $39.64 million to the project in a unanimous vote last week. During this meeting, Amherst school Superintendent Michael Morris attended with several town officials and told the authority about the community support for the project.

After Tuesdays vote, Morris said, I am overjoyed at the level of support for this building project because of the enormous impact it will have on the education of the children of Amherst.

State Rep. Mindy Domb, D-Amherst, and state Sen. Jo M. Comerford, D-Northampton, also attended and lent their support, with Domb saying the building is going to be a model for the community and the country.

In February, officials in Amherst said a 5.3% tax increase was needed to fund the school and pay back the 30-year bonds the town would take out to pay for the project. Its a tax increase that would add an average of $478.24 a year to property tax bills.

Several weeks ago, Amherst Town Council rejected a proposal that would have used $10 million of the municipalitys reserves to help fund the construction.

The vote came after the teachers union in Amherst, Amherst-Pelham Education Association, issued a statement last week that supported the construction of the new school. Previously, some of its members suggested residents should not vote yes, as the union and district are working with a state mediator to come to an agreement in negotiations that have gone on for months.
Just a few days after Cohasset woman Ana Walshe was reported missing, a Massachusetts State Trooper investigating her disappearance received a ransom note demanding $127,000 in exchange for her return.

We have the so named Ana walshe with us here..we had a deal worth $127,000.. she messed up..we have her here with us and if she doesnt pay the money..then shell never be back, and we know that the police and the FBI are involved.. good luck finding us, read the ransom note, according to court documents.

A state trooper assigned to the Norfolk District Attorneys Office received the ransom note on Jan. 7 from a Google e-mail account with the user name Richard Walker.

Investigators are considering this email suspicious because there is no timeline to respond to the demand and no contact instruction, according to an affidavit signed by a state trooper.

State troopers sought data from companies Lyft, Uber and Google on the belief Ana Walshe had been kidnapped, court documents show. Days later, their investigation narrowed down to one suspect.

Ana Walshe, 39, the mother of three young children, was first reported missing by her employer on Wednesday, Jan. 4.

Four days later, on Jan. 8, police arrested her husband, Brian Walshe, on charges of misleading a police investigation. Prosecutors stated he lied to police about his whereabouts during the timeframe of Ana Walshes disappearance.

During Brian Walshes arraignment the following day, prosecutors said blood and a bloody knife were found in the Walshe home and that he also searched online on Jan. 2 at 12:45 p.m. hacksaw best tool to dismember, at 1:10 p.m., can you be charged with murder without a body, and at 1:14 p.m. can you identify a body without broken teeth.

A release from the Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrisseys Office stated Massachusetts State Police and detectives from Cohasset Police conducted a search for Ana Walshe north of Boston on Monday, Jan. 9, which resulted in a number of items being collected including blood and a damaged bloody knife in the basement of the Walshes Cohasset home, according to the release.

On March 30, a Norfolk County grand jury indicted 47-year-old Brian Walshe in connection with the death of his wife, Ana Walshe, who prosecutors say was killed by her husband before being dismembered and disposed of in a trio of trashbags that he threw out in dumpsters at three apartment complexes.

Read more: Brian Walshe indicted on murder charge in death of wife Ana Walshe

At Walshes arraignment for his indictment on April 27, prosecutors said Brian Walshe suspected his wife of having an affair and that he used his mothers money to hire a private investigator to follow her.

Brian Walshe pleaded not guilty to all charges and his next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 23. A trial is expected in the late fall.
NORTHAMPTON  Alan Greaves is from Sheffield, England  famous for steel, cutlery and Def Leppard, he says  and partial to Yorkshire Tea.

But some swear by PG Tips, Twinings or Campbells. The Scots like their Brodies and Whisky flavored.

Everyones got their favorite tea, said Greaves, owner of the Brits R U.S. British and Irish food shop in Northampton.

And no matter what cuppa is their cup of tea, Anglophiles and expats from the sceptered isle are prepping a brew along with scone mix, jam, clotted cream, cakes, Cadburys Dairy Milk bars and anything else they need for a proper knees up  slang for a party with dancing.

On Saturday, a new English king will be crowned. The coronation is the ceremonial passing of that scepter and all the royal regalia, including the crown, to King Charles III and Queen Camilla. And it begins at about 11 a.m. London time.

Thats 6 a.m. here in New England.

Ive already set my DVR to record from both ABC and the BBC, said Deb Hanna of Wilbraham, who has to work Saturday morning so wont be catching up until afternoon. I still havent decided which teacup to use. I have a couple choices.

A solar powered figure of Queen Elizabeth for sale at Brits R U.S., a Northampton store that imports popular food and novelty items from England. (Don Treeger / The Republican) 5/2/2023

Right now, the frontrunner is a commemorative teacup from the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales.

As a 10-year-old, Hanna woke up at 4 a.m. to watch the 1981 wedding of King Charles  then still the Prince of Wales  and Lady Diana Spencer.

That was a princess and a fairytale. We all know now that it wasnt, she said. I just followed the royal family always.

Royal watching includes all the pomp and circumstance, she said. And the history including Henry VIII and his many wives.

I love William and Kates kids, so Ill be looking for them and all their adorableness, she said. Im not interested in living under a monarchy, let me be clear.

But a lot of the world, including Canada, does live under the British monarchy, Greaves said.

The Queen, and soon the King, is still on the money, he said.

Lucinda Sears, co-owner of Bees Knees British Imports in Acton, is from Congleton, a town in Cheshire, England. Shes also been selling a lot of flag bunting and Charles-and-Camilla tea towels.

Its a lot of fun. Its a very historic occasion, she said.

A panoramic view of Brits R U.S., a Northampton store that imports popular food and novelty items from England. (Don Treeger / The Republican) 5/2/2023

The most recent British coronation, that of the late Queen Elizabeth II, was in 1953. Anyone less than the age of 80, this is the first coronation theyll have witnessed, Sears said in a phone interview.

Greaves came to the United States 24 years ago to work in IT, losing his Yorkshire accent answering helpline phone calls. But he missed the foods of his homeland.

This store really started as my own pantry and me offering the products I wanted to buy, he said.

Before opening the store, he was driving hundreds of miles and felt the prices at other British import shops were too high.

I felt ripped off, he said. Thats why with this shop I want to offer things that make it worth driving 200 miles.

He had a shop in Pittsfield and one later in Albany for about five years, before opening in Northampton in 2016. Hes since closed the other locations.

A lot of the business is mail order now. But people still come in to browse.

There are Tayto Cheese and Onion Crisps  potato chips to you and me  and cakes with the oh-so British brand name of Mr. Kipling. He has Fizzy Vimto, Marmite and pork pie. Hes got digestive biscuits and Heinz Baked Beans in cans like the one Roger Daltrey holds on the cover of The Who Sell Out.

Novelty keyring for sale at Brits R U.S., a Northampton store that imports popular food and novelty items from England. (Don Treeger / The Republican) 5/2/2023

Hes got Dancing Queens, little solar-powered Queen Elizabeth IIs who move their legs and light up.

Greaves stacks cases of Irn-Bru, a soft drink, by the door.

Its got a flavor thats hard to describe, he said. Its orange, but not like orange soda. People describe it as like bubble gum. The Scots buy it by the case.

In England, lots of communities will have street parties Saturday with tables and flag bunting.

Each house will bring out a dish of food to share and its a big get-together, Greaves said.

At the Brits R U.S. shop, at 16 Armory St. in Northampton, the annual Pride Parade will be organized in the municipal parking lot outside Saturday morning. The coronation will be streaming on a television inside.
For U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, its a travesty that the Equal Rights Amendment guaranteeing protections against discrimination by sex, passed by both houses of Congress in 1972, never made it into the Constitution.

But, as the Boston Democrat said to applause in an interview with GBH Tuesday afternoon at the Boston Public Library, she intends to take the mantle of the fight, even in the face of recent Republican opposition.

Black women should be leading and centered in this movement because Black women and other marginalized groups  the LGBTQ community  stand and benefit the most, Pressley said at the event Tuesday.

Pressley expressed her concerns over last months U.S. Senate vote that blocked a measure proposed by her and several other Democrats to place the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution after the three-fourths threshold of states to ratify it was reached in 2020.

It was very demoralizing to see Republicans in the Senate defiantly putting a thumbs down, Pressley said. I mean, they were just so defiant and indignant and proud to be putting a thumbs down as if they dont have mothers or women in their family or raising daughters. Nothing should be controversial about this.

Earlier this year, Rep. Pressley joined several Democratic lawmakers to unveil a resolution that would remove a deadline imposed by Congress decades ago for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and add it to the Constitution now that it has been ratified by enough states. However, the Democrats efforts failed as the measure was blocked by Senate Republicans in a 51-47 vote.

The Equal Rights Amendment, if included in the Constitution, would offer a federal remedy that protects people from discrimination by sex. For years, Congresswoman Jackie Speier had led the fight in the House of Representatives to get the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution. When Speier retired at the beginning of this year, Pressley said she would continue to lead the effort.

The Equal Rights Amendment was proposed in 1923 by Alice Paul, a womens rights activist and head of the National Womans Party, and was later introduced in Congress that same year. The Amendment was introduced in every session of Congress until 1972 when the it passed in both the House and Senate.

Following its passage at the federal level, it had to be ratified by three-quarters of the states, a total of 38 out of 50, to be included in the Constitution. Congress placed a seven-year deadline on the ratification process. Although, the deadline was later extended to 1982, only 35 states had ratified the Amendment before the deadline.

In recent years, the three-fourths benchmark for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment has been met. In 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment, following Nevadas and Illinois ratifications in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Its just to do away with this arbitrary deadline, there should not be a deadline when it comes to gender equality, Pressley said.

Despite the three states ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, a memo issued by the 2020 Justice Departments under former U.S. President Donald Trump declared it null as the ratification took place after the 1982 deadline.

We conclude that the ERA Resolution has expired and is no longer pending before the States, the Office of Legal Counsel memo said. Even if one or more state legislatures were to ratify the 1972 proposal, that action would not complete the ratification of the amendment, and the ERAs adoption could not be certified under 1 U.S.C.

David Ferriero, the former head of the National Archives and Records Administration holds the right to amend the Constitution, according to the United States federal codes. But, the Department of Justice under former President Trump instructed him to not publish the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution.

However, Wendy J. Murphy, a professor at New England Law School, said that Article V of the Constitution, which allows for amendments, does not require states to meet a deadline. As a result, the legal scholar believes the nations top archivist must publish the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution regardless of whether states met the 1982 deadline or not.

If you let the federal government impose a deadline on the states telling them how much time they have to vote to approve or not a proposed amendment, then you have just completely usurped the balance of powers between the national and state governments, Murphy said.

In February of 2020, Murphy filed a lawsuit on behalf of Equal Means Equal, a national nonprofit organization, and The Yellow Roses, a student organization based in Massachusetts, against Ferriero in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, to compel publication of the Equal Rights Amendment. That lawsuit joined a similar lawsuit that was filed against Ferriero in Washington, D.C., later in 2022. Even though both suits were dismissed in court, the New England Law professor still said nothing prohibits the federal archivist from publishing the Equal Rights Amendment.

Publication is mandatory without exception and no amendment in the history of this country has ever not been published even when there were substantial concerns about the validity of an amendment, Murphy said.

Murphy noted that the 27th Amendment, which prohibits any changes to a senator or representatives pay before an election, was added to the Constitution 202 years after its initial proposal in 1789. However, the Equal Rights Amendment, which would legally protect womens rights only was given a 10-year deadline at the most.

Let people fight about the deadline if they want to but do your job, put it in the Constitution, as the 28th Amendment because youre mandated to do that, Murphy said.

In January 2022, the Office of Legal Council under President Joe Biden issued a new opinion in response to the Trump administrations memo. Although the opinion did not reverse Trumps order, it did defer the issue to Congress and the courts stating that it is not an obstacle either to Congress ability to act with respect to ratification of the ERA or to judicial consideration of the pertinent questions.

President Biden can order the current acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall to publish the Equal Rights Amendment, thus publishing the 28th Amendment, Murphy said. But he has not done so.

For 100-plus years, we have been fighting for gender equality to be enshrined in our Constitution, Pressley said. Were not reflected in the founding document of this country, despite all that we do to preserve this democracy. What we do on the ballot, on the ballot box, the contributions weve made to movements, to communities  a 100 plus years.
WESTFIELD  U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal visited the 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Air National Guard Base Wednesday, congratulating it, and Westfield, on winning the right to host next-generation F-35 fighter stealth fighter jets.

I want to congratulate members of the family here at Barnes, Neal, D-Springfield, said.

Air Force Col. David Moon Halasi-Kun, 104th Fighter Wing commander, said his and the units job was to help Neal and others make the political case for Barnes through continued excellence.

The 104th provides air security meeting threats to New England and the East Coast, protecting 40 million people and a third of the nations gross domestic product.

That stands on the shoulders of these airmen and the hundreds across the base who are doing the job, Halasi-Kun.

As he escorted Neal out into a hangar on the Barnes flight line, Halasi-Kun told the congressman, Everybody here is going to go through a whole lot of training to learn the new airplane.

That includes as long as six to nine months for some pilots and even longer for specialized maintainers.

Neals office was the first to announce last month that Barnes was getting the 18 the Air Force new $78 million, latest-generation F-35 fighters. The decision guarantees the Westfield bases role in the nations air defense and in the citys economy for decades to come.

Its a pretty good story you had to tell, colonel, Neal said.

The bases current F-15 aircraft, while updated, are on a 1970s-era platform and will be retired, Halasi-Kun said.

The public will get a chance to see the new F-35 aircraft when the Air Force F-35 demonstration team  with pilot Maj. Kristin Wolfe  will appear at the Westfield International Air Show May 13 and 14.

Neal, who was chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee during much of the nearly three-year selection process, thanked city officials, state lawmakers and the guard itself.

He singled out the efforts of former Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, and of current governor, Democrat Maura T. Healey.

The news isnt just about the 1,000-or-so jobs on the military side of Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport.

The militarys presence helps pay to maintain the facility, ensures that there is a 24-hour firefighting force on hand and that there is a tower staffed with air traffic controllers.

Gulfstream is a major employer, Neal said of the corporate jet maintenance facility with 300 employees located across the runway from where he was speaking. Parent company, General Dynamics, just 25 miles from here in Pittsfield has 1,300 employees and could use another 300 more tomorrow.

In total, the airport and its tenants have a $138.5 million payroll with a total economic impact of $236 million per year. The airport is responsible directly and indirectly for about 2,100 jobs.

The base will break ground soon on a on a $4.5 million gate project that begins construction after the air show and $4.7 million taxiway and aircraft ramp improvements. The ramp and taxiway bids will be opened later this week.

Halasi-Kun said that even though its more advanced, the F-35 is smaller than the F-15. So the Air Force doesnt need to expand buildings and hangars.

The Air Force will install a new cooling and power equipment and a new simulator, the colonel said.

Itll add up to $50 to $60 million in military construction at the base as the new aircraft arrive.

Westfield Mayor Michael A. McCabe was on hand as was state Sen. John Velis.

Velis, D-Westfield, detailed how a new state law helped pass aiding military families and made Westfield competitive.

Called the SPEED Act, the law makes it quicker for military spouses to transfer professional licenses and makes it quicker for children to enroll in Massachusetts schools.

Noise from the new jets is a concern. The base began an environmental review last year with public meetings and results of that study, and a new round of public hearings, are expected in the coming months.
A New Hampshire man authorities say conspired with another person in threatening to detonate a series of bombs at Harvard University in April if the school didnt pay them a large amount in Bitcoin, was arrested Tuesday and is set to appear in court Friday.

William A. Giordani, 55, of Nashua, New Hampshire, was charged with extortionate threats and conspiracy in connection with the alleged extortion plot, according to court records. Giordani was ordered to be held and is set to appear in Boston federal court Friday afternoon for a detention hearing.

According to court documents, Giordani told investigators that his role in the scheme was relatively minor, and all he did was respond to a Craigslist ad and place fireworks and items he was told to buy at Home Depot in a bag on Harvards campus.

Officials are still determining what role Giodani played in the incident.

Federal officials said the conspiracy began with a Craigslist ad posted by a person named Nguyen Mihn on April 11.

The advertisement read: I pay for a small side job. Will need items purchase and moved. (Cambridge)

The body of the ad read:

Hello I am single father of 3 and my eldest son gos to Harvard. He need some supplys delivered to him before Monday and I dont have time to bring to him. I need you to buy some item for him and deliver, I am very busy I cant and my son need to stay study. Will pay very well, i will also pay back for cost of items. We are Vietnamese family, sorry for poor english.

The subject listed a contact number and was willing to pay $300 for the service.

Two days after the Craigslist ad was posted, on April 13 at around 3 p.m., federal officials said the Harvard University Police Department received a call from what sounded like a computer-generated male voice used to disguise a callers identity.

The caller told Harvard police dispatchers that there were three bombs planted around the Harvard campus and stated: This is not a joke, a prank, or a drill. There are real lives at stake today.

Federal officials said the caller demanded a large Bitcoin transaction within 96 minutes of the call being placed or theyd detonate the bombs.

Around an hour after the first message, the caller told police that one of the bombs was placed at Harvards Science Center Plaza between two food trucks in a red and black Husky tool bag.

Authorities said members of the Harvard community would be eating studying, and socializing in the plaza and other outdoor spaces on campus at around that time.

Federal officials said an individual, who investigators believe to be Giordani, was caught on a plaza security camera at around 2 p.m. The footage showed Giordani, wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt and shorts, carrying a red and black tool bag in his right hand, according to the federal affidavit.

Giordani walked onto the plaza and exited at the bottom left-hand corner of the screen approximately 36 seconds later. He was off camera for approximately two minutes before reappearing carrying the red and black tool bag in his left hand, according to court documents.

He went on to sit on a bench in the middle of the plaza and placed the tool bag beside him. After Giordani was seen texting or looking at his phone for several minutes and then making a phone call, the camera footage caught him leaving the tool bag as he departed from the plaza, court documents read.

Authorities immediately went on to clear the plaza and use a robotic device to safely detonate the red and black toolbag. After the bag was destroyed, police said a metal locking safe (similar to what would be found in a hotel room), a package of wire and several fireworks were found in the safe. There was also a small rectangular box with wires attached to the safe, police added.

Federal officials accused William A. Giordani of attempting to extort money from Harvard with bomb threats. Authorities detonated a bag full of wires, fireworks and a lockbox in the middle of Harvard's Science Center Plaza. Federal investigators accused Giordani of placing the bag in the school's plaza. (4/13/23, FBI)Federal Bureau of Investigation

Investigators said the bag had a Home Depot sticker attached to it with the name NGUYEN Minh and the same number from the aforementioned Craigslist ad.

Authorities tracked the item back to a Home Depot on Allstate Road in Boston. Police said receipt information showed the items were purchased the same day the bomb threat was made.

Home Depot managers told authorities that the person designated to pick up the items was Minh Nguyen or bill from craigslist.

The order was for 250-foot galvanized wire, a safe box with a digital lock and a 24-inch, 16-pocket zippered tool bag, according to the affidavit.

Home Depot surveillance footage showed Giordani leaving the store with the items, according to federal investigators.

Federal officials accused William A. Giordani of attempting to extort money from Harvard with bomb threats. Surveillance footage captured of Giordani shows him purchasing wires, a safe box and a bag from Home Depot before authorities said he placed the bag  packed with several fireworks  in the middle of Harvard's Science Center Plaza. (4/13/23, FBI)Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal agents went on to reach Giordani over his telephone and asked to meet with him. After being reluctant to meet with authorities, Giordani had federal agents speak to his mother. Giordanis mother told federal agents that shell take her son to the FBIs office in Bedford, New Hampshire, on May 1.

Giordanis mother showed up at the office without her son. She told agents that her son refused to join her for the meeting, according to court documents.

In the presence of federal agents, Giordanis mother called her son and asked him to come to the FBI office. When she told Giordani that FBI agents wanted to speak with him over the phone, Giordani said that he knew that but didnt want to get arrested for transporting fireworks across state lines, court documents read.

Federal officials said Giordani went on to claim that all he did was respond to a Craigslist ad and place the fireworks  bottle rockets and Roman candles  and a cable in a safe, put it in a bag and place the bag at Harvard square.

While over the phone with his mother with federal agents listening, officials claim Giordani said he spoke to the person who placed the Craigslist ad and that person told him he would be calling Harvard Police to make a bomb threat to get money.

He added that the caller told him to travel to Worcester to get paid after completing his task. When Giordani arrived in Worcester he said the person called him saying he wasnt able to meet and added he wasnt Asian, didnt have kids, and started spouting off a bunch of racist things towards Black and Jewish people, according to court documents.

Giordani told his mother that he was not willing to give up his phone but was willing to meet with her and federal agents in Nashua, New Hampshire, to share information, officials stated.

Officers met Giordani at the agreed-upon location. However, federal officials said he refused to give up his phone. Officials said Giordani that he knew what he did was wrong and that he just put some fireworks in a safe and put them at Harvard.

Giordani was placed under arrest shortly after his meeting with federal agents.

Federal investigators say that Giordani worked with another unidentified individual to extort money from Harvard. The incident is still under investigation.
A Chicopee landlord accused of coercing tenants to have sex with him in exchange for rent, as well as exposing himself to them and locking tenants in his office so he can sexually assault them, agreed to pay $425,000 in a lawsuit settlement.

Salazar Dos Santos, a Chicopee landlord, settled in the lawsuit which accused him of violating the state Fair Housing Act by sexually harassing and assaulting multiple of his tenants over the past 11 years, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office District of Massachusetts.

Dos Santos agreed to pay $425,000 to compensate people harmed by the reported harassment and a $25,000 civil penalty.

Read more: Trevor Jones of Everett indicted on sex trafficking charges involving drugged victims

Federal officials said the settlement also resolved claims against the Trusts of Salazar Dos Santos and America Dos Santos, which held the properties where the reported harassment occurred.

The federal lawsuit stated that from 2008 through 2019, Dos Santos made unwanted sexual contact with multiple tenants including sexually assaulting them, exposing himself and locking them in his office to sexually assault them.

Federal officials accused Dos Santos of offering to forego rental payments in exchange for sexual acts. Officials said Dos Santos threatened tenants who resisted or objected to his unwelcome sexual harassment and evicted some tenants after they refused his advances.

Dos Santos was also accused of sexually harassing some tenants dozens of times for months, one tenant was sexually harassed more than 40 times, according to federal officials.

Sexual harassment and the conduct alleged here is repugnant and completely unacceptable. Stable and safe housing is fundamental for positive outcomes in life. Insidiously, sexual harassment and violations in the context of housing often target vulnerable tenants who fear eviction and homelessness. Although not present in this case, there are also times that immigration status is the manipulation utilized to target and victimize vulnerable tenants, said United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins. Under the Fair Housing Act, the federal government has the authority to investigate and hold to account predatory landlords and property managers who engage in this despicable conduct. The District of Massachusetts is committed to actively and aggressively investigating these types of cases. Last, but certainly not least, I want to commend the brave women who came forward in this matter.
Attorneys for the girlfriend of a Boston police officer charged with his killing want to use cell phone records as evidence. Prosecutors call it a fishing expedition.

Prosecutors out of the Norfolk District Attorneys Office brought charges against the girlfriend of Boston police officer John OKeefe in connection with his death in January. Karen Read, 42, is accused of running over her boyfriend and killing him while making a three-point turn after dropping him off at a party in Canton.

The case is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday at 3 p.m. Attorneys are expected to argue over whether the cell phone records can be considered as evidence.

Read pleaded innocent to charges in Norfolk Superior Court of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision at her arraignment in June 2022.

Last month, defense attorneys for Read claimed that cell phone evidence would prove her innocent in the case. On Monday, Norfolk prosecutors strongly pushed back on the claim in a 34-page court filing that accuses the defense team of attempting to establish a wide-ranging conspiracy without any evidence.

There is nothing to demonstrate that the items sought are either evidentiary or relevant, or that this is anything but a fishing expedition, wrote Adam Lally, Norfolk assistant district attorney, in a memo seeking to squash a motion seeking cell phone evidence.

Reads defense attorneys sought to blame two others in the death of OKeefe and said that evidence showed that someone else who attended the party in Canton made suspicious Google searches in previously filed court documents.

Another woman at the party searched for ho(w) long to die in cold and defense attorneys wanted to shift blame from Read to others who attended the party.

There is simply no innocent explanation for why the woman, not Read, made the search, Reads defense team said in a public statement. This evidence unequivocally exonerates Karen, because it establishes that individuals who were in the house at 34 Fairview that night were aware that John was dying in the snow before Karen even knew he was missing.

In the memo filed by Lally, he argued that it was Read who yelled at the woman to make the Google search when she returned to the Canton house the following morning of the party.

OKeefe, who was a Boston police officer, was off-duty and out with Read at the Waterfall Bar in Canton past midnight on Jan. 29, 2022, prosecutors wrote in court documents. Read dropped OKeefe off at a party at the Canton home of Brian Albert, another Boston police officer. Prosecutors accused Read of hitting OKeefe with her vehicle while making a three-point turn leaving the Canton residence.

Early the following morning, after growing worried that OKeefe had not returned home, prosecutors said Read and two friends found him in the snow outside the Canton house, bruised, cut and bleeding.

In court last month, Reads lawyers  David R. Yannetti of Boston and Alan Jackson of Los Angeles  presented phone records from Jennifer McCabe they characterized as being suspicious. McCabe is the sister-in-law of Brian Albert, the police officer who was throwing the party.

At 2:27 a.m., hours before Read would find her boyfriends body buried in snow, McCabe searched ho[w] long to die in cold into her phone. Forensic data analysts discovered that McCabe later deleted the search from her phones history, according to the defense attorneys.

Lally wrote in the court memo that the Google search referenced by defense attorneys is not accurate and that the search did not actually happen at that time. Lally explained that the data extracted from McGabes cell phone is inaccurate and unreliable.

In the same batch of data that defense lawyers relied on for their arguments, it shows that OKeefe supposedly took hundreds of steps in the hours after he was pronounced dead at the Good Samaritan Hospital, Lally wrote.

To call this data unreliable is an understatement, he wrote.

The defense team accused prosecutors of concealing the evidence for more than a year. Reads defense lawyers wanted to also access Alberts phone for further investigation, but Norfolk prosecutor Lally said their attempts to get more cell phone records amounted to a far-fetched conspiracy without evidence.

Several of these witnesses barely knew one another prior to this incident, let alone the victim, let alone the defendant they were so actively purportedly conspiring to frame, Lally wrote. The motion merely assumes, through no evidentiary support, that such a wide-ranging conspiracy exists and that any such content indicative of said conspiracy must be found within this phone and call detail records and would be relevant.

He wrote, However, the motion is scant in any evidence ... that such conspiracy ever existed.
TOWN OF TIFFANY  A 74-year-old man is dead after a structure re Monday in Dunn County.

According to a media release from the Dunn County Sheriffs Office, at 8:19 a.m. Monday, authorities received a report of a structure fire at a home on 50th Street in the Town of Tiffany.

The Dunn County Sheriffs Office, Glenwood City Fire Department, and Boyceville EMS responded to the scene.

The media release said while engaging the fire, firefighters found a 74-year-old man in the home who was pronounced dead at the scene by the Dunn County medical examiner.

The incident remains under investigation by the Dunn County Sheriffs Office, Dunn County Medical Examiners Office and Glenwood City Fire Department.

Assisting at the scene was the Boyceville Fire Department.
SPRINGFIELD  It has been years since a Massachusetts secretary of education made a trip to visit the public school district in Springfield. That dry spell ended Wednesday with state Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwilers visit to Brightwood Elementary School.

While Tutwiler said he was hoping to learn what is on the top of educators minds, Superintendent of Schools Daniel Warwick and Danielle Delgado, principal of Brightwood Elementary, took Tutwiler on a tour through the districts newest school building.

Tutwiler said Springfield took two of the oldest schools in the district and combined them in a new building in a thoughtful and creative way.

I am thrilled that the students have Brightwood Lincoln Elementary school to call home, he said.

The tour began with a look around the state-of-the-art shared playground outside of the $82 million building that opened in 2021.

The building combines two neighborhood schools built over 100 years ago into one edifice that holds a LEED Gold certification, a globally recognized green building rating.

According to Delgado, the Brightwood Elementary School serves 479 students and Lincoln Elementary School serves 429 students.

The school is such a sense of joy and pride to the area and to share it with the sectary is amazing, Delgado said.

Tutwiler said he has visited a school district in Revere, which shares a similar rebuild model.

That model of constructing a building housing two schools is the opportunity to take old schools off the grid and redevelop school buildings with an economy to scale to save the taxpayer dollars and do right by the students and broader community, Tutwiler said.

Warwick said the majority of the Brightwood and Lincoln school building design elements will be incorporated into the design that will combine the William N. DeBerry Elementary School on Union Street and the Homer Street Elementary School.

The DeBerry and Homer Elementary School is slated to open in the fall, renamed the DeBerry Swan Elementary School after State representative Benjamin Swan, according to Springfield Public School spokesperson Azell Cavaan.

Wednesdays visit was the first time in well over a decade a state secretary of education has visited the district, Warwick said.

While on the tour, education leaders discussed uniforms, universal pre-kindergarten, teacher-student ratios, social workers, school-based behavioral health services and special education teacher vacancies.

According to Tutwiler, vacancies are a part of the larger need to hire education professionals around the state.

Leaders also toured classrooms, the cafeteria, community spaces, the media center, art rooms, the library, technology and student support team areas as well as small group intervention spaces.

Later in the afternoon, Tutwiler stopped at Discovery High School for a panel. He was also scheduled to speak at the Urban League.

As secretary, Tutwiler directs the Executive Office of Education and oversees early education, grades K-12, and higher education in the state.

Tutwiler is the former superintendent of the Lynn Public Schools and headmaster at Boston Public Schools.
An Everett man received a four-count indictment by a federal grand jury on Tuesday of sex trafficking four women by force, fraud or coercion, U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins office announced.

Trevor Jones, 45, was arrested on related state charges on March 23 and remains in custody.

Jones ran a sex trafficking operation that targeted victims who suffered from substance use disorder, Rollins office said. He gave victims drugs like heroin, fentanyl and cocaine to intensify their drug dependence and gain their compliance, while stopping these women from getting drugs elsewhere.

During this time, Jones regularly took their identifications and other personal items to stop them from ever leaving him, Rollins office continued. He demanded a daily quota with all proceeds made from commercial sex acts going directly to him. If they did not comply, he threatened them with violence, harmed them or withheld access to any drugs.

Read more: Joseph Green pleads guilty to charges in 2015 shooting of teen in Worcester

Rollins office said the allegations against Jones are incredibly serious and disturbing.

The conduct we allege in this case is horrific, said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Boston Division, in a statement. Trevor Jones is accused of preying on, drugging and sexually victimizing women for his own financial gain. No human being should ever be lured into servitude, exploited, and forced to live their lives in fear where escape seems all but impossible, but thats exactly what we believe happened here.

A mandatory minimum sentence for the charge of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion is 15 years and up to life in prison, with at least five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences will be imposed by a federal district court judge.

The resiliency his victims have shown is commendable, and as a result, Jones will now face justice, Bonavolonta added.
A person was flown by helicopter to the hospital on Wednesday morning following a serious crash on Rte. 30 in Weston, Massachusetts State Police said.

State police said its officers were on scene assisting the Weston Police and Fire Departments before 11:50 a.m. on May 2 after the crash, involving a car and a truck, happened on the westbound side of the road in the town.

The crash was right near the intersection of Interstate 95 and the Massachusetts Turnpike, state police said. One person was injured in the crash.

State police had shut down the ramp from I-95 to allow for the MedFlight to land, and the helicopter landed at a tractor-trailer lot off of Rte. 30, police said.

The right lane on Rte. 30 was closed as of noon, state police said, but the I-95 ramp has reopened. State police said there is currently no traffic backup.

Details on the vehicles and people involved or the circumstances surrounding the crash were not immediately available, state police said.
Dear Annie: I am writing about an issue that I believe is affecting many couples now. The issue is pornography.

My husband and I have been married for 25 years, and we had a happy marriage while raising our three children. They all turned out to be good, responsible adults. We bought a house together, went on vacations and really lived a pretty good life over the years.

However, things seemed to change two years ago. Suddenly, I find myself yearning for his attention and compliments. I know Im not as young as when he met me, but I stay in relatively good shape and spend time taking care of myself. My problem is that I believe he is addicted to pornography.

Before Christmas, he decided that he needed a 75-inch flat-screen TV. I could not understand why, but he went ahead and had it installed while I was at work. I also noticed that he gets very anxious when Im home on a day off and he doesnt have the television and living room to himself. I recently went through the cable bill (which is one he pays) and found that he is paying several hundred dollars a month on pornography channels.

I feel that he has become so taken by his addiction that he is not satisfied with how any woman looks if they dont look like the girls he watches on the screen. Our sex life has become nonexistent. Ive tried talking to him about this, but he quickly shuts off the conversation by saying, Everyone watches porn, whats the big deal?

To me, it has become a very big deal and a big addiction. Any advice?

 Left for the Television in New York

Dear Left for the Television: You are not alone. There are many spouses who find themselves in similar situations. While it might seem like you are left for the television or pornography, what you are really left for is a sick man who is in the middle of an addiction.

There are many support groups online and in person. Please encourage your husband to seek help. If he is completely in denial, then it is time to seek the help of a professional counselor  for you, so you can decide what to do. You might also seek couples therapy.

How Can I Forgive My Cheating Partner? is out now! Annie Lanes second anthology  featuring favorite columns on marriage, infidelity, communication and reconciliation  is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM
BOSTON  Nearly three weeks after injuring his elbow in a game against the Rays, Red Sox reliever Zack Kelly had successful surgery Tuesday.

According to the team, Kelly underwent a successful ulnar nerve transposition revision in his right elbow. The procedure was performed by Dr. Jeffrey Dugas at Andrews Sports Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama. While the team did not provide a timetable for Kellys return, a source indicated that a potential return in 2023 has not been ruled out. Theres a chance Kelly could return to Bostons bullpen in September barring any setbacks in his rehab.

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When Kelly emotionally walked off the mound at Tropicana Field after feeling severe elbow discomfort on April 12, there was fear that he suffered damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow. MRIs revealed no damage in that area (that outcome may have required Tommy John surgery) and instead showed that Kellys ulnar nerve had come detached. At the time, the diagnosis was considered a best-case scenario considering the other possibilities for damage in the area Kelly injured.

Kelly underwent an internal bracing procedure on his right elbow in 2020, so he has battled issues in the area before. That injury, which was suffered during spring training, would have cost him the entire minor league season had it not been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was released by the Angels and later signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox in Dec. 2020.

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Kelly, 28, was one of the bright spots of the early season in Bostons bullpen. Before allowing two runs in  of an inning Wednesday, he had compiled a 1.35 ERA in his first five appearances of 2023 (1 earned run in 6  innings). The former undrafted free agent and minor league free agent signee made the Opening Day roster for the first time this year after posting a 3.95 ERA in 13  innings after being called up last September.
WESTFIELD  With the ear-piercing roar of F-15C Eagles in the background, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal was joined by city and state officials and several members of the Air National Guards command staff Wednesday at Barnes Air National Guard Base to celebrate the recent announcement that the base is getting a fleet of F-35A Lighting II fighters in 2026.

Today is a good day not just for Barnes Air National Guard Base, but the entire western Massachusetts community and the Commonwealth, Neal said in a press release about the announcement made by the U.S. Air Force in April that the base had been chosen to host 18 of the fighter jets.

During the ceremony, Neal also thanked former Gov. Charlie Baker for the role he played in getting the new fighters to Westfield.

Neal was joined by Brig. Gen. Virginia Gaglio, the commander of the Massachusetts ANG; state Sen. John Velis (D-Westfield); Mayor Michael McCabe; state Rep. Kelly Pease (R-Hampden); and 104th Fighter Wing Base Commander Col. David Halasi-Kun.

Halasi-Kun, standing with members of the Air National Guard in front of an F-15A Eagle scheduled for decommissioning, explained the significance of decision to replace the aging fighters with a new fleet.

We have a history of excellence, he said referring to the 47 years the 104th Fighter Wing has operated out of Barnes-Westfield Regional Airport.

The decision, Halasi-Kun said, ensures the viability of the base for the next 40 to 50 years.

He also stressed the national security importance of the base being in the state.

Weve provided air defense for 40 million Americans in New England and New York, a population that produces one-third of the nations GDP (Gross Domestic Product, he said.

McCabe said having the new fighters based in Westfield is a fabulous addition to Barnes.

He also spoke of the importance of the fleet being at the airport to keep the airspace above New England secure.

With the new fleet come an increase in employment at the base.

The total number of personnel would increase by approximately 80 people including 15 officers and 65 enlisted military members though those numbers may fluctuate, according to the fighter wing when the decision was announced.

Barnes-Westfield Regional Airport Manager Chris Willenborg, who also attended the ceremony, spoke briefly about economic impact of the airport, pointing to a study by the state Department of Transportation in 2019.

The study concluded, Willenborg said, the airport generates more than 2,100 direct and indirect jobs with an economic output of approximately $236 million annually.

While Velis was speaking during the celebration in an open hanger just next to the runway, a pair of F-15 screamed by the open hanger the celebration was being held in.

He thanked Neal for his efforts for the successful effort and spoke of his work to have the State Legislature pass the SPEED Act.

That act, which was a significant part of the criteria when the Department of Defense was considering military-basing assignments, expedites the professional licensing process for military spouses so that they continue their careers, allows for advanced and virtual enrollment for military children to resolve disruptions in education, and expands benefits and recognitions provided to service-members and military families in the state, Velis said.

The basing decision becomes final after favorable completion of an ongoing Environmental Impact Statement on the proposal, upon which the Secretary of the Air Force will sign a Record of Decision (ROD). The signing of an ROD is expected by the summer of 2024, putting in motion the stationing of 18 new F-35A Lightning II aircraft at Barnes ANG.
Boston Capital Development, the company working to redevelop much of the former Table Talk Pies property in Worcesters Canal District, has sold the former Pie Store building to a new developer who plans to build three additional stories for apartments.

According to documents filed with the Planning Board, Rossi Development plans to create 53 apartments in the building at 153 Green St., with commercial space on the ground floor. Boston Capitals original plans had called for ground-floor commercial space and 15 loft-style apartments.

Anthony Rossi, owner of Rossi Development, is also the developer of Walker Lofts, a 62-unit apartment building that opened in the Canal District last year.

Rossi told the Telegram & Gazette that all 53 apartments at 153 Green St. would be designated as affordable housing.

Rossi purchased 153 Green St. from Boston Capital for $734,000, according to documents at the Registry of Deeds. Boston Capital purchased the property as part of its larger $4.55 million purchase from Table Talk Pies in 2022.

The new plans filed by Rossi keep the original building footprint and the site improvements approved as part of Boston Capitals proposal, but will change the second floor to house 22 loft-style apartments instead of 15. The third and fourth floors would each feature standard apartments.

The Table Talk Pie Store moved temporarily to 65 Green St. in November and is expected to return to its original address once construction is finished.

The first phase of the Table Talk property redevelopment, an 83-unit affordable housing project at 120 Washington St., is currently under construction by Boston Capital. The company also owns 139 Green St., but this property is being developed by North Carolina-based Quarterra Multifamily Communities, which has proposed an eight-story building with 375 market-rate apartments.
A Worcester Technical High School teacher and an instructor at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School in Upton won the Massachusetts Port Authority JetBlue roundtrip flight sweepstakes.

As part of National Teachers Appreciation Day, Massport and JetBlue awarded two Worcester-area teachers two round-trip tickets from JetBlue at their schools Tuesday.

Read more: JetBlue adds Florida flights to Orlando and Fort Myers from Worcester

Christopher Plucinski-Taylor, an instructor at Worcester Technical High School, and Dierdra Cahill, an educator at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School, were announced as the winners in the sweepstakes.

The tickets can only be used on available domestic flights within the U.S. and must leave from the Worcester Regional Airport, according to Massport officials.

Dierdra Cahill, teacher at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School, is presented her prize in the education vacation sweepstakes. (Massport photo)Massport

The sweepstakes, originally announced on March 21, was launched to celebrate Worcester-area educators with a chance to win a roundtrip flight.

Elementary, middle and high school as well as college educators in a 30-mile radius of the Worcester Regional Airport were eligible to enter the sweepstakes.

We are thrilled to recognize Christopher and Dierdra during Teacher Appreciation Week and thank them for being such valuable members of the community, said Worcester Regional Airport Director Andy Davis. As always, we encourage students, educators and faculty to fly Worcester as an affordable option if they are planning trips during school vacation weeks or any other time in the future.
AlloBrain, an expert in conversational AI and customer voice, announces its participation in GITEX Africa (www.GITEXAfrica.com), the leading technology event on the continent.

This presence demonstrates AlloBrains commitment to innovation in the rapidly expanding African market, where its multilingual solution (82 languages) has already proven successful.

AlloBrain offers a comprehensive range of AI solutions, including AlloReview, AlloBot, and AlloIntelligence, which leverage proprietary cutting-edge conversational AI and incorporate practical applications of Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI to deliver an exceptional customer experience. These solutions enable companies to efficiently manage customer interactions, automate responses to repetitive requests, and gather valuable insights to drive growth and customer satisfaction.

AlloReview collects and analyzes real-time vocal feedback, AlloBot automates customer interactions, and AlloIntelligence examines conversations to ensure quality control and increase sales.

At GITEX Africa, AlloBrain will present its innovative solutions to industry leaders, investors, and decision-makers, paving the way for new partnerships. AlloBrains participation in this event reinforces its position as a key player in conversational AI and customer voice innovation, shaping the future of customer engagement and service process optimization on a global scale.

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With the Wisconsin fishing opener Saturday, Xcel Energy is encouraging outdoor enthusiasts to be aware of high water levels on rivers near the companys hydroelectric plants.

Due to high river flows, boat restraining barriers upstream of Xcel Energys hydro plants on several rivers have washed away or remain uninstalled. Recreation is not recommended until river flows recede to lower levels.

Typically, at this time of year Xcel Energy crews install a cable with a series of floats that runs across the rivers to mark a restricted area for boaters upstream of the dams.

The barriers will be installed when the rivers subside and it is safe to do the work.

Locations impacted include the Holcombe, Jim Falls, Wissota, Chippewa Falls and Dells plants on the lower Chippewa River. Also, the boat barriers upstream of the St. Croix Falls Plant on the St. Croix River and the Superior Falls Plant on the Montreal River have failed due to high river flows and debris.

Xcel Energy encourages boaters to take precautions that would protect them in the event of a mechanical failure.

The fast river flows mean there is not much time for rescue before a boat would drift from the barrier location downstream to the dam. Power is being generated at the powerhouses and excess water is being discharged through the spillway gates.

Boating, canoeing or kayaking above or below a dam can be very dangerous, especially if the flow changes and your boat is anchored in a hazardous area, said Rob Olson, Hydro Operations at Xcel Energy. Flow conditions can change quickly and boaters would have little or no time to react.

Many of the accidents and fatalities that occur near dams could be prevented by using common sense, practicing safety, staying clear of dams and understanding the dangers to be found near them.

Xcel Energy offers these tips for personal safety near dams:

Obey all warning signs, barriers and flashing lights, horns and sirens

Wear a personal flotation device  a life jacket

Always stay outside buoy lines and away from restricted areas near dams

Never swim or wade near a dam

Never boat or fish alone when near a dam

Leave your boat motor running to provide maneuvering power

Stay clear of spillways. Changing currents and boiling waves can make boat control difficult near dams

Reverse currents occur below dams. They can pull a boat back toward the dam into the spillway and capsize it

Never anchor boats below a dam because water levels can change rapidly

Bring a cell phone and contact 911 in an emergency

For more information, visit: Xcel Energy public safety. The website also includes information to help residents respond in a timely fashion in the unlikely event of a dam failure, including inundation maps and details about Xcel Energys dam failure warning sirens.
MAYOS poor record in the Connacht Under-20 championship over the last decade and the teams recent disappointing championship performance against Sligo have highlighted the need for a review of the grade in the county.

Thats according to Westport GAA club delegate, Willie McDonagh, who told last weeks meeting of the County Board that Mayos defeat in the Connacht semi-final last month was probably the poorest performances Ive seen from a Mayo team.

Mayo GAA chairman Seamus Tuohy had earlier labelled the performance and loss as disappointing, of course.

It didnt work out on the day, said the chairman. We will have a review with Maurice [Sheridan, manager] in the next week or fortnight just to review how the season went.

Maurice is at the end of a three-year contract so I think its important that we wait until after a review takes place before any decisions are made.

Id like to express my disappointment at the quality of the performance of the Mayo Under-20 team against Sligo, Willie McDonagh said under AOB at the end of the meeting.

It was probably the poorest performance Ive seen from a Mayo team.

I know youre having a review with Maurice [Sheridan] next week, but I think we really need to look at what do we expect from the Under-20s? Is it just about bringing players through to senior or winning something with them?

Since 2009 we have won two Connacht titles. Thats a very poor return for a county with the quality of footballers we have. I think we need to look at an Under-20 or Under-21 club championship, even if it is at the back-end of the year.

When I saw the quality of football that Sligo played, the skill level and the way they went about the game, compared to Mayo, it was a million miles apart.

Sligo have put huge resources into coaching into schools, absolutely huge, added Garrymore GAA club delegate, John Farragher.

Thats where theyre putting their huge focus. Summerhill were in the All-Ireland [colleges final] Hogan Cup this year, and there are full-time coaches working in some Sligo schools.

I think to be fair to the present set-up, well go ahead with the review and we can have this discussion at the next County Board meeting, remarked Seamus Tuohy.

Mayo GAAs delegate to Central Council, Paddy McNicholas, then revealed that the inter-county age grades for both Under-17 and Under-20 could be set to change for 2024.

I think we might have to wait a bit longer than the next County Board meeting because theres a review group looking at both the Under-17 and Under-20 inter-county championships at the moment, said the Kiltimagh clubman.

Both of them went to Central Council at the back-end of last year, and there was a proposal to change Under-20 to Under-19 that was shot down.

I think one of the main reasons it was shot down was that there was no plan for when it would start or finish or what format it would take. And it was the same for Under-17.

So theyre gone back looking at it again, and I expect something at a Central Council meeting in either May or July, and then there would have to be a Special Congress, probably in September, if they want to change it.

So Under-20 could change to Under-19 [at inter-county level] next year, he concluded.

We can have our own Under-20 or Under-21 club championship competition anyway, it gets players used to the physicality of the game, added Mayo GAA vice-chairman, Con Moynihan.
The drive to make rural Ireland a vibrant place to live was taken to the door of Dail Eireann last week when Mayo Macra na Feirme members joined counterparts from across the country to hand deliver letters to the Taoiseach and Tanaiste.

More than 50 young farmers completed a 16-hour, 79km walk from Athy to the Dail to highlight issues faced by young people across the nation. Among the walkers was Robert Lally from Claremorris who said the action has elicited a very positive response.

It was a phenomenal success, he told The Mayo News, following the event. We didn't expect as much momentum, so soon, but we brought a lot of serious issues to the fore and that has resonated all across the country, not just in rural Ireland.

Politicians must realise that we're about to lose an entire generation unless they stop sitting around driving rhetoric down our throats. We're constantly receiving unhelpful commentary from the government which shows no understanding of life on the ground and we felt we had to fight back and highlight what's happening.

Among the issues highlighted by Wednesday's event were difficulties accessing affordable housing, cumbersome housing planning guidelines, disjointed and sparse healthcare services for rural communities, a lack of public transport for rural Ireland, no recognition or engagement by government on a farming succession scheme and the lack of planning for the future of rural communities, informed by rural people.



Dismayed

Lally and his colleagues are dismayed by the stream of young people being forced out of rural Ireland and the lack of opportunity across the regions.

I have a Whatsapp 'Friends' group with 12 of us in it and there are only two of us left in Ireland. The rest are in Canada, Australia and America, driving on those economies and making those countries better while our society is stagnating. In those ten alone there is huge talent, entrepreneurship and ability but they got sick waiting around here for something to happen. They were denied opportunity at every turn and that's a frightening statistic and shows how rural Ireland is being shorn of a generation.

The Macra trek from Athy in Kildare to government buildings was an effort to highlight the need for a new view of rural Ireland and Lally said an early morning meeting with a family in Newcastle on the Kildare/Dublin border drove home the importance of their campaign.

It was just after seven in the morning and as we walked along we found three kids and their parents (the Dunne family) waiting for us. The kids had painted posters for us the night before and had scones and drizzle cake ready for us.

When we were ready to move on again the little boy Oisin came over to us and said, 'When I'm big I want to stay here and be a farmer like my daddy.' I was blown away by that and then his dad came over and said 'It's not me you're walking for. It's for him and his two sisters.'

That drove it home to us how important it is we drive on now and make a new future for everyone in rural Ireland. This isn't just about farmers. It's about a whole way of life and we're determined to do everything we can to create a bright future for everyone.
The song is longer than most, clocking in at six minutes and 21 seconds.

But the lyrics and the haunting notes from Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" don't just tell the story of a shipwreck.

For nearly 50 years, Lightfoot's song has memorialized to the world the iron ore freighter and her 29 crew members who perished on that stormy November night in 1975 on Lake Superior near Whitefish Point, Michigan. There are an estimated 10,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, but thanks to Lightfoot, we know more about the Fitzgerald than any other. And globally, perhaps only the Titanic is more widely known.

But Lightfoot, who died Monday in Toronto at the age of 84, also created a bond with Wisconsin where the Fitz is eulogized in paintings, museum exhibits and memorials. Because of his song, "Gitche Gumee" is no longer foreign, we know about the gales of November and that the boat was loaded at a mill in Wisconsin with a "load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more," Lightfoot wrote.

The 729-foot-long boat was owned by the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Milwaukee and her last port of call was Burlington Northern Railroad Dock No. 1 in Superior. Nine of her crew members called Wisconsin home. And Lightfoot's song has kept it all in the forefront. On Tuesday, it was the third-most popular song on Apple iTunes, meaning the legendary story will continue to be shared to new and younger audiences, their grandparents just children at the time of its sinking.

"I love Lightfoot's song because you can tell that he did a little research," said Teddie Meronek, 70, who specialized in local history at the Superior Public Library for more than 40 years. "It just brings it to a broader audience. To us a November can never go by without us thinking about the Fitz. It was just a terrible, terrible day."

Meronek was fresh out of UW-Superior and living at her parent's house in Superior when the boat departed, the storm hit and the Fitzgerald disappeared a day later. The library, located in a former grocery store, is now ringed on its interior with 35 murals painted by Native American artist Carl Gawboy that tell the story of Superior's history. Each is 5 feet high and 7 feet wide. The last in the series is of the Fitzgerald navigating Lake Superior swells in the Apostle Islands.

Meronek now volunteers at the library once a week and frequently gives tours of the mural collection to schoolchildren, many of whom know of the Fitz.

"I was surprised how many of them knew Gordon Lightfoot's song," Meronek said. "It really has an influence."

'Enduring legacy'

Lightfoot was Canadian but wasn't a stranger when it came to touring Wisconsin. He performed in 1979 at Summerfest in Milwaukee and 20 years later under the tent at Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield. Last June he played a show at the Overture Center in Madison and in September played at the Door Community Auditorium in Fish Creek. The venue is located on the Door County Peninsula just north Sturgeon Bay where the Fitzgerald had a number of winter layovers and where two of its lost crewmen were born.

Russell Haskell, the boat's second assistant engineer, was living in Ohio at the time of the wreck while Oliver Champeau, the third assistant engineer, was born in 1934 and lived in the city where he later quit school at age 13 to raise four siblings after his father died. Champeau also fought in the Korean War as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps.

"We are honored that Door Community Auditorium was among Gordon Lightfoots final performances," Cari Lewis, executive director of the auditorium, said Tuesday. "While Mr. Lightfoot was visibly and audibly frail last fall, his gift and craft of telling stories through song was so much bigger than one lifetime or one voice. It seemed to me that he, his band and entourage wanted to share that gift through live performance for as long as they could. What an enduring legacy."

The other crew members from Wisconsin were third mate Michael Armagost of Iron River; watchman Ransom Cundy and porter Frederick Beetcher, both from Superior; John Simmons, a senior wheelman, and Joseph Mazes, a maintenance specialist, both from Ashland; Blaine Wilhelm, an oiler from Moquah; and second cook Allen Kalmon from Washburn.

While not mentioning by name the members of the crew, Lightfoot's song helped keep their spirits alive. On Monday night the Lake Superior Twitter page, which tweets about the lake, its conditions and often brags about its size and depth, paid homage to Lightfoot by quoting some of the lyrics from "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

"On a day when my waves resemble the gales of November, I ask ... Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours," it tweeted. "Rest in peace, Gordon Lightfoot, you will always have a place here. It's been good to know ya."

The great lake

When launched in 1958 just south of Detroit in Ecorse, Michigan, the Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship traversing the Great Lakes. It set records for hauling taconite iron ore mined in Minnesota and destined for Midwest steel mills and was named after the president of Northwestern Mutual. On his 65th birthday, his employees gave him a 4-foot-long ships model, something he kept in his office until he died at the age of 90 in 1986. It then passed to his son, Edmund B. Fitzgerald, and then after his death in 2013 was bequeathed to the Wisconsin Marine Historical Societys Great Lakes Marine Collection at the Milwaukee Public Library.

The Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc has a whole gallery dedicated to scale models of Great Lakes sailing ships and freighters. The exhibit includes a shipwreck diorama featuring the Edmund Fitzgerald as it looks lying in 530-foot-deep water.

In Ashland, where there are still family members of some of the victims who died, the Ashland Historical Society Museum has a display about the wreck. Last month the museum received an 8-foot-long model of the Edmund Fitzgerald that now sits in the museum's front window.

Located just blocks from where a historic 1,800-foot-long ore dock once stood in the harbor, the museum also has a jukebox filled with 45s that visitors can play. "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is one of the most popular songs selected, said Tory Stroshane, president of the museum's board of directors.

"People definitely feel a connection to the Edmund Fitzgerald. They just feel very strongly about it," Stroshane said. "I think it's so widely popular because of Gordon Lightfoot and it made people not just in the area but in the whole U.S. aware of the dangers that lurk on Lake Superior."

Photos: Ed the Diver and his fishing lures Ed the Diver Ed the Diver 06-04282023091248 Ed the Diver 02-04282023091248 Ed the Diver Ed the Diver Ed the Diver Ed the Diver Ed the Diver Ed the Diver Ed the Diver Ed the Diver Ed the Diver
The monthly Towns of the County series is a little less than halfway over, but has seen great success this year.

Sponsored by the Butler County Historical Society (BCHS) and the Hruska Memorial Public Library in David City, each months presentation focuses on the history of one of the 12 incorporated towns in Butler County.

The purpose of the series is to honor David City and the towns upon which the county relies on for David Citys 150th anniversary in August.

Bellwood had been the first featured town in January. It was held at Winfields in downtown David City and saw 119 attendees. The large number of attendees led to future events being held at the Butler County Event Center.

So far, each program held at the event center  Dwight, Ulysses and Abie  have had roughly 200 people in attendance each. People have come from Omaha, Lincoln, Friend, Columbus and even from California.

"Some people are coming to every one of the programs, said BCHS volunteer Gina Barlean. One woman didn't come to the last one and we were worried and hoped she was OK. I ran into her a few days later and mentioned that we missed her. She really appreciated that we missed her. It goes to show the feeling of community we're experiencing."

According to Gina Barlean, the series is a community effort.

The library hosts a display cabinet that shows the memorabilia collections of the upcoming town program, with each programs presenter putting them up and taking them down. The library assists in promoting series, staffs the sign-in table and presents the speakers.

Jacque Masek makes kolaches and cookies, which are free to the programs guests and she runs the table for it. The Friends of the Library provides free bottled water, while Mark Doehling and Steve Barlean film the programs with Steve making DVDs to give to presenters. Judy Davis and Richard Polacek volunteer at the calendar and book sales tables while Gina Barlean handles the promotion of the events and uploads the filmed presentations onto YouTube.

Additionally, the Butler County Area Foundation has given the BCHS and library a grant, which funds in part the costs of advertising, the kolaches made by Masek and renting the event center. Program attendees can also donate to the cause, and the grant, along with monthly donations, pay for these expenses.

All of the Towns of the County programs start at 6:30 p.m. at the Butler County Event Center, 62 L St. in David City.

The next program will feature Surprise, which will be presented by Mark Doehling on May 15. Carolyn Dvorak and Sharon Bruner will talk about Brainard on June 5 while the Garrison program, presented by Jim Daro and Barb Daro Ingwersen, will now be held on June 26.

The Garrison program had previously been scheduled for July but was moved to June as the Butler County Fair and the David City 150th celebration will be held in July.

The other scheduled programs include Jim Residorff, David City on Aug. 7; The Ostrys, Bruno on Sept. 11; Diane Duren, Rising City on Oct. 2; Barb Brecka, Octavia on Nov. 6; and Gina Barlean, Linwood on Dec. 4

The speakers are given free rein in their presentations, and Barlean said they have all done an amazing job so far.

"It's been wonderful to see how people come out to support their communities. Also, the presenters relatives are coming to show support, Barlean said. It's great to see. We're all starting to feel like a big family."

Later this month, the BCHS will open the summer hours for the Depot Museum, 200 W. D St. in David City, on Memorial Day weekend  May 27 and May 28, from 1-4 p.m.

The summers display will show history as it was when David City began  how people lived, railroad history, old maps of Butler County and Nebraska and a slideshow about the countys history.

The Depot Museum will then be open every weekend, Saturday and Sunday from 1-4 p.m., through Labor Day weekend.
Disney on Ice will return to Pinnacle Bank Arena for five shows of Into the Magic Sept. 15-17.

The action-packed skating extravaganza features Disneys Moana, Frozen, Coco, Beauty and the Beast, along with other beloved Disney characters, including hosts Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse.

The show, which transforms the ice into the ocean, finds Moana sailing to save her islands from demigod Maui, journeys across the Marigold Bridge into the Land of the Dead with Miguel from Coco, visits Belle and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, and brings together Frozens Anna and Elsa, Rapunzel and Flynn from Tangled and Cinderella.

The five performances will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 15, and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Sept. 16 and 17.

Disney on Ice tickets start at $29 and go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Tuesday at ticketmaster.com and on the Ticketmaster app. Tickets also can be purchased at the arena ticket office from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesdays. Disney on Ice preferred customers can purchase advance tickets early via a pre-sale offer code.
AI is increasingly being used in healthcare to reduce clinician workloads and improve patient outcomes. AI-driven technologies are helping to automate mundane tasks, freeing up clinicians to focus on more complex clinical decisions. Importantly, this may also help reduce clinician burnout. AI-powered tools can also help identify patterns in medical data that can lead to faster diagnoses and better patient outcomes.

From the perspective of low hanging fruit, AI can be used to automate tedious administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments, updating medical records, or processing paperwork, saving clinicians time allow them to devote more of their efforts to direct patient care. Another emergent trend is using AI to monitor patient health  providing valuable real-time feedback on their status. In a world of wearables, this can help clinicians spot changes in a patients condition earlier than would otherwise be possible, leading to quicker interventions that could potentially save lives.

However, AI can also be powerful during the diagnostic process in multiple ways, from providing insights that could help reduce mortality rates and lead to earlier detection and treatment options, to helping solve practical bandwidth limitations of clinicians during their workdays. The goal, of course, is to provide clinicians with faster results, automate the analyses of patient data, and help them make better informed decisions about a patients care.

AI is already playing a major role in medical imaging by helping to automate image analysis and reduce the amount of time needed to interpret scans. Anomalies and abnormalities can be quickly detected with AI-based algorithms, such as tumors, and provide clinicians with more accurate diagnoses. The accuracy of diagnostic tests can also be improved with AI, which reduces the need for costly and invasive procedures. Additionally, AI is being used to develop new medical imaging technologies that will improve the accuracy and speed of diagnoses. Algorithms can be used to detect changes in medical images that may be too subtle or difficult for humans to detect.

However, AI in medical imaging also comes with a few potential pitfalls. For example, AI algorithms can be biased due to the data they are trained on, which can lead to inaccurate results. Additionally, these algorithms are not always able to explain why they reached a certain conclusion, which can lead to confusion and mistrust of the technology. Other times, present AI may simply fall short of a humans ability to identify a net new diagnosis that is not based on existing documented knowledge, or is currently classified as idiopathic. Finally, AI algorithms require large amounts of data to be accurate and reliable, which can be difficult to obtain in some cases.

For these reasons, and many more, rest assured that the jobs of radiologists or pathologists are not at risk. Gary Marcuss article on how Deep Learning Is Hitting A Wall highlights why.

Despite these potential issues and challenges, the use of AI in medical imaging is rapidly growing and is expected to become increasingly prevalent in the coming years, as it is also expected to further reduce the cost of medical imaging. Ultimately, AI has the potential to revolutionize medical imaging and improve healthcare outcomes around the world. To hear more about these topics, we had a chance to interview Catherine Estrampes, President and CEO, US & Canada at GE Healthcare.

Alice Ferng, Medgadget: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us! Tell us about yourself  your background and how you got to where you are today at GE Healthcare.

Catherine Estrampes, President and CEO, US & Canada at GE Healthcare: I began my career at GE HealthCare Europe in 1990 where I held various business leadership roles in Cardiology, Interventional, and CT product lines and gained extensive international exposure. In 1999, I joined GE Capital in the U.S. and held several General Manager roles both for GE Capital Equipment Finance and GE HealthCare Financial Services Global Vendor division. In 2010, I served as General Manager for the $1.4B Mid-America business unit in GE HealthCare U.S. and Canada, and in 2013 my responsibilities expanded to lead the Central Corridor $2.5B business unit. Four years later I joined GE HealthCare Europe to lead the Imaging business unit before being appointed President & CEO of GE HealthCare Europe/Russia, which was later expanded to include Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

As of 2021, I lead our U.S. and Canada region of 8,000 team members and $8B business unit of GE HealthCare that provides healthcare technologies, services, and solutions to help providers improve healthcare quality, access, and affordability across the region.

Medgadget: What are the main challenges you face today in medical/clinical imaging? What challenges do you see ahead? Are we prepared to meet those challenges?

Ms. Estrampes: The COVID-19 pandemic led to an influx of patients, both for treatment of the virus and for those whose conditions stem from delayed regular doctor visits and exams due to the pandemic. This has exacerbated clinician burnout and, subsequently, increased the staffing shortages already facing healthcare providers. As a result, we are seeing providers prioritize finding ways to alleviate clinician burnout and become more efficient with their existing resources and staff. This strategy shift trickles down to imaging departments, where radiologists are experiencing exceptionally high increases in workload leading many to report burning out.

For clinicians, including radiologists, the continual adoption of new technology is generally seen as a positive. The opportunity exists to help clinicians manage the new types of data being generated from new technology and the increased volume of data available to them. It is estimated as much as 97 percent of all healthcare data each year goes unused, resulting in the loss of valuable insights1. AI is changing this.

Crucially, AI is assisting technicians and radiologists alike with the adoption of new imaging technologies, promising to reduce the burden of learning new technologies as systems continue to modernize. Theranostics treatments are increasing, for example, with new developments of the therapy option being used to treat a variety of cancers such as prostate, endocrine, and thyroid cancer. We expect the demand for radiology solutions to rise, and AI will play a big role in that.

Medgadget: What do you see ahead in terms of how AI will revolutionize advances in imaging?

Ms. Estrampes: The most significant change I expect to see is a shift in the role of radiologists toward becoming a chief diagnostician. This largely has to do with AIs use in imaging  one of the core markers of precision care  which will help improve image quality and reduce diagnosis times.

A technology transforming this space is our AIRTM Recon DL reconstruction algorithm available on many of our MRI systems, which produces sharper images by leveraging all the raw MRI acquisition data, allowing for improved image quality. From there, its at the clinicians discretion to order more tests and collect more data based on what they see. Incorporating these technologies creates a better patient experience because it leads to shorter exam times with staff number staying the same.

Capabilities will continue to grow beyond traditional imaging applications. TrueFidelity, for example, leverages first of its kind deep learning image reconstruction (DLIR) to utilize a deep neural network-based recon engine to generate high quality CT images. DLIR opens a new era for CT-image reconstruction by addressing challenges of filtered back-projection and iterative reconstruction. The result: unprecedented clarity, thanks to maintained contrast visualization and edges, and minimized noise and artifacts. We should anticipate seeing more devices capitalize on AIs possibilities, including Machine and Deep Learning.

Our priorities align with those of our customers, who are looking to use AI, DL, and ML to increase workflow efficiencies and see more patients. So, what you have are clinicians with a holistic view of the patient in a better position to inform the kind of precise care needed, thanks to the efficiencies brought on by AI.

Medgadget: Will the existing hardware be sufficient for future AI software upgrades? Im anticipating there to be a hardware gap as we make more scientific discoveries and predictions that help us leap forward in our understanding of quantum theories. It seems quite probable well need to innovate our hardware to be able to detect even more and to be able to collect/store larger amounts of data, as well as process even larger amounts of data. What does GE HealthCare have planned in this realm?

Ms. Estrampes: New scientific discoveries are made all the time and hardware must be able to adapt. GE HealthCare continues to introduce new CT products, and we believe that part of how we create value is in the upgradeability of our equipment. For example, our Revolution Apex Platform, a GE HealthCare designed CT scanner, was built to be future proof. Its modular design allows for most onsite upgrades without replacing the gantry and with the possibility to upgrade its rotation time. Moreover, the Revolution platform software offers regular software updates with new capabilities and the ability to access GE HealthCares latest clinical applications. As a result, radiology departments can seamlessly upgrade their equipment on a regular basis instead of purchasing a new machine each time a new feature is introduced.

AI and other software are just as important in the upkeep of hardware. Software that pulls data directly from the machine, allowing providers to get access to rich data from their devices, can lead to great cost savings. Imaging Insights, a GE HealthCare solution, sifts through real-time data from multiple sources to keep medical imaging departments well informed on the status of their machines, allowing them to focus on optimizing operational efficiencies, workflow improvement, clinical excellence, and financial growth. The proof is in the numbers. One of our clients, Radiomed, saw a 36.5 percent increase in the number of weekly exams thanks to Imaging Insights ability to regularly update and correlate multiple data sources into one consolidated view2. (As each hospital is unique, results may vary. GE HealthCare does not guarantee the results identified herein.)

Looking to the future, GE HealthCare is committed to providing clinicians access to the latest applications and software as seamlessly as possible, which means ensuring that they can be integrated into current hardware. For example, our Edison Digital Health Platform is being developed to help hospitals and healthcare systems rapidly and securely deploy the clinical, workflow, and analytical tools required for improved care delivery, high-efficiency operations, and increased revenue growth.

Medgadget: Whats the future of imaging looks like? How do you plan to iterate on existing X-ray, CT, MRI, and other types of imaging technology to provide novel imaging solutions and experiences?

Ms. Estrampes: AI and imaging technologies will continue to help reduce wait times from scan to diagnosis to treatment and drive higher levels of productivity. This will benefit our customers by allowing them to see more patients, thereby reducing backlogs and with the potential to increasing revenue. (GE HealthCare does not warrant or guarantee profitability. Ability to achieve profitability is dependent on factors specific to each customer.)

During the pandemic, GE HealthCare introduced Critical Care Suite 2.0, a first-of-its-kind AI solution embedded within a mobile x-ray system that can help clinicians prioritize images that are suspected to contain a pneumothorax (collapsed lung), provide automatic measurements to assist with endotracheal (ET) tube positioning, and more. When used to support ET tube positioning, the device provides accurate and automated measurements of the tube position. Critical Care Suite does this by using its algorithm to automatically detect the presence of a suspected pneumothorax and ET tube in AP chest X-ray images.

For suspected pneumothoraxes, the devices mobility allows the application to be brought directly to the patients bed where it can scan the patient for a suspected pneumothorax. If a collapsed lung is detected, the scan is sent to the patients doctors, where it is moved up the queue of potentially less serious cases to accelerate patient care, as needed. Since its adoption, it has drastically helped reduce the turn-around time for radiologists to review a suspected pneumothorax. A review at University Hospital Cleveland showed a 78 percent decrease in time to report urgent exams while using Critical Care Suite. Exams went from 3 hours and 22 minutes down to 44 minutes.3 As our technology advances, I only expect the time to decrease further.

I also anticipate seeing growth in telehealth. While telehealth is traditionally associated with outpatient use, its application with healthcare professionals within hospitals for imaging procedures will likely see significant growth. Ultrasound, a very personnel-dependent field of medicine, is an area where this growth will likely take place. An example of such a solution is our Digital Expert platform, which allows for real-time, peer-to-peer collaboration where an expert can remotely guide a technician through an ultrasound procedure using a tablet. Should there be anomalies, or the on-the-ground tech needs a second opinion, they can easily do so with colleagues hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Medgadget: How will AI-powered solutions help hospitals alleviate the pressure on clinicians and meet customer/patient needs today and in the future?

Ms. Estrampes: AI has the power to revolutionize healthcare providers administrative processes. Administrative responsibilities are a huge contributor to physician burnout. In 2021, 58 percent of physicians reported administrative tasks as the key contributor to their burnout.4 We are slowly seeing health systems adopt command centers, where a central facility monitors and allocates resources within a system with AI technology. GE HealthCare has a proven track record in this space.

Our partners at Tampa General Hospital (TGH) use Command Center Tiles to comb through real-time data and identify bottlenecks, risks and barriers related to resources, patients, and personnel. The Command Center will then use those insights to flag possible actions that hospital staff can take to prevent delays in the patient journey. At TGH, clinicians are saving upwards of 82,000 hours a year, due in large part to the elimination of timely huddles to determine which patients can be downgraded in care, and interdisciplinary team rounds.5

Another health system, AdventHealth, uses Command Centers software at one of its facilities, creating the equivalent of 34 additional beds at one facility, increasing its transfer acceptance rate by 800 patients a month.6 This was done by allowing managers to balance utilization across sites by seeing where and when beds and equipment were available in real time and cutting down on time-consuming coordination work. The technology is not limited to one health system. The Oregon Capacity System uses GE HealthCares Command Center technology for a statewide capacity and critical resource management system to allocate life-saving resources in real time. I expect investments in the development of similar technologies to grow with the increasing provider interest in improving operational efficiencies and improving the patient experience.

Medgadget: What are other areas within health where you think AI will revolutionize medicine and health?

Ms. Estrampes: Outside of improving imaging and operational efficiencies, AI is already playing an important role in driving precision care. It is GE HealthCares view that over the next 5 to 10 years providers will focus on enabling personalized care with the right ecosystem. Precision care leverages a patients unique data via multi-modal sources to determine the most appropriate course of treatment for the patient to deliver the best possible outcome. This is enabled by precision diagnostics, treatment, and monitoring. Systemwide device connectivity and the ability to process the huge quantities of data they produce will be more crucial than ever.

GE HealthCares focus is on effective and efficient personalized care solutions, centered around the digitization of healthcare and applied throughout the patient journey to improve patient health and system-wide outcomes, and increase clinical productivity. Thats why we work closely with providers to achieve a digital transformation that prioritizes workforce stability, productivity, outcomes, and wellbeing. We are developing solutions that help save valuable caregiver time, resulting in benefits for patients, providers, and the hospital system.

GE HealthCares digital technologies can help synthesize the data to make it more meaningful for clinicians so they can spend less time in front of a computer and more time with their patients. The key advantage we have is being uniquely positioned as an insider in healthcare. Many of our devices and solutions span the entire care pathway from diagnosis to treatment to maintenance. Most have digital capabilities that enable devices to communicate with the administrative solutions helping run departments, thus allowing for seamless integration.

The hospital of the future would ideally combine the mixed uses of AI weve discussed: in imaging, when the patient walks through the door and needs to get diagnosed in a hurry; in Command Centers, where staff can triage and efficiently monitor patients; and in platforms, like Edison Digital Health Platform which is under development, which enable providers to manage the workflow and upkeep of a digital health system.

Medgadget: Anything else youd like to discuss or share with our readership?

Ms. Estrampes: The adoption of digital technologies and AI can lead to better patient outcomes through more accelerated and accurate care in addition to improved operational efficiencies. GE HealthCare is focused on improving lives through enabling precision care, which can be achieved by putting the patient at the center of the technology and bringing the right data together to help target diagnosis and develop a unique treatment plan. By connecting data from multiple sources, this can help clinicians diagnose a disease faster and even predict how a patient will respond to a particular treatment.

References

[1] Elevating Digital Healthcare to Connect Devices, Aggregate Data and Empower People

[2] Radiomed Customer Testimonial, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGOsiBbRaUE

[3] AI helps radiologists spot pneumothorax faster on ICU chest x-rays

[4] Physician Burnout & Depression Report 2022: Stress, Anxiety, and Anger, Medscape, March 2023

[5] Sustainable Healthcare Starts with Sustaining Exhausted Caregivers

[6] Real-Time Healthcare Creates Faster, Easier and More Precise Care
OFFRE DEMPLOI

POSTE DU TRAVAIL : COORDONNATEUR JUNIOR DE SECURITE

PROJET : GHSC-TA Francophone Task Order RDC et projet Halte Malaria de lUSAID

POSTE : Coordinateur junior de la securite

SUPERVISEUR : Responsable de la securite du pays

LOCATION : Kinshasa

TYPE DE PRESTATION : Consultance

Contexte

Le TO francophone dans le cadre du GHSC-TA IDIQ fournit une assistance technique pour le renforcement des systemes d'approvisionnement de sante regionaux, nationaux et sous-nationaux en RDC, au Senegal, au Benin et en Haiti et soutient la mission regionale de l'USAID/Afrique de l'Ouest (USAID/WA) a Accra, au Ghana. En outre, le TO a elabore un plan visant a ameliorer la preparation a la fourniture des produits necessaires a la gestion des epidemies de maladies a potentiel pandemique dans certains pays du GHSC.

Le projet Halte Malaria de lUSAID vise a fournir une assistance technique au Programme national de lutte contre le paludisme (PNLP) de la RDC pour soutenir les activites de distribution de moustiquaires impregnees d'insecticide (MII). L'assistance technique aidera le PNLP a maintenir son objectif de couverture universelle des MII par une distribution massive et dans les ecoles dans les provinces ciblees. Les lieux cibles sont determines par le PNLP et l'Initiative du President contre le paludisme (PMI). Le projet soutiendra egalement le PNLP dans la planification efficace et la mise en uvre de la distribution de MII.

Chemonics continue a developper une comprehension de l'environnement complexe et des menaces associees au travail en RDC. Afin de faciliter ce processus et d'aborder de maniere proactive l'environnement complexe et fluctuant de la surete et de la securite en RDC, Chemonics recrute un coordinateur national junior de la securite pour ameliorer et construire la plateforme de securite de la RDC. Le Coordinateur junior de la securite gerera la plateforme de securite qui soutiendra les operations du projet GHSC-TA Francophone Task Order en RDC et du projet Halte Malaria de lUSAID sous la supervision du responsable de la securite du pays de Chemonics. Nous recherchons des personnes qui ont la passion de faire une difference dans la vie des gens a travers le monde.

Objectif du poste :



Le Coordinateur junior de la securite sera charge de gerer la plateforme de securite qui soutiendra les operations du projet en RDC sous la supervision du responsable de la securite du pays de Chemonics. Il/elle developpera une solide comprehension des politiques et procedures de securite de Chemonics et les appliquera de maniere coherente et reflechie aux exigences specifiques des projets en RDC. Il/elle sera charge(e) de fournir un appui solide et de superviser les operations du projet, afin d'inclure la securite du personnel et des lieux physiques. Il/elle sera charge(e) de fournir un soutien en matiere de securite a la gestion des deplacements, a la securite des bureaux, a la securite des activites et a la gestion des incidents. Il/elle doit egalement etre capable de travailler avec et de coordonner avec diverses parties prenantes dans le pays, y compris d'autres projets Chemonics, et le siege de Chemonics, tout en faisant preuve de jugement et d'un haut niveau de discretion. Le Coordinateur junior de la securite rendra compte directement au responsable de la securite du pays de Chemonics.

Taches specifiques :

A. Partage des informations

Etablir des relations avec les organismes d'application de la loi nationaux, militaires et civils, les partenaires de securite, et d'autres points de contact pour recueillir des informations sur l'environnement de securite.

Fournir des conseils precis et opportuns en matiere de securite, des mises a jour et des alertes au responsable de la securite du pays de la RDC, a l'unite de gestion de projet (UGP) a Washington et a l'unite de gestion de la securite (UGS) en Afrique.

Transmettre les alertes de securite pour les situations emergentes (troubles civils, reponse armee du gouvernement, etc.) au personnel et aux visiteurs. Le coordinateur de la securite, en coordination avec le responsable de la securite du pays, doit envoyer des SMS, des e-mails ou contacter le personnel par telephone de maniere proactive.

Signaler immediatement tous les incidents lies a la securite impliquant le personnel de Chemonics et les personnes a charge et/ou les biens du projet au responsable de la securite du pays, aux PMU et a la SMU.

S'assurer que le personnel Chemonics recoit des rapports de situation et d'autres informations de securite appropriees.

Informer le personnel de toutes les considerations de surete et de securite pour le personnel Chemonics arrivant en RDC dans les 24 a 48 heures suivant son arrivee. Inclure des informations sur les risques de securite, les instructions de securite, les procedures de communication, les precautions de voyage, les procedures d'urgence et les restrictions de mouvement (si necessaire).

B. Evaluation des menaces et des risques

Effectuer des evaluations periodiques des menaces et des risques lies aux operations dans tout le pays. Cela comprendra des evaluations de securite ecrites rapides avec un debriefing verbal qui analysera les menaces, evaluera les risques et fournira des recommandations specifiques sur des mesures dattenuation.

C. Amelioration et mise en uvre des plans de surete et de securite

Fournir une contribution technique a Chemonics pour l'affinement des plans d'urgence, de securite et de contingence du projet. Cette contribution doit inclure des conseils sur la reponse aux incidents, les evacuations, la securite physique et les protocoles/procedures de securite de l'information.

Coordonner les mises a jour regulieres de la documentation cle sur la securite du projet, y compris les arbres telephoniques du projet et les plans d'action d'urgence pour aider le responsable de la securite du pays.

Travailler en etroite collaboration avec le responsable de la securite du pays pour aider a la gestion de la plateforme de securite de Chemonics, en assurant une mise en uvre appropriee des exigences de securite du projet

D. Securite du bureau et du domicile

Effectuer des evaluations periodiques de la securite des locaux et des equipements de Chemonics et donner des conseils sur les lacunes en matiere de securite en recommandant des ameliorations et des solutions en fonction des risques evalues.

Le cas echeant, aider Chemonics a developper et a mettre en uvre des exigences de securite pour les bureaux regionaux et les bureaux de projet mis en uvre par Chemonics.

Conseiller sur les mesures de securite appropriees pour les locaux de Chemonics et les residences du personnel.

E. Gestion des incidents et des crises

Assister le personnel du projet dans la gestion des incidents et des crises. Cela comprendra l'assistance a une eventuelle evacuation du personnel expatrie et la reponse a d'autres incidents de securite.

Assister les projets dans la realisation d'exercices/repetitions de gestion des incidents.

Soutenir les actions d'intervention d'urgence lors de l'activation d'equipe de gestion des incidents, conformement aux instructions du responsable de la securite.

F. Gestion des deplacements

Aider les equipes de terrain a fournir des informations sur les menaces securitaires et des recommandations de voyage avant toute excursion hors de Kinshasa. Cela comprend l'evaluation de la surete et de la securite des itineraires, de la securite des hotels et des menaces dans les zones ou des reunions/ateliers de projet sont prevus. Le coordinateur de la securite fournira egalement aux equipes de terrain les coordonnees des personnes a contacter en cas d'urgence dans la region (hopitaux locaux, commissariats de police, etc.).

Gerer les deplacements du personnel, en procedant a une planification appropriee des voyages et en coordonnant les dispositions logistiques, le cas echeant.

Assurer la mise en uvre d'un plan de gestion des voyages afin de determiner les precautions de securite requises pour les deplacements vers des lieux specifiques tout en surveillant les arrivees/departs du personnel.

G. Programmation

* Identifier les lacunes systematiques de l'approche actuelle de la gestion de la securite afin de creer de nouvelles procedures dans tout le pays. Le coordinateur de la securite aidera le responsable de la securite a elaborer et/ou a coordonner les programmes de formation du personnel et les briefings regulieres. Au minimum, cela devrait concerner

Le personnel de Chemonics maitrise l'utilisation de tous les equipements de securite, y compris les equipements de communication, les equipements d'urgence des vehicules et les mesures de securite personnelle necessaires au travail quotidien.



La capacite de communication d'urgence du personnel Chemonics



Achat de materiel approprie pour les equipements de securite



Injecter une sensibilisation a la securite par le biais de reunions mensuelles sur la securite



Renforcer les competences et les habitudes de securite du personnel de Chemonics.

H. General

Toute autre tache liee a la securite assignee par le directeur de pays et/ou la SMU.

Qualifications

Forte connaissance contextuelle de lenvironnement securitaire en RDC ;

3 ans ou plus dexperience dans la gestion de la securite ;

Capacite averee a creer et a exploiter des connexions de reseau en RDC pour promouvoir une comprehension precise et opportune du contexte securitaire en RDC ;

Experience professionnelle anterieure dans les forces de l'ordre ou l'armee, combinee a une experience professionnelle dans le secteur prive, de preference ;

Expertise averee dans les questions de securite en RDC, y compris l'environnement actuel des menaces, la politique de securite, les acteurs cles, l'evaluation des risques et les meilleures pratiques.

Experience dans la fourniture de services de securite a un donateur international ou a une ONG internationale souhaitable ; Une connaissance des reglements du gouvernement americain et de l'USAID est preferable ;

Capacite a rendre compte et a coordonner avec de multiples parties prenantes, tant internes qu'externes.

Experience de la formation de civils aux mesures de surete et de securite ;

Excellente communication ecrite et orale et competences interpersonnelles ; et

Maitrise du francais, du lingala et d'une autre langue nationale de la RDC requise. Bonne maitrise de l'anglais ecrit souhaitee.

Obligation d'etre un ressortissant congolais / autorise a travailler en RDC.

Livrables a fournir

Resume mensuel de la securite

Evaluation trimestrielle des performances

Duree

Ce travail aura une duree de six mois.

Lieu d'affectation

Ce poste est base a Kinshasa, en Republique democratique du Congo, avec la possibilite d'effectuer des deplacements intermittents dans le TO francophone du GHSC-TA et dans les provinces cibles du projet Halte Malaria de lUSAID, selon les besoins.

Supervision

Le coordinateur junior de la securite rendra compte au responsable de la securite du pays de la RDC, ou a la personne qu'il/elle aura designee.

Comment postulez ?

Chemonics International respecte la diversite des cultures, des sexes, des races, et des religions ; les candidats interesses doivent soumettre electroniquement leurs dossiers de demande comprenant un CV actualise, les copies des diplomes et Brevets, trois references professionnelles ainsi quune lettre de motivation avec objet :  COORDONNATEUR JUNIOR DE LA SECURITE  ladresse suivante : chemonicsghscta.congo@gmail.com. La date limite de soumission de candidature est le mardi 16 Mai 2023 a 17h00.

-------------------- ANGLAIS --------------------

Scope of Work  Junior Security Coordinator

PROJECT: GHSC-TA Francophone Task Order DRC and USAIDs End Malaria Project projet

POSITION: Junior Security Coordinator

SUPERVISOR: Responsable de la securite du pays

LOCATION: Kinshasa

ROLE TYPE: Consultancy

Background

The Francophone TO under the GHSC-TA IDIQ provides technical assistance for strengthening regional, national, and sub-national health supply systems in the DRC, Senegal, Benin, and Haiti and supports the USAID/West Africa (USAID/WA) Regional Mission in Accra, Ghana. In addition, the TO has developed a plan to improve preparedness to provide commodities needed to manage disease outbreaks with pandemic potential in select GHSC countries.

USAIDs End Malaria Project aims to provide technical assistance to the DRC National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) to support insecticide-treated net (ITN) distribution activities. Technical assistance support will aid the NMCP to maintain its goal of universal coverage of ITN through mass and school-based distribution in targeted provinces. Target locations are determined by NMCP and the Presidents Malaria Initiative (PMI). The project will also support NMCP with efficient planning and ITN distribution implementation.

Chemonics is continuing to develop an understanding of the complex environment and threats associated with working across DRC. To facilitate this process and proactively address the complex and fluctuating safety and security environment in DRC, Chemonics is recruiting a local national Junior Security Coordinator to enhance and build upon the DRC security platform. The Junior Security Coordinator will manage the security platform that will support project operations of the GHSC-TA Francophone Task Order and USAIDs End Malaria Project in the DRC under the supervision of Chemonics' Country Security Manager. We are looking for individuals who have a passion for making a difference in the lives of people around the world.

Position Objective:

The Junior Security Coordinator will be responsible for managing the security platform that will support project operations in DRC under the supervision of Chemonics' Country Security Manager. S/he will develop a strong understanding of Chemonics corporate security policies and procedures and apply these in a consistent and thoughtful manner to the specific requirements of projects in DRC. The Junior Security Coordinator will be responsible for providing robust support and oversight of project operations, to include the security of staff and physical locations. S/he will be responsible for providing security support to journey management, office security, activity security, and incident management. S/he must also be able to work with and coordinate with various stakeholders in country, including other Chemonics projects, and the Chemonics Home Office, while demonstrating sound judgment and a high level of discretion. The Junior Security Coordinator will report directly to Chemonics' Country Security Manager.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

A. Information Sharing

Establish relationships with national, military and civilian law enforcement agencies, security partners, and other points of contact to gather information on the security environment.

Provide accurate and timely security guidance, updates, and alerts to the DRC Country Security Manager, the Project Management Unit (PMU) in Washington and the Africa Security Management Unit (SMU).

Transmit security alerts for emerging situations (civil unrest, armed government response, etc.) to staff and visitors. The Security Coordinator, in coordination with the Country Security Manager, should proactively send SMS, email, or contact staff by phone.

Immediately report all security-related incidents involving Chemonics personnel, dependents, and/or project assets to the Country Security Manager, PMUs, and SMU.

Ensure that Chemonics personnel receive situation reports and other appropriate safety information.

Inform personnel of all safety and security considerations for Chemonics personnel arriving in the DRC within 24 to 48 hours of arrival. Include information on security risks, safety instructions, communication procedures, travel precautions, emergency procedures and movement restrictions (if required).

B. Threat and Risk Assessment

Conduct periodic threat and risk assessments of operations across the country. This will include rapid written security assessments with verbal debriefing that will analyze threats, assess risks, and provide specific recommendations on mitigation measures.

C. Improvement and implementation of safety and security plans

Provide technical input to Chemonics for the refinement of the project's emergency, safety, and contingency plans. This input should include advice on incident response, evacuations, physical security, and information security protocols/procedures.

Coordinate regular updates of key project security documentation, including project phone trees and emergency action plans to assist the Country Security Manager.

Work closely with the Country Security Manager to assist in the management of Chemonics security platform, ensuring appropriate implementation of project security requirements.

D. Office and Residential Security

Conduct periodic safety assessments of Chemonics premises and equipment and advise on safety readiness gaps with recommendations for improvements according to the assessed risks.

Where appropriate, assist Chemonics in developing and implementing security requirements for regional offices and project offices implemented by Chemonics.

Advise on appropriate security measures for Chemonics premises and staff residences.

E. Incident and Crisis Management

Assist project staff in incident and crisis management. This will include assistance with a possible evacuation of expatriate staff and response to other security incidents.

Assist projects in conducting incident management exercises/rehearsals

Support emergency response actions during an Incident Management Team activation as assigned by the Country Security Manager

F. Travel Management

Assist field teams in providing information on security threats and travel recommendations prior to any excursion out of Kinshasa. This includes assessing route safety and security, hotel security, and threat conditions in areas where project meetings/workshops are scheduled. The security coordinator will also provide field teams with area-specific emergency contact information (local hospitals, police stations, etc.).

Manage staff travel, undertaking appropriate trip planning and coordinating logistical arrangements as needed.

Ensure the implementation of a journey management plan to determine required security precautions for travel to specific locations while monitoring staff arrivals/departures.

G. Programming

* Identify systematic gaps in the existing safety management approach to create new procedures across the country. The security coordinator will assist the Country Security Manager to develop and/or coordinate staff training programs and regular briefings. At a minimum, this should concern:

Chemonics personnel are proficient in the use of all safety equipment, including communications equipment, vehicle emergency equipment, and personal safety measures required for daily work.

Emergency communication capability of Chemonics personnel

Purchase of appropriate equipment for safety equipment

Inject security awareness through monthly security meetings

Strengthen the skills and safety habits of Chemonics personnel.

H. General

Any other security-related duties assigned by the Country Director and/or SMU.

Qualifications

Strong contextual knowledge of the security environment in DRC;

3 or more years of experience in security management

Demonstrated ability to create and leverage network connections in DRC to promote an accurate and timely understanding of the security context in DRC;

Previous work experience in law enforcement or the military, combined with work experience in the private sector preferred;

Proven expertise in security issues in DRC, including the current threat environment, security policy, key actors, risk assessment and best practices;

Experience in providing security services to an international donor or international NGO desirable; knowledge of U.S. government and USAID regulations preferred;

Ability to report to and coordinate with multiple stakeholders, both internal and external.

Experience in training civilians in safety and security measures;

Excellent written and oral communication and interpersonal skills; and

Fluency in French, Lingala and another DRC National language required. Good command of written English desired.

Obligation to be a Congolese national / authorized to work in DRC

Deliverables

Monthly security summary

Quarterly performance assessment

Duration of Assignment

This role will have a duration of six months.

Location of Assignment

This position is based in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo with the possibility of intermittent travel throughout the GHSC-TA Francophone TO and USAIDs End Malaria Projects target provinces as needed.

Reporting

The Junior Security Coordinator will report to DRC Country Security Manager, or her/his designee.
Bourbon distiller Jim Beam touts People Are Good For You in its latest campaign, which includes a new website and the rollout of a visual identity, launching in June. The ad is accompanied by the Neil Diamond song "Sweet Caroline."

The new work is focused on creating a strong emotional bond between Jim Beam and the next generation of consumers. Creative is by Leo Burnett. The spot was directed by Noam Murro and the visual identity created in partnership with Turner Duckworth.

The just-launched spot in the U.S. includes 15-, 30- and 60-second versions in broadcast, streaming, digital and social. It marks the debut of a global Jim Beam campaign that will launch in Germany and Australia in the next few months. Poland, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and China will air the work later this year.

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Jim Beams new platform gives fresh energy to the point of view thats always been at the core of this iconic brands DNA: People are good for you, Britt Nolan, President-Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett. Were very proud to put work into the world thats genuinely optimistic and uplifting.

According to Forbes, Jim Beam White Label, is the worlds most popular bourbon. The company began in the late 18th century  and a member of the Beam family has been at the helm for seven generations. The brand has had several corporate owners over the years. In 2014, it was purchased by Suntory Holdings and Jim Beam's parent company is now Beam Suntory.

Great brands always seem to have a spirit of place about them. Talking to Fred Noe, the great grandson of Jim Beam, we kept hearing about the Beam family porch. Its where Beam was first bottled and shared, where traditions were born and where folks came together time and again for more than seven generations, said Matt Lurcock, creative director, Turner Duckworth London. Bringing this spirit of the porch together with the unmistakable marks of Jim Beam retained all the brands familiarity, but packed it full of warm, honest soul.

In 2020, Jim Beam Kentucky Coolers debuted in partnership with The Boston Beer Company, offered in four flavors.

Beam Suntory brands include Maker's Mark, Basil Hayden and Knob Creek bourbons, as well as Scotch brands, such as Teacher's, Laphroaig and Bowman. The company also produces Courvoisier cognac and Sipsmith gin.
by Tanya Gazdik , May 2, 2023

Ford Motor Co. has developed an app for Bronco owners looking to test their vehicles off-road capabilities.

The Bronco Trail App, available for Apple iOS and Google Android mobile devices, was unveiled at Bronco Safari 2023 in Utah, where hundreds of Bronco enthusiasts are gathering to show off their vehicles and tackle some of the challenging trails that can be found in the area.

Available exclusively for Bronco owners, the app features 1,200 professionally curated off-road trail maps across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It provides the ability to record drives with waypoints, photos and video. Future updates will continue to add more trails and features.

Users can share adventures on social media.

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The app will help those looking to get the most out of their Bronco, says Matt Winter, Bronco brand manager.

We know our customers value the time they take to go out there and get away from it all, and this app offers them an easy way to share the exciting experiences they have and connect with other off-roaders, Winter says in a statement.

Downloadable satellite imagery and 2D topographic maps will help drivers stay prepared for the journey ahead even if they go off-the-grid and off line.

One cool feature is a tire pressure gauge. Some trails recommend lower or higher tire pressure to traverse. A real-time tire pressure gauge is built into the app to assist with adjusting to desired tire pressure on the trail and recommended pressure for the road.

Videos can be captured and viewed in the app or through a connection with the Broncos center console, with overlay data like speed, RPM, distance traveled and elevation. Once a user is done recording, the video will be automatically saved to their phone and available to share via text, social media channel or in online forums.
by Ray Schultz , May 2, 2023

U.S. journalists are alarmed about the future of press freedom in the country, judging by an analysis released by Pew Research Center in time for World Press Freedom today on Wednesday.

Of those polled, 57% are extremely or very worried about possible press restrictions, 33% extremely so, and 24% very. And 23% are somewhat concerned.

Older, more seasoned journalists are especially worried, with 42% in the 65+ cohort and 39% in the 50-64 age group extremely concerned.

In contrast, 28% of those aged 30-49 are extremely worried, as are 20% in the 18-29 demographic.

The pattern is similar when it comes to years in the industry. These percentages say they are extremely concerned:

5 years or less24%

8-10 years28%

11-20 years31%

More than 20 years39%

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There seems to be less divergence when it comes to political leaning. Of those who tilt right, 36% are extremely concerned, as are 34% who have mixed views, and 31% who lean left.

Moreover, the feelings are consistent regardless of the focus of the journalists outletslocal, state, national or internationaland whether their original platform is television, print, online, radio or podcast.

The analysis is based on a 2022 Pew Research Center survey of nearly 12,000 working U.S.-based journalists.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, May 3, 2023

The chief executive officers of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic will meet Thursday with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and top officials to discuss issues around artificial intelligence (AI).

Generative AI continues to impact everything from advertising and marketing to travel. Concerns are mounting over its potential to replace jobs as well as spread harmful content and misinformation, infringe on copyrights, and prompt plagiarism.

The invitation, seen by Reuters, states President Joe Biden's "expectation that companies like yours must make sure their products are safe before making them available to the public.

A Gartner poll of 2,544 respondents fielded in March as part of a Gartner webinar series found that 68% of executives believe the benefits of generative AI outweigh the risks, compared with just 5% that feel the risks outweigh the benefits.

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Some 45% participating in Gartners poll say the publicity of ChatGPT has prompted them to increase AI investments. Seventy percent of executives said their organization is in investigation and exploration mode with generative AI, while 19% are in pilot or production mode.

As the debate on whether to regulate AI has plagued many areas of society. Published as an open letter in March, Elon Music, an initial investor in OpenAI, along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and others tech leaders signed a petition to stop further AI developments. The petition, with more than 1,000 signatures called for a pause in AI experiments.

New York Congresswoman Yvette Clarke on Tuesday a bill that would require disclosures of AI-generated content in political ads. Her bill, she told the Washington Post, was in direct response to the RNC ad that launched last week.

The Biden administration has been vocal online when it comes to accountability for AI systems. In a blog post on the White House blog on the Blueprint for AI Bill of Rights, it states among the great challenges posed to democracy today is the use of technology, data, and automated systems in ways that threaten the rights of the American public.

The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights is a guide for a society that protects all people from these threats  and uses technologies in ways that reinforce our highest values, according to the post.

The White House also is looking into how companies use AI to monitor and manage workers.

While these technologies can benefit both workers and employers in some cases, they can also create serious risks to workers, the post states, per Bloomberg. The constant tracking of performance can push workers to move too fast on the job, posing risks to their safety and mental health.
by Tanya Gazdik , May 3, 2023

Toyota is ready to showcase the 2023 bZ4X with creative highlighting the SUVs capabilities and features, focused on making electrified driving easier than ever.

The Easy bZ campaign was originally scheduled to debut last June. But the vehicles launch was delayed due to some early product issues, which also pushed back the start of the campaign, according to a Toyota spokesperson.

Creative shows drivers how smooth it is to transition to an all-electric vehicle, said Lisa Materazzo, group vice president, Toyota Marketing, Toyota Motor North America.

The fully integrated campaign was developed by Saatchi & Saatchi and Intertrend, with consideration of the transcultural mainstream audiences across America.

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As is typical with Toyota campaigns, the work is integrated through one strategic brief, creative idea, and media plan, which creates a cohesive marketing approach.

In the Saatchi & Saatchi spot, titled Easy As, the bZ4X drives through town with signs of easy popping up at every turn.

Intertrend created two spots which demonstrate how the bZ4X allows drivers to achieve personal harmony in their lives.

To bring this insight to life for the spot Priyanka Makes It Easy As 1,2,3, the Asian American agency worked with celebrity chef Priyanka Naik to showcase how driving the bZ4X can be as easy as cooking a meal.

In the spot Jasmine Makes It Easy As 1,2,3, Intertrend worked with content creator, Jasmine Nguyen, to show how to take style to the next level with the first-ever bZ4X.Media Placements

The bZ4X campaign is a fully integrated campaign extending across CTV, digital video, digital content, programmatic, paid social, digital OOH and audio. Digital content/video includes partners such as Vizio, Conde Nast Traveler, SELF, Vice, YouTube and Waze.

Partnerships include Pandora, Dotdash Meredith, Volta, among others. Social is across Meta, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Reddit.

Toyotas introduction of the 2023 bZ4X represents the first of a global series of battery-electric vehicles to be introduced under the global Toyota bZ brand umbrella. bZ, which stands for Beyond Zero, is Toyotas vision to reach beyond carbon neutrality with products, services, and operations; and find new ways to make a positive impact on the planet and society.

Toyota is committed to helping reduce carbon emissions by giving customers 15 electrified vehicles for customers to choose from, including 11 hybrid models, two plug-in hybrid models, the all-electric bZ4X battery electric vehicle, and the zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell electric Mirai (currently available in California).
South Africa: Adoption of framework for professionalisation of public sector welcomed

The Minister of Public Service and Administration, Noxolo Kiviet, has welcomed the decision by the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) to adopt the National Framework Towards Professionalisation of the Public Sector.

This follows Cabinets adoption of the framework on 19 October 2022.

The adoption of the framework by SALGA was informed by presentations made by the National School of Government (NSG) at various consultative forums, as well as the congruency of the framework with the Local Government Professionalisation Model.

The Minister said she was committed to ongoing dialogue and collaboration between the Ministry and SALGA.

Local government, being at the coalface of service delivery, remains absolutely critical in ensuring professional, ethical, efficient and effective services reach the masses of our people, Kiviet said.

The Minister reiterated the calls by President Cyril Ramaphosa, during his State of the Nation Address (SoNA) and subsequent debates on SoNA, that government must employ the right people in the right jobs.

She confirmed governments position that the public service should be based on merit and that it be insulated from party politics.

The bureaucracy must continue to loyally and diligently implement the political mandate set by voters and the government of the day but refrain from being political actors themselves in the practice of statecraft.

The five critical professionalisation pillars are:

Pre-entry recruitment and selection within the public service.

Induction and on-boarding.

Planning and performance management.

Continuous learning and professional development.

Career progression and management of career incidents.

In the coming months, the Minister will also pronounce on further professionalisation interventions, as the relevant policy and implementing departments develop their implementation plans.

These plans will support the skills audit as announced by President Ramaphosa.

Key among these is the adoption of the amendments to the Public Service Act which has been submitted to Parliament for further processing.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2023-05-03. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Zain Bahrain, a telecommunications industry innovator in the kingdom, has seen its Q1 net profit fall 8.9% to BD1.43 million ($3.79 million) from BD1.57 million for the same period in 2022. Earnings per share for the quarter remained at 4 fils.

Operating profit in Q1 2023 showed a decrease of 11% from BD1.75 million to BD1.56 million. Revenues for the same period are higher by 5.6% amounting to BD18.17 million compared to BD17.20 million in Q1 2022.

At the balance sheet level, Zain Bahrain's total equity at the end of Q1 2023 is at BD81.33 million, reduced by 2.2% from BD83.17 million for the year ending December 31, 2022. The company's assets for the three months ending March 31, 2023 are BD136.56 million, reduced by 2.2% from BD139.63 million as of December 31, 2022.

On track

Zain Bahrain Chairman, Shaikh Ahmed bin Ali Al Khalifa, said: "In this first quarter, Zain Bahrain has once again delivered a solid performance with higher revenues, and the confirmation that the telco is on track to achieve its 2023 target. We continue to create value by concentrating on our fundamentals while improving efficiency and customer experience."

He continued: "Zain Bahrain differentiates itself through its excellent network and customer relations. The company continued to invest in the quality of its customer experience by introducing another first in the market, a new omnichannel engagement platform. The new omnichannel engagement platform delivers exceptional customer service and an effortless experience that creates seamless, integrated, personalised engagements across every touchpoint throughout the customer service journey."

"Zain Bahrain will continue pursuing digital transformation at an accelerated pace, enabling it to continue delivering a superior customer experience, invest in the latest technologies, and enhance its 4G and 5G network across many newly developed areas in the kingdom. Today, we have a solid base from which to put our new strategic plan into action, working together and with determination," he said.

Key achievements in Q1 2023

Launched Interactive 3D Smart Service, Providing the Best Online Shopping Experience for Customers

Launched an innovative 3D smart service in its eShop to support customers with the best online shopping experience when purchasing a device. This initiative is part of the company's commitment to providing accessible online tools that make customer choices easier a key part of Zain Bahrains digital transformation journey.

Launched a First in Market Omnichannel Engagement Platform Delivering a Seamless Customer Experience

Continued to elevate the customer service experience with its new omnichannel engagement platform through a collaboration with Genesys. The service delivers exceptional customer service and an effortless experience that creates seamless, integrated, personalised engagements across every touchpoint, throughout the customer service journey.

Continued Expanding its Indoor Network Solutions by Signing a New Agreement with Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Signed an agreement with Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), to provide their staff and subleasing partners with state of the art mobile services at their premises. This partnership comes as part of Zains commitment to expedite the digital transformation across the kingdom, delivering the latest technology trends and solutions.-- TradeArabia News Service
As Joy Dannelly tells it, her husband, Ed, was kicked out of the Navy  twice.

Ed was a senior chief and had put in 16 years towards his 20-year obligation when he became disabled and was given a medical retirement, Joy noted. He received full benefits and the family came back to Nebraska, where Ed had difficulty finding work.

Joy, who lives outside of Columbus, said Eds status meant he had to be examined two years after his honorable discharge to make sure he was still disabled. Those officials decided, she said, that he could do desk work.

He was fine with that, Joy said. He did not like being disabled. He did not like not being able to find a job. He was not happy with any of that.

However, Ed was eventually allowed to go back to sea as he had served as a boiler technician and he wasnt allowed to drive a desk.

It was a disaster, ended up actually petitioning the secretary of the Navy to get a special waiver so he could get back in again, Joy said.

Ed was in Norfolk, Virginia, preparing to leave for a six-month journey when he made his way to the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth to obtain medication for his back injury. The facility, Joy said, was where Ed underwent surgery a few years prior and the process started for him to get discharged due to his disability.

Meeting him in the hallway just happens to be the surgeon who did his surgery. In the two years that Eds been out, which is now three years by the time that we actually got to this point, (the surgeon) has risen to the head of the orthopedic department of the Naval Regional Medical Center, Joy said. He walks by Ed and recognizes him and he says, What  are you doing back in uniform?

That surgeon, Joy said, told Ed that he didnt spend six hours operating on him for him to go back onto a ship and become paralyzed. It was at that time, Joy added, that Ed was kicked out the second time.

In just a few short years, the political climate had changed and Ed did not receive any benefits, Joy added.

We were out of the Navy and back in Nebraska, she said. He did find work and we made a life here. At the age of 43, he had a fatal heart attack, and he died.

Military widows arent left with much. Joy lives in the country in an old home that is vulnerable to Nebraskas winter weather, leading to struggles when the temperature drops.

Specifically, the pipes would constantly freeze.

We live in old farmhouse and since he died I don't know anything about fixing stuff up, plus I don't have the income to hire it done, Joy said. Every single year I have frozen pipes. They had burst one other time, which actually was immediately after his death. This time they burst really, really bad.

Joy had been attending a Bible study when Lori Peters, executive director of the Habitat for Humanity of Columbus, mentioned the nonprofits veteran initiative, Habitat for Heroes, which assists in home repairs for military veterans and their families.

The initiative, Peters said, was started about three years ago. Habitat board member Travis Hill, who is a veteran himself, jumpstarted the initiative when he joined the group.

We saw a need in our community that our veterans were aging, Peters said. We did not have a lot of opportunities for them to move into different housing or they chose to stay in the house they've been in for a long time. We wanted to help provide a way for military personnel and their families to stay in their home as long as they could to age in place.

This means repairs they are unable to afford, Peters added, or assistance in locating construction professionals.

Habitat for Heroes is made possible by financial contributors and private donations, all of whom were recognized during a celebration held April 30 at the First United Methodist Church Outreach Center in Columbus.

We fund the project, we accept the gifts in kind that are given by generous businesses around the community and then we try to provide an affordable loan for the people we do the repairs for, Peters said.

Joy said she was surprised she would be considered for the initiative as she herself isnt a veteran. Peters had said the program was meant for the families of veterans too, Joy added, and she agreed to get involved.

Joys laundry room and bathroom were torn out and built new and repairs were made her pipes no longer freeze. The space was also made more accessible.

It's fantastic, Joy said. My pipes have frozen every single year since we moved into the house and now it's nice and warm, and it's all on one level.

Kerry Burns served as the project manager for this Habitat for Heroes project. He said hes not a contractor by trade but has a special place in his heart for those who serve in the military.

Burns noted he has experience with older homes, which tend to have more problems spring up during renovations.

I explained to Joy when we started, We don't know what we're getting into, but we'll figure it out, Burns said. You get into a lot of things and you just never know how things are going to shake out but youve just got to keep rolling.

That proved true this project.

Once the team started demolishing the bathroom, more damage than expected was discovered. But, Burns added, with the help of others, they got through it.

Joy was patient throughout the process, Burns said, and hes happy with the end result.

There was no way that I could have done what Kerry and his team did for me, and I am very, very, very thankful, Joy said.
JOURNALIST: Starting with Greek-Turkish relations and the "hint" that you dropped regarding the procedure of exploratory contacts. What exactly did you mean?



N. DENDIAS: Ms. Fotaki, I did not drop a hint. I just took stock of the process of the exploratory contacts, based on my experience during the past nearly four years as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Therefore, we have a process that has been ongoing for 21 years, 64 rounds of exploratory contacts have been held without, admittedly, any substantial result, except perhaps the maintenance of a channel of communication. And it would perhaps be naive to believe that the outcome will be achieved in the 65th or 70th round. To be clear: I do not suggest, in any way, a change in the firm Greek positions. I state that there is a need to reconsider certain parameters of the process and I have specific thoughts and proposals on this. So, I intend to compile them in a note addressed to the Prime Minister and the next Minister of Foreign Affairs, if I am succeeded in that position by someone else.



JOURNALIST: Will Turkish elections play a role in the initiatives for settlements or is Turkish foreign policy stable? Moves such as supporting Turkey's candidacy to the IMO may prove "dangerous" for the Republic of Cyprus for example?



N. DENDIAS: We have no illusions that Turkey will overnight abandon the set of positions and claims against Greece, which it has been following for decades, regardless of changes of government. At the same time, however, it is significant to maintain the good climate that has recently prevailed in our relations, and which was not at all self-evident a few months ago. Therefore, I believe that today's positive atmosphere is a good starting point to engage in a serious and sincere dialogue, after the elections, when both countries will have governments with a new popular mandate. As a country that seeks dialogue and peaceful solutions on the basis of International Law, we must seize every opportunity in this direction. And, of course, we should always take into account that any improvement in the climate in Greek-Turkish relations could only have a positive impact on efforts for the settlement of the Cyprus issue.



JOURNALIST: Is this the time for an agreement leading to The Hague ICJ? Is there a Greek political party to bear the burden of a compromise?



N. DENDIAS: Ms. Fotaki, we do not perceive our country's international relations as an "oriental bargaining", in which illegal agreements and practices are equated with legal rights. We seek to achieve a peaceful resolution of the sole dispute we have with Turkey- which concerns the delimitation of the continental shelf and the EEZ- always based on International Law and the International Law of the Sea. A settlement that will contribute to peace and stability in the wider region, precisely because it will be based on these solid foundations. And to answer the last part of your question, I am deeply convinced that almost all Greek political forces are ready to bear the burden of supporting such an effort.



JOURNALIST: Regarding Sudan. What is happening to the Greeks in the country? And how do you respond to SYRIZA's allegations about the export of the Predator software?



N. DENDIAS: The situation in Sudan the situation is difficult and seems to last quite a long time. The international community is undertaking efforts to enable a ceasefire. For us, getting our compatriots, residing in Sudan, out of there safely in a possible evacuation operation with the rest of the foreign nationals is the crucial and urgent issue, and that is what we are working on. From the very first moment that the clashes broke out, the Crisis Management Unit was activated to coordinate efforts together with the other EU Member States. It goes without saying that we remain in constant contact with the Metropolitan Savvas of Nubia, and with our Embassy in Cairo, but also with the International Red Cross, so that every possible assistance can be provided to the stranded people when conditions allow.

As for the rest, there is a process under way, and I am not allowed to comment.



JOURNALIST: As Minister of Foreign Affairs, you advocated an "out of the box" foreign policy. Is the Security Council an opportunity?



N. DENDIAS: The Security Council is the guardian, if you like, of the principles of the UN Charter and of International Law. Apart from their symbolic value, our election to it for the 2025-26 term, as well as our candidacy for the Human Rights Council (2028-30) and the UN General Assembly Presidency for 2035, reflect the confidence and self-assurance that our country's foreign policy has gained through a cycle of solid understandings, which have been forged in recent years.



At the same time, it also highlights the imperative need to further broaden the horizons of our foreign policy, which is something I have been actively involved in throughout my tenure, despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic. The visits to a number of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Agreements concluded with them are a good legacy for the continuation of this course, even in a period of upheaval in international relations.



Allow me to emphasize three advantages that Greece has that can be exploited even further: It has a brand name due to its history, it has no colonial past, and there are Greek communities all over the world. It can thus mobilize forces to play an active role in initiatives in a number of areas, such as climate, development structures or the protection of World Heritage Sites.
"We want Turkiye to be a reliable NATO partner. This means sharing the same values, not posing a threat to other member states, and supporting EU enlargement and sanctions against Russia".

This message was conveyed today by Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, from the Delphi Economic Forum, during a discussion themed "How the war in Ukraine changes NATO".

The Alternate Minister also stated that the security environment in Europe has changed and that the EU must work to ensure that there is no room for violence from other revisionist powers, following the end of the war in Ukraine. "There are challenges from other revisionist forces in our neighborhood as well", he pointedly said.

Mr. Varvitsiotis also expressed concern about Europe's ability to operate outside the NATO umbrella, as demonstrated by its inability to carry out a joint operation to evacuate European citizens from Sudan. He emphasized the need for the EU to strengthen its defense capabilities and speak with a single voice, as it did in the case of sanctions against Russia.

Speaking about the relations between Europe and the US, the Alternate Minister underscored that the bond between the two sides goes beyond their cooperation within NATO and extends to common values, society, economy, and democracy. As he described it, the main challenge for the two sides is to combat every revisionist power in the world.

Regarding China, Mr. Varvitsiotis stated that the EU is the worlds second-largest economy, while China is a significant trading partner that cannot be ignored in addressing global challenges such as climate change.












Nicole Lindhorst, owner of House of Colour and BeYOUtiful Boutique and Gifts, said when one owns a business, they can get stuck in a kind of rut, which is why it's necessary for entrepreneurs to always keep learning.

"We might get an idea of something we might want to do that's a little more innovative but maybe we can't take that step to do it and be pushed to think outside the box and look at your business in a different point of view," Lindhorst said.

That was one reason she and Kristin Stock, owner of Artzy Haven, recently attended Destination Bootcamp, a business workshop in Colorado that they both attended virtually in 2020 as well. The material was similar, both said, but the physical aspect and ability to work and network with some 38 other business owners and the facilitator made a significant difference.

"I got so much from that class. I really felt like I would benefit by actually attending in person and now with the other businesses and community representatives that were there," Stock said.

Stock said one of the things she wanted to focus on, the mission statement of the boot camp itself, was making her businesses destination, somewhere people specifically travel to visit.

"My thing I offer is very specific so I have to bring people in, have to think of unique ways to market and get people to come participate in our projects and take our classes," Stock said.

Lindhorst said that, despite having learned some of the material several years ago, she learned something more about her business from their lessons and discussions.

"(Something I learned was) really what sets us apart from other boutiques and really that unique positioning statement, that we are one of the largest boutiques in the area that has the store separated by season that provides that service next door," Lindhorst said.

As this week is National Small Business Week, Lindhorst added that small business owners should attend programs like this, virtual or in-person, because learning always benefits a business. It may be difficult to make it work, she said, but the results are great.

"It's hard as a business owner to go through the motions every day, like there's so much more that I can offer, so much more that I can do so being able to step outside of that comfort zone, learn and grow and have somebody else give you feedback from the outside, somebody who's like-minded and gifted, is neat," Lindhorst said.

Stock added that, for those who may think they know everything there is to know about what they do, there's always something to learn, and that working to improve your business is just as important as working within your business. Both said the course encouraged them to set goals, which Stock said she had to change since acquiring Busy Scrappin' in Omaha in December.

"I think businesses need to take a step back and say 'OK, my business is doing well but there are things I can improve,'" Stock said. "I think it gives business owners an opportunity to take a look from the outside in, step back and say 'I can't just work in my business, I have to work on my business."
The Nevada man who was shot by narcotics investigators Monday afternoon amid a confrontation in a west Lincoln parking lot had fired a gun toward police before they returned fire, wounding him, authorities alleged.

The man, identified Tuesday as 35-year-old Chace Abney, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries after investigators with the Nebraska State Patrol and Lincoln Police Department shot him at about 2:45 p.m. Monday in a parking lot near Northwest 27th and West O streets, according to authorities.

Abney remained in critical condition as of Tuesday morning, said Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner, whose agency is investigating the shooting.

At least one Lincoln Police officer and one state trooper shot Abney after the 35-year-old fired one round from a 9 mm handgun toward police, Wagner said. No officers were injured in the shooting.

At a news conference at the Sheriff's Office's headquarters Tuesday morning, where Wagner appeared alongside nearly a dozen local police officials, the sheriff suggested Abney's shooting seemed justified and declined to name the officers involved while painting a clearer picture of what authorities say led up to the incident.

The investigators  both of whom work on the Lincoln-Lancaster County Narcotics Task Force, an interagency unit that also includes Lancaster County Sheriff's Office deputies and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police officers  had been conducting surveillance at the Super 8 motel at 2635 W. O St., Wagner said.

The investigators were not looking into Abney, but Wagner said the 35-year-old followed the officers in his Chevrolet Malibu across O Street to a parking lot at 123 N.W. 28th St.

Wagner said the investigators, wearing police vests or badges over plainclothes, confronted Abney and shouted repeated commands  though it's unclear how many commands  to exit the sedan.

Instead, Wagner alleged, Abney pointed a handgun at police and fired one round. Wagner said he wasn't sure if Abney was inside or outside the car when the shooting transpired.

The investigators returned fire, striking the 35-year-old more than once, the sheriff said. Wagner declined to say how many times Abney was shot.

"From preliminary information  it appears that (the officers) were justified in their actions," Wagner said.

Wagner said it remains unclear why Abney followed police from the hotel, where he had been a guest but was not staying in the room police were surveilling.

"I'd be guessing if I told you," he said.

Investigators haven't found the projectile Abney is accused of firing toward police, but Wagner said they did recover a shell casing from his 9 mm, which was reported stolen Monday in Norfolk, the sheriff said.

The involved officers immediately rendered first aid to Abney before Lincoln Fire and Rescue crews responded and took him by ambulance to Bryan West Campus.

Abney had most recently been living in New York and had outstanding warrants in New York, Arizona and California, Wagner said. He had ties to Lincoln and had been here for about a week prior to Monday for a family function, the sheriff said.

Members of the Lincoln-Lancaster County Narcotics Task Force generally drive unmarked cruisers and wear plainclothes as they investigate drug and weapons crimes. Task force investigators don't wear body cameras.

The task force is made up of 35 investigators, including 11 investigators and four sergeants from the Lincoln Police Department, according to the agency's latest annual report. Capt. Ryan Dale of LPD leads the unit.

Wagner said none of the involved investigators  including the two who fired and a third who was on scene but did not shoot at Abney  were wearing body worn cameras. He also said there was not dashcam footage of the incident.

Both investigators have been placed on paid administrative leave in accordance with each agencys policy.

The sheriff deferred to the State Patrol and Lincoln Police Department to individually identify the officers who shot Abney.

Col. John Bolduc, who leads the Nebraska State Patrol, definitively declined to do so.

"We do not release the names of officers involved in officer-involved shootings," he said at Tuesday's news conference. "We never have. And that policy is not likely to change any time soon."

In fact, a State Patrol spokesman said, it would be a violation of the agency's contract with the state troopers union, which only allows Bolduc to disclose information on internal investigations to the Legislature, the state's crime commission, the Nebraska Police Standards Advisory Council, the Equal Opportunity Commission or a complainant involved in an investigation.

And Lincoln Police Chief Teresa Ewins also declined to identify the police officer involved in Monday's shooting, though she said the department would assess whether the officer or their family would be at risk of harm before making a final decision on the matter.

"So we have to be very careful how we go through this process," she said, later adding: "It's gonna be up to  to really me looking at the assessment, looking at the threat against the officers that could be posed. It may go to a grand jury. And so, we can't give you information until we understand where it's gonna be going."

If Abney dies of his injuries, Nebraska state law requires a grand jury to investigate his death. The law doesn't call for a grand jury to be convened for nonfatal police shootings.

Other law enforcement agencies in the state have been more transparent than the State Patrol or Lincoln Police Department in such nonfatal shootings.

The Antelope County Attorney identified a Neligh Police officer who shot a Norfolk woman last May in a nonfatal incident.

And in Omaha, police officials have repeatedly identified officers involved in nonfatal shootings, doing so at least three times in the last two years, including in November 2022, June 2022 and December 2021.

Wagner, who acknowledged the officers' names may never be made public if Abney survives the shooting, said he was withholding their identities to remain in line with the other involved agencies' policies.

"I'm gonna abide by their policy on this," he said. "They can make the decision, if and when they want to release their officers' names."

Ewins declined to say how experienced the officers were, but they must have at least three years of experience to apply for a position on the specialized task force, which Ewins lauded Tuesday in the aftermath of the shooting.

"They go out there all the time, the task force, and they risk their lives every single day," she said. "And they do a great job. And this just another example of the great job that they did.

"You know, when people  drugs are one of those things that we just don't know what people's behavior will be. And so, understand that  it's hard to understand why someone would go after the police officers. But it doesn't make sense. Drugs don't make sense."

Investigators found methamphetamine and marijuana in Abney's car after police confronted and shot him, Wagner said. Authorities do not know if he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the shooting.

In the minutes after the shooting, several police officers  some wearing plainclothes and others armed with long guns  converged on the Super 8 motel a block east of the shooting scene and took one man into custody.

His arrest was unrelated to the shooting, authorities said.

In his remarks Tuesday, Wagner noted the parallels between Monday's shooting and the most recent police shooting in Lincoln before Monday, which transpired in November 2021, when a State Patrol trooper working for the same task force shot and killed a 27-year-old man near 19th and G streets in Lincoln.

"You might remember that, I think, the last officer-involved shooting we had in Lincoln was the same scenario," he said. "Task force officers from the narcotics task force."

In that instance, a plainclothes State Patrol investigator, Adam Strode, shot and killed German Pedraza at an apartment near 19th and G streets as the Columbus man reached for a handgun, according to authorities. A grand jury later cleared Strode of any wrongdoing in the shooting.

Neither Pedraza nor Abney had been sought by investigators on the day of their shooting, only crossing paths with task force investigators by happenstance.

Police maintain Pedraza had been the subject of an ongoing narcotics investigation at the time of his death, but investigators were not seeking him the day they contacted him at 19th and G streets, according to investigators' own testimony.

Wagner, who brought up the previous shooting to highlight "the work (task force investigators) do is dangerous," dismissed the notion that the parallels between the two shootings might be cause for concern.

"Not to me," he said.

Photos: Scenes from Lincoln's May 2 General Election
DETROIT (AP)  Ford Motor Co. made $1.76 billion last quarter, swinging into the black from a $3.1 billion net loss for the same period a year ago.

Most of the profit came from Ford Blue, the company's internal-combustion engine vehicle unit, which made $2.62 billion before taxes during the quarter. Ford Pro, the commercial vehicle unit, added $1.37 billion. But Model e, Ford's electric vehicle unit, lost $722 million before taxes.

The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker is seeing its fortunes improve, and reiterated its earlier pretax profit guidance for the full year of $9 billion to $11 billion.

Excluding one-time items, Ford made 44 cents per share. That beat Wall Street estimates of 42 cents, according to FactSet.

Revenue rose 20% to $41.74 billion, soundly beating the $39.25 billion that analysts expected.

Previously Ford said it left $2 billion in profits on the table last year due to production losses from computer chip and parts shortages and high operational costs.

This quarter was much smoother, Chief Financial Officer John Lawler told reporters Tuesday. We've done a lot of work on improving the rate and flow of semiconductors, production stability, working through potential other issues with the supply base outside of chips.

Lawler said the results showed in the revenue increase, and that the company would continue to work on improvements that will boost the bottom line.

Ford's profits were fueled largely by sales in the U.S., its most lucrative market. Ford sold just under 472,000 vehicles from January through March, up 9.9% from the previous year.

The company continued to get strong prices for its vehicles during the quarter, driven by loaded out trucks and big SUVs. Fords average sale price was $56,534, according to Edmunds.

Lawler predicted that as production gets back to normal and vehicle supplies increase, automakers will start to offer discounts. He predicted that Ford's prices would remain flat while the industry would be down about 5% for the year.

Earlier Tuesday, Ford cut prices on its Mustang Mach E electric SUV, the same day Tesla raised prices slightly on the Model Y, the Mach E's main competitor.

Ford also said it is reopening the order bank on Wednesday for the Mach E after upgrading a factory in Mexico to increase output.

Lawler said the company lowered prices because it wants to stay competitive in the crowded small electric SUV segment of the market and attract new buyers. Over 60% of Mach E customers are new to Ford, he said.

EV customers up front aren't loyal, but once they do purchase, they're loyal to that brand," he said. "So we expect to have these customers across their whole lifetimes.

But CEO Jim Farley said the company is going after a profitable electric vehicle business. We are not going to price just to gain market share, he told analysts.

Ford says its first-generation electric vehicles will be profitable on a pretax basis by the end of 2024. Farley said that by the end of the year, Ford will have reduced costs on the Mach E by $5,000 per vehicle.

The first-quarter loss last year was due mainly to a drop in valuation of Fords investment in electric vehicle startup Rivian, which saw its stock slide.

Ford shares closed Tuesday down 2.2%, and they dropped another 2% in extended trading after the earnings were announced.
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NEW YORK (AP)  A week after Fox News fired star host Tucker Carlson  for reasons that remain unexplained  he has been the subject of a handful of embarrassing stories about some of his private messages and statements while at the network.

The latest was in The New York Times on Wednesday, reporting on a text message that had been redacted as part of a recent defamation case targeting the network. In it, Carlson declared that a group of Trump supporters beating a protester was not how white men fight.

The sentiment was not out of character for Carlson, who has promoted the view that whites are being replaced by people of color. But the Times suggested the timing was crucial, as members of Fox's board found out about the message as part of documents uncovered in the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, shortly before a trial was to begin last month.

The newspaper said the discovery contributed to a chain of events that led to Carlson being fired April 24, less than a week after Fox agreed to pay Dominion nearly $800 million to settle the case.

Three times in the past week, the anti-Fox watchdog Media Matters for America has released hot mic moments of Carlson speaking while on Fox sets, material that was never included on broadcasts.

In one, Carlson is seen speaking to someone offscreen disparaging Fox's streaming service, Fox Nation. In another, he shares offscreen sexual banter with Piers Morgan before an interview, commenting to someone offscreen that a person's girlfriend was kind of yummy. He is also heard saying how he waits for his post-menopausal fans to make comments about his appearance.

Angelo Carusone, Media Matters chairman and president, would not comment Wednesday on how Media Matters acquired the material.

Part of me can't escape the idea that this is to demonstrate that Tucker was a liability, he said.

Fox declined comment Wednesday on how the material on Carlson had surfaced. Messages sent to Carlson and his attorney seeking comment were not immediately returned.

While some of Carlsons texts have been publicly released as part of the lawsuit, the one quoted by the Times remains redacted by the court, as do numerous other exhibits. Media organizations, including The Associated Press, continue to try to lift the redactions.

The Times reported that Carlson sent the text to a producer hours after Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He describes a video he had seen a couple weeks earlier of Trump supporters beating someone he described as an antifa kid.

Carlson wrote about his conflicting emotions in watching the fight, which he described as three against one, at least.

Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously, he wrote, according to the Times. Its not how white men fight.

I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed, Carlson wrote, after admitting part of him was rooting for the attackers. If I dont care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?

Before his ouster last month, Carlson was Foxs top-rated host. He drew controversy for supporting theories such as the idea that immigrants are being admitted to the U.S to replace people born here. Critics have called that white supremacy, an accusation he has denied.

A lawyer for The Times, The AP and National Public Radio wrote this week to Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, who presided over the Dominion case, reiterating that the news organizations want to see redacted documents from the case opened to the public.

There's still a compelling interest, and the settlement does not make the request moot, the news organizations said.

In a separate matter, however, Davis indicated a lack of interest in examining one aspect of the case now that it's over. Davis had appointed a special master to investigate accusations that Fox lawyers had not turned over required evidence to the court. But after the settlement, Davis ended that investigation.

___

AP correspondent Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.
A Huron County high school student will stand trial on a pair of criminal sexual conduct charges, one of which carries a possible life sentence.

Huron County 52nd Circuit Court Judge Gerald M. Prill ordered Jacob Allen Pitcher, 19, of Pigeon, to stand trial for first-degree criminal sexual conduct (personal injury) and second-degree criminal sexual conduct (personal injury) during a pretrial conference on Tuesday morning.
A Huron County jury has found a Pigeon teen not guilty of sexually assaulting a friend in the basement of his foster parents' home during the summer of 2022.

Jacob Allen Pitcher, now 19, had been charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, personal injury, for an incident that allegedly occurred in Pigeon on Aug. 10, 2022. The charge is punishable by a term of up to life in prison and mandatory lifetime electronic monitoring.

The jury, made up of four men and eight women, deliberated for about 75 minutes before reaching its verdict Wednesday morning. The day-and-a-half trial featured testimony from the victim's mother, Pigeon Police Chief Adam Csanyi, an emergency department doctor from Scheurer Hospital, a sexual assault nurse examiner, the victim, Pitcher's foster mother and Pitcher himself.

The Huron Daily Tribune does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.

The victim's mother testified that on the morning of Aug. 10, she had given her daughter permission to go with Pitcher and his foster family on a trip to the beach in Harbor Beach and later accompany them back to their home in Pigeon.

The victim's mother told Huron County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Alexander Pahany she received a call from Pitcher that evening in which Pitcher told her that her daughter was upset and had walked off toward Scheurer Hospital.

The mother told Pahany she would later find her daughter walking along the road, convinced her to get into her vehicle and her daughter said, "It happened again," which she believed referred to a previous sexual assault her daughter suffered at age 7. A short time later, the two would meet with law enforcement officers, including Csanyi, at the Scheurer Hospital emergency department.

The emergency department physician testified he performed a physical examination of the victim but a special sexual assault examination could not be conducted that night due to the lack of a qualified nurse.

The examination would take place the next day at an out-of-county hospital, according to testimony from a nurse practitioner who performed the exam. The nurse told Pahany the victim could not undergo part of the exam after complaining of pain consistent with a sexual assault.

Csanyi told jurors about responding to the hospital to check on the victim's condition and to speak with her mother. Video from his body camera showed him interviewing Pitcher at his home later that evening.

During the interview, Pitcher told Csanyi he and his friend had consensual sex in the basement of the home that evening when his foster parents  who had instructed the teens they could not remain home alone without adult supervision  went to a friend's house for a bonfire. The teens would instead walk to the park in Pigeon to socialize.

Pitcher also told Csanyi the teens had sexual contact earlier in the day while swimming in Lake Huron. The video also showed Csanyi collecting sheets from a sofa bed in the basement of Pitcher's home.

The final prosecution witness was the victim herself. She told Pahany she wasn't really a close friend of Pitcher's and the two had no sexual contact while swimming in Harbor Beach. She tearfully claimed Pitcher had forced himself on her when the two returned to his home to retrieve something. She testified that Pitcher used his weight to hold her down as he took advantage of her and fled the home afterward.

Defense attorney Mike Murawski called Pitcher's foster mother as his first witness. She testified that Pitcher had lived in her family's home for about a year and the teen had never acted out violently.

Pitcher then took the stand. He told defense attorney Michelle Siev while swimming in the lake that day, they ended up out of the sight of his foster mother, the victim touched him in a sexual manner and had initiated the encounter later that night in the empty house, kissing him and eventually instructing him to retrieve a condom. She became upset afterward, Pitcher said, sending him texts about relationship issues.
Michigan Senate

Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) introduced legislation on Tuesday as part of a bipartisan package encouraging the state to hire more Michigan businesses when considering bids for goods or services.



Buy Michigan (Senate Bills 316-317) aims to give Michigan-headquartered businesses a chance to counter lower bids from out-of-state companies in the State of Michigans procurement process. The bills were introduced by McDonald Rivet and Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs).

According to the bill sponsors, the legislation is designed to keep more state tax dollars working to strengthen Michigans local economies and increase better-paying jobs in the state.



I will always push for good jobs and opportunities that strengthen Michigans economy, McDonald Rivet said. We can give Michigan businesses this second chance to win state contracts while maintaining fair market competitiveness. With this proposal, we can utilize our tax dollars better by keeping more of them in-state. This is a pro-Michigan plan at all levels our employers, workers and state taxpayers would all benefit.



Damoose commented, In recent years, the Legislature has worked to approve numerous measures that support Michigan businesses and promote growth in our state. This is another great step forward and encourages a partnership between Michigans private and public sectors to keep more money moving through Michigans economy.

The proposed legislation would give Michigan businesses an additional window of time to resubmit a lower bid for a state contract if the initial lowest bid came from an out-of-state company. By doing so, local businesses will have another option to win the contract, keeping Michigan taxpayer dollars at home while providing the state with the lowest possible pricing.
File photo

MANISTEE  Voters in the Manistee Area Public Schools district were asked to consider the school district's 18-mill, non-homestead operating millage renewal in Tuesday's special election.

According to the unofficial results, voters supported the renewal with 1,158 votes in favor and 679 against in Manistee County. Mason County's Grant Township also falls in the MAPS district, and the renewal received 14 votes in favor and 15 against.
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BANGKOK (AP)  Myanmars ruling military council on Wednesday said it was releasing more than 2,100 political prisoners as a humanitarian gesture. Thousands more remain imprisoned on charges generally involving nonviolent protests or criticism of military rule, which began when the army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

State-run MRTV television reported that the head of Myanmars military council, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, had pardoned 2,153 prisoners on the most important Buddhist holy day of the year, marking the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha.

In a separate report, it said Min Aung Hlaing had commuted the death sentences of 38 prisoners to life in prison. The report provided no details about them.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, there were 112 prisoners on death row as of Tuesday who had been put there since the army takeover. The group keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the repression of the military government. At least four executions have been carried out since the military seized power.

The prisoner releases began Wednesday but may take a few days to be completed. The identities of those released were not immediately available, but do not include Suu Kyi, who is serving a prison term of 33 years on more than a dozen charges her supporters say were trumped up by the military.

According to an official announcement on state media, all of the prisoners granted pardons on Wednesday were convicted under a section of the penal code that makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear, or spread false news, and carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.

The terms of the pardons warn that if the freed detainees violate the law again, they will have to serve the remainder of their original sentences in addition to whatever term they are given for their new offense.

Two prisoners freed from Yangon's notorious Insein Prison told The Associated Press they continue to support opposition political activities.

One arrested in 2021 said the terms under which they were released meant they would be on a government watch list.

"But we know what we have to do. And we learned a lot from prison. Using that, we will continue to fight for the revolution," said the former prisoner, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons.

The human rights organization Amnesty International said in an email that Anyone imprisoned for peacefully opposing the military coup in Myanmar should never have been jailed in the first place."

This long-overdue release should mark the first step towards the immediate release of all individuals who have been arbitrarily detained for exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly or other human rights," the group's deputy regional director for campaigns, Ming Yu Hah, said. Amnesty International remains deeply concerned about the further thousands of individuals who are still unjustly languishing in prisons across the country where they face torture and other ill treatment."

Mass prisoner releases are common on major holidays in Myanmar. The last release of that many political prisoners at one time occurred in July 2021, when 2,296 prisoners were freed.

In November last year, several high-profile political prisoners, including an Australian academic, a Japanese filmmaker, an ex-British diplomat and an American, were released as part of a broad prisoner amnesty that also freed many local citizens held for protesting the army takeover.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners had said Tuesday that 17,897 people taken into custody since the 2021 army takeover remained in detention.

Prisoner releases appear to be efforts by the hard-line military government to soften its image as a major human rights abuser.

Last week, former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Myanmars military to take the initiative in finding a way out of the countrys violent political crisis, including releasing political detainees, after a surprise meeting with Min Aung Hlaing.

A statement following the meeting said Ban supported the international communitys calls for the immediate release by the Myanmar military of all arbitrarily detained prisoners, for constructive dialogue, and for utmost restraint from all parties.

The amnesty also came a day after Min Aung Hlaing met with the visiting foreign minister of China, which has provided key support to his regime since it seized power.

MRTV said Tuesday that Qin Gang held talks in the capital, Naypyitaw, with Min Aung Hlaing and other top officials and exchanged views on bilateral relations, Myanmars political situation and conditions needed for its stability and development.

Qins visit followed a meeting Monday in Beijing with U.N. special envoy for Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer, who stressed that a robust international response to the crisis requires a unified effort by neighboring nations working together to stop the violence, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Wednesday.

Heyzer emphasized Chinas important global role and its support for the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations' efforts to facilitate peace, Haq said, while Qin underscored that the international community "must act prudently and pragmatically" to prevent the Myanmar conflict from intensifying and spilling over into the region.

China has strategic geopolitical and economic interests in Myanmar, its southern neighbor, and is one of the few large nations that has maintained good relations with its military government, which is shunned and sanctioned by many Western nations for its takeover and brutal repression of its opponents.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army took power. Its takeover prompted peaceful protests that security forces suppressed with bloody violence. Violence has since escalated with the rise of armed resistance around the country and major military efforts to suppress it.

As of Tuesday, 3,452 civilians had been killed by the security forces since the military takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
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SAN DIEGO (AP)  A decade ago, it was a safe bet that anyone stopped by U.S. authorities at the southern border was probably Mexican. Thats no longer the case, complicating Biden administration efforts to prevent a swell of migration when it lifts pandemic-related asylum limits next week.

Now, people come from dozens of countries, with large showings from Peru, Venezuela, Haiti, India, Russia and elsewhere. Only about a third are from Mexico  down from 85% in 2011.

With the expiration on May 11 of Title 42  which suspended migrants' rights to asylum to prevent the spread of COVID-19  more people are expected to arrive.

Illegal crossings tumbled after President Joe Biden announced asylum restrictions in January, but they have risen since mid-April. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said they have been hovering around 7,200 daily, up from about 5,200 in March.

The administration plans to rapidly screen migrants and quickly send home those who dont qualify. But people will be treated differently depending on their nationality.

A look at how the plans vary depending on where the migrants are from:

CHNV

Not a catchy acronym, it stands for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. In December, these four nationalities accounted for 40% of all people stopped at the border. By March, they made up only 3%.

Biden announced Jan. 5 that up to 30,000 people from the four countries could enter on parole every month if they applied online and had a financial backer. Mexico agreed to take back the same number from those countries who entered the U.S. illegally. Texas and other Republican-led states have challenged such broad use of parole authority; a trial is scheduled June 15 in Victoria, Texas.

Mexico said late Tuesday that it would continue taking back people from the four countries who were expelled from the United States. Combined with parole for those who apply outside the United States, it is a carrot-and-stick approach that was first applied to Ukrainians after Russia's invasion.

Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans have benefitted from their governments' refusal to accept deportation flights, though Cuba accepted its first since December 2020 on Monday and has pledged to accept more. Haiti is wracked by gang-fueled violence, making flights there a major challenge.

CENTRAL AMERICA'S NORTHERN TRIANGLE

Families and unaccompanied children from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador largely drove migration to the U.S. border throughout the last decade. Then came Title 42.

Mexico agreed to take back people from what are known as Northern Triangle countries from the start of Title 42 in March 2020. Many have been waiting months, or years, for it to end.

The U.S. has long, deep relationships with governments in the region, which, while expensive and time-consuming, makes it relatively easy to fly people home. Guatemala and Honduras accepted half of all U.S. removal flights last year  727 combined  according to Witness at the Border, a group that tracks flights.

On Tuesday, the U.S. said it would admit 100,000 people from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who are coming for family reunification.

MEXICANS

In some ways, a shared land border that stretches from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas, makes Mexicans the easiest to remove because it is only a short drive to the nearest official border crossing.

Also, unaccompanied children from Mexico and Canada are not covered by a 2008 anti-trafficking law that grants special legal protection to children traveling alone from other countries. They are quickly sent home.

But Mexicans have also been protected from some of the most restrictive policies. A virtual asylum ban on those who travel though another country to the U.S. border wouldn't apply to Mexicans. A final version of that measure is expected before May 11 and to be quickly challenged in court.

EVERYONE ELSE

Mexicans and people from Central America's Northern Triangle countries accounted for barely half of all people stopped for crossing the Mexican border illegally in March, representing a major change in just the past few years.

Explanations for the others who make up the other half vary by nationality. Russians, for reasons that are unclear, have been among the top winners of 740 slots made available at U.S. border crossings with Mexico under CBPOne, a mobile app that was introduced for asylum-seekers in January. U.S. officials say they are the top nationality on the app, along with Haitians and Venezuelans.

Migrants from Venezuela, Haiti and elsewhere go through the dangerous Darien Gap connecting Colombia and Panama. Last year, 250,000 made the inhospitable jungle crossing, according to the Panamanian government, many of them children.

The U.S., Colombia and Panama announced a joint effort to stem migration through the Darien Gap, but details are unclear.

THE UNKNOWN

The Biden administration said last week it would open processing centers soon in Guatemala and Colombia, allowing people seeking refuge to avoid the treacherous journey over land. It said it was looking to open others but didn't name locations.

___=

Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in McAllen, Texas, contributed.
Keep pushing it, keep pushing it.

Thats the advice Carlisle Police Officer Jamie DiMartile received two weeks ago as she pulled ahead of other national finalists for Dish Networks First Responder of the Year Award.

It was then she realized she could take home the award, and sure enough, DiMartile crossed the finish line Sunday with more than 8,000 votes for the title. She said her closest competitor had about 3,200 votes.

Fellow officers, family members and others gathered at the Carlisle Police Departments station Tuesday to celebrate her victory.

DiMartile was selected as one of five finalists for the award, which recognizes people who serve small towns. She was the only law enforcement officer in the running.

Its nice to come here and celebrate with everyone who supported me, she said.

In addition to her work with the police department, DiMartile is also involved with the Bigs in Blue program with Big Brother Big Sister and organizes an annual toy drive around Christmas time to provide gifts on local childrens wish lists.

It takes all of us, she said. My family supports me in this. I know some have come out and helped me wrap, friends have come out and then our department, they come to the parties with me, they support me and my craziness that occurs around Christmas time. So its awesome to share this with them.

DiMartile was nominated for the award by coworker, Amy Burrell, who works as a dispatcher with the Carlisle Borough Police Department.

Her prize will include a Dish home theater and smart home prize package, along with a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, with tickets to the Grand Old Opry, a $100 gift card to Ole Red restaurant and recognition on Coffee, Country and Cody and Opry live shows.

DiMartile said shes most looking forward to her trip to Nashville.

We could not be more excited for you and the amazing things youve done, not only for every single one of these people in this room, but also your entire community and thousands and thousands of kids and so many families across your area, and so thank you for all of your hard work, Dish Network Senior Manager of Corporate Communications Andrea Carlson told DiMartile.

Out of all of her involvement with the community, DiMartile cited the Christmas program as the thing that stands out to her the most.

I dont do it for the recognition but its nice to get it and its nice to kind of spread the word to see if other departments want to learn how they can spread Christmas to the kids in their community, she said.

Carlson said this is the first year Dish Network has offered the First Responder of the Year Award. The company is accepting nominations online through May 26 for its Educator of the Year Award.

Close Becky Shull volunteers to help wrap Christmas presents for children in need at the Carlisle Police Department Monday morning. Carlisle Police Cpl. Andrew Van Volkenburg, left, and Sgt. Adolfo Heredia help wrap presents on Monday morning. Sherron Biddle helps wrap presents at the Carlisle Police Department Monday morning. Debbie Jussel, left, and Judy Wheaton help wrap presents at the Carlisle Police Department Monday morning. Photos: Carlisle Police Gift Wrapping Becky Shull volunteers to help wrap Christmas presents for children in need at the Carlisle Police Department Monday morning. Carlisle Police Cpl. Andrew Van Volkenburg, left, and Sgt. Adolfo Heredia help wrap presents on Monday morning. Sherron Biddle helps wrap presents at the Carlisle Police Department Monday morning. Debbie Jussel, left, and Judy Wheaton help wrap presents at the Carlisle Police Department Monday morning.
Moises Castillo/AP

GUATEMALA CITY (AP)  A judge in Guatemala issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for Gustavo Meono, a former leftist guerrilla leader and transparency activist, in connection with a 1980 bomb attack.

The bombing in Guatemala Citys main plaza killed several people and was blamed on the rebels of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor. The attack occurred during the countrys 1960-1996 civil war between the army and leftist rebels in which over 200,000 people died, most at the hands of the military.
Warmer weather this past winter and early spring is leading to an increase in ticks, according to state scientists.

"Tick activity this year started quite early. We did not have much of a break during the winter months," said Goudarz Molaei, director of the Tick Testing Program for Lyme and Allied Diseases at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES). "In the past, during the winter months, we used to maybe receive about 100 ticks for the entire duration. In recent years, that number has increased to several hundred."

The state has received 1,200 ticks so far this year as part of its passive tick collection program, but these 1,200 are just a fraction of ticks in Connecticut, according to Molaei. This year is projected to be the second-highest year for tick activity  second to 2021.

"We moved to high gear in early March," Molaei added.

According to Molaei, we are entering peak tick activity for blacklegged ticks, or deer ticks, which make up 80 percent of all ticks in Connecticut. Once this current peak subsides by mid-May, the month of June will see another peak in tick activity. The last peak in tick activity this year will take place in November.

In January, CAES scientists were warning of ticks being "active year-round" in Connecticut. This is because winter was shorter and milder this year, according to Molaei. The increase in rainfall has also played a part in the presence of ticks in Connecticut. "If we get a good amount of precipitation, that would provide enough humidity for these ticks not be desiccated," Molaei said.

Additionally, an increase in the state's deer population has made it easier for deer ticks to find hosts to feed on. Molaei said that there are 12 active tick-borne illnesses that the state is monitoring, including Powassan virus, which killed a Connecticut woman in 2022, anaplasmosis and Lyme disease.

Connecticut is also combating invasive tick species, including the lone star tick, the Gulfcoast tick and the Asian longhorned tick. Last year, CAES was given $5 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to come up with "creative ways to control the tick population" as well as train scientists on how to fight tick-borne illnesses.

As for keeping pets safe during tick season, Molaei said that pet owners should talk to their veterinarians to discuss options for preventing tick bites including specialized collars and topical medications. There are also specialized antibiotics that fight tick-borne illnesses, like Lyme disease, especially in dogs.

Ticks can be submitted for testing using the CAES tick submission form. Ticks must be properly sent in accordance with CAES standards. There is no fee to submit ticks for testing.
WASHINGTON  The U.S. is sending Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous amount of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition as the launch of a spring offensive against Russian forces approaches, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

The new package includes Hydra-70 rockets, which are unguided rockets that are fired from aircraft. It also includes an undisclosed number of rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, mortars, howitzer rounds, missiles and Carl Gustaf antitank rifles. The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines.

The latest shipment comes as Ukrainian officials say they are readying a counteroffensive  with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov declaring they are in the home stretch, when we can say: Yes everything is ready. Ukrainian officials have said they are stockpiling ammunition to stow it along potentially long supply lines.

Reznikov said Monday that the key things for the assaults success would be the availability of weapons; prepared, trained people; our defenders and defenders who know their plan at their level, as well as providing this offensive with all the necessary things  shells, ammunition, fuel, protection, etc.

The U.S. in recent months has declined to say exactly how much materiel will be sent to Ukraine, but the latest package resembles other previous deliveries. It includes trucks, trailers, spare parts and other maintenance assistance.

This is the 37th package of Pentagon stocks to go to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022, and it brings the total U.S. military aid to about $36 billion.

Officials have said the weapons and other equipment will help as Ukraine prepares to shift from what has been a long and bloody winter stalemate, focused on heavy fighting in Ukraines east, particularly around the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk province.

The General Staff of Ukraines armed forces said Russia was continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraines industrial east, focusing attacks around Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka.
The expansion of a popular grocery delivery program to all military commissaries in the U.S. is on hold while Defense Commissary Agency officials explore how to ensure it is economically feasible for customers, delivery providers and the government.

Commissary spokesman Kevin Robinson said Tuesday that the cost of Click2Go delivery has risen and more research is needed to find a "sustainable and cost-effective" long-term delivery solution before the program can grow.

The pilot program, an extension of the agency's Click2Go curbside pickup program, was introduced a year ago to eight stores in major markets and is set to run through at least June 1.

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Delivery fees originally were $3.97 per trip, but beginning March 1, the prices skyrocketed to a minimum of $10.99, depending on installation, for those who live one to five miles from a store, and to $29.99 for deliveries 16 to 20 miles from a store.

Delivery fees from popular grocery stores such as Walmart or Giant depend on the size of the order, ranging from $6.95 to $9.95, with discounts for memberships. Other options, such as Instacart, also offer an annual fee for an unlimited number of deliveries for orders that meet a minimum limit.

According to the Defense Commissary Agency website, the delivery fees for Click2Go were set by the contractor and not the Department of Defense. The chief executive officer of ChowCall, one of two food delivery companies that was awarded the contract last year, told Military Times that the financials were "very difficult to make it work" and that hes been working with the Defense Commissary Agency, or DeCA, to find solutions.

"My interpretation is that they're trying to find that sweet spot of how to make it viable for a contractor while staying true to their mission of improving quality of life for service members, families and other authorized commissary customers," CEO Todd Waldemar told the publication, which first reported the price increases and delay.

ChowCall was awarded the contract alongside the delivery company Rivet, which left the program in February. Waldemar did not respond to requests by phone or email for comment.

Nearly 20,500 orders were filled under the Click2Go delivery program between May 18, 2022, and March 31, amounting to nearly $2.4 million in sales. The service was most used at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with 5,013 orders, and was least popular at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, with just 975 orders during the time period, according to DeCA.

System-wide curbside pickup and home delivery have been long-term goals for DeCA leadership to ensure that the stores remain competitive with civilian grocers. DeCA launched curbside pickup in 2019 at 12 stores, but it accelerated the timeline for expansion during the pandemic, with all 236 commissaries offering online ordering and pickup as of late 2021.

Originally, there was a $4.95 fee for pickup orders, but that was waived during the pandemic to encourage use, and the fee has not been reinstated.

Click2Go curbside pickup is an enormously popular program, with orders tripling from 77,000 in 2021 to 246,000 in 2022, according to DeCA. To date, more than 96,000 orders totaling $14 million have been made.

Commissaries, which are subsidized by up to $1.4 billion per year by the federal government, provide groceries at discounted prices to service members, retirees, family members and disabled veterans. The stores must provide a baseline savings level for customers, currently 25% less than community stores, as measured by the "local market basket average," calculated through surveys of stores in surrounding communities.

This doesn't mean all items cost one-quarter less than a consumer would find at a civilian store, but it is based on price comparisons with stores, including supercenters like Walmart.

Commissary shoppers also pay a 5% surcharge, which covers the cost of construction, maintenance and renovations.

Defense Department officials say theyre seeking solutions to address the rising prices of grocery delivery and, in April, issued a solicitation seeking ideas, insights and practices from those who deliver groceries in the civilian space.

DeCA had plans to meet with relevant companies April 21 to discuss.

"DeCA has placed delivery expansion on hold as the agency performs additional market research to determine a delivery model that best supports our patrons," Robinson said.

In addition to Fort Belvoir and MacDill Air Force Base, Click2Go delivery is available at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois; Fort Bragg South, North Carolina; Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and Naval Station San Diego in California.

 Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime

Read Next: Pentagon Abandons Its Support for Merging the Commissary and Exchange Systems
The Marine Corps has announced that it is deactivating a historic training battalion at Parris Island as a sign that it is making serious progress toward integrating men and women into a single training pipeline at its iconic training base.

In a press release issued Wednesday, the Corps announced that it will deactivate the 4th Recruit Training Battalion -- a unit that has trained female Marines since 1986 -- in a ceremony on June 15, 2023.

"Today, successful recruit training standardization makes an all-female training battalion unnecessary, as all recruits have been training in gender-integrated companies since 2022," the service explained in its statement.

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Established in 1915, Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina has trained recruits for more than 100 years and, as a result, it holds a special place in the already lore-centered Corps. Since 1949, it was also the sole base where female Marine recruits would receive training. However, that training kept the two genders separate until 2019 when the service finally graduated its first co-ed company of 50 Marines.

Despite the long history, the Marines struggled to make progress on integrating their entry-level training over the last decade until Congress stepped in and used its annual military policy bill -- the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) -- to push the service along.

The 2020 NDAA required the Corps stop separating trainees by gender at Parris Island within five years and at its recruit depot in San Diego within eight. By contrast, the Navy has been training women alongside men since the 1990s.

Memos produced by the Marine Corps in recent years have cited things like insufficient space and instructors as challenges to completing integration.

The move to deactivate the female training unit is being hailed as "a moment to celebrate progress" by the service's top officer, Commandant Gen. David Berger.

"I'm proud to see our male and female recruits benefit from having access to the quality of all our leaders -- at Parris Island and San Diego -- through an unchanging, tough and realistic recruit training curriculum," Berger added in the press release.

Some reactions on the Parris Island social media accounts have noted that the move will help break down barriers between male and female Marines by making them go through an identical boot camp experience.

"It won't be long before there are female Drill Instructors who, as recruits, graduated alongside their male counterparts," the Corps' top enlisted official, Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Troy Black, said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Marine Corps officials are sensitive to what the unit, and its end, means to many female Marines. The branch plans to hold a ceremony at Parris Island this summer "to formally deactivate the battalion, honor its legacy, and highlight the historic unit's impact on the transformation of female Marines."

"On 15 June 2023, we will bid farewell to 4th Battalion in a deactivation ceremony that concludes her glorious tenure, closing the final chapter of integrating recruit training," the statement said.

Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Yarbrough, a spokesman for the base, also posted on Facebook that "while all the details are not complete yet, there will be a display at the ... Parris Island Museum that honors the legacy of 4th Recruit Training Battalion."

As part of the unit's deactivation, the Corps also said that it will move some of its Marines to San Diego, which lags behind Parris Island in training men and women alongside each other, in an effort to "create a more similar organization at both depots."

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

Related: Marine Corps Considers Abandoning Parris Island Amid Rising Extreme Weather Threats
KYIV, Ukraine  Russia claimed it foiled an attack by Ukrainian drones on the Kremlin early Wednesday, calling it an unsuccessful assassination attempt against President Vladimir Putin and promising retaliation for what it termed a terrorist act. The Ukrainian president denied it, saying: We don't attack Putin or Moscow.

Putin wasnt in the Kremlin at the time and was at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russias state news agency RIA Novosti.

There was no independent verification of the reported attack on the Kremlin, which Russia authorities said occurred overnight but presented no evidence to support it. Questions also arose as to why it took the Kremlin hours to report the incident and why videos of it also surfaced that late in the day.

A video posted overnight on a local Moscow news Telegram channel, shot from across the river from the Kremlin, appeared to show smoke rising over the buildings. It wasnt possible to ascertain its veracity. According to text accompanying the footage, residents of a nearby apartment building reported hearing bangs and seeing smoke around 2:30 a.m.

The Kremlin said Russian military and security forces stopped the drones before they could strike. Nobody was hurt, it added.

The Kremlins website said debris from the drones fell on the grounds of the Moscow landmark without damage.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on an unannounced visit to Helsinki for talks with the leaders of five Nordic countries, denied any role in the attack.

We dont attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. Were defending our villages and cities, he said at a news conference.

Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the claims would provide a pretext for Russia to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities in coming days.

The Pentagon is looking into the alleged attacks, according to a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

American intelligence officials also were looking into the Russian claims but had not yet made a determination, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing assessment.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Washington at a World Press Freedom Day event, said he had seen the reports, but I cant in any way validate them. We simply dont know.

He added: "I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt. So lets see. Well see what the facts are and its really hard to comment or speculate on this without really knowing what the facts are.

The purported drone attack would be a significant escalation in the 14-month conflict, with Ukraine taking the war to the heart of Russian power.

Phillips OBrien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, said, It certainly wasnt an attempt to assassinate Putin, because he doesnt sleep in the roof and he probably never sleeps in the Kremlin.

He added it was too soon to prove or disprove whether it was a Russian attempt either to make Ukraine look reckless or to buck up Russian public opinion or if it was a Ukrainian operation to embarrass Russia.

The alleged attack immediately prompted calls in Russia from pro-Kremlin figures in Russia to carry out assassinations on senior leadership in Ukraine.

The Kremlin claimed the attack was planned to disrupt Victory Day, which Russia celebrates in Red Square on May 9 to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Peskov said the parade would take place as scheduled.

Shortly before the news about the alleged attack broke, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a ban on using drones in the Russian capital, with an exception for drones launched by authorities.

Sobyanin didnt offer any reason for the ban, saying only that it would prevent the illegal use of drones that can hinder the work of law enforcement.

Zelenskyy was in Finland to secure greater firepower for his armed forces as they figure out how to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine.

Both Ukraine and Russia reportedly have experienced ammunition shortages after a winter of long-range shelling and missile strikes. Ukraines government has been pressing its allies to give it more as officials consider when and how they might start trying to drive Russian forces out of the Ukrainian territory they have occupied.

Zelenskyy told a Helsinki news conference before Russias drone attack claims that Ukraines counteroffensive is coming very soon. This year will be decisive  for victory, he said.

In the meantime, 16 civilians were killed Wednesday in a massive attack by Russian forces on Ukraines partially occupied southern Kherson province, the Ukrainian Prosecutor Generals Office said.

Russian fire hit the train station and the only open supermarket in the regional capital, also called Kherson, killing 12 people and wounding 22, local officials said. Three energy workers died when they came under fire while making repairs north of the city.

The Nordic countries  Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland  have been among Kyiv's strongest backers since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Before the meeting with Zelenskyy in Finland's capital, Nordic officials appeared ready to provide more aid as the war stretches into its 15th month.

There is still an urgent need for military support to ensure that the Ukrainians stand as strong as possible in the fight against Russia, Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen said in a statement.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre, another of the summit attendees, said: Here in the north, we have a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian neighbor, and it is important that we discuss together how to face this new situation.

The talks came a day after U.S. officials said Washington plans to send Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous number of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition.

The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been formally announced.

Elsewhere, Russia used Iranian-made drones during its third attack on Ukraine's capital city in six days.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defenses shot down 21 of the Russian drones, Ukraines Air Force Command said. No damage or casualties were reported

Meanwhile, a massive blaze broke out at an Russian oil depot, local officials said Wednesday.

The depot erupted in flames in Russias southern Krasnodar region, located east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

He didnt say what caused the fire, which was described as extremely difficult to put out. But some Russian media outlets said it was likely caused by a Ukrainian drone attack overnight. There was no official comment on that possibility.

Local residents heard an explosion shortly before the fire erupted, Russian news site Baza said.

Military analysts think Ukraine is targeting supply lines in the Russian rear while gearing up for a possible counteroffensive amid improving weather conditions and as it receives large amounts of weapons and ammunition from its Western allies.

Explosions also derailed a Russian freight train and hit a Russian airfield in recent days. Last weekend, a massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two of Ukraines drones, a Russia-appointed official said.

In anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces are focused on destroying logistical routes and centers of Ukraines armed forces with long-range strikes, Kyiv military officials say.

At the same time, Russia plans to continue talks with the United Nations and other parties to a wartime agreement on facilitating Black Sea agricultural shipments, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said ahead of talks on Friday.

Earlier Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed a new round of consultations between Russia and the U.N. on access of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to the world market would be held in Moscow.

Signed in July and renewed twice, most recently in March, the deal unblocked Ukrainian grain shipments that were held up in the country's blockaded ports last year. The deal will expire May 18 unless Russia agrees to its renewal.

Jari Tanner in Helsinki and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed.
The head of the Naval Special Warfare Center -- the command that oversees much of the training for Navy SEALs -- has been transferred out of his job early. He had recently been reprimanded for his part in the high-profile death of a Navy SEAL candidate last year.

In a statement released Tuesday evening, the Navy announced that Capt. Mark Burke relieved Capt. Brian Drechsler. The service held a change of command ceremony earlier Tuesday, overseen by Rear Adm. Keith Davids, the head of Naval Special Warfare Command.

A spokesman for the command noted that Drechsler was not relieved due to poor performance or any violations of rules or regulations but rather that Davids made the decision to move up the already scheduled turnover to better focus on addressing some of the lingering issues identified by the Navy's own investigation into the death of Seaman Kyle Mullen in February 2022.

Read Next: Young Gold Star Spouses Lose Survivor Benefits if They Remarry. Senators Want to Fix That.

However, Drechsler was one of three officers who received administrative "non-punitive" letters following Mullen's death. While the letters themselves carry no punishment, they typically render an officer unpromotable.

The first released investigation into the aspiring SEAL's death revealed the deadly culture that exists during the torturous "Hell Week" portion of the Navy's Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, or BUD/S -- the first of several courses young sailors undergo to become SEALs.

The investigation, which was released in October, showed that recruits like Mullen are driven to hide symptoms and pain in order to complete the training or out of fear of being dropped from the program.

The report also highlighted a dangerous message that recruits were told by leadership: Calling outside doctors leads to trouble. One sailor told investigators that "he and the other students were instructed not to call 911 and not to go to the emergency room."

Mullen's mother, Regina Mullen, told Coffee or Die Magazine that she believes her son "was tortured."

She said that the paramedic who treated her son told her "there was blood everywhere."

The training program for the Navy's elite commandos is also undergoing another investigation that is being run by an admiral outside of the secretive and cloistered special warfare community. Naval Special Warfare Command has promised to make the results of this investigation public when it is complete.

The Associated Press reported that Drechsler told his command in a message before his relief that "it is crucial that we maintain the momentum we have made to improve our training, safety, and medical oversight while balancing the need to forge the world's greatest warriors."

Drechsler commissioned in the Navy in 1998 and was assigned to both SEAL Team One and Five throughout his career, according to a biography provided by the service.

He also completed combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as deployments to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Central Command areas of operations. Among his numerous awards are three Combat Action Ribbons and three Bronze Stars, two of which have "combat V" devices denoting that the award was given for bravery in combat.

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

Related: 'Instructed Not To Call 911': Report Reveals Confusion, Failure and Fear in SEAL Candidate Death
After nearly six years of helping homeless veterans, a Mount Holly Springs thrift store and organization is now the one in need.

Operation Veterans Hope opened at 7 N. Baltimore Ave. in 2017, accepting clothes, shoes and other donated items to sell while operating a Work2Stay program that allows homeless veterans to work in the store and live in the rear portion of the building.

Representative Karen Reid, known by most as Ms. K, estimated that through the years, the organization has helped more than 20 homeless veterans get back on their feet by connecting them with benefits and other services.

The building was sold to a company out in California and the rent became increased [by] a little over $1,000, she said. So that has really put a strain on the organization. We did have two sponsors, but right now theyre not able to help, so we have to raise money, and the store isnt doing too well right now.

She said the California company purchased the building around the end of last year, and as an organization that relies fully on donations to remain open, Operation Veterans Hopes future is unclear.

We are overdue for this month, but our landlord, hes been extending things a little longer, so ... we just hope that people will donate, Reid said. Thats how we stay open, and if that doesnt happen, then we have to close our doors.

The organization is run entirely by volunteers, including the veterans who live there, she said.

Reid estimates that it costs about $3,500 to $4,000 each month to run the operation. In the past, Operation Veterans Hope has held fundraising campaigns and offered sales to help increase donations.

That was good, but we didnt raise enough to ... take care of the rent and everything like that, so were always thinking about ideas and things to do, she said.

While grant funding exists to help organizations like Operation Veterans Hope, Reid said that can be difficult to secure and may take months to arrive.

We need help like immediately, she said.

Another possibility is for the organization to move.

Reid said people have looked for another building and considered moving to the Carlisle area to continue Operation Veterans Hopes service areas, but funding remains the main issue.

While its hard to say if or when the organization might have to close, shes certain of this: Operation Veterans Hope requires ongoing support.

Im hoping that community will come together and say, ... This is a good cause. Theyre helping veterans get on their feet, they have shelter, they have training, they have everything. ... Lets keep this organization going.

This hope is shared by Steven Fitting, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1979 to 1983 and participated in the Work2Stay program for about a year.

He said the organization has helped with his public relations skills.

Sometimes, people are afraid to talk to people, but I have wonderful customers here, he said. I have a lot of good customers, and some people ... dont really want to talk to people and they really dont want to talk about their past experiences and what theyve been through and what theyve done. Sometimes some of the older folks come in and a lot of veterans do come in as well, and they can talk and they can relate and they feel a bit more at ease, and that helps them socialize.

Reid said donations can be made online at Operation Veterans Hopes website, by mail or by stopping in at the store.

She said the organizations work is important because there are a lot of homeless veterans.

They volunteer and they serve the country, and I dont think any any veteran should have to be homeless, Reid said.

Photos: Operation Veterans Hope
The Reds are signing a minor league deal with right-hander Chase Anderson, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Anderson will not receive an invitation to major league camp.

Anderson, 35, spent most of last year in Triple-A, signing minor league deals with the Tigers, Rays and then Reds. He made 16 starts and 11 relief appearances at that level, posting a 4.50 ERA over 80 innings. He struck out 20.9% of batters faced and walked 8.4% of them.

The Reds selected him to their major league roster in August and he tossed 24 innings over nine appearances for them down the stretch. His 6.38 ERA in that time certainly wasnt pretty, but its possible he deserved better than that, as he struck out 22.3% of batters faced and got grounders at a strong 51.6% clip. His 14.6% walk rate was on the high side but his 55.2% strand rate likely played a role in adding some earned runs to his ledger, as his 5.07 FIP and 4.77 SIERA suggest.

Anderson spent many years as an effective starter for the Brewers but things went sideways for him in 2020 when with the Blue Jays. He posted a 7.22 ERA that year and then a 6.75 with the Phillies in 2021. Hell look to get back on track with a Reds team that doesnt have much certainty in its pitching staff. The rotation looks to be fronted by three guys who made their debuts last year in Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Graham Ashcraft. They should be followed by Luke Weaver and Luis Cessa, who have been around a bit longer but Cessas had more success as a reliever and Weaver is a few years removed from his last stint as an effective starter. Other options on the roster include Connor Overton, Justin Dunn and Brandon Williamson. The bullpen is headlined by Alexis Diaz, Lucas Sims, Reiver Sanmartin and Buck Farmer but theres not much certainty beyond that group.
The Astros didnt make many outside additions over the winter. They were content to generally run things back with last years World Series roster minus Justin Verlander and deadline rentals Christian Vazquez and Trey Mancini. The only significant upgrade the Astros successfully pursued was at first base. They allowed Yuli Gurriel to depart and signed longtime White Sox slugger Jose Abreu to a three-year, $58.5MM deal.

Going to three years at a premium average annual value was not without risk. Abreu is 36 years old and offers limited defensive value. It was a bet on the bat, though its easy to see why Houston targeted the former AL MVP as a lineup upgrade. Abreu had hit .289/.366/.489 over the three seasons leading up to free agency. That included a .304/.378/.446 platform showing. He still looked like an impact hitter last November.

One cant draw definitive conclusions on a move one month into a three-year contract. Yet its hard to envision Abreu getting off to a much worse start to his Houston tenure. Entering play Tuesday, the three-time All-Star owns a .235/.266/.269 batting line over 124 trips to the plate. Hes managed only four doubles and zero home runs. Out of 181 qualified hitters, hes 170th in on-base percentage and 177th in slugging. This April was only the second month in Abreus career (July 16 being the other) in which he played 20+ games and didnt connect on a single homer.

The drop isnt power isnt a completely new development. Last years 15 homers and .446 slugging mark each represented the lowest figures of Abreus career. He was still a very productive hitter but the offensive profile was more driven by singles and doubles than by home runs.

Last years relative power drop was primarily a result of a dip in the frequency with which Abreu got the ball in the air. His hard contact rate was strong as ever, but hed negated some of its impact by hitting a few more grounders than he had previously. Thats not the case this season. Abreu just isnt hitting the ball with any kind of authority right now. His 35.9% hard contact rate is down dramatically from last years 51.7% figure. He has lost five MPH on his average exit velocity (down from an excellent 92.2 MPH to a pedestrian 87.2 MPH).

Abreu is more frequently chasing pitches outside the strike zone. While hes never been an especially patient hitter, this years 41.2% swing rate on pitches outside the zone and 3.2% walk percentage would be the worst marks of his career. Hes doing a decent job putting balls in play but without any kind of impact.

Its coincidentally a similar approach to the player whom Abreu replaced in Houston. Gurriel has been an elite hitter at times in his career, including when he secured the 2021 AL batting title. His final season in Houston wasnt particularly effective, though, as he posted just a .242/.288/.360 line with eight homers and a 5.1% walk rate in 546 plate appearances. Gurriel had a good postseason but the Astros nevertheless let him depart to the Marlins on a minor league contract over the winter in recognition of the middling power and dearth of walks. (Gurriel made Miamis Opening Day roster and is off to a .306/.358/.449 start through 14 games in a part-time role.)

Its far too early to write Abreu off. Hes been such an accomplished hitter throughout his career that it wouldnt be a surprise if he finds his stride over the coming weeks. The Astros have little choice but to count on him to figure things out for now. Its too soon for any team to make meaningful trades. Houston wouldnt look to upgrade over their top offseason signee after one bad month anyhow. It could raise an unexpected question mark for the club if Abreu is still floundering in six weeks, particularly since the lineup around him hasnt picked up a ton of the slack.

The defending champions are tied for 12th in runs, 15th in OBP, and 22nd in slugging as a team. Thats in large part because of Abreu, although theyve also predictably gotten no offense from their catchers and have been without Jose Altuve and Michael Brantley all season. Mauricio Dubon has stepped up in Altuves absence but certainly doesnt offer the kind of power potential of Houstons star second baseman.

Altuve seems likely to miss another month as recovers from his late-spring thumb fracture. Houstons rotation has also taken some injury hits over the past couple days. Theyre certainly not in dire straits  they enter play with a 16-13 record and are only a game and a half behind their in-state rivals in the AL West  but theyll need more out of Abreu to help weather some of their poor health luck thus far.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
The Mariners announced that infielder Tommy La Stella has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to pitching prospect Bryce Miller, whose promotion was reported yesterday.

Seattle signed La Stella in January. That came on the heels of his release from the Giants, with whom hed signed a three-year free agent deal over the 2020-21 offseason. La Stellas two seasons in San Francisco didnt go well. He hit .245/.297/.380 and was limited to 136 games over that stretch by injuries. The Giants moved on, eating the $11.5MM hes due in 2023.

Once La Stella cleared release waivers, other teams could add him for the league minimum salary. The Mariners jumped on the opportunity, hoping hed add a productive left-handed bat to their infield mix. That didnt pan out, as the 10-year MLB veteran had a tough showing in 12 games. He hit .190/.292/.238 with only one extra-base hit (a double) in 24 plate appearances. La Stella didnt see any action on defense; he started six games at designated hitter and came off the bench to pinch hit on six more occasions.

With the club apparently reluctant to push La Stella into much or any defensive work, there was plenty of pressure on him to start well offensively. He didnt come out of the gate strong and is now designated for assignment for the second time in five months. The Ms will have a week to trade him or put him on waivers; in all likelihood, hell be released and hit free agency within the next few days.

Once he gets to the open market, La Stella will again have the opportunity to explore his options around the league. The Giants remain on the hook for the bulk of his salary. Hed be an affordable pickup for another club that thinks theres some offensive ability still in the tank. Its possible hes limited to minor league offers this time around but he still brings a high-contact bat with good awareness of the strike zone.
DAVISBURGH, MI - There are treasures around every corner at one of Michigans largest antique events. The Michigan Antique Festival is happening this Saturday and Sunday, May 6 and 7, in Davisburg at Springfield Oaks County Park.

A whopping 400 antique dealers will be at the event from around the country. Their works and items will be showcased throughout eight indoor buildings, including the famous Ellis Barn.

The buildings are just packed with dealers, Matt Edens, the event organizer told MLive. One of those buildings is the Ellis Barn. The historic landmark is the barn which was used to house the horses which were used to build Dixie Highway. It was moved from Kirk Gibsons farm to this park. Its an amazing building, piece of history and backdrop for this festival.

The event also features music and more than a dozen food trucks on site. But its really about the history and each item has a story.

Its like going on a scavenger hunt and a treasure hunt. For these dealers, this is their passion. They probably know more about these items than anyone around. If you ask a question about an item, youll probably get a mini history lesson. I think that lends more of a uniqueness to the items than anything else because once you get the history of the item, then it becomes even more unique.

IF YOU GO

The Michigan Antique Festival in Davisburg will be open from 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $10 per person with ages 11 and under admitted free. Free parking is available on site. Pets are not allowed at the event. The festival will take place rain or shine at 12451 Andersonville Road.

We have dealers that come from Canada, Florida, California, Texas... from all over the map. They do events all over the country. This is our 55th year. Its a big undertaking.

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HOUGHTON, MI  For the second year in a row, this small Upper Peninsula town will play host to cruise ships.

Houghton, located on the Keweenaw Peninsula of the U.P., is expected to be called on twice this year by American Queen Voyages Ocean Navigator ship on June 8 and 12.

They will be docking right smack dab in the middle of downtown on our new Pier, which was completed last summer, said city manager Eric Waara.

The Ocean Navigator is a 286-foot, five-deck cruise ship with capacity for 202 guests.

During both calls, the ship will be on its 16-day Roundtrip Chicago itinerary, which starts around $8,500 per passenger.

Houghtons scheduled calls are part of whats expected to be a record-breaking year for Great Lakes cruising with nearly 170,000 passenger visits and a total economic impact of $180 million. Eleven ships operated by eight cruise lines will traverse the Great Lakes between May and October.

RELATED: Cruise ships to return to Great Lakes for record-breaking 2023 season

Michigans cruising season kicked off Monday with the arrival of the Viking Octantis in Detroit.

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Other Michigans ports of call include Alpena, Escanaba, Mackinac Island, Marquette and Muskegon.

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Its not every day you get the opportunity to see an incredibly rare bird, but in Michigan, that chance does briefly return every spring.

Kirtlands warblers are charismatic yellow-and-gray birds that nest exclusively in just a handful of spots in northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario. Given that these songbirds once came perilously close to extinction, spent half a century on the federal endangered species list, and are still considered the rarest warbler in North America, its an absolute treat to see or hear one  but you have to know where to look, which can be tough, given their limited range.

To help people experience the wonder of witnessing one of these birds, several organizations offer Kirtlands warbler tours for a few weeks every spring when the birds return to Michigan in May and June. Birdwatchers of all experience levels can benefit from these tours, as most Kirtlands warbler breeding areas are closed to public entry during nesting season; heading out with a seasoned guide not only increases your chances of success but also ensures this sensitive species nests stay safe.

In spring 2023, guided tours are available through the Forest Service in the Huron-Manistee National Forest in Mio, as well as through Michigan Audubon, which is offering guided tours in collaboration with Hartwick Pines State Park in Grayling. A self-guided driving tour is also available through the Huron-Manistee National Forest. Read on for more details:

Michigan Audubon guided Kirtlands warbler tours: Held by Michigan Audubon in collaboration with Hartwick Pines State Park in Grayling, these tours have a high success rate for seeing the Kirtlands warbler. Participants are given a brief orientation before heading to protected pine barrens for the chance to view the warbler. These tours typically last 2.5 to 3 hours, and will be held daily at 7 a.m. with an additional 11 a.m. tour on Saturdays and Sundays from May 27 through June 30. Cost: $15 per person; participants must have a Recreation Pass to enter the state park. More information here

U.S. Forest Service guided tours: Take a guided tour with a wildlife expert to find the Kirtlands warbler in northeast lower Michigans Huron-Manistee National Forest. The tours start with a short presentation at the U.S. Forest Service ranger station office in Mio, followed by caravanning to the site. Reservations not required, but advance notification for groups of five or more is appreciated. To be held May 15th - May 31st from 7 a.m.- 10:30 a.m. More tour details available here; contact the Mio ranger station for further information.

Self-guided Kirtlands warbler tours: The Jack Pine Wildlife Viewing Tour is a self-guided, 58-mile driving tour through jack pine ecosystems that are home to a variety of wildlife, including the Kirtlands warbler. This is a great way to safely learn more about the Kirtlands warbler and its habitat, parts of which are closed to public entry during nesting seasons to protect the birds. (Closed areas will be posted with signs.) Find links to a tour map and more information here

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DETROIT  A Michigan man who told investigators that he earned $2,000 a day for four years from a marijuana vending machine has pleaded guilty to a firearms charge, authorities said.

Marcellus Cornwell, 44, of Detroit, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice Eastern District of Michigan.

An anonymous tip alerted ATF agents to the alleged marijuana vending machine last spring, officials said. Cornwell had allegedly been operating the marijuana vending machine for about four years, earning about $2,000 a day  that comes to about $1.6 million a year.

Prior to his arrest ATF agents said they on two occasions purchased suspected marijuana  a total of 5.28 grams  from Cornwells vending machine that was located on the side of his house.

On March 16, ATF agents executed a search warrant at Cornwells residence, officials said. They discovered marijuana, ammunition, and 18 firearms in a basement gun safe; three of the guns had been reported stolen.

RELATED: Marijuana vending machine earned Michigan man $2,000 a day, federal agents say

Cornwell has served prison time for six felony convictions he received between 1997 and 2011, including for armed robbery, identity theft and multiple firearms crimes. This disqualifies him from legally possessing a firearm.

These weapons should not be in the hands of convicted felons, U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison said in a statement. The number of weapons this defendant possessed despite being a prohibited person combined with his drug dealing makes his conduct even more egregious,

Cornwell entered his guilty plea in front of U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy III. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and/or a fine of $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 14.

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A new ranking of the best states in the United States has little respect for the great state of Michigan.

Released by U.S. News on Tuesday, the ranking of the best states for 2023 puts the Great Lakes State near the bottom at No. 41.

41?

Thats ridiculous.

Only South Carolina, Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas, West Virginia, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska and Louisiana were ranked below Michigan.

Even Ohio was No. 34.

Meanwhile, states like Utah, Washington, Idaho, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Iowa, Wisconsin, Vermont and Florida ranked inside the Top 10.

The ranking, which has been released annually since 2017, uses thousands of data points to capture how all 50 states serve their residents.

The rankings team analyzes statistics tied to more than 70 metrics across eight categories, such as crime, economy, fiscal stability, health care, education infrastructure, opportunity and natural environment.

On the positive side, Michigan fared decently well in health care (20) and opportunity (21), which examines if states are granting citizens tools to succeed. So, Michigan could move up in future years.

But Michigans rankings struggled in the other categories, particularly in infrastructure (43), education (37), fiscal stability (37) and crime (36).

And sure, every state, including Michigan, has some issues. No one is claiming perfection or begging for a top 10 ranking.

But 41?

Furthermore, the ranking simply makes zero sense when it comes to natural environment where Michigan is ranked No. 36.

What?

Michigan is the only state with two peninsulas. Its home to the Great Lakes and has the longest freshwater coastline of any state. It has more lighthouses than any state, miles of rivers and thousands of lakes.

Not to mention the sprawling forests and state parks scattered across the Mitten.

The disrespect.

How do you feel about U.S. News ranking of Michigan?
DETROIT  Voters in one of Michigans most conservative counties have given the boot to a small-town clerk accused of mishandling voting equipment, The Associated Press reports.

On Tuesday, Stephanie Scott lost the recall election in Hillsdale Countys Adams Township to Suzy Roberts, who got nearly double the votes: 406 to Scotts 214, according to unofficial results reported by the county clerks office. Both women are Republicans, although Roberts ran as an independent, AP reports. One of Scotts supporters, Adams Township Supervisor Mark Nichols, also lost in Tuesdays recall election with challenger Randy G. Johnson garnering 394 to Nichols 222 votes, unofficial results show.

Scott was elected in November 2020 when she ran as an unopposed first-time Republican candidate, the report said. She then cast doubt on President Joe Bidens election victory, questioning the accuracy of U.S. voting systems. Former President Donald Trump who took 76% of the vote in Adams Township.

RELATED: Michigan officials bar township clerk from running Nov. 2 election, citing refusal to follow procedures

The Michigan State Police exit the Adams Township Hall after executing a search warrant, Oct. 29, 2021, in Hillsdale, Mich. The search warrant was part of an investigation into actions by Clerk Stephanie Scott who has been stripped of her role in future elections. The clerk in one of the Michigan's most conservative counties faces a recall election after the state says she improperly handled voting equipment following false claims about the 2020 election. (Corey Murray/Hillsdale Daily News via AP)Corey Murray/Hillsdale Daily News via AP

In the run-up to the townships November 2021 election, Scott said she had accuracy concerns and considered paper ballots and a hand count but settled on the same tabulator machines used previously, the report said. The state intervened after she allegedly refused to allow a contractor to perform preventive maintenance and failed to conduct accuracy tests, among other issues; she was stripped of her duties in October 2021. It was later discovered that the tabulators tablet  which contains important software  had been removed; it was later seized from Scott by Michigan State Police. No criminal charges have been filed.

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ANN ARBOR, MI  A Washtenaw County judge found that, despite the lack of a body, there was enough evidence to send a father to trial for the murder of his infant daughter who disappeared in the summer of 1982.

Isiah Williams was bound over for trial Tuesday, May 2, on one count of open murder after a preliminary examination before Washtenaw County 14A District Judge Cedric Simpson who found there was more than enough evidence for a jury to consider the case.

Williams, 75, was arraigned Jan. 21, 2022, on open murder charges after being extradited from Chicago to face allegations he killed his infant daughter, Olisa Williams, who has been missing since July 1982 and presumed dead.

Simpson, after hearing testimony from investigators and multiple ex-girlfriends and witnesses who described years of violent physical abuse by Williams in the past, bound the case over the to the trial court based on circumstantial evidence.

Williams attended the preliminary examination via Zoom from his cell in the Washtenaw County Jail. He remined in bed sleeping throughout the proceeding.

Investigators argue the child was killed by Williams as an act of control over the childs mother, Denise Frazier-Daniel, who suffered years of domestic abuse at the hands of Williams while they were married and living in Ohio.

Related: Ann Arbor mom agonizes over babys disappearance 35 years later

I have not seen a monster like this ever, Simpson said. As I listed to the testimony about what (the victims) went through. I dont think for one moment they were exaggerating making something horrible seem worse.

One woman testified she was attacked by Williams who hit her with a two-by-four as she tried to run away from him. On another occasion he injured a 2-year-old girl in his care, breaking several of her bones for crying and did not seek medical care for her, witnesses said.

Williams attorney, Danien Woodson, argued against bind over, stating there was no testimony proving her client had killed the child.

All (prosecutors) have proved here is that he is a bad guy. That he beats up women, Woodson said. What we did hear is he had no problem beating people up to get money, so who is to say that maybe he gave the child away for money.

Olisa Williams was born in Ann Arbor while Williams was in prison. He is not believed to be her biological father, officials said. Williams was angry about Olisas birth, telling Frazier-Daniel she should have had an abortion.

Retired Ann Arbor Police Detective Dan Iverson, who took over investigating the cold case, testified he interviewed Williams on multiple occasions as well as other witnesses before finding enough probable cause to hand the case over to the Washtenaw County Prosecutors Office which declined the issues charges.

The case was then sent to the Michigan Attorney Generals Office which issued charges as it tends to handle cold cases more frequently since the state has more staff and better resources to pursue such cases, AG Dana Nessel said.

Witnesses testified Williams took his daughter by force from his then wife Frazier-Daniel on April 29, 1982, after she said she was filing for divorce. The girl was last seen in July by another witness before the child disappeared with no explanation.

Later in July of 1982, Williams boarded a bus to Alabama with no luggage, no child and no explanation as to where the child was, prosecutors said.

Police continued to investigate the girls disappearance, but she was never found.

In 1994, Williams was in a car crash that he claimed made him lose his memory of the 1980s, Iverson said. Iverson pulled his medical records and found the several CT scans were performed on Williams with no abnormalities found, leading Iverson to believe Williams was lying about not knowing the childs whereabouts.

Another ex-girlfriend testified that, while be strangled by Williams in an act of domestic violence, he confessed to killing a baby and hiding the body.

The case has been assigned to Washtenaw County Trail Judge Patrick Conlin Jr. with a pretrial hearing scheduled for May 17.

Williams remains detained in the Washtenaw County Jail without bond.

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WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI - Voters in Washtenaw County passed tax proposals to provide funding for public schools and fire coverage in a special election Tuesday, May 2.

Voters passed non-homestead tax renewals for Saline Area Schools and Whitmore Lake Public Schools that are required by Michigan school districts to collect their full per-student state funding.

The 18-mill non-homestead property tax came into being with the 1994 state passage of Proposal A, which changed the way Michigan schools are funded. By state law, a district must levy the full 18-mill non-homestead property tax to receive its maximum per-student funding from the state. Non-homestead taxes do not apply to a persons primary residence. The tax applies only to commercial and industrial property and second homes.

RELATED: Confusing school millages back on ballot after being rejected in November

While Saline passed the renewal of its non-homestead millage by collecting more than 73% of the vote, voters in the Whitmore Lake Public Schools passed the districts proposal to levy up to 21 mills over the next 10 years to ensure the district can collect its full 18 mils on non-homestead properties and get its full per-student state aid.

The district collected more than 64% in favor of the millage after a similar proposal failed to pass in November 2022.

Beyond the non-homestead operating millage renewals, voters in Chelsea passed the renewal of a tax funding fire protection, emergency medical services and first responders for the Chelsea Area Fire Authority.

Voters approved renewing the millage of up to 2.3557 mills, for five years between 2024-28. It is estimated to collect $2.5 million in its first year.

With 8,636 ballots cast in the May 2 election, Washtenaw County saw 19.86% turnout.

Check out the results from Tuesdays special election below:

Chelsea-area fire millage renewal

YES: 2,240 (80.72%)

NO: 535 (19.28%)

Saline Area Schools operating millage renewal

YES: 3,526 (73.26%)

NO: 1,287 (26.74%)

Whitmore Lake Public School District operating millage renewal

YES: 653 (64.33%)

NO: 362 (35.67%)

Northville Public Schools bond proposal (Washtenaw County results only)

YES: 6 (42.86%)

NO: 8 (57.14%)

READ MORE:

These are the 7 proposals on the Washtenaw County ballot for May special election

Confusing school millages back on ballot after being rejected in November

Whats next for Whitmore Lake Public Schools after operating millage fails?
YPSILANTI, MI -- Ypsilanti Running Co. recently announced it is permanently closing it doors on June 30.

The Ypsilanti business at 126 W. Michigan Ave. opened in 2014 and is known for selling footwear, socks, nutrition items, running accessories and apparel. The company is also responsible for putting on different running events including its weekly running group.

Related: Ypsilanti Running Company opening downtown store next month

But, after nearly nine years of operation, Owner Mike Nix said he is closing the store to be with his 13-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter more. The father of two said his business has taken so much of his time that is has become like his third child over the years.

(My wife and I) felt like I needed to be around a little bit more than I have been able to with the store, he said. I havent been able to give 100% to the store or 100% of attention to my family, (which) they deserve.

Nix said he opened Ypsilanti Running Co. nearly a decade ago to provide runners not only accessibility, but a point of connection. The owner said the business has been growing ever year since which makes his decision that much harder.

Despite the closure, Nix is still planning to host some of the stores events like its Kids Track Club at Frog Island Park with his free time in the future.

Read more: Ypsilanti Running Co. to rehab historic Frog Island track

The owner said he is open to selling the business, and has already spoken with someone who may be interested, however, nothing has officially been decided yet.

Now that he is closing the business, Nix said he is going to miss the connections he has made over the years with his customers the most. He added he is proud of how far Ypsilanti Running Co. has come and how the city has welcomed him from day one.

We started out as this little store and I would be here some days in the beginning and nobody would come in, he said. To come from that and see what it is now is unbelievable to me and that is just a testament to the community we are a part of and the willingness of them to embrace us.

Im very grateful to have had the customers we did have come through the store (and how) theyre open to my advice (and) open to me and my family. I really will miss being a apart of it.

Leading up to its last day, Ypsilanti Running Company will be open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

Find the business online, on social media or by phone at 734-905-7194.

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KENT COUNTY, MI - Algoma Township voters on Tuesday approved two public safety millages  one that will add a dedicated Kent County sheriffs deputy to patrol the township and the other to support fire services.

Voters approved the new millage for a dedicated deputy patrol by a vote of 1,693 to 1,415, or 54.5% to 44.5%, voters on Tuesday, May 2, according to the unofficial results from the Kent County Clerks Office.

Related: Voters to decide on dedicated sheriffs deputy patrol for community north of Grand Rapids

That millage of 0.54 mills will fund a dedicated Kent County sheriffs deputy to patrol the township 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

The new patrol will tentatively be shared with neighboring Courtland Township as a cost-savings measure. It will augment the four road patrol units currently assigned 24/7 to an eight township region in northern Kent County that includes Algoma Township.

Township officials previously said the dedicated patrol isnt about rising crime but more about preparing for the future and lowering response times at a good value.

Voters also approved renewing and increasing the millage supporting fire services in the township by a vote of 1,979 to 1,135, or 63.5% to 36.5%, voters on Tuesday, according to the unofficial results from the Kent County Clerks Office.

The millage of about 1.41 mills will generate about $805,611 a year for 10 years to support operations and maintenance of the Algoma Township Fire Department as well as the purchasing and improvement of equipment, facilities, vehicles and more for the purpose of firefighting.

The approved millage question asked to renew the current millage of about 0.91 mills and then add an additional 0.5 mills.

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI  U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Grand Rapids, spoke to constituents Tuesday about her efforts to clamp down on businesses that violate child labor laws, prevent gun violence, and bring home federal funds for infrastructure improvements, affordable childcare and more.

Speaking at Union High School in Grand Rapids, Scholten said shes spent her first 100 days in office meeting with businesses, nonprofits, residents, and community leaders.

The first-term Democrat also said shes focused her legislative efforts on bills with bipartisan support.

In divided times such as these, we need leaders who are willing to put partisan politics aside and focus on the issues that matter in a commonsense, solution-oriented manner, she said, highlighting her bills to strengthen child labor law violation penalties, better track vocational degree attainment and bring pay equity to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Thats what you all sent me to Washington to do, and thats what Ive been delivering on every single day in Congress.

Scholten, a former immigration attorney, defeated Republican John Gibbs 55% to 42% in November to become the first Democrat elected to represent Grand Rapids in Congress since Richard Vander Veen in 1974. Scholten is also the first woman to hold the office.

The Tuesday, May 2 town hall was her second since taking office.

The location, Union High School, fits into a topic shes been working on since late February: migrant children working in unsafe conditions in violation of federal labor laws.

The issue was brought to light in late February, when The New York Times documented a factory operated by food processor Hearthside Food Solutions in Grand Rapids that was full of children who had crossed the Southern border by themselves and were now spending late hours bent over hazardous machinery, in violation of child labor laws.

Related: Who Is The Grand Rapids Company In Spotlight For Migrant Children Working In Dangerous Conditions?

One of the children highlighted in the story was a ninth grader at Union High School. Teachers in the building estimated that 200 of their immigrant students were working full time while trying to keep up with their classes, the Times reported.

We chose this school because it serves some of the most underrepresented individuals in our community, Scholten said, speaking to reporters prior to the town hall meeting. Certainly the highlight on the school recently played a role into it. But its not only to highlight that issue.

She said its important to show all the great work of educating a lot of individuals who come into the learning environment with a lot of needs, and we wanted to show that their congresswoman will show up for them.

Obviously, Union High School has been in the news a lot lately because of the focus from The New York Times piece on the migrant child labor crisis, Scholten said. I wanted to show solidarity with the teachers, the students, the administrators here and showing that we stand with these kids.

Bipartisan legislation Scholten introduced in late March, The Justice for Exploited Children Act, would increase the maximum penalty for violating child labor standards from $15,138 to $132,270. Violations that cause serious injury or death would jump from $132,270 to $601,250.

The bill hasnt gotten a hearing yet in the Republican-controlled U.S. House. But Scholten said shes urging her GOP colleagues to find a way to take this bill up.

Following her opening remarks, the town hall also featured a question-and-answer session with constituents.

They asked the congresswoman whether she supports a single-payer, Medicare for All type system popularized by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, as well as gun violence prevention, expanding mental health care, climate change and more.

I understand deeply the need to expand access to affordable health care, said Scholten, who said shes spending her time in Congress pushing back attempts by House Republicans to roll back protections of the Affordable Care Act.

I support expanding and moving on the gains of the Affordable Care Act so that we can get to, eventually, a place of universal coverage for all, whether that comes from an employer-sponsored program or a government-sponsored program. I think individuals deserve the choice to make that for themselves.

Scholten was also asked about gun violence. A question from one attendee, in particular, inquired as to what steps shes taken to bring more regulation to gun purchasing through background checks, waiting periods and the adult age to own guns.

The congresswoman, who lives on the citys Southeast Side, said gun violence hits close to home for far too many of us. She noted that she had lost a friend and neighbor to gun violence, and that her children, Wesley and James, have had to endure active shooter drills at school.

After going to Washington, Scholten said one of the first things she did was join a gun violence prevention task force. She also said she co-sponsored eight different pieces of legislation, several of them that are bipartisan, to combat what is truly becoming a public health emergency.

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HOLLAND, MI  Holland voters approved a proposal Tuesday to sell city property to a developer who wants to build a hotel, apartment buildings, a cruise ship dock and more on Lake Macatawa near downtown Holland.

The May 2 ballot measure gives the city the OK to sell a 2-acre property at 255 Kollen Park Drive and a 17-acre property at 64 Pine Avenue where the defunct James De Young power plant sits. The proposal was approved 63.5% to 36.5%, according to unofficial results.

Related: Holland ballot measure would move forward proposed waterfront hotel, cruise ship dock near downtown

Holland-based Geenen DeKock Properties has proposed purchasing the sites, where it wants to build a 50-room hotel, four apartment buildings totaling 108 units, a restaurant with outdoor seating, an ice cream parlor, a docking area for cruise ships and a marina with private and transient slips.

I think it sends a very clear message that the community wants this type of access and wants this type of development in Holland, said Mayor Nathan Bocks. Its very similar to what people in Grand Haven or South Haven or Saugatuck are able to enjoy.

He added, I think its going to be a transformational project for the city of Holland.

In order to fulfill the development, GDK would acquire a property owned by Verplank Dock Co. at 233 W. Eighth St. along with the citys adjacent 255 Kollen Park Drive property. Verplank operations would relocate to the nearby site of the defunct James De Young power plant, which GDK would acquire and use to swap properties with Verplank.

GDKs proposal for the waterfront was unveiled in February 2022. The city had vetted two other interested developers to submit their development proposals. However, those developers never submitted proposals.

The Holland City Council on Feb. 1 approved putting the measure on the ballot. Per the Holland City Charter, the city is unable to sell municipal properties with water frontage or those related to the Holland Board of Public Works without a three-fifths, or 60%, majority vote of approval by residents.

Even with the ballot measure approved, the project is not a done deal, Bocks said.

The community will have the opportunity now, moving forward, to continue to engage in this process, he said. Any plan will have to be approved by the planning commission, will have to be approved by the city council. It will have to go through the same planning process as any development, and there will be multiple opportunities for the public to be able to give their opinion.

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The Cumberland Valley School Board approved the start of three math curriculum pilots next year for multiple grades, a move that appeared to have some residents up in arms Monday night.

School board members Monday unanimously approved offering the Amplify Desmos Math, Great Minds Eureka Math, and Math Learning Center Bridges in Math for the 2023-24 school year.

The district is purchasing the Great Minds program for grades 1-8 at costs of $35,000 for materials and $7,000 for professional staff development. The Amplify and Math Learning Center pilots offer materials and professional development at no cost. The school board also authorized the district to initiate an Amplify ELA curriculum pilot for seventh-graders for the 2023-24 school year.

The curriculum committee has thoroughly vetted these programs, board member Barbara Geistwhite said. These three math pilots will address some of the deficiencies we have in our math programs.

George Coleman, of Silver Spring Township, was one of several residents who spoke against the districts pilots, saying math instruction involves facts and figures, not feelings.

Im sorry to hear that you passed the new math curriculum, he said during public comment. I taught math myself in schools at all levels for years while I was in Florida. Math is a truth and theres no arguments.

Amplify Desmos Math 6 A-1 for grade 6-8 involves Lessons that help students express their brilliance every day, according to its website, amplify.com. Students create dynamic and interactive learning experiences, offered alongside flexible and creative print activities.

The website says, Every student is brilliant, but not every student feels brilliant in math classparticularly students from historically excluded communities.

Great Minds Eureka Math, grades 1-8, is math without memorization, according to its website, greatminds.org. Students learn to think, strategize and solve difficulties ... not just get answers, according to Jill Diniz, Eureka Math chief academic officer.

The program also is said to offer a digital premodule assessment tool reputed to help teachers identify and remediate knowledge gaps so that all students can achieve their potential.

The Math Learning Center Bridges in Math, grades 1-8, equips teachers to fully address state standards in a rigorous, engaging and accessible manner, according to its website, mathlearningcenter.org. The multigrade curriculum comprises integrated components of Problems & Investigations, Work Places and Number Corner.

The program reportedly strives for students to gain a deep understanding of concepts, proficiency with key skills, and the ability to solve complex problems.

Superintendent David Christopher defended the districts decision to run the pilots next year, referring to Great Minds Eureka in his closing remarks Monday.

Were interested in attaining high (student) performance with these. Were not interested in socialization. The main thing Im worried about right now is maintaining a high quality educational program with all the growth this district is continuing to see, he said.

Also Monday, the board approved a secondary curriculum map involving a pre-calculus with trigonometry course for grades 9-12, and an algebra II/trigonometry course for grades 10-12.

Device policy

The board also conducted an initial review of a proposed policy governing student use of electronic devices.

The policy lists a proposed purpose of supporting a safe, educational environment in the district while also recognizing that electronic devices may provide a positive contribution when used for educational purposes.

The proposal would require the districts superintendent to develop administrative regulations for implementing the policy. Building principals would be authorized to determine the extent of electronic device use in their buildings and programs, on district property and/while attending school-sponsored activities in compliance with the superintendent and board policy.

The proposal also specifies that electronic device use may differ between elementary and secondary levels or between programs. Electronic device use would be prohibited in locker rooms, bathrooms, health suites and other changing areas.

Lastly, the proposal would prohibit taking, storing, disseminating, transferring, viewing or sharing of obscene, pornographic, lewd or otherwise illegal images or photographs through electronic transfer or other means including texts and emails.

A full draft of the proposed policy is attached to Mondays meeting agenda posted at www.cvschools.org. The school board is expected to further review the policy before final adoption.
OTTAWA COUNTY, MI  All Ottawa County school districts passed operating millages in Tuesday, May 2 special election, according to unofficial results from the Ottawa County Clerks Office.

The 18-mill non-homestead millage isnt levied on primary residences. The tax applies to second homes, businesses, commercial and rental property for the purpose of funding school operations.

Michigan public schools must ask voters to approve the 18-mill levy on non-homestead property to receive their full foundation allowance from the state.

Related: 4 Ottawa County school districts asking voters to renew tax millages

In Hudsonville, Ottawas largest district, voters passed renewals of both its operating millage and sinking fund millage.

The operating millage, which allows Hudsonville Public Schools to continue its current tax rate of 18 mills, passed with 3,759 votes to 2,441 votes. The millage will bring $6.83 million in revenue to the district this year.

The districts proposal to renew its building and site sinking fund millage that expired with the 2022 tax levy and restores millage lost as a result of a Headlee reduction also passed 3,397 to 2,803, according to unofficial results from the Ottawa County Clerks Office.

The funds will go toward building repairs and security upgrades. The request was for a levy not to exceed 1 mill ($1.00 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation) for a period of five years, 2023 to 2027. The estimated revenue expected this year is approximately $2.1 million.

Voters in the Zeeland Public Schools also approved an operating millage and a sinking fund millage.

The operating millage renewal for 2024 of the current tax levy rate of 18.7365 mill passed by a vote of 2,252 to 1,497. The estimated revenue the Zeeland will collect if the 18 mills are levied in 2024 is approximately $10,210,855. The current millage will expire with the 2023 tax levy.

Zeelands sinking fund millage passed by a vote of 2,740 to 1,019. The request was for the sinking fund l of 0.9802 mills be renewed and also be increased by .0198 mill ($0.0198 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation) for a total of 1 mill, for a period of 10 years, 2024 to 2033. The estimated revenue the district will collect if levied in 2024 is approximately $1,914,816.

West Ottawa Public Schools voters approved an operating millage renewal for 2023 by a vote of 4,460 to 1,903. The operating millage is a continuation of the 2022 tax levy rate of 18 mills. The district will collect approximately $16.6 million this year. The previous millage expired with the 2022 tax levy.

Grand Haven voters approved renewing the districts operating millage by a vote of 6,791 to 3,605, at its current rate of 18 mills for 2023, which means the district will collect an estimated $16.2 million if levied in 2023. The school districts $155 million bond proposal failed 5,514 to 5,039.

Related: Grand Haven schools $155 million bond proposal for new middle school defeated

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BARRY COUNTY, MI  Police released the name of a man killed in a crash Monday morning in Barry County.

John Lewis Fisk, 41, of Hastings died May 1 after a two-car crash around 10:20 a.m. on M-37 near Rork Road in Rutland Township, the Barry County Sheriffs Office said.

Related: 1 dead, 1 injured after collision in West Michigan

A 48-year-old Middleville woman was hospitalized with injuries that are not life-threatening, police said.

Fisk was driving a Chevrolet Malibu north on M-37 when he pulled onto the shoulder and tried to make a U-turn, police said. He pulled into the path of a Jeep, driven by the Middleville woman, police said.

The Jeep hit the Chevrolet on the drivers side and sent both vehicles into the ditch.

The crash is still under investigation.

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HOLLAND, MI -- A person assembling the Ferris wheel for the Tulip Time carnival was seriously injured in a ladder fall, police said.

The 27-year-old man was injured about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 3.
ALLEGAN COUNTY, MI -- After two previous failed attempts, a bond proposal from Hamilton Community Schools in Allegan on Tuesday was narrowly passed by voters.

By a vote of 1,614 to 1,541, or 51.2% to 48.8%, voters on Tuesday, May 2, approved the 30-year, $41 million bond proposal, according to the unofficial results from the Allegan County Clerks Office.

District officials previously said the bond will provide funds needed to address aging infrastructure and enhance security across the district.

The bond will increase the districts current debt tax rate by 2.17 mills, and also extende the overall tax rate through 2052, according to the district website. The owner of a home with a taxable value of $150,000 will pay about $325.50 in annual taxes.

In November 2021, voters rejected an 18-year, $21.6 million bond proposal from Hamilton Community Schools. The proposal failed by less than 200 votes, with a final vote tally of 1,476 to 1,279. In August 2020, a district bond proposal for $65.6 million over 26 years was voted down 2,990 to 1,840.

The latest bond will fund day-to-day operational essentials, district officials said, but also safety enhancements. The district also hopes to deconstruct the oldest wing at Hamilton Elementary School, which was built in the 1950s, and add an 8-classroom addition that will include spaces for special education and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

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HOLLAND, MI  Voters in the Holland Public Schools district on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved renewing a property tax to support operations of the Holland Aquatic Center.

By a vote of 4,711 to 1,479, or 76.1% to 23.9%, voters on Tuesday, May 2, passed a millage renewal of 1 mill for five years to support the aquatics and wellness facility at 550 Maple Ave, according to the unofficial results from the Ottawa County Clerks Office.

The millage, like the five-year, 1 mill millage approved by voters in May 2018 and May 2013, will support day-to-day operations at the center. It will raise an estimated $1.66 million in the first year the millage is levied.

For a home with a value of $200,000 and a taxable value of $100,000, the millage equates to about $100 in taxes a year. The renewed millage will expire in 2028.

The millage renewal is different from the 20-year, 1.25 mill tax approved by voters in May 2019 for a $26.3 million construction and renovation bond.

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JACKSON COUNTY, MI - Voters in several Jackson County school districts passed renewals of operating millages that ensure maximum state funding is secured, while one district didnt in Tuesdays special election.

Voters in the Hanover-Horton School District voted shot down the six-year renewal by a 500 to 575 margin Tuesday, May 2, denying the district its full 18-mill non-homestead operating millage, which was expected to generate approximately $1.39 million in funding in 2023.

The 18-mill non-homestead property tax came into being with the 1994 state passage of Proposal A, which changed the way Michigan schools are funded. By state law, a district must levy the full 18-mill non-homestead property tax to receive its maximum per-student funding from the state.

Non-homestead taxes do not apply to a persons primary residence. The tax applies only to commercial and industrial property and second homes.

While it is likely Hanover-Horton will bring the non-homestead millage back before voters on a future ballot to ensure it collects its full state funding, it is unclear how the failure of the millage renewal will impact the school districts 2022-23 budget.

Elsewhere in Jackson County, voters supported the renewal of a 1.5408-mill tax for special education programs by a 11,107 to 5,703 margin. The renewal lasts five years from 2024 to 2028 and helps educate students with a disability. It will generate an estimated $8.88 million when first levied in 2024.

The funds, administered by the Jackson County Intermediate School District, go to the countys public, parochial and charter schools. It was last renewed in 2017.

The special education millage has been placed on the ballot by the JCISD since 1997 and is typically renewed every five years. The state of Michigan dictates that only an intermediate school district can place this type of millage on the ballot on behalf of the local school districts and public school academies.

Overall, the millage covers about 73% of the funds that are not reimbursed by federal or state dollars for special education services, officials said.

Heres a look at the results from Jackson County:

Jackson County Intermediate School District special education millage renewal

YES: 11,107

NO: 5,703

Read more: Special education millage renewal on May ballot for Jackson County voters

Columbia School District operating millage

YES: 1,065

NO: 756

East Jackson Community Schools operating millage renewal

YES: 473

NO: 223

Hanover-Horton School District operating millage renewal

YES: 500

NO: 575

Napoleon Community Schools operating millage renewal

YES: 799

NO: 380

Western School District operating millage renewal

YES: 1,030

NO: 612

Marshall Public Schools sinking fund (Jackson County only, two precincts)

YES: 19

NO: 34

READ MORE:

Confusing school millages back on ballot after being rejected in November

Special education millage renewal on May ballot for Jackson County voters
KALAMAZOO, MI  A man was charged April 26 for rapes he allegedly committed as a student at Western Michigan University in 2013.

Caleb James Watson, 29, of Milford, was arraigned on four felony counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one felony count of assault with intent to commit penetration in Kalamazoo County District Court.
KALAMAZOO, MI  Eight years after opening the first Bobcat Bonnies in Detroits Corktown neighborhood, owner Matt Buskard is ready to open up his seventh and eighth locations in the state.

The first of the two new restaurants is to open this summer in Lansing, at a historic depot and train car at 637 E. Michigan Ave., which was the home to Claras Restaurant for years.

Once thats open, Buskard will put his attention on his second West Michigan location, at 225 N. Rose St. in downtown Kalamazoo.

Kalamazoos Bobcat Bonnies is scheduled to open this fall, Buskard said.

Known for a bright, stylish, welcoming atmosphere and being unapologetically who they are, Bobcat Bonnies prides itself on inclusivity and delicious American-style cuisine, Buskard said.

The fast-growing, owner-run restaurant chain  which also has plans to expand into Toledo, Ohio in 2024  is named after the grandmother of Buskards longtime partner, Joey Salamon.

Bonnie is a live person, down in Northeast Ohio, and she is true to what the concept is, Buskard said, telling the story of how he met his partners grandmother.

I think we all have apprehension when we meet our significant others family, he said. Ive never met anyones family member who was just so warm and accepting and just genuinely, OK, youre here, which just means you are also family. Theres no pretense, theres no judgement  its just, you are who you are and I love the fact youre here.

Incorporating the mentality to treat everybody with love and respect is key to building a stronger community, Buskard said.

Related: Michigans Best Local Eats: Bobcat Bonnies in Grand Rapids offer delicious food in fun, inviting environment

Its also been the key to building a successful brand. Bobcat Bonnies has spread from its Corktown roots to Ferndale, Wyandotte, Clinton Township, Grand Rapids and Ypsilanti, with three more spots on the horizon.

Each of those locations, Buskard said, has its own unique characteristics, but strives to capture the same feeling of inclusivity, fun and excitement.

The new 5,300 square-foot space in Kalamazoo used to house local architectural firm Intersect Studio. Buskard said the space has a bit of a mid-80s, early-90s glam look to it, and he doesnt intend to change much.

Design is Salamons specialty. He likes to incorporate the original style into each location, making each place feel special and different, his partner said.

When it comes to the food, the Bobcat Bonnies menu is consistent across all locations, but has specials unique to each city.

Bobcat Bonnies menu is filled with American-inspired dishes, ranging from its top-selling burgers to sandwiches, rice-based bowls, salads and entrees such as meatloaf, buffalo chicken mac and cheese, fish and chips, salmon pasta and more.

In addition to their burgers, theyve become known for their buffalo chicken nachos.

What has Buskard excited is the recent revamp of the Bobcat Bonnies Saturday and Sunday brunch menu. It now features fun items such as pancakes with various cereal toppings, like Capn Crunch and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Our brunch is insane, he said. Im telling you, Kalamazoo is not ready for our brunch. Nobody does brunch like we do.

The owner is also excited about a menu change that should happen right around when the Kalamazoo location opens. The change will put a stronger emphasis on higher quality, local, Michigan-made and house-made ingredients, he said.

The Kalamazoo location is hiring managerial positions, including general manager, assistant manager, kitchen manager and manager. Hourly positions are expected to be posted closer to the opening date, which is targeted mid- to late-fall.

All resumes should be emailed directly to matt@bobcatbonnies.com. For more information, visit bobcatbonnies.com.

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Want more Kalamazoo-area news? Bookmark the local Kalamazoo news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Kalamazoo daily newsletter.
UPDATE: The polls have closed. All unofficial results are in. Winners are marked in bold.

KALAMAZOO, MI -- The polls have closed for Kalamazoo Countys May election.

Voters hit the polls from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 2, to decide on three education millages and a special assessment for the Cooper Township fire department.

Here are the details on the four proposals:

The Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency is requesting a 1.5-mill renewal for its regional enhancement millage which will extend the millage rate for six years. Voters first passed the millage in 2005 and it was last renewed in 2020 for three years.

Climax-Scotts schools is asking voters to extend the current millage rate for a debt of 7.3 mills. The proposal would extend the millage rate longer in order to borrow $16.2 million for facility improvements in the district deferred from the bond voters passed in 2018.

Gull Lake Community Schools is asking voters to restore the districts non-homestead millage rate to 18 mills , from the current 17.7769 mills which was reduced due to rollbacks. The increase would not apply to primary homeowners, since its a non-homestead millage.

Cooper Township is asking for a township-wide special assessment to provide funding for the fire departments budget and capital improvements as the department extends to meet the needs of the growing township.

Check out the results for each proposal, below.

KRESA enhancement renewal

(82 of 82 precincts reporting)

Yes: 16,599

No: 12,008

Cooper Township fire department special assessment

(5 of 5 precincts reporting)

Yes: 643

No: 1,662

Climax-Scotts Community Schools bond

(5 of 5 precincts reporting)

Yes: 462

No: 404

Gull Lake Community Schools millage increase

(12 of 12 precincts reporting)

Yes: 1,387

No: 1,621

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SAGINAW, MI  A judge has determined a Saginaw man who stabbed his wife to death three years ago does not deserve a chance at parole.

On April 21, 52-year-old Lenard K. James pleaded guilty to open murder and carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent before visiting Saginaw County Circuit Judge James T. Borchard. Such a plea is unusual as open murder contains both first- and second-degree murder. While both degrees are life offenses, a first-degree conviction negates the possibility of parole, while a second-degree one allows for its possibility.

Typically, if a defendant pleads in a murder case, the degree to which theyre pleading is established at the plea hearing. By pleading to open murder, James left it for Borchard to hear witnesses testimony to determine which degree hed be sentenced under.

After presiding over such a hearing, Borchard on Tuesday, May 2, issued his ruling, finding James guilty of murder in the first-degree. This means James acted with premeditation when he killed his wife, 51-year-old Vernida L. Hicks.

When he pleaded, James said he armed himself with a knife and entered the rear compartment of his wifes car on April 20, 2020. A short while later, Hicks got in her car and began driving east on State Street through Saginaw Township.

James ended up repeatedly stabbing Hicks, who crashed her vehicle into a telephone pole in the 6200 block of State Street.

After Hicks crashed her vehicle, James fled to the Aldi supermarket at 6015 State St., where he attempted to hide evidence. Responding Saginaw Township police officers entered the store, found James in a restroom, and arrested him.

Hicks was taken to a local hospital, where she died from her wounds.

At his plea hearing, James initially said he did not mean to kill Hicks, then said he did mean to kill her while he was stabbing her.

While James sentence is now a foregone conclusion, he is to appear before Judge Borchard for it to be formally imposed at 2 p.m. on June 6.

Vernida Hicks graduated from Saginaw High School in 1987. Thereafter, she pursued a career in healthcare and worked for HealthSource Saginaw for 25 years.

In her spare time, she enjoyed shopping, listening to music and watching television, her obituary states. "

Hicks greatest joy was spending time with family, especially her only grandson.

Vernida was a beautiful woman inside and out, her obituary continues. She spent her life taking care of the needs of others. She has left us too soon, but she left us with a legacy of love, family and service, and we are grateful that God shared this gift with us for 51 years.

Read more:

Saginaw man pleads guilty to open murder in wifes 2020 stabbing death

Saginaw Township Police investigating womans car crash death as a homicide

Woman was stabbed several times after car crash in Saginaw Township, police say

Man charged with stabbing wife to death in Saginaw Township
First came the good news. After taking classes at a community college, Ricki Korba was admitted to California State University, Bakersfield, as a transfer student. But when she logged on to her student account, she got a gut punch: Most of her previous classes wouldnt count.

The university rejected most of her science classes, she was told, because they were deemed less rigorous than those at Bakersfield  even though some used the same textbooks. Several other courses were rejected because Korba exceeded a cap on how many credits can be transferred.

Now Korba, a chemistry and music major, is retaking classes she already passed once. It will add a year to her studies, plus at least $20,000 in tuition and fees.

It just feels like a waste of time, said Korba, 23, of Sonora, California. I thought I was supposed to be going to a CSU and starting hard classes and doing a bunch of cool labs.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of students start at community colleges hoping to transfer to a university later. Its advertised as a cheaper path to a bachelors degree, an education hack in a world of ever-rising tuition costs.

Yet the reality is rarely that simple. For some students, the transfer process becomes a maze so confusing it derails their college plans.

Among nearly 1 million students who started at a community college in 2016, just one in seven earned a bachelors degree within six years, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse.

One of the biggest obstacles is known as credit loss: when students take classes that never end up counting toward a degree.

Sometimes its a result of poor advising. Without clear guidance from community colleges, students take courses they dont need. Blame can also lie with four-year colleges, which have varying rules for evaluating transfer credits. Some are pickier than others.

The outcome, however, is often the same. Students take longer to finish their degrees, costing more in tuition. For many, the extra work becomes too much to bear. Ultimately, roughly half of community college students drop out.

Its completely defeating for some students, said Jessie Ryan, vice president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, a research group. These systems have been designed to work for colleges and educators, but they havent been designed to work for students.

The search for solutions has yielded scattered success. In many states, colleges and universities have formed partnerships to make sure certain classes transfer. More than a dozen states have adopted common class numbering systems to create consistency across schools.

Still, problems remain frustratingly common.

A recent study at the City University of New York system found, among students who transferred from a community college to a bachelors program, nearly half lost at least some work. On average, those students lost the equivalent of almost a full semester.

The pipeline from community college to a bachelors degree is a very leaky pipeline, said Alexandra Logue, one of the researchers and a former provost at the CUNY system. The outcomes are worst among Black, Hispanic and low-income students, who are more likely to start at community colleges, she said.

Korba thought she was taking the right classes at Columbia College, a community college in Sonora. She worked with a counselor and used an online catalog showing which courses were supposed to transfer to CSU schools.

But when officials at Bakersfield reviewed the transcript, they said most of her classes wouldnt count toward her major.

University officials declined to comment on Korbas case, but said a small number of transfer credits can fall into a gray area and require extra review. Dwayne Cantrell, Bakersfields chief enrollment officer, said credit loss is rare and many classes from California community colleges are accepted automatically.

Facing an extra year of school, Korba likely will run out of financial aid before she graduates. Shes making plans to go part-time in school and work longer hours so she can afford tuition and rent. But she wonders how long she can juggle it all.

I worry how much more interested Ill be in school than just focusing on getting money from a job, she said.

Stories like Korbas arent uncommon, especially in California, which has long struggled to connect its 116 community colleges to more than 30 public universities.

Mea Montanez will graduate from San Francisco State University in May, but only after retaking nearly a years worth of classes she already passed at a community college. The school didnt accept her classes in psychology, her major, because they werent considered a match.

Im taking the classes and Im like, This is exactly what I took, said Montanez, 34. If anything, it was much more challenging at the community college level.

University officials said classes can look the same on paper, but the details of whats taught dont always line up. Still, they acknowledged room for improvement.

Credit loss happens, but its something weve been working hard on for a long time, said Lori Beth Way, dean of undergraduate education at SFSU.

When students transfer to any school, their transcripts are often reviewed by faculty. For instance, biology professors would decide whether a biology class from another school should count.

But those judgments can be colored by stigma  some faculty look down at community colleges  and financial incentives, Logue of CUNY said.

Refusing credits, she said, means students must take more classes at their own school. Faculty also sometimes hold a higher standard for accepting a class toward a major than just accepting it as a general requirement.

Thats money, and it keeps peoples jobs, she said. But its a very short-sighted viewpoint.

Some states have intervened to take subjectivity out of the process. Under a new Maryland rule, a class must be accepted if it shares 70% of the learning objectives with a comparable class. If credits are denied, students and community colleges must receive an explanation.

California made strides with a 2010 law requiring community colleges to offer special associate degrees guaranteeing admission to a CSU campus. A 2021 law will put all eligible students on that track unless they opt out, and create a set of general education classes that must be accepted at all state universities.

Two Virginia colleges have gone further. From their first day on campus, students at Northern Virginia Community College are offered a direct path to a bachelors at nearby George Mason University. Students receive dual admission at both schools and they can choose from 87 academic pathways telling them exactly which classes they need.

Known as Advance, the program is designed to minimize credit loss and increase graduation rates. George Mason is working on expanding the model to other community colleges.

Students understand from Day One what they are required to take, said Jason Dodge, director of the program. They know the rug is not going to slip out from under them along the way.
SAGINAW, MI  Arrested and tased by police during a protest against police brutality, a Saginaw activist has filed a federal lawsuit against the officers involved, their fraternal lodge, and Saginaw itself.

Cornelius E. Neil Phelps III, 30, on May 1 filed his suit in U.S. District Court in Bay City, naming as defendants the city of Saginaw, Saginaw Police Department officers Vincent Jackson, Terrance Moore, Desirae Kzinowek, and Detective Sgt. Oscar Lopez and Fraternal Order of Police Associates Ray Janni Lodge Inc.

Detroit attorneys Jack W. Schulz and Hugh M. Buck Davis filed the suit on Phelps behalf.

Phelps is seeking damages exceeding $75,000.

The pursuit of equal justice under law for Black citizens in America has a long, storied past, Schulz wrote. The demonstration at issue in this lawsuit, for which (Phelps) was excessively beaten, tazed, jailed, and prosecuted, was an attempt to address systemic excessive force and brutality by law enforcement, including within the City of Saginaw.

Schulz outlined four incidents of Saginaw police officers killing men in recent years  the April 2012 tasing of Bobby Merrill; the killing of mentally ill Milton Hall, shot 11 times in Riverview Plaza in July 2012; the shooting of Farhad Fred Jabbari following a Saginaw Township police traffic stop in July 2017; and the February 2020 shooting of Zane G. Blaisdell within his home.

The suit states that on the afternoon of July 26, 2020, Phelps and others under the moniker The Ghost of George Floyd organized a demonstration on public property adjacent to the FOP Lodge at 1120 S. Niagara St. They sought policy changes within the Saginaw PD, including making excessive force grounds for immediate termination and the prohibition of use of force to a persons neck.

Prior to this, Phelps and others would demonstrate in front of the Saginaw PD headquarters, holding signs and putting up tables so officials could speak with them.

Phelps organized the July 26 demonstration in part after Saginaw Police Officer Adam Collier twice punched a handcuffed Black woman in his custody. Collier was fired following an internal investigation, with Schulz alleging numerous officers called off work as a show of solidarity, what Schulz described as a blue flu.

After Colliers firing, Saginaw County Sheriffs deputies and Michigan State Police troopers were asked by Saginaw Police Chief Robert M. Ruth to assist with patrols due to sudden personnel shortages.

The suit alleges that Officer Jackson contacted Sgt. Lopez, the FOPs president, and notified him of Phelps demonstration near the lodge. Lopez told Jackson the protesters were not welcome.

As Phelps and others were setting up a table, officers Jackson, Kzinowek, and Moore approached them and told them they were trespassing. Phelps replied by saying they were on public property, not the lodges.

Jackson and Kzinowek eventually took Phelps to the ground, with Jackson then striking him three to four times with his knee, Schulz wrote. As the grappling continued, Moore three times stunned Phelps with a Taser.

Video of the incident was posted on The Ghost of George Floyds Facebook page.

Officers arrested Phelps and took him to a hospital for treatment of injuries, including bruises and contusions. Phelps was then lodged in the Saginaw County Jail overnight.

The officers targeted (Phelps) explicitly because they identified him as a protest leader and organizer, Schulz wrote. At no time during the demonstration did (Phelps) act violently or pose any danger whatsoever to SPD officers.

Phelps was released from the jail the following day amid a large protest outside the Saginaw County Governmental Center.

In the suit, Schulz alleges the officers actions against Phelps were retaliatory for him exercising his First Amendment rights to call for law enforcement accountability. The city itself has failed to train its officers in constitutional responses to peaceful demonstrations, he added.

The suit contains the following eight counts:

 Violation of civil rights under the First Amendment

 Excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment

 Arrest without probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment

 Two counts of malicious prosecution in violation of the Fourth Amendment

 Conspiracy to violate civil rights

 Municipal liabilitydeliberate indifference to unconstitutional customs, policies, and practices by systematic failure to hire, train, supervise, monitor, investigate, report, and discipline officers in violation of the Fourth and 14th amendments

 Assault and battery

City attorneys later charged Phelps with misdemeanor trespassing, while the Saginaw County Prosecutors Office charged him with two counts of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police, a two-year felony. A jury in February 2023, after less than an hour of deliberations, acquitted Phelps on the trespassing charge, though the two felony counts remain pending.

Phelps is represented by attorney Joseph A. Albosta in his criminal matters. As part of his defense in the trespassing trial, Albosta hired D&M Site Inc. to conduct surveys on the disputed land to ascertain if Phelps was in fact trespassing. Based on their findings and testimony from officers that Phelps was two to three feet off the FOPs parking lot when they asked him to leave, the jury concluded he had not been trespassing.

Albosta has filed a motion to dismiss the outstanding felony charges, with a hearing scheduled for June 12.

Phelps treatment is objectively egregious and a complete failure by the police to allow our public spaces to be utilized for free speech and assembly, Schulz said. By all impressions, Phelps continued prosecution, in light of his clear innocence, is retaliatory for questioning police abuse.

Schulz, who graduated from Arthur Hill High School, has represented Black Lives Matter protesters during 2020 protests in Detroit. He successfully obtained a federal restraining order preventing the Detroit Police Department from using violent tactics against peaceful protesters.

Attorney Davis, Schulzs co-counsel, represented the estate of Milton Hall in a wrongful death suit against Saginaw and nine officers, which settled for $725,000 in March 2014.

Read more:

Saginaw activist found not guilty of trespassing on Fraternal Order of Police property during protest

Ex-Saginaw police who punched handcuffed woman sentenced to community service, anger management

Milton Hall death: Mother agrees to $725,000 settlement in Saginaw police shooting
SAGINAW TWP, MI-- After community outcry, both in support and opposition of a $242.9 million bond proposal for Saginaw Township Community Schools, the voters have chosen to reject the measure to improve school buildings.

The measure failed in the May 2 special election with 8,671 residents voting no and 2,540 voting yes.

Related: Saginaw Township Community Schools votes to put $243M bond proposal on May ballot

The proposal had been designed to improve areas needing attention by the district that would have exceeded the scope and funds of its sinking fund.

The numbers are unofficial until certified by the Saginaw County Clerk.

More information on this ballot measure will be provided as it becomes available.

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BAY CITY, MI - An Iosco County man recently felt truly under the weather. At first, Greg Adamiak thought he had pneumonia but something just wasnt quite right. Something sinister was lurking in his lungs and making it hard for him to breathe.

I got short of breath one day and I would drink some water and it would go away, Adamiak said. And I was like hmm, well, I couldnt figure out what the heck it was.

Adamiak said the real trouble happened when he went to bed one night. He woke up to go the bathroom and thats when the trouble really started. He could not breathe.

His daughter took him to the St. Joseph Emergency Room in Tawas where the staff ran some tests, discovering that he did not have pneumonia at all. That difficulty breathing was caused by blood clots, or a pulmonary embolism, that had made it to his lungs.

Adamiak was then immediately transferred to McLaren Bay Region. After a bumpy ride down U.S. 23 to Bay City in the back of an ambulance, Adamiak met Dr. Nicolas Mouawad, the hospitals chief vascular/endovascular surgeon, and his team.

It was under the care of Dr. Mouawad that he received a novel procedure that has grown in popularity around the country to treat blood clots called a pulmonary percutaneous thrombectomy.

In a nutshell, this procedure involves the insertion of a catheter into the veins to break up and pull out the clots.

With the reassurance of Mouawad, Adamiak underwent the procedure at McLaren despite a little hesitancy.

Like night and day, Adamiak was instantly feeling better and back up on his feet after a brief recovery period.

I woke up after surgery like nothing ever happened, he said, It was unbelievable where you go from just not being able to breathe and then waking up and going, wow.

Changing times

When Mouawad was training in his field, he said that there really was no treatment for pulmonary embolism other than prescribing blood thinners. That has since changed thanks to some aggressive medical developments, he said.

The percutaneous thrombectomy is one of those new developments, something that Mouawad has embraced in his practice.

Its an IV you place in the groin, just like they draw blood from your arm for a blood draw, you put an IV in the groin, he said. And through that, we advance a device through the body to the heart and to the lungs, at which point it basically sucks out or removes as much of the clot as possible.

This type of lifesaving procedure is opening the door for rapid and successful treatment of certain patients. Patients feel immediately better when the procedure is finished, just like Adamiak experienced.

Right then and there you can tell if the patients doing better, and there are changes in their blood pressure, changes in the heart rate, changes in what we call their vital signs, said Mouawad. You can see that essentially immediately.

Mouawad cautioned that the procedure is not a one-size-fits-all solution. The procedure is used for patients that fit a specific set of criteria. Most clots dont require the procedure, Mouawad said, but those that do are normally causing excessive strain on the heart.

While not everyone in the medical profession is on board with it quite yet, Mouawad embraced this new technology. He emphasized that it is FDA-approved and that it is not an experimental technology.

For those of us who do it, we believe strongly because we see, we see the results, we see this on the patients that we take care of, he said.

I did a critical assessment of the devices, he added. I wanted to make sure that they were more effective and, more important than them being effective, I wanted to make sure that they were safe. Because the last thing we want to do is more procedures, thats not the goal here. The goal is to be able to show an outcome and show a beneficial outcome to the patient.

Mouawad and his team at McLaren Bay Region perform on average about one of these procedures a week, he said. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mouawad and others saw a surge in these procedures.

It got in favor a lot more during COVID because COVID in of itself causes blood clots, he said. So we saw a dramatic increase in blood clots both in the legs and in the lungs during COVID.

McLaren Bay Region has a 24/7 team that is trained and available to deal with pulmonary embolisms and these kinds of procedures.

For us, were really able to take care of our community, Mouawad said. These are things that are pretty complex and we do them successfully locally and that was not the case previously, so I think being able to offer these live-saving treatments is great.

Pulmonary embolism awareness

Pulmonary embolisms can be fatal. According to information provided by Mouawad, pulmonary embolisms are the third leading cause of cardiovascular death in the U.S. after heart attacks and stroke, resulting in over 100,000 deaths annually.

Common symptoms are chest pain, shortness of breath, cough or a blood cough, irregular heartbeat, and lightheadedness, said Mouawad.

The risk of clots increases for those who are not active. He said that he has seen it in people that are on long-haul car rides or travel where they have not been able to stretch.

If youre not active, that can cause swelling in your legs and ultimately cause you to have shortness of breath and chest pain, he said.

As someone who went through it, Adamiak gave the following advice to someone who is feeling off like he was.

When you can feel yourself not being able to catch your breath, for Gods sake, go to the emergency room, he said. Thats a sign right there.

Click here to learn more about pulmonary embolisms.

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI  The suicide death of a Marquette teen led federal investigators to bust an international sextortion scheme that authorities said victimized more than 100 people across the United States.

Three Nigerian nationals are now facing charges and extradition for their alleged crimes.
Norwegian company Nel Hydrogen will build a $400 million gigafactory in Michigan to manufacture equipment that produces hydrogen fuel, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Wednesday.

Though the factory was described in a press release as automated, the investment will reportedly also create more than 500 good-paying clean energy manufacturing jobs.

A site for the factory has yet to be chosen by the company. Whitmer made the announcement in person at an investment conference in Maryland alongside Nel CEO Hakon Volldal and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the primary zero-emissions competitors to conventional electric vehicles, but the availability of hydrogen fuel is scarce in the U.S. and costs remain high  not to mention that nearly all hydrogen in the U.S. is produced from natural gas, largely negating the environmental benefits of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which emit only water and hot air.

Nels factory in Michigan, the release said, will instead be the first in the U.S. to produce electrolyzers, which use electrolysis to produce hydrogen from water. The release said the development conforms with Michigans desire to become carbon-neutral by 2050.

Related: Flint to trade last diesel buses in for hydrogen

Wooing hydrogen-centric industry to Michigan has been a long-term effort from Whitmer and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Whitmer traveled to Norway as part of a trade mission in January, where she met with Nel executives.

Earlier this year, I went on an economic mission to Europe to show the world what Michigan has to offer, and as a result of our efforts on the trip, we secured an investment from Nel, Whitmer said in a statement. She said Michigan was serious about leading hydrogen development.

What wasnt detailed, however, is what economic incentives the company expects to receive from state government for building the plant in the state.

The choice of Michigan is based on an overall assessment of what the state can offer in terms of financial incentives, access to a highly-skilled workforce and cooperation with universities, research institutions and strategic partners, Volldal said in the release. I will also highlight the personal engagement from Gov. Whitmer and her competent and service-minded team.

Giving tax breaks and direct payments to companies willing to establish themselves in Michigan has become an increasingly contentious issue among lawmakers, as more progressive Democrats have been increasingly vocal about their distaste toward a method of economic development that some have likened to a corporate handout.

Read more: Why Democrats joined Republicans opposing money for a controversial Big Rapids battery plant

Unlike for some other recent developments, the legislature may not need to send money to a state economic development account to reward Nel with incentives  Democrats in the legislature made automatic deposits into the account a part of their recent tax package.

Like EVs, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles use electricity and batteries to drive electric motors. But instead of charging large lithium-ion batteries on the electric grid, Hydrogen-powered vehicles draw on pressurized hygrogen and oxygen to generate electricity and power the vehicle.

And unlike EVs, fuel cell vehicles can quickly refuel their hydrogen tanks in a manner not unlike conventional gas stations.

The U.S. Department of Energys Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Office is in the process of selecting six to 10 hydrogen hubs, according to the release, and Michigan is in conversations and actively competing for this opportunity.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who was Michigans governor from 2003 through 2010, praised the development as  further proof that President (Joe) Bidens investing in America agenda is working, helping increase our energy security while bringing large scale manufacturing back to our shores.

For nearly two decades, DOE has advanced the technology at the heart of Nel Hydrogen, she said in a statement. We are proud to see the impact in manufacturing, job creation and clean energy on the grid with products stamped Made in the U.S.A., and in this case, Made in Michigan.

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Former President Donald Trump is set to return to Michigan for a GOP event in Oakland County this summer.

The Oakland County Republican Party announced in a Facebook post Wednesday, May 3 that Trump will be the keynote speaker of its dinner celebrating President Abraham Lincoln on June 25.

...this will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear directly from one of the most influential figures in modern American politics, the post reads. President Trumps unparalleled leadership, unwavering dedication to conservative values, and relentless pursuit of American greatness have left an indelible mark on our country and the world.

Trump was last in Michigan in October 2022 to rally with the states top Republican candidates for the midterm elections.

His stop this summer will be his first Michigan visit since being indicted on charges stemming from an alleged campaign finance violation, in which Trumps former attorney says he was directed during the 2016 campaign to pay $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels for silence about a past affair with Trump.

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Gotion, the Chinese company building a electric vehicle battery plant in West Michigan, is delaying a step in the project to address controversy with locals.

Residents in Mecosta County and Republican officials around the state have accused the project of being a foreign foothold to meddle with American interests. Gotion, which is operating the plant through a wholly owned American subsidiary, denies that risk.

Read more: Hundreds rally at Michigan horse farm to oppose Gotion battery plant

The company is now temporarily delaying a rezoning application in Green Charter Township in order to focus entirely on getting this important project started, said Chuck Thelen, vice president of North American operations, in a statement Tuesday.

The township sits outside Big Rapids, a city of 9,000 people about an hour north of Grand Rapids that is also home to Ferris State University.

Temporarily delaying the rezoning application also gives us the time needed to continue to communicate with the local community and answer the many questions that have been raised, Thelen said. Were confident that when the facts are presented, we can effectively resolve these questions and show the tremendous benefit to the community.

The land for the manufacturing plant right next to US-131 is currently zoned for agricultural use, and the company wants it zoned for industrial use. That change, however, can come in the long-term, as it is not necessary to start construction.

Our decision will not affect our anticipated timetable, Thelen said, and Gotion will continue to work diligently with local residents, township and county officials, and other key stakeholders to ensure the projects success. Were excited to make Mecosta County our home.

Related: Why Democrats joined Republicans opposing money for a controversial Big Rapids battery plant

The project will invest $2.36 billion into the local region, the company claims, and create more than 2,000 jobs. Michigan awarded the project a $715 million incentive package that includes a 30-year tax break valued at $540 million and two grants totaling $175 million.

Among the first steps of starting work on the plant will be learning the findings of the federal governments CFIUS report, which reviews foreign investment and real estate transactions in the U.S.

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Fifteen minutes before the Marshall City Council meeting even started the fire marshal was called to play bouncer. The Calhoun County building was at capacity at 200 with people lining the walls. The line of roughly another hundred people double backed through the hallway.

Steadfast in their determination to be heard, Marshall residents hunkered down for what would turn into six hours of public comment on Monday, May 1, in response to the Ford battery plant slated to be built on farmland.

One by one public commenters, just outside of the meeting, tapped into a Facebook livestream by local cable news to keep tabs on the proceedings. Residents shared iPhone Airpods, held phones to their ears, propped up screens and even brought in laptops to listen in.

Neighbors tucked into corners and some even found a table and chairs in the back to have a robust debate about balancing economic development, environmental concerns and government transparency.

This was the overall sentiment of the crowd, although several local economic development groups, lawyers and business owners spoke in support of the Fords upcoming battery plant.

State and local representatives see the 1,900 acres in Marshall Township as a $3.5 billion investment in Michigans electrification future and a bump in Marshalls economy. Ultimately the board voted after 1:30 a.m. to move forward with zoning township land for industrial purposes, ushering in the Ford battery plant.

Despite continued support  and money  from local and state entities the mega site has sparked huge backlash in Marshall, a farm community with a population less than 7,000.

Residents who oppose the development are afraid of losing their historic agricultural heritage and feel a large industrial project is out of line with their small-town community.

Environmental concerns

For those who oppose the Ford Blue Oval project there are few silver linings, one though, is getting to know neighbors. Adjacent to the proposed site sits 11 houses along the Kalamazoo River.

Those neighbors have informally banded together to get answers from Ford and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation on the environmental impact of producing lithium-ion batteries. Their Squaw Creek neighborhood off A Drive North is about three miles south of the proposed industrial site.

Chris Bowman and his wife Melissa moved into their riverfront home six years ago to raise their three kids. They installed large windows, a patio, hot tub and pool to enjoy their view of the river. Bowman, 42, said he planned to retire there.

By 2026, their view will likely be the side of a battery plant, making all the reasons they bought the house feel futile.

The messed up thing about it is my tax money was used to buy land to give them. I screwed myself over, Bowman said.

Michigan has awarded the project $1.7 billion of incentives including a 15-year Renaissance Zone tax break valued at $774 million, $630 million from a supplemental budget bill for site prep work, a $120 million grant for land acquisition plus a $210 million grant given to Ford.

Bowman, a microbiologist at Pfizer, and his neighbors met with Ford and the MEDC about environmental concerns regarding the river and groundwater runoff from the plant. Many are still spooked by the Enbridge oil spill into the river in 2010.

[Companies] do their best, and I know they will, but mistakes always happen, Bowman said. Its a matter of when.

Neighbors asked for health and safety prevention and response plans.

The MEDC is following up on those requests, said Josh Hundt, Chief Projects Officer & Executive Vice President of Strategic Accounts. Hundt called the meetings an important example of the state connecting with the communities surrounding development sites.

Whats important for us is that we do continue to engage in as many ways as possible with the communities throughout the lifecycle of developing these sites, Hundt said.

Losing the agricultural roots

Five miles north of the mega site, across I-94, the Wright family bought 35 acres of historic farmland from the 1840s.

Liz Wright, 37, and her family moved across the state in 2020 when her husbands curriculum writing job went remote. The family was looking for more space for their three kids in elementary school. Despite living in a concrete jungle in Livonia they had success growing raspberries and wanted to start a fruit farm.

The family caught wind of major developments, including the 1,000-acre solar farm in the township, after they started attending local government meetings for their own zoning paperwork to split their acreage with nearby meat farmers.

It feels like industrial development is looming over them wherever they go in Michigan, Wright said. Its made them and the meat farmers leery of their future agricultural plans.

We have literally lost sleep over this, she said. They think this is a benefit to the communities and its going to bring families in. Its going to have the opposite effect. People do not want to live next to a factory.

Local government transparency

Marshall residents who oppose the project say the 2.5 million square-foot facility was presented to them as a done deal before they knew the details of Fords plans.

Although state and local government officials have repeatedly said the mega site has been zoned industrial for decades and the most recent township master plan approved in November noted the mega site on C Drive specifically, the process is not sitting right with the opposition.

City manager Derek Perry notes a public hearing is required for the master plan review but there was little participation from the public last year.

I get it, people are busy living their lives, he said.

Being a citizen requires you to be engaged with your community and part of that is making these major decisions and making sure that you agree with them. When those opportunities to show up and to vote on the land use plan  you need to be there. You need to be part of that because thats [what] we base our decisions on.

Although hes new to Marshall, Perry has been serving in local government for 25 years. The opposition to a major development did not surprise him, he said.

Perrys office overlooks Marshalls roundabout with its iconic Brooks Memorial Fountain. Three hours ahead of the council meeting there was a continuous stream of cars honking their horns at protesters holding signs that read stop the mega site.

One of those protesters was 69-year-old John Rothwell who feels the local government and economic groups are stonewalling and turning their backs on the public in favor of corporations. Hes among the vocal opposition who want a ballot referendum, but Perry said the process is too far along for that measure.

It feels like our government isnt working for the people, but for big business, Rothwell said. Whoever drops the most money on them is who they bend to.

More on MLive:

Ford battery plant greenlit after 6-hour public comment pushes vote past midnight

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Michigan assembling 1,000-acre mega sites to attract big investments

New Ford plant to pay workers average of $45,000
Nineteen Michigan hospitals received a lower safety grade this spring than they did last fall using criteria like how well their caregivers protect patients against preventable injuries.

Of the states 82 assessed hospitals, there were 22 that received an A for spring 2023, which was three fewer than fall 2022 and below the national average, according to data published Wednesday, May 3, by Leapfrog Group.

Similarly, 27 hospitals were given a B this time around, while 29 got a C and four received a D. Thats one less B, six more Cs and three more Ds than fall 2022.

The latest report cards were published by The Leapfrog Group on Wednesday. Leapfrog has put out hospital safety grades bi-annually in the spring and fall for more than a decade.

When patients have a choice, the hospital safety grades should be a first tool they use to select a hospital, said Katie Stewart, the groups director of health care ratings. You want to choose a hospital thats safe and putting safety first.

Related: Preventable infections rise within Michigan hospitals, per report

Grades are based on more than 30 measures, including how well hospitals protect patients from preventable medical errors, accidents, injuries, and infections. Hospitals are also evaluated against national averages for criteria like hospital leadership, staff communication, and efficient quantity of qualified nurses.

While 19 hospitals saw their score decline this spring, there were seven facilities that improved their score, and 56 that maintained their previous grade.

Below is an interactive map of Michigan. Hover over each colored dot to see the Michigan hospitals spring 2023 safety grades, according to The Leapfrog Group. Each hospital also includes a comparison of its last three years of grades, if available.

(Leapfrog does not grade military or Veterans Affairs hospitals, critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, childrens hospitals, or outpatient surgery centers.)

Cant see the map? Click here

Of Michigans 83 counties, 17 are home to at least one A graded hospital. The four counties with more than one A level hospital were Berrien, Oakland, Ottawa, and St. Clair.

Five hospitals have maintained an A grade for at least the last seven reports going back to spring 2020. They include:

Henry Ford Allegiance Health in Jackson

Lake Huron Medical Center in Port Huron

Spectrum Health United in Greenville

Spectrum Health Zeeland Community

University of Michigan Health in Ann Arbor

Going a step further, U-M Health in Ann Arbor is one of 20 hospitals in the nation to maintain an A safety grade since Leapfrog began handing out grades in 2012.

Sometimes patients dont have that choice, Stewart said. Maybe they dont have an A hospital in their area or they cant travel to one. In that case, its important to have that information and go to your providers and ask questions about what theyre doing and what you can do and how you and your family can take an active role in your care there.

Nine hospitals dropped from an A grade to a C over the last year. Those include Beaumont Dearborn, Dickinson Hospital - Iron Mountain, Munson Otsego Memorial, MyMichigan Medical Center (Alma, Midland and West Branch), Sparrow in Lansing, Trinity Health Ann Arbor, and University of Michigan Health West.

Meanwhile, there were four hospitals that received a D grade this year. They included Detroit Medical Center Sinai-Grace Hospital -- last years only D recipient -- as well as DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital, McLaren Flint, and McLaren Oakland.

Below is a searchable database of each hospitals last four years of safety grades, according to The Leapfrog Group. Type in the name of a hospital to see its latest results compared to previous years.

Cant see the database? Click here.

Nationally, about 29% of the nearly 3,000 hospitals received and A, while 26% received a B, 39% received a C, 6% received a D, and less than 1% received an F.

Throughout the country, Leapfrog noted declines in five patient experience measures compared to pre-pandemic years, including nurse communication, doctor communication, staff responsiveness, communication about medicine, and discharge information.

Data included in Leapfrogs analysis is reported annually by the health systems to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. For more detailed assessments of your local hospital, visit hospitalsafetygrade.org, select Michigan and pick a hospital.

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Gift from God. West Michigan freshman remembered after sudden death

Michigan AG sues couple who filled wetlands with sugar beet waste

Ford battery plant greenlit after 6-hour public comment pushes vote past midnight

Bus service to Chicago now available from Grand Rapids, Lansing
DOYLESTOWN  A man has been sentenced to death again following a retrial for the slaying of two people in a suburban Philadelphia apartment more than a decade ago.

Alfonso Sanchez, 41, was sentenced Wednesday by the same Bucks County jury that convicted him of first-degree murder Monday in the 2007 shooting deaths of 27-year-old Lisa Diaz and 22-year-old Mendez Thomas in Warminster, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Prosecutors said Sanchez killed the victims over money that he believed he was owed for cocaine. He was also convicted of attempting to orchestrate a plot while behind bars to have a witness killed to prevent her from testifying and will be sentenced later on that conviction and others.

Sanchez was also convicted in the double murder in 2008 but the appellate division of the district attorneys office found in a review of his appeal that prosecutors had failed to turn over lab reports of DNA testing that could have aided his defense.

Prosecutors said the death penalty was warranted because there were multiple victims, other people were endangered, and other felonies were involved related to drugs and also to burglary. Authorities said he had tricked his way into the apartment under the guise of buying marijuana.

District Attorney Matt Weintraub said he was ecstatic to be able to bring the case to a close for the family after they waited patiently for 16 years, the Inquirer reported. Defense attorneys, who had argued that a codefendant committed the murders, declined to comment beyond saying that they respected the jurys decision.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has called on state lawmakers to repeal the death penalty, and said he wont sign death warrants and will issue reprieves on scheduled executions, extending his predecessors policies. Since 1978, when capital punishment was reinstated in Pennsylvania, only three people who dropped appeals have been executed.
Abeiku Santana, the Ghanaian broadcaster, tourism Consultant, and Brand Strategist is among the notable and prominent figures at the Arabian Travel Market 2023, a significant event in the global tourism industry that brings together professionals, enthusiasts, and tourism boards worldwide under the theme "Working Towards Net Zero."

As the CEO of Kaya Tours, Abeiku Santana is a vocal advocate for promoting local tourism and cultural richness in Africa. He is renowned for his contribution to the tourism industry through his focus on experiential travel, offering customized itineraries that showcase local culture, food, and lifestyle and fostering sustainable tourism practices by collaborating with local communities.

Mr. Santana has been a trailblazer in using digital marketing and social media to promote tourism in Africa, attracting a new generation of travelers seeking unique and authentic experiences. His agency Kaya Tours Management Services has also launched a mobile application that makes the booking process more accessible and convenient for travelers.

At the Arabian Travel Market 2023, Mr. Abeiku Santana will share his expertise and insights on the challenges and opportunities facing the African tourism industry and advocate for investment and collaboration to promote the continent's tourism potential. By collaborating with international partners and showcasing Africa's unique offerings, Mr Santana is changing the narrative surrounding African tourism, making it attractive and viable for travelers worldwide.

Abeiku Santana's participation and leadership in this esteemed event highlight the importance of innovation, inspiration, and connection in the tourism industry. His vision for the future of tourism provides a blueprint for success and sustainability, and his presence at the Arabian Travel Market 2023 underscores his commitment to promoting African tourism on a global scale.
Nana Abena Korkor is back on social media after a 10-month hiatus from her casual activities on the internet.

The socialite and nudist got many of her fans worried after going incognito in July 2022, leaving many to question the state of her well-being.

As you may already know, the beautiful and curvaceous mental health advocate has a bipolar disorder that occasionally sends her on a 'careless ranting spree.'

Following her long absence from the public, many people thought she might have relapsed and was under supervision by close relatives to avoid another social media catastrophe.

But the good news is Abena Korkor is back and many people are excited to know she is doing well.

She announced her comeback on Instagram with a gorgeous photo of her with an emoji of thanksgiving and praise.

Watch the video below for the full gist.
By the middle of the 1950s, highlife music had become a genre in Eastern Nigeria and took a storm in the region and beyond. Soon after, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe, father of Okwuchukwu Osadebe (fondly called Okwy), became a renowned entertainer who appealed to his people and culture with a distinctive and entrancing musical wave.

His voice was audacious, captivating, provocative, and unusually fascinating. Thus, Chief Osadebe introduced a distinctive traditional folkloric sound of the River Niger waves accompanied by horns and rhythms driven by guitars. He incorporated powerful melody riffs from traditional music, infused each song with Igbo vernacular, and woven in local philosophical proverbs.

My father established a different pattern of Highlife different from what the pioneers had led on. I consider him a Nigerian Highlife revolutionary, an icon, said Okwy Osadebe, who is also leading a successful Highlife music career, to TheAfricanDream.net in April 2023.

Chief Osadebe was a conscious man and paid attention to what his music lovers wanted. That led him to create an ideal band and rhythm. In 1958, he launched his debut record and wrote more than 500 songs, of which 50 have been made available for sale.

Around 1964, Chief Osadebe launched his band, the Sound Makers, after brief periods with the Stephen Amache Band and the Central Dance Band.

A Highlife icon

Although Highlife originated in Ghana in the late 19th century, it extended throughout Eastern Nigeria even farther after the Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s. The performances, vocalisations, and messages infused with Eastern traditions and practices were what made this musical genre distinctive.

Its string of music had a recognisable bold bass lines and interpretive percussion that incorporates horn, guitar and saxophone components into its rich and engaging rhythms.

Chief Osadebe became one of the most well-known Igbo highlife artists over a career spanning more than four decades. His biggest hit was the song Osondi Owendi from 1984, which made him a highlife genre icon and one of Nigerias most renowned songs ever.

Sadly, he passed away in St. Marys Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut, on May 11, 2007, as a result of serious respiratory issues.

The rise of Okwy

Okwy rose from his fathers shadows into the new highlife frontiers, carrying on his late fathers musical legacy, about a decade after the icons demise. His music follows in his fathers pattern of mid-tempo highlife sound involving guitar strings and horns.

He was brought up with the music and has successfully carved an attraction for himself with his music followers. His colourful theatrical antics and costumes also gives him a stand out. Okwy is the eldest child of the late Highlife icon, Chief Osadebe, showing himself as a true protege, and a preserver of the familys legacy.

Okwys music give a sound that is thoughtful, compelling, and well-spoken. His live performances give audience hot goose bumps. The musician loves the legacy that his father has left behind and bases his beliefs and aspiration for humanity on them.

Cultural pride through music

The Igbo people of Nigeria have a rich cultural legacy, and Okwy is pleased to use his music to commemorate and promote this tradition. In his opinion, he is able to educate and inspire others through his music while also showcasing the elegance of his language, customs, and values.

As an Igbo man, I feel a strong sense of responsibility to preserve and promote our culture, which has been passed down from generation to generation. I believe that music is one of the most powerful ways to do this, as it has the ability to transcend language and cultural barriers, said Okwy to TheAfricanDream.net.

On stage, Okwy interprets and conveys his traditional highlife with a soulful voice and a contemporary upbeat sound. With an adventurous use of new age instrumentation and modulation, he has transformed his late fathers music from its vintage sound to a deluxe-metropolis sensation.

Every time I perform, I feel a sense of pride and fulfillment knowing that I am using my talents to promote something that is so important to me and my community. Through my music, I hope to create a greater appreciation for the beauty and richness of Igbo culture, both within our community and beyond, said Okwy.

With his music, Okwy is becoming a drawing global attention and is particular about singing on dignity for everyone. He is adored for his kind voice and rhythm, following his idol and fathers musical footsteps.

Okwy is striving to uphold and improve the rich musical tradition for a more global acceptance.

Source: Oral Ofori
Ghanaian reggae/dancehall artist Shatta Wale has announced a world tour to promote his latest album, "MAALI."

In a tweet, the self-proclaimed dancehall king revealed that he will be visiting 15 countries, including the USA, Brazil, Nigeria, and the UK.

The "MAALI" album was released on March 30 and has already gained massive success on various streaming charts.

Within just two days of its release, it hit the number one spot on the iTunes USA Reggae Top Albums Chart, beating legendary acts like Bob Marley and The Wailers' "Legend" album.

It also climbed up to the third spot on the iTunes Reggae Chart over the weekend.

The album has become the first by an African act to top the charts, and as of April 4, it has clocked 1 million streams on Audiomack.

Shatta Wale's achievement has been celebrated by his fans and the music industry as a whole, with many praising him for putting Africa on the global music map.

The announcement of his world tour is expected to further promote the album and showcase Shatta Wale's talent to a wider audience.

The tour will also serve as an opportunity for fans across the globe to experience the energetic and charismatic performer on stage.

Shatta Wale has been one of the most successful and influential artists in Ghana's music industry, with a career spanning over a decade.

He has won several awards and has collaborated with both local and international artists, including Beyonce on the song "Already" from her "Black is King" visual album.

The world tour for the "MAALI" album, which is yet to be scheduled will undoubtedly be a major milestone in Shatta Wale's career and a testament to his talent and hard work.
03.05.2023 LISTEN

The Central Regional Campaign Team for John Mahama congratulates the Central Regional Chairman of the NDC, Professor Richard Kofi Asiedu, for being honored by Azteca University, a Mexican state funded university, with a doctoral degree in recognition of his contribution to education in Ghana.

This is a well-deserved award worthy of celebrating.

Professor Richard Kofi Asiedu is an educational entrepreneur who has founded several schools, including the ever-growing and ever-popular St. Andrews SHS, which has branches all over the country.

The Azteca University awards Honorary Doctorate Degrees to individuals who have sufficient stature and recognition to ensure that the awarding of an honorary degree enhances the reputation of Azteca University. To be eligible for this award, the candidate's character and conduct should reflect the fundamental principles for which Azteca University was established. Usually, considerations are given to candidates who have achieved eminence in scholarship or rendered distinguished contributions in their fields of endeavors.

The Azteca University Honors committee in awarding Professor Richard Kofi Asiedu considered his years of educational entrepreneurial achievements, and his consistency in building the human resources base of the country that has resulted in thousands of the citizens of Ghana attaining excellence in their fields of endeavor.

We in the John Mahama Central Regional Campaign Team are proud to have Professor Richard Kofi Asiedu as our regional chairman and to be associated with his achievements.

Once again, congratulations, Chairman Professor Asiedu, for a well-deserved honor.

Nana Philip Archer

(Chairman for the John Mahama Central Regional Campaign Team).
You don't pay taxes  they take taxes  Chris Rock.

The Parliament of Ghana on the night of March 31, 2023 passed the Growth & Sustainability Levy bill, into law replacing the National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy Act, 2013 (Act 862).

Many Ghanaians woke up to the news on April Fools' Day. In fact, three new tax laws were passed that very night by Parliament.

The object of the Growth & Sustainability Levy Act 2023 (ACT 1095) is to raise revenue for the growth and fiscal sustainability of the economy and the Levy is payable in respect of profits before tax or production for the 2023 to 2025 years of tax assessment. It is worth noting that the levy is subject to review by the finance minister in 2025.

The government has estimated revenue of approximately Two billion, Two hundred and Sixteen Million Ghana Cedis (GHc2,216,000.00) from the levy for the year 2023 alone.

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic as well as the Russia-Ukraine war led to a significant reduction in revenue and increased the government's expenditure enormously.

This resulted in unprecedented global crises, depreciation in currencies, and impacted living conditions.

The government by way of maximizing revenue for a sustainable economy has imposed numerous tax policies since the year 2021 and the latest addition being the Growth and Sustainability Levy Act of 2023 replacing the National Fiscal Stabilization Levy (NFSL) Act.

The NFSL was a special levy on specified companies and institutions to raise revenue for fiscal stabilization of the economy and to provide for related matters.

Other additional tax laws passed by Parliament include the Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, which will impose a 20 percent tax on cigarettes and e-smoking devices, beverages, spirits, and wines, which is projected to rake in about GH400 million annually, and the Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2023, which will also generate about GH1.2 billion.

The government insists these three new tax laws are essential to its quest to secure the $3 billion bailout it is seeking from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Growth and Sustainability Levy Act

The Act imposes a Growth and Sustainability Levy of the percentage of the profit before tax or the gross production of certain companies and institutions specified in the Schedule to the Act.

It imposes a five percent (5%) of profit before tax levy rate on institutions under Category A including Banks, Non-Bank Financial Institutions, Insurance Companies, Telecommunication companies, Breweries, Oil Marketing Companies, Shipping Companies, and Electronic Money Issuers.

Category B institutions such as Mining Companies and Upstream oil and gas companies are to be charged One Percent (1%) of the gross production as tax.

Lastly, all other companies outside the two stated categories are to pay a levy of two point five percent (2.5%) of their profit before tax.

It is to be however noted that, the Levy payable under this Act is not an allowable deduction for the purpose of ascertaining the chargeable income of a person (natural or artificial) under the Income Tax Act, 2015. Profit taxes or other similar taxes are not deductible in determining the taxable income of corporate institutions.

The levy assessed for a year of assessment is payable quarterly and is due on the last day of the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth months of a calendar year.

The levy is to be collected by the Ghana Revenue Authority and paid into the Consolidated Fund per section 8 of the Act.

The Minister for Finance is empowered by the Act to make regulations to amend the schedule to the Act to revise the rate of the levy, categories of companies liable to pay and the companies liable to pay the levy.

Conclusion

Why are there taxes? The straightforward response is that, until someone comes up with a better solution, taxing is the only realistic way to raise money to pay for government expenditure on the products and services that the majority of us need.

A fine is a tax for doing something wrong but a tax is a fine for doing something right. Finding creative ways to create income and foster growth will continue to be a primary goal of the government as the nation navigates these difficult times.

Imposing new taxes like the Growth and Sustainability Levy may impact the economy favorably or unfavorably.

While it may bring in much-needed revenue for the government to fill budget gaps and satisfy requirements for loans or bailouts, it can also burden businesses and possibly cause their collapse.

Writer: Prince Kojo Tabiri

The Writer Is A Barrister And Solicitor Of The Supreme Court Of Ghana
Pro-independence forces won elections on France's Pacific territory of French Polynesia, giving them control of affairs on the archipelagos for the next five years and opening the way to a possible referendum on their status, according to results published Monday.

The Tavini Huiraatira party headed by the overseas territory's former leader Oscar Temaru won 44.3 percent of votes in the second round of polls Sunday and will have an absolute majority of 38 of the 57 seats in the regional assembly.

The party beat the outgoing autonomist president Edouard Fritch, credited with 38.5 percent of the vote (16 seats) as well as former autonomist vice-president Nuihau Laurey (17.1 percent of the votes and 3 seats), according to official results.

Tavini is now expected to nominate Moetai Brotherson to lead the regional government based in Papeete.

The result will allow the pro-independence forces to seek to push the French authorities to negotiate a referendum on the status of the territory located well to the northeast of New Zealand and with a population of some 280,000.

"We are not going to be independent tomorrow or next week," Brotherson told television channel TNTV. "I have no problem working with the (French) state and that will not change tomorrow."

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who is responsible for the overseas territories, said Polynesians "voted for change" and the French government recognised their "democratic choice".

Strategic position

But the result is a blow to the government of President Emmanuel Macron as it seeks to project France as a major power in the Pacific region due to its strategic overseas territories.

France has always refused a referendum on the status of French Polynesia. Independence has been repeatedly rejected in referendums on its other major Pacific territory of New Caledonia.

This is the first time the pro-independence forces will govern French Polynesia with an absolute majority, having on previous occasions been forced into fragile alliances.

French Polynesia is one of several French overseas territories that span the Caribbean and the Pacific and give Paris a global footprint unmatched by any other European nation.

The Polynesia vote came as controversy continues over an operation on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte to clear slums and stem illegal immigration.

(with AFP)
The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, has assured the public and civil society that all persons found culpable in the report on the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) will have necessary action taken against them.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) on Tuesday, May 2 broke silence on the report authored on Friday, March 19, 2021 by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, who chaired the Committee.

Prof Frimpong-Boateng cited government officials for complicity in the mass degradation of the countrys forest cover through illegal mining.

Among those he cited in his report was the deceased Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Osei Afriyie, popuarly known as Sir John, who was said to have owned a Chinese gang mining in forest reserves.

Calls were made for the Special Prosecutor to initiate investigations, especially on the persons including current government officials cited in the report.

The OSP welcomes the calls for action and investigations and it assures the public and civil society that its investigation is ongoing and far-reaching and it also covers the matters raised in the report published by the head of the dissolved IMCIM, Mr Agyebeng stated in a press release to give an update on illegal mining cases his office is pursuing.

The OSP will take necessary action against all persons deemed culpable of corruption and corruption-related offences in the mining sector.

He referred to an October, 2022 press release, which announced the Offices initial steps to probe suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in the illegal mining sector.

It, therefore, acknowledged the calls for action made on the matter following the publication of the Frimpong-Boateng report.

-3news.com
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) says the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war simply revealed Ghana's fragile economy and that the current economic crisis is self-inflicted.

It said irrespective of the enormous human and natural resources the country possessed it was sad to note that the IMF bailout has now become the lifeline for Ghana.

Mrs Phyllis Agyemang, the Eastern Regional Secretary of the TUC, said this in a speech read on behalf of the Secretary General, Dr Yaw Baah, during the May Day celebration in Koforidua, on the theme: Protecting Incomes and Pension in an Era of Economic Crisis: Our Responsibility.

Citations and 43-inch flat-screen Samsung television sets were presented to eight individuals from various unions and institutions in appreciation of their hard work.

Public and private sector workers who participated in the parade displayed placards with inscriptions such as; Dont mortgage our future, Corruption is the real evil, and Huge tax is killing us.

Mrs Agyemang attributed Ghanas quest for the IMF bailout almost every three years to management flaws in the economy.

Our history of engagements with the IMF provides ample evidence that the IMF-sponsored programmes and policies cannot change our economic circumstances. Another programme from the Fund will only impose more economic burdens on us, she said.

However, the Government could lead the country out of the economic challenges by cutting down on expenditure of non-essentials such as halting investment into the National Cathedral project.

Also the size of the Government must be reduced, while the Ghana Revenue Authority and all revenue collection agencies must be allowed to operate without political interference.

Mr Seth Acheampong, the Eastern Regional Minister, said apart from the IMF bailout, the Government was seeking help from private sector investors and key development partners for a quicker deal to improve the economy.

He said the Government had worked very hard to protect public sector workers during and post COVID-19 and ensured that salaries were paid on time.

Nonetheless, the private sector jobs had reduced according to a survey conducted by the Ghana Living Standard Survey Business Tracker in 2020, which showed that 41,952 workers were laid off, he said.

Also, 770,124 workers suffered reduced wages, he said, and assured of the Government's commitment to working tirelessly to bring the economy back on track.

The Government is doing its best to strike a delicate balance and we have to work together with labour unions and employers to attain this delicate balance, he said.

GNA
02.05.2023 LISTEN

The State has filed processes at the High Court to get the founder of the defunct Capital Bank, Mr. William Ato Essien, imprisoned for not making payments as part of his GH90 million restitution deal.

According to the state, Ato Essien who was supposed to pay GH20 million by April 28, 2023, has failed to make the payment.

In the application sighted by citinewsroom.com, the State Attorney makes the point that, William Ato Essien has failed to honour an agreement to pay the first installment out of the GHS 90 million restitution and reparation money after pleading guilty to the offences leveled against him.

The expiration of April 28, 2023, deadline is what is necessitating the States action.

Instead of facing an earlier jail sentence, Ato Essien, who pleaded guilty to accusations of causing financial loss to the state, was asked to refund GHS 90 million he confessed to having stolen after entering into a plea bargain with the state under Section 35 of the Courts Act.

As part of the agreement, he made a GHS 30 million deposit and was expected to pay the whole balance of GHS 60 million in three installments, the first of which was due on April 28.

The State had written to the Controller and Accountant Generals Department asking if the money had been paid by the respondent on the said date, however, it has emerged that, no such payment has been made.

Therefore, the State contends that Ato Essien having failed make the payment is liable to a custodial sentence.

Mr. Essien is standing trial together with the former Managing Director of the Bank, Rev. Fitzgerald Odonkor, and a former Managing Director of MC Management Service, Tetteh Nettey, also owned by Mr. Ato Essien.

Together, they were tried on 23 counts of criminality, including conspiracy to steal and stealing in connection with the collapse of Capital Bank in 2017.

They however pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintained their innocence all throughout the trial, with Mr. Ato Essien maintaining at all material moments that he had Board approval for all actions he took.

-citinewsroom
TechnipFMC has been awarded a large contract by ExxonMobil affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana, to supply the subsea production system for the Uaru project.

TechnipFMC will provide project management, engineering, and manufacturing to deliver the overall subsea production system. The award covers 44 subsea trees and associated tooling, as well as 12 manifolds and associated controls and tie-in equipment.

Jonathan Landes, President, Subsea at TechnipFMC, commented: We are very proud to continue our relationship with ExxonMobil Guyana through this award, which is our fifth within the Stabroek block. This is ExxonMobil Guyanas first project utilising our Subsea 2.0 system, which leverages our configure-to-order model to deliver on an accelerated schedule.

TechnipFMC currently employs more than 100 Guyanese, and expects to continue to hire and train additional local staff in support of this award.-TradeArabia News Service
Workers at a Pennsylvania chocolate factory smelled rotten eggs before a natural gas explosion that leveled one building, heavily damaged another and killed seven people, federal safety officials said Tuesday in a preliminary report.

The National Transportation Safety Boards five-paragraph account of the fatal explosion confirmed earlier reporting by the Associated Press and other media outlets that employees had detected an odor of natural gas at the R.M. Palmer Co. factory in West Reading, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

About 70 Palmer production workers and 35 office staff were working in two adjacent buildings at the time of the March 24 blast, according to the agencys report, and employees in both buildings told federal investigators theyd smelled gas.

Employees from Building 2 recalled that they were sanitizing equipment in the building when they detected an odor of natural gas. The employees in Building 1 recalled the smell of rotten eggs around the same time, the agencys report said. Natural gas is odorless, but a foul-smelling odorant called mercaptan is added to alert people to leaks.

Federal investigators said a natural gasfueled explosion and fire destroyed Building 2, caused significant damage to Building 1 and other structures, injured 11 people and displaced three families from a nearby apartment building.

The probe has been focused on a natural gas pipeline as safety investigators try to figure out the cause.

UGI Corp. provided natural gas to the factory complex via two mains. UGI said there wasnt any utility work going on in the area, and it detected no sudden surge in gas usage before the explosion, the report said.

Workers at the plant have accused R.M. Palmer of ignoring warnings of a natural gas leak, saying the plant should have been evacuated.

Patricia Borges, who survived the explosion, previously told the AP how she and others had complained about a natural gas odor about 30 minutes before the factory blew up. Borgess arm caught fire as flames engulfed the building. She then fell through the floor into a vat of liquid chocolate.

A wrongful-death lawsuit filed last month by the family of blast victim Judith Judy Lopez-Moran,55, a mother of three, said Palmer bore responsibility for the explosion. Workers smelled natural gas that day and notified Palmer, but the 75-year-old company did nothing, the lawsuit said.

Palmer has offered condolences, but has said it cant comment on the explosion or any allegations that may be made in litigation, citing the ongoing federal probe.

Our employees safety and health has always been, and will continue to be, of paramount importance, Palmer said in a written statement Tuesday, echoing comments the company made April 13 in its last public statement on the blast.
Outgoing Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah is expected to commission an ultra-modern High Court on Thursday at Dambai in the Oti Regional capital, as part of the judicial reforms to promote effective justice delivery in the region.

The ancillary facilities are the registrars office, information and Communication technology (ICT) room, bailiffs and docket rooms, residential apartment for the judge and a standby generator for uninterrupted power supply.

Mr Joshua Gmayenaam Makubu, the Oti Regional Minister disclosed this during the swearing in of Mr Bernard Aboakogya Mensah, newly elected Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Krachi East Municipality.

Mr Makubu said after the commissioning of the High court in Dambai, the Chief Justice Anin-Yeboah would proceed to Biakoye constituency, where he would commission a District Court.

He commended the Chief Justice for spearheading judicial reforms to promote effective justice delivery in the Oti Region.

He praised the Chief Justice for his effort towards completing the project on schedule and urged traditional authorities, religion organizations, stakeholders and the entire region to seek redress of their cases in the court than resort to taking the law into their hands to cause mayhem.

Some residents in Dambai, expressed their gratitude to the Chief Justice for the monumental facility and bringing the courts closer to them.

GNA
With support from German Cooperation, 74 Ghanaian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have benefited from the International Labour Organizations (ILO) Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) training programme.

The aim was to increase SMEs productivity and resource efficiency, thereby creating jobs and improving working conditions.

The training programme, which began in August 2022, climaxed on Monday, May 2, with a certification ceremony to mark the official closure of the programme in Accra.

The SCORE training programme was implemented by the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), a sub-vented agency under the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), within the framework of the Special Initiative "Decent Work for a Just Transition", which also operates under the brand Invest for Jobs.

In 2021, GIZ Ghana, under the Invest for Jobs programme, signed a first grant agreement with the MDPI to train 90 SMEs in the SCORE programme.

This years project closure and certification ceremony celebrated the successful second cooperation project between MDPI and Invest for Jobs for the SCORE programme implementation, which trained 74 additional SMEs and extended the training measure to two new regions (Ashanti and Eastern).

Speaking at the event, the Team Leader of Invest for Jobs, Mr. John Duti, stated that there is a clear paradigm shift towards environmental sustainability, green economy, green growth, and green jobs. This green agenda is heavily embedded in the core message of the SCORE programme: improving productivity through resource efficiency and cleaner production.

Mr. Duti further expressed his expectations of the SMEs to leverage the knowledge received to boost their productivity and contribute significantly to the growth of the country as they serve as the backbone of Ghanas economy.

I expect that this programme will have a long-lasting impact on your productivity, and very soon, we will count several jobs created and improvements in the livelihoods of your employees, he said.

John Duti further expressed satisfaction to the impact of the programme and indicated that efforts will be made for it to continue.

I think that being the second time that we are doing this and hearing the successes chalks then there is no reason why we shouldnt communicate with our ministry to give us more money to upscale.

I always say that without SMEs there is no Ghana. They need to be supported and I believe we are doing the right thing, Mr. Duti stressed.

Engaging journalists on the sidelines of the programme, the Acting Director General of MDPI, Madam Bernice Adjei was full of praise for the German government for seeing to the success of the SCORE programme.

She appealed for continuous support for SMEs in the country, adding that they are crucial to the development of the country.

We need to train all SMEs because they make up the majority of our industries and without them, we cant move forward. And so I think the SCORE Initiative is one of the best in the country so far. With the testimonies so far Im just impressed.

Young people coming up must be encouraged to go into industrial farming. We thank the German Ministry through GIZ. They have been supportive and we hope that we move forward together so that we achieve more, Madam Bernice Agyei shared.

Reaction from participants:

On the other hand, the SMEs expressed their appreciation to the German government for the training programme and highlighted some of the impacts it has started to have on their businesses:

"For me, the 5S Model (sort; set in order; scrub/shine; standardise; and sustain) was the most interesting aspect of the training. I even transferred what I learned for my business to my personal life, and I see tremendous improvements," said Diana Akwaboa Bosompem, Founder and Chief Executive of cosmetic company 360 Naturals.

In a presentation, Sanni Mohammed, CEO of Unique Solution Farms demonstrated how the SCORE programme has helped his company to scale.

He said after the programme, his company has been able to develop a human resource policy and quality policy for the enterprise

Thanks to SCORE, Sanni Mohammed noted: We have been able to increase productivity and employment and we are very grateful to the Programme.

More about SCORE:

SCORE is a global programme that seeks to improve workplace organisation, cooperation, and safety in SMEs and promotes resource-efficient and cleaner production.

The training combines practical classroom sessions with in-factory consulting and demonstrates the best international practises in the manufacturing and service sectors.

This ultimately leads to the growth of enterprises, job creation and economic development.
Amnesty International on Tuesday said Burkina Faso's army was responsible for a village massacre last month, putting the death toll at 147, more than double the official figure.

Armed men in military uniform slaughtered residents of Karma village in the jihadist-hit Sahel nation's volatile north on April 20.

A local prosecutor said around 60 people were killed, while a Burkinabe human rights group reported 136 deaths, adding that the attackers also killed a further 11 people nearby on the same day.

Amnesty said Burkinabe soldiers entered Karma in the morning, gathered the villagers, collected their identity documents and shot them "at point-blank range", killing "at least 147 people", including 45 children.

Amnesty said accounts from the survivors it interviewed pointed to the third battalion of the army's Rapid Intervention Brigade.

"These people were dressed in black uniforms, others in greenish combat fatigues. Some had helmets, others wore balaclavas, and they were on several pick-up trucks and motorcycles," one survivor said.

Another accused the Burkinabe army of the massacre, saying he saved his life by covering himself with the blood of corpses.

Residents of the nearby town of Ouahigouya also said they saw the battalion pass through towards Karma and return on April 23 before heading to the capital Ouagadougou, Amnesty said.

Burkina's military government on Thursday broke its silence on the Karma killings, issuing a statement condemning "barbaric acts". An investigation has been opened by a local prosecutor.

"This investigation must be carried out impartially and independently so that the perpetrators of war crimes and other serious violations" face justice, said Samira Daoud, Amnesty's regional director for West and Central Africa.

Burkina Faso's armed forces face an Islamist insurgency by groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group who swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

More than 10,000 civilians and members of the security forces have died, according to an NGO estimate, while at least two million people have fled their homes. At least a third of the country lies outside government control.
The Centre for Development and Policy Advocacy (CEDEPA), a non-governmental organisation based in Tamale has in partnership with the Safe Child Advocacy (SCA), an NGO based in Kumasi organised a one-day training workshop for Child Rights Protection Committees (CPCs) in three communities in the Northern Region of Ghana.

The training workshop forms part of a series of activities to commemorate the International Day for Street Children, which falls on the 12th of April, every year. It was organised with financial support from Adamfo Ghana.

The CPCs were set up in April 2022 as part of the implementation of the Child Rights and Equal Opportunities Project in three communities in the Northern Region, namely, Zangbalun in the Kumbungu District, Gbrimani in the Tolon District and Kotingli in the Tamale South District.

The work of the Committees includes sensitizing community members on child rights, and the dangers of Kayayei migration, child labour, school dropout as well as early and forced marriages.

The resource person for the training, Mr. Ziblim Alhassan said the socio-cultural context in which child rights abuses occur are extremely sensitive, and it was therefore necessary that those working on child rights protection are regularly equipped with the requisite skills and expertise to handle such cases, in order that their work does not inadvertently put children into conflict with the very families and communities that are supposed to be protecting them.

The capacity strengthening workshop focused on the early detection and proper management of cases of child rights abuses in the communities, and also, how to develop indicators to monitor and evaluate compliance to, or violation of child rights at the household and community levels.
Former President, John Dramani Mahama has accused the ruling New Patriotic Party (NDC) of always destabilising the country.

His comment follows the conflict in Bawku and the alleged military killings of people including women in the area.

Addressing delegates from Bawku central and Binduri constituencies who gathered at the Binduri in the Upper East Region on Tuesday, May 2, John Dramani Mahama said Ghana is always peaceful when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is in power.

According to him, same cannot be said about the NPP indicating that whenever the ruling party is in power, there is chaos everywhere particularly Bawku.

Anytime the NPP comes into office all these security issues boil up again. When NDC is in office we live in peace. As soon as they come they will destabilize everything.

So now look at what is happening, killing! And I wish to condemn the killing of innocent citizens by our military. Our military is supposed to protect us. We pay taxes to give them those weapons and they are supposed to use those weapons to protect us not to kill us, the flagbearer hopeful of the NDC said.

John Dramani Mahama assured the people of Bawku that the next NDC government will restore peace to troubling Bawku.

He added the military killings of innocent persons would be investigated to punish culprits and ensure families are compensated for their loss.

He admonished all feuding factions to let go of their issues and live together in peace.

When we come we will like to find out what caused the death of those people. We must make sure that their families are adequately compensated for their wrongful deaths. My appeal to all factions, Bawku and surrounding towns are very important commercial centre and generate a lot of economic activities. When there is insecurity there is no progress.

Lets let peace prevail. When the NDC comes we will do everything to ensure that there is peace in Bawku. We have done it before and we will do it again, John Dramani Mahama indicated.

The former president started his campaign tour in the Upper East Region on Monday morning from Nabdam. He later engaged party followers at Zebilla, Binduri, Bawku, Pusiga, Tempane and Garu.
Pastor Joshua Obeng, Resident Preacher at Calvary Charismatic Center (CCC) says the world system makes people hold back during difficult times.

The world, he sadly holds the strong belief that one gain when he hoards.

The Pastor noted that Christians are enjoined by Christ to share what they have with those who are in need.

Speaking to the media at an outreach program christened "CCC Workersfest" on May Day where foods, clothing, items as well as services and games were served freely for the aged, youth and children from the church and residents in the CCC neighbourhood, the CCC Preacher said there was more blessing in giving to others.

"There is a misconception that rules the world and it tends to make people hold back to what they have but God wants us to cultivate and inculcate his attributes which is sharing and showing kindness to others who may be in need", Pastor Joshua stressed.

Workers Attitude

Pastor Josh, as the preacher man is referred to by CCC congregants said he is aware of the dubious activities of some Ghanaian workers.

He however said some Ghanaian workers have very discouraging attitudes that seem to affect output in government and private establishments.

Pastor Josh said rather than putting out their best at their workplaces some workers engage in absenteeism, lateness to work, underhand dealings, petty thefts and underdeclaration.

"I believe that if Ghanaian workers can inculcate into themselves the attributes of God and the mindset of working hard despite how low their salaries may be, God will through his infinite ways bless them and make them impactful", the CCC Resident Minister stated.

Services

The CCC on the day extended free services to patrons canopies were mounted to house and host persons who had issues to discuss.

Some of the free consultancy services that were offered included health, legal, hospitality, cosmetology, artisanal, banking, architectural and entrepreneurial.

Speaking to reporters, Lawyer Akwasi Arhin of CCC said the initiative by the Church was very innovative and encouraging for members who needed legal advice.

Elder of CCC and member of the CCC health services, Dr Yeboah-Awudzi commended the Resident Pastor for the opportunity to serve members of the Church to enable them know their health statuses.
The Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Hon. Dr Henry Kwabena Kokofu, has expressed gratitude to the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharabutu, for his continuous guidance and support to the President and Vice President Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia.

Hon. Dr. Kokofu believes the spiritual support from the supreme leader has been a major backbone for the political successes of the President and the Vice.

The EPA Boss has therefore appealed to the Islamic Leader to continue to lend his wise counsel and spiritual support to the seat of Government and the entire country.

Hon. Dr. Kokofu, who made the appeal when he paid a courtesy call on the National Chief Imam at his residence, underscored the role the Islamic leader has played in maintaining peace and harmony amongst all religious sects in the country.

The EPA Executive Director and his staff were also at the official residence of the National Chief Imam to wish him well on his 104th birthday.

The delegation also made huge donations of food items, as well as an undisclosed sum of money to the Office of the National Chief Imam.

Hon. Dr Kokofu indicated that the impact the Vice President, particularly, has had over the years on Ghana's socio-economic development has not come by accident. He stressed that as a 'spiritual father and guardian', the National Chief Imam has played an immense role in the life of the most productive and competent Vice President the country has ever had.

"It is my hope that Allah will grant you more life so that you can continue to guide and support our leaders to rule this country," he emphasised.

The National Chief Imam expressed gratitude to the delegation for the visit and the kind gesture.

He reiterated the call for Ghanaians to continue to live in peace and harmony amongst each other since without peace Ghana cannot develop.
Burundian journalist Floriane Irangabiye was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on January 2, and an appeals court upheld that sentence on May 2, 2023. (Credit withheld)

03.05.2023 LISTEN

In response to media reports that a Burundian appeals court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of journalist Floriane Irangabiye, who is serving a 10-year prison term, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:

Coming on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, a Burundi courts decision to uphold Floriane Irangabiyes conviction only further illustrates the governments hostility toward dissenting views, said CPJs sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo. Irangabiye does not belong behind bars, and it is devastating that she faces a decade in prison. She has suffered far too much, and authorities should do the right thing and free her immediately.

Irangabiye was arrested on August 30, 2022, by intelligence personnel in Bujumbura. On January 2, the Mukaza High Court in Bujumbura convicted her of undermining the integrity of the national territory and sentenced her to 10 years in prison and fined her 1 million Burundian francs (US$482). Irangabiyes conviction stemmed from commentary she shared on the diaspora-based online media outlet Radio Igicaniro, in which she was critical of the political elite in Burundi.

An appeal against her conviction was heard on March 31, and in a judgment issued Tuesday, May 2, an appeals court in Bujumbura affirmed the lower courts decision, according to those reports and a person familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Lusaka, May 2, 2023Zimbabwes office of the presidency must ensure that all journalists can freely report on First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwas public engagements, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

On April 24, Mnangagwas security aides barred five journalists from covering her visit to the Museum of African Liberation in Harare, according to media reports, a statement by the Zimbabwean chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern Africa, and two of those journalists.

The following day, members of her security staff and Mnangagwas spokesperson blocked another journalist from photographing a separate event, according to media reports and that journalist.

Mnangagwa has previously barred journalists from covering her public events, as CPJ has documented. General elections are expected to be held in Zimbabwe in July or August.

Zimbabwes presidency should ensure that all media can freely cover First Lady Auxilia Mnangagwas public events and avoid situations where only her official photographer will have access, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator, in New York. Zimbabweans have a right to access news and information about the president and his spouse, who are public figures.

At the April 24 event, Mnangagwas staff denied access to reporter Problem Masau and photographer Shepherd Tozvireva, both with the privately owned newspaper NewsDay, as well as three unidentified journalists with the army-controlled broadcaster Nkululeko Rusununguko Television, according to those reports and Masau and Tozvireva, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Masau told CPJ that the Institute of African Knowledge had invited Mnangagwa for a tour of the museum on April 24 and requested journalists from all the media houses to cover it, but then Mnangagwas staff asked the NewsDay and Nkululeko Rusununguko Television journalists to leave the scene.

At the event on April 25, held in the town of Beitbridge, south of Harare, a security officer told Newsday correspondent Rex Mpisa that the first ladys official photographer and spokesperson John Manzongo requested that Mpisa not take photographs, Mpisa told CPJ via messaging app.

I obliged. They said she has her own media team to cover her, the journalist told CPJ.

CPJ repeatedly called Manzongo and sent questions via email and messaging app to Mnangagwas office for comment, but did not receive any replies.
Press freedom is under attack in every corner of the globe, with journalists continually harassed, jailed and killed, UN officials and media outlets warned Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of World Press Freedom Day on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a rallying cry for journalists and media worldwide.

"All our freedom depends on press freedom," he said in a video message, calling it the "foundation of democracy and justice" and the "lifeblood of human rights."

"But in every corner of the world, freedom of the press is under attack," Guterres added, addressing a conference held at UN headquarters in New York.

Highlighting the problem, UNESCO awarded its 2023 World Press Freedom Prize to three Iranian women, two journalists and a human rights activist, who have been jailed.

While Guterres did not cast blame on specific countries, other speakers highlighted individual cases, such as that of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, detained in Russia on espionage charges he has rejected.

"The fight for press freedom, the fight for Evan's release is a fight for everybody's freedom," Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour told the forum.

Dozens of news organizations have denounced the charges against Gershkovich as unfounded, while US President Joe Biden has called his imprisonment "totally illegal."

Other journalists hit upon the rising dangers of the profession.

"I'm coming from a country, Iran, where being a journalist is a crime... (and) can land you in jail, can get you killed, can get you tortured," said Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist living in exile.

'Threatened by disinformation'

According to Reporters Without Borders, 55 journalists and four media workers were killed in the line of duty in 2022.

US journalist Evan Gershkovich has been detained in Russia on espionage charges, which President Joe Biden denounces as bogus. By SAUL LOEB (AFP)

"Truth is threatened by disinformation and hate speech, seeking to blur the lines between fact and fiction, between science and conspiracy," Guterres said.

Journalists, he added, "are routinely harassed, intimidated, detained, and in prisons."

Others voiced similar concerns, with the head of UNESCO, which is organizing an event at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday to mark the occasion, also speaking out.

Audrey Azoulay said the digital age was changing the entire information landscape -- making "professional, free, independent journalism" more necessary than ever.

She said harassment and intimidation of journalists was unacceptable.

"We find ourselves at a new crossroads," she said. "Our current path is leading us away from informed public debates... a path towards ever more polarization."

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said it was not only direct repression that threatens journalists and freedom of information.

"The internet also unleashed the avalanche of misinformation, propaganda, punditry and clickbait that now overwhelms our information ecosystem... accelerating the decline in societal trust," he said.

"When the free press erodes, democratic erosion almost always follows."

The secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, said censorship has also become more common.

"Sadly, censorship has become the default position of many governments in terms of controlling the knowledge of their societies," she said.

The recipients of the UNESCO prize were Iranian reporters Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloufar Hamedi, who helped expose the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September, and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi.
Former National Democratic Congress (NDC) member, Stephen Atubiga, has criticized Joy Prime TV, a subsidiary of the Multimedia Group, for posting a flyer on social media he described as disrespectful to the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo.

The flyer featured three photographs of the President, actress Jackie Appiah and rapper Sarkodie with a question asking who among them Ghanaians would prefer to have as a special guest of honour at their events.

Atubiga, in a Facebook post, described the question as silly and mischievous and further accused Joy Prime of attempting to disrespect the President.

He also stated that the post was defaming the Presidents personality and called for an apology.

How could a whole big station like Joy Prime go this low, with such an unprofessional question? Atubiga wrote.

He added, We are talking about a whole President here, his government, and his party alone presence at any event will give it national attention and a prestigious level.

Atubiga also warned the TV station that the National Communications Authority, National Security, Ministries of Information and Communication, and the Attorney General could take legal action against it for what it described as a "personal integrity assassination attempt against a sitting President."

Check the controversial post below:


With 12 storeys, a breathtaking view of Cape Town's imposing Table Mountain and a minimal ecological footprint, the world's tallest building made with industrial hemp is soon to open its doors in South Africa.

Workers in central Cape Town are putting the finishing touches on the 54-room Hemp Hotel, which is due to be completed in June.

"Hempcrete" blocks derived from the cannabis plant have been used to fill the building's walls, supported by a concrete and cement structure.

Hemp bricks are becoming increasingly popular in the construction world thanks to their insulating, fire-resistant and climate-friendly properties.

Used notably in Europe for thermal renovation of existing buildings, the blocks are carbon negative -- meaning their production sucks more planet-warming gases out of the atmosphere than it puts in.

Workers in central Cape Town are putting the finishing touches on the 54-room Hemp Hotel. By RODGER BOSCH (AFP)

"The plant absorbs the carbon, it gets put into a block and is then stored into a building for 50 years or longer," explains Boshoff Muller, director of Afrimat Hemp, a subsidiary of South African construction group Afrimat, which produced the bricks for the hotel.

"What you see here is a whole bag full of carbon, quite literally," Muller says as he pats a bag of mulch at a brick factory on the outskirts of Cape Town, where hemp hurds, water and lime are mixed together to make the blocks.

The industrial hemp used for the Hemp Hotel had to be imported from Britain as South Africa banned local production up to last year, when the government started issuing cultivation permits.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has made developing the country's hemp and cannabis sector an economic priority, saying it could create more than 130,000 jobs.

Carbon credits

Afrimat Hemp is now preparing to produce its first blocks made only with South African hemp.

Hemp Hotel architect Wolf Wolf, 52, sees this as a game changer to make hemp buildings more widespread in this corner of the world.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has made developing the country's hemp and cannabis sector an economic priority. By RODGER BOSCH (AFP)

"It shouldn't be just a high-end product," says Wolf, whose firm is involved in several social housing projects in South Africa and neighbouring Mozambique.

Yet cost remains an issue.

"Hemp is 20 percent more expensive to build with" compared to conventional materials, says Afrimat Hemp's carbon consultant Wihan Bekker.

But as the world races to lower carbon emissions, the firm sees "huge opportunities" for its green bricks, says Bekker.

Carbon credits -- permits normally related to the planting of trees to safeguard tropical rainforests that companies buy to offset their emissions -- could help make hempcrete blocks more financially palatable, he says.

"We can fund forests, or we can fund someone to live in a hemp house. It's the same principle," Bekker says.

The carbon footprint of a 40 square metre (430 square foot) house built with hemp is three tons of CO2 lower than that of a conventional building, according to Afrimat Hemp.

Hemp bricks have insulating, fire-resistant and climate-friendly properties. By RODGER BOSCH (AFP)

"We see this as a bit of a lighthouse project," Muller says of the Hemp Hotel.

"It shows hemp has its place in the construction sector."

Hemp Hotel has been ranked the "tallest building to incorporate hemp-based materials in the world" by Steve Allin, director of the Ireland-based International Hemp Building Association.
Uganda's parliament has passed a new draft of anti-gay legislation, retaining many draconian provisions despite President Yoweri Museveni's call to rework an earlier version of the bill following outcry from Western governments.

"The bill passed," parliamentary speaker Annet Anita Among said on Tuesday after the final vote saw the legislation win approval from all but one lawmaker.

"We have a culture to protect. The Western world will not come to rule Uganda," she said.

Legislators amended portions of the draft law to clarify that identifying as gay would not be criminalised, but "engaging in acts of homosexuality" would be an offence punishable with life imprisonment.

Although Museveni had advised lawmakers to delete a provision making "aggravated homosexuality" a capital offence, lawmakers rejected that move, meaning that repeat offenders could be sentenced to death.

Uganda has not resorted to capital punishment for many years.

Creating conflict

The revamped bill says that "a person who is believed or alleged or suspected of being a homosexual, who has not committed a sexual act with another person of the same sex, does not commit the offence of homosexuality".

The earlier version also required Ugandans to report suspected homosexual activity to the police or face six months imprisonment.

Lawmakers agreed to amend that provision on Tuesday after Museveni last month said it risked creating "conflicts in society."

Instead, the reporting requirement now pertains only to suspected sexual offences against children and vulnerable people, with the penalty raised to five years in jail.

According to the new draft, anyone who "knowingly promotes homosexuality" faces up to 20 years in jail  a provision left unchanged from the original bill.

Organisations found guilty of encouraging same-sex activity could face a 10-year ban.

Contradiction

Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a leading gay rights organisation whose operations were suspended by the authorities last year, said the passage of the bill posed a grave risk to LGBTQI+ people.

"There's a contradiction because the legislation says you can be gay but you shouldn't say anything about it," he told AFP.

Furthermore, the near-unanimous approval of the bill by lawmakers "shows you how extreme and homophobic the MPs are and puts LGBTQI+ people in even more danger."

The bill will now be sent to Museveni, who can again choose to use his veto or sign it into law.

If he were to return the bill to parliament a third time, a two-thirds super-majority of lawmakers could override his veto, forcing the bill through.

The legislation enjoys broad public support in Uganda and reaction from civil society has been muted following years of erosion of civic space under Museveni's increasingly authoritarian rule.

International relations at stake

The European Parliament last month voted to condemn the bill and asked EU states to pressure Museveni into not implementing it, warning that relations with Kampala were at stake.

The White House has also warned the Ugandan government of possible economic repercussions if the legislation takes effect.

Last week the US embassy wrote to delegates working on funding proposals to tackle the AIDS epidemic informing them of delays "in light of the recent developments with the potential signing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act and how it could impact our ability to provide services and assistance".

Homosexuality was criminalised in Uganda under colonial laws, but there has never been a conviction for consensual same-sex activity since independence from Britain in 1962.

(with AFP)
Eunice, a 25-year-old woman has been allegedly murdered by her husband at Nungua in Accra after the two engaged in a brawl.

The man was reported to have murdered the wife after inflicting several machete wounds on her, leading to her death on the spot.

Father of the deceased, Ebenezer Dwomoh who described the husband of his daughter as serial wife beater narrated the incident to journalists on Tuesday, May 2.

He said his daughter had moved out of her matrimonial home due to constant abuse and physical assault on her by her husband.

She managed to secure a summons letter from the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the police and when she was presenting the letter to her husband, the man got furious and allegedly murdered her.

The husband attempted running away after the incident however he was arrested with the help of some residents of the area.

Eunice moved out of the house because she could no longer take the beatings, so this man decided to make life a living-hell for her. He will even come to our house and beat her, Mr Dwomoh told Accra-based Adom FM.

He follows my daughter everywhere she goes and beat her until he finally killed her that fateful day, he added.

-3news.com
The Monrovia Tech Summit came to an end few weeks with a resounding appeal for additional funding for digital innovation to spur Liberian economic development. To examine the most recent trends, difficulties, and opportunities in the tech sector, the conference brought together business executives, government officials, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders. Participants emphasized the urgent necessity to embrace digital innovation and technology throughout the summit as a way to deal with the nation's serious social and economic concerns. The process of integrating digital technology into all facets of an organization, substantially altering how it functions and provides value to its clients, is known as "digital transformation." It is impossible to overstate the significance of digital revolution to the world economy.

Liberia must acknowledge the significance of the digital transformation in creating a long-lasting digital economy. Like many other African nations, For Liberia's digital economy to be sustainable, digital transformation is essential. To take advantage of any technology in all areas of the economy and at all skill levels, one must have digital skills. The Liberian digital economy is still in its infancy at the moment. Liberia now has one of the lowest internet penetration rates in Africa at 19%. However, the Liberian government has acknowledged the value of digital transformation in creating a long-lasting digital economy and needs to take action to foster this environment.

Keynote speakers and attendees underlined the necessity of increased investment in infrastructure, education, and entrepreneurial initiatives to support digital innovation during the summit's closing ceremony. As priority areas for investment, support for startups and other innovative companies, enhanced internet access, training and resources for digital skills, and were all mentioned. One attendee noted, "The Monrovia Tech Summit has provided a valuable platform for discussing the opportunities and challenges in Liberia's tech sector," as Mr. Peterking Quaye, Executive Director of Monrovia Technology Summit, spoke to the media about the event's importance. We must continue to collaborate in order to encourage digital innovation and develop an inclusive digital economy in Liberia, building on the momentum created by this summit.

Along with creating jobs, this will also help the economy expand. The digital change, however, also brings forth fresh difficulties for policymaking. Although barriers and the increasing complexity of international trade present new challenges for policymaking, digital trade promises new opportunities. To make sure that Liberia can fully take advantage of the potential provided by the digital transformation, policymakers in the nation must be proactive in tackling these issues. Liberian companies must use new technology to be competitive and provide better services to Liberian as the world becomes more digital. The Monrovia Tech Summit has shown that the nation needs skills and desire to lead digital innovation and create a better future for all of its citizens. Liberia can prosper with the correct investments and policies.

The Liberia has made considerable strides in developing its digital infrastructure in recent years. There is still a long way to go, though. The Liberian government is aware of how crucial digital transformation is to creating a long-lasting digital economy. It has taken action to foster an environment that will allow digital transformation to flourish. The creation of a digital public infrastructure is one of Liberia's main priorities. This covers systems for data sharing, digital payments, and secure digital IDs. The development of the digital economy depends on laying these important digital foundations. It will allow companies to run more effectively, cut costs, and reduce costs and enhance customer satisfaction.

Participants at the event also emphasized the crucial function that public-private partnerships can play in promoting digital innovation and technology adoption in Liberia. Collaboration between corporations, civil society organizations, and government agencies can assist remove obstacles to advancement and foster an environment that fosters innovation.

The digital transformation has the potential to spur entrepreneurship and innovation in Liberia. It may open up new possibilities for companies to produce cutting-edge goods and services that cater to regional demands. Therefore, in order to fully take advantage of the opportunities provided by digital transformation, more investment is required in digital infrastructure, the development of digital skills, and policies that support innovation and entrepreneurship. It is crucial to remember .

Building a viable digital economy in Liberia will require a focus on digital transformation. Although the nation has advanced significantly in recent years, much work remains. The development of the digital economy in Liberia depends on laying important digital foundations, encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship, and resolving issues brought on by digital transformation.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwadaso Constituency, Prof. Kingsley Nyarko has indicated that government needs to resort to other means to avoid perpetual borrowing.

He proposes that domestic revenue mobilisation should be prioritised to raise more funds to cut down on borrowing.

Ghana needs to enhance domestic revenue to cut down on borrowing, Prof. Kingsley Nyarko said in an interview with Joy FM.

The Kwadaso MP further indicated that Ghana must focus on expanding its export capacity.

These comments come after Parliament approved three new loan facilities for government.

Speaking to journalists after the approval on Tuesday, May 2, Deputy Finance Minister John Kumah explained that these are not new loans.

Government is not taking new loans. These are loans already on government books but could not be approved before Parliament went on recess. So these are existing credit facilities that have been approved, John Kumah said.

According to him, the loans which amount to $710 million are to finance projects that government deems a priority.

All five loans were approved by a Majority decision with the Minority in Parliament predicting more doom as the government struggles to restore the ailing economy.
03.05.2023 LISTEN

As part of activities to develop the bilateral relations between the Czech Republic and the Republic of Ghana, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Ghana organised the Czech - Ghana Health Care and Pharmaceutical Business Cooperation Seminar on Tuesday 2nd May 2023 at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra.

The event was organised in collaboration with the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Association of Ghana Industries, Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy, Health Care Federation Ghana and Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC).

The seminar provided a platform for entrepreneurs and businesses from the Ghanaian healthcare and pharmaceutical sector to engage and explore collaborations with their counterparts from the Czech Republic in attendance.

In his opening remarks, His Excellency Jan Fury, Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Ghana thanks all the participants for making time to attend the very important event, which seeks to take the cooperation between the two countries to another level especially for players within the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector. He went on to introduce His Excellency Vit Rakusan, the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.

On his part, H.E Vit Rakusan reiterated the strategic bilateral relations between Ghana and the Czech Republic over the years and highlighted pragmatic steps being taken by the Czech Republic to ensure the relationship between the two countries is deepened through various collaborations.

Ghana is very important to the Czech Republic and we consider Ghana as a strategic partner across the West African sub region. Ghana is fast becoming a destination for Czech businesses and this is evident in our visit to Ghana and this mornings event, which provides for a face-to-face meeting between officials of the Czech companies we have here and their Ghanaian partners. We are looking forward to some great partnerships from this event, he emphasised.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Mr. Yofi Grant thanked the Czech Government for choosing Ghana as an investment destination in Africa. He highlighted Ghanas strong democratic credentials, and conducive business atmosphere, which has made the country a safe haven for investors.

He further assured the Czech delegation that Ghana is open to welcoming investors from the Czech Republic to invest and do business in Ghana. He added that the government of Ghana through the GIPC would continue to work closely with the Czech Republic through high-level political and business fora to promote trade and investment between the two countries.

Officials of the Czech Health Care and Pharmaceutical companies that participated in the seminar included Royax Group, Comedeq, Linet, MZ Liberec, MB Pharma, Draslovka and the Association of Manufacturers and Suppliers of medical devices.
Persistent fighting between Sudan's rival generals undermined efforts to firm up a truce Wednesday, as a senior UN official arrived for talks on providing relief to millions of trapped civilians.

The visit by top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths comes one day after neighbouring South Sudan announced that the warring sides had agreed "in principle" to a seven-day ceasefire.

Deadly violence broke out on April 15 between Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who commands the regular army, and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

At least 528 people have been killed and nearly 4,600 wounded, according to the latest health ministry figures, which are likely to be incomplete.

Ten of thousands of Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries in an exodus that has sparked warnings of a humanitarian "catastrophe" with implications for the entire region

A burnt out military vehicle lies abandoned near the presidential palace, one of the main battlegrounds in nearly three weeks of fighting between Sudan's rival generals. By - (Rapid Support Forces/ESN/AFP)

On Wednesday, Griffiths arrived in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast on an urgent mission to look for ways to bring relief to the millions of Sudanese who are unable to flee.

"Just arrived in Port Sudan to reaffirm the UN's commitment to the Sudanese people," he said on Twitter.

Earlier, the foreign ministry of neighbouring South Sudan announced that Burhan and Daglo "have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4th to 11th."

The two sides have yet to formally confirm the new ceasefire.

The two men have agreed multiple truces since the fighting began but none has effectively taken hold. The current truce was extended on Sunday by a further 72 hours and is due to expire on Wednesday at 2200 GMT.

Mounting condemnation

Few civilians venture out onto the near-deserted streets of the Sudanese capital. By - (AFP)

Despite the truce efforts, witnesses reported warplanes over north Khartoum on Wednesday and fierce clashes near the state broadcaster's headquarters in the capital's twin city of Omdurman.

"We heard again loud gunfire and anti-aircraft firing at a fighter jet this morning," a resident of south Khartoum said.

Multiple hospitals have been hit, humanitarian facilities looted and foreign aid groups forced to suspend most of their operations.

Saudi Arabia said the premises of its cultural centre in Khartoum were attacked on Tuesday "by an armed group which damaged equipment, cameras and seized some of the mission's property."

The kingdom condemned the raid, calling for de-escalation and an end to the violence.

More than 430,000 civilians have fled their homes, the United Nations said, including 100,000 who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

Map of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, showing the state of hospitals, as of May 1. By Sylvie HUSSON, Jonathan WALTER (AFP)

Only 16 percent of Khartoum's hospitals remain fully functional, the UN added.

The failure of the warring generals to abide by their commitments in efforts to end nearly three weeks of fighting has drawn mounting international criticism.

"The two generals, even though they accept the ceasefire, at the same time they continue fighting and shelling the city," complained Ismail Wais of East African regional bloc IGAD.

He said the persistent fighting "compounds and complicates the political, security and humanitarian situation on the ground making it harder to resolve."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Tuesday that the fighting in neighbouring Sudan was affecting "the entire region."

Griffiths had earlier called for civilians and aid workers to be protected.

Motorists queues at a filling station in Khartoum, where nearly three weeks of fighting have sparked an acute shortage of fuel. By - (AFP)

"Ensure safe passage for civilians fleeing areas of hostilities. Respect humanitarian workers and assets," he said on Twitter.

Lawlessness has also engulfed the Darfur region, with at least 99 people killed in fighting, according to Sudan's doctors union.

Of the more than 330,000 people displaced inside Sudan, over 70 percent were reported to be from West and South Darfur states, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Darfur is still scarred by a war that erupted in 2003 when then-strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, against ethnic minority rebels.

The Janjaweed -- whose actions led to war crimes charges against Bashir and others -- later evolved into the RSF.
Former President John Dramani Mahama has promised that the next National Democratic Congress (NDC) government will launch a robust fight against corruption in all spheres of life.

Mr Mahama contends corruption is one of the channels through which state resources are wasted.

Addressing NDC delegates at Garu in the Upper East Region, the NDC flagbearer hopeful stressed that any individual found engaging in corrupt practices under his administration will be dealt with regardless of his or her party affiliation.

NDC is going to come into office, and we are going to launch a strong fight against corruption because we all know that corruption is one of the waste pipes in this country. People who appropriate the money of the state must be brought to book and sanctioned and NDC is going to do that.

It doesnt matter whether the people are our own or from some other party, we will make sure that the sword is slammed equally and anyone who takes the peoples money must suffer for it.

Mr Mahama also promised to repair Akufo-Addo's problematic Free SHS policy and the National Health Insurance Scheme if he is re-elected President in the 2024 elections.

He said reviewing the two policies will ameliorate the plight of Ghanaians and enhance the policies.

Free SHS is not working properly, the benefit it is supposed to give the parents, they are not getting. I can tell you today that the money we are spending on our children to go to school is far more than when we used to pay school fees.

We are going to repair the free SHS and make it better and create the situation when where school reopens, all the children will go together and when they vacate they all come home together.

-Citi Newsroom
Some eight armed men with AK47 rifle have robbed several shops in parts of Suame Magazine industrial area near Garages Office in the Ashanti Region.

They made away with some valuables and an amount of money.

Within the last few weeks about 25 shops have been affected by the operations of the gang.

Speaking on Akoma FM'S Me Mpotemu Keteke with Aduanaba Kofi Asante Ennin at Suame Magazine, Some artisans expressed worry about the situation.

Akoma FM's Me Mpotemu Keteke stopover at Suame Magazine attracted many artisans, spare parts dealers, Businesses and inhabitants within the enclave to discuss issues of local and national interests.

Me Mpotemu, to wit Community Issues, an offshoot of Akoma FM's flagship show 'GhanAkoma', has been designed to draw radio closer to the residents to discuss and find solutions to issues affecting their daily lives and businesses.

The outdoor programme, which has been set on wheels ( Me Mpotemu Keteke), is an outside broadcast version of Akoma FM's current affairs and political show GhanAkoma.

On Tuesday , 2nd May, 2023, it pitched camp at the biggest garage and industrial hub in West Africa _ Suame Magazine in Ashanti Region.

Me Mpotemu Keteke stopover at Suame Magazine, specifically at the forecourt of Ghana Garages Association, was attended by many people around the area to share their ideas on national issues , particularly issues within the area.

Also at the event included officials from GUTA as well as Executive Car Dealers Association in Kumasi.

Major issues that were topical include security, robbery, depreciating of the cedis and recent taxes approved by parliament as well as high import duties at the ports in the country.

Gracing the public forum were the Chairman of Executive Car Dealers Association, Prince Kumi, Martin Danso, Public Relations Officer, Executive Car Dealers Association, Anane Francis, Secretary Executive Car Dealers Association, Ashanti Regional Chairman GUTA, Anthony Oppong, Nana Osei Bonsu, Ashanti Regional Chairman, Ghana Garages Association and others.

Akoma FM's Me Mpotemu Keteke afforded partipants who trooped to the event in their numbers to share their ideas.

Nana Osei Bonsu, Chairman of Garages said they are living in fear following constant breaking into peoples shops by thieves and armed robbers.

He said they normally do it in the evening.

He blamed the robbery attacks on squarters who have invaded the industrial hub over the years.

It is the latest robbery incident after a brief lull in the rise of such crimes in the Kumasi Metropolis.

The regional capital got inundated with murders and robberies last year, but the situation appeared to have abated until the latest incident.

He underscored the need to assign special taskforce to patrol the Suame Magazine.

According to him, the boisterous place become quiet in the night since many people do not stay there.

-3news.com
Sandra and Danny Miller, owners of Total Electric Company in Farmington, recently donated money to the Desloge Police Department to supplement the funds needed to put a second K-9 officer on the force. As a direct result of their efforts, K-9 Officer Benny is now serving the citizens of Desloge and the surrounding area.

K-9 Officer Benny and his handler, Corporal Josh Crider, are said to have become a vital part of law enforcement in the City of Desloge. Since Bennys arrival, he has been instrumental in 21 separate drug cases which resulted in prosecutions and seizures in Desloge and the surrounding area.

Besides his success in apprehensions of criminals, hes helped find a runaway juvenile and locate an elderly man with dementia who had wandered off from his caregiver. Corporal Crider said his K-9 partner has a keen mind and impressive instincts.

Mr. Miller presented Desloge Police Chief James Jebo Bullock with the donation and commented that citizens need to support their police departments now more than ever. He praised the department for its consistently high standards and dedication of its officers.

Both Millers grew up in Desloge and have been supportive of events in their hometown. Mr. Miller said this donation was his and Mrs. Miller's desire to show appreciation for the city that formed their early years. He said he hopes others will step up and give back to the communities that have given them so much.
03.05.2023 LISTEN

Mr Samuel Atuahene Antwi, the Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate Nutritionist, has advised mothers against becoming frustrated when feeding their babies who may reject breast milk or any other food.

Some mothers get frustrated with the little resistance from the baby, thereby forcing the child to eat against his or her will and the size of the stomach, he said.

This is inappropriate and so mothers and caregivers must have the patience and time to feed the babies well to promote good health.

He, therefore, encouraged mothers to make feeding fun and responsive rather than forceful and frustrating, which may hurt the baby.

Mr Antwi said this at the weekly programme of the Tema Regional Office, Ghana News Agency, dubbed: Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility.

The programme is to help promote health-related communication and provide information to influence personal health choices.

The Nutritionist encouraged mothers to sing, play, and create a conducive feeding time with their babies, as forcing them would make them associate eating with pain.

Mothers must also endeavour to follow the six-month rule of exclusive feeding after which the child should be introduced to the family food to acquire the needed nutrients and protection.

Due to the antibodies mothers already had, exclusive breastfeeding helped to pass on those antibodies to the babies and build their immunity to protect them against diseases in the first six months of birth and beyond.

After six months, the growing child's energy and nutritional requirements, such as Vitamin A, become greater than what the breastmilk contains, hence the need to start complementary feeding, which involves introduction to the family food while breastfeeding alongside, he said.

While doing the complementary feeding, parents must pay close attention to pick up any food allergies and take the necessary precautions.

Speaking on malaria, Dr Dorothy Hanson, a Medical Officer at the International Maritime Hospital, encouraged the public to do a laboratory test for malaria if they continued to experience symptoms after having used a Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT).

She said the RPT could aid in the diagnosis but it was not always successful due to how it was administered.

Microscopy laboratory testing has remained the gold standard for malaria testing due to its dependability and accuracy, since it can locate and count the number of parasites in the patient for the appropriate therapy, she added.

Mr Francis Ameyibor, the Regional Manager, GNA Tema Office, said research showed that media efforts at raising awareness on health had helped to improve public well-being, healthwise, which was commendable.

GNA
In the grand scheme of things, Parliament is there to represent our interests and make sure such interests are taken into account by the Government of the day.

Take, for example, the Government cannot make new laws or raise new taxes without Parliament's prior approval.

Suffice it to stress that law-making is considered to be the most important function of Parliament.

Under article 93(2) of the Constitution the legislative power of Ghana is vested in Parliament and is exercised in accordance with the Constitution.

No person or body other than Parliament has the power to pass any measure with the force of law except by or under the authority conferred by an Act of Parliament.

The legislative function consists of passing Bills and scrutinizing statutory instruments and deciding whether to annul them or allow them to take effect by the effluxion of time.

With all due respect with no attached condescension whatsoever, with such absolute power vested in parliament, why do parliamentarians sit aloof and allow things to get out of hands now and then?

Which country on planet earth, would sit idle and allow illegal miners forcibly take its natural resources, degrade and pollute the environment with unabashed disgust?

I am afraid the wanton depletion of our mineral resources which has culminated in the destruction of our lands and water bodies by the recalcitrant illegal miners is revoltingly outrageous, so to speak.

That being said, it is rather shocking that despite the deleterious effect of illegal mining activities on the environment, the Parliament is refusing to enact laws to ban such activities and impose stiff punishments on offenders.

I was shocked to the bone when I recently chanced on a multitude of stubbornly impenitent Chinese illegal miners in the Amansie South District in the Ashanti Region gleefully stealing our mineral resources and destroying the environment in the process.

Notwithstanding the apparent dangers, the men and women who are in charge of affairs are wholly oblivious to the seriousness of the situation, hence their blatant refusal to halt the activities of the obstreperous illegal miners.

Subject to subsections (1) of 1989 small-scale mining laws (PNDCL 218) and (2) of section 75 of the Minerals and Mining Law, 1986 (PNDCL 153) and amended Act 2006(Act 703), no licence for small-scale gold mining operation shall be granted to any person who is not a citizen of Ghana.

In practice, therefore, any person who without a licence granted by the regulatory bodies and chooses to undertake any small-scale gold mining operation

contrary to (subsection 1) of section 1 of small-scale mining law; or acts in contravention of any other provision of small-scale mining law in respect of which an offence has not been prescribed, shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.

More importantly, where a foreigner is convicted of an offence under this Law, he, shall after paying the fine or serving any imprisonment imposed on him, be liable to deportation under section 13 of the Aliens Act, 1963 (Act 160).

But despite the rational regulatory measures that have been put in place, some greedy and unpatriotic Ghanaians have been conniving with the foreign illegal miners to steal our natural resources while the sector regulators looked on unconcerned.

It is an open secret that some Ghanaians would often secure plots of land and partner with the foreign illegal miners who have funds to bring in the bulldozers and other big equipment.

Suffice it to emphasise that although the small scale mining laws prohibit the use of large explosives, the foreign illegal miners are revoltingly using unstructured methods, and at the same time supplying large explosive, rock crushers and other machines to local miners. How pathetic?

The involvement of the obdurate foreign illegal miners has changed the dynamics of small-scale mining.

The illegal miners use bulldozers, pay loaders and extremely heavy machinery. The foreign illegal miners have mechanized artisanal mining, and as a result the level of environmental devastation has been really huge.

Dearest reader let me crave your indulgence just a moment longer to pose: which independent country on this planet (Earth) would its politicians, regulators and law enforcement bodies sit idly while some stubbornly impenitent foreign illegal immigrants despoil its natural resources and denude the environment?

In a new Communities and Small-Scale Mining (CASM) publication, Somit Varma, director of the Oil, Gas, Mining & Chemicals Department of the World Bank/IFC,stated: "The social and economic characteristics of small-scale mining fully reflect the challenges facing the world, including: health, environment, gender, education, child labour, and poverty eradication."

It is estimated that about 15% of the world's gold is produced by artisanal and small-scale miners, many of whom use mercury and other toxic substances to extract the minerals from rivers and underneath the ground (BBC, 2013).

Unlike some other West African countries, Ghana allows mercury use in mining. Mercury is freely available in shops and can be bought with a canister, bottle, or as a ball wrapped in a plastic cling film, and much of it has been brought in by Chinese miners.

Ghana has an estimated one million small-scale gold miners (Galamseyers), and they commonly use mercury to process gold.

They mix the mercury with the ore to create a gold-mercury amalgam, and then burn the mercury off so the raw gold remains.

The problems stemming from mercury use dont stop at exposure from inhalation. Once used for gold processing, mercury-contaminated water is often dumped on the ground, polluting Ghanas rivers and lakes, and poisoning its fish and those who eat them (HRW, 2014).

The World Health Organisation (WHO), asserts that exposure to mercury  even small amounts  may cause serious health problems and it is a threat to the development of the child in utero and early in life (WHO 2017).

Mephitic mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining is extremely harmful and its health effects on society are significantly worrying (WHO, 2017).

A typical example of toxic mercury contamination impacting negatively on public health happened in Minamata, Japan, between 1932 and 1968, where a factory producing acetic acid discharged waste liquid into Minamata Bay.

The discharge included high concentrations of methylmercury. The bay was rich in fish and shellfish, providing the main livelihood for local residents and fishermen from other areas.

Many years passed without no one realising that the fish were contaminated with mercury, and that it was causing a strange disease in the local community and in other districts.

It was reported that at least 50 000 people were affected to some extent and more than 2000 cases of Minamata disease were identified.

Unfortunately, Minamata disease escalated in the 1950s, with severe cases of brain damage, paralysis, incoherent speech and delirium (WHO, 2017).

Minamata disease, also known as Chisso-Minamata disease, is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A congenital form of the disease can also affect foetuses (See: www.bu.edu/sustainability/minamata-disease).

As a bio-accumulative and toxic pollutant, when released into the atmosphere, mercury dissolves in water laid sediments and it can be consumed by fish and then ended up in the food chain of humans (Merem, Wesley, Isokpehi et al. 2016).

In that sense, toxic mercury pollution poses an enormous public health hazard and environmental risk (Merem, Wesley, Isokpehi et al. 2016).

Through extant research study, it has been established that mercury exposure can happen in the environment as well as in occupational and domestic settings(WHO 2017).

As part of the prevailing predicament, mercury poisoning involves the condition instigated by exposure at an accelerated dosage which could augment fatal health effects on communities.

It has been identified that exposure to mercury could crystallise in several ways, including, inter alia, dental amalgam fillings and the consumption of contaminated sea food, and more importantly, the dangers of mercury exposure can happen in and outside of built environments. As a result, most individuals are mainly exposed to methyl mercury, an organic compound when they consume fish containing methyl mercury (Merem, Wesley, Isokpehi et al. 2016).

Some experts however suggest that Methylmercury biomagnifies. For example, large predatory fish are more likely to have high levels of mercury as a result of eating many smaller fish that have acquired mercury through ingestion of plankton.

People may be exposed to mercury in any of its forms under different circumstances. However, exposure mainly occurs through consumption of fish and shellfish contaminated with methylmercury and through worker inhalation of elemental mercury vapours during industrial processes (WHO, 2017).

Considering the dangers associated with illegal mining, no one seemed to be policing the illegal activities of the wayward Ghanaians and their Chinese counterparts.

Given that the small scale mining operation is capital intensive, the Ghanaians who do not have the upfront capital, albeit manage to secure the mining concessions, end up passing such licences to their Chinese counterparts.

The careless Chinese illegal miners then end up violating the laws which govern the small scale mining sector.

The overarching question then is: Why are the regulators (the Ghana Minerals Commission and other bodies) refusing to keep a close eye on the illegal activities of the unpatriotic Ghanaians and their foreign minions, many of whom are bent on destroying the environment?

It is absolutely true that potential economic benefits (employment, tax revenues and development outcomes) can be derived from small-scale mining sector in Ghana.

We cannot also deny the fact that small-scale mining is a significant contributor to the economic and social well-being of many people and households in rural, remote, and poor communities in Ghana.

However, the way small-scale mining sector is being managed in Ghana, it does not look promising. The sector is being managed appallingly.

Somehow, the laws which govern the small-scale mining sector are confused and inconsistent. Suffice it to emphasise that all the attention is basically being focused on the large-scale mining sector, leaving the small-scale mining sector at a substantial disadvantage.

In addition, the effective implementation of regulations and fortifications towards the developmental potential of the sector must be the topmost importance to the regulating authorities.

It must also be emphasised that societies at large has been both positively and negatively affected by small-scale mining.

The positive effects include the extraction of ores from small deposits or from tailings which provide the rural folks and other small scale miners with sustainable incomes.

On the other hand, the negative effects include, among other things, environmental degradation, water pollution, the release of mercury and other toxic and hazardous wastes into the free environment, and unforeseen social tensions that can lead to civil unrest.

However, on the preponderance of probability, the negative effects outweigh the positive effects, and therefore it is prudent for any serious, committed and forward-thinking authorities to put tabs on the activities of the unscrupulous illegal miners.

Given the criminal intent of the illegal miners, we are, more than ever, urgently required our military power to combat the menace of the impenitent nation wreckers who are bent on stealing our natural resources and destroying the environment.

Let us face it, they, the scumbags, are well -prepared and they routinely carry out their illegal activities with military precisions, and can strike as lighting, and as deadly and destructive as molten magma.

In sum, the illegal miners' invasion of our rural areas with the view to forcibly digging our mineral resources, polluting our sources of drinking water, destroying the environment and above all terrorising the natives is tantamount to war and must therefore be fought with maximum force.

K. Badu, UK.

[email protected]
The problem we have in this country is that we don't train more psychiatrists in our Medical Schools. More Gynecologists, Dentists and Opticians are trained while many of us suffer from madness without any medical care.

They wait until we strip naked and eat and drink from the gutters before they take us to Pantang, Ankafo or Asylum Down where psychiatric hospitals are located.

The unfortunate ones are taken to prayer camps where they are chained to trees and treated like slaves waiting at the Cape Coast Castle to be shipped away to the Caribbean. Very sad indeed.

Another problem we have is that when we see anyone in suit or chiefs in their traditional cloths with 'Ahenema' (Native sandals) to match, we see all of them as normal. Unfortunately, we see the mechanic or farmer in their working gears as mad persons. That is why we send people suffering from hallucinations and sex maniacs to ordinary hospitals instead of psychiatric hospitals to be cured.

The truth is that many of us can't differentiate between a madman and a normal human being because of misconception. To many of us Alhajis and Pastors don't go mad but only 'wee' smokers and truck pushers do.

When our ex-president, John Dramani Mahama, in his attempt as usual, tried to bastardize the free SHS to his gullible listeners that the food which is given to students to eat in our boarding schools is not fit for his dogs to eat, I quickly went for my dusty Webster's Dictionary of Contemporary English to fine the meaning of Mad.

Listen to my lexicon: Mad: Ill, Insane, Extremely foolish or ill-advised. If indeed, it is the former president who made that unfortunate statement that I heard him loud and clear on radio, then he can easily be described as 'MAD' or 'EXTREMELY FOOLISH' if not 'ILL-ADVISED'.

What Mr. Mahama tried to tell me in particular is that my grandson who is in great Prempeh College by the grace of free SHS eats what is not good for his dogs to eat.

In fact, he wants to tell me that I am irresponsible and do not care a hoot about the welfare of my grandson who was orphaned at an early age of five years and had to stay with me all these years.

Millions of Ghanaians and students in the SHS have been insulted by this desperate and power-drunk politician. And this is a man who wants to be given the opportunity again to rule Ghana, a country of more than thirty million souls. When he was making this idiotic statement, it did not dawn on him that he was also insulting the sensibilities of Cooks, Matrons, Headmasters, Headmistresses and Housemasters of the Senior High Schools.

He is by his statement telling these ladies and gentlemen that they are irresponsible and criminals. People can decide to stay acquiesce on this serious issue but not your irrepressible and unbreakable Earth Angel Gabriel.

After all, who am I a Zongo boy for? This man will regret for vomiting this rot. Somebody should tell this ungrateful man that if even our children will eat cow dung in order to get education to face the future with confidence, so be it.

This is a man whose father was a Cabinet Minister in Dr. Nkrumah's regime but because Dr. Nkrumah introduced free education in the Northern and Upper Regions, he was removed from his Secondary School in Accra and sent to the Northern Region to enjoy free education. Apart from a few years that he worked at the Japan Embassy in Accra, he cannot boast of working anywhere in Ghana or abroad. He entered into politics and made a fortune so today he has the guts to tell us this balderdash.

In fact, this is a man who has collected End of Service Benefits as a Member of Parliament for 12 years, Deputy Minister for four years, Substantive Minster for 8 years, Vice President for four years, President for four years and topped all these up with his salaries and 'awoof' stolen money only to turn around and treat the good people of Ghana with disrespect and contempt.

And we have human beings who were conceived by their mothers for nine months clapping for this man when he made these irresponsible and stupid comments!. You see, when you are an elderly person and you speak and act like a small boy, you demean your image and honour.

If you tell me that my grandson who is enjoying free SHS at Prempeh College is eating food which your dogs will not eat, then I have the right to tell you that your dogs are eating good food because unlike me, you have enough stolen booties to provide your dogs with Milo and toasted bread for their breakfast and fried rice with chicken for their lunch. Tit for tat. Butter for bread.

If Mr. Mahama thinks his continues insults are what will make him a president again, then he should rethink. They say respect is reciprocal. If you are an ex-president and you think you have the license to insult anyhow, you must remember that everybody has the right to react to your insults.

After all, Mr. Mahama is not the only person who has a tongue and blood running through his veins. Do you think the late President Mills will ever behave the way Mr. Mahama is behaving? Has Mr. Mahama ever sat down to observe how ex-President Kufuor speaks and acts? Can't Mahama see the respect that Ghanaians give to the Gentle Giant? If Mr. Mahama wants to be treated same then he must listen to his handlers. And does he have handlers at all?

The truth is that the man has hijacked the NDC with the support of Asiedu Nketia and so he thinks he is the master. He has deliberately sidelined all those who matter in the NDC and walking tall with chest out like Colossus.

But his undeserved superiority should stay within the NDC where he reigns supreme. If he brings it to the backyard of people like me, a commoner, he will smell pepper because nobody fights me and survives.

The Akans say everybody has red saliva in his or her mouth but we always spit out the white one because we want to live in peace. For now Mr. Mahama has descended from the moral high grounds that former Heads of State stand and has entered into the gutter.

We will also go down the gutter with him and make ourselves dirty with him. After all, I have nothing to lose but my Fountain pen and hard won reputation as a versatile columnist.

Since he started his campaign for the NDC primaries, he has shifted his focus on why he should be given the chance by the delegates to lead the party one more time and has turned himself to an elected Presidential Candidate seeking for votes from Ghanaians.

Everywhere he goes, he fires unguarded missiles and throws salvos from all cylinders at the NPP and the President as if that is what will get him votes from the delegates. A man who lives in a glass house and continues to throw stones should lookout for madmen who know how to throw stones better than he does. His glasshouse could be shattered in a matter of time.

In the normal circumstances, one should not use the type of insulting words I am using against a former Head of State and a man who is supposed to be a statesman. It is Mahama who has opened his underbelly for such attacks.

Unless he stops his vitriolic invectives, some of us will continue to treat him with absolute contempt and spit fire at the time of our choosing. And he can't do 'foko'! After all, he is not the only one who is issued with Ghana Card and he doesn't own any monopoly over insults. Excuse me while I refill my Fountain pen.

By Eric Bawah
Former Minister of Gender, Children and social protection, Otiko Afisa Djaba has disclosed she turned down an appointment as Ghanas Ambassador to Italy by President Akufo-Addo in 2018 to spend more time with her four children.

There were rumours in town that the former Gender Minister felt her new appointment as a demotion, hence her reason for rejecting it.

Speaking on GTVs Break Fast show, the former NPP National Womens Organizer said as a mother, she couldnt accept her new role since that would have cut her bond with her kids she has missed for a long time.

I'd worked for sixteen years, I had four children, I was waking up at 2am, 5am to go to work all over the country. I became an absentee mother, I had the right to spend time with my children," she said.

When asked if she regrets the action, she said, "It is the best thing that ever happened to me, for me to decline going to Italy and the best thing that ever happened to me to come out of development to go into politics.

She expresses appreciation to the NPP indicating that her development of 98 underprivileged communities would not have been possible without the party's role. So I am very grateful to my party.

Watch her speak in the video below;


The Youth Development Ministry (YDM) of the Methodist Church Ghana has presented assorted food items and toiletries worth about GHS 2,000 to the Holy Family Hospital at Berekum in the Bono region.

The Sunyani Diocesan secretariat of the YDM made the donation as part of this years Youth Rally held at the Bethel Methodist Society at Jamdede near Berekum to herald the 44th annual diocesan synod of the church, which ended last weekend.

The items included a variety of non-alcoholic drinks, bottled water, detergents and tissue papers.

Rev. Jonathan Amankwaa Oppong, the Diocesan Youth Organiser of the church, on behalf of the YDM presented the items to Alfreda Gyamfua, the officer-in-charge at the time of the visit and Mr. Ata Yeboah Senior of the Internal Audit Unit of the hospital.

Diocesan YDM Executives present at the brief presentation ceremony included Bro. Michael Kwadwo Addai, Vice chairman; Francis Nkasiah; Secretary; Edrine Okoso, Assistant Secretary; Perpetual Ewurama Andoh, Treasurer as well as Solomon Gyasi Boateng and Frederick Agyei - Diocesan Coopted members.
A senior UN official in Khartoum on Wednesday demanded security guarantees for the delivery of aid as persistent fighting between Sudan's rival generals undermined efforts to firm up a truce.

The visit by top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths comes one day after neighbouring South Sudan announced that the warring sides had agreed "in principle" to a seven-day ceasefire.

Deadly violence broke out on April 15 between Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who commands the regular army, and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

At least 550 people have been killed and 4,926 wounded, according to the latest health ministry figures Wednesday, which are likely to be incomplete.

Smoke billows over the Sudanese capital on Wednesday as persistent fighting undermines efforts to firm up a truce between the country's warring generals. By - (AFP)

Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries in an exodus that has sparked warnings of a humanitarian "catastrophe" with implications for the entire region.

On Wednesday, Griffiths arrived in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast on an urgent mission to find ways to bring relief to the millions of Sudanese who are unable to flee.

Griffiths called for security guarantees "at the highest level" to ensure desperately needed aid deliveries to war-ravaged parts of the country.

He said he had been informed by the UN's World Food Programme that six trucks bringing aid to the country's western Darfur region had been "looted en route" Wednesday, "despite assurances of safety and security".

Earlier, the foreign ministry of neighbouring South Sudan announced that Burhan and Daglo "have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4th to 11th".

A burnt out military vehicle lies abandoned near the presidential palace, one of the main battlegrounds in nearly three weeks of fighting between Sudan's rival generals. By - (Rapid Support Forces/ESN/AFP)

The two sides have yet to formally confirm the new ceasefire.

The two men have agreed multiple truces since the fighting began but none has effectively taken hold. The current truce was extended on Sunday by a further 72 hours and is due to expire on Wednesday at 2200 GMT.

Mounting condemnation

Despite the truce efforts, witnesses reported warplanes over north Khartoum on Wednesday and fierce clashes near the state broadcaster's headquarters in the capital's twin city of Omdurman.

Few civilians venture out onto the near-deserted streets of the Sudanese capital. By - (AFP)

"We heard again loud gunfire and anti-aircraft firing at a fighter jet this morning," a resident of south Khartoum said.

Multiple hospitals have been hit, humanitarian facilities looted and foreign aid groups forced to suspend most of their operations.

Saudi Arabia said the premises of its cultural centre in Khartoum were attacked on Tuesday "by an armed group which damaged equipment, cameras and seized some of the mission's property".

The kingdom condemned the raid, calling for de-escalation and an end to the violence.

Video posted by the RSF showed damage inside the premises of the presidential palace in Khartoum.

More than 430,000 civilians have fled their homes, the United Nations said, including 100,000 who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

Map of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, showing the state of hospitals, as of May 1. By Sylvie HUSSON, Jonathan WALTER (AFP)

Only 16 percent of Khartoum's hospitals remain fully functional, the UN added.

The failure of the warring generals to abide by their commitments in efforts to end nearly three weeks of fighting has drawn mounting international criticism.

"The two generals, even though they accept the ceasefire, at the same time they continue fighting and shelling the city," complained Ismail Wais of East African regional bloc IGAD.

He said the persistent fighting "compounds and complicates the political, security and humanitarian situation on the ground making it harder to resolve."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Tuesday that the fighting in neighbouring Sudan was affecting "the entire region".

Griffiths had earlier called for civilians and aid workers to be protected.

Motorists queues at a filling station in Khartoum, where nearly three weeks of fighting have sparked an acute shortage of fuel. By - (AFP)

"Ensure safe passage for civilians fleeing areas of hostilities. Respect humanitarian workers and assets," he said on Twitter.

Violence has also engulfed the Darfur region, with at least 99 people killed in fighting, according to Sudan's doctors union.

Of the more than 330,000 people displaced inside Sudan, over 70 percent were reported to be from West and South Darfur states, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Darfur is still scarred by a war that erupted in 2003 when then-strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, against ethnic minority rebels.

The Janjaweed -- whose actions led to war crimes charges against Bashir and others -- later evolved into the RSF.
Initial talks between Ethiopia's government and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebel group ended on Wednesday without yielding any agreement, both sides said, while voicing willingness to pursue the dialogue.

The foes kicked off preliminary negotiations last week in Tanzania, meeting in the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar.

The OLA, an armed insurgent movement from the country's Oromia region, has been fighting Addis Ababa since it split in 2018 from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) when that group renounced armed struggle.

The Oromo community, Ethiopia's largest ethnic grouping, has long complained of marginalisation.

"While the talks have been largely constructive, unfortunately, it was not possible to reach an agreement on some issues during this round of the talks," the Ethiopian government communications service said in a statement, without elaborating on the sticking points.

It added however: "Both parties have acknowledged the need to continue these talks with a view to resolving the conflict permanently and peacefully."

The OLA, which has been listed as a "terrorist" organisation by the Ethiopian authorities since 2021, issued an almost identical statement.

"While understandings were reached on some outstanding issues, unfortunately it was not possible to reach an agreement on key political matters during this round of talks," it said.

Since the OLA broke off from the OLF and started fighting, a string of armed groups in Oromia have risen up claiming to be part of its cause, although they are only loosely tied.

The OLA's strength, estimated at a few thousand men in 2018, has increased significantly in recent years, though observers believe it is insufficiently organised or well-armed to pose a real threat to the federal government.

Oromia, which surrounds the capital Addis Ababa and is Ethiopia's largest and most populous region, has suffered ethnic massacres in recent years carried out by unknown groups.

The OLA has been repeatedly accused by the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed -- himself of Oromo descent -- of being responsible for the killings, a charge it denies.

The government is accused of waging an indiscriminate crackdown that has fuelled Oromo resentment against the central government.

A mosaic of more than 80 ethno-linguistic communities, Ethiopia has struggled to manage rival claims to territorial and political power.
Journalists in Ghana no longer feel as good about the Ghana Journalists Association as they did in the days when it was led by the likes of Gifty Afenyi Dadzie and Kabral Blay Amihere, a former vice president of the Private Newspapers and Online News Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), Mr David Tamakloe, has observed.

Discussing Ghanas media landscape on Class91.3FMs morning show to mark World Press Freedom Day on Wednesday, 3 May 2023, Mr Tamakloe, who is the editor of WhatsUP News, told Korku Lumor: I think that over the years, the GJA has lost that stage  the stage where it is seen as a body that speaks for journalists across the board, [as] an association that seeks the welfare of media practitioners  I think that stage has been lost and over the years, there have been issues about credibility.

I mean, you saw, recently, the issues about the GJA elections, so, most of the journalists dont feel about the GJA the way we used to when the likes of Gifty Afenyi Dadzie and Kabral Blay [Amihere] were in charge, Mr Tamakloe told Lumor.

In his view, journalists, in the past, felt good to be members of the association but it is no longer like that.

On the same show, a fellow discussant, Dr Abena Yeboah-Banin, of the Communications Studies Department of the University of Ghana, surmised that the umbrella body for journalists may have lost its lustre as a result of a clash of different political ideologies of the leaders.

I think, perhaps, part of what has happened with the GJA is the infiltration of positioning and ideology because if this person is in charge and I belong to this camp and I think he belongs to that camp, everything he is doing is wrong and thats why its problematic, she observed.

In her view, the wearing of ideological lenses by journalists must be done with some finesse so as not to colour everything with politics.

So, doing it by itself is not problematic if we are critical-minded as a people, its not that much of a big deal because you should be able to see my content and say: This is how Im interpreting it, but were too, sometimes, crass about our political leanings and how we want to wear it that we just let it colour everything, she decried, explaining: So, where reason must prevail  somebody says a good reason must always give way to a better reason  even when weve met a better reason than ours, because of our colouring, we insist that our position must be the one that holds sway and eventually, it infiltrates into all kinds of angles.

I mean, look at the challenges these two gentlemen [Mr Tamakloe and Mr Elvis Darko, editor of The Finder newspaper] are raising about the GJA and they are supposed to be members, but if its gotten to that place, it means that even when a certain law is to be promulgated to protect journalists, the voices that should feed that law have become divided and, so, its going to be: Is it going to help the NPP agenda or is it going to help the NDC agenda? Dr Yeboah-Banin noted.

In such circumstances, she said the core journalist who needs protecting, is being sacrificed in the midst of all this drama we are doing with politics.

-ClassFMonline.com
A Nigerian relationship expert, Solomon Buchi, has taken to social media to call on husbands to be more supportive of their wives at home.

In a lengthy tweet, Buchi stated that husbands should not subject their wives to house chores, as this could affect their health and well-being.

One wife. Wakes up by 4am, begins to do home chores; bathe the kids, makes breakfast, sweeps the house, serves breakfast by 7am. Leaves for work by 8am. Comes back by 5pm so tired. Starts taking care of the children again, home chores again," Buchi wrote.

He emphasized that this level of stress can make women age faster and look haggard, adding that some men do not realize this and even cheat on their wives.

"With this level of stress, these women end up looking way older than their age and some men dont realize this. Instead theyll even cheat on top," he wrote.

The relationship expert urged husbands to support their wives domestically and see it as teamwork.

"Being a husband includes supporting your wife in every possible way. Support domestically. See it as teamwork. If she does it all alone, itll affect her and whatever affects her, affects you, inadvertently affecting your marriage," he wrote.

Buchi emphasized that being a kind husband includes making an effort to make things easier for the person you love.

"Be a kind husband. One definition of kindness is making effort to make things easier for the person you love. You cant claim to love your wife and watch her shoulder all the domestic chores, when you have time and can help," he argued.

He ended his tweet by quoting Ephesians 5:25, which states that husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

"Seek the highest good for your wives and surround her with a caring and unselfish love. This is the Bible," he wrote.
The government of Ghana has issued a statement to commemorate this years World Press Freedom Day.

Reading the statement at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, May 3, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah admonished the media in the country to give more mileage to content that empowers citizens to fully enjoy their economic rights.

The media has been instrumental over the years in highlighting various rights that require attention for full enjoyment. The work of the media also in highlighting instances of abuse of some rights by sections of society has led to redress in many instances. We urge the media to remain resolute on this path.

The quest to have all citizens fully access their economic rights is yet to achieve full effect, especially as the world faces dim economic forecasts following recent global challenges. While urging the Media in Ghana to keep the spotlight on all human rights, we encourage an even sharper focus on efforts to ensure that the economic rights of citizens are fully actualized, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told journalists.

The Information Minister continued, Programs by state and non-state actors to support the Ghanaian people in building back faster after the recent economic challenges should be given deeper attention. We further encourage the media to give more media mileage to content that empowers citizens to fully enjoy their economic rights.

Meanwhile, government through the Ministry of Information has assured that it remains committed to supporting the media stakeholder groups such as the Ghana Journalists Association, the Private Independent Newspapers Association, the Communication Educators platform, and the Ghana Independent Broadcasters

This years World Press Freedom Day is being celebrated on the theme: "Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a driver for all other human rights."
At least 115 people have died as floods and mudslides swept through northern and western Rwanda after torrential rains, the state-run broadcaster said Wednesday, warning that the toll could rise.

"The rain that fell last night caused disaster in the Northern and Western Provinces," the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA) said on its website.

"Currently, the provisional figures published by the administration of these provinces say that 115 people have been declared dead."

Images on RBA's Twitter account showed houses engulfed in rivers of mud, roads cut off by landslides and flooded fields.

The broadcaster said the floodwaters were still rising, "causing a threat to more lives."

Most of the deaths occurred in Western Province which borders Lake Kivu, it said, adding that the floodwaters had swept away homes and infrastructure and led to road closures.

"I was at home with my children but we escaped successfully before it collapsed," said Jane Munyemana, a resident in the town of Rubavu in Western Province.

"We plan to remove the floodwaters and sleep in it tonight but we are worried that it may rain again and destroy whatever is remaining," she told AFP.

Other parts of East Africa have been battered by rains and flooding, including Uganda where six people have been reported dead.

'Massive landslides'

"Relief efforts began immediately, including helping to bury victims of the disaster and providing supplies to those whose homes were destroyed," Rwanda's minister in charge of emergency management, Marie Solange Kayisire, told RBA.

She called on local residents to increase patrols, especially at night, so people could be moved to safer ground when it rains heavily.

"When the floods started, there were massive landslides which caused trees to fall and bury the road down here. Our plantations were also washed away. We have a big problem down here," one woman in Northern Province told RBA.

In neighbouring Uganda, six people died in the west of the country when landslides struck their homes after days of torrential rain, according to the local Red Cross.

It said five of the dead belonged to the same family and were from a single village.

Images shared by the Red Cross showed local farmers perched on steeply terraced hillsides digging through the fresh mudslide and homes buried up to their rooftops in mud.

East Africa often suffers from flooding and landslides during the rainy seasons, although several countries in the Horn of Africa have been in the grip of the worst drought in decades.

Experts say extreme weather events are happening with increased frequency and intensity due to climate change -- and Africa, which contributes the least to global warming, is bearing the brunt.

Last month, at least 14 people died after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides in southern Ethiopia, regional police said. Hundreds of head of livestock perished and scores of houses were also damaged.

In May 2020, at least 65 people died in Rwanda as heavy rains pounded the region, while at least 194 deaths were reported in Kenya.

At the end of 2019, at least 265 people died and tens of thousands were displaced during two months of relentless rainfall.

The extreme downpours affected close to two million people and washed away tens of thousands of livestock in Kenya, Somalia, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan, Uganda, Djibouti and Ethiopia.
Christie's auction house on Wednesday launches the sale of hundreds of jewels that belonged to Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten, whose German businessman husband made his fortune under the Nazis.

Christie's will offer 700 lots from Horten's collection, including "unique and exceptional pieces" from 20th-century designers including Cartier, Harry Winston, Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels.

The whole collection has an estimated value of more than 136 million euros ($150 million).

The sale could eclipse previous records set by Christie's in sales of properties that belonged to actress Elizabeth Taylor in 2011 and the "Maharajas and Mughal Magnificence" collection in 2019, both of which exceeded 90 million euros ($100 million).

Leading the collection is a rare Cartier ruby and diamond ring, which weighs in at 25.59 carats and has "a saturated pigeon-blood red colour and fine purity", according to the auction house.

"What makes this collection particularly remarkable is the breadth and quality of the gemstones represented," said Max Fawcett, head of jewellery at Christie's in Geneva.

"You'll find everything from costume jewellery and one-of-a-kind haute joaillerie pieces, to historic jewels with exceptional provenance," he added.

Heidi Horten died last year aged 81. According to Forbes, she was worth 2.6 billion euros ($2.9 billion).

Nazi party

According to a report published in January 2022 by historians commissioned by the Horten Foundation, her husband Helmut Horten, who died in Switzerland in 1987, was a member of the Nazi party before being expelled.

In 1936, three years after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Horten took over the textile company Alsberg based in the western city of Duisburg after its Jewish owners fled.

He later took over several other shops that had belonged to Jewish owners before the war.

"How did a 27-year-old take over a major department store? Did he put the (Jewish) seller under pressure?" the historians wrote.

"The giant among the West German entrepreneurs remained silent about his activities in the years 1933-45. And so the image of an unscrupulous profiteer endures today."

The Allied denazification committee exonerated Helmut Horten after the war.

'Careful consideration'

On its website, Christie's says that "the business practices of Mr Horten during the Nazi era, when he purchased Jewish businesses sold under duress, are well documented".

Christie's CEO, Guillaume Cerutti said that the auction house's decision to take on the sale was made after "careful consideration".

"It was never Christie's intention to hide information about the well-documented history of Mr Horten and we have added relevant information to our sale materials and website to ensure that the facts are clear to all," he added.

The auction house has stressed that the proceeds from the sale will go to the Heidi Horten Foundation, established in 2021 to support the eponymous art collection, as well as to medical research, child welfare and other philanthropic activities that the wealthy heiress supported.

"For our part, Christie's will make a significant contribution from its final proceeds of the auction to an organisation that further advances Holocaust research and education," it added in its online statement.

Four hundred of the Horten lots will be sold at Christie's Geneva auction house from 10 to 12 May.

Other pieces will be sold online from 3 to 15 May and in November.

(with AFP)
03.05.2023 LISTEN

A traditional leader has filed a GHC2 million defamation suit against Kumasi-based Oyerepa Radio and Television station and others.

The Plaintiff, Nana Antwi Fosuhene, a businessman and resident of Manhyia- Ahenebuboano, Kumasi, directed the suit at Eunice Naa Amerley Nortey aka Auntie Naa, Emelia Agyemang, Proprietress and Owner Oyerepa FM and TV and Queenly Lilian Amponsah, a resident of Atonsu.

In the writ of summons, the Fosuhene who is the Kyidomhene of Asem, Kumasi, is seeking Compensatory, aggravated, and exemplary damages of GHC 2- million against the defendants.

He is also seeking general and punitive damages against the defendants for defaming him and causing him emotional pain, embarrassment, and public ridicule.

Fosuhene is further seeking a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their assigns and all persons acting for any of them, or taking instructions from them, from making any oral or written derogatory statement about him.

He is soliciting the court to direct the defendants to completely retract the said statements made against him at the same places and on media platforms including social media platforms, as well as publish and broadcast an unqualified public apology on all media platforms.

Fosuhene is also seeking further orders or reliefs which the court may consider necessary or just, including cost and solicitors' fees.

In a statement of claim filed at the commercial division of the Kumasi High Courts, Fosuhene said Eunice Naa Amerley Nortey aka Auntie Naa is the host of a programme dubbed Oyerepa Afutuo that is aired on Oyerepa FM and TV.

It said the second defendant, Emelia Agyeman owns the media platforms (Oyerepa Radia and TV).

The third defendant is a former staff of the Plaintiff at Sefo's and Sons Driving School, Plaintiff averred.

Fosuhene's case is that on November 29, 2022, Auntie Naa while hosting her programme allowed Emelia Agyemang, the third defendant to make defamatory and false statements without any notice to him.

Emelia, in an interview with Auntie Naa, alleged that she went looking for a job and met the plaintiff.

Emelia alleged that the plaintiff forced her to have sex with him, which resulted in her having five miscarriages after the beating she received from him.

Emelia further alleged during the interview that the Fosuhene had gone in for two other ladies because she had difficulty conceiving.

Fosuhene said Auntie Naa led and instigated Emelia to portray him in substance as a rapist, unethical businessman who engages in unwelcome sexual affairs with his staff, an abuser, a womanizer and a criminal.

He contended that Auntie Naa and Emelia in the pursuit of their agenda paraded him as an abusive person.

Fosuhene said during an interview on the same programme, Auntie Naa and Emelia further paraded him as a rapist and an unethical businessman who forcefully subjects his employees to sexual intercourse and as someone who instigates abortion and assaults a pregnant woman to have a miscarriage.

He stated that statements made by the two defendants on the said programme were false and were made maliciously by them just to tarnish his hard-won reputation as a businessman and respected Traditional ruler.

The second defendant on her part also provided them with her platforms for them to defame the plaintiff, the Statement of Claim said.

According to Fosuhene, These defamatory statements have seriously affected him.

Indeed, aside from public ridicule, the plaintiff now finds it difficult to even go to public places as he has to explain himself to almost everybody since they keep asking and chastising him about the words spoken of him by the first and third defendants on the programme.

Fosuhene said that because of the defamatory statement, his business partners had also formed a negative impression of him and are not willing to do business with him.

He claimed that the statement had also cost him his economic interest, reputation, his position as a chief and his self-esteem.

The plaintiff avers that all efforts to have the defendants retract their defamatory words have proved futile as the defendants have consistently maintained and stood by their unlawful acts with the sworn intention of soiling the image of the plaintiff and bringing same into disrepute, the statement of claim said.

GNA
Mr Abraham Koomson, Secretary General of the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) has said the worsening situation of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) is due to a lack of political will from previous governments.

He claimed that because governments have not taken strong measures to rehabilitate the refinery, it continues to deteriorate day after day.

Mr. Koomson was addressing at the Ghana News Agency Industrial News Hub Platform when he stated that the constant cries of TOR employees and Organised Labour were highly concerning and needed to be addressed immediately.

He went on to explain that it was troubling that the refinery, which had the greatest engineers and the capacity to refine thousands of barrels per day, was only transporting completed products rather than fulfilling its primary duty of refining oil.

The GFL Secretary-General stated that Ghana was now through financial distress and a debt restructuring programme, highlighting the importance of promoting local industry as a critical component in the nation's development.

He emphasised that the current system, in which TOR was underutilised yet the government exported the product to other countries at a high cost to refine and ship back into the country, was unacceptable, as was not including the refinery in the Gold for Oil arrangement.

Mr. Koomson warned that restoring TOR to full capacity would assist relieve pressure on the Ghana Cedi by lowering finance expenses because these transactions were denominated in cedis.

Meanwhile, TOR workers' planned picketing from Tuesday, May 2, to Friday, May 5, 2023, at six public places in Tema to support their calls on the government to revamp the Refinery's operations has been suspended indefinitely due to management intervention.

TOR's picketing tactic was to deploy 40 workers at the Motorway Roundabout, Rana Roundabout, Valco Roundabout, MPS Roundabout, Hospital Roundabout, and Community 5 Traffic Light at the same time between 06:00 and 11:00 a.m.

In an interview in Tema, Mr. Bernard Owusu, National Chairman of the GTPCWU, revealed that the sites were agreed upon with the Ghana Police Service after they wrote to alert them about their plans in compliance with the Public Order Act.

Mr. Owusu stated that the picketing is part of a series of efforts to put pressure on the government to restart the ailing Refinery, which has been out of commission for some time.

According to the workers, TOR would be able to supply 50 percent of the country's overall domestic consumption, 100 percent of Residual Fuel Oil (RFO) for industrial operations, 20 to 25 percent of LPG consumption, and 100 percent of Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK) if operating at full capacity.

They stated that Ghana needed approximately $4.8 billion per year to purchase petroleum products, and that if TOR were fully operating, the forex requirement for petroleum product imports would be lowered by more than half.

Another advantage they mentioned was the reduction in domestic ex-pump prices due to the elimination of certain import charges, such as the freight rate of around $92/Mt for petrol, $101/Mt for diesel and $83/Mt for LPG.

-CDA Consult || Contributor
The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has admonished the media in the country to uphold the highest professionalism ahead of the internal election of political parties as they prepare for the 2024 general election.

Both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will go to the polls this year to elect a flagbearer and candidates for the Member of Parliament elections.

Delivering an address on Wednesday, May 3, to commemorate this years World Press Freedom Day, GJA President Albert Dwumfour charged the media not to entertain politicians and persons who will be looking to poison the atmosphere in the run-up to the elections.

He further warned politicians not to dare abuse journalists or face the wrath of the GJA.

As the political season approaches, I would like to exhort my media colleagues not to entertain politicians or individuals who will poison the atmosphere with intemperate and provocative remarks. Let's perform our professional roles while keeping the country's peace in mind.

Permit me to also use this occasion to warn politicians who have a propensity for abusing journalists or stifling free expression that they will not go scot-free. We are prepared to safeguard all media professionals as they perform their duties with diligence, Albert Dwumfour shared.

At the commemoration event held at the International Press Centre, the GJA President assured that the association is committed to promoting professional standards in the media and urged all journalists and media houses to uphold the highest level of integrity and professionalism.

We will not hesitate to call out any journalist or media organization that indulges in flagrant violations of professional ethics and standards. This is in view of the recognition that press freedom and indeed all other forms of freedoms go with responsibility and the duty to respect public sensibilities, human dignity, and public interest, Albert Dwumfour declared.
President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Albert Dwumfour has stressed that for the country to develop, the right to free expression should be jealously protected.

On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day today, the GJA President has implored government to take all measures necessary to safeguard the right to free expression in the country.

Regarding the development of the nation, Madam Chairperson, the right to free expression is of the utmost importance, and all measures must be taken to ensure that it is not infringed upon in any way, Albert Dwumfour said.

According to GJA President Albert Dwumfour, his administration in the coming weeks will inaugurate the "See Something, Say Something" initiative.

This initiative is distinct from that of the Ministry of National Security and aims to encourage citizens to volunteer information about individuals who plan to attack or have already attacked journalists.

We believe that this would substantially contribute to the reduction of journalistic assaults. It will also empower citizens at the local level to ensure accountability and transparency, GJA President Albert Dwumfour explained during Wednesdays event.

World Press Freedom Day, is marked on May 3, every year. It is a special occasion designated by UNESCO to spread awareness regarding the role media plays in our daily lives and society.

The 2023 World Press Freedom Day in Ghana is being organized solely by the GJA, with assistance from the Ghana Police Service and ADB, following the advice of its long-term partner, UNESCO.

The global theme for World Press Freedom Day 2023 is Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a Driver for all other human rights.

In Ghana, the day is being commemorated on the theme; Freedom of Expression: A driver for all human rights for Ghanas Development.
The Private Newspapers and Online News Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) has issued a statement to commend all media practitioners in the country for the work they do.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, May 3, PRINPAG commemorates the 2023 World Press Freedom Day on the theme, Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a Driver for all other human rights.

.the Private Newspapers and Online News Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), salutes all media practitioners in Ghana, who have sacrificed to take up the crucial role of the media practice in a democratic society.

On this day, it is important to continue highlighting the need to protect journalists and their sources from censorship, intimidation, and any act of violence, parts of the release from PRINPAG said.

PRINPAG insists that the 2023 World Press Freedom Day must serve as a wake-up call to defend media practitioners in the country.

The association believes that now more than ever journalists must be protected.

This years World Press Freedom Day must serve as a wake-up call to all lovers of media freedom to stand up and to defend media practitioners by condemning all acts that end up negatively affecting the practice of journalism in this country.

It is also a wake-up call to all lovers of media growth to partner the Ghanaian and to support them in these difficult times to stand on their feet to defend our nation and our enviable democracy, which has become the toast of many in recent times, the statement signed by PRINPAG President Andrew Edwin Arthur said.

Meanwhile, PRINPAG has urged the Governments media handlers to be proactive and to engage media owners, editors, and senior journalists more in an attempt to save the Ghanaian media from dying.
The President of the Ghana Journalists Associaiton (GJA), Mr Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, has said the association will continue to pile pressure on the Ghana Police Service to ensure that it concludes investigations into the murder of slain journalist Ahmed Suale.

The GJA President was speaking in Accra, on the occasion of the 2023 World Press Freedom Day.

On this day, we cannot forget Ahmed Suale, four years after his gruesome murder. We continue to seek justice for him by putting pressure on the authorities concerned to up their game, Mr Dwumfour noted.

He stressed the associations commitment to ensuring justice for the slain journalist.

Quite recently, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice disclosed that the docket on Ahmed Suale had not reached his office considering the fact his office has prosecutorial powers.

"As an association, we will continue putting pressure on the Police to conclude the investigation on the matter and submit the docket to the AG for the necessary action, he noted.

Calling on journalists across the country to come together and fight hard for a more liberated society, the GJA President, urged journalists not to entertain politicians or individuals who will poison the atmosphere with intemperate and provocative remarks. Let's perform our professional roles while keeping the country's peace in mind, as the political season approaches.

Mr Dwufour cautioned politicians against the abuse of the countrys journalists.

Permit me to also use this occasion to warn politicians who have a propensity for abusing journalists or stifling free expression that they will not go scot-free.

We are prepared to safeguard all media professionals as they perform their duties with diligence, he said.

The GJA President pledged the associations commitment to ensuring professional standards in the countrys media space.

We commit ourselves to promoting professional standards in the media and urge all journalists and media houses to uphold the highest level of integrity and professionalism. We will not hesitate to call out any journalist or media organisation that indulges in flagrant violations of professional ethics and standards.

This is in view of the recognition that press freedom and indeed all other forms of freedoms go with responsibility and the duty to respect public sensibilities, human dignity and public interest," he noted.

He also reiterated the celebration of World Press Freedom Day would become an annual charade if state institutions do not commit themselves to changing the narrative and maintaining the rights of Journalists for once.

This years global World Press Freedom Day is themed: 'Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a Driver for all Other Human Rights.

Ghanas theme for the celebration is Freedom of Expression: A Driver for all Human Rights for Ghanas Development.

-classfmonline.com
The UN chief on Wednesday said "we failed" to stop war from erupting in Sudan, where persistent fighting between rival generals undermined efforts to firm up a truce.

"The UN was taken by surprise" by the conflict, because the world body and others were hopeful that negotiations would be successful, Antonio Guterres told reporters in Nairobi.

"To the extent that we and many others were not expecting this to happen, we can say we failed to avoid it to happen," the secretary general said.

"A country like Sudan, that has suffered so much... cannot afford a struggle for power between two people."

His remarks came as top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths was in Sudan one day after neighbouring South Sudan announced that the warring sides had agreed "in principle" to a seven-day ceasefire.

Multiple announced ceasefires have been violated. By - (AFP)

Deadly violence broke out on April 15 between Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who commands the regular army, and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

At least 550 people have been killed and 4,926 wounded, according to the latest health ministry figures, which are likely to be incomplete.

More than 100,000 refugees have fled to neighbouring countries in an exodus that has sparked warnings of a humanitarian "catastrophe" with implications for the entire region.

On Wednesday, Griffiths arrived in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan -- so far untouched by the fighting -- on an urgent mission to find ways to bring relief to the millions of Sudanese unable to escape.

Griffiths called for security guarantees "at the highest level" to ensure desperately needed aid deliveries to war-ravaged parts of the country.

"We know these general assurances need to be translated into specific commitments," he added.

Map of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, showing the state of hospitals, as of May 1. By Sylvie HUSSON, Jonathan WALTER (AFP)

Griffiths said he had been informed by the UN's World Food Programme that six trucks bringing aid to the country's western Darfur region had been "looted en route" Wednesday, "despite assurances of safety and security".

On Tuesday the foreign ministry of neighbouring South Sudan announced that Burhan and Daglo "have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4th to 11th".

The two sides have yet to formally confirm the new ceasefire.

The warring sides have announced multiple truces but none has effectively taken hold. The current truce was extended on Sunday by a further 72 hours and is due to expire on Wednesday at 2200 GMT.

Mounting condemnation

Despite the truce efforts, witnesses reported warplanes over north Khartoum on Wednesday and fierce clashes near the state broadcaster's headquarters in the capital's twin city of Omdurman.

"We heard again loud gunfire and anti-aircraft firing at a fighter jet this morning," a resident of south Khartoum said.

Multiple hospitals have been among the facilities struck during the war, and the UN says only 16 percent of Khartoum's hospitals remain fully functional.

Saudi Arabia said the premises of its cultural centre in Khartoum were attacked on Tuesday "by an armed group which damaged equipment, cameras and seized some of the mission's property".

The kingdom condemned the raid, calling for de-escalation and an end to the violence.

Nearly 450,000 civilians have fled their homes, the International Organization for Migration said, including more than 115,000 who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

The border of Sudan's authoritarian neighbour Eritrea is now open to those fleeing, the Sudanese embassy in the country said, adding that those arriving by plane would be granted visa-free entry.

The failure of the warring generals to abide by their commitments in efforts to end nearly three weeks of fighting has drawn mounting international criticism.

Motorists queues at a filling station in Khartoum, where nearly three weeks of fighting have sparked an acute shortage of fuel. By - (AFP)

"The two generals, even though they accept the ceasefire, at the same time they continue fighting and shelling the city," complained Ismail Wais of East African regional bloc IGAD.

He said the persistent fighting "compounds and complicates the political, security and humanitarian situation on the ground making it harder to resolve."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Tuesday that the fighting in neighbouring Sudan was affecting "the entire region".

The Saudi-headquartered Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Wednesday held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Sudan.

Griffiths also called for the lifting of "bureaucratic impediments to delivering assistance", pointing out that even he had had difficulty obtaining visas for his trip.

In addition to the capital Khartoum, violence has engulfed the Darfur region where at least 99 people have been killed in fighting, according to Sudan's doctors union.

Of the more than 330,000 people displaced inside Sudan, more than 70 percent were reported to be from West and South Darfur states, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Darfur is still scarred by a war that erupted in 2003 when then-strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, against ethnic minority rebels.

The Janjaweed -- whose actions led to war crimes charges against Bashir and others -- later evolved into the RSF.
Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has lamented Ghanas drop in the 2023 global ranking in press freedom from the 60th to the 62nd position out of 180 countries.

The Association made these concerns at the commemoration of the 2023 World Press Freedom Day in Accra in which it also lamented the Electronic Communications Act which it said stifles the growth and safety of journalists.

Speaking at the ceremony, the GJA President, Albert Dwumfour urged the government to amend the electronic offences act and sections of the Criminal Offences Act 208.

GIBA [Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association] and PRINPAG [Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana] recently urged the government to amend certain provisions of the Electronic Communications Act and the Criminal Code, specifically, Section 208 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act 1960. As critical stakeholders in the media industry, we cannot remain unconcerned as these Acts are used to arrest citizens and journalists. The arbitrary application of these laws only instils fear in the general populace.

He further disclosed that his administration will soon begin the see something, say something initiative to encourage the public to volunteer information about Individuals who plan to attack or have already attacked Journalists.

Mr. Dwumfuor did not leave out reporters as he admonished them to be cautious with their reportage, especially during the election period.

He also assured that We will continue to ensure that any action or law that is used to stifle free expression fails because it is essential that journalists who are the vanguards of free speech receive all the support they require to carry out their duties without hindrance or compromise.

Former President of the Ghana Journalists Association(GJA), Gifty Afenyi -Dadzie is urging the media to intensify its role in fighting against illegal mining in the country.

She stated this at the commemoration of the 2023 World Press Freedom Day in Accra which is under the theme,Shaping a future of rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights.

On her part, the former president of the GJA, Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie charged the media to intensify its role in fighting against illegal mining in the country which she said should be treated as a national disaster that all media houses in the country must be interested in stopping.

She further admonished the media to keep watch over state-owned companies to rid off corruption and mismanagement.

-citinewsrom
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson delivered his annual State of the State Address on Jan. 18, 2023 (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications).

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson made improving access to child care a major part of his 2023 legislative agenda, declaring during his annual State of the State address in January that early childhood care is essential to our states success.

Since then, lawmakers have worked to enact his recommendations, but the proposals have faced roadblocks on their way to his desk.

The Missouri General Assembly adjourns for the year at 6 p.m. on May 12. Here are where Parsons major child care priorities stand:

$56 million to expand pre-k to all four-year-olds eligible for free or reduced-price lunch: The Houses version of the budget removed this funding  some lawmakers raised concerns school districts wouldnt be ready to host pre-k, or that it was too costly, and others argued a universal program would be fairer. The funding was restored by the Senate, and most expect it to remain as lawmakers finish up their work on the states $50 billion budget this week.

$78 million to increase child subsidy rates: The House also removed this from its budget only to see the Senate restore it. Critics of the increase argued the rates had been improperly set. This funding is also expected to remain in the budget when it heads to the governor for his signature.

Parson has also pushed to create tax credits to improve child care facilities, support employers who support their workers with child care assistance, and allow more of our dedicated child care workers to earn a pay increase.

Unlike his budget proposals, the tax credits face a more uncertain future due to opposition from conservative lawmakers in the Senate.

A child care contribution tax credit, which would allow donors to child care providers to receive a credit equal to 75% of a qualifying donation, up to a $200,000 tax credit.

Employer-provided child care assistance tax credit, which would allow employers to receive tax credits equivalent to 30% of qualifying child care expenditures.

Child care providers tax credit, which would allow child care providers to claim a tax credit equal to the providers employer withholding tax and up to 30% of a providers capital expenditures on costs like expanding or renovating their facilities.

The Supporting Use of Child Care for Economic Stability and Security (SUCCESS) Tax Credit , while not a part of Parsons agenda, was added onto a bill that includes the other three credits. Its sponsored by Rep. Hannah Kelly and would provide parents up to $1,800 per year, per child, in child care refunds.
Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has released the Ghana 2022 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) Third Quarter Labour Statistics.

The report was released on Wednesday, 3rd May 2023, at the Accra International Conference Centre.

Making presentations from highlights from the report, Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Annim revealed that about 1.76 million persons were unemployed in the third quarter of 2022.

Also, Within this population, two out of every three unemployed persons were females.

Professor Annim further disclosed that across the three quarters of the year 2022, about 157,000 persons experienced an unemployment spell i.e. they were unemployed in all the quarters.

While, close to 7.5 million persons remained employed throughout the three quarters out of the about 11 million persons employed in each quarter indicating about 3.5 million persons were moving in and out of employment depicting vulnerabilities.

The report also revealed that the transition from informal employment to unemployment is on the average, five times more than from formal employment into unemployment.

It further revealed, two out of every three unemployed persons in Q3 that were employed in Q1 were in vulnerable employment in the first quarter.

The Government statistician added that: The population that is triple burdened i.e. simultaneously unemployed, food insecure and multidimensionally poor increased by almost 55,000 between Q2 and Q3.

-classfmonline.com
The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) on Wednesday, May 3, launched a Report on the Analysis of the 2022 Non-Traditional Export Statistics.

During a presentation of the highlights of the report, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GEPA, Dr. Afua Asabea Asare disclosed that the country's Non-Traditional Export (NTE) earnings increased by 6% from the previous year, as the country raked in USD3,531,048,234.

This growth according to the GEPA CEO can be attributed to a combination of structural changes within Ghana's NTE ecosystem and the effective implementation of the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS).

"We are delighted to report a 6% increase in Ghana's Non-Traditional Export earnings for 2022. This positive trend can be attributed to the successful implementation of the National Export Development Strategy and the strategic changes made within our NTE ecosystem," Dr. Asabea Asare explained.

According to the GEPA CEO, the implementation of the NEDS played a crucial role in facilitating the growth of the NTE sector.

The strategy focused on enhancing market access, improving product quality and standards, promoting value addition, and exploring emerging markets.

These initiatives have led to an overall strengthening of Ghana's NTE sector and a diversification of its export offerings.

Dr. Asabea Asare

Highlighting the top ten NTE products for 2022, Dr. Asare mentioned cocoa paste, cashew nuts, cocoa butter, iron and steel circles, rods, sheets, billets, articles of plastics, aluminum plates, sheets and coils, canned tuna, natural rubber sheets, cocoa powder, and shea oil.

From the report, cocoa paste emerged as the highest earner, contributing US$520.3 million, followed by cashew nuts with US$294.2 million. Shea oil ranked as the lowest earner with US$92.6 million.

With the singular honour to launch the report, Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Dokua Asiamah-Adjei said it is pleasing to know that the countrys Non-Traditional Export earnings increased even in the midst of global economic challenges.

She applauded the efforts of individuals within the export value chain and the export fraternity for their relentless work, which contributed to the positive outcome of the 2022 NTE statistics.

It is, therefore, refreshing to see that our NTEs have continued to show resilience in the face of global economic challenges. I am very pleased with the outcome of the 2022 Non-Traditional Exports statistics, as it is a testament of the relentless work put in by every individual along the export value chain/export fraternity, Dokua Asiamah-Adjei said.

Dokua Asiamah-Adjei

The Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry further indicated that it is no doubt that the implementation of the NEDS by GEPA and relevant stakeholders contributed to the positive growth.

She said if resilience and hard work are maintained, accomplishing the strategy's aim of making US$25.3 billion in the next ten years will be a walk in the park, she said.

More about GEPAs Non-Traditional Export Statistics Report 2022:

The cumulative value of the top ten products accounted for US$2,150,085,426, representing 60.9% of the total NTE earnings in 2022. The average earning of the top ten earners was recorded at US$215.0 million.

The ECOWAS market remains the leading destination for Ghana's NTEs, accounting for 34.59% of the total market, followed closely by the EU & UK markets, contributing 31.90%.

Burkina Faso emerged as the leading market destination for Ghana's NTEs, with a consumption value of US$425.01 million, representing a 16% increase from the previous year.

Togo followed with a significant 21% increase, consuming US$198.05 million in 2022 compared to US$156.88 million in 2021.

Next steps:

GEPA after the gains of 2022, is not relenting in its efforts to encourage exports. CEO Dr. Afua Asabea Asare is optimistic about the future of Ghana's NTE sector.

At the launch of the report, she said the plan is to continue efforts to diversify products, explore new markets, and enhance competitiveness.

We are excited to see the steady growth of Ghanas NTEs and are committed to continuing our efforts to push for further improvements in 2023, especially as foreign exchange fluctuations improve.

We are confident that with the implementation of NEDS, continuous support of government, and the hard work of all stakeholders involved, Ghanas NTEs will continue significantly to the countrys economic growth, Dr. Afua Asabea Asare indicated.
Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu constituency, has accused Akufo-Addo of engaging in dubious activities of the controversial National Cathedral project.

In a statement posted on Facebook Monday, May 1, 2023, Mr Ablakwa revealed that a non-profit organization, known as the "National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc." was registered in the United States, but its name differs from the organization incorporated in Ghana in 2019.

It is worthy of note that the name National Cathedral of Ghana and Museum Foundation, Inc. is unmistakably different from what was incorporated in Ghana some two years prior, specifically on the 18th of July, 2019 as the National Cathedral of Ghana, part of the written piece said.

Mr. Ablakwa's concern is that none of the prominent ministers of the gospel who serve as trustees of the National Cathedral of Ghana was not included in the US organization's list of governors and authorized persons.

Instead, the names of Eric Okyere Darko, Dr. Vernon Darko, and Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah were used, raising questions about the government's preference for these individuals over the prominent clergy serving on the Board of Trustees.

In his post, he said, Curiously, we have also discovered that none of the prominent Ministers of the Gospel who serve as Trustees of the National Cathedral of Ghana feature in the articles of incorporation and list of governors as submitted to US authorities.

"The names of governors and authorized persons as contained in the Two-Year Report for Domestic & Foreign Filing Entity are: Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah, Eric Okyere Darko and Dr. Vernon Darko.

Additionally, the official address of the National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc. provided on its website and to US authorities has been found to be fraudulent, with no evidence of the organization ever having been a tenant at the stated address.

The statement said, even more shocking, we have discovered that the address provided on both the National Cathedral of Ghana website and to US authorities as the official address of the National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc. is absolutely fraudulent. The advertised address is: National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc. 1090 Vermont AVE NW, Washington, DC 20005.

Read full statement below;


03.05.2023 LISTEN

My wife Alberta Mensah and I stayed at Sakumono Estate 10 D Line, third floor, last apartment, 2015. We slept on used mattresses from the USA bought in Tema on the naked concrete floor. Our food in the one-bedroom kitchen was on the floor as the shelves were broken. One flame camping stove was our cooker. Three light blue plastic chairs were all we had to sit on to eat and watch the black-and-white old TV set.

My Ghana partner run off with our rent advance to move to Lashebi while my other Ghana partner refused to give me money. We passed through difficult times. In theory, I was a Millionaire but as NDC and especially Ibrahim Mahama wanted to see us dead we had to go hungry. No food in the house and a dark future ahead.

My wife had gone across the street to Glorious Wave Church International of Prophet Dr. Emmanuel Badu Kobi. I once went there to bring my wife out of the evening service. I was hated by one Usher. At my lowest point, my wife suggested attending his church. With a hungry stomach, I went there. My idea for weeks was to report him to Sakumono Police Station for loud music at night.

There I was in a "hostile" environment as a German Intellectual with a critical mind. That night he saw me as I was the only white person there. The moment he started to prophesy he came to me and pushed all chairs in front of me aside. He asked who I am and why I I had come. I told him that the governing party NFC had stolen $ 25 Mio. from my partner and me. He confirmed my statement. He asked me to come to his house after the church service. My wife and I did so. In his compound in the presence of Mawuena Trebarh, GIPC Ghana Investment Promotion Company CEO and famous Ghana actor Mr. Beautiful I answered my Spiritual Father that I had come to buy CPC Ltd in Tema once in 1965 by order of the late President of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah factory made possible by Joachim Burmeister from Hamburg-Othmarschen, Germany the best-renowned expert in chocolate manufacturing known to me personally. I had come to help Ghana to be proud of itself to produce the best cocoa beans in the world and to turn the blessings from God into the world's best chocolates.

But the system in Ghana brought CPC Ltd down to on its knees. Ghana is still suffering for nothing.

All the while it was and is the inspiration of my Spiritual Father Prophet Dr. Emmanuel Badu Kobi in church and now through modern technology that helped me not to give up hope for the motherland Ghana.

Happy Birthday my beloved Spiritual Father Prophet Dr. Emmanuel Badu Kobi on this special day from Hamburg, Germany. May God always bless you.
Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has expressed concern over the state of journalism in Ghana.

Speaking on JoyNews' Upfront program on World Press Freedom Day, Mr. Braimah claimed that the media in Ghana are no longer fulfilling their role as watchdogs due to financial issues.

He attributed this to the control of media houses by politicians and wealthy individuals who even influence the selection of journalists.

"In Ghana today, the media or journalists are not holding duty bearers accountable as the Constitution grants us," he said.

Mr. Braimah further shared a story where a media house explicitly stated that they exist due to the interests of their owners and political party.

Once we were told by a media house that they exist because of the interest of their owners and the party, he recalled.

He lamented that the few journalists who try to practice real journalism are often attacked or criticized, even by their colleagues in other media houses.

The very few [journalists] who want to practice real journalism are attacked and face other criticisms. Sometimes those who go ahead to do the stories are attacked by their colleagues in other media houses, the media freedom advocate said.

On World Press Freedom Day, which is celebrated annually on May 3, people around the world, particularly media actors, reflect on the importance of press freedom and its role in promoting democracy and protecting human rights.
ASA Savings and Loans Limited has shown its commitment towards governments initiative to plant more trees in the country.

Ahead of the 2023 Green Ghana Day, ASA Savings and Loans Ltd has set out to plant 2000 trees in the country.

On Friday, April 28, officials of the company in collaboration with the Forestry Commission office in Koforidua and the Koforidua Prisons commenced tree planting in the Eastern Region.

According to the company, this is just the first step towards realising the goal to plant 2000 trees this year.

In the coming months, the officials will visit other areas in the country to continue with the tree-planting exercise.

ASA Savings and Loans Ltd is of the view that joining the tree-planting agenda of government is important because repairing damaged ecosystems will help mitigate climate change and its effects.

It is the plan of the company to embark on a tree-planting exercise annually to complement the efforts of government.

Trees planted include Casia, Akyee, Neem trees, oranges, mango, Avocado, and coconut, among others.

Explaining the rationale behind Fridays tree planting exercise, the Koforidua Area Manager of ASA Savings and Loans, David Amevor said it is part of his outfits Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities

On his part, the Koforidua Forestry Range Manager, Clement Angmortey applauded ASA Savings and Loans for its decision to plant trees.

He implored other organisations and individuals to join in planting trees to protect the environment.

In an assurance, Senior Chief Officer, Samuel Kusi Assan, the Second in Command in charge of Administration of the Koforidua Prisons noted that his outfit will monitor to ensure the planted trees survive.

Last month, Benito Owusu-Bio, Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and Chairman of the 2023 Green Ghana Project confirmed that this years Green Ghana Day will take place on June 9.

He also indicated that an amount of GHS2.5 million has been budgeted for the exercise with government keen on planting 10 million seedlings across the country.
The Chiba Bank, Ltd. (OTCMKTS:CHBAY  Get Rating) hit a new 52-week low on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $37.38 and last traded at $37.38, with a volume of 0 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $37.38.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Daiwa Capital Markets cut Chiba Bank from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 5th.

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Chiba Bank Stock Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average of $37.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.55.

Chiba Bank Company Profile

The Chiba Bank, Ltd. engages in the business of banking services. The company offers general banking services including deposits, loans, domestic and foreign exchange transactions; and financial services such as leasing, securities brokerage, credit cards and others. It also develops software; and provides business management and staffing services.

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Invesco Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals (NYSE:VTN  Get Rating) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.0331 per share by the investment management company on Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 12th.

Invesco Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals Price Performance

Shares of VTN remained flat at $10.13 during mid-day trading on Tuesday. The stock had a trading volume of 55,631 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,593. The stocks 50 day moving average is $10.23 and its 200-day moving average is $10.18. Invesco Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals has a 12-month low of $9.13 and a 12-month high of $11.37.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Invesco Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VTN. Logan Stone Capital LLC lifted its position in Invesco Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals by 195.4% in the 4th quarter. Logan Stone Capital LLC now owns 179,154 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $1,809,000 after acquiring an additional 118,503 shares in the last quarter. Rivernorth Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Invesco Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals by 93.3% during the 1st quarter. Rivernorth Capital Management LLC now owns 145,681 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $1,688,000 after buying an additional 70,315 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Invesco Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals by 47.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 144,552 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $1,460,000 after buying an additional 46,841 shares during the last quarter. Robinson Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Invesco Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals by 15.0% during the 1st quarter. Robinson Capital Management LLC now owns 179,715 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $2,079,000 after buying an additional 23,377 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its stake in Invesco Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals by 60.9% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 40,665 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $411,000 after buying an additional 15,390 shares during the last quarter. 17.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Invesco Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals

Invesco Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals operates as a non-diversified, closed-end investment company. It intends to provide common shareholders with current income exempt from federal as well as from New York State and New York City income taxes, consistent with preservation of capital.

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Kadant (NYSE:KAI  Get Rating) issued an update on its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $8.90-9.15 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $9.00. The company issued revenue guidance of $910-935 million, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $911.94 million. Kadant also updated its Q2 guidance to $2.05-2.15 EPS.

Kadant Price Performance

KAI stock traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $186.38. The companys stock had a trading volume of 56,964 shares, compared to its average volume of 65,869. Kadant has a 12 month low of $154.19 and a 12 month high of $221.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50 day moving average of $201.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $192.38.

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Kadant (NYSE:KAI  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $2.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.33. Kadant had a return on equity of 17.48% and a net margin of 13.37%. The business had revenue of $232.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $219.09 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.31 EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Kadant will post 8.91 EPS for the current year.

Kadant Increases Dividend

Analysts Set New Price Targets

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 12th will be given a dividend of $0.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 11th. This is a positive change from Kadants previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. Kadants payout ratio is 11.21%.

KAI has been the topic of several research reports. DA Davidson raised their price target on Kadant from $182.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Friday, February 17th. StockNews.com upgraded Kadant from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 22nd. Finally, Barrington Research restated an outperform rating and set a $229.00 price target on shares of Kadant in a research note on Monday, February 13th.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Stacy D. Krause sold 780 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.10, for a total transaction of $159,978.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,843 shares in the company, valued at $377,999.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, SVP Stacy D. Krause sold 780 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.10, for a total transaction of $159,978.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 1,843 shares of the companys stock, valued at $377,999.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Mckenney sold 2,335 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.73, for a total value of $485,049.55. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 24,653 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,121,167.69. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 5,780 shares of company stock worth $1,179,960. Company insiders own 1.60% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kadant

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Kadant by 0.6% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 58,089 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $11,281,000 after acquiring an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Kadant by 55.3% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 6,200 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $1,204,000 after acquiring an additional 2,209 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its holdings in Kadant by 11.3% in the first quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 1,719 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $333,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in Kadant by 4.6% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 51,084 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $9,920,000 after acquiring an additional 2,247 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviva PLC acquired a new stake in Kadant in the first quarter worth about $1,483,000. Institutional investors own 95.84% of the companys stock.

About Kadant

(Get Rating)

Kadant Inc is a global supplier of critical components and engineered systems used in process industries worldwide. The firms products, technologies, and services play an integral role in enhancing process efficiency, optimizing energy utilization, and maximizing productivity in resource-intensive industries.

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Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE:HUBB  Get Rating) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 740,000 shares, a drop of 13.7% from the March 31st total of 857,300 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 421,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days. Currently, 1.4% of the companys shares are short sold.

Insider Transactions at Hubbell

In other news, CEO Gerben Bakker sold 9,350 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.80, for a total transaction of $2,251,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 37,801 shares in the company, valued at $9,102,480.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hubbell

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Hubbell by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,542,232 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,235,918,000 after acquiring an additional 57,469 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Hubbell by 69.4% during the 3rd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,870,982 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,086,230,000 after purchasing an additional 1,995,155 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Hubbell by 13.2% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,582,249 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $606,003,000 after purchasing an additional 301,775 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Hubbell by 133.8% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,543,481 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $283,646,000 after purchasing an additional 883,272 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Hubbell by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,491,325 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $274,061,000 after purchasing an additional 59,128 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.71% of the companys stock.

Hubbell Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:HUBB traded up $6.92 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $279.78. 673,150 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 442,609. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Hubbell has a 12 month low of $170.21 and a 12 month high of $280.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.00. The firms fifty day moving average price is $241.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $239.96.

Hubbell (NYSE:HUBB  Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $3.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.46 by $1.15. Hubbell had a return on equity of 27.72% and a net margin of 11.15%. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.12 EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Hubbell will post 13.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Hubbell Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 31st will be issued a $1.12 dividend. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 30th. Hubbells payout ratio is currently 42.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HUBB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com raised Hubbell from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Mizuho raised their price objective on Hubbell from $252.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. UBS Group cut Hubbell from a neutral rating to a sell rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $254.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Hubbell from $225.00 to $221.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Hubbell from an underweight rating to a neutral rating and raised their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $237.33.

Hubbell Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Hubbell, Inc engages in the designing, manufacturing, and sale of electrical and electronic products for non-residential and residential construction, industrial, and utility applications. It operates through the Electrical Solutions and Utility Solutions segments. The Electrical Solutions segment manufactures and sells wiring and electrical, lighting fixtures, and controls for indoor and outdoor applications as well as specialty lighting and communications products.

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Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from St. Charles County, sponsored a bill to put the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department under state control (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications).

Senate Democrats blocked a vote Tuesday night on a wide-ranging bill that would put St. Louis citys police department and part of the citys prosecutors office under state control.

After nine hours of a Democrat-led filibuster, Republicans set the bill aside for the night. The legislative session ends May 12 at 6 p.m.

Republicans argued St. Louis leaders couldnt decrease crime on their own, while Democrats said the legislation was purely a political vendetta against the citys progressive mayor and prosecutor.

And the bill, they said, ignores a major factor in the citys crime problem  loose gun laws.

This is a political attack on the city of St. Louis, said Sen. Steve Roberts, D-St. Louis. Its not a rational argument. No one is proposing a real solution to address guns.

The bill would give the governor the ability to strip the authority of any elected prosecutor to handle violent crime cases and appoint a special prosecutor  or the attorney general  to take over those cases for five years.

The bill would also put the citys police department back under control of a state board, with Republican Gov. Mike Parson appointing four commissioners to serve alongside the president of the St. Louis board of aldermen.

The police board would assume control of the department on Aug. 28.

You can pass all the gun control that your heart desires, said Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from St. Charles County. But if you dont have the police to enforce those laws, and you dont have a prosecutor to go after the criminals, what are you doing?

Republican legislators made it clear in January that challenging the authority of St. Louis elected prosecutor Kimberly Gardner  a progressive Black Democrat  was a top priority this year.

While control over St. Louis police and prosecutor were the most controversial parts of the bill, the legislation would also make it easier to charge people with the crime of rioting, expand the areas where school safety officers can carry firearms and extend prison sentences.

It would also require fingerprinting as part of the background checks for all employees at marijuana-related businesses.

The original bill had a provision to prevent children from carrying firearms in public without adult supervision. It was meant to reinstate language that the Second Amendment Preservation Act took out of Missouri law when it was passed in 2021.

But that was stripped from the bill by Republicans concerned about infringing on the Second Amendment.

This is about protecting kids, Roberts said. Its just egregious to me, the idea that guns over lives seems to be the mantra of this body.

Special prosecutor for violent crime cases

Rep. Lane Roberts, R-Joplin, said the goal of his special prosecutor bill was to decrease crime in the state.

However, the House bill originally targeted only Gardner, who won her re-election in November 2020 with 74% of the vote.

The bill was amended to apply to any elected prosecutors across the state, out of concern that singling out one prosecutor would be unconstitutional.

The governor could appoint a special prosecutor for five years if the number of homicide cases in any prosecuting attorneys jurisdiction in the 12 months immediately preceding exceeds 35 cases per every 100,000 people.

The governor would also have to determine that a threat to public safety and health exists based on reviewing certain crime statistics.

The special prosecutor would have exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute certain offenses  including murders, assaults, robberies, hijacking and other violent offenses  and be given a budget to hire up to 15 assistant prosecuting attorneys and 15 staffers.

The Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys and Gardners office testified against the bill in committee.

Gardners representative, Chief Warrant Officer Chris Hinkley, told legislators during a Jan. 30 committee hearing that the bill wrongly assumes the prosecutors office has a backlog of violent crime cases.

Weve kept violent crimes at the top, Hinkley said, even through the pandemic. The violent crimes will never and were not ever delayed in review and issuance.

The original bill included a line that explicitly states the special prosecutor shall not be the attorney general.

But that was stripped from the version the Senate debated Tuesday and replaced with the line stating the governor may appoint the attorney general or any elected prosecuting or circuit attorney as a special prosecutor.

During special sessions in 2020, Republicans similarly made two failed attempts to hand over an unprecedented amount of Gardners authority to then-Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.

Schmitt would have been allowed to take over homicide cases if Gardners office had not filed charges within 90 days of the incidents or upon request from the chief law enforcement officer.

The Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys fought vehemently against the provision in 2020, saying that Missourians have never wanted statewide politicians to meddle in local affairs.

State control of St. Louis police

On Tuesday, the Senate tacked on more hot-button language to the underlying bill to put St. Louis police department back under state control  a policy originally born out of pro-slavery leaders attempt to maintain control 150 years ago.

Kansas City is the only major city in the country where the citys elected leaders dont control the local police department  a state-appointed police board does.

Up until 2013, St. Louis was in the same boat.

However, the city gained local control of its police department after a 2012 statewide referendum.

The provision originally sponsored by Schroer would reverse that.

It also states the mayor or any city officer would be penalized $1,000 for each and every offense to hinder the board, as well as be forever be disqualified from holding or exercising any office of the city.

Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis, pushed back saying that the city had high crime under the state control prior to 2012.

You want to try to say that we need to take control of the police department, why? May said. You dont have a good track recordIts amazing to me how they just woke up this year and decided to care about the lives of people in St. Louis city.

Former Public Safety Director Dan Isom, who was the citys police chief in 2012 when the referendum was passed, previously testified to the Senate that the city has made strides to decrease violent crime despite state lawmakers continued push to loosen gun restrictions since 2007.

Missouri has some of the loosest gun laws in the country, Isom said.

Isom said when the Missouri legislature adopted permitless concealed carry in 2016, law enforcement officials warned about the impact but were ignored.

From 2016 to 2020, Isom said firearm homicides increased in the city by 50%  from 177 to 266.

However, from 2020 to 2021, he said the citys homicide rate fell by more than 25 percent, and the violent crime rate fell 23 percent over the same time period.

The return to local control has not resulted in an increase in violent crime, Isom said. An increase in weapons has increased the violence on our streets.

Isom also said taking away the authority of local elected officials to guide policing in St. Louis would also disconnect police officers from the communities they serve.

When a local mayor is in charge of their police force, they can serve as a translator between community needs and policing imperatives, Isom said. Removing this local connection will engender feelings of mistrust between officers and community, ultimately making officers less safe.
The Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE:HIG  Get Rating)s stock had its reiterates rating reissued by equities researchers at 888 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 5th. Credit Suisse Group reissued an outperform rating and set a $104.00 price objective on shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group in a research report on Monday, April 17th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a buy rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, March 31st. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group from $92.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $86.07.

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The Hartford Financial Services Group Price Performance

Shares of HIG stock traded down $0.70 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $69.81. 259,487 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,106,996. The Hartford Financial Services Group has a fifty-two week low of $60.17 and a fifty-two week high of $79.44. The stocks fifty day moving average is $70.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.34. The company has a market cap of $21.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.32 and a quick ratio of 0.32.

Insider Activity

The Hartford Financial Services Group ( NYSE:HIG Get Rating ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.68. The Hartford Financial Services Group had a net margin of 8.33% and a return on equity of 18.71%. The business had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.66 earnings per share. The Hartford Financial Services Groups revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Hartford Financial Services Group will post 7.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In related news, CEO Christopher Swift sold 34,624 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.32, for a total transaction of $2,711,751.68. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 197,221 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $15,446,348.72. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Christopher Swift sold 34,624 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.32, for a total transaction of $2,711,751.68. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 197,221 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $15,446,348.72. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Robert W. Paiano sold 14,542 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.38, for a total value of $1,125,259.96. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 46,629 shares in the company, valued at $3,608,152.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 96,587 shares of company stock valued at $7,524,178 in the last ninety days. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On The Hartford Financial Services Group

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HIG. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in The Hartford Financial Services Group by 7.2% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 17,704 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $1,271,000 after purchasing an additional 1,185 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its holdings in The Hartford Financial Services Group by 9.1% during the first quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 3,952 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $284,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Prudential PLC bought a new position in The Hartford Financial Services Group during the first quarter valued at $674,000. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group by 88.6% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 11,238 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 5,278 shares during the period. Finally, Zions Bancorporation N.A. boosted its holdings in shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group by 235.4% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 1,070 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $77,000 after acquiring an additional 751 shares during the period. 89.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

The Hartford Financial Services Group Company Profile

(Get Rating)

The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc is an insurance and financial services company. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Lines, Personal Lines, Property & Casualty Other Operations, Group Benefits, Hartford Funds, and Corporate. The Commercial Lines segment provides workers compensation, property, automobile, liability and umbrella coverage under several different products.

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Stockman Wealth Management Inc. reduced its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Get Rating) by 4.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,767 shares of the healthcare product makers stock after selling 360 shares during the quarter. Stockman Wealth Management Inc.s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $853,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABT. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 21,523 shares of the healthcare product makers stock valued at $2,083,000 after purchasing an additional 495 shares in the last quarter. Country Club Bank GFN boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Country Club Bank GFN now owns 18,236 shares of the healthcare product makers stock valued at $1,793,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,141 shares of the healthcare product makers stock valued at $674,000 after purchasing an additional 389 shares in the last quarter. Oak Family Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 15.4% during the 4th quarter. Oak Family Advisors LLC now owns 12,735 shares of the healthcare product makers stock valued at $1,398,000 after purchasing an additional 1,703 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Emerald Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 17.2% during the 3rd quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 7,772 shares of the healthcare product makers stock valued at $752,000 after purchasing an additional 1,140 shares in the last quarter. 72.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 679 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.70, for a total value of $68,375.30. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 70,427 shares of the companys stock, valued at $7,091,998.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Daniel J. Starks sold 50,000 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.02, for a total transaction of $5,551,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,825,316 shares of the companys stock, valued at $757,746,582.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 679 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.70, for a total value of $68,375.30. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 70,427 shares in the company, valued at $7,091,998.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 51,971 shares of company stock valued at $5,750,140. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Abbott Laboratories Stock Up 0.3 %

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $136.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 5th. Raymond James raised their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $116.00 to $123.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $117.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, January 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $122.37.

NYSE ABT traded up $0.36 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $111.86. 767,769 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,256,769. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $93.25 and a 12 month high of $118.23. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market capitalization of $194.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.89, a PEG ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 0.67.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 19th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.05. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 22.48% and a net margin of 13.98%. The company had revenue of $9.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.73 earnings per share. The businesss revenue was down 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.38 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.51 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 13th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. Abbott Laboratoriess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.01%.

Abbott Laboratories Company Profile

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Abbott Laboratories engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of a broad and diversified line of health care products. It operates through the following business segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The Established Pharmaceutical Products segment refers to the international sales of a line of branded generic pharmaceutical products.

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AMG National Trust Bank grew its position in iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF (NYSEARCA:IWP  Get Rating) by 12.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 354,154 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 39,537 shares during the quarter. iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF comprises approximately 1.1% of AMG National Trust Banks investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. AMG National Trust Banks holdings in iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF were worth $29,607,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF by 38.3% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 415 shares of the companys stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV grew its stake in shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 7,112 shares of the companys stock valued at $715,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its stake in shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,600 shares of the companys stock valued at $204,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 10,755 shares of the companys stock valued at $899,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the period. Finally, Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,892 shares of the companys stock valued at $227,000 after buying an additional 141 shares during the period.

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iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF stock traded up $0.29 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $88.81. The stock had a trading volume of 63,597 shares, compared to its average volume of 752,897. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $89.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $87.62. iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF has a 12-month low of $74.75 and a 12-month high of $95.11. The firm has a market cap of $11.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.03 and a beta of 1.10.

iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF Company Profile

iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF, formerly iShares Russell Midcap Growth Index Fund (the Growth Fund), is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Russell Midcap Growth Index (the Growth Index).

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Arizona State Retirement System lessened its stake in shares of Lowes Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW  Get Rating) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 169,124 shares of the home improvement retailers stock after selling 4,608 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement Systems holdings in Lowes Companies were worth $33,696,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Standard Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in Lowes Companies in the third quarter worth $26,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lowes Companies during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC grew its position in shares of Lowes Companies by 56.0% during the 3rd quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC now owns 142 shares of the home improvement retailers stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Lowes Companies by 70.6% during the 3rd quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 145 shares of the home improvement retailers stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Finally, McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Lowes Companies during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.62% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on LOW. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Lowes Companies from $250.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 1st. Roth Capital reissued a neutral rating on shares of Lowes Companies in a research report on Wednesday, March 1st. Telsey Advisory Group dropped their price objective on Lowes Companies from $250.00 to $235.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on Lowes Companies from $300.00 to $275.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 28th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Lowes Companies from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $223.85.

Lowes Companies Trading Up 1.5 %

LOW traded up $3.10 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $209.07. The companys stock had a trading volume of 617,766 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,944,732. Lowes Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $170.12 and a twelve month high of $223.31. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $200.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $202.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.09.

Lowes Companies (NYSE:LOW  Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 1st. The home improvement retailer reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $22.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.71 billion. Lowes Companies had a negative return on equity of 82.30% and a net margin of 6.63%. Lowes Companiess quarterly revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.78 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Lowes Companies, Inc. will post 13.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lowes Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 26th will be paid a $1.05 dividend. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 25th. Lowes Companiess dividend payout ratio is presently 41.96%.

Insider Transactions at Lowes Companies

In other Lowes Companies news, EVP Donald Frieson sold 9,411 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.00, for a total transaction of $1,853,967.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 17,888 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,523,936. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the companys stock.

Lowes Companies Profile

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Lowes Cos., Inc engages in the retail sale of home improvement products. The firm offers products for maintenance, repair, remodeling, home decorating and property maintenance. It also provides home improvement products in the following categories: appliances, bathroom, building supply, electrical, flooring, hardware, paint, kitchen, plumbing, lighting & fans, outdoor living, windows and doors.

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Arizona State Retirement System reduced its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS  Get Rating) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 93,010 shares of the investment management companys stock after selling 348 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement Systems holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $31,938,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 727.3% during the 3rd quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 91 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 224.0% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 81 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. NewSquare Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Paragon Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 109.3% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 90 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. 69.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GS shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $390.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $370.00 to $345.00 in a research note on Friday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $430.00 to $415.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. Odeon Capital Group upgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from a sell rating to a hold rating and set a $370.14 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Finally, UBS Group raised The Goldman Sachs Group from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $389.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

In related news, major shareholder Goldman Sachs Group Inc sold 4,000,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.43, for a total value of $25,720,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,099,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $109,951,611.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink . In other news, Treasurer Philip R. Berlinski sold 3,750 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $338.10, for a total transaction of $1,267,875.00. Following the transaction, the treasurer now owns 21,366 shares in the company, valued at $7,223,844.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link . Also, major shareholder Goldman Sachs Group Inc sold 4,000,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.43, for a total value of $25,720,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,099,784 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $109,951,611.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Insiders have sold 4,116,302 shares of company stock worth $30,101,191 in the last three months. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Shares of NYSE GS traded up $0.16 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $333.53. The company had a trading volume of 369,239 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,783,546. The stock has a market cap of $111.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.87, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.41. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $277.84 and a 12 month high of $389.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $333.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $349.61.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 18th. The investment management company reported $8.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.14 by $0.65. The business had revenue of $12.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.66 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 9.61% and a net margin of 13.23%. The businesss revenue was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $10.76 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 31.82 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 1st will be given a dividend of $2.50 per share. This represents a $10.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.00%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 31st. The Goldman Sachs Groups dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.60%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Profile

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The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc engages in the provision of financial services. It operates through the following business segments: Global Banking and Markets, Asset and Wealth Management, and Platform Solutions. The Global Banking and Markets segment includes investment banking, equity and debt underwriting, Fixed Income, Currency, and Commodities (FICC) intermediation and financing activities, relationship lending and acquisition financing, and investing activities.

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BellRing Brands, Inc. (NYSE:BRBR  Get Rating)  Investment analysts at William Blair issued their FY2023 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of BellRing Brands in a report issued on Wednesday, April 26th. William Blair analyst J. Andersen expects that the company will post earnings of $1.20 per share for the year. William Blair currently has a Outperform rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for BellRing Brands current full-year earnings is $1.23 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for BellRing Brands FY2024 earnings at $1.42 EPS.

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BellRing Brands (NYSE:BRBR  Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 6th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.06. BellRing Brands had a negative return on equity of 36.56% and a net margin of 8.29%. The company had revenue of $362.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $342.98 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.25 earnings per share. BellRing Brandss quarterly revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis.

BellRing Brands Stock Performance

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on BRBR. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on BellRing Brands from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on BellRing Brands from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 19th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on BellRing Brands from $34.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. Mizuho reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $38.00 price objective on shares of BellRing Brands in a research report on Tuesday, February 7th. Finally, Truist Financial raised BellRing Brands from a hold rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $25.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 23rd. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $38.25.

Shares of BRBR stock opened at $36.48 on Monday. BellRing Brands has a 52-week low of $20.20 and a 52-week high of $36.87. The company has a market capitalization of $4.87 billion, a PE ratio of 40.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.87. The businesss fifty day moving average is $32.90 and its 200 day moving average is $28.42.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in BellRing Brands by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 71,410 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,831,000 after acquiring an additional 564 shares in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its position in shares of BellRing Brands by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 35,324 shares of the companys stock valued at $906,000 after purchasing an additional 710 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings in BellRing Brands by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 22,385 shares of the companys stock worth $574,000 after buying an additional 710 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in BellRing Brands by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 39,202 shares of the companys stock worth $1,333,000 after buying an additional 757 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Fund Management S.A. lifted its holdings in BellRing Brands by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. now owns 11,058 shares of the companys stock worth $228,000 after buying an additional 799 shares during the last quarter. 92.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About BellRing Brands

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BellRing Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides various nutrition products in the United States and internationally. It offers ready-to-drink (RTD) protein shakes, other RTD beverages, powders, nutrition bars, and other products primarily under the Premier Protein and Dymatize brands. The company sells its products through club, food, drug, mass, eCommerce, specialty, and convenience channels.

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BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:BFZ  Get Rating) declared a monthly dividend on Monday, May 1st, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.039 per share on Thursday, June 1st. This represents a $0.47 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 12th.

BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust Price Performance

Shares of BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust stock traded up $0.03 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $11.96. 43,748 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 82,332. BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust has a 52-week low of $10.03 and a 52-week high of $12.05.

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Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust

In other news, major shareholder Saba Capital Management, L.P. acquired 27,924 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 23rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $11.21 per share, with a total value of $313,028.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 3,263,051 shares of the companys stock, valued at $36,578,801.71. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders bought 222,273 shares of company stock valued at $2,567,142.

About BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust

BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust is a closed-end investment fund. Its investment objective is to provide current income exempt from Federal and California income taxes. The company seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in municipal obligations exempt from federal income taxes and California income taxes.

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BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust (NYSE:BOE  Get Rating) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, May 1st, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.063 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 12th.

BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of BOE stock traded up $0.04 on Wednesday, reaching $10.16. The stock had a trading volume of 33,329 shares, compared to its average volume of 167,534. BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust has a 12 month low of $8.52 and a 12 month high of $10.88. The firms 50-day moving average is $9.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.84.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BOE. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 347,898 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $3,935,000 after acquiring an additional 18,697 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 87,728 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $992,000 after buying an additional 3,393 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust by 20.6% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 15,231 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $173,000 after purchasing an additional 2,602 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 67,042 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $758,000 after purchasing an additional 1,670 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust by 32.6% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 15,170 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $171,000 after buying an additional 3,730 shares in the last quarter.

About BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust

BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust operates as a closed-end investment fund. The firm intends to provide current income and current gains and long term capital appreciation. It invests in equity securities issued by companies located in countries throughout the world and utilizing an option writing strategy to enhance current gains.

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BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust (NYSE:BYM  Get Rating) declared a monthly dividend on Monday, May 1st, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.038 per share on Thursday, June 1st. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 12th.

BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust Stock Performance

Shares of BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust stock traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $11.22. The company had a trading volume of 37,080 shares, compared to its average volume of 61,821. The company has a 50 day moving average of $11.26 and a 200 day moving average of $11.28. BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust has a 52-week low of $10.10 and a 52-week high of $14.08.

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Institutional Trading of BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust in the 4th quarter worth approximately $122,000. Advisory Services Network LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust during the 1st quarter valued at $208,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 19,898 shares of the companys stock valued at $226,000 after purchasing an additional 2,232 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust by 55.9% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 36,371 shares of the companys stock valued at $399,000 after purchasing an additional 13,045 shares during the last quarter. Finally, City of London Investment Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust by 133.1% during the 1st quarter. City of London Investment Management Co. Ltd. now owns 43,780 shares of the companys stock valued at $578,000 after purchasing an additional 25,000 shares during the last quarter.

BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust Company Profile

BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust is a closed-end investment fund/investment Trust. Its investment objective is to provide current income exempt from federal income taxes, including the alternative minimum tax. The Trust seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its assets in municipal bonds exempt from federal income taxes, including the alternative minimum tax.

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BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund, Inc. (NYSE:MIY  Get Rating) announced a monthly dividend on Wednesday, May 3rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.0345 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, June 1st. This represents a $0.41 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 12th.

BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund Trading Down 0.9 %

BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund stock traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $11.16. The stock had a trading volume of 58,002 shares, compared to its average volume of 67,888. BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund has a twelve month low of $10.56 and a twelve month high of $13.90. The firms fifty day simple moving average is $11.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $11.31.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund during the 1st quarter valued at about $180,000. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 61,551 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $788,000 after buying an additional 4,441 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 87,248 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,118,000 after buying an additional 991 shares during the last quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC bought a new position in BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund in the 1st quarter worth $161,000. Finally, UBS Group AG lifted its position in BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 42,201 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $541,000 after acquiring an additional 2,964 shares during the last quarter. 15.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund

BlackRock MuniYield Michigan Quality Fund, Inc is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by BlackRock, Inc It is managed by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. The fund invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. It primarily invests in investment grade, long-term municipal obligations exempt from federal income taxes and Michigan income taxes.

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BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:BNY  Get Rating) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, May 1st, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.031 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, June 1st. This represents a $0.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.68%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 12th.

BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE BNY traded down $0.10 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $10.12. 51,688 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 53,021. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $10.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.25. BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust has a 1-year low of $9.06 and a 1-year high of $11.96.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Almitas Capital LLC bought a new position in BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust in the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust by 17.9% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 12,500 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $152,000 after purchasing an additional 1,900 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust by 15.7% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 14,398 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $145,000 after buying an additional 1,955 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust during the 4th quarter worth about $154,000. Finally, Advisor Group Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust by 22.9% during the 4th quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 44,057 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $444,000 after buying an additional 8,223 shares during the last quarter.

BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust Company Profile

BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust is a closed-end investment fund. Its investment objective is to provide current income exempt from regular federal income taxes and New York State and New York City personal income taxes. The company was founded on March 30, 2001 and is headquartered in Wilmington, DE.

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Bleakley Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW  Get Rating) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 27,968 shares of the financial services providers stock, valued at approximately $2,329,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in Charles Schwab by 7.5% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 20,822 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,847,000 after acquiring an additional 1,452 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its position in Charles Schwab by 4.3% during the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 6,263 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $528,000 after acquiring an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Charles Schwab by 25.4% during the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 13,064 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,101,000 after acquiring an additional 2,648 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Charles Schwab by 7.5% during the first quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,807 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $321,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its position in Charles Schwab by 16.6% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,239 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $104,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. 73.49% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insider Transactions at Charles Schwab

In other Charles Schwab news, Director Marianne Catherine Brown purchased 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 28th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $53.47 per share, for a total transaction of $267,350.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 9,984 shares in the company, valued at approximately $533,844.48. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Charles Schwab news, Director Marianne Catherine Brown purchased 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 28th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $53.47 per share, for a total transaction of $267,350.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 9,984 shares in the company, valued at approximately $533,844.48. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Chairman Charles R. Schwab sold 188,670 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.07, for a total value of $15,106,806.90. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 30,856,646 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,470,691,645.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders acquired 81,000 shares of company stock worth $4,706,960 and sold 555,896 shares worth $44,536,762. Company insiders own 6.60% of the companys stock.

Charles Schwab Stock Down 3.3 %

Shares of NYSE:SCHW opened at $50.10 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The business has a fifty day moving average of $58.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.12. The stock has a market cap of $89.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.69, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.88. The Charles Schwab Co. has a 52-week low of $45.00 and a 52-week high of $86.63.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW  Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 17th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $5.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $5.13 billion. Charles Schwab had a return on equity of 27.36% and a net margin of 34.82%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.77 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Charles Schwab Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 12th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 11th. Charles Schwabs payout ratio is currently 27.32%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SCHW. Bank of America reduced their price target on Charles Schwab from $53.00 to $51.00 in a research report on Monday, April 17th. Citigroup reduced their target price on Charles Schwab from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 29th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Charles Schwab from $83.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Charles Schwab from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Charles Schwab from $75.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $69.21.

Charles Schwab Profile

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The Charles Schwab Corp. is a savings and loan holding company, which engages in the provision of wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody, and financial advisory services. It operates through the Investor Services and Advisor Services segments. The Investor Services segment includes retail brokerage and banking services to individual investors, and retirement plan services, as well as other corporate brokerage services, to businesses and their employees.

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StockNews.com upgraded shares of CACI International (NYSE:CACI  Get Rating) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on CACI. Cowen lifted their price objective on CACI International from $313.00 to $330.00 in a research note on Monday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on CACI International from $355.00 to $357.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. Finally, 888 reiterated a maintains rating on shares of CACI International in a report on Friday, April 28th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CACI International has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $338.20.

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CACI International Stock Performance

Shares of CACI stock opened at $308.70 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The businesss 50 day moving average is $296.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $297.66. CACI International has a 12-month low of $245.32 and a 12-month high of $319.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

CACI International ( NYSE:CACI Get Rating ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 26th. The information technology services provider reported $4.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.64 by $0.28. CACI International had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 5.57%. The company had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.66 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.64 earnings per share. The firms quarterly revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that CACI International will post 18.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In other news, Director William L. Jews sold 1,018 shares of CACI International stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.43, for a total transaction of $289,549.74. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,065 shares in the company, valued at $2,293,927.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.23% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of CACI International

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CACI. Studio Investment Management LLC increased its position in CACI International by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC now owns 1,534 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $461,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC increased its position in CACI International by 33.0% during the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 234 shares of the information technology services providers stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Dark Forest Capital Management LP increased its position in CACI International by 262.5% during the 4th quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 87 shares of the information technology services providers stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CACI International by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,276 shares of the information technology services providers stock worth $2,683,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in shares of CACI International by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 4,504 shares of the information technology services providers stock worth $1,354,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.08% of the companys stock.

CACI International Company Profile

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CACI International, Inc operates as holding company, which engages in the provision of information solutions and services in support of national security missions and government transformation for intelligence, defense, and federal civilian customers. It operates through the Domestic Operations and International Operations segment.

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Cheniere Energy Partners (NYSE:CQP  Get Rating) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday.

Cheniere Energy Partners Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CQP traded down $0.89 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $44.83. The company had a trading volume of 204,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 215,016. Cheniere Energy Partners has a 12-month low of $40.20 and a 12-month high of $62.08.

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Cheniere Energy Partners Company Profile

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Cheniere Energy Partners LP engages in the operations of liquefied natural gas. The company was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

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Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (NYSE:CHT  Get Rating) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 372,600 shares, a decline of 7.4% from the March 31st total of 402,400 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 122,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.1 days. Approximately 0.1% of the companys shares are short sold.

Chunghwa Telecom Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:CHT traded up $0.09 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $40.76. The companys stock had a trading volume of 70,477 shares, compared to its average volume of 124,162. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.74 and a beta of 0.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $39.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.29. Chunghwa Telecom has a fifty-two week low of $32.90 and a fifty-two week high of $44.16.

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Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE:CHT  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter. Chunghwa Telecom had a return on equity of 9.38% and a net margin of 16.88%. As a group, analysts forecast that Chunghwa Telecom will post 0.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Chunghwa Telecom in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new stake in Chunghwa Telecom in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in Chunghwa Telecom by 184.2% in the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 790 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Chunghwa Telecom by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,754 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 585 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA boosted its stake in shares of Chunghwa Telecom by 848.0% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 1,877 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 1,679 shares during the last quarter. 2.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Chunghwa Telecom from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Saturday, April 22nd.

About Chunghwa Telecom

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Chunghwa Telecom Co, Ltd. engages in the provision of integrated telecommunication services. It offers domestic & international fixed communication, mobile communication, broadband, Internet services. The Company also provides information and communication technology services; and innovative technology services such as Internet of things and artificial intelligence.

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Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE:CBU  Get Rating) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,820,000 shares, a decline of 6.2% from the March 31st total of 1,940,000 shares. Currently, 3.4% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 305,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.0 days.

Community Bank System Price Performance

NYSE CBU traded down $1.27 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $47.50. 751,847 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 337,826. The stock has a market cap of $2.56 billion, a PE ratio of 17.53 and a beta of 0.61. Community Bank System has a one year low of $45.53 and a one year high of $72.86. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $52.66 and a 200-day moving average of $58.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

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Community Bank System Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th were given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 14th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. Community Bank Systems payout ratio is 64.94%.

Insider Transactions at Community Bank System

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

In other news, Director Sally A. Steele purchased 2,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 15th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $53.46 per share, with a total value of $106,920.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 4,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $245,114.10. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link . In other news, Director Sally A. Steele purchased 2,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 15th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $53.46 per share, with a total value of $106,920.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 4,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $245,114.10. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link . Also, Director Kerrie D. Macpherson purchased 1,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, March 20th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $55.42 per share, with a total value of $55,420.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 3,662 shares in the company, valued at $202,948.04. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here . 1.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Community Bank System by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 27,673 shares of the banks stock valued at $1,453,000 after buying an additional 2,700 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Community Bank System by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 424,368 shares of the banks stock valued at $22,460,000 after buying an additional 2,578 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its position in Community Bank System by 33.4% in the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 48,191 shares of the banks stock valued at $2,530,000 after buying an additional 12,066 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Community Bank System by 49.1% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 11,809 shares of the banks stock valued at $620,000 after purchasing an additional 3,891 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its stake in shares of Community Bank System by 10.3% in the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 34,468 shares of the banks stock valued at $1,809,000 after purchasing an additional 3,222 shares during the period. 71.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CBU has been the topic of several analyst reports. TheStreet lowered Community Bank System from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Janney Montgomery Scott initiated coverage on Community Bank System in a research note on Tuesday, March 14th. They issued a buy rating and a $66.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Community Bank System in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a sell rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Community Bank System from $64.00 to $57.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Community Bank System from $54.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $59.80.

About Community Bank System

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Community Bank System, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of retail, business, and municipal banking services. It operates through the following segments: Banking, Employee Benefit Services, and All Other. The Banking segment offers lending and depository-related products and services to individuals, businesses, and municipal enterprises.

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Eagle Global Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Rio Tinto Group (NYSE:RIO  Get Rating) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,318 shares of the mining companys stock after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the quarter. Eagle Global Advisors LLCs holdings in Rio Tinto Group were worth $4,579,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Rio Tinto Group by 58.9% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,899,694 shares of the mining companys stock worth $1,037,135,000 after acquiring an additional 4,783,488 shares during the last quarter. Cowa LLC bought a new stake in shares of Rio Tinto Group during the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Pendal Group Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Rio Tinto Group during the 4th quarter valued at $183,849,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda bought a new stake in shares of Rio Tinto Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $81,527,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Rio Tinto Group by 26.9% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,475,787 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $440,253,000 after acquiring an additional 1,161,737 shares during the period. 10.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Rio Tinto Group Trading Up 0.5 %

Rio Tinto Group stock traded up $0.32 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $62.44. The companys stock had a trading volume of 540,979 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,245,336. The company has a 50 day moving average of $67.65 and a 200-day moving average of $68.39. The stock has a market cap of $78.10 billion, a PE ratio of 9.03 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.64. Rio Tinto Group has a one year low of $50.92 and a one year high of $80.51.

Rio Tinto Group Cuts Dividend

Analysts Set New Price Targets

The business also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 9.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 9th. Rio Tinto Groups dividend payout ratio is presently 65.26%.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of Rio Tinto Group from a sell rating to a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, January 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Rio Tinto Group from GBX 5,310 ($66.34) to GBX 5,380 ($67.22) in a research note on Wednesday, January 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Rio Tinto Group from GBX 5,800 ($72.46) to GBX 6,200 ($77.46) in a report on Tuesday, January 10th. BNP Paribas downgraded Rio Tinto Group from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays upgraded Rio Tinto Group from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report on Thursday, January 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Rio Tinto Group presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $5,790.00.

Rio Tinto Group Profile

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Rio Tinto Plc engages in the exploration, mining, and processing of mineral resources. It operates through the following business segments: Iron Ore, Aluminium, Copper and Diamonds, Energy and Minerals, and Other Operations. The Iron Ore segment supplies global seaborne iron ore trade. The Aluminium segment produces bauxite, alumina and primary aluminum.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding RIO? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Rio Tinto Group (NYSE:RIO  Get Rating).

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Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG  Get Rating) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 20,102 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $473,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of JHG. Trian Fund Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Janus Henderson Group by 12.7% during the 1st quarter. Trian Fund Management L.P. now owns 31,867,800 shares of the companys stock worth $1,116,010,000 after buying an additional 3,595,152 shares in the last quarter. Silchester International Investors LLP lifted its holdings in Janus Henderson Group by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Silchester International Investors LLP now owns 14,006,613 shares of the companys stock worth $329,436,000 after buying an additional 2,168,020 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Janus Henderson Group by 33.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,455,506 shares of the companys stock worth $151,769,000 after buying an additional 1,636,065 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in Janus Henderson Group by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 19,272,599 shares of the companys stock worth $674,924,000 after buying an additional 947,319 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Janus Henderson Group by 42.8% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,362,279 shares of the companys stock worth $47,978,000 after buying an additional 708,277 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.01% of the companys stock.

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Janus Henderson Group Trading Down 1.0 %

Janus Henderson Group stock opened at $25.79 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $26.21 and a 200-day moving average of $25.51. Janus Henderson Group plc has a one year low of $19.09 and a one year high of $31.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.63 and a quick ratio of 2.65. The company has a market cap of $4.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.46, a P/E/G ratio of 4.86 and a beta of 1.44.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Janus Henderson Group ( NYSE:JHG Get Rating ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 2nd. The company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.18. Janus Henderson Group had a net margin of 15.52% and a return on equity of 9.79%. The company had revenue of $515.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $470.84 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.05 EPS. The companys quarterly revenue was down 26.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Janus Henderson Group plc will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

JHG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Janus Henderson Group from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Credit Suisse Group upped their target price on shares of Janus Henderson Group from $20.00 to $20.50 and gave the company an underperform rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Janus Henderson Group in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Janus Henderson Group from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an in-line rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Janus Henderson Group from a sell rating to a neutral rating and upped their price objective for the company from $24.60 to $25.30 in a research report on Thursday, April 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Janus Henderson Group presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $22.60.

Janus Henderson Group Profile

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Janus Henderson Group Plc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of asset management services. It offers investment solutions including equities, quantitative equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternative asset class strategies. The company was founded on Jan 23, 1998, is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

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Geneva Capital Management LLC decreased its holdings in Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI  Get Rating) by 9.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,714 shares of the communications equipment providers stock after selling 614 shares during the period. Geneva Capital Management LLCs holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $1,473,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in Motorola Solutions by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 14,651,837 shares of the communications equipment providers stock worth $3,281,573,000 after acquiring an additional 599,327 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,158,494 shares of the communications equipment providers stock valued at $1,608,781,000 after buying an additional 22,604 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 32.4% in the 3rd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,775,220 shares of the communications equipment providers stock valued at $621,567,000 after buying an additional 678,694 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 18.9% in the 3rd quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,657,892 shares of the communications equipment providers stock valued at $371,318,000 after buying an additional 264,011 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 149.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,583,272 shares of the communications equipment providers stock valued at $354,605,000 after buying an additional 947,497 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.67% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on MSI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Motorola Solutions from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and upped their price target for the company from $300.00 to $305.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. Credit Suisse Group lowered Motorola Solutions from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and reduced their price target for the company from $300.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 11th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Motorola Solutions in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. TheStreet raised Motorola Solutions from a c+ rating to a b rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Finally, Edward Jones downgraded Motorola Solutions from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Monday, January 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Motorola Solutions has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $289.80.

Motorola Solutions Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:MSI opened at $293.16 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $49.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.97, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 45.90, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The businesss 50-day moving average is $276.94 and its 200-day moving average is $264.06. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 1 year low of $195.18 and a 1 year high of $295.10.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 9th. The communications equipment provider reported $3.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.17. Motorola Solutions had a negative return on equity of 663.73% and a net margin of 14.96%. The business had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.66 EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 10.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 14th. Motorola Solutionss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Motorola Solutions news, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 1,500 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.33, for a total transaction of $399,495.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,313 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,214,001.29. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Motorola Solutions news, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 1,500 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.33, for a total transaction of $399,495.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,313 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,214,001.29. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 26,933 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.25, for a total value of $7,305,576.25. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,142 shares of the companys stock, valued at $13,058,517.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 37,167 shares of company stock valued at $10,066,483. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the companys stock.

Motorola Solutions Company Profile

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Motorola Solutions, Inc engages in the provision of communication infrastructure, devices, accessories, software, and services. It operates through the following segments: Products and Systems Integration, and Software and Services. The Products and Systems Integration segment offers a portfolio of infrastructure, devices, accessories, and video security devices, and the implementation and integration of such systems, devices, and applications.

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Ingersoll Rand (NYSE:IR  Get Rating) updated its FY23 earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided EPS guidance of $2.64-2.74 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $2.55. The company issued revenue guidance of $6.51-6.63 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $6.41 billion.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on IR. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Ingersoll Rand from $62.00 to $61.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Ingersoll Rand from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Monday, April 17th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Ingersoll Rand from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Ingersoll Rand from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Ingersoll Rand from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ingersoll Rand currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $58.80.

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Ingersoll Rand Stock Performance

IR stock traded down $0.47 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $56.63. 2,452,190 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,442,903. Ingersoll Rand has a 52 week low of $39.28 and a 52 week high of $60.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.58 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 2.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $56.25 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.59.

Ingersoll Rand Announces Dividend

Ingersoll Rand ( NYSE:IR Get Rating ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.13. Ingersoll Rand had a net margin of 10.22% and a return on equity of 9.99%. The company had revenue of $1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ingersoll Rand will post 2.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 24th will be issued a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.14%. Ingersoll Rands payout ratio is currently 5.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Vicente Reynal sold 25,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 102,856 shares of the companys stock, valued at $6,171,360. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.75% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ingersoll Rand

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of IR. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in Ingersoll Rand by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 16,258 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $849,000 after buying an additional 1,154 shares during the period. Compass Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ingersoll Rand during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Point72 Middle East FZE acquired a new stake in Ingersoll Rand during the 4th quarter worth about $2,958,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its holdings in Ingersoll Rand by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 213,005 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $11,130,000 after buying an additional 3,991 shares during the period. Finally, CI Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Ingersoll Rand during the 4th quarter worth about $723,000. 99.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Ingersoll Rand

(Get Rating)

Ingersoll Rand, Inc provides a broad range of mission critical air, fluid, energy, specialty vehicle and medical technologies, providing services and solutions to increase industrial productivity and efficiency. It operates through the following segments: Industrial Technologies and Services, Precision and Science Technologies, High Pressure Solutions, and Specialty Vehicle Technologies.

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Wednesday

"How We Grow Our Food: A Celebration of Art and Agriculture," through June 3, Philomath Museum, 1101 Main St. Exhibition featuring 75 works by 11 artists: Melissa Barrett, Jan Black, Lorraine Dye, Becki Hesedahl, Carolyn Johnson-Bell, Laura Kellenbarger, Jess Kolman, Ann Moore, Janet Reese, Diane Trevett and Patricia Young. The goal is to show how simply beautiful our food is when seen through artists' eyes, and, above all, to encourage community and promote connections with others. Also on display: "Water Works," an exhibition about water featuring artifacts from the museum's collection. Hours: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, noon to 4:30 p.m. Sundays, closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Live music by the Jeanne Gregg Band, 6 to 8 p.m., Common Fields, 545 SW Third St., Corvallis. Free admission.

Oregon State University Science Pub, 7 p.m., Old World Deli, 341 SW Second St., Corvallis. "Plants the Night Away!" Speakers: Abby Neat, Julia Mtzler and Alex Wong. Research in the OSU Department of Botany and Plant Pathology covers a wide range of subjects, including ecology, evolution, floristics, cell biology and plant disease management. Registration: https://bit.ly/3AJhQz7.

Thursday

"Star Wars" Day, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Lebanon Public Library, 55 Academy St. All ages can celebrate "Star Wars" Day. Everyone is encouraged to come dressed as their favorite "Star Wars" character. Nerf shooting gallery, crafts, snacks, a photo booth, games and a scavenger hunt. Boba Fett Bingo will be played from 7:30 to 8:30. All prizes will be "Star Wars"-themed. Admission is free, and a library card is not required. Information: 541-258-4926.

Live music by Slippy and the Sheets, 6 to 8 p.m., Common Fields, 545 SW Third St., Corvallis. Free admission.

Live music by Dennis Monroes Funked Up Blues Jam, 7 p.m., Old World Deli, 341 SW Second St., Corvallis.

Friday

Lecture, 10:30 a.m., Philomath Museum, 1101 Main St. Laura Bennett of the Vegucation Station will present "Cultivating a Cycle of Care from Farm to Table." Bennett is a farmer, cook and educator who has spent the last 10 years cultivating stronger relationships between the public and its food. She will explore the work it takes to bring food from farm to table on small organic farms, a brief history of farm labor in Oregon, and embracing the responsibility to go beyond voting with one's fork. Admission: free for students and Benton County Historical Society members; $5 for nonmember adults.

Adult Takeover, 5 to 7 p.m., Maxtivity Art and Craft Creative Space, 1604 Main St., Philomath. Age 18 and up. Cost: $10. Information: 541-714-3443.

"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" by Stephen Sondheim, 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays May 5, 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20; and 2:30 p.m. Sundays May 7, 14 and 21, the Majestic Theatre, 115 SW Second St., Corvallis. This musical thriller may not be suitable for children. Tickets: $20 for adults, $17 for students and seniors, at www.majestic.org.

Live music by Accordioso, 7 p.m., Old World Deli, 341 SW Second St., Corvallis. Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with the polka stylings of Accordioso.

Saturday

"Carriage Me Back to 1923," Brownsville. Reservations are available for a trip back in time on a horse-drawn carriage through town, with a stop at the Moyer House. Trips leave every half-hour; on Saturday, the first trip will depart at 10 a.m.; the last leaves at 3:30 p.m. On Sunday, the first carriage will leave at noon, and the last at 4 p.m. Cost: $15 for adults, $5 for those under 12; or rent the 20-seat carriage for $225. Reservations: 541-466-3390.

"Painting Emotions," 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Maxtivity Art and Craft Creative Space, 1604 Main St., Philomath. For age 14 and up. Cost: $59. Information: 541-714-3443.

Corvallis Drum Circle, 6 p.m., 101 NW 23rd St. All ages and skills. Bring your own drums and other percussion instruments. Information: drumcircleconnection@gmail.com.

Contra dance, 7 p.m., Gatton Hall, First Congregational United Church of Christ, 4515 SW West Hills Road, Corvallis. Newcomers lesson, 7 p.m.; dance, 7:30 to 10:30. Music by Cucunandy. All dances taught. Admission: $12 to $20. Information: eugenefolklore.org.

Sunday

Live music by Beth Brown and Ralph Penunuri, 10 a.m. to noon, Old World Deli, 341 SW Second St., Corvallis.

Corvallis-OSU Piano International presents the Steinway Piano Series, 4 p.m., LaSells Stewart Center, 875 SW 26th St. Martin Garcia Garcia will perform. Tickets: $25 to $28 at https://corvallispiano.org/copi-tickets.

Monday

The Oregon State University International Film Festival presents "On the Divide," 7 p.m., Darkside Cinema, 215 SW Fourth St., Corvallis. English with English subtitles. Tickets are free.

Tuesday

Corvallis Sacred Harp singing, 7 p.m., 519 NW 21st St. Information: hannahfield999@gmail.com.

 Mid-Valley Live
IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:IRS  Get Rating) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 74,300 shares, a decline of 7.9% from the March 31st total of 80,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 86,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.9 days.

Institutional Trading of IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of IRS. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima during the third quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in shares of IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima by 286.0% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 72,208 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 53,501 shares during the period. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd bought a new stake in shares of IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima during the first quarter valued at approximately $444,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima by 10.7% during the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 140,897 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $507,000 after purchasing an additional 13,584 shares during the period. Finally, Eaton Vance Management bought a new position in IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima during the first quarter worth about $1,155,000. 17.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima stock traded down $0.06 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $5.34. 9,467 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 93,010. The company has a market cap of $433.02 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.74 and a beta of 1.01. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $5.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $5.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima has a 52 week low of $3.16 and a 52 week high of $7.10.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima ( NYSE:IRS Get Rating ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 9th. The financial services provider reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter. IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima had a net margin of 32.53% and a return on equity of 8.38%. The business had revenue of $106.52 million for the quarter.

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating on the stock.

IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima Company Profile

(Get Rating)

IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones SA engages in the real estate business. It operates through the Operations Center in Argentina and Operations Center in Israel segments. The Operations Center in Argentina segment operates in the following segments: shopping malls, offices and others, sales and developments, hotels, international, and financial operations, corporate and others.

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Stockman Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (NYSEARCA:IJR  Get Rating) by 2,102.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 191,167 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after acquiring an additional 182,489 shares during the quarter. iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF comprises 4.2% of Stockman Wealth Management Inc.s holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Stockman Wealth Management Inc.s holdings in iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF were worth $18,092,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF by 67.4% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 15,171,621 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $1,322,814,000 after buying an additional 6,110,963 shares in the last quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. acquired a new position in iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF during the 3rd quarter worth $309,689,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF by 9,021.6% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,119,864 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $2,795,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,624 shares in the last quarter. Cowa LLC grew its stake in iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF by 5,333.8% during the 1st quarter. Cowa LLC now owns 1,283,582 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $1,670,000 after purchasing an additional 1,259,960 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF by 18.5% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 6,349,891 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $685,026,000 after purchasing an additional 990,861 shares in the last quarter.

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iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF Trading Up 1.1 %

IJR traded up $1.04 on Wednesday, hitting $93.26. 818,448 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,070,500. iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF has a twelve month low of $86.40 and a twelve month high of $108.24. The company has a market cap of $64.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.11 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $96.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $98.00.

iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF Company Profile

iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF, formerly iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Index Fund, seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Standard & Poors SmallCap 600 Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of publicly traded securities in the small-capitalization sector of the United States equity market.

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iShares MSCI USA Small-Cap Min Vol Factor ETF (BATS:SMMV  Get Rating) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $34.66 and last traded at $34.68, with a volume of 55680 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $34.51.

iShares MSCI USA Small-Cap Min Vol Factor ETF Stock Down 1.8 %

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $781.68 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.12 and a beta of 0.79.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On iShares MSCI USA Small-Cap Min Vol Factor ETF

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SMMV. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Small-Cap Min Vol Factor ETF by 108.0% during the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 104,646 shares of the companys stock worth $3,565,000 after purchasing an additional 54,339 shares during the period. DB Wealth Management Group LLC grew its stake in iShares MSCI USA Small-Cap Min Vol Factor ETF by 186.2% in the 4th quarter. DB Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 30,744 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,064,000 after purchasing an additional 20,003 shares during the period. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in iShares MSCI USA Small-Cap Min Vol Factor ETF in the 4th quarter valued at $499,000. Flow Traders U.S. LLC grew its stake in iShares MSCI USA Small-Cap Min Vol Factor ETF by 170.9% in the 1st quarter. Flow Traders U.S. LLC now owns 22,723 shares of the companys stock valued at $845,000 after purchasing an additional 14,335 shares during the period. Finally, Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC grew its stake in iShares MSCI USA Small-Cap Min Vol Factor ETF by 34.1% in the 1st quarter. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC now owns 44,997 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,563,000 after purchasing an additional 11,440 shares during the period.

About iShares MSCI USA Small-Cap Min Vol Factor ETF

The iShares MSCI USA Small-Cap Min Vol Factor ETF (SMMV) is an exchange-traded fund that mostly invests in small-cap stocks. The fund tracks an index of US-listed small capitalization stocks selected and weighted to create a low volatility portfolio, subject to constraints. SMMV was launched on Sep 7, 2016 and is managed by BlackRock.

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Shares of iShares North American Natural Resources ETF (BATS:IGE  Get Rating) hit a new 52-week high on Monday . The stock traded as high as $39.93 and last traded at $39.56, with a volume of 65013 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $39.86.

iShares North American Natural Resources ETF Stock Down 3.3 %

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.63. The stock has a market cap of $784.33 million, a P/E ratio of 15.98 and a beta of 1.25.

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Institutional Trading of iShares North American Natural Resources ETF

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of IGE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in iShares North American Natural Resources ETF by 1,801.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,328 shares of the companys stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 3,153 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC bought a new stake in iShares North American Natural Resources ETF in the second quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its position in iShares North American Natural Resources ETF by 6.5% in the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 8,360 shares of the companys stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 507 shares during the last quarter. Biondo Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in iShares North American Natural Resources ETF by 1.4% in the third quarter. Biondo Investment Advisors LLC now owns 21,725 shares of the companys stock valued at $755,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bellwether Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of iShares North American Natural Resources ETF during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000.

iShares North American Natural Resources ETF Company Profile

iShares North American Natural Resources ETF, formerly iShares S&P North American Natural Resources Sector Index Fund (the Fund), is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of U.S.-traded natural resource-related stocks as represented by the S&P North American Natural Resources Sector Index (the Index).

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Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE:JOBY  Get Rating) saw unusually-strong trading volume on Monday . Approximately 2,666,689 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 2% from the previous sessions volume of 2,713,963 shares.The stock last traded at $4.54 and had previously closed at $4.33.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Joby Aviation from a hold rating to a sell rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $6.00 to $4.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Joby Aviation from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Joby Aviation currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $6.13.

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Joby Aviation Price Performance

The stocks 50 day moving average is $4.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $4.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.54 billion, a PE ratio of -8.98 and a beta of 1.59.

Insider Transactions at Joby Aviation

Joby Aviation ( NYSE:JOBY Get Rating ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 22nd. The company reported ($0.14) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($0.18) by $0.04. On average, equities analysts predict that Joby Aviation, Inc. will post -0.66 earnings per share for the current year.

In other Joby Aviation news, insider Gregory Bowles sold 42,151 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.00, for a total transaction of $210,755.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 32,851 shares of the companys stock, valued at $164,255. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Joby Aviation news, insider Eric Allison sold 18,801 shares of Joby Aviation stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.12, for a total value of $77,460.12. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 303,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,250,704.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Gregory Bowles sold 42,151 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.00, for a total transaction of $210,755.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 32,851 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $164,255. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 120,260 shares of company stock valued at $559,960. Corporate insiders own 51.30% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Progeny 3 Inc. purchased a new stake in Joby Aviation during the third quarter worth about $195,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Joby Aviation during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Seven Eight Capital LP grew its holdings in shares of Joby Aviation by 48.8% in the 3rd quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 18,729 shares of the companys stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 6,144 shares during the period. D Orazio & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Joby Aviation in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $230,000. Finally, EDBI Pte Ltd raised its holdings in Joby Aviation by 0.5% during the third quarter. EDBI Pte Ltd now owns 4,482,056 shares of the companys stock worth $19,407,000 after purchasing an additional 22,493 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 29.14% of the companys stock.

Joby Aviation Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Joby Aviation, Inc, a vertically integrated air mobility company, engages in building an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft optimized to deliver air transportation as a service. It intends to build an aerial ridesharing service. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California.

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StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG  Get Rating) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on LYG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Lloyds Banking Group from GBX 58 ($0.72) to GBX 61 ($0.76) in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Lloyds Banking Group from GBX 58 ($0.72) to GBX 60 ($0.75) in a research report on Wednesday, January 11th. Barclays raised shares of Lloyds Banking Group from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, February 6th. Finally, Berenberg Bank boosted their target price on shares of Lloyds Banking Group from GBX 55 ($0.69) to GBX 58 ($0.72) in a research note on Friday, February 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $58.43.

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Lloyds Banking Group Trading Down 0.8 %

LYG opened at $2.36 on Friday. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $2.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $2.29. The company has a market cap of $39.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.38, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Lloyds Banking Group has a one year low of $1.70 and a one year high of $2.63.

Lloyds Banking Group Increases Dividend

Lloyds Banking Group ( NYSE:LYG Get Rating ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.03. Lloyds Banking Group had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 20.69%. The business had revenue of $14.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $5.68 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Lloyds Banking Group will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently declared a Semi-Annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 14th will be given a dividend of $0.076 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 13th. This is a boost from Lloyds Banking Groups previous Semi-Annual dividend of $0.04. This represents a yield of 5%. Lloyds Banking Groups payout ratio is 40.54%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Waldron Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lloyds Banking Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. PDS Planning Inc boosted its position in Lloyds Banking Group by 71.7% in the first quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 30,365 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 12,684 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in Lloyds Banking Group by 27.6% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 172,388 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $400,000 after buying an additional 37,327 shares in the last quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Lloyds Banking Group by 7.4% in the first quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC now owns 5,316,297 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $12,334,000 after buying an additional 365,792 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its position in Lloyds Banking Group by 169.7% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 219,520 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $509,000 after buying an additional 138,129 shares in the last quarter. 2.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Lloyds Banking Group Company Profile

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Lloyds Banking Group Plc is a financial services company, which engages in the provision of banking and financial services. It operates through the following segments: Retail, Commercial Banking, Insurance and Wealth, and Other. The Retail segment offers broad range of financial service products, including current accounts, savings, mortgages, motor finance and unsecured consumer lending to personal, and small business customers.

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Lountzis Asset Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Lowes Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW  Get Rating) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,836 shares of the home improvement retailers stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Lowes Companies makes up 2.3% of Lountzis Asset Management LLCs investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Lountzis Asset Management LLCs holdings in Lowes Companies were worth $3,869,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of LOW. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in Lowes Companies by 7,952.8% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,586,400 shares of the home improvement retailers stock worth $320,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,566,700 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Lowes Companies by 2,072.5% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,078,468 shares of the home improvement retailers stock valued at $218,055,000 after acquiring an additional 1,028,827 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Lowes Companies by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,916,354 shares of the home improvement retailers stock valued at $1,486,770,000 after acquiring an additional 912,518 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Lowes Companies by 209.0% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,219,542 shares of the home improvement retailers stock valued at $246,579,000 after acquiring an additional 824,915 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Lowes Companies by 176.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 925,087 shares of the home improvement retailers stock valued at $173,738,000 after acquiring an additional 590,013 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.62% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on LOW shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Lowes Companies from $230.00 to $210.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 2nd. Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating and set a $235.00 price target on shares of Lowes Companies in a research note on Monday, February 13th. Barclays began coverage on Lowes Companies in a research note on Tuesday, February 7th. They set an equal weight rating and a $215.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Lowes Companies from $300.00 to $275.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 28th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price target on Lowes Companies from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lowes Companies presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $223.85.

Lowes Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:LOW opened at $205.97 on Wednesday. Lowes Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $170.12 and a one year high of $223.31. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $200.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $202.57. The stock has a market cap of $122.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.09.

Lowes Companies (NYSE:LOW  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 1st. The home improvement retailer reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $22.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.71 billion. Lowes Companies had a negative return on equity of 82.30% and a net margin of 6.63%. Lowes Companiess quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.78 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Lowes Companies, Inc. will post 13.82 EPS for the current year.

Lowes Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 26th will be issued a $1.05 dividend. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 25th. Lowes Companiess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Donald Frieson sold 9,411 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.00, for a total value of $1,853,967.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 17,888 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,523,936. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the companys stock.

Lowes Companies Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Lowes Cos., Inc engages in the retail sale of home improvement products. The firm offers products for maintenance, repair, remodeling, home decorating and property maintenance. It also provides home improvement products in the following categories: appliances, bathroom, building supply, electrical, flooring, hardware, paint, kitchen, plumbing, lighting & fans, outdoor living, windows and doors.

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Toronto Dominion Bank raised its stake in Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC  Get Rating) by 35.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 305,547 shares of the financial services providers stock after acquiring an additional 79,354 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank owned 0.06% of Marsh & McLennan Companies worth $50,534,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MMC. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies by 331.5% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 1,830,548 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $311,962,000 after buying an additional 1,406,293 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies by 133.1% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,297,356 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $221,095,000 after buying an additional 740,778 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies by 1.7% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 41,313,574 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $6,167,702,000 after buying an additional 693,039 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies by 5,963.3% in the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC now owns 618,640 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $92,357,000 after buying an additional 608,437 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies by 104.9% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,103,004 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $166,321,000 after buying an additional 564,787 shares during the last quarter. 87.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Marsh & McLennan Companies

In other Marsh & McLennan Companies news, Director Oscar Fanjul sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.70, for a total transaction of $503,730.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 75,447 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $13,105,143.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Marsh & McLennan Companies news, Director Oscar Fanjul sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.70, for a total transaction of $503,730.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 75,447 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $13,105,143.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Dean Michael Klisura sold 3,140 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.22, for a total value of $518,790.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,935 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,458,880.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 11,540 shares of company stock worth $2,009,111. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Marsh & McLennan Companies Stock Performance

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. They issued a market perform rating and a $168.00 price objective for the company. Raymond James upped their price objective on Marsh & McLennan Companies from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, April 21st. Roth Capital reissued a neutral rating on shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies in a report on Monday, April 24th. MKM Partners upped their price target on shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, January 30th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group raised their price objective on shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies from $157.00 to $172.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Marsh & McLennan Companies currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $180.77.

MMC opened at $179.50 on Wednesday. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $166.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $167.29. The stock has a market cap of $88.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.15. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $143.33 and a 1-year high of $182.43.

Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE:MMC  Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 20th. The financial services provider reported $2.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.47 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $5.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $5.86 billion. Marsh & McLennan Companies had a return on equity of 33.33% and a net margin of 15.24%. Marsh & McLennan Companiess quarterly revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.30 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. will post 7.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Marsh & McLennan Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 4th. Marsh & McLennan Companiess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.93%.

About Marsh & McLennan Companies

(Get Rating)

Marsh & McLennan Cos., Inc is a professional services firm, which engages in offering clients advice and solutions in risk, strategy, and people. It operates through the Risk and Insurance Services, and Consulting segments. The Risk and Insurance Services segment is involved in risk management activities, as well as insurance and reinsurance broking and services.

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Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX  Get Rating) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,680,000 shares, an increase of 9.1% from the March 31st total of 11,620,000 shares. Currently, 3.7% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,820,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MPLX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Mplx from $33.50 to $35.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Mplx from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 14th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Mplx in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a buy rating for the company. Wolfe Research raised shares of Mplx from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $36.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, January 9th. Finally, Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of Mplx from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mplx currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $38.44.

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Mplx Price Performance

NYSE MPLX traded down $0.14 on Tuesday, reaching $34.74. The companys stock had a trading volume of 2,650,533 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,729,417. The firm has a market cap of $34.78 billion, a PE ratio of 9.26 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $34.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.85. Mplx has a 52 week low of $27.47 and a 52 week high of $35.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58.

Mplx Announces Dividend

Mplx ( NYSE:MPLX Get Rating ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 31st. The pipeline company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.84 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $2.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 33.96% and a return on equity of 30.16%. The businesss revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Mplx will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 4th. This represents a $3.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.92%. Mplxs dividend payout ratio is 82.67%.

Institutional Trading of Mplx

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new stake in shares of Mplx during the first quarter valued at approximately $126,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Mplx by 15.2% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 27,907 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $926,000 after purchasing an additional 3,691 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Mplx by 49.5% during the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 12,826 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $426,000 after purchasing an additional 4,247 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. bought a new stake in shares of Mplx during the first quarter valued at approximately $205,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in shares of Mplx by 14.8% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 9,688 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $321,000 after purchasing an additional 1,248 shares during the last quarter. 23.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Mplx

(Get Rating)

MPLX LP engages in the operation of midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets, and distribution fuels services. It operates through the Logistics and Storage (L&S) and Gathering and Processing (G&P) segments. The Logistics and Storage segment transports, stores, distributes, and markets crude oil, asphalt, refined petroleum products, and water.

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Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV acquired a new stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT  Get Rating) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 63,950 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock, valued at approximately $1,354,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BXMT. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. acquired a new position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the 3rd quarter worth about $43,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 19.4% in the 4th quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,200 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 520 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 153.4% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 4,981 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $158,000 after purchasing an additional 3,015 shares during the period. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the 1st quarter worth about $200,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.01% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

In other Blackstone Mortgage Trust news, Director Michael B. Nash bought 50,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, March 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $18.86 per share, with a total value of $943,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 468,455 shares in the company, valued at $8,835,061.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Blackstone Mortgage Trust news, Director Michael B. Nash bought 50,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, March 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $18.86 per share, with a total value of $943,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 468,455 shares in the company, valued at $8,835,061.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Henry N. Nassau bought 10,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $17.81 per share, with a total value of $178,100.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 127,348 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,268,067.88. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 1.06% of the companys stock.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Stock Performance

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Dividend Announcement

NYSE:BXMT opened at $17.54 on Wednesday. Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. has a one year low of $16.60 and a one year high of $31.48. The stock has a market cap of $3.02 billion, a PE ratio of 11.54 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $18.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.74.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 14th. Investors of record on Friday, March 31st were issued a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 30th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 14.14%. Blackstone Mortgage Trusts dividend payout ratio is presently 163.16%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $25.00 to $18.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 13th. BTIG Research assumed coverage on Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a report on Tuesday, April 25th. They set a buy rating and a $19.00 target price for the company. Citigroup reduced their target price on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $24.00 to $17.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $23.00 to $18.00 in a report on Monday, April 24th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $19.80.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Company Profile

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Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc is a real estate finance company, which engages in originating senior loans collateralized by commercial real estate. Its investment objective is to preserve and protect shareholder capital while producing risk-adjusted returns primarily through dividends generated from current income from its loan portfolio.

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Providence Capital Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V  Get Rating) by 4.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,110 shares of the credit-card processors stock after selling 51 shares during the period. Providence Capital Advisors LLCs holdings in Visa were worth $231,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Cowa LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.87% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 1,288 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $232.97, for a total transaction of $300,065.36. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,542 shares of the companys stock, valued at $592,209.74. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CFO Vasant M. Prabhu sold 40,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.36, for a total transaction of $9,254,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 73,638 shares of the companys stock, valued at $17,036,887.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 1,288 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $232.97, for a total value of $300,065.36. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,542 shares in the company, valued at $592,209.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 249,392 shares of company stock worth $57,133,972. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $226.98 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $224.76 and a 200 day moving average of $216.99. The company has a market capitalization of $426.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.34, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $174.60 and a 1-year high of $235.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 1.44.

Visa (NYSE:V  Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.97 by $0.12. Visa had a return on equity of 50.21% and a net margin of 50.95%. The company had revenue of $7.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.79 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.79 EPS. Visas quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 8.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 12th will be given a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 11th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. Visas payout ratio is currently 24.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on V. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Visa from $262.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on Visa from $240.00 to $255.00 in a report on Thursday, January 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Visa from $243.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. Barclays lifted their target price on Visa from $270.00 to $272.00 in a report on Monday. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Visa from $237.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $260.96.

Visa Company Profile

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Visa, Inc engages in the provision of digital payment services. It also facilitates global commerce through the transfer of value and information among a global network of consumers, merchants, financial institutions, businesses, strategic partners, and government entities. It offers debit cards, credit cards, prepaid products, commercial payment solutions, and global automated teller machines (ATMs).

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Public Joint Stock Company Rostelecom (OTCMKTS:ROSYY  Get Rating)s share price reached a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $1.01 and last traded at $1.01, with a volume of 0 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.01.

Public Joint Stock Company Rostelecom Price Performance

The businesss 50 day moving average is $1.01 and its 200 day moving average is $1.01.

Public Joint Stock Company Rostelecom Company Profile

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Rostelecom PJSC provides digital services and solutions to households, governmental and private organizations. The firm provides telecommunications services to the Russian governmental and corporate customers of all levels. It also offers technology solutions to e-government, cybersecurity, data center &cloud-based services, biometrics, healthcare, education, house maintenance, and utility services.

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Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK  Get Rating) had its price target boosted by investment analysts at Raymond James from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, The Fly reports. Raymond James price objective suggests a potential upside of 18.06% from the companys current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on GPK. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Graphic Packaging from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, February 9th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Graphic Packaging from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Graphic Packaging from $30.00 to $31.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Graphic Packaging from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average target price of $28.09.

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Graphic Packaging Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of GPK stock opened at $25.41 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.13, a PEG ratio of 0.35 and a beta of 0.98. The firms fifty day moving average price is $24.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.23. Graphic Packaging has a 1 year low of $19.08 and a 1 year high of $25.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42.

Insider Buying and Selling

Graphic Packaging ( NYSE:GPK Get Rating ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The industrial products company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.32 billion. Graphic Packaging had a net margin of 5.53% and a return on equity of 36.32%. Graphic Packagings quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Graphic Packaging will post 2.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In related news, EVP Joseph P. Yost sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.99, for a total transaction of $1,439,400.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 209,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,019,907.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Graphic Packaging

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Private Trust Co. NA boosted its position in shares of Graphic Packaging by 177.3% during the 1st quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 1,109 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 709 shares in the last quarter. Wipfli Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Graphic Packaging in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Accurate Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Graphic Packaging in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Graphic Packaging in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Graphic Packaging in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.47% of the companys stock.

Graphic Packaging Company Profile

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Graphic Packaging Holding Co engages in the provision of paper-based packaging solutions for a variety of products to food, beverage and other consumer products companies. It operates through the following business segments: Paperboard Mills, Americas Paperboard Packaging, Europe Paperboard Packaging, and Corporate and Other.

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Rogers Communications Inc. (NYSE:RCI  Get Rating) (TSE:RCI.B)  Investment analysts at Desjardins issued their Q2 2023 earnings per share estimates for Rogers Communications in a report issued on Thursday, April 27th. Desjardins analyst J. Dubreuil anticipates that the Wireless communications provider will post earnings of $0.95 per share for the quarter. Desjardins currently has a Hold rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Rogers Communications current full-year earnings is $3.83 per share. Desjardins also issued estimates for Rogers Communications Q3 2023 earnings at $0.97 EPS and Q4 2023 earnings at $0.97 EPS.

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Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. UBS Group raised Rogers Communications from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report on Monday, February 6th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Rogers Communications from C$71.00 to C$74.75 in a research note on Tuesday, January 3rd. TD Securities boosted their price target on Rogers Communications from C$76.00 to C$78.00 in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. CIBC boosted their price target on Rogers Communications from C$69.00 to C$72.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 12th. Finally, National Bank Financial boosted their price target on Rogers Communications from C$75.00 to C$78.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $74.31.

Rogers Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE RCI opened at $49.07 on Monday. The businesss 50 day moving average price is $47.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.07. The company has a market cap of $24.78 billion, a PE ratio of 18.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.86. Rogers Communications has a twelve month low of $36.23 and a twelve month high of $54.15.

Rogers Communications (NYSE:RCI  Get Rating) (TSE:RCI.B) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.08 billion. Rogers Communications had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 11.49%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rogers Communications

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Rogers Communications during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,219,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Rogers Communications by 29.8% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 28,915 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock valued at $1,637,000 after buying an additional 6,634 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in Rogers Communications by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 7,289 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock valued at $413,000 after buying an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC bought a new position in Rogers Communications in the 1st quarter valued at $237,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in Rogers Communications by 16.1% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,281,771 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock valued at $186,241,000 after purchasing an additional 455,522 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 45.46% of the companys stock.

Rogers Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.37 per share. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 8th. This is a boost from Rogers Communicationss previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. Rogers Communicationss dividend payout ratio is 56.11%.

Rogers Communications Company Profile

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Rogers Communications Inc operates as a communications and media company in Canada. It operates through three segments: Wireless, Cable, and Media. The company offers mobile Internet access, wireless voice and enhanced voice, device and accessory financing, wireless home phone, device protection, e-mail, global voice and data roaming, bridging landline, machine-to-machine and Internet of Things solutions, and advanced wireless solutions for businesses, as well as device delivery services; and postpaid and prepaid services under the Rogers, Fido, and chatr brands to approximately 11.3 million subscribers.

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Riverview Capital Advisers LLC trimmed its position in Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. (NYSE:BAM  Get Rating) (TSE:BAM.A) by 74.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,871 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 23,454 shares during the quarter. Riverview Capital Advisers LLCs holdings in Brookfield Asset Management were worth $226,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BAM. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Brookfield Asset Management by 166.2% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,051,145 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $398,883,000 after purchasing an additional 4,402,115 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in Brookfield Asset Management by 449.1% during the 3rd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,170,780 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $89,277,000 after buying an additional 1,775,480 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Brookfield Asset Management by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 46,380,575 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,896,501,000 after buying an additional 1,426,257 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its stake in Brookfield Asset Management by 18.6% in the third quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 3,678,315 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $150,282,000 after buying an additional 576,076 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Brookfield Asset Management by 106.4% in the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC now owns 1,078,857 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $44,114,000 after acquiring an additional 556,050 shares in the last quarter.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on BAM. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of Brookfield Asset Management to an underperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Brookfield Asset Management from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, February 9th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Brookfield Asset Management in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Brookfield Asset Management in a research note on Tuesday, March 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $43.57.

Insider Transactions at Brookfield Asset Management

Brookfield Asset Management Stock Performance

In related news, Director Multi-Strategy Mast Brookfield sold 24,744 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.96, for a total transaction of $295,938.24. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,104,923 shares of the companys stock, valued at $252,414,879.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link . Corporate insiders own 11.00% of the companys stock.

NYSE BAM traded up $0.15 on Wednesday, reaching $32.45. 129,626 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,661,317. Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $26.76 and a fifty-two week high of $36.50. The firm has a market cap of $13.38 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.19. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $32.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $34.94.

Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE:BAM  Get Rating) (TSE:BAM.A) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $958.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.81 billion.

Brookfield Asset Management Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 28th were given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 27th. This is a positive change from Brookfield Asset Managements previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. Brookfield Asset Managements dividend payout ratio is currently 80.00%.

Brookfield Asset Management Company Profile

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Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. provides alternative asset management services. Its renewable power and transition business includes the ownership, operation, and development of hydroelectric, wind, solar, and energy transition power generating assets. The company's infrastructure business engages in the ownership, operation, and development of utilities, transport, midstream, data and sustainable resource assets.

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Shares of Shawcor Ltd. (TSE:SCL  Get Rating) have received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy from the nine analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$16.08.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. National Bank Financial reiterated an outperform overweight rating on shares of Shawcor in a report on Friday, February 10th. Cormark lifted their price target on Shawcor from C$18.50 to C$21.75 in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. National Bankshares reduced their target price on Shawcor from C$18.00 to C$17.50 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 10th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Shawcor from C$13.00 to C$14.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 25th. Finally, ATB Capital upgraded Shawcor from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating in a report on Friday, March 10th.

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Shawcor Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of TSE SCL opened at C$12.23 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of C$858.55 million, a PE ratio of -29.12, a PEG ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 2.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 38.63. Shawcor has a one year low of C$4.44 and a one year high of C$14.91. The business has a 50-day moving average price of C$12.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$12.52.

Shawcor Company Profile

Shawcor Ltd. operates as a material sciences company that serves the infrastructure, energy, and transportation markets worldwide. It operates through three segments: Composite Systems, Automotive and Industrial, and Pipeline and Pipe Services. The Composite Systems segment manufactures flexible composite and high density polyethylene pipes that are used for oil and gas gathering, water disposal, carbon dioxide injection pipelines, and other applications; fiberglass reinforced plastic underground storage tanks for the retail fuel, water and wastewater, and oil and gas markets; and tubular management services to the Western Canadian onshore oilfield market, including inventory management systems, mobile inspection, in-plant inspection and the refurbishment and rethreading of drill pipe, production tubing and casing, and tubular products.

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Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE  Get Rating) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,820,000 shares, a growth of 9.3% from the March 31st total of 4,410,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,360,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Insider Activity at Ameren

In other Ameren news, Chairman Warner L. Baxter sold 49,819 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $4,076,688.77. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 207,272 shares of the companys stock, valued at $16,961,067.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Ameren news, Chairman Warner L. Baxter sold 49,819 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $4,076,688.77. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 207,272 shares of the companys stock, valued at $16,961,067.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Rafael Flores sold 1,900 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.15, for a total value of $163,685.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,172 shares in the company, valued at $1,220,917.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 63,509 shares of company stock valued at $5,221,792 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.42% of the companys stock.

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Institutional Trading of Ameren

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AEE. Penserra Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Ameren in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. CI Investments Inc. increased its position in shares of Ameren by 1,006.5% during the 3rd quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 343 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares during the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new position in shares of Ameren during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. New Hampshire Trust bought a new position in shares of Ameren during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ameren during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Institutional investors own 78.42% of the companys stock.

Ameren Price Performance

AEE traded down $0.52 on Tuesday, hitting $89.11. 1,311,608 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,357,225. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $86.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.00. The firm has a market cap of $23.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.43. Ameren has a one year low of $73.28 and a one year high of $97.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE  Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.07. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.50% and a net margin of 13.50%. The company had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.48 EPS. The firms quarterly revenue was up 32.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ameren will post 4.35 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th were paid a $0.63 dividend. This is an increase from Amerens previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 14th. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.83%. Amerens payout ratio is presently 60.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on AEE shares. Guggenheim downgraded Ameren from a buy rating to a neutral rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Monday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Ameren from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Ameren from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Ameren from $102.00 to $95.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Ameren from $96.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $94.60.

About Ameren

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Ameren Corp. is a public utility holding company, which engages in the provision of electric and natural gas services. It operates through the following segments: Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution, Ameren Illinois Natural Gas, Ameren Transmission, and Other. The Ameren Transmission segment consists of the aggregated electric transmission businesses of Ameren Illinois and Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois (ATXI).

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Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG  Get Rating) saw a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 18,810,000 shares, an increase of 10.4% from the March 31st total of 17,040,000 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 6,980,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.7 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on CPNG shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Coupang from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $20.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 1st. Barclays started coverage on Coupang in a research report on Thursday, February 9th. They issued an overweight rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America cut Coupang from a buy rating to a neutral rating and cut their price objective for the company from $27.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Coupang from $23.00 to $22.00 in a research report on Monday, April 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $20.68.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Coupang

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pictet Asset Management SA boosted its stake in Coupang by 17.5% during the third quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA now owns 677,391 shares of the companys stock worth $11,292,000 after buying an additional 100,827 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in shares of Coupang by 35.6% in the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 46,662 shares of the companys stock valued at $684,000 after purchasing an additional 12,245 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Coupang in the 3rd quarter valued at $314,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Coupang by 38.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,824,866 shares of the companys stock valued at $47,091,000 after purchasing an additional 783,885 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of Coupang by 111.9% in the 3rd quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 5,824,375 shares of the companys stock valued at $97,092,000 after purchasing an additional 3,075,623 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.56% of the companys stock.

Coupang Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CPNG opened at $16.79 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The businesss 50 day moving average price is $15.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.79 billion, a PE ratio of -335.80 and a beta of 1.35. Coupang has a 1 year low of $8.98 and a 1 year high of $21.38.

Coupang (NYSE:CPNG  Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.37 billion. Coupang had a negative return on equity of 4.24% and a negative net margin of 0.45%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.23) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Coupang will post 0.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Coupang

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Coupang, Inc owns and operates in e-commerce business through its mobile applications and Internet websites primarily in South Korea. It operates through two segments, Product Commerce and Growth Initiatives. The company sells various products and services in the categories of home goods and decor products, apparel, beauty products, fresh food and groceries, sporting goods, electronics, and everyday consumables, as well as travel, and restaurant order and delivery services.

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MGIC Investment Co. (NYSE:MTG  Get Rating) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,230,000 shares, a decline of 6.1% from the March 31st total of 13,030,000 shares. Approximately 4.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,970,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.1 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Gary A. Poliner sold 8,296 shares of MGIC Investment stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.92, for a total value of $115,480.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 8,821 shares in the company, valued at $122,788.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.05% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On MGIC Investment

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its holdings in shares of MGIC Investment by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 162,220 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $2,108,000 after buying an additional 766 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in MGIC Investment by 9.9% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,930 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $114,000 after acquiring an additional 804 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in MGIC Investment by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 27,117 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $353,000 after acquiring an additional 943 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC lifted its position in MGIC Investment by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 305,871 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $4,096,000 after acquiring an additional 968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Balasa Dinverno & Foltz LLC lifted its position in MGIC Investment by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Balasa Dinverno & Foltz LLC now owns 28,197 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $361,000 after acquiring an additional 1,020 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.95% of the companys stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MGIC Investment Trading Down 2.3 %

MTG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Compass Point upgraded shares of MGIC Investment from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $18.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Barclays lowered shares of MGIC Investment from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and lowered their price target for the company from $16.00 to $14.00 in a report on Friday, January 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of MGIC Investment from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, March 30th. Finally, Roth Capital reissued a buy rating on shares of MGIC Investment in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MGIC Investment presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $16.20.

MTG traded down $0.35 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $14.57. 3,636,473 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,991,368. The companys fifty day moving average price is $13.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $13.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.65. MGIC Investment has a fifty-two week low of $11.38 and a fifty-two week high of $15.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.23 billion, a PE ratio of 5.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.34.

MGIC Investment (NYSE:MTG  Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The insurance provider reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. MGIC Investment had a net margin of 73.79% and a return on equity of 19.71%. The firm had revenue of $292.25 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $295.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.61 EPS. The businesss quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MGIC Investment will post 2.12 EPS for the current year.

MGIC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 11th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 10th. MGIC Investments dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 14.34%.

About MGIC Investment

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MGIC Investment Corp. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of mortgage insurance, other mortgage credit risk management solutions, and ancillary services. The company was founded by Max Karl in 1957 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, WI.

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State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System decreased its holdings in The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO  Get Rating) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,346,058 shares of the companys stock after selling 41,110 shares during the quarter. Coca-Cola accounts for about 0.7% of State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement Systems portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement Systems holdings in Coca-Cola were worth $276,453,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of KO. My Personal CFO LLC acquired a new position in shares of Coca-Cola in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Worth Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Coca-Cola by 956.1% in the 4th quarter. Worth Asset Management LLC now owns 433 shares of the companys stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 392 shares in the last quarter. Paragon Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Coca-Cola in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Exos TFP Holdings LLC acquired a new position in shares of Coca-Cola in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, VitalStone Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Coca-Cola in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.74% of the companys stock.

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Coca-Cola Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE:KO opened at $63.96 on Wednesday. The firms fifty day moving average is $61.61 and its 200-day moving average is $61.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.15. The Coca-Cola Company has a 52 week low of $54.01 and a 52 week high of $66.38. The firm has a market cap of $276.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.07, a P/E/G ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.54.

Coca-Cola Dividend Announcement

Coca-Cola ( NYSE:KO Get Rating ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 24th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.03. Coca-Cola had a net margin of 22.69% and a return on equity of 42.96%. The company had revenue of $11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.64 EPS. The companys quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that The Coca-Cola Company will post 2.6 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.88%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 15th. Coca-Colas dividend payout ratio is presently 80.70%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Coca-Cola news, SVP Nancy Quan sold 74,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.71, for a total transaction of $4,344,540.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 219,790 shares in the company, valued at $12,903,870.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Coca-Cola news, CEO James Quincey sold 34,875 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.32, for a total transaction of $2,103,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 351,737 shares in the company, valued at $21,216,775.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Nancy Quan sold 74,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.71, for a total transaction of $4,344,540.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 219,790 shares of the companys stock, valued at $12,903,870.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 305,296 shares of company stock valued at $18,906,171 over the last ninety days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Credit Suisse Group set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Coca-Cola in a research report on Wednesday, February 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $70.00 to $68.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 15th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $72.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, February 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $67.80.

Coca-Cola Profile

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The Coca-Cola Co engages in the manufacturing and marketing of non-alcoholic beverages. It operates through the following segments: Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific, Global Ventures, and Bottling Investments. The company was founded by Asa Griggs Candler on May 8, 1886 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

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State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System cut its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK  Get Rating) by 5.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 166,224 shares of the asset managers stock after selling 9,780 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System owned 0.11% of BlackRock worth $117,791,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in BlackRock by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,492,083 shares of the asset managers stock worth $7,424,424,000 after buying an additional 444,552 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in BlackRock by 1.8% during the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,696,425 shares of the asset managers stock worth $5,335,747,000 after purchasing an additional 174,789 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,319,438 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $3,477,460,000 after purchasing an additional 259,896 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 15.4% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,326,618 shares of the asset managers stock worth $1,777,933,000 after buying an additional 310,256 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,915,197 shares of the asset managers stock worth $1,463,536,000 after buying an additional 15,290 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.69% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 35,799 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $694.50, for a total transaction of $24,862,405.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 484,325 shares in the company, valued at $336,363,712.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 3,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $696.00, for a total transaction of $2,088,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 71,307 shares of the companys stock, valued at $49,629,672. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 35,799 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $694.50, for a total transaction of $24,862,405.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 484,325 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $336,363,712.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 41,414 shares of company stock worth $28,857,495. 0.96% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BlackRock Price Performance

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on BlackRock from $741.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, January 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of BlackRock from $840.00 to $780.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 5th. Credit Suisse Group increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $662.00 to $673.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $800.00 to $779.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on BlackRock from $763.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Monday, April 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $756.45.

Shares of BLK opened at $651.46 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $665.44 and a 200-day moving average of $693.78. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $503.12 and a 52 week high of $785.65. The firm has a market cap of $97.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.21, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 2.99, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK  Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 14th. The asset manager reported $7.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $7.71 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.24 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 28.13% and a return on equity of 13.69%. BlackRocks revenue was down 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $9.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 34.45 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Company Profile

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BlackRock, Inc engages in providing investment management, risk management, and advisory services for institutional and retail clients worldwide. Its products include single and multi-asset class portfolios investing in equities, fixed income, alternatives, and money market instruments. The company was founded by Susan L.

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Texas Permanent School Fund grew its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV  Get Rating) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 251,266 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 1,092 shares during the quarter. AbbVie comprises approximately 0.6% of Texas Permanent School Funds investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Texas Permanent School Funds holdings in AbbVie were worth $40,607,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in AbbVie by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 156,022,414 shares of the companys stock valued at $20,939,769,000 after purchasing an additional 2,442,663 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 77,486,317 shares of the companys stock worth $10,399,439,000 after acquiring an additional 366,695 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,904,988 shares of the companys stock worth $1,443,588,000 after acquiring an additional 176,026 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 11.1% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 6,340,454 shares of the companys stock worth $850,952,000 after acquiring an additional 631,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 6,150,074 shares of the companys stock worth $827,315,000 after acquiring an additional 174,102 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.71% of the companys stock.

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AbbVie Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of AbbVie stock traded down $1.52 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $150.10. 788,832 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,001,337. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a market cap of $264.80 billion, a PE ratio of 35.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $156.80 and a 200-day moving average of $155.18. AbbVie Inc. has a 12 month low of $134.09 and a 12 month high of $168.11.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

AbbVie ( NYSE:ABBV Get Rating ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 27th. The company reported $2.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.44 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $12.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.23 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 147.43% and a net margin of 13.37%. The firms quarterly revenue was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.16 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 14th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 13th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.94%. AbbVies dividend payout ratio is currently 139.95%.

Insider Transactions at AbbVie

In related news, SVP Elaine K. Sorg sold 6,130 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $1,011,450.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 35,330 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,829,450. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other AbbVie news, SVP Elaine K. Sorg sold 6,130 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $1,011,450.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 35,330 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,829,450. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Elaine K. Sorg sold 7,499 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.67, for a total value of $1,212,363.33. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 35,330 shares in the company, valued at $5,711,801.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 191,897 shares of company stock valued at $29,455,233. Insiders own 0.26% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Guggenheim lowered their target price on AbbVie from $172.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on AbbVie from $157.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. SVB Leerink upgraded AbbVie from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $153.00 in a research note on Friday, February 10th. Truist Financial upped their price target on AbbVie from $160.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 5th. Finally, Argus cut AbbVie from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $162.56.

AbbVie Profile

(Get Rating)

AbbVie, Inc is a research-based biopharmaceutical company, which engages in the development and sale of pharmaceutical products. It focuses on treating conditions such as chronic autoimmune diseases in rheumatology, gastroenterology, and dermatology, oncology, including blood cancers, virology, hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), neurological disorders, such as Parkinsons, metabolic, comprising thyroid disease and complications associated with cystic fibrosis, pain associated with endometriosis, and other serious health conditions.

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Karnataka Assembly Polls 2023 LIVE Updates: The last leg of campaigning for Karnataka Assembly Polls will see bigwigs from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress (Congress) hoping to turn the tide in their favour. While the Congress is banking on an anti-incumbency wave that has worked since 1985, the ruling BJP hopes PM Narendra Modi's popularity will see them through. A total of 113 seats are needed for a simple majority  a feat BJP has never achieved. The prime minister will be reportedly involved in about 15 public meetings and roadshows over six days, giving the BJP campaign a significant push. In all, there are 2,613 candidates in the fray for the May 10 2023 Karnataka Assembly Elections after the last date for withdrawal of nominations on May 1. According to the final list of candidates shared by the Election Commission (EC), 185 women candidates and one from the Others category are contesting. While 224 candidates are from the ruling BJP, the Opposition Congress has fielded 223, and the Janata Dal (Secular) has fielded 207 candidates.

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Venture capital firm Accel is refocusing its India accelerator program on artificial intelligence startups, seeking to identify promising companies in the fast-growing field. The firm will choose as many as half a dozen early stage startups to fund and mentor, starting this month, it said Wednesday in a statement. Itll also target companies that use technology to make conventional industrial processes more efficient. Investors the world over are rushing to back AI companies as products such as ChatGPT are quickly gaining popularity. Accel is betting Indias large talent pool and technological expertise will make it fertile ground for AI innovation. We researched possible themes thatll matter in the next decade, said Barath Shankar Subramanian, an India-based partner at the venture firm. We are looking at companies that can build AI solutions that are globally relevant. Accel and its Silicon Valley peer Sequoia are among the largest investors in early-stage startups in India. Each has invested in dozens of local companies, including Walmart Inc.-backed retailer Flipkart and food and grocery delivery startup Swiggy. A $650 million fund announced last year is among Accels investment vehicles targeting the region. The rise of AI is as pivotal as the inventions of electricity, the internet and the cloud, the firm said in its statement.

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Tata Steel will take a call on its UK assets in the next 12-24 months, as discussions for a green steel package with the UK government remain uncertain, the companys chief executive told Moneycontrol in an interview. The assets  cannot survive for long, they are coming to the end of life. We will have to take a call in a year or two, said TV Narendran, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tata Steel. The company has been in discussions with the UK government, seeking financial support for a green transition for its assets. So far, it said, the talks have remained inconclusive. Tata Steel did not disclose financial details of the package last proposed by the UK government. Media reports have, in the past, pegged it at 600 million for two companies, including Tata Steel UK. The progress of discussions with the UK government is also being monitored closely given that based on the initial and subsequent discussions it remains uncertain whether adequate support for the decarbonisation strategy would be agreed, Tata Steel said in its May 2 note for its March quarter financial results. Our proposal was to transition it (the assets) to a greener process and (we are) seeking support from the government for the same. The cash flows of the business do not allow us to fund the transition. The government has come back with a package that is not close to what we are asking, so the conversation is ongoing, Narendran said in the May 3 interview. He added that the best-case scenario for the assets would be for the company to receive the package it seeks. Our fundamental point is that the UK is scrap surplus and exporting. Why should a country not leverage that (scrap) and use it in steelmaking, he said. In the worst-case scenario, he added, if there was no package, ...as and when different assets come to end-of-life, we will have to close them. We cannot run an asset if it is not safe. Clearly, in the next two years, some of the critical assets, more of the upstream assets, will come to an end. Liquid steel production at Tata Steels loss-making Port Talbot Steel Works, Wales, stood at 3.5 million tonnes in FY22.
Kiwi, a credit card platform, on May 3, announced the launch of a new solution called "Credit on UPI" for customers. The solution has been certified by the NPCI, making Kiwi the first app in India to provide "Credit on UPI" by issuing Rupay Cards in collaboration with banks. The launch of this solution is a significant move by Kiwi towards creating one of the most comprehensive direct-to-consumer (D2C) models in the credit market. The company's mobile application will allow users to make payments securely using either a credit card or bank account, directly from their phones. If there is one technology that has truly become a part of Indias everyday life, it is the Unified Payment Interface, commonly known as UPI. Introduced in 2016, UPI has transformed the banking industry by making financial services accessible to people from all walks of life, including those in remote areas. In March, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) recorded a significant surge in Peer-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions made through the UPI platform. The transactions increased by 120 percent YoY, reaching an all-time high of 4.8 billion. Moreover, the platform witnessed a 76 percent YoY rise in the value of payments made, amounting to Rs. 3.2 trillion. Kiwi has successfully raised $6 million in pre-seed funding from a group of renowned investors, including Nexus Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, and several angel investors. The co-founders of Kiwi are Siddharth Mehta (ex-CEO, Freecharge), Mohit Bedi (ex-Axis Bank & PayU), and Anup Agrawal (ex- business head, LazyPay), all of whom are senior fintech experts and veterans of the banking industry. Game changer Siddharth Mehta, co-founder, Kiwi, said, "UPI has become the most inclusive mode of payment in India, with over 30 crore unique users and 5 crore merchants onboarded on the platform. With the launch of Kiwi app, for the first time in India, users can now leverage the power of a (RuPay) credit card with the convenience and ease of UPI. Our vision is to enable access to credit on UPI for 1 million users over the next 18 months." Kiwi users will receive a RuPay credit card instantly, which they can link to UPI and use for "Credit on UPI" transactions both online and offline. The Kiwi app will offer card management facilities, including blocking the card, increasing the limit, and making payments. Additionally, users will earn rewards for every transaction. Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI said, "In our step towards attaining the goal of Digital Payments for All, Kiwi will be a game-changer in the Indian credit card industry. With the monthly expenditure on UPI P2M transactions amounting to approximately Rs. 3.2 lakh crore, which is almost 2.5x larger than the monthly credit card spends, Kiwi is set to capitalise on a significant untapped market."
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Shares of India's second-largest low-fare carrier SpiceJet Ltd rallied over 5 percent in the early hours of May 3 after the company announced that it would look to borrow Rs 400 crore to fix 25 grounded aircraft. The decision came after its smaller unlisted competitor, GoFirst, filed for insolvency protection on Tuesday. Market analysts predict that SpiceJet may benefit from this development and increase its market share. SpiceJet cited the government's Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) and improved cash flow for the aircraft revival plan. The airline has already secured roughly Rs 400 crore towards this effort, according to a press release from the company, which will help boost its revenue. SpiceJet faces severe financial difficulties, with its net worth at the end of March 2022 being a negative Rs 4,340 crore. Additionally, it reported losses before tax of over Rs 3,870 crore in the four years leading up to March 2022. The carrier has had to ground some of its Boeing 737 Max aircraft and is still grappling with working capital issues, despite the modified Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), which was intended to assist airlines. It is currently operating with approximately 44 planes, with around 25 aircraft grounded, due in part to supply-chain obstacles, according to news reports. At 10.35am, Spicejet was trading at Rs 33 on the BSE, up 4.8 percent from its previous close, while India's benchmark Sensex fell 0.3 percent. According to Ajay Singh, the chairman of SpiceJet, the airline plans to restructure its balance sheet, raise new equity, and expand its fleet. He made this statement while speaking at the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2023. In the previous month, SpiceJet restructured its $100-million outstanding dues to aircraft lessor Carlyle Aviation Partners into equity shares and compulsorily converted debentures (CCDs). The airline's board sanctioned the issuance of new equity shares worth $29.5 million, as a result of which Carlyle Aviation Partners will possess more than a 7.5 percent equity stake in SpiceJet. On May 2, domestic budget carrier GoFirst declared that it had submitted an application for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Delhi. The announcement was made by the airline's CEO, Kaushik Khona, shortly after the carrier, owned by the Wadia Group, declared a temporary suspension of flight operations on May 3 and 4 due to a severe funds crunch. Khona also stated that the airline will resume its flights once the NCLT approves the application.
Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal expressed confidence that the country will achieve the target of 20 per cent blending of ethanol with petrol by 2025 and asserted that maize crop will play an important role in implementation of this programme. Addressing a national seminar on maize to ethanol, Goyal said ethanol is a "sunrise sector" and asked the industry to set up factories for manufacturing of this green fuel which can operate on dual feed stock (sugarcane and food grains). The minister highlighted that the blending of ethanol with petrol has increased to 10 per cent in 2021-22 marketing year from just 1.53 per cent in 2013-14 on the back of efforts made by farmers and industry, aided by favourable government policies. He said the supply of ethanol to oil marketing companies (OMCs) increased to 408 crore litre in 2021-22 from 38 crore litre in 2013-14. Goyal termed the target of 20 per cent blending of ethanol with petrol as "ambitious and bold" but said this can be achieved if all stakeholders work towards it sincerely. "As we have increased the blending to around 10.5 per cent from 1.5 per cent in the last nine years, we will certainly achieve 20 per cent target," he added. Ethanol, a biofuel, is also produced from corn, agriculture residues, such as corn and rice stalks, and certain heavy molasses  a byproduct of producing sugar. Also Read: Moneycontrol Explains: India is upbeat on its ethanol blending target. But what are the challenges? The Indian government is pushing for the blending of ethanol  which can be done domestically  in petrol, to become self-reliant in energy as the country imports nearly 85 percent of its oil needs. India is the fifth-largest producer of ethanol in the world, after the US, Brazil, the European Union (EU) and China. The minister stressed on the need to boost ethanol production to meet this target and said the focus should be now on making ethanol from maize crop, since there is limitation to increase supply from sugarcane crop. To achieve the target of 20 per cent by 2025, about 1,016 crore litres of ethanol would be required. About 334 crore ethanol would be required for other usage. Therefore, there is a need to create a capacity of 1,700 crore litres, considering plant operates at 80 per cent efficiency. Goyal said the ethanol production has significantly helped sugar industry as well as sugarcane farmers and the same can be replicated in maize. "If we have to jump from 10 per cent blending to 20 per cent, maize will have a major role to play... maize is better for making ethanol. It is eco-friendly crop as it can be grown with less water," he said, adding that this will boost farmers' income because of assured market. Goyal said the agriculture ministry is working to increase productivity and production of maize crop. The minister noted that higher blending of ethanol with petrol will be beneficial for farmers, environment and the overall India's economy. The ethanol sector has attracted huge investments and helped in creation of jobs. He said India's crude oil import bill could come down by Rs 50,000 crore, leading to huge saving of foreign exchange reserve. Read more: The minister exhorted industry to set up factories citing great business opportunity and said the government is ready to support. "There is huge potential in maize. you should focus on dual feedstock (cane and grains) to produce ethanol," he said, while emphasising on increasing the implementation speed to achieve the 20 per cent blending target. Goyal said the auto industry has realised that ethanol is a reality. He said the work is going on towards rolling out flexi fuel engine and ethanol pumps. Earlier, Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said the target is to reach 12 per cent blending in 2022-23, 15 per cent in 2023-24 and 20 per cent in 2024-25. He said the requirement of ethanol is estimated at 1,300 crore litre, of which 650 litres should come from sugarcane and the rest from other sources including grains. Chopra said the ethanol production from maize needs to be encouraged. For this, he said, maize production needs to be raised from 34 million tonnes to 42-43 million tonnes, besides some special price incentives. Subodh Kumar Singh, the additional secretary in the department of food and public distribution, said there is a need to increase maize productivity and also percentage recovery of ethanol from maize. The requirement of food grains for ethanol production would be 165 lakh tonnes, Singh said. (With inputs from PTI)
Godrej Capital, the financial services arm of the Godrej Group, aims to treble its micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) loan book to Rs 6,000 crore by the end of the current fiscal, said Manish Shah, MD and CEO. At the end of March 2023, the company had a total loan book of Rs 5,300 crore, out of which Rs 2,000 crore was under MSME. We aim to have total assets under management (AUM) of Rs 12,000 crore by the end of FY24. We are aiming for Rs 6,000 crore under MSME lending, which would be 50 percent of our total loan book, said Shah. Many non-banking financial companies (NBFC), or shadow banks, are turning more aggressive in funding MSMEs. An Avendus Capital report on MSME lending said there exists a credit gap of $530 billion in the MSME sector. India has over 64 million MSMEs but only 14 percent have access to credit, said the report. On the untapped demand for MSMEs, Shah said there is a significant credit demand from MSMEs and Godrej aims to work on meeting that demand. It is estimated at $230 billion, and we see a lot of scope to serve this market with the trust of the Godrej brand and product innovations, which enable the MSMEs to grow their business, said Shah. Partnerships and challenges Many NBFCs have partnerships in place with banks to tap the credit-hungry market of MSMEs. Other than that, banks, including major public and private ones, have introduced customised platforms and services for MSME customers. Public sector lender Canara Bank, for instance, provides contactless loans and other credit services to MSMEs. Also read: Growth-hungry NBFCs want a bigger share of MSME loan market Among private sector lenders, ICICI Bank, in May 2022, started a dedicated digital platform for MSME borrowers. This platform could help secure easy credit and other timely loan services. South Indian Bank provides instant approval for a Rs 1 crore loan to MSME borrowers. Here, Shah highlighted that Godrej Capitals focus is to build its balance sheet organically. As of now we are not considering any strategic partnerships with the banks, said Shah. Other than this, the use of information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI) in assisting MSME borrowers has witnessed a huge demand and created the possibility of making an impact on the MSME portfolios of banks and NBFCs. Nirmaan platform Shah said that Godrej Capitals new MSME-dedicated platform Nirmaan will help lend flexible credit to MSMEs at favourable terms. Nirmaan will help MSMEs, said Shah, with an all-inclusive opportunity to grow their businesses to their potential. We have partnered with Amazon Global Selling, Zolvit, and MSMEx to help with some of the challenges that firms face. These challenges include a lack of skilled workforce, struggles with marketing prohibiting business growth and reach, compliance with government regulations due to a lack of resources and know-how, and many more. We aim to address these through Nirmaan, said Shah. Also read: Tight regulations, rising cost of funds can pose challenges to NBFCs, say experts
Only 0.5% of water on earth is usable for human consumption and climate change is posing a risk to this scarce supply, even as some 2 billion people around the world still lack access to safe drinking water, says a report

This is a particular challenge for the arid Gulf Arab states, where desalination is the only available option. A September 2022 report by the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) notes that the Gulf Arab states depend heavily on desalination technology for their water supplies, s MEES Insights report said.

The UAE relies on desalinated water for 42% of its supply, Kuwait 90%, Oman 86% and Saudi Arabia 70%.

Water stress

Last year, there were more than 21,000 desalination plants in operation around the world, nearly double the number a decade ago, Ifri says. With the UN projecting that within two years, two thirds of the worlds population will be affected by water stress, the desalination business is booming with an estimated growth rate in capacity of between 6% and 12% per year, according to the Ifri analysis.

Pressure on freshwater is projected to increase by more than 40% by 2050, it said.

By 2030, desalination capacity in the Middle Eastern countries is expected to almost double, making it that much harder to control CO2 emissions because of the energy intensive nature of desalination plants that currently run on electricity produced primarily from natural gas or liquid fuels.

The release of salt-loaded waste into the sea during the desalination process raises salinity in coastal areas and affects marine life. There is also the problem of transmissions losses, which Ifri estimates is higher than 50% in some Gulf countries.

The Gulf states have woken up to the challenge and are gradually switching to, or at least planning to switch to solar energy to power desalination plants. This might prove difficult in countries like Kuwait, where renewable energy capacity is a paltry 106 megawatts, according to International Renewable Energy Agency statistics.

Renewable energy

The Middle East accounts for just 1% of total global renewable generation capacity so the challenge is how to scale up solar and other clean energy technologies from a very low base.

The economies of the Gulf oil exporters have been boosted by near record oil prices in 2022 after Russias invasion of Ukraine in February and economic growth means more demand for electricity from industry and private consumers, largely concentrated in growing urban centres.

Saudi Arabia is working on solutions, having witnessed first-hand the vulnerability of strategic infrastructure projects. In 2019, Houthi rebels in Yemen, which had already targeted Saudi energy facilities, fired a rocket that landed close to the Shuqaiq desalination plant on the west coast some 150 km north of the Yemeni border. There was no damage but the attack highlighted a critical threat to Saudi Arabia and the other GCC states.

The threat from the Houthis has receded, at least if the delicate truce leads to an end to hostilities in Yemen between the Iran-backed rebels and the Saudi-led coalition. A Chinese-mediated rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran may also reduce tensions in the region.

Climate the biggest threat

Yet the biggest threat to water security is climate not war.

The desert kingdom is critically dependent on desalination plants to meet its growing populations need for potable water. The fine balance between available capacity and demand means that damage to a sizeable plant such as at Shuqaiq would have had a very damaging impact.

The balance in production of desalinated water in Saudi Arabia is split broadly 50:50 between the east and west coasts. The east coast edged ahead in 2017, but only fractionally. The bulk of the east coast capacity is focused around areas such as Khobar, Jubail and Ras al-Khair in the oil producing heartlands, with additional plants stretching as far north as Khafji, where one reverse-osmosis desalination plant is powered by Photovoltaic panels.

The oil exporting nations in the Middle East have been blessed with an abundance of oil and gas but not water, which has prompted experiments in different solutions.

Libya's project

Libyas project in 1984 to pump water from desert aquifers through gigantic underground pipes to the coast was the worlds most ambitious and expensive engineering project, so ambitious that Gaddafi had billed it as the Eighth Wonder of the World. He even issued stamps to commemorate his grand venture. The project hit a snag in 1986 when US sanctions on Libya forced engineering and management consultants Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, and other US contractors to pull out. The project, estimated at the time to cost a total of $25 billion, was taken over by Koreas Dong Ah.

For Libya, it was a choice of desalination or a headline-grabbing project like pumping water from desert to coast, costly to build but quite affordable to operate once completed.

The fuss over the Great Man Made River project has long been forgotten and other giant and seemingly fantastical projects have stolen the limelight.

Neom, the mega city under construction in Saudi Arabia that will run solely on renewable energy, is one example. Neom is being touted by its developers not only as a city of the future but also as an incubator for water solutions.-- TradeArabia News Service
Beleaguered Wadia Group airline Go First has proposed the name of insolvency professional Abhilash Lal as the interim resolution professional (IRP) in its voluntary bankruptcy plea filed at the NCLT, Delhi, multiple industry sources with knowledge of the matter told Moneycontrol. "The cash-strapped carrier has also roped in leading professional services and turnaround firm Alvarez & Marsal as an advisor for the ongoing proceedings," one of the persons cited above said. "The company has picked Lal as their choice for the role of IRP, but this will have to get the nod from the NCLT and also later from the committee of creditors. A hearing in the matter is scheduled tomorrow," a second person elaborated. A third person confirmed the above. All three persons above spoke to Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity. Earlier, in a separate case, the NCLT Hyderabad had appointed Abhilash Lal as the interim resolution professional for the insolvency proceedings of Seven Hills Healthcare following a case filed by Axis Bank. Moneycontrol has sent email queries but could not elicit immediate responses from Go First & Alvarez & Marsal and will update this article as soon we hear from both parties. Abhilash Lal was unavailable for comment. Incidentally, back in 2015, Jet Airways had appointed Alvarez & Marsal to revive the operations of the firm post the sale of a 24 per cent stake to Etihad Airways. However, the airline hasn't taken to the skies yet amid unresolved issues between lenders and the Jalan-Kalrock consortium for the transfer of the firm. "In a voluntary insolvency application - the NCLT checks for two elements: (i) there is a default in payment of the debt by the corporate debtor, and (ii) the shareholders of the corporate debtor have passed a special resolution for filing of the voluntary insolvency application before the NCLT," said Shahezad Kazi, Partner (Disputes), S&R Associates on the factors considered by the tribunal before admitting such pleas. Also read | Go First insolvency | DGCA issues show-cause notice, matter is taken up with stakeholders: Jyotiraditya Scindia Also read | Why analysts are not surprised at Go Firsts bankruptcy filing Why did Go Air opt for NCLT route? The voluntary insolvency filing announcement was made by the airlines CEO Kaushik Khona shortly after the Wadia Group-owned carrier said it will temporarily suspend flight operations on May 3 and 4 due to a "severe fund crunch". The flights will be restarted once the NCLT admits the application, Khona said. The loss-making airline said in a statement: Go First has had to take this step due to the ever-increasing number of failing engines supplied by Pratt & Whitneys International Aero Engines, LLC, which has resulted in Go First having to ground 25 aircraft (equivalent to approximately 50 percent of its Airbus A320neo aircraft fleet) as of 1 May 2023. The percentage of grounded aircraft due to Pratt & Whitneys faulty engines has grown from 7 percent in December 2019 to 31 percent in December 2020 to 50 percent in December 2022. This is despite Pratt & Whitney making several ongoing assurances over the years, which it has repeatedly failed to meet. It is an unfortunate decision (filing for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings) but it had to be done to protect the interests of the company, Khona said. Go First: What are the dues and who are the lenders? According to reports, Go First, which filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, owes financial creditors Rs 6,521 crore ($798 million), its bankruptcy filing showed. As of April 30, Go First Air had not defaulted on any of these dues, it said in the filing, which was seen by Reuters. The filing lists Central Bank of India Ltd, Bank of Baroda Ltd, IDBI Bank Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd and Deutsche Bank among Go First's financial creditors, reports added. Also read | IOCL invokes Rs 500 cr bank guarantee by Go First, dues at Rs 50 crore now: Sources
Natural rubber production in the country has gone past 800,000 tonnes in 2022-23, after a gap of 10 years, according to provisional figures available from the Rubber Board. Production reached 839,000 tonnes, just short of the revised target of 840,000 tonnes set for the year, an increase of 8.3 percent over the output of 775,000 tonnes a year earlier. Production growth in 2021-22 was 7 percent. Last time the production went over 800,000 tonnes was in 2012-13 when it touched 913,700 tonnes. After that year, the production oscillated between 600,000 and 800,000 tonnes with the exception of 2015-16 when it reached a low of 562,000 tonnes. Consumption has grown 9 percent to 1.35 million tonnes for the year. Though the consumption growth has tapered down from 13 percent in 2021-22, it is still moving at a faster pace than production, especially after the Covid-19 threats waned. On the face of it, the improved output seems to have reduced the dependence on imports during the year. Rubber imports, at the provisional figure of 530,000 tonnes, marked a 3 percent decline over 2021-22, when it stood at 546,369 tonnes. Kerala, NE states Rubber Board chairman Sawar Dhananiya attributed the jump in output to improved production in Kerala, the largest rubber-producing state in the country, and higher yield from northeastern states. In Kerala, the board has been able to resume tapping in several thousand hectares of untapped estates which helped in raising the production. In the northeastern region, the governments of Tripura and Assam have been showing great interest by providing the required infrastructure to increase output, he said. The northeastern states, particularly Tripura and Assam, account for over 16 percent of the total production, up from around 10 per cent a few years ago. The share of Kerala has come down from around 90 percent to 78 percent. The non-traditional regions of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra have a combined share of 6 percent in the total output. Rubber traders are sceptical about the surge in yield from Kerala. The current rise in production has come more from higher output in northeastern states than from Kerala. Low prices and high production costs have reduced tapping in Kerala. Many are active because of the price stabilisation scheme of the state government, said N Radhakrishnan, a major rubber dealer in Kerala. The Rubber Board, in association with major tyre companies, is implementing the NE Mitra scheme in northeastern states that contemplates fresh cultivation of rubber in 200,000 hectares in five years. Under the scheme that started in 2021, cultivation in over 3,800 hectares commenced last year. Impact of climate change Climatic changes too have affected the production in Kerala. The defoliation of rubber trees in Central Kerala impacted the output. The production was better in the estates in north Kerala, said Santhosh Kumar, vice president, of rubber, Harrisons Malayalam Ltd. Higher production cost for rubber in Kerala was in the news recently when a Catholic church bishop said the Bharatiya Janata Party will get an MP from Kerala if it raises the price of rubber to Rs 300 per kg. The price of sheet-grade rubber that is used in tyre making is Rs 154 per kg. The state government scheme of price stabilisation ensures the small growers a price of Rs 170 per kg by subsidising the difference. The rubber community in the state concurs with the statement of the bishop that the current price levels are hardly sufficient for the grower as the costs have grown manifold. Kerala pays the highest wages for rubber farmers in the country. Surging costs Apart from wages, the cost of fertiliser, rain guarding, making sheets have all gone up. If the grower is tapping two or more times a week, then the cost could be around Rs 250 per kg. If he taps just once a week, it can be brought down to around Rs 200 per kg, said Radhakrishnan, adding that the cost of production is considerably lower in northeastern states. The rubber growers are awaiting some sort of incentive from the Centre. The Centre has helped the industry by raising the import duty of compound rubber from 10 to 25 percent, the same as that of natural rubber, in the budget. It is also considering increasing the rubber replantation subsidy from the current Rs 25,000 per hectare, Dhananiya noted. Natural rubber was being imported under the guise of compound rubber by many to circumvent the higher duty for the former.
Low-cost carrier IndiGo on Wednesday announced it will commence flight services to Singapore and Bangkok from Bhubaneswar from June 3. These additional international routes will not only improve connectivity but also enhance accessibility for passengers flying to and from Bhubaneswar, IndiGo said in a statement. The Gurugram-based airline has already announced its plans to connect Bhubaneswar with Dubai from May 15. "These new connections to Bangkok and Singapore from Bhubaneswar will not only reduce travel time but also enhance global connectivity from the state," said Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha. The enhanced accessibility, Patnaik added, will increase trade and tourism, benefit the people of the state and help the government realise its goal of new Odisha. These new flights to Singapore and Bangkok will encourage tourism and trade in the city and the entire state, said Vinay Malhotra, Head Global Sales, IndiGo.

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State run-Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) has invoked a Rs 500-crore bank guarantee by GoFirst after the loss-making budget carrier filed for insolvency before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on May 2, two sources close to the development told Moneycontrol. IOCL, the exclusive fuel supplier to GoFirst, now has an outstanding due of around Rs 50 crore, the sources said. On May 2, the cash-strapped company Wadia Group-owned airline first announced that it would temporarily suspend flight operations on May 3 and 4 due to a severe fund crunch. A bit later in the day, the company said that it has filed an application for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before the NCLT, Delhi due to a "severe fund crunch". IOCL requested for the bank guarantee to be invoked yesterday (May 2) and it was accepted by the bank. Now only a small sum of around Rs 50 crore is outstanding, an official from the OMC told Moneycontrol. Another IOCL official said, Unlike some other airlines which suffered due to corporate governance and mismanagement issues, this seems to be a case of faulty engines. Once that is fixed, the problems can be resolved. Sources told Moneycontrol that IOCL will take a call on future supplies after the airline resumes operations, but typically, in such cases, the company opts for a cash-and-carry model. This model requires the buyer, Go First in this case, to buy aviation fuel with upfront payment so that dues are cleared every day to reduce the risk exposure of the OMC. Sources said that IOCL invoked the bank guarantee issued by Bank of Baroda that would take care of the majority of Go Firsts outstanding dues as of now. An email query sent to IOCL and Go First did not elicit a response till the time this piece was published. An IOCL official said, We have a 15-year-long relationship with Go First. We are hopeful that the airline will recover and restart operations and we will get our money since the main problem it seems is the faulty engines. Kaushik Khona, Chief Executive Officer of Go First, exclusively told Moneycontrol on May 3 that the airline was burning cash of around Rs 200 crore every month since November and could no longer afford it and had to resort to filing for insolvency. The NCLT in Delhi has agreed to hear the airlines voluntary insolvency on May 4. The airline hopes to resume operations as soon as NCLT admits the application. Story So Far While most airlines faced challenges due to travel disruption due to the pandemic and subsequent rise in fuel prices, Go First also had the added burden of dealing with faulty engines. Go First was forced to ground half of its fleet citing faulty engines supplied by Pratt & Whitney. While the airline sought compensation from Pratt & Whitney for faulty engines, with fewer operating aircraft, its market share shrunk, leading to a loss of revenue and delayed payments to vendors. The airline has blamed Pratt & Whitney for its position, as the American aerospace manufacturer has refused to comply with the arbitral award issued by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) in favour of the airline. The SIAC, in an order issued on March 30, had asked P&W to provide GoFirst with 10 serviceable engines by April 27, 2023, and 10 engines each month till December this year. However, P&W has refused to comply with the order. On April 28, Go First moved a petition before the Delaware court seeking enforcement of the Singapore arbitration panel's award. Khona said that Go First needs at least 20 aircraft to return to service and break even on daily operations. Meanwhile, Pratt & Whitney said in a statement on May 3 that it is committed to the success of its airline customers. We continue to prioritize delivery schedules for all customers. P&W is complying with the March 2023 arbitration ruling related to Go First. As this is now a matter of litigation, we will not comment further.
JSW Steel USA Ohio Inc, an offshore arm of homegrown JSW Steel, will invest USD 145 million to upgrade its manufacturing operations at Mingo Junction, in Ohio. On the objective behind the move, JSW Steel USA Ohio said it aims to meet the demand for quality steel products that are melted and manufactured in the US. "JSW Steel USA to invest USD 145 million in new projects to upgrade its manufacturing operations in Mingo Junction, Ohio. This is in alignment with President (Joe) Biden Administration's Buy America policies," the company said in a statement. Parth Jindal, Director of JSW Steel USA said, these new investments reiterate JSW's commitment to a sustainable and green future. The operational upgrades being made in the US are a progressive step towards achieving the company's long-term Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals. "These investments & projects will help us in producing high quality 'melted and manufactured in USA' steel products required by our customers in the infrastructure and renewable energy sectors," he said. Samir Kalra, CFO of JSW USA, said the improvement in JSW Steel USA's domestic slab production capabilities through these new investments will mitigate risks associated with importing slabs, improve profitability of the business and create employment opportunities in the US. The proposed investments include various projects to upgrade its operations including the installation of one of the largest Vacuum Tank Degasser (VTD) in the world and upgrade of supporting facilities including the manufacturing infrastructure. The VTD has substantially lower carbon emissions profile compared to a traditional steam ejector vacuum technology. It will help JSW Steel USA to reduce hydrogen content in its steel products through electrification of metallurgical processes. As part of this investment plan, JSW Steel USA is also implementing Dynamic Soft Reduction (DSR) technology in its casting operations. These new projects are expected to be completed & commissioned in FY26. JSW Steel USA Ohio, Inc has over 750 employees in the US.
The market snapped a six-day winning streak on the Nifty50, on May 3, as the selling pressure was seen in metal, technology, select oil & gas, and banks stocks. The broader markets also remained volatile, ending on a mixed note with the Nifty Midcap 100 index rising a third of a percent and Smallcap 100 index falling one-tenth of a percent. The BSE Sensex fell 161 points to 61,193, while the Nifty50 declined 58 points to 18,090 and formed a bearish candlestick pattern on the daily charts, negating higher highs of the last six straight sessions. A small negative candle was formed on the daily chart with a minor lower shadow. The smaller decline at the highs could signal a lack of sharp selling participation in the market, Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities said. Hence, overall, he feels the short-term trend of Nifty seems to have cooled off after a decent upside movement. There is a possibility of further consolidation or minor weakness for the next 1-2 sessions before showing an upside bounce from the higher lows. Immediate support is at 17,900 levels, he said. We have collated 15 data points to help you spot profitable trades: Note: The open interest (OI) and volume data of stocks in this article are the aggregates of three-month data and not just the current month. Key support and resistance levels on Nifty The pivot charts indicate that the Nifty may get support at 18,055, followed by 18,037 and 18,009. If the index advances, 18,111 is the initial key resistance level to watch out for followed by 18,128 and 18,157. Nifty Bank The Bank Nifty also corrected for the first time in the last six consecutive sessions, declining 39 points to 43,313, but formed a bullish candlestick pattern on the daily scale as we have seen the recovery from the day's low to close with moderate losses. It has been underperforming the broader markets in the past few sessions and failed to cross 43,500 levels. It formed a small-bodied bullish candle on a daily scale as buying is visible at lower zones but failed to surpass its previous days high," Chandan Taparia, Vice President | Analyst-Derivatives at Motilal Oswal Financial Services said. The index has to continue to hold above 43,250 levels to make an up move towards 43,500 and then 43,750 levels, whereas on the downside the support is intact at 43,000, then 42,750 levels, the market expert said. As per the pivot point calculator, the Bank Nifty may take support at 43,143, followed by 43,077 and 42,972. Key resistance levels are expected to be 43,354, along with 43,420 and 43,525. Call options data On the weekly options front, we have seen the maximum Call open interest (OI) at 18,200 strikes, with 1.4 crore contracts, which is expected to be a crucial resistance level for the Nifty in the coming sessions. This was followed by 18,300 strikes, comprising 94.07 lakh contracts, and 18,100 strikes, with more than 85.53 lakh contracts. Call writing was seen at 18,200 strikes, which added 30.94 lakh contracts, followed by 18,100 strikes, which accumulated 27.75 lakh contracts, and 18,500 strikes, which added 11.14 lakh contracts. Call unwinding was at 17,800 strikes, which shed 4 lakh contracts, followed by 17,900 strikes, which shed 2.73 lakh contracts, and 18,600 strikes, which shed 2.19 lakh contracts. Put option data The maximum Put open interest was at 18,000 strikes with 99.03 lakh contracts, which is expected to act as support in the coming sessions. This was followed by the 17,900 strikes, comprising 89.12 lakh contracts, and the 17,800 strikes where we have 81.28 lakh contracts. Put writing was seen at 18,000 strikes, which added 10.7 lakh contracts, followed by 17,900 strikes, which added 10.07 lakh contracts, and 18,400 strikes, which added 33,850 contracts. We have seen Put unwinding at 18,200 strikes, which shed 12.64 lakh contracts, followed by 17,400 strikes, which shed 9.67 lakh contracts, and 17,500 strikes, which shed 8.26 lakh contracts. Stocks with a high delivery percentage A high delivery percentage suggests that investors are showing interest in the stock. The highest delivery was seen in Alkem Laboratories, SBI Life Insurance Company, TCS, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals and Torrent Pharma among others. 51 stocks see a long build-up An increase in open interest (OI) and price typically indicates a build-up of long positions. Based on the OI percentage, 51 stocks, including MRF, BHEL, Apollo Tyres, Hero MotoCorp and ABB India saw long build-ups. 37 stocks see long unwinding A decline in OI and price generally indicates a long unwinding. Based on the OI percentage, 37 stocks, including Adani Enterprises, Samvardhana Motherson International, L&T Technology Services, Bajaj Auto and Infosys saw a long unwinding. 56 stocks see a short build-up An increase in OI along with a price decrease indicates a build-up of short positions. Based on the OI percentage, 56 stocks, including Manappuram Finance, United Breweries, MCX India, Escorts and Indus Towers saw a short buildup. 46 stocks see short-covering A decrease in OI along with a price increase is an indication of short-covering. Based on the OI percentage, 46 stocks were on the short-covering list. These included Voltas, IndiaMART InterMESH, Oracle Financial, Whirlpool and Gujarat Gas. Bulk deals Kolte-Patil Developers: Societe Generale-Non ODI has bought 18.45 lakh equity shares in the Pune-based real estate developer via open market transactions at an average price of Rs 245 per share. However, PGIM India Mutual Fund sold 18.65 lakh shares in the company at the same price. Suryoday Small Finance Bank: Jhelum Investment Fund I sold 5.41 lakh shares in the small finance bank at an average price of Rs 102.09 per share. Power Mech Projects: Banyantree Growth Capital II LLC has offloaded shares 1.54 lakh shares in the company at an average price of Rs 2,600.94 per share, and 80,000 shares at an average price of Rs 2,600.5 per share, amounting to Rs 60.99 crore. (For more bulk deals, click here) Results on May 4 Housing Development Finance Corporation, Hero MotoCorp, Adani Enterprises, Dabur India, Tata Power, TVS Motor, Sundram Fasteners, 360 ONE WAM, Aptus Value Housing Finance, Blue Star, Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company, CEAT, Firstsource Solutions, IDFC, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Mindspace Business Parks REIT and United Breweries will be in focus ahead of quarterly earnings on May 4. Stocks in the news Titan Company: The Tata Group company has recorded a 49.5 percent year-on-year growth in standalone profit at Rs 734 crore for the quarter ended March FY23, supported by topline and operating income. Standalone revenue from operations grew by 33.4 percent YoY to Rs 9,704 crore for the quarter with its jewellery business growing 33 percent to Rs 8,631 crore and the watches segment showing 40 percent growth to Rs 871 crore. ABB India: The company has reported a 34.3 percent year-on-year decline in profit at Rs 244.9 crore for March 2023 quarter, as the year-ago period (Q1CY22) had an exceptional income of Rs 293.35 crore). Revenue from operations for the quarter at Rs 2,411.2 crore increased by 22.5 percent over a year-ago period, with an order intake of Rs 3,125 crore in Q1. Petronet LNG: The liquified natural gas importer registered an 18.1 percent YoY decline in standalone profit at Rs 614.25 crore for the March FY23 quarter, dented by weak operating numbers. Revenue for the quarter at Rs 13,874 crore grew by 24.35 percent over the corresponding period of last fiscal. Tata Chemicals: The Tata Group company clocked 62 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated profit at Rs 709 crore for the March FY23 quarter, driven by healthy operating performance and strong growth in topline. Consolidated revenue at Rs 4,407 crore for the quarter has grown 26.6 percent over the year-ago period. Dabur India: The Investment Board of Nepal (IBN) has approved an additional investment of Nepalese rupees Rs 969 crore (approximately Rs 608 crore) in Dabur Nepal, a subsidiary company of Dabur India in Nepal. This investment will enable Dabur Nepal to expand and grow its business by way of capacity expansion, product diversification, upgradation of plant facility etc., over the next 4 to 5 years. GR Infraprojects: The company has emerged as an L-1 bidder for a project - construction of a 4-lane highway with paved shoulders - on a Hybrid Annuity Mode in Uttar Pradesh. The project cost is Rs 737.2 crore. SJVN: The company has obtained a 200 MW grid-connected solar power project in Khavda Solar Park through an e-Reverse auction conducted by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam. The tentative cost for the development of this project will be approximately Rs 1,200 crore. Fund Flow FII and DII data Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 1,338 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) sold shares worth Rs 583.99 crore on May 3, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed. Stocks under F&O ban on NSE The National Stock Exchange has added Manappuram Finance to its F&O ban list for May 4. Securities in the ban period under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit. Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by experts on Moneycontrol are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Marriott International, the world's largest hotel chain, is exploring opportunities to set up branded residences in prime urban and resort locations in India, a top company official said. Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai offer an exciting growth opportunity, Trinh Quynh Phuong, senior director, mixed-use development, APEC, Marriott International, told Moneycontrol. Leisure destinations located a short drive from metropolitan areas such as Goa present an ideal opportunity for second homes that offer turnkey convenience that enable homebuyers to move right into a fully furnished home and lock up and leave. Branded residences are luxury homes for which hospitality chains lend their brand and provide management services for a fee. The segment is back after a hiatus of almost 15 years because of better regulation of Indias real estate market and growth in wealth accumulated by high net-worth individuals, especially after the pandemic. The concept dates back to the 1920s in New York, when the Sherry-Netherland hotel opened with luxury apartments facing Central Park. In Asia, the first branded residence project dates back to 1988 with the development of Amanpuri in Phuket, Thailand. Marriott International plans to expand to at least 10 new cities in India in the next two years with over 100 new properties. "We are in 40 cities today, that should be 50 cities or more by 2025. And maybe what is exciting to me is that results in us creating 10,000 new jobs across India," Anthony Capuano, president of Marriott International, told CNBC-TV18 on April 12. According to him, the company plans to operate 250 hotels in India by 2025, including those already open and those under construction. Marriott operates 30 brands and more than 8,000 properties in 139 countries. The company currently operates 140 hotels in India. Capuano said the company's development strategy in India is to ensure that the right product is available in every market for every trip purpose. "We have to continue to stay focused on the domestic market which is strong and growing. I had the good fortune to spend a bit of time with India's tourism minister and one of the things we talked about is the importance, as an industry and certainly from Marriott's perspective, to continue to tell the story globally of what a rich and diverse set of experiences the country offers," he said, adding that Marriott wants to offer ensure lodging offerings in all of these destinations.
1. Reserve Bank builds gold reserves in the face of global economic uncertainty The Reserve Bank of India bought about 10 tons of gold in the March quarter, making it one of the top five gold buyers in the three months central banks seek to diversify reserves amid economic uncertainties, bullion market experts said. The recent purchases have swelled the central banks total gold reserves to around 800 tons, a new record. It had earlier acquired about 27 tons between April and December 2022. Why its important: The Reserve Bank has consistently bolstered its gold reserves in the past five financial years. The trend is expected to continue as the global macroeconomic situation remains uncertain. 2. Services exports at $322 billion increased a record 27 percent in 2022-23 Indias services exports shot up by a record 26.6 percent in 2022-23 to $322 billion, according to Reserve Bank data, helping close the gap with goods exports, which grew only 6 percent to $447 billion. Services imports grew 22.2 percent to $179.7 billion, resulting in a services trade surplus of $142.5 billion. With a $267 billion goods trade deficit, India ended up with a cumulative trade deficit of $124.5 billion in 2022-23. Why its important: The growth of business services exports is expected to grow significantly and would help India to contain its overall trade deficit. Efforts are required for a pickup in goods exports. 3. Valuation criterion for angel tax may follow foreign exchange management law The government may accept the valuation criterion followed under the foreign exchange management law for the angel tax on investments by overseas investors in startups. The Foreign Exchange Management Act administered by the Reserve Bank of India accepts valuation by a merchant banker registered with the market regulator using any internationally accepted pricing methodology applied on an arms length basis. Tax authorities may adopt a similar way to calculate and levy angle tax. Why its important: The government needs to provide clarity on how it intends to determine the fair value of an enterprise that would mostly impact local start-ups. The idea of an angel tax is to prevent money laundering and should not end up as a burden to new businesses. 4. Persistent Pratt & Whitney engine troubles force Go First to file for bankruptcy The Wadia Group has referred its budget airline Go First to a bankruptcy court in Delhi, citing increasing issues with aircraft engines made by Pratt & Whitney. The airline has halted operations for the next three days, asking the National Company Law Tribunal to decide its future course of action. Go First informed its travel partners of the shutdown, confirming the filing of an insolvency process later in the day. Why its important: The development, not entirely unexpected, could mark the Wadia Groups exit from the airline business. The insolvency process will allow it a moratorium on payments to lenders, aircraft lessors, fuel suppliers and ground handlers, among others. 5. Amazon and Samara look to offload 20 percent stake in More Retail More Retail, owned by Amazon and private equity firm Samara Capital, is looking to divest around a fifth of its equity to external investors at a valuation of around $2 billion. The Amazon-Samara combine has approached family offices and domestic capital investors. The retail chain, the earlier part of the Aditya Birla Group, was bought by Amazon-Samara in 2019 at an estimated value of under $600 million. Why its important: Amazon is integrating More Retail stores with its online grocery offering under the Amazon Fresh brand. The planned share sale comes ahead of a potential public listing of More Retail in the next year and a half. 6. State-run banks to consider consolidating overseas business at Gift City The central government has asked public sector banks to explore consolidating their overseas business currently done through foreign branches in the International Financial Services Centre housed in the Gujarat International Financial Tech (Gift) City. The State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, and Indian Bank have been directed to share their detailed inputs and strategies in this regard. Why its important: The need to open multiple foreign branches can be done away with if the state-owned lenders consolidated their international treasury operations in Gift City, which would potentially result in higher efficiency and cost savings. 7. Tata Steel swings to profit in March quarter, net profit declines 82 per cent Tata Steel turned a profit in the March quarter from a consolidated loss in the three months to December as sales volumes rose both in India and Europe amid higher domestic prices. The steelmakers profit stood at Rs 1,566 crore compared with a loss of Rs 2,502 crore in the December quarter. Profits were, however, significantly lower compared with Rs 9,835 crore in the year-ago period. A Bloomberg consensus estimate had pegged revenues at Rs 60,629.9 crore and net income at Rs 480.4 crore. Why its important: The Indian business of Asias oldest steelmaker has seen an improvement in margins on firmer prices. Business is likely to improve in subsequent quarters as well. 8. Foreign funds invested in Adani declined to reveal names of beneficial owners Some overseas funds that have invested in Adani group companies have refused to identify their beneficial owners, citing client confidentiality and foreign privacy laws. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has sought ownership information from these funds as it checks for breaches of securities market rules. The regulator has requested six more months from the Supreme Court to complete its investigation into the Adani-Hindenburg matter. Why its important: The market regulator may have to seek government help in ferreting out information from overseas jurisdictions. Establishing charges of wrongdoing could prove to be an uphill task. 9. Private firms to get limited access to Gati Shakti national master plan data The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has finalized a draft framework for sharing the Gati Shakti national master plan data with the private sector. The framework will entail details of the extent of viewing rights, as well as access rights to social and economic infrastructure-related data with a private entity. Currently, only government authorities can access the portal for detailed planning and implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects in a time-bound manner. Why its important: The private sector would welcome access to the wealth of data, but the government has to consider national security and data privacy. 10. Government planning to develop a model contract for real estate transactions The government would develop a model contract for real estate transactions that aims to standardize sale agreements, narrow expectation gaps, and boost transparency, consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh has said. The model contract is expected to lessen the burden on Indian consumer courts, where approximately 550,000 cases are pending, many of them linked to the countrys real estate sector. Why its important: In addition to streamlining real estate transactions, a model contract would allow consumers to make informed decisions.
NTPC Ltd has marked its first overseas power plant capacity addition in Bangladesh. Named Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant (MSTPP), the project will have two units of 660 MW each. On May 3, NTPC, which is India's largest power generator, said it has successfully added the first unit of the 1,320 thermal power plant. The plant is located in Rampal, Mongla, Bagerhat, Bangladesh. With this new addition, the installed capacity of NTPC has gone up to 72,304 MW, all of which, except the above mentioned plant, are stationed in India. "This demonstrates company's global reach and commitment to providing reliable and sustainable power. The project was executed in collaboration with the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Pvt Ltd. (BIFPCL), a foreign joint venture company of NTPC Ltd," NTPC said in a statement on May 3. "After obtaining the required norms and approvals, Unit 1 of MSTPP has been included in the installed and commercial capacity of NTPC Group. The successful completion of the project underscores NTPC's commitment to innovation and excellence in every project it undertakes," it added.

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FMCG major P&G India on Wednesday committed to providing digital upskilling opportunities to five lakh women from lesser privileged communities over the next three years in an efforts to drive equality and inclusion. Besides P&G India will partner with over 50 educational institutes, including undergraduate colleges and post-graduate universities across the country under its initiative ShareThePride, said its MD & CEO L V Vaidyanathan. "With the aim of creating safe spaces and visible allies for the LGBTQ+ community, P&G will work towards sensitizing students, faculty, and staff. "Along with this, the company will also partner with institutes to evolve the ecosystem to incorporate positive makers of an inclusive space," said Vaidyanathan at P&G India's annual #WeSeeEqual Summit. Moreover, P&G which owns brands such as Ariel, Whisper, Tide and Head & Shoulders, also announced an Infertility Treatment Support policy for its employees and their partners. "Under this policy, P&G India will cover the expenses borne for infertility treatments like Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), etc," he said, adding "In line with our commitment towards inclusive policies, this program supports employees of diverse gender identities, sexual orientations, and family structures." While sharing updates, Vaidyanathan said P&G India over the last two years, has already invested over Rs 400 crore towards deliberately working with women-owned and women-led businesses in India. This is part of P&G's commitment to spend a total of Rs 500 crore, from the year 2021 to 2025, he added. "P&G India achieved 50 per cent representation of female directors behind the camera for the company's brand advertisements - one year ahead of the commitment timeline of 2024," he said. P&G India's Whisper Menstrual Health & Hygiene Program has already educated over 2 crore girls on puberty and hygiene over the last two years, against a commitment of 2.5 crore girls by 2024. "The company will continue to focus on increasing awareness about the need for period education and preventing girls from missing and dropping out of school and renew the commitment to impact 2.5 crore girls over next 3 years," he said. Similarly, under the 'P&G Shiksha Betiyan Scholarship Program' launched last year, it has worked with over 100 institutes to provide financial aid and mentorship opportunities to girls seeking to pursue higher education in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). "This was done across technical institutes, undergraduate colleges, and post-graduate universities," he added. Union Minister for Women & Child Development And Minority Affairs, Smriti Irani who was also present there said India has done better than several developed nations in taking care of women-related issues. "There have been economies around the world that have done stupendously well for themselves that are considered developed. We in India have done much better for gender justice," she said. Bills as medical termination of pregnancy at 24 Weeks were passed in both Houses of Parliament. "Now what is great about my country and I am pointing now as an Indian woman, is that no man in my country spoke against that bill. Every man in my country supported it, be it a politician or a citizen. And I think that is what is unique about our country," she said in a fireside chat with Vaidyanathan. The Prime Minister's endeavour was to ensure that Jan Aushadhi Kendra has 40 products specifically for women. "And the fact that a male Prime Minister and the first prime minister ever in the living history of our country spoke about access to a sanitary at one rupee from the ramparts of the red Ford was a defining moment in our democratic history. "We in the government, under the prime minister's leadership, are ensuring that access to such affordable products is expanded," she added. When asked about issues such as menstrual hygiene, she said the Prime Minister leads from the front on issues such as issues. "I am glad to share that the Prime Minister is the first ever to give the country an administrative protocol for menstrual hygiene and how to dispose of the menstrual hygiene waste, product waste, and I think that shows the detail to which the government has gone on issues such as menstrual hygiene and access to such products," she added.
Douglas County Sheriff's deputies responded to a shots fired call in the area of Jamaica Street and I-25, just east of Park Meadows Shopping Center, about 2 p.m. Wednesday and asked people to stay clear the area and to shelter in place.

Officials issued a "Code Red" emergency to residents and businesses in the surrounding area  there are a lot of apartments in the area.

There were no reports of injuries.

Deputies closed Inverness Parkway and South Jamaica Street near the area, and the South Valley Highway frontage road, according to a Douglas County Sheriff's tweet.

There was a large police presence in the area. As of 5:33 p.m., Wednesday the shelter-in-place order was lifted. Investigators released a photo of a person of interest in the shooting and asked anyone with information to call 303-660-7579.
Karnatakas real estate regulator has held that homebuyers cannot claim compensation in delayed residential projects that have obtained partial occupancy certificates. The Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (KRERA) dismissed a complaint filed by a homebuyer for delayed compensation in a Prestige Estates Projects property in Bengaluru. It also held that such properties, which obtained partial occupancy certificates before new real estate regulations came into force, cannot be registered with the regulatory body as ongoing projects. Properties for which applications have been filed seeking occupancy certificates, either partial or complete, need not be registered with RERA, the regulator said in an order dated April 24. The regulators decision came on a plea by a homebuyer who had purchased an apartment in Prestige White Meadows located in Whitefield in 2017. According to the sale deed signed in 2015, there was a delay of 18 months in handing over possession. One-time settlement One person who bought an apartment in 2018 claimed the developer failed to register the second phase of the project, which is still under construction, with RERA. Another buyer, who was promised handover in 2014, said the developer failed to give possession until 2018 and sought compensation for the delay. In all the cases, Prestige Estates told the KRERA court that the development of the entire project was completed by September 2016. The application for the occupancy certificate was submitted to the local corporation in October 2016 and received in 2017. However, the developer confirmed to KRERA that there was a delay in obtaining the occupancy certificate for the second phase due to land litigation and other issues. According to the order, a partial occupancy certificate was granted up to floor 21 of Tower 4 in Phase 2. The developer also told KRERA that it reached a one-time settlement with the aggrieved homebuyers. The regulatory body found that the homebuyers are not entitled to claim delayed compensation and the project need not be registered with KRERA. The court noted that there was a delay in the handover of possession for some buyers. The court also observed that several homebuyers were liable to pay interest on delayed instalments, totalling about Rs 32 lakh in some cases. KRERA said complainants who accepted possession in 2018 with a one-time settlement from the developer cannot claim interest for the delay period. For homebuyers where the delay was four years, the court said they received a one-time settlement of Rs 35 lakh in discounts and they cannot claim compensation. The regulator noted that construction and development of Tower 4 or Phase B of the project was completed by September 2016, almost a year before KRERA came into existence in May 2017, and the partial occupancy certificate was approved in September that year. The court referred to the Karnataka RERA Rules of 2017 and said a development will be considered complete even where a partial occupancy certificate has been issued by the competent authority. The court also cited a Karnataka High Court order of 2022 in the Cambian Technologies vs KRERA case, which held that projects with an occupancy certificate, partial or complete, need not be registered with the RERA. Thus it is clear that the project does not come under the purview of Karnataka RERA as an ongoing project," it said in the order. The discrepancies Homebuyers and lawyers said the exception made for projects with partial occupancy certificates was a grey area and appeared to be inconsistent with the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), which was passed by Parliament in 2016 and came into effect fully from May 1, 2017. "KRERA introduced a partial occupancy certificate in the Karnataka RERA Rules, which does not exist in RERA Act 2016. We expect KRERA to make the required changes in the RERA rules in Karnataka to comply with the RERA Act concerning occupancy certificate," said Dhananjaya Padmanabhachar of the Karnataka Home Buyers Forum. This has a significant impact on homebuyers as the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission clearly stated that no occupancy certificate means no maintenance needs to be paid, he added. Advocate MD Rajkumar, who practices in the Karnataka High Court, said the solution lies in harmonising directions of the courts or municipal bodies in this regard. "OC is a contract between the developer and the local body. Homebuyers do not have any role to play here. And in such a scenario, different local bodies, including the high court, have passed mixed orders on the issue that broadens the grey area in this matter," Rajkumar said. A list of questions has been sent to Prestige Estates and Moneycontrol will update the story after getting a response.
Sushil Kumar Rohila had bought a flat in Chintels Paradiso housing complex in sector 109 in Gurugram in 2017 after investing his lifelong savings but little did he know that he will have to again go through the struggle of getting a dream home as like many others he has also been asked to evacuate his flat on account of structurally unsafe building. Rohila said that he is uncertain about the future of his home as the buyback option provided by the builder is nearly 35-40 lakh lesser than the market price in the area and he will have to shell out more money to get a same size unit in a similar standard society located near Dwarka Expressway. I bought this flat at around Rs 1.12 crore in 2017 and now after six years, the builder is offering almost the same amount for a 3BHK unit measuring 1,785 square feet. This is a sheer loss for homebuyers. I feel cheated that after investing so much money I do not have my dream home to spend my retirement, Rohila told Moneycontrol. Also Read: One year of Chintels roof collapse in Gurugram: An uncertain future awaits residents He is not alone, over 60 families of towers D, E and F have been affected by the poor construction quality of these towers and are now clueless about the future of their homes. On February 10, 2022, two women were killed after the ceilings of several flats in tower D of Chintels Paradiso collapsed. Since then the tower D residents have been living on rent and occupants of towers E and F were also directed to evacuate their flats as these towers were declared structurally unsafe by IIT Delhi in February 2023. Towers D, E, and F were declared structurally unsafe by IIT-Delhi, and residents were told to evacuate. The residents of tower D have been living on rent  paid by the builder  in alternative accommodations. Residents of the housing complex said that the current buyback rates being offered by the builder are 30-35 percent lower than the current market price. The offer Chintels India Private Limited, the developer of Chintels Paradiso housing society in Gurugram has offered two options to the residents of towers D, E, and F of the complex. In option one, the builder has offered to pay an all-inclusive price of Rs 6,500 psf (super built-up area). In addition, it will also refund the stamp duty paid by the flat owners. In option two, the builder offered to get the property repaired or re-built by some reputed contractor, as per the technical requirements recommended by CSIR-CBRI, and hand over possession within 36 months from the date of receipt of all necessary approvals and removal of any other hurdles in going ahead with the construction. The builder has also decided to discontinue the rentals being given to residents of these towers, from April 30. The builder added that in case any tower needs to be re-built, each flat owner who opts for this offer will receive a flat of the same size and layout as the flat owned by them at present. The developer clarified that those opting for the reconstruction of flats will have to pay an extra Rs 1,000 psf (based on the super built-up area) as there has been an exponential increase in the prices of building materials and labour. Homebuyers' concern Residents of the housing society said that buyback prices quoted by the developer are way too lower than the current market. Rohila said he had purchased the flat in Chintels Paradiso because of its proximity with Dwarka Expressway, which is likely to be opened in June, and areas of Delhi and Gurugram. But to get a same-sized unit in sector 109 or 106 which are closer to the expressway and in a same standard society will cost nearly between Rs 1.7 crore to Rs 2 crore at the current market price. Even after buyback settlement buyers will get around Rs 1.25 crore for a 1,785 square feet unit and this money will not be sufficient to buy a new flat in a good society here, Rohila said. He said that since there is not much difference between the older rates and the buyback compensation offered by the builder, he would prefer to settle for the redevelopment of the flat. Also Read: Chintels Paradiso case: Residents want builder to bear reconstruction cost, continue paying rent Another resident of the society, Manoj Singh, said he had purchased the flat for Rs 6,500 psft in 2017 and now after six years the rates being offered by the builder are the same even as the market rates hover around Rs 9,000 psft to Rs 11,000 psft in sectors around Dwarka Expressway depending on the location, floor and the society. Chintels India has offered Rs 6,500 psft rate plus stamp duty to Paradiso residents but the same developer is selling flats at a rate of Rs 9,500 psft in its another project named Serenity. It shows that the developer is clearly offering Rs 3,000 lesser than its own rate in its other society. This is an injustice to us and we will raise this matter in our next hearing in the Supreme Court, Singh said. He added that residents are caught in a double whammy because if they chose the redevelopment of their flats then also they will have to pay the builder at a rate of Rs 1,000 per sqft, which is wrong. Singh explained that the approximate price of a 1,785 sqft flat at the rate of Rs 6,500 will be around Rs 1.16 crore and if a stamp duty of around Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh is added then it comes to Rs 1.20 crore, which is not sufficient to buy a same size unit in a similar kind of society in the area. Another resident of tower E said, We do not accept this offer. The builder should either give us compensation at market rate or should redevelop flats at the same location without any extra charge from residents. Rakesh Hooda, president of Chintels Paradiso Residents' Welfare Association, said that it is a pre-RERA project and there are over 500 units of different sizes ranging between 1,785 sqft and 3,150 sqft in the society. One will have to go to those sectors which are located far from the Dwarka Expressway to buy homes at the price being offered by the builder, he said. What do real estate experts say? Vikas Saluja, a real estate broker in Gurugram, said the properties located in sectors along Dwarka Expressway have seen a significant price appreciation in the last couple of years. The current market rate of flats in good societies is ranging between Rs 9,000 psft and Rs 12,000 psft. The market even has acceptability of Rs 15,000 sqft in the luxury segment. Chintels Paradiso was launched as a high standard society so it is very difficult to get a same-sized flat in any other nearby society of the same standards at a price point of Rs 1.2 crore or even Rs 1.4 crore. The same sized 3BKH flat is being sold at a rate of Rs 9,000 to Rs 9,500 per sqft in Chintels Serenity, which is a segment lower than the Paradiso in terms of lifestyle and amenities. So not to talk of other societies but one needs at least Rs 1.69 crore to buy a 1,785 sqft flat in Serenity only, Saluja said. Another broker Sanjeev Taneja said that homebuyers will have to look for sectors such as 107, 91, 92, 81 and 86 among others, which are located a bit far from the Dwarka Expressway. Since the expressway is likely to become operational in June 2023, the properties located around the corridor have become costlier.
After receiving a tepid response to the last two global tenders for the 1,000-acre Film City project, the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) is in talks again with production houses and filmmakers. This round of talks is aimed at understanding the reservations of potential bidders so as to ease bidding conditions in the third tender document, officials privy to the development said. The changes could include providing for a concession period of 90 years, allocation of smaller land plots and allowing film-related manufacturing units, the officials said. After these meetings a report will be prepared on the suggestions and recommendations offered by filmmakers, production houses and music companies and it will be sent to the Uttar Pradesh Government for approval. After approval of the report prepared on suggestions by industry players, the state government will call a meeting of the Public Private Partnership Evaluation Committee to decide on the final tender document. A final call on relaxations will be taken by the committee and then the third tender will be floated, YEIDA CEO Arun Vir Singh told Moneycontrol on May 3. Also Read: In Pics: Noidas Film City Project failed to attract bidders; Know project details Calling on all stakeholders He added that meetings are being held with several industry players that include music companies and production houses such as T-Series, Omaxe, which is part of a consortium with Ad-Labs, the Star group, PVR, MX Player, Zoom TV, and Sony. The authority is also in talks with filmmakers including Rajinikanth, Anil Kapoor, KC Bokadia, Rajpal Yadav, and Kailash Masoom. Officials of YEIDA may fly down to Chennai later this month to hold a meeting with Rajinikanth over the Film City project, Singh said. Suggestions provided by T-Series include dividing the 1,000-acre land parcel into smaller land parcels measuring 200-250 acres, considering the scalability and viability of Film City. It said the concession period should be for 90 years instead of 60 years, with an option to renew it for 30 years more. Also Read: Filmmakers and music companies evince interest in upcoming International Film City Production houses want YEIDA to allow manufacturing units related to film equipment and freedom in developing the project. Omaxe suggested changing the land use matric so that real estate development can be allowed in the project. We will not allow real estate development in the project. We can relax the condition of 60 years-plus-30 years lease period; instead the authority may decide on giving a lease of 90 years directly. The authority may also allow inclusion of film-related manufacturing units in the project. However, any final decision on these points will be taken in the evaluation committee meeting, Singh said. YEIDA plans to develop the 1,000-acre Film City in Sector 21 along the Yamuna Expressway in three phases. The first two phases may involve building the project on 400 acres and the third on 200 acres. The first global tender for the film city was floated on November 22, 2021. The second global tender was issued on October 17, 2022. The deadline for this was extended up to February 14, 2023 and then February 28, 2023 and then to March 31, 2023. No bids were received. 
Fino Payments Bank (FPB) shares gained 4 percent on May 3 after the company reported a 25 percent on-year jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 22 crore for the quarter ended March 2023. Net revenue (revenue accounted for product cost) increased 18 percent to Rs 106 crore as against Rs 90 crore a year ago. Total income stood at Rs 323 crore, up 13 percent from Rs 285 crore reported in Q4FY22. Total revenue stood at Rs 314 crore in the December 2022 quarter. Segment-wise, remittance contributed the highest to total revenue, making up 32 percent of revenue, followed by cash management service (CMS) contributing 20 percent, others 12 percent and business correspondent banking, Aadhaar-enabled payment system, and micro ATM contributing 9 percent each. Follow our live blog for all market action Total deposits for the quarter stood at Rs 1,200 crore, rising 66 percent as against Rs 724 crore as at March 2022. The number of current accounts, savings account deposits (CASA) came in 64 percent higher on a yearly basis to stand at 75.2 lakh as of March 2023 as against 45.9 lakh as at March 2022 with average CASA balance increasing to Rs 1,216 against Rs 1,093. Total throughput (of transactions) increased 27 percent to Rs 68,000 crore in the reporting quarter, compared to Rs 53,543 core in the year-ago quarter. CASA and CMS continue to outperform our expectations and we are very confident of this momentum to continue. This year, we also enhanced on our digital groundwork, the digital throughput gained traction and increased from 16 percent to nearly 23 percent between Q1 FY23 and Q4 FY23, said Rishi Gupta, CEO and MD of Fino Payments Bank. Also Read: Early-bird results show tepid India Inc profits in Q4 season For its FY26 business projections, FPB is aiming at an average CASA balance at Rs 2,000 from Rs 1,216. It also aims to grow the number of customers from 75 lakh to 2 crore, increase total deposits from Rs 1,200 crore to about Rs 3,500 crore, as well as expand its merchant base from 14 lakh to about 20 lakh. The market capitalization of the company has declined over 20 percent in the last one year but has gained about 10 percent in the last six months. However, at current levels, the company which got listed in November 2021 is trading more than 61 percent below its IPO price of Rs 577 and also ranks among the worst performing IPOs which hit the market in 2021. At 10.22am, the scrip was trading 3.24 percent higher on the NSE at Rs 224.75, while the benchmark Nifty traded 0.30 percent lower at 18,093.70 points.
A strong performance by India operations helped Tata Steel beat Street estimates on all fronts. Although Q4 net profit dropped 84 percent to Rs 1,566 crore, it was higher than the analyst expectation of Rs 955 crore. Revenue from operations for Tata Steel came in at Rs 62,962 crore, down 9.2 percent from Rs 69,323 crore a year ago. The analysts had pegged the revenue at Rs 58,962 crore. Operating margins at 11.5 percent was also higher than the estimate of 9.8 percent. Follow our live blog for all the market action At 10:30 am, Tata Steel stock was quoting at Rs 109.65, lower by 0.5 percent. The stock is down over 8 percent in 2023 so far. After the Q4 numbers, JPMorgan gave an 'overweight' rating and a target price of Rs 150 for the stock, while Morgan Stanley and CLSA gave it an 'equal-weight' and 'outperform' rating with target prices of Rs 110 and Rs 125 per share. According to Morgan Stanley, Tata Steel's standalone EBITDA was much stronger due to better realisations and lower operating expenses. This drove a good beat on a consolidated basis, but the European business continued to struggle and was a significant drag on the overall performance. The India business generated a margin of 20 percent, while Europe was at 5 percent with higher input costs affecting margins. JPMorgan has highlighted that the strong performance of Tata Steel's India operations offset the weak European business, resulting in a large beat. They also noted that debt reduction is a positive, and the sharp improvement in India EBITDA per tonne to Rs 16,700 is another positive. Tata Steel's net debt decreased by around Rs 3,900 crore to Rs 67,810 crore. "Our liquidity remains strong at Rs 28,688 crore. Net debt to EBITDA was 2.07x," the company stated in a press release. Additionally, JPMorgan believes that the improvement in other Indian operations, including Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL), which is working on a project plan to expand capacity from 1 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes, is also a positive sign. For CLSA, too, the strong beat in India operations drives the optimism. "While losses in Europe were in-line, residual EBITDA increased sequentially," CLSA said. Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
As the flight from Abu Dhabi landed in New Delhi on May 3 morning, Go First had shut operations. The counters across its 25-plus stations were deserted. Both the speed and the stealth of the developments that led to this situation were surprising. In the case of Jet Airways in 2019 or Kingfisher Airlines in 2012, the decline was gradual and predictable, with lessors taking away planes, stations being closed, flights being reduced and salaries being delayed before things came to the fore and the carriers had to be shut down. Cut to 2023. Everyone knew about the challenges and problems at Go First, which stemmed primarily from engine issues. The Pratt & Whitney engines spent less time on the wings than promised and replacements didnt come in at the desired rate, leading to the grounding of planes for both Go First and IndiGo. The impact on IndiGo was mitigated as the airline re-inducted some of the planes and also because the majority of its A320neo family of aircraft is now powered by CFM engines instead of those from Pratt & Whitney. Last month, four Go First planes were returned to lessors, following the departure of another two, even as new aircraft ready at the Airbus plant in Europe were sent into storage. Now that the airline has admitted itself to insolvency proceedings and is awaiting the courts ruling on the next steps, its 54 planes are parked in nine airports in the country. Where are the planes? Data accessed from flight tracking websites FlightRadar24 and Planespotters show that the airline has parked 23 of its aircraft in New Delhi, which is about 43 percent of its fleet. The recently commissioned apron at Delhi, which was to help with additional movements, has become a parking lot of sorts for the grounded aircraft of IndiGo and Go First. The grounding is so old that they are visible on Google Maps satellite imagery, which isn't updated regularly. Bengaluru and Mumbai have nine each, while Kannur, which the airline had made an important base to launch its Middle Eastern operations, has five. Nagpur has three while Hyderabad has two. Ahmedabad, Kochi, and Manohar International Airport in North Goa have one each. Even as the airline awaits directions on the next steps, it will have to spend money to keep the aircraft in good condition, as mandated by the aircraft manufacturer. Long-term parking involves ensuring that rodents are kept out of critical areas to avoid damage and allow ease in reactivation. Frequent fliers at Delhi and Bengaluru would have noticed how critical areas of the aircraft have been strapped. Impact on airports Most airports have limited parking areas. The larger ones in Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai have been sought by airlines for a long time to add capacity. Airports are designed to utilise infrastructure such as aprons, bays, and check-in counters repeatedly. Profitability depends on quick turnarounds that make space available for the next aircraft movement. When the bays are occupied by long-term parking of aircraft, potential revenue is impacted. This also impacts passengers because additional movements cannot be allotted to other airlines willing to increase capacity. The airports at Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata still have mothballed aircraft from the past. Since the airports have not been able to recover the dues, they have pushed the planes to places out of operational areas, but it has taken years to do this and sometimes after getting orders from courts. The same cannot be done immediately for the aircraft of Go First. With every passing day, the parking bill of these planes goes up and there is no guarantee that the airline, now or after the bankruptcy court order, would be in a position to pay. What next? Lessors will look for ways to repossess their aircraft at the earliest. Once the aircraft is gone, there is no way the airline can potentially earn revenue. At the same time, lessors would be constrained from taking away all the planes since the airline has said that almost 50 percent of its fleet is grounded due to the lack of engines. In such a situation, the lessor will have to spend money to get engines for the planes before flying them out, which gets us back to the point where it all began  the lack of engines. There are more questions than answers for now and time will tell how things pan out. Until then, the aircraft at nine airports will be a sad reminder of how brutal Indian aviation is and a reminder to airport operators to find ways to avoid getting into this situation again.
What really led Go First to file for bankruptcy? For one, it was the constant churn at the top which made it difficult for the airline to maintain continuity in its operations and goals, say industry watchers. Also Read | GoFirst files for bankruptcy: What it means for Indian aviation It became more pronounced in the last three years. Though the airline had constantly changing CEOs even earlier, trouble started after Wolfgang Prock Schauers resignation in January 2020. Within months of his quitting, two other senior officials also left. In August 2020, the airline announced that Vinay Dube is no longer the Chief Operating Officer. Dube joined in February 2020, initially joining as an advisor to the carrier. Shauer is currently the President and Chief Operating Officer of IndiGo, and Dube is the founder and CEO of Akasa, which launched operations in August 2022. Also Read | GoFirsts insolvency: An opportunity for others? Style of operation, financials The Wadia group-owned airlines style of operation also started taking its toll. Go First followed a lean-machine attitude in running its various departments. All the departments were run by very few people and when almost half the top team left, it cost Go First dearly. Its financials are another sore point. Though Go First is not a listed company, and its financials have not been made public, there have been media reports that the airline suffered its highest financial loss to date in fiscal 2022. Also Read | InterGlobe Aviation soars as Go First bankruptcy opens doors for higher fares, market share This is despite the owners pumping in Rs 3,000 crore in the airline in the last 15 months and the airline also receiving support from banks as part of the Centres bailout through the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS). This was bad enough for Go First, in a scenario which had just started picking up after two disastrous years, thanks to Covid and the grounding of flights. Also, like any business house, the Wadia Group wants to concentrate on its profit-making ventures. Go First was not such a venture. Why the company reasoning fails The company squarely blames the failure of Pratt & Whitney engines for taking the insolvency route. However, these engines have spelt trouble for other airlines, like IndiGo in India and many other carriers in the rest of the world. According to aviation analysts, engine troubles are not insurmountable. They argue that it is like yourself getting admitted to a hospital, suspecting a virus infection, instead of consulting a doctor. They add that if Go First was keen on staying afloat, it should have worked out some arrangement with its lenders rather than voluntarily opting for insolvency. Also Read | Go First's insolvency caps Wadia group's steady decline The road ahead Analysts are now divided about what the future holds for the airline. While some believe that insolvency proceedings are going to be a long-drawn-out process and the airline is as good as a shut shop, others are not ready to write it off. Since it has been around for close to 17 years, has slots at most Indian and some international airports, is the third largest airline in India, has a valid Air Operator's Permit (a valid permit is required to run an airline in India), and has trained manpower, many feel Go First can be an interesting pick for an investor with deep pockets who is keen to get an airline in a growing market at less than what it will takes to start a new airline. Also Read | Airfares likely to rise as Go First cancellations reduce capacity: TAAI However, it wont be smooth going for potential buyers, say analysts. The biggest challenge before the new owners will be winning back passenger trust. This is likely to be a slow process as the airline has left many passengers stranded as it ceased operations almost overnight. Also, existing domestic airlines will try to stifle competition by seeking the slots used by Go First. There is a precedent here. Once Jet Airways stopped operations, its slots were given to existing airlines to ensure there was no passenger inconvenience. Having approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), there will be a moratorium on payments by Go First.
As VT-WDA landed in Delhi from Abu Dhabi this morning, it marked the beginning of a three-day hiatus for all GoFirst flights. What started as an unconfirmed two-day cancellation quickly snowballed into big news when the airline announced it was filing for insolvency, blaming engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney for its troubles. The airline has cancelled all flights until May 5th and promised to refund passengers who have booked tickets. But, it continues to sell flights for May 16 and beyond. So, is there more than what meets the eye? What does history suggest? From Kingfisher Airlines to Jet Airways, many airlines have collapsed in India. Paramount, Air Costa, Air Pegasus, Air Carnival and Trujet are just a few names. All of them talked about making a comeback, selling stakes, infusing funds and raising cash. However, the fact remains that any airline that remained suspended for 24 hours in India has not been able to make a comeback. Jet Airways went down in April 2019 after running out of cash with a lot of clamour at the time that the airline was too big to fail. It also became the first carrier to be referred under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, then newly launched. Years on, it has not been able to defy history. In the case of GoFirst, there have always been signs of financial distress, but the telltale signs, which were visible in the case of Jet Airways or Kingfisher Airlines, were absent. The airline was stretching its assets to the maximum to tide over the engine issues and operating flights, even with a delay. While its on-time performance suffered, passengers still reached their destinations. While not ideal, this certainly is better than cancellation. To come out of hibernation on May 16th, the airline will have to defy history. Otherwise, May 2 will be no different than April 17, 2019 (Jet collapse) or Oct 20, 2012 (Kingfisher). Unfortunately, it is the employees who again will suffer the most if GoFirst fails to make a comeback. This, like the Jet Airways fall, has also come amidst election season and could dent the government's pro-business image. The civil aviation minister, in a statement yesterday, made it clear that the law would take its own course now. Details of the insolvency filing are not public yet. In the earlier cases, capacity reduction was gradual and passengers were aware about the airlines troubles. For GoFirst, the suspension is sudden, impacting nearly 200 flights daily. At load factors in excess of 90 percent, 30,000-40,000 daily passengers will be impacted immediately, derailing the India growth story, which was beginning to look up. From chasing a daily count of 4.5 lakh passengers, the numbers will barely cross 4 lakh now, which is lower than pre COVID average. Restart soon, but how? It is unclear how the airline will manage funds or get engines in a span of three days. With such news, passengers and travel agents will be wary of booking flights with the airline. The wounds of losses or money being stuck with Jet Airways are still fresh. In the absence of a revenue stream, how will GoFirst start again on May 16th? Lessors, too, would have made a beeline to recover their aircraft, lest they get stuck in a lengthy process. The airline had already returned four aircraft in quick succession last month. The airlines press release talked about a restart in August/September  if Pratt and Whitney works in line with an emergency arbitration award by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) to provide GoFirst with replacement engines. This contradicts its website and booking sites, which list flights for sale beyond May 5. Clearly, even those who had seen this coming did not expect it to happen so quickly and in this manner. The industry has been taken by surprise. But is the surprise element a tactic to put pressure on the engine manufacturer to deliver? For the government to step in and help? Or a ploy to respectfully close the business without slipping into complications? Crores and crores of rupees have been pumped in by the Wadia group to keep GoFirst in the air. The last thing group patriarch Nusli Wadia would want is to see the airline take down the groups valuation. All in all, events from the past suggest Go FIRST will struggle to resume operations on May 16. But will it somehow defy history?
No-frills carrier Go First filing for insolvency proceedings and cancelling flights is bad for the airline industry as the move will reduce capacity and could push airfares in certain routes, travel agents' grouping TAAI said on Wednesday. Bogged down by an acute financial crunch due to grounding of more than half of its fleet amid P&W engine supply woes, Go First has cancelled flights for three days starting May 3. Besides, the Wadia group-owned airline has filed for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). "It is bad for the (airlines) industry... It is such a fragile industry... we lost crores of rupees in Kingfisher Airlines, in Jet Airways and we have another one going into insolvency (proceedings)," Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) President Jyoti Mayal told PTI. The developments at Go First, which has been flying for more than 17 years, also come at a time when the domestic air traffic is on an upward trajectory. Mayal said that right now there is demand for air travel as it is holiday time and "we do expect fares going up in sectors it (Go First) was flying. In the coming weeks, fares are likely to go up." Regarding booked tickets, she said it is the company that has to provide refunds and if it goes into insolvency, the rules are different. "Those are the challenges we are going to be facing". TAAI has around 2,800 members. In the summer schedule that is on from March 26 to October 28, Go First is to operate 1,538 flights per week.
Coal mining is set to resume in Meghalaya after nine years, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said on Wednesday. He said the Union Ministry of Coal has provided approval for mining lease to four licence applicants that would lead to the commencement of scientific mining ensuring minimal environmental impact through sustainable and legally compliant extraction procedures. "In a significant step towards initiating scientific coal mining, the Ministry of Coal had last month provided approval for mining lease to four applicants out of the 17 prospecting licence applicants," Sangma told PTI. He said the mining will follow scientific procedures ensuring minimal environmental impact through sustainable and legally compliant extraction procedures. According to the chief minister, as part of scientific mining, reclamation of coal mining areas and use of advanced technologies such as remote sensing, aerial surveys and 3D modelling would be prioritised, and environmental impact would be mitigated significantly. The National Green Tribunal had in April 2014 imposed a blanket ban on coal mining and transportation of coal in Meghalaya causing a massive blow to the revenue of the state. As a result, the mining industry suffered a negative growth of (-) 59.36 per cent and the GSDP registered a negative growth of (-) 2.82 per cent, according to the chief minister. In July 2019, the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance challenged the NGT order following which the Supreme Court upheld the rights of tribal people over the natural resources in their land including coal but upheld the ban on unscientific mining and transportation. Despite the NGT ban, illegal mining and transportation continued in the state and several cases were filed in various courts including the High Court. The chief minister in this year's budget session of the Assembly told the House that around 1,900 criminal cases have been registered for illegal mining and transportation of coal - 1,701 cases for transportation illegally and 203 against illegal mining. Meanwhile, the Meghalaya High Court has ordered that no coal should be exported to Bangladesh without ascertaining the origin of the coal. "No coal should be allowed to be exported from any place in the State of Meghalaya to Bangladesh without both the state authorities and the relevant LCS authorities being satisfied as to the origin of the mineral and retaining copies of the documents that may be produced by the intending exporter as to the origin of such material," a division bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee said in an order passed on Tuesday. The bench while hearing a case has also directed Assam and the Gasuapara Land Custom Station (LCS) authorities to respond to the queries with regard to the huge quantity of coal exported by a company. Assam authorities have to indicate whether it was possible for the company to purchase that huge quantity of coal from the open markets in Beltola area and whether it was the truth, the court said.
Sri Lankan operators Dialog Axiata and Bharti Airtel reportedly plan to merge their operations, creating what would be the nation's largest operator.

In a joint statement, Dialog Axiata Plc, Axiata Group Berhad, and Bharti Airtel said they had signed a binding term sheet for the merger of Bharti Airtels Sri Lanka operation with Dialog's subsidiary. As part of the agreement, Airtel will receive new Dialog shares representing Airtel Lanka's fair value.

But the deal isnt done yet. Regulatory and shareholder approvals are required, along with the signing of definitive agreements.

However, this will undoubtedly be an important deal, if it happens, given that Dialog Axiata is already Sri Lanka's largest mobile network operator with 17.4 million subscribers, accounting for 57% of the country's mobile market. SLT Mobitel and Hutch are the other big players in this market.

But Dialog Axiata could be a lot bigger when merged with Airtel Lanka, which has over 5 million customers and is among the fastest-growing service providers in the country.

This deal may not be unexpected. In fact some reports suggest that both Dialog and Airtel have been discussing a merger for a few years. One suggestion is that Dialog will look to capitalize on Airtels assets in a bid to build its infrastructure and services for 5G in Sri Lanka.

As Indian publication Mint points out, this announcement came a day after Airtel announced a strategic partnership with Bridgepointe Technologies, a technology advisory firm assisting mid-market and enterprise companies in optimizing technology investments and business results.

This partnership will apparently enable US enterprises seeking to expand into India and Africa to leverage Airtel's digital infrastructure solution.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen will be visiting India next week in what is being seen as the build-up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to New Delhi later this year. Cohen will be on a three-day visit to India from May 9 to 11 during which he will hold discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He will visit Mumbai for a day. It is the third high-level visit by senior Israeli officials in less than three months, coming in quick succession after Knesset (Israeli parliament) speaker Amir Ohana's trip at the end of March-early April and also Economy Minister Nir Barkat's visit to India last month. Cohen will be accompanied by a business delegation. Collaboration in the field of innovation with a focus on agriculture and water management is likely to prominently feature in discussions during the Israeli foreign minister's visit. He will also be advancing a consular agreement being worked out to bring Indian workers to Israel to work in the construction sector. The high-level visits are being seen as a prelude to the much-anticipated visit of Prime Minister Netanyahu to India later this year. In January, Modi invited Netanyahu to visit India at an early date. His visit to India in 2019 during his previous stint as the prime minister was called off due to scheduling issues. Both sides were working on a plan for his visit to India in 2021 but that did not materialise as he was ousted from power in June that year. Netanyahu came back as the prime minister in December after his Likud party formed a coalition with some other parties following the elections. The 73-year-old political veteran was sworn in as Israel's prime minister on December 29 in a comeback at the head of a hard-right cabinet. The ties between India and Israel have been on an upswing in the last few years in a range of sectors including defence, agriculture and water management.
It is hard not to be worried when the so-called godfather of artificial intelligence, Geoffrey Hinton, says he is leaving Google and regrets his lifes work. Hinton, who made a critical contribution to AI research in the 1970s with his work on neural networks, told several news outlets this week that large technology companies were moving too fast on deploying AI to the public. Part of the problem was that AI was achieving human-like capabilities more quickly than experts had forecast. Thats scary, he told the New York Times. Hintons concerns certainly make sense, but they would have been more effective if they had come several years earlier, when other researchers who didnt have retirement to fall back on were ringing the same alarm bells. Tellingly, Hinton in a tweet sought to clarify how the New York Times characterised his motivations, worried that the article suggested he had left Google to criticise it. Actually, I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google, he said. Google has acted very responsibly. While Hintons prominence in the field might have insulated him from blowback, the episode highlights a chronic problem in AI research: Large technology companies have such a stranglehold on AI research that many of their scientists are afraid of airing their concerns for fear of harming their career prospects. You can understand why. Meredith Whittaker, a former research manager at Google, had to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers in 2018 after she helped organise the walkout of 20,000 Google employees over the companys contracts with the US Department of Defense. Its really, really scary to go up against Google, she tells me. Whittaker, who is now CEO of encrypted messaging app Signal, eventually resigned from the search giant with a public warning about the companys direction. Two years later, Google AI researchers Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell were fired from the tech giant after they released a research paper that highlighted the risks of large language models, the technology currently at the center of concerns over chatbots and generative AI. They pointed to issues like racial and gender biases, inscrutability and environmental cost. Whittaker rankles at the fact that Hinton is now the subject of glowing portraits about his contributions to AI after others took much greater risks to stand up for what they believed while they were still employed at Google. People with much less power and more marginalised positions were taking real personal risks to name the issues with AI and of corporations controlling AI, she says. Why didnt Hinton speak up earlier? The scientist declined to respond to questions. But he appears to have been concerned about AI for some time, including in the years his colleagues were agitating for a more cautious approach to the technology. A 2015 New Yorker article describes him talking to another AI researcher at a conference about how politicians could use AI to terrorise people. When asked why he was still doing the research, Hinton replied: I could give you the usual arguments, but the truth is that the prospect of discovery is too sweet. It was a deliberate echo of J Robert Oppenheimers famous description of the technically sweet appeal of working on the atomic bomb. Hinton says that Google has acted very responsibly in its deployment of AI. But thats only partly true. Yes, the company did shut down its facial recognition business on concerns of misuse, and it did keep its powerful language model LaMDA under wraps for two years in order to work on making it safer and less biased. Google has also restricted the capabilities of Bard, its competitor to ChatGPT. But being responsible also means being transparent and accountable, and Googles history of stifling internal concerns about its technology dont inspire confidence. Hintons departure and warnings hopefully will inspire other researchers at large tech companies to speak up about their concerns. Technology conglomerates have swallowed up some of the brightest minds in academia thanks to the lure of high salaries, generous benefits and the huge computing power used to train and experiment on ever-more-powerful AI models. Yet there are signs some researchers are at least considering being more vocal. I often think about when I would quit [AI startup] Anthropic or leave AI entirely, tweeted Catherine Olsson, a technical staff member at AI safety company Anthropic on Monday, in response to Hintons comments. I can already tell this move will influence me. Many AI researchers seem to have a fatalistic acceptance that little can be done to stem the tide of generative AI, now that it has been unleashed to the world. As Anthropic co-founder Jared Kaplan told me in an interview published Tuesday, the cat is out of the bag. But if todays researchers are willing to speak up now, while it matters, and not right before they retire, we are all likely to benefit. Parmy Olson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication. Credit: Bloomberg
Humans like to think we have a monopoly on understanding ourselves  that explanations for all our inner workings, including when things go awry, lie within our genetic code. We might like to think that, but were wrong. Whether its the diminutive bumblebee bat, the lightning-fast cheetah or even a lumbering hippo, mammals hold important clues to what makes us tick. Thats the message of a massive data release from a project called Zoonomia, in which some 100 scientists at dozens of institutions spent over a decade collecting, sequencing and analysing the genomes of 239 mammals (and one human thrown in for comparison). The ambitious work makes clear that animals have a lot to teach us about the more mysterious parts of our own genomes. The initial findings are a welcome reminder that no matter how improbable, all of us have things in common. And maybe it gives us yet another reason to prioritise preserving the earth for every living being. To be fair, the project isnt only about understanding humans. The 11 papers released in the initial collection, published together in the prestigious journal Science, explore a wide range of topics. Researchers studied, for example, what gave the Alaskan sled dog Balto his speed and endurance; and how an animals genome can provide clues about its risk of extinction. (There is also an ongoing effort to study the long tooth of a narwhal, which scientists assure me is a real mammal and not just some figment of a childs imagination.) But back to what it means for humans. You might wonder why we have so much to learn from mammals. After all, we humans have sequenced millions of our own genomes, the expansive instructions for human development and functioning. Shouldnt that tell us all we need to know? The problem is weve only just scratched the surface, with the lions share of our genome still to be deciphered. We now have a pretty good understanding of the regions that encode for proteins, but that accounts for less than 2 percent of our DNA. Its like being able to read only a few words on a page full of text  we might understand some of them, but lack the context and clues to deciphering all the rest. This new collection of mammal genomes can help us home in on some of the more mysterious parts of our DNA  in particular, the regions that orchestrate when, where, and by how much a certain protein should be made. Imagine your cell as a piece of music, with a conductor signaling for the volume to be turned up on certain proteins, or gesturing for others to quiet down. Disease brings discord  say, the strings have gotten too loud  and a cell might proliferate out of control or send the wrong signals. We need animals genomes to understand that part of our own genome because they have so much more history behind them. Over the last 100 million years, ever single letter in their codes of life should have changed many, many times. So when researchers encounter a stretch of letters or even a single letter thats stayed the same, its like a giant neon arrow pointing to something that is essential for life. They can reasonably assume that those areas are responsible for critical functions, says Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, the scientific director of vertebrate genome biology at the Broad Institute, and a leader of the Zoonomia project. Humans, by comparison, only have about 200,000 years of existence under our belt. That means our genomes have undergone far fewer tweaks, making it much harder to look across a lot of them to decipher which areas might be important. In other words, our animal friends can put our own genomes into better context. To be clear, just because researchers have identified those key, common parts of the genome that havent changed across species (also called constrained regions), doesnt mean we necessarily know their function. Still, they can be useful for understanding human disease. That could be especially true in cancer. Oncologists sequence the DNA from a patients tumor to look for mutations that could be causing cells to grow out of control. But that doesnt always lead to easy answers  sometimes, it just leads to a long list of mutations that may or may not be driving someones cancer. Zoonomias massive mammalian dataset offers a way to significantly narrow down that group, perhaps from 100 to just 10, or even to one, Lindbald-Toh says. You basically have a blueprint of whether something is important or not, she says. In one of the 11 Zoonomia papers, Lindbald-Toh and her colleagues used this concept to identify distinct genetic drivers for children versus adults with a type of brain cancer called medulloblastoma. They also showed that those tumors were likely to respond to specific cancer drugs, opening the door to using this new data to predict the best treatment course for patients. Lindbald-Toh now wants to repeat the exercise across many more kinds of tumors. There are numerous other ways that this project can inform human health, disease, and potentially point to new ideas for medicines. The Zoonomia team offered a good example of how quickly the data could be used in the real world during COVID, when they were able to assess whether others species might be vulnerable to infection with the virus. Within weeks, their genome crunching showed that many were, with wildlife and endangered species at highest risk. The strength of what can be learned from the project, and what can be learned about own health will only improve as more animals are added to the genomic zoo. Researchers are particularly keen to add more primates. Currently, only 43 are included, but theyd love to add some of the other 200 or so because theyve been a particularly powerful guide to the most crucial parts of our genome. Ideally, the genetic menagerie will eventually be broad enough to allow us to extract even more precise knowledge about ourselves  and thank mammals, of course, for the favor. Lisa Jarvis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, health care and the pharmaceutical industry. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication. Credit: Bloomberg
Eighty-two-year-old Sharad Pawars announcement yesterday that he was stepping down as the President of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 24 years after he founded the party, and paved the way for a generational change  which he had hinted at a few days ago  came as a stunning surprise. It has the Maharashtra political pot simmering, yet again. So profound was the impact of his decision  revealed towards the end of his speech, at an event to release the revised edition of his political biography Lok Majhe Sangati  that many of his trusted lieutenants could not hold back their tears. It took a while for the audience to react. Its true that by the evening, he was reported to have told the second line leaders that he would need two to three days for a rethink of his decision, this  upon the insistence of the cadres. Taking Back NCP Whatever the decision, the die has been cast. Pawar has clinched back the initiative in the state and his own party that he had seemed to have been steadily losing in the past few months. If unpredictability had a name, it ought to be Sharad Pawar. His comrades and rivals must know. In a 63-year-long political career  56 of them in electoral politics  Pawar has seen many highs and lows, but never a dull moment. Generally, Pawar is not someone to take decisions in a huff  certainly not when the sight is veiled by emotions. So, his decision to step down as the NCP chief must be a well-calibrated strategy, a hint of which came from Pawar himself a few days ago, and later from his daughter and Baramati MP, Supriya Sule, about four days ago. That his wife, Pratibha Pawar, was on the stage with him was no coincidence  the family of course knew it. The timing is not a puzzle  in Mumbai, the grapevine was that his party was headed for a split, with his nephew and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in favour of joining hands with the BJP and heralding the party into new uncharted territory. Meanwhile, in New Delhi, parleys had begun to forge a new non-BJP opposition dispensation with as many parties as possible, with 2024 in sight. Pawar Play: Many Birds, One Stone The NCP patriarch has hit many birds with one stone: He has nipped in the bud any potential or unseen rebellion within his party, including any move that goes contrary to his own positions; and he has made himself available  and a tad more acceptable  for the opposition machinations. And, in a way, absolving himself of the day-to-day grind, he has placed himself above his own party. In that sense, he wont be the NCP chief formally  and yet, he remains its fountainhead. Pawars speech yesterday  in which he took a freewheeling review of this and other important political developments  had two other important suggestions: One, in the three years that are left of his Rajya Sabha membership, he wants to focus on the country and states politics (so hes not retiring) which includes grooming the partys new leadership; and two, he wont contest any elections after three years (in a way, hes preparing for his last political hurrah). Thats not all. If  and most likely that would be the case  Pawar chooses to stick to his decision and pragmatism dawns upon his party leaders and cadres (in line with Ajit Pawars speech to the workers during the high drama yesterday) the next big question is: Who, after Sharad Pawar? The Great Maharashtra Political Churn Again, theres no rush to find that. Pawar himself suggested during his speech that a committee of senior and wide-ranging party leaders be constituted to select the new national president of the NCP. This would trigger fierce competition within the party that has never had such a race before. Its not out of place to say that the NCP needs young and fresh legs to run around. Pawar does not have age on his side. The new leader wont be anointed without a stamp of his approval. Either way  whether this is done immediately or put off for the time being  he has bought time with his decision to play his cards as some key developments loom over the state. One, the Supreme Court will deliver its judgment on the case pertaining to the disqualification of the 16 Shiv Sena legislators among the 40 that joined hands with the BJP to topple the Uddhav Thackeray government last year. That would decide the fate of the incumbent Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his government with the BJP. Until that is decided, the Pawar play has also doused water over any possibility of a split within the NCP; it would be politically suicidal for his MLAs to rebel  if at all  against the party; this would be seen as one against Sharad Pawar. Lastly, yesterdays drama, and whats to ensue in the following days, would keep the NCP under media and public glare, and give it a chance to improve upon its image which has taken quite a battering because of the rumours of Ajit Pawar crossing over to the BJP. Besides, for the NCP allies in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Uddhav Sena and Congress) and the ruling BJP-Shinde Sena, Pawar has also sprung up what he loves: Confusion. Jaideep Hardikar is a Nagpur-based journalist, a core team member of the People's Archive of Rural India, and the author of "Ramrao - The story of India's farm crisis". Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
Will people overcome apathy and exercise their franchise in large numbers in the IT hub of Bengaluru on May 10? The Election Commission has been making efforts to ensure that Bengalureans conquer the lethargy witnessed in previous elections and turn out in large numbers to vote. NGOs are doing their bit too. The EC has even brought the polling day to mid-week and not weekends so that voters dont escape the city for holidaying. But the EC is keeping its fingers crossed. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has set an ambitious target of taking the Bengaluru voting percentage to 75 percent. Paradox: Influential Region, Apathetic Voters Unlike the voters of the rest of Karnataka, those in Bengaluru dont come in droves to the polling stations. Alarming enough, their numbers are coming down each time the state goes to polls to choose its lawmakers. Look at these figures: in the 2008 Assembly elections, only 49.87 percent of voters exercised their voting rights in Bengaluru against 64.78 percent for the entire state. In the 2013 polls, 57.38 percent voted, against 71 percent state-wide. This dropped further to 54.73 percent in 2018, compared to the Karnataka figure of 71.91 percent. Bengaluru voters are important as they account for nearly 20 percent of Karnatakas 5.24 crore voters. Karnataka has 70 urban and 154 rural seats. The importance of Bengaluru can be gauged from the fact that nearly half of the urban seats that the state has are situated in the city, which has a total of 28 seats. The delimitation exercise in 2008 increased Bengalurus constituencies from 16 to 28, catapulting it to an important role in determining who rules Karnataka. Like in 2018, many of the 28 seats in the nations IT, BT and start-ups capital may see close contests and it is here that each vote cast becomes important. Hence the need to increase voting percentage in the city. Contrasts: Hurting City, Insulated Flats Apartment residents are one of the key voting sections in the city. One estimate says 20 percent of the citys population lives in apartments. Since a huge number of them are natives of other states, they are not too concerned about voting here. EC wants to make concerted efforts to bring voters to the polling booths but it is a difficult task. Parties have apartment cell office bearers and have rolled out action agenda for flats. A town hall in this regard was held recently. It is difficult to tap apartment dwellers as generally entry inside these apartments for outsiders is barred. Realising this, the Bengaluru Apartments Federation, the apex body for the flat residents, had launched a campaign, Every vote matters. It is aimed at enrolling voters and is designed to create voter awareness through interactions between residents and political parties. Although Bengaluru is known worldwide as a software powerhouse, its residents are reeling under inadequate civic infrastructure which has failed to take the ever-increasing burden of the continuous inflow of people from other states. Inadequate drinking water supply, urban transport and affordable health facilities, potholes, open drains, rising prices, especially of oil and gas, have hit people hard. Massive rains last year which resulted in flooding in most parts of Bengaluru, especially in the IT corridor, added to the citys woes, with the poor town planning, illegal construction of layouts, apartments and corporate buildings standing exposed. The Political Dynamics In 2018, Congress won 15, BJP 11 and JD(S) 2 seats (the scene changed a year later as 3 from Congress and 1 from JD(S) defected to BJP, contested and won). Congress has been faring better compared to BJP in the city and (if you leave out 2019) BJPs performance has been on the decline. The Congress bagged 10 seats in 2008, 13 in 2013 and 15 in 2018. BJP got 17 in 2008, 12 in 2013 and 11 in 2018. There are no high-profile fights in the city. At Pulakeshi Nagar where Congresss Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy won in 2018 by over 90,000 votes  the highest margin in the state  the party has denied him the ticket. Akhanda has quit and joined BSP to recontest. The constituency saw communal riots three years ago and Murthys house was torched. Muslim community leaders had demanded that Murthy not be fielded this time. In the IT-dominated Mahadevapura, BJP has denied ticket to the controversial former minister Arvind Limbavali and has fielded his wife. In Govindaraj Nagar, minister V Somanna was denied ticket but he is being fielded from two seats, including one against Congress Siddaramaiah at Varuna. Bengaluru may be a cosmopolitan city but electorally, it doesnt behave differently from the rural areas when it comes to voting preferences. In 2018, 12 of the 28 MLAs who got elected were Vokkaligas (quite in line with the communitys dominant presence in the rest of southern Karnataka), there were four each from SCs, minorities and Brahmins, three OBCs and one Lingayat. It is estimated that some 20 percent of voters are floating voters and dont look at the caste factor but vote on the basis of the citys infrastructure and civic issues. So proper developmental projects can also fetch votes. As regards the current polls, although BJP aims to win 20 of the 28 seats, no party appears to be in a position to increase its tally by more than one or two seats since most fights seem close. BS Arun is a senior journalist based in Bengaluru. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
By meeting Telugu superstar and Jana Sena leader Pawan Kalyan for the third time in less than a year, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has sent out a clear message that his latest alliance building efforts are showing progress, with or without the Bharatiya Janata Party. Kalyan is also no longer clinging to the BJP, as has become apparent. However, the prospects of a BJP-TDP-Jana Sena alliance as part of the actors clarion call for opposition unity against the ruling YSR Congress headed by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is still up in the air. Though Naidu keeps sending feelers and Kalyan insists on a roadmap to take on Jagan Reddy, the BJP top brass are holding their cards close to the chest. After his flop show in the 2019 election, Kalyan had re-embraced the BJP while courting TDP. Naidu had stitched up a winning combination with BJP and Jana Sena against the YSR Congress in 2014. But he broke the BJP-led NDA in 2018 on the question of special status for his home state. He was hoping for a comeback to power in the next years election by projecting PM Narendra Modi as the villain of the piece. But the massive defeat in 2019 left Naidu isolated, waging a lonely battle against his young and aggressive rival Jagan Reddy. After realising the need for strong allies, he began to woo the old partners  Jana Sena and BJP  back. TDP Needs Allies Four years later, Naidu is still struggling to end his isolation and prevent a split in the opposition vote that will work to his advantage. In addition, Naidu also intends to see Jagan fall out of favour with the NDA, belatedly recognising the wisdom in not antagonising the BJP leadership. Its a win-win deal, the kind that brings partners together in any business, more so in politics. In Andhra, BJP with a poor vote share of 0.96 percent is not a force to reckon with. Hence, it prefers to piggy-back on either TDP or YSRC Congress. PM Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah apparently prefer Jagan after weighing Naidu through the prism of his past antics and BJPs own modest prospects in the state. For Naidu the trust deficit that he has incurred by ditching NDA multiple times in the past, including in joining hands with the Congress, is proving to be very costly. Jagan, meanwhile, is left with no alternative but the BJP after a stint in jail courtesy the Congress in money laundering cases. After considering all its options, the BJP is unlikely to want to see Naidu in the CMs saddle by taking advantage of opposition unity. The Pawan Kalyan Factor Like his megastar brother Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan too is unpredictable in his political moorings. He became a kingmaker-of-sorts by working for the victories of Naidu in the state and Modi at the Centre in 2014. By the next election in 2019, he fell out with both the BJP and the TDP and fought that election in alliance with the Left parties and the BSP. After failing to ensure even his own victory in either of the two assembly segments he contested from, the actor promptly returned to the BJP fold. However, his Jana Sena had emerged as the third largest party in that election with around 6 percent vote share. Naidu needs Kalyans support for this 6 percent voteshare that could make a difference in bridging the gap with Jagan in his now-or-never poll battle in 2024, with age no longer on the veterans side. In 2019, Jagans party swept the polls with a massive vote share of 49.95 percent even as TDP and Jana Sena settled for 39.26 percent and 5.54 percent. Had Naidu managed to keep Pawan on his side in that election, his partys strength would theoretically have soared to 45 percent or so, and could have helped avoid the ignominious defeat he ended up suffering when YSRCP won 151 out of the states 175 seats. Jagans Populism or Naidus 90s Reforms? Devoid of any magical poll plank like his father-in-law NT Rama Raos subsidised rice and Janatha clothes schemes for the poor in the early 1980s and his then rival and Jagans father YS Rajasekhar Reddys free power promise for agriculture in 2004, Naidu hopes to find a silver lining only through rising anti-incumbency against Jagans rule. The state finances under Jagan Reddys rule have been in shambles, thanks to indiscriminate freebies. The state is desperately seeking a messiah, just as it had once looked to Naidu in the mid-1990s, to steer it out of the quagmire of populism. Naidu had then earned encomiums from industry captains across the world as a bold leader redefining politics driven by populism. But his reforms cost him heavily in 2004 when he was trounced by YS Rajasekhara Reddy with his magical promise of free power for agriculture. Can he demonstrate such reformist prowess yet again and challenge Jagan, who is riding solely on the back of populism? Gali Nagaraja is a senior journalist, formerly associated with The Hindu, The Times of India, and Hindustan Times for over three decades. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
Less than a year after a national debate over pre-election freebies, political parties are falling over themselves to announce schemes that could very well fall under this category to snap up votes in Karnataka. The importance of the Karnataka assembly elections is not lost on anyone. The southern state votes on May 10 and its result could have an impact on the next year's Lok Sabha elections. The incumbent Bharatiya Janta Party is under pressure, with some predicting a victory for Congress. No wonder then that the recently-released election manifestos are full of freebies in a last-ditch attempt to get votes. Before diving into the details, it's worth recalling that there is no legal definition of the word 'freebie'. However, economists  including those from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)  broadly define it as a public welfare measure that is provided free of charge. But it is also important to make the distinction between freebies that are beneficial  such as the public distribution system, employment guarantee schemes, and support for education and health  from those that could undermine credit culture, distort prices, and disincentivise work at the current wage. These include the likes of free electricity and water as well as a waiver of pending utility bills. Promises made to Karnataka The BJP's manifesto, made public on May 1, had some interesting titbits under a prominently-marked 'Top Promises' section: free provision of three cooking gas cylinders per year to below-poverty-line families, a scheme through which these families will get half a litre of milk per day and five kilograms of ration per month, and matching deposits made by women of SC, ST households of up to Rs 10,000 for a period of up to five years. Delve a little further and some other promises stand out: higher subsidy for dairy farmers and millet cultivation, free transportation of farm, dairy and horticultural products from villages to urban markets, free annual health check-ups for senior citizens, increase in pensions for widows to Rs 2,000 per month from Rs 800, and the most striking of them all  a one-time grant of Rs 25,000 to poor families to undertake travels to places of religious importance such as Tirupati and Ayodhya. The Congress is not far behind. It has promised 200 units of free electricity per household, free bus travel for women, an unemployment benefit of Rs 3,000 per month to jobless graduates, and interest-free loans to women to buy two cows or buffalos. Further, police officials on night duty will get a special allowance of Rs 5,000 per month as well as one month's extra salary. Some of the promises made by other parties include: Janata Dal (Secular)  Rs 2 lakh cash incentive to brides of young farmers, five free cooking gas cylinders per year, and loan waivers for women self-help groups; Aam Aadmi Party  free electricity to the tune of 300 units, free bus travel for students, and a one-time loan waiver for small farmers. But can Karnataka pay for all  or any  of these? Fiscal pressures As luck would have it, Karnataka's finances are in a relatively strong position. As per an analysis of state finance by the RBI staff, published in June 2022, Bihar, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal are "highly stressed". These five states, along with Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, were identified as vulnerable. Karnataka, meanwhile, is doing better but not as well as some others. Its interest payments amounted to 14.3 percent of its revenue receipts in 2021-22  well below Punjab's 21.3 percent but higher than Odisha's 4.3 percent. Its fiscal and revenue deficits were 2.8 percent and 0.4 percent of the state's GDP  again, not the worst but not the best either. Tellingly, the RBI staff noted in their analysis that all states taken together are expected to see a decline in their debt-to-GDP ratio by 2026-27, largely due to the "stellar fiscal performance" of five states, one of which is Karnataka. As per their forecasts, Karnataka's primary deficit  defined as fiscal deficit minus interest payments  is seen at 1.3 percent in 2026-27, only marginally higher than the 1 percent level that would stabilise the state's debt. It is worth pointing out that Karnataka's primary deficit in 2021-22 was also 1.3 percent of its GDP. Clearly, Karnataka is doing fine fiscally and could soon stabilise its debt. But that is before the freebies announced prior to next week's elections are accounted for. As such, whichever party comes to power, things will become worse for the state's finances if they deliver on their lofty promises. Centre versus states Politics, as well as finances, is at the heart of the freebie debate. The heated discussion on the subject in mid-2022 was sandwiched between two sets of assembly elections: Goa, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur in the first half of the year and Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat in the second. And a point that stood out was that political parties are not answerable to anyone when it comes to deciding how to spend taxpayers' money  except taxpayers themselves. "There is no place in the Constitutionwhere the Supreme Court gets to decide, or any court gets to decide, how the people's money gets spent," Tamil Nadu Finance Minister P Thiaga Rajan had said back in mid-August at the peak of the debate sparked by the 'revdi' comments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Centre's contention, meanwhile, is that any scheme should be accounted for and states should not come to New Delhi asking for funds post assembly elections. Neither Thiaga Rajan nor the Centre is wrong. But election manifestos make no mention of how much any of these 'non-beneficial freebies' will cost. And it cannot be denied that some states are fiscally weaker than others. While Karnataka does not currently fall into this category, the sustainability of its future could be at risk if political parties have not done the math before making their promises.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said Maghar, a town in Sant Kabir Nagar district in eastern Uttar Pradesh, was once considered a gateway to hell but the BJP government has worked to develop it into a heaven. Launching his campaign for the second phase of the urban local body polls here, Adityanath said animals used to die after drinking water from Aami river six years ago, but today it is clean, pure and uninterrupted. Death in Maghar used to mean going to nark (hell), but saint Kabir changed that notion and it became heaven in the double-engine government. The double-engine government has set up Saint Kabir Academy to promote research on his values and ideals, including social equality and harmony," the chief minister said. The first phase of the ULB polls will be held on May 4 and the second phase on May 11. The counting of votes will be done on May 13. Adityanath has been leading the BJP campaign for the local polls, holding several election meetings for party candidates in various parts of the state. People will feel that the chief minister himself is coming to campaign in the municipal elections. Yes, I am coming because the money will be sent from Delhi and Lucknow and we want the money to be put to the best use in the interest of the public, he said. There was money even before 2017, but the poor did not get houses. Money was wasted. It went to the pockets of a few for 70 years. Otherwise, every poor person would have had a toilet and a house by now. There would have been proper arrangements for drainage in urban areas, he alleged. Speaking about infrastructure development, Adityanath said the link expressway of the Purvanchal Expressway goes to Gorakhpur via Sant Kabir Nagar.We did not discriminate when it came to development. We did not look at ones caste or religion to provide them benefits of government schemes, he said, according to an official statement. An industrial corridor will be built here. With the setting up of plants, new employment opportunities will be created, he said, adding that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi India has the ability to lead on the global stage. Adityanath alleged that previous governments allowed firing at farmers and shut down the Munderwa Sugar Mill but his dispensation reopened it. He also repeated his allegation that people belonging to a particular party used to extort money from traders at gunpoint before 2017. We gave a security insurance cover of Rs 10 lakhs by forming a Traders Welfare Board. Today no goon has a pistol in his hand rather the youths of the state carry a tablet in their hand, he added.
A Chinese man says he is still struggling to sleep a week after a dead body was discovered under his hotel bed. The man  identified by local media as one Mr Zhang  checked into his hotel in Tibet on April 21. Immediately, he noticed a very strong stench in his room, the BBC reported. The Chinese tourist was staying at the Guzang Shuhua Inn  a hotel in Lhasa that is popular among influencers for its traditional decor and picturesque backdrops for social media snaps. Mr Zhang checked into his room and took a three-hour nap on April 21. He assumed the foul odour was coming from his feet. After waking up from his nap, he decided to go outside. However, by the time he returned to change for dinner, the smell was so bad that Mr Zhang was forced to request a different room. Later that night, he was woken up by hotel staff knocking at his door and told to go back to his first room. There, police informed Mr Zhang that a corpse had been found under the bed where he had taken a three-hour nap. Police took his statement and DNA sample, but told him not to worry as a suspect had already been arrested in the case. Mr Zhang later posted a review of his stay online, but it went largely unnoticed for a week, until another person posted a screenshot of it on social media. The hotel responded to this social media post by denying the incident occurred at all. Mr Zhang then shared his experience on Chinese social media platform Weibo and included necessary receipts as evidence of his stay at Guzang Shuhua Inn. He said he did not want to publicise his experience but the hotels denial made him. I am very scared and I am still struggling to sleep, he told Shangyou News.
Theres been some controversy reported in Uruguay in the run-up to operators Claro and Movistar prequalifying for 5G spectrum in an auction scheduled for 9 May.

Regulator URSEC has announced the prequalification of both operators for the assignment of radio frequencies in the 3.5GHz band (3,300-3,400MHz and 3,600-3,800MHz).

However, the newspaper El Observador reports that there had been an issue involving a number of administrative appeals related to the tender from Movistar, Claro and a third operator, Dedicado.

Dedicado was apparently challenging its exclusion. There was also unhappiness about the price set. The reference price of each 100MHz block in the 3.5GHz band amounts to US$28 million. In total, three 1100MHz lots of spectrum will be allocated by URSEC: 3300MHz-3400MHz; 3600MHz-3700MHz (reserved for state-owned operator Antel); and 3700MHz-3800MHz. Each 100MHz spectrum package has a minimum initial price of US$28 million and will be valid for 25 years.

In addition, a portion of the spectrum has been, as we have noted, reserved for Antel. Movistar felt Antel could have a competitive advantage by being able to launch the 5G service before its competitors, so apparently wanted access to Antel's fibre optic network.

The BNamericas website explains that in the first 24 months of the contract, the winners will have to deploy 70 antennas throughout the country and at least two base stations in at least ten departments of the country, not including Montevideo. In the following 36 months they must install at least two base stations in each department.

The tender attracted no interest from new international operators, even though was the first open tender since the opening of Uruguays telecommunications market.

As for Movistar, Claro and Dedicado, its not clear yet whether they feel their complaints have been adequately dealt with.
Bengaluru's popular eatery, Vidyarthi Bhavan, known for its iconic masala dosas and filter coffee, has taken a unique approach to encourage citizens to vote sensibly in the upcoming Karnataka elections. In a message on its Twitter handle, the eatery shared a wise saying written on a poster of Thomas Shelby from Peaky Blinders: "The mouse dies in the mouse trap because it cannot understand why the cheese is free. Vote for development." The message appears to urge voters not to fall for freebies and instead focus on development while casting their votes. With the picture was a tweet: Just 1 more week to go... Please cast your your vote without fail and sensibly. Just 1 more week to go... Please cast your your vote without fail and sensibly. pic.twitter.com/MeLKkU0jC3  Vidyarthi Bhavan (@VidyarthiBhavan) May 2, 2023 The post sparked a discussion on Twitter, with one user claiming Vidyarthi Bhavan of trolling the Congress party. In response, the eatery, established in 1943, clarified that it was not targeting any particular political party and that all parties were offering freebies to woo voters. The message was simply a request to everyone to vote sensibly. All parties are offering freebies. Why do you single out one? We are only requesting everyone to cast their vote and that too sensibly, the eatery, known for its south Indian breakfast dishes, replied to the user. The Karnataka Assembly elections in 2023 are expected to be fiercely contested, with all political parties vying for a majority. The state has a history of close electoral battles, and voter turnout is expected to play a significant role in deciding the outcome of the polls. In recent years, freebies and populist schemes have become an essential tool for political parties to win over voters. However, critics argue that such tactics often distract from the real issues and do not contribute to long-term development. Vidyarthi Bhavan's message seems to resonate with this sentiment, reminding citizens that they hold the power to elect representatives who will work towards the development of the state. The eatery's unique approach is a refreshing reminder of the role that citizens, businesses, and establishments can play in shaping the democratic process.
As Dell completed 39 years on Wednesday, its owner Michael Dell took to Twitter to celebrate the tech company's anniversary and to thank his team members, partners, and global customers. "Tomorrow marks 39 years since I founded Dell in my dorm room to make technology accessible to everyone and to enable human potential," Dell tweeted on Tuesday. "Thank you to all the dedicated team members, customers, and partners worldwide who have made this journey possible! Here's to 39 more!" Tomorrow marks 39 years since I founded @Dell in my dorm room to make technology accessible to everyone and to enable human potential. Thank you to all the dedicated team members, customers, and partners worldwide who have made this journey possible! Here's to 39 more!  Michael Dell (@MichaelDell) May 2, 2023 The billionaire had started Dell in 1984 with $1,000 while he was a freshman pre-med student at the University of Texas at Austin, US. Last month, Forbes ranked the Dell Inc. founder with a net worth of $54 billion as the 23rd wealthiest person in the world on its annual list of billionaires. Congratulatory messages soon followed Michael Dell's tweet. The first in queue was tech billionaire and owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter, Elon Musk. Congrats!  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 2, 2023 Others too lauded the company's contribution to the industry while congratulating Dell on its 39th anniversary. "Congratulations on this incredible milestone, Michael! Your vision and dedication to empowering people through technology have truly changed the world. As an avid user of Dell products myself, I can attest to the positive impact they've had on my life. Here's to many more years of innovation and progress!" wrote Jayjit Biswas (@jayjitbiswas) founder of Elite Web3 Forum. Twitter user Tuvia Elbaum (@Tuviae) said, "As a consumer hardware entrepreneur - thank you for the continued inspiration!" Kenny Holtz (@kennyholtz) commented, "I've enjoyed many Dell computers. 23+ years ago I opened up my new giant 15" Inspiron 7000... the experience remains a lifetime highlight I still remember vividly to this day. Thank you, Michael Dell and the entire Dell team for bringing me so much joy."
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to entertain petitions related to Hindi film "The Kerala Story which has received criticism from Keralas ruling Left front and the Congress. The film is set to be released on Friday. The top court asked the petitioners to approach Kerala High Court, and said it can consider their request for early disposal of their pleas. Here are 10 things to know about "The Kerala Story" row: "The Kerala Story is about a group of women from the state who converted to Islam and joined ISIS. According to its makers, it reveals the events behind "approximately 32,000 women" allegedly going missing from Kerala. The film, written and directed by Sudipto Sen, features Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani. The CPI(M) and the Congress in Kerala say the film falsely claims that the women converted to Islam, got radicalised and were deployed in terror missions in India and the world. Among the petitioners in the Supreme Court is Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind which requested the top court to stay the films release, contending that it demeans the entire Muslim community, Bar and Bench reported. The Muslim body also sought that a disclaimer should be added to the title of the film that it is a work of fiction. Congress MP from Kerala, Shashi Tharoor, slammed the makers of The Kerala Story, accusing them of indulging in "gross exaggeration" and "distortion" of the state's reality. The Kerala Story producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah said the film is a true story and every scene in the film is true, but it deals with three girls. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the makers of the film, saying they were taking up the Sangh Parivar propaganda of projecting the state as a centre of religious extremism by raising the issue of "love jihad" -- a concept rejected by courts, probe agencies and the Home Ministry. Kerala BJP chief K Surendran said the Chief Minister and CPI(M) leaders, acting as "apostles of expression", are saying that the film should not be screened. Sudipto Sen has directed Aasma, Lucknow Times and The Last Monk.
Instagram and TikTok users around the world have a new interest  shooting videos depicting their daily, mundane lives as if they were in a Wes Anderson movie. The frames in the viral reels are all symmetrical, colourful and visually pleasing  as is every frame in an Anderson project. What is the Wes Anderson style of filmmaking? Wes Anderson is a filmmaker known for his distinct style of filmmaking that has gained a cult following among film enthusiasts. His films are characterized by their unique visual style, witty dialogue, and quirky characters. Anderson has been praised for his attention to detail and his ability to create a cohesive world that feels both familiar and strange at the same time. The use of colour One of the most distinctive elements of Anderson's style is his use of colour. His films are known for their bright, bold colour palettes that give them a distinctive look and feel. In "The Grand Budapest Hotel," for example, Anderson uses a colour palette that is reminiscent of old-world Europe, with deep blues, rich greens, and warm oranges. The result is a film that is both visually stunning and immersive, transporting viewers to another time and place. Symmetry Another element of Anderson's style is his use of symmetry and carefully composed shots. Anderson often frames his shots with a symmetrical composition, creating a sense of order and balance that is both pleasing to the eye and contributes to the overall feel of his films. In "The Royal Tenenbaums," for example, Anderson uses symmetrical shots to emphasize the characters' dysfunctional family dynamics. The result is a film that is both visually striking and emotionally resonant. Familiar yet strange Anderson is also known for his attention to detail. He carefully crafts every aspect of his films, from the sets and costumes to the dialogue and music. In "Moonrise Kingdom," for example, Anderson creates a world that feels both familiar and otherworldly, with a nostalgic setting that harkens back to a bygone era. The result is a film that is both charming and unsettling, with a sense of nostalgia that is tempered by a darker undercurrent. Offbeat humour Anderson's films are also known for their quirky characters and offbeat humor. He often casts actors in unexpected roles, giving them a chance to showcase their comedic talents in unexpected ways. In "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," for example, Anderson casts Bill Murray as an eccentric oceanographer on a mission to hunt down a mythical sea creature. The result is a film that is both hilarious and poignant, with a sense of humor that is both absurd and deeply human. Read: Amazon employee's Wes Anderson style day-in-my-life video captures moment she was laid off As the world awaits Asteroid Citys release, social media users homage to the unique craft of the filmmaker is a perfect appetizer.
With only three days to go until the coronation of King Charles III, excitement among royal superfans is at an all-time high. Hundreds of thousands of spectators are expected to gather in London on Saturday in hopes of catching a glimpse of Charles and Camilla as they proceed towards Westminster Abbey. The upcoming coronation -- the first since 1953 -- has also attracted visitors from abroad, besides invited guests, world leaders and dignitaries. Here is a brief guide to King Charles IIIs coronation and what it will entail: When will the coronation of King Charles III take place? The coronation of King Charles III will take place on May 6 in London. What time will the coronation begin? The coronation celebrations will begin at 10.20 am (London time) with a procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey. The ceremony itself will start at 11 am (around 3.30 pm in India) on May 6. What will happen at the coronation ceremony? Charles will be crowned king at the ceremony to formalise the transfer of power and his role as the head of the Church of England. In the most sacred part of the service, the Archbishop of Canterbury will anoint the king with oil, consecrating him and setting him apart from his subjects. This will be followed by the presentation of the coronation regalia, sacred objects like the orb and scepter that symbolize the monarchs power and responsibilities. One week to go! As Their Majesties Coronation draws closer, a new picture has been shared of The King and The Queen Consort in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. Taken by Hugo Burnand. pic.twitter.com/rECK5i04hK  The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 28, 2023 In another innovation that reflects the changed religious landscape in Britain, members of the House of Lords from the Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh traditions will present the king with objects with no explicit Christian symbolism. The new king will then be crowned and the refrain God Save the King will echo through the Abbey. Camilla will then be anointed, in a form similar to that of Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother, in 1937. How to watch the coronation ceremony? Livestreams and broadcast coverage of the coronation is expected to begin around 5 am (London time). The ceremony will be broadcast live on BBC One and BBC radio. Viewers in the UK will be able to stream the coronation live on BBC iPlayer. News channels like ABC, Sky News and Fox News will also livestream the coronation on YouTube. (With inputs from agencies)
In a setback to international auditors firms Deloitte and KPMG-affiliate BSR Associates, the Supreme Court on May 3 set aside an order of Bombay High Court order that quashed prosecution against Deloitte Haskin and Sells and BSR and Associates, the former auditors of IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN). The apex court held that the resignation of the auditor does not mean they are not answerable to the courts and tribunals for the accounts statements that they had signed during their tenure. The judgment of the court was passed in an appeal by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) against a 2020 order of the Bombay HC granting relief for the two audit firms that moved court against the governments decision to ban them from auditing activities for five years and initiate criminal proceedings against them. The HC observed that the provisions under which the government sought to ban the two firms can only be applied to existing auditors of a company. The government received eight weeks time to challenge the order in the apex court. The High Court observed that the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), a part of MCA, cannot ban audit firms. The tribunal had earlier argued that it had jurisdiction to remove and ban the auditors even if they had rotated out or resigned. The case pertains to a series of defaults by IL&FS in 2018, sparking a liquidity crisis in Indias non-banking financial companies sector. Eventually, the government took over the troubled infrastructure lending conglomerate to avoid contagion. On June 10, the government moved the NCLT seeking a five-year ban on the auditors under Section 140 (5) of the Companies Act for their alleged role in concealing bad loans at IL&FS and its group firms including IFIN. BSR and Associates, a part of KPMG India, became an auditor to IFIN in November 2017 and jointly audited the company with Deloitte till March 2018. BSR was the sole auditor for IFIN till June 2019, after which it resigned.
Days after the announcement of the National Medical Devices (NMD) Policy, 2023, medical technology device makers said they are seeking greater clarity from the government on the details of the policy, which aims to accelerate growth in the production of medical devices in the country. Key leaders of the medical technology sector, while welcoming the newly announced policy, urged the union government to release its fineprint. The government is engaging the industry and having a lot of meetings to collect views and counterviews. What is disturbing is that in the last many years we have been meeting, none of the serious concerns have been addressed in reality. We see higher engagement and discipline, but execution is lacking, Vishwaprasad Alva, founder of Skanray Technologies, told Moneycontrol. The NMD policy, approved by the cabinet, aims to reduce the country's import dependence to around 30 per cent in the next few years and make India one of the top five global manufacturing hubs. A pharma department official, requesting anonymity, said that the NMD policy was aimed to drive export manufacturing of high end offerings and make it affordable to Indian hospitals and laboratories, while reducing import dependence significantly. Alva, who headed FICCIs National Med Tech group previously, suggested that the governments economic think tank, NITI Aayog, should cut the number of government bodies involved in regulatory approvals. Instead of incentivising production, we need to incentivise exports from India, getting products to global safety and quality standards. We need to incentivise investments in product R&D and core research and not assembly and screwdriver technology, Alva said. The Skanray MD alleged that none of the points suggested by the industry for the NMD had been incorporated in the newly announced policy. Simplifying regulatory provisions While the new policy has emphasised on the creation of a Single Window Clearance System for the licensing of medical devices, industry leaders said streamlining regulatory approvals was the need of the hour. Rajiv Nath, forum co-ordinator, AiMED, also demanded that the government lay down clear terms on streamlining regulatory approvals. The government has unveiled the policy but they havent spelt out the finer details of the policy. Streamlining regulatory provisions is extremely important, otherwise, uncertainty prevails. We have also sought a meeting with the government authorities on this issue, he added. Alva said the government had identified MedTech as an essential and sunrise sector but lamented that there were lots of regulatory bodies with no competence and clarity to regulate the sector. The new medical device policy doesnt address this issue. No other country in the world has so many bodies. Even after so many representations, there are a lot of promises made but no action, Alva added. Enabling regulatory environment needed The government has said that the NMD policy is aimed at promoting research and development in India by establishing Centres of Excellence in academic and research institutions, as well as innovation hubs. Manikandan Bala, MD, Elekta India, said that the government should enable the regulatory environment to encourage innovation in the country. We are all waiting for clarity. There has to be a roadmap towards it. Its great to have a Make in India strategy in the medical device sector but we also need to collaborate with technology manufacturers outside India. We dont want to be lagging behind in technology, he added. Bala also said that the government, through the NMD policy, had taken some steps to streamline regulatory oversight but it still had a good distance to cover. Encouraging innovation while maintaining safe standards can be done only when there is collaboration with the medical device industry, the Elekta MD said. Industry leaders said Medical Technology approvals cut across ministries and coordination between ministries was always a challenge for the industry. There is no nodal agency that is active. MedTech is best under MEITY. MedTech clubbed with pharma is one of the most flawed policy decisions. Tinkering with it will not solve issues, Alva said.
Sourabh Phadke, a Pune-born architect and teacher who has been named among the selected charity champions invited to attend the Coronation ceremony of King Charles III, says he is still absorbing the news and approaching it with the spirit of the unknown. The 38-year-old was chosen for his association and great success through the causes supported by the Prince's Foundation, the charity founded by Charles when he was the Prince of Wales. Originally trained as an architect, Phadke joined the foundation's Traditional Building Skills programme and expanded his repertoire by training as a stonemason. It was during the course that Phadke's work stood out as he was based for four months at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, the Scottish headquarters of the Prince's Foundation, and he and his fellow students built a new education pavilion on the estate. It's still sinking in and I don't know what to expect considering I've never been to a Coronation before. It's with that spirit in mind that I'm approaching it, said Phadke, when asked about his royal invitation to Westminster Abbey on Saturday. Phadke also received an Albukhary Foundation Scholarship to do an MA at the Prince's Foundation's School of Traditional Arts, where he now works as a tutor. Having led a nomadic existence in India, travelling from place to place teaching and also building schools, Phadke moved to the UK a few years ago when his wife Persis won a scholarship to do a geography PhD at King's College in London. It was an opportunity for me to become a student again and become part of the [Prince's Foundation] programme. I was really happy that I got the opportunity. Even though I'd done stonework in the past, I hadn't trained as a stone mason, he recalls. Growing up in India, he lived and worked in communities around the country  helping design and construct buildings using local materials such as mud, stone and bamboo. It could be houses, toilets, schools, anything that a community needed. It could be in deprived communities, schools, farmers, or women's collectives. I basically lived where I was working and moved from place to place. The circumstances would differ widely but in some cases, we would reach a place and start building, let's say a toilet in open land where there was no toilet, and we would camp outdoors. It taught me a lot, he shares. Having originally trained as an architect, Phadke made the decision to change direction as he said he found it disgusting the way education was preparing students not for joy or satisfaction but as units meant to earn money. He then worked as a teacher and was part of a group that started a school on the outskirts of Pune in a couple of years, constructing the classrooms from scratch. The young professional says the recent changes in his life had helped him realise how much he loved his work Crafts and skills are opportunities to reflect. I might be building a toilet in India or working with a student on a project in the UK, but it's still the same. We need to be able to respect everything in the same way  it can offer us the same joy and the same love, he said. The Prince's Foundation was set up to provide holistic solutions to challenges facing the world and champion a sustainable approach to communities  a subject close to the heart of the 74-year-old monarch. Gordon Neil, Executive Director of the Prince's Foundation at Dumfries House, said: We are so proud of Sourabh's achievements, before he arrived to study with us at Dumfries House, all the way through our traditional craft skills programme, and while at the Prince's Foundation's School of Traditional Arts. His selflessness and dedication to study are being greatly rewarded by being a guest of ours at this weekend's Coronation, which is sure to be a special day for our charity founder His Majesty the King as well as Sourabh and his fellow guests. The charity works nationally and internationally, with a focus on the heritage-led regeneration of the Dumfries House estate in Scotland and the wider community.
If you are ever in London, you can stop by Brilliant Restaurant for curry that comes approved from the king himself. According to a report in CNN, King Charles III once called this establishment his favourite Indian restaurant. The British royal is believed to be partial to the curry served at Brilliant, but thats not all that the restaurant is famous for. Inaugurated in 1975, Brilliant is an award-winning, family-run restaurant that serves Punjabi food with Kenyan influences. It was opened by brothers Kewal and Gulu Anand in Londons Southall in 1975, but the first Brilliant restaurant was actually located in Kenya. Today, it is run by Gulu Anand, daughter Dipna Anand and son Shanker Anand. On its menu are several vegan and vegetarian options like Dal Tarka, Palak Paneer and Saag Alu, along with seafood and non-vegetarian options. On its Facebook page, Brilliant has an entire album dedicated to Charles at the establishment. King Charles III is not the only one who favours Brilliant  celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is also a fan, while actor Kevin Costner pays the restaurant a visit whenever he is in London. The restaurant has gained public attention once again ahead of the coronation of King Charles III, which will take place at Westminster Abbey on May 6. World leaders, dignitaries and guests of the royal family will attend the coronation  the first in Britain since 1953. India will be represented by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who will be in the UK on May 5 and 6 to attend the coronation.
US trade officials have solicited the advice of lobbyists for Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.s Google and other major technology companies to help craft the new Indo-Pacific trade framework. World news,Google,Amazon,USThat gave the companies insight into the confidential talks long before the public knew about the 14-nation economic initiative, known as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity. We wanted to speak with experts like yourself to get your thoughts and feedback on our Indo-Pacific Economic Framework strategy and to further discuss the digital element of the strategy, an assistant to Bianchi wrote in an email to Google. The emails were obtained by the advocacy group Demand Progress via a public-records request and shared with Warrens office. Warrens office issued a report on the ties between the big tech companies and USTR as advocates increasingly scrutinize corporate influence over digital trade policy. The lobbyists had worked in the Trade Representatives office. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said the emails show that the Biden administrations trade representatives are continuing to coordinate with large tech companies despite President Joe Bidens promises to make workers and consumers a priority in setting trade policy. Big Tech companies and their army of lobbyists, including former government officials, are secretly trying to undermine President Bidens trade policy and his commitment to promote competition, Warren said in a statement. In a January 2022 email to Amazon, a USTR official requested multiple meetings between Bianchi and Michael Punke and Jennifer Prescott, members of Amazons government affairs team and former USTR officials, to get to know them better. Punke had been a deputy trade representative and ambassador to the World Trade Organization, while Prescott was an assistant trade Representative for Environment and Natural Resources. Bianchis staff emailed to set up an additional meeting with Amazon lobbyist Arrow Augerot, previously deputy assistant for congressional affairs at USTR, in February. And Bianchis staff in February contacted Google Cloud lobbyist Behnaz Kibria, another former USTR official, to request an off-the-record meeting to get feedback on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. The trade talks are well underway, although the framework has not yet been released to the public. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is to meet with the Senate Finance Committee behind closed doors later on Tuesday to discuss the trade deal, according to a person familiar with the briefing. Another round of talks is set to begin next week in Singapore. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the negotiations could produce results by the end of the year. The framework is intended to strengthen US trade relationships in the region and represents the most significant American economic engagement since Donald Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017. Participants include Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and Indonesia. Progressive lawmakers are concerned that language in the US proposal related to digital trade could undermine artificial intelligence, privacy and competition regulations. In an April 21 letter, Warren and lawmakers in both the House and Senate said the draft could tie Congresss and regulators hands, citing how similar language in the US-Canada trade deal has emerged in debates about digital regulations under consideration in Canada. Countries including Japan, South Korea and Australia have been leaders on regulation related to the tech giants. The emails released by Warrens office on Tuesday reveal close ties between current USTR officials and former officials who left to work at big tech companies. A USTR official in June 2021 asked for Punkes availability to meet with Tai in your personal capacity to discuss your time in Geneva and how you approached the job. In July 2021, Tai personally thanked Karan Bhatia, global head of public policy and government affairs for Google, for his ability to be candid in a private meeting. They also show that USTR reached out to South Korean government officials about legislation intended to pare back the power of Apple Inc. and Googles app stores. Bhatia in August 2021 emailed Tai about Googles concerns with the South Korean legislation, adding we would be grateful for your attention to this issue and for raising those concerns with the Korean government. Tai wrote back within a few days, agreeing to touch base with my counterpart(s) in Seoul, and promising to make sure we and our teams are in touch with any insights we are able to glean. Amazon, Google and tech industry-backed groups like the Computer & Communications Industry Association have hired former USTR officials to work on trade policy. Jonathan McHale, a former deputy assistant US trade representative for ICT services and digital trade, was hired by CCIA in June 2022. The year before, McHale told Google lobbyists it would be good to know what you think the best response would be to issues that could arise in negotiations with Mexico. Amazon communicates with officials across the government, said spokeswoman Julia Lawless. Like many other American companies with significant domestic investments and job creation, we advocate on issues that are important to our customers and our sellers. CCIA didnt comment on any communication with USTR, but President Matt Schruers said that that failing to address the benefits of the digital economy in IPEF would be a lost opportunity. Google has very publicly advocated for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework to include strong digital trade provisions that ensure digital technologies are widely accessible, and that support privacy, security, and trust in cross-border data flows, said spokesman Jose Castaneda.
Malaysia confirmed reports that it will end its single 5G network strategy and build a second to assuage operator concerns on competition and pricing, stemming from the previous admirations strategy.

Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said a second state-owned entity will be launched to manage a new network once the current vehicle Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) reaches 80% coverage in populated areas, reported Reuters.

"This model also takes into account the sustainability of the telecommunications industry ecosystem in Malaysia thus ending the monopoly element that is often associated with DNB," said Fahmi.

Recently the EU and US had warned Malaysia of straying from its single network plan, as it could open the door for vendors they deemed to be threats to national security, into Malaysian infrastructure.

Currently, DNB has achieved 57.8% coverage in populated areas and is on track to hit 80% by the end of the year, said Fahmi. This means a new state agency to launch Malaysias second 5G network could be in operation by next year, a Reuters report claimed the network will be introduced in January.

This latest development comes after the new Malaysian government scrutinise the previous governments single-network strategy, claiming it lead would to monopolies and high prices. Arguments for a single network claimed improved efficiency and acceleration of infrastructure deployment. However, Malaysia has been one of the slowest south-east Asian nations to deploy 5G with multiple setbacks stemming from getting operators on board with this unprecedented strategy.
Russia launched a third nightly round of attacks on Kyiv in six days, city authorities said early on Wednesday, but air defence systems destroyed all its drones, with no immediate reports of casualties or destruction. Air raid sirens blared for several hours in Kyiv, the surrounding region and most of eastern Ukraine, with the skies clearing only at dawn. "All enemy targets were identified and shot down in the airspace around the capital," Kyiv's military administration said on the Telegram messaging app, citing initial details. Russia used Iranian-made Shahed drones in the attacks, it added. It was not immediately known how many drones were shot down.

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Russian authorities accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attempting to attack the Kremlin with two drones overnight. The Kremlin decried the alleged attack attempt as a "terrorist act" and said Russian military and security forces disabled the drones before they could strike. It said no damage or casualties took place, and didnt provide any other details. The Kremlin added that President Vladimir Putin was safe and continued to work with his schedule unchanged.

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Hindenburg Research, the short investor whose reports on companies have erased a big chunk of their value, criticized Icahn Enterprises LP on Tuesday over the reporting of its finances, leading to a 20% drop in the shares of activist investor Carl Icahn's firm. The development represents a rare challenge for Icahn who is accustomed, as one of the pioneers of shareholder activism, to dressing down companies over their governance and transparency, but has not had to field such criticism himself. In a report published on Tuesday, Hindenburg accused IEP of overvaluing its holdings and relying on a "Ponzi-like" structure to pay dividends. The subsequent plunge in IEP shares wiped $2.9 billion off Icahn's net worth, leaving him with an estimated $14.7 billion, according to Forbes. Icahn said in an IEP statement that Hindenburg's "self-serving" report was aimed at generating profits at the expense of IEP's long-term shareholders. "We stand by our public disclosures and we believe that IEP's performance will speak for itself over the long term as it always has," Icahn said. Icahn's Sunny Isles Beach, Florida-based company hold his various investments in the energy, automotive, food packaging, real estate and other industries. He is IEP's controlling shareholder with an 85% stake. Hindenburg said IEP's units are overvalued by more than 75% and that "IEP trades at a 218% premium to its last reported net asset value (NAV), vastly higher than all comparables." IEP's peers on the other hand, such as Dan Loeb's Third Point Investors Ltd (TPOGu.L) and Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Holdings Ltd (PSH.AS), trade at a discount to their respective NAVs, Hindenburg said. NAV is a key gauge of a fund's performance, measuring the market value of securities held by the fund. Driving the frothiness in IEP's stock, Hindenburg argued, is its dividend yield of 15.8%, the highest of any U.S. large cap company by far. Hindenburg accused Icahn of inflating the dividend yield by receiving his own dividend in stock rather than cash and making IEP sell new stock so it can meet the shareholder payouts. "Icahn has been using money taken in from new investors to pay out dividends to old investors," said Hindenburg. Hindenburg also offered examples it said showed IEP itself was valuing its holdings way above their market value. IEP recorded its 90% stake in meat-packaging business Viskase Companies Inc (VKSC.PK) at $243 million at year-end when its market value at the time, based on how its shares were trading, was just $89 million, Hindenburg said, citing IEP's filings. Viskase's shares trade as a pink-sheet. In a filing, IEP attributed the valuation mark-up to "market comparables due to lack of material trading volume." In another instance, IEP marked its automotive parts division at $381 million in December 2022, one month before a key subsidiary of that division filed for bankruptcy a month later. A representative for Grant Thornton LLP, which has served as IEP's auditor since 2004, declined to comment. Hindenburg also took aim at the close relationship between investment bank Jefferies Inc (JEF.N) and Icahn. The short seller noted that Jefferies, the only major brokerage to cover IEP, assumes in its equity research that Icahn's dividends will be paid in perpetuity even in a worst-case scenario, while at the same time profiting from arranging IEP's stock sales. Jefferies did not immediately respond to a request for comment. STRING OF BIG TARGETS IEP is the latest high-profile target of Hindenburg, which is run by Nathan Anderson and earlier this year went after India's Adani Group, knocking more than $100 billion in value off the conglomerate's shares. Last month, the short-seller took aim at Jack Dorsey-led Block Inc (SQ.N). Its previous targets have included electric car maker Nikola Corp (NKLA.O). Icahn, 87, has pressed for changes at a number of companies over the years including Southwest Gas Holdings Inc (SWX.N) and Xerox Holdings Corp (XRX.O). In August, fast-food giant McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) amended its board and replaced a director targeted by Icahn. Most recently, Icahn has been involved in a proxy fight with Illumina Inc (ILMN.O) to push the U.S. life sciences firm to unwind its 2021 buyout of Grail.
A new partnership aims to offer advanced satellite data and monitoring that, the partners say, will transform disaster response and environmental monitoring in Southeast Asia.

The partnership is between Tokyo-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data and solutions provider Synspective and leading satellite operator and space technology service provider Thaicom.

Synspective and Thaicom will supply a joint solution to government, defence, agriculture, and finance sectors in Thailand that, they say, will enhance disaster response, environmental monitoring, agricultural productivity and infrastructure planning.

The partners explain that the collaboration will combine Synspectives expertise in SAR technology and Thaicoms knowledge of satellite and space technology in Thailand.

The NASA Earth Data website describes SAR as a type of active data collection where a sensor produces its own energy and then records the amount of that energy reflected back after interacting with the Earth.

Benefits of SAR technology range from rapid assessment of the damage caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and landslides, to monitoring changes in the environment such as deforestation. SAR can also be used to monitor infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and buildings, for damage and displacement, as well as to monitor agricultural land and crop growth.

Vincent Kessler, General Manager of Synspective, explains: Combining our SAR technology with Thaicoms capabilities means that the Thai market can benefit from a solution that quickly and accurately assesses data to provide detailed and timely information for effective response and monitoring management. This is a productive step for yielding new opportunities for businesses in Thailand and creating a widespread sustainable community.

Piyawat Jriyasetapong, Thaicoms Chief Commercial Officer, adds: Our partnership with Synspective will enable governments and businesses to make informed decisions on sustainable development and allows for effective maintenance and planning in Thailand.
May 03, 2023

Ukraine Open Thread 2023-106

Only for news & views directly related to the Ukraine conflict.

The current open thread for other issues is here.

Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.

Posted by b on May 3, 2023 at 16:38 UTC | Permalink

Comments

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Our Prime Minister will be kept busy while over in the UK. Not only will he be meeting the King while in London, but will also meet other royal family members and Rishi Sunak, the UKs Prime Minister, at the famous 10 Downing Street.
Ellie suggests that parents start by educating themselves about vaping, so they can have informed conversations with their children about the risks and dangers associated with it. It's important to keep an open dialogue with your kids and to listen to their concerns and questions.


Associated Press Writer

SUVA, Fiji (AP) _ Hours after he was sentenced to death for treason, Fijian coup leader George Speight was spared Monday when the president installed in the aftermath of the uprising commuted the sentence to life in prison.

President Ratu Josefa Iloilo signed the commutation decree on the recommendation of both prosecution and defense lawyers because of Speight's surprise guilty plea, said Attorney General Qoriniasi Bale.

People sentenced to life in prison in Fiji usually serve about 10 years.

Speight led the armed overthrow of Fiji's first ethnic Indian-led government, seizing Parliament in May 2000 and taking the prime minister, most Cabinet ministers and other lawmakers hostage.

He said he led the coup to win back political power for his fellow indigenous Fijians, who make up 51 percent of the Pacific island nation's population of 820,000.

The hostages were released after a tense 56-day standoff during which Speight, his armed gang and the captives remained holed up in Parliament, surrounded by army troops.

The coup triggered riots, arson, looting and the ouster of Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, the first prime minister from Fiji's ethnic Indian community, which makes up about 44 percent of the population and wields considerable economic and political power. The coup also forced Iloilo's predecessor Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara from office.

Speight's guilty plea meant the jury never heard the case, and the judge formally entered a conviction against him.

Sitting in the dock wearing a traditional sulu skirt, Speight hung his shaved head and wept as Justice Michael Scott placed a black cloth over his judge's wig and read the sentence: death by hanging.

Speight's Australian attorney, Ron Cannon, said his client pleaded guilty in order to help close the country's ethnic wounds.

"This would then put the matter to rest and we hope will be accepted by the community as our contribution to the stability of the country and to reconciliation," Cannon said.

Chaudhry, who leads the Fiji Labor Party, said he was "relieved" the matter had ended and commended Speight for his guilty plea.

Elections last year installed a new government led by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, an ethnic Fijian who supports parts of Speight's nationalist agenda and excluded Chaudhry's party from his Cabinet, a decision ruled unconstitutional by a court last week.

In comments made in writing to the Fiji Sun newspaper for Tuesday's edition, Speight said he had no regrets for standing up for indigenous Fijians who "must be allowed self determination  and our interests must always be protected and promoted."

Those issues, he said, should not be made "sacrificial lambs of an inherited Westminster-style democracy."

Also Monday, 10 of Speight's 12 accomplices had treason charges against them reduced to hostage-taking. Justice Michael Scott sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 18 months to three years on top of time they have already served.

Prosecutors said two other suspects still face treason charges, which carry the mandatory death penalty.

The indictment accused coup plotters of forming an illegal "Taukei (indigenous Fijian) Civilian Government" and unlawfully trying to overturn the country's constitution. The coup leaders also were accused of murdering a policeman before ending their armed rebellion in July 2000.

Speight never denied leading the uprising, but claimed he was granted immunity during the coup by the Great Council of Chiefs, the country's traditional rulers whose political role largely is symbolic but who command great respect and influence among ethnic Fijians.

Fiji is slowly shrugging off the crippling economic effects of the coup. Its crucial tourism industry is beginning to recover.
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NEW YORK (AP)  A man who had been shouting at people aboard a New York City subway train died after fellow riders tackled him and one put him in a chokehold that lasted until his body went limp, according to police officials and video of the encounter.

Jordan Neely, 30, died from compression of the neck, the citys medical examiner determined Wednesday.

Neely is recognizable to some New Yorkers as a Michael Jackson impersonator who regularly danced in the Times Square transit hub. On Monday afternoon, he was yelling and pacing back and forth on an F train in Manhattan, witnesses and police said, when he was restrained by at least three people, including a U.S. Marine veteran who pulled one arm tightly around his neck.

Video of the altercation posted online by a freelance journalist showed the man lying beneath Neely, holding him in a headlock position for several minutes as Neely tried and failed to break free. A second passenger pinned Neely's arms while a third person held down his shoulder.

It was unclear why the group had moved to restrain him.

Neely, who is Black, lost consciousness during the struggle. EMTs and police arrived after the train stopped at a station. He was pronounced dead at a Manhattan hospital shortly after.

The 24-year-old Marine veteran, who appeared to be white, was taken into custody and released without charges. His name has not been released publicly.

The medical examiner's office classified Neely's death as a homicide and the manner as a chokehold, but noted that any determination about criminal culpability would be left to the legal system.

The Manhattan district attorney's office said it is investigating.

As part of our rigorous ongoing investigation, we will review the Medical Examiners report, assess all available video and photo footage, identify and interview as many witnesses as possible, and obtain additional medical records, read a statement from a spokesperson for the DA.

As news of Neelys death spread online, video of the encounter evoked strong reactions from New Yorkers and officials. Some described the act as a lethal overreaction to a person in the throes of mental illness and others defended the Marine veterans actions.

A group of protesters gathered Wednesday afternoon in the station where Neely died to call for an arrest. Kyle Ishmael, a 38-year-old Harlem resident, said the video of the incident left him feeling disgusted.

I couldnt believe this was happening on my subway in my city that I grew up in, he said.

Neely's death comes amid a period of heightened public attention to both homelessness and mental illness on New York Citys streets and subways. Following several high-profile incidents, including a shooting on a subway train that left 10 people wounded last year, Mayor Eric Adams promised to deploy additional police officers and mental health workers throughout the transit system.

The freelance journalist who recorded the incident, Juan Alberto Vazquez, told the New York Post that Neely was screaming in an aggressive manner, and complaining of hunger and thirst. Neely did not physically attack anyone, Vazquez said, adding that the Marine veteran approached the man after he threw his jacket to the ground.

The video starts with Neely already on the subway car's floor, with the man's left arm around Neelys neck, locked into his other arm positioned against the mans head. A second man holds Neelys outstretched arm while pinning the other hand against his body. Neely is mostly still, but half a minute later tries to struggle out of the headlock. Eventually, he goes limp.

Dave Giffen, the executive director at Coalition for the Homeless, blamed city and state officials for an inadequate response to the mental health crisis  and questioned why the Marine veteran was not facing criminal charges.

The fact that someone who took the life of a distressed, mentally ill human being on a subway could be set free without facing any consequences is shocking, he said. This is an absolute travesty that must be investigated immediately.

Those calls were echoed by several Democratic elected officials, who described the incident as a low point for the city.

During an appearance on CNN on Tuesday night, the mayor said there were still too many unknowns.

We dont know exactly what happened here, Adams said, adding that we cannot just blatantly say what a passenger should or should not do in a situation like that, and we should allow the investigation to take its course.

Tribute videos posted online show a loyal fanbase who enjoyed crossing paths with Neely on their daily commutes. Some grew concerned when he went missing early last year, according to YouTube comments.

Jason Williams, an actor, recalled encountering Neely when he first moved to the city in 2007. Then a teenager, Neely was an agile Michael Jackson impersonator, Williams said, soliciting donations as he moonwalked through the subway and lip-synced to Billie Jean.

He embodied the hustle spirit of New York, Williams said. He was a great performer and its a real tragedy that he was killed so senselessly.

The Rev. Al Sharpton demanded in a statement that Neely's death be investigated as a potential case of manslaughter. Sharpton referenced the Bernhard Goetz case in 1984, in which a white gunman was convicted of a weapons offense after he shot four Black men on a subway train.

We cannot end up back to a place where vigilantism is tolerable. It wasnt acceptable then and it cannot be acceptable now, Sharpton said.

Andre Zachery, Neelys father, told the New York Daily News that he had not seen his son in four years.

Zachery told the paper that Neelys mother also died violently. Christie Neely was strangled in New Jersey in 2007, according to news accounts at the time. Her body was found days later in a suitcase along a roadway. Neely, who was 14 when she died, testified against his mothers boyfriend at his murder trial.
Midland County Sheriffs Office

A Legacy High School student was arrested on April 26 for assault of a public servant, according to court documents.

On April 26, a Midland ISD police officer was called to the school's office in reference to two student fighting in the hallway. The officer saw a student  identified as Malachi Mitchell, 17  "storm" into one of the assistant principal's offices. The officer observed the victim attempting to stop Mitchell from fighting the other student, according to the arrest affidavit.
Kit Bredimus

Nurses Week 2023 is just around the corner, and it's time to celebrate the backbone of health care  nurses! The American Nurses Association (ANA) also recognizes the entire month of May as Nurses Month with the theme You make a Difference. Nurses truly make a difference by influencing health care and making a positive impact in the lives of their patients, families and communities. Midland Health will celebrate Nurses Week on May 6 through 12, along with other health care facilities, organizations and communities across the country to recognize our amazing health care professionals.

Nurses are an integral part of the health care system and play a vital role in patient care. They are the front-line health care providers who are often the first point of contact for patients. Nurses work tirelessly to ensure that patients receive the best care possible. Nurses do much more than taking vital signs and administering medications, they are professionals who use their clinical judgment to understand the patient condition and anticipate needs along with providing emotional support to patients and their families. Nursing is both an art and a science.
BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Union is working on plans to extend the sanctions regime that it uses to punish third countries for human-rights abuses to include grand corruption.

The EU's executive Commission on Wednesday proposed the expansion because it believes serious corruption can undermine the rule of law, human rights and democracy. If adopted, the plans would include asset freezes and travel bans.

Based on this framework, the European Union could ban perpetrators of corruption from entering the European Union to freeze perpetrators' assets in the European Union and any European Union person from making funds and economic resources available to perpetrators, said EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell.

Grand corruption in third countries not only affects democracy there but can also turn against the EU when money is used to buy political influence in the 27-nation bloc. Belgian prosecutors are investigating several EU legislators and officials that are accused of being paid by Qatar and Morocco to influence decision-making at the assembly. Both countries deny the allegations.

Borrell insisted the fight against corruption had to be ramped up both abroad and at home, with the EU Commission also proposing a raft of measures to toughen punishment and harmonize laws within the bloc.

In the EU itself, we have a serious problem  I would compare corruption with a cancer, which also needs a lot of prevention, but also when prevention fails, then the proper treatment, said EU Commission Vice President Vera Jourova.

Under the plans, the EU would move beyond bribery and make it easier to prosecute all forms of corruption, including illicit enrichment, embezzlement and abuse of power.

On the global stage, the EU already has an overall human rights sanctions program to impose penalties for anything from genocide, slavery and torture to restrictions of freedom of speech. Now, the EU only has two sanctions regimes that include corruption  targeting Lebanonese and Moldovan individuals.

Major EU allies like the United States and Canada already have incorporated corruption in their sanctions programs.

The plans on corruption sanctions against third countries will now go to the member states for further debate before they can be approved. Once in place, they would provide a template that would make it easier for the bloc to go after corrupt officials worldwide instead of having to work each time with country-specific plans.
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MOSCOW (AP)  Russian authorities accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attempting to attack the Kremlin with two drones overnight in an effort to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian government denied any involvement.

The Kremlin decried the alleged attack attempt as a terrorist act and said Russian military and security forces disabled the drones before they could strike. It did not elaborate.

A statement on the Kremlin's website said debris from the unmanned aerial vehicles fell on the grounds of the seat of Russia's government but did not cause any damage. The statement, which did not explain what caused the drones to break up, said no casualties were reported.

A video published overnight on a local Moscow news Telegram channel, which appeared to have been shot across the river from the Kremlin, showed what looked like smoke rising over the Kremlin.

According to the text accompanying the video, residents of a nearby apartment building reported hearing bangs and seeing smoke at around 2:30 a.m. local time (7:30 p.m. Eastern.) It was impossible to independently verify the posted footage.

Ukraines presidential advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak, argued that it would not make sense to target the Kremlin during Russia's war on his country.

We do not attack the Kremlin because, first of all, it does not solve any military problems. Absolutely. And this is extremely disadvantageous from the point of view of preparing our offensive measures," Podolyak said.

"And most importantly, it would allow Russia to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities. Why do we need this? he added.

The Kremlin didnt present any evidence to back up its account, including the allegation of an assassination attempt as Russia prepares to observe its annual Victory Day on Tuesday.

We consider these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the president of Russia, carried out on the eve of the Victory Day, the parade on May 9, where foreign dignitaries are expected, the Kremlin's statement read.

Russia retains the right to respond when and where it sees fit, the statement said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that Putin wasnt in the Kremlin at the time and worked Wednesday from his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.

The Kremlin added that Putin was safe and his schedule was unchanged. Peskov said the Victory Day parade would take place as scheduled.

Shortly before the news about the alleged attack broke, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a ban on using drones in the Russian capital, with an exception for drones launched by authorities.

Sobyanin didn't cite a reason for the ban, saying only that it would prevent illegal use of drones that can hinder the work of law enforcement.

A lawmaker who represents Crimea in Moscow, Mikhail Sheremet, told Russian state media that the Kremlin should order a missile strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys residence in Kyiv in retaliation for Wednesday's alleged incident.
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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP)  The presidents of Iran and Syria signed Wednesday a series of long-term cooperation agreements on oil and other sectors to bolster economic ties between the two allies.

Iran's Ebrahim Raisi, leading a large economic and political delegation, met with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, after landing in the war-torn country for a two-day visit  an Iranian president's first visit to Damascus since 2010.

Tehran has been a main backer of Assad's government since a 2011 uprising turned into full-blown civil war and has played an instrumental role in turning the tide of the conflict in his favor.

Iran has sent scores of military advisers and thousands of Iran-backed fighters from around the Middle East to Syria to fight on Assad's side. Tehran has also been an economic lifeline for Assad, sending fuel and credit lines worth billions of dollars.

Syrian government forces have regained control of large parts of the country in recent years, with the help of its two main allies  Russia and Iran.

With Arab governments that once advocated Assad's downfall now slowly making amends with Damascus, Iran appears to be hoping to reap the rewards for its decades-long support of the Syrian president with investment and economic opportunities to help alleviate its own ailing economy.

Syrian state media said Raisi and Assad signed agreements and memorandums of understanding related to several sectors, including oil, agriculture, railways and free trade zones.

Iran's state-owned railway company has long aspired to expand its network through neighboring Iraq and Syria, linking it to the Syrian port of Lattakia on the Mediterranean Sea to boost trade. Syria's opposition and Tehran critics see this as another Iran attempt at growing its political influence.

The deal are important also for Syria, whose economy has hit an all-time low over the past decade, with spiraling inflation, a currency plunge and rampant power cuts.

In an interview with pan-Arab television channel Al-Mayadeen ahead of his visit, Raisi called for reconstruction efforts and for Syrian refugees who fled the country's war to return home.

Syrias government and people have gone through great hardship," Syrian state media quoted Raisi as telling Assad during their meeting. "Today, we can now say that you have overcome all these problems and were victorious, despite the threats and sanctions imposed against you.

Raisi was also to visit the Sayida Zeinab and Sayida Ruqayya shrines, both holy sites in Shiite Islam, as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument dedicated to Syrian soldiers killed in battle.

The last Iranian president to visit Syria was President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2010.

Raisi's visit comes as some Arab countries, including Egypt and regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, have been opening up to Assad and their foreign ministers have visited Damascus in recent weeks. Syrias foreign minister also visited the Saudi capital of Riyadh in April, the first such visit since the two countries cut relations in 2012.

In March, Iran and Saudi Arabia, a main backer of Syrian opposition fighters, reached an agreement, brokered by China, to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions.

The Iran-Saudi reconciliation is likely to have positive effects on countries where the two fought proxy wars, including Syria.

Syria was widely shunned by Arab governments over Assads brutal crackdown on protesters. The breakdown in relations culminated with Syria being ousted from the Arab League in 2011. Syria's civil war has since killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country's pre-war population of 23 million.

America and its allies failed on all fronts against the resistance, and could not achieve any of their goals, Irans new ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, told Irans state news agency on Tuesday.

Like Syria, Iran is under Western sanctions, which alongside decades of mismanagement, has plunged its national currency to new lows. Months of anti-government protests failed to unseat the ruling clerics and talks on Tehran's return to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which lifted sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Irans nuclear program, have long become stalemated.

In 2015, when the nuclear deal was signed, Irans currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar. In February, it hit a record low of 600,000 for $1.

A week before the Iranian president's visit to Damascus, Iran's minister of road and urban development, Mehrdad Bazrpash, met with Assad in the Syrian capital, where he delivered a message from Raisi supporting the expansion of ties, Irans state IRNA news agency said.

Irans military presence in Syria been a major concern for Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment along its northern border. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years  but rarely acknowledges them.

Since the beginning of 2023, Syrian officials have attributed a dozen strikes on Syrian territory to Israel, the latest of which came early on Tuesday and put the international airport of the northern city of Aleppo out of service.

___

Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
A trader works at the post where First Republic Bank stock is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, March 16, 2023.
From left, Joshua Wise, Saipan Chamber of Commerce vice president; Joe Guerrero, chamber president; Ron Smith, chamber director; Frank Ada, vice president of the Society for Human Resource Management-CNMI chapter; Matt Deleon Guerrero, economist; and Alex Sablan, chamber director during a panel discussion on Wednesday at the Hyatt ballroom.
Paul Mackenzie, 50, a Kenyan cult leader accused of ordering his followers of the members of the Good News International Church to starve themselves to death in Shakahola forest, appears at Malindi Law Courts, in Malindi, Kenya, May 2, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
Staff Reporter

Richelle obtained a bachelor of arts degree in mass communications from the Far Eastern University in Manila, the Philippines. She was a junior reporter for Marianas Variety from 2009 to 2010, and from 2014 to 2015. In the Maldives, she worked as a news reporter and marketing executive. In her free time, shes a painter, pianist, and mom baker.
Interstate 55 has reopened after a dust storm Monday along the interstate near Divernon resulted in an accident that left six people dead and involved more than 70 vehicles.

At least another 37 people were injured in the crash between mile markers 76 and 78.

Five of the six people killed still are being identified by the Montgomery County coroners office.

Shirley Harper, 88, of Franklin, Wisconsin, is among the dead, according to the coroner's office.

Though visibility has improved, there still are chances of reduced visibility in the area as winds continue to reach 40 miles an hour, National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Shimon said.

"We have had reports of dust problems in the past there, but something like this is usually unusual for Illinois," Shimon said. "Dust catches people off guard."

A combination of dry fields and high winds contributed to the severe decrease in visibility for drivers near those fields, Shimon said.

The National Weather Service recorded a high of 54 mph for wind at the Springfield Airport but there may have been higher winds away from the available recording devices, Shimon said.

"There is a lot of surface dust,"he said. "The wind, combined with dry surface soil during planting, caused a corridor of high dust levels."

Interstate 55 was closed until about 6 a.m. Tuesday before reopening to traffic.

The injuries, in victims ranging in age from 2 to 80, ranged from minor to life-threatening, according to the Associated Press, which noted all of the fatalities happened in the northbound lanes.

Though winds are expected to remain elevated for a few days, there is some hope of improvement because rain is expected to come through the area Thursday or Friday, Shimon said.

"It should help with some surface moisture that can help limit the surface dust," he said. "But, dry dust kick-up is still possible, especially if someone is actively working in the field."

The winds also pose a risk of spreading fires.

Several agencies have asked residents to take extra precaution when creating outdoor fires.

Ashland Volunteer Fire Department has asked residents to refrain from outdoor fires.

The Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office said any outdoor fires could easily get out of control.

"Gusty winds and low humidity will create an elevated fire risk across parts of the state," the office posted to its Facebook page. "Avoid burning trash or yard waste as these fire can quickly get out of control."
Memorial Health/Provided

Link card benefits can be used during the upcoming Jacksonville Farmers Market season, thanks to a program sponsored by Jacksonville Memorial Hospital.

We continue to provide access to healthy food for our communitys most vulnerable population, said Lori Hartz, director of community health at the hospital. The most recent Community Health Needs Assessment identified obesity as a top health concern in Morgan County. Obesity can be a root cause of chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Expanding access to healthy foods at our local farmers market is one way to address that concern for Morgan County residents.
Morsa Images/Getty Images

JERSEYVILLE  Students will have a chance in August to learn about health care when Jersey Community Hospital hosts a career day.

Healthcare Career Camp is geared toward students entering seventh through 11th grades who are interested in learning more about career paths in health care. The event will be from 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Aug. 1 at the hospital at 400 Maple Summit Road.
A man charged with four Class X felonies in connection with an armed encounter in December in an Illinois College dormitory has been deemed unfit for trial.

Devin C. Hall, 26, is facing two charges of armed robbery and two charges of home invasion, according to charging documents obtained from Morgan County State's Attorney's office.

A 402 conference scheduled Wednesday was canceled after Hall was found unfit for trial, Morgan County State's Attorney Gray Noll said.

A 402 conference is one way a criminal case can be resolved without going to trial. The judge tells the attorneys the sentence that would be handed down if the defendant were to plead guilty, and the parties involved can accept or reject the agreement.

"This means his case is pretty much paused until he has been restored to fitness," Noll said. "It could be reset if and when he is found fit to stand trial."

Morgan County Circuit Court Judge Chris Reif signed transmittal papers April 6 for Hall to be placed in the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services. The transfer has not yet happened but will soon, Noll said. Hall remains in the Morgan County jail, where he has been since his Dec. 14 arrest.

"He is on a secure inpatient basis, which means as long as he is in DHS custody, he will be housed in a secure facility," Noll said. "Nine times out of 10, they will send him to the state's Chester Mental Health Center."

Chester Mental Health Center in Randolph County is designed to provide care and treatment for adult men who require a greater degree of behavioral management, structure and security. The center does not admit patients directly from the community.

Once Hall arrives at Chester, he will undergo an independent evaluation at the state facility, Noll said.

"If they concur with the diagnosis here, they will start treating him with hopes of restoring him to fitness," Noll said. "It could take 30 days, it could take 30 months, it depends. As long as treatment goes on, the case will be on hold. There could come a point where the treatment team says he is unlikely to reach fitness. It would be taken off pause and things would proceed from there.

"Generally speaking, we should get a report in 30 days and then we'll have a better understanding of where we stand."

Charging documents for the armed robberies allege Hall used a dangerous weapon other than a firearm to steal cellphones from two occupants of a dorm room in IC's Mundinger Hall around 4:45 a.m. Dec. 14. The charges for home invasion allege Hall entered the room without permission, armed with a knife, and threatened to use the weapon while committing the robbery.

Class X is the most severe class of felony in Illinois, short of first-degree murder. A Class X felony is punishable by six to 30 years in prison, with a possible extended sentence of 30 to 60 years. Class X felonies generally are aggravated or armed offenses.

Hall, of Barrington Hills, a village 40 miles northwest of Chicago, formerly was a student at Illinois College. He is being held in the Morgan County jail on a $500,000 bond. If he were to bond out, a judge's order stipulates he would be required to wear GPS monitoring, not be within 1,000 feet of the Illinois College campus and not have any contact with the victims.

Even if Hall were able to post bond, he would not be freed because Reif ordered Hall into DHS custody with bond in place, Noll said.
Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Me Kail J. Sims, 24, of 2074 Bradley Court, Springfield, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:23 p.m. Thursday on charges of possession of cannabis and two counts of retail theft.

 Matthew A. Brown, 31, of 54 Lambert Lane, Springfield, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 7:11 p.m. Wednesday on charges of speeding and operating an uninsured motor vehicle and on a warrant accusing him of failing to appear in court on a charge of driving while license is suspended.

Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Robert A. McMurl, 53, of 938 Sheffield St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 4:34 p.m. Sunday on charges of driving while license is revoked, improper signaling, and operating an uninsured motor vehicle.

 Travis L. Haley, 48, of 588 Cherry St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 2:32 a.m. Saturday on an aggravated assault charge.

 Gina J. Rosenberger, 50, of 552 Hardin Ave. was arrested at 8:09 a.m. Sunday on a charge of driving while license is revoked, with prior convictions.

 William D. Guyton, 52, of 141 E. Tanner St., Waverly, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 10:52 p.m. Friday on a charge of driving while license is suspended.

 Shaun M. Stone, 42, of 345 E. Douglas Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at noon Friday on charges of possession of methamphetamine and driving while license is revoked or suspended.

 Francois L. Shell, 38, of 4040 Treaviso St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 7:25 p.m. Thursday on a retail theft charge.

 Justin H. Scott, 38, of 1135 Elm St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 8:41 p.m. Wednesday on charges of driving while license is revoked or suspended, having no insurance and obstructing identification.

OTHER REPORTS

 Police were called to Jacksonville Warehouse Bargains, 600 Capitol Way, at 2:47 p.m. Sunday because a customer was walking around and showing other customers an "explicit object." The customer was escorted out of the business.

South Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Timothy L. Lindsey, 36, of 1512 S. East St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 11:11 p.m. Friday on a charge of driving while license is revoked.

Pike County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Ryan M. Hill, 40, of Nebo was booked into Pike County Jail at 8:18 p.m. Sunday on a charge of possession of methamphetamine.

 James R. Cox, 47, of Monroe City, Missouri, was booked into Pike County Jail at 3:25 p.m. Saturday on a charge of failing to comply or respond to an order to compel discovery.

 Luther D. Davis, 46, of Nebo was booked into Pike County Jail at 4:05 a.m. Wednesday on a aggravated battery charge.

Pittsfield Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Thomas N. Bolton, 61, of Farmer City was booked into Pike County Jail at 7:09 p.m. April 24 on a charge of possession of a controlled substance.
Memorial Health

Jacksonville Memorial Hospital is one of three hospitals to receive the 2023 Distinguished Community Award from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford.

The award, presented to community organizations that have enhanced the stature or growth of the U of I College of Medicine via special contributions, recognized the hospital's support of University of Illinois medical students working in Jacksonville as part of the Rural Medical Education program.
BANGKOK (AP)  Human rights groups on Wednesday called for an investigation into the shooting of a political and social activist in Laos whose posts on Facebook criticized the Southeast Asian nations communist government.

Initial reports, repeated by human rights groups, had said Anousa Luangsuphom, 25, was killed in the attack Saturday night at a coffee shop in Vientiane, the capital. But Human Rights Watch issued an update Thursday saying Anousa's family and other sources provided evidence that he survived the shooting and was in a hospital receiving medical treatment.

Video from security cameras uploaded onto a state media website and then circulated on social media shows a gunman in a cap and mask make a tentative entrance into the cafe, step out, walk back in again, and brush past a woman to fire two shots from a handgun into the sitting victim. Another video released online shows paramedics attending to him.

Reports in Lao media and from fellow activists said Anousa later died. But a Lao activist in exile in Paris who knew Anousa, Joseph Akaravong, said on Facebook that he was still alive. A photo said to be of Anousa in the hospital, showing wounds in the spots cited in media reports, accompanied the post.

The Associated Press was unable to confirm Anousa's condition and was not immediately able to contact Akaravong.

No evidence has emerged of the gunmans identity or motive. Lao authorities could not immediately be contacted for comment.

Amnesty International described Anousa, also known as Jack, as a vocal critic of the Lao government and society.

The group said Anousa ran a Facebook page called Driven by the Keyboard which featured posts on a wide range of social, environmental, economic and political issues in Laos, such as haze pollution, the human rights of school children and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) rights.

Human Rights Watch said Anousa was among the few people in Laos who regularly and openly expressed views that were critical of the Lao government, and described his Driven by the Keyboard page as a popular platform for people in Laos and abroad to express dissenting views about the Lao government, including corruption and repression of fundamental freedoms.

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch recalled the 2012 disappearance of another activist, Sombath Somphone, who was last seen in the custody of Lao security forces.

Sombaths disappearance was captured on video taken by a traffic monitoring camera, which shows him being stopped by security personnel at a police outpost in Vientiane and asked to step out of his vehicle, according to Amnesty International. Within a few minutes a man on a motorcycle arrives, drives away Sombaths vehicle, and a pickup truck takes Sombath away with armed people on a motorcycle leading the way. A passenger on the motorcycle fires a gunshot into the air, Amnesty International said. Lao authorities did not acknowledge taking Sombath into custody, and he was never seen again.

U.S.-educated Sombath mostly worked in rural development, showing farmers creative ways to raise fish and make handicrafts. But he was also vocal about land deals that left thousands of villagers homeless without compensation, sparking rare political protests.

___

Find more of APs Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
Illinois Supreme Court upholds Pike sexual assault, abuse... The state Supreme Court will not consider an appeal of 2021 sexual assault and sexual abuse...

DOC remains mum on Western Illinois inmate death Little information has been released concerning the death of an inmate at Western Illinois...

Agenda  A-C Central school board, May 9 The A-C Central school board is scheduled to meet in special session at 7 p.m. today at 601 W....
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A pair of new investigative reports about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are a testament to the need for better guard rails against moneyed influence.

The first bombshell story from ProPublica highlighted how a billionaire named Harlan Crow befriended Thomas after he became a Supreme Court justice and treated him (and often his wife, Virginia Ginni Thomas) to luxurious vacations almost every year. Thomas didnt disclose those trips.

ProPublica followed that up with another story that Crow had actually purchased property from Thomas. Thomas didnt disclose this either. Stranger still, Thomass mother has continued living there while the billionaire has been making expensive renovations.

Thomas broke the law by failing to disclose his financial transactions with Crow. Every American should read the ProPublica reports on how one of the nine Supreme Court justices, whose jurisdiction covers the entire nation, appears to be in the pocket of a billionaire.

The cozy relationship between Crow and Thomas has borne fruit for wealthy elites: the justice has routinely sided with moneyed interests and their influence on policymaking.

Thomas was already under scrutiny for the political and financial activities of his wife.

During Barack Obamas presidency, Ginni Thomas founded a tea party nonprofit called Liberty Central, a move the New York Times described as the most partisan role ever for a spouse of a justice on the nations highest court.

She later became a lobbyist and led a small, secretive organization called Liberty Consulting. In 2011, Politico reported that she touted her experience and connections to help clients with governmental affairs efforts.

Ginni Thomas again made headlines last year for having pressured former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to try to overturn the 2020 election results. More recently, the Washington Post published an investigation into anonymous donations totaling $600,000 made to another organization Ginni Thomas leads that stokes the rights vicious culture wars.

Although the Thomases offer arguably the most explicit examples of corruptive influence on the Supreme Court, they are not alone.

In December, the New York Times revealed that an innocently named charity called the Supreme Court Historical Society has become a vehicle for those seeking access to nine of the most reclusive and powerful people in the nation. The organization has raised millions of dollars from secret donors, in large part from corporations, special interest groups, or lawyers and firms that argued cases before the court.

Justices attend the Supreme Court Historical Societys annual dinner, offering a tantalizing chance for individual attendees to influence them  as the leader of an anti-abortion group apparently took advantage of.

Its no wonder there is growing public disapproval of a body whose decisions impact nearly every aspect of our lives.

Justices have lifetime tenure  ostensibly to protect them from partisan pressures. But that only works if there are watertight regulations for preventing corruption  and actual consequences for violating them.

After Watergate, Congress passed the Ethics in Government Act to ensure that officials like Supreme Court justices were independent of moneyed interests. Thomas appears to have violated the act, but there is no direct mechanism to hold him accountable short of Congress impeaching him  a move that has no precedent in the last 200 years.

No other democratically run nation on the planet gives its highest court justices lifetime tenure. Now legal experts are recommending term limits.

Democratic senators have introduced the Term Act, which would introduce 18-year terms for Supreme Court justices. A new justice would replace one who was termed out every two years, and presidents would have two opportunities during each four-year tenure to appoint new justices.

The U.S. should join the rest of the worlds democratic nations in upholding an impartial judiciary  it might even save billionaires like Harlan Crow some money.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reminded stakeholders of the critical role that aviation plays at times of natural disasters and humanitarian crises.



When crises strike, aviation is there. Connectivity is essential to get aid and first responders to where they are needed. The response to the recent earthquake in Southern Turkiye and Syria was no exception. Airlines helped save lives in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. And airlines continue to help accelerate the recovery with vital cargo shipments, said Willie Walsh, IATAs Director General, as the airline industry met in Istanbul for the IATA World Cargo Symposium.



While there is no comprehensive tabulation of the support that aviation provided, a limited review of 29 key carriers serving the Turkiye market reveals an impressive relief effort. These airlines:

 Delivered over 3,500 tons of aid from over 90 countries

 Operated over 350 relief and repatriation flights to affected areas

 Provided transport for over 130,000 responders from across the world



Critical supplies delivered included winter jackets, blankets, toilets, hygiene articles, food, fire guards equipment, power generators, tents, water distribution ramps, flashlights, sleeping bags, and medical supplies, among other items.



Airlink provides a good example of how the aviation sector responds to crises. It is a non-profit organization that coordinates donated airline resources and NGO needs in times of humanitarian disaster. Working with its NGO and airline partners, Airlink has coordinated the transport of 1,000 tons of aid supplies to the affected area, with an additional pipeline of 300 tons.



Resilience of cities and infrastructure are key components of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SGD 9 and 11 respectively). This is tested in times of crisis when air transports role is both as an essential infrastructure component in its own right and a vital lifeline for communities.



"Each and every day airlines make an enormous positive contribution to humanity by connecting people, cultures, businesses and economies. This fosters economic growth and social development. When disaster strikes, these links become even more critical. Everyone in aviation can be proud of the essential supplies, critical talent and hope that planes carry to disaster affected areas. With that in mind, we encourage all our stakeholders to join us in ensuring that aviation can fulfil this role by becoming ever more safe, secure, reliable and sustainable, said Walsh.



Airlines have shown exceptional compassion and solidarity, delivering vital supplies and aid to affected communities around the world. During crises, we bring hope, relief, and aid, striving to rebuild lives together. I am proud to be part of an industry that makes such a difference," said Walsh.- TradeArabia News Service
MONTGOMERY, Ala.  Alabamas governor replaced a Cabinet member who oversaw the states award-winning prekindergarten program because of a teacher training book with language about inclusion and combatting structural racism, she said Thursday.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey defended her decision announced last week to remove Secretary of the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education Barbara Cooper over the use of the training guide, saying that she thought teachers need to focus on basics.

The teacher resource book that I looked at had all those references to different kind of lifestyles and equity and this and that and the other, Ivey told reporters Thursday. Thats not teaching English. Thats not teaching writing. Thats not teaching reading. We need to focus on the basics yall and get this right.

She was referring to The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Developmentally Appropriate Practice Book, 4th edition, which is a guide for early childhood educators. In an emailed response to The Associated Press, the association did not address Iveys statements but said the book is a research-based resource for educators. It is not a curriculum.

In announcing the action last week, Ivey derided what she called woke concepts. The action comes as some conservative politicians have spoken out against what they call woke teachings. The decision to replace Cooper drew criticism inside and outside of the state.

From what I understand the book in question encouraged equality and inclusivity so all children feel valued in education, said Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, calling the decision short-sighted. Its sacrificing public education and a good employee that she praised recently  just for some political end.

Alabamas First Class voluntary prekindergarten programs operates more than 1,400 classrooms across the state. The program has won high ratings from the National Institute for Early Education Research. Cooper previously served as deputy state superintendent and chief academic officer of the Alabama State Department of Education and multiple other education positions at the state and local level.

The sections criticized by Ivey, according to a copy of the 881-page book obtained by The Associated Press, discusses combating unconscious bias and making sure that all children feel welcome.

Early childhood programs also serve and welcome families that represent many compositions. Children from all families (e.g., single parent, grandparent-led, foster, LGBTQIA+) need to hear and see messages that promote equality, dignity, and worth, the book states.

The section on structural racism states that while educators have always voiced a concern that every child matters, unfortunately, systemic and structural racism has permeated every institution and system and the early education system is not immune to these forces. The book tells teachers that the classroom is one place where children begin to see how they are represented in society and that the classroom should be a place of affirmation and healing.

Cooper is a board member of the association that published the book. Ivey praised Coopers appointment to the board last year.
Mayor William E. Cooper will read a proclamation declaring the observance of the 2023 National Day of Prayer as he joins local church leaders in front of Enterprise City Hall on Thursday, May 4, starting at noon.

The ceremony connects people of faith with tens of thousands of others all over the United States who will be praying in their own communities for blessings upon the Nation, its people, its first responders, church leaders, military, farmers, etc.

Prayer, praise, and music will be the order of the day at the ceremony, where Cooper will present the proclamation. Mayor Cooper will also play his trumpet as part of the event. Everyone is invited to gather in the courtyard in front of city hall for the hour-long ceremony.

The theme of this years national observance is Pray fervently in righteousness and avail much, which is inspired by James 5:16B, according to the National Day of Prayer Task Force website.

At 7 p.m. CST, a National Day of Prayer service will be broadcast from the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. It will air on Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), GodTV, Daystar, as well as on social media platforms and websites.

The National Day of Prayer tradition predates the founding of the United States of America, evidenced by the Continental Congress proclamation in 1775 setting aside a day of prayer.

In 1952, Congress established an annual day of prayer and, in 1988, that law was amended, designating the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May.
Starbucks beats sales forecasts as China recovers View Photo

Starbucks posted stronger-than-expected sales in its fiscal second quarter as demand in China began to recover, but the company said that sales growth could moderate as the year progresses.

The Seattle coffee giant said Tuesday that its net revenue jumped 14% in the January-March period to $8.72 billion. That was better than the $8.41 billion Wall Street had forecast, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

Same-store sales  or sales at stores open at least a year  rose 11% as traffic picked up in stores. That also beat analysts forecast of a 7.3% increase.

Same-store sales in China were up 3%, reversing a 29% decline the company saw in its October-December period due to a spike in COVID infections. It was the first time Starbucks had seen positive same-store sales in China since 2021.

Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Rachel Ruggeri said traffic is strong in the afternoons and on weekends at stores in China. But the company is still uncertain about post-pandemic customer patterns as well as the resumption of international travel to China. Ruggeri said Starbucks expects the pace of weekly sales improvement to moderate in the second half of this year.

Were very encouraged by many of the signs that we see, but theres a lot that were navigating, she said on a conference call Tuesday with investors.

In North America, same-store sales climbed 12%, and the company reported more store visits as well as higher spending per visit. The double-digit gain was partly due to comparisons with the same period last year, when sales were impacted by the omicron variant. For the full year, Starbucks expects North American same-store sales increases in the 7-9% range, Ruggeri said.

Starbucks said it opened 464 net new stores during the quarter, including 100 in North America. As part of a larger plan to reinvigorate sales, Starbucks has been closing underperforming locations and replacing them with stores in higher-traffic areas or smaller stores that are focused on pickup or drive-thru business.

Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan said the company also continues to introduce new equipment  like hand-held cold foamers  to improve execution and speed. But he said Starbucks must do a better job simplifying its supplies and operations; he noted that the company currently has 1,500 cup and lid combinations around the world.

Our performance is strong, but our health could be stronger, he said. There is more work to do in our stores for the demand that we see.

Starbucks earnings rose 35% to $908 million. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned 74 cents per share. That also beat analysts forecast of 65 cents.

Shares in Starbucks fell 5.5% in after-market trading.

Tuesdays earnings report was the first presided over by Narasimhan, who took over as Starbucks CEO at the end of March.

Narasimhan is a former PepsiCo executive who most recently served as CEO of the U.K.-based health and nutrition company Reckitt. At Starbucks, he succeeded longtime leader Howard Schultz, who came out of retirement last spring to serve as interim CEO while the company searched for a new chief executive.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

AP Business Writer
US defense contractors want deeper cooperation with Taiwan View Photo

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  A delegation of United States defense contractors and a former senior leader of the U.S. Marine Corps pledged the beginning of deeper cooperation with Taiwan on Wednesday.

Taiwan has faced increasing pressure from China in the years since Tsai Ing-wen was elected president. China, which claims the island as its territory, has poached Taiwans diplomatic allies and sent military planes and ships toward the island on a near-daily basis. It also held large-scale drills modeling a blockade and simulated strikes on important targets on the island twice within the past year.

Speaking at a public forum in Taiwans capital Taipei, retired Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder said the U.S. wants to be part of the defense capabilities of Taiwan and improve the supply chain resilience of the island. He also emphasized how critical the islands position is for security.

For the Asia-Pacific, I would offer theres not another more important area in the world to maintain peace, Rudder said Wednesday morning at the Taiwan-U.S. Defense Industry Forum. So (when) you hear a free and open Indo-Pacific, this is a small part of ensuring that shared vision remains intact.

We want to be part of the self-defense capabilities of Taiwan, he said.

U.S. Congress members have called on the Biden administration to follow through on the nearly $19 billion in military sales items they say have been approved but not yet delivered to Taiwan.

Rudder, who was in charge of Marines operations in the Pacific, said the visit was within the U.S. multiple agreements with China and laws related to Taiwan, such as the Taiwan Relations Act, which requires Washington to ensure Taiwan can defend itself. The legislation was enacted decades ago when the U.S. administration first recognized China and broke off official diplomatic relations with Taipei.

The event was co-hosted by a trade group from the U.S. and another from Taiwan as the public-facing portion of the defense contractors visit.

Although its unclear whether the groups will sign specific deals, local media reported that the United States was looking at cooperation in production of certain products. Part of that cooperation would be ensuring both sides can work together to use the weapons systems Taiwan bought alongside the islands existing self-produced defense capabilities. Washington is Taipeis largest unofficial partner and the supplier of a vast majority of Taiwans defense purchases.

Ill say it very simply: The endgame is joint interoperability, Rudder said.

A group of about 20 activists protested outside. American warmongers are a scourge on Taiwan, read one of the banners.

They sell all sorts of outdated ammunition to Taiwan and make tens of billions of U.S. dollars from Taiwan every year, said David T. Chien, vice-chair of the Blue Sky Action Alliance, which supports unification with China.

Between 6 a.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday, 27 Chinese warplanes and a drone flew toward Taiwan, according to Taiwans Ministry of National Defense. The drone encircled the island, according to a flight map from the defense ministry, while seven navy vessels sailed the waters close by. It was the second time in the past week that a drone circled the island, in what appears to be a new tactic for China to exert military pressure on Taiwan.

___

Find more of APs Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

By HUIZHONG WU and JOHNSON LAI

Associated Press
Officials: US to send Ukraine $300 million in military aid View Photo

WASHINGTON (AP)  The U.S. is sending Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous amount of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition as the launch of a spring offensive against Russian forces approaches, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The new package includes Hydra-70 rockets, which are unguided rockets that are fired from aircraft. It also includes an undisclosed number of rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, mortars, howitzer rounds, missiles and Carl Gustaf antitank rifles. The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been formally announced.

The latest shipment comes as Ukrainian officials say they are readying a counteroffensive  with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov declaring they are in the home stretch, when we can say: Yes everything is ready. Ukrainian officials have said they are stockpiling ammunition to stow it along potentially long supply lines.

Reznikov said Monday that the key things for the assaults success would be the availability of weapons; prepared, trained people; our defenders and defenders who know their plan at their level, as well as providing this offensive with all the necessary things  shells, ammunition, fuel, protection, etc.

The U.S. in recent months has declined to say exactly how much materiel will be sent to Ukraine, but the latest package resembles other previous deliveries. Officials said there will also be trucks, trailers, spare parts, and other maintenance assistance.

This is the 37th package of Pentagon stocks to go to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022, and it brings the total U.S. military aid to about $36 billion.

Officials have said the weapons and other equipment will help as Ukraine prepares to shift from what has been a long and bloody winter stalemate, focused on heavy fighting in Ukraines east, particularly around the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk province.

The General Staff of Ukraines armed forces said Russia was continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraines industrial east, focusing attacks around Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka.

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Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and MATTHEW LEE

Associated Press
Colombian government, rebels resume talks in Cuba View Photo

HAVANA, Cuba (AP)  Representatives of Colombias government and the countrys largest remaining guerrilla group met in Cuba on Tuesday to restart peace talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire and resolving a conflict dating back to the 1960s.

It is the third round of talks with the communist-inspired National Liberation Army, known as ELN, in negotiations relaunched in November shortly after President Gustavo Petro was elected as Colombias first leftist president.

We encourage you to take advantage of the magic, mysticism and hope that Cuba always offers, said Cubas Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, welcoming Colombias government officials and a delegation of the ELN to the capital Havana.

Pablo Beltran, the rebels chief negotiator, said the ELN is committed to a transformation to achieve peace and called the meeting a historic coincidence to reach a bilateral cease-fire.

Tuesdays meeting was marked by a surprise appearance of Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, alias Gabino, who led the ELN from the 1990s until 2021, when he left citing health reasons.

Also in attendance were Colombian senators Ivan Cepeda and Maria Jose Pizarro, who said the talks seek to find real solutions for a country overwhelmed by six decades of war.

Petro has said that peace talks with the ELN are a cornerstone of his plan to bring total peace to the nation of 50 million people, where some rural areas are still under the grip of drug gangs and rebel groups despite a 2016 peace deal with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ

Associated Press
The bill seeks to provide land managers with emergency tools and resources needed to restore and maintain the giant sequoias, which are under threat due to wildfire and other environmental challenges. It proposes several measures, including the creation of a Giant Sequoia Health and Resiliency Assessment to prioritize wildfire risk reduction treatments in the highest-risk groves and track the progress of scientific forest management activities.

The SOS Act would also declare an emergency to streamline and expedite environmental reviews and consultations while maintaining robust scientific analysis. It would provide new authority to the National Park Foundation and National Forest Foundation to accept private donations to facilitate Giant Sequoia restoration and resiliency and establish a comprehensive reforestation strategy to regenerate Giant Sequoias in areas destroyed by recent catastrophic wildfires.

Over 50 original cosponsors have joined the bill, including representatives from both major political parties. The legislation is also supported by a wide coalition of stakeholders including Save The Redwoods League, the Tule River Tribe, the National Congress of American Indians, and the National Association of Counties, among over 80 other organizations.

If the bill is passed into law, it is hoped that it will empower land managers with critical tools to expeditiously carry out fuel reduction and reforestation projects to save the sequoias for future generations. The reintroduction of the bill has been welcomed by many environmentalists and conservationists who hope that it will help to safeguard one of Americas most iconic natural wonders.
Glen Lipanovich and Sandi Romena View Photo

The Tuolumne Dachshund Derby returns to Tuolumne City this Sunday, May 7th.

Glen Lipanovich, the originator of this event and co-founder Sandi Romena, were both Wednesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day.

2018 was our inaugural year for the Dachshund Derby, said Romena. We had a total of 54 Dachshunds participating in the races. It was so much fun. And then in 2019 we also 54 Dachshunds. Last year, 65 Dachshunds participated. We have no idea how many Dachshunds will race this Sunday.

The registration will take place from 10 to 11:30 AM this Sunday at West Side Memorial Park in downtown Tuolumne City. The cost is just $5 for each Dachshund. The Dachshund must be present during registration, in order to make sure that the dog is truly a Dachshund.

All of the proceeds will benefit the F.O.A.C. (Friends of the Animal Community).

The Tuolumne Dachshund Derby will begin at noon. The public is invited to watch the Derby for free.

Each heat consists of six Dachshunds racing against each other on a course set up at the Park. The winning Dachshunds will then move on to the next round. One lucky Dachshund will win the Grand Trophy Prize. Second and third place Dachshunds will win a ribbon.

This event is purely designed for fun, said Romena.

For the humans, there will be plenty of fun with Daschunds everywhere, raffle prizes, hot dogs, chips and drinks available for purchase.

Because this takes on the same weekend as the Kentucky Derby, there will even be a Derby Hat contest for the humans and Dachshunds.

For questions and information, call Romena at 209-694-3178.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
Groveland, CA  The Stanislaus National Forest is giving an early heads-up that a prescribed burn is scheduled to be ignited on Monday, May 8, in the China Ridge area of the Groveland Ranger District.

The spot is located adjacent to the Groveland Ranger District office and follows China Ridge south to Greeley Hill Road, approximately four miles northeast of Greeley Hill.

The Forest Service reports, The majority of the underburn is adjacent to Smith Station Rd, Greeley Hill Rd and Forest Road 2S05. Smoke may be visible from Smith Station Road, and Highway 120 with some down canyon drift smoke visible in the evening and early morning.

Crews will be working to reduce the buildup of flammable forest fuels and make the forest more fire resilient. Burning will likely take place for several days, depending on the conditions.
Meet nurse Brandon Skinner

Who has been a mentor to you and helped you in your career?

Laura Inman, the charge nurse on the med-surg ward at WMC when I started working here took me under her wing.

Whats a moment that youre most proud of as a nurse?

Graduating from nursing school and earning a bachelors degree."

What is it about the Wiregrass Medical Center community that makes you enjoy serving the people here?

This is home."

What helps you get through the day?

Just remembering that I can only do what I can do. I do my best. My best is all Ive got.
Irans president holds rare meeting with Assad in Syria View Photo

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP)  Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Wednesday met Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus in a bid to boost cooperation between the two allies, state media reported.

Tehran has been a main backer of Assads government since an uprising turned into a full-blown war in March 2011 and has played an instrumental role in turning the tide in his favor.

Iran has sent scores of military advisers and thousands of Iran-backed fighters from around the Middle East to fight on Assads side. With the help of Russia and Iran, Syrian government forces have controlled large parts of the country in recent years.

In an interview with pan-Arab television channel Al-Mayadeen, Raisi called for reconstruction efforts and for refugees who fled the countrys war to return to the country.

Raisi, who is a leading a high-ranking political and economic delegation in a two-day visit to Syria, was received on arrival at Damascus International Airport Wednesday by Syrian Economy Minister Samer al-Khalil.

Syrias government and people have gone through great hardship, Syrian state media quoted Raisi telling Assad during the meeting. Today, we can now say that you have overcome all these problems and were victorious despite the threats and sanctions imposed against you.

He is also set to visit the Sayida Zeinab and Sayida Ruqayya shrines, both holy sites in Shiite Islam, as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument dedicated to Syrian soldiers killed in battle.

The last Iranian president to visit Syria was President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2010.

The Iranian presidents visit comes as some Arab countries, including regional powerhouses Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have been opening up to Assad and their foreign ministers have visited Damascus in recent weeks. Syrias foreign minister also visited the Saudi capital of Riyadh in April, the first such visit since the two countries cut relations in 2012.

In March, Iran and Saudi Arabia, a main backer of Syrian opposition fighters, reached an agreement in China to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions.

The reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia is likely to have positive effects on regional states where the two countries fought proxy wars, including Syria.

Syria was widely shunned by Arab governments over Assads brutal crackdown on protesters and the breakdown in relations culminated with Syria being ousted from the Arab League in 2011. The conflict has since killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of Syrias pre-war population of 23 million.

America and its allies failed on all fronts against the resistance, and could not achieve any of their goals, Irans new ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari told Irans state news agency on Tuesday.

The Iranian presidents visit also comes a week after its Minister for Road and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash met Assad in Damascus, where he delivered a message from the Iranian president supporting the expansion of economic relations between the two countries, according to Irans state news agency.

Irans military presence in Syria been a major concern for Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment along its northern border. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years  but rarely acknowledges them. Since the beginning of 2023, Syrian officials have attributed a dozen strikes on Syrian territory to Israel, the latest of which came early Tuesday and put the international airport of the northern city of Aleppo out of service.

By ALBERT AJI

Associated Press
Israeli airstrike in Gaza kills 1 after prisoners death View Photo

At least one person was killed and five others injured in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian health officials said Wednesday, after hours of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in the coastal enclave following the death of a prominent hunger-striking prisoner.

A tense cease-fire held hours after Palestinian militants launched around 100 rockets into southern Israel late on Tuesday. The Israeli military said it bombed tunnels, arms production sites and military installations belonging to the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said Hashil Mubarak, 58, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. His family said he was injured by falling debris and died at the hospital.

The cross-border fighting was some of the most intense since an 11-day war in 2021 between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza. It came hours after Khader Adnan, a leader in the Islamic Jihad militant group, died in Israeli custody after a nearly three-month hunger strike, prompting Palestinians to launch a general strike and protests in the West Bank and Gaza.

Adnan is credited with helping introduce the practice of protracted hunger strikes by Palestinian prisoners as a form of protest, primarily against the practice of administrative detention, a measure Israel uses to detain people without charge or trial.

The spike in violence is a test for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government, its most right-wing ever, whose members have called for a tough line against Palestinian violence. Government members leveled criticism at their own leaderships response to rocket fire from Gaza. Orit Struck, a Cabinet minister with the Religious Zionism party, told Kan public radio that Israel did not exact a toll.

We needed to level a few buildings in Gaza, and some chief terrorists needed to join their friend who died in jail, she said.

In the occupied West Bank, the focal point for Israeli-Palestinian violence over the last year, Israeli troops destroyed the houses of two Palestinians who carried out deadly attacks against Israeli civilians in October and November.

Israel says home demolitions are meant to deter future attackers, but critics say they amount to collective punishment against the families of assailants and only exacerbate tensions with Palestinians.

The military said it destroyed the house of Mohammed Souf in the northern West Bank town of Haris. The 18-year-old Palestinian killed three Israelis in a stabbing and car-ramming attack in a Jewish settlement in November before he was killed at the scene.

The army also said it leveled the West Bank home of a Palestinian man arrested on suspicion of stabbing an Israeli man in October. Shalom Sofer later died of his wounds.

Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank have been locked in an escalating bout of fighting for the past year. About 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire and 49 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

JERUSALEM
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  A man who escaped from a Mississippi jail on April 22 has been found dead at a truck stop in New Orleans, authorities announced Tuesday.

A security guard patrolling the truck stop Sunday morning found Casey Grayson, 34, unresponsive in a white pickup more than a week after he and three other inmates escaped from the Raymond Detention Center near Jackson, Mississippis capital, Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones said.

Grayson is the third escaped prisoner to be found in a multi-agency hunt. Dylan Arrington died after barricading himself in a central Mississippi home and setting it on fire during an armed standoff with deputies on April 26. He is suspected of killing 61-year-old Anthony Watts and stealing his truck after the escape. Jerry Raynes was arrested on April 27 after allegedly stealing a public works vehicle and fleeing to Texas.

Investigators recovered drug paraphernalia in the truck where Grayson was found. But his cause of death will not be determined until results from an autopsy report are returned. Investigators have not found any signs of foul play, Jones said.

Jones said a family member may have given Grayson access to the pickup truck after the man escaped from jail. He had been incarcerated for grand larceny, possession and sale of a controlled substance and illegal possession of a firearm, according to WLBT-TV.

Investigators are still searching for Corey Harrison, 22, the lone escapee who has not died or been arrested.

Raynes has been extradited to Mississippi, but he had not arrived as of Tuesday afternoon. He will be rebooked at the Raymond Detention Center, but it is unclear whether he will stay at the facility for the remainder of his sentence. He will face additional charges for escape and auto theft, Jones said.

In July, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ordered a rare takeover of the Raymond jail after he said deficiencies in supervision and staffing led to a stunning array of assaults, as well as deaths. But before the appointed receiver was scheduled to assume control over the jail on Jan. 1, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the lower courts order until it ruled on the countys motion for reconsideration.

As it relates to the uproar this has caused in the community, I understand the peoples concern regarding the facility, Jones said. We have taken all of the measurements necessary to prevent this from happening again.

___

Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mikergoldberg.

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG

Associated Press/Report for America
Utah law requiring porn sites verify user ages takes effect View Photo

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  You may soon be required to prove youre older than 18 to watch porn in Utah, if adult websites comply with a law that took effect Wednesday.

A new state law requiring adult websites verify the ages of their users took effect on Wednesday, making the state at least the second to enact an age verification law to shield kids from sexually explicit materials that have become increasingly accessible online.

Its part of our job as society  and maybe a subset of my job as a lawmaker  to try to protect children, state Sen. Todd Weiler, the measures Republican sponsor, said. Im not gonna blame all of societys ills on pornography, but I dont think its helpful when a kid is forming their impressions of sex and gender to have all of this filth and lewd depictions on their mind.

Its currently illegal to show children pornography under federal law, however its rarely enforced. The law is Utahs latest move to crack down on access to pornography and dovetails with lawmakers other efforts to restrict how kids use the internet, including social media sites. It comes less than a year after Louisiana enacted a similar law and as additional states consider such policies as filters or age verification for adult websites.

Dr. Eleanor Gaetan of the anti-porn National Center on Sexual Exploitation said filters and age verification were complementary efforts to limit kids access to pornography. She noted anti-porn sentiment had grown substantially in recent years due to a groundswell of parents, including ones who have testified in statehouses throughout the country and in front of the U.S. Congress.

The wave will continue because the harms are real, she said. These kids cant unsee what they see.

Though heralded by social conservatives, age verification laws have been condemned by adult websites who argue theyre part of a larger anti-sex political movement. Theyve also garnered opposition from groups that advocate for digital privacy and free speech, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The group argued earlier this year that its impossible to ensure websites dont retain user data, regardless of if age verification laws require they delete it.

Earlier this week, Pornhub, among the most widely viewed adult websites, blocked access to its content to protest the law. Those in Utah attempting to access the site since Monday have been greeted with a Dear User letter and accompanying video from adult film actor Cherie DeVille.

Giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, DeVille says, reading from the letter. The best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device.

The letter says Pornhub will completely disable access in Utah due to the law, unless a real solution is offered.

Its unclear if other websites will comply.

Critics, including Pornhub, argue age-verification laws can be easily circumvented with well-known tools such as VPNs that reroute requests to visit websites across public networks. They also have raised questions about enforcement, with Pornhub saying enforcement efforts drive traffic to less-known sites that dont comply with the law and have fewer safety protocols.

A year after passing an age-verification requirement, Louisiana lawmakers have renewed their efforts to get adult websites to comply with its law. A follow-up measure that would subject the sites to fines for not requiring users prove their age advanced through the state House of Representatives in April.

Measures have also been introduced in Arizona and South Carolina. Arkansas passed a similar age-verification law for adult websites that takes effect later this summer

The Utah law attempts to address privacy and internet data harvesting concerns by requiring websites not retain the ID information. It opens adult websites up to lawsuits if they dont verify the age of their users. It offers several age verification methods, including third-party age verification services and digital licenses that states are increasingly offering on mobile devices.

It builds off years of anti-porn efforts in Utahs Republican-controlled Legislature, where a majority of lawmakers are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It comes seven years after Weiler  who describes himself as the statehouses unofficial porn czar  led the charge to make Utah the first state to declare pornography a public health crisis and two years after lawmakers passed a measure paving the way to require internet-capable devices be equipped with porn filters for children. Provisions of the law delay it from taking effect unless at least five other states pass similar measures.

Weiler likened the measure to Utahs first-in-the-nation law prohibiting kids under 18 from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. and requiring age verification for social media users. He said he understands that, realistically some kids may bypass age-verification controls. But he said he wonders why opponents arguing enforcement concerns make internet age verification laws useless havent raised similar concerns about drivers speeding or online gambling.

The internet was born, but it wasnt born yesterday, he said.

__

AP reporters Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, La. and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark. contributed reporting.

By SAM METZ

Associated Press
Navy commander pulled from job after SEAL candidate death View Photo

WASHINGTON (AP)  The commander of the Naval Special Warfare Center who was reprimanded in connection with the death last year of a Navy SEAL candidate has been pulled out of his job about two months early, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Navy Capt. Brian Drechsler is being moved to another job as Navy officials seek new leadership for the Center, more than a year after SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen collapsed and died of acute pneumonia just hours after completing the grueling Hell Week test.

Drechsler was one of three Navy officers who received administrative non-punitive letters as a result of Mullens death. They were not directly blamed for his death and Drechsler has not been formally relieved of duty, although such an investigation is likely a career-ender. His transfer is the first step in an ongoing review to determine if any additional punishment is warranted. Officials said Drechsler will be serving as a special assistant at Naval Special Warfare Command, and had been planning to retire.

Mullens death has shined a light on the brutal Hell Week that pushes SEAL candidates to their limits. The five-and-a-half day test involves basic underwater demolition, survival and other combat tactics, and during the test sailors get to sleep just twice, for two-hour periods only. It tests physical, mental and psychological strength along with leadership skills, and is so grueling that at least 50% to 60% dont finish it.

In a brief statement released Tuesday, the command announced the change in leadership, but made no mention of Mullen. It said Navy Capt. Mark Burke will take over command of the center. The decision was made by Rear Adm. Keith Davids, who took over as commander of Naval Special Warfare Command last August. Officials said the change was done to bring new leadership in to address the ongoing challenges and not due to poor performance or wrongdoing.

Two others got non-punitive letters: Capt. Brad Geary, commanding officer of Naval Special Warfares Basic Training Command, and an unnamed senior medical officer. The medical officer remains in his same job and Geary moved to a staff job, in a change that was planned before the death.

In a message to his command, obtained by The Associated Press, Drechsler said, It is crucial that we maintain the momentum we have made to improve our training, safety, and medical oversight while balancing the need to forge the worlds greatest warriors.

A report released last October by the command concluded that Mullen, 24, from Manalapan, New Jersey, died in the line of duty, not due to his own misconduct. It said he had an enlarged heart that also contributed to his death, which came soon after he successfully finished Hell Week, which is part of the first phase of assessment for SEAL candidates striving to get into the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL, or BUD/S, class. The training was at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, California.

The report also raised questions about the monitoring of SEAL candidates as they grind through the arduous tests, and the adequacy of medical scrutiny on the sailors, who often avoid seeking medical help out of fear it will disqualify them.

Since Mullens death, Drechsler and the command have instituted a number of changes, including advanced cardiology screening of SEAL candidates for heart problems; pneumonia prevention shots; more medical scrutiny after Hell Week ends; increased training regarding performance-enhancing drugs; and expanded training for instructors.

The medical examiners autopsy report found that there was no evidence of performance-enhancing drugs in Mullens system and that they were not a contributing cause of death.

Mullen first began BUD/S in July 2021, but suffered heat stroke and left the class for recovery. He was cleared to join another class, went through orientation and began again in January 2022.

The report said that during his first week, classmates said he had breathing issues, and they believed it to be swimming-induced pulmonary edema, which occurs when fluid accumulates in the lungs. The breathing problems were not reported to medical staff, the report said.

It said he was seen by medical staff during during the Hell Week test due to shortness of breath and problems with his knee. In medical checks after the test ended, his lungs were deemed abnormal and he went to the barracks in a wheelchair due to swelling in his legs. His condition worsened, and a medical officer recommended they call 911, but that wasnt done until about 90 minutes later. He was taken to the hospital and died.

The reluctance by some candidates to seek medical help as well as the potential use of banned drugs by SEAL candidates are issues the Navy has been looking into.

Officials acknowledge that the use of performance-enhancing drugs has been a persistent problem, particularly with special operations forces and service members trying to get through rigorous training and evaluation courses. Some additional testing for the drugs is already being done in connection with the SEAL course. Since February 2022, more than 75 candidates  out of 2,500  tested for higher testosterone levels, indicating possible drug use. Most returned to training after additional tests, or dropped out. About a dozen were determined to be using performance-enhancing drugs.

The banned drugs were a key focus of the ongoing investigation by the Naval Education and Training Command, or NETC. The command is taking a deeper look at the entire SEAL training course, including policies, procedures and proper oversight by commanders. The results of that investigation are expected to be released in about a month.

NETC is also reviewing the personnel decisions to determine if they were adequate or if any actions should be taken against others at the command.

Drechsler is a 1999 graduate of the Naval Academy, served in SEAL units throughout his career, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and has received the Legion of Merit award and three Bronze Stars, including two with a combat v for heroism. Burke is also a 1999 graduate of the Naval Academy and served in SEAL units through his career, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and received a Silver Star, five Bronze Stars with combat v for heroism and a Purple Heart.

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  A correctional officer shot and killed an incarcerated man who was choking a fellow inmate at California State Prison, Sacramento, authorities said Tuesday.

Officers responding to an altercation Monday evening issued verbal orders and then used chemical agents and less-lethal measures, which had no effect, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement.

When the other man appeared to lose consciousness and go limp, an officer fired his Mini-14 rifle, the statement said.

Mario Rushing, 46, was shot and taken to an outside hospital, where he died about an hour later, corrections officials said. The incarcerated man who had been choked received treatment at the prison.

No staff or other incarcerated people were injured. An inmate-manufactured weapon was recovered at the scene, officials said.

The officer who fired the gun was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, consistent with state prison policy. The officers name was withheld.

Rushing was sentenced in 1996 to life without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and arson, officials said.

California State Prison, Sacramento is a high-security facility that houses 1,940 inmates, including many serving long-term sentences.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  A Southern California lawmaker who is running for Congress was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving Tuesday night, according to law enforcement and jail records.

Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat who is running in the competitive 47th congressional district, said in a Facebook post that he was cited with a misdemeanor for driving under the influence. Min was released Wednesday morning after being arrested by California Highway Patrol, the Sacramento Sheriff's Department said. It wasn't clear if he would have to appear in court.

My decision to drive last night was irresponsible. I accept full responsibility and there is no excuse for my actions, Min posted Wednesday. To my family, constituents and supporters, I am so deeply sorry. I know I need to do better. I will not let this personal failure distract from our work in California and in Washington.

A spokesperson for Min's Senate office declined to comment.

The Orange County congressional race is shaping up to be one of the most contested races for 2024 and Mins arrest quickly prompted the National Republican Congressional Committee to condemn his candidacy.

Voters will rightfully question David Mins judgement after this incident, but will California Democrats? NRCC spokesperson Ben Petersen asked in a statement.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Min was arrested around 10:50 p.m. near the Capitol, according to a police report. He was driving without headlights, then ran a red light, the report says.

Min showed signs and symptoms of alcohol intoxication, a California Highway Patrol officer noted in the report. Min was booked in the Sacramento County jail.

Many state lawmakers stay overnight in Sacramento during the week rather than returning home to their districts.

Min is vying for the competitive Congressional seat in Orange County now represented by Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, who is leaving her post to enter a race to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Min, who has secured Porter's endorsement, is the most prominent Democrat in the race. Former Assemblyman Scott Baugh, a Republican, is also running.

Min, a Harvard-educated lawyer and a former congressional aide to U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, was elected to the state Senate in 2020. He chairs the Senate's Committee on Natural Resources and Water.

Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins wouldn't say whether Min would face disciplinary action.

Like Senator Min, were disappointed in his actions, but pleased that hes taken responsibility and apologized," she said in a statement.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  You may soon be required to prove youre older than 18 to watch porn in Utah, if adult websites comply with a law that took effect Wednesday.

A new state law requiring adult websites verify the ages of their users took effect on Wednesday, making the state at least the second to enact an age verification law to shield kids from sexually explicit materials that have become increasingly accessible online.

Its part of our job as society  and maybe a subset of my job as a lawmaker  to try to protect children, state Sen. Todd Weiler, the measure's Republican sponsor, said. Im not gonna blame all of societys ills on pornography, but I dont think its helpful when a kid is forming their impressions of sex and gender to have all of this filth and lewd depictions on their mind.

It's currently illegal to show children pornography under federal law, however it's rarely enforced. The law is Utah's latest move to crack down on access to pornography and dovetails with lawmakers' other efforts to restrict how kids use the internet, including social media sites. It comes less than a year after Louisiana enacted a similar law and as additional states consider such policies as filters or age verification for adult websites.

Dr. Eleanor Gaetan of the anti-porn National Center on Sexual Exploitation said filters and age verification were complementary efforts to limit kids' access to pornography. She noted anti-porn sentiment had grown substantially in recent years due to a groundswell of parents," including ones who have testified in statehouses throughout the country and in front of the U.S. Congress.

The wave will continue because the harms are real, she said. These kids can't unsee what they see.

Though heralded by social conservatives, age verification laws have been condemned by adult websites who argue they're part of a larger anti-sex political movement. They've also garnered opposition from groups that advocate for digital privacy and free speech, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The group argued earlier this year that it's impossible to ensure websites don't retain user data, regardless of if age verification laws require they delete it.

Earlier this week, Pornhub, among the most widely viewed adult websites, blocked access to its content to protest the law. Those in Utah attempting to access the site since Monday have been greeted with a Dear User letter and accompanying video from adult film actor Cherie DeVille.

Giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, DeVille says, reading from the letter. The best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device.

The letter says Pornhub will completely disable access in Utah due to the law, unless a real solution is offered.

It's unclear if other websites will comply.

Critics, including Pornhub, argue age-verification laws can be easily circumvented with well-known tools such as VPNs that reroute requests to visit websites across public networks. They also have raised questions about enforcement, with Pornhub saying enforcement efforts drive traffic to less-known sites that don't comply with the law and have fewer safety protocols.

A year after passing an age-verification requirement, Louisiana lawmakers have renewed their efforts to get adult websites to comply with its law. A follow-up measure that would subject the sites to fines for not requiring users prove their age advanced through the state House of Representatives in April.

Measures have also been introduced in Arizona and South Carolina. Arkansas passed a similar age-verification law for adult websites that takes effect later this summer

The Utah law attempts to address privacy and internet data harvesting concerns by requiring websites not retain the ID information. It opens adult websites up to lawsuits if they don't verify the age of their users. It offers several age verification methods, including third-party age verification services and digital licenses that states are increasingly offering on mobile devices.

It builds off years of anti-porn efforts in Utah's Republican-controlled Legislature, where a majority of lawmakers are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It comes seven years after Weiler  who describes himself as the statehouse's unofficial porn czar  led the charge to make Utah the first state to declare pornography a public health crisis and two years after lawmakers passed a measure paving the way to require internet-capable devices be equipped with porn filters for children. Provisions of the law delay it from taking effect unless at least five other states pass similar measures.

Weiler likened the measure to Utah's first-in-the-nation law prohibiting kids under 18 from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. and requiring age verification for social media users. He said he understands that, realistically some kids may bypass age-verification controls. But he said he wonders why opponents' arguing enforcement concerns make internet age verification laws useless haven't raised similar concerns about drivers speeding or online gambling.

The internet was born, but it wasn't born yesterday, he said.

__

AP reporters Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, La. and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark. contributed reporting.
BERLIN (AP)  Berlin police said that two young children were seriously wounded in a knife attack Wednesday at a school in the south of Germany's capital, and a 38-year-old suspect was detained.

The girls, ages 7 and 8, were flown to a hospital. One of them had life-threatening injuries, according to a Berlin police statement.

The attack took place in the playground of the Protestant School in Berlin's Neukoelln district, principal Thorsen Knauer-Huckauf said.

The entire school community is deeply affected and shocked, he said in a statement.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner condemned what he described as an incomprehensible deed.

My thoughts in these difficult hours are with the two wounded girls, he said. I wish them a speedy and good recovery.

Wegner expressed his sympathy to the parents, teachers and fellow pupils of the victims, and said he was in close contact with police about the attack.

The head of Berlin's state education department said authorities don't have any indication that there was a political or religious motive behind the attack.

Police declined to immediately provide further details about he suspect, saying only that he would be interviewed as part of a homicide investigation.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the age of the detained suspect is 38, not 39, after police corrected their information.
BERLIN (AP)  Police across Europe arrested dozens of people, raided homes and seized millions of euros in assets on Wednesday, in a coordinated crackdown on Italys ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, one of the worlds most powerful, extensive and wealthy drug-trafficking groups.

The operation, coordinated by European Union judicial cooperation agency Eurojust, aimed to dismantle a network that includes the n'drangheta, Colombian drug producers and paramilitary groups, and moves tons of cocaine to Europe and Australia each year.

The investigation uncovered how these networks used ports in Ecuador, Panama and Brazil to ship the Colombian drugs to northern European ports while also dealing in weapons. The drug proceeds were then laundered through restaurants, ice cream shops and car washes, and money sent back to Colombian drug producers via a Chinese wire transfer service, according to Italian officials and a Carabinieri press release.

With todays coordinated measures across Europe, law enforcement authorities have dealt a serious blow to the ndrangheta, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said. Todays raids are one of the largest operations to date in the fight against Italian organized crime.

In Italy, Carabinieri police backed by helicopters said arrest warrants were served on 108 people, who were accused of mafia association; possession, production, and trafficking of drugs and weapons; money laundering; and other crimes.

One of the key figures in the network was a former powerful boss, Rocco Morabito, who was arrested in 2021 in Brazil after nearly 20 years as a fugitive. The investigation also confirmed the enduring strength of a handful of well-known ndrangheta clans that operate in the Calabrian town of San Luca.

In Germany, more than 1,000 officers searched dozens of homes, offices and stores in the states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia, prosecutors said in a joint statement. Over 30 suspects who had outstanding warrants were arrested.

In addition to Italy and Germany, arrest warrants were also served in Belgium, France, Portugal, Romania and Spain, while raids were also conducted in Slovenia.

Portugals Judiciary Police said its officers had arrested a 62-year-old Italian man on charges of criminal association, money laundering, and drug trafficking as part of the European operation, which was dubbed Eureka. They also seized about half a million euros and various documents, among other confiscated items.

European authorities have been waging a campaign against the Calabria-based ndrangheta in recent years, as the group has eclipsed the Sicilian Mafia as the key mover of tens of billion euros in cocaine in recent decades moving from South America to Europe.

At a press conference in the Calabrian capital Reggio Calabria, officials estimated the operation had resulted in the seizure of 23 tons of cocaine over years of investigation, which deprived the ndrangheta of some 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in drug revenue. In addition, they announced that assets worth 25 million euros were seized.

Margaritis Schinas, vice president of the EU's executive commission, said the operation delivered a lightning strike, as was the name of the operation, against the ndrangheta organized crime syndicate ... with over 100 arrests.

In Germany, the main focus of the operation was in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, with around 500 officers deployed in each state. In North Rhine-Westphalia, 51 houses, apartments, offices and business premises were searched and 15 suspects were arrested.

The ndrangheta has been firmly established in Germany since the 1970s. It is considered the strongest of the Italian organized crime groups in the country, and is mainly focused on international narcotics trafficking, according to the German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation.
As a small business owner, its crucial to understand the different types of taxes that apply to your business.

The most common types of taxes that small businesses are responsible for include income tax, self-employment tax, sales tax, and employment taxes. Each tax type has its own rules and regulations, so its important to do your research and understand the specific requirements for your business.

Todays feature of Lets Talk offers valuable expert insights on how small businesses can plan ahead for tax season, taking into account the different types of taxes that they may be responsible for.

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Nathan Reichstein, Chairman of the Business Advisory Committee, Moore Australia

Nathan Reichstein, Chairman of the Business Advisory Committee, Moore Australia

For small businesses to stay on top of their tax, here are some simple things to consider:

Understand your tax registrations and the deadlines for filing and payment of your tax returns and business activity statements (BAS). The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has been ramping up their debt collection activities over the last six months and even if you fall behind, its important to maintain open communication with the ATO and enter into payment plans as and when necessary.

With the Federal Budget just around the corner, keep an eye out on what changes the government will be making that may have an impact on your business. A few concessions (e.g., full write-off of depreciating assets which the Government introduced during COVID-19) are now about to end and factor these sorts of things into your year-end planning.

The ATO routinely release alerts through their small business newsroom. This is a great service where small businesses can get information (email alerts, webinars etc.) directly from the ATO in relation to issues that directly impact them.

There is no substitute to experience and, in the lead up to year end, it would be prudent to speak to a tax and business advisor in relation to all the changes that may materially impact your business and help you take advantage of any concessions in place.

Nicole Kelly, Chief of Tax Confidence and Founder of TaxTank

Nicole Kelly, Chief of Tax Confidence and Founder of TaxTank

For sole traders, entrepreneurs, property owners, and taxpayers juggling both a day job and a side hustle, tax time can be daunting. Business apps provide a P&L, however sole traders report earnings in their individual tax return, so what they really need to know is how much tax they will pay taking into consideration all other incomes from wages, properties, trading etc. We need to debunk the myth that there is little that taxpayers can do to control or even gain visibility into their taxes until its time to do their quarterly BAS or end of financial year tax returns. One of the most important things people can do is change this mindset.

The ATO is renowned for their various crackdowns, including most recently on property owners and people working from home, so its important taxpayers not only gain control but also the confidence theyre getting it right and protecting themselves from costly audit adjustments. By leveraging the latest cloud based software purpose built for individuals, taxpayers can gain insights into their tax and financial situations that enable them to make better decisions throughout the year, rather than just trying to survive the annual tax return process. The business sector has had this advantage for years, but now its time for individuals, mortgage owners, investors, sole traders and side hustlers to benefit from the same level of control and visibility to both avoid surprises and take the hassle out of tax.

Rolf Howard, Managing Partner, Owen Hodge Lawyers

There are several temporary tax depreciation incentives in place which are designed to simplify the depreciation process for small businesses which could go a long way to minimising the tax you pay this year.

Eligible small businesses with an aggregated income of less than $10 million from 1 July 2026 and $2 million for previous years, can access temporary full expensing which allows you to immediately deduct an asset in the year it is first used or installed, utilise an instant asset write-off for assets that cost less than the relevant threshold, and leverage a general small business pool which simplifies the depreciation deduction.

Its important to talk to your accountant and solicitor to make sure youre accessing the right incentives while remaining compliant to the relevant tax regulation.

Steven Nicholson, Co-Founder and CEO, Retinue Accounting

Running a small business is hard enough without having to understand complex tax legislation. These key points will help your business stay compliant and minimise the cost of tax:

Know the deadline dates by which your Business Activity Statements, Fringe Benefits Tax return, and annual company tax return must be submitted. Ensure your cash flow forecasts allow for payments to be made by these dates. Using a tax agent to prepare and file these returns gives you an extra month to lodge and pay. Fines and interest are incurrent for late submission. File on time, even if you cannot afford to pay, you can then call the ATO and arrange a payment plan. Your accountant may be able to get any late lodgement fines waived by calling the ATO. Be aware of the limits above which your business must register for certain taxes, such as GST and state payroll taxes. Keep your receipts for expenses and logbooks for company vehicles to maximise your deductions and minimise your tax expense for the year.

A good accountant should support your business throughout the year, not just at tax time, allowing you to focus on what is important.

Andrew Ward, CRO, Banjo Loans

For SME owners, understanding your taxation obligations is critical for your success. Doing so will ensure you pay the appropriate amount of tax, and assist you in achieving your business goals. There are numerous SME taxes to understand, and accordingly you may need the assistance of an advisor such as an accountant.

Possessing a good understanding of taxation obligations will assist with:

Financiers  who will be interested in the status of your taxation affairs. They will review whether you are up to date on obligations such as PAYG, Company Tax, GST, and Superannuation Guarantee payments. Being able to articulate your tax situation clearly will maximise your chances of obtaining business finance;

Business continuity  being up to date, or having mutually agreed payment arrangements with the ATO will minimise any unexpected issues including ATO enforcement actions;

Minimising penalties from the ATO  in respect to late lodgement of returns, including interest charges which can be substantial;

Ensuring that your taxation obligations are up to date  to minimise any potential for personal liability as a Director.

Possessing taxation knowledge and ensuring your affairs are in order will reduce the likelihood of expensive audits, reducing unnecessary costs, and ensuring your time can be spent on more important issues such as business growth.

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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP)  The presidents of Iran and Syria signed Wednesday a series of long-term cooperation agreements on oil and other sectors to bolster economic ties between the two allies.

Iran's Ebrahim Raisi, leading a large economic and political delegation, met with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, after landing in the war-torn country for a two-day visit  an Iranian president's first visit to Damascus since 2010.

Tehran has been a main backer of Assad's government since a 2011 uprising turned into full-blown civil war and has played an instrumental role in turning the tide of the conflict in his favor.

Iran has sent scores of military advisers and thousands of Iran-backed fighters from around the Middle East to Syria to fight on Assad's side. Tehran has also been an economic lifeline for Assad, sending fuel and credit lines worth billions of dollars.

Syrian government forces have regained control of large parts of the country in recent years, with the help of its two main allies  Russia and Iran.

With Arab governments that once advocated Assad's downfall now slowly making amends with Damascus, Iran appears to be hoping to reap the rewards for its decades-long support of the Syrian president with investment and economic opportunities to help alleviate its own ailing economy.

Syrian state media said Raisi and Assad signed agreements and memorandums of understanding related to several sectors, including oil, agriculture, railways and free trade zones.

Iran's state-owned railway company has long aspired to expand its network through neighboring Iraq and Syria, linking it to the Syrian port of Lattakia on the Mediterranean Sea to boost trade. Syria's opposition and Tehran critics see this as another Iran attempt at growing its political influence.

The deal are important also for Syria, whose economy has hit an all-time low over the past decade, with spiraling inflation, a currency plunge and rampant power cuts.

In an interview with pan-Arab television channel Al-Mayadeen ahead of his visit, Raisi called for reconstruction efforts and for Syrian refugees who fled the country's war to return home.

Syrias government and people have gone through great hardship," Syrian state media quoted Raisi as telling Assad during their meeting. "Today, we can now say that you have overcome all these problems and were victorious, despite the threats and sanctions imposed against you.

Raisi was also to visit the Sayida Zeinab and Sayida Ruqayya shrines, both holy sites in Shiite Islam, as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument dedicated to Syrian soldiers killed in battle.

The last Iranian president to visit Syria was President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2010.

Raisi's visit comes as some Arab countries, including Egypt and regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, have been opening up to Assad and their foreign ministers have visited Damascus in recent weeks. Syrias foreign minister also visited the Saudi capital of Riyadh in April, the first such visit since the two countries cut relations in 2012.

In March, Iran and Saudi Arabia, a main backer of Syrian opposition fighters, reached an agreement, brokered by China, to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions.

The Iran-Saudi reconciliation is likely to have positive effects on countries where the two fought proxy wars, including Syria.

Syria was widely shunned by Arab governments over Assads brutal crackdown on protesters. The breakdown in relations culminated with Syria being ousted from the Arab League in 2011. Syria's civil war has since killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country's pre-war population of 23 million.

America and its allies failed on all fronts against the resistance, and could not achieve any of their goals, Irans new ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, told Irans state news agency on Tuesday.

Like Syria, Iran is under Western sanctions, which alongside decades of mismanagement, has plunged its national currency to new lows. Months of anti-government protests failed to unseat the ruling clerics and talks on Tehran's return to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which lifted sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Irans nuclear program, have long become stalemated.

In 2015, when the nuclear deal was signed, Irans currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar. In February, it hit a record low of 600,000 for $1.

A week before the Iranian president's visit to Damascus, Iran's minister of road and urban development, Mehrdad Bazrpash, met with Assad in the Syrian capital, where he delivered a message from Raisi supporting the expansion of ties, Irans state IRNA news agency said.

Irans military presence in Syria been a major concern for Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment along its northern border. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years  but rarely acknowledges them.

Since the beginning of 2023, Syrian officials have attributed a dozen strikes on Syrian territory to Israel, the latest of which came early on Tuesday and put the international airport of the northern city of Aleppo out of service.

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Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
Biden plan aimsto stem bordermigration as COVID restrictions end

With COVID-19 immigration restrictions set to expire, the Biden administration announced measures meant to stop migrants from illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, the AP reported.

The plan cracks down on many of those who do come and creates new pathways meant to offer an alternative to the dangerous journey.

The effort includes opening processing centers outside the United States for people fleeing violence and poverty to apply to fly in legally and settle in the United States, Spain or Canada.

The first processing centers will open in Guatemala and Colombia, with others expected to follow.

The administration also plans to swiftly screen migrants seeking asylum at the border itself, quickly deport those deemed as not being qualified, and penalize people who cross illegally into the U.S. or illegally through another country on their way to the U.S. border.

But it is unclear whether the measures will do much to slow the tide of migrants fleeing countries marred by political and economic strife.

Further increasing the pressure is the looming end of public health rules instituted amid the pandemic that allowed for quickly expelling many migrants and set to expire on May 11.

To read the full AP story, visit: https://bit.ly/apusmexicoborder

Paraguays long-ruling Colorado Party gains easy election win

Paraguayans voted overwhelmingly to keep the long-ruling conservative Colorado Party in power for five more years on Sunday, the AP reported.

This victory brought a Colorado presidential candidate to power and gave it a majority in both houses of Congress.

Santiago Pena, a 44-year-old economist from the conservative Colorado Party, had 43% of the votes in a preliminary count from Sundays election, with nearly all voting places reporting.

The party also had a strong showing in other races, winning 15 of the 17 governorships up for election and getting majorities in both the Senate and the lower house.

A coalition of opposition parties was optimistic it was going to be able to win votes due to widespread unhappiness over high levels of corruption and failures in the health and education systems, which took center stage during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, a significant number of non-Colorado voters instead supported Paraguayo Cubas, a right-wing populist outsider who received 23% of the vote with a strong anti-establishment message, a larger share than had been expected.

To read the full AP story, visit: https://bit.ly/apparaguaypresident

Mexicos ruling party sweeps mine reform, other bills to law

Mexicos Senate has approved a wide-ranging reform of laws governing the mining industry, including a requirement that companies pay 5% of profits to local communities.

The mining bill was among 18 pieces of legislation, some controversial, that were passed in a frenzied rush late Friday and early Saturday.

The bills were approved with little or no debate, based on votes by only senators from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors Morena party and its allies.

The opposition occupied the Senates normal headquarters to protest a lack of debate, so the Morena senators and allies met in an alternative chamber.

The Senate also approved a bill mandating 10- to 15-year prison sentences for people who produce the synthetic opioid fentanyl in Mexico or who provide precursor chemicals largely imported from China. It makes drug production a separate crime, in addition to possession.

To read the full AP story, visit: https://bit.ly/apmexicominereform

Chile, Peru discuss safe passage for stranded migrants

A migration crisis at the border between Chile and Peru intensified Thursday as hundreds of people remained stranded, the AP reported. The migrants are mostly from Venezuela and are seeking to cross into Peru and continue on to their home country.

However, Peru isnt allowing them to enter because they lack documents.

While stalled at the border of the two South American countries, the migrants face the inhospitable climate that characterizes the Atacama Desert, one of the driest on the planet, with extremely hot days and intensely cold nights.

Some have improvised tents with blankets but they lack water and other basic services.

Others have found help in the nearby Chilean border complex of Chacalluta.

Political leaders, meanwhile, are discussing how to facilitate their passage through Peru at a time when migrants increasingly are being blamed for rising crime on both sides of the border.

In both Peru and Chile, lawmakers are seeking to toughen laws against undocumented migrants.

To read the full AP story, visit; https://bit.ly/apperuchileborder

Foundation prints 3D prosthetics, gives them free in Uruguay

The Uruguayan Manos de Heroes foundation designs and prints hands and arms with 3D technology for children and adults across the country, the AP reported.

Since 2020, the foundation has provided more than 100 free prostheses, most of them for families in vulnerable situations.

The prostheses can be mechanical or electronic. They are placed on the hands, forearm, elbow or shoulder, according to the needs of each person.

Designing a hand, printing it, and putting it together takes a couple of weeks.

The prostheses are free and the foundation is financed with contributions from private companies and donations.

In Europe, a prosthetic hand with much more advanced technology can cost as much as $100,000, the foundation said.

To read the full AP story, visit: https://bit.ly/apuruguayhands
From May 1-7, 2023, the world is observing Privacy Awareness Week, a global initiative to promote the significance of privacy protection.

As businesses of all sizes collect and store increasing amounts of personal data, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to be aware of their privacy rights and obligations to protect their customers personal information.

This years theme, Back to Basics  Privacy Foundations in NSW, is a reminder for SMEs to review their privacy policies and practices to ensure they are up to date and aligned with regulatory requirements. SMEs can safeguard sensitive customer data and prevent cyber threats by implementing basic privacy measures, such as encryption and access controls.

Privacy Awareness Week provides a valuable opportunity for SMEs to educate their employees and customers about privacy protection and establish trust and credibility with their stakeholders. By prioritising privacy and investing in robust data protection measures, SMEs can build a strong reputation and competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Weve gathered insights from top technology experts in various industries, including data management and cybersecurity, to provide commentary on protecting privacy for businesses.

Denham Pinder, Head of Banking and Financial Services, ANZ at Cognizant

Denham Pinder, Head of Banking and Financial Services, ANZ at Cognizant

In 2023, companies are facing increased calls to incorporate high levels of data privacy into their consumer data gathering systems. We have all heard about data-driven strategies, yet we continue to see unsecured data that is seemingly easily accessed by those with malicious intentions. Given data breaches significant impact on consumers, the need for stringent data governance processes is critical.

Key aspects of privacy, security, retention, customer access and control are just some of the considerations companies need to take into account when transforming their digital ecosystems.

For me, retention is pivotal because personal data should be kept for no longer than is necessary and for the purpose for which it was collected. The lack of enforceable policies relating to retention only increases the overall risk in the business.

Understanding this, digital transformation programs must include privacy considerations through features such as privacy by design, data minimisation and robust security measures. By proactively and continuously developing operating models that protect and value consumer data, businesses will be able to give themselves the best chance to protect themselves and their data.

Craig Bastow, Sales Director ANZ at Commvault

Craig Bastow, Sales Director ANZ at Commvault

Reflecting back on the past year, Australian businesses have become concerningly aware of the impact cyber-attack and data breach can cause to their business reputation and revenues. With the increase in security risk comes the rise of new cyber technologies, techniques and legislations as businesses seek to strengthen their institutions. However, in line with Privacy Awareness Weeks theme back to basics itsimportant businesses arent getting caught up in the hype, and remembering that strong foundational data practices are what help make businesses resilient and drive continuity.

The first step? Discover your data. According to a recent survey, 57% of CIOs arent aware of where some or all of their data is being stored or whether its being protected. With the amount of data being generated every day, data discovery is an important foundation businesses need to implement to prevent the loss or exposure of sensitive data.

Then, backup. Backups are one of the first practices we relate to data security, and should be taking place on a very regular basis within businesses, irrespective of how small or big your business is. With data being generated at unbelievable speeds, a businesss data can look very different from one week to another. Without regular backups, restored data might not resemble the current state of a business at the time of an attack.

Having modernized, scalable and flexible solutions safeguarding your data can make all the difference during a cyber-attack. Just as businesses start to get ahead of data regulations and requirements, they must get their data strategy in place, underpinned by next-gen data management capabilities, which can not only support todays business growth but can also adapt to the multitude of legislations that are coming our way in the years ahead.

Luke Power, Managing Director ANZ at Trellix

Luke Power, Managing Director ANZ at Trellix

Theres no doubt privacy is a priority  and with Privacy Awareness Week upon us its an opportune time to remind ourselves of this responsibility. We often assume that protecting privacy is someone elses job, but the truth is that each of us has a critical role to play. Whether we have access to personal information or are involved in building products that handle data, we must all safeguard it.

The key to successful privacy programs lies in empowering all employees to take responsibility for protecting data. We must all understand our basic privacy obligations and actively advocate for ethical and appropriate use of personal information. When privacy becomes a shared responsibility, and everyone is committed to upholding it, we can build a culture where data privacy is not just a compliance obligation but a core value.

This Privacy Awareness Week, lets renew our commitment to data privacy and take action to create a safer digital environment for all. By going back to the basics and instilling the importance of privacy in every aspect of our lives, we can ensure that everyones fundamental rights are respected and protected.

Andrew Black, Managing Director at ConnectID

Andrew Black, Managing Director at ConnectID

As we recognise Privacy Awareness Week, the protection of personal information is more top of mind than ever, calling for a much-needed shift in our mindset to better value privacy. For businesses, there are four key elements to consider as they embark on their journey to better privacy.

First and foremost, data minimisation is crucial. Businesses need to re-evaluate the amount of data they collect, store and manage to better understand whether it is a true necessity for their operation and compliance or if it is an unused liability.

The second element is reducing or eliminating new data silo repositories. By avoiding setting up new databases and leveraging on established systems such as banks, we reduce the number of locations that need to be protected meaning there are fewer targets for hackers to exploit.

Consent is the third consideration and a more recent trend for businesses to offer end users. To foster trust between businesses and customers, there needs to be transparency as to what the data is used for and visibility across whos responsible for protecting the information. This is becoming more possible with the adoption of CDR-like technologies.

The final aspect to consider is defining overarching rules that govern the use of the system and personal information including privacy protections, liability management, and operational processes to support fraud management and ID recovery.

In a world where our daily lives are tethered to digital services, customers need to be handed back control of their data and be given the privacy they deserve.

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Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien (front, L) welcomes Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (front, R) at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on May 3, 2023. Photo by VNA

Prime Minister Xavier Bettel of Luxembourg arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday morning, starting an official visit to Vietnam from May 3-5 at the invitation of PM Pham Minh Chinh.

After landing at the Noi Bai Airport, the Luxembourg delegation left for a trip to Ha Long Bay in northeastern Quang Ninh Province.

PM Bettel is scheduled to attend an official welcome ceremony and hold talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh on Thursday. The two PMs will witness the signing of some cooperation agreements between their countries ministries and sectors and meet with the press to inform about their talks outcomes.

Prior to the welcome ceremony, the Luxembourg leader will pay respect to late Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh and visit the monument to Vietnamese heroes and martyrs and the memorial site dedicated to President Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi.

He and PM Chinh will also visit the Temple of Literature and the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum.

In addition, PM Bettel will meet with National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and take part in some activities in Ho Chi Minh City, including a Vietnam - Luxembourg business forum and a meeting with the citys leaders.

Vietnam and Luxembourg set up diplomatic ties on November 15, 1973. As of March 2023, Luxembourg had invested US$2.6 billion in 64 projects in Vietnam, ranking third among 24 EU members and 17th among 139 countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian nation.

In 2022, bilateral trade stood at $187.1 million, rising 69% year on year. The figure included $130.14 million worth of Vietnam's exports and $56.96 million worth of imports from Luxembourg.

During PM Chinhs official visit to Luxembourg in December last year, the two sides inked a memorandum of understanding on promoting trade and business dialogue between the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, along with a cooperation deal between the Vietnam Stock Exchange and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
The legal proceedings over the div0rce of Bona Nyepudzai Ouma Mugabe, daughter of former President Robert Mugabe, and Simbarashe Mutsahuni Chikore are likely to involve complex disputes over how assets they hold individually and jointly, as Chikore has listed 21 farms, more than 25 upmarket residential properties, cash, plus companies and movable properties worth millions of US dollars.

While Bona Mugabe in her original divorce petition sees the mrriage as irretrievably broken down, Chikore thinks in his response that the couples mrriage is capable of restoration provided they get genuine counselling and family support, although he qualified this by suggesting there is interference from third parties and personal agendas.

Since Zimbabwe adopted the no-fault civil div0rce in the early 1980s, for all practical purposes if one person in a couple sees no hope of reconciliation then the div0rce goes through. The courts in recognising or organising the subsequent settlement start off with the minor children, with custody, visiting rights and the like being set according to the best interests of the children, and as they get older taking ever more account of their own wishes.

Since there can be no punishment of either partner in awarding custody or ensuring children are supported, the rules are fairly simple.

The division of income needed for the support of each child, and in many cases for the adults, also follows well-laid down precedents, with complexities like the use, or even division of income-producing assets, coming into play at this point.

While Bona Mugabe wanted the asset division issues postponed, with the div0rce, child support and custody issues sorted out first, Chikore, who is being represented by Mr Rogers Matsikidze, has drawn up a long list of properties in his counter claim, and wants this untangled so the two are not stuck together in property issues as if they are in a joint venture.

As can be common with couples where there could be a lot of assets, Chikore accuses Bona of unreasonably refusing to settle, and lots of falsehoods have been channelled insinuating that he is after her property, yet he is claiming what the couple acquired during the subsistence of their union. The property claimed is just a drop in the ocean, according to Chikore, if it is to be compared with what is certainly Ms Mugabes.

Defendant (Chikore) is not claiming even a thread thereof. Defendant contributed to acquiring the properties acquired through his savings from his former jobs as a pilot and the farming venture, read Chikores plea.

In addition, Chikore says he contributed through earnings and donations from his father-in-law for work, jobs and special assignments done on behalf of his father-in-law.

There is much input through direct and indirect contribution wherein the defendant contributed to the assets, both movable and immovable, acquired during the subsistence of his mrriage.

Bona Mugabe filed for div0rce from Chikore in March this year, on the grounds that there was a total breakdown with no prospects for restoring the union. She is seeking an order for a decree of div0rce.

The couple tied the knot on March 1, 2014, in a lavish ceremony at her fathers private home in Harares plush Borrowdale suburb. Thousands of people attended the no-expense-spared family event broadcast live by the ZBC-TV.

The wedding also drew the attention of the world after it was attended by African heads of State and government and other high level dignitaries.

According to the court papers, the parties have lost all l0ve and affection for each other and have been living apart for more than nine months. Bona Mugabe cited Mr Chikores activities outside marriage as one reason for the breakdown.

The couple have three children aged seven, five and two. Ms Mugabe is also seeking full custody of the children arguing that it was in their best interests but with Chikore granted access to them every alternate weekend, but Chikore wants the opposite. The courts will have to decide on what is best for the children.

She also seeks maintenance for the children of US$2 700 monthly per child until they attain their majority or become self-sustaining, whichever occurs first.

Ms Mugabe said during the subsistence of the mrriage, the parties jointly and individually acquired movable and immovable property but dealing with the property issues in the divorce suit would delay the grant of the divorce decree.

In his counter claim, Chikore wants all properties acquired during the subsistence of their mrriage or donated to them as a couple to be shared equally.

According to Chikore before and during the mrriage, he claims to have acquired or was given shares or owns solely or jointly, through donations and or in inheritance, the following residential properties:

Stand 287 Helensvale of 3,497ha valued at US$314 730.

Stand 288 Helensvale of 1,4207ha valued at US$305 000.

Stand 268 Helensvale of 1,3226ha valued at US$284 000.

Stand 306 Carrick Creagh of 1,8034ha valued at US$386 500.

Stand 307 Carrick Creagh of 2,5133ha valued at US$539 000.

Stand 308 Carrick Creagh of 1,3733ha valued at US$294 000.

Stand 309 Carrick Creagh of 1,6775ha valued at US$359 464

Stand 312 Carrick Creagh of 2.3311ha valued at US$499 500

Stand 313 Carrick Creagh of 2.6676ha valued at US$571 628.

Stand 347 Carrick Creagh of 1.3733ha valued at US$294 000.

Stand 348 Carrick Creagh of 0,712ha valued at US$152 571.

Stand 349 Carrick Creagh of 1.4407ha valued at US$308 721.

Stand 99 Carrick Creagh valued at US$180 000.

Stand 61 Helensvale valued at US$4 300 000.

Stand 40 Helensvale of 8,6257ha valued at US$1 848 364.29.

The remainder of Helensvale of 73.3819ha valued at US$40 000 000.

Stand 466 Carrick Creagh called Teede Land of 54,8726ha valued at US$11 758 414,29

Stand 27 Quorn Avenue valued at US$550 000.

Stand in Milton Park valued at US$330 000.

Lot 5 Helensvale of 2.4019ha valued at US$514 692.86.

The Mansion 657 Dubai has an estimated value of AED 30 million.

Chikore in his counter-claim also says he acquired or was given shares or owns solely or jointly, through donations and or in inheritance, the following twenty-one (21) farms and properties:

Rosam farm of 104.2335ha.

Smithfield Farm of 3280.5898ha.

Gushungo Estate/remainder of Foyle 1200ha.

Iron Mask farm 207,8205ha.

Cressy Dale 945,037ha.

Cressy Dale Lot Two 184,534ha.

Tankantara 659,98ha.

John OGroats 669,5ha.

Lot 1 Swan dale 155,482ha.

Lot 2 Swan dale 101,84ha.

Swandale 106,361ha.

Clifford 1426ha

Vusumuzi Banket farm 3182ha

Teviotdale Kaseplan farm 310,6189ha.

 Remainder of Teviotdale 186,46ha.

Buckland Estate 280ha.

Yarrow Dale Farm 2516,3358ha.

Lemon Pool 102,5766ha.

Lot B of Greater B 404,6744ha.

Benissa Farming Company 1248,8033ha.

Surtic 6385,3470ha.

Chikore further claims that before and during the marriage he acquired or was given shares or owns solely or jointly, through donations and or in inheritance, a Rolls Royce car with a value of AED 2 900 000.

He then lists immovable properties which he says are owned jointly with the shareholding registered in both names:

Stand 152 Lunar Road of 12.0748ha valued at US$8.5 million.

Stand Number 153 Lunar Road of 12,509ha valued at US$5.1 million.

Stand 1820 Chishawasha valued at US$50 000.

Stand 1837 Chishawasha valued at US$87 000.

Mwenewazvo/Sigaro farm of 873 hectares plus cash of US$760 000 in a bag removed by Ms Mugabe from their residence. In addition, the sum of US$129 000 that Chikore says he gave to Ms Mugabe for farm sales.

The parties also acquired the following vehicles jointly:

Range Rover Autobiography $140 000

Nissan NP300 AES 7205 $10 000

Nissan NP300 AES 7177 $10 000

NP300 AES 7203 $10 000

Nissan El Grand AFM 8548 $7000

Dodge Nitro ADI 6535 $7000

Toyota Landcruiser AFM 8549 $27 000

Range Rover Sport AEF 5922 (accident damaged) $30 000

Range Rover Sport AEC 6243 (2009) $10 000

Toyota Landcruiser AFM8550 $25 000

Mercedes S500 AEN 0355 $12 000

Mercedes S430 ADV7053 $8000

Bentley 101 (non-runner) $15 000

Mercedes GL 320 (non-runner) $7000

Yamaha motorbike $6500

Mercedes GL550 Dubai $13 000

Also on the near endless list is the farming equipment and machinery worth millions of United States dollars.

 Herald

Breaking News via Email
A weird unwritten pact here says: What happens in Mahalape stays in Mahalape.

Whoever snitches about what goes on here is labelled a sell-out and therefore on countless occasions, residents have looked the other way as criminals go about their business.

Mahalape, which is sandwiched by Mutares high-density suburbs of Sakubva, Chikanga and Hobhouse; offers the lowest rentals in Mutare the city  an average of USD10 per month for a room.

Due to this, thousands of people call the pole and dagga, wood and zinc sheets, as well as plastic and wood structures their homes.

Christened Bodyslam, the settlement also allegedly harbours criminals and undocumented nationals, including those from neighbouring Mozambique.

Shebeens are also dotted across Mahalape.

During a recent visit to Mahalape, The Manica Post stumbled upon Ms Shylet Godis heart-rending story.

Her eight-year-old daughter was allegedly rpd by two men last year.

The suspects are still at large despite the fact that they stay in the same area.

Ms Godi says she did not make a police report due to fear of being labelled a liar or a sell-out.

I honestly do not understand why they did not hire the services of x workers; we have a lot of those here. Instead, they rpd my child and destroyed her future and on top of that, people have started labelling me a liar, even though it was very visible that my daughter had been xully assaulted.

My daughter was coming from school when some men abducted her. She said as she was on her way home, she was shoved into a Honda Fit and they sped off with her. There were two men and one woman. She was drugged, rpd and indecently assaulted.

After that they kicked her out and when she came home she told us what had happened. We almost made a police report but decided not to after the policeman at the station told us to come back the following day. Besides, the men had already disappeared, said Ms Godi.

In an interview, another resident, Mr Kudzanai Jongwe said many crimes are going unreported in the area.

I have been renting in Mahalape for some years now and many crimes go unreported. A lot of things happen and no one cares. In fact, this is the perfect hide-out and we have had criminals come to hide here when they are on the polices wanted list, said Mr Jongwe.

He said undocumented Mozambicans also rent rooms in Mahalape and conduct their business in the city.

Mozambicans smuggle their shoes into the country and sell them from their rented rooms here but no one even cares because here in Mahalape we are one people and we do not rat out others, he said.

Another resident, Ms Betty Maisiri said Mahalape comes to life at night as ladies of the night conduct their business from the settlements various shebeens.

Chikanga residents have complained about the noise that emanates from the Mahalape shebeens all night long, she said.

One of the areas leaders, Ms Viola Munakami said x work and shebeens are now a nuisance that needs to be done away with as they are promoting drug abuse and thievery.

It is really painful that our children are turning to pr0stitution and abusing drugs. The plague of x work is haunting us. It is as if all x workers are now renting rooms in this area. The area has been turned into a haven for x work and crime, said Munakami.

In a recent interview, Mutare City Councils Acting Town Clerk, Mr Blessing Chafesuka said the local authority hopes that a solution to the citys informal settlements will soon be found.

 Manica Post

Breaking News via Email
Yves here. It is frustrating to see an article give a good statement of a problem and then not understand what a solution would entail. The authorities in the US punted on the idea of living wills, which was having the major banks draw up how they would be wound up in a crisis. They were given some wet noodle lashing and then the idea disappeared from the radar (I was paying reasonably good attention back in those days and the mechanism by which this change happened seems to have been executed in a dark alley).

The problem with this idea is right there, in the headline: globally resolvable. That is a legal and regulatory impossibility. The US and UK, and following their lead, bank regulators all around the world, have allowed a system to develop whereby banks operate across borders in a freewheeling manner, but when they are put down, it is a nation-by-nation process, subject to national bankruptcy laws. Recall the Lehman bankruptcy filing was in New York, and there was a big legal jurisdictional row over the effort to unwind the large London operations in the UK.

Lehman was a securities and derivatives firm, not a bank. The fine points of resolution are outside my ken, in no small measure because officials move and earth not to have it happen, witness the shotgun marriage of Credit Suisse and UBS and the heavily subsidized acquisition of First Republic by JP Morgan. So its not as if outsiders have much chance to study resolutions. But a big international bank that has deposit-taking operations in foreign countries are likely to have them set up at theoretically independent subsidiaries with the various required national licenses and limits on their ability to upstream funds to the holding company. Canadian bank TD Bank has a US bank that is the eight largest here and I assume it operates more or less in that manner.

Without going into overmuch detail, the problem is not foreign banks serving retail customers. It is banks operating internationally. Consider the long established behavior of banks (and former investment banks) trading Treasuries. Any TBTF bank and some also rans have Treasury trading operation in the major time zones: UK/Europe, Asia, New York. The pass the book from one dealing center to another as daylight moves across the globe. Its remarkably slipshod to let such large positions leave a regulated entity in one country and move into another, but thats become accepted.1

A second example is that big banks have multinational customers that expect them to offer services in multiple jurisdictions. That will usually include cash management and multi-currency accounts.

That activity makes a bank unresolvable if it happens at any scale. As we wrote in 2010:

GTS is a big cash management/information service. It is also a bread and butter earner for Citi. Per the Journal: Otis Otih, the treasurer of candy maker Mars Inc., uses GTS to handle most payments to employees and vendors of Mars operations in 68 countries. Citibank is the only truly, truly global company for us  I dont see any alternative, he says. As an example of what the unit allows multinationals to do, an Asian subsidiary of a European company can deposit funds with Citigroup locally and the money will instantly show up on the ledger of the parent a continent away. The system makes it easier for corporate treasurers to manage their finances, and many corporate and government clients outsource a wide range of other finance work to GTS. Executives told officials with the Treasury Department and the Fed that GTSs technology and presence in more than 100 countries made it too dangerous for the U.S. to let Citigroup collapse. The Treasury gave the bank a second big helping of $20 billion just six weeks after an initial $25 billion infusion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, partly in recognition of GTSs importance to the financial system, according to government and company officials. While Citigroup is primarily known for its retail banking and credit-card businesses, the GTS unit is increasingly integral to the parent companys functioning. Clients that move funds through GTS leave a lot of cash on deposit at the unit, which funnels the money to other parts of Citigroup for lending or other uses. GTSs deposit-gathering muscle has grown more important since the financial crisis began, now providing about 40% of Citigroups $800 billion of deposits. Yves here. GTS is a big piece of what makes Citi a difficult to disarm bomb. One of the swords of Damocles that the big bank had over the officialdom is that, prior to the crisis, it had $500 billion of uninsured foreign deposits. If Citi looked wobbly, sensible depositors would withdraw funds, and that could quickly morph into a run. Moreover, the any other international bank with meaningful cross border deposits could come under scrutiny (although it is odd more of this has not happened in the wake of the implosion of Iceland, which left a number of UK borrowers high and dry until concerted pressure on Iceland produced some restitution).

The wee problem is this sort of service is likely not hugely important profit-wise to banks. But its VERY stick. Its perceived as extremely important to corporate Treasurers and switching costs would be high. And having your bank tied to you via this type of product creates oodles of opportunities for upselling.

So to have resolvable banks, they need to be either:

National only (or mainly), which does not at all work for multinational or even somewhat international companies, and it also makes securities dealing across borders monstrously cumbersome. Bye bye international capital flows! Smallish. But big companies dont like small bank, and trading/asset management business have high barriers to entry and very large economies of scale. You need to have a full complement of products in at least all the major time zones, with the needed IT, back office, and sales/customer support staff. So you have a very high required level of operations just to be a player. The economies of scale result from greater efficiency of running large (v. not so large) volumes over the same cost base, and the information advantage of seeing more trades from more customers Subject to an international resolution regime. Good luck with that.

Weve said for many years that banks enjoy more government support than any nominally private sector business. They cannot be regarded as private companies. They are the worlds biggest welfare queens.

Since its contrary to prevailing ideology to nationalize banks if they are too big and/or complicated to wind up, the next best approximation is to regulate them like utilities. But the supposed elites are too deferential to business executives, and also confuse specialized skills with talent. In this arena, regulators are particularly afraid of trying to mind trading operations.

But the fact that the recent crop of US bank tsuris were due to Banking 101 failures, as in asset/liability management and ignoring liquidity risks, says bank regulators are even weaker than they were in the runup to the 2008 crisis. Not a happy finding.

By Aymo Brunetti, Professor, Department of Economics University of Bern. Originally published at VoxEU

The subsidised emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS brings the current global too big to fail regime into question. This column argues that an in-depth analysis of the global resolution framework by both regulators and academics is needed. The main question is whether a resolution of a global systemically important bank is indeed feasible in plausible scenarios. An affirmation would clearly be the best possible result of this analysis. However, if such a resolution proves not to be realistic, then there should be no hesitation to drastically reduce the global risks of such institutions via regulation of their business models.

Sunday, 19 March 2023 was a historic day for Swiss economic policy  and not in a positive sense. It was the day Swiss authorities announced a subsidised shotgun marriage between the two globally systemic Swiss banks. Credit Suisse had suffered a dramatic loss in confidence in its business model that triggered a spectacular bank run, which was ultimately resolved by a de facto takeover by UBS. This event is not only relevant for Switzerland but for the entire regulatory framework of global financial markets. It puts a huge question mark on whether global too big to fail (TBTF) provisions for such cases will ever work as planned. Instead of a resolution according to the gone concern framework promoted internationally by the Financial Stability Board (FSB 2021), the Credit Suisse case was handled as if we were back in 2008. The government stepped in and used taxpayer money to avoid a potentially catastrophic breakdown of an obviously still too big to fail institution. And all international observers applauded this swift action that clearly went against the provisions painstakingly designed, implemented, and internationally coordinated in the past decade.

Swiss authorities will certainly hurry to produce an in-depth analysis of the case and its regulatory consequences. The case, however, goes far beyond this and deserves a thorough international inquiry as it is relevant for the regulation in all financial centres. In my view, the follow-up to the Credit Suisse case must now finally and unequivocally achieve the goal declared in 2008: there must be no company that is too big to fail! And ultimately there are only the approaches mentioned in the title of this column. Either a global resolution without state support is possible in plausible crisis scenarios, or the big banks must become smaller; the quotation marks mean less risky, in the sense that it may no longer be allowed to do business that endangers global financial stability.

Resolvability Remains the Silver Bullet

The concept that a business idea can fail and thus a company can go bankrupt is one of the fundamentals of a functioning market economy. If this possibility does not exist, it leads to seriously distorted incentives and to dysfunction. Large banks that are too big to fail are therefore unacceptable in a market economy, and correspondingly intensive efforts were made to find a solution after the Global Crisis. The goal of global regulatory efforts became clear very quickly: a large bank must become resolvable and thus lose its too big to fail status. This means that in the event of a crisis, the authorities must be able to order a restructuring or an orderly bankruptcy. If this succeeds, it is clearly superior to all other regulatory approaches. Indeed, any alternative means regulating the banks business activities, which has the disadvantage of any planning approach. Not only would the authorities have to know the existing businesses and their risks and regulate them, but they would also have to continuously assess any innovation and re-regulate accordingly. In view of these bureaucratic challenges, it is much more effective to leave the big banks their entrepreneurial freedom on the condition that they can be wound up at any time.

This approach remains the silver bullet of big bank regulation and has guided international too big to fail regulatory efforts over the past decade. This was also the case in Switzerland where reports of two expert groups that included regulators, academics, and private sector representatives provided the blueprint for the current regulation (Swiss TBTF Commission 2010, Swiss Strategy Commission 2014). Based on these requirements, the big banks rebuilt their organisation at great expense so that the systemically important parts could be spun off in the event of a crisis. At the same time, bail-in capital and international agreements were to ensure that the rest of the bank could be restructured or wound up in an orderly manner.

Urgent Feasibility Analysis

The recent decision by the Swiss authorities not to wind down Credit Suisse according to this procedure now raises fundamental questions. Did they simply find and implement a less far-reaching alternative here, or would proceeding according to plan not have worked, or triggered a severe global financial crisis? Was a global resolution of Credit Suisse feasible, and if not, why not? These questions are of fundamental importance not only for Swiss financial market policy, but also for international ones, since too big to fail regulation works according to these rules in all locations of global systemically important banks. Switzerland can and should undertake this analysis for itself as soon as possible but can also press with some legitimacy for a rapid and in-depth international evaluation of the event and its consequences; this is of interest to all major financial centres.

This in-depth analysis should cover the specific case of the demise of Credit Suisse in spring 2023, but also think through alternative plausible crisis scenarios. It can lead to three conceivable outcomes:

A global resolution would be possible and defensible with acceptable risks. A global resolution would be too risky today because there are still substantial gaps in the concept and/or a bankruptcy of a major bank in clearly identifiable businesses would trigger massive turbulence. A global resolution is fundamentally not feasible under plausible scenarios.

Only based on this analysis  which should be available as soon as possible in view of the urgency of the problem and the political pressure  will it then be advisable to adjust too big to fail regulation.

Of course, ideal would be to arrive at result 1, i.e. that resolution according to plan is possible. The conclusion would then be that the fears of the authorities in the case of Credit Suisse were exaggerated and that  if necessary, with a few cosmetic adjustments in the international agreements  in the future a major bank can be confidently sent into forced restructuring or bankruptcy in the event of a crisis. Unfortunately, based on the current state of knowledge, this outcome is rather unlikely. One would have to be very certain and have a consensus on this within the Financial Stability Board to come to the conclusion that no regulatory adjustments are needed.

In my assessment, the most likely outcome is 2: global resolution is not fundamentally impossible, but it will take some and substantial adjustments before this concept really works. It seems clear that a number of the reforms needed to achieve this would only be possible in an international context involving all relevant financial centres. Accordingly, it is likely to take a long time. Individual countries that are especially affected, such as Switzerland, should, therefore, seriously consider taking earlier actions such as significantly higher capital requirements for transactions that endanger global resolvability.

It cannot be ruled out that the conclusion 3 will be reached, i.e. that global resolution is fundamentally not possible and even reforms cannot save the system. This would be a very far-reaching finding, which would also have to lead to a fundamental realignment of big bank regulation internationally. From the perspective of Switzerland, which is particularly exposed, this would mean that the too big to fail problem could only be solved by a drastic downsizing of UBSs global systemically important activities. In fact, Switzerland could probably no longer be the host country of such a bank. Of course, it is good for a country with a sizeable financial centre if a major global bank is based here. But that is only on the condition that its business model can fail, just like any that of any other company. If that is not the case, then a small country especially should not hesitate to accept the withdrawal of the headquarters of such a bank; the potential costs of a failure are far too great. There should be no industrial policy style subsidies in favour of large banks.

Conclusion

Overall, it is important not to hastily discard the too big to fail concept of global resolutions of large banks in view of the recent experience. Considerable efforts have been made by the banks and the authorities in recent years to make this possible. Resolvability remains the most efficient way to tackle the problem of the implicit too big to fail subsidy for big banks. However, if the analysis concludes that the concept cannot be implemented even with additional regulatory efforts, then economic policy must aim at making the banks smaller and/or globally less risky, even with far-reaching interventions. This is especially the case for a small country with a large financial centre. Given the internationally record-breaking size of Switzerlands largest bank in relation to GDP, the country simply cannot afford an UBS with a state guarantee. Larger countries might have the fiscal means to do this but subsidising global banks is an especially inefficient and unfair policy.

See original post for references

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1 I would assume they are still treated as held by a single depositary in the US while this is happeningbut having the economic reality diverge so greatly from the legal treatment opens big cans of worms. Regulators noted with some shock that the ways banks operated often had perilous little relationship to legal structures and who theoretically owned the activity, but they did nothing to clean that up.
Yves here. Im not sure what to make of this article. Its not so much that it seems overtly wrong but wrong by virtue of a lot of omission, particularly of the elephant in the room: What do you mean by persuasion?

In the US, what is often mischaracterized persuasion are efforts to change views. The issue is how the interlocutor handles resistance. With our rise in income stratification, theres been an increase in using domination rather than reasoning, which amounts to coercion to get people to accede or shut up, rather than affecting their existing beliefs. A widespread tactic is invocation of authority: pretending to be an expert or citing one, whether or not they actually are well informed in the topic at hand or have a big bias.

For instance, I was surprised that the recommendations below didnt start by calling for listening to what the other person had to say, as in not just giving them the opportunity to make their case but also giving it bona fide consideration, in particular framing your argument to acknowledge the issues they voice (even better if you show engagement by playing key phrases or ideas).

Another key part is being polite without being subservient. Beautiful manners are actually a subtle form of domination. They show a superb mastery of the most elite forms of behavior (like knowing the proper forms of address to various levels of government officials) and being so at ease with it that its second nature. The other way that superb manners are manipulative is that old-school politeness makes a big point of putting the other person at ease: getting their coat, opening doors, fussing over them, bantering to as to smooth over the potential awkwardness of initial meetings.

I am very lacking in that category. I am excitable and speak quickly and thus often interrupt people by mistaking their pauses as a conclusion and wind up stepping on them conversationally, which is just plain rude. I also operate on the assumption that my needs wont be met, so when I detect signs of being ignored when I need something to happen (like being in a wheelchair in eyeshot of airline gate personnel when I should be preboarded and if Im not, Ill have to do a lot of standing during the boarding process which makes my knee swell up), I get aggressive very quickly (I get loud). Being habituated to being aggressive in new situations (travel) in my case predisposes me towards undue vigilance generally.1

So even with being aware of deficiencies in this area, articles like this dont give me helpful ideas.

Having said that, one factor may be a widespread absence of modeling in the Anglosphere. Reader hk yesterday noted, on a mention by reader irrational of an interview of former Austrian foreign minister Katrin Kneissl:

The most memorable thing she mentioned was that the keys to successful diplomacy are good manners, attentiveness, and empathy. Something sorely lacking in modern day Western elites.

A missing key to the piece below is that in many case, diplomacy is a precondition to effective communication. And anyone who has ever read a book on negotiations has picked up rule one: find areas of agreement, even if small, to build trust and momentum.

By Colin Marshall, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Washington. Originally published at The Conversation

The 2024 presidential election is still a year and a half away, but it can feel much closer: President Joe Biden has made his reelection bid official, presumed candidates are giving out-of-state speeches, pundits are already weighing in on nomination hopefuls, and social media is, as ever, a mess of people trying to persuade strangers to back their favorite. All for good reason: Even a little political persuasion in the next year could change the course of history.

Im a philosopher who studies and teaches the ethics of persuasion. My students are eager to find ways to persuade their friends, family and neighbors about political issues such as climate change and abortion. Moreover, many of them want to persuade with integrity: They want to engage the people theyre talking with respectfully, instead of using the manipulative tricks they regularly see in politics and marketing. But what is respectful persuasion, and what distinguishes it from disrespectful manipulation?

Theres no simple formula for respectful persuasion. However, some philosophers see crucial hints in the work of 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant, whose theory of respect has guided many ethicists and policymakers for the past two centuries.

Drawing on Kants work, and that of other philosophers inspired by him, I think we can isolate three key components of respectful persuasion. This isnt just an academic exercise. My students and I have found that these factors increase the chances of deep, meaningful conversation.

1. Giving Reasons

Broadly speaking, reasons are considerations that rationally support some belief or action, including both empirical evidence and abstract arguments. For example, astronauts pictures of a round Earth rationally support the belief that the Earth is round. When we sincerely give someone reasons, we show respect for their rationality: their ability to recognize good reasons.

By contrast, a hallmark of manipulation is bypassing rationality, such as repeatedly exposing people to false statements to make them appear true  something that psychologists call the illusory truth effect.

Manipulation can be effective, but psychologists have found that persuasion using reasons is more durable than nonrational persuasion such as repetition-based tricks. For example, someone who comes to believe in climate change based on the scientific evidence probably will not be as easily swayed later on by repeated exposure to climate skepticism. The rational support that good reasons provide for a belief can make that belief more stable.

2. Being Open to Learning

Giving reasons is not difficult by itself. The second component of respectful persuasion, however, is much more challenging: being open to receiving the other sides reasons  a form of intellectual humility. This is especially hard for persuaders, since they have to give up some of the time they would have used to make their case.

Kant expressed this core idea nicely. Even someone encountering a person whose opinion seems obviously wrong, Kant wrote, has a duty  to suppose that his judgment must yet contain some truth and to seek this out. This isnt merely a suggestion to listen to people one wants to persuade. Instead, respect demands actively seeking out truth in what the other person says.

In fact, some studies suggest that intellectual humility makes people better able to evaluate the strength of arguments. This means that intellectually humble people may be more likely to recognize that a persuaders arguments are actually better than their own, and have to reconsider their views  which can pose a real risk to someones self-esteem.

But being open to other peoples reasons also increases the chance of their being open to yours  a form of reciprocity in which you take turns learning from each other. Decades of psychological research have shown that, especially in two-person exchanges, people value reciprocity in communication and see it as a way of treating each other fairly.

In other words, if you show openness to learning from someone else, rather than just lecturing, it may seem fair to them to be open to you too.

That is why faking this kind of respect can be a powerful manipulative tool. A psychologically savvy canvasser, for instance, can manipulate swing voters by pretending to be open to learning about their own opinions. But this carries its own risk, since people who discover they have been manipulated may resent it.

3. Live and Let Live

Kants central principle of respect is that one should not degrade any other as a mere means to ones ends. This requires people to rein in their own self-love out of consideration for others. In popular culture, this might be summed up in the idea of live and let live: Other things being equal, we shouldnt interfere in other peoples lives.

Overlooking this principle can make persuasion disrespectful in a variety of ways, even when the persuader has good intentions. The philosopher George Tsai argues that this happens in cases of unsolicited advice: Imagine, he writes, that while your date goes to the restroom, an eavesdropping stranger tells you that she thinks you could do better. Even if the stranger is right, its simply none of her business.

Another example of how interference can make persuasion disrespectful is that changing someones mind can harm their dignity and disrupt their connection to their community. For example, say that you persuade a relative who lives in a small ranching community to become vegan. That change might lead to their being ostracized by people they rely on.

Because persuasion can affect other peoples lives in many ways, this third component of respect is the most difficult to adhere to. Sometimes, people may be justified in interfering in other peoples lives, such as if lives are at stake or in particularly close relationships  but those are special circumstances.

One Conversation at a Time

In class, my students attempt to persuade one another four times, using a range of formats: five minutes vs. a whole week; in person vs. over Zoom. At the end, they score one another on effectiveness and respectfulness.

My students are smart, informed and passionate, and the class offers them a positive, carefully structured environment. Despite all that, they almost never succeed in persuading one another  at least not when it comes to politics.

Something interesting happens, though, when they let respect guide their conversations. Instead of launching into lectures, they start seeing each exchange as an opportunity to learn from each other  perhaps as an opportunity to leave their partner thinking about something in a new way, without fully persuading them.

If you approach our conversation as a chance to exchange ideas, without trying to change my mind, you may lay a cornerstone of trust. That, in turn, could make me more receptive to similar viewpoints in the future  even if Im speaking with other people. Truly respectful political persuasion might best be seen as an extended team effort, not a one-time, one-person task.

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1 And then there are times you have to stand up on your hind legs not to be railroaded. I hate being put in that position. For instance, on the afore-mentioned flight where I had to make temper-tantrum level noise to get the airline gate attendants to round up a wheelchair pusher that they were remiss in not having called for five or ten minutes earlier, I also had to make a stink to not have a biometric photo taken before boarding (in fairness, merely keeping my N95 on would have been a passive aggressive way to opt out, but after the wheelchair help fail, I was not in the mood for polite half measures). The US government has a biometric facial image of me in the form of my passport photo. I had already cleared TSA. The photo was not a precondition for boarding. Im not about to participate in this nonsense, but you are made to be a bad guy if you dont go along.
The evolution of my position with the Post dates to 2000, when I began work with The City Paper. In 2008, SouthComm Inc. bought the Post and TCP, with the latter ceasing operations in 2013. In 2018, FW Publishing acquired the Post, for which I have served as managing editor since 2011.

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A couple weeks back, Nashville Christian School senior B Hayes was denied entry to their prom because they wore a suit. The Instagram post they made in response went viral, and Marcie Allen Van Mol and Derek Van Mol, owners of the recently revamped AB Hillsboro Village, responded by offering to host an inclusive prom for Hayes and 25 friends. A GoFundMe campaign was launched to cover the costs, and once its initial goal was met, the organizers increased it to keep gathering money to donate to Hayes chosen nonprofits, Inclusion Tennessee and The Oasis Centers Just Us program for LGBTQ youth.

A little more good news emerges from this terrible situation. Nashville songsmith Morgxn organized a boatload of stars to contribute short video clips with words of encouragement for Hayes and anyone else whos been made to feel like they dont belong. In the above compilation titled this message is for B, set to Morgxns recent single Beacon, youll see Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, Ruby Amanfu, Margo Price, Allison Russell, SistaStrings, Ben Folds and lots of others from around Music City and elsewhere chiming in with a little support. While theres a lot more to be done to stamp out the entrenched anti-queer sentiment that percolates through our social and political institutions, it cant hurt for some well-known, very visible folks to take a minute out of their day to say I see you.

Knowing the story of being othered by someone else and wishing my own inner child could see what it is like to feel seen and supported, Morgxn, who grew up in Music City, writes in a release. I sent out a call to artists all over and was blown away by the response. B  you are so loved. Your story has and will inspire a generation. Shine your light. Never forget there is a world of people waiting to love you as you are right now.

You can click through above to donate to the GoFundMe or directly to the nonprofits Hayes pointed out. Theyre among an array of local and regional resources for the LGBTQ community  find some other great causes in our roundup.
Two sleeper buses collide on Noi Bai - Lao Cai Expressway in northern Vietnam on April 29, 2023, killing one person. Photo by D.H.

56 people died and 22 were left in critical condition due to traffic accidents in the past four days, according to the Ministry of Health.

From April 29 to May 2, a total 2,876 people visited hospitals for examination of injuries caused by traffic accidents and more than 1,500 of them were admitted.

Of the 56, a total of 14 passed away at healthcare facilities, 30 died en route to hospitals and 12 passed at home.

Vietnams five-day holiday took in the Hung King's Death Commemoration on April 29, Reunification Day on April 30 and Labor Day on May 1, plus a further two days of compensation as the holiday fell on a weekend.

Last year, 63 were killed in traffic accidents over the four days of April 30 and May 1 weekend.
(Natural News) A new pilot study shows that microplastics  plastic particles that are smaller than five millimeters or close to the size of a short rice grain  can be found in human testis and semen, according to the paper published last month in Science of The Total Environment.

(Article by Huanjia Zhang republished from EHN.org)

While experts believe more data are needed to confirm the findings, this study sheds light on the possible penetration of microplastics into the human reproductive system and the urgency for understanding their potential health impact.

Led by researchers from Peking University in China, the small-scale study analyzed six testis and 30 semen samples for the presence of microplastics using two different laboratory techniques.

Microplastics were detected in both human testis and semen, with the abundance in the testis significantly higher than that in semen.

The researchers found differences in the types of microplastics predominating in either testis or semen. While polystyrene, a main ingredient for plastic foams, was the most abundant polymer in the testis samples; polyethylene, which is commonly used for packaging and polyvinyl chloride, which makes PVC pipes, were predominant in the semen.

Additionally, they concluded that microplastics ranging from 20 micrometers to 100 micrometers, which is the average diameter of human hair, were the most common in testis, while those in semen had bigger sizes.

The fact that tiny plastic particles were found in human testis and semen is no surprise, Dick Vethaak, an ecotoxicologist and emeritus professor at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam who has been investigating microplastics but is not involved with this study, told Environmental Health News (EHN). However, whether it is true that the larger microplastics can penetrate the male reproductive organs, as reported in this study, still presents quite a question mark.

Its a pilot study that, in my opinion, provides preliminary evidence that microplastics are present in human testis, Vethaak said. But before we can draw any definite conclusions, I think we need more data.

The papers lead authors did not respond to the interview requests by EHN.

How widespread are microplastics?

Typically derived from plastic breakdowns or used as an ingredient in commercial products, microplastics can be as ubiquitous as plastic products are. As microplastics transverse through the global environment  from the French Pyrenees to Arctic sea ice  these particles also permeate our daily lives, with traces found in drinking water, food and air.

Previously, Vethaak and his collaborators have identified microplastics in human blood.

If its in the blood, it can in fact go everywhere in your body, he said, adding that mounting scientific evidence has also indicated that microplastics can enter the human gut, lungs and placenta. Despite their omnipresence, the health impact of microplastics still remains unclear due to scant scientific evidence.

An important first step

I do think its an important first step, Douglas Walker, an environmental health professor at Emory University who is not involved in this study, told EHN about the new paper.

I think [the researchers] are establishing a foundation to show that theyre being detected in different types of tissues.

Walker, whose lab has been trying to develop a scalable and reliable exposure assessment method for microplastics, said the authors in this study did take acceptable steps to ensure the microplastics measured in the analysis were actually present in the samples versus contaminations introduced during the experiment.

One of the challenges that we face in developing methods to measure microplastics  and one of the reasons that they are so difficult to quantify  is that microplastics are everywhere, Walker said.

If you go into a research laboratory, one of the first things youll notice is that just about everything is plastic there.

Still, echoing Vethaaks point, Walker said the studys results on the larger microplastics can be a little concerning, especially given that previous evidence has typically linked smaller particles to the human body uptake.

In addition, given the small sample size of this study, Walker warned against drawing conclusions on the potential health impact. It shows the potential for microplastics to exert some effects on the male reproductive organs, he said. What that effect is, we cant say at this point.

Microplastics unknown health impact

Shanna Swan, who is a leading reproductive epidemiologist from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and is not involved in the study, told EHN that, at this point, scientists can only speculate the impact of microplastics on human health based on the chemicals that have been studied in plastics  such as phthalates and polychlorinated biphenyls.

Swan is also an adjunct scientist with Environmental Health Sciences, the publisher of EHN.

We know a lot about what those [chemicals] do individually, but what they do in the form of a microplastic or nanoplastic, we dont know yet, said Swan, whose research helped underpin that global human sperm counts and quality are declining at an alarming rate.

In addition, emerging studies in animal models, such as mice, also pointed to microplastic exposures to the potential adverse outcomes in spermatogenesis and sperm quality, hinting at the possible risk of these particles for male fertility health in mammalian organisms.

We know testosterone levels are decreasing worldwide, she said. Is that related to the presence of microplastics in their organs? I dont know  that is an open question.

Read more at: EHN.org
(Natural News) The Gateway Pundit is proud to announce that our good friends and attorneys at America First Legal and attorney John Sauer today have filed a massive lawsuit against the cornerstone of online censorship during the 2020 and 2022 elections. In this suit today, we are suing one of the primary private cabals that coordinated with the federal government to effectively censor millions of people. A copy of that suit and exhibits are listed below. As you read this lawsuit. You will begin to understand what an extraordinary censorship ecology our hidden police state and our ruling oligarchs have built for We the People.

(Article by Jim Hoft republished from TheGatewayPundit.com)

** Please read the lawsuit filed today here.

Read: Dr. Peter McCullough On The Holy Grail Of COVID-19 Vaccine Detoxification

From todays lawsuit by America First Legal and John Sauer.

9. Plaintiff Jim Hoft is the founder, owner, and operator of the popular news website The Gateway Pundit. He resides in St. Louis, Missouri. The Gateway Pundit is one of the most popular news sites in the country, with about 2.7 million view per day on average. Mr. Hoft maintains and operates The Gateway Pundits social-media accounts, including a Facebook account with over 650,000 followers, an Instagram account with over 205,000 followers, and a Twitter account with over 526,000 followers. These accounts include many followers in Louisiana, including the Western District of Louisiana. 10. Mr. Hoft, his website, and his audiences have experienced and continue to experience extensive censorship on social-media platforms, including censorship of speech on COVID-19 issues and election-security issues, due to Defendants actions. The Election Integrity Partnerships public report mentions Hoft 47 times, identifies him as the #2 superspreader of misinformation on Twitter, and repeatedly flags his content as supposed misinformation. Likewise, the Virality Project also flags Hofts COVID vaccine-related speech as misinformation. This censorship directly affects Mr. Hoft and his audiences in the Western District of Louisiana and elsewhere.

EIP specifically targeted Jim Hoft and The Gateway Pundit mentioning The Gateway Pundit 47 times in their Long Fuse Report. The EIP report mentions The Gateway Pundit, the website operated by Plaintiff Jim Hoft, 47 times. See id. at 51, 74, 76, 101, 103, 110, 112, 145, 150-51, 153, 155-56, 172, 183, 194-95, 206-09, 211-12, 214-16, 226-27.2

More from todays lawsuit filing:

160. The EIP report indicates that it repeatedly flagged The Gateway Pundit, Plaintiff Jim Hofts website, as a purveyor of social-media misinformation: The top misinformationspreading websites n our dataset were  thegatewaypundit[.]com, a far-right news website. 65% of these tickets involved an exaggeration of the impact of an issue within the election process. Id. at 51 (33) (alteration in original). Thus, the EIP does not claim that most of The Gateway Pundits content was false, only that it involved the exaggeration of the impact of an issue. Id. 161. The EIP lists The Gateway Pundit as the second-ranked Repeat Spreader[] of Election Misinformation on Twitter, ranking it above Donald Trump, Eric Trump, Breitbart News, and Sean Hannity. Id. at 206 (188) tbl.5.2. In the 2020 election cycle, the EIP flagged The Gateway Pundits speech in 25 incidents with over 200,000 retweets. Id. 162. In addition, the EIP lists The Gateway Pundits website as the domain cited in the most incidentsits website content was tweeted by others in 29,207 original tweets and 840,740 retweets. Id. at 207 (189) tbl.5.3. The Gateway Pundit ranks above Fox News, the New York Post, the New York Times, and the Washington Post on this list. Id. 163. The EIP dedicates an entire subsection of its report to The Gateway Pundit. Id. at 214-16 (196-98). The EIP reports that The Gateway Pundit was among the most active spreaders

of election-related misinformation in our analyses.  It appeared as a top repeat spreader through its website, its Twitter account, its YouTube channel, and its Instagram account. Id. at 214 (196)

For years, you and I, and millions of Americans have been censored, suspended, deplatformed, flagged, and subjected to all manner of dirty tricks by the gods of Silicon Valley. This is simply because they despise our ability to think differently. Dissident thought is increasingly a cardinal sin in the new America.

And through it all, you have wondered: Who is doing this to us; who is responsible for this; who has the power to do all of this? The day is coming when were going to pull the curtain back and meet the wizard; and that is right soon.

Recently, in the Missouri v. Biden case of which Gateway Pundit is proud to be a key plaintiff, we have been able to prove that the censorship was not the unilateral decision of tech giants.

No, ironically, the leftists that run our internet gladly became the fascists they have so long railed against. They finally became The Man, and have they reveled in it. They literally engaged in a fascist partnership and conspiracy with the federal government to engage in a MASSIVE, sweeping, multi-year, and on-going effort to eliminate the First Amendment rights of MILLIONS of Americans  particularly Gateway Pundit and you, our devoted readers.

Now you might say, how can a private company violate the First Amendment? Buh, buh, buh, its a private company?!?! When a private company engages in a partnership with the government to violate the Constitutional rights of American citizens, that company effectively becomes a governmental actor for the purposes of Constitutional rights. They have voluntarily subjected themselves to the Constitution. The only reason for the government to involve the private actor company is to give a thin legal veneer to the act: to effect the rights deprivations that the government itself is forbidden from accomplishing. The company cannot hide behind its status, while acting as the governments deputy in deprivation.

The primary Defendants in our new class action are the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), consisting of former federal law enforcement/intelligence agency spooks, the Stanford Internet Observatory, Graphika, the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab.

During the 2020 and 2022 elections, EIP served as a middleman clearing house for the federal government, social media tech giants, and a host of hard-left civil society groups. The supposed intent of EIP was to prevent misinformation. In practice, the EIP worked to suppress politically disfavored speech on the internet. More on that in a minute.

EIP was created in consultation with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security (CISA) and other stakeholders. The EIP was created to fill the gap in the governments ability to police misinformation and disinformation about elections on social media.

Heres how it would work. In the lead-up to the 2020 and 2022 elections Government agencies across the government, as well as hard-left groups would complain about speech they disliked on social media. EIP would then immediately interface with the respective tech company and pressure the tech company to censor the speaker. This resulted in tens of millions of tweets and posts and other speech being censored, and tens of thousands of Americans being censored, suspended and banned. This is what happened to Gateway Pundit, and as a Gateway Pundit reader, odds are it happened to you, too.

EIP and all of its goons are going to be brought to justice. In the process, were going to specifically discover the names of the full ecology of entities and individuals whom our oligarchs have created and installed to control thought in this country. Theyre all going to be brought to justice, too. America needs this; the Constitution demands nothing less.

Godspeed to our lawyers. Please pray for our ultimate victory.

God bless you all.

Documents Included:

Jim Hoft The Gateway Pundit Lawsuit Against EIP, Standford Internet, Graphika, Atlantic Council, 2023-05-02  Hines v. Stamos 

The Gateway Pundit Lawsuit  by Jim Hoft

The EIP Long Fuse Report.

Read more at: TheGatewayPundit.com
(Natural News) Billionaire Bill Gates is using his wealth to destroy humanity.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is probably one of the top five deadly social cancers on the planet. Their tentacles and roots go into every single continent. And I would dare to say almost every country on Earth, Dr. Jane Ruby said during the April 26 episode of Dr. Jane Ruby STAT! on Brighteon.TV.

The well-known medical professional and pharmaceutical drug development expert said Gates is connected to every chemical product that people use.

He is a psychopath with billions of dollars, the most dangerous combination. Its a pretend benevolent foundation. But when you look behind the curtain and you see the associations, the massive shifts of wealth away from indigenous people to the military-industrial complex, you quickly realize this is an organized effort to take down humanity, Ruby added.

According to Ruby, Gates has funded and created Apeel Sciences, which is infiltrating the market with fresh produce coated with a preservative. Ruby said the chemical coating is made up of two components related to glycerides, monoglycerides, diglycerides and triglycerides.

I think its important for you to be alerted, to protect your family, to be on the lookout for your own health and that of everyone you love, said Ruby.

She explained that glycerides are trans fatty acids, and trans fats can be artificial. Monoglycerides and diglycerides, meanwhile, make up the clear, colorless coating Apeel is using for its produce. This coating cant be washed off or rinsed off, which makes it a potential poison.

Monoglycerides and diglycerides are not safe and unhealthy because they are saturated fats that cause atherosclerosis, Ruby said. These fats can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

High triglycerides also contribute to high levels of atherosclerosis, which increases the risk of stroke, heart attack and other heart diseases. Triglycerides are lipids that circulate in the blood system.

Gates and his fellow globalists are finding ways to get away with murder

However, Ruby said the extent of damage Apeels synthetic coverings can cause may never be known because there is very little human testing being done. This is where a monster like Gates can slip this thing into food and maintain plausible deniability of any mass injury and genocide accountability, she added.

Gates has amassed billions of dollars, which gives him the ability to contaminate the planet with toxins, develop fake vaccines, conduct experiments on humans, wipe out children around the world, infiltrate the food supply with chemical synthetic meats, damage the chicken and egg supply chains and put invisible toxic chemical coatings on food.

The Microsoft co-founder has also been buying thousands of acres of land in the United States and abroad. (Related: Why is Bill Gates buying up farmland across America?)

Ruby noted that in the last 17 years, the Gates Foundation has spent almost $6 billion in its quest to control agriculture in Africa and many other countries. She pointed out that this large-scale industrial farming program is actually about shifting property ownership from indigenous people to big Western corporations.

The Brighteon.TV host added that Gates is amassing databases, vast square miles of farmable land and manufacturing and commercial offices around the world under the disguise of climate change, food preservation, food safety and the so-called Green Revolution.

Gates is in direct alignment and collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation toward these goals, as well as with the World Bank and other United Nations agencies, Ruby said. The Gates Foundation heavily funds countless advocacy organizations around the world to perpetuate the myth that their work is benevolent.

It appears that Gates and his fellow globalists are trying to get other corrupt people on board and prepare for a final takeover.

Follow Depopulation.news for more news about Bill Gates plans to reduce global population.

Watch the April 26 episode of Dr. Jane Ruby STAT! below. Dr. Jane Ruby STAT! airs Monday to Friday at 8:30-9:00 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Bill Gates gave hundreds of millions in bribes to MSM, newspapers, TV news companies to bury negative stories about Gates Foundation.

Bombshell: WHO releases plan for global digital vaccine passports funded by Bill Gates & Rockefeller Foundation.

Bill Gates planning on catastrophic contagion capable of killing young adults and children.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

GatesFoundation.org
(Natural News) Shipping rates all over the world are continuing their freefall, with the latest victim being spot rates for the trans-Atlantic shipping routes.

Container rates have sunk since peaking in August last year, with long-term ocean freight rates falling by as much as 24 percent. (Related: Global shipping to split into Western and Eastern blocs soon.)

According to the Freightos Baltic Daily Index, one of the main indexes for gauging the cost of transporting freight containers across the Atlantic, the average rate for shipping cargo from Europe to the American East Coast was hovering a little above $3,000 per forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU) on Thursday, April 27, down 44 percent since Jan. 1.

According to the indexs data, the premium rate before the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 was at over $6,100 per FEU.

Two other indexes measured similar rates for Atlantic shipping. The Platts Shipping Index showed trans-Atlantic westbound spot rates at $3,100 per FEU for the week ending April 21, down 11 percent week-over-week to the lowest level spot rates have been since April 1, 2022.

Xenetas XSI-C short-term rate index puts the cost of shipping from northern Europe to the American East Coast at $3,060 per FEU on Wednesday, April 26, down 23 percent month-over-month and 57 percent year-to-date. Xenetas index also states that this is the lowest rate for this route since March 2021.

Meanwhile, the Drewry World Container Index lists the cost of sending FEUs from Rotterdam in the Netherlands to New York at $4,806 per FEU, down 35 percent year-to-date. This is also down significantly from its peak at around November 2022, when the rate went as high as $5,400 per FEU.

Lower costs show demand for shipping down

Greg Miller of FreightWaves noted that his sources said rates have fallen due to decreased demand for European goods, increased energy costs and vessel overcapacity on the trade.

This trend can also be seen in American trade with Asia. In early March, plummeting cargo volumes made container rates sink to near $1,000 due to crashing demand.

Laura Curtis, writing for Bloomberg, noted that importers on the West Coast are contributing to crashing demand because many of them are waiting for rates to drop even further before signing any deals with carriers. These carriers, meanwhile, are attempting to start negotiations at about $2,000 per FEU for shipping from Asia to the West Coast, which many importers are turning down. Many other shippers are starting negotiations with offers of $1,500 per FEU  and spot rates are going even lower.

Xeneta CEO Patrik Berglund noted that fewer contracts are being signed with each passing month.

The prospects of carriers being able to maintain their current long-term rates here look slim, to say the least, he said. With the current market uncertainty, framed by weak demand and both macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns, carriers will be bracing themselves for rates to head in the opposite direction during this years tendering. We can expect to see some major falls, and that will, we expect, drag the [Xeneta index] down more sharply in months to come.

Its very, very difficult to see how carriers can maintain that elevated [rate] level, he continued. Unless something drastic happens, I think the long-term contracts in the second half of the year will look very different to those that were valid at the start of 2023.

Learn more about the worlds transportation networks at SupplyChainWarning.com.

Watch this video from Fox News discussing how the collapse of supply chains is one of the greatest threats to Americas national security.

This video is from the News Clips channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Dockworkers at Southern California ports have been working without contracts since July.

The climate cult is destroying international shipping  and global supply chains alog with it.

PLUMMET: Maritime, rail and trucking demand DROPS sharply from pandemic era peak.

Shipping rates drop 75% amid plummeting US retail demand.

Freight companies expect muted peak season due to waning retailer demand.

Sources include:

FreightWaves.com

Fibre2Fashion.com

Bloomberg.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) This week, the military will conduct a large-scale nuclear training exercise in Houston, simulating an unthinkable scenario, while the FBI has alerted residents of Harris County and southeast Houston about the multi-agency drills taking place from Monday to Friday, to prepare for a nuclear attack.

The FBI has assured the public that the presence of military personnel and aircraft, and people in protective equipment is part of the exercise and should not cause alarm, the UKs Daily Mail has reported.

The drill takes place against a backdrop of escalating threats from North Korea and Russia. According to analysis, if a missile launched from Pyongyang were to strike Houston, approximately 130,000 people could lose their lives.

In 2017, North Korea tested a missile that, if deployed, would generate lethal radioactive fallout covering an area of around 3 square kilometers. This fallout would encompass well-known sites in Houston such as the Downtown Aquarium and the George H. W. Bush Monument, as illustrated by NukeMap, an app created by nuclear weapons historian Alex Wellerstein.

One of the sites designated for the nuclear training exercises this week is Ellington Field, a defense and homeland security complex that accommodates numerous military units from all branches of the US Armed Forces. The facility serves as the headquarters of the Texas Air National Guards 147th Reconnaissance Wing and a NASA Flight Operations unit affiliated with the Johnson Space Center, located nearby.

The FBI has not disclosed why Houston was chosen for the drills. However, a map initially published by the Natural Resources Defense Council in 2002 revealed that Houston could be a primary target for a nuclear attack due to its high population density and critical infrastructure, the outlet reported.

Last May, the US Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration spearheaded a comparable major radiological incident exercise in Austin, Texas, known as Cobalt Magnet 22. Over 30 local, state, and federal agencies participated in the exercise.

According to FBI Houston, this weeks drills are part of a series of routine US government biannual exercises. The FBI further noted that the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security will lead the training exercises in Houston, noted the Daily Mail.

Numerous local and state agencies will participate in the drills, including the Harris County Sheriffs Office, the Houston Police Department, and various other law enforcement, fire, emergency management, and public health agencies.

In a statement, the FBI said: The exercise is an opportunity for participating entities to practice and enhance operational readiness to respond in the event of a nuclear incident in the United States or overseas. The training exercise will not pose any risk or interference to the public.

Last week, President Joe Biden issued a warning to North Korea, stating that any nuclear attack would result in an overwhelming response. Biden made his statement during South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeols state visit, during which they established the Washington Declaration, which formalizes measures to discourage North Korea.

However, the agreement angered North Korea, which is enhancing its tactical nuclear weapons to target its neighbor and developing long-range weapons capable of striking the US.

Furthermore, the West is confronting an increasing nuclear danger from Russia due to growing tensions over the war in Ukraine.

In April, a high-ranking Russian security official cautioned that the risk of nuclear warfare had intensified due to NATOs military support to Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russias Security Council, declared: Every day when they provide Ukraine with foreign weapons brings the nuclear apocalypse closer.

During the Ukraine war, Vladimir Putin has frequently alluded to the potential utilization of nuclear weapons and has overseen nuclear Thunder exercises that involve submarines, bombers, and ballistic missile launches within Russia.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

NationalSecurity.news
(Natural News) Reports are indicating that the Ukrainian secret service attempted to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin with an improvised suicide drone.

This is according to the German newspaper Bild, which cited unnamed sources stating that the attack took place on Sunday, April 23.

Ukrainian forces on Sunday reportedly launched a drone from inside the country with the aim of reaching the Rudnevo Industrial Park in the south of Moscow. Putin was scheduled to visit the industrial park that day and hold a meeting on the development of unmanned aircraft systems there. (Related: Autonomous KILLER BOTS to dominate battlefields soon as war in Ukraine leads to significant advances in drone technology.)

The suicide drone was intercepted before it could reach the industrial park, crashing just several miles from the site.

Neither the governments of Ukraine nor Russia have admitted that the alleged assassination attempt took place. A spokesman for the Kremlin called Bilds report a tabloid hoax.

Russian state-owned news outlet TASS confirmed that Putin visited the Rudnevo Industrial Park but did not mention any kind of incident involving a suicide drone.

But a kamikaze drone laden with 17 kilograms (37 pounds) of explosives was confirmed to have fallen near the Bogorodsky district, east of Moscow, about 12 miles east of the Rudnevo Industrial Park. The head of the Bogorodsky city district, Igor Sukhin, also confirmed the crash and said in a statement that he had to cancel a parade for security reasons because of it.

??A kamikaze drone with 17 kg of explosives fell in the Moscow region  Shot pic.twitter.com/ncshQsry44  War Monitor (@WarMonitors) April 24, 2023

Furthermore, multiple Ukrainian individuals who spoke with Bild confirmed the incident through their own sources, including Ukrainian activist Yuriy Romanenko and journalist Sergej Sumlenny.

Our intelligence officers received information about Putins trip to the industrial park in Rudnevo, claimed Romanenko. Accordingly, our guys launched a kamikaze drone that flew through all the air defenses of the Russian Federation and fell not far from the industrial park.

It is clear that a precision strike against the Russian head of state with a kamikaze drone is an almost impossible action, said Sumlenny. But the very fact that such a drone would reach a place where Putin plans to [visit] is a slap in the face for the Russian dictator.

Ukraine making use of more and more drones

The drone allegedly used in the assassination attempt is a UJ-22 drone. Developed by Ukrainian drone maker Ukrjet, the UJ-22 is primarily a reconnaissance and surveillance drone but it also has combat capabilities.

Typically, the UJ-22 carries up to 20 kilograms (44 pounds) worth of munitions, such as unguided bombs, mines or other weaponry.

While primarily a recon and surveillance drone, the UJ-22 has proven to be effective at attacking stationary targets as it can be sent to predefined coordinates and then ordered to release its payload. This feature allows for precision targeting and maximum impact on the drones intended target.

The UJ-22 also has a range of up to 800 kilometers (497 miles), making the possibility of the drone being launched from Ukraine and reaching Moscow very likely, especially if the drone was launched from northern Ukraine  including possibly Kyiv  and never intended to return.

Ukraine has, in recent weeks, been pouring relatively inexpensive drones like the UJ-22 through the border and into Russia to strike at not just military targets but civilian ones as well.

Howard Altman, writing for The Drive, warned that these drones  typically laden with explosives  are getting closer and closer to the Kremlin, but also noted that most of the aerial drone incursions are still only occurring just miles from the Ukrainian border.

Some of the most recent Ukrainian drone incursions occurred in Russias Belgorod Oblast, just over the border and one of the most frequently targeted by Ukrainian attacks.

Russian media outlet Baza confirmed that on Monday, April 24, at least four Ukrainian drones flew into the region.

Two of the drones were prevented from reaching their targets. One of those drones exploded as it fell. The other two drones, unfortunately, were able to drop their payloads. One drone dropped bombs onto a communications tower, and another suicide dive-bombed into a diesel transformer, injuring one person.

Learn more about the use of drones in the conflict in Ukraine at DroneWatchNews.com.

Watch this clip of a Russian ZALA Lancet kamikaze drone destroying vital Ukrainian military equipment.

This video is from the channel The Prisoner on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Ukrainian drones conduct explosive attacks on Russian power stations.

Drone use is widening in Ukraine, bringing with it potential dawn of robotic killing machines.

Ukrainian drone strikes deep within Russia could spark a bigger war involving the US.

Ukrainian drones strike airbases inside Russia as Kremlin warns NATO of potential nuclear escalation.

Biological war imminent? Russia identifies unmanned aerial vehicles over Ukrainian port city of Kherson equipped with containers capable of spraying BIOAGENTS.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

TheDailyBeast.com

Newsweek.com

TheDrive.com

Special-Ops.org

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Due to the worsening chaos in the country, Sudanese people are now attempting to escape the capital despite the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between rival forces. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it is expecting up to 270,000 people to flee Sudan into neighboring Chad and South Sudan.

Laura Lo Castro, the agencys representative in Chad, said some 20,000 refugees have arrived at the Egypt border since the fighting began 10 days ago. Marie-Helene Verney, Castors colleague in South Sudan, said around 4,000 of the more than 800,000 South Sudanese refugees living in Sudan have returned home since the fighting began.

Jens Laerke, the spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, said the fighting has led to acute shortages of food, water, medicines and fuel, and limited communications and electricity, adding that the people of Sudan, already deeply affected by humanitarian needs, are staring into the abyss.

Some 15.8 million people in Sudan, or a third of the population, were already in need of humanitarian aid before the latest violence erupted. There were also reports of looting of humanitarian supplies and warehouses, and five humanitarian workers had been killed.

The chaos in Sudan started when two military factions, which were once political allies, wrestled for control over the countrys lucrative mineral resource exports, especially gold. Violence erupted not just in the capital city of Khartoum, but also in other parts of the northeast African nation.

Fifty-one-year-old Saif Mohamed Othman, who resides in Shambat, North Bahri, noted that the food shortage is made worse by the complete burning of the central market, which supplies large parts of Bahri with vegetables, meat and other food. He added that residents are also struggling financially because state employees did not receive their wages before the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

WHO warns of huge biological risk as Sudanese rebels hijack a biolab

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also warned the public that there could be a huge biological risk after Sudanese rebel fighters took control of a biolab in Khartoum. According to the WHO, the rebels have occupied a national public laboratory that holds samples of diseases, including polio, measles and cholera. (Related: South Sudan confirms new outbreak of vaccine-related polio.)

That is extremely, extremely dangerous because we have polio isolates in the lab. We have measles isolates in the lab. We have cholera isolates in the lab, WHO representative in Sudan Dr. Nima Saeed Abid told a UN briefing in Geneva via video call. There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab in Khartoum by one of the fighting parties.

He added that the main concern is the lab technicians no longer have access to the lab to safely contain the biological material and substances available. In addition to chemical hazards, bio-risk hazards are also very high due to lack of functioning generators, Abid said.

Al Jazeera reported that the fighting has plunged Sudan into chaos, pushing the African nation to the brink of collapse. Dozens of hospitals have shuttered in the Sudan capital and elsewhere across the country due to the fighting and dwindling medical and fuel supplies, according to the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate.

The UN health agency also said it had confirmed 14 attacks on healthcare during the fighting, killing eight and injuring two. If the violence does not stop, there is a danger that the health system will collapse, the UN agency warned Friday, April 28.

Find more stories like this at Chaos.news.

Watch the video below that talks about President Joe Biden calling for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in Sudan.

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Journalists detained over leaked video showing South Sudan president wetting himself.

As shock and awe of war wears off, U.S. quietly resumes biolabs program in Ukraine.

DC has nowhere to hide the revelations about Ukrainian biolabs and their link to pandemic research.

Shocking connection made between Hunter Biden, Ukraine biolabs, and reported origin of COVID pandemic in Wuhan.

Sources include:

GreatGameIndia.com

CBSNews.com

RFERL.org

InfoWars.com

AlJazeera.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) remarked that President Joe Biden does not have a Plan B if he vetoes the debt bill pushed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

The president doesnt have a Plan B, [so] he would not veto this bill if it got to his desk, Scalise told Fox Business host Stuart Varney on April 26. He added that Biden must address the debt ceiling and Washington, D.C.s spending problem at the same time. (Related: US national debt hits $31 TRILLION for the first time.)

The bottom line is: The American people recognize that while the president maxed out the nations credit card  which is why were hitting the debt ceiling  you dont just give Biden another credit card to go max out. Thats what hes asking for.

According to Scalise, there were two tweaks done to McCarthys bill. The first one involved ramping up the date of implementation, and the second one centered on the work requirements for eliminating tax credits.

We wanted to get all of that started earlier and get those savings to the taxpayers earlier. So, we lined the dates to start in 2024 and work requirements on some of the tax credits that were going to be eliminated. Some were related to the presidents big tax and spend bill from last year, the Louisiana congressman explained.

In response to Varneys question whether the entire Republican faction in the House of Representatives was on board concerning the debt ceiling bill, Scalise said they had a really good meeting with the full membership. He added that McCarthy had reiterated during the meeting that his debt ceiling bill is of utter importance to the country. Moreover, a lot of GOP members that never voted to raise the debt ceiling spoke up.

Scalise remarked that the House needs to pass the bill to get spending under control and undo the problems Biden created. He also pointed out that the president sitting on the sidelines is not a tenable position.

Dem-controlled Senate could kill off McCarthys bill

McCarthy gathered just enough votes on April 26 to pass the House GOPs proposal  but not without last minute changes to pacify holdouts. However, the legislation that passed 217-215 could be shot down by the Democratic-controlled Senate. Despite not having a Plan B, Biden himself has vowed to veto the bill the moment it makes it to his desk.

The sad part here is, now the Democrats need to do their job, McCarthy told reporters.

The president can no longer ignore by not negotiating. Sen. [Chuck] Schumer (D-NY), if he thinks hes got a plan, put it on the floor  see if you can pass it. We lifted the debt limit, weve sent it to the Senate, weve done our job, the only body in here thats done theirs.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre earlier said that the bill has no chance of becoming law.

Congressional Republicans must act immediately and without conditions to avoid default and ensure that the full faith and credit of the U.S is not put at risk. That is their job, she said on April 24.

Economists have warned that default could spark a dangerous financial crisis, lead to a recession costing millions of Americans their jobs, endanger hard-working Americans retirement savings, and increase long-term federal borrowing costs, adding to deficits and debt. We are not a deadbeat nation  We pay our bills. Congressional Republicans must do that again now and act to avoid default.

Follow GovernmentDebt.news for more stories about the debt ceiling bill.

Watch House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) as he talks about the debt bill by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

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(Natural News) Despite the fact that the country is experiencing a labor shortage in just about every industry including defense production, the Biden regime and our bipartisan Congress continue to ship American weapons to Ukraine that cannot be quickly replaced.

Thats also because the number of weapons production facilities is also at a historic low, and that includes manufacture of the most basic element: Gunpowder.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

Nearly two years ago, an errant spark inside a mill caused an explosion so big it destroyed all the buildings equipment and blew a corrugated fiberglass wall 100 feet.

It also shut down the sole domestic source of an explosive the Department of Defense relies on to produce bullets, mortar shells, artillery rounds and Tomahawk missiles.

The ramshackle facility makes the original form of gunpowder, known today as black powder, a highly combustible material with hundreds of military applications. The product, for which there is no substitute, is used in small quantities in munitions to ignite more powerful explosives.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in the explosion but the factory is still not operational  its being rebuilt  meaning it cannot supply any black powder either to federal commercial weapons manufacturers or the private sector.

As a result of the pressure to minimize defense expenses and optimize the countrys industrial foundation, military suppliers consolidated when the Cold War came to a close. In the past thirty years, the number of fixed-wing aircraft suppliers in the United States has decreased from eight to three. Over the same time frame, significant surface ship manufacturers decreased from eight to two. Today, only three American firms account for over 90 percent of the Pentagons missile inventory.

Subordinate defense firms are frequently the sole source of essential components, such as black powder, and a single crisis could halt production, the WSJ reports.

And all this comes at a time when militaries around the world are witnessing how quickly weapons stockpiles can be depleted during a legitimate high-intensity conflict like the one in Ukraine.

According to U.S. military officials, defense experts, and congressional staffers, the limited supply of weapons and ammunition has emerged as a growing issue for the United States. This scarcity has impacted the provision of weaponry and ammunition to Ukraine and restocking reserves to brace for a prospective conflict with China in the era of great-power rivalry.

After providing Stingers, howitzers, anti-armor systems, and artillery ammunition to Ukraine for several months, stocks in the U.S. and its NATO allies are now low, particularly in 155mm howitzer shells. This ammunition has been instrumental in pushing back Russian forces.

Can you imagine what would happen to these supply chains if the U.S. were in an actual state of active war, or NATO was? Jeff Rhoads, executive director of the Purdue Institute for National Security, a defense-research institute at Purdue University, told the WSJ. They could be in trouble very quickly.

Black powder has been a critical substance for military and commercial purposes for a thousand years, the WSJ noted. However, it is now a niche commodity with limited commercial applications, primarily for rocket enthusiasts. Nevertheless, it is still utilized in over 300 munitions, ranging from cruise missiles to M16 rifle bullets, and most importantly, in the vital 155mm shells.

In each instance, a small quantity of black powder is employed to detonate a more potent explosive located within the same missile or bullet. For instance, a howitzers 155mm shell employs half an ounce of black powder, adjacent to 26 pounds of a more potent explosive.

Due to the limited sales volume, profits may be insufficient to sustain more than one production facility. This vulnerability is so prevalent that the Pentagon refers to it as the single source issue. For instance, in the U.S., only one foundry produces the titanium castings employed in howitzers, and only one company manufactures the rocket motor utilized in the widely-used Javelin antitank weapon in Ukraine, the report said.

But, by all means, lets give our weapons stockpiles away to a country most Americans could not have found on a map a year ago.

Sources include:

WSJ.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Garrett Ziegler outlined the various crimes shown in Hunter Bidens controversial laptop from hell during his April 25 appearance on the Brighteon.TV program America, Can We Talk? These crimes were specified in a comprehensive dossier titled Report on the Biden Laptop, which was compiled by staffers at the Marco Polo nonprofit founded by Ziegler himself.

Our goal with this dossier was to put out everything that we could prove on paper, Ziegler told host Debbie Georgatos. Not just an allegation, but everything that we could prove was a violation of a state or federal crime or regulation.

Georgatos praised the books systematic way of presenting information. She pointed out that the business-related crimes were in one section, with certain content in the laptop proving the crime and the statute it violated clearly indicated. The report also broke down the presidential sons crimes by geographic location  Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Romania.

Another section of the dossier outlined Hunters sex-related crimes, with many lewd images to back them up. Drug-related crimes are also tackled in another chapter.

Ziegler disclosed that in the process of writing the dossier, he got in touch with every single business partner, drug dealer and prostitute that the presidential son coordinated with. While 95 percent told him to stay out of business, he said five percent of them talked.

A post on the Marco Polo Substack said the 630-page dossier has been sent to members of Congress; U.S. attorneys in charge of locations where the Bidens and their associates committed their crimes; and law enforcement at both the state and local level. The nonprofit also sent the dossier to every contact on the laptop, including all of Hunters classmates at Archmere Academy in Delaware and several current White House staffers.

FBI just sat on laptops controversial content

Georgatos remarked that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) just sat on the laptop instead of looking at its contents. The agency itself admitted that it had possession of the device even before the November 2020 presidential elections. Ziegler agreed, saying that the FBI should have launched a probe right away.

He also blasted Hunters father, President Joe Biden, for claiming that his second son was the smartest man he knows from a pure intellectual capacity back in December 2020.

This guy [Hunter] has no repentance, doesnt apologize for anything [and] has no self-awareness in the present. The U.S. president, which has the nuclear codes, says this is the smartest man he knows. So why wouldnt you want to learn about the smartest man he knows?

The crimes on the laptop, which Ziegler and three others collated, may not be pursued by prosecutors. An April 26 report by CNBC said lawyers for the presidential son met with attorneys from the Department of Justice on that day to discuss potential criminal charges. (Related: AG Merrick Garland exposed as the corrupt Biden official who tried to sweep Hunter Bidens tax crimes under the rug.)

It would not surprise me if there [was] ultimately a resolution of this case short of a public indictment, some kind of information and a plea bargain, remarked renowned constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz during an appearance on Mornings with Maria.

He continued: It was the Biden people who sought the meeting, which means theyre probably in a negotiating mode. People dont seek meetings just for a status report or an update. You can do that on the phone when you bring in a group of lawyers to talk to people in the Justice Department. Its generally part of a negotiation.

Read more about Hunter Bidens crimes and his laptop from hell at BidenCrimeFamily.news.

Watch the full April 25 episode of America Can We Talk with Debbie Georgatos and Garette Ziegler below. Catch new episodes of the program Mondays through Thursdays at 1-2 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Ex-CIA chief: Biden operative Antony Blinken is behind the contrived intel letter discrediting Hunter Biden laptop story.

Hunter Biden admits ownership of laptop from hell, requests federal probe for data theft.

House committee subpoenas bank records of Hunter Bidens associates.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

MarcoPolo501c3.Substack.com

CNBC.com

FoxBusiness.com
US stands with Philippines against Chinese 'intimidation' in S. China Sea: official

U.S. President Joe Biden and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. walk on the West Colonnade to the Oval Office following a welcome ceremony at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 1, 2023. Photo by Reuters/Carolyn Kaster

The United States stands with treaty ally the Philippines in the face of harassment by China's coast guard in the South China Sea and remains deeply concerned about "intimidation" by Beijing, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.

A visit to the United States this week by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr highlights the strength and endurance of the alliance between the two countries, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel J. Kritenbrink said.

The Philippines on Friday accused China's coast guard of "dangerous manoeuvres" and "aggressive tactics" in the South China Sea, in another maritime confrontation between the two countries. China said the Philippines vessels made "deliberate provocative moves."

"We remain deeply concerned by (China's) continued intimidation and harassment of Philippine vessels as they continue to undertake really routine patrols within the Philippine exclusive economic zone," he said in a teleconference from the United States.

"Such actions and behaviour on the part of Beijing are truly unacceptable."

Kritenbrink also said the United States and its partners recognized the importance of maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait.

The Philippines and United States on Monday reaffirmed their decades-old security alliance in a trip that marks a dramatic turnaround in their relations, as both countries seek ways to push back China's assertiveness near Taiwan and in the South China Sea.

U.S. President Joe Biden told Marcos said the U.S. commitment to defending its treaty ally was "ironclad". Marcos said the region had "arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now."

Under Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos' anti-U.S. predecessor, relations soured as he sought to court China while openly rebuking Washington.

Kritenbrink said he was "exceptionally confident" about bilateral ties.

Vietnam calls the waterway the East Sea.
(Natural News) Finance expert Dan Eastman believes the governments theft of home equity is rooted in feudalism.

He put forward this argument during an appearance on Brannon Howse Live, telling the Worldview Report host that the practice has its roots in feudal Europe between the ninth and 15th centuries. Under this system, a person of authority gives strong allies what is called muscle territory. In turn, these allies return the favor by means of loyalty and service to the authority figure  in this case, feudal lords.

They were paying rent upstairs and agreeing that if the kingdom is invaded, theyd help fight and kick out the bad guys,' Eastman told Howse. He continued that this practice evolved into the theory that the government owns the land where a house sits, thus the homeowner is mandated to pay property taxes. (Related: Globalists are coming for your cars, your cash, and your bodily integrity, and if they succeed they will own everything and you will be their slave in the coming digitized feudal system.)

And if you dont pay it, the government is to take the house and kick you out. Theyll sell the property, put it in the public fisc and youre gone. In most states, when you dont pay property taxes, theres a sheriff sale and they sell your house out plus the taxes and expenses and you get to keep whats left.

Eastman cited the Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota case  which was recently heard by the Supreme Court  as an example of this. Ninety-four-year-old Geraldine Tyler used to own a one-bedroom condominium unit, but the county sold her property after she fell behind on paying the real estate taxes on it. The county sold Tylers property for $40,000, deducted her $15,000 arrears and kept the balance.

Tyler challenged this in court, arguing that it was unfair and unconstitutional. Her lawyers argued that the move violated the Eight Amendments prohibition on excessive fines. They also argued that it violated the Fifth Amendments prohibition on the seizure of private property for public use without just compensation.

Howse pointed out that 12 other states  Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and South Dakota  follow a similar practice. He continued: [In] Nebraska, for example, the lien is sold to investors hoping the homeowner doesnt pay the back taxes by a due date  at which time the property belongs to them.

Eastman calls on SCOTUS to clarify bad public policies

According to the New American, two lower courts sided with the county before the high court agreed to hear Tylers case. Tyler now lives in an assisted living facility as she qualified under Title 19 requirements. Title 19 is a joint federal and state welfare program that covers the costs of nursing home and assisted living care for individuals who meet certain income and asset requirements.

If the state is coming in, taking her house and all her money away, she ends up on Title 19  which is basically paid for by the taxpayers, Eastman said. You got one government that takes the money, puts it in the public fund and pays for a new dump truck  and you get other taxpayers to pay support to this woman in her elder dotage.

Thus, the financial expert called on the Supreme Court to make this clear. Aside from being an example of bad public policy, he mentioned that states have different rules on how to make this possible. Eastman explained: If youre going to move to one of these states and you werent aware of that and fell on hard times, they can wipe you out.

Eastman also tackled the concept of eminent domain, pointing out to Howse that the government can simply appropriate ones residence if it wants to build a highway. The poor homeowner is not allowed to negotiate a settlement in this case, he added.

Check out BigGovernment.news to read more about unconstitutional policies being implemented.

Watch the full episode of Brannon Howse Live featuring Dan Eastman below.

This video is from the Worldview Report channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

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Sources include:

Brighteon.com

LawCornelll.edu

TheNewAmerican.com

LawMWC.com
(Natural News) The government of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pledged 3.8 billion Australian dollars ($2.54 billion) for upgrades to military bases across the northern section of the Land Down Under.

The pledge spanning four years formed part of a steady build-up to deal with potential conflict in the region, according to the Epoch Times. It followed an earlier promise in 2021 to upgrade four military training facilities in the Northern Territory.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles expounded on the A$3.8 billion funding in a statement. He remarked that A$2 billion ($1.34 billion) will be used to upgrade runways, fuel storage, accommodation and security at the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Base Learmonth in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The amount would also include bases in the Northern Territory and the state of Queensland.

A separate A$1 billion ($669 million) from the total amount will be used to upgrade major training areas at the Robertson Barracks in Darwin  the capital of the Northern Territory  and the Lavarack Barracks in northern Queensland. The naval bases HMAS Coonawarra, HMAS Cairns and the Harold E. Holt Naval Communications Station will receive A$600 million ($401.28 million) under this budget. Lastly, another A$200 million ($133.76 million) will go toward accelerating other projects in the north.

The pledge is part of the Albanese governments commitment to implement recommendations from the Defense Strategic Review (DSR) published on April 24. According to Canberra, it was able to free up funds for these upgrades after canceling other programs.

A key priority area identified in response to the DSR is improving the ability of the Australian Defense Force (ADF) to operate from Australias northern bases, Marles statement read.

It is clear that given our strategic circumstances, the Australian Army must be optimized for littoral operations in northern land and maritime spaces and provide a long-range strike capability. [The RAAF] must also be equipped to support operations in the north through surveillance, air defense, strike and air transport.

Marles: Australia must become a porcupine

As the DSR rightly observes, our northern bases are a huge asset and critical to Australias ability to project, said Marles. Our immediate investment in these bases will ensure our defense force is able to operate from them effectively.

His remarks lined up with earlier statements that centered on the idea of bolstering Australias military defenses. We need to make Australia a difficult proposition for any adversary. In that context, we need to be a porcupine, Marles told journalists from the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne newspaper The Age.

The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army has been building up its forces in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. This has forced Western military planners to look at how to better operate in maritime environments comprised largely of islands. The porcupine approach, which has also been adopted by Taipei, involves upping the threat of retaliation to a point where Beijing will think twice about attacking. (Related: Taiwan to buy 400 American anti-ship missiles as China continues to threaten the island nation.)

The DSR also recommended that Australia reduce the number of infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) it will procure from 450 to 129 and cancel the purchase of 30 new howitzer artillery systems. However, an earlier slated purchase of M1A1 Abrams tanks will continue, something defense analyst Lincoln Parker of the Australian Liberal Party did not quite agree with.

Many commentators have called for the ADF to be structured along the same lines as the U.S. Marine Corps, specifically a Marine Expeditionary Force. Therefore, spending billions of dollars on Abrams tanks and 400 IFVs does not make sense, he remarked.

The freed-up funds from the military spending cuts will be diverted toward purchasing long-range missile systems. Others have suggested that the money be spent on land-based missile launchers primed for hitting naval targets.

But according to Australian Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy, the money will be used to purchase more HIMARS rocket systems and land-based maritime strike [capability].

This is about reshaping the army to modernize it, to be quite frank, Conroy told ABC Radio. This is about getting an Australian Army thats shaped for our current strategic circumstances and going from a service whose greatest range for its artillery is 45 kilometers (28 miles) to one that can project power in excess of 500 kilometers (310.7 miles).

Head over to NationalSecurity.news for more stories about countries bolstering their military capability.

Watch this Sky News report about a joint exercise involving U.S. and Australian forces scheduled in July.

This video is from the Spirit2all channel on Brighteon.com.

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(Natural News) British students from grade schools as young as seven years of age are urged to bring rainbow flags and display badges that contain their preferred pronouns  be it male, female or non-binary. The Daily Mail has seen lesson plans for children in Key Stage Two  covering seven-year-olds up to 11  that teach about not conforming to traditional binary beliefs about gender.

The said lessons are part of Schools Diversity Week, which is going to be held from June 26 to 30 in all primary and secondary schools across the United Kingdom. The said event is coordinated by the LGBTQ+ charity Just Like Us (JLU). According to the event guide, more than 5,000 schools have already signed up.

Amy Ashenden, the organizations interim chief executive claimed that no young person should feel afraid of going to school because of who they are or the make-up of their family. Ashenden also thanked their headline sponsor JPMorgan Chase for supporting the charity and enabling them to provide free resources to schools.

Andrea Williams of the advocacy group Christian Concern fears that thousands of children will be indoctrinated with extreme gender ideology this summer without the knowledge of their parents.

JLUs survey focusing on young peoples attitudes toward LGBT-inclusive education revealed that out of 3,695 adults aged 18 to 25, 74 percent said children should learn about LGBTQ+ people in early education. As per the survey, 44 percent of LGBTQ+ young adults think children should learn LGBTQ+ identities; 30 percent think they should learn about the topic in pre-school or earlier; and 37 percent of non-LGBTQ+ young adults think LGBTQ+ inclusive education should start in primary school or nursery.

Biden administration supports transgenderism

In the U.S., President Joe Bidens administration has been adamant in pushing for the celebration of diversity and inclusion. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre even lauded LGBTQ kids in a press conference.

LGBTQIA-plus kids are resilient. They are fierce. They fight back. Theyre not going anywhere. And we have their back. This administration has their back, she assured.

LGBTQ+ inclusive education is already part of the curriculum and is taught in many primary schools across the United States.

Forty-three percent of Americans think acceptance of transgenderism has gone too far, according to a March poll funded by the Wall Street Journal and conducted by independent social research organization NORC at the University of Chicago. (Related: Survey: 43% of Americans think acceptance of transgenderism has gone too far.)

The survey, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points, engaged 1,019 people from March 1 to 13 and found that more than four in every 10 respondents say that society has been too far accepting of transgenders.

Now, the transgenders have become bolder in their protests. They even bully those who oppose their views.

For example, former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, who spoke at San Francisco State University on April 6 about her views opposing the inclusion of transgender athletes in womens sports, was struck on her shoulder and face and held for three hours in a room by trans activists.

Follow Groomers.news for more news about the indoctrination of young children with LGBTQIA ideologies.

Watch the recent episode of Highwire where Del Bigtree and Jefferey Jaxen discuss how the trans movement has gone too far.

This video is from the Highwire with Del Bigtree channel on Brighteon.com.

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TRANS MILITANTS STRIKE AGAIN: Police believe vandalism at state senators home was retaliation for sponsoring bill banning transgender surgery for minors.

Sources include:

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Attitude.co.uk

S.WSJ.net

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Two train cars ended up in the Mississippi River Thursday, April 27, as a freight train derailed in southwestern Wisconsin. Fortunately, neither of the cars contained hazardous materials.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation said the cars floated downstream soon after the derailment and passed under the WIS 82/Lansing Causeway before becoming mired along the shore. The train derailed in Crawford County at about 12:15 p.m.

BNSF Railway spokesperson Lena Kent said two of the trains three locomotives and an unknown number of cars carrying freight of all kinds derailed on the eastern edge of the river. All crew members were accounted for, with one receiving a medical evaluation. Local outlet WXOW reported that at least four people were taken to a nearby hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

Crawford County Emergency Managements Marc Myhre said about 20 BNSF Railway cars were involved. Some of the containers that derailed on shore contained paint and lithium ion batteries. But Kent assured residents near the area that the volumes involved dont pose a risk to the river or the communities. She added that BNSF will collaborate with local and state agencies as appropriate.

According to Myhre, any hazardous material aboard the train stayed in place during the derailment and does not present a danger to the public or emergency responders. Together with the Ferryvill and De Soto fire departments, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Crawford County Hazmat team were employed to contain any spillage.

Meanwhile, the Crawford County Sheriffs Department informed the public via its Facebook page that there was no need for evacuation.

Cause of derailment still unknown

The main track is blocked in both directions as cleanup continues at the location. Officials said the cause of the derailment is still unknown.

The Federal Railroad Administration, a division of the United States Department of Transportation that regulates safety across the nations railroads, tweeted that it was sending a team to the location to collect information and assist local emergency workers.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said via Twitter that he was informed of the derailment and is getting daily updates from the states transportation and natural resources departments, as well as from emergency management officials. A spokesperson for Evers told the media that its still not clear if any environmental contamination has occurred.

The derailment happened nearly three months after a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. Officials there decided to release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five tanker cars, contaminating the surrounding area. (Related: East Palestine residents issue list of demands to government demanding action following train derailment chemical catastrophe.)

Last month, hundreds of people were evacuated after a BNSF train carrying ethanol and corn syrup derailed and caught fire in Raymond, Minnesota.

Follow Disaster.news for more news about train derailments happening across the United States.

Watch the video below about the train carrying hazardous material that derailed and caught fire near Rockwood, Maine.

This video is from the Alex Hammer channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

IT KEEPS HAPPENING: Tanker carrying thousands of gallons of propane fuel FLIPS OVER in Florida train derailment.

Another train carrying hazardous materials derails in Maine  THIRD crash this week.

CDC finally admits all seven members of their Epidemic Intelligence Service fell ill while conducting chemical surveys in East Palestine Ohio.

Bridge collapses in Iowa causing catastrophic train derailment as Americas infrastructure crumbles under Biden regime.

25-Car freight train carrying beer derailed in Western Montana.

Sources include:

APNews.com

WXOW.com

ThePostMillennial.com

NYPost.com

Brighteon.com
Shark attacks have plagued the coastal waters off Australia in recent years, with related incidents involving both fatalities and injuries. Experts say fatal shark attacks are rare. However, they do occur in small numbers or even during unprovoked instances. Measures such as temporary beach closures were taken by local authorities, yet Australian shark attacks have continued.

One of the latest incidents involved the mauling of an 11-year-old boy by an unknown species of shark while snorkeling off the coast of Western Australia state in late April, according to local reports. The boy survived the attack but highlights the increased risk of shark threats in the region. Authorities are also on high alert as reported by local sources on Monday, May 1.

Kurrajong Campsite Shark Attack

The recent Western Australia shark attack occurred in the waters off Kurrajong Campsite in the Cape Range National Park on Saturday afternoon, April 29, leaving the boy with a not life-threatening injury, the West Australian Newspapers reported. In particular, the victim was bitten by the unidentified shark off the coast of Exmouth town located in Western Australia's North West Cape.

The child sustained deep cuts throughout his body but was treated by paramedics on the scene after being brought back to the shore by a boat. The snorkeler was initially taken to Exmouth Hospital before being flown to Perth for treatment on Saturday evening, the local newspaper adds.

A spokeswoman for Perth Children's Hospital the boy was reportedly still undergoing treatment on Sunday morning, April 30, but was already in stable condition.

Also Read: Shark Attack Kills Australian Tourist in New Caledonia, Beaches Near Noumea Closed

Beaches Closed

In response, local officials urged swimmers in the Cape Range National Park to take additional precautionary measures. They also closed the beaches on Saturday from Pilgramunna north to Bloodwood Creek in the area.

At approximately 3:15 p.m. local time on April 29, Surf Life Saving WA reported that an unknown shark species, 1 meter offshore, was spotted near Exmouth.

Earlier Shark Attack

The Exmouth shark attack was not the only incident that day. In fact, a separate yet similar encounter led to a man suffering minor injuries after being bitten by a 1-meter-long shark of unknown species on the morning of April 29, The Straits Times reported.

Both shark attacks in late April occurred a week after Australia's professional surfer Max Marsden survived a shark bite at Lucys Beach in Greenough.

Western Australia Shark Attacks

April's attacks follow a cascade of deadly shark attacks in Western Australia, including the case of a 16-year-old girl who was killed by an apparent bull shark in Perth back in February 2023. The girl reportedly jumped from her jet ski to the waters of Swan River to swim with a pod of dolphin, according to the police, as cited by NBC News.

In November 2021, a great white shark attacked and killed a 57-year-old man at Port Beach in the state capital city of Perth, Western Australia.

On the other coastal side, a British man was cut in half after being eaten by at least one shark off the Sydney coast in February 2022.

Related Article: Almost 90 Shark Sightings Reported in Western Australia Over the Past Week
A Colorado River water plan by the United States federal government that seeks to alter over a century-old water distribution practice across the American Southwest is threatening to impact the region, particularly in the agriculture and energy sectors.

The massive river serves 40 million Americans from multiple states.

The said plan aims to address the growing issue of depleting water levels of the reservoir amid decades of historic drought.

Now, the recent report highlights the reality that water cuts will be imposed across the region to conserve water supply.

Amid the proposed measure, many are still divided as the water plan includes three options.

In recent years, scientists have found the persistence of a "megadrought" in the Southwest, as shown by evidence of record-breaking high temperatures and dry conditions for most of the year since the 21st century.

The natural phenomenon date back to over a thousand years, as revealed in a 2022 study.

Combined with excessive water usage amid a growing population, the prolonged drought in the southwestern portion of North America has also contributed in the depletion of other water reservoirs, including Lake Mead, located in the states of Arizona and Nevada and is the largest reservoir in the U.S. in terms of water storage capacity.

Colorado River Water Plan

In April 2023, the Biden administration proposed the Colorado River water plant as a means to distribute water cuts from the reservoir and resolve a long-held legal dispute between the states across the Southwest sharing the river's water supply.

Robin Craig, a professor at the University of Southern California, stated the areas of energy, food, and water are regulated separately.

With this, one cannot change the policy in one of these areas without affecting the others, as cited by Phys.org reported.

The concern comes from the growing concern that the agriculture and energy sectors could be affected should changes in water cuts distribution are made.

Also Read: Colorado River Meets Gulf of California for First Time in 16 Years

Colorado River Crisis

On April 11, the Biden administration issued highly-expected analysis of the Colorado River crisis, which highlights a potential scenario should the river system's collapse impact the American West's major cities, farmers, and native tribes, CNN reported.

The U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation, in the draft analysis, provides two different scenarios to mitigate water usage should the water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Power continue to decrease.

Measures include keeping the Colorado River flowing through the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams to provide hydroelectric power to hundreds of thousands of customers, as cited by the U.S. media.

However, there are three options that the Colorado River water plan proposes:

Equal water cuts across Colorado River Basins' lower states

Water cuts based on water right seniority, wherein California holds senior water rights

"No Action Alternative"

The Colorado River Basin is divided into two regions: the Upper Basin (which comprises of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) and the Lower Basin (which includes Arizona, California, and Nevada).

The Colorado River also provides water to some parts of Mexico, according to the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

Related Article: US Drought: Colorado River Water Levels Drop by 20%, the Lowest This Century
Sea turtles are currently nesting in Florida, and wildlife officials are worried that the sargassum or seaweed blob could pose a problem.

Sea Turtle Nesting Season

After a successful 2022 that avoided Hurricane Ian, the turtle nesting season for 2023 begins with a new challenge along Florida's coastlines: sargassum.

Beginning on Monday and lasting through October 31 is Florida's turtle nesting season for this year. According to Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium via USA Today, the nesting season was nearly over when Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida on September 28 of last year.

Only a few damaged nests were discovered by aquarium officials; none of the nests used for research were harmed. Also during the final week of August, officials found no indication of newly vulnerable nests.

This year, dense seaweed mats that could make it difficult for female sea turtles to get around have conservationists worried.

This issue was also pointed out by the Sargasso Sea Commission in their published natural history notes. Although sargassum has multiple benefits such as serving as a habitat for neonatal and juvenile sea turtles while at sea, stabilizing against erosion as it reaches the shores, and transporting marine nutrients to terrestrial ecosystems, its positioning on the shores could still act as a barrier for newly hatched turtles, according to the Sargasso Sea Commission.

2022's Successful Nesting Season

In Florida's waters, five different species of sea turtles can be found swimming and nesting. It is forbidden to hurt, harass, or kill turtles, their eggs, or hatchlings because they are all either endangered or threatened.

The green, leatherback, hawksbill, and Kemp's Ridley turtles are all listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. The most prevalent sea turtle in Florida, the loggerhead, is classified as threatened.

Each year, Florida has tens of thousands of turtle nests, leading the nation as sea turtles build about 40,000 to 84,000 nests along the coast.

A successful nesting season for loggerhead turtles continued in 2022, with 116,765 nests, or about 20,000 more than the previous year. Much of the success has been attributed to decades of conservation efforts, including harvest bans, safer fishing nets, and habitat protection.

Read Also: Noxious Weed in South Korea Regenerates Skin with Collagen but Kills with Overdose

Sargassum

This summer, it is expected that Florida beaches will be covered in significant amounts of sargassum, or seaweed.

A general term for more than 300 species of brown algae, is sargassum. When the algae are at sea, it helps because it gives fish, mammals, seabirds, crabs, and other creatures food and protection. Within the initial few years of their lives, sea turtles find refuge and food on this floating mat of seaweed in the ocean, USA Today reports.

However, when on the beach, heaps of seaweed might make it difficult for female sea turtles to find a place to nest. Large amounts of sargassum on the shore could also present a challenge for hatchlings as they make their way to the water

Furthermore, the seaweed forms obstructive, foul-smelling mounds when it reaches the beaches. Sargassum mounds can be dangerous to people and harm marine life, in addition to annoying beachgoers. A surplus of seaweed depletes the water's oxygen supply, resulting in dead zones. CNN News reports that the toxic gas released by the rotting algae can lead to respiratory issues.

Related Article: Edible Seaweed Farming: Study Proves It May Help With Climate Change, Food Shortage, Deforestation
Today, hazardous fire conditions are anticipated over parts of north and central Georgia.

Weather officials point out that with low relative humidities and gusty winds prevailing over most of the state, locals should be mindful of using open flames today.

Red Flag Warning in Most of Georgia

Parts of North Georgia and the state's central region are under a Red Flag Warning, which extends to the Oconee National Forest, starting at noon today and lasting until 8 PM EDT.

A Red Flag Warning for dry, gusty winds has been issued by the Peachtree City National Weather Service and is in effect until 8 PM EDT this evening. The relative humidity readings are at or below 25%.

Winds will blow towards the West at 15 to 25 mph with gusts of 35 to 40 mph, while the minimum relative humidity values are from 20% to 25%.

Dangerous Fire Conditions

According to the National Weather Service, due to low humidity and high winds in addition to the dry fuels, any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly. Officials have reminded the public that outdoor burning is not recommended.

A Red Flag Warning denotes the occurrence of critical fire weather conditions now or within the next 24 hours.

The weather officials also reminded the public to refer to the local burn permitting authorities if they wish to burn outdoors.

Other Weather Alerts in Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is also covered by the Red Flag Warning. Aside from this alert, Atlanta is also under a Special Weather Statement for dangerous fire weather conditions. The officials gave a reminder that With dry fuels, high fire danger conditions can be expected.

A Wind Advisory is in effect over portions of central, east central, north central, northeast, northwest, southeast, and west central Georgia. This advisory will also expire by 8 PM EDT. West winds of up to 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph are expected. Tree limbs and unprotected objects could be blown around by strong winds, which could also cause a few power outages, weather officials warned.

Locals and travelers are also reminded to secure outdoor objects that are susceptible to high winds. It is important to use extra caution when driving, especially if operating a high-profile vehicle, The Weather Channel reports.

Also Read: 31% Earth Land Mass Had Extreme Heatwaves Beyond Statistical Data, Study Says

Weather Today in Atlanta

Atlanta skies are generally clear and windy. Temperature lows will be at 47F. West-Northwest wind speeds will be at 5 mph to 10 mph, however, higher wind gusts are possible. In Atlanta, it is anticipated that tomorrow's temperature will be very similar to today's.

Health Today in Atlanta

The air quality in Atlanta is rated at Fair today. Ground-level Ozone also ranked at fair.

Triggers for mold allergies are at high levels, while tree pollen, grass pollen, dust, and dander are all at moderate levels.

Triggers for arthritis are at moderate levels, while triggers for sinus pressure, flu, common cold, asthma, and migraine are at low levels, according to AccuWeather.

Related Article: Destructive Tornado Aftermath in Florida: Flipped Cars, Blocked Roads, Structural Damages
As May starts, New Yorkers could expect potential rainy conditions in parts of the City, with a milder weather outlook that could likely occur.

People in New York City (NYC) should consider bringing an umbrella due to the weather in parts of the city.

Meanwhile, motorists with travel plans or outdoor activities should check the weather to avoid travel disruptions and delays.

In the previous advisories, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported that a possible slow-moving storm could likely emerge in parts of the country, especially in the Northeast and Western U.S.

The weather forecast noted that heavy snow could unload in parts of Upper Michigan which could result in potential slower commutes.

Weather in New York City

Recently, NWS reported that snow and rain were forecast in portions of the Northeast, with chances of snow in parts of Michigan and Wisconsin.

In New York City, NWS New York NY explained that unsettled rain conditions could be likely through Friday.

The latest weather advisory in NYC showed that scattered showers could emerge this, with low chances of thunderstorms.

Motorists should also consider driving slowly during potential rainy conditions.

Meanwhile, rain showers could lead to slippery road conditions.

Meanwhile, CBS News also reported that milder weather outlook and rainy outlook were forecast last weekend.

The report said shower risk could also emerge through Friday in parts of NYC.

Cooler conditions were also forecasted at the end of the week.

The weather forecast noted that rain could be the main concern for potential flooding.

On the other hand, a previous report from Fox 5 New York reported that heavy rain resulted in flooding in parts of NYC, causing travel disruptions.

The weather report said flooding concerns were recorded in parts of the Bronx River Parkway and northbound Cross Island Expressway.

Chilly weather in parts of the Midwest and the East

Furthermore, AccuWeather's latest forecast said that wintry weather conditions could become likely in parts of the Midwest and Eastern US this week

Also Read: US Weather Forecast: Rainy Conditions Likely in New York City This Week

Based on AccuWeather's outlook this May, cooler conditions are forecast in Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington, and Jackson.

Meanwhile, mild conditions could emerge in Billings, Denver, Dallas and El Paso.

On the other hand, cool and wetter conditions are forecast in Seattle and San Francisco.

Cooler conditions are forecast this week.

Through Thursday, the latest weather outlook showed that unseasonably cooler air would unfold in Chicago, Nashville, Pittsburgh and Washington.

However, the weather is expected to become milder this coming weekend, especially in New York City, Washington, New York City, Portland, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis and Indianapolis.

There could be chances of snow due to the cooler conditions this week.

The weather could become colder at night.

The beginning of May recorded late-season snowstorms in parts of the Upper Midwest and rainy conditions in the United States.

Related Article: Developing Snowstorm to Unload in Parts of Denver, Colorado Rockies

For more similar, don't forget to follow Nature World News.
A missing fisherman in Far North Queensland since Saturday afternoon, April 29, has launched a widespread Australia crocodile hunt in search for two monster reptiles, which were captured and euthanized.

Local authorities killed the two crocodiles that they believed to be responsible for the victim named Kevin Darmody, which remains to be found even as of Tuesday, May 2.

Authorities believed the 65-year-old, at the time of his disappearance, was fishing at Kennedy Bend in Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park.

While investigation is still underway, there is strong evidence that Darmody was killed by the wild animals in the said area, which is infested by hundreds to a few thousand crocodiles.

Crocodiles are known for their habitats in shallow waters, especially murky lakes, ponds, and rivers.

In Australia, two species saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) and freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnsoni) inhabit the country's freshwater bodies of water.

The wild animals' presence is common in northern Queensland waterways, according to Queensland authorities.

Crocodile attacks on humans are also a common occurrence in Queensland, despite assessment of experts that fatal attacks are rare.

In recent months, there have been several cases of both fatal and non-fatal crocodile attacks in Australia.

In April, a 44-year-old man survived a crocodile encounter in Queensland after poking the eyes of the predators using his fingers.

Missing Fisherman in Queensland

The missing man's friend, who was nearby at the time of the incident, said Darmody was fishing along the banks of the Kennedy River when he suddenly heard splashing noises before he disappeared, according to a statement by Queensland's Department of Environment and Science on Sunday afternoon, April 30, as cited by Newsweek.

It was reported that local officials on Monday evening, May 1, removed the two massive crocodiles, measuring 13.5 feet and 9 feet in length, from the upstream where Darmody was reported fishing.

Also Read: Crocodile Sighting in South Queensland Shuts Down Major Tourist Destination After 3-Meter Reptilian Shows Up During Kayaking Tour

Crocodile Attack Investigation

Despite crocodiles being the likely culprit, Detective Acting Inspector Jason Chetham stated the cause of the Australian man's disappearance remains unclear, adding that it was possible that a crocodile dragged him into the water.

Chetham also told local reporters that the area is a national park and the presence of wild animals, including wild crocodiles, are there.

In relation to the investigation, a twist of events further strengthened the case that the missing fisherman was eaten by crocodiles after Australian officials discovered "items of relevance" inside one of the two crocodiles they shot dead, The Telegraph reported.

Precautionary Measures

A permanent ban on fishing is not feasible to avoid future Australian crocodile attacks.

With this, the Department of Environment and Science provides several tips or precautionary measures when fishing in Queensland waterways:

stand at least 5 meters back from the body of water's edge during fishing.

use a barrier such as an esky or tackle box between you and the water.

leave the lure since people attacked in the past were attempting to recover their fishing lure.

The Queensland government agency also provided other advice, which can be seen on its website.

Related Article: Headless Crocodile Discovered in Australia, Stirs Mystery and Sparks Debate on Cause of Death
Highlights

TVA enhances education by awarding $2.6 million in grants to 64 schools across the Southeast for HVAC upgrades and energy efficiency training to improve the learning environment.

This funding, which is awarded as a part of TVA's School Uplift program, will save schools about 10% on their energy bills.

TVA has invested $7.28 million and helped 118 schools save on their energy bills through the School Uplift program to date.

Schools across the Southeast region will have more money back into their budgets and cleaner air within their facilities thanks to $2.6 million in grants from the Tennessee Valley Authority. These grants are awarded as part of TVA's School Uplift program, which is expected to save 64 schools across six states an average of 10% on their energy bills this year.

Monday's live announcement was attended by hundreds of students and administrators who were eager to learn their school's grant amount. The grants ranged from $10,000 to $410,000 and the amount was dependent on the score each school achieved by cutting their energy waste. The grant scoring also incorporates a needs-based assessment of each school's facilities to determine which buildings could achieve the greatest energy savings.

"For nearly 90 years, TVA and our 153 local power company partners have worked to make a positive impact on the communities we serve, and our children are our most important asset," said Monika Beckner, vice president, TVA Energy Services & Programs. "Making classrooms healthier and more comfortable for both students and teachers helps give every child the opportunity to succeed. We're inspired by the winners of this year's School Uplift grants and proud of their dedication to reducing energy waste and building a sustainable future for us all."

In 2021, TVA launched the School Uplift program to invest in students' futures by offering energy efficiency training and grants that not only reduce energy costs but improve the quality of the learning environment. To date, TVA has invested $7.28 million and has helped 118 schools save on their energy bills. The estimated energy savings resulting from School Uplift upgrades and behavior change is equal to the carbon dioxide equivalent of 26,300 metric tonnes, or more than 29.5 million pounds of coal.

The 2023-2024 School Uplift program will kick off this summer with 125 new schools already enrolled and on their way to saving energy and helping students across the Valley thrive.

School Uplift is one of many TVA programs focused on improving outcomes for students in the region. This year, TVA awarded $1 million in STEM Grants, helping more than 136,000 students develop STEM skills and promoting financial skills by managing one of the largest student investment programs in the nation.

Learn more about TVA's School Uplift program at energyright.com/business-industry/school-uplift/.

Note:

State of Tennessee's Energy Efficient Schools Initiative partnered with TVA and has invested $1.86 million in School Uplift to support Tennessee schools. Click here to see the list of winning schools and grant amounts. Contact your school's principal for a quote and more information about the program.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is the nation's largest public power supplier, delivering energy to 10 million people across seven southeastern states. TVA was established 90 years ago to serve this region and the nation by developing innovative solutions to solve complex challenges. TVA's unique mission focuses on energy, environmental stewardship, and economic development. With one of the largest, most diverse, and cleanest energy systems - including nuclear, hydro, solar, gas, and advanced technologies - TVA is a leader in our nation's drive toward a clean energy future.

TVA is a corporate agency of the United States, receiving no taxpayer funding, deriving virtually all of its revenues from sales of electricity. In addition to operating and investing its revenues in its electric system, TVA provides flood control, navigation, and land management for the Tennessee River system, and assists local power companies and state and local governments with economic development and job creation. Learn more at Energy System of the Future.

Contact

Scott Fiedler

Public Relations

safiedler@tva.gov

423-751-7883

TVA Media Line

Our media staff is available 24 hours a day. If you cannot reach the contact above, please call our media line at 865-632-6000.
Around 30 orcas are seen by local marine authorities hunting down two adult gray whales, who managed to survive following a harrowing ordeal in the waters off the coast of California.

Monterey Bay Whale Watch videographer, Evan Brodsky, captured the bizarre even on March 30.

Orcas Attack Adult Gray Whales

In a video report published by the Monterey Bay Whale Watch on YouTube, it can be seen that at least 30 orcas predate on two adult gray whales, where the former typically hunts the latter during the months of April and May 2022.

It can also be noticed in the clip that the two whales were forming a defensive position to protect their bellies and even liver, which has been a delicacy for orcas in the wild, including the great white sharks.

Also Read: Animal-Watchers Stunned After Spotting Pair of Rare White Orcas off the Coast of Japan

North America Killer Whales

Killer whales or orcas can be seen in multiple places across North America, especially along the West Coast, ranging from Vancouver Island in Canada to Monterey Bay in the United States, according to the website North American Nature.

Other places where one can watch killer whales are in the San Juan Islands and Southern California, a coast area also used by gray whales to migrate between Alaska and Mexico.

It is due to this migration route that orcas use a site to ambush the whales, particularly calves.

However, the Monterey Bay attack over a month ago highlights that there are some alterations on the orcas' behavior since they usually attack young gray whales, not adult ones.

A Population Problem?

The recently filmed orca attack on the adult gray whales is unusual, posing the potential trend that the largest dolphin family members may food source issue or population problem on the side of the whales.

Ari Friedlaender, a marine mammal ecologist with the University of California, Santa Cruz, told Live Science, orcas normally hunt calves rather than adult whales by taking advantage of their migration journey along the west North America coast during the younglings' first year of their lives.

Despite such attack, Friedlaender said a single event does not necessarily mean a deviant pattern will begin.

For instance, the ecologist proposed one possible reason for killer whales continuously attacking adult whales is that the fewer gray whale population is available now, compared to previous years.

Gray Whale Population

In this context, there could be an underlying problem behind the gray whale population in North America.

In 2016, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries (NOAA Fisheries) estimated that the population of eastern North Pacific gray whale was nearly 27,000, which was one of the largest numbers since similar estimates were made back in 1967.

However, since January 19, the number of dead gray whales stranded along the beaches of the West Coast has continued.

In previous years, some of these strandings have been attributed to vessel strikes or ship collisions.

Related Article: Five Rescued As Orca Attack Sunk Their Sailboat Off Portugal Coast
Climate change is affecting the lives of many organisms on Earth, but how does it impact the reproductive output of birds?

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined changes in the reproductive output of 104 bird species worldwide from 1970 to 2019.

The study found that larger birds and migratory birds are more vulnerable to climate change than smaller, sedentary species.

How climate change affects bird reproduction

The study investigated the potential effects of global climate change, specifically warming, on offspring production for over 100 species from over 200 bird populations across all continents, as per Phys.org.

The researchers examined data for each of these bird populations over 15 to 49 breeding seasons to see if changes in local temperatures and precipitation were related to changes in the average number of offspring produced per female per year.

The researchers also considered whether climate change may affect offspring production by interacting with other attributes of the birds, such as body mass, migration status, habitat needs, human impacts on local landscapes, the protection/conservation status of sites, and whether the birds can produce two broods in a single breeding season.

The study found that across the 201 populations of wild birds, offspring production generally declined in recent decades.

There was, however, a great deal of variation among populations and species.

Increasing local temperatures during the chick-rearing period of the breeding season reduced offspring production in most migratory birds but increased in many small birds and sedentary birds that do not migrate.

Warming temperatures were also linked to lower offspring production in large birds.

The researchers hypothesized that these changes were caused by the effects of climate change on species' life histories and ecological traits, which influence clutch size and rates of nesting failure over time.

Also Read: Climate Change and Island Species: How the Dodo Birds Went Extinct

Examples of bird responses to climate change

The study highlighted some examples of how different bird species responded to climate change in different ways, as per Eurekalert.

For instance, a population of prothonotary warblers in southern Illinois increased its reproductive output by 40% over five decades as global and local temperatures rose.

The researchers attributed this to the fact that these warblers are small-bodied, sedentary, and can produce two broods per year.

They also nest in natural cavities that may buffer them from temperature extremes.

On the other hand, a population of common eiders in Greenland decreased its reproductive output by 50% over four decades as local temperatures increased.

The researchers suggested that this was because these eiders are large-bodied, migratory, and produce only one brood per year.

They also nest on open tundra that may expose them to more predators and parasites as snow cover declines.

The study also noted that some bird populations may be able to adapt to climate change by adjusting their timing of breeding or their choice of nesting sites.

For example, a population of great tits in England advanced its breeding date by 11 days over five decades as spring temperatures increased.

This allowed them to match their peak food demand with the peak availability of caterpillars.

The study concluded that understanding how climate change affects bird reproduction is important for conservation and management efforts.

The researchers suggested that more long-term studies are needed to monitor changes in bird populations and their responses to climate change.

They also recommended that conservation actions should consider the specific traits and needs of different bird species and populations.

Related article: Birds Losing Feather Colors: Another Effect of Climate Change, Study Reveals
According to a recent study, there are about 19,000 seamounts and underwater volcanoes scattered throughout the ocean floor.

The oceanographers from the University of Hawaii, Chungnam National University in South Korea, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, used radar satellite data to map the volcanoes.

Since a large portion of the ocean floor has yet to be explored, it is unknown how many underwater volcanoes there may be on the sea floor.

Only 20% of the ocean floor has been mapped by ships, according to the study.

There have been a few studies that suggested that there might be thousands more seamounts on the ocean floor, according to Julie Gevorgian, a The Scripps Institution of Oceanography research data analyst and coauthors of the study.

Over 19,000 new seamounts are still astounding to consider even then.

Underwater Volcanoes or Seamounts

Underwater volcanoes are formed similarly to land-based volcanoes by tectonic plate collision or volcanic eruption.

Seamounts are another name for underwater volcanoes.

Knowing the locations of seamounts is useful for improving submarine routes and sea mining operations.

According to a press release outlining the study, two US submarines have previously collided with seamounts, which could be dangerous for the crew.

Scientists can better understand the tectonic plates and the geomagnetic field of the Earth by mapping the locations of seamounts.

According to the study, volcanoes can provide information about the makeup and temperature of the Earth's mantle.

Deep ocean currents are impacted by seamounts.

When currents and seamounts interact, the currents are pushed upward and carry cold water.

This can be crucial to examine because climate change is causing the oceans to absorb more carbon dioxide.

Since seamounts are rich in minerals and can serve as a habitat for a variety of marine life, scientists have set out to explore and map out as many seamounts as they can to learn more about what lies beneath the ocean's surface.

19,000 Ancient Volcanoes

The 19,325 seamounts that were found were unknown to science before.

The seamounts could not be photographed by the satellites used to find them, but they could be identified by differences in their altitudes and gravitational pull.

According to Gevorgian, there may be a lot more minor seamounts in the world.

Seamounts with a diameter of less than six kilometers won't be found because the resolution of the available altimetry data is only about six kilometers.

These tiny seamounts are harder to spot in the altimetry data because they have smaller masses and smaller gravity signatures.

For instance, this might be the case close to ridges that spread quickly and have a lot of tiny volcanoes.

According to Gevorgian, prior studies estimate that there may be 50,000 of them worldwide and that the number rises as the size of the organisms decreases.

Gevorgian's team's study unquestionably contributed to the global seamount catalog's advancement, but the study could still go further with better data resolution.

Also Read: Peculiar Leak in Pacific Ocean Floor Along Cascadia Fault Line Might Trigger Powerful Earthquake

Volcanic Activities on the Ocean Floor

The new seamounts found in this study will be added to the 24,643 seamounts that were previously cataloged in the 2011 Kim-Wessel catalog, also known as the Global Seamount Database, putting the current count at 43,454 seamounts.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, three-quarters of all Earth's volcanic activity occurs underwater.

Eruptions can occasionally, though extremely rarely, be dangerous.

Although they must not be too deep below the water's surface, underwater volcanoes can cause tsunamis.

Explosive eruptions like those we see from some land volcanoes are generally rare for seamounts.

This is due to the enormous weight that is produced by the water pressure at these depths.

Consequently, when an underwater volcano erupts, it will produce a passive lava flow along the ocean floor.

These eruptions are typically invisible from the ocean's surface, Newsweek reported.

The study by Gevorgian and several colleagues has been recently published in Earth and Space Science.

Related Article: Remote Undersea Volcano in Pacific Ocean Might Have Been Erupting Since October
Highlights

50 megawatts/400 megawatt hour Limondale Battery Energy Storage System next to RWE's existing Limondale Solar Farm

RWE to grow its global battery storage portfolio to 3 gigawatts by 2030

RWE Renewables Europe & Australia, a leading player in renewables globally, has been successful in the New South Wales competitive tender process offering Long-Term Energy Service Agreements to project developers of long duration storage projects. RWE's Limondale battery energy storage system with a planned installed capacity of 50 megawatts (MW) and 400 megawatt hours (MWh) has been awarded. The project will be located next to RWE's existing 249 MWac Limondale Solar Farm with the project taking advantage of existing grid infrastructure. The project is currently working toward a final investment decision in the next 12 months.

New South Wales has set an ambitious roadmap to replace ageing coal-fired power stations with zero emissions generation and storage. The bipartisan policy is backed by a schedule of auctions for new renewable and storage capacity out to 2030.

Katja Wunschel, CEO RWE Renewables Europe & Australia: "We are delighted to be awarded this major battery storage project and look forward to a successful partnership with the New South Wales government. RWE supports New South Wales' ambition and appreciates the dedication shown by the government in policy design and the professionalism of Australian Energy Market Operator Services Limited in implementation which enables the market to invest with confidence. This success creates further momentum working towards a sustainable future in our core market Australia. In a renewables world, battery storages are key for a reliable, secure and sustainable electricity supply. We have been operating in New South Wales for some years, and now we are keen to develop a battery project that is exemplary, both technically and environmentally - hand in hand with local communities. It is another milestone on our way to expand our global batteries portfolio to 3 gigawatts by 2030."

Limondale Solar Farm

In Balranald, New South Wales, RWE owns and operates a solar photovoltaic plant, Limondale, with an installed capacity of 249 MWac. The large-scale solar farm is made up of 872,000 panels and covers an area of 770 hectares. Full commercial operation started in 2021.

Battery storage @ RWE

Battery storage systems are an essential part of the energy transition as they store excess renewable energy and release it again when the energy is needed most. As a driving force behind the energy transition, RWE develops, builds, and operates battery storage systems in Europe, Australia, and the United States. RWE is currently operating utility-scale battery storage projects with an installed capacity of around 300 MW (380 MWh), while completing battery storage projects around the world with a capacity of more than 900 MW (2,300 MWh). Globally, RWE aims to build battery storage systems with a total capacity of 3 gigawatts by 2030.

In Germany, at the end of 2022, RWE announced its investment decision for a new virtually networked 220 MW (235 MWh) battery storage project. In March 2023, RWE has acquired UK developer JBM Solar including a mature of 2.3 GWac pipeline of battery storage projects. Currently, two solar plants with integrated battery storage are under construction at RWE's Garzweiler mine in Germany.
The travel industry is experiencing a boom in cruising, as the intent to cruise is stronger than ever amongst travellers, with 85% of cruisers intending to take a holiday at sea again, said luxury cruise experts at Panache Cruises.



This comes after CLIA data revealing British and Irish holidaymakers took approximately 1.7 million cruises in 2022, up from 479,000 the previous year.



The growth of the expedition holiday market indicates a desire for adventure post-lockdown with tourists keen to explore lesser-trodden routes.



And with travel restrictions a thing of the past after many months of being unable to travel, holidaymakers are looking to tick off the destination at the top of their bucket lists.



The industry is responding to consumer demand for more environmentally friendly forms of travel with sustainability at the centre of many travel businesses' plans for 2023.



This is most evident in the cruise sector as cruise lines introduce cleaner fuels, eliminate plastics and reduce waste whilst producing fresh water on board.



With more regional UK ports open to cruise vessels than ever before, holidaymakers need to travel less by road or air before they start their holiday proper. This not only saves time but also has environmental benefits too.



James Cole, Founder and Managing Director at the specialist in ultra luxury cruises said: Following the pandemic, we have seen a shift in the priorities of travellers across the wider travel sector as people move away from mass-market style holidays. After being cooped up inside for two years, people are looking for adventure further afield.



Advancements in cruise ship technology such as hydrodynamic hull design and more efficient propulsions systems mean that vessels can cruise comfortably at over 20 knots whilst using much less fuel. This is allowing tourists to travel further from home even on shorter itineraries.



Destination trends in Europe have been impacted significantly by the war in Ukraine as ships are no longer stopping at various ports in both the Baltic and the Black seas. This has led to travel itineraries moving the focus away from Russia to other less explored Eastern European destinations like Tallinn in Estonia - which has seen cruise tourists almost double in the past 12 months.



And with sustainability an increasing concern for consumers, a growing number are voting with their wallets by choosing travel brands that provide sustainable options. We are seeing a big shift towards environmentally friendly travel generally across all modes of transport and the cruise sector is driving this change.



Cruise operators are building ships that run on greener fuels as well as developing wastewater management systems to eliminate water pollution. Marine engineers are coming up with more streamlined hulls which reduce drag and are therefore much more efficient. This is allowing passengers to travel further afield in a much more efficient manner.



Luxury cruise experts at Panache Cruises have analysed the market and booking data to uncover the travel trends we can expect to see this summer and beyond.



1. Bucket List Holidays

The demand for big-ticket bucket list trips has increased in popularity after the confines of lockdown. Travellers are looking to spread their wings with a renewed sense of perspective and a desire for adventure. Cruise lines are seeing an increase in bookings to destinations such as the US, Canada and Australia as well as previously inaccessible destinations. The pandemic halted everyones ability to travel and now holidaymakers are realising they can, and should, visit somewhere they have always wanted to go whilst they now have the opportunity.



2. Expedition Holidays

A surge in interest in expedition cruises reflects a desire within Brits to travel further afield and create new experiences. The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have fuelled a desire to explore off the beaten track. Adventurists want to see some of the most remote parts of the world and walk along yet-to-be-trodden paths. Antarctica cruises are a popular choice amongst those wanting to see landscapes that have only been seen by a few. The rapidly growing expedition cruising sector has seen many new ice rated expedition vessels - equipped with submarines, helicopters and Zodiac inflatable boats to explore remote areas up close.



3. More of a focus on our environment

Environmental issues are to the fore in the travel sector in 2023 with a bigger focus on sustainability and protecting the natural environment. The cruise industry is taking a lead with new greener fuels and more efficient vessels. More regional UK ports are opening up for large vessels too meaning that holidaymakers have significantly less distance to travel between home and their nearest cruise ship dock. Many holidaymakers wont need to board a plane and generate further emissions as a result.



4. Baltic travel changed inexorably by the Ukrainian war

The cruising industry in particular has seen a switch in tourism to other eastern European seaports because of the war in Ukraine. Rather than visiting Russian ports such as St. Petersburg, cruise ships are stopping off in ports such as Tallinn in Estonia and Riga in Latvia. As a result, tourism numbers to these eastern European countries are soaring - bringing in more money to these countries. Tallinn alone has seen tourist numbers from docking cruise ships almost double in the past year.



5. Being able to cruise further on shorter trips

CLIA data shows for the previous year, the average length of cruise for British and Irish holidaymakers was 9.7 days, which is down slightly on the length of cruise in 2019. Recent advances in cruise ship technology have seen the creation of vessels which can cover greater distances per day due to improved hydrodynamic hulls and more efficient engines. In 2023 travellers heading away on a weeks cruise on the most modern ships will be able to explore further afield due to this new technology. With sailing speeds in excess of 20 knots, travellers are now able to spend more time at each port and experience destinations within Scandinavia and the Mediterranean more easily than ever before.



Panache Cruises is the leading UK provider of luxury and ultra-luxury cruises and partners only with the World's most luxurious cruise lines. With full ATOL financial protection, Panache Cruises customers also benefit from the companys Customer Trust Fund.  TradeArabia News Service
ELKO  Elko city planners are recommending concrete medians be installed at Silver and West Main streets for traffic safety ahead of the local charter school moving to property at the intersection.

Their decision this week is at odds with recommendations from both the police and fire chief, who preferred a traffic signal light instead. The approximately $1 million cost of a signal would be the responsibility of the Elko Institute for Academic Achievement.

Three extensive traffic impact studies were done by Hales Engineering of Lehi, Utah. They indicated the charter school would produce about a 5% increase in traffic, concentrated during the early morning and afternoon hours when students are dropped off and picked up.

In reviewing the plans, Police Chief Ty Trouten called the medians problematic.

That is a major arterial route for Elko, and has a lot of vehicle crashes as it is now, he wrote, adding that any crashes would likely halt traffic in one direction if medians are in the way.

Fire Chief James Johnston also recommended a traffic signal, saying medians could delay fire trucks.

This is precious time wasted and we cannot allow this to occur. In our industry, seconds can mean life or death in fire situations, he wrote.

Planning commissioners unanimously recommended the median proposal under the schools conditional use permit.

Commission Chairman Jeff Dalling pointed out that a traffic light was not required when Adobe Middle School was constructed several blocks to the north. He said concrete medians preventing left turns onto Silver would better meet traffic safety needs at the charter school.

Its not a perfect situation but at the end of the day you cant pass a $1 million bill onto [the school], Dalling said. What is the Citys job? To provide protection and infrastructure.
Trail Center back on summer schedule

ELKO  The California Trail Interpretive Center (CTIC) has resumed a seven-day per week schedule. Summer operating hours are Monday through Sunday 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Located eight miles west of Elko on Interstate 80, the CTIC is a local favorite also visited by scores of travelers stopping by on the I-80 corridor.

The seven day a week schedule will allow the Trail Center to better serve the public during the busy summer months by offering local visitors and travelers the opportunity to take advantage of many exciting summer programs including Trail Days June 3-4 this year, and to shop for unique items in the gift shop, said CTIC Manager Paul Brownlee.

The CTIC will continue the popular interpretive programming for all ages throughout the summer. Each weekend will have a different focus, providing something for all skill levels and interests. Watch for season-specific activities such as Dutch oven cooking, butter churning, bows and throws archery and axe and knife throwing, daytime and evening hikes, and more for the whole family to enjoy.

For additional information, contact the CTIC, at 775-778-1849 or visit https://www.californiatrailcenter.org.

Elko Cancer Support Group meets Friday

ELKO  Elko Cancer Support Group will meet at 11 a.m. Friday, May 5, at The Terrace at Ruby View  Senior and Active Lifestyle Centers art room, 1995 Ruby View Drive.

Any age is welcome.

If you are a Cancer Warrior, Caregiver, family member, friend, or have lost a loved one, please come join us for a safe place to come and share stories, give and gain support, strength, hope and positive energy, stated the host, Cindy Staszak, an Elko Pancreatic Cancer Stage 4 Survivor and Cancer Exercise Specialist, CETI.

May is Melanoma/Skin cancer, Bladder cancer and Brain cancer Awareness month.

For more information Staszak can be reached at cindystaszak.elko@gmail.com.

Cinco de Mayo parade on Saturday

ELKO  Elkos Cinco de Mayo Parade and Festival is scheduled Saturday, May 6, downtown and at the fairgrounds.

The parade begins at 11 a.m., followed by festival activities at the fairgrounds from noon to 7 p.m.

Music will be provided by DJ Arturo Torres as well as live Tamborazo music. The festival includes Folkloric dance performances, Mexican food, face painting, bounce houses and more.

Sponsors include Rockwell Industrial & Mining, Ruby Rose Landscape & Tree Service, Riverton Elko, Silver Street Express Lube, Elko Federal Credit Union, Elko Motor Co., Elko Glass Service, Nevada Bank & Trust, and Farmers Insurance.

For more information email elkocincodemayo.com, visit Facebook or call Nancy Davila (vendors) at 775-385-4327 or Daena Romero-Sandoval (parade) at 775-738-3131.

Spring Tour of Homes

ELKO  The eighth annual Spring Tour of Homes will be on May 20 from 10 a.m. to 3 p m. This is a free open house tour giving the public an opportunity to view Elko/Spring Creek real estate.

The tour is organized and operated by the Elko County Realtors Association. Chairman Dusty Shipp founded the event originally to showcase the luxury estates in Elko County and it has since turned into a highly anticipated tour for the general public to see residential properties and discuss any questions or inquires with local real estate professionals.

The starting point to pick up your map will be at the Commercial Hotel. There you will find free food, free raffles, and free family fun.

Rummage sale at St. Mark June 2-3

ELKO  St. Mark Lutheran Church LWML will hold their 35th Annual Rhubarb and Rummage Sale on Friday and Saturday, June 2-3, 2023, from 8 a.m. to 1p.m. at 277 Willow St.

There will be a huge selection of items for sale. Breakfast, lunch and baked goods will be available for purchase.

For more information, or if you have something you wish to donate, contact Julie at 775-934-4462

Country Under the Stars set for June 8

ELKO  Tickets are on sale now for the Country Under the Stars concert scheduled Thursday, June 8, at the Elko County Fairgrounds.

Headliner Granger Smith featuring Earl Dibbles Jr and Opener Ned LeDoux are bringing the party to the Elko County Fairgrounds concert that sold out last year, so tickets should be purchased early at www.CountryUnderTheStarsElko.com.

Gates open at 5 p.m. and the opening act begins at 6:30.

Amate

ur Radio Club invite

ELKO  The Elko Amateur Radio Club (EARC) is an organization devoted to all aspects of Amateur Radio Operations.

EARC has a net on Wednesday nights at 7:30 p.m. at 444.500Mhz.

There is also a club breakfast every Saturday morning.

All persons interested in amateur radio and who support the goals of the Elko Amateur Radio Club are eligible to join.

For further information and schedules check out the website at www.W7LKO.org.

Swing your partner

ELKO  Ruby Mountain Square Dance Club is now offering lessons and dances weekly at the Girl Scout House, 561 VFW Drive, from 6-8 p.m. on Thursdays.

For information call Dixie Starbuck at 775-934-6225.

Horizon Center grief support group

ELKO  Horizon Hospice offers support groups through its Horizon Center during the school year, once or twice a month for anyone who would like support through their grief. Anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one is welcome. There are groups for children ages 3 to 18, their parents/caregivers, as well as adult groups.

Upcoming dates are April 18 and May 2 and 16.

There is no cost for the service and you may join at any time. Call 775-778-0612 to register.

Horizon Hospice has also scheduled volunteer training Feb. 22 and 23. The sessions run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 1250 Lamoille Highway, No. 413.

A light continental breakfast and lunch will be provided on both days.
At campaign stops and official events, President Joe Biden likes to frequently remind supporters of a quote he attributes to his father: Dont compare me to the Almighty; compare me to the alternative.

And while his approval rating in Nevada remains underwater, a new Nevada Independent/Noble Predictive Insights poll indicated that voters indeed prefer Biden to the Republican alternatives. Among likely voters, Biden leads former President Donald Trump by a substantial 8 points, 48 percent to 40 percent, and edges out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by 43 percent to 42 percent.

The poll was conducted from April 18 to April 26 of 613 Nevada residents in an online opt-in panel survey. The results have a margin of error of about 4 percent.

Biden has significantly improved his margins over each potential Republican foe since an early February poll of registered voters, which found him with a 6-point deficit to DeSantis and 2 points behind Trump. Since then, Trump has been indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan, while DeSantis, who has yet to announce a presidential bid, has fallen in polls after a barrage of attacks from the Trump campaign, a public legal battle with Disney, and a donor exodus.

Bidens approval rating among likely voters in the state  as in the rest of the country  remains low. He sits at 42 percent approval and 53 percent disapproval.

Mike Noble, the chief of research and managing partner at Noble Predictive Insights, said the 2022 midterm elections, in which Democrats nationwide notched notable wins against Trump-backed Republican candidates in what is typically a referendum on the presidents party, proved that his low approval rating is not indicative of future electoral failure.

It really depends on who Bidens ultimately running against, Noble said in an interview on Monday. If its Trump, Bidens job approval is meaningless.

Biden, who beat Trump in Nevada in 2020 by about 2 percentage points, officially launched his re-election campaign last week.

Bidens favorability sits at 44 percent, slightly higher than his approval rating. Noble said this phenomenon is typical for Biden, whom voters disapprove of on the issues but find relatively likable or inoffensive. He proved most popular among non-Hispanic voters of color, older millennials aged 35 to 44, and Nevadans with postgraduate degrees.

Among independents, Bidens approval rating is a paltry 34 percent. And yet, in a hypothetical rematch with Trump, Biden has a 12-point advantage among independents  a margin that, if it were to hold over the next 18 months, would put purple Nevada firmly out of reach for the former president. Independents are more enthused by DeSantis; the governor has a 1-point advantage over Biden among independents, though 23 percent of those respondents remained unsure of who to support.

When polled on Bidens handling of 11 issues, a majority of likely Nevada voters only approved of his handling of one topic  the COVID-19 pandemic. He also did well on the environment and race relations, relative to his overall 42 percent approval rating. His weakest marks were for his handling of immigration and the economy, each at 60 percent disapproval, followed close by gun policy, which 57 percent of likely voters disapproved of.

Democrats also continue to hold a major advantage among women, a trend that emerged after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and which has held in the year since. In a generic congressional ballot, the poll found Democrats held a 6-point advantage over Republicans among all likely voters. When narrowed down to women, the margin expands to a whopping 22-point margin.

Noble said polling from April 2022, before the Supreme Court made its ruling, showed Democrats with a 9-point lead with women.

Frankly, abortion has been a buzzsaw issue for the GOP since the Supreme Court decision, Noble said. Republicans need to align on a united position and strategy and navigate this issue if they hope to carry female voters come November.

On the generic ballot, Democrats also carried Hispanic voters by 14 percent. And despite having a negative favorability metric with Hispanic voters, Biden carried them in the poll by a margin of 16 and 17 points, respectively, against Trump and DeSantis.







Jacky Rosen ratings

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who is up for re-election in 2024, is polling ahead of Biden. Fifty percent of likely voters had a favorable view of her (compared to 44 percent for Biden) while 36 percent did not.

Thirteen percent of voters either had no opinion or had not heard of her, a metric Noble said works to her advantage because she has a long window of time to define herself while Republicans will not even know their candidate until next summer.

Rosens favorability was strongest among likely voters aged 18 to 44, voters of color, and voters with a postgraduate education. The only groups who viewed her disfavorably, on the whole, were Republicans and rural voters.

Given that both Rosen and Biden will be on the ballot in 2024, Bidens poor approval rating could be a drag on the junior senator. But Noble said that scenario is unlikely given that Rosen can expect a fundraising advantage as a Democrat in a battleground state.

Senate Democrats, including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), racked up enormous cash sums in 2022 and outspent Republican opponents. He also expects the presidential election to juice turnout among young voters, particularly young women who support abortion rights  all good signs for Rosen.

If Im Rosen, Id actually be feeling great, Noble said. You have a long runway, and youve got plenty of financial resources to basically build your armor.
"We must do everything we can to help victims feel safe in coming forward, said state Sen. Lisa Krasner. (Photo: Richard Bednarski/Nevada Current)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Untold numbers of sexual assault cases nationwide have been solved after DNA evidence linked perpetrators to their crimes, but victims of sexual assault should not have to worry that their own DNA will be used against them.

Senate Bill 321 would protect victims of sexual assault from having the DNA they submit as part of a rape kit used to prosecute them for crimes. Such samples could only be used to prosecute the perpetrator of their sexual assault. The bill passed the Nevada State Senate unanimously on April 25 and was heard by the Assembly Judiciary committee Tuesday.

State Sen. Lisa Krasner, R-Reno, brought forward the bill, and 19 lawmakers across both chambers and parties have signed on as primary or co-sponsors.

Krasner pointed to a high profile incident in California as a reason why Nevada should be proactive on the issue of protecting victims of sexual assault.

San Franciscos district attorney last year revealed the citys police crime lab used DNA collected during a rape kit in 2016 to tie a sexual assault victim to a burglary in 2021. The citys police chief called it a horrendous mistake and vowed it would not happen again, but the incident sparked broad calls for states to strengthen safeguards against such use.

Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes. Fear that their DNA or other forensic evidence collected during a rape kit might be used against them in unrelated cases is believed to be contributing to underreporting. Other reasons why victims dont come forward include fear of not being believed, fear of retribution by their assailant, or feeling like justice is futile. (Just under 20% of reported rapes in Nevada in 2022 resulted in an arrest, according to the Department of Public Safety.)

We have to do better, said Krasner. Collecting and properly processing sexual assault crime evidence and rape kits is vital to that effort. We must do everything we can to help victims feel safe in coming forward.

In 2019, she added, citing FBI data, Nevada had one of the highest rates of reported rape per capita. Since then, the states rate of reported rapes per capita has seen a small but steady decline.

We have to wonder if that just means that victim survivors are choosing not to come forward and report the rape to law enforcement, she said.

Nevada already has a Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights, which specifies that forensic evidence from a sexual assault survivor cannot be used to prosecute that survivor for any misdemeanor or offense related to a controlled substance. SB321 would expand that protection to any crime.

No Assembly Judiciary committee member expressed objections to the proposed bill.

Besides the humanity and sensitivity of the issue, its also a Fourth Amendment issue, said Democratic Assemblywoman Britney Miller, referring to the right to privacy established in the U.S. Constitution. Even if you cant extend yourself to humanity and sensitivity, it is a strong constitutional issue.

SB321 is being supported by a broad coalition that includes the Nevada District Attorneys Association, the public defenders offices in Clark and Washoe counties, and several law enforcement groups, including the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

LVMPD lobbyist Beth Schmidt said during her testimony in support that Metro does not run sexual assault victim DNA through the national DNA database  known as CODIS, or the Combined DNA Index System.

We appreciate codifying this into statute, she added.

Steve Gresko, the administrator of CODIS for Nevada and a supervising criminalist at the Washoe County Sheriffs Office, also testified that CODIS does not currently include victim DNA.

Gresko said law enforcement agencies will occasionally turn to forensic evidence collected through a rape kit if the victim of a sexual assault later becomes a missing person and no other DNA reference sample can be found. In those cases, the purpose is not to prosecute but only to identify the person.
Met Gala 2023: Celebrating Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty

New Delhi, May 2: Once again, the Met Gala brings together the most prominent fashion figures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its annual celebration of the opening of its new costume institute exhibition.

Met Gala 2023: Celebrating 'Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty'

The theme for Met Gala 2023 is "Karl Lagerfeld A Line of Beauty," in remembrance of the life and career of the late fashion designer. Along with creating clothing for his own label, Lagerfeld worked on projects for fashion labels including Chanel, Fendi, Balmain, and Chloe throughout his career.Here are some of the best Met Gala 2023 outfits we've curated from the red carpetPenelope CruzPenelope Cruz, who was dressed in vintage Chanel bridal, revealed to Vogue that she first met Lagerfeld in 1999 and that they grew close after he made her a company ambassador. She said, "I loved him so much."Doja CatDoja Cat went all out for her first Met Gala, showing up in a stunning Oscar de la Renta gown and complete cat prosthetics.Jenna OrtegaJenna Ortega wore a corset dress, small tulle pannier, cropped tweed jacket, and long coat in her deconstructed high-low Thom Browne ensemble.Bad BunnyBad Bunny is sporting a rose-patterned stole and a backless cream suit.Cardi BCardi B rocked two iconic couture outfits, including this one with a corset, gloves, and tie a la Lagerfeld.Gigi HadidGigi Hadid arrived at the red carpet wearing a sensual Givenchy gown that was corseted, sheer, and fitted.Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Kylie JennerKim Kardashian is wearing Schiaparelli, Kendall Jenner is wearing Marc Jacobs, and Kylie Jenner is wearing Haider Ackermann.RihannaIn keeping with the Chanel brides who concluded Lagerfeld's couture presentations, Rihanna's white Valentino gown, which she paired with a white floral hooded coat, looked great on her.Jeremy PopeA Balmain Cape with the visage of Lagerfeld was actor Jeremy Pope's obvious and imposing tribute to the fashion designer.Alia BhattThis year, Alia Bhatt attended her first Met Gala. The actress, who will soon make her Hollywood debut in Gal Gadot's Heart of Stone, was dressed in Prabal Gurung clothing for the momentous occasion. She was stunning in a floor-length white gown.Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick JonasIn a black off-the-shoulder gown with a thigh-high slit, Priyanka looked stunning. She also donned a cape with frills. She accessorised with a diamond necklace and earring sets. Priyanka made a bun out of her hair. Nick praised her stylish black outfit.Glenn CloseIn a specially designed Erdem gown created as an homage to Lagerfeld, Glenn Close added drama.(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)IANS02 May 2023

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Vessels to harbour - India bolsters coastal defence of key Indian Ocean ally Maldives

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh handed over an indigenously built Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV), along with an assault landing craft to Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF) on Tuesday, another gift from New Delhi to enhance the capacity of defence and security forces of the archipelago.

Vessels to harbour - India bolsters coastal defence of key Indian Ocean ally Maldives

Singh, who began Tuesday by calling on the President of Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, also inaugurated the development project of the MNDF Coast Guard Harbour and repair facility at Sifavaru.The India-developed project would assist the MNDF in exercising jurisdiction and undertaking maritime surveillance of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and atolls.It is one of the 10 areas for cooperation outlined in the 'Action Plan on Defence Cooperation between Maldives and India', signed during former Maldives President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Qayoom's visit to India in April 2016.For several years, the MNDF Coast Guard had been in dire need of an indigenous dockyard and harbour to ensure maritime safety in a nation whose territory is 99.7 per cent water.Thanking India, Maldives Defence Minister Mariya Didi has stated the "extreme necessity" to have a vessel repair and maintenance facility at home as having Coast Guard ships berthed and moored in high civilian traffic areas and inadequate berthing facilities not only led to extra costs but also posed security and safety risks.Also, sending vessels like India-gifted CGS Huravee to Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam or any other place for major repairs and refitting left them non-operational for a long period.As reported by IndiaNarrative.com, the highly manoeuvrable Fast Attack Craft INS Tarmugli, which will be recommissioned as CGS Huravee during the ceremony today, will mark another significant milestone in the defence ties between the two countries."I'm thoroughly impressed by the vessel's equipment and capacity. This OPV will undoubtedly help President Ibu Solih achieve his goal of strengthening the Armed Forces' capabilities," tweeted Mariya Didi after boarding the ship last Thursday.It has been for a long time that the Indian Navy has been assisting friendly Indian Ocean Region (IOR) littoral nations A including Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius A in maritime surveillance by deploying its ships and aircraft for joint EEZ surveillance.Spotlighting the special relationship with India, Didi broke protocol and personally received the Singh upon his arrival at the Velana International Airport. Also accompanying the Defence Minister was the Maldives' Chief of Defence Force Major General Abdhulla Shamaal.Later, during their bilateral meeting, both ministers discussed a wide range of regional and global security issues of mutual concern and agreed to further strengthen the cooperation in the defence and security domains."Both Ministers reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, and security in the region, and recognized the need to work together to address common security challenges. They underscored the importance of respecting international law and the rules-based international order, and expressed their commitment to upholding these principles," said the Maldivian Defence Ministry in a statement.Singh then called on Maldives' Foreign Affairs Minister Abdulla Shahid, with both ministers acknowledging and reviewing the significant milestones achieved through robust defence cooperation between the two countries.Shahid specifically mentioned the prominent role India continues to play in enhancing the capacities of the defence and security forces of Maldives.Male has repeatedly stated how the partnership with India has made a real difference in the lives of people in the island nation.A key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region, Maldives continues to occupy an important place in India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy and the 'SAGAR' (Security and Growth for All in the Region) vision of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi."The India-Maldives partnership is not only working in the interest of the citizens of both the countries but is also becoming a source of peace, stability and prosperity for the region," Prime Minister Modi stated during Solih's landmark visit in August 2022.(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)--indianarrativeIANS02 May 2023

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IDFC FIRST Bank FY23 profit after tax highest-ever at Rs 2,437 crore in FY23, as compared to Rs 145 crore in FY22

Mumbai, May 2: Executive Summary - The Board of Directors of IDFC FIRST Bank, in its meeting held today, approved the audited financial results for the quarter and financial year ended March 31, 2023. The key highlights were:.

IDFC FIRST Bank FY23 profit after tax highest-ever at Rs 2,437 crore in FY23, as compared to Rs 145 crore in FY22

Profit after Tax increased to Rs 2,437 crore for FY 23, up from Rs 145 crores in FY 22. Profit after Tax for Q4-FY23 was at Rs 803 crore, up 134% as compared to Q4-FY22. Customer deposits were at Rs 1,36,812 crore, up 47% YOY. Loans and Advances* were at Rs 1,60,599 crore, up 24% YOY. Asset quality improved with Gross NPA at 2.51% and Net NPA at 0.86%. Asset quality for retail loans improved with Gross NPA of 1.65% and Net NPA of 0.55%. Capital adequacy was strong at 16.82%* Bank's Gross and Net NPA excluding the infrastructure financing book which is a rundown mode, is 1.84% and 0.46% respectively.^ Including technical write-offs; * including credit substitutes Profitability* Net Profit for the year stood at Rs 2,437 crore compared to Rs 145 crore in FY22. The quarterly net profit grew 134% YOY from Rs 343 crore in Q4-FY22 to Rs 803 crore in Q4-FY23 driven by strong growth in core operating income.* In Q4-FY23, the Bank had trading gains of Rs 216 crore and the Bank utilized Rs 79 crore to increase the provision coverage ratio. Adjusting for these one time items, the net profit of the Bank would have been Rs 701 crore for Q4-FY23. The Core ROE on this basis would have been 12.3% which has increased from ROE of 6.67% for Q4 FY 22.* Net Interest Income (NII) for the year grew 30% YOY, from Rs 9,706 crore in FY22 to Rs 12,635 crore in FY23. NII grew 35% YOY from Rs 2,669 crore in Q4-FY22 to Rs 3,597 crore in Q4-FY23.* Fee and other Income for the year grew by 54% YOY from Rs 2,691 crore in FY22 to Rs 4,142 crore in FY23. It grew 40% YOY from Rs 841 crore in Q4-FY22 to Rs 1,181 crore in Q4-FY23. Retail fees constituted 91% of the overall fees for the quarter Q4-FY23.* Core Operating Profit (NII plus Fees less Opex, excluding trading gains) for the year grew 67% YOY from Rs 2,753 crore in FY22 to Rs 4,607 crore in FY23. For the quarter, the core operating profit grew by 61% YOY from Rs 836 crore in Q4-FY22 to Rs 1,342 crore in Q4-FY23.* Provisions for the year decreased by 46% YOY from Rs 3,109 crore in FY22 to Rs 1,665 crore in FY23. Credit cost for FY23 was 1.16% against the guidance of 1.5%.* ROA improved from 0.08% in FY22 to 1.13% in FY23.* ROE for FY 23 improved to 10.95% from 0.75% in FY22.* For the exit quarter, after adjusting for one-time items, RoA increased from 0.76% in Q4-FY22 to 1.23% in Q4-FY23. The ROE increased from 6.67% in Q4 FY 22 to 12.30% in Q4 FY 23.Comments from Managing Director and CEOV Vaidyanathan, Managing Director and CEO, IDFC FIRST Bank, said, "We have built a strong foundation for the bank with a diversified customer deposits and diversified loan book.More importantly, I'm happy to share that the asset quality remains high. On the retail side, the Gross NPA is 1.65% and the net NPA is at 0.55%, against the guidance of Gross NPA of 2.0% and NNPA of less than 1%. If we exclude the infrastructure financing book, which is anyway in run-down mode, the Gross NPA and Net NPA would be 1.84% and 0.46% at the overall bank level.We have registered our highest ever quarterly profit of Rs. 803 crores in Q4 FY 23 and highest ever yearly profit of Rs. 2,437 crores in FY23.We sincerely thank all our stakeholders for their goodwill towards us even while we were building the foundation with a strong deposit franchise and CASA of nearly 50%. Now the bank is firmly into profits, and we believe we can deliver strong financial performance from here on. The Bank would continue to focus on building a strong culture of customer friendliness, customer service, ethics, and high levels of corporate governance in the bank."This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.ANI02 May 2023

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Assam: Jayanta Baruah receives Guinness World Record certificate for Hemkosh

Guwahati, May 2: The publisher of 'Hemkosh' and chairman of Pratidin Media Network Jayanta Baruah received the Guinness World Records certificate of 'largest bilingual braille dictionary' from Rishi Nath, official adjudicator for Guinness World Records on the occasion of the 127th death anniversary of 'Bhaxar Oja' Hemchandra Baruah on Monday.

Assam: Jayanta Baruah receives Guinness World Record certificate for 'Hemkosh'

The Guinness World Records official certificate presentation ceremony of Hemkosh's Braille Edition 'largest bilingual braille dictionary' was held at the Birinchi Kumar Baruah (BKB) Auditorium, Gauhati University.He received the certificate in the presence of Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria and several other noted personalities including the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Gauhati University, Professor Pratap Jyoti Handique, Pijus Hazarika, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Dr Bhartendu Pandey, Professor of Department of Sanskrit, Delhi University, Basanta Goswami, amongst other distinguished personalities, academicians, journalists, and socio-cultural organizational leaders.Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, Gauhati University VC, Professor Pratap Jyoti Handique lauded the efforts of Jayanta Baruah.Meanwhile, Jayanta Baruah thanked the entire team for Hemkosh's Braille dictionary and expressed his gratitude towards Pijus Hazarika, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, and also the Commissioner, Manager and staff of government Braille Press for extending their invaluable support.He also thanked the entire support staff who tirelessly worked for the dictionary and for the tabulation for Guinness World Records, including visually impaired proofreaders.It is worth mentioning that, world record holder, Hemkosh's braille edition, is the 'largest bilingual braille dictionary' with 90,640 words printed in 21 volumes and 6 parts, across 10,279 pages weighing 80.800 kgs.The braille edition is the adaption of Hemkosh's 14th Edition's regular dictionary.The first Assamese language dictionary, 'Hemkosh', was compiled by late Hemchandra Baruah in the last part of the 19th century, and was published four years later after his demise.The subsequent editions of the dictionary were published by the next generations of his family, particularly from the fourth edition to the 14th edition, and were compiled and edited by late Debananda Baruah.The 15th edition of the 'Hemkosh' Dictionary has been compiled under the leadership of Jayanta Baruah and is under production.Jayanta Baruah, in a bid to continue the 'Hemkosh' legacy, as the grandson of late Hemchandra Baruah, conceptualized, and published the Braille edition of 'Hemkosh'.Notably, this Braille version of Hemkosh would be the first full language dictionary in Braille, after Oxford, the release stated.Jayanta Baruah has donated (free of cost), the dictionary copies to all the educational institutions for the visually impaired students, universities, state and central libraries, as well as the national library.Moreover 'Hemkosh' is the first etymological dictionary of the Assamese language and is bilingual in nature, thus children can benefit in both English and Assamese languages from the dictionary".On September 16, 2022, 'Hemkosh' was formally launched at the Vivekananda Kendra, Guwahati in the presence of then Assam Governor Professor Jagdish Mukhi and the publisher of Hemkosh Prakashan and chairman of Pratidin Media Network Jayanta Baruah.Earlier on September 21, 2022, Baruah officially presented the first copy of the Hemkosh Braille Dictionary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi in the presence of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the release stated.ANI03 May 2023

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UIDAI allows citizens to verify email, mobile number seeded with Aadhaar

New Delhi, May 2: Keeping user benefits in mind, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has allowed citizens to verify their mobile numbers and email IDs seeded with their Aadhaar.

UIDAI allows citizens to verify email, mobile number seeded with Aadhaar

According to the Ministry of Electronics and IT, it had come to the notice of the UIDAI that in some instances, citizens were not aware or sure which of their mobile numbers is seeded to their Aadhaar. Hence citizens were worried that Aadhaar OTP might be going to some other mobile number. Now, with this facility, people can check these quite easily.The facility can be availed under 'Verify email/mobile Number' feature on the UIDAI official website or through mAadhaar App. It has been developed for the residents to verify that their own email/mobile number is seeded with respective Aadhaar.This feature gives confirmation to users that email/mobile number under his/her knowledge is only seeded to their respective Aadhaar. It also notifies the resident in case a particular mobile number is not linked, and informs users to take necessary steps to update the mobile number, if they wish so, the Ministry said.In case the mobile number is already verified, citizens will see a message like, 'the mobile number you have entered is already verified with our records', displayed on their screen.In case one does not remember the mobile number, she/he has given during enrolment she/he can check the last three digits of the mobile on Verify Aadhaar feature on Myaadhaar portal or mAadhaar App.If one wants to link an email/mobile number with Aadhaar or wants to update her/his email/mobile number, she/he may visit the nearest Aadhaar centre.ANI03 May 2023

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Vice President Dhankhar to visit Assam, Manipur tomorrow

New Delhi, May 2: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar will visit Assam and Manipur on a one-day tour on Wednesday.

Vice President Dhankhar to visit Assam, Manipur tomorrow

The Vice President will visit Dibrugarh in the afternoon. He will attend the 21st convocation of Dibrugarh University as the chief guest and deliver the convocation address.In the afternoon, Dhankhar will visit Dhanamanjuri University in Imphal, Manipur. Here, he will engage in an interaction programme with the students and faculty of the university. This session will provide an opportunity for valuable discussions and exchange of ideas by young minds, said Vice President's Secretariat.In the last leg of the tour, Dhankhar will visit Manipur University in Imphal, where he will participate in an interaction programme with the faculties and scientists from various central institutions across the country.ANI03 May 2023

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Jyotiraditya Scindia terms Go First airline issue as unfortunate

New Delhi, May 2: With Go First airline announcing suspension of its flights on May 3 and May 4 owing to financial crunch, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday described the development as unfortunate.

Jyotiraditya Scindia terms Go First airline issue as 'unfortunate'

"Go First has been faced with critical supply chain issues with regard to its engines. The government has been assisting the airline in every possible manner. The issue has also been taken up with the stakeholders involved. Yet, it is unfortunate that this operational bottleneck has dealt a blow to the airline's financial position," Scindia said while reacting to the development.He added that the government is aware that the airline has filed an application for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)."It is prudent to wait for the judicial process to run its course. Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a notice to the airline on the sudden suspension of flights. It's incumbent upon the airline to make alternative travel arrangements for the passengers so that the inconvenience is minimal," the minister said.Earlier in the day, DGCA had issued a show cause notice to Go First after the airline abruptly cancelled fresh bookings for May 3 to 4.An official said that the DGCA recently became aware that Go First has cancelled all its scheduled flights on May 3and 4 without providing any prior notification to the regulatory authority.This act of sudden cancellation by the airline is considered to be a violation of the conditions of approval for scheduling, according to the aviation watchdog.While the carrier has suspended flights for May 3 and 4, it has also stopped taking bookings for the next two days.IANS03 May 2023

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J-K making all-round progress following abrogation of Article 370

New Delhi, May 1: Following the abrogation of Article 370, the union territory Jammu and Kashmir has made progress in the spheres of education, health, and power, with a special focus on providing education, training, and job opportunities to the youth, reported Asian Lite International.

J-K making all-round progress following abrogation of Article 370

Moreover, in its ongoing G20 meetings in various sectors, India will soon host a tourism working group meeting in Srinagar - the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir -- in May.By holding the meeting in Srinagar, India also wants to convey a strong message to the global community about the stability of the place. It wants to portray the peaceful ambience of the place.Now there are 50 new degree colleges, offering a total of 25,000 seats, established in J-K; seven new medical colleges with 1,400 extra medical/paramedical seats have been made operational; also five new nursing colleges and one state cancer institute are coming up in the Union Territory, bringing much-needed healthcare to local communities, reported Asian Lite International.Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jammu and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Jammu has been made functional. The number of government degree colleges/engineering colleges has increased from 96 to 147.Giving a fair chance to women in the union territory, are getting 10 to 20 per cent higher subsidies as compared to men while availing the benefits of the Integrated Dairy Development Scheme for the year 2022-23.Over 40,000 women in Jammu and Kashmir have been classified as millionaires as they earn over Rs 1 lakh a month with 65 per cent among them entrepreneurs, reported Asian Lite International.The administration is investing in programmes to ensure that school and college dropouts are given training as per their skills and out of the ones who are trained 70 per cent are given wage employment.Employment generation in the union territory is on an upswing. Under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) as many as 16,807 (78 per cent) of the 21,640 PMEGP units in J and K belong to the service sector, that is, units like beauty parlours, boutiques, embroidery, mobile/computer repair shops, and food outlets, reported Asian Lite International.Jammu and Kashmir is giving a big thrust to sustainable agriculture in the Union Territory. It has approved a five-year project on "Innovative Extension Approaches for Revitalizing Agriculture in Jammu and Kashmir".The project, worth Rs 463 crore, aims to empower farmers and educated youth through technology-driven and inclusive agri-extension services.One of the critical outcomes of the project would be the creation of 2,000 Kissan Khidmat Ghars (KKGs), which will serve as a One Stop Center for extending farmer-oriented services, reported Greater Kashmir."In the last 2.5 years, J-K has become the champion of the country as far as digital transactions are concerned. We have built a digital society, offering 446 services online, and our entire administration is paperless. J-K is witnessing a digital revolution," L-G Manoj Sinha said at the G20 meeting International Education Fair 2023, Rising Kashmir.ANI03 May 2023

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Gigi Hadid nails sheer black corset outfit at Met Gala 2023

New York, May 2: American supermodel Gigi Hadid turned heads with her outfit at the Met Gala 2023.

Gigi Hadid nails sheer black corset outfit at Met Gala 2023

Gigi slayed the black Givenchy ensemble. The model wore a strapless corset top and a low-rise black skirt.She completed the look with three pearl necklace strings and a black mesh overlay that flowed into a daring train.To compliment her outfit, she opted for a pair of sheer gloves, stud earrings and black stilettos.The 2023 Met Gala marks Gigi's eighth consecutive appearance at the annual event. Since her debut at the fashion event, which was back in 2015, Gigi has certainly seen a lot of changes.She became a mom when she and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Zayn Malik welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Khai, in 2020.At Met Gala 2022, she wore a sultry red corset jumpsuit by Versace and a voluminous matching maroon cape, a creative take on the night's 'Gilded Glamour' theme. She capped off her monochromatic look with hot red knee-high boots and bold crimson lipstick.The Met Gala livestream is hosted by actor and producer La La Anthony, writer Derek Blasberg, and Saturday Night Live's Chloe Fineman. Internet multi-hyphenate Emma Chamberlain will return as Vogue's special correspondent.This year's theme is "Karl Lagerfeld A Line of Beauty," based on the new Costume Institute exhibition exploring the work of the iconic designer. Lagerfeld, who died in 2019 at the age of 85, spent decades creating clothes for Balmain, Patou, Chloe, Fendi and Chanel in addition to his own namesake label.ANI03 May 2023

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Scale Heights Experts of One Spot Realtor offer the best experience for your business growth

New Delhi, May 2 (ANI/NewsReach): One Spot Realtor Finance Business Services, a leading business management and start-up solutions provider, has recently announced that its Scale Heights team of experts offers the best experience for business growth. With over 10 years of experience and more than 200 happy clients, One Spot Realtor has built a reputation for delivering top-quality services to its clients.

Scale Heights Experts of One Spot Realtor offer the best experience for your business growth

The creator of One Spot Realtor, Abhishek Goyal, stated, "Our team of talented professionals is united by the desire to help entrepreneurs convert their ideas into executable and scalable plans." "Using us on the backend is like hiring a team as opposed to a single person or a freelancer. You can scale more quickly."He further added that "One Spot Realtor devises ways for its clients to evolve and grow in the most competitive environment, providing "articulated differentiation" to help its clients stand out from the crowd. Abhishek Goyal's dedication, expertise, and exceptional service in the field of financial consulting have earned him prestigious India's Brand Icon 2023 Awards for being named the best financial consultant of the year 2022-23.One Spot Realtor's services include start-up solutions, modeling and analytics, equity research, corporate finance advisory, and administration and IT services. Its start-up solutions are aimed at helping start-ups achieve fast growth and establish processes and systems for small business environments. Whether it is fundraising documents or simple accounting needs, One Spot Realtor provides end-to-end solutions."We provide end-to-end solutions to start-ups including business plan formulation for investors, financial forecasting, marketing plan, budgeting, strategic plan, e-commerce launch, regulatory registrations, obtaining licenses, and fund-raising consultancy," said the spokesperson.One Spot Realtor is a business plan consultant and strategic advisor to some of the growing start-ups around the world. The company has formulated business plans and strategic directions for start-ups from diverse backgrounds, including non-banking financial corporations (NBFCs) in India, interest-free banking start-ups in Europe, SaaS start-ups in the US, social networking start-ups in the US, expatriate social networking start-ups in Australia, healthcare start-ups in the US, cash collection system start-ups in India, and share broking and trading start-ups in the US.The company's modeling and analytics team can help clients get actionable insights from their data for making better business decisions. One Spot Realtor is proficient in conducting all kinds of financial modeling and statistical analysis in MS Excel, SPSS, Frontline, or other software. The company's modeling and analytics team can also statistically analyze clients' data to come up with useful results to help them understand the dynamics of their business better.One Spot Realtor's equity research services provide consultancy in financial management, capital budgeting, business strategy, equity research, and valuation models. The company provides advisory services in equities, mutual funds, commodities, and real estate. Its highly qualified and experienced research team would guide clients at every stage of investment to achieve the best combination of risk and reward."We provide equity research services to many independent consultants, financial advisors, corporates, and high net worth individuals (HNWIs). Our equity research division boasts clients from the US, Europe, and Australia. The services include daily market reports, newsletters, website content maintenance of data providers, and online content development for financial services providers," said Abhishek Goyal.One Spot Realtor's corporate finance advisory services provide consultancy in financial management, capital budgeting, business strategy, project appraisal, and preparation of investor pitches. The company's financial advice helps enhance organizations' financial performance and increase their business value associated with large transformation projects. The company's project appraisal team works with clients from the seed stage till the execution and commissioning of projects. The team works with clients from the start with the idea generation, feasibility analysis to project execution plan, and complete project management consultancy.One Spot Realtor's administration and IT services help clients focus on key business and growth activities by managing ancillary accounting and administrative tasks such as lease management, rent collection, and property maintenance. Additionally, the company provides marketing and advertising services to help clients attract potential tenants and buyers, as well as brokerage services to facilitate property transactions. Overall, One Spot Realtors strives to provide comprehensive and efficient real estate solutions to its clients.This story has been provided by NewsReach. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsReach)ANI03 May 2023

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Union Finance Minister Sitharaman reaches South Korea, kickstarts 4-day long visit

Seoul, May 2: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reached South Korea on Tuesday for a 4-day official visit.

Union Finance Minister Sitharaman reaches South Korea, kickstarts 4-day long visit

On her arrival at the Incheon airport, Sitharaman was received by the Ambassador of India to the Republic of Korea, Amit Kumar."Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman reached the Republic of Korea for her 4-day official visit. She was received by Shri @KumarAmitMEA, Ambassador of India to the Republic of Korea, upon her arrival at the Incheon Airport today early morning (KST)," the Finance Ministry tweeted.[{4b8624fd-b979-45d3-abc0-3adb946e2108intradmin/ANI-20230502030935.jpg}]Sitharaman is leading an Indian delegation to attend the 56th Annual General Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) along with Investor/ Bilateral and other associated meetings, in Incheon, a city in South Korea from May 2-5, the Ministry of Finance said in an official release.Official ADB member delegations, observers, non-governmental and civil society organisations, journalists, financial institutions, banks, and other private sector enterprises will also be present at the meetings.Moreover, during the visit, Sitharaman will participate in annual meeting focal events like the Governors' Business. She will also be a panellist in the ADB Governors' Seminar on 'Policies to Support Asia's Rebound', the official release by the Ministry of Finance said.The engagements of the Union Finance Minister will consist of interaction with the Global Economists, Governors / Finance Ministers of the ADB member countries etc, and bilateral engagements with countries and international organisations.During her South Korea visit, she will not only interact with global business leaders and investors in roundtables but also engage with the community Diaspora.ANI03 May 2023

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No plans to add new members in QUAD this time: US

Washington, June 2: The United States, on Monday (Local Time), said that there are no plans of adding new members to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) at this time.

No plans to add new members in QUAD this time: US

While answering a media query over the expansion of QUAD, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "The Quad was established two years ago. The Quad is still a relatively young partnership. There are no plans for new members at this time. Quad members have agreed that for now, the focus is on cementing the quad's many strengths.""However, the Quad welcomes opportunities to work with a wide range of Indo-Pacific partners, such as through its Indo-Pacific partners on maritime domain awareness, which is delivering cutting edge maritime domain awareness technology around the region," she added.The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue is the grouping of four democracies--India, Australia, the US, and Japan--that aims to ensure and support a "free, open and prosperous" Indo-Pacific region.Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that it will host the Quad Leaders' Summit on May 24 in Sydney reiterating that it will be a chance to work in cooperation with US, Japan and India.Talking about the same, Pierre said, "The May 24th Sydney Summit will showcase other opportunities for the Quad to partner around the region on climate, global health, infrastructure, and more. The Quad's top priority is ensuring it is well-positioned to deliver for the Indo-Pacific, currently. And so, there's no conversation on extending or expanding at this time."Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to Australia in May to take part in the Quad leadership summit.The announcement was made during the joint press conference hosted by Prime Minister Modi along with Australian counterpart in March when the latter was on a four-day visit to India."India and Australia are both members of the Quad. I thank PM Albanese for inviting me to Australia for the Quad Leaders' Summit in May. I have invited him to India for the G20 summit in September," PM Modi had said.The leaders of the Quad group have met on four occasions earlier and their next meeting will be held in Australia. The group's importance in the region has increased due to its keen interest in sustainable and inclusive economic growth and increasing people-to-people connections between Quad members and non-Quad members.Prime Minister Modi, on several occasions, has highlighted that the Quad is a force of global good and is aimed at developing the region while protecting the interests of all members of the Indo-Pacific region.ANI03 May 2023

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Indonesia becomes more reliant on China, likely to face Sri Lanka-type debt trap: Reports

Jakarta, May 2: Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia has grown its debt to China over time and used more Chinese yuan in its international trade. Indonesia will find it more challenging to fend off China's escalating aggression in the South China Sea as it becomes more dependent on China, Nepal-based online magazine e-Pardafas reported.

Indonesia becomes more reliant on China, likely to face Sri Lanka-type debt trap: Reports

According to a recent report of Nikkei Asia, in December 2022, the Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC) railway requested extending the 50-year concession it had for a high-speed train that was being built in Java for an additional 30 years.Indonesia is worried about falling into a financial trap similar to Sri Lanka, which was compelled to lease Hambantota Port to China in exchange for debt relief, as the railway would remain under Chinese control if the Indonesian government is unable to reject the proposal.Several African nations have also experienced this situation. According to a report by AidData, the KCIC rail line, which was financed with a USD 4.5 billion Chinese loan and is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has left Indonesia and many other nations with a pile of unreported debt. The train project is 40 per cent owned by Chinese companies, e-Pardafas reported.It's probable that Jakarta's worries about a potential 80-year concession are not unwarranted. The Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka was leased to China in 2017 for 99 years after the Sri Lankan government started having trouble repaying construction debts.The incident is seen as a classic example of "debt trap diplomacy," in which a creditor country offers an excessive amount of loans before demanding political or economic concessions when the debtor nation is unable to make repayments. In this instance, China was successful in seizing control of the crucial port for global geopolitics in the midst of the Indian Ocean.More than ten years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a vast infrastructural project with the objective of extending Chinese influence and goods around the world. Since then, more than 150 nations have reached agreements with China because they are desperate for resources and infrastructure, e-Pardafas reported.ANI03 May 2023

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Newly-developed censor can detect early signs of cancer, distinguish type of tumours: Study

Washington, May 2: MIT engineers have designed a new nanoparticle sensor that could detect early diagnosis of cancer with a simple urine test. The sensors, which can diagnose many different cancerous proteins, could also be used to distinguish the type of a tumour or how it is responding to treatment.

Newly-developed censor can detect early signs of cancer, distinguish type of tumours: Study

The nanoparticles are designed so that when they encounter a tumour, they shed short sequences of DNA that are excreted in the urine. Analyzing these DNA "barcodes" can reveal distinguishing features of a particular patient's tumour. The researchers designed their test so that it can be performed using a strip of paper, similar to an at-home Covid test, which they hope could make it affordable and accessible to as many patients as possible."We are trying to innovate in a context of making technology available to low- and middle-resource settings. Putting this diagnostic on paper is part of our goal of democratizing diagnostics and creating inexpensive technologies that can give you a fast answer at the point of care," says Sangeeta Bhatia, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science.In tests in mice, the researchers showed that they could use the sensors to detect the activity of five different enzymes that are expressed in tumours. They also showed that their approach could be scaled up to distinguish at least 46 different DNA barcodes in a single sample, using a microfluidic device to analyze the samples.Bhatia is the senior author of the paper, which appears today in Nature Nanotechnology. Liangliang Hao, a former MIT research scientist who is now an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, is the lead author of the study.DNA barcodesFor several years, Bhatia's lab has been developing "synthetic biomarkers" that could be used to diagnose cancer. This work builds on the concept of detecting cancer biomarkers, such as proteins or circulating tumour cells, in a patient's blood sample. These naturally occurring biomarkers are so rare that it's nearly impossible to find them, especially at an early stage, but synthetic biomarkers can be used to amplify smaller-scale changes that occur within small tumours.In previous work, Bhatia created nanoparticles that can detect the activity of enzymes called proteases, which help cancer cells to escape their original locations, or settle into new ones, by cutting through proteins of the extracellular matrix. The nanoparticles are coated with peptides that are cleaved by different proteases, and once these peptides are released into the bloodstream, they can then be concentrated and more easily detected in a urine sample.The original peptide biomarkers were designed to be detected based on small engineered variations in their mass, using a mass spectrometer. This kind of equipment might not be available in low-resource settings, so the researchers set out to develop sensors that could be analyzed more easily and affordably, using DNA barcodes that can be read using CRISPR technology.For this approach to work, the researchers had to use a chemical modification called phosphorothioate to protect the circulating DNA reporter barcodes from being broken down in the blood. This modification has already been used to improve the stability of modern RNA vaccines, allowing them to survive longer in the body.Similar to the peptide reporters, each DNA barcode is attached to a nanoparticle by a linker that can be cleaved by a specific protease. If that protease is present, the DNA molecule is released and free to circulate, eventually ending up in the urine. For this study, the researchers used two different types of nanoparticles one, a particle made from polymers that have been FDA-approved for use in humans, and the other a "nanobody" -- an antibody fragment that can be designed to accumulate at a tumour site.Once the sensors are secreted in the urine, the sample can be analyzed using a paper strip that recognizes a reporter that is activated by a CRISPR enzyme called Cas12a. When a particular DNA barcode is present in the sample, Cas12a amplifies the signal so that it can be seen as a dark strip on a paper test.The particles can be designed to carry many different DNA barcodes, each of which detects a different type of protease activity, which allows for "multiplexed" sensing. Using a larger number of sensors provides a boost in both sensitivity and specificity, allowing the test to more easily distinguish between tumour types.Disease signaturesIn tests in mice, the researchers showed that a panel of five DNA barcodes could accurately distinguish tumours that first arose in the lungs from tumours formed by colorectal cancer cells that had metastasized to the lungs."Our goal here is to build up disease signatures and to see whether we can use these barcoded panels not only read out a disease but also to classify a disease or distinguish different cancer types," Hao says.For use in humans, the researchers expect that they may need to use more than five barcodes because there is so much variety between patients' tumours. To help reach that goal, they worked with researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard led by Harvard University Professor Pardis Sabeti, to create a microfluidic chip that can be used to read up to 46 different DNA barcodes from one sample.This kind of testing could be used not only for detecting cancer, but also for measuring how well a patient's tumor responds to treatment and whether it has recurred after treatment. The researchers are now working on further developing the particles with the goal of testing them in humans. Glympse Bio, a company co-founded by Bhatia, has performed phase 1 clinical trials of an earlier version of the urinary diagnostic particles and found them to be safe in patients.In addition to Bhatia, Hao, and Sabeti, the study's co-authors include Renee T. Zhao, Nicole L. Welch, Edward Kah Wei Tan, Qian Zhong, Nour Saida Harzallah, Chayanon Ngambenjawong, Henry Ko, and Heather E. Fleming.The research was funded by the Koch Institute Support (core) Grant from the National Cancer Institute, a Core Center Grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at the Koch Institute, the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research, and a Pathway to Independence Award from the National Cancer Institute.ANI03 May 2023

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In January-March of this year, Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group, including associated companies and joint ventures, transferred more than UAH 2.5 billion in taxes and fees to the budgets of all levels in Ukraine.

Amid Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Rinat Akhmetov's Metinvest remains a pillar of the country's economy, according to a company press release on Wednesday.

Ukrainian enterprises of Metinvest paid about UAH 725 million of a single social contribution, more than UAH 649 million in personal income tax and about UAH 442 million in income tax in January-March this year.

Other significant contributions to the country's state and local budgets included land fees of over UAH 288 million, subsoil use fees of around UAH 174 million, and environmental tax of almost UAH 136 million.

CEO of Metinvest Yuriy Ryzhenkov said that Ukrainians are not quitters.

"That's why Metinvest's businesses continue to contribute significantly to Ukraine's treasury in the most difficult wartime conditions, under the constant threat of enemy shelling. Despite the loss of control over the Mariupol steelworks, the blockade of ports and other negative factors for the industry, we remain resilient. We understand that business must work for victory and then for the recovery of Ukraine. All as one, because we have one country," the top manager said, quoted by the press service.
Met Gala 2023: Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas twin in black Valentino ensembles

Washington, May 2: The Desi Girl arrived on the Met Gala 2023 red carpet with her husband Nick Jonas.

Met Gala 2023: Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas twin in black Valentino ensembles

The power couple twinned in black as they wore Valentino outfits. Priyanka styled her thigh-slit black off-shoulder gown with regal bell sleeves. She matched her white gloves with the sleeves of her dress.Nick looked dapper in a black leather jacket. Priyanka also sported an 11-carat diamond necklace.The actor kept her hairstyle simple in a side-parted bun.Priyanka made her debut at the Met Gala in 2017. The Bollywood icon, draped in a Ralph Lauren trench coat dress made the heads turn. While her entrance alongside Nick Jonas caused a stir, it was the trench coat dress's extended train that caught the fashion world's attention.Chopra's sartorial prowess was in full display in 2018, as she flawlessly embodied the "Heavenly Bodies Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" theme with a deep ruby-red velvet gown. In 2019, Chopra's Met Gala look continued to stun audiences, showcasing a stunning display of whimsy and extravagance in a statement Dior gown, keeping in mind the dress code that pays homage to Susan Sontag's 1964 essay, "Notes on 'Camp'.Referred to as "fashion's biggest night out," the Met Gala is a fundraising benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The event welcomes stars, young creatives, and industry paragons The annual fundraiser began in 1948. Publicist Eleanor Lambert came up with the idea to raise money for the newly opened Costume Institute exhibit.This year's theme is "Karl Lagerfeld A Line of Beauty," based on the new Costume Institute exhibition exploring the work of the iconic designer. Lagerfeld, who died in 2019 at the age of 85, spent decades creating clothes for Balmain, Patou, Chloe, Fendi and Chanel in addition to his own namesake label.ANI03 May 2023

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First Republic Bank in San Francisco closed by CDFPI

Washington, May 1: First Republic Bank in San Francisco, California was closed on Monday by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (CDFPI), which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as a receiver, the FDIC said in a press release.

First Republic Bank in San Francisco closed by CDFPI

"To protect depositors, the FDIC is entering into a purchase and assumption agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, Columbus, Ohio, to assume all of the deposits and substantially all of the assets of First Republic Bank," the press release said.The move represents the latest effort by federal regulators to prop up consumer confidence in the US banking system, which has suffered three major bank failures in the last seven weeks. Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank both were taken over by the FDIC last month following runs on those banks by their customers, wrote CNN.The collapse of those banks sparked weeks of speculation about the health of US regional banks, especially those with a largely uninsured deposit base, CNN reported.JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association submitted a bid for all First Republic Bank's deposits. As part of the transaction, First Republic Bank's 84 offices in eight states will reopen as branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, on Monday during regular business hours. All depositors of First Republic Bank will become depositors of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, and will have full access to all of their deposits.The press release further said that the deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, and customers do not need to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage up to applicable limits. Customers of First Republic Bank should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, that it has completed systems changes to allow other JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, branches to process their accounts as well.As of April 13, 2023, First Republic Bank had approximately USD 229.1 billion in total assets and USD 103.9 billion in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits, JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, agreed to purchase substantially all of First Republic Bank's assets.The FDIC and JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, are also entering into a loss-share transaction on single-family, residential and commercial loans it purchased of the former First Republic Bank. The FDIC as a receiver and JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, will share in the losses and potential recoveries on the loans covered by the loss-share agreement.The loss-share transaction is projected to maximize recoveries on the assets by keeping them in the private sector. The transaction is also expected to minimize disruptions for loan customers. In addition, JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, will assume all Qualified Financial Contracts, the release said further.The resolution of First Republic Bank involved a highly competitive bidding process and resulted in a transaction consistent with the least-cost requirements of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be about USD 13 billion. This is an estimate and the final cost will be determined when the FDIC terminates the receivership.ANI03 May 2023

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COP28 President-Designate Calls for Climate Action that Hits 2030 Targets, Unlocks Climate Finance, and Leaves No One Behind

Abu Dhabi, May 2: Today in a speech at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, the COP28 President-Designate, Dr Sultan Al Jaber, presented his broad ambitions for COP28.

COP28 President-Designate Calls for Climate Action that Hits 2030 Targets, Unlocks Climate Finance, and Leaves No One Behind

Dr Al Jaber stated "We have just passed the seven-year mark since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, with just seven years to go to 2030. Seven years to reduce emissions by 43 per cent and keep the ambitions of the Paris Agreement alive."Dr Al Jaber added that "the most recent IPCC report has already made it crystal clear that we are way off track. This is a moment of clarity that we must face with total honesty. We must unite and seize the moment of the Global Stocktake to put the world on the right track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement." On renewables, Dr Al Jaber called on the world to "triple capacity by 2030 and double it again by 2040.""In my meetings with climate, finance, and development ministers across the Global South, what I hear time and again is that climate finance is nowhere near available, accessible, or affordable enough. IFIs and MDBs are not keeping pace with the challenges of the 21st century.""Developing countries are still waiting for the 100 billion dollars promised by developed countries 14 years ago. This is holding up progress, and as part of my outreach, I am requesting donor countries to provide a definitive extraordinary report on the delivery of this commitment by COP28. It is vital to the political credibility of the UNFCCC process, that donors step up to this long overdue obligation ahead of COP28... especially as the real value of this commitment has eroded over time."Dr Al Jaber warned that "If the world does not come up with effective mechanisms to deliver climate finance to developing and emerging economies, they will have no choice but to choose a carbon-intensive development path. That is an outcome we want to avoid simply because it is in nobody's interests.""In a pragmatic, just and well-managed energy transition, we must be laser-focused on phasing out fossil fuel emissions, while phasing up viable, affordable zero-carbon alternatives. We know that the energies used today will continue to be part of the global energy mix for the foreseeable future. As such, we will work with the world to decarbonize the current energy system while we build a new one, capable of transitioning even the most heavy-emitting industries."He highlighted that "COP28 must also provide tangible solutions to help people adapt to climate change and manage growing climate impacts. That is why we will be the first COP to dedicate a day to health and the first to host a health and climate ministerial.""We need to broaden our definition of adaptation to enable global climate resilience, transform food systems, and enhance forestry, land use and water management."Dr Al Jaber concluded by saying, "Let's put an end to delays and start delivery. Let's turn passion into pragmatic solutions. Let's end polarization and empower partnership. There are moments in history when humanity comes together to fight a common threat... Let's unite in solidarity for the sake of humanity. Let's live up to the responsibility that we have been entrusted with. Let us restore political credibility to the legal agreements that we have not yet fulfilled. Let's work together to deliver an ambitious agenda and a practical action-oriented plan for 2030. Let's unite a divided world for the planet, for our people and for lasting sustainable development. The world demands transformational progress. The world needs transformational action."For all media enquiries and requests for interviews, please contact , to watch the speech live, and for up-to-date COP28 news, follow us on Twitter @COP28_UAENotes to Editors- The Petersberg Climate Dialogue is an annual meeting, hosted by the German Government. It provides a platform between COP27 and COP28 for parties and constituencies to share views on priorities for the next United Nations Climate Conference or Conference of the Parties, more commonly referred to as COP.- COP28 UAE will take place at Expo City Dubai from November 30-December 12, 2023. The Conference is expected to convene over 70,000 participants, including heads of state, government officials, international industry leaders, private sector representatives, academics, experts, youth, and non-state actors.- As mandated by the Paris Climate Agreement, COP28 UAE will deliver the first ever Global Stocktake - a comprehensive evaluation of progress against climate goals.- Since his appointment as President-Designate in January 2022, Dr Al Jaber and the COP28 Leadership Team have proactively engaged on a Listening and Engagement Tour, where he has heard many voices from the global south, major economies, Indigenous peoples, NGOs, youth, civil society, and the business community.This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.ANI03 May 2023

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Met Gala 2023: Penelope Cruz shines in wedding gown with sequin embroidered hood

Washington, May 2: Spanish actor Penelope Cruz chose a Chanel wedding gown to rock the red carpet of Met Gala 2023. The actor looked pristine in white as she completed the look with a sequin embroidered hood that doubles as a veil. The actor accentuated her look with a centre-parted bun that let her heavy earrings and the veil shine.

Met Gala 2023: Penelope Cruz shines in wedding gown with sequin embroidered hood

Hours before hitting the red carpet, the actor shared a string of pictures with legendary designer Karl Lagerfeld on her Instagram." My dear Karl, I hope you are feeling the love. I know you are," Penelope wrote in the caption.Referred to as "fashion's biggest night out," the Met Gala is a fundraising benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The event welcomes stars, young creatives, and industry paragons The annual fundraiser began in 1948. Publicist Eleanor Lambert came up with the idea to raise money for the newly opened Costume Institute exhibit.This year's theme is "Karl Lagerfeld A Line of Beauty," based on the new Costume Institute exhibition exploring the work of the iconic designer. Lagerfeld, who died in 2019 at the age of 85, spent decades creating clothes for Balmain, Patou, Chloe, Fendi and Chanel in addition to his own namesake label.Last month, Penelope came to India to attend the opening ceremony of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre. She chose a one-shoulder pink gown for the occasion.ANI03 May 2023

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After India, S.Korea calls for strict safety standards over EV fires

Seoul/New Delhi, May 3: After India, the government and car manufacturers in South Korea have to put a bigger focus on the safety of battery packs as a series of recent battery fires may drive down demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and have a negative impact on the burgeoning EV market, according to experts.

After India, S.Korea calls for strict safety standards over EV fires

South Korea currently has about 400,000 registered EVs, accounting for 1.6 per cent of the country's registered passenger and commercial vehicles, amid automakers' accelerating electrification push in recent years.But battery fires in some EV models have sparked grave concerns among consumers over the safety of pure electric cars, reports Yonhap News Agency."The demand for safety in EVs is growing bigger than that for extended driving range due to some recent battery fire incidents," Choi Woong-chul, a professor who teaches automotive engineering at Kookmin University, said in a seminar on the sidelines of the 10th International Electric Vehicle EXPO (IEVE).The number of recalls involving car battery fires jumped to 67 in Korea in 2022 from three in 2018 as carmakers launch more EV models to meet market demands, Shin iamp; Kim LLC law firm said, citing data from the Korea Automobile Testing iamp; Research Institute (KATRI).The number of recalled EVs also soared to 205,344 from 12,264 during the same period. The affected EVs include all-electric and a tiny number of hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles, KATRI data showed."Faced with public criticism, carmakers have made 'incomplete' recalls in many cases of recalls in regard to high-voltage EV batteries," Lee Kwang-bum, an adviser at the law firm, said in the seminar.The government, carmakers and related parties need to come up with measures to prevent such battery fires from taking place in order not to lose consumers' trust in EVs and other battery-based future mobility solutions, EV-ALL Co CEO Lee Hoo-kyung said.Last year, after several incidents of electric vehicle fires, the Indian government ordered a committee to investigate the matter over safety concerns.The Road iamp; Transport Ministry later introduced additional safety provisions in the battery safety standards.IANS03 May 2023

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No breakthrough in sight as India joins UN and global powers in Doha to resolve the Afghan issue

New Delhi, May 3: India participated in a two-day closed-door conference on Afghanistan with 20 other countries led by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to discuss the Afghan crisis. The UN was spurred by the deteriorating situation in the landlocked nation to organise the meeting along with the US, Russia, China and other nations.

No breakthrough in sight as India joins UN and global powers in Doha to resolve the Afghan issue

The UN said that the aim of the meet was to "reinvigorate international engagement around key issues, such as human rights, in particular women's and girls' rights, inclusive governance, countering terrorism and drug trafficking. The meeting is intended to achieve a common understanding within the international community on how to engage with the Taliban on these issues".The Doha meeting, however, came under criticism from both - the Taliban and also Afghan women for not inviting them both for the discussions.Suhail Shaheen, the spokesperson for the Taliban said that any meeting without the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) was discriminatory and unjustified as the Taliban government was the main party.However, it emerged from Doha that Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who has been banned from travel, will be visiting Pakistani capital Islamabad to hold talks with Pakistani and Chinese foreign ministry officials.Women's groups have held protests in Doha, for what they claimed were efforts by the UN to legitimise the Taliban regime despite the throttling of women's rights in the country. The Taliban, contrary to assurances, after storming back to power in 2021 began steadily curtailing the rights of girls and women to education, stepping out of homes, visiting a doctor, marriage and divorce as well as working for UN agencies. The last one, which was imposed recently, galvanised women's groups across the world against the Taliban rule.Afghanistan's Khaama news agency quoted Swiss ambassador to the UN, Pascale Baeriswyl, as saying that the situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban administration has turned into a complicated dilemma. "We do not have a magic solution to the Afghan crisis", Baeriswyl said, adding that she is hopeful that the Doha meeting would lead to solutions to managing the Afghan crisis. Switzerland is currently the president of the UN Security Council (UNSC).The people of Afghanistan continue to face hardships due to the unending conflict, droughts and economic problems, though the Taliban has $7 billion worth of sophisticated US weaponry which the American troops left behind in 2021 after 20 years of the war against terror.(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)--indianarrativeIANS03 May 2023

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Maharashtra: Tribals of Bordhapada village walk 2 km to fetch water

Nashik, May 3: Amid a water crisis in the area, tribal people of Bordhapada village in Maharashtra's Nashik have been walking 2 km to fetch water from a well.

Maharashtra: Tribals of Bordhapada village walk 2 km to fetch water

The people of Bordhapada have appealed to the administration to provide them with water facilities."There are 2 wells in our village but they have dried up so we have to fetch water from the bottom of the hill which is 2 km away. Many women suffer injuries while going there. We demand the administration to give us water facility as soon as possible," said a tribal woman.According to the residents, the water crisis has become worse in the remote hilly villages, especially the Peth tribal Bordhapada village development block of Nashik taluka of Maharashtra."The people of Bodharpada have to struggle the whole day for water. Especially in the dry and inaccessible barren hilly areas, wells have also dried up in the villages. Women walk about 2 kilometres, and cross the hill to fetch water from the well or from hill pods located at the height", a villager said."The water mission scheme seems to be a failure, it is active only on paper, no work has been done on any scheme here, the people of Bordhapada coming under the Peth gram panchayat have recently asked the collector to solve the problem of drinking water," the villager added.Sarpanch Namdev Newal, a resident of Bordhapada, "There are more than 1150 people living in 110 houses. There is not even a single source of water, the hill well, the wells in the village dry up in summer."A woman from the village said, "We are fetching water from a well, after walking two kilometres to cross the hill. Now water is available in that well, and that too maybe for around 15 days. It will also dry up eventually."According to the villagers, there is neither a hand pump nor a tube well anywhere in Phalia, another village near Bordhapada."After the water in Jhiri village dried up, villagers have to walk three to four km in search of water sources. One has to travel about two kilometres carrying utensils on the head through rocky terrains. There are many problems in such situations," one of the women said.The villagers added that they face serious water problems during summer."We requested the public representatives and officials by giving applications several times, but to date, no action has been taken. Water scarcity is serious and severe here. A major source of water here for both villagers and animals are two wells, and both have dried up completely", they added.ANI03 May 2023

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Met Gala 2023: Alia to Priyanka, Indian celebs make heads turn on red carpet made in India

New York, May 2: Met Gala, one of the biggest fashion nights, was held in New York City on Monday. The event witnessed numerous Indian celebrities walking the red carpet like Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Isha Ambani, Natasha Poonawalla and Shloka Mehta's sister fashion consultant Diya Mehta Jatia.

Met Gala 2023: Alia to Priyanka, Indian celebs make heads turn on red carpet made in India

This year's theme was "Karl Lagerfeld A Line of Beauty," based on the new Costume Institute exhibition exploring the work of the iconic designer. Lagerfeld, who died in 2019 at the age of 85, spent decades creating clothes for Balmain, Patou, Chloe, Fendi and Chanel in addition to his own namesake label, Page Six reported.Several big celebs like Karlie Kloss, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, Kylie Jenner, Jennifer Lopez, Robert Pattinson, Jared Letto, Zendaya, Rihanna. Kim Kardashian and Gigi Hadid among others marked their presence at the Gala.Alia made her debut at the fashion night on Monday. The 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' star opted for a beautiful white gown with pearl embellishment all over it by designer Prabal Gurung.She teamed the gown with embellished gloves, matching diamond earrings and rings. For the glam, she opted for centre-parted half-tied ponytail, high heels, subtle smoky eye shadow, kohl-lined eyes, nude lip shade, and a dewy base.This appearance of Alia will precede her Hollywood debut in 'Heart of Stone'. Helmed by Tom Harper, 'Heart of Stone' is intended to be the first instalment in a series akin to Tom Cruise's 'Mission Impossible'. The movie stars Sophie Okonedo, Matthias Schweighofer, Jing Lusi, and Paul Ready in addition to Gal, Jamie, and Alia.Several pictures and videos of the star went viral on social media in which she could be seen posing for the camera at the Gala.Taking to Instagram, Alia shared a string of pictures of her outfits which she captioned, "Met Gala -- Karl Lagerfeld A Line of Beauty. I have always been fascinated by the iconic Chanel brides. Season after season, the genius of Karl Lagerfeld shone through in the most innovative and awe-inspiring couture. My look tonight was inspired from this and in particular by supermodel Claudia Schiffer's 1992 Chanel bridal look.""I wanted to do something that felt authentic (hello, pearls!) and proudly made in India. The embroidery, made with a 100,000 pearls is a labour of love by @prabalgurung. I'm so proud to wear you for my first Met. A girl can never have too many pearls... and the right accessories to complement the look which in our case translated to the bow of pearls on my hair. Oh, and it's white, for my Choup-ED," she concluded.Talking about Priyanka, the desi girl arrived at the Gala night along with her husband Nick Jonas.The power couple twinned in black as they wore Valentino outfits. Priyanka styled her thigh-slit black off-shoulder gown with regal bell sleeves. She matched her white gloves with the sleeves of her dress.Nick looked dapper in a black leather jacket. Priyanka also sported an 11-carat diamond necklace.The actor kept her hairstyle simple in a side-parted bun.Priyanka made her debut at the Met Gala in 2017. The Bollywood icon, draped in a Ralph Lauren trench coat dress made the heads turn. While her entrance alongside Nick Jonas caused a stir, it was the trench coat dress's extended train that caught the fashion world's attention.Priyanka's sartorial prowess was in full display in 2018, as she flawlessly embodied the "Heavenly Bodies Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" theme with a deep ruby-red velvet gown. In 2019, Chopra's Met Gala look continued to stun audiences, showcasing a stunning display of whimsy and extravagance in a statement Dior gown, keeping in mind the dress code that pays homage to Susan Sontag's 1964 essay, "Notes on 'Camp'.Taking to Instagram, Priyanka also dropped a string of pictures of her look and she captioned it, "First Monday in May."Apart from her, Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's daughter Isha Ambani also marked her presence at the Gala night.Isha Ambani walked the red carpet in a beautiful Prabal Gurung's black silk saree gown.Her ensemble featured black silk fabric draped over one shoulder, plus thousands of crystals and pearls hand-embellishments extended into a floor-length train.For the glam, she opted for minimal makeup look and she kept her hair straight.She made her debut at the fashion show in a Christian Dior gown in 2017 and again in a lilac Prabal Gurung outfit in 2019.Natasha Poonawalla was another Indian celeb who arrived at the Gala night.Natasha never stops surprising the fans with her unconventional and striking fashion choices.The socialite-fashionista sported a structured gown with mirror-work finishing for this year's Met Gala. She opted for a sleek ponytail that she adorned with silver accessories.Sharing the pictures on her Instagram handle, Natasha wrote, "Karl ...a line of beauty #metgala2023."Last year, keeping the gilded glamour theme of last year in mind, Natasha wore designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee's ensemble. Her saree with bustier and elaborate jewellery gave the Met Gala 2022 red carpet a dash of Indian elegance.Last but not least, Shloka Mehta's sister fashion consultant Diya Mehta Jatia nailed her Gala presence in a beautiful outfit and a Radha-Krishna hair accessory.She got dressed in a black halter neck bodice with green coloured pleated satin skirt. She opted for minimal makeup with black eyeliner, well-defined eyebrows and glossy lipstick. The highlight of her look went to the diamond-studded hair accessory of the deity Radha-Krishna decorated with white, green and pink stones all over it.But did you know that apart from the Indian celebs who walked the red carpet at the event, this year's Gala night had another big Indian connection?The beautiful red carpet on which the celebs walked was actually "made in India". Yes, you read that right.The carpet, not exactly red, was beige with a smattering of red and blue lines on it and was designed by an Indian design house based by Neytt by Extraweave, a design house based in Kerala.Taking to Instagram, Neytt shared the news on their official Instagram handle and captioned it, "A proud moment for our team to provide carpets to the Met Gala for the second time in a row," they wrote along with a picture of the carpet at the gala.Reportedly, the carpet for the 2023 Met Gala took 60 days to make. The 6960 square metre carpet was made out of 58 30x4 metre rolls.Referred to as "fashion's biggest night out," the Met Gala is a fundraising benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The event welcomes stars, young creatives, and industry paragons The annual fundraiser began in 1948. Publicist Eleanor Lambert came up with the idea to raise money for the newly opened Costume Institute exhibit.ANI03 May 2023

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Blis continues to expand operations in India

Mumbai, May 3: is further expanding its operations in India with two strategic roles, growing its headcount across Asia by 30% in the last 6 months.

Blis continues to expand operations in India

Blis has added to the investment in regional roles to drive growth and meet advertiser demand, now offering a truly national sales representation across India. Blis welcomes new Head of Sales, Nabajit Nath, based out of Mumbai to lead the sales efforts across the region. Nabajit joins the team with more than a decade of experience in digital advertising and technology sales, including Paytm, Flipkart and Network 18. Most recently, at Paytm, Nabajit led the foundation sales team, driving growth and success for the business across a number of years.On his appointment, Nabajit said; "I was drawn to the role due to the company's strong people focus, and I'm determined to contribute to this dynamic, innovative, and fast-paced organization which pioneered location-powered advertising solutions.". Supporting Nabajit in Mumbai is Ishika Sharma, who has recently been promoted to Associate Director West, and in the south, Sales Lead, Lloyd Joseph, who joined the Blis business in Bangalore last year.Blis also welcomes Associate Group Head, Nived Kansal to the team, who will lead the Delhi region for Blis. Nived comes to Blis with over 10 years' media experience across India, working at major global and local companies such as Google, LinkedIn and most recently mobile ads provider Inmobi, where he was the Brand Solutions Expert across telco, consumer durables, OEM and auto.Commenting on the announcements, Emma-Jayne Owens, Managing Director, APAC at Blis, said, "We've driven significant growth across the APAC region over the past few years and I'm delighted to be building further momentum with our new hires. They join Blis to drive our ambition for an even stronger team across more regions in India, where their combined local knowledge, expertise and seniority in digital advertising and technology allows us to support market leading solutions and our clients' businesses growth."Blis is the audience-first platform that doesn't rely on personal data. We're an integrated planning and buying platform that delivers scaled, relevant and high-performing audiences, helping the world's largest brands and media agencies achieve their goals.Over the past years, Blis has built its reputation on delivering award-winning location-powered advertising solutions. In today's consumer-centric landscape, Blis is transforming the role of location data by combining it with a broad range of rich and powerful datasets to give our clients the deepest audience understanding available. Our unique approach to integrated planning and buying provides personalised targeting and performance without reliance on personal data. We serve relevant ads to the highest-value addressable audiences across any channel and deliver our clients' campaign outcomes every time, from brand awareness and engagement through to store/site visits and sales.Established in the UK in 2004, Blis now operates in more than 40 offices across five continents. Working with the world's largest and most customer-driven companies across all verticals including Unilever, Samsung, McDonald's, HSBC, Mercedes Benz and Peugeot, as well as every major media agency.To learn more, visit .This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.ANI04 May 2023

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Over 6,000 people enter Ethiopia from violence-hit Sudan

Addis Ababa, May 3: More than 6,000 people have entered Ethiopia from the violent fighting in neighbouring Sudan, according to local officials.

Over 6,000 people enter Ethiopia from violence-hit Sudan

In a statement, the West Gondar zone communication office in Ethiopia's northern region of Amhara said the fleeing people are from 42 different countries, including 941 Ethiopian nationals who were previously living in Sudan, reports Xinhua news agency.The statement said the number of fleeing people the zone currently has is only up to April 29, with plans already underway to designate a specific refugees' accommodation site if the crisis continues to expand.The statement also said local officials are working together with the International Organization for Migration and the Ethiopian Red Cross Society to help with the health, transportation, nutritional, and water needs of the refugees.The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 334,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan since the conflict erupted more than two weeks ago.The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that more than 100,000 refugees have fled to neighbouring countries.Most are Sudanese refugees arriving in Chad and Egypt and refugees from South Sudan returning to their homes, the UNHCR said.The refugees are mainly women and children.Brutal fighting erupted in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on April 15 and swiftly escalated in different parts of the country.The ongoing fighting is between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Both sides have accused each other of initiating the conflict.The deadly clashes have so far killed 550 people and injured 4,926 others, according to the latest figures released by Sudan's Ministry of Health.IANS04 May 2023

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Gas distribution companies operating under the Regional Gas Company (RGC) brand provided UAH 92 million worth of assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and cities in the first three months of 2023.

"From the first days of the full-scale war, Ukrainian gas workers have been helping the army and contributing to the recovery of settlements. The amount of assistance provided in the first three months of 2023 exceeded UAH 92 million," the RGC said in a press release.

In general, since the beginning of the military aggression, gas distribution network operators under the RGC brand have allocated UAH 273 million for these purposes.

"First of all, the funds were sent to support the mobilized and their families because more than 1,268 employees of gas distribution companies now serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. During the year of the war, companies operating under the RGC brand took patronage over individual brigades and divisions and help them on an ongoing basis," the company said.

For example, JSC Chernivtsygaz helps the Da Vinci Wolves unit, and JSC Chernihivgaz is engaged in helping the Chernihiv 21st separate rifle battalion and the Siversk first separate tank brigade. Recently, they gave the troops a tonne of diesel fuel, laptops, a night vision device, and a car.

"RGC constantly organizes assistance on a large scale. Thus, during the "Let's Warm our People" campaign, RGC production plants manufactured more than 1,600 stoves. They helped keep thousands of Ukrainian soldiers warm, and also heated social infrastructure facilities throughout Ukraine," the company said.

Another direction is the purchase of vehicles in the course of the ongoing action "A vehicle for the Armed Forces".

According to the RGC, since the beginning of the full-scale war, gas workers have purchased more than 200 vehicles for the military. Each passed a full technical inspection and was equipped to work in advanced conditions.

"Also, gas distribution companies transferred dozens of units of construction and engineering equipment from vehicle fleets. In the first quarter of 2023, UAH 3.7 million was allocated for buying vehicles," RGC added.

The purchase of military equipment, in particular, drones, is also a large-scale one. At the end of 2022, the companies financed the acquisition of a Tor strike drone worth UAH 1.7 million for one of the divisions. This assistance continues in 2023  UAH 2.5 million was spent on buying military equipment in the first quarter.

"We have decided on the priorities of our assistance. We help on a planned and regular basis. Thanks to close ties with the military, we cover their most important needs," Oleksiy Tiutiunnyk, CEO of the RGC, said.

In addition, an important area is the humanitarian assistance to the population and the restoration of energy and social infrastructure  schools, buildings, and structures. In the first quarter of 2023, UAH 6.5 million was allocated for these purposes.

At present, the RGC, together with the Come Back Alive charitable foundation, has announced a UAH 1 million fundraising for the purchase of an anti-tank missile system (ATGM) simulator.

"Thanks to the company's clients, about UAH 275,000 has already been raised. One can join the fundraiser by clicking on the link or in 104.ua client spaces, where the Ukrainian "Year of Invincibility" campaign of gas workers is taking place," RGC said.
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First responders have taken 16 people, including nine special needs students, to hospitals after an SUV crashed head-on into a bus in Chicago
On Wednesday night, the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces eliminated 21 out of 26 enemy Shahed-136/131s, the AFU press service has said.

"The forces and means of the Air Force, in cooperation with the air defense of other components of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, destroyed 21 attack UAVs," the AFU said.

In total, the invaders used about 26 Shahed-136/131 attack drones.

It is noted that the invaders on Wednesday night attacked the territory of Ukraine with Iranian-made kamikaze drones from the north (Bryansk region) and from the south, the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov.

"Aircraft missiles, aviation and mobile fire groups were used in the areas of responsibility of the Center, Skhid (East) and Pivden (South) air commands," the Air Force said.
Brucellosis is a globally prevalent zoonotic disease that is caused by several species of the genus Brucella. Over 500,000 cases of brucellosis are reported annually. Despite the low mortality rate associated with brucellosis, acute and chronic infection significantly impacts the patient and healthcare system.

Study: Public and animal health risks associated with spillover of Brucella melitensis into dairy farms. Image Credit: sw_photo / Shutterstock.com

What is brucellosis?

The most common Brucella species that infects animals and humans is B. abortus and B. melitensis, respectively. Humans can also be infected by B. suis, B. abortus, and B. canis.

Previous research has revealed that small ruminants, particularly goats and sheep, are the main hosts of B. melitensis. Humans contract brucellosis through the consumption of unpasteurized dairy products or occupational exposure, such as veterinarians and animal handlers.

In 1984, B. abortus was eliminated by vaccinating cattle with the S19 vaccine and implementing strict regulations in the dairy industry. Despite Rev1 vaccination of small ruminants and practicing control measures, Israel has faced sporadic incidences of B. melitensis over the last decade.

Notably, an increased frequency of B. melitensis has been observed among the Arab population residing in Israel. The Bedouin Arab population in Southern Israel was particularly affected by B. melitensis, with infection rates up to 100-fold higher than the Jewish population residing in the same region.

Continual monitoring of dairy farms in Israel identified an increase in bovine infections with B. melitensis. Considering this report, recent typing methods have been developed based on whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to obtain an in-depth analysis of the origin of the Brucella spp. and their prevalence in endemic and non-endemic settings.

In Israel, every dairy farm is assigned a level of brucellosis risk. Here, it is mandatory to conduct a serological test such as serum complement fixation test (CFT) for Brucella immunoglobulin G (IgG) following abortion episodes in cattle.

About the study

A recent Microbial Genomics study analyzed all B. melitensis outbreaks that affected dairy farms in Israel from 2006 to 2021. The genomic epidemiology of B. melitensis could help elucidate the association between bovine and human infection with B. melitensis.

The current retrospective study identified B. melitensis infection in dairy farms and evaluated the related epidemiological clusters that occurred between 2006 and 2021. The Israeli Brucellosis National Reference Laboratory records were used to obtain relevant data.

B. melitensis isolates were obtained from several veterinary clinical samples including aborted fetal tissue, blood, or milk that were collected during the investigation of late abortion among cattle or human infection due to their exposure to diseased dairy cows. Both CFT for IgG and serum agglutination for Brucella IgM were conducted.

Study findings

WGS was used to identify the transmission chain of brucellosis that affected dairy cows, small ruminants, and humans.

About 92% of isolates were obtained from 2015 onwards. A total of 23 incidents of brucellosis were investigated in dairy farms and animal husbandries during the study period, from which eighteen epidemiological clusters were derived. These clusters were associated with cattle from 19 different dairy farms that hosted 8,161 cows.

Among the 92 isolates sequenced in this study, 78 were bovine isolates, nine were epidemiologically linked with clinical human isolates, and five originated from small ruminants. The study findings indicate that bovine infections in dairy farms occurred due to spillover from small ruminants. About 72% of the isolates originated from the southern region, whereas the remaining isolates originated from the northern region of Israel.

Phylogenetic analysis revealed that many isolates were closely related, as they were clustered within the same genomic clusters. The genomic data helped provide epidemiological insights in areas of confusion.

For example, WGS helped confirm the source of infection in two farms that previously reported epidemiologically related brucellosis. Notably, traditional epidemiology failed to establish the link between the infection of the studied farms.

Closely related isolates exhibited different biovars, thus indicating that biovar classification is non-specific. The current study helped elucidate the reservoir and transmission between farms, as common and geographically dependent reservoirs, such as sheep and goats infected with B. melitensis, were found to transmit the disease to farm animals.

A low Rev-1 vaccination rate and insufficient surveillance are crucial factors that could result in a brucellosis epidemic. The interconnectedness of dairy farms and local herds, particularly small ruminants in the same region, has been associated with disease transmission. A spillover from the dairy farm to humans has also been observed.

Notably, the current study established a direct epidemiological connection that links nine human cases to bovine cases. Each of these infections were linked with occupational exposures.

The spillover of B. melitensis from its host to dairy herds also suggests the possibility of host adaptation to the pathogen. In the future, more research is needed to determine whether bovines are accidental hosts of B. melitensis.

Conclusions

The current study demonstrated the persistent prevalence of B. melitensis in Israeli dairy farms. Although the robust regional connection between bovine and human brucellosis was established, occupational transmission was prevailed in dairy farms. These findings emphasize the importance of controlling Brucella transmission by regularly monitoring dairy farms and human exposure to the disease.
A new research perspective was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on April 24, 2023, entitled, "Crossroads: the role of biomarkers in the management of lumps in the breast."

Here, Dr. Georg F. Weber from the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center discusses a long-standing issue in women's health: lumps in the breast. Women over the age of 40 years often have lumps in their breasts that are not cancerous at the time of biopsy (comprising atypias, hyperplasias, papillomas, radial scars, lobular carcinoma in situ, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)). These premalignant lesions in the breast pose a difficult decision-making problem, whether to treat proactively and accept the side effects or to engage in watchful waiting and possibly encounter a later diagnosis of invasive cancer.

These patients need to make the difficult decision whether to treat the lesions proactively and accept the substantial compromise in their quality of life (from surgery, radiation, or hormone therapy: Surgery often ensues for definitive diagnosis. Radiation may follow the surgical resection of DCIS by lumpectomy. Hormone therapy can come into play as a strategy for risk reduction if the estimated 5-year risk exceeds 1.6% in the Gail model) or to engage in watchful waiting and risk a later diagnosis of invasive cancer (the proverbial sword of Damocles). Currently, two forms of assessment are available to facilitate making that choice.

Decades of cancer diagnosis and treatment have achieved substantial improvements. Yet, with every milestone of progress, new needs have surfaced. Breast care is privileged to have the availability of mammography and biopsy to assess the propensities of lumps.

"A meaningful next step needs to entail biomarker development, pointing the way toward either preemptive treatment or watchful waiting at the crossroad."
Tens of millions of Americans use menstrual products, and while manufacturers contend they are safe, most disclose little about the chemicals they contain. Now, amid calls for more disclosure and research into the health effects of these products, some states require more transparency.

The manufacture and sale of period and related products is a big business, with revenue expected to top $4.5 billion in the United States this year. On average, a person uses up to 17,000 tampons or pads in their lifetime, and they might also use rubber or silicone cups, or absorbent period underwear.

The FDA regulates and classifies menstrual products as medical devices, meaning they are not subject to the same labeling laws as other consumer items. But companies can voluntarily disclose what's in their products.

Now, some states are stepping into the breach. In 2021, New York became the first state to enact a menstrual product disclosure law requiring companies to list all intentionally added ingredients on packaging. California's governor signed a similar law that took effect this year, but it gives manufacturers trade secret protections, so not all ingredients are necessarily disclosed. At least six other states have introduced legislation to address safety and disclosure of ingredients in these products.

Advocacy groups studying the effects of the New York law say the new labels have revealed commonly found ingredients in menstrual products that may contain carcinogens, reproductive toxicants, endocrine disruptors, and allergens.

Shruthi Mahalingaiah, an assistant professor of environmental, reproductive, and women's health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, evaluates endocrine disruptors in personal care products and studies menstrual health. She said the health risk depends on the dose, duration, and sensitivity of a person to the ingredients and their mixtures.

Harmful chemicals could come from manufacturing processes, through materials and shipping, from equipment cleaners, from contact with contaminants, or from companies adding them intentionally, said Alexandra Scranton, director of science and research for Women's Voices for the Earth, a Montana-based nonprofit focused on eliminating toxic chemicals that affect women's health.

Vaginal and vulvar tissues are capable of absorbing fluids at a higher rate than skin, which can lead to rapid chemical exposure. Scranton said scarcity of clinical studies and funding for vaginal health research limits understanding about the long-term effects of the ingredients and additives in period products.

"We think manufacturers should do better and be more careful with the ingredients they choose to use," Scranton said. "The presence of toxic and hormone-disrupting chemicals in menstrual products is unsettling. We know that chemicals can cause disease, and exposures do add up over time."

Scranton's organization advocates for labels to include the chemical name of the ingredient, the component in which the ingredient is used, and the function of the ingredient.

K. Malaika Walton, operations director for the Center for Baby and Adult Hygiene Products, a trade industry group, said in an email, "BAHP supports accurate and transparent information for users of period products and many of our member companies list ingredients on their packages and websites."

In a written statement, Procter & Gamble, a major manufacturer of menstrual products, said that ingredients it uses go through rigorous safety evaluations and are continuously tested, and that all fragrance components are added at levels the industry considers safe.

Even though manufacturing of scented tampons for the U.S. market has mostly stopped, companies still use fragrances in other menstrual products. Laws protecting trade secrets keep details about fragrances in pads and tampons confidential so competitors can't copy the formulas. The Children's Environmental Health Network lists phthalates, a group of chemicals commonly called plasticizers that are suspected hormone disruptors, as an ingredient found in fragrances.

Manufacturers follow regulatory guidance issued in 2005 by registering with the FDA and submitting a detailed risk assessment of their products components and design, and a safety profile, before being cleared to sell in the U.S.

Pads and menstrual cups are considered exempt from regulatory guidance and do not require premarket review, according to FDA spokesperson Carly Kempler. While tampons do require review, the FDA "does not clear or approve individual materials that are used in the fabrication of medical devices."

"There's an understanding that the FDA is regulating these products, and they are; it's just not very adequate," said Laura Strausfeld, an attorney and a co-founder of Period Law, an organization working to advance state and federal period-equity policies that would stop taxation of products and make them freely available in places like schools and prisons. "The consumer is supposed to trust that when these products are put on shelves they've been vetted by the government. But it's basically a rubber stamp."

In a 2022 report, a congressional committee directed the FDA to update its guidance for menstrual products to recommend that labels disclose intentionally added ingredients, such as fragrances, and test for contaminants. The FDA is reviewing the directives outlined by the House Appropriations Committee and will update the 2005 guidance as soon as possible, Kempler said. "We will share additional details when we are able to."

At least one period product company makes disclosure of its ingredients a selling point. Alex Friedman, co-founder of Lola, said a lack of knowledge is a problem, and more action and awareness are needed to keep people safe.

"The hardest part to swallow is why this is even up for debate. We should all know whats in these products," Friedman said.

New York's law requires companies to disclose all intentionally added ingredients no matter how much is used, with no trade secret protections for fragrances. Though it applies only to products sold in that state, similar detailed labeling is appearing elsewhere, advocates said.

"We're also seeing similar or identical disclosure on packaging in other states outside of New York, which is a testament to the power of the law," said Jamie McConnell, deputy director of Women's Voices for the Earth.

Manufacturers have 18 months from the passage of the New York law to comply, and some products on shelves in New York still list few ingredients other than "absorbent material," "surfactant," "ink," and "adhesive."

"We're like, 'OK, what is that exactly?'" McConnell said.

Her organization is calling for a federal law at least as strong as New York's. Previous federal legislation failed to advance, including the most recent, the Menstrual Products Right to Know Act, introduced in 2022.

BAHP, the trade group, supported the federal legislation and the California law. McConnell said she opposed both bills because they didn't require companies to list all fragrance ingredients.

"I think what it boiled down to at the federal level was the support of corporate interests over public health," she said.
In a recent study published in PNAS, researchers examined the neuronal activity of the dying human brain before and after the clinical discontinuation of ventilatory aid to investigate whether the dying process may engage the human brain.

Study: Surge of neurophysiological coupling and connectivity of gamma oscillations in the dying human brain. Image Credit: Piyaphat_Detbun/Shutterstock.com

Background

Near-death experiences (NDEs) biologically contradict our fundamental understanding of the dying brain, which is assumed to be non-functional in such circumstances. However, animal studies of respiratory and cardiac arrest have reported contradictory findings.

Authors previously demonstrated that abruptly ending circulatory function and/or acute hypoxia enhanced gamma () activity among healthy animals, with enhanced directed and functional connections in oscillations.

Elevation of high-frequency-type oscillations, a possible measure of awareness, has been observed in critically ill individuals.

However, brain function during cardiac arrest is not completely understood. While the loss of overt consciousness is always associated with cardiac arrest, it is unknown whether patients can have covert consciousness while dying.

About the study

In the present retrospective study, researchers investigated the neural correlates in dying humans that may be responsible for subjective perceptions reported by NDE.

The study included four comatose, dying patients admitted to Michigan University's neurointensive care unit (NICU) from 2014 onward who underwent electroencephalogram (EEG) assessments for cardiovascular arrest-associated anoxia and extensive hemorrhagic areas in the brain.

The patients showed no sign of overt consciousness or voluntary behavior on the last day of their lives, as indicated by their Glasgow Coma Scale scores.

To measure the functional activity of the brain around the time of cardiac arrest, EEG signals obtained before and post-discontinuation of ventilatory support were analyzed. Particularly for the following characteristics: (i) local and long-range phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) between low- and high-frequency oscillations; (ii) temporal dynamics of EEG power; and (iii) directed and functional cortical connectivity across different frequencies, including theta, alpha (), and beta () oscillations.

In addition, the four patients' electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were assessed. Before EEG evaluation, the dying stages were categorized based on EEG and ECG features.

Stage 1 (S1, baseline) represented the final hours of life while being ventilated; S2 represented the period between ventilator withdrawal and acutely suppressed EEG findings in the patients; and S3-end was described using the ECG characteristics of the Borjigin laboratory's electrocardiomatrix (ECM) method.

Results

The global hypoxia resulting from withdrawing ventilator support markedly, rapidly, and transiently stimulated  activities (>25Hz) in two patients (Pt1 and Pt3) with a history of seizures, as demonstrated by a rise in absolute electroencephalographic power in the  frequency bands.

The surge was both local, within the temporal-parietal-occipital (TPO) junction, and global, between the temporal, occipital, and zones and prefrontal areas on the contralateral side. In addition, the team observed a surge in the inter-frequency-type coupling between  oscillations and slow-speed oscillations (below 25.0 Hz) and enhanced directed- and functional-type linkage in  bands between the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

High-frequency oscillatory movements occurred in parallel with activated / cross-regional (crPAC) in the posterior cortex with slower oscillations in the prefrontal cortex.

Notably, the two patients showed surges of directed and functional types of connectivities at several frequency bands (between 25 and 150 Hz) in the 'hot zone' of the posterior cortex, a critical site for conscious-type processing. The  activity surged further with the worsening of the cardiac conditions in the patients.

At near death, increases in PAC of  oscillations, crPAC, and  synchrony in the posteriorly located hot zones were observed. In addition, long-range  synchrony between the posterior hot zones and frontal lobes also increased.

After the rapid local  activation in the posterior temporal-parietal-occipital zones, the global, long-range, and inter-hemispheric communications in  oscillatory movements between the prefrontal regions and the temporal-parietal-occipital zones were observed in the dying human brain.

The somatosensory cortices (SSCs) responded at the earliest to the hypoxic conditions, as indicated by an instantaneous surge in  power in the somatosensory cortices during S2.

Inter-regional-type coupling between  oscillatory movements in the cortices and  oscillatory movements in the prefrontal, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) areas.

A decrease in heart rate further enhanced - PAC in the SSCs of the left side, and  oscillatory movements in those on the right side showed increased inter-regional-type coupling with  oscillations in prefrontal regions.

The findings linked the centralized homeostatic regulation of respiration to near-death cerebral cortical activation and are concordant with the probable involvement of homeostasis circuits in animal and human consciousness.

Elevations in heart rate, probably due to an increase in sympathetic activity during S2 following ventilator removal, were observed only in two individuals exhibiting an upsurge in  activity during the dying process.

The findings indicated that the enhanced cortical activation during the dying process might be regulated by the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The predominantly observed right brain hemisphere activation following hypoxia during S2 indicated that the activated / PAC functions could be of sympathetic origin.

The findings provided a potential EEG signature of out-of-body experience (OBE), a common component of NDE. The upsurge in  power in VLPFC regions during the early dying phase was surprising and could be due to electromyography (EMG) contamination in EEG data.

Conclusion

The study findings showed that the dying human brain could be activated, as evidenced by increased neurophysiological coupling and functional and directed connection of  oscillations.

However, it was unclear whether hot zone activation was associated with subjective experience; the surge could be epiphenomenal or pathological.
The birthplace of top leading airlines or a hub of the civil aviation industry of India, Mumbai now is slowly losing its charm as most of the airlines relocated their base offices from the city.

The financial capital used to have a decent number of airline base offices for carriers, which used to function from the city, now left with only two airlines corporate headquarters - one-year-old Akasa Air and the second is Go First which has already filed for bankruptcy.

The major airline offices and airports as operational headquarters are now based in Bengaluru, Gurugram, or Delhi.

The leading carriers SpiceJet and IndiGo operate from Gurugram. Vistara, Air India, and Alliance Air operate their major work from Delhi. Star Air and AirAsia India have set up their operation base in Bengaluru. While Air India Express relocated its headquarters to Mumbai, it now has a base setup in Gurugram.

Also Read: Go First Has Lengthy History Of: US Firm P&W Responds to Airlines Faulty Engines Blame for Bankruptcy

Amid this, the struggling Jet Airways, which had its headquarters in Mumbai, had ambitions to establish Jet 2.0 in Delhi. Apart from this, the upcoming Indian airline Fly91, which has plans to start its operation soon, will have its base office in Goa.

Talking about the sudden change of Mumbais aviation business, defunct East-West Airlines director Faisal Wahid said that a few decades ago, Mumbai used the massive market for the aviation industry. He said that the city used to have a most obvious option for base setups for airlines. From night parking spaces and an engineering base with a hangar large enough to house one or two aircraft, the city was equipped with every back then. Mumbai would like to be a hub for airlines, but infrastructure issues prevent it, Wahid added.

Wahid said, in the 1990s, only ModiLuft and Air Sahara had base headquarters in Delhi. The corporate headquarters and operating bases of all other significant airlines, including Air India, EastWest, and Damania Airways, were located in Mumbai. South and Western Indian passengers used to board the international flights from Mumbai. He further said that back then, thousands of migrants from Kerala travelling to the Gulf used to have their first stop in Mumbai.

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Honda Cars India has named its upcoming all-new SUV as Elevate, which will have its world premiere next month in the country. The company says that India will be the first market to get the SUV, which will directly rival Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos and Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara. Honda Elevate, the mid-sized SUV, has been developed as a new global model in Hondas line-up.

Also Read: All-New Honda Midsize SUV Global Debut Slated For June 2023 in India

The All-New Elevate represents Hondas pursuit to introduce a perfect urban SUV appealing to the elevated taste for finer things in life. It symbolizes the aspiration to achieve success and wanting to keep elevating to the next level," said Honda in an official statement.

All-New Honda Elevate SUV Design

It has been learnt that the Elevate will make its debut on June 6 in New Delhi. Reports have suggested that it will come with heavy localization in order to achieve an aggressive pricing. Underpinning the City platform, it has been given proper SUV treatment unlike the BR-V which was an amalgamation of SUV and MPV.

All-New Honda Elevate SUV Engine

Honda Elevate SUV is speculated to only come with a 1.5L petrol engine with no choice of diesel or hybrid powertrains for the buyers. It could measure somewhere between 4.2-4.3 metres in length while boasting of a segment-leading wheelbase. The transmission options could include a 6-speed manual unit and a CVT automatic.

All-New Honda Elevate SUV Features

Though details are scarce regarding the interior and features, but it is learnt that Honda Elevate will be presented with a free-standing 10.2-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The upholstery and features would be shared with the City sedan.

All-New Honda Elevate SUV Price

The all-new Honda Elevate is expected to come with a starting price of Rs 12 lakh (ex-showroom) while the range-topping variant could cost as high as Rs 19 lakh (ex-showroom) in the Indian market.

All-New Honda Elevate SUV Launch Date in India

The SUV will have its global debut in June while bookings are expected to start at the same time in India or a few days later. However, it will go on sale in and around August 2023 with the price announcement taking place at the same time and deliveries commencing shortly.

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Tech giant Google has paid the entire penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in the Android case. Reliable sources revealed to IANS on Tuesday that the entire penalty has been deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India within the 30-day deadline given by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in its order. Google faced a penalty by the Indian market regulator in October 2022 for allegedly exploiting its monopoly in the Android market.

Earlier this year, Google issued a statement announcing that they would be complying with the CCIs directives for Android and said, The CCIs recent directives for Android and Play require us to make significant changes for India, and weve informed the CCI of how we will be complying with their directives. Were updating the Android compatibility requirements to introduce changes for partners to build non-compatible or forked variants.

The user choice billing enables developers to offer various payment options along with Google Plays billing system when making an in-app purchase. The changes were made after a Supreme Court bench said that the findings of the CCI cannot be said to have been done without jurisdiction or with manifest error and affirmed the NCLATs order, declining to grant interim relief to Google.

The bench directed the NCLAT to dispose of Googles appeal by March 31 and granted Google seven days to deposit 10 percent of the total penalty imposed on it by CCI. Google had claimed that the CCI did not examine evidence associated with their claims in India and copy-pasted parts of a European court order.

When Google announced the implementation of the new Google Play payments policy, the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) expressed concern over the policy change as Google would be charging 30 percent service fee to app developers and that would be a huge drawback for the Indian startup ecosystem. The ADIF hence asked Google to keep the policy on hold.

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Shares of Aviation stocks rose higher in Wednesdays trade as they surged up to 8 per cent after Wadia Group-owned Go First filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, May 2. On the back of this announcement, Shares of InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo), Jet Airways and SpiceJet rallied up to 8 per cent during the early trading session on Wednesday. Also, a sharp fall in the crude oil prices in the international markets supported the aviation counters.

InterGlobe Aviation shares rallied 8 per cent to Rs 2,235.95 on Wednesday, before trading at Rs 2,174.60 at 9.35 am. The scrip had settled at Rs 2,070.40 in the previous sessions. Similarly, Shares of SpiceJet surged about 6 per cent to Rs 33.25 against its close at Rs 31.49 in the previous session. Defunct airlines Jet Airways shares also surged 5 per cent to Rs 60.59.

Why are Aviation Stocks Rising?

Go First filing for bankruptcy on Thursday has put the spotlight on Indias airlines. This means lower competition for peers.

With Go Firsts bankruptcy filing, Indias aviation market is heading towards a duopoly structure. Both IndiGo and the Tata Group together account for nearly 80% of the entire industry.

However, both groups have different positioning for customers. While IndiGo is a low-cost carrier, Tata Group is primarily a full-service carrier.

Go First insolvency will remove 9 per cent of domestic supply in the aviation sector, according to BofA Securities.

As of March this year, IndiGo continued to remain the market leader with a 56.8 per cent market share, followed by Vistara (8.9 per cent) and Air India (8.8 per cent). Go First had a 6.9 per cent market share as of March, followed by SpiceJet at 6.4 per cent.

The Wadia Group airline said that it cannot continue to meet its financial obligations and blamed US company Pratt & Whitneys faulty engines for grounding 50 per cent of its fleet. In the buzz, all flights of Go First were suspended for May 3-5.

The low-cost carrier has filed an application for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), said CEO Kaushik Khona. Aviation regulator DGCA has also issued a show cause notice to the airline after Go First decided to cancel flights for three days.

Prior to this, Go First was looking to raise about Rs 3,600 crore via its initial public offering (IPO), which was deferred once again amid the weak sentiments and reluctance of owners to infuse funds into the loss-making company. Go Firsts Draft Red Herring Prospectus has expired in August 2022 and the company has been eyeing a listing since 2015.

The airline had received approval from the market regulator for its IPO but had held back the share sale plan first in August 2021 after SEBI called the promoters, the Wadias, for a pending inquiry, and then in December 2021, Go First further delayed the offering due to the outbreak of the Omicron wave.

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European Commission to propose act on May 3 to support ammo production for Ukraine - von der Leyen

The European Commission will propose an act on May 3 to support ammo production in Europe at a meeting of the commission on Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

"The European Commission will propose tomorrow, in our College meeting, an act in support of ammunition production in Europe. This act will support the ramp-up and the speeding up of the manufacturing of ammunition in Europe," von der Leyen said at a meeting with Czech President Petr Pavel in Prague on Tuesday.

Her statement was published on the European Commission's website.

The act "will combine leaner regulation with swifter permitting procedures," von der Leyen said.

"It is all about speeding up and scaling up now the production of ammunition because Ukraine needs it now," she said.

In her words, the act will envisage allotment of EUR 500 million from the EU budget.

"This is adding up to around EUR 1 billion in total with member states' cofinancing the European Commission's funding," von der Leyen said.
Scientists said Monday they have found a way to use brain scans and artificial intelligence modelling to transcribe the gist" of what people are thinking, in what was described as a step towards mind reading. While the main goal of the language decoder is to help people who have lost the ability to communicate, the US scientists acknowledged that the technology raised questions about mental privacy".

Aiming to assuage such fears, they ran tests showing that their decoder could not be used on anyone who had not allowed it to be trained on their brain activity over long hours inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner.

Previous research has shown that a brain implant can enable people who can no longer speak or type to spell out words or even sentences.

These brain-computer interfaces" focus on the part of the brain that controls the mouth when it tries to form words.

Alexander Huth, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Austin and co-author of a new study, said that his teams language decoder works at a very different level".

Our system really works at the level of ideas, of semantics, of meaning," Huth told an online press conference.

It is the first system to be able to reconstruct continuous language without an invasive brain implant, according to the study in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Deeper than language

For the study, three people spent a total of 16 hours inside an fMRI machine listening to spoken narrative stories, mostly podcasts such as the New York Times Modern Love.

This allowed the researchers to map out how words, phrases and meanings prompted responses in the regions of the brain known to process language.

They fed this data into a neural network language model that uses GPT-1, the predecessor of the AI technology later deployed in the hugely popular ChatGPT.

The model was trained to predict how each persons brain would respond to perceived speech, then narrow down the options until it found the closest response.

To test the models accuracy, each participant then listened to a new story in the fMRI machine.

The studys first author Jerry Tang said the decoder could recover the gist of what the user was hearing".

For example, when the participant heard the phrase I dont have my drivers license yet", the model came back with she has not even started to learn to drive yet".

The decoder struggled with personal pronouns such as I" or she," the researchers admitted.

But even when the participants thought up their own stories  or viewed silent movies  the decoder was still able to grasp the gist," they said.

This showed that we are decoding something that is deeper than language, then converting it into language," Huth said.

Because fMRI scanning is too slow to capture individual words, it collects a mishmash, an agglomeration of information over a few seconds," Huth said.

So we can see how the idea evolves, even though the exact words get lost."

- Ethical warning -

David Rodriguez-Arias Vailhen, a bioethics professor at Spains Granada University not involved in the research, said it went beyond what had been achieved by previous brain-computer interfaces.

This brings us closer to a future in which machines are able to read minds and transcribe thought," he said, warning this could possibly take place against peoples will, such as when they are sleeping.

The researchers anticipated such concerns.

They ran tests showing that the decoder did not work on a person if it had not already been trained on their own particular brain activity.

The three participants were also able to easily foil the decoder.

While listening to one of the podcasts, the users were told to count by sevens, name and imagine animals or tell a different story in their mind. All these tactics sabotaged" the decoder, the researchers said.

Next, the team hopes to speed up the process so that they can decode the brain scans in real time.

They also called for regulations to protect mental privacy.

Our mind has so far been the guardian of our privacy," said bioethicist Rodriguez-Arias Vailhen.

This discovery could be a first step towards compromising that freedom in the future."

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Survivors of close calls with death often recall extraordinary experiences: seeing light at the end of a tunnel, floating outside their own bodies, encountering deceased loved ones or recapping major life events in an instant.

The fact that these stories share so many elements in common and come from people from diverse cultural backgrounds points to a possible biological mechanism  one that has yet to be de-mystified by scientists.

In a new paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), researchers at the University of Michigan found evidence of surges in brain activity associated with consciousness in two dying patients.

While not the first study of its kind, what sets the new research apart is that its detailed in a way thats never been done before," senior author Jimo Borjigin, whose lab is devoted to understanding the neurological basis of consciousness, told AFP.

The team looked back at the records of four patients who died from cardiac arrest while on electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring.

All four fell into comas and were removed from life support after it was determined they were beyond medical help.

When taken off their ventilators, two of the four patients  a 24-year-old woman and a 77-year-old woman  saw increases in their heart rates as well as surges of brain waves in the gamma frequency  the fastest such brain activity, which is associated with consciousness.

Earlier studies  including a prominent paper published in 2022 about an 87-year-old man who died from a fall  have also found spikes in gamma waves in some people near the point of death.

The University of Michigan paper went further by examining in greater depth which parts of the brain lit up, with the activity detected in the posterior cortical hot zone"  comprised of the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes, which are associated with changes in consciousness.

If this part of the brain lights up, that means the patient is seeing something, can hear something, and they might feel sensations out of the body," said Borjigin, adding that the region was on fire."

Brain and heart activity were monitored, second by second, for the last few hours of the patients life, contributing to the strength of the analysis, she added.

Its not clear why two of the patients experienced these potential signs of covert consciousness" while two did not, though Borjigin speculated their history of seizures might have primed their brains in some way.

Owing to the small sample size, the authors cautioned against making wide-ranging inferences.

Whats more, its not possible to confirm that the patients really had any visions as they did not live to tell the tale.

Borjigin hopes in the future to collect data on hundreds more people  increasing the chances that some will actually survive.

One way to do so might be to create an experiment that simulates a near-death experience while the patient is being monitored under lab conditions.

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Central government is mulling to bring institute of national importance including IITs, IIMs, NITs and IISERs under Higher Education Commission of India. The step was also a part of Centres National Education Policy 2020. As reported by Indian Express, education ministry is deliberating on different provisions and powers of Higher Education Commission of India.

The Higher Education Commission of India is proposed to be a single higher education regulator in the country. Centre is finding ways to bring institute of national importance and central universities within its jurisdiction. If implemented, the move has the potential to restrict the autonomy of institutes especially IIMs since the passage of the IIM Act.

At the moment, neither the University Grants Commission nor the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have any authority over central universities (CUs) or Indian National Institutes (INIs), which are governed by their respective Acts of Parliament. The IITs, IIMs, and NITs deal with the ministry directly on financial problems, whilst the central institutions continue to depend on the UGC for the release of their budgetary funding.

There are currently 160 INIs, including AIIMS, IITs, NITs, and IIMs. These institutions are able to confer degrees, hold their own examinations, and receive government money. They are also administered by their own senates or boards of governors, but the government does participate to some extent. The report by Indian Express quoted a principal from the IIM The possibility of bringing all technical education institutions within HECIs control was broached during a presentation made by the then AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe in December 2021. However, in the first few months of 2022, a few IIM directors collectively wrote a letter to the ministry opposing the idea."

One of the major policy change in the higher education through the new National Education Policy was introduction of Higher Education Commission of India. In fact, the Higher Education Council of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Bill was introduced by the NDA administration in January 2018. The NEP, 2020, was announced within two years, but it was never finalised.

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The Directorate Of Government Education in Tamil Nadu will declare its class 12th board examination results next week. As mentioned in the official notification by the board, the results for High School Examination will be declared on May 8, 2023 at 9.30 am. The results will be out on the official website tnresults.nic.in. The link will be activated after the results are announced.

Tamil Nadu 12th Result 2023 Latest Updates

As per the schedule, the results for TN HSE +2 will be released by the Minister of School Education of Tamil Nadu, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi through a press conference. The conference will be held at the Anna Centary Library Conference. The link for the results will be available on the official website after the HSE Plus 2 Exam Results are declared.

Students can access their results online by entering their roll number or any additional credentials that were requested. These credentials will be written on the admit cards or hall tickets of the students. The National Informatics Centers (NIC) also offer free access to the Tamil Nadu board class 12th results in addition to the official website. The TN Board will deliver the HSE results to the registered mobile numbers of the candidates who sat for the examination.

Tamil Nadu 12th Result 2023 LIVE Updates

For students to pass the TN board test in 2023, they must receive at least a 35 out of 100 in each subject. The students who are attending compartmentalised courses must likewise abide by this rule. For subjects with both theoretical and practical examination, students must pass both sections of the exam. Application for the compartmental exams is open to students who get poor scores in one or more academic fields.

The Class 10 supplemental examination in Tamil Nadu is anticipated to take place in June or July, according to information bulletin 2023. The NEET UG 2023 exam will be held after the TN class 12 board exam results are released. The pen-and-paper NEET UG is planned for May 7 from 2 PM to 5:20 PM in 546 cities around India and 14 cities abroad. The NEET UG 2023 admit card and the notification slip for the exam city are anticipated to be released soon by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

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The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday issued a show cause notice to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharges son and party leader Priyank for calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi nalayak beta" while campaigning for the Karnataka elections. The poll body has also issued a notice to BJP leader Basanagouda Patil Yatnal for calling former Congress president Sonia Gandhi vishakanya" (venomous woman).

The action by ECI came a day after it issued an advisory to all political parties over the plummeting level of the discourse" during the campaigning for the May 10 Karnataka assembly elections.

As per the documents accessed by News18, the Commission said it took note of the violations and issued the show cause notice to them to explain why action should not be initiated against them for violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by 5 pm on Thursday.

Failing which, suitable action will be initiated against them, assuming that they have nothing to say in the matter," the poll body said.

The ECI, in its notice to Yatnal, said that through various media, it has come to notice that on April 28, while delivering a speech at an election rally in Yalaburga of Koppal district, he personally attacked Gandhi and called her a vishkanya".

.He (the PM) has been compared with Nagara Haavu (Snake Cobra) and they say that he vomits poison. Your party on whose persona you are dancing, is Sonia Gandhi a Vish Kanya? Sonia Gandhi works as an agent of China and Pakistan who have destroyed the country. Mani Shankar Iyer gives a message that China and Pakistan should come to bring down Narendra Modi from power," a part of Yatnals speech cited by the ECI in the order reads.

Yatnal is not just a BJP candidate from the Bijapur City seat but also a star campaigner of the saffron party.

The ECI also cited Priyanks speech where he called PM Modi nalayak beta" on April 30.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who led the BJP delegation to the EC, on Tuesday raised the issue of Priyank calling PM Modi nalayak". Goyal claimed that the Congress is rattled as the BJP is set to win the May 10 polls.

Priyank, seeking re-election from Chittapur in Kalaburagi district, said Modi claiming to be a son of the Banjara community and promising to take care of them was inept" because he and his party had created confusion about reservations for the SC community.

Priyank, addressing a poll gathering quoted from Modis speech and said, When you (PM Modi) came to Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) what did you tell the people of Banjara community? Aap sab log dariye mat. Banjara ka ek beta Dilli mein Baitha hai (You do not be afraid. A son of Banjara is sitting in Delhi)." Aisa nalayak beta baitha to kaise hota bhai? Ghar kaise chalega? (If an inept son is sitting in Delhi, how can you run the family?)," he had asked.

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Mahadeva Mahalinga Mali, a 103-year-old man from Karnataka, has cast his vote from Chikkodi in Belagavi district of the state through the Vote-from-Home (VFH) facility introduced on April 29 for the Karnataka polls.

On Tuesday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar called Mali and thanked him for his vote, saying elderly voters like the 103-year-old are an inspiration for young and urban voters to participate in the festival of democracy.

Elderly voters participation in elections has been instrumental in laying the foundation of India, the CEC said.

On March 11, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that during the Karnataka polls, VFH facility for people above 80 years of age and those with disabilities will be provided.

A total of 99,529 voters across the state have opted for VFH  including 80,250 voters of 80+ age group and 19,279 PwD voters. The home voting facility will continue till May 6.

In all 2,542 teams are engaged in the exercise and they are moving in 2,706 routes to visit these voters homes. The team will have two poll officials, one micro observer, one police personnel and one videographer.

Till April 30, at least 49,797 voters in the age group of 80+ and from the PwD category had cast their votes at their homes.

On his call with the CEC, Mali expressed gratitude for the home voting facility provided by the ECI to elderly voters like him for the first time in the Karnataka assembly elections, recalling that in the previous elections, he visited the polling station in a wheelchair to cast his vote.

Mali also urged all voters to participate in the polls scheduled for May 10.

Malis dedication to democracy is a reminder that Every Vote Matters and Election Commission is committed to ensure inclusive, participative and accessible elections, the CEC said.

In Malis district, Belagavi, over 7,362 voters who are above the age of 80 and over 1,708 PwD voters have opted for a home voting facility. So far, 8,636 voters have voted from home in the Belagavi district.

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The Bajrang Dal has decided to conduct Hanuman Chalisa recital programmes across Karnataka on Thursday, a day after the Congress promised in its election manifesto to ban the outfit. The opposition Congress, in its manifesto for the May 10 assembly election in Karnataka, said it was committed to take firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred amongst communities on grounds of caste and religion.

In the manifesto, Congress said: We believe that law and Constitution is sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities. We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on such organisations".

On Wednesday, Bajrang Dal said it will organise recitals of Hanuman Chalisa across the state. This is the time when Dharma is in danger and standing together is the only way forward. We should set aside our differences and come together to protect dharma, and hold hands together," the right-wing organisation said in a statement. The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) too extended its support to the call.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his public meeting at Hospet in Vijayanagara district on Tuesday, too had come down heavily on the Congress promise of banning Bajrang Dal saying: The Congress in its manifesto has decided to lock up Lord Hanuman. Initially, they locked up Prabhu Shri Ram (Lord Ram). And now they want to lock up people who say Jai Bajrang Bali (Hail Hanuman)." Hanuman Chalisa is a set of 40 couplets penned by 16th century poet and devotee of Lord Rama, Goswami Tulsidas in Awadhi, one of the dialects of Hindi spoken predominantly in Uttar Pradesh.

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BJP also upped its ante against the grand old party by launching an online campaign over the same. BJP leaders took to Twitter to change their display pictures, replacing them with an image of lord Hanuman with the caption, I am Bajarangi.

This promise by the Congress received flak from several pro-Hindu outfits, which gave them a common agenda to join hands with the BJP. These outfits along with Bajrang dal are likely to stage a protest in front of the Congress office today.

Addressing an election rally in Vijayanagara district, Prime Minister Modi said he was fortunate that he got the opportunity to pay obeisance to the land of Hanuman.

But see the misfortune that when I have come to pay my respect to Hanumans land, at the same time, the Congress in its manifesto has decided to lock up Lord Hanuman.

Initially, they locked up Prabhu Shri Ram (Lord Ram). And now they want to lock up people who say Jai Bajrang Bali, the prime minister said.

It is the misfortune of the country that the Congress had a problem with Prabhu Shri Ram and now it has a problem with the people who say Jai Bajrang Bali, he added.

The BJP alleged that Congress had insulted Lord Hanuman with its audacious statement and the people of Karnataka will give a befitting reply in the polls, but the Congress hit back claiming that it was Prime Minister Modi who had hurt religious sentiments and insulted the deity by equating him with the Bajrang Dal, and demanded an apology from him.

The Congress, in its election manifesto for the May 10 Karnataka Assembly polls, said it will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on organisations like Bajrang Dal and PFI and alleged that they were promoting enmity among communities.

The party also accused top BJP leaders Amit Shah, JP Nadda and Yogi Adityanath of giving hate speeches that were leading to a divide in society, and demanded that they be banned from further campaigning as they were vitiating the atmosphere.

On the other hand, the BJP sought an FIR and a ban on campaigning by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and his son Priyank Kharge.

Amid the verbal slugfest, the Election Commission issued an advisory to political parties and their star campaigners, asking them to exercise caution and restraint in their utterances and not to vitiate the election atmosphere.

Taking serious note of the plummeting level of campaign discourse during electioneering, the poll panel referred to the instances of inappropriate vocabulary and language used during the ongoing campaign by persons, in particular, by those invested with the statutory status of star campaigner.

Such instances have occasioned various complaints, cross complaints and have also attracted negative media attention, the EC said in a statement.

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Its the Karnataka poll season, which also means it is the season of freebies.

The Congress has announced freebies that may cost the state exchequer thousands of crores if the party wins the election and forms the next government in the state.

Its five poll guarantees include 200 units of free electricity to every Karnataka household, Rs 2,000 monthly to a woman of each family, free travel for women on state buses, Rs 3,000 for every graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for every diploma holder for two years and 10 kg free rice to every member of a Below Poverty Line (BPL) family.

NUMBERSPEAK: THE CONGRESSs PROMISES

According to the All India Survey on Higher Education  2020-21, Karnataka had 18.12 lakh undergraduate students in 2020-21. If we take that as the base number, on an average, around six lakh students pass the final graduation degree exam each year, going by the usual standard of three-year courses in the country.

As per the poll promise, these six lakh graduate students, between 18 and 25 years, will get Rs 3,000 every month, which comes to Rs 2,160 crore a year or Rs 4,320 crore for two years.

According to AISHE 2020-21, the state had 2,56,521 students in diploma and post-graduate diplomas in 2020-21. The Congress has promised Rs 1,500 a month for two years. That comes to Rs 923.28 crore, if we take the number of diploma holders expected to pass out in 2020-21 as the standard.

The manifesto promises Rs 2,000 to the woman head of every family under its Gruha Lakshmi scheme. According to the Census 2011, Karnataka had 1.31 crore households of different types  permanent, semi-permanent and temporary. One direct interpretation of the promise is a woman of each of these houses will get Rs 2,000 every month. The calculation comes to Rs 31,680 crore a year.

The Congress has promised every household free electricity of up to 200 units every month. If we take the current electricity cost in Bengaluru as the base, the total cost is Rs 1,584.88 crore a month. Annually, minus taxes, it is expected to cost the state exchequer Rs 19,018.56 crore.

ALSO READ | Karnataka Elections 2023: In Congress Manifesto, A Promise of 200 Units Free Electricity

Under the Anna Bhagya Scheme, every person in a BPL family will get free 10 kg grains of choice, either rice, jowar or ragi. Under the Shakti Scheme, every woman can travel across the state for free in government-owned buses. The Congress has also promised to consider re-implementing the old pension scheme (OPS), like it did in other states. If implemented, these measures may additionally cost the state exchequer a huge sum of money. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), too, had formed a panel in March 2023 to study the reintroduction of OPS after a strike by lakhs of government employees.

NUMBERSPEAK: THE BJPs PROMISES

The BJP, in its manifesto, has promised 500 ml of free Nandini milk to each BPL card holder household if it retains power. The cost of Nandini toned milk is Rs 20 a litre. As per the Karnataka Food, Civil Supply and Consumer Affairs Dept, the state has 1,17,33,766 crore families with priority household (PHH) BPL ration cards, with 3,97,80,053 dependent family members. These are registered under the National Food Security Act, 2013. The cost of giving a packet of toned Nandini milk each day will come to Rs 8,566 crore a year.

Karnataka is considered among rich states of the country, contributing 8.2% to the countrys GDP and is Indias third largest economy after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. According to the Karnataka Economic Survey 2022-23, the states per capita income in 2021-22 was Rs 2,65,623. It was fourth in India after Delhi, Telangana, and Haryana. In 2022-23, it reached Rs 3,01,673, a 13.6% rise. That clearly tells that a huge number of BPL cards in the state may carry many bogus entries.

IndiaSpend came out with an analytical report on the BPL population in Karnataka quoting a 2018 official report. The report put Karnatakas BPL population at 1.29 crore. This means 25.80 lakh families, if we consider a family consists of five members. Free Nandini milk each day would cost Rs 5.16 crore and Rs 1,883.4 crore a year.

ALSO READ | Promises to Keep: Heres What BJPs Manifesto Offers to Ktaka Farmers, Youth, Students, Women & Kids

Another promise in the BJPs manifesto is three free LPG cylinders to BPL families each year on Ugadi, Ganesh Chaturthi and Deepavali. The price of a single domestic LPG cylinder in Karnataka is Rs 1,055.50. The total cost comes to Rs 3,166.50 a year. Giving these for free to 1,17,33,766 BPL cards holder units means Rs 3,715 crore a year.

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A computer scientist often dubbed the godfather of artificial intelligence" has quit his job at Google to speak out about the dangers of the technology, US media reported Monday. Geoffrey Hinton, who created a foundation technology for AI systems, told The New York Times that advancements made in the field posed profound risks to society and humanity".

Look at how it was five years ago and how it is now," he was quoted as saying in the piece, which was published on Monday. Take the difference and propagate it forwards. Thats scary."

Hinton said that competition between tech giants was pushing companies to release new AI technologies at dangerous speeds, risking jobs and spreading misinformation. It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things," he told the Times.

In 2022, Google and OpenAI  the start-up behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT  started building systems using much larger amounts of data than before.

Hinton told the Times he believed that these systems were eclipsing human intelligence in some ways because of the amount of data they were analyzing.

Maybe what is going on in these systems is actually a lot better than what is going on in the brain," he told the paper.

While AI has been used to support human workers, the rapid expansion of chatbots like ChatGPT could put jobs at risk. AI takes away the drudge work" but might take away more than that", he told the Times.

The scientist also warned about the potential spread of misinformation created by AI, telling the Times that the average person will not be able to know what is true anymore."

Hinton notified Google of his resignation last month, the Times reported. Jeff Dean, lead scientist for Google AI, thanked Hinton in a statement to US media. As one of the first companies to publish AI Principles, we remain committed to a responsible approach to AI," the statement added. Were continually learning to understand emerging risks while also innovating boldly."

Hinton is Not Alone

In March, tech billionaire Elon Musk and a range of experts called for a pause in the development of AI systems to allow time to make sure they are safe. An open letter, signed by more than 1,000 people including Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, was prompted by the release of GPT-4, a much more powerful version of the technology used by ChatGPT.

In the NYT today, Cade Metz implies that I left Google so that I could criticize Google. Actually, I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google. Google has acted very responsibly. Geoffrey Hinton (@geoffreyhinton) May 1, 2023

Hinton did not sign that letter at the time, but told The New York Times that scientists should not scale this up more until they have understood whether they can control it."

What are the Dangers of AI?

Yoshua Bengio is a professor and artificial intelligence researcher at the University of Montreal. He has spent the last four decades inventing technology that powers systems such as GPT-4, according to a report by the New York Times. For their work on neural networks, the researchers received the Turing Award, also known as the Nobel Prize of computing," in 2018.

A neural network is a mathematical system that learns abilities through data analysis. Around five years ago, companies such as Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI began developing large language models, or L.L.Ms, which learned from massive amounts of digital text.

L.L.M.s learn to generate text on their own by identifying patterns in that text, such as blog posts, poems, and computer programmes, by identifying patterns in that text. They can even hold a conversation. This technique can assist computer programmers, writers, and other workers in coming up with new ideas and completing tasks more rapidly. However, Dr. Bengio and other experts cautioned that L.L.M.s can learn undesirable and unexpected behaviours, the Times reported.

These systems have the potential to generate false, biassed, or otherwise harmful information. Systems like GPT-4 make up information and misinterpret facts, a process known as hallucination."

These issues are being addressed by businesses. However, experts such as Dr. Bengio are concerned that as researchers develop more powerful systems, they will introduce new risks.

Some Risks Involved

According to a report by Bernard Marr, there are many risks involved with the advancement of AI.

One way AI can bring problems is when it is trained to perform something hazardous, such as autonomous weapons programmed to kill. It is also possible that the nuclear arms race may be supplanted by a worldwide autonomous weapons race.

Another thing to be wary of is social media, which, with its self-powered algorithms, is extremely effective at target marketing. They have a solid idea of who we are, what we enjoy, and what we think. Investigations are still ongoing to determine the fault of Cambridge Analytica and others associated with the firm who used data from 50 million Facebook users to try to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom, but if the accusations are true, it demonstrates AIs power for social manipulation. AI can target individuals identified by algorithms and personal data and spread any information they choose, in whichever style they deem most convincingfact or fiction.

It is now possible to track and assess an individuals every step both online and while going about their everyday business. Cameras are almost everywhere, and facial recognition algorithms recognise you. In fact, this is the type of data that will power Chinas social credit system, which is expected to assign a personal score to each of its 1.4 billion citizens based on how they behavethings like whether they jaywalk, smoke in non-smoking areas, and how much time they spend playing video games.

Because machines can collect, track, and analyse so much information about you, it is entirely possible that those machines will use that information against you, which can result in discrimination, the report by Bernard Marr says.

AFP contributed to this report

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Cruise Saudi, a leader in the cruise industry in the kingdom, will join global travel professionals to consider the future of the travel and tourism industry and create business opportunities during the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai.



This years Arabian Travel Market (ATM), running from May 1 to 4 at Dubais World Trade Centre, has seen a 27% YOY rise from 2022 in exhibitor participation making it the largest professional tourism event in the region.



Speaking ahead of ATM, Cruise Saudis CEO, Lars Clasen said: Arabian Travel Market is the leading international travel and tourism trade event in the GCC. Cruise Saudi is confident in unlocking further business potential throughout our participation and we look forward to being present alongside leading industry stakeholders and peers.



Cruise Saudis objective is to contribute to Saudis tourism industry growth through attracting 1.3 million cruise passenger visits by 2035, in line with Vision 2030s plan to increase total GDP from the tourism sector to 10%.



Saudi offers superior connectivity to the rest of the world  approximately 250 million people in Europe, Asia and Africa, live within a three-hour flight from the Red Sea or Arabian Gulf, added Clasen.



Cruise Saudi has been spearheading the development of a fully integrated, world-class cruise industry in the country.



Since the companys launch in 2021, Cruise Saudi has completed two successful cruising seasons and is more than halfway through its third season, opening areas of Saudi previously untouched by international tourism.



Clasen outlined Cruise Saudis expansion plans adding: With the support of the government and our partners, we have been able to develop three ports  Jeddah Islamic Port, Yanbu Commercial Port on the Red Sea, and King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam  with the necessary cruising infrastructure to welcome international cruise ships and passengers to experience the stunning Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coastlines.



Moving forward, our goal is to welcome more cruise lines to visit and homeport in Saudi, along with increasing the number of international and local tourists. We will also be focusing on developing more ports and working with our destination partners to curate a range of exciting and immersive shore excursions, he noted.  TradeArabia News Service
Three killed, five wounded due to enemy shelling of hypermarket in Kherson on Wednesday morning

At about 11:00 on Wednesday, the enemy attacked a hypermarket in Kherson, three people were killed and five were wounded, according to the Telegram channel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, citing Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

"Kherson. Russia has again killed civilian Ukrainians. Today, around 11:00, the enemy attacked the only working hypermarket in Kherson," the minister said.

"Three killed, five wounded as of now. These are employees and visitors of the institution. All operational services are on site," the minister said.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar on Tuesday announced he has decided to step down as chief of the party he founded and helmed since 1999, in a dramatic move that could have a bearing on national and Maharashtra politics ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The announcement by Pawar at an event in Mumbai to release the updated version of his Marathi autobiography stunned leaders and workers of his party, and many were seen crying and pleading with the 82-year-old wily Maratha strongman to reconsider the surprise decision.

A meeting of a committee of party leaders  which Pawar said should decide on the election for his successor  was held at his residence later, after which his nephew Ajit Pawar announced that his uncle will need two to three days to think over" his decision.

The decision by one of the tallest Opposition leaders in the country who could bring their parties together against the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections also comes amid intense speculation over Ajit Pawars next political move.

I am with you, but not as NCP chief," Pawar, the master of twists and turns known for his deft political manoeuvring, told the emotional party workers. He had formed the NCP after he was expelled by the Congress for raising the issue of Sonia Gandhis foreign origin.

Lets take a look back at when Pawar had exited the Congress:

Master of Twists and Turns

Sharad Pawars appeal for a protest march for Goan independence in Maharashtras Pravaranagar in 1956 marked the start of his first recorded political involvement at a young age, according to a report by Mid Day.

Pawar joined the Youth Congress in 1958 to show his support for the Congress Party. Pawar was elected President of the Pune District Youth Congress four years after joining the Youth Congress. Pawar eventually held major positions in the Maharashtra Youth Congress and gradually began to establish himself within the Congress party, the report says.

Pawar was elected to the Maharashtra state legislative assembly in 1967 after being mentored by Maharashtra senior politician Yashwantrao Chavan. He ran in the first of several elections from the Baramati constituency. After being re-elected to the assembly in 1972, he worked in a number of state government ministries over the next several years.

Pawar left the Congress Party before the 1978 Maharashtra assembly elections and helped found the Indian National Congress (Socialist), or Congress (S) Party, according to a report by Britannica. Indira Gandhi, who had stepped down as Prime Minister in 1977 and created the Congress (I) Party faction early in 1978, was opposed to the new party.

A broad coalition of non-Congress (I) parties gained a majority of seats in the polls and formed a government in the state, with Pawar as chief minister. The federal government dismissed that administration in 1980, after Gandhi reclaimed power and the prime ministership. In 1981, Pawar was elected President of Congress-S.

Pawar ran for and won a seat in the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the national parliament) in the 1984 elections, but he resigned the following year to become the leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra state assembly. In order to resist the rise of the right-wing Shiv Sena party in Maharashtra, Pawar combined the Congress-S with the Congress (I) Party in 1986 (the I" was eliminated in 1996). He was elected as the states chief minister for a second time in 1988-91, and a fourth time in 1993-95.

Pawar was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991, and he served as Indias defence minister from 1991 to 1993, under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. However, by the 1990s, Pawars political clout had begun to dwindle due to allegations of corruption and administrative blunders, the report says. The Congress Party lost the state assembly elections in 1995 to a coalition of the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The leader was elected to his third Lok Sabha term in 1996. The next year, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress president, losing the partys internal election to Sitaram Kesri. Following the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)s victory in the 1998 national parliamentary elections, Pawar opposed Congress leaders decision to promote Sonia Gandhi as party leader, arguing that anyone who could potentially become Prime Minister of India must be born in the country. Pawar, together with former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Sangma and Tariq Anwar, left the Congress Party in May 1999 to form the NCP.

Later that year, however, after neither party won a majority of seats in state legislative elections, the NCP joined forces with the Congress to form a coalition government in Maharashtra.

With inputs from PTI

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Did you know that the crown then King Charles wore while being invested as the Prince of Wales actually had a ping pong ball in it?

According to the Guardian, the plastic sphere was carefully disguised: not only was it covered in gold filigree, but it was also surrounded by a floating constellation of diamonds organised in the pattern of Charles star sign, Scorpio.

What is the Ping Pong Ball Crown?

The report explains that the crown was designed by Louis Osman, an architect and goldsmith dubbed the original hippie" by one of his friends, and it was a dramatic departure from the normal conservative royal headwear.

Swooping golden arches were flanked by abstract fleurs-de-lis and needle-thin crosses that jutted out like splintering lightning bolts in this futuristic vision. The gold came from a Welsh nugget, but instead of being hammered, it was electroplated onto an epoxy resin cast in a demonstration of modern technology. An interior purple velvet cap bordered with ermine finished the design, answering Charles demand for a crown that could be worn by a modern prince" with a regular haircut, rather than someone with a wig and showing ears."

Ispahani Bartos, a modern jewellery design scholar, revealed that she owns one of the original 1969 Electroform models of Charless head and confirmed during the lecture that the orb at the top of Louis Osmans radical design was, a ping poll ball, according to the Town and Country Magazine.

Prince Charles was preparing for his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969, just two months shy of his 21st birthday, but he needed a crown. The single arched silver gilded Coronet of George was available, but when the Duke of Windsor fled his realm in 1936, he also took this crown with him. Yes, it was technically illegal, but the Queen Mother would rather make a new coronet for Charles than have to speak with Wallis or Edward again.

The hunt for Charles investiture crown got underway, however, the monarchy faced a difficult period in the late 1960s. There were labour protests in England," says Ispahani Bartos, founder and principal of Mahnaz Collection, a gallery famed for original and artist jewels from the 1960s to the present. There were power outages across the country, an oil shortage, uprisings in Wales, and the troubles in Ireland have begun." They wanted to do something a little more low-key and in line with the tone of the period," she is quoted as saying by the Town and Country Magazine.

Crown jeweller Garrards initial proposal was rejected as too lavish and conspicuous. Thats when Louis Osman showed up.

Osman explains that Bartos did not follow any particular style. And he worked in a variety of capacities. He was an architect, a sculptor, a patron and historian of the arts, and a jeweller. Osmans objective was to build a coronet that would convey drama and meaning without being overly heavy. However, the process proved challenging, and something went wrong. The first time they tried to electroform the coronet, it was so delicate that it broke apart when it was stamped," Osman says. They almost got it right on the second try, when Osman built another mould. However, the orb had not yet been successfully remade to Osmans exact specifications. With little time left before the investiture for Osman to finish his work on the coronet, a technician supposedly came up with the notion of attempting to electroplate a ping pong ball. It was effective.

Will Charles Wear the Ping Pong Crown to his Coronation?

This time, however, Charles will not be crowned King in the modern headgear. Instead, the St Edwards crown, designed in 1661 for Charles II and used by Queen Elizabeth II in her royal insignia will be used during the coronation. This headgear is based on an 11th-century crown purported to have been worn by Edward the Confessor, a claim most likely made up by Westminster Abbey monks in order to attract pilgrims, the report says. Their plan worked, and for the following 400 years, the crown was used at the coronation of every English monarch.

It weighs 2.07 kg and is decorated with rubies, amethysts and sapphires. It was made for the Coronation of Charles II in 1661 as a replacement for the medieval crown melted down in 1649, after the execution of Charles I. The lost medieval crown dated back to the 11th century and belonged to the royal saint, Edward the Confessor.

St Edwards Crown was last used for crowning Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

The crown has a very simple structure," historian Anna Keay told the Court Jeweller in a report, with a sequence of 22-carat gold components (the headband, the crosses and fleur-de-lys and arches") joined together in 1661 to form the pieces fundamental frame. The settings for the jewels were then fixed through this frame from behind," Keay says. A gold collar kept each gem in place, and the stones were set in clusters encircled by white enamel mounts in the shape of acanthus leaves." Inside the crown, which has an ermine-trimmed base, is a velvet hat.

At some point during the coronation ceremony, Charles will withdraw into St Edwards chapel and re-emerge as the king, wearing new headwear: the imperial state crown. It is the lighter of the two, weighing less than half as much as St Edwards, and is worn for state openings of parliament and other ceremonial events.

The Imperial State Crown was created for King George VIs Coronation in 1937, replacing a crown created for Queen Victoria.

The crown is encrusted with 2,868 diamonds and numerous notable jewels, as per the Royal Collection Trust.

It features St. Edwards Sapphire, which Edward the Confessor is claimed to have worn in a ring. The Cullinan II diamond, the second largest cut from the enormous Cullinan Diamond, is also included in the crown. The Cullinan Diamond is the worlds biggest diamond.

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Personnel of all forces will be getting arrest protection in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in Ladakh. Ministry of Home Affairs has taken the decision in consultations with the Union Ministry of Law and Justice (MoL&J) and the government of Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources said that no new power has been given to any force, but a section of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) has been extended to all forces deployed in J&K and Ladakh rather.

Senior government officials also said that case can be registered against them but arrest would require more legal process now when they are on duty. Earlier it was only for Armed forces, it will now be applicable for all forces deployed in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, a senior official said.

According to a communication from CRPF, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in consultation with government of Jammu and Kashmir (Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs) and MoL&J (GoI) has made the proposal and accorded approval to extend the protection given under Section 45 of CrPC, 1973 to all force personnel deployed in union territories of J&K and Ladakh.

Till three years ago, Ranbir Penal Code 1989 was in force in Jammu and Kashmir, because of which, under Section 45 of the CrPC, 1973, members of the Armed Forces were not protected from arrest.

Earlier it was not applicable to State of J&K as Ranbir Penal Code, 1989 was applicable there. After repeal of Article-370 of Constitution of India, a proposal was moved by Law Dte to MHA for issuing instruction on applicability of Section 45 of CrPC, 1973 to the troops deployed in J&K as well," the letter says.

According to an official communication, protection against arrest to the Armed Force Personnel was given in Section 45 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973.

The provision contained under Section 45 of CrPC, 1973 (Protection of members of the Armed Forces from arrest) says, Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 41 to 44 (both Inclusive), no member of the Armed Forces of the Union shall be arrested for anything done or purported to be done by him in the discharge of his official duties except after obtaining the consent of the Central Government."

Further, the letter says: The state government may, by notification, direct that the provisions of sub section (1) shall apply to such class or category of the members of the Forces charged with the maintenance of public order as may be specified therein, wherever they may be serving, and there upon the provisions of that sub-section shall apply as if for the* expression Central Government" occurring therein, the expression State Government" were substituted"."

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The Assam Congress on Wednesday filed an FIR against All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal for making a derogatory statement against the party.

Last week, the state Congress hosted a meeting of 11 parties in Guwahati, urging all like-minded opposition forces to defeat the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The AIUDF, led by perfume baron Ajmal, was not invited to the meeting.

In the police complaint, Manjit Mahanta, chairman of the media department of Assam Congress, said Ajmal had made unparliamentary statements against APCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah and 10 other political parties.

Ajmal has previously received flak for indecent comments against women and the chief minister of Assam, said the complaint.

We are enclosing here news clippings of Amar Asom, May 3 issue where his statements have been published. Badruddin Ajmal, MP and President AIUDF, has been continuously trying to malign the image of our language, culture etc. and also attempting to weaken the social fabric of Assamese society, said the complaint.

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Home Ministry to decide on a mercy plea filed by Babbar Khalsas Balwant Singh Rajoana, who was convicted for killing former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench of Justices BR Gawai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol asked competent authorities to take a decision as and when they deem necessary, on the mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana.

Rajoana had approached the Supreme Court in 2020 asking for commutation saying that Centre had in 2019 announced its decision to commute his death penalty to life imprisonment and grant remission to 8 other convicts to mark the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.

Back then, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had clarified in Lok Sabha that no such pardon was given to Balwant Singh Rajoana, who was convicted for the assassination of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995.

Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was convicted for his involvement in an explosion outside the Punjab civil secretariat that killed Beant Singh and 16 others in 1995.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which is part of the Narendra Modi government, had said the decision of commutation of death sentence would go a long way in assuaging the hurt" feelings of the Sikh community who had to go through unspeakable repression and humiliation during those dark days" when Punjab was pushed into terrorism.

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Goa is all set to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers Meeting on May 4-5. External affairs minister Jaishankar has already arrived in Goa on Wednesday to take stock of the preparations.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov reached Goa on Wednesday morning. Jaishankar is expected to have a bilateral meeting during the day with many of his SCO counterparts, including Russia and China.

He will hold a bilateral meeting with SCO secretary General Zhang Ming in the morning. His bilateral meeting with Russian FM Lavrov, Chinas Qin Gang, and Uzbekistans Bakhtiyor Saidov has been scheduled for the second half of the day.

The groups meeting holds significance as it is also happening in the background of rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine, especially after the apparent assassination attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Moscow has blamed on Ukrainians.

Pakistans foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is also reaching Goa for the SCO meeting later in the day. However, the possibility of bilateral talks between Indias and Pakistans foreign ministers has not been confirmed by either side.

Earlier when asked about a possible meeting of Jaishankar and Bhutto, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said, I think it is premature. Lets see the full participation. Usually, EAM does try to hold as many bilateral meetings as it can on the margins of such kinds of multilateral meetings."

Jaishankars meeting with his Chinese counterpart also holds significance for the bilateral ties as they are meeting for the second time in less than two months. Both had held bilateral talks during the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Delhi in February.

Meanwhile, the national coordinators of SCO member countries continued their engagement in Goa to talk about the key agendas for the grouping and areas of discussion during the SCO Foreign Ministers Council meeting.

The SCO group started about two decades ago as a China and Russia-led grouping to discuss cooperation with central Asian neighbours and has expanded both in numbers and mandate since then.

The grouping now represents 40 per cent of the world population and about 60% of the land mass. India and Pakistan became full-time members of the grouping in 2017 while Iran is scheduled to become part of the league from this year onwards. The summit-level talks of SCO countries scheduled on July 3-4 will also see Iranian President Ebrahim Raisis participation as a full-time member of the grouping.

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A day after Go First sought voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings and decided to cancel flights for three days starting from May 3 and informed the aviation ministry that it is unable to meet financial obligations due to the non-availability of Pratt & Whitney engines, the aircraft engine manufacturing company responded on Wednesday, saying that its committed to the success of their customers" but the Go First has a lengthy history of missing its financial obligations".

Newsagency ANI reported that a source at P&W said the budget airline has a lengthy history of missing its financial obligations to Pratt & Whitney.

In a statement, P&W said: Pratt & Whitney is committed to the success of our airline customers, and we continue to prioritize delivery schedules for all customers. Pratt & Whitney is complying with the March 2023 arbitration ruling related to Go First. As this is now a matter of litigation, we will not comment further," P&Ws statement on Go First airlines."

While halting its services from May 3, the airlines said that it had to ground half of its fleet due to the non-availability of engines.

#WATCH | Go First counters at Delhi Airport were vacant after Go First Airlines grounded its flights for 3rd, 4th and 5th May amid bankruptcy. pic.twitter.com/PUHfPo4G5c ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

While speaking to Reuters, Go First CEO Kaushik Khona said: The insolvency proceedings were aimed at reviving the airline and not selling it." He added that the company had made all payments to Pratt & Whitney.

Go First, which has been flying for more than 17 years, will cancel all flights for three days  May 3, 4 and 5  and promised to make a full refund to the customers. It operates around 180-185 flights, carrying around 30,000 passengers on a daily basis.

The airlines CEO Kaushik Khona said the airline has grounded 28 planes, more than half of its fleet, due to the non-supply of engines by Pratt & Whitney (P&W), and that has resulted in a fund crunch.

It is an unfortunate decision (filing for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings), but it had to be done to protect the interests of the company," he told PTI.

The Wadia group-owned carrier has moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Delhi, seeking voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings.

Go First is the second major scheduled airline after Jet Airways to seek resolution under insolvency proceedings.

Amid travel disruptions due to the sudden cancellation of Go First flights, aviation regulator DGCA has issued a show cause notice to the embattled carrier.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the airline has cancelled the scheduled flights for May 3 and 4 without any prior intimation".

While the carrier announced that it will cancel the flights for May 3 and 4, it was extended by another day to May 5, as per a notice on the carriers website.

Go Firsts Current Liability at Rs 9000 core

According to Khona, the current liabilities of the airline would be around Rs 9,000 crore. The carrier has around 7,000 direct employees.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said it was unfortunate that the operational bottleneck related to engine supplies has dealt a blow to the airlines financial position.

It is prudent to wait for the judicial process to run its course," he said in a statement.

The civil aviation ministry is keeping a close watch on the developments at crisis-hit Go First and the proceedings that are expected at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) this week, a senior official said.

In a detailed statement, Go First said it has been forced to seek voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings due to serial failure" of Pratt & Whitney engines, resulting in the grounding of 50 per cent of the fleet and is no longer in a position to continue to meet its financial obligations.

The company mentioned that P&W has not been providing the engines and it has been more than 12-18 months that the airline has been continuously following up with them. We also found that Pratt & Whitney was not serious enough to commit to their obligations," Khona said.

Go Airlines (India) Ltd, which operates under the brand Go First, has applied to the NCLT for resolution and protection under Section 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code due to the ever-increasing failure of the Pratt & Whitney engines that power its fleet", the statement said.

The airline, which has been grappling with engine issues since January 2020, said it has been forced to move the NCLT as P&W refused to comply with an order issued by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), an emergency arbitrator.

The arbitrator had ordered P&W to take all reasonable steps to release and dispatch without delay to the airline at least 10 serviceable spare leased engines by April 27 and another 10 spare leased engines per month until December 2023, as per the statement.

If Pratt & Whitney had followed the directions laid down in the award, Go First would have been able to return to full operations by August/September 2023, leading to Go Firsts financial rehabilitation and survival.

Pratt & Whitney has failed to provide any further serviceable spare leased engines at all at the date of this press release and has stated that there are no further spare leased engines available," the statement said.

Promoters have infused funds worth Rs 3,200 crore into the airline in the last three years and out of the total amount, Rs 2,400 crore was injected in the last 24 months. An amount of Rs 290 crore was pumped in April this year.

This brings the total investment in the airline since its inception to approximately Rs 6,500 crore," the statement said.

The airline flew 29.11 lakh domestic passengers in the first quarter of this year, and the market share during this period was 7.8 per cent.

(With inputs from PTI)

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Srinagars famous Dal Lake could get the highest fountain in the world, even taller than the famous Dubai fountain at the Burj Khalifa or King Fahds Fountain in Saudi Arabia.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration is now dreaming big, seeking consultants to suggest if a fountain of a height of 250 to 300 metres can be installed in the Dal Lake.

This comes after J&K lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha in March inaugurated new dancing-cum-programmable fountains at five locations from Zabarwan to Krale Sangri in Dal Lake, and one high water jet that can throw water to a height of 90 metres. It became an instant hit among the people.

The JK Lake Conservation and Management Authority now intends to install the worlds highest water jet in the Dal Lake waters, says an Expression of Interest (EoI) document issued by the authority on May 2. It has asked consultants to come forward for the preparation of a detailed project report and cost estimation for installation of a super high jet in Dal Lake.

The EoI document says the ambitious project could be executed in two phases  the first looking at a proposed fountain with the height of the water jet at 200 to 250 metres, and up to 300 metres in the next phase. The consultant will conceptualise and design the project.

The newly installed water jet at Dal Lake of a height of 90 metres is also the first of its kind in J&K at a cost of Rs 10 crore and is among the tallest water shooters in the country. Such projects are to appeal to tourists visiting J&K and to also depict a picture of normalcy in the Valley.

The famous Dubai fountain shoots water up to around 152 metres while the J&K administration is aiming to get a water fountain that is taller. The tallest water fountain in the world is King Fahds. Located on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, the fountain jets water to a maximum height of 260 metres and is listed in the Guinness Records as the highest water fountain in the world.

News18 had earlier reported that the J&K administration is also planning a giant Ferris wheel on an island in the Dal Lake as well as a world-class theme amusement park in Srinagar.

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In a time when many farmers struggle to access groundwater even with deep bore wells, a farmer in a remote Telangana village has been blessed with a continuous supply of water, flowing on its own without the intervention of an electric motor.

Kunta Ranga Reddy, a native of Govupalli village in Eturunagaram Mandal of Mulugu district, inherited several acres of fertile land from his ancestors 15 years ago.

Eager to make agriculture his livelihood but lacking nearby water sources, he decided to dig a bore well on his property and planned to install an electric motor to extract water. However, to everyones surprise, the groundwater began flowing continuously without any external force.

For the past 15 years, the water has flowed non-stop, irrigating as many as 15 acres of agricultural land. The abundant groundwater in the area, combined with the thick forests of Eturunagram, is believed to be the reason behind this continuous flow.

Ranga Reddys farm has now become a popular tourist attraction, with people from surrounding districts visiting to witness the remarkable bore well that functions without an electric motor.

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Hello readers, News18 brings you the latest updates on Arvind Kejriwals reaction to EDs chargesheet in the Delhi Excise Policy case, PM Modis fury speech in Karnataka and other top stories.

A Planned Terrorist Act: Kremlin Says Ukraine Attempted Assassination of President Putin

The Kremlin said on Wednesday it shot down two drones launched by Ukraine and accused Kyiv of attempting to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin. Two unmanned vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin the devices were put out of action," the Kremlin said in a statement, calling the operation a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation." READ MORE

Delhi Excise Policy Case: Kejriwal Slams ED for Naming AAPs Sanjay Singh in Chargesheet By Mistake

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday slammed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for naming AAP leader Sanjay Singh in the excise policy case chargesheet by mistake" and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of trying to defame the most honest party of the country". READ MORE

PM Asks Voters to be Cautious of Those Indulging in Shortcut Politics, Says Cong Makes False Promises

Amid the row over Congresss poll manifesto that proposed a ban on outfits like Bajrang Dal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday began his speech at a rally in Kalaburagi with a Bajrang Bali ki jai chant. READ MORE

Sharad Pawar Resigns: NCPs Jitendra Awhad, Entire Thane Unit Quit; Big Role Proposed for Supriya Sule

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawars announcement on Tuesday to step down as chief of the party he founded and helmed since 1999 left many shocked, with workers and functionaries urging the veteran leader to withdraw his decision. A series of resignations have followed Sharad Pawars decision to step down as NCP president. State general secretary of NCP, party leader Jitendra Awhad and all the office bearers of the Thane unit of the party tendered their resignations. READ MORE

Shah Rukh Khan Gets Brutally Trolled, Called Rude After Jawan Star Pushed A Mans Hand Away

READ MORE Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is in no mood to entertain any selfie request from fans! How do we know this? Well, the Pathaan actor looked upset after a fan tried to take a selfie with him at Mumbai airport. However, SRKs move of pushing his fans hand away has not gone down well with netizens, who are trolling the actor ahead of the release of his highly-anticipated film Jawan, also starring Nayanthara.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a Ukrainian counteroffensive is being prepared in the coming weeks, and success on the battlefield could bring closer negotiations that could produce a just peace.

"We know that the Ukrainians are contemplating a counteroffensive in the weeks to come. Let's see what happens with that. And ultimately, its success on the battlefield is the best way and probably the quickest way to actually get to a negotiation that produces a just and durable peace," he told Fox News on Tuesday, according to the U.S State Department website.

As Blinken noted, in Ukraine, Russia "has already failed in the sense that what they were trying to accomplish initially was to erase Ukraine from the map, to subsume it into Russia, to eliminate its existence as an independent state. That's failed and it's not going to succeed."

Asked about China's latest initiatives on Ukraine, Blinken said the United States welcomes any peace dialogue, but noted one major condition. "It [peace] begins, first of all, with the recognition that what  that what's fundamentally at stake is the territorial integrity and sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, so any peace agreement has to have that as its foundation"

"It's also very important that anyone who's engaging in efforts to advance peace be talking directly to the Ukrainians. They're the aggrieved party," Blinken said.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy asserted his governments commitment to transforming Northern Andhra into a national employment hub, addressing the regions previous neglect.

Reddy laid the foundation stone for several development projects in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts, including the Bhogapuram International Airport (Rs. 4,592 crores), Vizag Tech Park Limited of Adani Group (Rs. 21,844 crores), Taraka Rama Thirtha Sagaram Project (Rs. 194.40 crores), and Chintapalli Fish Landing Centre (Rs. 23.73 crores) on Wednesday.

He called the Bhogapuram International Airport a diamond in the crown of Northern Andhra," highlighting his governments efforts to develop the region on par with other areas in the state.

The chief minister also announced that the greenfield airport will be completed within three years, with operations beginning in 2026. The Taraka Rama Thirtha Sagaram Project, he added, will irrigate 30,000 acres and provide drinking water to 49 villages, Vizianagaram town, and the airport. The project is set for completion by December 2024.

Criticising former CM Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Reddy highlighted his governments distribution of Rs. 2,10,000 crore through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) over four years for the states well-being, contrasting it with Naidus alleged looting.

Reddy accused Naidu of building a political career on deception and lies, while the YSRCP built its legacy through outreach, development, and welfare initiatives for various segments of the population.

In response, TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu accused CM Jagan Reddy of double standards regarding Bhogapuram International Airport, claiming he had opposed it when in opposition and promised land return.

Naidu alleged that Reddy now praises the airport as Northern Andhras diamond" and mocked the CM for laying the foundation stone for the Adani Data Center, previously done under the TDP administration.

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In a lead that can become a major worry for security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, central Intelligence agencies have found that the arms and ammunition used to execute the Poonch attack  in which five RR jawans lost their lives  had come from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

According to a top-level government official, information was received a few days ago which talked about the movement of arms and ammunition originating from Afghanistan and entering India via Pakistan. Intelligence agencies are now corroborating the information and trying to establish facts.

Indian agencies were expecting the impact of the Talibans takeover in Afghanistan on the movement and activities of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.

After the Poonch attack, the investigation of the local police also hinted that the bullets used were likely from Afghanistan that were left there by US forces before their exit.

In fact, on many occasions, security forces have found sophisticated weapons other than AK-47s. In December last year, J&K Police discovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition in the Jammu region which included seven AK-47 rifles, one US-made M4 rifle, and three pistols along with grenades. J&K Police had said four terrorists were looking for an encounter to target security forces.

According to a report of an American broadcaster published this year in January, militants in J&K  who are trying to annex the region for Pakistan  are carrying M4s, M16s, and other US-made arms and ammunition that have rarely been seen in the 30-year conflict. A major reason, authorities told the media house, is the flood of US-funded weapons that fell into the hands of the Taliban when NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.

Last year, former DG CRPF Kuldiep Singh also hinted at the Afghanistan angle. Singh had revealed that J&K had more foreign terrorists who were trying to disturb the law and order situation in the Valley. He had added that the increased movement of foreign terrorists was due to the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan.

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The Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh has expressed its discontent over China renaming different places in the state. The monks at the oldest monastery in Asia, which has sociopolitical impact in the northeast as well as Tibet, said the neighbouring country did not have any right to do this in Indian territory.

They dont have any right to rename places here. We strongly condemn this. We have already taken out rallies against this. They are trying to disturb us but we will not tolerate this," lama Thupten Shastri told News18. In Tibet, China tortured Buddhists and tried to destroy the religion, Tibetan culture and history; everything came under attack and any fake narrative that the other side tries to establish will be strongly condemned."

Buddhists from across the world visit the monastery, which is home to 300 monks and 17 gompas of the region. The monastery identifies with Tawang in every way and has historical importance as well. It belongs to the Gelugpa school and has a religious association with Drepung monastery in Lhasa.

It is also a research space for Buddhism and is considered the holiest place for the Mahayana Buddhism. Being the largest monastery in India, it plays a massive role in preserving the practice of Buddhism in the country. In Tibet, the Tawang Monastery is known as Gaden Namgyal Lhatse, which means divine paradise of complete victory.

It was founded by Lodre Gyatso in 1680 on the wishes of the fifth Dalai Lama. It is a three-storied structure with more than 65 residential buildings and a storehouse for over 400 handwritten manuscripts. Its structure is so sound from an architectural as well as spiritual point of view that it gets visitors all through the year.

Lodre Gyasto is the founder of this monastery, he went to Tibet and the fifth Dalai Lama told him to build it. Our scripts and research, everything is here. People from around the world come here," Thupten Shastri said.

He said there is a popular saying that the name and location of this monastery was selected by a horse. You may be astonished but the full name of the monastery in Tibet is Galdan Namgye Lhatse. Ta means horse and wang means chosen, which together Tawang meaning the location selected by the horse. This horse was the Lodre Gyatsos. There are numerous stories attached to its naming," he added.

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A movie titled The Kerala Story" stirred a political storm with parties in the southern state expressing their strong views on the film which revolves around the stories of Hindu women from Kerala who were converted to Islam and trafficked to ISIS and other Islamic war zones in 2018-2019.

Directed by Sudipto Sen, the film claims to unearth the truth" behind thousands of innocent women" who were systematically converted, radicalized & their lives destroyed".

The matter even reached the Supreme Court which however refused to hear a plea seeking a stay on the movie which is set to release on Friday.

Here are the top points on The Kerala Story":

The Kerala Story is backed by Sunshine Pictures Private Limited, founded by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, who serves as the producer, creative director and co-writer of the film. The films writer-director Sudipto Sens earlier movies are Aasma, Lucknow Times and The Last Monk.

According to the latest description of the trailer, shared on production banner Sunshine Pictures official YouTube page, The Kerala Story" is a compilation of the true stories of three young girls from different parts of Kerala Thousands of innocent women have been systematically converted, radicalized & their lives destroyed"

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the makers of The Kerala Story", saying they were taking up the Sangh Parivar propaganda of projecting the state as a centre of religious extremism by raising the issue of love jihad  a concept rejected by the courts, probe agencies and the home ministry.

The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala claimed that the film was BJP sponsored" and part of the Sangh Parivar agenda" to divide people and create animosity among them in the state.

The Kerala Story" producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah rejected allegations that the film is funded by the BJP, saying as filmmakers they have nothing to do with any political party" and anything spoken about the film without watching it is conjecture".

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea seeking a stay on release of The Kerala Story" on grounds that its a worst kind of hate speech" and an audio-visual propaganda".

A public interest litigation (PIL) was moved in the Kerala High Court on Tuesday against certain statements in the teaser and trailer of the film and seeking that the court set aside the certificate for public display given to the movie by the censor board. The High Court listed the matter for hearing on May 5 and sought the Centres views.

The BJP has extended support to the controversial film, claiming that recruitment into the Islamic State (IS) terror outfit from Kerala cannot be denied and CM Pinarayi Vijayan was aware of the exact figures.

Congress has urged the Kerala government not to give permission to screen the controversial movie The Kerala Story.

Senior Congress leader and MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor said Keralites have every right to state that The Kerala Story" is a misrepresentation of our reality". However, he said is not calling for a ban on the film as freedom of expression does not cease to be valuable just because it can be misused.

(With PTI inputs)

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Want to stay in close vicinity of the upcoming Ram Temple in Ayodhya when it opens next year? The Yogi Adityanath government has decided to come up with a 200-unit tent city just about a kilometre away from the Ram Temple.

The tent city will come up by early next year in Brahma Kund in Ayodhya, with 200 tents to accommodate tourists across 15,000 square meters, as per the details with News18.

This is part of several new hotels coming up in Ayodhya, including leading five-star chains, to cater to the big rush of tourists and pilgrims expected in Ayodhya once the Ram Temple opens to public next January.

The tent city will be open all year for visitors and will be maintained by a private party for the next decade with the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government providing the land and charging a licence fee, as per the documents with News18.

The proposed tent city will provide visitors a unique and comfortable camping experience, allowing them to immerse themselves in the citys culture and spirituality. The project will aim to offer modern amenities while preserving the natural surroundings and the historic and cultural significance of the area, says a UP government document with News18.

1  2023          1st May 2023 Some pictures showing progress of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir construction. pic.twitter.com/WCSjzr1KUQ  Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra (@ShriRamTeerth) May 1, 2023

Ayodhya is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, situated on the banks of the river Saryu in Uttar Pradesh, and is home to ancient temples and magnificent ghats that showcase the rich history and culture of India, the document further adds.

The Yogi government plans high-quality services in the tent city, including multiple recreational activities in a minimum of 200 tents with attached restrooms, reception/foyer area, restaurant, kitchens, dining area, and VIP lounge. The minimum size of a tent shall be 250 sq feet, as per the document.

The private party will be entitled to the revenue from the operations in the tent city area, sale of tents, restaurant, recreational activities and will be asked to commence the operations within two months of signing of the licence agreement," says the UP government document.

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As the apex court of the country is hearing a bunch of petitions on same-sex marriage, several religious and social groups have also filed their pleas in the case to consider their positions.

Mumbai-based Raza Academy too made itself a party to the hearing last week, opposing same-sex marriage on the grounds that it is violative of fundamental rights of the religious minority".

Raza Academy works for Muslims and is known to take a stance on various issues affecting the community. The organisation was also blamed for Mumbais Azad Maidan riots of 2012.

While speaking to CNN-News18, the organisations founder and president Muhammad Saeed Noori said that Islam does not permit any marriage other than that of men and women.

The Supreme Court in Navtej Singh Johar decriminalised homosexuality in this county, which has led to many homosexual couples entering into a civil union. Now issues such as these couples cannot buy insurance for their family/partner has been brought up. However, they can always nominate their name in insurance policy or bequeath their properties under existing laws. For a narrow commercial interest of a group, the basic building block of the society that is the union of heterosexual men and women cannot be disturbed," said Noori.

In a petition submitted before the Supreme Court, Noori has also said that of the 200 countries identified by the United Nations, only 35 recognise same-sex marriage. The plea added that about 35 Muslim-dominated countries criminalise homosexuality.

Legalising same-sex marriage would violate Indian culture and tradition. The legalisation of same-sex marriage in a country with a 1.4-billion population will lead to an increase in population and will adversely affect the social fabric of society, diversity in culture, tradition, religion, etc, Noori added.

However, the central government on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court it will set up a committee headed by the cabinet secretary to examine the problems faced by the LGBTQIA+ community.

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The face-off between some of Indias top wrestlers and Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh continues as the protest at Jantar Mantar entered the 11th day, with both sides refusing to budge. The protesting wrestlers are set to join a march on Wednesday, organised by the Students Federation of India (SFI) from the University of Delhi against Brij Bhushan.

As wrestlers representative, Olympian Bajrang Punia will join the SFI march at Delhi University, sources said.

Representatives of 360 villages in Delhi, including MLAs and councillors of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), will also visit Jantar Mantar today to express solidarity with the wrestlers staging a protest, demanding the arrest of the wrestling federation chief over sexual harassment charges.

On Wednesday, representatives of 360 villages, including councillors and MLAs, will visit Jantar Mantar at 11 am to support the protesting wrestlers. A strategy for the movement will also be chalked out. The voices of these players will reach every village," AAPs Delhi unit convenor Gopal Rai said.

Anurag Thakur Responds To Vinesh Phogats Allegations

Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday responded to ace wrestler Vinesh Phogats allegations of him not taking any action against WFI chief Brij Bhushan and trying to suppress the matter by forming a committee.

Thakur said allegations of sexual assault can not be proven through media trials and a proper channel of administrative investigation is required for it.

FIR has been registeredpolice investigation will be done. How can anything be done before the investigation? Anything cant be decided by media trialActions will be taken according to law, against anyone who will be found guiltyLet the police investigate the sexual harassment chargesWe should not jump the gun, let the enquiry be over," said Thakur.

Addressing the media, Phogat slammed Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur for not taking any action and suppressing the matter by forming a committee.

We ended our protest after talking to Union Sports Minister (Anurag Thakur), and all the athletes had told him about the sexual harassment. By forming a committee, he tried to suppress the matter there; no action was taken that time," she said.

SC Allows Wrestlers Counsel To Submit Sealed Cover Inputs On WFI Chief

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed wrestlers counsel, senior advocate Narender Hooda to submit a sealed cover with additional material with regards to sexual harassment allegations against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan.

A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud asked counsel to share the sealed cover with Delhi police as well.

Hooda has alleged that Delhi police is doing absolutely nothing in investigating the charges.

PT Usha Meets Protesting Wrestlers

Days after criticising the protesting wrestlers, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) chief PT Usha on Wednesday met them at Delhis Jantar Mantar.

Wrestler Bajrang Punia after meeting with PT Usha in Delhi said the IOA chief has assured the wrestlers that she is standing with them and will get us justice.

She said that she is an athlete first and then anything else. She said that she will look into our issue and resolve it as early as possible. We will remain here till Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh goes to jail," Punia said.

Usha had earlier criticised the protesters and said the protest amounts to indiscipline and criticised the wrestlers for not waiting for the report of a committee looking into their allegations.

The players should not have protested on the streets. They should have at least waited for the report of the committee. What they have done is not good for the game and the country. It is a negative approach," Usha had said.

Wrestlers Vs WFI

The wrestlers have been staging a sit-in since April 23 over allegations of sexual harassment against BJP MP, who has completed 12 years as WFI President and is ineligible to become an office bearer.

The protesters have been demanding criminal action against Singh for the alleged sexual harassment and intimidation of seven female wrestlers, including a minor.

The protesting wrestlers had moved the Supreme Court seeking the registration of FIRs against the WFI chief, following which the Delhi Police have filed two FIRs, including one under the POCSO Act, against the BJP MP.

Booked for alleged sexual exploitation, Singh has vowed to fight the charges and alleged that the opposition parties were tutoring" the players. He claimed that the protesting wrestlers want to take over the WFI and that only one family- the Phogats- are behind the protest.

The claim was, however, countered by wrestler Bajrang Punia, who asserted that protesters dont want to control WFI.

To be in WFI, you have to be a member of a state association. We dont want control of WFIHis (Brij Bhushan) son is the president of the UP Association, and his sons brother-in-law is the secretary. His son-in-law is also a member of a state association. He is accusing us of nepotism while it is happening in his case," Punia claimed.

Following this, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh also targeted Punia and claimed the conspiracy against him was hatched by Congress leader Deepender Hooda and Punia.

We have an audio to prove this that will be handed over to the Delhi Police when the time comes," he claimed.

Mahavir Phogat Says Amir Khans Support Will Be Welcomed

Former wrestler Mahavir Phogat, who is also the father of CWC medalists Geeta and Babita Phogat, has extended his support to the protesting wrestlers and demanded action against the WFI chief.

Phogat, who became a household name after the release of the Bollywood blockbuster Dangal, said he doesnt expect much from the actors but would appreciate it if actor Amir Khan, who essayed his character in the movie, extends his support to wrestlers.

I dont have expectations from any stars but if he (Aamir Khan) tweets in support, we would like it, Mahavir was quoted as saying according to a report by India Today.

He further said that his daughter Babita (Phogat), who was included in the panel to investigate the allegations levelled by wrestlers, is also part of this fight.

In 2019, Babita Phogat and her father Mahavir Phogat joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Babita also contested and lost in the last Haryana Assembly elections from BJPs ticket.

This is a do-or-die situation. We will sit on dharna till we get justice. We are united in this fight," he said as per India Today report.

Wrestlers Miss Another International Event

Meanwhile, wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Makil, who are leading wrestlers protest against the WFI chief, have decided to sit out of another international tournament after they refused to compete at the Ranking Series wrestling event in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan from June 1 to 4.

This is the third instance when the trio are not participating in the United World Wrestling (UWW)-organised ranking series.

Non-protesting Wrestlers Demand Resumption of National Camp

The national camp shut and the controversy surrounding WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh still raging, several non-protesting wrestlers on Tuesday demanded that the SAI must reopen its centres for grapplers since the lack of proper training is having an adverse impact on their preparations for the Asian Games.

The mens national camp for freestyle and greco roman wrestlers is held at Sports Authority of Indias centre in Bahalgarh (Sonepat) while the womens camp is organised in Lucknow.

The countrys premier wrestlers, including Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, have levelled sexual harassment allegations against the Wrestling Federation of India chief and resumed their protest at Jantar Mantar on April 23.

The national camp was closed on April 8, a day before the Asian Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan, and has not yet restarted.

More than 300 wrestlers in 10 weight categories  senior, junior, cadet and U15  train at SAI centre in Sonepat while the Lucknow centre accommodates more than 100 women wrestlers.

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MET Gala 2023: The jewelled accessories seen on Alia Bhatt took a new high with inspiration from Karl Lagerfeld - late legendary French fashion designer and creative director - and expressed an extraordinary language that swirls around sophistication.

A vision in white, ethereally clad in pearls describes the stars look at first glance. She walked the red carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in a princess-cut gown paired with unmissable couture accessories that scintillate in pearls and crystals.

With the inclusion of futuristic elements, her accessories are designed by Kaabia and Sasha Grewal of Outhouse Jewellery and handcrafted exclusively within forty-eight hours. After a deep study of Karls aesthetics and design thinking, the sister founders of Outhouse created a line in beauty to coordinate Prabal Gurungs pearlescent gown.

For Alia, we customised a unique bow hair accessory and jewelled vegan leather glovelettes and recommended earrings from our ready-to-wear collection to complement the same, share the designer duo.

A closer look at the hair bow reveals organic pearls, dual-tone crystal orbs and metallic spikes that are carefully strung with elegance and hints of boldness. According to the designers, the process began with designing a couture braid accessory that was re-iterated to a classic bow.

The iconographic jewelled glove, also seen on her, presents a rendition of the brands runway edit that launched last year. Crafted in ivory PETA-approved vegan leather, the fingerless glovelettes channel Karls iconism with Outhouses inventiveness. It features the OH V monogram studded with clear crystals and pearls.The accessory added an edge to the ivory silk tulle and satin face organza exaggerated basque waist ball gown embellished with hand beaded pearls.

The look was styled by celebrity stylist Anaita Shroff Ajadania interpreting the theme that celebrated Karl Lagerfelds contribution to fashion. The designer duo also shared that the display of almost 150 creations at the Costume Institute of the MET Museum records the traces of inspiration behind creating Alias harmonising look.

The MET Gala 2023 event was attended by an array of celebrities including Rihanna, Doja Cat, Nicole Kidman, Carla Bruni, Roger Federer, Dua Lipa, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas, Jared Leto, Natasha Poonawalla, Isha Ambani Piramal, Kendall Jenner, and Kim Kardashian among others.

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With the Lok Sabha elections less than 12 months away, there is a wide understanding that Narendra Modi is headed for another term as the Prime Minister of the country, backed by a similar massive mandate that the party achieved under him in 2019. Naturally, the opposition parties are making efforts to stop Modis return to power, like they have unsuccessfully done in the past.

With lunches and dinners and subsequent photo-ops, the opposition is trying to project unity. Multi-pronged efforts are being made to create a perception that the opposition is united. The projection notwithstanding, on the ground, there is no concrete shape that this solidarity has taken as yet. But this is not the only factor playing to Modis advantage. Several factors make is return to power inevitable.

CHARISMA INTACT

One may easily recall that in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, when the questions of face and leadership emerged, Modi had taken a clear lead. Nearly five years down the line, the situation hasnt changed much. The entire spectrum of opposition leaders does not have a face to match the incumbent Prime Minister.

Not just his supporters, even Modis opponents believe that he is the countrys first choice when it comes to electing a Prime Minister. Even at a personal level, Modi is far ahead of any leader in terms of popularity. So much so that no one seems to be getting around him, at least in 2024. Face Modi has emerged stronger on the test of credibility. After the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the beginning of the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), under the leadership of Modi, has only grown stronger. The absence of a face to take on Modis widely popular persona will be a major reason for the BJPs comfortable return to power.

Periodic surveys also indicate that most people want Modi to be their Prime Minister. On the one hand, the BJP has a charismatic face like Narendra Modi, on the other hand, the oppositions biggest weakness is the lack of face and leadership. Significantly, the biggest weakness of the opposition is the biggest strength of the BJP.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND STRENGTH

It was because of Modis charismatic leadership that a large section of voters joined the BJP in the years following 2014. This was the reason why the BJPs vote percentage increased to the best in history when votes were counted in 2019. For voters who passionately reposed faith in Modis leadership, this was a great opportunity to connect and communicate with the BJP.

Even as more and more people have joined the BJP, the party has made concerted efforts to connect voters, who joined the fold believing in Modi, with its organization. The BJP has continuously communicated with them, got them party membership and thus expanded the partys reach to every section of the society, working at the micro level. These organisational activities have been working nonstop over the past nine years. Contrary to this, other parties do not see any such continuous activity of organizational expansion.

According to one estimate, the biggest success for the BJP at the organizational level in the past nine years has been how it has been able to connect the voters directly with the party. The BJP currently has around 17 crore members. With coordination between the organisation and the government, the BJP has strengthened its ground in the past nine years, a model that no party has been able to implement so far.

STRATEGY TO WOO NEW VOTERS

Prime Minister Modi created a new electorate through schemes for welfare of the poor. Through schemes such as Jan Dhan, Ujjwala, Saubhagya, Awas Yojana, Swachh Bharat, Ayushman and Kisan Samman Nidhi, Modi has strengthened his credibility amid the economically marginalised and vulnerable sections of the country. In 2014, Modi got around 17,16,57,000 votes. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it increased by about 5 crore votes.

The increase was attributed to beneficiary voters, or those whose lives improved because of the policies of the Modi government.

Now, through schemes such as free ration, free Covid vaccine and Har Ghar Nal Se Jal, Narendra Modi has been able to reach a larger beneficiary group than in 2019. About 80 crore people are beneficiaries of free ration. The impact of this widening reach was seen in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Due to a strong and motivated organizational base, reaching out to beneficiaries is part of the BJPs routine work. Over the past five years, the BJP karyakartas have contacted the beneficiaries several times. Modi, in fact, directly communicates with the beneficiaries regularly. The pattern makes it clear, in the 2024 elections, the BJP is set to get a wider support than 2019. The Modi model of politics has worked to weed out the roots of casteism and appeasement politics in the country. As a result, the base of regional parties is shrinking.

One of the major strengths of PM Modi is that people look at him with expectations, and he is able to fulfil those. It is this aspect of his leadership which evokes sabka vishwas (everyones trust). PM Modi strengthened this trust in the difficult times of Covid. He has emerged as a samvedanshil (sensitive) leader who is empathetic to the problems of the common people. This is the reason why despite repeated attacks by the opposition, the peoples trust in him remains unshakable.

DISINTEGRATION OF OPPOSITION AND LACK OF LEADERSHIP

The biggest challenge that political analysts have been talking about against Modi is opposition unity. As of now, there is no visible form of an intact alliance. Apart from the symbolic rhetoric of alliances on different forums, no formula has emerged on the basis of which it can be said that there is unity at the national level against Modi. At the national level, there is no Grand Alliance in sight. On the question of leadership, the leaders of this coalition of imagination are unable to give any concrete answers.

It is a good sign for the BJP that at a time when the opposition remains fragmented, all the constituents of the BJP unitedly seem ready to contest the elections under the leadership of Narendra Modi.

While the BJP-led NDA has almost made its nature clear, the anti-BJP alliance seems amorphous. The factor will play to the BJPs advantage. The biggest crisis in opposition unity is their policy-less approach. If the opposition parties think they will succeed in the name of Remove Modi, then this strategic blunder could cost them a bigger political rout than 2019.

PEOPLES FAITH IN A TAINT-FREE TENURE

One of the highlights of Modis nine-year rule has been that there has been no taint on him or his government. This will be a major reason for the BJPs return to the Centre in the upcoming elections, because in 2014, Modi came to power raising the issue of corruption and irregularities in governance. Even today, Modi is seen to speak and act against corruption with consistency. Under Modi, there is an unprecedented transparency in policies and their implementation.

The opposition does not have any allegations of corruption that they can put on the Modi government and hope for it to stick before the public. Rahul Gandhi may have been raising the issue of Adani, but people do not seem to be believing any of it. Earlier in 2018, Gandhi had raised the Rafale issue in a similar way, but it failed to hold water before the public.

In fact, the question here is not about the accusations. The issue is trust. Voters have more faith in Modi. Voters do not believe Rahul Gandhi. Modi has earned this trust over years of his public service  first as chief minister and then as Prime Minister  over the last two decades. On the other hand, the Gandhi scion has consistently lost credibility because of the contradictions in his words and deeds.

Organisational strength, charismatic image, taint-free tenure and outreach to new voters are the reasons why Modi seems to be headed to 7 Lok Kalyan Marg once again in 2024.

The writer is a Senior Research Fellow at Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Research Foundation. The views expressed are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.

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The Opposition in India is waking up, albeit slowly, to the need of uniting before the Lok Sabha elections early next year. And the person who has taken the lead in doing that is Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who had been in the NDA camp till August last year. The plan is to bring together as many Opposition parties against the BJP as possible, and chart a common path by focusing on mutual agreements instead of disagreements.

For Nitish, it is his last-ditch effort to gain political relevance. And this battle is both personal and professional. He was a shining star in Indian politics in the late 2000s when Narendra Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat, stole his thunder. In 2009, when the NDA under LK Advani lost the Lok Sabha elections to the Manmohan Singh-led UPA, Nitish thought his time in Indian politics had arrived. The NDAs 2009 defeat had left Nitish totally convinced Narendra Modis brand of politics was a game of diminishing returns, writes Sankarshan Thakur in his book, Single Man: The Life and Times of Nitish Kumar of Bihar.

It was this conviction that made Nitish take the biggest gamble of his life: To dump the 17-year-old alliance with the BJP in 2013 on the Modi issue. Interestingly, Nitish had no qualms about being in the NDA as a Union minister in the Vajpayee government when Gujarat was actually scarred by the 2002 communal violence. He was not in power in Bihar then, and desperately needed to hold on to something in Delhi. So, Modi had to be ignored till the time of his choosing and convenience arrived. But when he became the Chief Minister of Bihar in 2005, there was wind under his wings. Nitish, to his credit, brought Bihar out of the jungle raj. In his first term, he was repeatedly named the Politician of the Year by several TV channels and newspapers. Even The Economist, which had once called Bihar Indias armpit, acknowledged the turnaround with a cheeky headline: The Bihari Enlightenment: Indias most notorious state is failing to live up to its reputation.

What further prompted the BJP-JD(U) breakup was the liberal/progressive propensity to unleash a heightened sense of importance among the political class by projecting it to be the sole guardian of avowed hallowed objectives  ranging from fuzzy liberalism to rootless secularism  though on the ground level, these mean nothing. By the end of his first term, Nitish found himself surrounded by this liberal circus, whose grandmaster was Amartya Sen. One incident just before the 2013 BJP-JD(U) divorce was enough to showcase the influence this clique had on Nitish.

Just three days before the acrimonious split, NK Singh, JD(U) MP and Nitishs trusted aide, hosted a dinner in Cambridge. At the event, Singh asked Amartya Sen, What, sir, do you think are the options before Nitish Kumar? The Nobel laureate, who was then associated with Bihars Nalanda World University project, gave a well-thought-out reply: Well, Nitish Kumar has several options, but only one honourable one. That was the final straw in the BJP-JD(U) relationship.

For Nitish, unfortunately, Modi was an idea whose time had come by then, thanks primarily to a decade of UPA misrule when corruption cases had jumped by leaps and bounds. The era also saw willful misuse of the state machinery to not just target the majority community by putting a saffron terror tag on it, but also normalise minorityism by pushing forward the narrative of Muslims having the first claim on resources.

Nitish committed two cardinal mistakes in his political life: One, in 1989, when he fanatically supported Lalu Prasad Yadav to gain the leadership of the Opposition in Bihar  and then the position of the chief minister a year later. Perhaps in Lalu, he (Nitish) saw a bumbler who he could remote control, writes Sankarshan Thakur in Single Man, quoting an old party colleague. It cost him 15 years of political wilderness and personal humiliation. But despite these political and personal setbacks, Nitish retained a rare aura of being an honest, educated politician who would not compromise on his integrity.

Post-2010, he squandered that image too. First, his governance model took a beating. With his focus shifting to Delhi, though Nitish had vehemently denied such claims, his second term could not upscale the governance successes of the first term. To add to his woes was Nitishs personal image taking a big hit. The change in his moniker from Sushashan Kumar to Kurshi Kumar was enough to suggest his slide. By the 2020 Assembly polls, which he again fought in alliance with the BJP, he had become a liability. He was seen as a politician who would do anything to be in power. In 2020, Nitish could barely scrape through riding on Modis personal popularity and the BJPs well-oiled organisational machinery. His second divorce with the BJP, in 2022, was the final straw in the crisis of his credibility.

Lalu Prasad and his party, with a bankable Muslim-Yadav vote-bank, can afford to lose credibility and still score well over the 20 percent vote mark. Nitish never had this luxury. He, with just about 4 percent caste vote-bank, always needed credibility and the right kind of allies to propel his political career. With credibility gone, and by aligning with a party that decimates his entire political legacy of fighting the jungle raj, Nitish has been at a crossroads and probably in the twilight of his otherwise eventful political career. He has become a liability in Bihar politics, with the aggressive BJP and RJD slowly eating into his electoral base.

It is in this dismal backdrop that Nitish Kumar takes up the 2024 poll challenge on behalf of the rest of the Opposition. Its actually a win-win scenario for him. He knows theres nothing left for him in Bihar now. So, if, by accident, the Opposition manages to dislodge the Modi government in 2024, Nitish will get a fresh leash of political life, at least in Delhi. And it wont be a first for him. For so many years in the 1990s and the early 2000s, he took refuge in Delhi when his going got difficult in Patna. Nitish hopes to do the same in the mid-2020s. History, after all, repeats itself. But then, to his hard luck, Indian politics has moved on.

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are as much about Nitishs political fate as they are about the destinies of other parties in the Opposition, especially the dynastic Congress led by Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul. The Bihar chief minister leading the charge against Narendra Modi only exposes the political bankruptcy of the Opposition camp.

The author is Opinion Editor, Firstpost and News18. He tweets from @Utpal_Kumar1. Views expressed are personal.

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Finland on an official visit, as well as to participate in the Nordic-Ukrainian Summit, media said.

According to the website of the President of the Republic of Finland, the official discussions between President Niinisto and President Zelenskyy "will include Ukraines defence struggle and Finland's support for Ukraine, bilateral relations between the two countries and the global geopolitical situation. At the end of the discussions, the Presidents will hold a joint press conference." President Zelenskyy's programme also includes a meeting with Speaker of the Finnish Parliament Petteri Orpo.

In the afternoon, President Niinisto will host the Nordic-Ukrainian Summit, which will be attended by President Niinisto and President Zelenskyy as well as Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson, Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Stre, Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen and Prime Minister of Iceland Katrin Jakobsdottir.

The summit will discuss the situation of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, the Nordic countries' continued support for Ukraine, the developments in Ukraine's relationship with EU and NATO and Ukraine's initiative for a just peace. The official discussions will be followed by a joint press conference.

The Nordic Prime ministers will also have bilateral meetings with President Zelenskyy.
The Maharashtra Congress has demanded that a special session of the state legislature be convened to discuss issues including the death of more than a dozen people due to sunstroke last month and protests against a proposed oil refinery project at Barsu in Ratnagiri district.

A Congress delegation made the demand to Governor Ramesh Bais during a meeting with him at the Raj Bhavan here on Tuesday.

Notably, 14 people died due to sunstroke after attending the Maharashtra Bhushan award event in Kharghar area of Navi Mumbai on April 16.

A section of residents in and around Barsu in Ratnagiri have been opposing the proposed refinery as they fear the mega project will adversely affect the fragile biodiversity of the coastal Konkan region and also hit their livelihood.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the governor on Tuesday, state Congress president Nana Patole alleged the incident that took place in Kharghar during the Maharashtra Bhushan award ceremony was a state-sponsored murder" and till date no case has been registered in this connection.

Poor planning of the government was responsible for the incident. It should be investigated by a high court judge," he said.

Patole also claimed that the Barsu refinery project was being imposed by the government on locals despite their opposition.

The state government was using police force to oppress the locals and it wants to destroy the pristine environment of Konkan, he further claimed.

Patole further said farmers have suffered losses due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms and they should be given immediate help.

The cultivators have been devastated by the weather change and the rate of farmer suicides has increased in the state, he said.

The Congress leader said they have demanded that the governor call a special session of the legislature to discuss all these issues.

The delegation included former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan and state Congress working president Naseem Khan.

Chavan said during the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government (which comprised the then unidivided Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress), the Maratha Reservation Sub-Committee chairman had demanded that the 50 per cent quota ceiling be relaxed. It is not possible to give reservation to the Maratha community without increasing the reservation ceiling from the current 50 per cent. This issue was also raised by MPs in Parliament, but the Narendra Modi government did not take a decision on it, he said.

A curative petition will also yield nothing. In Chhattisgarh, 58 per cent reservation is now being implemented, Chavan said.

Like Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra should also get the benefit for reservation to the Maratha community. The governor should inform the central government about this, he added.

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A day after Sharad Pawar announced to step down as the president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), party leader Jitendra Awhad on Wednesday said he resigned from the post of National General Secretary.

Awhad also said all office bearers of the Thane party unit have resigned from their posts.

I have resigned from my post of National General Secretary and I have sent my resignation to NCP chief Sharad Pawar. All office bearers of Thane NCP have also resigned after Pawar Sahebs announcement [to resign from the post of party chief]," Awhad said.

He didnt take us into confidence. He has taken his decision. He has taught us that decisions should be taken democratically. That decision should be taken after consulting everyone. I only know that he shouldnt take this decision," he said.

I have resigned from my post of National General Secretary and I have sent my resignation to NCP chief Sharad Pawar. All office bearers of Thane NCP have also resigned after Pawar Sahebs announcement (to resign from the post of party chief): NCP leader Jitendra Awhad to ANI pic.twitter.com/VBrtFCuaNs ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

Supriya Sule to Be At Forefront?

News18 has learnt that the following proposals are being put forth by the party over the NCP president post:

-Sharad Pawar should continue as president. A working president should be appointed.

-Division of responsibilities. Supriya Sule to handle national responsibilities. Ajit Pawar to handle state responsibilities.

Speculation Rife Over Rohit Pawar, Sharad Pawars Grandnephew

After Sharad Pawars surprise resignation announcement, speculation is rife that the veteran leader has been grooming Rohit Pawar, his grandnephew, as his successor.

Rohit Pawar is an MLA from the Karjat-Jamkhed constituency. Rohit Pawar is also present at the meeting that is taking place at YB Chavan Centre in Mumbai over the NCP president post

Meeting in Mumbais YB Chavan Centre Over Sharad Pawars Decision

The committee formed to decide on the post of NCP president will hold a meeting at YB Chavan Center in Mumbai shortly.

Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, Praful Patel, Hasan Mushrif, Walse Patil, Hemant Takle, Aditi Tatkare are present at the venue.

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As Sharad Pawar stepped down from the post of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief on Tuesday, the big question is who will be the next leader of the party?

ALSO READ | Sharad Pawar Announces Decision to Step Down as NCP President: One Has to Stop Somewhere

Speaking exclusively to News18, senior NCP leader and former cabinet minister Chhagan Bhujbal said that Pawars daughter Supriya Sule should be made the National President and Maharashtra politics should be handled by her cousin and Opposition leader Ajit Pawar.

There is already a division of work in the party. Sule, who is a Member of Parliament, has good connect with other parties and leaders at the national level. Ajit Pawar is handling state politics. In my view, Sule should be made the National President and Ajit Pawar should be given the state affairs, said Bhujbal.

Bhujbal is one of the members of the committee that has been appointed by Pawar to look after the political affairs of the party and pick the next National President. He is the first leader to openly endorse Sules name for the post.

On Tuesday, when Pawar announced his decision, I was in the hall. I suggested that he should remain the National President and appoint Sule as the Working President of the party. He heard me, but didnt respond. Its very difficult to convince him because he thinks a lot before taking any decision, said Bhujbal.

Bhujbal added: A big challenge in front of our committee is to convince him to rethink the decision. If he doesnt agree, we may have to choose one leader for the post of the National President. Our other leaders from different states have started coming to the city. Once all members are in the city, we will hold the first meeting of the committee.

After seeing the emotions of party workers who went on flash hunger strike outside Y B Chavan Centre, Pawar had asked for two-three days to rethink the decision.

ALSO READ | Sharad Pawars Shock Exit Puts Allies in Quandary Over Future of Pune Vajramuth Rally & Coalition

According to a senior leader who met Pawar on Wednesday: There is a chance that Pawar may not change his decision, as when I asked him about this issue, he changed the topic and asked me about my constituency and local politics of market committee.

Many party leaders, off the record, have said the same.

Read all the Latest Politics News and Karnataka Elections 2023 updates here
Sharad Pawar News: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawars announcement on Tuesday to step down as chief of the party he founded and helmed since 1999 left many shocked, with workers and functionaries urging the veteran leader to withdraw his decision.

A series of resignations have followed Sharad Pawars decision to step down as NCP president. State general secretary of NCP, party leader Jitendra Awhad and all the office bearers of Thane unit of the party tendered their resignations.

On Tuesday, after Sharad Pawar dropped the resignation bombshell, his nephew and party leader Ajit Pawar said that the veteran politician has agreed to rethink" his decision.

Latest Updates in Row Over Sharad Pawars Resignation:

-State General Secretary of NCP Resigns

The state general secretary of NCP has resigned over Sharad Pawars decision to step down as party president.

NCPs Jitendra Awhad, All Officer Bearers of Thane Unit Resign After Pawars Announcement

NCP leader Jitendra Awhad said he and all office bearers of Thane party unit have resigned after Sharad Pawars announcement to step down as party president.

I have resigned from my post of National General Secretary and I have sent my resignation to NCP chief Sharad Pawar. All office bearers of Thane NCP have also resigned after Pawar Sahebs announcement [to resign from the post of party chief]," NCP leader Jitendra Awhad said.

He didnt take us into confidence. He has taken his decision. He has taught us that decisions should be taken democratically. That decision should be taken after consulting everyone. I only know that he shouldnt take this decision," he said.

I have resigned from my post of National General Secretary and I have sent my resignation to NCP chief Sharad Pawar. All office bearers of Thane NCP have also resigned after Pawar Saheb's announcement (to resign from the post of party chief): NCP leader Jitendra Awhad to ANI pic.twitter.com/VBrtFCuaNs ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

-Supriya Sule to Be At Forefront?

News18 has learnt that the following proposals are being put forth by the party over NCP president post:

-Sharad Pawar should continue as president. A working president should be appointed.

-Division of responsibilities. Supriya Sule to handle national responsibilities. Ajit Pawar to handle state responsibilities.

-Speculation Rife Over Rohit Pawar, Sharad Pawars Grandnephew

After Sharad Pawars surprise resignation announcement, speculation are rife that the veteran leader has been grooming Rohit Pawar, his grandnephew, as his successor.

Rohit Pawar is an MLA from the Karjat-Jamkhed constituency. Rohit Pawar is also present at the meeting that is taking place at YB Chavan Centre in Mumbai over NCP president post

-Meeting in Mumbais YB Chavan Centre Over Sharad Pawars Decision

The committee formed to decide on the post of NCP president will hold a meeting at YB Chavan Center in Mumbai shortly.

Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, Praful Patel, Hasan Mushrif, Walse Patil, Hemant Takle, Aditi Tatkare are present at the venue.

-Sharad Pawar is Synonymous With NCP, Says Party Spokesperson

NCP spokesperson Umesh Patil said that Sharad Pawar is synonymous with NCP and vice versa, adding that if people know us today, thats because of Sharad Pawar"

This is in fact a message to those who did not want to leave their position, which is why Sharad Pawar stepped down from his position," Patil said.

#WATCH | Mumbai: NCP chief Sharad Pawar leaves from his residence.Sharad Pawar announced yesterday that he has decided to resign from the post of NCP president. pic.twitter.com/92ltFnWcpb  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

Sharad Pawar is synonymous with NCP and vice versa, if people know us today, thats because of Sharad Pawar. We do not see anyone else as our leader. We have requested Sharad Pawar will reconsider his decision," he added.

-Sharad Pawars First Tweet After Announcing Resignation

Sharad Pawar has written on World Press Freedom Day in his first tweet after announcing resignation.

Journalism is the fourth strong pillar of democracy. On World Press Freedom Day, let us resolve to preserve the freedom of expression of journalists to preserve journalistic values and fair journalism," Pawars tweet read.

-Sharad Pawar Gets Letter Written in Blood

-A party cadre has written a letter in red to Sharad Pawar from Pune. This letter is said to have been written in blood. In the letter, the party worker is requesting Sharad Pawar to not step down and change his decision.

-BJP Leader Predicts Bigger Change in Maharashtra Politics

After NCP president Sharad Pawar announced his decision to step down as the party chief in what is being seen as a dramatic move that could impact Maharashtra politics, BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday also predicted something on similar lines.

BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said there is going to be a bigger change in Maharashtra politics.

Speaking to the news agency ANI, Dilip Ghosh said, Since a lot of days, there has been some turmoil in Maharashtra politics. There have been some talks going onThis is a result of it."

NCPs survival is in jeopardy, Sharad Pawar is losing his power. There is going to be a bigger change in Maharashtra politics: Dilip Ghosh added.

#WATCH |  NCPs survival is in jeopardy, Sharad Pawar is losing his power. There is going to be a bigger change in Maharashtra politics: Dilip Ghosh, BJP National Vice President on Sharad Pawar stepping down as NCP chief pic.twitter.com/R51GXWsU3T ANI (@ANI) May 2, 2023

-NCP Committee Holds Late Night Meet, Refuses to Accept Pawars Resignation

Sources said after a meeting which lasted for three hours late last night, NCP committee members refused to accept Sharad Pawars resignation and urged him to continue as party president. To help Pawar, a suggestion has also been made to change party constitution and create a new working president or a post of that level, sources said.

ALSO READ: Opinion | Why Sharad Pawar Resigned as Chief of the Party He Had Formed in 1999

Sharad Pawar on Tuesday announced he has decided to step down as chief of the party he founded and helmed since 1999. Pawar had also suggested the formation of a committee to decide future course of action".

-Sharad Pawar Will Rethink His Decision to QuitNeeds 2-3 Days, Says Nephew Ajit

Hours after Sharad Pawar announced to step down as the NCP president, nephew and party leader Ajit Pawar said that the veteran politician has agreed to rethink his decision.

We told him [Sharad Pawar] that workers are quite upset. We also told him that party workers want him to remain the party president along with having a working president. He said he will rethink his decision and requires 2-3 days" Ajit Pawar told reporters.

Ajit Pawar said that everyone was taken by surprise at the book launch where the NCP veteran announced his decision to step down as the party chief  a post he held for 24 years.

We all had gathered for the book launch of saheb [Pawar]. No one thought that he will take such a decision. It was a shock for all," he told reporters at Y B Chavan Centre in Mumbai.

-Party Shocked After Pawars Resignation Bombshell

Sharad Pawars sudden decision of stepping down as NCP chief has left top party leaders shocked. While some said Pawar took the decision unilaterally and did not consult them, others tried to pacify party workers.

Top NCP leader, Ajit Pawar, while speaking to the media after Sharad Pawars announcement, said that NCP chiefs resignation as president doesnt mean he is quitting politics. He added that NCP chief Pawar wanted to announce this decision on May 1 but he could not since there was a MVA rally. We expected this day will come some day," said Ajit Pawar.

In Congress party, Sonia ji is still leader but she doesnt hold the post. We have to consider his age. All functions will happen under his leadership only," added Ajit Pawar.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole also reacted to Pawars sudden reaction. We thought Sharad Pawar will remain in public life till his last breath but we cant tell why he resigned today. It will not impact Maha Vikas Aghadi [MVA]. We hope the new president of NCP will stay with MVA," said Patole.

-Sharad Pawar Announces Decision to Step Down as NCP President: One Has to Stop Somewhere

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has announced that he is stepping down from his post. I have decided to step down as president of NCP," Pawar made the announcement of his retirement during the release of his autobiography, Lok Majhe Sangaayi - Political Autobiography".

While addressing party worker, Pawar said a committee has been formed to decide who will take reins of the party and steer it forward. Senior party leaders like Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil and a few other will be a part of the committee. Supriya Sule, however, has not been named Pawar.

I know when to stop I have set up a committee of senior NCP leaders who will decide on the next president," said Pawar, 82, flanked by his wife Pratibha.

However, the Rajya Sabha member with three more years to go, assured that he would remain active in public life through social-politics, as in the past over 55 years.

Read all the Latest Politics News here
The company behind dating app Tinder is leaving Russia, more than a year after the invasion of Ukraine saw a wave of international companies close or suspend their Russian operations.

Match Group said on Monday that it will quit Russia by June 30 because we are committed to protecting human rights."

The Texas-based firm made the disclosure in its annual impact report, a summary of how the company is meeting goals on the environment, human rights and good governance.

Our brands are taking steps to restrict access to their services in Russia and will complete their withdrawal from the Russian market by June 30, 2023," it said.

Most major Western companies have ended or suspended their operations in protest to Russias invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as Chinese companies expand their presence.

And as it seeks to reduce its dependence on the west, Russia has been shoring up its domestic technology sector in recent years.

Tinders exit also comes when Russia has been strengthening laws to regulate the tech sector, against a backdrop of growing political repression.

Read all the Latest Tech News here
Samsung has reportedly banned its employees from using generative AI, including ChatGPT, on office devices, including computers, tablets, and phones. This ban also applies to personal devices running on internal company networks, according to Bloomberg.

This development comes after sensitive internal data was leaked to ChatGPT last month, and the ban is not limited to just ChatGPT. Other generative AI chatbots like Microsoft Bing and Google Bard are also covered by the ban.

Bloombergs Mark Gurman notes that Samsung is concerned about data being sent to generative AI platforms, including Google Bard and Bing, because it is stored on external servers. This makes it difficult to retrieve and delete, which could result in sensitive company data being leaked to third parties.

WATCH VIDEO: Top AI Scientist Geoffrey Hinton Quits Google; Says AI Is Dangerous

As per Samsungs memo sent to employees, Interest in generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT has been growing internally and externally, and while this interest focuses on the usefulness and efficiency of these platforms, there are also growing concerns about security risks presented by generative AI.

Samsungs new policy isnt applicable on hardware sold to consumers, which includes devices like Galaxy smartphones and Windows laptops but the company has issued stringent guidelines about the use of generative AI on company-issued hardware.

We ask that you diligently adhere to our security guideline and failure to do so may result in a breach or compromise of company information resulting in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment, Samsung conveyed to employees.

In addition, the South Korea-based tech giant is exploring the development of its own AI service to address the problem. This service would be capable of translating and summarizing documents, as well as supporting software development.

Read all the Latest Tech News here
Bollywood movies are known for their elaborative sets and aesthetical visualisation. From giant Dharma setups to the very elegant Sanjay Leela Bhansali sets, Bollywood has always set a benchmark. However, there are also many movies which are set in a rural or a small town setting and they have never disappointed. Twitter user Mimansa Shekhar took to the blue bird app and shared a few such movies. She asked people to pick their favourtie movie.

With that, she also gave a shoutout to Amir Khans Lagaan. To me, #Lagaan is perfect in recent times. Its village Champaner was created near actual Kunaria (Bhuj), Gujarat. From costumes, professions to art direction, everything was top notch," she wrote.

Pick a movie which you think had the best rural or small town setting.To me, #Lagaan is perfect in recent times. Its village Champaner was created near actual Kunaria (Bhuj), Gujarat. From costumes, professions to art direction, everything was top notch.What's your choice? pic.twitter.com/lUyvFHHWUw  Mimansa Shekhar |   (@mimansashekhar) May 2, 2023

The tweet, which has now gone viral, has sparked a discussion online as people picked up their favourtie movies. "Piku" set in a small town in west bengal has a great rural setting.The movie beautifully captures the essence of small-town living, the warmth of family relationships, and the beauty of rural landscapes. I lvd its realistic portrayal of d rural setting & the strong performances," wrote a Twitter user. Another person wrote, In this niche,

Amitabh Nutan starrer  Saudagar  is my all time favourite. No count of how many times I have watched it. What a setting! And what awesome performances too ! Everyone in the family knows how fond I am of the  gud wali  film."

Foremost Nadiya Ke Par set and shot in Jaunpur district of eastern UP represents village life well. Others - Ketan Mehtas Mirch Masala, Pan Singh Tomar, Marathi Movie Cycle has wonderful Maharashtra village setting list is v long," wrote another person.

Nadiya Ke Paar (1982) pic.twitter.com/AqYGzPppov The Cineprism (@TheCineprism) May 2, 2023

"Piku" set in a small town in west bengal has a great rural setting.The movie beautifully captures the essence of small-town living, the warmth of family relationships, and the beauty of rural landscapes. I lvd its realistic portrayal of d rural setting & the strong performances Pankit Thakker (@pankitthakker) May 2, 2023

In this niche, Amitabh Nutan starrer  Saudagar  is my all time favourite.No count of how many times I have watched it. What a setting! And what awesome performances too ! Everyone in the family knows how fond I am of the  gud wali  film  Bhavna (@bhavnatalkies) May 2, 2023

Many of Shyam Benegal films had authentic locations and sets. Can't be bettered by the VFX age. Ganga Jamuna, a classic, transported you to a BIMARU Village. Technology can't beat pristine art. GOPAL IYER (@BEALOTUS) May 2, 2023

Hum Paanch - *ing Sanjeev Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, Raj Babbar, Shabana Azmi, Amrish Puri, Deepti Naval and Naseeruddin Shah with others..Directed by Bapu. The music of the movie by L-P was super melodious. Based on a Kannada Movie Paduvaaralli Pandavaru, it is an adaptation of pic.twitter.com/EbjoRCaGTP Pankaj Shukla (@PankajShuklaa) May 2, 2023

For a UPite like me, I connected with the soul of this film as everything about this film is as authentic as it can be. The folk songs, the accent, the actors belonging to same diaspora, original locations, everything. pic.twitter.com/yBPuxGp9we Sagar Srivastava (@Nakshebaaz) May 2, 2023

"Dum laga ke Haisha" speaks in volumes about the socio culture and mindset of the people of small town. There day to day challenges and struggle have been exceptionally portrayed on celluloid. On top of that I loved the way it ends the film on a high note. Nitish Jalali (@shoonyakumar) May 2, 2023

Whats your favourite pick?

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Nature never ceases to amaze us with its awe-inspiring creations, and the latest viral clip of a purple aurora borealis in Canadas Manitoba is no exception. While the northern lights are a not-so-rare occurrence in this part of the world, the vibrant purple shade of this display has left everyone stunned. As the aurora danced in the night sky, it painted stunning shades of violet and green, creating a mesmerizing spectacle that seems almost otherworldly. The video of this spectacular natural phenomenon has quickly gone viral on social media, leaving viewers in awe of the beauty of Earth.

The video was shared on Reddit and quickly garnered attention. The person who shared the video explained that the purple colour in the aurora is caused by the setting sun (blue light) interacting with the red aurora, which is the highest aurora (400km). Blue + Red = Purple.

Several users shared their reactions to the viral clip of the purple-coloured aurora borealis in Manitoba, Canada.

One user expressed admiration, stating that the phenomenon looked very colourful, while another simply wrote, Wow!! Beautiful!"

However, one user couldnt help but joke about the surreal experience, comparing it to a computer screen saver.

Another user was left feeling confused upon seeing the stunning display of the northern lights and jokingly questioned, Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country?

Just a few days back stunning visuals of a rare aurora borealis over the sky in India caught the attention of social media. The Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) in Hanle, Ladakh, recorded the spectacular sighting of the aurora borealis. The rare event was caused due to an intense geomagnetic storm that struck the Earth on April 21, as per the experts.

#Aurora from #Ladakh!This is a time-lapse of the sky taken by a 360 deg camera at from #Hanle on 22/23 April night. You can see the aurora lights due to an intense geomagnetic storm that hit the Earth. It is extremely rare to see aurora at such a low latitude! @dstindia (1/n) pic.twitter.com/gGbrw86vsb IIAstrophysics (@IIABengaluru) April 29, 2023

A coronal mass ejection was launched towards Earth by Sun on April 21. This CME (speed of 500-600 km/s) was associated with an M1 class solar flare. The CME arrived at Earth late on April 23 at 10 PM," Wageesh Mishra, Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics said.

The stunning video of the rare aurora lights was recorded using a 360-degree camera placed atop IAO.

Read all the Latest News here
The US Department of Defense is planning to deploy 1,500 additional troops to the border with Mexico as it expects a surge of migrants when Covid-era restrictions are lifted next week.

The surge of migrants is expected as Title 42, a policy introduced under President Donald Trump that allowed the government to turn away migrants at the border using Covid-19 pandemic measures will end on May 11.

Though the encounters between the US border agents and undocumented immigrants fell this year, but the incidents recently increased. According to a report in CNN, there are around 7,000 such incidents daily and are expected to rise dramatically next week.

Here is all you need to know about the expected migrant surge:

US troops not in law enforcement role

Around 1,500 troops will be sent to the border, adding to the 2,500 already there to support Border Patrol authorities.

The additional troops are meant to act in strictly administrative roles and not to aid in law enforcement. Though some of them may be armed, but they will have no direct role in interacting with migrants at the border. The additional personnel will also help with data entry, and warehouse support.

Biden Govt Plan to Discourage Crossings

The Biden administration has tried to discourage migrants from crossing the border and said that people apprehended will not only be turned away but also potentially barred from re-entry. On February 21, it announced a new set of restrictions aiming to penalize people who cross into the country illegally.

The US is working with Colombia and Guatemala to set up regional processing centres to allow migrants to apply before they come to the US. Meanwhile, there are already more than 36,000 migrants camped along the border in northern Mexico waiting for the end of Title 42, reports said.

Crowds in Texas

El Paso in Texas has declared a state of emergency as it expects a huge inflow at the end of Title 42. In El Paso, crowds of people are already sleeping on the street and have been moved to government-run centers.

Anger in New York

Texas is reportedly transporting thousands of migrants to cities including New York, Chicago and Washington DC. According to a CNN report, more than 50,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York since last spring.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has asked the federal government to stop giving emergency funds to the Texas border cities which are using the fund to rent buses and ship migrants farther north.

Canada and Spain have also agreed to take in some of those who cleared by the processing centres to emigrate, US officials said.

Read all the Latest News here
The third and crucial round of negotiation between the Shehbaz Sharif ruling coalition and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf ended on Tuesday night without a major breakthrough on the date of the election.

Though the two sides reached a consensus on the same-day election across the country under a caretaker government, the meeting failed to determine the pol date and the dissolution of assemblies.

The third round of the talks began at 9 pm at the Committee Room of the Parliament House. While the PTI demands polls in July or August, the government side suggested that polls be held in October.

The government team comprised former prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar, Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique, Minister for Commerce Naveed Qamar, Minister for National Food Security and Research Tariq Bashir Cheema, Sanaullah Baloch from the BNP (Mengal) and Kishwar Zahra from the MQM.

The Imran Khans party delegation was led by Vice-Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Senator Ali Zafar and Fawad Chaudhry.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that both the sides agreed that elections would be held on the same day under a caretaker government but they could not decide on the date.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi also said though there was an agreement on the same-day election, the two sides failed to decide on a date.

Qureshi further said that PTI would approach the Supreme Court and submit a written report of negotiations to implement the courts decision to hold elections in Punjab on May 14.

Earlier, Imran Khan said that the government should dissolve all assemblies by May 14 to pave the way for holding elections in the entire country on the same date. However, the government is not ready to dissolve assemblies.

The first round of talks was held on April 27 which went on for two hours and the rivals decided to meet again after consulting their party heads. It was followed by the second round on April 28 where each side tabled two proposals, which was to be presented to the respective leadership.

Read all the Latest News here
Invaders fire at railway station in Kherson, info on casualties being specified  local authorities

On Wednesday, Russian occupying troops shelled Kherson railway station, information on the number of wounded is being specified, Head of the regional military administration Oleksandr Prokhudin has said.

"The enemy hit Kherson railway station  information about the victims and destruction is being specified," Prokhudin said on the Telegram channel.

In addition, the enemy fired on the ambulance. According to preliminary information, three people were injured.
Harking from Canada, Australia, France and beyond, many international royal fans are celebrating King Charles IIIs coronation by heading to London, a city that knows how to capitalise on its most famous residents.

Its a dream come true!" explained 24-year-old French woman Ludivine Decker, a few days before leaving for London.

Originally from Metz in northeastern France, the communications worker will make the trip alone as her friends dont share her passion for the British royal family.

Too young to visit the UK for William and Kates 2011 wedding and still a student during Queen Elizabeth IIs Platinum Jubilee last year, the coronation is a now or never" moment to attend a royal celebration, she told AFP.

She plans to watch on one of the giant screens installed in the heart of the capital and to be in front of Buckingham Palace to see the king and his close family make their balcony appearance.

Decker is expecting a festive" and family" atmosphere, and will be stocking up on souvenirs for the historic event.

London already hosts millions of international tourists each year, and could attract an extra 250,000 for the coronation, according to the Centre for Retail Research.

They are expected to spend more than 322 million ($401 million) on accommodation, food, shopping and attractions.

Anna Bloomfield, an Australian in her forties, has already arrived in London ahead of the ceremony.

She admires King Charles for everything that he has had to endure just being a part of the royal family".

Bloomfield has packed a tent for her own endurance test  waiting in all weathers to secure a prime spot to watch the royal couple pass.

Kathryn, a 54-year-old executive assistant from Toronto, Canada, cant wait to experience the pomp and ceremony which the British are famous for".

The royal fanatic also wants to show my support" for Charles.

He has already shown his desire to modernise, streamline, cut excess and make the modern day royal family resemble the cultural and religious make-up of Britain today," she said.

He is open-minded, defends the environment, he lives in his time", added Decker, who praised the humanity" of Charles charity works.

Unique experience

Demonstrating the coronation craze, European travellers internet searches for flights to London over the coronation weekend are 65 percent higher than for the same weekend in 2022, and 105 percent for hotels, according to data from US search engine Kayak.

And the French seem to be the most interested", added the company, with Americans making up the bulk of visitors from outside of Europe.

The coronations boost to the countrys pulling power is beyond measurement, according to Patricia Yates, director general of Visit Britain, which promotes tourism.

Millions and millions of people will see the coronation on their television set and hopefully will be inspired to come and see London to see the royal residences and to see special exhibitions that are being held," she told AFP.

They include royal dresses at Kensington Palace and special waxwork statues at Madame Tussauds, while hotels and cafes will serve special coronation afternoon tea", and many shops will sell souvenirs bearing the image of the royal family.

Around 600,000 people visited Buckingham Palace after William and Kates wedding to see the bridal gown on display, recalled Yates.

Added to the mix, there is also a real appetite for international travel, and an appetite for experience" following Covid-19.

And what better experiences than seeing a monarch being crowned," she added.

Read all the Latest News here
Pakistans former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday told the Lahore High Court (LHC) that a third assassination attempt has been hatched against him and sought to quash all political cases against him, saying regular court appearances will endanger his life.

Khan has filed a petition in the LHC requesting it to quash all 121 cases registered against him in different cities of the country on various charges like treason, blasphemy, committing and inciting violence and terrorism.

According to the petition, the cases have been instituted on political grounds.

Khan, 71, appeared before the LHC amid high security. During the case hearing he requested the court to allow him to speak.

The court acceded to his request.

Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf: party chairman told the court that his life is in danger.

Regular appearances in courts will expose my life to danger. I survived two assassination attempts on my life  one in Wazirabad, Punjab, and the other at Islamabad Judicial Complex Islamabad where the ISI had taken charge of the building, a court official told PTI quoting Khan as saying.

They (a reference to powers that be) want to kill me and a third assassination attempt is in the offing, Khan told the court.

He said in 70 years of his life, there was not a single case against him and all these cases were filed after he was ousted as prime minister in April last year.

The official said the five-member bench of LHC headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi directed Khan to join police investigations into these cases on May 5.

The court did not entertain the request of Khan to appear before the police investigation through a video link. However, the court will resume its hearing on May 8, the official said.

Earlier, Khan claimed that he had identified a total of six persons in the country in a video who wanted to kill him.

Among the six, three are those whom I had named in the FIR after an assassination attempt on my life in Punjab in November last year, Khan said on Thursday.

After the November 3 gun attack on his rally in the Wazirabad area (some 150kms from Lahore) in which he suffered bullets injuries to his leg, Khan blamed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and ISIs top officer Major General Faisal Naseer for hatching a plot to assassinate him.

Interior minister (Sanaullah) says my life is under threat from foreign agencies. Let me make it clear to the entire country that the only threat to my life is from the 3 people I named after the Wazirabad assassination attempt. Same 3, + 3 more I have identified in a video statement, tried to eliminate me on March 18 in ICT Judicial Complex, Khan said in a series of tweets.

If any attempt is made now on my life, these same people will be responsible. Just as they tried to pin the blame for the Wazirabad attack on a religious extremist  a mere smokescreen  they are now trying to create another deception of foreign agencies, he said.

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Russia on Wednesday claimed that it shot down two drones launched by Ukraine at Vladimir Putins residence in the Kremlin and accused Kyiv of attempting to assassinate the President. The incident took place during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday.

News agency AFP quoted the Kremlin as saying, Two unmanned vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin the devices were put out of action." The remains of the downed drones fell inside the Kremlin building, it added.

The Kremlin has called it a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation."

#WATCH | Russia today alleged that there were attempts by Ukraine to assassinate President Putin, saying it was a "terrorist attack" while claiming it shot down drones over the residence of Putin: RT news(Video: Russia's RT news) pic.twitter.com/tiXGUoLREi  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

It reportedly said that two drones, used in the alleged attack, were disabled by Russian defenses.

The Kremlin further said that Putin was not injured and no material damage was reported to the buildings.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by AFP as saying that Putin was working at his residence near Moscow on Wednesday and would still take part in a scheduled WWII Victory Day parade on Red Square next week as planned.

Meanwhile, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced a ban on unauthorised drone flights over Moscow.

Reacting on Russias claims, Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko said, I cant say anything on the Kremlin claims. It can be a Russian propaganda."

The Volodymyr Zelensky-led Ukrainian government said it has nothing to do" with alleged Kremlin drone attack. Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin," presidential spokesman Mikhaylo Podolyak said, adding, Ukraine does not attack the Kremlin because, firstly, that does not solve any military aims."

The senior Ukrainian presidential official said that Kremlins allegations suggest that Russia could be preparing for a large-scale terrorist attack" against Ukraine in coming days.

Everything is predictable. Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist act. Therefore, he initially detained a large group of alleged saboteurs in Crimea. And then demonstrates drones over the Kremlin." First, Ukraine conducts an exclusively defensive war and does not attack objects on the territory of the Russian Federation. Why? It does not solve any military problem. But it gives the Russian Federation grounds to justify its attacks on civiliansSecondly, we are watching with interest the growth of incidents and excesses taking place in various parts of the Russian Federation. The appearance of unknown drones at energy facilities or on the territory of the Kremlin can only indicate the underground work of local resistance forces," Podolyak said.

As you know, drones can be bought at any military dealer. Because the loss of power control over the country by the Putin clan is obvious. But, on the other hand, Russia constantly talked about its total control over the air. In short, something is happening in the Russian Federation, but definitely without Ukrainian drones over the Kremlin," he added.

The development came after Ukraine said it is preparing for a fresh offensive against Russian troops.

(with inputs from AFP and Reuters)

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Myanmars junta on Wednesday announced it had pardoned more than 2,000 prisoners jailed under a law used widely in its crackdown on dissent since seizing power more than two years ago.

The military has arrested thousands of protesters and activists since the February 2021 putsch that plunged the country into turmoil.

Pardons were granted to 2,153 prisoners serving sentences under Penal Code 505 (a) to mark Kasone Full Moon Day", a festival marking the birth of the Buddha, the junta said in a statement.

The law carries a maximum three-year jail term.

The military ordered the pardons for the peaceful mind of the people and on humanitarian grounds," it said.

Those who re-offend will have to serve the remainder of their sentence with an additional penalty, it added.

Myanmar typically grants amnesties to thousands of prisoners to mark national holidays or Buddhist festivals.

Wednesdays announcement comes as Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang is visiting for talks with the internationally isolated generals.

On Tuesday he met junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, becoming the highest-profile Chinese official to meet the top general since the putsch.

China advocates that the international community should respect Myanmars sovereignty and play a constructive role in helping it achieve peace and reconciliation," Qin said, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

Several Beijing-backed infrastructure projects are slated to run through northern Myanmar and link Chinas landlocked Yunnan province with the Indian Ocean.

Crackdown

More than 21,000 people have been arrested since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyis government, according to a local monitoring group.

At least 170 journalists have been arrested during that span, according to the United Nations.

Suu Kyi has been detained since the early hours of the coup.

In December, the junta wrapped up a series of closed-court trials of the 77-year-old Nobel Peace laureate, jailing her for a total of 33 years in a process rights groups have condemned as a sham.

More than 3,400 people have been killed in the militarys crackdown on dissent since the coup, according to a monitoring group.

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After Ukraines alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, Russias Deputy chairman of Russias Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev said that Moscow is left with no options other than the physical elimination" of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

After todays terrorist attack, there are no options left other than the physical elimination of Zelensky and his clique," Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel, according to Tass.

Moscow calls it terrorist act

This warning comes after Russia claimed that it thwarted a drone attack by Ukraine on the Kremlin early Wednesday, describing it as an unsuccessful assassination attempt on President Vladimir Putin and vowing to retaliate for what it called a terrorist" act.

However, the Ukrainian President denied the allegation, stating that Ukraine did not attack Putin or Moscow.

The alleged attack occurred overnight, according to Russian authorities, but there was no independent verification of the incident, and no evidence was presented to support it.

One video, posted on a local Moscow news Telegram channel overnight, showed smoke rising over the buildings across the river from the Kremlin.

Another video on social media showed a drone exploding in a flash of fire above the roof of the Senate Palace in the Kremlin, near a flagpole flying the Russian tricolor.

Where was Putin when attack happened

Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time but was at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, according to Dmitry Peskov, his spokesman, who spoke to Russias state news agency RIA Novosti.

According to the Kremlin, the Russian military and security forces intercepted the drones before they could cause any harm, and no injuries were reported.

The official website of the Kremlin mentioned that debris from the drones fell on the Kremlin grounds but did not cause any damage.

What did US and UN Say

The United States was unable to confirm the authenticity of Russias claim, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also cast doubt on the veracity of the report. I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt," Blinken said at an event in Washington.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that the United Nations is not in a position to confirm these reports. We strongly reiterate our call on all concerned to refrain from any rhetoric or action that could further escalate the conflict, Haq said.

The purported drone attack would be a significant escalation in the 14-month conflict, with Ukraine taking the war to the heart of Russian power.

(With agency inputs)

Read all the Latest News here
In the ongoing efforts to rescue Indian nationals from violence-hit Sudan under Operation Kaveri, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said 231 more stranded citizens have left for Mumbai.

12th outbound flight departs from Jeddah. 231 passengers are heading to Mumbai, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said in a tweet on Wednesday morning.

India has been operating military aircraft and naval ships from Port Sudan to evacuate its citizens from the African country after the conflict started in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan on April 15.

12th outbound flight departs from Jeddah. 231 passengers are heading to Mumbai.#OperationKaveri pic.twitter.com/iBVvpHmOq4  Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) May 3, 2023

India launched Operation Kaveri and swiftly stationed Indian Naval Ships and Indian Air Force aircraft for the evacuation of stranded citizens in the war-torn country.

Wednesdays flight was the 12th flight carrying Indian evacuees that took off from Saudi Arabias Jeddah since Operation Kaveri began.

Under the initiative, India has been taking its citizens in buses from the conflict zones of Khartoum and other troubled areas to Port Sudan, from where they are being taken to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah in the Indian Air Forces heavy-lift transport aircraft and Indian Navys ships.

From Jeddah, the Indians are being brought back home in either commercial flights or the IAFs aircraft.

In the last few days, Indian officials worked round the clock to evacuate Indians, people familiar with the matter said. So far, more than 3,000 stranded Indians have left the crisis-hit Sudan for Jeddah till now.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday announced that India has decided to temporarily relocate its embassy from Khartoum to Port Sudan in view of the prevailing security situation.

Port Sudan is a port city on the Red Sea in eastern Sudan. It is located at a distance of around 850 km from Khartoum.

Read all the Latest India News here
Russia said Wednesday it had shot down two drones at President Vladimir Putins Kremlin residence in what it called a Ukrainian terrorist" assassination attempt.

Kyiv insisted it had nothing to do" with the alleged attack, suggesting it was staged" by Moscow, while the US said the report should be taken with a shaker of salt".

We do not attack Putin or Moscow," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on a visit to Finland.

We defend our villages and cities."

On the same day, Kyiv said Russian strikes had killed 21 people in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson  including on a supermarket and a train station.

Russia announced the drone incident after a series of major sabotage attacks in the run-up to celebrations for the nations most important holiday on May 9, marking the Soviet victory over the Nazis.

Today at night, the Kyiv regime attempted to strike the Kremlin residence of the President of the Russian Federation with unmanned aerial vehicles," the Kremlin said.

Two unmanned vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin the devices were put out of action," a Kremlin statement said.

The operation was described as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation".

Moscow said Putin was not hurt and there were no casualties.

Russia reserves the right to take retaliatory measures wherever and whenever it deems necessary," the Kremlin statement continued.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was working at his residence near Moscow on Wednesday and would still take part in a scheduled World War II Victory Day parade on Red Square next week as planned.

Russia later launched a terrorism probe in connection with the attempt to strike the Kremlin residence of the President of Russia."

Kyiv suggested that Moscow staged" the attack, which came ahead of a widely expected Ukrainian spring offensive.

Such staged reports by Russia should be considered solely as an attempt to prepare an information background for a large-scale terrorist attack on Ukraine," presidential spokesman Mikhaylo Podolyak said.

- Shaker of salt-

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also cast doubt on the veracity of the report.

Ive seen the reports. I cannot validate them, we simply dont know," Blinken said at an event in Washington.

I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt."

On Moscows iconic Red Square, AFP saw some people climbing external stairs onto the domed roof of a building known as the Kremlin Senate, which houses the presidential administration.

The roof appeared to be unscathed despite unverified images circulating on social media apparently showing it being struck by an explosion from a possible drone.

People were walking freely in the area and there was no strengthened police presence.

Banners and seating have already been set up ahead of the May 9 parade, which Moscow has vowed will go ahead.

There were calls in Moscow for a tough reaction against Ukraine.

Ex-president Dmitry Medvedev called for the elimination" of Zelensky.

We will demand the use of weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime," said Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian Duma and Putin ally.

- Shock and suspicion -

But on the streets of Moscow, AFP found people were shaken and confused.

I feel something between shock and suspicion," said 21-year-old student Viktor.

It is not very clear yet whether this is really some kind of military act or is it just a staging for unclear purposes."

Others said this kind of major incident in Russia was only a matter of time, after months of drones hitting the country and increased apparent sabotage in recent days.

The last five days have seen two trains derailed by explosions, oil depot fires near and in Crimea, and power lines blown up near Saint Petersburg.

I was waiting for something like this to happen," 71-year-old Vera Ilyinichna said.

The pensioner said it was good the drone had not hit a residential building.

The Kremlin is better protected," she said.

But residential buildings, where old people and kids live, where we work, that worries me more."

- Everyone is worried -

Many were nervous.

Everyone will be worried," said Andzhela, a 50-year-old woman who did not give her last name.

It is not normal. It is open terrorism."

The alleged thwarted Kremlin operation comes after a series of apparent sabotage incidents ahead of the May 9 celebrations.

On Wednesday, officials said they were dealing with a major fire at a fuel depot close to the bridge to Russian-annexed Crimea.

A source in the emergency services was quoted by TASS news agency as saying that the fire had been caused by a drone.

As these apparent attacks behind Russian lines have become more frequent, a range of cities near the Ukraine border, but also some more distant, have cancelled May 9 parades.

Moscow however has vowed that the central Red Square parade will go ahead as normal although extra precautions are being taken, including a ban on all unauthorised drone flights in the city.

- Kherson shelling -

The Kremlin news came as Ukraine prepares for a fresh offensive aimed at repelling Russian forces from the territory they currently hold in the east and south.

Fighting sharply intensified on the southern front.

Zelensky said 21 people were killed in the Kherson region in Russian strikes on the city of Kherson  retaken by Ukrainian troops last November  and nearby villages.

He said a supermarket and a railway station had been hit.

The Ukrainian leader posted images of bodies and wounded people on the floor of a vegetable aisle, with debris around them.

Earlier, the city of Kherson announced a weekend-long curfew, in a possible sign that offensive preparations are being stepped up.

The city will be under a will be under a 58-hour curfew from Friday evening until Monday morning.

Regional officials said this was for law enforcement officers to do their job", but similar long curfews have also been used in the past to facilitate troop and arms movements.

Kherson fell to Russian troops in the first days of their offensive before being retaken by Ukraine in November last year.

NATOs newest member Finland welcomed Zelensky on a surprise visit to take part in a summit with the leaders of the five Nordic nations, which have been key providers of military aid.

I believe that this year will be decisive for us, for Europe, for Ukraine, decisive for victory," Zelensky said in the Nordic country.

Read all the Latest News here
Russian President Vladimir Putin was not hurt in the drone attack allegedly launched by Ukraine at the Kremlin in an attempt to assassinate" him during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the 70-year-old leader was not present in the targeted building at the time of the alleged incident.

Peskov said Putin was working at his Novo Ogaryovo residence near Moscow on Wednesday at the time and would still take part in a scheduled World War II Victory Day parade on Red Square next week as planned. Russia marks the occasion with a huge military parade on Red Square, for which seating has already been erected.

He told news agency RIA Novosti that Putin was working today from the bunker of his Novo Ogaryovo residence after the alleged drone attack.

A statement from the Kremlin said remains of the downed drones fell on the territory of the Kremlin complex but no casualties or material damage was reported.

Purported videos emerged on social media where a plume of smoke over the Kremlin after the alleged attack can be seen. News18 was not able to verify the authenticity of the videos.

#WATCH | Russia today alleged that there were attempts by Ukraine to assassinate President Putin, saying it was a "terrorist attack" while claiming it shot down drones over the residence of Putin(Video: Russia's RT news) pic.twitter.com/6b7jkeYluT  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced an immediate ban on unauthorised drone flights over the Russian capital.

On Red Square on Wednesday, news agency AFP saw no traces of damage on the Kremlin dome but did see people walk up the building.

We didnt attack Putin

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refuted Russias claims that Kyiv had attempted to kill Putin, after Kremlin said two drones were shot down by Russian defences.

We didnt attack Putin. We leave it to the tribunal. We fight on our territory, we are defending our villages and cities," Zelensky was quoted as saying by AFP at a joint press conference with Nordic leaders in Helsinki.

(with inputs from agencies)

Read all the Latest News here
Russian strikes on Ukraines southern Kherson region killed 21 people and wounded dozens on Wednesday, Kyiv said, as authorities introduced a curfew in the main city of Kherson starting Friday.

The strikes  which hit both the city and nearby villages  came as Ukraine prepares for a spring offensive.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes hit a railway station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a grocery supermarket and a gas station."

Kherson city  from which Russian forces withdrew last November  lies near the frontline in southern Ukraine.

As of now, 21 people have been killed! 48 wounded!", Zelensky said on Telegram.

He published images of bodies and wounded people on the floor of a vegetable aisle at a supermarket, with debris around them.

The world needs to see and know this," Zelensky said.

Kherson prosecutors had called the attack massive", noting 12 of the victims were killed in the city and others in nearby villages.

On the morning of May 3, Russian troops began the massive shelling of the city of Kherson and the regions settlements," the prosecutors said.

Officials had earlier said three people died in a strike on Khersons only working hypermarket.

The prosecutors said shelling killed three employees of a power engineering team" between the nearby villages of Stepanivka and Muzykivka.

Officials also announced Wednesday that Kherson will be under curfew from Friday to Monday.

Long curfews have been used in Ukraine in the past to facilitate troop and arms movements.

The head of Khersons regional military administration Oleksandr Prokudin said the curfew would last from 1700 GMT on Friday until 0300 GMT on Monday.

During these 58 hours, it is forbidden to move on the streets of the city. The city will also be closed for entry and exit," Prokudin said on Telegram, advising residents to stock up on food and medicine.

People could go for short walks near their houses or visit shops but should carry identity documents with them.

Such temporary restrictions are necessary for the law enforcement officers to do their job and not put you in danger," he wrote.

Kherson was captured by Russian troops last year in the first days of the invasion and remained under Russian occupation until November 2022.

Russian forces withdrew from the city, crossing to the eastern side of the Dnipro River which now delineates part of the front line in southern Ukraine.

Read all the Latest News here
India will host the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) nations in Goa from Thursday. Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Russias Sergey Lavrov and Pakistans Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari are among those set to attend the meeting that will be chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Bilawal Bhutto will arrive in Goa at around 5 pm on Thursday and attend the conclave. However, it is not clear if he would attend the Gala Dinner hosted by External Affairs Minister Jaishankar at a Goa Beach.

The foreign ministers and heads of delegation will arrive in Goa from Thursday onwards while the meeting of the council of foreign ministers will be held at 10:15 am.

The overall situation in Afghanistan including apprehensions that the country may turn into a breeding ground for terrorism under the Taliban rule as well as the fast-evolving regional security situation are expected to figure prominently during the deliberations.

However, the spotlight is expected to be also on whether there will be a bilateral meeting between Jaishankar and Bhutto-Zardari on the sidelines of the SCO conclave.

Bhuttos visit will be the first such visit from Islamabad since 2011. The then Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar had visited India that year. Khar is currently serving as the minister of state for foreign affairs.

India is emerging as a key player among the SCO countries though China and Russia are seen as the major drivers of the grouping that is increasingly seen as an alternative" to NATO.

India is hosting the SCO conclave when its ties with China are under severe strain in view of the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh.

On the sideline of the conclave, Jaishankar is expected to hold separate bilateral talks with his counterparts from Russia, China and a few other member nations, people familiar with the matter said.

While the visiting dignitaries will be welcomed at a gala reception on May 4, the crucial deliberations on various key challenges facing the member nations of the grouping will be held on May 5, people familiar with the matter said.

India hosted the SCO defence ministerial meeting last week. The defence ministers of all the member nations of the grouping except Pakistan travelled to New Delhi and attended the meeting.

Special Assistant to Pakistan prime minister on defence affairs Malik Ahmed Khan joined the deliberations virtually.

(With Inputs from Shailendra Wangu)

Read all the Latest India News here
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Finland to expedite the provision of military assistance to Ukraine under the 15th package and start preparing the 16th package of assistance in Ukrainian defense capabilities.

"The subject of our talks today is Russian aggression. There are aspects in which Finland regularly supports our struggle for sovereignty. Finland, like us, stands for peaceful coexistence between peoples. I thank Finland for the already 15th aid package [to Ukraine]. This is absolutely necessary for us  for the survival of our country and people. We urge to speed up the provision of the 15th aid package and start preparing the next 16th package as soon as possible, which is very important for us," Zelenskyy said at a press conference with Finnish leader Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki.

He thanked the Finnish side for its contribution to strengthening the global coalition to stop Russian aggression and readiness to fulfil the points of the Ukrainian Peace Formula, as well as Finnish business companies for coordinated assistance to Ukraine with the supply of energy equipment after Russian rocket attacks.

"We appreciate being among the first countries that responded to the request for assistance," the Ukrainian president said.
Smoke was seen over Kremlin after drones allegedly launched by Ukraine were shot down last night.

The Kremlin, a fortified complex in the center of Moscow, serves as the official residence of the Russian president.

Russia claimed that it shot down two drones launched by Ukraine and accused Kyiv of attempting to assassinate President Vladimir Putin, the most dramatic accusation it has levelled against Kyiv since invading its neighbour more than 14 months ago.

#WATCH | Russia today alleged that there were attempts by Ukraine to assassinate President Putin, saying it was a terrorist attack" while claiming it shot down drones over the residence of Putin: RT news(Video: Russias RT news) pic.twitter.com/tiXGUoLREi  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

The Kremlin has called it a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation".

The Kremlin said, Two unmanned vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin the devices were put out of action."

According to Russian media, two unidentified drones were targeted at the Kremlin last night.As a result of their fall and scattering of fragments, there were no victims and material damage. President of Russia was not injured as a result of Ukrainian attack" - Putins office pic.twitter.com/w7Bv1jQzYk  Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) May 3, 2023

It reportedly said that two drones, used in the alleged attack, were disabled by Russian defences.

The Kremlin further said that Putin was not injured and no material damage was reported to the buildings.

Reserve Right to Retaliate, Says Russia

Russia said it reserved the right to retaliate - a comment that suggested that Moscow might use the alleged incident to justify a further escalation in its war with Ukraine.

Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were put out of action," the Kremlin said in a statement.

We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the presidents life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned  The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit," it said.

Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russias law enforcement agencies, posted a video showing a flying object approaching the dome of the Kremlin Senate building overlooking Red Square and exploding in an intense burst of light just before reaching it. Reuters could not immediately verify the videos authenticity.

The statement from the presidential administration said fragments of the drones had been scattered on the territory of the Kremlin complex but there were no casualties or material damage.

RIA news agency said Putin had not been in the Kremlin at the time and was working on Wednesday at his Novo Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.

Russia Clearly Preparing Large-scale Terrorist Act: Ukraine

Reacting for the first time to Russias claims, the Adviser to the Head of the Office of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refuted allegations and Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist" act.

Everything is predictable Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist act. Therefore, he initially detained a large group of alleged saboteurs in Crimea. And then demonstrates drones over the Kremlin. First, Ukraine conducts an exclusively defensive war and does not attack objects on the territory of the Russian Federation. Why? It does not solve any military problem. But it gives the Russian Federation grounds to justify its attacks on civiliansSecondly, we are watching with interest the growth of incidents and excesses taking place in various parts of the Russian Federation," the advisor said.

The appearance of unknown drones at energy facilities or on the territory of the Kremlin can only indicate the underground work of local resistance forces. As you know, drones can be bought at any military dealer Because the loss of power control over the country by the Putin clan is obvious. But, on the other hand, Russia constantly talked about its total control over the air. In short, something is happening in the Russian Federation, but definitely without Ukrainian drones over the Kremlin," he added.

Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko said, I cant say anything on the Kremlin claims. It can be Russian propaganda."

(With inputs from AFP, Reuters)

Read all the Latest News here
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed confidence that the country will receive aircraft after the offensive.

"Soon we will have offensive actions and after them, I am sure, we will be given planes," he said at a briefing in Helsinki on Wednesday after meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.

"We need, we really need planes. This is how this war is going on, which we constantly have to prove on the battlefield," he said. First we show that we cannot be captured in three days, then we are given some kind of weapons. Then we go forward again, asking for long-range artillery. After that, we are given the appropriate weapons," the president said.
UPDATE

May 4, 2023 5:09 PM CDT

Police in California have a suspect in custody in connection with three recent stabbings in the college town of Davis. Carlos Domingues, 21, faces two counts of homicide and one of attempted murder, CBS News reports. Police said physical evidence ties Domingues, who was a student at UC Davis until last week, to the crimes. Chief Darren Pytel said he was taken into custody Wednesday after 15 people had called to report a person matching the description of the suspect in a park, per the AP. Dominguez had a large knife in his backpack when he was arrested, Pytel said.

May 2, 2023 6:31 PM CDT

Davis, California has been shaken by three stabbings, two of them fatal, close to the UC Davis campus in the space of five days. Officials in the northern California town issued an overnight shelter-in-place order Monday night after the third stabbing, in which a woman at what the city called a "known transient" camp was seriously injured, CNN reports. Last Thursday, 50-year-old David Henry Breaux, known as "Compassion Guy," was found stabbed to death on the park bench where he often slept. Karim Abou Najm, a 20-year-old UC Davis student, was fatally stabbed in a different park around 9:15pm Saturday.

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said Tuesday that investigators are trying to determine whether the crimes are related, the California Aggie reports. "The similarities of the two homicides are that both involved male victims that occurred at Davis parks," the chief said. "The attacks with knives were particularly brutal and violent. These were not stabbings where a person would normally be a victim of like a robbery or something like that, where theres just a couple of wounds. There were many, and very significant knife wounds." The attack Monday night "had far fewer knife wounds, but still similar in the description provided," Pytel said. He said the victim is still in critical condition.

Pytel said the city will not be introducing a curfew, but police are stepping up patrols all over town. He said that while there were no witnesses to the first attack, descriptions of the suspect in the second and third stabbings are "substantially similar," ABC reports. The suspect has been described as a college-aged man with a light complexion, thin build, and curly hair. He was last seen wearing black Adidas pants with a white stripe on the side and carrying a brown backpack, police said. (Read more UC Davis stories.)
In a bizarre and baffling case that shocked the public, Arkansas authorities charged a woman with selling stolen body parts to a man in Pennsylvania, reports NPR. Candace Chapman Scott, a 36-year-old former mortuary worker with Arkansas Central Mortuary Services, pleaded not guilty to charges she allegedly orchestrated the transactions with Jeremy Lee Pauley, a man she met through an "oddities" Facebook group. The 12-count indictment accuses Scott of selling 20 boxes of stolen body parts for $11,000. The contents reportedly included brains, hearts, lungs, genitalia, large pieces of skin, and fetuses.

Pennsylvania officials discovered the alleged buyer, Jeremy Lee Pauley, after receiving complaints about his activities, per CBS. Detectives found various human remains in Pauley's basement, including brains, hearts, livers, skin, and lungs. Pauley now faces multiple charges in Pennsylvania, including receiving stolen property and abusing a corpse. Police allege that in October 2021, Scott approached Pauley online, offering parts of dead people originally slated for cremation, according to Arkansas Online. In a private Facebook message, she allegedly asked him if he knew "anyone in the market for a fully intact, embalmed brain?"

NPR says University of Arkansas spokesperson Leslie Taylor expressed gratitude to federal authorities for their actions in the case. Taylor reportedly said "bodies are an indispensable aid in the education of medical students," and the university is "extremely respectful of our donors when they're in our care." Scott, meanwhile, is in custody awaiting bail, with her trial slated to begin at the end of May. Pauley, who was reselling the parts on Facebook, calling himself a "preservation specialist," is on bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 7. (Read more weird crimes stories.)
Finland supports the idea of a just world for Ukraine, President of this country Sauli Niinisto said at a briefing in Helsinki after meeting with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"We had a short discussion on bilateral relations. We support and will support your country. The 15th aid package is already being prepared and the next one will be," the President of Finland said.

"We support the idea of a just peace for Ukraine," the President stressed.

Answering a question about possible deliveries of aircraft, Niinisto noted that Finland does not have F-16 fighters, but there are Hornet fighters, but "there are not very many of them." "Since we are very determined and we need a strong defense, we could not give away the Hornet. At that time, they were already decommissioned," Niinisto said.

"But we like your planes," Zelenskyy said.

The Finnish President also noted the importance of the NATO countries at the Vilnius summit "speaking with one voice."
In a scene worthy of a wildlife thriller, an Arizona mother found herself protecting her kids during a ferocious bee attack at a family photo shoot, per NBC. The incident happened in Buckeye Valley, just outside Phoenix. The woman bravely managed to get her children to safety inside their car, saving them from harm. But, unfortunately, she bore the brunt of the attack, enduring over 75 bee stings. Firefighters sprayed the SUV with foam and rescued the woman's two children, who were uninjured. The woman was hospitalized after the Sunday incident but has since recovered. Fire officials praised her quick thinking.

"I'm not sure as to why she didn't put herself in the car afterward. Maybe she was thinking that the bees would follow her in. But she drew the swarm away and took the brunt of those stings," said Ashley Losch with Arizona Fire and Medical Authority, per Fox 10 . The bees responsible for the attack were likely Africanized honeybees, also known as "killer" bees. Notoriously aggressive, they defend their colonies fiercely when threatened. Loud noises, vibrations, and movement within 50-150 feet of their colony can provoke them to attack. Once killer bees begin attacking, they can pursue their victims for a distance of up to 500 feet.

The venom of Africanized bees is no different from regular honey beesthe threat comes from their aggressive behavior. The only reliable way to tell them apart from regular honeybees is by measuring their wingsAfricanized bees have different-sized wings. The Arizona Fire and Medical Authority said that if you can't avoid a swarm, you should cover your face and run straight for shelter. "Never get into water and do not fight the bees," the authority said.

(Read more killer bees stories.)
A whistleblower who disappeared three years ago after publicizing videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in China has been released from jail and returned to his Wuhan home, sources tell the BBC. The report has not been independently verified. Fang Bin and other members of the public who were dubbed citizen journalists posted details of the pandemic in early 2020 on the internet and social media, embarrassing Chinese officials who faced criticism for failing to control the outbreak, the AP reports. The last video Fang, a seller of traditional Chinese clothing, posted on Twitter was of a piece of paper reading, All citizens resist, hand power back to the people.

Fang's case was part of Beijings crackdown on criticism of Chinas early handling of the pandemic, as the ruling Communist Party sought to control the narrative of the country. A source says Fang was sentenced at a secret trial to three years in prison for picking quarrels and provoking trouble," a vague charge traditionally used against political dissidents. Another citizen journalist, Chen Qiushi, also disappeared in February 2020. Chen in September 2021 resurfaced on his friend's live video feed on YouTube, saying he had suffered from depression. But he did not provide details about his disappearance. Another citizen journalist, Zhang Zhan, who also had reported on the early stage of the outbreak, was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of picking fights and provoking trouble in December 2020. (Read more COVID-19 stories.)
Cash App founder Bob Lee had alcohol and drugs including cocaine and ketamine in his system when he was stabbed in San Francisco last month, though the cause of death was clearly the stab wounds to his heart and one of his lungs, according to an autopsy report released Tuesday. The report states that doctors at San Francisco General Hospital spent around four hours fighting to save the 43-year-old's life by closing the two wounds in his heart and one in his lung but he died on the operating table, CNN reports.

Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Ellen Moffatt determined that the cause of death was multiple stab wounds and the manner and method of death was homicide by sharp injury, reports the AP. Another tech entrepreneur, Nima Momeni, has been charged with murder in the April 4 stabbing. His arraignment was delayed for a third time at a short hearing Tuesday, SFGate reports. Prosecutors say Momeni, 38, knew Lee and stabbed him over a dispute involving Momeni's sister. One witness said Lee and Momeni had been drinking together before Momeni drove Lee to a secluded area and attacked him, the Guardian reports.

Dr. Kendall Von Crowns, the chief medical examiner in Tarrant County, Texas, reviewed the toxicology report for CNN. He said the amount of cocaine in Lee's system was low and the alcohol was the equivalent of around one beer. Crowns said the ketamine may have been used on Lee by first responders. Momeni's defense attorney, Paula Canny, however, argued that drugs could have caused Lee to make bad choices. " Bob Lees system is like the Walgreens of recreational drugs, she said Tuesday, per the AP. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins countered: "Whether or not someone has or has not done drugsthat does not give someone a license to kill him." (Read more San Francisco stories.)
A man carrying a mysterious package has been arrested for allegedly throwing suspected shotgun cartridges into the grounds of Buckingham Palace. This marks a serious security incident just days before King Charles III's coronation. The Telegraph reports the incident occurred at 7pm local time on Tuesday. It prompted an immediate cordoning off of the area, though the cordons have since been removed. Concerns over the coronation's heightened security have escalated, with the UK's counter-terrorism police issuing a public warning to "stay alert" during the Saturday celebrations.

Police say they searched the man's "suspicious bag" and evacuated the media area in front of the place. The Metropolitan Police then carried out a controlled explosion as a precaution. According to the BBC, the man, who also had a knife, was taken in on "suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon," and police are treating the matter "an isolated mental health incident" instead of terrorism. Neither the King nor Queen Consort were at the Palace at the time. The BBC reports that Chief Superintendent Joseph McDonald confirmed that officers swiftly apprehended the man, and no police or members of the public were injured in the process. (Read more Buckingham Palace stories.)
The New York Times has obtained a text message Tucker Carlson sent to a producer in the hours after the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, which reportedly contributed to his ouster from Fox News. In it, Carlson describes a video he watched in which "a group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living s--- out of him." "It was three against one, at least," he wrote. "Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It's not how white men fight." Though the displacement of white Americans by people of color had been "a recurring theme" on Carlson's show, the message "revealed more about his views on racial superiority" and "alarmed the Fox board," which learned of it a day before Dominion Voting Systems' defamation trial against Fox was set to begin, per the Times.

Carlson had previously claimed immigrants made the country "poorer" and "dirtier." He'd also claimed white supremacy was "a hoax," while his chief writer was found to have posted racist rants online. Indeed, "Carlson had courted the kind of controversy that would have gotten a lesser-known personality fired," per the Washington Post. Coming on top of other damaging messages revealed in the lead up to the trial, the text not only played a role in Fox's decision to settle defamation claims with Dominion for $787.5 million but pushed the board to open an investigation into Carlson's conduct, the Times reports.

Earlier in the exchange, Carlson had referred to then-President Trump as "a demonic force, a destroyer"which Dominion might've wished to highlight during the trial. Carlson went on to say that he "found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it." Carlson then wrote that "somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off" and he realized the victim was "a human being," "that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid" and "I shouldnt gloat over his suffering" or "reduce people to their politics." (Read more Tucker Carlson stories.)
NPR has stayed firm in not tweeting since Elon Musk's Twitter first labeled its account "state-affiliated media" last month, then "government-funded media." Those labels are now gone, but NPR has continued to stay silent online. Now, the news organization is reporting that Musk is threatening to hand over the NPR account, along with its nearly 9 million followers, to someone else entirely. NPR says it got wind of the Twitter CEO's apparent plans when he sent them an unsolicited email on Tuesday that read, "So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?"

NPR and Reuters note that, per Twitter's terms of service, users of the social media platform should "be sure to log in at least every 30 days" to avoid having their account flagged. Otherwise, "accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity." The ToS doesn't mention accounts being removed simply for not tweeting, and Musk didn't hint to NPR if he planned on changing the definition of "inactivity." "Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant," Musk wrote in a second email. "Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR."

NPR notes it's not clear if Musk will actually wrest its handle away, or which third party he'd hand the account tohe joked with NPR that "National Pumpkin Radio" might get the honors. But social media experts say such a move would up the risk of impersonation and possibly endanger the company's reputation. "It's really an extraordinary threat to make," Columbia Journalism School's Emily Bell tells the outlet. "If this is a sign of things to come on Twitter, we might soon see even more of a rapid retreat by media organizations and other brands that don't think it's worth the risk." PBS and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have already also stopped tweeting after being similarly labeled.

Meanwhile, the AP reports on one about-face that Twitter is making: It's restoring free access to its application programming interface, or API, for verified government and "publicly owned" services. Twitter on Tuesday noted that those specified entities "who tweet weather alerts, transport updates and emergency notifications may use the API, for these critical purposes, for free." The backtracking came after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York City's transit agency, pulled out of using Twitter for service advisories due to the new API costs, which it said could run the agency $50,000 a month. (Read more Elon Musk stories.)
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Text From Rapist Among 7 Dead in Oklahoma: 'This Is All on You'

Family members say Jesse McFadden lashed out on eve of child pornography trial
School shootings have become a sad new reality in America, but now, news of a deadly one has arrived from overseas. Officials in the Serbian capital of Belgrade report that eight children are dead, as is a security guard, after a seventh-grader opened fire at his own school, per CNN. The nation's Ministry of Internal Affairs says that six other students and a teacher were injured and sent to the hospital following the Wednesday morning attack. One of the wounded is said to be a female student with life-threatening injuries, per CNN affiliate N1.

The suspected gunman, 14, was arrested in the yard of the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School, in the upscale Vracar neighborhood of Belgrade, the ministry notes. Local media showed footage purporting to show the suspect being led away in cuffs, his head under a jacket, per the BBC. The teen is believed to have carried out the shooting, which took place around 8:40am local time, with his father's gun, according to the ministry. "I saw kids running out from the school, screaming," one student who survived the shooting tells broadcaster RTS. "Parents came, they were in [a] panic."

The father of another student tells N1 that his daughter said the gunman "first shot the teacher and then ... started shooting randomly." The BBC and NBC News note that mass shootings in Serbia, and in the Balkan region in general, are "extremely rare;" the AP reports that this is Serbia's first mass shooting since 2013. "I really don't know what to say," Serbian politician Miodrag Gavrilovic tweeted after the shooting. "This is a complete tragedy of a society. Aggression and violence is at every turn." A motive hasn't yet been announced, and the ministry says an investigation is ongoing. (Read more Serbia stories.)
Russia claims it has averted an assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin, and it alleges Ukraine was behind the plot. The Kremlin on Wednesday said it brought down two drones overnight using what the BBC calls "electronic radar assets." Russia claims the drones were targeting Putin's Kremlin residence, but noted Putin was not there at the time and was instead working from his Novo-Ogaryovo residence.

Russia called the incident "a planned terrorist act and an assassination attempt on the president," and said it "reserves the right to take retaliatory measures wherever and whenever is deemed necessary." Though the AP reports debris from the drones fell on the ground below, no injuries or damage were reported. Ukraine has not commented. The Washington Post calls Russia's claim "an electric allegation that could create justification for Russia to escalate its war in Ukraine."

The Kremlin said the alleged incident wouldn't interrupt its plans to mark Victory Day, the May 9 celebration of Russia's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Putin is set to participate in the celebrations in Moscow's Red Square. (Read more Vladimir Putin stories.)
A 13-year-old who opened fire Wednesday at his school in Serbia's capital drew sketches of classrooms and wrote a list of people he intended to "liquidate" in a meticulously planned attack, police said. He killed eight fellow students and a school guard before being arrested. The shooter first killed a guard at the school in central Belgrade and then three students in a hallway, according to senior police official Veselin Milic. He then entered a history classroomapparently choosing it simply because it was close to the entranceand opened fire again, Milic said.

The assailant called police himself when the attack was over, though authorities received a call reporting the shooting two minutes earlier, reports the AP. Police identified the shooter as Kosta Kecmanovic, who attended the Vladislav Ribnikar school, where students would typically range in age from 6 to 15. Kecmanovic carried two guns belonging to his fatherat least one a handgunand four Molotov cocktails, officials said. Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said the weapons were licensed and kept in a safe, but that the teen, who'd been to shooting ranges, apparently knew the code. The father was also arrested.

Mass shootings are extremely rare in Serbia and in the wider Balkan region; none were reported at schools in recent years. In the last mass shooting, a Balkan war veteran in 2013 killed 13 people in a central Serbian village. Experts, however, have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the large number of weapons in the country after the wars of the 1990s. They also note that decades of instability stemming from the conflicts, as well as ongoing economic hardship, could trigger such outbursts. Authorities declared three days of nationwide mourning, starting Friday.

(Read more school shooting stories.)
Spokesman for the President of Ukraine Serhiy Nikiforov has said that Ukraine does not have any information about the so-called night attacks on the Kremlin.

"We have no information about the so-called night attacks on the Kremlin, however, as President [of Ukraine Volodymyr] Zelenskyy has said numerous times, Ukraine directs all available means and forces at liberating its own territories, and not on attacking foreign territories," he said in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.

"The wording of the terrorist state are especially surprising. A terror acts is the destruction of the blocks of flats in Dnipro and Uman or a missile attack on the queue at the railway station in Kramatorsk, and many other tragedies. And what has happened in Moscow is obviously an attempt to aggravate the situation before May 9. It is a predictable act of our enemy," Nikiforov said.

As reported, on May 3, Moscow accused Ukraine of committing a drone attack on the Kremlin.
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TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The High Criminal Court of Bahrain sentenced 21 Asians to imprisonment ranging from one to five years. The culprits are said to have formed a criminal network for electronically defrauding people, seizing sums exceeding BD21,000.

The first to eighth defendants were sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of BD5,000, while the 9th and 10th defendants were sentenced to three years. The 11th to 21st defendants were sentenced to one year; the 7th to 9th, 11th to 15th, and 18th defendants were fined BD100 for possession of pornographic material.

The court ruled in favour of their deportation after the execution of the penalty. The Chief of Cybercrime Prosecution stated earlier that Public Prosecution had completed its investigations into the incidents of electronic fraud committed by several defendants of Asian nationalities who formed a criminal network that specialized in seizing money by obtaining bank account details through fraudulent means.

They were able to seize amounts exceeding BD21,000. The Anti-Cybercrime Department of the General Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security received several reports of victims who were scammed by suspects impersonating bank employees on the phone and claiming that their bank details needed to be updated, or that they had won cash prizes and they needed to disclose their bank details to collect them.

The Public Prosecution Office promptly initiated an investigation, taking victim testimonies as well as the statement of an official from one of the financial institutions through which the money transfers took place.

The Public Prosecution issued a decision to local banks to trace the seized amounts until the 18 perpetrators were tracked and arrested. They were interrogated and held in custody pending investigation, after which they were charged with the felony of using others electronic signatures for fraudulent purposes.

The prosecution also ordered the arrest of the remaining fugitive suspects. After completing investigations and collecting evidence, the defendants were referred to the competent court.
AFP | Bangkok

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

One of the front-runners in Thailand's general election hailed her newborn son as her "secret power" Wednesday as she presented the baby to the media after giving birth just two weeks before polling day.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, vowed to get back on the campaign trail for the May 14 vote after giving birth on Monday.

The 36-year-old has been first or second in surveys of voters' preferred choice of prime minister and her Pheu Thai party -- the latest incarnation of the political movement founded by her father -- is leading most opinion polls.

"I believe that good things come with babies, so this is a blessing for my family," she told reporters at Bangkok's Praram 9 hospital.

"My children are my secret power to work and to live life."

A heavily pregnant Paetongtarn was a near-constant presence at campaign rallies in searing tropical heat until just a week before giving birth.

The baby, named Prutthasin Sooksawas and nicknamed "Thasin" in honour of her father, is Paetongtarn's second.

She described her emotions on delivering him safely, after his heart rate fell during labour.

"Once I heard his cry, my tears fell. I felt relief that he was safe. I am glad he is safe," she said.

There was less joyful news Wednesday for Paetongtarn in the polls, where the leader of the rival opposition Move Forward party, Pita Limjaroenrat, overtook her as voters' preferred prime minister.

The latest round of the closely-watched poll by the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) put Pita on 35 percent, ahead of Paetongtarn on 29.

In party preferences, Pheu Thai still leads Move Forward -- a left-leaning reformist movement -- by 38 percent to 34, but the gap is narrowing.

- Return of Thaksin? -

Pheu Thai has said it is targeting a landslide to try to secure the PM spot -- which under the junta-scripted constitution requires the support of the military-appointed senate.

But Paetongtarn said she would not rule out alliances to build a governing coalition.

"I'm open to the parties that are going to support our policies and our conditions," she said.

It is the second election since the 2014 coup that ousted Paetongtarn's aunt Yingluck from power.

Pheu Thai won most seats at the last poll in 2019, but coup leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha stitched together a coalition to hold on to power.

The baby's birth has increased speculation about a possible return to Thailand by Thaksin, who lives in exile to avoid corruption charges he says are politically motivated.

Paetongtarn said her father, 73, wants to return to Thailand but not to get involved in politics again.

"He always says he wants to return home to raise his grandchildren. He never said he wants to return home to be PM," she said.

Thaksin, still much loved in Thailand's poor rural areas for his populist welfare policies, is loathed by the powerful military and royalist elites.

For two decades, Thai politics has been dominated by a tussle between the Shinawatras and this royalist-military establishment.

Parties linked to the family have won most seats at every election since 2001, but seen two prime ministers removed by coups and two by court orders.
Ukraine has not attacked the Kremlin or any other facilities on the territory of the Russian Federation, the targets of the Ukrainian defense forces are exclusively Russian military facilities in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the Presidents Office, said in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine.

"Ukraine didnt attack the Kremlin or any other objects on the territory of the Russian Federation. The goals of our defense forces are exclusively military facilities in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine," Podoliak commented.

According to him, attacks on objects like the Kremlin absolutely neither solve any military tasks nor contribute to the preparation of a Ukrainian counter-offensive operation.

At the same time, the strategy of the Ukrainian military is to destroy the enemy's rear reserves in the occupied territories, which is absolutely consistent with international law, in particular the Geneva Conventions, which Ukraine continues to adhere to.

Also, Podoliak noted, the simultaneous statements of the Russian Federation about the alleged detention of a group of saboteurs in Crimea and alleged drone attacks on the Kremlin directly indicate that preparations are underway for specific provocations by the Russian Federation itself.

"This is a clear attempt to intercept the information initiative, to prepare an appropriate information background, to plunge societies, including Ukrainian, into negative expectations. The strategy of demoralization that the Russian Federation uses on the eve of the relevant actions of the Ukrainian armed forces is understandable, as well as an attempt to significantly reduce the extremely negative background to Russia after the constant shelling of civilian homes and civilian objects in Ukraine in recent days ...," he said.

"Thus, it is clear that, firstly, the Kremlin is pulling the attention of the world media from its acts of terrorism, and in the eyes of its own population justifies numerous war crimes in Ukraine. And, secondly, he tries to demoralize communities with shocking statements before the offensive actions of Ukraine," the adviser to the head of the President's Office summed up.
Binance is getting ready to re-enter the Japanese market by buying a 100% share in Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC), a registered supplier of crypto services.

The move marks Binances re-entry into Japan after a four-year absence, during which the countrys financial authorities issued a warning that the exchange was operating in the country without permission.

To ensure regulatory compliance, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that the new service, provisionally named Binance Japan, would launch after June 2023. Existing services on SEBC will terminate on May 31, 2023, ahead of the new launch.

SEBC Exchange has recently announced a significant change in its operational policy. According to the new directive, users of the platform must withdraw their cryptocurrency assets by May 28; failing to do so will result in the automatic conversion of assets into Japanese yen. ...continue reading
NATO will open a representative office in Japan, marking the military alliances first permanent liaison office in Asia.

Nikkei reported on Wednesday (May 3) that the plans had been confirmed by Japanese and NATO officials. Opening a NATO office in Japan was discussed by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg when the pair met in Tokyo late January.

Both sides are reportedly still negotiating funding arrangements for the one-person NATO liaison office which will open in Tokyo next year. If Japan were to fund the office, it would be an important and highly symbolic step towards widening the military alliances focus from North America and Europe to the Asia-Pacific.

Japan has also committed to opening a dedicated mission to NATO in Belgium, in addition to its existing embassy. NATO and Japan will reportedly also sign a cooperation agreement on cyber security, emerging and disruptive technologies, and combatting disinformation before the next NATO summit in June. ...continue reading
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MILFORD  Fast food giant Subway, which is exploring a potential sale, last year shrunk its U.S. footprint by several hundred locations, according to a new report from Reuters.

Highlighting its challenges since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Milford-based companys number of U.S. stores decreased in 2022 by a net of 571, while the company finished last year with 20,576 stores in the U.S., according to Reuters.The news organization cited as its source the latest disclosure document provided by Subway to franchisees interested in buying locations.

The number of closings was lower, however, than in the previous two years, according to the disclosure document, which was dated April 25. U.S. franchisees of Subway closed a net of more than 1,000 locations in 2021 and about 1,600 in 2020. Reuters attributed the closings in recent years to factors including over-expansion, outdated operations and decor, stale menus and $5 footlong deals that eroded franchisees' profits.

In response to an inquiry Tuesday from Hearst Connecticut Media, Subway provided a written statement that did not dispute the numbers reported by Reuters.

As part of Subways transformation journey to improve across all aspects of the brand, we have spent the past two years optimizing our footprint by using a strategic, data-driven approach to ensure restaurants are in the right location, image and format, the statement said. This includes opening new locations, with quality remaining a top priority, relocating restaurants to maximize guest traffic and closing locations when needed.



The statement added that, the slowdown in closures is an expected result of the progress we have made to get back to smart growth, which will boost franchisee profitability and protect our position in the market. In 2023, our goal is to increase new openings across North America by approximately 35 percent compared to 2022.

Subway still comprises one of the worlds largest providers of fast food. It has nearly 37,000 restaurants, across more than 100 countries, that are owned and operated by franchisees. In the past couple of years, it has sought to solidify its position with initiatives that include an update of its menu and advertising campaigns with numerous celebrities.

For the first quarter of 2023, Subway reported a nearly 12 percent increase in same-store sales in North America. The top 75 percent of those locations, comprising about 17,000 restaurants, saw same-store sales increase nearly 18 percent. The top 50 percent of North American locations, including about 11,500 restaurants, recorded a same-sales uptick of more than 24 percent.

Our continued impressive performance demonstrates that our efforts to build a better Subway and win back the hearts and minds of sandwich lovers around the globe is working, Subway CEO John Chidsey said in a written statement. With strong sales momentum across our restaurants and a refreshed focus on strategic brand growth, there has never been a more exciting time to be part of the Subway brand.

Citing its status as a privately held company, Subway has declined to publicly disclose dollar amounts for its sales totals.

At the same time, Subway continues to explore a potential sale. The company announced in February that it would consider such an option, but it did not provide a rationale for doing so.

There is no indication of timing or assurance that a sale will occur, the company said in a news release at the time. J.P. Morgan is advising the company and will conduct the sale exploration process. The company does not intend to make any further public comment regarding the process until it has been completed.

In its new statement, Subway reiterated that it would not publicly comment further on the process beyond the initial news release.

In January, The Wall Street Journal reported that, in a sale, Subway could be valued at more than $10 billion.

Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and TPG are among the bidders for Subway, according to reports in the past couple of months.

Subway's ownership is split between the families and foundations established by the late Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck, who founded Subway in 1965.

The company has a dual headquarters in Milford that it is moving to Shelton and another dual headquarters in Miami. In March, the company announced the opening of the hub in south Florida.
A man accused of killing five neighbors after they asked him to stop shooting an AR-15-style weapon near their Texas yard was arrested Tuesday evening after a four-day search that at one point involved more than 250 law enforcement officers.

The suspect, identified as Francisco Oropesa, 38, was found at a home in Cut and Shoot, Tex., according to the San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office. Oropesa faces five counts of murder in the killings of four adults and a 9-year-old child.

The lead for Oropesa's location, officials said, came from a tip on the FBI hotline at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. The suspect was arrested by a team from the U.S. Marshals, U.S. Border Patrol's tactical unit and the Texas Department of Public Safety at 6:30 p.m.

Oropesa was "caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry," San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said at a briefing Tuesday evening. "He is behind bars and will live out his life behind bars," he said.

Even as agencies lauded the arrest, the news brought little consolation for the family of the victims.

"He took everything from us, and now we're living a nightmare from which we'll never wake up," said Lucia Guzman, aunt of one of the victims. "The arrest will never erase what he did to my family, but at least now we can hope for some justice."

The wide-ranging search raised questions about some aspects of the early investigation, including an allegation by the victims' family that deputies were slow to respond, the FBI initially identifying the wrong man as the suspect and the real suspect possessing at least five guns despite being an undocumented immigrant. Residents near the San Jacinto County massacre scene also expressed concerns about how sheriff's deputies handled previous reports that Oropesa was shooting in his yard.

Law enforcement officers initially believed that they had cornered Oropesa after he allegedly fled Friday night from the home where several members of an extended family of Honduran immigrants lay dead. Search dogs later lost his scent, and the FBI's Houston office later said he "could be anywhere."

Officials said early in the search that they had found Oropesa's cellphone, articles of clothing and the gun they believed was used in the shooting - but they were unsure whether he had another weapon with him and were treating him as if he were "armed and dangerous." He was eventually apprehended without incident.

The violence began after Sonia Guzman called 911 on Friday about 11 p.m. to complain that Oropesa was firing his weapon near their home, her brother Ramiro Guzman said. Then, he said, four men in the house asked Oropesa directly to move farther away from their front yard.

Minutes later, Oropesa allegedly walked into the neighbors' home and opened fire. Family members repeatedly called 911 and each time were told that deputies were already on the scene, Ramiro Guzman recalled.

"Then why is he killing my family now?" he said he implored the dispatchers. The 16 people inside the house, including eight children, scrambled to find shelter even as some were shot. He hid inside a closet with his 6-month-old baby and wife.

By the time police arrived, four adults were dead, including Sonia Guzman. Nine-year-old Daniel Enrique Laso was writhing in pain, Ramiro Guzman said, and died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.

The dead were: Sonia Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Laso, 9.

Authorities initially released an incorrect photo of the suspect and spelling of his name, thrusting a Fort Worth man into the spotlight, whose family said he received threats.

Oropesa had previously been deported from the United States four times, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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RIDGEFIELD  The frozen pizzas made by Ridgefield brothers Larry and Tim Debany have been making their way into area grocery stores  and Yankee Stadiums premier seats  since last spring.

The goal now? They are aiming to change the frozen pizza world, Larry Debany said, and are seeking to get into more grocery stores and put the frozen pizzas on every shelf in America, Tim Debany said.

We think our (frozen) pizza comes close or better than you find in a restaurant, Larry Debany said of the 850 Frozen pizza. If cooked properly, its like a fresh pizza out of the oven at a restaurant.

The success inspired the Debanys to expand their fledgling business into a new Brookfield facility, where they can make frozen pizzas on a mass scale.

The name of the frozen pizzas comes from the 850 Wood Fired Restaurant in Ridgefield, an eatery the brothers had owned for nearly a decade but sold to new owners last month.

'A lot of trial and error'

Larry Debany said he has been working on frozen pizzas since opening his first restaurant, Village Pizza, in Ridgefield in 1991. He sold Village Pizza in 2005 and opened Fifty Coins in 2006, which he sold nine years later to open 850 Wood Fired Restaurant with his brother, who owned Baja Cocina in Ridgefield.

The Debany brothers started making and selling frozen pizzas during COVID-19. Larry Debany said they bought a shrink-wrap machine to wrap the pizzas at the restaurant, but didnt have time to work on the idea before COVID-19.

Tim Debany said they came up with the exact way to make the frozen pizzas through a lot of trial and error.

We have brought our own kind of flavor that we have with the pizzas in the restaurant, Tim Debany said. Everythings top quality in the ingredients that we use.  We use Grande Cheese, our own dough and our own sauce.  It really makes a difference.

From wood-fired to frozen

The frozen pizza business took off last spring and has expanded to 25 grocery stores and Yankee Stadium. Tim Debany said the New York Yankees preordered 20,000 frozen pizzas this year to serve in its Legends Suites and seats.

The brothers also bought a location on Sand Cut Road in Brookfield for their new venture, 850 Frozen, which they co-own with Pat Sexton, the manager of 850 Wood Fired Restaurant.

For 850 Frozen, they sell 12- and 16-inch pizzas, including cheese pizza, margherita pizza and smores dessert pizzas. The Debany brothers are now working on adding a white pizza, pepperoni pizza and hot oil pizza to the lineup.

Tim Debany said 850 Frozen is a separate company from the 850 Wood Fired Restaurant. He said they started operations in Brookfield seven months ago and sold 850 Wood Fired Restaurant last month to Michael and Laura Endico, owners of the food supplies provider Ace Endico Corp. in Brewster, N.Y.

850 Wood Fired Restaurant will continue as is with their own little flair to it, Tim Debany said of the restaurant. Theyre planning on keeping it the same  why mess with success?
URCS mobile medical teams help residents of remote settlements in Chernihiv region

Residents of remote settlements in Chernihiv region receive medical assistance from mobile medical teams of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS).

"Mobile medical teams of the Ukrainian Red Cross visit remote settlements in Chernihiv region in order to provide citizens with healthcare services. Team members examine patients, carry out popular laboratory examinations, prescribe or correct treatment, and if necessary direct them to narrow specialists," the URCS said on Facebook on Wednesday.

The mobile teams also help senior citizens who have chronic diseases but are unable to reach district centers for health reasons.

The work of the URCS mobile medical teams helps to detect diseases in patients timely.

Local authorities inform people about the arrivals of the mobile medical teams.
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TALLINN, Estonia (AP)  A court in Belarus convicted a dissident journalist who was arrested after being pulled off a commercial flight that was diverted to the country and sentenced him Wednesday to eight years in prison.

Raman Pratasevich's dramatic arrest in May 2021 elicited outrage in the West, with some leaders saying the plane's diversion was tantamount to state-sponsored hijacking.

Belarusian flight controllers ordered the Ryanair jetliner traveling from Greece to Lithuania to land in Minsk, telling the crew there was a bomb threat against the flight. No explosives were found on board once the airliner was on the ground, but Pratasevich, a Belarusian citizen who lived in exile at the time, was detained.

His Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, was also arrested. The plane then was allowed to continue on to its original destination.

In response to the forced diversion, several Western countries imposed a raft of new sanctions and barred their planes from flying over Belarus.

Pratasevich ran Nexta, a Telegram messaging app channel that was widely used by participants in mass protests against the disputed 2020 election that gave authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office. He was charged with organizing unrest and plotting to seize power.

Nexta is one of the most well-known opposition outlets. Together with its sister channel, Nexta Live, it has 1.4 million followers.

The founder of the Telegram channel, Stsiapan Putsila, and another editor of the channel, Yan Rudzik, were sentenced in absentia to 20 and 19 years in prison respectfully. Both remain in exile.

After the arrest, Pratasevich went on Belarusian state television several times to confess, denounce the opposition and apologize to Lukashenko  appearances that critics said were made under duress. Both Pratasevich and his girlfriend, Sapega, were later released from custody and put under house arrest.

In May 2022, Sapega was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison. Three days later, a message on a Telegram channel billed as belonging to Pratasevich sought to distance him from Sapega  saying they had separated long before and that he was married to someone else.

The Associated Press couldnt independently verify whether the post was freely written by Pratasevich or any of the claims it contained.

Sapega, in the meantime, petitioned Belarusian authorities to extradite her to her home country, Russia, to serve out the remainder of her sentence. The Belarusian government agreed. It wasnt immediately clear when that might happen.

Belarus opposition leader in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, called the sentences to Pratasevich, Putsila and Rudzik disregard for justice on the part of the Belarus regime, which conducted a fake trial.

Pratasevich, Tsikhanouskaya said in a tweet, has been the regimes hostage since the Ryanair (plane) hijacking.
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CHICAGO (AP)  U.S. cities already struggling to shelter thousands of migrants are calling for federal help and an end to Republican political gamesmanship over immigration, concerned that an expected increase in the number of people entering the country when pandemic-era asylum restrictions end on the U.S.-Mexico border May 11 will further strain their budgets and resources.

Chicago has long pledged to welcome migrants. But a tenfold increase in recent days has taxed resources. Migrants awaiting beds in city-run shelters are sleeping on floors in police stations and in airports surrounded by suitcases. They're depending on donors for food, medicine and clothing.

When border crossings increased last summer, Republican governors of border states bussed migrants to cities led by Democrats including Chicago, New York City and Denver, arguing that their own cities were overwhelmed. Texas Republican governor this week vowed to resume a program bussing new arrivals to Chicago and other cities.

More than 8,000 migrants have come into Chicago since August, according to city officials. Some came on busses mobilized by border states; others bought their own flights or got one subsidized by aid groups. The number of new arrivals slowed this winter to about 10 people per day. But toward the end of April, it grew to between 75 to 150 people per day.

Our system is over capacity, Brandie Knazze, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services told city officials Friday. Make no mistake, we are in a surge and things have yet to peak.

Major U.S. cities already were bracing for thousands of new arrivals when a rule that denies asylum on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19 expires May 11. But the uptick has begun sooner than Chicago officials expected, and they fear that bussing from Texas could further overwhelm them.

We simply have no more shelters, spaces, or resources to accommodate an increase of individuals at this level, Democratic mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote in a letter to Texas' Republican governor Greg Abbott on Sunday.

He replied in a letter of his own, promising to send more busses of migrants. He repeated calls for her to pressure President Joe Biden to prevent migrants from crossing the border, and noted that the influx already has strained Texas.

"As the mayor of a self-declared sanctuary city, it is ironic to hear you complain about Chicagos struggle to deal with a few thousand illegal immigrants, which is a fraction of the record-high numbers we deal with in Texas on a regular basis," Abbott wrote.

While migrants tend to stay briefly in U.S. border cities on their way to other destinations, demands for temporary shelter, food and transportation have grown. El Paso, Laredo and Brownsville declared states of emergency ahead of the end of pandemic-related asylum restrictions next week.

Migrants taking shelter in Chicago police stations this week said they want to find work and provide for themselves, but need temporary shelter and assistance navigating a new country. But they have been caught up in the city's struggle to provide shelter to so many.

One of those families has been living on the floor of a police station on the citys northwest side for eight days, sleeping on thin blankets provided by a local church and washing themselves in the stations bathroom sink as they wait for available shelter space.

Every day they tell us the same thing, theres no shelter, that we need to wait, said Ibo Brandelli, on Monday, who left Venezuela with his wife and their two daughters in January.

After surrendering to border authorities and gaining entry to the U.S. in late April, they connected with a community organization providing plane tickets and chose Chicago on the advice of acquaintances.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams called on the federal government last month to give the city more financial aid and asked the U.S. government to speed up work authorizations to people seeking asylum. The city has spent $817 million so far housing, caring for and providing services to migrants, at an average cost of $380 per household per day, according to the city's budget director.

More than 50,000 international migrants have arrived since the spring of 2022, taxing an already stretched shelter system. Under local law and court rulings, the city is obligated to offer emergency shelter to anyone who needs it. The city has tried creative solutions, like leasing out entire Manhattan hotels and setting up temporary shelters during the winter at a cruise ship terminal.

In Denver this month, officials announced that only immigrants with a formal application to stay in the U.S. will be allowed in emergency shelters. Most of those who have come to Denver since last summer would qualify, but immigrant advocacy groups say the policy will lead to more people living on the streets. Denver has spent nearly $13 million sheltering and supporting more than 6,000 migrants.

Victoria Aguilar, a spokeswoman for Denver Human Services, which now runs four emergency shelters for migrants attributed the change to a lack of funding, lack of policy, lack of guidance from our federal government to be able to respond to this crisis appropriately.

Chicago runs eight shelters dedicated to new migrants. City officials said they have struggled to find new spaces capable of housing more than 250 people and say they need federal and state help.

In the meantime, migrant families are finding shelter where they can.

Another Venezuelan family slept on the floor of a northwest side police station for nearly two weeks.

What we want is stability for our children, stability for ourselves, for my children to be able to go to school, said Yessika Chirino, who left Venezuela with her daughters, 15 and 5, seven months ago.

Chirino said she crossed the Mexico-U.S. border into Texas on April 11. A Texas organization helped her fly to Chicago.

She calls Chicago's non-emergency line every day asking about shelter openings.

We dont know what to believe anymore, she said. ___

Associated Press writers Claire Savage in Chicago, David Caruso in New York and Thomas Peipert in Denver contributed to this report.
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CHICAGO (AP)  Federal jurors on Tuesday convicted all four defendants of bribery conspiracy at their trial in Chicago that provided an inside look at pay-to-play politics in Illinois that prosecutors said involved the states largest electric utility and, at the time, one of its most powerful politicians.

It's a resounding win for U.S. prosecutors in one of the biggest corruption trials in Illinois since former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 in the same federal courthouse, including on charges he sought to sell President Barack Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat.

During a month and a half of testimony, prosecutors sought to prove two former ComEd executives, a former utility consultant and a longtime government insider arranged contracts, jobs and money for associates of then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan  once one of the nations most powerful legislators  to ensure proposed bills boosting ComEd profits became law.

Madigan, 81, has been indicted in the case, though his own trial is scheduled for next year. He wasn't in court during the just-ended trial but featured in much of the key evidence. The across-the-board convictions Tuesday may not bode well for his prospects when he gets to trial.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Amarjeet Bhachu called the four defendants grand masters of corruption, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Defense attorneys argued their clients were engaged in run-of-the-mill lobbying and never crossed lines into illegality.

The defendants were onetime Madigan confidant Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and former ComEd consultant Jay Doherty.

Jurors deliberated for several days before returning with the sweeping convictions. Bribery conspiracy, the headline count in the case, carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

Bhachu likened the alleged conspiracy to a toll that drivers pay to continue their journey on state highways, and suggested Madigan was the gatekeeper. It was a corruption toll to make sure that Mr. Madigan was not an obstacle to their legislative agenda, said Bhachu, according to the Chicago Tribune. And they paid that toll every month, from 2011 to 2019, when they were caught.

Evidence in the government's case included secret recordings of Madigan and others. Defense lawyers singled out a star government witness, ex-ComEd executive Fidel Marquez, alleging federal agents frightened him into cooperating, which included making secret recordings.

We are here because the government scared Fidel Marquez to death, Hookers lawyer, Jacqueline Jacobson, told jurors in her closing.

Marquez is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to bribery conspiracy.

Madigan was indicted in 2022 on charges that included racketeering and bribery. Hes denied wrongdoing. A year earlier, he resigned from the Legislature as the longest-serving state House speaker in modern U.S. history amid speculation that he was a federal target.

The indictment accused Madigan, among other things, of reaping the benefits of private legal work illegally steered to his law firm.
The oldest jewellery ever found

Both ancient and modern humans have been making objects for millions of years. The oldest known tools are more than three million years old, and have been linked to species such as Paranthropus and Homo habilis.

Ancient hominins, however, only turned to making other items much more recently, with the earliest jewellery currently dated at around 142,000 years old.

It is thought to have been made by early Homo sapiens living in Morocco, who made holes in sea snail shells to use them as beads. The shells also have traces of red dye on them, suggesting they might have been painted.

It's not just our ancestors who made jewellery, however. Eagle claws found among Neanderthal remains in Croatia appear to have been smoothed down and had notches made in them.

The researchers believe the Neanderthals may have made these modifications so the claws could have been mounted in a necklace or bracelet 130,000 years ago. This is before Homo sapiens is thought to have arrived in Europe, showing that it wasn't only our species who appreciated jewellery.

Because bone is porous, fragments of DNA in the sweat, blood or saliva of ancient hominins could have entered these artefacts as they were worn or made. This makes bone jewellery a potentially rich resource for scientists to study.

However, getting to this DNA is difficult and normally means cutting into the bone. This would mean damaging these rare artefacts, and destroying irreplaceable evidence about how they were made.

Professor Marie Soressi, another co-author on the paper, explains, 'The surface structure of Paleolithic bone and tooth artefacts provides important information about their production and use. Therefore, preserving the integrity of the artefacts, including microstructures on their surface, is a top priority.'

'Attempts to extract DNA from artefacts like these have been used in the past, but they weren't often very effective,' Ian adds. 'They are either not very good at getting DNA from the sample, or produce extracts which contain a lot of contamination from other sources.'

Undeterred by the challenges, the team set out to develop new ways of extracting aDNA from bone without resorting to destructive methods or chemicals.
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WEST HAVEN  Barry Lee Cohen argues that, while others talk, he rolls up his sleeves and gets to work.

Two years after Cohen, a Republican who served one term as the District 10 councilman, lost to Democratic Mayor Nancy Rossi by a mere 32 votes in the 2021 mayoral election, he once again filed paperwork to run in the 2023 race Wednesday.

"We can be better, and we must be better," he said. "I am ready on day one. We do not have time for speechifying; we need action."

Cohen is the third Republican to announce his candidacy for mayor, following businesswoman Paige Weinstein and former planning commissioner Steven Mullins. Cohen said he intends to implement "a clean sweep of City Hall," which he said cannot be done by an insider or establishment candidate. He said that should he not receive the endorsement of the Republican Town Committee, he is prepared to run in the primary election.

Cohen said he is "the real deal" because of his history in corporate management, owning and operating his own communications business, his volunteerism and his willingness to work across the aisle to find solutions for the entirety of the city. He said his top issue will be "responsible economic development" and being communicative and cooperative with developers and business owners in attracting them to the city.

"I love West Haven, and we need hope again," he said. "We will either remain status quo or go for change."

While filing his paperwork in the City Clerk's office, Cohen had little interaction with City Clerk Patty Horvath, one of several defendants in a lawsuit he filed against the city and several election officials challenging the handling and legitimacy of absentee ballots on Election Day. In October 2022, the Supreme Court upheld a Superior Court judge's ruling upholding the results of the 2021 election, although that judge found "a concerning lack of overall compliance with statutory guidelines."

Both Weinstein and Mullins were present in the clerk's office as Cohen filed his paperwork Wednesday morning. They disagreed with Cohen labeling himself a political outsider.

"He's the ultimate insider himself," Mullins said.

"Barry is far from an outsider," Weinstein said.

Both mentioned that he served for two years on the City Council; Weinstein noted Cohen's membership on various council committees amid what had then been the ongoing theft of roughly $1.2 million in federal pandemic relief funds by former state Rep. Michael DiMassa.

Cohen said he is proud of having served on the council's finance committee and that none of the council members had a "crystal ball" in December 2020 when they entrusted the spending of the Coronavirus Relief Fund grant to Rossi and two designees, including DiMassa, an elected official also employed by City Hall.

It is a badge I wear proudly of being a proactive fiscal conservative councilperson who did everything in his power to get numbers. It is not my fault and not any other councilperson's fault that we trusted those people, that we had to believe there was a standard operating procedure, he said.
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HARTFORD  A former congressional candidate has been charged with painting the doors of the state Capitol with pink paint, an act he admitted to in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media Group the day before his arrest.

Connecticut Capitol Police arrested Kevin Blacker, 36, on Tuesday, charging him with second-degree breach of peace and second-degree criminal mischief. The Noank resident was held on $500 bond prior to his court appearance on Wednesday.

The warrant for Blacker's arrest shows police partially relied on news reports in which Blacker admitted to the vandalism, and from his failed run for U.S. Congress as a Green Party candidate, to identify him as a suspect.

Police said the vandalism occurred last Friday between 3:30 and 4 p.m. on the south doors of the Capitol building.

"Blackers arrest charges stem from an act of vandalism committed at the historic State Capitol building in which pink paint was applied to the antique and distinctive wood (and) glass doors of the building," Capitol Police Acting Lt. Greg Wimble said in a statement.

The estimated cost to fix the marks on the door was about $400, Capitol Police Officer Jeffrey Hodder wrote in the arrest warrant affidavit.

Wimble said police were alerted to the vandalism by maintenance workers. Wimble said surveillance footage showed the suspect approach the building with a roller and a paint pan. Wimble described the suspect as "dressed to resemble a maintenance worker."

"State Capitol Police were able to quickly identify the suspect in the video as Kevin Blacker," Wimble added.

Police went to an address linked to Blacker in Noank the day after the vandalism occurred, but he wasn't there, Wimble said. He said Blacker contacted investigators soon afterward, but he "refused to discuss the incident."

Last week, Blacker emailed a group of reporters and state officials warning he planned to paint the Capitol doors pink, along with a sign.

Blacker has been protesting a project to convert the Connecticut State Pier into a staging area for offshore wind power, claiming the state Port Authority has been operating with little oversight. Blacker claims the project has cost the area jobs as shipping moved to other areas.

In an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media prior to his arrest, Blacker said he wore a reflective vest to the Capitol building so he could be seen.

"I wanted to make sure that everybody saw me come in like that," he said in a phone interview Monday, adding that the vest was "so that I could say very clearly I'm not trying to like get away with this or hide or shirk responsibility."

Blacker said he left after painting four pink stripes on the building. He said he chose the color as a reference to a small pink house in New London that was razed under eminent domain.

Last year, Blacker unsuccessfully ran for Connecticut's 2nd Congressional District.

Video surveillance at the Capitol captured a man with brown hair and a full beard wearing a traffic vest walk up to the south carriage doors with a small paint roller and tray, according to the warrant. The video showed him painting "four perpendicular lines on the doors" before he turned and walked away, Hodder wrote in the warrant.

Hartford police were able to pull clear images of the suspect's face from the city's camera system, according to the warrant.

The following morning, Hodder wrote in the warrant, Wimble showed the investigator a CT Examiner article from October about Blacker's run for Congress that included a high-quality photo of Blacker.

"This photograph shows the identical facial features as the photos obtained of the suspect in this case from the Hartford City Camera system," Hodder wrote in the warrant. "The article also mentions that K. Blacker was arrested in the past for criminal mischief consisting of applying pink paint to road signs near the New London State Pier."

On Aug. 12, 2020, state police were contacted by an official with the Port Authority, the state's quasi-public agency responsible for marketing and developing Connecticut's ports, according to the warrant from that case. The official reported Blacker had painted several Port Authority street signs in New London and had already admitted to the vandalism, the warrant stated.

As part of the 2020 investigation, investigators reviewed a recording from a Port Authority meeting in which Blacker claimed the panel was violating the law by not holding required hearings and because they did not have an executive director, the warrant stated.

"Blacker suggested someone should hold the CPA accountable when they violate laws, just as he should be held accountable for violating the law," State Police Detective Justin Clachrie wrote in the warrant. "(Blacker) went on to state, 'I expect to be arrested for painting your signs pink, as I should be.'"

Blacker later admitted to painting the signs when he was interviewed by police, claiming it was an act of "civil disobedience," according to the warrant. Court records show Blacker is facing a misdemeanor charge of second-degree criminal mischief in the case, which is ongoing in state court.

In the incident last week, Blacker admitted to painting the Capitol door pink in an email to Hodder after he declined to answer questions on the phone, the warrant stated.

Police also reviewed an article published in The Day, a New London news outlet, that quoted Blacker as admitting to painting the door.

After the article was published, police contacted Blacker by phone again, but he stated he "had nothing more to say and would not confirm any information," Hodder wrote in the warrant.
Dubai welcomed 4.67 million international overnight visitors in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023, compared to 3.97 million tourists during Q1 2022, marking a 17% year-on-year (YoY) growth and the citys best Q1 performance since the pandemic.



The data place the emirate firmly on track to becoming the most visited international destination, according to the latest data published by Dubais Department of Economy and Tourism (DET).



His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, said: The remarkable growth in international visitation achieved by Dubai in the first quarter of 2023 demonstrates the citys emergence as one of the key destinations leading the way in the rebound of the global tourism sector.



This achievement has been made possible by the far-reaching vision of the leadership to transform Dubai into one of the worlds fastest-growing metropolises and the globes pre-eminent hub for travel, talent, entrepreneurship and investment. The Dubai Economic Agenda recently launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, charts an ambitious new path for Dubai to enhance its contributions to shaping the future of the global economy.



The tourism sector is not only the strongest pillars of our economy but also a key enabler of Dubais distinctive role in the world as a bridge between markets, cultures and regions. In the years ahead, Dubai will continue to introduce new pathbreaking initiatives to offer a distinctive proposition for travellers and achieve its goal of becoming the worlds best place to live, visit, work and invest in, he added.



The latest industry results - announced at the ongoing 30th edition of Arabian Travel Market in Dubai World Trade Centre, positions Dubai as the fastest recovering destination globally, achieving 98 % of pre-pandemic levels in Q1 2023, and exceeding the projection made by the United Nations World Trade Organisation that international tourist arrivals could reach between 80-95 % of pre-pandemic levels this year, especially in Europe and the Middle East.



The number of visitors in Q1 2023 was just two percentage points short of pre-pandemic volume of 4.75 million tourists that arrived in Dubai in the first three months of 2019, a remarkable achievement since turning the tide in July 2020 by reopening the city to international tourists, and in spite of current global economic headwinds. The industry performance also capped an exceptional first quarter for Dubai, which saw the city being crowned again as the No.1 global destination in Tripadvisor Travelers Choice Awards 2023, making it only the second time in history a city has won the coveted award for two years in a row.



Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubais Department of Economy and Tourism, commented: The coming decade will see our industry going through extraordinary phases of transformation, in terms of infrastructure, technology, attractions and experiences, as we focus on achieving the goals of the Dubai Economic Agenda 2033.



To maintain Dubais global appeal as the first-choice destination for travellers, we will continue to follow the multi-pronged blueprint that largely contributed to our success in 2022 - evolving the destination promise, a multi-geographic approach to markets, constant international outreach through global campaigns, hosting international MICE, business and leisure events, and further improving stakeholder relationships.



As we look ahead to further accelerating momentum in our tourism sector, the pillars of sustainability, gastronomy, trade, and technology will form the foundation of our future success. Notably, this year is declared as UAEs 'Year of Sustainability,' marking a major milestone for us, as the city prepares to host COP28, the UN Climate Change Conference. Sustainability will form the core of all that we do, incorporating sustainable practices into every aspect of the visitor experience to advance our journey towards becoming the world's best city to live and work in.



Strong rebound

Dubais traditional source markets delivered solid tourism volumes during the first quarter of the year with key regions continuing to make an impact on international visitation, further underscoring the success of the citys diversified multi-geographic strategy. GCC and Mena combined was the top region, collectively contributing to 29 % of total volumes, reflecting the citys continued appeal for travellers from neighbouring markets. Western Europe accounted for 22 % of tourism arrivals, while South Asia, accounted for 16 % of total international visitation, followed by CIS and Eastern Europe together contributing 15 %, Americas (7 %), North Asia and South East Asia (6 %), Africa (4 %) and Australasia (1 %).



The majority of the regions have demonstrated significant increase in Q1 2023 compared to the same period in 2022 while four regions have fully recovered and surpassed Q1 2019 levels  CIS and Eastern Europe (48 % vs. Q1 2019), Mena (32 % vs. Q1-2019), Americas (9 % vs. Q1-2019 and Australasia 2 % vs 2019). Both South Asia and Western Europe are close to achieving pre-pandemic levels in terms of tourism volumes.



Dubais hotel sector spearheads growth

Dubai hotels saw a surge in performance during the first quarter of 2023. Average occupancy for the sector during the January-March period stood at an impressive 83 %, making it one of the highest in the world, and almost on par with the 84 % occupancy recorded in Q1 2019. This achievement is particularly notable given a 26 % increase in room capacity since then.



By the end of March 2023, the city's hotel sector had a total of 148,877 rooms in 814 hotel establishments compared to 118,039 rooms in 717 hotel establishments in 2019. Continued domestic and international investment into the sector helped further boost hotel inventory, with the first quarter of 2023 seeing a 6 % increase in the total number of hotels and rooms compared to the same period in 2022.



The hotel sector outperformed pre-pandemic levels across all other hospitality metrics. During the first three months of the year, Dubai hotels collectively provided 10.98 million Occupied Room Nights, a YoY growth of 7 % and a 27 % increase compared to the pre-pandemic period of Q1 2019, which registered 8.63 million Occupied Room Nights.



The ADR of AED607 during the first three months of the year surpassed the ADR of 2019 (AED498), a 22 % growth while RevPAR of AED504 in Q1 2023, surged by 21 % compared to the first three months of the pre-pandemic period of 2019 (AED 417). The robust performance of the hotel sector is also evident by the fact that average length of stay by guests increased to four nights compared to 3.5 nights, a 14 % increase over the same period in 2019, highlighting the citys appeal for longer-stay travellers.



Leveraging its position as an international events destination to draw more visitors to its MICE, business and leisure events, Q1 2023 saw Dubai hosting an extensive line-up of events, which hosted a record 5,000 plus exhibitors from over 125 countries. In addition to COP28, other major events that are set to create greater visibility for Dubai around the world this year are the family summer extravaganza, Dubai Summer Surprises, Dubai Esports and Games Festival and Dubai Fitness Challenge.



Dubai will also continue to provide alternative growth pathways facilitated by reforms and regulatory enablers, including visa initiatives like the Golden Visa, 5-year Multi Entry Visa, Virtual Working, and Retire in the Dubai programs that have eased barriers to entry, promoted long-term affiliation with the city and further enhanced its position as a global liveability hub.  TradeArabia News Service
As a result of a massive enemy attack on Wednesday, 16 people have been killed in Kherson and the region, according to the Prosecutor Generals Office (PGO).

"Under the procedural leadership of Kherson district prosecutor's office, a pretrial investigation has been launched into violations of the laws and customs of war connected with premeditated murder (Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)," the PGO said on the Telegram channel on Wednesday.

According to the investigation, on the morning of May 3, Russian troops began massively shelling the city of Kherson and the settlements of the region.

"As of 16:30, 12 people have been killed due to chaotic shelling and shells hitting civilian infrastructure facilities in the regional center. About 22 people received injuries of varying severity," the message says.

Also, as noted in the prosecutor's office, a brigade of power engineers was under enemy fire in the afternoon between the villages of Stepanivka and Muzykivka.

"They were repairing the power grid after the next attacks of the Russian army to provide people with electricity. Three employees of the energy company died from their injuries. In the morning, a man died from the shelling of Daryivska community of the region," the PGO informs.
Police say a man died by suicide Tuesday evening in Windham after a daylong crime spree that included stealing a car in New Jersey, holding a person hostage in Manchester and opening fire on state troopers.

State police said Rye Shashok, 46, suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound as troopers chased him in Windham Tuesday evening. The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Wednesday Shashok died from a gunshot wound to the head in a suicide.

Manchester Police Chief William Darby said Shashok showed up at an estranged relative's Oakland Street home unannounced on Tuesday. The relative's boyfriend arrived around 2 p.m. and found Shashok inside the house waiting with a knife, Darby said.

The boyfriend pulled out a gun he was legally allowed to carry and a struggle ensued over the weapon with Shashok lunging at the man with a knife, police said.

"Shashok struck the boyfriend in the face with his elbow and a struggled ensued over the handgun," Darby said. "Shashok was able to grab the gun from the boyfriend."

He then tied the man to a chair with his hands behind his back, Darby said. Shashok said he blamed the boyfriend for his female relative abandoning him, Darby said.

The woman, who told police she hadn't spoken to Shashok in a few years, came home and her boyfriend yelled for her to run when she opened the door, Darby said. Shashok chased her, but she was able to hide in a neighbor's home and call police, Darby said.

Shashok came back to the house and pointed the gun at the boyfriend who yelled, "you don't want to do that," Darby said. Shashok fled on foot, allowing the boyfriend to get himself free from the chair, Darby said.

Manchester police believe Shashok drove off in a car he had stolen in New Jersey earlier in the day.

Around 5 p.m., Manchester police received information that a vehicle associated with a relative of Shashok had been stolen in Windham, Darby said. Darby said his department notified state police of the home invasion and the possibility that he was in Windham, Darby said.

State police said troopers responded to Windham Center Road for a report of a larceny around 5 p.m. The truck was later found abandoned in Windham and troopers spotted the suspect running into the wood line off Jerusalem Street, state police said.

During a foot chase, state police said Shashok fired several rounds at them. As troopers approached Shashok, they discovered he was suffering from a self-inflected gunshot wound, state police said. Attempts to save his life were unsuccessful, state police said.

State police declined to answer questions about their involvement in the case, citing the pending investigation. No troopers were injured at the scene, state police said.
Christian Abraham/Hearst Connecticut Media

NEW HAVEN  Police say detectives are investigating a shooting that sent a man to the hospital and led officers to bags containing firearms and suspected narcotics.

New Haven police received an alert from their gunshot detection system around 11:15 p.m. Tuesday for 13 rounds fired in the area of Rosewood Avenue and Hemingway Street. A person was shot and drove himself to the fire department on East Grand Avenue, New Haven Police Capt. Rose Dell said in a news release Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The U.S. is sending Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous amount of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition as the launch of a spring offensive against Russian forces approaches, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

The new package includes Hydra-70 rockets, which are unguided rockets that are fired from aircraft. It also includes an undisclosed number of rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, mortars, howitzer rounds, missiles and Carl Gustaf antitank rifles. The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines.

The latest shipment comes as Ukrainian officials say they are readying a counteroffensive  with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov declaring they are in the home stretch, when we can say: Yes everything is ready. Ukrainian officials have said they are stockpiling ammunition to stow it along potentially long supply lines.

Reznikov said Monday that the key things for the assaults success would be the availability of weapons; prepared, trained people; our defenders and defenders who know their plan at their level, as well as providing this offensive with all the necessary things  shells, ammunition, fuel, protection, etc.

The U.S. in recent months has declined to say exactly how much materiel will be sent to Ukraine, but the latest package resembles other previous deliveries. It includes trucks, trailers, spare parts and other maintenance assistance.

This is the 37th package of Pentagon stocks to go to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022, and it brings the total U.S. military aid to about $36 billion.

Officials have said the weapons and other equipment will help as Ukraine prepares to shift from what has been a long and bloody winter stalemate, focused on heavy fighting in Ukraines east, particularly around the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk province.

The General Staff of Ukraines armed forces said Russia was continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraines industrial east, focusing attacks around Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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QAB ELIAS, Lebanon (AP)  Lebanese officials are cracking down on Syrian refugees against the backdrop of a worsening economic crisis and political stalemate, an escalation that has caused a panic among Syrians in the country.

In recent weeks, the army has raided refugee camps and set up checkpoints to review the documentation of non-Lebanese citizens, arresting and in many cases deporting Syrians found not to have legal residency, according to refugees and humanitarian organizations.

People arent sleeping in their houses  and are afraid even to go to work, said a woman originally from the Syrian province of Idlib who is living in Lebanons eastern Bekaa Valley. Her husband was deported on April 10, along with 28 other men, after a raid on an apartment building in the Beirut suburb of Jounieh, she said, and she hasnt heard from him since.

Like other Syrians interviewed for this story, the woman spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.

Her 4-year-old son asks where his father is every day, she said. She fears her husband has been put in one of Syrias detention centers because  like many men who fled to Lebanon  he was wanted for dodging mandatory army service.

Pressure has increased in other ways. Municipalities have put in place restrictive measures such as curfews for Syrians. The Interior Ministry announced Tuesday that it ordered municipalities to survey and register their Syrian populations and make sure they are documented before permitting them to rent property.

It also asked the U.N. refugee agency to revoke refugee status from Syrians who go back and forth between Lebanon and their war-torn country. Last week, a committee of government ministers demanded that UNHCR hand over detailed personal information on refugees in its database.

Lebanon hosts some 805,000 registered Syrian refugees, whose official status in theory protects them  although those who fail to keep their residency papers up to date can face deportation. The actual number of Syrians living in Lebanon after fleeing their countrys 12-year-old civil war is believed to be much higher as Lebanon's government ordered the United Nations to halt new registrations in 2015.

Government officials have given varying estimates of the number of Syrians in the country, ranging from 1.5 million to more than 2 million. Lebanon is believed to have a population of around 5 million to 5.5 million citizens, but no census has been held for nearly a century.

Since Lebanons economic meltdown began in 2019, officials have increasingly called for a mass return of Syrians, saying they are a burden on the countrys scarce resources and that much of Syria is now safe. The rhetoric has grown increasingly heated; a federation of trade unions recently declared a National Campaign to Liberate Lebanon from the Syrian Demographic Occupation.

In recent interviews with local media, caretaker Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar claimed that refugees make up 40% of Lebanons population, which no country in the world would accept.

Hajjar told The Associated Press that Lebanon's government can ensure that Syrians who qualify as refugees would not be deported, by exchanging data with the U.N. refugee agency.

He referred questions about deportations to General Security, the agency in charge of enforcing immigration laws. Spokespeople for the agency and the Lebanese military did not respond to requests for comment and neither has made public statement on the deportations.

The U.N. refugee agency said it has observed an increase in raids taking placing in Syrian communities and has received reports of Syrians being deported, including registered refugees. It said it takes reports of deportations of Syrian refugees very seriously.

U.N. officials did not give a number of confirmed deportations. The Access Center for Human Rights, a group tracking conditions of Syrian refugees, said it documented at least 200 deportations in April.

The United States, one of the Lebanese Army's largest donors, has expressed concerns about the deportations to Lebanese officials, said a spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut who spoke on condition of anonymity as per regulations. Refugee returns should be voluntary, safe, and dignified, the spokesperson said. "We have questions about the procedures followed in recent deportations and the extent to which those criteria were met.

The anti-refugee campaign comes against the backdrop of stalled negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and a six-month deadlock in electing the countrys next president.

Meanwhile, several Arab countries have moved towards a rapprochement with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Refugee returns have been on the agenda of recent regional talks, including a meeting of top diplomats in Jordan on Monday to discuss a political solution to Syrias civil war.

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said refugees are serving as a scapegoat for Lebanese politicians at a time of heightened public anger over their failure to deal with the countrys economic and political crises.

Refugees are sort of the punching bag that shows up when everyone needs one, he said. He suggested the crackdown could also be linked to Lebanons ongoing presidential deadlock.

A leading presidential candidate, Sleiman Frangieh, is close to Damascus and has promised to use his connections to broker a deal for refugee returns. His likely rival, army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun, may be trying to showcase his ability to forcibly return the refugees, Hage Ali said.

Lebanese authorities have periodically deported Syrians over the past few years, citing a regulation that allows for Syrians who entered without legal authorization after April 2019 to be forcibly removed.

However, past deportations mostly involved small numbers and were carried out under formal procedures, giving the U.N. and human rights groups a chance to intervene and, in some cases, halt them.

In contrast, recent months have seen increasing reports of the Lebanese Army summarily deporting those believed to be in the country illegally. Human rights organizations have cited cases of returning refugees being detained and tortured in Syria, allegations Lebanese authorities deny.

A Syrian from Idlib who, along with his brother, was among those arrested in the April 10 raid in Jounieh, said the army dropped off the men in a mountainous area in the no-mans land between the Lebanese and Syrian borders.

He and some others managed to cross back into Lebanon on foot. Others, including his brother, were caught.

The last communication he received from his brother, he said, was a voice message on April 11, saying: They brought us back and dropped us off in the same place and theyre going to turn us over to Syria.

Many Syrians are lying low, hoping the anti-refugee campaign will blow over.

Many of us are scared that we could be next, said another Syrian refugee in the Bekaa. Six of my friends were deported in the last raid.

For some, the pressure campaign has had its intended effect.

A young woman living in the Bekaa said that after her camp was raided and dozens of men were deported, her family decided to return to the Syrian city of Raqqa, which remains outside the control of the Damascus government.

There is no security (there). We dont have a house or any money, she said. But we dont have another choice.
Ukraine should become the 33rd member of NATO, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, speaking at a briefing after a summit with the participation of the heads of state and government of Ukraine and the Nordic countries in Helsinki on Wednesday.

"Ukraine will become the 33rd member of NATO. We understand that in times of aggression it is impossible for Ukraine to join the Alliance, but there are no obstacles to make a political decision on the algorithm of our accession," he said.

Finland previously became the 31st member of NATO. Negotiations on joining the Swedish Alliance are continuing.

"Congratulations to all Finnish citizens on joining NATO. Suomi is a land for life, it has never been a land for war," Zelenskyy said.

"This is a historic achievement that will remove insecurity. I sincerely wish Sweden to complete this path as soon as possible," Zelenskyy stressed.

The President also thanked the Nordic countries for their support. "Tanks and armored vehicles from Sweden are already saving lives in Ukraine," he said and thanked the Danish Prime Minister for the speed in providing weapons. According to the president, "weapons from Norway are a strong antidote to counteracting the evil state."

He also noted Iceland, which is "involved in the register of losses caused by aggression."
The beginning of May marks the beginning of the Niagara Folk Arts Festival.

Kicking off with a flag raising at city hall in St. Catharines, the festival is a month-long celebration of the many cultures that make up Niagara. Each weekend, different cultures host events showcasing music, dancing, food, and more from their heritage.

For the week of May 5 to 10, here are four ways to celebrate:

GREEK COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE

The Greek community is hosting its open house on Friday, May 5 from 4 to 8 p.m., and Saturday May 6 from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Greek Community Centre at 585 Niagara St. in St. Catharines. Enjoy traditional and modern Greek dances, and food such as traditional gyro, chicken souvlaki, lamb shank, moussaka, spanakopita and Greek salad.

GERMAN COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE

The German community open house at Club Heidleberg will be held on May 9 from 5 to 9 p.m., and again on May 21 from noon to 4 p.m. There will be German music, and authentic German performances by the Alpenrosl Schuhplattlers, juniors and folk dance group.

FOLK ARTS MULTICULTURAL CENTRE OPEN HOUSE

On May 10, head over to the Niagara Folk Arts Multicultural Centre at 85 Church St., where there will be art displays and performances from Niagaras newcomer and immigrant community members. The event there will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with the popular Cultural Fashion Show happening at 11 a.m.

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The Scottish Loft will have a limited number of Paddington bears to hand out to those who come to an event in Old Town this Saturday honouring the coronation of King Charles III.



After such a long reign as head of the Commonwealth by Queen Elizabeth II, and ongoing questions about the use of the monarchy in the 21st century, its perhaps understandable that people might be unsure about the upcoming coronation of her son, King Charles III.

However, Simon Bentall, an English expat originally from Sheffield and owner of the Scottish Loft in Old Town, is encouraging Canadians to give the new king a chance. And if the sales of memorabilia ahead of this weekends coronation are any indication, locals are certainly willing to do that.

Charles has done a lot, he said. I think people will be pleasantly surprised.

Bentall said theyve nearly sold out of items ahead of the coronation, though some remained for sale as of early this week.

And with the big day coming up quickly, Bentall is organizing an event to celebrate Saturdays coronation. Everyone is invited to meet at the post office in Old Town at 2 p.m. From there, participants will make the short walk to Simcoe Park, where tea and refreshments will be served.

There will be a limited number of Paddington bears handed out to visitors as well, Bentall said.

While its optional, Bentall encourages anyone attending to dress up, as hes planning to. Whether thats in the Union flag or with a fascinator from a local shop like BeauChapeau Hat Shop atop their head is up to them.

Bentall said that given NOTLs history, he thought it was important that the town organize some kind of event. Whether people like the British monarchy or not, he said, Canada remains a Commonwealth country. On top of that, he said, the royal family remains a key driver of tourism.

With family back home in the U.K., Bentall said, the mood there also seems to be one of growing excitement. After a turbulent few years, he said, the coronation is something the country needs.

They need to have a bit of a reboot. They need something to cling on to, he said.

In addition to having a few authentic coronation-related items still available, Bentall said there are still people looking for items to remember the Queen with, and the store has brought in Elizabeth memorabilia as well. The Scottish Loft is located at 13 Queen St.

For more information, visit scottishloft.com.

RELATED STORIES 4 ways to mark King Charles IIIs coronation in Niagara

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More than 15 months after the Freedom Convoy occupied downtown Ottawa for two weeks last year, a former West Lincoln town councillor has been arrested for his involvement in the protest.

Harold Jonker turned himself in to Niagara Regional Police Saturday after Ottawa police issued an arrest warrant for the 50-year-old man.

The arrest was related to his involvement in the protest against mandates to protect people from the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic  a virus that has so far claimed the lives of 730 Niagara residents.

Jonker, who owns Jonker Trucking Inc., in Caistor Centre, was the Niagara contingents road captain and his trucks were the first to reach Parliament Hill on Jan. 28.

Ottawa police said charges against Jonker include two counts of counsel an uncommitted indictable offence of mischief obstruct property, as well as charges of mischief obstruct property and intimidation by blocking or obstructing highway.

Police said Jonker is scheduled to appear in court in Ottawa at a date to be announced.

In an interview, Jonker said he was never given an explanation of why it took so long for charges to be laid against him.

I think thats where everyone is scratching their heads, as to why this long, he said.

We definitely didnt do anything wrong in Ottawa and Im pretty confident well be cleared of all charges, but well see.

Ottawa police did not provide any additional information regarding the timing of Jonkers arrest, or if any additional arrests related to the protest are pending.

Jonker said the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms has agreed to assist in his defence.

They have a couple lawyers Ive been talking to already, so we have to get that all figured out this week, he said.

Jonker posted a five-minute video on YouTube, as he stood with his family outside Niagara Regional Police headquarters while turning himself in.

For some reason, the Ottawa police have decided to charge myself with four counts of criminal charges, Jonker said in the video.

Its kind of an emotional week, finding out from a police officer in Niagara that the Ottawa police had put out a warrant for my arrest for my involvement in a beautiful, peaceful, wonderful convoy that gave so many Canadians hope and joy.

He described the charges against him as pretty confusing, but I think this is what all the other wonderful leaders of the convoy were charged with.

While reading the mischief-related charges against him, Jonker said: Im a mischievous person I guess.

He said he is scheduled to turn himself in to Ottawa police on May 10.

From what I understand, I turn myself in to the police at the courthouse, and thats where Ill be processed, he said.

In the video, Jonker said he is concerned about the charges.

This is not easy, but at the same time we know that our heavenly father takes care of us, he said.

RELATED STORIES Niagara Region Niagara municipal politician holding his ground as police move in on Ottawa protesters

However, Jonker later said he isnt worried about the outcome.

Im not worried. I am able to trust God. Thats why I dont worry, he added.

Jonker said people from across the country have reached out to him offering their support.

Im definitely humbled and amazed by the support that Im getting from across Canada. Its just been amazing, he said. Its unbelievable  B.C., Alberta, everywhere.

In the video, Jonker said several supporters joined him as he turned himself in at the police station, including former West Lincoln mayor Dave Bylsma.

I was thankful for the reception I received here  not just from people from West Lincoln, but also from the officers here, he said in the video.

Both Jonker and Bylsma lost their re-election bids for town council in the October 2022 municipal election.

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Empire Communities has been listening to the concerns of Dain City residents when it comes to ongoing work in two new subdivisions, say Ward 6 Couns. Jamie Lee and Bonnie Fokkens.

Empire is building as many as 2,000 homes in Dain City, with the Dain East subdivision, north of Forks Road, the first under development. The Dain East subdivision will be called the Lookout District.

Earlier this year, Grant Munday, the citys director of planning and development services, said Empire had permits to build 288 dwellings in Dain East.

Its Dain West subdivision will sit on lands once occupied by John Deere and front Canal Bank Street, and rail lines to the north, south and east. Its to be called the Flatwater District and should include at least 1,000 homes.

Unfortunately, at times, current residents feel disrespected when they deal with so much ongoing construction at once in multiple areas of the neighbourhood, said Lee..

I know Empire is busy, but we still must think of the people that live here now and allow them to get to and from their homes reasonably. No one wants to be driving through 10 potholes twice a day every day.

Fokkens said Empire is responding to dust and mud complaints, and city staff have been in close contact to resolve those matters.

She said Empire must stay diligent in controlling dust and clearing mud from roads daily.

It is a poor situation for both Empire and the residents, as we are both at the mercy of the weather and the need for growth while mitigating the impact to existing areas.

Fokkens said Dain City residents want what other residents are entitled to  to enjoy their homes and yards, use trails, enjoy recreation, not incur additional costs of repairing or cleaning cars or homes, and to be able to use the roads safely.

Lee said there are ongoing complaints about the volume of traffic and mud on Forks Road and Kingsway.

Fokkens said with the dry weather, dust covers Marc Boulevard, Chantel Court and Southworth Street and keeps residents from opening windows. She added individuals with respiratory issues arent able enjoy outdoor areas, especially with layers of dust on siding and cars.

Wet weather adds a different dimension to issues faced by residents, including mud balls on the street from construction vehicles causing unsafe conditions, she said.

There is also wear on side roads, not built to withstand the weight of heavy vehicles, causing damage and potholes,she said.

Currently, there is no plan on remediation of the sides roads, and we have years of future construction ahead.

Forks Road was paved before construction started, and Fokkens said theres more concern over streets such as Crescent, Glenwood, Kingsway from Glenwood to Forks, Michigan, Bay and Erie.

The tar and chip roads are quickly deteriorating and are not being maintained to a level as expected by the residents. But residents are looking forward to completion of the sidewalks, boulevards and remediation of the driveways and lawns this spring, said Fokkens.

Lee said there is concern that Forks Road will need to be repaved after Empire has finished with the Dain East subdivision.

He said theres been an increase in traffic into south Welland, with trucks constantly bringing panels and lumber and trades in and out.

The two councillors said there have been some delays on Canal Bank Street as Empire works to realign the road in front of the Dain West subdivision.

Fokkens said the street will see two additional curves once the work is complete.

Houses that will front Canal Bank Street will not have direct access to the road, using an internal road, instead.

Lee said as the work has been carried out, there have been blockages during certain phases of the road.

Empire open houses have caused issues on Canal Bank with the number of cars parked everywhere along the road and in front of the model homes, he added.

Though not directly connected to the development of the two subdivisions, once complete the new nearly $13.8-million Forks Road Bridge will serve both.

Empire Communities pledged nearly $8.8 million, the province $1.6 million, the federal government $2.49 million and the city $833,916 to the bridge.

Hopefully, it will serve all of Dain City well into the future. I know I look forward to the crossing returning to Dain City.

Unfortunately, for Forks Road, the Dain East subdivision only has Forks Road to get out. Whether they go north or across the bridge would depend on their circumstances, said Lee.

He said a crossing should have been allowed over the train tracks that separate Empires two subdivisions so that not all vehicles in Dain East would have to use Forks Road.

Fokkens looked forward to the bridges reopening and said it will serve Welland and surrounding municipalities as it had in the past.

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CALGARY - Former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall says he doesnt know enough of the details to take a public stance on the merits of mining giant Glencore PLCs ongoing hostile takeover bid for Teck Resources Ltd.

But the man who led his provinces aggressive campaign to defend Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan against BHP Billiton in 2010 says there are clear similarities between that situation and whats going on now with the battle for Vancouver-based Teck.

Hes also confident that in the case of Potash Corp., he and his government were in the right.

Some things are worth fighting for. Some things are worth saying, No, this should be Canadian, this asset should remain Canadian,  Wall said.

I think its reasonable to offer up the Potash Corp. thing as a bit of a cautionary tale.

The future of Teck, Canadas largest diversified mining company, is currently unclear. The companys board has said it remains opposed to any deal with Glencore, but the Swiss commodities giant has threatened to take its takeover offer directly to shareholders if necessary.

The turmoil over Teck has ignited sentiments of economic nationalism, especially from those who say homegrown mining companies will be necessary if Canada is to capitalize on expected future growth in demand for critical minerals like copper and zinc.

Wall, who is now a special adviser for a Calgary-based law firm, knows exactly where those feelings are coming from.

He felt very similar sentiments back in August 2010, when  while headed to the cinema with his wife Tami to watch the hit movie Inception  he got a call from then-Potash Corp. CEO Bill Doyle to tell him that Australian giant BHP was gunning for the Saskatoon-headquartered company.

You kind of have to pay attention to that movie to follow it and enjoy it, and I clearly was not thinking of anything but the call I had just had, Wall recalled.

Long afterwards Inception came out on video and we watched it again, and I said, I dont remember seeing any of this. And that kind of tells you what you need to know.

The transaction was that important.

Potash Corp., a former Crown corporation that had turned into one of Canadas most valuable companies, was an economic powerhouse for Saskatchewan. As the worlds largest producer of potash, the company in 2010 owned five of the nine operating potash mines in the province and employed thousands of people.

Wall quickly sought the advice of people including former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed and former Saskatchewan NDP premier Roy Romanow, who both encouraged him to fight for his province and its natural resources. He then put together a war room that launched a public relations blitz from coast-to-coast on the merits of keeping the company Canadian.

The team also gathered evidence from past takeovers, arguing that the promises foreign companies often make in these cases  such as commitments to Canadian jobs or head office locations  often dont become reality.

Still, Wall did not know his governments campaign had been successful until November, when Conservative industry minister Tony Clement made the announcement in a media scrum that the federal government would block the proposed transaction, saying that BHPs offer did not translate to a net benefit for Canada.

It was only the second time since the Investment Canada Act came into force in 1985 that a federal government had used the legislation to block a foreign takeover.

I was expecting that their answer would be Yes, with conditions. In fact, I had written a speech for the press conference that day that anticipated that, Wall said.

I was not ready for them to say no. I ended up having to flip over the first page of the speech I had written and just hand-wrote some notes on the back.

In 2018, Potash Corp. merged with Calgary-based Agrium Inc. to become what is now Nutrien Ltd. The company remains in Canadian hands and is the worlds largest fertilizer producer.

And BHP Billiton is building its own massive potash mine, expected to be operational in 2026, east of Saskatoon.

Wall considers it a win, and says the fact that his Saskatchewan Party government was a conservative, free-market-leaning government did not dissuade him from wading into the fray.

Our view was that, in Saskatchewan its particularly true, but even for Canada as a whole, we dont have a lot of global champions, he said.

And Potash Corp. was a global national fertilizer and potash champion and I think was, as I said, a very strategic asset for the country.

In the case of Glencore and Teck, B.C. Premier David Eby is opposed to a merger, while Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre has called for the federal government to block any hostile takeover attempt.

Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne has stopped short of a commitment but has spoken publicly about Tecks value as a Canadian company.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TECK.B)

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VICTORIA - The chief of a northeast British Columbia First Nation says revenue-sharing and land-management agreements reached with the province will ensure future prosperity for his people.

Chief Harley Chingee of the McLeod Lake Indian Band says the agreements will benefit todays members while providing healthy lands for future generations.

Chingee made the comments Wednesday at a news conference at the B.C. legislature flanked by three B.C. government cabinet ministers.

He says McLeod Lake will work collaboratively with the government and the areas Treaty 8 Nations, most of which have signed similar agreements with the province.

The Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Ministry says in a statement the revenue-sharing agreement will assess and manage the impacts of industrial development while assuring certainty to industries working within McLeod Lake territories.

The government statement did not provide a cost estimate of the revenue-sharing agreement, but says it includes a shared fund to help heal land through restoration activities chosen by the First Nation.

One of our core values of McLeod Lake is making sure the footsteps we leave behind are the ones our children will be proud to walk in, Chingee said. These agreements will benefit not only our present members but also future generations who will inherit a more prosperous nation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

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EDMONTON  The Coutts, Alta., border blockade was a win last year because it got rid of mandates, said UCP Leader Danielle Smith on Wednesday, after refusing to comment on a pastor who was convicted of mischief for his role there.

The United Conservative leader appeared on 630 CHED with radio host Shaye Ganam and was asked on the third day of Albertas election campaign about a video that was resurfaced by PressProgress this week in which she called the Coutts border blockade a potential win.

We want to see it win at Coutts so that (former Alberta premier) Jason Kenney, (Saskatchewan Premier) Scott Moe, together, become the first premiers to turn it around at the provincial level, Smith said on a Western Standard livestream from early 2022.

On Wednesday, Ganam asked Smith what win she was talking about.

I think the win for Albertans was getting rid of mandates, replied Smith during the morning radio show. I dont think its any secret that I was opposed to (vaccine) mandates.

While it may have been a win in Smiths eyes, one of the people who played a key role at the Coutts protest  Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski  lost in court on Tuesday after asking Smith for help in his criminal proceedings.

The issue was thrust into the spotlight in March after a phone call she had as premier with Pawlowski just weeks before his criminal trial started was leaked. Albertas ethics commissioner launched an ongoing investigation into whether Smith interfered with the administration of justice.

Ganam had also asked Smith for her response to Pawlowski being found guilty of mischief after he delivered a speech at the blockade that the judge found had incited protesters. Smith was not made available to media on Tuesday as the verdict came down  which she said during the radio broadcast was because she had no new policies to announce.

Smith refused multiple times to talk about the pastor being convicted of mischief for his role at the border blockade that snarled traffic for days as protesters decried public health measures, stating that proceedings were still ongoing.

The judge convicted Pawlowski on two charges: mischief and breaching a release order. The judge put off ruling on a charge under the Alberta Critical Infrastructure Defence Act of wilfully damaging or destroying essential infrastructure. Penalties on the other charges could range up to jail time.

On Wednesday, NDP Leader Rachel Notley started laughing when asked by a reporter during a campaign stop about Smiths refusal to comment on Pawlowskis verdict.

Im sorry, she has a policy of not speaking publicly on matters before the courts except when shes talking to the person who is before the courts about how shes going to interfere with matters before the courts? responded Notley.

She cannot be relied upon, Notley continued. Shes reckless and shes unpredictable.

Pawlowski wasnt the only person to be hit with criminal charges stemming from the border blockade  the RCMP charged 13 people with crimes ranging from weapons possession and mischief to conspiracy to murder police officers in mid-February after the blockade went on for weeks.

But Pawlowski appears to be the only one who had an 11-minute phone call with Smith, when she was sitting as premier of Alberta, in which he urged her to intervene in his case. The leaked phone call was publicized by the Alberta NDP and shows Smith telling Pawlowski shell make inquiries about his proceedings.

The Mounties at the time of the blockade drew a clear line between protesters in Coutts and the people charged with violent crimes. The blockade ended on Feb. 15 due to the charges with one organizer saying the decision to leave had been made after the infiltration of extreme elements.

Some of the people charged by the RCMP still face those charges while others have seen some dropped. Four men accused of conspiracy to commit murder are expected to face a trial in June.

As premier, Kenney ended the provinces vaccine passport system in the middle of the blockade crisis.

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REGINA - Saskatchewans justice minister again defended the provinces inability to meet incoming electricity regulations after the federal environment minister accused Premier Scott Moe of making irresponsible comments.

Bronwyn Eyre said on Wednesday Steven Guilbeault is misguided on how the clean electricity standards will affect utility rates in the province after Guilbeault said its baseless and untrue for Moe to say bills would spike dramatically.

This is not about getting the word out or spinning our wheels here, this is about pointing out the cold hard facts of the matter, Eyre said in an interview.

And it would be very helpful if Minister Guilbeault could respond with cold hard facts about how were supposed to get to net zero and no fossil fuel-generated electrical power by 2035.

Moe said this week Saskatchewan may not follow the incoming clean electricity standards, arguing Ottawas plan to require net-zero electrical grids by 2035 would cause bills to triple or quadruple.

The premier also said such regulations would leave us freezing in the dark.

Guilbeault responded on Wednesday by suggesting Moe is overblowing the situation.

He said Ottawas clean electricity standards focus on ensuring the system can deliver power in a way thats affordable and reliable.

Promoting fear about the impact on rates is irresponsible, especially given that the regulations havent even been developed, he said in a statement. Creating a cleaner electricity grid is about creating cleaner air and making sure homes and businesses have access to affordable power.

The standards are currently under development but would require electrical generation to be net zero by 2035, with conventional coal being phased out by 2030.

The standards would allow natural gas plants to continue operating after 2035 if they abate emissions by capturing carbon or co-firing with non-emitting fuels.

Natural gas could also be used to provide backup energy or in emergency situations.

However, Eyre noted equipping current natural gas plants with carbon capture technology would be extremely costly, especially within the next 12 years.

She said the president of SaskPower, the Crown utility responsible for electricity, has told the federal government that going to net zero by 2035 is not technologically, logistically or financially feasible.

The president said the technology required for such a radical transition does not exist or has not been proven at a commercial scale, Eyre said. People have to get their heads around this. And the federal government has to stop suggesting that these are trial balloons or pie-in-the-sky talking points.

SaskPowers grid includes wind and solar energy, but it predominantly uses natural gas and coal to produce electricity. Saskatchewan doesnt have much hydro capacity.

The utility has long argued it needs a source of baseload power, like natural gas or nuclear, to provide stable energy. It has said it can meet net-zero requirements by 2050.

However, Guilbeault said technology has advanced to the point where clean electricity projects are becoming cost competitive with fossil fuel alternatives.

Its about creating quality long-term jobs within a stronger economy, while cutting the pollution causing climate change, he said. The bottom line is our government is eager to work with Saskatchewan on creating a grid, that will support jobs and keep energy rates affordable for the long term.

The federal minister said Ottawa is making a 15 per cent tax credit available to companies, like SaskPower, to spend on non-emitting electricity generation.

SaskPower is also to receive a return of hundreds of millions of dollars that it had paid in carbon taxes to the federal government. These dollars can be used on clean energy projects.

However, Eyre said the funds and the tax credit have strings attached that would require Saskatchewan to sign on to being net zero by 2035.

She said the province isnt willing to do that just yet.

You can adhere to some abstract, impossible standard thats being imposed on us from above, or you can help the people in the province and were going to choose the latter right now, she said.

Eyre said the province is considering using the Saskatchewan First Act on the clean electricity standards, as well as on other federal environmental policies.

She said a tribunal is expected to study the regulations and figure out how much it would cost the province.

When asked if this will result in another legal challenge, Eyre responded, Well have to see what the tribunal finds in terms of the dollar figure.

She argued Saskatchewan constitutionally has jurisdiction over the operation of electrical generation facilities, including the source of fuel those facilities use.

The province lost its case against the federal government over the carbon tax, but Eyre said the decision from that case may not apply to other policies.

Nowhere in that decision did it say that the federal government could continue to use its ultimate trump card  peace, order and good government  on every set of regulations that they decided to impose on provinces, she said. And I would submit clean electricity would be right up there.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

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EDMONTON - Albertas NDP is promising to create 47,000 jobs if the party wins the provincial election set for May 29.

Leader Rachel Notley says an NDP government would also create a new tax credit to spur investment in areas including cleantech and critical minerals processing.

And it would invest $18 million into union-led skills and safety training facilities for industrial jobs.

At the announcement in Edmonton, Notley also criticized United Conservative Leader Danielle Smith for refusing to comment on her involvement in the criminal case of a Calgary pastor.

Artur Pawlowski was convicted this week of mischief in a border-crossing blockade at Coutts, Alta., protesting against COVID-19 public health measures.

Smith, as premier, had a phone call with him before his trial.

Notley says Smiths reticence is ridiculous given she is heard on tape offering to help Pawlowski and agreeing with his concerns about prosecutor trial tactics.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version misspelled the name of Artur Pawlowski.

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The issue of reforming the Constitutional Court of Ukraine will be one of the key ones in talks with the delegation of the Venice Commission that will soon arrive in Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna told Interfax-Ukraine.

According to her, after the visit, the representatives of the Venice Commission will provide conclusions on the registered bill that proposes amendments to the selection of candidates for the position of judge of the Constitutional Court.

"There is an agreement with our international partners who will nominate experts to the Commission that will select judges to the Constitutional Court, that the Commission will act on the model of the Ethics Council, which formed the composition of other judicial bodies. This means priority in the votes of international experts when it comes to on the assessment of integrity," Stefanishyna said.

According to her, today the only problematic issue is the assessment of candidates on the basis of professional qualities, and the Ukrainian parliament does not agree to give priority to international experts, since it is about the formation of the Constitutional Court.

Stefanishyna said that after all issues are agreed upon, the Verkhovna Rada must adopt relevant bill by May 29.
One of Canadas top research universities will end all its research partnerships with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, the Star has learned.

We are disentangling ourselves from this company, Charmaine Dean, vice-president of research at the University of Waterloo, told the Star.

We will be completely extricated through various legal mechanisms, exit clauses and a variety of processes. Within a few months, we will be completely extricated from that relationship.

Amid increased scrutiny of Canadian university partnerships with potential ties to the militaries or security apparatuses of foreign powers  and as a national debate rages over Beijings influence efforts in this country  the move by Waterloo to divorce itself from the Chinese firm is being seen as a potentially precedent-setting step.

Dean said the university has had concerns about working with Huawei for years, and had previously paused new activity related to the multinational firm, which is subject to Chinese laws compelling companies to assist in national intelligence work.

While Canada has banned Huawei from its next-generation 5G wireless networks, the government has so far left it to universities to decide whether to collaborate with the company.

Waterloos decision  which one observer called extremely significant  came after internal deliberations and numerous meetings with federal agencies and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, according to Dean. Waterloo appears to be the first major school to publicly confirm that it has made such a decision.

It will affect dozens of deals between the university and the Chinese telecommunications company in areas including cloud computing, 5G communications, data management and data analytics, as well as the universitys Waterloo-Huawei Joint Innovation Lab, which was set up in 2018 with $6.5 million in funding from Huawei.

In February, Canadian authorities tightened their policies on bankrolling research with foreign entities, announcing that Canadas federal research granting councils would reject funding for projects with institutions that had ties to foreign governments posing a risk to national security.

That announcement did not mention specific countries, but security officials have warned for years that China and Russia are among foreign states with interest in Canadas advanced technologies.

Dean said that in addition to complying with government policies, universities can and should take the initiative to strike their own approaches to safeguarding research security.

Waterloo has released its initial work plan on safeguarding research, which involves offering researchers guidance and training on risk assessment and risk mitigation, and incorporating cybersecurity and data protection practices.

Cutting ties with the Chinese telecom titan is extremely significant and it demonstrates that Waterloo is taking a leadership role among universities in recognizing the risks associated with Huawei, commented Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, senior fellow at the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa.

These risks are particularly related to Huaweis very close relationship with the Chinese military through its many employees who are military staff, as well as through collaborations with military scientists and engineers, she told the Star.

This is not just a single project; this is the entire relationship, including a significant research centre at the University of Waterloo with the Huawei name on it.

McCuaig-Johnston said Waterloos position as a research leader sets a precedent that other Canadian universities will come under public pressure to follow. The universitys decision is also likely to anger academics who have already spoken out about a potential chill on research from the new federal funding restrictions.

If other universities in Canada follow Waterloos lead, that could mean the loss of roughly $25 million annually that Huawei says it spends on university research and development projects focused on advanced communications technologies.

Additionally, Huawei operates eight private research facilities across the country employing hundreds of researchers, including Canadians, in Waterloo, Markham, Kanata, Quebec City, Montreal, Kingston, Edmonton and Vancouver.

Huawei Canadas former vice-president of corporate affairs, Alykhan Velshi, told the Star in 2020 that Huawei had been shifting its North American research and development hub from the United States to Canada and was preparing to invest hundreds of millions in research funding.

Ultimately, Huawei has established research and development operations here in Canada because of the tremendous expertise and knowledge that exists here, Velshi had said.

Tamer Ozsu, a computer science professor at Waterloo and director of the Waterloo-Huawei Joint Innovation Lab, previously decried a lack of clarity after four projects his lab had submitted for federal funding were rejected.

Ozsu told the Star that the university has not notified him it has decided to end partnerships with Huawei, and sees it as spelling the end of the lab.

I think the lab will cease to exist. I think thats clear. While many of these projects were coming to their end anyways, this decision is unfortunate.

Ozsu said Waterloo faculty were responsible for selecting projects  mainly in data management and programming languages  and that intellectual property rights were shared between researchers and Huawei.

We werent solving Huaweis problems. We were solving problems faculty members wanted to research. The lab supported 34 projects involving 29 faculty members and 220 graduate students and post-docs, and this (decision) is going to hurt the younger colleagues.

Dean said she shares researchers and scientists concerns about losing funding for cutting-edge research, as well as losing training opportunities for junior researchers.

Its a tough haul. We need to make sure that our key researchers in areas like artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles and others  still have good opportunities to advance their ambitions.

There are discussions being held with the Canadian government and I also think that Canadian companies need to step up to the plate.

Dennis Molinaro, a former national security analyst with the federal government and an instructor in legal studies at Ontario Tech University, told the Star that Canadian universities like Waterloo and the University of Toronto have been highly attractive targets for years for foreign states intellectual-property collection because of the research projects those institutions are involved in.

Just look at the technology research they do and the talent they put out. The main ways (foreign entities) try to gain ownership of that research is through trying to entice researchers with grants and funding and offering support to commercialize research, in exchange for IP transfers.

Molinaro said a lack of restrictions in the past from the Canadian government and among universities has reflected concerns about limiting academic freedom rather than thinking about national security at the forefront.

This attitude has slowly changed in recent years, partly in response to increasingly overt policies from Chinese President Xi Jinping to push Chinese researchers and companies to co-operate with the countrys military, McCuaig-Johnston said.

Just last month, Xi told delegates from the Peoples Liberation Army and the countrys military police that it is necessary to deepen the collaborative innovation of science and technology, and build, manage and use national laboratories well.

Huawei Canada did not immediately respond to a request from the Star for comment.

Last year, Ottawa made its long-anticipated decision to ban two Chinese telecom giants, Huawei and ZTE, from Canadas next-generation 5G wireless networks.

Canadas key security allies  the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand and Australia, each part of the Five Eyes Network  had each already barred Huawei to different degrees from their wireless systems.

Joanna Chiu is a B.C.-based staff reporter for the Star. She covers global and national affairs. Follow her on Twitter: @joannachiu

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BERLIN (AP)  Berlin police said Wednesday that they are getting ready for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to visit Germanys capital this month.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz invited Zelenskyy to come, and the Berlin police department is preparing for the visit to take place May 13-14, police spokesperson Anja Dierschke said.

It would be Zelenskyys first visit to Germany since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The chancellors office did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation. Scholzs spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, told German news agency dpa that the chancellors appointments would not be announced until Friday for the following week.

Dierschke said Zelenskyy was expected in Berlin on the evening of Saturday, May 13, in the evening.

The next day, the president and the people of Ukraine are set to receive the International Charlemagne Prize, awarded annually by the western German city of Aachen for contributions to European unity. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is scheduled to give the speech honoring Zelenskyy.

___

Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Helsinki for talks with the prime ministers of four Nordic countries Wednesday as part of his effort to secure greater firepower for his countrys armed forces as they figure out how to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine.

The Nordic countries  Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark  have been among Kyivs strongest backers since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Before the meeting with Zelenskyy in Finlands capital, Nordic officials appeared ready to provide more aid as the war stretches into its 15th month.

There is still an urgent need for military support to ensure that the Ukrainians stand as strong as possible in the fight against Russia, Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen said in a statement.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre, another of the summit attendees, said: Here in the north, we have a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian neighbor, and it is important that we discuss together how to face this new situation.

The talks came a day after U.S. officials said Washington plans to send Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous number of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition.

The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been formally announced.

Elsewhere, Russia used Iranian-made drones during its third attack on Ukraines capital city in six days.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defenses shot down 21 of the Russian drones, Ukraines Air Force Command said. No damage or casualties were reported

Meanwhile, a massive blaze broke out at an Russian oil depot, local officials said Wednesday.

The depot erupted in flames in Russias southern Krasnodar region, located east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

He didnt say what caused the fire, which was described as extremely difficult to put out. But some Russian media outlets said it was likely caused by a Ukrainian drone attack overnight. There was no official comment on that possibility.

Local residents heard an explosion shortly before the fire erupted, Russian news site Baza said.

Military analysts think Ukraine is targeting supply lines in the Russian rear while gearing up for a possible counteroffensive amid improving weather conditions and as it receives large amounts of weapons and ammunition from its Western allies.

Explosions also derailed a Russian freight train and hit a Russian airfield in recent days. Last weekend, a massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two of Ukraines drones, a Russia-appointed official said.

In anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces are focused on destroying logistical routes and centers of Ukraines armed forces with long-range strikes, Kyiv military officials say.

At the same time, Russia plans to continue talks with the United Nations and other parties to an wartime agreement on facilitating Black Sea agricltural shipments, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said ahead of talks on Friday.

Earlier Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that a new round of consultations between Russia and the U.N. on access of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to the world market would be held in Moscow.

Signed last July and renewed twice, most recently in March, the deal unblocked Ukrainian grain shipments that were held up in the countrys blockaded ports last year. The deal will expire on May 18 unless Russia agrees to its renewal.

In the latest Ukrainian civilian casualties, three people died and five were wounded when a supermarket in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson came under fire on Wednesday.

According to Ukraines Ministry of Internal Affairs, the attack on the only operating hypermarket in Kherson happened at around 11 a.m. local time.

A round-the-clock curfew is to be introduced in Kherson from 8 p.m. on Friday through 6 a.m. on Monday, Kherson Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin announced.

During these 58 hours, it is forbidden to move around or stay on the streets of the city. Also, the city will be closed for entry and exit, Prokudin said.

The measure is necessary, he said in a video on social media, so that law enforcement officers can do their job and not put you in danger, but did not provide further details.

Both Russia and Ukraine reportedly have experienced ammunition shortages after a winter of long-range shelling and missile strikes as the conflict became bogged down in a war of attrition.

Ukraines government has been pressing its allies to give it more as officials consider when and how they might start trying to drive Russian forces out of the Ukrainian territory they have occupied.

___

Jari Tanner in Helsinki and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this story.

___ Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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QAB ELIAS, Lebanon (AP)  Lebanese officials are cracking down on Syrian refugees against the backdrop of a worsening economic crisis and political stalemate, an escalation that has caused a panic among Syrians in the country.

In recent weeks, the army has raided refugee camps and set up checkpoints to review the documentation of non-Lebanese citizens, arresting and in many cases deporting Syrians found not to have legal residency, according to refugees and humanitarian organizations.

People arent sleeping in their houses  and are afraid even to go to work, said a woman originally from the Syrian province of Idlib who is living in Lebanons eastern Bekaa Valley. Her husband was deported on April 10, along with 28 other men, after a raid on an apartment building in the Beirut suburb of Jounieh, she said, and she hasnt heard from him since.

Like other Syrians interviewed for this story, the woman spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.

Her 4-year-old son asks where his father is every day, she said. She fears her husband has been put in one of Syrias detention centers because  like many men who fled to Lebanon  he was wanted for dodging mandatory army service.

Pressure has increased in other ways. Municipalities have put in place restrictive measures such as curfews for Syrians. The Interior Ministry announced Tuesday that it ordered municipalities to survey and register their Syrian populations and make sure they are documented before permitting them to rent property.

It also asked the U.N. refugee agency to revoke refugee status from Syrians who go back and forth between Lebanon and their war-torn country. Last week, a committee of government ministers demanded that UNHCR hand over detailed personal information on refugees in its database.

Lebanon hosts some 805,000 registered Syrian refugees, whose official status in theory protects them  although those who fail to keep their residency papers up to date can face deportation. The actual number of Syrians living in Lebanon after fleeing their countrys 12-year-old civil war is believed to be much higher as Lebanons government ordered the United Nations to halt new registrations in 2015.

Government officials have given varying estimates of the number of Syrians in the country, ranging from 1.5 million to more than 2 million. Lebanon is believed to have a population of around 5 million to 5.5 million citizens, but no census has been held for nearly a century.

Since Lebanons economic meltdown began in 2019, officials have increasingly called for a mass return of Syrians, saying they are a burden on the countrys scarce resources and that much of Syria is now safe. The rhetoric has grown increasingly heated; a federation of trade unions recently declared a National Campaign to Liberate Lebanon from the Syrian Demographic Occupation.

In recent interviews with local media, caretaker Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar claimed that refugees make up 40% of Lebanons population, which no country in the world would accept.

Hajjar told The Associated Press that Lebanons government can ensure that Syrians who qualify as refugees would not be deported, by exchanging data with the U.N. refugee agency.

He referred questions about deportations to General Security, the agency in charge of enforcing immigration laws. Spokespeople for the agency and the Lebanese military did not respond to requests for comment and neither has made public statement on the deportations.

The U.N. refugee agency said it has observed an increase in raids taking placing in Syrian communities and has received reports of Syrians being deported, including registered refugees. It said it takes reports of deportations of Syrian refugees very seriously.

U.N. officials did not give a number of confirmed deportations. The Access Center for Human Rights, a group tracking conditions of Syrian refugees, said it documented at least 200 deportations in April.

The United States, one of the Lebanese Armys largest donors, has expressed concerns about the deportations to Lebanese officials, said a spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut who spoke on condition of anonymity as per regulations. Refugee returns should be voluntary, safe, and dignified, the spokesperson said. We have questions about the procedures followed in recent deportations and the extent to which those criteria were met.

The anti-refugee campaign comes against the backdrop of stalled negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and a six-month deadlock in electing the countrys next president.

Meanwhile, several Arab countries have moved towards a rapprochement with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Refugee returns have been on the agenda of recent regional talks, including a meeting of top diplomats in Jordan on Monday to discuss a political solution to Syrias civil war.

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said refugees are serving as a scapegoat for Lebanese politicians at a time of heightened public anger over their failure to deal with the countrys economic and political crises.

Refugees are sort of the punching bag that shows up when everyone needs one, he said. He suggested the crackdown could also be linked to Lebanons ongoing presidential deadlock.

A leading presidential candidate, Sleiman Frangieh, is close to Damascus and has promised to use his connections to broker a deal for refugee returns. His likely rival, army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun, may be trying to showcase his ability to forcibly return the refugees, Hage Ali said.

Lebanese authorities have periodically deported Syrians over the past few years, citing a regulation that allows for Syrians who entered without legal authorization after April 2019 to be forcibly removed.

However, past deportations mostly involved small numbers and were carried out under formal procedures, giving the U.N. and human rights groups a chance to intervene and, in some cases, halt them.

In contrast, recent months have seen increasing reports of the Lebanese Army summarily deporting those believed to be in the country illegally. Human rights organizations have cited cases of returning refugees being detained and tortured in Syria, allegations Lebanese authorities deny.

A Syrian from Idlib who, along with his brother, was among those arrested in the April 10 raid in Jounieh, said the army dropped off the men in a mountainous area in the no-mans land between the Lebanese and Syrian borders.

He and some others managed to cross back into Lebanon on foot. Others, including his brother, were caught.

The last communication he received from his brother, he said, was a voice message on April 11, saying: They brought us back and dropped us off in the same place and theyre going to turn us over to Syria.

Many Syrians are lying low, hoping the anti-refugee campaign will blow over.

Many of us are scared that we could be next, said another Syrian refugee in the Bekaa. Six of my friends were deported in the last raid.

For some, the pressure campaign has had its intended effect.

A young woman living in the Bekaa said that after her camp was raided and dozens of men were deported, her family decided to return to the Syrian city of Raqqa, which remains outside the control of the Damascus government.

There is no security (there). We dont have a house or any money, she said. But we dont have another choice.

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CLEVELAND, Texas (AP)  A man suspected of killing five of his neighbors in Texas after they asked him to stop shooting his gun near their house hid out just miles away from the slayings while he and his domestic partner plotted his escape to Mexico, authorities said Wednesday.

Francisco Oropeza showered and slept at the house outside the city of Conroe on Tuesday while Divimara Lamar Nava got him donuts from a nearby store, a prosecutor said. Lamar Nava also acknowledged delivering a message from Oropeza to his cousins in the area asking them to help him get out of the country, the prosecutor said at Lamar Navas probable cause hearing. The cousins refused to help.

Authorities believe Lamar Nava was talking to investigators at the same time she was trying to help Oropeza, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said at a news conference. She initially told authorities she didnt know where Oropeza was, but later told a federal agent that he showed up at the house about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to the prosecutor at the probable cause hearing.

Oropeza, 38, was arrested there on Tuesday evening, just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the city of Cleveland, where the shootings took place. Acting on a tip, authorities found him hiding under a pile of laundry in a closet after a four-day manhunt. Lamar Nava, 53, was arrested at the house on Wednesday.

Authorities identified Lamar Nava as Oropezas wife, though jail records list her as not being married but sharing a home address with him.

The slayings Friday sent shudders through a nation already dealing with a wave of shootings that have put the U.S. on a torrid pace for mass killings this year.

Outside the Conroe-area home, yellow police tape could be seen Wednesday in both the front and back, although the officers were gone. Neighbor Angel Lozano recalled looking up from unloading tools from his truck Tuesday night to see unmarked law enforcement vehicles streaming onto his normally quiet street.

A bunch of people got out with guns and they went straight to the house and surrounded the area, Lozano, 39, said Wednesday, estimating that at least 50 officers surrounded the home two doors down from his. It was a really fast job they did. They got him without people getting hurt or another shooting.

Several others have also been arrested, authorities said, although they only shared details about one of them. Domingo Castilla, a friend of Oropeza, was arrested on Tuesday in the Trails End neighborhood where the victims were shot, Dillon said. Castilla was charged with marijuana possession but authorities also expect to charge him with obstructing Oropezas apprehension, Dillon said.

At a news conference Wednesday, San Jacinto County Chief Deputy Sheriff Tim Kean said he couldnt go into details about the other people who were arrested, including how many.

Oropeza was charged Wednesday with five counts of first-degree murder during a court hearing in jail, said San Jacinto County Justice of the Peace Judge Randy Ellisor. Bond is set at $1.5 million per count, for a total of $7.5 million, Ellisor said. Lamar Nava is being held at the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon. Her bail has been set at $250,000. Bond for Castilla was set at $5,000, Ellisor said.

Oropeza is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to U.S. immigration officials.

Police had previously spotted him on Monday afternoon in Montgomery County, prompting several schools to lock down, Kean said at a news conference outside the county jail Wednesday.

We did confirm that was him on foot, running, but we lost track of him, Kean said.

Kean declined to comment on the tip that led authorities to the Conroe home, which he said was one that had not been previously checked by authorities.

The arrest came after authorities set up a widening dragnet of more than 250 people, drones and search dogs from multiple jurisdictions and offered $80,000 in reward money. The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. A little more than an hour later, Oropeza was in custody, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul.

Lozano said he hadnt known the residents of the home where Oropeza was arrested but would sometimes say hi to them if they were walking by his house. We never thought he was going to be right next door, he said.

The victims have been identified as Diana Velasquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9, all from Honduras. Velasquez Alvarados father, Osman Velasquez, said she had recently obtained legal residency in the U.S.

Argentina Guzmans husband, Wilson Garcia, survived the shooting. He said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield the children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

When offering a reward for Oropezas capture, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the victims illegal immigrants, which drew widespread backlash. His office apologized on Monday.

A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velasquez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and her husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras migrant protection service.

Osman Velasquez said his daughter had traveled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister who was already living there.

Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and thats true, he said. But I never imagined it was just for this.

___

This story has been edited to correct Keans title and to note that Wilson Garcia was Sonia Argentina Guzmans husband, not Diana Velasquez Alvarados.

___

Merchant reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Jake Bleiberg in Dallas; Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas; Mike Wyke in Coldspring, Texas; Marlon Gonzalez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

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OTTAWA  Two former officials with Canadas drug pricing regulator say multiple attempts to brief Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos on guidelines to lower pharmaceutical costs went ignored last fall, charges the ministers office adamantly rejected Tuesday.

Douglas Clark, who resigned as executive director of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) in February, and Matthew Herder, a former board member who left his post one day before Clark, spoke publicly for the first time about some of the tensions roiling the regulator before the House of Commons health committee.

I personally made multiple overtures to the ministers chief of staff and senior policy adviser via texts, emails and phone calls. The chief of staff told me he would get back to me on my offer of a briefing, which he never did. And the senior policy adviser refused to take or return my calls, Clark told MPs.

The committee has been looking into allegations that the Liberal government bowed to industry lobbyists who are against changes to drug pricing reforms, as Ottawa faces criticism for continuing to delay long-promised changes that could lower drug prices in Canada.

The probe followed the resignation of three PMPRB members; aside from Clark and Herder, former vice-chair and acting chairperson Melanie Bourassa Forcier stepped down in December. The exits came after Duclos penned a letter to the board, asking that it consider pausing its consultations on drug pricing reforms that have been estimated to save Canadians billions of dollars in pharmaceutical costs.

The PMPRB is an independent body tasked with ensuring patented drug costs arent excessive in Canada, which is home to some of the highest prescription drug costs in the world. Ottawa has pledged for several years to usher in three reforms: expanding the number of countries Canada compares its drug prices to, introducing an assessment to determine if drugs are actually worth what they cost, and establishing new rules that would compel companies to reveal the prices at which they sell drugs. The latter two changes were struck down by Quebecs top court as unconstitutional.

The board had been conducting consultations about the first reform, but was asked by Duclos in November to consider suspending its work on crafting the new guidelines, citing concerns from stakeholders. Pharmaceutical companies have opposed changes around setting drug prices, while Innovative Medicines Canada, which lobbied Ottawa on behalf of the industry, argued the guidelines could impact the countrys biomanufacturing strategy and impede access to new medicines.

Duclos request was blasted by Herder, who wrote in his resignation letter that the ministers suggestion to consider pausing consultations was largely indistinguishable in form and substance from industry talking points and that it undermined the Boards credibility by unduly interfering with the process.

The board is intended to operate entirely arms-length from the government, but under the Patent Act, must consult with the minister, his provincial counterparts and industry representatives before new guidelines are implemented.

Herder told MPs Tuesday that despite sections of the law that allow Duclos to convene meetings or take part in final consultations, he still believes the minister interfered.

He said Duclos letter was written in a context where no such requests had ever been made to my knowledge by a former minister of health or the present one.

In addition, it was happening in a context where  there were multiple attempts to reach his office and the answer back was silence. So thats why it came across as more of a demand than a request, and it was incredibly, incredibly divisive inside the board, said Herder, who is the director of Dalhousie Universitys Health Law Institute.

Clark said he only tried to reach Duclos office after Bourassa Forcier  who told MPs last week she resigned due to internal divisions and not because of the ministers letter  became increasingly concerned that no briefing with the minister had yet occurred.

But three government sources inside the health ministers office told the Star on the condition they not be named to freely discuss internal matters that there were no credible attempts from the board to seek a meeting with Duclos.

This kind of stuff doesnt happen over text messages. This needs to come from a formal invitation and we never received a formal invitation before the minister sent this letter, one source said.

The sources said the senior policy adviser Clark referred to had received no outreach from the board, and that the ministers chief of staff Jamie Kippen had only received one text requesting a phone call, not a clear invitation for a briefing.

It was also raised in Tuesdays meeting whether it was unusual that Duclos asked the board to think about pausing its consultations, rather than extending them, if he wanted to see more collaboration with industry stakeholders.

That is a question that baffles me to this day, Clark said.

One government source pushed back against that characterization, stating that it was always up to the board to continue, suspend or extend the consultations, and suggesting that internal discord was behind the decision to hit pause.

With files from Alex Ballingall

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OTTAWATheres something called the natural governing illness that has afflicted federal Liberals before. And the current crop is suffering from the same old disease.

At least, thats according to Alfred Apps, a veteran political organizer and former party president who is now serving as mentor to a group of younger partisans  calling themselves the MayDay Movement  who feel the federal Liberals need a shot of life.

Ahead of the partys national convention in Ottawa, which begins Thursday in a cavernous event centre overlooking the Rideau Canal, theyre also raising questions about whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberal party, in power since 2015, is best prepared to take on Pierre Poilievres Conservatives and win its fourth election in a row.

No federal leader has done that since Wilfrid Laurier  the model for Trudeaus professed sunny ways  in 1908. And now, on the eve of their first in-person national convention since 2018, even some Liberal MPs are acknowledging the party could benefit from a boost of enthusiasm to try and match that elusive feat.

I think every party needs to renew itself, continually renew itself, said ScarboroughGuildwood MP John McKay. We are facing challenges. Lets face it, stuff thats coming out with respect to (foreign) influence operations, thats serious stuff, and it certainly affects how we may conduct an election.

Others said the convention is an opportunity for Liberals to reconnect with volunteers and colleagues after years of pandemic-forced separation. Its a good kick in the  not kick, maybe, a shot in the arm, said Labour Minister Seamus ORegan.

Omar Alghabra, the transport minister, used a different metaphor to describe his hopes for the convention.

This is like our charging station where people will be re-energized, reconnect and get excited about the future, he said.

Yet members of the MayDay movement  as in mayday, mayday, were going down  say the party needs to find better ways to motivate and engage with younger Canadians, which they define as people aged 35 and under.

In an interview with the Star, Apps said he believes the Liberal party is at risk of losing touch with the younger, centre-leaning progressives it needs to remain in power. Liberal clubs on universities campuses sputtered during the pandemic as students shifted to online learning. And now. Liberals are facing an opponent in Poilievre who has proven adept at speaking to younger Canadians through social media, said Apps, who is a lawyer in Toronto.

The Liberal partys been through this natural governing illness for the last century, said Apps, describing how the party has been roundly defeated after holding power for a long stretches in the past, even as he credited the Liberals with building a centrist coalition that has ushered in public health care and made Canada a top immigration destination and a successful progressive society on the world stage.

Were fighting for the continuation of a moderate progressive and fiscally responsible centre, he said.

For Suzanne Cowan, such a force is well-established and in no risk of waning. As president of the party since 2018, Cowan said the Liberals are on a solid financial footing, well-stocked with volunteers, and motivated to debate new policies and get set for the next federal election campaign.

More than 3,500 delegates  around 40 per cent of whom have never attended such an event before  are expected to attend this weeks three-day convention, she said.

Cowan also responded to criticism from Apps and the MayDay movement, stating that its true the party needed to revitalize campus clubs after the pandemic and that the Liberals should always be open to new ideas to connect with Canadians. But she also stressed that hundreds of young Liberals still took part in the process to create and choose more than two dozen policy resolutions that will be debated during the convention.

The MayDay groups suggested policies  which include a pledge to add economic and environmental rights to the Constitution, and create a digital ID that Canadians could use to vote online  were rejected for consideration at the convention because they were introduced outside the formal process that began almost two years ago, Cowan said.

We wanted to protect the integrity of the process that they had undertaken, she said.

That process resulted in 36 resolutions slated for debate during the convention. On the list is a call for the party to promise a clear plan to balance the federal budget in the next election. There are also pushes to fast-track infrastructure to increase exports to Canadas NATO allies, create a high speed rail corridor through southern Ontario and Quebec, table legislation for a guaranteed livable income, and use 30 per cent of federally owned lands and properties for affordable housing.

At the same time, Cowan acknowledged the party needs to always look for new ways to keep people excited about the Liberal project  especially after the party has held power for more than seven years.

We cant be complacent. We need to continue to innovate, she said.

We need to continue to make sure that we are relevant Canadians, and that we are using the best ways to communicate, and that were constantly trying to improve how were communicating  to prove to (Canadians) that we are worthy of their support.

Part of the challenge for the Liberals can be charted in financial returns and recent polls. The Liberals trail the Conservatives on each front.

The most recent financial returns filed with Elections Canada show the Conservatives long-standing fundraising lead grew to almost $5 million in the first three months of this year, when the party raked in $8.3 million to the Liberals $3.6 million.

And polls have shown the Liberals lagging the Conservatives for months in national vote intention.

The MayDay Movement hopes to try and move that needle in favour of the Liberals with the enthusiasms of more Canadians who under 35. According to Apps, the group has raised more than $200,000 to support more than 300 such people to attend the Liberal convention this week.

Callista Ryan, 24, of Squamish, B.C., is one of the groups original organizers. She said engaging younger Canadians is a problem across the political spectrum, not just for the Liberals. But she believes the party is still the best vehicle to advance policies she supports, given its long track record of victory at the federal level.

Greg Fergus, the Liberal MP for HullAylmer, was president of the Young Liberals in the 1990s. He said the youth wing has always pushed the Liberal party on a host of policies, including in his time when he championed marriage equality years before it became law federally in 2005.

The Liberal party pays a lot of attention to its youth wing, because more often than not they get it right before the rest of us do, Fergus said.

Seven years into the Trudeau governments lifespan, Fergus said he is looking forward to gathering with other Liberals to gather  with a close ear to what young partisans are saying  to refresh the party for the years ahead.

Now is the perfect time for us to renew, he said.

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OTTAWA - Canadas intelligence agencies must immediately inform MPs of any threats against them, regardless of whether those threats are considered credible, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday.

Trudeau told reporters that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service,the countrys national spy agency, never shared information it received about threats against Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family members who live in Hong Kong.

CSIS made the determination that it wasnt something that needed to be raised to a higher level because it wasnt a significant enough concern, Trudeau said.

The prime minister said he only learned on Monday that CSIS had the intelligence two years ago, after an article to that effect was published in the Globe and Mail.

He said that around the same time, CSIS was asked to brief Chong after China publicly said it would sanction him for criticizing Beijings treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Chinas Xinjiang province.

But the agency never told Chong about any threats it was hearing about.

After the story was first reported Monday, opposition MPs demanded that the Liberals explain what they knew about the threats made to Chong and when. It took the government two days to answer.

Public Safety Minister Mendicino said that as soon as the government learned of the allegations, he contacted Chong to discuss the situation and offer him a briefing with CSIS. That briefing took place Tuesday, and Trudeau attended part of it, he said.

Trudeau asserted Wednesday that when it comes to the safety and security of members of Parliament or their families, the intelligence agencies should always make that information known as soon as possible.

Were making it very, very clear to CSIS and our intelligence officials that when there are concerns that talk specifically about any MP, particularly about their family, those need to be elevated, he said.

Even if CSIS doesnt feel that its a sufficient level of concern for them to take more direct action, we still need to know about it at the upper government level. We are making that direction now.

Chong said later he still has questions about what Trudeau, his office and his ministers knew about the matter.

If ministers of the Crown and their offices were completely unaware of this, this shows an appalling breakdown (of) leadership on the part of the prime minister. The prime minister and the prime minister alone is responsible for the machinery of government, said Chong.

For the prime minister not to know about this, not to be interested in this, I think  calls into question (his offices) handle on the machinery of government.

Chong said he has not spoken to his family in Hong Kong for years, and made a deliberate choice to sever contact with them out of an abundance of caution. He said he aimed to protect them amid Chinas incursions into Hong Kong.

I dont know exactly what is going on, he said, his voice filling with emotion. The position I find myself in is the same position that Canadians across the country had to face for years. And thats why this governments inaction on this file is so inexplicable and appalling.

Chong did not divulge the nature of the threats his relatives faced.

Liberal MP David McGuinty, who chairs the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliament, said the committee has recommended that MPs and senators be briefed about foreign interference when they first take their seats and every year after that.

Liberal MP John McKay added if CSIS or other agencies had evidence of a threat against him, Id like to know about it sooner rather than later.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who spoke to reporters before Trudeaus admission, said he could not imagine the countrys national security service having information about a threat to an MP or their family and deciding to keep quiet.

I find it very hard to believe that CSIS would produce a document about a Canadian MPs family being threatened because of a vote on the floor of the House of Commons and that they wouldnt tell the prime minister or his top public safety minister, Poilievre said. This is insane.

He said the only way to learn about CSISs activities is through a public inquiry into foreign interference.

As Conservatives pressed the government for more answers on Wednesday, they pointed out the testimony of a national security official at a House of Commons committee in February.

Without describing any specifics, the CSIS official confirmed the agency had detected hostile activities of states against politicians and had briefed the government about that.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh echoed the Tories call for a public inquiry. He also wrote to Trudeau to ask for more information on how the potential threats against MPs are handled.

Trudeau has deferred a decision about whether to hold such an inquiry to former governor general David Johnston, who was appointed as a special rapporteur to probe how Canada and its intelligence agencies have handled the problem.

Johnston has until the fall to complete his work, but has been asked to make a decision about whether an inquiry is needed by May 23.

The opposition parties also want Canada to expel a Chinese diplomat who Chong says CSIS identified as being part of the plot to intimidate him and his family. The man remains on Canadas list of approved diplomats as a Chinese consular official in Toronto.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said previously that Canada would expel Chinese diplomats if there is evidence they participated in interference activities, but such a move must be governed by a United Nations code on international diplomacy.

During question period Wednesday, Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, who serves as Jolys parliamentary secretary, would not say whether the government plans to expel the diplomat.

But the government will act in due diligence, following the rule of law, he said.

We will take our time and do it appropriately.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

 With files from Mickey Djuric.

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OTTAWA - The threats started with phone calls in 2011 to her home in Kandahar.

The mother of six had no idea her Canadian brother was working so close by, just 10 or 15 kilometres away, until the Taliban told her.

Your brother is working for foreigners and your life is at risk because your brother works with foreigners, she recalls the insurgents telling her in that first frightening phone call.

Her 25-year-old brother, who was given the code name Sam by the Canadian military, was in Afghanistan in secret to help Canadian troops navigate the unfamiliar cultural landscape and give advice to the commanders on the ground.

The Canadian Press has agreed not to use Sams real name or reveal his sisters identity because of the threat she still faces from the Taliban.

The phone calls continued every four or five days for years. Sometimes the womans husband, a police officer, would pick up the phone.

Then one day in 2013, her husband was shot dead outside of the familys home on his way to work. She believes he was targeted by the Taliban because of her brothers work with the Canadian military.

Even after the killing, the phone calls continued. Then threatening letters began to arrive at the house.

All the years we spent in Afghanistan was in fear, she said in Pashto through an interpreter.

Fearing that her sons would suffer the same fate as their father, she fled to Turkey in 2018 with several of her children. They now face deportation back to Afghanistan.

If we are sent back to Afghanistan, of course they will kill us. There are so many threats waiting for us yet, she said.

Though the Canadian government recently created a program specifically to bring the families of people like Sam to safety, his sister doesnt qualify because she fled too early  before the Taliban took over the country.

I feel that the responsibility is on me because it happened because of me, you know, because of my involvement, said Sam, who lives in Ottawa.

The Canadian government recruited some 45 Canadian citizens with Afghan heritage like Sam to serve as language and cultural advisers during the mission in Afghanistan. They were granted top-secret security clearance and risked their lives to serve alongside soldiers.

When Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021, Sam immediately contacted the Canadian military and the federal government to bring his family to safety, assuming the families of Canadians who served would be at the top of the list.

Though members of the military advocated on his behalf, his family did not qualify for resettlement through the special programs created after the takeover. He says he was met with silence from the government.

Last year, four language and cultural advisers filed a human rights complaint against the government.

They argued the Immigration Department discriminated against them by relaxing entry requirements for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion but not for Afghan families of Canadian citizens who served in the conflict.

The government reached a voluntary settlement with two of the advisers and launched a temporary policy to bring the extended family members of the 45 language and cultural advisers to Canada in March.

But that only applies to people who were in Afghanistan after July 22, 2021, shortly before Kabul fell to the Taliban.

Conservative MP Scott Reid called the criteria perverse, and said they more or less guarantee failure.

The date which was chosen  is unreflective of the fact that some of these individuals were in areas of the country which were much more dangerous, he said.

Things were falling apart in Afghanistan earlier than that particular day.

The government has been flexible and tailored its approaches as the difficult situation has evolved in Afghanistan, Immigration Department spokesman Stuart Isherwood in a written statement.

He said the governments approach has been informed by a range of stakeholders, but would not comment on specific cases.

Each program has eligibility requirements, and individuals must meet those requirements to be eligible to apply, he said.

In India, another sibling of one of Canadas language and cultural advisers also fears deportation to Afghanistan.

The adviser convinced his brother to leave in 2011 when he realized how unsafe the situation had become for his family members.

The Canadian Press has agreed not to name him because of the risk his brother faces if he is forced to return to Afghanistan.

They left Afghanistan because of my job, he said in an interview.

The program also excludes the adult children of qualifying family members. That means the adviser can bring his sister to Canada, but she would have to leave her 22-year-old daughter behind in Afghanistan.

We are Canadian citizens and we were the ones who put our lives on the line, he said. Our families deserve to be here.

Sam and his former colleagues have spent years advocating on behalf of their families, contacting politicians of all stripes. Theyve shown up to parliamentary committee meetings, called constituency offices and written countless emails in hopes of bringing them to safety.

Psychologically, its torturing me, Sam said.

A government has allowed a maximum of 380 principal applicants under the special program, which is expected to remain open until September.

Until then, Sam is desperately hoping his phone will ring and someone will be able to help him save his sister from further danger.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

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OTTAWA Conservative MP Michael Chong grew emotional Wednesday as he revealed hed cut ties with his Chinese relatives years ago over fear of the authoritarian regime, and demanded the expulsion of the Beijing diplomat accused of trying to target him and his family.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minster Marco Mendicino had a revelation of their own: they only found out about the incident two days ago.

Both said they only learned through a Globe and Mail report Monday the Canadian Security Intelligence Service believed in 2021 that Beijing had targeted Chongs relatives as part of a campaign to influence Canadian politics.

The Star has not confirmed the report, but Chong himself did following his own briefing with CSIS in the wake of the report.

Trudeau and Mendicino had been peppered with questions since Monday about whether or when they knew about CSISs findings, but had until Wednesday refused to answer.

Ahead of his partys weekly meeting Wednesday, Trudeau said he only found out after the report because CSISs threshold to report the information up the chain hadnt been met.

That will change in the future, he said.

Going forward, were making it very, very clear to CSIS and all our intelligence officials that when there are concerns that talk specifically about any MP, particularly about their family, those need to be elevated even if CSIS doesnt feel that its a sufficient level of concern for them to take more direct action, Trudeau said.

We still need to know about it at the upper government levels.

Still, that didnt stop opposition MPs from continuing to bombard the government with questions.

The atmosphere in the House of Commons grew so raucous over question period that at one point Speaker Anthony Rota tried to interject but confessed he had no idea what the hell was said.

Rota immediately apologized for using unparliamentary language.

NDP and Bloc MPs have flocked to Chongs side, noting that an attack on one of them ought to be considered an attack on all.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called on Trudeau to hold a meeting of all party leaders to fully get them up to speed on the issue.

I believe that this is an issue that could impact all members of Parliament. Any MP could be subject to similar threats, he wrote in a letter.

There are members in all our caucuses who have loved ones in countries where they may be subject to threats.

To Chong, it all appeared to be cold comfort.

He did not disclose any details of what he had previously described as intimidation operations, but appeared to tear up as he discussed the difficult dilemma of how to protect family living in authoritarian states.

Chongs father was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Canada in 1952. Chong has spoken in the past of trading letters with cousins there as a child.

When tensions between China and Hong Kong began to ratchet up, Chong said he made a decision to cut out off ties with his family out of an abundance of caution, a decision he said has faced other Canadians over the years.

Thats why this governments inaction on this file is so inexplicable and appalling, he said.

A person in Canada is targeting me and my family with the approval of the government of Canada. This individual needs to be declared persona non grata immediately.

His call was repeated numerous times by his party colleagues.

Rob Oliphant, the parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, said the government follows the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and accused the opposition of oversimplifying the issue.

We will act with due diligence, following the rule of law and following the conventions that we have signed, Oliphant said.

We will take our time and do it appropriately always to ensure that Canadians are protected and members of this chamber can do their work as well.

The Vienna Convention allows host states to expel diplomats without giving any reason, a fact the Tories point out during question period as well.

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa did not respond to an inquiry from the Star on the status of the diplomat named in connection with the incident, Wei Zhao.

The Globe and Mail reported that Chinese government officials sought information on Chongs relatives, which CSIS suspected was a way to deter Canadian politicians from criticizing Beijing.

Chong had attracted Beijings ire for his strong support of the rights of Chinas minority Uyghur population.

Since being sanctioned by China in 2021, Chong had been given what was described as defensive briefings by CSIS. Trudeau said when Mondays report was published, he asked what happened to that information and what exactly CSIS did with it.

Was it ever briefed up out of CSIS? It was not. CSIS made the determination that it wasnt something that needed to be raised to a higher level because it wasnt a significant enough concern, Trudeau said.

Thats why they chose to give direct defensive briefings to the MP in question, but they didnt feel that there was  it was necessary to do anything else.

Still, Chong noted there was a directive issued to CSIS in 2019 that it had a duty to report anything of interest to the minister.

If ministers of the Crown and their offices were completely unaware of this, this shows an appalling breakdown in leadership on part of the prime minister, Chong said.

The prime minister and the prime minister alone is responsible for the machinery of government and for the prime minister not to know about this, not to be interested in this, I think calls into question the (Prime Ministers Offices) handle on the machinery of government.

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Ukraine did not attack Putin, and the Kremlin's accusations in this are connected with the fact that Russia has no victories.

"We are not attacking either Putin or Moscow. We are fighting on our own territory. We don't even have enough weapons for that. We did not attack Putin, we will leave it to the tribunal," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a briefing in Helsinki on Wednesday after a meeting of the heads of state and government of Ukraine and the Nordic countries

"Russia has no victories. He cannot motivate his society, his state. On the battlefield, the 2nd army of the world lost. They cannot occupy Ukraine. Now he needs to somehow motivate his people to move forward," Zelenskyy said.

"He [Putin] needs to do something drastic  now assassination attempts, then drones, then there were geese that bombed them. Everything will be solved simply  there is no need to intimidate anyone, but only to get out of our territory," Zelenskyy said.

Earlier, Moscow accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones on Tuesday night.
The Ontario government will spend more than $51 million over three years to combat rising car theft across the province  including the creation of specialized prosecution teams targeting organized crime rings.

The move, which comes amid a spike in auto thefts over the past decade  a car is now stolen every 48 minutes in Ontario  was hailed by the auto insurance sector.

With vehicle thefts and carjackings on the rise, our government is taking bold action against a serious and often violent crime where high-tech criminals operate in tightly organized networks, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner said in a written statement.

The provinces announcement includes a crime towing and auto theft team run by the Ontario Provincial Police that will work with other forces, plus a new major auto theft prosecution response team that includes legal help so the OPP can prepare and prosecute complex cases.

A new community safety grant for police forces will be used to help create awareness campaigns or to upgrade surveillance technology.

An extra $1.4 million over the next three years will be put into a Greater Toronto-Golden Horseshoe auto theft investigative fund for police to spend on supports such as improved technology.

Bryan Gast, vice-president of investigative services for Equite Association  a national not-for-profit, that supports the Canadian insurance sector in fighting insurance crime and fraud  said the move is absolutely going to make a difference and in particular highlighted the new prosecution teams.

Thats significant, he said, given the specialized knowledge needed for such cases.

Ontario is being targeted, mainly by organized crime, because of its large population as well as the volume of high value vehicles that are in the GTA specifically, and then theres the proximity specifically the Port of Montreal where a lot of these vehicles are being shipped before being sent overseas, Gast said.

This is a huge first step  its been a long time coming, he added.

Between 2014 and 2021, the government said there was a 72 per cent increase in auto theft  and an 81 per cent increase in Greater Toronto.

OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique said auto theft is a business that pays huge dividends. So this type of approach is what we need to put an end to it once and for all.

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser also welcomed the governments move.

Ontarians should not have to fear for their safety or worry about the security of their property, he said.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has been vocal about the need for governments to address the issue, given a 97 per cent jump in car thefts in Peel Region over the past four years  even getting the city to hand out free signal-blocking Faraday bags to residents so they can safely store car key FOBs in their homes.

Brown has also asked the federal government to recall the top 10 most stolen vehicles as a way to press manufacturers to improve their theft protection, and to fund additional border agents to better monitor overseas shipments at ports.

This is a crisis in Canadas big cities, he said via social media. All governments need to work together to stop these organized crime syndicates.

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has dissociated itself from the visit of President-elect Bola Tinubu to the state on Wednesday.





Tinubu is expected in Rivers for two days and will commission a flyover at Rumuokwuta and Rumuola junction in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area.





The politician will also commission a Magistrate Court complex at the Moscow Road in the Port Harcourt City Local Government Area.





A statement on Tuesday by APC Publicity Secretary, Darlington Nwauju said the party had nothing to do with Tinubus visit.





The spokesperson told the governor to play less divisive politics and exercise restraint in planting seeds of discord amongst opposition political parties.





Nwauju accused Wike of working to paint a false perception of the collapse of the APC structure in Rivers despite his boast in previous well-documented interviews.





He said the governor wants the President-elect to believe his false narrative that there is no other opposition political party existing in the state.





Nwauju added that the APC is focused on pursuing justice by challenging the outcome of the flawed March 18 elections at the Elections Petitions Tribunal.





Wike has declared Wednesday a public holiday and urged the people to come out in large numbers to give Tinubu a rousing welcome.




Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Drainages, Joe Igbokwe, has countered the former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, over his claim that Nigeria is worse off for not having someone like the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo as president.





Recall that Osinbajo had in May 2022, contested against the President-elect, Bola Tinubu; former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and others for the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential ticket.





Lamenting how Nigeria would miss Osinbajo after the May 29 handover, Sanusi, who spoke at the virtual launch of a book: Osinbajo Strides: Defining Moments of an Innovative Leader, expressed hope that Osinbajo may still lead the country subsequently.





But Joe Igbokwe, a chieftain of the APC, took to his Facebook page on Wednesday to counter the former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria.





According to Igbokwe, the ruling party would have lost the February 25 presidential election to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, if Osinbajo had clinched the ticket.





He wrote, Enemies of APC are talking. If Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had not been on the ballot, APC would have lost to Atikus PDP by 12 noon on that day.




Suspected bandits, on Monday night, stormed the Kofar Doka area of Zaria city, Kaduna State and killed two people.





A source told newsmen that the bandits came in their numbers on foot around 9:40 pm and went straight to the house of a Customs officer.





According to the source, The bandits who came in large numbers invaded the residence of a customs officer, Malam Abubakar Modibbo and kidnapped his wife Asiya Abubakar, alongside his two daughters, Khadijatul Kubra and Hafsat, with one Falalu Ibrahim.





He explained that the bandits shot to death two passers-by, identified as Zaharaddeen Mohammed of Amaru and Sunusi Sani of Dorayi.





He stated that Sunusi Sani was later reported to have died in the morning at the hospital as a result of wounds sustained from the gunshots.





The source further explained that the bandits proceeded to Dorayi village in the outskirt of Zaria and rustled a number of cattle, as well abducted people numbering about 20.





He said following a gun duel with security operatives, the bandits abandoned all their captives in the area and retracted to the bush.





The source, however, said that the bandits burnt down the residence of one Alhaji Dalha and two motorcycles before escaping due to intense exchange of fire.
President Muhammadu Buhari will depart for the UK later today to attend the coronation of King Charles III.

While in the UK, the president will also take part in a summit for presidents and heads of government of Commonwealth countries on Friday.

The presidency shared details of Buharis imminent trip in a statement on Wednesday morning.

The presidency said Buhari will be accompanied to the UK by Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation; Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs; Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture; and Babagana Monguno, national security adviser.

Other officials expected to be in the presidents entourage are Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, director-general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA); and Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM).

In September 2022, King Charles III was proclaimed as Britains new monarch.

His emergence followed the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died at the age of 96.




The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday appealed to the United Kingdom government to consider clemency for the former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who is awaiting sentencing on organ harvest charges.





The decision which was taken at the plenary, followed a motion sponsored by Senator Chukwuka Utazi, representing Enugu North Senatorial District.





Utazi drew the attention of lawmakers to the travails of their former colleague, who is being tried for alleged organ trafficking for which he has been convicted alongside his wife and a medical doctor.





The lawmaker said Ekweremadu and other defendants have been convicted with their sentencing slated for the 5th of May, 2023.





He explained that being a Deputy Senate President for 12 years and the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, he has contributed hugely to the growth of democracy in Africa and beyond and should be considered for clemency.





I want the Senate to plead with the United Kingdom government to have mercy and consider clemency for Senator Ike Ekweremadu in sentencing by the trial Court.





The President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan in his reaction, ruled out any deliberate move by Ekweremadu to infract on UK laws and pleaded for mercy.





He said, Ike Ekweremadu has contributed immensely to the development of parliament in Nigeria and he has never been found wanting. We, therefore, call on the United Kingdom to tamper justice with mercy. They should consider clemency in the sentencing of Ekweremadu.





Ekweremadu is a very patriotic citizen of Nigeria who believes in the country and has done all he could for the development of the country. He was a three-time Deputy Senate President and a Speaker of the ECOWAS parliament.





This is where diplomacy should come in, to consider clemency for Senator Ike Ekweremadu.





I have personally written a letter pleading for clemency for Ekweremadu three weeks ago which I delivered to the UK Diplomatic Mission in Nigeria and I am not saying people should not do their work, but I only plead that in sentencing, they should tamper justice with mercy, particularly that he has not committed the offence before.





If Ekweremadu had known it was an offence, he would not have committed it because he is a highly patriotic person.Read
The federal government has accused the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of not showing good cause in the pursuit of the suit before the national industrial court.

At the resumed court session on Tuesday, Marshall Abubakar, counsel to the union told the court that he had filed applications seeking an extension of time and for the matter to be referred to the alternative dispute resolution ( ADR).

However, James Igwe, counsel to the ministers of labour and employment, and education, who are the claimants in the suit, accused the respondents of stalling the case.

My learned colleague has not shown good cause as stated by order 57, rule 4 (2) of the NICN rule, Igwe said while objecting to the defences applications.

What he said he filed is not before the court, the rule states that an applicant must show good cause.

The matter is slated for definite hearing and I urge the court to go on with the matter as what the counsel claimed to have filed is based on speculations.

Responding, Abubakar prayed the court to use its discretion to grant his application for an extension of time, adding that his affidavit which had not been challenged had shown good cause.

He further submitted that the delay in filing his processes was due to the ruling of the court in the last adjourned date which necessitated a series of consultations.

However, the court ruled that in order for a matter to be referred to ADR, parties must join issues which the defence had not done due to its failure to file processes.

Benedict Kanyip, the judge also said the defence has shown a lack of seriousness in the suit, having failed to exhibit copies of the applications claimed to have been filed.

Kanyip also added that Abubakar was trying to buy time with his applications and in doing so had not shown capable and genuine reasons for the extension of time.

The application is hereby dismissed and ruling entered accordingly, the judge held.

Abubakar also withdrew his application for the matter to be referred to the ADR after which it was struck out by the court.

The claimants counsel proceeded to adopt his processes while the court gave Abubakar seven days to file and serve his written address on the claimants.

The matter has been adjourned to May 11, for a hearing.

ASUU had in 2022 embarked on a strike to protest the non-implementation of its demands by the federal government. The strike lasted for eight months.

In August, the federal government filed a suit to challenge the strike and also sought the courts decision on the interpretation and application of the Trade Dispute Act (TDA) as it relates to industrial actions.

The court directed ASUU to suspend the strike and resume work pending the determination of the suit.
The Federal Government has debunked claims that the Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, refused to evacuate Igbo residents in Sudan.

A Nigerian in a viral video had alleged that Igbos were asked to alight from the flight for Nigerians of other extraction to enter the plane for evacuation.

But Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Francisca Omayuli said it has investigated the allegation and the report was false.

Omayuli urged the general public to disregard the allegation, adding that Igbos were among the first batch of 637 Nigerians evacuated to Aswan Border, Egypt.

She said they are presently awaiting their eventual return to Nigeria.

Omayuli noted that although there were scuffles between the students and other Nigerian residents due to the limited number of buses, the issue had been resolved.

More buses were made available to accommodate every Nigerian national in Sudan who indicated interest to be evacuated.

It is, therefore, surprising that such a misleading allegation could be leveled against officials of the Embassy who had worked tirelessly on the evacuation exercise, she added.




Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, on Wednesday, dissolved the State Executive Council with immediate effect.





The governor made the declaration during the weekly Executive Council meeting in a statement by the Special Adviser, Media Projects, Crusoe Osagie.





Expressing his appreciation to the outgoing members of the council for their service to the government and people of the state, Obaseki noted that the dissolution of the council takes immediate effect.





This is coming hours after the Edo State Local Government Election scheduled to hold on the 6th of May, 2023, was postponed to Saturday, 2nd of September.





Sunday Osayande, the Administrative Secretary of the State Independent Electoral Commission, EDSIEC, in a statement on Tuesday, announced the postponement.





Osayande said: This is to inform the general public that the Local Government Council Elections earlier fixed for Saturday 6th of May 2023 will be held on Saturday 2nd of September, 2023.




Adamawa State Government has welcomed the arrest of suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, describing it as a vital step towards justice.





A statement released to newsmen Tuesday evening said Governor Ahmadu Fintiri views the arrest as a big relief and proof that the long arm of the law will always catch up with a felon.





Signed by the Director General of Media and Publicity to the Governor, Mr Solomon Kumangar, the statement said while Hudu was at large, he had continued to stoke the embers of discord, misinformation and half truths about the real motive for his actions and his role in the event of March 16th April, 2023 when he tried to force an unpopular choice on the citizens of Adamawa State by way of a civilian coup.





According to the government, its demands have always been for justice to run its full course and for everyone involved in the false declaration of winner of the state governorship election to face the full wrath of the law.





The arrest of Yunusa-Ari is an important first step in maintaining the sanctity of the electoral law and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the government said.





It added, We hope that a new Nigeria is possible and welcome the arrest of Hudu and ask the police and all relevant investigating agencies to ensure due diligence in the prosecution of this case to its logical conclusion.
The Nordic NATO member countries will continue to support Ukraine on its way to the Alliance, according to a joint statement by the Presidents of Finland and Ukraine, the Prime Ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, signed during the Summit of the Nordic Countries and Ukraine, which was held in Helsinki.

At the Bucharest Summit in 2008, allies agreed that Ukraine will become a NATO member. NATOs Open Door policy is firmly grounded in the Washington treaty. Ukraine formally requested an accelerated procedure for NATO membership in September 2022. The Nordic NATO members will continue to support Ukraine on its path towards future membership, the text of the document reads.

It is noted that already before membership, the security of Ukraine is of great importance to the Alliance. In this connection, Ukraine and the Nordic NATO countries look forward to addressing these issues at the NATO Summit in Vilnius in July 2023.

The Nordic countries will continue their political, financial, humanitarian and military support to Ukraine for as long as it takes  individually, together as the Nordics, as well as through international cooperation in the European Union, in NATO, in the United Nations and in other formats.

The summit participants confirmed that Russia must immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.

The Nordic countries stand ready to cooperate with Ukraine to ensure as wide an international participation as possible in the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula and in a Global Peace Summit.

Also, the documents says that Ukraine and the Nordic countries underline their firm commitment to bringing to justice those responsible for war crimes and other atrocity crimes committed in connection with Russias war of aggression against Ukraine. In this regard, the Nordic countries are calling on others to enlist international support for the creation of a Special Tribunal.

In addition, the participants intend to continue to work together with others to develop mechanisms to provide compensation for losses, injuries and damages caused by the Russian aggression. To this end, the international register of damage, to be presented at the Reykjavik Summit of the Council of Europe on 16-17 May 2023, is an important milestone.

The document says that Ukraine and the Nordic countries agree on the need to increase our collective pressure on Russia through further sanctions to weaken Russias ability to continue its illegal war of aggression.

Finally, the Nordic countries, together with international organizations and partners, intend to participate in the restoration and reconstruction of Ukraine after the war, and will also strongly support Ukraine in its efforts to carry out reforms and in meeting the requirements necessary for the early start of negotiations on EU accession.
Bola Tinubu, president-elect, says he couldnt have won the presidential election without the support of Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers.

On March 1, the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu as the winner of the election with a total of 8,794,726 votes.

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had the second-highest figure with 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) was next with 6,101,533 votes.

The two runners up have since taken the matter to court, challenging the victory of the former Lagos governor through judicial measures, while their supporters engage in unending media tussles.

Speaking at the commissioning of the Raumuokwuta/Rumuola flyover bridge in Portharcourt, the capital of the state, on Wednesday, Tinubu said the structural support given by Wike played a significant role in his victory at the poll.

He said he won the presidential election fair and square, adding that he went through a difficult campaign but eventually emerged victorious.

I went through a gruesome campaign, fought hard, supported by many of you and I won. Fair and square. Nyesom, I say thank you for your contribution to my victory, he said.

I couldnt have done it without some structural support you gave me which I cant describe (repay) in my honouring of your invitation to commission this flyover.

In his excellency, I see a man of principle. He took a principled stance that the presidency must come to the south and he had the courage to stand by his own conviction not minding whose ox is gored.

He is indeed a man of great integrity, he didnt choose to serve his own interest, not about him but the interest of the nation. You promoted unity, you promoted fairness, you championed justice. Thank you.

Tinubu said he honoured the invitation for the inauguration because of Wikes strength of character.

My invitation to commission this project today is another way of building bridges, which cannot be overstated in Nigeria. It is on the strength of your character that I stand to fulfill the promise I made to you during the campaign, Tinubu said.
The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, rejected a request made by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, for a refund for the construction of some federal roads in the state.

Tinubu spoke while inaugurating the Rumuokwuta-Rumuola Flyover in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.

While noting how the state had to amend its procurement law to enable it to source funds and complete the various flyover projects in embarked up in record time, Wike said the projects undertaken by the state ought to be done by the Federal Government.

And unfortunately too, these projects ought to be Federal Government projects because they are federal roads.

If we had said because they are Federal Government roads, and we wont do it. Who are those to suffer?

Since we have said we dont want our people to suffer, I also believe that the Federal Government should say look, you have done well for us. These are projects we should be doing, can you bring your bill, let us refund you the money you have done these roads.

That is what it is supposed to be for a partnership with a good Federal Government. I can assure you as you enter the office and you approve to pay this money back, other states will have the courage to also do the same thing.

I am not asking what we are not entitled to. The Federal Government should say you are a true son of this government you have removed shame from us.

But in his response, the President-elect stated, The 12th flyover and the demand you made for refund, I owe you nothing. It is your road.

You cant chuckle at me and make a demand. You are the one living on this road. I commend your effort. You have to lobby me to collect it.
The Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), has officially unveiled Senator Dino Melaye as its governorship candidate for the November 11th gubernatorial election in Kogi State.

Senator Melaye was unveiled on Wednesday by key party stakeholders in the State.

Speaking during the unveiling ceremony, the PDP governorship flagbearer appreciated the PDP family in Kogi State and begged for forgiveness from anyone he offended.

He said peace will be established in PDP, assuring that the party will do things differently when they get to power.

Dino Melaye will not be a Christian or a Muslim Governor but a governor with the fear of God. If you have the fear of God, you wont pay percentage salaries. If you have the fear of God, there will be peace and stability in the state.

He promised to return power back to the Eastern Senatorial Districts after eight years in office.

Earlier, the State Chairman of the party, Sam Uhuotu appealed to indigenes to vote for his party during the governorship election in the state.

He charged electorates to forgive the party for any of their wrongdoings, adding that the party will wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC).

A former lawmaker representing Kogi West, Tunde Ogbeha appealed to aggrieved party members to sheath their swords and work for the partys victory.

He thanked the people of Kogi East for respecting the principle of rotation, stressing that they have applied great wisdom in pursuing the electoral process.

Also speaking, former Kogi State Governor, Ibrahim Idris said he would forever remain a member of the PDP.

Idris tasked party stakeholders to unite against any forces who intend to stop their victory at the polls.

I am here to support whoever emerges as our party Candidate. Dino Melaye is a PDP member, why will I go and support another party? That will be the last thing I will do. We can do it, but we have to see ourselves as one family he stated.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, in the recently concluded general election, Mr Peter Obi, has penned an emotional letter to Dr. Mike Adenuga, as he marks his birthday anniversary.

Obi said Adenuga contributed to the growth and development of the nations economy through his productive enterprises.

The former Anambra State governor stated this in a post via his verified Twitter handle on Wednesday.

Obi said the oil tycoon is a symbol of hard work for the younger generation to look up to.

He said, My Very Dear Elder Brother and Friend, Dr. Mike Adenuga, my kind thoughts and sincere prayers are with you on your recent birthday. You have hugely contributed to the growth and development of our economy through your various productive enterprises that led to job creation, provision of critical products and services and others.

Your desire for hard work, a knack for excellence and a push for success reflect on the successful businesses you have set grown in the nation. You remain a symbol of hard work for the younger generation to look up to.

I wish you well, now and always. Happy 70th birthday Sir.




The Director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts, Dr. Sam Amadi has slammed Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State over his decision to declare a public holiday as President-elect, Bola Tinubu visits the State.





Amadi said that Wike probably thinks that the President-elect is an official position, noting that Tinubus visit cannot be official.





His statement is contained in a post via his Twitter handle on Tuesday.





Recall that Wike had declared Wednesday May 3 a public holiday for the people to receive Tinubu.





Tinubu is expected to commission some projects, including a flyover at Rumuokwuta and Rumuola junction in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area and a Magistrate Court complex at the Moscow Road in the Port-Harcourt City Local Government Area, during his visit to the State.





However, Amadi wrote, Governor Wike probably thinks President-elect is an official position. The visit of @officialABAT cannot be an official visit. It is so painful that leaders would degrade statecraft with pedestrian actions.





If you degrade language, you degrade leadership, ala George Orwell.
The senate has approved the sum of N22.7 trillion that was spent by the executive arm of government without the initial approval of the national assembly.

The upper legislative chamber approved the request on Wednesday, after Ibrahim Gobir, senate leader, presented a report.

Gobir said some of the beneficiaries of the funds are the office of the accountant-general of the federation, ministry of foreign affairs (ECOWAS national unit), Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading, Azura Power West Africa, Niger Delta Power Holding Company, and Accugas Limited.

The N22.7 trillion is money borrowed by federal government from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the ways and means advances.

President Muhammadu Buhari had asked the senate to approve the sum in December 2022, but some senators  mostly of the opposition  kicked against it.

They demanded that records of what the funds were spent on be provided before approval is given to his request.

The ways and means advances by the Central Bank of Nigeria to the federal government has been a funding option to the federal government to cater for short-term or emergency finance to fund delayed government-expected cash receipt of fiscal deficit, Buhari had said in his letter to the national assembly last year.

The ways and means, balances as at 19th December 2022 is N22.7 trillion.

Following the uproar the request caused in the senate, Ahmad Lawan, senate president, appointed Gobir to chair an ad hoc committee and liaise with relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) on the spending.

Though the Gobir-led panel was meant to have turned in its report since January, it was only able to do so at Wednesdays sitting.
President-elect Bola Tinubu has arrived Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, to commission some projects executed by Governor Nyesom Wike.

Recall that Wike on Tuesday declared a holiday on Wednesday to welcome Tinubu to the state.

The jet that conveyed the President-elect touched down at the airport at about 10:03 am on Wednesday.

The former Lagos governor was received by Wike and his entourage at the Port Harcourt International Airport.

Several supporters of the governor were also present to receive the President-elect as they were allowed into the tarmac area under strict security control.
David Umahi, governor of Ebonyi, says the south-east geo-political zone deserves the office of senate president.

Umahi spoke with journalists on Tuesday after a private meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Umahi said the south-east made considerable contributions to Bola Tinubus victory as the president-elect, adding that allowing the region to produce the next senate president would inspire buy-in from the opposition in the national assembly.

I think that every region clamouring for the presidency of the senate to be zoned to it is the right of such people. If you look at the true reflection of our society, you will agree with me that the right thing to be done by our leaders without prejudice to their rights and thinking is that the south-east deserves the number three position, he said.

This is very important and I have always said that you can deliver somebody by the reason of the majority votes of particular regions but you also need the cooperation of the minority people to have a holistic nation to govern.

So, for inclusiveness, unity of the country and for everybody to be carried along, the south-east deserves the position and so far, nobody has been able to say this is the reason why the south-east should not be given that position and I am pleading for that.

I know what efforts we made as a people for the unity of the country. I know the way we were regarded and we understand that we are stronger while we are together and we made vows to our people while we were campaigning for APC, we assured them that we belong to an equitable and fair Nigeria.

Now it has come to a point where that position we took should be put to practice and that is what we are begging for because the chain is as strong as the weakest link and it is time for healing, inclusiveness as well as the time to move this country forward.

Umahi pointed out that he had garnered enough experience in the public sector as a two-term governor and from the private sector as a businessman, to lead the 10th senate.

If you check my pedigree, youll find out that I am a man who has handled his businesses from scratch to multi-billions. I was dealing with people. I was not dealing with sticks. That is experience, he said.

I was a party chairman twice up to five years. I have managed a state successfully for almost eight years. I have all the experience, humility, honesty and integrity.

The governor said he had informed President Buhari of his intention to run for the senate presidency.




Former lawmaker, Shehu Sani has slammed Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State for grounding economic, social and educational activities of the State over the visit of President-elect, Bola Tinubu.





Sani said its a mark of desperation for favour and accommodation.





His statement is contained in a post via his verified Twitter handle on Wednesday.





Recall that Wike had declared Wednesday May 3 public holiday over Tinubus two-day visit to the state.





Tinubu is also expected to commission some projects while in the State.





However, Sani, a social critic, said that Wike grounding economic activities because of Tinubus visit was a mark of desperation for favour.





He wrote, Commissioning a project is a mark of a great achievement. Kudos. But grounding the economic, social and educational activities of the state for that purpose is a mark of desperation for favour and accommodation by a lickspittle. Tinubu can say no to that or else it becomes the norm.




Shehu Sani, a former Kaduna Central Senator, has mocked President Muhammadu Buhari over his comment of delivering on the change he promised Nigerians.





Sani said Buhari was leaving behind N77 trillion debt, about 133 million Nigerians in poverty, mass killings and kidnapping amid his claim of delivering his promised change.





Speaking during the inauguration of a housing estate in Zuba, Abuja on Tuesday, Buhari said his administration delivered change to Nigerians.





The president said the change was delivered in the area of affordable housing, adding that the new housing estate had addressed multidimensional poverty among Nigerians.





Reacting, Sani tweeted: The President is living behind 77 trillion naira debt, 133 million poverty-stricken people, 25m people at the risk of hunger according to Unicef, 10m out of school children, mass Killings and kidnappings on a daily basis; yet he said he has delivered on the change he promised.
Implementation of compensation mechanism for Russia, waging war in Ukraine, to be discussed at CoE Summit in Reykjavik  PM of Iceland

At the Council of Europe Summit to be held in Reykjavik in May, participants will discuss the implementation of the compensation mechanism for the Russian Federation for the war in Ukraine, Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said.

"A meeting of the Council of Europe Summit will be held in Reykjavik in May. We will talk about the register of losses inflicted by Russia during the war. We will talk about the introduction of a practical compensation mechanism so that Russia can be held accountable for the illegal invasion," she said at a press conference following the Summit of the Nordic Countries and Ukraine in Helsinki.

Also, according to her, within the framework of the Summit in Reykjavik, the process of implementing the Peace Formula of the Ukrainian president will be discussed in detail.

"We hope an in-depth discussion of this process will be initiated," said Jakobsdottir.

In addition, the Prime Minister of Iceland stressed that the Nordic countries can and should show more support for Ukraine right now.

"Together with the Nordic countries, we can and should show more support for Ukraine. We are doing this not only through our financial institutions, but also within the framework of a joint statement dedicated to the economic revival of Ukraine. We are confident that we will be able to ensure such restoration through joint projects," the Prime Minister concluded.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: Donation request platforms are becoming ever more popular. Sadly, many families rely on these online fundraising campaigns for medical bills and other very valid needs.

However, I find myself becoming a little cynical and exasperated with repeated posts and requests. For example, a family I know is raising money for a trip to another city for their daughters medical procedure, but also shares posts about their family vacations to Disney.

Usually, I just choose whether to give or not, and dont think twice. But I recently received a personal message from a friend whose fund I donated modestly to in the past. She messaged me that she has more than $600 in medical expenses coming up, that she had created a fundraiser and that any amount would help.

I was taken aback by the manner of the request, and since my friend hadnt posted anything about it, I thought her account had been hacked. I reached out to her and asked if her account was compromised. She acknowledged that she had sent me the request.

So now Im a bit torn about what to do. On one hand, shes having medical problems and I want to help. On the other hand, my financial situation isnt such that I can make a meaningful contribution. Plus, I only hear from this friend when she needs something.

Whats the protocol for such requests? Is it expected to give a nominal amount if someone you know hits you up specifically? Do I explain why I wont be contributing or just pay up?

GENTLE READER: The world is full of people in need, and Miss Manners commends your sympathetic attitude. But even rich philanthropists know that they cant help everyone and must judge cases in order to use their donations effectively.

Donating to whoever I know who happens to ask is not a good plan. And not thinking twice is not a good policy. You should be deciding how much charity you can afford and giving it to people or causes you are truly moved to help -- not people you feel are taking advantage of you, and even hounding you.

Online pleas may be ignored. For face-to-face ones, you should express sympathy, but explain nothing more than that you have committed your charitable budget elsewhere.

***

DEAR MISS MANNERS: A relative sent me a card for my birthday with a single lottery ticket, just for fun. I didnt end up winning anything.

Is a lottery ticket considered a gift, and if so, should I write a thank-you note? Would the answer change if I had won something?

GENTLE READER: Yes and yes. As it is, you could write, I had such fun thinking how you and I could enjoy all that money. Had you won, Miss Manners suggests something more like, I know you have been wanting a new car, and Im so happy to now be able to get it for you.

(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)

***

COPYRIGHT 2023 JUDITH MARTIN

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106; 816-581-7500
Waking up to views of the beach and the Atlantic City skyline may sound like a vacation for most, but for some Stockton University students its a perk that comes with living on campus.

On Wednesday, Stockton officials hosted a pair of ceremonies which included a ribbon cutting for the Universitys newest, nearly $70 million residential hall on its Atlantic City campus.

The 135,000-square-foot residential building features apartment and suite-style living, with rooms ranging from studios priced at $12,880 per academic year to two-bedroom apartments priced at $19,764 per academic year.

Along with a full kitchen, bathrooms and a common area, many rooms have views of the beach, the Boardwalk or ODonnell Park  a historic war memorial park adjacent from the building.

Sitting at the corner of Atlantic and South Providence avenues, the six-story building has a total of 416 beds that will be available for Stockton upperclassmen, underclassmen and transfer students come this Fall semester, according to officials.

Students who will be living in the nearly-complete complex, which is about 15 miles from the universitys main campus in Galloway, will also have access to a courtyard, lounges on each floor, a meeting room and business center.

Stockton University stakeholders, students and community members joined university President Harvey Kesselman and Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. for a tour of the residential complex after the ribbon cutting.

Were planning on living in this building next semester, Stockton sophomore Harini Manjula Duraipandiyan said after touring the first floor of the building. We just really wanted to see how it would look like and what kind of space were going to be living in. It looks really good and Im really excited.

Sophomore Charmaine Harris, who joined Harini on the tour, also said that shes excited about living in the new building next semester.

Honestly (the residential hall) is great. Its so much more spacious than the one we live in now, Charmaine said.

The completion of Stockton Universitys Phase II Residence Hall comes almost six years after the school began its expansion into Atlantic City through a $210 million Gateway project developed as a public/private partnership with the Atlantic City Development Corp.

Hundreds of us gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of the ... Gateway Project, Kesselman said. That day represented the start of a new era for this city and for this University.

Before the ribbon cutting, university officials unveiled the new name of Stocktons first Atlantic City dorm hall, which was completed in 2018 along with the John F. Scarpa Academic Center, where students take classes in areas that include sociology, education and pre-law.

The residential hall completed in 2018 is now known as Kesselman Hall, in honor of the schools president, who is retiring on June 30 after being in the position for eight years.

The newly-named Hall is adjacent to Dr. Harvey Kesselman Way, a section of Albany Avenue that Atlantic City named after the soon-to-be-retired president. The street sign was revealed in a ceremony last week.

I am the luckiest person in the world to have had the privilege of leading Stocktons efforts to be an economic driver and a community engaged anchor institution in this great city, Kesselman said. Todays unveiling is not only a special honor, but also a reflection of the strong partnership between Stockton and Atlantic City.

To have my name associated with both is the most beautiful tribute I could ever imagine.

Now that Phase II is complete University and the Atlantic City Development Corp. officials are directing their attention to what Phase III of the Atlantic City campuss development would look like.

Now, we see this beautiful vision that (Stockton) brought to the great city of Atlantic City, Mayor Marty Small said. Stockton is an important part of our rebirth and we want to continue with Phase III and more.

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A Bergen County man faces robbery and other charges after police say he brandished a meat tenderizer and robbed a woman on a street in Bergenfield.

Rickent Carrasco, 33, of Cliffside Park, approached the woman about 10:20 a.m. on Monday in the area of Murray Hill Terrace and Sylvan Avenue in Bergenfield, police said

The woman, 45, was robbed of about $400 cash, credit cards, a cell phone and her purse, according to police Capt. William Duran.

The man fled, but was later arrested by police nearby as he continued to brandish the meat tenderizer, Duran said.

The suspect was also found in possession of the victims belongings, Duran said, noting that officers were able to make the arrest without further incident during a potentially volatile situation.

Carrasco was charged with second-degree robbery with threat of bodily injury, along with third and fourth-degree weapons offenses, according to court records.

He was held in the Bergen County Jail to await a court hearing, Duran said.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
The Devils are investigating a situation in which a Rangers fan appeared to have sucker-punched one of their employees during the third period of Mondays Game 7 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Prudential Center.

Semaj McLeod, who is a member of the Devils Woo Crew, uploaded a video of the incident on Twitter on Monday night, saying he was sucker punched twice by the unidentified Rangers fan. The Devils employee asked for assistance in determining the fans identity.

got sucker punched in the face twice by a rangers fan, at my job, doing my job, celebrating a devils goal, if anyone know who he is pls dm pic.twitter.com/dlHUsfbsXc  x - semaj (@semajmcl3od) May 2, 2023

Here is another angle pic.twitter.com/gwNj49ihft  ChrisTine (@christinetaor) May 2, 2023

We are aware, a Devils spokesperson told NJ Advance Media of the situation. There is no tolerance for that behavior at our arena, and we are investigating the incident to identify the suspect.

Want to bet on the NHL?

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The Devils defeated the Rangers, 4-0, to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and end their rivals season. They face the Carolina Hurricanes in the next round of the tournament, with Game 1 scheduled for Wednesday night in Raleigh.

MORE DEVILS PLAYOFFS:

-For Jack Hughes, a Devils playoff run is a chance to confirm his stardom | Politi

-Hockey Night in Newark: Game 7 in seven scenes as Devils blank the Rangers to reach second round

-Why Nico Hischier is Devils perfect weapon for possible Stanley Cup run

-We want more: Devils prove the Stanley Cup is within reach in outclassing Rangers | Politi

- From Fire Lindy to Inspire, Lindy: Devils coach earns first career Game 7 win with calm and strategy

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust.

Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.
While breakfast might be the most important meal of the day, in New Jersey its also the most controversial.

We debate breakfast sandwiches tooth and egg-crusted nail: Does it belong on a bagel or kaiser roll? Which deli offers the best options? We cant even agree what to call our states signature breakfast meat  the Taylor ham/pork roll debate has torn New Jersey families and friends asunder for decades.
After an extended grace period devoid of increases during the COVID-19 pandemic rent freeze, Hoboken tenants living in rent-controlled units could soon be hit with increases.

The city council Wednesday will vote to introduce rent control changes that would allow those landlords who trimmed prices during the pandemic to restore them to their March 2020 level.

The rent can be increased in one interval either during the lease renewal or if a new tenant moves into the unit, the proposed amendment to the rent control statute says. Proponents of the changes say its meant to help landlords who complied with pandemic rules and are being financially harmed by the lower rent revenue.

Instead of making unusual circumstance(s) the basis for all future rent calculations, were allowing landlords to make a showing that they should not be unnecessarily harmed by that, said Councilman Phil Cohen, a sponsor of the changes.

Another component of the changes to rent control rules is that when a rent calculation is requested, either by the tenant or the landlord, the sides have to share it with each other; and tenants can contest it before city rent officials.

That specific part was in another rent control amendment that the council had passed before, but Mayor Ravi Bhalla had vetoed it last Friday over objections that accrued rent increases would be allowed. Under the new ordinance, landlords cannot hit tenants with multiple rate hikes at once from so-called banked increases that would have occurred each year if not for the moratorium.

Cohen said whats important is that tenants would not be burdened with whopping accrued rent increases, as would have been allowed in the vetoed ordinance. He also said there will be a wide range of rents available in the city.

But in a year where theres already been numerous changes to the citys rent control laws, tenant and landlord advocates have both come out against the newly proposed changes for various reasons.

Tenant advocate Cheryl Fallick criticized it for not including a cap on how much the increases can be. She pointed to how those that moved into rent-controlled units during the pandemic currently have nowhere else to go in a tight housing market.

Theyre locked in, even if they wanted to leave for whatever reason, and now the city council wants to pass an ordinance thats going to pretty much ensure massive increases, she said.

Ron Simoncini of the Mile Square Taxpayer Association, a landlord group, said that while he supports the increases, he slammed the changes for allowing city rent officials to harass landlords, the city for not having the ability to enforce the rules and the politics surrounding the recent changes.

All of these owners are in for an administrative nightmare, he said. These are real people who own real property, who have to provision housing for real people, and theyre being treated as though this is all just some big ideological concept. Its not.
A former Hackensack man has pleaded not guilty to running a car theft ring that authorities say stole 40 vehicles in three states and sold at least 30 of them for cash after advertising them for sale online.

Federal prosecutors charged Warren Guerrier, 46, with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, five counts of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorneys Office for New Jersey said.

Guerrier and his cohorts placed GPS tracking devices on the vehicles in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia to learn the owners travel paterns and then advertised the cars on two websites from November 2016 to June 2020, charging documents state.
A New Jersey advocacy group has condemned the United States Secret Service for stopping the states longest-serving Muslim mayor from entering a White House celebration for Muslim Americans on Monday and called for a public apology from the agency.

The mayor himself, meanwhile, has joined the group, the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in urging President Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat, to end the alleged use of so-called watch lists.

At this point, our crimes are our names, ethnicities, and religion, Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed T. Khairullah said at a press conference Tuesday in South Plainfield, organized by CAIR.

Moments before he was set to arrive at the White House for the event, Khairullah received a call from a man from the White House Social Office, he said. The man said Khairullah  who is also the nations longest-serving Muslim mayor  had not been cleared for entry and his invitation to the White House Eid celebration was revoked, according to CAIR, which describes its mission as protecting the civil rights of American Muslims.

Khairullah said the issue is not that his invitation was revoked but that the government uses a leaked watch list, which includes more than a million names  many of which are Muslim or Muslim-sounding, according to CAIR. Members of the groups New Jersey chapter said their national organization has access to the list, which includes Khairullahs name and date of birth.

CAIR advocates on Tuesday said Khairullahs name on the list is a potential reason for his invitation being revoked. But Khairullah said he has no way of knowing why he is on the list or disputing it.

I call on President Biden to correct the injustices of the previous administrations by disbanding this illegal list and correcting ill-advised and racist policies, Khairullah said.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre deferred comment Tuesday to the Secret Service.

The Secret Service has confirmed that Khairullah was not allowed to to enter the White House for the event but did not disclose why.

While we regret any inconvenience this may have caused, the mayor was not allowed to enter the White House complex this evening, Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the United States Secret Service, told NJ Advance Media.

Unfortunately we are not able to comment further on the specific protective means and methods used to conduct our security operations at the White House, Guglielmi said.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy was asked Tuesday if the White House owes Khairullah an apology.

I dont know about that, Murphy told reporters after an unrelated event in Paramus. Were trying to figure out exactly what happened as we speak.

Murphy, also a Democrat, said he spoke to the mayor on Monday night and has also reached out to the White House about the incident.

Khairullah received a phone call while he was on his way to the White House Monday for an Eid al-Fitr celebration. The call was from a Secret Service agent who informed him his invitation was revoked. Khairullah and CAIR advocates said that the government watch list, which has Khairullah's name on it, is discriminatory and led to him being barred from entering.Camille Furst | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Hes a very close personal friend of mine, Murphy said of Khairullah, adding that the mayor was at an Eid celebration Saturday at Drumthwacket, the governors mansion in Princeton. I hope this is a misunderstanding.

Three of New Jerseys members of Congress, all Democrats  U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Robert Menendez and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr.  sent a letter to the Secret Service on Tuesday asking why the mayor was denied entry and to review his status.

Mayor Khairullah is a devoted public servant, close friend and the longest-serving Muslim mayor in New Jersey, proudly serving his community for over 17 years, they wrote. As a former volunteer firefighter, Mayor Khairullah has continuously demonstrated dedication to public safety.

We have long appreciated the work of the Biden administration to erase xenophobic policies of the past and turn a new chapter for America, the lawmakers added.

Khairullah was sworn in earlier this year for an unprecedented fifth term. The Democrat mayor said in January that he saw his re-election as a symbol of acceptance.

The Eid al-Fitr celebration Monday evening ran without Khairullah in attendance. Biden made remarks at the event, welcoming those in attendance to the White House.

It is the Peoples House, for real, Biden said. Its your house. Its your house.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to the report.

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Camille Furst may be reached at cfurst@njadvancemedia.com.
Seton Hall University students are planning to walk out of class at noon Wednesday to protest what they say is a lack of support from the school for the Africana Studies program.

The group, called the Protect AFAM Movement, says the program has no tenured professors and it is impossible for students to complete Africana Studies majors or minors.

The Protect AFAM Movement is asking the Catholic university to: hire three or four full-time professors; reinstate Africana Studies as a department by next spring; appoint a full-time tenured director for the program; and allow students to serve as search committee liaisons with voting power for hiring.

The programs only full-time professor and program director was forced out of the university, and our administration has failed to recognize the severity and urgency of the situation, reads part of the groups statement. The lack of fundamental resources and professors has made it impossible for students to fulfill majors and minors in Africana Studies.

University officials have delayed posting a job advertisement for a new tenured professor for the program, the group alleged. The university has also restricted students from providing verbal feedback on candidates and required them to sign nondisclosure agreements.

Students previously expressed concerns about the program.

In 2018, a group called the Concerned 44 organized a protest at Presidents Hall, occupying the space on the South Orange campus for multiple days. The protest resulted in answers to some of their demands, but none of the promises from university have seen meaningful longevity, according to a statement from the Protect AFAM Movement.

In a statement, a Seton Hall spokesperson said the university has heard the students concerns and permits peaceful, non-obstructive student demonstrations on campus.

We have continued to listen carefully and consider the requests of Concerned 44 while engaging in dialogue about the steps that will most effectively ensure the continued vitality of the program, said Laurie Pine, the universitys spokesperson.

Members of the Concerned 44 have since graduated, and the Protect AFAM Movement consists of current students. But, both groups demands are largely the same, said a Seton Hall junior who is part of the current protest group and asked that her name not be used.

Seton Hall University enthusiastically supports the discipline of Africana Studies and underscores how vital it is for all our students, independent of their major field of study, to be able to learn about their (and other) cultures, histories, and identities, Pine said.

More than 635 people had signed a Change.org petition supporting Africana Studies at Seton Hall as of Tuesday afternoon.

The Rev. Forrest Pritchett was appointed as the programs full-time interim director in January and is teaching some classes. Officials are searching for a new director and a tenure-track faculty candidate, Pine said. The search involves faculty and student participation, she said.

The faculty contract and negotiation process involve personnel matters and is confidential, with policies in place to ensure discretion and privacy for those involved, Pine said.

Established in 1970, the Africana Studies program is the oldest in New Jersey, according to school officials. It was originally a department, said the programs former director, Kelly Harris. He left Seton Hall last December and said he wholeheartedly supports the protesting students.

Harris said he left Seton Hall for two reasons: the university was not committed to developing the program and the new salary he was offered to start on the tenure track was at least $20,000 less than his current contract.

Seton Hall officials also wanted to wait until more students majored in Africana Studies before hiring more faculty members to teach, which is unusual, Harris said.

You cannot run a program, a department, and offer a major and a minor with one full-time faculty member, said Harris, who is now the senior staff director at the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Its nonsense.

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Brianna Kudisch may be reached at bkudisch@njadvancemedia.com.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that the allied countries are still discussing the issue of providing F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

"As for the fighters, this is still an issue that we must resolve with the allies. The issue is complicated. But this is a discussion that continues. From the point of view of Denmark, we have not completed it yet," she said at a press conference with participants of the Nordic summit and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Fredriksen stressed that Denmark had provided Ukraine with various types of military assistance, including artillery.
Lawyers advocating for the 5,500 mostly Hispanic, Black and poor students of Lakewood Public Schools have asked the states acting education commissioner to impose a deadline on herself for responding to the latest court ruling in a school funding case started nine years ago.

The Alcantara v. Hespe administrative law case began as a petition filed in 2014 on behalf of Leonor Alcantara and other Lakewood public school parents asking then-Commissioner David Hespe to declare that the states school funding formula failed to adequately pay for Lakewood Public Schools needs and deprived students of their right to a thorough and efficient education under the New Jersey Constitution.
By Lisa E. Davis

As philosopher George Santayana said, those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Today, May 3, is the National Day of Action for the Freedom to Learn, which brings together thousands of people in dozens of states to unite everyone who believes in truth, including activists and racial justice allies in the fight against the right to learn across this country, and most especially the College Boards and the state of Floridas assaults on the African American Studies AP curriculum.

Attacks on knowledge generally, and African-American history specifically, are an attempt to erase the gains of the 20th century and return this country to one of patriarchal white supremacist rule. The effort to erase African-American history is a frontal assault on democracy, since the study of African American history requires students to confront the contradiction between the ideals of freedom for all presented in the Declaration of Independence and the founders decision to deny that freedom to an entire group of people for more than two centuries.

The fight over the content of the College Boards A.P. African-American Studies course is part and parcel of a broader fight against an authoritarian assault on education. Twenty-one states have laws banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory, which they have mischaracterized as any study of Black people.

Sweeping book bans are being enacted across the country that empower one right-wing individual to challenge books they admit they have not read, resulting in the wholesale removal of books by or about Black people, or about LGBTQ people (or even penguins). Efforts to restrict education about race and racism have been introduced in 36 states; evidence that the effort to erase Black history is not limited to the former states of the Confederacy.

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An honest accounting of Black history requires an acknowledgment of the central and ongoing role of Black people in perfecting this union and gaining freedom, not only for themselves but for all Americans. It requires an acknowledgment of the contributions of Black Americans to culture and innovation that power American exceptionalism and it requires a study of African civilizations so that students understand that Black people were not slaves, but enslaved people ripped from rich and complex societies on their native continent.

Black children who grow up without that knowledge are susceptible to the belief that structural inequities like the racial wealth gap are the result of some inherent deficiency in Black people, rather than the result of targeted actions and policy decisions.

They will not learn how the deliberate destruction of thriving Black communities from Tulsa to Rosewood and the prohibition on reinvestment in those communities through federally mandated redlining created the crisis conditions of many modern urban neighborhoods. Non-Black children who grow up without that history are at risk of becoming adults who mistakenly view the presence of white people at the top of a racial hierarchy as evidence of their superiority.

New Jersey has been a front-runner in recognizing the importance of teaching African-American history, passing the Amistad Law in 2002, which mandated the integration of African-American history into the social studies curriculum. Unfortunately, the law was seldom enforced until 2019, when Gov. Phil Murphys administration announced that districts that failed to comply with the law would lose points on their state evaluations.

Now is the time for Governor Murphy and the state Department of Education to double down and show their support for the importance of African-American history by pressing the College Board to fully reinstate the elements of its AP course removed in an effort to appease De Santis.

It is critical that educational institutions, from the College Board to local school boards, resist the pressure to distort facts and suppress texts in a misguided effort to mollify the opponents of an honest accounting of African-American history, LGBTQ history or the history of any marginalized group of Americans. They should recognize that demagogues like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis seek hollowed-out curriculum specifications that demean, malign and caricature Black life and the study of it.

After all, even our deeply flawed Founding Fathers, from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to James Madison and John Adams, understood that the free flow of information and widespread public education is essential to maintaining a thriving democracy. People who seek to censor history, ban books, and shutter libraries are not patriots, but despots. We need to fight them with everything weve got.

Lisa E. Davis is a member of the board of trustees of SOMA Action and a parent of two children educated in South Orange/Maplewood schools.

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By Raymond Lesniak

The Biden administration rightly expressed concern over Americans in prison in Russia. It should likewise be concerned about the 300 children and 200 families  including two families from New Jersey  who were in the process of adoption when Putin invaded Ukraine. These children were in Eastern Ukraine orphanages and were evacuated to Poland for their safety.

My plea is to Sen. Bob Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is for him to ask Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to enact a humanitarian parole policy from the Department of Homeland Security for these Ukrainian orphans like the policy enacted in 2010 for 1,200 Haitian orphans. This policy would allow the children to come to America and be joined with their adoptive families until the war ended and the children returned to Ukraine for the adoption process to be completed.

Ive sent a request to the entire New Jersey congressional delegation, Democrats and Republicans, to circulate a delegation letter seeking the same relief. So far, only U.S. Rep Norcross has signed a delegation letter.

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For two months in the beginning of 2022, Andres and Farrah Mejia hosted two Ukrainian orphans they are in the process of adopting in their home in Hamilton Square. The children were returned to their orphanage in Ukraine where, a few weeks later, their city was subjected to Putins war.

Andres and Farrah grew increasingly concerned for the welfare of the two children they had already bonded with and promised a safe and loving home. Unfortunately, when they reached out to the adoption authorities to offer to harbor the children for an extended period of time in their home and pay for all the care of the children, their request was denied.

The two children were separated and sent to an emergency shelter in Italy. Andres and Farrah have been notified that the children are being recalled to go back to Ukraine, while the war wages. Unfortunately, the children are separated and are missing each other and currently living in sub-par conditions for over a year with no hope as to when they may be reunited with Andres and Farrah. Andres and Farrah grow increasingly worried for the welfare of the two children they have bonded with.

Another New Jersey family received official approval to adopt two Ukrainian orphans from the United States Citizen and Immigration Services in May 2021. They had hosted the two children in New Jersey twice. Once for three months and once for five weeks. The family formed a beautiful bond with them as they showed the children their favorite places in New Jersey and welcomed them into their local vibrant Ukrainian culture festivals and churches. The children were returned to Ukraine to complete the adoption process.

Unfortunately, when the war broke out, the childrens city was bombed. The children were sheltering in the basement of their orphanage hiding out for weeks until the decision to flee to Poland was decided by the orphanage leaders and Ukrainian government. The children are now living in a crowded emergency shelter with 116 other orphans in Poland in sub-par conditions. The other United States families have similar stories about the children they were in the process of adopting.

These orphans and their adopted families were fully vetted as children without parents and as suitable families for adoption by American families. For more than one year these children have been in limbo not knowing when they will be bonded with their loving families. These two New Jersey families along with the 198 other families from throughout the United States are begging their elected representatives in Congress for help.

To Senator Menendez and New Jerseys congressional delegation: Please help and ask  no demand that the Biden administration grant administrative parole so these children can come to America and be joined with their adoptive families until the war in Ukraine has ended.

Raymond (Ray) Lesniak served in the State Senate from 1983 to 2018 and in the General Assembly from 1978 to 1983.

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In the recent Star-Ledger editorial, House GOPs debt ceiling bill is a drown-the-government fantasy, you comment that your invitation for comments from New Jerseys Republican House members  Tom Kean, Jr., Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew  have been met with radio silence. All three of them voted for this bill.

Particularly as it relates to Kean, R-7th Dist., I dont know why you would be surprised in the least. In last years election cycle, we learned that his attack ads were a far more effective strategy to win an election than to respond to and engage in debate on policy positions.

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When Kean joined the (bipartisan) Problem Solvers Caucus in the House, many hoped that it would lead to trying to solve some problems. To this point, Keans voting record shows him to be a loyal foot soldier of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. I can only presume that this is payback for the financial support that Kean received from GOP House leadership to get elected last year.

If Kean wanted to show a desire to solve a problem, now would be the time to band together with the other members of the caucus and try to be a leader instead of just a follower.

Kirk Bonamici, Bedminster

Bias still pervades state police

I just want to thank NJ Advance Media for having the courage to do the story Veteran Black troopers claim racial discrimination still rampant at State Police  naming names, which the public is now aware of  and once again describing how the good old boys system works.

It would be nice if we immediately began to see some sign from Gov. Phil Murphy that he is paying attention to discrimination in New Jersey State Police promotions and show some courage on this issue. Especially, he should assure that those who have filed complaints after being denied advancement are not retaliated against.

Its all a big frat house, one attorney representing these troopers stated.

This system is a threat to anyone seeking justice and to the taxpayers.

Clearly, federal oversight due to racism in state police practices, which concluded a decade ago, never should have ended.

Barbara Briemer, Westfield

My old Kentucky home

Again, the first week in May brings us the Kentucky Derby, The greatest two minutes in sports, and the Star-Ledger prints nothing about the May 6 horse race. That is, until the last minute, with an article from Columnist Emeritus Jerry Izenburg that puts down the City of Louisville and tells us little about the horses running.

When he finally did tell us in another article about the upcoming race, horses, jockeys and others who contribute to the derby, his reporting was fair. But Derby Week is more than Churchill Downs. I know. I used to live around there. In spite of its recent troubles, Louisville is a good place to live and work. And, go to the races, if you can.

Although Izenberg, who covered the derby in person for decades, is not traveling to Louisville this year, hopefully the Star-Ledgers future coverage will concentrate on the races themselves, and not Izenbergs uncivil opinion of the city.

Kathleen Maddux Pearlman, Verona

Embedded Republicans

Can someone explain to me why the Republican Party, which, until very recently was devoted to small government and personal freedoms, has done a 180-degree about face?

Now it is the Republicans who want government involved in all aspects of our personal lives  in our bedrooms, in our bathrooms, in our libraries, in our doctors offices, in our pharmacies and in our schools.

Please enlighten me.

Jill Slattery, West Orange

Save the courtesy buses

This concerns N.J. high school district ending bus service for 3,000 students, an article about the Freehold Regional High School District. It is eliminating busing this fall in eight sending towns, when students live closer to their schools than a 2 1/2-mile distance beyond which the state mandates district-paid transportation.

Herea an idea:

How about we take some of the unspent federal COVID-19 relief money that weve sent to schools in New Jersey, and direct some of it to the Freehold district so that courtesy busing can continue?

Why drop this new burden on working parents by eliminating the bus service? Do some good with that Covid money, finally!

Tom Varga, Piscataway

Think how N.J. can aid release of older inmates

It would be refreshing if New Jersey led the nation in something as beautiful and humane as granting parole to geriatric prison inmates. However, we must be careful to not put the cart before the horse and create greater problems for them.

Groups such as SecondLook are backing potential legislation to increase the rate of these releases. But this legislation would have to be accompanied by well-thought-out programs for elderly parolees assimilation into society. We cannot just drop them into the community with a handshake and good wishes.

This is where New Jersey falls down on every issue all the time. We need people in Trenton who can think an issue through, focus on the total picture and do the job right the first time.

These are peoples lives at stake. We cannot afford to backtrack on mistakes. Time is of the essence for these hopefully paroled citizens.

Theresa Ward, Edison

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Four people were hurt after a stolen car being chased by police from Passaic County into Essex County crashed into two vehicles in Newark on Tuesday night, authorities said.

The incident began about 7:15 p.m. when a police officer spotted a 2020 Audi stolen out of Hazlet traveling in the area of Broad Street and Elmwood Drive in Clifton.

The driver refused to pull over for a traffic stop, instead leading police on a chase through Clifton, onto Route 3 East, Route 21 South and into Newark, according to Clifton police Detective. Lt. Robert Bracken.

The stolen car crashed into two other vehicles in the area of Grafton Avenue and Broadway in Newark. Three people inside the stolen car ran as officers chased the suspects and other officers tended to victims of the crash, Bracken said.

The foot pursuit continued through the streets of Newark and eventually into a nearby housing complex, where the suspects were able to evade capture, Bracken said. The suspects remain at large.

The victims all reported minor injuries. One police officer was treated by EMS at the scene for an injury he received during the foot chase, Bracken said.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to strict liability vehicular homicide for his role in a 2022 crash in Sussex County that resulted in the death of his passenger, the Sussex County Prosecutors Office announced Monday.

John Frisbie, 31, of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, also pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated. He appeared before state Superior Court Judge Michael Gaus on April 26, the prosecutors office said. Frisbies sentencing is scheduled for July 14.

Frisbie was operating a 2015 Harley Davidson south on Route 521 on June 18, 2022, with a group of motorcycle riders out for a Fathers Day weekend ride that had started in New York State, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
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Two inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been successfully carried out at the Rivne NPP under an agreement between Ukraine and the agency in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

As the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine reported on its website on Wednesday, the inspections were carried out by agency inspectors with the participation of the state inspector of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate.

"The purpose of the inspections is to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear materials and information on the design of the nuclear installation provided by Ukraine in accordance with the agreement," the inspection noted.

Based on the results of the check, there are no comments from the IAEA inspectors, the regulator stated.
The Louisiana House Labor Committee May 3 defeated proposals to clearly make discriminating against LGBTQ people in the workforce illegal and to raise the minimum wage in the state for the first time in 14 years.

Currently, Louisiana law states that its unlawful for an employer to discriminate against any individual based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or natural, protective, or cultural hairstyle. House Bill 40 by Rep. Delisha Boyd, a New Orleans Democrat, would have added sexual orientation or gender identity.

In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act, which outlaws discrimination based on sex in employment, also prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. More than 20 states have put workplace protections for LGBTQ people into state law.

Jasmine Kemp, a transgender person from Bogalusa, said they have not been able to find work in their parish because of discrimination from local business owners.

I have been told by some of the local business owners that part of the reason they do not want to hire me is because they are afraid of how their customers will react to a transgender person working in their establishments, Kemp said.

John Raymond, a St. Tammany pastor who is being sued by parents for allegedly abusing students as headmaster of Lakeside Christian Academy, testified against the bill, falsely claiming it would force an employer to hire any LGBTQ person who applies for a job. In reality, the bill would have made it illegal to not hire someone solely because they are queer, just as current law makes it illegal to not hire someone solely because they are Black or solely because they are a woman.

Don't you think that as Christians, we should be the first person to say, I'll give you a chance? Rep. Kenny Cox, a Natchitoches Democrat, asked Raymond.

Raymond argued that employers should be allowed to discriminate against LGBTQ people, and that a law making it illegal to do so would somehow amount to discriminating against employers.

This is more about not rejection but selection, and the business owner should have the right and freedom to select the people that will represent their company and their brand to their customers because they're the ones that's laying everything on the line and taking all the risk, he said.

Black lawmakers talked about their and their familys experience with workplace discrimination and said the arguments being made against the bill were similar to ones made against the Civil Rights Act.

There was once upon a time that people felt the exact same way about African Americans working and hiring African Americans to work, Boyd said. We are moving with the time. Times change. And there are 100 people in this room and in this building today that would beg to differ on this being a lifestyle choice. They are who they are.

Still, the committee voted 5-7 against the bill.

The second bill, House Bill 374 by Alexandria Democrat Rep. Ed Larvadain, would have raised the minimum wage in Louisiana from the federal minimum wage of $7.25 to $10 an hour starting Jan. 1. The bill also set additional increases to $12 starting in 2026 and then to $14 in 2028.

Republicans in the committee said they dont believe theres a need for a state minimum wage and that the real problem is that there arent enough workers in the state who are trained or skilled.

Rep. Beryl Amedee, a Houma Republican, said she didnt understand why anyone working a low wage job would stay working there for years.

They've now gained skills and experience, she said. Why don't they seek a raise or seek employment with a competitor that might pay them more?

Kenya Slaughter, a former dollar store employee, said a person might stay in a low-paying job because they have limited access to transportation, schooling and childcare options and time and resources to apply for other jobs.

It isn't as easy as going to go get another job, she said.

Amedee said that she didnt think anyone should be making $7.25 an hour but went on to vote against the bill. The committee rejected the bill 5-9, keeping Louisiana one of five states without its own minimum wage.

Louisiana lawmakers move closer to banning gender-affirming health care for youth If signed into law, nobody under 18 in Louisiana would be able to receive gender-affirming health care.
Family and friends of the victim hit by a car Saturday said they are hoping soon to find the driver who sent their loved one off of her bike and left her badly injured on the median.
When Terry Winters came home to Jefferson Parish after 36 years in prison for drug offenses, he had trouble finding work due to his criminal record.

But thanks to help from United Way and other groups, Winters took finance and life skills classes and eventually found a job at Ochsner Health. He has worked nonstop, usually two jobs at once, to pay for his daughters school. The efforts paid off: she graduated from Jackson State University this year.

Id come home with nothing but the clothes on my back, he said. They worked with me, taught me job skills, how to go to a job, how to represent yourself on the job. After helping me I was able to help my baby girl.

The transition back into the community can be challenging for people who were formerly incarcerated and often face barriers when it comes to obtaining housing, a job and medical care.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The resolution on the "Rules of Operations with Virtual assets in the Republic of Azerbaijan" is aimed at preventing money laundering, Director General of Azerbaijan's Central Bank (CBA) Togrul Aliyev said during a press conference on changes in parameters of the discount rate, Trend reports.

According to him, this resolution is not related to the regulation of cryptocurrencies and/or digital currencies.

He pointed out that there are no players in Azerbaijan who conduct operations with virtual assets for today.

Governor of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Taleh Kazimov signed a resolution on "Rules of operations with virtual assets in the Republic of Azerbaijan". According to articles 4.2.3 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On combating the legalization of property obtained by Criminal Means and the Financing of Terrorism" and 22.0.17 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan", the Board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan approved the "Rules of Operations with virtual assets in the Republic of Azerbaijan".
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The EU is studying the investment potential in Azerbaijan, EU Ambassador to Azerbaijan Peter Michalko told Trend during an event dedicated to World Press Freedom Day 2023.

"Today there are about 400 European companies operating in Azerbaijan. I can say that Azerbaijan has a huge potential. And we observe that European investors are showing interest in the country's business environment. I would like to note that cooperation in the field of mutual investments between Azerbaijan and the EU can also serve as a reliable link between countries outside the EU. In this issue, it is worth emphasizing the role of the Middle Corridor, since this route is very relevant now, especially for Azerbaijan, and will serve as the main link in Eurasia in the future," Michalko said.

Meanwhile, the EU-Azerbaijan Business Forum was held in Baku on May 17, 2022.

The main purpose of this forum is to expand economic and investment cooperation between the country and the EU, as well as to inform European business circles about the investment potential of the country.
Astra Tech (Astra), a leading UAE consumer technology group, has signed a partnership with Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, to enable customers to book flights through Botim.

Botim is the Mena regions leading VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solution, which was recently relaunched as an Ultra app. The partnership was signed at the Arabian Travel Market, between Etihad CEO Antonoaldo Neves and Astra Techs Founder, Abdallah Abu Sheikh.

With this partnership, Astra Tech and Etihad are providing customers with a fresh and hassle-free approach to booking flights. Through the Botim GPT module developed by Astra Tech, flights and other travel-related services are integrated into the Botim app, offering a convenient and innovative way for customers to book Etihad flights.

Evolving needs

The partnership aims to enhance the travel experience for customers by focusing on promotions and financing solutions, underscoring the companies' steadfast commitment to delivering innovative and customer-focused solutions that meet the evolving needs of today's travellers. Working together, Etihad and Astra Tech will provide customers with a comprehensive and integrated travel experience that simplifies the process of booking flights and accessing other travel-related services. The integration of flights into the Botim app enables customers to enjoy a more convenient and all-inclusive travel experience, making it easier than ever before to plan their travels.

Neves said: This partnership provides a unique opportunity to launch flight bookings on Botim, a communications platform that families and friends use to stay connected. By integrating flight bookings into the application, Etihad becomes a part of the conversation, making it convenient for guests to book flights without leaving the platform.

Additionally, the integration of new payment options, including installment plans, simplifies the booking process for customers. Etihad is committed to staying at the forefront of the constantly evolving digital landscape by exploring and adopting innovative solutions, such as GPT-enabled flight bookings, to deliver the best possible experiences to its guests.

Sheikh said: This partnership will allow us to offer a never-seen-before feature to Botim users. We are revolutionising the way people will book flights by making it as easy as asking a question. This represents our ability to connect people, not only virtually but physically, all around the world using the latest technology in artificial intelligence.-- TradeArabia News Service
FUZULI, Azerbaijan, May 3. Azerbaijan is one of two countries that can provide energy supplies to Europe, Robert M. Cutler, Fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, is participating in the international conference themed "Shaping the geopolitics of Greater Eurasia: from past to present and future", dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev, told Trend.

"There are only two countries in the world that have serious prospects for gas and oil supplies to Europe - Norway and Azerbaijan," Cutler said.

According to him, Azerbaijan has significant energy resources offshore, which Europe needs, but their potential is not fully realized due to the energy policy of the EU, which, in particular, focused on the purchase of gas from Russia via the Nord Stream pipeline.

The expert also noted the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor, which, according to him, is one of the most important achievements of international energy cooperation in the post-Soviet era.

"The Southern Gas Corridor project was implemented on the initiative of Azerbaijan, and the first step was the construction of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP). In turn, TANAP served as an incentive for the formation of the entire corridor, including the Trans Adriatic Pipeline and the expansion of the pipeline, which was first called Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, also known as the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP)," Cutler added.

Some 60 representatives from more than 30 countries are taking part in the international conference held in Azerbaijan's capital Baku and Shusha on May 2-4.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Azerbaijan and Poland pay great attention to the mutual development of trade and economic relations, Polish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Rafa Poborski said at an event on the occasion of the next anniversary of the adoption of the Polish Constitution, Trend reports.

According to the ambassador, there has been a positive dynamic of trade turnover between the two countries over the past few years.

"According to the latest statistical data, Poland's exports to Azerbaijan have grown by 98 percent, while Azerbaijan's exports to Poland have increased more than 5.5 times," Poborski said.

He noted that investment cooperation is also developing between both countries.

"Only in recent months, the Polish Embassy initiated a number of business missions to the country for Azerbaijani partners. The launch of a direct flight on the Warsaw-Baku route by the LOT Polish Airlines more than a year ago also contributes to the development of mutual contacts between entrepreneurs and citizens of the two countries," Poborski said.

Poland celebrates the 232nd anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution on May 3, 2023.
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SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, May 3. The Zangezur corridor will benefit not only Azerbaijan and Turkiye, but also the entire Turkic world, Yashar Sari, Director of Haydar Aliyev Eurasian Studies Center of Ibn Haldun University in Turkiye, participating in the international conference themed "Shaping the geopolitics of Greater Eurasia: from past to present and future", dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev, told Trend.

According to the expert, the Zangezur corridor will also be beneficial, in particular, to China in the framework of its global initiative One Belt, One Road and the EU, which seeks to establish transit traffic at the global level.

Speaking about the Azerbaijani-Turkish relations, which are very strong, the director emphasized their importance.

"When our countries are experiencing difficulties, we help each other," said Sari, adding that these relations can be expanded to other countries through the support of the Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States.

Sari also said that he was very glad to visit the territories of Azerbaijan liberated from Armenian occupation.

Some 60 representatives from more than 30 countries are taking part in the international conference held in Azerbaijan's capital Baku and Shusha on May 2-4.
Representatives from a Fortune 500 commercial real estate firm will give a talk to the Gary Chamber of Commerce next week.

Anne Rahm, Peter Livaditis and Chris Deutscher from CBRE, Inc. will address the Gary Chamber of Commerce at its monthly general membership meeting and luncheon at noon Monday at the Hard Rock Casino Council Oak Steak House at 5400 W. 29th Ave. in Gary.

CBRE is the worlds largest commercial real estate services firm and a Fortune 500 company that serves more than 90 of the 100 companies in the Fortune 100, according to the chamber's announcement.

"Rahm provides strategic planning, development and brokerage services to government entities and education institutions nationwide. With extensive experience in real estate Capital Markets and corporate banking, Rahm offers her clients advanced execution strategies and customized financing solutions," the Gary Chamber of Commerce said in a news release. "Livaditis leads a team that focuses on providing integrated transaction services to clients in the Chicago market and globally. Recognized nationally, he provides innovative market strategies to CBRE clients. Deutscher, a lifetime resident of Northwest Indiana, focuses on attracting new businesses and residents to Northern Indiana by promoting the real estate to serve their needs."

They will address how CBRE services could benefit the city of Gary and the greater Calumet Region.

Doors open at 11:30 a.m. for networking and attendees are encouraged to bring their business cards.

The luncheon costs $25 per person and requires advance payment to reserve a seat. Visa, American Express and MasterCard credit and debit cards are accepted.

For more information or to reserve a seat, call 219-885-7407.
The 2023 construction season on the Metra commuter railroad began a month ago and includes a variety of projects on its Electric Line serving the south suburbs and shared with the South Shore Line into the city.

Projects undertaken by Metra and its railroad and municipal partners are focused on its stations and will continue through the fall, the railroad said this week.

Metra said $119.5 million  nearly a quarter of its annual capital spending  will go toward rebuilding and renewing station facilities as part of a five-year plan that includes improvement projects for about 20% of Metras stations, now numbering 242 but growing to 244 soon.

Clean, modern, and accessible passenger facilities are an integral part of a good customer experience and create a welcoming gateway to a community, said Metra Executive Director/CEO Jim Derwinski in the railroad's announcement of the construction program. For that reason, our capital plans over the next several years are focused on investments in stations across the Metra system.

Projects on the Electric Line are part of the Metra Electric Community Initiative, a multiyear plan to improve 13 stations, the railroad said. Work is continuing this year at the 147th Street Station and scheduled to start at the Homewood, 95th, 79th, 87th, 103rd and Millennium (South Water entrance) stations. Plans are to renew station facilities and focus on accessibility features, such as elevators, Metra said.

Metra is also planning to replace the existing wooden platforms at the 83rd Street and 67th Street stations and the stairs and retaining walls at 27th Street. Major station projects are also being planned in 2024 for the Van Buren, 59th-60th St./University of Chicago, 111th Street/Pullman and Harvey stations.

Work will also be done on track and signal systems, with replacement of nearly 210,000 ties, at least 7,500 feet of rail, and 24 crossings in 2023, according to Metra.

"We also plan two separate projects to test new technologies that monitor the performance of safety equipment at rail crossings, with the goal of using that data to proactively identify maintenance needs," Metra said in the program announcement.

Specific projects on the Metra Electric Line, all in Chicago unless otherwise noted, are:

Station improvements

 147th Street/Sibley in Harvey, ongoing work to rehabilitate station

 Homewood station, rehabilitation of facilities and access tunnel

 Millennium Station South Water Street, rehabilitation of the station facilities and access points

 79th Street, Chatham, rehabilitation of station and platforms

 87th Street, Woodruff, rehabilitation of station and platforms

 95th Street, Chicago State University, rehabilitation of station and platforms

 103rd Street, Rosemoor Station, rehabilitation of station and platforms

 83rd Street, platform replacement

 67th Street, platform replacement

 27th Street, stair and retaining wall repairs

Crossing replacements

 78th Street (South Chicago Branch)

 Jeffrey Boulevard (South Chicago Branch)

 Stewart Avenue (Blue Island Branch)

 Wallace Avenue (Blue Island Branch)

Track projects

 Replacement of 38,000 ties between Adams Street and 111th Street

 Replacement of 900 ties between Randolph Street and 11th Place in Chicago

 Replacement of 2,000 feet of rail to fix worn curves at the north end of McCormick Place

Bridges

 Ongoing project to repair bridge columns

Signal/communications

 Install remote monitoring system at 14 grade crossings along the South Chicago Branch to detect anomalies and repair critical safety devices

Metra said that most work will be performed during off-peak hours and on weekends, and that it will make schedule adjustments to accommodate construction as needed. The construction schedules will be posted on its website, metra.com.

PHOTOS: Gary mayoral primary Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night
FUZULI, Azerbaijan, May 3. The plane with the participants of the international conference themed "Shaping the Geopolitics of the Greater Eurasia: from Past to Present to Future", dedicated to the centennial anniversary of Heydar Aliyev, landed at Fuzuli International Airport, Trend reports from the scene.

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs at the US Department of State David Merkel, First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis (Parliament) of Uzbekistan Sodyq Safoev, CEO of the Lagazetteaz.fr online newspaper, founded by Trend News Agency in France, Jean-Michel Brun and other guests are taking part in the visit.

The conference participants will go to Shusha city.

The international conference is being held on May 2-4 in Baku and Shusha with the participation of up to 60 representatives from more than 30 countries.

The first day of the event featured panel discussions held at ADA University in Baku with the participation of Rector of ADA University Hafiz Pashayev, former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan, former co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza, David Merkel, Sodyq Safoev, former Georgian Ambassador to the US and Canada Tedo Japaridze, Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan - Head of the Department for Economic Affairs and Innovative Development Policy Shahmar Movsumov, Minister of Digital Development and Transportation Rashad Nabiyev, and others.
Valparaiso Community/University Concert Band will play its annual Memorial Day Concert at the Memorial Opera House in Valparaiso.

Director Jeff Doebler will conduct the band at 3 p.m. on Monday, May 29 at 104 Indiana Ave. in downtown Valparaiso. Doors open at 2:30 p.m.

The 17th annual Valparaiso Memorial Day Concert will feature patriotic band music in the vein of "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and other John Philips Sousa marches.

It's a free concert with general admission seating but reservations are required. Attendees are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to drop off in the courtyard between Memorial Opera House and Porter County Museum for the benefit of the Christian Food Pantry of Valparaiso.

The concert is expected to run around an hour with no intermission.

The performance will take place in the historic 130-year-old venue that Valparaiso raised money to build after a Civil War veteran delivered a rousing speech at a Grand Army of the Republic meeting. Dedicated the Civil War veterans from Porter County, it's hosted countless lectures, concerts and performances over the decades.

Notable performers to grace the stage include Sousa, the Marx Brothers and Bronte, the mathematical or mind-reading dog."

For more information or tickets, visit memorialoperahouse.com, call 219.548.9137 or email tickets@memorialoperahouse.com.
How to help

Are you an animal lover who is comfortable engaging with a friendly dog?

Emily Klehm, CEO of the South Suburban Humane Society in Homewood, offers these tips:

Look for ID. If you find a stray, the first way to get the dog home would be to look for tags on the collar that may include the pets name and contact information for the owner. If this is the case, a reunion can be fairly easy  possibly with a simple phone call.

If there isn't visual ID, consider walking/driving around where you found the pet to see if anyone is out looking said Klehm.

Check for microchip. In many cases, a dog that has been adopted through a shelter or rescue will have had a microchip implanted before or shortly after it goes to its forever home.

Any shelter or veterinary hospital can scan the pet, and many police departments also have microchip scanners, said Klehm.

Start your search. If you can't link pet to the owner, put the word out that you have found a dog. Social media is a powerful tool in making such connections.

Post a photo of the found animal on your social media channels and ask if anyone may know the dog and owner. Most lost dogs do not stray far from home, so this can get the ball rolling. Online groups and apps can also be helpful.

If the pet is not chipped, post the found pet everywhere, said Klehm. Facebook neighborhood groups, the Ring app and NextDoor are the best places to go first.
CROWN POINT  Trial proceedings continued Tuesday with testimony from a co-defendant in the murder trial against an East Chicago man accused of killing a woman because she shorted him $10.

Kevin Varner was charged with charged with murder, unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon and firearm enhancement for allegedly shooting 21-year-old Danielle Brown Feb. 12.

Varner, 51, has decided to represent himself in court, despite the fact that all defendants are offered court-appointed attorneys if they cannot afford one.

On the first day of trial, Varner admitted to killing Brown in his opening statements, but he said it was an act of self-defense.

Charging documents allege that on Feb. 12, Varner sold Brown marijuana and she shorted him $10. Varner then purportedly had Steven Nash drive him to Browns friends house, located in the 1000 block of Durbin Street in Gary, where Varner shot her with an AK-47.

The probable cause affidavit referred to Nash as Varners nephew, but Nash testified in court on Tuesday that Varner is his cousin.

Nash was also facing murder charges, until he entered a plea agreement on April 13. The deal stipulated that Nash will plead guilty to assisting a criminal in exchange for his cooperation with prosecutors.

Nash testified during pretrial depositions that Brown was purchasing marijuana from Varner, but he said in court Tuesday that Brown bought if from him. He said that he originally lied because he was scared of catching additional charges.

Your statements keep changing, Varner said.

Varner attempted to find inconsistencies in Nashs statements throughout his testimony. Varner asked Nash multiple times if he was saying whatever will satisfy the prosecutors, and each time Nash said no.

Varner also asked Nash if he, Brown and the other man at the house when she was shot had organized a plot to rob and kill Varner, and again Nash said no.

Prosecutor Bernie Johnsen asked Nash if Brown had any weapons on her when he went to the house, and Nash said she did not. Nash said she usually carries a gun, but she didnt have one that day.

Prosecutors filed motions ahead of trial to prevent Varner from bringing up Browns criminal history, particularly in reference to a purported stabbing in East Chicago. The states motion mentions that Brown laughed at a person she allegedly just stabbed in East Chicago, Indiana, in September of 2022.

Brown allegedly sliced a womans face with a box cutter in January and was charged with stabbing a Chicago man in the neck in July.

Court records did not indicate whether the states motion was granted.

Myrna Maldonado, a spokesperson from the Lake County Prosecutors office, said the states motion was partially granted to allow some information, but not all of it. She could not specify which information was allowed.

Varners trial is set to continue on Wednesday in Judge Samuel Cappass courtroom.
A plan to reduce bullying in Indiana schools, championed by state Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, is set to take effect before classes resume following summer break.

The Indiana General Assembly last month gave final approval to House Enrolled Act 1483, sending it with near-unanimous support to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to be signed into law.

The legislation requires all Indiana school corporations to update their discipline rules after July 1 to include provisions prioritizing the safety of bullying victims, as well as to ensure bullying incidents are reported to the parents of the victim and the alleged perpetrator no more than five business days following the incident, instead of in merely an "expedited" manner.

It also permits school corporations to include in their discipline rules specific guidelines for determining whether a bullying incident warrants the forced transfer of the victim or the alleged perpetrator to a different school in the district.

"As an educator and a mentor to young people in my district, it's heartbreaking to hear about the things children go through in school. Oftentimes, parents don't know their child is being bullied, or that their child is a bully. This legislation will change that by requiring schools to contact both sets of parents, and will hopefully lead to conversations within families that will stop the bullying," Smith said.

"In the event bullying continues, this bill also provides avenues for victims or perpetrators to be separated. This bill is the culmination of five years of work on my part, and I'm glad to see that it's finally come to fruition," he added.

Smith said he was inspired to push for anti-bullying legislation this year following the March 6 death by suicide of Terry Badger III, a 13-year-old seventh grader in Covington, Indiana, who said bullying at his middle school led him to end his life.

"Too often, young people take their own lives because they're being bullied. They feel like there's no escape," Smith said. "There is nothing we can do bring this young man back or ease the pain his family feels in his absence, but my hope is that this legislation will prevent more children from feeling suicide is their only way out."

Records show every lawmaker of both political parties in the House and the Senate supported the legislation, except Republican state Sens. Gary Byrne of Byrneville, Chip Perfect of Lawrenceburg, and Jim Tomes of Wadesville.

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VALPARAISO  In a search for the next Valparaiso School Board member, the Valparaiso City Council interviewed five candidates Monday evening.

Valparaiso Community Schools is unique from many other school boards in that its board its appointed by the council rather than elected by voters.

Karl Cender, a CPA and financial consultant, was the first candidate interviewed. Cender has prior experience on the school board, having served from 2010-2022. He served as board president in 2021. In the interview, Cender was asked to address why he stepped down in 2022.

"We were going through a lengthy process with the referendum and I thought if we get this passed, it might be good to take a break," he said, referring to a tax increase approved by voters in May 2022. "Its been good to have a year off just to refocus a little bit. I fully enjoyed my time on the school board. I do care deeply about our community and our schools, I believe, are an essential part of our community. So if I can use my gifts and talent to help further our school system, I believe I'm helping to further the community."

Cender stressed that his finance experience, which often revolved around consulting for local governments, will be an asset to the district.

"Especially in this time we're in," he said. "We all hear rumblings that the economy is getting a little bit soft and we may have to make some adjustments in the future."

The second candidate, Ashley Kruse, who works in IT, said what makes her unique is that she is a millennial.

"Millennials consist of approximately 40% of Valparaiso's adult population," she said. "It's our children that are currently and going to be populating our schools for the next 10-20 years, yet we have no representation on the school board. ... Now, I'm not saying that this is the only reason you should choose me. I feel I have great qualifications, and I bring some great skills and abilities to the table that will compliment our current board nicely, but what I am saying is that representation matters and the life experiences and the perspectives of this demographic are unique and they're important."

She pointed out that millennials, having gone through school during the Columbine High School massacre and 9/11 are particularly concerned about safety. She also said that having grown up alongside the boom of internet, her generation is uniquely attuned to technology's impact on education. And she said millennials bring the unique perspective of having grown up amidst the Great Recession and its impact on education.

Kruse also spoke about her experience in IT and how she could improve the district's technology systems. Kruse has children attending VCS schools.

"I am someone who is committed to education not just as a policy issue but as a personal value," she said. "I personally believe education is one of the greatest equalizers of opportunity that there is."

The third applicant was Clay Patton, an attorney who stressed his experience in local government management. He also spoke about his family's connection to the district.

"My youngest is in eighth grade," he said. "When she walks through the doors of Valparaiso High School next fall, she will be the 14th member of my immediate family to be a student at Valparaiso High School."

Although he acknowledged he hadn't regularly attended board meetings before like some of the other candidates, he claimed he reviewed the past five years of meeting minutes this past weekend. He said he'd take a more hands off approachwhen working with administration.

"The board meets once a month," he said. "Those administrators are working 40, 50, 60 hours a week and they know what's going on. Let the administration do the day-to-day. The board's rule is oversight and to be contacted by community members and get feedback where feedback is needed and to sometimes ask the tough questions."

The fourth candidate was Alison Quackenbush, who runs Quackenbush Consulting. She described herself as a community organizer.

"This is the first time I've ever actually put my name in the hat," she said. "All my volunteerism to date has just been grassroots. This actually feels much more official."

Like Patton, Quackenbush stressed that she has children in the district. She has two sons that currently attend Thomas Jefferson Middle School.

"I think that is probably one of the more important criteria," she said. "Because out current school board right now  and the reason I was moved to put my name in there  doesn't have a lot of actual fresh faces or people who have current kids in school."

Another reason she applied for the position is that she is a former teacher. She taught middle school science, social sciences and health. She attended Naperville, Illinois schools, which she called "one of the greatest districts in the country." She said she hopes her children are able to say the same thing when they graduate Valparaiso High.

The final candidate was Curtiss Strietelmeier, a public sector funding strategist at CDW.

"I've probably been to a couple hundred school board meetings in my life," he said, explaining that his job requires him to. "With the Valparaiso school district, I will say, I have not done a lot with the school board themself because honestly I haven't had a reason to. With my kids, I trust the school board. They do a great job."

Strietelmeier cited four main strengths: his connection to the district  he has a wife that works for VCS and children attending the schools  the fact that he's a former educator, his job  where he advises school districts on financial matters  and his ability to see things with both a national and local viewpoint.

"The superintendent, in my view, is the CEO of a very large company," he said. "As a school board, we hired him to do that role. He is there to take care of day-to-day duties. he has responsibilities that go along with that school. We have to allow him to do his job. The last thing we need to be doing as a group is over there micromanaging and second guessing what his decisions are."

The City Council will hold a second round of interviews open to the public May 15 at 6 p.m. at Valparaiso City Hall.

PHOTOS: Holcomb visits Valparaiso High School to celebrate its football state championship Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Rep. Ed Soliday visit Valparaiso High School Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Rep. Ed Soliday visit Valparaiso High School Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Rep. Ed Soliday visit Valparaiso High School Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Rep. Ed Soliday visit Valparaiso High School Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Rep. Ed Soliday visit Valparaiso High School Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Rep. Ed Soliday visit Valparaiso High School Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Rep. Ed Soliday visit Valparaiso High School Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Rep. Ed Soliday visit Valparaiso High School Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Rep. Ed Soliday visit Valparaiso High School Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Rep. Ed Soliday visit Valparaiso High School
MICHIGAN CITY  Angie Deuitch easily won the Democratic nomination for mayor, getting more votes than all four of the other candidates combined.

She got 51% of the votes, according to unofficial final numbers. Her 1,434 votes were nearly three times that of County Councilman Mark Yagelski, her nearest competitor. Yagelski got 482 votes.

Former Mayor Ron Meer got 406 votes, for third place, followed by former Councilman Johnny Stimley, at 404 votes, and Councilman Michael Mack, at just 70 votes.

Deuitch, an at-large member of the City Council, served as council president last year. She also serves on the citys Redevelopment Commission.

In November, she faces Mayor Duane Parry, who was unopposed in Tuesdays Republican primary.

I can transition Michigan City to a higher level, she said during the campaign.

Im an empathetic leader, she said. My skill set is around the development of people.

Grant writing is also among her skills. There are so many dollars that are available, she said.

Parry had urged the council to hire a grant writer for the city. Deuitch helped persuade the majority of the council to reject that proposal, saying its better to contract out that work because grant writers have their own areas of expertise.

Among the grant applications she has written is one that would address food deserts in the city, where residents lack easy access to health foods like fresh fruits and vegetables. Deuitch proposed mobile food pantries, among other ideas.

She criticized Parrys administration for missing Community Crossings grant deadlines twice, costing the city state money for paving city streets. How many roads could we have paved in the last few years? she asked.

Deuitch also accused Parry of missing out on federal funding by refusing to meet with U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Ind. Our congressman is willing to give us the money, she said, and with the infrastructure bill having passed, theres $500 billion in federal funding being spent.

Deuitch wants to expand the Michigan City Promise scholarship program to include nontraditional students like the parents of the students already eligible for the scholarships. This council expanded the program to include private school students and students whose parents rent their homes.

With NIPSCOs coal-fired Michigan City Generating Station being decommissioned soon, the city is looking at potential uses for that site. Deuitch wants to make sure fly ash at the city is completely removed as part of the remediation plan.

She wants mixed-use development at NIPSCOs Michigan City Generating Station site, but not residential. That might be a good historic building site, but something needs to be done about the cooling tower that many visitors mistake as a symbol of a nuclear power plant, she said.

I want to see a brand-new gateway to the national park, she said, with plenty of green space and a lakefront fully accessible to the public.

Deuitch wants to identify properties ripe for infill development.

Housing affordability is an issue, but workforce development is the key to affordability, she said.

For City Council, nominees include Republicans Elizabeth Bergeron and Jason Straton for at-large seats, John Haynes in ward 2 and Socrates Gray in Ward 6.

Democratic nominees include Bryant Daboney, Vidya Kora and Don Przyblylinski for at-large seats, Greg Coulter for ward 1, Daisy Lee in ward 2, Joseph Nelson in ward 3, Sean Fitzpatrick in ward 4, Tracie Tillman in ward 5 and Nancy Moldenhauer in ward 6.

Gale Neulieb was nominated for city clerk by Democratic voters.

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GARY  State Sen. Eddie Melton has unseated Gary Mayor Jerome Prince.

Unofficial election results showed Melton won with just under 61% of the vote.

"I just received a call from Mayor Jerome Prince. He congratulated me," Melton told a cheering crowd around 9:30, Tuesday evening. "Thank you Gary!"

Melton said he and Prince have agreed to sit down and discuss the city's progress in the coming weeks. Prince was not available for comment Tuesday evening.

"We are a city of innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders and problem solvers. What we accomplish tonight will change the trajectory of the city," Melton told the some 200 attendees that filled the Diamond Center at U.S. Steel Yard Stadium. "Gary will rise from the ashes to become a beacon of light."

Melton will compete against Republican Andrew Delano, who is unopposed in the GOP primary, at the Nov. 7 general election for a four-year term as Gary mayor. After declaring victory, Melton urged Gary residents to register to vote, noting that even though Gary has historically been a Democratic city, nothing is "guaranteed."

Prince pulled off an upset victory in 2019, unseating incumbent Democrat Karen Freeman-Wilson, the city's first female mayor. Born and raised in Gary, Prince enlisted in the U.S. marines after high school. His long career includes time as a Gary Common Councilman, a precinct committeeman and as a Lake County Councilman. In 2014, Prince was elected Lake County Assessor.

Prince's 2019 mayoral campaign was built around "reimagining" the Steel City. Throughout the past three years, Prince has been focused on helping the city navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, allocating much of the $80.3 million of American Rescue Plan Act money Gary was awarded and launching a youth summer employment program.

According to Prince's campaign website, the incumbent administration has been able to pay down about $7 million of the city's long-term debt, improve public safety through the Operation Safe Zone security camera initiative and demolish over 200 blighted buildings.

Melton announced his mayoral campaign in November with the slogan "Gary Deserves Better NOW," with "NOW" standing for "No Opportunities Wasted." The state senator said he was running for mayor because he has grown frustrated with the lack of progress in his hometown.

His platform has been built around creating an updated master plan for the city with a specific vision for each neighborhood.

"We continue to not have a plan with development and we allow developers to come in and tell use where they want to go," Melton said during an April debate.

Melton's economic development plan for the city includes establishing an Office of Economic and Community Development, creating a Gary Small Business Center, commissioning a study looking at disparities in minority business ownership and putting together a tourism task force as well as a renewable energy task force. Melton has also discussed turning the Buffington Harbor area into a transportation and logistics hub.

Melton, who was elected to the state senate in 2016, currently works as the manager of Corporate Citizen and Community Relations for Northern Indiana Public Service Company, or NIPSCO.

In 2019, Melton launched a bid for governor but dropped out of the race after just four months because he was unable to raise enough money. He has served the Indiana State Senate as assistant minority leader and is currently the ranking minority member on the Appropriations and State Budget Committee. He has also sat on a number of boards and commissions including the Indiana Commission on the Social Status of Black Males, the State Board of Education, the American Association of Blacks in Energy, the Executive Committee of the National Conference of State Legislators and as deputy chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party.

"If we work together, Gary will have the greatest comeback story in this nation," Melton said Tuesday evening.

Common Council

In the Gary Common Council race, a crowd of 31 candidates competed for just nine seats.

Incumbent Democrats Ron Brewer and Darren Washington snagged two of the Gary Common Council's three At-Large seats. Newcomer Mark Spencer secured the final seat beating Democratic challengers Tashaun Brown, Roosevelt Dixon, Sinclair Harley IV and incumbent District One Councilman and Council President William Godwin. The primary winners will face Republican At-Large candidate Ivan Ursery II at the Nov. 7 general election.

Incumbent Democrat At-Large Councilwoman Lori Latham appeared to win the District One Common Council race, beating Democratic challengers David Gearman, Sondra Ford, Myles Tolliver, MacArthur Drake and Jacqueline Lee. Democrat Dwayne Halliburton unseated incumbent District Two Councilman David Fossett. Halliburton also beat challengers Bernice Clark, Portia Newsome, Robert Campbell and Mitchell Armstrong Sr. Incumbent Democratic Councilwoman Mary Brown retained her seat, beating Ron Matlock, Anthony Manuel and Jonathan Joel Boose.

Council Vice President Tai Adkins, D-4, retained her seat, beating Ebony Rogers Miller, as did incumbent Linda Barnes-Caldwell, D-5, beating challenger Carl Weatherspoon Jr.

Incumbent Sixth District Councilman Dwight Williams beat challenger Robert Buggs Sr. for a Democratic spot on the fall ballot. Williams will face Republican John Collier at the Nov. 7 general election.

The city's incumbent Clerk-Treasurer Suzette Raggs, D, and incumbent City Judge, Deidre Monroe, D, both ran unopposed.

PHOTOS: Gary mayoral primary Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night Eddie Melton/Jerome Prince primary night
LAPORTE The LaPorte County Commissioners on Wednesday replaced their board president and attorney well before their one-year terms expire.

Commissioner Joe Haney was replaced as president by Commissioner Connie Gramarossa in a 2 to 1 vote, with Commissioner Rich Mrozinski supporting the move.

Gramarossa and Mrozinski were also the 2-1 majority in the decision to terminate Andrew B. Jones as county attorney.

The decisions seemed to represent a shift in power because Gramarossa had sided with Haney at the beginning of the term, joining in naming him board president. At that early January meeting, Gramarossa and Haney voted to hire Jones to replace former county attorney Shaw Friedman.

The decisions came after Haney learned Gramarossa drove a county owned vehicle to Chicago on March 16 without seeking permission from the commissioners to take it outside the state. While driving the county owned 2021 Ford Escape, she struck the back end of a vehicle stopped for a red light on Halsted Street.

Haney also accused Gramarossa of never telling the commissioners about the crash, as required. Instead, Haney said she began driving her personal vehicle to report for work at the commissioners office while the taxpayer-owned Escape was nowhere in sight.

Eventually, Haney said he located the vehicle at a local body shop and estimated the damage at roughly $20,000.

According to a Chicago Police Department report, Gramrossa struck the back end of the vehicle stopped for a red light on Halsted Street before 6 a.m.

During Wednesday's meeting, Gramarossa said she took the car in a rush after receiving a phone call that her son was in a hospital in Chicago. Gramarossa said no light was shed on her son's condition during that call. She said her sense of urgency was heightened because her son is still impacted by a traumatic brain injury suffered when he was younger, and he is deaf.

Gramarossa said she also felt a need to be there as quickly as possible to serve as a sign language interpreter for her son and doctors to communicate.

Like any mother would have, I went in the first vehicle that was available to me. I didnt think. I didnt hesitate to be at his bedside, she said.

Gramarossa said the accident happened early the next morning while heading home, sleep deprived and, frankly, still shaking from my sons hospitalization.

Haney expressed remorse over the circumstances, but felt there was no excuse for what he alleged was an attempted cover-up.

We all make mistakes, but covering it up? Its inappropriate, he said. Haney contended his removal as board president was retaliation for exposing the car accident.

The termination of Jones was tied to LaPorte County Prosecutor Sean Fagans request for all emails last year from the county-maintained accounts of the former prosecutor and several of his staff members.

Jones strongly advised the commissioners to turn the emails over or risk being sued by the Indiana Attorney Generals Office.

Gramarossa and Mrozinski, expressing concerns about privacy violations and political motivations, had voted not to compel that at an earlier meeting.

Jones said at that time that emails from a prosecutors office account belong to the current prosecutor, who works for the state. Later, Jones said he was contacted by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who asked if he could speak with Gramarossa and Mrozinski the following day about the matter.

Jones then contacted Gramarossa.

Gramarossa said Jones gave her the times Rokita was available to speak, but she rejected his invitation.

Hes suing us and I didnt think it was appropriate that our attorney would put us in jeopardy in talking to an adversary, she said.

Jones accepted a request by the commissioners to stay on as county attorney until a replacement is appointed in two weeks.

Gallery: Recent arrests booked into LaPorte County Jail Jeremy Kimball Kotina Atkins Scott Plaster Mark Dunfee Jaqwaun Summers Andrew Hall Don'tarius Tillman Marques Holmes Allan Kucinskas Lebaron Johnson Mitchell Taviner-Papp Kayla Obanion Tashara Harrison Jonathon Hodges Floyd Doshie Tahir Kelly William Callahan II Jonathon Day Benita Stahl Vorice Williams II William Miller Jr.
VALPARAISO  The Honor Flight of Greater Lafayette will celebrate its 25th flight honoring Hoosier veterans on Wednesday.

Donald Lipke, 91, and William Parker, 94, will be among 85 veterans to participate in the flight. Both served in the U.S. military before and during the Korean War.

"I'm looking forward to the flight because I have put it off in the past," Parker said. "I kept telling telling the organization to take other veterans first."

The Honor Flight celebrates Americas veterans by inviting them to share a day of honor at the nations memorials in Washington. More than 250,000 veterans have completed this journey since the organization was founded in 2005.

Its a pretty special day, said Kevin Bol, a board member of Honor Flight of Greater Lafayette. The veterans will remember this for a long time.

Four of the 134 Honor Flight hubs across the nation are in Indiana: Lafayette, Fort Wayne, Evansville and Indianapolis.

The Lafayette hub was established in 2012 by several local Gold Star Families. Gold Star Families can display a Gold Star Service Flag for service members who were killed or died while serving in the armed forces, according to Hope for the Warriors.

Hoosier heroes will gather at 5 a.m. Wednesday at Purdue University Airport to take photos and enjoy breakfast. Veterans will the begin boarding the aircraft with a guardian  family members, friends or acquaintances  to look over them for the day.

Around 8 a.m., the plane will take off for Washington. Upon arrival, veterans will tour the World War II Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial and finally Arlington National Cemetery.

After touring the memorials, veterans, guardians and Honor Flight staff will take a flight back to West Lafayette. Upon arrival, people will gather to celebrate the veterans' homecoming. More than 400 supporters have gathered in the past, Bol said.

People are encouraged to bring U.S. flags, signs and banners to the Purdue Airport, 1501 Aviation Drive in West Lafayette, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

For more information visit honorflightlafayette.com.

"This will be special because my son is my guardian for the flight," Parker said. "He's involved with the organization and has been after me to go since the trip started. I think I should get it done."

Parker served in the U.S. Army beginning Nov. 1, 1947. He originally enlisted for four years, but his contract was extended by a year once the Korean War began.

Although he was born in Pennsylvania, Parker moved to Valparaiso with his family after his contract was up. He and Lipke live at Avalon Springs Health Campus in Valparaiso.

Avalon Springs provides assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing. This is the first time Avalon Springs and Honor Flight of Greater Lafayette are collaborating to send a handful of veteran residents on the flight, Bol said.

"I've had friends who've participated in the flight and begged me to go on it," said Lipke, formerly from Hammond. "I've heard it's one of the best things that's ever happened to a military man."

Lipke served in the military from 1953 to 1954, referring to Korea as the hot iron during this time. He enlisted because he had grown up on a farm and wanted to experience more. On the flight, Lipke will be escorted by an employee from Avalon Springs.

"I don't know how all of this happened, but it's a beautiful thing," he said.
Details added: first version posted on 08:32

FUZULI, Azerbaijan, May 3. The plane with the participants of the international conference themed "Shaping the Geopolitics of the Greater Eurasia: from Past to Present to Future", dedicated to the centennial anniversary of Heydar Aliyev, landed at Fuzuli International Airport, Trend reports from the scene.

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs at the US Department of State David Merkel, First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis (Parliament) of Uzbekistan Sodyq Safoev, CEO of the Lagazetteaz.fr online newspaper, founded by Trend News Agency in France, Jean-Michel Brun and other guests are taking part in the visit.

the conference participants will go to Shusha city.

The international conference is being held on May 2-4 in Baku and Shusha with the participation of up to 60 representatives from more than 30 countries.

The first day of the event featured panel discussions held at ADA University in Baku with the participation of Rector of ADA University Hafiz Pashayev, former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan, former co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza, David Merkel, Sodyq Safoev, former Georgian Ambassador to the US and Canada Tedo Japaridze, Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan - Head of the Department for Economic Affairs and Innovative Development Policy Shahmar Movsumov, Minister of Digital Development and Transportation Rashad Nabiyev, and others.
Voter turnout has been light on Election Day so far.

Voters headed to the polls to decide contested mayoral races in Gary, East Chicago, Hobart, Lake Station, Portage, Valparaiso and Michigan City, as well as school referendum races.

"It's quite a bit lower than in 2019," Porter County Clerk Jessica Baily said of the turnout into mid-afternoon.

About 3,500 people voted by mid-Tuesday afternoon, down from 8,300 at the same time in 2019.

No significant issues have been reported at the polls in Porter County.

"It's been going smoothly," she said.

The Porter County Clerk's Office was expecting lighter turnout in the municipal and local elections given the lack of big-ticket national races and fewer contested races locally than in 2019. It's using the opportunity to roll out its new wait-time app.

Voters can download an app or go to the Porter County website to see the estimated wait times at the different polling locations. It's been working with the county GIS department for a year on the project.

"We wanted to implement it this year to work out the kinks so it would be ready for the presidential election," Baily said. "It will allow voters to view the wait times for close to where they currently are and get directions to the polling places."

It's a new feature the clerk's office launched because of the switch to voting centers, where voters are no longer tethered to a single polling place in their neighborhood where they always go to vote.

"Poll workers are getting used to manipulating the website to advertise the wait times," Baily said. "Voters will be able to know how long they'll have to wait in line and if there's a shorter wait somewhere else. It's definitely more convenient."
An autistic teenage girl with an eye for photography.

A hospice nurse who found her calling later in life.

A former white supremacist led down a hateful path.

And an elderly teacher whose students never forgot his lessons.

These four people dont know each other but all of them revealed to me the same revelation: Theyve found their purpose in life. This epiphany matters more than you may think. Especially for those people still searching for their purpose.

I still havent found mine, a former coworker told me at lunch.

Her words prompted me to jot them down. I assumed she had found her purpose by this point in her life, either in her journalism career or her adult children or her long-term marriage. She insisted otherwise.

Im still looking, she said with disappointment in her voice. I hope I find it.

I had never thought about this defining aspect of my life. Maybe I was too busy earning a living, raising a family or misusing my time to explore my lifes purpose. In hindsight, I guess it found me, through my writing.

Its one thing to have a passion in life. Its another thing to have a purpose. All of us have passions. Not all of us feel weve found our purpose. This search can be intimidating or exhausting for many people. They give up looking for one until it eventually finds them.

I found my purpose later in life, but I feel Ive finally found it, a middle-aged hospice nurse told me during her shift.

I was touched by her candor and impressed by her self-awareness. Our conversation reminded me of what Pablo Picasso, the late Spanish painter, once said: The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.

This subject seems to pop up with people I meet. Chit-chat isnt my strong suit. A common question of mine: If you never had to worry about money in your life, what would you do? Your answer may be your purpose.

For some people, their sense of purpose evolves as they age, depending on their lifes circumstances. For others, its found by a lightning strike to the soul. Age can be irrelevant.

Ive always had a passion for photography but I didnt take it on until this past year, said Ava Fankhauser, 17, of Valparaiso. Someone very special to me passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack and she always inspired me to take on the role of photography. Once she passed away I knew I needed to take it on in honor of her. Its special to me and I love doing it.

Her purpose is explored and shared through photography. Other purposes can be explored through philosophy, theology, psychology or any other prism. For some teenagers, if they don't find their purpose through positive means, a purpose of negativity can capture them.

When Christian Picciolini was a young teen, he searched for a sense of purpose with an existential anxiety that haunts many teenagers. He thought he found it through a white-supremacist skinhead leader who recruited him to be a member of his hate-filled cult.

"I believed I was protecting the white race from extinction," Picciolini told me after his appearance on the "60 Minutes" television show in 2017. "I really thought I was saving the world."

Picciolini grew up in Blue Island, Illinois, 20 miles west of Hammond. He remembers driving into Northwest Indiana to recruit new members who also ached to find their purpose in life. It took Picciolini eight wasted years to realize his purpose was misguided and dangerous. He later discovered a more profound and positive purpose, chronicled in his book, White American Youth: My Descent into Americas Most Violent Hate Movement  and How I Got Out.

Many of us connect to our job or career as a lifes purpose. This is especially true for working professionals whose social identity is their job title such as doctors, lawyers, professors or teachers.

I bumped into an elderly man named Bill Mathews in a checkout line at a grocery store. The retired educator struck up a conversation that repeatedly circled back to his teaching days in Porter County schools.

I guess you can say it was my purpose in life, he told me.

Its these moments by which to matter that seem to define who we are.

For some people, its their family connections such as a parent or grandparent. A grandmother from Gary once told me she defines herself by her children and grandchildren. Who they are defines who she is.

Theyve become my purpose, she said with conviction.

A persons life experiences may not matter when it comes to having a purpose.

On Sept. 18, 2021, Lily Mae Pagan came into the world. She died 46 days later from a terminal brain tumor. Her teenage parents had the presence of mind to create a foundation, Unity4Lily, to raise funds and items for parents in their former situation at the Peyton Manning Childrens Hospital in Indianapolis.

We want Lilys life to have more meaning beyond her 46 days with us, her father told me.

This foundation could be her purpose in life, Lilys mother said.

As I said earlier, it matters more than you may think.

A belated thank you

Before my life resumes with a new sense of normalcy, I want to thank everyone who has reached out to send condolences for the loss of my mother. I shared her journey in a seven-part series, prompting dozens of readers to contact me.

Jerry, todays column touched me like no other, moving me to tears. Thank you for sharing such intimate, and oftentimes painful, moments from your life, one reader, Cynthia P., wrote.

Others asked where to read the entire series. Find it at NWI.com through a search of my name.
Ford Motor reported a solid profit in the first quarter, although the automaker indicated that its turnaround was not complete and that it had a ways to go before it starts making money on electric vehicles.

On Tuesday, the company said it made $1.8 billion in profit in the first three months of 2023 as a result of a substantial increase in revenue and in the number of vehicles it sold around the world, the company said Tuesday.

The positive result is a recovery from the same period a year ago, when the automaker lost $3.1 billion as the value of its stake in the electric-vehicle maker Rivian declined.

In 2022, Ford was slowed by shortages of computer chips and other key parts that prevented it from making as many vehicles as it had expected.
The text message added to a growing number of internal issues involving Mr. Carlson that led the companys leadership to conclude he was more of a problem than an asset and had to go, according to several people with knowledge of the decision. In other messages he had referred to women  including a senior Fox executive  in crude and misogynistic terms. The message about the fight also played a role in the companys decision to settle with Dominion for $787.5 million, the highest known payout in a defamation case.

A representative for Mr. Carlson said he had no comment.

The text is part of redacted court filings and its contents were previously unreported. The contents of the text were disclosed in interviews with several people close to the defamation lawsuit against Fox. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a message that is protected by a court order. In public filings, it remains hidden behind a block of black text.

Image A page from the redacted document obtained by The Times that contains the text message from Tucker Carlson that led to his demise at Fox.

Mr. Carlsons messages were collected as part of the defamation lawsuit filed against Fox by Dominion, which accused the network of knowingly airing falsehoods about election fraud. Many of the messages shared in the case, including those among Fox executives and hosts, were released publicly. But others, like the one between Mr. Carlson and one of his producers in the hours after Jan. 6, 2021, remain redacted.

In that text, Mr. Carlson described his own emotions as he watched the video of the violent clash, which he said took place on the streets of Washington. Mr. Carlson did not describe the race of the man being attacked.

I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping theyd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it, he wrote. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isnt good for me. Im becoming something I dont want to be.

After all, he wrote, Somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed.

If I dont care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is? he wrote.
On a corner in Central Harlem, just blocks from the Apollo Theater and Marcus Garvey Park, stands Harlem Shake, a diner designed to look as though its been there for decades. The walls are covered with Jet magazine covers and photographs, some signed, of Black American musicians and celebrities: Regina Hall, Diddy, Maya Angelou, Questlove. Its retro diner-style menus and swivel bar stools evoke nostalgia for an era of charm  and upheaval  in American culture.

Rasheeda Purdie, a neighborhood resident of 14 years, finds comfort in how distinctly Harlem the restaurant is. The interior of it, the aesthetic of it, the music  you can hear it before you even arrive, she said. Thats the Harlem that I know and fell in love with years ago.

Harlem Shake reaches a milestone this month: The Black- and women-owned restaurant is celebrating its 10th anniversary, having served the Black and Latino communities in the neighborhood with updated takes on burgers, fries and milkshakes. A second location opened in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in 2021, serving guava froses and chicken strips dressed in Spankn hot sauce, and a third Harlem Shake is set to open in Long Island City this summer.

Sharing food is almost like a love language, said Dardra Coaxum, an interior designer and Harlem native who opened the restaurant with Jelena Pasic. Feeding someone is no small gesture, and I love the fact that were doing this in our community.
A mechanic was charged with criminally negligent homicide on Tuesday in the death of an apprentice who was crushed when an elevator car plunged six stories during a maintenance operation.

Prosecutors said the mechanic, Peter Milatz, 67, did not follow proper safety procedures before or during the operation, which caused the elevator car to free-fall down its shaft and kill Joseph Rosa, 25, an apprentice, in February 2021.

Jobs in this field can be extremely dangerous, and workers must be protected, the Bronx district attorney, Darcel D. Clark, said in a statement.

Mr. Milatz was arraigned on Tuesday in Bronx Supreme Court before Justice George Villegas. Brian Joseph Sullivan, an attorney for Mr. Milatz, did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Mr. Tacopina, with an expression of incredulity, tested Ms. Carroll on minute details of events of more than 30 years ago. He repeatedly asked her why she decided to come forward with the accusation when she did  an effort on his part to suggest to the jury ulterior motives: politics, money and fame.

For generations, such questions have been mainstays for defense lawyers trying to undermine womens accounts of rape. But recent years have brought a wider consciousness of the many ways women may react to sexual assault, and Ms. Carroll at times used her testimony to explain that some behavior Mr. Tacopina questioned was in fact characteristic of women who had been raped.

Ms. Carroll, who was on the witness stand for three days, described in painstaking detail for the jury of six men and three women how she had run into Mr. Trump as she was leaving the department store. She spoke of how he had asked her to help him choose a gift for a friend, how he had led her into a dressing room and how he had pushed her up against a wall, pulled down her tights, put his fingers into her vagina and then inserted his penis  all without her consent and while she tried to escape.

Mr. Tacopina used his cross-examination not only to ask Ms. Carroll about what she said happened, but to question her about what she did afterward. He repeatedly asked her why she hadnt screamed and why she had called a friend instead of going to the police.
We have to be bold and responsible at the same time, he said.

The reason to be bold is that in so many different realms A.I. has the potential to help people with everyday tasks, and to tackle some of humanitys greatest challenges  like health care, for instance  and make new scientific discoveries and innovations and productivity gains that will lead to wider economic prosperity.

It will do so, he added, by giving people everywhere access to the sum of the worlds knowledge  in their own language, in their preferred mode of communication, via text, speech, images or code, delivered by smartphone, through television, radio or e-book. A lot more people will be able to get the best assistance and the best answers to improve their lives.

But we also must be responsible, Manyika added, citing several concerns. First, these tools need to be fully aligned with humanitys goals. Second, in the wrong hands, these tools could do enormous harm, whether we are talking about disinformation, perfectly faked things or hacking. (Bad guys are always early adopters.)

Finally, the engineering is ahead of the science to some degree, Manyika explained. That is, even the people building these so-called large language models that underlie products like ChatGPT and Bard dont fully understand how they work and the full extent of their capabilities. We can engineer extraordinarily capable A.I. systems, he added, that can be shown a few examples of arithmetic, a rare language or explanations of jokes and that then can start to do many more things with just those fragments astonishingly well. In other words, we dont fully understand yet how much more good stuff or bad stuff these systems can do.

So, we need some regulation, but it needs to be done carefully and iteratively. One size will not fit all.

Why? Well, if you are most worried about China beating America in A.I., you want to turbocharge our A.I. innovation, not slow it down. If you want to truly democratize A.I., you might want to open-source its code. But open-sourcing can be exploited. What would ISIS do with the code? So, you have to think about arms control. If you are worried that A.I. systems will compound discrimination, privacy violations and other divisive societal harms, the way social networks do, you want regulations now.

If you want to take advantage of all the productivity gains A.I. is expected to generate, you need to focus on creating new opportunities and safety nets for all the paralegals, researchers, financial advisers, translators and rote workers who could be replaced today, and maybe lawyers and coders tomorrow. If you are worried that A.I. will become superintelligent and start defining its own goals, irrespective of human harm, you want to stop it immediately.
The News

A former Memphis police officer who fired a Taser at Tyre Nichols, the Black FedEx worker who was brutally beaten by several other officers in January after a traffic stop, will not be criminally charged in connection with Mr. Nicholss death days after the beating, a top prosecutor said on Tuesday.

The former officer, Preston Hemphill, joined the police response on the night of Jan. 7 after Mr. Nichols was pulled over for what was supposed to be a routine traffic stop. Mr. Hemphill was one of seven officers fired from the Memphis Police Department after the fatal beating of the 29-year-old.

Five officers have pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and other felonies, while one fired officer has not yet been publicly identified. The five fired officers are Black; Mr. Hemphill is white.

Steve Mulroy, the Shelby County district attorney, repeatedly stressed in a news conference Tuesday that the decision not to charge Mr. Hemphill did not fully absolve him. But he noted that Mr. Hemphill was not among the officers who initially stopped Mr. Nichols on his drive home. And while Mr. Hemphill fired a Taser at Mr. Nichols as he fled, he was not among the officers who chased Mr. Nichols and brutally beat and kicked him near his home.

Mr. Mulroy said his office concluded that criminal charges were not appropriate after reviewing hours of body camera footage and conducting several interviews.

We have to be focused only on the time frame of his actual interaction with Mr. Nichols, he said of Mr. Hemphill.
Janette Mayo drove two hours to attend a choir recital last Thursday at a middle school in rural Oklahoma. Her granddaughter Tiffany Dore Guess wore a black and gold robe and sang beautifully, Ms. Mayo recalled.

The next day, she texted her daughter, Holly Guess, to check on her and Tiffany, but the reply she received unsettled her: We dropped the phones in a mud puddle, she said it read. If you dont hear from us in a few days, dont worry about it. Something was wrong, she recalled thinking: It didnt sound like her wording; its not like Holly would had talked.

Then on Monday night came news that confirmed her worst fears. Law enforcement officers informed her that her daughter, Ms. Guess, and three of her grandchildren  Tiffany, 13; Rylee Elizabeth Allen, 17; and Michael James Mayo, 15  were among seven people who were found dead in a small town south of Tulsa, on a ranch belonging to a man named Jesse McFadden, a registered sex offender who was scheduled to go on trial on Monday for sex-related crimes but never showed up in court.
SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, May 3. The 4th international conference on Shaping the Geopolitics of the Greater Eurasia: from Past to Present to Future organized by ADA University to mark the 100th anniversary of National Leader Heydar Aliyev has been held in Shusha.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the conference.

Opening the conference, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said:

- Good Morning. Dear guests, welcome to Karabakh. Welcome to Shusha. Very glad to see you here.

First of all I want to express gratitude to ADA University for organizing this conference dedicated to the memory of the architect of independent Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev. I was invited, and decided to meet here in Karabakh.

I've been at many events organized by ADA University, meeting with international experts, public figures in Baku, and first time here. I hope you will enjoy your visit to Azerbaijan, your trip to Shusha. Shusha has a special place in the history of Azerbaijan. And now Shusha is being rebuilt almost from scratch.

This year was announced the Year of Heydar Aliyev in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of our Great Leader. And throughout the year, we organize numerous events, conferences in Azerbaijan and abroad, paying respect to the memory of the founder of independent Azerbaijan, and at the same time addressing the important issues of our domestic politics, regional development, international affairs. We wanted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Heydar Aliyev not by kind of a formal events, but by addressing real issues, which need a special attention, because the geo-politics in the region has changed, and the topic of the conference also is covering this issue.

Heydar Aliyev was always a person who was protecting the interests of the people of Azerbaijan. Regardless of the time, regardless of the political situation, during the times of Soviet Azerbaijan, when he was for more than ten years the leader of the Soviet Azerbaijan even in the framework of those ideological barriers, he was defending the interests of the Azerbaijani people. He was trying to do everything so that we keep our identity. And many steps he took during the times of 1970s and beginning of 1980s. Now we see that they were targeted to the time when Azerbaijan would be independent. So, throughout the year, and of course the events dedicated to his memory will continue until the end of the year. We wanted to fill this space with practical steps, with exchange of views, ideas, mainly with respect to the future development of Azerbaijan and also regional development. Because we cannot ignore situation in our region and though, we dont have any risks anymore after liberation of Karabakh inside the country, but we are not living on an island. Meeting here in Shusha, has of course a special meaning for all of us. Last year, by the way, I announced the Year of Shusha, because it was the 270th anniversary of the foundation of the city by Karabakh khan Panah Ali, and Shusha always was the Azerbaijani city. Only during the times of occupation, for more than 28 years, Shusha was under foreign domination, but I know that you will be making a city tour after our meeting and you will see that during the times of occupation Shusha was almost totally destroyed. Though it once again demonstrates that Shusha has never been a native city for Armenians.

If it was, they would have kept it, they wouldn't have destroyed it. They would have developed it. All what you've seen or what you will see, most of what you will see - the buildings are either been renovated during the last two years and a half, or built from scratch. Heydar Aliyevs biggest dream was to see Shusha free and we made his dream come true. So, we are proud of that. We are happy, all Azerbaijanis, not only citizens of Azerbaijan, but all Azerbaijanis of the world are proud of our victory. That was a victory of justice, historical justice, victory of international law. So, once again, thank you for making a trip here. The weather is not very friendly, but this is how Shusha is, as we can never predict. It can be storming, raining and then sunshine comes all of a sudden and I hope you will enjoy your trip. Thank you.

x x x

Rector of ADA University Hafiz Pashayev: Mr. President, thank you very much. We yesterday had very fruitful discussion in Baku in our University. Actually, more than 60 scholars and politician, political practitioners came to Baku to discuss this topic and commemorate our national leader`s anniversary  the 100th anniversary. We had very good discussion and we were, including myself, very much excited that we have opportunity to be in Shusha, magnificent city, cultural capital of Turkic world. So, we're now here and we're happy. Among 60 participants of the conference, at least half of them are first time participating in our conference. So, if you allow me, we will come to discussion. First, I would like to ask Michael Reynolds from the United States Princeton University. He has a question.

Michael Reynolds, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies, the Princeton University, the US: Thank you, Mr. President. In April last year, you were speaking here in Shusha. I think it was the 5th Congress of the World Azerbaijanis. And you said that negotiations do not result in a treaty. Negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, do not result in a treaty wherein Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan will not recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia either, and will officially declare that. Now, today, although many of us are hopeful that a peace treaty of some form will be and the solution will be found between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Soon, perhaps even as we speak in Washington, DC. It has already been two and a half years since the end of the Second Karabakh War. And still there's no final solution to this conflict. If Armenia continues to refuse to come to an agreement with Azerbaijan, what options are on the table for Azerbaijan? And are there any options not on the table?

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, I several times elaborated on that. Saying that, if Armenia doesn't want peace, there'll be no peace. And there are countries, which didn't sign peace agreement. We know it from history, but that will not be good either for Armenia or for the region and of course not for Azerbaijan. Therefore, we still hope that they will be reasonable. And they will not use the same tactics as they used during the times of occupation, when former Minsk Group was in the picture, and for 28 years, did nothing by the way from the point of view of results. And main reason for that was because Armenia didn't want to liberate the territories. Yes, Minsk Group was not very popular in Azerbaijan during the times of occupation. Now when it actually resigned, probably we should not go too far on it. But the main reason why we could not find the peaceful settlement of the conflict was because Armenia didn't want it. They were just using these tactics delaying and making one step forward, two or three, maybe five steps back, and they wanted to seal the situation to freeze it. They thought that they will be able to legitimize occupation. They thought that we will agree to kind of a compromise on our territorial integrity. They thought that their international sponsors will always stand behind them, and will fight for them. But that was miscalculation, they were wrong.

So, now, what can happen? The same thing can happen. They can delay, they can use negotiation format, which already has been established not in order to come to an agreement, but in order to make the process endless, waiting for something, waiting for a miracle, waiting for changes. And I think they will miss opportunity, because almost thirty years of occupation did not give them any advantage. On the contrary, they have been isolated from the regional development. They lost the chance to become the really independent country, not formally but in fact. They are looking now for the new master or masters. But the history, the recent history should teach them a lesson. So, we hope that they will understand it. In my communications with the Armenian counterpart, I tried to explain that a peace treaty, first of all, is in their interest, opening of communications is in their interest. They will be able to have access to different markets. And of course, it will be beneficial for us, because we want this chapter to be closed. And actually if you follow the chronology of statements and events, you will see that it was Azerbaijan, which offered to start talking about a peace agreement.

Because when Second Karabakh War ended, not many actors knew what will be next. Because the trilateral declaration, it is not a ceasefire agreement, but it is also not a peace agreement. So, what should happen next was under big question mark. So, it was us who made the initiative. It was us who put forward the vision for the future, for integrated Southern Caucasus, for regional cooperation, for normalization of relations. Therefore, we put an initiative to start peace talks, there was silence from all directions. Then waiting for some time, we put forward these famous five principles, which are totally in line with norms and principles of international law and Armenia formally had to either reject it or to accept it. Rejecting it would have demonstrated them again being unconstructive, because there was nothing in contradiction with international law in these principles. Accepting it, probably it was difficult for them from a psychological point of view and from point of view of agreeing to normal behavior. So, then we a had long, how to say, break again, because of Armenian unwillingness to engage in serious negotiations.

Weve sent them four copies, four new variants of a draft of peace agreement. They return their comments. We've been waiting for more than 40 days for the last comments, which we received just a week ago, just prior to the Washington meeting, because they realize that without that the Washington meeting will be absolutely useless. But what we've seen in these comments is again territorial claims against Azerbaijan. It was absolutely clear for Armenia, for international players during my numerous communications with the US and EU officials that there should be a two track approach. One is Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization and another communications between Azerbaijan`s authorities and Armenian community in Karabakh. Therefore, any attempt to put so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which does not exist, into the text of the peace treaty is counterproductive.

Therefore, we hope that they will be constructive. If not, well, we are not planning to undertake any other measures rather than diplomatic. We had enough of that. Therefore, therell be just no peace, no communications. They will be isolated again. And they will have to find the place for them in this new geopolitical configuration. Because all geopolitical situation, not only in the region, but globally have changed. We have our place there, which is very stable and which is becoming more and more solid. But for them, it will be a big challenge. So, I hope that Washington negotiations will produce - if not results, but at least kind of signs of progress.

Hafiz Pashayev: Next, Vladimir Socor, the Jamestown Foundation.

Vladimir Socor, Senior Fellow, the Jamestown Foundation, the US: Mr. President, Azerbaijan has established bilateral alliance outside NATO's framework with a NATO member country and regional power Turkiye. This is a unique achievement of Azerbaijan in the entire post-Soviet context. This relationship amounts to a military security alliance. It is closer than most strategic partnerships. And it is rooted not only in personal relationships, important as these are, but more deeply in the shared national interests. Many of us would like to be confident that this alliance will continue regardless of the results of Turkish elections and will become a permanent feature. Also, with Turkiye involved in a number of contested theaters simultaneously, all making claims on Turkish resources at the same time, many of us would like to be reassured or rather feel that there is a strong case to be made for Azerbaijan, to hold the top priority among Turkiye's own national interests. Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you very much. I fully share your views on this issue. By the way, the Shusha Declaration, which made Turkiye and Azerbaijan officially allies was signed here in Shusha in several metres from this building. And that was the historical event. Though de-facto relations between Azerbaijan and Turkiye were relations between allies. And we've demonstrated it, especially during the last 20 years. During last 20 years, when President Erdogan has led Turkiye, our relations transformed by our joint efforts with him into relations not only between brothers, but between allies, and we've demonstrated it many times. Therefore, of course, this is an important factor of regional development, and you're absolutely right. Azerbaijan, becoming a military ally to Turkiye, indirectly becomes also, to a certain degree, a military ally to NATO. And by the way, there was, for several years, a kind of misperception of the road to Euro-Atlantic integration and cooperation by different countries of the former Soviet Union, whether it's NATO, whether it's EU. Yes, Azerbaijan did not engage formally in any form of agreements. We even did not sign an association agreement with the EU, unlike some of the members of the Eastern Partnership Program. But that was not because we didn't want to be closer. We don't want to have a kind of a unilateral format of cooperation. To my mind, I'm absolutely sincere with you, the association agreement is not an agreement in a normal sense of the word. It's just a list of instructions, which have been presented to those countries which joined this format. It is their choice, we will respect it, but this is not our choice. We have chosen the different path. And we signed strategic partnership agreements and declarations with nine members of EU. So, this is one third of member states. And strategic partnership declarations, which have been signed or adopted, do not make difference and have much higher value than association agreement.

The same with NATO. Some countries may seem to be very close. Some countries announced, I mean the countries of the Eastern Partnership, their target to be a NATO member. Some countries announced it for more than 15 years. By the way, NATO promised Ukraine and Georgia 15 years ago to become member states. I remember that, I was present at the Bucharest NATO Summit, when Ukraine and Georgia were denied by some leaders of some leading European countries from the Membership Action Plan. But instead, it was announced that they will become a member. When? Nobody said. 15 years have passed. So, were there where they are. But we signed an agreement with the second NATO member state with respect to the potential of the army and this is serious. So, we always have chosen the paths of practical steps rather than declarations, which then did not transform into tangible results. With respect to relations between Azerbaijan and Turkiye in the future, I'm absolutely sure that both countries will not only keep the format of this alliance, but will strengthen it. Because in this new geopolitical realities, this already became an important factor of regional stability and regional security, whether it is military component, energy, communications, trade, etc. So, I'm very optimistic and I think that nothing will change the fraternal character of relations between Turkiye and Azerbaijan.

Hafiz Pashayev: Margarita Assenova, The Jamestown Foundation.

Margarita Assenova, Senior Fellow, the Jamestown Foundation, the US: Thank you very much, Mr. President for taking the time and coming to Shusha to meet with us today. I have a question, which concerns security and potential developments in the region. A potential collapse or disintegration of Russia could have serious security implications for Azerbaijan and for the Caucasus. Would Moscow try to stir up trouble problems between Azerbaijan and its neighbors - Dagestan, Chechnya - in order to deflect attention from its rupture? That's one of the possible scenarios. My question is how can Azerbaijan prepare for such scenario? And who would be Bakus partners in such case?

President Ilham Aliyev: First of all, I think that we will not see the time, when as you put it, Russia will be disintegrated. We don't foresee this scenario for Russia. We support the territorial integrity of Russia and all the countries. And I think any disintegration of any country, especially your neighbor, of course, can possess a potential threat to you. With respect to our neighbors - our historical neighbors and brothers in Dagestan and Chechnya - we have relations based on our history, common history and brotherhood. And Azerbaijan in the Southern Caucasus was always - throughout all the times, during the times of Soviet Union, during the times of Czarist Russia and before - has always been the closest to the peoples of Northern Caucasus by historical ties, by religious ties, by a lot of ties, like relative ties. So, we always wanted our brothers in Dagestan and Chechnya to be able to fully realize their great potential. And today we have a very active format of interaction on different levels. A lot of delegations come from these two republics to Azerbaijan and from Azerbaijan. We've signed agreements of cooperation, and just recently agreement, a kind of a program, for several years with Dagestan. So, Caucasus is a complicated area. Unfortunately, like Balkans. I think one of the most beautiful areas of the world - Balkans and Caucasus - but the most complicated and with a tragic history. And we know the tragic history of our brothers in the North of Caucasus, they know tragic history of Azerbaijanis in the Southern Caucasus. We will never forget this history, because if we forget it, then we will not have future and we will not be able to properly measure our steps in time and in actions. But that also is something, which unites us. And of course, in relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, communications between Azerbaijan and republics of the Northern Caucasus were always an important factor. And it is well understood in Moscow and in Baku and during numerous high-level contexts, we always reflected the importance of stability and peace in the Northern Caucasus and in Southern Caucasus, particularly in Azerbaijan. Although there are dividing lines, administrative borders, state borders in the Caucasus, but Caucasus is one organism and you cannot divide the body in two. And I think today's level of mutual understanding of threats and of potential, I think, is more visible, because of the change of geopolitical situation and because of the growing importance of Azerbaijan, also, for stability in the Northern Caucasus.

Hafiz Pashayev: Next, John Roberts, Energy Security Specialist, Methinks Ltd., the United Kingdom.

John Roberts: Mr. President, thank you very much for coming here today. I have a question, which is how serious do you think Kazakhstan's problems are regarding its energy export routes through Russia? And what can Azerbaijan do to help Kazakhstan find alternative export routes?

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, according to my information, there is no problem for Kazakhstan to export its hydrocarbons through traditional routes. And I know that there have been some technical problems in the pipelines or terminal, but they've been fixed. And then today again, the oil from Kazakhstan is going through traditional routes. But at the same time, during my official visit to Kazakhstan last month, we also discussed the prospects of cooperation in the energy area. And there been several delegations from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan and backwards to discuss this issue. And the agreement was reached to start transportation of oil from Kazakhstan through Azerbaijan's pipeline infrastructure. So, the process has started just recently, and the agreement was signed to deliver 1.5 million tonnes of oil and to ship it through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to the Mediterranean coast. Also, there are plans, and the negotiations are continued. Now in order to increase the volume of Kazakhstans oil through for Azerbaijan, our pipeline infrastructure allows that. With respect to the increase through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, the problem can be the quality of final product, because Kazakhstani oil is different from Azeri Light. And if big volume is shipped through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, so, we will lose quality, how to say, premium. Because Azeri Light oil, which we export through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan is more precious even than Brent. But there are other options, of course, we can work on some commercial terms. If the quality of the final oil in Ceyhan changes or we have a pipeline, which is now empty, goes from Baku to the Georgian Supsa Sea port and can be also engaged, because there is a big market in the Black Sea - I know that Kazakhstan owns refinery capacity, facilities in some Black Sea countries - so, we always were supportive to the plans of our neighbors across the Caspian to use Azerbaijan infrastructure for their exports. By the way for many years, oil from Turkmenistan is being shipped through Azerbaijan, through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. I can tell you that maybe you don't know. But even Russian oil, part of Russian oil, which Russia is producing in the Caspian is being shipped through Azerbaijan to Ceyhan. And as far as I remember, it's about more than 2 million tons per year, something about close to 2.5 million tons per year of Russian oil, which goes to Ceyhan. So, these are all, you know, commercial issues. And I think that we should not look for some geopolitical changes, some political preferences. You know if Russia decides to ship its oil through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan because it's more beneficial, of course, they will do it. So, today we are a transit country for oil from Russia, from Turkmenistan, from Kazakhstan. If the volume of oil grows, we will be only happy. Who would not like to have more transit fees? So, in the future and not only oil by the way. We are providing important transportation for Kazakhstan with respect to uranium exports. And this is very important not only for Kazakhstan, but also for those countries - two countries - which are recipients of uranium and many other cargos, petrochemicals, fertilizers from Turkmenistan. We are, by the way, expanding capacity of our trade seaport, waiting for more cargoes from Asia.

Hafiz Pashayev: Next, Vasa Laszlo, Research Professor, the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs.

Vasa Laszlo: Thank you very much, Your Excellency. Thanks again for being here, and for being invited. My question is rather focusing on economic issues of the region. There are some thoughts of the Central Asian countries to form a kind of cooperation among their markets and economies. For sure it is not another development of the next year, but at least they are thinking of it. If it will be realized, Azerbaijan would join such an economic community with Central Asian countries? Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: It's always difficult to answer the question, which has this if. You know, if something happens what would you do. If that happens, we will see what we will do. Therefore, I think we should not, how to say, run in front of the train. So, Azerbaijan is not a Central Asian country, but is closely linked by historical and cultural links to Central Asia and now much more linked by political contacts. I visited this year, last month, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan on an official visit. In March, the presidents of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan visited Azerbaijan. I also visited Kyrgyzstan on an official visit in the end of last year. And last year I visited Uzbekistan three times. So, you can see how active the dialogue is between Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries. And it has very positive dynamics. We think in general, regardless of what may happen, if something happens regardless, I think the Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the future can be more integrated because, of course, first of all, transportation, security issues, because today issues of transportation security and access to export markets for Central Asian countries become more important than a while ago. It's understandable why. And here is a friendly country with already modern transportation infrastructure whether its railroad, sea ports, biggest fleet in the Caspian, also, by the way, growing number of vessels in the Black Sea. We actively now started to increase our transportation presence in the Black Sea with the biggest air cargo company in the region and with access to corridors like East-West and North-South. Of course, it is a big asset and definitely we are doing everything in order to contribute to regional cooperation between the Central Asia and Azerbaijan. What kind of partnership that will be from formal point of view is not so important. With countries of the Central Asia like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan - we are together in the Organization of Turkish States together with Turkiye. As I said, we have very active political and economic dialogue with Tajikistan. So, this is a kind of a reality of today's time. And of course, it's important to activate even more. Though I can tell you that my interaction and mutual visits with my Central Asian partners during the last two years are unprecedentedly high. So, this actually, I think answers also partly to your question, what will happen if something happens.

Hafiz Pashayev: Brenda Shaffer, the US Naval Postgraduate School, please.

Brenda Shaffer, Professor, the Naval Postgraduate School, the US: President Aliyev thank you for meeting with us. And it's an honor to be here in Shusha. It's still a dream, I think for all of us. And as you said, international law was very clear about the status of Shusha, about the status of Karabakh. But Azerbaijan under your leadership had to implement the UN resolutions on its own. And so, I have two questions on this. One  you know that principle of territorial integrity. We hear, it unequivocally apply to Ukraine, apply to Georgia, even the most recently released US National Security Strategy mentions that the US must promote territorial integrity of Ukraine and Georgia and must promote peace in between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The words explicitly don't promote your territorial integrity. Explain to us why is this principle applied to certain countries and not applied to other countries and what are the implications? And if I can be a bit greedy and have a second question? Energy calculations, energy policies are very difficult, right? There are technology, geopolitics or economics, laws and figuring this out is very difficult. But Azerbaijan always got this right meaning extra capacity in the BTC when people said why do you need to waste all this steel and here we have central Asian oil coming. President Heydar Aliyev said Central Asian oil will come. It was one of his statements. The Southern Gas Corridor built scalable extra capacity when people were saying that this is the last major gas pipeline, gas is a thing of the past. Now, when commercial operation started in the Southern Gas Corridor in December 2020 already people and countries were in line for extra gas. So, what are the things we need to look at to get energy forecasts right as Azerbaijan has done so correctly? Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: With respect to the first question, you know, I ask myself - how many times I asked this question to our American partners. Why? And never got any answer, because it was obvious that there is a big injustice to Azerbaijan and a kind of attempt to, again put a dividing line in the methodological approach to the issues related to territorial integrity of countries of former Soviet Union and always we've heard in official statements, in letters by US presidents to the leaders of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, very straightforward wording about support of territorial integrity. And when it comes to Azerbaijan, it is as if it is there, but at the same time, peaceful settlement. So, during the times of occupation, it was even more unfair and unjust. And of course, we were much more sensitive to that. Now, we are less sensitive because we've done what international community was supposed to do, the UN Security Council, permanent members were supposed to do - implement resolutions of the Security Council. So, we've done it ourselves. Therefore, as I said, we don't pay too much attention to that. But of course, we think that this injustice must be lifted, and single standard approach must be applied not only to countries of former Soviet Union, but to all other countries. And there cannot be any justification with respect to political preferences - if one country is more close and another country is not so close. Though it's also a questionable whose the factor is closer. Also, I think all the references and a kind of a justification or excuse, pointing out on Armenian lobby also are too exaggerated. It's a very good excuse for those who do not want to articulate straightforward position, not only the United States but also look at France. Even worse, even worse. France two chambers of Parliament recognized so-called Nagorno-Karabakh, which no country in the world including Armenia recognized. Therefore, this is how they call it real politics. Therefore, again, any kind of justification by Armenian lobbyist exaggerated. Just the question is still in the air. Why it happens? We need to have an answer. But again, I'd like to say that now this answer is not so important, as it was before. You remember, Brenda very well how we're in Azerbaijan were sensitive to this famous 907 amendment to Freedom Support Act. When I was not the president in my previous capacity, I was visiting Washington at least twice a year. Ambassador Pashayev at that time, also remembers very well how many doors we knocked in White House, National Security Council, in Senate, in Congress, just asking to lift this amendment. It didn't happen. So, I think in Azerbaijan nobody remembers 907 amendment, because first we don't need this assistance any longer. And second, there was a waiver to that made by President Clinton and then the presidents who succeeded him continue that. And actually it also demonstrates that it was resolved. So, with respect to the formal articulation of straightforward support of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan by the Western countries, I think the time will come. Actually, it's already coming. And important is that Armenia itself, actually now, more openly than some of Armenian friends in the West says as they de facto recognize it, because they've signed the Prague Declaration last October, Sochi Declaration again last October, where they agreed that the Almaty Declaration of 1991 should be taken as a basis for normalization and Almaty Declaration actually draws administrative boundaries of former republics and consider them as their official borders. That means that they already agreed that Karabakh is Azerbaijan. And I said recently that they just need to say the last word. They said A they need to say B. They should say what I said, Karabakh is Azerbaijan, I am waiting for that. I hope the time will come.

And with respect to energy security, you are absolutely right. We always did and measured our plans with respect to the future, because that was a vision of my father. And you're absolutely right. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline has a capacity of 50 million tonnes. And it, by the way, never, maybe one year it was close to that. We have condensate from Shahdeniz. We will have condensate from Absheron, hopefully, this year, and from many other fields. By the way, with respect to our future gas production and transportation, several new fields will be activated soon. As I said, Absheron with a capacity of 300 billion cubic meters, so-called Deep Gas of ACG with minimum the same amount - already the work has started and several other. So, there'll be more condensate in the pipeline than we even anticipated. And one day, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, I think, can be working full capacity with oil from Azerbaijan condensate from Azerbaijan and also oil from Central Asia. The same was with natural gas and you know that the diameter of TANAP and TAP are different. And this is again because in TAP, we didn't have the majority share. We have only 20% in TAP. Therefore, we could not, if I may use this word, dictate the partners that we need to have a bigger capacity. In TANAP, we have a majority share. So, TANAP is 16 bcm and TAP is 10. So, we are trying to expand twice because there is a big demand and the gas is here.

Those who said many years ago that Azerbaijan do not have oil, now were saying that Azerbaijan does not have gas. And just recently I was informed that European Commissioner on Energy Madam Simson, called Azerbaijan a Pan-European supplier of gas and this is true. And just recently I said we will be supplying gas in maximum couple of years to 10 countries including eight European countries. So, this demonstrates that we need not only to plan the project from commercial point of view, but also from strategic point of view and need to continue this combination. Because companies, which are investing, and banks, which are lending money, of course, they look at your potential today, some prospects for future, and they think that it should be the diameter and the capacity. But we look strategically. We better have capacity and have it not fully engaged rather than to have resources and not to be able to transport. So, the same will be, I'm sure, with our renewable projects. An original target for Black Sea cable was one gigawatt. But when Azerbaijan joined the project, we increased it to four gigawatt, because we already signed contracts and MoUs with international companies to produce 25 gigawatts of solar and wind energy in Azerbaijan. So, MoU with these companies, leading companies actually means contract. So, 25 gigawatt will be available here in the Caspian and onshore, and we need to have capacity, we need transmission. So, if everybody listened to what we advocated for today, I think European security on energy would have been much more better protected. Thank you.

Hafiz Pashayev: Thank you, Mr. President remind me about Section 907.

President Ilham Aliyev: You forgot too.

Hafiz Pashayev: It was my favorite topic during my years in Washington. So, I remember how late President Heydar Aliyev was

President Ilham Aliyev: We had, by the way, you probably remember, a kind of this mark when you have on the roads like 60 km or 100 km, we had 907 crossed.

Hafiz Pashayev: It was t-shirt.

President Ilham Aliyev: T-shirt.

Hafiz Pashayev: So, I remember how with very passion late Heydar Aliyev was trying to explain members of congress, big number of them together, that its unjustifiable. And then in spite of all this explanation, some members still insisted that you have to be very polite toward demands of Armenians.

President Ilham Aliyev: Maybe, we need to explain a little bit what 907 means, because I think not everybody in the audience understands. The Freedom Support Act was adopted by the US Congress after the collapse of the Soviet Union in order to support newly emerged republics. And pro-Armenian lobby in the Congress - they made amendment which was amendment 907, which deprived Azerbaijan from that right, from direct US assistance and, its most important why, because Azerbaijan was blockading Armenia. So, can you imagine the level of the manipulation? Azerbaijan was occupied by Armenia, and the territories which were adjusted Armenian border - Kalbajar, Lachin, Gubadli, Zangilan - all were under occupation. How could we blockade Armenia if our territory is under occupation? So, that was why we were absolutely, how to say, frustrated when we could not explain that this is not fair. But nevertheless, you see Mr. Ambassador, now we have to explain what 907 was, nobody remembers it.

Hafiz Pashayev: But still thats law of the United States. Injustice, which we still have and double standards still we have. I think its very much in the fact that its still a law of United States government.

President Ilham Aliyev: The most important is to change the reality on the ground, and to continue.

Hafiz Pashayev: Exactly. Next, Neil Melvin, Director International Security Studies, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the United Kingdom. Please.

Neil Melvin: Thank you, Mr. President. Azerbaijan has long been a part of European security, including through its membership with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. And you've already spoken today about the long-standing approach that you've taken to Euro Atlantic integration. But European security is changing. Russia's war against Ukraine is transforming European security. What used to be a collective project with Russia is now becoming a project about how to deter and contain Russia. Russia is the threat to European security. And that is only going to become clearer with the Vilnius NATO Summit, which we're seeing a realignment of Europe, a transformation of the security environment on the Black Sea. So, my question is, given all of the plans that you've been outlining for Azerbaijan's role as a transit company country and an energy country, do you see new challenges as a result of this shift, particularly as regards the positioning towards Russia from the Western Community? And do you anticipate that Azerbaijan may have to adjust some of its external policies in this new environment?

President Ilham Aliyev: Because it is difficult to predict what will be the end of the standoff when and how Russian-Ukrainian war ends and what will be a geopolitical situation after this war ends. Because sooner or later, the war will come to an end. Though, we cannot exclude that the way how is the war is conducted could be modified. But again, it's premature to talk about that. So, everything will depend on that, but it is absolutely clear that the world will never be the same as it was before the Russian-Ukrainian war. This is absolutely clear. And I think also absolutely clear for many European countries, NATO members as they had to take more serious steps with respect to security and the defense capabilities, because they themselves on the leadership level admit that they did not do enough in order to supply them with modern weapons, ammunitions. They probably found out that some of their statistics of their possession is not correct. It happens sometimes. So, I think this new geopolitical change will lead to militarization of Europe, of the world. And on one hand, it can be a dangerous kind of a trigger, on other hand, I think that could be also a kind of factor of deterrence. We in Azerbaijan, we realized many years ago that no one will help us and all our illusions about prevalence of international law disappeared. Not immediately, but throughout the times of negotiations. So, we realized that if we don't have a strong army, if we don't raise young generation ready to fight for the dignity not only for the land, we will always be occupied and always will complain. We were fed up with complaining, you know, let others complain about us now. That was how it was here in Azerbaijan. I think Azerbaijan's example is valuable. I know that the way how we conducted the battlefield, particularly liberation of Shusha, is being evaluated in international military academies. When you were approaching Shusha, you probably have seen the rock and it's just a fortress. It is very difficult to conquer. And Shusha was occupied because of the treason of many of those who were in power in Azerbaijan or trying to come to power. So, liberation of Shusha is really a demonstration of our spirit. So, I think that geopolitical changes in order that they do not create a problem for you, but on the contrary, be an opportunity depends on you, on your strategy, on your proper analysis of situation, and also on your principal policy. Because if countries start to maneuver, like for instance, what we see now in Armenia, it's an attempt to maneuver, attempt to sit now not on two chairs, but I think minimum four chairs and it is impossible. When it comes to Azerbaijan, whether it's our policy on regional development or policy on international affairs, on issues related to territorial integrity of countries is absolutely clear, absolutely free from any kind of current situation interests. And I think that Azerbaijan will become much stronger as a result of geopolitical change. We already see it, and the way how Armenia is coming closer to not only understanding but to publicly admitting Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, and also partly because of geopolitical change, partly because of collapse of the illusions that someone will come and fight for them. So, and of course, Azerbaijan's energy resources now much more needed to strengthen European energy security than ever before. So, I am not pessimistic with respect to our country's prospects, rather more optimistic, but try always to be realistic.

Hafiz Pashayev: Thank you. Arian Starova, Albania.

Arian Storova, Member of the Board, the Albanian Institute for International Studies: Very happy to be here and to share thoughts and your opinions, Mr. President. Thank you very much for that. I have two questions. In fact, the second question you`ve already given some answer, but probably, I would like to modify a little bit. The first question is: What's your opinion about the Belt and Road Initiative in Chinese One, about the future of that initiative? My second question has to do with the war of Russia in Ukraine. You said that it's very difficult to foresee and predict about the end of that, but I would rather put it differently and say probably that, how do you think this conflict might end? Thank you very much.

President Ilham Aliyev: The Belt and Road Initiative always was supported by Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan was among a limited number of countries, which got invitation and participated in a high level international conference. It was, I think, in spring 2019 in China dedicated to the Belt and Road Initiative. Azerbaijan is considered to be an important part of that project, especially now. So, we are very optimistic, what adds optimism is, first, that we made very good homework, as I said already, we modernized completely and still in the process of final, final touch, I would say, to modernize and to prepare more capacity for transportation infrastructure. At the same time more interest from Central Asia to use our infrastructure. And also I would like to say that in the end of last year the projects of building new railroad connection between China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Caspian have also started. So, this project was in the face of discussions for several years. So, it was officially already started and it demonstrates that if it started that it will work, definitely that there'll be more cargoes. So, we're now working with our partners on the eastern shores of the Caspian and in general in Central Asia on issues related to unification of tariffs, on making this road not only important from a point of view of transportation security, but also from commercial point of view. And it is possible. If each country, part of these projects, behaves in a fair way, and we have agreement on tariff unification and also customs administration. This is also very important to limit the bureaucratic procedures, to have more, how to say, electronic forms of joint operability.

With respect to the Russian-Ukrainian war, you ask a question that no one can answer. Maybe I know that someone can know when it will come to an end. But definitely it's not Azerbaijan, and for me, it will be irresponsible to make any predictions. Of course, as most of the countries in the world we want this war to stop sooner than later. But at the same time, as realists, we understand that probably it will not be possible to stop it sooner than later. So, that is a big tragedy for the peoples of these countries and for Europe and for the world.

Hafiz Pashayev: Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you.

Hafiz Pashayev: Nigar Goksel, Turkiye Project Director, the International Crisis Group.

Nigar Goksel: Thank you very much, Mr. President. With the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington, hopes were raised that a peace agreement, a breakthrough might be seen towards a peace agreement. But I gather from what you said that you're not very optimistic about this. I also gather that you don't have much hope. So, the external actors playing a very positive role in forging a peace agreement. So, I was wondering whether you could speak to whether any of the external actors are actually actively might try to prevent a peace agreement, whether there's a spoiler role and in my mind, I'm thinking about the interplay between the US and Iran, perhaps, between the US and Russia. How does the tensions between these powers play out in the South Caucasus and affect the chances of reaching a peace agreement with Armenia?

President Ilham Aliyev: I am less optimistic because of those comments, which we received. As I said several days ago, after waiting for more than 40 days, where we saw that almost 95% of the comments were the same like the previous one. So again, attempts to put under questions territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, again attempts to incorporate in some way, so-called Nagorno-Karabakh into peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, again attempts to cross when we put a proposal that we will combat together against terrorism, extremism, radicalism and separatism - all the rest remains on the separatism - Armenians cross. So, that means they will again trigger separatism in Azerbaijan. So, that reduced our optimism, but again we will see, because this session of negotiations is different from previous. It will already last for a couple of days and maybe will last for a couple of days more. And our idea was that they should come with some result, if not, it will be a big disappointment. At the same time, I think that the best way how to come to an agreement is direct negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia without any mediator and without any facilitator or spoiler. Before the Russian-Ukrainian war, we have seen the attempts of the former Minsk Group co-chairs to reengage again. We were actively against that. Because our position was that the Minsk Group failed and since 1992 until 2020 produced no result. The actual result was negative. Because we clearly understood in the end of so-called negotiations, during the times of occupation that Minsk group co-chairs just wanted to have situation unchanged. In other words, to keep the status quo, which was very comfortable for them and for Armenia, but not comfortable for us. Therefore, we've changed the status-quo. So, they were planning to join the efforts and to persuade Azerbaijan that the Minsk Group should in some form continue to be around. And when asked about what could that be, I said, first, we don't see any opportunity for doing as this usual business has finished. What countries of the former Minsk Group co-chairs can do if they want to help just to facilitate normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. So, I said the Karabakh conflict has been resolved and absolute majority of the principles, which were called Madrid principles have been implemented by Azerbaijan. Therefore, if you want to help, please concentrate on a peace agreement and persuade Armenia to be constructive. If any of these countries, I mean, now, the United States and Russia, of course, because after France took unilateral pro-Armenian position, it actually deprived itself from any kind of mediation. It is absolutely clear and not only, by the way, the so-called recognitions of separatism in Karabakh, but also other very open anti- Azerbaijani statements and actions in the United Nations, in Francophonie, in other formats and public statements of politicians actually isolated France from being mediator. Because mediator must at least pretend to be neutral. If you are not neutral in your soul, you at least have to pretend that you are neutral. They did not even try to do. So, now we see these efforts from the United States, from Russia, you probably know that next round of negotiations is supposed to take place between the ministers of the two countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan - in Russia this month. There is a European format of President Charles Michel, who several times convenes meetings on the level of leaders of the country. So, I think that may continue, but again I think direct negotiations between two countries will be more useful and helpful. I think that we need to go in that direction. Of course, if Armenia also is ready to do it.

Hafiz Pashayev: David Merkel, Managing Director, the Summit International Advisors, the US.

David Merkel: Mr. President, good to see you again. I'm really honored to be here on the 100th anniversary of Heydar Aliyev. Because of the ambassador's kindness, I had the opportunity of spending time with President Heydar Aliyev. It was at Yeni Azerbaijan Party Congress that first time I had the honor of meeting you. I have a request and a question. Being in Karabakh, I'd love to have a picture with you in Karabakh to take back to my friends on a Hill with regard to 907, which I have heard a lot about from yourself and the ambassador and other Azerbaijani friends. My question has to do with Iran. A lot in the Western press has been discussed on increasing tension between Azerbaijan and Iran and even a suggestion of kind of a little bit of axis of Armenia and Russia and Iran, on the one side, and Turkiye and Azerbaijan and Israel on the other. So, if you could just give us your thoughts on relations with one of your neighbors.

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, we always tried to develop these relations and as a President for almost 20 years, I was in Iran many times on official visits and previous presidents of Iran many times visited Azerbaijan. So, we had very active trade relations. We worked actively on issues related to transportation, particularly, the North-South Transport Corridor. And we saw that these relations have big potential, because always it is good to have good relations with your neighbor, especially when we have also a lot to remember in our history.

But, of course, during the times of occupation, we expected more from Iran with respect to support of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. And they always supported Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and voted for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity in the United Nations, in the Islamic Cooperation Organization. So, we must be absolutely fair about that. And but of course, people in Azerbaijan were not very happy with Iranian-Armenian relations. But as politicians we understood that every country has its own foreign policy priorities. Iran and Armenia are neighbors. Many people in Azerbaijan expected the same attitude as Turkiye, as Saudi Arabia, as Pakistan demonstrated during the times of occupation. Actually, these three countries did not even have diplomatic relations with Armenia because of occupation. So, I'm just telling you about the popular mood in Azerbaijan. So, people thought that it would be natural if Iran could be among these three countries and to demonstrate solidarity, especially because of active use of the territory of Iran by Armenia with respect to transportation, including transportation of military ammunition and equipment. But nevertheless, our relations were very solid. We agreed, together with other Caspian littoral states, on the Caspian Sea Convention. It was not easy. It took almost 30 years for countries to agree and there've been a lot of disagreements. I don't want to go into details. But finally, in Aktau, Kazakhstan, we signed the convention. So, that was also important that we've already come to an agreement how Caspian Sea boundaries and resources will be divided. But unfortunately, after the Second Karabakh War there have been several steps, which led to this escalation. And of course, if you look at the chronology of these steps, you will see that Azerbaijan was not the initiator. And why should we be initiators? We have such a huge challenge and task in front of us - reconstruction of Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. We do not have the need to have any problems with any country, especially with a neighboring country. But everything happened after we put cameras on road between Lachin and Khankendi, and we've detected regular movement of Iranian trucks to Karabakh and that was absolutely illegal. Because Iran recognizes territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and should not do things like that. We started to monitor the situation. We thought that maybe it's just a kind of an accident, maybe the drivers who came from Iran to Armenia they lost the road and by accident, they came to Karabakh. So, everything can happen. But then we started to see that it's already a kind of a tendency. So, my assistant invited the Iranian ambassador for a meeting by my instruction, private meeting, asking to convey to officials that we want kind of request to stop it. Because it is not good for our relations and it is not good from all points of view. We expected that will stop. But unfortunately, it did not stop. So, this traffic continued, illegal access to Azerbaijan from Iran continued. Then, we had to make an official step. We issued a diplomatic note and it was published and the Iranian ambassador was invited to our foreign ministry and that was made public that we expressed our dissatisfaction with that. So, this is a usual diplomatic procedure, nothing special. We thought that it will be the kind of message that will be responded. But unfortunately, not only it didn't stop, but this traffic became more intensive, what they were doing, and everything is documented because we have cameras already there. They were putting fake Armenian plaques and keeping the trucks as they were with this Arabic script. So, we had to stop it. So, two of these trucks have been detained and the drivers were arrested. In the traffic documents, we've seen that the cargo is sent from one of the Iranian cities and destination is written - Stepanakert, Armenia. Can you imagine that? And we have all these documents. It's not just the word, Stepanakert. First, it is not just Stepanakert, it is Khankendi. Second, it is not Armenia. And that created a lot of waves in some part of Iranian establishment - accusations, threats, etc.

But we think that we did the right thing. So, after a while, these drivers of course were released. And we thought that and it stopped. It stopped, frankly speaking. So, we had to use these kinds of measurements in order to protect our territorial integrity. Then there have been a lot of media attacks. A lot of statements from politicians, members of parliament, but actually we did not pay much attention to that because sometimes happens, somebody's unhappy wants to demonstrate his unhappiness. So, it's not something tangible. Even when they started to organize military drills on our border we treated it also as a kind of emotional gesture. Of course, it was difficult to understand because during the times of occupations they never had any military drills in that area. And these two military drills also were accompanied by a very hostile media campaign statements, insults, accusations, threats, etc. So, as always, we responded and we had two military drills on their border. One, by our special forces, those who liberated Shusha, by the way. And second with our ally, Turkiye, with Turkish F16 and Turkish special forces and it was not a demonstration. But it was also a message that we can defend ourselves. So, again, frankly, speaking as a President, I saw that it can create some difficulties but nevertheless, we wanted always to have a diplomatic solution to any kind of disagreements. I had a couple of meetings with my Iranian colleague at some international events, not in Baku and not in Tehran, but in Turkmenistan and in Kazakhstan. And it seemed to me that we clarified everything, and this misunderstanding is in the past. Unfortunately, when we were very close to, how to say, making a good step in reengagement - by the way, the visit of the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, the co-chair of the Joint Economic Commission was scheduled already to Tehran, because in Iran, there was a change of co-chair. So, we decided to send our co-chair to meet and because we have a lot of things on our agenda  then this terror act on our embassy happened and that ruined almost everything because there is a video footage. I don't want to go into much details, everyone can see what kind of act of terror it was. It was a deliberate, organized act of terror in order to kill our diplomats and members of their families. Because in that building, not only we have embassy but also apartments and family lives there. And we have security officers in several countries, but only in Iran they were not allowed to carry weapons. So, our security officers were with empty hands and the person who broke in he had Kalashnikov, and he started to shoot immediately, immediately killed and wounded two of them and only one brave officer with empty hands disarmed him and pushed him back. But for 40 minutes there was no police, no security officers, nothing. For 40 minutes, he was trying to get back, he was shooting with Kalashnikov, he used the hammer. He came with a hammer, and by the way, he came with Molotov cocktail and he broke the door with a hammer and entered again the building and again the same wounded officer, how to say, disarmed him and pushed him back. Then, he approaches, because we have external camera, internal camera definitely, approaches the police, puts down Kalashnikov, also he was using this Molotov. So, how can that be non-organized?. And moreover, the same day, this person appears on media. He gives an interview. Can you imagine the person who broke in an embassy of other country and killed one and wounded two gives interview saying that he did it because of some other reasons. And two days after in Iran, he was announced mentally disabled in order to avoid any kind of legal procedure. How that can happen? Mental disability cannot be examined and tested in two days. But that was not the end of the story. Yes, we pulled back completely all our diplomatic stuff, all our embassy. Now our embassy in Tehran is closed. And that was my decision, because for me the security and lives of our people are more important than what they will think in Iran about that. But that unfortunately was not the end of the story. Then, there was an act of terror against a member of the parliament of Azerbaijan and only by chance he was not killed. The God saved his life. Again, Kalashnikov in just two meters distance, six bullets and he was seriously wounded.

And after several days that group was detained. So, our law enforcement structures worked very efficiently. We find and punish everyone, no matter where they hide. And they already said where they hide and put their Kalashnikov. It was found, so, the whole network was disclosed. They testified that they received orders from Iran. So, this is crossing the red line. You know, this is serious, this is terror. And we think that this terror is organized on a governmental level. We totally consider inappropriate any kind of statements that someone had done it. No. Therefore, we demand first, extradition of some terrorists from Azerbaijan who found shelter in Iran. And, we demand transparent investigation of the terror attack on our embassy. So, you can imagine that now relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are on the lowest ever level. It is very difficult to predict whether they will remain on that level, whether they will go down or they will go up. It's very difficult to predict. So, we got some communications from Iranian officials, some phone calls and other communications, proposals to normalize relations but definitely, as I said, our demands are absolutely legitimate and justified. If these demands are met, then we can talk about normalization. If not, then not. So, again, it was not our choice. But everybody in Iran, all segments of the establishment should finally understand that the language of threats and terror will not work with Azerbaijan. The soon they understand, the better we can see signs of normalization.

Hafiz Pashayev: Mr. President, if you will allow, continue.

President Ilham Aliyev: Yes, go ahead.

Hafiz Pashayev: Thank you. Next, Victor Kipiani, Chairman of Geocase, Georgia.

Victor Kipiani: Thank you very much, Mr. President Aliyev. Your Excellency, delighted to be in Shusha. Thank you for your time to say us. You mentioned on few occasions the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan, the South Caucasus Pipeline. Undisputedly those projects laid down foundations for a good regional cooperation, which will be benefit us up to this phase and hopefully will continue benefiting into decades to come. And this is really the great legacy of Heydar Aliyev and his counterpart President Shevardnadze. And this is something you know something, which we should be very much thankful to. In the context of those projects as well, at the start of the next phase of increasing regional interconnectedness. And that is about the Middle Corridor and the Black Sea cable. You've touched on, from time to time in course of this conversation, but cause expectations but still if you could still elaborate a little bit more on your outlook in relation to the projects, your expectations from the partners. When speaking about the expectations of the partners in that context, once again, so elaborates on the good partnership of Azerbaijan and Georgia, which has always been critical for an overall success of any cross-border project, which we are witnessing, we have witnessed, and we will be witnessing. So, thank you so much indeed. Thanks.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you very much. Yes, I fully agree with you, President Heydar Aliyev and President Eduard Shevardnadze - they laid down the foundation for the strong partnership and cooperation between our two countries. You know that they were leading Georgia and Azerbaijan during the Soviet times. They had a very good friendly relations at that time and as leaders of independent countries, they actually founded today's Georgia- Azerbaijan partnership format. And of course, it started with the Baku-Supsa Pipeline and famous inauguration in the end of 1990s in Supsa with a presence of President Shevardnadze and President Aliyev. And then they together laid down the foundation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan. And when the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan was inaugurated in 2006 already, and it was without their participation unfortunately.

So, today, relations developed successfully based on that foundation. You know that recently, last month, the Georgia Prime Minister visited Azerbaijan. I visited Georgia six months ago. So, we always keep in touch and try jointly to even cement even more relations between our countries and there is a high level of mutual understanding that only together we can achieve our goals, only together we can be more powerful in the region and also in relationship with our partners in Europe. Therefore, Georgia and Azerbaijan, interconnections and partnership in transportation energy in many other areas is important factor of energy security and transportation security. During these two important visits and also during the visits of other high-ranking officials, mutual visits, these two important issues have been addressed.

With respect to the Middle Corridor, you probably know that Azerbaijan is now investing additional funds into expansion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad on the Georgian territory. We've allocated about 140 million US dollars to expand the capacity to 5 million tonnes by railroad, and hopefully within the maximum one year from now, we will achieve that. At the same time, we are actively evaluating future cooperation with respect to the potential of Georgian sea ports  existing and planned. I do not want to say something before some results are achieved. We are seriously evaluating. We see a great potential, because we can foresee huge cargo flow through the Middle Corridor across the Caspian and then further down to Georgia sea ports and through Georgia to Turkiye, to Kars further down. So, this is a reality.

With respect to the Black Sea cable, you know that project feasibility study had been started a while ago, but now, we established more, how to say, a broader I would say format of four countries, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary and Romania. And First Advisory Council of that project took place in February in Baku and the second in Tbilisi, relatively recently, I think, last month. So, we looked at this project from a bigger perspective, not just a Black Sea cable, but a transportation route from Caspian offshore wind farms to Europe, and to have an integrated project. Unlike the Southern Gas Corridor, which was a fragmented one consisting of three independent integrated pipelines, now we want to have integrated projects from the source and of course, source will be also in Georgia to the final destinations. And after we started this already formal cooperation, we already started to receive some messages from some other European countries which want to join. So, I think that it could be a really global project.

Already we have oil, gas. Now, why not to have electricity transmission and cable. The European Union strongly supports that, and that adds to our optimism because European Commission's President Madame Ursula von der Leyen was witnessing the signing ceremony last December in Bucharest. So, her presence there demonstrates that European Union will seriously participate. And this is a project of probably the coming decades, because they have great potential of renewables in Georgia, Azerbaijan, including Karabakh, whether it's hydro or wind. And as I already said, with several major international companies famous in renewables, we signed contracts and MOUs to produce 25 gigawatts. Almost 500 megawatts already is being constructed, 230 megawatts inauguration we are planning within several months. So, more than 700 megawatts of solar and wind we will have probably maximum like in 2025 and the rest is in the pipeline. So, we have great future and must always be together.

Hafiz Pashayev: Next, Victoria Coates, Senior Research Fellow, the Heritage Foundation, the US.

Victoria Coates: Thank you Mr. President for the warm welcome to both Baku and Shusha. This has been an extraordinary opportunity. And if I can get into David's 907 picture, I'd appreciate that tangled with that issue myself. But having this chance to both look back at the extraordinary century that Azerbaijan has experienced under both your father and you, and looking forward to the next century, which of course will start in 2024. You had brought up the Belt and Road Initiative, which is obviously, this is sometimes in the paper. There are heightened tensions between the United States and the People's Republic of China, so that may have crossed your inbox. You know, I'm of the opinion that we can't be surprised that a country like Azerbaijan would look both East and West. After all in the United States we faced the same challenge. We are both an Atlantic and the Pacific power. And in terms of positioning the United States as a partner of choice to Azerbaijan going forward, I think it is beholden on us to be more proactive in that space, rather than as I said, simply lecturing you on the evils of the PRC. I do have views on that, but I need to air them here.

As we go forward, so, if you look at something like 907 as an unnecessary irritant in a relationship, what can the United States do particularly as we grow into our status as an energy superpower? Due to be from an Azerbaijan perspective to be the partner of choice to you, and what would you see as the best engagement from both the United States government and from our private sector?

President Ilham Aliyev: Actually, I think I'm absolutely convinced that agenda of bilateral relations between the United States and Azerbaijan is really very impressive. What we just were discussing about 907 and some, you know, sensitivity to the issues related to some wording with respect to territorial integrity of Azerbaijan did not mean at all that we had some kind of contradictions that cannot be resolved. On the contrary, with the United States we have a very broad and very important bilateral agenda. First of all, on the issues related to energy security. The United States always supported Azerbaijan in its endeavors to diversify the energy supply routes and helped us in order to transform into a country, which today's considered, as I already said, by European Commission as a Pan-European gas supplier. I remember those years very well, because when I worked in SOCAR in 1990s, I know very well how important US support was in implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. There was a lot of opposition to that pipeline around. So, it was very strong Armenian and pro-Armenian campaign. They even established the NGO, which was called if I'm not mistaken, BTC Campaign. They issued letters everywhere and by the way, unfortunately, some of these letters worked. So, World Bank delayed for one year, lending money for construction of BTC, because of the so-called environmental concerns. So, they use just this pretext, that it will damage the environment. Though it's almost 20 years that BTC in operations, there was not a single, not a single drop of oil, which can damage the environment. In other words, the United States helped us to overcome those difficulties.

If talking about the gas, yes, as always we`re joking with US partners, none of the drops of Azerbaijani gas will reach US market, but the United States was instrumental in support of Azerbaijan's vision for the Southern Gas Corridor. There have been a lot of obstacles in implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor and obstacles from unexpected sources. I think it is not a secret any longer. But again, the pretext was environment. And this time it was not turtles like in case of BTC, it was olive trees. So, you see how creative they are. Actually, it was the same group of people, who were concerned about turtles with BTC and olive trees in Italy. Because we made our own investigation and found who was behind this campaign against the Southern Gas Corridor. Unfortunately, we had difficult times in communications with previous governments, governments of Italy and also some local authorities. We've traced all the connections, because we had to know who is behind this campaign in order to fix the project and we found. Maybe I don't want, it's premature to talk about that, but the time will come everything will be known. But what's happened then, and I witnessed on the television. First of all, I'd like to say that President of Italy, Mr. Sergio Mattarella was of great support and he did a great job in order to move the process forward. Because several olive trees relocation happens on a regular basis in Italy, in other Mediterranean countries, it happens. So, in this case, these olive trees, unfortunately, were a source of big concerns and then they, by the way, were relocated, and I'm sure they're safe. But then at the press conference of then-President of the United States Donald Trump and then-Italian Prime Minister, Donald Trump openly said you have to support the project and that was a turning point. And immediately all the concerns of olive trees relocation were lifted, and we got the green light. So, this is how United States is working. What I'm saying now, maybe I'm saying for the first time, but I think that why should we keep it secret? Why there should be some ambiguity? No.

We have very profound relations with the United States. And now in particular, and I got several letters from President Biden, very positive. I got public communications from President, from Secretary Blinken with respect to our humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. Azerbaijan was one of the two last countries along with Turkiye, who left mission in Afghanistan. We were the last two. And we stayed in Afghanistan from the very beginning. We've been in Iraq since 2003. Until we got a message from the United States that we can go home. So, we went. So, we've been even in Kosovo before this process of recognition started. Security, energy, trades, now, on renewables, we hope that American companies will be part of our big project of transforming Azerbaijan into a source of renewable energy. Because proven reserves of wind and solar power in Azerbaijan is close to 200 gigawatts and this is already with respect to the Caspian Sea has been confirmed by IFC. 157 gigawatts of wind power only in the Caspian Sea, which belongs to us.

So, once again, I maybe go too far, but only in order so that no one thinks that is 907 and some other things - they are peanuts. Now they seem like peanuts, then it was maybe more sensitive, but we need always to look at the broader picture. There can be certain disappointments. Of course, we are disappointed that people like Senator Menendez, who has Armenian family always attacks Azerbaijan. And he's a big lobbyist, not Armenia lobbyists, but anti-Azerbaijani lobbyist. We regret that person like Adam Schiff also spreads hatred against Azerbaijan, and now he wants to put the kind of resolution to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh. That resolution if adopted will have the same value as resolutions adopted by French Senate and National Assembly. So, we know these people, we know that they're sponsored by Armenia lobby, we know that most probably the background of this cooperation is not very clean. It is possible, but having people like Menendez and Schiff and Sherman, it should not interfere with our relations. There was a case when American Ambassador Matthew Bryza, who, by the way, was participant at the last meeting. His appointment was blocked by pro-Armenian senators, because he was not too pro-Armenian and because he had a Turkish wife. Can you imagine, the level of political conscious of these people? If person has a Turkish wife, he cannot be ambassador in Azerbaijan. And diplomatic career of Matthew Bryza was ruined. The person, who served for the US State Department for a couple of decades, at least it was ruined by one person, this pro-Armenian guy. So, this is something, which we of course, take into account, but neither Menendez nor Schiff nor any other people like them will be able to interfere in relations between US and Azerbaijan. Our relations are very well balanced, solid and based on mutual respect. And I'm sure that will be the case for the future.

Hafiz Pashayev: Mehmood Hassan Khan, the Center of South Asia and International Studies, Pakistan. Please.

Mehmood Hassan Khan: We have a special connection, passion and respect for you and the people of Azerbaijan. And we really appreciate your strategic vision in terms of complete socio-economic transformation of Azerbaijan, and successful liberation of Karabakh. Since a lot of questions related to geopolitics have already been asked, so my questions pertain to geo-economics.

His Excellency, would Azerbaijan seek Chinese diplomatic assistance to resolve the issue of Zangezur corridor? How do you foresee is the role of Azerbaijan after Chinese facilitated peace agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Greater Eurasian region? Because it has changed the regional socio-economic dimension and geopolitics and most recently, phenomenon, the pace of the process of dedollarisation strategic expansion of SCO and momentum of BRICS. Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you. First of all, I'd like to say that Pakistan and Azerbaijan are true friends and brotherly countries. We are very grateful to the people and government, and previous governments of Pakistan for continuous support to Azerbaijan. With respect to our territorial integrity and sovereignty - during the times of occupation, during the war - there were very clear statements from high-ranking Pakistani leaders - President and Prime Minister - supporting Azerbaijan and after the war. So, once again, like to ask you to convey our gratitude to all our brothers. Pakistan is one of the three countries along with Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, which did not have any diplomatic relations with Armenia, because of occupation and we, of course, highly value that.

With respect to the Zangezur corridor and as far as I got it correctly, how China can facilitate. I think there's a big potential in Zangezur corridor and already I mentioned that the railroad connection between China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, is started. The Zangezur corridor has a big potential to become one of the extension of the One Belt and One Road and also can be part of the North South Corridor. Because entering Nakhchivan, then it has already a railroad connection with Iranian railroad, which can deliver goods to the Persian Gulf. So, Zangezur corridor is important not only for Azerbaijan and Armenia, but I think on a global scale. Because we expect a growing number of cargoes, growing volume of cargoes. So, the more roads we have the better. As far as we're concerned, next year we will complete the construction of the railroad, which was dismantled during the times of occupation and it was sold on the market by Armenians from Fuzuli to Zangilan, almost to Armenian border and 40 something kilometers on the territory of Armenia. If built, that will be, of course, an international project. If Armenia would put artificial obstacles in front of that project, they will only lose. Because today we don't have any problems of transporting goods through Georgia, Turkiye, through Georgia and Black sea ports, either through Russia or through Iran, but Armenia doesn't have this physical connections.

With respect to the role of China in normalization between Saudi Arabia and Iran, we highly value the role of China, by the way, Id like to say that we have excellent relations with China. I met President of China Xi Jinping many times. And he called me a good friend of China during one of our meetings. So, I think only this is enough to demonstrate the level of our cooperation. And of course, we support normalization between Saudi Arabia and Iran. We do not know what is the substance of the agreement, it's not known for us, but anyway, it's very good. Saudi Arabia - for us is brotherly country - country with which we had excellent relations and we want them only progress, stability and development. As I said, they did not establish diplomatic relations with Armenia because of us. And this means a lot. And of course, Iran as a neighbor, of course, we want stability and predictability in Iran. So, I think that the role of China must be only appreciated.

With respect to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, I was invited for the first time, by the way, to the Summit, which took place in Uzbekistan, because Azerbaijan is not as you know, a member is not even an observer, Azerbaijan status is partner for dialogue. But nevertheless, Azerbaijan was invited and I think that was very important for us, because with many countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, we have very good relations. Thank you.

Hafiz Pasayev: Mr. President, we are already two hours in session.

President Ilham Aliyev: So, you have the list. I haven't seen your list. Everything is in your hands.

Hafiz Pashayev: List is big and even I see some signs that somebody wants to.

President Ilham Aliyev: I think we can continue if you are not tired.

Hafiz Pashayev: Ilayda Nijhar, the Overseas Development Institute, the United Kingdom. Please.

Ilayda Nijhar, Global Risks Analyst, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the United Kingdom: Thank you Mr. President for dedicating your time today and it's great to be here. We've touched upon a lot of different themes and the question on the Middle Corridor. Yesterday, we heard the Minister for Digital Development and Transport saying that the Middle Corridor can't just be an option to be used when things go bad. In your view, what more can be done in terms of engagement and support on development of the Middle Corridor from external partners? And if I may, just another quick one. The Organization of Turkic States (OTS), it's already been mentioned, but I'd be keen to hear your views on what role you see Azerbaijan playing in the development of the OTS, particularly considering observer status and of course, including Northern Cyprus as well. Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: With respect to the Middle Corridor, of course, we fully support this project and it has a great potential. I think that important is for us to understand that we should not only be a transit route for cargoes, but we should use this opportunity in order to stimulate business activity on the route. So, I think for all the countries, which are involved in the Middle Corridor, it will be important not only to earn money from transit fees, but to use this opportunity in order to stimulate local manufacturing. And we have big expectations with respect to the future activity of the Alat Free Economic Zone, which has a very solid legal foundation and the rules of the zone, I think it should be very attractive for investors. And it is in the process of completion. I mean, the first installation of the first infrastructure. So, we want to use this opportunity to become the place for manufacturing, for more business opportunities. Taking into account the improving business climate in Azerbaijan, big reforms in the area of taxation and customs administration and, in general, reforms on transparency of all our financial system, I think there's a big potential. Plus of course, geographical location, because Azerbaijan as I already said, is not only East-West Corridor country, but North-South. We're just on the juncture. And with all the transportation routes open and almost all of them fully modernized, of course, there is a big potential. But again, we want to look at these opportunities from broader picture, not just to be a transitor, it is not enough and there is a potential.

With respect to the Organization of Turkic States, Azerbaijan was always very active throughout the whole period of these organizations, though it had different names before. There were times when some countries were more active, some countries less. There were times when the summits were not regular. But Azerbaijan always was one of the important country. It was not by chance that the Declaration about the creation of the Council was adopted in Nakhchivan more than 10 years ago. And also change of the name also means not only how to say how it will be called, but it means the substance and we see that there's a big need in all the member countries of the organization to consolidate the efforts. Because if we do it, if we transform this organization even more into serious international player, I think, everyone will benefit. Because, look, we have big geography. We have in some countries big natural resources, including energy resources, have a strong military capability in some of the countries and if we unite all these efforts, of course, we will see a serious player on a global scale. It can be and I think it should be one of the centers of global powers. Because again, population geography, transportation routes, Eurasian, how to say, dimension, energy resources. Turkiye is a second NATO member army. Azerbaijan's army also demonstrated that it is very capable. So, if we unite all these efforts, we will only benefit and I think the more we get together, more we interact, the more understanding is in our countries that this is a way how it should be. And moreover, you know, you have to live in your family. You have to live in your country. That's my, how to say, approach. Of course, I respect people who live in some other countries. It's now normal in a global world. But I think that for everyone, that's my personal view, is better to live in your country and in your family. So, this is our family and we must be in our families. This is natural space for all of us. And with respect to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, you know, that they became observers. And we supported that from the very beginning until the very end. We only can congratulate our brothers. And by the way, we got certain messages from, you can imagine, from where about that. So, our answer was that first, they are our brothers. And second, they are observers already in Islamic Cooperation Organization, which has many more countries. So, I think that potential is here and I witness more common understanding about our future coordinated performance on international arena.

Hafiz Pashayev: Next, Michael Ritchie.

Michael Ritchie, Editor, Energy Intelligence, the United Kingdom: Thank you, Mr. President. You've already addressed some of the issues I was interested in about the Southern Gas Corridor. Energy is my field. Talking about the resources available and the commerciality of them. So, if I can be just a bit more specific and ask how much extra gas do you think Azerbaijan can supply to the European Union by 2027. That's called for in a Memorandum of Understanding signed last summer with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. And also, do you see any flexibility in that time table? I mean it's quite tight. And finally, given that the EU aims gradually to phase out fossil fuels, what sort of long term commitments will you require from the EU side?

President Ilham Aliyev: Yeah, you touched on very important issues long term commitment. This is important, because we've got a lot of requests from many countries. After the Russian-Ukrainian war started, from more than 10 countries we got requests either to increase the supply or to find the opportunity to start the supply. And of course, this needs additional investments and a lot of, how to say, technical things to be resolved. And of course, we must know what will be the duration of that deficit and what will be the approach to fossil fuels in the future. Because you know, that now European Investment Bank does not finance any longer projects of fossil fuel. I don't want to comment about that. But this is something we have to take into account. So, we don't want to find ourselves in this situation where we invest additional billions of dollars, which we did not plan, by the way, and then, all of a sudden, someone will tell us thank you, goodbye.

We don't need it any longer, we have hydrogen or whatever. Therefore, one of the element of our energy dialogue with the European Commission is exactly what you mentioned very correctly that we need to have predictability. We are ready to help. We are already helping. We are investing additional financing. We're doing a lot of other, how to say, diplomatic steps, in order to supply as much as we can to European countries. Of course, we expect understanding of our position in European Commission. So that we can plan the future. In general with European Union we have energy dialogue, which covers many areas, not only gas, but also renewables and green hydrogen. And so, the portfolio is really very impressive. And with respect to concrete figures, we signed a MOU to double our supply by 2027. And that will be around 20 bcm. I think this is absolutely realistic. Otherwise we wouldn't have signed it, if we thought this is not realistic. If no force majeure takes place. It is absolutely realistic. 2021 our supply to EU market was something more than 8 bcm. This year it will be 12. So, in two years from 8 to 12. And I think going by this big steps by 2027, it can be 20.

You may ask about the sources. I can tell you. First, we expect more gas from Shah Deniz, we expect maybe in four years time, maybe less from new phase of Shah Deniz additional gas. We expect already several years, but I hope this year we will get first gas from Absheron, which at the first phase of Absheron will produce 1.5 bcm. And then we will have to decide what will be the second phase and what will be the market, whether it will be the domestic market or international market. So, it's just I don't want to bother you with too many details. Of course, so-called deep gas from ACG has great potential. And BP and SOCAR are already actively working on that. It's a huge gas condensate field. When I said 300 billion cubic meters of gas, this is minimum. Of course, big potential in Umid and Babek, which partly is developed by SOCAR itself, but we're ready to work with international companies also. And Karabakh oil field, which also has potential. So, this is a source of gas. Another source is efficiency in management. Reduction of losses, modernization of our gas distribution network, and renewables. Because today we use about 5 bcm minimum to produce electricity. So, if we have enough renewables, this 5 bcm will be available for market.

So, this is additional. But we come here to the problem, which we just raised in the beginning. We need to have capacity in transportation. TAP must be expanded. As I said we have 20%, others companies have also 20% almost, except one. So, it must be common decision to expand TAP. If TAP is not expanded, then there'll be no gas in TAP. So, TAP now is at the maximum capacity already. To expand TANAP is easier, because in TANAP it is Azerbaijan, Turkiye and BP. So, it is easier to do. But in TAP it is more difficult. We need to have access to the Trans-Balkan pipeline and to be able to supply countries which are waiting for our gas. And if interconnectors in Europe are built on time, then by the end of this year, we can start supply to Hungary and to Serbia.

Romania already started this year. So, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria already started. In Albania, we are in the stage of negotiations of investment in gas distribution network. So, Albania is a transitor, but it doesn't have gas distribution network. So, we are planning to invest substantial amount of money to create this distribution network. I was in Sofia just several days ago to attend the inauguration of the Solidarity Ring. So, Slovakia is joining. So, if now we export to six countries, within one year if everything goes according to the schedule, without force majeure, it can be 10. And that's why Commissioner Simson says Azerbaijan will be the Pan-European supplier and this is not the end. I think, we will find if there is a market and if there are enough interconnectors, the geography can expand because we still have requests from the countries, which I did not mention, in Balkans and also in other parts of Europe, which can be also recipients of Azerbaijani gas. So, the real picture is very broad, but all these projects must be in coordination. If we don't have on time implementation of green energy project, so that will also, how to say, delay all the rest.

Farhad Azima, Chairman, ALG Transportation, the US: Thank you, Mr. President. It is very special for me to be here, on this occasion, in this area. The dream of late President was manifested in reality by you, Mr. President. I'm honored to be here. I have a simple question. Natural gas from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and possibly Kazakhstan could be very easily transferred here via underwater Caspian Sea to Baku and from Baku via Turkiye to go to Europe. What are the obstacles that are not being implemented?

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, it's difficult for me to say, because you know the projects of gas, infrastructure, construction are usually the projects, which are initiated and financed by those countries, which are the owners of these resources, as it was in our case. We are the owners of resources. We initiated construction of the Southern Gas Corridor and built together with our partners - with the help of international financial institutions - the 3,500 km-long pipeline from Baku to Italy, partly underwater. Major investments, billions of dollars and we did not yet recover the costs. So, it's a long term investment, but it was a strategic decision. And without that, none of what we're talking about would have been possible. And by the way, just for historical memory, I want to say that Azerbaijan was an initiator of the Southern Gas Corridor. Before that, there were a lot of speculations, discussions about different projects. I personally participated many times, maybe almost 10 times, in different conferences, international events on NABUCCO. So, if you remember, maybe it's like 907 also everybody forgot about it. But it didn't happen. Why? Because the question was who is going to pay for that? And when this question was raised everybody backed down. So, we initiated the Southern Gas Corridor and did it on time, and now we enjoy the benefits.

With respect to the gas from Central Asia, this decision must be made by the owners of these resources. Where the owners are planning to export, in which direction, whether it will be East or West? If they choose West, or if they choose both, of course, we in Azerbaijan will do everything in order to facilitate. We can provide the technical assistance, we can provide our pipe link barges. We only have it in the Caspian Sea. We can provide access to the Sangachal terminal, we can provide access to our pipeline system, but the decision must be made by them. If made, financial package must be also organized by them. In other words, the consortium, corporate capital and then borrowed money, who will be financing? So, this is one important part. So, this is a trigger. If this trigger is not pushed, it will not work. But even if the trigger is pushed, the question is then, if everything what I said is done, then what happens after the gas comes to the shore of Azerbaijan? How its going to be exported? What will be the volumes? What will be the commercial terms between the owners and the consumers? So, we can only be a transitor and we will be definitely a very fair transitor. By the way, the cash flow we may have as a transitor is not significant for Azerbaijan taking into account the cash flow we have from oil and gas. So, it's not a matter of significant economic importance. It's a matter of contribution to energy security, and a matter of facilitation to our friends in the East and in the West. So, in other words, we cannot initiate this project, and we cannot finance it. That's why, why it didn't happen, the question is not to me, but maybe your neighbor can answer.

Sodyq Safoev, First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan, Rector of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy: Yesterday, when Ive been asked, whether I am going to ask you a question, I said, I'm going to listen. And I thank you very much for this meeting. And we appreciate highly your vision, your inspiration, and your in-depth analysis. I'm sure that it was educational for all of us to listen to your assessments, your predictions and analysis. Few days ago in Tashkent, we've had a big conference dedicated to the centennial of the great leader, statesman Heydar Aliyev. We appreciate that the members of the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan attended the referendum as observers. The main conclusion of our Congress, which was by the way, only beginning of series of events to take place until the 10th of May in Uzbekistan, dedicated to the heritage of Heydar Aliyev, was that it was a man of caliber and magnitude and he possessed leadership what we need all now. Being here in Shusha, we've seen his dreams had come true. And we've seen his legacy in splendid, magnificent Baku, in the minds and spirit of military force of Azerbaijan, in the revival of Shusha. Thank you very much for allowing us to see it.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you. You probably realize that we don't need to have an interpreter. Our language are so close, our people are so close, that we not only understand each other, but we feel the pulse of each other. I'm very grateful to what you said, very grateful to all our brothers in Uzbekistan for the respect to the memory of Heydar Aliyev. During my official visit to Tashkent, together with my brother President Mirziyoyev, we opened the monument in honor of Heydar Aliyev in the park, which was named after him. It was a festival of our brotherhood and friendship. We're very grateful for that.

And just using this opportunity, Id like to congratulate the people of Uzbekistan with the important political event - successful referendum, which will create better opportunities for development of political system, economic development, social development. And you know that President Mirziyoyev and myself - we are good friends. And we told our ministers that we will personally monitor the implementation of all our instructions, and it already happened. So, don't want just to take much of the time, but really the substance and the spirit of cooperation is unique. As it should be between two brotherly peoples who speak more or less the same language and who share the same values. So, thank you and welcome to Karabakh.

Hafiz Pashayev: Mr. President, you are very generous with your time. But I want to stop, probably, questions. And I want to mention one person, who is here with us. Yesterday, he presented a short movie about his vision and his feelings about Karabakh, about his meetings with Heydar Aliyev. And this is Thomas Goltz, who is with us. For his health reasons, of course, he could not make even more active involvement of all this contribution to our conference, but what he did was very valuable and we are very thankful to him that he came to Shusha, to Karabakh. Because in my memory not any other journalist or even some other Americans did so much to make sure that Karabakh will be known to American public in a way which, which is true, which presents realities. So, we're very thankful. Yesterday, he made this presentation of movie and as you know, he was the first person, who visited Nakhchivan during Heydar Aliyev`s being there. In that movie he was also on the backside of the pictures. So, Thomas, thank you very much for coming. And I think he would be delighted to have picture with you.

President Ilham Aliyev: Yes, yes. With pleasure. I know, Mr. Goltz, weve met, I think, a couple of times in some events. And of course, I heard a lot, and I know how committed he was to restoration of justice. I think one of the elements of the restoration of justice is him being today in Shusha. And I think this is how justice prevails. So, thank you very much for all what you have done and thank you for being with us today.

Thank you very much. So, with respect to the pictures, I think we can have a family picture and then individual pictures and outside. Yes, yes. Outside we need to find a good place.
Why It Matters: Whos paying, and who else is flying?

Though the law purports to shield Mr. DeSantiss and other top officials travel records under the umbrella of increasing threats and operational security, it also includes a sweeping retroactive clause that would block the release of many records of trips already taken by Mr. DeSantis and other officials, as well as those taken by their families and staff members.

Mr. DeSantis has been facing increasing scrutiny for his use of private chartered flights  including questions about who paid for the travel and who flew with him  especially as his presidential ambitions come into clearer focus and he travels the country more extensively.

In years past, Floridas expansive transparency laws have exposed officials abuses of state resources: In 2003, for example, Jim King, the president of the State Senate, was found to have used a state plane to fly home on the weekends.

Whats Next: A target for other potential Republican contenders.

The bill now heads to Mr. DeSantiss desk. The governor has avoided directly commenting on the bill and has stated that he did not draft the initiative, but many Florida Republicans expect that he will sign it into law.

Its not necessarily something that I came up with, Mr. DeSantis said on Monday at an event in Titusville. He added that the legislation was motivated by a security concern and that he had been receiving a lot of threats.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is led by a DeSantis appointee, has also expressed support for the bill, stating in April that releasing travel details represents a risk not only to those we protect, but also F.D.L.E. agents and citizens attending events.

Critics of the bill, however, note that adding the retroactive clause does not fit with a security justification. How is there a security issue for travel thats already occurred? said Barbara Petersen, the executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, after the bill first advanced out of committee in April.

The proposed changes have drawn the attention of some of Mr. DeSantiss potential Republican rivals for president.

In recent months, Governor DeSantis has used taxpayer dollars to travel around the country for his 2024 presidential campaign, including to the early voting states of Iowa and Nevada, the campaign of Donald J. Trump said in a statement last month. DeSantiss gubernatorial office, however, refuses to tell reporters  and the public  how much taxpayer money has been spent to fund these travels, or how much DeSantiss April globe-trotting will cost.
CLEVELAND, Texas  The sound of gunfire  whether from hunting, or target practice, or celebration  is common in much of rural America. Perhaps nowhere is this more true than in Texas, where the occasional volley rarely raises alarm.

So when someone from an immigrant family from Honduras called 911 on Friday night to report that their next-door neighbor was shooting from his small property in San Jacinto County, the police did not rush to the scene. Officers did not arrive until after the neighbor had stormed into the familys house and killed five people, including a 9-year-old boy, with his AR-15-style rifle.

On Tuesday, after an extensive manhunt, officials in Texas said they had arrested the suspect, Francisco Oropesa, 38, just a few miles from where the killings took place. But they were still struggling to understand why such aimless shooting, of the sort common in that part of Texas, had turned into a massacre.

More than 250 officers from a dozen agencies had been on the hunt for Mr. Oropesa, a Mexican immigrant who had been deported four times before. Law enforcement officials had feared that he had been headed to Mexico, or had already arrived there.
While Vermont is the first state to formally remove the residency requirement from its medically assisted suicide law, Oregon health authorities agreed in 2022 to stop enforcing its residency provision as part of a settlement in a similar federal lawsuit. A bill seeking to remove the requirement has since passed Oregons House. The state was the first to pass a medical aid in dying law, which took effect in 1997.

Several other states and the District of Columbia allow terminally ill residents access to life-ending treatments, but most do not permit nonresidents to access their care.

Advocates for improving end-of-life care said on Tuesday that they hoped other states would follow Vermont in allowing people to cross state lines to end their lives with dignity.

Support for this is widespread and bipartisan, said Kimberly Callinan, the chief executive of Compassion & Choices, an advocacy group that supports expanding access to end-of-life medication. People universally want to be able to make decisions over how they die.

But critics of assisted-dying laws argue that the practice remains a matter of contention. There continue to be legitimate and serious concerns, Mary Hahn Beerworth, a lobbyist with Vermont Right to Life, testified before a legislative committee earlier this year.
The British police conducted a controlled explosion outside Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, detonating a bag taken from a man who they said had thrown suspected shotgun cartridges onto palace grounds just days ahead of King Charles IIIs coronation.

There were no injuries and no shots were fired, but the man was swiftly detained and subsequently arrested after he was found to be carrying a knife, Londons Metropolitan Police said. He was not in possession of a firearm and the incident is not currently being treated as terror related, they added.

The man was detained after throwing items suspected to be shotgun cartridges and was found to be carrying a suspicious bag, the police said in a statement. The police said they conducted a controlled explosion on the bag as a precaution following an assessment by specialists who arrived on scene.

They did not say what made the bag suspicious, or whether it turned out to contain anything dangerous.
A village in Russias Bryansk region near the border with Ukraine was shelled early Tuesday, the third straight day of security incidents in the area as both sides ramp up fighting ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The early morning shelling caused a fire but no casualties, the regional governor, Aleksandr V. Bogomaz, said on the Telegram messaging app. He said Ukraines military was behind the strike on the village, which is less than five miles from the border, without offering details. The claim could not be independently verified.

The shelling was the latest in a series of attacks on a border region that Russia has used as a staging ground for air assaults, rocket launches and other attacks on Ukraine. The Ukrainian military has said the region is also increasingly being used to launch drone attacks. Ukraine usually does not claim credit for attacks in Russian territory, but its leaders have said it reserves the right to strike targets used to attack Ukrainian towns and cities.

On Sunday, Mr. Bogomaz said four people in the region were killed by Ukrainian shelling from across the border. Several rockets struck the village of Suzemka, which is a few miles from the border with Ukraines Sumy region, the governor said at the time.
This article is part of our Design special section about making the environment a creative partner in the design of beautiful homes.

Mitch Iburg, who lives in St. Paul, Minn., makes ancient-looking tableware, vessels and sculptures primarily out of clay that he digs from the earth with his own hands (and some tools). Driving his truck two and half hours to an open valley near the Minnesota River, he comes away with 1,000 or so pounds  a quantity that will last him roughly a year. (He has permission from the mining company that owns the property.)

Clay was not where his journey began. Born in Wisconsin across the river from Minnesota and raised partly in Iowa City, Iowa, Mr. Iburg, 33, studied painting at Coe College in Iowa. But he was required to take a 3-D fundamentals class and it was there that he developed an appreciation for clay and its roots in nature and antiquity.

In 2015, he applied for a residency at the Cobb Mountain Art and Ecology Project in California partly because the studio sat on top of a clay bed. And when he settled on a place to open a workshop, Studio Alluvium, with a fellow Cobb resident, Zoe Powell, who is now his fiancee, he chose Minnesota to no small extent because he was familiar with the clay.
Peter Shears little paintings resemble terse, challenging poems. Painting and title resonate in the mind and eye. You decide whether these ricochets hold your interest.

Small size is the only constant here; otherwise, variations in color, suggestion, internal scale and style, prevail. Same Day (2021), the shows first painting, isolates a short band of meager, wobbly white lines and two narrow horizontal shapes, midway on the right edge of a dark brown field. It could depict outdoor furniture  an earlier a center of lively human interaction  abandoned on a beach as dusk darkens. Theres an end-of-summer sadness thats a lot for a painting to sustain, but it does.

Next to it, in Door to Door (2022), Shear lavishes loaded brushes of white, blue, brown and green across the surface  for a bit of forest stream, melting snow or rocky beach. Although an end in itself, this work evokes the painting-study genre and its pleasures. And soon thereafter, Following Sea  which gives the show its title  is again white on brown but solidly painted  a suggestion of whitecaps at sea or trailed white garments left on the floor.

The paintings in the shows small first gallery are especially strong. In the two larger spaces that follow, you may find that youre able to resist and argue with more of them  at least for a while. Shears next direction may be signaled by the jewel-like, more solidly structured forms of Match. ROBERTA SMITH
Over the past few months, The New York Times has asked experts to answer the question, What would you play a friend to make them fall in love with jazz? Weve explored artists like Ornette Coleman and Mary Lou Williams, and styles ranging from bebop to modern.

Now, were turning to Herbie Hancock, the groundbreaking pianist and composer who emerged in jazz as something of a prodigy. At age 11, Hancock  who listened to classical music at the behest of his mother  played Mozarts D major Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Three years later, he became interested in jazz after seeing a classmate play it on the piano. He eventually gigged around Chicago during summer breaks from college, which led to his working with the tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins in 1960. His career took off after the trumpeter Donald Byrd asked Hancock to play in his quintet. He moved to New York City and in 1962 released his debut album, Takin Off, on Blue Note Records.

That would have been a fine enough existence, but in 1963, his life changed when the trumpeter Miles Davis  the worlds biggest jazz musician  brought Hancock into the fold to be a member of his band, the Second Great Quintet. Alongside Davis, the bassist Ron Carter, the drummer Tony Williams and the saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Hancock would become a superstar, lending his melodic chords to several cornerstone albums in Daviss discography. He left the band in 1968 and started tinkering with spacier sounds. By the early 70s, Hancock had all but abandoned jazz for funk and ambient textures, and released challenging music that didnt fit one box in particular. In 1973, he released his biggest album, Head Hunters, a propulsive funk odyssey that went platinum and led to Hancock playing to huge crowds.

Now 60 years into his artistic trajectory, Hancock is still adventurous, still embracing new avenues and working with younger artists who are just as daring. Below, we asked 11 musicians, writers and critics to share their favorite Hancock songs. Enjoy listening to their choices, check out the playlist at the bottom of the article, and be sure to leave your own favorites in the comments.
Dueling accusations over Kremlin explosions

Two explosions occurred 15 minutes apart over the Kremlin early yesterday, video footage verified by The Times showed. The incident set off a flurry of accusations and escalated tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Russia accused the Ukrainian government of orchestrating a drone attack, which it described it as a deliberate attempt to strike President Vladimir Putins residence. The Kremlin said the strike was foiled by Russian electronic warfare systems, but did not release any evidence to show that Ukraine was behind the explosions.

Ukraine strongly denied any involvement. It asserted that Russia had manufactured the incident to distract attention from a looming counteroffensive. A senior Ukrainian official warned that it was an attempt by the Kremlin to set the stage for deadlier strikes.

U.S. intelligence agencies were still trying to determine what actually happened. We simply dont know, Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, said when he was asked about the incident. I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.
This Saturday King Charles III and Queen Camilla will be crowned in London, which is the best excuse in my lifetime so far to whip up a festive British-inspired coronation feast.

For those who celebrate, will you stick to the classic coronation chicken (above), a throwback to Queen Elizabeth IIs coronation in 1953? That beloved curried chicken salad with mango chutney, dried fruit and sliced almonds has become a staple sandwich filling all over Britain, and its fairly popular here in the United States, too. If youve ever enjoyed a curried chicken salad, you have the caterers of Queen Elizabeths coronation luncheon to thank.

Another sanctioned way to join the festivities is to follow King Charless suggestion and bake a quiche. Buckingham Palaces official coronation quiche recipe calls for what at first seems like an odd combination of spinach and broad (or fava) beans. Yet at its heart its simply a vegetarian take on the queen of quiches, quiche Lorraine, with beans standing in for the usual bacon, and Cheddar succeeding Gruyere.

Perhaps a tea party is more your speed. You cant go wrong with a plate (or a silver tray, to be really posh) of homemade scones, clotted cream, strawberry jam and slices of blueberry, almond and lemon tea cake, along with pots of Darjeeling. Its all very refined.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Turkiye, together with Azerbaijan, wanted to normalize relations with Armenia, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told NTV channel, Trend reports.

According to Cavusoglu, Azerbaijan offered peace [to Armenia], which is a sign of sincerity.

"Armenia cannot accept the fact that Azerbaijan has liberated its lands from 30 years of occupation. It constantly transfers weapons to Karabakh, creating tension. Azerbaijan is taking steps against this, Cavusoglu noted.

We are always with Azerbaijan. We have taken steps towards normalizing relations with Armenia having held consultations with Azerbaijan," he added.

Earlier, Turkish Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar noted that relations between Turkiye and Armenia depend on Azerbaijan-Armenia relations. He said that Armenia must accept the hand of peace and friendship extended to it, and also added that Turkiye supports steps to normalize relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Following over a month of military action to liberate its territories from Armenian occupation from late Sept. to early Nov. 2020, Azerbaijan has pushed Armenia to sign the surrender document. A trilateral statement on the matter was signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders.

In order to prevent the transportation of manpower, ammunition, mines, as well as other military equipment from Armenia for illegal Armenian armed groups on the territory of Azerbaijan, and as an adequate response to the unilateral establishment of a checkpoint by Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan on April 22 at the entrance to the Lachin-Khankendi road contrary to the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020, on April 23 at 12:00 (GMT+4), the units of the State Border Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan set up a border checkpoint in its sovereign territories, on the border with Armenia, at the beginning of the Lachin-Khankendi road.
Why It Matters: R.S.V. can be lethal

The F.D.A. estimates that R.S.V. is associated with 6,000 to 10,000 deaths each year in adults 65 and older and at least 60,000 hospitalizations in that age group. It is a leading killer of children worldwide.

This winter, R.S.V. contributed to the tripledemic also involving flu and Covid cases that swamped childrens hospitals and some I.C.U. wards.

Announcing the approval, Dr. Peter Marks, the agencys vaccine division chief, said: Older adults, in particular those with underlying health conditions, such as heart or lung disease or weakened immune systems, are at high risk for severe disease caused by R.S.V.

Background: Benefits and risks of the shots

On March 1, an F.D.A. advisory panel reviewed data from trials for two R.S.V. vaccines aimed at older adults, one from GSK and one from Pfizer. The panel recommended that the agency approve both.

The GSK vaccine was nearly 83 percent effective in preventing lower respiratory tract illness in adults 60 and older in a study of about 25,000 patients, according to data published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The virus can lead to pneumonia, which is far more worrisome for the elderly.

Pfizers R.S.V. vaccine for older adults is also expected to receive F.D.A. approval this month. In a large study of that shot, it was found to be nearly 67 percent effective in preventing R.S.V.-related illness.

The Pfizer and GSK vaccines were even more effective in treating older and sicker patients.

The advisers did learn of some rare side effects from the vaccine trials. In the days after the shots were given, two recipients of the Pfizer vaccine and one recipient of the GSK shot developed cases of Guillain-Barre, a condition where the immune system attacks the nervous system, according to data presented to the F.D.A. panel.

Once the shots become available to the public, the agency said it would require GSK to monitor the incidence of Guillain-Barre and another rare condition that was possibly related to the shot.

Moderna is also developing an R.S.V. vaccine for this age group, and said it expected authorization in the first half of this year. A trial of 37,000 older adults showed 82 percent efficacy of its shot, the company said, with no safety concerns identified though analyses were continuing.

AstraZeneca and Sanofi are seeking F.D.A. approval of a monoclonal antibody treatment to protect infants and toddlers up to 2 years old from R.S.V. infections. Findings of a major study showed the therapy reduced confirmed illnesses by 75 percent after one shot, according to AstraZeneca.

Pfizer has applied for separate approval of an R.S.V. vaccine to be given in the later stages of pregnancy to protect young infants.

Whats Next: When will the shots be available?

It will still be months before the adult vaccine is publicly available in the United States.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to follow the F.D.A.s approval, most likely issuing its recommendation in June.

GSK said its vaccine would then be available in the fall at U.S. pharmacies, clinics and other health care settings.

GSK executives have said that supplies of the vaccine, which is manufactured mainly at a plant in Belgium, should be readily available. For Medicare patients with Part D drug coverage, there would be no out-of-pocket expense, Alison Hunt, a GSK spokeswoman, said. But the company has not released a price, although insurers typically cover much of the cost of many vaccines.

Last week, the European Medicines Agency recommended approval of GSKs vaccine for adults 60 and older. The company said it hoped the shots would also be approved later for use in Japan and China.
My colleague Andy Newman wrote that the change has the potential to be as transformative as it is mundane. I asked him to talk about why  and what is involved in the settlement.

Why is this transformative?

Dental problems are some of the most common health ailments around, and though theyre seldom fatal, they can be socially crippling  imagine trying to find a job or a romantic partner when youre missing most of your teeth  and often affect your overall health. And yet Medicaid, which provides health care to over five million low-income adults in New York, did not cover many basic dental procedures.

The one fix that Medicaid would cover in most cases was extractions. So in many situations where someone with decent private dental insurance would get a root canal or a crown to save a damaged tooth, someone on Medicaid would end up simply getting the tooth pulled.

That changes under this settlement.

Wasnt New Yorks Medicaid dental program already generous? Why had New York State denied dental treatment to low-income people on Medicaid?

Medicaid coverage is set by each state, and coverage for dentistry ranges from none at all (for adults in Alabama) to fairly extensive in other states. Colin Reusch, the policy director for the health care consumer advocacy group Community Catalyst, told me that New York already had one of the more generous dental Medicaid plans in the nation.
A lawyer defending former President Donald J. Trump against the writer E. Jean Carrolls lawsuit accusing him of rape said that he would present no witnesses during the trial, which completed its sixth day Wednesday.

The lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, had earlier told Judge Lewis A. Kaplan that Mr. Trump would not come to Manhattan federal court to testify in the civil case.

Mr. Trump, who is again running for president, went to Scotland and Ireland this week. When a reporter asked him why he was in Ireland instead of New York for his civil case, he responded that he had a longstanding agreement to travel there, according to a recording posted on Twitter on Wednesday. I hear were doing very well in New York, Mr. Trump added.

Even without witnesses, Mr. Trumps lawyers can still use testimony they have elicited during cross-examinations of Ms. Carroll and others who testified on her behalf when they make their closing argument, likely Monday. Judge Kaplan told jurors that they would likely receive the case to begin deliberations early next week.
But supporters of the concept hope the announcement on Wednesday of the roughly $150 million conversion of the Hilton near Kennedy International Airport will show how such projects  quicker and cheaper than building new apartment buildings  can be an effective way of adding more affordable housing in New York.

About $48 million of the $150 million will come from the state program, initially created in 2021 by the Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act.

We have to make the pie bigger, said David Schwartz, a principal for Slate Property Group, one of the developers of the conversion. We have to add more units than weve ever done.

The apartments at the Hilton could be rented out within two years, the developers said, after renovations are complete on hotel rooms, heating systems and other parts of the building.

The announcement on Wednesday reflects how officials around the nation are scrambling to find new ways to add more affordable housing. The pandemic also provided a new opportunity to consider whether hotels or office buildings could be put to better use.
The death of a New York City subway rider who was placed in a chokehold by another passenger on Monday was ruled a homicide, the citys medical examiner confirmed on Wednesday evening.

The man who died, Jordan Neely, was homeless and had been screaming at passengers when the other rider wrapped his arms around Mr. Neelys neck and head and held him for several minutes until he went limp. Mr. Neely died from compression to his neck as a result of the chokehold, according to Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner.

The killing, on an F train in Manhattan, has led to investigations by both the police and prosecutors, a spokesman for Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said. As of Wednesday afternoon, nobody had been arrested.

As part of our rigorous ongoing investigation, we will review the Medical Examiners report, assess all available video and photo footage, identify and interview as many witnesses as possible, and obtain additional medical records, the district attorneys spokesman said in a statement.
Sal Khan is an uber-nerd, and thats why people love him. In early 2020, to demonstrate that Khan Academy, his platform for free online education, was a worthy cause, he didnt produce a brochure with smiling children and glowing testimonials. He made one of his teaching videos, with the usual black screen, colored pens and handwritten equations. The phrase standard deviation came up a lot. He multiplied the number of highly active users of his program by their average academic improvement, then linked that to the resulting increase in their projected lifetime earnings, compared it to operating costs and, presto, showed a benefit-cost ratio of 480 to 1, or around 240 to 1 if calculating only the benefits to students in high-need schools.

Those are crazy high benefit-cost ratios, considering that a lot of nonprofits would be happy with a ratio of 10 to 1. Im not vouching for the calculation, though it seems reasonable at a glance. Im citing it because Khan has a new plan to make the ratio, whatever it is, even higher. Its all about harnessing artificial intelligence. I watched a TED Talk he gave on April 18 about his A.I. plans, and I interviewed him last week to get more information.

More on A.I. in a minute. First, I want to say that I admire Khan because he does beautifully what I try to do myself, which is to make complicated ideas understandable. Ive watched dozens of his videos over the years to learn or relearn topics including statistics, calculus and science. He has a knack for walking through a problem patiently and developing an intuitive explanation that clicks. The payoff from watching one of his videos is that aha moment when you suddenly get the concept.

My intellectual selfishness is that I really like making videos, Khan told me. Its just fun. Its beautiful. Though Khan Academy has grown immensely since he founded it in 2008  it has more than 150 million registered users and is available in more than 50 languages  he said he still tries to spend a third of his time on content creation. (Though hes no longer the only person making videos.)
But it was also obviously limited evidence rather than a genetic smoking gun and suggested many follow-up questions. Was there any statistical correlation between the apparent presence of raccoon dogs in certain stalls and the presence of the virus in the same stalls? Did such proximity really indicate an animal infection, or did it simply reflect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 throughout the market? And what could we infer from genetic material collected beginning in January 2020, when we knew already that there were human infections the previous month and possibly earlier?

But most commentary about the new report was not nearly so circumspect. The Strongest Evidence Yet That an Animal Started the Pandemic, ran the headline of the first story to document the analysis. Other accounts were somewhat more equivocal, but readers could be forgiven for skipping past the caveats or for finishing any number of other write-ups and Twitter threads feeling as if a significant and perhaps even definitive piece of evidence had been found. In a few cases, scientists with public platforms urged caution in interpreting the data, but many others chimed in to describe the report as hugely consequential. For some, the presence of two sets of genetic material in the same sample was the mark of a raccoon-dog infection, and such an infection would be de facto proof of a natural origin of the pandemic. As part of a longer conversation about the full shape of the pandemic, from origins to the present, Dr. Anthony Fauci highlighted the significance of the new report to me, as well.

Then, last Wednesday, the computational biologist Jesse Bloom presented some persuasive evidence that everyone should perhaps calm down about raccoon dogs. He uploaded a new preprint analysis of the same data  this time measuring not just the relative prevalence of animal genetic material but also the relative prevalence of SARS-CoV-2. What he found was quite striking: In the sample that contained the most raccoon-dog genetic material, the presence of the virus was so vanishingly small as to be statistically indistinguishable from zero. To be precise, in the only sample with abundant raccoon-dog genetic material that contained any SARS-CoV-2 at all, the presence of the virus registered at only one sequence fragment in 200,000,000. Overall, across the full database of genetic material found in the market, the presence of raccoon-dog DNA was negatively correlated with the presence of SARS-CoV-2 material: When samples had more raccoon-dog genetic material, there was actually less SARS-CoV-2 than was found in other samples.

This definitely does not disprove that raccoon dogs could have been infected at some point, Bloom says. But it certainly says these samples dont provide any evidence of this.

In fact, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 was much more closely associated with genetic material from other species, Bloom found, notably several kinds of fish and, to a lesser extent, humans. It is implausible, biologically, that the virus came from fish, but Bloom is also careful to say his analysis doesnt tell us all that much about the relationship with humans, either.
On Saturday morning, Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor will leave Buckingham Palace in a carriage drawn by six horses, take a slightly circuitous route through central London and arrive at Westminster Abbey, a little before 11 a.m., for a ceremony mostly unchanged over the course of a millennium.

Once inside he will sit on the Coronation Chair, which is more than 700 years old and will temporarily house a block of Scottish sandstone known as the Stone of Destiny. He will put on, at some point, a 200-year-old cloak that is woven from gold cloth, embroidered with roses, thistles and shamrocks and lined with red silk. He will be presented to the congregation, which will shout God save King Charles!

He will be anointed with holy oil from a 12th-century spoon and handed an orb, which symbolizes authority derived from God, and a scepter, which represents power. The archbishop of Canterbury will place St. Edwards Crown, which is more than 350 years old, made of solid gold and set with ruby, amethyst, sapphire, garnet, topaz and tourmaline, on his head.

If this blend of ancient religious and political symbolism is impenetrable to the average viewer, that is kind of the point: When it comes to British coronations, anachronism is a feature, not a bug. Britains monarchy and the countrys past are inextricably linked, and a coronation is an opportunity for the institution to nod at history and hope that history nods back. A successful coronation telegraphs to the world  and reflects back to as many Britons as possible  a version of who wed like to think we are. The problem is that this coronation is arriving at a time when its not exactly clear what that is.
To the Editor:

Re Alumnus Fights Diversity Effort, From the Inside (front page, April 23), about a campaign led by a University of Virginia board member against diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the school:

Your story about Bert Elliss crusade at U.Va. astonished me. I served on a committee in 1973 to help the new Black students there adjust to an institution that was clearly not welcoming. Minorities and women had only recently gained access to its undergraduate programs. We recommended reforms, including the establishment of a Black student affairs office.

But here we are, 50 years later, and race is still a core contention. If racism is not systemic, how could there have been so little progress for so long?

This is a sad story and a tragic denouement for all the efforts of good people at U.Va. I deplore Mr. Elliss attempts to further entrench a history of obliviousness to racism at U.Va. and so many other American institutions.

David W. Leslie

West Des Moines, Iowa

To the Editor:

When Bert Ellis and I matriculated at the University of Virginia over 50 years ago, our school was almost exclusively white and male, much like the students of Thomas Jeffersons day. Both of us serve today as trustees of Virginias best universities, appointed by Virginia governors, though at different schools.
The barrage of criminal investigations and civil suits against Trump is, in many respects, the sophisticated and complex way Americas democratic system of government has developed to constrain an ominous and even somewhat delusional deregulated alpha-male wannabe.

Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at N.Y.U.s Stern School of Business, describes Trump in an email as a unique case. He is a narcissist. He is not hungry for power. He wants attention and praise. So he has some alpha male traits, certainly, but he is not prototypical.

In his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, Haidt cites Boehm while making the case that the early acquisition of weaponry played a crucial role in the democratization of authority within groups of humans:

Imagine early hominid life as a tense balance of power between alpha males (and an ally or two) and the larger set of males who are shut out of power. Then arm everyone with spears. The balance of power is likely to shift when physical strength no longer decides the outcome of every fight. Thats essentially what happened, Boehm suggests, as our ancestors developed better weapons for hunting and butchering.

Once early humans had developed spears, Haidt continues,

anyone could kill a bullying alpha male. And if you add the ability to communicate with language and note that every human society uses language to gossip about moral violations, then it becomes easy to see how early humans developed the ability to unite in order to shame, ostracize or kill anyone whose behavior threatened or simply annoyed the rest of the group.

Over time, the aversion to bullying males developed into what Haidt calls the liberty/oppression moral foundation, which, he proposes,

evolved in response to the adaptive challenge of living in small groups with individuals who would, if given the chance, dominate, bully and constrain others. Anything that suggests the aggressive, controlling behavior of an alpha male (or female) can trigger this form of righteous anger, which is sometimes called reactance.

The liberty foundation, Haidt goes on to say,

supports the moral matrix of revolutionaries and freedom fighters everywhere. The American Declaration of Independence is a long enumeration of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of absolute tyranny over these states. The document begins with the claim that all men are created equal and ends with a stirring pledge of unity: We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Pinker argued by email that over the long haul,

history has seen the invention of increasingly complex systems that limit the power of the leader, such as coalitions (as per Sarkar and Wrangham), power-sharing or turn-taking agreements, parliaments, constitutions and rule-governed bureaucracies. Our leader is called a president because he merely presides over the government, rather than ruling over it.

But, Pinker cautioned,

were always in danger of slipping back into the dynamic of dominance. In democracies, voters, on average, favor the taller candidate and often crave a strong leader. Presidents and prime ministers, for their part, often arrogate more power than the constitution allows. The system of laws that constrains the leaders power is often tested to its limits, and in countries that are not democracies, their only hope may be what Sarkar and Wrangham call an alpha coalition, namely the coup plotters that many of us hope might someday depose Putin.

Rose McDermott, a professor of international relations at Brown whose research has focused in part on the biological and genetic bases of political behavior, provided further explanation in an email. Humans, she wrote, show self-domestication over time  they become more peaceful  and that may seem like it is not true in light of all the violence in the world, but relative to the death rates in earlier hunter-gatherer kinds of nomadic communities, it is true.

This process of self-domestication, she continued,

happens as groups of beta and gamma males (the less strong ones) work together to unseat alphas who exploit the community. They might ostracize him (the alpha male), but mostly they assassinate him. What that means is that slowly over time you get more egalitarian dynamics (such as the birth of democracy).

In the case of the former president, McDermott wrote:

Trump is a poster child for a coercive alpha male, and frankly I have been surprised that more Republicans dont try to take him on directly. I think part of it is that other potential Republican leaders are so narcissistic that they cannot band together in the kind of coalition that historically would have brought down a leader like this in one way or another. This depends on coalitional dynamics: men working together in cooperation, not against each other.

Democratic norms, according to McDermott,

are one way the country has tried to constrain the negative effects of Trump through things like rule of law and elections. (Biden won in 2020.) But they have not been as strong as many would like or hope for, and I agree that this is partly (although not entirely) related to increasing polarization (i.e., the inability to form strong united coalitional bonds).

As far as coercive alpha males go, Trump is a bully, as demonstrated by his treatment both of competitors for the nomination in 2016 and of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida now; Trump boasts of his predatory sexual activity, and he lacks empathy, as reflected in his policies separating the children of detained immigrants from their parents at the border.

At the same time, Trump has a long and detailed history of violating the fundamental obligations of a true leader. He is unreliable and a liar, repeatedly failing to pay bills for services, products and construction; defrauding students who paid to learn about real estate; distorting the truth repeatedly and extensively, about everything from President Barack Obamas place of birth to the size of his inauguration crowd all the way on through to the results of the 2020 election; promising to drain the swamp, only to preside over an administration rife with self-dealing.
The Iraq war is a lasting blot on the blobs reputation that led directly to the populist foreign policy we see on the right today. Before Mr. Trump, Republicans chose two nominees in a row  John McCain and Mitt Romney  who supported the war as the publics approval of it plummeted. Outside of a few examples from the libertarian-leaning wing of the party, like Mr. Paul and his son Rand, leading voices on the right hadnt caught up with this change. Anger over the Iraq failure and the elites who caused it fed directly into the whirlpool of discontent that Mr. Trump was able to channel and reinforced his bases belief in the righteousness of his America First worldview.

Populism as a governing principle can be unpredictable, yoked as it is to the whims of the populace, and foreign policy is an area where the populace isnt extremely informed. Forty percent of Republican voters might want less involvement in Ukraine now, but what about a month from now? Or six months from now, when the primaries will be just around the corner? What about without Mr. Carlsons show airing on Fox News? Knowing the best way  or even any way  to handle a complicated situation like Ukraine is why the blob exists.

The public got a rare glimpse at what people in the government really think, thanks to the huge recent leak of Pentagon documents that showed just how nervous U.S. officials really are about the situation in Ukraine. A major point scored against the blob. But the motive that the person accused of the leak is suspected of having  to impress his friends in a Discord group called Thug Shaker Central  is a miniature version of the populist foreign policy merry-go-round. The leaker may have embarrassed the government and wowed the teen members of his online chat group, but at the likely long-term cost of his freedom. In Mr. Trumps case, on-the-fly promises and boasts often didnt pan out, and the quiet machine that keeps business running as usual outlasted him  for now.

It has also outlasted Mr. Carlson (or at least his Fox News show), who is probably the most powerful Ukraine skeptic on the right and whose show was the chosen venue for Mr. DeSantiss foray into the debate. Semafor recently reported on the impact Mr. Carlsons show had on Capitol Hill, where fear of backlash made some Republicans too nervous to be pro-Ukraine  another example of how powerful the right-wing foreign policy loop has become. Its also an example, in light of Mr. Carlsons firing, of how easily it can be disrupted by those who are truly in charge. But its likely hell return to the national stage in some form or another, as he implied in a cryptic video released on Twitter after his Fox News exit: When honest people say whats true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful. At the same time, the liars whove been trying to silence them shrink, and they become weaker.
In Kylie Mannings paintings, figures swirl and emerge from broad landscapes. The wall-filling pieces can provoke a physical reaction, akin to looking over the rail of a bridge across a river. On a recent visit to the artists studio in Ridgewood, Queens, steadiness arrived in the form of tea and snacks: Manning, 39, wearing a paint-splattered green jumpsuit with black Crocs, had laid out dulce de leche fudge from the bodega down the street, along with chocolate she brought home from Geneva, where shed just installed her latest solo show at Pace Gallerys Swiss outpost.

In Archipelago (2023), one of the works on display in Switzerland, two faces are immediately obvious amid shades of white and rust, as if rising from snow-covered dirt. But the rest feels less clear: Is there a third figure, head in hands, between the initial two? Is there a fourth, embracing anothers belly? Mannings figures arent gendered, and she wants viewers to interpret the subjects and settings on their own terms. Its about spending time with them, letting them unravel for you like a song, she says. Typically, a viewer might only spend a few minutes with a painting. So Mannings excited that, starting on May 4, the audience at Lincoln Centers David H. Koch Theater will get to gaze at her works for a half-hour or so  as part of the choreographer Christopher Wheeldons new piece for the New York City Ballets Spring Gala.
Thank you to everyone who tuned in or followed along, and who continues to support Leo and his fight for Justice, Lava For Good, the podcasts production company, said in a tweet. We are heartbroken at todays decision, but we will continue to do everything we can until Leo is finally free, where he should be.

In 1987, the body of Ms. Schofield, who was 18, was discovered in a drainage canal in Lakeland, Fla., with 26 stab wounds. Suspicion quickly grew around Mr. Schofield, her husband of just six months. At the trial, prosecutors called 21 witnesses, who portrayed Mr. Schofield as hotheaded and abusive. A neighbor said she had seen him on the night of the murder, moving a large object from his home that could have been a body. The state argued that Mr. Schofield had time to murder his wife and that he had set up a false alibi about being with his parents that night.

But there was never any physical evidence linking Mr. Schofield to the crime.

Investigators struggled to match a set of fingerprints found in the Schofields car to either Mr. Schofield or his wife. Because fingerprints were not computerized in 1987, matching the two fingerprints that investigators lifted from the car required comparing them side by side against known prints.

The fingerprints went unidentified until 2004, when Mr. Schofields second wife, a social worker whom he met in a life-skills class in prison, implored a friend in law enforcement to run them one more time. There was a match: Jeremy Scott, who was already serving a life sentence for robbing and beating a man to death.

Mr. Scott confessed to the murder of Ms. Schofield a number of times, including in a detailed interview for Bone Valley. Speaking from prison, Mr. Scott detailed how he came across Ms. Schofield at a pay phone. She offered him a ride home, but instead, Mr. Scott directed her to a secluded spot he frequented, near the drainage canal. Mr. Scott said he came onto her. She rejected him, and he began to stab her repeatedly, he said.
Howard University, the renowned historically Black institution that was founded to educate freed slaves, has selected a historian of Latin America as its next president, as the universitys leaders hope to continue its trajectory of surging enrollment and research growth.

Ben Vinson III, who has served as provost of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland since 2018, was chosen to be the 18th president of Howard, a 156-year-old university in Washington, D.C., that counts Vice President Kamala Harris, the former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and the author Toni Morrison among its alumni. He will assume the post on Sept. 1.

The move, announced by the university on Tuesday, comes at an energized time for Howard, which has scored a series of wins in recent years, including record research expenditures and high-profile academic hires. Dr. Vinson will need to keep up the momentum, as well as deal with students who have staged sit-ins and protested conditions at the university.

Dr. Vinson is the right leader to usher Howard into its next era, Leslie Hale, vice chair of the universitys board of trustees, said in a statement. As a historian, he reveres the Howard legacy and brings a bold perspective of where Howard University should sit within the upper echelon of academic institutions.
The United Auto Workers, a politically potent labor union, is planning to withhold its endorsement of President Biden in the early stages of the 2024 race, according to an internal memo from its president to members on Tuesday.

The memo, written by Shawn Fain, the Detroit-based unions president, said the leadership of the United Auto Workers had traveled to Washington last week to meet with Biden administration officials and had expressed our concerns with the electric vehicle transition that the president has pursued.

The memo underscores how some of Mr. Bidens boldest moves to fight climate change, which animate his liberal base, could at the same time weaken his political support among another crucial constituency. The U.A.W. has shrunk in size in recent decades, but it still counts about 400,000 active members, with a robust presence in Michigan, a critical battleground state for Democrats.

In April, the Biden administration proposed the nations most ambitious climate regulations yet, which would ensure that two-thirds of new passenger cars are all-electric by 2032  up from just 5.8 percent today. The rules, if enacted, could sharply lower planet-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes, the nations largest source of greenhouse emissions. But they come with costs for autoworkers, because it takes fewer than half the laborers to assemble an all-electric vehicle as it does to build a gasoline-powered car.
Legislation that would have sharply curbed press protections in Florida has stalled in the State Legislature and wont face a vote this year  a rare example of forces on the right thwarting a piece of Gov. Ron DeSantiss agenda.

The bills, introduced in February, proposed sweeping changes to laws that shield media outlets from liability in defamation cases and sought to make it easier for private citizens to file libel suits. Mr. DeSantis has been outspoken in pushing for laws he says would hold these big media companies accountable.

But Mr. DeSantis, a Republican typically known for having his finger on the pulse of the right, appears to have misjudged the issue. In addition to opposition from news outlets and free-speech groups, the legislation faced a wave of resistance from his allies, including right-wing media outlets, Christian organizations and business groups. They argued that the legislation would harm all news media, including conservative outlets, and lead to an increase in frivolous and costly lawsuits.

The Florida bills were part of a broader effort to revisit the First Amendment protections for the media. In recent years, a collection of judges, politicians and lawyers  most of them conservatives  have fiercely criticized The New York Times Company v. Sullivan, the landmark Supreme Court decision in 1964 that made it more difficult for public figures to win libel cases against publishers.
WASHINGTON  House Democrats who this week began a long-shot bid attempting to force a debt limit increase bill to the floor are pinning their hopes not just on a convoluted legislative gambit, but also on another highly improbable feat: getting a small group of Republicans to cross party lines and join them.

While they concede it faces long odds, Democrats privately argue there is a path to pulling it off  or at least to coming close enough that Republicans feel compelled to cut a deal with them to head off a catastrophic default.

It is based on the belief that some Republican lawmakers  especially among the 18 who represent districts that President Biden won in 2020  could be persuaded to vote with Democrats to pass an 11th-hour debt limit increase that would pull the nation from the brink of financial ruin.

There are 18 House Republicans who like to call themselves moderates, said Representative Brendan F. Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee. Heres a chance for them to really put their money where their mouth is. Join with House Democrats to ensure we dont suffer the first-ever default in American history.
Over the past two years, scores of rioters with military experience have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack. But Mr. Wise is the rare former federal agent to have been charged. The F.B.I. said agents first found Mr. Wise living in New Braunfels, Texas, before he moved to Bend, Ore., in June.

Thomas E. Caldwell, a member of the Oath Keepers who was convicted in November of felony charges stemming from the Jan. 6 riot, had once worked with the F.B.I. And Mark S. Ibrahim, an active-duty agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, was charged in July 2021 in connection with the riot. His case has not yet gone to trial.

The Justice Departments investigation of the Capitol attack, already the largest it has ever conducted, has resulted in more than 1,000 arrests, with the possibility of many more to come.

From 2004 to 2017, Mr. Wise worked on public corruption and counterterrorism matters at the F.B.I. field offices in Washington, D.C., and New York. He was briefly detailed to Libya to help agents investigate the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, that killed four Americans. Mr. Wise left the bureau after his supervisors in New York became unhappy with his work, and his career had stalled, a former senior F.B.I. official said.

Mr. Wise later joined the conservative group Project Veritas under the supervision of a former British spy, Richard Seddon, who had been recruited by the security contractor Erik Prince to train operatives to infiltrate trade unions, Democratic congressional campaigns and other targets.
Jim Marchant, a vocal election denier and Trump ally who lost his bid for Nevadas secretary of state in last years midterm elections, declared his candidacy on Tuesday for the Senate in a swing state contest that could decide control of the chamber in 2024.

Mr. Marchant, a Republican, is seeking to challenge Senator Jacky Rosen, a moderate Democrat who is in her first term. No other high-profile Republicans have entered the contest so far.

During last years midterm elections, Mr. Marchant helped organize a national America First slate of secretary of state candidates, a group of right-wing election deniers whose campaigns centered on re-litigating baseless voter fraud claims. All but one of the candidates were rejected by voters.

The once-obscure election oversight post has taken on heightened significance since the 2020 election. In Mr. Marchants race, he did not appear to concede.
The president was concerned about what a windblown ride in a motorcade would do to his wifes hair. He asked her press secretary, Pamela Turnure Timmins, for advice. She proposed that the couple not ride in a convertible.

We did discuss it, and I suggested the bubble top, Ms. Timmins said in a 1964 oral history, and just immediately he said, No, thats semi-satisfactory; if youre going out to see the people, then they should be able to see you.

The president in question was John F. Kennedy, and the motorcade they were discussing was the fateful one through Dallas in November 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated.

In 1961, at 23, Ms. Timmins had become the first person ever to hold the title of press secretary to an American first lady when she joined the staff of Jacqueline Kennedy. It was a post that made her a witness to considerable glamour and considerable tragedy.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The EU is one of the main trade partners of Azerbaijan, EU's Ambassador Peter Michalko told reporters at a meeting dedicated to the World Press Freedom Day, Trend reports.

According to Michalko, over the previous years, the cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU in the field of investment, energy and economy has increased.

In particular, he said there's rapid growth in trade.

"In 2022, the EU became the main exporter to Azerbaijan. The trade turnover between the EU and Azerbaijan doubled last year compared to 2021. The EUs share in the overall structure of Azerbaijan's trade turnover is 53 percent," he said.

Meanwhile, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and European countries from January through December 2022 exceeded $27.3 billion.

Over the 15 years of the functioning of the Council of Europe Office in the Republic of Azerbaijan, the EU has implemented about 400 projects worth 224 million euros. More than 50 twinning projects have been jointly carried out in the country by experts, state institutions of the EU member states and government institutions of Azerbaijan.
The Senate voted on Wednesday to reinstate tariffs on solar panels from Chinese companies in Southeast Asia that had been found to be coming into the United States in violation of trade rules.

The measure, which passed by a vote of 56 to 41, had already been approved by the House. It sets up a showdown with the Biden administration, which had temporarily halted the tariffs to try to ensure that the country had an adequate supply of solar panels in the fight against climate change.

President Biden has said that he will veto the measure, and a two-thirds majority of lawmakers in both houses would be needed to override him.

But the measure, which several key Democrats supported, was a notable rebuke of the Biden administrations actions. Critics have said that Mr. Bidens decision not to impose the tariffs on the Chinese solar makers violated U.S. trade rules and failed to defend American workers.
Just weeks ago, American diplomats thought Sudan was on the verge of a breakthrough agreement that would advance its transition from military dictatorship to full-fledged democracy, delivering on the soaring promise of the countrys revolution in 2019.

Sudan had become an important test case in President Bidens core foreign policy goal of bolstering democracies worldwide, which in his view weakens corrupt leaders and allows nations to more capably stand as bulwarks against the influences of China, Russia and other autocratic powers.

But on April 23, the same American diplomats who had been involved in the negotiations in Sudan suddenly found themselves shutting down the embassy and fleeing Khartoum on secret nighttime helicopter flights as the country spiraled into a potential civil war.

Biden administration officials and their partners are now struggling to get two warring generals to stick to tenuous cease-fires and to end hostilities, as foreign governments evacuate civilians amid fighting that has left at least 528 dead and more than 330,000 displaced. The actual toll is almost certainly much higher than those Sudanese government numbers.
A security guard at a Walgreens in San Francisco will not be charged with murder after he fatally shot a man who was accused of shoplifting, the district attorney said this week.

In a statement on Monday, the district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, said that prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that the guard was guilty of a crime after they reviewed statements from witnesses and the guard, along with video footage of the April 27 episode at a store on Market Street.

The evidence clearly shows that the suspect believed he was in mortal danger and acted in self-defense, Ms. Jenkins said in the statement, referring to the private security guard, who was identified by the San Francisco Police Department as Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, 33.

Although Ms. Jenkins called the killing of the man, Banko Brown, a tragedy, she said: We cannot bring forward charges when there is credible evidence of reasonable self-defense. Doing so would be unethical and create false hope for a successful prosecution.
Questions ranged from the simple  knowing that factory conditions in the 1800s were dangerous, with long days and low pay  to the complex. For example, only 6 percent of students could explain in their own words how two ideas from the Constitution were reflected in the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s I Have a Dream speech.

The dip in civics performance was smaller but notable: It was the first decline since the test began being administered in the late 1990s. About 22 percent of students were proficient, down from 24 percent in 2018.

President Bidens education secretary, Miguel A. Cardona, seized on the results, admonishing politicians for trying to limit instruction in history, often on topics of race, a trend that has played out in dozens of states, typically Republican controlled.

Now is not the time, he said, adding that banning history books and censoring educators from teaching these important subjects does our students a disservice and will move America in the wrong direction.

The results, from a national sample of about 8,000 eighth graders in each subject, track with scores in math and reading, which also decreased during the pandemic. Across subjects, declines were often driven by the lowest-performing students, a trend that has federal officials so concerned that they are now considering rewriting test questions to zero in on what these students are missing.
More than 120 people were killed in devastating floods and landslides caused by heavy rains in Rwanda, the government said on Wednesday, the highest death toll from a flood reported in a single day in the countrys recent history.

Entire families were killed, injured or left homeless and in desperate need of assistance.

I wanted to cry but couldnt in front of my children, said Martine Nsanimana, 40, a resident of a small village in Western Rwanda whose home and farmland were destroyed by the floods.

If you saw how the farmland was washed away, you would want to cry, said Mr. Nsanimana, a father of three.

The rains started on Tuesday, but residents said that some people were still trapped in their homes on Wednesday, suggesting that the number of deaths could rise. Local officials also warned that more homes could fall down.
RIO DE JANEIRO  The Brazilian police raided the home of former President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday and seized his cellphone as part of a sweeping investigation into forged Covid-19 vaccination records that may have allowed him and his top aides to gain entry into the United States.

The authorities searched more than a dozen homes in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, arresting six people, including one of Mr. Bolsonaros closest aides and two of his security guards, who are suspected of tampering with a government vaccination database and issuing falsified records.

The forged vaccine cards may have allowed Mr. Bolsonaro and his aides to sidestep U.S. travel restrictions put in place at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, investigators said.

False vaccine certificates may have been issued for Mr. Bolsonaro, his 12-year-old daughter, Laura, and other top officials in his administration, according to the Brazilian authorities. The police said the vaccination records were forged between November 2021 and December 2022.
The golden sand of Bikini Atoll is laced with plutonium. The freshwater is poisoned with strontium. The coconut crabs contain hazardous levels of cesium.

In the 1940s and 50s, the U.S. government used this coral reef, in the Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands, for testing nuclear weapons. Radioactive residue has left Bikini uninhabitable to this day, forcing those whose families once lived on the atoll into exile on a handful of other Marshallese islands and in the United States.

Recognizing the damage its testing caused, the U.S. government established two trust funds in the 1980s to help pay for Bikinians health care, build housing and cover living costs. In 2017, after a campaign by Bikini leaders for greater autonomy, the Trump administration announced that the government would lift withdrawal limits and stop auditing the main fund, then worth $59 million.

Six years later, only about $100,000 remains, and the Bikini community is in crisis.

Anderson Jibas, the mayor of the council that oversees the displaced Bikini community, made a series of questionable purchases on Bikinis behalf, including of a large plot of land in Hawaii and a fleet of new vehicles. He has defended some of the purchases as investments against climate change, as necessary to support isolated Bikinians and as attempts at revenue-generating projects.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Wednesday that the U.S. government remained intensely engaged in efforts to get Moscow to free Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who has been held for more than a month on espionage charges that his employer and American officials vehemently deny.

Speaking at a World Press Freedom Day event at The Washington Post, Mr. Blinken reiterated that President Biden and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had a special channel for discussing prisoners.

I wish I could say in this moment there was a clear way forward, he said. I dont have that in this moment.

We have a country in the case of Russia that like a handful of other countries around the world is wrongfully detaining people, using them as political pawns, using them as leverage in a practice that is absolutely unacceptable and that were working both broadly to try to deter  but also at the same time to try to secure the release of those who are being unjustly detained, Mr. Blinken said.
A mural depicting Queen Elizabeth II in a yoga pose, with the message Welcome to Bristol, greets visitors to this vibrant city in southwestern England.

But like so many other places in Britain, devotion to the monarchy in Bristol runs hot and cold. So as the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday approaches, views of the royal family fluctuate from apathy  even disdain  among young people in Bohemian cafes and music shops to respect for the history and tradition of royalty among older Britons on the outskirts of town.

It's excuse after excuse as to why we should have them at all, but the public is always afraid of change, said Ewan Search, who works at Cafe Kino, a vegan outfit and community space in Bristol. They are really nothing but mannequins for robes and jewels.

Jaydie Pomphrey, 23, said she was just happy to have an excuse for a barbecue. I dont really care about it personally, she said. What do they actually represent?
President Vladimir V. Putin has long operated within the confines of a tight security bubble, which became even tighter and more isolating during the coronavirus pandemic. The sprawling red fortress of the Kremlin, which Russian officials claimed was the target of a Ukrainian drone attack on Wednesday, contains both the presidents official residence and his main office, making it the heart of that bubble.

The agency responsible for protecting the president, the Federal Guard Service  known by its Russian initials, F.S.O.  rarely confirms Mr. Putins whereabouts or discusses his movements. It sometimes closes areas adjacent to the Kremlin, particularly Red Square, to the public.

Over the past few years, drones have been banned from flying over the Kremlin and the surrounding area. Security officers deploy special devices to down any in the vicinity.

When the Russians claimed to take out two Ukrainian drones above the Kremlin  around 2:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday, according to videos reviewed by The New York Times  Mr. Putin was at a sprawling compound about 20 miles to the west, his spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters. The compound is in the elite suburb of Novo-Ogaryovo, along the Moscow River.
SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, May 3. We cannot ignore situation in our region, said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev as he addressed the 4th international conference on Shaping the Geopolitics of the Greater Eurasia: from Past to Present to Future dedicated to the 100th anniversary of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in Shusha.

We wanted to fill this space with practical steps, with exchange of views, ideas, mainly with respect to the future development of Azerbaijan and also regional development. Because we cannot ignore situation in our region and though, we dont have any risks anymore after liberation of Karabakh inside the country, but we are not living on an island, President Ilham Aliyev said.

Meeting here in Shusha, has of course a special meaning for all of us. Last year, by the way, I announced the Year of Shusha, because it was the 270th anniversary of the foundation of the city by Karabakh Khan Panah Ali, the head of state added.
ROME  A secret mission revealed days ago by Pope Francis to bring peace between Russia and Ukraine is so secret that Russia and Ukraine claim to know nothing about it.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it had no idea what the pope was talking about. Ukraine doesnt know about it, Ukraines ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash, said in an interview Wednesday, adding that he had scheduled a meeting for Thursday with the popes foreign minister. I will for sure ask him what it is.

Later Wednesday evening, the popes second-in-command and chief diplomat, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, told reporters, to my knowledge, they were and are aware of the peace plan, saying that the denial by the governments surprises me.

The apparent bewilderment of the wars parties, and confusion around the existence of a plan contributed to the sense that the popes influence as a geopolitical player and peacemaker  already chastened in countries like Cuba, South Sudan and Myanmar  did not extend to Ukraine.
The Belarusian opposition activist who was arrested in 2021 after the government of Belarus forced his commercial flight that was transiting its airspace to land has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Roman Protasevich, 27, was the editor of the Nexta channel on the Telegram messaging app, which was instrumental in organizing widespread protests against President Alexander Lukashenko after his disputed election victory in 2020.

The charges against Mr. Protasevich included organizing mass riots, calling for sanctions against Belarus, creating an extremist group and conspiring to seize power. Minsk District Court sentenced him to be incarcerated in a penal colony, according to a report on Wednesday by Belta, the Belarusian state news agency.

Like many activists, Mr. Protasevich fled into exile rather than endure the mass arrests and torture used by the Belarusian authorities to stamp out the protests.
Mass shootings like the two in Serbia this week that left more than a dozen people dead are far less common outside the United States, where they occur far more regularly.

The first shooting occurred on Wednesday morning, when a seventh-grade student shot and killed eight children and a security guard at a school in Serbias capital, Belgrade. By Thursday night, the authorities were again plunged into chaos after eight people were killed and at least 10 others were injured near the city. A suspect was in custody after an overnight manhunt.

Something like this has never been recorded in the history of Belgrade schools, Milan Nedeljkovic, mayor of the citys Vracar district, said after the first shooting on Wednesday.

Serbs are known to have stockpiles of weapons left over from the Balkan wars of the 1990s, and there have been other mass shootings in the country. In 2013, a veteran of the Balkan wars shot and killed 13 people in a village near Belgrade. In 2007, a man fatally shot nine people in the village of Jabukovac, in eastern Serbia.
The rituals around voting have changed little for decades in Britain, where electors give their names and addresses to polling station staff, are checked off a list and then handed a paper ballot to mark and cast in a box.

But on Thursday a new requirement will be added for those choosing thousands of elected representatives for municipalities in England: proof of identity.

And while voters in many countries take that obligation for granted, the move has unleashed a political storm in Britain.

Critics claim the change could reduce turnout, discourage young people from voting and disenfranchise some minority voters and others who are less likely to have a passport or drivers license.
AMSTERDAM  President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine unexpectedly traveled to the Netherlands on Wednesday and was scheduled to speak in The Hague on Thursday, according to the Dutch wire service ANP.

Mr. Zelensky made the trip after spending much of Wednesday denying Russian claims his country was responsible for an early morning drone attack on the Kremlin, saying that Ukraine was focused on the fight on its own soil. Were defending our villages and cities, he said, while visiting Nordic leaders in Helsinki, Finland.

In the Netherlands, Mr. Zelensky was also expected to meet with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and to visit the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir V. Putin and a Russian official for war crimes in March.

The visit, which had not been reported until hours before his arrival, was Mr. Zelenskys first in-person visit to the Netherlands as the leader of Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky addressed the Dutch House of Representatives over video in March 2022, when he asked lawmakers to stop doing business with Russia and to send more munitions.
HELSINKI  President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine arrived in Finland on Wednesday to meet with Nordic leaders, a rare overseas trip for the Ukrainian leader amid the Russian invasion.

In a joint news conference with Finlands president, Sauli Niinisto, Mr. Zelensky thanked Finland for its continuous support of our freedom and territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Mr. Niinisto and Mr. Zelensky were also expected to meet with the prime ministers of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland to discuss the situation of Russias war of aggression in Ukraine and the Nordic countries continued support for Ukraine, as well as Ukraines relationship with the European Union and NATO, according to a statement from the Finnish presidency.

The Ukrainian president has made few overseas trips since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Last month he received a heros welcome on an official visit to Poland.
A few weeks ago, Ahmed al-Hassan was a medical student in Sudan working on a campaign to help refugees from a neighboring country. Then, the forces of two rival generals went to battle in the streets of the capital, Khartoum, and he was forced to flee himself.

He left behind his home, his textbooks and the paperwork proving he was a student  stuffing basic necessities into a suitcase and a backpack  to escape with his ailing mother from the bullets, warplanes and shelling.

After a harrowing 14-hour bus ride across the country, they arrived in the seaside city of Port Sudan, where thousands of Sudanese and foreigners have gathered in hopes of catching a boat or a plane out of the country.

Standing in a line of evacuees waiting on Wednesday to board a ship to Saudi Arabia  a 10-hour voyage across the Red Sea  Mr. al-Hassan, 21, said he knew that he was one of a lucky few Sudanese with the connections to find a way out of the conflict tearing his country apart. He was born in Saudi Arabia and has legal residency there, giving him and his mother access to the evacuation efforts overseen by the Saudis.
A Brazilian doctor recently shocked millions on social media by posting an X-ray of a man suffering from cysticercosis whose body was riddled with calcified tapeworm eggs.

Last month, Doctor Vitor Borin de Souza, a resident at the Hospital das Clinicas in Botucatu, Sao Paulo, posted an X-ray of a patient on Twitter to show his followers how bad a tapeworm infection could get. The doctor explained that the white spots visible all through his midsection and his arms were calcified tapeworm eggs following infection with the common intestinal parasite. Luckily, the patient, who had come in for a checkup following a persistent cough, was in no danger from the eggs, as they were all calcified (unviable). Although the tapeworm eggs (cysticerci) posed no threat to the mans health, they caused quite the stir on Brazilian social media.

Photo: Doctor Vitor Borin de Souza/Twitter

These lesions are calcified, so they are not viable cysticerci, Dr. de Souza explained on Twitter. If it doesnt cause any discomfort, life goes on.

Considered rare in Brazil, with less than 150 thousand cases per year, cysticercosis is a disease caused by the ingestion of tapeworm eggs. It usually occurs in intermediate tapeworm hosts, which usually means pigs and bovines, but humans can sometimes become intermediate hosts as well, which means virtually any or all of their organs can be infested with parasite eggs.



Its a gruesome thing to imagine, but even harder to look at, but cysticercosis is a real concern in countries where basic rules of hygiene are often disregarded. Although any organ can become infested with cysticerci, the brain is by far the most problematic. Neurocysticercosis causes 50,000 deaths per year and is the most common cause of acquired epilepsy worldwide.

Studies have shown that massive cysticercosis such as the case displayed in Dr. Souzas X-ray occurs in immunosuppressed patients who have a more vulnerable immune system.
A Minnesota man who lost his iPhone 14 while kayaking in Hawaii got the shock of his life when a complete stranger got in touch and told him that they had found his handheld and that it was working perfectly.

27-year-old Zach Siggelkow of St. Anthony Village, Minnesota, was on vacation at Waikiki Beach, Hawaii, with his mother and sister last December. On the last day, Siggelkow decided to go kayaking, despite his mothers warning, and thats when tragedy struck. He had taken his iPhone 14 out to film some Air Force planes flying over, when a big wave hit the side of the kayak, causing it to overturn. As he struggled to find his paddle and get back into the kayak, Zach realized he had lost both his smartphone and his sunglasses. At first, he was pretty bummed out about it, but then he realized there wasnt much he could do about it, so he just moved on with his life. Until 33 days later, when he got an email from someone claiming to have found his iPhone on the bottom of the ocean

Dr Karl Brookins, a retired fisheries scientist who likes going diving around Waikiki Beach, noticed something strange on the ocean floor and decided to investigate. It turned out to be a smartphone, and although he didnt have much hope of bringing it back to life, he decided to try.

The bottom is, you know, pretty uniform out there and sandy with some rocks, and its like, thats a square thing! Brooking recalled. I didnt expect this one to come back on because it was it was starting to get too crusty.

To his surprise, after a week in a bag with salt and rice to get rid of the moisture, the handheld started charging and turned on. Apart from the date, which had remained stuck at December 21, the day it had been lost, everything seemed to be in working order. After managing to unlock it, Dr. Brookins was able to find the owners email and contact him about returning it to them.

I was in shock, Zach Siggelkow said. One, that he found it, obviously, two, that he was able to log in to the phone, recover the video and find my email address.



Unlocking the iPhone sounds like quite a feat, but then again, the 27-year-old owner admits that his security code was just a series of 1, so not the toughest password to break, really.

Apple claims that the iPhone 14 can survive up to 6 meters underwater for 30 minutes, but this one spent 33 days at the bottom of the ocean, so I guess Apple is selling its smartphones short. And this story is actually not unique. A couple of years ago, we wrote about an iPhone 11 that spent a year at the bottom of a lake and still worked, and last year we posted a story about another iPhone that spent 10 months at the bottom of a river.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Negotiations between the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan in the US continue, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Aykhan Hajizada told Trend.

"Meetings have already begun today. Negotiations will continue tomorrow. The exact time of the end of the negotiations is unknown," he added.

Previously, Hajizada said that the main topic of negotiations is a peace agreement.

On May 1, a trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan, and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken took place in the US.

After that, a bilateral meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the two countries was held at Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center (NFATC).

The negotiations continued on May 2 in a bilateral format.


'Nation's Report Card' Looks for PR Support Fri., May 5, 2023 The National Assessment Governing Board seeks a PR firm to communicate the results of the 'Nations Report Card,' which measures the educational performance of students across the US.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya returned to Tipperary to accept the Tipperary International Peace Award on Tuesday.

Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya aims to unseat Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, and has received a flood of support from global leaders in her fight to free her country's people from the grasp of the strong ally of Russian leader, Vladimir Putin.

She also has strong ties to Roscrea after she lived and worked in the town in the 1990s when she was brought to Ireland aged 12 through the Chernobyl Lifeline campaign. She lived with the Deane family from Roscrea and forged links which she says have sustained her in some of her darkest moments.

In 2020 she was forced into exile with her children in Lithuania and also returned to Roscrea for the first time since she was catapulted into the international spotlight after her husband was jailed by Lukashenko for what was called unpatriotic political activity. Svetlana took up the mantle and continued the fight for liberation and democracy - for which she was only last month sentenced to 15 years in prison.

During that visit she addressed the Irish Parliament and met with political leaders who pledged to support the Belarusian woman, who last week was charged with 12 crimes, including "conspiracy to take power unconstitutionally," for fighting for democracy.

She received her Tipperary International Peace Award in St. Mary's Church of Ireland in Tipperary Town on Tuesday in recognition of her fight for democratic change in her home country. Previous recipients include former South African President Nelson Mandela, former President Mary McAleese and her husband Senator Martin McAleese, Pakistani school girl Malala Yousafzai and the former Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos.

The honorary secretary of the Tipperary Peace Convention, Martin Quinn, said the award is a statement of support for the rights of freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of assembly in Belarus.

The torture and ill treatment of men, women and children in Belarus, along with the system of unfair and closed trials and the imprisonment of those that speak out against the regime, as brought to prominence by Tsikhanouskaya, has highlighted the brutality of the Lukashenka regime and its crackdown on protesters and those who speak out against them, he said.

Responding to the news of her selection Svetlana said that it is a great honour to become the recipient of the Tipperary International Peace Award for 2022 and to be amongst the great people who received the award before her.

This award is not only given to me, it is given to millions of free people of Belarus, who have been fearlessly and selflessly resisting tyranny for the past three years. Im proud of them and I thank the Tipperary Peace Committee and Ireland for this recognition, she said.

Ireland has always been a friend to Belarus and to me personally.

As a child, I came to Ireland under the Chernobyl childrens programme and I lived with the warmest family in this very region of Co Tipperary. This family showed me what a big heart Irish people have and Im happy that I still keep in touch with them, she added.

Despite the distance the people of Ireland and Belarus remain close friends as we have so much in common and we understand each other. Belarus is also a country of warm and modest people and like Irish people, Belarusians know how to fight for their land, their culture and their traditions and to defend is what makes us a nation.

Im sure that the friendship between Belarus and Ireland will remain forever and this award is what confirms these ties between us. It is an incredible support for the democratic movement of Belarus and for the hundreds of thousands of activists who resist tyranny on the ground. This provides hope for the thousands of political prisoners who suffer in Belarusian prisons for their truth and for their thirst for freedom and commitment to democratic values, she said.

After receiving the prestigious award she addressed students in St. Ailbe's School and attended a wreath laying ceremony at the Tipperary Remembrance Arch.
A RECENT meeting in Birr was told that there has been no contact with the owners of the Workhouse for at least a year.

During the AGM of Birr 20:20 Vision in the Birr Civic Offices on Wednesday evening a member of Birr 20:20 Vision asked the meeting was there any update on the future of the workhouse?

Cllr John Carroll told the meeting that Birr 20:20 had been working positively with the owners of the premises, a Canadian / Chinese company called Castle Rook, but then Covid hit and things seemed to lose focus. At one stage, prior to Covid, Castle Rook was in the process of submitting a planning application to the Council but then it fell away. Now no one is sure what the future holds.

The councillor underlined the point that the premises is privately owned and therefore the local authority cannot take action to shore up the building from further decay. Unfortunately, he remarked, the building is decaying. It was badly damaged by fire a few years ago and it's just been deteriorating since. It is sad because it is a very important building.

Castle Rook refers to itself as a dementia care company. In February 2022 the company told the Midland Tribune, via email, that it was still committed to its project in Birr Workhouse.

For the last three years the restoration of the severely dilapidated and historic building has been in development limbo, with no sign of any work starting.

There had been great hope for the building's future back in 2018 when an exciting project was announced for it. However, since then no work occurred.

In February 2022 the director of Castle Rook, Candace Lafleur, told The Midland Tribune: "Yes, we are still committed to the project. However, over Covid our financing for the project has stalled and we are looking to pick this back up toward the end of this year."

Many in the Birr area fear that the former Workhouse will become even more severely dilapidated in the coming months and years.

Since the inception of Birr 20:20 in 2015, the restoration of the Workhouse has always been in the group's sights.

In September 2018 a Birr 20:20 meeting was told that the building had been purchased by Castle Rook, a Canadian/Chinese company with its Irish base in Louth, and restoration would get underway, focusing initially on the roofs (which are in a very bad way). The building was also badly damaged by fire in 2017 started by a group of young vandals.

Detailed plans were shown during the September 2018 meeting to great enthusiasm. Access, the meeting was told, had been secured to the left of the building, leading past a proposed museum.

Castle Rook said it was proposing to transform the Workhouse into a centre providing care for those with dementia.

The proposed centre would provide a roofed pavilion for seating; a landscaped sculpture park; a glass walled dining area to retain connection with the public cafe, a community day care centre, creche and playground.

The public and residential areas, while having a degree of interaction, would be secured with a biometric fence, allowing security for residents, with a degree of freedom of movement. Thirty residents would be housed in the main building, eventually rising to 70.

Mylo robots would also be in use. The Mylo robot connects to the resident's wristband and can monitor heartbeat and bloodpressure, as well as being programmable as a reminder not only for medication times, but also for me time at the treatment centre.

The September 2018 meeting was also told that capital was in place for the purchase and initial works.
A LOCAL company has won a major prize at the Irish Construction Excellence awards.

Contractors Carroll O'Keeffe won the award in the private sector residential developments worth up to 50m on Thursday night at a gala event in Dublin's Convention Centre.

The project entered by Carroll O'Keeffe was Redwood, Clara Road, Tullamore, the housing scheme developed by Seamus Sheerin's Capital Homes.

The judges initially assessed a detailed written application for the shortlist and then conducted an interview with the contractor.

Diarmaid Carroll, construction director, Carroll O'Keeffe, Clonaslee, said Redwood was the first housing scheme in Offaly to use the modern insulated concrete formwork (ICF) system.

Reacting to the announcement that the company had triumphed over the other finalists, Mr Carroll said: We were delighted. It reflects the quality of work we do and the collaborative approach we take to building and the use of modern methods in our construction. We really felt we actioned all the buzzwords and milestones in modern construction with the Redwood project.

Insulated foundation systems were used and the homes are heated with heat pumps.

Tullamore's Kenny Lyons were the architects and engineering was by ORS, Mullingar and Galileo Energy Service.

Redwood is a 108-house project and nearly 70 of the houses have been completed.

Carroll O'Keeffe are also currently continuing the construction of the major Silverbrook residential estate on the Arden Road in Tullamore.

Some 110 houses have already been built there, 50 are under construction and work on a further 50 will start this year.

And in July they are scheduled to begin work on another major residential project, the building of 61 houses and 16 apartments on the other side of the Arden Road on a greenfield site close to the Pet Hospital.

Along with Diarmaid Carroll, Carroll O'Keeffe were represented at the awards ceremony (see picture below) by managing director John Carroll, commercial director Colm Kelly, contracts manager Brendan O'Reilly. Project manager David Spollen attended, as did Seamus Sheerin, managing director Capital Homes, Betty Sheerin, director and John Barron, construction director, Capital Homes. Trevor Coyle, Altherm, sponsored the category.

Carroll O'Keeffe previously won an ICE award in 2018 for the extenstion to Scoil Mhuire National School in Tullamore.

Another firm headed up by an Offaly man, Roger Smyth from Kilclonfert, was also a winner in the ICE finals last Thursday.

Teknabuild won (see picture below) in the residential single swelling category for a retrofit and energy upgrade project on a house in Tullamore.

The engineer was CConsult, Cormac Allen, Clonminch, Tullamore and the architect was David Mc Gourty, MMA Architects, Athlone.

The Teknabuild entry got the better of finalists who completed single-house projects in Clontarf and Cork.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The news of a terrible shooting at a school in Belgrade deeply saddened Azerbaijan, Trend reports citing tweet from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

"Our heartfelt condolences go to the families of the victims, people, and the government of Serbia. We wish a speedy recovery to all those injured," the tweet said.

Reportedly, the armed incident was committed by one of the school pupils.

As a result of the shooting at least eight pupils and one security guard of the school were killed.
Bajrang Dal to conduct 'Hanuman Chalisa' recital programme in Karnataka, in counter to Congress

Bengaluru

oi-PTI

The Bajrang Dal has decided to conduct 'Hanuman Chalisa' recital programmes across Karnataka on Thursday, a day after the Congress promised in its election manifesto to ban the outfit. The opposition Congress, in its manifesto for the May 10 Assembly election in Karnataka, said it was committed to take firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred amongst communities on grounds of caste and religion.

In the manifesto, Congress said: "We believe that law and Constitution is sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities. We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on such organisations".

On Wednesday, Bajrang Dal said it will organise recitals of 'Hanuman Chalisa' across the state. "This is the time when 'Dharma' is in danger and standing together is the only way forward. We should set aside our differences and come together to protect dharma, and hold hands together," the right-wing organisation said in a statement.

Kharge dodges questions on 'Bajrang Dal ban' in Karnataka election manifesto

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The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) too extended its support to the call. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his public meeting at Hospet in Vijayanagara district on Tuesday, too had come down heavily on the Congress promise of banning Bajrang Dal saying: "The Congress in its manifesto has decided to lock up Lord Hanuman. Initially, they locked up Prabhu Shri Ram (Lord Ram). And now they want to lock up people who say 'Jai Bajrang Bali' (Hail Hanuman)."

Hanuman Chalisa is a set of 40 couplets penned by 16th century poet and devotee of Lord Rama, Goswami Tulsidas in 'Awadhi', one of the dialects of Hindi spoken predominantly in Uttar Pradesh.

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Story first published: Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 16:07 [IST]
Karnataka polls: Will Bajrang Dal ban promise prove costly for Congress?

Bengaluru

oi-Deepika S

With less than ten days to go for the May 10 Assembly polls in Karnataka, the Congress has vowed a crackdown against religious fundamentalist organisations like the Bajrang Dal and Popular Front of India (PFI).

Photo Credit:

"The Congress Party is committed to take firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred amongst communities on grounds of caste or religion. We believe that law and Constitution is sacrosanct and can not be violated by individuals and Organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities," the Congress manifesto read.

"We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on any such organisations," it added.

The move has provided the Bharatiya Janata Party a chance to attack the Congress and leverage the soft Hindutva vote bank.

The BJP's top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are making it a point to include the "Jai Bajrang Bali" slogan in their public rallies, accusing the Congress of insulting Lord Hanuman, revered by all Hindus.

At a public meeting at Hospet in Vijayanagara, PM Modi had come down heavily on the Congress promise of banning Bajrang Dal saying,

"Earlier, Congress locked up Prabhu Shri Ram (Lord Ram). And now they want to lock up people who say 'Jai Bajrang Bali," PM Modi said.

While the hashtag "I am Bajrangi" campaign is going viral on social media in Karnataka, the Bajrang Dal has decided to conduct 'Hanuman Chalisa' recital programme, to counter Congress.

However, the big question is: Will Bajrang Dal ban promise hurt Congress' prospects and benefit BJP? Some experts and BJP functionaries are divided on the row.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the Congress would be uprooted from the country if the devotees of Lord Hanuman rebelled against it.

"The devotees of Lord Hanuman are the Bajrangis of Bajrang Dal and the Congress Party has announced in its election manifesto that it would ban the Bajrang Dal. If the devotees of Lord Hanuman revolt, then the Congress will be uprooted from the country," Bommai's office quoted him as saying in a statement.

According to political pundits, Congress's vow to ban Bajrang Dal could prove costly for the grand old party. Though the announcement was seen as a move to woo the minority vote bank, it may end up helping the BJP in a reverse polarisation of Hindu votes.

However, Congress expects minimal impact from its promise to take action against Bajrang Dal except for a couple of seats like Moodabidri in coastal Karnataka.

"There is no connection between the Bajrangbali and Bajrang Dal. Moreover, Bajrang Dal is not a popular organisation and the BJP's attempt to polarise and link to Lord Hanuman will be countered," said a Congress leader.
OPINION: India unlikely to lower its vigil on the borders

Feature

lekhaka-Jagdish N Singh

India has stresses the need to collectively work towards eliminating terrorism in all its forms and fix accountability on those aiding or funding such activities. The country is, however, highly unlikely to lower its vigil on its borders, vis-a-vis Pakistan and China.

In his address to the member-states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in New Delhi the other day, our Defence Ministers Rajnath Singh did well to stress the need to collectively work towards eliminating terrorism in all its forms and fix accountability on those aiding or funding such activities.

Singh rightly said, "If a nation shelters terrorists, it not only poses a threat to others, but for itself too... If we want to make the SCO a stronger and more credible international organisation, our top-most priority should be to effectively deal with terrorism."

He added, "India has always followed the principle of 'Let us walk together & move forward together'. Every era has a zeitgeist (defining idea). The zeitgeist of the present era is 'win-win cooperation for the great gain'."

Observers say the message of the Defence Minister Singh to the SCO is very positive. The group's membership includes, besides India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Most of the SCO members are appreciative of the fact that New Delhi has always striven to bolster trust and cooperation within the group.

India has had cultural, civilizational and economic links and people-to-people exchanges with the states in this region since ancient times. India has always wanted and worked to strengthen these linkages.

Need to unitedly fight against terrorism: Rajnath at SCO meet

New Delhi did well to keep the deliberations of this meeting focused on regional security situations, including the developments in Afghanistan. To New Delhi, enhancing coordination among the SCO member countries is a must in the post Taliban rule-II landscape in Afghanistan. The nature of the current regime in Afghanistan poses a radical Islamist threat to modern secular India.

It is good that in their meet in New Delhi, the SCO member-states reached a consensus on several areas of cooperation, including dealing with terrorism, security of vulnerable populations in various countries as well as HADR (humanitarian assistance and disaster relief).

The SCO member countries signed a protocol, expressing their collective will to make the region secure, peaceful and prosperous. Defence Minister Singh urged member countries to ensure food security under an integrated plan. He called for working on a common strategy to deal with the issue of climate change. He also said that energy security should be a part of the common strategy.

However, the observers say, India is highly unlikely to lower its vigil on its borders, vis-a-vis Pakistan and China, two of the SCO member-states. The reasons for this are not far to seek. India has had a history of arguments with both nations. Pakistan's intention towards India does not seem to be peaceful.

Only a few days ago, there was a terror attack in Poonch. It claimed the lives of five Army soldiers. Initial investigations have pointed towards the involvement of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and terrorists from across the border. It is well known that such terror groups have had the patronage of the deep state in Pakistan.

Also, Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, who had been invited to the SCO meeting in New Delhi, did not turn up for the event. Malik Ahmed Khan, special advisor to the Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaj Sharief, attended the meeting only through video conference.

As for China, it continues its policy of confrontation towards India. China claims India's Aksai Chin, between northern Ladakh and China's Xinjiang autonomous region. China has been in control of the area. In order to annex what it calls its territory, China waged the war of aggression against India in 1962, 1967 and 1986.

In June 2017, China reached the Doklam Plateau with its aggressive designs against India. It reached the northern Ladakh region in June 2020. As late as in December last, about 300 soldiers from the People's Liberation Army of China attempted to occupy Yangtse, a mountainous border post, in Tawang.

Not only that. To annex the Indian territory, the PLA is bolstering its infrastructure closer to the LAC, not just in Ladakh but also in the eastern sector. It is constructing a bridge across Pangong Lake in Eastern Ladakh.

Given this background, New Delhi has already enhanced its vigil on India's borders with Pakistan and China. The Border Security Force (BSF) has its deployments along the India-Pakistan border in Punjab to foil any attempts by smugglers to push narcotics and weapons into India. New Delhi has deployed an additional 50,000 troops in the disputed Sino-Indian region.

During his meeting with Chinese State Councillor and Minister of National Defence General Li Shangfu in New Delhi last week, Defence Minister Singh made it clear to him that there could simply be no improvement in the overall bilateral relationship till the Chinese troops disengaged from eastern Ladakh.

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of OneIndia and OneIndia does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
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'Bajrang Bali,' 40 per cent commission: How the campaign in Karnataka panned out

581 with pending criminals contesting Karnataka assembly elections this year

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Out of the 2,586 contesting the Karnataka elections, 581 have declared pending criminal cases against them.

Association for Democratic Reforms and the Karnataka Election Watch analysed the affidavits of the 2,586 candidates. In the 2018 candidates of the 2,560 candidates analysed, 391 had declared pending criminal cases against them.

The report also says that this year 404 have declared serious criminal cases pending against them. In the 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, 254 (10 per cent) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves, the report also says.

Kharge dodges questions on 'Bajrang Dal ban' in Karnataka election manifesto

Party wise report:

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,122(55 per cent) out of 221 candidates analysed from Congress, 96(43 per cent) out of 224 candidates analysed from BJP, 70 (34 per cent) out of 208 candidates analysed from JD(S) and 48 (23 per cent) out of 208 candidates analysed from AAP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, the report said.

Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,69(31 per cent) out of 221 candidates analysed from Congress, 66(30 per cent) out of 224 candidates analysed from BJP, 52 (25 per cent) out of 208 candidates analysed from JD(S) and 30 (14 per cent) out of 208 candidates analysed from AAP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Candidates with declared cases related to crime against women: 49 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 49 candidates 1 candidate has declared case related to rape (IPC Section-376).

Candidates with declared cases related to murder: 8 candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves.

Candidates with declared cases related to attempt to murder: 35 candidates have declared cases related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves.

Red Alert Constituencies: 111(50 per cent) out of 224 constituencies are Red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 56 (25 per cent) constituencies in the Karnataka assembly elections 2018 had 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

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Financial background:

The report said that the role of money power is quite evident in the manner in which the parties have given tickets to the candidates. The crorepati candidates from the Congress is 215, while in the case of the BJP it is 170. The JD(S) has fielded 107, the report said.

The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023 is Rs 12.26 Crores. In 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, average assets per candidate for 2,560 candidates was Rs. 7.54 crores.

The highest assets have been declared by independent candidate, Yousuf Shariff. In his affidavit, he has said that his assets are worth over 1,600 crore. The second and third on the list are N Nagaraju of the BJP and D K Shivakumar of the Congress. They have declared assets worth Rs 1,600 crore and Rs 1,400 crore respectively.

Other details:

832 candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 1,356 candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 389 candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years and 9 candidates have declared they are more than 80 years old.

186 female candidates are contesting in the Karnataka assembly election 2023. In 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, 209 out of 2,560 candidates analysed were women, the ADR report also said.
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Amidst snake and vishakanya remarks in Karnataka, a stern warning from EC

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

With personal attacks being made galore, the Election Commission of India has asked political parties and their star campaigners to exercise caution and restraint in their utterances and also not to vitiate the election atmosphere.

The advisory by the top election body came in the wake of comments such as poisonous snake, 'vishkanya' and 'nalayak' being ,made in the poll bound state of Karnataka. The state voters on May 10 and results will be out on May 13.

"Such instances have occasioned various complaints, cross complaints and have also attracted negative media attention," the election body said in a statement.

Politics of poison: Now BJP leader in Karnataka calls Sonia Gandhi 'vishkanya

The campaign is hotting up with all top leaders across party visiting the state. Both the BJP and Congress have moved the poll body seeking action against each other.

"It is imperative for all parties and stakeholders to remain within the confines of the Model Code of Conduct and the legal framework in their utterances while campaigning so as to maintain the dignity of the political discourse and not to vitiate the campaign and the election atmosphere," said the advisory.

"The spirit of the MCC is not just avoidance of a direct violation, it also prohibits attempts to vitiate the electoral space through suggestive or indirect statements or innuendoes," the statement also read.

"The Commission, in collaboration and consultation with all stakeholders, in particular, the political parties and the candidates, has invested efforts in encouraging all stakeholders to maintain a level of political discourse during campaigning which is befitting the widespread admiration and standing of Indian democracy worldwide," the Election Commission also said.

After Mallikarjun Kharge's poisonous snake remark, his son Priyank calls PM Modi 'nalayak beta'

Earlier a delegation of the BJP met with the members of the Election Commission and raised the issue of the Congress promising tough action against the Bajrang Dal in its manifesto. A BJP source tells OneIndia that the issue was raised orally by the BJP with the poll body.

On the other hand the Congress too met with the Election Commission officials and accused the BJP of making hate speeches.

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Story first published: Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 9:47 [IST]
Let them write what they want: Pawar on Saamna editorial

Big change in Maharashtra politics says BJP after Pawars decision

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

There is going to be a bigger change in Maharashtra as Sharad Pawar decided to step down as the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the BJP has claimed.

BJP's national vice-president Dilip Ghosh told news agency ANI, "since a lot of days there has been some turmoil in Maharashtra politics. There have been some talks going on. This is a result of it. NCP's survival is in jeopardy, Sharad Pawar is losing his power."

In an unexpected move, Sharad Pawar announced that he was stepping down as NCP chief. Speaking a the book launch of his autobiography, Pawar said that after a long period it was time for him to take a step back. It is also the time for a new generation to guide the party he said.

At an event where over 600 party members had gathered he said that after such a long career a person should think of stopping at some point.

NCP battle gets interesting as Supriya Sule looks for bigger role

He however made it clear that he is not retiring from active politics. Even though I am stepping down from the post of president, I am not returning from active life. I will continue to attend public events and meetings, the NCP boss had said.

While he made this announcement, there were protests and emotional NCP workers held rallies in which they threatened suicide across the state of Maharashtra. Ajit Pawar said that his uncle would take a day or two to reconsider his decision.

Pawar following his resignation had said that a committee has been formed to take a decision on who would be the next chief of the NCP.

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Story first published: Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 9:39 [IST]
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BJP leader B P Yatnal gets EC notice over 'vishkanya' remark against Sonia Gandhi

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

The Election Commission on Wednesday issued a notice to BJP leader Basangouda Patil Yatnal for his 'vishkanya' remark against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.

The notice issued by Koppal District Election Officer in Karnataka said prima facie he has violated provisions of the model code. The BJP's star campaigner has been asked to respond to the notice by Thursday evening

BJP MLA Yatnal likened Gandhi to a 'vishakanya' (venomous) in retaliation to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's "venomous snake" barb hurled at Prime Minister Modi, with the comments drawing sharp response from the opposition party which sought the legislator's expulsion.

Congress chief's son Priyank Kharge gets EC notice over 'nalayak' barb at PM Modi

"The entire world appreciates Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The US had not given him visa once upon a time, but today he has emerged as a world leader who receives a red carpet welcome and rubs shoulders with world leaders," Yatnal said at a public meeting on Thursday.

"He (Modi) is compared with a cobra and is called venomous. Is Sonia Gandhi, whom you go dancing about in your party, a vishakanya? Sonia Gandhi who ruined the country and works as an agent of China and Pakistan," Yatnal, who is seeking re-election in the May 10 Karnataka elections from Vijayapura, charged.

The 'vishkanya' remark against Gandhi by Yatnal came a day after Kharge compared Modi with a poisonous snake.

(with PTI inputs)

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Story first published: Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 20:04 [IST]
Same-sex marriage: We don't go by popular morality or segmental morality, says SC

India

oi-Deepika S

We don't go by either 'popular morality or segmental morality' but what the Constitution mandates, the Supreme Court observed on Wednesday when an argument was advanced before it that young same-sex couples across the country wanted to get married.

During the arguments on the seventh-day of hearing, senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal, who is appearing for the petitioners, said they have spoken to gay people at various seminars and 99 per cent of them came up and said the only thing they want is to get married.

Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, who is also representing the petitioners' side, said she has spoken at different events and found that young gay couples wanted to get married. "I don't say this as an elite lawyer. I say this having met these young people. Do not let them experience what we have experienced," she told the bench.

Responding to her, the CJI observed, "Dr Guruswamy, there is a problem with this line of argument. I will tell you why. We understand the feelings out of which this argument comes. At the constitutional level, there is a serious problem."

Justice Chandrachud said if, as a constitutional court, the SC goes by what young gay couples feel, then it will be subjected to volumes of data on what other people feel.

"Now, therefore, the great salutary safeguard of constitutional adjudication is that the court has to go by what the constitution mandates," he said, adding, "and therefore, we don't go by either popular morality or a segmental morality. We decide what the Constitution says." "Let us not get into that at all," the CJI said.

Govt to set up panel to look into same-sex couple problems

Earlier, the central government agreed to set up a panel headed by the cabinet secretary to explore administrative steps for addressing concerns of same-sex couples without going into the issue of legalising their marriage.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court that a committee headed by the cabinet secretary will be constituted to look at the issues faced by the same-sex couple.

"Issues of some genuine human concerns will be addressed. The government is positive. This would need coordination by different ministries. A committee headed by cabinet secretary will be formed and suggestions given by the petitioners will be addressed," Mehta said.

"The petitioners can give me the suggestions or the problems which they're facing, which the committee will go into and will try and see that so far as legally permissible, they are addressed," he added.

A five-judge constitution bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices SK Kaul, S Ravindra Bhat, PS Narasimha and Hima Kohli has been hearing a batch of pleas seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriages in India.

The apex court suggested that the Attorney General for India R Venkatramani, Solicitor General and the lawyers appearing in the matter can hold a meeting over the weekend for a discussion.

"From the drift of the submissions made by SG last time, it appears that the SG also accepts that people do have a right to cohabit and that right is an accepted social reality. Based on that, there may be certain incidents of that cohabitation- bank accounts, insurance policies - these are these are practical issues which can be resolved by the government", CJI was quoted as saying by Live Law.

Appearing for the petitioners, senior advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singvhi submitted that the substantial constitutional issues are involved in the matter, and hence mere administrative tweaking by the Government may not be helpful.

with PTI inputs
SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, May 3. Azerbaijan is an important partner for European countries today, Director at the Research Institute for European and American Studies John Nomikos told Trend on the sidelines of the conference held in Shusha on the "Formation of the geopolitics of Greater Eurasia: from the past to the present and the future" topic, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Azerbaijan's national leader Heydar Aliyev.

"Azerbaijan holds a strategic position as a supplier of oil and gas, which are very important for Europe today," Nomikos said.

He pointed out that he was very impressed by the speech of President Ilham Aliyev at the conference.

"President Ilham Aliyev knows how to promote Azerbaijan's interests in the international arena," he said.

Nomikos added that he was very glad to have visited our country. According to him, the best way to get information is to visit the country personally and talk to people.

Up to 60 representatives from more than 30 countries are taking part in the international conference taking place on May 2-4 in Baku and Shusha.
For Sharad Pawar it is business as usual, a day after he steps down as NCP chief

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

A day after all the drama, Sharad Pawar who had resigned as the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is back with his routine.

He attended his daily routine meetings, which included interactions with party functionaries on Wednesday.

Pawar made a stunning revelation on Tuesday by saying that he is stepping down as the chief of the NCP, which had founded and helmed since 1999. He however added that he would not be retiring from public life.

The announcement had come as a shock to many leaders of the party. Many were seen crying and pleading with Pawar to reconsider his decision. Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar said that his uncle Sharad Pawar would need another day or two to reconsider his decision. According to NCP functionaries, Pawar has been meeting with people including party workers as usual. He is said to have held meetings at the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan from 10 am to 1 pm.

Sharad Pawar will take 2-3 days to rethink his decision of stepping down as NCP chief: Ajit Pawar

The announcement by Pawar came in the wake of his daughter Supriya Sule staying last week that there will be two political blasts, one in Maharashtra and another in Delhi.

The decision by Pawar has led to several chiefs of the district units stating that they would quit their posts unless the senior leader does not consider his decision. Ajit Pawar own the other hand has requested party workers not to resign. He said that the NCP supremo is thinking over his decision and would need a day or two to decide.

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Story first published: Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 13:20 [IST]
Will Kharges snake jibe come back to bite the Congress in Karnataka?

Kharge attacks Modi says only his jacket is famous he changes it four times daily

In poll-bound Karnataka, Mallikarjun Kharge halts speech during azaan | Watch

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, while addressing an election rally in Kalaburagi district, stopped his speech during the call of Azaan.

Kharge was addressing a public rally when another Congress leader went on stage to alert the Congress chief about the Azaan. Kharge is then seen stopping his speech.

LIVE: Public meeting at Aland, Karnataka.



No diversionary tactics can deter us from the path of ensuring progress for Karnataka.



Only Congress is committed to the people. #CongressBaralidePragatiTaralide https://t.co/IRy9FZNgL1  Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) May 3, 2023

The leader of the Congress party criticised the BJP government in Karnataka, stating that despite their promise of a strong government, they have had multiple changes in chief ministers. He called the upcoming election a crucial one for both Karnataka and the nation.

"It is an important 'do or die' election for Karnataka. The 40 per cent commission state government is damned. It has cheated our people," Kharge said.

Modi ji often says in his speeches that 'na mein khaunga, na khane dunga!' (I won't take bribes, I will not let others take bribes). But Bommai sits next to him. The PM should ask him for a 40 per cent commission, Kharge taunted.
Kharge attacks Modi says only his jacket is famous he changes it four times daily

Kharge dodges questions on 'Bajrang Dal ban' in Karnataka election manifesto

India

oi-Prakash KL

A day after mentioning in its manifesto that the party will ban organisations such as Bajrang Dal if comes to power in Karnataka, Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday refused to answer questions pertaining to its promise on banning the right-wing group.

"Dr Parameshwar was the chairman of the drafting committee and he has already clarified about it. I don't want to reply once my party people have replied and I do not want to give my individual opinion," he told reporters on asking about his promise in its manifesto to the voters of Karnataka.

Photo Credit:

When asked whether the party wants to ban it only in Karnataka and why not in other parts of the country where it is in power, seemingly irritated Kharge asked, "You want to create problems for us."

Congress, in its manifesto for Karnataka Assembly polls, has said that it will ban organisations such as Bajrang Dal and PFI (which has already been banned by Centre) that spread enmity between the communities.

What could change for the Congress in Karnataka post its Bajrang Dal remarks?

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"The Congress Party is committed to take firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred amongst communities on grounds of caste or religion. We believe that law and Constitution is sacrosanct and can not be violated by individuals and Organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities. We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on any such organisations," the manifesto read.

#WATCH | Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge reacts to the party's manifesto to ban Bajrang Dal. pic.twitter.com/xijVt9NT5B  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

Meanwhile, Bajrang Dal workers staged a protest near the Congress office. The angry protestors burnt the party manifesto which was released by Kharge on Tuesday.

The VHP and several BJP leaders have also condemned the Congress for "defaming" Bajrang Dal.

Amidst snake and 'vishakanya remarks in Karnataka, a stern warning from EC

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing an election rally in Vijayanagara district, said he was fortunate that he got the opportunity to pay obeisance to the land of Hanuman. "But see the misfortune that when I have come to pay my respect to Hanuman's land, at the same time, the Congress in its manifesto has decided to lock up Lord Hanuman. Initially, they locked up Prabhu Shri Ram (Lord Ram). And now they want to lock up people who say 'Jai Bajrang Bali'," he said.
NCP battle gets interesting as Supriya Sule looks for bigger role

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The daughter of Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule may assume a bigger role in the party following the events that unfolded on Tuesday is the buzz around the politics in Maharashtra.

Supriya Sule, who is a three time member of Parliament from Baramati is likely to get a bigger role in the party, even as her cousin announced that Sharad Pawar may reconsider his decision.

She appeared to be unfazed when her father announced his decision to step down as the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). One could see a sea an emotions that were expressed when Pawar decided to quit the post of president.

Sharad Pawar will take 2-3 days to rethink his decision of stepping down as NCP chief: Ajit Pawar

Pawar had in a recent interview indicated that his daughter was up for the big role in the party in the near future. She is more interested in national politics and working in Parliament. She had won the best Parliamentarian award as well. Each one has their own field of interest, Pawar had said.

Until now it is unclear who would head the NCP. While the senior Pawar has said that a committee would decide on who the next head would be, Ajit Pawar has said that Sharad Pawar may reconsider his decision on a day or two.

There are many leaders who Pawar has groomed to take over the NCP. There is own daughter Supriya Sule, his nephew Ajit Pawar and NCP chief Jayant Patil. All of them are now the frontline leaders of the NCP.

What Sharad Pawars tell-all book says: Check excerpts

Over the years, it was said that Ajit Pawar was the frontline leader who would lead the party. However he made an unsuccessful bid to split the party.
Many in NCP with BJP: Saamna editorial explains why Pawar may have resigned

Let them write what they want: Pawar on Saamna editorial

NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad quits General Secretary post day after Sharad Pawar resigns

India

oi-Deepika S

Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Jitendra Awhad resigned from his post as National General Secretary on Wednesday, a day after veteran politician Sharad Pawar resigned as president of the NCP.

"I have resigned from my post of National General Secretary and I have sent my resignation to NCP chief Sharad Pawar. All office bearers of Thane NCP have also resigned after Sharad Pawar's decision to resign from the post of party chief," Jitendra Awhad told ANI.

In a surprising turn of events, Sharad Pawar announced that he is stepping down as the chief of NCP, the political outfit he founded in 1999.

"I have three years left of Rajya Sabha membership in Parliament, during which I will focus on issues related to Maharashtra and India, with a caveat of not taking any responsibility. After a long period of public life from May 1, 1960, to May 1, 2023, it is necessary to take a step back. Hence, I have decided to step down as the president of the Nationalist Congress Party," Pawar said.

Sharad Pawar will take 2-3 days to rethink his decision of stepping down as NCP chief: Ajit Pawar

Soon after Pawar's announcement party workers broke down and urged that the octogenarian leader to reconsider his move.

A few party functionaries even tendered their resignations on the spot to put pressure on the 82-year-old politician, while some workers suggested that a working president be appointed.

"I am with you, but not as NCP chief, " Pawar told emotional party workers opposing his resignation.
PM Modi attacks Congress in Karnataka, accuses party of aligning with anti-national forces

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped up his attack on the Congress and said that the 'shahi parivar' in Delhi wants to make Karnataka its No. 1 ATM. The PM was referring to the Gandhi family.

In contrast the BJP wants to take the state to new heights, the PM said at a rally in Mudbidri. The BJP wants to the state to become the top industrial, agricultural, fisheries hub. We are working on it, he also said.

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He also termed the Congress as 'shanti ki dushman, vikas ki dushman' (enemy of peace and development). All states want progress, but for that you need to boot out the Congress and say, 'bas bhaiya, bahut ho gaya'."

He also said that the Congress aligns with anti-nationals and takes help from anti-India forces for the elections. They take back cases against anti-nations and they shield terror backers, he said.

PM Modi slams Congress, says its history is about 'appeasing terror and terrorists'

The PM said that Karnataka is a fast-growing state, a leader in IT, and is an epicentre of tech-driven-start-ups. Despite the impressive post 1990s growth profile, poverty in Karnataka continues to be the highest among the southern states, the PM also said.

The PM added that the Congress insults and abuses the military and its soldiers. The Congress will push Karnataka back by decades. He also exuded confidence that the BJP will come back to power in the state with a majority. He said that he wants Karnataka to become the Number One state in the country.

The Prime Minister will address three rallies in the state. He will also take part in a rally in Karwar and Belagavi. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is also in the state as part of the party's campaign for the May 10 elections, the results of which will be out on May 13.
You better enjoy being in jail: SC to former Amrapali head

Muslim quota in Karnataka: SC says no political statement should be made on issue

SC refuses to stall death sentence of former Punjab CM, Beant Singhs killer

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to commute the death penalty of former Punjab Chief Minster, Beant Singh's killer Balwant Singh to life imprisonment.

A Bench comprising Justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol said that the competent authority will decide the plea of the convict seeking mercy.

The Court had on March 2 reserved its verdict on the plea of Singh after it heard submissions by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the convict and. The court had also taken into note the submissions made by Additional Solicitor General K M Natraj.

Singh a former Punjab police constable was convicted for his involvement in the explosion which took place outside the Punjab civil secretariat on August 31 1995, in which Beast Singh and 16 other were killed.

No pardon has been given to Balwant Singh Rajoana: Amit Shah

He was sentenced to death in July 2007.

The agencies say that he was a member of the Babbar Khalsa International. He was found guilty of his crime and subsequently sentenced to death by a CBI special court in Chandigarh.

Singh was a backup human bomb in case Dilawar Singh failed in his mission. He has been in jail for 26 years and his mercy petition has been hanging fire for over eight years now.

"We have noted the stand of the Ministry of Home Affairs to defer the decision on the mercy petition...It actually amounts to a decision declining to grant the same for the present. We have directed the competent authority to deal with the mercy petition as and when they deem necessary and take a further decision," the Bench said.

The cop turned militant was to be hanged in March 2012, but his execution had been stayed by the UPA government, following a clemency plea that had been filed.

"To keep a prisoner on death row for so long violates their fundamental rights according to judgements of this court and is a ground for their sentence to be commuted. Singh is entitled to be released from death row forthwith. The moment he gets his commutation order, he can apply to be released since he has already spent 27 years behind bars. It is inhuman. Alternatively, if you wish to wait for the government's response to the mercy appeals, then at the very least, grant the petitioner parole. He wants to go to his village, and he will stay there," Rohatgi agreeing for Singh said.
The Kerala Story is largely based on the cases of Nimisha and Sonia

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

There has been a lot of controversy around the movie The Kerala Story, with many seeking a ban on the movie.

There has been a lot of debate around the number of girls from Kerala who have been converted to Islam and forced into the Islamic State. While the numbers can be debated, there are however some documented cases probed by the Kerala Police and the Central agencies that speak about women from the state being tricked or trapped and then forced into joining the Islamic State.

In this context let us revisit the case of Nimisha, who the agencies say was converted forcibly and then sent off to Afghanistan.

While this incident took place in 2017, Nimisha alias Fathima was arrested by the Afghanistan police in 2020. During her interrogation, she said that she had been trapped by a Pakistan backed group which was into conversions.

Nimisha according to her confession got married in the seventh month of her pregnancy, following which she left for Afghanistan. During his questioning she said that once in Afghanistan she would lead a truly Islamic life. " I was trained for Jihad and was told that my job would be to establish the Caliphate,"she also said during her questioning.

The Kerala Story trailer has been tweaked to the story of three girls

The other case in question is that of Sonia Sebastin. Following her conversion she was renamed Ayesha.In a video that was released by her which was played by Strat News Global, she said that she and her husband Abdullah Rashid were upset with the Islamic State. She said that she had moved to Afghanistan to lead a purely Islamic lifestyle under the rule of the Caliphate. However on reaching there, they realised that people were not even visiting the Mosques.

An Intelligence Bureau official tells OneIndia that the problem does exist. Not just in India, but in other parts of the world as well. The Islamic State follows a pattern of recruiting sex-slaves and expects them to increase the population. This was largely seen in the case of the Yazidi girls in Iraq.

Laila Khoudeida, secretary of the Yazidi Organisation had told this correspondent that their community are seen by the Islamic State as the one who worships devils. She said that the women are taken as sex slaves and the numbers had only increased as the Islamic State rose. The Islamic State has however now changed track after it faced severe losses in Iraq and Syria. It has now moved largely towards an online propaganda, where it expects that people carry out strikes on their own or as the agencies terms them as lone wolf strikes.

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Story first published: Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 11:25 [IST]
Violence erupts in Manipur, mobile internet snapped, curfew imposed in Churachandpur

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Total public curfew was imposed and mobile internet services were snapped in Manipur over violence during a tribal agitation on Wednesday, news agency PTI reported.

According to the ANI report, a mob also vandalised houses in the violence-hit district. The district administration imposed total public curfew, prohibiting the movement of any person outside their respective residences, with immediate effect.

Violence broke out during 'Tribal Solidarity March' called by All Tribal Student Union Manipur (ATSUM) in Torbung area of Churachandpur district to protest the demand of non-tribal Meiteis, who dominate the Imphal Valley, for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Thousands of agitators took part in the rally, during which violence between tribals and non-tribals was reported in Torbung area, a senior police officer said.

#WATCH | Mob destroys houses amid tensions in Churachandpur Town in Manipur. Public curfew has been imposed in the district. pic.twitter.com/jonBsyRI18  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

Police fired several rounds of tear gas shells to control the mob, the officer said.

The situation remains tense but many agitators have started returning to their homes in different parts of the hills, he said.

Agitated youths were seen gathering at Canchipur in Imphal West district and Soibam Leikai in Imphal East in the Valley calling for retaliation but heavy police deployment has been ensured and the non-tribal agitators have been asked to return to their homes, the official said. In view of the situation, curfew has been imposed in non-tribal dominated Imphal West, Kakching, Thoubal, Jiribam and Bishnupur districts and tribal-dominated Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Tengnoupal districts.

Internet snapped for 5 days as Manipur remains tense

Mobile internet services were suspended across the state for five days with immediate effect but broadband services were operational.

''To thwart the design and activities of anti-national and anti-social elements and to maintain peace and communal harmony and to prevent any loss of life or danger to public and private property, it had become necessary to take adequate measures to maintain law and order in public interest by stopping the spread of misinformation and false rumours through various social platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter on phone,'' an order issued by Commissioner (Home) H Gyan Prakash said.

''The order is being passed ex-parte in view of the emergent situation and shall be in force for the next five days with immediate effect,'' it said.

Separate orders declaring curfew were issued by the administrations of the eight districts.

The ATSUM had called for the march in all the 10 hill districts in the state to oppose moves for inclusion of the majority Meitei community in the ST category.

Lawmakers of the Valley have earlier openly endorsed the demand by some Meitei organisation for ST status for the majority community in Manipur, alarming communities who figure in the Scheduled Tribe list.

The Meiteis, who make up 53 per cent of the state's population, inhabit the Valley, which accounts for about a tenth of the former princely state's land area. They claim they are facing problems in view of ''large scale illegal immigration by Myanmarese and Bangladeshis''.

The hill districts which account for much of the state's land mass is inhabited mostly by tribals -- including the Nagas and Kukis - and are protected from encroachment by various laws.

Tribal villagers from remote areas came in buses and open trucks to nearest hill district headquarters to attend the rallies.

In Naga-dominated Senapati town, the district headquarters with the same name and located about 58 km from Imphal, the local bodies forced total shutdown of markets and suspension of public transport from 10 am to 1 pm to ensure that maximum number of demonstrators participate in the rally. Thousands of tribals -- who make up about 40 pr cent of the state's population -- joined the processions, waved placards and raised slogans opposing ST status for the Meitei community.

Representatives of the Senapati District Students' Association also met the deputy commissioner and apprised him of their concerns.

At Churachandpur, the second-largest town in the state, people defied prohibitory orders and gathered at the public ground and took a rally till Tuibong.

Prohibitory orders were clamped for an indefinite period in the town last week following violent protests against a drive to evict villagers from reserved forest areas. Security forces were rushed to the town from other parts of Manipur to control the situation after the vandalisation of a venue where Chief Minister N Biren Singh was scheduled to address a programme.

Similar rallies were also held at Tengnoupal, Chandel, Kangpokpi, Noney and Ukhrul, where even school students were seen among participants, police said. Meanwhile, counter-blockades were put up in the Valley districts, including at Sugnu in Kakching district, in support of granting ST status to Meiteis. Protesters shouted slogans demanding ST status for the majority community as well as for protection of reserved and protected forests.

The Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee Manipur (STDCM), which is spearheading the movement for the inclusion of Meiteis in the ST category said the demand is being made not merely for reservation in jobs, educational institutions and tax relief but ''more to protect our ancestral land, culture and identity'', which they claimed was being ''threatened by illegal migration from Myanmar, Bangladesh and by people from outside the state''.

(with PTI inputs)
What could change for the Congress in Karnataka post its Bajrang Dal remarks?

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The Congress in Karnataka does have the advantage owing to the anti-incumbency factor, but recent incidents show that the party is treading dangerously as the election dates approach.

First came the 'snake' comment by Congress chief, Mallikarjun Kharge. This was backed up by the 'nalayak' comment made by Kharge's son Priyanka Kharge. The hot topic of discussion now is the manifesto by the Congress in which it has said that it would ban the Bajrang Dal, while equating it to the Popular Front of India, which was banned by the Centre in September 2022.

Photo Credit:

While the Congress does realise that this a risky proposition, it is also aware that by doing so it was ensuring the consolidation of the Muslim votes. The Muslim community in Karnataka was undecided as the Congress had taken no strong stand on issues such as the CAA or hijab row.

There has been a clear shift in the stand by the Congress since the time its campaign began. At the start of the campaign, the party had said that it would not go into personal comments and stay away from the Hindutva plank. However as the elections near all that seems to have changed and the Congress wants to leave nothing to chance.

Karnataka polls: Cong promises to ban Bajrang Dal if comes to power

Political analysts that OneIndia spoke with said that the Congress has taken too much of a risk. The comments on the Bajrang Dal could risk its prospects in the coastal belt. Furthermore many fence-sitters may move towards the BJP following this decision on organisations such as a Bajrang Dal, the analyst also pointed out. This could also have an impact on seats such as Gangavathi and Kanakagiri, where Lord Hanuman is revered.

Another issue that is under discussion in Karnataka is Siddaramaiah's comments on Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai. He had said that there is already a Lingayat leader who is the most corrupt. The BJP however chose to turn this around and termed it as an insult to the Lingayat community.
FUZULI, Azerbaijan, May 3. The visit of participants of the international conference themed "Shaping the geopolitics of Greater Eurasia: from past to present and future", dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Great Leader Heydar Aliyev, has ended in the Azerbaijani city of Shusha, Trend reports.

After the conference in Shusha, foreign representatives arrived at the Fuzuli International Airport, from where they will travel to Azerbaijan's capital Baku.

Some 60 representatives from more than 30 countries are taking part in the international conference taking place on May 2-4 in Baku and Shusha.
It was the best day in history says Donald Trump as his ratings soar

Donald Trump kissed and groped me: Woman reveals during trial

International

oi-Prakash KL

An elderly woman has testified that former United States President Donald Trump had sexually assaulted her on a flight in the late 1970s.

The woman named Jessica Leeds told jurors at the Manhattan's federal court the former President had grabbed her chest and ran his hand up her skirt. She made the comments while testifying in E Jean Carroll's rape and defamation lawsuit.

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The incident occurred in the business class section of a flight to New York in 1978 or 1979. "There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue. It was like a tussle," she said. "He was trying to kiss me, trying to pull me towards him. He was grabbing my breasts. It was like he had 40 zillion hands. It was like a tussling match between the two of us."

'Donald Trump raped me', author E Jean Carroll testifies before jury

She then told him that she "don't need this", and stormed to the back of the plane.

In a bid to persuade the nine-member jury that the former US president has a history of assaulting women and that Carroll's claims were part of a pattern, Carroll's lawyers had called Leeds to court.

79-year-old Carroll has alleged that he had sexually assaulted her in a changing room at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

She has also accused him of defaming her after she spoke about the incident in 2019. After a law took effect in New York which gave the victims a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers decades after attacks may have occurred, she sued him, last year.

Leeds had first spoken about the incident weeks before the 2016 election with the New York Times even as many women made sexual harassment allegations in the run-up to the polls.

She had spoken after Trump had denied all the allegations during a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton. "I was furious because he was lying," Leeds recounted.

Nonetheless, Donald Trump has denied all the allegations made against him. He has said that the claims made by those victims are politically motivated.

Trump raised USD 34M so far in 2023, including indictment bump

This is one of the legal cases that he is facing as he seeks a return to the White House in 2024 polls.

Last month, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal charges stemming from hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign to bury allegations that he had extramarital sexual encounters.

With inputs from agencies.
Indian connection with Britain's royal ceremonies dates back to Queen Victoria

International

oi-PTI

Queen Victoria, who was the Empress of India during the Raj, was the first British monarch to include an Indian escort at all her major royal ceremonies and 200 years on at King Charles III's Coronation this weekend that history would be reflected in the Commonwealth symbolism, according to a British Indian historian and author.

Shrabani Basu, the London-based author of 'Victoria and Abdul: The Extraordinary True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant' - adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Dame Judi Dench as Victoria, believes the trappings around the ceremony at Westminster Abbey on Saturday will hark back to much of Queen Victoria's love for India.

As the first monarch to make Buckingham Palace her home, the gilded carriage of King Charles and Queen Camilla will leave those very gates when it makes its way to the Abbey. "It is with Victoria that we have such a link with India, because of her connection with Abdul Karim from whom she learnt Urdu; she was so fond of India, though she never visited due to old age," said Basu, in an interview at the Victoria Memorial opposite Buckingham Palace in London days before the Coronation.

"She yearned to visit India and in every ceremony that she had, she would make sure there was an Indian escort that led the procession out of Buckingham Palace towards Westminster Abbey. It was the first time that people on the streets saw Indian soldiers escorting the Queen because they were her special escorts. This time round things have changed, it's the Commonwealth. But the link is very strong with 200 years of history behind us," she said.

While the pomp and pageantry of the day and the concert and street parties planned over the long celebratory weekend are getting their final touches ahead of the big day on May 6, the future of the institution itself is also very much under the scanner.

Britain has outgrown their racism, says Shashi Tharoor over Sunak rise

"We can see the stands are going up, the palace is getting ready, the throne is being done up. Britain knows how to put up a show, they love the pomp and the pageantry, the drum rolls and the costumes, the carriages that are being given the polish for weeks," notes Basu, also the author of 'Kind and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front, 1914-18'.

"Even as we witness all this mounting excitement, a recent poll showed that while the over-60s are very enthusiastic about the monarchy, there is a decline in interest in the monarchy for the 18-25 year olds. So, it begs the question, what is the future of the monarchy; how long would it continue on this scale? Will Prince George (second in line to the throne after Prince William) have a much reduced ceremony in the years to come," she pondered.

Prince George, 9, is lined up to play a starring role at the Coronation ceremony of his 74-year-old grandfather King Charles III along with his father William, 40, heir to the British throne as the Prince of Wales.

Meanwhile, Graham Smith, CEO of Republic - Britain's largest anti-monarchist group, has already revealed plans for a series of #NotMyKing protests at Trafalgar Square and along the route of the Coronation procession in central London. The group campaigns for the abolition of the monarchy to make way for an elected Head of State.

"India made the right choice a long time ago to get rid of the monarchy, to separate from the Crown and be a Republic, and that is a strong reminder that the Commonwealth is not linked to the Crown in that way," he said recently.

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Story first published: Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 10:41 [IST]
Who is Ajay Banga? All you need to know about the next World Bank president

International

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Indian-American business leader Ajay Banga was on Wednesday appointed as the next President of the World Bank, which said it looks forward to working with him on the World Bank Group Evolution process.

The World Bank's 25-member executive board confirmed that former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga, 63, is sole nominee for international lender's presidency.

"The Executive Directors of the World Bank today selected Ajay Banga as President of the World Bank for a five-year term beginning June 2, 2023," the bank said in a press statement.

In February, President Joe Biden announced that the US would be nominating Banga to lead the World Bank because he is 'well equipped' to lead the global institution at 'this critical moment in history'.

Russia alleges Ukraine of attempting drone strike on Kremlin with aim of killing Putin

The former Mastercard Inc. chief, Banga currently serves as Vice Chairman at General Atlantic.

He will take over from David Malpass on June 2, with a reform process already underway and growing demand for increased lending, including climate change.

It must be noted that the World Bank has been led by an American since its founding at the end of World War Two, while the International Monetary Fund has been led by a European. Banga, who was born in India and spent his early career there, has been a US citizen since 2007.

US President Biden congratulates Ajay Banga

US President Joe Biden congratulated Ajay Banga and said,''I want to congratulate Ajay Banga - my nominee for the next President of the World Bank - on his resounding approval by the Bank's Board of Governors.''

''Ajay Banga will be a transformative leader, bringing expertise, experience, and innovation to the position of World Bank President. And together with World Bank leadership and shareholders, he will help steer the institution as it evolves and expands to address global challenges that directly affect its core mission of poverty reduction-including climate change. Ajay will also be integral in bringing together the public and private sectors, alongside philanthropies, to usher in the fundamental changes in development finance that this moment requires,''Biden said.

''I look forward to working with Ajay in his new role and to supporting his efforts to transform the World Bank, which remains one of humanity's most critical institutions to reduce poverty and expand prosperity around the globe,'' he also said.

Who is Ajay Banga?

Ajay Banga is a business executive of Indian origin. He is the former CEO of Mastercard, a multinational financial services corporation. He was born in Pune, India, and later moved to the United States to pursue higher education. He has been recognized for his contributions to the business community and has been named one of Fortune's "World's 50 Greatest Leaders" and one of Barron's "World's Best CEOs."

Ajay Banga, a finance and banking veteran, was born into an Indian Army family with roots in Jalandhar, Punjab. However, he was raised in Pune, Maharashtra, where his father was stationed.

After studying economics at St. Stephen's College in Delhi, he went on to pursue his studies at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. He began his career in India, working at Nestle in 1981, followed by positions at Pesipco and Citigroup. Later, he became the President and CEO of Mastercard, a financial services company based in New York, for 12 years before retiring in December 2021.

At Mastercard, he facilitated the entry of 500 million unbanked individuals into the digital economy, prevented 19,000 layoffs during the pandemic, and spearheaded initiatives focused on climate, gender, and sustainable agriculture.

In 2014, he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York, where the two discussed India's growing influence in the American business community. In recognition of his dedication and contributions to the financial services sector, he was awarded a Padma Shri by the Indian President in 2016, the country's fourth highest civilian honor.
Why Queen Camilla will not wear the Kohinoor diamond for her coronation

Man arrested outside Buckingham Palace for throwing shotgun cartridges

International

oi-Deepika S

Days before King Charles III's coronation, a man was arrested outside the Buckingham Palace in London on Tuesday after he threw suspected shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds.

The arrest comes just days before King Charles III's coronation, which will be attended by 2,000 guests including foreign monarchs from across the world.

According to the police, a man approached the gates of Buckingham Palace at around 7:00 pm BST and threw a number of items, suspected to be shotgun cartridges into the Palace grounds.

"Officers worked immediately to detain the man and he has been taken into police custody. There have been no reports of any shots fired, or any injuries to officers or members of the public. Officers remain at the scene and further inquiries are ongoing," Met Police chief superintendent Joseph McDonald said in a statement.

"The man has been arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon after he was searched and a knife was found. He was not in possession of a firearm. Cordons were in place after the man was also found to be in possession of a suspicious bag," the police statement said.

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"Specialists attended and following an assessment a controlled explosion was conducted as a precaution. We are not treating the matter as terror-related and there were no reports of any shots fired or injuries to officers or the public," it added.

The coronation of Charles III is set to take place on Saturday, May 6. King Charles, 74, took over the throne in September 2022 after the death of his mother and Britain's longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

The ceremony will be celebrated countrywide including a star-studded concert at Windsor Castle that is set to kickstart the King's official reign as sovereign.

Thousands of ceremonial troops is expected to take part in a procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey as part of the coronation, amid huge crowd.
Russia alleges Ukraine of attempting drone strike on Kremlin with aim of killing Putin

Russia accuses US of being behind Kremlin drone attack

On camera: Video shows moment of drone strike on Kremlin

International

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Russian authorities accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attempting to attack the Kremlin with two drones overnight.

A statement on the Kremlin's website said debris from the unmanned aerial vehicles fell on the grounds of the seat of Russia's government but did not cause any damage.

A video published overnight on a local Moscow news Telegram channel, which appeared to have been shot across the river from the Kremlin, showed what looked like smoke rising over the Kremlin.

According to the text accompanying the video, residents of a nearby apartment building reported hearing bangs and seeing smoke at around 2:30 a.m. local time (7:30 p.m. Eastern.) It was impossible to independently verify the posted footage.

Incredible footage of what Russia says was Ukraine's attempt to kill Putin in a drone strike last night pic.twitter.com/1XiwCbC4lI  max seddon (@maxseddon) May 3, 2023

The Kremlin decried the alleged attack attempt as a "terrorist act" and said Russian military and security forces disabled the drones before they could strike. It said no damage or casualties took place, and didn't provide any other details.

Russia alleges Ukraine of attempting drone strike on Kremlin with aim of killing Putin

The Kremlin added that President Vladimir Putin was safe and continued to work with his schedule unchanged.
At least 14 people were killed in Kenya after being attacked in their sleep by Al Shabaab gunmen in Kenya. The militants carried out attack on a residential complex in the town of Mandera in northeast Kenya. Al Shabaab has carried out a series of deadly attacks into Kenya, saying it will continue until Nairobi withdraws troops from an African Union force fighting the militants in Somalia.
Suicide bomb blast on sunday in a crowded park in Lahore in Pakistan`s Punjab province has claimed the lives of 72 people so far and injured over 233. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has arrived in the city along with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to take stock of the situation on ground.
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. The population of the Belgrade metropolitan area is 1,681,405 according to the 2022 census. It is the third most populous city on the Danube river.
El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. The country's population in 2023 was estimated to be 6.5 million.
Global Affairs says two Canadians have been in Ukraine as tributes pour in for the men who were from Ontario and Alberta.
First version published at 19:15

BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov met with National Security Advisor to the US President Jake Sullivan during a working visit to the US, the Minister of Foreign Affairs told Trend.

Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan also took part in the meeting, where the main discussions were devoted to the process of normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

During the meeting, Bayramov noted that Azerbaijan, as the initiator of the main elements of the peace process with Armenia, is interested in establishing peace and stability in the region.

He also highlighted the importance of signing a peace agreement and added that it is important for Armenia to abandon steps against the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The minister also pointed out that the reintegration of Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan is an internal issue of the country, and the interference of the opposite side in this issue is unacceptable.

As Bayramov said, the source of a serious threat is that, despite the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, as well as the obligations assumed by Armenia, the Armenian Armed Forces have not yet been completely withdrawn from the territory of Azerbaijan.

In turn, Sullivan said that the American side is interested in ensuring peace and stability in the region, and the successful conclusion of negotiations on a peace agreement.
France and Japan have signed a nuclear cooperation agreement in Paris, the French ministry said on Wednesday. The joint declaration pledges to deepen and accelerate ties in the
While Sydney will mark the coronation with little fanfare, Australians are encouraged to throw a democracy snag on the barbie as an alternative to pledging allegiance to the British King.
Sirul Azhar Umar, a former member of the security detail for Malaysian kings and PMs, has been detained in Sydney for eight years while facing the death penalty at home.
Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney along with Wrexham AFC's players and staff have celebrated their recent success with an open-top bus parade.
The United States is sending new military aid to Ukraine ahead of an anticipated spring counteroffensive. Meanwhile, Russian authorities have called to double missile production. DW has the latest.
Editor-in-Chief Oscar Martinez combats violence and corruption in El Salvador with investigative journalism. Deutsche Welle has awarded him the Freedom of Speech Award 2023.
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After two decades of turmoil people in Darfur, west Sudan, are scared of being targets once again.
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos request to suspend consultations on guidelines that would lower the price of pharmaceutical drugs has made it harder for the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board to make decisions going forward, a former board member told MPs Tuesday.
The troops will help US Border Patrol, but will not take part in law enforcement duties, the White House said. The decision comes as the US grapples with large numbers of migrants at the southern border.
SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, May 3. NATO promised Ukraine and Georgia 15 years ago to become member states. I remember that, I was present at the Bucharest NATO Summit, when Ukraine and Georgia were denied by some leaders of some leading European countries from the Membership Action Plan, said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev as he addressed the 4th international conference on Shaping the Geopolitics of the Greater Eurasia: from Past to Present to Future organized by ADA University to mark the 100th anniversary of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in Shusha.

But instead, it was announced that they will become a member. When? Nobody said. 15 years have passed. So, were there where they are. But we signed an agreement with the second NATO member state with respect to the potential of the army and this is serious. So, we always have chosen the paths of practical steps rather than declarations, which then did not transform into tangible results, the head of state added.
More than 100 people have been arrested in Germany, Spain and Italy after a three-year investigation into a powerful Italian mafia group.
Police in Europe has struck the infamous 'Ndrangheta mafia organization. The crime group is accused of smuggling cocaine and several other offences.
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro denied taking a COVID-19 vaccine after police raided his home. Authorities said falsified COVID documents allowed himself and others to skirt restrictions in the US and Brazil.
A controversial floating barge set to house around 500 male asylum seekers is expected to arrive in the UK in the coming days.
India's 'Operation Kaveri' has successfully evacuated nearly 3,000 Indians who were stranded in Sudan due to clashes between the army and paramilitary forces. The 12th flight under the operation, carrying 231 Indian evacuees, departed from Jeddah for Mumbai while another 'Operation Kaveri' flight carrying 231 Indian evacuees arrived in Gujarat's Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
The Biden administration is proposing to tighten security around eight new military installations by requiring a close review of nearby property transactions.
A proposal by Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature would impose daily fines ranging from $600 to $10,000 on hospitals that fail to comply with federal cost transparency regulations.
A shot was fired at a Memphis television station on Tuesday, but no one was wounded, the station said. WHBQ, the Fox affiliate in Tennessees second-largest city, reported that the shot was fired at about 11:30 a.m. and the bullet came down outside the front door of the lobby of the building,



#tennessee #universityofmemphis
SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, May 3. We always were supportive to the plans of our neighbors across the Caspian to use Azerbaijan infrastructure for their exports, said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev as he addressed the 4th international conference on Shaping the Geopolitics of the Greater Eurasia: from Past to Present to Future organized by ADA University to mark the 100th anniversary of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in Shusha.

By the way for many years, oil from Turkmenistan is being shipped through Azerbaijan, through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. I can tell you that maybe you don't know. But even Russian oil, part of Russian oil, which Russia is producing in the Caspian is being shipped through Azerbaijan to Ceyhan. And as far as I remember, it's about more than 2 million tons per year, something about close to 2.5 million tons per year of Russian oil, which goes to Ceyhan. So, these are all, you know, commercial issues. And I think that we should not look for some geopolitical changes, some political preferences. You know if Russia decides to ship its oil through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan because it's more beneficial, of course, they will do it. So, today we are a transit country for oil from Russia, from Turkmenistan, from Kazakhstan. If the volume of oil grows, we will be only happy. Who would not like to have more transit fees? the head of state noted.
The Australian military has conducted top-secret war-gaming exercises, with such scenarios as China setting up a military base in a South Pacific nation, while examining its defense posture, Australias media reported.



The exercises, described in a classified version of the Australian governments defense strategy...
Jessica Leeds recounted the alleged attack while testifying in the writer E Jean Carroll's rape and defamation lawsuit against the ex-president. Leeds told Manhattan's federal court that Trump put his hand up her skirt in the business class section of a flight to New York in 1978 or 1979.
A four-day manhunt in Texas for a gunman accused of killing five neighbors ended Tuesday not far from the site of the shooting when authorities, acting on a
President Joseph Biden has done what many from his own party dreaded but dare not say. Last month, via a painful video, the aged Democrat declared his candidacy for a second term in the White House, branding himself a defender of US democracy. For a politician lacking the mettle of competence, awareness, and, at certain...
Brazilian police on Wednesday raided former President Jair Bolsonaro's home and seized his cell phone as part of an investigation into his Covid-19 vaccination records.
Eurasia Review 08 May 2023

By Nike Ching



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Revlon Inc. emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday, as a privately held company with new owners, reduced debt and a new..
Rumble 09 May 2023

friday Pete Santilli source told him cartels would be partnering with biden admin to fan up terror on the border. title 42 is..
Chennai: Fans of Karthi, flew in from Japan to watch his latest release 'Ponniyin Selvan 2' with Tamil audiences. The gracious actor went above and beyond by welcoming them into his home and spending time with them, providing an unforgettable experience for his international fans.

After their visit, Karthi took the time to meet and interact with his fans. Pictures of the actor with his international fans have been circulating on social media.

when @Karthi_Offl's Japanese fans visited Chennai. They travelled to Chennai to watch PS2 since they adored #Karthi in Kaithi! Additionally, they have seen PS1 numerous times. Very intriguing. pic.twitter.com/GI8ylTuDkU  Chennai Memes (@MemesChennai) May 1, 2023

Trade Analyst Ramesh Bala shared several photos on Twitter, captioning them: "#PonniyinSelvan | After #Rajini it's for #Karthi!! Karthi fans from Japan came to Chennai to watch #PonniyinSelvan2 with the Tamil audience. Apparently, they watched the movie about four times and also had the opportunity to meet actor Karthi at his residence."

In the Mani Ratnam directorial, Karthi plays the character Vandhiyathevan. The star-studded cast includes Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Trisha, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Vikram, Jayam Ravi, and Sobhita Dhulipala, among others.

(With IANS inputs)
SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, May 3. Attack on our embassy was a deliberate, organized act of terror in order to kill our diplomats and members of their families. Because in that building, not only we have embassy but also apartments and family lives there. And we have security officers in several countries, but only in Iran they were not allowed to carry weapons, said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev as he addressed the 4th international conference on Shaping the Geopolitics of the Greater Eurasia: from Past to Present to Future organized by ADA University to mark the 100th anniversary of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in Shusha.

So, our security officers were with empty hands and the person who broke in he had Kalashnikov, and he started to shoot immediately, immediately killed and wounded two of them and only one brave officer with empty hands disarmed him and pushed him back. But for 40 minutes there was no police, no security officers, nothing. For 40 minutes, he was trying to get back, he was shooting with Kalashnikov, he used the hammer. He came with a hammer, and by the way, he came with Molotov cocktail and he broke the door with a hammer and entered again the building and again the same wounded officer, how to say, disarmed him and pushed him back. Then, he approaches, because we have external camera, internal camera definitely, approaches the police, puts down Kalashnikov, also he was using this Molotov. So, how can that be non-organized? the head of state emphasized.
New Delhi: India brought back home a total of 231 people on Wednesday under its mission, Operation Kaveri to evacuate stranded Indians from strife-torn Sudan.

The Indians arrived in Mumbai in a commercial flight.

"Another #OperationKaveri flight brings citizens back home. Flight carrying 231 passengers lands in Mumbai," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted.

The Indians were brought back home from the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah where India set up a transit camp for the evacuees.

Under 'Operation Kaveri', India has been taking its citizens in buses from conflict zones of Khartoum and other troubled areas to Port Sudan from where they are being taken to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah in Indian Air Force's (IAF) heavy-lift transport aircraft and Indian Navy's ships.

From Jeddah, the Indians are being brought back home in either commercial flight or IAF's aircraft.

On Tuesday, 231 Indians arrived in Ahmedabad while another batch of 328 citizens were brought to New Delhi.

328 more passengers have landed in New Delhi. #OperationKaveri moving steadily forward as around 3000 have reached India now. pic.twitter.com/sHSbEIXsws  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 2, 2023

India brought back 186 people on Monday under the evacuation mission that was launched over a week back.

On Sunday, 229 Indians arrived in Bengaluru while 365 people reached Delhi on Saturday.

Under the evacuation mission, 754 people arrived in India in two batches on Friday.

The total number of Indians who were brought back home now stands at 2,930, according to official data.

The first batch of 360 evacuees returned to New Delhi in a commercial plane on last Wednesday.

The second batch of 246 Indian evacuees arrived in Mumbai in a C17 Globemaster aircraft of the IAF on Thursday.

(With PTI inputs)
It would appear the Health Care debate will continue with no clear cut resolution any time soon. This is unfortunate given the number of people who are precariously perched on a precipice awaiting their fate. This is even more unfortunate when one recognizes that there is really no Health Care problem. We Americans have wonderful Health Care. We just don't have access to it for everyone, and many of those who have access cannot afford it.

Access and affordability are the stumbling blocks that make this tricky. A large portion of the country believe that access and affordable health care are a right. A similar portion of the country believe that health care is available to the healthy and those whose income can support its purchase. No real sound explanation for those who are already sick or hurt, and those that are either unemployed or underemployed. And we can completely forget about the healthy, yet unemployed children. But let's put that argument aside for the moment.

Even if we someday agreed that health care is a right"perhaps part of that "Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness" thing, we are still stuck attempting resolving the affordability thing.

This issue will also not be resolved soon, as long as those making the decisions are resolute in their opinion that this marketplace must be governed by free enterprise capitalism. After all, competition is what controls spending and pricing, so quite naturally this approach is mandatory. Except that it isn't!

There are societal functions that are too important to be left to Free Market Capitalism. I don't want to depend on a Free Market Fire Department, Police Department or the US Military. These are important functions of our government that cannot and should not be privatized for obvious reasons. Depending upon a Board of Directors regarding whose house to save when a fire occurs is a horrifying thought.

To be clear, I worked in the Free Market System for 45 years. I am a declared fan of Capitalism. I am currently retired depending in part on a "Non-Funded" Deferred Compensation plan that my company provided, for my retirement income. I was delighted to make contributions to this plan, understanding that it was not currently being funded by the company. I am dependent upon that company to make money so that I may receive that income. I need them to make decisions that favor the company and therefore"me.

However, that rational does not necessarily apply when it comes to treating the sick and the injured. In my 45 years in the corporate world I don't recall ever being aware of any decision that was made by a Corporate Board or a vote of the Stockholders, that wasn't in favor of doing something that was good for the company and therefore good for the Stockholders"never! No ballot that I was aware of, ever asked the Stockholders to make a decision about what was good for the country. And that's OK. That is what they are supposed to do.

When we employ Corporations to administer our Health Care funding, should we expect anything different? They will do what they are supposed to do. Take care of the Stockholders. It is important to acknowledge that Insurance Companies in general provide no tangible product. They perform a service. They receive premiums from a very large number of people and distribute that money to a smaller amount of people who happen to be sick or injured. That's it. Along the way of course they collect a "fee" for the service. They certainly are entitled to be paid for that service.

They are also quite justified in employing an exclusion to coverage for pre-existing conditions. Property and Casualty companies don't insure houses that are already on fire. It's the same with Car Insurance. Insurance Companies by definition are supposed to insure for unforeseen events not those that already exist. The absolute necessity of caring for any and everyone who is sick or injured precludes insurance companies from participating. Their stockholders demand that they price their services in such a way as to yield a revenue stream that favors the Stockholder. This means keeping a watchful eye on claims. This leads to determining who gets coverage, who is really in need of care and determining the kind of care that, in their opinion is best.

Which is precisely why Insurance Companies cannot be involved in America's Health Care System?

Once we decide that Health Care is a right, and I hope that's soon, we can then argue as to who has the best program. England, Canada, or any of the other (meaning all of the Democracies in the Western World, and some not so Democratic). Or should we simply expand Medicare for all? For now I will leave that discussion to those far smarter than me.

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Hitler's Jurassic Park



The Bia?owie?a Forest today

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Poland's Bialowieza Forest is the last remaining tract of primeval woods that once covered all of Europe. With the Crazies now in charge, Poland wants to do some strip mining and logging in there. This continent-wide Urwald, or primeval forest, was destroyed by the Roman Empire and its successor states. They used up wood at an alarming rate. On the march, Roman armies built a wooden fort every night against enemies that excelled in night fighting and ambushes. In North Africa massive shipbuilding and architectural programs caused deforestation all the way from Egypt to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. This was once the habitat for the Asian elephant, a species now confined to India and Southeast Asia. Hannibal famously used them as mounted shock troops 2000 years ago. They are all long gone as deforestation changed a moderate North Africa climate into the desert we see today. In Europe, the alteration of the Urwald permanently transformed the structures and attitudes of its people. Hunter-gatherers became farmers. Two thousand years later in the conflict we call World War I, the German Army violated the last pocket of the Urwald. They hunted the European Bison (Bison bonasus) to extinction. They left only nine of them alive. The last one was killed in 1921 by poachers. Only 48 remained held by zoos. At the same time, the North America Bison (Bison bison) was down to 541 specimens.



Once extinct in the wild, Bison romp in the Bia?owie?a Forest

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In the 2nd phase of the war, one now called World War II; the German Army recaptured the place once again. Herman Goering, who was Minister of Forestry (Reichsforstamt) went about restoring the European Bison that had gone extinct in the wild.



Herman Goering with Lord Halifax

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Through captive breeding they were reintroduced and still thrive. The standard story is that Goering wanted a big hunting preserve for himself and his pals. What he really wanted was to re-create of the habitat that, according to Nordic legend, supported der Ubermensch: the primeval Aryan.

The Aryan Creation Myth

Interestingly there are some similarities between the Nordic and Judeo-Christian creation legends. In both, there was a time in the remote past when people had super-human powers and were immortal. Adam and Eve, the legendary proto-humans; had all the powers of God except one physical/material limitation. They existed in a perfect world, warm and lush, one so friendly they didn't need clothes. And why would they? They were invulnerable. The proto-Aryan Higher Human (der Ubermensch) lived in a harsh northern mountainous environment that hardened him through the struggle for existence. Then there was a fall from grace for both. For Adam and his silly wife, the descent was an unwillingness to obey God's law and resist the moral and spiritual temptations of materialism. Punished with mortality, their descendants could only find redemption through personal righteousness and the advent of the Messiah: The Redeemer. For der Ubermensch, the fall was external through the intermixing of impure blood from der Untermensch; beings that looked human but weren't. Their true abode was deep within the darkness of the underground and not in the shining light of the Aryan race's mystical home among the cold white mountains of the north. For Aryan ideologues, deliverance was not on an individual level but could only come when the physical manifestation of the Aryan race, (der Volkskorper) was purified. Der Volkskorper was proposed as an actual living organism, the sum total of all its individual human parts. Its transformation would be species wide: when die Untermenschen were driven from Europe the Aryan race would be mystically, magically and instantly transformed as a single conscious sentient being. This is why Nazi Germany's political decisions often don't make sense to the rational mind.

Heck cattle & horses

Lutz Heck was the curator of the Berlin Zoo that once held native Africans in a caged exhibit. Herman Goering, who was Germany's Master of the Hunt (Huntmeister), wanted Heck to restore the Auroch (Bos primigenius); also called the Urus that once thrived in the entire Urwald out to Asia and North Africa.



The extinct Auroch 30,000 years ago

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It was a wild oxen species somewhat similar to the Texas Longhorn but bigger. Hunted to extinction by loss of habitat, the last recorded Urus died in 1627. Using Longhorns and other wild species, Heck recreated a creature that resembled the Urus called Heck cattle.



Heck Cattle today

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He also fashioned a breed of horses that looked a lot like the extinct Tarpan (Equus ferus ferus) that once roamed the Urwald. The last Tarpan died in Russian captivity in 1909.



The only known photograph of the European wild horse

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Heck wanted to back-breed the Tarpan. He mixed horse breeds that resembled the extinct horse; the Polish Konik, the Icelandic Horse and the Gottland Russ. He then mated them with a Mongolian breed called the Przewalski horse (Equus ferus przewalskii) also called the Takhi or Mongolian wild horse. Rode by Genghis Khan's hordes to the gates of Vienna it is now an endangered species



The Mongolian wild horse

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The new breeds Heck created still exist. They are named The Heck and are healthy animals.



Heck horses today

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Goering stocked the primeval forest with them. Pity the human inhabitants; forest dwellers, armed Jewish familial clans, solitary Jews, Red partisans, vagabonds and Roma clans; all mercilessly hunted down and killed. With Nazi Germany in a titanic life and death struggle versus practically the entire world, one might wonder why so many resources were spent on projects like this. This was a major military action far away from any major theater of operations. After all, the Bialowieza Forest is over 1000 square miles. It took thousands of soldiers and airmen years to drive every human inhabitant out of it, and why? For hard-core Nazi ideologues, the newly created Urwald with its reintroduced animal fauna would set the geological and ecological foundations for the re-emerged Ubermensch, a man that would have the power of 1000 ordinary men; hence the translation of Ubermensch as Superman. The Nordic primeval Mensch would have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Anticipating Rupert Sheldrake's morphic resonance, Nazi ideologues felt his emergence would initiate an immediate species-wide transmutation within the Nordic race. The Ubermensch would thus win the war and establish Nordic supremacy in a world without end. It didn't work out that way. Two years later the Red Army was in Berlin and Goering a suicide. Hitler went and disappeared. No trace of him was ever found.

Notes:

Christopher R. Browning, Nazi Policy, Jewish Workers, German Killers, (2000), p.48.

The Holocaust was a watershed event in human history-the most extreme case of genocide that has yet occurred. What distinguishes it from other genocides are two factors; first the totality and scope of intent-that is the goal of killing every last Jew, man, woman and child, throughout the reach of the Nazi empire; and second, the means employed-namely the harnessing of the administrative/bureaucratic and technological capacities of the modern nation state and western scientific culture. It is precisely these elements that define the singularity of the Holocaust and distinguish the Nazi Final Solution in its ultimate form from the regime's prior policies of population decimation, genocide and even the systematic and total mass murder of all Soviet-as opposed to all European-Jewry. It is not a trivial historical question to ask when Hitler and the Nazi regime passed the point of no return and committed themselves to a vision of murdering all the Jews of Europe through the most modern and efficient methods available to it.

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen , Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust, (1996). Goldhagen sees the entire German nation as being "of one mind" with Hitler on anti-Semitism. For a review of the literature see Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion101 and the Final Solution in Poland, (1998), pp.191-223. Browning: The fundamental problem is to explain why ordinary men-shaped by a culture that had its own peculiarities, but was nonetheless within the mainstream of western, Christian and Enlightenment traditions-under specific circumstances willingly carried out the most extreme genocide in human history"It would be very comforting if Goldhagen were correct, that very few societies have the long-term, cultural-cognitive prerequisites to commit genocide, and that regimes can only do so when the population is overwhelmingly of one mind about its priority, justice and necessity. We would live in a safer world if he were right but I am not so optimistic. I fear that we live in a world where war and racism are ubiquitous, in which the powers of government mobilization and legitimization are powerful and increasing, in which a sense of personal responsibility is increasingly attenuated by specialization and bureaucratization, and in which the peer group exerts tremendous pressures on behavior and sets moral norms. In such a world, I fear, modern governments that wish to commit mass murder will seldom fail in their efforts for being unable to induce "ordinary men" to become their "willing executioners."

Philip W. Blood, Birds of Prey - Hitler's Luftwaffe, Ordinary Soldiers, and the Holocaust in Poland (2021) Clearing the Bialowieza Forest was a major military operation

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke , The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology (1986)

Joscelyn Godwin, ARKTOS: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism & Nazi Survival (1996)

Moses, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1&2

Joachim Radkau, Wood: A History (2012)

David Barrowclough, Digging for Hitler: The Nazi Archaeologists Search for an Aryan Past (2016)

Cis van Vuure, Retracing the Aurochs - History, Morphology and Ecology of an extinct wild Ox (2005)

Lorimer, J. & Driessen, C. "Back Breeding the Aurochs: The Heck Brothers, National Socialism, and Imagined Geographies for Non-Human Lebensraum". In Giaccaria, P. & Minca, C. (eds.). Hitler's Geographies: The Spatialities of the Third Reich. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 138-158 (2016)

Heather Pringle, The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust (2007)

Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, The Morning of the Magicians: Secret Societies, Conspiracies, and Vanished Civilizations (2008)

Agence France-Presse (12 September 2010). "Logging spells danger for Europe's last primeval forest."

John Henry Egan, "Hitler's Soulmate" Click Here

Hitler disappeared. They say he committed suicide in Berlin on April 30th, 1945. Some say cyanide. Others say a Luger shot in the mouth. There are no pictures of his body. They say he and Eva were cremated with kerosene. You can burn a human body outdoors with kerosene for days and it won't turn to ash. Flying a single-engined Fi-156 Storch two-seater, Nazi test-pilot Hanna Reitsch flew into Berlin and visited Hitler on April 26th. She flew out again on the 29th. They say Hitler stayed behind and bit into the black capsule the next afternoon. Both Stalin and Field Marshall Zhukov regretfully told the Americans that Hitler had escaped Berlin. No trace of him was ever found.

(Article changed on May 03, 2023 at 4:13 AM EDT)
Pakistani Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar has suggested that Pakistan must stop maintaining a "middle ground" between China and the United States.

This came in her leaked internal memo she titled "Pakistan's difficult choices."

The document, among a trove of US secrets, leaked online through the Discord messaging platform, provide a rare glimpse into the private calculations by key emerging powers, including India, Brazil, Pakistan and Egypt, as they attempt to straddle allegiances in an era when America is no longer the world's unchallenged superpower.

Khar cautioned that Islamabad should avoid giving the appearance of appeasing the West, and said the instinct to preserve Pakistan's partnership with the United States would ultimately sacrifice the full benefits of what she deemed the country's "real strategic" partnership with China.

The undated intelligence document does not detail how the United States gained access to Khar's memo.

Another document, dated Feb 17, describes Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's deliberations with a subordinate about upcoming UN vote on Ukrain conflict and what the government anticipated would be renewed Western pressure to back a resolution condemning Russia's invasion.

The aide advised Sharif that support for the measure would signal a shift in Pakistan's position following its earlier abstention on similar resolution, the intelligence document says.

Pakistani officials, according to the US news outlet, have refused to comment on the matter.

On India, one more leaked document indicated that the country's National Security Adviser Ajit Kumar Doval had earlier assured his Russian counterpart Nikolay Patrushev of New Delhi's support for Moscow "in multilateral venues, also singling out India's reluctance to support the Western-backed UN resolution over Ukraine."

Matias Spektor, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was quoted as saying that developing nations are recalibrating at a moment when America faces potent new competition, as China projects new economic and military clout and Russia, though weakened by President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, demonstrates its ability to deflect Western pressure.

"It's unclear who will end up in a pole position in 10 years' time, so they need to diversify their risk and hedge their bets," Spektor said.
The war in Ukraine was planned to extend to Syria. Leaked secret documents revealed the Ukrainian military were planning to attack Russian troops stationed in Syria in an effort to distract Russia and cause losses and casualties far from the battlefield in eastern Europe.

Jack Teixeira, a young member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested by the FBI in the investigation of leaked classified military intelligence, which were viewed on the Discord chat platform.

Among the documents were details of the planning and assessment of attacks on Russian military capabilities in Syria, to be carried out by the US military partner there, the SDF.

The SDF control the northeast quarter of Syria and the troops are made up of about one-third Kurds and two-thirds Arab tribal members. The Kurdish semi-autonomous region in Syria was created by the US alliance with the Communist administration of the Kurds under Ilham Ahmed and General Mazloum Abdi.

The area the US-Kurdish alliance controls is not populated by a majority of Kurds, but the Kurds do represent a sizable ethnic population. Once they became financially and militarily supported by the US, the Kurds were able to carry out a program of ethnic cleansing that displaced the original inhabitants from their homes, lands and businesses.

The SDF working alongside the US occupation forces in Syria were planned to be supplied with drones and other equipment to attack the Russian troops in Syria. The Russian airbase on the coast in Latakia was cited to be attacked as well as other areas.

The Ukrainian military intelligence had planned the attacks in Syria, using the US-allied paramilitary force the SDF, for the purpose of opening a second front in the war with Russia. The planning strategized that Russia would be distracted by attacks on its forces in Syria, and become weaker in their military capabilities.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, a former TV comedian, cancelled the operations while still in the planning stages.

The Russian military was invited into Syria in October 2015, when the terrorist group Jibhat al-Nusra was at its height and threatened to over-run the coastal region. After the Russian military arrived in Syria, the Russian forces alongside the Syrian Arab Army were successful in pushing the terrorists back. Today, the central government in Damascus controls almost all of Syria with the exception of the Kurdish region previously described, and the small province of Idlib in the northwest that is under the occupation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the current name of Jibhat al-Nusra. Mohammed al-Julani is in control of Idlib. He started off in Iraq with Al Qaeda, then was sent to Syria by the leader of ISIS, and finally is holding about 3 million civilian hostages in Idlib, while being supplied with humanitarian aid by the US, UN, EU, and other charities.

The Russian presence in Syria today can be termed a peace-keeping mission. They still attack ISIS and terrorist positions, but most of their presence is in holding the peace between the Kurds and their sworn enemy, Turkey. If it was not for the Russian military presence in Syria, Turkey would have invaded even further into the Kurdish region, and there could have been massacres.

Russia has a working relationship with Syria, Iran and Turkey, and has been negotiating for a peaceful settlement to the Syrian crisis.

Turkey had been an US ally, but has felt betrayed by the US support of the Kurdish paramilitary SDF, which consists of the core military group YPG, which is aligned with the PKK, a terrorist group responsible for about 30,000 deaths over decades.

Had the Ukrainian plan to attack Russians in Syria been carried out, the response could have been a joint Turkish-Russian military operation against the Kurds, which could have resulted in US military deaths or injuries, and would likely have ended with the US occupation forces withdrawal to Iraq.

If Zelenskyy hadn't stopped the plans, Syria could have regained the north-east quarter from the Kurds, and Turkey could have vanquished the SDF and YPG. That would then leave Idlib and the terrorists sitting on the border without their US supporters. It could have resulted in Idlib's terrorist occupiers fleeing under cover of darkness, and the 3 million hostages being set free after more than a decade of captivity.

Under the plan, the SDF asked for protection that they would not be revealed as the source of the planned attacks on the Russian military in Syria, and instead make it appear that the US-protected terrorists holding Idlib would be blamed.

Turkey has military troops occupying Idlib, and should the plan have been carried out, Russia could have attacked Idlib as the source of the planned attacks, and this would have been a direct confrontation between Turkey and Russia on Syrian soil.

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Clashes have been going on in Sudan for more than ten days between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support forces and corpses fill the streets. All attempts at a truce have so far failed. The clashes involved all types of light, medium and heavy weapons until military aviation was used.

The major regional and international countries are working to find a way out of this crisis, but all have failed. But Sudan, like all countries, suffers from crises of external interference in general, and American intervention has a big role in crises, especially since Sudan is rich in natural resources such as oil, gold, and others, so we see a major international conflict over Sudan.

The interest of the United States of America

The United States seeks to prevent the strengthening of Russia in Africa, disrupt the Russian logistics base project in the Red Sea and, if possible, weaken the sovereignty of Egypt and Ethiopia, in this context, they are quite satisfied with the Civil War, and the United States will do everything possible for its continuation and spread to the entire region in the future. According to information, representatives of the United States are already negotiating with paramilitary groups in the Amhara region of Ethiopia to participate in the conflict along with Hamidti for 140 million dollars.

Un: 60% of health facilities in Khartoum are closed

For his part, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN secretary-general, said that 60% of health facilities in Khartoum are closed due to the ongoing battles between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support forces.

The UN spokesman added that the closure of hospitals has disrupted the treatment of almost 50 thousand children suffering from acute malnutrition.

At the same time, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan said that the fighting does not allow them to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the new humanitarian needs, adding: "Unfortunately, the fighting continues despite the multiple declarations on the ceasefire.

A few days ago, the UN coordinator said that many humanitarian supplies have been looted in Sudan, noting that access to health services in Sudan is almost impossible due to the fighting.

Saudi-German talks on Sudan.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan discussed on Thursday with his German counterpart "Annalena Bearbock" the "accelerated developments of events in Sudan".

According to the Saudi Press Agency, "was", the two ministers stressed the importance of stopping the military escalation, providing the necessary protection for Sudanese civilians and residents on its territory, and providing safe humanitarian corridors for those wishing to leave Sudanese territory. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has also sent barges to transport its nationals and nationals of many Arab and foreign countries.

China-Sudan relations decline

China-Sudan relations were very developed, as Sudan was the sixth largest exporter of oil to China, and the volume of trade exchange between the two countries reached 11 billion dollars, but after the secession of South Sudan in 2011, which contains 75% of oil production in Sudan, Sudan's oil importance declined for Beijing, but trade and economic cooperation remained between the two countries, and there are 130 Chinese companies in Sudan.

After the fall of the regime of President Bashir in 2019, who was described as a friend of the Chinese people, relations deteriorated further, and the new Sudanese leaders could not build trust and cooperation with Beijing, and the issue of Chinese debt to Sudan and the latter's default was another obstacle to relations between the two countries. The issue of Chinese debt scheduling was the focus of the Chinese President's meeting with his Sudanese counterpart on the sidelines of the Arab-Chinese Summit held in Riyadh last year.

China's interest in Sudan comes as part of its interest in the African continent, as the volume of trade exchange between China and the African continent reached 280 billion dollars in 2022, while the trade exchange between the continent and America did not exceed 80 billion dollars during the same year.

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The Gerry-Mander Edit.

(Image by Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org), Author: Elkanah Tisdale (1771-1835) (often falsely attributed to Gilbert Stuart)[1]) Details Source DMCA



"When it had a Democratic majority last year," the New York Times reports, more than 200 years after the Boston Gazette decried Massachusetts state Senator Elbridge Gerry's district as a sprawling, curving salamander-shaped monstrosity, "the North Carolina Supreme Court voided the state's legislative and congressional maps as illegal gerrymanders. Now the court has a Republican majority, and says the opposite."

I'm shocked -- SHOCKED! -- to hear that a change of partisan composition on a court has resulted in partisan changes to the partisan content of that court's rulings on partisan political matters.

The drawing of legislative districts across America is a never-ending partisan war. As the Forward Party's platform points out, "over 80% of Congressional districts are considered 'safe' seats -- they are either clearly Republican or clearly Democratic, leading to a reelection rate over 90%."

That's not a side effect. It's the intent. Legislative majorities draw districts to guarantee that they'll REMAIN legislative majorities. Legislative minorities then go to court begging for rulings that give them majorities, or at least increase their minority numbers.

While those majorities and minorities often have demographic components -- black vs. white, urban vs. rural, etc. -- the components are generally subsumed into the simpler identifier of party affiliation.

The Forward Party's proffered solutions are to "[i]mplement independent or non-partisan redistricting commissions" and pass federal legislation making it illegal to gerrymander by "packing" particular voter types into, or "cracking" them between, districts to benefit one party.

While I like the way the Forward Party thinks on the matter of gerrymandering, neither of those solutions will end gerrymandering, for two reasons.

One is that "independent" and "non-partisan" are meaningless terms. They just mean the party affiliations of the contemplated commissions' members wouldn't be publicly advertised, not that those affiliations wouldn't exist. Anyone who lives in a town with "non-partisan" local elections knows what parties the mayor and council members belong to. Not mentioning a fact doesn't change the fact.

Another is that the federal law in question would -- like the North Carolina law mentioned above -- be interpreted by party-affiliated judges.

There are three ways to fix gerrymandering.

The simplest would be to do away with "districts" altogether and elect all political representatives "at large." Every Floridian, for example, would get to vote to fill each seat in Florida's legislature. That would entail its own problems, but it would move the complexities from the administrative end to the campaigns' side of things.

The most obvious -- and I'm far from the first to suggest it -- is algorithmic districting: Have a computer draw districts of uniform population, taking no account whatsoever of any other factor (party affiliation, race, urban/rural, etc.). One person, one vote, no gaming of the system. Problem solved.

The third, and my preferred one, is to abandon political government, with its false claims of "representation," altogether. I sense, however, that most Americans aren't ready to go that far just yet.

Algorithmic districting is a distant second place solution, but it's better than gerrymandering, even gerrymandering falsely advertised as "independent" or "non-partisan."
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Eleven St. Charles Health System employees have filed a $2.5 million lawsuit alleging their rights to religious freedom were violated when the health system required them to be vaccinated for COVID-19.

Most of the healthcare workers named in the suit were placed on unpaid leave but later fired, some quit and others were outright fired.
SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, May 3. Now relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are on the lowest ever level. It is very difficult to predict whether they will remain on that level, whether they will go down or they will go up, said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev as he addressed the 4th international conference on Shaping the Geopolitics of the Greater Eurasia: from Past to Present to Future organized by ADA University to mark the 100th anniversary of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in Shusha.

It is very difficult to predict whether they will remain on that level, whether they will go down or they will go up. It's very difficult to predict. So, we got some communications from Iranian officials, some phone calls and other communications, proposals to normalize relations but definitely, as I said, our demands are absolutely legitimate and justified. If these demands are met, then we can talk about normalization. If not, then not. So, again, it was not our choice. But everybody in Iran, all segments of the establishment should finally understand that the language of threats and terror will not work with Azerbaijan. The soon they understand, the better we can see signs of normalization, the head of state noted.
The mission of the Portland Street Response team is to respond as a non-enforcement source for people experiencing homelessness and/or a mental health crisis. It is absolutely essential that these teams earn the trust of homeless individuals. Since when was their mission to respond when street sweeps are occurring? (Portland Street Response must assist homeless campers in crisis during sweeps, fire chief orders, April 11).

There is a total disconnect here. The Street Response team should not have been put under the management of Portlands fire bureau, should not have been instructed to help with street sweeps, should not have been prevented from giving out tents, and its members should not be put on leave when they speak honestly of the problems of top-down decision making, (Portland Street Response worker put on leave after talking to media, April 27). This is a needed, successful program. Make the changes for which team members advocate, or risk upcoming lawsuits.

Becky Tooley, Portland

To read more letters to the editor, go to oregonlive.com/opinion.
Chick-fil-A, a fast food chain known for its fried-chicken sandwiches, is working on opening its first location in Portland proper since a Lloyd Center location closed in 2003, according to permits filed with the City of Portland.

According to the permit, which is still pending, Chick-fil-A hopes to add facade and roof alterations, new landscaping areas and right-of-way dedications to the site, currently home to The Venue Gentlemans Club. The permit does not propose adding a drive-thru.

Chick-fil-A did not immediately respond to emails requesting more information.

This is unlikely to be a flagship downtown location along the lines of the just-opened Shake Shack. The Venue, which was the staging ground for protests arguing for equitable scheduling for Black dancers in June 2020, sits in the Hazelwood neighborhood just east of Interstate 205, only six minutes from Portland International Airport.

Changes to The Venue wont take place for at least a year, according to a representative reached by phone Wednesday. The club hopes to relocate once Chick-fil-A takes over.

The Hazelwood Chick-fil-A wont be the first in the Portland metro area. In 2016, the chain returned to Oregon with a Hillsboro outpost, setting up a potential culture clash between local LGBTQ activists and the company, which had opposed same-sex marriage through donations and statements made by CEO Dan T. Cathy.

In 2019, the company announced that it had stopped donating funds to two Christian charities.

The company currently operates eight Portland-area locations in Hillsboro, Beaverton, Clackamas, Gresham and Vancouver, Washington.

 Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com

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Cameron Call, Colleen Carroll and Rebekah Markillie

Call, Carroll, and Markillie are all tenants and volunteer organizers with Eviction Representation for All.

Measure 26-238 will reduce evictions and homelessness. Fifteen cities and states have enacted laws to provide legal representation to tenants, to curb displacement and save money. Evictions are enormously expensive. Shelter costs, loss of income, disruption of families and the gutting of communities all impose tremendous social and financial burdens on those of us least able to bear them.

Over 10,000 families have received eviction summons in Multnomah County since July 2021, but only 9% of them had legal representation, according to figures compiled by Portland State Universitys Center for Urban Studies. The other 91% of households had to navigate the stressful and complex legal process alone, against their landlord  who, more often than not, are represented by a lawyer. Landlords, but not tenants, are also allowed to hire non-lawyer eviction specialists to represent them in eviction court.

Evictions are often avoidable, if tenants have legal help to negotiate a reasonable agreement with their landlords or mount a defense against an illegal or discriminatory eviction attempt. Measure 26-238 aims to prevent evictions by combining early intervention, legal representation and emergency rental assistance. It intervenes before the court is involved, when fair negotiations and emergency rental assistance can keep people housed.

Kansas City and New York have spectacularly successful Right to Counsel programs that are reducing displacement by 80% and 84%, respectively. But without dedicated funding, staff are forced to take precious time away from serving tenants to fight over budgets every year. Detroits program missed its launch date due to lack of funding from city council, months after the original ordinance was passed. Passing an unfunded program all but guarantees that it will be underfunded and therefore less successful. Measure 26-238 includes a dedicated funding source to avoid time-consuming budget fights and to funnel resources directly to solving problems.

Eviction representation works but needs stable funding. The program would be funded by a miniscule capital gains tax at the local level, just 0.75%, or 75 cents per $100.

Capital gains are unearned income, realized on profits from sale of stocks, bonds and other investments. We do not want a tax that hits earned income, social security, 401(k), pension or IRA retirement accounts.

Local families, seniors and people of color are at greater risk of eviction than they are of paying a capital gains tax at the national level. The Oregon Center for Public Policy reports that households in the top 5% took home 85% of the capital gains in Oregon. And while many of us never see any capital gains, a tiny fraction of people make tons of money selling investments for massive profits. In 2020, the top-tenth of the top 1% averaged over $1.8 million in investment profits per person. A modest tax increase on the very wealthiest county residents would provide life-changing support to those of us who need it most.

Opponents argue the tax will affect primary home sales, but no one  not us, not the county commissioners and certainly not the people of Multnomah County  want this. The county commission can, and should, align the funding mechanism with the state tax code.

Tenants are leading the Yes on Measure 26-238 campaign because this is about our community and our homes. About half of Multnomah county residents are tenants, and half of us are spending more than a third of our income on rent. We organized this campaign because nobody knows our struggles better than us. A broad coalition of tenants, elected leaders, unions, homeless advocacy groups, faith groups, community organizations and racial justice advocates have united behind Measure 26-238. Thousands of everyday people have donated their time and money to the campaign. We are honored to have over 70 endorsements including: Multnomah County Democrats, Community Alliance of Tenants and the Urban League of Portland. For a full list, see our website at eratenants.org.

Join us and vote yes on Measure 26-238 - Eviction Representation for All.

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I didnt read the front page article in the The Oregonian/OregonLive about Portland Police getting body cameras, (Portland police body camera policy wins unanimous support from City Council, April 26). Why not? Because the article should have been in the paper - and the cameras on Portlands police officers - several years ago.

I am wondering two things. First, how would the protests in the city center have gone if the police had body cameras? Second, how long will it be before some major incident involving potentially improper police involvement cannot be investigated thoroughly because the body cameras of one or more of the officers involved either malfunctioned or were not turned on? I am hoping that the agreement which the Portland Police finally accepted contains strict, definite and severe punishments to the involved officers whenever that happens.

Richard Friedmar, Portland

To read more letters to the editor, go to oregonlive.com/opinion.
Shemia Fagan spent 12 years in and out of public office in Oregon, honing a reputation as a sharp-elbowed political brawler with impeccable left-of-center credentials that earned her the devotion  and campaign dollars  of the states king-making public employee unions.

Her professed commitment to the states civic virtue was so deep that in 2020, she had the word vote tattooed on her forearm with an outline of the state of Oregon standing in as the o.

On Tuesday, the 41-year-old Democrat resigned as secretary of state just five days after a story in Willamette Week touched off an avalanche of reporting about her work as a consultant for an embattled cannabis company run by two of her significant campaign donors. It was an unlikely end for a politician who was considered a rising star and a potential future governor or U.S. senator, after a meteoric rise from a seat on the David Douglas School Board.

For Melissa Unger, executive director of the powerful Service Employees International Union Local 503, which has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Fagans campaigns over the years, the turn in the secretary of states trajectory came as a surprise. But, she said, Fagans resignation was the correct call.

All Oregonians, all voters, should expect more of elected officials, Unger said. Our members have been supportive of Shemia because she prioritized issues like housing and income inequality. This is disappointing.

One day before her resignation, Fagan formally apologized for moonlighting as a consultant for an affiliate of the cannabis company La Mota, after signing a contract that brought her $10,000 a month plus the promise of $30,000 bonuses if she could help the company gain a foothold in states outside of Oregon and New Mexico. La Motas co-owner, Aaron Mitchell, has donated more than $45,000 to Fagan since fall of 2020. In an emotional news conference on Monday, Fagan said that the $77,000 a year she is paid as secretary of state was simply not enough to support her and her two children after going through a recent divorce.

In her nearly 2 1/2 years as secretary of state, Fagans political allegiances have been clear. For example, shes frustrated good governance advocates by rejecting several of their proposed ballot measure titles around campaign finance reform.

Fagan also chose a former senior official at the Democratic Party of Oregon as the states elections director and later put the same appointee in charge of an investigation into a misreported $500,000 donation to state Democrats from an executive at the now-disgraced cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

This is a very sad situation, said Jason Kafoury, an organizer with Honest Elections Oregon, one of the organizations that had hoped to put a measure that would have capped political contributions on the 2022 ballot, only to have Fagan disqualify it on a technicality. We impose oddly low compensation for elected officials, but then allow unlimited large political contributions and big money lobbyist influence. Thats a bad combination.

Fagan, who grew up in Dufur and The Dalles amid financial struggle, graduated from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2009 and immediately jumped into politics. She was a member, in the same year, of the inaugural class of Emerge Oregon, the campaign bootcamp for Democratic women that has a well connected network of alumnae around the state  and formerly had a co-founder of La Mota on its board.

She won her first elected position in 2011 as a member of the David Douglas School Board in east Portland at age 29.

In 2012, while still on the school board, she won a seat in the Oregon House, besting Republican incumbent Patrick Sheehan. She juggled both elected roles for months, before leaving the school board halfway through her term when her family moved into a new rental home outside of the district.

She spent two terms representing portions of Multnomah and Clackamas counties in the Oregon House before stepping down to focus on her legal career and young children. Her decision not to run again in 2016 drew some backlash because she made her announcement on the last day possible, ensuring that her preferred successor  state Rep. Janelle Bynum, another Emerge graduate  was in the pole position to run for her seat. In a twist, Bynums name has now surfaced as one of her potential successors as secretary of state.

Her return to Salem in 2019 was no less controversial. Fagan primaried a fellow Democrat, longtime state Sen. Rod Monroe, criticizing his lack of support for tenants rights. She won that election with enormous financial support from public employee unions and trial lawyers and proceeded to become a chief architect of Oregons landmark, first-in-the-nation statewide rent control bill, alongside new restrictions on evictions.

A year later, Fagan and other progressive Democrats were poised to support the bid of then-House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson to capture the partys nomination for secretary of state, against a more centrist candidate, then-State Sen. Mark Hass. But Williamson dropped out at the eleventh hour, after revelations about extensive overseas travel funded by her political action committee while in office. Fagan stepped into the breach, ultimately defeating Hass and a third Democrat, natural resources consultant Jamie McLeod-Skinner, in a bruisingly expensive primary. She then beat Republican state Sen. Kim Thatcher in November 2020, returning all statewide seats to Democratic control after a four-year stint in which the secretary of states seat was held by Republicans.

During her campaign for secretary of state, Fagan told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she would be cautious about turning away proposed ballot initiatives, in the interest of letting the public decide. But she has cited technicalities when eliminating a number of proposals that could have proved unpopular with her Democratic colleagues, including a school choice measure that she said addressed more than a single subject and all three 2022 initiatives that would have capped donations for all state elections and shed new light on who is behind political advertising. (She has since said that she is personally in favor of campaign finance reform, though she would carve out exceptions to donation limits for political action committees that raise their money via small donations from many individuals, an approach favored by unions.)

Fagan based her rejection of the campaign finance proposals on an obscure legal precedent that previous secretaries of state had bypassed; she did not publicly announce that she would apply the precedent and her rejection caught supporters of contribution limits and donor transparency off guard. Proponents of the proposals have since regrouped and hope to get the measures onto the 2024 ballot, said Norman Turrill with the League of Women Voters; he added that he did not perceive that [Fagan] has put up any undue roadblocks.

Fagans downfall came quickly.

The furor over Fagans work for La Motas affiliate had centered in part on her offices audit of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, oversight from which she said she recused herself as she considered taking on the consultants role in February  though by that point, the audit was nearly completed.

The audits division has been active during Fagans tenure, wading into politically charged topics including abortion access and air quality. Housing equity issues had also remained a focus. Under Fagan, state auditors were examining what went wrong with the states beleaguered rental assistance program during the pandemic. They also produced a report that concluded that the states century-old policy of allowing homeowners to claim mortgage interest deductions was regressive and inequitable.

Jeff Newgard, a local tax lobbyist, said he found that second audit more typical of an agenda-setting legislative report, instead of the more procedural, fact-finding reports historically produced by the secretary of states office that focused on how well government agencies were functioning. Her offices cannabis audit received some similar feedback for what state regulators saw as its industry-friendly bent.

It was a noticeable change in their practice, Newgard said. It was truly a policy audit.

Like all of her recent predecessors in the secretary of states office, Fagan has been fiercely proud of Oregons status as the first state in the nation to vote by mail and its consistently high turnout rate, which is lower among young people. Fagan herself missed elections in her 20s; records show she did not vote in Barack Obamas historic 2008 bid.

She has sought to broaden access to voting during the current legislative session, championing a bill that would automatically add about 170,000 Oregonians who are on the Oregon Health Plan to voting rolls, and another that would restore the right to vote to people who are incarcerated after felony convictions.

Before Tuesday, Fagans highest profile moment on the national stage came a little over a year ago, when she held a press conference after the Oregon Supreme Court upheld her contention that New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof could not claim a spot on the Democratic gubernatorial primary ballot because he hadnt lived full time in Oregon for long enough.

Fagan took what amounted to a victory lap, expansively holding forth on as many questions as reporters wanted to ask. Kristof, taking aim at members of his party, had cast Fagans decision to disqualify him as an unethical effort to smooth the political path for now Gov. Tina Kotek. Fagan shot back that the implication was sowing election misinformation and that shed sought only to uphold the law.

I said what I said. He was wrong, Fagan flatly declared.

This week, an abashed and occasionally tearful Fagan hit a very different note under public questioning, announcing that she was giving up her lucrative side hustle. Her spokesperson abruptly ended the 30-minute press conference while journalists still had questions.

Twenty-four hours later she resigned.

 Julia Silverman, @jrlsilverman, jsilverman@oregonian.com
Lares Wines is named in honor of ancient Roman deities that protected home, hearth and harvest. Luke Allen Wylde, Lares owner/winemaker, describes them as deeply personal family gods instead of the big names like Jupiter or Apollo.

From the colorful wine labels that draw heavily from Dungeons & Dragons, heavy metal music and scary dream themes to Wyldes innovative techniques, theres not another winery in Oregon like Lares Wines.

Lares Wines is best known for: blends and what Wylde described as unconventional blends. By unconventional, they dont mean things like blending apples and grapes to make a sparkling wine  which they absolutely do. What I mean is I dont go into harvest with a plan, Wylde said.

Wylde makes every wine and apple beverage separately. Once the process is complete, then and only then do they decide what to blend. This is not a common practice.

Wylde is also well-known for making refreshing wines in the 10-11% ABV range. I make crushable table wines to enjoy now, not to hide away in a cellar, Wyde said.

HERE IS OREGON: HereisOregon.com | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok

Innovation: Calling it a cheeky affront, Wylde refuses to distinguish between red or white wine barrels.

I make my wines with used barrels and dont bother marking them. One year a barrel might hold syrah, and the next year it might hold pinot blanc. When I tell other winemakers about this practice, they tell me Im crazy, Wylde said.

Must try current release: 2022 Lares Wines Chimera ($24.50). This effervescent wine made with forced carbonation is a unique mixture of organically farmed Willamette Valley apples and three varieties of grapes  pinot blanc, pinot noir and muscat.

The Chimera smells like Golden Delicious apples, apricots and lemon, with a touch of cidery tartness. It tastes like a combination of peaches, Marcona almonds and wet slate. The wines crisp acidity and persistent bubbles tickled parts of my mouth and tongue that I didnt know existed.

History: Wylde was working in television production in Los Angeles when the housing market collapse of 2008 forced them to take a job at the Venice Beach Whole Foods. Since drinking wine was one of Wyldes hobbies, they found themselves working in the wine department.

Wylde eventually became more interested in how the wines they were selling were made. Their boss hooked them up with harvest internships in New Zealand and the Willamette Valley, which spelled the end of their grocery career.

After stints at wineries in New Zealand, Australia and Germany, Wylde settled back in Oregon. At Chehalem Winery, Wylde met Meredith Bell, who shared their interests in minimalist winemaking and sustainable farming practices. They both also loved chardonnay.

In 2014 Wylde and Bell launched Statera Cellars to make a series of single vineyard chardonnays. In 2018 Wylde branched out to make an aligote and a sparkling riesling under their own label, Lares Wines. Their initial 50-case production has grown to approximately 1,500 cases annually.

Wylde has a skilled hand when it comes to making aligote. I highly recommend their extended skin contact orange version ($24.50) that they call Ad Astra Per Aspera, or a rough road leads to the stars.

What we dont know: Despite being a masculine, bearded and bald-headed person, Im very much a non-binary person that lives in this queer, agendered life in my mind. It very much influences what I make and the community I keep, Wylde said.

Wylde said that given our current political climate, it is a deeply important thing to talk about the following -- I believe more people with a privilege like I have in terms of being a white person and mostly masc, its kind of our job to speak up for the community were trying to protect.

Biggest success or failure so far: Wyldes philosophy is that you fail your way to success. Wylde said they view all failures as eventual successes.

Key insight: Wylde believes that wineries can lose sight of the welfare of the people who work in their cellars, tasting rooms and vineyards.

Are they being paid a living wage? We sometimes care more about the plants thriving than we do about people thriving. If we are going to certify organic and biodynamic farming, I wish there was a way winery and vineyard owners could be certified as humane, Wylde said.

I wish I had known when I started that: I was going to be OK, Wylde said. I wish I had known that my ideas were going to work out.

Last book read: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, which Wylde described as one of the best books ever written.

Where to buy: Lares wines may be purchased directly from the winery website. Wylde also conducts tastings by appointment at Portland Wine Storage.

Portland area bottle shops selling Lares wines include Division Wines, Mattinos and Dame Bottle Shop.

By appointment, 306 S.E. Ash St., Portland, lareswines.com, or 310-985-5853.

-- Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. He can be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To read more of his coverage, go to oregonlive.com/wine
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Compulsory medical insurance is in effect in medical institutions transferred from the subordination of the Association for the Management of Medical Territorial Units (TBIB) to the Ministry of Health, the State Agency for Compulsory Medical Insurance of Azerbaijan told Trend.

Citizens may apply directly to these institutions to use the medical services included in the package of compulsory medical insurance services for out-patient medical care.

"This includes an examination by a qualified doctor, relevant laboratory and instrumental studies, radiological service. One can contact these medical institutions to use in-patient medical services, having a referral with," the agency said.

The National Center of Hematology and Blood Transfusion and its departments, Research Institute of Pediatrics named after K. Farajova, Research Institute of Cardiology named after J. Abdullayev, Research Institute of Medical Prevention named after V.Akhundov, Research Institute of Pulmonary Diseases, Research Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Azerbaijan Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics, Azerbaijan Research Institute of Medical Rehabilitation, and Scientific Surgical Center named after Academician M. Topchubashov have been transferred to the subordination of the ministry since January 1, 2023.
The Azerbaijani delegation headed by Rector of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) Elmar Gasimov took part in the conference held on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev in Kars, Turkiye.

Speaking at the conference, Elmar Gasimov said that the Azerbaijani-Turkish brotherhood is an example for the whole world: The Turkish city of Kars, which is of particular importance for Azerbaijan, has always been in the center of attention of Great Leader Heydar Aliyev. Our National Leader has repeatedly visited this city and was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of Kars Caucasian University. Rector of Baku Higher Oil School said that the two fraternal countries have always stood by each other both in difficult and joyful days. During the 44-day Patriotic War, Turkiye stood by Azerbaijan and provided it with all kinds of moral support. It was Azerbaijan that was the first to come to the aid of the fraternal country during a strong earthquake that occurred in Turkiye at the beginning of last month. The close relations established between our countries under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev and President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan extend to relations between other Turkish states. The rector also spoke in detail about the joint projects of the Turkic world and the benefits that the strategically important Zangezur corridor will bring to the Turkic world.

Rector of Kars Caucasian University Husnu Kapu called the victory over the enemy a victory for the unity of the entire Turkic world. He stressed that the unity of the two fraternal countries will be eternal.

Then proposals for cooperation were discussed.

Member of the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan Mushfig Jafarov and Deputy of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Yunus Klc also spoke at the event.

As part of the visit, BHOS Rector Elmar Gasimov and Rector of Kars Caucasian University Husnu Kapu signed an agreement on cooperation between the two universities.

It should be noted that the Azerbaijani delegation included members of parliament, veterans, well-known public figures and media representatives.
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COLEMAN

Coleman Community Schools will continue to operate with no additional upgrades to its almost 50-year-old building as the bond proposal to renovate the Junior/Senior High was voted down at the Special Election on May 2.

Its sad to see that it didnt pass for our kids and our staff, Coleman Superintendent Jennifer McCormack said. The whole reason for the bond proposal was to support them.

Coleman schools originally put a bond for $21 million on the August 2021 ballot for the same purpose, but it was voted down.

This time, the schools requested a bond for $15.36 million to complete what the district considered the most essential upgrades for safety, instructional excellence and opportunity. However, voters from townships in Midland and Isabella counties along with the City of Coleman voted it down once again.

McCormack said her plan is to sit down with the school board and begin planning ways for them to continue offering opportunities for students despite the proposal being denied.

I believe that our job is to do our absolute best for our kids and the staff that work there, she said. We want to make sure that we are a school that is exciting and able (to provide programs) like our arts, academics, band, culinary and agriscience. So we will do our very best with the funding that we have and see how were going to continue in the future.

McCormack said she has a strong appreciation for everyone who saw the value of the school as the hub of the community and came out to vote.

A total of 1,350 voters turned out for the election. Totals include Denver and Wise townships in Isabella County in addition to Midland County precincts in the Coleman schools district.

YES: 634

NO: 703

GLADWIN

The Gladwin Community Schools bond proposal was voted down on Tuesday. The proposal requested a $55.6 million bond proposal to build a new junior high attached to Gladwin High School.

The upgrade would have moved the junior high out of its current building that was constructed in 1934.

A total of 2,920 voters cast ballots in the election.

YES: 1,132

NO: 1,788

MIDLAND COUNTY

The Midland County Educational Service Agency millage renewal passed. The 1.5 mills was passed in 2014 and renewed in 2018. The funds are used as the district's operating budget to support programs that benefit students in each local district. Use of the funds is determined by each individual school board.

This millage is renewed every five years.

Voters in Denver and Wise townships in Isabella County voted down the millage renewal, but voters in Midland County voted yes.

154 voters turned out in Isabella County.

YES: 63

NO: 91

9,177 voters turned out to vote in Midland County.

YES: 6,496

NO: 2,633

The overall election in Midland County had 13.91% voter turnout. The overall election in Isabella County had 9.81% voter turnout.

Election results are unofficial until certified by the County Board of Canvassers.
Submitted photo/Angelo State University

Avery Dull of Coleman was among the 47 students recently inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society at Angelo State University in Texas. A special initiation ceremony was held in the Houston Harte University Center.

Phi Kappa Phi is the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for students in all academic disciplines. Invitations to join are extended to juniors in the top 7.5% of their class and to seniors and graduate students in the top 10% of their class.
The month of May was chosen to commemorate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

This includes the immigration of the first Japanese to America on May 7, 1843, and honors the Chinese immigrants who contributed labor to the first transcontinental railroad, completed on May 10, 1869.
A 26-year-old Clare County man reported missing in early March was found dead Friday in Farwell.

Troopers for the Michigan State Police Mt. Pleasant Post announced Tuesday that Jihad (Jake) Adnan Nasser was located deceased from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His remains were found by a person walking their dog in the woods.

No foul play is suspected in the case, according to MSP. Additional information has yet to be released as the case is still pending.

Nasser was reported missing by his family on March 4 after he failed to attend his mothers memorial service, who passed away in February. His family hadnt seen him since December. And neighbors hadnt seen him since January.

In mid-March, hoping to spark new leads, authorities released the vehicle Nasser was last known to own. It was a 2016 Pioneer 700 side-by-side with red and black coloring.

If you or a loved one is feeling distressed, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The crisis center provides free and confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week for civilians and veterans. Call 1-800-273-8255 for free and confidential emotional support.

The warning signs and risk factors of suicide are available on the American Foundation for Suicide Preventions website.
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ONEKAMA  The Onekama Consolidated Schools Board of Education held its first two interviews for the district's superintendent position.

Candidates Joanna Bennink, of Spring Lake, and Daniel Boyer, of Reed City, were interviewed for about an hour each Tuesday during a special meeting in the school library.

Bennink is currently the director/superintendent of the West Michigan Academy of Arts and Academics, in Spring Lake. She has a bachelor's degree in social studies from Michigan State University and a master's degree in business administration from Western Michigan University. Bennink obtained her teaching certification and a master's degree in education from Grand Valley State University.

Previously, Bennink taught first grade and kindergarten at Orchard View Elementary School, in Muskegon; was a teaching principal at North Hero Elementary, in Vermont; and served as principal of Oakridge Lower Elementary School, in Muskegon.

During her interview, Bennink told the board she is "a big believer in teamwork."

"I think it takes a village to raise a child. ... Being part of a small community is very important to me, and making sure that we are all together on this," she said. "That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be disagreements. Then we have conversations and we make sure that we're doing the right things for kids."

Bennink said she also values honesty.

"Telling the truth (is important) even though sometimes it's uncomfortable and it's hard," she said. "Making sure you're having some of those difficult conversations that you need to have, because to be fair to people they need to know where you're coming from and they need to know where you stand."

Kyle Kotecki/News Advocate

Bennink said a superintendent needs to be able to build relationships.

"I think a superintendent ... needs to ensure they are a part of the classrooms and the community and making sure that we are going in the right direction," she said. "They say that a building takes on the personality of the building leader, be that the principal or the superintendent, so making sure that I'm a really strong leader and making sure I'm out there and I'm visible and making connections with people."

Bennink said she would be an asset to the district if she were hired.

"I am a community person, I am a team builder and I think I'm what you're looking for. I tend to like communication," she said. "I want to talk to people and get to understand what makes people tick so that we can build an amazing plan. I'm really honored for the opportunity that you guys let me come up here and meet you and see your really, really cool little town."

Boyer is currently the middle and high school principal of Beal City Public Schools, in Mount Pleasant. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science and history from Central Michigan University and a master's in secondary leadership and special education from Michigan State University.

Prior to his current position, Boyer taught seventh grade social studies for 20 years at Morley Stanwood Middle School and also served on the Reed City Area Public Schools Board of Education.

During his interview, Boyer said he felt transparency and communication were important in establishing a good working relationship with the board, parents and community members.

"One thing I would say about myself individually, I'm a pretty frank and transparent individual. I think that was helpful for me during my service on the board  I've had some board service as well. I served two times during the Great Recession. It was a difficult time to be a board member. My community asked me to run for the board at that time because I kind of had a history of saying things as they were.

"I'm not saying I'm above sugarcoating things from time to time when that's necessary, however, I'm not going to mislead you."

Kyle Kotecki/News Advocate

Gary Madden, board member, asked Boyer how he would evaluate the climate and culture of the district, and how a superintendent can create improvements in that area.

Boyer cited the Feb. 20 termination hearing of former teacher Kelly Kelley to say he knows things at the district aren't perfect, but said he believes he would be able to help resolve those issues.

"To be transparent, I watched the board meeting from February, and gosh, I cried watching that meeting. I thought I had some seen some tough board meetings, but that's the toughest one I've ever seen," Boyer said. "I felt for every one of you up here, every kid in that audience, Mrs. Kelley. ... We've got some work to do here, I think, but I think it's something I could help you with. It's something I like to do and it's something I'm comfortable doing.

"I think we have to talk to each other and figure out what's going on," he continued. "... If I'm being honest, I feel like there's something going on that we can fix."

Two more interviews are scheduled for tonight. Aaron West, of Spring Lake, is slated to interview at 5 p.m. and Craig Carmoney, of Sanford, will interview at 6 p.m. The board is expected to narrow the field following tonight's interviews.

The meetings are open to the public and will be held in the school library.

The second round of interviews are expected to take place Monday.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Tereasa Nims.

Tuesday, May 1

9:35 p.m. - Police made a warrant arrest in the 7300 block of Aster Street.

8:12 p.m. - Deputies were sent to a Lincoln Township home for a report of unknown subjects in the house. Contact was made with the 23-year-old caller, who stated some unknown people were in his house. The house was checked but no intruder was found. The caller admitted he was detoxing from prescription medication.

7:26 p.m. - A 14-year-old girl was being disrespectful and wouldn't follow rules at a Lee Township home. Her parents were provided guidance on how to handle the situation.

5:35 p.m. - Police responded to a domestic violence complaint in the 3800 block of Holland Drive.

4:29 p.m. - A 64-year-old Homer Township woman reported that an unknown suspect had applied for loans in her name. The woman was already in the process of contacting the financial institutions and credit bureaus. She was provided with an identity theft checklist.

10:17 a.m. - Police made a warrant arrest around James Savage and S. Saginaw roads.

9:50 a.m. - A 52-year-old Homer Township woman came to the law enforcement center and spoke with a deputy regarding her 27-year-old son. She was concerned about his mental state and his decisions. The deputy spoke with the woman about options and laws regarding enforcement with her sons actions.

More Information Activities of the Midland County Sheriff's Office and Midland Police Department on May 3, 2023 See More Collapse

10:01 a.m. - A 53-year-old Florida man was cited for driving without a valid license following a traffic stop in Geneva Township. A report was sent to the prosecutor.

8:09 a.m. - Police responded to Isabella and Wildes streets for an injury crash.

5:47 a.m. - Deputies attempted to stop a speeding car in Jerome Township and the 32-year-old Saginaw male driver refused to stop and crashed a short time later. The driver suffered a broken arm from the crash and was hospitalized. A crash report was completed, and a report was sent to the prosecutor for review. The driver is accused of drunken driving, possession of drugs and fleeing police.

12:20 a.m. - A 54-year-old Geneva Township man was arrested on an outstanding warrant out of Midland County. The man was taken to the Midland County Jail without incident.
Some things are as sure as death and taxes. One thing to be sure of is that we will eventually leave any job position we may have.

Moving from a full-time career to retirement is perhaps the most dramatic passage one will make. Unless someone works diligently to prepare for such a move before the event occurs, it can be a very unpleasant experience.

Its probably true that people spend more time planning for their financial situation after they retire than what they really want to be doing after they leave their full-time career. The problem is compounded because so much of a persons identity as perceived by others, and even themselves, might be dependent on their job position. A friend who is a dentist retired to Florida for part of the year. A waiter asked him, What were you when you were somebody?

Therein lies the problem. Unless someone has worked to redefine themselves in retirement, they will be perceived as a has been. Clinging to the past only exacerbates the situation.

For some, retirement is an escape. Its an exodus from a job that was less than satisfying. Individuals who retire from this type of situation tend to have fewer problems with moving on.

Theres no one set of recommendations for everyone who leaves a full-time career. Thats because people generally fall into four separate groups: (1) Those who dont have to work, but want to work;(2) Those who dont have to work and dont want to work;(3) Those who have to continue working and want to work; and (4) Those who have to work and dont want to work.

Regardless of which group you may be in, its important to focus on the future and not the past. Your old colleagues who are still working and with whom you interacted on a daily basis are too busy to be interrupted. Use the latitude you now have to form new friendships, new venture and new goals.

One of the absolute best books in recent years for anyone entering so called retirement or leaving a career after a lengthy tenure, is Joan Chittisters The Gift of Years. The book explores the options we have. Actually, it is about the choices we can make.

For example: Too many people feel that they are obsolete, and do not engage others, outside of their immediate family, in a productive way.

The summary comments that appear at the end of each of the chapters of Chittisters book focus on one of the particular choices we have. One great example is:

The burden of these years is to fail to get beyond the bitterness of having been displaced and not see that being moved quietly off all the platforms of life is also to be free of the stage craft that goes with them. A blessing of these years is to wake up one morning and find ourselves drunk with the very thought of being alive. Then, wherever we are we will spread the joy we have been able to find in ourselves.

Robert O Neil, the SEAL who killed bin Laden, states near the end of The Operator, his 2017 bestselling book: But to keep growing, we all have to move to the next phase. Thats life.

With that in mind, it is time for me to move on. This is my last column in this 37-article series.

It has been a privilege to share some advice and thoughts with you. My sincere thanks to the staff of the Midland Daily News for all their gracious support.

Lastly, thanks to Dick Dolinski, Judge Michael Beale, Dick Touvell, Dr. Chris Hough, the Rev. Wally Mayton and Mimi Bell for their untiring encouragement throughout this series. Every one of them is a top-drawer professional.

Terence Moore, former president of MidMichigan Health and author of Lessons in Leadership and Career Survival, 3rd Edition, authored this column as part of a monthly series focusing on career survival and advancement for the Midland Daily News. He may be contacted at tfm43@speednetllc.com.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. A total of 15 ballot boxes will be set for Turkish citizens in Azerbaijan, to vote for the upcoming presidential and parliamentary election in Turkiye on May 14, Turkish Ambassador Cahit Bagci told reporters, Trend reports.

The ambassador noted that preparations have been completed for Turkish citizens residing permanently or temporarily outside Turkiye to be able to vote in the elections.

"The voting process of our citizens living outside of Turkiye is starting in the presidential and parliamentary election. Nine of the ballot boxes will be set in Baku, three in Ganja and three in Nakhchivan. Our citizens will be able to vote in Baku, Nakhchivan and Ganja from 9:00 to 21:00 (GMT +4) on May 5," he added.

The voting process of Turkish citizens living abroad in connection with the presidential and parliamentary election began on April 27.

In total, over 64 million people will take part in the voting, of whom more than 3.4 million live abroad.

Among the voters living abroad, over 1.59 million are women, which is 46.7 percent of the total number of voters abroad. Besides, the number of men is 1.82 million, or 53.3 percent of voters.
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, 30 organizations, structures, movements and press bodies published on Wednesday an open letter for the protection of journalists and the defence of freedom of expression and press freedom in Mali and Burkina Faso
Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The Gambia Human Rights Commission has expressed extreme concern about the rising religious tension and intolerance within the country that have been making headline news over the past few weeks
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Azerbaijan and Turkiye are expanding cooperation in the field of pharmaceuticals, Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov wrote on Twitter, Trend reports.

According to the publication, Azerbaijan Investment Company OJSC and Turkiye's GEN [Gen Ilac ve Saglk Gunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.], leading pharmaceutical company, with more than 20 years of experience, specializing in pharmaceutical production, have signed a cooperation agreement.

"Within the framework of this agreement, Azerbaijan and Turkiye will jointly explore the possibilities of manufacturing pharmaceutical products in the country," the minister said.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Chief of General Staff of the Libyan Army of the Government of National Unity, Lieutenant General Mohamed al-Haddad, met here Tuesday with a delegation from the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon, on the promotion of military cooperation between the two countries
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - As Libya prepares to establish electoral laws, women members of the consultative High State Council and the House of Representatives (parliament) have agreed to work together on a strategy to advocate for greater representation of women in the country's future parliament, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) announced
Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - More than 100,000 people have now fled Sudan to neighbouring countries in search of safety, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday
Photo: (Photo : George Frey/ Getty Images)

The Planned Parenthood lawsuit against the abortion clinic ban in Utah wins!

In Utah, a judge named Andrew Stone made a ruling on Tuesday regarding a new state law that was set to ban abortion clinics.

Planned Parenthood had filed a lawsuit against the law and asked the court to prevent it from taking effect. The judge granted their request, which means that the four clinics in Utah that offer abortions can continue to operate without any restrictions.

Utah Judge Favors the Planned Parenthood Lawsuit Against the State

According to CBS, the judge in the case has agreed to postpone the implementation of the clinic ban in Utah due to preliminary evidence presented by Planned Parenthood.

Stone ruled that the legislation unjustifiably singles out abortion clinics, placing an undue burden on them. The law will be subject to further challenges in the court system, but for now, it will remain on hold.

According to Stone, the clinic ban puts a disproportionate burden on licensed abortion clinics, criminalizing their operations even though outpatient clinics provide equally safe services as hospitals.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Sarah Stoesz, the CEO of Planned Parenthood's Utah affiliate, said the ruling allows clinics to continue providing essential healthcare services to their patients, who have been living in chaos and confusion due to the impact of the law on their lives.

Although she welcomed the ruling, Stoesz expressed concern that the threat to the health and personal freedom of Utah residents persists as politicians continue to undermine the judicial process.

The Utah abortion clinic ban seeks to prevent new facilities from obtaining licenses, and existing licenses would be revoked by next year.

Stone's decision prevents Utah from joining other states such as Mississippi, North Dakota, and West Virginia, which have succeeded in pushing out abortion clinics.

Planned Parenthood argued that the Utah law is effectively a ban on abortion, as 95% of all procedures are performed in clinics, and hospitals are not as well equipped to provide low-cost outpatient care, including the abortion pill.

The organization also alleged that the law was enacted by Utah lawmakers and Gov. Spencer Cox to circumvent the court system while other abortion restrictions are being challenged.

Read Also: Mother-Daughter Duo Make History as First To Co-Pilot International Flight for FedEx

Lawsuit Tries To Halt the Abortion Clinic Ban in Utah

Utah lawmakers have enacted an abortion ban on clinics as part of their ongoing efforts to restrict abortions. This law was passed less than a year after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The ban will lead to the delicensing of clinics, making most abortions transition to hospitals.

However, hospitals are generally not equipped to provide low-cost outpatient abortions, including administering the abortion pill.

According to the Associated Press, Planned Parenthood's attorney, Hannah Swanson, stated that hospitals in Utah only offer abortions in cases where the mother's life or health is in danger, the pregnancy is the result of a fetal anomaly, incest, or rape.

In many of these cases, patients are often referred to abortion clinics because of their lower costs.

Republican lawmakers argued that the law was designed to clarify the regulations for hospitals and eliminate sections of the legal code that would no longer be relevant once the state's abortion restrictions were fully implemented.

They also claimed that clinics could apply for expanded licenses as hospitals. The Attorney General's office in Utah chose not to provide a statement regarding the current legal proceedings.

Related Article: Rare Brain Abscesses in Kids Raises Alarm for Doctors Across the US
Photo: (Photo : Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)

New York is set to become the first state in the United States to ban gas-powered appliances in most new buildings as part of a strategy to reduce carbon emissions.

The new law, which will take effect in 2026 for most new buildings under seven stories and in 2029 for larger buildings, will prohibit furnaces, propane heating, and gas stoves, replacing them with climate-friendly alternatives such as heat pumps and induction stoves.

Gas-Powered Appliances Widely Used in the US

According to The New York Times, the US Energy Department reported that in 2020, 61% of households in America will utilize natural gas for space heating or cooking purposes.

In the Northeast, the number is even greater, with 67% of homes relying on gas, including 52% of households, specifically in New York State. Using gas-powered appliances has been linked to environmental and health concerns, making it necessary to find cleaner alternatives.

The new law will make New York the first state to pass a law that will advance zero-emission new homes and buildings. Although other states, such as California and Washington, have used their building codes to promote electrification, New York's ban on fossil fuel combustion in most new buildings will be the first of its kind.

According to CNBC, environmental groups have expressed their approval of this action, with the Northeast Region Director of Food & Water Watch, Alex Beauchamp.

Beauchamp stated that New York State is setting an example in the effort to break America's harmful reliance on fossil fuels and that other regions in the country should follow suit.

Read Also: US To End COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements for Federal Employees, International Air Travelers Effective May 11

New York's Exemptions and Legal Challenges

The new law could have exemptions for emergency backup generators, commercial kitchens, hospitals, and laundromats. However, the ban will not apply to existing residences that use gas-powered appliances, meaning that it won't curb emissions from existing buildings in New York, which account for roughly 32% of the state's overall emissions.

The ban on gas-powered appliances has been met with opposition from Republicans, who view it as federal overreach.

Opponents of the ban, including labor unions, oil and gas companies, and business organizations, have contended that it would result in elevated expenses for structures that rely on electricity for heating in comparison to those that utilize gas.

Moreover, a recent survey conducted by Siena College revealed that a majority of New York residents, 53%, were against the gradual elimination of gas stoves in newly constructed houses.

Legal challenges are also likely to arise, with some states like Texas and Arizona blocking cities from implementing natural gas bans, citing consumer choice.

In Berkeley, California, a federal appeals court ruled last month that the city cannot enforce a ban on natural gas hookups in new buildings, with the court stating that a US federal law preempts the city's regulation.

The consequences of this ruling could extend to comparable initiatives in over twelve other cities and counties, such as Seattle, Cambridge, Massachusetts, San Francisco, and San Jose.

Fox reports that this decision brings New York one step closer to achieving its long-term goals to reduce carbon emissions, which involve a 40% reduction by 2030 and an 85% reduction by 2050.

The proposed regulations aim to limit certain aspects of natural gas-powered stoves that some consumer groups claim would have a significant negative impact on product quality in order to attain emission reductions.

The Department of Energy revised the number of gas stoves that would comply with the new guidelines after analyzing its own data and finding that 96% of gas stoves would be prohibited under the proposed regulations.

While it has been met with opposition, the state is determined to lead the way in ending America's dependence on fossil fuels, calling on other states to follow its example.

Related Article: Utah Abortion Access Continues: Judge Blocks Controversial Ban on Clinics, Planned Parenthood Prevails
Last week Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple TV+ is Launching an Emmys 'Think Apple TV+ FYC' Space at Hollywood's Goya Studios in May to promote Apple shows & more." Today we're learning that Jon Stewart is the latest star to cancel promotional duties as part of the writers strike. The comedian has pulled an FYC event for his Apple series The Problem with Jon Stewart next week as the fallout from the strike continues.

Stewart was set to take part in a conversation about the second season of the Apple talk show on Monday May 8.

Other events are set to include a Bad Sisters event featuring Sharon Horgan, a Shrinking event featuring Jason Segel, an event with James Corden to promote Carpool Karaoke, a Schmigadoon! event and various other talks.

While its not clear at this time whether other stars or shows will be pulling out of Apple's YFC event, it should be noted that "WGA [Writers Guild of America] rules prohibit members, of which Stewart is one, from promoting projects at FYC events. You should let the company know you are prohibited from making these promotional appearances about your work until the strike concludes." Source.

While it's understandable for the actual shows to be put on hold until an agreement is ironed out between Hollywood's powers that be and the Writers Guild of America, cancelling events that are planned and designed to assist in building an audience for a show seems to be counter productive.

Archive: Apple TV News
While GM has joined Tesla in opting out of integrating Apple's CarPlay in their future Electric Vehicles starting with the new Chevy Blazer EV or GMC Sierra EV Denali, Ford's CEO, James D. Farley, sees it differently.

In an interview with Joanna Stern today, Ford's CEO stated that his company is sticking with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Farley made a simple argument for his decision: "70% of our Ford customers in the US are Apple customers. Why would I go to an Apple customer and say good luck?"

At #WSJFuture Ford CEO @JimFarley talked to @JoannaStern about two camps in the car software OEM game today and why Ford is staying out of the content business.



"70% of our Ford customers in the US are Apple customers. Why would I go to an Apple customer and say good luck?" pic.twitter.com/cXcUjW0qth  WSJ Live Journalism (@WSJLive) May 3, 2023

Other car companies, like BMW, are working on different dashboard concepts for future vehicles like the one below working with a Heads-up-Display and Augmented Reality.
With Samsung delivering its worst quarterly profit in 14 years, the tech giant is reportedly considering to launch their next generation of the Galaxy Z Fold smartphone weeks earlier than usual in the hopes of saving their current quarter from further declines.

While Samsung appears to still be on track for their August Unpacked event that will introduce updates to their Galaxy Flip smartphones, the company is seriously thinking of introducing their next-gen Galaxy Z Fold in mid to late July.

Coincidentally Google will be introducing their first Pixel Fold smartphone at the I/O event on May 10. The new phones are likely to only start shipping in late June. Any Google customer buying a new Pixel Fold won't be buying Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold and that could make matters worse for Samsung sales. The U.S. is a major Samsung market and losing sales to Google could be very painful for the company.

Samsung's Galaxy Flip 5 smartphone shipment will help sales going into Q4 2023.

According to The Elec, "Some component production plans have already been fast-forwarded by two to three weeks in anticipation of this plan being signed off but other components are still stuck in their original plan for an August launch." On that basis, Samsung may be banking on preorders to save the day, with shipments sometime in August.

In mid-April, Patently Apple reported that the Pixel Fold will reportedly provide the most durable hinge on a foldable smartphone. In late-April, there was news that Samsung was having issues with their Z Fold hinge. So it's no wonder that Samsung is pounding the drum on the Korean tech site The Elec, that Samsung is planning to introduce a new 'water drop' style of hinge.

The news of Samsung possibly rushing their next-gen Z Fold phone to market in July could actually boost Google fan enthusiasm for the company's first Pixel Fold. Google's executives may smell blood in the water and put an extra effort in their launch of the Pixel Fold next week. To be sure, it's going to be an interesting Keynote not to be missed.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Azerbaijan and Turkiye are expanding cooperation in the field of animal husbandry, Trend reports via the tweet of Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov.

According to the tweet, Azerbaijan Investment Company OJSC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Turkiyes Vetal Animal Health Products S.A. on the exploration of joint investment opportunities for the production of biological medications for the animal husbandry sector.

Within the framework of this agreement, its planned to produce biological medications and vaccines in Azerbaijan, reduce import dependency, establish a centralized laboratory, apply foreign experience, and train local specialists, the tweet said.

Earlier, Azerbaijan Investment Company OJSC and Turkiyes GEN [Gen Ilac ve Saglik Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.] leading pharmaceutical company signed a cooperation agreement. Within the framework of this agreement, the parties will jointly study the possibilities of manufacturing pharmaceutical products in Azerbaijan.
It's being reported today that although two of Apple's App Store policies were found to be monopolistic, the UK's competition regulator was banned for missing the statutory deadline. It cannot be sanctioned

The cause of the antitrust case was based on two App Store policies. The first was that Apple prohibits the provision of cloud gaming services on the App Store. The second is that Apple only approves alternative browsers on its platform that use its own WebKit rendering engine.

In June last year, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigated Apple's two policies and determined that they were indeed monopolistic. However, the CMA previously referred to its investigation as a "market study" rather than "market investigation. Because of this mislabeling, the CMA can't take any action against Apple. While the CMA has reopened a new case targeting the same two issues, this time labeling it "market research" Apple argues that the CMA has missed its deadline to open an investigation. That's because the law says regulators "should" open an investigation on the same day they publish preliminary findings. Apple believes that the word "should" means the same as "must", while the CMA believes that the word "should" only gives it the power to initiate an investigation immediately, not an obligation. While Apple's explanation seemed more reasonable, both parties actually had legal precedent to back their case, so the CMA appealed to the Competition Appeals Tribunal.

The outside world thought that Apple seemed to have a better position at the time, and today's ruling confirms this. According to Reuters, the Competition Appeals Tribunal rejected the CMA's decision to open an investigation and today rejected the CMA's appeal to the ruling. Application for Appeal. In its decision rejecting the application for appeal, the tribunal said the law was clear as to when the CMA could open a market investigation. "The letter of the law matters, even if it produces undesirable or unfortunate results," the court said.

While the CMA can still take its case to the UK Supreme Court, the regulator has not yet said whether it will do so, saying only that it is carefully considering the court's decision and considering its next steps.

Apple is currently facing similar antitrust allegations and investigations in other countries and regions, such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, and South Korea.
My wife and I took Lou Midgley out to lunch today. He is one of our very favorite people, and it was a vintage visit with the irrepressible Lou: I dont think that he had been thirty seconds in our car before he was well into a discussion on David Hume, Humes famous skepticism, and Humes Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Great stuff. Over a seafood lunch, we also discussed the Second World War, the atrocities committed by the Third Reich  Lou has just finished reading (and highly recommends) Jonathan Freedlands The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World  the history and prospects of Brigham Young University, and, of course, New Zealand (for which he has had a life-long passion extending back to even before his first mission there). Lou is ninety-two years old now, and he walks a bit more slowly than he once did (with the help of a beautiful Maori-style cane that was made for him out of native New Zealand wood and presented to him as an honoring gift), but he is every bit as intellectually effervescent as ever he was. Its a privilege to have known him as well as I do for as long as I have.

Some of you, Im confident, will find this of interest: AI Temples: What Do They Look Like? This book did not change the way I see the temple. But the insights in the essays definitely did.

The Latter-day Saint pioneers entering the Great Basin in the mid-ninetenth-century  the camp of Israel, initially, led by an American Moses  were steeped in the Bible, and particularly in the Old Testament, and they were not slow to recognize parallels between their new physical surroundings and the land of the Bible. This led to a slew of biblical toponyms, including Zion (and, within Zion, the Great White Throne and the Three Patriarchs), Enoch, Juab (for Joab), Mount Nebo, Ephraim, Salem, Moab, and a stream linking a dead salty sea to a freshwater lake that they naturally called the Jordan River. Their church itself was studded with priesthoods (of both Aaron and Melchizedek), patriarchs, prophets, elders, priests, temples, altars, tabernacles, stakes of Zion, references to the sons of Moses and of Abraham, the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the like.

In that light, recent recognition of additional similarities between the land of the Bible and the Zion of the Latter-day Saints may take on an interesting new hue:

Israel went from water scarcity to surplus. Can it help Utah and the Great Salt Lake?

Strawberries in the desert: From drip irrigation to vertical gardens, Utah officials learn how Israel does more with less water

Im happy to see this linkage between two places that mean very much to me and to others of my faith, and hope that it will be (both literally and metaphorically) fruitful. In fact, in a minor way, I muse that it might be a harbinger of far more significant things to come:

1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:1-4)

Thus the prophet Isaiah. And thus, almost identically, the prophet Micah:

1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. 2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. 5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. (Micah 4:1-5)

It might be appropriate here to close with a couple of items about Utah, the home base of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the effect on society of the Churchs teachings. Both of these items were located in or near the Christopher Hitchens Memorial How Religion Poisons Everything File, which is (as devoted disciples of the late Mr. Hitchens all recognize) inexhaustibly rich:

The Wealth of Strong Families, Communities, and Congregations: Utah as a Case Study in Social Capital

The perils of cohabitation and why timing is linked to later divorce: University of Denver researchers say living together before marriage now part of dating culture
The King James Bible

and the Power of a Dreaming God

James Ishmael Ford

A bit of history.

King James (the sixth of Scotland and first of England) not long crowned, planned a conference for November, 1603, to discuss sundry matters involving the relatively new church of which he was now head. While the ball started rolling when Henry VIII wanted a divorce, it really only took its broad shape under his younger daughters reign. James elder cousin.

However, due to an outbreak of plague the Hampton Court Conference in fact met in February, 1604. The king and his counselors dealt with some complaints from the Puritan element of the church, matters of who should officiate at baptisms (clergy only, thank you), and ecclesiastical discipline. In general he wanted to put his own imprint on the church Elizabeth largely created out of the ruin following Henry, Edward VI, and Mary.

This meeting also led to the king commissioning a new translation of the Bible.

A team consisting of forty-six clergy of the Church of England, and one lay communicant, Sir Henry Savile were selected and set to work. They were organized into six committees, and worked at both universities and Westminster Abbey. Richard Bancroft, then Archbishop of Canterbury served as chief overseer for the project.

The new bible was to look to previous translations, the Tyndale Bible, the Coverdale Bible, Matthews Bible, the Great Bible, and the Geneva Bible. Scholars have also felt some influences from the Taverners Bible and the New Testament part of the DouayRheims Bible.

The translators were also all scholars and highly competent in the languages of the Bible, and while mindful of the previous translations, as well as certain guidelines from the court, saw themselves as pursuing the best translation that was possible. And pretty much everyone since agrees that they achieved their goal of producing a scholarly and (generally) nonpartisan Bible.

Finally, today, the 2nd of May, 1611, THE HOLY BIBLE, Conteyning the Old Tetament, AND THE NEW: Newly Tranlated out of the Originall tongues: & with the former Tranlations diligently compared and reuied, by his Maiesties peciall Comandement was published by the Kings Printer.

Within a few years it would come to be called the King James Version of the Bible. And by those ignorant of its origins, as well as on occasion for those not in the habit of reading closely, the St James Version. It would remain the English language Bible well into the twentieth century. While not the primary version used in most churches nor in seminaries today, it remains much beloved. And parts, such as the psalms remain the preferred readings in times of distress for many people. For an interesting minority it is the only real version of the Bible., what God had intended.

Even beyond its theological and ecclesiastical importance the King James Version was quickly acknowledged as a major literary accomplishment of early modern English. Really counted only with Shakespeare. And, really, in front of him, as well. Its publication helped set the language we know today. It has been called the most influential version of the most influential book in what for a while yet has been the most influential language in the world.

So, even Richard Dawkins, best known as one of the more aggressive new atheists, once observed, A native speaker of English who has never read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian. Hes right. Me. I learned to read out of a large illustrated King James Bible resting on my grandmothers lap. It gave me cadences and tropes, not to mention vocabulary that occupy my thinking and my writing to this day. More even than Shakespeare.

While my theology has shifted and turned over the many years, mostly rooted in core Mahayana Buddhist thinking, as well as a broadly skeptical and naturalistic sense of the way things are, my dreams are all populated from the readings and interpretations of that wondrous large book in my imagination forever sitting on my grandmothers lap.

My dreams are populated by those figures out of the ancient near east captured in that book. Some are completely mythical, near as anyone can tell, like Abraham and Sarah and Moses and Miriam. And some have historical bones upon which myth has been layered like Jesus and the Marys. And. I know their stories. Their stories inform my own life and give it the color and shade of our common humanity. In some true ways they are as much a part of my thinking and who I am as my deepest analysis, as my core disposition.

Were not just apes with good thumbs, although we are apes with thumbs, we also have mouths that speak and, my, the stories we can tell. Those stories are the stuff of our dreams.

And. Dreams matter. I repeat. Dreams matter.

I have long since noticed the actual dreams, the dreams generated in the night, certainly those I have, tend to be the engine racing, either reflective of the general anxiety of the human condition, or just noise reflecting the events of the previous day. Noticing it is a rare dream that conveys more information about my interior life, about my life beneath the waves of my sea of being, Ive long since lost interest in tracking them.

Thats why when friends recount their dreams, all too often we find we must avert our eyes. It is all rather obvious. And, slightly embarrassing.

Recently, I was asked by an old friend what I thought of dreams. What I said is that ninety-eight percent of dreams reflect nervous energy attached to events, frequently from the previous day.

The other two percent are messages from the gods. Or, the God, the great dream God, the wondrous dreaming God.

Sometimes, in those dreams, that two percent of our dreams, theres an invitation. For the dreamer. For the hearer. And in my life, they are often, maybe even mostly clothed in the stories and actions out of the book, the King James version of the book.

And then. Actually, at some point does it really matter if it is your dream or mine?

In that two percent, God and who you and I are, are present. We are a dreaming God.

Of course, the trick is to tell which is the ninety-eight percent, and which is God unveiled
Today, a new law took effect in Utah, requiring websites to verify the ages of users attempting to view adult content. In response, the ultra-popular PornHub and numerous other adult sites went dark in Utah, replacing the NSFW videos youd normally expect to see with a message decrying government overreach and proposed compromises.

You can read excerpts and a rundown of the complicated political situation in CNNs coverage if you want. What caught my eye was NBC News dystopia beat reporter Ben Collins noticing that Google searches for VPN immediately skyrocketed in Utah as folks looked to circumvent the ban. I checked Google Trends myself and yep, Utah now shows 100 percent interest for VPN.

A screenshot of Google Trends on 5/3/23 showing VPN search interest in Utah at 100 Brad Chacos/IDG

I dont know much about politics, but we sure know VPNs here at PCWorld! Im not encouraging circumventing laws whatsoever, but if youre a Utah resident who just so happens to be looking for a VPN for totally legal reasons, here are some especially choice picks, culled from our roundup of the best VPN services.

NordVPN

NordVPN Read our review Best Prices Today:

If youre looking for an inexpensive VPN that doesnt log the sites you visit and provides fairly anonymous payment methods, NordVPN is a fine choice. Its loaded with features and offers fast servers perfect for streaming videos. The one downside? While it only costs $3.29 per month if you commit to a two-year plan, it costs $12.99 monthly if you dont want to sign up for a long term contract.

Mullvad

Mullvad Read our review Best Prices Today:

This might be a better option, however. Mullvad isnt just in our top five VPNs for overall speeds, it more importantly earns top marks for privacy, taking seemingly every effort to know as little as possible about its users. From our roundup:

Weve never seen another VPN that actively resists knowing who you are the way Mullvad does. Mullvad doesnt ask for your email address, name, or anything else. Instead it assigns a random account number that acts as your identifier and login. Mullvad accepts payments using standard methods such as credit cards and PayPal, but you can also mail your payment in cash to remain as private as possible. Mullvad has a no-logging policy and doesnt collect any identifying metadata from your usage.

Better yet, it costs just $5 per month regardless of the plan you choose.

AVG Secure

AVG Secure Read our review

Finally, we love the simplicity of AVG Secure, which was crowned the best VPN for novices. Its easy to use, backed by a well-known security brand andget thisit includes a free 60 day trial. Lots (including laws) can change in 60 days.

If youre looking for a no-cost VPN, wed suggest giving AVG Secure a whirl. While free VPNs exist, they tend to limit your speeds and overall bandwidth, while often collecting data about users in aggregate and sometimes serving ads that could be used to surreptitiously track your browsing. If youre worried about staying as anonymous as possible, paid VPNs are the way to go.

Happy surfing! (But not too happy).
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Strategic Thinkers Network-Africa (STRANEK-Africa) has petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the contents of a 36-page report by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng on illegal small-scale mining.



The Civil Society Organisation (CSO) in its petition dated May 2, 2023, implored the Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute individuals indicted in the said report.



Having in mind the objective of your office which is trite knowledge, we pray for an alacritous action by probing the Prof. Frimpong-Boateng Galamsey Report and prosecute all government officials, NP functionaries and persons who have perpetrated serious crimes against the State as contained in the report. A hard copy of the Galamsey Report has been annexed to this petition, the group stated having highlighted some details in the 2021 report by the former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.



Background:



Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng named Members of Parliaments and top government officials who are allegedly involved in illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) in Ghana in the 2021 report.



Portions of the galamsey report indicated that these MPs and government officials were either directly involved in galamsey or were using their power to protect relations who were involved in the menace.



The 36-page report, which Prof Frimpong-Boateng addressed to the Chief of Staff implicated the former MP for Manso Nkwanta, Joseph Albert Quarm; director of operations at the presidency, Lord Commey; executive assistant and head of social media at the presidency, Charles Nii Teiko; and Frank Asiedu Bekoe, director of political affairs at the Office of the Chief of Staff.



Prof Frimpong-Boateng also accused the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, of hatching a plot to bring him down over his (Frimpong Boatengs) fight against the menace.



Even though some officials of the government who were implicated have refuted the allegation in the report, the Office of the President has indicated that it (the report) was not an official report formally delivered to the Office of the President.



It described the report as a catalogue of personal grievances by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, intended to respond to some issues he faced as chairperson of the IMCIM.



It added that whilst Prof Frimpong-Boateng makes serious allegations against some government appointees, as having been involved in, supporting or interfering with the fight against illegal mining, not a single piece of evidence was adduced or presented to enable the claims to be properly investigated.



The Office of the President described the allegations contained in the document as hearsay.







Source: ghanaweb.com









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On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, government has commended the Ghanaian media for the indispensable role it plays in the country while urging greater emphasis on economic rights to support efforts in rebuilding faster after the recent global economic challenges.



This year's anniversary, themed "Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a driver for all other human rights," marks the 30th global celebration of press freedom.



In a statement released in Accra and signed by Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, government expressed profound appreciation for the media's significant contributions in raising awareness about various rights but urged stronger emphasis on economic rights, considering the recent global challenges and dim economic forecasts.



The media has been instrumental over the years, in highlighting various rights that require attention for full enjoyment. The work of the media also in highlighting instances of abuse of some rights by sections of the society has led to redress in many instances. We urge the media to remain resolute on this path.



The quest to have all citizens fully access their economic rights is yet to achieve full effect especially as the world faces dim economic forecasts following recent global challenges. While urging the Media in Ghana to keep the spotlight on all human rights, we encourage an even sharper focus on efforts to ensure that the economic rights of citizens are fully actualized, the statement said.



This government reiterated its commitment to supporting media stakeholder groups in Ghana, including the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the Private Independent Newspapers Association (PRINPAG), the Communication Educators platform, the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), and the National Media Commission (GIBA).



The United Nations General Assembly, on the recommendation of UNESCO's General Conference, proclaimed World Press Freedom Day in December 1993. This significant day, celebrated annually on 3 May, commemorates the Declaration of Windhoek and serves as a global recognition of the fundamental principles of press freedom and the crucial role played by a free and independent media in fostering democracy and promoting transparency.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Mr. Kofi Baah Agyepong says the agency remains committed to its mandate of creating and facilitating jobs for the youth of Ghana.



To this end, he assured that the government and for that matter the agency, will work assiduously to ensure as many youth as possible, irrespective of their background, develop appropriate employable skills to enable them contribute their quota to the economy in diverse ways.



Quoting the famous statement by His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during the COVID-19 weekly broadcast to the nation that we know how to bring the economy back to life. What we do not know is how to bring the people back to life, the YEA CEO explained that as the economy was bouncing back steadily despite the external shocks, government needed to partner with the private sector to speed up the process and it was that motivation that led to the collaboration with the insurance industry players to train and employ those young ones into the industry.



The CEO made these remarks at the official launch of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and National insurance Commission (NIC) collaboration on Tuesday, 2nd May, 2023, in Accra to train an estimated six thousand (6000) youth nationwide as insurance agents.



The launch was held on the theme Building a Sustainable Future; Creating opportunities for the youth through Insurance.



According to him, investing in the youth is the smartest move to securing the countrys future and the YEA remains committed to providing the necessary platform for job creation and equipping the youth to become "change" agents.



He disclosed that the agency in line with its mandate and vision has created over twenty-five thousand (25000) direct jobs backed by verifiable date and at least 60000 indirect jobs in the past nine months.



Giving the breakdown, he explained that the YEA over the past year trained and deployed 6000 Community Health Workers (CHWs) across the health centres and CHPS Compounds in the country, 15000 Community Protection Assistants (CPAs) had been engaged by the Ghana Police Service, 500 Prisons Office Assistants, 800 artisans registered and an ongoing recruitment of 5000 workers for the cocoa sector in the Western Region and the current recruitment of an estimated 6000 youth as insurance agents nationwide to serve in various insurance companies across the country.



He encouraged the trainees to take their training seriously and live up to expectation at the various companies they are posted to.



The CEO expressed no doubt about the ability of the Ghanaian to deliver saying the youth have the energy, knowledge and creativity to tackle some of the pressing problems in this time of economic recovery.



According to him, it is for this reason that the YEA has started partnership with the private sector as the engine of growth to facilitate jobs for the youth of the country".



He expressed the hope that this partnership with the NIC to train the youth and facilitate their deployment to insurance companies would be sustained in order to ensure that as many qualified insurance agents operate in the industry.



Mrs. Anita Kusi Boateng, Board Chair of YEA in her remarks, called for more innovative ideas to address the challenges of unemployment among the youth.



She explained the need to think outside the box to explore and exploit the opportunities available to create the needed jobs for the youth.



She urged the media to carry the message of employment creation among the youth and minimize the negative stories on social media platforms.

Hon. Bright Wireko Brobbey, Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, lauded the agency for living up to its mandate and prayed that the collaboration would be fruitful.



He said the YEA is currently the institution facilitating employment for the youth through a collaboration with the private sector and craved the indulgence of insurance companies to employ the trainees once they are certified to work.



The Director of Ghana Insurance College (GIC) also noted that the insurance sector of the economy was an avenue for employment opportunities among the unemployed youth of Ghana.



He, however, regretted that many a Ghanaian youth dread venturing into that sector because of the negative perception created about the job of the agents.



According to him, job avenues exist in the industry but only attracts 44% coverage by the youth with the remaining 56 percent yet to be filled.

Source: YEA









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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. After ensuring the bi-directionality of the first branch of the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, through which natural gas was transported via Ukraine, through Romania and Bulgaria to Turkiye, it became possible to transport natural gas from Greece and Turkiye to Bulgaria, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Hungary to Azerbaijan Tamas Torma told Trend.

"Such infrastructure development means that natural gas coming from Azerbaijan can get into our region. The key role of this route in the diversification of natural gas sources for the EU member states was also highlighted in the European Union's REPowerEU plan of May 2022," Torma said.

According to the report of the Ministry of Energy, from January through March 2023, Azerbaijan exported natural gas to Europe (2.9 billion cubic meters), Turkiye (2.7 billion cubic meters) and Georgia (0.9 billion cubic meters).

During the reporting period, 1.4 billion cubic meters of gas were exported to Turkiye via the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline.
More than 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and more than 80,000 injured in just five months of fighting in Ukraine, US intelligence officials have said.



Most of the troops were killed in brutal trench warfare for the small eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russia has repeatedly claimed it was on the brink of capturing, White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday, May 1.



Russias attempt at an offensive in the Donbas, largely through Bakhmut, has failed  Russia has been unable to seize any really strategically significant territory, Kirby said. The losses are a big increase in Russian casualties even from the bloody first days of the war, and overshadow some of the bloodiest allied battles of the second world war, Kirby added.



Its three times the number of killed in action that the United States faced on the Guadalcanal campaign in World War II, the AP quoted Kirby saying.



Kirby did not detail how the US calculated the deaths, but said about half were fighting under the Wagner mercenary group, rather than with the Russian military. They were being sent into battle without proper training or leadership, he added.



Ukrainian forces are still holding out in a corner of Bakhmut. Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of ground forces, said on Monday the situation is quite difficult, but Ukrainian forces are still counterattacking against Russians.



Russia and Ukraine are fighting for control of a road west out of Bakhmut city. It serves as the last vital supply line for Ukrainian troops fighting on the ground there.



If Bakhmut falls to Russia, it might give Russia a route towards bigger towns to the west, including Kramatorsk. But after months of heavy losses, Moscows bitter push for the shelled-out ruins of this provincial town feels more symbolic than strategic.

This attempted effort, particularly in Bakhmut, has come at a terribly, terribly high cost. Russia has exhausted its military stockpiles and its armed forces, Kirby said.



After Russian troops retreated from Kyiv, and were pushed out of southern Kherson city and away from eastern Kharkiv, Bakhmut became a focus of the Russian military effort.



In November US officials estimated Russian casualties for the first eight months of the war were at a similar level to that reached between December and April, with more than 100,000 dead and injured.









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Speaker of Parliament, Rt Hon Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, and the Rt Hon Lord Boateng of the International Relations and Defense Committee of the UK House of Lords, have expressed concern over the security situation in the Sahel region and the possibility of that spreading into other parts of West Africa.



They called on the UK Parliament, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), and the Parliaments in Africa to work together to prevent the potential impact of the current insecurity in parts of the continent to give growth and development a chance in Africa.



The two were speaking during a private meeting at the UK Parliament in Westminster, London, where the Speaker of Parliament had led a parliamentary delegation to discuss various areas of cooperation and collaboration.



The two parliaments discussed how to conduct parliamentary business effectively, manage hung parliaments and narrow majorities, make parliamentary scrutiny and oversight more efficient, and promote a collaborative work environment in parliament.



The speaker said resolving the security situation in the Sahel region deserves a lot more attention now, or else it could engulf the entire sub-region.



He referred to the current security situation in Burkina Faso and Togo and said the safety and protection of the citizens in the two countries appear to have been compromised due to what is believed to be a huge infiltration by extremists and other elements.



He said the situation in the Sahel and West Africa poses serious threats to Ghanas security and democracy. What is required is the right strategies and structures that will make Ghana proactive and preemptive when it comes to security and the integrity of her borders.



The Speaker commended Rt. Hon. Lord Boateng for his outstanding public work in the United Kingdom and said he has continued to be a great ambassador of Ghana in all his work outside the country.



Rt. Hon. Lord Boateng said such conflicts as in Sudan, Burkina Faso, and Mali among others have the potential to fuel migration and its attendant dangers and risks, hence the concern. He added that if steps are not taken to mitigate these conflicts, they will deal irreparable damage to Africa and hold the continent back.



He indicated that the UK was looking to use the framework of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and also work through other institutional arrangements to enhance trade with Ghana and with other African countries, and to support efforts at improving intra-continental trade.



On this journey, he said, the removal of trade barriers, especially non-tariff barriers within Africa, and between Africa and Europe will be very critical.



Also important will be the safety and security of the countries in Africa.



Lord Boateng was impressed with the relationship between Ghana and the United Kingdom and was optimistic that it will continue to grow from strength to strength.







Source: Daily Guide









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The National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Yamin has commended the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for their boldness in addressing the construction of the controversial National Cathedral.



The General Secretary of the Congress, Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, has urged the government to stop expenditure on non-essentials.



The TUC holds the view that the current economic hardship that has hit the country can be turned around if the government channels funds from non-essential spending to more productive investments or projects to employ the masses and ensure revenue mobilization.



We have to change the situation ourselves as Ghanaians. We believe strongly that government can lead us out of this crisis, and the government can do so by cutting expenditure on non-essentials including the need to stop spending our hard-earned revenue on a national cathedral, he told government.



Discussing the issues on NEAT FMs morning show, Joseph Yamin said the reason by TUC for the government to convert the National Cathedral was laudable and must be supported by all.



How much we have spent on the cathedral doesnt make economic sense, he said.



Adding that, "the arrogant posture of President [Akufo-Addo] will not allow him to listen to what the masses are saying.







Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









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Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Member of Parliament for North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has asked President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo to immediately dissolve the board of trustees of the National Cathedral.



He is also asking for a Board of Inquiry to be set up to investigate the misappropriation that has taken place since government's decision to construct a National Cathedral.



Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he further urged government to retrieve monies that has been spent and wrongfully paid to persons who have illegally benefitted from proceeds that are meant for the construction of the National Cathedral.



He said the Board of Trustees should equally out of respect resign to save their name from further disgrace because the construction of the National Cathedral is fraught with numerous scandals.



"I will further in the coming days reveal more scandals I have personally investigated and it is more damning than what I have revealed so far," he added.



Watch Video Below





The NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has once again taken on the Akufo-Addo government, accusing it of registering the National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc, as a non-profit organisation in the United States of America.In his latest revelation, Mr Ablakwa who made a trip to the United States to gather evidence, wondered why none of the prominent ministers of the gospel who serve as trustees of the National Cathedral of Ghana feature in the articles of incorporation and list of trustees as submitted to US authorities.

Read full Statement Below



Before proceeding to provide details on the latest "National" Cathedral expose, kindly permit me to salute Comrade Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, General Secretary of the TUC for his remarkably courageous, frank and patriotic remarks on President Akufo-Addos scandalous Cathedral project in the presence of the President at yesterday's Labour Day commemoration. Comrade, you have inspired millions!



President Akufo-Addos National Cathedral project remains the most sleazy, reckless, sacrilegious and scandalous mission by sheer magnitude and audacity in the entire history of Ghana.



In this latest installment of National Cathedral transgressions, my international partners and I shall be focusing attention on findings from our investigations into the Akufo-Addo governments cathedral operations in the United States of America.



It is important to bear in mind that the US has been a major target for fundraising by National Cathedral and Government of Ghana functionaries including President Akufo-Addo.



Todays publication is only the first in the series of troubling discoveries we have made in the United States.



Articles of Incorporation we have secured from the District of Columbia Governments Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (corporations division) confirm that a nonprofit corporation has been registered known as the National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc.



This National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc. received its Certificate of Incorporation with its effective date being May 3, 2021 and signed by Josef G. Gasimov, Superintendent of Corporations, Corporations Division.



It is worthy of note that the name National Cathedral of Ghana and Museum Foundation, Inc. is unmistakably different from what was incorporated in Ghana some two years prior, specifically on the 18th of July, 2019 as the National Cathedral of Ghana.



Curiously, we have also discovered that none of the prominent Ministers of the Gospel who serve as Trustees of the National Cathedral of Ghana feature in the articles of incorporation and list of governors as submitted to US authorities.



The names of governors and authorized persons as contained in the Two-Year Report for Domestic & Foreign Filing Entity are: Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah, Eric Okyere Darko and Dr. Vernon Darko.



In US corporate terms governor typically refers to a member of the board of directors.



We know Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah as the Executive Director of the National Cathedral Secretariat, however, it is unclear why government preferred Mr. Eric Okyere Darko and Dr. Vernon Darko over and above the prominent clergy serving on the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral of Ghana.



The Akufo-Addo governments decision to leave out the clergy in its US operations is particularly strange considering the fact that a considerable number of these ministers have towering presence in the United States. For instance, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams has long incorporated multiple branches of his Action Chapel International in US cities such as Baltimore, Dallas, New York, Tulsa, Silver Spring in Maryland and the state of Pennsylvania. Indeed his 2007 established US headquarters is the Virginia Chapel where Bishop Dr. Kibby Otoo who is married to the Archbishops daughter Lady Elsie serves as the Presiding Bishop for the Americas and Caribbean. Archbishop Duncan-Williams has also been an almost permanent fixture of the prestigious US National Prayer Breakfast.



Bishop Dag Heward-Mills is similarly celebrated for his numerous Qodesh Family Church branches in several states in the United States. So is Rev. Eastwood Anabas ministry and not to mention the other internationally famous denominations such as Pentecost, Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist who all have or once had leading priests on the Board of Trustees in Ghana.



This specific finding of the neglect of the Ghanaian clergy in favour of cronies of the regime gives credence to concerns expressed by Bishop Dag Heward-Mills in his famous resignation letter that it was obvious some outsiders were the real trustees and that inputs from people like him did not matter.



Remember that theres no residency requirement to be registered as a governor or director in Washington DC.



Further checks conducted indicate that Mr. Eric Okyere Darko was appointed to the Board of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) by President Akufo-Addo and sworn in by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on October 12, 2021  a few months after he was listed as one of three governors of the National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc.



Mr. Eric Okyere Darko was also one of Hon. Kennedy Agyapongs lawyers in the recent case against Anas.



Dr. Vernon Darko on the other hand is said to be the founder and CEO of EQUIPXP (EXP) and a small business exporter. It is not clear what his usefulness will be to a National Cathedral project.



Even more shocking, we have discovered that the address provided on both the National Cathedral of Ghana website and to US authorities as the official address of the National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc. is absolutely fraudulent. The advertised address is: National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc.

1090 Vermont AVE NW,

Washington, DC 20005.



A personal visit to this address in Washington, DC and thorough verification from managers of the property indicate that the National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc. has never been a tenant at that address. Indeed, none of the offices of the 12-floor apartment building has ever been occupied by the National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc. or any agency representing this entity. The managers of the property were furious and clear that what was going on was simply criminal.



We also decided to embark on the long travel to Springfield in Missouri where Mr. Cary Lee Summers who has been given US$6million of our money is described on the National Cathedral of Ghana website as Consultant for the United States.



On the National Cathedral website, the website of Nehemiahgroup.io and with official documents filed with US authorities, Cary Lee Summers provides this address for his Nehemiah Group: 3119 S Scenic Ave, Suite A, Springfield, MO 65807.



When we arrived at that address, there was nothing about the Nehemiah Group. We surprisingly saw quite a ramshackle warehouse with the inscription: Churchill Coffee Company, Wholesale Division.



While I was assessing the shacky warehouse which has portions used as a gym, Mr. Cary Lee Summers stepped out of his coffee wholesale division and made it into my pictures while briskly entering his car in very casual attire



How on earth did a Nehemiah Group address with its CEO keeping our colossal US$6million under a bankrupt economy lead us to a warehouse?

It is also most revealing to note that Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah uses the same Cary Summers Churchill Coffee address of 3119 S Scenic Ave, Suite A, Springfield, MO 65807 as his personal address from the articles of incorporation to the two-year report filing.



How long has Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah and Cary Lee Summers been sharing the same personal address?

Did Cary Lee Summers deserve that dubious sweetheart US$6million?

Was it a professional engagement or it was an insider deal?



Is it mere coincidence that soon after mysterious Cary Lee Summers received Ghanas US$6million he bought a new 4-bedroom house at 10107 E Farm Road 156, Rogersville, Missouri, 65742?



I shall return in a few days with part 2 of the American edition.

For God and Country.













Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









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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Mensah Thompson, Executive Director of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), has taken a jab at the Vice President of the Republic, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, over his candidature to become the next President of Ghana.



Speaking to host Nana Yaw Kesseh during Peace FM's morning show "Kokrokoo", Mensah Thompson blasted Dr. Bawumia describing him as a failed leader and the governing New Patriotic Party for aggravating the plight of Ghanaians.



"As we speak, the number of taxes on fuel prices; about seventeen different taxes on petroleum products. As we speak, we continue to pay COVID tax. We still pay sanitation and pollution tax on petrol . . . 3 years after COVID, we are still paying COVID tax and sanitation and pollution tax . . . and you claim to have done well, so we should clap for you," he said.



He doubted Dr. Bawumia's competence and ability to manage the economy saying, "for the first time under Dr. Bawumia, Ghana is struggling to get an IMF programme . . . It has never happened before. Did we even suffer this much when we were going into HIPC around 2000/2001? Just to secure an IMF programme, Dr. Bawumia cannot deliver . . . Even a common IMF programme, Dr. Bawumia, as the Head of the Economic Management Team, you cannot deliver".



"What message is Dr. Bawumia bringing to campaign for the votes of Ghanaians? What new thing is Dr. Bawumia coming to tell Ghanaians?", he queried.



Also, to him, for the NPP to have a number of candidates contesting to become the party's Presidential candidate shows the party has lost confidence in Dr. Bawumia.



"A sitting Vice President, look at how many people are contesting him. Even his own party doesn't believe him."





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Former Gender Minister under the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Otiko Afisa Djaba has called out government over what she says is the apathetic outlook they are portraying despite the current state of the economy and the outcry of Ghanaians.



According to her, Ghanaians entrusted their lives and future in the hands of the ruling government when they decided to vote for the NPP in the 2020 elections and therefore it falls on the government to sit up and do better with its decisions.



Her comments come on the back of an outcry by some caterers in the Ashanti Region who have expressed displeasure about the delay in payment of their arrears and the 97 pesewas granted to children.



Otiko Djaba, while voicing her grievances over the response by government over time to issues of this concern on GTVs breakfast show said;



I am very angry with my government. That issues like this, in terms of the caterers, prompt action is not being taken, she said.



When 1 million people give their votes to you, you must do the right thing by them. This is not about politics, this is about the development of the people, with the people. Giving them the necessary information. Where you cannot meet them, talk to them. They are human beings; they will understand because the NPP is a listening government. These are serious times and we need serious decisions to be taken.



Food prices are like that all over the world, it's not only Ghana but why are you a leader? You are a leader to solve the problems, she added.



The former Minister also, while emphasizing the fact that her utterances have nothing to do with personal grievances, said she is merely bothered that the party appears to have lost the trust of Ghanaians with some of their decisions, urging for them to do the right thing rather than focus on political gains.



I want to see my government, which I believe in, sit up. It is not about breaking the 8, Its about solving the problems of the people of Ghana that is why you are elected, she said.



I have nothing to be peeved about, I have so much joy about my party and Im very proud of them. Akyia, emmu y3! But we must be serious and understand that it is a privilege to be in this position, you will never get it again. Out of the 30 million Ghanaians, you have been given the single privilege to take Ghana to the next level.



Lets die trying, lets put in the structures, the fight that we fought during the campaign, lets reignite it, and open fire, then the people of Ghana will understand that, we are serious about their development and we will win back their trust. Take the apathy out. Yes, there are issues but which life hasnt got issues? It is our time to get it right and we must die getting it right and that is why I am so angry and I want all the ministers and appointees and everybody that believes in Ghana to get angry enough. And the government should not take it as somebody is shaming them oh, criticism is good to prepare you to get it right.



The people of Ghana are waiting for us to do the right thing and by God if we are alive today, lets do everything we can. All the challenges, are opportunities for us to think outside the box and get it right. Ghana deserves it, you and I deserve it, she added.















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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Ghanaian musicians Medikal and Shatta Wale have a close relationship, often supporting each other publicly.



However, Shatta Wale's ex-partner, Diamond Michelle Gbagonah, better known as Michy, recently confronted Medikal over comments he made regarding Shatta's parenting.



Specifically, Michy took issue with a statement Medikal made claiming that Shatta pays for his son's school fees, which she disputed.



The conversation between the two quickly escalated at a blogger's party on April 29, with Medikal advising Michy to act responsibly while she was filming him and the latter using an expletive in reference to the rapper.



Medikal was attending the event with his wife, Fella Makafui, and had to be pulled away by a friend when Michy became agitated.



In the video, Medikal said the comment that upset Michy was not about her son, Majesty, but rather about his (Medikal's) own child, Island Frimpong, whose school fees Shatta reportedly pays.





Shatta Michy corner Medikal for one side make he run pic.twitter.com/ltiZqoQFq8  SIKAOFFICIAL (@SIKAOFFICIAL1) April 30, 2023

Source: graphic.com.gh









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More than 700,000 children in Pennsylvania have no place to go during their out-of-school hours for supportive and enrichment activities and some lawmakers are looking to change that.

Enduring a chilly day with rain drizzling upon them, a large crowd of youngsters and high schoolers gathered with lawmakers and Lt. Gov. Austin Davis on the state Capitol steps on Wednesday to call for a first-ever sustainable state investment in out-of-school programming.

What they plan to do about it: Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culver, R-Northumberland County, is proposing legislation identical to a bill already introduced in the House by Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh County, to create a program dubbed Building Opportunity through Out-of-School Time or BOOST, in the state Department of Education to support quality programs during young peoples out of school hours.

According to the Pennsylvania Statewide Afterschool/Youth Development Network said they are asking for the state to earmark $70 million annually in the state budget to fund the BOOST program

Why does it matter: According to several speakers Pennsylvania would save $6.69 for every $1 invested in out-of-school time programs from reduced substance use, violent crime, teen pregnancies, and high school dropout rates.

Additionally, they said it exposes children to learning experiences outside of the classroom, helps to build relationships with their peers, gain life skills and more in a safe, supportive environment.

What people said: Davis, who admitted to being a regular attendee at the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club in McKeesport when growing up, said, Whether its making sure we create a workforce that can empower us into the future or making sure we can reduce violence in our communities, funding after school programs is a step in the right direction.

Contrell Armor, director of the Pennsylvania Statewide Afterschool/Youth Development Network, called the programs a lifeline for many children to give them access to resources and opportunities they dont have at home to thrive.

Culver said, Many after school programs arent able to find the funding they need to operate and as a result, many children miss out on this really valuable opportunity and this is why I believe we need to do so much more to support after school programming in Pennsylvania.

Sen. Mike Regan, R-Cumberland/York counties, said, I spent a lot of time, 23 years of my life in law enforcement and Im acutely aware of the fact that that period of time where kids get out of school to when they go home is a very, very dangerous time. Its an opportune time for things to happen that shouldnt happen if theres proficient programs in place where these children can go and learn a skill, learn a trade, get some positive role models.

Several high schoolers also spoke at the event about how their exposure to after school programming enriched their lives and opened up opportunities they otherwise would not have had.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.
A central Pennsylvania coffee roaster is percolating up a fifth shop.

In the coming weeks, Denim Coffee, which is based in Chambersburg, is opening at the former Capital Joe Coffee at 36 W. Main St. in Mechanicsburg.

Co-owner Matt Ramsay said he had a lot of respect for Capital Joe and wanted to continue offering the community a stop for coffee. Denim started in 2011 as a coffee roaster and operates shops in Harrisburg, Chambersburg, Carlisle, and Dickinson College.

Theres not a ton of coffee down there, so I thought it would be a real loss without coffee, Ramsay said, of opening in Mechanicsburg. We are super excited and working as hard as possible to get opened.

The new shop will offer Denims line of coffee and espresso drinks, along with baked goods and breakfast sandwiches. The first-floor shop is undergoing light remodeling, including the installation of a new coffee bar, Ramsay said.

Denim received a $50,000 loan to assist with the opening of the shop funded through a 2022-23 Community Development Block Grant program. The buildings second floor will be used as an artist venue for exhibits, studios, a gallery, and special events, said Rebecca Yearick, community and business development manager for the Housing & Redevelopment Authorities of Cumberland County.

Denims menus are straightforward with drip brew and pour-over coffee and espresso drinks including macchiatos, cappuccinos, lattes, and mochas.

The espresso is served following meticulous specifications. It all starts with water, which is filtered through reverse osmosis and mixed with liquid minerals to meet the ideal brewing specifications.

Ramsay said he plans to open at least 10 Denim shops, a number that would allow them to buy coffee beans directly from farmers. The model, he said, would cut out brokers and ultimately give farmers a fairer deal on the sales.

He said hes looking forward to joining the Mechanicsburg retail scene, which includes newcomers such as Revolutionary Sauce Eatery & Brewpub.

Denims shop will be open 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m., daily.

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WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will send 1,500 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border starting next week, ahead of an expected migrant surge following the end of coronavirus pandemic-era restrictions.

Military personnel will do data entry, warehouse support and other administrative tasks so that U.S. Customs and Border Protection can focus on fieldwork, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. The troops will not be performing law enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants, or migrants, Jean-Pierre said. This will free up Border Patrol agents to perform their critical law enforcement duties.

They will be deployed for 90 days, and will be pulled from the Army and Marine Corps, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will look to backfill with National Guard or Reserve troops during that period, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said. There are already 2,500 National Guard members at the border.

The COVID-19 restrictions have allowed U.S. officials to turn away tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border, but those restrictions will lift May 11, and border officials are bracing for a surge. Even amid the restrictions, the administration has seen record numbers of people crossing the border, and President Joe Biden has responded by cracking down on those who cross illegally and by creating new pathways meant to offer alternatives to a dangerous and often deadly journey.

For Biden, who announced his Democratic reelection campaign a week ago, the decision signals his administration is taking seriously an effort to tamp down the number of illegal crossings, a potent source of Republican attacks, and sends a message to potential border crossers not to attempt the journey. But it also draws potentially unwelcome comparisons to Bidens Republican predecessor, whose policies Biden frequently criticized. Congress, meanwhile, has refused to take any substantial immigration-related actions.

Then-President Donald Trump deployed active-duty troops to the border to assist border patrol personnel in processing large migrant caravans, on top of National Guard forces that were already working in that capacity.

Jean-Pierre downplayed any similarity between Bidens immigration management and Trumps use of troops during his term. DOD personnel have been supporting CBP at the border for almost two decades now, Jean-Pierre said. So this is a common practice.

But some in Bidens own party objected to the decision.

The Biden administrations militarization of the border is unacceptable, said Senate Committee on Foreign Relations chair Bob Menendez, D-N.J. There is already a humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, and deploying military personnel only signals that migrants are a threat that require our nations troops to contain. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Its another line of defense in an effort to manage overcrowding and other possible issues that might arise as border officials move away from the COVID-19 restrictions. Last week, administration officials announced they would work to swiftly screen migrants seeking asylum at the border, quickly deport those deemed as not being qualified, and penalize people who cross illegally into the U.S. or illegally through another country on their way to the U.S. border.

They will also open centers outside the United States for people fleeing violence and poverty to apply to fly in legally and settle in the United States, Spain or Canada. The first processing centers will open in Guatemala and Colombia, with others expected to follow.

The Pentagon on Tuesday approved the request for troops by Homeland Security, which manages the border.

FILE - Migrants who crossed the border from Mexico into the U.S. wait next to the U.S. border wall where U.S. Border Patrol agents stand guard, seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Thursday, March 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

The deployments have a catch: As a condition for Austins previous approval of National Guard troops to the border through Oct. 1, Homeland Security had to agree to work with the White House and Congress to develop a plan for longer-term staffing solutions and funding shortfalls, to maintain border security and the safe, orderly, and humane processing of migrants that do not involve the continued use of DOD personnel and resources, said Pentagon spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Devin Robinson.

As part of the agreement, the Pentagon has requested quarterly updates from Homeland Security on how it would staff its border mission without servicemembers. It was not immediately clear if those updates have happened or if border officials will be able to meet their terms of the agreement  particularly under the strain of another expected migrant surge.

Homeland Security said it was working on it. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is investing in technology and personnel to reduce its need for DOD support in coming years, and we continue to call on Congress to support us in this task, the agency said in a statement.

Colleen Long, Aamer Madhani and Tara Copp of The Associated Press wrote this story.

AP writers Zeke Miller, Rebecca Santana, Lolita Baldor and Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.

More:

Rotten egg smell preceded Pa. chocolate factory blast: workers

Pregnant Pa. mother stranded in Mexico by immigration issue
A player for a small college in Texas who was struck by a stray bullet while standing on the field Sunday remains hospitalized with serious injuries including partial paralysis of his left leg.

Matthew DeLaney was not in uniform for Texas A&M-Texarkana and was standing near the bullpen and batting cages when he was hit in the chest by a bullet that had been fired from a nearby neighborhood.

DeLaneys mother said Tuesday that her son is improving but faces a long recovery, according to an ESPN story.
CLEVELAND, Texas  Authorities near Houston say they have caught a man suspected of killing five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old boy, with an AR-style rifle after the family confronted him late at night about firing rounds in his yard.

Francisco Oropeza, 38, was arrested Tuesday, four days after the shooting late Friday in the town of Cleveland, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Houston, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.

Oropeza was was arrested without incident, Henderson said. The sheriff would not say whether Oropeza was armed or how authorities figured out where he was.

Police had used drones and scent-tracking dogs during the wide search for Oropeza that included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Oropeza had fled the scene after the attack that also left four adults dead. He said his deputies had been called to the suspects house at least one other time previously over shooting rounds in his yard.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who faced backlash over drawing attention to the victims immigration status, had offered a $50,000 reward over the weekend for any tips that might lead to the gunman.

While doing so, the three-term governor described all the victims as illegal immigrants  a potentially false statement that his office walked back and apologized for Monday.

More than 250 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies, including the U.S. Marshals, were part of a growing search.

Law enforcement authorities removing bodies from a scene where five people were shot the night before Saturday, April 29, 2023, in Cleveland, TX. Authorities say an 8-year-old child was among five people killed in a shooting at the home in southeast Texas late Friday night. (Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle via AP)AP

The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times, according to U.S. immigration officials. The gunman was first deported in March 2009 and last in July 2016. He was also deported in September 2009 and January 2012.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

Juan Lozano and Nomann Merchant of The Associated Press wrote this story.
State police are investigating after a body was found in the woods near an interstate road in Clearfield County on Tuesday.

Police said that a construction worker was traveling along Hoopup Road, near an off-ramp to I-80 westbound, at around 10:25 a.m. when he spotted the body, according to reports from WJAC and WTAJ.

Officials said they are working to identify the body and that details are limited at this time.

READ MORE: Pa. distribution center to close; 132 people to be laid off
A judge from Lackawanna County who is a Dickinson School of Law graduate will receive President Joe Bidens nomination Wednesday to take the bench in central Pennsylvanias federal court.

Julia K. Munley, a Lackawanna Court of Common Pleas judge, will receive Bidens endorsement for candidacy to be a judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, according to the White House.

Judge Munley is experienced, highly qualified and dedicated to the rule of law and the Constitution, a press release said.
Having to slow your vehicle to 15 mph to pass through the toll booths on the Pennsylvania Turnpike will soon be a thing of the past.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission said it has entered the final phase of implementing All-Electronic Tolling by installing an electronic cashless overhead system that drivers pass under at highway speed with no need to slow down and pass through a booth.

The commission said work is underway to relocate tolling points in eastern PA from their current interchange locations. New highway-speed collection points are being built along the roadway between interchanges using a technique called Open Road Tolling, or ORT  a cashless, free-flowing mode of collecting tolls without traditional toll plazas or tollbooths.

Drivers will pass under structures called gantries that are located on the Turnpike between exit and entry points. The equipment in the gantry and in the road, the Turnpike said, identifies and classifies vehicles and processes E-ZPass and Toll By Plate payments.

The commission started the electronic tolling project 13 years ago. The first four pilot projects were launched between 2016 and 2019. The remaining parts of the Turnpike converted to electronic tolling in 2020. Open Road Tolling is the final stage.

Open Road Tolling is the culmination of the PA Turnpikes decade-long journey to modernize operations and meet customer expectations for seamless, nonstop travel, said PA Turnpike CEO Mark Compton. ORT is a safer, more convenient way for customers to travel and represents the future of toll collection worldwide.

The commission said that Open Road Tolling is safer for drivers and Turnpike employees, safer for the environment, allows access points to be added more easily and at a lower cost and will save the Turnpike $75 million a year.

Construction is underway on 19 gantries with small utility buildings east of the Reading interchange (Exit 286) to the New Jersey line and along the entire Northeastern Extension (I-476).

The eastern ORT system will go live in 2025. The ORT system for the central and western PA Turnpike roadway is expected to be built beginning in 2025, with an anticipated go-live date of 2027.

The commission said state police will slow traffic on the Turnpike on Sunday nights during off-peak hours for several months across the Eastern section so that the gantries can be installed.

In January of this year, Turnpike tolls increased by 5% to meet funding and capital-improvement obligations.

The Turnpike Commission is legislatively mandated to pay the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation $7.9 billion over the past 15 years. The commissions obligation in 2022 decreased to $50 million per year, down from $450 million but the commission said it will be paying down the debt to finance the Act 44 mandate for years to come.

The Commissions funding plan calls for toll increases of 5% through 2025 based on current projections. Ultimately, the goal is to hold annual increases to 3% beginning in 2028.

According to the commission, The most common toll for a passenger vehicle [increased] from $1.70 to $1.80 for E-ZPass customers and from $4.10 to $4.40 for Toll By Plate customers.
An early morning shooting in Pittsburgh over the weekend has left a man in critical condition, according to KDKA and WPXI.

The shooting happened just after 2 a.m. Sunday morning where gunshots were heard in the in the South Side of the city. When authorities responded to the scene, they encountered a man who had been shot in the arm, leg and stomach.

Police provided medical aid until EMS arrived, where they transported him to the hospital. The victim was taken into surgery and was listed in critical condition. No one else was injured but officers believe bullets went flying from a moving vehicle, KDKA reported.

The suspected shooter, 31-year-old Kenniel Roberts, is now facing several charges relating to the shooting, according to WPXI.

Police used surveillance footage and information from witnesses to find out that the suspect was a Black man with a medium build and shoulder-length dreadlocks and saw that the shooter was driving a black Mitsubishi SUV.

According to reports, an argument sparked the shooting, where Roberts argued with an ex-girlfriend and another man. It didnt take much for officers to get his name due to the Quick Arrest program after running his ex-girlfriends name. From there, they were able to obtain a photo of him, which matched the description of the shooter captured by cameras and witnesses, WPXI reported.

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After a two-decade effort, a bill that would add sexuality and gender identity to Pennsylvanias non-discrimination law passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday, a milestone hailed by LGBTQ advocates.

House Bill 300 passed on a 102-98 margin, with all but two Republicans voting against, and all but one Democrat in favor.

The measure now heads to the GOP-controlled Senate, with some proponents expressing optimism Tuesday that the bill could clear that chamber as well. Gov. Josh Shapiro has voiced support for the bill.

What we have done is to lay down a groundwork here in Pennsylvania so that 20 years from now, our kids wont even know what were talking about when we say that you could lose your job for putting up a picture of your spouse, or you could be kicked out of your apartment for who you love, said Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, the bills prime sponsor.

HB300 amends the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, which governs the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission  the body that investigates and adjudicates complaints of discrimination in housing, employment, and public services. The commission can levy fines, and refer cases to court for further resolution.

In addition to race, religion, and other attributes listed in current law, HB300 would add sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression to the list of prohibited types of discrimination.

Such protections currently exist in the commonwealth, but to a less certain extent; the PHRC has issued guidance interpreting the existing prohibition on sex-based discrimination as including LGBTQ status, and that interpretation was approved via regulation late last year.

Similarly, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County extended the employment protections of federal civil rights legislation to gay and transgender individuals.

But supporters of HB300 have said that regulatory rulings and court precedents are not the same as actual law, and that many members of the public are surprised to learn that discrimination against LGBTQ individuals still remains facially legal under the PHRA.

We know that most Pennsylvanians believe our commonwealth is better when it is fair, said Rep. Jessica Benham, D-Allegheny, a sponsor of the bill and co-chair with Kenyatta of the House LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. HB300 is going to ensure a fairer and more equal future for all of us.

Republicans on Tuesday objected to the bill on both its merits and its process. Democrats had amended the measure in an Appropriations Committee meeting on Monday, which Republicans said was inconsistent with House rules restricting amendments in that committee to fiscal matters only.

Democrats retorted that GOP leadership had similarly made substantial amendments to bills in Appropriations when Republicans controlled the House in years prior; in a party-line vote Tuesday, Republicans failed to block HB300 from being reported back from Appropriations to the full House.

One of the two amendments made Monday removed language authorizing the state education department to develop a program on diversity. The other amendment changed language in HB300s religious exemption clause that requires consistency with the commonwealths Religious Freedom Protection Act.

Kenyatta and Benham said Tuesday that many of the bills changes were an effort at compromise, and that the legislation did not go as far as originally envisioned. But during Tuesdays floor debate, Republicans core objection remained, with Minority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, saying HB300 would create the potential for a new form of religious discrimination.

HB300 specifies that nothing in the PHRA shall be interpreted to require an individual or religious entity to engage in conduct that constitutes a substantial burden on the free exercise of religion without a compelling interest and in the least restrictive manner pursuant to the RFPA.

Rep. Tim Bonner, R-Mercer, questioned if HB300 is trying to change existing constitutional law by introducing the substantial burden language and restricting the definition of religious entity to those that are tax-exempt, a qualification that was amended into the bill last month.

Other Republicans said they feared that the prohibition of discrimination in public accommodations  a term that encompasses most public-facing businesses and services  could be construed to force providers to do things they believed were unwise.

Rep. Paul Schemel, R-Franklin, stated concerns that a doctor could be required to perform gender-related surgery they thought was medically unsound; several GOP members asserted HB300 could also force changes to the standards for transgender athletes participating in sex-segregated sports.

Democrats rejected the notion that the public accommodations language could be extrapolated in such a way. Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, said Republicans were engaging in sky is falling rhetoric.

The fact of the matter is that 24 other states have these protections and none of these scenarios have played out, Frankel said.

You can try to assuage concerns about language in the bill, but you cant assuage concerns about things that dont exist in the bill, Kenyatta said following Tuesdays vote when asked about efforts to bring Republicans on board. All we can say is thats not true.

Rep. Aaron Kaufer, R-Luzerne, urged his colleagues to not let perfect be the enemy of good, and vote in favor of HB300, even though some concerns remained. Kaufer was joined by one other Republican - Rep. Alec Ryncavage, R-Luzerne - in voting for the bill. Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria, was the only Democrat to vote against.

Benham predicted hard work and difficult conversations in moving the bill through the other chamber. Senate Republican spokeswoman Kate Eckhart Flessner said Tuesday night that HB300 will be referred to the appropriate committee, and that the extremely narrow margin by which the measure passed the House demonstrates the need for a full evaluation.

Bills adding gender and sexuality to the nondiscrimination law have been introduced as far back as 2001, according to Frankel, who was one of the first to support such a measure. At that time, Frankel said, the legislature was still passing bills such as one to penalize universities for offering benefits to same-sex couples - a sign of how much attitudes have changed.

The LGBTQ nondiscrimination bill has only made it through committee once before, in 2009, according to the Pennsylvania Youth Congress, an advocacy group for LGBTQ young people.

Survey data indicates that discrimination against LGBTQ people remains relatively widespread. A 2017 Harvard study found that 22 percent of LGBTQ people nationally have experienced discrimination in renting or buying housing; a UCLA survey in 2021 found that 46 percent of LGBTQ people have experienced workplace discrimination at some point, 31 percent of them in the past five years

I dare to say I almost didnt survive to see the legislation come to pass, said Kendall Stephens, one of many LGBTQ Pennsylvanians who have shared their story at recent rallies.

Stephens said she was evicted by her landlord, intimidated at work, and ultimately was the victim of an assault while she was a Temple student in August 2020  all because she is transgender.

The lack of legal protections in Pennsylvania signals to people that its open season on trans people, Stephens said at a rally last month.

More:

Bill provides up to $8,000 a year in scholarships aid to aspiring teachers passes Pa. House

Committee approves bill to add union rights to Pa. constitution

Gov. Josh Shapiro signs landmark law requiring insurers to cover life-saving breast cancer screenings
Eileen Saki, the Japaanese-born actress who portrayed the popular bar owner Rosie in the long-running television series M*A*S*H, died Monday at age 79 from pancreatic cancer, according to a report from the Hollywood Reporter.

Saki was the third and longest-tenured actress to play the owner of the fictional watering hole, located just outside the 4077th M*A*S*H campsite in the Korean War-era television series that ran from 1972 to 1983, according to a Variety report.

Saki went on to other television projects after M*A*S*H ended, landing roles on TVs Good Times, CHiPs, The Greatest American Hero, Gimme a Break! and Without a Trace and in such films as Meteor (1979), History of the World: Part I (1981) and Splash (1984), according to the Hollywood Reporter.

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Philadelphia police are looking for a man who they said attempted to sexually assault a young woman outside an apartment complex near the University of Pennsylvania early Tuesday morning, according to news sources.

The incident occurred just before 2 a.m., outside of Hamilton Court along the 3800 block of Chestnut Street. The victim attends the school and said she was taking out the trash at the apartment complex when she was approached by a man who threatened her with a knife, according to reports from NBC10 and 6ABC.

It was previously said the victim was sexually assaulted, but in an update Wednesday morning, the incident turned out to be an attempted sexual assault, 6ABC reported.
Theres little debate that policing reform is one the most urgent issues of our day. Its even more urgent if youre a Black man in America.

The Pennsylvania Council of Churches believes the issue is so urgent, its organizing a Summit on Policing with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 10 at St. Stephens Cathedral, 221 N. Front St. The forum will start at 6 p.m.

The Pennsylvania Council of Churches has invited Paul Butler, one of the nations acclaimed authors and experts on criminal justice, to keynote its Summit on Policing" at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 10 at St. Stephen's Episcopal Cathedral in Harrisburg.

PennLive and The Patriot-News are supporting the event as a media sponsor.

The Pennsylvania Council of Churches has invited one of the nations acclaimed authors and experts on criminal justice to keynote its Summit on Policing. Paul Butler, author of Chokehold: Policing Black Men, also is a professor at Georgetown University and is considered one of the nations preeminent scholars on race and the criminal justice system.

The Rev. Dr. Larry Pickens is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches.

The Rev. Dr. Larry Pickens is the visionary behind the Pennsylvania Council of Churches new mission to engage the states faith leaders in addressing racism and its impact on people of color. He stepped into the role of Executive Director during the COVID shutdown but is now leading the organization out of a period of isolation into what he hopes will be a new era of engagement and social activism.

The event also will include a panel discussion featuring Chad Dion Lassiter, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission; David Splain, president, Pennsylvania Association of Police Chiefs; and Jennifer Gettle, Deputy District Attorney, Dauphin County.

Butler, Lassiter and Pickens will meet with the Editorial Board for PennLive and The Patriot-News at 11 a.m. Monday, May 8 in an event that will be streamed live to Facebook.

The Pennsylvania Council of Churches event is just the latest manifestation of local faith leaders stepping to issues that some may consider controversial.

Episcopal bishops hold a rally at the state Capitol Rotunda. Saving Lives: Ending Gun Violence Now demands legislators enact reasonable, sensible gun laws that could save lives. March 6, 2023. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

Just a few weeks ago, all of the bishops of the Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania signed a letter calling for stronger gun laws in the state. They even went to the capital to make their call echo through the Rotunda. And theyre joining with Heeding Gods Call to organize a Gun Violence Awareness Day from 3-6 p.m. May 7 with events starting at Capital Street Presbyterian Church at 1401 Cumberland St.

Its important to note that the Pennsylvania Council of Churches is a powerful and respected organization of leaders of numerous Christian denominations. If it takes up a cause, it can have significant influence, not only in the Pennsylvania legislature, but among the voters aligned with its churches.

We are church bodies and agencies representing Anabaptist, Episcopal, Orthodox, Pentecostal, and Protestant communions in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, its website says, working together for Christian unity for the sake of the world.

The Rev. Dr. Pickens is moving to unite Christians in Pennsylvania to address racism in policing. That begins by educating our communities on what studies show about how police treat Black and Brown people, especially Black men.

Portrait of Georgetown Law Professor, Paul-ButlerSamuel Stuart Hollenshead

Paul Butler is the right teacher to begin the education in our region. He served as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, where his specialty was public corruption. And he is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.

Butler regularly appears on national television as a legal analyst and commentator, and he has served as the Bennett Boskey Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. He also holds an honorary Doctor of Law Degree from City University of New York.

If that isnt enough, he regularly lectures for the American Bar Association, the NAACP, as well as at universities and community groups throughout the country. And he is widely published, including the Georgetown Law Journal, Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review and the UCLA Law Review. One of his books, Lets Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice received the Harry Chapin Media award.

When he speaks in Harrisburg on Wednesday, Butler will talk about his book, Chokehold: Policing Black Men, published in July 2017. The Washington Post named it one of the 50 best non-fiction books of the year. Chokehold was also named one of the best books of the year by Kirkus Reviews and the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The New York Times described the book as the best read on criminal justice reform since The New Jim Crow.

There is no debate, Butlers credentials are impeccable. He has the additional credential of being a Black man in America. No doubt, hes seen a thing or two, and is ready to tell us all about it.

Joyce M. Davis is PennLives Outreach & Opinion Editor. She is also a member of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches Board of Directors. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter @byjoycedavis.

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The Pennsylvania Senate voted passed a three-bill package on Wednesday aimed at ensuring public assistance benefits are provided to only those individuals who qualify to receive them.

What the bills do: The chamber sent to the House of Representatives a measure that requires the Department of Human Services to monthly compare death records to the list of those receiving medical assistance and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, otherwise known as food stamps. A second measure it sent to the House requires the department to quarterly check wage records held by the Department of Labor and Industry against recipients of those public assistance programs.

The third bill it passed requires the department to annually report to the General Assembly detailed information regarding lottery winnings and assets held by benefit recipients, which is intended as a way to review the effectiveness of the Public Assistance Integrity Act passed in 2018 to tackle fraud.

All three bills passed on a 28-21 vote, with Democratic Sen. Lisa Boscola of Lehigh County joining the Republican Caucus in supporting the bills.

What opponents said: Sen. Art Haywood, D-Montgomery County, said the cross-checking of death and wage records required by two of the measures are already being done by the human services department among with other records it checks.

Additionally, Haywood said many individuals who resort to making fraudulent claims for benefits do so out of desperation and this legislation, however, does nothing to address the core needs of addressing the desperation. Further, he said the information sharing that the third measure requires could result in burdensome delays to individuals who are waiting for assistance decisions.

Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-Allegheny County, said she agrees stronger protections are needed to ensure tax dollars are being spent as intended but felt a more effective way of doing that would be to adopt the proposed Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Act that she is sponsoring along with Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York County. That proposal would give whistleblowers protection and incentives to come forward with reports of welfare abuse.

We know from study after study that most fraud is identified by tips, Williams said. We know that Pennsylvania is literally leaving millions of dollars per year of fraud recovery on the table as a result of not having a false claims act like she and Phillips-Hill are proposing.

What the bills sponsor said: Sen. Dave Argall, R-Schuylkill County, acknowledged the cross-checking of records that his legislation calls may already be a practice of the department but I would suggest to you that its time to put that into law so that no future bureaucrat, no future governor could stop the existing efforts.

Moreover, he said the cross-checking that is happening apparently isnt enough since in the first two months of this year, 85 people were charged by the Inspector General for committing a combined $500,000 of public assistance fraud.

If we can squeeze the waste, the fraud, the abuse out of the current system, then we can afford to help those who genuinely need a bit more, Argall said.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.
The B.C. Securities Commission says a now-defunct cryptocurrency platform based in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island committed a multimillion-dollar securities fraud involving various digital currencies. An advertisement for bitcoin, one of the cryptocurrencies, is displayed on a building in Hong Kong, on Nov. 18, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Kin Cheung
888poker Mystery Bounty Weekend Events Obliterate Guarantees

May 03, 2023 Matthew Pitt Editor

There were some people who thought 888poker had set the guarantees for its Mystery Bounty Weekend Main Events too high, with the $60 edition featuring a $100,000 guarantee, and the $22 Mini Main Event boasting a $50,000 prize pool.

Any worries about hitting those ambitious totals were soon dismissed with 2,418 players turning out for the $60 buy-in event, creating a $132,990 prize pool, and 3,372 entrants in the $22 Mini Main Event building a $67,440 pot!

The $60 buy-in $100,000 guaranteed 888poker Mystery Bounty Weekend Main Event paid out eight mystery bounties worth four figures and a jackpot tipping the scales at a cool $10,000.

Twenty-fourth place finisher "Ungulaitis" and eighth-place finisher "Dimitri1111" helped themselves to $3,000 mystery bounties, with the United Kingdom's "Mouse32" pulling out a $10,000 score from a golden envelope. That huge payment meant Mouse32 won the second-most prize money despite not reaching the eight-handed final table!

$100,000 Main Event MB Weekend Final Table Results

Place Player Country Bounties Prize Total Prize 1 keybr Brazil $1,040 $11,462 $12,502 2 Juliangard Sweden $393 $8,365 $8,758 3 Agdchan Kazahkstan $593 $6,149 $6,742 4 LuckmanDie Germany $491 $4,556 $5,047 5 S3ndL0cation Estonia $296 $3,369 $3,666 6 KDS.em Ukraine $344 $2,514 $2,858 7 AlinnC Romania $394 $1,883 $2,278 8 Dimitri1111 Romania $3,196 $1,427 $4,624

The final table shuffled up and dealt at 7:00 p.m. BST on May 2, with "Agdchan" leading the way in terms of chip stacks. it took 20 minutes for the first player to be stacked, and the aforementioned Dimitri1111 was that player.

"S3ndL0cation" min-raised with pocket sixes before calling the eight big blind shove from Dimitri1111, which the Romanian made with ace-four of hearts. The board ran out king-high, and S3ndL0ction raked in the pot and reduced the player count by one.

"AlinnC," also of Romania, fell in seventh ten minutes after Dimitri1111. "LuckmanDie" raised to 2.2 big blinds from late position, AlinnC three-bet to 5.5 big blinds from the small blind, only for "Juliangard" to four-bet jam for 26.3 big blinds from the big blind. LuckmanDie had seen enough and folded, but AlinnC called off the 10.4 big blinds they had behind.

It was ace-jack for AlinnC but the dominating ace-king for Juliangard. A king on the turn proved more than enough to bust AllinC from the tournament.

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"KDS.em" was the next to fall after losing all but three big blinds after rivering trip queens and running into the full house of S3ndL0cation. That micro stack went into the middle with ace-jack of clubs from under the gun, and LuckmanDie snap-called from the big blind with pocket nines. LuckmanDie flopped a set and improved to a full house to bust KDS.em.

S3ndL0cation had a 71-big blind stack at the start of five-handed play, but was still the next player heading to the showers. They lost a large percentage of their stack with ace-jack versus Juliangard's pocket aces in a battle of the blinds, and they never recovered.

They got their last 11 big blinds into the middle with queen-nine on a queen-six-king-nine board, only for Juliangard to snap them off with queen-deuce of clubs having hit a flush on the turn. The river missed S3ndL0cation, and they went from hero to zero, although the $3,666 they bank will go some way to numbing the pain.

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Nothing went right for LuckmanDie after the scheduled break, and they ultimately bowed out in fourth for $5,047. "Agdchan" min-raised under the gun with eight-seven of diamonds, LuckmanDie responded by three-betting all-in for 19 big blinds with pocket fives, only for "keybr" to wake up in the big blind with a pair of kings in the hole. keybr called, the initial raiser folded, and a ten-high board proved no help to the all-in player, leaving only three 888poker players in the hunt for the title.

Those three became two when Agdchan ran into a cooler situation. keybr limped with nine-eight in the mall blind, and Agdchan checked with jack-nine in the big blind. keybr check-raised a one big blind bet to 3.6 big blinds on the four-eight-nine board, and Agdchan called.

The turn was a jack, gifting Agdchan a better two pair. keybr fired a 9.1 big blind bet, and Agdchan called. An eight on the river have keybr a full house, and they bet enough to set their opponent all-in. Agdchan couldn't find a fold, and called off their 19.8 big blind stack with an expensive second-best hand.

That massive pot left keybr with a colossal 102.6 blind stack against the 18.3 big blinds of Juliangard. Unsurprisingly, it did not take long for the tournament to crown its champion.

The final hand saw keybr open-shove with pocket threes, and Juliangard call off their 13 big blinds with ace-five. A few seconds later, the draw-heavy board had missed Juliangard, leaving keybr to become the 888poker Mystery Bounty Weekend Main Event champion, an accolade that came with $12,502 in cold, hard cash.

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Brazilians Dominate Mystery Bounty Weekend Mini Main Event

888poker is hugely popular with Brazilian players, and make no wonder when they dominate a tournament as prestigious as the $50,000 Mystery Bounty Weekend Mini Main Event. Some 3,372 entrants created a guarantee-busting $67,440, and a large chunk of that money is now in Brazilian players' 888poker accounts.

Five of the eight finalists had a Brazilian flag next to their names, including the champion. "marcelowo14" defeated their fellow countryman heads-up to capture a $6,310 prize, with second-place weighing in at $4,661, an impressive score considering the tournament only cost $22 to enter.

Of course, the final two players were not the only ones to win big. British grinder "360F1" may have crashed by the wayside in 357th place and missed out on some main prize pool money, but they eliminated an opponent and pulled out a $1,500 mystery bounty payment!

Twentieth-place finisher "larsu89" also reeled in a $1,500 mystery bounty, while Montenegro's "ChuckkNorris'" golden envelope contained the $5,000 jackpot bounty payment.

$50,000 Mini Main Event MB Weekend Final Table Results

Place Player Country Bounties Prize Total Prize 1 marcelowo14 Brazil $774 $5,535 $6,310 2 DuXOBaLa Brazil $646 $4,014 $4,661 3 jpcervecero Argentina $54 $2,907 $2,962 4 bomraPAZ Brazil $196 $2,122 $2,318 5 UECplayer Brazil $364 $1,561 $1,926 6 m0zzes Ukraine $91 $1,145 $1,237 7 zedonato Brazil $164 $848 $1,013 8 Barns1358 United Kingdom $54 $632 $687

Experience the Thrill of 888poker's Mystery Bounty Tournaments

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Mystery Bounty tournaments with buy-ins from only $1 to $109 run every day, with a massive $100,000 guaranteed affair taking place on Sunday. Your next chance to become that event's champion is May 7 at 7:00 p.m. BST. Will PokerNews be writing about you in our next 888poker Mystery Bounty recap? Download 888poker via PokerNews to lock-in the best 888poker bonus found anywhere online.
Epic Comeback Victory for Takashi Ogura in 2023 Poker Dream Manila SHR

May 03, 2023 Christian Zetzsche Live Reporter

The 2023 Poker Dream Manila stop has crowned another champion in a high-stakes contest in the Grand Wing Casino of the Newport World Resorts Integrated Resort in Metro Manila. Out of a field of 39 entries in the PHP500,000 Super High Roller, Japan's Takashi Ogura defeated Gary Thompson in heads-up to claim the biggest portion of the PHP18,154,500 ($327,468) prize pool. He did so the hard way after the stack of Ogura was reduced to just half a big blind once the tournament reached the money stages with six players remaining.

Runner-up Thompson recorded his joint-best MTT score on the live poker circuit after a recent victory in the UK Poker Open 2023 2,000 High Roller back on European soil for 59,530 a few weeks ago in March. His frequent visits to the Philippines have paid off once more as he claimed a consolation prize of PHP4,270,000 ($77,022).

Follow the 2023 Poker Dream Manila action Don't miss any of the 2023 Poker Dream Manila action Click here for all the live updates

Malaysia's Eng Soon Ewe aimed for a repeat victory in this event after he took down the 2022 Poker Dream Vietnam Super High Roller but finished in third place this time. His brother Eng Siang Ewe was the first player in the money, WSOP bracelet winner Danny Tang and cash game player Ajitpal Singh also received cash prizes as well.

Final Result 2023 Poker Dream Manila PHP500,000 Super High Roller

Place Winner Country Prize (in PHP) Prize (in USD) 1 Takashi Ogura Japan 6,170,000 $111,294 2 Gary Thompson Ireland 4,270,000 $77,022 3 Eng Soon Ewe Malaysia 2,720,000 $49,063 4 Ajitpal Singh Singapore 2,090,000 $37,699 5 Danny Tang Hong Kong 1,634,000 $29,474 6 Eng Siang Ewe Malaysia 1,270,000 $22,908 Prize Pool 18,154,500 $327,468

Final Six Players

The final day saw 15 players out of 27 entries return to their seats in the grand ballroom, but the late registration remained open for another three levels, after which the field size grew by nearly 50%. It didn't take long to reduce the field to the final two tables soon after the registration had closed and among those to come up empty during that frantic stage were Paul Fontan Castrillon, Kah Yew Teng, and Wei Hsiang Yeu.

Australia's William Jia went from chip leader on the live-streamed feature table to the rail and the player to claim all of his chips, William Teoh, suffered the same fate later on as well. Poker Dream founder Winfred Yu, Wai Kiat Lee, and Lester Edoc all came up short of the unofficial final table which then commenced with two bangs. Day 1 chip leader Sriharsha Doddapaneni bowed out in the very first hand before a three-way all-in delivered a one-outer for Ewe to burst the bubble just one hand later.

Danny Tang

Ogura's hopes of a victory were reduced to all but zero when he jammed into the aces of Eng Siang Ewe, but he pulled several rabbits out of the hat thereafter to survive the ensuing all-in showdowns. Instead, it was his former nemesis to become the first player in the money followed by Natural8 ambassador Danny Tang. Three-handed play followed after the departure of Ajitpal Singh, after which the action became tenser.

Stack sizes nearly evened out at one point before Ogura pulled way ahead of his two opponents. He then knocked out Ewe in third place and entered heads-up play with a commanding lead. Thompson came from behind to double once, but ultimately got grinded down again before losing with pocket nines to the suited ace of Ogura.

This concludes the PokerNews updates for this high-stakes contest, and the live reporting team will be back on May 4, 2023, for the 2023 Poker Dream Manila Main Event.

Sharelines Here's what went down in the 2023 Poker Dream Manila Super High Roller.
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A former FBI supervisor has been arrested for multiple crimes related to the 1/6 attack, including breaching the Capitol and encouraging rioters to kill police.

CNN reported:

Investigators say that Wise, who was a special agent and supervisory special agent with the FBI from 2004 through 2017, entered the Capitol on January 6, confronted officers and encouraged other rioters who attacked law enforcement.



You guys are disgusting. Im formerIm former law enforcement, Wise allegedly told the officers during the interaction, which was captured on body worn cameras. Youre disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You cant see it.  Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!

Prosecutors say that Wise also encouraged other rioters who were attacking police in front of him, shouting, Kill em! Kill em! Kill em!

Trump has radicalized parts of current and former law enforcement. The Secret Service destroyed 1/6 attack evidence it is assumed to protect themselves and Trump.

The 1/6 attack wasnt an Antifa or an FBI operation as the conspiracy theorists claim. It was an attack carried out by people some of whom were or had been law enforcement against American democracy.

People who had taken an oath to protect and serve turned on their fellow law enforcement officers and tried to attack and kill them, or in Wises case, encouraged others to attack and kill them.

In the years since 1/6, federal law enforcement is still arresting domestic terror suspects who participated in the attack. If Republicans take back the White House in 2024, the arrests will stop.

For the sake of protecting democracy and holding those accountable who attacked it, Republicans should not be returned to power.
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Fox News has been pushing out stories in corporate media outlets that all paint Tucker Carlson as a racist that Fox News didnt know about.

Foxs new cover story as reported by The New York Times is that a text from Tucker Carlson alarmed them:



In the message, sent to one of his producers in the hours after violent Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Carlson described how he had recently watched a video of a group of men  Trump supporters, he said  violently attacking an Antifa kid.

It was three against one, at least, he wrote.

And then he expressed a sense of dismay that the attackers, like him, were white.

Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously, he wrote.

Its not how white men fight, he said. But he said he found himself for a moment wanting the group to kill the person he had described as the Antifa kid.

It is not difficult to come up with a pretty solid guess about who is feeding these stories to big corporate media outlets. Dominion has nothing to gain by leaking the Tucker texts. They are most interested in protecting their business, and they wouldnt jeopardize the settlement to release messages from Carlson.

The motion to get the redacted test unredacted from several media companies is still pending. Carlson isnt leaking damaging information on himself, so that leaves only one party that has access to the texts and a motive for burying Carlson, and thats Fox News.

The Murdochs are making Tucker Carlson the fall guy. They are trying to sell that they were alarmed by Carlsons texts, but the whole premise relies on the idea that Fox News doesnt know what it is in the shows that they are putting on the air.

Fox News that Tucker Carlson was a racist, and they were more than happy to make money off of his racism and white nationalism until they decided that they were done with Carlson. Fox knew exactly why what was going on, and nobody should be fooled by their PR campaign.
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House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Jaime Raskin (D-MD) has released new information that counters false statements made by Chair James Comer (R-KY) about the Biden team handling of classified documents.

Comer has been engaging in racist conspiracy theories about Kathy Chung, former Assistant to then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Chair Comer refused to release the full transcript of Chungs interview with the committee but has instead appeared on conservative media to make false claims about Chung, who is South Korean being involved with the Chinese government.

Rep. Raskin said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA:

Since launching their investigation into then-Vice President Bidens handling of classified records, Committee Republicans have peddled false claims and racist innuendo to distract from their unwillingness to investigate former President Trumps mishandling of and refusal to turn over hundreds of classified records retained at his Mar-a-Lago Club.

Committee Republicans have also refused to seek any information about former Vice President Mike Pences mishandling of classified documents. Todays memo shows the extent to which Committee Republicans have lied about Ms. Chung, including the purpose of her position in the White House, in an effort to land airtime on Fox News and Newsmax. To provide the American people a full accounting of the facts, Chairman Comer should publicly release all transcripts in this investigation.

Comer has claimed that Chung was hired to move classified documents based on Hunter Bidens recommendation, which is a claim that Chungs interview transcript refutes.

House Republicans are not releasing full transcripts of interviews, giving Democrats access to evidence and witnesses, and have tried to conduct their investigation in secret while releasing cherry pieces of the transcript.

Chairman Comer is doing the same thing that Jim Jordan got caught doing with his investigations on the Judiciary Committee. Comer and Jordan arent finding actual evidence to support their conspiracy theories and help Donald Trump so they are trying to invent evidence to support their conspiracy theories.
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Trumps lawyers announced that they would not be putting on a defense case at the E. Jean Carroll civil rape trial, and Carrolls lawyers expect to be done with their case by Thursday.

Via: The AP:

Donald Trumps lawyers said Wednesday that they will not call any witnesses at the New York civil trial arising from writer E. Jean Carrolls claims that the former president raped her in the mid-1990s.

Trump lawyer Joseph Tacopina said they decided not to put on a defense case after learning that health issues were preventing their expert witness, a psychiatrist, from testifying. Tacopina previously disclosed that Trump would not testify at the trial, in federal court in Manhattan.

I am not a lawyer, but it appears that Trumps attorneys are signaling that they dont believe that Carrolls attorneys effectively made their case.

The verdict will determine whether they are proven correct or not, but it seems risky to not put up a defense, especially because Carroll and other witnesses who allege that Trump assaulted testified for days.

The E. Jean Carroll trial could do a lot of damage to Trump if he is found liable for raping Carroll. The burden of proof is lower in civil court but Trump would have an additional title to be carrying around with him on the 2024 campaign trail to add to insurrectionist, felony indicted. Trump could also be referred to as a rapist if Carroll wins her case.
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Mostly sunny. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 91F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Low 64F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
A North Charleston chemical business spun off from WestRock Co. said the closure of its former parent's nearby paper mill won't have a big impact on its business, but it will need to find a new source for a key ingredient in one of its most popular products.

Ingevity Corp. CEO John Fortson said WestRock's announcement on May 2 that it will shut down its 86-year-old mill this summer is expected to have "minimal disruptions to our operations."

The mill, located along the Cooper River  and just down the road from Ingevity's O'Hear Avenue headquarters  will be closed Aug. 31. About 500 workers will be affected.

Atlanta-based WestRock is blaming the closure on a combination of high operating costs and the need for significant capital investment.

Ingevity said it will work with its former owner "to transition limited shared services," such as electricity, before the closure and it expects that transition will trigger an extra, unspecified expense.

The mill closure also won't impact an existing long-term supply agreement Ingevity has with WestRock for crude tall oil  a byproduct of wood pulp manufacturing. It's a key feedstock for Ingevity's chemicals used in goods such as adhesives, paving and automotive components.

The shutdown will affect the supply of a different raw material. Lignin, a polymer derived from a regulated and potentially hazardous paper-making byproduct called "black liquor," is used in certain agricultural chemicals. Ingevity spokeswoman Caroline Monahan said the company has alternative sources but did not elaborate.

Ingevity said in its annual report that it currently buys 75 percent of its crude tall oil and black liquor from paper mills operated by WestRock and Georgia-Pacific. It said its relationship with the two companies is "strategically important to our performance chemicals business" because of limited global supply of the products.

The availability is under pressure because some paper mills are using crude tall oil as an energy source or to reduce their carbon footprint rather than selling it. Sanctions imposed on Russia in 2022 have also reduced the global supply by about 10 percent. The increased demand for crude tall oil as a biofuel has also driven the price higher.

Ingevity, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange employs 2,050 workers at 14 sites in 10 states, the United Kingdom and China. It formerly operated as a division within the forest-products giant MeadWestvaco Corp., which Rock-Tenn Co. bought in 2015 to create WestRock. The chemical group was spun off as an independent public company about a year later

Ingevity reported its first-quarter financial results May 3, including a 2.6 percent year-over-year increase in sales to $392.6 million. Net income decreased 17 percent to $50.7 million.

Executives will discuss the results with analysts during a May 4 webcast.

Forest products and chemicals are the two largest export commodities at the Port of Charleston, accounting for roughly 41 percent of all containers shipped to foreign markets each year. The State Ports Authority did not respond Wednesday to a question about how the WestRock mill shutdown will affect its operations. WestRock's mill in North Charleston will be the second paper-making plant in the Southeast to be idled this year. In February, Pactiv Evergreen closed its 1,300-worker site in Canton, N.C., about 20 miles from Asheville. "These closures reflect the challenging markets for consumer packaging within the industry," according to a statement issued Wednesday by the Arkansas Center for Forest Business. "Operating costs and capital costs for upgrades to maintain productivity are so high that restructuring has been common in the paper industry over that past decade as U.S. paper production has declined from 82 to 72 million tons per year." The Arkansas research group estimated the North Charleston mill closure will result $119 million in lost annual wages.
Hong Kong: DC reform briefing held

Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang and Secretary for Home & Youth Affairs Alice Mak today briefed community members on the proposals on improving governance at the district level.

The Government announced the proposals yesterday, with a view to reforming and depoliticising District Councils.

At a briefing session with Hong Kong deputies to the National Peoples Congress and Hong Kong members of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference this afternoon, Mr Tsang and Miss Mak highlighted five benefits of the proposals. They also introduced the plans on reforming the composition of district councils and various methods of filling the seats.

The session was conducted in an interactive manner, with the attendees actively taking part in the discussions and expressing their staunch affirmation and support to the reform.

The two bureau heads emphasised that the proposals are formulated based on Hong Kongs actual circumstances, adding that they are conducive to maintaining the citys long-term prosperity and stability and promoting a better living and working environment for all.

The Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Bureau and the Home & Youth Affairs Bureau will continue to hold similar briefings in the coming weeks, the Government added.

This story has been published on: 2023-05-03. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
COLUMBIA  A female student at Hopkins Middle School was sexually assaulted by a male student in the schools hallway in April 2022, according to a lawsuit filed against the school, Richland County School District One and the S.C. Department of Education by the girl's mother.

The lawsuit accuses the school, district and Education Department of negligence, alleging that they failed to keep the girl safe at school or train their staff to properly deal with harassment and bullying of students.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed in Richland County court April 12, the girl was verbally, physically and sexually assaulted while walking to class by a student who was not allowed to be in the hallway at the time.

The filing calls the boy she claims attacked her a violent student who was to be detained, and says school and district staff already knew of that students dangerous and violent behavior.

School administrators failed to do anything after the assault, the complaint alleges, adding that the girl was shuffled from various administrators to make a report and shamed into believing that the assault was her fault.

Richland One spokeswoman Ilyssa Weiner said the district does not comment on pending litigation. Department of Education spokeswoman Laura Bayne said the agency did not have any immediate comment about the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A week after the assault, the girls mother informed school and district administrators about how her child had been assaulted, threatened, frightened and bullied, she said in the lawsuit. She also met with Hopkins' principal, vice principal and administrative assistant, the lawsuit says.

The girl was traumatized by the incident and began seeing a therapist, the filing asserts, and suffered from depression, nausea, vomiting and headaches.

But school, district and department officials did not follow the parent's instructions to prevent or mitigate the female student's trauma, the complaint alleges, adding that officials were negligent in forcing the student to return to her "usual daily routine."

They were also negligent by allowing the male student to be released from detention unsupervised, the lawsuit says.

Hopkins Middle School serves about 500 students in lower Richland County, off Clarkson Road.

Click here for more news from Columbia, S.C.
COLUMBIA  Bond for a teenager facing charges tied to the Meadowlake Park mass shooting was revoked May 3 after prosecutors said he was "a clear and present danger" with three gun-related arrests in eight weeks.

The move comes as South Carolina's magistrate judges face scrutiny amid calls for reform. The magistrate who issued the bond for the teen on April 29 might not stay on the bench.

The bond revocation came hours before the Richland County Sheriff's Department announced the arrests of two other teens as suspects in the shooting that wounded nine people. Two others were injured in the melee, including a high school student who was struck by a car.

Circuit Judge Robert Hood revoked bond at a May 3 hearing after a magistrate had released the 18-year-old TyQuan Kelly from jail on $10,000 bond, despite previous charges in March and April.

At the time of his arrest tied to the mass shooting, Kelly was out on a $50,000 bond on accusations of pointing a gun that had been made fully automatic with a glock switch at a womans head and threatening to kill her, according to the Richland County arrest warrant.

Court records show that the same bond court magistrate, LaTonya Derrick, set bond for the two weapons charges in April, just two weeks apart.

Richland Sheriff Leon Lott has been a vocal advocate for bond reform, repeatedly calling on changes to stop the so-called catch and release of violent criminals. Lott told reporters that Kelly was a danger to the community, adding that Kelly had been arrested three times over a two month period, each time on a gun charge.

The (magistrate) judge already knew he was out on two bonds, Lott told reporters. The judge knew that and still that judge still set a bond of $10,000 which is less than the second bond set on him, so that just doesnt make common sense.

The S.C. Supreme Court recently ordered that all magistrate and municipal judges undergo training on setting bond in criminal cases.

In the Statehouse, the House and Senate have passed different versions of bond reform bills and are expected to negotiate a final version. Both versions of the bill include provisions that would immediately revoke bond for defendants charged with some gun crimes while out on bond and require subsequent bond hearings to be heard before a circuit judge rather than a magistrate.

Gov. Henry McMaster has continued to push for bond reform, often using the phrase close the revolving door, referring to when a suspected violent offender is arrested for another violent crime while out on bond.

Derrick's future on the bench is unclear. Her term ended April 30. Lott said May 3 that a lawmaker, whom he would not name, told the sheriff that she would not be reappointed. However, state Sen. John Scott, the Columbia Democrat in charge of her appointment, declined to say whether he plans to have Derrick remain as a magistrate.

The mass shooting at the park northeast of downtown Columbia has shook the community because there is no reported motive.

During the early hours of April 29, shots broke out at Meadowlake Park where more than 100 teens and young adults gathered after a number of high schools held proms. The Richland County Sheriffs Department said 11 people, ages 16 to 20, were injured and bullets from rifles and handguns were found at the park.

Following the incident, deputies followed a car driving without the headlights on and pulled it over after a pursuit. Kelly was in the passenger seat.

Another teenager, 19-year-old Miquise Fulwiley, was driving the car, according to the sheriffs department. The two teens were charged with unlawful carry of a pistol and possession of marijuana. Fulwiley faces an additional charge of failure to stop for blue lights.

Kelly was later released from the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on a $10,000 surety bond hours after the shooting April 29.

Days later, 5th Judicial Circuit Assistant Solicitor Jack Jackson filed a motion to revoke bond saying Kelly represents a clear and present danger to the victims and community at large.

During the bond revocation hearing May 3, public defender Jessica Sturgill told the judge that the recent charges against the teen had nothing to do with the shooting.

They dont have someone else to blame, Sturgill said hours before the juveniles' arrest. There were hundreds of people. There are hundreds of possible suspects, hundreds of victims and all of them were fleeing.

Sturgill also noted that Kelly was on crutches due to a broken ankle, so a narrative of suspects running and firing shots doesnt fit her client.

A woman, who identified herself to the judge as Kellys mother, said her son was a good kid.

I just want him to be home, she told the judge. Be home in the house and not go nowhere.

In the past eight weeks, Kelly was arrested three times on seven different charges, and each time he had a gun, Jackson said during the May 3 bond revocation hearing.

Hes proven that he gets out on bond and continues to commit crimes, Jackson said. Hes now associated with a very violent and dangerous incident.

In early March, Kelly was a passenger in a car that was pulled over by Richland deputies. The car was searched by the K9 unit and deputies found marijuana and a handgun in the front passenger compartment of the car, according to an arrest warrant.

Magistrate Judge Patience Van Ellis set a $2,500 surety bond for unlawful carry of a pistol and intent to distribute, court records show.

The following month, on April 16, he was arrested again after allegedly threatening a woman, holding a fully-automatic gun to her head. He was charged with possession of a machine gun or sawed-off shotgun, possession of a stolen pistol, and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. According to the state prosecutor, the accuser is considering dropping the charges.

Derrick set a $50,000 surety bond with the conditions that he stay 1,000 yards away from the woman's home, work, school and place of worship.

Just two weeks later, that same magistrate judge reviewed the teen's new charges and set his bond for $10,000, court records show. Derrick could not be reached for comment.

As Hood revoked the Kelly's bond, the judge said the 18-year-old was a danger to the community.

Youve been arrested now three separate times for incidents involving firearms, one for the fully automatic weapon, which is a violation of state law and federal law, Hood told Kelly as the teenagers mother started to cry.
GREENVILLE  A Texas-born coffee chain known for its special sweet milk will open its first South Carolina location in Greenville.

Summer Moon Coffee will open May 20 in a shopping center across the street from The Lofts at Mills Mill in the Dunean neighborhood. The cafe will have a dive-thru and outdoor seating.

The company roasts its beans in brick roasters over seasoned Texas oak. It draws in customers because of its Moon Milk, a signature sweet cream made of seven ingredients.

The grand opening runs from 7 a.m. to noon. The first 50 guests will receive a Summer Moon swag bag. All guests will also get a free coffee and sample of Moon Milk until the supply runs out.

Charles Garcia and his family own the first location in South Carolina, adding to the other 53 locations across the country. He said his family discovered the brand while traveling through the Austin area "and instantly fell in love with the coffee and also with the atmosphere." After talking with one of the baristas, Garcia was given a Post-it note with the CEO's email address.

"I sent him an email that night from our hotel and our journey began," he said in a release. "We have spoken for years about the need for someone to bring a better coffee experience with multiple locations to the Upstate, but we didn't know that it would be us doing it."

The company started in Texas and now has locations in Kansas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina, Illinois and Alabama. Additional expansion markets are planned for the future, a release said.

The store will be located at 409 Mills Ave. in Suite 200 in Greenville. The coffee shop will be open weekdays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on the weekend from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
EASLEY  The co-author of a book that was banned by the Pickens County School District is embarking on a three-city tour: New York, Atlanta and Easley.

Jason Reynolds will speak May 5 at Hampton Memorial Library, a branch of the Pickens County Library System, about his new book, Miles Morales: Suspended, a novel about the Marvel superhero. The event is hosted by the library system, Fiction Addiction bookstore and Clemson Area African American Museum.

Reynolds co-authored Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You with Ibram X. Kendi, which was taught in a Pickens County high school English class before its ban in October. The book has been a favorite target in the recent push to ban books on race, gender and sexuality from schools in South Carolina and across the country.

The ACLU of South Carolina sued the school district in federal court April 27 to put Stamped back on shelves, saying the school boards five-year ban violated the First Amendment. The district declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Kendi and Reynolds argue in Stamped that race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence, according to Kendis website.

Although the Pickens County School District had removed the Stamped book, (Pickens County Library System) staff felt that this was an amazing opportunity to bring a great author and speaker to the library system, Pickens County Library System director Stephanie Howard wrote in an email. None of Mr. Reynolds or Mr. Kendis books have been removed from the Pickens County Library system or have been up for reconsideration.

Fiction Addiction contacted Howard in April and asked if the library was interested in hosting Reynolds in May, Howard said. The library system hosts events for local and regional authors but has also worked with Fiction Addiction to bring in larger, award-winning writers. Theyve previously hosted Orson Scott Card and Erin Entrada Kelly.

Howard noted Reynolds accomplishments, including being a two-time finalist for the National Book award, and winning or receiving honors from various other awards, including the Walter Dean Myers Award, multiple Coretta Scott King awards and multiple NAACP Image awards. He was also the Library of Congress National Ambassador for Youth Literature in 2020-21.

It would be absurd for the county librarian to deny our community the opportunity to hear Mr. Reynolds speak, Howard said. I believe the people of Pickens County are diverse, smart, wonderful people who have the full capacity to decide for themselves what public library events they would like to attend, or not attend  and what books they would like to read, or not read.

The lawsuit against the Pickens school district was filed on behalf of the Pickens branch of the NAACP and three families with students in the district. It claims the district banned the book under political pressure from ultra-conservative groups.

The boards decision came despite unanimous recommendations by review boards of educators and parents to keep the book.

The event is May 5 at 7 p.m. at Hampton Memorial Library in Easley. As of the evening of May 2, there were only 50 tickets remaining and 350 had been sold, Howard said.
Summerville, SC (29483)

Today

Mixed clouds and sun this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 93F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 66F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 91F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Mount Pleasant, SC (29464)

Today

Partly cloudy with afternoon showers or thunderstorms. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 87F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Low 66F. WSW winds shifting to NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
CONWAY  A fierce debate between Horry County Council and impassioned Carolina Forest residents led to a massive multipurpose development plan in the rapidly growing area being stalled for now.

The plan includes rezoning two plots of land, nearly 214 acres in total, into a mixed-use development off Postal Way and U.S. Highway 501 within unincorporated Myrtle Beach.

The changes would allow over 1,100 new units, including homes, offices and retail spaces, according to county documents.

The homes would consist of townhomes and single-family and multifamily units. If approved, the project could be completed by 2029, according to county documents.

The project  likened to Myrtle Beachs popular residential and shopping district Market Common  has been heavily criticized by residents for its potential to worsen the areas traffic and overcrowding.

We elected you to represent us, and we should be able to trust you not to do anything detrimental to our communities, like overwhelm our already overcrowded schools, said Terry Ewing, a retired teacher from Myrtle Beach, while addressing council.

After giving an initial approval last month, County Council postponed its vote on the projects second reading until at least May 16. The decision to defer came after a nearly hourlong dispute between residents, project officials and County Council members, including Dennis DiSabato, who represents Carolina Forest.

The council decided to delay votes on two large-scale projects May 2. Approval of a controversial plan to turn a Little River biker bar site into a high-end apartment complex was halted following a heated debate between Horry County Council and concerned residents.

As for the Carolina Forest proposal, DiSabato said he understands how the project could impact overcrowding in the schools but that Horry County Schools should provide input to council if they are concerned about a project.

I cant halt projects when were not getting feedback from Horry County Schools, DiSabato said, adding he has met with district officials on the issue.

At least 24 district schools have exceeded 85 percent "efficient" functional capacity, including seven in Carolina Forest. Functional capacity reflects a schools space constraints, and helps districts plan for individual facility needs, according to county documents.

Felix Pitch, representative for G3 Engineering, said his firm and Thomas & Hutton, another engineering firm, have worked together for over six months on behalf of the two sites property owners to create the plan.

We're supplying the necessary roadway improvements that this development requires to support it, Pitch said, referencing the $13.6 million in proposed improvements for the project. We're going above and beyond that. We're trying to do a good project, planned and coordinated.

Pitch said his client has no interest in annexing the property into neighboring Conway, which some residents have suggested could happen. He also offered to let County Council speak with attorneys and engineers who attended the meeting that night.

Really, your opinions are the one that's important to us, Pitch said to County Council, sparking shouts and grumbles from the crowd.

Some residents suggested that the property be used for industry, given the nearby railway tracks, but DiSabato shot that idea down. He said it would only result in more trains in the area and angry residents.

"Those track blocks are going to go down, and you're going to have people who are frustrated at that intersection ... calling me every week," DiSabato said. "Im not about to start letting that happen."

After the council deferred the vote on the project to May 16, DiSabato also suggested holding a community meeting to inform the public on the project. That meeting date has not been announced yet.

This proposal comes as thousands more homes are expected to be built in the Carolina Forest area over the next decade, adding more residents to a population of 23,342, according to 2020 census data. Carolina Forest would be one of South Carolinas top 25 largest cities if it were incorporated.
CONWAY  Approval of a controversial plan to turn a Little River biker bar site into a high-end apartment complex has been halted for now, following a heated debate between Horry County Council and concerned residents May 2.

The plan would rezone an 18.72-acre lot at Pecan Street and S.C. 9 East from commercial forest agriculture to multi-residential, which would allow 280 apartments and more than 500 parking spaces to be built. The site currently features the biker bar Harleys Roadhouse.

Dozens of residents have criticized the plan for how it could worsen traffic, residential safety and overcrowding, particularly in schools and health care facilities.

"We firmly believe this project will be a detriment to the area," said local homeowner Susan Kreyer. "It is our desire to be good neighbors, but that is a two-way street."

Horry County Council initially planned to fully approve the project May 2 but ultimately deferred it until May 16, citing these concerns.

"We have worked on this project for several weeks, months now," said County Councilman Mark Causey. "We have scaled the project back. I've not heard from anyone, except for our last council meeting, so I thought we were on the right page."

The project was one of two large developments delayed by council May 2.

Council put off a vote on rezoning 214 acres in Carolina Forest to allow for over 1,100 new units, including homes, offices and retail spaces, according to county documents.

With the Little River project, Causey referred to how the project was initially slated to have 374 multifamily units, with over 600 parking spaces, and has since been downsized to 280 units with over 500 parking spaces, according to county documents.

Hidden Brooke subdivision residents who live behind the property are concerned the plan will worsen the area's traffic issues, particularly their existing challenge of leaving Pecan Street, their main subdivision road.

The street opens onto Sea Mountain Highway without a stoplight, and S.C. Highway 9 East connects to Sea Mountain Highway with a wide turn. This allows cars to keep coming without reprieve, residents said.

Kreyer said she believes the existing infrastructure would not support hundreds of additional residents and vehicles in the area. Specifically, she mentioned how traffic from North Myrtle Beach High and Junior High schools already creates backups during the peak school pickup times.

Regarding schools, homeowners also warned how it could worsen overcrowding.

All five North Myrtle Beach schools already have exceeded their functional capacity for the 2022-23 school year. Functional capacity reflects a schools space constraints, according to county documents.

One of those five schools is Waterway Elementary School, where local homeowner Sam Preston's two young children attend.

"I came from a small town in California," Preston said. "You really don't want to turn Little River, a small, nice community, into what California is."

Causey said he would prefer not to develop the property, but the development will happen eventually so he wanted to find the best use for it, which he had thought was the apartment plan.

The plan was ultimately deferred after several residents debated with Causey for a couple of minutes outside of time allotted for public comments. Council Chairman Johnny Gardner banged his gavel multiple times to silence the residents and continue the meeting.
FOLLY BEACH  As family and friends reconcile the loss of a woman just hours after her wedding, details continue to emerge regarding the crash along a Folly Beach road as well as the actions of the woman charged with killing her.

Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced for Samantha Miller, 34 of Charlotte, who was killed only hours after her wedding April 28. She and her husband and two of his family members were traveling in a low-speed vehicle when it was struck by a car going 60 miles over the posted speed limit.

Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25 of James Island, was behind the wheel of a rented Toyota Camry when the crash happened at 10:15 p.m. in the 1200 block of East Ashley Avenue. She has been charged with DUI causing serious bodily injury/death and reckless homicide. Denied bond, she is in the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center. Her next court appearance is scheduled for June.

Meanwhile, a GoFundMe initiative arranged by Miller's mother-in-law continues to receive an outpouring of donations.

As of May 2, there have been more than 12,000 donations totaling nearly $500,000; Contributions have ranged from $10 to multiple $5,000 donations that will go toward services for Miller as well as medical expenses for the injured.

Among those are Aric Hutchinson, 36, of Charleston and Bountiful, Utah. Millers husband of about five hours has had two reconstructive surgeries after suffering broken bones as well as a brain injury in the wreck.

Other efforts are also being developed by those who knew Miller. A group of friends and other members of South Mecklenburg High Schools 2007 class are banding together for their own fund-raising project to assist Millers family. That includes Julie Brown, of Charlotte.

Brown and Miller connected early in middle school, with Browns maiden name Kirsch aligning near the Ms. Brown said they remained close through school, but lost touch somewhat after graduation and only occasionally connected. Still the intentions were there on both sides, she said, to do a better job going forward.

I told my husband last night that in one of my last conversations with Sam she said she was upset that we didnt stay in touch more, Brown said. Even after that conversation we couldnt seem to get it to a point where we were in each others lives more often. Ive definitely had a  its been hard.

You wish you could go back and change how things worked out. Its just an awful situation. And I think a lot of the people Ive grown up with have echoed the same sentiment. She always made an effort to stay in touch with everyone and its hard. Its really, really hard.

According to affidavits, police encountered a grim scene after being called to the site. Three passengers were slipping in and out of consciousness while Miller was pronounced dead at the scene.

While medical care was being provided to the injured, police interviewed Komoroski, who was unharmed. She admitted to driving the car that struck the LSV as well as to having two drinks  a beer and a tequila  about an hour before the crash. When asked by police to rate her level of impairment with one being sober and 10 being completely impaired, Komoroski responded she was at a level eight.

She strongly refused both a field sobriety test as well as to provide breath samples. Komoroski was later transported to MUSC where two vials of blood were extracted and sent to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division in Columbia for testing. Andrew Gilreath, Public Safety Department Director for Folly Beach, said the results of those blood tests should be available in about a month.

Komoroski was then medically cleared and sent to jail in North Charleston where she was placed under suicide watch after telling MUSC staff she wanted to kill herself.

Komoroski faces up to 25 years in prison for each DUI count and up to 10 years in prison if shes found guilty of reckless homicide.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 89F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 66F. WSW winds shifting to NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
So, this parent tells the Dorchester District 2 school board hes deeply concerned about a book in school libraries.

In its pages, he found the story of two sisters who get their father drunk to have incestuous relations with him. Its vulgar and pornographic, the parent claims  and whats worse, the book defends this father as a righteous man.

I believe that my children should not be exposed to what is clearly an attempt to normalize this behavior and places them at risk of predators, the parent said. It is this type of literature that leads to grooming and human trafficking.

Thats a pretty incendiary, yet common, complaint in most school districts these days, a largely social media-orchestrated controversy stoked by political operatives for political reasons. And one the Dorchester 2 School Board handled deftly last week.

More on that in a minute.

The twist here, if you didnt see it coming, is the parent was reading the story of Lots daughters from Genesis. Yeah, the Bible.

If this exercise in futility  because I would never expect the Bible to be removed from our schools  seems inflammatory and ridiculous, thats because it is, he said. It is this type of ridiculous behavior this board is consistently forced to endure.

Amen, brother.

His point was you cant judge a book by a single passage. Of course, several people at last weeks DD2 board meeting  apparently oblivious to the hypocrisy he highlighted  proved thats exactly what they want to do.

Many of those demanding a citizens review board to judge school books inadvertently made an oft-overlooked point: They dont actually have children in the district, but they want the right to screen  and censor  school classrooms and libraries.

They argue they have to live in a community where kids are warped by books. One woman even claimed this wasnt about book banning  had no idea where the term came from  before recounting her attempts to have a young adult book about the history of racism removed from Dorchester County high schools.

And when the school denied her wishes, she appealed. If thats not trying to get a book banned, what is?

Another woman declared that if the district wanted to circulate smut without her approval, she shouldnt have to pay school taxes. Which makes about as much sense as people who don't like Elon Musk saying they wont pay gas taxes if the state allows Teslas on its roads. (If theyre those self-driving ones, count me in.)

As Maddy Quon reports, the Dorchester District 2 school board last week gave initial approval to a policy amendment that says only parents or legal guardians with children in its schools can formally challenge district books.

School board member Justin Farnsworth said other citizens still had ways to raise concerns, but parental control should be for, you know, students' actual parents.

My concern is, if you open up (formal) challenges to the general public, what I really started to see was that it was a political agenda. Its unfortunate in todays world, but there is a good chunk of people that would use that opportunity as a political agenda to remove books that may just be uncomfortable conversations, Farnsworth said. They may not agree with the information in the book, but that doesnt mean the book shouldnt be there.

Absolutely. The school boards in Charleston and Berkeley counties should take note and replicate this policy.

Farnsworths brave stance came with ample proof. One parent after another talked about how they look at all the books their children want to read. A dad summed it up eloquently by noting that he absolutely wants parental control over what his kids read  but that doesnt mean he had the right to tell other parents what their kids can read.

And theres the larger point.

A few school librarians and teachers explained they curate their collections carefully, and they decide what goes on the shelves based on a concept called windows and mirrors. They choose books that offer children a mirror of their own lives or a window into others lives, so they learn how to see things from other perspectives.

Thats called learning, and its something that, for some people, never ends. But, as we see today, for too many it never really begins.

In fact, some of the folks trying to impose their will on others, and make decisions for the entire community, probably need to take a good, long look in a mirror  and through a window.
COLUMBIA  David Beasley left the Statehouse in 1999 a defeated governor who had served a single rocky term.

He returned May 3 to resounding applause and universal praise after a triumphant six-year stint as the head of the United Nations World Food Program during which he accepted a Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the agency for its work.

In a spirited address to a joint assembly of the Legislature, the conservative Christian Republican, who served as the states chief executive from 1995 to 1999, told lawmakers that the values learned in South Carolina drove him as he confronted mounting hunger around the world caused by climate shocks and conflict.

These are the values, the South Carolina values, that I have taken with me, he said from the House speakers podium. "The love, the compassion, the issues that I took with me all around the world."

A Bible Belt governor with little international experience, Beasley was an unorthodox choice to head the Rome-based U.N. agency when then-President Donald Trump nominated him to the post in 2017. But since then, hes become one of its most outspoken and most successful evangelists.

Beasley has also been a fundraising juggernaut for the perennially under-resourced WFP, raising $55 billion during his tenure. In 2022 alone, Beasley pulled in $14.2 billion for the WFP, more than double the $6 billion the organization raised in 2017, the year he took over and three years before the peace prize.

He undertook an energetic travel schedule, logging more than 1,000 flights around the world, and worked tirelessly to raise awareness, winning over his own skeptics and selling conservative American skeptics of the agency on its mission.

After Russias invasion of Ukraine once again upended the world food supply in 2022, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asked to extend his term by a year.

Beasley told state lawmakers he initially demurred when offered the WFP post by the Trump administration, dubious like many conservatives of international organizations. But friends from across the political spectrum convinced him the WFP mission of feeding the hungry was in line with his devout Christianity.

Still, he hoped to put the WPF out of business by efficiently feeding the worlds 80 million food-insecure inhabitants, he said. Reality quickly set in. Droughts and natural disasters compounded first by the coronavirus pandemic and then Ukraine war drove the number of hungry people to 350 million.

As the situation worsened and Beasley saw firsthand the ravages famine could have, especially on children, his conviction grew.

Im not going to give up hope on that child. Thats the South Carolina motto. While I breathe, I hope, he said.

Beasley's term at the WFP ended in early April, and he was replaced by Cindy McCain, a former U.S. ambassador to U.N. food and agriculture agencies and widow of U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Beasley also took time May 3 to reflect on his South Carolina political roots.

The Darlington County native recounted the beginning of his political career when he was elected a state representative in 1978 as a Clemson University junior and was mistaken for a page by legendary House Speaker Solomon Blatt on his first day. Beasley was elected governor in 1994.

As governor, Beasley is perhaps best remembered for his unexpected call for the Confederate battle flag to be removed from the Statehouse dome in 1996, which alienated conservative supporters, and his religious opposition to gambling.

In 1998, he lost the governorship to Democrat Jim Hodges in an election largely fought over Beasleys opposition to a state lottery.

Beasley capped off his address with a call for action.

Things are going to get worse around the world. Hunger will get worse. But I have hope, he said. Were moving in the wrong direction, but we can change that course with the heart, the spirit we have in this room.
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev began his visit to Germany with talks with Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Trend reports citing UzDaily.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mirziyoyev sincerely thanked the German Chancellor for the warm welcome.

It was emphasized that Uzbekistan sees Germany as a reliable and strategic partner, countries are connected by deep historical roots. In recent years, Uzbek-German relations have been developing dynamically in all areas.

A twofold increase in mutual trade and the number of joint projects was noted with satisfaction. The volume of German investments in the economy of Uzbekistan reached US$5.5 billion, of which US$4 billion were attracted over the past few years.

A high assessment was given to the joint business forum held during the visit, as a result of which agreements were reached on the implementation of new trade, investment and technological projects worth US$9 billion.

We are talking about cooperation in the field of "green" energy, mining, chemical, pharmaceutical industries, modernization of transport infrastructure, digitalization of agriculture, innovation and other priority areas.

In order to support the projects of German companies in Uzbekistan, an agreement was reached on a full-scale partnership with KfW Bank, Deutsche Bank and the German Society for International Cooperation.

The readiness of the Government of Germany to further support Uzbekistans accession to the WTO and the soonest signing of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the European Union was expressed.

The importance of continuing the political dialogue was emphasized. The parties welcomed the signing during the visit of the Intergovernmental Declaration on deepening multifaceted cooperation

Olaf Scholz supported the new regional policy of Uzbekistan to create an atmosphere of friendship and mutual trust in Central Asia, deepening integration in the region.

An agreement was reached to launch a dialogue platform in the Germany-Central Asia format.

Issues of ensuring regional security were discussed, including in the context of the situation in Afghanistan.

The need to continue humanitarian projects was confirmed, including through the capabilities of the logistics hub and the Educational Center for Afghan youth in the city of Termez.

Particular attention was paid to the development of transport and logistics. The parties agreed to develop the Trans-Caspian Corridor, which will create an effective route connecting the region of Central Asia with Europe.

The rich cultural and humanitarian agenda was noted with satisfaction. The German side highly appreciated the unique exhibition of the cultural heritage of Uzbekistan that is opening these days in the city of Berlin.

The parties welcomed the growing interest in the study of the German language in Uzbekistan. An agreement was reached on the technical assistance of the Government of Germany to the expansion of the study of the German language in the regions of the country.

In general, during the visit, 16 intergovernmental and interdepartmental documents were signed in the fields of economy, trade, finance, education, science and innovation.

At the end of the meeting, Mirziyoyev invited Scholz to visit Uzbekistan.
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 07:30:33

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LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / PlagiarismCheck.org is one of the leading similarity checkers with AI detection, supporting academic integrity in hundreds of institutions worldwide for over eight years.But how to avoid cheating with AI that can write more and more human-like texts? Discover our latest groundbreaking tools: the AI Detector and ChatGPT Checker. These proven features allow educational organizations and businesses to stay one step ahead and confidently face the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence to originality.The newly released version of a plagiarism scanner with a percentage has advanced capabilities to detect content written by AI. The effectiveness of this innovative software confirms 97% verified accuracy. How is this possible, and what benefits can it bring to you?AI Detector and ChatGPT Checker: overall AI feedback in a similarity reportImportance of AI Detection for Individuals and OrganizationsAI writing has been a real breakthrough in recent years across many industries. With ChapGPT, you can write a homework assignment, an article, a research paper, or even a book. But how do we evaluate the human contribution, quality and reliability of the results of such work? And how can performers ensure that the level of AI assistance used in their work is acceptable? This incredible opportunity has now turned into a headache for various sectors, including:Educational institutions and EdTech due to the rising incidents of student cheating;Publishers, who struggle to verify academic integrity, copyright infringement and accuracy;Media and Communication, who face the complexity of ensuring authentic and misinformation;SEO Agencies, who suffer from downgraded rankings due to the use of non-unique, AI-generated content;Legal and Government Documents, which are at a greater risk of text legitimacy and security.The need for an AI content detector has become critically important, because a high-quality tool can solve these problems. One of the best AI content detectors is PlagiarismCheck.org Some statistics about the popularity of PlagiarismCheck.org: Active users:200.000+ usersAI content checks:25.000+ checks monthlyYears on market:8+ yearsPrice:Starts at $ per userAI Checker for TeachersHalf of college students (51%) believe that using artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT to complete assignments and exams is cheating or plagiarism, according to a recent survey by BestColleges ( https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/college-students-ai-tools-survey/) . It is incredibly challenging for students to resist the temptation to get homework in just a few clicks. At the same time, one-third of them claim that their colleges prohibit using AI tools. In particular, New York City public schools blocked ( https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/educators-worry-about-students-using-artificial-intelligence-to-cheat) access to the ChatGPT.Most frequently, students use AI chatbots to write an essay, cheat on an essay exam, fake AI-generated sources, and improve their grammar and style. Many such cases got into the mass media and forced the educational environment to rapidly improve, responding to the challenges of the times ( https://plagiarismcheck.org/blog/articles/preventing-gpt3-cheating/) Of course, educators rethink and update the essence and concept of homework, but written assignments cannot be dispensed with. Will teachers and professors be forced 24/7 to do nothing more than check for AI fingerprints in students' work? And is it even possible to manually recognize and prove the use of AI? PlagiarismCheck.org: The user-friendly interface of the account for Teachers and Professors provides advanced possibilities for checking content for signs of AI.Fortunately, PlagiarismCheck.org offers a ready-made solution for accurately and easily identifying AI-generated content, including ChatGPT. AI essay detector can rescue Academic Integrity. Ultimately, AI and ChatGPT for Professors will be helpful revolutionary technologies, not nightmares. With the AI detector, teachers will be confident they are reading human-written texts and won't waste time grading AI-generated homework.Plagiarism Checker for AI Generated TextPreventing AI Generated Text from being published in books, magazines, and online publications is critical to the reputation of the Books Publishing Enterprises. Academic integrity, accuracy and copyright are the highest values for them. Their violation can lead to loss of authority among readers, exclusion of journals from leading scientific databases, lowering rank, and even legal penalties. The solution from PlagiarismCheck.org will help to ensure confidence in high-quality and unique authors' content, protect the publisher from plagiarism, and verify authenticity and ownership.Non-originality with the help of AI is also critically dangerous for SEO agencies. Duplicated and AI-text significantly lower the site's position in the ranking and can exclude pages from Google altogether. In addition, content created by artificial intelligence is not only poorly valued by search engines, but it is also less attractive to people and lacks the ability to surprise with natural creativity.Plagiarism Checker for AI Generated text will come to the aid of SEO specialists, writers and marketing content managers - with the help of AI Plagiarism Checker & Chat GPT Content Detector you will be able to quickly identify weak parts of the text and improve it. And most importantly, make sure your SEO strategy is secure.AI Content Checker for BusinessLeading businesses and educational institutes trust  lagiarismcheck.org's AI Content Checker, which is used across various industries. Our solution is irreplaceable for:Education and Ed TechSEO Agencies and PR companiesMedia and PublishersLegal and GovernmentRecruitment and CommunicationBloggers, thought leaders, opinion makers, and content creators can be sure to publish only original content. Meanwhile, publications such as Quora, Reddit, and Medium can be completely protected from copyright infringement.How to detect AI cheating? It's one of the most important issues for companies to succeed in the text-based world, and our development team has solved it. Plagiarismcheck.org experts have created three constantly updated AI detection models: Fingerprint, Enhanced Fingerprint, and Perplexity.ConclusionThere is no doubt that in the future, AI technologies and machine
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LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Author Ray Comfort, CEO and founder of Living Waters Christian ministry, is giving away 500,000 hard copies of his book "Defender of the Faith: Ten Weird Facts about the Coronation," to U.S audiences interested in the events happening in London this weekend to celebrate King Charles III's official coronation.Defender of the FaithBook cover According to Comfort, the book is controversial because it flies in the face of an increasingly secularized world-where many profess atheism and most don't honor the Bible. "It's ironic that during the coronation of King Charles, hundreds of millions around the world will essentially be going to church for a two-hour televised church service," Comfort said. "There they will hear many references to the Christian gospel and hear the Bible greatly honored." The author and TV cohost is referring to the fact that during the church service, when King Charles is presented with the Bible, the Archbishop of Canterbury will say, "Sir: to keep you ever mindful of the law and the Gospel of God as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes, receive this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords." Comfort added, "I want people to understand the significance of the many strange things that will take place during the May 6 coronation: the meaning behind the presentation of three swords, the diamond-crusted orb, the golden scepter, the ancient coronation chair, the mysterious anointing, the king's extravagant robes, the amazing crown, and so on." Comfort's ministry has also amassed an army of over 20,000 Christians who on coronation day will give away 16 million copies of what looks like a million-pound English note. These will not only be given freely to the millions of observers lining the streets of London, but also be given away in Europe, Canada, Australia, and other parts of the world."While the church service makes numerous references to the gospel, it doesn't articulate it in layman's language. And so we printed the 16 million copies of the commemorative 'million-pound note' explaining it. The word 'gospel' simply means 'good news.' And the good news is that in the Old Testament, God promised to destroy death, and in the New Testament we are told how He did it. That's actually the best news this world could ever hope to hear." The London Outreach will be live-streamed on Living Waters' YouTube channel, where commentary will also be provided during the coronation church service.For more details and to request free "Coronation Millions," go to Livingwaters.com/London About Living WatersLiving Waters exists to inspire and equip Christians to fulfill the Great Commission. Living Waters seeks to train the members of Christ's Body in the principles of biblical evangelism and to provide them with practical tools to proclaim the gospel. See more at www.livingwaters.com Contact InformationMelany Ethridgemelany@ alarryross.com (214) 912-8934SOURCE: Living Waters
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Award Recognizes Domico Med-Device for its Innovative Patient Interface Solutions, Business Growth & Contributions to the Michigan EconomyFENTON, MI / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Domico Med-Device LLC, designer and manufacturer of industry-leading patient interface solutions, was named one of Michigan's 50 Companies to Watch at the 19th Annual Michigan Celebrates Small Business Gala held on May 2, 2023.Domico Med-Device, LLC Logo The award recognizes high-performance, innovative small businesses that make an astounding impact on Michigan's economy. Nominated by business leaders at the Flint and Genesee Chamber of Commerce, Domico Med-Device fits that mold by developing life-changing medical devices that serve patients and caregivers through diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy and surgical applications."We are incredibly honored to receive the Michigan 50 Companies to Watch award. It is flattering to be nominated by an outside peer for the progress and growth we have made building our business," said Michael Czop, President of Domico Med-Device. "We're also grateful for the work the Domico Med-Device employees provide in driving the growth of our company. Receiving the award is a testament to the great work our employees do every day in delivering life-changing patient interface solutions." Founded in 2018, Domico Med-Device is among Michigan's growing economic engines with over 100 employees and exciting prospects for growth into the future. The company partners with original equipment manufacturers, distributors and healthcare professionals to develop pioneering solutions that promote patient safety and comfort, improve staff productivity and increase medical system utilization.Michigan Celebrates Small Business selected Domico Med-Device as one of 80 total awardees (from a pool of more than 500 nominees) honored at the gala, which has served as the state's premier small business awards program since 2005. The organization's mission is to honor and recognize Michigan's small business people and those champions and advocates that support them.For the complete list of awardees, visit: https://michigancelebrates.org/mcsb-awardees/ For more information on Domico Med-Device, visit: https://www.domicomed.com/ Domico Med-Device LLC designs and manufactures industry-leading, life-changing patient interface solutions for diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy and surgical applications. FDA and ISO registered, Domico Med-Device partners with OEMs, distributors and healthcare professionals from concept to market, leveraging its broad range of capabilities to develop innovative solutions that promote patient safety and comfort, improve staff productivity and increase medical system utilization. Learn more about Domico Med-Device at DomicoMed.com Contact InformationErin HoffmanDirector of Human Resourcesehoffman@ domicomed.com 810-931-8068SOURCE: Domico Med-Device, LLC
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HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Dril-Quip, Inc. (NYSE:DRQ), (the "Company" or "Dril-Quip") announced today that it will release its first quarter 2023 earnings results on May 8, 2023, after the close of the U.S. financial markets.The Company will also be participating in a fireside chat conversation with David Smith of Pickering Energy Partners on May 9, 2023, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time / 10:30 a.m. Central Daylight Time. The presentation is open to all interested parties and may include forward-looking information.Jeff Bird, Dril-Quip's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Kyle McClure, Dril-Quip's Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will be discussing multiple topics regarding the Company's recent financial performance, current operations, and business outlook with Mr. West. There will be no questions and answers from other participants during the event.To access the call, please dial-in approximately ten minutes before the start of the call.Conference Call and Webcast DetailsDate / Time:Tuesday, May 9, 2023, at 11:30 a.m. EDT / 10:30 a.m. CDTWebcast:U.S. Toll-Free Dial-In:888-506-0062International Dial-In:973-528-0011Conference ID:179309For those unable to participate in the live call, an audio replay will be available following the call through midnight Tuesday, May 23, 2023. To access the replay, please call 877-481-4010 or 919-882-2331 (International) and enter confirmation code 48187. A replay of the webcast will also be archived shortly after the call and can be accessed on the Company's website.About Dril-QuipDril-Quip is a developer, manufacturer and provider of highly engineered equipment, service and innovative technologies for use in the energy industry.Investor Relations ContactErin Fazio, Director of Corporate Development, Investor Relations & FP&AErin_Fazio@ dril-quip.com SOURCE: Dril-Quip, Inc.
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PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Envision Pharma Group (Envision) has appointed Mike Glover to Senior Vice President, Payer and HTA Solutions. Mike will be responsible for leading and developing Envision's distinctive market access and HTA strategies for early-stage and late-stage businesses, combining customer insights, vision, and creativity. Mike's key focus areas will be transformations in patient access, global pricing strategies, real-world evidence, and improving patient outcomes.Meg Heim, CEO of Envision Pharma Group, shares, "I am excited to welcome Mike to the team at Envision as Senior Vice President, Payer and HTA solutions. As we continue to accelerate Envision's business expansion, mission, and commitment to our clients' needs. Mike's extensive experience in developing and executing cutting-edge access, policy, and pricing strategies while executing fully integrated market access programs will be critical in partnering with our clients to execute upon their goals, improve performance, and meet their unique business needs with the support of our technology platforms." Prior to joining Envision, Mike served as Vice President, Head of Global Access and Pricing Strategy for GlaxoSmithKline. Before that, he held various leadership positions of increasing responsibilities at GSK, Sanofi, and Bristol Myers Squibb. He brings with him a diverse background across multiple geographies, functions, and therapeutic areas. His global commercial leadership experiences spanning oncology, cardiovascular, diabetes, and virology from asset development to in-market delivery will be a valuable asset to Envision.Mike adds, "The energy and passion of the Envision team shines through in every interaction I've had. It was this passion and desire to be the very best at what they do that made this an easy decision for me to join Envision. Our industry is facing a changing and challenging environment and Envision is building an organization that will not just deliver, but will become a true partner for our customers adding real value across the life cycle of a brand. I am delighted to be joining them at this important time in our industry's future." About Envision Pharma GroupFounded in 2001, Envision Pharma Group is a leading global technology-enabled strategic solutions partner for the life sciences industry, working with over 200 pharma and biotech companies, including 18 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies. Envision supports clients across the product life cycle through a comprehensive suite of services and industry-leading technology solutions that include artificial intelligence and natural language processing, commercialization and integrated strategic consulting, evidence-based scientific communications and engagement, HEOR/market access and data analytics, medical capabilities, and omnichannel solutions. Learn more at www.envisionpharmagroup.com Contact Information:Colleen CarterAssociate Director, Communications, Office of the CEO1 (508) 505 8856SOURCE: Envision Pharma Group
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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / EssityOriginally published on Essity.com Employee relationsEssity has a positive and constructive dialogue with employee representatives. As a global company, we experience many changes that require information and consultation with employee representatives at all levels of the company. Essity recognizes the right of every employee to be a trade union member and to participate in union activities. The company meets with employee organizations at various levels on a regular basis to inform them of and discuss issues such as the company's results, any organizational changes, health and safety and employment terms and conditions. Essity has an agreement with the industry organization IndustriAll. When there is no union representation, Essity establishes other channels where possible, such as an employee council. We also support the global partnership Global Deal, which has members from the private and public sectors. The purpose is to improve dialogue between parties in the labor market and national governments.Product safety and transparencyWe never compromise on the safety or quality of our products. To ensure this throughout a product's life cycle, we have extensive requirements and procedures in place, which our internal experts continuously improve in accordance with rules and regulations. We also have a certified quality system.Essity collaborates with external experts in toxicology and life science to guarantee independent reviews. Every product and product component Essity receives from third parties must comply with Essity's product safety and chemicals criteria, according to the specifications in our Global Supplier Standard. Internal business practices ensure that information that may be relevant for product safety, including complaints and feedback from customers and consumers as well as quality incidents, are part of the product safety concept. Essity also actively participates in contributing to public policy developments and discussions on improving product safety and transparency. We communicate with customers and consumers to raise awareness and understanding about our product content.Answers to frequently asked questions regarding product safety are published on www.essity.com and each brand's local website, together with detailed information about product contents. To further strengthen the availability of product information, we support the development of the EDANA Stewardship program on substances of concern, to drive transparency and align approaches to product assessments for absorbing hygiene products. We also launched the "Product Safety, For Us It's Personal" and "Our 5 Pillars of Protection" campaigns during 2021.Occupational health and safetyHealth and safety also has the highest priority. Everyone working at our production facilities and offices, or visiting Essity, should be safe and secure. The safety, health and well-being of our employees is crucial to the success of our operations. It is also aligned with our Beliefs & Behaviors and the ethical standards and requirements expressed in our Code of Conduct.Essity regularly monitors employee perception of health and well-being and the evolution of our safety culture. We offer clear plans and programs to lead in this field. We strive to promote physical and mental health and well-being. By developing new digital ways of working and training courses, we offer a more effective and systematic manner with which to assess, analyze and work with continuous improvements in employee health, well-being and engagement.Essity is committed to offering a work environment that contributes to a long-term sustainable working life. We encourage an open culture, and all employees are encouraged to be aware of and take immediate action against conditions, acts and behavior that increase the risk of accidents. In April 2022, the "I Care" initiative was launched, which is our cultural journey toward a safe and healthy work environment. It brings essential tools that will empower Essity to be a safety leader. The I Care leadership training course provides various elements of safety awareness, helping us to recognize and work with safety using our hearts and minds. In 2022, we trained more than 1,000 managers and our target is to train all 16,000 employees and contractors in our production facilities by 2024. Rewards are also part of I Care and this year we recognized great achievements with our first edition of the Essity Global Health and Safety Award, delivered by Essity's CEO. The award was followed by a month during which there was a particular focus on health and safety, aligned with guidelines from the United Nations and International Labor Organization.As a complement to our safety leadership program, Essity has put in place an ambitious roadmap for technical safety and safety framework to be best-in- class and reduce the occurrence of events that could result in fatalities. Key elements that have taken effect in 2022 are upgrades to the following frameworks: Machine Safety Risk Assessment (MSRA), Isolation of Hazardous Energies (IoHE), and Traffic Management. The upgrades to our safety processes are aligned with the ISO 45001 and 14001 principles and allow us to work systematically to achieve continuous improvements.Read more about Essity's strategic priorities, earnings and leading sustainability work in the Annual and Sustainability Report 2022, which can be downloaded at www.essity.com To access the digital short version, please click here.View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Essity on 3 blmedia.com Contact Info:Spokesperson: EssityWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/essity Email: info@3 blmedia.com SOURCE: Essity
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AUBURN, AL / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Georgia-Pacific has contributed $100,000 to Auburn University to help fund a new state-of-the-art digester that will give engineering students the ability to test and improve a newly patented innovation in papermaking.The current digester in the Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering (AC-PABE) at AU is over 30 years old with many operational issues and no longer meets teaching and research needs. That's why the AC-PABE contacted Georgia-Pacific, a long-time partner of AU and the pulp and paper program."We have developed a new additive for the kraft pulping process and have been granted a US patent for this technology," said Dr. Zhihua Jiang, Auburn Pulp and Paper Foundation associate professor and director, AC-PABE. "The new digester will allow us to systematically evaluate the effect of the new additive under various operating conditions and optimize and make the technology ready for a commercial scale trial. It will also be used in our other research projects to further improve the pulping efficiency." A digester is a key piece of equipment used in the paper-making process. Pulp mill digesters use heat and chemicals to break down wood chips into pulp. The pulp is then further refined and processed to produce paper products.Johnnie Pearson, director of pulp power and recovery center of excellence for Georgia-Pacific, graduated from AU with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and knows how important this donation is to the school, students and future generations of Georgia-Pacific."I still use all my experiences from Auburn every day. It's the fundamental basis of how I came into the industry and evolved," said Pearson. "I worked on the old digester when I was in school, and the new equipment will dramatically impact the students and advance their cooking techniques. To this day, I still go back to my hands-on experiences." Once the new digester is installed sometime in 2023, students will be able to operate the digester, produce pulp from wood chips and evaluate the effect of reaction conditions on yield and pulp properties. In addition, the digester will allow students, for the first time to effectively study and learn the kinetics of the pulping process by evaluating the changes in liquor compositions."Georgia-Pacific values our commitment to our community partners like Auburn University," said Hudson Pope, senior vice president of Georgia-Pacific operations and president of the Auburn Pulp and Paper Foundation. "AU is rooted in outstanding instruction and meaningful research. The educational experience that donations like this can provide for students is invaluable and critical to their success after graduation, something Georgia-Pacific is proud to be a part of." While the digester used in the AC-PABE is on a much smaller scale than what's used in a Georgia-Pacific mill, it's an integral part of the hands-on education for students at Auburn."I think anybody within this pulp and paper program will benefit," said Bradley Lowery, an AU chemical engineering student. "The new digester will be state of the art. The hands-on learning capability goes much further than what you can get from a textbook." Bradley will graduate in May 2023 and take his education and experience to Georgia-Pacific's Alabama River Cellulose mill, where he'll be doing mechanical reliability."My father has worked for Georgia-Pacific for the last 15 or so years. So, I've learned a lot about how they do business," said Bradley. "Once I came to Auburn, I was fortunate enough to be on the pulp and paper scholarship, which I am very grateful for. Georgia-Pacific has put many meals on my family's table and has really brought things full circle for me. The learning I gained at Auburn and now going to work for Georgia-Pacific after graduation: it's really been such a blessing in my life. I can't thank Georgia-Pacific enough." View original content hereStudents working in the Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering (AC-PABE) at Auburn University.View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Georgia-Pacific on 3 blmedia.com Contact Info:Spokesperson: Georgia-PacificWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/georgia-pacific Email: info@3 blmedia.com SOURCE: Georgia-Pacific
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 3. Electricite de France (EDF) is looking to support hydropower projects in Uzbekistan, Pierre-Paul Antheunissens, General Director for EDF in Central Asia, told Trend.

"We are looking at all opportunities offered. We believe that there is a huge potential in Uzbekistan for the development of hydropower projects, not only in Uzbekistan but in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as well. The mountainous territory allows for the implementation of those projects. It is possible to improve the current hydropower infrastructure in Uzbekistan, and, maybe, create pumping storages and new techniques. We have already signed several agreements on cooperation in this field with Uzbek Energy Ministry," he said.

Updating on the current EDF project in Uzbekistan, Syrdarya II gas-fired combined cycle power plant, Antheunissens noted that this project with a capacity of 1,600 MW is very important and needed at the moment.

"Our colleagues had come here from Paris to sign a very first contract we have in this country, the Syrdarya-2 project, and, one year later, we visited again to sign the financial close of this project, so, now, we have already launched the construction process. It will take from two to three years to build it," the general director noted.

Antheunissens also noted that, although, currently, cooperation in nuclear energy is not established with Uzbekistan, EDF would considered this field as well, if opportunities arise.

"France is not involved in the nuclear development in Uzbekistan, but, if there is a tender, or interest from the Uzbek authorities, we will sure to acknowledge it. For now, we will be focusing on, traditional energy sources, such as gas and hydro, and possibly the renewables in the future," he concluded.
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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / GoDaddyOriginally published in GoDaddy's 2022 Sustainability ReportAbout UsWe're a trusted growth partner for millions of entrepreneurs globally.GoDaddy helps millions of entrepreneurs globally start, grow, and scale their businesses. People come to GoDaddy to name their idea, build a professional website, attract customers, sell their products and services, and accept payments online and in person. GoDaddy's easy-to-use tools help business owners manage everything in one place, and our expert GoDaddy Guides are available to provide assistance 24/7.OUR VISIONTo radically shift the global economy toward life-fulfilling entrepreneurial ventures.OUR MISSIONTo empower entrepreneurs everywhere, making opportunity more inclusive for all.OUR STRATEGYTo help entrepreneurs thrive by empowering them with expert guidance presented through seamlessly intuitive experiences to securely name, create and grow their businesses in select markets; leveraging the exponential power of community at a global scale to deliver profitable revenue growth.Our Products and ServicesWe know that the needs of everyday entrepreneurs are constantly evolving, which is why we're always striving to make sure our products and services evolve, too. We bring the latest innovations, traditionally available only to larger enterprises, to small businesses. To see this in action, just look at our rapid growth in website building, content creation, and WordPress, as well as our increasing focus on commerce solutions that empower our customers to sell anything, anywhere.These evolutions complement our customers' need for digital identity, ubiquitous presence and connected commerce - needs that we know will continue to grow. That's why we focus on commerce as a key enabler of success for our customers. Our products and services enable us to serve our customers through every stage of the entrepreneurial journey - with human- centered support available at every step.We continue to leverage our competitive advantages and sustainable growth that serve our key stakeholders - and to champion entrepreneurs as they pursue their dreams.Our 2022 Sustainability HighlightsWe focus on what matters.In 2022, in line with our commitment to continuous improvement, we drove forward progress on our priority topics across the strategic customers, employees and operations pillars we identified in our 2020 materiality analysis.CUSTOMERSEmpower by GoDaddyWe provided more than 9,700 learning engagements for entrepreneurs around the world.Customer SatisfactionWe increased our Trustpilot score from 4.4 to 4.7 out of 5.0.Venture ForwardWe launched the Microbusiness Data Hub to provide unprecedented access to free data on more than 20 million microbusinesses.EMPLOYEES Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB)We hired our dedicated Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging.Pay ParityWe achieved gender (global) pay parity for the eighth consecutive year.1Employee EngagementWe achieved 86% employee participation in GoDaddy Voice, our annual employee engagement survey.OPERATIONS Sustainability GovernanceWe assigned oversight of our sustainability initiatives to the Nominating and Governance Committee.Climate Change CommitmentWe issued our position statement on climate change, highlighting the urgent need for climate action.Emissions ReductionWe reduced our scope 1 and 2 emissions by 35% from our 2019 baseline.Our Corporate Sustainability PrioritiesWe aim to be a positive force for those we serve.At GoDaddy, empowering entrepreneurs isn't just about providing tools and resources to help them succeed - it's also about hearing, understanding and supporting them with their dreams, needs and challenges. That's why we prioritize engaging with our communities and industry.In support of our sustainability strategy, we completed a thorough materiality analysis in 2022. The analysis involved surveys of internal subject-matter experts; interviews with our executive team, employees and stakeholders; and a review of industry trends, research and risk factors.Based on the materiality analysis, we identified 10 priorities to guide our sustainability strategy:Content SafetyCorporate GovernanceCustomer ExperienceDiversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB)Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) EmissionsInclusive EntrepreneurshipInnovationTalent Management and EngagementUser PrivacyWeb SecurityOur Strategic PillarsTo ensure our priorities guide our daily work, we aligned each priority to our three strategic sustainability pillars:CUSTOMERSWe empower entrepreneurs everywhere and make opportunity more inclusive for all.EMPLOYEES We build a culture that values diversity and prioritizes the importance of making opportunity inclusive for all.OPERATIONS We reduce our environmental impact, operate our business ethically and manage risk appropriately.United Nations SDGsWe recognize that organizations play an important role in making a global impact on sustainability. GoDaddy examined how our business activities and strategy align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and from their list of 17 goals, we identified six SDGs where we believe we have the greatest opportunity to impact:GENDER EQUALITYAFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGYDECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTHINDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTUREREDUCED INEQUALITIESPEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONSIn 2022, we furthered our commitment to the SDGs by joining the United Nations Global Compact. Through this membership, we commit to support the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact and to disclose our progress toward the SDGs annually.Additional details on our 2022 progress can be found in the Appendix.Sustainability GovernanceWe integrate sustainability into everything we do.At GoDaddy, we take concrete action to implement and reinforce our sustainability priorities. We designed our approach for managing sustainability topics and actions in a way that robustly emphasizes transparency and oversight, and these processes help us continue to embed sustainability into our overall strategy and operations.Board and Executive-Level OversightIn 2021, our Board of Directors assigned oversight of our sustainability initiatives to the Nominating and Governance Committee. Under the Nominating and Governance Committee Charter, the committee oversees and reviews our sustainability strategies, practices and programs, and any public disclosures on such matters, including those
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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Golden Spike Resources Corp. (CSE:GLDS)(OTCQB:GSPRF)(Frankfurt:L5Y) ("Golden Spike" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has engaged SmallCap Communications Inc. ("SCC") for the explicit purpose of marketing and bringing awareness to the Company through creation of content, strategic planning, digital advertisement placement, and overseeing progress and results of digital campaigns.Founded in 2013, SmallCap is a boutique full-service digital marketing and communications group with a team and programs designed to establish public company brands and create an engaged retail investor audience. By offering completely customised and bespoke public-company programs, SCC's in-house style team brings regular attention and care to every client.Pursuant to an agreement entered into with SCC (the "SCC Agreement"), SCC intends to work with the Company to provide the following services, including but not limited to the following: the creation and implementation of a digital marketing campaign; the facilitation, organization and engagement with industry professionals, vendors, digital marketing experts, public relations, media professionals, lead generation services, investor relations firms and professionals, and newsletter writers on behalf of the Company; advertising and creative content development; media buying and distribution; periodic campaign reporting; general consulting and strategic direction to the Company on capital markets and business development activities; and other services as may be agreed to in writing by the Company and SCC from time to time (collectively, the "SCC Services") commencing on May 1st, 2023, for an initial period of three (3) months (the "Initial Period").In consideration for providing the SCC Services, the Company has agreed to pay to SCC the following: $200,000 CAD + GST upon execution of the Agreement.Consideration offered to SCC does not include any securities of the Company. Aside from this SCC Agreement, the Company does not have any relationship with SCC.SCC's business address is located at 306 - 310 Water Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 1B2 email is info@ smallcapcommunications.com , telephone number is 1-778-819-6433 and website is https://smallcapcommunications.com About Golden SpikeGolden Spike Resources Corp. (CSE:GLDS) (OTCQB:GSPRF) (Frankfurt:L5Y) is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on identifying, acquiring and unlocking value in mineral opportunities in Canada and other low-risk jurisdictions. The Company currently holds the rights to acquire 100% interest in the 3,425-hectare Gregory River Property in Newfoundland, strategically centered over an approximate 11-kilometer-long stretch of the Gregory River VMS-belt, a north-northeast trending corridor of very prospective ground with potential to host Cyprus-type polymetallic VMS deposits. In addition, the Property hosts a cluster of historically explored, high-grade, copper gold vein structures.ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORSKeith AndersonGolden Spike Resources Corp.830 - 1100 Melville St.,Vancouver, BC, V6E 4A6+1 (604) 786-7774info@ goldenspikeresources.com "Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release." Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking InformationThis news release may contain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All information contained herein that is not historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements herein include but are not limited to statements relating to the prospects for development of the Company's mineral properties, and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to business, market and economic risks, uncertainties and contingencies that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.SOURCE: Golden Spike Resources Corp.
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-04 00:15:17

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Hagens Berman urges Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPR) investors who suffered $500k or more in losses submit your losses now.Class Period: Apr. 8, 2020 - Apr. 13, 2023Lead Plaintiff Deadline: July 5, 2023Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/SPR Contact An Attorney Now: SPR@ hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. (SPR) Securities Fraud Class Action:The litigation focuses on Spirit AeroSystem's past statements concerning its operational performance and quality controls, particularly with respect to supplying its largest customer (Boeing).According to the complaint, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) Spirit lacked adequate production quality controls; (2) Spirit incorrectly installed fittings designed to join the aft fuselage to the vertical tail for some Boeing 737 MAX airplanes; (3) Spirit would have to develop an inspection and repair procedure for the affected fuselages; and (4) the foregoing would negatively impact Spirit's financial results.Investors began to learn the truth on Apr. 13, 2023, when the financial press reported that Spirit notified Boeing of a quality problem that could stretch back to 2019. Reuters reported that "[t]he issue will likely affect a significant' number of undelivered 737 MAX airplanes both in production and in storage, and could result in lowered 737 MAX deliveries in the near term" and "[t]he problem, which affects a portion of the 737 MAX family [] involves the installation of two fittings that join the aft fuselage made by Spirit to the vertical tail, which were not attached correctly before it was sent to Boeing." Most recently, on May 3, 2023, Spirit announced that fuselage repair costs would negatively impact 2023 gross profit by $31 million and said that additional costs are expected.These events have driven the price of Spirit shares sharply lower."We're focused on investors' losses and proving Spirit knew it embarked on a cost cutting program that adversely affected quality control," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.If you invested in Spirit and have substantial losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firm's investigation, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman.Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Spirit should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email SPR@ hbsslaw.com # # #About Hagens BermanHagens Berman is a global plaintiffs' rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com . Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.Contact:Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895SOURCE: Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
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ARLINGTON, VA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Inspire, the leading patient engagement platform, announced today the launch of its Real-World Evidence (RWE) solutions. Inspire RWE will provide innovative data and analytic solutions to help biopharmaceutical, medical device, and life sciences companies gather patient-centered real-world insights to drive better patient outcomes.Inspire logoInspire logoInspire RWE will draw on the company's established patient engagement platform, which includes extensive longitudinal patient-reported and clinical data across thousands of health conditions. By leveraging this platform, Inspire RWE can gather real-world data from millions of patients, providing insights into true patient behaviors, experiences, and outcomes."With the launch of Inspire Real-World Evidence, we are introducing a powerful new platform that will enable companies to accelerate their commitment to patient-centered healthcare," said Brian Loew, CEO of Inspire. "By leveraging our proprietary patient engagement platform, we can help companies gain a deeper understanding of unmet patient needs and develop more effective treatments." Inspire RWE offers a range of real-world evidence generation and dissemination solutions, including real-world data products infused with authentic patient voice, linked and consented medical data for secondary research, siteless virtual patient registries with survey based PRO measures and deep EHR, and patient-focused data and analytics services. These solutions will help Inspire clients develop more holistic evidence generation strategies, providing the right patient data at the right time.Inspire will unveil its research capabilities as an exhibitor at the upcoming International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) conference May 7, 2023 in Boston. At the conference, Inspire will also present its work to advance understanding of disease burden and unmet needs for a rare condition known as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP)."We believe that patient-centered real-world evidence is the key to better patient outcomes," said Richard Tsai, senior vice president of Real-World Evidence at Inspire. "Inspire RWE will enable companies to efficiently synthesize, integrate and disseminate evidence, and ultimately, improve patient lives." About InspireInspire is the world's largest online health community, patient engagement and real-world data platform. More than 10 million people each year come to Inspire to learn about their conditions and find peer support. Inspire also works with leading biopharmaceutical companies and academic researchers to provide real-world evidence and insights about the patient experience, connect patients with life-advancing clinical trials and enable medical breakthroughs. Learn more at about.Inspire.com Contact Information:Lily McCutchanSr. Director, Marketing and Communications212-461-1128SOURCE: Inspire
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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / As part of the annual International Women's Day celebrations, VMware is honouring the invaluable role women play within the technology industry. This year, we spoke to several female employees across our EMEA business to shine a spotlight on the strides the tech sector has made in recent years, as well as the steps we still need to take in order to edge closer towards achieving gender equality across the board.To create more equal opportunities, Tamar Brooks, Vice President, United Kingdom & Ireland, VMware, believes that we need to address the misconception that you need strong technical knowledge in order to pursue a career in technology. "This isn't the case," she emphasised. "We need to change this perception, particularly among the younger generation." For Uta Haller, Director, EMEA Multi-Cloud Partner Go To Market, VMware, truly listening and considering other viewpoints is when the benefits of inclusion really start to emerge. "We have to stop thinking in categories such as women', Black', young', old', etc. as it's actually not inclusive," Uta shared. "We should instead focus more on what it takes to give everyone a fair chance, no matter where they come from or what they believe in." Sarah Gharaibeh, Solution Engineer, EMEA Subregional Gen. Business SE, VMware, noted that accepting our differences and respecting each other's backgrounds is how we can become stronger together. "Diversity and inclusion both add a new flavour to success, so we shouldn't be afraid to bring our unique perspectives into everything we do," she said.Read on to hear more from Tamar, Uta and Sarah regarding their unique career journeys, the challenges women in tech face today, as well as what changes they would like to see being implemented across the tech sector.Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in technology?Tamar: I fell into the career rather than deliberately joining, and I'm very glad to have found it. I come from a legal background, having originally started my career as a lawyer. However, I decided it wasn't for me. I went travelling for a year and when I came back, I got a job selling software.Uta: I actually didn't plan it. It was a recommendation from my uncle at the very early days of IT, so I applied and got a job in marketing. It's a very faced-paced industry packed with new ideas that drive major impact - I guess that's why I never left.Sarah: Looking back, I believe that there were 3 choices in my life that put me on the path to a career in technology. The first happened when I decided to pursue an undergraduate degree in computer engineering, despite not being a fan of being behind the computer or without initially being intrigued by what's inside a computer at a younger age. I made the decision after a big push from my family and friends, who convinced me that this field has a bright future - I felt that it would be interesting to discover and understand what a computer-driven world would look like.The second choice occurred when I took a CRM course after graduating, which helped me land my first job in presales - it was here where I was able to connect with the business world and use it as a platform to learn to help people get what they want out of technology.The third choice is something that I remind myself of every day - you're only afraid of what you don't know. I'm always keen on new experiences, equipping myself with knowledge and being brave in applying what I learn.Q: In your opinion, what's the biggest challenge facing women in tech?Uta: I think that we've come a long way from when I started 33 years ago. We're also lucky enough to work for a company that cares about inclusion, equal opportunities and providing a safe environment for everyone.In the past, women often weren't even invited to apply for certain positions of discussions in tech. Now, there's an opportunity and women need to capitalise on it. One of the key challenges facing women is imposter syndrome - it's almost a chicken and egg' problem. I also believe we can improve on how we help women combine work and family life while also feeling valued and respected. However, none of this is exclusive to women, I think this applies for all under-represented minorities.Tamar: In the technology sector, the issue is that in certain parts of it, there are very few women. In comparison, there are far more women in the legal sector. When I first joined the industry, women accounted for around 10% of sales teams in the organisation that I worked for then. The good news is that in my current organisation this has increased to around 30% in my region. However, in the more technical roles, the percentage of women is likely to be in the single digits. This is increasingly concerning because when there is only one main demographic represented, you run the risk of creating unconscious bias.The underlying issue here is that the tech sector does not look attractive to women because of the perception that you have to be very technical in order to succeed. But this isn't the case. Take myself for an example - I'm the least technical person I know. We need to change this perception, particularly among the younger generation.Sarah: The fact that technology is a dynamic and ever-changing world is both a challenge and an opportunity. You always need to keep up with it, especially if you want to be a part of it, so you will always find yourself battling to find the time and energy to do so. A good way to look at it is realising that it's okay to ask for help. Giving help to others is also crucial for creating a healthy community of women in tech both inside and outside your organisation.Q: Who are some of the women role models or mentors that have influenced your career journey?Uta: I've been lucky enough to work for both men and women who pushed my boundaries, helped me deal with imposter syndrome and provided me with a safe environment, all at the same time. They put me in situations or in charge of projects that I would probably never would have asked for. They believed in me and they were always there when I needed advice or backup - it helped me build trust and confidence, which later allowed me to figure out what I want and to not be being shy asking for it.I can't name just one person as there were many along my journey. I could have just been lucky in my own journey, so I see it as my - as well as our collective responsibility - to do the same for other women and under-represented minorities. We need to speak up if we think something's wrong, stand by p
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 22:50:46

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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Levi & Korsinsky, LLP issues the following statement:To: All persons who purchased securities of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. ("TDS") (NYSE:TDS, TDSPrU, and TDSPrV) between May 6, 2022 and November 3, 2022, inclusive.You are hereby notified that Levi & Korsinsky is counsel of record in the class action lawsuit Howard M. Rensin, Trustee of The Rensin Joint Trust v. United States Cellular Corporation, et al (Case No. 1:23-cv-02764) filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Levi & Korsinsky further notifies investors that press releases issued by any other law firm concerning the Rensin action, refer to the lawsuit filed by Levi & Korsinsky. To get more information go to:or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com or by telephone at (212) 363-7500. There is no cost or obligation to you.Levi & Korsinsky conducted a comprehensive investigation of the Rensin case and initiated the first filed complaint on behalf of aggrieved investors seeking to protect their interests by recovering potential losses resulting from the alleged fraud.The complaint alleges, in part, that TDS and its subsidiary, United States Cellular Corporation ("UScellular"), made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Defendants had no reason to believe UScellular's "free upgrade" promotional activity, which was tested and trialed during the second quarter of 2022, was effective at reducing the UScellular's postpaid churn rate as they represented to investors, as opposed to merely adding new postpaid subscribers, when its churn rate was actually increasing or remaining constant over most quarters in the class period; (ii) UScellular was not making progress with respect to its churn rate, as it represented to investors; (iii) UScellular was not in fact balancing its promotional activity and its profitability; (iv) due to extreme competition among postpaid carriers, UScellular did not have the flexibility to offset the costs from widespread, expensive promotions with price increases; and (v) as a result of the Companies' decision for UScellular to continue engaging in heavy promotions to address its postpaid subscriber churn rate despite any lack of positive impact on churn rate, UScellular's profitability substantially declined.If you suffered a loss in TDS securities, you have until July 3, 2023 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.WHY LEVI & KORSINSKY:Levi & Korsinsky has performed a thorough investigation of TDS and UScellular and has filed the only complaint seeking to compensate aggrieved investors who purchased TDS securities. By contacting Levi & Korsinsky, you will be able to communicate directly with the attorneys who filed the Rensin action, and who are highly qualified and prepared to litigate on behalf of TDS investors.Over the past 20 years, the team at Levi & Korsinsky has secured hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders and built a track record of winning high-stakes cases. Our firm has extensive expertise representing investors in complex securities litigation and a team of over 70 employees to serve our clients. For seven years in a row, Levi & Korsinsky has ranked in ISS Securities Class Action Services' Top 50 Report as one of the top securities litigation firms in the United States.CONTACT:Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.55 Broadway, Suite #427New York, NY 10006jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
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RADNOR, PA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP( www.ktmc.com) informs investors that a securities class action lawsuit has been against Norfolk Southern Corporation ("Norfolk Southern") (NYSE: NSC). The action charges Norfolk Southern 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 Norfolk Southern's materially misleading statements and omissions to the public, Norfolk Southern's investors have suffered significant losses.CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR NORFOLK SOUTHERN LOSSES. YOU CAN ALSO CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK OR COPY AND PASTE IN YOUR BROWSER: https://www.ktmc.com/new-cases/norfolk-southern-corporation?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=nsc&mktm=r CANNOT VIEW THIS VIDEO? PLEASE CLICK HERELEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE:MAY 15, 2023CLASS PERIOD: OCTOBER 28, 2020 THROUGH MARCH 3, 2023CONTACT AN ATTORNEY TO DISCUSS YOUR RIGHTS:Jonathan Naji, Esq. at (484) 270-1453 or via email at info@ ktmc.com 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.NORFOLK SOUTHERN'S ALLEGED MISCONDUCTFor several years leading up to the beginning of the Class Period, Norfolk Southern took a number of measures which put profits and executive compensation over safety. For example, in October 2018, Norfolk Southern adopted "Precision Scheduled Railroading" or "PSR" which was purportedly aimed at producing better service at a lower cost. In actuality, the company sought to increase revenues by cutting operating costs including reducing staff, running fewer, heavier, faster trains and optimizing the company's networks in order to increase efficiency. Norfolk Southern also began tying executive compensation to achieving PSR goals. For example, in 2021, multiple Norfolk Southern executives received millions of dollars in cash bonuses for reducing costs by achieving "record performance for train length and weight." Industry critics have warned that this type of compensation system incentivizes executives to cut costs at the expense of safety and also leads to longer and more dangerous trains which "have greater damage done, greater, larger pileups, fires and so on." At the same time, Norfolk Southern and its lobbyists played a key role in defeating an Obama-era safety rule that was used following a number of oil train accidents, including the "ECP Brake Rule" which was ultimately repealed in 2018.On February 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern Railway Company general merchandise freight train 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. Following this news, the price of Norfolk Southern stock fell on February 6, 2023 - down $5.66 per share from its closing price on Friday, February 3, 2023.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. Following this news, the price of Norfolk Southern stock fell on February 9, 2023, closing at $238.98 per share - down $7.64 per share from its closing price of $246.62 per share on February 8, 2023.Thereafter, Norfolk Southern's stock price continued to drop in response to several other reports and public officials who spoke out about Norfolk Southern's liability for all of the harm and damage it had caused.On March 4, 2023, another Norfolk Southern freight train derailed near Springfield, Ohio. Two days later, on March 6, 2023, Norfolk Southern announced a 6-part plan to improve operational safety. Following this news, the price of Norfolk Southern stock fell again on March 6 and March 7, 2023, closing at $215.18 per share - down $13.21 per share from its closing price of $228.39 on Friday, March 3, 2023.WHAT CAN I DO?Norfolk Southern investors may, no later than May 15, 2023, move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff for the class, through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLPor other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLPencourages Norfolk Southern investors who have suffered significant losses to contact the firm directly to acquire more information. The class action complaint against Norfolk Southern, captioned Bucks County Employees Retirement System v. Norfolk Southern Corporation, et al. and docketed under 23-cv-0982, is filed in the United States District Court for Southern District of Ohio (Eastern Division) before the Honorable Michael H. Watson.CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE CASEWHO 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, LLPKessler 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 ot
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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / GRIOn 1 April, Carol Adams commenced her role as the new Chair of the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), the independent body responsible for setting the GRI Standards.Prof. Adams has written to GRI reporters and supporters, to share insights into her priorities as she takes on leadership for developing and maintaining the world's most widely used sustainability reporting standards:"This is an exciting time to be involved in sustainability reporting. The discussion about corporate accountability, and the role organizations play in sustainable development, is more widespread than ever before. The Global Reportign Initiative is right at the heart of the debate. The continued development of the GRI Standards to facilitate the achievement of sustainable development - as called for by our stakeholders, including investors - has never been more relevant and necessary than it is today.I have supported and actively contributed to GRI's mission since the early years. As a previous Chair of the GRI Stakeholder Council (2017-19), I also have a deep understanding of the constituency groups that use and rely on our leading standards. I firmly believe the diverse, multi-stakeholder ethos that is at the core of the GSSB's ways of working is essential to developing standards that assist the sustainability transition.Over a 30-year career in sustainability research, academia and leadership roles, I have championed the benefits of evidence-based and impact-focused reporting - which encompasses disclosures on management approach, governance oversight, targets and strategy. I have wide-ranging expertise in the analysis and application of sustainability reporting, policy and practice, all of which I intend to bring to the fore in my capacity as GSSB Chair.What GRI has achieved so far - with the support of our reporters, stakeholders and input from technical experts - is significant. Most major companies around the world voluntarily use the GRI Standards. That includes 78% of the 250 largest global companies, according to recent KPMG analysis. Meanwhile, new IFAC research found that 39% of GRI reports are subject to external assurance, a number which is growing.Looking ahead, we are committed to achieving interoperability between the GRI Standards and the IFRS Foundation's sustainability-related standards, being developed by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The two standards come from different perspectives, with GRI addressing how an organization impacts economies, environment and people for a multi-stakeholder audience (including investors), while the ISSB is focused on reporting of financially-material matters for investors. Combined, I believe these approaches strengthen corporate reporting and increase transparency.For the past two years, GRI has worked with the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) to support the development of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Encouragingly, these efforts are paying off - with the impact disclosure requirements in the first set of ESRS confirmed as closely aligned with the corresponding GRI disclosures. This offers reassurance to the thousands of companies for which the ESRS will become mandatory that they can expect to utilize existing GRI reporting to meet EU requirements. We are optimistic this will apply to developing impact reporting requirements in other jurisdictions.As GSSB Chair, I will seek to deepen our relationships with reporting standard setters, disclosure frameworks and other partners around the world. Not only does this reinforce the applicability and integration of the GRI Standards in global markets, it will minimize reporting burden for organizations. Balancing our aims for ever improved reporting on impacts, including processes for integrating them into decision making, with standards that are practical and usable, is crucial. I encourage your input through the further development of your reporting, responses to GSSB consultations or involvement in technical working groups.Recent years have seen steady growth in GRI adoption, alongside the expansion and improvement of the suite of Standards - commendable progress that we will endeavor to continue. Under the current GSSB work program this includes a revised Biodiversity Standard, the continued roll-out of Sector Standards, and significant updates covering all climate and labor related Standards. The Standards Division continues to expand in order to facilitate this work.Finally, I want to acknowledge the excellent work of my predecessor as chair, Judy Kuszewski. The advancement of the GRI Standards under her astute guidance is clear for all to see, and is a legacy on which I intend to build." Prof. Carol Adams, Chair of the GSSBCarol Adams MSc PhD CA FAICD is an internationally renowned researcher in sustainability accounting and reporting. She is Professor of Accounting at Durham University Business School, advises the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy on sustainability reporting, is a member of the Australian Accounting Standards Board's Sustainability Reporting Advisory Panel, and chair of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland's Sustainability Panel.The Global Sustainability Standards Board has sole responsibility for the development and approval of the GRI Standards and works exclusively in the public interest, according to a formally defined due process. This 15-member body reflects a balance of technical expertise, global diversity and multi-stakeholder perspectives.Carol Adams, newly appointed chair of the GSSBView additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from GRI on 3 blmedia.com Contact Info:Spokesperson: GRIWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/gri Email: info@3 blmedia.com SOURCE: GRI
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"Freedom Grams" Created by Industry Coalition Continues to Advocate for the Release of More than 40,000 People in the U.S. Still Incarcerated for Non-Violent Cannabis PossessionNEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / (via IBN) - April 20, 2023 was the one-year-anniversary of non-profit cannabis brand Freedom Grams, launched by cannabis platform provider AROYA, retailer and manufacturer GABY Inc., and non-profit Last Prisoner Project. Each pack of Freedom Grams comes in the exact amounts of cannabis for which people are still in prison. All proceeds from Freedom Grams are funding the release of cannabis prisoners, as well as general cannabis justice reform.Coming off the heels of 4/20, the biggest day for cannabis in the U.S., limited edition Freedom Grams kits are being sent out to influencers, journalists and policymakers to amplify Freedom Gram's message of cannabis criminal justice reform. Each box includes branded accessories to remind cannabis consumers of the double-standards in the treatment of cannabis prisoners."We launched Freedom Grams to bring people together and create a real connection to cannabis prisoners. It's great to see that more partners have joined us in this fight," says Christian Hertel, VP of Marketing at AROYA.Freedom Grams has received many accolades and recognition in the industry with a Grand Clio at Clio Cannabis and several other awards including Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, New York Festival, The One Show and more.Launched through California-based dispensary Mankind, Freedom Grams has connected with many more partners in the industry including Ball Family Farms and Dewey Cannabis Co. The initiative has expanded their reach to new states like Washington with over 60 retail partners.Freedom Grams is an open-source brand. This means that other industry participants - growers, retailers, brands, or individuals - can join by creating Freedom Grams labels for their own product, with every partner donating their proceeds to Last Prisoner Project. The group was formed with one goal in mind: to work toward the release of people imprisoned for nonviolent cannabis offences."I am happy to support Freedom Grams and the work they do in partnership with Last Prisoner Project to free the tens of thousands of people currently serving time for cannabis. There are multiple ways to support our incarcerated cannabis community, and this is a crucial one," says Stephanie Shepard, Partnerships Manager at Last Prisoner Project.Since October 2022, which saw President Joe Biden's pardon of federal prisoners convicted for simple cannabis possession, the government has not made much progress. It took 5 months for pardon applications to open up and in its current state, and it does not apply to the state-persecuted individuals. All this while the cannabis market is estimated to reach over 31.8 billion USD in sales by the end of 2023.Last Prisoner Project's policy team has been working around the clock to ensure cannabis legislation across the country contains resentencing and record-clearing mechanisms. One of the big initiatives they launched in 2023 was the Pardons to Progress campaign, which urges governors to issue clemency grants to those incarcerated on state-level marijuana charges."Freedom Grams is a reminder that the fight doesn't end with legalisation. It ends when every cannabis prisoner can go back home and be reintegrated into society without a record," concluded Christian Hertel, VP of Marketing at AROYA.Freedom Grams is an initiative by AROYA in partnership with Last Prisoner Project and GABY Inc., idea and execution by Serviceplan Group, together with design studio Moby Digg, type designer Michael Clasen, and creative coder Daniel Kuhnlein.About AROYAAROYA is a cannabis production platform. They specialise in cultivation sensors and analytical software for producing high quality yields. They believe in using the power of data to empower their consumers. Visit www.AROYA.io for additional information.About Last Prisoner ProjectThe Last Prisoner Project (LPP) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to cannabis-related criminal justice reform. LPP works to redress the past and continuing harms of inhumane and ineffective laws and policies.About GABY Inc.GABY Inc. is a California-focused retail consolidator and the owner of Mankind Dispensary, one of the oldest licensed dispensaries in California. Mankind is a well-known, and highly respected dispensary with deep roots in the California cannabis community operating in San Diego, California. GABY curates and sells a diverse portfolio of products, including its own proprietary brands and distributes all its proprietary brands through its wholly owned subsidiary, GABY Manufacturing.About Serviceplan GroupServiceplan Group is one of the largest independent, partner-managed agency groups worldwide. Serviceplan Group has developed the concept of the "House of Communication" - a fully integrated agency model that combines all modern communication disciplines from the areas of creative and content, media and data, and experience and technology commerce under one roof.IBNLos Angeles, California310.299.1717 OfficeEditor@ InvestorBrandNetwork.com SOURCE: AROYA
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 19:50:32

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Hagens Berman urges Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) investors who suffered substantial losses submit your losses now.Class Period: July 15, 2019- Feb. 22, 2023Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 12, 2023Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/MPW Contact An Attorney Now: MPW@ hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (MPW) Securities Fraud Class Action:According to the complaint, Defendants made false and misleading statements and failed to disclose that Medical Properties: (1) masked the distressed state of its tenants through sale-leaseback arrangements that were essentially round-robin transactions in that they allowed debt-saddled tenants to meet their obligations in the short term; (2) fraudulently transferred hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounted to a bailout of financially distressed tenants; and (3) concealed its fraudulent transfers with fake construction projects with purportedly high capital expenses, despite the fact that the company entered into "triple-net leases" that obligated its tenants to pay a significant portion of expenses.Investors began to learn the truth on Jan. 26, 2023, when Viceroy Research published a scathing report accusing Medical Properties of "engaging in billions of dollars of uncommercial transactions with its tenants and their management teams in order to mask a pervasive revenue round-robin scheme and/or theft." Then, on Feb. 2, 2023, Viceroy sent and published its letter to Medical Properties' auditor highlighting Viceroy's concerns about severely distressed tenants and round-tripped revenues, uncollectible accrued revenues and impaired asset values.Finally, on Feb. 23, 2023, the company announced Q4 and full-year 2022 financial results that included a whopping $171 million impairment charge relating to four properties leased to Prospect and a write-off of $112 million on unbilled Prospect rent.These revelations drove the price of Medical Properties shares sharply lower."We're focused on investors' losses and proving Medical Properties cooked its books," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.If you invested in Medical Properties and have substantial losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firm's investigation, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman.Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Medical Properties should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email MPW@ hbsslaw.com # # #About Hagens BermanHagens Berman is a global plaintiffs' rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com . Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.Contact:Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895SOURCE: Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 13:32:27

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LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Nota announced today that it is collaborating with Microsoft as a participant in the Microsoft Journalism Hub. This hub will bring efficiency and cutting-edge technology to newsrooms so publishers, journalists and audience teams can focus on what matters most: creating meaningful content.Nota is a SaaS company using AI-enabled tools to streamline publishers' content creation and distribution. Its assistive AI tools build time-saving production infrastructure for digital publishing - creating an accessible engagement economy, offering instant content conversion and content amplification, multiplying video content revenue, and doing away with repetitive tasks that have long required journalists to act as generalists in multiple fields."We're extremely excited to work with Microsoft on this Journalism Hub," said Josh Brandau, CEO of Nota. "We believe that making our tools accessible to newsrooms of all sizes will enhance nearly every area of publishing. Nota's beta tools offer a lot of opportunities for all journalism. This hub will help publishers, particularly those in areas with little to no access to local news and Black and African American-owned newsrooms and publishers, scale and reach a broader audience." Working alongside Microsoft will help Nota achieve its goal of enhancing the publishing landscape, creating a new way of working in newsrooms and assisting journalists with pain points they feel on a daily basis.About NotaFounded in 2022, Nota is an AI-enabled SaaS company based in Los Angeles, California. Specializing in building assistive tools for the future of digital publishing, the company's first two tools launched in beta in February 2023.Nota is a member of the Microsoft for Startups Founder's Hub and is backed by Ankord, an investment incubator focused on companies that live at the intersection of impact and innovation.To learn how Nota can work with you, reach out to info@ heynota.com and visit www.heynota.com Contact InformationJosh BrandauCEOjosh@ heynota.com SOURCE: Nota
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 19:56:30

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Hagens Berman urges Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) investors who suffered substantial losses to submit your losses now.Class Period: Oct. 8, 2020 - Mar. 3, 2023Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 15, 2023Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/NSC Contact An Attorney Now: NSC@ hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC) Securities Fraud Class Action:The complaint alleges that Defendants misrepresented and concealed material facts concerning Norfolk Southern's increased risk-taking at the expense of reasonable safety precautions due to the company's near-term focus on profits.Specifically, the company invoked a plan to, among other things, use longer, heavier trains staffed by fewer personnel, which led to increased train derailments and the risk of future catastrophic events. The complaint also alleges that while failing to make proper capital expenditures in safety risk programs, the company concurrently lobbied for policies undermining its ability to provide safe, efficient, and reliable rail transportation services.The complaint alleges that this undisclosed conduct made Norfolk Southern more susceptible to accidents that could seriously harm the company, its workers, its customers, third parties, and the environment.The true facts began to emerge on Feb. 3, 2023, when a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. The derailed equipment included 11 tank cars carrying hazardous materials that subsequently ignited and required the immediate evacuation of those within a one-mile by two-mile area. According to regulators, the derailment was entirely preventable.An additional revelation of Norfolk Southern's safety lapses occurred on Mar. 14, 2023, when another of its freight trains derailed near Springfield, Ohio."We're focused on investors' losses and proving Norfolk Southern put profits over safety," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.If you invested in Norfolk Southern and have substantial losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firm's investigation, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman.Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Norfolk Southern should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email NSC@ hbsslaw.com # # #About Hagens BermanHagens Berman is a global plaintiffs' rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com . Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.Contact:Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895SOURCE: Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 18:30:17

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MIDLAND, PA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber) Polytechnic Academy honors exceptional students and its partners with the debut of the Poly Awards. The award ceremonies, which will take place in five cities throughout May, celebrate students who have demonstrated excellent participation as well as staff, universities, and education partners who have grown the school's STEM programming in the past year. The Poly Award serves as a symbol of the recipient's impact and a reminder of the importance of continued innovation and progress."The success and rapid growth of PA Cyber's Polytechnic Academy has been a direct result of enthusiastic participation from many students and PA Cyber staff members, as well as a variety of higher ed and industry partners from across Pennsylvania and beyond," said Supervisor of STEM Education Tom Brambley. "The Polys are an opportunity for us to recognize some of the most dedicated and instrumental people involved in that growth." A committee reviewed nominations and selected the most deserving candidates. PA Cyber will recognize several of its staff members as well, for an overall total of 15 awards.Elementary School Student of the Year - Everette WilsonMiddle School Student of the Year - Amina ShafiHigh School Student of the Year - William DuvallPartner of the Year, Higher Education - Dr. Prahlad Murthy, Wilkes UniversityPartner of the Year, Higher Education - Dr. Peter Skoner, Saint Francis UniversityPartner of the Year, Higher Education - Beth Scott, University of PittsburghPartner of the Year, Program Provider - Kristin McMahon, Challenge IslandPartner of the Year, Program Provider - Evan Moorehead, Science ExplorersThe Catalyst Award - Dr. Deborah LangeThe Poly Award is not just a recognition of achievement; it's a celebration of creativity, curiosity, and perseverance. Each Poly Award stands as a crystalline pentagon-as the light reflects off the surface, it creates a kaleidoscope of colors, reminding us of the multifaceted nature of STEM. Each angle offers a different perspective, just as each person brings unique skills and insights to the field. The gear, which is engraved on the front, represents the interlocking components of STEM disciplines and how each person's contribution is essential to progress.PA Cyber's Polytechnic Academy allows students to be critical thinkers and creative problem solvers through experimental, hands-on, and project-based learning. "One of the significant initiatives PA Cyber has taken over the past few years was the creation of the Polytechnic Academy," said CEO Brian Hayden. "Through a variety of in-person and virtual programs, including the Polytechnic Mobile Lab and activities at our regional offices, we continue to offer STEM learning for all ages and interests. Already, students have experienced the benefits, including several who have discovered career paths and received college scholarships." As the Supervisor of STEM Education at PA Cyber, Brambley creates engaging opportunities for students in all grade levels. "He has always placed an emphasis on ensuring students have an opportunity to apply what they are learning in a fun and creative way," said Deputy Chief Operations Officer Eric Woelfel.# # #About PA CyberServing students in kindergarten through 12th grade, the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School is one of the largest, most experienced, and most successful online public schools in the nation. PA Cyber's online learning environments, personalized instructional methods, and curricula choices connect Pennsylvania students and families with state-certified and highly qualified teachers and rich academic content aligned to state standards. Founded in 2000, PA Cyber is headquartered in Midland (Beaver County) and maintains a network of support offices throughout the state. As a public school, PA Cyber is open for enrollment to any school-age child residing in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and does not charge tuition to students or families.Media Contact:Jennie Harris724-313-5842SOURCE: The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 07:30:29

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GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding SA (SIX:RLF)(OTCQB:RLFTF)(OTCQB:RLFTY) (Relief Therapeutics), a biopharmaceutical company committed to delivering innovative treatment options with the potential for transformative outcomes to benefit those suffering from select specialty and rare diseases, today announced the implementation timeline for the reverse split of its ordinary shares, which was approved by shareholders at the Extraordinary General Meeting held on April 28, 2023.May 4, 2023: Last trading day of old shares on SIX Swiss ExchangeMay 5, 2023: First trading day of new shares on SIX Swiss ExchangeAs previously communicated, shareholdings will be rounded down to the next lower whole number of new merged shares by applying the 400 to 1 exchange ratio. The resulting fractions will be compensated in cash at a fixed price corresponding to the three-day volume-weighted average price of the Relief Therapeutics share on the SIX Swiss Exchange prior to the reverse split.Additional information on the reverse split is provided in a Q&A list available here .ABOUT RELIEF THERAPEUTICSRelief Therapeutics is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to advancing treatment paradigms and delivering improvements in efficacy, safety and convenience to benefit the lives of patients living with select specialty and rare diseases. Relief Therapeutics' portfolio offers a balanced mix of marketed, revenue-generating products, our proprietary, globally patented Physiomimic and TEHCLO drug delivery platform technologies and a highly targeted clinical development pipeline consisting of risk-mitigated assets focused in three core therapeutic areas: rare metabolic disorders, rare skin diseases and rare respiratory diseases. In addition, Relief Therapeutics is commercializing several legacy products via licensing and distribution partners. Our mission to provide therapeutic relief to those suffering from rare diseases is being advanced by an international team of well-established, experienced biopharma industry leaders with extensive research, development and rare disease expertise. Relief Therapeutics is headquartered in Geneva, with additional offices in Balerna, Switzerland, Offenbach am Main, Germany and Rome. Relief Therapeutics is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol RLF and quoted in the U.S. on OTCQB under the symbols RLFTF and RLFTY. For more information, please visit our website www.relieftherapeutics.com or follow Relief Therapeutics on LinkedIn and Twitter .CONTACT:RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding SACatherine DayVice President, Investor Relations & Communicationscontact@ relieftherapeutics.com DISCLAIMERThis press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Relief Therapeutics to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. A number of factors including those described in Relief Therapeutics' filings with the SIX Swiss Exchange and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could adversely affect Relief Therapeutics. Copies of Relief Therapeutics' filings with the SEC are available on the SEC EDGAR database at www.sec.gov . Relief Therapeutics does not undertake any obligation to update the information contained herein, which speaks only as of this date.SOURCE: Relief Therapeutics Holdings AG
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 15:03:21

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Taiger's Founder and CEO, Sinuhe Arroyo, recently shared his insights on the current and future developments of Generative AI at a fireside chat hosted by ICEX Head of the Spanish Trade Commission, Antonio Garcia Rebollar, at the Spanish Embassy in Singapore on 28th April.The event was organized by the Spanish Professional International Network (SPIN) part of the Spanish Association of Singapore (AES).SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Dr. Arroyo is an expert in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and has been at the forefront of developing innovative solutions using Generative AI, a technology that is rapidly transforming various industries around the world.During the fireside chat, Dr. Arroyo discussed the state-of-the-art developments in Generative AI and how this technology is already changing the way we live and work. He highlighted how this technology can help businesses automate various processes, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.Dr. Arroyo also discussed the potential impact of Generative AI on various industries such as healthcare, finance, and education. He emphasized that the technology could be used to analyze large amounts of data quickly, enabling better decision-making and improved outcomes.Commenting on the event, Dr. Arroyo said, "It was an honor to share my thoughts on the future of Generative AI. This technology is already changing the way we work, and I am excited to see how it will shape the world in the years to come." The event was well-attended, and attendees had the opportunity to network, comment and share their views. It provided an excellent platform for individuals and businesses to learn more about the potential of Generative AI and how it could be used to create a better future.About TaigerTaiger offers the first behind-firewall Generative & Predictive AI-based solution to automatically classify documents and convert unstructured information into structured data. We help corporations optimize middle and back-office operation, removing the need for large teams of clerks, boosting operational efficiency, at a reasonable price, while complying with ongoing security and privacy regulations. Key application areas include Powers of Attorney, Bills of Lading, Mortgages or Loans, etc. Some of the world's top financial and legal institutions, including Banco Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Banregio or Garrigues already rely on Taiger to automate their document processing operations. Learn more about TAIGER at taiger.com Contact InformationJuanjo MisisMarketing ManagerSOURCE: Taiger
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 07:45:18

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Did you lose money on investments in Target? If so, please visit Target Corporation Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit or contact Peter Allocco at (212) 951-2030 or pallocco@ bernlieb.com to discuss your rights.NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Bernstein Liebhard LLP, a nationally acclaimed investor rights law firm, reminds investors of the deadline to file a lead plaintiff motion in a securities class action lawsuit that has been filed on behalf of investors who purchased or acquired the common stock of Target Corporation ("Target" or the "Company") (NYSE:TGT) between August 18, 2021 and May 17, 2022, inclusive (the "Class Period"). The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota and alleges violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.Target is a major retailer of five "core" product categories - apparel, food and beverage, essentials and beauty, home, and hardlines. These categories encompass a wide range of merchandise, such as school supplies, furniture, sporting equipment, and televisions. About one third of the products sold by Target are exclusive to the Company through private labels or owned brands.Plaintiff alleges that Defendants made materially false and misleading statements throughout the Class Period. Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that Defendants failed to disclose that: (i) Target's strategy for mitigating supply-chain constraints by over-ordering inventory had severely limited the Company's ability to timely respond to evolving consumer behavior; (ii) as a result, the purported "massive influx of insights" gained from the extraordinary heightened demand during the pandemic could not be leveraged by Target to react to rapidly changing trends; and (iii) as a result of Target's inability to timely react to changes in consumer trends, Target's sales declined and the Company was left with an overabundance of inventory, forcing Target to take large markdowns, and severely impacting the Company's financial results.On the morning of May 18, 2022, Target filed a Form 8-K with the SEC attaching a press release containing the Company's financial and operating results for the first quarter ended April 30, 2022 (the "Q1 2022 Earnings Release"). The Q1 2022 Earnings Release revealed that Target had missed profit estimates widely, with cost of goods sold increasing 10% year over year and operating income declining to $1.3 billion from $2.4 billion in the prior year. In the filing, Target also revealed that its operating margin was "well below expectations, driven primarily by gross margin pressure reflecting actions to reduce excess inventory. . . ." Target further explained that the "gross margin rate reflected higher markdown rates, driven largely by inventory impairments and actions to address lower-than-expected sales in discretionary categories. . . ."On this news, Target's stock price fell $53.67 per share, or nearly 25%, to close at $161.61 per share on May 18, 2022.If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than May 30, 2023. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as lead plaintiff. If you choose to take no action, you may remain an absent class member.If you purchased or acquired Target common stock, and/or would like to discuss your legal rights and options please visit Target Corporation Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit or contact Peter Allocco at (212) 951-2030 or pallocco@ bernlieb.com Since 1993, Bernstein Liebhard LLP has recovered over $3.5 billion for its clients. In addition to representing individual investors, the Firm has been retained by some of the largest public and private pension funds in the country to monitor their assets and pursue litigation on their behalf. As a result of its success litigating hundreds of lawsuits and class actions, the Firm has been named to The National Law Journal's "Plaintiffs' Hot List" thirteen times and listed in The Legal 500 for ten consecutive years.ATTORNEY ADVERTISING.  2023 Bernstein Liebhard LLP. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Bernstein Liebhard LLP, 10 East 40th Street, New York, New York 10016, (212) 779-1414. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.Contact Information:Peter AlloccoBernstein Liebhard LLP(212) 951-2030pallocco@ bernlieb.com SOURCE: Bernstein Liebhard LLP
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 12:00:18

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Female and Family-Owned E-commerce Company Trailblazes The Custom Window Treatment IndustrySAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / The Blindsgalore family is celebrating 25 years in business as the only female and family-owned online window treatment company in the industry. In 1998, Chelle Walters sought out an alternative to generic, mass-produced window coverings. Surprised by the lack of quality custom options available, Walters became determined to bring customers the fun and frictionless DIY experience she felt was missing. Blindsgalore soon became a pioneer in the e-commerce retail window covering market.Blindsgalore Celebrate 25 YearsBlindsgalore started in 1998 as the first place to buy your blinds online. This year, we celebrate 25 years in business. Blindsgalore was the first online retailer to offer shoppers custom window treatments that are made to order and delivered to their front door. Since opening their virtual doors, they've helped cover over two million windows. For the past 25 years, Blindsgalore has provided a professional designer experience at a fraction of the cost and continues to disrupt the typical mass-produced blind industry with made-to-order custom window treatments. The company's in-house team of experts prides itself on their product knowledge and treating customers like part of the family. Shoppers are able to bring their exact vision to life with a unique and user-friendly online design experience.The Walters family, comprised of Chelle Walters (founder) and her daughter Alissa Walters (CEO), works diligently to maintain their family ideals with an immense dedication to quality. "Our literal family has been at this a while, and I'm even more proud that our larger team has been in it for the long haul," said Chelle Walters. "Some have been with us twenty-plus years. Every single person here is part of our family. We serve the nation and beyond but we are a tightknit team in San Diego." The Blindsgalore family has been considered an industry frontrunner for affordable, high-quality custom window treatments since their inception in 1998.About eighty-five percent of all consumers are women, but most e-commerce companies are still owned and operated by men. The mother-daughter team behind Blindsgalore offers unrivaled customer insight. Additionally, Blindsgalore is the only family and female-owned and operated custom window treatment retailer to be certified by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).For more information about Blindsgalore and the dynamic female duo credited for its 25 years of success, please visit https://www.blindsgalore.com Contact InformationKyle KelleyCreative Marketing Managerkkelley@ blindsgalore.com +18777025463SOURCE: Blindsgalore
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 20:18:21

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Uplift Education's Annual Science Fair Challenges Students Across the Nationally Recognized Charter School NetworkDALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Earlier this year, Uplift Education hosted its annual network Science Fair in partnership with UT Southwestern. Student science enthusiasts from across the network came together to showcase their Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) talents to UTSW staff, local elected officials, and other judges to compete for a spot to represent Uplift in the Regional Science Fair. This year's theme, A Moment of Science, consisted of 1,000 Uplift Education science students who presented their months of research and hypothesis at the event."The Uplift Science Fair is something we look forward to every year. We get to see our scholars in action sharing their research to judges, all while they get to practice their public speaking and presentation skills," said Yasmin Bhatia, CEO of Uplift Education.Students who placed at the Uplift Network Science Fair continued to Regionals, and those winners moved on to the State Science Fair. Uplift Summit International Preparatory 9th grader, Denise Rios, advanced to the State Science Fair. Rios represented Uplift Education with her project focused on creating batteries from bacteria that generate electricity from food waste. The competitive progress from the network-wide fair, to Regionals and eventually State, gave her the opportunity to improve her project along the way. "I feel like I gained confidence in my speaking abilities, so I could better articulate such a complex project to the judges," said Rios.While Rios did not place in the State Science Fair, it has encouraged her to continue her research and consider pursuing a career in STEM.When asked about how the Uplift Education Science Fair prepared her for the progression beyond the network-wide event toward Regional and State competitions, Rios said, "I learned how to navigate interviews and I learned how to project myself in a way that would allow me to feel confident and allow another person to understand such a complex project. It also gave me a boost of confidence knowing that what I did had some substantial results. It encouraged me to go on. I plan to participate in next year's fair by expanding on this year's project and trying to incorporate carbon dioxide into the equation creating a more efficient cell. And I will most likely pursue a career in STEM." "We are so very proud of all our scholars who both participated and advanced. We are thrilled to see these amazing minds at work and hope that the support of Uplift fundamentally prepares them year after year," said Bhatia. "In addition to the awards given at the Science Fair this year, our Board of Directors hosted a special event for all the winners at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. This memorable evening allowed many of our supporters and friends of Uplift to meet the scholars in person and learn about the myriad of science experiments while the scholars further honed their presentation skills." ABOUT UPLIFT EDUCATION:Uplift Education is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the lives of teachers, families, and, most importantly, students. With a network of 45 college preparatory, public charter schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Uplift offers students of any background the powerful chance to study within a multidisciplinary curriculum and prepare for the college or career they deserve. Established in 1996, the network has grown to serve over 23,000 students in Pre-K- 12th grades, with the majority being low-income and minority students who will be the first in their family to attend college. The incredible educators in the Uplift network guide and teach over 23,000 students, with the majority being low-income and minority students who will be the first in their family to attend college. For more information Uplift's mission and how to apply, visit uplifteducation.org or facebook.com/uplifteducation ContactKimberly EsparzaMarketing Manager | Uplift Education3000 Pegasus Park BlvdSuite 1100Dallas, TX 75247Office: 469.621.8500 Ext:211136Cell: 469.358.6924SOURCE: Uplift Education
PR-Inside.com: 2023-05-03 10:30:14

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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Points of LightPhoto by RODNAE ProductionsIndependent Sector, in partnership with Do Good Institute, has announced the new estimated national value of a volunteer hour:$31.80Volunteers are critical assets to civil society and all of our communities. It's important for leadership to understand the impact your employee volunteers have on society and social issues, and one of the many ways to do that is by calculating the value of their time.What does this mean for corporate social responsibility practitioners?You spend a lot of time tracking employee volunteer hours, either from company-sponsored programs or through encouraging employees to record their individual engagement activities. Allocating a dollar value to those volunteer hours is a straightforward way to calculate your employee volunteering program's contributions. It also showcases the company's overall employee volunteer input.Additionally, a dollar sign is something most people can relate to, which is why an economic value can become a useful communication tool with the public and internal enterprise decision-makers. It provides you with evidence-based data for communication efforts.When using this financial measure, we also advise that you account for the other types of value that volunteering brings - whether that's related to business or societal goals - and the inherent value of employees freely giving their time.Keep in mind:At Points of Light, we recognize the debate that exists in the volunteer sector related to assigning an economic value to volunteering. There are practical and philosophical issues with using this approach, as counting hours provides only a partial picture of the value that volunteers contribute to communities. It is also important to keep in mind that when referring to monetary expressions of value and explaining the costs and benefits of volunteering and volunteer programs in dollars, we are not disqualifying or rivaling other forms of valuation - qualitative or quantitative. The discussion paper put together by Volunteer Canada on the topic provides an insightful look into the practice of determining the economic value of volunteering.The $31.80 value of a volunteer hour is valid for the United States only.Generally , the $31.80 value of a volunteer hour can be applied to a wide range of traditional volunteer activities. For specialized, skilled pro bono services (especially if your company has a formalized pro bono program), we suggest looking into the valuation provided by the Taproot Foundation which announced that the average hourly value of pro bono service in 2019 is $195. Both forms of volunteering are critical to providing nonprofits with resources.Learn more about the methodology behind Independent Sector's new Value of Volunteer Time, and get the updated figures for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Points of Light on 3 blmedia.com Contact Info:Spokesperson: Points of LightWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/points-light Email: info@3 blmedia.com SOURCE: Points of Light
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TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 1. The new country strategy of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Uzbekistan will be aligned with the priorities of the Government, Head of the ADB Representative Office in Uzbekistan Enrico Pinali told Trend.

According to Pinali, as the current ADB Country Strategy in Uzbekistan for 2019  2023 comes to an end, the Bank is currently in talks with the representatives of the Government of Uzbekistan, and other stakeholders, on the priorities of the future strategy.

"We are holding consultations right now. This is a comparably new strategy. So, our 2024-2028 strategy will be supported by the second generation of reforms," he said.

As the ADB rep pointed out, one of the most important directions in ADBs cooperation with Uzbekistan in the coming years will be private sector support.

Moreover, ADB will also focus on human capital development over the next five years.

"Concerning social development, we are focusing on human capital. Over the next five years, we are going to prioritize projects in education, specifically, the so-called STEM-science, technology, engineering, and math in secondary schools," he noted.

Another focus area for ADB in Uzbekistan is the introduction of ICT, and the spread of IT technologies in schools, and the next, probably, will be the development of skills to prepare the future workforce for the modern industrialized economy of Uzbekistan. We also will provide vocational trainings in these areas, Pinali said.

"Healthcare sector will stay a priority for us. In the healthcare sector, we are most probably going to normalize the private sector to improve healthcare services in the country," the head of the ADB mission added.

Uzbekistan joined ADB in 1995. During 28 years of cooperation, ADB has committed loans, grants, and technical assistance amounting to $10.8 billion to the country.

ADB is committed to supporting Asia and the Pacific to achieve prosperity, inclusion, resilience, and sustainability. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members - 49 from the region.
The United Nations (UN) warns that Sudans bloody conflict could soon seep through the countrys borders and spread. Its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the catastrophic conflagration within Sudan  could engulf the whole region and beyond.

A looming humanitarian crisis is already visible in the number of Sudanese displaced internally or seeking refuge in Egypt, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad and Ethiopia. The implications are dire in a region still recovering from the war in Ethiopia and protracted instability in Somalia.

The current conflict broke out on 15 April between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti). With two warlords at the helm, urban warfare has claimed over 500 lives in clashes between forces equally balanced in terms of armaments and combat readiness. Repeated claims by both leaders that they will achieve all-out victory leave few options for preventing a full-scale civil war.

Sudan and neighbouring countries

Regional and international efforts to quell the fighting have been swift but largely ineffective. A day after the outbreak, the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council condemned the clashes and called for a cessation of hostilities. East Africas Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) responded similarly, appointing the leaders of Djibouti, South Sudan and Kenya to lead a regional peace process.

Along with the UNs robust demand for a ceasefire has been pressure from the United States (US) and United Arab Emirates (UAE). While these were quick and commendable first steps, they highlight two main challenges in containing the situation and preventing a spillover into the region.

The first is that coherence among the multiple peace processes is vital. Although several factors contributed to Sudans stillborn transition and status quo, a major catalyst has been the proliferation of actors and peace processes in the past few years. These include the UN-AU-IGAD mechanism; the US, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and UAE group; Sudans group of friends and the Arab League, to name a few.

Each brings strategic interests, approaches and ideas for resolving the transitional crisis. While all aim to resolve the worsening humanitarian situation, consensus and alignment of engagements are urgent to prevent duplication of efforts and help stabilise Sudan.

In February, Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate Director General Abbas Kamel attempted to mediate between Burhan, the Forces for Freedom and Change-Central Council (FFC-CC), the FFC-Democratic Block and some of the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement signatories. This Cairo track created a separate peace process with deadly consequences.

Set up outside the AU-IGAD-UN mechanism, it favoured the Sudanese military and sidelined the RSF from talks. That sowed further mistrust between the two generals and heightened the risk of confrontation. Such parallel processes ultimately prolong crises and undermine efforts to find lasting solutions.

To move forward, an assessment of the interventions by international and regional actors since 2019 is required. A collective agreement is also needed among global, continental and regional efforts to clarify the comparative advantage of each actor.

The second challenge in stabilising Sudan is how to achieve regional consensus. Since fighting erupted, some countries have been accused of meddling in the conflict. The military claims that two of Sudans neighbours support the RSF and have delivered ammunition and supplies to its troops.

Some Ethiopian separatist forces have reportedly taken advantage of the lack of security oversight to try to retake control of the disputed al-Fashaga area on the Sudan-Ethiopia border. Though Ethiopia refutes this, the absence of consensus and common goals has allowed shrewd warring parties to play different political processes against each other. They also arm themselves through neighbouring territories or regional friends or buy time to reorganise.

Since the 2019 fall of President Omar al-Bashir, Sudans neighbours have favoured different factions and actors at crucial times in the transition. Given their diplomatic visits, it is no secret that Burhan and Hemedti are close to certain countries. Apart from their trips to Gulf nations, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia, African countries such as Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Uganda have received these generals.

While this isnt proof of support, it shows that both men have regional relationships that could be exploited when needed. In a drawn-out war where international goodwill might dwindle, the chances that such states may lean towards one side or the other cannot be discounted.

Given Sudans history of complex relations with its immediate neighbours, it is inevitable that geopolitical preferences and alliances will underlie the choices of bordering states. In the past, proxy influences have prolonged the Sudanese crises, making it more difficult for citizens to resolve issues on their own.

Avoiding such power struggles and support for warring factions could prevent an evolution into a full-blown civil war. Engagements that risk reinforcing the hard stance of the warring sides and exacerbating the conflict must be contained.

Peace and stability in Sudan and the region are mutually reinforcing. Unless an effort is made to prevent further fragmentation of peace initiatives and guard against regional actors tipping the scale, any attempts at building lasting peace could be derailed. Regional consensus is vital.

Andrews Atta-Asamoah, Programme Head and Maram Mahdi, Researcher, Africa Peace and Security Governance, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Addis Ababa

(This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish).

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Over 100,ooo people have fled to neighbouring countries since the fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began almost three weeks ago, UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said.

UNHCR noted that those fleeing the fighting include Sudanese refugees as well as people who were themselves refugees in Sudan, adding that the number of refugees and returnees may rise to over 800,000.

UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado told journalists in Geneva that many of the seven neighbouring countries where people are fleeing to are already hosting large refugee, and internally displaced populations.

The majority remain severely underfunded. Asylum countries will need additional support to provide protection and assistance. Among the urgent needs are water, food, shelter, healthcare, relief items, gender-based violence response and prevention, and child protection services, she said.

The most significant cross-border movements so far have been Sudanese refugees arriving in Chad and Egypt, and South Sudanese returning to South Sudan. Most new arrivals in Chad and South Sudan are women and children, UNHCR said.

It announced plans to launch an interagency regional refugee response plan to address urgent financial needs, as soon as possible.

In Chad, more than 21,000 refugees have so far been verified, physically counted and identified, and UNHCR is continuing verification and registration exercises.

In South Sudan, those arriving at the border include older people, people with disabilities, pregnant women, female heads of households with young children and large families.

In the Central African Republic, the refugee agency estimates that approximately 6,000 refugees have now crossed the border.

In Ethiopia, most arrivals have been third-country nationals alongside some refugees.

In Egypt, UNHCR is leading interagency coordination in collaboration with the government. Initial estimates of arrivals have been revised up by the government to 40,000 Sudanese and 2,300 foreign nationals.

Appealing to donors, the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said on Tuesday that aid agencies and partners are facing a huge funding gap of $1.5 billion for the Sudan response.

The fighting, which is now in its third week, has continued inspite of an agreed ceasefire. Over 550 people have died as a result and 4,926 injured so far.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that many will die due to lack of essential services, as well as disease outbreaks.

Medical stockpiles are running critically low in areas ravaged by the fighting  including in the capital Khartoum, and West and Central Darfur. And the prices of basic commodities, from fuel to food staples and bottled water, has risen by 40 to 60 per cent or more in some areas, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said at the regular briefing in New York on Tuesday.

Additionally, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 334,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan.

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A coalition of members of the House of Representatives from the eight parties that will be represented in the 10th House has agreed to respect the zoning of the leadership of the House by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The lawmakers made the commitment on Tuesday during the inauguration of the coalition, known as Joint Task, in Abuja.

The members of the coalition are drawn from the APC, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Young Progressive Party (YPP). However, not all the members of these parties are part of the coalition.

Speaking at the inauguration of the coalition, the co-chairman, Bello Kumo (APC, Gombe), said the lawmakers within the coalition have no candidate yet, but they are waiting for the zoning of the ruling party.

Our message to Nigerians at this point is that we are ready to work for the betterment of our country and the citizens. To achieve that, we have to work harmoniously with the Executive Arm, without compromising our independence.

Let me emphasise in conclusion that our concern is Nigerias unity and the stability of the 10th House of Representatives. I thank you very much for your time, and we hope you will work with us to make our country better, he said.

Also speaking on the coalition, Aliyu Madaki, a member-elect on the platform of NNPP, said the lawmakers are not going to be a rubber stamp to any speaker, rather they are giving the APC the opportunity to decide the presiding officers based on international best practices.

He explained that a party with the majority is expected to produce presiding officers.

What we want to do is to bring harmonious relationships between the executive and the legislature. I want to state very clearly, we are not going to be a rubber stamp to anybody. But we intend to do what is the worlds best practice.We recognize the fact that anywhere you go in the world, the party with the majority produces who will be the presiding officer.

For someone like me who is a member of the minority party, I will assure Nigerians that we will provide a robust opposition but we will do it in a way and manner that will add value to the Nigerian people, he said.

The ruling APC has 177 members-elect, while the PDP has 116 members. LP and NNPP have 36 and 19 members-elect respectively.

Others are APGA with five, ADC two, SDP two and YPP one.

Composition of officials of the Joint task

The coalition also announced that Mr Kumo and Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) are the co-chairmen of the group while Mr Madaki is the Secretary.

Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo (APC, Ondo) is the Finance Secretary, Babajimi Benson (APC, Lagos) is in charge of Contact and Mobilisation, and Dennis Idahosa (APC, Edo) is in charge of monitoring and intelligence.

Zoning

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the governors of the ruling APC have proposed the zoning of the speakership to the North-west or North-central geopolitical.

While the lawmakers await the decision on zoning, 11 lawmakers have declared interest in the position. They are the incumbent Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase (APC, Plateau), Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau), Muktar Betara (APC, Borno), Sada Soli (APC, Katsina), Tunji Olawuyi (APC, Kwara) and Abubakar Makki (APC, Jigawa) have all declared interest.

Others are Tajudeen Abbas (APC, Kaduna), Aminu Jaji (APC, Zamfara), Ben Kalu (APC, Abia), Muktar Betara (APC, Borno) and Miriam Onuoha (APC, Imo)

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The Nigerian Senate has appealed to the government of the United Kingdom to pardon its member, Ike Ekweremadu, who was found guilty of organ trafficking in that country.

This was a sequel to a motion moved by Chukwuka Utazi (PDP, Enugu North) during the plenary on Wednesday.

The appeal comes as a UK court is set to pronounce sentence on Mr Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, and a Nigerian doctor, Obinna Obetta, on 5 May.

They were found guilty of conspiracy of organ trafficking in March by the Westminster Magistrate Court, an offence that contravenes the Modern Slavery Act.

Mr Ekweremadu, a former deputy senate president, represents Enugu West Senatorial District in the current Senate.

He was arrested in June last year for bringing a young Nigerian to the UK with a view to harvesting his organ to treat his daughter, Sonia, who is suffering from kidney disease and needed a transplant.

The motion

Mr Utazi, in his motion, expressed worries that the Senate had been silent on the ordeal Mr Ekweremadu is facing in the UK.

He demanded that the Senate should appeal to the UK Government considering the relationship between the two countries to temper justice on Mr Ekweremadu.

In his remarks, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, therefore, urged the British government to temper justice on the former Deputy senate president, saying the sentencing, if required should not be too harsh.

He expressed disappointment with the situation, noting that it is unfortunate a great man and a great leader like Ekweremadu will be going through such an ordeal.

Mr Lawan noted that he had personally sent a letter to the UK government seeking clemency for Mr Ekweremadu on the organ trafficking offence he is found guilty of.

It should be considered that this is the first time that Ekweremadu will be facing this crime. We promise to be law-abiding inside and outside our country. The British should look into the sentencing, it should not be too harsh, he said.

Resolution

The upper legislative chamber urged the UK government to facilitate soft sentencing conditions for the lawmaker.

It was, however, silent on Mr Ekweremadus wife and the doctor.

Previous pleas

The House of Representatives had on Tuesday during plenary pleaded with the UK government to temper justice with mercy in Mr Ekweremadus case.

Recently, former President Olusegun Obasanjo made a passionate plea for clemency for the embattled senator. He testified to Mr Ekweremadus character as a patriot, god-fearing, philanthropic and progressive citizen who has served Nigetia as deputy senate president on three occasions.

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A total of 376 Nigerians fleeing the crisis in Sudan have arrived in Abuja in what is now the first batch of a government-assisted evacuation exercise.

The evacuees arrived in aircraft owned by Air Peace and the Nigerian Airforce (NAF), which conveyed the evacuees from Aswan in Egypt to Abuja, Nigerias capital.

While Air Peace conveyed 282, NAF conveyed 96 evacuees, according to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Farouq, while addressing the press.

Both aircraft arrived minutes apart.

Ms Farouq said the government of Nigeria is happy that all of them are back safely, no lives lost, which is the most important thing, and all of the efforts put in place have not gone in vain.

She added that the evacuees would receive dignity packs and 100,000 naira transportation fare supported by the Dangote Foundation.

They will also receive N25,000 worth of call vouchers and a data bundle (1.5 GB) from MTN.

Present at the airport to receive the evacuees was the Sudan Ambassador to Nigeria, Mohamed Yousif. He said he was sorry about the situation in Sudan but also happy to have the evacuees back in Nigeria safe.

He noted that the situation in Khartoum is now calming down, and the army will soon control the entire capital (Khartoum).

Mr Yousif added that he hopes that calm returns to his home country soon to enable rehabilitation and return of Nigerians to Sudan.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the evacuation commenced last Wednesday and encountered logistics and diplomatic challenges. The Egyptian government initially denied the evacuees entry into Egypt due to a lack of entry visas. Officials said the challenge was resolved after some days by President Muhammadu Buharis direct intervention.

READ ALSO: First batch of Nigerian evacuees from Sudan arrive Abuja

A total of 5,500 Nigerians are expected to benefit from the evacuation. They were moved by bus from Sudan to Egypt, from where they were to be airlifted to Nigeria.

According to Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), no Nigerian is left in Khartoum.

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has dissociated itself from the planned visit of Nigerias President-Elect, Bola Tinubu to the oil-rich state on Wednesday.

Mr Tinubu who won the 25 February presidential election under the APC platform is paying a two-day visit to the state to commission a flyover and a court building constructed by Governor Wikes administration.

Mr Wike has declared Wednesday as a public holiday, urging the people of the state to turn out en masse to receive Mr Tinubu.

In a statement on Tuesday, the spokesperson of APC in the state, Darlington Nwauju, described the visit as private and on the invitation of Governor Wike. He added that it has nothing to do with the APC in the state.

We challenge the Governor being an outgoing governor (Mr Wike) to play less divisive politics and exercise restraint in planting seeds of discord amongst opposition political parties.

We are aware that the governor has been working so hard to paint a false perception of the collapse of the APC structure in Rivers State even when he had in previous well-documented interviews vowed never to have anything to do with a cancer party (APC), Mr Nwauju said.

Mr Wike, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after falling out with his partys presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, backed Mr Tinubu in the presidential election.

Mr Tinubu during his presidential campaign rally in Rivers State paid a visit to Mr Wike in Government House in Port Harcourt where the governor bragged that APC candidates in the state would not win the election and advised Mr Tinubu against investing in them (APC candidates).

The APC spokesperson in the state said it was aware of Governor Wikes plot to prank our President-elect into believing his false narrative that there is no other opposition political party existing in Rivers State, and added that Rivers people already know this is not the correct situation on the ground.

Rivers APC, Mr Nwauju, said is focused on pursuing justice by challenging the outcome of the flawed 18 March elections at the Elections Petitions Tribunal and cannot be distracted by the antics of Gov. Wike and his co-travellers.

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The transition committee of the incoming All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State has accused the outgoing administration of Governor Samuel Ortom of delay in submitting handover reports to it.

Hyacinth Alia, a Roman Catholic priest, won the Benue State governorship election on the ticket of the APC in March.

Mr Alia defeated the People Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Titus Uba, who is also the Speaker of the state House of Assembly.

Following Mr Alias emergence, the outgoing administration of Mr Ortom inaugurated a transition committee comprising members of the APC and the PDP in the state on 27 April.

The committee is chaired by the Secretary to the State Government, Tony Ijohor, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and law professor.

However, the incoming governments transition committee, on Tuesday, said the Ijohor-led team was frustrating a smooth transition from Mr Ortoms administration.

The APC transition team led by Mike Iordye in a statement issued on Tuesday lamented that Mr Ijohor reneged on his promise to get government Ministeries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to brief it with handover reports.

Mr Iordye recalled that the outgoing government constituted the transition committee on 22 March with a mandate to complete their assignment within three (3) weeks which means the report should have been ready by 15 April, 2023.

This lackadaisical attention to a serious matter like this calls for concern, as this information is necessary to enable our smooth takeoff on the 29 May, 2023, Mr Iordye said.

Subsequently, the APC team demanded the release of comprehensive handover notes covering the period of the outgoing administration (from) 2015  2023 for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), including the debt profile and the state of finances of the State.

It further requested for an inspection tour of all ongoing projects, any ongoing negotiations that are not yet frozen as contract, updated Employee List for State & Local Governments and payroll for the month of November 2022, comprehensive list of IDPs and their respective camps.

Other documents it asked for include: pension payroll for the month of February 2020 for the state pensioners and that of the local governments and any other vital information that may be of use to the incoming administration.

APCs demands unconstitutional

Responding to APCs demands, Terver Akase, special adviser on Media and Publicity to Mr Ortom, said the requests were unconstitutional.

Mr Akase noted that Mr Ortom remains the governor till 29 May.

He (Mr Ortom) cannot handover now. That will be unconstitutional.

If the government submits the handover notes now, what becomes of the remaining weeks to 29 May, Mr Akase wondered.

He alleged that the APCs desire is to truncate Mr Ortoms administration before the handover date.

Requesting for handover notes now is like saying the outgoing administration should end today. The steps that have been taken by Governor Ortom are the conventions, he said.

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The SOS Childrens Villages, a global nonprofit, on Tuesday provided humanitarian intervention to 110 flood-affected households in Agboyi-Ketu community in Lagos State.

According to Eghosa Erhumwunse, National Director, SOS Childrens Villages, Nigeria, as part of efforts to support children and families affected by flood, the SOS Childrens Villages is implementing the Humanitarian Action for Flood-Affected Families Project.

Mr Erhumwunse said the project was supporting 71 households with conditional cash transfers of N200,000 each, while 39 households would be supported with unconditional cash transfer of N60,000.

He said that the project implementation site in Lagos included the Agboyi community in Agboyi-Ketu Local Government Area where cash-based intervention support to worst-hit families are provided to cater for shelter, food and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

Mr Erhumwunse said there were challenges especially as rural communities lacked the material resources as well as the access to social safety nets that could build resilience and better prepare them for such shocks.

The SOS Childrens Village anticipates that the Humanitarian Action for Flood-Affected Families Project will help participating households build resilience on their path to recovery and stability, he said.

Speaking at the presentation, a traditional leader, Oba Adekanmbi Oladega, thanked SOS Children village, Nigeria, for the humanitarian intervention to people of Agboyi community affected by the flood of 2022.

We came here last year to evaluate, see the level of damage of the flood and promised to come back.

He said that 110 community households were given a donation of N200,000 to use and mitigate some of the effects of the 2022 flood.

READ ALSO: Buhari inaugurates defence communications infrastructure

The flood did good damage to properties including their shelters and the intervention will go a long way to ameliorate the suffering.

He appealed to his subjects to use the intervention for what it was intended for and called on other organisations to intervene in community projects too.

Speaking, a beneficiary, Dipo Diya, said he was grateful.

If the community can get help like this in times of need, things will be a lot better.

This intervention will go a long way to really provide for my children, Mr Diya said.

(NAN)

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President Muhammadu Buhari will depart for London, United Kingdom later today, Wednesday, 3 May to join other world leaders invited to attend the coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort of the United Kingdom respectively.

The coronation will take place on Saturday, 6 May.

Ahead of the coronation, the Commonwealth Secretariat will take advantage of the gathering of leaders in London to host a Commonwealth Summit for Presidents and Heads of Government of Commonwealth countries on Friday, May 5.

President Buhari is billed to participate in the Summit which will deliberate on the Future of the Commonwealth and the Role of the Youth.

The President will be accompanied by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, the Director General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar, the Chairperson/Chief Executive Officer of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa and other senior government officials.

Femi Adesina

Special Adviser to the President

(Media and Publicity)

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The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) says that buildings encroaching on airport land in Lagos and other parts of the country will be demolished.

The agency made this known in a statement issued Tuesday by its Corporate Affairs Assistant General Manager, Faithful Hope-Ivbaze.

The authority hereby uses this opportunity to advise all illegal occupants to relocate from all airport lands for their own safety and security,  the statement said.

FAANs statement came against the backdrop of a recent demolition exercise it carried out in Lagos.

On Sunday, about 13 houses within Ajao Estate and Shasha axis of Lagos were demolished by the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LSBCA) and FAAN over alleged encroachment.

Background

FAAN in its statement explained that the Murtala Mohammed Airport land was acquired for public use by the federal government through the Lands Acquisition Ordinance by FGN official gazettes in 1944, 1972, and 1975 respectively.

However, sometime in the year 2000, the agency said it noticed some encroachments within its acquired land in Lagos and a committee was set up to investigate and compel those encroaching to cease and desist from such actions.

These warnings were not heeded, the statement said.

Publications were done in national dailies and advertorial jingles in local radio stations, warning people of the risks in purchasing and building on restricted aviation land.

In 2008, FAAN said some residents of the Ajao Estate axis of the encroached land, under the aegis of Runview Cooperative, approached the agency for regularisation of their stay on the land.

To avoid a situation of wanton damage and colossal losses, it said the present administration, on assuming office, inaugurated a Regularization Committee on FAAN Encroached Lands and Property.

The committee was charged with finding ways of identifying and regularising only those properties located in positions that do not pose a direct and critical challenge to airport safety and Security, it said.

FAAN explained that its directorates of airport operations and aviation security commenced stakeholders engagements and met with the residents of the Ajao axis and that all meetings were recorded and filed.

It said the engagement brought to their knowledge the dangers of erecting houses on pipelines, waterways and the airports perimeter fence, blocking access for security patrols.

Most of the residents cooperated, except for the few who ignored and continued erecting their structures in the Red Zones, the statement added.

Regularisation

In the committees report submitted in 2022, FAAN said out of 254 buildings evaluated, 220 buildings were recommended for regularisation, as they pose no direct or critical security and safety challenges to the airport.

They have been duly regularised, the statement added.

It added that the 34 others that were built within FAANs perimeter fence and mostly erected above the aviation fuel pipeline and waterways, clearly posing direct safety and security challenges to the Airport as well as to their owners/ occupants themselves, were marked for demolition.

The occupants of these buildings were duly notified of the impending demolitions, and an intensive awareness campaign through stop work markings and planting of notice boards within the Red Zone, FAAN said.

READ ALSO: FAAN bars two immigration officials from Nigerian airports for extortion

Based on these concerns, the agency said it wrote to the Lagos State government in September 2022, for their cooperation in conducting the demolition exercise in the interest of aviation and communal safety and security.

The removal of illegal structures is also scheduled to be carried out at all other airports that have similar challenges, it said.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Armenia is trying to restore its image in countries of the West after it was exposed to helping Russia bypass sanctions, the Lithuanian Alfa news website said in its article, Trend Reports.

As the author noted, one of the Armenian publishers posted an article, claiming that "Armenia is the only democracy in the Caucasus", seeking help from the West and international organizations.

"Such publications are intended for a Western reader who is not familiar with the local context. This propaganda material is aimed at restoring the image of the republic after many Western and Eastern European media in recent weeks have reported an exceptional role of Armenia in the illegal re-export of equipment, including military equipment, to Russia," the author said.

As the author of the article pointed out, the statements about the uniqueness of Armenian democracy amount to attempts by Prime Minister Pashinyan to demonstrate to the US and the EU his reorientation towards the West since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

"In fact, according to European and US media sources, Yerevan maintains a close military and strategic partnership with Moscow and Tehran. The same applies to "democracy". Statements by many Armenian politicians and non-governmental organizations, as well as many other facts, show that Armenia remains a classic Eastern autocracy, diligently covered by a light shade of modernist citizenship," the author concluded.

Earlier, an article in the New York Times revealed that a surge has been recorded in chips and other electronic components re-export from Armenia to Russia. As the author noted, eight particular types of those chips, crucial for the production of weapons, are delivered to Russia.

"One document marked with the seal of the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security said that in 2022, Armenia imported 515 percent more chips and processors from the US and 212 percent more from the EU than in 2021. Armenia then exported 97 percent of those same products to Russia, the document said," the article noted.

Also, the US Departments of Commerce, the Treasury, and of Justice have issued a trilateral note on the specifications of the signs of attempts to circumvent sanctions against Russia.

According to the document, one of the most common tactics is the use of third-party intermediaries or transshipment points to avoid restrictions. It was revealed that Armenia is used to illegally redirect goods to Russia or Belarus, thus, bypassing West sanctions.
The police in Ekiti on Wednesday announced the capture of a man they alleged had been involved in several kidnap incidents in the state.

The new Commissioner of Police in the state, Dare Ogundare, made the announcement during a courtesy call on the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Olubunmi Adelugba.

Mr Ogundare said the police traced the suspect to Kogi State where he was arrested.

Mr Ogundare, who said several other criminal suspects were also arrested, did not give the full name of the suspect.

Since my assumption of office, we have arrested a lot of criminals terrorising the people and have prosecuted many of them, he said.

Today, we have gone to Kogi to arrest a notorious kidnapper, Danger, and he is now in our custody.

On his strategy for the security of the state, Mr Ogundare said, We have ensured that all exit and entry routes in Ekiti are well policed and I have also directed more reinforcement and enough deployment to flashpoints.

He said he called on the Speaker to seek his understanding and support.

The Commissioner of Police called on the members of the public to always report officers who violate the rules of engagement to the police for necessary action.

Mr Ogundare also called on members of the public to always volunteer information to the police to help in checking criminal elements in society.

The Speaker, Mrs Adelugba, pledged the support of the House of Assembly for the police in crime fighting, maintenance of law and order and ensuring the security of lives and property.

She charged the police chief to sustain the momentum towards making the state a safe place to live in and do business

The Speaker described Mr Ogundare as a competent police officer who had acquired experience and excelled across Nigeria, urging him to bring his experience to bear on his new assignment in Ekiti.

The Speaker charged the officers and men of the state police command to perform their duties with a sense of responsibility and always respect the human rights of the people they are charged to protect.

The police and the Ekiti State House of Assembly will always collaborate because we enjoy a very cordial relationship and I believe that this will continue during your tenure as the Commissioner of Police, she said.

Ekiti is a peaceful state and concerning the incidences of kidnapping, the situation in Ekiti is still better but we believe that you will make Ekiti to be kidnapping-free. Ekiti is a peaceful place and when there is security, there will be progress.

The Deputy Speaker, Hakeem Jamiu, earlier drew the attention of the police boss to alleged brutality meted out to some Ekiti State University students by some police officers in his constituency.

While noting that the police were doing well, Mr Jamiu, raised some concerns, adding that officers should perform their duties with every sense of responsibility.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Security, Lateef Akanle, expressed delight over the arrest of the suspected kidnapper, Danger, whom he alleged had been terrorising the people of his constituency which shares a boundary with the neighbouring Kogi State.

READ ALSO: PDP lifts suspension on two Ekiti members

Ekiti has recorded incidents of kidnapping, especially being fueled by the influx of criminal elements into communities on the boundaries with Kogi and Kwara states.

Governor Biodun Oyebanji, in April, after expressing concerns over the development, called on local governments and development councils in the state to synergise efforts with the state government and security agencies to fight the menace.

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Umar Damagum, the acting national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has asked the House of Representatives members elected on the platform of the PDP to stay loyal to the party.

Mr Damagum stated this on Tuesday during a meeting in Abuja with the members-elect of the House on the pending election of the leadership of the National Assembly.

The meeting comes as the campaign for the speaker and deputy speaker of the 10th House continues.

The PDP, which has 116 members-elect, appears to be divided on the speakership race. Several members of the party have joined the joint-task coalition  a group of lawmakers that have committed to working with the ruling party on zoning.

Kingsley Chinda, a PDP member of the House from Rivers State, is the co-chairman of the coalition.

While speaking on loyalty to the party and country, Mr Damagum acknowledged that the party is going through internal crisis but noted that has the capacity to deal with its internal crisis.

You have to be firm. You have to be loyal to your country first. Then, the party. (Be) loyal to the country because it is when you have a country that you can even exist as a lawmaker. To the party, it is because most of you that have spoken have been grateful for the party to have given you the platform to be here today. So, the party expects nothing less from you other than to be a loyal party member.

One thing I want to assure you is that the PDP has the mechanism to solve its problems, he stated.

Earlier in his opening remarks, Fred Agbedi (PDP, Bayelsa), said the meeting was convened to deliberate on the National Assembly leadership.

He noted that the deliberation with other minority parties has been fruitful.

We have been meeting on our own, in one way or the other, even in our larger minority caucus. A number of us have attended those meetings and we had fruitful discussions.

We are still journeying on towards the 13th of June and we believe that it is important to call ourselves together and to invite our chairman and members of the committee to come and tete-a-tete with us, guide us, advise us and direct us where necessary as we journey to the 13th of June, 2023, he said

The 10th National Assembly will be inaugurated on 13 June.

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The suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa State, Hudu Ari, is now in the custody of the police, the force spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, said Tuesday.

Mr Adejobi said in a statement that the Election Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Team of the police has arrested Mr Ari.

Mr Ari is the INEC official who illegally declared Aishatu Dahiru of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the winner of the Adamawa State governorship election, a day after the supplementary election.

Since he made the illegal declaration, Mr Ari has not been seen in public and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it was unaware of Mr Aris whereabouts as he had neither responded to letters, messages and phone calls to his line nor responded to the commissions directive that he should present himself at the INEC headquarters.

But the suspended REC in an interview aired on Tuesday told the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Commission, BBC Hausa, that he had written to INEC.

He also said he was going to honour an invitation he got from the police.

I wrote a letter to INEC. I was told they did not receive it, but Im sure theyve received it, he said. This invitation from the police, I will honour it, he said, claiming he never went into hiding.

Mr Ari also claimed to have declared Ms Dahiru, popularly called Binani, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the election because she polled 428,173 votes. He also claimed that Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 422,303 votes.

Police Invite and Arrest

The Assistant Inspector General of Police, Interpol, Garba Umar, who heads the Election Planning Monitoring and Evaluation team, had written to Mr Ari, inviting him for an interview scheduled for Friday 5 May.

This Bureau is investigating a case of Conduct likely to Cause Breach of Peace, Violation of Oath of Neutrality, Impersonating a Collation/Returning Officer, Disobedience to lawful Order/Directive, Impersonation and Announcing False Governorship Result of the just concluded Adamawa State Governorship supplementary election of 15th April, 2023 in which your name featured prominently, part of the invitation date, 27 April and sighted by PREMIUM TIMES, reads.

In view of the above, you are hereby requested to report at the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB) Abuja office, Police Force Headquarters, Shehu Shagari Way, Central Area, Abuja to interview the Assistant Inspector General of Police, INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB), Abuja on Friday 5 May, 2023 at 1000hrs.

The police have, however, confirmed that Mr Ari is in custody, adding that other officials and individuals culpable in the saga are being interrogated by the Election Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Team.

Barrister Ari, who was arrested by the Police Election Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Team in Abuja on Tuesday 2nd May, 2023, is currently in police custody and is being grilled to ascertain the motives and motivations behind his alleged improper actions during the supplementary elections in Adamawa state, the force spokesperson said.

The inspector-general of police has given clear assurance that every individual involved/indicted in the matter will be apprehended and investigated in line with the provisions of the law for possible prosecution.

Backstory

A day after the supplementary governorship election that was held on 15 April, Mr Ari, who was not the official empowered by law to declare results, declared Binani as the winner of the elections.

At the time, Binani was trailing the incumbent and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmadu Fintiri.

The commissions headquarters quickly reacted by saying Mr Aris declaration was null, void and of no effect.

Both INEC and President Buhari have authorised Mr Aris suspension from office and his investigation and possible prosecution by the police.

The Inspector General of Police also ordered the removal of the Commissioner of Police in Adamawa, Mohammed Barde, who was present at the collation centre when Mr Ari made the illegal declaration.

The Returning Officer, Muhammad Mele, who is the official with the powers to declare the results according to the electoral act 2022, later continued the collation of results and announced the incumbent governor, Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election.

He said Mr Fintiri polled a total of 430,861 votes to defeat Binani, who scored 398,788 votes.

Mr Finitiri and his deputy governor-elect have also been presented with certificates of return by INEC.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe

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The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, on Tuesday, terminated the N1.84 billion corruption charges filed against Nicholas Ashinze, a former military assistant to then National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, and eight others.

Mr Malami, who has less than one month to stay in office, swiftly withdrew the case at the Federal High Court in Abuja, immediately after taking over the trial from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday.

The lawyer who represented him in court, David Kaswe, gave no reason for the move.

The EFCC had called seven prosecution witnesses in the trial that started over five years ago. The commission was to proceed with hearing when a lawyer from the AGF office, Mr Kaswe, announced Nigerias chief law officers decision to take over the case.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that EFCCs counsel, Offem Uket, said he was unaware that the AGF was taking over the matter. He, however, did not oppose the application.

After obtaining the judges permission to take over the suit, Mr Kaswe prayed for the withdrawal of the criminal charge against the defendants.

It has become customary of the AGF office on the watch of Mr Malami to terminate EFCCs cases once it takes over such criminal proceedings. The office does this in exercise of the AGFs constitutional power to take over and institute a nolle prosequi (terminate trials).

The EFCC, which is under some supervisory control of the AGF, hardly opposes such move even when it is uncomfortable with it.

The office controversially withdrew the corruption charges against a former Gombe State governor, Danjuma Goje, in 2019, based on what was widely believed to be political considerations. Mr Malami justified the move in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES in January this year.

Terminated case

Mr Dasuki was the NSA to former President Goodluck Jonathan. He is also standing trial on charges of diversion of funds meant for procurement of arms.

His former aide, Mr Ashinze (1st defendant) was standing trial alongside an Austrian, Wolfgang Reinl; Edidiong Idiong and Sagir Mohammed listed as 2nd to 4th defendants respectively.

Other defendants in the case were five companies: Geonel Integrated Services Limited, Unity Continental Nigeria Limited, Helpline Organisation, Vibrant Resource Limited and Sologic Integrated Service Limited listed as 5th to 9th defendants respectively.

The amended charge of 13 counts of money laundering, dated 3 October 2017, was filed on 6 October 2017.

The defendants were re-arraigned by the EFCC in 2018.

The various money laundering offences alleged by the EFCC involved transfer and taking possession of a total of N1,840,000,000 which it described as proceeds of unlawful acts.

The funds allegedly emanated from the office of the former NSA where Mr Ashinze served as special assistant to Mr Dasuki, the then NSA.

The commission said all the defendants conspired to commit money laundering offences contrary to section 18(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011, and punishable under section 15(3) and (4) of the same law.

It alleged in counts 2 to 7 that Mr Ashinze; the Austrian, Mr Reinl, and Reinls Geonel Integrated Services Limited corruptly transferred various sums of money, totalling N1.84 billion to Mr Idiong, Mohammed, Sologic Integrated Services Limited, Vibrant Resource Limited and Helpline Organisation.

It alleged that the transfer of the funds on 22, 23, and 24 April, and 5 May, 2014, violated the provisions of section 15(2)(b) of Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act and punishable under section 15(3) and (4) of the same law.

The prosecution in counts 8 to 13 accused Messrs Idiong and Mohammed, Sologic Integrated Services Limited, Vibrant Resource Limited and Helpline Organisation of taking possession of the various sums of money totalling N1.84bn when they reasonably ought to know that the funds were proceeds of unlawful acts.

Mr Idiong, a lawyer practising under the name, Law Partners & Associates, allegedly received N550 million and N450 million making N1billion, on 22 April, and 5 May 2014, respectively.

Mr Mohammed, a retired lieutenant colonel and Managing Director of Unity Continental Nigeria Limited, allegedly received N120 million on 22 April 2014.

Sologic Integrated Services Limited was said to have received N120 million on 23 April 2014.

Vibrant Resource Limited allegedly received N100 million on 23 April 2014 and Helpline Organisation was said to have received N500 million on 24 April 2014.

Their alleged taking possession of the funds when they reasonably ought to know that they were proceeds of unlawful acts was said to be contrary to section 15(2)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 and punishable under section 15(3) of the same Act.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to all the counts preferred against them.

Hearing

Upon resumed trial on the matter on Tuesday, Mr Kaswe, who appeared for the AGF, informed the court that he had the authority of Mr Malami to take over the case.

The lawyer said this was in accordance with Section 174(1)(a) and (c) of the Nigerian Constitution (as amended).

EFCCs counsel, Mr Uket, said he was not aware of the move by the AGF office to take over the case. He did not oppose the application.

The judge, Okon Abang, granted the request by the AGF office to take over the case.

Mr Kaswe then prayed for the withdrawal of the criminal charge against the defendants.

Lawyers to the defendants  Afam Osigwe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN); Patrick Agu, Anita Isato, did not oppose Mr Kaswes application.

But they urged the court to make a consequential order of discharging and acquitting their clients of the 13 counts.

Mr Osigwe, who appeared for the Australian national (2nd defendant), 5th, 4th and 6th defendants, argued that considering the facts and circumstances surrounding the case and taking the number of years the defendants had spent defending themselves into consideration, he prayed the court not only to discharge them but acquit them of the charges.

He cited Section 108(3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 which stipulates that the court can, in its exercise of its powers, acquitted the defendant of a charge if satisfied with the merit of a case after withdrawal.

The senior lawyer urged the court to do justice to the matter by acquitting the defendants not only to assuage their feelings but to redeem their damaged reputations.

Such an order of acquittal will show that the Nigerian justice system is one that gives justice to all, he said.

Other defence lawyers alligned with Osigwes submission.

On his part, Mr Kaswe disagreed with the defence request.

We are opposed to consequential order of acquittal,

He cited Section 108(1) of the ACJA 2015 as a ground for the withdrawal of the charge against the defendants.

He said under Section 108 (1) of ACJA 2015, the court was also given the discretionary powers to either discharge and acquit the defendants or rather discharge them of the charge after taking into consideration the overall circumstance of the case.

We pray that the defendants be discharged and not acquitted, he said.

Ruling, Mr Abang held that the matter was a very simple issue that was not difficult to resolve by the court

According to him, the prosecution had not close their case at the stage the application for withdrawal of the case was made.

The judge said that the seventh prosecution witness was still in the witness box testifying and yet to be cross-examined when the application was made.

He said since the prosecution had not closed their case and the defendants called upon to enter their defence, it would be unlawful to discharge and acquit the defendants of the charge.

He held that counsel for the defendants did not consider Section 108(2) of ACJA 2015 in making their application.

Mr Abang further held that based on Section 108(3) of ACJA cited by Mr Osigwe, it was not mandatory that a court must make a consequential order to discharge and acquit defendants when a prosecution withdrew a charge.

It is at the discretion of the court, I do hold, he said.

Mr Abang advised that National Assembly should revisit Section 108(3) of ACJA in the overall interest of justice.

It is my view that Section 108(3) of ACJA is poor legislative drafting, he said.

He said Section 108(3) is in conflict with Section 108(2a) and (b) of ACJA.

He said section 108(2b) talked about the acquittal of defendants if application for withdrawal was made after the defendants had been directed to enter their defence while Section 108(3) talked about acquittal of defendants if the court was satisfied.

The court cannot be satisfied on the merit of the case except the prosecution closed their case and the defendants testified in their defence and called their witnesses, he said

The judge, who struck out the amended charge, only discharged all the nine defendants of the charge.

(NAN)

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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday described Nigerian journalists as agents of change, saying they deserve the support of all.

The Executive Secretary of the commission, Tony Ojukwu, said this in a statement to mark the 2023 World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) in Abuja.

Society should see journalists as agents of change bearing in mind the various contributions and sacrifices they make on a daily basis to ensure the emancipation and liberation of the common man who had needlessly suffered deprivations, discrimination and other forms of human rights violations in the society, Mr Ojukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said.

He commended Nigerian journalists for their critical role in advocating the realisation and enjoyment of democracy in Nigeria and elsewhere.

Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution (As amended), empowers the Press to hold the government accountable to the people, thereby distinguishing journalists as those who perform essential duty to the nation.

Nigerian journalists should therefore be seen as patriotic citizens because their duties are provided for in the Constitution.

Any attempt to prevent performance of their duties amounts to a breach of the Constitution and a violation of press freedom, he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria {NAN} reports that the 2023 World Press Freedom Day is themed, Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a Driver of all other Human Rights.

According to Mr Ojukwu, this is apt, as it seeks to highlight the influence of the freedom of expression on other human rights.

He added that especially its inherent potency to advocate for the realization of other human rights.

Mr Ojukwu commended journalists for courageously discharging their onerous responsibilities despite occasional harassment, intimidation, and destruction of their working tools by some overzealous security agents.

Law enforcement agencies should recognize the Press as a critical partner in the democratic process and desist from any form of confrontation. and interference with the lawful duties of journalists and other media workers or be ready to face sanctions.

They should especially the Police, as matter urgency; intensify their investigations in unearthing the circumstances surrounding any attack on Nigerian journalists.

The commission commends the federal government in its effort in 2022 which led to the emergence of Nigeria as the only African country that had been in full compliance in terms of the protection of the rights of journalists with one incident of death of a journalist recorded from infractions, as reported by the Committee for the Protection of Journalist, he said.

According to him, the commemoration of this day is not an opportunity to apportion blame to any individual, Institution or group of persons but it is a period to reminisce the fundamental principles of press freedom.

He added that it is a day to ponder on the state of press freedom globally, defend the Media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in their line of duty.

As human rights defenders, the NHRC is committed to join all well-meaning stakeholders to fight for a robust civic space in Nigeria.

To also ensure that the media enabled to play its constitutional role as the watchdog of the society including the government

NAN reports that World Press Freedom Day which started in 1993, and is celebrated on May 3 annually is to remind governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom.

The day is also to remind journalists of their obligation to professional ethics in the course of their duties.

The Day is also to ensure that civic space is not restricted considering the contribution of freedom of expression to development of our democracies all over the world and Nigeria in particular. (NAN)

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The 2023 Ibrahim Governance Weekend (IGW), hosted by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, from the 28th to the 30th of April, gathered African leaders, politicians, thought leaders, private sector and civil society representatives to discuss the key role that the continent has the potential to and requires to play in a world confronted to multiplying, cumulative global challenges, be it climate change, pandemics, or conflicts.

The 2023 Ibrahim Governance Weekend opened with the Leadership Ceremony, awarding in-person to former President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, his 2020 Ibrahim Prize medal. This offered the opportunity to hear from some of the most prominent voices in global leadership and governance on the challenges and prospects facing African leadership.

Held over the whole of Saturday, the 2023 Ibrahim Forum focused on Global Africa. The first session  Africa in the World: Multiple assets  examined Africas place in the world, highlighting the continents assets and potential, without downsizing the current barriers to achieving this potential. The

second and third sessions  The World in Africa: growing competition  state and non-state actors  invited conversation from a range of actors present in Africa to expose their interest in the continent. The fourth and final session  Africa in the multilateral architecture: where is its voice?  explored Africas current and future position in the multilateral system, the need to amend both the representativity and efficiency of the current system, and the rise of alternative competitors at multilateral level.

The ongoing conflict in Sudan featured heavily in various discussions across the three days, with public interventions from the likes of Abdalla Hamdok, former Prime Minister of Sudan, Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, and Comfort Ero, President and CEO of the International Crisis Group. In a public one-to-one conversation, Abdalla Hamdok and Mo Ibrahim discussed Sudans historic roots of instability and the conditions and prospects of solving the current crisis. The IGW also offered the opportunity for closed meetings and discussions between key stakeholders and partners.

To conclude the Forum, Mo held another one-to-one conversation this time with William Ruto, President of Kenya, around the ongoing climate change debate  including the value of creating an efficient carbon market  as well as discussing reforms to the multilateral architecture and processes, such as removing the currently punitive assessment of African risk. They concluded by discussing Kenyas current political and economic situation and prospects.

The Forum was followed by a public concert on Saturday evening featuring some of the biggest names in African music, including Nyashinski, Femi One, Otile Brown and Youssou NDour. You can watch highlights from the show here.

Throughout the course of the three days, there were also a series of parallel events discussing key African challenges. Ahead of the Africa Climate Summit, to be hosted by Kenya between 4-6 September 2023, a specific focus was given to the climate topic, with a meeting of the Climate Overshoot Commission, and the launch of the Carbon Market Working Group by the Africa Europe Foundation, which was co-founded in 2020 by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

The IGW also sought to elevate the voices of the youth representatives, by systematically including them in all central debates during the weekend. The Foundations Now Generation Network also led a series of parallel events, including an In Conversation With Hanan Morsy, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, to discuss the need for debt restructuring and reform of the financial multilateral system.

Mo Ibrahim, Founder and Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, said: As we speak, the world is changing around us. I think everybody knows that. All of the previous assumptions are being broken. We are seeing different powers rising, tensions, camps being formed  so where exactly is Africas place here? Europe, and the rest of the world too, should not underestimate Africa, talk down to Africa or give instructions to Africa  Dont take Africa for granted!

William Ruto, President of Kenya: It is our responsibility. They say it is the wearer who knows where the shoe pinches. So, it is our responsibility to engineer the debate that will put on the table our perspective, our point of view, on what kind of financial architecture  global financial architecture  that would work not just for us but for everybody.

Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, said: Africas population will more than double by 2100, its youth will be half of the worlds youth. Africa, Latin America and Europe will lose about 490 million people in the same period. The result is an immeasurable potential for initiative, creativity and productive growth in all areas of human assetsThis will be Africas century.

Abdalla Hamdok, former Prime Minister of Sudan, said: There is blame on all sides, mistakes made on all sides, but I also think from crisis comes opportunity if our political space will learn the lesson that there is need to work together, we need to work on common denominator programmes. Politics is an art of compromise in the interests of the country.

Yemi Osinbajo, Vice-President of Nigeria: I think it is now imperative to commence a coordinated approach towards innovation on the continent, bringing together all stakeholders to coordinate efforts at scaling up investments and building programmes that provide the right enabling environment and produce talent pipelines that support the growth of innovation on the continent.

Comfort Ero, President and CEO of the International Crisis Group: States compete, theres competition, whether we like it or not. The nature of that competition is what we have to deal with. An example: every two years, there are 54 votes up for grabs and Africas weight suddenly becomes relevant.

Koen Doens, Director-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) at the European Commission:

I think that its really clear in this multipolar world, Africa is shaping up as a pole of that multipolar world and we need to recognise that and that shift of mentality, that shift of approach, is happening.

Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations: The state of our world is undeniably at its lowest points in history, with one crisis after another COVID-19, climate, conflict, Instead of unifying us in solidarity, it has shown us the fissures that tear us apart.

H.E. former President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger: No country on the continent can go it alone, Africa needs the glue of the values of pan-Africanism as defined by Agenda 2063.

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The Federal High Court in Lagos has adjourned to Thursday and Friday hearing in the 11-year-old trial of a former speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Mr Ikuforiji and his former personal assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi, before the court on a 54-count charge of N338.8 million in money laundering.

The accused persons had each pleaded not guilty before Justice Mohammed Liman, and were allowed to continue on an earlier bail granted them in 2012 when they were first arraigned.

At the last adjourned date of 15 March, the prosecutor, Ekene Iheanacho, complained of the slow pace of the trial, following an application for adjournment by the defence.

Mr Iheanacho argued that despite the application by the defence counsel, the defendants ought to be present in court

He then made an oral application for the bail of the defendants to be revoked.

The court, however, ordered the defendants to be present in court on the next adjourned date of 3 May and 4 May, which it has now changed to 4 May and 5 May.

The EFCC closed its case on 17 March 2021 after calling its second witness, Adewale Olatunji, a former clerk of the Lagos House of Assembly

The prosecutor called two witnesses in support of its case, which was then adjourned for the opening of the case and beginning of the defence.

In the process, Mr Liman was transferred out of the Lagos Division but is now presiding over the case on a fiat.

The defendants were first arraigned on 1 March 2012 before Justice Okechukwu Okeke on a 20-count charge of misappropriation and money laundering.

They had each pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail.

They were later re-arraigned before Justice Ibrahim Buba, following a re-assignment of the case.

Mr Buba granted them bail in the sum of N500 million each with sureties in like sum.

On 26 September 2014, Mr Buba discharged Mr Ikuforiji and his aide from the charges, after upholding their no-case submission.

Mr Buba held that the EFCC failed to establish a prima-facie case against them.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, the EFCC through its counsel, Godwin Obla (SAN), filed a Notice of Appeal dated 30 September 2014 challenging the decision of the trial court.

Mr Obla had argued that the trial court erred in law when it held that the counts were incompetent because they were filed under Section 1(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 which was repealed by an Act of 2011.

The EFCC further argued that the lower court erred in law when it held that the provisions of Section 1 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 and 2011, only applied to natural persons and corporate bodies other than the government.

The commission also submitted that the trial judge erred in law when he held and concluded that the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses supported the innocence of the respondents.

In its judgement, the Appeal Court in November 2016, agreed with the prosecution and ordered a fresh trial of the defendants before another judge.

Following this decision, the defendants headed for the Supreme Court, seeking to upturn the ruling of the appellate court.

But the apex court upheld the decision of the appellate court and ordered that the case be sent back to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for reassignment to another judge.

The EFCC had alleged in the charge that the defendants accepted cash payments above the threshold set by the Money Laundering Act, without going through a financial institution.

It accused the defendants of conspiring to commit an illegal act of accepting cash payments in the aggregate sum of N338.8 million from the House of Assembly, without going through a financial institution.

Mr Ikuforiji was also accused of using his position to misappropriate funds belonging to the Assembly.

The EFCC said the defendants committed the offences between April 2010 and July 2011.

The offences, according to the EFCC, contravene the provisions of Sections 15 (1d), 16(1d) and 18 of the Money Laundering Act, 2004 and 2011.

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The presidency has defended the Muhammadu Buhari administration after a national newspaper wrote an editorial critical of the governments activities.

Punch newspapers in its Tuesday editorial faulted the Buhari governments decision to embark on new financial commitments a few weeks before its 29 May handover date.

It is problematic when with only weeks left, officials bind the incoming government to fiscal and legal commitments that are non-essential and thereby inadvertently impose huge financial, logistic, or socio-economic responsibility on a succeeding administration, the newspaper wrote.

The newspaper mentioned several cases of such non-essential commitments that the Buhari government has inadvertently tied its successor to.

Government is a continuum, but convention dictates that sustainable development plans should be nurtured by successive governments, but new and unprofitable contracts should be suspended by departing governments, the newspaper stated.

In his response, presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu claimed the editorial was partisan.

The latest in a series of some partisan editorials by some of this countrys newspapers seeking to rewrite recent history was published by the Punch newspaper paper this weekend, painting a bleak, pessimistic and frequently inaccurate picture of the state of our nation and outgoing President Muhammadu Buharis leadership, Mr Shehu wrote.

Mr Shehu did not address the crux of the Punch editorial as he made no effort to justify why the administration was embarking on such non-essential projects at its twilight. He, however, listed some of the things he said were the achievements of the Buhari administration.

Read Mr Shehus full statement below.

PRESIDENT BUHARI ACHIEVEMENTS, BEST RESPONSE TO PUNCHS ADVERSITY

PUNCH SHOULD STOP LIVING IN DENIAL

The latest in a series of some partisan editorials by some of this countrys newspapers seeking to rewrite recent history was published by the Punch newspaper paper this weekend, painting a bleak, pessimistic and frequently inaccurate picture of the state of our nation and outgoing President Muhammadu Buharis leadership.

In this post-election period of heightened tension and disinformation, we see it fit to set the record straight.

First lets start with the one thing the editorial gets right: that President Buhari inherited an economy in disarray. Corruption ran rampant, oil-prices were nose-diving and  astoundingly  an international terror cell, the Boko Haram controlled territory the size of Belgium within our countrys borders.

That so-called country, the Caliphate is unrecognizable from todays Nigeria.

Today, corruption is thrust out in the open by Buharis landmark whistleblowing policy, empowering Nigerians to report it without fear and seeing the repatriation of hundreds of millions of dollars stolen by corrupt politicians and stashed in banks abroad.

Terrorists no longer hold any territory in Nigeria whatsoever, and their leaders have been neutralised by our security forces.

Economy has witnessed growth. External reserves have maintained a healthy growth throughout these eight years.

Within two years of the Buhari administration, exports more than doubled from the 2015 records. Agriculture exports grew 180.7% by 2017 above the value in 2015.

Raw material exports grew 154.2% in the same period; solid minerals grew 565% and exports of manufactured goods 26.8%.

The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the Federal Governments medium-term Economic Plan, launched by President Buhari in April 2017, successfully ushered in a macroeconomic environment and helped the country to achieve food security.

The editorial begrudgingly credits President Buhari for the massive success of pushing through the Petroleum Industry Bill  a staggering achievement attempted but failed by myriad previous administrations  as well as the vast improvements to national infrastructure that have set our country on course for sustainable and equitable growth.

The reality of President Buhari and his legacy is a far cry indeed from what the editorial describes as a leader who failed to demonstrate any real grasp of modern economic ideas, and lacked the presence of mind or leadership acumen required to turn the ailing economy around. Goodness!

Which economic miracle worker in Punch newspaper can turn round an economy which suffers from collapse of oil prices, COVID-19 lockdown and associated supply chain crisis and the Russia-Ukraine war?

Look around the world and see how practically every country struggles from these disasters.

But President Buhari is not a North Korean dictator. He would be scornful of any world leader who claimed a perfect record and would be the last person to make such claims for himself.

He had his strengths and his weaknesses, and applied the former and mitigated against the latter to achieve his overarching goal: to leave Nigeria a better place than he found it. In that he succeeded.

He presided over the most turbulent period in modern Nigerian history, helping our nation navigate through global shocks such as volatile oil prices, the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the global cost of living crisis.

He kept the ship steady, and paved the way for his successor, President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to take the reins at the end of this month and build upon what he has already achieved.

The editorial states that Buhari will not be missed. We shall see. But, countless Nigerians whose futures he has improved, will fondly remember him for good.

Among these, to take just one aspect or two- the two million poor and vulnerable Nigerian households that are currently benefiting from the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, which pays a bimonthly stipend of N10,000 per household; the 355,000 vulnerable persons have received a special one-off grant of N20,000 each in the 36 states and the FCT; the beneficiaries of Nigerias Micro-Pension Scheme which allows self-employed persons and persons working in organisations with less than 3 employees to save for the provision of pension at retirement or incapacitation.

Punch possibly doesnt have a record of the governments Survival Fund, the National Youth Investment Fund, and National Special Public Works Program (774,000 beneficiaries across 774 LGAs nationwide), and the Central Banks COVID-19 N300 billion Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) to support millions of small businesses, households, and young people, with federal grants, loans, and stipends.

This Survival Fund has provided grants (Payroll Support, Artisan and Transport Sector grants, and General MSME grants) to more than 1.2 million beneficiaries, since the last quarter of 2020. It has also provided free business registration to 250,000 MSMEs across the country.

Nor will he be forgotten by the owners of the new 40 plus fertilizer companies and the thousands of people they employ, producing locally to service the more than 12 million new rice growers who in turn provide six million tons of paddy processed by more 100 new rice mills with Kano alone having 62, and others spreading far and wide to Ebonyi, Lagos, Ekiti, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna, Katsina and others.

No, Punch should stop living in denial. These ones and their kith and kin making up the 200 million plus citizens of our country, the teachers whose backlog of unpaid salaries were paid and the pensioners from years yore, denied payment and treated with contempt now smiling their way to the banks will remember positively that Muhammadu Buhari came, saw and he conquered.

Garba Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity)

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Alhassan Doguwa, the majority leader of the House of Representatives, says the ongoing murder trial will not deny him the right to contest for the Speaker of the Housestating that he is covered by the principle of presumption of innocence.

Mr Doguwa, who represents Doguwa/Tundun Wada Federal Constituency of Kano State, stated this during his official declaration of intent to join the Speakership race at Transcorp Hilton in Abuja on Wednesday.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the police in Kano arrested and charged the House leader, alongside others, for alleged criminal conspiracy, and culpable homicide.

He was also charged with causing grievous hurt, mischief by fire, and inciting disturbance.

The police prosecutor told the court that Mr Doguwa allegedly committed the offence on 26 February at the Tudun Wada Local Government Area of Kano State.

The judge, Yunusa Muhammad, granted him bail in the sum of N500m, with the condition that the suspect must provide two sureties, one of which shall be a first-class traditional ruler while the other must be a permanent secretary at the federal or state civil service.

When asked about the effect of the trial on his aspiration, Mr Doguwa said he is covered by the principle of presumption of innocence until one is proven guilty.

He said the outcome of the supplementary election, which happened in the area where the alleged murder happened, shows that people still have trust in him.

The principle of presumption of innocence until one is proven guilty covers me. It does not stop me whatsoever from vying for the position that I know I eminently qualify to vie for, he said.

I want Nigerians and my colleagues to join me in prayers so that by Gods grace we will get to know the truth of the matter.

I must stress that a guilty man who is charged for a case like this would not have gone for a supplementary election and won the way I won the election.

This rerun was conducted in immediate local government not even my home local government. Tudun Wada local government was where I had my rerun covering 13 poling units.

I went back to the same people of Tudun Wada, offered and presented myself. I canvassed for 7,000 outstanding votes and at the end the people said this man remains our ambassador.

With due respect to the court and without being prejudicial to the position of the law, I want to say that I have obtained a public and political clearance from my people that I am still a worthy ambassador of my people  having won the election again at the supplementary election.

Even when my state was unfortunately affected by what we call a political tsunami. My zone was a no-go zone. God and my people protected it for me.

Agenda for House

Speaking on his plans, Mr Doguwa, who wrote to his colleagues last week to intimate them of his ambition, said he will initiate sectorial reforms in the 360-member legislature.

Co-ordinate, monitor and evaluate the various sectoral policies and programmes for efficient and effective performance through periodic oversight engagements by the standing committees.

Ensure the timely tabling of government business on the floor of Parliament. Monitor and evaluate the implementation of Government Plans, Programs and Strategies.

Facilitate the review/promulgation of legislation and regulations for national development, Mr Doguwa said.

Ill respect the zoning of APC, but party must reward me

Mr Doguwa said his ambition will be within the zoning arrangement prescribed by the party. He, however, declared that it is time the party reward his loyalty.

I have paid my dues; it is time to reward my stewardship to both the parliament and the nation.

I am a strong and committed party man and have stated it categorically clear in other fora that because of my absolute loyalty to the party, and my unflinching respect for party supremacy, my ambition will be predicated only on the condition that the party zones the speakership position to the North-west Zone which is my immediate constituency, he said

Emilokan

The lawmaker, who donned a black cap with the Bola Tinubu insignia, declared Emi Lokan, a Yoruba phrase that translates to It is my turn.

Mr Tinubu, who is the president-elect, popularised the phrase during an emotion-laden speech in Ogun State shortly before the APC presidential primary election last year.

As far as I am concerned, as far as the institution of the National Assembly is concerned. I will borrow the phrase by TinubuEmi lokan!! he said.

Surprise appearance by opponent

Another speakership aspirant, Miriam Onuoha, also appeared at the declaration alongside Mr Doguwa.

Ms Onuoha, who is the only female in the race, appeared at the declaration to inform the male lawmakers that in the event the position is zoned to the South-east, Mr Doguwa and his supporters should back her.

I have come here today in solidarity with the leader of the House because I believe in leadership. Any house without a leader or mother is bound to fail. He (Doguwa) is a very respectful member of the House who relates well with all members both the senior, both the old, both the junior.

This will show Nigerians that I am not just in the contest because I am desperate, I am in the contest because I understand the diversity and the need for inclusivity, the need for unity of the nation across gender, across religion as my leader has said, she said.

Mr Doguwa has joined 10 other candidates that have declared interest in the race.

He will be competing against Deputy Speaker Idris Wase (APC, Plateau), Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau), Muktar Betara (APC, Borno), Sada Soli (APC, Katsina), Muktar Betara (APC, Borno) Tunji Olawuyi (APC, Kwara) and Abubakar Makki (APC, Jigawa) who have all declared interest.

Others are Tajudeen Abbas (APC, Kaduna), Aminu Jaji (APC, Zamfara), Ben Kalu (APC, Abia), and Miriam Onuoha (APC, Imo).

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Prospects for enhancing ties in various areas of mutual interest were discussed in a meeting between the Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili and the Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Trend reports with reference to Agenda.

Within the framework of the formers visit to Israel, the officials focused on centuries-old friendship between the two nations and important issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation, the Georgian foreign service said.

The officials reaffirmed their readiness to continue close cooperation in both bilateral and multilateral formats.

Herzog also pledged the unwavering support of Israel for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia.
The Nigerian government has approved the implementation of the 2023 fiscal policy measures and revised excise duty rates on alcoholic beverages, cigarettes and tobacco products.

The government also introduced excise duty on single-use plastics.

Under the newly introduced taxes, the federal government will charge N75 per litre of beer, stout or wine imported into Nigeria.

The disclosure was contained in a Circular (HMFBNP/MDAs/circular/2023 FP/04) dated 20 April 2023, and signed by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.

Taiwo Oyedele of PricewaterhouseCoopers on his official Twitter page highlighted the details of the new tax regime contained in the new Fiscal Policy Measures (FPM) documents and approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The minister noted that N75 per litre will be charged on beer and stout including all alcoholic beverages and beer not made from malt- whether fermented or not fermented in 2023, adding that this new excise duty on beer and stout will be increased to N100 per litre in 2024.

Before the new rates, the government taxed imported alcoholic beverages using valorem rates, levying of tax or customs duties proportionate to the estimated value of the goods or transaction concerned.

With the new policy, the same excise rate for beer will be applied to the importation of wine.

Under the tax laws, two-litre engine vehicles will attract an Import Adjustment Tax (IAT) of two per cent while vehicles with four-litre engines and above will attract a four per cent IAT with effect from 1 June 2023.

The federal government has also revised the import prohibition list with the inclusion of used motor vehicles above 12 years from the year of manufacture, Paracetamol tablets Syrups, Cotrimozazole tablets and Syrups, Metronidazole tablets and Syrups, and Chloroquine tablets and Syrups.

Also included on the list are Folic acid tablets; Vitamin B Complex tablets (except modified release formulations); Multivitamin tablets, capsules and syrups (except special formulations); Aspirin tablets (except modified release formulations and soluble aspirin).

Others are Magnesium trisilicate tablets and suspensions; Piperazine tablets and syrups; Levamisole tablets and syrups; Ointments penicillin/gentamycin; Pyrantel pamoate tablets and syrups; Intravenous Fluids (Dextrose, Normal Saline etc); Waste pharmaceutiques; and Mineral or chemical fertilisers containing the three fertilising elements nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK).

The government also introduced a Green Tax by way of excise duty on Single Use Plastics (SUPs) including plastic containers, films and bags at the rate of 10 per cent.

An Import Adjustment Tax (IAT) levy has been introduced on motor vehicles of 2000 cc to 3999 cc at 2 per cent while 4000 cc and above will be taxed at 4 per cent.

With effect from 1 June 2023, vehicles below 2000cc, mass transit buses, electric vehicles, and locally manufactured vehicles are exempted.

Under the Supplementary Protection Measures (SPM) as it relates to the implementation of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff 2022-2026, the circular explained that the changes are effective from 1 May 2023 subject to a 90-day grace period for importers who had opened Form M before 1 May 2023.

Items on the list include rice, woven fabrics, ceramics tiles and sinks, steel, containers for compressed or liquified gas, aluminium cans, washing machines, electric generating sets and rotary converters, smartphones, new and used passenger motor vehicles and electricity meters. The applicable duties for most of the items are unchanged from the 2022 FPM rates.

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Nigerias President-Elect, Bola Tinubu, has described himself as a happy man, saying he went through a gruesome presidential election campaign and won fair and square with the support of the people.

Mr Tinubu stated this on Wednesday in Port Harcourt while commissioning a Flyover in the state.

He hailed Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, for supporting a power shift to the southern part of the country in the just concluded presidential election.

Mr Wike, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after falling out with his partys presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had thrown his weight behind Mr Tinubu.

Mr Tinubu, who became the first opposition party presidential candidate to win in Rivers State, a traditional PDP state since the return of democracy in 1999, acknowledged Mr Wikes contributions to his victory.

I see a man of principle. He (Mr Wike) took a principled stand that the Presidency must return to the South and he has the courage to stand by his conviction not minding whose ox is gored.

He is indeed a man of great integrity; he did not choose to serve his own interest, not about him. Rather, the interest of the nation. You promoted unity, you promoted fairness, you championed justice. Thank you.

Nyesom, I say thank you for your contribution to my victory. I couldnt have done it without some structural support, Mr Tinubu said.

Mr Wike had declared Wednesday a public holiday, calling on the people of the state to come out en masse to offer the visiting President-Elect a rousing welcome.

Like Mr Tinubu, Governor Wike had also aspired for the president of the country but lost at the PDP primary to former vice president, Atiku Abubakar.

After he lost at the primary, Mr Wike led a group of PDP governors to rebel against his party and its presidential candidate, claiming that they (five PDP governors) were in support of a power shift to the south.

Their argument was that since outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari is from the north, his successor should come from the south.

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Cape Town  The International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM) has launched the International Fund for Public Interest Media, an initiative intended to support public interest media around the world. The non-governmental organisation explains that the creation of the fund was a reaction to the eroding advertising-based business model, something that was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic which saw shrinking revenues. In 2020, newspapers alone suffered a global revenue loss of $30 billion.

At the 2022 Paris Peace Forum, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna reaffirmed Frances commitment to IFPIM following President Macrons endorsement of the Fund. France will host the International Funds headquarters in Paris and provide up to 15 million in support to the Fund for between 2022 and 2024. The IFPIM aims for the fund to support low and middle-income countries while forging a sustainable future for global media ecosystems.

According to the IFPIM, only 0.3 per cent of overseas development assistance (ODA)  around $430 million  goes to supporting media globally. The non-governmental organisation adds that, amid political threats to journalists and independent reporters, only 13 per cent of the worlds population have access to free media. The consequences of eroded public interest are potentially catastrophic, the IFPIM warns, with serious implications for electoral politics, corruption, and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are increasingly endangered by growing misinformation.

The Funds mission

The Fund is structured to enable a broad multilateral coalition to unlock new resources in support of public interest media globally while maintaining the independence of both the Fund and its public interest grantees.

Co-chaired by Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize winner and co-founder and CEO of Rappler, and Mark Thompson, former president and CEO of The New York Times Company, its mission is to ensure a complete shift in how public interest media is resourced, with the greater of ensuring it is independent, inclusive and resilient.

READ ALSO: 45 journalists attacked in Nigeria in three months Report

When independent media is weakened, it impacts all of society and threatens democracy. Corruption can be expected to rise. Violent extremism  often fueled by corruption  finds more fertile ground. Social cohesion is diminished, particularly where media falls into the hands of those who co-opt it to advance their own political or factional agendas. Conflict and instability become more likely. To avoid the collapse of vital independent media, we need a more coordinated global response that creates a step change in support, the IFPIM said.

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The International Press Institute (IPI) in Nigeria has called on the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, to be committed to creating a better operating environment for press freedom, journalists and media organisations, as he assumes office as Nigerias next president on 29 May.

In the past few years, cases of media and journalists harassment have been rampant, IPI Nigeria stated in a statement commemorating the 2023 World Press Freedom on Wednesday.

The statement signed by the President of IPI Nigeria, Musikilu Mojeed, and the chair of the organisations Advocacy Committee, Tobi Soniyi, added, These violations include arrests, physical attacks, denial of access, threats, equipment damage, equipment seizure, lawsuits and high-handedness and arbitrariness by some agencies of government.

Wednesday marks the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day which was proclaimed by the UNESCO in 1993.

Read IPI Nigerias full statement

PRESS STATEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(ABUJA, May 3, 2023)

*On World Press Freedom Day, IPI Nigeria sets agenda for Tinubu on journalists safety, media freedom*

On the occasion of todays commemoration of the 2023 World Press Freedom Day, the Nigerian National Committee of the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) is asking the new government that will be inaugurated in Nigeria on May 29 to commit to creating a better operating environment for journalists and media organisations.

In the past few years, cases of media and journalists harassment have been rampant. These violations include arrests, physical attacks, denial of access, threats, equipment damage, equipment seizure, lawsuits and high-handedness and arbitrariness by some agencies of government.

Nigerian journalists are in perpetual danger, and we are urging the incoming government to embrace a new attitude by deliberately improving the operational environment of journalists and the media. There are still a number of oppressive and media-unfriendly laws, such as those on criminal defamation and cybercrime, that need to be amended. The government should also begin widespread sensitisation of its security operatives, who must understand that journalists and the media are key elements of democracy.

While state actors, especially state governors, must end intimidation and harassment of journalists, Nigerian politicians and political parties should also desist from the use of online trolls to attack journalists and media organisations for performing their constitutional duties of upholding the peoples right to know and holding governments, individuals and organisations accountable.

The incoming administration, to be led by Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, must also take deliberate steps to help the sustainability of media outlets while respecting press freedom and freedom of speech.

IPI Nigeria is also concerned that as laudable as the passage of the Freedom of Information Act is, journalists have not been able to fully utilise the law to hold public officials accountable because government officials continue to play pranks to deny them the information they seek.

Section 2 (1) of the Act states, A public institution shall ensure that it records and keeps information about all its activities, operations and business. This provision is not being complied with. Specifically, sub-sections 24 mandate public institutions to publish public records in different accessible forms for information seekers. This is also not being complied with.

Sections 22 and 39 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution provide for Freedom of Expression and the Press.

Section 22 states that: The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people. Section 39, which is closely related to Section 22, provides that: Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.

IPI Nigeria demands that the incoming government commits to the total implementation of the FOI Act. This is because the free flow of information is essential to the survival and growth of democracy. Misinformation and disinformation thrive more robustly when authorities withhold information that ordinarily should be made available to the public.

SIGNED:

Musikilu Mojeed  President, IPI Nigeria

&

Tobi Soniyi  Chair, IPI Nigeria Advocacy Committee

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The Senate has condemned the violent attacks that claimed many lives and destroyed properties in some communities in Plateau State.

This was a sequel to a motion moved by Istifanus Gynag (APC, Plateau North) at the plenary session on Wednesday.

Two weeks ago, bandits invaded communities in Mangu and Bokkos local government areas of the state and killed several residents.

Last week, six miners in the Turu Lamba community were also killed by bandits, a situation that sparked protests by youth in the community to block the Jos-Abuja highway.

At the plenary, Mr Gyang said killings in his state are becoming worrisome, urging the Senate leadership to reinforce heavy security in the affected communities.

He noted that many innocent lives of his people have been lost while the lawmakers were on recess to partake in the last general election.

Mr Gyang blamed the killings on the government, noting that the main responsibility of the government is to protect lives and properties.

He requested that the Senate observe a one-minute silence in memory of the victims of the attacks.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, therefore, announced a one-minute silence at the upper legislative chamber in memory of the victims.

Mr Lawan condemned the killings, calling on the security agencies to arrest the perpetrators and maintain law and order in the affected communities.

He also assured the total support of the Senate to the security agencies.

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The Federal High Court, Abuja, has warned against further delays in the suit filed by the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, against the State Security Services (SSS).

The judge, Binta Nyako, gave the warning at Wednesdays proceedings before adjourning the hearing until 22 May.

Wednesdays hearing could not go on due to SSS counsel, Idowu Awos request for more time to respond to a further affidavit in the case.

Mr Awo requested more time to file a response to a filing served on him by Mr Kanus lawyer, Mike Ozekhome.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Kanu, who is detained by SSS over terrorism and treasonable felony charges instituted against him by the federal government, sued the SSS and its Director General as 1st and 2nd respondents in the matter.

Mr Kalu was first arrested in 2015 and was later charged over his separatist campaigns for the independent Biafra Republic comprising mainly the Igbo-dominated South-east region.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja dismissed the charges against the IPOB leader in a judgement last year, but later gave permission allowing SSS to continue detaining him, pending the federal governments appeal at the Supreme Court.

A five-member panel of the Supreme Court led by John Okoro, last week, fixed 11 May for the hearing of the case.

Mr Kanu, in his suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/ 2341/2022, urged the Federal High Court in Abuja for permission to apply for an order of mandamus to compel the SSS to allow him unhindered access to his medical doctor, among others.

The court had, on 1 February granted Mr Kanu, the permission to apply for an order of mandamus he sought in an ex-parte motion filed on his behalf by Mr Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

Hearing

But in a preliminary objection filed by the SSS, the security outfit urged the court to dismiss the suit for want of jurisdiction.

It argued that there was a subsisting judgement of a sister court delivered by Taiwo Taiwo on 3 June 2022 in suit number: FHC/ABJ/CS/1585/2021 between Kanu and DG of SSS and two others, wherein the court dealt substantially with the issue of allowing the IPOB leader access to his personal physician.

It said the instant suit was similar to the earlier one and that Mr Kanu had filed an appeal against the judgement.

At the resumed hearing on the matter, Mr Ozekhome informed the court that he had responded to the SSS notice of preliminary objection.

After Mr Awo applied for an order for the extension of time to file their processes, Mr Ozekhome prayed for a consequential order deeming their further affidavit as duly filed. The court granted both requests.

But Mr Awo, who said he was just being served with the further affidavit, said he would need more time to study the document whether fresh facts had been raised.

He said the document contained 60 paragraphs with 15 other sub-paragraphs embedded in them.

It is also accompanied by a judgement from Abia State as an exhibit.

In this circumstance, we will be asking for a short day, he said.

Mr Ozekhome, however, said his filing was to reject SSS allegation in its counter-affidavit that Mr Kanu jumped bail.

We have to respond to that (to explain the) circumstances under which he left Nigeria and those facts had been validated by Abia court in Umuahia, he responded.

The senior lawyer said they were forced to serve the further affidavit on Tuesday because the SSS served them on Friday.

He said the security outfit was in the habit of serving them with their processes late to delay the hearing.

No more delays

The judge, Ms Nyako, in a short ruling for an adjournment, said she would not tolerate any act that might delay proceedings any longer.

I will not allow this case to be truncated in the next adjourned date.

There must be an end to the exchange of processes, she said.

The judge adjourned the matter until 22 May for a hearing.

READ ALSO: Buhari inaugurates defence communications infrastructure

Mr Nyako was handling the trial before the Court of Appeal in Abuja dismissed the charges last year.

Mr Kanu, who was rearrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in June 2021, was facing treasonable felony charges before fleeing Nigeria in September 2017.

(NAN)

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The World Bank has announced the appointment of Ajay Banga as its next president.

A statement by the bank said he was selected by executive directors of the bank for a five-year term beginning 2 June.

Mr Banga brings with him an impressive resume, having served as president and CEO of Mastercard, a global organisation with nearly 24,000 employees and as Honorary Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce between 2020 and 2022.

Under his leadership, Mastercard launched the Center for Inclusive Growth, which advances equitable and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world.

He was also Co-Chair of the Partnership for Central America, a coalition of private organisations that works to advance economic opportunity across underserved populations in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

According to the statement, the selection process for the World Bank President was open, merit-based, and transparent, with any national of the banks membership eligible for nomination.

Mr Bangas selection was proposed by an executive director, and his appointment followed thorough due diligence and a comprehensive interview with the executive directors of the bank.

As president of the World Bank, he will also serve as Chair of the Board of Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and ex officio chair of the Board of Directors of the International Development Association (IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and of the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

The World Bank Group has set ambitious goals to tackle the toughest development challenges facing developing countries, and the board said it is confident that Mr Banga is the right person to lead these efforts.

The board also said it looks forward to working with him on the World Bank Group Evolution process, as discussed at the April 2023 Spring Meetings, and on all the World Bank Groups initiatives to promote sustainable economic growth and development worldwide.

Mr Banga has been awarded numerous honours throughout his career, including the Padma Shri Award by the President of India in 2016, and the Distinguished Friends of Singapore Public Service Star in 2021.

He became an advisor to General Atlantics climate-focused fund, BeyondNetZero, at its inception in 2021. Banga served as Co-Chair of the Partnership for Central America, a coalition of private organizations that works to advance economic opportunity across underserved populations in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. He was previously on the Boards of the American Red Cross, Kraft Foods, and Dow Inc.

Ajay Banga is a co-founder of The Cyber Readiness Institute and was Vice Chair of the Economic Club of New York. He was awarded the Foreign Policy Association Medal in 2012, the Padma Shri Award by the President of India in 2016, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Business Council for International Understandings Global Leadership Award in 2019, and the Distinguished Friends of Singapore Public Service Star in 2021, the statement said.

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The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday secured the final forfeiture of 324 properties misappropriated by the administration of a former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

The properties were said to have been misappropriated by the Kano State Pension Fund Trustees during Mr Kwankwasos administration in 2015.

Inyang Ekwo, a judge at the Federal High Court, Abuja, gave the order of final forfeiture while ruling on a motion by the EFCC, seeking a final forfeiture of the properties which are reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities of Kano State Pension Fund Trustees.

The properties comprise 168 homes situated at Sheikh Jaafar Mahmud Adam Bandirawo City, Kano; 122 houses at Sheikh Nasiru Kabara (Amana City), Kano and 38 houses at Sheikh Khalifa Ishaq Rabiu City, Kano.

 The 168 houses at Sheikh Jaafar Mahmud Adam Bandirawo City are made up of 55 Units of 2-bedroom semi-detached houses; 51 Units of 3-bedroom houses; 7 Units of 3-bedroom converted; 17 Units of 3-bedroom Carport; 3 Units of 4-bedroom Duplex; 9 Units of 5-bedroom Duplex and 22 Units of 3-bedroom Green-roof, the anti-graft agency said.

The 122 houses at Sheikh Nasiru Kabara, Kano include 14 Units of 2-bedroom semi-detached houses; 62 Units of 2-bedroom semi-detached houses; 4 Units of 3-bedroom converted; 13 Units of 3-bedroom converted ; 3 Units of 3-bedroom detached houses; 11 Units of 3-bedroom detached houses, 3 Units of the 3-bedroom carport, 5 Units of 3-bedroom carport 2 Units of the 3-bedroom Green roof; 3 Units of the 4-bedroom carport and 2 Units of 4-bedroom Pergola.

The 38 houses at Sheikh Khalifa Ishaq Rabiu City, Kano include 19 Units of 3-bedroom bungalows; 5 Units of 3 Green roofs; 6 Units of 4-bedroom Duplex, 2 Units of 4-bedroom BQ, I Units of 4-bedroom Duplex and 5 Units of 5-bedroom duplex, the EFCC said.

Background of the case

The investigation followed a 2015 petition by Concerned Kano State Workers and Pensioners, who alleged that Mr Kwankwaso violated the Kano State Pension and Gratuity Law of 2007 in the management of pension remittances amounting to about N10 billion contributed between 2011 and 2015.

Mr Kwankwaso was Kanos governor from 1999 to 2003, and from 2011 to 2015.

According to the petitioners, Mr Kwankwaso had directed that pension remittances be used for building houses for pensioners. A tripartite deal was reached between Kano State Pension Trust Funds as the investors and Kano State Investment and Property Limited and Kano State Housing Corporation Limited as developers on a 60:40 sharing ratio.

However, after contracts for the construction of 1,579 houses were awarded for the development of the properties, the petitioners alleged Mr Kwankwaso manipulated the process and terminated the term of the agreement. They claimed he then allocated the properties to his aides and cronies.

The alleged misappropriation happened in May 2015, the month Mr Kwankwaso left office as Kanos governor.

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The Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, has said there is no going back on the planned demolition of the aviation agencies offices in Lagos.

The Senate had on Tuesday directed the minister to stop the planned demolition of the offices pending the outcome of the intervention made by its committee on aviation.

But, Mr Sirika while reacting to the Senates directive on Wednesday, insisted that the ministry will go ahead with the demolition because the directive did not come from a court and that government cannot be stopped from giving development to its people.

He claimed that the intention of the aviation ministry was to remove the structure housing the office of the managing director of Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and other commercial buildings and replace them with hotels, shopping malls, cinemas and other lucrative businesses that will increase revenue of the ministry.

First of all, lets put it in perspective, the intent of government is to remove the structure housing the office of the managing director of FAAN and those commercial buildings. Its a structure that is made of wood, has been there for 40 years. It has caught fire twice even during our administration.

To give way for better development for what Lagos has become, it is the gateway, we want to put hotels there, shopping malls, offices, cinemas and the rest of it so FAAN can make more money and the rest of he added.

And the entire people in that entire building they are like 150 or 200. Government is going to continue of course, Senate is advisory, its an executive function, we are not bound by any court of law and government cannot be stopped from giving development to its people.

Just the other day, some houses were demolished by the Lagos government on our camp. We have been on that issue for sometime. We went up to the Supreme Court and won and they had to give way for development.

Mr Sirika, a former senator, maintained that the issue of the planned demolition of the aviation agencies building is of national interest, insisting that there is no individual who can stop the government from initiating an action.

This is in national interest. Theres no individual that can drag it out with government. If I want to pull down this hall and build a better one, who is going to stop me as a government?

So, I think it is not an issue, they are just overheating it and you know why. But we have a responsibility and mandate and we are not shy, we are very bold to do all those things that are good for our people. We are also very responsive and responsible government, where it will affect the lives of the people, of course we are going to do it, he insisted.

We have been known to do things that better civilization everywhere we go. So, this one also is going to make life very good. I am sure those people that are saying no to it, I am sure they do not want to continue to see Lagos airport the way it is.

So, few individuals will not deny 250 million Nigerians from the joy of having something that they will go outside Nigeria to see.

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss a suit by Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, seeking the probe and prosecution of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) made a similar call on the judge, James Omotosho.

The minister, who was also a spokesperson for the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), had filed his suit on 20 January, asking for an order compelling the EFCC, ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to probe and prosecute Atiku following claims by one of his ex-aides, Michael Achimugu, against him.

Mr Achimugu claimed that between 1999 and 2007 when Atiku was vice president, he conspired with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to rip off the country using what he termed Special Purpose Vehicles.

Mr Keyamo, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), requested the anti-corruption agencies to launch a probe of Atiku, the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the middle of the campaigns for the last presidential election.

The former vice president was a main challenger to Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of Mr Keyamos party, during the keenly contested poll.

Hearing

At the resumed on Wednesday, lawyers to the EFCC and ICPC, Samuel Okeleke and O. B. Odogu, respectively, faulted the competence of the suit and asked the court to dismiss it.

Their call for the dismissal of the suit is contained in the separate preliminary objections they had filed in court.

Mr Okeleke argued that Mr Keyamo did not comply with the requirement of the law in filing the suit, arguing that he ought to have first obtained the leave of the court in seeking to compel an agency of the government to act.

The lawyer contended that having failed to comply with the rules, the suit should not be accorded any attention.

Mrs Odogu, on her part, argued that Mr Keyamo did not approach her agency, the ICPC, properly, which she said works discreetly.

We do discrete investigation. He (Keyamo) gave us 72 hours ultimatum within which to investigate and prosecute the 1st defendant.

That is not how we operate. We take our time to do discreet investigation, she said.

The lawyer to Atiku, Benson Igbanoi, also faulted the competence of the suit while arguing the preliminary objection he filed for his client.

Mr Igbanoi, who accused Mr Keyamo of engaging in abuse of office, urged the court to decline jurisdiction among other grounds, that no cause of action was disclosed by the plaintiff.

He urged the court to disregard the response filed against his preliminary objection by the plaintiff, arguing that it was filed outside the seven days allowed under the courts rules.

Mr Keyamos lawyer, O. C. Uju, urged the court to dismiss the objections raised by the defendants and proceed to hear the case on merit.

The lawyer queried the competence of Atikus objection, arguing that it was filed when the court had not assumed jurisdiction over the case and before he could be served with the originating processes.

The judge, Mr Omotosho, after entertaining the arguments by lawyers to the parties, adjourned until 5 June for a ruling on the preliminary objections.

(NAN)

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The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Sudan have not yet given their consent to a weeklong ceasefire starting from Thursday, an adviser to the RSF head said on Tuesday, Trend reports citing TASS.

"Its too early to speak about our consent to the seven-day ceasefire," the adviser was quoted as saying by the Al Arabiya television channel. "We are yet to agree on that [lengthy truce]."

At the same time, the official added that the RSF "does not reject the ceasefire in principle, and values all initiatives aimed at resolving the crisis in the country."

The Al Sharq television channel reported on Tuesday, citing the foreign ministry of South Sudan, that the Sudanese armed forces and the RSF have given their consent in principle to a ceasefire beginning from Thursday, May 4. The South Sudan diplomats said the parties to the conflict had agreed to appoint their delegates to "peace talks," adding that the negotiations will be held "at a venue chosen by the parties themselves."

The situation in Sudan escalated amid disagreements between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also heads the ruling Sovereignty Council, and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), who is al-Burhans deputy in the council.

The main points of contention between the two military organizations pertain to the timeline and methods for unifying the armed forces of Sudan, as well as who should be appointed as commander-in-chief of the army: a career military officer, which is al-Burhans preferred option, or an elected civilian president, as Dagalo insists.

On April 15, armed clashes between the rival military factions erupted near a military base in Merowe and in the capital, Khartoum. According to the countrys health ministry, over 550 people have been killed in the country since the conflict broke out.
If hopefully, we do not push ourselves to the brink, how do we manage our students from universities from fringe countries that are prone to war? We need robust conversations around a sustainable management of such issues as they crop up in an increasingly unsafe and unstable world, without jeopardising the future, dreams and aspirations of our education-thirsty youth.

In February 2022, the Ukraine-Russia war broke out and left about 16,000 African students studying in Ukraine stranded, among who were at least 1,000 Nigerian students. Many were traumatised for days before they were finally evacuated back home, while some others found their ways to nearby Poland, Hungary, Germany, Slovakia and Europe, generally, despite the racial abuse at the borders and repatriation difficulties for those who headed home to Nigeria. Yet, others opted for online classes, which only provided temporary succour and was unable to fill the void for practicals-oriented courses like medicine and engineering.

I have a colleague-family friend, whose daughter opted for a repatriation to Nigeria, in line with her fathers stand not to allow a young lady roam from one foreign country to the other in the name of studying Medicine in a foreign university. It turned out to be a mistake, because more than one year after, his daughter is still at home and no university here in Nigeria has agreed to allow her start from where she stopped in Ukraine in the form of a transfer, and those that agreed are too pricey for him. Almost all, especially public universities, require her to write JAMB and start afresh. As you would expect, the girl in question is depressed and her over-protective father is becoming desperate and anxious.

Our educational policy seems antiquated; otherwise, with authentic transcripts, what does it take to transfer from one university to another? The world is aware of the war in Ukraine, as a perfect excuse. Why is Nigeria different, when some Nigerian students who succeeded in relocating to other countries, merely continued where they stopped?

Anyway, among those who resolved to remain in Europe is one Desmond Chinaza Muokwudo, who in a BBC report struggled with finance and unemployment back home, before he finally moved to Ukraine. The 30-year-old spent 11 years to save up for education in Europe, only for the war to (almost) shatter his dreams, three months after beginning his studies in Ukraine, with the support of his parents who had to sell a plot of land to pay his fees. For him, repatriation was not an option. My parents have nothing left; they cant support me (anymore). My government just tells me to come back home, but there is nothing waiting for me, he explained, from his temporary abode in Germany.

And thats the big question. What does home have to offer? But in the interim, lets look at the same scenario unfolding in Sudan. In less than two weeks, the war of the Generals, as it is otherwise called, has left hundreds dead, and because there seems to be no enduring ceasefire, countries of the world have come to the aid of their citizens in Khartoum, to evacuate them either by air or through road transport to safer havens, before final departure from Sudan.

Amidst controversies over logistics and diversion of fundsis Egypts reluctance and Ethiopias refusal to allow Nigerians free passage over some diplomatic niceties! At this time when war is raging? These countries are insensitive and their actions uncalled for; they are a sad reminder that African Union and African diplomacy and cooperation are a ruse and there is no commitment to everything on paper as endorsed by members.

However, while the evacuation seems to be smooth-sailing for other countries, red tape, corruption and lack of cooperation among African countries have conspired to deal with Nigerian citizens. They are stranded and suffering at desolate borders, hungry and anxious, with the prospect of stalled educational pursuits, because home does not offer much comfort, as can be gleaned from the plight of students who returned from Ukraine.

Amidst controversies over logistics and diversion of funds  this has always been part of the Nigerian narrative  is Egypts reluctance and Ethiopias refusal to allow Nigerians free passage over some diplomatic niceties! At this time when war is raging? These countries are insensitive and their actions uncalled for; they are a sad reminder that African Union and African diplomacy and cooperation are a ruse and there is no commitment to everything on paper as endorsed by members.

It is also an indication that there is nothing like African unity and this mindset engenders subtle suspicion of one another. It is the reason why super powers have always made Africa their battle ground to fight proxy wars for their self-interests, knowing full well that AU is too weak to oppose them. Africa is not working because our leaders have no foresight and it is part of the reason why Sudanese power elites are fighting themselves and killing their own, over who controls power in Sudan between the US, Russia and to a less extent, Saudi Arabia.

As it has been proved time and again, for as long as African leaders kowtow to the dictates of the West, not to the advantage of their continents development, but for their staying power, so shall we be stunted on all indices, including education. Besides, the increased military presence of super powers in Africa does not help matters. And for Nigeria, the story of the Ukraine returnees will definitely be re-enacted with the returning students from Sudan.

The dust is yet to settle on the Ukraine conflict, with regards to fleeing Nigerian students scattered all over Europe. Many are yet to find their feet. The six-month residency given to some in their newer locations have expired and others are yet to secure admission to continue their studies, because most countries have been giving priority to Ukranian nationals.

Any major conflict like that of Ukraine and now Sudan comes with the disruption of lives and activities, apart from deaths, maiming, rape and displacements. For how long would Nigerian students continue to bear the brunt of conflicts that have nothing to do with them? The last thing to think about during war is education, when the safety of life cannot be guaranteed.

According to a New York Times report, 26,500 African students have remained academically stranded, while some are stuck in their countries, uncertain about their future, one year after the war. In that same report, a Sudanese medical student in Ukraine, Mohammed Elfatih Ahmed, who had only 18 months to finish his course said he could not go home empty-handed after he was refused asylum, because Sudan was considered safe by German authorities. And Sudan began to boil in April. There is a case of a Nigerian medical student who was repatriated home from Ukraine. He got admission to a medical school in Sudan, before the latest onslaught there.

It is particularly irksome with respect to Nigeria. The Nigerian education system has been run aground. Strikes upon strikes, lack of motivation, low income earning, an unattractive learning environment and unemployment, are driving Nigerian students to anywhere other than their country of origin. That is why there is talk of 5,500 Nigerian students studying in Sudan before the war broke out. Medicine as a course in Sudan is particularly attractive to Nigerians, because back home, aspiring medical students spend years taking the JAMB examination and waiting for universities that claim the lack of carrying capacity to be able to admit them.

Nigeria is a country where dreams and aspirations are killed and buried at infancy. You cannot blame those whose parents had the means or manage to get alternatives outside the shores of Nigeria. Any major conflict like that of Ukraine and now Sudan comes with the disruption of lives and activities, apart from deaths, maiming, rape and displacements. For how long would Nigerian students continue to bear the brunt of conflicts that have nothing to do with them? The last thing to think about during war is education, when the safety of life cannot be guaranteed. Ukraine and Sudan offer ready lessons for Nigerians who love playing or hearing the drumbeats of war.

If hopefully, we do not push ourselves to the brink, how do we manage our students from universities from fringe countries that are prone to war? We need robust conversations around a sustainable management of such issues as they crop up in an increasingly unsafe and unstable world, without jeopardising the future, dreams and aspirations of our education-thirsty youth.

Zainab Suleiman Okino is chairman of the Editorial Board of Blueprint newspaper. Shes a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (FNGE). She can be reached via: zainabokino@gmail.com

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Nation-building will not be possible if a number of citizens are largely ignorant or insouciant about their part in solving the puzzle. The leadership can do its bit, but in our pottery wheel lies the greater task of moulding Nigeria the way we want it to be.

To suggest that the advancement of any society chiefly hangs on the elements of homogeneity and lateral filial connections is a self-determining fallacy. Nature bubbles in divergence and eclecticism. The beauty and wonders of our world are by the fashioning of heterogenous intelligence. Man was not made to be culturally, socially, morphologically, and linguistically unipolar.

So, in essence, Nigerias multiformity is not the dominating factor for its seeming ungovernability. Rather, it is the abuse and exploitation of differences; abnegation of civic duty, denuded understanding of citizenship, refusal to submit to the collective interest, native nationalism, and the absence of a rallying identity and cause, that are the denominators of Nigerias quandary.

Those who say Nigeria needs to splinter according to ethnic determination to achieve unity, peace and progress are ignorant of the complexities of natural design. Presumed homogeneity does not guarantee unity, peace, or progress among a people.

In fact, a good number of the worlds most successful countries are so endowed by the nourishment and talents of their diverse population. There is wealth in diversity.

More so, homogeneity does not exist in the true sense of the word among any ethnic classification. For instance, in the South-East, which is wrongly viewed as a homogenous society, there are subgroups and splinter groups within the entity. There are also many varying derivative dialects across communities and towns, some of which native Igbo speakers may not understand.

The variant of Igbo spoken in my native town is different from that spoken in other towns within the same state. There is also no homogeneity in religion. And there have been cases of clashes among communities over differences bordering on politics, land, and other contentions. In fact, my native town and a neighbouring town do not agree. There is still a disputation over land till date.

So, essentially, the argument that a Nigeria carved up along sectional contours will become united and prosperous is a slothful one. It shows a vacancy of thought and reason. Nigerias challenge is not its diversity, but the unwillingness of its leaderships and followership to be deliberate citizens.

We are citizens of Nigeria by the fashioning of fate, marriage, or naturalisation. But are we deliberate about our citizenship? Being deliberate citizens implies a commitment to the ethos of the country and a discharge of our responsibility to fatherland.

The 1999 constitution (as amended) spells out these responsibilities as: Section 24 (a)

It shall be the duty of every citizen to  (As Nigerians, we owe our country to do the following:) abide by this Constitution, respect its ideals and its institutions, the National Flag, the National Anthem, the National Pledge, and legitimate authorities; (Obey the constitution and respect our national authorities and icons;)

Section 24 (b)

help to enhance the power, prestige, and good name of Nigeria, defend Nigeria, and render such national service as may be required; (Promote Nigerias reputation and power and defend the country if the need arises;)

Section 24 (c)

respect the dignity of other citizens and the rights and legitimate interests of others and live in unity and harmony and in the spirit of common brotherhood; (Live in peace and unity with all others, respecting their own individual rights;)

Section 24 (d)

make positive and useful contribution to the advancement, progress, and well-being of the community where he resides; (Support the development of your local community;)

Section 24 (e)

render assistance to appropriate and lawful agencies in the maintenance of law and order; and (Help government agencies maintain the law;)

Section 24 (f)

declare his income honestly to appropriate and lawful agencies and pay his tax promptly. (Declare and pay the truthful and complete tax on time.)

My interest here is in section 24 (b) and (c) which stipulate that as citizens we must promote Nigeria and defend its reputation, as well as respect the dignity of other citizens and live in unity and harmony and in the spirit of common brotherhood.

It takes deliberate citizenship to actuate these ideals. It takes an attuned citizenry to live by the laid downs of our constitution. Clearly, we have been remiss in this regard.

Nation-building is by and large citizens doing the building. There is the place of leadership, but the office of the citizen is a critical trigger for the change we seek. We cannot abandon the responsibility of building Nigeria to anyone.

Nation-building will not be possible if a number of citizens are largely ignorant or insouciant about their part in solving the puzzle. The leadership can do its bit, but in our pottery wheel lies the greater task of moulding Nigeria the way we want it to be.

Fredrick Nwabufo aka Mr OneNigeria is a media executive.

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Are you looking for ways to accelerate your business growth? Look no further than the Business School Netherlands (BSN) MBA programme. The BSN MBA programme is designed for senior executives, managers and professionals seeking to enhance their skills and knowledge to drive growth in their organisations. The programme focuses on practical application and offers a unique blend of academic theory and real-world experience.

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Civil servants in Cross River State said the lifting of the embargo placed on the promotion of civil servants by Governor Ben Ayade came late.

They, therefore, said they would not applaud his administration for such action, alleging that it was meant to burden the incoming administration.

A cross-section of the workers disclosed this in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) on Monday in Calabar.

They said the governor was only trying to increase the wage bill of the incoming administration.

NAN reports that the government of Cross River in a statement signed by the Head of Service, Timothy Akwaji, had lifted the embargo on promotion in the states civil service from 2016 to 2023.

The notice which was with immediate effect enjoined all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) responsible for staff promotion to comply forthwith.

However, Daniel Ashang, a staffer of the state Ministry of Information, said Mr Ayades action in the twilight of his administration meant he did not care for the interest of workers.

You cannot lift an embargo when you have less than a month as governor.

It invariably means you are putting the wage bill on the incoming government and we cannot applaud him for that, he said.

Mr Ashang said if the governor had the interest of workers at heart, he would have done so years before the end of his administration.

But rather, he chose to appoint over 6,000 political aides to sing his praises.

These appointments had no direct benefit to the service and there was no productivity because he called it his food on the table policy, he said.

Another civil servant, Veronica Ukpong, said the states workforce was depleted as everyone employed in 1988 would be leaving in 2023 without young people to take over.

Mrs Ukpong said many of the technocrats would leave the service with their knowledge without training anyone because the state failed to recruit and even placed an embargo on promotion in 2016.

READ ALSO: Governor Ben Ayade loses senatorial election in Cross River

She advised the incoming administration not to play politics with the civil service but to engage people productively for the betterment of the service and the state.

The new administration in the state must not toe the line of its predecessor, it has to ensure that things work by recruiting workers as and when due, she said.

(NAN)

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Residents of Ezi-Ogidi, a community in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, Wednesday, set ablaze a man accused of robbing them and abducting a lady in the area.

The police spokesperson in the state, Tochukwu Ikenga, disclosed this in a statement, Wednesday evening.

Mr Ikenga, a deputy superintendent of police, said police operatives have arrested Jamui Emiron, one of the suspects, who allegedly robbed the residents and abducted the lady in the area.

The spokesperson said the suspect, Mr Emiron, 22, was arrested on Wednesday by police operatives attached to Ogbunike Police Divisional Headquarters in the state.

He said the arrest was in response to a distress call from St. Monica College in Ogbunike Road in the council area about the alleged attack by the suspect and his gang members who were reportedly heading to their hideout.

Residents in the neighbourhood had already supported the police by blocking some exit points within the area, intercepting the suspects vehicle and apprehending two of them while others fled, according to the police spokesperson.

Unfortunately, upon arrival of the police, one of the suspects has already been set ablaze by an angry mob and a criminal operational vehicle was badly damaged, he said.

Mr Ikenga said the police operatives rescued the abducted victim and the second suspect while the vehicle  a yellow Mitsubishi L300 bus  was recovered.

Police authorities in the state, according to Mr Ikenga, reminded the residents of a police campaign against mob action in the state.

The authorities, however, applauded the residents for apprehending the suspects but urged them to take such suspects to the police rather than resorting to jungle justice, according to Mr Ikenga.

READ ALSO:

This would afford the police the opportunity to conduct an appropriate investigation into the nefarious activities of the suspects and bring them to justice following extant laws, he stated.

The rescued victim has been taken to the hospital and is currently receiving medical treatment while the second suspect is in custody and is helping the police with useful information in the ongoing operation to arrest other fleeing gang members, the spokesperson added.

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Saudi Arabias Cultural Attache office in Sudan was looted and attacked on Tuesday, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said, as violence continues to ravage the African country, Trend reports citing Al Arabiya.

An unknown group of armed men stole property from the office, disabling systems and servers, according to the statement from the foreign ministry.

Riyadh condemned the attack in the strongest terms and called for respecting diplomatic missions and holding the attackers responsible for their acts.

The statement also reiterated Saudi Arabias previous calls to halt the escalation of violence in Sudan between the warring sides and ensure protection for diplomats, residents and Sudanese civilians.
NEW Episode: The White House 1600 Sessions Podcast

White House Historical Association President Stewart McLaurin

and British Ambassador to the U.S. Dame Karen Pierce

Discuss Unique Tie Between Nations

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The White House Historical Association released a new episode of "The White House 1600 Sessions" podcast today featuring a conversation with Dame Karen Pierce, British Ambassador to the United States, about the unique nature of the U.S. - British Alliance. In the episode, Stewart McLaurin, president of the Association, and Dame Pierce sat down ahead of the coronation of King Charles III to discuss how the special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States continues to evolve.

"It's wonderful to have occasions like the coronation to remind people in both countries of the history that we come from," said McLaurin. "History is vitally important. So much of American history can be taught through the prism of the White House itself and the decisions that have been made there. The same could be said for the monarchy which has existed for over a thousand years."

King Charles III will be crowned almost 70 years to the day of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Ambassador Pierce recalls the numerous trips both have made to the United States, and their affinity for the American people.

The White House 1600 Sessions is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

The White House 1600 Sessions

White House Historical Association President Stewart McLaurin. McLaurin is the host of "The White House 1600 Sessions," the Association's official audio and video podcast devoted to exploring the history, cultural impact, untold stories, and personal accounts of America's most iconic residence and highest office.

About the White House Historical Association

The White House Historical Association was founded in 1961 by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to support her vision to restore and preserve the Executive Mansion and its legacy for generations to come. Mrs. Kennedy sought to inspire Americans, especially children, to explore and engage with American history and its presidents. Supported entirely by private resources, the Association is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that has contributed more than $100 million to the White House in fulfillment of its mission. To learn more about the White House Historical Association, please visit WhiteHouseHistory.org .

SOURCE White House Historical Association
a11yable's a11y360 Digital Accessibility Huban all-in-one AI SaaS platform enables enterprises in May to reach the $8 Trillion market by empowering social responsibility, ESG, and digital accessibility

PHILADELPHIA, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- May is designated as Better Speech and Hearing Month, Mobility Awareness Month, Older Americans Month, and it includes Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Although these initiatives might seem unrelated, they all share a common theme of inclusivity and accessibility. Making digital assets accessible to everyone is a moral imperative and also makes good business sense. According to a report by the Return on Disability Group, the global market for people with disabilities, their families, and caregivers is estimated to be worth $8 trillion.

David Adi Founder and CEO

Enterprises that invest in making their digital assets accessible to people with disabilities can tap into this vast market and gain a competitive advantage. Making digital assets accessible also promotes customer loyalty and employee satisfaction, as people with disabilities and their families feel valued and included.

David Adi, CEO of A11yable, emphasizes the importance of May for businesses, stating, "May is a crucial month for enterprises to focus on inclusivity and accessibility, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and social responsibility as it presents a window of opportunity for driving business success. By investing in digital accessibility and making digital assets accessible to everyone, businesses can tap into a vast market and gain a competitive advantage."

A11yable's A11y360 - the digital accessibility hub provides tools to make digital assets accessible, including the a11yCaption. The a11yCaption component uses AI and machine learning to automate the captioning process in over 35 languages, making it faster and more accurate than traditional manual captioning services for post-production and live broadcast. Using A11y360 to achieve digital accessibility means that enterprises can manage all their accessibility projects in one place and achieve consistent and high-quality results.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of digital transformation, with many businesses shifting to online operations. This shift has highlighted the importance of digital accessibility, as many people with disabilities rely on online services for daily tasks. In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make their websites accessible to people with disabilities. Failure to comply with ADA regulations can result in lawsuits, fines, and damage to the business's reputation.

In conclusion, May is important for raising awareness about inclusivity and accessibility. By investing in digital accessibility, businesses can tap into a vast market, improve their ESG score to comply with ADA regulations and improve the user experience for people with disabilities. A11yable provides a comprehensive suite of tools to achieve digital accessibility, making it an excellent solution for businesses looking to improve accessibility and inclusivity.

Enterprises, organizations, and government agencies may request a free, no-obligation demo of the innovative a11y360 Digital Accessibility Hub from A11yable.

ABOUT ALLYABLE

A11yable is a leading SaaS technology developer driven by a passion for creating a more connected world for all with a fast, simple, affordable solution to meet international accessibility compliance guidelines. The multinational company has developed a comprehensive, 360-degree suite of project management tools that streamline compliance, reducing costs and complexity through advanced automation technology, machine learning, AI (artificial intelligence) crowdsourcing, and image processing. Its modular, comprehensive a11y360 technology platform empowers enterprise web teams around the globe to make their internet content and digital assets equally accessible to people living with disabilities. a11yable is the only DOBE-certified digital accessibility supplier in the industry. Learn more: https://allyable.com.

Media Contact: David Adi, CEO

[email protected]

1-888-215-7005

SOURCE A11yable
Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza agreed to a ceasefire early on Wednesday, two Palestinian officials said, after the death of a Palestinian hunger striker in Israeli custody a day earlier sparked cross-border exchanges of fire, Trend reports citing Reuters.

The "reciprocal and simultaneous" ceasefire went into effect at 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) and was brought about with efforts from Egyptian, Qatari and United Nations officials, the sources told Reuters.
Amyloid-targeting drugs make up one part of the biology of aging approach and are the first step in developing multiple drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease

NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) is encouraged to see the positive data reported today by Eli Lilly and Company for their amyloid-clearing antibody donanemab. Topline results from the TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 phase 3 study show the drug slowed cognitive and functional decline by 35% in patients with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease and reduced amyloid plaque levels in the brains of treated patients.

"This is very encouraging news for the millions of patients and families suffering from Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. Howard Fillit, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of the ADDF. "These data are another proof point that amyloid-targeting drugs are a first step to slowing cognitive and functional decline, providing a clinically meaningful benefit to patients."

Over half of participants in the trial completed their course of treatment by 12 months, which indicates a possibility that the drug could be paused or stopped after a year, potentially lowering cost and limiting risk of side effects for patients. The trial reported three deaths related to side effects from treatment. Dr. Fillit advises patients and their caregivers to discuss the risk and benefit with their physician and stresses the importance of risk management and usage guidelines for anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies.

"Based on our understanding of the biology of aging, we know the accumulation of misfolded proteins is one pathway, among others, that contributes to the onset of Alzheimer's," said Dr. Fillit. "Our job now is to develop the next generation of drugs that can target all these pathways and be used in combination with one another for a precision medicine approach enabled by new biomarkers. While the results from this trial are highly significant, further progress is needed to achieve 100% slowing of cognitive decline."

Anti-amyloid therapies can serve as the first disease-modifying drugs in the arsenal of treatments we will need to effectively treat Alzheimer's. The development of the next generation of drugs is already well underway with 75% of trials currently in the pipeline aimed at novel targets beyond the traditional amyloid and tau.

As these trials for novel targets advance, it further underscores the importance of developing complimentary biomarkers. Biomarkers like the Amyvid PET scan  which received early seed funding from the ADDF  and the Tauvid PET scan are already being used to enroll patients in trials for amyloid-targeting drugs, like donanemab, and to demonstrate target engagement.

"The path to new Alzheimer's therapies starts with an early and accurate diagnosis. Biomarkers are essential if we hope to use drugs most effectively for the patients who need them," said Dr. Fillit. "They will play a key role, allowing us to match the right drugs to the right patients at the right time. We need to know what each patient's disease looks like to give us the best chance of treating it."

Lilly plans to release the full results of their phase 3 trial at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) in July and intends to submit the drug for approval from the FDA by the end of the second quarter.

ABOUT THE ALZHEIMER'S DRUG DISCOVERY FOUNDATION

Founded in 1998 by Leonard A. and Ronald S. Lauder, the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation is dedicated to rapidly accelerating the discovery of drugs to prevent, treat and cure Alzheimer's disease. The ADDF is the only public charity solely focused on funding the development of drugs for Alzheimer's, employing a venture philanthropy model to support research in academia and the biotech industry. The ADDF's leadership and contributions to the field have played a pivotal role in bringing the first Alzheimer's PET scan (Amyvid) and blood test (PrecivityAD) to market, as well as fueling the current robust and diverse drug pipeline. Through the generosity of its donors, the ADDF has awarded more than $250 million to fund over 720 Alzheimer's drug discovery programs, biomarker programs and clinical trials in 19 countries. To learn more, please visit: http://www.alzdiscovery.org/.

SOURCE Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation
GREENWICH, Conn., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- AdminaHealth, the leading provider of employee benefits billing solutions for the healthcare, insurance, and voluntary benefits marketplace, is pleased to announce the promotion of Jennifer Collinson to Vice President of Marketing and Communications. In her new role, Collinson will lead all marketing initiatives, work in concert with the company's sales team, and be the primary point for all communications. Collinson's elevated role has an emphasis on developing and executing innovative strategies to promote AdminaHealth's solutions to brokers, carriers, employers, and third-party administrators.

Collinson's elevated role has an emphasis on developing and executing innovative strategies to promote [our] solutions Tweet this Jennifer Collinson, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, AdminaHealth

Collinson joined AdminaHealth in 2019 as Director of Marketing and Communications. During her tenure, her creativity and fresh ideas, combined with her expertise in brand and marketing strategy, web development, graphic design, and color theory, have played a critical role in developing the company's brand and increasing its visibility in the marketplace.

"Jennifer is an invaluable member of our team, and her contributions have been instrumental in the growth and success of AdminaHealth," said Robert A. Bull, CEO and Founding Member of AdminaHealth. "Her strategic vision, marketing expertise, and leadership skills have been critical in helping us achieve our business objectives. We are thrilled to promote her to Vice President, Marketing and Communications and look forward to her continued contributions as we expand our footprint in the industry."

Prior to joining AdminaHealth, Collinson held senior marketing and communications positions at organizations that distinguish themselves for making an impact and transforming processes and lives. She holds a Master's degree in Brand Development from Bath Spa University's School of Art and Design in England, a Bachelor's degree in Studio Art from Smith College in Massachusetts, and is accredited in applied color psychology by Colour Affects in London.

"I am honored and excited to take on this new role at AdminaHealth," said Collinson. "I look forward to continuing to work with our talented team to drive the growth of our business and help our clients achieve their goals."

About AdminaHealth

AdminaHealth is the leading provider of patented billing and payment solutions for the insurance industry. The company's innovative platform simplifies the administration of benefits and streamlines payment processes for brokers, carriers, employers, and third-party administrators. Founded in 2014, AdminaHealth is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, and serves clients throughout the United States.

SOURCE AdminaHealth
Aiden Enables Companies to Overcome Obstacles for Adopting Microsoft Modern Workplace; Dramatically Improves Cybersecurity Posture of Windows-Based Organizations

MCKINNEY, Texas, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Aiden Technologies, the provider of modern, intelligent software packaging and deployment for Microsoft Windows, has secured $4.5 million in its second round of seed funding. The co-lead investors in this round of funding are Right Side Capital Management and Blu Venture Investors. Right Side was also the largest investor in Aiden's initial round of funding in 2021, when it raised its initial $2.9 million seed funding.

"We are excited at the incredible growth potential for Aiden and have seen first-hand what a game-changer the company is for organizations running on Windows and struggling with the complex process of fully adopting tools for endpoint management," said Dave Lambert, Managing Director of Right Side Capital Management. "Customers of Aiden are able to deploy and maintain Microsoft computers far more successfully, overcoming frustrating challenges and needless complexity that bogs-down so many attempts at full-scale implementation of Microsoft Modern Workplace."

"Aiden has a dramatic impact on the cybersecurity posture of organizations that rely on Windows. It provides true automation for proactively identifying and patching vulnerabilitiesdoing so much more quickly, effectively, and efficiently than the processes companies use today," said Bikram Bakshi, Partner at Blu Venture Investors. "This should be a foundational part of the security strategy for organizations in industries that extensively use Windows, including financial services, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, and legal, as well as state and federal government."

"Aiden is revolutionizing the way software is packaged and deployed in the Windows ecosystemsolving a long list of pain points for IT teams, reducing risk, and greatly improving end-user experience with technology. We have taken major steps over the past three years, and our solution is already delivering significant ROI for customers across multiple industries," said Josh Aaron, CEO of Aiden. "We will soon take an even bigger leap by delivering major advancements in our solution that make it nearly effortless for Windows-based organizations to be successful and secure with Microsoft Modern Management, Intune & SCCM, and eliminate the need for third-party software deployment tools."

Aiden's customers include some of the largest asset managers in the private equity industry, hedge funds, law firms, and leaders in other vertical industries that rely on Windows. These companies have saved millions of dollars, significantly reduced downtime, strengthened their cybersecurity posture, and freed up skilled IT engineers to focus on their priorities rather than tedious maintenance. For customer case studies illustrating the remarkable impact of Aiden, please visit: https://www.meetaiden.com/resources/case-studies/

Meet Aiden

Aiden is a leading provider of IT automation solutions, offering intelligent packaging and software deployment for Windows environments. Aiden couples deep expertise in Microsoft Modern Management with a powerful AI bot, ensuring that computers get exactly the software they're supposed to have and nothing elseor, as we like to call it, "Desired State Configuration" (DSC). Building machines, deploying software, and applying patches are tedious tasks on every IT to-do list. Now, these activities don't need to be a drain on skilled resources or morale. Through hyperautomation and artificial intelligence (AI), Aiden makes scaling IT operations painless. Aiden keeps computers up to date, reduces security risks, and improves the digital end-user experience. For more information, visit meetaiden.com and follow us on Twitter at @meetaidentech.

Media Contact

Rich Miller

Miller Strategic Communications for Aiden

(303) 877-3966

[email protected]

SOURCE Aiden Technologies, Inc.
SINGAPORE, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Azentio Software , a leading software products company headquartered in Singapore, is thrilled to announce that its award-winning enterprise resource planning system - Azentio ONEERP was selected by Al Taher Chemicals Trading LLC. ("ATC") to help create efficiencies, making their business leaner as it scales.

ATC had been using a standalone financial accounting system for five years, but as their business operations and requirements grew, the need to standardize business procedures, gain visibility and business insights, minimize costs, while ensuring real-time tracking for manufactured and traded items became essential. ATC needed a solution that would intelligently manage supply chain issues, and identify profitable product lines and customers. The company identified Azentio ONEERP as the perfect fit for their business needs, and as a reliable solution partner that would advance productivity and ensure uninterrupted growth.

Azentio Software's President & Global Head  ERP, Suryanarayan Kasichainula said, "We welcome ATC to our growing list of clients in the UAE. As we all know, a robust ERP system is an important software tool to successfully operate a business. Azentio ONEERP is a powerful platform that enables real-time visibility and reporting, enhanced productivity and automation, while connecting every part of the business. We congratulate ATC on this decision to drive innovation and agility and maximize their ROI."

Dr. Qutubuddin Saify, Managing Director at ATC, commented, "In a rapidly changing industry, forward-looking enterprises are looking for ways to streamline efficiency, while maintaining product quality. Keeping lead times low seems increasingly difficult when you have global disruptions, a lack of supply chain visibility, and manual processes that bottleneck productivity. Further to multiple rounds of software evaluation, we believe Azentio ONEERP is the best-fit platform for our business challenges."

The project implementation will cover manufacturing processes management, procurement management, sales management, inventory management, finance management, equipment maintenance, VAT compliance as per the UAE federal tax authority regulations, and CRM. ATC is expected to leverage critical business benefits, including but not limited to, accurate manufacturing cost allocation, reduced resource waste, better production monitoring, FIFO enablement for material issuance, improved finance operations, increased profit margins, reduced DSO, ability to monitor profitability by product line, and finally, ability to monitor sales personnel and compensate accurately.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1978771/Azentio_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Azentio Software Pvt Ltd
SINGAPORE, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Talented young minds from universities in China, Spain and Singapore have been hailed as winners of the 2023 Alibaba Global E-commerce Challenge organized by Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group ("AIDC") after a series of rigorous competitions both at the regional and the global levels.

2023 GEC Finalists 2023 GEC First Prize Winner Team Chunyi Capital from Peking University AIDC Arranged A Tour of Its Singapore Office for All 2023 GEC Finalists

The 2023 Alibaba Global E-commerce Challenge aimed to identify young talent from around the world that can help shape the future of AIDC. Open to university students and recent university graduates worldwide, participants were tasked to develop creative solutions to problems inspired by some of AIDC's real day-to-day businesses scenarios.

Since launching in March, this year's competition has received an overwhelming response with around 3,500 individuals representing 141 renowned universities from 59 countries and regions participating. After the intense regional rounds held in Europe, the Americas, East Asia and Southeast Asia, nine teams were selected to enter the global finals held in Singapore from April 27-28. The finalists vied for the top three spots by pitching live to a judging panel formed by AIDC executives, to present their proposals around market opportunities and strategies for some of the businesses under AIDC, including Alibaba.com, AliExpress and Lazada.

Team "Chunyi Capital", formed by students from Peking University, took first place of the global finals for their innovative approach and teamwork, while Team "Checkout Champs" and Team "Merlion Consulting", formed by students from ESADE Business School and National University of Singapore respectively, earned second and third place. The three winning teams were awarded prizes worth up to RMB50,000. In addition, AIDC will extend internship offers to select participants of the global finals.

"We were impressed by the insightful and innovative proposals by the finalists in the Alibaba Global E-Commerce Challenge. AIDC is committed to nurturing young talent in the international digital commerce space and we are excited to welcome some of the bright minds from the competition as interns with our company. We look forward to seeing their future success," said Lilian Jiang, Chief People Officer of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group.

"We are humbled and elated to have won the Alibaba Global E-Commerce Challenge. This competition has been an incredible journey, pushing us to our limits and helping us develop a deeper understanding of the digital commerce sector. We look forward to applying the knowledge and skills we have gained to drive positive change in the industry. Thank you to the organizers and judges for this opportunity," said Chunyi from Team Chunyi Capital at Peking University.

Several earlier participants of the competition, including HUA Wen, who placed third in the previous edition of the competition, have joined AIDC and made significant contributions to the team. Sharing her advice with this year's winners, Hua said: "When opportunities arise, don't be afraid to challenge yourself and don't let societal expectations dictate your choices. Life is about experiences, not just fulfilling a purpose."

To enhance the finalists' experience during their time in Singapore, AIDC arranged a tour of its Singapore office for all participants to allow them to gain a deeper understanding of its organization, interact with the AIDC team, and witness its operations in action. The experience provided valuable learning opportunities for the finalists and helped them gain a more comprehensive understanding of the e-commerce sector.

AIDC operates multiple international commerce retail businesses, including Lazada, AliExpress, Trendyol and Daraz, which provide commerce infrastructure and local market insights to support brands and merchants in serving local consumers with a wide product selection and unique customer experiences. The company also operates Alibaba.com, a leading platform for global business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce founded in 1999 that aims to make it easy to do business anywhere.

To find out more about the 2023 Alibaba Global E-commerce Challenge, please visit: https://www.alibabagec.com/

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2068526/2023_GEC_Finalists.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2068527/2023_GEC_First_Prize_Winner_Team_Chunyi_Capital_from_Peking_University.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2068528/AIDC_Arranged_A_Tour_of_Its_Singapore_Office_for_All_2023_GEC_Finalists.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2016322/Alibaba_Group_logo_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group
- Strongest Alzheimer's Phase 3 data release to date -

- Association underscores urgent call for CMS to stop blocking access to FDA-approved treatments -

- Full readout expected at Alzheimer's Association International Conference in July -

CHICAGO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On behalf of the millions of Americans impacted by the devastation of Alzheimer's disease, the Alzheimer's Association enthusiastically welcomes the robustly positive topline data reported today by Eli Lilly on the TRAILBLAZER-ALZ2 Phase 3 clinical trial of donanemab for the treatment of early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease.

"These donanemab Phase 3 results are significant and further underscore the scientific evidence and personal benefit these types of treatments can have when people can get access to them. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) policy to block Medicare access to Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved Alzheimer's treatments is in stark contrast to scientific evidence, is unprecedented and must be reversed immediately," said Joanne Pike, DrPH, Alzheimer's Association president and CEO.

The TRAILBLAZER-ALZ2 trial met all of its primary and secondary endpoints. Most encouragingly, the company reports that nearly half (47%) of the study participants taking donanemab had no decline of cognition and function for one year (compared to 29% on placebo). Donanemab slowed clinical decline by 35% compared to placebo on the primary outcome measure and resulted in 40% less decline in the ability to perform activities of daily living.

"These are the strongest phase 3 data for an Alzheimer's treatment to date. This further underscores the inflection point we are at for the Alzheimer's field. The progress we've seen in this class of treatments, as well as the diversification of potential new therapies over the past few years, provides hope to those impacted by this devastating disease," said Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., Alzheimer's Association chief science officer. "Yet, Medicare stubbornly continues to block access for the people who could benefit."

For people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's, these results suggest donanemab will significantly change the course of the disease. Like the other treatments in its class already approved by the FDA, Aduhelm and Leqembi, these results indicate donanemab gives people more time at or near their full abilities to participate in daily life, remain independent and make future health care decisions. Treatments that deliver these benefits are just as valuable as treatments that extend the lives of those with other diseases.

Since April 2022, CMS has denied access to FDA-approved Alzheimer's treatments through a National Coverage Determination (NCD) for Monoclonal Antibodies Directed Against Amyloid for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. This NCD would also apply to donanemab if it is approved for use by the FDA. CMS has repeatedly pledged to move quickly to modify the NCD if warranted by new evidence  yet they have failed to do so to date. Today's topline data is further evidence that this class of treatments can provide a meaningful benefit to people living with early Alzheimer's. We urge CMS to immediately review existing data just as the U.S. Veterans Health Administration did.

Medicare beneficiaries living with Alzheimer's, a fatal disease, deserve the same immediate, full coverage under Medicare afforded to those with other diseases.

According to the company, "The [overall] incidence of amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA) was consistent with the TRAILBLAZER-ALZ Phase 2 study." They shared that the incidence of serious ARIA was 1.6%, including two participants whose deaths were attributed to ARIA and a third participant who died after an incident of serious ARIA. As with other anti-amyloid treatments  in fact, every drug  this treatment has side effects. Patients living with a fatal disease should have the opportunity to talk with their doctors to develop a treatment plan that is right for them, including weighing the benefits and risks of approved therapies.

"We look forward to additional data from the TRAILBLAZER-ALZ2 trial at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) in July, including data on participant safety and representation. If those data are consistent with what we saw today regarding efficacy and safety, we strongly support FDA approval and, if approved, we expect CMS and other private insurance coverage," said Carrillo.

The results of this and other positive trials clearly demonstrate the importance of an early and accurate diagnosis on treatment and health outcomes. In this trial, participants had confirmation of both amyloid and tau by PET scans. Advancements in diagnostic tools that detect these disease-specific brain changes allowed for precision in patient selection and more thorough understanding of the impact of the treatment for participants.

As we reflect on the importance of the positive results announced today, the Alzheimer's Association remains committed to advancing all potential treatment avenues and exploring methods for combining diverse approaches into combination therapies. There must be access to any approved treatments, as well as quality care and support for all people.

Alzheimer's Association

The Alzheimer's Association leads the way to end Alzheimer's and all other dementia  by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's and all other dementia. Visit alz.org or call the 24/7 Helpline at 800.272.3900.

SOURCE Alzheimer's Association
OCIO's five-year history showcases consistent commitment to the hiring and development of diverse talent and diverse manager engagement

SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Angeles Investments, a multi-asset investment firm and OCIO (Outsourced Chief Investment Officer) with approximately $6 billion in discretionary assets and $32 billion in consulting assets, today released their 2022 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Annual Report which details its internal and external DEI activity, progress and milestones from the 2022 calendar year in addition to goals for the year ahead.

The 2022 DEI report highlights that 59% of the firm's Investment Officers and 65% of all firm staff are diverse. This is consistent with years past, and highlights Angeles' continued commitment to maintaining and growing a pipeline of talent that reflects diversity of backgrounds and experiences.

"Diversity is a critical aspect of our business, and we know that diversity of thought and experiences leads to better investment outcomes across the board," said Howard Perlow, co-founder of Angeles Investments. "I'm proud that we continue to prioritize engaging DEI throughout the investment management industry, within our firm and with our clients and look forward to furthering our impact and keeping up this momentum."

In addition to transparently reporting the firm's diverse composition, the report details Angeles' advocacy efforts and partnerships along with internal engagement efforts. This includes supporting regular dialogue through roundtables focused on improving internal communication and collaboration.

"In addition to holding Angeles accountable, our diligence is an integral part of our manager selection process," said Sapna Shah, Managing Director and Chair of the DEI Committee at Angeles Investments. "Looking within Angeles our diversity efforts represent the firm's breadth of experience and views, which drives our ability to best serve our clients and their missions through investments."

Angeles continues to look towards improving DEI through expanding manager DEI data analysis, engaging with existing manager DEI strategies and maintaining focus on identifying diverse emerging managers within the investment industry.

Further, as announced last week, the firm was recognized by Coalition Greenwich as a recipient of the Greenwich Quality Leader Award for 2022, marking the firm's sixth consecutive year receiving the award and noting Angeles' "superior support for clients working to navigate fast-changing markets" including ESG integration and counsel.

About Angeles

Angeles Investments is an investment management firm that serves as the Outsourced Chief Investment Office (OCIO) for institutions and nonprofits including higher education, independent schools and corporations, and advises distinguished investors through its wealth management platform. As fiduciaries, we are dedicated to creating the best outcomes for our clients through asset allocation and high conviction investments across alternative and traditional asset classes delivered through a full-service investment office. Angeles was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA with offices in New York City, Chicago, and Houston.

https://www.angelesinvestments.com/

Media Contact

Prosek Partners for Angeles Investments

[email protected]

SOURCE Angeles Investments
PRESCOTT, Ariz., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Arizona-Based, True Course Simulations (tcsims.com) and Pilot Institute (pilotinstitute.com) Join Forces to Create a Cutting-Edge Approach to Flight Instruction.

True Course Simulations and Pilot Institute have announced an exciting new partnership that will revolutionize the way pilots are trained. TCS is a leader in virtual reality flight simulation technology. At the same time, PI is an industry leader in video flight training, providing hundreds of hours of virtual instruction through its online platform.

Student Flying F22 Mission in Flight Simulator by True Course Simulations & Flight Instruction by Pilot Institute.

The partnership between True Course and Pilot Institute will combine their respective strengths to create a comprehensive and immersive flight instruction and training experience. True Course will provide state-of-the-art virtual reality flight simulators that offer pilots real-world flight practice that will pair with Pilot Institute's world-class video instruction. Together, TCS and PI will offer the most comprehensive possible flight instruction and training available today.

"Joining forces with Pilot Institute is an exciting development for us at True Course Simulations," said True Course's Vice President Brett Watts. "We believe that our virtual reality flight simulators, combined with Pilot Institute's video instruction, will create a truly immersive and effective way to train the next generation of pilots."

"We're thrilled to partner with True Course Simulations and bring their cutting-edge VR technology into our flight training curriculum," said Pilot Institute's Co-Founder Greg Reverdiau. "We believe that this partnership will enhance the learning experience for our students and provide them with an unparalleled level of training."

The True Course Simulations and Pilot Institute partnership will provide pilots with a unique opportunity to learn and practice their skills in a virtual environment. True Course's virtual reality flight simulators will allow pilots to experience a range of scenarios and conditions, from basic flight maneuvers to complex emergency situations. Pilot Institute's video instruction will provide pilots with a deep understanding of the principles of flight and the techniques needed to fly safely and confidently.

Together, True Course and Pilot Institute are committed to providing pilots with the most comprehensive flight instruction possible, using the latest technology and instructional methods. This partnership will redefine the future of flight training, and we can't wait to see what the future holds.

For more information, visit TCSims.com and PilotInstitute.com.

Media Contact: brett watts, [email protected]

SOURCE True Course Simulations
The ArthemiR trial, a Phase I-IIa study of ATX-01 in DM1, is expected to initiate in 2H2023

Round led by Columbus Venture Partners, with participation of European Innovation Council (EIC), Hadean Ventures, Sound Bioventures, and existing investors Invivo Capital, AdBio Partners, and CDTI

VALENCIA, Spain, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ARTHEx Biotech S.L., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing innovative medicines through the modulation of microRNAs announced the closing of its 42 million Series B financing round led by Columbus Venture Partners, with participation from new investors, the European Innovation Council (EIC), Hadean Ventures, and Sound Bioventures. Existing investors Invivo Capital, AdBio Partners, and the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) through its Innvierte program, also participated in the financing.

The Series B proceeds will be used to advance its lead compound, ATX-01, an antimiR designed to target microRNA 23b (miR-23b), to a Phase I/IIa clinical trial for the treatment of Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 (DM1). miR-23b is known to be associated with regulating the expression of MBNL protein involved in the pathogenesis of DM1, a devastating, rare neuromuscular disorder that causes muscle weakness and other life-limiting complications. There are currently no disease-modifying treatments for DM1, which affects at least 40,000 people in the U.S and 70,000 in Europe.

In connection with the financing, ARTHEx' present Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr. Frederic Legros, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer.

"I am excited to lead ARTHEx Biotech with our accomplished executive team, board of directors and investor syndicate, who share our commitment to developing innovative medicines for debilitating diseases. This will be a pivotal year as we prepare to initiate our Phase I/IIa ArthemiR study of lead compound ATX-01 for DM1, in the second half of 2023," said Dr. Legros. "We believe that the market opportunity for a novel DM1 therapy is very attractive, given the limited number of companies in the clinic and the lack of an approved therapeutic agent."

"This financing enables us to translate the Company's foundational scientific work into the clinic, and we have tremendous confidence in our approach to unlock new therapeutical potential with microRNAs. We are pioneering approaches that preferentially deliver microRNA modulators to disease-affected tissues in a number of serious, disabling and life limiting conditions. We are thrilled to advance the development of ATX-01 for DM1, where we believe we have the potential to be best-in-class driven by its dual mechanism of action and I am committed to continued expansion and strengthening of the ARTHEx' pipeline, which is based on the foundational technology discovered and developed over decades in my lab," said Dr. Beatriz Llamusi, CSO and co-founder of ARTHEx Biotech.

"The foundational technology of microRNA modulation at ARTHEx shows great promise in identifying new ways to treat disease, by blocking or activating key disease-driving targets, and Columbus Venture Partners recognized the uniqueness of the approach with ATX-01. We are pleased to support the Company and join its high-quality investor syndicate," said Jose Mesa, partner at Columbus Venture Partners. "We believe we have a tremendous opportunity to develop a novel therapy in DM1, an orphan disease with a significant number of patients across the world. We are pleased to be working with Fred, Beatriz and the outstanding team at ARTHEx and look forward to supporting the company through its next phase of growth. I also want to thank Beatriz for her tremendous work in growing and leading ARTHEx to this pivotal phase in the company's history. We look forward to her continued contributions as CSO as we progress."

About ATX-01

ARTHEx is developing innovative medicines based on the modulation of microRNA. ATX-01 is an antimiR designed to target microRNA 23b (miR-23b), which is associated with regulating the expression of MBNL protein involved in the pathogenesis of DM1. It has been demonstrated in human DM1 myoblast cell lines that ATX-01 has a unique, dual mechanism of action which targets toxic DMPK and MBNL proteins. Toxic DMPK and reduced levels of MBNL have been identified as the genetic cause of DM1. In December 2022, ARTHEx announced the achievement of key regulatory milestones for the ATX-01 development program, including receiving Orphan Drug Designation for ATX-01 in DM1 from both the US and European authorities.

ATX-01 was discovered through ARTHEx' in-house discovery engine, which is designed to identify and optimize novel microRNA modulators and ensure their preferential delivery to targeted tissues, for the treatment of diseases in which microRNAs are involved in the disease pathogenesis.

About Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 (DM1)

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a highly disabling disease affecting more than one million people worldwide. The condition affects muscles and other tissues (causing respiratory problems, fatigue, hypersomnia, cardiac abnormalities, severe gastrointestinal complications, and cognitive and behavioral impairment). Most commonly, it manifests during adulthood, although DM1 can develop at birth in a congenital form, or during childhood. Although signs and symptoms vary among affected individuals, sadly, with progression of the disease, DM1 patients experience a reduction in the ability to perform activities of daily living. Moreover, patients have a significantly shortened lifespan and there is currently no approved treatment to slow the progression of the disease.

About ARTHEx Biotech

ARTHEx Biotech is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing innovative medicines through the modulation of microRNAs. The Company's lead investigational compound, ATX-01, is advancing into clinical development for the treatment of myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), a rare progressive muscle wasting disease. ARTHEx is also advancing its in-house discovery engine to identify and develop microRNA modulators for other disorders with high unmet medical needs, including genetically-driven diseases like DM1. The Company headquarters is in Valencia, Spain.

For more information, please visit www.arthexbiotech.com and engage with us on LinkedIn.

About Dr. Frederic Legros

Before joining ARTHEx Biotech as Executive Chairman in November 2022, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Dynacure, a company he co-founded in 2016. Prior to launching Dynacure, Dr. Legros was Vice President and Corporate Head of Business Development of Valneva SE, a biotech company listed on the French stock exchange, from 2008 to 2016. Dr Legros studied biotechnology and received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from University of Paris 7. He also holds a business degree from NEOMA Business School, France.

Company Contact

Frederic Legros

Executive Chairman and CEO

[email protected]

+33679495790

Investor and Media Contact

Amy Conrad

Juniper Point

[email protected]

+1 858-366-3243

SOURCE ARTHEx Biotech
DUBLIN, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Aspherical Lens Market by Type (Glass Aspherical lens, Plastic Aspherical lens), Offering (Double Aspherical lens and Single Aspherical lens), Manufacturing Technology (Molding, Polishing & Grinding), Application and Region - Global Forecast to 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The aspherical lens market is projected to grow from USD 9.0 billion in 2023 to USD 12.2 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 6.2% during the forecast period. Some of the major factors that are driving the growth of the aspherical lens market include rising demand for aspherical lenses for use in digital cameras, growing applications in high-end smartphone cameras, and surging use of aspherical lenses in optical instruments and ophthalmic applications.

However, the complexities of design and manufacturing processes will be a challenge for the market in the future. The major growth opportunities for the market players are rising demand for medical imaging and growing use of infrared aspherical lenses in security and surveillance cameras.

The market for the plastic aspherical lens to grow at a higher CAGR during forecast period

The plastic aspherical lens type segment of the aspherical lens market is expected to account for the largest market size and highest growth rate during the forecast period. Plastic aspherical lenses are optical lenses with aspherical surfaces composed of plastic materials. They are increasingly being used in producing camera lenses, eyeglass lenses, and other optical equipment. Plastic aspherical lenses are generally lighter and less expensive than traditional glass aspherical lenses, making them a more accessible option for many consumers.

Ophthalmic application held the largest share of the aspherical lens market in 2023

In terms of market size, the ophthalmic application is expected to dominate the aspherical lens market and will likely witness significant growth during the forecast period. In the ophthalmic segment, such lenses are mainly used in eyeglasses and contact lenses. Aspherical lenses help patients suffering from myopia, hype myopia, and other conditions by increasing the image quality and vision power. Aspherical eyeglass lenses allow for crisper vision than standard lenses, mostly when looking in other directions than the optical center of the lens. The lenses are also suited to eyeglasses for patients with differing powers in both eyes. Aspherical lenses can also help address astigmatism, nearsightedness, and farsightedness.

Asia Pacific to witness the highest growth among other regions during the forecast period

Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the aspherical lens market during the forecast period Asia Pacific is one of the emerging markets for aspherical lenses. The region has been segmented into China, Japan, South Korea, and Rest of Asia Pacific, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and other Southeast Asian countries. The aspherical lens market in Asia Pacific is expected to record the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Growing economies such as China and Japan are the major contributors to the aspherical lens market in this region. In China, the development of city surveillance networks to monitor millions of citizens, and the penetration of surveillance cameras in small and medium-sized enterprises, is expected to drive the demand for aspherical lens elements. The rising requirement for contact lenses to correct myopia, hyperopia, and other eye-related diseases is driving the use of aspherical lenses in the ophthalmic application.

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Increasing Use of Aspherical Lenses in Optical Instruments and Ophthalmic Applications

Rising Demand for Aspherical Lenses for Use in Digital Cameras

Increasing Application in High-End Smartphone Cameras

Growing Adoption in Automotive Sector

Restraints

High Production Cost

Opportunities

Growing Use of Infrared Aspherical Lenses in Security and Surveillance Cameras

Rising Demand for Medical Imaging

Challenges

Complexity of Design and Manufacturing Processes

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

5 Market Overview

6 Aspherical Lens Market, by Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Glass Aspherical Lens

6.2.1 Increasingly Used in Cameras, and Automotive and Surveillance Applications

6.3 Plastic Aspherical Lens

6.3.1 Light and Cheap Option Used in Various Applications

6.4 Other Types

7 Aspherical Lens Market, by Manufacturing Technology

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Molded

7.2.1 Suited to Mass Production of High-Thermal Stability Lenses

7.3 Polished

7.3.1 Widely Used for Prototyping and Low-Volume Production

7.4 Other Manufacturing Technologies

7.4.1 Increasingly Used to Create Precise Optical Surfaces

8 Aspherical Lens Market, by Offering

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Single Aspherical Lens

8.2.1 Increasingly Used for Ophthalmic Applications and in Optical Systems

8.3 Double Aspherical Lens

8.3.1 Provides Clear and Precise Images

9 Aspherical Lens Market, by Application

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Digital Cameras

9.2.1 Wide Use of Aspherical Lenses to Reduce Errors

9.3 Automotive

9.3.1 Growing Use of Aspherical Lenses in Safety-Critical Devices

9.4 Consumer Electronics

9.4.1 Rising Adoption in High-End Smartphones to Improve Image Quality

9.5 Ophthalmic

9.5.1 Increasing Use of Aspherical Lenses in Diagnostic Instruments

9.6 Fiber Optics & Photonics

9.6.1 Rising Demand from Telecommunications and Other Industries

9.7 Others

9.7.1 Multiple Applications of Aspherical Lenses to Boost Market

10 Geographic Analysis

11 Competitive Landscape

12 Company Profiles

13 Appendix

Companies Mentioned

Agc Inc.

Asia Optical Co. Inc.

Calin Technology Co. Ltd.

Canon Inc.

Dg Optoelectronics

Esco Optics, Inc.

Essilor International

Genius Electronic Optical

Hoya Corporation

Hyperion Optics

Jenoptik Ag

Knight Optical

Largan Precision Co. Ltd.

Lightpath Technologies, Inc

Mingyue Optical Lens Co. Ltd.

Nikon Corporation

Panasonic Holding Corporation

Schott

Seiko Optical Products Co. Ltd.

Shanghai Optics

Sumita Optical Glass Inc.

Sunny Optical Technology (Group) Company Limited

Tokai Optical

Zeiss International

Zhejiang Lante Optics Co. Ltd

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rrgg38

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First version published at 12:02

BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Turkiye closed airspace with Armenia, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu told NTV channel, Trend reports.

"The installation of a monument dedicated to the so-called Operation Nemesis in Yerevan is unacceptable. They did this in order to elevate the terrorist groups that committed the murders of our diplomats, our Azerbaijani brothers in the 1920s. We can't accept it. Armenia's statements on this matter are not sincere and truthful. This indicates their unfriendly attitude," Cavusoglu said.

He also said that Turkiye has closed its airspace to Armenia and if it continues to behave like this, the country will take other measures.

"Only the president of the National Assembly of Armenia, as an exception, was allowed to come to the country to participate in the meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of Black Sea Economic Cooperation, as this is an international meeting," the minister added.
CHICAGO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Automated Material Handling Equipment Market is expected to reach USD 45.7 billion by 2028 from USD 30.6 billion in 2023, at a CAGR of 8.3 % during the 20232028 period according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The ever-evolving automotive, e-commerce, food & beverage, 3PL, and other industries, along with their continuous production, are major factors driving the growth of the global automated material handling equipment market. Moreover, the need for ASRS and AGVs for several applications is also a key factor contributing to the market growth.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=92483121

Browse in-depth TOC on "Automated Material Handling Equipment Market"

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Automated Material Handling Equipment Market Report Scope:

Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2023 $30.6 billion Estimated Value by 2028 $45.7 billion Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 8.3% Market Size Available for 20192028 Forecast Period 20232028 Forecast Units Value (USD Million/Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered By Product, System Type, Industry and Region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of World Key Market Challenge Development of flexible and scalable AMH equipment Key Market Opportunities Substantial industrial growth in emerging economies Key Market Drivers Rise in demand for automated material handling equipment across diverse industries



Unit load material handling system is expected to account for the largest share of the automated material handling equipment market during the forecast period.

Unit Load Material Handling Systems held a larger market share in 2022. These systems are majorly used in several industries as they are cost-effective and can effectively handle several items simultaneously. This helps in reducing the number of trips, the time required for loading and unloading, as well as the cost of handling. The growing demand for automated material handling equipment in the e-commerce industry is anticipated to propel the unit load material handling systems market during 20222027.

The e-commerce industry is projected to account for significant share of automated material handling equipment market during the forecast period.

The growing demand for accelerated order processing and delivering of products to customers in an accurate and undamaged form, rising competition in the e-commerce industry, and a rapidly growing number of online shoppers are propelling e-commerce companies to invest in automated equipment to improve their material handling efficiency. Short delivery times, accurate order processing, advanced shipment tracking, and an increased number of online shoppers are key factors boosting the adoption of warehouse management systems in this industry. The increase in globalization and the emergence of online retailing and bulk retailing escalated the demand for AMHE in the e-commerce industry.

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Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Growing awareness for warehouse automation and the growing e-commerce industry are some of the key factors contributing to the substantial growth of Asia Pacific in the market. The rapid growth of automotive, e-commerce, and healthcare industries in major Asian economies, such as China and Japan, contributed to the growth of the automated material handling equipment industry in the region. Moreover, various national governments in Asia Pacific countries are increasingly emphasizing mainly on safety and security on production floors, for which the deployment of automated material handling equipment is increasingly adopted. The market is experiencing rapid growth in countries such as China and Japan, owing to large investments by manufacturers and suppliers in installing several equipment at warehouses and distribution centers.

The report profiles key players in automated material handling equipment companies such as Daifuku, KION, SSI Schaffer, Toyota Industries, and Honeywell International.

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LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Author Ray Comfort, CEO and founder of Living Waters Christian ministry, is giving away 500,000 hard copies of his book "Defender of the Faith: Ten Weird Facts about the Coronation," to U.S audiences interested in the events happening in London this weekend to celebrate King Charles III's official coronation.

Defender of the Faith book cover image

According to Comfort, the book is controversial because it flies in the face of an increasingly secularized worldwhere many profess atheism and most don't honor the Bible. "It's ironic that during the coronation of King Charles, hundreds of millions around the world will essentially be going to church for a two-hour televised church service," Comfort said. "There they will hear many references to the Christian gospel and hear the Bible greatly honored."

The author and TV cohost is referring to the fact that during the church service, when King Charles is presented with the Bible, the Archbishop of Canterbury will say, "Sir: to keep you ever mindful of the law and the Gospel of God as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes, receive this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords."

Comfort added, "I want people to understand the significance of the things that will take place during the coronation: the meaning behind the presentation of three swords, the diamond-crusted orb, the golden scepter, the ancient coronation chair, the mysterious anointing, the king's extravagant robes, the amazing crown, etc."

Comfort's ministry has amassed an army of 20,000 Christians who on coronation day will give away 16 million copies of what looks like a million-pound English note to the millions of observers lining the streets of London.

"While the service makes numerous references to the gospel, it doesn't articulate it in layman's language. So we printed the commemorative 'million-pound note' explaining it. 'Gospel' means 'good news'  that in the Old Testament God promised to destroy death, and in the New Testament we are told how He did it. That's actually the best news this world could ever hear."

The London Outreach will be live-streamed on Living Waters' YouTube channel, where commentary will also be provided during the coronation.

For more details and to request free "Coronation Millions," visit Livingwaters.com/London.

CONTACT: Melany Ethrdige, 1-972-267-1111, [email protected]

SOURCE Living Waters
Honoring The Weeknd's heritage, Samra Origins is centered around a shared respect for Ethiopia through Ethiopian coffee traditions and a mutual commitment to philanthropy

Donation to The Weeknd's XO Humanitarian Fund, administered by World Food Program USA, supports global hunger relief

OAKLAND, Calif., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Blue Bottle Coffee , a global leader in specialty coffee, announced a partnership with multi-platinum recording artist Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye and his record label, XO. Together, they have created Samra Origins, a brand and product line celebrating Ethiopian culture and excellence in coffee. Named in honor of The Weeknd's mother Samra, Samra Origins pays homage to his family's heritage with a shared respect for Ethiopia  the proud birthplace of coffee.

Blue Bottle Coffee and The Weeknd Partner to Launch "Samra Origins" in Celebration of Ethiopian Culture Blue Bottle Coffee and The Weeknd Partner to Launch "Samra Origins" in Celebration of Ethiopian Culture Blue Bottle Coffee and The Weeknd Partner to Launch "Samra Origins" in Celebration of Ethiopian Culture

"Ethiopian culture is an important part of my identity and I'm proud to work alongside the Blue Bottle Coffee team to shine a light on Ethiopian traditions, values, and of course, coffee," said Tesfaye. "Growing up, I watched my mother perform Buna Tetu, a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. This sensory experience helped shape my understanding of community and taught me to always honor my roots. Samra Origins is a true passion project that I hope will inspire curiosity and encourage support for Ethiopia's people, while also spreading the warmth and friendship so ingrained in Ethiopian culture."

Commemorate Ethiopia's Coffee Heritage

Ethiopia is known as the birthplace of coffee and continues to set the world's standard for expressive flavor. The country's high mountains, cool climate and shaded forest canopies provide ideal conditions to produce high quality coffees. For centuries, Ethiopia has upended expectations, even among coffee lovers, with its uniquely complex, floral and fruited coffees. With approximately 2.2 million farms nationwide, coffee is also a major economic cornerstone of the country. For more than 20 years, Blue Bottle has sourced select coffees from Ethiopia's most premium farms and continues to nurture many long-term partners in the region.

Through Samra Origins, Blue Bottle and The Weeknd are curating and crafting coffees that encapsulate Ethiopian coffee excellence. Coffee plays an integral part in Ethiopian traditions, especially through the time-honored Buna Tetu coffee ceremony.

"Ethiopian coffee is truly in a class of its own and the country holds a special place within our Blue Bottle community," explained Karl Strovink, CEO of Blue Bottle Coffee. "Since Blue Bottle Coffee's inception in 2002, we've sourced coffee from Ethiopia. In 2023, Ethiopia is still consistently among our top origins by volume. I'm excited that we're extending our commitment there with Samra Origins so we can continue to share the best of Ethiopian coffee and support our network of producers in the country."

Samra Origins First Coffee Lands May 9

Blue Bottle's Samra Origins launches this month with a limited release of Exceedingly Rare Ethiopia Wolde Faye Koricha COE #7 ($65 per 100 gram tin), available exclusively online at www.samraorigins.com . Recognized by the Ethiopia Cup of Excellence (COE) - the most prestigious competition and auction of high quality coffees - everything about this single origin coffee, from its processing method to its distinct flavor profile, upholds centuries of traditions originated and perfected by Ethiopian coffee farmers. Producer Wolde Faye Koricha used a natural process for this lot, harkening back to the first coffees ever made that dried under the Ethiopian sun. Its vibrant flavor profile captures the classic notes of fresh fruit and bright florals this region is praised for. Starting today, Blue Bottle guests can sign up online for the waitlist to be the first to know when this coffee drops on May 9, 2023.

Samra Origins Blend Coming Summer 2023

The Weeknd and Samra developed the first Samra Origins blend in collaboration with Blue Bottle's Head of Innovation & Quality, Benjamin Brewer. Brewer selected some of Ethiopia's best coffees to craft three blend variations. During cupping sessions, both The Weeknd and his mother tasted each variation and carefully selected the offering most similar to the coffee Samra brews at home. From there, Blue Bottle carefully worked with The Weeknd to fine tune the blend. After making final adjustments, the end result is a distinctly delicious blend that pays homage to both Samra and Ethiopia with Blue Bottle's signature attention to tasting notes and quality.

Debuting in Summer 2023, the blend whole bean will be available for purchase online and in select Blue Bottle cafes in the US. These cafes will also offer this coffee as cold brew.

A Partnership with Purpose

Born to Ethiopian immigrants, The Weeknd's strong ties to his family's heritage ignited his passion about Ethiopia and giving back to communities in need. The Samra Origins partnership signals a mutual commitment between Blue Bottle Coffee and The Weeknd to maintain traditions and unify communities. As part of The Weeknd's humanitarian efforts, Blue Bottle will donate to the XO Humanitarian Fund , administered by World Food Program USA. The Fund supports the United Nations World Food Programme's lifesaving emergency operations in hunger hotspots around the world, with a special focus on Ethiopia where an estimated 20 million people require urgent humanitarian food assistance. Learn more and donate to the Fund here .

"Samra Origins honors our longstanding commitment to caring for communities around the globe," said Strovink. "We jumped at the opportunity to work with The Weeknd because his advocacy with the World Food Program inspires us to continue lifting up communities in need and highlighting their incredible work."

"We are grateful to have The Weeknd and Blue Bottle Coffee's steadfast support as we work to feed families in hunger hotspots worldwide," said Barron Segar, President and CEO of World Food Program USA. "Private sector partners like Blue Bottle Coffee are critical in generating both public awareness and funding to save the 43 million people on the brink of starvation across 51 countries."

For full details on Samra Origins and to sign up to be among the first to be notified about upcoming product drops, please visit www.samraorigins.com . Follow along on Instagram and TikTok via @bluebottle.

About Blue Bottle

Blue Bottle Coffee was founded by James Freeman in Oakland, California, in 2002 with a simple yet revolutionary idea: to serve delicious coffee, roasted fresh and brewed to order, sourced from the finest, most sustainable coffee farms. Today, Blue Bottle is a global network of cafes in the US and Asia. We are the leader in specialty coffee, driven by our obsession for quality and our commitment to environmental health. Our belief is simple and our goal unchanged: to connect the world to delicious coffee, because delicious coffee makes life more beautiful. Follow Blue Bottle on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or visit bluebottlecoffee.com for more information.

About The Weeknd

Filtering R&B and pop through an ambitious widescreen lens, The Weeknd is one of the most compelling artists of the 21st century. He is currently the most listened to artist in the world on Spotify (10M+ monthly listeners) and is a top 10 artist of all time for RIAA singles. His 2020 album After Hours is the #1 most streamed R&B album of all time (followed by his 2016 album Starboy at #2), and his 80's nostalgic track "Blinding Lights" was named the new No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 song of all time, surpassing Chubby Checker's 1960 hit "The Twist."

About World Food Program USA

World Food Program USA, a 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington, DC, proudly supports the mission of the United Nations World Food Programme by mobilizing American policymakers, businesses and individuals to advance the global movement to end hunger. Our leadership and support help to bolster an enduring American legacy of feeding families in need around the world. To learn more about World Food Program USA's mission, please visit wfpusa.org/mission-history . WFP does not endorse any product or service.

Contact:

Blue Bottle Coffee

[email protected]

SOURCE Blue Bottle Coffee
Brand collaboration to benefit Stop AAPI Hate

DALLAS, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Bonchon, the global restaurant known for its distinctive Korean fried chicken and Asian fusion cuisine, is collaborating with San Francisco-based illustrator Min Heo to create a limited-edition graphic shirt that symbolizes the Korean culture for AAPI Heritage Month. The shirts will be available through the Bonchon website for $20 May 8-31, with all proceeds to be donated to Stop AAPI Hate.

Bonchon AAPI shirt

Heo, renowned for her whimsical and playful art style, incorporated important Korean symbols in the design, which features a blue tiger among hibiscus flowers, the national flower of South Korea.

"Tigers are an important part of Korean culture and folklore, representing power and strength, and are often used symbolically in the fight against AAPI hate," said Heo. "The hibiscus flower is the South Korean national flower (mugunghwa), and the colors are the same as those on the national flag, which I wanted to be represented."

As a brand that was born in Busan, South Korea, Bonchon's goal is to spread the joy of Korean comfort food globally while also paying tribute to, celebrating and safeguarding the AAPI community.

"Bonchon in Korean means my hometown, my roots, and we wanted to celebrate AAPI month by honoring those roots and contributing to a cause that can have a positive impact on the AAPI community," said Bonchon Vice President of Marketing Christina Coy. "Min Heo did a beautiful job creating a design that is true to Korean heritage, and we're eager to see our guests wearing the shirts and joining the fight against bias."

For more information about Bonchon, visit bonchon.com.

About Bonchon

Bonchon is a global restaurant brand known for distinctive Korean double-fried chicken, Asian fusion cuisine and Korean specialties. Born in Busan, South Korea, in 2002, the concept was established in the United States in 2006. Bonchon sets out to have its fans "Crunch Out Loud" by sharing the joy of hand-battered, double-fried, crazy crispy Korean fried chicken with the world. It currently has more than 400 restaurants across nine countries: Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, Myanmar, Australia, Vietnam, France and the United States.

The brand has earned several recent accolades. It was recognized by Business Insider as "the gold standard for fried chicken" and included on Nation's Restaurant News' 2022 "Top 500 Restaurants," Fast Casual Magazine's 2022 "Top 100 Movers & Shakers" and Entrepreneur's 2022 "Franchise 500," "Fastest Growing Franchises," "Top Food Franchise" and "Top Global Franchise" lists.

For more information about Bonchon, visit bonchon.com. To learn more about franchise opportunities, visit franchising.bonchon.com.

Media Contact:

Karina Green, [email protected]

817-329-3257

SOURCE Bonchon
"2300 Market by Breakthrough" in Center City is fast-tracked for delivery in 2024

PHILADELPHIA, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Breakthrough Properties, a leading global developer of life sciences real estate backed by a joint venture of Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital, today announced it has closed financing and commenced construction on a best-in-class life science building on Market at S. 23rd Street, in the heart of Philadelphia's vibrant Center City District.

2300 Market by Breakthrough

Breakthrough worked with Philadelphia-based D2 Capital Advisors to secure the $130 million construction loan from Corebridge Financial. With financing now in place, Breakthrough is rapidly advancing construction on 2300 Market by Breakthrough, an 8-story, 223,000-square-foot life science research and discovery building.

Situated adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, within a short walk of leading academic medical centers and steps from Philadelphia's 30th Street Station and Rittenhouse Square, 2300 Market by Breakthrough is designed with highly flexible lab zones that can accommodate a wide range of research uses. The building will also house a cafe and lounge, fitness center, elevated terraces and other amenities tailored to Philadelphia's leading biotechnology companies. Breakthrough expects to deliver floors for the start of tenant fit-out in summer 2024.

"Over the past few years, Philadelphia has emerged as a leading research hub for pioneering new modalities in immunology, cell and gene therapy, and mRNA-based technologies to name a few. These advances have opened a new multi-billion dollar marketplace for local companies and made Philadelphia a hotspot for next generation discoveries," said Breakthrough Properties CEO and Co-Founder Dan Belldegrun. "This is an exciting moment to commence construction on our 2300 Market development, which will be the most robust lab environment in the region and an ecosystem for cutting-edge companies to scale and collaborate."

"In addition to world-class infrastructure and amenities, 2300 Market by Breakthrough will also be defined by its premier location," added Breakthrough Properties Senior Director of Development Joe Traynor, who has more than a decade of development experience in the Greater Philadelphia area. "Nestled between the dynamic neighborhoods of Center City and University City, 2300 Market by Breakthrough clients will enjoy the proximity to top quality housing, restaurants, bars, retail and mass transit."

Designed by world-renowned Philadelphia-based architecture studio KieranTimberlake, the project received unanimous approval during the Civic Design Review process last August and was issued full building permits earlier this year. Breakthrough, which has engaged Hunter Roberts as Construction Manager for the project, is meticulously disassembling the original terracotta facade of the 2314 Market building for storage off-site and reinstallation during the course of construction to maintain an authentic streetscape that blends the old with the new.

Greater Philadelphia is a national leader in NIH grant funding for cell and gene therapy. The city, which is anchored by a number of the world's leading research institutions, is home to more than 730,000 professionals with degrees in the engineering and science fields.

2300 Market by Breakthrough offers ready access to the SEPTA bus, trolley and commuter rail lines, as well as Amtrak train routes connecting to New York City, Boston and the Washington Metropolitan Region via the William H. Gray III 30th Street Station.

The Philadelphia-based Cushman & Wakefield team of Shane Funston and Jack Meyers are the exclusive leasing agents for the project.

Breakthrough currently has more than 5 million square feet in its under-construction and development pipeline across the United States and Europe. Among recent and ongoing development projects are The 105 by Breakthrough in Boston, home to CRISPR Therapeutics' global R&D headquarters; the 10-acre Torrey View by Breakthrough campus and Torrey Plaza, an office-to-lab conversion, in San Diego; Trinity House in Oxford, England; and Vitrum by Breakthrough, located on 1.8 acres inside St John's Innovation Park in Cambridge, England.

Sustainability is at the forefront of all of Breakthrough's initiatives, with a particular emphasis on increasing energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions and providing healthy workspaces for users. Breakthrough targets LEED Gold certification at all of its United States properties and BREEAM Outstanding certification in all of its projects across the United Kingdom and European Union.

About Breakthrough Properties (www.btprop.com)

Formed in 2019 as a joint venture between global real estate owner, developer, and investor Tishman Speyer and biotechnology investment firm Bellco Capital, Breakthrough Properties is a life science real estate development company that leverages cross-sector collaboration to deliver environments that foster innovation and scientific breakthroughs. Breakthrough Properties' mission is to acquire, develop and operate the best life science properties in leading urban technology centers around the world and support scientific innovation across biotechnology, agriculture, and nutrition. Breakthrough combines Tishman Speyer's decades of global real estate development experience with Bellco Capital's industry-making biotechnology entrepreneurship to reimagine environments where companies can create life-changing therapies for patients.

SOURCE Breakthrough Properties
COLUMBUS, Ga., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Solar power developer Silicon "Ranch" Corporation ("SRC") and its contractor Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives, Inc. ("IEA") got slammed with a $135.5 million verdict yesterday as a result of intentionally polluting a downstream neighbors' property. The case was tried in federal court in Columbus, Georgia, before Hon. Clay D. Land, U.S. District Judge.

SRC has developed over 160 solar panel facilities across the country, many of them built by IEA. This case involved one in Stewart County, Georgia, called "Lumpkin solar." SRC and IEA cleared and mass graded some 1,000 acres without first installing adequate erosion and sediment control measures. The result was what one would expect - when it rained, pollution poured downhill and downstream onto the neighbors' property, inundating wetlands with silt and sediment and turning a 21-acre trophy fishing lake into a mud hole.

Silicon Ranch Corporation and its contractor IEA Inc. hit with $135.5 million verdict Tweet this

The downstream property is owned by Shaun and Amie Harris, lifelong residents of the Stewart County area. They were the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit. Amie has been an elementary school teacher; Shaun started his own business at age 18 and runs B&S Air, Inc., which is in the reforestation business and also uses helicopters and airplanes for firefighting in western states. The Harris property was formerly known as "Kawikee Refuge."

SRC calls itself by the name "Silicon Ranch" and refers to its solar panel facilities as "solar farms" and projects images in its press releases of sheep grazing lush grass under solar panels. In reality, there is no 'ranch,' there is no farming, there are no sheep, and there is very little grass. "That was the main problem with the Lumpkin site," said Plaintiffs' lead counsel James E. Butler, Jr. of Butler Prather LLP. "For two years SRC and IEA failed to stabilize and vegetate almost a thousand acres they had mass graded - which was breaking the law."

Both the SRC property and the Harris property had previously been owned by Jim Butler, Joel Wooten, and George Fryhofer, formerly law partners together. When Wooten negotiated the sale to SRC he was promised that SRC would be a "good neighbor" and "you won't even know we're there." Before the Kawikee property was sold to Mr. And Mrs. Harris, SRC pledged that there would be "no impact to [the downstream] property from our solar development." When the first rain came after the mass grading by SRC and IEA, the once gorgeous 21-acre lake turned to the color of mud.

There was expert testimony that SRC and IEA in fact knew what the results of their conduct would be, and that the fishery was dead, and that the lake can never be remediated unless and until the pollution by SRC and IEA is stopped.

At the end of the trial, the jury returned a compensatory damages verdict of $10.5 million and also found that punitive damages should be imposed against SRC and IEA. Then, in a second phase of the trial, financial evidence was presented to prove that SRC and IEA are each worth more than $1 billion. In its second verdict the jury found that SRC and IEA, and an IEA subsidiary called "IEA Constructors, LLC", acted with the specific intent to cause harm. The jury imposed $25 million in punitive damages against SRC, $50 million in punitive damages against IEA Inc., and $50 million against IEA's wholly owned subsidiary IEA Constructors, LLC.

The engineering firm that designed the erosion and sediment control plan for SRC and IEA, Westwood Professional Services, Inc., was also a defendant. The jury released Westwood from any liability.

"The SRC/IEA litigation and trial strategy was to blame everyone else and deny responsibility," said Plaintiffs' counsel, Dan Philyaw. "They blamed Westwood, they blamed Shaun and Amie, they blamed too much rain, and they blamed 'erodible soils.'"

At the start of the trial, SRC and IEA denied they had created a nuisance, denied they had committed any trespass, denied they were negligent, and denied they had caused any damage to the downstream property. On the ninth day of trial SRC President Reagan Farr admitted liability on the witness stand. On the twelfth day of trial the President of the IEA subsidiary IEA Constructors, LLC admitted liability on the witness stand.

In a weird twist, when it bought its property SRC had insisted that timber on the property be harvested by the prior owners, Butler and Wooten - an approach SRC's own witnesses admitted was unusual. Then, when the mass grading without adequate erosion controls unleashed pollution on the downstream neighbor, SRC and IEA blamed the prior owners who hired those who did the logging. At trial SRC and IEA sought to apportion fault to non-parties involved in the logging. The problem for SRC and IEA was there was never any evidence that logging caused erosion that caused damage to the Harris property: not a photograph, not a witness. Plaintiffs presented expert and lay witness testimony that the logging accusation was totally false. At the conclusion of the evidence, U. S. District Judge Clay D. Land granted Plaintiffs' motion for directed verdict as to the logging accusation leveled by SRC and IEA, where they claimed that non-parties shared in the fault for causing the damage.

Plaintiffs also sued for an injunction to make SRC and IEA finally fix the problems at the SRC site and stop the damage. At the conclusion of the evidence, Judge Land stated he would grant an injunction to require that no more sediment escapes the site post-development than did pre-development. The parties are to submit proposals as to the terms of an injunction.

Plaintiffs Shaun and Amie Harris were represented by Jim Butler, Dan Philyaw, and Caroline W. Schley of Butler Prather LLP, assisted by paralegals Kim McCallister and Sarah Andrews and investigator Nick Giles. Plaintiffs were also represented by Cooper Knowles of Atlanta, who was unable to attend trial.

The defendant released by the jury, Westwood, was successfully represented by Kent Stair, Melissa Bailey, and Corey Mendel of Copeland, Stair, Valz & Lovell in Atlanta.

SRC was represented by Alycen Moss and Danielle LeJeune of Cozen O'Connor, Atlanta. IEA was represented by Charles Rogers, Sarah Carpenter, Steven Stuart, and Brent Beaver of the Smith Currie & Hancock firm, Atlanta and Washington D.C.

"Meanness is not neighborly," Butler said in summarizing the case, "and it is a terrible litigation and trial strategy."

The verdict was Butler's ninth verdict over $100 million. No other lawyer in American history has won so many big verdicts.

Contact: James E. Butler, Jr. [email protected]; 800-242-2962

SOURCE Butler Prather LLP
VANCOUVER, BC and TORONTO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - BZAM Ltd. (the "Company" or "BZAM") (CSE: BZAM) (OTC: BZAMF), a sustainable global cannabis company, announces that the Company has agreed to issue an aggregate of 376,923 common shares of the Company (the "Common Shares"), at a deemed issuance price of $0.325 per Common Share, to settle approximately $122,500 (the "Indebtedness") owing to a third party supplier (the "Supplier") for certain services provided to a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company by the Supplier. Such Common Shares will be issued in reliance on certain prospectus exemptions available under securities legislation and will be subject to a four-month plus one day statutory hold period. The issuance of such Common Shares to settle the Indebtedness remains subject to all necessary regulatory approvals including final acceptance by the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE").

In addition, the Company announces that it has granted options (each, an "Option") to purchase an aggregate of up to 475,000 Common Shares to certain directors, employees, and consultants of the Company, of which 300,000 Options were granted to directors, and 175,000 Options were granted to employees and consultants. Each Option is exercisable into one Common Share at an exercise price per Common Share equal to $0.325. The Options vest as to 1/3 of the total number of Options granted on each of the first, second and third anniversaries of the grant date, and expire five years from the grant date. The Options are granted in accordance with the Company's share option plan adopted by the board of directors of the Company on May 12, 2021 (the "Option Plan").

Pursuant to the terms of the Company's amended and restated restricted share unit plan dated October 9, 2020 (the "RSU Plan"), restricted share units representing the right to receive up to an aggregate of 346,154 Common Shares, subject to the satisfaction of certain vesting conditions, were also issued to an officer of the Company, as the officer elected to take RSUs instead of cash in lieu of bonus earned for fiscal 2022. Copies of the Option Plan and the RSU Plan are available under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

About BZAM Ltd.

BZAM Ltd. (CSE: BZAM) (OTC: BZAMF) is a leading Canadian cannabis producer with a focus on branded consumer goods, innovation, quality, consistency, integrity, sustainability and transparency. The BZAM family includes core brands BZAM, TGOD, ness, Highly Dutch Organic, TABLE TOP, and partner brands Dunn Cannabis, FRESH and Wyld. BZAM operates facilities in BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, as well as retail stores in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Regina, Saskatchewan.

BZAM's Common Shares and certain warrants issued under the indentures dated June 12, 2020, October 23, 2020, and December 10, 2020, currently trade on the CSE the symbol "BZAM", "BZAM.WR", "BZAM.WA", and "BZAM.WB" respectively. BZAM's Common Shares trade in the U.S. on the OTCQX under the symbol "BZAMF". For more information on BZAM, please visit www.bzam.com.

Neither the CSE nor the CSE's Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of CSE) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE BZAM LTD.
DALLAS, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Dallas intellectual property and business litigation firm Caldwell Cassady & Curry is welcoming experienced patent litigator Aisha Haley as the firm's newest attorney.

Ms. Haley joins Caldwell Cassady & Curry as counsel with extensive experience based on her prior roles with two law firms in Washington, D.C., and her years of experience as a federal law clerk. Ms. Haley served as a law clerk to the Hon. Alan D. Lourie at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Hon. Robert W. Schroeder III at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Following her clerkships, Ms. Haley worked at an elite litigation boutique where she continued developing her expertise in commercial and patent trial work. Most recently, she was an integral member of a trial team that secured a $15 million jury verdict in the Northern District of California.

"Aisha is a proven trial lawyer with years of experience in the types of cases our firm has become known for," says firm principal Austin Curry. "Her background as a federal clerk provides her with an extra level of expertise when representing the firm's clients."

Ms. Haley has handled cases before federal district and appellate courts covering a broad range of cutting-edge technologies. She has extensive experience in case strategy, motions practice, fact and expert witness depositions, all aspects of the pretrial process, fact and expert witness trial examinations, and post-trial and appellate briefing.

Ms. Haley was a member of the Virginia Tax Review editorial board prior to earning her law degree at the University of Virginia School of Law. She completed her undergraduate degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Georgia.

Caldwell Cassady & Curry represents companies and individuals in high-stakes civil litigation, including patent infringement cases, trade secret claims, fiduciary duty cases, class actions, and disputes involving company founders. The firm has tried and won some of the nation's top verdicts against the largest companies in the world. Learn more about the firm at www.caldwellcc.com.

For more information, contact Bruce Vincent at 214-763-6226 or [email protected].

SOURCE Caldwell Cassady & Curry
The global camping and caravanning market is expected to grow primarily due to the rapid advancements in technology for recreational vehicles. Age sub-segment is expected to flourish immensely. The market in the North America region is predicted to grow at a high CAGR by 2031.

NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Camping and Caravanning Market Forecast Analysis:

As per the report published by Research Dive, the global camping and caravanning market is expected to register a revenue of $87,653.5 million by 2031 at a CAGR of 7.7% during the forecast period 2022-2031.

Segments of the Camping and Caravanning Market

The report has divided the camping and caravanning market into the following segments:

Destination Type : state or national park campgrounds, privately owned campgrounds, public or privately owned land other than a campground, backcountry, national forest or wilderness areas, parking lots, and others

: state or national park campgrounds, privately owned campgrounds, public or privately owned land other than a campground, backcountry, national forest or wilderness areas, parking lots, and others Privately Owned Campgrounds  Most dominant in 2021

The favorable government policies in developed and emerging countries to increase tourism in remote areas are offering a major potential for privately held camping companies, which is expected to boost the growth of this sub-segment during the forecast period.

The favorable government policies in developed and emerging countries to increase tourism in remote areas are offering a major potential for privately held camping companies, which is expected to boost the growth of this sub-segment during the forecast period. Type of Camper : car camping, RV camping, backpacking, and others

: car camping, RV camping, backpacking, and others RV Camping  Highest market share in 2021

Recreational vehicles are gaining traction due to their user-friendly features and the introduction of sophisticated technologies built into such vehicles. This is expected to augment the growth rate of this sub-segment in the 20222031 timeframe.

Recreational vehicles are gaining traction due to their user-friendly features and the introduction of sophisticated technologies built into such vehicles. This is expected to augment the growth rate of this sub-segment in the 20222031 timeframe. Consumer Orientation : adult male, adult female, and kids

: adult male, adult female, and kids Adult Male  Most profitable in 2021

The growth of this sub-segment is mainly because adult males are more likely to travel to places that are adventurous and have wildlife.

The growth of this sub-segment is mainly because adult males are more likely to travel to places that are adventurous and have wildlife. Age : 6-12 yrs, 13-17 yrs, 18-24 yrs, 25-44 yrs, and 45 + yrs

: 6-12 yrs, 13-17 yrs, 18-24 yrs, 25-44 yrs, and 45 + yrs 18-24 yrs  Most lucrative in 2021

The growth of this sub-segment is mainly because 1824-year-olds are more likely to camp and caravan in developed and developing remote regions.

The growth of this sub-segment is mainly because 1824-year-olds are more likely to camp and caravan in developed and developing remote regions. Region : North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and LAMEA

: , , , and LAMEA North America  Significant market share in 2021

The increasing acceptance of camping and caravanning technology in the RV camping segment, as well as enormous investments by tourism authorities in this region to boost the travel sector, are predicted to propel the market in the forecast period.

To get access to the All-Inclusive PDF Sample of the Camping and Caravanning Market Click Here!

Dynamics of the Global Camping and Caravanning Market

Rising disposable income and significant funding from tourism alliances to enhance the tourism sector are expected to make the camping and caravanning market a highly profitable one in the forecast period. Additionally, sales of recreational vehicles are rising globally, primarily due to the need for road trips as a method to avoid quarantine and offer a reliable and personalized mode of transportation, which is predicted to propel the market forward. However, the tourism authorities have implemented strict regulations and standards for sustainable and environmentally responsible camping activities, which might become a restraint in the growth of the market.

The introduction of extremely advanced technologies incorporated into leisure vehicles is predicted to offer numerous growth opportunities to the market in the forecast period. Moreover, the introduction of advanced technology and energy efficiency, mostly geometric, in camping pods, sea lander caravans, two-story caravans, and other types are expected to propel the camping and caravanning market forward in the coming period.

COVID-19 Impact on the Global Camping and Caravanning Market

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the routine lifestyle of people across the globe, and the subsequent lockdowns adversely impacted industrial processes across all sectors. The camping and caravanning market, too, was negatively impacted due to the pandemic. Manufacturing and supply of recreational vehicles were considerably hampered due to supply chain complexity, shortage in the availability of essential vehicle components and parts, currency volatility, and other concerns. In addition, the market's growth has been impeded by the postponement or cancellation of tourism construction projects as a result of stringent lockdowns and travel restrictions. These factors significantly hindered the market growth amidst the pandemic.

Schedule a call with an Analyst to get Post COVID-19 Impact on Camping and Caravanning Market

Key Players of the Global Camping and Caravanning Market

The major players of the market include

European Camping Group

Discovery Parks Private Limited

Parkdean Holidays Limited

Kampgrounds of America Inc.

Equity Lifestyle Properties

Sun Communities

The Camping and Caravanning Club

Bourne Leisure

Drayton Manor

Altmark.de.

La Bella Vista

These players are working on developing strategies such as product development, merger and acquisitions, partnerships, and collaborations to sustain the market growth.

For instance, in July 2022, outdoor product retailer, REI Co-op, in collaboration with Airstream, Inc., an American travel trailer manufacturer, announced the launch of its "Basecamp" brand of RVs and trailers, which have modern amenities and a streamlined look. This brand is being launched with an aim to curb carbon emissions and provide sustainable options to customers.

Request Customization of Camping and Caravanning Market Report & Avail of Amazing Discount

What the Report Covers

Apart from the information summarized in this press release, the final report covers crucial aspects of the market including SWOT analysis, market overview, Porter's five forces analysis, market dynamics, segmentation (key market trends, forecast analysis, and regional analysis), and company profiles (company overview, operating business segments, product portfolio, financial performance, and latest strategic moves and developments.)

More about Camping and Caravanning Market:

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The Global Urban Air Mobility Market size is predicted to be valued at $30,740 million by 2030 at a noteworthy CAGR of 30%

Research Dive is a market research firm based in Pune, India. Maintaining the integrity and authenticity of the services, the firm provides the services that are solely based on its exclusive data model, compelled by the 360-degree research methodology, which guarantees comprehensive and accurate analysis. With an unprecedented access to several paid data resources, team of expert researchers, and strict work ethic, the firm offers insights that are extremely precise and reliable. Scrutinizing relevant news releases, government publications, decades of trade data, and technical & white papers, Research dive deliver the required services to its clients well within the required timeframe. Its expertise is focused on examining niche markets, targeting its major driving factors, and spotting threatening hindrances. Complementarily, it also has a seamless collaboration with the major industry aficionado that further offers its research an edge.

Contact:

Mr. Abhishek Paliwal

Research Dive

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(P) +91-(788)-802-9103 (India)

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Toll Free: 1-888-961-4454

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Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/997523/Research_Dive_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research Dive
CALGARY, AB, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Carrot Ventures is pleased to announce the launch of Cellar Insights. It is the second company emerging from Carrot's AgTech company formation model.

Potato Storage Building (PRNewsfoto/Carrot Ventures)

"We're extremely pleased to be launching Cellar Insights," says Martin Vetter, a venture partner with Carrot. "Reducing food loss and optimizing the quality of crops post-harvest is an issue of worldwide importance. Potatoes are the world's third most important food crop, produced in over 100 countries. It is an essential and nutritious food staple, which has led to soaring cultivation rates in India and China. In North America, production value exceeds $4 billion annually, with retail sales approaching $14 billion. Unfortunately, potatoes and other root crops - such as carrots and onions - experience significant losses during storage. Effective storage management practices are vital, and we believe Cellar Insights offers a compelling solution."

Cellar Insights is a Canadian AgTech startup built around a sophisticated suite of sensors and cloud-based algorithms that remotely monitor potato health in long-term storage. The solution includes predictive models and offers management insights to optimize returns.

Millions of potatoes get stored for up to 11 months in massive climate-controlled facilities. During such long storage periods, farmers face an escalating risk of loss due to shrinkage, reductions in quality, disease, sprouting or spoilage.

Potato storage practices vary widely in levels of sophistication globally, and losses can be as high as 10 to 25 percent. Cellar Insights aims to offer farmers a reliable tool for remotely monitoring and managing the health and value of their stored root crops.

Recruiting the right person to lead the venture is core to the Carrot Ventures model. For Cellar Insights, that person is Terry Sydoryk, who has assumed the role of Founder and CEO.

Terry shared that, "Leading Cellar Insights is an exciting opportunity for me. Starting out with a vetted technology, a global market opportunity and a committed lead investor is very compelling. The Carrot investment model and their involvement will accelerate our path to market considerably."

Terry has over 30 years of leadership experience in the technology industry, with 20 years focused on company creation and early-stage company growth. As a founding member of the A100, Terry frequently serves as an advisor, board member or angel investor. Most recently, he held the CEO role for Chaordix until it was acquired by Benevity.

Cellar Insights will commence its path to commercialization immediately, including recruiting farmers and potato processors to participate in field trials this year. Interested parties in the US and Canada should contact Terry Sydoryk for details.

About Carrot Ventures Fund I, LP

Carrot Ventures is a Canadian venture capital fund that creates new companies to commercialize early-stage agricultural technologies. Carrot offers a path forward for strong technologies which otherwise have no clear path to market, with a goal of significant value creation for all stakeholders.

The fund is a partnership between AVAC Group and Farm Credit Canada. Learn more.

About Cellar Insights Inc.

Cellar Insights offers a sophisticated suite of sensors for remote health monitoring and management of stored root crops. The initial focus is on potatoes, but there is broad applicability to other high-value root crops. Learn more.

Media Contacts

Martin Vetter Terry Sydoryk

Venture Partner Founder and CEO

Carrot Ventures Cellar Insights

www.carrotventures.com Website

1.403.274.2774 ext 225 1.403.681.0934

[email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Carrot Ventures
UTC & GMT: same but different? UTC & GMT: same but different?

Some companies name their travel watches GMT, while others prefer to label them UTC. Is this a marketing ploy or a genuine technical... Some companies name their travel watches...
ST. LOUIS, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell Apixio, a leading artificial intelligence platform that enables value-based care, to New Mountain Capital, a growth-oriented investment firm with more than $37 billion in assets under management. Centene acquired Apixio in December 2020.

Apixio improves administrative, clinical and financial outcomes for some of the nation's leading health plans and provider groups using its proprietary clinical data curation and artificial intelligence engine. With a patented data science infrastructure, Apixio analyzes structured and unstructured data to develop high-fidelity patient health profiles and support value-based care programs.

"Apixio has been a trusted business partner since our relationship began in 2015," said Sarah M. London, Chief Executive Officer of Centene. "As part of our ongoing portfolio review, it was important for us to find a strategic partner for Apixio with whom the business can continue to grow, innovate and thrive. We are confident that New Mountain Capital is well positioned to ensure that Apixio continues to support the success of its clients given their sector expertise and long-term focus."

"We admire Apixio as a leading healthcare technology company that offers a differentiated value proposition using machine learning and analytics," said Matt Holt, Managing Director and President, Private Equity at New Mountain Capital. "Through continued investment in products, services and technology, we are excited to build Apixio into a 'connected care' platform that brings together critical infrastructure to enable the shift to outcomes-based reimbursement models."

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

In the sale of Apixio, William Blair is serving as financial advisor to Centene, and Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC is serving as its legal counsel. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as financial advisor to New Mountain Capital, and Ropes & Gray LLP is serving as its legal counsel.

The Company expects the transaction to be neutral to 2023 adjusted EPS.

About Centene Corporation

Centene Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, is a leading healthcare enterprise that is committed to helping people live healthier lives. The Company takes a local approach  with local brands and local teams  to provide fully integrated, high-quality, and cost-effective services to government-sponsored and commercial healthcare programs, focusing on under-insured and uninsured individuals. Centene offers affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation, including Medicaid and Medicare members (including Medicare Prescription Drug Plans) as well as individuals and families served by the Health Insurance Marketplace and the TRICARE program. The Company also contracts with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide a variety of specialty services focused on treating the whole person. Centene focuses on long-term growth and value creation as well as the development of its people, systems, and capabilities so that it can better serve its members, providers, local communities, and government partners.

Centene uses its investor relations website to publish important information about the Company, including information that may be deemed material to investors. Financial and other information about Centene is routinely posted and is accessible on Centene's investor relations website, https://investors.centene.com/ .

About New Mountain Capital

New Mountain Capital is a New York-based investment firm that emphasizes business building and growth, rather than debt, as it pursues long-term capital appreciation. The firm currently manages private equity, credit, and net lease real estate funds with over $37 billion in assets under management. New Mountain seeks out what it believes to be the highest quality leaders in carefully selected "defensive growth" industry sectors and works intensively with management to build the value of these companies. Additional information about New Mountain Capital is available at www.newmountaincapital.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements, other than statements of current or historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, forward-looking statements often use words such as "believe," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "estimate," "intend," "seek," "target," "goal," "may," "will," "would," "could," "should," "can," "continue" and other similar words or expressions (and the negative thereof). Centene (the Company, our, or we) intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe-harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we are including this statement for purposes of complying with these safe-harbor provisions. In particular, these statements include, without limitation, statements about our future operating or financial performance, market opportunity, value creation strategy, competition, expected activities in connection with completed and future acquisitions and dispositions, our investments, and the adequacy of our available cash resources. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on numerous assumptions and assessments made by us in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, business strategies, operating environments, future developments, and other factors we believe appropriate. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are subject to change because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future, including economic, regulatory, competitive, and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to us on the date hereof. Except as may be otherwise required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, after the date hereof. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, as actual results may differ materially from projections, estimates, or other forward-looking statements due to a variety of important factors, variables, and events including, but not limited to: our ability to design and price products that are competitive and/or actuarially sound including but not limited to any impacts resulting from Medicaid redeterminations; our ability to maintain or achieve improvement in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Star ratings and maintain or achieve improvement in other quality scores in each case that can impact revenue and future growth; our ability to accurately predict and effectively manage health benefits and other operating expenses and reserves, including fluctuations in medical utilization rates; competition, including our ability to reprocure our contracts and grow organically; the timing and extent of benefits from our value creation strategy, including the possibility that the benefits received may be lower than expected, may not occur, or will not be realized within the expected time periods; disruption, unexpected costs, or similar risks from business transactions, including acquisitions, divestitures, and changes in our relationships with third parties; the risk that the closing conditions, including applicable regulatory approvals, for the pending sale of Apixio may be delayed or not obtained; impairments to real estate, investments, goodwill, and intangible assets; the risk that the election of new directors, changes in senior management, and any inability to retain key personnel may create uncertainty or negatively impact our ability to execute quickly and effectively; membership and revenue declines or unexpected trends; rate cuts or other payment reductions or delays by governmental payors and other risks and uncertainties affecting our government businesses; changes in healthcare practices, new technologies, and advances in medicine; increased healthcare costs; inflation; changes in economic, political, or market conditions; changes in federal or state laws or regulations, including changes with respect to income tax reform or government healthcare programs as well as changes with respect to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act (collectively referred to as the ACA) and any regulations enacted thereunder; tax matters; disasters or major epidemics; changes in expected contract start dates; provider, state, federal, foreign, and other contract changes and timing of regulatory approval of contracts; the expiration, suspension, or termination of our contracts with federal or state governments (including, but not limited to, Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE, or other customers); the difficulty of predicting the timing or outcome of legal or regulatory proceedings or matters, including, but not limited to, our ability to resolve claims and/or allegations made by states with regard to past practices, including at Centene Pharmacy Services (formerly Envolve Pharmacy Solutions, Inc. (Envolve)), as our pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) subsidiary, within the reserve estimate we previously recorded and on other acceptable terms, or at all, or whether additional claims, reviews or investigations will be brought by states, the federal government or shareholder litigants, or government investigations; challenges to our contract awards; cyber-attacks or other privacy or data security incidents; the exertion of management's time and our resources, and other expenses incurred and business changes required in connection with complying with the undertakings in connection with any regulatory, governmental or third party consents or approvals for acquisitions or dispositions; any changes in expected closing dates, estimated purchase price, and accretion for acquisitions or dispositions; restrictions and limitations in connection with our indebtedness; a downgrade of the credit rating of our indebtedness; the availability of debt and equity financing on terms that are favorable to us; foreign currency fluctuations; and risks and uncertainties discussed in the reports that Centene has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This list of important factors is not intended to be exhaustive. We discuss certain of these matters more fully, as well as certain other factors that may affect our business operations, financial condition, and results of operations, in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. Due to these important factors and risks, we cannot give assurances with respect to our future performance, including without limitation our ability to maintain adequate premium levels or our ability to control our future medical and selling, general and administrative costs.

SOURCE Centene Corporation
SINGAPORE, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Actress Han So Hee has been announced as the newest global brand ambassador of CHARLES & KEITH, joining the brand's growing family.

"Han So Hee embodies the spirit of CHARLES & KEITH with her authentic individuality, confidence and creativity. We are delighted to welcome her onboard the CHARLES & KEITH Family and inspire new possibilities together," said brand co-founder, Keith Wong.

Han So Hee is set to star in the brand's Fall Winter 2023 campaign which will be unveiled in the third quarter of 2023.

SOURCE Charles & Keith
RALEIGH, N.C., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cherry Bekaert (The Firm) is proud to announce it has been awarded Transaction Advisory Firm of the Year by the Global M&A Network at the 5th Annual USA M&A Atlas Awards-Middle Markets Gala. Award winners were announced at the celebration ceremony on April 27th at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. This marks the 5th consecutive year the Firm has received the USA M&A Atlas Award for Firm of the Year in Valuation, Due Diligence or Transaction Advisory.

Cherry Bekaert awarded the Transaction Advisory Firm of the Year at the Global M&A Network's USA M&A Atlas Awards! Tweet this Cherry Bekaert has been awarded Transaction Advisory Firm of the Year, along with Scott Moss, awarded the M&A Leadership Award, and Anna Townsend, who received the Top Woman Dealmaker Award at the Global M&A Network's USA M&A Atlas Awards.

The USA M&A Atlas Awards honors the preeminent value-creating deals, outstanding firms, and top dealmakers-leaders exclusively from the small, lower to middle-market segments across the United States. In addition to Transaction Advisory Firm of the Year, two partners in the Firm's Transaction Advisory practice, Scott Moss and Anna Townsend, were awarded the M&A Leadership Award and Top Woman Dealmaker Award, respectively. Scott Moss, Partner and Private Equity Services Leader, was recognized with the 2023 M&A Leadership Award, an achievement that commends his 30+ years as a leader in the industry and at Cherry Bekaert.

"I'm personally honored to receive this distinction. However, the recognition is more a testament to the quality of our Firm and the extraordinary talent that manifests itself every day in the work we perform for our clients. I am pleased that the hard work and dedication to our clients does not go unnoticed," said Moss.

Additionally, Valuation Services Partner, Anna Townsend, received the U.S.A. Top Women in Dealmaker award for the exceptional value she has generated through her work this past year.

"I am truly grateful for this recognition. In an industry where women have historically not had leadership roles, it is gratifying to be honored and recognized for my contributions," said Townsend. "Thousands of women do amazing work in private equity every day, and I am very pleased to be a part of that growing trend."

Cherry Bekaert's Transaction Advisory team provides clients access to firm-wide resources focused on delivering value-based solutions for private equity and alternative investment professionals and their portfolio companies. Their solutions include deal advisory, transaction tax, valuations, information technology/cyber diligence services, fund audit/tax services, and more. The Firm regularly produces prominent resources for the industry to understand the market landscape, including the recent Private Equity Industry Report: 2022 Trends and 2023 Outlook.

Michelle Thompson, Chief Executive Officer at Cherry Bekaert, added, "On behalf of our firm, I want to thank Global M&A Network for these recognitions in front of our industry colleagues and friends. These awards are indicative of our mission: to diligently provide our clients with the greatest standard of service possible. We are also exceptionally proud of Scott and Anna on their accomplishment."

About Cherry Bekaert

Cherry Bekaert, ranked among the largest assurance, tax and advisory firms in the U.S., serves clients across industries in all 50 U.S. states and internationally. "Cherry Bekaert" is the brand name under which Cherry Bekaert LLP and Cherry Bekaert Advisory LLC, independently owned entities, provide professional services in an alternative practice structure in accordance with applicable professional standards. Cherry Bekaert LLP is a licensed CPA firm that provides attest services, and Cherry Bekaert Advisory LLC and its subsidiary entities provide business advisory and non-attest services spanning the areas of transaction advisory, risk and accounting advisory, digital solutions, cybersecurity and tax. We exercise a deliberate curiosity to know our clients' industries and work collaboratively to create shared success. For more details, visit cbh.com/disclosure.

Cherry Bekaert LLP and Cherry Bekaert Advisory LLC are members of Allinial Global, an accountancy and business advisory global association. Visit us at cbh.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

 2023 Cherry Bekaert. All Rights Reserved.

SOURCE Cherry Bekaert
ORLANDO, Fla., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Coalition to Cure CHD2 (CCC) is pleased to announce its first-ever international research symposium and family conference to be held on June 2nd  4th at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

CCC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and advancing research in CHD2-related disorders, a rare genetic condition that can severely affect the quality of life of those living with it. Certain changes in the CHD2 gene often result in refractory epilepsy, intellectual and developmental delays, and autism. To date, no treatments exist for CHD2-related disorders, but CCC is leading the charge to change that as soon as possible.

CCC's upcoming conference will bring together families, researchers, clinicians, and industry partners from all over the world to collaborate on advancing research in CHD2-related disorders. The event will host CHD2 researchers from more than six countries across three continents.

The family conference portion of the event will bring together more than 100 family members and researchers from around the world to discuss and learn about the latest research in CHD2. Families in attendance will also be able to share their triumphs and struggles with each other and learn from the experts how to manage this disease. For the scientists in attendance, they will have the opportunity to meet in-person with CHD2 patients and their families to learn firsthand what it is truly like to live with this debilitating condition.

CCC's international research symposium and family conference would not be possible without the endless planning hours of CCC's purely volunteer-led board of directors, and for the financial support of CCC's corporate sponsors: Mahzi Therapeutics, CURE Epilepsy, Epilepsy Alliance Florida, GeneDx, Invitae/Ciitizen, and Thisbe & Noah.

Attendance at the family conference can be either in person or virtual. To view the agenda and register to attend the conference, please visit www.curechd2.org/conference.

For more information about CCC and CHD2-related disorders, please visit www.curechd2.org.

SOURCE Coalition to Cure CHD2
WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A Common Sense America: Recent national security reports have uncovered efforts by China, Russia and other countries hostile to the United States to shape domestic policies that harm our country's national security, food security, energy independence and technological advancements.

"Make no mistake, we are at war - not in the traditional military sense - but a new kind of war that strikes at the very fabric of our country. China, Russia and others are aggressively pursuing economic, social, and cultural warfare type tactics to divide Americans and weaken America from the inside - out," stated Steve Crim, Common Sense America Executive Director. "The use of front groups is one of their key weapons in this war."

The Office of National Intelligence (ONI) released the 2023 threat assessment for America and this report reveals the growing threat America faces from foreign interests, such as China and Russia. Specifically, the report found foreign interests are "Using a variety of tools", like front groups, in order to "build influence at the state and local level to shift U.S. policy in [their] favor because of the belief that local officials are more pliable than their federal counterparts."

A Congressional Committee found that the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), arranged meetings with US politicians, held press conferences and coordinated publicity events on behalf of foreign activists in efforts opposed to America's national defense.

"Countries seeking to do us harm may be working in concert with extreme special interest groups on both sides of the aisle to exploit American liberties and destroy our freedoms," Crim continued.

In 2018, the Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups were the subjects of a congressional investigation concerning foreign influence and underreporting of taxpayer funds received through "sue and settle" lawsuits. The Center for Biological Diversity routinely files lawsuits to stop the production of critical minerals; Navy and Airforce training; building and expanding military bases; and most recently trying to stop our space and rocket program by suing the FAA over SpaceX. Collaborating with local activists, these legal actions extend from the federal level to municipal government entities.

Legislation is now pending in Congress to enhance transparency and reporting over foreign influence over these groups; end the use of "sue and settle" tactics that misuses money meant for the Endangered Species Act; and ensures access to critical minerals important to our supply and food chains regarding national security.

A Common Sense America (CSA), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting transparency and accountability, has called on the Governors and Attorneys General of Idaho, Florida, and South Carolina, as well as the congressional Committee on Natural Resources, to further investigate foreign influence on environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club. The Committed began an investigation in 2018 and CSA has an ongoing investigation.

To learn more on how Common Sense America is bringing a common sense approach to our government on our website .

Download Common Sense America's letter to Congress here: Read our Letter to Congress

Common Sense America is a 501c4 grassroots organization committed to bringing a common sense approach to our government. Our mission is to highlight failed extremism on both ends of the political spectrum and hold our leaders accountable to the overwhelming majority of Americans who do not feel represented by the extremist policies being forced upon them.

As an organization, we advocate for a common sense approach to policies and solutions. We support efforts that will strengthen the economy, promote energy diversification and innovation and drive mainstream solutions that make our communities safer.

Media Contact:

Steven Crim

[email protected]

202-793-4323

SOURCE A Common Sense America
SINGAPORE, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cosmos Group Holdings (OTC:COSG) and Smart Citi Teknologi have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a strategic partnership that aims to leverage Cosmos' expertise in Art & Cultural Digital Ownership Tokens (DOTs) to advance Smart Citi Teknologi's development into Smart Cities Solutions.

Smart Citi Teknologi is a Philippines-based tech company specialized in the development and integration of technologies into Smart Cities Solutions. The company provides a comprehensive range of services that enable the development of smart, sustainable, and inclusive cities. Cosmos Group Holdings, on the other hand, is a provider of services related to the Art & Cultural Digital Ownership Tokens ("DOTs"), specifically, non-fungible token created by utilizing distributed ledger technologies and non-fungible tokens ("NFT") technology with a unique identifier to reflect the digital ownership title to a tangible or an intangible asset by embedding legally binding ownership documentation into the metadata of the DOT and securing such metadata on a blockchain.

Under the terms of the MOU, Cosmos Group Holdings will provide Smart Citi Teknologi with services related to the creation of Art & Cultural DOTs for all tangible and intangible assets, which will be exclusively used by Smart Citi Teknologi for its Smart Cities Solutions. The parties will also contribute their respective proprietary technologies to create new services for their respective markets.

"We are excited to partner with Smart Citi Teknologi to bring the benefits of Art & Cultural DOTs to Smart Cities Solutions," said Terry Lee, Chief Executive Officer of Coinllectibles, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cosmos Group Holdings. "This partnership will enable us to expand our reach into new markets and provide our unique and innovative art and blockchain services and solutions to Smart Citi Teknologi."

Mario Marcos, President and Founder of Smart Citi Teknologi, added, "We are delighted to collaborate with Cosmos Group Holdings to incorporate Art & Cultural DOTs into our Smart Cities Solutions. Our goal is to develop Smart Cities Solutions that will improve the quality of life of citizens. The partnership with Cosmos Group Holdings allows us to leverage their expertise in Art & Cultural DOTs to provide comprehensive and efficient solutions to our smart cities markets, while also enabling us to contribute to the promotion and preservation of art and culture."

In summing up the partnership, Terry said, "We believe that this partnership will create significant value for both companies and their respective markets, and we certainly look forward to working closely with Smart Citi Teknologi to deliver innovative solutions that will benefit our clients and the communities they serve."

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are often indicated by terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "look forward to," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future business activities including the expansion into the decentralized financing space. These forward-looking statements are not promises or guarantees and involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described or projected herein include uncertainties associated with operating a business in Singapore and Hong Kong, risk of interference by the PRC government, ability to compete, that financial resources do not last for as long as anticipated, and that COSG is a holding company that may not realize the expected benefits of DOT's offered by Coinllectibles. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other risks can be found in COSG's regulatory filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including in its annual report on Form 10-K filed on April 15, 2022. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. COSG undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise.

For media queries, please contact:

[email protected]

About Cosmos Group Holdings Inc

Cosmos is a business group that operates in two business segments:

Arts and Collectibles

Financing

Through Coinllectibles, the group provides authentication, valuation and certification (AVC) service, sale and purchase, hire purchase, financing, custody, security and exhibition (CSE) services to art buyers through traditional channels, as well as through leveraging blockchain technology through the creation of digital ownership tokens (DOTs). With subsidiaries licensed under Hong Kong's Money Lenders Ordinance, the group currently primarily provides unsecured personal loan to private individuals, with a small portfolio of mortgage loans. The group is integrating the two business segments by offering secured financing services to prospective art and collectibles purchasers to provide a one-stop arts and collectibles purchasing and financing experience.

About Smart Citi Teknologi

Smart Citi Teknologi is a Philippines based Tech Company specialized in the development and integration of technologies into Smart Cities Solutions. Its vision is to create sustainable and liveable cities through the use of cutting-edge technology.

SOURCE Cosmos Group Holdings Inc.
Get your happy on with fresh, made-to-order donuts, locally roasted coffee, and treats made from 10 different flavors of Blue Bell ice cream

PHOENIX, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Desert Donuts announced it was under new ownership as of February 27th, 2023, and has been celebrating its grand reopening. Proudly veteran-owned by Michael Gallegos, Desert Donuts is known for its delicious cake donuts freshly made for each daily customer. This made-to-order approach ensures that the store never runs out, while customers always receive warm, fresh donuts every time  sweets they can customize with a wide variety of toppings and glazes.

Desert Donuts  Create Your Own Confection

Custom Donut shop!

"What makes us different from a typical donut shop is our customers always get to bite into warm donuts every time," said Michael. "With fresh donuts that usually take less than four minutes to receive after each order, it is truly a unique donut experience."

Along with their long list of popular, customizable donut recipes, Desert Donuts also offers 10 flavors of Blue Bell ice cream in a variety of cups, cones, shakes, malts, and floats. And to wash it all down, Desert Donuts prepares locally roasted coffee drinks such as mochas, macchiatos, lattes, and iced coffees.

Desert Donuts  Share Your Happy

Another standout feature of Desert Donuts is the vibe: Desert Donuts is an upbeat, happy, and friendly place. They encourage customers to use the Share Your Happy wall: a big mural inside the shop that customers can write on with erasable markers. The popular wall fills up fast and is erased every so often to make room for new messages.

Michael originally purchased the shop to teach his 11-year-old daughter about running a family-owned business, and he has big plans for the future: "I live within 5 miles of the shop, so it truly is a locally owned business. And when I asked my daughter what she wanted to be when she grows up, she said, 'to be the boss.' So, I decided it was time to teach her the fundamentals. And it made the most sense to do so with donuts and ice cream. She immediately stepped up and started learning, and I am so proud of her."

"My long-term plan for Desert Donuts is to open at least 10 more shops in Arizona within the next five years, and a minimum of one shop in each state by 2035. Life is short, but life can also be sweet. So, I will do my best to bring as many of my sweet donut shops to the world as I can!"

Prices start at just $2.75 per donut with a 15% discount when ordered in multiples of 6  along with military discounts available to honor vets. Join the loyalty program by downloading the Desert Donuts app to receive even more discounts. Delivery is offered through Grubhub and DoorDash. And for the latest in-house events, deals, and specials, follow Desert Donuts on social media: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.

About Desert Donuts  Get Your Happy On!

Satisfy your sweet tooth at Desert Donuts, Arizona's premier custom donut shop. Owned by Happy On LLC, this veteran and minority-owned business has been serving made-to-order cake donuts since 2013. Desert Donuts offers a wide selection of popular glazes, toppings, and drizzles to create a new decadent delight every time. Paired with high-quality locally roasted coffee and Blue Bell ice cream, it's a tasty combo the whole family can enjoy.

Giving back to the community is important to us, which is why we donate many donuts to Trevor's Vision, a local Phoenix organization that feeds the homeless. We also sponsor various groups, organizations, and birthday/family events, including a small-group paint class by reservation. Explore your new favorite donut shop at www.DesertDonutsAZ.com.

Media Contact:

Michael Gallegos

602-790-9007

[email protected]

SOURCE Desert Donuts
Dr. Robert Jeffress, one of the most influencing evangelical leaders in the world, visited Friends of Zion Heritage Center and Museum in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Friends of Zion Heritage Center and Museum in Jerusalem held an event in honor of Dr. Robert Jeffress, where he presented with the Friends of Zion Award by Nir Kimhi director of FOZ.

The Friends of Zion Award was commissioned by the late 9th President of Israel, and former international Chairman of FOZ, Shimon Peres. It has been given to over 22 world leaders, including former US President George Bush, former US President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Pastor Dr Robert James Jeffress Jr (Credit: GIL MEZUMAN) Daniel Voiczek CEO of Friends of Zion Museum, Dr. Robert Jeffress and Nir Kimhi FOZ director (Credit: DAVID SAAD) (PRNewsfoto/Friends of Zion)

Dr. Robert Jeffress is Senior Pastor of the 16,000-member First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas and a Fox News Contributor. He is also an adjunct professor at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Dr. Robert Jeffress thanked Dr. Mike Evans, FOZ Founder, for the prestigious award and said: "I am absolutely overwhelmed by receiving this prestigious award. I was at the oval office with President Trump when he received his award, and I know how much it meant to the president. I talked to Mike Pence last night and he sends his greetings. Pence told me it was the highest point of his career as well, receiving this prestigious award.

"Never in a thousand years would I have dreamed that I, too, would receive this award. I thought the high point of my ministry was saying that opening prayer for the dedication of the embassy in Jerusalem, on that historic day. But this beats even that, so thank you so much for this prestigious honor.

"I truly believe It's important to visit the friends of Zion Museum because it is a reminder of the link between Jews and gentiles. You see how in key moments in history, gentiles stood with Israel whenever nations wanted to wipe Israel off the face of the earth".

"My prayer is that USA will continue to be on the side of Israel. The bible shows us that he who is on the right side of Israel is on the right side of history, and most importantly, the right side of GOD".

Dr. Mike Evans, FOZ Founder, said "I want to congratulate my dear friend, Dr. Robert Jeffress. He is without a doubt, one of the most influential evangelicals on the globe and without a doubt, one of the most pro Israel".

Officer Assaf Schachar from the border police : "I wanted to thank you, the Christians Zionist, for the contribution, assistance and support that you provide to FOZ

"The State of Israel is a democracy in which the education of our soldiers is an important and essential element.

"FOZ is the bridge between the thousands of soldiers who come here and realize how many Christian friends there are in the world who love Israel and for how many years you have helped us and you continue to support the State of Israel and IDF".

The Friends of Zion Heritage center was established in 2015, in the center of Israel's capital Jerusalem, by founder Dr. Mike Evans, a number one best-selling author, and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for a lifetime of combating antisemitism.

The Friends of Zion Heritage center is a Zionist platform dedicated to the fight against anti-Semitism and BDS, and concerns itself with bolstering awareness for the historical support of the Christian friends of Israel. Their advanced Media Center holds dozens of events, activities, and press conferences in line with the FOZ museum's vision

For inquiries, contact Tal Marom Spokesperson for FOZ [email protected]

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcOQZKHu3OM

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2069094/Friends_of_Zion.jpg

SOURCE Friends of Zion
INDIANAPOLIS, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Dronedek, the pioneer of smart Mailbox-as-a-Service (MaaS) solutions for autonomous delivery networks (ADNs), has rebranded to Arrive and will reveal its new look, along with a second-generation smart mailbox and new service models at XPONENTIAL 2023 in Denver May 8-11.

Dronedek Rebrands to Arrive, the Worlds First Smart Mailbox-as-a-Service Infrastructure & Platform for Autonomous Delivery Networks

"Arrive is the only smart, secure and agnostic ADN mailbox infrastructure and platform that supports frictionless deliveries and pickups between people, robots and drones," said Arrive CEO Dan O'Toole. "It enables businesses to provide continuous, asynchronous, multi-modal deliveries and pickups across their networks while securing their position at the forefront of autonomous and artificial intelligence (AI) powered logistics."

Arrive COO Mark Hamm said the rebranding dovetails perfectly with the company's latest advances and its support for robotic and drone ADNs.

"The market is moving beyond deliveries and thinking about autonomous pickup and multi-modal networks," Hamm said. "Arrive is the world's first MaaS infrastructure and platform for ADNs. It's the final piece of the autonomous logistics puzzle."

Hamm said customers will be able to seamlessly scale their ADNs with Arrive, thereby maximizing returns and enabling smarter business decisions.

The Arrive crew will celebrate National Tech Day (May 11) throughout XPONENTIAL (Booth #1839) by showcasing its new branding, as well as:

Discussing the company's focus on a healthcare and medical operations vertical and its talks with healthcare industry leaders and innovators working to develop ADNs to provide safer, cheaper and more expedient ways to move everything from surgery kits and custom treatments to human tissue samples for better patient outcomes and more efficient operations.

Demonstrating precision winch and tether deliveries to a Gen-2 Arrive smart mailbox (Arrive Point) as well as Arrive's other solutions models:

Arrive Point  a tri-modal cross-dock that enables frictionless pickup and delivery of packages in ADNs between people, robots and drones.



Arrive Bank  several Arrive points working together for commercial or multiple-home dwelling use



Arrive Convey  delivery and pickup from an Arrive Point into and from a building using an integrated conveyor, which is useful for higher-volume medical operations, labs and hospitals, warehouses and fast-food restaurants



Arrive Carousel  larger capacity delivery and pickup from an Arrive Point into and from a "Package Tower" with carousel enabling packages to be repositioned internally for optimal and secure pickup and delivery

Participating at XPONENTIAL: O'Toole is a panelist May 8, starting at 2:50 p.m. , discussing intellectual property rights.

About Arrive

Arrive (formerly Dronedek) is a game-changing logistics company revolutionizing the industry with its innovative Mailbox-as-a-Service (MaaS) and tri-modal cross-docking solutions. Led by serial entrepreneur and patent-holder Dan O'Toole, Arrive is the first company to address the last-mile delivery and pickup needs of a future enabled by drone and robotic autonomous delivery networks. Arrive's technology enables seamless movement of packages between people, robots and drones, while providing round-the-clock access to a safe, secure and climate-assisted environment. The company has raised more than $8.5 million from more than 4,700 investors. Arrive has also forged strategic partnerships with major players in its MaaS ecosystem, such as Hush Aerospace and Helium network provider. See videos at The Next Generation Mailbox and New Arrive Smarter Smart Mailbox. Learn more at arrive.tech.

Media contact: Cheryl Reed at 317-446-5240, [email protected]

SOURCE Arrive
The Baby Shusher, a revolutionary device to help babies get the sleep they need, is now available with Duracell.

DENTON, Texas, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Duracell , the most trusted battery brand, and pNeo , an innovator in baby and healthcare products, announce the immediate availability of Duracell's trusted battery technology in the Baby Shusher, the famous sound machine which lulls babies to sleep with a natural human shushing sound. With the Baby Shusher's unique and gentle sound technology combined with Duracell's proven, long-lasting power, parents and caregivers can trust the Baby Shusher with the moments that matter most.

The partnership combines two trusted companies, both recipients of the Parent Tested Parent Approved Seal of Approval , working to support families through innovative and trusted engineering, to deliver sleep-time solutions for babies and toddlers. "We are proud to partner with Duracell," said Chris Carignan, CEO of pNeo LLC. "Duracell's investment in child safety and their "Power Safely" initiative strongly align with pNeo's mission to bring safe, trusted, and life-enhancing products to families and caregivers."

The Baby Shusher, a revolutionary device to help babies get the sleep they need, is now available with Duracell. Tweet this

Through its "Power Safely" campaign, Duracell has created a series of educational resources to help educate parents and caregivers on the importance of practicing lithium coin battery safety at home. "As a parent, I am thrilled to partner with Duracell. Duracell is leading the way with their Lithium Coin child safety innovation, which is crucially important in juvenile products where safety is paramount. We look forward to bringing our shared commitment to safety to families everywhere." says pNeo LLC Executive Director and Product Specialist Peter Wenham

This partnership provides pNeo with access to Duracell's industry-leading technology, resources, and support from its team of experts. The two brands will collaborate across various trade shows, retail activations, and marketing initiatives, starting with the 2023 ABC Kids Expo on May 3-6th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Duracell takes battery safety very seriously and is continuously working to update precautions and safety features to help reduce the risk of accidental ingestions. Its latest innovation is a bitter coating on the cell that is designed to help reduce the risk of accidental ingestions. Duracell also features child-secure packaging, making it nearly impossible to open without scissors, packs clearly marked with a safety warning, and an additional safety warning on the battery. As the #1 trusted battery brand, Duracell provides more safety features than any other leading brand.

"Batteries are a part of our everyday lives, and as we spend more time at home, our children may have more access to lithium coin batteries. At Duracell, we are deeply committed to doing our part to produce the safest lithium coin batteries possible and to educating parents and caregivers about the importance of lithium coin battery safety," says Duracell OEM General Manager Alex Corral. This partnership allows Duracell to collaborate with an innovator in baby and healthcare products to raise awareness of the potential hazard of lithium-coin batteries for small children and how we can reduce the risk of accidental ingestions.

About pNeo (Neh'O) LLC

pNeo is a business accelerator that invests in and drives unique company brands, such as Baby Shusher, CLEARinse, and Oto-Tip, focused on the baby and healthcare markets. We nurture innovations through the entire product life cycle, from inception and development all the way to retail. pNeo prides itself on offering exceptional products that meet customer demands while bringing entrepreneurial dreams to a profitable reality. We are growing rapidly and looking to expand our product line. We welcome all inquiries. Visit www.making.business for more information; follow pNeo on Twitter.com/pneollc and like us on Facebook.com/pneollc.

About Baby Shusher

Soothe your fussy baby with Baby Shusher, the sound machine that lulls babies to sleep with a natural human voice. The Baby Shusher is wireless and portable, so it goes anywhere the baby goes. The Baby Shusher is the sleep miracle with thousands of five-star reviews, a recipient of the Top Choice Award from Baby Maternity Magazine, and a number-one bestseller on Amazon. Pediatric Hospitals and NICUs trust the Baby Shusher to help soothe children recovering from surgeries and various health challenges. Follow Baby Shusher on all social platforms @babyshusher.

About Duracell

Starting in the 1920s, the Duracell brand and company was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in 2016 and has grown to be the leader in the primary battery market in North America. The iconic Duracell brand is known the world over. Our products serve as the heart of devices that keep people connected, protect their families, entertain them, and simplify their increasingly mobile lifestyles. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a $250B holding company owning subsidiaries that engage in diverse business activities. Visit www.duracell.com for more information; follow us on Twitter.com/Duracell and like us on Facebook.com/Duracell.

Media Inquiries:

Michael Wallens

Director of Business Development

[email protected]

Phone: 877.737.9177

SOURCE pNeo LLC
Nearly 400 villagers were killed in flooding and landslides brought by torrential rains in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), said Theo Ngwabije Kasi, the governor of South Kivu province, on Monday.
BOGOTA, Colombia, May 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ecopetrol S.A. (BVC: ECOPETROL; NYSE: EC) announces that on Tuesday, May 9th, 2023, after market close, it will release its financial and operating results for the first quarter 2023.

On Wednesday, May 10th, 2023, Ecopetrol's senior management will host two conference calls to review the results, one in Spanish and the other in English. Please find below the timing and links to access the conferences:

Spanish Conference Call English Conference Call 08:00 a.m. Col Time 10:00 a.m. Col Time 09:00 a.m. NY Time 11:00 a.m. NY Time

To access the webcast, the following link will be available:

Spanish:

https://xegmenta.co/ecopetrol/conferencia-de-resultados-1t-2023/

English:

https://xegmenta.co/ecopetrol/results-conference-call-1th-2023/

To ask a question participants can access through the platform once the transmission of the call starts.

The earnings release, slide presentation, live webcast and recording of the conference call will be available on Ecopetrol's website: www.ecopetrol.com.co.

Please verify in advance the proper operation of the webcast in your browser. We recommend the use of the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox.

-----------------------------------------

Ecopetrol is the largest company in Colombia and one of the main integrated energy companies in the American continent, with more than 18,000 employees. In Colombia, it is responsible for more than 60% of the hydrocarbon production of most transportation, logistics, and hydrocarbon refining systems, and it holds leading positions in the petrochemicals and gas distribution segments. With the acquisition of 51.4% of ISA's shares, the company participates in energy transmission, the management of real-time systems (XM), and the Barranquilla - Cartagena coastal highway concession. At the international level, Ecopetrol has a stake in strategic basins in the American continent, with Drilling and Exploration operations in the United States (Permian basin and the Gulf of Mexico), Brazil, and Mexico, and, through ISA and its subsidiaries, Ecopetrol holds leading positions in the power transmission business in Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, road concessions in Chile, and the telecommunications sector. This press release contains business prospect statements, operating and financial result estimates, and statements related to Ecopetrol's growth prospects. These are all projections and, as such, they are based solely on the expectations of the managers regarding the future of the company and their continued access to capital to finance the company's business plan. The realization of said estimates in the future depends on the behavior of market conditions, regulations, competition, and the performance of the Colombian economy and the industry, among other factors, and are consequently subject to change without prior notice.

This release contains statements that may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements, whether made in this release or in future filings or press releases, or orally, address matters that involve risks and uncertainties, including in respect of the Company's prospects for growth and its ongoing access to capital to fund the Company's business plan, among others. Consequently, changes in the following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements: market prices of oil & gas, our exploration, and production activities, market conditions, applicable regulations, the exchange rate, the Company's competitiveness and the performance of Colombia's economy and industry, to mention a few. We do not intend and do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

For more information, please contact:

Head of Capital Markets (a)

Carolina Tovar Aragon

Email: [email protected]

Head of Corporate Communications (a)

Juan Guillermo Londono

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Ecopetrol S.A.
Eighth-graders' U.S. history score continues decline since 2014

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. history and civics scores of eighth-graders decreased between 2018 and 2022, according to results from The Nation's Report Card released today by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

"A well-rounded education includes a thorough grounding in democratic principles, and these assessments challenge students to show their knowledge and skills as they prepare to become full participants in American democracy," said NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr. "Self-government depends on each generation of students leaving school with a complete understanding of the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship. But far too many of our students are struggling to understand and explain the importance of civic participation, how American government functions, and the historical significance of events. These results are a national concern."

In U.S. history, there were declines since 2018 across all performance levels except for the very top-performing students (students at the 90th percentile). In civics, scores declined for lower- and middle-performing students (students at the 10th, 25th, and 50th percentiles) and did not change for higher-performing students (students at the 75th and 90th percentiles).

"The percentages of students performing below the NAEP Basic level rose in both U.S. history and civics, and four in 10 eighth-graders performed below the NAEP Basic level in U.S. history," said NCES Acting Associate Commissioner Dan McGrath. "Few eighth-graders are reaching higher levels of achievement. Only 13 percent of eighth-graders were at or above the NAEP Proficient level for U.S. history. That's the lowest proportion of eighth-grade students reaching that level out of any subject assessed by the NAEP program. And only about a fifth of students were at or above the NAEP Proficient level in civics, which is the second-lowest proportion of students reaching that level in any subject."

U.S. History

The NAEP U.S. history assessment measures students' knowledge and understanding of U.S. history in all its complexityits major themes, periods, events, people, ideas, and turning points. The assessment examines students' understanding of historical chronology, differing perspectives across time, and their grasp of historical facts and contexts.

Eighth-graders' U.S. history score declined five points on the 0-500 scale, from 263 in 2018 to 258 in 2022, continuing a downward trend that began in 2014. Scores were lower across all levels of performance except for the very top-performing studentsthose at the 90th percentilewhose score did not change significantly. The average U.S. history score in 2022 was not measurably different from the average score in 1994, the first assessment year.

For U.S. history, NCES also reports scores for themes that cover major branches of historical study. From 2018 to 2022, scores declined across all four themes of U.S. history assessed by NAEP. Those themes are: change and continuity in American democracy (Democracy, a 5-point decline); gathering and interactions of peoples, cultures, and ideas (Culture, a 5-point decline); economic and technological changes (Technology, a 5-point decline); and the changing role of America in the world (World Role, a 3-point decline).

In 2022, 13 percent of eighth-graders scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level in U.S. history, meaning that about 13 percent of eighth-graders were able to explain the significance of people, places, events, ideas, and documents in American history; could understand and explain the opportunities, perspectives, and challenges associated with a diverse cultural population; and could demonstrate knowledge of significant political ideas and institutions and cite evidence from historical sources to support conclusions. The percentage of eighth-graders at or above NAEP Proficient in 2022 was lower than in 2018, when 15 percent of eighth-graders were at or above NAEP Proficient, and not significantly different from 1994.

Civics

The NAEP civics assessment measures students' knowledge of American government as well as their ability to participate in civic activities. Eighth-graders' performance declined 2 points on the 0-300 scale, from 153 in 2018 to 150 in 2022. (Average scores are shown as rounded numbers. But unrounded numbers were used for calculating score differences and score changes, and for statistical comparison tests when scores were compared to each other.)

This was the first decline ever recorded by the civics assessment. The score in 2022 was not statistically significantly different from the score in 1998, the first civics assessment under the current framework.

In 2022, 22 percent of eighth-graders scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level in civics. Students performing at this level can understand and explain the purposes that governments serve; how and why legislative, executive, and judicial powers are separate, shared, and limited in American constitutional government; and the differences between government and civil society. In addition, students performing at this level can understand how the ideals expressed in the nation's core documents may differ from reality, and the efforts that have been made to address these discrepancies.

The NAEP civics assessment encompasses three central, interrelated components: (1) knowledge and understanding of key aspects of the American political system and the principles of American democracy; (2) the intellectual and participatory skills needed to apply civic knowledge for effective citizenship; and (3) civic dispositions, such as understanding the rights individuals have and the responsibilities of individuals to their community.

KEY FINDINGS

2022 U.S. History Results

Eighth-graders' average U.S. history score in 2022 (258) was five points lower compared to 2018 (263), and was not statistically significantly different from eighth-graders' average U.S. history score in 1994 (259), the first assessment year for U.S. history. The average U.S. history score has declined between 2014 and 2022.

The overall decline in eighth-graders' average U.S. history score in 2022 was mirrored by declines for students at almost all performance levels. Scores declined for students at the 10th, 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles between 2018 and 2022. The score for students at the 90th percentile in 2022 was not significantly different compared to 2018.

Thirteen percent of eighth-graders performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level in U.S. history in 2022. This was lower than in 2018 (when 15 percent of eighth-graders were at or above NAEP Proficient ) and not significantly different than in 1994.

level in U.S. history in 2022. This was lower than in 2018 (when 15 percent of eighth-graders were at or above ) and not significantly different than in 1994. Forty percent of eighth-graders performed below the NAEP Basic level in U.S. history in 2022, which was higher compared to 2018 (34 percent) and not measurably different from 1994 (39 percent).

level in U.S. history in 2022, which was higher compared to 2018 (34 percent) and not measurably different from 1994 (39 percent). From 2018 to 2022, average scores for Black, Hispanic, and White students declined. The score for Black students declined from 246 to 242; the score for Hispanic students declined from 253 to 247; and the score for White students declined from 272 to 268.

Scores were lower across all four U.S. history themes: Democracy, Culture, Technology, and World Role. The average score in the Democracy theme declined from 265 in 2018 to 260 in 2022; the average score in Culture declined from 263 in 2018 to 258 in 2022; the average score in Technology declined from 256 in 2018 to 251 in 2022; and the average score in World Role declined from 266 in 2018 to 263 in 2022.

Fewer students reported taking classes mainly focused on U.S. history. Sixty-eight percent of eighth-graders reported taking an eighth-grade class mainly focused on U.S. history in 2022. This was four points lower than in 2018, when 72 percent of students reported taking a class mainly focused on U.S. history.

2022 Civics Results

Eighth-graders' average civics score in 2022 (150) was two points lower compared to 2018 (153), and was not statistically significantly different from eighth-graders' average civics score in 1998 (150), the first assessment year for civics using the current framework.

Between 2018 and 2022, scores declined for both lower-performing students (students at the 10th and 25th percentiles) and middle-performing students (students at the 50th percentile). Average scores did not change significantly for higher-performing students (those at the 75th and 90th percentiles). Scores for lower-, middle-, and higher-performing students were not measurably different in 2022 compared to 1998.

Compared to 2018, there was no significant change in the average score for students in any racial/ethnic group.

Twenty-two percent of eighth-graders performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level in civics in 2022, which was not significantly different compared to either 2018 (24 percent) or 1998 (22 percent).

level in civics in 2022, which was not significantly different compared to either 2018 (24 percent) or 1998 (22 percent). Thirty-one percent of eighth-graders performed below the NAEP Basic level in civics in 2022, which was higher compared to 2018 (27 percent) and not measurably different from 1998 (30 percent).

How Results Are Reported

Student performance on the NAEP assessments is reported in two ways: scale scores and NAEP achievement levels.

Scale scores represent the average performance of students who took the U.S. history and civics assessments. Scores are reported at the national level and for groups of students based on race/ethnicity, gender, eligibility for the National School Lunch Program, and other demographic characteristics.

Student performance on NAEP is also reported by the percentages of students reaching three NAEP achievement levels: NAEP Basic, NAEP Proficient, and NAEP Advanced. Students performing at or above the NAEP Proficient level on NAEP assessments demonstrate solid academic performance and competency over challenging subject matter. The NAEP Proficient achievement level does not represent grade-level proficiency as determined by other assessment standards.

The NAEP achievement levels are set by the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for the NAEP program. The NAEP achievement levels are used on a trial basis and, therefore, should be interpreted with care to ensure a proper understanding of performance.

About the Assessment

In 2022, NCES assessed approximately 7,800 eighth-graders from 410 schools in civics, and 8,000 eighth-graders from 410 schools in U.S. history. Scale scores are reported on a 300-point scale for civics and a 500-point scale for U.S history.

Visit https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ to view the report.

The National Center for Education Statistics, a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, is the statistical center of the U.S. Department of Education and the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. NCES fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a congressionally authorized project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. The National Center for Education Statistics, within the Institute of Education Sciences, administers NAEP. The commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics is responsible by law for carrying out the NAEP project. Policy for the NAEP program is set by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), an independent, bipartisan board whose members include governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators, business representatives and members of the general public. Since 1990, NAGB has been developing achievement levels, which are being used on a trial basis.

CONTACT:

Grady Wilburn, NCES, [email protected], (202) 245-8159 OR

James Elias, Hager Sharp, [email protected], (202) 706-7416

SOURCE National Center for Education Statistics
BOSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Embr Labs, Inc , makers of Embr Wave, the leading wearable to treat the symptoms of menopause, today announced that it has raised $35 million via intellectual property (IP)-based debt financing. Led by GT Investment Partners (" Ghost Tree Partners ") in collaboration with Aon plc ( NYSE: AON ), the financing will fuel Embr's consumer growth strategy via retail and geographic expansion, improving even more lives with the power of temperature.

Embr Wave 2

The Embr Wave wristband, using Embr's patented technology, delivers precisely calibrated cooling or warming sensations at the touch of a button for instant, discrete control over hot flashes and related menopause symptoms. Clinical research has shown that using Embr Wave gives you immediate relief from hot flashes and improves sleep.

"Women today are seeking natural, non-hormonal alternatives to control their symptoms of menopause, and the Embr Wave is the solution they've been looking for," said Elizabeth Gazda, CEO of Embr Labs. "Through our partnership with Ghost Tree, Embr Labs is able to accelerate the fulfillment of our mission to provide this ground-breaking technology to women everywhere."

The influx of new capital will support Embr's rapid growth and continued expansion into new retail channels and markets. Embr Labs has secured partnerships with some of the most recognized distribution and retail organizations, with Embr Wave now available at most major retailers across the US and United Kingdom. Embr Wave is most recently available via Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, FSA Store and HSA Store, BestBuy, Target, with plans to launch in multiple new retailers in the US and UK by year end.

"We recognized Embr's market leadership and the company's rapid growth potential," said David Byrne, Managing Director, Ghost Tree Partners. "We are pleased to support the company as the investment community has yet to recognize the massive unmet need the menopause segment presents. We're excited to provide the capital to support the company's retail growth and geographical expansion."

"Innovation drives growth, and intellectual property can be the valuable asset created from that innovation," said Lewis Lee, CEO, IP Solutions at Aon, a global professional services firm that facilitated the transaction through valuation and broking services. "We are excited to support innovative companies with intellectual property portfolios like Embr Labs to help them unlock the potential value of those IP assets and pursue growth independent of equity market volatility."

About Embr Labs, Inc.

Embr Labs is the leading healthtech company addressing the symptoms of menopause by pioneering the use of temperature as a new pathway to the brain. Embr Wave is now distributed through major US retailers, as well as Boots.com in the UK. The company's patented technology has been clinically validated and delivers a brand new category of safe and natural solutions to manage hot flashes, sleep issues, stress, and thermal discomfort. The company was founded by MIT-trained engineers and is backed by investors including Bose Ventures, DigiTx Partners, Safar Partners, Esplanade Ventures, and Intel Capital. Embr Labs has won numerous awards for the Embr Wave, including the AARP Innovation in Aging Award, Time Magazine's Best Inventions, the iF Design Award and was named to CB Insights' Digital Health 150 .

About Ghost Tree Partners

Headquartered in Irvine, CA, Ghost Tree Partners is an alternative asset manager focused on providing private credit financing solutions to small and middle-market borrowers in the US, Europe and Asia. Founded in 2021, the firm is led by Mark Fox, Scott Warner, Jeff Willardson and David Byrne, who combine for over 85 years of investment experience with Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital Credit, Fidelity and PAAMCO Prisma (KKR affiliate). The team has invested billions of dollars on behalf of the world's most sophisticated investors throughout their careers. Ghost Tree's private credit financing solutions include corporate cash flow loans, specialty finance, asset backed lending and real estate bridge loans.

About Aon

Aon plc (NYSE: AON) exists to shape decisions for the better  to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. Our colleagues provide our clients in over 120 countries and sovereignties with advice and solutions that give them the clarity and confidence to make better decisions to protect and grow their business.

Follow Aon on LinkedIn , Twitter , Facebook and Instagram . Stay up-to-date by visiting the Aon Newsroom and sign up for News Alerts here .

Information Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains certain statements related to future results, or states Aon's intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of factors. These forward-looking statements include information about possible or assumed future performance and results of Aon's operations. All statements other than statements of historical facts that address activities, events or developments that Aon expects or anticipates may occur in the future, including such things as its outlook, business strategies, competitive strengths, goals, the benefits of new initiatives, growth of its business and operations, plans, references to future successes, are forward-looking statements. Also, when Aon uses the words such as "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "plan", "probably", "potential", "looking forward", or similar expressions, it is making forward-looking statements.

Any or all of Aon's forward-looking statements may turn out to be inaccurate, and there are no guarantees about Aon's performance. Aon and its subsidiaries operate in a dynamic business environment in which new risks may emerge frequently. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they are made. In addition, results for prior periods are not necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for any future period. Further information concerning Aon and its businesses, including factors that potentially could materially affect Aon's financial results, is contained in Aon's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). See Aon's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, for a further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties applicable to Aon and its businesses. These factors may be revised or supplemented in subsequent reports filed with the SEC. Aon is not under, and expressly disclaims, any obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statement that it may make from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Aon is not responsible for information contained in this communication relating to any borrower or potential borrower, including statements regarding a borrower's operations, products or services.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Embr Labs
Industry Veteran Assumes Leadership of Fast-Growing Software Engineering Services Company

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Encora , a global next-gen product engineering provider, today announced that Anand Birje has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer, effective May 15, 2023. Birje will work closely with Encora's founding CEO Venu Raghavan, who remains at the company as Executive Chairman. Birje joins Encora from HCL Tech, where he has served most recently as the President of the Digital Business Services division.

Anand Birje - New CEO of Encora

"It is my great honor to welcome Anand to Encora as our next CEO. His deep experience in fast-growing tech and in scaling global businesses through exponential growth, makes him the ideal leader for Encora," said Venu Raghavan, founder and CEO, Encora. "Speaking personally, I am heartened to entrust the future of Encora  a company that has been my enduring privilege to build  to a leader of Anand's experience, insight, integrity, and compassion. I look forward to working closely with Anand to help drive Encora's strategic priorities."

"I am thrilled to join Encora, one of the world's fastest growing digital engineering services companies," said Birje. "As new and emerging digital technologies transform the global economy, there is a growing need for technology partners with mastery across technical, strategic, and industry-specific domains. Encora stands out as a paragon of what is possible when unparalleled technical expertise is cultivated in a people-centric culture that is truly global and authentically diverse."

During his time at HCL, Birje focused on digital applications & platforms, cloud native development, data engineering & analytics, data consulting, and UX design practices. In the last three years, the Digital Business Services division has been the fastest growing of HCL Tech's divisions. Birje was responsible for driving the global go-to-market strategy, practices, and delivery teams across all industry verticals spanning US, Europe, Asia Pacific and LatAm. As a founding member of HCL Tech's Infrastructure Services division, Birje played a pivotal role in growing that business to over $2.5BN in under a decade. In addition to his executive leadership roles, Birje has spearheaded a range of strategic acquisitions to expand delivery and consulting capabilities across U.S. and Europe.

"We are excited to welcome Anand to Encora," said Shweta Jalan, Managing Partner, Advent International, Encora's principal investor. "His proven track record of leadership and transformational growth are perfectly matched with Encora's vision and aspirations. We also extend our deepest gratitude to Venu for his visionary leadership. Encora has a bright future, thanks to the incredible team and business that Venu has created."

Encora provides digital and software engineering services to innovative companies across tech-enabled industries. The company has delivered industry-leading growth (+46% 3-year revenue CAGR) through disciplined focus on technical skill development, metrics-driven governance and the cultivation of an inspiring workplace environment. 90% of Encorians work in an office that is certified as a Great Place to Work, spanning all six Latin American countries with business operations, as well as India.

Encora is backed by private equity firms Advent International and Warburg Pincus and hosts offices in 14 countries around the world. To learn more about the global next-gen product engineering provider and its new CEO, please visit the website at www.encora.com.

About Encora

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and backed by private equity firms Advent International and Warburg Pincus, Encora is the preferred innovation partner to some of the world's leading technology companies. It provides next-gen services such as Predictive Analysis, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Cloud, and Test Automation. Encora has deep cluster vertical capabilities in HealthTech, FinTech, HiTech, IAM & Cybersecurity, Digital Commerce, Travel & Hospitality, Supply Chain & Logistics, Telecom and other specialized industries. Encora is an established leader in outsourced product development services that specializes in innovation acceleration for leading-edge technology companies. With over 9,000 associates in 40+ offices and innovation labs across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, India, and Asia Pacific, Encora's global talent pool, micro-industry vertical expertise and proprietary agile engineering capabilities enable clients to improve their speed to impact. For more information, please visit www.encora.com.

SOURCE Encora
Award-winning Fraud Prevention Capabilities Available to Shopify Merchants of Any Size

ATLANTA, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax  (NYSE: EFX) is introducing a new Kount Essentials fraud detection and prevention application on the Shopify App Store. Specifically designed to address the fraud challenges faced by the platform's millions of small business merchants, this enhanced technology is easy to implement and customize for businesses of all sizes.

In 2022, global e-commerce payment fraud amounted to $41 billion in losses, and industry analysts predict that figure will reach $48 billion by the end of 2023. According to research by ACFE , 54 percent of all victim organizations don't recover any of the losses caused by fraud. This is especially devastating for small businesses which, when hit by fraudulent activity, cannot rebound as quickly as large corporations.

"Equifax has launched a Kount Advanced app for Shopify designed for larger businesses with dedicated fraud management teams since 2019. We recognize the unique challenges faced by small businesses and with the introduction of Kount Essentials, we're making our award-winning fraud prevention capabilities available to growing organizations," said Adam Gunther, Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer, at Equifax Digital Solutions. "Merchants on Shopify now can choose between Kount Essentials or Kount Advanced, depending on which features best suit their business. In offering two tiers of protection, Equifax is able to provide cutting-edge technology to all merchants that is as adaptive as modern fraud threats."

The new Kount Essentials app on the Shopify App Store provides unique capabilities designed to meet the needs of small businesses, including:

"Plug-and-play" installation and onboarding - Kount fraud services can be integrated into a Shopify store with just a few clicks. No coding is required for integration  the app installs directly in the Shopify Admin.

- Kount fraud services can be integrated into a Shopify store with just a few clicks. No coding is required for integration  the app installs directly in the Shopify Admin. Immediate results - With the ability to install in just minutes, businesses have award-winning Kount fraud protection from Equifax running in the background immediately.

- With the ability to install in just minutes, businesses have award-winning Kount fraud protection from Equifax running in the background immediately. In-app decisioning - Kount Essentials results can easily be viewed from the merchant's Shopify dashboard, enabling easy, real-time data analysis.

Kount Essentials compliments the advanced functionality already built into the Kount Advanced plan for Shopify. With available features including everything from proven-effective machine learning and decades of data to on-demand support and customizable policies, merchants can now access a fraud solution on Shopify that is just as unique as their business.

To learn more about the Kount applications on the Shopify App Store, visit kount.com .

ABOUT EQUIFAX INC.

At Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by nearly 14,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit Equifax.com .

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Meg Mariani for Equifax

[email protected]

SOURCE Equifax Inc.
NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Euclid Transactional, LLC ("Euclid Transactional"), a leading managing general agent focused on transactional insurance underwriting and claims handling, today announced that eight members of its US team have been promoted to Senior Vice President. These promotions are a testament to these team members' dedication, work-ethic and service to the firm's clients and brokers.

Euclid Transactional congratulates the following for their promotion to SVP:

Claims:

Nick Morales



Rose Kenerson

Representations and Warranties Underwriting:

Corey Connelly



Hasnaa El Rhermoul



Kim Heessels



Sean Kim

Tax Underwriting:

Bryce Pressentin



Jeffrey Lash

"We are especially proud of the growth and career development of these team members, and we appreciate all of their hard work in supporting our clients," said Jay Rittberg, Managing Principal. "Our firm remains committed to advancing talent and promoting from within and we are excited to see our colleagues rising to become leaders in our industry."

Since its founding in 2016, Euclid Transactional has underwritten more than 5,105 policies, for deals with a combined value of over $4.1 trillion. Insureds have received claims payments of over $530 million from policies issued by Euclid Transactional.

About Euclid Transactional

Euclid Transactional, LLC is a managing general agency specializing in the underwriting of representations & warranties, tax liability, contingent liability and other transactional insurance coverages. Operated by one of the industry's largest teams of experienced underwriters and claims executives, Euclid Transactional provides the size and security of a large insurer with the customer service of a boutique. The firm has offices in New York, London, Chicago, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Toronto, and offers full-service underwriting for deals across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Euclid Transactional is an affiliate of Euclid Insurance Services, a program administrator that provides its partners with advisory, accounting, information technology and human resource services. Euclid Transactional's insurance capacity is provided by premier insurers, all of which are rated AM Best A (Excellent) or better.

Euclid Transactional is an equal opportunity employer who recruits, employs, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual or affectional orientation, disability, age, veteran status, and other protected status as required by applicable law. Euclid Transactional is committed to promoting and maintaining a diverse, inclusive environment where different backgrounds, characteristics and viewpoints are valued. To advance this commitment, we have formed and empowered a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee to help us put diversity, equity, and inclusion at the center of our hiring process and our company cultureand build a team that better reflects our desire for more equal representation in everything we do.

Media Contact:

Davis MacMillan

RF|Binder

[email protected]

212-994-7509

SOURCE Euclid Transactional, LLC
DUBLIN, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Europe Colorectal Cancer Screening Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023-2028)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Europe colorectal cancer screening market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.2% during the forecast period.

Companies Mentioned

Abbott Laboratories

Epigenomics Inc.

Exact Sciences Corporation

F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG

Novigenix SA

Quidel Corporation

Siemens Healthineers AG

Sysmex Corporation

Olympus Corporation

Stryker

FUJIFILM Corporation

Europe Colorectal Cancer Screening Market Trends

Colonoscopy Segment is Anticipated to Witness Significant Growth Over the Forecast Period

Compared to other market segments, the colonoscopy segment is expected to witness growth during the forecast period. The colonoscopy procedure is painless and helps remove abnormal tissue before it becomes cancerous. Due to such benefits, colonoscopy is considered the gold standard for colorectal cancer screening. Thus, the segment is expected to witness growth.

Colonoscopy allows for the detection of early neoplasia and the removal of precancerous lesions, which has been demonstrated to lower the incidence and mortality of CRC significantly. The increase in CRC cases in Europe requires better screening procedures for disease detection and treatment. Thus, increasing awareness regarding colonoscopy and its benefits well known to the public is essential.

requires better screening procedures for disease detection and treatment. Thus, increasing awareness regarding colonoscopy and its benefits well known to the public is essential. In this context, ECQI Group aims to raise awareness for improved European colonoscopy standards. According to an article published in MDPI in February 2022 , when a survey was conducted to evaluate the achievement of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) mean withdrawal time (WT) target, most of the samples met the minimum standards set by the ECQI during the colonoscopy procedures. This argues for a better understanding of colonoscopy among the users regarding the same. Thus, this shows that the population of Europe is aware of the need for improved colonoscopy standards across Europe . This awareness is increasing the number of colonoscopy procedures for CRC screening in Europe . Hence, it is expected to fuel the segment's growth over the forecast period.

, when a survey was conducted to evaluate the achievement of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) mean withdrawal time (WT) target, most of the samples met the minimum standards set by the ECQI during the colonoscopy procedures. This argues for a better understanding of colonoscopy among the users regarding the same. Thus, this shows that the population of is aware of the need for improved colonoscopy standards across . This awareness is increasing the number of colonoscopy procedures for CRC screening in . Hence, it is expected to fuel the segment's growth over the forecast period. Furthermore, having a fecal occult blood test often leads to additional testing. If the fecal occult blood test result is positive, doctors recommend a test such as a colonoscopy to examine the inside of the colon in general. As per an article published in the journal of Gastrointestinal Disorders in June 2022 , CRC screening can help reduce the incidence and mortality of the disease. Hence, patients with a positive fecal occult blood test are typically advised to have a colonoscopy for additional testing. Thus, the region's demand for colonoscopies is increasing due to the high burden of CRC in Europe . Thereby, driving the segment growth.

, CRC screening can help reduce the incidence and mortality of the disease. Hence, patients with a positive fecal occult blood test are typically advised to have a colonoscopy for additional testing. Thus, the region's demand for colonoscopies is increasing due to the high burden of CRC in . Thereby, driving the segment growth. Hence, the studied segment is expected to witness growth during the forecast period due to the factors mentioned above.

United Kingdom is Anticipated to Contribute Significantly to the Market Growth Over the Forecast Period

The United Kingdom is expected to significantly contribute to the overall market growth during the forecast period. The growing prevalence of CRC and the increasing number of initiatives for CRC screening are the major factors contributing to the country's market growth.

is expected to significantly contribute to the overall market growth during the forecast period. The growing prevalence of CRC and the increasing number of initiatives for CRC screening are the major factors contributing to the country's market growth. Bowel cancer is also known as colorectal cancer, and it affects the large bowel, which is made up of the colon and rectum. With the increasing burden of CRC in the United Kingdom , the demand for the availability of cancer screening in the country is also increasing.

, the demand for the availability of cancer screening in the country is also increasing. The 2022 update by Bower Cancer UK shows that bowel cancer is the 4th most common cancer, and approximately 43,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year in the United Kingdom . This creates a huge healthcare burden in the country and creates demand for screening for early detection of the disease. This is further expected to fuel the market growth in the United Kingdom .

. This creates a huge healthcare burden in the country and creates demand for screening for early detection of the disease. This is further expected to fuel the market growth in the . Furthermore, the United Kingdom's government is more focused on providing better diagnosis and treatment options to the target population and controlling the disease burden. Thus, together with the NHS foundation, the country's government offers bowel cancer screening for people aged 60 to 74 every two years.

government is more focused on providing better diagnosis and treatment options to the target population and controlling the disease burden. Thus, together with the NHS foundation, the country's government offers bowel cancer screening for people aged 60 to 74 every two years. Furthermore, according to the data updated by the government of the United Kingdom in its press release in July 2022 , NHS is gradually extending this age range, and people aged 56 or more are now being invited as part of this CRC screening process. In addition, the data updated by the Nuffield Trust in June 2022 stated that there are national screening programs for breast, cervical, and bowel cancer in the United Kingdom , and these services save nearly 9,000 lives every year. Thus, such initiatives in the country propel colorectal cancer screening and drive overall market growth.

in its press release in , NHS is gradually extending this age range, and people aged 56 or more are now being invited as part of this CRC screening process. In addition, the data updated by the Nuffield Trust in stated that there are national screening programs for breast, cervical, and bowel cancer in the , and these services save nearly 9,000 lives every year. Thus, such initiatives in the country propel colorectal cancer screening and drive overall market growth. Thus, the market is expected to witness a high growth rate over the forecast period due to the aforementioned factors in the United Kingdom .

Key Topics Covered:



1 INTRODUCTION



2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY



3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY



4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Market Drivers

4.2.1 Advent of Efficacious Genetic Tests

4.2.2 Growing Prevalence of Colorectal Cancer

4.2.3 Increasing Cancer Prevention Initiatives

4.3 Market Restraints

4.3.1 High Cost of the Screening Tests

4.4 Porter's Five Forces Analysis



5 MARKET SEGMENTATION (Market Size by Value - USD million)

5.1 Screening Tests

5.1.1 Stool-based Tests

5.1.1.1 Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT)

5.1.1.2 Guaiac-based Fecal Occult Blood Test (gFOBT)

5.1.1.3 Stool DNA Test

5.1.2 Colonoscopy

5.1.3 CT Colonography (Virtual Colonoscopy)

5.1.4 Flexible Sigmoidoscopy

5.1.5 Other Tests

5.2 By End User

5.2.1 Hospitals

5.2.2 Diagnostic Centers

5.3 Geography



6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

6.1 Company Profiles



7 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ttsdao

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SOURCE Research and Markets
BOSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Exaltare Capital Management, LLC ("Exaltare"), a Boston based private investment firm with a focus on franchise and multi-unit investments, acquired GF Midwest, Inc. ("GF Midwest" or "the Company"). GF Midwest, headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, is one of the largest developers and operators of the Good Feet Store, operating 23 franchises across 9 states. The Good Feet Store has served customers by selling proprietary arch supports to alleviate pain and increase performance and comfort for over 30 years.

GF Midwest was founded by Arnold Pereira in 2000, who was one of the first franchisees in the Good Feet Store brand. The Company has grown to 23 retail locations and is the second largest franchisee in the Good Feet system. Following this investment, Arnold Pereira will continue to be the Company's Chief Executive Officer and remain a significant shareholder.

Exaltare's Managing Partner & Founder, Omar Simmons, said, "We are excited to partner with a leading franchisee in the Good Feet Store system. GF Midwest has a strong track record of growth and we plan to help scale the Company via new store development and acquisitions. The Company's growth plan will help it enable more customers to live healthier, more active lives."

Arnold Pereira stated, "This partnership with Exaltare will enable GF Midwest to accelerate its growth. I am excited to work with the Exaltare team  with their experience in growing franchised multi-unit businesses, they stood out as a great partner for the next phase of growth for GF Midwest."

Richard Moore, the Chief Executive Officer of the franchisor, Good Feet Worldwide, said, "We are delighted and honored to have Exaltare joining the Good Feet family as a strategic partner to one of our longest-standing and largest franchisees, the Pereiras. Exaltare brings deep and relevant expertise based on its track record of successful health and wellness investments, such as those in Planet Fitness and Urban Air. Having worked with Exaltare before Good Feet, I know first hand how well Exaltare collaborates with its portfolio companies, seeking to add value while allowing the company to operate the business on a day-to-day basis. Exaltare is a perfect fit with Good Feet's mission, brand, and business overall."

This acquisition is Exaltare's third platform in franchising, and in each platform, Exaltare has been the first institutional investor in the franchise system. In Planet Fitness, Exaltare grew its platform from 15 units to 108 before selling a controlling stake in 2021. In 2022, Exaltare invested in the Urban Air franchise system by forming Elevated Venture Holdings, with parks in Texas, Florida and Oklahoma, and is actively grow via acquisition and development.

The transaction was financed by Exaltare Capital, Genesis Park and Tecum Capital who provided debt and equity capital.

Exaltare's Director, Alexei Popov, stated, "We could not be more excited to join forces with our partners in this investment  Arnold Pereira and the GF Midwest team, the Good Feet system, and our financing partners, Genesis Park and Tecum Capital. This is our first investment alongside Genesis Park and Tecum Capital, and they have been great partners and flexible and supportive throughout the transaction."

Triago advised on capital raising for this transaction while DLA Piper acted as Exaltare's legal advisor.

About Exaltare Capital Management

Exaltare Capital Management is a private investment firm with a focus on franchise and multi-unit investments. ECM's principals have significant private equity and operational experience that enables the firm to be a value-added partner to its portfolio companies. Exaltare looks to invest in founder-owned businesses with $2 to $25 million of EBITDA. Since 2012, Exaltare has completed 17 platform and add-on transactions in multi-unit and franchised businesses, representing over 250 individual locations and over $900 million of capital. For more information, visit www.exaltarecapital.com.

About The Good Feet Store

Founded in 1992, The Good Feet Store is the market-leading manufacturer and retailer of premium, personally fitted arch supports, with more than 200 retail locations in the U.S. and abroad. Engineered for comfort and pain relief in more than 400 styles and sizes, Good Feet Arch Supports are personally fitted to the precise needs and preferences of its customers and are backed by a Manufacturer's Lifetime Limited Warranty. The Good Feet Store operates with an end-to-end approach to maximize performance and ensure consistent quality standards. Good Feet Arch Supports are manufactured in a state-of-the-art facility in Carlsbad, California, and supplied exclusively to its retail locations. Each Good Feet Store location is staffed with well-trained Good Feet Arch Support Specialists who provide customers with a no-obligation, free, personalized fitting. To learn more about The Good Feet Store and Good Feet Arch Supports, and to see Good Feet Store reviews from actual customers, visit www.goodfeet.com.

About Genesis Park

Genesis Park is a Houston-based private credit and equity investment firm. Its current investment fund, GP Capital Partners, LP, is licensed as a Small Business Investment Company ("SBIC") by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Genesis Park supports growth and later stage lower middle market businesses through flexible debt and equity capital solutions and strategic guidance. Genesis Park generally targets companies with at least $10 million of revenue and $2 million of EBITDA, with proven business models and seasoned management teams. Managed by four experienced investment professionals with broad regional relationships, Genesis Park is committed to partnering with the companies and management teams in which it invests to facilitate growth, transition, and success. For more information, visit www.genesis-park.com.

About Tecum Capital

Tecum Capital is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based private investment firm deploying capital in lower middle-market companies. Tecum provides mezzanine debt and equity investments in growth-oriented middle-market companies across the broader high-value manufacturing, value-added distribution, and business services sectors. Our team partners with independent sponsors, family offices, committed funds, business owners seeking succession plans, and management teams to create shared success. Tecum focuses on businesses with EBITDA greater than $3 million. Tecum seeks to invest $5 million to $20 million in potential portfolio companies. Tecum manages two Small Business Investment Company ("SBIC") licensed funds and is currently investing out of Tecum Capital Partners III, L.P, a $300 million fund launched in September 2021. Since 2006, the team has collectively invested more than $850 million in over 100 platform and add-on acquisitions. For more information, please visit www.tecum.com.

SOURCE Exaltcare Capital Management
- The company successfully operated booth at the event, introducing the participation-driven Game-Fi platform NAODA to global users offline

- Special POPs 'Attend NAO!' issued to booth visiting NAODA users during event

SEOUL, South Korea, May 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Web 3.0 and gaming platform creator FLASK announced that the company successfully participated in Consensus 2023, the world's largest blockchain conference held in Austin, Texas from April 26-28.

FLASK operated a booth at the conference and showcased NAODA (http://naoda.xyz/), the company's participation-driven Game-Fi platform, on a global stage.

FLASK Successfully Participates in Consensus 2023 The Worlds Largest Blockchain Event.

Consensus was started in 2015 and is considered the most influential crypto event, gathering different elements of the crypto community including DeFi, blockchain, Web3 and the metaverse. The event brings together developers, investors, founders, brands and policymakers to discuss trends and innovations occurring in the crypto space. This year's event featured talks on a variety of topics, including Web 3.0, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and next-generation software as a service (Saas), and attracted attendees from 112 countries around the world.

"We are delighted to take part in Consensus 2023, the world's most influential blockchain event, and introduce NAODA to global users offline," said Byoung-jae Lee, CEO of FLASK. "We will focus on fostering an ecosystem with differentiated community-driven platform experiences, and also redefining the online gaming experience through high-quality games that will be released in the second half of the year."

As a sponsor of the event, FLASK met with global users and industry stakeholders to introduce the beta version of the NAODA platform and share its achievements thus far. In addition to the development of its NAODA ecosystem, the company also made efforts in expanding its global business at the event, sharing its vision and long-term strategy, which bridges the gap between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 through the popularization of blockchain games.

FLASK also provided unique digital gifts to attendees who visited the booth. The company issued special editions of NAODA's Soulbound Token (SBT), including "Attend NAO!". These Proof of Participation (POP) badges within NAODA serve as credentials for participating in community and gaming activities.

FLASK shared that more than 61,000 POPs were issued within a month after the release of the beta version of NAODA. In addition, with users actively participating, POPs ranked third in terms of transaction volume among others on Polygonscan ERC-1155, a platform that allows users to check the transaction volume of the Polygon blockchain in real time.

About FLASK

FLASK, a KOSDAQ-listed company, is a technology innovator that was relaunched in 2022 with ambitions to lead the expansion of blockchain and Web 3.0 technologies. The development of its blockchain-based game platform and game titles is driven by top talent who have experience working at leading companies such as Kakao Games, NCSoft and Neowiz. FLASK CEO Byoung-jae Lee was formerly General Manager at EA Studios' Spearhead and at EA Seoul Studio for EA Korea, leading several projects for FIFA Online. Additional team members helping drive the business include global talent from companies like the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). FLASK plans to provide expanded GameFi services through its blockchain game platform NAODA and its high-end games, which are scheduled for release in the first half of this year. Learn more at: https://flask.global/

SOURCE FLASK
LAKELAND, Fla., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida Southern College senior Hailee Schalwig '23 has earned a grant from the prestigious U.S. Fulbright Program.

Schalwig is the 20th Florida Southern College student to be selected as a U.S. Fulbright Student, allowing her to spend a year teaching English in Taiwan. The environmental studies and marine biology double major also plans to start an afterschool program facilitating opportunities for young people to grow their appreciation of the natural environment.

Florida Southern College senior Hailee Schalwig '23 selected as a U.S. Fulbright Student.

"It is a pleasure to see that once again the U.S. Fulbright Program has recognized one of our outstanding students for such an honor," Florida Southern College President Dr. Anne B. Kerr said. "Fulbright students are some of the best and brightest the world has to offer, and it makes me proud that Hailee will play a significant part in furthering the College's mission of producing graduates who will make a positive impact on the world."

Fulbright is the U.S. government's flagship international educational exchange program. It is also among the world's largest and most diverse. Since its inception in 1946, more than 400,000 participants from all backgrounds and fields  including recent university graduates, teachers, scientists, researchers, artists, and others from the United States and over 160 other countries  have participated in the Fulbright Program.

Fulbright alumni work to make a positive impact on their communities. This distinguished group includes 41 heads of state or government, 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 78 MacArthur Fellows, and countless leaders and changemakers who carry forward the Fulbright mission of enhancing mutual understanding.

"Hailee is uncommonly intelligent, creative, resourceful, and open-minded, and it has been a true pleasure to know and work with her," Florida Southern College Assistant Professor of English Dr. Jennifer Moffitt said. "She joins a line of exceptional Florida Southern College students who chose to spend their Fulbright year in Taiwan, including Kylie Torres, Cesar Maldonado, and Grace Sill. I know she will represent us as positively as they have during and after her grant. I can't wait to hear stories of Hailee's travels and time in the classroom. This is a well-deserved honor."

Florida Southern College's previous U.S. Fulbright Students who accepted their assignments:

2023-24: Hailee Schalwig

2022-23: Austin Crotteau , Morgan McDermott , Zoe Perkins , Lexi Potter , Grace Sill , Catherine Stogner

, , , , , 2021-22: Anya Larson and Cesar Maldonado

and 2019-20: Abby Eskridge , Olivia Panda , Kate Vita

, , 2018-19: Natalie Aleman , Elizabeth Barnes , Leyna Stemle , Kylie Torres

, , , 2017-18: Zoe Trout

1964-65: Amelia Johannessen

1949-50: Sonya Mitchell

About Florida Southern College

Founded in 1883, Florida Southern College is the oldest private college in the state. The College maintains its commitment to academic excellence through 70+ undergraduate and distinctive graduate programs in business administration, education, nursing, and physical therapy. Florida Southern has a 14:1 student-to-faculty ratio, is an award-winning national leader in engaged learning, and boasts 30 NCAA Division II National Championships. Florida Southern is ranked at #8 among the "Best Regional Universities in the South" by U.S. News & World Report in its 2023 "Best Colleges" guide and is included in The Princeton Review's 2023 Best 388 Colleges guide and the "Fiske Guide to Colleges 2023." The 2022-2023 Colleges of Distinction guidebook praises Florida Southern's AACSB-accredited Barney Barnett School of Business and Free Enterprise alongside the College's School of Education and its Ann Blanton Edwards School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Poets&Quants, U.S. News & World Report, Fortune, and The Princeton Review further laud the Barney Barnett School of Business and Free Enterprise and the Ann Blanton Edwards School of Nursing and Health Sciences as foremost programs in the nation for business and nursing education. Home to the world's largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, FSC has appeared on The Princeton Review's top 20 "Most Beautiful Campus" national listing for 13 consecutive years. Connect with Florida Southern College.

SOURCE Florida Southern College
At least 13 Palestinians, including four children and four women, were killed early Tuesday and 20 others injured in a series of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry announced.
NORTH SUTTON, N.H., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fluoride Action Network (FAN) describes a new National Toxicology Program (NTP) report on fluoride neurotoxicity as confirming what experts have long suggested: that fluoride is the new lead in its ability to lower IQ in children. This Thursday the NTP holds a public hearing on the report, a year ago the report was blocked from public release by top officials at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Emails obtained through Freedom of Information reveal pressure from dental interests in and outside the government led to the report's suppression. Environmental groups required a court order to get the report released last month.

The NTP's report found an average loss of 7 IQ points in 55 studies that compared child IQ of a higher fluoride group to that of a lower fluoride group.

Editors from the Journal of the American Medical Association described an IQ drop of 4.5 IQ points in one study as:

"An effect size which is sizable  on par with lead."

David Bellinger, author of over 400 epidemiology papers on neurotoxic chemicals said:

"It's actually very similar to the effect size that's seen with childhood exposure to lead."

Christine Till, leader of a team that has published rigorous studies of fluoride neurotoxicity funded by the National Institutes of Health said:

"4.5 points is a dramatic loss of IQ, comparable to what you'd see with lead exposure."

And:

"A 2- to 4-point decrement in [Performance IQ] may seem like a small difference at the individual level. However, a small shift in the mean of IQ scores at the population level translates to millions of lost IQ points given the ubiquity of fluoride exposure." (emphasis added)

NTP finds loss of IQ at doses from fluoridated water

NTP also conducted a dose-response analysis. They found that as water fluoride concentrations rose from 0.0 to 1.5 mg/L (milligrams per liter), the average IQ dropped about 6 IQ points. Artificial fluoridation at 0.7 mg/L is squarely in this range. The NTP said "there was no obvious threshold" for safety.

More details on the NTP report's findings are available from FAN along with disturbing revelations that dental interests are adopting the same unsavory tactics to defend fluoridation that the lead industry used to defend lead.

SOURCE Fluoride Action Network
The Complete Meal Replacement Promotes Energy and Is Chock Full of Essential Nutrients

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Modern life is busy  young parents, busy professionals, and countless other groups spend time running from one event or responsibility to the next. One of the casualties of this fast-paced modern lifestyle is the ability to properly buy, prepare, and consume healthy food. As consumers find themselves lacking the time to follow complicated recipes or waste time waiting for things to cook, they often turn to pre-packaged alternatives, including unhealthy, preservative-filled fast food.

Orgalife is bucking this unhealthy trend by turning to nature as the best way to cultivate comprehensive health. With that said, the team behind the Vietnamese health nutrition brand is aware of the fact that most people's 21st-century lifestyle doesn't go well with a commitment to healthy eating.

In response to this dilemma, Orgalife has developed FOMEAL CARE . The convenient health-food beverage is designed to help busy humans access the nutrition that they need at any stage or in any circumstance. FOMEAL CARE is a complete liquid meal that is scientifically formulated using a patented easy-to-absorb formula and real health food ingredients. Each meal includes 14.5g of high-quality natural protein as well as essential nutrients from whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and vegetable oils.

The result is a fast, easy, drink-on-the-go meal that is as healthy as it is convenient. FOMEAL CARE supports muscle, bone, and gut health. It boosts the immune system and has a low glycemic index. Most importantly  and in strict keeping with Orgalife's mission of positive, optimistic inspiration for those wishing to live a happy, healthy, and sustainable life  FOMEAL CARE fuels individuals with the nutrients they need to be productive, energetic, and enjoy life to the fullest.

About Orgalife

Orgalife Nutritional Science Co. operates with the mission of creating positive, optimistic inspiration for a healthy, happy, and sustainable life. This comes through balanced nutrition from protein, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and vegetable oils. Orgalife was founded in 2014 and currently operates out of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It has two sub-brands, Fomeal and O'go. All Orgalife products are ISO 22000 and HACCP certified, and the company has patents from both Vietnam and the United States. Learn more at orgalife.com.vn .

Media Contact:

Vy Ly Tuong (Ms.)

Int'l Business Development Executive

M: (+84) 968751638

E : [email protected]

W: www.orgalife.com.vn

SOURCE Orgalife
PHILADELPHIA, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- FS Credit Opportunities Corp. (NYSE: FSCO) today announced plans to host a conference call at 9:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) on Thursday, May 11, 2023, to discuss its first quarter results. All interested parties are welcome to participate and can access the call by registering using the following URL: https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/4180119/1047FBC13C522E0333C67D08AB440F58.

Participants are requested to register a day in advance or at a minimum 15 minutes before the start of the call. Participants may also access the conference call by dialing 786-496-5601 and providing the following passcode: 7158921#.

A replay of the call will be available by visiting the Investor Relations section of FSCO's website at https://fsinvestments.com/fs-credit-opportunities-corp/.

An investor presentation of financial information will also be available by visiting the Investor Relations section of FSCO's website after the market close on Wednesday, May 10, 2023.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements included herein may constitute "forward-looking" statements as that term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements with regard to future events or the future performance or operations of FSCO (the "Fund"). Words such as "intends," "will," "expects," and "may" or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to the inherent uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. Certain factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include changes in the economy, geopolitical risks, risks associated with possible disruption to the Fund's operations or the economy generally due to hostilities, terrorism, natural disasters or pandemics such as COVID-19, future changes in laws or regulations and conditions in the Fund's operating area, unexpected costs, the price at which the Fund's shares of common stock may trade on the New York Stock Exchange and such other factors that are disclosed in the Fund's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The inclusion of forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation that any plans, estimates or expectations will be achieved. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this communication. Except as required by federal securities laws, the Fund undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements.

About FS Investments

FS Investments is a leading asset manager dedicated to helping individuals, financial professionals and institutions design better portfolios. The firm provides access to alternative sources of income and growth, and focuses on setting industry standards for investor protection, education and transparency. FS Investments is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA with offices in New York, NY, Orlando, FL and Leawood, KS.

Contact Information:

Investor Relations

Robert Paun

[email protected]

Media

Sarah McAssey

[email protected]

SOURCE FS Investments
MAJURO, Marshall Islands, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Gate Group, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, announces today that its Italian entity, Gate Italy s.r.l., has successfully registered as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) with the Italian regulatory agency Organismo Agenti e Mediatori (OAM).

According to the VASP registration, Gate Italy s.r.l. can provide the following business services in Italy:

Services functional to the use and exchange of virtual currencies and/or their conversion from or into legal tender currencies or digital representations of value, including those convertible into other virtual currencies.

Virtual currency transfer and clearing services.

Any other services functional to the acquisition, trading or intermediation in the exchange of virtual currencies virtual currencies.

Digital wallet services.

Gate Italy's VASP registration details are accessible through the OAM's Virtual Currency Operators Registry under the registration number PSV83.

Gate Italy s.r.l. has completed the Italian VASP registration, which means it can provide Italian users with safer, more convenient, and more professional virtual asset transaction and management services while complying with local laws and regulations and anti-money laundering requirements. Presently, the VASP registration of Gate Italy s.r.l. is only valid in Italy. However, the company will pursue expansion to provide services to more countries and regions in the future.

Dr. Han Lin, founder and CEO of Gate Group, said: "This is an important milestone for Gate Group to enter the European market and is also a remarkable achievement of our compliance-centric global expansion. Gate Group will follow stricter regulatory standards that further protect the security of user assets and strengthen our compliance capabilities. We will continue bolstering our investment in compliance and supervision to provide users with safer and more reliable virtual asset transaction services."

Gate Group has remained committed to providing users with more secure and reliable digital asset transaction services. Becoming a registered virtual asset service provider will further enhance Gate Italy s.r.l.'s compliance and regulatory capabilities. As the world's leading digital asset trading platform, Gate Group will continue to uphold its core value of customer-oriented service and continued pursuit of providing users with better digital asset services.

SOURCE Gate.io
NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hirebotics, a leading provider of cobot technology through its Beacon platform, announced today that Gerry Caron has joined the company's board of directors.

Caron is a seasoned executive with more than 30 years of combined experience in the robotics and consumer products industries. He has held executive product leadership roles in several multinational tech organizations, ranging from leading public robotics companies iRobot and Universal Robots to consumer brand leaders Bose, OtterBox, and iZotope, to startups FORT Robotics and Active Control Experts, among others. He currently serves as Principal at Caron Product Management Consulting, where he supports growth stage tech companies, and acts as strategic advisor to PickNik Robotics.

"We are thrilled to welcome Gerry to our board of directors," said Rob Goldiez, CEO of Hirebotics. "His extensive knowledge and experience in the robotics industry and in product management will be invaluable as we continue to grow and expand our business. We are confident that Gerry will help us further our mission of making robotics accessible to manufacturers of all sizes."

Caron added, "I am excited to join the board of Hirebotics and work with Rob and the team to bring innovative robotics solutions to the manufacturing industry. The company's commitment to making automation accessible and affordable for all manufacturers aligns with my own values, and I look forward to contributing to Hirebotics' continued success."

Hirebotics offers cobot welding solutions that allow manufacturers to automate their welding operations without the need for robot programmers. With Hirebotics, manufacturers can quickly and easily implement robotics technology into their operations, improving efficiency and reducing costs.

About Hirebotics:

Founded in 2015, Hirebotics is a cobot technology developer headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Hirebotics designs and develops tools to improve the productivity, usability, and affordability of collaborative robot systems. Hirebotics entered the welding automation space in 2019 as a key collaborator in the development of an early cobot welding system. In 2020, Hirebotics launched Beacon, a powerful robot software platform with support for applications, remote monitoring, and 24/7 global support functionality. For more information, visit www.hirebotics.com.

SOURCE Hirebotics
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. announced the adoption of 13 new career and technical education (CTE) curriculum programs for the 2023-24 school year, which will expand access to high-wage, in-demand jobs for Florida's high school and Florida College System students. In 2019, Governor Ron DeSantis set a goal of making Florida the number one state in the nation for workforce education by 2030. The adoption of these first-of-their-kind programs further supports Florida's nation-leading status while assisting students with wide-ranging backgrounds to prepare for high-paying occupations crucial to continued economic development.

"Thanks to the policies and leadership of Governor DeSantis and the Legislature, Florida is known for having an education system that is attuned to the needs of industry," said Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. "These programs were developed with industry leaders at the table in order to help guarantee student success and our collective economic success as a state. I am excited for the future!"

"Just this past year, Florida was rated number one in talent attraction. This is in part owed to our education system's ability to anticipate for emerging skills and talent needs," said Florida Department of Education's Dr. Henry Mack, Senior Chancellor. "These programs are evidence that our schools and colleges are nimble, flexible, and eager to help guarantee Florida's economic vitality and the mobility of our residents."

"Miami Dade College is focused on talent development as a strategic priority," said Miami Dade College President Madeline Pumariega. "The new programs we're forging in Tech and beyond are timely, relevant and designed to meet the workforce needs of industry partners as well as the demands of an evolving economy."

The approved curriculum frameworks consist of seven college credit certificates, three secondary programs, one career certificate, one associate in science degree and one adult education program. The frameworks range from Careers in Public Service, Cyber Security, and Control Tower Operators, to Data Science and Machine Learning, with each focused on educating students for employment and high earning potential ranging from an estimated $40,000 to $100,000 a year after graduating.

The Careers in Public Service framework is a first-of-its-kind initiative to develop civics academies throughout the state. Last year, Governor Ron DeSantis awarded Polk State College, Broward College, and Florida State College at Jacksonville with $6.5 million to launch the Career Pathways for Public Service Initiative, which will develop a national model for preparing students for public service and careers in local or state government. The approved frameworks are the fruit of last year's award, now allowing students to start preparing in 9th grade for meaningful careers in public administration while learning about the values of our state and nation and acquiring the skills needed to succeed.

Since 2019, Governor DeSantis has committed more than $5 billion for workforce education in Florida, while the Florida Department of Education has developed and maintained statewide CTE programs. In the current school year, there are record enrollments, with nearly 800,000 K-12 CTE students, more than 380,000 postsecondary CTE students, and over 17,000 registered apprentices.

SOURCE Get There
PORTLAND, Ore., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- GiGi's Playhouse, Portland LLC will host the 2023 GiGiFit Acceptance Challenge on June 3rd, 2023, at 9am at Mary S Young Park in West Linn. The event will include a 5k fun-run, a 1-mile walk, and a 21-yard dash for Down syndrome, as well as other fun activities for the whole family  including a bouncy house, raffle prizes, and much more.

GiGiFit Acceptance Challenge

The GiGiFit Acceptance Challenge is a national physical and social movement for acceptance that seeks to unite everyone across race, gender, abilities, beliefs, and more to celebrate and raise awareness for our friends living with Down syndrome and similar conditions. This event also helps raise funds to support the free educational, therapeutic, and vocational programs offered at GiGi Achievement Centers across North America  including the soon-to-open GiGi's Playhouse, Portland LLC in Northwest Oregon.

This year's event is being sponsored by:

"We are so excited about this year's GiGiFIT Acceptance Challenge!" says Kristal Watts, Board Secretary for GiGi's Portland. "We live in a wonderful, caring community that really supports our differences as individuals, and we can't wait to get together on June 3rd to enjoy some fresh air and celebrate the upcoming grand opening of the Portland GiGi's Playhouse Achievement Center."

GiGiFIT provides free programs developed by physical therapists for individuals with Down syndrome and similar conditions. This goal-oriented curriculum encourages confidence and independence, while improving overall health and lifelong wellness.

"Our friends, family members, and neighbors living with Down syndrome often have to overcome numerous social or environmental obstacles to physical activity," said Brad Johnston, Board President for GiGi's Playhouse. "So, this is a great opportunity for all of us to come together to get outside and get our bodies moving in the right direction  and for a great cause."

Registration for the Portland GiGiFit Acceptance Challenge is $21 per registrant or a donation of any amount to your team. Even if you can't attend in person, there is a virtual option to join, allowing you to get fit however you choose and on your own time. Please email Brad Johnston at [email protected] to learn more about registration, sponsorship, or any other event details.

About GiGi's Playhouse

GiGi's Playhouse is changing the way the world sees Down syndrome and sending a global message of acceptance for all. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023, the organization directly serves 30,000 families in 83 countries, providing free, life-changing educational, therapeutic-based, and career development programs through its growing network of 57 Down Syndrome Achievement Centers and Virtual Playhouses.

To learn more about GiGi's Playhouse's message of hope and acceptance for all, please visit www.gigisplayhouse.org.

CONTACT: Kyle McCarthy, [email protected]

SOURCE GiGi's Playhouse - Portland
DUBAI, UAE, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As per the latest research report published by Extrapolate, the global Carbon Black Market size was valued at USD 15.05 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to grow to USD 22.66 billion by 2032. During 2023 and 2032, the market is expecting a CAGR of around 4.6% driven by the rising utility in a wide range of end-use industries, including the paint and coating, tire, and rubber industries.

According to data, Asia-Pacific presently produces around 59% of the carbon black produced globally for the tire industry, and by 2027, it is expected to grow to around 61%. Growing demand for high-performance tires is being driven by the developing global automobile sector, which is also boosting the growth of the carbon black market.

Get a Sample Copy of the Report: https://www.extrapolate.com/sample/chemicals-and-advanced-materials/carbon-black-market/87523

Trending Now: Tokai Carbon to Leverage Position in the U.S., Build on Record Gains

Tokai Carbon has projected that its carbon black business will yield an operating income of $119 million in 2023, representing a year-on-year increase of 30%, with sales reaching $1.2 billion, a 20% increase from the previous year. In its spring 2023 newsletter to shareholders, Tokai Carbon reported that its carbon black company had maintained a record surge in sales and profit throughout 2022.

Last year, the carbon black business increased net sales by 39.2% year over year to $1.05 billion, or 41% of the group's total sales, while operating income increased by 39.8% to $93.7 million. After that, Tokai Carbon concentrated on the United States, where the company has more than half of its capacity for producing carbon black.

The Surge in Furnace Black for Rubber Reinforcement to Garner Market Traction

The furnace black segment held the largest market share in 2022. The market is anticipated to grow as a result of the surge in the adoption of the furnace black method for rubber reinforcing. This process is also used to make color pigments for cosmetics, and its rising utilization among several industries is expected to bolster market growth.

Unlock key industry insights with our research report. For More Information, Enquire Now! https://www.extrapolate.com/enquire/chemicals-and-advanced-materials/carbon-black-market/87523

Growing Demand for Carbon Black in Tire Manufacturing to Propel Consistent Growth

The tire segment is likely to dominate the market share over the forecast period. Tire manufacturing is the most prevalent application of carbon black since it can be used as a filler and a strengthening agent as well. Moreover, carbon black can also be utilized on the inside of the liner and the treads. Almost 70% of tires produced normally contain carbon black.

Rising Product Demand from Rubber Industry to Continue Churning Revenue Opportunities

The International Rubber Study Group reports that following a more severe contraction (-8.1%) in 2020, the rubber demand for the tire industry on a global scale recovered by 8.6% in 2021. Continuous high demand for rubber products in the international healthcare industry and a more robust recovery of rubber products in the mobility supply chain led to a major recovery prediction for the non-tire sector, which is, 10.5%.

Sales of automobiles are rising, which is promoting further market growth. The tire business is moving towards adopting new production technology and establishing facilities along with auto manufacturing hubs, which could be advantageous for the global market.

Presence of Leading Automobile Manufacturers in Asia Pacific to Aid Market Growth

Asia Pacific is anticipated to dominate the carbon black market share in the near future. Governments are striving to make several developing countries 100% electric vehicle states by 2030, which includes China, India, among others. In India, this is being carried out through the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan, which is anticipated to increase demand for cars in the years to come. As a result, this demand would support growth in ancillary businesses such as the tire sector, which uses carbon black as a raw material.

Moreover, the market is growing as a result of the increasing use of specialty grades in inks and coatings applications and the relocation of manufacturing facilities here due to the region's access to cheap labor and government backing. The governments of several nations in the region place a lot of emphasis on providing cheap housing.

Purchase This Comprehensive Research Report for Valuable Market Insights: https://www.extrapolate.com/complete-checkout-buyal/87523

Europe Registers as Fastest Growing Region with Planned Transition to Zero Emission Cars

Europe is expected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period owing to the rising sales of electric vehicles with a proliferating number of established regulatory frameworks. As part of a comprehensive set of measures to tackle climate change, the European Union (EU), for instance, suggested banning the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles beginning in 2035. This would hasten the transition to zero-emission electric vehicles. High-performance EVs need effective lithium-ion batteries, and applying carbon black to NCM cathodes improves the performance of lithium-ion batteries, fostering the growth of the market in the region.

Competitive Landscape

The global carbon black industry is consolidated in nature with the prominent companies dominating the majority of the market share. Their extensive line of carbon black products, as well as their substantial investment in R&D operations, define these companies' market dominance.

Prominent players in the market include:

Aditya Birla Group

BASF SE

Cabot Corporation

International CSRC Investment Holdings Co., Ltd

Kemipex

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation

Omsk Carbon Group

Orion Engineered Carbons GmbH

PCBL

SABIC

SAHI CARBON CO., LTD.

For more information on the report, visit: https://www.extrapolate.com/chemicals-and-advanced-materials/carbon-black-market/87523

Table of Content:

Chapter 1. Executive Summary

Chapter 2. Research Methodology

2.1. Research Approach

2.2. Scope, Definition, and Assumptions

2.3. Data Sources

2.3.1. Secondary Sources

2.3.1.1. Preliminary Data Mining

2.3.2. Primary Sources

2.3.2.1. Statistical Model

2.3.2.2. Data Triangulation

2.3.2.3. Research Objective

Chapter 3. Market Outlook

Chapter 4. COVID-19 Impact on the Global Carbon Black Market

Chapter 5. Global Carbon Black Market Overview, By Process Type, 2018 - 2032 (USD Million)

Chapter 6. Global Carbon Black Market Overview, By Function, 2018 - 2032 (USD Million)

Chapter 7. Global Carbon Black Market Overview, By Grade, 2018 - 2032 (USD Million)

Chapter 8. Global Carbon Black Market Overview, By End User, 2018 - 2032 (USD Million)

Chapter 9. Global Carbon Black Market Overview, By Geography, 2018 - 2032 (USD Million)

Chapter 10. North America Carbon Black Market Overview, By Countries, 2018 - 2032 (USD Million)

Chapter 11. Europe Carbon Black Market Overview, By Countries, 2018 - 2032 (USD Million)

Chapter 12. Asia Pacific Carbon Black Market Overview, By Countries, 2018 - 2032 (USD Million)

Chapter 13. Middle East & Africa Carbon Black Market Overview, By Countries, 2018 - 2032 (USD Million)

Chapter 14. South America Carbon Black Market Overview, By Countries, 2018 - 2032 (USD Million)

Chapter 15. Competitive Landscape

15.1. Competitive environment, 2022

15.2. Strategic Framework

15.2.1. Partnership/agreement

15.2.2. Expansion

15.2.3. Mergers & Acquisitions

15.2.4. Recent development

Chapter 16. Key Vendor Analysis

Chapter 17. Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers

17.1. Carbon Black Market Industrial Chain Analysis

17.2. Downstream Buyers

Chapter 18. Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders

18.1. Marketing Channel

18.1.1. Direct Marketing

18.1.2. Indirect Marketing

18.1.3. Marketing Channel Development Trend

18.2. Market Positioning

18.2.1. Pricing Strategy

18.2.2. Brand Strategy

18.2.3. Target Client

18.3. Distributors/Traders List

Chapter 19. Market Effect Factors Analysis

19.1. Product Progress/Risk

19.1.1. Substitutes Threat

19.1.2. Product Progress in Related Size

19.2. Consumer Needs/Customer Preference Change

19.3. Economic/Political Environmental Change

Chapter 20. Future Outlook of the Market

Browse Complete TOC: https://www.extrapolate.com/toc/chemicals-and-advanced-materials/carbon-black-market/87523

About Us:

Extrapolate is a Global Market Research, Advisory, and Consulting firm that works closely with Industry experts from various industries to bring the latest and most accurate research reports.

In an era of breakneck change and a low tolerance for missed or misread opportunities, businesses need astute guidance to shape markets - not merely respond to them. Extrapolate helps clients develop market perspectives that drive success.

Contact Details:

Extrapolate

Phone: (+1) 888 328 2189

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Website: https://www.extrapolate.com

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SOURCE Extrapolate
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Trading Symbols: TSX: GGD

OTCQX: GLGDF

1,519 g/t AgEq over 31.0m within 8.1m of 5,375 g/t AgEq including 0.7m of 47,119 g/t AgEq

HALIFAX, NS, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - GoGold Resources Inc. (TSX: GGD) (OTCQX: GLGDF) ("GoGold", "the Company") is pleased to announce additional drilling results from Los Ricos South, within the Eagle Deposit, including an exceptionally wide, high grade intercept from hole LRGAG-22-162. The hole intercepted 31.0m of 1,519 g/t silver equivalent ("AgEq"), within 8.1m of 5,375 g/t AgEq which also included a very high grade core of 47,119 g/t AgEq over 0.7m. This is one of the best holes drilled to date within the Los Ricos district. See Table 1 for breakdown of silver and gold values.

Figure 1: Eagle + Main Area Grade Thickness Longitudinal Section (CNW Group/GoGold Resources Inc.) Figure 2: Eagle Longitudinal Section (CNW Group/GoGold Resources Inc.) Figure 3: Los Ricos District Overview (CNW Group/GoGold Resources Inc.)

"Our drilling campaign at the Eagle deposit continues to provide us with excellent results, including the exceptional hole 162 which is one of the best holes drilled to date within the Los Ricos district. This hole exemplifies why we believe so strongly in this deposit with very wide, high grade intersections exceeding a kilo and a half of silver equivalent over 31 metres. We continue to intersect exceptional metal values with the drill bit at the Eagle deposit within Los Ricos South," said Brad Langille, President and CEO. "Our team continues to work toward our upcoming updated Los Ricos South Mineral Resource and Preliminary Economic Assessment, which we expect by the end of June."

Table 1: Drill Hole Intersections

Hole ID Area / Vein From To Length1 Au Ag AuEq2 AgEq2



(m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) LRGAG-22-162 Eagle 100.7 131.7 31.0 6.07 1,063.9 20.26 1,519.2

including 105.7 113.8 8.1 19.38 3,921.7 71.67 5,375.2

including 107.7 108.4 0.7 144.00 36,319.0 628.25 47,119.0 LRGAG-22-147 Eagle 53.2 99.8 46.6 1.08 40.8 1.63 122.0

including 85.6 99.0 13.4 3.24 76.0 4.25 319.1

including 96.0 96.8 0.8 24.30 45.0 24.90 1,867.5 LRGAG-22-148 Eagle 138.3 143.3 5.0 1.13 137.1 2.96 221.7 LRGAG-22-150 Eagle 209.4 220.7 11.3 6.96 64.9 7.83 587.0

including 211.1 217.4 6.3 12.02 100.0 13.35 1,001.6

including 215.1 216.2 1.1 32.10 157.0 34.19 2,564.5 LRGAG-22-151 Eagle 194.4 201.7 7.3 1.77 74.9 2.77 207.8

including 195.0 196.3 1.3 3.48 154.2 5.54 415.3 LRGAG-22-152 Eagle 73.2 85.3 12.1 0.55 70.6 1.49 111.8

including 83.3 85.3 2.0 1.35 124.3 3.01 225.5 LRGAG-22-153 Eagle 65.1 66.6 1.5 0.35 143.5 2.26 169.8 LRGAG-22-154 Eagle 88.2 92.8 4.6 0.52 113.2 2.03 152.2

including 88.9 89.9 1.0 1.16 202.5 3.86 289.5 LRGAG-22-155 Eagle 205.0 211.0 6.0 1.93 30.4 2.34 175.3

including 205.0 205.6 0.6 9.20 74.7 10.20 764.7

and 229.3 233.6 4.3 2.79 64.8 3.65 273.8

including 231.6 232.6 1.0 8.19 52.1 8.88 666.4 LRGAG-22-156 Eagle 38.4 47.3 9.0 1.86 161.0 4.01 300.9

including 43.9 45.1 1.2 7.59 697.9 16.89 1,266.8 LRGAG-22-157 Eagle 153.1 155.4 2.3 0.46 86.9 1.62 121.6 LRGAG-22-158 Eagle 78.2 102.8 24.6 2.19 137.9 4.03 302.0

including 79.2 88.0 8.8 3.87 340.5 8.41 630.9

including 80.0 80.7 0.8 13.05 2,660.0 48.52 3,638.8 LRGAG-22-159 including 99.1 100.1 1.0 2.71 91.0 3.92 294.3 LRGAG-22-160 Eagle 173.9 175.4 1.5 2.09 176.9 4.45 334.0

and 200.4 202.5 2.2 5.77 50.1 6.44 483.0

and 214.9 227.7 12.9 2.13 70.2 3.07 230.3

including 219.7 220.5 0.8 14.30 255.0 17.70 1,327.5 LRGAG-22-161 Eagle 91.4 124.4 33.0 2.51 338.9 7.03 527.0

including 93.4 103.0 9.6 5.16 945.4 17.76 1,332.0

including 94.8 96.1 1.3 19.58 3,665.4 68.46 5,134.2

1. Not true width 2. AgEq converted using a silver to gold ratio of 75:1 at recoveries of 100%

The Eagle Deposit adjoins the Main Deposit and represents a northern extension of the previously defined Mineral Resource Estimate in the Los Ricos South PEA. The Eagle concession covers 1,107 hectares, including the area between the Main Deposit and the Company's Jamaica concession located 3km to the northwest, where the Company holds the rights to additional concessions. Drilling at the Eagle has returned the highest grade intercepts to date in the district. These wide high-grade intercepts are consistent with geophysical targets on the new concession.

Figure 3, above, provides a summary of the Los Ricos District, including both the Los Ricos North and Los Ricos South projects. The map includes an outline of the concession areas and a summary of the current Mineral Resource Estimates ("MRE") on the projects, as well as stars locating each of the deposits included within the current MREs.

Table 2: Drill Hole Locations

Hole ID Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Dip Length LRGAG-22-147 610054 2328536 1274 50 -87 155 LRGAG-22-148 610144 2328260 1312 50 -69 175 LRGAG-22-149 610231 2328101 1334 50 -50 160 LRGAG-22-150 609998 2328327 1264 50 -72 271 LRGAG-22-151 610036 2328260 1305 50 -53 258 LRGAG-22-152 610295 2328146 1344 50 -51 115 LRGAG-22-153 610202 2328299 1319 50 -72 110 LRGAG-22-154 610217 2328254 1331 50 -72 128 LRGAG-22-155 609997 2328326 1265 50 -76 304 LRGAG-22-156 610142 2328445 1312 50 -71 105 LRGAG-22-157 610146 2328029 1291 50 -56 193 LRGAG-22-158 610058 2328444 1278 50 -60 126 LRGAG-22-159 610107 2328342 1293 50 -61 177 LRGAG-22-160 610009 2328321 1268 50 -75 294 LRGAG-22-161 610058 2328443 1278 50 -74 156 LRGAG-22-162 610034 2328438 1270 50 -67 162

VRIFY Slide Deck and 3D Presentation

VRIFY is a platform being used by companies to communicate with investors using 360 virtual tours of remote mining assets, 3D models and interactive presentations. VRIFY can be accessed by website and with the VRIFY iOS and Android apps.

The VRIFY 3D Slide Deck for GoGold can be viewed at: https://vrify.com/companies/gogold-resources-inc and on the Company's website at: www.gogoldresources.com.

Los Ricos District Exploration Projects

The Company's two exploration projects at its Los Ricos Property are in Jalisco state, Mexico. The Los Ricos South Project began in March 2019 and an initial Mineral Resource was announced on July 29, 2020, which disclosed a Measured & Indicated Mineral Resource of 63.7 million ounces AgEq grading 199 g/t AgEq contained in 10.0 million tonnes, and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 19.9 million ounces AgEq grading 190 g/t AgEq contained in 3.3 million tonnes. An initial PEA on the project was announced on January 20, 2021, indicating an NPV 5% of US$295M. The Eagle Concession was acquired in October 2022 and is adjacent to the Main Area which contains the initial Mineral Resource.

The Los Ricos North Project was launched in March 2020 and an initial Mineral Resource was announced on December 7, 2021, which disclosed an Indicated Mineral Resource of 87.8 million ounces AgEq grading 122 g/t AgEq contained in 22.3 million tonnes, and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 73.2 million ounces AgEq grading 111 g/t AgEq contained in 20.5 million tonnes.

Procedure, Quality Assurance / Quality Control and Data Verification

The diamond drill core (HQ size) is geologically logged, photographed and marked for sampling. When the sample lengths are determined, the full core is sawn with a diamond blade core saw with one half of the core being bagged and tagged for assay. The remaining half portion is returned to the core trays for storage and/or for metallurgical test work.

The sealed and tagged sample bags are transported to the ALS Chemex facility in Guadalajara, Mexico. ALS Chemex crushes the samples and prepares 200-300 gram pulp samples with ninety percent passing Tyler 150 mesh (106m). The pulps are assayed for gold using a 30-gram charge by fire assay (Code AA23) and over limits greater than 10 grams per tonne are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (Code ME-GRAV21). Silver and multi-element analysis is completed using total digestion (Code ME-ICP61 Total Digestion ICP). Over limits greater than 100 grams per tonne silver are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (ME-GRA21).

Quality assurance and quality control ("QA/QC") procedures monitor the chain-of-custody of the samples and includes the systematic insertion and monitoring of appropriate reference materials (certified standards, blanks and duplicates) into the sample strings. The results of the assaying of the QA/QC material included in each batch are tracked to ensure the integrity of the assay data. All results stated in this announcement have passed GoGold's QA/QC protocols.

Mr. David Duncan, P. Geo. is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the technical information of this release.

About GoGold Resources

GoGold Resources (TSX: GGD) is a Canadian-based silver and gold producer focused on operating, developing, exploring and acquiring high quality projects in Mexico. The Company operates the Parral Tailings mine in the state of Chihuahua and has the Los Ricos South and Los Ricos North exploration projects in the state of Jalisco. Headquartered in Halifax, NS, GoGold is building a portfolio of low cost, high margin projects. For more information visit gogoldresources.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT:

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy of any of GoGold's securities in the United States.

This news release may contain "forward-looking information" as defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Los Ricos South and North projects, and future plans and objectives of GoGold, including the intention to undertake further exploration at Los Ricos North, and the prospect of further discoveries there, constitute forward looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information is based on a number of factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such information but which may prove to be incorrect, including, but not limited to, assumptions in connection with the continuance of GoGold and its subsidiaries as a going concern, general economic and market conditions, mineral prices, the accuracy of mineral resource estimates, and the performance of the Parral project. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from GoGold's expectations include exploration and development risks associated with GoGold's projects, the failure to establish estimated mineral resources or mineral reserves, volatility of commodity prices, variations of recovery rates, and global economic conditions. For additional information with respect to risk factors applicable to GoGold, reference should be made to GoGold's continuous disclosure materials filed from time to time with securities regulators, including, but not limited to, GoGold's Annual Information Form. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date of this release.

SOURCE GoGold Resources Inc.
JOHANNESBURG, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Gold Fields Limited (Gold Fields) (JSE:GFI) (NYSE: GFI) today published its suite of annual reports on its website for the financial year ended 31 December 2022.

Gold Fields' suite of annual reports includes the Integrated Annual Report 2022 (IAR), the statutory Annual Financial Report 2022 (AFR), including the Governance Report, containing the audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022, the Notice to Shareholders of the Annual General Meeting (AGM), the 2022 Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Supplement and the 2022 Climate Change Report. The relevant documents will also be posted to shareholders on or about 4 April 2023. Gold Fields has also filed its annual report on Form 20-F with the US Securities Exchange Commission and published the Form 20-F on its website.

Full media release is available on the company website: www.goldfields.com

Enquiries

Investors

Avishkar Nagaser

Tel: +27 11 562-9775

Mobile: +27 82 312 8692

Email : [email protected]

Thomas Mengel

Tel: +27 11 562 9849

Mobile: +27 72 493 5170

Email: [email protected]

Media

Sven Lunsche

Tel: +27 11 562-9763

Mobile: +27 83 260 9279

Email: [email protected]

Notes to editors

About Gold Fields

Gold Fields is a globally diversified gold producer with nine operating mines in Australia, South Africa, Ghana (including the Asanko JV) and Peru and one project in Chile. We have total attributable annual gold-equivalent production of 2.40Moz, proved and probable gold Mineral Reserves of 46.1Moz, measured and indicated gold Mineral Resources of 31.1Moz (excluding Mineral Reserves) and inferred Gold Mineral Resources of 11.2Moz excluding Mineral Reserves). Our shares are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and our American depositary shares trade on the New York Exchange (NYSE).

Sponsor: J.P. Morgan Equities South Africa (Pty) Ltd

SOURCE Gold Fields Limited
The discovery of a marble statue of the Buddha at a temple in Berenike on the Red Sea proves that cultural exchange among various civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt and India, occurred naturally due to trade between nations.

A marble statue of the Buddha was discovered last Wednesday at a temple in Berenike on the Red Sea. The statue, measuring 71 centimetres in height, was found by the American-Polish archaeological mission during the excavation of the prominent early Roman period temple dedicated to the Goddess Isis.

The latest finding provides evidence of trade between Egypt and India during the time of the Roman Empire. Although there is no evidence that Buddhism was practised in ancient Egypt, the statue demonstrates the cultural exchange between both civilizations.

"The journey on this old trade route was long. Therefore, it was not unusual for merchants bringing spices and silk from India to take their deities with them," explained Nahla Imam, Egypts representative at UNESCO and the heritage consultant of Egyptian the Ministry of Culture, to Ahram Online.

Imam, also a professor of Customs and Traditions at the Higher Institute of Folk Arts, highlighted that this finding refutes claims that cultures stole from one another, as it reflects the legitimate cultural exchange of heritage elements.

"There is a common cultural factor in all religions. The theory of structural anthropology states that humans are essentially similar, differing only in environment and geography and that all religions were found to regulate human relationships. Therefore, no religion sanctions murder, theft or lying," stated Imam, adding that she supervised a PhD dissertation on similarities between the Chinese acupuncture map and the Arab Hegamma (Cupping).

The similarities between ancient cultures and religions are pretty inspiring. India remains the most striking example.

According to Ibrahim Shalabys third book of the series titled "From the Memory of Land and River", Al-Balsam Publishing House 2020, the social heritage of India and Pakistan was a rich, harmonious, and diverse pool of cultures and religions.

Shalaby describes how a saying of Christ  "Life is nothing but a bridge, cross it but do not build on it"  decks the gateway of the grand mosque in the ancient city of Fatehpur Sikri  where Emperor Jalal-ud-din Akbar met every Thursday with scientists and philosophers, as well as religious scholars and holy men of various faiths.

He also highlights how Akbar founded the idea of the unity of all religions based on the Sufi belief of Ibn Arabi in the unity of existence.

"I hope we start searching into what was happening on the spice route in the direction from Egypt to India. We should also start searching into African trade routes because it was also a rich route of ancient trade of spice and camels. The more we discover, the more we learn about ourselves and that we are essentially similar as humans," Imam said.

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VANCOUVER, BC, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Hapbee Technologies, Inc. (TSXV: HAPB) (OTCQB: HAPBF) (FSE: HA1) ("Hapbee" or the "Company") the wearable, wellness technology company and creator of the Hapbee Smart Sleep Pad, has announced a partnership with Reputable Health to develop customized sleep routines which would be accessible through Hapbee products and are derived from A.I.-driven algorithms that will analyze consumers' sleep data gathered through the Reputable Health platform.

Hapbee's patented biostreaming technology helps people optimize their sleep, performance, and moods. Ultra-low electro-magnetic frequency biostreams are derived from compounds like caffeine, nicotine and melatonin which are delivered digitally through Hapbee-powered devices; such as, the Smart Sleep Pad and Neckband without the side-effects or dependencies that might otherwise result from ingesting the substances.

Reputable Health is an AI-powered health optimization platform that provides recommendations based on real-world data. Through their partnership, Hapbee and Reputable Health will work together to offer a comprehensive, individualized, digital wellness solution to Hapbee users, starting with sleep health.

Reputable Health's AI-powered platform will aggregate anonymized health data from wearables, lab tests, genomics and health experiments to offer personalized recommendations to Hapbee users based on their unique health goals. By leveraging the power of Hapbee's ulRFE technology and cutting-edge health analytics, Hapbee and Reputable Health aim to empower users to achieve their sleep goals, including helping users to fall asleep faster, stay asleep all-night, and wake up refreshed in the morning.

According to Hapbee CEO Yona Shtern, "Partnering with Reputable Health will enable us to continue to innovate our next-gen wellness solution with a personalized experience, optimized based on the users' own real-world data, allowing them to impact their wellness in a way that is uniquely tailored to their individual needs. We are excited to work with Reputable Health to help our users achieve their health and wellness goals."

Reputable Health Head of Operations & Business Development Dr. Kyle Bergquist added, "Our partnership with Hapbee is a natural fit, as both companies are focused on empowering individuals to take control of their health and wellness. By combining our AI-powered platform with Hapbee's unique digital wellness technology, we will be able to provide users with personalized recommendations that are based on real-world data, enabling them to achieve their health and wellness goals more effectively."

The partnership between Hapbee and Reputable Health is an exciting development for anyone who wants to optimize their wellness. Together, the two companies seek to empower users to take control of their wellness in a way that is tailored to their individual needs.

Hapbee confirms that it has received confirmation from the BC Securities Commission that it has completed the review and approved the Management Cease Trade Order effective May 2, 2023, under National Policy 12-203 (the "Policy") pending the filing of the Required Disclosure via SEDAR. Hapbee is confident that the Required Disclosure will be filed by no later than June 30, 2023. The Management Cease Trade Order is imposed against the Company's chief executive officer, and its chief financial officer. There has been no cease trade order imposed against all securities of Hapbee. The MCTO will not generally affect the ability of other persons to trade the securities of Hapbee pending the filing of the Required Disclosure via SEDAR.

Hapbee intends to comply with the provisions of the Alternative Information Guidelines as set out in the Policy for as long as it remains in default, including the issuance of bi-weekly default status reports, if necessary, each of which will be issued in the form of a press release.

Hapbee is not subject to any insolvency proceeding and there is no other material information concerning the affairs of Hapbee that has not been generally disclosed.

About Reputable Health

Reputable Health is an AI-powered health optimization platform that provides recommendations based on real-world data. It empowers its community to take control of their health and make informed decisions without having to rely on fake online reviews, social media hype and murky science. Reputable aggregates anonymized data from wearables, lab tests, genomics and health experiments, and rewards participants who contribute, enabling fair and equitable value sharing for everyone.

For more information about Reputable, visit: https://www.reputable.health

Follow Reputable on Twitter and LinkedIn

About Hapbee

Hapbee is a digital wellness technology company that aims to help people take control of how they sleep, perform and feel. Hapbee's digital wellness library of Wellness Routines utilizes patented ultra-low radio frequency energy (ulRFE), designed to help optimize users' sleep, productivity and focus, recovery, and downtime. Hapbee devices and subscriptions are available for purchase at Hapbee.com, on Amazon.com and through a growing network of select distributors.

You can learn more about how Hapbee works at www.hapbee.com/science

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this news release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This news release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Any statements pertaining to the anticipated filing date for the Filings, as well as statements pertaining the expected timeline for the MCTO to be lifted are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding the Company's ability and intended timing to complete its Filings.

Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement, and are subject to various risks, uncertainties and assumptions which include, but are not limited to, those described in Hapbee's annual information form dated May 2, 2022, as well as those described in Hapbee's other disclosure documents, copies of which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

Neither TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Hapbee Technologies Inc.
LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Henry Rose, a genderless fine fragrance brand founded by Michelle Pfeiffer, announces a Series A investment led by Sandbridge Capital. The partnership marks the brand's first external investment since its launch in 2019.

Henry Rose fragrances

Henry Rose sets a new precedent for safety and transparency in fine fragrance by disclosing 100% of its ingredients. It was created based on the strictest and most comprehensive health, safety, and environmental standards set forth by two industry leading non-profit organizations, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Products Innovation Institute. It is the first and only fine fragrance to receive both distinctions of EWG Verified and Cradle to Cradle Certified.

Since launching with five fine fragrances via a direct-to-consumer model, Henry Rose has now grown to include 11 fine fragrances and multiple product categories, including home and body. The brand has experienced exceptional revenue growth, more than doubling its new customers year over year and building a loyal community that identifies with the brand's mission. It has expanded into retail distribution with luxury beauty retailers including Credo, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom.

This partnership will be leveraged to further grow Henry Rose's retail distribution, expand its team, and fuel marketing efforts to increase brand awareness. Henry Rose recently tapped YARD NYC to develop the brand's first major advertising campaign, set to be unveiled early this Summer. The campaign will debut with a billboard in Times Square, with additional rollouts planned across OOH and digital platforms.

"We are thrilled to partner with Michelle and her inspired Henry Rose team. There is a tangible groundswell among consumers for ingredient transparency paired with timeless storytelling across the clean beauty landscape," said Ken Suslow, Founder and Managing Partner of Sandbridge Capital. "Michelle has thoughtfully captured this balance, artfully blending her pure mission-driven approach with a compellingly modern offering of best-in-class fine fragrances. We very much look forward to engaging our global brand building expertise in support of Henry Rose's already impressive growth trajectory."

"I founded Henry Rose based on my belief that we shouldn't have to sacrifice quality for safety," said Michelle Pfeiffer, Founder and Creative Director of Henry Rose. "We partnered with Ken and the Sandbridge Capital team not only for the expertise they provide as beauty industry investors, but also for their commitment to our brand's mission. This partnership underscores our shared belief that greater transparency is the future and everyone has the right to know what's in the products they use."

"Over the past four years, Henry Rose has established itself as a disruptor in the beauty industry by challenging the status quo," said Debi Theis, President of Henry Rose. "The brand's evolution to date has been extremely intentional, so it was important to find a partner that would champion, rather than shy away from, our bold stance on ingredient transparency, safety, and sustainability. Ken immediately embraced our values as non-negotiables, and we are thrilled to usher in this next phase of brand growth together."

The Sage Group served as financial advisor to Henry Rose.

For more information, please visit www.henryrose.com.

Press Contact:

Factory PR

[email protected]

About Henry Rose

Henry Rose operates on the belief that ingredient transparency is essential, and was founded to set a new precedent in fine fragrance by disclosing 100% of its ingredients. Henry Rose creates complex and evocative genderless scent experiences based on the strictest and most comprehensive health, safety and environmental standards set forth by two industry leading non-profit organizations, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Products Innovation Institute. It is the first and only fine fragrance to receive both distinctions of EWG Verified and Cradle to Cradle Certified.

About Sandbridge Capital

Sandbridge Capital is a private investment firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York that invests exclusively in high growth global consumer brands, including ILIA, Youth to the People, Thom Browne, Peach & Lily, U Beauty, Farfetch and Rossignol. Since its founding with the backing of an iconic group of consumer industry operators and advisors, Sandbridge has been strategically partnering with brands in the beauty, luxury, health and wellness, and disruptive consumer-based technology segments. For more information on Sandbridge, please visit http://www.sandbridgecap.com.

SOURCE Henry Rose
Adventurous Hare Named Skunk Poisoned by Avocado Tree

MINNEAPOLIS, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- When many Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo, they do it with tequila, tacos and guacamole, that tasty Mexican treat made from the fruit of the avocado tree. What they may not know, however, is that both the delicious fruit and the plant's leaves are highly toxic to many animals, including rabbits, birds and large animals like cows, goats and sheep.

"While all parts of the plant are of concern, the most dangerous parts of the avocado tree are the leaves and fruit." Tweet this Skunk, an adorable bunny from Tonawanda, New York, survived a potentially deadly meal after snacking on an avocado leaf.

"Avocados contain a chemical called persin, but only certain species of animals are poisoned by this fungicidal toxin present in the avocado," said Dr. Renee Schmid, a senior veterinary toxicologist at Pet Poison Helpline. "In rabbits, persin can cause significant damage to the heart muscle, leading to cardiovascular abnormalities including arrhythmias as well as fluid around the heart (pericardial effusion), fluid accumulation in the lungs (pulmonary edema) and respiratory distress. These abnormalities may result in rapid death. For those of us who like guacamole, fortunately, persin does not have the same effect on humans."

Although some animals can be poisoned by the fruit, the bigger risk to dogs and cats is a foreign body obstruction in the esophagus, stomach or intestinal tract if a large avocado pit is swallowed. Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) is also possible due to the high fat content in avocados.

While all parts of the plant are of concern, the most dangerous parts of the avocado tree are the leaves and fruit. A few years ago, Andrew and Emma Simpson from Tonawanda, New York planted an avocado pit that has since grown into a beautiful tree. Little did they know then that their home-grown botanical creation would end up poisoning their recently adopted rabbit named Skunk.

"We planted an avocado pit a few years ago, and it has grown into a little tree," said Simpson, Skunk's owner. "Skunk, who we rescued, is our first rabbit and he gets into everything. We had him about three weeks when he decided to go exploring and found the avocado tree. When we realized that he had eaten a portion of the leaf, we googled it and found that the leaves are the most poisonous part of the plant. That's when we started calling veterinarians."

Simpson called several local veterinary hospitals to find one that treated exotic pets like rabbits. One of the first hospitals he called recommended they contact Pet Poison Helpline, who started working on Skunk's case while he found a specialty hospital that could treat the poisoned bunny. Finally, Simpson reached the Enchanted Mountains Urgent Veterinary Care in Olean, New York.

"I thought, great, we've only had Skunk three weeks and we've already killed him," added Simpson. "Fortunately, by the time Skunk arrived at the hospital the medical team was already in contact with the toxicology experts at Pet Poison Helpline. They treated him right away with activated charcoal, and we took him home later that day." Skunk was lucky to have attentive owners who recognized the potential risk and sought treatment immediately. Their quick actions likely prevented Skunk from developing significant signs that would have required more aggressive care.

Skunk is May's Toxin Tails case of the month. Pet Poison Helpline created Toxin Tails to educate the veterinary community and pet lovers on the many types of poisoning dangers facing pets, both in and out of the home. All the pets highlighted in Toxin Tails have been successfully treated for the poisoning and fully recovered.

About Pet Poison Helpline

Pet Poison Helpline, your trusted source for toxicology and pet health advice in times of potential emergency, is available 24 hours, seven days a week for pet owners and veterinary professionals who require assistance treating a potentially poisoned pet. We are an independent, nationally recognized animal poison control center triple licensed by the Boards of Veterinary Medicine, Medicine and Pharmacy providing unmatched professional leadership and expertise. Our veterinarians and board-certified toxicologists provide treatment advice for poisoning cases of all species, including dogs, cats, birds, small mammals, large animals and exotic species. As the most cost-effective option for animal poison control care, Pet Poison Helpline's fee of $85 per incident includes follow-up consultations for the duration of the case. Based in Minneapolis, Pet Poison Helpline is available in North America by calling 800-213-6680. Additional information can be found online at www.petpoisonhelpline.com.

Contact: Dr. Renee Schmid

Pet Poison Helpline

(952) 806-3803

[email protected]

SOURCE Pet Poison Helpline
Charity Seeks to Reduce the Financial Distribution Barrier

HAYMARKET, Va., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Sedona, Ltd., is providing naloxone - a medication that rapidly reverses the effects of opioid overdose- at no cost to hospital nurses in the Fredericksburg, Virginia metropolitan area as well as Hampton and Newport News, Virginia. Last year more than 101,750 fatal overdoses occurred primarily due to synthetic opioids such as Fentanyl.

Naloxone nasal spray was approved by the FDA for over-the-counter distribution in March 2023 but the retail cost is prohibitively high. "(Over the Counter Narcan Could Save Lives, but Price and Stigma are Obstacles " New York Times 3/28/23). A kit containing two units can cost as much as $141.50.

Virginia- based charity, Sedona, Ltd., has launched The Sooner (Sedona Opioid Overdose Narcotic Emergency Response) Project to put the lifesaving medication into the hands of hospital professionals trained in emergency resuscitation at no cost. First responders such as police, fire, and EMT's in most communities usually receive these kits for free from local health departments, but the kits are not typically given to nurses. "Hospital nurses might find themselves first on the scene in a community setting to render assistance to those affected by an opioid overdose," says Ashley Klazas, Executive Director of Sedona,Ltd. "We aim to ensure they have the medication needed to provide that assistance."

The charity is working with Fredericksburg City Pharmacy in Fredericksburg, Virginia and Glendale Pharmacy in Newport News, Virginia to stock and distribute the nasal spray kits.

Hospital nurses requesting the kits at these pharmacies will be asked to provide proof of employment at any of the six hospitals serving these communities. Each nurse will receive one kit per year while the supply lasts. Recipients will be encouraged to keep these kits readily available in pocket, purse or vehicle glove compartment.

Sedona, Ltd. is a charitable foundation providing emergency financial relief for those impacted by a health catastrophe. Established in 2022, Sedona, Ltd. seeks to assist such indigent individuals. A large number of habitual users of illicit opioids are impoverished, meaning the Sooner Project falls within the charity's mission statement by providing both the antidote and an experienced healthcare worker to immediately assist such overdose victims. For more information, visit sedonaltd.org

SOURCE Sedona, Ltd.
TORRANCE, Calif., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Criminal IP, an OSINT-based search engine provided by AI Spera Inc., has announced the launch of a new WordPress plugin called Anti-Brute Force, Login Fraud Detector, also known as Criminal IP FDS (Fraud Detection System), on May 3. This latest development promises to revolutionize the digital security landscape by providing a comprehensive solution to detect and prevent fraudulent login attempts on WordPress websites.

Criminal IP FDS plugin provides enhanced security for WordPress users

Criminal IP, a Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) search engine, has recently launched a powerful WordPress security plugin called Anti-Brute Force, Login Fraud Detector. This plugin, also known as Criminal IP FDS, is seamlessly integrated with real-time intelligence data. As a result, WordPress, a popular Content Management System (CMS) tool used by websites around the world, is now better protected with the implementation of this cutting-edge plugin developed by Criminal IP FDS, which detects and blocks malicious IP addresses attempting to access WordPress sites.

Hackers frequently gain access to important company servers or steal private information by attempting brute-force attacks on individual or corporate sites. To avoid tracking, it is common to bypass the IP address through VPNs, Proxy IPs, or to use unusual IP addresses through a Tor browser or hosting IP address. The Criminal IP FDS plugin is powered by Criminal IP's threat intelligence technology, which collects and analyzes the latest data on IP addresses from around the world, thereby determining whether an IP address accessing your WordPress site is malicious.

Installing Criminal IP FDS on a WordPress site immediately blocks access while detecting login attempts from unusual IP addresses. Site administrators can check a variety of detailed information, including IP addresses subject to login restrictions, their geographic location (country), the reason for login restriction, and the date and time of detection in the Blocked IP Address List. Specific IP addresses can also be added to the Whitelist to allow login. Check out the Criminal IP FDS Plugin Page to learn more about its description and features.

To install Criminal IP FDS for WordPress, simply search for "Criminal IP" or "Criminal IP Brute Force" in the search bar in the WordPress Plugin menu. You can register for a free Criminal IP account and find your API key on the My Information page. Once you have your API key, you can immediately utilize the Criminal IP FDS plugin by inputting your issued API Key on the plugin's settings tab.

Since Criminal IP launched its official service on April 17, 2023, after a year of successful beta testing, this CTI search engine has gained global notoriety in cybersecurity, with 3 million visitors from over 200 countries. Additionally, Criminal IP has plans to expand its API integration in the near future.

About AI Spera: AI Spera provides an OSINT-based CTI from a hacker's perspective by developing the latest AI-driven security technologies. AI Spera defends against ever-evolving cyber threats, spanning education and research, corporate security teams, white hackers, national agencies, and cybercrime investigation organizations.

SOURCE AI Spera Inc.
LONDON and DALLAS, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- iiPay, a leading provider of cloud-based global payroll software solutions, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Global Payroll Supplier of the Year 2023 award. The award, which recognizes excellence in global payroll services, is presented by the Global Payroll Association (GPA), an independent professional body for the payroll industry.

"iiPay is thrilled to be shortlisted for the Global Payroll Supplier of the Year 2023 award," said Curtis Holmes, CEO of iiPay. "This recognition underscores iiPay's unwavering commitment to providing an exceptional client experience and delivering innovative, reliable, and compliant payroll solutions for our clients around the world. Our team works tirelessly to ensure that our clients' payroll processes are accurate, efficient, and secure, and we are honoured to be recognized by our peers in the industry for our contribution and dedication to client success."

The Global Payroll Supplier of the Year 2023 award recognizes companies that demonstrate excellence in global payroll services, including compliance, accuracy, innovation, customer service, and value proposition. The award is judged by a panel of experts from the payroll industry, who assess each company based on a set of rigorous criteria. iiPay was previously recognized as Global Payroll Supplier of the Year in 2020.

iiPay's global expertise, coupled with their advanced payroll technology platform has supported iiPay in achieving total sales growth of 400 percent since 2016. This growth rate is a direct result of continued focus on strong partnerships with its existing clients, new client wins at a rapid pace, and a talented team committed to building trusted partnerships.

"The Global Payroll Awards offer an annual opportunity to spotlight, celebrate and reward excellence within our remarkable worldwide community of payroll professionals. The Awards ceremony for 2023 takes place next month and we would like to congratulate the outstanding organisations and individuals who have been shortlisted. Well done to you all, see you on 8th June in Edinburgh!" said Melanie Pizzey, CEO of the Global Payroll Association.

About iiPay:

iiPay leverages its' innovative, cloud-based software technology offering clients an exceptional payroll experience in more than 170 countries. iiPay's solution empowers Payroll, HR, and Finance professionals with advanced data management, analytics, business intelligence, and reporting across all global payroll at any time. iiPay's relentless focus on the client experience reflects the vision of the company to simplify global payroll  For Business. For People.

SOURCE iiPay
BRUSSELS, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --

News provided by: IMPAC

Jose Paulo Martins Casaca, former MEP and Founder and Executive Director of the South Asia Democratic Forum speaking in Geneva about human rights progress in the UAE. Credit- IMPAC

On the eve of the UN review, the UAE has much to be proud of in terms of an increasingly impressive portfolio of human rights achievements setting the standard at a high level in a tough neighborhood.

The United Arab Emirates will present its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to the United Nations on May 8 2023, detailing progress it has made to enhance human rights and implement international obligations. The International Movement for Peace and Coexistence (IMPAC) is happy to report that, according to a report produced by a coalition of 53 NGOs concerned with monitoring human rights conditions, the UAE has made significant progress in promoting and protecting human rights in recent years, and that these advances have significant implications for the wider Middle East region.

President Mohamed bin Zayed has been the engine behind significant progress in promoting and protecting the rights of all its citizens and residents  the UAE is an increasingly bright light to the nations. - European Foundation for the Defence of Minorities

The coalition launched its report during an international event addressed by experts, researchers, and academics, which reviewed the efforts and achievements of the UAE over the past fifty years. The coalition also organized an international symposium in Geneva, parallel to the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, which discussed the existing and future challenges for human rights in the UAE. A symposium organized by a coalition of human rights organizations discussed the recent progress made in human rights in the UAE. The symposium was attended by experts in the field of human rights and representatives from various countries.

Eight international experts in the field of human rights spoke at the symposium, considering many aspects of the leadership achieved by the UAE, particularly in the fields of civil, political and economic rights, protecting the climate, achieving peace, promoting tolerance and human coexistence, education and training, and the challenges the UAE faces to enhance its position as a global leader in promoting a more just and equitable society.

The coalition participated furthermore in the 52nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by presenting a series of written statements to the Human Rights Council, including reviewing the UAE's impressive achievements in achieving climate justice and central role in hosting the COP28 Climate Change conference in November/December 2023. Other statements praised the UAE's developments in the field of strengthening national strategies for human rights and policies for spreading tolerance and combating discrimination and racism.

Seven oral statements were also made by coalition members during the general debate, including highlighting and endorsing the UAE's successful efforts in combating extremism and global terrorism. The significant efforts and leadership of the UAE in promoting women's rights and global leadership were also lauded, especially the work of Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, President of the Supreme Council for Women, who has pioneered the empowerment of women in the country.

The final statement paid tribute to the global impact of the President of the UAE, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, in furthering peace, promoting tolerance and human coexistence, developing greater capacity for human fraternity.

About IMPAC

IMPAC is an international not-for-profit based in Brussels and accredited at the European Parliament. It aims to build bridges between people from different cultures in the belief that dialogue is the basis of liberal democracy.

Juan Casarez

IMPAC aisbl

0032 (0) 492 429 128

[email protected]

Twitter

Links

UPR UAE https://www.upr-info.org/en/review/united-arab-emirates

UAE's hosting COP 28 COP28 UAE | United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC)

Geneva symposium: https://pressclub.ch/human-rights-in-the-united-arab-emirates-leadership-challenges-and-future-foresight/

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2068108/Jose_Paulo_Martins_Casaca_IMPAC.jpg

SOURCE IMPAC (International Movement for Peace and Coexistence)
Collaboration between Impartner, Google and Amanda AI creates an automated system to maximize Paid Media campaigns while delivering a 75% reduction in cost per lead

SALT LAKE CITY, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Impartner , the fastest-growing and most award-winning provider of channel management technologies, today announced its partnership with Amanda AI , an Automation as a Service (AAAS) company, to power its Google Ads for the Channel solution. This collaboration is fueled by Impartner's nearly 30 years of experience in providing channel solutions, along with Google's market data and systems and Amanda AI's autonomous AI system to optimize channel campaigns and results.

As the economy wavers, organizations are searching for cost-effective ways to accelerate pipeline growth. For many, that means finding ways to generate more revenue through an indirect channel. In a recent report, McKinsey & Company wrote that efficiency "means more effectively deploying resources to where they matter the most" and most companies are realizing that selling with an active ecosystem of partners is the most effective and efficient path to market.

Modern marketers typically spend over half of their budget on Paid Media Advertising, using platforms such as Google Ads and LinkedIn. Impartner's Google Ads for the Channel lets marketers bring their ecosystem of partners into the paid media strategy, increasing lead conversion by 27% while reducing cost per lead by a staggering 75%. Now, with the integration of Amanda AI's powerful engine, organizations and their ecosystem partners will be able to automate campaigns to save time and increase cost-effectiveness. The platform constantly tests keywords, ads, bids, audiences and budgets to optimize leads based on the highest probability of conversion and progress toward a campaign's goals.

"Partnering with Amanda AI has already driven an increase in pipeline conversions and tangible results for many Impartner customers," said Gary Sabin, VP of Product at Impartner. "In today's uncertain economy, Impartner is bullish on the immense indirect sales opportunity that we believe will generate revenue growth. We can't wait to show others what they're missing out on and how Impartner can help."

Xerox , among other leading companies, utilizes Google Ads for the Channel to centralize and streamline all partner Google Ads campaigns and landing pages on a large scale with partners across Europe and the U.S. The system is designed to incorporate local partner information and geo-target customers. AI tools are then used to track and optimize ad content, click rates and conversions based on real-time actions. After successfully piloting the program with 11 partners, Xerox has now expanded the partner marketing automation program to over 100 premier partners.

"Google Ads has become our first source of leads for our partners across all geographies," said Isabelle Pampelune, SMB Business Development Lead, EMEA Channels Organization, Xerox. "With the help of this solution-based technology from Impartner, we have already seen a dramatic reduction in cost per lead and look forward to optimizing our campaigns even more so with the addition of Amanda AI."

With the implementation of Amanda AI, Xerox and corporations alike will have full access to deliver consistent, relevant and compliant messaging within campaigns.

"After seeing Xerox's success with Google Ads for the Channel, we look forward to how Amanda AI's addition will propel the future of this solution," said John Lojek, Google Strategic Partnerships. "As it stands, it is increasing leads at an impressive rate with no additional effort or advertising expertise needed by its partners, proving that the best is yet to come with this new partnership."

To learn more about how Impartner helps corporations from the smallest to the largest enterprises like Honeywell, Qualtrics and Vertiv grow their channel revenue by an average of 32.3% in the first year of use alone, click here .

About Impartner

Impartner is the fastest-growing, most award-winning provider of channel management technologies, including its flagship Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Partner Marketing Automation solutions, which help companies worldwide manage their partner relationships, drive demand through partners and accelerate revenue and profitability through indirect sales channels. For more information on Impartner, which is based in Utah's tech hotbed, the Silicon Slopes, visit impartner.com .

Media Contacts:

Chelsea Rider

Impartner

[email protected]

Walker Sands for Impartner

[email protected]

SOURCE Impartner
CANONSBURG, Pa., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- InvestEdge recently announced a strategic transaction that enables the company to focus squarely on regulatory challenges facing broker-dealers, RIAs, and bank trusts. InvestEdge will accelerate investment into its ComplianceEdge platform as a result of the sale of its portfolio management, performance, and client reporting products to First Rate.

INVESTEDGE ELEVATES REGULATORY COMPLIANCE SOFTWARE FOR BANK, BROKER-DEALER, AND RIA FIRMS

"Regulatory challenges facing investment management firms are advancing at an unprecedented pace," said Jeffrey Cowley, President of InvestEdge, "ComplianceEdge makes it easy for our customers to satisfy OCC/FDIC, SEC, FINRA, and state regulatory exam requirements. This transaction allows InvestEdge to deliver the future faster for our customers and channel partners."

For over 20 years, the most prestigious investment management firms in the US have relied on InvestEdge for its wealth management platform. InvestEdge selected First Rate as the ideal partner to continue this legacy and to ensure customer success. In addition, InvestEdge added FirstRate to its list of ComplianceEdge channel partners.

As a ComplianceEdge channel partner, First Rate now can offer its customers an industry-leading investment management compliance solution. ComplianceEdge serves as an investment management firm's compliance book-of-record, via turnkey integration within any wealth management ecosystem.

"This transaction will accelerate InvestEdge's product development and cement our #1 position for bank trust, broker-dealer, and RIA regulatory compliance software," said Brandon Molina, CEO of InvestEdge, "This transaction not only focuses our company on regulatory compliance, but also provides substantial capital to invest as ComplianceEdge is primed for disruptive innovation and growth."

About InvestEdge

InvestEdge's ComplianceEdge software protects the reputation and operational integrity of bank trusts, broker-dealers, and RIAs by reducing the risk and cost associated with providing investment management advice in an evolving regulatory environment. For over two decades, many of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. have relied on InvestEdge for mission-critical software and highly sensitive data management.

www.InvestEdge.com

About First Rate

First Rate exists to help wealth management companies grow and thrive as stewards of their clients' investments. Our innovative services and solutions help financial firms create absolute transparency, enhance efficiency, and empower advisors to create more meaningful and intelligent investment strategies for their clients. It's technology as it should be.

First Rate's flexible solutions adapt to the evolving demands and complex challenges of the wealth management industry. With a proven track record including more than 30 years of experience, our relentless focus on meeting the diverse needs of our partners is unmatched in the industry.

Through data aggregation, performance calculation, client reporting, portfolio management, trading and rebalancing, and intelligent data analytics backed by a powerful AI engine, our innovative technologies enable wealth managers to grow their businesses by enhancing efficiency and providing strategic value to investors.

www.FirstRate.com

Media Contact: Alicia Boyd-Donaldson, [email protected]

SOURCE InvestEdge, Inc.
VANCOUVER ISLAND, BC, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - It's official: Canada, specifically Macaloney's Island Distillery on Vancouver Island, distils the best potstill whisky  in the world. Just announced at the prestigious World Whiskies Awards (WWA) in London UK, Macaloney's Kildara single potstill whisky took home the gold medal for 'World's Best.' This success demonstrates the resilience of Macaloney Distillers, who settled a lawsuit with the Scotch Whisky Association in April 2022.

Scotland, Ireland, the U.S.A., Japan and many other countries compete with over 1,500 whisky entries at the WWA. In taking 'World's Best Potstill Whisky,' Macaloney's Island Distillery, which has been making potstill whisky since 2019 beat 15-year-old, 21-year-old, and even 27-year-old whiskies to take the top award.

Graeme Macaloney PhD, Master Whiskymaker and President commented, "We make all our whiskies using traditional methods and hone these processes so they are the best they can possibly be. To achieve this, I studied at the Irish Whiskey Academy and visited with the Master Distiller at Ireland's biggest, most established distillery, Midleton."

Back in Canada, Dr. Macaloney fine-tuned the process and used Canadian barley to get better flavours, despite the lower yield of spirit. "It's about quality, not quantity," said Dr. Macaloney. "We use the best ingredients and equipment even though they cost more. That way, we're able to make award-winning whiskies for both whisky enthusiasts and those new to whisky appreciation to enjoy."

Macaloney's Island Distillery is not simply content to make World's Best whisky but plans to show the world how great Canadian whisky is. The distillery recently began exporting its products globally, with recent shipments going to the UK, U.S.A., Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Taiwan, and Malaysia. They've also arranged to sell their whiskies from their on-line distillery shop (www.MacaloneyDistillers.com/shop) direct to consumers across Canada, the U.S.A., Britain and select European Union countries.

About Macaloney Island Distillery & Twa Dogs Brewery: Macaloney's Island Distillery & Twa Dogs Brewery is a destination craft distillery & brewery funded by Canadian single malt whisky & beer enthusiasts from coast-to-coast via an on-going crowdfunding campaign. The Visitor Centre gift store is normally open 7 days per week for kilt-clad guided tours & tutored tastings.

SOURCE Macaloney's Caledonian Brewery & Distillery
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Kenyan President William Ruto agreed in a phone call on Tuesday to continue efforts to attain a sustainable ceasefire, Spokesperson for the Presidency Ahmed Fahmy announced in a statement.

Both leaders also agreed to promote peaceful dialogue to prevent further bloodshed, the spokesperson added.

Additionally, El-Sisi and Ruto concurred that it is crucial to resume Sudans transition to a civilian government to spare its citizens the economic dangers of conflict and achieve a secure and stable future to strengthen development, Abu Zeid clarified.

Furthermore, the two presidents also discussed advancing bilateral relations between Egypt and Kenya in various sectors such as Egyptian investments in Kenya as well as trade exchange, he continued.

Finally, the two presidents agreed to continue consultation on issues of mutual concern particularly in strengthening joint African action taking into account the vital roles both Egypt and Kenya play in the issue.

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ORLANDO, Fla., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Becoming a successful restaurant franchise is not an easy task; it takes a strong brand with an extraordinary culture that serves deliciously healthy flavors. Island Fin Poke Co., America's best poke restaurant, jumped its ranking from last year of #59 to now being ranked #29 on the 2023 Top New & Emerging Franchises list by Entrepreneur Magazine, a leading online franchise publication.

The brand continues to grow its fan base and introduce poke to new audiences and draw interest from new franchisees. Tweet this

The brand has always remained consistent and continues to provide every guest with unparalleled service and a family-like atmosphere. From curated music to only using the freshest boat-to-bowl ingredients, every Island Fin Poke Co. location offers an incredible sensory experience. This means each time a guest experiences a poke bowl at Island Fin, they are experiencing the incrediBOWL, which is personally crafted to the guest's liking. Offering chicken, tofu and spam protein options, aside from the traditional fish options of tuna, salmon, shrimp and octopus, Island Fin caters to all preferences with everything on their menu being gluten-free.

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, the Top New & Emerging Franchise list recognizes franchises that have demonstrated strong potential for growth in the years to come. These companies, including Island Fin Poke Co., are on this list and are ranked based on the scores they received in the Franchise 500 evaluation, which analyzes more than 150 data points in the areas of costs and fees, size and growth, franchisee support, brand strength and stability.

"The franchise industry is full of big new ideas, which is why Entrepreneur's Top New and Emerging list is always so exciting," said Entrepreneur Magazine editor-in-chief, Jason Feifer. "If anyone's looking to get in on the ground floor of the next big thing, they should start with the brands we've identified that are all full of creativity, innovation and accessibility for aspiring entrepreneurs."

Island Fin has also recently been named on the "SUPERHERO BRAND 500" list by FranServe. To be named on this list shows each brand values a fun and rewarding lifestyle and emphasizes people fulfilling their dreams of business ownership through franchising. Brands on this list are recognized for going above and beyond and being superheroes. This is based on criteria of brand identity, clear marketing message, industry leader, turnkey model, operational support, training and scalability.

"We're thrilled to be recognized as one of the top new and emerging franchises yet again and as a Superhero brand," said Mark Setterington, CEO of Island Fin Poke Co. "Our team and franchisees have worked tirelessly to build a strong and sustainable business model that resonates with our guests across the country, and this ranking is a testament to their hard work and dedication."

The brand continues to grow its fan base and introduce poke to new audiences and draw interest from new franchisees across America. Determined to offer more and appeal to new guests, Island Fin began offering free two-ounce samples of their most popular options for guests to try, with the goal of making poke more approachable and educating guests on the endless options of flavors. Since its introduction, the free two-ounce sample of poke is converting guests at POS at a rate of over 95%, turning people who thought they would never even try it into new poke lovers because of their amazing experience and the combination of exotic and familiar flavors.

Perhaps one of the most extraordinary and unique features at Island Fin is the absence of trash cans and dining trays in the dining room. Unlike all other fast-casual and fast-food restaurants, the team members will serve each guest their food and clear the always empty dishes and trash at the end of the meal.

"We believe that our commitment to guest service, quality and sustainability sets us apart from other restaurant brands," added Setterington. "We're getting a lot of attention from young entrepreneurs interested in franchising because of our unique franchise model, the growing trend for healthy food that is delicious and our simplified fast-casual concept."

Because their poke bowls are paramount in freshness, flavor and ingredients, the brand has been recognized and celebrated through several other noteworthy awards over the last six years as well. Earlier this year, they were recognized as a Top 100 Game Changer for 2022 by Franchise Dictionary Magazine. To be recognized, the brand had to fulfill an assortment of criteria including impressing millennials, making an impact, serving their community, creating an opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs and filling a niche.

To learn more about the brand's Ohana or becoming a franchisee, visit https://www.IslandFinPoke.com/. For media inquiries, please email [email protected].

About Island Fin Poke Co.

Island Fin Poke Co. is a Florida-based fast-casual concept known for its Hawaiian-style build-your-own poke bowls. From farm-to-fork, the brand uses the freshest ingredients to bring traditional flavors from the islands to local communities nationwide. Founded in 2017, Island Fin Poke Co. has 25 locations open, with numerous others in various stages of development. Island Fin Poke Co. was recognized as a Top 100 Game Changer for 2022 by Franchise Dictionary Magazine and listed in Fast Casual's 2022 Movers & Shakers List. For more information, or if interested in joining the brand's Ohana, please visit https://www.IslandFinPoke.com/.

Contact:

Bianca Kasawdish

Vice President of Public Relations

InnoVision Marketing Group

[email protected]

SOURCE Island Fin Poke Co.
Shoppers Can Save Big with the Hottest Deals of the Year

HOUSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Mattress Firm, the nation's largest mattress specialty retailer, is celebrating summer early with its annual Memorial Day Sale. Shoppers can get ahead of the summer sleep slump with big savings on top-rated mattresses and bedding accessories.

Mattress Firm shoppers can save up to $700 on select mattresses from top brands, as well as bring home a king mattress for the price of a queen or upgrade to a queen mattress for the price of a twin. Additionally, customers can create their own "sleep-cation" destination with a FREE adjustable base (with qualifying purchase).

May is also Better Sleep Month and the longer, warmer days of summer are notorious for disrupting a great night of sleep. Now is the perfect time to upgrade your sleep sanctuary, and Mattress Firm has your ticket to better Zzz's with their Low-Price Guarantee on America's top brands.

Don't hit snooze on these deals during Mattress Firm's Memorial Day sale (May 3  June 6):

In-Store and Online:

Get a king bed for the price of a queen; get a queen bed for the price of a twin 1

Save up to $700 2 on select mattresses from top brands, PLUS a FREE adjustable base 3 up to $499 value with qualifying purchase

on select mattresses from top brands, PLUS a FREE adjustable base up to value with qualifying purchase Save up to 50% off 4 mattresses from top brands (Queens start at $179 )

mattresses from top brands Save up to 50% off select Sleepy's products 5 for a limited time (5/13 - 5/15)

for a limited time (5/13 - 5/15) Get 3% cash back with 24 months financing on qualifying purchases6

Online Exclusives:

Military, teachers, students, nurses, doctors and first responders save an extra 10-20% off select mattresses, bedding and more7

Better sleep is within reach at your neighborhood Mattress Firm store. To find the perfect mattress based on your individual sleep needs, shoppers can speak with a Mattress Firm Sleep Expert at their local store, as well as utilize the MattressMatcher on MattressFirm.com.

For more information on how to get the best mattress at the best price, visit mattressfirm.com/sale.

1King Bed for Queen Price, Queen Bed for Twin Price

Offer valid 5/3/23  6/6/23. Get select king-sized mattresses for the regular price of a queen-sized mattress of the same model. Or get select queen-sized mattresses for the regular price of a twin-sized mattress of the same model. Savings applied to our everyday low price. Savings vary by mattress and model. Product selection may vary by store. Offer not valid on previous purchases, floor models, clearance items, final markdowns, Purple, Serta iComfort, Tempur-Pedic, Stearns & Foster, Sealy Hybrid, Beautyrest Black, Nectar, Tuft & Needle, and Brentwood Home. Other exclusions may apply. Visit a store or see mattressfirm.com for complete details.

2Save up to $700

Offer valid 5/3/23  6/6/23. Savings applied to our low price. Savings vary by mattress and model (max savings up to $700). Offer not valid on previous purchases, floor models, clearance items, final markdowns, Purple, Serta iComfort, Tempur-Pedic, Stearns & Foster, Sealy Hybrid, Beautyrest Black, Nectar, Tuft & Needle, and Brentwood Home; other exclusions may apply. Visit a store or see mattressfirm.com for complete details.

3Free Adjustable Base

Offer valid 5/3/23  6/6/23. Receive a free Head Up 50 adjustable base (up to a $499.99 value) with select mattress purchases (free queen adjustable base with minimum $899 purchase, or free king adjustable base with minimum $1299 purchase). Free adjustable base offer valid on same-size mattress purchased. Split king or split California king base purchases consist of 2 bases. For split king or split California king purchases, each customer will receive one free adjustable base with promotion, with second base at regular price. Free adjustable base offer valid on complete mattress set, has no cash value, and cannot be used as credit. Offer not valid on previous purchases, floor models, clearance items, final markdowns, Purple, Serta iComfort, Tempur-Pedic, Stearns & Foster, Sealy Hybrid, Nectar, Tuft & Needle, or Lull. Other exclusions may apply. Adjustable bases not eligible for returns; price of adjustable base (up to $499.99) will be deducted from refund if mattress is returned. Adjustable base may be pictured with furniture; bed frame and headboard not included with offer. Offer valid while supplies last. Visit a store or see mattressfirm.com for complete details.

4Special Savings

Savings applied to our low price. Offer valid only on models indicated and while supplies last. Not valid on previous purchases. Delivery restrictions apply. Visit a store or see mattressfirm.com for complete details.

5Sleepys Flash Sale

Sale valid 5/13/23  5/15/23. Save up to 50% on select products. Offer valid only on models indicated. Not valid on previous purchases. Visit a store or see mattressfirm.com for complete details.

6Earn 3% cash back with 24 months financing

Offer available online and at participating stores. Subject to credit approval. 3% cash back on net purchases (purchases minus returns and adjustments) will be paid in the form of a Synchrony Visa Prepaid Card by mail after the following offer requirements are satisfied: (1) you make a qualifying purchase on a Mattress Firm or Synchrony HOME credit card, (2) the qualifying purchase is delivered, and (3) you submit the requested rebate information and documentation. Qualifying purchase amount must be on one receipt. One rebate per qualifying purchase. Maximum cash back limit of $500 per customer. The Visa Prepaid Card will be sent to your U.S. mailing address within 6 to 8 weeks after all the offer requirements are satisfied. If the Visa Prepaid Card is not received after 8 weeks, call 1 (866) 419-4001 or visit mattressfirm.sendmyrewards.com to inquire about status. If the Visa Prepaid Card is not received, you must inquire no later than 9/6/2023 or all rights hereunder will expire. This offer is void where prohibited. Synchrony Bank is not responsible for lost, damaged, illegible, postage due or delayed mail.

Synchrony Visa Prepaid Card is issued by Pathward, N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. No cash access or recurring payments. Can be used everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. The funds associated to this Card expire 6 months from the activation date. After the expiration date, you will not be able to use this Card, and any remaining Card funds will revert and be returned to the promotional provider. Card terms and conditions apply. The Mattress Firm credit card is not a Pathward product or service nor does Pathward endorse this offer. Not valid on previous purchases. See Sleep Expert for details.

Subject to credit approval. Minimum monthly payments required. See store for details.

7Verified Discounts (Military, Teacher, Student, First Responders, Doctors, Nurses)

Get an extra 20% off select purchases or an extra 10% off Purple with offer code. Savings applied to listed sale prices. Offer code may be used only once, in connection with a single sales order. Offer not valid on previous purchases, floor models, clearance items, final markdowns, Serta iComfort, Tempur-Pedic, Stearns & Foster, Sealy Hybrid, Beautyrest Black, Nectar, Tuft & Needle, Brentwood Home, and adjustable bases. Other exclusions may apply. Visit a store or see mattressfirm.com for complete details.

About Mattress Firm

Mattress Firm, the nation's largest omni-channel mattress specialty retailer, has been helping solve America's sleep problems for more than 90 years through our family of brands. Every one of our more than 6,500 passionate Sleep Experts are driven by a common purpose: to change people's lives through better sleep. Whether browsing online or in one of our 2,300+ stores, our highly trained team provides personalized service and advice to help customers choose the right mattress and bedding products based on their unique needs. Our expertly curated selection of products include leading brands such as Beautyrest, Nectar, Sealy, Serta, Simmons, Sleepy's Stearns & Foster, Tempur-Pedic, Tuft & Needle, tulo, and Purple. Mattress Firm supports local and national charities through product and monetary donations and offers employee volunteering opportunities to serve their communities. No matter the time of night, Mattress Firm wants to help people get the sleep they deserve. Our Sleep.com website provides expert advice and helps people explore the health benefits of quality sleep, and the Sleep.com app provides free sleep tracking and personalized insights to improve sleep.

Achieve your best sleep by visiting MattressFirm.com , and learn more on the Mattress Firm Newsroom and by following @MattressFirm on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Mattress Firm Public Relations

Media Contacts:

G'Nai Blakemore

[email protected]

Amanda Yodice

[email protected]

SOURCE Mattress Firm
In Collaboration with the Los Angeles County CEO Homeless Initiative, the Investment Increases Access to Permanent Housing to Benefit People Who Need Higher Levels of Care

LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- L.A. Care Health Plan and Health Net are excited to announce they are investing $114 million over multiple years to address the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles County. Earlier this year, the County Board of Supervisors officially declared a state of emergency to expedite resources to support the unhoused.

In collaboration with the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative (CEO-HI), the investment will fund two initial strategies:

Secure leases on as many as 1,900 housing units and pay for vacancy coverage, damage repair, trash services, greenspace, maintenance, and/or pest control.





Identify the needs of unhoused people through field assessments to determine who requires assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADL) to move into permanent housing, which is especially important due to the growing number of seniors experiencing homelessness and people with disabilities.

UNIT ACQUISITION

Every year, a combination of local, state and federal funding supports various permanent and time-limited housing vouchers that are used to house people experiencing homelessness in the County. But a recent study found only 65% of people issued a voucher are able to lease a unit, and it takes an average of 122 days for those lucky enough to find a rental location. L.A.'s tight rental market is partly to blame, but so is illegal landlord discrimination against voucher holders, the majority of whom are people of color.

Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said, "When people experiencing homelessness try to use their rental vouchers in the private housing market, they often contend with unaffordable rent, tough competition, and historic and systemic housing discrimination. We've entered into this collaboration with L.A Care and Health Net during a moment of urgency, but it will expand our housing portfolio over the long term and maximize the use of federal and local rental vouchers to bring people indoors."

L.A. Care Health Plan and Health Net's investment will be used to help the County secure housing units in the private rental market to serve people experiencing homelessness who have rental vouchers. This could include leasing entire apartment complexes, expanding opportunities for shared housing, providing additional support to landlords, and more. Leases could run from three to 10 years.

"Housing is critical for good health. This collaboration will help address housing inequities, which have resulted in health inequities, and it will make the voucher system more effective," said John Baackes, L.A. Care CEO. "Securing rental units in advance will ensure vouchers are able to be used and will cut down on the long wait times. At the same time, it will give landlords a long-term funding commitment."

This model of partnership is just another example of how Health Net and L.A. Care Health Plan continuously and consistently work to improve the lives of the communities they serve and provide crucial care to those who need it most.

"Health Net is proud to take part in this critical initiative, which will continue to increase access to housing for people experiencing homelessness," said Martha Santana-Chin, Medi-Cal President at Health Net. "Together we aim to improve access to whole-person care services for vulnerable Angelenos. Health Net will continue to build valuable partnerships that connect our members to needed housing services, helping to reduce and prevent homelessness in Los Angeles County."

ASSISTANCE WITH DAILY LIVING

Most shelters and interim housing settings are designed for people who can meet their own daily living needs. However, people experiencing homelessness who need help with things like bathing, dressing, or getting in and out of bed, are often deemed too needy for placement and remain unsheltered for longer periods. The investment over five years will enable the County to create assessment teams that will visit shelters and other interim housing sites to identify people needing ADL help, as well as connecting them with caregiver help in interim or permanent housing. This expands on current county programming.

Supervisor Holly Mitchell said, "Many people experiencing homelessness with a range of health and behavioral conditions or age-related impairments can find it difficult to access various systems of care, including housing. Thanks to this partnership with L.A. Care Health Plan and Health Net, we can reduce barriers and more quickly support a particularly vulnerable segment of the homeless population get the help they need to be housed, and to thrive."

HEALTH EQUITY

Being unhoused, and the quality of one's housing, can affect the health and well-being of Angelenos. Coupled with the knowledge that many experiencing homelessness in L.A. County are people of color, L.A. Care and Health Net view this challenge as a health equity issue.

The funding for this investment is the result of California's Housing and Homelessness Incentive Program (HHIP), which the state launched with the help of matching funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. HHIP is a voluntary incentive program allowing Medi-Cal managed care plans (MCPs) to earn incentive funds for making progress in addressing homelessness and housing insecurity as social determinants of health. L.A. Care and Health Net both serve Medi-Cal beneficiaries in L.A. County, and the plans are working together to meet funding guidelines and maximize the project impact. Because the funding is based on membership, L.A. Care will be allocating $80 million to the project and Health Net will allocate $34 million.

The health plans believe this investment will improve the lives of their members and communities, so they are also funding a robust evaluation to inform future policy, programs and future investments.

Under emergency declarations recently enacted by the city and county of Los Angeles, this project joins multiple efforts that are under way to dedicate and expedite additional resources to help the currently estimated 69,000 people experiencing homelessness.

About L.A. Care Health Plan

L.A. Care Health Plan serves more than 2.8 million members in Los Angeles County, making it the largest publicly operated health plan in the country. L.A. Care offers four health coverage plans including Medi-Cal , L.A. Care Covered , L.A. Care Medicare Plus and the PASC-SEIU Homecare Workers Health Care Plan , all dedicated to being accountable and responsive to members. As a public entity, L.A. Care's mission is to provide access to quality health care for L.A. County's low-income communities, and to support the safety net required to achieve that purpose. L.A. Care prioritizes quality, access and inclusion, elevating health care for all of L.A. County. For more information, follow us on Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn and Instagram .

About Health Net

Founded in California more than 40 years ago, Health Net believes that every person deserves a safety net for their health, regardless of age, income, employment status or current state of health. Today, we provide health plans for individuals, families, businesses of every size and people who qualify for Medi-Cal or Medicare. Together with our 90,000 network providers, Health Net serves three million members across the state. We also offer access to substance abuse programs, behavioral health services, employee assistance programs and managed health care products related to prescription drugs. We make these health plans and services available through Health Net, LLC and its subsidiaries: Health Net of California, Inc., Health Net Life Insurance Company and Health Net Community Solutions, Inc. These entities are wholly owned subsidiaries of Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC), a Fortune 26 company that offers affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation. Health Net and Centene employ more than 6,300 people in California who work at one of five regional Talent Hub offices. For more information, visit www.HealthNet.com.

About the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative

The Homeless Initiative is the central coordinating body for Los Angeles County's effort to expand and enhance services for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of losing their home. Created by the Board of Supervisors within the County's Chief Executive Office, the Homeless Initiative administers Measure H and other funding to provide outreach to people living on the streets; interim housing, such as temporary shelters; permanent housing such as subsidized apartments; and links to supportive services, such as healthcare, mental health care, substance use disorder treatment, job training and employment. It also offers homeless prevention services and works to increase the supply of affordable housing. The Homeless Initiative is overseeing the County's response to the local State of Emergency on homelessness proclaimed by the Board on January 10, 2023. For more information, visit https://homeless.lacounty.gov/, and follow us on Facebook.

Media Contacts:

James Chisum

For L.A. Care Health Plan

[email protected]

714-496-0541

Beatriz Lopez

Health Net

[email protected]

305-903-6558

Christina Villacorte

L.A. County Homeless Initiative

[email protected]

213-330-6757

SOURCE Health Net
Widely considered a leader of commercial show caves in the world, Natural Bridge Caverns doubles down on stewardship and technological advances with new tour experience.

SAN ANTONIO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- After years of careful development and millions of dollars invested in design, engineering, technology, construction, and guest experience, Natural Bridge Caverns will open its latest and most ambitious tour: Hidden Wonders. Already the state's largest and most visited commercial cave, this new multi-million-dollar tour experience features state-of-the-art lighting, a sound and light show, and expansion into never before toured areas of the property's Hidden Cavern. Development of the new tour experience and careful development of new areas of the cavern has been underway since 2017 and will open to the public on May 12th.

Stunning formations within the Hidden Cavern are brighter than ever in the new Hidden Wonders Tour Hidden Wonders features a first ever sound and light show in a massive box canyon

The Hidden Cavern is a second cavern at Natural Bridge Caverns and part of the same geologic system. This distinct and unique environment never had a natural opening to the surface. As a result, incredibly delicate and beautiful formations were able to grow in a completely sealed environment.

"In developing this area of the cavern system, we have both pursued and established best case practices for working in this delicate environment. Our goal is to give visitors a stunning view of the cavern like never before, without impacting its beauty," said Brad Wuest, President of Natural Bridge Caverns. "Developing this tour has been challenging due to many things  including the depth of the new public tour area. This expansion required the construction of a 710-foot exit tunnel - double the length of anything done before  and to do so with minimal impact on the cavern. We used best in class techniques and developed new ones to make it work. We took the time to do it right. The result speaks for itself."

Fully programmable state-of-the-art lighting is one of the dramatic changes in the cavern as well as a 1100-foot-long expansion of the public passageways beginning with a stainless-steel bridge across the cavern's deepest point. Now guests will tour through an area that was only previously accessible by cavers. This addition will showcase an underground canyon, more formations, and a large 5700-square-foot dome chamber called the Ballroom which serves as an event space. A new viewing area overlooking a massive passage called the Box Canyon is now a natural theater for a unique sound and light show finale. Exiting the Hidden Wonders tour will also be a one-of-a-kind experience as guests effortlessly ride from underground to the surface on the 700-foot-long BAT (Belt Assisted Transport) through the newly constructed exit tunnel. The Bat is the world's first conveyor system ride out of a cavern. All in all, these innovative features will combine to deliver a completely new experience of this Historic National Natural Landmark.

"We plan to showcase the science behind the beauty of this once hidden cavern on our tour," said Wuest. "With Hidden Wonders' many enhancements we have an opportunity to both educate and entertain."

For more information on the Hidden Wonders Tour and future expansion efforts planned at Natural Bridge Caverns, visit NaturalBridgeCaverns.com or connect with Natural Bridge Caverns social media channels for exclusive behind the scenes photos and interviews.

About Natural Bridge Caverns:

26495 Natural Bridge Caverns Rd, Natural Bridge Caverns, TX 78266

https://naturalbridgecaverns.com/ 210-651-6101

Natural Bridge Caverns is one of the world's premier show caverns. Discovered in 1960 by local cavers, this family owned and operated natural wonder is the largest cavern in Texas. In addition to multiple tour experiences through two distinct caverns, the property features above-ground adventures of a different kind including a ropes course, zip rails, a 5,000 square foot outdoor maze, and even an interactive "gem panning" activity. More of the cavern system itself is still being discovered; the Wuest family along with their caving team are still actively exploring new areas in the massive cavern. Natural Bridge Caverns is a designated State Historical Site, National Natural Landmark, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

ASSETS:

Fact sheet, photos and b-roll.

Contact: Winter Prosapio

Cell: 512-888-6570

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Natural Bridge Caverns
Craig Zofchak joins as Director of Business Development to drive Lexsoft's North American operation

MADRID and CHICAGO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lexsoft Systems, a provider of IT and business process solutions, announces the company's expansion into the North American market with the opening of its office in Chicago. Craig Zofchak has joined as Director of Business Development North America, assuming responsibility for driving Lexsoft's operation and supporting the regional customer base.

This move is in response to a growing demand for Lexsoft's T3 knowledge management (KM) solution by law firms in North America, following their transition to cloud-based document management systems. With restrictions imposed on document sharing across different jurisdictions, law firms are investing in KM solutions to ensure they have access to knowledge documents whilst fully complying with the various international data protection legislations. Additionally, firms are actively exploring AI for the KM function, which makes T3 an attractive proposition.

"The opening of our Chicago office is a major milestone in Lexsoft's growth, and a logical business decision given the traction we are seeing for T3 in this market," said Carlos Garcia-Egocheaga, CEO of Lexsoft Systems. "We are super excited to have Craig on board, he will play a vital role in helping to establish our presence in North America. He is a seasoned legal technology professional, with a wealth of experience and in-depth knowledge of the North American market. Our customers will benefit from Craig's expertise greatly. We are looking forward to this next phase with a lot of enthusiasm."

With over 15 years of experience in the legal industry, Craig Zofchak has a proven record of accomplishments, and so is well-placed to help grow Lexsoft's business as well as better serve customers in this market. A subject matter expert in iManage solutions, Zofchak has helped many AmLaw 200, Canadian 7 Sister, and Global 100 firms and corporate legal departments to maximize their investment in T3 and iManage. This is noteworthy as T3 is implemented over pre-existing iManage infrastructure. Over the last six years, Zofchak has worked closely with Lexsoft on many client projects in Latin America too.

"I'm delighted with the opportunity to drive Lexsoft's operations in North America," commented Zofchak. "T3 is a robust and innovative KM solution, which has kept pace with the changing needs of customers, which is perhaps why in the current climate, there is so much interest in the product."

About Lexsoft Systems

Lexsoft provides IT and business process solutions to the legal sector across Europe, United States and Latin America. The company assists law firms and corporate legal departments (CLD) to improve their document management, knowledge management, practice management, and CRM processes, to facilitate business efficiency, improve productivity and reduce risk. Lexsoft T3 is a proven knowledge management solution, offering one of the most comprehensive workflows for this business function. For more information visit: www.lexsoft.com.

Media contact:

Vidushi Patel

TagusPR

E: [email protected]

P: +44 7958474632

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2062428/Lexsoft_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Lexsoft Systems
Byron Clymer, Troy Cook, Julie Gibson, Trey Humphrey, and Martyn Worsley Elevated into New Global Roles

KANSAS CITY, Mo., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --- Today, CEO Peter Clune announced the elevation of five key leaders into global roles for Lockton, the world's largest independent, privately held insurance brokerage. These leaders will be working closely with the retail leadership team building innovative enterprise-wide solutions. Lockton recently surpassed $3 billion in revenue after 57 years in business, with $1 billion of that growth occurring in the past 24 months.

Byron Clymer, Troy Cook, Julie Gibson, Trey Humphrey, and Martyn Worsley Elevated into New Global Roles

"Lockton is attracting both complex clients and talented Associates all around the world, resulting in unprecedented growth," said Peter Clune, Lockton CEO. "This new structure will be simple, collaborative and fast. The power of Lockton coming together on one global platform will help our people and clients reach their full potential."

Troy Cook will continue in his role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and will now also lead all finance and legal Associates globally. After serving as an independent board member on Lockton's board of directors since 2018, Cook joined Lockton as CFO in 2020. As an innovative finance executive, he has transformed the strategic finance function at Lockton to ensure long-term growth and private ownership perpetuation. During his time with the company, he has played a critical role in setting and executing business strategies while creating a new capital structure to ensure Lockton's momentum and growth continues.

will continue in his role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and will now also lead all finance and legal Associates globally. After serving as an independent board member on Lockton's board of directors since 2018, Cook joined Lockton as CFO in 2020. As an innovative finance executive, he has transformed the strategic finance function at Lockton to ensure long-term growth and private ownership perpetuation. During his time with the company, he has played a critical role in setting and executing business strategies while creating a new capital structure to ensure Lockton's momentum and growth continues. Julie Gibson , Lockton's Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), will prioritize expanding the reach of Lockton's "Uncommonly Independent" brand. Her efforts have been vital in highlighting Lockton's authenticity and distinctive approach as a perpetually private brokerage with a long-term focus on its people, clients and communities. She will now oversee marketing and communications initiatives across the globe. Gibson has been an integral part of Lockton since 2018, where she has successfully launched a new brand identity, internal and external digital engagement platforms, and introduced innovative approaches to communicate the company's unique story.

, Lockton's Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), will prioritize expanding the reach of Lockton's "Uncommonly Independent" brand. Her efforts have been vital in highlighting Lockton's authenticity and distinctive approach as a perpetually private brokerage with a long-term focus on its people, clients and communities. She will now oversee marketing and communications initiatives across the globe. Gibson has been an integral part of Lockton since 2018, where she has successfully launched a new brand identity, internal and external digital engagement platforms, and introduced innovative approaches to communicate the company's unique story. Trey Humphrey , Chief Legal Officer, has been an essential part of Lockton since 2000, and as General Counsel, he has played a crucial role in managing the company's legal affairs in an increasingly complex business environment. His leadership has been instrumental in supporting Lockton's growth from $300 million to $3 billion . Humphrey will lead a robust, global legal team that will work to help achieve Lockton's aggressive global goals and safeguard the company.

, Chief Legal Officer, has been an essential part of Lockton since 2000, and as General Counsel, he has played a crucial role in managing the company's legal affairs in an increasingly complex business environment. His leadership has been instrumental in supporting Lockton's growth from to . Humphrey will lead a robust, global legal team that will work to help achieve Lockton's aggressive global goals and safeguard the company. Martyn Worsley has been appointed Lockton's Chief People Officer after his significant successes over the past two years leading Human Resources across Lockton's international business from London . In this new role, Worsley will lead Lockton's global people strategy, driving initiatives to ensure Lockton wins the talent game and has the best culture in the industry. As a firm that grows one handshake at a time, Lockton has significant momentum in this area, which Worsley's leadership will continue to build upon.

has been appointed Lockton's Chief People Officer after his significant successes over the past two years leading Human Resources across Lockton's international business from . In this new role, Worsley will lead Lockton's global people strategy, driving initiatives to ensure Lockton wins the talent game and has the best culture in the industry. As a firm that grows one handshake at a time, Lockton has significant momentum in this area, which Worsley's leadership will continue to build upon. Byron Clymer , Lockton's Chief Information Officer (CIO), has been entrusted with leading Lockton's strategy to develop global platforms that empower its people to deliver clients with industry-leading advice and insight and unparalleled service. Since joining Lockton in 2018 as U.S. CIO, Clymer has been instrumental in overseeing the transformation of U.S. IT strategy and will now scale transformation across the globe.

"These newly-appointed executives have a proven track record of success at Lockton," said Clune. "They are the best of the best, and they know how to drive meaningful change and preserve our culture."

About Lockton

What makes Lockton stand apart is also what makes us better: independence. Lockton's private ownership empowers its 9,500+ Associates doing business in over 135 countries to focus solely on clients' risk, insurance and people needs. With expertise that reaches around the globe, Lockton delivers the deep understanding needed to accomplish remarkable results.

For 14 consecutive years, Business Insurance magazine has recognized Lockton as a "Best Place to Work in Insurance." Lockton was named among the 2022 Best Managed Companies by Deloitte and the Wall Street Journal, a program that recognizes excellence and honors private companies for their strategy, execution, culture, and financials. For more information, visit www.lockton.com.

SOURCE Lockton Companies
LONDON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Belize would vote to keep the monarchy in a referendum tomorrow, according to new polling from Lord Ashcroft. However, six countries  including three in the Caribbean  would vote to become republics tomorrow, according to the survey.

Findings from the survey include:

How countries where King Charles is head of state would vote tomorrow in a referendum on the monarchy - Lord Ashcroft Polls

48% of Belizeans said they would vote to keep the monarchy in a referendum tomorrow, while 43% would vote to become a republic. 9% said they didn't know or would not vote.

52% said they thought a referendum tomorrow would result in Belize staying with the Crown, while 43% thought the country would choose to become a republic. However, 48% thought the country would choose to be a republic if a referendum were held in 10 years' time, compared to 39% saying they thought Belize would still choose the monarchy.

staying with the Crown, while 43% thought the country would choose to become a republic. However, 48% thought the country would choose to be a republic if a referendum were held in 10 years' time, compared to 39% saying they thought would still choose the monarchy. Lord Ashcroft's polling found six countries where more said they would vote to become a republic tomorrow than to keep the monarchy. Three were in the Caribbean  Antigua and Barbuda , The Bahamas and Jamaica  plus Australia , Canada and the Solomon Islands .

 , The and  plus , and the . 71% of Belizeans voting to stay with the Crown said the monarchy was a good thing for the country; the remainder said either that the alternative they ended up with would probably be worse (14%) or that the process of changing would be too disruptive (15%).

95% of those saying they would vote to become a republic said this would have real, practical benefits for Belize . Only 4% said the monarchy was wrong in principle and should be replaced whether there are practical benefits or not. 74% of pro-republic voters said the monarchy should never have been part of how Belize was governed; 24% said it had been good for the country in the past but makes no sense today. 86% of them said they had been happy to continue with the monarchy under Queen Elizabeth , but now it was time for change.

. Only 4% said the monarchy was wrong in principle and should be replaced whether there are practical benefits or not. 74% of pro-republic voters said the monarchy should never have been part of how was governed; 24% said it had been good for the country in the past but makes no sense today. 86% of them said they had been happy to continue with the monarchy under , but now it was time for change. 61% of Belizeans, including 93% of pro-republic voters, agreed that "in an ideal world we wouldn't have the monarchy in Belize , but there are more important things for us to deal with."

, but there are more important things for us to deal with." Two thirds (66%) of Belizeans agreed that the monarchy "might seem a strange system in this day and age, but it works". Just over half (53%), though only 19% of pro-republic voters, said the King can unite everyone in the country no matter who they voted for.

60% said the royal family should be scaled down and its costs significantly reduced. 57% said it needed to modernise in order to survive.

Asked to choose between the two statements, 57% said they saw the monarchy as a valuable force for stability and continuity; 43% saw it as part of a colonial history that has no place in Belize today.

today. By just 51% to 49%, Belizeans said they thought the King and the royal family care a lot about Belize . By the same margin, they said the royal family did a better job of connecting with ordinary people than elected politicians.

. By the same margin, they said the royal family did a better job of connecting with ordinary people than elected politicians. 58% of Belizeans said the monarchy made them feel warmer towards the UK, and 42% less warm. 52% said they thought becoming a republic would weaken ties with the UK, and 70% said they would want to remain part of the Commonwealth if Belize became a republic.

510 adults in Belize were interviewed online in in February and March 2023. A total of 22,701 adults were interviewed in the 15 countries in which King Charles is head of state. The full report, Uncharted Realms: The Future of the Monarchy in the UK and Around the World, together with full data for each country, is available for free at LordAshcroftPolls.com

LORD ASHCROFT KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, pollster and author. He is a former Deputy Chairman of the UK Conservative Party and honorary Chairman of the International Democrat Union. His recent political books include Going For Broke: The Rise of Rishi Sunak, First Lady: Intrigue at the Court of Carrie and Boris Johnson, and Red Knight: The Unauthorised Biography of Sir Keir Starmer.

LordAshcroftPolls.com // LordAshcroft.com // Twitter/Facebook: @LordAshcroft

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SOURCE Lord Ashcroft Polls (LordAshcroftPolls.com)
Over 250 Swim Schools Come Together as a Family of Brands to Turn Ripples to Waves through Community Giveback

Streamline Brands to Match $100,000 to Nonprofit Organizations Across the Country

Streamline Brands Ambassador & 5-Time Olympic Swimming Gold Medalist Shares Must-Know Water Safety Tips

DENVER, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In honor of National Water Safety Month (May), Streamline Brands, the industry's largest franchisor and operator of swim schools, widely known for SafeSplash Swim School, has launched an educational campaign to bring greater awareness to water safety and drowning prevention.

The family of brands boasts over 250 swim schools across the country, each encouraged to support various nonprofit organizations  via fundraising, swim lesson donations, and more  under the company's philanthropic umbrella, Ripples to Waves. This year, Streamline Brands has committed to matching up to $100,000 to the school's nonprofit partners to make the greatest local market impact.

Supporting this year's National Water Safety educational push is five-time Olympic Gold Medalist and 11x World Champion, Missy Franklin, who seized the opportunity to remind everyone that swimming is an invaluable life-saving skill. Collectively, with her support, Streamline Brands aims to help combat the childhood drowning epidemic.

"Drowning is truly an epidemic in this country as it is the leading cause of unintentional death among children under four," said Franklin. "It is our goal to educate parents and guardians around the world that swim lessons are the greatest thing you can do to help reduce this risk."

With summer around the corner, now is the time to prioritize water safety. For a lot of people, summer means water activities  whether it's the pool, the reservoir, the beach, or the lake. Multiple strategies are needed to prevent drownings and layers of protection are the best way to enjoy the water, safely.

7 Simple Water Safety Tips to Review as a Family Ahead of the Summer Season:

Enroll Your Child in Swim Lessons: Swim lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by 88%. Children will learn essential skills such as keeping their head above water, knowing how to roll on their backs if they feel endangered, properly getting in and out of the pool, etc. Use Visual Cues to Educate on Water Safety Measures: Be sure to review water safety rules together as a family. Consider using pictures or symbols to help your child understand safety rules  you might consider hanging up the rules in your house. Secure Your Home Regardless of Your Child's Age: One-sided fences or barriers are helpful, but there should not be an option to get around. Four-sided fences with safety latches are the best way to prevent accidental falls into the water. You might also consider installing an alarm to alert adults of opening doors and gates. Store Toys in Designated Area: Keeping toys in a body of water when not in use can lead to a dangerous situation as children may want to reach for them when adults aren't around. Instead, have a designated bin or basket outside of the pool area. Seek Out Proper Swimwear: Kids should wear brightly colored swimwear in water so they are more easily seen by parents and/or lifeguards. Avoid colors such as shades of blue. Additionally, kids should wear appropriately fitting swimwear. Swimwear that is too big can cause extra weight and cause swimmers to tire out faster which can lead to an incident. Assign a Water Watcher: Make sure that an adult is designated to watch the water and don't assume that somebody is watching. Parents need to stay within an arm's reach of non-swimmers. Life vests are important, but never use flotation devices as a substitute for supervision. Using air-filled swimming aids can give parents and children a false sense of security. Never Swim Alone: No matter how seasoned of a swimmer you are, always swim with a buddy. Even at a public or lifeguarded beach, use the buddy system.

"By raising awareness for water safety, we can combat the childhood drowning epidemic and help families enjoy a safer and fun-filled summer ahead," said Laurie Abplanalp, SVP, Operations of Streamline Brands. "Parents need to take action now  the greatest protector against childhood drowning is getting swim lessons to help kids and their ability to feel comfortable in and around the water."

There are several brands that offer learn-to-swim programming, but there is only one brand family that couples learn-to-swim with competitive lesson analysis for kids and adults  insert Streamline Brands, home to SafeSplash Swim School, Saf-T-Swim, Swimtastic Swim School, SwimLabs Swim School, Miller Swim School, AquaSafe, AquaKids and Ripples Swim School. SafeSplash is the largest swim school in the portfolio, spanning nearly 150 locations across the country. Programs are available for all ages  6 months to adults  and all skill levels  ranging from the fundamentals of water safety to competitive instruction  with the goal of developing confident, efficient swimmers.

At SafeSplash, you can truly progress from Bubbles to Butterfly, meaning you start out by learning the basics of water safety and swimming with proper technique from the start, and progress to Olympian-level swimming. Lessons are offered year-round in a family-friendly setting, with small class sizes (no larger than four students to one instructor) and private/semi-private lessons, in warm water pools with a state-of-the-art water purification system, plus flexible schedules for busy families.

For more information on Streamline Brands and its portfolio of swim schools, please visit https://www.streamlinebrands.com/

About Streamline Brands

Streamline Brands is the industry's largest franchisor and operator of swim schools. Streamline Brands and its franchisees operate schools in 34 states today under multiple brands: SafeSplash Swim School, Saf-T-Swim, Swimtastic Swim School, SwimLabs Swim School, Miller Swim School, AquaKids Swim School, AquaSafe Swim School and Ripples Swim School. The company was formed in 2005 and has been growing ever since through organic growth and acquisitions. Today, there are more than 250 schools open or scheduled to be open across the country. Streamline, a portfolio company of Youth Enrichment Brands, is majority owned by Roark Capital, a private equity firm headquartered in Atlanta. For more information about Streamline Brands or to learn about franchising opportunities with the company, please visit www.streamlinebrands.com.

About SafeSplash Swim School

SafeSplash Swim School provides a premium, warm water learn-to-swim program throughout the U.S. that uses a proven, proprietary curriculum in a small, personal class to positively teach children and adults alike safety skills and confidence in the water that they will use throughout their lives. After opening its first school in 2006 just south of Denver, the company has grown to 147 locations across 34 U.S. states. Franchise development rights are available for SafeSplash schools in areas throughout the globe. For more information about SafeSplash or to learn about franchising opportunities with the company, please visit the website or "like" SafeSplash on Facebook, or follow on Twitter or Instagram.

SOURCE Streamline Brands
BOSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Manulife Investment Management, the global wealth and asset management brand of Manulife, announced today that Kristie Feinberg, CFA, has been appointed head of U.S. and Europe, Manulife Investment Management, and president and chief executive officer, John Hancock Investment Management, Manulife's affiliated investment manager in the United States, effective May 1, 2023.

Kristie Feinberg, CEO, John Hancock Investment Managment, & head of U.S. & Europe, Manulife Investment Management (CNW Group/John Hancock Investment Management)

Ms. Feinberg was previously Manulife Investment Management's chief financial officer and global head of strategy. She succeeds Andrew G. Arnott, who was appointed to a new role as global head of retail at Manulife Investment Management while maintaining his former responsibilities during Ms. Feinberg's transition to her new role. Mr. Arnott was appointed global head of retail effective June 2022, and is accountable for the strategy, growth, and overall success of the organization's global retail businesses. Manulife Investment Management is committed to retail investors on a global scale and operates across a diverse footprint of markets with a strong presence in Asia, Canada, and the United States.

Mr. Arnott was appointed head of U.S. and Europe for Manulife Investment Management in 2018 and was president and CEO of John Hancock Investment Management since 2012. During this time, he oversaw a more than 300% increase in the U.S. retail business's assets under management.

"We're thrilled to name Kristie to the role of head of U.S. and Europe, Manulife Investment Management, and CEO of John Hancock Investment Management, and are grateful to Andy for his leadership and commitment to growing the business by capitalizing on our core strengths across retail, institutional, and retirement to provide holistic wealth and investment solutions to our clients," said Paul R. Lorentz, CEO, Manulife Investment Management. "To support our global growth plans, Andy will now focus on enhancing value for our retail customers and intermediaries globally. Kristie will bring her on-the-ground knowledge and asset management acumen to her new role, which will benefit from her deep background in finance to align with our growth strategy."

"I'm proud to lead the U.S. and Europe businesses through the next stage of growth for our firm," said Ms. Feinberg. "The choices available to our investors made possible through our unique multimanager model, our private markets and alternative investments capabilities, and our retirement solutions for sponsors and participants bring a full spectrum of opportunity to create and build portfolios. We're extremely well positioned to share our market and investment expertise with financial professionals, intermediaries, partners, and clients and are committed to bringing value to our clients."

"Congratulations to Kristie on her well-deserved new role, and I'm excited to hand the reins to her as I know our U.S. and European businesses will be in great hands. We've worked very closely together on the transition and will continue to partner as we drive higher levels of global leverage and local excellence for our investors and partners," added Mr. Arnott.

Ms. Feinberg joined Manulife Investment Management in 2021 from Invesco, where she served as both CFO and global head of treasury and, before that, she was corporate treasurer and business controller at Oppenheimer Funds. Ms. Feinberg graduated from St. Cloud State University with a bachelor's degree in economics and from Columbia Business School with an M.B.A. in finance. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute. Ms. Feinberg is a member of Manulife Investment Management's leadership team and reports to Paul Lorentz, and she's based in Boston.

About John Hancock Investment Management

A company of Manulife Investment Management, we serve investors through a unique multimanager approach, complementing our extensive in-house capabilities with an unrivaled network of specialized asset managers, backed by some of the most rigorous investment oversight in the industry. The result is a diverse lineup of time-tested investments from a premier asset manager with a heritage of financial stewardship.

About Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management is the global brand for the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than a century of financial stewardship and the full resources of our parent company to serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Headquartered in Toronto, our leading capabilities in public and private markets are strengthened by an investment footprint that spans 19 geographies. We complement these capabilities by providing access to a network of unaffiliated asset managers from around the world. We're committed to investing responsibly across our businesses. We develop innovative global frameworks for sustainable investing, collaboratively engage with companies in our securities portfolios, and maintain a high standard of stewardship where we own and operate assets, and we believe in supporting financial well-being through our workplace retirement plans. Today, plan sponsors around the world rely on our retirement plan administration and investment expertise to help their employees plan for, save for, and live a better retirement. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com.

SOURCE John Hancock Investment Management
Brian Pool grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, becoming a successful electrical contractor whose work brings power to some of the biggest brands in the world and everything that's anything on the Las Vegas Strip. When Brian decided to venture out on his own, he had to start from the ground up. He took the risk and, with his wife, founded Century Electric. Fourteen years later, having endured highlights as well as blackouts of recessions and business downturns, he's built one of the go-to electrical contracting companies in a town whose very DNA is wired into its ability to enthrall visitors with dazzling displays of electrical light.

The Scientology Network debuted on March 12, 2018. Since launching, the Scientology Network has been viewed in 240 countries and territories worldwide in 17 languages. Satisfying the curiosity of people about Scientology and Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the network takes viewers across six continents, spotlighting the everyday lives of Scientologists, showing the Church as a global organization, and presenting its social betterment programs that have touched the lives of millions worldwide. The network also showcases documentaries by independent filmmakers who represent a cross-section of cultures and faiths, but share a common purpose of uplifting communities.

Broadcast from Scientology Media Productions, the Church's global media center in Los Angeles, the Scientology Network is available on DIRECTV Channel 320, DIRECTV STREAM, AT&T U-verse and can be streamed at Scientology.tv, on mobile apps and via the Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV platforms.

CONTACT:

Media Relations

[email protected]

SOURCE Church of Scientology International
Palestinian group Islamic Jihad announced a truce around Gaza Wednesday, after Palestinian resistance groups traded fire with Israel following the death in Israeli custody of a hunger striker from its ranks.

Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations intervened to broker a return to calm from 4 am (0100 GMT), sources in Islamic Jihad and fellow group Hamas told AFP.

Israel did not immediately confirm the agreement.

The Israeli occupation army said the last warning sirens sounded near the Gaza border at around 5:30 am (0230 GMT).

Witnesses in the blockaded Palestinian territory told AFP that several rockets were fired at Israel around this time.

"One round of confrontation has ended, but the march of resistance continues and will not stop," said Tariq Salmi, a spokesperson for Islamic Jihad in a statement.

"Our brave fighters have proven their loyalty and commitment to defending their people," he added.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh demanded that Israel return the hunger striker's body to his family.

"We stress - and as we have informed all the mediators who intervened - the necessity of handing over the body of the martyr Khader Adnan to his patient family," Haniyeh said in a statement.

Adnan, 45, from Jenin in the occupied West Bank, died early Tuesday after an 87-day hunger strike following his arrest by Israel.

A string of high-profile hunger strikes during at least 13 stints in Israeli custody had turned Adnan into a national hero, and revitalised hunger striking as a form of protest among Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli jails.

In response, from Tuesday morning, around 100 rockets were fired by palestinian groups from Gaza towards Israel, according to Islamic Jihad.

The Israeli occupation army said it carried out a number of air strikes on Gaza early Wednesday, targeting "weapons manufacturing sites, outposts, military complexes and an underground tunnel".

Israel generally holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire from Gaza, regardless of which group launched it.

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VANCOUVER, BC, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Megawatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp. (CSE: MEGA) (FSE: WR20) (OTCQB: WALRF) (the "Company" or "Megawatt") announces, further to its news release of April 18, 2023 and effective May 9, 2023, that the Company will consolidate the common shares in the capital of the Company (the "Shares") on the basis of one (1) post-consolidation Share for every ten (10) pre-consolidation Shares (the "Consolidation"). The Company's name and stock symbol will remain unchanged following the Consolidation. The new CUSIP number will be 58518J200 and the new ISIN number will be CA58518J2002 for post Consolidation Shares.

The Company currently has 87,587,318 Shares outstanding and post-consolidation there will be approximately 8,758,732 Shares outstanding, subject to rounding. No fractional shares will be issued as a result of the Consolidation of Shares. Any fractional shares resulting from the Consolidation of Shares will be rounded up or down to the nearest whole Share. The Company's outstanding incentive stock options and warrants will be adjusted on the same basis (1:10) to reflect the Consolidation in accordance with their respective terms with proportionate adjustments to be made to the exercise prices.

The Company's post Consolidation Shares are expected to begin trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") on or about May 9, 2023.

Letters of transmittal with respect to the Consolidation will be mailed to all registered shareholders of the Company. All registered shareholders will be required to send their respective certificates representing the pre Consolidation Shares along with a properly executed letter of transmittal to the Company's transfer agent, National Securities Administrators Ltd. (the "Transfer Agent"), in accordance with the instructions provided in the letter of transmittal. Additional copies of the letter of transmittal can be obtained through the Transfer Agent at 604-559-8880 or by e-mail to [email protected]. All shareholders who submit a duly completed letter of transmittal along with their respective pre-Consolidation Share certificate(s) to the Transfer Agent, will receive a post Consolidation Share certificate or Direct Registration Advice representing the post Consolidation Shares.

About MegaWatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp.

MegaWatt is a British Columbia based company involved in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in Canada. The Company holds a 100% undivided interest, subject to a 1.5% NSR on all base, rare earth elements and precious metals, in the Cobalt Hill Property, consisting of eight mineral claims covering an area of approximately 1,727.43 hectares located in the Trail Creek Mining Division in the Province of British Columbia, Canada.

Additionally, the Company has acquired an 80% interest in a company that indirectly holds a 100% interest (subject to a 2% NSR) in two prospective silver-zinc projects in Australia, being the Tyr Silver Project and the Century South Silver-Zinc Project (see press release dated August 13, 2020), an indirect 100% interest (subject to a 1% NSR) in and to certain mining tenements in Northern Territory and New South Wales, Australia prospective for nickel-cobalt-scandium and rare earth elements.

The Company holds a 100% interest (subject to a 2% NSR) in and to the Route 381 Lithium Property, comprised of 40 mineral claims located in James Bay Territory, north of Matagami in the Province of Quebec, covering 2,126 hectares (see press release dated February 3, 2021) and a 100% interest in 229 additional mineral exploration claims prospective for lithium, also in the James Bay area of Quebec covering an area of 12,116 hectares or 121 square kms.

Investors can learn more about the Company and team at https://megawattmetals.com.

For further information: David Thornley-Hall, Chief Executive Officer, [email protected]

Related Links

https://megawattmetals.com

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release includes "forward-looking information" that is subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Forward-looking statements may include but are not limited to, statements relating to the trading of the Company's common shares on the Exchange and the Company's use of proceeds and are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties normally incident to such events. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future events and that actual events or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward- looking statements. Such forward-looking statements represent management's best judgment based on information currently available. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release.

SOURCE MegaWatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp.
MEMPHIS, Tenn., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare today announced all five of its adult hospitals received an "A" Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group, a national organization committed to the highest quality of patient safety standards in hospitals and outpatient surgery centers. Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare is the only hospital system to receive A ratings this period. Results of local hospitals can be viewed here.

"We take seriously our mission to deliver high-quality, innovative and compassionate care every day," said Methodist Le Bonheur President and CEO Dr. Michael Ugwueke. "Leapfrog's Spring grades reflect the outstanding and safe care we provided to patients during the last three year rating period, which includes the many peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare systems were truly tested during that time in ways previously unimagined. Earning all A's is a true reflection of our culture of collaboration, focus on continuous learning and unwavering commitment to providing the highest quality patient care."

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare voluntarily submits Leapfrog safety surveys to monitor and track against national healthcare industry standards and benchmarks.

"We are on a continuous journey to achieve increasingly higher levels of excellence," said Ugwueke. "We hold ourselves accountable to deliver the highest quality and safest care because our patients deserve nothing less than our very best."

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare often looks to other industry standards as a means to measure its progress. For example, the Memphis-based organization is the first healthcare system in Tennessee to earn full ISO 9001 Quality Management System certification, the gold standard in demonstrating best practices for delivering consistent patient care.

The healthcare network retains a strong performance on national Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) measures. In fact, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare's 2022 CMS Star ratings are best in the area for overall hospital quality. Methodist Olive Branch Hospital received a 5-star rating, the highest possible score, and is one of just two Mississippi hospitals to earn five stars, an accolade only 14% of hospitals in the U.S. receive.

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare conducts specialized safety training for all Associates and pursues extensive and rigorous accreditations, certifications and designations that validate and reflect its commitment to improving patient care standards.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on preventing medical errors. The grading system is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. Grades are updated twice annually, in the fall and spring. Leapfrog does not provide report cards for children's hospitals.

The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog nonprofit that assigns a letter grade to general hospitals across the country based on over 30 national performance indicators that measure safety practices and presentation strategies.

To view Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare's full grade details and to access hospital safety tips, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org.

About Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare

Based in Memphis, Tennessee, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare has been caring for patients and families regardless of their ability to pay for more than 100 years. Guided by roots in the United Methodist Church and founded in 1918 to help meet the growing need for quality healthcare in the greater Memphis area, MLH has grown from one hospital into a comprehensive healthcare system with 13,000 Associates supporting six hospitals, including nationally ranked Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, ambulatory surgery centers, outpatient facilities, hospice residence and physician and specialty practices serving communities across the Mid-South. From transplants and advanced heart procedures to expert neurology services and compassionate cancer care, MLH offers clinical expertise with a focus on improving every life we touch.

About The Leapfrog Group

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps for patient safety. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog's other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. For more, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for our newsletter.

SOURCE Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare
Robin Ferrer '00 recognized for his accomplishments in health care leadership

HERSHEY, Pa., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Milton Hershey School has named Robin Ferrer '00 as the 2023 Alumnus of the Year in recognition of his accomplishments in health care leadership.

Robin Ferrer, Milton Hershey School's 2023 Alumnus of the Year

"Robin has dedicated his career to recognizing the needs of his patients and staff and leading with his expertise to bring solutions to the table. He is resourceful, thoughtful and committedall qualities exemplified by distinguished graduates of Milton Hershey School who are named Alumnus of the Year," said MHS President Pete Gurt '85. "Many of our current students are interested in pursuing health care careers through the school's Career and Technical Education program. They can look to Robin as an example of how hard work and determination in the classroom can lead to making a tremendous impact."

His passion for lending a hand to others and interest in the health care field started as a high schooler after he enrolled in an introductory health science class. After graduating from MHS, Ferrer enrolled at Penn State University where he earned a bachelor's degree in nursing and started his career as a registered nurse. He completed clinical rotations at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, before returning to his hometown of New York City to continue his career. Having demonstrated leadership and providing quality health care, Ferrer later went back to school to earn master's degrees in business administration and nursing from the College of Mount Saint Vincent.

Ferrer has spent his career on the frontlines of the health care fieldfrom beginning as a bedside nurse at New York University and NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals, to now serving as system vice president of emergency services at Mount Sinai Health System. He also continues to give back to the profession and the next generation of health care providers by teaching business and health care management classes at the College of Mount Saint Vincent.

When the COVID-19 pandemic drastically impacted the world, Ferrer was in the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States as director of operations at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He used his education, skills and expertise to lead his employees, manage various areas of the hospital system, and develop hospital response strategy, while still providing the high-quality care his patients and staff depended on during uncertain times.

Beyond his dedication as a health care leader, Ferrer makes time to serve his community. He remains connected to MHS by returning to Hershey to visit classrooms and meet with students. Additionally, he and his wife created the Robin and Zuleika Ferrer Health Care Leadership Award, an annual scholarship for a graduating MHS senior who plans to pursue continued education in health care.

"Milton Hershey School saw something in me that I never saw in myself. Because of their involvement and contributions to my life, I am the person I am today," said Ferrer. "My experience at MHS is the most significant and transformative thing that ever happened to me. I have an enormous responsibility to drive that mission forward and do everything within my power to make Milton Hershey School proud."

Ferrer was awarded the MHS Alumni Achievement Award for Career Accomplishment in 2021, and he is the first Hispanic alumnus to receive the Alumnus of the Year Award. He will be honored during the MHS Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, June 11, 2023.

More information about Milton Hershey School can be found at mhskids.org.

ABOUT THE ALUMNUS/ALUMNA OF THE YEAR AWARD

The Milton Hershey School Alumnus/Alumna of the Year Award began in 1954. Recipients of the award have demonstrated humanitarianism and exemplary service to others, achieved distinguished service in their careers, and exhibited high standards of achievements, both personally and professionally.

ABOUT MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL

Milton Hershey School is one of the world's best private schools, where qualifying students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade live on campus and receive an exceptional educational experiencewith all costs covered. For more information, visit mhskids.org.

SOURCE Milton Hershey School
WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- During a ceremony at NASA Headquarters in Washington Wednesday, the Czech Republic became the 24th country to sign the Artemis Accords. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson participated in the signing ceremony for the agency and Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of the Czech Republic.

The Artemis Accords establish a practical set of principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations, including those participating in NASA's Artemis program.

Foreign Affairs Minister for the Czech Republic, Jan Lipavsky, left, signs the Artemis Accords, as NASA Administrator Bill Nelson looks on, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, at The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington DC. The Czech Republic is the twenty fourth country to sign the Artemis Accords, which establish a practical set of principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations participating in NASAs Artemis program.

"We are living through a golden age of exploration. Gone are the days of one nation exploring the cosmos alone," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "Along with our fellow Artemis Accords signatories, the United States and Czech Republic are setting a standard for 21st century exploration and use of space. As we explore together, we will explore peacefully, safely, and transparently."

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Jennifer R. Littlejohn and Czech Ambassador to the United States Miloslav Stasek also took part in the ceremony.

"I see it as a historic signature. We are joining our likeminded partners in advancing peaceful, cooperative, and sustainable exploration of space," said Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky. "Czechia's space ecosystem has a lot to offer. We believe that this signature will kick-start the development of an institutional and industrial cooperation within the Artemis community, as well as directly between Czechia and the U.S., in the field of space activities."

NASA, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, established the Artemis Accords in 2020 along with the other eight original signatories. The Artemis Accords reinforce and implement the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. They also reinforce the commitment by the United States and partner nations to the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.

"The Artemis Accords guide us towards a future of optimism and promise," stated Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Jennifer R. Littlejohn. "They encourage cooperation and responsible behavior in space. This is a vital foundation for space exploration. Congratulations to the Czech Republic!"

Additional countries will sign the Artemis Accords in the months and years ahead, as NASA continues to work with its international partners to establish a safe, peaceful, and prosperous future in space. Working with both new and existing partners will add new energy and capabilities to ensure the entire world can benefit from our journey of exploration and discovery.

Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemisaccords

SOURCE NASA
Navajo-Owned Energy Company Commemorates the Success of its First 10 Years and Exceptional Growth of Operations Since Formation

FARMINGTON, N.M., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC) today celebrated its tenth year of successful operations since its formation on May 3, 2013. NTEC was established by President Ben Shelly and leaders of the 22nd Navajo Nation Council in an innovative exercise of sovereignty to assert control over the Navajo Nation's abundant natural resources. The immediate goal was to prevent the devastating impact to the Nation of potential closures of the Navajo Mine and Four Corners Power Plant. NTEC rapidly accomplished this objective through the purchase of the Navajo Mine in 2013.

NTEC has grown exponentially since then with the acquisition of a seven percent stake in Four Corners Power Plant in 2018 and the purchase of three mines in Montana and Wyoming in 2019. In its first ten years, the company grew from ten employees to 1,300 and expanded operations to four states with national and international sales. Through royalties, taxes, wages, and community programs, NTEC contributed more than $121 million to the Navajo Nation in 2022 and provides more than 30% of the Navajo Nation's annual General Fund.

"We are incredibly proud of NTEC and the work it does to provide economic and social opportunities otherwise not available to the Navajo people. For the past 10 years, we have fulfilled the company's founding goal of promoting the development of the Navajo Nation's resources to ensure the economic, financial, social, and cultural well-being of the Navajo People and the Navajo Nation," said Vern Lund, Chief Executive Officer for NTEC. "We are committed to continuing this mission through a focus on safe and clean energy practices, while exploring renewable options that position the Navajo Nation for future success."

The celebrations took place today at the Navajo Mine, which is itself marking 60 years of successful operations! NTEC thanks the Council Delegates and local Chapter Representatives for helping us celebrate the event - ahehee'.

About NTEC

NTEC is an autonomous single-member limited liability company, organized under the laws of the Navajo Nation, which owns mines in Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming. The mission of NTEC is to be a reliable, safe producer of coal, while diversifying the Navajo Nation's energy resources to create economic sustainability for the Nation and the Navajo people. NTEC's sole shareholder is the Navajo Nation.

NTEC is a leader in safety and reclamation and was recognized with the Sentinels of Safety award from the National Mining Association, the Safety Award for Large Surface Mine from the Rocky Mountain Coal Institute, and the National Award for Excellence in Surface Mining Reclamation from the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement in 2022. For more information about NTEC, visit www.navenergy.com.

SOURCE Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC)
OSLO, Norway, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Nel announced its plans to build a new automated gigawatt electrolyser manufacturing facility in Michigan. When fully developed, the facility will employ more than 500 people and be among the largest electrolyser manufacturing plants in the world.

The announcement was made at the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington with Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and the Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer.

"We're thrilled to bring home up to $400 million in investment from Nel Hydrogen creating more than 500 good-paying, clean energy jobs right here in Michigan," says Governor Whitmer.

"Earlier this year, I went on an economic mission to Europe to show the world what Michigan has to offer, and as a result of our efforts on the trip, we secured an investment from Nel to continue building on our leadership in cars, chips, and clean energy. As a major player in all three of these sectors, Michigan is serious about leading hydrogen development and winning today's investment proves that the best manufacturing in the world happens right here in Michigan." she says.

Over the past year, Nel has assessed a wide range of states for the location of its new manufacturing facility, and the company has now concluded that Michigan is the best option.

"The choice of Michigan is based on an overall assessment of what the state can offer in terms of financial incentives, access to a highly skilled workforce, and cooperation with universities, research institutions, and strategic partners. I will also highlight the personal engagement from Governor Whitmer and her competent and service-minded team," says Nel's CEO, Hakon Volldal.

Volldal emphasizes that the short distance to General Motors, headquartered in Detroit, has played a decisive role in the choice of state. The two companies collaborate to develop further and improve Nel's PEM electrolyser technology.

"Having Nel's new facility close to our home base of HYDROTEC development, in southeastern Michigan, will help us more quickly accelerate our electrolyzer collaboration," says GM executive director of HYDROTEC Charlie Freese.

"This technology is critical in helping bring down costs, while also creating a more sustainable hydrogen supply," he says.

When fully developed, the Michigan facility will have a production capacity of up to 4GW of Alkaline and PEM electrolysers. Going forward, Nel will build on its fully automated Alkaline manufacturing concept invented at Herya in Norway. Similarly, the company's expansion of the facility in Wallingford will play a critical role in creating a blueprint for scaling up the production of PEM electrolysers.

Nel's PEM electrolysers have been developed through decades of support from the US Department of Energy.

"Nearly two decades of research investment through the Department of Energy's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Office has led to technological advances that will now be transitioned to gigawatt scale in our Michigan facility," says Volldal.

The factory will be built in steps to match supply with demand. A final investment will require a separate decision.

For additional information, please contact:

Kjell Christian Bjrnsen, CFO, +47 917 02 097

Lars Nermoen, Head of Communications, +47 902 40 153

About Nel ASA | www.nelhydrogen.com

Nel has a history tracing back to 1927 and is today a leading pure play hydrogen technology company with a global presence. The company specializes in electrolyser technology for production of renewable hydrogen, and hydrogen fueling equipment for road-going vehicles. Nel's product offerings are key enablers for a green hydrogen economy, making it possible to decarbonize various industries such as transportation, refining, steel, and ammonia.

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE NEL ASA
NEWARK, N.J., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Honor Society (NHS) and Newark Public Schools are excited to announce that Jeremias Castillo, a senior at Technology High School is the $25,000 National Honor Society Scholarship winner. NHS is supported by its parent organization, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), which also administers the National Student Council.

"This moment was huge," said Jeremias Castillo, winner of the NHS Scholarship. "Often it feels like the little things you're putting together aren't significant, but here everything came together to affirm that what I have been doing has made an impact. I've been able to use the various platforms to speak about leveling out health disparities - my passion. It felt like everything up to this moment has been worth it, and everything is working toward bettering my community."

Superintendent of Schools Roger Len said, "We are extremely proud of Jeremias' accomplishments as he is an embodiment of the greatness of the students in our high schools in Newark. His family, Technology High School, and the entire city of Newark are proud of him too."

From a pool of 13,000 applicants, Jeremias Castillo distinguished himself with his unwavering commitment to enacting positive change in the American healthcare system. Jeremias' motivation stems from the recent passing of his father, which painfully personalized the health disparities affecting underrepresented groups. Since then, he has been fighting to ensure everyone has access to the compassionate healthcare they deserve. As the vice president of his NHS chapter, he volunteers weekly at Clara Maass Medical Center and has collected over 2,000 toiletry bags for the Newark Department of Health and Welfare. Jeremias has inspired others to act by sharing their story and passion for service across many platforms, from speaking at a food-insecurity symposium to appearing on Steve Adubato's Lessons in Leadership, reaching over 3.6 million households. He will continue his studies in neuroscience and political science at Harvard as a proud member of the Class of 2027, pursuing his goal of creating a more equitable healthcare system for all.

NHS awarded more than $2 million in scholarships to 600 high school seniors this year.

"These phenomenal NHS students are on the cusp of graduating with the highest honors and will leave behind a legacy of servant leadership that has transformed their schools and communities," said NASSP President Aaron Huff.

Media Contact:

Nancy Deering

[email protected]

SOURCE Newark Board of Education
Seasoned legal officer brings regulatory expertise, visionary leadership and unstoppable dedication to

small business customers

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- NEXT Insurance , a leading digital insurtech company transforming small business insurance, today announced the promotion of Rachel Jrade-Rice to General Counsel. Jrade-Rice joined NEXT in 2020 as Insurance Regulatory Counsel and was quickly promoted to Head of Regulatory Affairs and then again to Associate General Counsel of Regulatory Affairs. In January, she took on the role of interim General Counsel and provided trusted strategic counsel and leadership on projects related to financial solidity, partnership growth, and product refinement, in addition to delivering automation and accessibility improvements to the legal team.

"Rachel quickly rose through the ranks at NEXT, proving time and again her ability to move the needle and impact innovative change for our small business customers," said Teodora Gouneva, CFO at NEXT. "She did an excellent job taking on the additional responsibilities of interim General Counsel, and I am confident that Rachel's extensive legal and insurance expertise and passion to lead makes her the right person for this role. I am looking forward to working with her in the years ahead."

Jrade-Rice brings over a decade of legal experience and has managed billion-dollar programs, driving regulatory strategy, supporting innovative product design and guiding critical counsel for complex laws and statutes. Before joining NEXT, she held the position of Assistant Attorney General in the Tennessee Attorney General's office and served as the Assistant Commissioner at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance.

"I made the decision to join NEXT because I was inspired by its mission and innovative tech-forward approach to insurance," said Rachel Jrade-Rice, general counsel at NEXT Insurance. "NEXT puts small businesses at the heart of everything it does, and being part of a mission-driven company was important to me. I have an incredible team, and I feel privileged to work with them every day. I am honored to take on this role and continue to help small businesses thrive."

In her new role, she will focus on improving coverage transparency and claims processing for NEXT's small business customers, drive topline growth, scale company operations and continue to build NEXT's legal team.

If you are a legal professional with a passion for small businesses and are interested in joining the team at NEXT, please visit our career page to see open positions.

About NEXT Insurance

NEXT Insurance is transforming small business insurance with simple, digital and affordable coverage tailored to the self-employed. Trusted by over 450,000 business owners, NEXT offers policies that are easy to buy and provides 24/7 access to Live Certificates of Insurance , Additional Insured, and more, with no extra fees. Revolutionizing a historically complicated insurance industry, NEXT utilizes AI and machine learning to simplify the purchasing process and provide more affordable coverage. Founded in 2016, the company is headquartered in Palo Alto, has received a total of $881 million in venture capital funding, is rated "A- Excellent" by AM Best and has been recognized by CNBC Disruptor 50 , Forbes Fintech 50 , Inc.'s Best-Led Companies , and Forbes Best Startup Employers . For more information, visit NEXTInsurance.com . To learn more about partnering with NEXT and the value of embedded insurance, please visit NEXT's partner page . Stay up to date on the latest with NEXT on Twitter , LinkedIn , Facebook and our blog .

Media Contact

Inkhouse PR for NEXT Insurance

[email protected]

SOURCE NEXT Insurance
WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The voice of more than 45,000 current and former National Guard officers applauds bipartisan House legislation that would ensure some of America's most talented and experienced military space professionals can keep defending the nation.

Introduced yesterday by Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., and Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., the Space National Guard Establishment Act (H.R. 3048) would create a Space National Guard under the Space Force.

The legislation is co-sponsored by Rep. Jack Bergman R-Mich., Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark.

The action follows a similar bill (S. 503) introduced in the Senate by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R- Fla.

Lawmakers considered the proposal in the 117th Congress; it passed the House but never came to a vote in the Senate.

"Creating a new military component is not something Congress does very quickly; it takes time and bipartisan support," said retired Brig. Gen. J. Roy Robinson, the NGAUS president. "That's why it's so heartening to see that a broad coalition in both the House and Senate share our determination to establish a Space National Guard."

"A Space National Guard is the only efficient, inexpensive way to enhance our Space Force," Robinson said. "It requires no new personnel, equipment or facilities  just new uniform name tapes and some new signs."

The National Guard Bureau puts the cost at about $250,000.

That would cover the full price to move 1,000 space professionals in 16 Air National Guard units across eight states and territories to the new component. They currently provide 60% of the military's space electronic warfare capability, the only mobile, survivable missile-warning capability and 100% of the surge capacity.

Guard space units are in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, New York, Ohio and Guam.

Robinson said those who oppose a Space National Guard greatly inflate the cost. This includes the White House Office of Management and Budget.

OMB has cited a 2020 Congressional Budget Office report that incorrectly assumed every state and territory would have units in a Space National Guard that would total as many as 5,800 personnel. It estimated annual costs at up to $500 million a year.

"The CBO totals are based on false assumptions developed with no National Guard input," the NGAUS president said. "The Guard has never advocated a 54-state-and-territory Space National Guard. A Space Guard could grow beyond 1,000 personnel. But that would be up to Space Force leaders."

Robinson said the association will continue to educate lawmakers and the White House on the real costs of a Space National Guard and the high price of leaving Guard space professionals out of the Space Force.

"Nearly half of the Guard's part-time space professionals work full time in civilian aerospace or other high-tech industries," Robinson added. "These are talented, coveted people with valuable connections to industry."

But now they're "orphaned" in the Air Force, a service no longer conducting space missions, he said. All other Air Force space units have migrated to the Space Force, he said.

"This complicates acquiring needed resources and professional development," Robinson said. "It will also likely drive many out of the military, which would be a great loss for the nation."

The legislation corrects this misalignment, the bill's authors say.

"Housing these critical capabilities within the Air National Guard is not a long-term solution," Crow said in a release. "Establishing a Space National Guard would improve communication, better support personnel, and maintain our critical defense capabilities. Now is the time to create a Space National Guard."

Added Lamborn: "I am encouraged to see more momentum and support from national defense leaders this year as we restart this conversation. Our bipartisan, economical and sensible proposal for the creation of a Space National Guard is in the best interest of our national security. I look forward to driving the Space National Guard establishment conversation toward a positive solution."

The Senate legislation is co-sponsored by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.

Reporters, Editors & Producers: Retired Brig. Gen. J. Roy Robinson is available for interviews or to appear as a subject matter expert on issues related to the National Guard. Contact John Goheen at 202-408-5882 to schedule an interview or appearance.

About NGAUS: The association includes more than 45,000 current or former Guard officers. It was created in 1878 to provide unified National Guard representation in Washington. In their first productive meeting after Reconstruction, militia officers from the North and South formed the association with the goal of obtaining better equipment and training by educating Congress on Guard requirements. Today, 145 years later, NGAUS has the same mission.

SOURCE National Guard Association of the U.S.
A strategic relationship boosting skills and talent essential for decarbonization and the global energy transition

ATLANTA, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- NIIT Limited (NIIT), a global talent development corporation and leading provider of managed training services, announced today it has been selected as a strategic partner of the EIT InnoEnergy Skills Institute.

EIT InnoEnergy is the innovation engine for sustainable energy supported by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, a body of the European Union (EU). The company operates at the center of the energy transition and is the leading innovation engine in sustainable energy, bringing the technology and skills required to accelerate global decarbonization efforts. With access to top subject matter experts from stakeholders across academia, industry, and government, EIT InnoEnergy has deep know-how and experience in all aspects of energy transition innovation, business models, regulation, energy markets, and industrialization.

NIIT has been selected as a strategic partner of the EIT InnoEnergy Skills Institute. Tweet this

The launch of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute is an evolution of EIT InnoEnergy's highly successful European Battery Alliance (EBA) Academy, expanding to also include green hydrogen and solar photovoltaics (PV) value chains. Its agile, modular approach to training will deliver the latest trends and training with adaptable, customizable courses and programs that meet specific needs, regardless of location, size, or technology. Greater numbers benefitting from industry-leading training is a vital step in equipping the global workforce with the knowledge and expertise needed to decarbonize the energy economy.

NIIT has been chosen as a strategic partner of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute, providing services including onboarding, learning journey creation, training of teaching staff, and ensuring local training nuances are catered for. NIIT and EIT InnoEnergy will work together on thought leadership initiatives as part of the strategic relationship. Being a top tier education provider, NIIT brings global market reach, a large and diverse customer base, and unparalleled operational excellence and capacity to achieve quality at scale along with its strong balance sheet, cash position and global credibility. The main goal of the partnership is to leverage NIIT's presence and capabilities as a global talent development leader to rapidly scale and create the highly skilled and certified human capital essential for rapid transition to Green Energy and become the thought leader and partner of choice for corporations and governments in Europe and globally.

Decarbonization is the biggest opportunity of the century, triggering an unprecedented race for talent and skills globally. The transition to net zero will require retraining up to 18 million workers around the world. For example, between 2015 and 2030, the amount of solar PV jobs is expected to quadruple. With 2023 marking the EU's Year of Skills, the launch coincides with wider governmental initiatives to address the growing concerns about future-proofing the workforce.

The InnoEnergy Skills Institute will benefit from NIIT's global reach and infrastructure, ensuring it can deploy services at pace and scale, accelerating training across Europe, Asia, and North America. NIIT will also drive the go-to-market program to take the offering to a large variety of industries and companies across the green energy value chain globally. NIIT will also create and manage a network of local training partners across several countries to further accelerate adoption.

Oana Penu, Director of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute said: "Industries central to the energy transition will see a dramatic uplift in the need for new skills and expertise to drive progress. In fact, in the battery workforce alone, more than 700 new job types will come into play as required skillsets highly diversify. So, it is not a surprise that 71% of CEOs already cite skills shortages as their most significant business challenge. We're dedicated to supporting green innovations of the future and ensuring there is a trained workforce to achieve climate goals. Our strategic learning services partnership with NIIT will leverage its leadership in global talent development to help make this a reality."

EIT InnoEnergy's leading role in key industrial alliances spanning energy, storage, green hydrogen, and PV mean it is perfectly placed to expedite the upskilling of workers across the energy industry. Through the InnoEnergy Skills Institute, businesses, universities, and training providers can benefit from courses supported by a range of sector experts, alliances, and partnerships.

Sailesh Lalla, Chief Business Officer at NIIT said: "Decarbonization is the next industrial revolution leading to an unprecedented demand for skilled clean tech professionals. We are launching a pivotal initiative in Green Energy Skills with this partnership. With EIT InnoEnergy's domain expertise and industry knowledge and NIIT's education services industry leadership, our goal is to ensure that the InnoEnergy Skills Institute is recognized as a pre-eminent and leading destination and thought leader for decarbonization and green skills across Europe, North America, and Asia. With the combined strengths of both companies, we aspire to create a world-leading solution to the burning need for upskilling and reskilling across industries to create a flexible workforce that is adaptable to changing requirements."

About EIT InnoEnergy

EIT InnoEnergy operates at the centre of the energy transition and is the leading innovation engine in sustainable energy, bringing the technology and skills required to accelerate the green deal, progress towards Europe's decarbonisation goal, and improve energy security.

Ranked as Europe's top impact investor in cleantech in 2022, named in 2023 as a top 10 active deeptech investor by Sifted, and recognised globally as the most active sustainable energy investor, EIT InnoEnergy backs innovations across a range of areas. These include energy storage, transport and mobility, renewables and sustainable buildings and cities  leveraging its trusted ecosystem of 1200+ partners and 29 shareholders.

The 180+ portfolio companies are on track to generate 72.8 billion in revenue and save 1.1G tons of CO2e annually by 2030. Collectively, these companies have raised 8 billion in investment to date.

EIT InnoEnergy is the driving force behind three strategic European initiatives which include the European Battery Alliance (EBA), the European Green Hydrogen Acceleration Centre (EGHAC) and the European Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance .

EIT InnoEnergy was established in 2010 and is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology ( EIT ), an independent EU body set up in 2008 to drive innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe. Since its inception, EIT InnoEnergy has screened more than 7,000 start-ups, launched more than 300 products to market and overseen its portfolio companies filing 290+ patents. Today, EIT InnoEnergy has a 200+ strong team with offices across Europe and in Boston, US. www.innoenergy.com

About NIIT

NIIT Limited is a leading global talent development corporation that builds skilled human capital and enables workforce talent worldwide. At NIIT's Corporate Learning Group, we're transforming the way the world learns, for the better. That's why the world's best-run learning functions across 30 countries trust us with their learning and talent. Since 1981, we have helped leading companies transform their learning ecosystems while increasing the business value of learning. Our comprehensive, high-impact managed learning solutions weave together the best of learning theory, technology, operations, and services to enable a thriving workforce.

To know more visit us at www.niit.com or write to us at [email protected]. Follow us on twitter @NIITMTS.

SOURCE NIIT
At least 127 people have died as floods and landslides engulfed several parts of Rwanda after torrential rains, destroying homes and cutting off roads, the presidency said Wednesday.

Images posted online by the state broadcaster showed rivers of mud sweeping through the streets as residents scrambled for safety.

"Rescue interventions are ongoing in the most affected districts... in order to secure endangered citizens," the office of President Paul Kagame said in a statement.

"My deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims of the landslides and floods that occurred last night in the Western, Northern and Southern Provinces," Kagame said in a separate statement on Twitter.

"We are doing everything within our means to address this difficult situation. I am personally following up the response closely."

Earlier, the state-run Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA) said 115 people had died in the Western and Northern Provinces and warned that the floodwaters were still rising "causing a threat to more lives".

Most of the deaths occurred in Western Province which borders Lake Kivu, it said, adding that homes and infrastructure had been swept away and roads closed.

"I was at home with my children but we escaped successfully before it collapsed," said Jane Munyemana, a resident in the town of Rubavu in Western Province.

"We plan to remove the floodwaters and sleep in it tonight but we are worried that it may rain again and destroy whatever is remaining," she told AFP.

Other parts of East Africa have been battered by rains and flooding, including Uganda where six people have been reported dead.

'Massive Landslides'

"Relief efforts began immediately, including helping to bury victims of the disaster and providing supplies to those whose homes were destroyed," Rwanda's minister in charge of emergency management, Marie Solange Kayisire, told RBA.

She called on local residents to increase patrols, especially at night, so people could be moved to safer ground when it rains heavily.

"When the floods started, there were massive landslides which caused trees to fall and bury the road down here. Our plantations were also washed away. We have a big problem down here," one woman in Northern Province told RBA.

In neighbouring Uganda, six people died in the west of the country when landslides struck their homes after days of torrential rain, according to the local Red Cross.

It said five of the dead belonged to the same family and were from a single village.

Images shared by the Red Cross showed local farmers perched on steeply terraced hillsides digging through the fresh mudslide and homes buried up to their rooftops in mud.

East Africa often suffers from flooding and landslides during the rainy seasons, although several countries in the Horn of Africa have been in the grip of the worst drought in decades.

Experts say extreme weather events are happening with increased frequency and intensity due to climate change -- and Africa, which contributes the least to global warming, is bearing the brunt.

Last month, at least 14 people died after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides in southern Ethiopia, regional police said. Hundreds of livestock perished and scores of houses were damaged.

In May 2020, at least 65 people died in Rwanda as heavy rains pounded the region, while at least 194 deaths were reported in Kenya.

At the end of 2019, at least 265 people died and tens of thousands were displaced during two months of relentless rainfall in several countries in East Africa.

The extreme downpours affected close to two million people and washed away tens of thousands of livestock in Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

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SUGAR LAND, Texas, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Noble Corporation plc ("Noble") (CSE: NOBLE, NYSE: NE) announces the resolutions adopted at its 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders held on May 2, 2023.

The following resolutions were adopted:

Robert W. Eifler , Claus V. Hemmingsen , Alan J. Hirshberg , Kristin H. Holth , Alastair Maxwell , Ann D. Pickard and Charles M. Sledge were re-elected as directors of Noble. After the annual general meeting of shareholders, the board of directors convened and elected Charles M. Sledge as chairman.

, , , , , and were re-elected as directors of Noble. After the annual general meeting of shareholders, the board of directors convened and elected as chairman. Ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (US) as Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm for fiscal year 2023.

Re-appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (UK) as UK statutory auditors to Noble.

Authorization of the Audit Committee to determine Noble's UK statutory auditors' compensation.

Approval, on a non-binding advisory basis, of the compensation of Noble's named executive officers, as disclosed in Noble's proxy statement relating to the 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders pursuant to the executive compensation disclosure rules promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Approval, in an advisory vote, a frequency of every year for the submission to shareholders of an advisory vote on the compensation of Noble's named executive officers.

Approval, on a non-binding advisory basis, of the directors' compensation report (other than the part containing the directors' compensation policy) for the year ended December 31, 2022 , which is set out in the annual report and accounts of Noble for the year ended December 31, 2022 .

, which is set out in the annual report and accounts of Noble for the year ended . Approval of the directors' compensation policy, which is set out within the directors' compensation report in the annual report and accounts of Noble for the year ended December 31, 2022 .

For additional details of the resolutions adopted at Noble's 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders, reference is made to the current report on Form 8-K regarding the results of Noble's 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders which has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is available at https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001895262/000162828023015017/ne-20230502.htm.

About Noble Corporation plc

Noble is a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. The Company owns and operates one of the most modern, versatile, and technically advanced fleets in the offshore drilling industry. Noble and its predecessors have been engaged in the contract drilling of oil and gas wells since 1921. Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services with a fleet of offshore drilling units focused largely on ultra-deepwater and high specification jackup drilling opportunities in both established and emerging regions worldwide. For further information visit www.noblecorp.com or email [email protected].

SOURCE Noble Corporation plc
TAIPEI, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade Development Council) today announced that NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang will deliver the keynote address in person at COMPUTEX 2023.

The keynote will take place at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 2 on Monday, May 29, at 11:00 AM (UTC+8), and cover advanced developments in the fields of accelerated computing and artificial intelligence. Welcome to join and Register Now. A livestream and replay of the keynote will be available here.

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang will deliver the keynote address in person at COMPUTEX 2023.

NVIDIA, the pioneer in accelerated computing that enabled the AI revolution, announced at its most recent GTC conference a series of breakthroughs in generative AI, simulation and collaboration that are boosting productivity and efficiency for leading companies around the world.

At this year's COMPUTEX Forum, NVIDIA's Greg Estes, VP of Corporate Marketing and Developer Programs, will deliver a talk entitled "Racing Towards the Industrial Metaverse", sharing how NVIDIA and its partners are using Omniverse, generative AI, and accelerated computing to enable an exciting new era of 3D workflows. His talk will take place on Tuesday, May 30, from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m.

COMPUTEX 2023 will take place at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Hall 1 & Hall 2, from May 30 to June 2 with over 1,000 exhibitors from 17 countries using 3,000 booths. In addition, TAITRA will organize COMPUTEX Keynote & Forum, where CEOs and senior executives from global tech giants share their insights and key industry issues. Sign up for COMPUTEX Keynote & Forum:

https://event.taiwantradeshows.com.tw/zh-tw/events/74/index.html. For more details about the related events, please visit the TAITRA's COMPUTEX official website: https://www.computexaipei.com.tw/

For more exhibition information

COMPUTEX: https://www.computextaipei.com.tw/

InnoVEX: https://www.innovex.com.tw/

About COMPUTEX

COMPUTEX was founded in 1981. It has grown with the global ICT industry and become stronger over the last four decades. Bearing witness to historical moments in the development of and changes in the industry, COMPUTEX attracts more than 40,000 buyers to visit Taiwan every year. It is also the preferred platform chosen by top international companies for launching epoch-making products.

Taiwan has a comprehensive global ICT industry chain. Gaining a foothold in Taiwan, COMPUTEX is jointly held by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council and Taipei Computer Association, aiming to build a global tech ecosystem. COMPUTEX uses cross-domain integration and innovation services as the most powerful driving forces for achieving the goal of becoming a new platform for global technological resources.

About TAITRA:

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) is Taiwan's foremost trade promotion organization. TAITRA is a public-benefit corporation founded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs by uniting industry and commerce groups from the private sector with the purpose of helping them expand their global reach. Currently, TAITRA has a team of more than 1,300 trade professionals, both domestically and abroad. Headquartered in Taipei, TAITRA operates 5 local offices in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung, as well as 63 branches worldwide. It has also signed cooperation agreements with 319 sister organizations that promote international trade. By forming a comprehensive trade services network that provides zero-time-difference and borderless real-time services, TAITRA continues to work with enterprises to jointly pursue the steady development of Taiwan's economy. It is the best partner for your success in business expansion.

SOURCE COMPUTEX
ATLANTA, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Oakbridge Insurance Agency LLC (Oakbridge) , one of the largest independent insurance and risk management agencies in the United States, announced today its expansion into Mississippi. The expansion supports Oakbridge's continued growth in the Southeast and includes a partnership with Swoope Insurance and two independent agent offices.

Robbie Smith, CEO Oakbridge Insurance

"We are thrilled to be expanding our operations into Mississippi and to have the opportunity to serve the people and businesses of this great state," said Robbie Smith, president of Oakbridge Insurance. "We are committed to providing our clients with the highest level of service and expertise, and we are confident that adding Mississippi to our Oakbridge family will help us achieve that goal."

Swoope Insurance, founded in 1926, has been providing quality insurance solutions to the people of Mississippi for nearly a century, specializing in auto, home, personal and commercial insurance.

"Our team at Swoope Insurance is excited to join Oakbridge," said Mark Hardy, owner of Swoope Insurance. "We share Oakbridge's commitment to providing exceptional service and delivering innovative insurance solutions, and we look forward to working together to continue to grow our business."

The expansion also adds two independent agent offices formerly with GCM Insurance, led by Jack Campbell and William Hilbun. Jack Campbell started in the insurance industry in 1987 and specializes in personal and commercial insurance as well as group health.

"I am thrilled to be joining the Oakbridge Insurance team and to continue supporting my clients," said Campbell. "We're seeing a shift in the economic base of northeastern Mississippi and this partnership will help us better serve existing and new clients."

William Hilbun started selling insurance in 2005 and specializes in construction and habitational risk insurance.

"The expansion into Mississippi presents a unique opportunity to bring the Oakbridge brand to a new market, and I am excited to be a part of that effort," said Hilbun. "Oakbridge combines a small-town mentality with big-city resources and that's a great fit for Starkville and the surrounding region."

Oakbridge will have offices in Amory, Columbus and Starkville, Mississippi.

About Oakbridge Insurance Agency

Founded in 2020, Oakbridge Insurance Agency LLC is a rapidly growing partnership model for firms seeking accelerated growth, access to capital and an expanded suite of resources with which to serve clients. Ranked a "Top 100" insurance brokerage by Business Insurance and Insurance Journal magazines, Oakbridge is one of the largest privately owned insurance, risk management and employee benefits agencies in the country. The agency has specific experience in the agriculture, bond/surety, construction, financial, health care, manufacturing, municipalities, nonprofit, senior living and transportation industries. Learn more: oakbridgeinsurance.com.

Contact: Kaden Jacobs

Poston Communications

(404) 875-3400

[email protected]

SOURCE Oakbridge Insurance
Provides Real Loan Offers Within Dealer Marketing Channels, Increasing Sales and Efficiency

NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Octane (Octane Lending Inc.), the fintech revolutionizing the buying experience for major recreational purchases, announced that it has launched Prequal Flex, an extension of its award-winning suite of soft-pull ecommerce tools, Octane Prequal.

Introducing Prequal Flex, Octane's newest soft pull prequalification tool.

Prequal Flex is a dedicated webpage that is unique to a specific dealership and allows consumers to quickly and easily prequalify for financing. The tool gives dealers the flexibility to reach consumers through all of their marketing channels - including email, social media, text, advertising, events, and more - providing consumers with a real credit decision from Octane's in-house lender, Roadrunner Financial, Inc., and a shorter, easier path to purchase.

Since Prequal Flex uses Octane's proprietary soft pull technology, consumers can understand their buying power without impacting their credit until a contract is generated. At the same time, Prequal Flex sends these empowered buyers into the Octane Dealer Portal, enabling dealers to prioritize their time by focusing on the highest intent buyers with access to credit. In our pilot, dealers who used Prequal Flex saw total applications increase by 40%.

"We rely on Prequal Flex for all of our financing needs," said Kenny Chen, Dealer Principal at Onyx Moto, San Diego's largest pre-owned motorcycle dealership. "Sharing the link through text or email is effortless, and it offers a quick, user-friendly application. Importantly, the soft credit inquiry ensures our customers feel at ease taking the next step in the financing process."

Dealers can also leverage Prequal Flex to drive efficiency in the dealership. By applying a Prequal Flex link to hang tags, near-field communication (NFC) cards, and other in-store collateral, dealers can encourage consumers to prequalify for financing while they walk the showroom floor, saving time at closing.

"We're committed to providing the fastest, easiest buying experience in the industry and helping our dealer partners grow their businesses," said Mike Dushane, Chief Product Officer at Octane. "By strengthening powersports dealers' existing sales and marketing touchpoints with instant credit decisions, Prequal Flex enables dealers to reach more customers and helps us deliver on our mission to connect people with their passions."

Prequal Flex is free to Octane's entire network of over 4,000 powersports dealers. To get started, current dealers should contact their Octane Sales representative.

Dealers in the United States who would like to become an Octane partner can enroll here.

About Octane:

Octane is revolutionizing recreational purchases by delivering a seamless, end-to-end digital buying experience. We connect people with their passions by combining cutting-edge technology and innovative risk strategies to make lifestyle purchaseslike powersports vehicles, RVs, and outdoor power equipmentfast, easy, and accessible.

Octane adds value throughout the customer journey: inspiring enthusiasts with our editorial brands, including Cycle World and UTV Driver, instantly prequalifying consumers for financing online, routing customers to dealerships for an easy closing, and supporting customers throughout their loan with superior loan servicing.

Founded in 2014, we're a remote-first company with over 30 OEM and 4,000 dealer partners. Visit www.octane.co.

Octane is a registered service mark of Octane Lending, Inc.

Media Relations: Shannon O'Hara

Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Octane

[email protected]

Investor Relations: Kartik Kothari

SVP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Octane

[email protected]

SOURCE Octane
Exclusive Partnership with a Leading Israeli University Accelerates Age-Defying Research

Plans for Reg A+ Registration to Raise Up to $75 Million for Expansion

NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Onassis Holdings Corp (OTC: ONSS), a wellness-focused holding company, is excited to announce its entry into the rejuvenation therapy market with a groundbreaking epigenetic programming technology. Through an exclusive perpetual license agreement with a leading Israeli university, Onassis Holdings will have the right to develop, manufacture, market, distribute, and sell products utilizing this cutting-edge technology worldwide.

Feel 30 at 60: Turning Back the Epigenetic Clock

Years of dedicated research have led to the development of a state-of-the-art epigenetic editing technique. This innovative technology has the potential to reset the epigenetic clock in aged cells, reversing the loss of functional activity and restoring cells to their youthful state.

Epigenetic editing uses specialized proteins to make targeted changes to the chemical marks on DNA that influence gene activity. These marks accumulate as cells age, leading to the loss of function and the development of age-related diseases. By selectively modifying these marks, epigenetic editing can rejuvenate cells, effectively turning back the clock on aging and improving overall health.

Science:

Targeting Age-Related Diseases with Pioneering Epigenetic Programming

Epigenetic programming technology not only reverses the aging process but also offers the potential to treat and cure specific age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, age-related macular degeneration, and more. By rejuvenating aged cells and restoring their proper function, the technology addresses the root cause of these conditions, opening the door to healthier, longer lives for those affected.

For more information about Onassis:

Onassis Holdings Corp.

+1-516-620-6794

[email protected]

www.onassis-holdings.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2069172/Onassis_Holdings_Corp_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Onassis Holdings Corp
Mayor R. Rex Parris, Mayor Eiko Yoshida, and Mayor Mitch Roth formalize the Pacific Hydrogen Alliance to promote sustainable energy solutions and hydrogen production as an alternative fuel source.

LANCASTER, Calif., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of Lancaster announced that Mayor R. Rex Parris, along with Mayor Mitch Roth of the County of Hawai'i and Mayor Eiko Yoshida of Namie, Japan, are presenting together at the 2023 VerdeXchange Conference this week. This conference is a gathering of entrepreneurs, policymakers and leaders in clean and green tech, discussing how cities, states, and regions, in collaboration with public and private partners and community stakeholders, will leverage the $1.1 trillion in recent US infrastructure funding. Leveraged properly, this funding will optimize economic recovery, maximize transformational climate infrastructure investments, and accelerate the growth of the global clean energy economy.

Mayor R. Rex Parris, Mayor Eiko Yoshida, and Mayor Mitch Roth formalize the Pacific Hydrogen Alliance to promote sustainable energy solutions and hydrogen production as an alternative fuel source.

"I am thrilled to share the stage with Mayor Roth and Mayor Yoshida to demonstrate the power of international and domestic partnerships in achieving net-zero emissions and carbon neutrality," said R. Rex Parris, mayor of the City of Lancaster. "At the conference, we will showcase how collaboration and innovative solutions can help small cities become leaders in sustainability. I would like to extend my thanks to Supervisor Barger for her unwavering support of the Pacific Hydrogen Alliance and her dedication to a sustainable future for our region."

During the conference, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger presented the mayors of the Pacific Hydrogen Alliance, which includes Mayor R. Rex Parris, Mayor Mitch Roth, and Mayor Eiko Yoshida, with a certificate of recognition for their leadership in promoting sustainable energy solutions. Supervisor Barger has been a strong supporter of the alliance and recognizes the importance of their work in achieving net-zero emissions and carbon neutrality. The certificate of recognition is a testament to the dedication and innovation of these three mayors, and their commitment to building sustainable communities and promoting clean energy solutions. Attendees can look forward to this special recognition of the mayors' achievements and contributions to the field of sustainability.

"The leadership and innovation that we are seeing from the City of Lancaster and Namie Town is remarkable and will extend well past the direct beneficiary of the project," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. "Achieving net zero emissions and carbon neutrality are ambitious goals that require the exploration of many sustainable energy solutions and the production of clean hydrogen as an alternative fuel source is a very viable option. I look forward to seeing the evolution of this international and domestic partnership. It will yield important lessons learned that our local production and manufacturing entities can use as they explore adopting hydrogen as a fuel source to meet net zero goals. I am proud that the Antelope Valley and Los Angeles County are represented by Lancaster who is truly setting an example on sustainability for municipalities across the country."

"Through the Pacific Hydrogen Alliance, we are excited to work with our fellow municipalities in Lancaster and Hawai'i to accelerate the transition to a hydrogen-based society," said Mayor Eiko Yoshida of Namie, Japan. "As a seaside town in Japan, we have seen the devastating effects of climate change firsthand. By sharing our experiences and expertise, we can collectively work towards a sustainable future for our communities and beyond. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Supervisor Barger for her support in bringing us together and facilitating this important dialogue."

"We are really pleased to be recognized by the County of Los Angeles here at the VerdeXchange conference," said Mayor Mitch Roth. "It is humbling to take part in this program that draws resources from around the world to improve the everyday lives of Hawai'i Island residents."

The Pacific Hydrogen Alliance is the first municipal hydrogen partnership in the world. It is important because it will lower energy costs, provide energy security and bridge California, Hawaii and Japan together with technology and solutions for decarbonization with hydrogen" said Lex Heslin, CEO of Enso Infrastructure and program manager of the alliance.

The joint presentation of these esteemed mayors is sure to be a highlight of the conference and will offer attendees a unique opportunity to learn from three experienced leaders in the field. Additionally, VerdeXchange events will include a recognition luncheon to highlight the three hydrogen city mayors and a mayor-led small group discussion focused on hydrogen cities and seizing opportunity within the energy transition moment.

About the Pacific Hydrogen Alliance

The Pacific Hydrogen Alliance is a partnership between the city of Lancaster, California; the town of Namie, Japan; and the County of Hawai'i, Hawaii. This unique alliance brings together three municipalities from diverse geographies, demographics, economic drivers, and levels of hydrogen deployment to share best practices and strategies on how to accelerate progress in hydrogen and fuel cells at the municipal level. The alliance aims to facilitate the deployment of clean hydrogen solutions by promoting knowledge sharing, networks, and strategies to transition to hydrogen as an energy solution. By connecting cities and communities around the world, the Pacific Hydrogen Alliance serves as a catalyst for fostering environmental justice, social equity, and clean energy jobs at the municipal level.

About the City of Lancaster, CA

Lancaster is a diverse community of nearly 170,000, leading the future through science, technology, art, culture, and collaboration. Home to astronauts, rocket scientists, families, and innovative businesses large and small, we are leading the USA with innovation. Combined with spectacular landscapes and clean air, Lancaster has the confidence, expertise, spirit, and imagination to transform tomorrow. We are: Creating a better tomorrow. Together. Visit us at www.cityoflancasterca.gov.

The City of Lancaster, California, was the first United States city to embrace hydrogen power, earning the moniker of the "First Hydrogen City." The City has engaged in numerous formal partnerships and agreements to harness the potential of clean hydrogen. Lancaster is jumpstarting hydrogen adoption throughout the Antelope Valley and southern California.

About Namie Town

Located on the coast of the Fukushima prefecture in the Tohoku region of Japan, Namie Town aims to realize a sustainable hydrogen society while maximizing the potential of hydrogen and accomplishing reconstruction and development of the town after the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Namie Town has a population over 2,000 and specializes in the production of Obori Soma ware, seafood and Japanese Sake.

About the County of Hawai'i, Hawaii

The County of Hawai'i is part of the Hawaiian archipelago located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The island is 4,028 square miles and has a 2020 Census population of slightly more than 200,000 residents. Primary economic drivers include the visitor industry, with future opportunities in renewable green energy, creative industries, agriculture, astronomy and elements of the care economy. Hawai'i Island hosts the annual "Super Bowl" of hula, the Merrie Monarch Festival, the IRONMAN World Championships, and major paddling and canoe championships. Home to the highest peaks in the Pacific, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, Kilauea, is a major research and visitor attraction.

SOURCE City of Lancaster, California
Tiger Group offers 2,120 rolls in court-ordered bankruptcy sale on May 16.

HOUSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A May 16 Tiger Group online auction features 2,120 kraft linerboard paper rolls formerly owned by a global broker and distributor of pulp and paper products.

"It is rare for this much high-quality kraft linerboardabout 3,700 metric tons in allto become available on the secondary market," said Chad Farrell, a Houston-based Tiger Group Managing Director. "That makes this court-ordered bankruptcy sale an excellent opportunity for packaging-industry brokers, distributors and manufacturers both domestically and internationally."

2,120 kraft linerboard paper rolls are available via Tiger Group's online auction on May 16.

Lots in the timed, online auction begin closing on Tuesday, May 16, at 10 a.m. (CT). Bidding opens on Tuesday, May 9, at SoldTiger.com.

Tiger is auctioning the kraft linerboard paper rolls as part of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy process for Barnett Corp., a global broker and distributor of pulp and paper products. The Cedarhurst, New York-based company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation this past December in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of New York (Central Islip).

The majority of the inventory is from the Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) mill. The paper rolls are stored in specialized, third-party warehouses in Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida, as well as Quebec, Canada.

"They are ready for shipping by truck and rail from the third-party warehouses and for export internationally as needed," Farrell said. "Detailed information and photos of the rolls are available at Soldtiger.com."

To arrange an inspection or obtain other information, email: [email protected] or call (805) 497-4999.

For asset photos, descriptions, and other information, visit:

https://soldtiger.com/sales/kraft-linerboard-paper-roll-auction/

Media Contacts: At Tiger Group, Maria Hoang, (805) 497-4999, [email protected], and Chad Farrell, (832) 721-3937, [email protected]. At Jaffe Communications, Elisa Krantz, (908) 789-0700, [email protected].

SOURCE Tiger Group
Renowned pilot Mike Goulian shares an exclusive look into competitive aerosports with military family

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The PenFed Foundation, a national 501(c)3 founded by PenFed Credit Union, brought together two of its valued partners at a Fort Lauderdale airshow to create a memorable experience for a military teen with a passion for aviation. The special day featured a meet and greet with famed aerobatic pilot Mike Goulian and exclusive access to the Goulian Aerosports team.

Ethan Fenelon listens to pilot Mike Goulian share his passion for aviation

Ethan Fenelon, age 13, of Parkland, Fla., has received three grants for flight lessons through non-profit Our Military Kids, a charitable organization that provides grants to military children who have a parent that is either deployed with the National Guard or Reserve, or is a post-9/11 combat-injured service member. Ethan's father, TSG Jacques (Jack) Fenelon is a combat-injured veteran who served in the Air Force Reserve.

The PenFed Foundation recently provided a $50,000 grant to Our Military Kids to help increase access to extracurricular activities. The non-profit bridges the gap for military families who are often located in areas far from military bases and without access to other support resources.

"What an honor to connect two of our valued partners, Our Military Kids and Goulian Aerosports, to provide this memorable experience," said James Schenck, CEO of the PenFed Foundation. "At the PenFed Foundation, we are committed to supporting our military community, and this partnership allowed us to make a meaningful impact on the life of a military child."

Mike Goulian, who has been flying for over 30 years, said, "Meeting Ethan was very inspirational. He has a passion for flying at 13 years old so he is definitely someone to watch for in the future. His dream is to fly an F-22 in the U.S. Air Force." Goulian added, "There is no doubt in my mind we will be relying on Ethan in the future to keep our country safe."

The PenFed Foundation, Our Military Kids and Goulian Aerosports share a commitment to supporting our military community and providing opportunities to those who have served our country. The organizations hope that this day will inspire all military children and show them that they are appreciated and valued for their service and sacrifice.

About PenFed Foundation:

Founded in 2001, the PenFed Foundation is a national nonprofit organization committed to empowering military service members, veterans, and their communities with the skills and resources they need to build a strong financial future. Through its programs, the PenFed Foundation provides financial assistance, housing support, and mentorship opportunities to those who have served our country. For more information, visit penfedfoundation.org.

About Our Military Kids, Inc.:

Our Military Kids, Inc. supports military children (ages 3-18) by funding sports, arts, tutoring, and other enrichment activities while a parent is deployed overseas with the National Guard, deployed with the Reserve, or recovering from severe combat-related injuries sustained in a post-9/11 mission. Participation in these activities has been proven to help children cope with stress and build self-confidence during an otherwise difficult time in their lives. For more information, please visit www.ourmilitarykids.org.

About Goulian Aerosports:

Goulian Aerosports is a professional air show team that performs at air shows in North America. Pilot and aerobatic performer Michael Goulian also competed in the Red Bull Air Race World Championships worldwide. More information and his complete air show schedule at mikegoulian.com.

SOURCE PenFed Foundation
OSLO, Norway, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Photocure ASA (OSE: PHO), held its annual general meeting on 3 May 2023 at 17:00 hours (CET).

The minutes from the general meeting setting out the resolved resolutions are attached hereto.

For further information, please contact:

Photocure

CFO Erik Dahl

Tel: + 47 450 55 000

Email: [email protected]

About Photocure ASA

Photocure: The Bladder Cancer Company delivers transformative solutions to improve the lives of bladder cancer patients. Our unique technology, which makes cancer cells glow bright pink, has led to better health outcomes for patients worldwide. Photocure is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE: PHO). For more information, please visit us at www.photocure.com, www.hexvix.com or www.cysview.com.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/17498/3763249/2031409.pdf Release https://mb.cision.com/Public/17498/3763249/ad5d353a218af8b6.pdf Photocure - Minutes from AGM 2023 ENG https://mb.cision.com/Public/17498/3763249/b7bb5ae4416dddbb.pdf Photocure - Minutes from AGM 2023 NOR

SOURCE Photocure
The 24/7 Automated Pizzeria Expands to Georgia; Debuts New Locations in Atlanta's Popular Buckhead Neighborhood and Other Areas around Metro Atlanta

ATLANTA, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- PizzaForno, North America's first automated pizzeria that bakes artisan pizza in less than three minutes, 24 hours a day, is officially expanding into Georgia. The first of three new locations is opening in Atlanta's popular Buckhead neighborhood at 3861 Roswell Road, with two additional locations opening around metro Atlanta later in May.

A Grand Opening event will take place at the 3861 Roswell Road location in Atlanta's popular Buckhead neighborhood on Saturday, May 6. The opening event is from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and will feature free pizza, family-friendly music, games, freebies and giveaways. Prizes will be given for games and an "Enter to Win" contest drawing will be held for two lucky winners to win free pizza for an entire year.

The three entrepreneurs responsible for this expansion are business partners Tyler Young, Paul Nair and Mick Patel. Young has always had a passion for the restaurant industry, and started running restaurants when he was in college. Paul is the founder and owner of Savi Provisions, a neighborhood spot for organic foods, wine, spirits, and sandwiches. Mick Patel is Director of Business Development and Franchise Owner of Savi Provisions. The three were always interested in technology and innovation in the restaurant space and were immediately drawn to PizzaForno.

"One of the biggest issues I've seen with all my time in the restaurant industry is labor retention," said master licensee Tyler Young. "With PizzaForno, we solve that problem. Not only are we offering a high-quality, fresh product, but we are able to offer it 24/7 without worrying about staffing."

The trio are passionate about bringing this dining option to the area, and plan to install units in universities, hospitals and anywhere else that people would benefit from convenient, 24/7 access to their product. While they plan to open five units throughout the year, they hope to bring a total of 50 to the area.

To learn more about PizzaForno and their licensing opportunities, visit https://www.pizzaforno.com/become-a-licensee/

ABOUT PIZZAFORNO

Founded in 2018 by Canadian entrepreneurs William Moyer and Les Tomlin, PizzaForno is North America's only automated pizzeria which introduces gourmet artisanal pizzas in less than three minutes. Accessible 24/7 at the tap of a digital screen, PizzaForno offers a selection of innovative menu options, each made with high quality ingredients, with an authentic approach. Utilizing technology made popular in France by ADIAL , PizzaForno has built their brand on a proven machine with already 3,000 operating in Europe. PizzaForno currently has 61 operating locations and over 500 additional locations committed in the U.S. alone, with the first 50 U.S. locations already established in Michigan, Texas, and Louisiana. In 2020, PizzaForno was honored with the Restaurants Canada 2020 Innovation Award. To learn more about PizzaForno, visit https://www.pizzaforno.com/ . To inquire about the licensee opportunity, visit https://www.pizzaforno.com/become-a-licensee/ .

SOURCE PizzaForno
The long-awaited National Dialogue kicked off on Wednesday with several political forces, civil society groups, professional and labour unions, and public figures participating to discuss key political, economic, and social issues.

In a recorded speech in the opening session, Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stressed his support for the National Dialogue, vowing to "provide all the means to ensure its success and activate its outcomes within a framework of democracy and effective political practice."

El-Sisi called on the participants to work for the success of the dialogue and to find solutions to the nation's challenges.

The opening of the National Dialogue comes a year after President El-Sisi called, in April 2022, for a dialogue between all political forces without exception or discrimination to find common grounds on priority political, social, and economic issues.

My call for the National Dialogue during the Egyptian Family Iftar banquet (2022) reflected my firm belief in the ability of our nation to find alternatives and achieve progress in the political, economic and social fields, El-Sisi said.

He added that Egypt also possesses competent minds, sincere wills and a determination to work, all of which put Egypt in the lead.

The president also highlighted the dialogue's significance in facing the growing challenges.

The growing challenges facing the Egyptian nation at all levels convinces me of the necessity of such a dialogue, El-Sisi stated.

He added that he looks forward to a comprehensive, effective, and vital dialogue that embraces all viewpoints and achieves tangible and successful outcomes.

Differences in opinion shall not divide us, the president said, stressing that the diverse viewpoints within the dialogue are conducive to successful outcomes.

I wish you success in this great patriotic duty, El-Sisi said, thanking participants who gathered today for the dialogue.

I appreciate your coming here together to talk and exchange views on what is best for our dear nation and to draw the features of our new republic and the modern democratic country that all Egyptians aspire to," he stressed.

The president added that the dialogue also aims to draw a roadmap of a promising and bright future that befits our children and grandchildren.

El-Sisi said he looks forward to participating in the final phases of the dialogue.

'The path is difficult and the challenges unprecedented'

Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, who represents the 50-member committee, also delivered a speech during the opening session of the dialogue.

Moussa indicated that the National dialogue is an opportunity to discuss what concerns public opinion in Egypt, especially at this critical stage and in light of recent regional and international developments.

 I participate not only as the head of the 50-member committee but also as a concerned citizen who understands the challenges Egypt faces domestically and internationally, he said.

Moussa added that he was well acquainted with Egyptian politics throughout the second half of the 20th century, highlighting that with the advent of the 21st century, Egypt began to face more problems.

Therefore, we are facing a dangerous situation which compels us to speak frankly and listen to all opinions, just as President El-Sisi said, Moussa said.

He added that the Egyptian people at this stage are very anxious. They are asking questions about the direction Egypt is heading towards, said Moussa.

He also said that people must be given an honest answer no matter how shocking it may be and should be prepared for an uncertain future.

State institutions, including the National Dialogue, are responsible for providing such an answer, said Moussa.

He highlighted that the path is arduous and that the challenges are unprecedented, stressing that the challenges facing Egypt are not entirely external and that some of them have resulted from internal mistakes that have to be addressed.

Moussa, however, asserted that he was very confident in the Egyptian people's ability to overcome these challenges.

Speaking of the middle class, he said that due care should be given to the stability and prosperity of the middle class.

He also said that the time has come to deal conclusively with pre-trial detainees.

Moussa said that Sinai must be rehabilitated and opened for citizens to live in, adding that people should be allowed to enter and exit Sinai freely. He also called for preserving its holy places.

Moussa praised the achievements made in the past few years in Egypt, especially the efforts to solve the problem of shanty towns in Cairo.

He called on the state to find solutions for shanty towns all over Egypt.

The former Secretary General of the Arab League also praised El-Sisi's call to renew religious discourse, citing the Document of Human Fraternity signed by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayyeb and Pope Francis.

Moussa also praised the progress in the fields of citizenship, womens rights, youth empowerment, as well as the development of Sinai.

At the end of his speech, he said that the dialogue's outcomes should be presented to President El-Sisi and the parliament as a representative of the people.

The meeting is seeing the attendance of about 1,000 participants, including Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, dialogue rapporteurs, media professionals and writers, heads of universities and research centres, members of parliament, religious figures and youth from different political forces.

Two meetings will follow the opening session to pinpoint the issues to be discussed in the subsequent sessions and the role of political parties in the National Dialogue.

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WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Range , the all-in-one AI WealthTech platform, announced it had raised $12m in funding led by Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-focused venture fund. The round also included Expa (founded by Garrett Camp, former Chairman and Co-founder of Uber), Red Sea Ventures, 8-bit Capital, and individuals Randy Reddig (co-founder, Square), Adrian Aoun (CEO & founder at Forward Health), Severin Hacker (co-founder & CTO of Duolingo), and Dan Lewis (co-founder & CEO of Convoy).

"We started this company to help families better manage their wealth," said Fahad Hassan, co-founder and CEO of Range. "With our new investors and their experience in AI, we believe this partnership and financing will allow us to assist families during unprecedented times of economic change and uncertainty. Our products will allow everyone to access the advice and tools typically only available to the wealthy."

The funding will be used primarily to grow the product and engineering teams to accelerate offerings to Range's customers. Range plans to integrate their wealth management tools with various AI technologies to automate aspects of wealth and tax planning.

"Understanding your current wealth and where your family can develop new opportunities for wealth creation is on the minds of everyone. The team at Range is determined to leverage new technologies, specifically AI and large-language models, to give families more control and visibility into their financial future , " said Darian Shirazi, General Partner at Gradient Ventures, who also joins Range's board of directors. "We're thrilled to partner with Fahad, David, and the entire Range team as they pursue their noble vision to improve the financial lives of families globally. "

Range was founded in 2021 by Fahad Hassan and David Cusatis. An all-in-one wealth management tool to make financial planning accessible to everyone, Range has in-house financial advisers to optimize investment services, tax planning, estate planning, retirement planning and insurance needs.

ABOUT RANGE

Range puts wealth management into the hands of everyone with a platform aimed at simplifying and democratizing access. The all-in-one tools are powered by proprietary AI technology and aided by a team of world class licensed financial advisors. With no minimums required, personalized guidance, financial tools, machine-learning insights, and 24/7 support, Range is revolutionizing the wealth management industry. For more information, visit www.range.com .

ABOUT GRADIENT VENTURES

Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-focused venture fund, helps founders build transformational companies. The fund focuses on helping founders navigate the challenges in developing new technology products, using the latest best practices in recruiting, marketing, design, and engineering so that great ideas can come to life. Gradient was founded in 2017 and is based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit www.gradient.com.

SOURCE Range
The companies will bolster Justice for Change and Relativity Academic Partners programs

CHICAGO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Relativity, a global legal technology company, today announced it is working with Microsoft Corp. to expand the impact of its programs, Justice for Change and Relativity Academic Partners. Relativity and Microsoft will work together to accomplish Relativity's mission of empowering communities through providing access to the education, technology, and resources necessary for a more equitable society.

"We are deeply committed to driving better outcomes through our social impact programs and are honored and excited that Microsoft has taken notice of our work as well as felt inspired to get involved," said Phil Saunders, CEO of Relativity. "Microsoft's generous investment will directly support our ongoing efforts to power the pursuit of justice and expand legal technology education."

Microsoft will support Relativity's social impact programs, Justice for Change and Relativity Academic Partners and further advance Relativity's existing work with nonprofits and academic institutions and strategically expand access to better achieve program goals. They will establish volunteer opportunities and community engagement projects for employees to nurture the communities in which they live and work.

"Supporting social programs for justice and expanded legal technology education is important to Microsoft and we are proud to work with Relativity on these issues," says Justin Spelhaug, Vice President of Tech for Social Impact, part of Microsoft Philanthropies. "Modern cloud technology is a key component to ensuring students and policy makers have the tools they need to advance racial and social justice."

Relativity's Justice for Change program provides the company's SaaS product, RelativityOne, free of charge to organizations tackling legal cases and academic and policy research related to racial and social justice. The Relativity Academic Partner program offers professors access to practice-ready curricula and Relativity software, enabling students to gain early exposure to the knowledge and skills needed to be indispensable to their future employers.

"It's amazing to see what's possible when we align our resources with other companies like Relativity who are looking to make an impact in the community that's both palpable and enduring," said Nisaini Rexach, Manager, Community Engagement, Microsoft Philanthropies. "Thrilled to support Relativity in this capacity."

"Relativity's commitment to making a difference not only positively impacts the communities we serve, it also creates opportunities for fellow organizations to join forces and amplify their work," said Colleen Costello, Head of Social Impact at Relativity. "We appreciate Microsoft's incredible generosity and look forward to collaborating to make an even greater impact."

Today's news builds on Relativity and Microsoft's existing work to bridge technology with social impact initiatives.

About Relativity

Relativity makes software to help users organize data, discover the truth and act on it. Its SaaS product, RelativityOne, manages large volumes of data and quickly identifies key issues during litigation and internal investigations. Relativity has more than 300,000 users in approximately 40 countries serving thousands of organizations globally primarily in legal, financial services and government sectors, including the U.S. Department of Justice and 198 of the Am Law 200. Please contact Relativity at [email protected] or visit www.relativity.com for more information.

SOURCE Relativity
NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As per Zion Market Research study, The global smart education & learning market is set for rapid growth over the forecast period. In terms of revenue, the global smart education & learning market accounted for USD 201.54 Billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 985.33 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 22.6% during the forecast period.

Report Link with All Related Graphs & Charts: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/smart-education-learning-market

Smart Education & Learning Market: Overview

Smart education and learning is an electronic method of learning and education with the aid of learning software and application. Smart education and learning offer universal learning for students using new technologies and provide a paradigm change in student access to education. The method uses state-of-the-art technology to help teachers and learners train themselves. Smart education and learning can be achieved using innovative approaches such as digital learning environments, virtual schools, smartphones, and others.

Smart education and learning enable students to communicate with other students via online teaching platforms and to engage in a discussion thread to resolve queries. Students may also evaluate themselves with other students within their field and check if their learning outcomes are satisfactory.

Smart education enables teachers to develop better instructional styles to meet the needs of students. Smart education and learning ensure continuous development by tracking the progress of learning goals. Smart education is making learning accessible to everyone through their smartphones and is a great tool for knowledge sharing.

Get a Free Sample Report with All Related Graphs & Charts (with COVID 19 Impact Analysis): https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/smart-education-learning-market

Our Free Sample Report Includes:

2023 Updated Report Introduction, Overview, and In-depth industry analysis

COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak Impact Analysis Included

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Includes an Updated List of tables & figures

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Zion Market Research methodology

Key Industry Insights & Findings of the Smart Education & Learning Market Reports:

As per the analysis shared by our research analyst, the global smart education & learning market is expected to grow annually at a promising CAGR of around 22.6% during the forecast period 2023-2030.

In terms of revenue, the global smart education & learning market size was valued at around USD 201 . 54 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 985.33 billion by 2030.

. 54 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach by 2030. The smart education and learning industry is driven by several factors, including technological advancements, rising demand for personalized learning experiences, and increasing adoption of e-learning solutions.

Based on learning mode, the blended learning segment held the largest market share in 2022.

Based on component, the service segment held the dominating market share in 2022.

Based on end-user, the academic segment held the largest market share in 2022.

Based on region, the North America region held the commanding market share in 2022.

Zion Market Research published the latest report titled "Smart Education & Learning Market By Stage (Pre-Primary & Primary Stage, Middle Stage, Secondary & Higher-Secondary, Undergraduate & Postgraduate, Others), By Component (Hardware, Software, Service), By Learning Mode (Adaptive Learning, Blended Learning, Collaborative Learning, Social Learning, Simulation-Based, Virtual Instructor LED Training), By End-User (Corporate, Academic), and By Region - Global and Regional Industry Overview, Market Intelligence, Comprehensive Analysis, Historical Data, and Forecasts 2023  2030" into their research database.

Industry Dynamics:

Smart Education & Learning Market: Growth Drivers

Surge in need for personalized learning and improvement in digital literacy drive the growth of the industry.

The global smart education and learning market is driven by several factors, including technological advancements, rising demand for personalized learning experiences, and increasing adoption of e-learning solutions. The integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual & augmented reality in educational systems is transforming traditional teaching methods and making learning more interactive and engaging.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also accelerated the adoption of e-learning solutions as schools and universities shifted to online modes of teaching. Additionally, the need to reskill and upskill the workforce in response to changing job demands is driving the growth of the smart education and learning market. Government initiatives aimed at promoting digital literacy and improving the quality of education are also contributing to the growth of this market.

Smart Education & Learning Market: Restraints

Lack of connectivity in underdeveloped nations might hinder the growth of the industry.

Despite the growth drivers, the smart education and learning industry also faces certain restraints. One of the major challenges is the lack of infrastructure and connectivity in developing and underdeveloped countries. Additionally, concerns around the quality of digital content and the lack of trained personnel to implement & maintain the e-learning solutions also pose a challenge. Moreover, the high cost of implementing and maintaining these solutions, especially for smaller educational institutions, can hinder their adoption. The regulatory landscape and compliance requirements can also be a barrier to the growth of the market.

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Smart Education & Learning Market: Opportunities

Increase in the development of new technologies create ample opportunities for the industry.

The global smart education and learning market presents several opportunities for growth and innovation. One of the major opportunities is the increasing adoption of mobile devices and the internet, which has led to the emergence of mobile learning solutions. The demand for personalized and adaptive learning experiences is also driving the growth of the market, with the use of analytics and artificial intelligence to tailor content to individual learners. The market is also witnessing the emergence of gamification and microlearning, which make learning more engaging and accessible.

The need for reskilling and upskilling in response to changing job market demands presents a significant opportunity for the market. Additionally, the increasing focus on lifelong learning and continuous education is driving the growth of the market, as learners seek to acquire new skills and knowledge throughout their careers. The market also presents opportunities for collaboration between educational institutions and ed-tech companies to develop innovative solutions.

Smart Education & Learning Market: Challenges

Lack of proper infrastructure and trained professionals act as a challenge for the industry.

The smart education and learning market faces several challenges, including concerns around the quality of digital content, lack of infrastructure in developing and underdeveloped countries, high implementation & maintenance costs, and regulatory & compliance requirements. The shortage of trained personnel to implement and maintain the e-learning solutions can also be a challenge. Additionally, the market is highly competitive, with a large number of ed-tech companies vying for market share, which can make it challenging for new entrants.

Global Smart Education & Learning Market: Segmentation

The global smart education and learning market is segmented based on stage, component, end-user, learning mode, and region.

Based on stage, the market is segmented into Pre-Primary & Primary Stage, Middle Stage, Secondary & Higher-Secondary, Undergraduate & Postgraduate, and others. The secondary & higher secondary segment held the dominating market share in 2022 and is further predicted to grow rapidly at a rapid CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on components, the smart education and learning industry is segmented into service, software, and hardware. The service segment held the dominating market share in 2022 and is further projected to grow at a significant CAGR during the forecast period. This growth is driven by the increasing adoption of smart education and learning solutions, which require specialized expertise and support for successful implementation and maintenance. Service providers offer a range of services, such as needs assessment, solution design, customization, deployment, training, and ongoing technical support.

These services help educational institutions and organizations optimize the use of smart education and learning solutions, and ensure their smooth operation and maintenance. The service segment is also benefiting from the growing demand for cloud-based solutions, which require specialized expertise in cloud deployment and management.

Based on end-user, the market is segmented into corporate and academic. The academic segment held the largest market share in 2022 and is further anticipated to grow rapidly at a remarkable CAGR during the forecast period. The academic segment of the smart education and learning market, which includes K-12 schools, colleges, and universities, is experiencing significant growth due to the increasing demand for personalized and adaptive learning solutions.

The adoption of smart education and learning solutions in the academic sector is driven by the need to enhance the quality of education, improve student engagement & performance, and address the skills gap in the workforce. Smart education and learning solutions offer a range of benefits to academic institutions, including the ability to deliver interactive and multimedia-rich content, enable remote learning & collaboration, and provide real-time feedback & assessments. The academic segment is also benefiting from advancements in technology, such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality, which are enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of smart education and learning solutions.

Based on learning mode, the smart education and learning industry is bifurcated into Adaptive Learning, Blended Learning, Collaborative Learning, Social Learning, Simulation-Based, and Virtual Instructor LED Training. The blended learning segment held the dominating market share in 2022 and is expected to grow at an exponential CAGR during the forecast period.

The blended learning segment of the smart education and learning market, which combines online and offline learning modalities, is experiencing rapid growth due to the increasing demand for flexible and customized learning solutions. Blended learning solutions offer a range of benefits, including the ability to combine the best of both online and offline learning, provide personalized and adaptive learning experiences, and enhance collaboration and engagement among learners and teachers.

The adoption of blended learning solutions is also driven by the need to address the challenges of traditional classroom-based learning, such as limited access to resources and limited interaction among learners. The blended learning segment is also benefiting from advancements in technology, such as cloud computing and mobile devices, which are enabling the seamless integration of online and offline learning modalities.

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List of Key Players in Smart Education & Learning Market:

IBM

Microsoft Corporation

Adobe Inc.

Blackboard Inc.

Pearson plc

McGraw-Hill Education

Oracle Corporation

Cisco Systems Inc.

NIIT Limited

Saba Software Inc.

D2L Corporation

Cornerstone OnDemand Inc.

Citrix Systems Inc.

SMART Technologies

IBM Watson Education

Promethean World Ltd

Aptara Inc.

SumTotal Systems LLC

Edmodo

Udacity

Coursera

Pluralsight LLC

Lynda.com Inc.

Skillshare Inc.

Knewton Inc.

Among Others.

Key questions answered in this report:

What are the growth rate forecast and market size for Smart Education & Learning Market?

What are the key driving factors propelling the Smart Education & Learning Market forward?

What are the most important companies in the Smart Education & Learning Market Industry?

What segments does the Smart Education & Learning Market cover?

How can I receive a free copy of the Smart Education & Learning Market sample report and company profiles?

Report Scope:

Report Attribute Details Market size value in 2021 USD 201. 54 Billion Revenue forecast in 2030 USD 985.33 Billion Growth Rate CAGR of almost 22.6% 2022-2030 Base Year 2022 Historic Years 2016  2021 Forecast Years 2023  2030 Segments Covered By Stage, By Component, By Learning Mode, By End-User, And By Region Forecast Units Value (USD Billion), and Volume (Units) Quantitative Units Revenue in USD million/billion and CAGR from 2022 to 2030 Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa, and Rest of World Countries Covered U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, GCC Countries, and South Africa, among others Companies Covered IBM, Microsoft Corporation, Adobe Inc., Blackboard Inc., Pearson plc, McGraw-Hill Education, Oracle Corporation, Cisco Systems Inc., NIIT Limited, Saba Software Inc., D2L Corporation, Cornerstone OnDemand Inc., Citrix Systems Inc., SMART Technologies, IBM Watson Education, Promethean World Ltd, Aptara Inc., SumTotal Systems LLC, Edmodo, Udacity, Coursera, Pluralsight LLC, Lynda.com Inc., Skillshare Inc., and Knewton Inc. among others. Report Coverage Market growth drivers, restraints, opportunities, Porter's five forces analysis, PEST analysis, value chain analysis, regulatory landscape, market attractiveness analysis by segments and region, company market share analysis, and COVID-19 impact analysis. Customization Scope Avail of customized purchase options to meet your exact research needs. https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/custom/5816

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Recent Developments

In November 2021 , Edmentum, a provider of online learning solutions, launched Edmentum International, a new division dedicated to serving K-12 schools outside of the United States . This expansion will allow Edmentum to reach new markets and provide its solutions to schools around the world.

Edmentum, a provider of online learning solutions, launched Edmentum International, a new division dedicated to serving K-12 schools outside of . This expansion will allow Edmentum to reach new markets and provide its solutions to schools around the world. In October 2021 , Blackboard, a leading provider of learning management systems, announced that it had acquired Xpansive, a provider of online proctoring solutions. This acquisition will allow Blackboard to expand its capabilities in the important area of online assessment and ensure the integrity of exams taken remotely.

Regional Dominance:

North America region to dominate the global market during the forecast period.

Based on region, the North American region held the largest smart education and learning market share in 2022 and is further anticipated to grow steadily during the forecast period. The smart education and learning market in North America is experiencing significant growth due to the increasing adoption of digital technologies in the education sector. The region is home to several leading players in the smart education & learning market and has a highly developed technology infrastructure and favorable government policies that support the adoption of smart education and learning solutions.

The market growth in North America is also driven by the increasing demand for personalized and adaptive learning solutions, as well as the growing need to address the skills gap in the workforce. The market is expected to continue its growth trajectory in the coming years, with the increasing adoption of cloud-based solutions, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. The K-12 education segment and higher education institutions are the primary end-users of smart education and learning solutions in North America, followed by corporate training and government organizations.

Global Smart Education & Learning Market is segmented as follows:

Smart Education & Learning Market: By Stage Outlook (2022-2030)

Pre-Primary & Primary Stage

Middle Stage

Secondary & Higher-Secondary

Undergraduate & Postgraduate

Smart Education & Learning Market: By Component Outlook (2022-2030)

Hardware

Software

Service

Smart Education & Learning Market: By Learning Mode Outlook (2022-2030)

Adaptive Learning

Blended Learning

Collaborative Learning

Social Learning

Simulation-Based

Virtual Instructor LED Training

Smart Education & Learning Market: By End-User Outlook (2022-2030)

Corporate

Academic

Smart Education & Learning Market: By Region Outlook (2022-2030)

North America

The U.S.

Canada

Europe

France

The UK

Spain

Germany

Italy

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Southeast Asia

Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

GCC

South Africa

Rest of Middle East & Africa

Press Release for Smart Education & Learning Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/news/global-smart-education-learning-market

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SOURCE Zion Market Research
The ranch-style Decker plan will open for tours on Saturday at Parkside

BRENTWOOD, Calif., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Richmond American Homes of California, a subsidiary of M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MDC), is excited to announce that a brand-new, fully furnished model home will open for tours on Saturday, May 6, at the inviting community of Parkside (RichmondAmerican.com/Parkside) in Brentwood. Featuring only 36 homesites, this exclusive enclave showcases three inspired ranch and two-story floor plans with the open layouts and designer details today's homebuyers are seeking.

The Decker is one of three Richmond American floor plans available at Parkside in Brentwood, California.

Prospective homebuyers and area agents are encouraged to visit Parkside for tours of the brand-new Decker model home for Saturday, May 6, or Sunday, May 7.

More about this community:

New ranch and two-story homes from the $800s

Three inspired floor plans with designer details

2 to 5 bedrooms, approx. 2,010 to 3,680 sq. ft.

Convenient location near San Francisco , East Bay Area & several major employers via Highway 4

, East Bay Area & several major employers via Highway 4 Close proximity to notable shopping, dining, parks & trails

Those who choose to build a new home from the ground up at Parkside will have the opportunity to work with professional design consultants at the builder's Home Gallery to select colors, textures, finishes and fixtures for their new living spacesa complimentary service!

Parkside is located at 1983 Helena Way in Brentwood. Call 925.679.6003 to schedule a tour or visit RichmondAmerican.com to learn more about this must-see community.

About M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.

M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1972. MDC's homebuilding subsidiaries, which operate under the name Richmond American Homes, have built and financed the American Dream for more than 230,000 homebuyers since 1977. MDC's commitment to customer satisfaction, quality and value is reflected in each home its subsidiaries build. MDC is one of the largest homebuilders in the United States. Its subsidiaries have homebuilding operations across the country, including the metropolitan areas of Denver, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Riverside-San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Orlando, Jacksonville, Seattle, Portland, Boise, Nashville, Austin, Albuquerque and Huntsville. MDC's subsidiaries also provide mortgage financing, insurance and title services, primarily for Richmond American homebuyers, through HomeAmerican Mortgage Corporation, American Home Insurance Agency, Inc. and American Home Title and Escrow Company, respectively. M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "MDC." For more information, visit MDCHoldings.com.

SOURCE M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.
LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Scali Rasmussen announced today that Principals Colleen O'Brien and Jasmin Bhandari have been selected as honorees by Los Angeles Business Journal recognizing the city's most influential women attorneys. The "Women of Influence: Attorneys" list recognizes women lawyers that have been recognized for exceptional legal skill and achievement across the full spectrum of responsibility, exemplary leadership as evidenced by the highest professional and ethical standards, and for contributions to the Los Angeles community at large.

A former military prosecutor, trial attorney and litigator, O'Brien tries and resolves lawsuits and challenges related to toxic torts, catastrophic injury and complex employment matters. Her experience includes a range of civil litigation, from consumer fraud to defamation to personal injury claims. O'Brien defends companies against plaintiffs' sophisticated claims involving long-term occupational injury, infectious disease, property damage and groundwater contamination.

O'Brien has successfully tried more than 30 matters to verdict for her clients, both as a government attorney in criminal contexts and in private practice. She is known for her skillful preparation and examination of medical and technical experts at deposition and trial. Her keen attention to details and commitment to cases have helped clients settle their disputes efficiently and quickly  and avoid lengthy and costly trials.

Recently, O'Brien has been named a "Woman of Influence" and a nominee in the "Women's Leadership Awards" by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Bhandari is an expert in all aspects of California employment law. She serves as outside employment counsel to auto dealer groups and aids clients to stay in compliance with ever-changing state and federal laws, including termination and onboarding issues. She also litigates and arbitrates a broad range of disputes, including discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, wage and hour, and trade secret matters.

Bhandari routinely "defend[s] companies in wage and hour class actions against meal and rest break, overtime, and timely payment of wage claims, including extensive experience with PAGA cases in both litigation and arbitration," states the publication. Bhandari has successfully obtained dismissal of class claims in arbitration, and dismissal of an appeal in a pro-bono matter representing indigent tenants displaced by a fire. She has a deep, practical understanding of the operational realities of industry clients due to her significant experience working closely with management to assess risks and identify solutions to proposed business strategies.

About Scali Rasmussen

Named one of the "Most Admired Law Firms" by the Los Angeles Business Journal and a "Top Boutique Law Firm" by the Los Angeles Daily Journal, Scali Rasmussen, PC serves businesses across California as trusted legal advisors. Our standard-setting, legal solutions for the automotive industry and dealer franchise relationship prevent issues from becoming hurdles. With a niche practice advising Italian enterprises entering U.S. markets, the firm provides in-depth counsel on business litigation, cybersecurity, trade secret misappropriation and corporate shareholder and partnership disputes.

SOURCE Scali Rasmussen
OTCQX: SHWZ

NEO: SHWZ

DENVER, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Medicine Man Technologies operating as Schwazze, (OTCQX: SHWZ) (NEO: SHWZ) ("Schwazze" or the "Company"), will hold a first quarter earnings webcast on May 10, 2023, at 5:00 pm ET.

Investors and stakeholders may participate in the conference call by dialing 416-764-8650 or by dialing North American toll free 1-888-664-6383 or listen to the webcast from the Company's website at https://ir.schwazze.com The webcast will be available on the Company's website and on replay until May 17, 2023, and may be accessed by dialing 416-764-8677 or North American toll free 1-888-390-0541 / 613777 #.

Following their prepared remarks, Management will answer investor questions. Investors may submit questions in advance or during the conference call itself through the weblink: https://app.webinar.net/8JdExl9XLGb This weblink has been posted to the Company's website and will be archived on the website. All Company SEC filings can also be accessed on the Company website at https://ir.schwazze.com/sec-filings

About Schwazze

Schwazze (OTCQX:SHWZ, NEO:SHWZ) is building a premier vertically integrated regional cannabis company with assets in Colorado and New Mexico and will continue to take its operating system to other states where it can develop a differentiated regional leadership position. Schwazze is the parent company of a portfolio of leading cannabis businesses and brands spanning seed to sale. The Company is committed to unlocking the full potential of the cannabis plant to improve the human condition. Schwazze is anchored by a high-performance culture that combines customer-centric thinking and data science to test, measure, and drive decisions and outcomes. The Company's leadership team has deep expertise in retailing, wholesaling, and building consumer brands at Fortune 500 companies as well as in the cannabis sector. Schwazze is passionate about making a difference in our communities, promoting diversity and inclusion, and doing our part to incorporate climate-conscious best practices. Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. was Schwazze's former operating trade name. The corporate entity continues to be named Medicine Man Technologies, Inc.

Schwazze derives its name from the pruning technique of a cannabis plant to enhance plant structure and promote healthy growth.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements may be preceded by the words "plan," "will," "may,", "predicts," or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events or performance, are based on certain assumptions, and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control and cannot be predicted or quantified. Consequently, actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with (i) our inability to manufacture our products and product candidates on a commercial scale on our own or in collaboration with third parties; (ii) difficulties in obtaining financing on commercially reasonable terms; (iii) changes in the size and nature of our competition; (iv) loss of one or more key executives or scientists; (v) difficulties in securing regulatory approval to market our products and product candidates; (vi) our ability to successfully execute our growth strategy in Colorado and outside the state, (vii) our ability to consummate the acquisition described in this press release or to identify and consummate future acquisitions that meet our criteria, (viii) our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and realize synergies therefrom, (ix) the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, * the timing and extent of governmental stimulus programs, (xi) the uncertainty in the application of federal, state and local laws to our business, and any changes in such laws, and * out ability to satisfy the closing conditions for the private finding described in this press release. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law.

SOURCE Medicine Man Technologies, Inc.
NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Credit Suisse Group AG ("Credit Suisse" or the "Company") (NYSE: CS), and certain officers. The class action, filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, and docketed under 23-cv-02246, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants that purchased or otherwise acquired Credit Suisse securities, including the Company's AT1 Bonds, in a domestic transaction in the U.S., between February 18, 2021 and March 20, 2023, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants' violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.

If you are a shareholder who purchased or otherwise acquired Credit Suisse securities during the Class Period, you have until May 8, 2023 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

Credit Suisse, together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial services in Switzerland, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. The Company offers wealth management solutions, including investment advice and discretionary asset management services; risk management solutions, such as managed investment products; and wealth planning, succession planning, and trust services.

In October 2022, Credit Suisse began experiencing a sharp increase in customer outflows, or withdrawals of client funds, after a series of quarterly losses and risk and compliance failures significantly decreased the Company's American Depositary Share ("ADS") price.

On December 1, 2022, Credit Suisse's Chairman, Defendant 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, Defendant Lehmann reiterated his previous statements, reassuring investors that as of November 11, 2022, customer outflows had "basically stopped".

Following Defendant Lehmann's statements, Credit Suisse's ADS price rose $0.29 per ADS, or 9.36%, to close at $3.38 per ADS on December 2, 2022.

The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operations, and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) contrary to Defendant Lehmann's representations in December 2022, the sharp increase in customer outflows Credit Suisse began experiencing in October 2022 remained ongoing; (ii) accordingly, Credit Suisse had downplayed the impact of the Company's recent series of quarterly losses and risk and compliance failures on liquidity and its ability to retain client funds; (iii) in addition, the Company maintained deficient internal disclosure controls and procedures; (iv) as a result, Credit Suisse had overstated the Company's financial position and/or prospects; and (v) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On February 9, 2023, Credit Suisse issued a press release announcing its 2022 financial results. The press release revealed that, contrary to Defendant 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.

On 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.

Then, on February 21, 2023, Reuters reported that the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority ("FINMA"), was reviewing Defendant Lehmann's previous comments regarding customer outflows.

On 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 March 9, 2023, the Company issued an ad hoc announcement on Form 6-K stating it would delay the publication of its 2022 Annual Report and related Annual Report after a call on March 8, 2023 from the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the Company's cash flow statements in the years ended December 31, 2020, and 2019, as well as related controls.

On this news, Credit Suisse's ADS price fell another $0.13 per ADS, or 4.48%, to close at $2.77 per ADS on March 9, 2023.

Then, on March 14, 2023, the Company filed an Annual Report on Form 20-F with the SEC, reporting the Company's financial and operating results for the year ended December 31, 2022 which identified material weaknesses in the Company's internal controls and procedures.

On this news, Credit Suisse's ADS price fell another $0.03 per ADS. or 1.18%, to close at $2.51 per ADS on March 14, 2023.

Then, on March 15, 2023, Reuters published an article entitled "Credit Suisse's biggest backer says can't put up more cash; share down by a fifth" citing Saudi National Bank would not buy any more of the Company's shares on regulatory grounds.

On this news, Credit Suisse's ADS price fell another $0.35 per ADS, or 13.94%, to close at $2.16 per ADS on March 15, 2023.

Finally, on March 20, 2023, before market hours, the Company issued an ad hoc announcement on Form 6-K stating that, following the FINMA investigation, it had entered into a merger agreement with UBS.

On this news, Credit Suisse's ADS price fell another $1.07 per ADS, or 52.99%, to close at $0.94 per ADS on March 20, 2023.

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered billions of dollars in damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

888-476-6529 ext. 7980

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP
NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of TAL Education Group ("TAL" or the "Company") (NYSE: TAL). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether TAL and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On March 14, 2023, Seeking Alpha published an article entitled "TAL Education, Chinese ed-tech stocks slump on crackdown fears", reporting that "Chinese media reports indicated the company may have flouted government regulations." The article further reported that "TAL subsidiary Xueersi restarted courses that run counter to conventions put in place by Xi Jinping's Common Prosperity drive. Specifically, courses were restarted in subjects like mathematics and English under the guise of permitted tutoring outside of core subjects. Under the 'Double Reduction Policy', tutoring in core subjects must be offered as a strictly non-profit business."

On this news, TAL's American Depositary Receipt ("ADR") price fell $0.68 per ADR, or 10%, to close at $6.12 per ADR on March 14, 2023.

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered billions of dollars in damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

888-476-6529 ext. 7980

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP
NEW YORK, May 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Teleperformance SE ("Teleperformance" or the "Company") (OTCMKTS: TLPFY). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether Teleperformance and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On August 4, 2022, Forbes published an article alleging that Teleperformance had subjected its workers to poor working conditions, using real, graphic images and videos of child sexual abuse to train its TikTok content moderators, while "conversations with former employees reveal[ed] the extent to which moderators were both under-trained and overworked."

On this news, Teleperformance's American Depositary Receipt ("ADR") price fell $7.75 per ADR, or 4.6%, to close at $160.94 per ADR on August 5, 2022.

Then, on November 9, 2022, Time reported that "Colombia's Ministry of Labor has launched an investigation into TikTok subcontractor Teleperformance, relating to alleged union-busting, traumatic working conditions and low pay."

On this news, Teleperformance's ADR price fell $24.55 per ADR, or 18.6%, to close at $107.77 per ADR on November 10, 2022.

Finally, on March 22, 2023, four months after the Company "unanimously" decided to exit the "highly egregious" content moderation business, Teleperformance announced that it would be reentering the field. Market analysts observed that the move was an indication of the Company's overall business and growth prospects. One HSBC Global Research analyst report stated that the "U-turn on content moderation raises concerns about communication, governance and broad fundamentals."

On this news, Teleperformance's ADR price fell $6.87 per ADR, or 5.7%, over three trading sessions to close at $112.82 per ADR on March 24, 2023.

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

888-476-6529 ext. 7980

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP
NEW YORK, May 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Weiss Law is investigating possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of law by the board of directors of Enzo Biochem, Inc. ("Enzo Biochem" or the "Company") (NYSE: ENZ) in connection with its acquisition by Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (NYSE: LH) ("Labcorp"). The transaction value is approximately $146 million.

If you own Enzo Biochem shares and wish to discuss this investigation or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, visit our website:

https://www.weisslaw.co/news-and-cases/enz

Or please contact:

Joshua Rubin, Esq.

Weiss Law

305 Broadway, 7th Floor

New York, NY 10007

(212) 682-3025

(888) 593-4771

[email protected]

Weiss Law is investigating whether (i) Enzo Biochem's board acted in the best interests of Company shareholders in agreeing to the merger, (ii) the merger consideration adequately compensates Enzo Biochem's shareholders, and (iii) all information regarding the sales process and valuation of the transaction will be fully and fairly disclosed.

Weiss Law has litigated hundreds of stockholder class and derivative actions for violations of corporate and fiduciary duties. We have recovered over a billion dollars for defrauded clients and obtained important corporate governance relief in many of these cases. If you have information or would like legal advice concerning possible corporate wrongdoing (including insider trading, waste of corporate assets, accounting fraud, or materially misleading information), consumer fraud (including false advertising, defective products, or other deceptive business practices), or anti-trust violations, please email us at [email protected]

SOURCE Weiss Law
A few hours ahead of the launch of the long-awaited National Dialogue in Egypt, which kicks off on Wednesday, its general coordinator stressed that the issue of pretrial detention would be at the top of the human rights discussions agenda during the dialogues sessions.

The pretrial detention, in my opinion, will be one of the most important outcomes of the dialogue, General Coordinator of the National Dialogue Diaa Rashwan told Kelma Akhira TV programme on Tuesday night.

He added that the dialogue received many draft bills to amend the provisions of pretrial detention in the penal code and criminal law.

The human rights axis of the dialogue will comprise seven topics, including any torture cases, Rashwan stated, adding that "torture is a crime that is not subject to a statute of limitations per the Egyptian constitution."

Reassurances about Case 173

Rashwan noted that he has received reassurances that Case 173 of 2014, in which Egyptian and foreign Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) faced charges of receiving illegal foreign funding, will be closed very soon.

Rashwan said 12-15 NGOs are still charged in the case, which originally included 43 Egyptian and foreign NGOs operating in Egypt.

Over the past few years, charges of receiving illegal foreign funding pressed against many of the NGOs in the case have been dropped as per consecutive judicial rulings due to insufficient evidence.

Human rights organisations have been calling for closing Case 173 to ensure freedom for NGOs and human rights groups.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Egyptian Presidential Pardon Committee, revived by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in April last year, pledged a positive spirit with regard to Case 173 with the start of the National Dialogue.

Releasing prisoners

Since President El-Sisi called for a national dialogue in April of last year, the Public Prosecution has released more than 1,200 pretrial detainees and the president pardoned more than 15 who were serving prison sentences, Rashwan said, calling for more releases.

He added that only a few of its members of the Civil Democratic Movement  a bloc including 12 opposition parties and groups  remain in prison, with the exception of one or two Ahmed Douma.

Launch of dialogue

The General Coordinator said Wednesdays inaugural session of the dialogue will be held at 3pm in the Nefertiti Hall of the Cairo International Convention Center in Nasr City.

The inaugural session will see the participation of foreign ambassadors, representatives of political parties, professional and labour unions, civil society groups, public figures, and a number of released prisoners.

Amr Moussa, the former Egyptian foreign minister and head of the outgoing 50-member committee tasked with amending Egypt's 2012 constitution, will deliver a speech at the session.

Nasserist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, former presidential candidate, and political expert Hossam Badrawy will also deliver speeches at the session along with speeches by around 20 other speakers, Rashwan stated.

Local media will be allowed to attend the dialogues session by presenting their credentials and letters of accreditation, Rashwan said.

Over 50 foreign correspondents, who have received invitations from the State Information Service (SIS), will also attend the session.

The dialogue aims to find common ground between the forces regarding priority issues on the political, economic, and social fronts.

Rashwan has repeatedly noted that that discussions will take place within the dialogue without any red lines.

President El-Sisi had called for a national dialogue that brings together all political forces without discrimination, except for those who were involved in violence and violent acts over the past years.

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For the fourth year in a row, SKITTLES Pride packs will "give up its rainbow" to support the LGBTQ+ Community and GLAAD's changemaking work

NEWARK, N.J., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- SKITTLES, unveiled its limited edition 2023 Pride packs today as a special first look at its 2023 Pride program. The packs will swap the brand's signature rainbow for original designs by artists within the LGBTQ+ community. $1 from each pack sold (up to $100,000) will go to GLAAD in support of the organization's ongoing efforts to work through media to support and increase visibility for the LGBTQ+ community. More details on the full 2023 Pride program will be shared ahead of June, which will include several exciting partnerships and collaborations to support and uplift the LGBTQ+ community.

SKITTLES previews its 2023 Pride program with a first look at its fourth annual SKITTLES Pride packs, swapping out the brands signature rainbow on packaging for original designs crafted by five LGBTQ+ artists to tell a visual story of Pride. $1 per every pack sold (up to $100K) will be donated to GLAAD to support and increase visibility for the LGBTQ+ community.

For the second year, SKITTLES has partnered with LGBTQ+ artists who each use their art to increase visibility, help others feel seen and advocate for others. This year's five talented artist partners crafted original pack designs that each tell a visual story of Pride:

Zipeng Zhu (he/him) of New York, NY is a Chinese-born artist, designer, art director, illustrator and animator who wants to make every day a razzle-dazzle musical.

(he/him) of is a Chinese-born artist, designer, art director, illustrator and animator who wants to make every day a razzle-dazzle musical. Symone Salib (she/her) of Philadelphia, PA is a first-generation Cuban/Egyptian street artist, muralist, and educator.

(she/her) of is a first-generation Cuban/Egyptian street artist, muralist, and educator. Mady G (he/they) of Hudson Valley, NY is an illustrator who highlights their interests in fashion, horror, nature, LGBTQ+ civil rights and psychedelic across their various illustrative works.

(he/they) of Hudson Valley, NY is an illustrator who highlights their interests in fashion, horror, nature, LGBTQ+ civil rights and psychedelic across their various illustrative works. Bianca Xunise (they/them) of Chicago, IL is an American cartoonist, who became the first nationally syndicated non-binary cartoonist after joining the comic strip Six Chix.

(they/them) of is an American cartoonist, who became the first nationally syndicated non-binary cartoonist after joining the comic strip Six Chix. Shanee Benjamin (she/her) of Brooklyn, NY is an art director and illustrator who is passionate about creating community and connection through her art.

In addition to Pride-inspired packaging exclusively designed by LGBTQ+ artists, the 2023 Pride packs include a QR code that takes fans to SKITTLES.com/PRIDE where they can hear the artists share more about the importance of LGBTQ+ stories to create community and increase visibility.

"As part of Mars Wrigley's commitment to inspire moments of everyday happiness, SKITTLES is honored to once again celebrate, uplift, and provide visibility to the LGBTQ+ community," said Gabrielle Wesley, Chief Marketing Officer, Mars Wrigley North America. "This year, our artist partners are using their pack designs to tell stories of LGBTQ+ experiences  stories that have the power to create community, reveal identity and generate empathy."

Later this month, SKITTLES will be revealing more details around the brand's full Pride program and additional ways SKITTLES will be supporting the LGBTQ+ community leading up to Pride 2023. The limited-edition Pride packs will be available to purchase in 4oz Share Size Packs and 15.6oz Stand Up Pouches at select retailers nationwide starting in May through mid-July.

For more information on our artists and Pride packs and to hear the latest on SKITTLES' upcoming Pride announcements, visit Skittles.com/PRIDE or follow SKITTLES on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

ABOUT MARS, INCORPORATED

Mars, Incorporated is driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. As a global, family-owned business, Mars is transforming, innovating, and evolving to make a positive impact on the world.

Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of quality confectionery, food, and pet care products and services, we employ 140,000+ dedicated Associates. With almost $45 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world's best-loved brands including Ben's Original, CESAR, Cocoavia, DOVE, EXTRA, KIND, M&M's, SNICKERS, PEDIGREE, ROYAL CANIN, and WHISKAS. We are creating a better world for pets through our global network of pet hospitals and diagnostic services  including AniCura, BANFIELD, BLUEPEARL, Linnaeus and VCA  using cutting edge technology to develop breakthrough programs in genetic health screening and DNA testing.

For more information about Mars, please visit www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

ABOUT GLAAD

GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance. As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change. GLAAD protects all that has been accomplished and creates a world where everyone can live the life they love. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org or connect with GLAAD on Facebook and Twitter.

Media Contacts Mars Wrigley Erin DeAngelo [email protected] Weber Shandwick Caroline Tobin [email protected]

SOURCE Mars, Incorporated
SHANGHAI, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Skyline Therapeutics, an innovation-driven gene therapy company dedicated to developing unique and novel solutions to address unmet needs in rare and severe diseases, today announced multiple data presentations at the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) 26th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, CA, May 16-20, 2023.

Among the exciting findings from several innovative AAV gene therapy programs that the Skyline team will present at ASGCT are SKG0106, a novel recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vector developed for the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) via intravitreal (IVT) administration, and SKG0201, an innovative next generation SMN1 gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

SKG0106 is a proprietary AAV vector carrying a transgene genome encoding a novel anti-VEGF protein. Upon delivery, SKG0106 effectively and specifically suppresses the action of human VEGF, a key factor contributing to the pathological angiogenesis in the eyes of nAMD patients. Comprehensive pharmacological studies were conducted to thoroughly evaluate the efficacy of SKG0106 using a DL--AAA induced rabbit model of chronic retinal neovascularization (RNV) and a laser photocoagulation induced non-human primate (NHP) model of choroidal neovascularization (CNV). SKG0106 was administered via a single IVT injection.

Data highlights

Single treatment of SKG0106 via intravitreal delivery effectively reduced fluorescein leakage area and grade 4 lesion percentage in a dose dependent manner; strong efficacy was observed at low dose level

SKG0106 showed complete and durable inhibition of fluorescein leakage and significant reduction in subretinal hyperreflective material thickness in the 26-week long term study in NHP, suggesting the strong and durable efficacy of the vector in repressing the activity of VEGF

suggesting the strong and durable efficacy of the vector in repressing the activity of VEGF SKG0106 was well tolerated, and no significant adverse effect observed in ocular nor peripheral tissues

In comprehensive studies, SKG0106 demonstrated strong dose-dependent efficacy against vascular leakage in rabbit RNV and NHP CNV models, durable efficacy in NHP studies, and excellent local tolerance profiles and systemic safety. Further supported with positive outcome from long-term toxicity studies, SKG0106 is currently in clinical trial.

SKG0201 is a novel AAV-mediated gene replacement therapy comprising an optimized human SMN1 cDNA under the control of a unique promoter. Every element in the vector genome was carefully optimized to fully attain restoration of SMN in the target cells to achieve maximal therapeutic effect in the CNS while maintaining appropriate expression in peripheral tissues. The preclinical data demonstrated that a single intravenous administration of SKG0201 resulted in a rapid and long-lasting correction of functional SMN protein levels, which led to a significant improvement in the gain of body weight, extension in the lifespan, and restoration of motor functions of SMN7 mice (SMA disease animal model) at low doses.

Data highlights

SKG0201 treatment exhibited a significantly reduced acute expression of SMN protein in the liver. In addition, the vector displayed a much stronger potency and superior safety profile with no liver toxicity compared to the reference vector (scAAV9-CMVen/CB-hSMN1), suggesting a significantly lower therapeutic dose in the clinical setting, further enhancing the safety profile of the vector

SKG0201-treated SMN7 mice exhibited a lasting efficacy in improving deficit of motor functions, preventing neuromuscular junction ( NMJ) breakdown, and increasing the axon conductivity in six-month durability studies

These results strongly suggest that this novel vector, with a potentially superior efficacy and safety profile, represents a highly promising new generation of AAV gene therapy to treat SMA.

In addition to SKG0106 and SKG0201, the Skyline team is rapidly advancing a number of innovative AAV gene therapy programs with high unmet medical needs through rigorous pre-clinical studies, targeting additional indications in ocular, neurological, cardiovascular, and metabolic disorders.

About Skyline Therapeutics

Skyline Therapeutics is an innovation-driven clinical stage gene therapy company dedicated to developing unique and novel solutions to address unmet needs in rare and severe diseases. Our cutting-edge adeno-associated virus (AAV) platform comprises multiple proprietary technologies for capsid discovery, transgene design, and vector engineering. Combining our AAV expertise with robust in-house process and analytical development, and GMP manufacturing for clinical-grade plasmid and viral vector production, we are advancing a diverse pipeline of gene therapies for ocular, neurological, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. Our lead programs, with significant therapeutic potential as validated by rigorous preclinical studies, are now in first-in-human clinical trials, bringing us closer to providing life-changing therapies to patients in need. Skyline Therapeutics has established global presence for research, development, regulatory, and manufacturing in Shanghai and Hangzhou, China, and Boston, MA, USA. www.skytx.com

About ASGCT

The American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) is a professional non-profit medical and scientific organization dedicated to the understanding, development and application of gene, related cell and nucleic acid therapies, as well as promotion of professional and public education in the field. With more than 5,000 members in the US and worldwide, ASGCT is the largest association of individuals involved in gene and cell therapy research. To learn more about ASGCT, visit its official website www.asgct.org

SOURCE Skyline Therapeutics
Starting today, Brands Can Seamlessly Advertise Online Across Both Sprouts and Instacart

Califia Farms, General Mills, Primal Kitchen, and Siete Family Foods Among First Brands Leveraging Carrot Ads to Reach More People Shopping Online

SAN FRANCISCO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, today announced that Sprouts Farmers Market, one of the fastest-growing specialty retailers in the country, is leveraging Carrot Ads - part of the Instacart Platform - to power its new retail media network. Carrot Ads helps retailers, like Sprouts, establish and grow their retail media networks on their owned and operated websites and apps.

Starting today, brands can seamlessly advertise across both Sprouts and Instacart.

Brands can now combine the power of Instacart's robust advertising solutions with Sprouts' healthy approach to grocery shopping to drive measurable growth for their businesses. In addition to allowing brands to increase the reach of their Instacart Ads campaigns to include the Sprouts ecommerce experience, for the first time, brand partners can target specific ad campaigns to consumers solely on the Sprouts' ecommerce experience leveraging Instacart Ads technology.

Califia Farms, General Mills, Primal Kitchen, and Siete Family Foods are using Carrot Ads to reach, inspire, and connect in a variety of ways with consumers shopping Sprouts' ecommerce experience.

"At Sprouts, we are committed to serving our health-enthusiast customers, and are excited to offer new ways to connect them with our innovative and distinctive brand partners," said Nick Konat, President and Chief Operating Officer of Sprouts Farmers Market. "By leveraging Instacart's ad technology, we are enabling this connection  and giving our brand partners even more ways to grow with us and our customers. We're proud of our partnership with Instacart for continuing to find ways to bring our great brands, customers, and products together."

"We're committed to providing all grocers with the technology they need to serve their customers better  no matter how they choose to shop," said Chris Rogers, Chief Business Officer at Instacart. "We are proud to deepen our partnership with Sprouts and bring their vision for a new retail media network to life. We're seeing so much growth in the retail media space, as these networks provide a huge opportunity for retailers to open new revenue streams, enhance the customer experience, and increase loyalty. Today's news is also a game-changer for the thousands of brand partners already advertising via Instacart. They can leverage the best of Instacart Ads to develop targeted Sprouts campaigns to drive meaningful growth for their business and stay ahead in today's dynamic retail landscape."

With today's announcement, Instacart and Sprouts are giving brands a new opportunity by:

Enabling ad targeting on retailer's owned and operated sites: For the first time, advertisers can now target and optimize dedicated online campaigns specifically on the Sprouts ecommerce experience, powered by Carrot Ads. Brand partners will also have access to metrics, such as attributed sales and return on ad spend (ROAS), from their Sprouts campaigns, equipping them with an overall view of campaign performance.





For the first time, advertisers can now target and optimize dedicated online campaigns specifically on the Sprouts ecommerce experience, powered by Carrot Ads. Brand partners will also have access to metrics, such as attributed sales and return on ad spend (ROAS), from their Sprouts campaigns, equipping them with an overall view of campaign performance. Maximizing reach and exposure seamlessly: Today, brand partners are running Instacart Ad campaigns across more than 1,100 retail banners. With today's announcement, brands automatically benefit by increasing the reach of their Instacart Ads campaigns to include Sprouts ecommerce experience, maximizing exposure and engaging relevant audiences shopping for their products. Instacart simplifies the operational complexity of managing campaigns across multiple Carrot Ads retailers by utilizing existing creative, targeting, and measurement tools.





Today, brand partners are running Instacart Ad campaigns across more than 1,100 retail banners. With today's announcement, brands automatically benefit by increasing the reach of their Instacart Ads campaigns to include Sprouts ecommerce experience, maximizing exposure and engaging relevant audiences shopping for their products. Instacart simplifies the operational complexity of managing campaigns across multiple Carrot Ads retailers by utilizing existing creative, targeting, and measurement tools. Unlocking new opportunities for emerging brands: Sprouts is known for carrying innovative and better-for-you products and for stocking its shelves with emerging brands. With Carrot Ads, emerging brands can invest in the consumers shopping Sprouts, helping grow awareness and inspiring trial as they browse online.

"We're thrilled to continue partnering with Instacart and Sprouts because we recognize that many people seeking delicious, dairy-free products are turning to both online platforms," said Halee Patel Newton, Vice President of ecommerce at Califia Farms. "Thanks to Carrot Ads, our online ad campaigns can seamlessly extend across both sites, which allows us to reach a broader audience and increase our brand's visibility. This approach makes managing multiple campaigns easier and less complex as we scale. We're excited about the new opportunities ahead across both Instacart and Sprouts."

"More consumers are shopping online for groceries, and as early adopters of Carrot Ads, we have been able to extend our Instacart ad campaigns to Sprouts' ecommerce site, allowing us to boost brand recognition," said Raquel Navarrski, Customer Vice President of eCommerce Pure Play, General Mills.

"At Primal Kitchen, we have a simple mission: to change the way the world eats. That's why we're making it easier for people to discover our products, both online and in-store," said Kelly Meredith, Sr Marketing Manager-Omnichannel at Primal Kitchen. "Our partnership with Instacart and Sprouts is helping us to achieve this goal. As early partners using Carrot Ads, we're easily extending and optimizing our online campaigns to reach more people and acquire new customers. We're thrilled to be at the forefront of this new technology and believe it will have a significant impact as we continue to grow and expand our product offerings."

"We are incredibly proud of Siete's momentum and continued focus on innovation, and nurturing partnerships like those we have with Sprouts and Instacart are instrumental. There's such great demand for Siete's better-for-you Mexican-American food products, and we're happy to have a strong presence where we know people are looking for cleaner alternatives to conventional offerings. We hope to continue to serve our consumers by meeting them where they are," said Miguel Garza, CEO of Siete Family Foods.

Sprouts and Instacart have partnered since 2018 when they launched same-day delivery across the Instacart App. The companies have since launched curbside pickup at nearly all stores, EBT SNAP payments, virtual convenience and alcohol delivery and pickup in select states. The Sprouts website - shop.sprouts.com - and app are powered by the Instacart Platform. The Instacart Platform brings together the technologies retailers need to improve the consumer experience online or in-store and digitize the end-to-end grocery operation through five key pillars: e-commerce, fulfillment, in-store, ads, and insights.

Carrot Ads is part of the Instacart Platform that makes the Instacart Ads technologies available on retailer's own websites. Carrot Ads extends Instacart's ad technology and sales capabilities to help retailers of all sizes build and grow their own retail media networks.

For more information about Carrot Ads and Instacart Platform, visit www.instacart.com/company/platform .

About Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc.

True to its farm-stand heritage, Sprouts offers a unique grocery experience featuring an open layout with fresh produce at the heart of the store. Sprouts inspires wellness naturally with a carefully curated assortment of better-for-you products paired with purpose-driven people. The healthy grocer continues to bring the latest in wholesome, innovative products made with lifestyle-friendly ingredients such as organic, plant-based and gluten-free. Headquartered in Phoenix, and one of the largest and fastest growing specialty retailers of fresh, natural and organic food in the United States, Sprouts employs approximately 31,000 team members and operates more than 380 stores in 23 states nationwide. To learn more about Sprouts, and the good it brings communities, visit about.sprouts.com .

About Instacart

Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, works with grocers and retailers to transform how people shop. The company partners with more than 1,100 national, regional, and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 80,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. Instacart makes it possible for millions of people to get the groceries they need from the retailers they love, and for approximately 600,000 Instacart shoppers to earn by picking, packing and delivering orders on their own flexible schedule. The Instacart Platform offers retailers a suite of enterprise-grade technology products and services to power their e-commerce experiences, fulfill orders, digitize brick-and-mortar stores, provide advertising services, and glean insights. With Instacart Ads, thousands of CPG brands  from category leaders to emerging brands  partner with the company to connect directly with consumers online, right at the point of purchase. With Instacart Health, the company is providing tools to increase nutrition security, make healthy choices easier for consumers, and expand the role that food can play in improving health outcomes. For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company , and to start shopping, visit www.instacart.com .

SOURCE Instacart
NORFOLK, Va. and LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Sterling Investment Partners is pleased to announce the appointment of Randolph Hoover as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the combined company of Xylem Tree Experts and Kendall Vegetation Services, effective July 1, 2023. Randolph will take the helm of the combined holding company after serving as co-CEO. The combined company will operate out of Norfolk, Virginia, and Lawrenceville, Georgia, providing comprehensive vegetation management services to investor-owned utilities, cooperative utilities, and municipalities across the United States.

Robert Williams, current co-CEO of the combined company and President and CEO of Kendall Vegetation Services will retire effective June 30, 2023. Robert joined Kendall Vegetation Services in 1988 and served as President and Chief Executive Officer, overseeing Kendall's strategic direction, results, and culture. Throughout his 30+ years with Kendall, Robert has helped the business expand across the Southeast and Midwest U.S. Robert will continue to serve on the Board of Directors as a strategic advisor to the company.

Randolph Hoover brings over 29 years of executive experience to his new role, having co-founded Xylem Tree Experts. In addition to Hoover's appointment, Benjamin Hoover will assume the position of President of the combined company and President of Xylem Tree Experts, Kurt Goodman will serve as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the combined company and President of Kendall Vegetation Services, and Scott Konikoff will serve as Chief Legal Officer (CLO) of the combined company overseeing risk and strategic initiatives.

"I am honored to be a part of the leadership team that has been developed to operate two national brands under one umbrella," said Randolph Hoover. "Our partnership with Sterling Investment Partners to bring these two great companies together has allowed us to establish a company that covers approximately half of the U.S. today with nearly 3,000 dedicated employees. I personally could not be prouder of the business that we have created and look forward to a bright future - our best days are still to come. Our sincerest gratitude goes to Robert Williams for his unwavering dedication and exceptional leadership over the years. Robert and his family built a leading vegetation management company, and we could not be more excited about bringing Xylem, Kendall, and Sterling together."

"I am truly grateful for the opportunity to lead Kendall all these years and for the partnership with Sterling Investment Partners," added Robert Williams. "I remain excited about the combination of these two leading platforms in the vegetation services industry, and the opportunity ahead to provide top-tier, critical services to our customers across the country."

The merger of Xylem Tree Experts and Kendall Vegetation Services, backed by Sterling Investment Partners, will leverage the strengths of both organizations and create a leading vegetation management provider in the United States. The combined company will continue to deliver exceptional service and innovative solutions to its customers while maintaining its commitment to employee safety, growth and development.

For more information about the combined company of Xylem Tree Experts and Kendall Vegetation Services, visit www.xylemtree.com and www.kendallco.net.

About Sterling Investment Partners

Sterling Investment Partners is a private equity firm with a long history of investing in and building high-growth, middle-market companies. Sterling has a focus on value creation through strategic growth, operational improvements, and acquisitions. For more information, visit www.sterlinglp.com.

SOURCE Sterling Investment Partners
StoreDot aims to manufacture its leading XFC batteries on three continents: the US, Europe , and Asia

, and Company deploys a strategy of making batteries where its automotive manufacturing customers are located, localizing its supply chain, reducing carbon impact and enabling just-in-time production

StoreDot is set to produce its groundbreaking extreme fast charging cells in local gigafactories, rather than building its own facilities in the mid-term

StoreDot will continue to develop its cells in its labs in the US and Israel and remains on target for mass production readiness of '100in5' cells by 2024 delivering at least 100 miles of range for each five minutes of charging

HERZLIYA, Israel, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- StoreDot, the pioneer of extreme fast charging (XFC) high energy battery solution for electric vehicles has announced its global manufacturing strategy in three continents  to best serve its global automotive customers.

StoreDot's manufacturing strategy is focused on localizing its supply chain in the US, Asia, and Europe, allowing it to serve its OEM customers in their own locations, reducing carbon impact, and enabling just-in-time production efficiency.

StoreDot announces its global manufacturing strategy in the US, Europe & Asia to best serve its global automotive customers. (PRNewsfoto/StoreDot)

StoreDot plans to collaboratively produce these batteries in existing and future local gigafactories, rather than building its own facilities in the mid-term and production is on track to commence later next year.

Dr Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot CEO "Today's announcement is an important milestone for StoreDot as we build our global supply chain and manufacturing footprint. We look forward to working with our OEM partners in the US, Europe, and Asia to supply them with our world class extreme fast charging batteries. It's important that leading battery developers like StoreDot can deliver batteries consistently, efficiently, conveniently, and sustainably, as we care greatly about the environmental impact of battery supply chains. By serving our OEM customers from their own locations we can do this more effectively while demonstrating our commitment to net zero."

This announcement follows news at the beginning of the year that its groundbreaking XFC batteries and systems are now being tested by over 15 global automotive brand manufacturers, and that it has additional potential manufacturing partnerships in the pipeline for this year.

StoreDot now has a growing network of strategic global partnerships and investors, spanning the entire battery ecosystem. To date it has received investments from global automotive manufacturers including Daimler, VinFast, Volvo Cars, Polestar and Ola Electric.

Last year, StoreDot revealed its '100inX' strategic technology roadmap which featured 100in5, 100in3 and 100in2 of miles per minute of charging - three generations of StoreDot technologies of silicon-dominant XFC, semi solid state and post-lithium architectures. The roadmap reaffirms that the timings for these will be delivered to automotive OEMs over the coming decade with 100in5 by 2024, 100in3 by 2028 and 100in2 by 2032.

About StoreDot:

StoreDot is the pioneer and global leader of extreme fast charging (XFC) electric vehicle batteries that overcome the critical barrier to mainstream EV adoption  charging anxiety. The company has revolutionized the conventional Li-ion battery by designing and synthesizing proprietary organic and inorganic compounds, optimized by Artificial Intelligence algorithms, to make it possible to charge an EV in under ten minutes  the same experience as refueling a conventional combustion engine car.

Through its '100inX' product roadmap, StoreDot's battery technology aims to deliver 'Range on Demand': 100 miles charged in 5 minutes in 2024, 100 miles charged in 3 minutes by 2028, and extreme energy density solution enabling 100 miles to be charged in 2 minutes by 2032. StoreDot's strategic investors and partners include Daimler, bp, VinFast, Volvo Cars, Polestar, Ola Electric, Samsung, TDK, and its manufacturing partner EVE Energy. StoreDot's agnostic technology is designed to utilize existing standard production lines with no changes to process or equipment. In 2022, the company achieved a world first by demonstrating a live extreme fast charging of an EV battery cell in 10 minutes capable of over 1000 consecutive XFC cycles. This technology is now under testing with over 15 automotive OEMs. StoreDot is on target for mass production readiness of 100in5 technology by 2024.

StoreDot's media kit can be found at this link.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2068318/StoreDot.jpg

SOURCE StoreDot
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In a remarkable legal victory, distinguished and determined attorney, Super Woman Super Lawyer Maryam Parman and her team won a staggering $27,000,000 for a motorcycle accident victim in an unincorporated area of Orange County.

The male victim, whose name has not been released to the media, was left with a traumatic brain injury, which required extensive medical treatment and left him with permanent disabilities that have impacted his ability to work and enjoy life.

Super Woman Super Lawyer Maryam Parman and her team of motorcycle accident lawyers win a staggering $27,000,000 for a motorcycle accident victim in an unincorporated area of Orange County.

Despite the case's complexity, Super Woman Super Lawyer's team fought tirelessly on behalf of their client, refusing to settle for anything less than what he deserved. Super Woman Super Lawyer secured a settlement exceeding the insurance policy limit of $50,000, providing her client with the financial support to compensate for numerous medical bills and lost wages.

When asked about the settlement, Super Woman Super Lawyer Maryam Parman stated, "I'm deeply grateful for the trust my clients place in me to help them during what is often the most difficult time in their lives. It's an honor to fight for justice on their behalf and to secure the compensation they need to rebuild their lives after a devastating injury. This settlement is a testament to the power of perseverance. I hope it will serve as a reminder that the civil justice system can be a powerful tool for those who have been wronged."

Super Woman Super Lawyer has earned a reputation as one of the most skilled and tenacious attorneys in the country, and this case only adds to her impressive track record. Her injury law firm has secured numerous multi-million dollar settlements for their clients, and their track record of success has earned the respect of the legal community.

In addition to her impressive legal career, Super Woman Super Lawyer is also a dedicated philanthropist, and has donated her time and resources to a variety of charitable causes over the years. She is a role model for women in the legal profession, and her dedication to her clients and community have earned her a reputation as one of the best injury attorneys in the nation.

This case is a reminder of the importance of having an experienced legal team on your side following an accident. Super Woman Super Lawyer's team continue to fight tirelessly to achieve justice for injured victims across the nation and are offering free injury consultations on superwomansuperlawyer.com .

SOURCE Super Woman Super Lawyer
Company to unveil new support for SAP Datasphere to speed analytics programs

Syniti data experts and customer panels will share knowledge and experience on a wide array of data topics, including SAP S/4HANA transformations

BOSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Syniti, a global leader in enterprise data management, today announced it will exhibit its technology, discuss new support for SAP Datasphere, and share real-world customer case studies at SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla, May 16-17 and at SAP Sapphire Barcelona May 24-25, 2023.

The SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference, a global event for the SAP community, focuses on networking and knowledge sharing. Participants learn how to future-proof their businesses and stay ahead of upcoming technological changes. Numerous keynotes, demos, and showcases are on the agenda of these two-day events.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn from and share data challenges with Syniti's team of experienced data experts, as well as hear directly from Syniti customers. At both events, Syniti will showcase the following:

The company's new cloud-native unified data platform, the Syniti Knowledge Platform (SKP), which is resold as a solution extension as SAP Advanced Data Migration & Management. Syniti will showcase how its migration, data quality, and governance capabilities help simplify enterprise data migrations for some of the world's largest organizations.

Full support for SAP Datasphere, the next generation of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, to deliver scalable access to mission-critical data within a business data fabric. Syniti's unified data platform will provide the highest data quality, allow customers dynamic analytics capabilities, and accelerate the implementation of SAP Datasphere.

Onsite demos of the company's migration and data quality capabilities; as well as the company's direct solutions, Syniti Match and Syniti Replicate, which provide AI-powered data matching and seamless data delivery, empowering decision makers with relevant, timely data. The company will also showcase its Master Data Governance accelerator, Syniti Rapid Data Governance.

At SAP Sapphire Orlando, Syniti will be exhibiting at booth #406, and will feature the following presentations:

A customer session with Johnson & Johnson, Navigating Approvals and the Business Case for SAP S/4HANA . This customer-led presentation will discuss stakeholder alignment, establishing value and generating business cases for transformation.

. This customer-led presentation will discuss stakeholder alignment, establishing value and generating business cases for transformation. A customer roundtable with Northrop Grumman, Why Having a Plan for Your Data is Necessary for Optimizing Your Journey to SAP S/4HANA. Syniti and Northrop Grumman will share examples of why addressing data  and data quality  is critical to any digital transformation project, including migrating to SAP S/4HANA.

At SAP Sapphire Barcelona, Syniti will be exhibiting at booth #7902, and will feature the following:

A show floor presentation with global dairy cooperative Royal FrieslandCampina, How FrieslandCampina Enabled Analytics Initiatives with Syniti MDM, discussing how the company has accelerated its analytics initiatives with an end-to-end business data to insights approach.

discussing how the company has accelerated its analytics initiatives with an end-to-end business data to insights approach. A roundtable session with British American Tobacco, Decoupling SAP Master Data Governance from ECC to SAP S/4HANA, Master Data Governance Hub, Data Migration & Beyond, sharing the company's lessons learned on its transformation journey.

Gordon Lam, chief revenue officer, Syniti, said: "SAP Sapphire events enable Syniti to foster innovative and exciting conversations with our customers, and create new opportunities for growth within the SAP ecosystem. We've been fortunate to have a long-standing partnership with SAP, including generating strong results over the many years we have exhibited at Sapphire events. We look forward to another incredible show."

Click here learn more about Syniti's participation in both events and please visit Syniti at SAP Sapphire in Orlando at Booth #406 and at SAP Sapphire Barcelona at Booth #7902.

About Syniti

Syniti solves the world's most complex data challenges by uniquely combining intelligent, AI-driven software and vast data expertise to yield certain and superior business outcomes. For over 25 years, Syniti has partnered with the Fortune 2000 to unlock valuable insights that ignite growth, reduce risk and increase their competitive advantage. Syniti's silo-free enterprise data management platform supports data migration, data quality, data replication, master data management, analytics, data governance, and data strategy in a single, unified solution. Syniti is a portfolio company of private equity firm Bridge Growth Partners LLC. Read more at www.Syniti.com.

SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

SOURCE Syniti
Insurance Industry Veteran Returns to Lead Firm as it Embarks on Next Chapter of Growth

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Highland Capital Brokerage (HCB), a national life insurance and annuity distribution company and subsidiary of Advisor Group, today announced that Teague Wright has rejoined the firm as its new President. Wright previously worked with HCB from 2013-2020, where she held several key leadership positions, including Chief Operations Officer. Wright will report to Matthew Schlueter, President, Products and Platforms at Advisor Group.

"With over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, Teague brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our organization," said Schlueter. "Having helped build Highland into the successful company it is during her time here, she has a deep understanding of our business, our clients, and the markets we serve. We are confident that she is the right person to lead HCB as we continue to expand our offerings and provide innovative solutions to our clients."

Jim Gelder, current CEO of HCB will become Chairman Emeritus and support Wright's transition. He will continue his business development efforts, while promoting HCB in the marketplace. Schlueter added, "Jim has guided HCB through a period of significant growth and transformation, positioning the firm as a leader in the industry. We thank Jim for his outstanding leadership over the past decade and look forward to working with him in this new role."

Wright said, "It is my great privilege to return to HCB and use my insurance expertise and leadership skills to help continue the firm's success into the future. Thanks to Advisor Group's commitment, HCB's unique market positioning and the brightest, most dedicated team of associates in the business, we have immense opportunities ahead. I look forward to Jim's mentorship as we begin the next chapter of HCB. With unity and focus, I'm confident we can execute on our ambitious growth strategy."

In addition to her previous time at HCB, Wright has held leadership positions at several prominent financial services firms. She was Managing Director, Head of Life Insurance at JPMorgan Chase, Executive Vice President/General Manager at Crump Life Insurance Services and Vice President, Underwriting at NFP. She began her career at BISYS, where she rose to the position of Director, Major Case Unit. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from The Pennsylvania State University.

About Highland Capital Brokerage

Highland Capital Brokerage is a national life insurance and annuity distribution company providing point-of-sale support, advanced marketing, and creative estate and business planning techniques to financial advisors and insurance professionals. We deliver these services in an efficient, client-focused environment that extends to carrier and product expertise, underwriting negotiation, and complete back-office processing. Our core competencies include life insurance, annuities, and longevity planning. Highland delivers objective access to major insurance carriers, advanced planning support, expertise in risk underwriting, and back-office processing to insurance brokers, financial planners, and various institutions such as banks, wirehouses, and certified public accountant firms. To learn more about Highland Capital Brokerage, visit www.highlandbrokerage.com. Securities by Licensed Individuals Offered Through Securities America, Inc. A Registered Broker/Dealer, Member FINRA, SIPC.

About Advisor Group

Advisor Group, Inc. is the nation's largest network of independent wealth management firms, serving approximately 10,100 financial professionals and overseeing over $475 billion in client assets. The firm is mission-driven to support the strategic role that advisors can play in the lives of their clients. Cultivating a spirit of entrepreneurship and independence, Advisor Group champions the enduring value of financial professionals and is committed to being in their corner every step of the way. For more information visit https://www.advisorgroup.com.

Securities and investment advisory services are offered through the firms: FSC Securities Corporation, Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., SagePoint Financial, Inc., Triad Advisors, LLC, Infinex Investments, Inc., and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., broker-dealers, registered investment advisers, and members of FINRA and SIPC. Securities are offered through Securities America, Inc., American Portfolios Financial Services, Inc., and Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., broker-dealers and member of FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services are offered through Arbor Point Advisors, LLC, American Portfolios Advisors, Inc., Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, Inc., Securities America Advisors, Inc., and Triad Hybrid Solutions, LLC, registered investment advisers. Advisory programs offered by FSC Securities Corporation, Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., SagePoint Financial, Inc., Securities America Advisors, Inc., Triad Advisors, LLC., and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., are sponsored by VISION2020 Wealth Management Corp., an affiliated registered investment adviser. 20 E. Thomas Rd., Suite 2000  Phoenix, AZ 85012  advisorgroup.com

Media Inquiries

Joseph Kuo / Donald Cutler

Haven Tower Group

424 317 4851 or 424 317 4864

[email protected] or [email protected]

SOURCE Highland Capital Brokerage
New Center Will Empower Incarcerated Women to Successfully Transition from Prison to Today's Workforce

PHOENIX, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Televerde Foundation , a non-profit organization that provides personal and professional development opportunities to currently and formerly incarcerated women so they can attain meaningful and rewarding careers upon release, officially announced the grand opening of the second Career PATHS and Reentry Workforce Development Center within the Arizona Department of Corrections Perryville in Goodyear, AZ. Expansion of the foundation's program was made possible through a $1.1MM grant award from the Maricopa County Job Seekers Initiative to assist hundreds of justice-involved women in successfully re-entering the workforce and the community.

"The expansion of Televerde Foundation's Career PATHS and Reentry Program in Arizona is a testament to the success we've had at reducing recidivism rates in the state since our inception in March 2020. Thanks to Maricopa County's support and their ongoing commitment to reentry and rehabilitative efforts, we can bring our life-changing program to even more women at the Arizona Department of Corrections Perryville," said Michelle Cirocco, executive director of Televerde Foundation. "Each year, our PATHS programs will provide over 300 women in Arizona with best practice models for reentry, education, job skills, and workplace readiness training. Each element of the program is designed to enable these women to realize their full potential; take care of themselves, their families, and their children; and never go back to prison."

The Career PATHS Workforce Development Centers give women the skills needed to join the professional workforce, eliminating one of the largest barriers to success and stability for formerly incarcerated individuals when they return home. Career PATHS is a robust prison-to-workforce reentry program that provides end-to-end wrap-around services for currently and formerly incarcerated women. The program takes a holistic approach to the reentry experience, equipping participants with the hard and soft skills needed to rebuild their lives and careers after prison. The women who participate in this program are less than 12 months from their release dates and at a critical point to start preparing for reintegration back into the community. The foundation's first Career PATHS Workforce Development Center opened in May 2021 inside the Arizona Department of Corrections Perryville. To date, 545 women have participated in the Foundation's Career PATHS and Reentry program with 97 percent earning employment within 29 days of release with average starting salaries of $41,664.

"Thanks to a generous grant from the Maricopa County Job Seekers Initiative, Televerde's new Career PATHS and Reentry Workforce Development Center will bolster the ongoing work being done at ASPC-Perryville. This grant will empower currently and formerly incarcerated women with the life skills, technical jobs skills, support, and opportunity they need to build a successful life upon release from our custody," said ADCRR Director Ryan Thornell. "ADCRR is excited to see all of the successful personal transformations that will result from this new Center, and we want to thank everyone involved for bringing it to life at ASPC-Perryville."

"We are committed to providing resources to help all members of our community, including justice-involved individuals, as they work to gain the education, skills, and experience that will lead them to success," said Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Clint Hickman, District 4. "When participants in the Career PATHS program leave incarceration, they are not only prepared with the skills they need, but they can see the opportunities ahead of them and have a plan for how they can move forward in life."

The Televerde Foundation's second Arizona Career PATHS and Reentry Workforce Development Center opened on Friday, April 28, 2023, with an official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and Graduation inside the Arizona Department of Corrections Perryville in Goodyear, AZ. If you'd like access to soundbites and b-roll footage from the event, please contact the Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry Media Relations team at [email protected].

About Televerde Foundation

Televerde Foundation's mission is to provide women impacted by incarceration with the personal and professional development programs necessary to successfully join and advance in the global workforce. We seek to enable women to break the cycle of poverty and recidivism by becoming financially independent, positive role models for their children and families, thereby changing the lives of future generations, and building stronger communities. Learn more: https://www.televerdefoundation.org/ .

Kellie Walenciak

[email protected]

908-377-9968

SOURCE Televerde Foundation
NEW YORK, May 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The testosterone replacement therapy market size is forecast to increase by USD 439.67 million from 2022 to 2027, at a CAGR of 3.38%, according to the recent market study by Technavio. The growth of the market will be driven by the initiatives to increase awareness about hypogonadism among the population, rising chronic diseases, and the increasing aging population and postmenopausal women. Charts & data tables about market and segment sizes for a historic period (2017-2021) and forecast period (2023-2027) have been covered in this report. Download The Sample Report

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Testosterone Replacement Therapy Market 2023-2027

Vendor Analysis

The global testosterone replacement therapy market is fragmented, with many small-to-large-scale vendors. Key vendors hold significant shares in the market. Established vendors have strong financial abilities and technical expertise in offering safer and more effective products. The established vendors are deploying a significant share of their capital in product R&D and are focusing on adopting organic growth strategies such as product launches to bring considerable differentiation in their products and gain higher customer penetration. The small-scale vendors are competing with the established vendors by using low-price strategies and strengthening their local customer base. The market is likely to remain dominated by some of the prominent large-scale vendors that offer US FDA-approved and renowned testosterone replacement therapy drugs during the forecast period. Some of the key vendors covered in the report include:

AbbVie Inc. - The company offers testosterone replacement therapy such as Androderm.

- The company offers testosterone replacement therapy such as Androderm. Acerus Pharmaceuticals Corp. - The company offers testosterone replacement therapy such as Natesto.

- The company offers testosterone replacement therapy such as Natesto. Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd. - The company offers testosterone replacement therapy such as gel with 20.25 mg and 1.25 gm actuation.

- The company offers testosterone replacement therapy such as gel with 20.25 mg and 1.25 gm actuation. Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. - The company offers testosterone replacement therapy such as CIII gel for topical use.

- The company offers testosterone replacement therapy such as CIII gel for topical use. Actiza Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd.

Alvogen Iceland ehf

Antares Pharma Inc.

Bausch Health Co. Inc.

Bayer AG

Cipla Ltd.

Eli Lilly and Co.

Endo International Plc

Ferring BV

Halozyme Therapeutics Inc.

Lupin Ltd.

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Add credibility to strategy

Analyzes competitor's offerings

Get a holistic view of the market

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Key Benefits for Industry Players & Stakeholders 

The report offers information on the criticality of vendor inputs, including R&D, CAPEX, and technology.

It also provides detailed analyses of the market's competitive landscape and vendors' product offerings.

The report also provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of vendors to help clients understand the wider business environment as well as the strengths and weaknesses of key market players. Data is qualitatively analyzed to categorize vendors as pure play, category-focused, industry-focused, and diversified; it is quantitatively analyzed to categorize vendors as dominant, leading, strong, tentative, and weak.

Get a holistic overview of the testosterone replacement therapy market to develop growth strategies. Download the Sample

Market Segmentation:

The market is segmented by distribution channel (hospitals, retail, and online), product (injectables, topicals, and others), and geography (North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of World).

The market growth in the hospitals segment will be significant over the forecast period. Hospital pharmacies provide advice on drug dosages, interactions, and potential side effects, as well as monitor patient adherence to medication regimes. This helps in improving patient outcomes. Hospital pharmacies also assist in clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy of new drugs. As a result of these factors, the hospital pharmacy segment is expected to dominate the market growth during the forecast period.

North America will account for 57% of the market growth during the forecast period. The growth of the regional market is driven by the strong presence of key vendors and the easy availability of new and improved products. The increasing cases of hypogonadism and rising awareness about the treatment of testosterone deficiency and erectile dysfunction are other factors driving the growth of the testosterone replacement therapy market in North America.

Market Dynamics:

Key DRIVERS:

Initiatives to increase awareness about hypogonadism among the population

The rise in chronic diseases

Increasing aging population and postmenopausal women

Many organizations are working on increasing patient awareness regarding hypogonadism and available treatment options. For instance, Endocrine Society has undertaken various initiatives to increase awareness about hypogonadism among medical professionals. It has released clinical practice guidelines on testosterone therapy, which helps in the safer delivery and reduction of adverse events. Similarly, organizations such as the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation, Endocrine Awareness Center for health, and the AUA are educating the population about the diagnosis and treatment of hypogonadism. Such awareness programs have led many patients to proactively approach fertility care centers and medical practitioners to undertake testosterone replacement therapy. All these factors are driving the growth of the market.

Major Trends:

Rise in novel therapeutic approaches

Patient assistance programs

Growing new developments in the market

The market has witnessed a rise in the number of novel therapies to treat testosterone deficiency. Vendors in the market are increasing their R&D efforts to develop alternative treatment options that can ensure safe use during testosterone replacement therapies. The growing focus of vendors toward such therapeutic approaches is expected to contribute to the launch of new drugs. For instance, at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting, Dr. Fahim Ebrahimi presented the results of a recent study that analyzed the therapeutic effects of Anakinra on testosterone levels. According to the study, testosterone levels rose by 11% in the treatment group. Such developments are expected to foster the growth of the market during the forecast period.

Key Challenges:

Availability of generics

Adverse effects of testosterone replacement therapy

Stringent regulations by the US FDA on the use of testosterone therapies

The number of generic drugs available for the treatment of testosterone deficiency is increasing in the market. For instance, the generic version of AndroGel produced by Lupin Pharmaceuticals, known as the testosterone gel, 1.62%, is approved by the FDA. Many such generic versions of popular drugs are entering the market. In addition, the low cost of generics is another major factor reducing the growth of the market.

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What are the key data covered in this testosterone replacement therapy market report?

CAGR of the market during the forecast period

Detailed information on factors that will drive the growth of the testosterone replacement therapy market between 2023 and 2027

Precise estimation of the size of the testosterone replacement therapy market and its contribution to the parent market

Accurate predictions about upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

Growth of the testosterone replacement therapy market industry across North America , Europe , Asia , and Rest of World (ROW)

, , , and Rest of World (ROW) A thorough analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information about vendors

Comprehensive analysis of factors that will challenge the growth of testosterone replacement therapy market vendors

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Testosterone Replacement Therapy Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 3.38% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 439.67 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 2.79 Regional analysis North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of World (ROW) Performing market contribution North America at 57% Key countries US, Canada, Germany, UK, and China Competitive landscape Leading Vendors, Market Positioning of Vendors, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled AbbVie Inc., Acerus Pharmaceuticals Corp., Acrux Ltd., Actiza Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd., Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Alvogen Iceland ehf, Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc., Antares Pharma Inc., Bausch Health Co. Inc., Bayer AG, Cipla Ltd., Eli Lilly and Co., Endo International Plc, Ferring BV, Halozyme Therapeutics Inc., Insud Pharma S.L, Lupin Ltd., Marius Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Inc., Sawai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, market growth inducers and obstacles, fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, and market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Browse through Technavio's Health Care 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 Distribution Channel



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Product



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 09: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 10: Parent market



Exhibit 11: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 12: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 13: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2022

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2022-2027

Exhibit 14: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 15: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 16: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 17: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

4 Historic Market Size

4.1 Global Testosterone Replacement Therapy Market 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 18: Historic Market Size  Data Table on Global Testosterone Replacement Therapy Market 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.2 Distribution Channel Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 19: Historic Market Size  Distribution Channel Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.3 Product Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 20: Historic Market Size  Product Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.4 Geography Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 21: Historic Market Size  Geography Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.5 Country Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 22: Historic Market Size  Country Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

5 Five Forces Analysis

5.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 23: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2022 and 2027

5.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 24: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2022 and 2027

5.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 25: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 26: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 27: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 28: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.7 Market condition

Exhibit 29: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2022 and 2027

6 Market Segmentation by Distribution Channel

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 30: Chart on Distribution Channel - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Distribution Channel - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

6.2 Comparison by Distribution Channel

Exhibit 32: Chart on Comparison by Distribution Channel



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Comparison by Distribution Channel

6.3 Hospitals - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 34: Chart on Hospitals - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Hospitals - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 36: Chart on Hospitals - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Hospitals - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.4 Retail - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 38: Chart on Retail - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Retail - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 40: Chart on Retail - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Retail - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.5 Online - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 42: Chart on Online - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Online - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 44: Chart on Online - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Online - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.6 Market opportunity by Distribution Channel

Exhibit 46: Market opportunity by Distribution Channel ($ million)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Market opportunity by Distribution Channel ($ million)

7 Market Segmentation by Product

7.1 Market segments

Exhibit 48: Chart on Product - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Product - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

7.2 Comparison by Product

Exhibit 50: Chart on Comparison by Product



Exhibit 51: Data Table on Comparison by Product

7.3 Injectables - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 52: Chart on Injectables - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on Injectables - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 54: Chart on Injectables - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 55: Data Table on Injectables - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.4 Topicals - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 56: Chart on Topicals - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 57: Data Table on Topicals - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 58: Chart on Topicals - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 59: Data Table on Topicals - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.5 Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 60: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 61: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 62: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 63: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.6 Market opportunity by Product

Exhibit 64: Market opportunity by Product ($ million)



Exhibit 65: Data Table on Market opportunity by Product ($ million)

8 Customer Landscape

8.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 66: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

9 Geographic Landscape

9.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 67: Chart on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 68: Data Table on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)

9.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 69: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 70: Data Table on Geographic comparison

9.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 71: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 72: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 73: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 74: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 75: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 76: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 77: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 78: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.5 Asia - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 79: Chart on Asia - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 80: Data Table on Asia - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 81: Chart on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 82: Data Table on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.6 Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 83: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 84: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 85: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 86: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.7 US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 87: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 88: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 89: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 90: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.8 Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 91: Chart on Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 92: Data Table on Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 93: Chart on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 94: Data Table on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.9 Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 95: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 96: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 97: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 98: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.10 UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 99: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 100: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 101: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 102: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.11 China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 103: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 104: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 105: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 106: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.12 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 107: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)



Exhibit 108: Data Tables on Market opportunity by geography ($ million)

10 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

10.1 Market drivers

10.2 Market challenges

10.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 109: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2022 and 2027

10.4 Market trends

11 Vendor Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 110: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

11.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 111: Overview on factors of disruption

11.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 112: Impact of key risks on business

12 Vendor Analysis

12.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 113: Vendors covered

12.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 114: Matrix on vendor position and classification

12.3 AbbVie Inc.

Exhibit 115: AbbVie Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 116: AbbVie Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 117: AbbVie Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 118: AbbVie Inc. - Key offerings

12.4 Acerus Pharmaceuticals Corp.

Exhibit 119: Acerus Pharmaceuticals Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 120: Acerus Pharmaceuticals Corp. - Product / Service



Exhibit 121: Acerus Pharmaceuticals Corp. - Key offerings

12.5 Acrux Ltd.

Exhibit 122: Acrux Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 123: Acrux Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 124: Acrux Ltd. - Key offerings

12.6 Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Exhibit 125: Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 126: Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 127: Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd. - Key offerings

12.7 Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Exhibit 128: Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 129: Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 130: Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 131: Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 132: Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. - Segment focus

12.8 Antares Pharma Inc.

Exhibit 133: Antares Pharma Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 134: Antares Pharma Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 135: Antares Pharma Inc. - Key offerings

12.9 Bausch Health Co. Inc.

Exhibit 136: Bausch Health Co. Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 137: Bausch Health Co. Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 138: Bausch Health Co. Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 139: Bausch Health Co. Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 140: Bausch Health Co. Inc. - Segment focus

12.10 Bayer AG

Exhibit 141: Bayer AG - Overview



Exhibit 142: Bayer AG - Business segments



Exhibit 143: Bayer AG - Key news



Exhibit 144: Bayer AG - Key offerings



Exhibit 145: Bayer AG - Segment focus

12.11 Cipla Ltd.

Exhibit 146: Cipla Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 147: Cipla Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 148: Cipla Ltd. - Key news



Exhibit 149: Cipla Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 150: Cipla Ltd. - Segment focus

12.12 Endo International Plc

Exhibit 151: Endo International Plc - Overview



Exhibit 152: Endo International Plc - Business segments



Exhibit 153: Endo International Plc - Key news



Exhibit 154: Endo International Plc - Key offerings



Exhibit 155: Endo International Plc - Segment focus

12.13 Ferring BV

Exhibit 156: Ferring BV - Overview



Exhibit 157: Ferring BV - Product / Service



Exhibit 158: Ferring BV - Key offerings

12.14 Halozyme Therapeutics Inc.

Exhibit 159: Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 160: Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 161: Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. - Key offerings

12.15 Pfizer Inc.

Exhibit 162: Pfizer Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 163: Pfizer Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 164: Pfizer Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 165: Pfizer Inc. - Key offerings

12.16 Sawai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 166: Sawai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 167: Sawai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 168: Sawai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 169: Sawai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. - Segment focus

12.17 Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

Exhibit 170: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 171: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 172: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. - Key news



Exhibit 173: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 174: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. - Segment focus

13 Appendix

13.1 Scope of the report

13.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 175: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 176: Exclusions checklist

13.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 177: Currency conversion rates for US$

13.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 178: Research methodology



Exhibit 179: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 180: Information sources

13.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 181: 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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Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com

SOURCE Technavio
Initial talks between Ethiopia's government and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebel group ended on Wednesday without yielding any agreement, but both sides are willing to continue the dialogue, Addis Ababa said.

The foes kicked off preliminary negotiations last week in Tanzania, meeting in the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar for what OLA spokesman Odaa Tarbii described as "initial talks... intended to establish a foundation for more extensive discussions".

The OLA, an armed insurgent movement from the country's Oromia region, has been fighting Addis Ababa since it split in 2018 from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) when that group renounced armed struggle.

"The first round of the peace talks held in Tanzania concerning the conflict in the Oromia regional state have been concluded today," the Ethiopian government communications service said in a statement released Wednesday.

"While the talks have been largely constructive, unfortunately, it was not possible to reach an agreement on some issues during this round of the talks," it said, without elaborating on the sticking points.

It added however that "both parties have acknowledged the need to continue these talks with a view to resolving the conflict permanently and peacefully."

The OLA did not respond to AFP's requests for comment.

Since the OLA broke off from the OLF and started fighting, a string of armed groups in Oromia have risen up claiming to be part of its cause, although they are only loosely tied.

The OLA's strength, estimated at a few thousand men in 2018, has increased significantly in recent years, though observers believe it is insufficiently organised or well-armed to pose a real threat to the federal government.

Oromia surrounds Addis Ababa and is Ethiopia's largest and most populous region, and has suffered ethnic massacres in recent years carried out by unknown groups.

The OLA has been repeatedly accused by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government of being responsible for the killings, a charge it denies.

The government is accused of waging an indiscriminate crackdown that has fuelled Oromo resentment against the central government.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Big I of Kentucky, the leading trade association for independent insurance agents in Kentucky, is pleased to announce its official media partnership with Carroll Media Corp, a leading media company specializing in the insurance industry.

Carroll Media Corp will serve as the official media partner for the Big I Kentucky, providing extensive coverage of the association's events, conferences and initiatives. The partnership aims to bring more visibility to Big I of Kentucky and promote the association's mission to support and empower independent insurance agents in the state.

"We are thrilled to partner with Carroll Media Corp and leverage their expertise in the insurance industry..." Tweet this

"We are thrilled to partner with Carroll Media Corp and leverage their expertise in the insurance industry to bring more visibility to our association and the important work we do," said Tara Purvis, President & CEO. "We look forward to working with Carroll Media Corp to provide our members and the broader insurance community with insightful and informative content."

As part of the partnership, Carroll Media Corp will also have a prominent presence at the association's events, providing coverage and updates to its audience.

"We are honored to be named the official media partner of Big I of Kentucky and to work with such a respected and influential organization," said Carroll Media Corp CEO, DJ Carroll. "Our mission aligns with the Big I of Kentucky's, and we are excited to provide valuable content and insights to the association's members and the insurance community."

The partnership between the Big I of Kentucky and Carroll Media Corp initiated in January of 2023.

For more information about the Big I of Kentucky, visit https://www.bigiky.org/. For more information about Carroll Media Corp, visit https://www.carroll.media/.

SOURCE Carroll Media Corp
HOUSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Prominently featured in The Inner Circle, Joey Kevin Grochmal is acknowledged as a Top Pinnacle Professional for his contributions as a Physician and Professor.

Joey Kevin Grochmal

Dr. Grochmal pursued higher education at the University of Alberta in Canada where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience. He then attended the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine where he earned a medical degree in 2006 and later received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Neuroscience from the University of Calgary in 2015. He also completed his residency in neurosurgery in 2017 at the same university and finished a fellowship in spine surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2018.



A testament to his exceptional education and training, the doctor is board-certified in neurosurgery and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCPSC). Dr. Grochmal explained that neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention diagnosis surgical treatment and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain spinal cord peripheral nerves and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system. Neurosurgeons, like Dr. Grochmal, are doctors who diagnose and treat problems with the nervous system often by performing surgery on the brain or spine. They treat strokes, tumors, cervical and lumbar disc disease, infections, and head or spinal cord injuries.



Dr. Grochmal is a highly sought after professional and serves as an attending physician and Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery with the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas. He notes that Baylor College of Medicine is a health sciences university that creates knowledge and applies science and discoveries to further education, healthcare, and community service locally and globally. Its vision is to improve health through science scholarship and innovation.



The doctor is dedicated to providing the latest medical advancements in his practice and is associated with the American Association of Neurological Surgeons; the American Society of Peripheral Nerves' and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.



The doctor would like to thank his mentors, Rajiv Midha, MD, MSc, R. John Hurlbert, MD, and Marjorie Wang, MD.

Contact:

Katherine Green

516-825-5634

[email protected]

SOURCE The Inner Circle
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Prominently featured in The Inner Circle, Joseph A. Custer is acknowledged as a Distinguished Education and Law Professional for his contributions to the Law Library Administration and Education Fields.

Mr. Custer began his scholarship at The University of Northern Iowa where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with high honors in 1983. He then attended the University of Arkansas where he received a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree in 1989. Continuing his exceptional education, Mr. Custer obtained a Master of Library and Information Science in 1991 at the University of Missouri in 1991 and concluded his studies with a Master of Business Administration from the University of Kansas in 2012. He was admitted to practice before The Missouri Bar in 1990 and the Supreme Court of the United States in 2016.

A testament to his leadership, Mr. Custer has served as an associate professor of law at Case Western Reserve University since 2015 and also as director of the Judge Ben C. Green Law Library. He was an assistant professor of law at the St. Louis University School of Law and director of the institution's Immel Law Library from 2010 to 2015. Prior to these positions, Mr. Custer served as associate director and head of technology services from 2008 to 2010 at the University of Kansas School of Law's Wheat Law Library, where he worked as the associate director and collection development librarian from 1998 to 2008.

Considered a leader in his field, Mr. Custer is an expertise in advanced legal research and electronic discovery. He is dedicated to keeping abreast of the most recent technology and methods, and as such, maintains affiliation with the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis; the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association; and the American Bar Association. He is a member of the American Association of Law Libraries; the American Association of Law Schools; the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries; the Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries; and the Missouri Bar Association.

In addition to his professional pursuits, Mr. Custer is also an author with many published works, such as a text that he co-authored called "Kansas Legal Research Teacher's Manual" with Carolina Academic Press in 2009. He was a contributing editor to "The Jury Expert" with the American Society of Trial Consultants from 2005 to 2008 and authored and edited the third edition of "Kansas Legal Research and Reference Guide" in 2003 as well as the second edition in 1997. Mr. Custer has also contributed articles to professional journals and chapters to books.

Attesting to his expertise and service, Mr. Custer has been recognized with many awards, such as Paper of the Year award from LexisNexis and the American Association of Law Libraries in 2009. He received an Andrews Award from the American Association of Law Libraries in 2007, an Individual Article Award from The University of Kansas School of Law in 2007, and a Continuing Legal Education Award from The University of Kansas School of Law in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

When not contributing to the field of Education and Law, Mr. Custer enjoys music, hiking, and biking.

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE The Inner Circle
MADISON, Wis. and VANCOUVER, BC and BOSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Balancing Act by Polco, Envisio, and Questica, a division of GTY Technology, today released a white paper outlining a modern budget process for local governments. "A Roadmap for Real Collaboration in Budgeting" proposes an integrated, iterative, and transparent government budgeting process that leverages technology tools to steer government in the wisest possible direction.

"As three government technology leaders, we are acting on a confluence of technological advances, stimulus funding for governments to revamp systems and processes, and rising public expectations for participation in government," said Chris Adams, President of Balancing Act by Polco, a provider of simulation-based public engagement tools. "We are committed to working together to inspire a sea change in the budget process."

New white paper by three govtech leaders provides modern budget process to align communities and their governments. Tweet this

The global pandemic demonstrated a critical need for flexible processes, scenario planning, and open conversations with elected officials and constituents. It also revealed what is at stake when trust in government declines: productive relationships between elected officials, government staff, and residents, and a better quality of life for the community.

"Because trust in government is eroding, there is significant pressure to act on this once-in-a-generation opportunity for real collaboration and change," said Mike Bell, CEO of Envisio, the most widely used strategic planning and performance management solution in local government. "An integrated process optimizes and aligns the work of government with the needs of the community."

"A Roadmap for Real Collaboration in Budgeting" describes the limitations of the status quo, offers solutions combining the best practices in public engagement, strategic planning, and outcomes-based budgeting, and concludes with details on an upcoming readiness assessment for civic leaders to determine how prepared they are for change. It also builds on recommendations from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and the Rethinking Budgeting initiative created in collaboration with the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and the National League of Cities (NLC).

"In our work with more than a thousand local governments across North America, we speak daily with budget leaders and elected officials who describe navigating an outdated and inflexible budget process," said Stefan Baerg, Head of Enterprise and Mid-Market Sales for Questica, a division of GTY Technology, a provider of cloud-based public budgeting software. "Our methodology is to take what's best from legacy practices, transition to more effective  digital  systems, and orient the culture, people, processes, and tools within a public sector organization toward a process supporting government-community alignment."

"A Roadmap For Real Collaboration in Budgeting" is available for download at rblearning.net.

About Balancing Act by Polco

Balancing Act by Polco provides online simulation tools for budgeting and housing that bridge the gap between people and the policies that impact their lives. Balancing Act is used by more than 150 public and private entities worldwide. Learn more at abalancingact.com.

About Envisio

Envisio is the most widely used strategic planning and performance management solution in local government. Leaders from more than 150 cities, counties, and school districts use Envisio to execute plans, measure and report on performance, make evidence-based decisions, and build trust and transparency with elected officials and communities. Learn more at envisio.com

About Questica Incorporated

For over 20 years, Questica has partnered with public sector organizations to enable data- driven budgeting and decision-making, while increasing data accuracy, productivity and improving stakeholder trust. Over 700 organizations are using Questica's budgeting, performance, transparency and engagement software solutions. Learn more at questica.com.

Media Contact:

Stacey Hartmann

[email protected]

SOURCE Envisio; Balancing Act by Polco; Questica / GTY Technology
Launching out of stealth with new technologies to solve agriculture's greatest challenges, they have redefined the crop input equation

BELLINGHAM, Wash., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As the agriculture industry faces enormous challenges including labor, nutrient runoff, weather, and regulatory, Tidal Grow AgriScience announced today its official launch with an exciting portfolio of solutions, and a powerful pipeline to build more. By leveraging novel technologies, their offerings deliver new levels of effectiveness in plant nutrition and crop protection, providing impressive ROI for growers.

Tidal Grow's offerings deliver new levels of effectiveness in plant nutrition and crop protection Tweet this Tidal Grow AgriScience Integrates Biology and Chemistry to Fundamentally Change the Future of Agriculture

"Our core goal is to help farmers and growers maximize profits, increase yields, and protect their valuable production resources, all while reducing their environmental footprint," said Kevin Hammill, CEO of Tidal Grow AgriScience. "What sets us apart is our respect for and understanding of growers in every part of the crop production ecosystem. We meet them exactly where they are, integrating seamlessly into their existing production practices, resulting in improved performance and less traditional crop inputs. We are excited to bring our products to the market and be a catalyst for a healthier population and planet."

Critical Ag-tech Targets the Core of Grower's Needs

Tidal Grow Integra Technology is positioned to scale and significantly impact the $100B+ crop protection and fertilizer markets. With this technology, they engineer how fertilizer, such as nitrogen, and crop protection products are delivered to the crop or target pathogen. This technology works by maximizing the potential of one of earth's most powerful biomolecules and deploying it to target grower's greatest challenges. This integration of biology and chemistry fundamentally changes the future of agriculture by making cropping inputs more effective. The first fertilizer built on this technology, alignN, delivers nitrogen to the crop more effectively. The result is a higher yield per unit of fertilizer and a lower carbon footprint for the industry. Construction on a commercial production facility for alignN will begin this year while significant field trials are being conducted across the USA.

Additionally, the Tidal Grow Bioactive portfolio offers significant contributions to regenerative practices with Tidal Grow Spectra, a new offering in crop protection, and Pacific Gro Oceanic and Sea Phos, OMRI-listed organic carbon-based fertilizers.

"Our Crop Production Input (CPI) Equation establishes a new standard of crop nutrient effectiveness," said Hammill. "Defined in mathematical terms, our solutions apply to both crop protection and nutrition and are measured in yield per input. Our approach is working. This year, more than 1 million acres will be under the positive influence of our products."

For more information about Tidal Grow AgriScience, please visit: TidalGrowAg.com

About Tidal Grow AgriScience

Tidal Grow AgriScience is a rapidly growing plant nutrition and crop protection startup solving agriculture's greatest challenges. With their Tidal Grow Integra Technology, they engineer how fertilizer, such as nitrogen, and crop protection products are delivered to the crop. The Tidal Grow Bioactive Portfolio harnesses the power of nature to create effective plant nutrition and crop protection products. Tidal Grow increases crop input effectiveness to deliver more yield per unit applied.

Tidal Grow AgriScience is a Tidal Vision company. Tidal Vision is a privately held biomolecular technologies company based in Bellingham, Washington.

CONTACT: Heather Turner, [email protected]

SOURCE Tidal Grow
Dr. Javad Sajan Performs The Best Tummy Tuck Surgery

SEATTLE, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Sajan caters tummy tucks to the patient including natural appearing belly buttons. He uses liposuction to further sculpt the body during the tummy tuck.

What Is The Ideal Body For Tummy Tuck?

Dr. Sajan performs tummy tucks on a variety of patients including men and women. He has no BMI requirement, but instead evaluates BMI as one factor of several. A high BMI does not necessarily disqualify a patient from surgery since Dr. Sajan considers patients holistically. There is not one "ideal" body for tummy tuck surgery. Ideally, a BMI of less than 30 is preferred for the best result.

What Happens If You Lose 20 Pounds After Tummy Tuck?

Losing weight after a tummy tuck is usually not a problem with limited weight loss because the skin can shrink to accommodate. If a patient loses more than 10 lbs, loose skin can develop. This may require revision often accomplished with a mini tummy tuck.

When patients gain weight after a tummy tuck they tend to see increases in visceral fat. This can lead to an abdominal bulge at and above the belly button. When weight gain is greater than 12 lbs, this can sometimes mimic pregnancy. Gaining weight after a tummy tuck is not recommended.

How Much Is A Tummy Tuck In Washington?

The starting costs of some of Dr. Sajan's tummy tucks are:

Dr. Sajan's patients have spoken about how abdominoplasty improved their lives. One patient said, "I felt after having kids your body changes and you don't feel as confident in yourself. And since [having a tummy tuck], I honestly jump-started a new lifestyle for me. I went from a ten to a six." Watch testimonials:

About Dr. Javad Sajan: Javad Sajan, MD is a Seattle plastic surgeon at Allure Esthetic Plastic Surgery . He has years of experience in plastic surgery and body contouring. Dr. Sajan has changed hundreds of lives by providing plastic and gender surgery. He also hosts the Plastic Surgeon Podcast and features in the documentary series, realdrseattle .

Contact: Allure Esthetic

Phone: 206-209-0988

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Allure Esthetic
Dr. Kelly & Dr. Qu to Inspire the Next Generation of Pain Physicians

CHALFONT, Pa., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Two local Doctors, Dr. Robert Kelly (Kelly) and Dr. H. David Qu (Qu) are both appointed assistant clinical professors at Temple University in Philadelphia with a goal to help educate the next generation of Pain Medicine Physicians.

Dr. Robert Kelly, Founder & Physician of Pennsylvania Pain and Spine Institute

Kelly and Qu are both the founders and lead physicians of Pennsylvania Pain and Spine Institute - a physical medicine and rehabilitation practice located in Chalfont & Quakertown, Pa. The physicians' goal of their practice is to provide quality care to patients in pain and educate the local community about coping with chronic pain conditions.

"We have always put an emphasis on education in our practice. Whether it is inviting residents to shadow and learn from our providers or doing educational seminars in the community, we have always had a goal of helping others learn and inspiring the next generation of pain physicians. We are honored and excited to take on this new responsibility," states Kelly.

Kelly and Qu join the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation where they are helping educate medical students on site with hands-on experience learning about the science and treatments for pain syndromes.

Temple medical students are now able to complete programs and shadowing time with the Pennsylvania Pain and Spine Institute team under Kelly and Qu where they will shadow patient care protocols, custom treatment plans, in-patient procedures, and out-patient procedures.

The practice is focused on providing additional opportunities for the future of the pain medicine field and hopes this step is the first in their direction of educating the next generation.

To learn more about the practice and the team of providers, visit https://www.pennpain.com, or call the office at (215) 395-8888.

About PA Pain & Spine

Pennsylvania Pain and Spine Institute was founded in 2013 by Ivy League trained physicians Dr. David Qu, MD and Dr. Robert Kelly, DO. The practice is a pain management and rehabilitation privately-owned clinic with a focus on utilizing minimally invasive techniques and pain generator diagnostics in order to heal patients at the source. The practice currently has two offices located in Chalfont, Pennsylvania and Quakertown, Pennsylvania and treats patients with any type of pain.

Media contact:

Kelsey Voelker

[email protected]

2153958888x104

SOURCE Pennsylvania Pain and Spine Institute
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The study of Research Group Central Agency (RGCA), an officially accredited agency of the international operator IPSOS, discovered that purchasing patterns of Uzbek consumers are undergoing a radical transformation from outdoor markets to online marketplaces.

With a population of almost 37 million and dynamic economic growth Uzbekistan is a promising destination for digital services and e-commerce. The experts estimate that the e-commerce market volume of Uzbekistan will grow twelvefold from 150 million dollars in 2021 to 1.8 billion dollars in 2026.

If until 2022 the Uzbek e-commerce industry was largely represented by foreign players, in 2023 a new Uzbek brand - Uzum Market - has become the most recognizable shopping platform in the country. In six months since the launch of Uzum Market 91% of respondents recognize the brand and over half demonstrate unaided awareness of the brand. The other popular services include the classifieds platform OLX followed by the messenger Telegram, AliExpress, Mediapark, Zoodmall, Olcha.uz, and Asaxiy.

According to the RGCA study, Uzbek consumers are fast to appreciate the unique benefits of e-commerce Uzum Market offers - loyalty programs, low prices, and convenient delivery. Uzum with its 32,000 sq. m. fulfilment center in Tashkent, providing one-day delivery to the major cities, and partners' cashback programs is well positioned to benefit from the customers' wants. In addition, the advanced ecosystem of Uzum provides financial services, including Islamic BNPL service Uzum Nasiya and mobile payments solutions for the unbanked population accounting for almost 50% of the population.

RGCA notes that competition for consumers in the e-commerce market in Uzbekistan will further encourage companies to improve their platforms, as well as expand their range of goods and services. At the same time, Uzbekistan is facing a unique situation where outdoor market buyers immediately switch to buying on websites and apps, bypassing the traditional offline retail stage.

"Today we are witnessing how millions of people who traditionally bought practically everything at millennia-old bazaars are radically changing their habits, replacing a cart with a porter by a virtual basket in the upper right corner of the screen," says Vyacheslav Karpov, CEO of RGCA.

"We are proud to lead the transformation of the e-commerce market in Uzbekistan and greatly appreciate the recognition of our services by consumers," says Djasur Djumaev, CEO and Co-Founder of Uzum. "We are building the number one e-commerce platform in Uzbekistan and will continue to add new services for both consumers and businesses in the country to truly unlock its immense economic potential".

About Uzum: Uzum Group of Companies was founded in 2022 and currently develops a unique ecosystem of digital services in Uzbekistan. The group includes Uzum Market online marketplace with a wide range of products and fast delivery, Kapitalbank, Uzum Nasiya installment service, as well as Uzum Bank digital bank. Every month, more than 5 million residents of Uzbekistan use the company's services.

For additional information please contact: [email protected]

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SOURCE Uzum Group
DUBLIN, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Vascular Patches Market" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report analyzes the trends in the vascular patch market with data from 2021, estimates from 2022, projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through the forecast period of 2022 to 2027), and regional markets. This report highlights the current and future market potential of vascular patches and provides a detailed analysis of the competitive landscape.

The report covers regulatory scenarios, drivers, restraints, and opportunities. The report also offers market projections for 2027 and provides the market shares for key companies.

Vascular patches play an increasingly important role in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases for several reasons, including the increasing prevalence and incidences of chronic heart diseases. These factors are anticipated to augment the demand for vascular patches during the forecast period. For instance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 18.2 million adults aged 20 and older have coronary artery disease (CAD) in 2020. Similarly, 30.3 million adults were diagnosed with heart disease in the U.S. in 2018.



Inorganic strategies among market players are also boosting the vascular patch market. For instance, In 2019, LeMaitre Vascular Inc., a manufacturer of devices for the treatment of peripheral vascular diseases, purchased the CardiCel and VascuCel patch business from Australian biotech company Admedus Ltd. (now known as Anteris Technologies), for $15.5 million. The companies also signed a license agreement for tissue processing technology restricted to the CardioCel and VascuCel lines.



Other factors, such as innovation, technological advances and the launch of novel products from market players, are expected to increase demand for vascular patches during the forecast period. However, during this time, limitations of vascular patches and product recalls may impede market growth. Leaders in the vascular patch market include Johnson & Johnson MedTech, Edwards Lifesciences Corp., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Getinge AB, Baxter, W. L. Gore & Associates, LeMaitre Vascular and Artivion.



The global market for vascular patches was valued at $631.5 million in 2020. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.1% to reach over $1.0 billion by the end of 2027. The growth of the global market is attributed to factors such as the rise in the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, the growing adoption of biological patches, and an increase in the geriatric population. In this report, the global market for vascular patches is segmented based on patch type, application and region.

Report Includes

An overview of the global market for vascular patches

Estimation of the market size and analyses of global market trends, with data from 2021, 2022 and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2027

Characterization and quantification of market potential for vascular patches by application, type, and region

Brief description about various processes such as carotid endarterectomy, aortic aneurysms, profundaplasty, surgical patch angioplasty and vascular bypass surgery, and discussion on type and material of vascular patches to be used for the particular process

Discussion on advantages and drawbacks of biological vascular patches and synthetic vascular patches, and their role in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases

Identification of market drivers, restraints and other forces impacting the global market and evaluation of current market trends, market size and forecast, and technological advancements within the industry

Market share analysis of the key companies of the industry and coverage of events like mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborations or partnerships, and other key market strategies

Company profiles of major players within the industry, including B. Braun SE, Baxter International Inc., Edwards Lifesciences, Johnson & Johnson Services Inc., and Terumo Corp.

Key Topics Covered:





Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Summary and Highlights

2.1 Overview

Chapter 3 Market Dynamics

3.1 Market Drivers

3.1.1 Rising Prevalence of Cardiovascular Diseases Globally

3.1.2 Increasing Adoption of Biological Vascular Patches

3.1.3 Growing Geriatric Population and Changing Lifestyles

3.2 Market Restraints

3.2.1 Product Recalls

3.2.2 Limitations Associated With Vascular Patches and Their Applications

3.3 Market Opportunities

3.3.1 Inorganic Strategies Among Market Players

Chapter 4 Market Overview

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Current Market Trends

4.2.1 Currently Available Vascular Patches

4.3 Emerging Technologies

4.3.1 Products in the Pipeline

Chapter 5 Regulatory Landscape and Reimbursement Scenario

5.1 Regulatory Landscape

5.1.1 North America

5.1.2 Europe

5.1.3 Asia-Pacific

5.1.4 Asean Countries

5.2 Reimbursement Scenario

5.2.1 Pricing and Reimbursement Overview

5.2.2 U.S.

5.2.3 Europe

5.2.4 Asia-Pacific

Chapter 6 Impact of Covid-19 on the Market

6.1 Overview

6.1.1 Covid-19 Crisis

6.1.2 Impact of Covid-19 on Cardiovascular Diseases

6.1.3 Impact of Covid-19 on the Vascular Patch Market

6.1.4 Covid-19 Measures

Chapter 7 Market Breakdown by Patch Type

7.1 Types of Vascular Patches

7.1.1 Biologic Vascular Patches

7.1.2 Synthetic Vascular Patches

Chapter 8 Market Breakdown by Application

8.1 Applications for Vascular Patches

8.1.1 Carotid Endarterectomy

8.1.2 Aortic Aneurysms

8.1.3 Profundaplasty

8.1.4 Vascular Bypass Surgery

8.1.5 Vascular Repair and Reconstruction

Chapter 9 Market Breakdown by Region

9.1 Overview

9.1.1 North America

9.1.2 Europe

9.1.3 Asia-Pacific

9.1.4 Rest of the World

Chapter 10 Analysis of Market Opportunities

10.1 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

10.1.1 Threat of New Entrants

10.1.2 Threat of Substitutes

10.1.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

10.1.4 Bargaining Power of Buyers

10.1.5 Degree of Competition

Chapter 11 Competitive Landscape

11.1 Company Share Analysis

11.1.1 Recent Developments in the Market for Vascular Patches

Chapter 12 Company Profiles



Chapter 13 Appendix: Abbreviations

Companies Mentioned

Artivion Inc.

B. Braun Se

Baxter International Inc.

Edwards Lifesciences Corp.

Getinge Ab

Johnson & Johnson Medtech

Labcor Laboratorios Ltda.

Lemaitre Vascular Inc.

Terumo Corp.

W. L. Gore & Associates Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/s593f9

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

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SOURCE Research and Markets
HOUSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Veriforce, the industry's fastest-growing provider of supply chain risk and compliance management solutions, has announced the acquisition of Global Worker Pass , an innovative software solution designed to streamline the process of verifying workers' qualifications and certifications in real-time. The acquisition will strengthen Veriforce's suite of products and provide companies with a comprehensive solution for managing their global workforce.

The Global Worker Pass provides Veriforce's customers with a centralized system for managing worker data, including tracking competencies, certifications, training records, and other important information. The platform offers real-time alerts when certifications are about to expire, helping companies ensure their workers are always up-to-date on their training and qualifications, which is crucial for maintaining a safe and productive work environment.

"We are excited to integrate Global Worker Pass into our contractor management solution," said Colby Lane, CEO of Veriforce. "This acquisition reinforces our commitment to providing companies with the tools they need to manage their global workforce efficiently and effectively while improving performance and ensuring compliance with regulations and standards. By utilizing Global Worker Pass, we are able to provide our customers with a game-changing platform for tracking worker competencies, qualifications and certifications, leading to a safer workforce and ultimately, a safer job site."

One of the primary benefits of the Global Worker Pass is its ability to allow workers to take their qualifications with them wherever they work, while providing hiring companies even greater worker-level insights as part of their daily operations. It's a single source of truth for important worker-level information, which may include safety training, drug testing, competency testing, and fatigue management solutions. The result is a more productive workforce.

"Global Worker Pass provides employers and facility owners in multiple industries with real-time access to important workforce health and safety risk information, so that they can operate their businesses more safely and efficiently," said Craig Scott, CEO of Global Worker Pass. Craig will be joining Veriforce to lead its worker-focused product suite.

Veriforce's acquisition of Global Worker Pass is a valuable addition to Veriforce's contractor management solution, and the acquisition will help Veriforce's customers stay ahead of the curve in an increasingly globalized business environment.

About Veriforce

Veriforce is a recognized leader in delivering comprehensive, integrated supply chain risk management solutions that help bring workers home safely and optimize business performance. The company's SaaS safety and compliance platform, data integrity and verification practices, and standardized safety training programs empower leading organizations to drive safety and compliance into their supply chains and down to the worker level.

As the world's largest supply chain risk management network, Veriforce partners with over 3,200 hiring companies in over 130 countries, serving more than 80,000 contractors, over 7,000 authorized instructors and evaluators, and millions of individual workers. This network makes Veriforce the preferred partner for companies that strive to ensure a safe, qualified third-party workforce. Company offices are in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, the U.K., and Australia. For more information, visit veriforce.com.

SOURCE Veriforce, LLC
The German government said on Wednesday it had decided to end its participation in the UN mission in Mali by next May over problems with the ruling junta.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's cabinet said Berlin would pull its 1,110 troops in the UN mission MINUSMA out of the West African country over the next year and pivot towards more humanitarian and development aid for the region.

"Whether we want it to or not, what happens in the Sahel affects us," Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement.

"We are reorganising our engagement in the region and will let our participation in MINUSMA run out in a structured fashion over the next 12 months."

The government said it would "at the same time deepen its civil support for the region" and "strengthen the focus of its engagement on security in Niger, Mauritania and the states on the Gulf of Guinea".

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said the recent fighting in Sudan had underlined "how quickly a country's instability can lead to an existential threat for the lives of our citizens".

He said Berlin's goal was to "foster the growing responsibility of Africans for security and stability on their own continent".

Stay committed

MINUSMA was created in 2013 to help stabilise the country as it battled a jihadist insurgency.

Germany announced last year that it planned to withdraw its troops from the mission by May 2024, a decision now approved by the governing coalition.

It came after the German army, known as the Bundeswehr, had repeatedly run into operational problems with the ruling junta.

The Sahel state has been battling a security crisis since jihadist and separatist insurgencies broke out in the north in 2012.

It has since August 2020 been ruled by a military junta, which broke a long-standing alliance with France and other Western partners in the fight against jihadism.

There had also been growing tensions between the UN mission and Mali's military rulers following the alleged arrival of Wagner operatives from Russia to bolster government forces.

Pistorius pledged last month on a visit to the region that Berlin would stay committed to security in the Sahel after its troops left Mali.

The German cabinet in March agreed for up to 60 German soldiers to participate in the new EU-led military mission EUMPM, based in Niger.

Mali's long-running insurgency has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.

In claims disputed by experts, the junta says it has routed jihadists over the past year. But recently it has suffered a series of bloody attacks.

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Victra will partner with Ron Clark Academy to send at least 100 educators nationwide to participate in highly acclaimed immersive educational training

RALEIGH, N.C., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Victra  the largest Verizon authorized retailer in the U.S.  announced today their plans to support in-store donations to send at least 100 educators from around the country to attend professional development training at the world-renowned Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Ga.

The Ron Clark Academy is the selected non-profit partner for Victra Cares, a program created to support charitable initiatives and organizations, giving back to the communities where Victra employees live and work. Past organizations include the USO, Feeding America and Building Homes for Heroes.

With over 100,000 educators trained so far, the Ron Clark Academy provides educators with the tools they need to transform learning environments into ones filled with passion, creativity and authenticity  where their students will thrive.

"At Victra, we are committed to impacting future generations by supporting educators in local communities with tools and resources to help navigate the evolving learning environment," said Rich Balot, Victra founder and CEO. "Investing in our educators has a ripple effect that extends to generations of students  and their scholastic joy and success. We are thrilled to be able to offer this one-of-a-kind experience. It is truly a gift that will keep giving."

The deadline for nominations is June 1, after which the top 100 nominees will be announced. A committee of Victra and RCA employees will then narrow to the top 50 nominees (plus a guest in education of their choice) who will be offered a trip to attend the professional development experience at the academy. Winners will be officially announced in October. Victra intends to raise enough donations to send two educators from every state to support this nationwide initiative. Go to https://victra.com/ron-clark-academy/ to nominate a deserving teacher.

You can contribute toward the $300,000 fundraising goal by donating at the checkout in-store or visiting Victra's website at https://ronclarkacademy.com/Victra/. Donations will cover travel, lodging, and event expenses for the selected educators.

About Victra, Inc.

Victra, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., operates as the largest exclusive authorized agent for Verizon Wireless, the nation's best performing wireless network. Victra has approximately 1,600 Verizon-branded retail stores across 49 states, offering a comprehensive mix of wireless devices including smartphones, feature phones, tablets, mobile broadband, and wearables; as well as a broad range of accessories and device insurance coverage. For more information, visit www.victra.com.

Media Contact:

Matt Kovacs

Blaze PR

[email protected]

SOURCE Victra
The Viking Polaris Makes Her Great Lakes Debut in Toronto, Joining the Viking Octantis

LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Viking (www.viking.com) today is celebrating the start of its second season in the Great Lakes, as the new purpose-built Viking Polaris arrived in Toronto for her first port of call in the region. The Viking Polaris joins her identical sister ship, the Viking Octantis, which began sailing in the Great Lakes for the 2022 season and returned to the region in April 2023. With two 378-guest expedition vessels now in the region, Viking has doubled its capacity in the Great Lakes for 2023. The ships will remain in the Great Lakes through September 2023, sailing all five lakes and a variety of itineraries that operate between Toronto and Duluth.

Viking today is celebrating the start of its second season in the Great Lakes, as the new purpose-built Viking Polaris arrived in Toronto for her first port of call in the region. The Viking Polaris will join her sister ship, the Viking Octantis (pictured here) transiting the Welland Canala key section of the St. Lawrence Seaway connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. For more information, visit www.viking.com. Viking doubles capacity for second season in North Americas Great Lakes with the arrival of the new purpose-built Viking Polaris in Toronto. This season, the Viking Polaris will join her sister ship, the Viking Octantis (pictured here) transiting the Welland Canala key section of the St. Lawrence Seaway connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. For more information, visit www.viking.com.

"We are proud to welcome both of our expedition ships to the Great Lakes. With historic canals that are engineering marvels, cities with thriving arts and culture and unmatched wilderness, this is a phenomenal region of North America that may be familiar to manybut few have had the opportunity to explore," said Torstein Hagen, Chairman of Viking. "After our first full season of Great Lakes voyages in 2022, we are grateful for the warm welcome we received from each destination and look forward to introducing even more curious travelers to the region this season and in the years to come."

Designed specifically to reach the Great Lakes, Viking's expedition fleet brings the newest and most modern vessels ever to explore this region of North America, as well as a significant commitment to local tourism and economic development for the states of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Canadian province of Ontario. Beginning this season, Viking will also call on the new port of Cleveland, Ohio, during the new 15-day itinerary, Great Lakes Collection.

To further develop the scientific enrichment program for its Great Lakes voyages, Viking has partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), which conducts innovative research on the dynamic environments and ecosystems of the Great Lakes and coastal regions to provide information for resource use and management decisions that lead to safe and sustainable ecosystems, ecosystem services, and human communities. Viking's expedition ships have also been designated official NOAA / U.S. National Weather Service weather balloon stations, from which regular launches are undertaken.

20232024 Great Lakes Voyages:

During Viking's second season, the company is operating six key itineraries in the Great Lakes, including two new voyages. Highlights include:

NEW Great Lakes Collection (15 days; between Toronto and Duluth )  Join Viking for a unique expedition across the historic waterways of all five of the majestic Great Lakes. Experience culture-rich urban centers and admire the awesome power of thundering Niagara Falls . Explore the granite islands and sheltered inlets of Georgian Bay and traverse the famous Soo Locks. Study the aquatic ecosystems of the lakes and venture into the dense boreal forests that line the shores of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan .

 Join Viking for a unique expedition across the historic waterways of all five of the majestic Great Lakes. Experience culture-rich urban centers and admire the awesome power of thundering . Explore the granite islands and sheltered inlets of Georgian Bay and traverse the famous Soo Locks. Study the aquatic ecosystems of the lakes and venture into the dense boreal forests that line the shores of and . NEW Canada & the Atlantic Coastline (16 days; between Toronto and Ft. Lauderdale)  Sail along the legendary St. Lawrence Seaway and the Atlantic coast of the US on a memorable voyage that combines scenic landscapes and storied cities. Led by a team of experts, explore the unspoiled wilderness near Trois-Rivieres, Louisbourg and Lunenburg by land and water. Experience New York City's expansive Central Park, an oasis in the middle of a bustling metropolis, and immerse yourself in the rich histories of Quebec City , Norfolk and Charleston .

 Sail along the legendary St. Lawrence Seaway and the Atlantic coast of the US on a memorable voyage that combines scenic landscapes and storied cities. Led by a team of experts, explore the unspoiled wilderness near Trois-Rivieres, and by land and water. Experience expansive Central Park, an oasis in the middle of a bustling metropolis, and immerse yourself in the rich histories of , and . Undiscovered Great Lakes (8 days; Thunder Bay to Milwaukee )  Cross the width of Lake Superior between Duluth and the Soo Locks, exploring the Apostle Islands and Keweenaw Peninsula along the way. Hike along clifftop trails for sweeping views of the lake. Gain insight into the unique features and ecosystems of remote wilderness islands, and admire Kakabeka Falls , the " Niagara of the North." Discover sea caves by kayak and step back in time as you stroll the quaint, car-free streets of Mackinac Island .

 Cross the width of between and the Soo Locks, exploring the Apostle Islands and along the way. Hike along clifftop trails for sweeping views of the lake. Gain insight into the unique features and ecosystems of remote wilderness islands, and admire , the " of the North." Discover sea caves by kayak and step back in time as you stroll the quaint, car-free streets of . Great Lakes Explorer (8 days; Milwaukee to Thunder Bay )  Discover the maze of granite islands that comprise Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve while hiking and kayaking through its tranquil beauty and admiring sweeping vistas. Experience Victorian charm on Mackinac Island and venture into the boreal forests of Sleeping Giant Provincial Park on Lake Superior's northern shore. Explore coastal wetlands replete with birdlife, comb pristine beaches and get acquainted with native cultures of the northern Great Lakes.

 Discover the maze of granite islands that comprise Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve while hiking and kayaking through its tranquil beauty and admiring sweeping vistas. Experience Victorian charm on and venture into the boreal forests of Sleeping Giant Provincial Park on northern shore. Explore coastal wetlands replete with birdlife, comb pristine beaches and get acquainted with native cultures of the northern Great Lakes. Niagara & The Great Lakes (8 days; between Toronto and Milwaukee )  From urban skylines to uninhabited islands, discover North America's wilderness alongside renowned cultural attractions while cruising the striking waterways of the Great Lakes. Immerse yourself in the lakes' compelling shipping history, experience the power of thundering Niagara Falls and keep watch for scores of migratory birds at Point Pelee. Led by a team of experts, explore sheltered bays and woodlands to uncover complex ecosystems and hidden treasures.

 From urban skylines to uninhabited islands, discover wilderness alongside renowned cultural attractions while cruising the striking waterways of the Great Lakes. Immerse yourself in the lakes' compelling shipping history, experience the power of thundering and keep watch for scores of migratory birds at Point Pelee. Led by a team of experts, explore sheltered bays and woodlands to uncover complex ecosystems and hidden treasures. Canadian Discovery (13 days; between New York and Toronto )  Unleash your inner explorer in the remote wilds of eastern Canada . Discover this region's rich colonial past amid stunning natural settings. Admire the unparalleled beauty of the rugged coast of the Canadian Maritimes. Cruise along the wide expanse of the St. Lawrence River and marvel at the dramatic cliffs and wildlife of the Saguenay River Valley. Engaging shore excursions in each port allow you to better enjoy all this region has to offer.

Viking is also sailing grand voyages between the Great Lakes and "the end of the world," including the Viking Longitudinal World Cruise I, which will complete its inaugural 65-day journey from Antarctica to Milwaukee on May 5, 2023. In September 2023, the Viking Polaris will embark on the Longitudinal World Cruise II from Duluth to Ushuaia and the Viking Octantis will also begin her epic journey from Milwaukee to Ushuaia on the Longitudinal World Cruise III  offering guests several travel milestones in a single journey from the heart of North America through engineering wonders like the Welland and Panama Canals, into the Chilean fjords and finally to Antarctica. Following Viking's upcoming third season in the Great Lakes, the Viking Polaris will also sail the Longitudinal World Cruise IV from Milwaukee to Ushuaia in October 2024.

Viking Expedition Ships

The Polar Class Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris host 378 guests in 189 staterooms. The vessels are purpose-built for expeditions, at an ideal size for safety and comfort in remote destinations. With more indoor and outdoor viewing areas than other expedition vessels, guests are as close as possible to the most magnificent scenery on earth. Highlights include:

The Aula: A stunning panoramic auditorium inspired by the University of Oslo's famed ceremonial hall, the former venue for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Used for lectures, daily briefings, documentaries and films, this spectacular venue features a 4k laser-projected screen that retracts to expose floor-to-ceiling windows and 270 views.

A stunning panoramic auditorium inspired by the famed ceremonial hall, the former venue for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Used for lectures, daily briefings, documentaries and films, this spectacular venue features a laser-projected screen that retracts to expose floor-to-ceiling windows and 270 views. Finse Terrace: An outdoor lounge area just above sea level with recessed seating and lava rock "firepits," the Finse Terrace was designed to allow guests the comforts of the ship al fresco while enjoying the dramatic scenery. Named after the Finse Plateau in Norway , where some of the greatest polar explorers, including Nansen and Amundsen, did their expedition training in preparation for their North and South Pole expeditions.

An outdoor lounge area just above sea level with recessed seating and lava rock "firepits," the Finse Terrace was designed to allow guests the comforts of the ship al fresco while enjoying the dramatic scenery. Named after the Finse Plateau in , where some of the greatest polar explorers, including Nansen and Amundsen, did their expedition training in preparation for their North and South Pole expeditions. The Hangar: A state-of-the-art, industry-first in-ship marina providing ease of embarkation and disembarkation of Special Operations Boats and other equipment while sheltered from the elements.

A state-of-the-art, industry-first in-ship marina providing ease of embarkation and disembarkation of Special Operations Boats and other equipment while sheltered from the elements. The Bow: An important forward-viewing platform. And in the case of inclement weather, The Shelter is a comfortable, partially enclosed space for guests to warm up with a hot drink before going back out into the elements.

An important forward-viewing platform. And in the case of inclement weather, is a comfortable, partially enclosed space for guests to warm up with a hot drink before going back out into the elements. The Science Lab: Developed in partnership with the University of Cambridge and Akvaplan-Niva, The Science Lab, at 380 sq. ft., is designed to support a broad range of research activities and is equipped with wet and dry laboratory facilities. Guests have supervised access to The Science Lab to learn from and participate with scientists in undertaking meaningful research.

Developed in partnership with the and Akvaplan-Niva, The Science Lab, at 380 sq. ft., is designed to support a broad range of research activities and is equipped with wet and dry laboratory facilities. Guests have supervised access to The Science Lab to learn from and participate with scientists in undertaking meaningful research. Expedition Central: The hub for the expedition team to consult with guests on their expedition activities and share knowledge about the destinations on a one-on-one basis, with the aid of 3D printed maps, digital screens, and a state-of-the-art spatial data visualization chart table.

The hub for the expedition team to consult with guests on their expedition activities and share knowledge about the destinations on a one-on-one basis, with the aid of 3D printed maps, digital screens, and a state-of-the-art spatial data visualization chart table. Dining Choices: The Restaurant offers fine dining featuring regional cuisine and always-available classics; the casual World Cafe offers an open kitchen, bakery, grill and premium seafood and sushi choices, as well as a wide range of international flavors; Mamsen's, named for the Hagen family matriarch, serves Scandinavian-inspired fare; and Manfredi's offers the best of Italian cuisine.

The Restaurant offers fine dining featuring regional cuisine and always-available classics; the casual World Cafe offers an open kitchen, bakery, grill and premium seafood and sushi choices, as well as a wide range of international flavors; Mamsen's, named for the Hagen family matriarch, serves Scandinavian-inspired fare; and Manfredi's offers the best of Italian cuisine. The Nordic Spa: Following a day of exploration, The Nordic Spa offers guests opportunities to experience the ultimate healthy Nordic traditions, with an indoor heated pool set against expansive windows and a badestamp (wood-sided hot tub) that is open to the outside.

Following a day of exploration, The Nordic Spa offers guests opportunities to experience the ultimate healthy Nordic traditions, with an indoor heated pool set against expansive windows and a (wood-sided hot tub) that is open to the outside. Explorers' Lounge: Located high on the ship with floor-to-ceiling windows, the Explorers' Lounge provides guests an ideal space to take in the magnificent scenery, share discoveries with fellow travelers or to enjoy a drink.

Located high on the ship with floor-to-ceiling windows, the Explorers' Lounge provides guests an ideal space to take in the magnificent scenery, share discoveries with fellow travelers or to enjoy a drink. The Living Room: On Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris , The Living Room is located to maximize views of the surroundings through floor-to-ceiling windows and a library that informs even the best-read explorers. The Library is curated by acclaimed London bookshop Heywood Hill , as on all Viking vessels, as well as Cambridge University's Scott Polar Research Institute.

On and , The Living Room is located to maximize views of the surroundings through floor-to-ceiling windows and a library that informs even the best-read explorers. The Library is curated by acclaimed bookshop , as on all Viking vessels, as well as Scott Polar Research Institute. Nordic Balcony: A first for polar expedition vessels, all staterooms on board Viking's expedition ships feature a Nordic Balcony, a sunroom that converts into an al fresco viewing platform with an observation shelf at elbow level to stabilize binoculars or a camera. Guests can choose from six stateroom categories that range from 222 sq. ft. to 1,223 sq. ft.all with a Nordic Balcony, as well as a king-size bed and large bathroom with spacious glass-enclosed shower, heated bathroom floor and anti-fog mirror. Every stateroom is also equipped with a unique floor-to-ceiling drying closet that circulates warm air to dry and store clothing and expedition gear.

A first for polar expedition vessels, all staterooms on board Viking's expedition ships feature a Nordic Balcony, a sunroom that converts into an al fresco viewing platform with an observation shelf at elbow level to stabilize binoculars or a camera. Guests can choose from six stateroom categories that range from 222 sq. ft. to 1,223 sq. ft.all with a Nordic Balcony, as well as a king-size bed and large bathroom with spacious glass-enclosed shower, heated bathroom floor and anti-fog mirror. Every stateroom is also equipped with a unique floor-to-ceiling drying closet that circulates warm air to dry and store clothing and expedition gear. Expedition Ship Suites: Nordic Junior Suites (322 sq. ft.) and Explorer Suites (580 sq. ft.) on Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris are similar to those on Viking's fleet of ocean ships, with wood detailing and amenities that include additional storage and seating, an expanded bathroom with extended shower and double sinks, welcome champagne, a fully-stocked mini-bar replenished daily, complimentary laundry, priority restaurant reservations and more. Explorer Suites feature two separate rooms, a Nordic Balcony and a full outdoor veranda. Additionally, each ship features one Owner's Suite (1,223 sq. ft.) that has three rooms a living room, a board/dining room and a bedroomas well as a 792 sq. ft. private deck with a traditional Norwegian badestamp open to the invigorating outdoors.

Nordic Junior Suites (322 sq. ft.) and Explorer Suites (580 sq. ft.) on and are similar to those on Viking's fleet of ocean ships, with wood detailing and amenities that include additional storage and seating, an expanded bathroom with extended shower and double sinks, welcome champagne, a fully-stocked mini-bar replenished daily, complimentary laundry, priority restaurant reservations and more. Explorer Suites feature two separate rooms, a Nordic Balcony and a full outdoor veranda. Additionally, each ship features one Owner's Suite (1,223 sq. ft.) that has three rooms a living room, a board/dining room and a bedroomas well as a 792 sq. ft. private deck with a traditional Norwegian badestamp open to the invigorating outdoors. Enrichment On Board and On Shore: Viking has created the world's leading scientific enrichment environment in an expedition setting. Exclusive partnerships with the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University , The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)as well as other prestigious scientific institutions match leading researchers and educators with each expedition. Thirty-six experts accompany each journey as part of the Viking Expedition Team, including an Expedition Leader and support staff, photographer, field research scientists, general naturalists, mountain guides, kayak guides, submarine pilots and specialists (ornithology, geology, higher predator biology and history). On board, guests will enjoy daily briefings and world-class lectures about their destination. On shore, they can assist in fieldwork or interact through experiential activities during landingssuch as monitoring birds to help identify migratory patterns; accompanying scientists to collect samples; or taking their cameras ashore alongside a professional photographer to learn how best to capture scenic landscapes.

Viking has created the world's leading scientific enrichment environment in an expedition setting. Exclusive partnerships with the Scott Polar Research Institute at , The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)as well as other prestigious scientific institutions match leading researchers and educators with each expedition. Thirty-six experts accompany each journey as part of the Viking Expedition Team, including an Expedition Leader and support staff, photographer, field research scientists, general naturalists, mountain guides, kayak guides, submarine pilots and specialists (ornithology, geology, higher predator biology and history). On board, guests will enjoy daily briefings and world-class lectures about their destination. On shore, they can assist in fieldwork or interact through experiential activities during landingssuch as monitoring birds to help identify migratory patterns; accompanying scientists to collect samples; or taking their cameras ashore alongside a professional photographer to learn how best to capture scenic landscapes. Environmentally Considerate: Viking's expedition ships have set a new standard for responsible travel with an energy-efficient design that exceeds the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) requirements by nearly 38%. In addition to an integrated bow that creates a longer waterline for the ships, engines with heat recovery systems and Azipod Electric Propulsion, Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris have received one of the industry's first SILENT-E notationsthe highest-level certification for quiet ship propulsion, minimizing underwater noise pollution.

Media Assets

For more information, images and b-roll for Viking, contact [email protected].

About Viking

Viking was founded in 1997 and provides destination-focused journeys on rivers, oceans and lakes around the world. Designed for experienced travelers with interests in science, history, culture and cuisine, Chairman Torstein Hagen often says Viking offers experiences for The Thinking Person. Viking has more than 250 awards to its name, including being the first cruise line to ever be named both the #1 Ocean Line and the #1 River Line in a single year in Travel + Leisure's 2022 "World's Best" Awards. Viking has also been rated the #1 River Line and #1 Ocean Line by Conde Nast Traveler in the publication's 2022 and 2021 Readers' Choice Awards. For additional information, contact Viking at 1-800-2-VIKING (1-800-284-5464) or visit www.viking.com. For Viking's award-winning enrichment channel, visit www.viking.tv.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Edelman for Viking [email protected]

SOURCE Viking
ATLANTA, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Volato, the most efficient way to experience a luxury private jet, today announced that it is exploring the possibility of relocating its headquarters to take the company through its next stage of growth and to better serve its growing customer base. The company is considering several states including Florida and Texas.

Volato is reviewing various options to determine the optimal location for its headquarters, which will enable the company to maintain its competitive edge and position itself for long-term growth. Texas and Florida's vibrant business climates, favorable tax policies, and robust infrastructure make them attractive destinations for the company.

"Our decision to explore a potential new headquarters is driven by our commitment to innovation, excellence, employee quality of life, and meeting the evolving needs of our customers," said Matt Liotta, CEO of Volato. "Florida and Texas have emerged as strong contenders for our new headquarters thanks to their pro-business environment, exceptional talent pool, and growing focus on aerospace."

The relocation of Volato's headquarters is expected to generate new jobs and stimulate economic growth in the chosen region. While Florida and Texas remain top choices, Volato is also considering other locations that align with the company's strategic objectives and provide a supportive environment for growth.

The company will conduct a thorough evaluation of its options with economic councils, local communities, and officials before making a final decision. The company is committed to sourcing a location that will ensure a successful future for its employees, partners, and customers.

About Volato:

Volato is a full-service aviation company providing modern ways to enjoy luxury private jets through innovative, friendly, and sustainable solutions. Volato provides a fresh approach to fractional ownership, aircraft management, jet card, deposit, and charter programs. Volato's fractional programs uniquely offer flexible hours and a revenue share for owners in a fleet of HondaJets, which are optimized for missions of up to four passengers, and, starting in 2024, Gulfstream G280's for missions of up to ten passengers.

For more information visit https://www.flyvolato.com

All Volato flights are operated by its DOT/FAA-authorized air carrier subsidiary (G C Aviation, Inc., d/b/a Volato) or by an approved vendor air carrier.

Media Contact:

Teddy Burnette

+1 (619) 888-5217

[email protected]

SOURCE Volato
SYDNEY, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- VT Markets, a leading online trading platform, has announced the launch of its highly anticipated King of the Hill Trading Contest. The contest will run from 1 May to 31 July 2023, granting the world's best traders an exclusive chance at global recognition.

VT Markets Launches King of the Hill Trading Contest With Over US$60,000 Prize Pool

First launched early this year to a hugely positive reception, the popular competition is now set to build on its inaugural success. In addition to new participating regions, this latest edition will feature an expanded prize pool of over US$60,000, to be split between participating traders based on their realised profit.

Beyond cash prizes, top performers will also be featured on VT Markets' Wall of Fame, allowing them to grow their influence and establish themselves among the world's elite traders.

Commenting on the numerous incentives on offer, a VT Markets representative stated: "We are delighted to bring traders these exciting opportunities for higher earning potential and greater rewards. By leveraging our innovative copy trading platform, VTrade, traders can now showcase their trading expertise and access unparalleled chances for success."

For more information, visit the relevant King of the Hill Trading Contest page below:

For Europe https://bit.ly/koth_eu

For Southeast Asia https://bit.ly/koth_asia

For Greater China https://bit.ly/koth_gcn

About the company:

VT Markets is a regulated multi-asset broker with a presence in over 160 countries. The broker has won many international accolades including Best Customer Service and Fastest Growing Broker. Its mission is to make trading an easy, accessible, and seamless experience for everyone.

For more information, please visit www.vtmarkets.com or email [email protected]

Follow them at: LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2068689/SM__TradCon_PR_1080X1080___May_23.jpg

SOURCE VT Markets
ENA, ACEP members tell of their first-hand experiences and how new legislation can help

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, leaders and members from the Emergency Nurses Association and the American College of Emergency Physicians joined forces on Capitol Hill to call for action to mitigate workplace violence against health care workers and increase mental health care resources for patients.

"Emergency departments are the front door to the hospital. It is the health care safety net in many communities," said ENA President Terry Foster, MSN, RN, CEN, CPEN, CCRN, TCRN, FAEN. "Every patient who arrives in the emergency department deserves the absolute best from the nurses, physicians and other health care providers  but that isn't possible the longer workplace violence is considered part of the job or if an urgent emphasis isn't placed on improving access to mental health care resources and in, and beyond, the ED."

Two recently introduced pieces of legislation were the focus of the State of Emergency Nursing event held on Capitol Hill with dozens of ENA members in attendance. The first being the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (H.R. 2663 and S. 1176) which directs OSHA to require health care and social service employers to develop and implement workplace violence prevention plans that are worker-driven and comprehensive to ensure the safety of patients and workers.

The second piece of legislation, the Improving Mental Health Access from the Emergency Department Act (S. 1346) would develop a competitive grant program that creates more resources for emergency departments to adapt more collaborative and cohesive care models to connect patients in mental health crisis with appropriate resources in their communities. It also aims to increase access to inpatient beds and alternative care settings, which will help alleviate boarding and overcrowding issues.

"Emergency physicians and emergency nurses strongly believe that threats and attacks against health care workers are unacceptable," said ACEP President Christopher S. Kang, MD, FACEP. "Emergency care teams must be dedicated to patient care without fearing for their safety. We must also address the mental health care crisis in this country that emergency physicians see and manage every day. More resources and better coordinated care can improve the patient and physician experience, outcomes and well-being."

The Capitol Hill event coincided with the Emergency Nurses Association's annual Day on the Hill event that included 170 emergency nurses visiting legislators to discuss these key issues.

Speakers at the Capitol Hill event shared their personal experiences to help illustrate the realities of both issues in the emergency department.

Emergency nurse Christian Stone of Washington, D.C.: "I have a background of seven years in EMS, which I thought prepared me pretty well to be an ED nurse, but nothing honestly prepared me to walk into work every night just to be screamed at, spit on, swung at, cursed out, kicked, threatened and more by patients and their family members while I'm just trying to do my job."

Emergency nurse Dan Nadworny of Massachusetts: "Over the last 10 years, we have fought to remove the stigma of mental health and we have encouraged people to come forward to seek help. We have asked patients to be honest and vulnerable with their caregivers. However, what I am seeing now is that when those patients speak up and ask for help they are often lost. What is unfortunate is when these patients come to the ED for help they are often there for days, weeks or even months with no treatment or therapies due to the lack of care opportunities."

About the Emergency Nurses Association

The Emergency Nurses Association is the premier professional nursing association dedicated to defining the future of emergency nursing through advocacy, education, research, innovation, and leadership. Founded in 1970, ENA has proven to be an indispensable resource to the global emergency nursing community. With 50,000 members worldwide, ENA advocates for patient safety, develops industry-leading practice standards and guidelines and guides emergency health care public policy. ENA members have expertise in triage, patient care, disaster preparedness, and all aspects of emergency care. Additional information is available at www.ena.org.

ENA Media Contact:

Morgan Wietecha

Media Relations Strategist

847-460-4038

[email protected]

SOURCE Emergency Nurses Association
CHICAGO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Arizton latest research report, the worldwide data center construction market will grow at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2022 to 2028.

To Know More, Download the Free Sample Report: https://www.arizton.com/request-sample/3828

Worldwide Data Center Construction Market

Edge data center investments fueled by 5G deployment, operators' sustainability initiatives, rack power density surge, innovative data center power technologies, and automation & intelligent monitoring solutions are some key trends in the global data center construction market.

Worldwide Data Center Construction Market Report Scope

Report Attributes Details Market Size (2028) USD 73.43 Billion Market Size (2022) USD 50.34 Billion CAGR by Revenue (2022-2028) 6.50 % Market Size - Area (2028) 58.15 Million Square Feet Power Capacity (2028) 9.778.6 MW Base Year 2022 Forecast Year 2023-2028 Market Segments Facility, Infrastructure, Electrical Infrastructure, Mechanical Infrastructure, Cooling Systems, Cooling Technique, General Construction, Tier Standards, and Geography Geographic Analysis North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Nordics, Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, APAC, and Southeast Asia



Looking for More Information? Download the Free Sample Report: https://www.arizton.com/request-sample/3828

North America Data Center Construction Market to Create $29 Billion Investment Opportunities

The US data center construction market witnessed investments from all major hyperscalers, such as Meta (Facebook), Google, Microsoft, and AWS. The renewable energy trend among data center operators is witnessed across the US. Also, city councils across the US set goals to reduce their emissions. Governors and mayors, as part of the clean and renewable energy initiative in California plan to achieve the goal of 100% renewable and zero-carbon electricity by 2045. The US government plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in the electricity sector by 2035 and to become a carbon neutral economy by 2050.

Brazil is the leading data center market in Latin America, with more than 45% of investments in the region due to the growth in internet penetration and adoption of cloud-based services by businesses in the country. The Brazil data center market witnesses the entry of foreign companies with the acquisition of local colocation service providers. For instance, in December 2022, Aligned, a US data center firm, announced to acquire ODATA, a Brazilian colocation data center service firm.

Germany is one of the mature data center markets in Western Europe. There is a significant increase in country's digitalization of the local enterprises fueling the growth of local data centers. There is ample demand from the German data center, paving the way for data center operators to expand in the region. Hyperscale data center providers also invest in the region due to the digital demands of German customers.

Get Insights About More Region, Download the Free Sample Report: https://www.arizton.com/request-sample/3828

Market Trends & Opportunities

Increased M&As & Joint Ventures: The rise in demand across several industries drives data center suppliers to sign several M&A contracts to expand their portfolios. The data center market is also interested in acquiring data centers by real estate and investment firms.

In November 2022, Partners Group acquired EdgeCore for around $1.2 billion. Later, in May 2022, Digital Bridge and IFM Investors acquired Switch for around $11 billion.

Data Center Investments Fueled by Big Data & IoT: The Internet of Things (IoT), which connects the digital and physical worlds using a network of sensors, contributes to the fast development of data traffic. Implementing 5G networks for mobile devices will aid the exponential growth of IoT and Big data analytics during the forecast period.

Smart bots can also be implemented to manage certain operations where human presence is not required. This also leads to more efficient power and cooling systems in data centers since the temperature can be kept cooler, and non-essential power equipment, such as lights and air conditioners, can be adjusted automatically.

Key Investors & Investments

In 2022, hyperscale investments in the US were over 25 projects by major operators, including Meta (Facebook), Google, Microsoft, and AWS.

Recently, Meta (Facebook) announced its plan to pause expanding and constructing new data center facilities across the US and the world. The company aims to design a new AI data center and redesign its data center facilities for artificial intelligence workloads.

Hyperscale providers continuously expand. For instance, AWS announced its plan to invest around $2.4 billion in the UK to build and operate data centers.

Key Highlights

In 2022, the global data center construction market witnessed investments of over USD 50 billion owing to investments from colocation operators, such as Equinix, Digital Realty, Vantage Data Centers, STACK Infrastructure, Iron Mountain, QTS Realty Trust, NTT Global Data Centers, DataBank, and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres.

owing to investments from colocation operators, such as Equinix, Digital Realty, Vantage Data Centers, STACK Infrastructure, Iron Mountain, QTS Realty Trust, NTT Global Data Centers, DataBank, and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres. Hyperscalers, such as Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google, also aid the market with investments. These companies expand their global presence, focusing on emerging locations across Europe and APAC.

and APAC. Aside from AWS, Google, and Microsoft, cloud operators include Alibaba Cloud , Tencent Cloud, Oracle, IBM Cloud, and OVHcloud. They are involved in the development of several cloud regions globally, which will increase data center investments.

, Cloud, Oracle, IBM Cloud, and OVHcloud. They are involved in the development of several cloud regions globally, which will increase data center investments. In 2022, the data center construction market witnessed supply chain-related challenges to support infrastructure providers. This recovered to an extent in the latter half of 2022. However, prices of raw materials have since risen, leading to higher costs for data center investors.

Local colocation providers in several countries expand their presence by constructing additional facilities, propelling the data center construction market. The prominent adaptors of cloud-based services are SMEs, where large enterprises lag due to cloud security concerns and, hence, develop private cloud computing environments.

The data center construction market is attractive, with data centers offering a higher return on investment (ROI) than other commercial and industrial properties.

Arizton's Expertise in the Data Center Industry

We track data center investments worldwide on a continuous basis and strive to provide accurate market analysis on investments across 20+ infrastructure categories.

Arizton's team of principal consultants and analysts work towards publishing extensive secondary and primary research that is credible, resourceful, and data-driven. With over 5+ years of experience, Arizton has helped several Fortune 500 companies with data-driven insights that enabled them to expand their businesses to niche regions, added over a billion dollars in revenues, and effective go-to-market strategies. We offer various product portfolios to meet the client's requirements, which align with their key business strategies and identify high-value growth avenues.

Exhaustive syndicated reports, databases, country-wise market analysis, & customized consulting projects are published by our exuberant and well-experienced analysts who possess exemplary skills in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research. Subscribe to our exhaustive portfolios to access premium research reports at competitive prices. Partner with Arizton for your next strategic business decision and gain a competitive advantage with real-time, data-driven research.

Why Should Buy This Research Report?

The report includes the investment in the following areas:

Market Segmentation

Facility Type

Hyperscale Data Centers

Colocation Data Centers

Enterprise Data Centers

Infrastructure

Electrical Infrastructure

Mechanical Infrastructure

General Construction

Electrical Infrastructure

UPS Systems

Generators

Transfer Switches & Switchgears

PDUs

Other Electrical Infrastructure

Mechanical Infrastructure

Cooling Systems

Racks

Other Mechanical Infrastructure

Cooling Systems

CRAC & CRAH Units

Chiller Units

Cooling Towers, Condensers, & Dry Coolers

Economizers & Evaporative Coolers

Other Cooling Units

Cooling Technique

Air-based Cooling

Liquid-based Cooling

General Construction

Core & Shell Development

Installation & Commissioning Services

Building & Engineering Design

Fire Detection & Suppression

Physical Security

DCIM

Tier Standards

Tier I & Tier II

Tier III

Tier IV

Geography

North America

The U.S.



Canada

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico



Chile



Colombia



The Rest of Latin America

Western Europe

The U.K.



Germany



France



Netherlands



Ireland



Italy



Spain



Switzerland



Belgium



Portugal



Other Western European Countries

Nordics

Denmark



Sweden



Norway



Finland & Iceland

& Central & Eastern Europe

Russia



Poland



Austria



Czech Republic



Other CEE Countries

Middle East

The UAE



Saudi Arabia



Israel



Oman



Kuwait



Qatar



Bahrain



Jordan



Other Middle East Countries

Africa

South Africa



Kenya



Nigeria



Egypt



Ethiopia



Other African Countries

APAC

China



Hong Kong



Australia



New Zealand



India



Japan



South Korea



Taiwan



The Rest of APAC

Southeast Asia

Singapore



Indonesia



Malaysia



Thailand



Philippines



Vietnam



Other Southeast Asia Countries

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Table of Content

ABOUT ARIZTON

ABOUT OUR DATA CENTER CAPABILITIES

WHAT'S INCLUDED

SEGMENTS INCLUDED

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

MARKET AT GLANCE

PREMIUM INSIGHTS

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

INVESTMENT: MARKET SIZE & FORECAST

AREA: MARKET SIZE & FORECAST

POWER CAPACITY: MARKET SIZE & FORECAST

MARKET DYNAMICS

MARKET OPPORTUNITIES & TRENDS

MARKET GROWTH ENABLERS

MARKET RESTRAINTS

SITE SELECTION CRITERIA

FACILITY TYPE SEGMENTATION

HYPERSCALE DATA CENTERS

COLOCATION DATA CENTERS

ENTERPRISE DATA CENTERS

INFRASTRUCTURE SEGMENTATION

ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

MECHANICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

COOLING SYSTEMS

COOLING TECHNIQUES

GENERAL CONSTRUCTION

TIER STANDARDS SEGMENTATION

GEOGRAPHY SEGMENTATION

NORTH AMERICA

MARKET SNAPSHOT & KEY HIGHLIGHTS

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INVESTMENT

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY AREA

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

US

KEY INVESTORS & INVESTMENTS

MARKET BY INVESTMENT

KEY AREA OF DEVELOPMENT AND FTZS

MARKET BY AREA

POWER CAPACITY & RENEWABLE ENERGY ADOPTION

MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

KEY SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE ADOPTION

MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

CANADA

LATIN AMERICA

MARKET SNAPSHOT & KEY HIGHLIGHTS

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INVESTMENT

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY AREA

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

BRAZIL

KEY INVESTORS & INVESTMENTS

MARKET BY INVESTMENT

KEY SEZS, DEVELOPMENTS AND LAND PRICING

MARKET BY AREA

POWER PRICING & RENEWABLE ENERGY ADOPTION

MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

KEY SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE ADOPTION

MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

MEXICO

CHILE

COLOMBIA

REST OF LATIN AMERICA

WESTERN EUROPE

MARKET SNAPSHOT & KEY HIGHLIGHTS

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INVESTMENT

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY AREA

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

UK

KEY INVESTORS & INVESTMENTS

MARKET BY INVESTMENT

KEY DEVELOPMENT, SEZS AND INVESTMENT COST

MARKET BY AREA

POWER PRICING & RENEWABLE ENERGY ADOPTION

MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

KEY SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE ADOPTION

MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

GERMANY

FRANCE

NETHERLANDS

IRELAND

ITALY

SPAIN

SWITZERLAND

BELGIUM

PORTUGAL

OTHER WESTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

NORDICS

MARKET SNAPSHOT & KEY HIGHLIGHTS

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INVESTMENT

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY AREA

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

DENMARK

KEY HIGHLIGHTS & INVESTMENTS

MARKET BY INVESTMENT

KEY LAND DEVELOPMENT & LAND PRICING

MARKET BY AREA

POWER PRICING & RENEWABLE ENERGY ADOPTION

MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

KEY SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE ADOPTION

MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

SWEDEN

NORWAY

FINLAND & ICELAND

CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE

MARKET SNAPSHOT & KEY HIGHLIGHTS

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INVESTMENT

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY AREA

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

RUSSIA

KEY INVESTORS & INVESTMENTS

MARKET BY INVESTMENT

KEY SEZS & LAND DEVELOPMENT

MARKET BY AREA

POWER PRICING & RENEWABLE ENERGY ADOPTION

MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

KEY SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE ADOPTION

MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

POLAND

AUSTRIA

CZECH REPUBLIC

OTHER CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

MIDDLE EAST

MARKET SNAPSHOT & KEY HIGHLIGHTS

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INVESTMENT

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY AREA

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

UAE

KEY INVESTORS & INVESTMENTS

MARKET BY INVESTMENT

KEY SEZS, HIGHLIGHTS & LAND PRICING

MARKET BY AREA

RENEWABLE ENERGY ADOPTION

MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

KEY SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE ADOPTION

MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

SAUDI ARABIA

ISRAEL

OMAN

KUWAIT

QATAR

BAHRAIN

JORDAN

OTHER MIIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES

AFRICA

MARKET SNAPSHOT & KEY HIGHLIGHTS

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INVESTMENT

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY AREA

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

SOUTH AFRICA

KEY INVESTORS & INVESTMENTS

MARKET BY INVESTMENT

KEY AREA, INVESTMENT COST & LAND PRICING

MARKET BY AREA

RENEWABLE ENERGY ADOPTION

MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

KEY SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE ADOPTION

MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

KENYA

NIGERIA

EGYPT

ETHIOPIA

OTHER AFRICAN COUNTRIES

APAC

MARKET SNAPSHOT & KEY HIGHLIGHTS

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INVESTMENT

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY AREA

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

CHINA

KEY INVESTORS & INVESTMENTS

MARKET BY INVESTMENT

KEY SEZS

MARKET BY AREA

RENEWABLE ENERGY ADOPTION

MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

KEY SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE ADOPTION

MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

HONG KONG

AUSTRALIA

NEW ZEALAND

INDIA

JAPAN

SOUTH KOREA

TAIWAN

REST OF APAC

SOUTHEAST ASIA

MARKET SNAPSHOT & KEY HIGHLIGHTS

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INVESTMENT

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY AREA

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

SINGAPORE

KEY INVESTORS & INVESTMENTS

MARKET BY INVESTMENT

KEY FTZS & LAND PRICING

MARKET BY AREA

RENEWABLE ENERGY ADOPTION

MARKET BY POWER CAPACITY

KEY SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE ADOPTION

MARKET BY INFRASTRUCTURE

INDONESIA

MALAYSIA

THAILAND

PHILIPPINES

VIETNAM

REST OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

MARKET PARTICIPANTS

SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDERS

DATA CENTER CONTRACTORS & SUBCONTRACTORS

DATA CENTER INVESTORS

NEW ENTRANTS

QUANTITATIVE SUMMARY

APPENDIX

ABBREVIATIONS

DEFINITIONS

SEGMENTAL COVERAGE

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SOURCE Arizton Advisory & Intelligence
Russia's FSB security service on Wednesday said it had arrested members of a Ukrainian sabotage network planning a series of attacks in Russian-occupied Crimea, including assassinations.

"The FSB has broken up the activities of an agent network of Ukrainian military intelligence planning to carry out major sabotage and terrorist attacks in Crimea," the security service said in a statement.

The FSB said they had detained seven people and seized explosive devices and detonators.

It said the bomb components had been smuggled into Russia from Bulgaria via Turkey and Georgia.

The FSB said that the group had been planning to assassinate political leaders including the Moscow-installed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov.

Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014.

"There is no doubt that the people who ordered these crimes are in Kyiv," Aksyonov said on his Telegram channel.

The FSB said the same group had carried out a railway sabotage in February.

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Kiev, May 3 : Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has said that his country had implemented 18 per cent of the standards of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

By the end of this year, Ukraine aims to perform between 30 per cent and 35 per cent of the alliance's standards, Reznikov was quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency as saying, Xinhua news agency reported.

Ukraine does not need to implement 100 per cent of the standards to become a member of the organization, he noted.

According to Reznikov, none of the NATO members implemented all of the more than 1,200 standards of the alliance.

Last month, the Ukrainian parliament called on NATO to speed up Ukraine's accession to the alliance.

NATO recognised Ukraine as its Enhanced Opportunities Partner in 2020.
Seoul, May 3 : South Korea's new coronavirus cases rose to over 20,000 on Wednesday as the daily caseload continued to log on-week growth on eased virus restrictions.

The country reported 20,197 cases, including 26 imported cases, bringing the total caseload to 31,212,598, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

Wednesday's tally was a marked growth from the previous day's 15,741 infections and also higher than 16,380 cases a week earlier.

The country added eight Covid-19 deaths Wednesday, raising the death toll to 34,505.

The number of critically ill patients came to 142, up from 137 a day earlier, the KDCA said.

"Following the removal of the mask-wearing mandate in March, we've seen an increase in the number of daily infections. New daily cases rose 3 per cent last week from a week earlier, though the virus situation has been managed in a stable manner," Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said.

In March, South Korea lifted the mask mandate for public transportation, though it remains for medical facilities, pharmacies and facilities vulnerable to infections, in an effort to support people's return to pre-pandemic normalcy.

The government is also considering shortening the mandatory Covid-19 isolation period to five days from the current seven starting this month.
Houston, May 3 : Following an extensive search involving over 250 US law enforcement officers, a man accused of shooting and killing five of his neighbours, including a nine-year-old child, in Texas was finally arrested, authorities said.

Addressing the media on Tuesday night, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said the suspect, Francisco Oropesa, was found in a house just miles from the home in Cleveland, Texas, where the brutal killings took place on April 29, reports CNN.

Oropesa, 38, was "caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry", Sheriff Capers said, adding that "they (police officers) effectively made the arrest; he is uninjured; and he is currently being taken to my facility in Coldspring".

The mass shooting occurred at a private residence in Cleveland -- about 40 miles northeast of state capital Houston. The victims, were identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, nine.

They were all Honduran nationals.

At the same press conference, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said that a tip submitted through the FBI's tip line ultimately led authorities to the suspect's location.

"We just want to thank the person who had the courage and bravery to call in the suspect's location," he said, adding that the tip came in at 5.15 p.m. on Tuesday evening and Oropesa was arrested at 6.30 p.m.

Although Oropesa's current immigration status is unknown, he had entered the US illegally and been deported by immigration officials at least four times since 2009, CNN quoted an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official as saying who identified the suspect as Francisco Oropesa Perez-Torres.

An immigration judge first removed him in March 2009 before he was deported again in September 2009, January 2012, and July 2016, the official said.

It is not known how long Oropesa has been in the US since his last deportation.

Since the killings, authorities had urged the public to come forward with any information and devoted substantial resources to track down the suspect, including an $80,000 in rewards for tips leading to his arrest.
Prayagraj : , May 3 (IANS) Special police teams have been constituted for the arrest of eight Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Science (SHUATS) officials, including the vice chancellor on instructions of ACP Karachhana, Ajeet Singh Chauhan.

The teams comprising Naini police and Crime Branch are carrying out raids to arrest the accused.

Till now two of the accused have been arrested while others are at large.

In February this year, two FIRs were lodged against SHUATS vice chancellor R.B. Lal, former registrar Ajay Kumar Lawrence, pro-vice chancellor Sunita B. Lal, chancellor J.A. Oliver, former director HRM Vinod B. Lal, registrar Robin L. Prasad, former finance controller Stephen Das, dean Mohd Imtiyaz, pro V-C Sarvjeet, former director HRM Ranjan A. John, and office superintendent Ashok Sandeep Singh at Naini police station.

The FIR was filed on the complaint of circle officer STF DSP Navendu Kumar for financial and recruitment irregularities at the deemed university.

Following the FIRs, Naini police carried out raids and arrested pro-vice chancellor Sarvjeet Herbert and office superintendent Ashok Singh.

Interestingly, SHUATS is the same institution where Atiq Ahmad had misbehaved and was arrested in 2017.
The death toll from Russian strikes on Ukraine's southern Kherson region on Wednesday has risen to 21 people, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The strikes came as Ukraine prepares for a spring offensive.

The city of Kherson, from which Russian forces withdrew last November, lies near the frontline in southern Ukraine.

"As of now, 21 people have been killed! 48 wounded!", Zelensky said on Telegram. He said the shelling hit "a railway station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a grocery supermarket and a gas station."

"On the morning of May 3, Russian troops began the massive shelling of the city of Kherson and the region's settlements," the prosecutors said.

Officials earlier said three people were killed in a strike on Kherson's only working hypermarket.

The prosecutors said three employees of a "power engineering team" were killed by shelling between the nearby villages of Stepanivka and Muzykivka.

Officials also announced Wednesday that Kherson will be under curfew for 58 hours from Friday.

Long curfews have been used by Ukrainian authorities in the past to facilitate troop and arms movements.

The head of Kherson's regional military administration Oleksandr Prokudin said the curfew would last from 1700 GMT on Friday until 0300 GMT on Monday.

"During these 58 hours, it is forbidden to move on the streets of the city. The city will also be closed for entry and exit," Prokudin said on Telegram, advising residents to stock up on food and medicine.

Prokudin said residents could go for short walks near their houses or visit shops but should carry identity documents with them.

"Such temporary restrictions are necessary for the law enforcement officers to do their job and not put you in danger," he wrote.

Kherson was captured by Russian troops last year in the first days of the invasion and remained under Russian occupation until November 2022.

Russian forces withdrew from the city, crossing to the eastern side of the Dnipro River which now delineates part of the front line in southern Ukraine.

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New Delhi, May 3 : In a major crackdown on criminals, the Dwarka District Police on Wednesday launched raid and search operations at over 20 locations in Delhi and Haryana.

An official said that the operation was aimed at targetting individuals, gangsters and associates involved in criminal activities.

During the raids, the police recovered a cache of weapons, cash and illegal substances from various locations.

"About Rs 20 lakh was recovered from a place in Delhi, and weapons seized from Jhajjar and other places in Haryana. Some people have been detained for questioning," a senior police official said.

The raids were carried out based on specific intelligence inputs and details about the recoveries from other places are still being collected, he added.

More details are awaited.
Dharamsala, May 3 : The Central Council of Tibetan Medicine with 598 registered medical practitioners from 22 different countries has condemned the recent "false" media reports and defamation against the 14th Dalai Lama.

"Tailored video of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama misused by Chinese Communist agents and some irresponsible media to malign the image of the Noble Laureate His Holiness the Dalai Lama has hurt sentiments of the entire Buddhist communities and the followers of His Holiness to a great extent. Media must apologise to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and his followers," the statement reads.

"We support your Holiness for your love and compassion to the entire humanity," it concludes.

Many other institutions and individuals have also issued statements in solidarity with the Tibetan spiritual leader urging the media to apologise to the Dalai Lama.

The development comes days after a viral video showed the Dalai Lama asking a boy to "suck" his tongue.

Many say the video in which the spiritual leader "kisses a child on the lips" was an attempt to vilify the Nobel Peace laureate who has spent decades trying to peacefully resolve China's brutal occupation of his homeland Tibet.
New York, May 3 : An Indian-origin executive of an aerospace engineering company in the US, and several other officials were found not guilty of conspiring to limit workers' mobility and career prospects, media reports said.

US District Judge Victor Bolden said the Department of Justice (DOJ) failed to prove that former Pratt & Whitney executive Mahesh Patel and five others restrained trade by forging an eight-year "no-poach" agreement to refrain from recruiting and hiring one another's employees, the Hartford Courant reported.

Bolden said that the evidence shows the companies hired so many of one another's employees under agreed upon exceptions to the no-poach deal that it was effectively meaningless.

"Under these circumstances, the alleged agreement itself had so many exceptions that it could not be said to meaningfully allocate the labor market of engineers from the supplier companies working on Pratt and Whitney projects," Bolden wrote.

"Indeed, many engineers or other skilled labourers were hired between and among the supplier companies during the relevant time period." A federal grand jury in Connecticut indicted Patel, a Pratt & Whitney employee for 26 years, in 2021 along with with Harpreet Wasan, Steven Houghtaling and Tom Edwards, all of Connecticut; and Robert Harvey of South Carolina and Gary Prus, of Florida -- executives of Pratt suppliers.

According to the indictment, the defendants and co-conspirators recognised the mutual financial benefit of the conspiracy -- namely, reducing the rise in labor costs that would occur when aerospace workers were free to find new employment in a competitive environment.

Patel and certain other co-conspirators explicitly appealed to this financial benefit when communicating with each other about the agreement, a DOJ release had stated.

Patel was described as the "enforcer" of an agreement among the companies in Connecticut and elsewhere to hold down costs by not competing for and hiring one another's engineers.

The charges were the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into labour market allocation in the aerospace engineering services industry.

"I am grateful that justice prevailed for Patel and that his innocence has been so firmly established," Brian Spears, defence lawyer said.
New Delhi, May 3 : Two men, including a Delhi University (DU) graduate, were caught red-handed while attempting to flee after snatching a mobile phone in West Delhi's Vikaspuri area, an official said on Wednesday.

The accused were identified as Lakshay Bharti (23) and Prashant alias Ashu (28), both residents of Dasrathpuri in Delhi.

Police said that they recovered 12 snatched mobile phones from the possession of the two accused.

According to the police, on Monday, a police team on patrol duty on a motorcycle near Vikaspuri noticed a woman shouting "Chor-Chor" while pointing towards two men riding a motorcycle.

"Without any delay, the patrol team chased and nabbed them. Meanwhile the woman, Sarita (50), a resident of Vikaspuri also reached there and informed them that these two persons had snatched her mobile phone," said Akshat Kaushal, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (West).

On frisking, the policemen recovered one snatched mobile phone and two other stolen phones from the accused.

"During interrogation, the accused disclosed their involvement in several cases of mobile theft and snatching in the area. Nine more snatched mobile phones were recovered on their instance," said Kaushal.

Bharti was previously found involved in six cases of snatching in West and Southwest Delhi.

"Prashant is a graduate from DU and unemployed. They further disclosed that to earn quick money in order to fulfill their desires of lavish life and bad habits, they stepped into the world of crime," said the official.
New Delhi, May 3: India participated in a two-day closed-door conference on Afghanistan with 20 other countries led by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to discuss the Afghan crisis. The UN was spurred by the deteriorating situation in the landlocked nation to organise the meeting along with the US, Russia, China and other nations.

The UN said that the aim of the meet was to "reinvigorate international engagement around key issues, such as human rights, in particular women's and girls' rights, inclusive governance, countering terrorism and drug trafficking. The meeting is intended to achieve a common understanding within the international community on how to engage with the Taliban on these issues".

The Doha meeting, however, came under criticism from both - the Taliban and also Afghan women for not inviting them both for the discussions.

Suhail Shaheen, the spokesperson for the Taliban said that any meeting without the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) was discriminatory and unjustified as the Taliban government was the main party.

However, it emerged from Doha that Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who has been banned from travel, will be visiting Pakistani capital Islamabad to hold talks with Pakistani and Chinese foreign ministry officials.

Women's groups have held protests in Doha, for what they claimed were efforts by the UN to legitimise the Taliban regime despite the throttling of women's rights in the country. The Taliban, contrary to assurances, after storming back to power in 2021 began steadily curtailing the rights of girls and women to education, stepping out of homes, visiting a doctor, marriage and divorce as well as working for UN agencies. The last one, which was imposed recently, galvanised women's groups across the world against the Taliban rule.

Afghanistan's Khaama news agency quoted Swiss ambassador to the UN, Pascale Baeriswyl, as saying that the situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban administration has turned into a complicated dilemma. "We do not have a magic solution to the Afghan crisis", Baeriswyl said, adding that she is hopeful that the Doha meeting would lead to solutions to managing the Afghan crisis. Switzerland is currently the president of the UN Security Council (UNSC).

The people of Afghanistan continue to face hardships due to the unending conflict, droughts and economic problems, though the Taliban has $7 billion worth of sophisticated US weaponry which the American troops left behind in 2021 after 20 years of the war against terror.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
Mumbai, May 3 : Television actor Rrahul Sudhir, who is part of 'Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal', has talked about turning a sadist and sinister for the television show.

"I am extremely comfortable working with Yash Sir And Mamta Ma'am. There is a sense of ease and transparency in the process. My most successful TV project is with them. I personally love their male leads, different, yet likeable simultaneously." He added: "Working with Colors feels like returning home after a long time. Also the character is kickass and I am loving it." Talking about his role, he said, "The character screams style and has emotions which are hidden. He is a sadist by all means and demands mildly sinister tones in the performance. I guess this is complex enough." The actor will be starting shoot soon and did not have much time to prepare.

"We are starting to shoot very quickly and that has not left any room for preparation. But nevertheless that doesn't mean we just show up unprepared. I aspire to entertain the audience and will sincerely do that with this one too," he said.
Juba/Khartoum, May 3 : Sudan's two warring military leaders -- Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo -- have agreed on a seven-day ceasefire mediated by neighbouring South Sudan.

Pauline Adhong Malok, the spokesperson for South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a media briefing in Juba that the ceasefire, which was negotiated by President Salva Kiir, will start on Thursday to pave the way for peace talks between warring factions,reports Xinhua news agency.

"The government of the Republic of South Sudan has obtained the consent of the two parties to the current conflict in Sudan to name their representatives to peace talks to be held at any venue of their choice," Malok said.

She added that Kiir, during a telephone conversation with Burhan and Dagalo, stressed the need for a longer ceasefire and speedy solution to the conflict that broke out in mid-April.

The South Sudanese President is leader of a team of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Assembly of the Heads of State that is negotiating for an end to the violent conflict in Sudan.

Currently in its third week after it erupted on April 15, the conflict, which is concentrated in the capital of Khartoum, has triggered a mass exodus of civilians to neighbouring countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Chad and South Sudan.

In addition, foreign countries have evacuated their citizens from Sudan even as the UN warns of a looming humanitarian crisis amid a lack of food, clean water, and medicine among civilians trapped in the conflict.

The deadly clashes have so far killed 550 people and injured 4,926 others, according to the latest figures released by Sudan's Ministry of Health.

Despite an ongoing 72-hour truce, intermittent clashes have continued between the SAF and the RSF in various areas in Khartoum and Omdurman.

The SAF has carried out intensive airstrikes against RSF positions in Bahri (Khartoum North), west of Omdurman, and around the army's general command in central Khartoum, eyewitnesses said.

The RSF, meanwhile, accused the SAF of violating the humanitarian truce.
Seoul, May 3 : South Korea's Foreign Ministry has dismissed a protest from Japan over a Seoul lawmaker's recent visit to Dokdo, a set of disputed islets in the Sea of Japan between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, an official said on Wednesday.

According to Japan's Kyodo News on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo lodged a protest to Seoul over the visit by Jeon Yong-gi of the main opposition Democratic Party to Dokdo earlier that day, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The Seoul Foreign Ministry official said the government "dismissed the unfair claim from Japan through diplomatic channels".

The official added the Ministry reiterated its stance that Dokdo is South Korea's sovereign territory "historically, geographically and under international law".

South Korea has been in effective control of Dokdo, with a small police detachment, since its liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

Although South Korea controls the islets, its sovereignty over them is contested by Japan, while North Korea also claims the territory.
Bengaluru, May 3 : In the run-up to the May 10 Karnataka Assembly polls, the high-voltage campaigning by national leaders in the state is set to continue on Wednesday as well.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who held a series of public rallies on Tuesday, is scheduled to address three public meetings during the day.

The national leaders are expected to spar over the Congress manifesto promising to take decisive action against organisations spreading hatred like the "Bajrang Dal" and the banned Popular Front of India (PFI).

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is set to participate in two public meetings in Indi and Bidar South. Besides, she will participate in a roadshow in Kalaburagi.

Meanwhile, Narendra Modi will tour communally sensitive coastal Karnataka and address a public meeting at Moodbidri near Mangaluru in Dakshina Kannada district. He will also address a massive public rally in Ankola of Uttara Kannada district.

At 4 p.m, Prime Minister Modi will also campaign in Bailhongal of Belagavi district. Belagavi is an important district for BJP as it has 18 Assembly segments. The saffron party is facing rebellion. Former DCM Laxman Savadi from BJP is now contesting as Congress candidate. He is fighting from Athani seat in the district.

AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge will also focus on north Karnataka regions and will address public rallies at Aland, Chincholiand Sedam.
New Delhi, May 3 : India has rejected a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), calling it "biased and motivated".

A statement issued by External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi said: "The USCIRF continues to regurgitate biased and motivated comments about India, this time in its 2023 annual report." He went on to add that "we reject such misrepresentation of facts, which only serves to discredit USCIRF itself".

Bagchi further said that India "would urge USCIRF to desist from such efforts and develop a better understanding of India, its plurality, its democratic ethos and its constitutional mechanisms".

In its annual report on religious freedom, the USCIRF asked the State Department to designate India as a "country of particular concern" on the status of religious freedom along with several other nations.

The USCIRF has been making similar recommendations to the Department since 2020, which have not been accepted.

In its India section of the latest report, the panel alleged that in 2022, religious freedom conditions in India continued to worsen.

The Commission also urged President Joe Biden' administration to impose targeted sanctions on Indian government agencies and officials responsible for "severe violations" of religious freedom in the country by freezing their assets.
Russia has accused Ukraine of targeting President Vladimir Putin's residence at the Kremlin using drones -- an accusation Kyiv has denied.

Unverified video footage circulating on social media appears to show an explosion on the domed roof of a building known as the Kremlin Senate, which houses the presidential administration, though the exact target and perpetrator remain unknown.

Here are some key questions about the incident:

Who carried it out?

Moscow blamed Kyiv for attempting to assassinate Putin in a "planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation."

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied his country was responsible and said: "We fight on our territory, we are defending our villages and cities."

Ukrainian presidential spokesman Mikhaylo Podolyak suggested Moscow is to blame.

"Such staged reports by Russia should be considered solely as an attempt to prepare an information background for a large-scale terrorist attack on Ukraine," Podolyak said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also cast doubt on the veracity of Russia's account, saying: "I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt."

And Eastern European expert Sergej Sumlenny said he believes Russia is responsible.

He cited factors including the Kremlin providing quick confirmation of the incident, and the circulation of apparent CCTV footage from government-controlled cameras as evidence that Russia "wants us to see it."

Could Ukraine be responsible?

While the perpetrator is unknown, Ukraine has the technical capabilities to carry out long-range strikes inside Russia, and has done so before.

"At this point, it may be Ukraine's own UJ-22 drone, or a Chinese-made Mugin-5, which was apparently used by Ukraine before," while Kyiv's PD-1 drone is another option, said Samuel Bendett, a researcher in uncrewed military systems who is an analyst with the CNA Russia Studies Program.

The UJ-22 "has a long range and can potentially reach Moscow," but it is unclear where the drones were launched from at this point, said Bendett, who emphasized that much is still unknown as of now.

Dominika Kunertova, senior researcher at the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, agreed.

"I think it's possible that Ukraine has developed a long-range drone capability that could reach Moscow. Extending the strike distance has been Ukraine's main objective regarding innovation in uncrewed systems," Kunertova said.

But she added that "one of the main strategic advantage of using a drone for this purpose is deniability" -- the more difficult it is to trace any attack back to Ukraine, the less chance of any escalation in the conflict.

What impact will it have?

In terms of physical damage, very little: AFP saw some people climbing external stairs onto the Kremlin Senate roof, which appeared to be unscathed.

People were also out strolling in the area, and there was no strengthened police presence there.

But a strike by an adversary on the heart of the Russian government would still carry "a strong psychological impact," Bendett said.

It would also raise questions about the quality of Russian air defenses.

"Russian commentators hinted even last year it probably can't protect the entire country and that there may be gaps that can be exploited," Bendett said, though it is "unclear why this drone was not intercepted over Moscow."

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Madrid : , May 3 (IANS) Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open after beating Bernabe Zapata Miralles in the early hours of Wednesday morning, here.

The Greek conceded three service breaks to World No. 42 Zapata Miralles but remained in charge throughout thanks to seven service breaks of his own in a 6-3, 6-1 victory.

"It was definitely tricky; he came out pretty strong in some of my service games... "It's never easy playing against Spaniards who know the surface very well," Tsitsipas said.

"It seemed kind of chaotic in the beginning but then I gave myself time to think and construct my points," he added.

The two-time Monte-Carlo champion dominated his opponent's serve, restricting Zapata Miralles to a first-serve winning percentage of 38 per cent. Tsitsipas, who has reached the quarter-finals or better of his past 10 clay-court events, will next meet Germany lucky loser Jan-Lennard Struff.

German Struff continued his hot clay-court, charging into his second consecutive ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final after a tight 7-6(7), 6-7(7), 6-3 win over Argentine Pedro Cachin.

After rallying from 1-4 in the second set to force a tie-break, Struff missed the opportunity to close out the match in straight sets when he held match point at 6/7 in the 'breaker. But he carried the momentum of his comeback into the third set to twice break Cachin to close out the match in two hours and 28 minutes.

Struff lost to Aslan Karatsev in qualifying but came into the main draw as a lucky loser. He has surged 24 places this week to No. 41 in the ATP Live Rankings. Should he reach the semi-finals he is projected to be within a couple of spots of his career-high mark of No. 29.
Bengaluru, May 3 : The Bajrang Dal ban assurance by Congress party has triggered a huge row in Karnataka with posters claiming 'I am Bajrangi' coming up at many places challenging the authorities to "ban and arrest" them on Wednesday.

The BJP leaders are cashing in on the Congress' promise to ban the Bajrang Dal. The party leaders expressed anguish over the grand old party's manifesto, and hugely have come in support of the organisation.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai campaigned at Hanagal in Haveri district on Tuesday late night condemned the Congress. He waved the saffron shawl, raised the slogan of 'Jai Bhajrangi', and chanted the slogans of Bajrang Dal activists.

"This is the last election for the Congress party. If they are defeated, they will go straight to their houses. This is a do or die situation for them. It is indeed a dying situation for Congress," he slammed.

He also stated, "The devotees of Lord Hanuman are the Bajrangis of Bajrang Dal and the Congress party has announced in its election manifesto that it will ban the Bajrang Dal organisation. If the devotees of Lord Hanuman revolt, the Congress party will be removed from the country from its roots." Reacting strongly to the announcement of proposed banning of Bajrang Dal in the Congress manifesto, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said on Tuesday, "Congress had kept Lord Shri Ram in captivity. Now, they are preparing to keep Lord Hanuman captive." PM Modi further said that the Congress does not like Lord Hanuman. "I bow to the people of Vijayanagara kingdom. I am in the land of Lord Hanuman. At the same time, the Congress is claiming in its manifesto that they will lock up Bajrang Bali and impose a ban on those who raise the slogan of 'Jai Bajrang Bali'. Congress is also sensing trouble if there are people who chant Jai Bajrang Bali." Tejasvi Surya, the BJP National Youth Wing chief and MP from Bengaluru South seat, shared a poster on his social media claiming that he is a Bajrangi. "I am a Bajrangi. I am a Kannadiga and this is the land of Hanuman. I dare the Congress to ban me!" he challenged.

The posters claiming that "I am Bajrangi", "This residence belongs to Bajrang Dal activists, Congress leaders are not allowed to seek votes" have come up in coastal districts and Chikmagalur districts.

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Shobha Karandlaje stated, "Bajrang Dal is a part of RSS and has been working with the youths for the nation. It has never indulged in anti-national activities. The manifesto by Congress is released to appease Muslims. The Congress is using too much brains only to ensure its destruction.

"If Congress has capacity, let it ban Bajrang Dal. We will give a befitting answer. Rs 10,000 crore funds for Muslims, establishment of Tipu University, celebration of Tipu Jayanti, withdrawal of laws banning cow slaughter and anti-conversion law are condemnable steps," she said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to continue attacking the Congress over the Bajrang Dal ban issue. He will be addressing mega rallies in Moodabidri in Dakshina Kannada and Ankola in Uttara Kannada districts, which are considered as bastions of the BJP and a Hindutva laboratory.
New Delhi, May 3 : Lucknow Super Giants pacer Jaydev Unadkat has been ruled out of the remainder of IPL 2023 due to a left-shoulder injury, which he picked up while training in the nets.

According to an ESPNcricinfo report, the 31-year old Indian pacer will be fit in time for the WTC final against Australia, starting on June 7 at The Oval.

Unadkat was going to bowl his first ball in the Lucknow nets on Sunday when he ran in from around the wicket and his left foot got stuck in the rope that keeps the net up. He had a nasty fall on his bowling elbow and clutched his left shoulder while still on the ground. He was seen with his arm in a sling and an ice pack on his shoulder after the incident.

The report further said that Unadkat travelled to Mumbai for scans and visited one of the specialist consultants appointed by the BCCI. In consultation with the board's medical staff, Super Giants decided to withdraw Unadkat from the IPL.

The left-arm pacer expected to head to the NCA in Bengaluru for rehab to get fit to travel to England for the WTC final against Australia.

Unadkat, who had gone wicketless in the three IPL games this season, is among the five fast-bowling options -- along with Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav and allrounder Shardul Thakur -- in India's squad for the WTC final.

Apart from Unadkat, LSG skipper KL Rahul is also injured and set to miss few games for his side. Rahul hurt his right leg while chasing a ball in the outfield in the second over against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday evening.

The results of Rahul's scans and the extent of the injury are still awaited. The batter is also in the WTC squad but his participation is unclear as of now.

Latest updates on IPL 2023
Addis Ababa, May 3 : More than 6,000 people have entered Ethiopia from the violent fighting in neighbouring Sudan, according to local officials.

In a statement, the West Gondar zone communication office in Ethiopia's northern region of Amhara said the fleeing people are from 42 different countries, including 941 Ethiopian nationals who were previously living in Sudan, reports Xinhua news agency.

The statement said the number of fleeing people the zone currently has is only up to April 29, with plans already underway to designate a specific refugees' accommodation site if the crisis continues to expand.

The statement also said local officials are working together with the International Organization for Migration and the Ethiopian Red Cross Society to help with the health, transportation, nutritional, and water needs of the refugees.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 334,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan since the conflict erupted more than two weeks ago.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that more than 100,000 refugees have fled to neighbouring countries.

Most are Sudanese refugees arriving in Chad and Egypt and refugees from South Sudan returning to their homes, the UNHCR said.

The refugees are mainly women and children.

Brutal fighting erupted in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on April 15 and swiftly escalated in different parts of the country.

The ongoing fighting is between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Both sides have accused each other of initiating the conflict.

The deadly clashes have so far killed 550 people and injured 4,926 others, according to the latest figures released by Sudan's Ministry of Health.
New Delhi, May 3 : Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Maldivian counterpart have welcomed the progress made in the ongoing defence cooperation between the two nations.

Rajnath Singh is currently on a three-day trip to the island nation on the invitation of Maldives' Defence Minister Mariya Didi.

The two Ministers held bilateral talks to enhance defence cooperation and strengthen the longstanding partnership between India and Maldives, a joint statement issued by the Defence Ministry here on Wednesday said.

Image Source: IANS News

They discussed a wide range of regional and global security issues of mutual concern, and agreed to deepen their cooperation in the defence and security domains.

Rajnath Singh and Didi reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability and security in the region and recognised the need to work together to address common security challenges, according to the Ministry.

They underscored the importance of respecting international law and rules-based order and expressed their commitment to upholding these principles, it added.

The Ministers also agreed to explore additional avenues for cooperation, including in the areas of defence trade, capacity building and joint exercises, as well as discussed the need to promote people-to-people contacts and exchanges between the armed forces of the two nations.

Image Source: IANS News

On Tuesday, Rajnath Singh paid a courtesy call on President of Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and met Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid.

Later in the day, Rajnath Singh and his counterpart attendeda ceremony for the commissioning of the replacement ship for Huravee, in the presence of the President Solih.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the provision of the replacement ship for the aging Huravee, during Solih's recent visit to India.

Rajnath Singh also gifted the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) an additional landing craft.

The handing over of these vessels are in line with India's vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) that seeks to work together with and jointly develop the capabilities of allies and partners for a safe, secure, prosperous and stable Indian Ocean Region.

Image Source: IANS News

The visit saw the laying of the foundation stone for the MNDF Coast Guard 'Ekatha Harbour' by Rajnath Singh and Minister Didi.

The development of the Coastguard Harbour and repair facility at Sifavaru is one of the biggest grant-in-aid projects of India.

-- Syndicated from IANS
Mumbai, May 3 : Television actress Anjum Fakih, who is known for her work in shows such as 'Ek Tha Raja Ek Thi Rani' and 'Kundali Bhagya', visited Mahim Dargah for blessings before starting her journey of 'Khatron Ke Khiladi 13'.

Talking about her visit, Anjum said: "I think the best way to commence something important is to express gratitude for the things you have. Seeking blessings at the Mahim Dargah before beginning any new project is a tradition for me.

"It's a place where I find my inner peace. As I step aboard this exciting journey of Khatron Ke Khiladi 13, I'm grateful for the opportunity to challenge myself and showcase a different side of me to my fans. I'm ready to take on any hurdle that comes my way and make my tryst with the show memorable. My only prayer is that God guides me through every daring stunt and keeps my loved ones safe while I'm away from them." 'Khatron Ke Khiladi 13' will air on Colors
Kolkata, May 3 : A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday ordered a second post-mortem examination of the body of Bijoy Krishna Bhunia, the slain BJP booth president from Moyna in East Midnapore district of West Bengal, at the Army-run Command Hospital in Kolkata.

Justice Rajasekhar Mantha passed this order after hearing a petition of the members of the family of the victim demanding the post-mortem of the slain leader's body be done at any central government-run hospital. The family has alleged that Bhunia was killed by the ruling Trinamool Congress activists.

Bhunia's body was recovered late Monday, and one post-mortem of his body was done at a state-run hospital.

While passing his order, Justice Mantha directed the Command Hospital authorities to form a team of specialists for conducting the post-mortem. He also said that two forensic experts would be able to represent the state government at the time of autopsy. If the family members desire, they could also be present at the time of autopsy, Justice Mantha observed.

He directed the Command Hospital authorities to submit the report of the autopsy to the family members of the victim and to the Myona Police Station. He ordered that the body of the victim should be immediately brought to Kolkata from Tamluk Hospital in East Midnapore district.

While ordering central armed forces security cover for the members of the victim's family for four weeks, Justice Mantha also directed the state government to submit a report to his court by May 8.

On Wednesday, the state government counsel informed the court that Bhunia was killed after being shot on his head. He also said that the state government has no objection to a second-time autopsy of the victim's body.

Meanwhile, tension, which started at Myona since Wednesday morning over the 12-hour strike called by BJP there in protest against the killing Bhunia, is continuing till afternoon. Sporadic clashes between the police and the agitators have been reported from the area.
Canberra, May 3 : Australia is failing to properly monitor the effect of chemicals used in the agriculture industry on humans, a government report revealed on Wednesday.

According to the report, which was released by the Department of Agriculture, the federal government currently has no adequate data source to measure the effect of agricultural and veterinary (agvet) chemicals on the environment and human health, reports Xinhua news agency.

The chemicals are used to protect crops, the environment, livestock and domestic animals from weeds and pests but can be consumed by humans in the form of residues in agricultural produce.

Despite the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) setting acceptable daily intakes for agvet chemicals, the new report showed no studies have been conducted on human bio-monitoring since 2005.

The researchers also found that there are no national sources of data on pesticides in drinking water, groundwater, urban stormwater, soil or in wildlife.

"Work health and safety (WHS) regulators were not able to provide useful information about workers exposure to agvet chemicals," the report said.

"Similarly, those public health authorities who responded to enquiries did not hold useful information about human exposure to agvet chemicals." They found that the only long-running monitoring scheme for pesticides in the environment was as part of the protection of the Great Barrier Reef.

It found that monitoring of pesticides in food was better due to the National Residue Survey for exported meats.

Markets and supermarket chains also monitor domestically sold fruit and vegetables but the findings are kept confidential.

Matt Landos, a member of the National Toxics Network, said without more data on pesticide use the APVMA was not properly informed when approving products.

"The existence and quality of that data is paramount. The report shows there is no human data monitored and only scant measurement of food and the environment," he was quoted by the Guardian Australia as saying on Wednesday.
Srinagar, May 3 : Two terrorists were killed near the Line of Control in the Machil sector of North Kashmir's Kupwara district, officials said on Wednesday.

The Army said based on specific intelligence input provided by SSP Kupwara of likely infiltration from one of the terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) towards Machhal sector, troops were put on high alert on May 1.

"A well coordinated counter infiltration grid was put in place in this rugged and extremely difficult area. A number of additional ambushes, including those of Indian Army and SOG Kupwara were placed along the likely routes of infiltration," the Army said.

"The alert troops in ambushes braved continuous bad weather marked by incessant rainfall, poor visibility and significant drop in temperature for two consecutive nights." "Early morning on May 3 at around 8.30 a.m., terrorists were sighted by the troops having infiltrated onto our side of the Line of Control. Intense firefight ensued resulting in the elimination of two terrorists." The Army said the bodies of the two terrorists have been recovered along with two AK series rifles, magazines and a huge quantity of war-like stores. "Further extensive search of the area is under progress.

"Identity of terrorists and affiliated terrorist group is being ascertained. This successful intelligence based operation is yet another example of close synergy between Indian Army, J&K Police and all agencies.

"The security forces stand steadfast to defeat the nefarious designs of inimical elements supported by our adversary to disrupt peace and harmony of the area," the Army said.
New Delhi, May 3 : Department of Posts has withdrawn the recognition of All India Postal Employees Union Group 'C' and National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) with effect from April 25, 2023.

The action was taken after a complaint was received regarding alleged violation of the Central Civil Services (Recognition of Service Association) Rules - CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993 by the two associations, official sources said.

The rules recognise such service associations. It is incumbent upon all the recognised associations to comply with all the provisions of the CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993, they informed.

The move also comes amid claims by certain associations that the government was planning to privatise post offices.

Official sources said that certain employees associations have been making non-factual and misleading statements regarding privatisation or corporatisation of the postal department.

They clarified that there is no proposal of corporatisation or privatisation of the post offices.

Rather, they added that the government has utilised the postal network for doorstep digital banking and delivery of government services in rural areas.

Meanwhile, the two associations - All India Postal Employees Union Group 'C' and National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) - were derecognised for reportedly violating the CCS rules.

The allegations pertained to irregular utilisation of the funds raised from members of the unions.

A detailed inquiry was conducted regarding complaints following due procedure. The union was given sufficient opportunity to present their case, sources said.

The inquiry report identified various irregularities in fund utilisation by the union which were violative of provisions of CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993.

Violation of multiple provisions under these rules amounted to non-compliance of the objective of service associations with respect to aspects like promoting the common service interest of its members, utilising funds for purpose other than furtherance of objects of service association and non allowance of political funding or propagation of political views of any party or its member.

Consequently, following due procedures, the postal department withdrew the recognition of the two associations.
At least one person was killed and five others injured in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian health officials said Wednesday, after hours of fighting between Israel and Palestinian groups in the coastal enclave following the death of a prominent hunger-striking prisoner.

A tense cease-fire held hours after Palestinian armed groups launched around 100 rockets into southern Israel late on Tuesday. The Israeli military said it bombed tunnels, arms production sites and military installations belonging to the Hamas group in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said Hashil Mubarak, 58, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. His family said he was injured by falling debris and died at the hospital.

The cross-border fighting was some of the most intense since an 11-day war in 2021 between Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza. It came hours after Khader Adnan, a leader in the Islamic Jihad group, died in Israeli custody after a nearly three-month hunger strike, prompting Palestinians to launch a general strike and protests in the West Bank and Gaza.

Adnan is credited with helping introduce the practice of protracted hunger strikes by Palestinian prisoners as a form of protest, primarily against the practice of administrative detention, a measure Israel uses to detain people without charge or trial.

The spike in violence is a test for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, its most right-wing ever, whose members have called for a tough line against Palestinians. Far-right extremist government members leveled criticism at their own leadership's response to rocket fire from Gaza. Orit Struck, a Cabinet minister with the Religious Zionism party, told Kan public radio that Israel did not "exact a toll.

We needed to level a few buildings in Gaza, and some chief terrorists needed to join their friend who died in jail, she said.

In the occupied West Bank, the focal point for Israeli-Palestinian violence over the last year, Israeli troops destroyed the houses of two Palestinians who carried out attacks against Israelis in October and November.

Israel says home demolitions are meant to deter future attackers, but critics say they amount to collective punishment against the families of assailants and only exacerbate tensions with Palestinians.

Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank have been locked in an escalating bout of fighting for the past year. About 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire and 49 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

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Canberra, May 3 : An air force mission has successfully evacuated 36 Australians and their families from conflict-ravaged Sudan, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said on Wednesday.

Wong confirmed that the group was taken from Sudan to Cyprus in the early hours of the morning on board a plane from the Australian Defense Force (ADF), reports Xinhua news agency.

"Unfortunately, we still have Australians on the ground, and we'll continue to engage through our consular team with the Australians who are on the ground, and I urge people to make sure they are registered," Wong told the local media.

"This brings to, I think 191 Australians that we've assisted or have been able to secure passage out of the country since the crisis began." She said that the government was hopeful of launching further evacuation flights but nothing could be guaranteed amid a "worsening" security situation in the African country.

"The security situation in Sudan is very dangerous, and it is volatile, and as you know we have been doing all we can to assist Australians with the support of our partners, bearing in mind we don't have people on the ground in an embassy in Sudan," said Wong.

A growing number of countries have evacuated citizens from Sudan since fierce clashes broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on April 15.

The deadly clashes have so far killed 550 people and injured 4,926 others, according to the latest figures released by Sudan's Ministry of Health.
Wellington, May 3 : The number of marriages solemnised in New Zealand increased in 2022 following lower numbers in the previous two years, according to annual figures released by the statistics department on Wednesday.

In 2022, 18,858 marriages and civil unions were registered by New Zealand couples, up from 15,657 in 2021, Xinhua news agency quoted Stats NZ as saying.

However, the number remains lower than in the period before Covid-19 impacted the country, as there were, on average, around 20,200 marriages and civil unions registered each year between 2017 and 2019, it added.

"Rules around gatherings in response to the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a large drop in the number of marriages celebrated, especially in the warmer months when it's more popular to tie the knot," Stats NZ population estimates and projections manager Michael MacAskill said.

In 2022, the number of marriages registered each month began returning to pre-Covid numbers as restrictions were lifted.

In fact, registrations were higher than pre-Covid levels towards the end of the year, which may have included couples marrying that had delayed earlier plans, MacAskill said.

The number of overseas couples marrying in New Zealand also increased. In 2022, 1,317 couples were from overseas that came to New Zealand to marry or form a civil union.

This was higher than the previous two years, although still lower than pre-Covid numbers, he said.

Nearly two in every three couples who came to New Zealand to marry were from Australia.

A further 9 per cent came from Britain, and 7 per cent from the US, he added.

Of the 1,317 couples from overseas who married or formed a civil union in New Zealand in 2022, 7 per cent were same-sex couples, MacAskill said.

Figures on divorces released by Stats NZ show that in 2022, 7,593 divorces were granted, which were higher than in 2021, but lower than most years before that, following a general decline in the number each year.

Just over one-third of marriages end in divorce by a couple's 25th wedding anniversary, he said.
Tokyo, May 3 : Six cars were set ablaze following an explosion at a parking lot of a condo building in Japan's Yokohama, a city on Wednesday, police said, adding that arson was suspected.

The incident was reported to police at about 5.10 a.m. by a resident living in the condominium in the city's Kanazawa Ward, reports Xinhua news agency.

The fire was put out about an hour later, but six cars parked in the condo's multi-storey parking area were burned.

No one was injured, according to the Kanazawa Police Station.

The police said that they are investigating the fire on suspicion of arson.
Bengaluru, May 3 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi while attacking the Congress for proposing a ban on Bajrang Dal, on Wednesday gave a call to Karnataka voters to punish those "who hurl abuses".

"Karnataka will not leave abuses just like that. Will you punish them? Raise the slogan of 'Jai Bajrang Bali' and press the button for BJP at polling booths," PM Modi stated.

Addressing his second rally for the day in the poll-bound state at Hattikeri in Ankola of Uttara Kannada district, PM Modi stated, "We have a vision for the development of the state. Congress has lost the trust of the people." PM Modi further attacked said, "The Congress top leader, who was the PM, stated that for every Re 1 released, only 15 paisa reaches the villages. No one disputed and took back the statement that time. Where did the 85 paisa go? Which is the hand that took away the 85 paisa? "Congress is ready to eat 85 paisa in every project of Karnataka. For the BJP, nation is first and for the Congress corruption is the first. In Congress' long rule, one family ruled India and it only ensured the growth of its family. The Congress party was involved in the biggest scandal of fake beneficiaries scam.

"The names of crores and crores of people were created on paper. They were not even born. The number of total beneficiaries is bigger than the population of Karnataka. 4.20 crore fake names were given for ration, four crore fake names were created on paper for gas subsidy; one crore fake names were used to grab the benefits under women welfare schemes; and there were 30 lakh fake names for student scholarships.

"About 10 crore fake names were included in the government. Whichever government came, the system was intact years after years. I have ended the corrupt system and saved Rs 3.75 lakh crore of poor man's money," PM Modi said.

The BJP government led by B.S. Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai had little time of 3.5 years. Their much time went in cleaning up the mess created by the Congress - JD(S) coalition. The FDI, which used to be Rs 30,000 crore, now under the BJP's rule has reached Rs 90,000 crore. If BJP was to be not there during Covid, no one knows what would have happened? "Have you seen what happened in Kerala and Maharashtra states during Covid pandemic?" PM Modi said.
Guwahati, May 3 : One person was trampled to death by a wild tusker in Assam's Nagaon district on Wednesday, officials said.

According to forest officials, a wild tusker went on to rampage a few houses in Lengteng village in Kaliabor area in the district.

A villager identified as Ajit Chaura tried to chase the elephant away, the pachyderm attacked the person caused serious injuries.

Chaura was later rushed to a nearby hospital but the doctors declared him dead.

His body was sent for an autopsy.

Notably, human-elephants conflicts are on the rise in Assam since last few years.

Two days ago, wild tuskers wreaked havoc in Tamulpur district that caused the death of a person.

In Tamulpur district's Guabari area on Monday, a man was trampled to death after being attacked by a pachyderm near his residence, according to locals.

The deceased was identified as Rajen Pradhan.
Islamabad, May 3 : The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking a review of latter's order to hold elections in the Punjab provincial Assembly on May 14, urging it not to intervene in its matters, local media reported.

In a 14-page petition, the electoral body said that apex court should review its decision as the judiciary "doesn't have the authority to give the date of elections", Geo News reported.

The petition was registered hours after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said that it would submit a detailed report of the talks between the party leaders and the ruling alliance, urging the apex court to implement its verdict in Punjab polls case.

"(...) it is most respectfully prayed that this August Court may graciously accept the instant Review Petition by revisiting, reviewing, reconsidering and recalling its Impunged Order/Judgment dated 04.04.2023, in the interest of justice and equity," the petition read.

The petition highlighted that superior courts of the country have been granted a special power under Article 199 and Article 184(3) of the Constitution to judicially review actions/decisions of the public bodies.

"The superior courts can define the contours within which the power (which vests in the public bodies) is or is to be exercised. At no instance, can the superior courts take upon themselves the role of the public body," the petition read, Geo News reported.

The electoral body reiterated that the appointing of the date for the election is "not the mandate of superior courts under the Constitution." "Such powers exist elsewhere under the Constitution but certainly not lie in a Court of law," the ECP said, citing various legalities and reasons behind its statement, Geo News reported.
New Delhi, May 3 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has not apologised for mentioning Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh's name in the third supplementary charge sheet in the Delhi excise policy scam case, sources said on Wednesday.

The agency has stated that in one place, Singh's name was written instead of former excise commissioner Rahul Singh, and for this it has requested the court to get it corrected. However, the probe agency added that Sanjay Singh's name has been correctly mentioned at three other places.

Earlier, it was said that the ED has apologised for writing Sanjay Singh's name in the charge sheet by mistake.

The ED filed third supplementary charge sheet in the excise policy scam and the court has taken cognizance of the matter.

The ED was referring to the statement of accused-turned-approver, businessman Dinesh Arora, who is a director of Buddy Retail Pvt Limited. The agency has said that in its charge sheet Sanjay Singh's name was wrongly mentioned instead of Rahul Singh.

According to sources, Sanjay Singh's name was mentioned at four places, out of which one place where the name of Delhi's excise commissioner Rahul Singh was mistakenly replaced with Sanjay Singh's name while typing. Apart from this, Sanjay Singh's name has been correctly mentioned in three other places.
Toronto, May 3 : A Canadian-Sikh poet, whose Twitter account was withheld in India last month over the Khalistan issue, now has her debut work among the 11 most banned books in the US classrooms for the first half of the 2022-23 school year.

Rupi Kaur's 'Milk and Honey', which released in 2014, was banned for exploring issues of sexual assault and violence, according to data provided by non-profit PEN America.

The book, banned in multiple districts in Missouri this year, tied in ninth place with Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye', according to the report.

Both books were reportedly banned in 10 districts in the first half of this school year alone.

"It deeply concerns me that there is a group of people hell bent on taking away literature that students find refuge in," Punjab-born Kaur wrote in an Instagram post last week.

Apart from violene, the rest of the titles in the list discussed race and racism, LGBTQ+ characters, grief or death, student health and well-being, and teen pregnancy, abortion or sexual assault.

"Parents want to ban books to protect their kids but teachers and librarians say that students are old enough to be aware of the topics discussed in these books. Many actually seek these books out because they're going through those experiences themselves," she wrote.

Kaur's work encompasses love, loss, trauma, healing, femininity, and migration.

"I remember sitting in my school library in high school, turning to books about sexual assault because I didn't have anyone else to turn to. This is the reality for many students," she said in her post.

"We all find comfort in literature that reflects our experiences. now that books about sexual assault and other topics are being banned -- I worry for students who rely on school libraries for access to literature." This isn't the first time Kaur responded to her book being banned. She commented on Instagram about a ban that went into effect in two states last year, according to NBC News.

"Over the last few months parts of Texas and Oregon have banned or attempted to ban 'Milk and Honey' from schools and libraries. Why? Because it explores sexual assault and violence experienced by a young woman," she wrote.

The award-winning poet immigrated to Canada at age four with her Sikh parents and grew up in a suburb of Toronto.

The Sun and her Flowers (2017) and Home Body (2020) are among the other titles that Kaur has written.

These collections have sold over 11 million copies and have been translated into over 43 languages, with Milk and Honey surpassing Homer's Odyssey as the best-selling poetry of all time, according to Kaur's website.

She was also regarded as "writer of the decade" by the New Republic and recognised on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. In 2022, Kaur released her fourth book, 'Healing Through Word'.

However, there have been plagiarism allegations on Kaur, saying she stole her poetry style and content from Nayyirah Waheed and Pavana Reddy.
Eight students and a security guard were killed during a school shooting in Belgrade on Wednesday, officials said, with police accusing the detained 13-year-old suspect of plotting the attack for a month and making a kill list.

The incident rocked the Balkan nation, which has not seen a school shooting of this magnitude for decades and where one cabinet minister called it the "biggest tragedy" to occur in the Serbian school system in recent history.

"Eight children and a security guard were killed, while six children and one schoolteacher were wounded," the interior ministry said.

Belgrade police chief Veselin Milic identified the dead students as seven girls and one boy, born between 2009 and 2011.

The shooting occurred at 8:40 am (0640 GMT) at an elementary school in Belgrade's downtown Vracar district. Serbian elementary schools go up to eighth grade, educating children aged seven to 15.

Police moved quickly to seal off the neighbourhood as parents rushed to the scene, where students were visibly distraught as they waited outside the school.

Milan Nedeljkovic, president of the Vracar district, said the school's security guard likely prevented more deaths by putting himself in the line of fire.

The guard "wanted to prevent the tragedy and he was the first victim", Nedeljkovic told reporters outside the school.

"Probably the tragedy would be even bigger if the man did not stand in front of the boy who was shooting," he added.

Authorities later identified the suspect as Kosta Kecmanovic, a 13-year-old student, saying that he was armed with two pistols, one in his backpack and one that he used.

'Horror Movie'

The suspect "planned the shooting for a month and made a list of kids he planned to kill," Milic told a press conference.

"The sketch looks like something from a video game or a horror movie, which indicates that he planned in detail, by classes, whom to liquidate," he added.

Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said the suspect's father, who owned the alleged weapons used in the shooting spree, was also under arrest.

"The father claims that the arms were locked in a safe with a code, but apparently the kid had the code, as he managed to take the pistols and three magazines with 15 bullets each," said Gasic.

Hours after the incident, officials said an array of resources were being deployed to assist students, families and faculty connected to the shooting.

"A team of psychologists and others... were immediately called to provide adequate support to students, employees and parents during this traumatic period," Education Minister Branko Ruzic told media.

Ruzic went on to call the shooting the "biggest tragedy" that has occurred in the Serbian school system in recent history.

"It is unimaginable when you see those scenes, what it was like for those children who felt that fear, for the guards and teachers when they tried to protect the children," Ruzic added.

The minister dismissed media reports that bullying was a possible motive in the shooting, saying "no conclusions" had been reached.

Serbia will observe three days of mourning, Ruzic added, while a minute of silence will be observed in schools across the country on Thursday.

'Serious Gunshot Wounds'

The head of Belgrade's main hospital KCS, Milika Asanin, said doctors were operating on several of the wounded.

"One male student is in a serious condition with serious gunshot wounds to the chest and neck, and the other male student was injured in his lower leg," Asanin told Serbian news outlet RTS.

"The girl student was wounded in the stomach and both arms, and the teacher in the stomach and both hands," he said.

Schools across Belgrade were closed following the shooting, according to state media, as shock spread through the capital.

Astrid Merlini, whose daughter was in the school during the shooting, said teachers moved quickly to hide students as the attack unfolded.

"When (my daughter) saw the security guard fall, she immediately rushed back to class. She was scared. She told her teacher, there is a shooting upstairs," Merlini told AFP.

"The teacher immediately sheltered the children, locked them in the class."

Gun violence in schools is extremely rare in Serbia, where purchasing a firearm requires a special permit.

Following the shooting, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell offered "deep condolences to the families and close ones of the victims".

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Kolkata, May 3 : West Bengal police have arrested two more persons from Jharkhand in connection with the murder of coal trader and BJP leader Raju Jha at Shaktigarh in East Burdwan district.

According to the district Superintendent of Police, Kamanasish Sen, the two accused persons have been identified as Indrajit Giri and Lalbabu Kumar, who were arrested on Monday by the members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder of Raju Jha on March 1.

The duo was arrested from a rented accommodation in Ranchi. They were presented before a court in East Burdwan district, which remanded them 10-day police custody.

The main charge against Giri and Kumar is that they were responsible for arranging the car in which the assassins of Raju Jha arrived and escaped from the murder spot after shooting at Jha from close range.

Earlier on April 19, the police had arrested Avijit Mondal, a resident of Panagarh in West Burdwan district. Mondal was the driver of Narayan Khagra, another coal trader who was once a close confidant of Jha. Khagra has approached the Calcutta High Court claiming that Mondal does not have any past criminal record, besides questioning the role of the investigating officers in the matter.

Jha was shot dead on NH-19 near the 'Langcha Hub', a chain of sweet shops in Shaktigarh. His associate Brotin Bandopadhyay, who was travelling with him in an SUV, was injured in the attack.

In July 2011, months after the Trinamool Congress came to power in West Bengal for the first time, the police had arrested Jha from Raniganj, but he was later released on bail. Since then, he has been arrested multiple times.

He was also questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the agency's investigation into the multi-crore coal smuggling scam in West Bengal.
San Francisco, May 3 : Professional social networking platform LinkedIn has said that it is testing a new AI-powered personalised writing suggestions feature for job hunters, which will help write AI-based messages to the hiring managers.

The AI-powered writing suggestions feature is currently rolled out for the company's Premium subscribers.

This new feature will generate brief, cover letter-like messages that candidates can send to hiring managers on the platform.

"Using generative AI with information from your profile, the hiring manager's profile, the job description, and the company of interest, we create a highly personalised draft message to get a conversation started," Ora Levit, Senior Director, Head of Core Growth + Premium at LinkedIn, wrote in a post.

"Customisation is still important, so take the time to review and edit the draft to make it your own and convey your voice, then send onwards to the hiring manager, getting one step closer to your next opportunity," she added.

Additionally, the company said that this new feature is an extension to their recently released AI-powered writing tool for LinkedIn Profiles, which utilises existing content within a user's profile to create compelling Headlines and About sections.

In March, LinkedIn introduced a new feature called -- "collaborative articles", which will use "AI-powered conversation starters" to begin discussions between "experts" on the platform.

The company will match articles with relevant members based on its skills graph, inviting them to contribute context, extra information, and advice for the articles.

The company believes that the system will make it easier for people to contribute their perspectives because "starting a conversation is harder than joining one".
Hubballi : , May 3 (IANS) Reacting to the Congress manifesto on banning the Bajrang Dal, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that they cannot ban Bajrang Dal at any cost as that right is not with the state government.

Speaking to reporters, he said, the Bajrang Dal is an all-India organisation and how can the state government ban it? The Congress has spoken about banning the organisation only to create trouble in the society.

The Congress poll manifesto is a cheating manifesto to fool the people. But the voters will reject that document outright, said Bommai.

He said, "Congress has included the works done by the BJP government in its election manifesto. It is full of lies and Rs 6 lakh crore is needed to implement all the promises made by the Congress party in its manifesto." The BJP government's programmes such as providing drinking water to every house, and free bus pass for the girl students have been announced in the budget, he said.

The Congress has promised to hike the quota to 75 per cent. How can they do it? Whether the Congress is in power at the Centre. They have assured to establish the corporations for the uplift of backward classes. But the BJP government has already announced it and also issued orders, he explained.
Belgrade, May 3 : Nine people were killed and seven others injured on Wednesday after a 14-year-old boy allegedly opened fire in an elementary school in Serbia, according to the interior ministry and local media.

According to the press release of the interior ministry, the police were "informed that this morning at 8:40 a.m., a shooting occurred at the Vladislav Ribnikar" elementary school in the Municipality of Vracar, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The police dispatched all available patrols, immediately went to the field, and arrested the suspected minor, a student of the seventh grade, who, as is suspected, fired several shots from his father's gun in the direction of the students and security of this school," the press release said.

The interior ministry said that six severely injured people are being treated at hospital.

According to RTS, Serbia's public broadcaster, a security guard and eight kids lost their lives; one teacher and three children are at the Emergency Medical Centre in Belgrade, while three more children are at the children's hospital.

"The school is closed. Something like this has never been recorded in the history of Belgrade schools," Milan Nedeljkovic, president of the Municipality of Vracar, told RTS.
New Delhi, May 3: Rajya Sabha member Vikramjit Singh Sahney has come to the rescue of around 25 Punjabis stranded in Muscat offering to pay their rescue fee of over 60 lakhs from his own pocket.

Aayush Goel New Delhi, May 3: Rajya Sabha member Vikramjit Singh Sahney has come to the rescue of around 25 Punjabis stranded in Muscat offering to pay their rescue fee of over 60 lakhs from his own pocket.

The girls released a video yesterday which went viral where they were seen pleading for help urging Indian authorities to rescue them.

The women apparently had gone as domestic help and claimed to have been held captive by employers. Taking cognizance of the video, Sahney moved to Indian Ambassador Amit Narang seeking safe evacuation. Speaking to Indianarrative.com, Sahney said that the Indian envoy assured him to help in evacuating the young women and they will be home soon.

Currently around 25 Punjabi girls are stranded who went either on pretext of Visit Visa and became illegal immigrants or went under Maid Employment Visa and were forced to abandon their jobs due to harassment and exploitation.

Indian Ambassador Amit Narang, in Muscat was quoted as saying that there is an overstay fine for employers seeking compensation of around 1000 Omani Riyals which is around 2.5 lakh Indian rupees per girl to release them of their employment contracts.

"We will pay their entire dues and get them back home," said Sahney. "Indian Embassy at Muscat and World Punjabi Organisation, Oman Chapter are co-ordinating for the same at the ground level and the process of paying the fees and compensation will start soon and these stranded girls will be brought back safely to Punjab," he added.

In the video, the young women said that they were confined to a place in Muscat for two to three months and forced to work as slaves.

These women were allegedly misled and sent by agents and Sahney has also written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for stern punishment against the erring travel agents. "I have also written to External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar requesting a prompt action to help the daughters of Punjab for their immediate evacuation and stringent punishment for the travel agents who are responsible for their plight," said the MP who added that he had also brought the matter to the notice of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to take adequate action.

Similar instances have been continuously reported in Punjab for five to six years. Poor Punjabi young women are being sent to West Asia by unscrupulous travel agents on the pretext of getting them a job of domestic help and improving their lives. But once they land in the Gulf countries, they are often sold for a mere Rs 2.5 to 3 lakh to the natives and the women end up working like slaves without pay.

Most of these women are taken on transit visas for a couple of weeks and when the visa expires, their employers spend around Rs 2.5 lakh to get a work visa for them. The women are not paid any salary instead the employers make one-time payment to agents.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
Bengaluru, May 3 : Karnataka unit Congress president D.K. Shivakumar on Wednesday, reacting to the row over his party manifesto on banning Bajrang Dal, questioned the "connection between Bajrangbali and Bajrang Dal" while saying he is also a devotee of Lord Hanuman.

Speaking to reporters here at Congress headquarters, Shivakumar said: "I am a Hindu, and a devotee of Lord Hanuman and Lord Ram. Are they (BJP leaders) only devotees of Lord Hanuman? The paradise of peace, Karnataka, should not be disturbed. There should be harmony.

"They are panicking over our proposal to ban Bajrang Dal. There will be no changes in the manifesto. What is the connection between Bajrangbali and Bajrang Dal?" Shivakumar questioned.

On Wednesday, reacting to the Congress manifesto on banning Bajrang Dal, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that they cannot ban Bajrang Dal at any cost as that right is not with the state government.

Speaking to reporters, he said, the Bajrang Dal is an all-India organisation and how can the state government ban it? The Congress has spoken about banning the organisation only to create trouble in the society.

Meanwhile, Shivakumar said: "Anjaneya (Lord Hanuman) and Bajrang Dal are different. The BJP should do campaigning by taking the name of Bajrangbali. Let them tell you about what they have done to end hunger and unemployment?" Reacting to the Hanuman Chalisa recital programme scheduled to be organised on Thursday (May 4), Shivakumar said: "Are they the only people who recite Hanuman Chalisa? We will do it every day." The Congress leader also said that the "RSS of the past, and the RSS of the present" are different.

"Why are you (referring to BJP) unnecessarily getting worked up? First, save the country. Why have you not given tickets to BJP leaders Ayanur Manjunath and K.S. Eshwarappa? We will ensure that our guarantees reach people. The BJP is provoking by raking up such issues. The people have understood this," Shivakumar said.

Hindu outfits and the Bajrang Dal have given a call for reciting the Hanuman Chalisa in all temples of the state on Thursday (May 4).

"This is not going to work. Let the BJP party leaders do anything they want. We will get 141 seats for sure. The results will be announced on May 13 and everyone will know about it then," Shivakumar said.

The Assembly election in Karnataka is scheduled to be held on May 10, and the votes will be counted on May 13.
Beijing, May 3 : Death toll in an explosion in a chemical plant in Liaocheng city in China's Shandong province reached nine, local authorities said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Monday morning at the hydrogen peroxide production area of Luxi Chemical Group under Sinochem Holdings Corporation Ltd, Xinhua news agency reported.

The injured person was rushed to the hospital for treatment after the explosion occurred.

Previously, five were reported as having been found dead at the site. However, on-site staff have found another four bodies during further search-and-rescue operations.

One person remains missing, and search-and-rescue efforts are still ongoing.

The fire at the scene has been put out, and an investigation into the cause of the incident is underway.
New Delhi, May 3 : In a setback to international auditors firms Deloitte and KPMG-affiliate BSR Associates, the Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside a Bombay High Court order, which quashed prosecution against Deloitte Haskin and Sells and BSR and Associates, the former auditors of IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN).

The top court stressed that auditors play a very important role in the affairs of a company and have to act in the larger public interest, adding that an auditor acting in a fraudulent manner, directly or indirectly, is a very serious misconduct.

However, the top court said the automatic disqualification of auditors and of the entire firm, including partners, for a period of five years to become the auditor of any other company is highly disproportionate and it is ultimately for the legislature/Parliament to provide the debarment.

A bench headed by justices M.R. Shah and M.M. Sundresh said: "So far as the submission that the disqualification is akin to civil death and Section 140(5) (Companies Act, 2013) impinges upon BSR and its partners' fundamental right to carry on their profession, as guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution is concerned, nobody can be permitted to say that despite acting fraudulently, directly or indirectly, they had a right to continue and/or carrying on their profession".

The top court held that the resignation by the auditors does not mean they are not answerable to the courts and tribunals for the accounts statements they had signed during their tenure.

The bench said the judgment and order passed by the high court quashing and setting aside the NCLT order holding that even after the resignation of the auditors, the proceedings under Section 140(5) shall be maintainable is hereby quashed and set aside.

"The application/proceedings under Section 140(5) of the Companies Act, 2013 is held to be maintainable even after the resignation of the concerned auditors and now the NCLT therefore is to pass a final order on such application after holding inquiry in accordance with the law and thereafter on the basis of such final order, further consequences as provided under the second proviso to Section 140(5) shall follow," it said.

However, the top court made it clear that "we have not expressed anything on merits on the allegations against the concerned auditors and it is ultimately for the NCLT/tribunal to pass a final order on the application filed by the Central government under Section 140(5) of the Companies Act, 2013".

The bench said, "If the interpretation given by the high court that once an auditor resigns, the proceedings under Section 140(5) stand terminated and are no longer required to be proceeded, in that case, an auditor to avoid the final order and the consequence of final order as provided under the second proviso to Section 140(5) may resign and avoid any final order by the Tribunal. That cannot be the intention of the legislature." The bench stressed, "An auditor acting in a fraudulent manner, directly or indirectly, is a very serious misconduct and therefore the necessary consequence of indulging in such fraudulent act shall follow." It was argued that Section 140(5) is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and discriminates against the auditors unfairly in comparison to similarly-placed alleged perpetrators, such as directors, management etc.

Justice Shah, who authored the 103-page judgment on behalf of the bench, said it is required to be noted that the role of auditors cannot be equated with directors and/or management.

"Auditors play a very important role in the affairs of the company and therefore they have to act in the larger public interest and all other stakeholders including investors etc.," said Justice Shah.

He said the high court has materially erred in holding that on resignation of auditors - BSR & Deloitte - and on appointment of new auditors, application under Section 140(5) shall not be maintainable.

"Consequently, the high court has erred in setting aside the order(s) passed by the NCLT/NCLAT by which the NCLT/NCLAT held that despite the resignation of the auditors, inquiry/proceedings under Section 140(5) shall be maintainable and/or continued," said the bench.

The bench noted that it was the case on behalf of the original writ petitioners on the constitutionality/vires of Section 140(5) that Section 140(5) is excessive and arbitrary as it provides unguided and untrammelled powers to the NCLT for determination of a serious offence of fraud and consequence of mandatory disqualification with grave consequences akin to civil death.

"The aforesaid has no substance. As observed hereinabove, NCLT shall exercise quasi-judicial powers under Section 140(5) with all the powers akin to a civil court. Ample opportunity shall be given by the NCLT before passing any final order," observed the bench.

The bench added: "Now so far as the submission that the penalty in the form of automatic disqualification of auditors and of the entire firm, including partners, and that too for a period of five years to become the auditor of any other company is highly disproportionate is concerned, it is ultimately for the legislature/Parliament to provide the debarment." It noted that on the principle of joint and severe liability, the auditors and the entire firm including partners shall be liable and therefore can be subjected to Section 140(5) and the consequences mentioned in Section 140(5) of the Companies Act, 2013.

"Taking into consideration the object and purpose for which Section 140(5) of the Act is enacted, the same cannot be said to be arbitrary, excessive and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and/or violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution, as alleged," noted the bench.

The top court delivered the judgment on an appeal by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) against a 2020 order of the Bombay High Court granting relief to the two audit firms. The firms had moved the high court against the government's decision to ban them from auditing activities for five years.

The high court had said that the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) cannot ban the audit firms for five years and the provisions under which the government sought to ban the two firms can only be applied to the existing auditors of a company. The government moved the apex court challenging the high court order.

The case is connected to a series of defaults by the IL&FS Group companies, which had an aggregate debt burden of more than Rs 91,000 crore, occurred between June and September, 2018 and threatened to collapse the money markets of India, added pressure to corporate bond yields and sparked a sell off in the stock market.

Eventually, the government took over the troubled infrastructure lending conglomerate.

(sumit saxena can be contacted at sumit.s@ians.in)
Koppal, May 3 : Former Chief Minister and senior JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy said on Wednesday that the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone down and his aggressive campaign in Karnataka wont have any impact on the May 10 Assembly elections.

Speaking at a press conference, Kumaraswamy stated that after nine years the image of PM Modi has come down. The national leaders from Delhi have come to the state for election campaign. They should have come when the people of the state were in distress. "They did not come then, they are arriving now," he taunted.

Now, Modi is coming to Karnataka and waving at people in roadshows. What is the contribution of the BJP to the Kalyana Karnataka region? Ten years have passed since the verdict of the Krishna River Tribunal. What has been done by the Congress and the BJP? Kumaraswamy asked.

Modi claims that the Congress and the JD (S) have done injustice to farmers. He should tell what injustice has been done to farmers? They did not give instalment of the Fasal Bima Scheme, now Modi claims they provide water at the doorstep. In which village is the Jal Jeevan Mission successful, Kumaraswamy said.

There is only money flow and the concerned ministers have become rich. Modi claims that we don't have an ideology. Will the ideology be alright if we agree to form a coalition government with the BJP? Will the ideology be wrong if we go with the Congress? Kumaraswamy questioned.

"I have given maximum contribution to the Kalyan Karnataka region. Who waived the loans of farmers? BJP leaders have to seek votes in the name of Modi. They don't have any other choice. Can they ask for votes by showing the face of CM Bommai?" Kumaraswamy said.

Whatever efforts the BJP might put in, they can't win more than 10 seats. The BJP is going to lose those seats which it won earlier. You can see for yourself how many seats the BJP is going to lose in Shivamogga from where former CM B.S. Yediyurappa hails, he said.

"What happened after PM Modi's campaign in Channapatna? (the seat from where Kumaraswamy is contesting) He came and went. I have still not gone to Channapatna," Kumaraswamy stated.

The Congress is saying it will ban the Bajrang Dal. Will banning the Bajrang Dal be any solution? The two parties should think about it. Innocents are used in the Bajrang Dal, they are brainwashed. The conspirators must be dealt with. If they don't do this and claim to ban it, it won't be of any use. Why didn't the Congress ban the Bajrang Dal when it was in power, Kumaraswamy questioned.
Bhubaneswar, May 3 : The Odisha government on Wednesday enhanced the compensation amount for the loss of life, house, crop and domestic animals in wild animal attacks.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has approved a proposal in this regard. As per the decision, the compensation amount for the loss of life due to human-animal conflict has been enhanced to Rs 6 lakh from Rs 4 lakh.

Similarly, the government has hiked the ex-gratia for people suffering from grievous injury and minor injury in the wild animal attacks.

Now, the persons who will suffer a disability of more than 60 per cent in wild animal attack, will get a compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh while a person who will suffer incapacitation of less than 60 per cent, will be provided with ex-gratia of Rs 1.5 lakh, which was Rs 1 lakh earlier.

People with temporary injuries will be provided a compensation of Rs 5,000, with free treatment in government facilities. This benefit will be extended if the injured person will stay under medicare for a maximum period of one week.

If the duration of treatment required is more than a week, the victim will be given an assistance of Rs 10,000 along with free medical treatment in the government hospital.

The compensation amount for the death of a cow or buffalo in a wild animal attack has been increased to Rs 37,500 and for ox to Rs 32,000 against the earlier assistance of Rs 5,000.

Moreover, the ex-gratia for the death of a calf, goat/sheep and lamb has been doubled from Rs 2,500, Rs 2,000 and Rs 1500, respectively.

For damage to cereal crops, the compensation amount has been enhanced from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 per acre. For commercial crops, the compensation was hiked from Rs 12,000 to Rs 25,000.

The government also increased the amount of compensation from earlier Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000, for partially damaged houses.

The Chief Minister also announced to provide a Biju Pucca Ghar or cash equivalent to the cost of the house along with Rs 20,000 if the house of a person is fully damaged in wild animal attack. Earlier, the government was providing only Rs 10,000.

As per data, 925 persons died and 212 persons became physically disabled only in elephant attacks in Odisha during the last 10 years, between 2012-13 and 2021-22.
Persistent fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) undermined efforts to firm up a truce Wednesday, as a senior UN official arrived for talks on providing relief to millions of trapped civilians.

The visit by top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths comes one day after neighbouring South Sudan announced that the warring sides had agreed "in principle" to a seven-day ceasefire.

The two sides have yet to formally confirm the new ceasefire.

At least 528 people have been killed and nearly 4,600 wounded, according to the latest health ministry figures, which are likely to be incomplete.

Ten of thousands of Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries in an exodus that has sparked warnings of a humanitarian "catastrophe" with implications for the entire region

On Wednesday, Griffiths arrived in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast on an urgent mission to look for ways to bring relief to the millions of Sudanese who are unable to flee.

"Just arrived in Port Sudan to reaffirm the UN's commitment to the Sudanese people," Griffiths said on Twitter. "In awe of the unwavering dedication of the humanitarian community & local volunteers doing their best to help." he added.

Just arrived in Port #Sudan to reaffirm the @UN's commitment to the Sudanese people.



In awe of the unwavering dedication of the humanitarian community & local volunteers doing their best to help. pic.twitter.com/18iLP2Ivm0  Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) May 3, 2023

Sudan's two rivals have agreed multiple truces since the fighting began on April 15 but none has effectively taken hold.

The current truce was extended on Sunday by a further 72 hours and is due to expire on Wednesday at 2200 GMT.

Mounting condemnation Despite the truce efforts, witnesses reported warplanes over north Khartoum on Wednesday and fierce clashes near the state broadcaster's headquarters in the capital's twin city of Omdurman.

"We heard again loud gunfire and anti-aircraft firing at a fighter jet this morning," a resident of south Khartoum said.

Multiple hospitals have been hit, humanitarian facilities looted and foreign aid groups forced to suspend most of their operations.

Saudi Arabia said the premises of its cultural centre in Khartoum were attacked on Tuesday "by an armed group which damaged equipment, cameras and seized some of the mission's property."

The kingdom condemned the raid, calling for de-escalation and an end to the violence. More than 430,000 civilians have fled their homes, the United Nations said, including 100,000 who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. Only 16 percent of Khartoum's hospitals remain fully functional, the UN added.

The failure of Sudanese warring sides to abide by their commitments in efforts to end nearly three weeks of fighting has drawn mounting international criticism. " Even though they accept the ceasefire, at the same time they continue fighting and shelling the city," complained Ismail Wais of East African regional bloc IGAD.

He said the persistent fighting "compounds and complicates the political, security and humanitarian situation on the ground making it harder to resolve."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Tuesday that the fighting in neighbouring Sudan was affecting "the entire region." Griffiths had earlier called for civilians and aid workers to be protected. "Ensure safe passage for civilians fleeing areas of hostilities. Respect humanitarian workers and assets," he said on Twitter.

Lawlessness has also engulfed the Darfur region, with at least 99 people killed in fighting, according to Sudan's doctors union.

Of the more than 330,000 people displaced inside Sudan, over 70 percent were reported to be from West and South Darfur states, according to the International Organization for Migration.

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Chennai, May 3 : The voluntary bankruptcy petition filed by the Wadia gorups low cost airline Go Airlines (India) Ltd will be impacting its lenders, i.e., banks.

However, private lender Axis Bank said on Wednesday in a regulatory filing that it has no funded or non-funded exposure to the financially-troubled Go Airlines.

According to reports, banks like Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, and Central Bank of India have exposure to the private airline.

While the airline had said that its promoters had infused Rs 3,200 crore in the last three years and their total investment in the venture is approximately about Rs 6,500 crore, it is silent on its dues when queried by IANS.

As per reports, the airline has a total liability - dues to banks, other creditors, vendors etc. - of about Rs 11,463 crore.

"Go First (the brand of Go Airlines) has a lengthy history of missing its financial obligations to Pratt," a spokesperson for aircraft engine supplier Pratt & Whitney said in response to IANS' list of questions.

The Wadia group's airline had blamed Pratt & Whitney for its decision to file a voluntary bankruptcy petition with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Pratt & Whitney, the exclusive engine supplier for its Airbus A320neo aircraft fleet, refused to comply with an award issued by an emergency arbitrator appointed in accordance with the 2016 Arbitration Rules of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), Go Airlines had alleged.

"Pratt & Whitney is committed to the success of our airline customers, and we continue to prioritise delivery schedules for all customers. P&W (Pratt & Whitney) is complying with the March 2023 arbitration ruling related to Go First. As this is now a matter of litigation, we will not comment further," the P&W spokesperson said.

Perhaps Go Airlines is the first Indian airline to blame an engine-maker for its financial troubles and for grounding operations.
Shillong, May 3 : In a significant development, the Meghalaya government will undertake scientific mining of coal to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities to the people and earn revenue for the states exchequer, officials said here on Wednesday.

An official of the Meghalaya government said that the Union Coal Ministry had last week provided approval for mining lease to four applicants of the 17 prospecting licence applicants.

He said that the income generated from the mining sector will be invested in the education and healthcare sectors for the socio-economic prosperity of the state.

The commencement of scientific mining will be a landmark in the history of Meghalaya, as it ensures minimal environmental impact through sustainable and legally compliant extraction procedures.

As part of scientific mining, reclamation of coal mining areas and use of advanced technologies, such as remote sensing, aerial surveys, and 3D modelling, would be prioritised and environmental impact would be mitigated significantly, an official statement said.

It said that initiation of scientific mining in the state is a significant achievement for the Conrad K. Sangma-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, which led a long effort to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities to the people and add revenue to the state's exchequer.

In April 2014, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had imposed a blanket ban on coal mining and transportation in Meghalaya.

The statement said that with the ruling of the NGT, the mining industry suffered a negative growth of 59.36 per cent according to GSDP at constant prices in 2014-15, thereby affecting the GSDP as a whole, to register a negative growth of 2.82 per cent.

Contraction of GSDP came as a big blow to Meghalaya's ambitions of achieving its revenue collection targets.

Apart from the impact on the economy, the ban severely crippled the lives of thousands of citizens dependent on the mining sector, both directly and indirectly. Many lost their livelihoods and had to resort to menial jobs to feed their families, the statement said.

Taking cognisance of all this, the Meghalaya government has provided much-needed impetus to revive coal mining in the state, it said.

These efforts led to the landmark judgement of the Supreme Court on July 3, 2019, upholding the rights of the people of Meghalaya over the state's natural resources.

The apex court held that private as well as community landowners have both surface rights and sub-surface rights, and minerals are owned by private and community landowners, the statement said.

In a significant step towards initiating scientific coal mining, the state government had availed the approval of the standard operating procedures for obtaining prospecting licence and mining lease for coal in March 2021.

Continuing the momentum, the Coal Ministry last week provided previous approval for mining lease to four applicants of the 17 prospecting licence applicants.

In 2014, illegal coal mining, including the more dangerous practice of rat-hole mining, was banned in Meghalaya by the NGT after terming it as 'unscientific' and 'most hazardous'.

The prohibited activities, however, continued in Meghalaya and other northeastern states despite the Supreme Court and high court's series of subsequent directions.

Environmental experts, activists and various NGOs have protested against illegal coal mining, saying that the illegal activities continued with the active support of a section of most powerful politicians while the law enforcing agencies remained silent.

Rat-hole mining, an extremely unsafe practice in Meghalaya, Assam and other northeastern states, involves digging narrow tunnels, each of which fits only one person to enter and extract coal, benefiting the coal traders.

Many workers have got trapped in the illegal and unsafe mines and subsequently died, five in May/June 2021 but only three bodies were retrieved from the flooded coal mine after hectic efforts for over 27 days in East Jaintia Hills district.

In December 2018, in a major tragedy in the same district, 15 migrant miners from Assam had died inside an abandoned coal mine.

The 15 miners, whose bodies were never found, had been stuck in the coal mine at a depth of nearly 370 feet after a tunnel was flooded with water from the nearby Lytein river.

On September 18 last year, three workers of an illegal coal mine located inside a forest area on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border in Assam's Tinsukia district were killed after inhaling toxic gas.

The mine was operated by David Haseng, a resident of Arunachal Pradesh, who remained absconding after the incident.

On November 14 last year, 12 people were killed after a large portion of a stone quarry collapsed in Maudarh village in Mizoram's Hnahthial district while they were working in the stone pit. Of the 12 workers, five hailed from West Bengal while three were from Assam and two each from Jharkhand and Mizoram.
New Delhi, May 3 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking relaxation for the students to appear in the JEE Advanced 2023.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, hearing a petition filed by a group of 67 students, dismissed the plea urging that it should be made possible for them to retake the engineering entrance exam as technical issues plagued both JEE Main 2022 sessions, which were held in June and July last year.

These errors prevented the candidates from giving the exam a fair shot, which led to significant decreases in many candidates' scores and percentiles.

Last year, there were a number of technological issues with the JEE exams, including frequent computer crashes, a frozen screen for many minutes, questions that took too long to load, unfinished questions, and more.

Some students had claimed that they were unable to take the exam because their centres were abruptly relocated without intimation. Some candidates encountered mistakes in their results as well as differences in their response sheet.

Students encountered similar technical issues during JEE Advanced 2022. For many of the students who experienced technical difficulties, it was their final try.

It was the final JEE Main test for students who finished Class 12 in 2020, and the final JEE Advanced attempt for students who passed Class 12 in 2021.

It is argued that the deadly delta Covid wave of 2021 caused the Class 12 students of that year to experience extreme mental stress, anxiety, sadness, and other compensable damages, ranging from financial hardship to family member loss.

This was after the Covid outbreak in 2020 had already affected their education for more than a year.
Moscow, May 3 : Purported footage of a Ukrainian drone strike targeting the Kremlin on Tuesday night has surfaced on a local Telegram channel, media reports said.

The video shows plumes of white smoke rising into the night sky over the Grand Kremlin Palace, a 19th century building serving as the official working residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, RT reported.

No sound can be heard in the video but witnesses claimed on Telegram that they heard at least one loud blast resembling "thunder rumbling".

People on the Kremlin embankment also reportedly saw sparks rising into the sky over the Kremlin wall. An unverified video circulating on social media also shows a fire on the roof of the Senate Palace, the President's second working residence in the Kremlin. Flames can be seen rising near the top of the roof.

Another unverified video published on Telegram purported to show the moment one of the drones struck the Senate Palace. The footage shows the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) approaching the building at a low altitude, before blowing up right over its dome. The blast appeared not to have dealt any significant damage to the building, as even the flagstaff with the presidential banner remained in place after the attack, RT reported.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian presidential office reported the attack, calling it a "planned terrorist act" targeting Putin's residence. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov clarified that the President was elsewhere at the time and his schedule is unaffected.

Russia reserves the right to retaliate "anywhere and anytime it deems necessary" in response to the drone attack on President Vladimir Putin's residence, the Kremlin has said, RT reported.

Officials said two Ukrainian drones attempted to strike the Kremlin early on Wednesday morning, but the raid was thwarted.
San Francisco, May 3 : Cybercriminals operating on the dark web are reportedly selling verified, hacked crypto accounts on the darknet for as little as $30 each.

According to the "Dark Web Price Index" by online data security provider Privacy Affairs, cybercriminals are selling various types of fraudulently obtained financial account information on the dark web, reports Cointelegraph.

The prices of some of the ill-gotten verified cryptocurrency accounts include -- Kraken ($1,170), Binance ($410), Crypto.com ($300), Coinbase ($250), Blockchain.com ($85), and US-verified Bittrex account ($30), among others.

These figures represent a significant surge from the prices that were paid for the same account details in 2022, according to data from the 2022 edition of the Dark Web Price Index.

Last year, cybercriminals were able to purchase verified Kraken and Binance accounts for as little as $260 and $250, respectively.

Moreover, the report said that cryptocurrency accounts aren't the only items on the list.

Login credentials for online bank accounts with balances of up to $2,000 are sold for $60, while account information for credit cards with up to $5,000 is sold for just $110.

Darknet hackers are also offering login details for a range of social media accounts, such as Facebook, Airbnb, and Gmail, with prices starting as low as $25 per account.

In response to these alarming figures, Privacy Affairs security researcher Miklos Zoltan said that internet users must be more cautious with their personal information than ever before, the report mentioned.

"If someone gets their hands on your financial details or social media credentials, the prices mentioned above are basically what it's worth to them," Zoltan was quoted as saying.

The rise in the number of account hacks targeting popular crypto exchanges has become an increasingly pressing issue within the industry.

Last month, Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin said that its Twitter account was hacked, allowing threat actors to promote a fraudulent giveaway scam, which resulted in the theft of more than $22.6K worth of cryptocurrency.

However, the company said that it will fully reimburse all verified asset losses caused by the social media breach and the fake activity.
Kohima, May 3 : Naga outfit NSCN-IM on Wednesday said that it would not allow any exploration of oil and natural gas in Naga territories until "honourable political settlement" of the decades-old Naga political issue between the Nagas and the government is reached.

According to the experts, Nagaland is estimated to have 600 million tonnes of oil and natural gas reserves. Exploration in the state was stopped in the 1990s due to extremism and opposition from the Naga groups.

Several other local groups in Nagaland, including the Naga National Political Groups (NNPG), a body of seven Naga outfits, expressed concern after state Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma agreed in principle on April 22 for oil and gas exploration in the disputed inter-state border areas of the two states.

On May 1, the Chairman and Managing Director of the state-owned Oil India Limited (OIL), Ranjit Rath, said in Guwahati that the exploration company was keen on exploring 3,000 sq. km. in Nagaland after carrying out operations in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Tripura besides Assam.

The NSCN-IM, in a strongly worded statement on Wednesday, said that ever since Nagaland state was created in 1963, "the Government of India has been casting covetous eyes on Nagas' mineral wealth as Nagaland state is endowed with a variety of mineral deposits, particularly petroleum".

"But the sticking point is the unresolved political issue that is still hanging fire in the negotiating table for more than 25 years. Significantly, more than two decades back, National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) had issued a standing order that no mineral wealth in Naga areas would be allowed for exploration and extraction until political settlement is arrived at. This order still stands valid today," the statement said.

It said that "therefore, no amount of justification in the name of mobilising financial resources for development would stand to ride roughshod over the inalienable Naga people's rights over their land resources".

The Naga outfit said that ironically, this oil issue has come at the time when the Centre is showing no sincerity and commitment to respect the historical and political rights of the Naga people as enshrined in the historic Framework Agreement of August 3, 2015, and pulling the Indo-Naga political talks for more than 25 years on flimsy ground of negotiating on the non-negotiable issue of Naga National Flag and Constitution. No wonder the huge mineral wealth is a reflection of God's gift.

"The 600 million tonnes of oil and natural gas reserves is a blessed wealth of Nagas and no authority would be given the liberty to exploit so long as the Centre continues to handle the Naga political issue in a flattering and betraying fashion," the statement said.

It further said: "As much as the Government of India attached huge economic significance to the mineral wealth, particularly oil and natural gas of Nagaland, the same degree of political commitment should be demonstrated in a meaningful and credible manner as demanded by the ongoing talks."
New Delhi, May 3 : Even after three years into the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind Covid-19, has not yet become seasonal. It will continue to cause mini-waves with mild infections, scientists contended in an article in the science journal Nature.

Scientists have long predicted that Covid pandemic will end up into a seasonal pattern of spread, like influenza has. However, a series of mini waves fueled by newer variants like XBB.1.16 are "different from the slower, annual circulation patterns of influenza and cold-causing coronaviruses".

"It seems increasingly unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 will settle into a flu-like rhythm anytime soon," the scientists said in Nature.

"We haven't slowed down in the last year, and I don't see what factors would cause it do so at this point," Trevor Bedford, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, was quoted as saying.

"It will be a continually circulating respiratory disease. It may be less seasonal than things we're used to," he added.

Bedford noted that some countries are seeing fresh surges in Covid about "three or four times each year, driven largely by the breakneck pace at which the virus continues to change".

"Currently, SARS-CoV-2's spike protein, in which most immunity-evading mutations occur, is evolving at twice the rate of a similar protein in seasonal influenza and about 10 times as quickly as those of cold-causing 'seasonal' coronaviruses".

This is seen as in the case of India, where XBB.1.16 displaced other variants to become the dominant one. While it spread rather quickly than previous variants, leading to a surge in cases it caused only mild infections.

"We see that it has almost replaced all other variants in India, and we think the same thing will be followed everywhere," Rajesh Karyakarte, a microbiologist at Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Government Medical College in Pune, was quoted as saying.

Similarly in the UK, there's a 100 per cent annual 'attack rate', Bedford said. In the future, "we can still imagine 50 per cent attack rates every year, half the population getting infected", compared with around 20 per cent with influenza.

According to Tom Wenseleers, an evolutionary biologist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, the combination of rapid mutation and short-lived human immunity is probably preventing Covid from settling into seasonal patterns of circulation.

Although the World Health Organization (WHO) declared XBB.1.16 a 'variant of interest', whether it or another new variant will cause a spike in infections in a particular country will probably depend on the size and timing of the country's earlier waves, he added.

Yet, the increased infection waves are only mild causing smaller ripples in hospitalisations and deaths. In a study, posted to a medRxiv.org preprint server, and not yet peer reviewed, Karyakarte and his team analysed more than 300 cases, from last December to early this month.

They found that XBB.1.16 infections tend to cause mild symptoms similar to those from earlier Omicron variants, with few hospitalizations and deaths. "We didn't see much," Karyakarte said.

This "gives most people the hope that, in the coming years, the net toll of Covid will get comparable to influenza," Waasila Jassat, a public-health specialist at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases, was quoted as saying.
New Delhi, May 3 : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that infrastructure, investment, innovation and inclusivity are essential for long-term sustainable growth for both advanced and developing economies.

She said this while participating in the 'Governors' Seminar: Policies to Support Asia's Rebound', which was held as part of the 56th Asian Development Bank annual meeting in Incheon, South Korea.

Sitharaman stated that protection of vulnerable sections has been India's prime focus as the government has charted its course towards recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Finance Minister further highlighted that India's focus on MSMEs and ensuring food security has been instrumental in the Indian economy's successful recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sitharaman espoused the idea of democratisation of enterprise and underlined the need for entrepreneurial skills to be a lot more widespread and democratised within the country so that no one misses out on the skill sets.

In the context of food security, she raised concerns over the disparity in treatment of emerging markets vis-a-vis developed countries as the WTO regime trade agreements have tended to be lopsided.

The finance minister also called for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to renew its focus on trade in agricultural products, recognising that subsidies will be essential for developing economies as they attempt to recover from the effects of the pandemic.

During the seminar, she also highlighted India's systemic reforms facilitated by digital public infrastructure, enabling timely conditional cash transfers when it was most needed.

Sitharaman emphasised that India's focus on capital expenditure will not only benefit the semi-skilled population, but also help explore key sectors beyond agriculture, manufacturing and services.
New Delhi, May 3 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday said Centre's proposal to set up a committee to examine whether certain legal rights could be granted to same-sex couples without legal sanction of their relationship as a "marriage" is an incremental step and "sometimes beginnings are small, those beginning could be very substantial".

The top court stressed that if the government takes the first step forward in this matter, there will be substantial benefit and also substantial advancement in recognition of the relationship of same-sex couples, as it told the petitioners' counsel, "This is a step forward and therefore, don't have to go for all or nothing." At the beginning of the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted before a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, that the government was agreeable to setting up a committee under the Cabinet secretary to examine what types of legal rights could be given to same-sex couples.

"The government is positive. What we have decided is that this would need coordination between more than one ministry. Therefore, a committee headed by no less than the Cabinet secretary will be constituted," Mehta said, as he sought suggestions from the petitioners on the problems they are facing.

Mehta said the government could address these problems so far as legally permissible and requested the petitioners not to give "jurisprudential ideas" as only factual problems could be addressed by the proposed committee.

The petitioners contended that the resolution intended by the government was in the nature of administrative tweaking, and not legal.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing one of the petitioners, said whatever is given by administrative tweaking is certainly welcomed and it should be seen as a constructive effort towards convergence, it may not be a substitute and there "won't be any major solution".

Singhvi stressed that substantive changes in the law would be required to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriage.

Senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal, appearing for a petitioner, said at various seminars they have spoken to gay people and 99 per cent of them came up and said the only thing they want is to get married.

Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, also representing the petitioners' side, submitted before the bench also comprising justices S.K. Kaul, S.R. Bhat, Hima Kohli and P.S. Narasimha that "young people in our country want marriage. I don't say this as an elite lawyer. I say this as someone having met these young people. Do not let them experience what we have experienced".

At this juncture, the Chief Justice said that at the constitutional level, there is a serious problem if one goes by what young people feel, as a constitutional court then, "we would be subject to volumes of data on how people feel... Therefore, the great salutary safeguard of the constitutional adjudication is that the court is to go by what the Constitution mandates, therefore we do not go by either popular morality or segmental morality, we decide what the Constitution says." The Chief Justice said: "The moment you say young people feel, I am sure there would be people on the other side who will be willing (to share material with the court)... about what the country feels, let us not get into it at all. Therefore, what we were suggesting is this - we get your point that you seek right to marry, we are also conscious of the fact that mere declaration of right to marry is not adequate in itself unless it is implementable by statutory provision, which recognises, regulates, confers entitlements on those who are married." The bench said "everything you achieve, should be in incremental steps... the court by acting as a facilitator... that real progress is achieved today in terms of your wider societal acceptance of the right to cohabit together..." The bench emphasised that there are too many interlinkages with other statutes, including personal laws which "we would be treading upon perhaps, which lie outside the domain of judicial review, then what?"

The bench said it has to decide the case as a matter of concept, but to the extent that the government has taken the first step forward, there would be a substantial benefit and advancement in the recognition of cohabitation of same-sex couples.

The CJI told the petitioners that mere declaration of right to marry is not adequate itself, unless it is implemented by statutory provision, which recognises, regulates and confers entitlement on those who are married.

Last week, the top court had asked Mehta to seek instructions on whether certain rights could be granted to same-sex couples to ensure their social security and welfare.

During the hearing on Wednesday, Justice Bhat told Singhvi, "Although he (Mehta) is saying administratively there are substantive issues, when you look at insurance, housing etc., these are substantial in terms of benefits, people can expect that it is the actual practical way out... although, it is being termed administrative, it would translate into some changes in the regulation, maybe in law." Singhvi said some of them will require substantive changes to law, "which I don't think the solicitor is saying, what he is suggesting is that a circular may be changed, office order may be changed".

Mehta replied that whichever mode, manner or method that problem, if permissible, can be addressed.

Justice Bhat said, "Sometimes beginnings are small, those beginnings could be very substantial." Guruswamy said, "For something as simple as pension, provident fund, gratuity, benefits that only echoes only in a marriage..." Justice Kaul said "suppose you were to succeed to a limited extent where court is inclined to give a status of marriage or some other status not marriage, there will be many changes required in administrative proceedings and also legislative aspects.

"They (government) are reluctant to give the status of marriage but they are not reluctant to sort out problems arising from a gay companionship without labelling it as marriage to the extent possible. Therefore, the suggestion from the bench is that some steps in that direction should be taken," Justice Kaul said.

The Chief Justice said, "When we go to the conceptual domain, we can't be oblivious to the fact that to the extent to which the conceptual domain requires legislative changes, that part clearly lies outside (the purview of the court)... To what extent can the court formulate conceptual doctrines?" The bench said, "We will have to decide the entire issue as a matter of concept but to the extent the government takes the first step forward there would be substantial benefit and substantial advancement in recognition of the relationship of same-sex couples." Mehta said the court rightly pointed out that it might need change of law and change of law might need some wider issues of recognition of a particular relationship, then "we have to examine whether it can be done".

The bench noted that the government accepts people do have a right to cohabit and "for instance you know in relation to your right to reside together, bank accounts... the practical issues which can be resolved by the government from your perspective, this is a step forward and therefore, don't have to go for all or nothing." The top court made these observations while hearing a batch of petitions demanding marriage equality for same-sex couples under the Special Marriage Act (SMA).

The top court asked the petitioners' lawyers to sit with Attorney General R. Venkataramani and Mehta over the weekend for a discussion.

Last week, the top court had queried the Centre, if any executive guidelines could be issued so that same-sex couples so that they can undertake financial security measures such as opening joint bank accounts, nominating partner in life insurance policies, provident fund etc.

However, during the hearing on Wednesday, the bench clarified that this will not prejudice the arguments made by the Centre in response to the petition, and that it would continue to hear the matter on the broader concept of whether same-sex marriage can be recognised under the SMA.

The hearing in the matter will continue on Tuesday next week.
New Delhi, May 3 : The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested two wanted criminals and members of infamous Kapil Sangwan-Lawrence Bishnoi gang involved in the killing of Delhi BJP leader Surender Matiala, an official said on Wednesday.

The official said that the accused identified as Rajat Yadav alias Poppal (23), a resident of Chanchal Park and Habib Ali alias Rahul (23), a resident of Najafgarh, even whipped out their pistols in a bid to escape but police team after a brief scuffle managed to nab them.

On April 14, two unidentified men had entered the office of Surender, district president Najafgarh Kishan Morcha of BJP Unit, and fired upon him leading to his death. Police have apprehended six members of the Kapil Sangwan gang, including two juveniles, in connection with the murder.

Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) HGS Dhaliwal said that absconding criminal Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu was the main conspirator behind Matiala's murder and he along with one Rohit, a resident of village Chhara near Jhajjar, Haryana planned the killing.

In order to execute the plan, Rohit was assigned to recruit new boys and provide shelter, logistic support, arms and ammunition to them.

"Rohit roped in his brother Sohit, Yogesh, Vivek and others to accomplish the crime. Sangwan also recruited new entrants in his gang to increase his presence in the area and revive his dwindling group for the purpose of extortion and to eliminate their rival gang members," said Dhaliwal.

During investigation, two members of the gang, Yadav and Ali, who were involved in the killing of Matiala, were identified by police while they were planning to cross over to Nepal for a brief shelter.

"On May 2, at about 4.15 p.m, after receiving specific input regarding their movement, the police team laid a trap near Japanese Park, Sector-10, Rohini, Delhi," said the official.

The duo was spotted and surrounded by the police team, however, despite warning to surrender, both whipped out their pistols, cocked the same and aimed towards the police team to fire bullets in bid to flee.

"The police team managed to apprehend them after a brief scuffle and recovered two sophisticated pistols, six bullets of 7.65 calibre and one stolen bike used in the murder of Matiala from their possession," said the Special CP.

During interrogation, the duo disclosed that they along with Yogesh had reached Matiala village on April 14 following instructions from Rohit.

"After reaching near the office of Surender, Vivek with other boys met them and weapons were distributed. As Ali got shot accidentally while handling the weapon at Shastri Nagar flat before proceeding to the spot and blood was oozing out of his wound, Vivek asked them to stand guard outside and he himself along with Yogesh went inside the office to eliminate Surender," said the Special CP.
A senior UN official in Khartoum on Wednesday demanded security guarantees for the delivery of aid as persistent fighting between Sudan's warring sides undermined efforts to firm up a truce.

The visit by top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths comes one day after neighbouring South Sudan announced that the warring sides had agreed "in principle" to a seven-day ceasefire.

Deadly violence broke out on April 15 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

At least 550 people have been killed and 4,926 wounded, according to the latest health ministry figures Wednesday, which are likely to be incomplete.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries in an exodus that has sparked warnings of a humanitarian "catastrophe" with implications for the entire region.

On Wednesday, Griffiths arrived in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast on an urgent mission to find ways to bring relief to the millions of Sudanese who are unable to flee.

Griffiths called for security guarantees "at the highest level" to ensure desperately needed aid deliveries to war-ravaged parts of the country.

He said he had been informed by the UN's World Food Programme that six trucks bringing aid to the country's western Darfur region had been "looted en route" Wednesday, "despite assurances of safety and security".

Earlier, the foreign ministry of neighbouring South Sudan announced that both the Sudanese army chief general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support forces (RSF) leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo "have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4th to 11th".

The two sides have yet to formally confirm the new ceasefire.

The two men have agreed multiple truces since the fighting began but none has effectively taken hold. The current truce was extended on Sunday by a further 72 hours and is due to expire on Wednesday at 2200 GMT.

Mounting condemnation

Despite the truce efforts, witnesses reported warplanes over north Khartoum on Wednesday and fierce clashes near the state broadcaster's headquarters in the capital's twin city of Omdurman.

"We heard again loud gunfire and anti-aircraft firing at a fighter jet this morning," a resident of south Khartoum said.

Multiple hospitals have been hit, humanitarian facilities looted and foreign aid groups forced to suspend most of their operations.

Saudi Arabia said the premises of its cultural centre in Khartoum were attacked on Tuesday "by an armed group which damaged equipment, cameras and seized some of the mission's property".

The kingdom condemned the raid, calling for de-escalation and an end to the violence.

More than 430,000 civilians have fled their homes, the United Nations said, including 100,000 who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

Only 16 percent of Khartoum's hospitals remain fully functional, the UN added.

The failure of the two warring sides to abide by their commitments in efforts to end nearly three weeks of fighting has drawn mounting international criticism.

"Even though they accept the ceasefire, at the same time they continue fighting and shelling the city," complained Ismail Wais of East African regional bloc IGAD.

He said the persistent fighting "compounds and complicates the political, security and humanitarian situation on the ground making it harder to resolve."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Tuesday that the fighting in neighbouring Sudan was affecting "the entire region".

Griffiths had earlier called for civilians and aid workers to be protected.

"Ensure safe passage for civilians fleeing areas of hostilities. Respect humanitarian workers and assets," he said on Twitter.

Violence has also engulfed the Darfur region, with at least 99 people killed in fighting, according to Sudan's doctors union.

Of the more than 330,000 people displaced inside Sudan, over 70 percent were reported to be from West and South Darfur states, according to the International Organization for Migration.

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New Delhi, May 3 : A Delhi court on Wednesday issued summons to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Wikimedia Foundation, and the US-based digital library Internet Archive on a defamation suit filed by BJP leader Binay Kumar Singh seeking to restrain them from publishing the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi or any other material related to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

Additional District Judge of Rohini Courts Ruchika Singla issued summons and listed the matter for further consideration on May 11.

"Issue summons of the suit for settlement of issues to the defendant on filing of PF and e-mode returnable on next date of hearing. PF be filed today itself. The defendant is directed to file his written statement within 30 days from the date of service of the summons. Endorsement be made on the summons accordingly," the court said in its order.

Singh. who claims to be the state executive committee member of the Jharkhand BJP and an active volunteer of the RSS and VHP, moved the suit through advocate Mukesh Sharma stating that the claims in the documentary against the RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad are made with the intention of defaming the organisations and its volunteers.

"The allegations made against the RSS and VHP are motivated by a malicious intent to defame the organisations and its millions of members/volunteers. Such unfounded allegations are not only baseless but also have the potential to damage the reputation and image of the RSS, VHP and its millions of members/volunteers, who have committed themselves to upholding the cultural, social and national values of India," the suit stated.

The court ordered: "The defendant is directed to file his written statement within 30 days from the date of service of the summons. Endorsement be made on the summons accordingly." The two-volume documentary series that has already been banned is nevertheless easily accessible in the public domain on Wikimedia and the Internet Archive, Singh has argued.

"The Defendant No.1 (BBC), strategically and purposefully disseminated unfounded rumours without verifying the authenticity of the claims. Furthermore, the accusations made therein foster animosity between multiple faith communities, in particular Hindus and Muslims," the suit said.

Singh has also sought an order of unconditional apology by the defendants, to him, the RSS, and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for the allegedly "libellous and defamatory content" that was included in the two-volume documentary series.

The suit states: "The Plaintiff has worked assiduously over decades to build his career and reputation, and if this matter is left unchecked, it will permanently demolish the Plaintiffs hard-earned reputation and career. Therefore, even though the Plaintiff is a champion of free speech, he is compelled to seek an immediate injunction to safeguard his reputation and livelihood."
Madrid, May 3 : Veronika Kudermetova took out No.3 seed Jessica Pegula in a rollercoaster three-setter in the Madrid Open to reach the biggest semifinal of her career with a 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 win over the American in the quarterfinal on Wednesday.

Kudermetova had previously reached three quarterfinals at WTA 1000 level or above, all in 2022 at Indian Wells, Roland Garros and Guadalajara, and Wednesday's result moved her into the last four at this level for the first time.

In a first-time encounter with 2022 finalist Pegula, Kudermetova also notched her seventh career Top-5 win, and first since defeating Tunisian Ons Jabeur in the San Jose quarterfinals last August. She had entered Madrid on a four-match losing streak.

Both the first and third sets featured five breaks of serve, with the quality of both players' returns exceeding that of their serves in the initial stages.

Kudermetova twice went up a break first, but was pegged back both times -- but once she had captured the Pegula serve for a third time, managed to use that momentum to get over the finishing line 2 hours and 5 minutes.

The 12th seed will face world number one Iga Swiatek or Croatia's Petra Martic in Thursday's semifinal.
Kolkata, May 3 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday informed a special PMLA court here that expelled youth Trinamool Congress leader Santanu Bandopadhyay collected an amount of Rs 1.40 crore against 26 illegal recruitments.

"These recruitments were mainly for the primary and upper primary sections in the state-run schools in West Bengal," the ED counsel told the court.

He also informed the court that Bandopadhyay had misled a number of daily-wage earners associated with a construction company to channelise the scam proceeds.

"First, he used to get signatures from these daily wage earners on the cheques of their bank accounts. Then he used to deposit some amounts in their bank accounts and immediately withdrew them using their signed cheques. These daily wage earners were associated with a company called Lotus Constructions, which was an empaneled construction contractor with a number of panchayats in the state," the ED counsel told the court.

Bandopadhyay's counsel claimed that the ED had not substantiated the charges it levelled against his client with supporting documents. He also claimed that the event of recovery of OMR sheets and admit cards from the residence of his client might not be true.

After hearing both sides, the court extended Bandopadhyay's judicial custody till May 17.
Dibrugarh : , May 3 (IANS) Criticising Congress leader Rahul Gandhi without mentioning his name, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday wondered "why some of us decry our democracy within and outside the country", while describing India as "the mother of democracy and the world's most vibrant democracy".

The Vice President said this during his speech while attending the convocation of the Dibrugarh University located on the outskirts of this upper Assam town.

Dhankar's jibe was apparently aimed at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who had said in a Cambridge university lecture that India's democracy is under threat.

Calling Parliament "the temple of our democracy", the Vice President emphasised that it is a platform where issues of public interest are debated, deliberated, discussed and decided, but prolonged disruptions, he added, undermine the esteem and confidence which people repose in their representative institutions.

Therefore, he called for generating an ecosystem so that "the parliamentarians respond positively to the spirit and essence of the founders of our Constitution".

He underlined that freedom of expression has not been subjected to any enforced silence in India.

Dhankhar also said that education is the most effective and transformative mechanism to bring about equity, equality and progress in society.

"Nothing can change societal conditions more than people getting educated," he commented.

The Vice President urged the students to be "agents of change" and work to bring about positive changes in society.

"You are the makers and the warriors of Bharat in 2047 when the nation will celebrate the centenary of its Independence," he told them.

Dhankar said: "Have a dream, but do not be just a dreamer, be a doer." Terming the eight northeastern states the "Ashta Laxmis" of India, the Vice President said without their growth and contribution, India's growth would remain incomplete.

He also commended Dibrugarh University for its work towards preserving the linguistic diversity and literary traditions of the region.

"Preserving our languages is very important as they have evolved over thousands of years," he said.

The Vice President praised NCERT and the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) for highlighting the contribution of unsung heroes of the northeast "in our history and freedom struggle".

Dhankhar also said that the northeast is emerging as the land of opportunities.

Mentioning various projects such as Bogibeel rain-cum-road bridge, 375 road projects, the rise in the airports and the setting up of 190 new educational institutions in the northeastern region, he highlighted that new avenues and vistas are now available to youth to unleash their energy.

The Vice President expressed confidence that by the end of the decade, India will be the world's third largest economy.

The Vice President conferred D.Sc. and D.Litt degrees (Honoris Causa) to eminent personalities of Assam. He also planted a sapling tree on the university campus.

Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma, Union Minister Rameswar Teli and other dignitaries were present.
Bhubaneswar, May 3 : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday opened air ticketing to Singapore and Bangkok, facilitating the state's residents to travel to these south-east Asian cities at a fair price.

Indigo Airlines will commence direct international flights to Singapore as well as Bangkok from June 3, 2023. Earlier, direct flights' ticketing was launched by the Chief Minister to Dubai which will start from May 15.

Speaking on the occasion, Patnaik said that the initiative will promote job opportunities for the youth of Odisha, open up the tourism potential of the state and provide a boost to the IT and ITES sectors in the state.

"It is a momentous occasion for all of us today as Indigo opens ticketing to Singapore & Bangkok from Bhubaneswar. Recently, I had also inaugurated the ticketing to Dubai. With this, Odisha is now connected to the top cosmopolitan Asian cities, opening a whole new world of opportunities for our people," he said.

He added that in the last few years, the aviation traffic in Odisha has seen immense growth.

Though the domestic flight connectivity has seen a noticeable improvement, the Odisha government has come forward to make sizable contributions to ensure direct international flight connectivity between Bhubaneswar and world class destinations to meet the people's aspirations, he added.
Bhubaneswar, May 3 : The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday said that there is a possibility of the formation of a cyclone over the Bay of Bengal (BoB) around May 9.

A cyclonic circulation will form over southeast Bay of Bengal around May 6, which will convert into a low pressure area over the same region on May 7. The system is likely to concentrate into a depression on the next day, the IMD said.

"Thereafter, there is a good possibility of its intensification while moving nearly northwards towards central Bay of Bengal," it said.

However, the IMD has not yet predicted its intensity, path and impact on Odisha coast.

Director General (DG) of IMD, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said that there is consensus over the formation of a low pressure and its intensification into a cyclone by May 9.

"We have not specified its path and intensity and the area over the land where it is likely to hit. Once the low pressure is formed, we will provide detailed predictions regarding landfall and its intensity," said Mohapatra, adding, "As of now, there is no such forecast for landfall over Indian coast." Initially, there will be squally weather and hence the fishermen should not venture into the southeast Bay of Bengal from May 7 onwards, he advised.

The DG made it clear that no alert has been issued for the Odisha coast and there is no forecast about the likely impact of the system on Odisha.

Mohapatra urged people not to panic about a possible cyclone but remain prepared to face any eventuality.

The last summer cyclonic storm 'Fani' had made landfall over the Odisha coast near Puri on May 3, 2019. It had caused wide-spread devastation in coastal Odisha including capital Bhubaneswar.
Panaji, May 3 : Referring to the manifestos released by BJP and Congress in Karnataka for assembly election, that promises to complete Kalsa-Bhanduri project by diverting Mhadei, Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) on Wednesday alleged that leaders of both national parties are selling resources of coastal state.

Addressing a Press conference, RGP President Manoj Parab said that it is clear by the manifestos of BJP and Congress in Karnataka that they are decisive about diverting Mhadei. RGP MLA Viresh Borkar was also present.

"Both national parties have failed to protect the interest of the state and have sold our resources. They have compromised Mhadei. They are not working in the interest of Goa, but they are working to gain seats in Karnataka," Parab said.

"It is irony that BJP ministers and MLAs from Goa are promoting manifesto of their party in Karnataka by campaigning there. We were sure that they will promise to complete Kalsa-Bhanduri project, which they have done," he said.

"Goa's BJP politicians are campaigning in Karnataka attending mega rallies and meetings. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is leading this campaign, he is promoting their manifesto," Parab reiterated.

According to him, BJP leaders in Goa say that they will not compromise Mhadei, then why they are promoting manifesto of BJP in Karnataka, which is promising Mhadei diversion.

He said that all three BJP governments, at Centre, Karnataka and Goa, have planned to divert Mhadei to make Goans suffer.

While lambasting also on Congress, Parab said that this grand old party in Goa is showing that they are with people over Mhadei issue, but in Karnataka same party has also promised to complete project of Kalsa-Bhanduri.

MLA Viresh Borkar said that during the discussion over Mhadei in assembly session, BJP MLAs had said that they have full confidence that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will save Mhadei. "But today they are campaigning in Karnataka and promoting their manifesto which is promising diversion," he said.

"During the meeting of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Goa, neither former or BJP MLAs uttered single word on Mhadei. People should understand these things and take decision correctly during Lok Sabha election. People should teach them lesson for failing to protect Mhadei," Borkar said.

"BJP's government is like dictatorship, which is suppressing voice of public and create hindrances when someone starts movement over Mhadei," Borkar said.
Nairobi, May 3 : United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called upon Sudan's warring parties to pursue the path of peace and reconciliation in order to avert a humanitarian crisis that could engulf the greater Horn of Africa region.

Guterres, who spoke at a media briefing in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, said the conflict that broke out in Sudan in mid-April remains of grave concern, adding that laying down of arms among combatants is urgent, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The fighting needs to stop now before more people die and this conflict explodes into an all-out war that could affect the region for years to come," Guterres said, adding, "All parties must put the interests of the Sudanese people first -- that means peace, prosperity, and a return to civilian rule." Guterres is expected to discuss the situation in Sudan with Kenyan officials during his official trip to the East African nation besides chairing this year's first session of the UN System Chief Executive Board for Coordination.

The board, which meets twice every year, brings together the leaders of the UN agencies, funds, and programs, and happens to be the highest-level coordination forum of the UN system.

While acknowledging that Sudan's crisis is taking a toll on civilians amid a lack of access to food, clean drinking water, and essential medicine, Guterres urged fighters loyal to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), to adhere to the latest seven-day ceasefire and commence peace talks.

The fighting between the SAF and the RSF that broke on April 15 in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, has so far claimed the lives of more than 500 people and left over 4,000 more injured, according to Sudan's Ministry of Health.

Now in its third week, the fighting, which has disrupted a transition to civilian rule in Sudan, has displaced civilians with an estimated 100,000 people having fled to neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

On Tuesday, the two rival factions agreed on a seven-day ceasefire mediated by neighboring South Sudan.

Guterres warned that an escalation of the Sudan crisis could displace 800,000 civilians in the near future, adding that the UN had rallied behind regional mediation efforts to end fighting in the northeastern African nation.

The UN chief appealed to the international community to scale up humanitarian assistance for Sudan alongside the quest for peace and a return to civilian rule.

In addition, Guterres urged combatants in Sudan to protect critical infrastructure and amenities, and provide a safe corridor for seamless passage of humanitarian aid meant for civilians trapped in the latest conflict.
Agartala, May 3 : After three years of closure, one of the two 'Border Haats' (markets) in Tripura along India-Bangladesh border will resume trading from May 9, officials said on Wednesday.

A top official of the Tripura Industries and Commerce Department said that after a recent meeting between the district officials of Feni (Bangladesh) and South Tripura, it was decided to resume the business of the Purba Madhugram (Bangladesh)-Srinagar (South Tripura) 'Border Haats' from May 9.

"Efforts were on to restart the Kasba (Bangladesh)-Kamlasagar (Tripura) Border Haat in Sepahijala district," the official told IANS.

The four Border Haats, two each in Tripura and Meghalaya, have remained closed since March 2020 after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdowns, causing immense loss to the people living in the bordering villages.

Both the Tripura and Meghalaya governments have been pressing the Centre to take up the matter with the Bangladesh government to resume the Border Haats.

The two Border Haats in Meghalaya -- at Balat (East Khasi Hills district) and Kalaichar (South West Garo Hills district) -- were reopened last year and both are functional once a week now.

Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Anupriya Patel, recently in a letter to former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, currently a Rajya Sabha member, said that the Central government has raised the issue of reopening the two 'Border Haats' in Tripura to promote local business and livelihood of the people living on either side of the frontiers with its Bangladesh counterpart.

"We are continuously raising the matter of the reopening of Border Haats at Kamalasagar and Srinagar in the bilateral meetings with Bangladesh. We are hopeful of an early resolution of this matter," Patel had said in her letter to Deb.

Officials of the Tripura Industries and Commerce Department said that the officials in Sepahijala and South Tripura district administrations had on a number of occasions approached their Bangladesh counterparts to reopen the Border Haats as the Covid-19 induced situation has almost been tamed now.

Jaipur-based think-tank CUTS International, which has done several studies on border trade, had also recommended to the Indian government to resume these border markets the necessary precautions against Covid-19, as these markets boost the economy, cement ties between the people of the two countries and also check illegal trade.

These markets, spread in around 5,625 sq. metre area of the two countries' territories or "no-man's land", operate once a week on a fixed day.

In the weekly market, on an average, at least 25 vendors, including women from both sides of the border, sell their products.

According to the officials, 10 more "Border Haats" were approved along the India-Bangladesh border at Tripura and Meghalaya. Out of them, six are in Meghalaya, and four in Tripura.

Both Indian and Bangladeshi governments are keen to reopen more "Border Haats" in the four northeastern states -- Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam and Mizoram, which share 1,880-km border with Bangladesh.

(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
Washington, May 3 : As Democrats worry if any default on interest payments by the US government on its securities would lead to a global monetary crisis plus a internal constitutional monetary crisis, the best financial brains of the White House and the legal department are at work to ensure it does not as they feel they can invoke the 14th Amendment as a saviour.

Also, President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on May 9 to resolve the crisis as part of a general discussion on fiscal issues.

At present, both sides are unrelenting in their stands - Biden does not want spending cuts to his welfare programmes and McCarthy feels useless expenditure cuts are enforced, the treasury will bleed out leading to a crisis in payments, media reports said.

The US government breached the debt ceiling limit early this year, crossing $1.4 billion, and asked the Congress, now retaken by the Republicans, to raise the borrowing limit of the government to redeem its interest payments to investors in US treasury bonds globally. The Republicans wanted Biden's administration to double down on its expenditure and enforce spending cuts on its social welfare programmes in exchange for raising the debt limit.

McCarthy has introduced a bill on behalf of the GOP to enforce spending cuts by the government in order to raise the debt ceiling limit and government ability to borrow to redeem its payments to investors. The government may run out of money if a solution is not found as early as next month, claims The New York Times in a report.

Biden officials are entertaining a legal theory that previous governments have ruled out before them.

During the meeting between Biden and McCarthy on May 9, both sides are expected to discuss and resolve their differences over spending cuts and raising the borrowing limit of the government to avoid a US monetary crisis that could rattle global financial markets.

Biden's government faces a constitutional challenge to the debt limit. His financial aides are floating a theory that the government could invoke the 14th Amendment to continue issuing new debt to pay the bondholders, social security recipients, government employees and others, even if the Congress fails to lift the limit before the so-called 'X' date.

As per Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the treasury can hold on to make payments till June end after which she would have to resort to extraordinary measures that could prioritise payments bringing into conflict of interests between Biden's welfare programmes and obligations to payouts to investors and bond holders. That could rattle vote banks in the Democrat-ruled states if senior citizens' benefits are not paid out. That too in an election eve year.

White House officials and media reports said that under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, "the validity of US government's public legal debt including those incurred pension payouts and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion shall not be called into question", reports said.

What is the 14th Amendment? Top economic and legal experts say this theory gas been a subject of intense and unresolved debate in recent months. Will Biden support such a move is the question as the economy would face serious ramifications and the Republicans would be quick to challenge it in courts. If the debt issue continues in such a situation, it would avoid an immediate disruption in consumer demand by maintaining government payments, but borrowing costs will soar, at least temporarily, economists warn.

What is the debt ceiling? The debt ceiling is a cap on government borrowing that federal authorities are allowed to draw via US Treasury securities, such as bills and savings bonds, to fulfil its financial obligations.

Since the US government generally runs on budget deficits - its expenditure is more than its tax revenues - it has reached $1.1 trillion in FY 23 - it has to necessarily borrow huge sums of money to pay its treasury bills to its holders and investors.

The debt limit has been breached. What next? America breached the debt ceiling limit on January 19 this year. The Treasury Department will use "extraordinary measures" to redeem the government's fiscal obligations. These measures are accounting tools that can contain certain government investments to enable a continuity in the payment of bills. Those options could end by June next month.

What is at stake? When the US government exhausts its extraordinary measures and becomes bankrupt or runs out of cash, it would be unable to issue new debt and pay its bills. The government then defaults on its debt when bondholders are to get their due payments.

Such a scenario would be economically devastating and could plunge the world into a financial crisis, warned the The New York Times in a special dispatch.

Can the government do anything to forestall the disaster? As there is no rule book by which Washington can avoid a debt repayment crisis, the Treasury could try to prioritise payments, paying the bondholders first. But if the US defaults on its payments, it could throw global money markets into a major crisis, rattling bond holders and investors.

Theoretically, the Federal Reserve could step in to buy some of those Treasury bonds which are up for payments.




Egyptian films in cinemas:

Ramsis-Paris, Harley, Moghamarat Coco (Cocos Adventures), Baad El-Shar (Away from Evil), Saat Egaba (Hour of Answer), Day 13, Ibn El-Hajj Ahmed (Son of Hagg Ahmed).

Read more here

The Super Mario Bros in cinemas

The 2023 animated film follows a plumber named Mario who travels through an underground labyrinth with his brother, Luigi, trying to save a captured princess. Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, the film was released across international cinemas on 5 and 6 April this year.

Gowa El-Sandouk (Inside the Box)

Thursday 4, Friday 5 May, 7pm

Amir Taz Palace, 27 Al-Syoufiya St, off Al-Saliba St, Al-Khalifa District, Cairo

Directed by Eslam Emam, the play features numerous young talented actors. Emam is among the known Egyptian theatre directors. His work titled The Optimist which was an adaptation of Voltaire's Candide, was one of the most successful performances of 2020; it garnered numerous awards at the 13th National Theatre Festival (2021).

El-Tanboura troupe

Thursday 4 May, 9pm

El Damma Theatre, 30A El Belaasa Str, Abdeen, Cairo

The popular El-Tanboura troupe keeps alive old tunes once heard all over Port Said, Suez and Ismailia. El-Tanbura was established by Zakaria Ibrahim in 1988 in Port Said, when he brought together the masters of the simsimia, encouraging them in the revival of their musical heritage.

Two dance performances in one night

How El Fann Began and (Un-)Identified Movements

Thursday 4 May, 8pm

Jesuit Cultural Center - Alexandria



How El Fann Began is a personal point of view from the artist no. 249817 and his experience of the art scene. (Un-)Identified Movements is a multidisciplinary performance that merges between dance, music and video installation while seeking to present dance in new dimensions and new perspectives.

Wala Fi El-Ahlam - musical theatre

Friday 5, Saturday 6, Sunday 7 May, 8pm

Kasr El-Nil Theatre, off Tahrir Square, Cairo Downtown

Premiering in February 2023, the play Wala Fi El-Ahlam had several runs until Ramadan. It now returns to Downtowns Kasr El-Nil Theatre. Directed by Hany Afifi, this romantic comedy takes place in the 1960s where two brothers create a potion allowing them to escape reality and reach their wildest dreams.

Read the review of the play

Said El-Artist concert

Monday 8 May, 9pm

Tahrir Cultural Centre, Tahrir Sq, Cairo



In his debut appearance at the Tahrir Cultural Centre, the master tabla player Said El-Artist will present dozens of his students in a grand concert spanning multiple generations of rhythmic colors.

Break A Leg, Vol 2

Sunday 7 May, 8pm

Rawabet Art Space, 5 Hussein Basha Al-Meamari, Marouf, Cairo

Break A Leg is a series of one day events that present a variety of dance performances. The Vol 2 will showcase 3 different contemporary dance performances: Mountain Trail by Samar Ezzat, Trio by Ziad Wallace, Ziad Medhat and Mohanad Azzam, and How El Fann Began by Mounir Saeed. The latter performance is also staged at Jesuit Cultural Center - Alexandria on 4 May.

Screening of Alphaville (1965)

Monday 8 May, 7.30pm

French Institute - Alexandria, 30 Nabi Daniel Street

Alphaville - A Strange Adventure of Lemmu Caution, is a multi-award winning film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard and starring Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina and Akim Tamiroff. The plot revolves around A U.S. secret agent who is sent to the distant space city of Alphaville where he must find a missing person and free the city from its tyrannical ruler.

The screening is part of the EU FILM SCREENINGS, a collaborative project that presents numerous European films across Alexandrias foreign cultural centres.

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Nairobi, May 3 : The UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, said on Wednesday that it has appealed for $759 million to provide life-saving support to 16.6 million people, including 12.2 million children, in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia in 2023.

Of that, $137.5 million is needed for Kenya. An additional $690 million is required to provide climate-sensitive resilience support to communities across the affected areas in 2023 and 2024, the UNICEF said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Xinhua news agency reported.

The statement follows a visit to northeastern Kenya by UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell who on Tuesday met families and refugees struggling to recover from the worst climate-induced drought to hit the region in 40 years.

Russell visited drought-affected Garissa County and the Dadaab refugee camp, a semi-arid town in the county, said even with the onset of rains, it will take time and commitment by the international community for these communities to begin to recover.

"Rain has finally started to come, giving people hope, but it is a long road to recovery. Children are still hungry, they are at risk of cholera, they need to be in school, and many have no prospects for going home," she said.

According to the UNICEF, after five poor or failed rainy seasons in the last three years in the Horn of Africa, many families lost their cattle, crops, and entire livelihoods, putting the lives of more than 1.5 million children at risk due to severe acute malnutrition.

She said even after recent rainfall, the parched ground is unable to absorb all the water, leading to flooding and further devastation.

According to the UN, drought in the Horn of Africa has been compounded by years of conflict and insecurity, the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19, and rising food and fuel prices, partly due to the conflict in Ukraine.

It said the cost of cooking oil, bread, and wheat flour across the region remains high in local markets and many families cannot afford the basic necessities to survive.

More than 2.5 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have been displaced due to drought, according to the UN. "As families are driven to the brink, children are going hungry, missing school, forced into child labor or early marriage and becoming sick, including from cholera outbreaks," it said.

With the cycles of drought followed by flooding, the next devastating crisis may hit before children and their families have had a chance to recover, the UNICEF said.

In Dadaab, near the Somali border, Russell met with newly arrived refugees from Somalia at the Ifo Refugee Camp, where the UNICEF is working with partners to provide nutrition, child protection, and education. She visited a health post providing out-patient health and nutrition services, including for the cholera response, and spoke to families receiving child protection services, including the prevention of child marriage.

"Families continue to arrive in Dadaab from Somalia desperately hoping to survive," said Russell and lauded Kenya for its renewed support to incoming refugees and the local communities, who are themselves affected by the drought.

"We must respond to these emergencies while building long-term resilience in vulnerable areas," she said.

The UNICEF said it's working with governments and partners across the region to support millions of children in need.

Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp, was set up in 1991 to house people fleeing conflict in Somalia.
New Delhi, May 3 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday shot a volley of questions at the Centre in connection with the third extension of service given to ED Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra.

A bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, "is there no competent person in the entire agency and can one person be so indispensable?" The bench, also comprising justices Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol, queried Mehta, "What will happen to the agency post-2023 when he does retire?"

The top court, in a 2021 judgment, had said that any extension of tenure granted to officers holding the post of director after attaining the age of superannuation should be for a short period, adding that no further extension will be given to Mishra.

Mehta submitted that Mishra's extension was vital for India's evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the next peer review of India's legislation on money laundering is to take place in 2023.

Mehta contended that to ensure that the country's rating does not go down, continuity of the leadership in ED is crucial, added that "though no one is indispensable, in such cases continuity is required".

Mehta said, "We are not dealing with individuals, but with the performance of an entire country." Mehta also said that he has a serious objection with respect to the petitions filed by political persons whose party's senior functionaries are under investigation by the ED, saying that they have no locus standi in the matter.

Mehta said in one of the cases, the authorities had to get a cash counting machine because so much cash was recovered.

To this, the bench said that can a person being a member of a political party be a ground for not permitting him to file a petition? The top court will continue hearing the matter on May 8.

The petitioners have challenged the third extension given to ED Director S.K. Mishra, and also the CVC Amendment Act 2021.

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that the PIL challenging the extension of Mishra has been filed with the intention of protecting Congress leaders, who are facing money laundering charges.

Pointing at the petitioners - Randeep Singh Surjewala (Congress), Jaya Thakur (Congress), Saket Gokhale and Mahua Moitra (both Trinamool Congress) - the affidavit said the eminent leaders of these parties are under the scanner of ED.

"It is respectfully submitted that certain leaders of the aforesaid political parties are under investigation by the ED. The investigation is strictly going on in accordance with law which is reflected from the fact that in most of the cases, either the competent courts have taken cognisance of the offence or constitutional courts have refused to grant any relief to such leaders of the above political parties," said the affidavit filed by the Centre in the apex court.
Washington, May 3 : Ajay Banga, an Indian-origin American, was on Wednesday selected as the President of the World Bank by its executive directors for a five-year term starting June 2.

"The Board looks forward to working with Mr. Banga," the World Bank Board said in a statement.

Banga was the nominee of President Joe Biden of the US, which has chosen every World Bank President in an unwritten agreement with Europe since 1944, according to which Europe gets to select the President of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), leaving the World Bank top job for the US.

They still go through the process of nomination and "selection", which is really a tool to grant confirmation.

Banga will be the 14th President of the World Bank. He will take over from David Malpass, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump.

Banga was born in Pune, Maharashtra, and went to schools in Shimla and Hyderabad. He graduated in economics from St Stephen's College in Delhi and did his masters in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

"Ajay Banga will be a transformative leader, bringing expertise, experience, and innovation to the position of World Bank President," Biden said in a statement.

"And together with World Bank leadership and shareholders, he will help steer the institution as it evolves and expands to address global challenges that directly affect its core mission of poverty reductiona, including climate change. Ajay will also be integral in bringing together the public and private sectors, alongside philanthropies, to usher in the fundamental changes in development finance that this moment requires." US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a separate statement, "Ajay Banga will bring to this important role the right leadership and management skills, experience of living and working in emerging markets, and financial expertise to lead the World Bank at a critical moment in its history. Ajay understands that the challenges we face - from combatting climate change, pandemics, and fragility to eliminating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity - are deeply intertwined. He has effectively built a broad global coalition around his vision for the World Bank over the course of his candidacy." Banga most recently served as Vice Chairman at General Atlantic. He was previously the President and CEO of Mastercard. He has also served on several boards. He is a Co-founder of The Cyber Readiness Institute and was Vice Chair of the Economic Club of New York.

Banga was awarded the Foreign Policy Association Medal in 2012, the Padma Shri by the President of India in 2016, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Business Council for International Understanding's Global Leadership Award in 2019, and the Distinguished Friends of Singapore Public Service Star in 2021.
Mohali, May 3 : Ishan Kishan slammed a terrific 75 while Suryakumar Yadav brought out his wide array of shots in a whirlwind 66 as the duo shared a 116-run partnership for the third wicket to help Mumbai Indians chase down 215 and beat Punjab Kings by six wickets at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium on Wednesday.

Though the duo fell in the back-end of the chase, Tilak Varma and Tim David kept the attack going to complete the chase with seven balls to spare. The win also means Mumbai have ten points and have gone past Punjab to be at sixth position in the points table.

Mumbai were dealt with a big blow in the opening over as Rohit Sharma danced down the pitch to flay over off-side against Rishi Dhawan. But the top-edge flew to the fielder in the deep, resulting in his dismissal for a three-ball duck.

Ishan got going by hitting Arshdeep Singh for back-to-back fours through the off-side. After Cameron Green collected two boundaries off Sam Curran through a top-edge and swipe, Kishan smacked length balls from Rishi over long-on for two sixes.

Nathan Ellis, coming in as an impact substitute for Prabhsimran Singh found success on the last ball of power-play as Green pulled straight to deep mid-wicket. Suryakumar, Mumbai's impact player, was off the blocks with his pull, cuts and sweep off Rahul Chahar.

From the other end, Kishan danced down the pitch to hammer a four off Harpreet Brar and then sat down to smack high over deep mid-wicket for six. After flat-batting off Chahar for four, Kishan got his fifty in 29 balls.

Suryakumar took on Curran by slicing over deep backward point and lofting a drive over cover for two sixes. He then drove past the bowler and picked off wrists beautifully to hit two fours, second of which got him his fifty in 23 balls.

His hitting prowess continued by flaying Ellis over point and flicking Arshdeep for a brace of fours. Kishan further teared into Arshdeep by hammering over deep mid-wicket for six and slamming down the ground twice for two fours.

The Mohali crowd found its voice when Suryakumar mistimed a cut to short third man off Ellis and Kishan hooked straight to deep fine leg off Arshdeep. Varma ensured momentum stayed with Mumbai by pulling Arshdeep for six, scooping the next ball for four and launching another six over deep mid-wicket.

David chipped in with a cheeky dab off Curran for four and sliced off Arshdeep for the same result, before Tilak finished off the chase in style with a huge straight six slammed down the ground.

Brief Scores: Punjab Kings 214/3 in 20 overs (Liam Livingstone 82 not out, Jitesh Sharma 49 not out; Piyush Chawla 2/29, Arshad Khan 1/48) lost to Mumbai Indians 216/4 in 18.5 overs (Ishan Kishan 75, Suryakumar Yadav 66; Nathan Ellis 2/34, Rishi Dhawan 1/20) by six wickets
Patna, May 3 : Former IPS officer Amitabh Kumar Das on Wednesday wrote a letter to Bihar DGP R.S. Bhatti seeking police protection.

He claimed that he is having a life threat from gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan Singh who was released from jail on April 27.

In the letter, the former IPS officer said that he has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Patna High Court challenging the release of Anand Mohan.

"I learnt from my sources that Anand Mohan has allegedly given contract (supari) to his shooters to kill me. He is conspiring to kill me. Anand Mohan Singh has the blessings of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar," Das said.

In his letter, Das urged the Bihar DGP to deploy two armed bodyguards in his security within 48 hours. "If I am killed, the Bihar government will be responsible for it," he added.
Ahmedabad, May 4 : In a joint search operation conducted by the troops of the 102 Battalion Border Security Force (BSF) and the Narcotics Intelligence Unit (NIU) on Wednesday, one packet of hashish weighing a little over 1 kg was recovered from an isolated location near Ibrahim Pir, about 15 km off Jakhau coast in Gujarat, an official said.

The recent seizure is part of an ongoing crackdown on drug trafficking in the region. Since mid-April 2023, a total of 29 packets of hashish have been recovered off Jakhau coast.

The collaborative efforts between the BSF and NIU have been instrumental in disrupting the illegal drug trade and curbing the flow of narcotics in the area.

Officials from both the 102 Bn BSF and NIU have expressed their commitment to continue working together to dismantle drug trafficking networks and apprehend those responsible for these illicit activities.

Investigations are currently underway to trace the origin of the seized hashish and identify the individuals involved in the drug trade.
Patna, May 4 : Six members of a family and an auto-rikshaw driver were killed after a speeding truck rammed into a three-wheeler in Bihar's Sitamarhi district on Wednesday evening.

The deceased including the driver of a three-wheeler were returning from a marriage function. They met with an accident on Sitamarhi-Pupri state highway near FCI warehouse. Following the accident, the agitated villagers set the truck on fire.

Police said that four persons were critically injured in the mishap and their conditions are very critical. They have been admitted to Sitamarhi Sadar hospital.

The deceased have been identified as Mohammad Murtaza, Mohammad Afzal, Mohammad Badre Alam, Mohammad Ashraf and three children. The police said that the toll may increase.

The family, who are the native of Barsia village, went to Harpurwa village under Sonvarsa police station to attend the marriage function that held in the morning hours of Wednesday and were returning home.

The impact of the accident was such that the three-wheeler turned turtle. Following the accident, the driver and helper of the truck managed to flee from the spot. The angry villagers set the truck on fire. They do not allow police personnel to recover the dead bodies for an hour after the accident and blocked the road.

Navlesh Kumar Azad, incharge of Quick Response Team (QRT) reached at the spot and assured swift action against the errant driver. Following his efforts, the villagers allowed them to take the bodies.

Meanwhile, Sitamarhi District Magistrate (DM) Manesh Kumar Meena reached the Sadar hospital and looked after the arrangement of treatment.

Meena found that the civil surgeon was not present at the hospital, after which the DM warned the civil surgeon of strict action against him for his callous approach after such a big road tragedy.
New Delhi, May 4 : Wrestler Vinesh Phogat broke down in tears and expressed disappointment after some grapplers were allegedly roughed up at the Jantar Mantar protest site by a Delhi Police personnel on late Wednesday night.

Phogat, who has won multiple medals for India in wrestling, expressed her frustration over the situation, saying "did we win medals to see this day?" The protesters claimed that a drunk police personnel had attacked two wrestlers who were part of the protest, and that his colleagues did nothing to stop him.

Phogat, visibly upset by the incident, accused the personnel of pushing and shoving everyone.

She expressed her outrage at the way the protesters were being treated, stating: "We are not criminals to be treated in this manner." Phogat further raised concerns about the lack of female police officers presence at the scene and questioned their absence.

She also recounted her own experience of being "mistreated" by male police officers, claiming that she was subjected to abuse and physical aggression, and asked, "Why weren't there any women police personnel?" The alleged brawl between protesting wrestlers and police personnel here at Jantar Mantar is said to have taken place after the police did not allow the grapplers to bring folding beds to the site of protest.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi), Pranav Tayal, said that during the Jantar Mantar protest, Somnath Bharti brought folding beds without permission to the protest site and when intervened, the supporters became aggressive in trying to get the beds out of the truck.

"Subsequently, a minor altercation took place, in which Somnath Bharti, along with two others, was detained," said the DCP.
Team members from ASL at the recent IAQS stakeholders meeting in Amsterdam We are excited to be working with the Indoor Air Quality Society to promote a #onehealth world, said Dr. John McKeon, CEO of Allergy Standards. By working together, we can provide the information and resources needed for informed decisions and promote a healthier future for all.

Allergy Standards (ASL) is delighted to announce a new collaboration with the Indoor Air Quality Society (IAQS) to highlight the importance of environmental control in creating healthier indoor spaces. This relationship reflects ASL's ongoing efforts to promote a #onehealth world, where healthy people live on a healthy planet.

Recent global events have underscored the importance of indoor air quality and its impact on public health. As people continue to spend more time indoors, it has become increasingly important to ensure that indoor air is free from harmful particles and allergens. By working with IAQS, ASL aims to educate the public on the importance of environmental control and provide resources to help people make informed decisions about indoor air quality.

IAQS is a non-profit organization that promotes the exchange of indoor air quality information and expertise. Its members include professionals from various industries, including architecture, engineering, and healthcare. By collaborating with IAQS, ASL can leverage their knowledge and expertise to educate the public on the importance of indoor air quality and provide resources to help people create healthier indoor environments.

ASL's mission is to provide consumers with the information and tools they need to make informed decisions about their indoor environment. ASL believes that everyone has the right to breathe clean air, and is committed to helping people achieve that goal, ultimately creating a #onehealth world, where healthy people live on a healthy planet.

As part of the collaboration, there will be a series of educational initiatives to help people understand the importance of environmental control. These initiatives will include webinars, workshops, and other events that provide information about indoor air quality and how it impacts health. Resources and tools will be developed that can help people assess their indoor air quality and identify potential sources of pollution.

We are excited to be working with the Indoor Air Quality Society to promote a #onehealth world, said Dr. John McKeon, CEO of Allergy Standards. Our collaboration reflects our shared commitment to creating healthier indoor environments. By working together, we can provide people with the information and resources they need to make informed decisions about their indoor air quality and promote a healthier future for all."

Our alliance with Allergy Standards reflects our shared mission of promoting healthy indoor environments, said Prof. Daniel Bonn, Chairman of IAQS. Indoor air quality is a critical component of public health, and we are excited to work with Allergy Standards to provide people with the necessary resources to create healthier indoor spaces.

Allergy Standards is a global certification company that helps consumers make informed purchasing decisions by identifying products that have been tested and proven to support a healthier built environment. ASLs certification program provides a science-based approach to identifying products that are suitable for people with allergies and asthma. By collaborating with ASL, IAQS can provide its members and the public with access to products that can help them create a healthier indoor environment.

Through the collaboration, IAQS and ASL aim to make information about indoor air quality and environmental control more accessible to the public, and to empower people to create healthier indoor environments that promote overall well-being.

About Allergy Standards

Our mantra is design thinking and innovation for the air aware consumer. As an independent, international certification company, we create peer-reviewed, scientific standards for a wide range of products and services to determine their impact on indoor air quality. ASLs intellectual property portfolio includes unique protocols for products to be CERTIFIED asthma & allergy friendly. Our mission is to make the United Nations human right to breathe clean air a reality, through science (Standards), education (Academy) and innovation

https://www.allergystandards.com

About Indoor Air Quality Society

The Indoor Air Quality Society (IAQS) is a European based not-for profit society which aims to do more than provide technical science-based solutions.

They aim to connect, influence, and educate, bringing together committed and knowledgeable people worldwide, who can make a difference in the area of indoor air quality and to broadcast the results of our work to as wide an audience as possible.

Knowledge is the key to wisdom and wisdom is the precursor to action  action that will in the long-term improve indoor air quality, and make millions of lives healthier, happier and longer.

https://iaqsociety.org/about-indoor-air-quality/
A team of six elite litigators and advisors have established Botkin Chiarello Calaf, an Austin-based law firm representing clients in complex commercial and intellectual property litigation, as well as counseling on business law.

The firm, which opened May 1, consists of six partners: Ryan Botkin, Leah Bhimani Buratti, Maria Amelia Calaf, Katherine Chiarello, Jennifer Rappoport Colimon, and Asra Syed.

The firms experienced trial lawyers have represented plaintiffs and defendants in a wide variety of complex commercial disputes, including litigation and arbitration involving corporate acquisitions, business separations and dissolutions, shareholder and fiduciary disputes, business torts, breach of contract, and real estate disputes. Licensed to practice in multiple jurisdictions, the attorneys of Botkin Chiarello Calaf are ready to advocate for their clients in tribunals across the U.S.

The attorneys also have decades of experience enforcing and defending their clients intellectual property rights. With a winning record on both the plaintiff and defendant side, Botkin Chiarello Calaf is well suited to represent clients in trade secret, copyright, patent, and trademark disputes.

Additionally, with significant experience at national law firms, as lead trial counsel for the State of Texas, as outside general counsel to startups, and as senior in-house counsel, Botkin Chiarello Calafs partners counsel clients on the legal aspects of running a business so that clients can focus on business objectives.

"As Austin continues to evolve, we wanted to create a law firm that efficiently responds to the market and allows us to continue to provide the same zealous advocacy our lawyers are known for, said name partner Maria Amelia Calaf. Were thrilled to get started and welcome our clients to Botkin Chiarello Calaf.

Before forming the new firm, all six partners practiced together at Austins Wittliff Cutter.

We all enjoyed our years at Wittliff Cutter and we wish the firm continued success, said partner Jennifer Rappoport Colimon.

Botkin Chiarello Calafs offices are at 1209 Nueces Street, Austin, Texas 78701. For more information, visit http://www.bccaustin.com.
Ahram Online discusses challenges that face volunteering in Egypt with the National Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers Programme (UNV) in Egypt Heba Nosseir.

AO: Tell us about volunteering at the UN in Egypt?

Heba Nosseir: My name is Heba Nosseir. I am the national coordinator for the United Nations Volunteering (UNV) Programme in Egypt.

The programme works to integrate volunteers with the UN and its projects.

The goal of their work in the UN is to help achieve the sustainable development goals and local development plans such as the 2030 plan for Egypt.

Last year we had 169 volunteers in 15 UN bodies, including the WHO, the UNDP, UNICEF, and others.

Volunteers radiate great energy and passion, and they have a very noble motive which is to help develop their societies.

This motivation pushes them to innovate and shine in their tasks, and therefore the presence of volunteers in the UN makes a very big difference.

AO: What are the most prominent examples of their recent work?

HN: Well, for example, when Egypt hosted the COP 27 conference in December 2022, there were many volunteers from the UN, and everyone attested that they made a big difference in the several roles assigned to them.

Among them were those who carried out tasks for the Ministry of Social Solidarity, as the ministry mobilised more than 600 volunteers to organise various activities of the ministry in the conference. These volunteers were headed by 9 UN leading volunteers who skillfully helped the others organise the operations.

Another formidable model at COP 27 was the volunteers who worked for the WHO and prepared workshops and sessions in the conference related to different health issues as well as those who participated in the UNDP and helped deliver content on societal issues.

Volunteers in the UN programme also helped to achieve the inclusion of people with special needs in the activities of the conference, and also helped in the implementation and development of anti-harassment policies.

Another example is a beautiful story of an Egyptian girl who had volunteered to teach children in a school in Vietnam the English language, and provided wonderful content on the internet and her story is indeed inspiring and beautiful

AO: How is volunteering at the UN different from other organisations in Egypt?

HN: The system and model of volunteering in the UN is a different and distinct model, as it depends on the description of the assignment.

The task description is announced online, and those who want to volunteer apply, and interviews are held to determine who is suitable for each task.

Noteworthy, this volunteering has a financial stipend, not a salary, but a form of living expense , because the volunteer sometimes devotes himself or herself to the task for periods ranging from three months up to four years, so he/she gets a stipend for living expenses , such as food, drink, transportation, etc.

AO: What are the categories and types of volunteering, and is it determined by certain ages?

HN: There is a category of youth from 16-to 28-years-old, then a category of specialised volunteers from 27 years and above, then a category of expert volunteers starting from 35 years.

We have volunteers who are 80-years-old who offer their experience and contributions, and they have a very important imprint in UN projects.

There is also an important type of volunteering, especially in our new era, which is online volunteering.

This type was present even before the Corona pandemic, but the pandemic confirmed and established its importance.

One of the advantages of volunteer work via the internet or remotely is that it is convenient to specific tasks like data collection, translation and specific research tasks.

AO: Is volunteering well-established in the Egyptian culture? And what are the challenges in this field?

HN: Doing well is rooted in our culture and our personalities, and we do not find it difficult to convince people of its importance and usefulness. On the contrary, we always find interest and dedication from people.

Perhaps the problem in Egypt is that volunteering proceeds spontaneously, so we just need to organise and find different policies and platforms that allow organisations to reach volunteers and vice versa.

The existence of organisational policies will allow for finding a solution to big problems such as the lack of databases or data for volunteering in Egypt, and this thereby causes difficulty of conducting related research and studies.

We find that Western countries, for example, count volunteering and its efforts within the GDP. We do not do that.

The second problem is that volunteers and organisations requesting volunteering cannot reach one another.

We at UNV have a space to communicate, but the rest of the platforms undoubtedly suffer from this problem.

The third problem is related to skill-based volunteering, and finding platforms that maximises the efficiency of utilising these skills.

AO: What was the focus of UNV work in the previous period?

HN: Through my work as a programme coordinator, we have been connecting suitable volunteers with specific bodies or organisations within the UN.

Another axis is forming a network of civil work institutions, government agencies and international organisations to meet and discuss how to develop volunteer work in Egypt.

We have launched several campaigns, the most recent of which coincided with COP 27 to raise awareness of environmental issues on social media, and we reached about 300,000 beneficiaries.

Every year we commemorate International Volunteer Day, on the 5th of December, in which the efforts of volunteers are celebrated and honoured.

We also cooperated with the Ministry of Youth in training volunteers for Cairos book fair.

Finally, we also work to integrate people with special needs into volunteer work, so we cooperate with affiliated entities in society to integrate this segment into volunteer work within UN projects and help achieve the goals of sustainable development.

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AWAKE Chocolate When asked if the healthcare industry prioritizes rest, almost 60% of respondents said, No."

As a shock to absolutely no one, the sleep-related challenges faced by healthcare workers, particularly nurses, are extensive. AWAKE Chocolate, the first-ever caffeinated chocolate and a delicious alternative to coffee and energy drinks, recently surveyed 1,000 American healthcare workers sleep habits to determine just how rested the industry really is (hint: its not). To honor those at the forefront of patient care for National Nurses Month, AWAKE is offering a wake-up call and free caffeinated chocolate to any healthcare worker for the month of May.

"While these survey results were not surprising, they still shed light on the fact that the health and wellbeing of nurses and healthcare workers needs to be better prioritized," said Adam Deremo, CEO and co-founder of AWAKE Chocolate. "Nurses are the backbone of our healthcare system and their health is critical to the care they provide to patients, which is why AWAKE is happy to contribute what we can to this industry.

The American Association of Nurses states that nursing is the nation's largest healthcare profession, with nearly 4.2 million registered nurses (RNs) nationwide. Nurses comprise the largest component of the healthcare workforce, are the primary providers of hospital patient care and deliver most of the nation's long-term care. And according to AWAKEs new survey data, these key individuals are also feeling unrested and sleep deprived.

Some of AWAKEs most poignant findings include:



Nearly 82% of healthcare workers do not get the recommended amount of eight or more hours of sleep, and almost 60% of them do not feel rested throughout the day

Over 80% of healthcare workers report that they rely on coffee, energy drinks or other booster to get through their shifts

Nearly 60% of survey participants report feeling sleep deprived during the day

In addition to these, when asked if the healthcare industry prioritizes rest, almost 60% of respondents said, No, and over 40% of respondents said they feel more sleep deprived than people in their life who do not work in healthcare.

While this survey data reveals a strong need for more rest across the healthcare industry, change like this isnt going to happen overnight and AWAKE is here for these frontline workers in the meantime. In addition to giving away free chocolate to any healthcare worker during the month of May (see terms linked above), AWAKE Chocolate is also offering all hospitals, doctors offices and other healthcare practices free AWAKE Bites. Simply nominate your favorite healthcare office at the Healthcare Heroes Page.

To learn more about AWAKE Chocolate and how nurses and healthcare workers can get their free AWAKE, please visit awakechocolate.com.

About AWAKE Chocolate

AWAKE Chocolate offers a delicious, convenient and effective alternative to coffee and energy drinks that give you focus and energy when you need it most. AWAKE Bites contain between 60 and 90 calories per bite, depending on the flavor, and are made with simple ingredients. AWAKE has a wide product offering, ranging from bites to bars and in various flavors. All are free from artificial colors or flavors, certified gluten-free and kosher. Dark chocolate varieties (including Dark Chocolate Mint) are also Non GMO Project Verified and vegan friendly. Stay connected by following AWAKE Chocolate on Instagram @awakechocolate, on Facebook @AwakeChocolate and on Twitter @AwakeChocolate, or by visiting awakechocolate.com.
Join the global PMO community in celebrating International PMO Day by sharing your expertise, wisdom, and insight using the hashtag #intlPMODay on social media platforms.

Six of the largest global PMO (Project, Program and Portfolio Management Office) communities have come together to announce the establishment of International PMO Day. This annual celebration will take place every year on the second Tuesday of May, with the inaugural event falling on May 9th, 2023. International PMO Day is dedicated to recognizing, highlighting, promoting, appreciating, and celebrating the vital role PMOs play in organizations today.

The six participating PMO communities include The PMO Leader (US), PMO Squad (US), PMO Global Alliance (Brazil), PMO Strategies (US), House of PMO (UK), PMOfficers (Spain).

PMOs are essential for the development and delivery of organizational change, ensuring projects and programs are aligned with strategic goals, while maintaining a focus on continuous improvement. International PMO Day aims to raise awareness about the importance of effective project, program, and portfolio management, promote best practices, and recognize the valuable work of PMO professionals around the world.

Joe Pusz, known as PMO Joe, President of the PMO Squad, expressed his enthusiasm for International PMO Day, stating, "This event provides a platform to recognize the hard work and dedication of PMO professionals who continually strive for excellence in their field. We are proud to support International PMO Day and encourage the wider community to join us in celebrating the achievements of PMO professionals and promoting PMO as a profession and career of choice."

Milan Dordevic PMP, Americas Lead Ambassador of The PMO Leader community, with over 7,000 members, also commented on the initiative, "Establishing International PMO Day is a significant milestone for our industry, as we unite to raise global awareness of the critical role PMOs play in driving successful business outcomes. This celebration reinforces the importance of PMOs in delivering value to organizations and encourages the sharing of knowledge and best practices across the community."

Americo Pinto, founder of PMO Global Alliance, added, "International PMO Day is a testament to the power of collaboration within our global community. By joining forces, we are not only celebrating the incredible accomplishments of PMO professionals, but also creating a strong network of knowledge exchange and support, which will undoubtedly lead to further innovation and growth in the field."

Join the global PMO community in celebrating International PMO Day by sharing your expertise, wisdom, and insight using the hashtag #intlPMODay on social media platforms. Together, let us shine a light on the incredible work of PMO professionals and foster a spirit of collaboration and learning within our industry.

About International PMO Day

International PMO Day is a collaborative initiative established by the largest global PMO communities. The event celebrates the vital role PMOs play in organizations today. Held annually on the second Tuesday of May, International PMO Day aims to raise awareness about the importance of effective project, program, and portfolio management, promote best practices, and recognize the valuable work of PMO professionals. For more information, visit http://www.internationalpmoday.com

About The PMO Leader

The PMO Leader is a global community of project, program, and portfolio management office professionals, with a mission to connect, share, and grow together. With thousands of members from Americas, EMEA and APAC regions, the community focuses on providing valuable resources, networking opportunities, and expert insights to its members, fostering a spirit of collaboration and continuous improvement. For more information, visit http://www.thepmoleader.com
Ive always been passionate about getting the justice the people in our local communities deserve and its been wonderful to be able to do that in my role at Keches Law Group.

Michaela Weaver, a Trial Attorney at Keches Law Group, was recently recognized as an Up & Coming Lawyer by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. The award honors lawyers who have been practicing for 10 years or less but have already distinguished themselves as future leaders in the local legal community. Weaver has tried cases in both federal and superior courts and has negotiated millions of dollars worth of settlements for her clients. She also was previously recognized as a Massachusetts 2022 Rising Star by Super Lawyers.

Im honored to be recognized as an Up & Coming Lawyer by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Weaver said. Ive always been passionate about getting the justice the people in our local communities deserve and its been wonderful to be able to do that in my role at Keches Law Group.

Weaver works in the Torts Department at Keches and represents clients who have been injured due to negligence, medical malpractice, harassment, abuse, and discrimination, with an emphasis on cases involving sexual harassment and sexual assault in the workplace, at schools and colleges, and residential care facilities.

Prior to her career at Keches Law Group, Weaver spent two and a half years working at a premier boutique civil litigation firm in Boston. Weaver graduated in 2019 from Suffolk University Law School with Distinction in the Trial & Appellate Advocacy Concentration and was a Regional Finalist on Suffolk Laws National Trial Team. During her studies, she helped indigework andal defendants through pro bono work, and was recognized with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Courts 2018 Pro Bono Honor Roll Award.

Weavers Up & Coming Lawyer Award will be celebrated at this years Excellence in the Law event in Boston on May 16, 2023

About Keches Law Group:

Keches Law Group is one of the largest and most well-respected personal injury and workers comp law firms in Massachusetts. Since opening its doors in 1986, the group has recovered more than $1 billion in recoveries for their clients. The firms 43 attorneys across its nine offices in New England possess decades of combined legal experience and a proven track record of achieving excellent results for their clients while earning the reputation for being tough litigators. For more than 30 years, Keches Law Group has supported organized labor and fights for the rights of people injured on the job throughout the greater Boston area, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. In 2020 and 2021, Keches Law Group won the two largest jury verdicts in Massachusetts. Other practice areas include social security disability, employment law, class action, medical malpractice, and more. Keches Law Group also prioritizes community involvement and charitable causes through their non-profit organization, Keches Cares, and is committed to making a positive impact through leadership and volunteer roles in various local organizations. For more information, visit the Keches Law website or follow them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Semper Cares by Semper Solaris We are honored to have the opportunity to support our veterans by providing them with energy independence. Our veterans have given so much to our country, and we feel it is our duty to help them in any way we can.

The Semper Cares Initiative, created by veteran owned & operated company Semper Solaris, aims to alleviate high energy costs for veterans and their families through programs such as free solar panel installation and roofing replacement. The initiative is seeking the public's assistance in identifying veterans who could benefit from this program and asks individuals to share their stories of veterans in need. The Semper Cares Initiative recognizes the sacrifices made by those who have served our country and is dedicated to making a positive impact on their lives.

Semper Cares has garnered significant support from local and national charitable groups, and is committed to building on that support by engaging the community to identify veterans in need. Since its inception, Semper Cares has awarded over 18 deserving veterans and their families with major home improvements at no cost. By providing energy independence, Semper Cares hopes to ease the financial burden on veterans and their families while simultaneously making a positive impact on the environment.

We are honored to have the opportunity to support our veterans by providing them with energy independence. Our veterans have given so much to our country, and we feel it is our duty to help them in any way we can.

To learn more about the Semper Cares Initiative and how to nominate a deserving veteran, visit the Semper Solaris website.

Semper Solaris is a top-rated Phoenix solar panel, Tesla Powerwall battery backup, and roofing services company inspired by the Marine Corps motto, Semper Fidelis, which means "always faithful." The company was founded on military values such as loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. Achieve your energy independence with American made solar panels installed by Semper Solaris today! Ooh-rah!
Semper Cares by Semper Solaris Since its inception, Semper Cares has awarded over 19 deserving veterans and their families with major home improvements at no cost.

Semper Solaris is a local and veteran owned Solar Company and our commitment to veteran advocacy is best exemplified by its Semper Cares Initiative. Semper Cares is an ongoing program created to help deserving veterans and their families with significant home improvements like solar panel installation and to provide relief to veterans from high energy costs by awarding them with the security of energy independence. Semper Solaris publicly requests to help identify these courageous and deserving warriors in order to help tell their stories and make a difference in their lives. The brave men and women of the armed forces have sacrificed so much for our freedom that Kelly Shawhan and John Almond felt a responsibility to honor them. Since its inception, Semper Cares has awarded over 19 deserving veterans and their families with major home improvements at no cost.

Semper Solaris is looking to provide the next Semper Cares Honoree! We are reaching out to the Tampaians community for assistance in identifying veterans in need.

Semper Solaris is a veteran-owned and operated company located in Tampa, Florida that specializes in solar panel and battery storage installations, such as the iconic Tesla Powerwall. Help us continue the Semper Cares mission by spreading the word to friends and families of deserving veterans! Have a veteran in your life you want to honor? Go to SemperCares.com to nominate them today.
Honoree Nicholas E. Calio Vaughn College does an exceptional job of instilling the same message my parents instilled on me, said Calio. The value of working hard to turn opportunity and dreams into reality.

Vaughn College honored Nicholas E. Calio, president and chief executive officer of Airlines for America (A4A), for his role as a leader and advocate for Americas airlines and for his dedication in creating opportunities for the next generation of aviation and aerospace leaders. The eighth annual event was held on Thursday, April 13.

Anne Thompson, national chief environmental affairs correspondent for NBC News, was the emcee for the evening that also highlighted outstanding academic and professional achievements of Vaughn students. A record number of sponsors supported the Gala and more than $475,000 was raised.

Vaughn is building the workforce of tomorrow and graduating a highly diverse group of talented students with the knowledge, practical skills and leadership qualities to have an impact today and in the future, said Vaughn College President Dr. Sharon B. DeVivo. That constant focus on innovation and curriculum development, coupled with our dedication to the lifelong learning of our students, ensures our students are there to meet the incredible industry demand. We are deeply appreciative of A4As generous sponsorship of Vaughn College and our graduates who aspire to be future industry leaders.

Vaughn College serves many first-generation Americans and first-generation college students and seeks to provide an engaging educational experience for every student as well as creating a lifetime of opportunity for all.

Calio expressed his gratitude at being honored noting. Vaughn College does an exceptional job of instilling the same message my parents instilled on me, said Calio. The value of working hard to turn opportunity and dreams into reality.

VAUGHN COLLEGE: Founded in 1932, Vaughn College is a private, nonprofit four-year college that enrolls more than 1,200 students in masters, bachelors and associate degree programs in engineering, technology, management and aviation on its main campus in New York City and online. The student-faculty ratio of 13 to 1 ensures a highly personalized learning environment. Ninety-two percent of Vaughn College graduates, 76 percent in their field of study, are employed in professional positions or choose to continue their education within one year of graduation. The institution serves many first-generation college students and is recognized by the US Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution. In a study conducted by The Equality of Opportunity Project, and reported in The New York Times, Vaughn was ranked number one in upward mobility nationwide.

ABOUT A4A: Airlines for America (A4A) advocates on behalf of the leading U.S. airlines, both passenger and cargo carriers. A4A works collaboratively with industry stakeholders, federal agencies, the Administration, Congress, labor and other groups to improve aviation for the traveling and shipping public.

A4A members are Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, FedEx, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and UPS. Air Canada is an associate member.
Kents promotion to COO is a testament to his exceptional leadership, experience and talent. He has contributed significantly to the success of Amare and our phenomenal growth up to this point, and his expertise and understanding of the direct selling category is nearly unmatched.

Amare Global, The Mental Wellness Company and leader in all-natural mental wellness solutions, is pleased to announce the promotion of Kent Wood to Chief Operating Officer (COO). In his new role, Kent will be responsible for overseeing all global operations of the company, including finance, supply chain, IT, and legal. Kent will focus on ensuring the operational health of the business, with an emphasis on optimizing the supply chain to support the companys record-breaking growth and global expansion. In addition to his new role, Kent will continue fulfilling the responsibilities of Chief Financial Officer (CFO.)

Kents promotion to COO is a testament to his exceptional leadership, experience and talent, said Amare CEO, Jared Turner. He has contributed significantly to the success of Amare and our phenomenal growth up to this point, and his expertise and understanding of the direct selling category is nearly unmatched.

Kent brings over 30 years of experience leading the most successful network marketing companies. Prior to joining Amare, he founded, invested in, and served on the boards of four direct selling companies, which generated over $3 billion in cumulative aggregate revenues. His impressive track record has been recognized by Utah Business Magazine, which named him one of their "Forty Under 40" honorees.

Joining Amare as Chief Financial Officer in 2019, Kent has played an instrumental role in the companys growth, including the successful strategic acquisition of Kyani Inc. in 2022. Kent is inspired by the Amare community and their commitment to helping families all over the world experience better mental wellness through Amares Gut-Brain Axis (GBX) -supporting products. "We have a remarkable team of people who are doing something truly exceptional for thousands of families worldwide, and I am honored to be a part of the movement, he remarked. Kent and his wife reside in Utah and are the parents of five beautiful daughters and love their role as grandparents to five grandchildren.

About Amare Global

Amare Global (amare.com) is The Mental Wellness Company and is the category leader in creating holistic mental wellness solutions. The name Amare translates to love in Latin and a core part of its mission is to create more love, empowerment, and wellness in the world by providing high-quality natural products that support holistic wellness. Amares patented and award-winning proprietary formulations leverage the powerful science of the gut microbiome and the gut-brain axis (GBX), along with other clinically studied ingredients and blends. For more information, visit Amare.com, follow @amareglobal on Instagram, or visit us on Facebook.

For media inquiries, please contact prinquiries@amare.com
"This is a pivotal moment. Boomers are moving out of centerstage and taking their preferred payment methods with them. Customers have a lot of options now, and the choices that Gen Z and millennials make will decide which companies and payment forms are the winners and losers"

A new research report from Arizent, the parent company of American Banker, highlights current trends in emerging payments and the risk they hold for legacy offerings and the financial institutions that provide them. The results indicate that an era of payments is ending: As aging boomers are replaced by Gen Z and millennials as the principal financial consumers, mass adoption of new innovation is opening doors for tech giants to compete with banks and credit card companies on equal footing.

The report shows at at least half of Gen Z and millennial respondents have made a digital P2P (peer-to-peer) payment and used a digital wallet for an in-store payment or an online purchase. Compare these numbers to a third of boomers making P2P payments and digital wallet online payments, and one in 10 using a digital wallet for in-store payments.

This is a pivotal moment  the future of payments can be seen through the lens of how Gen Z and millennials are approaching them today, says Janet King, VP of Research for Arizent. Boomers are moving out of centerstage and taking their preferred payment methods with them. Customers have a lot of options now, and the choices that Gen Z and millennials make will decide which companies and payment forms are the winners and losers.

With the rising popularity of digital commerce, big players such as Paypal and Apple are now offering buy now pay later (BNPL) services that allow consumers to pay 25% of the purchase price at time of the transaction with the remaining 75% divided into three equal bi-weekly payments taken from their debit card at no interest and with no late fees.

Nearly half (47%) of participants said BNPL allowed them to make a purchase; however, 60% of Gen Z and 66% of millennial consumers report being likely to use BNPL in the future, compared to only 31% of boomers.

BNPL has become one of the biggest reasons why market shares are shifting from legacy banks to fintechs, says Daniel Wolfe, Content Director at American Banker. Banks need to recognize that the current payments era will end, and change is already underway. Boomers dominant use of credit cards, paper checks and retail store cards will be replaced by Gen Zers and millennials preferences for debit, BNPL, digital wallets and P2P.

Another way that tech giants are reaching the next generation of consumers is through wearable payment devices like Apple Watches or Fitbits. The report shows that 28% of Gen Z and 36% of millennials said they plan on purchasing one, while 58% of boomers expressed zero interest in this technology.

The full report can be downloaded here: https://www.americanbanker.com/research-report/the-times-they-are-a-changin-when-it-comes-to-payments

Research Methodology

This research was conducted online by Arizent/American Banker during February 2023 among 507 consumers aged 18 and older. The respondent pool was balanced to match the U.S. population based on gender, generational age and race demographics.

For more information on this survey or other Arizent research, contact:

Janet King

Vice President, Research

Arizent

janet.king@arizent.com

M 207-807-4806

About American Banker

American Banker empowers banking professionals with unique analysis and insight into the ideas transforming their business and industry. Across its journalism, events, research and benchmarking, it helps drive the way forward through the complexity of business innovation, retail and commercial disruption, technology, regulation, and reform. With a banking community 850K strong, American Bankers transformative content connects leaders online, in person and in print every day.

About Arizent

Arizent is a business information company that advances professional communities by providing insights and analysis and convening industry leaders. The company uses deep industry expertise and a data-driven platform to deliver its services, which include subscriptions, marketing services, live events and access to Leaders, an executive forum. Arizent also connects business communities through leading financial services brands like American Banker, The Bond Buyer, Financial Planning and National Mortgage News, as well as professional services brands like Accounting Today, Employee Benefit News and Digital Insurance.
"Achieving ISO 27001 is not only about meeting a set of standards but also about building trust with our clients and partners. It demonstrates our commitment to information security and assures them that their data is in safe hands." - Peter Bodnar, Chief Technology Officer for BARE International

BARE International, a leading market research company, has achieved the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification for its Information Security Management System (ISMS), earning an elite leadership role in the market research industry.

The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) certification is an internationally recognized standard focusing on information security and data management, a growing concern across businesses and consumers worldwide. The certification process involved an extensive audit of BARE International's operations, including its policies, procedures, and systems by an independent assurance and risk management firm.

By earning this certification, BARE International has established a robust information security management system that meets the highest international standards. Requirements include physical protection of data, systems architecture, and operational processes such as risk management and business continuity.

"We are very excited to reach this milestone," said Peter Bodnar, Chief Technology Officer for BARE International. "Achieving ISO 27001 is not only about meeting a set of standards but also about building trust with our clients and partners. It demonstrates our commitment to information security and assures them that their data is in safe hands."

Businesses can meet regulatory requirements by working with an ISO 27001-certified company. The certification confirms that BARE International is committed to protecting clients' confidential information and providing secure and reliable services, which is especially important for businesses that handle sensitive data. By working with a certified company, clients can mitigate the risks of data breaches, which can devastate businesses.

"This certification further enhances our reputation as a leading customer experience market research company," said President Michael Bare. "It is a testament to our teams' hard work and dedication, and we are proud to have achieved this important milestone."

About BARE International:

BARE International sets the industry standard as the largest independent provider of customer experience research, data, and analytics for companies worldwide. Founded in 1987, BARE International is a family-owned business with global capabilities. BARE is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, with thirteen offices worldwide. To learn more about BARE International's customer experience research, visit https://www.bareinternational.com.
Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution We are very excited by the flexibility afforded in the grant, which allows us to help more communities of color in more ways.  Douglas J. Bystry, President/CEO of Clearinghouse CDFI.

Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution (Clearinghouse CDFI) announced today that it has been awarded a $6.19 million grant from the U.S. Department of the Treasurys Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) to aid communities experiencing disproportional economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The grant comes through the CDFI Equitable Recovery Program (CDFI ERP), in which the CDFI Fund awarded over $1.73 billion in grants to 603 CDFIs across the country. These funds support CDFI lending to small businesses, community facilities, affordable housing, commercial real estate, and nonprofits. The funds can also be used for financial services, development services to support borrowers, and operational support for the grant recipients.

Clearinghouse CDFI will use the grant funds to help small businesses and community facilities, including existing borrowers, who have been adversely affected by COVID-related issues. It will concentrate grant dollars nationally, with a focus on California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Indian Country.

We are especially grateful to the U.S Department of Treasury and the CDFI Fund for this grant, said Douglas J. Bystry, President/CEO of Clearinghouse CDFI. We are very excited by the flexibility afforded in the grant, which allows us to help more communities of color in more ways.

When we invest in community lenders, we help build a future where all peopleno matter who they are or where they starthave the resources they need not only to succeed but to thrive, said Vice President Kamala Harris. These grantsrepresenting the largest CDFI grant program in historywill enable hundreds of community lenders to invest in small businesses and entrepreneurs, and also provide home loans for families, financial services for local nonprofits, and capital for community organizations.

These grant funds will be transformative for grantees that are building a more equitable, resilient economy, along with helping sustain our strong economic recovery said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. These critical resources will allow mission-driven lenders to expand access to capital in financially underserved communities, which will help increase contributions to long-term economic growth.

Todays awards represent a truly historic opportunity to accelerate efforts in Americas distressed and underserved communities to overcome the persistent economic effects of the COVD-19 pandemic, said CDFI Fund Director Jodie Harris. The more than $1.73 billion in CDFI ERP funding that is being awarded to CDFIs will be utilized to implement initiatives that, among other things, increase availability of financing and capital for small businesses, promote affordable housing, and improve accessibility to loans that help families make ends meetall of which were compromised by the pandemic, and are vital to community resilience, sustainability and economic prosperity.

About the CDFI Fund

Since its creation in 1994, the CDFI Fund has awarded more than $7.4 billion to CDFIs, community development organizations, and financial institutions through: the Bank Enterprise Award Program; the Capital Magnet Fund; the CDFI Rapid Response Program; the Community Development Financial Institutions Program, including the Healthy Food Financing Initiative; the Economic Mobility Corps; the Financial Education and Counseling Pilot Program; and the Native American CDFI Assistance Program. In addition, the CDFI Fund has allocated $71 billion in tax credit allocation authority to Community Development Entities through the New Markets Tax Credit Program and closed guaranteed bonds for more than $2.1 billion through the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program. To learn more about the CDFI Fund and its programs, please visit the CDFI Funds website at http://www.cdfifund.gov.

About Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution (Clearinghouse CDFI):

Clearinghouse CDFI addresses unmet credit needs throughout the U.S. and in Indian Country through direct lending, equity investments, and financial assistance. Since 1996, Clearinghouse CDFI has helped bridge the gap between conventional lending standards and the needs of low-income, distressed, and communities of color. Clearinghouse CDFI is also a B Corpa certification received from the nonprofit B Lab. B Corps are companies who meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability, and use business as a force for good.

Clearinghouse CDFI has funded $2.2 billion in total loans for over 2,600 community projects over the past 27 years. These projects have created or retained more than 40,000 jobs and benefit over 3.9 million individuals. Clearinghouse CDFI loans have also created 12,000 affordable housing units since inception.

More information is available at http://www.ccdfi.com.
Egypt has taken all necessary steps to verify the export certificate of a mummified head and hand currently on display at the Swan Fine Arts Auction house in London.

Egypt is trying to figure out how the mummified head and hand left the country. All legal procedures to stop the sale and the demand for its return will be taken in accordance with the British concerned authorities, if it was proven that the artefacts have illegally left the country.

According to the Swan Fine Arts, the mummified head left Egypt toward London during World War I with a British soldier who kept it in his home under a glass dome. The head, which radiocarbon dating suggests is 2,800-years-old, remained in the soldier's family for a century, however as some visitors were annoyed by the look of the head, it ended up being stored in a cupboard.

One of the soldiers descendants, who chose to remain anonymous, is now selling it. It is expected to fetch up to 20,000.

As the deed of the Antiquities Repatriation Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities is to monitor all antiquities auction halls and all ancient Egyptian antiquities that are being sold abroad, it succeeded to monitor the mummified head and hand at the Swan Fine Arts.

Egypt is taking all required procedures, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and concerned authorities in the country, to examine the export certificate of the artefacts to know how it left Egypt, said Mostafa Waziry, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

He asserted that if the mummified head and hand left Egypt illegally, all legal procedures will be taken to stop their sale and collaborate with all concerned authorities in Egypt and the UK to demand their return back home.

The Supervisor General of the Antiquities Repatriation Department, Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, pointed out that the antiquities on auction consist of a mummified head and hand, and that it is unethical to put human remains on sale as they are not pieces of art to keep in homes, but rather They are human remains to be respected and appreciated.

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Connecticut Innovations(CI), the states strategic venture capital arm and the leading source of financing and ongoing support for Connecticuts innovative, growing companies, today announced the panelists participating in its Future Fund Launch Event, a day to bring together ecosystem leaders and innovators to learn more about their new $50 million fund supporting early-stage companies and underrepresented founders and teams.

The event, to be held on Thursday, May 11, will feature two high-level panels:

Entrepreneur Panel: The Journey from Zero to Exit

Jessica Bailey, Greenworks Lending (acquired by Nuveen Green Capital)

Brent Ho-Young, Dream Payments

Andre Swanston, Tru Optik (acquired by TransUnion)

Alison Malloy, Connecticut Innovations (Moderator)

Venture Capital Panel: Investing in the Future Economy

Olivia Griffian, Venture Investor

Qiana Patterson, NAYAH

David Uponi, Forum Ventures

Alicia Zheng, Plum Alley

David Salinas, Forward Obsessed/District (Moderator)

We are thrilled to announce this lineup of incredible speakers and have the opportunity to hear their stories that have helped pave the way for future investors and entrepreneurs, said Alison Malloy, director of investments at Connecticut Innovations and fund manager for the Future Fund. These discussions will explore hot market topics and provide the audience with authentic advice, from both a startup founder and investor mindset.

The Future Fund Launch Event will take place at CIs headquarters, District New Haven, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 11. In addition to the panels and networking, Oshoke Abalu, co-founder of Love & Magic Company, futurist and former chief architect for MetLife, will participate in a keynote discussion.

To learn more about the Future Fund, visit https://ctinnovations.com/future-fund/. To register to attend, please visit: https://www.eventsquid.com/event/19304.


It is indeed an honor to host a corporate luminary and visionary thinker such as Indra Nooyi, said Tim Hall, president of Mercy College.

On May 1, 2023, Mercy College welcomed Indra Nooyi, former chairman & CEO, PepsiCo, to its Dobbs Ferry campus for an engaging conversation about breaking down barriers. Nooyi, a global leader who rose to become PepsiCos chairman and chief executive officer, shared insights she developed over the years  included in her book My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future  about gender bias, inequality and being a mother in todays workforce. Nearly 250 people attended the event, including Mercy College students, faculty, staff, Mercy and College of New Rochelle (CNR) alumni, Mercy Trustees and community partners spanning the education, nonprofit and business sectors.

It is indeed an honor to host a corporate luminary and visionary thinker such as Indra Nooyi, said Tim Hall, president of Mercy College. She is one of that rare breed of leader who not only sees the possibility of change, but makes it happen. And she did this by demonstrating that it is possible for a corporation to be a good citizen of the world in addition to a profitable business. That good global citizenship is something we try to instill in all our students at Mercy College as they head into their various careers.

During the conversation with Nooyi, facilitated by Mercy College Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Eva Fernandez, Nooyi answered questions  all submitted by event attendees  on managing the responsibilities of being chief executive officer and a mother, the importance of advancing women in the workplace, her leadership philosophy, the challenges and opportunities for professional women of color, and how to implement effective diversity, equity and inclusion programs and policies in the workplace.

To rise through the ranks and become a successful leader, Nooyi advised, The most important thing each of us have to know is, 'What is our proposition to the company? Always ask yourself, how am I going to be a lifelong student so I can learn everything around my job so that I can offer a proposition to the company which I keep improving?

Nooyi also met with about 30 Mercy students during a pre-event reception to learn about their career interests and extracurricular involvement. The students asked for her thoughts on how to stand out in a competitive marketplace and succeed as they embark on their careers after graduation.

What stood out to me the most was Indra Nooyis comments about performance and purpose, said Mercy student Taylor George 26, who was thankful for the opportunity to meet Nooyi and hear a global leader of such importance speak at her college. Having purpose behind your performance, I think thats really important  you have to know why youre showing up. And in my pursuit of internships and a career, knowing why Im doing what Im doing is going to keep me on the path forward to achieving what I want.

Nooyi was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo from 2006-2019. She was the chief architect of the PepsiCo initiative performance with purpose  PepsiCos pledge to be a better corporate citizen by being responsive to the needs of the world around it. This led PepsiCo to expand its portfolio of brands to include more nutritious foods, to limit its environmental footprint, and to empower people in the communities it serves. Through performance with purpose Nooyi also acknowledged the need to attract and retain talent by providing family friendly employee benefits and initiatives.

She has been named Outstanding American by Choice by the U.S. State Department. In 2019 her portrait was inducted into the Smithsonian national portrait gallery, and in 2021 she was inducted into the National Womens Hall of Fame.

Nooyi is also the recipient of 15 honorary degrees including one in 2003 from the College of New Rochelle, a legacy Mercy has continued to preserve as part of its agreement with CNR when it closed in 2019.

About Mercy College

Founded in 1950 by the Sisters of Mercy, Mercy College is an independent, coeducational college that offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs within five schools: Business, Education, Health and Natural Sciences, Liberal Arts and Social and Behavioral Sciences. The vibrancy of the College culture is sustained by a diverse student body from around the region. The College offers campuses in Dobbs Ferry, the Bronx and Manhattan as well as online offerings. For more information, visit http://www.mercy.edu.
Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP partnered with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to assist local Tampa-based nonprofits with governance checkups as part of the annual Financial Institution Pro Bono Day. The event was hosted in partnership with Bay Area Legal Services.

Greenberg Traurig attorneys and members of JPMorgans legal team were paired with the executive director and board members for the participating nonprofits to assist with nonprofit governance procedures reviews.

Participating nonprofits included:



Hillsborough House of Hope, who provides shelter and support to women who are homeless.

Give Kids the World Village, who provides cost-free trips to children with critical illnesses.

Unbroken Dreams, who assists people with challenges to fulfill their potential towards an independent lifestyle and positive future.

Sulphur Springs Museum and Heritage Center, who celebrates and preserves the social-cultural and natural history of Sulphur Springs to promote a safe environment for the neighborhood.

TRIBE Seminole Heights, who is a community-focused nonprofit that integrates unique learning experiences, family support, and strategic outreach with a focus on the wellness of children and families.

The Greenberg Traurig attorneys who participated in the event were Litigation Shareholders Tonya M. Esposito in Washington, D.C. and Paul J. Ferak in Chicago; Labor & Employment Of Counsel Jennifer W. Corinis in Tampa; Tax Of Counsel Brian Gaudet in Tampa; Litigation Of Counsel Michael E. Jusczyk in Boston; Public Finance & Infrastructure Of Counsel Andrew P. Rubin in Denver; Litigation Associates Anne V. Dunn in Boston and Jonathan Huie in Washington, D.C.; Tax Associate Laura A. Hendee in Tampa; and Financial Services Litigation Associate Leah N. Jacob in New York.

Bay Area Legal Services opened its doors in 1967 to provide free civil legal services to low-income Tampa Bay area residents. They serve the Tampa Bay community with legal services that assists with housing, families & children, veterans, seniors, disaster relief, debts & taxes, benefits & health, nonprofits & small businesses, COVID-19, and other services.

About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP has more than 2650 attorneys in 45 locations in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. The firm is a 2022 BTI Highly Recommended Law Firm for superior client service and is consistently among the top firms on the Am Law Global 100 and NLJ 250. Greenberg Traurig is Mansfield Rule 5.0 Certified Plus by The Diversity Lab. The firm is recognized for powering its U.S. offices with 100% renewable energy as certified by the Center for Resource Solutions Green-e Energy program and is a member of the U.S. EPAs Green Power Partnership Program. The firm is known for its philanthropic giving, innovation, diversity, and pro bono. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com.
To close such a notable round of investment in the current climate demonstrates not only the opportunity ahead of us, but the progression hackajob has made over the years from an idea to a high-growth startup.

This investment will enable hackajob to continue leveraging its proprietary AI models to reimagine what tech hiring will look like for enterprises over the next decade.



The investment follows a rapid launch in the US, with 25% of tech talent on the platform now based there.

The region already accounts for over 5% of revenue in just six months since the launch.

Funding round led by Boston-based Volition Capital with experienced HR Tech Investor and Partner Sean Cantwell joining hackajobs board.

hackajob, the full stack technical hiring platform, announces a $25m Series B funding round led by Boston-based growth equity firm, Volition Capital, with participation from existing investors AXA Venture Partners and Foresight. The round enables hackajobs significant plans to accelerate its expansion in the US and deliver on its vision of becoming the end-to-end hiring platform for enterprises to scale their technology teams.

The investment comes shortly after hackajob entered the US market to help large enterprises and multinationals solve their chronic shortage of access to talented tech workers. 69% of US digital leaders claim they are unable to keep up with the pace of change due to a lack of access to talent - a challenge the hackajob full-stack solution, powered by their proprietary AI models, can change. Since its US launch, hackajob has already built a significant talent pool with US-based candidates representing 25% of tech talent on their platform, making the region its primary growth market.

Mark Chaffey, CEO and co-founder of hackajob, says: Were entering an age where every business is becoming a tech company thanks to the value of data and the vital need for digitization both internally and across all customer-facing operations. Our Series B funding is part of our strategic growth plan to help all organizations - not just those in Silicon Valley - respond to this challenge and, following a successful entry to the market, were excited to accelerate our expansion into the US whilst continuing to grow in the UK.

To close such a notable round of investment in the current climate demonstrates not only the opportunity ahead of us, but the progression hackajob has made over the years from an idea to a high-growth startup which raised a series A that enabled us to set the foundations throughout 2019 to seize the opportunity that came from Covid and ultimately become the company we are today. It was a highly competitive process and were delighted to choose Sean and Volition Capital as our partners for the next phase of growth given their deep expertise investing in category-leading HR Tech companies.

hackajob has created the most effective hiring platform for enterprises to scale their permanent technology teams. Their modular product suite empowers companies to directly source talent through their two-sided marketplace, craft a compelling employer brand to their community of over half a million tech professionals, conduct online assessments and remote interviews, and generate powerful insights about a companys Diversity and Inclusion performance. Underpinning their hiring platform is over 50 million first-party data points on technical professionals which power their proprietary AI matching engine. This enables companies to get an 85% response rate to individuals they message through hackajob whilst reducing the number of applications to make a hire by seven times.

One such company is S&P Global, one of hackajob's strategic global accounts. hackajob has been a great success for our hiring demands as weve managed to save over $215,000 in agency fees whilst our diversity stats have increased" explained Luke Yorke, Talent Acquisition Lead at S&P Global. "hackajob has a great, diverse mix of candidates across the US and UK and Im looking forward to continuing to grow the great relationship we share."

Chaffey adds: Technology is going through a paradigm shift with the rise of Generative AI and Large Language Models. Weve already incorporated these models into our candidate onboarding journey and given the incredible amount of first-party data were sitting on, this investment round fundamentally enables us to reimagine what tech hiring looks like for both candidates and enterprises over the next decade.

The tech employment ecosystem has outstanding growth potential in our digital-first world with increasing demand for software developers and engineers, said Sean Cantwell, Managing Partner at Volition Capital. Hackajob's offering, ambitious management team, and established network of high-quality tech talent have positioned the company for rapid expansion in the US market. We are confident in partnering with Hackajob to help them become the go-to destination for developers and enterprises alike."

As part of todays announcement, hackajob is also releasing a new brand and visual identity that they worked on in partnership with the award-winning agency Droga5. Whilst technology continues to drive the world forward, from rockets that land themselves in the middle of the ocean to advances in AI that continue to blow our minds, its often forgotten that its people behind these products that are writing the code and ultimately building the future. hackajobs new brand focuses on celebrating these people.

About hackajob

Technology continues to drive the world forward. From rockets that land themselves in the middle of the ocean to AI that continues to shatter the status quo, ultimately, it's the people behind these products that are writing the code to build the future. hackajob exists to bring these people together with the companies that need them to continue driving the world forward. To continue building the future.

By creating the best-in-class experience with a candidate-centric platform, tech professionals can leverage hackajob to learn new skills, participate in community events, engage directly with employers, and ultimately find their next role.

Through hackajobs full-stack hiring platform, companies are able to directly source talent through a two-sided marketplace, craft a compelling employer brand to a community of over 500k tech professionals, conduct online assessments and remote interviews, and generate powerful insights about their diversity and inclusion performance. hackajobs platform is underpinned by over 50 million first-party data points on technical professionals that leverage proprietary AI models to enable companies to get an 85% response rate to individuals they message through hackajob whilst reducing the number of applications to make a hire by 7x.

For more information, visit https://hackajob.com/

About Volition Capital

Volition Capital is a Boston-based growth equity firm that principally invests in high-growth, founder-owned companies across the software, Internet, and consumer sectors. Founded in 2010, Volition has over $1.7 billion in assets under management and has invested in and/or provided sub-advisory advice to more than 40 companies in the United States and Canada. The firm selectively partners with founders to help them achieve their fullest aspirations for their businesses. For more information, visit http://www.volitioncapital.com or follow us on Twitter @volitioncapital.
JackBe Curbside Drive Thru Grocer -Danforth "We are thrilled to be opening our second location and to expand our mission to introduce a new way to shop, providing high-quality products with fast grocery service, which equates to the ultimate convenience for our customers," said Alex Ruhter, JackBe CEO.

JackBe, the premier curbside drive-thru grocer, is pleased to announce the grand opening of its second location, the second of three locations slated to open in 2023 for the new-to-market grocer. The new location has a 22,000-square-foot store and serves as the new corporate headquarters, with over 42,000 square feet in total, including a test kitchen and other amenities. Oklahoma City's newest grocery store opens on May 3 at 2121 W Danforth in Edmond, OK.

"We are thrilled to be opening our second location and to expand our mission to introduce a new way to shop, providing high-quality products with fast grocery service, which equates to the ultimate convenience for our customers," said Alex Ruhter, JackBe CEO. "Every industry is subject to disruption, and grocery is no different. After researching the market, we knew that the traditional business model of in-store shopping didn't fit with convenience-minded, tech-savvy shoppers. What we offer, an app-driven, curbside drive-up grocery model, is resonating."

JackBe opened the country's first curbside drive-thru grocery in January 2023. The store is proving people are looking for good eGrocery options. In the first few months of operation, over 50% of the people who tried JackBe returned to order more groceries, bucking a trend in the industry. JackbBe is building stores around solving traditional grocery drawbacks: limited availability, dictated pickup time slots, lack of quality products, and substituting out-of-stock items.

Instead, JackBe offers customers a new, unique approach with products and services they appreciate, including:



Simple shopping experience using the JackBe app

Place an order anytime, anywhere, and pick it up convenient for the customer

The only grocer that guarantees no substitutions 100% of the time.

Every item is handpicked

Exceptional produce with an emphasis on freshness and food safety

No membership fees

Efficient store footprint focused on convenience and pickup, not delivery

Delivers value with reduced costs of operations

Grocery orders ready for pick up whenever you need them, giving back much-needed time to a customer's day.

No minimum order required

In just minutes, customers can place an order on the JackBe app and, when ready, pull into one of the drive-thru bays, where a JackBe team member delivers groceries to their car. With the ability to serve up to 200 orders per hour, the 22,000 square feet location carries the most frequently purchased products from all the categories customers need to restock the home.

JackBe is committed to its shoppers, giving them the best experience by delivering speed, quality, and convenience. The success of the store is proving people are looking for better eGrocery options. In the community, JackBe is working with organizations, such as The Comeback Kid Society, to help bring about assistance where needed.

JackBes first location is located at 18001 North May Avenue, Edmond, OK 73013. The second store is at 2121 W Danforth in Edmond, both are open 7 days a week 8 am- 8 pm. A third location is slated to open in Q4 2023 in Mustang, Oklahoma.

For more information, visit https://jackbenimble.com.

About JackBe

JackBe is re-imagining grocery shopping by creating a chain of stores dedicated to being the premier curbside drive-thru grocer. It seeks to be humble, honest, and respectful to its customers with the end goal of making them feel valued and giving them the gift of time. It's on a mission to make buying groceries 'nearly' fun again. With JackBe, customers can place an order anytime, anywhere, on an easy-to-use mobile app, drive to the nearest location and have fresh, handpicked groceries delivered to their car in minutes. For more information, visit JackBeNimble.
Join the 2023 State of Women Business Owners: New Jersey Report. The WCEC provides a platform for women entrepreneurs to learn and share insights "We are excited to present the 2023 State of Women Business Owners: New Jersey Report and provide a platform for women entrepreneurs to share their experiences and insights," said WCEC Executive Director Rana Shanawani.

The Women's Center for Entrepreneurship Corp. (WCEC) is proud to announce the release of the 2023 State of Women Business Owners: New Jersey Report, which will be presented on Thursday, May 4th, 2023 at 9:00am.

The event will feature a video keynote address by Governor Phil Murphy, as well as experiential virtual workshops on the topics of funding and digital marketing, with a focus on woman-owned and BIPOC-owned small businesses.

The State of Women Business Owners: New Jersey Report provides important insights into the current status of women-owned businesses in New Jersey, including the challenges they face, ongoing strategies, and next steps for recovery from challenges brought on by COVID-19. The report is an essential tool for policymakers, elected officials, and business leaders to better understand the needs of women entrepreneurs and develop policies that support their growth.

"We are excited to present the 2023 State of Women Business Owners: New Jersey Report and provide a platform for women entrepreneurs to share their experiences and insights," said WCEC Executive Director Rana Shanawani. "We are also honored to have Governor Phil Murphy as our keynote speaker and Senator Menendez as a guest speaker and grateful for their continued support of women-owned businesses in New Jersey."

The virtual event is open to the public and will feature an interactive format that allows attendees to ask questions and engage in discussions with subject matter experts. Workshops during the event will cover topics such as available Grant and Micro-loan opportunities for small business owners as well as best practices for organic Digital Marketing.

Registration is now open and this event promises to be an informative and engaging experience for all attendees, and we encourage everyone to join us for this important conversation.

About Womens Center for Entrepreneurship Corp.

The Womens Center for Entrepreneurship Corp. (WCEC) is a registered 501c3 nonprofit. As a resource partner for the U.S. Small Business Administration, the WCECs mission is to empower women to invest in themselves via entrepreneurship by providing necessary resources for women to successfully start, own, operate, & grow their businesses. The WCEC works with women and BIPOC-owned businesses at the start-up stage and existing small businesses looking to scale up by providing educational resources, business counseling, and technical assistance. For more information, visit http://www.wcecnj.org/wbc
Keypoint Intelligence has been testing 3D devices and becoming even more educated on additive manufacturing for some time now. The testing as well as this award represent a significant and bold step in a new direction in our companys evolution.

Building on its rich heritage in 2D print, Keypoint Intelligence is proud to announce its first-ever Analyst Choice Award in the Additive Manufacturing (AM) category. Because of its performance in an important aspect of 3D printing, the Nexa3D XiP takes home this 2023 accolade for Fastest Compact Vat Photopolymerization System.

Many people know Keypoint Intelligence as a market research firm and independent tester of office/production print and smart workplace technology and services. What most people do not know is that the company has been testing 3D devices and becoming even more educated on additive manufacturing for some time now, said Pete Emory, Director of Research & Lab Operations NA/APAC at Keypoint Intelligence. The testing as well as this award represent a significant and bold step in a new direction in our companys evolution.

The Nexa3D XiP is a complete AM system that includes easy-to-use software and a combination wash-and-cure station. Nexa3D offers 20 certified resins (some specific for dental, manufacturing, and prototyping applications), but the XiP offers even more versatility through its open resin option. The autosensing and autofill resin system helps combat the common problem that non-automated systems have when running out of resin during a job.

All that notwithstanding, the Nexa3D XiP claimed this BLI 2023 Analyst Choice Award on account of its speed results it delivered compared to its peers, said Len Wolak, Senior Technician at Keypoint Intelligence. It was clear from the outset of testing that the Nexa3D XiP held a speed advantage over the competition, and we also found that object accuracy did not suffer even when printing at faster speeds. From what we have seen from other devices in this class, the Nexa3D XiP is productive to say the least.

We are thrilled to be recognized by Keypoint Intelligence as the fastest desktop solution for resin 3D printing, said Nina Swienton, Chief Marketing Officer at Nexa3D. Its a real honor to be named a winner when it comes to print speed in the professional desktop 3D printing category.

About Keypoint Intelligence

For over 60 years, clients in the digital imaging industry have relied on Keypoint Intelligence for independent hands-on testing, lab data, and extensive market research to drive their product and sales success. Keypoint Intelligence has been recognized as the industrys most trusted resource for unbiased information, analysis, and awards due to decades of analyst experience. Customers have harnessed this mission-critical knowledge for strategic decision-making, daily sales enablement, and operational excellence to improve business goals and increase bottom lines.

About Keypoint Intelligence Analyst Choice Awards

Analyst Choice Awards from Keypoint Intelligence are hard-earned accolades, based on rigorous testing as well as evaluation of key attributes such as usability, output quality, and value.

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London House Orlando, an exclusive social club and restaurant, has returned to private club status. Renowned for its impeccable service and iconic culinary concepts, London House aims to enrich members through high-end dining, luxury amenities, and exclusive social events.

As a member of London House, you can expect to experience the following:



Luxurious dining experience with butler service and a live DJ each evening

The Bond Room nightclub (formerly the Drawing Room), operating 10 pm  2 am on weekends, features extravagant light shows, VIP lounge seating, and a separate DJ booth. It is open to the public on weekends with reservations and a cover charge with preference given to members for reserved seating

Lounge modifications include high tops to offer a more casual dining experience which is also open to the Bond Room

The Drawing Room will be moving next door and will be transformed to the Drawing Room Cigar Club which is currently under construction

Regular events are scheduled for enjoyment by the members

Operating hours are Tuesday through Thursday 11 am to Midnight, Friday & Saturday 11 am to 2 am, and Sunday 11 am to 10 pm

Culinary menus include lunch, dinner, late-night snack menu, and Sunday brunch

Members of London House can expect the finest culinary options in Central Florida. The elegantly crafted menu of British & European-inspired cuisine features premium steaks, best-in-class seafood, and innovative savory entrees that will impress every member at the table. London Houses expert mixologists have designed a selection of classically inspired crafted cocktails to complement the beautiful bar and lounge. In addition to enjoying the multiple dining and lounge areas, members are invited to dine in the beautiful ambiance of the outdoor patios. The London House team offers premier experiences curated to make London House membership a must-have for the residents of Central Florida and beyond.

As a private club, London House now offers an array of membership tiers to its discerning clientele, including the House Membership, Elite Membership, Out of Town Membership, and Corporate Memberships. These memberships are designed to cater to members specific needs and preferences and provide exclusive access to the clubs amenities.

To learn more about membership, inquiries can be sent to membership@londonhouse.life.
Frederick businessman Don Linton says, I have always believed this is a story that we needed to tell before people forget how we got where we are today, he said. We have five parking garages in town today but in the early 70s, we had to fight...to just get the first one built.

Downtown Frederick is known today for its vibrant collection of shops and restaurants, a myriad of special events and public art, and its centerpiece, Carroll Creek Linear Park.

But it wasnt always like this.

A new book recounts the revitalization of Downtown Frederick, from its nadir in the late 1960s when high vacancy rates and poor infrastructure threatened its survival as an economic and social hub, to its sparkling reputation today as an award-winning destination for locals and visitors alike.

From the Brink to Brilliant: The Revitalization of Downtown Frederick, Maryland is the brainchild of long-time Frederick businessman and philanthropist Don Linton. I have always believed this is a story that we needed to tell before people forget how we got where we are today, he said. We have five parking garages in town today but in the early 70s, we had to fight like hell to just get the first one built.

Linton and other rebels, as they liked to call themselves, fought City Hall to make incremental steps toward revitalizing Downtown. They planted the first street trees, advocated for the new parking garage, and showed existing property owners what their historic buildings could look like with a little TLC.

They were making progress before the Flood of 1976 threatened all their hard work. But under the leadership of the Citys new visionary mayor, Ron Young, the flood would turn out to be just another catalyst in bringing the city back to its former glory.

The 130-page book was written by local writer and editor Kate McDermott and is full of historic and current images from Downtown Frederick. We tend to take for granted what we have in our magnificent Downtown today, McDermott said. But it is the result of decades of hard work by volunteers and City staff. My appreciation for what we have now only grew as I learned about the past. I hope others will feel that way, too.

From the Brink to Brilliant: The Revitalization of Downtown Frederick, Maryland is available on Amazon and through the Delaplaine Arts Center and Visitors Center gift shops.


Dr. Jodi Ganz and other physicians from Olansky Dermatology & Aesthetics will be offering free skin cancer screenings May 6 at Peachtree Road Farmers Market in Atlanta, Georgia. We are so fortunate to have an amazing team of physicians and partners who are eager to educate their community on skin cancer and its prevention. - Dr. Jodi Ganz

Olansky Dermatology & Aesthetics  Georgias top-rated dermatology practice  will be participating in free skin cancer screenings in honor of Skin Cancer Awareness Month. Screenings take place 8 a.m.-Noon May 6 at Peachtree Road Farmers Market (The Cathedral of St. Philip, 2744 Peachtree Road N.W., Atlanta).

This year marks the 16th year that we have had the privilege of coordinating this free skin screening event, says Dr. Jodi Ganz of Olansky Dermatology & Aesthetics. We are so fortunate to have an amazing team of physicians and partners who are eager to educate their community on skin cancer and its prevention. We invite all to come and join us and take advantage of this opportunity."

These exams take place outdoors in open air, allowing physicians to screen any easily visible parts of a patient. Doctors will check the hot spots where skin cancer is likely to form, which is typically around the neck, arms, hands, and face. Each patient will get a write-up of their examination. If anything serious is detected, doctors will make additional personalized recommendations and referrals. This event provides a convenient opportunity for vendors and patrons to receive skin exams by a board-certified dermatologist for free and without proof of insurance.

Olansky Dermatology & Aesthetics has been in collaboration with Peachtree Road Farmers Market for several years for their annual skin cancer examination. In addition to Dr. Ganz, Drs. Kelli Ingram Baender, Humza Ilyas, and David Olanksy and physicians assistants Sharen Doering and Wayne Emineth of Olansky Dermatology & Aesthetics will be participating in this year's screenings.

Olansky Dermatology & Aesthetics organized the event in partnership with the Atlanta Association for Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery. Its sponsored by the American Academy of Dermatology as part of their Spot Me initiative to provide people an opportunity to receive free skin cancer screenings, and increase education and awareness around skin cancer prevention.

Annual Skin Cancer Screening



Time and Date: 8 a.m.-Noon. May 6.

Location: Peachtree Road Farmers Market at the Cathedral of St. Philip, 2744 Peachtree Road N.W., Atlanta.

Olansky Dermatology & Aesthetics is your dermatology solution. Our ability to provide full-service dermatology to patients of all ages is a distinct benefit to choosing our practice. We offer medical, surgical, cosmetic, and aesthetic services to our patients, and even same day appointments when possible. This makes us not only a convenient solution for your family, but a comprehensive one as well. With services ranging from our in-house Mohs surgery for skin cancer, advanced laser therapy for psoriasis or our aesthetic services for skin rejuvenation, Olansky Dermatology & Aesthetics can handle all of your skin concerns. For more details, visit our website at OlanskyDermatology.com or call 404-355-5484.

Interviews are available upon request.


With propellers spinning, an electric-powered pilotless drone taxi took off into the sky above Seoul for the first time for a seven-minute test flight over the Han River on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Seoul Metropolitan Government jointly hosted an event to present the technology. But in fact the city government bought the drone from Chinese autonomous aerial vehicle maker EHang for W300 million for the event (US$1=W1,113).

"The government is pushing to commercialize urban air mobility by 2025. We are holding this demonstration in order for citizens to actually see the development of urban air mobility," said a ministry official. The ministry noted that drone taxis could potentially reduce traffic congestion in urban areas in the near future.


Dan Argiro and Pat Albero provided an outstanding level of service and expertise, which we have come to expect from their talented team. Their attention to detail and commitment to the needs of the transaction were evident throughout the process.

Performance Brokerage Services, North Americas highest volume dealership brokerage firm, is pleased to announce the sale of Kenworth of South Florida from Todd Hays and Eric Johns to All Roads.

Kenworth of South Florida has been a family owned and operated dealership group since it was founded in 2006. The group has a reputation for top-notch service and is the regions authorized dealer for top brands including Kenworth, Battle Motors / Crane Carrier Company, Lohr, Talbert, Warren, and TRP parts. Kenworth of South Florida is co-owned by Todd Hays, President, and Eric Johns, Vice President. The group operates in five locations in Florida: Fort Lauderdale, two in Riviera Beach, Fort Pierce, and Naples.

Following the sale, Hays commented, We were on the fence when it came to the decision to sell our dealer group or make a hard push to expand. We had heard about Performance Brokerage Services and some of the larger deals they had brokered in our industry. We reached out to Dan Argiro and Pat Albero to learn more about the process. We wanted to see if it made sense for us to use a broker instead of trying to sell the dealerships ourselves. As we got to know Dan and Pat, we decided to partner with Performance Brokerage to help us find the best buyer for our group. We continued to run our dealerships as if they were not for sale and maintained the day-to-day operations. Performance Brokerage took care of the rest. From the calls to the emails, to vetting buyers, they did it all. They were instrumental in helping us establish the right value for our group and finding the right buyer. We were adamant about strict confidentiality, and they exceeded our expectations. Their advice was sound, and they conducted themselves in a professional and ethical manner at every step of the transaction. We highly recommend Dan and Pat of Performance Brokerage Services if you want to buy or sell a dealership.

Over the last 5 years, Performance Brokerage Services has advised on the sale of over 300 dealerships, making it the highest volume dealership brokerage firm in North America. In 2022, the company consummated 92 transactions, marking a record-breaking year. This transaction was exclusively facilitated by Performance Brokerage Services Equipment & Commercial Truck Divisions, managed by Dan Argiro, Senior Partner, and Patrick Albero, Senior Partner.

Argiro commented, The perfect scenario for a transaction is when a seller is matched with an ideal buyer. Kenworth of South Florida made a very sound decision choosing All Roads to take over their dealership group. It was a privilege to help Todd Hays and Eric Johns connect with Andy Franklin and his team. All Roads runs a first-class operation and they have been extremely professional throughout the process. The combination of these two companies is going to create big things in the future!

Albero added, I am honored to have had the opportunity to represent Todd and Eric in the successful sale of Kenworth of South Florida. Throughout the entire process, Dan and I worked diligently to identify the perfect buyer, one who not only recognized the value of the dealership but also shared the sellers passion and vision. It was inspiring to work with Todd and Eric, who were so committed to preserving the legacy of their business. I am incredibly proud of our team's efforts in this transaction, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have played a role in helping Todd and Eric achieve their goals.

All Roads started in 1917 when George R. Norris first pitched his vision to Henry Ford on the floor of an assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan. He eventually took his idea to Dundalk, Maryland and began servicing and selling Fords. For over 100 years, the company has adapted and grown to become one of the largest privately held, multi-channel retail and commercial services enterprises in the Eastern United States.

The Baltimore, Maryland based company now employs over 900 people and represents 20 brands through its three operating divisions: Equipment, Truck and Automotive. The company has flourished under the leadership of Andy Franklin, CEO, since he stepped into his role in 2003.

Franklin commented, Our experience with Performance Brokerage Services on our acquisition of Kenworth of South Florida was excellent. Dan Argiro and Pat Albero provided an outstanding level of service and expertise, which we have come to expect from their talented team. Their attention to detail and commitment to the needs of the transaction were evident throughout the process. As a growing organization, we understand the importance of working with best-in-class firms that can assist us in achieving our goals. Performance Brokerage Services is undoubtedly this type of provider, and we were impressed by the quality of their work and the value they brought to the transaction. We highly recommend Performance Brokerage Services to any organization seeking a firm that can provide exceptional service and expertise. Dan and Pat's professionalism, industry knowledge, and dedication to their clients make them valuable assets to any growth-focused business.

The dealerships will remain at their current locations at 2909 South Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, 3760 Interstate Park Road West in Riviera Beach, 5690 Environment Drive in Fort Pierce and 16120 Old 41 Road in Naples, and a TRP Store at 3777 Interstate Park Road West in Riviera Beach.

About Performance Brokerage Services

Performance Brokerage Services, Inc. is North Americas highest volume dealership brokerage firm, specializing in buy-sell activity for automotive, RV, commercial truck, powersports, and equipment dealerships.

With over 25 years of experience, 700 dealerships sold, and a 90% closing rate, the companys reputation is unmatched and governed by the utmost ethical conduct and integrity.

The company offers a unique approach by providing complimentary estimates of value with no upfront fees or retainer, no reimbursement of costs, and paid a success fee only after the transaction closes.

Headquartered in Irvine, California, and supported by 9 regional offices in Utah, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Virginia, Ohio, New Jersey, Alberta and Ontario, clients benefit from national exposure with local representation.

As trusted and respected experts in the field, the company utilizes an extensive network of industry related attorneys, accountants, hundreds of registered buyers, and longstanding relationships with various vehicle manufacturers.

For more information about the services offered by Performance Brokerage Services, visit https://performancebrokerageservices.com.


Pinnacle Pool Logo

Since Pinnacle Pools opening in 1996, they have been growing and evolving into one of Atlantas best pool service companies. Now they are looking to the future and are excited to begin a new era of offering pool services to the Atlanta area.

Pinnacle Pools has recently purchased land in Duluth, Georgia. With 1.2 acres of land, the pool cleaning and maintenance company is planning on building a 4000-square-foot warehouse. While the project will take over a year to be completed, Pinnacle Pools is excited about this new growth and how it will help them further serve their community and customers.

Their new warehouse will also include expanded parking, which will be especially beneficial considering the new trucks Pinnacle Pool has recently purchased. These trucks will improve employee efficiency and help them provide the best pool cleaning and maintenance services. It will also allow Pinnacle Pools to reach new customers in areas they have yet to serve.

With over 300,000 pools taken care of by one of their many services including pool cleaning, maintenance, inspections, and repairs, Pinnacle Pools are experts in making your pool the best it can be. Their top priority is customer satisfaction, as evidenced by their impressive 96% customer retention rate.

About Pinnacle Pool

Pinnacle Pool Services, an Atlanta-based company, offers various services to pool owners in the area. These services include maintenance programs, repair services, and pool inspections. The company has been serving customers since 1996 and aims to help homeowners fully enjoy their pools. To find out more about Pinnacle Pool Services, please visit their website: https://www.pinnaclepoolservices.com/
ProMach: Performance, Packaged We are extremely enthusiastic as we enter our next phase of growth with two exceptional partners in LGP and BDT Capital Partners that share our common vision, --Mark Anderson, ProMach President and CEO

ProMach, a worldwide leader in processing and packaging machinery solutions, today announced that funds managed by BDT Capital Partners, LLC (BDTCP) have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a significant stake in ProMach alongside Leonard Green & Partners, L.P. (LGP), the existing majority owner. BDTCP is an affiliate of BDT & MSD Partners, a merchant bank built to serve the distinct needs of business owners and strategic, long-term investors. As part of the agreement, LGP will invest new capital into the company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1998, ProMachs portfolio includes 46 best-in-class processing and packaging solutions product brands serving manufacturers of all sizes, geographies, and industries. ProMachs product brands manufacture, distribute, integrate, and support solutions across the entire production line in distinct areas including processing, filling, primary packaging, secondary packaging, labeling and coding, pharma, and systems integration.

We are extremely enthusiastic as we enter our next phase of growth with two exceptional partners in LGP and BDT Capital Partners that share our common vision, said Mark Anderson, President and CEO of ProMach. ProMach has grown tremendously due to the hard work and creativity of our people that deliver innovative solutions to our customers every day across many different segments of the consumer products marketplace. Our outstanding management team appreciates the strong existing partnership with LGP and looks forward to working with both them and the team at BDT Capital Partners as we continue our focus on growth and value creation for our customers across the globe.

Personally, Im so proud of all our employees and the hard work and effort they bring every day to strengthen ProMachs reputation as a trusted partner to our customers, added Mr. Anderson. We wouldnt be where we are without their tremendous talent and energy, and we are very fortunate to have great teams at all our product brands that are passionate about our products, our customers, and collaborating with other ProMach product brands to deliver performance each and every time.

Under Mark Andersons skilled leadership over the past 17 years, ProMach has established an exceptional track record of performance and solidified its position as a leader in the U.S. processing and packaging machinery market, said Byron Trott, Chairman & Co-CEO, BDT & MSD Partners. We believe ProMach is well positioned to capitalize on secular industry tailwinds, including the transition to sustainable packaging and the accelerating adoption of automation technologies, and we look forward to supporting the companys continued expansion and success.

"We extend our sincere gratitude to the entire ProMach team for their outstanding work in building a world-class organization, said Jon Sokoloff, Managing Partner of LGP. Chris McCollum, Partner of LGP, added We look forward to partnering with BDTCP in the next stage of ProMachs growth and success. Since we partnered with the ProMach team over five years ago, the company has been a consistent strong performer and has delivered exceptional growth and value to all stakeholders with its proven business process. We are excited about the many growth opportunities that lie ahead and look forward to continuing our support of the company.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023 and is subject to customary regulatory approvals. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as lead financial advisor to ProMach. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC also provided financial advice to the company. Latham & Watkins LLP and Thompson Hine LLP acted as legal advisors to ProMach.

About ProMach

ProMach is a family of best-in-class processing and packaging solution brands serving manufacturers of all sizes and geographies in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, and household and industrial goods industries. ProMach brands operate across the entire production line spectrum: processing, filling, bottling and capping, decorative labeling, flexibles and trays, pharma, handling and sterilizing, labeling and coding, and robotics and end of line. ProMach also provides systems and integration including turnkey solutions, design/build, engineering services, and productivity software to optimize processing and packaging line design and deliver maximum uptime.

ProMach designs, manufactures, integrates, and supports the most sophisticated and advanced processing and packaging solutions in the global marketplace. Its diverse customer base, from Fortune 500 companies to smaller, privately held businesses worldwide, depends on reliable, flexible, technologically advanced equipment and integrated solutions. ProMach is headquartered near Cincinnati, Ohio, with manufacturing facilities and offices throughout North America, Europe, South America, and Asia. For more information about ProMach, visit http://www.ProMachBuilt.com.

About BDT Capital Partners

BDT Capital Partners provides family- and founder-led businesses with long-term, differentiated capital through its investment funds. It is an affiliate of BDT & MSD Partners, a merchant bank with an advisory and investment platform built to serve the distinct needs of business owners and strategic, long-term investors. Since 2010, BDT & MSD Partners affiliated funds have deployed more than $50 billion across their investment strategies. For more information, visit http://www.bdtmsd.com.

About LGP

LGP is a leading private equity investment firm founded in 1989 and based in Los Angeles with $70 billion of assets under management. The firm partners with experienced management teams and often with founders to invest in market-leading companies. Since inception, LGP has invested in over 120 companies in the form of traditional buyouts, going-private transactions, recapitalizations, growth equity, and selective public equity and debt positions. The firm primarily focuses on companies providing services, including consumer, healthcare, and business services, as well as retail, distribution and industrials. For more information, please visit http://www.leonardgreen.com.
Cancun, Mexico - On the occasion of the celebration of Children's Day, April 30 in Mexico, on May 1, Sunset World Group organized a fun private meeting for the children of its employees in a well-known recreational center in Cancun. The gathering began at 11:00 a.m. and lasted until 3:00 p.m. Attendees were able to enjoy jumps, slides, climbing walls, gotcha space battle, inflatable animals, video games, soft drinks and snacks.

More than 200 girls and boys with their respective parents enjoyed a happy meeting in an entertaining and safe environment. It is worth mentioning that this event was exclusively for employees and their children of the six Sunset World Group hotels in Cancun and the Riviera Maya and that employees of the Riviera Maya hotels had free roundtrip transportation.

"For Sunset World Group, it is very important to promote a healthy family unity among our employees," said Alicia Aguirre, Corporate Director of Human Resources for the renowned hotel group. What better pretext than Children's Day to organize a fun reunion for parents and children? she added.

Sunset World Group is a Mexican family business founded by some of the pioneers of Cancun who helped turn it into the most sought-after tourist destination worldwide. Sunset World Group has more than 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry and a sincere passion for environmental conservation, which is why it implemented an Energy Efficiency Program by substituting supply technologies in its six hotels in Cancun and the Riviera Maya. In addition, as of February 2020, all Sunset World hotels are supplied with clean and renewable energy produced at Mexican wind farms and geothermal plants, which has considerably reduced the company's carbon footprint. The activity and gastronomy programs in all six hotels were recently updated and expanded for the enjoyment of all family members, since Sunset World Group always focuses on providing the best vacation experiences for its members and guests.
The 2023 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts Winners Ive always loved the artists that travel the road less traveledthose are the artists that touch me - Herb Alpert

May 3, 2023 will mark the 29th annual celebration of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (HAAIA) which will be presented to eleven risk-taking, mid-career artists  experimenters - who are challenging and transforming art, their respective disciplines, and society. Fifteen highly regarded leaders in the arts made up the panels reviewing the candidates and selecting two award recipients in each of five disciplines: dance, film/video, music, theatre and visual arts. The dance category saw one of the awards presented to a collaboration of two artists who will share the award.

The 2023 HAAIA Winners are:

DANCE: Ayodele Casel, Makini (jumatatu m. poe) & Jermone Donte Beacham

FILM/VIDEO: Christopher Harris, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich

MUSIC: Erin Gee, Linda May Han Oh

THEATRE: Tania El Khoury, Whitney White

VISUAL ARTS: American Artist, Park McArthur

The awards were founded and conceived by legendary musician, philanthropist and artist Herb Alpert, and his Grammy-winning vocalist wife, Lani Hall. Now in its 29th year, the HAAIA has to date been awarded to 164 artists. Each award includes a $75,000 unrestricted prize and residency at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) which administers the prize on behalf of the Herb Alpert Foundation.

Herb Alpert and Lani Hall created the Herb Alpert Foundation in 1985 and over thirty years and more than $200 million dollars later, Herb Alpert remains one of Americas most important and loyal advocates for the arts and arts education.

Among the past HAAIA winners are noted artists: Carrie Mae Weems, Taylor Mac, Suzan-Lori Parks, Julia Wolfe, Michelle Dorrance, Tania Bruguera, Kerry James Marshall, Lisa Kron, Sharon Lockhart, Ralph Lemon, Arthur Jafa, Cai Guo-Qiang, Okwui Okpokwasili and Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah to name a few.

Irene Borger, Director of HAAIA since its inception in 1994, reflects on the Awards continued importance in honoring experimental artists attentive to the turbulence of American life. Yes, the world offers itself to [our] imagination, yet it seems more critical now to offer a fierce and forward looking imagination to the world -- which is precisely what all of the 2023 Herb Alpert Award Artists do."

Rona Sebastian, President of the Herb Alpert Foundation added,Herb and Lani Alpert continue their decades-long commitment to support those art makers and performing artists who, in grappling with our challenging world, are creating innovative, vital, and necessary work.

The generosity of Herb and Lani is legendary, and their work supporting artists to take risks, through The Alpert Awards, has propelled artmaking in this country for decades, " said CalArts President Ravi Rajan. "The list of past honorees is testament to how the award gives artists the space and time to create work that transforms the world."

The following summaries highlight why the 2023 panelists chose these eleven extraordinary artists:

DANCE PANEL SUMMARY

The Dance panel celebrates Ayodele Casel for her exquisite, formidable artistry in performance and dancemaking, her discernment and generosity, and her dedication to strengthening awareness of taps intellect, its intricacy, its Black historyin particular, the overlooked contributions of Black women in tap  and its soul.

The Dance panel honor the duo Makini (jumatatu m. poe) and Jermone Donte Beacham for their artistic collaboration. Shining new light on communities, histories, ways of life, and ways of expression and celebration not previously acknowledged in our industry, they raise the visibility of J-Setting, a movement style derived from drill teams, and developed in Southern Black queer club culture, and reveal the largeness and complexity of our world.

DANCE PANELISTS

Carla Peterson, director, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

Ali Rosa-Salas, curator, Vice President of Visual and Performing Arts, Abron Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement, New York, NY; Associate Curator, Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, MA

Eva Yaa Asantewaa, veteran independent arts writer, podcaster, editor, curator, dramaturge; founding Director of Black Diaspora, New York, NY

FILM/VIDEO PANEL SUMMARY

The Film/Video panel applauds experimental filmmaker/artist Christopher Harris, a true cinematic explorer, for his sustained commitment to formal and conceptual experimentation, his fresh eyes and admirable restlessness, yielding a deeply personal film language, both astute and expressive in its analysis of the nuances of Black histories, systemic neglect, and oppression.

Moved by the elegance and poetic rhythm of her works, by their assuredness and attunement with their subjects, the Film/Video panel celebrates filmmaker and artist Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich who combines striking imagery, sound design, and montage with rigorous research and interrogation, attending to the oft-neglected interiority of Black women and elders, and revealing deep meaning and nuance in each of her films.

FILM/VIDEO PANELISTS

Dessane Lopez Cassell, writer and curator; Editor-in-Chief, Seen journal (BlackStar Projects), Brooklyn, NY

Bill Morrison, filmmaker, HAAIA Awardee, New York, NY

Richard Pena, Professor of Professional Practice (Film), Columbia University and Director Emeritus of the New York Film Festival, New York, NY

MUSIC PANEL SUMMARY

The Music panel honors composer and vocalist Erin Gee for her groundbreaking explorations of the human voice, and her focused and sublime aural imagination. Creating micro-worlds brimming with nuanced and fresh colors, continuing to develop and deepen an innovative and personal musical vocabulary, she is carving out a potent and vital space within contemporary music.

The Music panel celebrates master bassist, composer and band leader Linda May Hanh Oh for the breadth of her musical language, orchestrational palette and intellectual rigor. Her music, full of powerfully unexpected moments, alternately rhythmic, ornate, bright, spare, and whimsical, expresses the

MUSIC PANELISTS

Derek Bermel, composer, clarinetist, HAAIA Awardee, Brooklyn, NY

Nicole Mitchell, composer/improv, HAAIA Awardee, Henderson, NC

Pamela Z, composer/performer, HAAIA Awardee, San Francisco, CA

THEATRE PANEL SUMMARY

The Theatre panel esteems live artist Tania El Khoury for her serious and playful, and complex work, her breadth of imagination, and powerful sense of ethical responsibility. Studying the political potential of live art, treating audiences as fellow investigators and researchers, inventing new forms and new ways of engagement with each project, she is opening new paths of meaning and creation.

Whitney White was selected by the Theatre panel for her artistic range as a writer, musician, performer, and director who moves fluidly between difficult and knotty contemporary plays and well-known classics, never allowing herself to be pigeonholed as one kind of artist. A brilliant and generous collaborator, she leads audiences on wonderful investigations of form, politics, and of the fundamental nature of theatre.

THEATRE PANELISTS

Emilya Cachapero, Director of Grantmaking Programs, Theatre Communications Group and arts consultant, New York, NY

Avery Willis Hoffman, artistic director, Brown Arts Institute and Professor of the Practice, Brown University, Providence, RI

Gideon Lester, artistic director and chief executive, Fisher Center, Bard College and senior curator, Open Society University Networks Center for the Arts and Human Rights, Annandale-on-Hudson and Brooklyn, NY

VISUAL ARTS PANEL SUMMARY

Artist American Artist was chosen Visual Arts prizewinner for their thought experiments which charge a potent space for examining urgent issues at the intersection of race, technology, and power while exploring potential alternative realities and futures. Through sculpture, video, and digital interventions, their ever-evolving body of work will continue prompting viewers, in the artists words, to remain critical of the social conditions that we take for granted.

Artist Park McArthur was named Visual Arts prizewinner for her incisive, insightful practice addressing urgent yet overlooked issues related to dependency, autonomy, ableism, and accessibility, particularly in relation to institutional sites and structures. McArthurs diverse and conceptually rich bodies of work interrogate and reframe imposed-upon notions of care and access.

VISUAL ARTS PANELISTS

Nana Adusei Poku, scholar, curator, Asst. Prof in African Diasporic Art History, Dept of History of Art, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Jessica Hong, curator and cultural worker; Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH

Joan Simon, independent curator, writer, arts administrator, Santa Monica, CA

About Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert is a musician, record producer and executive, sculptor, painter and philanthropist. His albums have sold over 72 million copies, and 29 of his records have reached the Billboard 200. Billboard also listed Alpert as #7 on their "Greatest Of All Time Billboard 200 Artists." He co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss in 1962 turning it into one of the most successful independent record labels in history. In 2012 Alpert was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

About the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts

The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts is an unrestricted prize of $75,000 given annually to risk-taking, mid-career artists working in the fields of dance, film/video, music, theatre and the visual arts. The prize was initiated and funded by the Herb Alpert Foundation and has been administered by the California Institute of the Arts since 1994. The Award honors and supports artists respected for their creativity, ingenuity, and bodies of work, at a moment in their lives when they are poised to propel their art in new and unpredictable directions. The Herb Alpert Award recognizes experimenters who are making something that matters within and beyond their field.

About The Herb Alpert Foundation

The Herb Alpert Foundation envisions a world in which all young people are blessed with opportunities that allow them to reach their potential and lead productive and fulfilling lives. Since its inception, the Foundation is dedicated to championing and investing in the Arts, primarily arts education, a focus on jazz, and support to professionals. This includes programs that see access to arts education as an issue of social justice and that the work of artists in society is what helps us not only to appreciate our differences but also to celebrate them.

This work often dovetails with the Foundations support in the area of Compassion and Well-Being, which invests in organizations that understand the importance of empathy and cooperation in our daily interactions with others and the positive effects inherent in restoring individuals and families abilities to stand independently. Please note: the Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.
Judson University is honored to host Dr. Pandya as part of the World Leaders Forum Inspirational Series and to learn more about what inspires and motivates her to explore the realms of science and space."

The World Leaders Forum Inspirational Series will welcome Dr. Shawna Pandya, a physician surgeon, citizen scientist, and astronaut candidate from Alberta, Canada to Judson University in Elgin. The main event will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12, at the Universitys Herrick Chapel, 1151 N. State Street in Elgin. Entrepreneur Jacqueline Ruiz will host this event. Tickets will go on sale Tuesday, May 2 for general and VIP admission.

The event with Dr. Pandya is the fifth Inspirational Series event and the second developed and hosted with Jacqueline Ruiz, an entrepreneur, author, and Latina pilot. Previous Inspirational Speakers at the event have included Hispanic actor and director Edward James Olmos magician Jim Munroe in 2017, Olympic champion Mary Lou Retton in 2016, and Australian-American Christian evangelist and motivational speaker Nick Vujicic in 2015.

Dr. Pandya is an example of someone who isnt afraid to go beyond the boundaries with her dynamic exploration of space, neuroscience, medicine, and even uncharted waters, Ruiz said. In our conversation, audiences will resonate with the resilience and perseverance she has experienced in her personal and professional pursuits. Judson University is proud to have her join its distinguished list of Inspirational Speakers.

Judson University is honored to host Dr. Pandya as part of the World Leaders Forum Inspirational Series and to learn more about what inspires and motivates her to explore the realms of science and space. Her story demonstrates how education opens previously unimaginable career paths and how a life-long love of learning fosters creativity and innovation, said Judson President Gene Crume.

Proceeds from this event will fund leadership, entrepreneurship, diversity, and RISE program scholarships for students at Judson University. Beginning at 3:30 p.m., VIP ticket purchasers can attend an hors doeuvres reception and will have a meet-and-greet photo opportunity with Dr. Pandya prior to the event.

Tickets start at $50. For more information, visit https://2023WLFInspiration.eventbrite.com.

About Dr. Shawna Pandya:

Dr. Shawna Pandya is passionate about the two extremes of humanity  surviving and thriving. Shes interested in furthering technological innovation and human knowledge, and tackling humanitys grandest challenges to affect positive social change.

After leaving her career in neurosurgery she went from repeatedly telling herself I am an absolute disgrace, to gaining a new sense of being.

In her talks, Shawna talks passionately about resilience and the lifelong learning she came to embrace from her time with sociopaths, Navy SEALs, martial arts, medicine, astronauts, and from her father.

She successfully completed ScientistAstronaut Candidate training in 2015 with Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere) and was part of the first crew to test a commercial spacesuit in zero gravity.

In 2016, Shawna was named as prime crew for Project Poseidon, which aims to further ocean and space exploration, while setting a world record for most days spent under the sea. She also received the Global Women of Vision Award in 2016.

Preparing for space requires more than just knowledge  it involves an incredible amount of mental and physical agility. Outside of her work, Shawna continues to further develop these skills through martial arts. She holds a black belt in taekwondo, a sport shes been practicing for over 15 years. She has also traveled to Thailand annually since 2015 to train in muay thai.

About Judson University

Located in Elgin, Illinois, since 1963, Judson University offers a Christian, liberal arts and sciences education through its Bachelor of Arts degrees for more than 60 majors, minors, graduate programs and online, as well as certification and accelerated adult degree programs. For more information, visit http://www.JudsonU.edu.
Jaylin presented a well-thought-out argument about the uses and benefits of 3D printing and how they could advance CRE, said Erin Timko, Trepps Director of Academic and Industry Relations.

Trepp, a leading provider of data, insights, and technology solutions to structured finance, commercial real estate, and banking markets, is excited to announce Jaylin Jones, of the University of Mississippi, as the winner of its first Innovation Challenge. Trepps Education Segment partnered with NYU Sterns C.H. Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance in hosting the challenge which encouraged students to explore innovative solutions using data or technology to address various challenges in the commercial real estate industry within specific categories.

On Wednesday, April 19th, Jaylin Jones, an undergraduate at the University of Mississippi, studying business administration, with a focus in real estate, presented his final project to Trepp's Education Steering Committee and a panel of judges at Trepp's headquarters in New York City. Jaylin presented along with fellow finalists Sophie Muller of St. Johns University School of Law, and Supasit Vitooraporn, a masters student at NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate.

As part of the Innovation Challenge, participants were tasked with developing innovative solutions using data or technology to solve a variety of challenges within the commercial real estate industry. Jaylin's winning project centered around solutions focusing on 3D commercial printing. He developed a 3D printing proposal to help leverage technology and data to reduce the environmental impact on CRE buildings, whether in energy, health, water, waste, or infrastructure demands.

The judges included several experts with a long tenure in the finance and real estate industries, Dr. Stephen Buschbom, Research Director at Trepp, Dr. Sam Chandan, Director, C.H. Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance and Professor of Finance at NYU Stern School of Business, Annelise Osborne, Head of Institutional at Arca Labs.

During the evaluation process, judges used a rubric evaluating presentations based on the quality and persuasiveness of the oral presentation, level of professionalism, quality of responses during the question-and-answer portion of the presentation, plausibility of the financial case, and the projected addressable market size. on oral presentation,

Jaylin presented a well-thought-out argument about the uses and benefits of 3D printing and how they could advance CRE, said Erin Timko, Trepps Director of Academic and Industry Relations. Based on the feasibility study presented and real-world examples provided, we are looking forward to Jaylin executing his business plan and seeing the positive impact he intends to make.

Trepp would like to congratulate Jaylin on his achievement and extend gratitude and appreciation to the other finalists. Jaylin will receive a $10,000 grant from Trepp to support his endeavors to move forward with his business plan. Finalists Sophie Muller and Supasit Vitooraporn each received $1,000 in grants.

If you're interested in learning more about our Education Segment and future Innovation Challenges, visit our website today or contact learn@trepp.com

Follow @TreppWire and @crenewstweets on Twitter for daily market updates.

About Trepp

Trepp, founded in 1979, is the leading provider of data, insights, and technology solutions to structured finance, commercial real estate, and banking markets. Trepp provides primary and secondary market participants with the solutions and analytics they need to increase operational efficiencies, information transparency, and investment performance. From its offices in New York, Dallas, and London, Trepp serves its clients with products and services to support trading, research, risk management, surveillance, and portfolio management. Trepp subsidiary, Commercial Real Estate Direct, is a daily news source covering the commercial real estate capital markets. Trepp is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT).
USOSM President and CEO Richard Hall welcomes new partner practices Stopperich Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and Southwest Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Our passion and our expertise is caring for patients, providing them with the best care possible. Partnering with USOSM will enable us to do that on an even deeper level, and thats something were all excited about.

U.S. Oral Surgery Management (USOSM)  a specialty management services company that exclusively serves premier oral and maxillofacial surgeons  is excited to announce partnerships in two new states: Pennsylvania and New Mexico. The new partners are Stopperich Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery of McMurry, Pennsylvania, and Southwest Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

USOSM was the first company of its kind, and it continues to lead the industry today. Currently, the shared-services organization has more than 190 surgeon partners across 26 states. It has the largest and fastest growing network of premier oral and maxillofacial surgeons, nationwide.

Were honored to announce our first partnerships in Pennsylvania and New Mexico. Our new partners  Stopperich Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and Southwest Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery  are exceptional OMS (oral and maxillofacial surgery) practices, who put patients first. They are leaders in their field and we welcome them to our network of like-minded surgeon partners, said USOSM President and CEO Richard Hall.

About the new partners:

Located in McMurray, Stopperich Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery primarily serves patients in Western Pennsylvania, providing comprehensive, compassionate and highly personalized care for a wide variety of OMS needs. Led by P. Shawn Stopperich, DMD, the practice offers the full scope of oral and maxillofacial procedures from dental implants to wisdom teeth removal, bone grafting, diagnosing and treating facial pain and injuries, and much more. The office is outfitted with the latest technology and equipment, designed with patients safety and comfort in mind.

Our passion and our expertise is caring for patients, providing them with the best care possible, said Dr. Stopperich. Partnering with USOSM will enable us to do that on an even deeper level, and thats something were all excited about. USOSM can provide the behind-the-scenes business support we need, so we can spend more time focused on patient care.

Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Southwest Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery offers a full-scope of oral and maxillofacial procedures, such as dental implants, wisdom teeth removal and bone grafting. Led by Wai Pong Ng, DMD, and Jeffrey Hagen, DMD, the practice specializes in complex orthognathic or corrective jaw surgery. They provide highly personalized and exceptional patient care in a comfortable and technologically-advanced setting.

Our patients trust us to provide the highest quality patient care possible, and thats what we do, said Dr. Hagen. Thats why we need a partner like USOSM, to take care of the administrative details, so we can give our patients our full attention.

Dr. Ng echoes Dr. Hagens sentiments, saying: Weve always been intentional about what were doing here. Weve built a carefully crafted, state-of-the art practice to serve our community well and meet each patients individual needs. Partnering with USOSM will help us to keep doing that more effectively. They will allow us to be more streamlined, so that our practice continues to flow like it should.

Headquartered in Irving, Texas, USOSM has partner practices spanning 26 states. A shared services organization, USOSM collaborates with premier oral and maxillofacial surgeons to offer a partnership solution for continued and accelerated practice success. USOSM provides operational, marketing and administrative support services, reinvests resources, and applies best practices to improve clinical and financial performance and produce steadier, more profitable growth for all. For more information, visit https://www.usosm.com/.
With XProtect Hospital Assist, hospitals can improve patient care by offering an additional layer of support for the healthcare staff, said Rahul Yadav, Chief Technology Officer at Milestone Systems.

As hospitals and healthcare facilities grapple with staffing shortages, XProtect Hospital Assist offers an innovative level of remote patient monitoring that aims to help healthcare professionals do more with less, improve overall patient safety, care, and experience, and enhance the situational awareness of the staff.

There is no doubt that the irreplaceable human touch of healthcare professionals is essential, and by integrating data-driven video technology into their daily routine, they can now be even further empowered. With XProtect Hospital Assist, hospitals can improve patient care by offering an additional layer of support for the healthcare staff, said Rahul Yadav, Chief Technology Officer at Milestone Systems.

Available now, XProtect Hospital Assist is a data-driven video and audio technology solution designed to improve patient care in medical settings. This advanced system empowers healthcare professionals to remotely monitor multiple patients simultaneously, enabling them to respond rapidly to incidents as they arise. By streamlining routine tasks and enhancing the efficiency of medical staff, XProtect Hospital Assist is poised to help significantly alleviate the workload burden faced by healthcare providers in today's fast-paced hospital environment.

Added Yadav: With an extra set of eyes and ears in patient rooms, our solution enables rapid response to incidents, ensuring the highest quality of patient care. And by addressing critical staff shortages and streamlining efficiency, XProtect Hospital Assist paves the way for a better, safer, and more connected hospital environment worldwide. We are proud to unveil this innovative solution, designed to enhance hands-on patient care and reinforce the vital role of healthcare professionals."

Around-the-clock care

Built upon the robust foundation of XProtect  Milestones versatile, open platform video management software  XProtect Hospital Assist is designed for hospital units that require continuous or situational patient observation such as individuals in intensive care and rehabilitation units, ensuring optimal patient safety and care delivery.

With XProtect Hospital Assist, healthcare professionals can observe and communicate with multiple patients simultaneously. By reducing the need for frequent patient room visits, the two-way audio communication functionality within the video system optimizes staff resources and enhances overall patient care. To uphold patient privacy, when staff observation is not required the intuitive Privacy Blur feature ensures that patients' dignity and privacy remain intact.

Additionally, XProtect Hospital Assist includes automatic fall detection alarms, a critical tool that alerts medical staff to a patient fall, helping to save valuable seconds on their response time. In the U.S. alone, up to one million patient falls occur in hospitals every year, resulting in roughly 250,000 injuries and up to 11,000 deaths.*

The open platform data-driven video solution

The XProtect open platform can seamlessly ingest and process vast amounts of data from various sources such as analytic software, specialty cameras, sensors, and existing facility systems. The video management system within many healthcare organizations now serves as the unifying platform, bridging the gap between raw data and actionable insights.

The Milestone XProtect open platform video management system currently supports more than 13,000 different security devices from more than 700 of the industrys leading manufacturers. Technology Partners include providers of network video cameras, NVRs, cloud technologies, access control, alarm and detection systems, video analytics, GPS technology, laser scanners, emergency call boxes, and much more.

About XProtect Hospital Assist

Designed exclusively for hospital units caring for patients in need of 24/7 or situational observation, XProtect Hospital Assist is a dedicated remote patient monitoring solution that allows the hospital to increase staff efficiency, react to incidents rapidly and provide high-quality patient care. By providing the ability to observe, detect and respond to situations quickly, XProtect Hospital Assist is a product extension that expands the classic security solution to help improve staff efficiency, optimize patient care and outcomes, and deliver a safer, more efficient hospital environment.

Notes for editors

*Statistics from the Clinics in Geriatric Medicine journal: Link

About Milestone Systems

Milestone Systems is a leading provider of open platform video management software; technology that helps the world see how to ensure safety, protect assets and increase business efficiency. Milestone enables an open platform community that drives collaboration and innovation in the development and use of network video technology, with reliable and scalable solutions that are proven in more than 500,000 installations worldwide. Founded in 1998, Milestone is a stand-alone company in the Canon Group. For more information visit: http://www.milestonesys.com. For news and other press releases, visit our Newsroom.

Company Contacts:

Lisbeth Nedergaard

Head of External Communications

GLOBAL

lin@milestone.dk

Tel: +45 31 39 49 37

Barbara Rizzatti

Communications Manager

AMERICAS

bari@milestone.us

Tel: +1 503 601 9749

Simone Lorenzen

Communications Manager

APAC

silo@milestone.us

Tel: + +65 9690 7160
Samsung is set to release its new budget Galaxy M12 smartphone for W198,000 on Wednesday (US$1=W1,117). It is the cheapest phone so far in the flagship Galaxy series.

Samsung is rushing to fill the void left by LG, which is pulling out of the smartphone business.

Besides the Galaxy M12, Samsung will keep expanding its mid-priced lineup with the Galaxy A42, A32, and A22 this year.

Samsung already made the M12 available online in 2019, targeting the millennial generation in India, the world's second largest smartphone market. Thanks to its popularity there, Samsung also put it out in the Southeastern and Latin American markets recently.

The phone has four cameras on the back and an 8-megapixel camera at the front. With a massive 5,000 mAh battery, users do not have to worry about recharging all day long. It also has a 15W fast charger and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner.
A year after comics writer Anthony Del Col and artist Fahmida Azim were awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary for their online collaboration, I Escaped A Chinese Internment Camp, the heart-wrenching story of Zumrat Dawut and her escape from China, her story will be released as a book collection by New Friday. The book, which will hit shelves this fall, is the story of Dawuther torture, interrogation, and forced sterilization for being a practicing Uyghur Muslim, and her plan of escape and eventual reunion with her husband and children in the U.S.

An acclaimed comics writer, Del Col is best known as cocreator of Kill Shakespeare, a six volume graphic novel series launched in 2010 that turned a universe of Shakespearean characters into a swashbuckling adventure series. Azim, originally from Bangladesh, is an author (Muslim Women Are Everything, 2020), illustrator, and storyteller whose works are focused on issues around identity and culture. In 2020, Del Col began publishing a series of serious nonfiction online comics on Insider.com, of which I Escaped A Chinese Internment Camp is a part.

After conducting interviews with Dawut and a meticulous examination of the human rights record of her dilemma, Del Col and Azim transformed her life-story into an evocative comics tale about a courageous woman. PW spoke with Del Col and Azim about creating the online comics series, the need for a trade book collection, and the ability of the comics medium to report important, inspirational, and transformative nonfiction.

Publishers Weekly: How did you discover Zumrats story?

Anthony Del Col: Around June 2021, I pitched the idea of the Uyghur internment camps to Insider, and then we started to reach out to a few Human Rights organizations. The United Nations Human Rights Council loved my idea and replied back immediately. Their organizations whole mission is to spread awareness, and my work at Insider would give them that outlet to do so. I wanted to find the right story for itI hate to say it, but I wanted someone whod gone through a lot of experience so wed have the full gambit. I was presented with a number of individuals but Zumrats story jumped out to the forefront. Shed been in prison, she had horrible things happen to her, and she'd been able to escape and talk about it, as she currently lives in the US.

Zumrat is unafraid to speak her mind and tell the truth. My editor, Walt Hickey, and I spoke with her through interviews in August of 2021. They were intense. Shed walked us through every single thing; there were some gruesome aspects of her story that we werent able to fit in due to time constraints and limitations, but after finishing the first Zoom interview, Walt and I just sat there and looked at each other. Shed broken down in tears when revealing some of what shed gone through. Shes a warrior whos trying to get the truth outone thing shes doing right now in social media is combing through and trying to find photographic and video proof. Thats one thing weve been doing with our reporting with Insidersince its so hard to find footage, we try to paint that image. Thats where Fahmida comes in.

Is that what made you want to tell her story in the comics format?

Fahmida Azim: Yes. People need to be able to see in order to empathize with whats going on. It also made things not too gory. If it was photographed or videotaped, it wouldnt have been able to reach as many audiences. But when you have an illustrated representation, it becomes far more accessible for way more people. Weve had people show our comic at schools, to kids, to explain whats going on. They wouldnt be able to do that with a long article or gruesome footage.

ADC: Its one thing to read about reports and stories of internment camps in China, but there are unfortunately so many atrocities happening in the world. But when you have a visual representationthis is her getting beaten, this is her being grabbed and being thrown onto the gurney so she can be sterilized. The visuals make it more present, more visceral. It grabs people by the shoulders, shakes them and tells them, this is whats happening today.

What are some of the challenges that you faced in making this comic?

ADC: We had difficulty finding artists for this story. A lot of artists were scared. One artist was located in a country friendly to China, and was scared to attach her name. Another artist was working for a startup that was going to China for funding. Fahmida didnt care  she was like, I need to tell this story. Zumrat also doesnt speak English. We had to bring in an interpreter, and had to be very detailed as things could be lost in translation.

I also had to send the final script to Zumrat so she could sign off on everything, because we wanted to make sure that everything was truthful and we hadnt misconstrued anything. Everything was taken from her interviews and other testimonies she provided in other Human Rights conferences. But Zumrat was very forthcoming, and very happy to provide as many details as possible, so we could tell her story.

FA: I was working on three different book deals, and didnt know if Id have the time. But Anthony talked about the artists that bailed and Zumrats story. Plus, it was an issue Id already deeply cared about. I got so mad! I said, if I can somehow make a difference Im going to.

How has your background in comics and visual storytelling influenced this work?

ADC: I learned the ins and outs of storytelling [from working in comics]. If you take a look at Kill Shakespeare versus this work, it feels like a huge difference. I think I understand story and character better. Whats most crucial to this story was emotion. I learned that some of the best panels are ones that dont have any dialogue at all, like a reaction shot or capturing the emotion on someones face. I learned how to script action, which helped with the scene where Zumrat was in Pakistan trying to get onto the planewould she be able to clear Pakistani airspace and get to the United States?

FA: The subject matter of this story was relevant to previous works Id done. As an editorial illustrator, I get pulled into doing stories about international womens rights and advocacy work. I did an interactive comic for The New Humanitarian about Rohingya refugee women and the infrastructure challenges they have in refugee camps in Bangladesh. My debut book, Muslim Women Are Everything, was about badass women/nonbinary identities who identify as Muslim and the experiences they go through. This story was completely up my alley.

Apparently there was a small controversy surrounding the comic receiving a Pulitzer Prize. What happened?

ADC: Some traditional editorial cartoonists wrote an open letter to the Pulitzer board, saying that although they really liked what we did, theyd like their category back. As newspapers and its readers dwindle, these cartoonists feel like theyre participating in a dying artform. Theyre concerned that the board is going to give the award to comics creators instead of editorial cartoonists who spent their careers writing traditional cartoons.

FA: I think they were miffed because the medium has changed as news has changed. The illustrative reporting category is a reflection of that: people get news from websites where they can infinitely scroll. There are more images on the web than ever. Its not just a comic strip on the back of a newspaper. Youre not limited by the number of pages anymore.

How important is it to have a print edition collecting Zumrats story?

ADC: Im excited about the print edition. I remember turning to my wife and saying, this is the most important work Ive done. The print edition will ensure even more people can read it. One comic cant change the world, but a comic can influence it and create a pathway to some sort of change.

FA: Im really excited about a world with multiple mediums as news [sources], with sequential art as a medium for communicating and not just a genre in itself.
On the Freedom to Learn movements National Day of Action, May 3, Candlewick Press will discount the ebook editions of Maggie Tokuda-Hall and illustrator Yas Imamuras picture book Love in the Library and married pair Frederick Joseph and Porsche Josephs YA collection, Better Than We Found It: Conversations to Help Save the World.

Love in the Library tells the story of Tokuda-Halls Japanese American grandparents, who met in Idahos Minidoka incarceration camp during World War II. Better Than We Found It offers perspectives on social justice action from more than 20 activists, celebrities, and political thinkers. Readers can download the ebooks for 99 cents apiece on May 3 only.

Both books provide anti-racist and equity-oriented information to young readers, reinforcing the goals of the Freedom to Learn National Day of Action. Freedom to Learn was launched by the African American Policy Forum, whose co-founder and executive director is Columbia Law School professor Kimberle Crenshaw, who coined the terms intersectionality and critical race theory. AAPF and Freedom to Learn aim to gather a coalition to resist book bans and other threats to inclusive education.

In an open letter, Freedom to Learn opposed the attacks being waged on educational curricula in the United States and elsewhere against intersectionality, critical race theory, Black feminism, queer theory, and other frameworks that address structural inequality. In particular, they called out the College Boards watering down of its Advanced Placement African American Studies curriculum.

As AAPF and Freedom to Learn organized for May 3, Tokuda-Hall faced her own curriculum-related challenge related to Love in the Library. In mid-April, she wrote on her blog that Scholastic had invited her to publish Love in the Library as part of a Rising Voices Libraries school materials collection, Amplifying AANHPI, on the condition that she remove a paragraph about racism from her authors note. Tokuda-Hall refused, her blog post went viral, and hundreds of authors signed an online anti-censorship petition to support her. Scholastic soon apologized, and CEO Peter Warwick expressed a sincere hope that we can start this conversation over and still be able to share this important story with the authors note unchanged. (Tokuda-Hall still has not decided whether to accept Scholastics offer.)

After the controversy arose, AAPF reached out to Tokuda-Hall. I was really honored, Tokuda-Hall said. AAPF doesnt mince words about what theyre fighting for and against, something I find both absolutely necessary and deeply refreshing. Theres no call from them to cede ground to those whod demand we rewrite or erase history, no neutrality about the rise of fascism. The organizations firm stance, she said, encompasses why I stood up publicly to Scholastic. Their visiona multiracial democracyis my dearest hope.

Tokuda-Hall informed Candlewick about the impending Day of Action, suggesting it could be a great opportunity to popularize their invaluable work. Candlewick president and publisher Karen Lotz was listening. We have been in close conversation with Maggie for the past several weeks about how best to amplify her message and her powerful indictment of the historic and present reach of racism, especially during Mays AAPI Heritage Month, Lotz said. It made perfect sense to plan the promotion for May 3, and to add Better Than We Found It, another title that encourages us to interrogate the failures of the past and present and to pursue a more equitable future.

Candlewick already works with organizations including the National Coalition Against Censorship, Unite Against Book Bans, and PEN America. In addition to these channels, were always looking for new and creative ways to ensure that readers can access challenged books, Lotz said.

The flurry around Tokuda-Halls afterword also sent Love in the Library back to press. Weve been thrilled to see increased demand for this book, and have expedited a reprint, Lotz said. Thanks to the tireless efforts of our production department, we were able to rush domestic printing and anticipate well have more stock available in just a few weeks. In the meantime, the book is still available from some retailers, and we hope many people will use this opportunity to read the ebook and to preorder the reprint. Although learning isnt entirely free in this case, its a bit more affordable, and the promotion uplifts the Freedom to Learn project.
Hinton said that competition between tech giants was pushing companies to release new AI technologies at dangerous speeds, risking jobs and spreading misinformation. "It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things," he told the Times.

"Look at how it was five years ago and how it is now," he was quoted as saying in the piece, which was published on Monday. "Take the difference and propagate it forwards. That's scary."

Geoffrey Hinton, who created a foundation technology for AI systems, told the New York Times that advancements made in the field posed "profound risks to society and humanity".

A computer scientist often dubbed "the godfather of artificial intelligence" has quit his job at Google to speak out about the dangers of the technology, U.S. media reported Monday.

 Jobs Could Be at Risk

In 2022, Google and OpenAI -- the start-up behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT -- started building systems using much larger amounts of data than before.

Hinton told the Times he believed these systems were eclipsing human intelligence in some ways because of the amount of data they were analyzing. "Maybe what is going on in these systems is actually a lot better than what is going on in the brain," he told the paper.

While AI has been used to support human workers, the rapid expansion of chatbots like ChatGPT could put jobs at risk. AI "takes away the drudge work" but "might take away more than that," he told the Times.

 Concern About Misinformation

The scientist also warned about the potential spread of misinformation created by AI, telling the Times that the average person will "not be able to know what is true anymore." Hinton notified Google of his resignation last month, the Times reported.

Jeff Dean, lead scientist for Google AI, thanked Hinton in a statement to U.S. media. "As one of the first companies to publish AI Principles, we remain committed to a responsible approach to AI," the statement added. "We're continually learning to understand emerging risks while also innovating boldly."

In March, tech billionaire Elon Musk and a range of experts called for a pause in the development of AI systems to allow time to make sure they are safe.

An open letter, signed by more than 1,000 people. including Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, was prompted by the release of GPT-4, a much more powerful version of the technology used by ChatGPT.

Hinton did not sign that letter at the time, but told The New York Times that scientists should not "scale this up more until they have understood whether they can control it."
Business, governmental and Purdue leaders took part in Wednesday's announcement of a partnership between European-based imec and Purdue University. Pictured from left are Joe Pasetti, imec vice president of corporate affairs; Jimmy Costa, senior vice president of innovation and semiconductor strategy, Applied Research Institute Inc.; Max Mirgoli, imec executive vice president of worldwide strategic partnerships; Mark Lundstrom, Purdue's chief semiconductor officer and senior advisor to the university president; Purdue President Mung Chiang; Indiana Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers; U.S. Sen. Todd Young; Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb; imec CEO Luc Van den hove; and Jillian Turner, senior vice president, global investment and partnerships for the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. (Purdue University photo)

Collaboration with Belgium-based imec rapidly adds to building momentum in microelectronics for the Heartland

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Purdue University and the state of Indiana continue to make giant leaps in semiconductor research growth with a first-of-its-kind agreement with a cutting-edge European nano- and digital technology innovation hub.

Imec joined Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, U.S. Sen. Todd Young and Indiana Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers and Purdue President Mung Chiang in announcing the partnership during the SelectUSA Investment Summit, an annual international investment event by the U.S. Department of Commerce near Washington, D.C.

"Purdue University and the state of Indiana have become the heart of the silicon heartland. Purdue is the most visible and forward-leaning university in the U.S. in the semiconductor degrees program, in research innovation to rewrite the economic equation of on-shoring fabs and packaging, in industry partnership with over 20 leading companies, and in national leadership in CHIPS for Americas execution, Chiang said. Today we mark a milestone for semiconductor collaboration between the U.S. and Europe by forming the R&D partnership with imec  the best example of successful collaboration across universities, companies and the government. We warmly welcome the imec ecosystem to the home of Americas top four engineering and top five patent-receiving university.

The announcement with the IEDC and imec is the latest for Purdue in a rapidly expanding resume of investments in microelectronics industry research and semiconductor workforce development. Purdue has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the Worlds Most Innovative Companies for its advances in workforce development in semiconductors and microelectronics.

This is a global piece of the puzzle that marks another milestone in Purdues semiconductor programs and Indianas emerging microelectronics industry, said Mark Lundstrom, Purdues chief semiconductor officer and senior advisor to the university president. Future-focused partnerships like this help bring together world-class expertise and state-of-the-art facilities.

With research sites across Belgium, imec leverages state-of-the-art research and development in advanced semiconductor technologies and artificial intelligence, uniting world-industry leaders across the semiconductor value chain.

The collaboration and equal investment between the three entities will strengthen the growing semiconductor ecosystem in Indiana and at Purdue with a steady exchange of expertise in the continually evolving and expanding industry. A stream of students, faculty and professionals are expected to bolster the already growing semiconductor foundation at Purdue with new innovations and research.

Zhihong Chen, the Mary Jo and Robert L. Kirk Director of the Birck Nanotechnology Center, said partnering with imec will enable Purdue to further strengthen the relevance of its research to the semiconductor industry.

imec is one of the most well-known lab-to-fab facilities, Chen said. They have helped the latest technologies or innovations discovered in labs to be converted into fab-ready types of technologies for industry to adopt.

Joerg Appenzeller, Purdues Barry M. and Patricia L. Epstein Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said imec will have a presence on Purdues campus, working side-by-side with faculty and students at the Birck Nanotechnology Center. Additionally, students and faculty will have an opportunity to work in Belgium.

Working with imec falls in line with the universitys recently announced Purdue Computes initiative. The announced $100 million Purdue investment in semiconductor research and learning facilities includes a phase 1 update of the Scifres Nanofabrication Laboratory located in the Birck Nanotechnology Center, an on-campus hub for microelectronics research, as well as global partnerships.

The creative engine at Purdue is a very strong attraction for imec, Appenzeller said. They understand that we both have complementary pieces of knowledge and capabilities, and that we don't want to duplicate what they already have in Belgium. We want to have something here that is complementary in terms of tools, processes and capabilities.

Both Chen and Appenzeller have been involved in discussions for more than a year to bring the Purdue and Indiana partnership with imec to fruition.

This is the latest international partnership for Purdue, which announced with the IEDC less than a year ago that MediaTek Inc., a leading global fabless chipmaker, would open the company's first semiconductor chip design center in the Midwest, to be housed on Purdues campus. Located in Taiwan, MediaTek Inc. is the worlds fourth-largest chip designer by revenue.

That was followed by another joint announcement with the IEDC on U.S.-based SkyWater Technology, which entered a $1.8 billion investment for locating a major semiconductor manufacturing facility in Discovery Park District at Purdue. It will provide investing companies access to both Purdue University faculty experts and highly sought-after graduates prepared to work in the industry.

Purdue University continually works to answer the call for semiconductor workforce development with the Semiconductor Degrees Program, the first comprehensive set of innovative, interdisciplinary degrees and credentials in semiconductors and microelectronics in the country.

Purdue has also partnered with Ivy Tech Community College, the nations largest singly accredited statewide community college system, to develop industry-driven credentials and experiential programs. The collaboration brings Purdues resources to populations that may not have had access to this type of program while upskilling a motivated workforce.

Additional comments from todays announcement:

This one-of-a-kind trans-Atlantic partnership connects one of the worlds most respected R&D firms with one of the worlds most respected universities. Im pleased imec, Purdue and the state of Indiana are collaborating in this endeavor.

S. Sen. Todd Young of Indiana

Indiana is securing unprecedented economic momentum right now, particularly in advanced manufacturing, propelled by the strategic partnerships we have built as we continue to strengthen our growing semiconductor ecosystem. Imec is a global leader for research and technological development, and we are proud to partner with them, alongside our top-ranked Purdue University, by formalizing the discussions and collaborations already taking place, facilitating the further exchange of ideas and providing the necessary support to power cutting-edge, next-generation microelectronic R&D in the U.S. with Indiana at the center.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb

This MOU signed with Purdue University holds great significance for imec. It provides us with a unique opportunity to act as a major catalyst of worldwide semiconductor R&D in collaboration with a world-class American research university. This collaboration between these two R&D powerhouses from the U.S. and Europe underscores my strong conviction that international collaboration in semiconductor research and development is imperative for expediting progress by building on our strengths and innovating faster together. Advocating and executing on that spirit of collaboration is what imec is all about and we look forward to working with Purdue to strengthen the innovation ecosystem in the U.S and Europe.

Luc Van den hove, imec CEO

Indiana has the workforce, institutional partnerships, geography and natural resources which enable us to be a leader in the semiconductor space. In the last 20 months, we have secured incredible momentum in this future-focused sector  a critically important industry for our national security  and announced foundational semiconductor investments throughout the state. Todays announcement is a direct result of our strategy and commitment to further position Indiana as a leader in reinvigorating and bolstering U.S. semiconductor capacity through leading-edge technology and R&D, with the intention of growing and scaling this work through additional funding based on the findings of this initial phase in the partnership.

Brad Chambers, Indiana Secretary of Commerce

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last five years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://stories.purdue.edu.

Writer/Media contact: Brian Huchel, bhuchel@purdue.edu
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn, the tandem credited with founding the Internet in the early 1970s, will join Purdue University President Mung Chiang for a Presidential Lecture Series event in September, coinciding with the 60th anniversary celebration of Purdues historic launch of the nations first academic computer science department.

The discussion with Cerf and Kahn, who are commonly called the Fathers of the Internet, is planned for Thursday, Sept. 7. The time and location will be announced later. The Presidential Lecture event, which is free and open to the public, is titled Origins of the Internet and its Subsequent Evolution and comes a half-century since the pivotal period of Cerf and Kahns groundbreaking work.

As Purdue continues the yearlong celebration of the nations first computer science department 60 years ago and launches new investments, such as 50 new faculty in computing departments, to attain the pinnacle of excellence, it is particularly exciting to bring to our campus the two pioneers of the Internet who paved the way for one of the planet-changing innovations of our Information Age, Chiang said. Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn are true American trailblazers, and their Presidential Lecture at Purdue coincides with their inventing the TCP/IP half a century ago. Their creativity and persistence define the very essence of pinnacle of excellence and impact.

Cerf and Kahn led the design and implementation of what formed the basis of the Internet, beginning with their seminal research paper in the early 1970s. Titled A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication, the paper was subsequently published in the iEEE Transactions on Communications in May 1974 and outlined the resulting Internet architecture for the technological innovation thats ubiquitous today.

In a mere six months in 1973, Cerf and Kahn crafted the common digital language that provides the pathways for interconnecting vast network devices. They developed the Transmission Control Protocol, which later split off the Internet Protocol, becoming TCP/IP, seen in the network settings of computers to this day. In geek speak, they formulated fundamental protocols for wireless and wired networking, specified TCP/IP to meet these requirements, prototyped TCP/IP and coordinated early TCP/IP implementations.

They first met when Kahn came to UCLA in 1969 to help test the nascent Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, known as ARPANET. Kahn and Cerf formed an effective working relationship to generate test data and predict and diagnose problems in the network. Later they began work on the Internet, completing their design in the fall of 1973. The effort spanned more than 10 years, and the birthday of the operational Internet is Jan. 1, 1983. In the ensuing decades, computer networks across the globe were able to communicate with each other using protocols developed by Kahn and Cerf.

Cerf received a bachelors degree in mathematics from Stanford University in 1965, then spent two years at IBM, where he contributed to QUIKTRAN, a FORTRAN based time-sharing system. Drawn to the field of computer science, he left IBM to study at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned his masters degree and PhD in computer science in 1970 and 1972, respectively.

Kahn earned a bachelors degree in electrical engineering at the City College of New York in 1960 before earning his masters degree in 1962 and PhD in 1964 in electrical engineering from Princeton University. His first job was with AT&T Bell Labs before he joined the electrical engineering department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in 1964. Kahn took a leave of absence from MIT in 1966 to work at a local research and development firm, Bolt, Beranek and Newman (now known as Raytheon BBN), where he began developing his own ideas for computer networking.

For their global-changing achievements, Cerf and Kahn have collected countless awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S., as well as the ACM A.M. Turing Award, the highest distinction in computer science; the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest technology honor; the Japan Prize, that countrys most prestigious honor for science and technology in 2008; and many honorary doctoral degrees.

Purdues advancing computer science legacy

Sixty-years ago, Purdue celebrated the launch of its groundbreaking computer science program when it dedicated its new high-speed IBM 7090 digital computer. Today, Purdues computer science program is the largest and most selective on campus, with 2,405 undergraduate and 538 graduate students enrolled as of Fall 2022.

And just two weeks ago, Purdue unveiled its Purdue Computes initiative, which will provide vital strategic investments for faculty hires, artificial intelligence research and semiconductor facility upgrades, with the goal of becoming one of the top 10 computer science programs in the U.S. by the end of the decade.

About the Presidential Lecture Series

Launched in 2014 by then-Purdue President Mitch Daniels and continued in 2023 by President Mung Chiang, the Presidential Lecture Series exposes Purdue students and the broader community to inspiring ideas, courageous leadership and models of civic engagement and civil discourse. The Presidential Lecture Series has had over 40 guests of many viewpoints and perspectives who have hosted some of the great intellectual, business and civic leaders of our time. As one of the worlds premier centers of scholarly leadership, Purdue is  appropriately and necessarily  a regular venue for great thinkers across a wide variety of disciplines.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last five years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://purdue.edu/.

Writer/Media contact: Phillip Fiorini, pfiorini@purdue.edu, 765-430-6189
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Purdue Universitys colleges of Health and Human Sciences and Pharmacy are taking giant leaps in advancing collaborative, innovative learning for health care professionals in Indiana through a new, modern facility at the corner of Mitch Daniels Boulevard and Russell Street.

The Nursing and Pharmacy Education Building will address the countrys critical workforce needs for skilled nurses and pharmacists and expand interprofessional education opportunities that mirror modern healthcare settings.

Pending formal approval from Purdues Board of Trustees, this project will cost $160 million. The university combined with the two colleges (Pharmacy and Health and Human Sciences) have collectively raised or committed over $70 million in private and institutional funding, and the Indiana legislature recently approved an $89 million appropriation.

We are thrilled to see this joint effort between the College of Health and Human Sciences and the College of Pharmacy become a reality, said Marion K. Underwood, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences. Through the buildings highly synergetic design, this new space will allow two of Purdues outstanding programs to learn alongside each other through valuable interprofessional education and greater research opportunities.

Purdues nursing and pharmacy programs are ranked among the highest in the state of Indiana, and the College of Pharmacy also holds a No. 4 ranking nationally for total research funding. The College of Pharmacy continues to graduate the largest class of pharmacists in the state, working with employers to address pharmacist shortages. The Purdue nursing program has more than doubled in size in recent years to help address the staffing shortages for nurses in Indiana and beyond. This innovative space will permit both programs to accommodate more students and increase campuswide collaboration opportunities to advance healthier Hoosier communities.

The Nursing and Pharmacy Education Building is paramount to preparing students to stay on the forefront of our ever-changing health care system and to serve as leaders in their field for generations to come, said Eric L. Barker, the Jeannie and Jim Chaney Dean of Pharmacy. The roles of pharmacists and nurses have rapidly changed, with both serving central roles in the delivery of patient care. This hub on Purdues campus will help drive students forward in their persistent pursuit of bettering human health.

The new Nursing and Pharmacy Education Building is proposed to house four floors featuring clinical simulation labs, collaboration spaces, large active-learning classrooms and modern research facilities. The buildings design will encourage nursing and pharmacy faculty and students to collaborate, conduct interdisciplinary research and develop impactful strategies that make a difference across public health, mental health, health equity and more. The building will have centrally scheduled classroom space that could serve the entire campus, including the two colleges.

Nearly two-thirds of all pharmacists in Indiana are Purdue graduates, and nearly two-thirds of Purdue School of Nursing graduates work in Indiana clinics, hospitals and communities. Through enhancing simulation opportunities and interprofessional education, the Nursing and Pharmacy Education Building will align with the universitys land-grant mission to continue to advance Purdue as a leader in shaping Indiana health and well-being.

To learn more about the project, visit the Nursing and Pharmacy Education Building website.

Writer: Rebecca Hoffa, rhoffa@purdue.edu
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Boilermakers around the world celebrated the 10th Purdue Day of Giving, held Wednesday (April 26), by demonstrating their support to Purdue Universitys campuses and programs  and raising a record $110.8 million in the process.

This years 24-hour online, social media-driven fundraising effort inspired 27,855 gifts, shattering last years results and bringing Purdue Day of Givings cumulative total since its launch in 2014 to $420.5 million. The new historic high followed last years record $68.2 million and 26,726 gifts. All gifts are donor directed to support the initiatives and programs they specify (see thank-you video).

Excellence at scale relies on the support from many. Thank you all for your extraordinary support that made this Purdue Day of Giving a truly historic one, with the milestone results of $110.8 million that shattered our single-day fundraising record by a margin even larger than we ever anticipated, said Purdue President Mung Chiang. It is an honor to represent the Purdue University system and thank the generous alumni, students, families, colleagues and organizations across the globe. I was particularly privileged to have the investiture run and host a community cookout on such a meaningful day for our university.

Purdue Day of Giving encompasses all of the universitys campuses  West Lafayette, Purdue Fort Wayne and Purdue Northwest  as well as Purdue Global.

Through 28 hourly challenges and six #IGave challenges, 81 academic and nonacademic programs competed for cash prizes. Gifts ranged from $10 to $20 million, supporting a range of programs and academic initiatives. Among the gifts made were:

Transformational gift from Thomas Howatt to support the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business.

$17 million from Jeannie and Jim Chaney to support scholarships in the College of Pharmacy.

$10 million from William and Barbara Rakosnik in support of the School of Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Psychological Sciences and University Residences.

$1.2 million from Walter Gautschi, in memory of Erika Gautschi, for PhD student support in computational mathematics.

$250,000 from Willard Agri-Service to fund the renovation of the sixth-floor conference room in the Agricultural Economics Department.

$50,000 from Michelle Tucker and Darin Melnyk to support a scholarship endowment in the Brian Lamb School of Communication.

Major gift from Jennifer Crandall to support the Emerging Leaders Scholars program, a universitywide diversity initiative.

Major gift from Jennifer Crandall to support the Emerging Leaders Scholars program, a universitywide diversity initiative. $10 from Ata Tamer, president of the Turkish Student Association, to support the organization.

Also, thanks to a leadership-level gift from Drew and Brittany Brees, 356 donors at three different giving levels to the new Tiller Tunnel initiative had their donation matched and will be publicly recognized on the wall at the entrance to this future enhancement of Ross-Ade Stadium.

Once again, Boilermakers have shown their Purdue pride by setting another record for dollars raised through a higher education day of giving, said Matt Folk, president and CEO of the Purdue for Life Foundation and vice president of university advancement and alumni engagement for Purdue University. The accomplishments of Purdues students, faculty and staff are only possible through the loyal support of our alumni, friends, fans and community members. Thank you to everyone who participated in Purdue Day of Giving, whether it was by making a gift or sharing your Purdue pride with others. Because of your generosity, Purdue is positioned to take its next giant leap.

In addition to a day of generosity, it was also a day of celebrations in West Lafayette. Students, faculty and staff enjoyed an evening event that featured Giant Adventures  a 20-foot-high stunt jump, zorb wars and an inflatable corn maze  as well as lawn games, a 360-degree photo booth, food trucks and more.

Earlier in the day, a campuswide relay run featured student organizations and Purdue celebrities, including Purdue Pete, the Boilermaker Special and President Chiang, who ran the last leg of the relay along with students, faculty and staff.

To view the Purdue Day of Giving thank-you video as well as hourly-challenge and full-day-challenge winners, visit dayofgiving.purdue.edu.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last five years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://stories.purdue.edu.

About the Purdue for Life Foundation

The Purdue for Life Foundation helps friends and alumni of Purdue University stay connected, get involved and give back. Created on March 11, 2020, the foundation deepens alumni ties to Purdue, drives and coordinates all alumni-related activities across the Purdue familys postgraduation lives and works with alumni and friends to garner support for the university. The foundation combines the alumni engagement function of the Purdue Alumni Association and the University Development Office, and it includes Presidents Council, the John Purdue Club and the Office of Industry Partnerships, as well as alumni lifelong learning programs and on-campus residential opportunities. Learn more at https://purdueforlife.org/.

Writer: Steve Schlenk

Media contact: Derek Schultz, dcschultz@purdue.edu
Purdue@DCs physical presence will be headquartered in a co-working space at 1301 K Street NW in Washington, D.C. The space will be the D.C. home to Purdues nationally recognized semiconductor and microelectronics program, the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI), the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, Purdue Policy Research Institute and Purdues federal relations team. (Purdue University photo)

Website unveiled; new office space will house multiple initiatives

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Purdue University President Mung Chiang announced Friday (April 28) Purdue@DC, an initiative that will amplify the universitys presence in Washington, D.C.

Through the new initiative, Purdue brings to the capital unique strengths in national security, tech diplomacy, semiconductor talent and other policy research.

As the most consequential public university in America, Purdue has a special responsibility to bring all that Boilermakers have to offer to the capital, Chiang said. Through Purdue@DC, we will both strengthen the impact of existing programs in D.C. and deploy new ones that bring many more faculty and students to national public service.

Purdue@DCs physical presence will be headquartered in a co-working space at 1301 K Street NW. The space will be the D.C. home to Purdues nationally recognized semiconductor and microelectronics program, the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI), the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, Purdue Policy Research Institute, and Purdues federal relations team.

In addition, to build a stronger talent pipeline from Purdue to the nations capital, the C-SPAN Boilers Go to D.C. program will grow in scale and in scope, connecting D.C.-based alumni, as well as government and agency partners, with current students and faculty, providing internship, networking and engagement opportunities. The program is designed to help students prepare for a successful career after graduation. All colleges, schools, departments, institutes and centers at Purdue West Lafayette will be able to propose activities in our nations capital.

On April 18, Purdue@DC convened leaders from industry, government and academia at the Russell Senate Office Building for CHIPS for America: Execute for Success Summit. Chiang led a keynote fireside chat with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Sen. Todd Young of Indiana. Over 175 companies, government agencies and universities participated at the event. Association of American Universities President Barbara Snyder made a call at the Summit for industry and government leaders to support research, students and faculty in the STEM fields.

The next signature event by Purdue@DC will be in October. Further details on Purdue@DC can be found here and inquiries directed to dc@purdue.edu.
By David DesRosiers, Publisher

May 2023

Honest journalismnonpartisan, evenhanded, and striving toward objectivityfaces resistance within many corners of the media and other powerful institutions. According to a Pew survey, 55% of journalists believe that every side does not always deserve equal coverage. That portion rises to 63% among younger members of the profession. Major papers of record have questioned objectivity as a guiding principle, while embracing what has been called post-journalisman advocacy-driven approach to reporting the news. NGOs, Big Tech, and political actors have worked in concert to censor independent reporters and news outlets.

These trends do not represent a constructive evolution in American journalism. Rather, they are a dangerous development that threatens the underpinning of democracy: namely, an electorate informed by independent and politically neutral news gatherers.

RealClearInvestigations (RCI), a reporting project working in partnership with RealClearPolitics, is rising to the occasion. RCI hews to old-school follow-and-report-the-facts journalismthe kind you used to encounter when you opened the morning newspaper.

Made possible entirely through charitable support, RCI invites readers to join in its mission of producing investigative journalism done right. With a tax-deductible donation, you can help enable serious investigations into civic affairs that legacy outlets wont produce. In turn, youll be supporting the work of journalists who are going up against a political and partisan media complex that wants to silence themsuch as senior reporter Paul Sperry, who surfaced in the Twitter Files earlier this year.

In 2021, Sperrys Twitter account, which had 340,000 followers, was suspended. Twitter provided no explanation as to why. But through the Twitter Files, the political pressures at work have been made clear. In late 2020, Congressman Adam Schiffs office contacted Twitter, requesting the suspension of Sperrys account. Twitter balked initially but eventually went ahead with the suspension. At the same time, Schiffs office contacted RCI directly, asking us to retract a series of year-old stories by Sperry about the first impeachment of President Trump. We reviewed Sperrys thoroughly reported work and resisted this pressure tactic.

Twitters suspension and Schiffs efforts, however, did not deter our investigative efforts into many civic issuesincluding the now-discredited accusation that Trump colluded with Russia to win the presidency in 2016. RCI published dozens of investigative stories that undermined this narrativereporting that has proved accurate. And we are finally garnering some long-deserved recognition.

Earlier this year, Columbia Journalism Review published a lengthy autopsy of the medias role in the Russia-collusion saga. Written by decorated former New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth, the four-part series provides a detailed dissection of the errors and failures by legacy players such as the Times and Washington Post, which won Pulitzer Prizes for flawed articles advancing the collusion allegations. Gerth cites Tom Kuntz, Paul Sperry, and Aaron Mateall associated with RealClearInvestigationsas being among the few journalists to cover Russia-gate accurately.

This subject area is but one of many beats that we pursue at RCI and RealClear more broadly. Education, energy, elections, unions, and religious freedom are other reporting priorities. Were proud of the thoroughness and nuance that our reporters bring to these areasand of their contribution to a more factual and informed public discourse and debate regarding significant issues.

The First Amendment and the principles undergirding it require a renewed defense.

Please consider joining the growing community of readers who have come to the aid of RCIs original investigative journalism. Your support helps us live up to the reason that freedom of the press is constitutionally protected: to hold government and other influential institutions to account. Please make a tax-deductible donation today.
John Kerry leads an international jet-set life that might exhaust a runway model. If President Bidens special envoy for climate was not in Washington or relaxing at his mansion near Nantucket Harbor, he could be found in Brazil, Panama, the Bahamas, or Germany. And thats just in February and March.

The boss and his climate czar: Kerry is indefatigable in attending conferences and meetings in far-flung posts and glittering capitals. But details are scant. While Kerry trumpets his meetings and appearances around the world, the State Department wraps the rest of his efforts in a cloak of secrecy usually reserved for CIA black box operations. It has refused to specify lists of people he is meeting with and who is advising him as he circles the globe. His office has stonewalled requests for budget and staffing information from legislators and government watchdog groups. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed last year by RealClearInvestigations for a breakdown on how the climate envoys roughly $16.5 million 2022 budget was spent, the State Department said it could not comply with the request until April 2025, months after both the 2024 election and the expiration of President Bidens current term.

The secrecy surrounding Kerrys work is reaching a boiling point with the threat of a congressional subpoena.

Frustrated that Kerrys office ignored two previous requests for detailed information about its budget when his party was in the minority, Republican Rep. James Comer, who now heads the House Oversight Committee, sent what he labeled a final courtesy letter on April 25 and added that a subpoena would accompany the next request if Kerrys powerful, unchecked position continued to hide the information.

The State Department has not provided any meaningful updates to Committee staff inquiries on the status of producing these documents, Comer wrote. Envoy Kerry is engaging in activities that skirt congressional authority, threaten foreign policy under the guise of climate advocacy, and could undermine economic health. Yet, Envoy Kerry and his office are refusing to be transparent about their activities, spending, and staffing with the Committee  and the American people.

Biden, who has identified climate change as the single greatest threat facing the United States, named Kerry the nations first special envoy for climate on his first day in office in 2021.

His precise job description is difficult to determine, although Kerry has been given a seat on the White House national security team, and it is commonly referred to as a cabinet level position  even though it did not require Senate confirmation.

Rep. James Comer: John Kerry continues to negotiate deals with foreign governments, including the Chinese Communist Party, that potentially undermine the United States interests. Since taking office, Kerry has been indefatigable in attending conferences and meetings in far-flung posts and glittering capitals. His office has sent out his pronouncements to the press and copies of his public remarks from places such as Hanoi, Dhaka, London, Cairo (twice) and, last month, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But almost nothing is known about discussions and potential agreements made at his private meetings.

Given the Biden administrations penchant for issuing sweeping executive orders, especially regarding the climate, Republicans worry that Kerrys undefined position could translate into unchecked power to commit the United States to binding agreements with foreign powers. Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to questions about the precise nature of Kerrys work, and whether he was authorized to negotiate treaties on behalf of the United States.

John Kerry continues to negotiate deals with foreign governments, including the Chinese Communist Party, that potentially undermine the United States interests, Comer wrote, without the envoy's providing any detail about the nature or scope of those deals or whether any have been approved.

In his speeches and other public appearances, Kerry warns that humanity has just a few years left to avert the catastrophic consequences of climate change.

It is an existential issue; it is an issue where people today are dying, he told MSNBC in late April. He has called for a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and endorsed the goal of zero emissions by 2050.

In his effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions, Kerry has flown hundreds of thousands of miles  sometimes commercially, sometimes on his own private jet  leaving a gigantic carbon footprint in his wake. In just nine months last year he logged more than 180,000 miles, emitting some 9.5 million pounds of carbon, according to an analysis of his official travel announcements by the Washington Free Beacon.

The global travel and speeches to combat global warming have enjoyed glowing coverage from media outlets including The New Yorker, which praised his effort to save the climate. But thus far it has unfolded behind a cloak of invisibility beyond the press releases.

RCI reached out to the Washington office of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development and the liberal Common Cause, which trumpets the need for transparency and accountability in government. Neither group responded to questions about the special climate envoys refusal to make his spending public.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro: Like other Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, silent on the matter of John Kerry. In the House, its unclear how much support there may be for the efforts of Comer and others to shine a light on Kerrys black budget. RCI reached out to more than 80 representatives, including every Republican member of the Freedom Caucus and the Appropriations Committee  which is ultimately responsible for directing federal funding  and asked if they possessed any information about Kerrys budget and spending and whether they believed government bodies should hide their financial activities.

Only six responded, and there was no response from a dozen Democrats on the Appropriations Committee, including ranking member Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.

Those who did respond were united in saying they thought Kerrys office should allow public review of its work. Republican Reps. Chip Roy and Scott Perry, of Texas and Pennsylvania respectively, sent a letter in March to DeLauro and others asking them to defund Kerrys office, citing what they fear is his willingness to partner with left-wing environmental agencies and alleged free market meddling.

The U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, is actively undermining U.S. energy production and independence in the name of climate hysteria, Roy and Perry wrote. Despite skyrocketing energy prices and an increasingly unreliable electrical grid, Kerry has said we have to push back hard on efforts to increase oil production and expand fossil fuel infrastructure. Kerry has also reportedly pressured banks and other financial institutions to divest from fossil fuels. Finally, Kerry actively jeopardizes U.S. sovereignty by making dangerous commitments at international climate conferences without the backing of Congress.

Congress and RCI are not alone in being stonewalled by Kerrys office. Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog group, also filed a FOIA request for information on Kerrys spending and staff, and they followed that up with a lawsuit last October.

Theyve gone and created this new position, but they dont want to tell us anything about what hes been doing, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told RCI. The resting state of the deep state is secrecy, and unfortunately its not unusual to get this obstruction and contempt for the FOIA law.

Since February, Kerrys office has provided Judicial Watch with small batches of documents, such as a vague organizational chart, trying to slow-walk compliance with the law, Fitton said.

The notion that such a government agencys work and spending should be beyond public purview is preposterous, said Adam Andrzejewski, CEO of OpenTheBooks, which works to make government spending public. (His work appears in RealClearInvestigations.)
U.S. President Joe Biden assured his Philippine counterpart Monday of the the United States' commitment to the Southeast Asian archipelago as tensions rise with China.

"The United States also remains ironclad in our commitment to the defense of the Philippines, including in the South China Sea, and we will continue to support the Philippines military modernization goals," Biden said.

The two leaders signed a new defense cooperation agreement Monday to strengthen Philippine security and support military modernization.

That agreement builds on the conclusion last week of the largest-ever war drills between the two nations as well as an agreement earlier this year in which the Philippines agreed to give the U.S. access to four more bases on the islands.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., known in his country as "Bongbong," is the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. On Monday, he said the archipelago nation has had a front-row seat to increased tensions in the South China Sea.

"There are also the issues, geopolitical issues that have made the region where the Philippines is possibly, arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in  in the world right now," Marcos said. "And so it is only natural that  for the Philippines to look to its sole treaty partner in the world to strengthen and to redefine the relationship that we have and the roles that we play in the face of those rising tensions that we see now around the South China Sea and Asia Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions."

China has repeatedly harassed Philippine navy and coast guard patrols and disagrees with Manila's approach.

"The key to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region lies in the fact that regional countries adhere to mutual trust, unity and cooperation and firmly hold the lifeline of their security in their own hands," Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, said last month at a ministry briefing. "We once again remind the relevant regional country that blindly catering to nonregional forces will not only fail to safeguard their own security but will exacerbate tensions, endanger regional peace and stability, and will inevitably harm themselves in the end."
The contentious Israeli judicial legislation has kept in the background what I believe is the much more consequential policy initiative: A return to the 1980s Iron Fist policy of Israeli Prime Minister Rabin. At the time, he believed that the only way to stop the First Intifada was to make clear that violence would be met with harsh reprisals.

Until this year, Israel leadership had contained the conflict by weaving Israeli Arabs into the educational, occupational, and political fabric of the country. In addition, the Abraham Accords made clear that the economic and military interests of other Arab countries would no longer be held captive to the decisions of the Palestinian Authority. Finally, the post-Netanyahu government embraced a strategy of Shrinking the Conflict: not allowing small flashpoints to fuel larger conflicts. It included stances such as allowing more Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank to work within Israel, expanding permits for West Bank housing, and an unwillingness to evict Bedouin communities from strategic West Bank locations. Within Israel, it meant seeking compromises on evictions in East Jerusalem and Bedouin areas, and the passage of Knesset legislation that would dramatically improve the circumstances of Israeli Arab communities, including three new Bedouin towns.

As Shrinking the Conflict policies began to reduce tensions, hundreds of gunmen belonging to militant groups, most notably Islamic Jihad and the Lions Den, stepped up their militancy. The Palestinian Authority was unwilling or unable to control these groups so it was left to Israel Defense Force (IDF) to respond. When the IDF efforts began neutralizing these forces during summer 2022, Islamic Jihad initiated a bombing campaigned. It fizzled because the Shrinking the Conflict strategy had created an unwillingness among Palestinians to risk its benefits.

Israeli momentary success, however, led to a change in terrorist strategy. It now concentrated low-level attacks on Jewish families living in isolated West Bank settlements. The limited government response to the dozens of killings of settlers signaled to many a failure of the Shrinking the Conflict strategy which increasingly was seen by the rightwing as appeasement.

When two Jewish brothers were killed February 23, settlers responded with a rampage through the neighboring Palestinian village of Huwara. More than 30 homes and 100 cars were set afire. Four Palestinians were seriously injured, with one death, and another 95 were treated for smoke inhalation. Not only did the IDF not intervene but Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler leader in charge of the administration of the West Bank, called for the village to be "wiped out" by the Israeli army. Echoing Iron Fist policies, Smotrich claimed Huwara is a hostile village and supports a disproportionate response by the IDF against the town for every act of terrorism in order to establish deterrence.

A move to Iron Fist policies was further signaled by granting Itamar Ben-Gvir extended powers over the police as part of initial coalition agreements and then agreed to form a National Guard under his direct supervision. He has vowed stronger backing for police actions taken in the line of duty. Ben-Gvir has been a racist admirer of the Jewish terrorist Baruch Goldstein and the late Jewish supremacist Rabbi Meir Kahane. For more than a decade, Ben-Gvir has defended radicals suspected in cases of Jewish terror and hate crimes.

Rabin did not have racist animus to Palestinians; the Iron Fist was a tactical response. Once he realized that it was ineffective, he switched to seeking a peace accord, and was able to convince Israeli Arab parties to support his efforts. By contrast, Ben Gvir and Smotrich are driven by deeply Jewish supremacist beliefs and are committed to controlling the entire West Bank. Unlike an increasing share of the Israeli public, they perceive Israeli Arabs as fifth columnists who also must be subjugated.

The broad-based opposition to the initial judicial reform legislation has caused Netanyahu to pullback with a constructive compromise likely. By contrast, except for a few voices among military leaders, only the Israeli leftwing is similarly outraged by the power that Ben-Gvir has obtained over law enforcement. Unfortunately, probably a majority of Israeli Jews support a move towards an Iron Fist approach.

Consistent with this new approach, security forces just acted in heavy-handed ways when clearing the Aqsa Mosque compound, knowing it would lead to an escalation with Hamas and Hezbollah. It also can only escalate the number of Palestinian reprisal attacks both inside Israel and in the West Bank. Maybe this new strategy will successfully quell the killings, particularly since previous IDF actions have hollowed out the West Bank terrorist infrastructure. However, this is a dangerous game with a racist messianic leadership that is unlikely to pullback without concerted broad-based efforts. Hopefully, these efforts will build once a constructive judicial compromise enables Israeli Jews to focus more clearly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Robert Cherry is an American Enterprise Institute affiliate and his just released book, The State of the Black Family: Sixty Years of Tragedies and Failures and New Initiatives Offering Hope (Emancipation Books). The views expressed are the author's own.







Robert Cherry is an American Enterprise Institute affiliate and author of The State of the Black Family: Sixty Years of Tragedies and Failures and New Initiatives Offering Hope (Emancipation Books).
Bupkis showrunner Judah Miller says his new Peacock comedy explores the disparity between comedian Pete Davidson's public persona and the way his family and friends see him.

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"People are very critical of public figures, but the people who know Pete, and his family who know him, love him and know him to be such a kind and sweet person," Miller told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

Premiering Thursday, the semi-autobiographical show opens with the former Saturday Night Live cast member and King of Staten Island actor living in the basement of his mother's Staten Island home and using a virtual reality set where he Googles his name and finds pages of unflattering media stories about his appearance, career, mental health and romances.

Bored, he quickly moves on to PornHub.

"His authenticity and his fearlessness in exposing and expressing very intimate parts of his life in his work, I think fans of Pete really appreciate," said Miller whose own credits include American Dad! and Crashing. "I like to say this show is a fever dream of the absurdity of Pete's life."

Davidson is known for staying true to his working-class roots, despite earning fame and fortune -- and dating some of the most recognizable women in the world -- years before his 30th birthday.

No boundaries were set in the creation of the show, according to Miller.

"Pete was so instrumental and involved in developing each of these stories that we told. We weren't really stepping into territories that he wasn't willing to go into because he was developing this with us," the writer-producer said.

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"In addition to being a brilliant comedian, Pete is a really incredible writer and actor, so I think all of this is showcased in the show."

At this point, it's unclear whether this project is a one-off or could run several seasons on the streaming service.

"This is ripped from the pages of his life, so there is an endless wealth of inspiration for a show like this," Miller said. "But, right now, we're just really excited for people to check out the first season."

Viewers should be warned that the tone shifts wildly from episode to episode.

"Sometimes, [even] within episodes we will be turning things in very unexpected ways," Miller said.

Davidson's real-life mother and sister have seen the show and are supportive of it.

"We have one episode, in particular, that touches on very poignant moments in their family history and it's incredible the access that we have to some very real aspects of Pete's life," Miller said of the comedian whose father was a firefighter who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York City.

The Sopranos icon Edie Falco plays Davidson's mother and Goodfellas star Joe Pesci plays his grandfather.

Guest stars include La La Anthony, Carly Aquilino, Colson Baker (Machine Gun Kelly), Josh Bitton, Preston Brodrick, Steve Buscemi, Bobby Cannavale, Kevin Corrigan, Nadia Dajani, Charlamagne Tha God, Charlie Day, Philip Ettinger, Derek Gaines, Brad Garrett, Al Gore, Paul Walter Hauser, Lynne Koplitz and LouLou Lazarus.

"We just lucked out. A lot of people showed up for Pete. A lot of people are interested in working with Pete and Joe, specifically, developed a real, almost grandfatherly relationship with Pete that exceeded the show itself, which was really beautiful and incredible to see," Miller said.

"It's very surreal. We have dreams of who we would cast to play these characters and time and time again, the people that we get are just incredible."

Pesci, Falco and Garrett gamely jumped right into some hilarious, sexually explicit situations right from the start.

"As a writer, it's humbling to have someone like Brad Garrett come in and just fearlessly go into things that are risk-taking and trust that we are going to take something in our pilot that is kind of shocking and irreverent, but then ... somehow turn it into something heartwarming, which i felt like we were able to do," Miller said.

He called Falco "one of the greatest actors of our time" and said she was up for anything, no matter how ludicrous and funny they asked her to be.

"She did it with such a level of nuance and realism," Miller said. "She provided a whole other layer of reality to what we're doing."
Michael Douglas will be honored at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

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Organizers announced in a press release Wednesday that Douglas, 78, will receive an honorary Palme d'Or at the 32nd annual festival in May.

The honorary Palme d'Or recognizes Douglas' career and his engagement for cinema. Previous recipients include Tom Cruise, Forest Whitaker, Jodie Foster, Clint Eastwood and Jane Fonda.

Several of Douglas' films have premiered at Cannes, including The China Syndrome (1979), Basic Instinct (1992) and Behind the Candelabra (2013).

"It is always a breath of fresh air to be at Cannes, which has long provided a wonderful platform for bold creators, artistic audacities and excellence in storytelling. From my first time here in 1979 for The China Syndrome to my most recent premiere for Behind the Candelabra in 2013, the Festival has always reminded me that magic of cinema is not just in what we see onscreen but in its ability to impact people all around the world. After more than 50 years in the business, it's an honor to return to the Croisette to open the Festival and embrace our shared global language of film," Douglas said in a statement.

Douglas will be honored at the Cannes opening ceremony May 16, which will air live on France 2 and internationally on Brut.

In addition, a previously unreleased documentary about Douglas by Amine Mesta will be shown May 14 and May 16 at Cannes.

Douglas most recently starred as Hank Pym in the Marvel film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Disney+ will release a new Simpsons short in honor of Star Wars Day.

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The streaming service announced Maggie Simpson in 'Rogue Not Quite One,' a new short from The Simpsons, in a press release Tuesday.

The animated short will premiere May 4 on Star Wars Day, a yearly celebration of the Star Wars franchise.

In Maggie Simpson 'Rogue Not Quite One,' Homer loses track of Maggie, "who hops in Grogu's hovering pram for a hyperspace-hopping adventure across the galaxy."

"Facing a squadron of Imperial TIE fighters, Maggie brings the battle to Springfield in this epic short celebrating all things Star Wars," an official description reads.

Disney+ previously released the Simpsons shorts The Simpsons meet the Bocellis in 'Feliz Navidad,' Welcome to the Club, When Billie Met Lisa, Maggie Simpson in 'The Force Awakens from Its Nap,' The Good, The Bart and the Loki, and The Simpsons in Plusaversary.

The original Simpsons series airs on Fox and is in its 34th season. The first 33 seasons and the Simpsons shorts are available to stream on Disney+.
That means we are counting population we find on the day of the counting," he said. "[For] the nomadic population and the homeless, we are using de jure methodology. That means we are asking people where they usually live -- it's combination of two methodologies because Somalis have different population strata."

Ige, who will be overseeing the project, said the data collectors will be following a standard methodology used internationally to conduct the count. "We are using combination of de facto and de jure methodology.

The Somali government has launched its first national population and housing census in decades, which is expected to take two years. "We will be counting those who live in the Somali territory and the houses they live in," Dr. Abdi Ali Ige, head of the Somali Population and Housing Census, told VOA's Somali Service Tuesday.

 30,000 Data Collectors

Ige said the census will start in the urban population then move to the rural and nomadic populations. "Before the count is conducted, there will be mapping of the country using satellite imagery of towns and cities, villages, and rural areas," he said.

He said mapping will take about eight months. There will also be training for the 30,000 data collectors before the counting starts in October 2024. "The census will be concluded from two weeks to one month... every house will be knocked," he said.

 1.4 Million Displaced

The United Nations estimates that 1.4 million Somalis have been displaced by the current droughts. Ige said the census team is aware of the population movement and it will be targeting the temporary nomadic settlements using satellite imagery.

"Every village or district has a temporary nomadic settlement," he said, explaining that the timing of the census will coincide with autumn rains, when nomadic communities return to their places of origin.

Somalia last conducted a formal census in 1975, which recorded a total population of 4.2 million, Ige said. He said a second census took place in 1984 but was not published. Since that time, population figures given by Somali and United Nations officials estimate Somalis to number between 12 and 16 million.

The United Nations Population Fund, which is supporting the Somali government census, also expressed confidence in the project during the launch in Mogadishu. "We are going to be delivering a modern census for Somalia through modern technology," says Niyi Ojuolape, UNFPA country representative. "We plan to have modern data security; we are also going to be processing the data that we will be using through the latest technology."

Ojuolape said the team that is conducting the census is made of both UNFPA and the Somali national bureau of statistics; and includes demographers, statisticians, GIS (geographic information system) analysis, IT and communications specialists. Ige said consultations have been made with the federal states and Somaliland about conducting the census.

But officials expect challenges, particularly in areas controlled by al-Shabab militants. Ojuolape says officials will be using technology to conduct census mapping and get estimates of the people living in those areas.

"There are certain places that may be difficult for us to reach and we will need satellite imagery to help us to get those figures," he said. "In addition, satellite imagery will also help us to validate whatever figures we get at the end of the day because the two must work together."

 Data Will Help Government Plan

Ige said the Somali government told the team that so-called inaccessible areas will be free by October next year. "But we have a plan used in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali and Colombia. We have a model, which is satellite imaging known as Grid 3, which we will use if we are unable to reach a place," he said.

Officials described the census as a critical exercise that will allow the Somali government to plan and implement policies and programs that meet the needs of its citizens. "Generation of data and utilization of data is at the heart of governance," said Salah Jama, the deputy prime minister of Somalia, who launched the census. "It is paramount for good government. It is paramount for development gains."

If concluded successfully, the census will also come ahead of the 2026 elections. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud promised to prepare direct elections in a televised Mogadishu town hall Monday night.

Assuring the citizens that their information will be kept confidential and used only for statistical purposes, the government urged citizens to participate in the census and provide accurate information.
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Authorities say a man suspected of killing five of his neighbors in Texas hid out in a house just 20 miles away from the slayings while he and his domestic partner plotted his escape to Mexico
On a windy Tuesday evening, members of the University of Georgia community gathered at the UGA Chapel in remembrance of students, faculty and staff who have died in the past year.

The memorial service, held annually, was preceded by music from the Hugh Hodgson School of Musics Southern Wind Quintet as a crowd of around 50 attendees formed silently around the chapel steps.
Redress for a victim is not easy. It is not really painful to file a cyber-crime complaint.

But someone who is technically unsophisticated enough to fall for a scam will find it hard to navigate the processes, points out Devangshu Datta.

Social media always turns toxic around festivals. This year, the yelling at Holi centred on a Web site that made a public service announcement requesting 'Safer and More Inclusive Spaces for Women'.

I spoke about this with a retired police officer. His take was that there's always been higher levels of sexual harassment (and other crimes) on Holi, and the police are always braced to deal with it.

Talking about it on social media is, however, a relatively new phenomenon.

Does focusing public attention on such an issue lead to improvements?

It should, though it may take a long time.

If there's a spotlight focused on a crime, or even on issues like poor public transport, or air pollution, politicians feel impelled to do 'something' about it because they believe it may influence votes.

That 'something' may not be immediately effective, but if the issue is never even acknowledged, it never gets better.

Another type of crime flows directly from social media and the Internet. That is cybercrime.

This is an increasing problem given the thrust on netbanking and digital payments.

Another friend (not a cop) recently took to social media to complain about a quality of service problem he had with netbanking.

The first three responses he received on Twitter were from fake accounts impersonating the bank where he's an account holder!

This sort of blatant scam occurs on a massive scale, and on a daily basis.

Scamsters, pretending to be from a bank or a fintech, blast out millions of daily messages, asking for 'something' to enable them to lift some cash from targeted individuals.

This might be a KYC update, with the would-be victim asked to fill in details on a fake website that looks almost exactly like the real Web site.

Or the scamster may ask recipients to 'update' their app, and direct them to download a fake app that looks almost exactly like the real app.

This is more sophisticated than other common scams where people are offered large sums to 'work from home'.

Plus, of course, there's 'social scammers' who call pretending to be from a bank and ask for passwords.

The point to this sort of shotgun approach is that it is cost effective. It has a minuscule strike rate.

Most people are suspicious. But one person in 10,000 might actually click on a poisoned link and it costs the scamsters very little to push out such messages to millions of people.

A clever scamster can disappear without trace after a successful sting.

Redress for a victim is not easy. It is not really painful to file a cyber-crime complaint. But someone who is technically unsophisticated enough to fall for a scam will find it hard to navigate the processes.

Anecdotally, elderly victims sometimes discover that they've been scammed online only long after their bank account has actually been cleaned out.

How do you deal with this?

Clearly, talking about the situation and thus creating widespread awareness must be part of the solution.

Indeed, banks, non-banking financial companies and fintechs do send out messages to account-holders, asking them not to hand over passwords and update KYCs.

But they need to take it several steps further in terms of publicising the issue. That's something no financial service provider wants to do, for fear it will scare off potential customers.

For example, everyone opening a new bank account, or a new fintech account, should receive mandatory warnings about not doing something silly that compromises their accounts.

This should be put out in large colourful fonts, with multilingual voice over.

Financial service providers should also be messaging regularly on social media about the common scams and how to avoid them.

Financial institutions also need to lobby authorities to make it easier to file cybercrime complaints.

For example, create videos to walk victims through the filing process. Side by side, they should, of course, explore ways to make it more difficult for criminals.

But creating awareness and sensitising the potential victims is a strategy worth trying.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
Our political history tells us this has never worked.

A united Opposition does work in some specific, limited, situations, especially in the states.

But never as some brilliant pan-national collection of diverse interests with no ideological or political core, asserts Shekhar Gupta.

IMAGE: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, state Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Janata Dal-United national President Lalan Singh meet at Kharge's residence in New Delhi, April 12, 2023. Photograph: Ayush Sharma/ANI Photo

Whenever a majority government is so firmly entrenched in power that it seems improbable for one challenger to defeat it, the idea of 'Opposition unity' returns.

We need to explain why this is a bogus, defeatist, and repeatedly failed idea.

Why this often ends up helping a well-settled incumbent.

And why this is the political equivalent of selling snake oil.

The Opposition is rehashing the same failed idea today, with just a year to go before the first votes are cast for the general election in 2024. We can understand where they are coming from.

Read their lips: We have the right to seek power. None of us has the weight to defeat Narendra Modi.

We have to do something. We can't just sit at home waiting for another five years on depleting Opposition benches.

Mujhe kuchh karna hai (I must do something, after all) is a laudable sentiment.

But must it be what's been done multiple times before, with the same dismal results?

The essential flaw in this tired and lazy idea is the belief that you can defeat a powerful leader and their party with arithmetic.

That is, if one party or leader could not defeat the incumbent, why not get all together?

After all, nobody, whatever the majority, gets more than 50 per cent of all the votes in India.

While the copyright on the argument that in elections chemistry matters more than arithmetic remains with the late Arun Jaitley, we can expand it to argue that electoral politics isn't about arithmetic plus chemistry either.

There is also psychology, the rise of the transactional, what's-in-it-for-me voter, some philosophy and, to be sure, pathology.

You will need a convincing mix of all these to persuade a comfortable voter to change sides.

Then you imagine Rahul Gandhi (or Mallikarjun Kharge), Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Arvind Kejriwal, M K Stalin, K. Chandrashekar Rao, Pinarayi Vijayan, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren, Tejashwi Yadav, Naveen Patnaik and Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on the same stage.

All of them, added up, will make formidable arithmetic.

Then you run into three big problems. First, there is no way you can see them all together in one alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the foreseeable future.

Second, too many of them can unite nationally (most regional parties, for example), but many have rivalries with the Congress in their home states.

Third and most important, there is no common philosophical or ideological thread to bind them.

Once you take out Patnaik and Jagan, who today see no particular need to fight the BJP for the Lok Sabha, your arithmetic depletes anyway.

Next, you can list those who cannot go with each other.

Akhilesh and Mayawati, for example.

Then you have odd combinations where the Opposition parties are also rivals in important states.

The Congress with AAP everywhere and with KCR in Telangana.

Then, the contradictions like Congress and the Left. Ideologically, the two are closer than they have ever been since 1969 when Indira Gandhi's minority government survived on votes from the Communist Party of India, kept in line by her well-wishers in the Kremlin.

They fought the Tripura assembly election in an alliance just this February, and in West Bengal earlier.

Rahul Gandhi's language on political economy is the closest his party's has been to the Left's since 1991.

At the same time, they are locked in perpetual combat in Kerala. Even in the unlikely event that they might divide seats to contest in Kerala, it won't convince many Left voters to vote for the Congress to keep Modi out.

The third is the lack of a common ideology and message.

In its absence, the voter is shrewd enough to see through an alliance of convenience, of people with diverse and often conflicting interests coming together to evict just the guy they overwhelmingly voted for twice.

The rest, as Indira Gandhi first demonstrated in 1971, is easy: 'They say remove Indira, but Indiraji says remove poverty (woh kehte hain Indira hatao, Indira ji kehti hain garibi hatao).

You make a choice. We know what that choice was. It won't be any different this time.

IMAGE: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi at a press conference, Kolkata, April 24, 2023. Photograph: PTI Photo

Our political history tells us this has never worked.

A united Opposition does work in some specific, limited situations, especially in the states.

But never as some brilliant pan-national collection of diverse interests with no ideological or political core.

The first real effort for Opposition unity was made in 1967.

India was going through grave economic and social hardship, coming out of two wars (1962, China and 1965, Pakistan), two consecutive, crippling droughts, and the deaths of two successive prime ministers (Nehru and Shastri) while in office.

Indira Gandhi, inexperienced as prime minister and still in her forties, looked beatable in India's first post-Nehru election.

She won a small majority, but many Opposition parties won enough seats to deny her power in several key states.

It is here that they got together in single-point (keep the Congress out) state-level alliances in a loose arrangement then described as the Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD, United Legislators' Party).

The SVD state governments, however, had a short shelf life but set the template for Opposition unity for times to come.

If people come together only to keep somebody out of power, they do not stay together. Indira Gandhi rode this sentiment in 1971.

Was the post-Emergency 1977 election an exception?

Time spent together in Indira Gandhi's jails had brought Opposition leaders a sense of unity and they had much time to debate why their arithmetic had failed in 1967.

That's why they now coalesced their own ideological and political identities into one, the Janata Party.

But once in power, contradictions of ideology, personal ambition, and multiple inbuilt pathologies led to its break-up in just over two years.

From 1989 to 2014, we could say that India entered an era of coalitions, though Narasimha Rao's minority Congress government (1991-1996) only needed some votes from outside.

The rest were true multi-party coalitions. Of these two, V P Singh and Chandra Shekhar's lasted less than two years between them.

The biggest Opposition parties, the BJP and the Congress, backed these governments by turn only to deny each other power.

If this was Opposition unity, it was a very bad advertisement for the idea.

Two other coalitions, the National Democratic Alliance and the United Progressive Alliance, ruled for 16 years between them.

But these weren't examples of Opposition unity?

IMAGE: Giant cutouts in Hyderabad greet Opposition leaders attending the Bharat Rashtra Samithi rally in Khammam on January 18, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Three key factors must be noted. One, each had one of the two biggest parties at its core and there was no doubt as to who was going to get the prime ministership.

Second, the party at the core was already getting 100-plus Lok Sabha seats.

And third, none of these was fighting a powerful, popular and full majority government.

Unlike 1996-2014, today's politics isn't a tussle between rival coalitions.

We are back to an Indira Gandhi-like era.

Even the talk of a single-point Opposition coalition to oust Narendra Modi will work entirely to his benefit: 'Woh kehte hain Modi hatao, Modi ji kehte hain Bharat ko Vishwaguru banao' (they say remove Modi, Modiji says make India a global power). We can call that election now.

It is a perfectly legitimate ambition on the part of the Opposition to defeat the incumbent. For that, however, they need three things: A leader, an idea and an ideology.

If they can't have these, then the only way ahead for them is to build state-level, conflict-free alliances to try and limit the BJP's numbers.

Talk and plans of grand alliances will be a case of unity in futility. It will help Modi. Like Indira Gandhi in 1971.

By special arrangement with The Print
A nuclear-armed U.S. submarine arrives in Busan in mid-May in accordance with an agreement to strengthen nuclear protection of South Korea struck by presidents Yoon Suk-yeol and Joe Biden on April 26.

Its arrival in Busan is expected to coincide with the G7 summit on May 19-21 in Hiroshima, Japan. It will be the first U.S. strategic submarine to come here in 42 years.

A senior government official here told the Chosun Ilbo, "The deployment will be a show of force to warn North Korea that if it launches a nuclear attack, it'll meet its doom."
With developments like the Russia-China alliance and the rise of China in the Middle East, India's role has diminished though the India-Israel-US-UAE grouping may assume some importance in the future, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.

IMAGE: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Arab leaders pose for a group photo during the China-Arab summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, December 9, 2022. Photograph: Saudi Press Agency/Handout via Reuters

Looking out of the window of a topless tower in Dubai, we could see sweeping changes taking place all around in front of our very eyes.

Till a few years ago, it was skeletons of tall buildings coming up all around, altering the skyline constantly.

Now we have to peep into the buildings to see how they are being filled with the most modern technological marvels, ranging from up to date computers to robots and artificial intelligence driven devices to replace humans.

No other city in the world seems to have adopted technology with such speed and scale.

If Dubai was the first to have erected a building by 3-D printing, it is now experimenting with administering the world through artificial intelligence with speed and efficiency.

Today, reading through Khaleej Times, one realises that geopolitical changes are gripping not only the UAE, but the entire Middle East.

Internal and external changes are taking place at lightning speed in directions considered unthinkable even weeks ago.

The main headline of the newspaper on April 18, 2023 is 'It's Official: Tehran invites Saudi King'.

The report says that Iran said it has formally invited the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, to visit Teheran, following a reconciliation agreement reached last month between the two sides under a China brokered agreement.

The picture accompanying the report is that of a detainee belonging to the Iranian backed Houthi group, released unilaterally by Saudi Arabia embracing a relative at Sanaa airport.

Next to it is a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that normalising relations with Saudi Arabia would be a giant leap towards ending the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Facts can be stranger than fiction not only in technology, trade and European investments, which far exceed Asian activities, but also in the emergence of a new world order sweeping the world.

Even as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to cause havoc, the rest of the world is engaged in finding new alliances and business methods to build the future.

As for internal social changes, the most telling picture is one of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shaking hands with Saudi Arabia's first female astronaut ahead of the launch of the kingdom's scientific mission to the International Space Station.

IMAGE: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, right, greets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Riyadh, December 8, 2022. Photograph: Saudi Press Agency/Handout via Reuters

On April 19, 2023, a report is about Qatar and UAE restoring diplomatic ties and opening embassies more than two years after Arab states boycotted Doha that had shattered the Western allied Gulf Arab bloc.

The boycott of Qatar on the ground that it had terrorist links in Egypt sent shock waves around the world and the boycott had turned out to be a farce with the close family ties between Qatar and the UAE flourished.

The winds of change elsewhere helped resolve this anomaly, establishing cordiality among the GCC countries.

Shakespeare had said, 'When sorrows come, they come not single spice, but in battalions'.

In the Middle East, we are witnessing glad tidings coming in battalions.

The net effect of these changes is a dramatic rise in China's fortunes and a consequent diminishing of US influence.

China, which was quietly working on trade and economic relations in the region so far, has projected itself as a global power and President Xi Jingping as a builder of a community with a shared future for mankind.

It has also proved that it is capable of stealing a march over the United States in the region.

China had tried to mediate peace talks between Israel and Palestine at least five years ago without much success on account of the commanding position that the US enjoyed.

China recently increased contacts with the Arab world and Iran and last year China invited the GCC countries to hold a meeting in China.

President Xi visited Saudi Arabia last year and held several meetings of Arab leaders.

High level exchanges took place between China and Iran also, paving the way for normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The US attitude towards the Chinese role in the Middle East is likely to be negative at this moment because the US policy towards China remains ambiguous.

But in matters like the Iranian nuclear issue, the US and China may converge in the future.

A solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict may also be desirable, though there is no immediate possibility of peace breaking out on that front.

But if Saudi Arabia also recognises Israel and Iran eases its opposition to Israel, a larger settlement of the Palestine issue may be possible.

IMAGE: People are pictured outside the Dubai mall during the holy month of Ramadan, March 29, 2023. Photograph: Rula Rouhana/Reuters

India had a major role to play in the Middle East during the Cold War and soon after because India was in dialogue with all sides.

Many seminal resolutions on the Middle East were based on the drafts of skillful Indian diplomats and Israel was very tolerant of the Indian position, even though India was pro-Palestine to the core.

After the Camp David accords, when the Arab countries and Palestine sought to isolate Egypt and expel it from the NonAligned Movement, it was India which took the lead in supporting Egypt.

Though India could not participate in peace keeping operations in the Middle East because of technical objections by Israel, the role of India as a peacemaker was all too evident.

But with the more recent developments like the Russia-China alliance and the rise of China in the Middle East as against the United States, India's role has diminished though the India-Israel-US-UAE grouping (I2U2) may assume some importance in the future.

Peace is a rare commodity these days and any ray of hope of peace should be welcome.

Ambassador Sreenivasan is a frequent contributor to Rediff.com and you can read his earlier columns here.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
'Somehow, Rahul Gandhi is not able to connect with the youth of the country.'

'While Modiji is 72, Rahul is only 52.'

'But the popularity of the prime minister among the young population is a lot more than Rahul's.'

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra D Modi greets Anil Antony at Yuvam2023 in Kochi, April 25, 2023. Photograph: Kind courtesy Anil Antony/Twitter

The exodus from the Congress to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is not news these days.

It no longer surprises anyone when people are abandoning a sinking ship.

But in Kerala, it surprised everyone when Congress veteran A K Antony's son Anil Antony left the Congress to join the BJP.

A K Antony is not just any Congressman, he was a trusted lieutenant of the Gandhi family and served as defence minister in Dr Manmohan Singh's government.

Soon after Anil Antony joined the BJP, his father told the media that he was pained and hurt by his son's behaviour. His younger brother urged him to come back to the Congress.

But Anil stuck to his guns. Perhaps the BJP sees him as the 'minority' face to draw young Christians to its side.

After Narendra D Modi's visit to Kerala last week where Antony Jr shared the dais with the prime minister along with other young achievers from Kerala, Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier spoke to Anil Antony about how he came to be in the BJP.

The first of a two-part interview:

You were on the dais with Modi along with other young achievers in Kochi. How was the experience?

It was fantastic and it was my first public event after I joined the party on the 6th of April.

The event in Kochi was organised by Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the party, and it was also a part of the G20 initiative.

It was great to be with many young accomplished men and women, which include artists and Padma award winners.

Kochi was totally electrified by the PM's presence. It was an honour to share the stage and interact with him at my first event itself.

I am thankful to the BJP leadership for giving me the opportunity.

What made you join the BJP, a party that talks about Hindu, Hindi and Hindu Rashtra?

These misconceptions were there for a long time. But in his very first speech as the PM, Modiji had made it clear that he would like to work for all Indians and take them forward.

When I was in the Congress, they always used to describe the BJP as a Hindi, Hindu, Hindu Rashtra party.

The BJP itself talks about that...

That's not something the leadership ever talks about. You just look at the election results of the party after the new leadership of Modiji and Amit Shah ji have taken over.

Look at the way the party has expanded. Most of the expansion is not in the Hindi heartland but in the areas where the party was non-existent seven years ago, like Bengal, Tripura and the other North-Eastern states...

IMAGE: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on their visit to Wayanad, April 11, 2023. Photograph: PTI Photo

You were a member of the Congress party. When did you start looking at the BJP from a different perspective, that it is not a Hindu party?

After I saw the ground level work of the party and the reaction of the people. It is quite evident that the Hindu, Hindu, Hindu Rashtra is a misconception.

I have been in Delhi for the last nine years and I have travelled to almost all the states many times. In my travels, I got a chance to interact with people.

That was when I realised that the narration I heard when I was growing up in Kerala, did not align with the ground realities.

I also found that the political decisions of the BJP were taken with people in mind.

Did seeing the positives of the BJP coincide with your disappointment with the Congress?

It is a combination of both. I grew up as the son of a Congressman, and I had been interacting with a lot of his colleagues both at the state level and national level ever since I was a child.

Over time, the Congress changed drastically. The party that existed 30 years back or 20 years back or even 10 years back is not the party of today.

What kind of changes? You mean the party has been losing election after election?

See, the party is losing elections for a reason. It is losing elections because it is getting more and more disconnected from the public consciousness.

It is also getting more and more disconnected from young India.

In the vast majority of the country; the Congress has only some existing voters from long time back.

Young India has completely rejected the party, and that is because it does not resonate with the young population in any manner.

IMAGE: Anil Antony joins the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of Union Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for External Affairs V Murlidharan in New Delhi on April 6, 2023. Photograph: Arun Sharma/PTI Photo

Has it anything to do with Rahul Gandhi who by political standards is comparatively young?

I would say, he is a big reason.

India is a young country where almost 60% of the population is below the age of 40 and the average age of the population is 27.

While Modiji is 72, Rahul is only 52. But the popularity of the prime minister among the young population is a lot more than Rahul Gandhi's.

Within the Congress, somebody like Shashi Tharoor at 67 is more popular among the youth. I have noticed that in Kerala, he is way more popular among urban youth than Rahul Gandhi.

Somehow, Rahul Gandhi is not able to connect with the youth of the country.

Is it because he is not accessible?

Personally, Rahul Gandhi is a good man. I have interacted with him many times, and I have found him to be a decent human being.

But because of the kind of people he has surrounded himself with, he is disconnected from Indian ground realities.

We have a young aspirational population, and they have political, cultural and economic consciousness which is quite different from the times we got our independence or even in the 1970s.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar announced his decision to step down as the political outfit's chief, he stuck to his daily routine of meeting people including party functionaries in Mumbai on Wednesday.

IMAGE: Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar with wife Pratibha Pawar after he announced he was stepping down from his position, Mumbai, May 2, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Pawar (82) on Tuesday dropped a bombshell by saying he is stepping down as chief of the NCP which he founded and helmed since 1999, but not retiring from public life.

The announcement, made at an event, stumped leaders and workers of the 24-year-old party, and many were seen crying and pleading with the Maratha strongman to reconsider his decision.

Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar later on Tuesday announced that his uncle will need two to three days to "think over" his decision.

An NCP functionary on Wednesday said Sharad Pawar was meeting people, including party workers, as usual at the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan in Mumbai from 10 am to 1 pm.

Notably, Sharad Pawar's surprise announcement on Tuesday came less than a fortnight after the NCP's Lok Sabha member and his daughter Supriya Sule indicated that there will be two "blasts" (political) in 15 days, one in Delhi and another in Maharashtra.

After Sharad Pawar declared that he is quitting as NCP chief, district unit office bearers in some places in the state said they were quitting their posts to demand that he reconsider his decision.

Conveying his message to protesting party workers, Ajit Pawar requested NCP functionaries not to resign from their posts against Pawar senior's surprise decision.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a light-hearted interaction with children in Kalaburagi, during his visit to poll-bound Karnataka on Tuesday.

The prime minister held a mega roadshow in Kalaburagi. Before the roadshow, Modi went towards a bunch of children who were cheering for him, and had an endearing conversation.

The prime minister asked them whether they study or not. He asked the children what they wanted to be when they grow up.

One of the children replied 'doctor' while another said 'police officer'.

Modi then asked, "Do you not want to become the PM?"

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi shares a light moment with children, prior to his roadshow, in Kalaburagi on Tuesday. Photograph: ANI Photo

One of the children said, "I want to become like you."

In the past also, Modi was seen interacting with children on several occasions.

Meanwhile, during the roadshow, people queued up on both sides of the road through which the prime minister's cavalcade passed and cheered for him.

They also showered flower petals on him.
A special court in Ahmedabad which acquitted all the 67 accused in the Naroda Gam post-Godhra riots case has criticised the probe conducted into it by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Supreme Court, and said the evidence of the prosecution's witnesses was full of contradictions and could not be relied upon.

IMAGE: Those accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case celebrate on being acquitted by a special court, Ahmedabad, April 20, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Eleven persons were burnt alive in the Naroda Gam area of Ahmedabad district in Gujarat on February 28, 2002, when a bandh call was given by right wing organisations to protest against the burning of Sabarmati Express train in Godhra a day before.

The court of special judge S K Baxi on April 20 acquitted all the 67 accused, including former state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Maya Kodnani, ex-Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Jaydeep Patel and former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi.

A copy of the court order was made available on Tuesday.

The court observed that when the probe into the case was handed over to the SIT, the responsibility of its investigation officer became special and the "probe into the case is expected to be such".

"The evidence on record in connection with the incident dated February 28, 2002, does not in any way suggest that any of the accused formed an illegal group with common intention and purpose for criminal conspiracy," it said, while discarding the angle of criminal conspiracy put forth by the prosecution.

The claim of criminal conspiracy was made by witnesses six-and-a-half years after the incident, and the SIT did not bother to verify their statements which were in "contradiction" to statements given earlier to the Gujarat police officers before 2008, it said.

The SIT took over the investigation into the case from the police in 2008.

Further, while the fact that property and lives of the minority community in the area were destroyed in an attack by an unidentified mob, the prosecution failed to establish that it was done by the accused after they entered into a criminal conspiracy and formed unlawful assembly to do so as claimed by it, the court said.

"On perusal of the written pleadings and the judgments, the parties have not proved the facts that the accused have formed a criminal conspiracy to commit any misdeed or caused the death of any person on the basis of a common intention," it said.

The court accepted the alibi of 21 accused since acquitted, including Kodnani, VHP leader Patel and Bajrangi. It said the SIT investigation officers should have investigated the alibis produced by them which they did not.

Kodnani had called the then BJP president Amit Shah, now Union Home Minister, as a witness to prove her alibi which was accepted by the court.

The former minister had requested the court to summon Shah to prove her alibi that she was present in the Gujarat assembly and later at Ahmedabad's Sola Civil Hospital, and not at Naroda Gam, where the massacre took place.

The court also said the evidence of witnesses is not consistent with each other and reliable. Even the account of star witnesses produced by the prosecution is not consistent with each other and reliable and is full of contradictions.

Such evidence cannot be relied upon to implicate the accused and prove their crime, it said. The prosecution also failed to prove the presence of the accused at the place, it added.

Further, the call details of the accused presented by the SIT also do not support the theory of criminal conspiracy, the court said.

Offences filed against former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi on the basis of a sting operation are also not reliable, it said.

Journalist Ashish Khetan, who conducted the sting operation, said he kept a relevant portion of the original audio record and micro chip and deleted the remaining, the court noted.

The recording was deleted from the point he was admitted to hospital where he claimed to be at the time, and "extra judicial confession" cannot be considered evidence when it is not supported by other competent evidence, the court said.

There were a total of 86 accused in the case, of whom 18 died during the pendency of the trial, while one was discharged by the court earlier due to insufficient evidence against him.

All the 67 accused acquitted last month were already out on bail.
A day after Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar announced that he would step down as party head, Union minister and BJP leader Narayan Rane Wednesday said the 82-year-old leader's presence was needed in politics as well as his party's president.

IMAGE: NCP president Sharad Pawar resigns from the party post at an event in Mumbai. Photograph: ANI Photo

Pawar on Tuesday dropped a bombshell by saying he is stepping down as chief of the NCP which he founded and helmed since 1999, but not retiring from public life. His nephew Ajit Pawar later announced his uncle will need two to three days to "think over" his decision.

About Ajit Pawar appearing to be the only NCP leader favouring his uncle's decision, Rane said, "Ajit was making big speeches. He found Pawar's decision correct while the party workers hold a contrarian view."

"Respected Sharad Pawar, you are needed in politics as well as president of NCP," said Rane, a former Shiv Sena leader.

He also took a dig at former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, accusing him of being incapable of taking his party along.

"He (Uddhav Thackeray) is incapable as a leader and this is a fact. Still, Sharad Pawar made him chief minister. Pawar has admitted about his (Thackeray's) shortcomings as chief minister," Rane told reporters when asked about remarks made by Pawar in his autobiography 'Lok Majhe Sangati' (People Accompany Me).

Rane had quit the Shiv Sena in 2005 to join the Congress. He left the Congress in 2017 to form his own outfit 'Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha', which he merged with the BJP in October 2019.
The Centre told the Supreme Court on Wednesday it will constitute a committee headed by the cabinet secretary to examine administrative steps that could be taken for addressing 'genuine humane concerns' of same-sex couples without going into the issue of legalising their marriage.

IMAGE: United Hindu Front members and supporters stage a protest against the same-sex marriage at Jantar Mantar, in New Delhi. Photograph: ANI Photo

The Centre's submission came pursuant to the apex court asking it on April 27 whether social welfare benefits like opening joint bank accounts, nominating life partner in provident funds, gratuity and pension schemes can be granted to same-sex couples without going into the issue of legal sanction to their marriage.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the central government, told a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud there were discussions at the previous hearing about some genuine humane concerns of such couples and whether something can be done to address those administratively.

"I have taken instructions and government is positive. What we have decided is, of course subject to your lordships' approval, that this would need coordination between more than one ministries. So, therefore, a committee headed by no less than the cabinet secretary will be constituted," Mehta told the bench, which also comprised justices S K Kaul, S R Bhat, Hima Kohli and P S Narasimha.

The top court was hearing arguments for the seventh day on a batch of petitions seeking legal validation of same-sex marriage.

The solicitor general said the petitioners can give him their suggestions or the problems they are facing, and the committee will go into them and try, so far as possible and legally permissible, to ensure they are addressed.

The bench said the petitioners' side can give their suggestions to the attorney general or the solicitor general without prejudice to their rights in the rejoinder.

The CJI said the counsel appearing for both the sides can have a meeting where these issues can be discussed.

"They are most welcome," Mehta said, adding, "The only difficulty would be, we may not have ready solutions. We mean lawyers."

To this, the CJI observed, "We understand because you say that government will constitute a committee headed by the cabinet secretary."

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, who is appearing for one of the petitioners, said meeting and giving suggestion is not a problem, but substantial issues are involved in the matter and at best, what is being suggested is 'administrative tweaking', where necessary, by a committee based on the suggestions.

"....Without prejudice we can certainly give (suggestions) but, personally, I don't think that your lordships will have any major solution," Singhvi said, adding having seen the entire gamut of problems and the level at which, conceptually and jurisprudentially, the matter has been argued, it would be better that the court goes on to decide the matter.

Justice Bhat observed, "Dr Singhvi, look at it as one or none. Because, although he (Mehta) is saying administrative, there are substantive issues here when you are looking at insurance, housing etc. These are as substantial in terms of the benefits that people can expect. That is actually the practical way out."

The bench said the petitioners can give suggestions on what are the barriers which same-sex couple face.

"And if there is a frank discussion out of that, although this is being termed as administrative, this will have to translate into some changes in the regulations, may be even law," it said.

The bench said sometimes beginnings can be small but very substantial.

"We are right now not aware of what we are dealing with. Suppose, as mylords very rightly pointed out, that it might need change of law and change of law might need some wider issues of recognition of a particular relationship, then we will have to examine whether that can be done," Mehta said.

The CJI said from the drift of the submissions, which were made by the solicitor general on the last occasion, it appeared Mehta also accepts that people do have a right to cohabit and the right to cohabit itself is something which is now an accepted social reality.

"Based on that, there may be certain incidents of that cohabitation. For instance, in relation to your right to reside together, bank accounts, insurance policies. These are practical issues which can be resolved by the government. From your perspective also, this is a step forward," Justice Chandrachud said.

Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, who is representing some of the petitioners', said something as simple as pension, provident fund, gratuity benefits accrue only in a marriage.

"That accrues in a marriage because of the nature of our rules," the CJI said.

Mehta said suppose the government says the nominee in provident fund would be a family member or anyone else whom the retiring person chooses, then one doen't need to go into anything else and the problem is solved.

"So, sometimes, solutions are simpler than the problem," he said.

Justice Kaul said this is without prejudice to anybody's right and contention. "But they are not, I believe from what Mr solicitor says, reluctant to sort out the problems arising from a gay companionship without labelling it as marriage to the extent possible," Justice Kaul said.

"Therefore, what is the suggestion from the bench is that nitty-gritty of what may in any case is required to be done in either situations some endeavour or step is taken in that direction. Let us, without prejudice to anything else, not sit with pre-notions on either sides as to what can be sorted out," he said.

The CJI said there may be certain areas which are governed by pure administrative changes and those can easily be done by the government.

Justice Chandrachud said changes, which they accept as a matter of principle, which may require changes in some form of subordinate regulations, is again a matter for the government and they don't have to go to Parliament for that.

The CJI said the fundamental point raised by the petitioners is that there is a right to marry and it can be sourced in the Special Marriage Act.

"Therefore, we are saying that well we will, of course, have to decide it. We are going to decide this entire issue as a matter of concept but to the extent which the government takes the first step forward, there would be a substantial benefit or substantial advancement in the recognition of cohabitation relationship of same-sex couples in the country," the bench said during the hearing which is underway.
The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud has recommended the names of three advocates for appointment as judges of the Bombay high court.

IMAGE: The Bombay high court. Photograph: PTI Photo

The collegium, which also comprises Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph, on Tuesday proposed the names of lawyers Shailesh Pramod Brahme, Firdosh Phiroze Pooniwalla and Jitendra Shantilal Jain for appointment.

On September 26, 2022, the chief justice of the Bombay high court made the recommendations in consultation with his two seniormost colleagues and the file was forwarded by the department of justice to the Supreme Court on April 26, 2023, the collegium said.

"The chief ministers and governors of the states of Maharashtra and Goa have concurred with the recommendation.

"In terms of the memorandum of procedure, with a view to ascertain the fitness and suitability of the candidates for elevation to the high court, judges of the Supreme Court conversant with the affairs of the high court of Bombay were consulted," it said.

The collegium said it has scrutinised and evaluated the material placed on record for the purpose of assessing the merit and suitability of the candidates for elevation to the high court.

"In view of the above, the collegium resolves to recommend that S/Shri (1) Shailesh Pramod Brahme, (2) Firdosh Phiroze Pooniwalla and (3) Jitendra Shantilal Jain, advocates, be appointed as judges of the high court of Bombay. Their inter se seniority be fixed as per the existing practice," the collegium said.

Elaborating on the resolution, the collegium said the consultee-judges have concurred in finding Brahme suitable for elevation as he is a competent lawyer with an experience of about 30 years of practice in civil, criminal, constitutional and service law cases.

"Nothing adverse has been placed by the department of justice in the file. Keeping in mind the above aspects and on an overall consideration of the proposal for his elevation, the collegium is of the considered opinion that shri Shailesh Pramod Brahme is eminently suitable for appointment as a judge of the high court of Bombay," it said.

With regard to Pooniwalla's name, the collegium said the consultee-judges have opined that he is suitable for elevation and the Intelligence Bureau has stated in its report that he has a good personal and professional image and that nothing adverse has come to notice regarding his integrity and that he is not associated with any political party.

"The Intelligence Bureau has, however, flagged that shri Pooniwalla had earlier worked under an advocate. It is reported that the said advocate has written an article in a publication in 2020 expressing concerns over the alleged lack of freedom of speech/expression in the country in the last five-six years.

"The views which have been expressed by a former senior of Shri Pooniwalla have no bearing on his own competence, ability or credentials for appointment as a judge of the high court of Bombay. Moreover, the collegium notes that Shri Pooniwalla and his former senior practise on the original side of the high court of Bombay," it said.

The collegium said the junior counsel associated with the chamber of a senior on the original side are not engaged in a relationship of employer-employee with their senior.

"While juniors are associated with the chamber, they are free to do their own work and for all the intents and purposes, are entitled to independent legal practice. No adverse comments reflecting on the suitability of the candidate for elevation have been made in the file. The candidate has extensive practice at the Bar and is specialised in commercial law.

"The candidate professes Parsi Zoroastrianism and belongs to a minority community. Keeping in mind the above aspects and on an overall consideration of the proposal for his elevation, the collegium is of the considered opinion that shri Firdosh Phiroze Pooniwalla is suitable for appointment as a judge of the high court of Bombay," it added.

Regarding Jain, the collegium said it has considered the inputs provided by the Intelligence Bureau and nothing adverse has been reported about his integrity.

"The consultee judges have found him suitable for elevation. The candidate has acquired considerable experience during his practice of 25 years with a specialisation in tax litigation.

"The high court of Bombay has a large volume of tax-related cases and a candidate with such background would be an asset to the work of the high court. Enquiries have been made by a member of the collegium conversant with the affairs of the high court of Bombay on the issue which has been flagged by the Intelligence Bureau pertaining to his work in the chamber of a senior on the taxation side about 20 years ago," it said.

The enquiries have indicated that while it is correct that the candidate had ceased working in the chamber of that senior, he subsequently joined the chamber of a noted senior counsel at the Bar, it added.

"The fact of the candidate having left the chamber of a senior earlier has no bearing on his ability, competence or integrity.

"Keeping in mind the above aspects and on an overall consideration of the proposal for his elevation, the collegium is of the considered opinion that shri Jitendra Shantilal Jain is suitable for appointment as a judge of the high court of Bombay," the collegium said.

In another resolution, the collegium recommended the name of additional judge Robin Phukan for appointment as a permanent judge of the Gauhati high court.

On March 23, 2023, the chief justice of the Gauhati high court, in consultation with his two seniormost colleagues, recommended the name of Justice Phukan for appointment as a permanent judge and the file was received by the Supreme Court from the department of justice on April 28, 2023, the collegium said.

"The chief ministers of the states of Assam, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh and the governors of the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have concurred with the recommendation.

"We have considered the view of the judges of the Supreme Court conversant with the affairs of the Gauhati high court who were consulted, in terms of the memorandum of procedure, with a view to ascertain the fitness and suitability of Shri Justice Robin Phukan for being appointed as a permanent judge," the collegium said.

It said it has scrutinised and evaluated the material placed on record for the purpose of assessing the merit and suitability of Justice Phukan.

"Having regard to all the relevant factors, the collegium is of the considered view that Shri Justice Robin Phukan, additional judge, is suitable for being appointed as a permanent judge of the Gauhati high court.

"In view of the above, the collegium resolves to recommend that shri Justice Robin Phukan, additional judge, be appointed as a permanent judge of the Gauhati high court against an existing vacancy," it said.
There is no question of picking Sharad Pawar's successor as Nationalist Congress Party chief until there is a final decision on his announcement to quit the post, senior party leader Praful Patel said on Wednesday.

IMAGE: NCP president Sharad Pawar in a conversation with wife Pratibha Pawar after he announced his resignation from the party post at YB Chavan in Mumbai. Photograph: ANI Photo

Pawar has not relented despite repeated appeals from NCP leaders and supporters that he withdraw his decision to step down, Patel said.

"None of us knew about this (resignation announcement) beforehand," he told reporters.

"Pawar yesterday said there should be a generational change. May be he wanted a new generation to step forward. None of us knew about it beforehand. He has asked for some time and we should grant him that," Patel said.

Patel, who is the NCP's national vice president, also said he himself was not in the running for the top post. "I am not a contender," he said.

The party committee, which Pawar himself set up on Tuesday to decide on his successor, did not meet on Wednesday, he said.

"If the situation arises, the committee will decide on Pawar's successor and the decision will be unanimous. He sought time to think over his decision after the party asked him to reconsider it, and till the final decision is arrived at, there is no question of deliberating on his successor," Patel said.

"There is no vacancy," he said, adding, "whether Pawar remains president or not, he is the party's identity and soul."

The NCP leader was reacting to speculation about Supriya Sule emerging as the choice for national president and Ajit Pawar as the Maharashtra unit chief. Some reports also suggested that Patel could succeed Pawar.

The party was trying to persuade Pawar to reconsider his decision, Patel said.

"Party workers should have patience and stop resigning from their posts en masse (in protest against Pawar's decision)," he said.

As he was the convenor of the committee, he would inform when its meeting is scheduled, Patel told the reporters.

He also denied that state NCP chief Jayant Patil was upset with the party.

Patil was in Pune to attend a meeting of his sugar cooperative factory, Patel said.

The 'Vajramooth' rallies of the Maha Vikas Aghadi -- the alliance of the NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) -- were postponed due to the hot summer conditions and it was decided on Sunday when a rally was held in Mumbai, Patel said.

"It has nothing to do with Pawar stepping down as NCP chief," he said.

NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad said he has resigned from the post of party's National General Secretary and sent his resignation to Sharad Pawar.

All office bearers of Thane NCP have also resigned after Pawar Saheb's announcement to resign from the post of party chief, he said.

Jayant Patil said he was among several people who had joined the Nationalist Congress Party after being inspired by Pawar saheb's leadership.

Asked if he would work under Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule as the national president as her name is doing the rounds for the top post, Patil said whatever decision the party takes, everyone has to accept it.

Asked if he had prior knowledge of Pawar's decision, Patil said he did not have any idea. To a query on if he felt sidelined in the party, he said, This is a big question. I don't think there is any need to answer it today.

There were reports that Patil was not invited to a meeting of top NCP leaders in Mumbai. Patil said he had a word with NCP MP Supriya Sule, who said there was no such meeting.

Pawar (82) on Tuesday dropped a bombshell by saying he is stepping down as chief of the NCP which he founded and helmed since 1999, but not retiring from public life.

The announcement, made at an event, stumped leaders and workers of the 24-year-old party, and many were seen crying and pleading with the Maratha strongman to reconsider his decision.

Ajit Pawar on Tuesday announced his uncle will need two to three days to "think over" his decision.

A day after he announced his decision to step down as NCP chief, Sharad Pawar stuck to his daily routine of meeting people including party functionaries.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole hit out at ally Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, saying that he should stop "interfering in other parties' affairs", a statement that drew a sharp reaction from the latter.

The Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are partners in the opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The government headed by this alliance ruled Maharashtra from November 2019 to June 2022.

On Tuesday, Raut said that decisions in the Congress are ultimately taken by Rahul Gandhi although Mallikarjun Kharge currently occupies the post of the grand old party's president.

When asked about Raut's remark, Patole told reporters at his residence in Nagpur that Raut should stop interfering in the affairs of other parties.

"Sanjay Raut is not a spokesperson of Congress. How can he raise question marks over the capability of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge? It is wrong to level false allegations against the Gandhi family," he said.

"I would suggest that he (Raut) should not interfere in our party's affairs," Patole added.
In an alleged case of moral policing, a student was assaulted by a group of right-wing activists for talking to a girl at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, the police said.

IMAGE: Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only. Photograph: PTI Photo

The first-year PU student was allegedly assaulted by the activists in the incident on Tuesday and has been admitted to Puttur government hospital where he is receiving treatment.

He had gone to meet his classmate and they were having fruit juice at a parlour when the attack took place on Tuesday, the youngster said.

Though he told the attackers that they were friends, they continued the assault using lathis and wires, the teenager said, adding that he was also warned against lodging a police complaint.

The police said they are investigating the case.
At the moment routes are expected to link major spots along the Han River.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will announce detailed plans later this month to get the unmanned choppers up and running by 2025.

A trial run for unmanned flying taxis could start next year if all goes according to plan, shuttling passengers from Gimpo International Airport to downtown Seoul and a couple of other locations.

At first a route connecting Gimpo with both Yeouido and Jamsil was considered, but the paths had to be split up when the presidential office moved to Yongsan and created no-fly zones in the middle of the city.

Vertiports could be set up in parks along the Han River where there are no residential areas immediately nearby. Later they can sit on top of high-risers as well.

What seems certain is that the main terminal will be built at Gimpo airport by 2026, and another terminal will open in Jamsil in 2030. Each chopper will be able to carry five or six passengers.

A Seoul city official said, "Fares will be expensive at first, so the service will be offered initially to transport jewelry, VIP guests and tourists. We could also expand the service to transport emergency patients and deliver cargo."
Describing the overnight 'drone attacks' on the Kremlin residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, by Ukraine, a "terrorist attack," Russia has said it has the "right to retaliate" in a manner, place and time of its choosing, Russia Today quoted statement of President office.

IMAGE: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photograph: Sputnik/Alexey Nikolskyi/Kremlin via Reuters

Russia alleged that there were attempts by Ukraine to assassinate President Putin, saying it was a "terrorist attack" while claiming it shot down drones over the residence of Putin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not get injured in the overnight drone attacks on Kremlin and Russia considers the drone attacks, an attempt on President's life, President's press service announced on Wednesday, Russia Today reported.

According to Putin's staff, Ukraine launched two drone attacks overnight with the intention of hitting his apartment in the Kremlin.

"The head of State was not in Kermlin at the time of "Ukrainian UAV attack" on Tuesday night,"Kremlin's Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

He also said that President Putin is currently working form his residence near Moscow and that his schedule remains unchanged.

The drones were destroyed using electronic warfare measures and caused no casualties or damage, the press service added.

According to a report in Russia Today, the message said, "As a result of this terrorist act, the President of the Russian Federation was not injured. His work schedule has not changed, it continues as usual."

The Kremlin also noted that the Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures as it sees fit, reported Russia Today.

Peskov added that the incident won't interfere with the Victory Day parade that is scheduled to take place on May 9 on Red Square.

The Kremlin previously reported that the two UAVs had targeted the Kremlin, but both were shot down before they could pose any damage, according to Russia Today.

Prior to being shot down, both of the UAVs that had targeted the Kremlin, according to the Kremlin, were shot down.

On social media, several viral videos purportedly show a plummet of smoke rising against the nighttime cityscape from the terrirory of the former Russian capital.

The Kremlin press service also said, "Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services using radar warfare systems, the devices were disabled."

The statement said, "We consider this a pre-planned terrorist action and an attempt against the Russian president," adding that the incident happened "ahead of Victory Day and the parade on May 9, when foreign guests plan to be present."
The first of the two-phase urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh will take place on Thursday, a major poll battle in the politically crucial state ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.

IMAGE: BJP supporters attend the public meeting addressed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the State Civic Polls, in Prayagraj on Tuesday. Photograph: ANI Photo

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and opposition Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav took trips to different places on the last day of the campaign on Tuesday to engage with voters and attacked each other with their typical jibes.

According to the State Election Commission, voters in 37 districts will vote in the first phase of the polls on Thursday to elect 7,593 representatives, including 10 mayors and 820 corporators. Polling for the second-phase polling will take place on May 11.

These elections will pose a key test for the parties ahead of next year's Lok Sabha polls.

More than 2.40 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the first round of voting, officials said, and added that all the posts are being contested on party symbols.

In the first phase, polling will be held for posts of 103 nagar palika parishad chairpersons and 2,740 nagar palika parishad members.

Apart from this, voters in the first phase will also decide the fate of 275 nagar panchayat chairpersons and 3,645 nagar panchayat members.

Altogether 44,232 candidates are in the fray in the opening round.

SEC officials said 85 representatives, including 10 corporators, have already been elected unopposed.

As the campaigning for the polls intensified, Adityanath had termed the polls as 'Dev-Asur Sangram (battle between deities and demons)'.

On the last day of campaigning, without naming anyone, the chief minister appeared to invoke nature as a great leveller -- a force that delivers justice.

He was addressing an election meeting in Allahabad West constituency, which was represented five times by mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad, who was killed recently.

Barring the BJP and the SP, whose leaders actively held election rallies, campaigning of other political parties was rather a low-key affair.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, who herself did not campaign, on Tuesday issued an appeal through tweets to the people to vote for her party.

With top Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Mallikarjun Kharge busy in the Karnataka assembly elections, some state party leaders were seen seeking support for the party nominees.

When contacted by PTI, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Brijlal Khabri said, "The party is contesting on all the 17 seats of mayors, and on around 70 per cent seats of corporators."

On being asked that the party leaders were conspicuous by their absence during the campaigning, Khabri said, "The brick used in laying the foundation stone of the building remains unseen."

"The people of the state have shown their inclination towards the party. Whatever the current government --- both in the state and at Centre --- has given to the people in nine years and five years respectively, the people are unable to tolerate it," he added.

The Aam Aadmi Party, which has also jumped into the fray, is hopeful of staging upsets.

"The AAP and its leader Sanjay Singh got good support and response from the people during the campaign. People in the state want a change, and we are hopeful that the party will stage upsets in these elections," senior party leader Shekhar Dixit told PTI.

Rashtriya Lok Dal spokesperson Ankur Saxena exuded confidence that the party's candidates will perform 'extremely well' in these polls.

The districts where mayoral election will be held in the first phase are Saharanpur, Agra, Moradabad, Firozabad, Mathura, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Varanasi.

Voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm in all the districts, officials have said.

Elaborating on security arrangements for the polls, Special DG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said that as many as 19,880 inspectors/sub-inspectors; 1,01,477 head constables/constables; 47,985 home guards; 86 companies of PAC; 35 companies of CAPF; and 7,500 under-training sub-inspectors will be posted for the first phase of the urban local bodies elections.

Counting of votes for both the phases will take place on May 13.
'Within a short span, it increased attendance, improved children's physical fitness, and led to a rise in the enrolment ratio.'

IMAGE: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin feeds a student at the launch of the free breakfast scheme at the Adimulam school in Madurai, September 15, 2022. Photograph: ANI Photo

Way back in 1920, the idea of mid-day meals at schools in Tamil Nadu was initiated by the Justice Party, widely considered to have ushered in the Dravidian movement.

It was introduced in one corporation school in the Thousand Lights area in Chennai then.

Later, after Independence, the Midday Meal Scheme was rolled out in 1957 in Tamil Nadu by then chief minister K Kamaraj.

However, the scheme had to wait several decades -- till 2002 -- to become nationwide. It happened only after the Supreme Court made it mandatory for states. The scheme was renamed PM Poshan in 2021.

And now, after more than six-and-a-half decades since the Kamaraj initiative, Tamil Nadu is again showing the way for the country with another social-sector scheme -- 'Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme'.

Though launched on a pilot basis in September last year in 1,545 elementary schools, the scheme is being expanded to 30,122 government primary schools in the state from the coming academic year.

Announcing the expansion while presenting the Tamil Nadu Budget 2023, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan said Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) was allotted for this scheme and it was going to benefit around 1.8 million students of classes 1 to 5 next year.

The government is spending around Rs 12.75 a day on every child as part of the breakfast scheme.

The menu includes a wide range of items, including rava upma, pongal, semiya upma and kesari. The menu also includes millets available in the area at least two days a week.

"Tamil Nadu is the first state to introduce a breakfast scheme and this is a revolution. It is a scheme that takes forward the Dravidian ideology, concentrating on the downtrodden in society. Within a short span, it increased attendance, improved children's physical fitness, and led to a rise in the enrolment ratio," said R Venkatesh, political analyst and faculty at the University of Madras.

The success of the first phase resulted in the government expanding the scheme.

It benefited 114,000 students during the first phase.

These included 417 schools in cities, 163 in towns or district headquarters, 728 in rural areas, and 237 in far-flung or hilly areas (totalling 1,545).

According to a study by the state planning commission, around 85 per cent of the schools (1,319) showed an increase in attendance during the first phase.

Experts also highlight this has resulted in bringing down childhood malnutrition.

Another major scheme in the education sector by the Stalin government that is getting attention is the Pudhumai Penn Scheme.

Under this, all girls in Classes 6 to 12 in government schools are provided Rs 1,000 per month for their higher education, which is benefiting around 220,000 girl students now.

"Whether it is the DMK or AIADMK, governments in Tamil Nadu lay emphasis on the social sector. Inspired by the Amma Unavagam, several such initiatives like Indira canteens and Atal canteens were implemented by other states. Similarly, the distribution of cycles to girl students and the free laptop scheme too got followers in other states," said Sumanth Raman, a political analyst.

Another scheme called Illam Thedi Kalvi, kicked off during the pandemic to cover the learning loss among students, turned successful.

As part of the programme, volunteers lead an outreach programme, providing learning close to students' homes.

During the pandemic, another scheme that captured attention was Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam, which was offering door-to-door screening and drug delivery.

According to one estimate, more than 10 million people benefited from the scheme till December.

In the recent Tamil Nadu Budget, the state extended this to guest workers, covering 711 factories and 835,000 workers in the first phase.

Interestingly, the state has often been criticised for offering freebies like laptops, colour TVs, grinders, mixers, and fans to people.

However, experts say this has helped the state in its inclusive journey.

"Rather than looking at one government or one scheme, I think over the past 30-50 years, a series of welfare schemes has been launched. Some of them went overboard, like mixer grinder and TV. I still believe these schemes have been beneficial in reducing inequalities in society," Raman added.

The welfare programmes by various governments have resulted in an increase in the state's social sector spending from Rs 13,616 crore (Rs 136.16 billion) in 2003-2004 to Rs 1.23 trillion in 2021-2022, according to the Reserve Bank of India's statistics on state finances.

Of this, around Rs 69,398 crore (Rs 693.98 billion) was spent on urban development, Rs 35,564 crore (Rs 355.64 billion) on water and sanitation, and Rs 27,065 crore (Rs 270.65 billion) on health and family welfare.
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Los Chapitos  the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by the sons of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman  is richer, more powerful and more deadly than it ever was under El Chapo. Thats according to Anne Milgram, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), who was a part of a 30-minute conference on the cartel on Tuesday. In her speech, Milgram spoke about the power of the Sinaloa Cartel, the changes that have taken place under Los Chapitos, the deadly effect of fentanyl in the United States and Mexicos role in the global drug business. Since Los Chapitos took control, the cartel has never been more powerful and has never made more money, said the head of the DEA in a talk sponsored by the Milken Institute. According to Milgram, the White House has identified the presence of the Sinaloa Cartel in more than 40 countries.

In an earlier conversation with Nick Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, Milgram said that two cartels  the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)  were responsible for virtually all the fentanyl and methamphetamine consumed in the United States. In her talk on Tuesday, the DEA administrator said China is the epicenter of the synthetic drug supply chain, but for years Mexican cartels have been manufacturing fentanyl in the country with precursors sent from China  instead of buying the finished product. They buy precursor chemicals from China. They ship them to Mexico. They mass produce fentanyl. They press some of that into these fake pills, and then they get it into the United States by land, by air, by sea, said Milgram, who took office in June 2021.

We believe Mexico needs to do more to stop the harm that were seeing, Milgram said during a U.S. Senate hearing in February. But when asked if increasing the pressure on the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador would help the fight against the cartels, the DEA administrator avoided giving a concrete answer. The fentanyl crisis has heightened tensions between the U.S. and Mexico, which claims it is just a transit country for fentanyl, not a producer. With respect to China, Milgram expressed doubts that Beijing would cooperate with the U.S. to crack down on the illicit fentanyl trade.

Anne Milgram, director of the DEA, during a talk in Beverly Hills (California), on Tuesday. MIKE BLAKE (REUTERS)

During the conference on Tuesday, Milgram put the focus on Los Chapitos, who are among 28 members of the Sinaloa Cartel charged with drug trafficking by the U.S. Justice Department. When I came in, I stepped back to say, who is the most responsible for the fentanyl killing Americans? And the answer was, the Sinaloa Cartel, she said. U.S. authorities have offered million-dollar rewards for information leading to the arrest or conviction of El Chapos four sons: $10 million for Ivan Guzman Salazar, Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ovidio Guzman Lopez  who the U.S. are also pushing to extradite  and $5 million for Joaquin Guzman Lopez.

They took over, and they made the cartel deadlier, more ruthless. They pioneered the manufacturing of fentanyl and the transportation distribution of it that we see today, Milgram said on Tuesday, in reference to El Chapos sons. The four sons and more than 20 other members of the Sinaloa Cartel were charged on April 14 with a battery of offenses ranging from organized crime and drug trafficking to illegal possession of weapons and money laundering.

In the conference, Milgram called fentanyl the most urgent crisis that we face today as a country and the greatest threat to our national security. What the Chapitos indictment shows is the entire fentanyl supply chain across the globe, she said. According to Milgram, the Sinaloa Cartel began focusing on trafficking fentanyl as early as 2014, even before the recapture of El Chapo in 2016. She said that it was possible to trace the Chinese partners providing the criminal organization with the precursors for the drug, and that the DEA has identified their collaborators in the United States. She also spoke of the criminal groups enormous profit margin, explaining: It costs the cartels between 10 and 20 cents in Mexico to make a fake pill, which sells in the U.S. for between $5 and $30.

At the end of March, the DEA announced that it had created specialized units to attack the financial and drug trafficking structures of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel  work that was aided by the agencys 334 offices worldwide. Milgram did not say in which countries Los Chapitos were operating, but court documents indicate a Pan-American corridor stretching from Peru to Canada. The indictment against Los Chapitos also revealed that DEA agents infiltrated the leadership of the criminal group for a year-and-a-half. In this time, the officers recorded cases of racketeering, money laundering and torture techniques against rival cartel leaders. But the findings did not go down well with the Lopez Obrador government, which claimed that the DEA operations had not been agreed upon or authorized. The Mexican president described the operation as an abusive, arrogant interference that should not be accepted under any circumstances. In Milgrams speech on Tuesday, there was no mention of the diplomatic tensions with Mexico.

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Nutrition and weight loss company Jenny Craig is closing all of its locations across the nation, according to reports from NBC News on Wednesday.

The chain, which employs about 1,000 people, has roughly 500 locations in the United States and Canada, according to the company's website. Jenny Craig has seven Connecticut locations: Stamford, Fairfield, Danbury, Manchester, Simsbury, Orange and Branford.

NBC News reported that employees learned of the closure on Tuesday night via an internal e-mail. The company's locations are expected to close by the end of the week.

Jenny Craig Inc. had been in business for four decades and used a weight management program that included in-person counseling and meal plans. The company was also known for its celebrity endorsers, using actress Valerie Bertinelli in its commercials at one point.

The company was owned by Miami-based H.I.G. Capital, which bought Jenny Craig from private-equity firm North Castle Partners in 2019.

Company officials weren't immediately available for comment on Wednesday,

The shutdown of Jenny Craig locations is being played out against a shifting landscape in the weight loss business. David Cadden, a professor emeritus at Quinnipiac University's School of Business, said the closing of the chain's weight loss centers is a reflection of how "people are becoming more homebound and isolated."

"They would much rather get pre-prepared foods like Nutrisystem shipped to their home and not have to go to a weight loss center," Cadden said.
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NEW YORK (AP)  In vintage couture and a world of Chanel-inspired camellias. In pearls, chains and black ties, especially those worn by women, the A-list crowd at the Met Gala largely passed muster in embracing Karl Lagerfeld, the man of the evening on fashions biggest night.

Most. Not all. Over-the-top dressing on the first Monday in May isn't dead. Misinterpreting or outright ignoring the night's dress code isn't buried. But this time around, there was an air of respect, a nod to authenticity in honor of Karl, as the fundraising party's visionary, Anna Wintour, requested.

Because the theme was so specific, it practically demanded elegance, which is why so many looked so good. But what was most surprising was to see how other designers paid homage to the master with riffs on his iconic trademarks, said Hal Rubenstein, a fashion writer, designer and one of the founding editors of InStyle magazine.

Lagerfeld, the man, the photographer, the publisher, the designer for hire at Chanel, Fendi, Chloe and more, died in February 2019 after 65 years in fashion. Few designers have made the deep cultural impact he did, especially within the confines of carrying on historic heritage legacies.

He was about elegance and craftsmanship, a total 180 from the Hollywood parade the Met Ball had become in the last few years, Rubenstein said.

And Lagerfeld did it in his own unique uniform: white powdered low ponytail, skinny black pants and jackets, black fingerless gloves, high crisp white collars and black ties. And dark glasses. Always dark glasses.

Other critics and fashion insiders agreed with Rubenstein. Lets not forget the muddled gala theme Punk: Chaos to Couture in 2013 with a fashion vibe that managed to offend actual punks, or the two galas last year and the year before that honored American fashion with a slew of guests dressed by European and other non-American brands.

But some fashion watchers weren't altogether bothered by this year's stunts, many aimed at Lagerfeld's beloved cat, Choupette.

Jared Leto was a furry human (sweaty) Choupette in a Disney-worthy costume. Doja Cat was an actual cat, thanks to facial prosthetics. Lil Nas X was, well, Lil Nas X, slathered in silver paint wearing a chunky pearl and jeweled cat face mask, thong and boots  and nothing else, thanks to makeup legend Pat McGrath and Dior Men.

And some fans of the celebrities lucky enough to score invitations this year were often delighted, regardless. The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal sent his stans into a Valentino frenzy with his black short-shorts, high socks, fire engine red shirt and long matching overcoat. He got Lagerfeld's signature black tie and combat boots right.

In general, celebrities and designers adhered pretty religiously to the theme, much more than in recent years, sticking closely to the designers unwavering vision and signature design codes  tweed, black and white, ribbons, brides, rosettes, cats, suits, said Madeline Hirsch, news director for InStyle and Byrdie.

There was much to play with, she said.

He had a distinct vision and particular love for all things fancy  and it was fun to see what everyone could do in a black and white color palette, Hirsch said.

Cassidy Zachary, a fashion historian and host of the podcast Dressed: The History of Fashion, put it this way:

While most guests were on theme, I would overall label this years red carpet as beautiful but boring. Karl had such an extensive and expansive design vocabulary to pull from and the breadth of his work was overwhelmingly absent. Most guests fell into a Karl Lagerfeld trope trap, largely defined by Chanel and Chanel aesthetics: black and white, camellias, boucle and pearls.

Chanel is not only a fashion house where Lagerfeld worked for 36 years, but was a sponsor of this year's Met Gala. Lagerfeld's contributions to fashion history and the modern fashion lexicon, Zachary said, were so much more, though she had some notable exceptions to her criticism.

One of the highlights of the night was Nicole Kidman, Zachary said, a vision in the pale pink befeathered and bejeweled gown she wore in the 2004 Baz Luhrmann-directed Chanel No. 5 fashion short film. At 180 seconds, it cost $33 million to make, she said.

There were other elegant vintage wins that fueled the Chanel engine: Penelope Cruz in an archival look from the spring 1998 haute couture collection and Jennie Kim in a vintage look from fall 1990.

The gala, which raised $17.4 million last year for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, is driven by the museum's spring exhibition each year, this time around called Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.

As the show, sure to be a blockbuster, attests, Lagerfelds design lexicon extended well beyond his tenure at Chanel. Yet his years at Jean Patou, Balmain and Chloe were barely there or absent on the museum's Grand Staircase.

The gala carpet, Zachary said, would have been more colorful and lively had more guests looked to Lagerfeld's years at Chloe, where he worked from 1963 to 1983, and again from 1992 to 1997.

His work for Chloe was decidedly more playful, whimsical and surrealist than his work at Chanel, as most famously embodied by his 1983 shower dress and his 1984 violin dress, which was reissued by Chloe in 2013, she said.

Zachary was pleased to see all three on the carpet, worn by Vanessa Kirby, Margaret Zhang and Olivia Wilde, respectively.

Rubenstein lauded others who went directly to Lagerfeld-related sources: Kidman and Penelope Cruz in vintage Chanel, along with Naomi Campbell's goddess pink Chanel look from 2010 and Cara Delevingne in a shirt dress from Lagerfeld's eponymous brand.

And he was impressed by the Lagerfeld symbols and silhouettes embodied by Vera Wang for Lily Collins, Loewe for Karlie Kloss, Gucci for Julia Garner and Thom Browne for Jenna Ortega. Still, he said, there were moments that might have made Lagerfeld clench.

I dont think anyone was out to make a mockery of the night. No one came to be disrespectful. But there were those who evidently didnt make the attempt to honor the designers parameters, Rubenstein said. Lagerfeld clothes were never overtly sexy. He rarely showed plunging necklines, backless dresses, lots of midriff or skirts slit to the hip. So those who did show up blatantly showing off with swaths of exposed skin, like Mary J Blige, Jennifer Lopez and Lil Nas X looked awkwardly out of place.

Zachary, too, sees designers who did well by Lagerfeld, blending the honoree's aesthetic with their own. Anne Hathaway is the shining star of that moment, she said, in custom Versace with founder Gianni's famous safety pins in a Chanel boucle.

Sergio Hudson's form-fitting pink boucle stunner worn by Kiki Palmer honored both Josephine Baker and Lagerfeld's work in the 1950s, Zachary said. Less subtle was Wang's massive ballgown for Collins with Karl emblazoned across the train.

If Collins was less subtle, Jeremy Pope was a bullhorn in a 32-foot cape with a black-and-white Lagerfeld portrait, thanks to Balmain's Olivier Rousteing.

William Middleton, who wrote this year's biography Paradise Now: The Extraordinary Life of Karl Lagerfeld, sees deeper connections to his subject than meet the eye.

Kidman's dress, for instance: One of the fittings for this dress, in London at the Dorchester Hotel, was one of the few times in Karls life that he showed up on time.

Take the note Rihanna and A$ap Rocky (who were 90 minutes late). She wore a spectacular evening gown by Pier Paolo Piccioli, who had worked with Karl at Fendi, fusing his Valentino aesthetic with Karls, particularly with the oversized camellias," Middleton said. "And he was wearing a kilt-like skirt with a black jacket, by Gucci, like Karl had worn in Tokyo in 2004."

Fans who raved on social media clearly considered the couple worth waiting for.

___

Find Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie
A Massachusetts woman who grew up in Connecticut and is accused of strangling her three children to death this year has been transferred to a new hospital.

Doctors transferred Lindsay Musgrove Clancy to Tewksbury State Hospital because they believed she needed extended medical care, according to WCVB, a Hearst Television station based in Boston.

Clancy, 32, was initially treated at a Boston-area hospital for several severe spinal fractures and other injuries she suffered from jumping out of a window on the second floor of her home in Duxbury, Mass. The mother attempted to kill herself after police said she used exercise bands to strangle her three children on Jan. 24.

Her husband, Patrick Clancy, found the former Wallingford resident in their backyard with cuts on her wrists and neck. He had left the home less than an hour earlier to pick up food and medication for one of their children.

Cora, 5, and Dawson, 3, died inside the home, while 8-month-old Callan died at the hospital days later.

Prosecutors argued that Clancy planned the attack, while her defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, claimed she was suffering from postpartum depression and had been overmedicated. Her husband issued a statement days after the killings, asking people to forgive his wife.

In a virtual arraignment in February, Plymouth District Court Judge John Canavan III ruled that Clancy could be released to another facility to get specialized treatment for her injuries.

In Clancy's case file, a surgeon told Reddington that she would have "continued, extensive rehabilitation needs," specifically for her spinal cord injury.

Clancy was charged with two counts of murder, three counts of strangulation or suffocation and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. She is next scheduled to appear in court on July 25, WCVB reported.
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LAS VEGAS (AP)  Jim Marchant, a Nevada Republican who led a movement of candidates who promoted Donald Trump's lies of a stolen 2020 election, announced Tuesday that he will run for the U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Jacky Rosen in the swing state.

The entrance of Marchant, who lost last year's race for Nevada secretary of state, may be another headache for national Republicans who are trying to prevent a repeat of the midterms. Voters in Nevada and other battleground states rejected candidates who ran on election conspiracies, allowing Democrats to increase their hold on the Senate.

Democrats face an even tougher environment to keep their slim majority in 2024. Nevada is likely to be one of the nation's most competitive Senate races after hosting the closest contest of 2022. Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto eked out a narrow victory over another high-profile election denier, Adam Laxalt.

Marchant, 66, has been a fierce supporter of Trump and his Make America Great Again movement and describes himself as a MAGA conservative." He's the first major Republican to challenge Rosen, a first-term moderate.

Theres nothing more precious than our freedom and personal liberty, Marchant told about 200 invited guests at a suburban Las Vegas church. And Im running for United States Senate to protect Nevadans from the overbearing government, from Silicon Valley, from big media, from labor unions, from the radical gender change advocates.

Marchant, a former one-term state Assembly member who also lost a bid for Congress three years ago, raised his national profile last year as the organizer of a coalition of 17 GOP candidates who falsely purported that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump. All but one of those candidates lost, including Marchant.

Rosen, 65, was president of a prominent Jewish synagogue before defeating GOP Sen. Dean Heller in 2018. She has not drawn a party challenger since announcing last month that she would seek reelection in the perennial battleground state. Two unknown and nearly unfunded Republicans, Rhonda Kennedy and Stephanie Phillips, and an independent, Bradley Scott Wing, have submitted their names to the Federal Election Commission.

While far-right candidates like Jim Marchant spread baseless conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy, Ive always focused on bringing both sides together to solve problems and stand up for hardworking Nevadans, Rosen said in a statement.

Federal campaign financial reports for the filing period ending March 31 showed Rosen raised more than $10 million for the race and had $6 million to spend. Marchant was not yet listed by the FEC on Tuesday. State election reports showed he spent almost $550,000 on his secretary of state bid.

For the 2024 race, national Republicans are recruiting Sam Brown, a retired Army captain who finished second in last years GOP Senate primary, according to a GOP strategist who works on Senate races. The strategist, who was not authorized to discuss the effort publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Republicans in Washington like Browns ability to raise money from the partys grassroots and his profile as a war hero. Browns face was badly burned in a 2008 explosion in Afghanistan.

Marchant appeared most often during his campaign for secretary of state at remote public places and on far-right media outlets including Steve Bannons War Room podcast, where he endorsed false election claims, including that all Nevada elected officials since 2006 had been installed by the deep-state cabal.

In a brief interview following his Tuesday announcement, with campaign adviser Dick Morris at his side, Marchant did not walk away from his prior claims that the 2020 election was stolen, but said he was now focused on the future.

I have serious doubts, Marchant told The Associated Press. Ive been on record for a long time trying to prove how the election, I believe, was not up-and-up. I think it was probably stolen. There were a lot of ways they were able to figure out how to manipulate the system.

All I want to do is go forward and make sure none of the other ones are stolen, he said.

Marchant also toured rural Nevada counties last year to encourage local lawmakers to get rid of voting machines and adopt paper ballots. He was the architect of a hand-count in rural Nye County, which became one of the first jurisdictions nationwide to attempt the slower, less reliable method of counting votes.

The Nye County effort was ultimately conducted alongside machines due to state regulations, a string of lawsuits and concerns from the Republican Nevada secretary of state, who was censured by the party for pushing back against false claims of widespread election fraud.

Democrat Francisco Cisco Aguilar defeated Marchant in November, running on a platform of repairing trust in elections and protecting poll workers.

Marchant and Laxalt, a former Nevada state attorney general, both lost their midterm races, even as Republican Joe Lombardo won the race for governor. Lombardo distanced himself from Trump at times during his campaign and never offered an endorsement of unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen due to widespread fraud.

Marchants defeat marked a pattern among election conspiracy theorists who sought to gain control of elections in competitive states. Among his coalition of 17 like-minded Republican candidates, only one was elected: Diego Morales, now secretary of state in Indiana. Election deniers lost all top races in swing states.

I will be a commonsense, America-first, for-the-people senator," Marchant told the AP. "Thats all that they want. ___

Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Gabe Stern contributed from Reno, Nevada. Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter: @gabestern326.
Tijuana and Mexicali have become the epicenter of fentanyl consumption in Mexico, according to Victor Clark, director of the Binational Center for Human Rights and professor of Latin American Studies at the University of San Diego in California. The two Mexican border cities have provided the perfect laboratory for the cartels to calculate the exact dosage a person can take, non-lethally, while reducing their own costs and taking advantage of the huge problem of drug addiction on the U.S.-Mexico border. The cartels introduced the new product into the local market to generate demand, says Clark. To do so, they distributed the drug mixed with other substances such as cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and crystal meth, until a certain tolerance to the fentanyl content was established.

They have created a local market of people who are already consuming fentanyl directly, adds Clark. A few weeks ago, the U.S. State Department released a report claiming that criminal organizations are experimenting on humans to measure the potency of the drug they sell. The cartel is trying to produce the most powerful fentanyl and sell it in the U.S. at the lowest price, the report noted. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) estimates that a three-gram dose of the synthetic drug can prove deadly to the average person.

In just a few years, fentanyl has gone from being largely unknown to an epidemic that has strained bilateral relationship between Mexico and the United States. The synthetic drug is more potent, cheaper, and more difficult for authorities to detect, which has turned it into a lucrative business worth billions of dollars and, in turn, is responsible for a public health crisis that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year, according to official data.

While the latest crusade against drugs is being waged in offices between a country of consumers and a country of producers, the evidence points to an increase of fentanyl use in Mexico, although the country has no public policy to address the situation and has not carried out a national addiction survey in years. In the meantime, researchers like Clark have turned to field work to get an approximation of the scale of fentanyl consumption.

According to Clark, Tijuana had a population of around half a million drug addicts in 2018. However, five years later, the analyst says that figure has risen. In the absence of official statistics, organizations move blindly and only have access to records provided by rehabilitation centers and statistics on the number of overdose deaths. The rehab centers say that with the advent of the new drug, the number has skyrocketed, Clark notes.

Over the last decade, fentanyl was introduced into the market as an adulterate in other opioids, causing users to become addicted to fentanyl without realizing they were taking it. As Clark points out: Many addicts consumed heroin and crystal meth without knowing that it was already mixed with fentanyl, they just said it was very potent. That was the strategy the cartels developed to generate demand in the market. At first what they did was mix it with heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine or crystal meth, Clark explains.

The absence of official statistics on fentanyl use in Mexico also means that it is impossible to put a number on how many people die from overdoses. The only local gauges are civil society organizations that work with addicts, and hospital reports. The only data we have available is provided by the Red Cross, which says it treats 20 people a month for overdoses, Clark says.

On April 14, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted three of Joaquin El Chapo Guzmans sons  Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ovidio Guzman Lopez  along with 25 other members of Los Chapitos, a continuation faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, for allegedly trafficking fentanyl from Mexico into the United States. The indictment describes the case of a woman who was given three doses of the opiate in Mexico to calculate the dosage of the chemicals in the drug, and who subsequently died of an overdose. Other addicts were also subjected to these tests. One of them died from an overdose, the document states. However, the drugs they consumed were still trafficked to the United States.

Clark says that the increase in fentanyl use has been worsening over the past five years. In 2019, researcher Clara Fleiz of the National Institute of Psychiatry in Mexico City warned of the dangers of not acting to address the fentanyl problem in the country during an interview with EL PAIS. We could be on the verge of a crisis. The illicit fentanyl market has reached the border and is already affecting injecting drug users, the most vulnerable populations, she said. According to Fleiz, the substance arrived in Tijuana via users deported from the United States. The expert adds that fentanyl use has increased in border areas, but authorities do not have statistics on the number of affected people.

A week ago, Mexicos Chamber of Deputies approved an initiative promoted by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to punish anyone trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals into the country with up to 15 years in jail. So far, however, the growing public health crisis remains on the sidelines. The authorities were late to respond, at least in Tijuana. If significant resources are not invested in prevention, education and, above all, rehabilitation, I believe that fentanyl is going to overwhelm us in all parts of the country in the coming years, says Clark.

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SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  A state court on Tuesday blocked Utahs first-in-the-nation ban on abortion clinics from taking effect Wednesday in a ruling in which the judge called the Republican-controlled Legislatures objective in enacting the ban nebulous.

The decision allows the states four clinics to continue providing abortions while Judge Andrew Stone takes more time to weigh the merits of a lawsuit filed by the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, which argued the law would functionally eliminate abortion access by limiting the procedure to hospitals.

It's the latest development to shape abortion access in Utah in the year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It follows an earlier legal challenge to a Utah law banning most non-emergency abortions. That law remains unimplemented, tied up in court.

Utah's abortion clinic ban seeks to stop new facilities from getting licenses and was set to take effect on Wednesday. It would also faze out existing licenses by next year. Stone's decision prevents the state from joining others such as West Virginia, North Dakota and Mississippi, all of which have pushed out abortion clinics.

Planned Parenthood argued that the Utah law effectively banned abortion because 95% of the procedures are provided in clinics and hospitals aren't as well-equipped to offer low-cost outpatient care, including the abortion pill. Planned Parenthood said state lawmakers and Gov. Spencer Cox enacted the law to bypass the court system while it weighs challenges to other abortion restrictions.

Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood's Utah affiliate, said the ruling means that clinics can continue providing essential health care to our patients, who for months have lived in a state of chaos and confusion over the impact of this law on their lives.

While welcoming Tuesday's ruling, Stoesz said the threat to Utah residents' health and personal freedom "remains dire as politicians continue to undermine our judicial process.

In his ruling, Stone agreed to delay implementing the clinic ban because Planned Parenthood presented enough preliminary evidence to suggest the legislation singles out abortion clinics without reason. The challenge will now advance through the court system while the law remains on hold.

There is nothing before the Court to indicate that an injunction would be adverse to the public interest, Stone said in his ruling.

The office of Utah's Attorney General declined to comment on pending litigation. Republican lawmakers have previously said they designed the law to provide clarity to hospitals and explain parts of the legal code that would no longer be relevant once the states abortion restrictions are fully implemented. Clinics could still apply for expanded licenses as hospitals, the lawmakers have said.

Utah is one of 19 states to tighten abortion restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, with many relying on trigger laws passed in the years leading up to the decision. Such laws laid out restrictions that would kick in following any Supreme Court ruling that reversed Roe.

In Utah, overturning Roe triggered two pieces of legislation: an 18-week ban passed in 2019 and a 2020 ban on abortions regardless of trimester, with several exceptions to protect maternal health or in cases of rape or incest reported to the police.

Planned Parenthood sued over the 2020 ban, and last July, Stone delayed implementing it until legal challenges could be resolved.

Abortion remains legal up to 18 weeks in the state as the court weighs that challenge.

When Utah passed its clinic ban in March, it became the first state to adopt such a law in the post-Roe era.

___ This story corrects the day the ban was to take effect to Wednesday.
Every day, Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza publishes a photo of its correspondent in Belarus, Andrzej Poczobut, along with a number. On May 3, that number was 769, corresponding to the days that the reporter has been imprisoned. Poczobut is all too familiar with the repression of Aleksander Lukashenkos regime, which had already arrested him over a dozen times. On this occasion, however, his sentence was harsher  an eight-year prison term. To mark Press Freedom Day, which also falls on May 3, Gazeta Wyborcza has called on the Belarusian authorities to release Poczobut immediately.

A judge in the Belarusian city of Grodno handed down the sentence on February, assigning Poczobut to a maximum-security prison for inciting hatred and calling for sanctions, against the regime, according to a report by the New York-based NGO Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). As of October 2022, he has also been included on a list of people suspected of terrorist actions by the Belarusian KGB.

As reported by the CPJ, the charges against Poczobut date back to his coverage of the protests that the government violently suppressed following the fraudulent elections of August 2020. The journalist, who has been detained since March 25, 2021, recently turned 50 and is a well-known leader of the Union of Poles in Belarus, an organization representing the ethnic Polish minority in the country, which according to the 2019 census numbers some 300,000 people. During his trial, statements in which defended the Polish community in Belarus and described the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 as aggression were presented to the court.

Bartosz T. Wielinski, deputy director of Gazeta Wyborcza, describes Poczobut as a hero and an inspiration to his colleagues. He is independent, loyal to the truth, isnt afraid to speak his mind and extremely courageous, he tells EL PAIS, while demanding his immediate, unconditional release.

Belarusian authorities had tried to convince Poczobut  who is married with two children and a holds dual Polish-Belarusian nationality  to leave the country, a standard practice within the Minsk regime. They also offered to send a petition for clemency to Lukashenko. He refused both proposals. He is very defiant and is not going to ask this dictator for anything, says Wielinski.

The trial against the journalist  who in addition to writing for Gazeta Wyborcza, a partner of EL PAIS in the Alliance of Leading European Newspapers (LENA), has contributed to other Belarusian and Polish media outlets  was staged behind closed doors on January 16. He appeared briefly in the courtroom, in the defendants glass box, looking gaunt and with scars on his face. This caused great concern among his colleagues regarding his health and the treatment he is receiving in a prison system they compare to the Soviet gulags. However, his character and defiance toward the authorities appeared to remain intact, his colleagues also noted.

Anti-Polish campaign conducted by the Belarusian authorities

The Polish government has demanded Poczobuts release on numerous occasions and consider his arrest and conviction as being an element of the anti-Polish campaign conducted by the Belarusian authorities. The relationship between the two countries is at its lowest point in history. In 2021, Poland, along with other countries bordering Belarus that host hundreds of dissidents and opponents of the regime, denounced a campaign orchestrated by Lukashenko to send thousands of migrants and asylum seekers to the borders of the European Union.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which Belarus has placed itself at the Kremlins disposal, has further strained relations between Warsaw and Minsk. The day after Poczobuts sentence became known, Poland ordered the closure of the Bobrowniki border crossing and announced that it would expand the list of those sanctioned for targeting the ethnic Polish population in Belarus.

According to the latest figures from the European Federation of Journalists, there are more reporters behind bars in Belarus than in any other European country and more than in Russia. Globally, the country ranked fifth in terms of the number of jailed journalists in 2022. There are currently estimated to be 32 reporters in prison in Belarus, a small fraction of the regimes 1,500 political prisoners.

Poczobut has been on the radar of the Belarusian authorities for more than a decade. In 2011, he was sentenced to a fine and 15 days in jail for participation in an unauthorized demonstration following the 2010 elections. In 2011 and 2012 he was also arrested, accused of defaming Lukashenko in his reporting. He is a citizen of a country that has been living under a dictatorship for 30 years, and he is an independent journalist who dared to fight for his rights, says Wielinski.

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The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Rajasthan Police arrested on Tuesday two smugglers with 450 grams of high-quality heroin smuggled into Sriganganagar district from Pakistan, a senior official said.

Additional Director General of Police (Crime) Dinesh MN said the team arrested the smugglers with heroin smuggled from Pakistan using drone in Suratgarh police station area of Sriganganagar.

He said the team arrested drug peddler Khet Singh (32) and Sunil Kumar (31) with 450 grams of heroin.

The seized contraband is estimated to be worth Rs 2 crore in the international market.

On April 10, the Crime Branch had arrested four people in Barmer for smuggling of Rs 35 crore through drone. Kingpin Buta Singh was evading arrest and efforts are on to nab him, officials said.
The body of an Indian national, who died in Pakistan last month, was handed over to the Border Security Force on Wednesday by the Pakistan Rangers, officials said.

Vipan Kumar (38), a native of Una district of Himachal Pradesh, was nabbed by the Pakistan authorities when he inadvertently crossed over to the neighbouring country around 10 years ago. He was mentally unstable and his missing report was also lodged at a police station in Una district at that time, they said.

After his arrest, Vipan was lodged at Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore. The cause of death was still unclear but he had been sick for the last few weeks and undergoing treatment at Jinnah hospital in Lahore, an official said at the Attari-Wagah border.

Vipan, a resident of Nangal Jeetpur area of Una district, died on April 2, said the official, adding that it took around one month to complete documentation to bring the body from Pakistan to India.

According to the officials, Vipan's family members, who came to receive the body, said he was mentally unstable and crossed the India-Pakistan border inadvertently.

Una Naib Tehsildar Rajan Sharma, along with Vipan's brother Chiranji Lal, were at the Attari border to receive the body, which was sent to Una in a special ambulance, the officials said.
Injured Indian mountaineer Anurag Maloo on Wednesday underwent a successful tracheostomy surgery and his condition is improving, his brother said, nearly a fortnight after he was found alive by rescuers in Nepal's Mount Annapurna. Anurag, 34, a resident of Kishangarh in Rajasthan, went missing in mid-April after he fell from around 6,000 meters while descending from Camp III. Mount Annapurna is the 10th highest mountain in the world.

He was found alive in a deep crevasse at some 5800-metre altitude on April 20 after three days of continuous search by a team of rescuers. He was rushed to Manipal Hospital in Pokhara and then airlifted to Kathmandu for further treatment. "Anurag underwent a successful tracheostomy surgery," his brother Ashish Maloo told PTI.

A tracheostomy is an opening created at the front of the neck so a tube can be inserted into the windpipe (trachea) to help a person breathe. If necessary, the tube can be connected to an oxygen supply and a ventilator. "We are hopeful that he could be taken off the ventilator in the next 3-4 days," Ashish said, adding that Anurag is conscious and opening his eyes and obeying instructions from the doctors.

Anurag is currently undergoing treatment at the Intensive Care Unit of the Medicity Hospital in Lalitpur near Kathmandu. Anurag has also slightly moved his body, Ashish said. He was on a mission to climb all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres and the seven highest points in all seven continents to create awareness and drive action towards achieving the UN Global Goals. He has been awarded REX Karam -- Veer Chakra and became the 2041 Antarctic Youth Ambassador from India.
Indian Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar on Wednesday called on the Defence Minister of Singapore Dr Ng Eng Hen, and reaffirmed the strong and long-standing bilateral defence ties between the two nations. They also discussed the regional security developments and the importance of leveraging multilateral platforms for confidence building, Singapore's Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Hari, who is visiting Singapore from May 1 to 4, met the Singapore defence minister Dr Ng on the sidelines of the 13th International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference (IMDEX) Asia and discussed bilateral ties, the statement said. On May 1, he received a brief on Singapore's history and visited the Kranji War Memorial, followed by an inspection of the Guard of Honour at the Ministry of Defence, before calling on the Chief of Defence Force Rear-Admiral (RADM) Aaron Beng and Chief of Navy RADM Sean Waton on May 2. On Tuesday, Kumar also attended the inaugural ceremony of the first ASEAN-India maritime exercise at a key naval base in Singapore.

The exercise, being co-hosted by the navies of India and Singapore, will witness the participation of ships and personnel from other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries. Two frontline warships of the Indian navy arrived in Singapore on Monday to participate in the maritime exercise.

During his visit to Singapore so far, Hari also visited the Information Fusion Centre (IFC) at RSS Singapura - Changi Naval Base (CNB), where he was briefed on how the IFC contributes towards maritime security by cueing operational responses from regional navies through information sharing.

Kumar will also attend the 8th edition of the International Maritime Security Conference (IMSC) on 4 May 2023. His visit underscores the strong and long-standing bilateral defence relations between Singapore and India. The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and the Indian Navy interact regularly through bilateral exercises, professional exchanges, visits and cross-attendance of courses, said the defence ministry in its statement. These mutually beneficial interactions have deepened the bilateral defence relationship, enhanced mutual understanding and strengthened the cooperation between the two navies, added the ministry.
A "No Drone Zone" sign is pictured in front of the Russian national flag atop the Federation Council building, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament, in central Moscow.

Russia claimed Wednesday it foiled a Ukrainian assassination attempt using drones against President Vladimir Putin, denouncing the alleged attack as a terrorist act and promising retaliation. Putin wasnt in the Kremlin at the time of the nighttime attack and was working from the Novo-Ogaryovo residence, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russias state news agency RIA Novosti.

There were no immediate details and no independent verification of the reported attack on the Kremlin, which Russia authorities said occurred overnight but presented no evidence in support of the claim. Nor did officials say why it took more than 12 hours to report the incident.

Ukraine presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak denied any involvement. Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin, he said. He said the claims would provide a pretext for Russia to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities in coming days.

The alleged attack immediately prompted calls in Russia from pro-Kremlin personalities to carry out assassinations on senior leadership in Ukraine.

If true, the purported drone attack would be a significant escalation in the 14-month conflict, with Ukraine taking the war to the heart of Russian power.

The Kremlin said Russian military and security forces stopped the drones before they could strike. Nobody was hurt, it said in a a statement.

The claims came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an unannounced visit to Helsinki for talks with the prime ministers of five Nordic countries. He is trying to secure greater firepower for his countrys armed forces as they figure out how to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine.

Both Putin and Zelensky move around under tight security.

Debris from the unmanned aerial vehicles fell on the grounds of the seat of Russias president but caused no damage, a statement on the Kremlins website said.

A video published overnight on a local Moscow news Telegram channel, filmed across the river from the Kremlin, appeared to show smoke rising over the buildings. It wasnt possible to ascertain its veracity.

According to the text accompanying the video, residents at a nearby apartment building reported hearing bangs and seeing smoke at around 2:30 a.m. local time.

The Kremlin claimed the attack was planned to disrupt Victory Day, which Russia celebrates on May 9 to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. Foreign dignitaries are expected to attend the Moscow event.

Peskov said the parade would take place as scheduled.

Shortly before the news about the alleged attack broke, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a ban on using drones in the Russian capital, with an exception for drones launched by authorities.

Sobyanin didnt offer any reason for the ban, saying only that it would prevent the illegal use of drones that can hinder the work of law enforcement.

Zelensky made no comment in Helsinki, though he was due to attend a news conference there later in the day.

The Nordic countries  Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland  have been among Kyivs strongest backers since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Before the meeting with Zelensky in Finlands capital, Nordic officials appeared ready to provide more aid as the war stretches into its 15th month.

There is still an urgent need for military support to ensure that the Ukrainians stand as strong as possible in the fight against Russia, Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen said in a statement.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre, another of the summit attendees, said: Here in the north, we have a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian neighbor, and it is important that we discuss together how to face this new situation.

The talks came a day after U.S. officials said Washington plans to send Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous number of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition.

The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been formally announced.

Elsewhere, Russia used Iranian-made drones during its third attack on Ukraines capital city in six days.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defenses shot down 21 of the Russian drones, Ukraines Air Force Command said. No damage or casualties were reported

Meanwhile, a massive blaze broke out at an Russian oil depot, local officials said Wednesday.

The depot erupted in flames in Russias southern Krasnodar region, located east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

He didnt say what caused the fire, which was described as extremely difficult to put out. But some Russian media outlets said it was likely caused by a Ukrainian drone attack overnight. There was no official comment on that possibility.

Local residents heard an explosion shortly before the fire erupted, Russian news site Baza said.

Military analysts think Ukraine is targeting supply lines in the Russian rear while gearing up for a possible counteroffensive amid improving weather conditions and as it receives large amounts of weapons and ammunition from its Western allies.

Explosions also derailed a Russian freight train and hit a Russian airfield in recent days. Last weekend, a massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two of Ukraines drones, a Russia-appointed official said.

In anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces are focused on destroying logistical routes and centers of Ukraines armed forces with long-range strikes, Kyiv military officials say.

At the same time, Russia plans to continue talks with the United Nations and other parties to an wartime agreement on facilitating Black Sea agricultural shipments, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said ahead of talks on Friday.

Earlier Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that a new round of consultations between Russia and the U.N. on access of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to the world market would be held in Moscow.

Signed last July and renewed twice, most recently in March, the deal unblocked Ukrainian grain shipments that were held up in the countrys blockaded ports last year. The deal will expire on May 18 unless Russia agrees to its renewal.

In the latest Ukrainian civilian casualties, three people died and five were wounded when a supermarket in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson came under fire on Wednesday.

According to Ukraines Ministry of Internal Affairs, the attack on the only operating hypermarket in Kherson happened at around 11 a.m. local time.

A round-the-clock curfew is to be introduced in Kherson from 8 p.m. on Friday through 6 a.m. on Monday, Kherson Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin announced.

During these 58 hours, it is forbidden to move around or stay on the streets of the city. Also, the city will be closed for entry and exit, Prokudin said.

The measure is necessary, he said in a video on social media, so that law enforcement officers can do their job and not put you in danger, but didnt provide further details.

Both Russia and Ukraine reportedly have experienced ammunition shortages after a winter of long-range shelling and missile strikes as the conflict became bogged down in a war of attrition.

Ukraines government has been pressing its allies to give it more as officials consider when and how they might start trying to drive Russian forces out of the Ukrainian territory they have occupied.

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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is set to hold separate bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang and Russia's Sergey Lavrov at a beach resort in Goa on Thursday on the sidelines of a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) amid rapidly evolving regional security situation.

People familiar with preparations for the conclave said there is no plan yet for a structured bilateral meeting between Jaishankar and Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhtutto-Zardari. But they did not rule out a pull aside between the two foreign ministers.

Qin, Lavrov, Bhutto-Zardari and foreign ministers of other SCO countries are arriving in Goa on Thursday to attend a crucial conclave of the SCO that is taking place ahead of the annual summit of the grouping in the first week of July. India has been maintaining that Pakistan must show seriousness towards fighting terrorism and that talks and terror cannot go together.

Bhutto-Zardari's trip to India will be the first visit from Islamabad since 2011. The then Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar had visited India that year. Khar is currently serving as the minister of state for foreign affairs.

In the talks with Qin, Jaishankar is once again expected to convey that India-China ties cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas, people familiar with the matter said.

The two-day SCO foreign ministerial meeting will begin with a gala reception at a luxury beach resort in Goa on Thursday while the main deliberations will take place on Friday.

The people cited above said Jaishankar will hold separate bilateral talks with his counterparts from almost all SCO countries. However, there is no clarity on such a meeting between Jaishankar and Bhutto-Zardari.

The bilateral meeting between Jaishankar and Qin will be the second one in the last two months. The Chinese foreign minister visited India in March to attend a meeting of the G20 foreign ministers.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Jaishankar held talks with Qin during which he conveyed to his Chinese counterpart that the state of India-China relations is "abnormal" because of the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh.

Last week, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu at a meeting that China's violation of existing border agreements "eroded" the entire basis of ties between the two countries and that all issues relating to the frontier must be resolved in accordance with the existing pacts.

The meeting on April 27 took place in New Delhi on the sidelines of a conclave of the SCO defence ministers.

The ties between India and China 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.

The Indian and the Chinese troops are locked in a standoff in a few friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh for the last three years though they disengaged in several places following a series of military and diplomatic talks.

India has been maintaining that the relationship between the two countries should be based on "three mutuals" -- mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interests.

The people cited above said Jaishankar and Russian foreign minister Lavrov in their meeting are set to review the overall bilateral ties with a focus on trade and commercial engagement.

India has been pressing Russia for urgently addressing the trade imbalance that has been in favour of Moscow.

India's trade deficit with Russia jumped significantly in the last few months after it procured significant volumes of discounted crude oil from that country in the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis.

The people cited above said Lavrov will arrive in India as scheduled notwithstanding escalation in tension between Russia and Ukraine. Russia on Wednesday accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in an unsuccessful attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin.

The talks between Jaishankar and Lavrov are also set to cover a number of issues relating to bilateral ties and regional situations, they said.

Jaishankar is also likely to hold separate bilateral talks with his counterparts from some other SCO countries on Friday.

India is hosting the SCO in its capacity as the grouping's chair.

The people said the foreign ministers will deliberate on overall challenges facing the region in the backdrop of the current geo-political turmoil and the state of bilateral ties between the member nations would not impact the discussions.

The SCO is an influential economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations.

It was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping, which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.

India has shown a keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS), which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence.
India on Tuesday brought back home a total of 559 people under its mission to evacuate stranded Indians from violence-hit Sudan.

While 231 Indians arrived in Ahmedabad, another batch of 328 citizens were brought to New Delhi.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted, "328 more passengers have landed in New Delhi. #OperationKaveri moving steadily forward as around 3000 have reached India now." Earlier in the day, 231 people reached Ahmedabad.

"Another #OperationKaveri flight lands in Ahmedabad. 231 more passengers have reached home safely," Jaishankar said in another tweet.

Separately, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said a group of 20 Indians crossed over to Chad through the adjoining land border with Sudan.

"Our teams are facilitating their journey back home," he said on Twitter.

On Monday, India brought back 186 people under the evacuation mission that was launched a week back.

On Sunday, 229 Indians arrived in Bengaluru while 365 people reached Delhi on Saturday.

Under the evacuation mission, 754 people arrived in India in two batches on Friday.

The Indians were brought back home from the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah where India set up a transit camp for the evacuees.

The first batch of 360 evacuees returned to New Delhi in a commercial plane on Wednesday.

The second batch of 246 Indian evacuees arrived in Mumbai in a C17 Globemaster aircraft of the IAF on Thursday.

Under 'Operation Kaveri', India has been taking its citizens in buses from conflict zones of Khartoum and other troubled areas to Port Sudan from where they are being taken to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah in Indian Air Force's heavy-lift transport aircraft and Indian Navy's ships.

From Jeddah, the Indians are being brought back home in either commercial flight or IAF's aircraft.

Sudan has been witnessing deadly fighting between the country's army and a paramilitary group that has reportedly left around 400 people dead.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar have hailed a 103-year-old voter in Karnataka's Belagavi district for exercising his franchise using the home voting facility.

Mahadeva Mahalinga Mali recently cast his vote from home at Chikkodi in Belagavi for the Karnataka assembly elections.

"Shri Mahadev Mahaling Mali has inspired several people by his commitment towards strengthening democracy. It is also in line with the culture of Karnataka, which celebrates democratic values," Modi said on Twitter.

Officials said Chief Election Commissioner Kumar has spoken to the centenarian over the phone to thank him for exercising his franchise using the home voting facility.

Voting for the assembly polls in Karnataka will be held on May 10. Home voting takes place before the actual election date in full secrecy in presence of poll officials and representatives of political parties.

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Election Commission has allowed home voting facility to voters who are 80 years and above, and those suffering from the infection or are under quarantine.

CEC Kumar telephoned the centenarian voter on Tuesday to thank him for voting in the state polls.

According to the officials, Kumar told Mahadeva that elderly voters like him are an inspiration for young and urban voters to participate in the festival of democracy.

Mahadeva, they said, thanked the CEC for the facility of voting from home.

He also recalled that in the previous elections, he had gone to the polling station in a wheelchair to cast his vote.

Earlier, during the Himachal Pradesh elections last year, the CEC had visited Kalpa and Kinnaur to pay his condolences to the family of Shyam Saran Negi, independent India's first voter who had participated in each and every election and also voted in the state polls using the home voting facility before his demise.
The opposing parties in Sudan have agreed to a seven-day truce, said South Sudan's foreign ministry in Juba. An official statement was released on Tuesday (local time), reported ANI. During the telephonic conversation with South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Mayardit, the warring parties agreed to the seven-day truce from May 4 to 11. This statement of cease-fire among the parties comes in the third week of non-stop conflict, which began on April 15.

Meanwhile, Sudanese have been fleeing away from the fighting between rival generals in their capital flooded an already overwhelmed city on the Red Sea and Sudans northern borders with Egypt, as explosions and gunfire echoed Monday in Khartoum, reported AP. Further, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday held a telephonic conversation with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and thanked him for Riyadh's support to India's mission to evacuate its citizens from violence-hit Sudan. Taking to Twitter, President Kiir wrote,"Update on Sudan Crisis: President Salva Kiir stressed the importance of a longer ceasefire and naming of representatives to peace talks to be held at an agreed venue." With the tweet, they have also shared the images of the press release related to the cease-fire.

Update on Sudan Crisis:



President Salva Kiir stressed the importance of a longer ceasefire and naming of representatives to peace talks to be held at an agreed venue. pic.twitter.com/RLDwqqQ9Yj  South Sudan Government  (@SouthSudanGov) May 2, 2023



One week of cease-fire in Sudan crisis

While agreeing on the ceasefire, the official statment read: "The two principals, General Abdel Fatah Al Burhan, the Chairman of the Sovereign Council and Commander in Chief of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo Leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4th to 11th. They also agreed to name their representatives to the talks." South Sudan's president has asserted that there should be a longer ceasefire and naming of representatives to peace talks to be held at an agreed venue. In this ongoing conflict in Sudan, the country has witnessed massive bloodshed, reported ANI. "President Salva Kiir, who is the team leader of the IGAD Assembly of Heads of State tasked with consultations with the Sudanese leaders, has urged the Sudanese leaders to name their representatives and propose a date to commence the talks as soon as possible," read the press statement. In the press release, they also noted the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Khartoum. President Kiir told the Sudanese leaders to de-escalate the tensions. Sudan's president has also appreciated General Al Burhan and General Dagalo for heeding regional and international calls for a ceasefire. President Kiir has been hoping to take advantage of the 7-day truce and build diplomatic channels between the two, as per the statment released.

Meanwhile, the acting minister of foreign affairs has also been in touch with his counterparts regionally and internationally. The acting minister has consulted and discussed with the Foreign Affairs ministers of Egypt, Uganda, Kenya, and Canada, in addition to the British minister of state in the foreign, commonwealth and development office. During the meetings, they discussed the issues of ceasefire, cessation of hostilities, humanitarian situation and evacuation of affected Sudanese and foreign nationals as well as the co-ordination efforts at various levels. Further, the president has been discussing the humanitarian situation with the Regional Director of the World Food Program, which has recently resumed their operation in the country.


Lebanese officials are cracking down on Syrian refugees against the backdrop of a worsening economic crisis and political stalemate, an escalation that has caused panic among Syrians in the country.

In recent weeks, the army has raided refugee camps and set up checkpoints to review the documentation of non-Lebanese citizens, arresting and in many cases deporting Syrians found not to have legal residency, according to refugees and humanitarian organizations.

People arent sleeping in their houses  and are afraid even to go to work, said a woman originally from the Syrian province of Idlib who is living in Lebanons eastern Bekaa Valley. Her husband was deported on April 10, along with 28 other men, after a raid on an apartment building in the Beirut suburb of Jounieh, she said, and she hasnt heard from him since.

Like other Syrians interviewed for this story, the woman spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.

Her 4-year-old son asks where his father is every day, she said. She fears her husband has been put in one of Syrias detention centers because  like many men who fled to Lebanon  he was wanted for dodging mandatory army service.

Pressure has increased in other ways. Municipalities have put in place restrictive measures such as curfews for Syrians. The Interior Ministry announced Tuesday that it ordered municipalities to survey and register their Syrian populations and make sure they are documented before permitting them to rent a property.

It also asked the U.N. refugee agency to revoke refugee status from Syrians who go back and forth between Lebanon and their war-torn country. Last week, a committee of government ministers demanded that UNHCR hand over detailed personal information on refugees in its database.

Lebanon hosts some 805,000 registered Syrian refugees, whose official status in theory protects them  although those who fail to keep their residency papers up to date can face deportation. The actual number of Syrians living in Lebanon after fleeing their countrys 12-year-old civil war is believed to be much higher as Lebanon's government ordered the United Nations to halt new registrations in 2015.

Government officials have given varying estimates of the number of Syrians in the country, ranging from 1.5 million to more than 2 million. Lebanon is believed to have a population of around 5 million to 5.5 million citizens, but no census has been held for nearly a century.

Since Lebanons economic meltdown began in 2019, officials have increasingly called for a mass return of Syrians, saying they are a burden on the countrys scarce resources and that much of Syria is now safe. The rhetoric has grown increasingly heated; a federation of trade unions recently declared a National Campaign to Liberate Lebanon from the Syrian Demographic Occupation.

In recent interviews with local media, caretaker Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar claimed that refugees make up 40% of Lebanons population, which no country in the world would accept.

Hajjar told The Associated Press that Lebanon's government can ensure that Syrians who qualify as refugees would not be deported, by exchanging data with the U.N. refugee agency.

He referred questions about deportations to General Security, the agency in charge of enforcing immigration laws. Spokespeople for the agency and the Lebanese military did not respond to requests for comment and neither has made a public statement on the deportations.

The U.N. refugee agency said it has observed an increase in raids taking place in Syrian communities and has received reports of Syrians being deported, including registered refugees. It said it takes reports of deportations of Syrian refugees very seriously.

U.N. officials did not give a number of confirmed deportations. The Access Center for Human Rights, a group tracking conditions of Syrian refugees, said it documented at least 200 deportations in April.

The United States, one of the Lebanese Army's largest donors, has expressed concerns about the deportations of Lebanese officials, said a spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut who spoke on condition of anonymity as per regulations. Refugee returns should be voluntary, safe, and dignified, the spokesperson said. "We have questions about the procedures followed in recent deportations and the extent to which those criteria were met.

The anti-refugee campaign comes against the backdrop of stalled negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and a six-month deadlock in electing the countrys next president.

Meanwhile, several Arab countries have moved towards a rapprochement with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Refugee returns have been on the agenda of recent regional talks, including a meeting of top diplomats in Jordan on Monday to discuss a political solution to Syrias civil war.

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said refugees are serving as a scapegoat for Lebanese politicians at a time of heightened public anger over their failure to deal with the countrys economic and political crises.

Refugees are sort of the punching bag that shows up when everyone needs one, he said. He suggested the crackdown could also be linked to Lebanons ongoing presidential deadlock.

A leading presidential candidate, Sleiman Frangieh, is close to Damascus and has promised to use his connections to broker a deal for refugee returns. His likely rival, army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun may be trying to showcase his ability to forcibly return the refugees, Hage Ali said.

Lebanese authorities have periodically deported Syrians over the past few years, citing a regulation that allows Syrians who entered without legal authorization after April 2019 to be forcibly removed.

However, past deportations mostly involved small numbers and were carried out under formal procedures, giving the U.N. and human rights groups a chance to intervene and, in some cases, halt them.

In contrast, recent months have seen increasing reports of the Lebanese Army summarily deporting those believed to be in the country illegally. Human rights organizations have cited cases of returning refugees being detained and tortured in Syria, allegations Lebanese authorities deny.

A Syrian from Idlib who, along with his brother, was among those arrested in the April 10 raid in Jounieh, said the army dropped off the men in a mountainous area in the no mans land between the Lebanese and Syrian borders.

He and some others managed to cross back into Lebanon on foot. Others, including his brother, were caught.

The last communication he received from his brother, he said, was a voice message on April 11, saying: They brought us back and dropped us off in the same place and theyre going to turn us over to Syria.

Many Syrians are lying low, hoping the anti-refugee campaign will blow over.

Many of us are scared that we could be next, said another Syrian refugee in Bekaa. Six of my friends were deported in the last raid.

For some, the pressure campaign has had its intended effect.

A young woman living in Bekaa said that after her camp was raided and dozens of men were deported, her family decided to return to the Syrian city of Raqqa, which remains outside the control of the Damascus government.

There is no security (there). We dont have a house or any money, she said. But we dont have another choice.
The frontrunning candidate for prime minister of Thailand said Wednesday shes eager to get back on the campaign trail, just two days after giving birth.

Speaking at a news conference at the hospital in Bangkok where she gave birth, Paetongtarn Shinawatra said her new baby boy wouldnt affect her ability to rally support for her Pheu Thai Party with just under two weeks to go before the polls.

I believe good things come along with children, she said, sitting beside her husband, Pidok Sooksawas. I believe that children are my secret power to work, and to lead everyday life.

The newborn, Prutthasin Sooksawas, was brought into the room in a rolling incubator and displayed briefly to the media before being moved out again.

Paetongtarn is the youngest daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, the popular but divisive former prime minister who was ousted by a military coup in 2006. Shes also the niece of Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government met a similar fate eight years later.

Thaksin, who has been in self-exile since the 2006 coup, tweeted Monday after the birth that he would like permission to come home to see his grandchildren, ending the tweet with See you soon. He lives abroad to escape a prison term for abuse of power, a conviction he has decried as politically motivated.

Paetongtarn played down the significance of the message, saying it was just a natural expression of a grandfather who was very happy and excited.

Thaksin is a popular but divisive figure of Thai politics, and there has been concern that his return could be destabilizing.

Of course, the things he said would have a political effect, she said. However, as a family, I think theres nothing wrong to hope for that, especially when theres a good thing happening to the family.

Paetongtarn campaigned throughout her pregnancy. She and the Pheu Thai Party have consistently topped the opinion polls as Thailands favored prime minister candidate and next government. She took the opportunity Wednesday to underline that she was 100% confident of a landslide victory.

Id like to ask the Thai people to remain firm, because this vote is not like any other, she said. Thailand cannot just hope for the best anymore. Thailand needs change, and only the Pheu Thai Party is the best answer for the Thai people now.

Analysts have complimented Paetongtarn on her confident public performances, though the residual popularity of her father remains a factor behind her popularity, especially among lower-class Thais. Thaksin, a populist billionaire, championed poor people during his years in power and reaped the benefits at election time.

Even if the Pheu Thai Party secures a big win at the May 14 general election, there is no guarantee Paetongtarn will become prime minister. The top post is selected in a vote involving both houses of Parliament. That includes the Senate, which was appointed by the junta led by current prime minister and candidate Prayuth Chan-ocha , rather than by the public. Prayuth won all the senators votes after the 2019 election.
Under the Washington Declaration, a security agreement unveiled by President Joe Biden and South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol at the White House in April, the U.S. agreed to periodically send nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea, while Seoul agreed to not develop its own nuclear weapons. The move aims to bolster cooperation in deterring threats from North Korea, which is developing and refining its nuclear arsenal. The agreement was announced amid rising calls in South Korea for the country to pursue its own atomic arms program in the face of doubts about U.S. nuclear guarantees under the 70-year-old bilateral alliance.
Updated at 4:33 pm on May 4, 2023

In Brief

A short clip of Uyghur children lying in cylindrical glass pods recently circulated on Twitter, with claims that they were being imprisoned and brutalized in Chinese concentration camps, stirring outrage.

After tracking down an extended version clip, Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) found that the glass pods were actually oxygen chambers, probably in a hospital. Subsequent interviews with medical specialists revealed that the child in the original tweet was actually receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy for cerebral palsy, not being subjected to torture.

In Depth

The tweet in question was posted on April 15, 2023, by Jie Lijian, a U.S.-based pro-democracy activist with over 46,000 Twitter followers. It shows a short video in which two children are shown lying on their backs in cylindrical glass pods. A nurse can be seen opening and closing a door to one of the pods in the background.

The tweet soon attracted over 100,000 readers and was subsequently retweeted by more than 300 people. Some outraged netizens denounced the Chinese Communist Party as inhumane while others questioned the authenticity of the video and suggested that truth, not lies, should be used to fight the CCP.

Lijian's caption to the video reads, Poor Uyghur children are being imprisoned and brutalized in CCP concentration camps. Many of their parents confined in the camps are undergoing genocidal persecution, unable even to see their own flesh and blood at the end of their lives. # CCP is the enemy of humanity.

Many commenters urged Lijian to be careful in his remarks, suggesting that the video appeared to be some sort of medical procedure rather than torture.

What exactly are the glass pods in the video?

AFCL used Yandexs image search engine to trace the source of the clip, eventually finding two earlier posts on Twitter which used the same video later posted by Lijian. Both posts were made by Japanese netizens, but differed in their interpretation of the video's content.

Earlier postings of the same video Lijian later tweeted. Edges of the identical videos highlighted in red. (Screenshot from Yandex.)

The first of these two tweets was posted on Feb. 17 and questioned whether the pods in the video were some kind of chamber used to isolate COVID patients as part of Chinas zero-COVID policy.

The second of the two tweets was posted a day later and contained language similar to Lijians tweet, suggesting that Uyghur children were being subjected to mysterious treatment and that some had even died after being force-fed unknown drugs.

The tweet made on Feb. 18 contains an additional two videos of the children taken from different angles. Upon close examination, AFCL found what appears to be a model number printed in Chinese on the side of the pod. It reads, Infant Oxygen Chamber Model YLC0.5/1.5.

Screenshots of the video and commentary by Japanese posters on February 17 and 18.

A Baidu search using the above model number returned an exact match, revealing that the glass pod seen in the video is an infant hyperbaric oxygen chamber (below referred to simply as oxygen chamber) manufactured by Wuhan Haiborui Technology Ltd. in the Chinese province of Hubei.

Screenshot of the oxygen chamber from the clip.

What are oxygen chambers used for?

The description of the product on the Chinese Global Medical Devices website states that such chambers are used in oxygen therapy to treat several conditions, including choking in newborns, epilepsy or lack of blood flow to the brain. The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, the leading organization in the field, defines oxygen therapy as a suitable treatment for gas embolism, carbon monoxide poisoning, diving sickness, acute burns and sudden deafness.

Dr. Hsia Te-Chun, chairman of the Association of Hyperbaric and Undersea Medicine of the Republic of China, confirmed to AFCL that the equipment shown in Lijians tweet is a standard single occupant oxygen chamber for children. Hsia explained that both cerebral palsy and autism are more common symptoms of children who undergo oxygen therapy. After examining Lijians original video, Hsia noted that the childrens frequent arms and leg spasms appear to be signs of cerebral palsy.

Hsia added that while most of the world's mainstream oxygen chambers are manufactured in Europe and America, China solely uses Chinese-made equipment. Therefore, the film almost certainly was recorded in China, most likely in the oxygen therapy center of a hospital.

In response to suggestions that the video shows a type of treatment used under China's zero-COVID policy, he said that oxygen therapy is currently not a formal treatment for COVID.

Conclusion

AFCL found claims spread by Japanese and Chinese communities on Twitter that Uyghur children were being detained and abused in glass chambers to be misinformed.

Both examination of the equipment in the video and interviews with relevant specialists confirm that the glass pod in the circulated video is an oxygen chamber and that the children within the video are undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

[2023/5/4 Update]

AFCL received feedback from readers that we failed to check the exact location of the hospital shown in the videos mentioned in the article  specifically, whether it was in Xinjiang or not.

Our response is as follows:

When beginning this fact check, our initial goal was to find out the exact time and place the video was shot. Since the videos were short, several searches using different video tracking tools only revealed that Lijians video had been retweeted. As AFCL was unable to further trace the source, we hoped to clarify part of the truth by analyzing the many details within the videos themselves.

AFCL ran a separate search on Baidu bid center for infant oxygen chamber YLC0.5/1.5. The search showed that many provinces in China - including Henan in 2018, Shandong in 2010 and Jiangxi in 2016 - had all announced bids for this particular oxygen chamber model. No results appeared when we searched specifically for Xinjiang.



Given the limitations of the bidding website, AFCL cannot infer that hospitals in Xinjiang never purchased such oxygen chambers, nor can we rule out the possibility that the video was filmed in Xinjiang.

AFCL believes that our readers' questions are reasonable and that the specific location of the video must for now remain an open question. We can neither conclude nor deny where the video was filmed with the available evidence that we have. We will continue to monitor relevant sources for new information. Should any arise, we will update and revise the story accordingly.

Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) is a new branch of RFA established to counter disinformation in todays complex media environment. Our journalists publish both daily and special reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers understanding of public issues.
World Press Freedom Day is a reminder that the region contains some of the worlds biggest jailers of journalists.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the UN General Assemblys proclamation of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 1993, Radio Free Asia is highlighting the plight of its journalists and bloggers who have been jailed or detained in several of the Asia-Pacific regions authoritarian states.

This years theme, Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights, highlights the relationship between threats to media freedom, journalist safety, and increasing attacks on other key human rights.

The concerns are valid, as the jailing of RFA reporters and bloggers, and their BBC and Voice of America colleagues, occurred in countries and territories that have experienced a decline in broader freedomsif they had such liberties to begin with.

Edmund Wan

Edmund Wan Yiu-sing, known by his DJ name Giggs, was sentenced by a court in Hong Kong in October 2022 to two years and eight months in prison for sedition and money laundering, charges he confessed to in a plea deal.

Prior to his February 2021 arrest, he hosted programs that reported and commented on Hong Kong and Chinese politics for D100, an independent online radio station. Wan also hosted a program for Radio Free Asias Cantonese Service from 2017 to 2020.

Authorities charged that Wan hosted programs that incited others to resist or overthrow the Chinese Communist Party and promoted Hong Kong independence, the Hong Kong Free Press independent news outlet reported.

Wan had pleaded guilty to one charge of seditious intent for on-air comments he made in 2020, and three charges of money laundering related to crowd funding transactions. In exchange, six other charges were left on file, which means they cannot be pursued without the courts permission.

The charges come under a law, created when Hong Kong was under British rule, that defines sedition as "intent to arouse hatred or contempt of the Hong Kong [government] or to incite rebellion, and cause dissatisfaction with it."

The sedition law was revived by the Hong Kong government during the 2019 protest movement and has been used to arrest pro-democracy activists.

In addition to the time in prison, the court also ordered Wan to hand over HK$4.87 million (about U.S. $620,000) in assets.

Yeang Sothearin

Former Radio Free Asia Khmer news anchor Yeang Sothearin was taken into custody in November 2017, along with Uon Chhin, an RFA photographer and videographer.

They were charged with illegally collecting information for a foreign source after RFA closed its bureau in the capital of Phnom Penh in September of that year amid a government crackdown on independent media.

They were slapped with additional charges for illegally produced pornography in March 2018. If convicted of the first charge, they could face a jail term of between seven and 15 years.

Yeang Sothearin and Uon Chhin are out on bail, but they remain in legal limbo after several courts have rejected a series of appeals.

In October 2022, Cambodias Supreme Court returned Yeang Sothearins passport, allowing him to visit his ailing father and sister in Vietnam.

Cambodia ranks 140 out of 180 in the 2022 Reporters without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, between Equatorial Guinea and Libya.

After Cambodias emergence from decades of warfare in the 1990s, the countrys press had flourished until the long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen launched a ruthless war against independent journalism before the 2018 elections, RSF said.

Uon Chhin

Former Radio Free Asia Khmer photographer and videographer Uon Chhin and RFA news anchor Yeang Sothearin were taken into custody in November 2017, amid a gathering crackdown on independent media by long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The pair were charged with illegally collecting information for a foreign source after RFA closed its bureau in the capital of Phnom Penh in September of that year.

They were slapped with additional charges for illegally produced pornography in March 2018. If convicted of the first charge, they could face a jail term of between seven and 15 years.

Yeang Sothearin and Uon Chhin are out on bail, but they remain in legal limbo and their media careers frozen after several courts have rejected a series of appeals.

Cambodia ranks 140 out of 180 in the 2022 Reporters without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, between Equatorial Guinea and Libya.

Hun Sen went after the press mercilessly ahead of parliamentary elections in July 2018. Radio stations and newspapers were silenced, newsrooms purged, journalists prosecuted  leaving the independent media sector devastated, said RSF. Since then, the few attempts to bring independent journalism back to life have drawn the wrath of ruling circles.

Htet Htet Khine

Htet Htet Khine, a former BBC television presenter, was sentenced in September 2022 to three years in prison with hard labor for incitement and illegal association for her reporting work.

The face of BBC Media Action's national television peace program Khan Sar Kyi (Feel It) from 2016 to 2020, which documented the impact of war on Myanmar society, the freelance journalist and video producer had been in detention in Yangons notorious Insein Prison awaiting trial since Aug. 15, 2021, when she was arrested with fellow reporter Sithu Aung Myint.

Htet Htet Khine was arrested six months after the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup by junta security forces, one of some 150 journalists detained by junta authorities.

Family members expressed concern over Htet Htet Khines well-being in prison amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the prospect of physical abuse by jailers.

Veteran journalists told Radio Free Asia that her case underscored the fact that reporters face serious personal risk to carry out their work under military rule in Myanmar.

Sithu Aung Myint

A special court in Yangons Insein Prison in December 2022 sentenced veteran journalist Sithu Aung Myint to seven years in prison, which came on top of two earlier sentences totaling five years for allegedly inciting sedition in the army, meaning he will have to spend 12 years in prison.

The sentence by a court set up by the junta that took power in a Feb. 1, 2021, military coup was for attempting to incite hatred or contempt against military personnel or civil servants, a crime which carries a maximum 20-year term.

Sithu Aung Myint had written critically of the current junta  as he had since the 1988 People Uprising, a series of nationwide protests against military rule in a country that has been run by the army for most of the 76 years since independence from Britain.

Sithu Aung Myint was arrested in August 2021 at an apartment in Yangon, where he was in hiding along with former BBC television presenter and freelance journalist Htet Htet Khine, who is serving a six-year prison term.

He wrote and presented reports for the Democratic Voice of Burma in the late 2000s and later worked as editor-in-chief of Skynet Up to Date news, and was writing and presenting reviews as a columnist for Voice of Americas Burmese Service up to the time of his arrest.

After the coup, global media watchdog Reporters without Borders dropped Myanmar to 175th out of 180 countries in its 2022 World Press Freedom Index from 140th a year earlier. The NGO said Myanmar had become one of the worlds biggest jailer of journalists, second only to China.

Nguyen Lan Thang

Nguyen Lan Thang, a long-time contributor of blog posts on politics and society to Radio Free Asias Vietnamese service, was sentenced in April to six years in prison and two years of probation.

He was arrested in July 2022 on allegations that he posted videos on Facebook and YouTube that were said to oppose the Vietnamese Communist Party.

He is one of four jailed Radio Free Asia contributors in Vietnam, and his conviction is the latest of a string of judgments against dissidents under Article 117 of Vietnams Penal Code, frequently used by authorities to restrict freedom of expression and opinions deemed critical of the regime.

Although we disagree (if not oppose) with the trial and the verdict, our hearts feel warm because humanity is still alive, wrote Thangs wife Le Thi Bich Vuong, who added that her family still believes that Thang is a patriot who has never done anything wrong with the country and his conscience.

Thangs arrest and conviction was widely condemned by human rights and media freedom advocates, who said his case was riddled with flaws and a miscarriage of justice.

Nguyen Van Hoa

Nguyen Van Hoa, who has blogged and produced videos for Radio Free Asia, was arrested in January 2017 for abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state after filming protests outside a Taiwan-owned steel plant, whose spill of toxic waste the year before had left fishermen and tourism workers jobless in four coastal provinces.

Hoa is an environmentalist, blogger and digital security trainer from Ha Tinh province who expressed sympathy for the fishermen hurt by the massive disaster. He received a seven-year jail term in November 2017 on charges that also included conducting propaganda against the state.

Amnesty International has said that Hoa was tortured by the authorities to confess to his alleged crime and in May 2019 was being held in solitary confinement as punishment for his refusal to cooperate.

Hoa wrote in letters smuggled to his family from prison that police had hung him upside down from the ceiling and then beaten him, London-based human rights activist Son Tran told RFA in early 2020.

Nguyen Tuong Thuy

Nguyen Tuong Thuy  a regular blogger for Radio Free Asia on democracy, human rights, and social issues  is serving 11 years in prison for "propaganda against the state."

Thuy, 72, co-founded the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam in 2014. He served as vice president of the organization until his arrest in May 2020.

In November 2020, Thuy and two other IJAVN members were indicted for making, storing, and disseminating documents and materials for anti-state purposes under Article 117 of Vietnams Penal Code, frequently used by authorities in the Communist country to silence critics.

In 2021, Thuys wife, Pham Thi Lan, told RFA that Thuy was in failing health with limited access to medical treatment for ailments including back pain, high blood pressure, scabies and inflammatory bowel disease, after visiting him on May 14.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a media freedom watchdog group, Vietnam had detained 21 journalists for their professional activities as of Dec. 1, 2022.

Truong Duy Nhat

Truong Duy Nhat, who had been a weekly contributor to Radio Free Asia before his abduction by police in Thailand in January 2019, was convicted in March 2020 of abusing his position and authority in a decade-old land fraud case and jailed for 10 years.

Nhat, who described his case as politically motivated, said at his trial that after seeking political asylum in Thailand at the beginning of 2019, he was arrested by Thai Royal Police and handed over to Vietnamese police, who took him across the border into Laos, and from there back to Vietnam.

After a December 2020 visit to Nhat in prison, a friend said he was being forced to work eight hours a day making paper money for sale as temple offerings, and that working long hours in a seated position had aggravated the pain he was suffering from herniated discs.

Nhat was jailed before in Vietnam from 2013 to 2015 for his writings criticizing the one-party government.

Vietnam has been consistently rated not free in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group, while another press freedom group said journalists jailed in the country are often subject to mistreatment.
President Joe Biden shakes hands with South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 26, 2023, in Washington.

When U.S. President Joe Biden declared last week that any use of nuclear weapons against the United States or its allies will result in the end of the North Korean regime, the sister of supreme leader Kim Jong Un dismissed the remarks as the ramblings of an old man with no future.

Bidens comments came after a summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on April 26 during which the two leaders signed a Washington Declaration that committed to strengthening mutual defense agreements amid continued North Korean missile tests.

Their meeting received broad coverage in the North Korean media, including news that the United States would temporarily deploy nuclear submarines to South Korea for the first time in decades.

Kim Yo Jong, who is also a high-ranking official in her brothers regime, penned an article that appeared on the website of the state-run Korea Central News Agency or KCNA.

The Washington Declaration fabricated by the U.S. and south Korean authorities is a typical product of their extreme anti-DPRK hostile policy reflecting the most hostile and aggressive will of action, she said.

KCNA intentionally doesnt capitalize South when referring to its southern rival in English.

Another thing that we cannot let pass nor overlook is the fact that the chief executive of the enemy state officially and personally used the word the end of regime under the eyes of the world, she said. Would we simply regard it as the mans senility?

U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers [center] fly in formation with South Korean Air Force F-35A fighter jets over the South Korea Peninsula during a joint air drill in South Korea, in March 2023. Credit: South Korea Defense Ministry via AP

But some young people and intellectuals secretly took heart in Bidens warning and his reference to the end of the Kim regime, sources in the country told Radio Free Asias Korean Service.

Young college students and intellectuals are paying close attention to the announcement of the U.S. president, who warned that North Korea would see the end of its regime if it used nuclear weapons, said a source in the northwestern province of North Pyongan on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

The summit is now a hot topic among young people, said another source from Pyongsong, in South Pyongan province, who insisted on not being identified.

There are intellectuals and university students even saying that they are glad that the presidents of the U.S. and South Korea warned the regime, he said. South Korean and international news is published on pages four and five of the [state-run] Rodong Sinmun [newspaper], and young people as well as intellectuals are reading with interest, he said.

The puppet traitor

North Korean state media, however, portrayed the meeting as a humiliation for South Korea and Yoon, who was described as a puppet traitor.

Some have said that of all the "governments" in south Korea's history, the Yoon administration may be the least independent-minded toward the U.S., and this visit to the U.S. undoubtedly confirms this evaluation, the report said.

It went on to say that the international community  apparently a reference to China and Russia  is worried that the agreements made at the summit are ratcheting up tensions on the Korean peninsula and destabilizing the region.

Kim Yo Jong said the decision to send American nuclear submarines gave Pyongyang all the more determination to enhance its nuclear war deterrent.

The more the enemies are dead set on staging nuclear war exercises, and the more nuclear assets they deploy in the vicinity of the Korean peninsula, the stronger the exercise of our right to self-defense will become in direct proportion to them, she said.

Reacting sensitively

The U.S. deployment of strategic nuclear assets in Korea may be more aggressive than Pyongyang was expecting, said Cho Han Bum, a senior researcher at Korea Institute for National Unification.

[North Korea] seems to be reacting very sensitively to the response of South Korea and the United States, which surpasses and offsets North Koreas nuclear deterrence, said Cho.

Other South Korea-based experts anticipate that North Korea will continue to display their capabilities of using its nuclear weapons as a preemptive strike under the pretext of the Washington Declaration.

But many North Koreans are fed up with the Kim dynasty and his preoccupation with a nuclear program while many struggle to put food on the table, sources inside the country said.

People dont speak openly, but its not only the young people. Deep inside, many residents are glad with the Washington Declaration, the Pyonsong source said.

Its because they have a grudge against the reality of this country, where every day you wake up and sigh because youre worrying about where to find your next meal.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
The day that Xiaomi was born, its founders ate porridge made of millet, the grain that gives the brand its name. Since that day, April 6, 2010, the technology company has grown unceasingly. More than a decade later, it has formed an empire, becoming the brand with the third-highest cell phone sales on the planet, behind Samsung and Apple, according to the consulting firm Canalys. Before reaching users hands, its phones are subjected to a series of quality control experiments, from being dropped onto marble surfaces to rigorous folding tests.

Xiaomi operates approximately 300 laboratories in countries including China, Japan, Finland and India. The companys Science and Technology Park in Beijing, which was inaugurated in 2019, has 128 laboratories on 12,000 square meters, with equipment worth over 91 million. EL PAIS visited one of them on a trip sponsored by Xiaomi.

Testing the camera

Xiaomi runs tests on a cellphone camera, moved by a robotic hand. XIAOMI

A white hallway with lights in the shape of a hexagon leads to the laboratorys entrance. For a few seconds, one has the sensation of entering the future. But what is revealed is the quality control that Xiaomi phones face before entering the market. In one room, called the camera lab, a robotic arm moves back and forth on a horizontal metal bar. It holds a telephone that points with its camera at a board with a variety of shapes and images. The arm moves back and forth to control the shooting distance, explains an employee.

The phone points at colorful squares and a photo of three women, with the purpose of testing the color and evaluating how the camera captures skin colors. To test textures, there is an image of marble and another of grass. Around the room, bulbs simulate different kinds of lighting, from interior to natural to darkness.

Rigorous folding tests

Among premium mobile phones, foldable smartphones are set to be the segment with the greatest market growth during this decade, according to the consulting firm Strategy Analytics. The devices can withstand thousands of folds and are ever more resistant. The folding hinge used by brands like Xiaomi, Oppo and Samsung can endure over 200,000 bends, or 100 bends a day for five years.

Xiaomi tests the durability of devices like the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 in its folding test laboratory. The company uses a machine that automatically opens and closes phones over and over. In addition to evaluating the screens resistance, the laboratory also conducts tests to control the humidity and temperature that the devices can withstand.

Cell phones that look for their own failures

In the stability laboratory, dozens of cellphones line the walls, working alone. While some open and close applications over and over, others conduct Google searches, write messages or use the calculator. With these tests, Xiaomis objective is to prove that the phones work perfectly and detect possible incompatibility problems. If a phone passes the test it has been assigned, the word pass appears on its screen. If not, the panel turns orange and shows a code.

Throwing phones from the heights

A Xiaomi employee inserts a phone into a machine, which lifts it and drops it on a marble surface. This practice tests smartphones durability. Its a directional drop machine, and it can make the device fall at any angle or direction, the employee explains. In its tests, Xiaomi throws the phones from different heights, positions and velocities.

The room includes other machines, such as the steel ball drop. Imagine this scenario. You get home and you put your phone on the table, where there are some keys, and you accidentally drop it, the employee says. Replicating such conditions can be complicated. That is where the machine comes into play. The phone is placed on a flat surface, and the steel ball applies pressure on it.

A head simulator to test audio

The mouth of the simulator acts as a speaker and the ears as a microphone. XIAOMI

The walls of the audio lab are covered with geometric folds that absorb sound. Absolute silence reigns. The noise is below 15.9 decibels, explains the Xiaomi employee. (A normal conversation can be around 65 dB, and a shout is typically 80 dB.)

In the center of the room, a shoulder and head simulator has a mouth that acts as a speaker and two ears that act as a microphone to receive and process the sound. In tests, the phone is sometimes placed next to the ears to simulate a phone call and sometimes in front of the face to recreate a video call. To create a test environment as close to reality as possible, there are also loudspeakers that generate background noises that users encounter in their daily lives, such as a supermarket or factory.

From 5G to GPS

In the OTA Lab, tests are conducted by simulating signals such as 5G or GPS. XIAOMI

Among the most visually striking laboratories is one with blue spikes all over the walls. It is the OTA, or Over The Air, Lab, designed to evaluate the transmission and reception performance of the cell phone antenna. It simulates all types of signals 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and GPS and tests are carried out to ensure the phones optimal connection in all circumstances.

A cell phone ready for electromagnetic waves

The walls of the EMC Lab, or electromagnetic compatibility laboratory, are covered with white and gray blocks that absorb electromagnetic waves and prevent them from interfering with the tests. The purpose of this room is to prepare cell phones for interference from other devices and the real worlds complex electromagnetic environment.

Inside, there are two antennas, one for tests below 3G and one for those above. For some tests, the cell phone is placed on a rotating table. The permittivity (the ability to allow the formation and propagation of electric fields) of the board is 1.1. That means it is very close to that of air, so overall it will have little impact on the test, explains the Xiaomi employee. Outside this room, a computer displays a graph with two lines: one gives data on international standards and the other on test results.

Xiaomi goes all in on mobile photography with the 13 Ultra

The Chinese giants latest bet to win over photography fans is the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, presented last April 18 in Beijing. The device has a gigantic module with four 50-megapixel cameras, including one with a one-inch main sensor and variable aperture. The brand is collaborating with Leica, the German camera manufacturer, in order to make advances in mobile photography.

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Jack Anousa had been reported dead, but family and others tell HRW that he is alive

Anousa Jack Luangsuphom, an administrator of a Facebook group critical of Laos one-party rule lies on a hospital bed with gunshot wounds.

Updated with an important correction at 10:40am EDT on May 4, 2023

A Lao political activist who was reported to have been shot and killed last Saturday in Vientiane by an unidentified gunman survived the shooting, the rights organization Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

Reports received from multiple sources that Anousa Jack Luangsuphom died on the way to the hospital on April 29, 2023, proved to be false, said HRW in a "correction" to its previous report.

According to the statement, Anousas family and other sources provided verbal confirmation and photographic evidence that the activist survived the shooting and is now receiving medical treatment in a hospital in the Laos capital.

Human Rights Watch emphasizes the responsibility of the Lao government to ensure protection for Anousa while he recovers, and to undertake a thorough and impartial investigation into the shooting, it said.

Anousa Jack Luangsuphom is an administrator of a Facebook group that uncovered and denounced human rights abuses in Laos and called for the end of one-party rule. Credit: HRW





Anousa, 24, was the administrator of the Kub Kluen Duay Keyboard, or Driven By Keyboard, Facebook group that uncovered and denounced human rights abuses and called for the end of one-party rule in Laos.

In security camera footage that was later posted on the Facebook group page, Anousa was shot at 10:26 p.m. on Saturday in the After School Chocolate & Bar shop in Vientiane.

In the footage, an unidentified gunman wearing a cap and beige jacket came to the door and apparently asked a question. He then closed the door briefly and reopened it, stepped into the shop and fired what sounded like two shots at Anousa, who was seated on or near the floor, before fleeing.

The victim was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 4:00 a.m. Sunday, the same Facebook page said.

Radio Free Asia had also reported Tuesday that Anousa had died in the shooting, based on the information from the Facebook group and confirmation from human rights groups.

Still alive

On Wednesday night, news emerged that Anousa is still alive. A photo of the activist apparently in the hospital was posted on the Kub Kluen Duay Keyboard page on Thursday, together with calls for donation for his treatment.

Anousa was among the few people in Laos who regularly and openly expressed views that were critical of the Lao government, HRW said, urging Laos authorities to urgently conduct a credible and impartial investigation into the shooting.

It accused Laos authorities of having long failed to prevent or adequately respond to attacks against critics of the government, human rights defenders, and political activists.

So far, the identity of the gunman remains unknown and no arrest has been made but the authorities told RFA Lao Thursday they were looking into the case.

We are investigating accordingly and have set up an investigation team to find the culprits,Lt. Col. Ubon Chounlamany, deputy director general of the Vientiane Capital Office of Public Security said.

On his Facebook page, which has over 10,000 followers, Anousa recently posted comments saying that while the government has blamed thick haze on farmers burning forests and farmland, city dwellers have also burned lots of trash and Chinese and Vietnamese companies have burned toxic waste that has polluted the air.

Last May, he published a post about how the Lao and Chinese governments helped each other get rich while Lao people have only grown poorer.

Translated by RFA Lao. Edited by Mike Firn and Malcolm Foster.

This story has been updated to correct that the activist did not die in the shooting as initially reported.
The move comes as Chinas foreign minister continues his visit to the country.

A prisoner is welcomed on his release from Yangon's Insein prison in an amnesty on May 3, 2023.

A prisoner is welcomed on his release from Yangon's Insein prison in an amnesty on May 3, 2023.

A prisoner is welcomed on his release from Yangon's Insein prison in an amnesty on May 3, 2023.

Myanmars junta granted amnesty to 2,153 political prisoners Wednesday, a statement by the military said, as Chinas foreign minister continued a trip to the country.

They had all been sentenced under section 505 (a) of the Penal Code, which covers fake news and incitement against government employees. The section was amended following the 2021 military coup to expand its sphere beyond actions against military personnel.

The amnesty comes with several caveats. According to Section 401, Subsection 1 of the Penal Code, if the released prisoner commits another crime again they will have to serve the existing sentence as well as the new sentence, the junta statement said.

A source close to the Prison Department  who declined to be named for fear of reprisals  told RFA that most of those granted amnesty are already close to their release date.

The release now is a specific release under Section 505, but [only] prisoners under that section who have less than a year [to serve] were released, he said.

I know that those who were recently sentenced under Section 505 are not among the released, and people who were sentenced with other articles besides Section 505 are not among the released.

Myanmars military often announces prisoner pardons on Buddhist festivals and May 3 marks the full moon day of Kason (Kasong), which commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha.

The junta statement said the release was made to calm the hearts and minds of the people and to emphasize humanitarianism.

The amnesty also comes on day two of a three-day visit to Myanmar by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, and follows comments by Qin about the need for the country to find its own solution to a political and humanitarian crisis that has deepened since the military staged a coup in February 2021.

Qin met with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing in the capital Naypyitaw Tuesday.

Chinas foreign ministry said he told the senior general that Beijing sincerely hopes the situation in Myanmar will be stable" and the country will develop promoting political transformation and reconciliation.

It quoted him as saying China supports Myanmar in exploring a development path that suits its national conditions and has Myanmar characteristics.

Qin called on the international community to respect Myanmars sovereignty and play a constructive role in achieving peace and reconciliation.

Qins visit to the country follows a Monday meeting in Beijing with Noeleen Heyzer, the United Nations special envoy on Myanmar, where the two discussed a possible resolution to the countrys internal conflict.

The junta has announced 11 amnesties ahead of Wednesdays planned releases and freed nearly 70,000 prisoners but this is the first time only political prisoners have been granted amnesty.

Only 2,373 of those freed ahead of Wednesday were political prisoners, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners told RFA.

The junta has arrested almost 22,000 people for political crimes in the 27 months since it seized power, according to the association, which is run by exiled political prisoners.

Ahead of todays amnesty, it said 17,897 people were still being held across the country, while 3,910 had been released.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.
Protestant activist was sentenced in April to 6 years on charges deemed manufactured by U.S. State Department.

Hkalam Samson, a former head of the Kachin Baptist Convention, was arrested by Myanmar security personnel in December 2022.

A court has rejected the appeal of one of Myanmars leading Protestant activists a month after he was sentenced to six years in prison under the countrys counterterrorism law.

Myitkyina Prison Court in Kachin state on Tuesday dismissed the appeal from the Rev. Dr. Hkalam Samson. The same court issued the sentence on April 7 after he was convicted on charges of alleged terrorism, unlawful association and inciting opposition to the military regime.

Samson, a former head of the Kachin Baptist Convention, was arrested at Mandalay International Airport on Dec. 4. He was on his way to receive medical treatment in Bangkok.

Authorities told him his name was on a no-fly list and questioned him overnight at Central Regional Military Command headquarters.

At the time, Samson worked as an adviser for the Kachin Baptist Convention, which has about 400,000 members, most of whom are ethnic Kachin. He helped lead efforts to provide humanitarian assistance for those impacted by violence and conflicts in Kachin.

He was also president of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly, a group of local religious and political leaders who help foster communication between the Kachin Independence Organization, an ethnic Kachin political group, and the local community.

In October last year, he helped organize hospital treatment and funerals for people injured and killed in a junta airstrike on an annual concert hosted by the Kachin Independence Organization. The groups armed wing has been actively fighting against junta troops since the 2021 military coup detat and has trained anti-regime Peoples Defense Forces.

More than 60 people died during the attack, residents said at the time.

Previous defamation case

In 2019, Samson visited the White House and thanked then-president Donald Trump for imposing travel bans on senior Myanmar military commanders involved in a crackdown on Rohingya Muslims. He also appealed to Trump to take action against religious persecution in Myanmar and to support the countrys transition to genuine democracy.

The Northern Regional Military Command, based in Kachin state, later brought a defamation lawsuit against Samson for speaking about Myanmars religious and human rights situation during the meeting with Trump, though the case was later withdrawn.

The U.S. State Department last month called the charges in the criminal case manufactured and demanded Samsons immediate release.

Though the family has not been allowed to see Samson, they have received permission to send him medicine. Samson suffers from congenital pneumonia and high blood pressure.

Samsons lawyer, Daung Nan, told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday that she would submit an appeal to the Kachin state court.

When we filed an appeal yesterday, the court summarily dismissed it, she said. So, we are going to submit an appeal to the state court. If it doesnt go well, we will file an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Samsons wife, Zhon Nyoir, told RFA that they could not argue against the courts decision.

Im praying [for his release] and we will meet him again when God alters the verdict, she said.

Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.
Warning comes after a near-collision between Philippine and Chinese vessels and as Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visits U.S.

China should stop its unacceptable harassment of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, a senior American official said Wednesday, while pledging Washington will stand with its staunch ally against any intimidation from Beijing in the disputed waterway.

The comments from Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, come shortly after a near-collision between Philippine and Chinese vessels and as Ferdinand Marcos Jr. makes the first official visit by a Philippine president to Washington in more than a decade.

This is really a very important issue, and we remain deeply concerned by the People's Republic of Chinas continued intimidation and harassment of Philippine vessels as they undertake routine patrols within the Philippines exclusive economic zone, Kritenbrink told reporters in an online press briefing from the White House.

You have such actions that are truly unacceptable. We stand with the Philippines in the face of Chinese Coast Guards ongoing infringement and harassment.

On April 23, two China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels intercepted Philippine patrol boats and exhibited aggressive tactics near Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, according to the Philippine Coast Guard.

At one point, CCG 5201 came within 50 yards (46 meters) of a Philippine ship, it said. Another China Coast Guard ship persistently followed BRP Malabrigo at a distance of 700 yards (640 meters).

Beijing has said the Philippine vessels trespassed into waters near Renai Reef, the Chinese name for Ayungin Shoal, and had dangerously approached a Chinese vessel.

China has competing claims in the South China Sea with the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam. In 2016, an international tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines and against the sweeping nine-dash line by which Beijing asserts its maritime claims in the strategic waterway, but China has refused to acknowledge the ruling.

The Philippine coast guard vessel BRP Malapascua (front) maneuvers as a Chinese coast guard ship sails across its path at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, April 23, 2023. [AFP]

Kritenbrink said the U.S. would continue to monitor Chinas provocative conduct in the South China Sea.

But most importantly, we will continue to stand with our Filipino allies and we will continue to operate together, he said.

The U.S. has committed to defend the Philippines in case of any armed attack on its military, public vessels or aircraft, under the 1951 U.S. Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.

During the digital press briefing, Kritenbrink also responded to claims from Chinese officials that the U.S. is dragging Manila into potential conflict over Taiwan by allowing greater American access to local bases under a 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

The fact that friends in Beijing would issue a statement somehow expressing concern about that, I think it is not worthy but also somewhat puzzling, he said. I am confident that the U.S. and the Philippines share a vision for a peaceful and stable region.

We support the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo by either side and we insist that cross trait differences be resolved peacefully. Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is a matter of international concern.

Marcos visit to the U.S. signals improving bilateral ties after his immediate predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, cultivated warmer relations with Beijing.

Marcos and U.S. President Joe Biden discussed a wide range of issues in Washington earlier this week, including food security, climate change, trade and investment, and defense cooperation.

On Tuesday, Washington announced it intended to transfer two island-class and two protector-class patrol vessels and three C-130H to support the Philippines modernize its maritime and tactical lift capabilities.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news organization.
The move is part of Chinas effort to destroy influence of prominent thinkers and religious figures.

In this photo taken during a government organized visit for foreign journalists, a monk teaches a class while sitting beneath a chalkboard with a mural commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Chinese government's control of Tibet at the Tibetan Buddhist College near Lhasa, May 31, 2021. High-pressure tactics employed by China's ruling Communist Party appear to be finding success in separating Tibetans from their traditional Buddhist culture and the influence of the Dalai Lama.

China has been rigorously barring Tibetan writers, Buddhist monks and other influential people from spreading religious content online without prior approval, sources told Radio Free Asia.

The clampdown, based on a March 2022 regulation, gives authorities additional power to restrict online content that the ruling Communist Party considers damaging and is yet another example of how China has ramped up restrictions on expression, religion and culture in the western Tibet Autonomous Region.

As the Chinese government started implementing the law, Tibetan writers and those who are influential have been particularly targeted and scrutinized, said a Tibetan from inside Tibet who declined to be identified for safety reasons.

These sections of the people are completely barred from sharing or speaking about Buddhism or anything educational without seeking permission from the Chinese government, he said. They are not even allowed to print out any sort of these religious documents.

The regulation bans foreign organizations and individuals from spreading such content except for those who have obtained government licenses. It requires them not to have had any criminal charges in the past three years.

The Chinese government has not only denied basic freedom of expression for the Tibetans, but now Tibetan writers and those who are influential are completely barred from sharing anything, said Pema Gyal, a researcher at London-based Tibet Watch. So, in recent years we have hardly seen any content shared by them on social platforms.

Public speaking banned

Among those barred are educators Yonten Gatos and Sayul Gyaltsen, Tibet historian Tsering Dhondup, and Sonam, the administrator of Potala Palace in the regional capital Lhasa, the Tibetan source from inside the region said.

Other Tibetans have been arrested and imprisoned on charges of inciting separatism and endangering state security, according to Tibetan sources, underscoring Beijings ongoing drive to destroy the influence of people whose views on religion and life in Tibet and Tibetan-populated regions of China go against official Chinese narratives.

Another Tibetan source from inside the region sees the regulation as a double-standard.

The Chinese government often denies any license or permits that could give the Tibetans to teach or educate publicly, and recently it has become even more difficult under the regulation, he said.

On the contrary, there is so much content shared on social media that is misleading and inappropriate, and for those the Chinese government imposes no restrictions, he said.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
For Atanas Tchobanov, a leading Bulgarian investigative journalist, uncovering corruption in one of the most graft-ridden countries in the EU rarely brings rewards.



Instead of justice for the alleged perpetrators, it is often journalists like him who face retribution from those they expose.



"Normally, the findings of the investigative reporting should trigger legal actions, but in Bulgaria they more often trigger institutional retaliations against the journalists and their sources," Tchobanov told RFE/RL.



To prove his point, Tchobanov, 54, highlights a February report by the Bureau of Investigative Reporting and Data (BIRD), which he founded and now heads. BIRD published what it claimed were alleged links among organized crime groups, law enforcement, and the country's prosecutor-general.



The prosecutor-general, Ivan Geshev, however, went on the offensive on March 16, accusing journalists of conspiring with criminals, business owners, and politicians to plot against him and high-ranking officials at the Interior Ministry. On May 1, Geshev escaped what media described as a car bombing, although many in Bulgaria, including Tchobanov, questioned details of the incident and its timing.



Bulgaria is not top of any charts for journalism, but progress is being made, according to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

In its 2023 Media Press Freedom Index, issued on May 3 to coincide with World Press Freedom Day, RSF said media freedom was "fragile and unstable" in one of the poorest countries of the European Union. However, Bulgaria's ranking jumped from 91 last year to 71 in the latest index.

According to RSF, some of that improvement comes down to the fact that for most of 2022 Bulgaria was ruled by the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, who came to power on a pledge to fight the country's rampant corruption. Petkov's government, however, collapsed in June 2022 after his administration lost a no-confidence vote in parliament that he blamed on Russia and his own country's powerful mafia. Tellingly, RSF said a unique problem pertaining to Bulgaria was the "inverted role of certain high-ranking prosecutors."

'Strategic Lawsuits'



Retribution often comes with journalists being sued . Bulgaria is one of several EU countries where abusive lawsuits -- so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) -- are "becoming increasingly common," according to the Media Freedom Report 2023, which is the second annual report on the topic produced by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe.



These lawsuits, according to experts, are largely an attempt by wealthy individuals and companies to use the law to intimidate or silence investigative reporters and nongovernmental organizations.



In Bulgaria, Judge Svetlin Mihaylov sued journalist Boris Mitov -- now on staff in RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service -- after he wrote an article in 2018 alleging that the judge was a millionaire who had been involved in a number of scandals.



Journalists are also regularly threatened, including by the prosecutor-general himself. During his press conference in Sofia, Geshev, whose zeal and integrity has long been questioned by both Washington and Brussels, did not identify any journalists by name in the supposed plot against him, but a screen behind him projected a list of names, including that of Tchobanov and his colleague Dimitar Stoyanov, who also played a leading role in the February BIRD expose.

That report delved into the infamous cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova, who was head of the multimillion-dollar OneCoin scam and vanished after allegedly ripping off investors to the tune of $5 billion in 2017. The BIRD report, citing documents reportedly found in the possession of a murdered Bulgarian police official, indicated that Ignatova had been killed in 2018.



"The conclusion for us was pretty obvious: when you dare write about such dangerous guys and such a high-profile case as the Ignatova disappearance, you become the target yourself," said Tchobanov, who has now made Paris his home.



Then, on April 13, the authorities made public transcripts and screenshots of text messages among several people, including a conversation between Stoyanov and a source, a person now in custody while under investigation for drug-related charges.



In comments accompanying its latest index, RSF referred specifically to this case. "Instead of protecting journalists and systematically prosecuting crimes against them, they pressure them, as shown by the recent case of Dimitar Stoyanov, in which the confidentiality of sources is threatened," RSF said.



That echoes earlier concerns from the Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ).

"Bulgarian authorities should ensure that journalists are not swept up in criminal investigations and that members of the press can cover allegations of public corruption without fear that they will be targeted by law enforcement," said Attila Mong, CPJ's Europe representative, on April 24. "Authorities should stop any efforts to harass or obstruct journalists Dimitar Stoyanov and Atanas Tchobanov and should allow the Bureau of Investigative Reporting and Data to work freely."



The Bulgarian branch of the Association of European Journalists, an advocacy organization, issued a statement in April calling the release of those messages "an unscrupulous violation of the confidentiality of journalistic sources."

Tchobanov is no stranger to threats. He said officials at the U.S. Embassy in Sofia notified him on January 7, 2022, that they had been made aware of an "imminent threat of physical violence" against him.

"I had to wear a bulletproof jacket for a month, changing my itineraries, habits, and instructing my family to stay vigilant," explained Tchobanov.



Tchobanov told CPJ that he believed the threat was connected to his investigation for BIRD about contracts between a U.S. lobbyist and Delyan Peevski, a Bulgarian member of parliament, media owner, and former head of the country's intelligence services.



"I started calling the protagonists of my story for right-of-reply and a couple of days later got this notification call from the U.S. Embassy. This is the most dangerous stage of the investigation because the bad guys are alerted and will try to stop you," Tchobanov added.

Tensions Likely To Increase



With the supposed car bombing against Geshev just a few days ago, the tensions between the Prosecutor-General's Office and journalists are only likely to increase. Tchobanov, along with many others in Bulgaria, has said that some of the details of the attack don't appear to add up.



"Geshev claimed loudly a month and a half ago that he had been targeted by a group of oligarchs, criminals, and even journalists like me and my colleague Dimitar [Stoyanov] who conspired to remove him from office. Then came the self-spoken prophecy with the roadside blast," he said.

"The explosion he faced in his heavy armored jeep is very strange if you compare the claims about the blast being the equivalent of '3 kilograms of TNT' and a 'fiery hell' with the images from the site of the blast, which look more like a modest fireworks explosion," Tchobanov said.



Dozens of state-employed public prosecutors on May 2 staged "silent protests" outside courthouses in towns and cities in what was described as a sign of support for Geshev. "It is inadmissible for anyone to think that the attack against Ivan Geshev was staged," said Siika Mileva, the spokeswoman for the prosecutor-general, at the protest in front of the courthouse in Sofia.



For Tchobanov, with the constant meddling of the political establishment, independent journalism is needed more than ever in Bulgaria. "[It is] what we call the deep state, a constellation of power players linked to the former communist secret services, doing business by syphoning public resources. There are very few independent media outlets in Bulgaria actually," he said.

Tchobanov's own journalistic journey happened almost by accident. "In 2004, I was helping a friend to design and publish a small newspaper, because he didn't have the needed computer skills," Tchobanov told RFE/RL.



Bitten by the journalism bug, Tchobanov quickly got into blogging and then investigative reporting. "I started working on investigative topics in 2010, first by digging into public registries and following the real estate transactions with valuable public land plots. Corrupt officials like to invest in real estate," he said.



In 2010, he was one of the cofounders of the Bulgarian investigative website, Bivol, also serving as its editor in chief. Later, he went on to head the BIRD organization.



Tchobanov has also cooperated with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, including working on several of its blockbuster expose, including the Pandora Papers, the Azerbaijani Laundromat, and other reports.



Despite all the pitfalls, Tchobanov has no plans to abandon his trade. "I think that exposing corruption and the state-mafia nexus is making the world better and saves lives," he said. "Slowly, painfully, but changing things for the good."
Iran's clerical leadership has often lauded the impact of sports in rallying the nation, but commendations can quickly turn to condemnation for athletes who dare to step out of line.

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, scores of athletes who have shown anything but complete loyalty to the clerical establishment have been barred from competitions, arrested, or even executed. Amid mass anti-government protests that have broken out in recent years, sports figures who raised their voices have again been targeted by the authorities.

Revolutionary Change

While meeting a group of Iranian athletes in 1979, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini expressed his faith in their ability to use international competition to spread the ideals of the revolution across the globe.

"I am not an athlete, but I love athletes. I love the doers of good, although I am not one of them," he said. "I beseech God, the most blessed and exalted, to grant greater success to you young people, who are the assets of this country and the source of hope for the nation and Islam, in doing sports in all human dimensions."

But not all of Iran's athletes fit the mold. Among the prominent stars missing from the photo op was soccer star Habib Khabiri, a key factor in Iran's march to its first-ever appearance at the World Cup in 1978. While Khabiri would go on to captain the national squad in 1980, he would eventually pay the ultimate price for his alleged disloyalty to the revolution.

While Khabiri initially joined the street protests that ushered in the revolution, he later allegedly joined the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), which itself had participated in the Islamic Revolution that toppled the shah but was soon branded a threat by the new clerical establishment.

A team photo taken prior to a game in 1982 in which Khabiri is the only player not holding up a portrait of Khomeini has long been taken as black and white proof of his differences with the authorities.

Fellow teammate Ebrahim Kian Tahmasebi, also seen in the photo, explained the backstory.

"Habib turned Khomeini's picture upside down in the dressing room," Tahmasebi told RFE/RL's Radio Farda from Sweden. And when other players turned on him, Khabiri didn't budge. "Habib was calm, as always, and said: The revolution will not be overturned by overturning the photo.'"

In 1983, as the authorities cracked down on suspected sympathizers and members of the MKO -- which by then openly called for Khomeini's overthrow and had aligned with Baghdad in the Iran-Iraq War -- Khabiri was arrested.

After being subjected to torture in prison, according to fellow prisoners and teammates, Khabiri was executed at the age of 29 alongside 40 other alleged dissidents in July 1984.

Deadly Trend

Recent cases involving prominent sports figures caught up in the crackdown on ongoing antiestablishment protests bear some resemblance to Khabiri's. Two athletes have been executed despite international outcry, while others have been killed during protests, arrested, or pressured to get in line with the authorities' demands. Many have been subjected to sham trials with little or no chance to defend themselves, according to rights groups. And athletes' immediate families have often faced pressure as well.

Navid Afkari

Navid Afkari, once one of Iran's highest-ranked Greco-Roman wrestlers, was executed at the age of 27 in September 2020 after being convicted of murdering a security guard during antiestablishment protests in the southern city of Shiraz in 2018.

There were worldwide calls for Afkari to be pardoned, and his execution was condemned by rights groups who criticized the trial as a "travesty of justice" that denied him legal representation and refused to take into account his testimony that he had been forced to confess under torture.

The former wrestling champion's last recorded words were: "If I am executed, I want you to know that an innocent person, even though he tried and fought with all his strength to be heard, was executed."

An attorney who advocated for Afkari argued that there was no proof of guilt, and decried that the wrestler's family was not allowed to meet him prior to his execution, a violation of Iranian law. His brothers, Vahid and Habib, were sentenced to 54 and 27 years, respectively, in prison in the same case.

Many Iranians condemned his execution on social media, and as other Iranian athletes have been targeted by the authorities, the "United4Navid" hashtag is quickly revived as a reminder of his legacy.

In September 2021, Shahin Naseri, a prisoner who claimed he witnessed Afkari being tortured before his execution, was himself executed.

Mohammad Mehdi Karami

The mass protests that broke out in September over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini soon after she was arrested by the morality police for allegedly violating the head-scarf law have also resulted in the arrests and deaths of sports figures who supported her cause.

In January, three-time youth karate champion and national team member Mohammad Mehdi Karami was executed after being found guilty of involvement in the death of a member of the Basij paramilitary forces during a demonstration in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran.

Karami's execution took place just 65 days after his arrest and following a trial in which he was given just 15 minutes to defend himself in court. The 22-year-old was denied the right to choose his own legal representation, and had begun a dry hunger strike in protest. Activists alleged that Karami was beaten unconscious by prison guards and threatened with rape while incarcerated, and rights groups said that the court relied on forced confessions.

Of the 16 people detained in relation to the killing of the Basij officer, Karami and one other were executed, while the others, including minors, received lengthy prison sentences.

Keeping Score

One of the biggest stars to ever suit up for Iran's national soccer team, Ali Daei, ran into trouble after he voiced support for the protests. In December, the 53-year-old former player and coach was denied the right to leave the country to attend Iran's World Cup appearance in Qatar, and has also had his business shuttered by the authorities owing to his support for the protests.

Voria Ghafouri, who was left off the World Cup squad, was arrested in November for "insulting the national soccer team and propagandizing against the government" just days after expressing sympathy for Amini's family and calling for an end to the state crackdown on protesters.

And members of the national team reportedly got a talking to from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps after they appeared to support the protests by abstaining from singing Iran's national anthem ahead of their game with England.

In January, wrestler Mohammad Namjoo-Motlagh told Radio Farda he was seeking asylum in Germany after facing "constant threats and psychological pressure" from the Iranian Wrestling Federation and other state bodies over his support for the ongoing protests.

"It was clear where this was going," said Namjoo-Motlagh, who is believed to have posted social-media posts that were critical of the authorities and supportive of the protests. "I would either lose my life or they would blind me, or in the best-case scenario, I would be sent to prison."

The same month came news that a death sentence handed down to Amir Nasr-Azadani, a soccer player who played for a number of clubs in Iran's top domestic league and had campaigned for women's rights, had been overturned. But Nasr-Azadani, who the previous month was found guilty of complicity in the killings of three Basij officers during protests, still faces 16 years in prison.

The trend of punishing sports figures who protest has extended to the chessboard and reached great heights.

In October, sport-climbing champion Elnaz Rekabi competed in South Korea without her hair covered, a violation of Iran's strict rules during international competition. The act was widely seen as one of support for the protests.

When Rekabi returned to Iran, she offered an apology that some fellow athletes said was forced. In April, it was reported that she was not allowed to leave the country to continue her training in Spain.

Sara Khadem, a top female Iranian chess player, competed without a head scarf at an international tournament in Kazakhstan in December. Khadem refused to return to Iran for fear of retribution and moved to Spain with her husband. She recently said while competing in a tournament there that she has no regrets for her actions.

Soccer player Reza Shekari, meanwhile, has been banned from playing in Irans domestic league and summoned to face a disciplinary committee after he refused to celebrate after scoring a goal.

Gone But Not Forgotten

To this day, Tehran has given no explanation for the reasons for Khabib's arrest, the charges against him, or details regarding his trial. His reported denunciation of the MKO appears not to have been taken into consideration, and his family members were not allowed to attend his funeral.

But his legacy is undeniable, both on and off the pitch.

Journalist Faridun Shibani, who traveled with the national team when Khabib played, said that there were some things about the man and player that he could not write at the time.

"I fell in love with the morals of this young man," Shibani told Radio Farda. "Habib is one of the leaders in recognizing and opposing the Islamic republic. He opened the eyes of others to the new system."

Buried in secret in an unmarked grave, the authorities eventually relented to the public, allowing a simple gravestone bearing the soccer legend's name to mark his plot at Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery.

Written by Michael Scollon based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda.
Russians kept up pressure on eastern Ukraine on May 7 with claims of more ammunition for mercenaries in Bakhmut and Ukrainians sought shelter from possible air attacks, as UN nuclear officials expressed intense concern over risks to Europe's largest nuclear power plant, at Zaporizhzhya in southern Ukraine.

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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said he was "extremely concerned" as Ukrainian forces stepped up shelling to dislodge Russian forces near the Zaporizhzhya plant, which was captured early in the 14-month-old invasion.

"The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous," Grossi said in a statement. "I'm extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant."

Air-raid alerts sounded overnight on May 6-7 in many regions of Ukraine amid unpredictable Russian bombardments and ongoing fighting for Bakhmut ahead of a patriotic anniversary in Russia.

Late on May 7 and early May 8, Ukrainian media reported explosions in the southern port city of Odesa and that air-raid sirens were again blaring in Kyiv and other cities.

Earlier, in its morning update on May 7, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces cautioned that "the likelihood of missile and air strikes across Ukraine remains quite high."

It said Russian troops were focusing their "main efforts" in the districts of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka, in the eastern Donetsk region, with "heavy fighting for the cities of Bakhmut and Maryinka."

Ukrainian General Oleksandr Syrskiy, the commander of Ukrainian ground forces, said the situation in the east was "tense but under control."

Syrskiy said Russian forces have intensified their shelling and have attempted to reorganize troops in the region in recent days.

"This indicates that the enemy will not change its plans and is doing everything to gain control of Bakhmut and continue its offensive," he said.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar has said that Russian troops and Wagner mercenaries look to be doing their utmost to capture Bakhmut in a "symbolic" push by May 9, when Moscow celebrates World War II Victory Day.

On May 7, the head of the Wagner group supplying mercenaries to fight alongside regular Russian forces in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin, also claimed that he had been promised adequate supplies of weapons and ammunition for the ongoing Bakhmut offensive.

Months into Russian forces' furious offensive to capture Bakhmut with an apparently heavy toll in casualties, Prigozhin this week issued graphic, expletive-filled video appeals threatening to pull his fighters out of the area. He blamed failures on the military leadership and its perceived unwillingness to provide sufficient ammunition.

Prigozhin also suggested he would pass control of the occupied areas to troops under pro-Kremlin Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov immediately after the May 9 anniversary.

In his latest comments on May 7, Prigozhin did not specifically say he was reversing his plans to pull his forces from the city but said he had been given permission to act in Bakhmut as we see fit.

Ukrainian authorities announced air alerts after 10 p.m. local time on May 6 for most regions of eastern, southern, and central Ukraine and urged citizens to hide in shelters.

The Moscow-installed leader of Russian-annexed Crimea's biggest city, Sevastopol, claimed at least 10 drone attacks had targeted the peninsula overnight in the latest accusation by Russians of a rash of airborne attacks, including on Russian territory that included the Kremlin in Moscow.

Concerns meanwhile mounted around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant as Russian and international officials cite a Ukrainian push to recapture territory.

Moscow has already ordered families with children and elderly members to evacuate Russian-occupied areas near Zaporizhzhya.

Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the town of Melitopol, in Zaporizhzhya Oblast, said he was not sure "how voluntary this relocation is."

Fedorov also said it sparked "a mad panic and no less mad queues" at a checkpoint into Russian-annexed Crimea, with buses leaving every half-hour or so and gasoline in short supply, according to AFP. He said he feared Russia might be "preparing for provocations" in the area.

The Ukrainian General Staff said of the Zaporizhzhya events and the Russian-ordered evacuation that "the first to be evacuated are those who accepted [R]ussian citizenship in the first months of the occupation."

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
BANNU, Pakistan -- Journalist Gohar Wazir was shopping for groceries at a market in northwestern Pakistan when five men forced him into a vehicle at gunpoint.



The abductors blindfolded Wazir and whisked him away to a hideout some 40 minutes away from the city of Bannu. For the next 30 hours, Wazir was kept in a dark bathroom, where he says he was tortured.



I was whipped incessantly by one person while another filmed the beating, Wazir told RFE/RLs Radio Mashaal. "When they got tired from beating me, they began giving me electric shocks. I was losing consciousness.



The 40-year-old said the torture only stopped when he agreed to record a video pledging to stop criticizing the powerful Pakistani military and the pro-government militants that are allegedly on its payroll.



Wazir blamed the state-backed militants, locally known as the good Taliban, for his April 19 abduction. These militants are mostly former members of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) extremist group, which have been dubbed the bad Taliban by the authorities. The TTP has waged a deadly insurgency against Islamabad for years.



Tasked with combating the TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, the state-backed militants have been accused of extortion, kidnappings, and the harassment of activists and journalists in northwestern Pakistan, according to observers.



"They can kill me at any time," said Wazir, adding that the pro-government militants often act with impunity.



'Stop Covering Protests'



Wazirs abduction and alleged torture have cast a spotlight on the rising number of attacks on journalists in Pakistan, one of the deadliest countries in the world for reporters and media workers.



It is not the first time that Wazir, known for his criticism of the authorities and the various militant groups present in the region, has been targeted for his work.



In 2019, when he worked for the private Khyber News television station, Wazir was briefly detained after covering a meeting of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). The civil organization campaigns for the rights of Pakistans estimated 35 million Pashtuns, many of whom live along the border with Afghanistan.

Since its emergence in 2018, the PTM has earned the wrath of the authorities by accusing the military of employing state-backed militants to fight the TTP and silence government critics. Locals, who have staged numerous protests over the years, have also accused the army of committing human rights abuses during its military campaigns.



During his 15-year journalism career, Wazir has covered PTM rallies, the militarys deadly offensives in the region, and the activities of state-backed militants.



"I was repeatedly told to stop covering protests where the issue of dismantling pro-government militant groups is always a major demand," said Wazir, referring to one of the key demands of his abductors.



'Dangerous Pattern Of Impunity'



Police in Bannu said they have launched an investigation into Wazirs abduction and alleged torture.



Global media watchdogs, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ), have called on Pakistan to conduct a swift and impartial investigation.



In the May 2 statement, CPJ's Asia program coordinator, Beh Lih Yi, called on Islamabad to "take serious steps to end a dangerous pattern of impunity related to violence against journalists."



Wazir is the latest journalist in Pakistan to be targeted amid mounting censorship and crackdowns against dissent.



The Freedom Network, an Islamabad-based independent media watchdog, said attacks on journalists in Pakistan rose by more than 60 percent in the past year.



In its annual report released on May 1, the watchdog said that it documented 140 cases of threats and attacks against journalists. At least five journalists were killed, the group said.



"The escalation in violence against journalists is disturbing and demands urgent attention," said Iqbal Khattak, the executive director of Freedom Network.
The Barcelona doctor Elias Garcia-Pelegrin has managed to incorporate into his investigative work his two greatest obsessions: magic and animal cognition. According to him, the dichotomy between the arts and sciences does not make much sense. Artists seek to explore the human condition, just like psychologists and biologists, with the difference that the former use empirical methods.

Specifically, magicians need to understand humans attention and perception in order to trick their audiences. Magic tricks can tell us a lot about our consciousness and how we perceive reality. Currently, Garcia-Pelegrin is a professor of Animal Behavior at the National University of Singapore, and he is interested in using magic to understand how other animals perceive the world.

He recently published a curious study, which he conducted during his doctoral work at Cambridge University. He offers evidence that monkeys, like us, can also be fooled by magic tricks, but only when they share the magicians motor skills that is, when they can conduct the same movements.

In the study, he conducted one of the first magic tricks that any magician learns: the French drop. The magician shows a coin in one hand and then passes the other hand in front of it, hiding the thumb behind their fingers. The human audience, however, knows that the thumb is ready to grab the coin once it is no longer visible. The surprise occurs when the magician separates their hands and opens them, revealing that the coin remains in the first hand.

Garcia-Pelegrin performed the trick before an unusual audience. The subjects were 24 monkeys of three different species: eight capuchins, eight spider monkeys and eight titi monkeys. Instead of a coin, he used a small piece of food. If the monkeys guessed what hand the food was in, they got to eat it.

The selection of the three species was deliberate: capuchins are known for their high manual abilities. The shape of their hands allow them to control each finger individually and grab with precision using their thumb and forefinger. In the wild, they use their dexterous hands to crack nuts with stone tools. The capuchins in the study fell into the trap of the French drop 81% of the time. The trick had a similar effect on them as on a human audience.

Spider monkeys are less dexterous than capuchins. Their thumb rotation is limited, but they can still move it to touch the forefinger, to a certain point. On rare occasions, they have been observed using rudimentary tools. They fell for the trick 93% of the time.

Titi monkeys are unlike the others, as they do not have opposable thumbs and cannot grab with precision. They are very small primates whose hands have evolved to allow them to climb up vertical trunks. In this context, it is more useful for them to extend their five fingers to increase their hands surface areas, sinking all their nails into the tree at once. Curiously, the magic trick did not work on them: they selected the hand that simulated the grab only 6% of the time.

Thumbs or brains?

The results could be due not to differences in the monkeys hands, but to other factors such as body size or cognitive capacity. The researchers invented a new version of the French drop, which they called the Power Drop. The trick is the same, except that the magician uses the fist, not the thumb, to grab, flexing the rest of the fingers.

In this case, the titi monkeys fell for the magic trick just like the capuchins and spider monkeys. The gesture that the magician makes with the trick is familiar to the titis, as they use it frequently to grab food. The difference between the two tricks is subtle, but it seems to have radically different effects on the titis brains.

In an earlier study, Garcia-Pelegrin did the French drop before the attentive gaze of an Eurasian jay, which does not even have hands. As with the titis, the trick did not work. Why could that be? Why do tricks only work when the observer knows from experience the magicians gestures?

The magic of mirror neurons

We can find the answer in so-called mirror neurons. Neuroscience has given evidence that the motor neurons that are activated when we do an action are also activated when we see someone else doing the same movements.

For example, if we see a dog eat, the neurons in charge of our jaw movements start working. However, they do not activate when we see dogs bark, as the action is not part of our motor repertoire.

Scientists like Guiacomo Rizzolatti, who discovered mirror neurons, have suggested that thanks to them, we can interpret other peoples actions. That is, we understand the actions of others when they resonate with our motor neurons. That would make it more difficult for us to decipher movements that we cannot do.

Of course, Garcia-Pelegrins study gives evidence that an individuals motor skills affect how they perceive and interpret other peoples movements. With the French drop trick, the titi monkey did not think that the magician was grabbing the coin with his thumb, despite being familiar with human hands. It is possible that, as they do not have the same ability, their motor neurons did not activate and therefore they could not interpret the movement.

That is just a hypothesis, however, as the function of motor neurons is still debated in the scientific community. There remains a lot of work to do for scientists to understand how animals perceive and process others actions. Perhaps what scientific research needs is a little more magic.

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During festivities marking spring equinox in Tashkent in March, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev attended an event run by Uzbekistan's German diaspora to offer a glowing assessment of ties with the country where he would soon make a two-day visit.



"We already have a system with them. We are well understood [in Germany] and I really appreciate it," Mirziyoev was quoted as saying by Uzbek media.



Mirziyoev was hoping for just that, understanding, as he touched down in Berlin on May 2, less than a year after his government used lethal force to crack down on protests in the autonomous region of Karakalpakstan, and just a few days after his country approved a new constitution allowing him to stay in power until at least 2040.



Understanding, perhaps, for the difficult position that Tashkent finds itself in the second year of its close partner Russias unprovoked war in Ukraine, while officials from the West jet into Central Asian capitals to issue warnings about secondary sanctions.



Maybe also an understanding of his governments binding ties to Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbekistan-born tycoon whose proximity to the Kremlin made him an early target for Western sanctions shortly after Moscows invasion began.



According to Mirziyoevs office, the strongman was well received in Berlin.



German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged support for Tashkent's bid to join the World Trade Organization and accelerate the signing of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the European Union during their May 3 meeting in the German capital, a presidential press release said.



German investments in the economy have now reached $5.5 billion, with most of them made in recent years.

In an audience with the heads of German banks and companies including Knauf, Siemens Energy, and Deutsche Bank the same day, Mirziyoev said he wanted foreign investors to associate his country with "stability, reliability, and predictability," and stressed the new constitution's provisions for investors.



"We are ready to create the conditions for every German businessman to feel free and confident in our country. By combining the advanced developments and innovative technologies of Germany with the resources and human potential of Uzbekistan, we will be able to achieve great results," he said.



Mirziyoev's visit saw a small group of Uzbek rights activists gather outside the Federal Chancellery and shout slogans against the president, before a group of purported pro-Mirziyoev Uzbeks arrived and began shouting them down, according to an RFE/RL reporter.



But Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told RFE/RL that Germany and many other EU countries are mindful that Uzbekistan's traditional partner, Russia, is "increasingly unreliable and predictable" and are "happy to provide an alternative."

Regarding Usmanov -- who reportedly backed the former prime minister's rise to power seven years ago and has since become a key investor for Tashkent -- Umarov believes it is unlikely that Mirziyoev will have openly lobbied for the industrial and banking magnates removal from the sanctions list during his talks with Scholz.



"He won't be speaking out loud about removing Usmanov from the sanctions list, as that would create a reputational risk. But I can imagine that between some [Uzbek and German] officials there will be discussions about reducing the impact of sanctions on individuals who are important to Uzbekistan," Umarov said.



The Uzbek Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request from RFE/RL about whether Mirziyoevs talks in Germany might touch on Usmanov.



But German news magazine Der Spiegel reported in November that the two countries have already held urgent talks over a financial impropriety investigation targeting Usmanov in Germany, where the oligarch is believed to own several lavish properties.



Der Spiegel even reported that Germanys ambassador in Tashkent was summoned by the Uzbek Foreign Ministry in the wake of raids on the properties by the sumptuous Tegernsee lake in Bavaria.



The German Embassy did not respond to a request from RFE/RL for comment to confirm the report.



Getting Back To Business



Mirziyoev has been hailed for opening up Uzbekistan -- to tourism, foreign investment, and a limited degree of freedom of expression that was almost entirely absent for much of the long reign of his intractable mentor, Islam Karimov, who died in 2016.



That small opening has not extended to political competition, however.



The April 30 referendum was a procession for a "yes" to constitutional changes, with no "no" campaign and the changes reportedly passing with more than 90 percent of the vote.

It was opposition to an earlier and later overhauled version of the draft, which would have limited Karakalpakstans autonomy, that triggered July unrest and a crackdown there, with at least 21 people killed according to the official toll.



Writing ahead of Mirziyoev's visit, Hugh Williamson, the Berlin-based Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said a warm welcome for Mirziyoev "should not come at the expense of a frank exchange on human rights concerns," and he called for Uzbekistan to be held accountable for the violence in Karakalpakstan.



"Given the Uzbekistan-German bilateral relationship, Germany has an important role to play in urging President [Mirziyoev] to make good on his many reform promises," Williamson said.



But Edda Schlager, a regional correspondent for the German foreign-trade-promotion agency Germany Trade & Invest told RFE/RL that there is still "optimism" for Uzbekistan among German businesses familiar with the country, a factor that appears to drive the political relationship.



A German-Uzbek business forum in Berlin on May 2 gathered 250 leaders of large companies, holdings, banks, ministries, departments, and industry associations from the two countries, according to the pro-government Uz Daily website.



The same website quoted Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Zhamshid Khodjaev as saying that bilateral trade surpassed 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in 2022, after doubling over the last five years.



Uzbekistan is a large market, 35 million [people] with a young population, and reforms regarding privatization and so on are ongoing, Schlager said.



I think German companies are aware of politics, as far as it concerns the business climate and further reforms, but perhaps dont want to be aware of the rights issues that Uzbekistan still has.



Sanctions Threat



Mirziyoev was visiting Uzbekistan on the invitation of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a vocal backer of his reforms who became one of the most high-profile Western politicians to go to Tashkent in recent years when he visited in 2019.



Mirziyoev will travel to Italy next month.



The trips come after a spring busy with Western sanctions-related activity in Central Asia, as David O'Sullivan, the European Union's special envoy for the implementation of sanctions, and Elizabeth Rosenberg, the assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes at the U.S. Treasury Department, visited both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.



Those trips -- added to visits to the same countries by British Foreign Ministry Sanctions Director David Reed just over a week ago -- have sparked concerns that 2023 will be the year that secondary sanctions arrive in a region that is already suffering from Ukraine war fallout, but which is an obvious theater for Russian circumvention tactics.



Uzbekistan, unlike Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, is not a member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union trading bloc.



But authorities are already living firmly in the shadow of sanctions due to their relationship with Usmanov, whose role in the economy of what Mirziyoev calls New Uzbekistan, is outsized.



According to Reuters, Usmanov became a regular fixture in Uzbekistan in the period immediately after the demise of Karimov, whose distrust of oligarchs was well-known.



Usmanov appeared to have backed then-interim leader Mirziyoev in a slow-moving power struggle with two other Uzbek powerbrokers, years after the politicians niece and the businessmens now-late nephew had reportedly married and started a family.



Uzbek authorities later acknowledged that the government was renting Usmanovs private plane for Mirziyoev's official business trips, although the terms of the arrangement were not disclosed and the Airbus A340-300 passenger liner became a top target for confiscation when sanctions were rolled out.



The most recent sanctions to land on Usmanov targeted USM Holding, which the U.S. Treasury called "the primary entity through which Usmanov owns and controls the majority of his companies."



Unlike the personal sanctions against Usmanov launched by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland last year, the Treasury Department only mentioned London as joining in the more targeted sanctions against USM Holding.



While most of USM's biggest assets are in Russia, the move also targeted Akhangarancement, Uzbekistan's largest cement company, and Digital Invest, a company that the privately owned Uzbek news website Gazeta.uz indicated owns a stake in telecom major Ucell and "operates a labeling system" in Uzbekistan.



USM last year quickly divested itself of a recently purchased majority stake in Uzbekistans largest commercial bank, Kapitalbank, as the first set of sanctions hit Usmanov last year.



Usmanov acknowledged in an interview with Forbes in July that the sanctions create "obstacles -- including for my activities in Uzbekistan, where I have been spending most of my time in the last few years," calling them unjust and declaring his intent to fight them.

The extent to which the Uzbek state has been roped into this defense is still unclear, but Davide Cancarini, an independent researcher from Central Asia, argued that Uzbek authorities likely "pleaded Usmanov's cause" during European Council President Charles Michels visit to Tashkent in October, with the daily Financial Times reporting that fall that Tashkent was lobbying Brussels on Usmanov.



Like Umarov of Carnegie, Cancarini argues that it is unlikely Mirziyoev will do any pleading himself during his June trip to Italy, where Usmanov has also had a rough ride, notably seeing his $20 million Sardinian villa confiscated by authorities.



But Mirziyoev will once again be hoping to benefit from a pragmatic approach to his country, said Cancarini, this time in order to kick-start a long-term partnership with a European Union founding member and secure Tashkent's "further international political legitimization."



"I believe that the Italian government will barely mention the issue of human rights," Cancarini told RFE/RL, predicting that security and the economy will top the agenda.
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After being recruited from prisons to fight in the war in Ukraine, some mercenaries from the private Wagner Group are accused of having committed violent crimes in Russia, including murder.
Jose Hernandez-Orallo won his first computer in a raffle when he was 10. It was a Spectrum. My brother had a subscription to a computer encyclopedia series, and once you had every issue, they entered you in a raffle, he recalls. The brothers won. We played games like other kids, but we also learned to program. We had complete control of the computer  it wasnt locked down like personal computers today. Hernandez-Orallo now has a doctorate and is a professor at Spains Technical University of Valencia (UPV). Hes an expert in the evaluation of artificial intelligence (AI) and recently co-signed a letter published in Science calling for the need to rethink reporting of evaluation results in AI so the technology can move toward more transparent models that divulge its effectiveness and capabilities.

Question. What do you think of Geoffrey Hintons decision to leave his job at Google to focus on raising public awareness and speak freely about potential risks of artificial intelligence?

Answer. I think its very reasonable, but Im a little surprised that he waited this long. We have been saying much the same thing for a while at the University of Cambridges Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (U.K.). I believe Hinton has made similar statements before, but perhaps not as clearly or as loudly. Im also surprised that Hinton is just now recognizing that artificial and natural systems are very different, apart from the obvious differences in scale and multiplicity (they can replicate, communicate, and update much faster than humans). What works for one (capabilities, evaluation, control, ethics, etc.) doesnt necessarily work for the other. But its good that such a prominent scientist in the field is speaking out about this. There is a very high level of agreement in the field about the risks of AI, even if we may differ on priorities. For example, I dont think artificially generated material (text, images and video) is that problematic, because arousing skepticism and forcing us to check sources is healthy. Im more concerned about solutions to the alignment problem that allows certain countries, political and religious groups to use AI to further their interests and ideology, or to censor AI systems. This singular AI alignment [which aims to steer these systems towards a single goal, preference, or ethical principle] reminds me of some of humanitys darkest periods.

Q. How did you enter the field of artificial intelligence?

A. We had another encyclopedia at home  it was about human evolution. I was fascinated by intelligence and wanted to understand how it evolved. I also read philosophy books. I studied computer science because that was what my brother was studying, although artificial intelligence was only half of one course back then. Then I did my doctoral thesis at the University of Valencias (Spain) Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, which had a program more oriented toward the philosophy of artificial intelligence. I was fascinated by this subject and really had no other options because we didnt have the means to do something else. That year, I did work I enjoyed, wrote a book and fulfilled my social service. Sometimes you dont choose  its the other way around. Ultimately, I focused on a pursuit Ive always liked  understanding intelligence, both natural and artificial.

Q. How do you evaluate artificial intelligence systems?

A. We know what bikes and kitchen robots are for and what they can do. We evaluate them from a quality perspective. Until recently, thats the way AI systems were developed. If their purpose was to classify cats and dogs, they were developed to do that as perfectly as possible. They were task-oriented systems. If you know how to evaluate something, you can determine how well it performs a certain task and how many mistakes it makes. But those types of AI systems are very different from systems like GPT4, which have cognitive capabilities.

Q. What do those systems look like now?

A. A system is good if it works for you, if it meets your expectations, and if it doesnt unexpectedly produce poor results. AI systems are usually general-purpose systems. You must give them instructions to produce the desired output. Theyre pretty good, but theyre not human beings. Problems start when you think theyre going to react like a person. Their answers sound confident, which makes you believe theyre correct. Im not saying that humans always answer correctly, but we are accustomed to judging the reliability of people. These systems dont have the intuition we use when interacting with other people.

Q. How do you improve the evaluation of general-purpose tools that can do so many things?

A. Well, the approach thats been tried is called competency-based assessment, not task-based assessment. It has a long tradition and a scientific basis. But many people apply the same tests used to evaluate humans to AI systems. Theyre just not meant for machines. Its like using a weather thermometer to take body temperature  its not going to work.

Q. But is there a way to evaluate the capabilities of artificial intelligence?

A. Thats what were trying to develop. For example, GPT4 can take all sorts of tests, like academic and university admission tests, chemistry, physics, language  a bit of everything. Trying to compare those test results with humans so we can declare that GPT4 was in the 70th percentile makes little sense. It may be an indicator but that doesnt mean that its score was better than 70% of the people who took the same test. When comparing these instruments with humans, you make a lot of assumptions, like the assumption that its capable of serving you coffee, for example... Show me a system that can serve you coffee.

Q. So there is no way to evaluate them?

A. We cant measure how they work on a task-by-task basis because we would never finish. To evaluate a system like this, we have to extract indicators that enable us to extrapolate how the system will work in the future. The indicator for an AI system could be its capabilities, but the goal is not to produce a number or a score. We should be able to compare humans and AI systems, but its being done poorly right now. It is a very complex problem, but Im hopeful. Where we are now is comparable to physics in the 15th or 16th century. Everything is very confusing right now, but we have to disrupt paradigms. The end goal, whether it takes decades or centuries, is to derive a series of universal indicators that can be applied not only to humans and artificial intelligence but also to other animals.

Q. You know that sounds scary  right?

A. We are an evolving species that lives in a evolving planet. Humans are only one form of intelligence among many. Sometimes we think we are sublime, but we are what we are because of a great deal of evolutionary chance. Bonobos [chimpanzees] are the closest species to humans, but there is still an enormous gap between us because we have language. We think humans are the highest form of natural life, but thats not necessarily so. Artificial intelligence makes us question this. Most people agree we shouldnt fool around with creating new species. But were fooling around with AI and when you do that, you can get burned. We are reaching levels of sophistication that must be taken seriously. Its fascinating  its like creating a whole new world.

Q. You and the others who signed the letter in Science are proposing a roadmap for AI models, in which results are presented in more nuanced ways and instance-by-instance evaluation results are made publicly available.

A. Yes. We need higher levels of scrutiny. We can evaluate other systems by looking at the training data and running algorithms and code. But I cant do that with these systems because of the computational and energy costs.

Q. So, how can they be more transparent?

A. You can make the process transparent. We are asking for more detailed evaluation results for each instance. If there are a million instances or sample cases, I want to see the results for each one because I can not reproduce them on my own. I dont have access to the computing resources needed to do that. This limitation hampers a basic aspect of scientific validation  peer review. We dont have access to or insight into the systems failures.

Q. Is regulation a solution?

A. Regulation is necessary, but it has to be done right. There are consequences to a lack of regulation. If you dont regulate aviation, accidents happen, people lose confidence and the industry suffers. If something terrible happens [with AI], our society might turn against these systems. There will be much lower adoption of these tools over the medium and long term, even though they are generally positive for society. Regulation is necessary, but it cant be too restrictive. Some people are afraid of flying even though they know aviation regulation is very strict and flying is one of the safest means of transport. Businesses know that in the long term, regulation is beneficial for them.

Q. Can there be a single global regulation?

A. We have an International Atomic Energy Agency and certain agreements on recombinant DNA. But the world cant agree on genetically modified foods, which we are consuming in Europe even though were not allowed to make them here. That could happen with AI. The European Unions [AI] regulation may be flawed, but we have to take the plunge and implement it.

Q. Do you think this regulation should be strict or lax?

A. I think it has to be tailored appropriately. It should be strict with big companies, but a little more lax with small ones. You cant hold Google to the same standard as a startup run by four college kids because youll kill innovation.

Q. Is there another gap between regulation and science?

A. Artificial intelligence is moving quickly, and you cant foresee everything. Its difficult to regulate something thats so transdisciplinary and so cognitive. We are moving slowly, but we are also late [on regulating] social networks and centuries late with tobacco.

Q. Would regulation shed some light on how these [AI] black boxes work?

A. A black box system is one that doesnt reveal how it works. You need to do a lot of evaluation to really understand one and how it fails. To evaluate students, we dont give them a scan  we give them tests. To evaluate a car, we usually want to know how it handles a curve and what safety tests were conducted, not how many spark plugs it has. Thats why the evaluation issue is critical. We want to test these systems to determine where they can be safely used. Thats how cars and airplanes are evaluated.

Q. Why does artificial intelligence cause so much anxiety?

A. There are public awareness efforts underway, but their goal is not to explain how AI works. OpenAI has been criticized for giving hundreds of millions of people access to the most powerful artificial intelligence system, including children and people with mental health problems. The access comes with a disclaimer absolving OpenAI of responsibility for how the system is used. Thats the culture we have today. We download apps and nobody takes responsibility. Perhaps they [OpenAI] thought that if they didnt release it, then they wouldnt be able to discover all the risks. But you can do pilot tests. They say they offer different access levels, but its really all about the AI race  theyre challenging Googles internet search business. And people are afraid because a few players dominate the industry  its an oligopoly.

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KYODO NEWS - May 3, 2023 - 11:28 | All, World

The United States is expected to open a new embassy in Tonga later this month, a senior diplomat said Tuesday, as Washington and its allies seek to strengthen their diplomatic presence in the Indo-Pacific amid China's widening military and economic influence in the region.

The announcement about Tonga, a Pacific nation that consists of about 170 islands, came after the United States earlier this year reopened an embassy in the Solomon Islands, which switched diplomatic recognition to China from self-governing Taiwan in 2019 and signed a wide-reaching security agreement with Beijing last year.

Daniel Kritenbrink, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, touched on the schedule of the forthcoming opening of its diplomatic mission while attending a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In addition to Tonga and the Solomon Islands, the United States has said it plans to open embassies in Vanuatu and Kiribati, a Micronesian island nation that also shifted its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China, in 2019.
KYODO NEWS - May 3, 2023 - 10:50 | Others

The Japanese government protested Tuesday a visit by a South Korean politician to South Korean-administered, Japanese-claimed islets in the Sea of Japan.

The visit by the opposition lawmaker earlier Tuesday comes a few days before Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's two-day visit to Seoul starting Sunday amid thawed ties between the two countries.

Japan's Foreign Ministry lodged the protest saying that the visit on Tuesday to Takeshima, also known as Dokdo in South Korea, was "thoroughly unacceptable and extremely regrettable."

The two neighboring countries' ties have long been strained over wartime and territorial issues. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

Related coverage:

2 in 3 Japanese remain interested in South Korea-held Takeshima islets

Japan PM to visit S. Korea for 2 days from May 7 amid thaw in ties

Japan, South Korea to resume finance dialogue amid improving ties
Caledonia starts exporting gold produced in Zimbabwe Caledonia Mining has begun selling gold produced at Zimbabwe's Blanket Mine directly to a refiner outside of the southern African country. The miner has been exploring several options for direct gold export since its first public offering on the...

CIBJO Congress 2023 slated to be held from Oct 3 to 5 in Jaipur The World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) will hold its 2023 annual congress in Jaipur, in the Indian State of Rajasthan, from October 3 to October 5. Pre-congress meetings will be held on October 1 and 2, as per a press release from CIBJO.

118.35-carat royal blue sapphire to be sold this month by Phillips Hong Kong A 118.35-carat royal blue sapphire was set into a necklace by Bulgari in 2004 as part of its High Jewelry Collection. Appearing at an auction for the first time, it is to be sold later this by month by Phillips Hong Kong for an estimate of $4.5m.

Volunteers congratulate veterans of Norilsk Nickel On the eve of Victory Day the participants of the Norilsk Nickels corporate volunteering program "Combine of Good" congratulated the veterans of Norilsk.
Manish Sisodia

Sisodia was Arrested on Feb 26 after Several Rounds of Questioning

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit a status report on the plea seeking interim bail of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's wife on the ground of illness. Notably, Sisodia has been arrested in the Delhi Excise Policy case.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma asked CBI to submit the report on Thursday. Sisodia's regular bail plea is also scheduled to be heard in the court on the same day. Sisodia's lawyer said that his wife's health needs immediate attention. Along with this, the lawyer requested the court to grant him interim bail. The CBI's lawyer said that it would not be possible to submit the report on Thursday.

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On this, the court ordered the CBI's lawyer to try and submit a report by Thursday so that the application can be heard along with the regular bail petition. Sisodia was arrested on February 26 after several rounds of questioning in connection with alleged corruption in the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22. Earlier on March 31, the trial court had rejected Sisodia's bail plea in this case.




Senior Journalist Ravish Kumar's Mother Passes Away

She was a social and pious woman: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

BIHAR: Senior journalist Ravish Kumar's mother passed away on Tuesday (May 2) after prolonged illness. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed grief over the demise of Ravish Kumar's mother on Twitter.

Taking to Twitter, Nitish Kumar wrote, "Saddened by the demise of senior journalist Mr. Ravish Kumar's mother Yashoda Pandey. She was a social and pious woman. I pray to God for the eternal peace of the departed soul."

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Ravish Kumar, originally from Motihari (Bihar), is on foreign tour these days. Just yesterday, he had uploaded a video on YouTube, in which he had said that he is in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. Along with this, after hearing the news of his mother's death, Ravish Kumar has shared an emotional post on social media.
Balwant Singh Rajoana

SC Rejects the plea to commute Rajoanas Death Sentence in Beant Singh Assassination Case

New Delhi: Balwant Singh Rajoana, accused of the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, has not received relief from the Supreme Court. The SC on Wednesday declined the plea of Babbar Khalsa terrorist Balwant Singh Rajoana. The Shiromani Committee had filed a mercy petition in the Supreme Court to change Rajoana's death sentence to life imprisonment.

Notably, The Supreme Court has asked the competent authority (Ministry of Home Affairs) to take an early decision on Balwant Singh Rajoana's mercy plea.

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It is worth mentioning here that Balwant Singh Rajoana has been in jail for almost 27 years. Rajoana was sentenced to death by the court in 1995 for the murder of then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. He filed a mercy plea in 2012, which is pending with the central government. No decision has been taken by the Home Ministry to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.
KYODO NEWS - May 3, 2023 - 22:45 | All, Japan, World

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Kenyan President William Ruto agreed Wednesday to strengthen their countries' cooperation in areas related to decarbonization, infrastructure development and bolstering economic ties.

Meeting in Kenya's capital Nairobi, the two leaders condemned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine while affirming the importance of the rule of law. They also agreed on promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.

Japan will continue to cooperate with Kenya by providing infrastructure development assistance for the East African nation's port of Mombasa, Kishida told a press conference after the meeting.

The two leaders shared the view that enabling fair and transparent financial development is important for alleviating Kenya's debt problems, according to the Japanese ministry.

The move comes amid concerns about China having created "debt traps" for several African countries by providing them with large loans that have become difficult to repay, consequently allowing Beijing greater leverage over their political affairs.

Wednesday's visit to Kenya was the first by a Japanese prime minister since August 2016. Kishida's trip to Kenya is part of his four-leg African tour.

Related coverage:

Japan's PM Kishida vows $500 mil. in financial support to Africa

Japan, Egypt seek resumption of democratic transition in Sudan

Japan PM to visit S. Korea for 2 days from May 7 amid thaw in ties
Wedding

Sanjukta Kumari will leave for India with her husband in a few days

ISLAMABAD: Despite the disturbed relations between India and Pakistan, an Indian citizen travelled to Pakistan to marry the love of his life. As per the media reports, the wedding took place at a local hall in Sukkur, attended by the couple's relatives and members of the Hindu community. After completing the legal formalities, Sanjukta Kumari will leave for India with her husband in a few days.

Couple

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The bride's parents said that the two became friends on social media and decided to get married. A news channel reported that later the families got in touch with each other through WhatsApp and finalized the marriage ceremony.

A member of the Mukhi Hindu Pangat Sukkur, Aishwar Lal Makeja attended the wedding ceremony. He said that love knows no bounds and wished the couple a happy life ahead.




Australia will on Thursday release March figures for imports, exports and trade balance, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

In February, imports were down 9.0 percent on month and exports fell 3.0 percent on month for a trade surplus of A$13.870 billion.

New Zealand will provide March numbers for building consents, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 0.3 percent following the 9.0 percent drop in February.

China will see April results for the manufacturing PMI from Caixin, with forecasts calling for a score of 50.3 - up from 50.0 in March.

Hong Kong will see March numbers for retail sales and April results for its private sector PMI from S&P Global. Sales are expected to jump 19.6 percent on year after surging 31.3 percent in February. The PMI score is expected to improve to 53.7 from 53.5 in March.

Finally, the in Japan (Greenery Day), Malaysia (Wesak Day) and Thailand (Coronation Day) are closed on Thursday.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
The United States and Mexico have jointly announced a set of measures to address the humanitarian situation caused by unprecedented migration flows at the two nations' shared border and in the region.

These decisions were taken at a meeting held in Mexico City between Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and U.S. Homeland Security Advisor Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall.

Mexico and the United States will increase joint actions to counter-human smugglers and traffickers that are exploiting migrants. This complements the 60-day surge campaign that the United States recently launched with Colombia and Panama to counter human smuggling in the Darien.



The two neighboring countries committed to continue to enhance their efforts in Central America to address the root causes of migration and expand legal pathways. Specifically, Mexico and the United States will redouble their development efforts that focus on people-to-people support.



Through the regional processing centers announced last week, the United States intends to welcome as many as 100,000 individuals from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador under the family reunification parole processes that Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has already announced.



Mexico and the United States will continue the successful joint initiative that President Lopez Obrador and President Joe Biden announced in January, beyond May 11. This initiative - which combines expanded legal pathways with consequences for irregular migration - achieved a 95 percent drop in border encounters, according to the White House.

The United States committed to continue to welcome individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela under its parole process. For its part, Mexico will continue to accept back migrants on humanitarian grounds.



The United States and Mexico will modernize their 2000-mile shared border. To that end, President Biden approved moving forward on a Presidential Permit to advance the expansion of Calexico East Land Port of Entry. This project is expected to be finalized by the end of the year - a step that will benefit both the U.S. and Mexican economies.

Meanwhile, at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved a temporary increase of an additional 1,500 military personnel to supplement U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) efforts on the U.S. Southwest Border.

These troops will fill critical capability gaps, such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support for 90 days.

The White House has clarified that they will not be performing law enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants or migrants.



This will free up Border Patrol agents to perform their critical law enforcement duties, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
The first building blocks of life on Earth may have formed as a result of eruptions from the Sun, a new study finds.

A series of chemical experiments show how solar particles, colliding with gases in Earth's early atmosphere, can form amino acids and carboxylic acids, the basic building blocks of proteins and organic life. The findings were published in the journal Life.

To understand the origins of life, many scientists try to explain how amino acids, the raw materials from which proteins and all cellular life, were formed. The best-known proposal originated in the late 1800s as scientists speculated that life might have begun in a "warm little pond": A soup of chemicals, energized by lightning, heat, and other energy sources, that could mix together in concentrated amounts to form organic molecules.

In 1953, Stanley Miller of the University of Chicago tried to recreate these primordial conditions in the lab. Miller filled a closed chamber with methane, ammonia, water, and molecular hydrogen - gases thought to be prevalent in Earth's early atmosphere - and repeatedly ignited an electrical spark to simulate lightning. A week later, Miller and his graduate advisor Harold Urey analyzed the chamber's contents and found that 20 different amino acids had formed.

"That was a big revelation," said Vladimir Airapetian, a stellar astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "From the basic components of early Earth's atmosphere, you can synthesize these complex organic molecules," added the co-author of the new paper.

But the last 70 years have complicated this interpretation. Scientists now believe ammonia (NH3) and methane (CH4) were far less abundant; instead, Earth's air was filled with carbon dioxide (CO2) and molecular nitrogen (N2), which require more energy to break down. These gases can still yield amino acids, but in greatly reduced quantities.

Seeking alternative energy sources, some scientists pointed to shockwaves from incoming meteors. Others cited solar ultraviolet radiation. Airapetian, using data from NASA's Kepler mission, pointed to a new idea: energetic particles from the Sun.

Kepler observed far-off stars at different stages in their lifecycle, but its data provides hints about the Sun's past. In 2016, Airapetian published a study suggesting that during Earth's first 100 million years, the Sun was about 30 percent dimmer. But solar "superflares" - powerful eruptions that occur only once every 100 years - would have erupted once every 3-10 days. These superflares launch near-light speed particles that would regularly collide with the atmosphere, kickstarting chemical reactions.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
The company expects sales in the coming months to increase significantly thanks to new product launches, healthy GDP growth in India as well as more positive consumer sentiments

Hero MotoCorp has opened the first month of the new financial year having suffered a YoY and MoM decline in sales. The company ended FY 2022-23 on a positive note with sales at 53,28,546 units in the April-March 2023 period which related to an 8 percent growth as against 49,44,150 units sold in FY 2021-22.

Hero MotoCorp total sales dipped by 5.38 percent to 3,96,107 units in April 2023. This was as against 4,18,622 units sold in April 2022. MoM sales also fell by 23.73 percent from 5,19,342 units sold in March 2023.

Hero MotoCorp Sales April 2023

Hero MotoCorp has recorded a de-growth in terms of motorcycle sales in the past month. Sales fell to 3,68,830 units in April 2023, down 6.06 percent YoY from 3,92,627 units sold in April 2022. This was a YoY volume decline of 23,797 units with motorcycles commanding a 93.11 percent share. MoM sales were also in the red by 24.09 percent from 4,85,896 units sold in March 2023 with a 1,17,066 unit volume decline.

Scooter sales on the other hand grew on a YoY basis by 4.93 percent to 27,277 units in April 2023 up from 25,995 units sold in April 2022. MoM sales however, fell by 18.44 percent from 33,446 units sold in March 2023. The recently launched Xoom 110cc scooter has been doing well in sales. It is available in three variants  LX, VX and ZX and priced from Rs 68,599-76,699 (ex-showroom).

Total domestic sales (motorcycles + scooters) were down by 3.09 percent YoY to 3,86,184 units in April 2023 from 3,98,490 units sold in April 2022. MoM sales also fell by 23.18 percent over 5,02,730 units sold in March 2023. Exports also suffered YoY and MoM decline by 50.71 percent and 40.27 percent respectively with only 9,923 units shipped in April 2023.

Hero MotoCorp in April 2023

During the past month, a custom built Harley-Davidson Road King was presented to a specially-abled employee, Chitra Zutshi. The bike was handed over at a ceremony held at Heros Global Centre for Innovation and Technology (CIT) in Jaipur. Chitra piloted the bike on a testing track under the supervision of an expert.

Hero MotoSports Team Rally also concluded a run at Sonora Rally 2023. The team was represented by Ross Branch and Sebastian Buhler in the first event held in North America, finishing at 7th and 10th positions respectively. The ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) has VIDA as the official electric mobility brand partner of the Lucknow Super Giants.
The 90 kWh battery pack on MG Maxus 9 is good for 540 km of range on a single charge with 245 bhp and 350 Nm motor and FWD layout

MG Maxus 9 EV is launched in Thailand. The British brand has badge-engineered a Maxus Mifa 9 (showcased at 2023 Auto Expo in India) as Maxus 9. Scratched your head? Yes, Maxus is the name of the manufacturer that made the vehicle, Mifa 9. In Thailand, MG has chosen the name of the manufacturer as the name of the model.

MG Maxus 9 EV Launched In Thailand

Except for branding, every square inch is identical between Maxus Mifa 9 and MG Maxus 9. MG has priced Maxus 9 between 2.499 million Baht for base X trim and 2.699 million Baht for top-spec V trim in Thailand. Todays currency exchange translates to a price between Rs. 60 lakh and Rs. 65 lakh.

This is what a Fortuner costs in Karnataka, on-road. For the money, MG Maxus 9 is a 5,270 mm long, 2000 mm wide, 1,840 mm tall fully electric mini-van with a 3,200 mm long wheelbase, automatic sliding doors, and a tonne of tech and gadgetry. We hope MG brings in Mifa 7 instead of this to India.

High on features and creature comforts

For starters, MG Maxus 9 is completely identical to Maxus Mifa 9. it is a futuristic fully-electric minivan. The front fascia has sleek LED DRL elements at the top and LED headlights below them. There are strong vertical design elements that lend a lot of aggression. Rear LED tail light signature mimics its face. Reminds me of representation of humans in cavemens drawings. Once you see it, you cant unsee it.

Owing to its minivan body style, it has an impressive greenhouse and acres of space on the inside. Speaking on the inside, MG Maxus 9 is fairly minimalistic and techy at the same time. Dashboard has two iPad-like displays with rounded corners. One for instrumentation and other for drivers display. Front seats are powered, ventilated and massaging as well.

MG has integrated AC controls into a touch-sensitive panel below infotainment screen. 2nd-row individual captain chairs are Maxus 9s forte. These are powered, heated, ventilated, and massage function enabled. Both 2nd-row seats get calf rests, individual armrests and cup holders, individual wireless charging pads and individual digital displays to control respective seat functions and individual foldable tables.

There is a single-pane sunroof for front occupants and a panoramic sunroof for 2nd and 3rd row occupants. Automatic sliding doors, leather seats, soft-touch interior trims with intricate stitching, ambient lights with 64 colours, dedicated rear climate zone, 12 speaker audio system, 9 USB ports, IRVM with rear camera feed, PM 2.5 air filter are notable elements.

Electrifying powertrain

MG Maxus 9 comes equipped with a 90 kWh battery coupled with a 245 bhp and 350 Nm single motor FWD architecture. NEDC certified range is up to 540 km on a single charge. An 11 kW AC charger takes the battery from 5%-100% in 8.5 hours and 120 kW DC fast charging allows battery to go from 30%-80% in 30 minutes.

Because it is an EV, there is a small front boot (Fruit?). 19 alloys with run-flat tyres, ADAS suite, electronic parking brake, TPMS, driver monitoring system, 360-degree camera with high resolution feed are other notable features. In Thailand, MG is offering three different colours namely Pearl White, Black Knight and Concrete Grey/Black Roof.
KYODO NEWS - May 3, 2023 - 18:04 | World, All

A son of the imprisoned Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai on Tuesday called for international help to quickly secure the release of his father.

"The Hong Kong government has essentially destroyed press freedom in the region," Sebastien Lai, the 28-year-old son of the founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, told Kyodo News in New York.

"I'm incredibly worried about him. He is 75. Most people will retire at that age, and he's in jail," Sebastien said.

The real estate developer now based in Taiwan came to the United States at the invitation of the Committee to Protect Journalists ahead of the U.N.-designated World Press Freedom Day, which falls on Wednesday.

Sebastien has not seen his father in person since August 2020, when he moved to Taiwan.

"Eight days after I left for Taiwan, my father and his colleagues were arrested," Sebastien said.

Sebastien said his father was "very adamant to stay in Hong Kong and to stand up for his belief" in free expression after the enactment of Hong Kong's national security law in 2020.

The media magnate has been in detention since August 2020. He was convicted of fraud over a land use violation, inciting unlawful assembly and attending a banned vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

Sebastien expressed concerns Hong Kong authorities have been expanding the enforcement of the national security law, referring to the recent arrest of a female Hong Kong resident for posts shared while studying abroad in Japan.

Sebastien said he plans to testify regarding his father's detention at a hearing of the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China next week.

It is time for many countries to "re-evaluate" their relationships with countries "that lock up reporters and journalists," he said.

"I'm also in awe of what he's doing. I mean, it's such an incredible thing to see firsthand that someone can sacrifice all of this," Sebastien said.

Related coverage:

H.K. tycoon Lai's national security trial postponed to September

FOCUS: A year after Apple Daily closure, H.K. press freedoms remain at risk

Another Hong Kong news outlet to shut as media crackdown continues
Weather Alert

...FROST ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 8 AM EDT TUESDAY... * WHAT...Temperatures in the mid to upper 30s will result in frost formation away from Lake Champlain. * WHERE...Western Franklin and Western Chittenden Counties in Vermont. * WHEN...From 2 AM to 8 AM EDT Tuesday. * IMPACTS...Frost could kill sensitive outdoor vegetation if left uncovered. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold. &&

...Fire Weather Concerns Exist Across Vermont Today... Fine fuels have dried out across Vermont this past weekend according to the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. This, combined with low relative humidity values of 20-25 percent and gusty northwest winds of 15-20 mph, may have an impact on fire weather conditions today. If any fires were to start, the weather and fuel conditions could cause fires to quickly get out of control and be difficult to contain. For more information about the current fire danger rating, any burn restrictions, and wildfire prevention and education, please visit https://www.fpr.vermont.gov.
KYODO NEWS - May 3, 2023 - 11:05 | All, World

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with the chief of Myanmar's junta in Naypyitaw on Tuesday and confirmed Beijing's unity with the military-led government of the Southeast Asian country, it said.

Qin became the first Chinese foreign minister to meet with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in the Myanmar capital since the coup occurred in February 2021.

According to the junta, Qin said at the meeting that his visit shows China is on Myanmar's side in the international community. It noted that he will meet with other government officials during his stay through Thursday.

Qin visited Myanmar as Aung San Suu Kyi, the former democratic leader who was detained in the coup, has been imprisoned over various charges including corruption, and Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic minority, remain in Bangladesh after being persecuted in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that Qin's visit is aimed at deepening practical cooperation in areas such as the economy and supporting Myanmar's efforts to "maintain stability, revitalize the economy, improve people's lives and realize sustainable development."

After Myanmar, Qin will visit Panaji, India, and attend the May 4-5 foreign ministerial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, according to the ministry.

Related coverage:

Japan foreign minister urges China premier to free detained citizen
By Takaki Tominaga, KYODO NEWS - May 3, 2023 - 13:23 | Feature, All, Japan, 3/11 Fukushima

With the release of treated water from the crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture looming, embattled seafood businesses in the region fear fresh reputational damage to their products.

By around this summer, the Japanese government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. plan to eject water with trace amounts of tritium into the sea, as the company asserts that the decommissioning work of the reactors damaged by the 2011 disaster will be obstructed by many large tanks of treated water.

In April, discharge facilities were being rapidly constructed at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, with the operator aiming to complete them by the end of June in the first quarter of the new fiscal year.

TEPCO and the government promised local fishermen in 2015 they would not dispose of the treated water without gaining the "understanding" of concerned parties, but it remains unclear whether the two sides have agreed on what that means exactly.

The Japan Fisheries Cooperative and fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture remain opposed to the plan.

Katsuhiko Suzuki, president of the intermediary wholesaler Maruhide Suisan Co., expressed his concern that the discharge might hamper the recovery momentum of his business.

"I hope local and central governments will take effective measures to prevent people in Japan and around the world from thinking fish from the (Fukushima) area are dangerous," he said at the central wholesale market in Iwaki in the prefecture.

Among the 55 countries and regions that imposed restrictions on food imports from Japan in connection with the nuclear accident, 12 still keep some limits, according to the Japanese government, with China and Russia strongly opposing the discharge.

Through numerous events, local and central governments and industries have been promoting the "Joban mono" brand, generally referring to high-quality fresh fish caught in fertile waters off the coast of Fukushima.

After the accident caused by the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, fishing around the coast was voluntarily suspended but later resumed on a trial basis under strict screening of radiation levels in fish.

The trial fishing ended in March 2021, and the industry is transitioning to full-scale operations.

However, the volume and value of fish caught around the coast stood at 5,525 tons and about 3.5 billion yen ($26 million) in 2022, according to a prefectural official. Both figures were post-disaster highs but were still about 20 percent in volume and 40 percent in value compared with harvests before the catastrophe.

The Japanese government will aid fishermen through a new 50 billion yen in addition to a previously announced 30 billion yen fund, so they can deal with reputational damage and continue fishing.

Meanwhile, TEPCO has set the limit for the amount of tritium that can be released from the plant at less than 22 trillion becquerels per year, unchanged from the pre-disaster era.

The actual amount of tritium discharged into the sea before the accident was around 2 trillion becquerels per year, according to TEPCO.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, nuclear power plants worldwide release treated water containing low-level concentrations of tritium and other radionuclides to the environment in a controlled manner as part of normal operations.

Yuji Torikai, a professor at Ibaraki University's Department of Science, pointed out that even though a discharge of tritiated water from nuclear power plants is an international norm, reputational damage might still occur because of the operator's dubious standing with the public.

He says the fact that the discharge operation will be conducted by TEPCO, responsible for the world's worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown as well as other incidents, mishaps and an attempted cover-up, only adds fuel to the fire.

Many believe the discharge will not significantly impact people's health and the environment if TEPCO follows the plan, but they are more doubtful about whether the company can abide by the rules in executing its strategy.

"Therefore," Torikai said, "It is crucial that authorities or trustworthy bodies strictly monitor TEPCO and keep the public abreast of whether the company is living up to its promises."

According to Torikai, another effective means of appeasing fears is educating people about tritium, as little is known regarding the rare natural isotope of hydrogen.

Koji Suzuki, president of Yamatsune Suisan in Iwaki, plans to hold a series of workshops on tritium for fish markets and consumers at his seafood school, which was launched by several firms at the central market to entrench fish-eating culture.

"We all should hold accurate knowledge (on tritium). Otherwise, we are forced to rely just on media reports and TV programs, and that is not good," Suzuki said, adding that simply "blaming" the situation on the nuclear plant is also not helpful.

"We need to survive," said Suzuki of Maruhide Suisan, which is reinforcing distribution within the prefecture amid difficulties expanding business outside the area.

The water, treated with an advanced liquid processing system that removes most radionuclides other than tritium, will be diluted with seawater to one-40th of the concentration permitted under Japanese safety standards and released 1 kilometer off the power plant via an underwater pipeline.

Unlike other radioactive materials like cesium and strontium, tritium poses little risk to human health and the environment as its radiation is very weak and cannot penetrate human skin. Experts also believe it is unlikely it can accumulate in a living body.

Torikai pointed out that developing professionals with knowledge about tritium is an urgent task for Japan since the country has limited human resources in the field.

Related coverage:

FOCUS: Japan set to release treated water off Fukushima despite fears

South Korea Yoon vows to seek public consent for Fukushima water release

China warns against imminent release of Fukushima treated water
Chinese citizens' outbound trips witness a significant growth during the ongoing May Day holiday. Many tourist destinations have been thrilled to be able to welcome back Chinese visitors.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Astronomers using the FORS2 instrument on ESOs Very Large Telescope have captured a striking new image of the large emission nebula Gum 10.

Gum 10 is located approximately 10,760 light-years away in the southern constellation of Puppis.

Also known as RCW 19, this emission nebula has a diameter of around 155 light-years.

Gum 10 is part of a large molecular cloud and is illuminated by HD 69464, a 4-million-year-old star of O7 type.

The nebula was discovered by the Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, who in 1955 published a catalogue with more than 80 similar diffuse nebulae.

The energetic ultraviolet radiation from the hot blue stars in Gum 10 ionize the gas in the nebula, stripping electrons away from their atoms, ESO astronomers said in a statement.

When these electrons combine again with the atoms, they emit light at very specific colors or wavelengths.

The red shade in this image comes from hydrogen, the most abundant element in the Universe.

The dark areas are dense clouds of dust that partially block our view of the objects behind them.

The new image of Gum 10 was taken with the FOcal Reducer/low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument on ESOs Very Large Telescope.

This image was created as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems program, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach, the astronomers said.

The program makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations.

All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESOs science archive.
Scientists have described a new species of the jellyfish genus Tripedalia from an intertidal shrimp pond in the Mai Po Nature Reserve, Hong Kong.

The newly-described species represents the fourth described species of the family Tripedaliidae.

Named Tripedalia maipoensis, this jellyfish is also the first record of this family in Chinese coastal waters.

The class Cubozoa, commonly known as box jellyfish due to the cube-shaped bells, consists of a small group of cnidarians with approximately 50 described species and is well-known to the public for containing some of the most venomous marine animals in the world, said Hong Kong Baptist University researcher Yanan Sun and colleagues.

Cubozoa is divided into two monophyletic orders, the Carybdeida and Chirodropida.

The two orders can be easily distinguished, as carybdeids possess only one tentacle per pedalium, whereas chirodropids possess multiple tentacles per pedalium.

Tripedaliidae is a small family of Carybdeida, with only three described species in two genera: Copula and Tripedalia, they added.

Tripedalia possesses two to three pedalia per bell corner, which differs from Copula, which has one pedalium per bell corner.

Before our study, Tripedalia was represented by only two species: Tripedalia binata, which has two pedalia at each bell corner, and Tripedalia cystophora, which has three pedalia at each bell corner.

Both Tripedalia maipoensis and Tripedalia cystophora can be easily distinguished from Tripedalia binata, which bears two pedalia per bell corner.

The new species differs from Tripedalia cystophora by having forked velarial canals, which are unforked in Tripedalia cystophora.

Tripedalia maipoensis is currently known only from the type locality, but may also occur in the adjacent waters of the Pearl River Estuary as the ponds are connected to the estuary through a tidal channel.

The new species was found every year since 2020 in some of the brackish water intertidal shrimp ponds of Mai Po Nature Reserve during April and May, and also extending to June in 2021 when water temperature ranged from 20 to 29 degrees Celsius, and salinity from 5.8 psu to 18 psu.

Tripedalia maipoensis was recorded in water channels flanked by the common reed (Phragmites australis) or mangroves of mainly Kandelia obovata mixed with the golden leather fern (Acrostichum aureum).

Future investigations along Chinese coasts are warranted to improve our understanding of the distribution of this new species and the diversity of Cubozoa, the authors said.

The teams paper was published in the journal Zoological Studies.

_____

Y. Sun et al. 2023. A new species of box jellyfish (Cnidaria: Tripedaliidae: Tripedalia) from Hong Kong, China. Zool Stud 62: 17; doi: 10.6620/ZS.2023.62-17
A study of more than 2,200 adults who attended U.S. high schools in the early 1960s found that those who attended higher quality schools had better cognitive function 60 years later.

Previous studies have found that the number of years spent in school correlates with cognition later in life, but few studies have examined the impact of educational quality.

"Our study establishes a link between high-quality education and better late-life cognition and suggests that increased investment in schools, especially those that serve Black children, could be a powerful strategy to improve cognitive health among older adults in the United States," says Jennifer Manly, PhD, professor of neuropsychology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and senior author of the study.

The study, led by Manly and Dominika Seblova, PhD, a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia, used data from Project Talent, a 1960 survey of high school students across the United States, and follow-up data collected in the Project Talent Aging Study.

The researchers examined relationships between six indicators of school quality and several measures of cognitive performance in participants nearly 60 years after they left high school.

Since high-quality schools may be especially beneficial for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, the researchers also examined whether associations differed by geography, sex/gender, and race and ethnicity (the survey only included sufficient data from Black and white respondents).

Teacher training linked to late-life cognition in students

The researchers found that attending a school with a higher number of teachers with graduate training was the most consistent predictor of better later-life cognition, especially language fluency (for example, coming up with words within a category). Attending a school with a high number of graduate-level teachers was approximately equivalent to the difference in cognition between a 70-year-old and someone who is one to three years older. Other indicators of school quality were associated with some, but not all, measures of cognitive performance.

Manly and Seblova say many reasons may explain why attending schools with well-trained teachers may affect later-life cognition. "Instruction provided by more experienced and knowledgeable teachers might be more intellectually stimulating and provide additional neural or cognitive benefits," Seblova says, "and attending higher-quality schools may also influence life trajectory, leading to university education and greater earnings, which are in turn linked to better cognition in later life."

Greater impact on Black students

Though the associations between school quality and late-life cognition were similar between white and Black students, Black participants were more likely to have attended schools of lower quality.

"Racial equity in school quality has never been achieved in the United States and school racial segregation has grown more extreme in recent decades, so this issue is still a substantial problem," says Manly.

For example, a 2016 survey found that U.S schools attended by non-white students had twice as many inexperienced teachers as schools attended by predominantly white students.

"Racial inequalities in school quality may contribute to persistent disparities in late-life cognitive outcomes for decades to come," Manly adds.

Jennifer Manly, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Neurology, the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center, and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University.

The findings were published May 2 in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring in a paper titled "High school quality is associated with cognition 58 years later."

All authors: Dominika Seblova (Columbia University, now at Charles University, Prague); Chloe Eng (University of California San Francisco); Justina F. Avila (Columbia); Jordan D. Dworkin (Federation of American Scientists); Kelly Peters (American Institutes for Research); Susan Lapham (American Institutes for Research); Laura B. Zahodne (University of Michigan); Benjamin Chapman (University of Rochester Medical Center); Carol A. Prescott (University of Southern California); Tara L. Gruenewald (Chapman University); Thalida Em. Arpawong (USC); Margaret Gatz (USC); Rich J. Jones (Brown University); Maria M. Glymour (UCSF); and Jennifer J. Manly (Columbia).

The researchers were funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (R01AG056163 and RF1AG056164), the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic, PRIMUS Research Programme at Charles University, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Alzheimer's Association.
Scientists dream of using tiny molecules as building blocks to construct things, similar to how we build things with mechanical parts. However, molecules are incredibly small -- around one hundred millionth the size of a softball -- and they move randomly in liquids, making it very difficult to manipulate them in a single form. To overcome this challenge, "nanofluidic devices" that can transport molecules in extremely narrow channels, similar in size to one millionth of a straw, are attracting attention as a way to directly manipulate single molecules in solutions.

A joint research team led by Associate Professor Yan Xu of the Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Engineering has succeeded in regulating the flow of single molecules in solution by opening and closing a nanovalve in a nanofluidic device by applying external pressure.

The research team fabricated a nanofluidic device with a thin, flexible glass sheet on the top, and a hard glass plate with small structures that forms nanochannels and nanovalve seats on the bottom. By applying external pressure to the flexible glass sheet to open and close the valve, they succeeded in directly manipulating and controlling the flow of individual molecules in solution. They also found that when they trapped single fluorescent molecules in the nanospace inside the valve, the fluorescence of the single molecules became brighter. This happened because the small space made it harder for the single molecules to move around randomly. Professor Xu said that "this effect of fluorescence signal amplification could help with detecting very small amounts of pathogens for early diagnosis of diseases such as cancers and Parkinson's disease, without requiring expensive equipment."

The findings of this study could be a significant step towards freely assembling materials using single molecules as building blocks in solution. This technology has the potential to be useful in various fields, such as developing personalized medicines for rare diseases and creating better displays and batteries. Its applications are limitless.

"We have been addressing various challenges by proposing and promoting the concept of 'Single-Molecule Regulated Chemistry (SMRC),' where molecules are treated as building blocks and all processes involved in chemical and biochemical reactions in solution are performed on a single-molecule basis. The single-molecule valve marks the first step towards the goal, which could one day revolutionize chemistry, biology, and materials science, as well as transform various industries," said Professor Xu.
Traces of sex hormones extracted from a woolly mammoth's tusk provide the first direct evidence that adult males experienced musth, a testosterone-driven episode of heightened aggression against rival males, according to a new University of Michigan-led study.

In male elephants, elevated testosterone during musth was previously recognized from blood and urine tests. Musth battles in extinct relatives of modern elephants have been inferred from skeletal injuries, broken tusk tips and other indirect lines of evidence.

But the new study, scheduled for online publication May 3 in the journal Nature, is the first to show that testosterone levels are recorded in the growth layers of mammoth and elephant tusks.

The U-M researchers and their international colleagues report annually recurring testosterone surges -- up to 10 times higher than baseline levels -- within a permafrost-preserved woolly mammoth tusk from Siberia. The adult male mammoth lived more than 33,000 years ago.

The testosterone surges seen in the mammoth tusk are consistent with musth-related testosterone peaks the researchers observed in an African bull elephant tusk, according to the study authors. The word "musth" comes from the Hindi and Urdu word for intoxicated.

"Temporal patterns of testosterone preserved in fossil tusks show that, like modern elephants, mature bull mammoths experienced musth," said study lead author Michael Cherney, a research affiliate at the U-M Museum of Paleontology and a research fellow at the U-M Medical School.

The study demonstrates that both modern and ancient tusks hold traces of testosterone and other steroid hormones. These chemical compounds are incorporated into dentin, the mineralized tissue that makes up the interior portion of all teeth (tusks are elongated upper incisor teeth).

"This study establishes dentin as a useful repository for some hormones and sets the stage for further advances in the developing field of paleoendocrinology," Cherney said. "In addition to broad applications in zoology and paleontology, tooth-hormone records could support medical, forensic and archaeological studies."

Hormones are signaling molecules that help regulate physiology and behavior. Testosterone is the main sex hormone in male vertebrates and is part of the steroid group of hormones. It circulates in the bloodstream and accumulates in various tissues.

Scientists have previously analyzed steroid hormones present in human and animal hair, nails, bones and teeth, in both modern and ancient contexts. But the significance and value of such hormone records have been the subject of ongoing scrutiny and debate.

The authors of the new Nature study say their findings should help change that by demonstrating that steroid records in teeth can provide meaningful biological information that sometimes persists for thousands of years.

"Tusks hold particular promise for reconstructing aspects of mammoth life history because they preserve a record of growth in layers of dentin that form throughout an individual's life," said study co-author Daniel Fisher, a curator at the U-M Museum of Paleontology and professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

"Because musth is associated with dramatically elevated testosterone in modern elephants, it provides a starting point for assessing the feasibility of using hormones preserved in tusk growth records to investigate temporal changes in endocrine physiology," said Fisher, who is also a professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

For the study, researchers sampled tusks from one adult African bull elephant and two adult woolly mammoths -- a male and a female -- from Siberia. The samples were obtained in accordance with relevant laws and with appropriate permits.

The researchers used CT scans to identify annual growth increments within the tusks. A tiny drill bit, operated under a microscope and moved across a block of dentin using computer-actuated stepper motors, was used to grind contiguous half-millimeter-wide samples representing approximately monthly intervals of dentin growth.

The powder produced during this milling process was collected and chemically analyzed.

The study required new methods, developed in the laboratory of U-M endocrinologist and study co-author Rich Auchus, to extract steroids from tusk dentin for measurement with a mass spectrometer, an instrument that identifies chemical substances by sorting ions according to their mass and charge.

"We had developed steroid mass spectrometry methods for human blood and saliva samples, and we have used them extensively for clinical research studies. But never in a million years did I imagine that we would be using these techniques to explore 'paleoendocrinology,'" said Auchus, professor of internal medicine and pharmacology at the U-M Medical School.

"We did have to modify the method some, because those tusk powders were the dirtiest samples we ever analyzed. When Mike (Cherney) showed me the data from the elephant tusks, I was flabbergasted. Then we saw the same patterns in the mammoth -- wow!"

The African bull elephant is believed to have been 30 to 40 years old when it was killed by a hunter in Botswana in 1963. According to estimates based on growth layers in its tusk, the male woolly mammoth lived to be about 55 years old. Its right tusk was discovered by a diamond-mining company in Siberia in 2007. Radiocarbon dating revealed that the animal lived 33,291 to 38,866 years ago.

The tusk from the female woolly mammoth was discovered on Wrangel Island, which was connected to northeast Siberia in glacial periods of lower sea level but is now separated from it by the Arctic Ocean. Carbon-dating showed an age of 5,597 to 5,885 years before present. (Wrangel Island is the last known place where woolly mammoths survived, until around 4,000 years ago.)

In contrast to the male tusks, testosterone levels from the female woolly mammoth tusk showed little variation over time -- as expected -- and the average testosterone level was lower than the lowest values in the male mammoth's tusk records.

"With reliable results for some steroids from samples as small as 5 mg of dentin, these methods could be used to investigate records of organisms with smaller teeth, including humans and other hominids," the authors wrote. "Endocrine records in modern and ancient dentin provide a new approach to investigating reproductive ecology, life history, population dynamics, disease, and behavior in modern and prehistoric contexts."

In addition to Cherney, Fisher and Auchus, the authors of the Nature study are Adam Rountrey and Scott Beld of the U-M Museum of Paleontology; Perrin Selcer of the U-M Department of History and the Program in the Environment; Ethan Shirley of the U-M Museum of Paleontology and the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences; Bernard Buigues of Mammuthus, France; Dick Mol of the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands; Gennady Boeskorov of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Sergey Vartanyan of the Far-East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and Alexei Tikhonov of the Russian Academy of Sciences and North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia.

Tusk specimens were CT scanned using laboratories at the U-M School of Dentistry, Ford Motor Co., U-M Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and U-M Orthopaedic Research Laboratories. The study received support from U-M's seed funding program for innovative interdepartmental collaborations, Mcubed 3.0.

"This is one of the reasons we come to work every morning at the University of Michigan: to make discoveries that empower us to see the world in new ways," co-author Selcer said. "The project shows you the importance of both collaboration across schools -- thanks to Mcubed 3.0 -- and of the university's instrumentation infrastructure."




* China relaxed travel restrictions earlier this year and resumed group tours to up to 60 countries, and the May Day holiday will serve as a barometer of the recovery of Chinese outbound travel, analysts say.

* As more Chinese tourists are expected to travel to overseas destinations, local governments and businesses are gearing up for their arrival.

* Thailand's inbound tourism has recovered faster than expected thanks to the return of Chinese visitors, said a local veteran tourism practitioner.





BANGKOK/CAIRO/ROME, May 2 (Xinhua) -- "The Chinese tourists are back," said Suchart, who has spent nearly 10 years working in a small shop on Pattaya Beach, a popular tourist destination in southern Thailand.

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand in early 2020, Chinese tourists accounted for the majority of the shop's customers. But the pandemic-induced closure of the beach dealt a heavy blow to the small businesses that rent out beach chairs and speedboats.

Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, president of the Thai Hotels Association, told Xinhua that Thailand's inbound tourism has recovered faster than expected thanks to the return of Chinese visitors.

From January 1 to April 23, more than 737,000 Chinese tourists visited Thailand, marking a 30-fold increase from the same period last year, according to Kevalin Wangpichayasuk, assistant managing director of Kasikorn Research Center, a research company that publishes financial research reports.

Chinese tourists visit the Grand Palace scenic spot in Bangkok, Thailand, May 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Wang Teng)





LONG-AWAITED CHINESE TOURISTS

China was the largest contributor to outbound tourism, with 170 million trips, bringing in 253 billion U.S. dollars for the global economy in 2019, according to a report by Forbes. But Chinese tourists' spending fell sharply after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

China relaxed travel restrictions earlier this year and resumed group tours to up to 60 countries. The May Day holiday, the first extended holiday that features a five-day break, will serve as a barometer of the recovery of Chinese outbound travel, analysts say.

Bookings for overseas tours from the Chinese mainland increased by more than 18 times year-on-year, and the number of applications for overseas group tours in early May increased by 157 percent month-on-month, according to a May Day holiday travel forecast released in early April by Ctrip, a major Chinese travel service provider.

"The return of Chinese tourists has been long-awaited here in Italy, and they are bringing huge benefits to our tourism industry," said Cristiano Varotti, chief representative of the Italian National Tourist Board (ENIT) in China.

A Chinese tourist poses for photos at the Colosseo in Rome, Italy, May 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Jin Mamengni)

An average of around 10,000 Chinese tourists arrive in Thailand on a daily basis currently, and the number is expected to grow, said Wangpichayasuk from Thailand's Kasikorn Research Center in a recent written interview with Xinhua.

She predicted that Chinese tourists will outnumber those from other countries in 2023, just as they did in the years before the pandemic.

Despite the rise in the number of Chinese tourists to nearby destinations such as Thailand, a significant increase of Chinese tourists has yet to be registered in less-frequented tourist spots.

Antonija Buntaj, a tourist guide in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, has received two Chinese tourist groups so far this year, with each group consisting of about 35 visitors.

"I fully believe that this year or next year, we could see a new record number of Chinese tourists in Croatia, which means that there could be more than 300,000 Chinese visitors per year, as there were before the pandemic," said Buntaj.





BOON TO LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, the average occupancy rate of Thai hotels stood at 71 percent in 2019, and then plummeted to as low as 9 percent during the pandemic.

With the expected influx of Chinese tourists this year, Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, president of the Thai Hotels Association, predicted that the figure is expected to reach 60-65 percent this year.

Abbas Sayed, 38, who has been busy preparing trips for Chinese tourists to the Pyramids of Giza and Abu Simbel temples in the southern Egyptian province of Aswan, said that the "strong return" of Chinese tourists to Egypt had "positive influence" on his income so far this year.

"We especially like to pick up the Chinese groups, because the relationship between our two countries is very good ... and the Chinese like to take part in many different activities, which increase our income," said Amr Titi, an Egyptian tour guide who accompanied a tour group from the southern Chinese province of Guangzhou to the Pyramids of Giza, on Monday.

An Egyptian artist performs a traditional folk dance to welcome Chinese tourists at the Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 20, 2023. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

As more Chinese tourists are expected to travel to overseas destinations, local governments and businesses are gearing up for their arrivals.

"China is one of the most important markets that Egypt can rely on to increase the number of tourists," said Mohamed A. Salama, head of the International Tourism Offices Sector at the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, the promotion arm of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

A growing number of Egyptian tour operators have submitted applications to the promotion authority to work in the Chinese market, according to Salama.

To get ready for the return of Chinese tourists to Italy, Varotti, the ENIT chief representative, said he and his colleagues had been working incredibly hard.

"We've been investing a lot of time and resources in the Chinese digital ecosystem and social media platforms to promote Italy and cooperating with the online travel agencies ... we also support the Chinese travel agencies in developing a better product and introducing new Italian destinations in the catalogs," said Varotti. (Video reporters: Peng Zhuo, Zhao Xiaona, Zhang Boning, Liu Chang, Deng Min, Lin Hao, Wang Yuanyuan, Kang Wenjun, Zhu Yubo, Chen Hao, Attila Volgyi, Wang Feng, Yang Yiran, Yao Bing, Yu Fuqing; video editors: Liu Yutian, Luo Hui, Jia Xiaotong, Wang Han)
People look at a Hongqi electric vehicle at the Swedish eCarExpo 2023 in Stockholm, Sweden, on Feb. 3, 2023. (Photo by Wei Xuechao/Xinhua)

BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- In China's pursuit of high-quality and low-carbon development, apparel, home appliances and furniture have given way to three tech-intensive green products as the top drivers of China's foreign trade.

The new "three major ones," namely solar batteries, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles, registered a 66.9 percent increase in the first quarter of this year, official data showed. Together they contributed 2 percentage points to the overall export growth, up from 1.7 percentage points for 2022.

"China's foreign trade growth in Q1 is mainly buoyed by new energy-related exports," said Zhou Maohua, an analyst with the China Everbright Bank.

This expansion is even more significant considering it continued whopping growth in 2022 as exports of electric vehicles, photovoltaic (PV) products and lithium-ion batteries hiked 131.8 percent, 67.8 percent and 86.7 percent, respectively.

Customs data also showed that the exports were sent to over 200 countries and regions across the globe in Q1, with their top five markets showing growth rates of over 80 percent. The top five markets were the European Union, the United States, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom.

Global buyers thronged the booths of these products at the 133rd Canton Fair, which opened on April 15 in the southern city of Guangzhou. New-energy vehicles from companies like Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor and SAIC GM Wuling enjoyed new orders and avid inquiries from overseas clients within the first days of the event.

Low-carbon products went on to steal much of the limelight in the second phase of the Canton Fair from April 23 to 27, with some items selling for over 1 million dollars in a single deal, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

A symbol of China's improved trade structure and high-quality trade growth, the rising presence of green exports over the past decade also revealed the competitive edge and potential of their respective sectors, analysts say.

China's technological advantage in making quality electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and solar batteries, coupled with the growing global demand for low-carbon products, made China an important supplier for many economies, said Hong Yong, an e-commerce expert with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

The quality of Chinese new-energy vehicles (NEVs), for example, has been increasingly praised by foreign buyers, including those from Germany, Japan and Australia, according to an executive of Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor at the Canton Fair.

The expanding production capacity in these sectors has also bolstered exports. Official data showed that in the first two months, total output of lithium-ion batteries jumped 24 percent year on year, while major products of the PV sector logged growth rates of around 60 percent. In March, NEV production surged by 44.8 percent from a year earlier to about 674,000 units.

In the near future, analysts say green exports will remain an engine for high-quality growth, thanks to a nurturing policy environment and continued investment.

China has vowed to consolidate the foundation of self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and to cement and expand the advantages in NEV development, according to a leadership meeting in late April.

The country's investment in high-tech industries continued to outpace overall growth. In Q1, investment in high-tech manufacturing and high-tech service sectors expanded by 15.2 percent and 17.8 percent, respectively, year on year. 
UNITED NATIONS, May 2 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday appointed two new assistant secretary-generals to serve as deputy executive directors for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

According to a press note from the UN chief's office, both will be succeeding the current deputy executive directors, to whom the secretary-general and UNICEF are grateful for their dedicated service.

Kitty van der Heijden of the Netherlands has been appointed as the deputy executive director for partnerships. She has been serving as the director-general for international cooperation in her country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2019.

She brings to the role a wealth of experience, having previously served as Vice President and Director for Africa and Europe at the World Resources Institute, as well as the Ambassador for Sustainable Development and Director for Climate, Energy, Environment and Water in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Van der Heijden holds a master's degree in economics from Erasmus University in the Netherlands and is fluent in Dutch and English, with knowledge of French.

Edward Chaiban of Lebanon has been appointed as the deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations. He was recently serving as UNICEF's Global Lead Coordinator for COVID-19 Vaccine Country-Readiness and Delivery.

Chaiban has held various leadership positions in UNICEF, including regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, director of programs, director of emergency programs, and representative in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Sri Lanka.

Before joining UNICEF in 1997, he worked as a country representative for Catholic Relief Services in Haiti, Kenya, Uganda, and Sudan, and also as a program manager focusing on food security and child survival.

Chaiban holds a bachelor's degree in biology and political science from Tufts University and a master's degree in development and Arab studies from Georgetown University, both in the United States. He is fluent in English, French, and Arabic. 
HAIKOU, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Imagine playing spot-the-difference games to find an unknown number of differences between hundreds of blueprints and thousands of machine components, all within a time limit of several hours.

Now imagine doing it in an environment with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius.

Such is the daily work of Hu Cheng, chief engineer of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Hainan Power Generation Co., Ltd, formerly known as the Yangpu power plant. It is located in the Yangpu Economic Development Zone, south China's Hainan Province.

Having worked and lived in Yangpu for nearly three decades, the 53-year-old engineer has witnessed the rise of a former fishing village to the forefront of Hainan's, and China's, opening up.

Yangpu was once an economic backwater where 25,000 fishermen and farmers were mired in grinding poverty. Its fate changed in 1992, when China approved the establishment of the Yangpu Economic Development Zone to boost the development of Hainan.

In 1994, Hu travelled more than 3,000 km from northeast China's Liaoning Province, then the nation's heavy-industry heartland, to work at the then world-class power plant in the island province.

"I was interested in the advanced technology to be used by the power plant," he said.

When he arrived, the construction of the economic development zone was still at a very early stage. Many places in Yangpu had no access to electricity, not to mention modern industrial facilities.

"I remember seeing cattle and sheep everywhere," Hu recalled.

After the power plant was put into operation, Hu's work was to check all the equipment regularly. In case of a system breakdown, he had to find the cause from hundreds of possible factors within the space of hours at night, to ensure that the system could restart the next day.

At the beginning, the repair work relied heavily on the instructions and advice of foreign experts.

"Due to limited communication options back then, we contacted overseas experts either by phone or by fax. Every phone call needed a reservation in advance," he said.

However, solving urgent problems and restarting the power system was a race against time. That was the main motivation for Hu to become an expert himself, mostly by self-learning in his spare time.

The hard part was that all the reading materials about the power system were in English. With the help of an English dictionary and his previous contacts with foreign experts, Hu mastered the operation of the system and even translated an over-200-page instruction manual into Chinese to help other workers understand the system.

Thanks to Hu's efforts, the Yangpu power plant has become one of the biggest in Hainan, helping electrify local development and the ongoing construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP).

"When I first came here in 1994, it took five hours to drive from the provincial capital Haikou to Yangpu. Now it only takes two hours by car thanks to newly built highways and bridges," Hu said, testifying to Yangpu's accelerated development in recent years.

"There used to be only one kindergarten in Yangpu when my daughter was young. Now, there are more kindergartens with much better facilities."

In 2020, China released a master plan to build the whole of Hainan Island into a globally influential and high-level free trade port by the middle of the century. Since then, a slew of favorable policies have been issued to support the FTP development, including zero tariffs and easing market and foreign investment access.

"Hainan's talent introduction policy has also helped us hire more skilled engineers. I think with the development of the FTP, more people will choose Hainan as their place of work and life," said Hu. 
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Lee Cohen, a citizen of the United Kingdom, with violating the federal securities laws through his participation in a fraudulent scheme to manipulate trading in the stock of HD View 360 Inc., a now-defunct microcap company that was based in Miami, Florida.

The SEC's complaint alleges that, beginning in 2017, HD View's CEO and majority shareholder, Dennis Mancino, along with William Hirschy, orchestrated a fraudulent scheme that moved the price of HD View stock from zero to over $5 per share. According to the SEC's complaint, Cohen joined the scheme in approximately July 2017, and operated a call room in the Philippines to generate buy orders for HD View stock from unsuspecting investors in the United States. The complaint further alleges that Cohen targeted senior citizens and other potential investors he believed were susceptible to cold call solicitations. Cohen's sales pitch was that HD View had excellent growth prospects and that there was an active and rapidly rising market for its stock. In reality, HD View was a failing start-up company that was later dissolved and its stock delisted by the Commission for failure to file any financial statements after September 2017. Cohen duped investors into placing buy orders at artificially high prices that closely matched the target prices being set by Mancino and Hirschy. The orders were then routed to matching sell orders placed by brokerage accounts that Mancino or Hirschy controlled. The purpose of the scheme was to allow Mancino and Hirschy to sell their shares of HD View stock into an artificially inflated market. In turn, Cohen received commissions based on a percentage of the sales he generated.

The SEC's complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York, charges Cohen with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Sections 9(a)(1), 9(a)(2), 10(b), and 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and a penny stock bar.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Drew Dorman, with assistance from Robert Nesbitt and Kevin Gershfeld, under the supervision of Kevin Guerrero and Stacy Bogert. The litigation will be handled by Duane Thompson and supervised by James Connor. The SEC thanks the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their assistance in this matter.
Disability Inclusion Series Editor Lucia Rios receives 2023 Ability Award from Disability Network Lakeshore. (Shandra Martinez)

Lucia Rios remembers how going to college began her journey to become an accessibility advocate.She attended Western Michigan University, which at the time had older buildings that lacked access updates. She missed her first college class because the elevator was broken, and ultimately the class was moved to the first floor.Access has become a huge passion of mine because I wanted to participate on campus, but also I started meeting with others with disabilities who had the same issues, Rios says. I vowed not to tolerate living a life where I and others would be excluded from participating in the community and the world.She set out to do what she could to create change and eliminate barriers. Rios believes it is important for the voices of people with disabilities to be heard. Thats why she has devoted herself to being a disability activities and accessibility advocate. An important way she does that is as the co-editor of the Disability Inclusion series with The Lakeshore WM, which explores the state of West Michigans growing disability community.Rios was honored on April 25 with the Ability Award from the Disability Network Lakeshore for going above and beyond to increase accessibility for everyone. The honor came with congratulations written by State Rep. Nancy DeBoer and signed by Rep. Bradley Slagh, State Rep. Roger Victory, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.Lucias gift for writing and journalism has been significant in elevating disability issues locally  Her reflections on her life, from her mother who has been her rock and strength to getting a new car and the process of finding one, offer moving touches on humanity, the State of Michigan Special Tribute read.Another tribute was given by U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, who in the House of Representatives recognized Rios for her years of dedicated services for advancing the needs of individuals with disabilities in West Michigan. Born with spina bifida, Lucia profoundly understands the challenges of living with a disability.Launched in 2011, the Ability Award is given annually to an individual in Allegan County or Ottawa County who promotes a spirit of inclusion and a community without barriers. Residents or workers who are engaged in leadership, engagement, advocacy, and empowerment of individuals with disabilities are eligible for this honor.Rios 20-year-plus career has included giving a voice to and empowering those with disabilities. During 15 years on staff at Disability Network Lakeshore, she helped businesses identify ways they could become more accessible and instructed young adults as they transitioned from school to career.As a journalist, Rios writing has been instrumental in focusing attention on disability issues, including living with her own lifelong disability. She is a mentor to the next generation of advocates and serves on several boards, including the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland area and the Family Hope Foundation. She is also the co-founder of Women of Color Give.Rios removes barriers and creates access through her presence, voice and activism, which includes her current work with her office of accessibility for Salesforce Inc.She uses her writing and editing talents in the Disability Inclusion series. The series is made possible through a partnership with Centers for Independent Living organizations across West Michigan, including Lakeshore Disability Network. In addition to appearing in The Lakeshore WM, the series is featured in Rapid Growth and Southwest Second Wave Rios has been instrumental in the success of the series, says Paul Schutt, co-founder of Issue Media Group, the Michigan-based parent company of the three publications that carry the Disability Inclusion series."Lucia Rios has provided unique leadership for the Disability Inclusion series," Schutt says. "Lucia brings her lived experience in the disability community to help us ensure that we get the stories right. She reviews each story helping us avoid stereotypes, outdated and outright offensive language for folks in the disability community. This has allowed us to make sure each story rings true and encourages those covered to share the stories with their networks."For more than 25 years, Disability Network Lakeshore has worked in Allegan and Ottawa counties to create communities where people with disabilities can participate, contribute, and belong. A majority of the organizations staff and managers are individuals with disabilities, and it serves those with any type of disability, including many that are invisible, such as sensory or cognitive impairments and mental health concerns.This article is a part of the year-long series Disability Inclusion , exploring the state of West Michigans growing disability community. The series is made possible through a partnership with Centers for Independent Living organizations across West Michigan.
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To help close a historic budget gap, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thaos two-year spending proposal includes cuts to the citys arts and culture sector, which organizers fear could set back a number of festivals, artists and efforts to provide services to underserved communities of color.

Thao revealed her $4.2 billion plan on Monday as the city faces its largest-ever budget shortfall, $360 million, over the next two years. The mayors proposed budget for the citys general purpose fund  which pays for police, fire and other city services  cuts costs by merging several key city departments and eliminating vacant positions in an effort to avoid layoffs.

Thao is also proposing to cut the citys cultural funding grant program by 20% and freeze the hiring of a program analyst.

On Wednesday, the mayor will present her plan to the City Council, which will amend and pass the budget next month.

Some artists and cultural workers said they were disappointed and worried about Thaos proposed cuts. They say the arts are critical to the citys economic recovery and tourism, and reducing crime and violence.

The program distributes more than $1 million annually to local artists and cultural institutions that organize community events and programs throughout the city, such as the beloved First Fridays festival, one of Oaklands biggest cultural attractions, which draws about 30,000 people to downtown. Other past grantees include the Eastside Arts Alliance, Dimensions Dance Theater and the Black Joy Parade.

Each proposed change in the Oakland budget includes an equity consideration spelling out how it will affect the city, and Thaos plan acknowledges that the hiring freeze of a program analyst will severely impact the divisions outreach efforts to Oaklands underserved BIPOC communities that this position is charged to serve, referring to Black, indigenous and people of color.

Festivals are so important. Its like community healing, community coming together, said Shari Godinez, executive director of the Koreatown Northgate Community Benefit District, the organization that puts on First Fridays.

Godinez said festivals also serve as incubators for local vendors and small businesses.

She is already struggling to get sponsors for the monthly First Friday festival since its 2021 return from pandemic shutdowns.

I just think its a mistake, she said. If youre trying to help the economy, why would you make it even harder by cutting festival funds?

Thao said Tuesday she believes artists are an important part of Oakland, but she had to propose cuts across city departments to close the historic $360 million deficit.

I recognize and celebrate the power of our citys arts and culture sector, which contributes greatly to Oaklands character and vibrancy, Thao told The Chronicle in a statement. In order to minimize the impacts on vital services, we prioritized freezing vacant positions rather than reducing existing services or laying off of employees. This positions us to emerge stronger and more resilient.

A petition by the citys Cultural Affairs Commission asking Thao and the City Council to save the arts in Oakland had garnered about one-third of its goal of 250 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.

This would directly impact individual art grants, festivals and arts organizations that impact youth and underserved communities, Kev Choice, an Oakland musician and vice chair of the citys Cultural Affairs Commission, told The Chronicle.

In a tweet, he said the mayors proposed cuts show how undervalued our Arts & Culture community is when we all know how integral it is to the city and community.
DAMASCUS, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday lauded Syria's victory in emerging from a 12-year war during his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

"Syria's government and people have gone through tremendous hardships, and today we can say that you have weathered and overcame all these problems and achieved victory despite the threats and sanctions imposed against you," Raisi told Assad at the al-Sha'ab presidential palace in Damascus as the Iranian leader has embarked on a landmark visit to Syria, the first for an Iranian president during the 12-year Syrian war.

For his part, Assad said that the Syrian-Iranian relations are "rich in content, rich in experience and insights," and have remained stable and firm against severe political and security storms in the region.

Earlier in the day, an official reception ceremony was held upon the arrival of Raisi and his ministerial delegation at the al-Sha'ab presidential palace in Damascus.

During the two-day official visit, the Iranian president will hold extensive political and economic talks with President Bashar al-Assad, followed by signing several agreements, according to the state news agency SANA. 
Thousands of Oakland parents were on edge Tuesday, wondering if teachers would strike and classes would be canceled on Thursday, even as district officials and labor leaders continued nearly nonstop negotiations to hammer out a new contract before the walkout.



Parent Sergio Romero spent the morning trying to get clarification on whether he could bring his third-grade son to school on Thursday. While administrators would be there, he was told, there would be no instruction.

He was frustrated, hoping the adults would figure out a solution that did not push students out of class.

This is a significant issue for our family, he said, adding his son spent part of kindergarten and all of first grade in distance learning. While those occasions may have been unavoidable due to the outbreak, this potential closure is purely the product of infighting factions, not a public health concern. Blame game aside, the cohort my son and his peers belong to have suffered in learning and social development from being out of school. Its time for the students of Oakland schools to have their needs put first.

The state and Alameda County superintendents were at the bargaining table this week as well, hoping to encourage an agreement.

If a strike does happen, its not clear how long it will last.

Union officials remained committed to the strike unless the district improved its salary offer, with a demand on the table for a 23% raise for all 3,000 union members, among other concessions. The district said Tuesday theyre proposing giving teachers a salary increase of at least 13%, and as much as 22%.

While the two sides reportedly remained at odds largely over salaries and benefits, the union also had a long list of demands regarding class sizes, more counselors and other support staff and unusual contractual obligations, including reparations for Black students, use of district buildings for homeless families and a strict process over school closures.

Some people think the district saves money by stonewalling, said Ismael Armendariz, interim president of the Oakland Education Association, in a statement Tuesday afternoon. Many Oakland teachers have given notice that theyre leaving; new teachers have better options to teach elsewhere. And, perhaps the greatest cost is to our students who are being denied smaller class sizes, access to guidance counselors, mental health supports and other improved services that our team is bargaining for.

Demands have also included district-subsidized transportation for all students, which few other districts provide; increased preparation for active shooters; and the use of drought-tolerant and fire-resistant trees on all new landscaping projects.

Public education advocate Lakisha Young, who works with hundreds of families to improve literacy rates through her nonprofit Oakland Reach, questioned why the union would be demanding common good items like addressing climate change.

Nowhere on this list did we read anything about a commitment to increasing reading and math proficiency for our students so they have access to college or a life they choose vs. a life that chooses them, she said in a statement. Strike or no strike, this too shall pass. And when it does, our kids still wont be reading and doing math on grade level. Who will step up and bring the same energy to that crisis?

About 35% of students in the district are proficient in reading and language arts, while 26% are at grade level in math.

District officials have said they cant afford everything the union wants and they remain focused on increasing tenured teacher salaries, with smaller raises for other members, including emergency teachers, career technical educators and others.

Our teachers want a pay increase, and we agree they need it, administrators said in a statement also Tuesday. We agree teachers deserve a significant raise and thats exactly what we have proposed.

In addition to the salary increases, the districts offer also included a $5,000 one-time bonus and a retroactive 10% raise for all 3,000 members of the union, with the latter tied to an increase in instructional minutes for elementary students.

School board President Mike Hutchinson said that he still remained optimistic a strike could be averted and that the two sides were closer on pay issues than they were on Monday. But, they were still at odds over other topics, like reparations or school closure policies, which he said should be handled by the school board.

I think the appropriate place for a lot of them to be decided is through the school board or board policy, he said. Im nervous about ceding school board responsibility to a contract with one of our six labor partners.

Hutchinson also said he doesnt understand why the union would strike when bargaining continued and there was progress.

I dont understand why there has to be a threat of this disruption to our students, he added.

Parent Pecolia Manigo was among those supporting a strike if there is no settlement by Thursday.

This is our time to stand up and appreciate our teachers, she said at the announcement of a strike date. They deserve a fair contract and they deserve a fair contract now.

Its unclear whether the presence of state and local officials Monday and Tuesday was helping ease the tension given their alignment with labor groups.

Alameda County Superintendent Alysse Castro was endorsed by the state and Oakland teachers unions.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has long had the support of unions, including the California Teachers Association, with labor groups among the largest donors to his campaigns.

Thurmonds office said he remained at the bargaining table Tuesday in a neutral role, adding he has strong relationships with the union, board members and the superintendent.

Hes really there serving as a support, said his spokesperson Maria Clayton. His role is just working with both sides to keep them talking and get to solutions.






One of the last African elephants remaining in a Bay Area zoo will be moved to an out-of-state sanctuary this month or in early June, if all goes as planned. Donna, a beloved 44-year-old elephant that has been at the Oakland Zoo since 1990, recently lost her life partner, Lisa, a 46-year-old African elephant, and zookeepers feel Donna would have a better quality of life with other elephants.

She is set to be transferred to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, a 3,000-acre refuge for Asian and African elephants 85 miles southwest of Nashville.

We look forward to welcoming Donna to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and to continue providing her with care and social opportunities as she ages, Janice Zeitlin, the sanctuarys CEO, said. Thanks to the ongoing collaboration with Oakland Zoo, we are confident Donna will transition easily to her new home and, with time, build bonds with African female herd mates.

There she will be paired with three other female elephants; 41-year-old Flora, 50-year-old Tange and 39-year-old Sukari, who sanctuary operators hope she will forge lasting friendships with.

It has been a challenging time for the elderly elephant. When Lisa was euthanized last month at the Oakland Zoo, Donna had to adjust to a solitary life of grazing, sleeping and playing in the pool without her companion. But Gina Kinzley, the zoos lead elephant keeper, said Donna has been doing well as she goes through the mourning process. Now during the coming weeks, zoo keepers will prepare her for a journey to her new home.

Were working on her transport plan and her training for that, Kinzley said. Theres a lot of detail and people involved in what that plan is.

Kinzley said Donna will be transported by ground in a trailer or a crate, which she will be trained to walk into in order to acclimate herself for the more than 40-hour journey across the country.

Lisas caretakers knew they had to make a decision on Donnas future after Lisas death because female elephants are dependent on their family and typically live in herds. Donna is the last remaining female elephant at the zoo. Osh, the zoos lone male elephant, is less dependent on other elephants to meet his social needs and there are no plans to move him at this time, zoo officials said.

This will be the best social opportunity for her, Kinzley said.

According to its website, the size of the Elephant Sanctuary has grown from 110 acres to 3,060 acres since its opening, a massive size compared to Oakland Zoos 6-acre habitat, and dubs itself as North Americas largest natural habitat refuge for captive elephants. The sanctuary, which has 11 elephants, is the only one of its kind in North America certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

For the zoo, the departure of their oldest elephant will be yet another loss. Kinzley said she and her team will navigate the new reality of taking care of just one elephant by prioritizing self-care and taking care of each other.

Losing Donna as well, even though shes going on to a happy future, is still going to be a loss for us and the community, Kinzley said.

Donnas departure comes as zoos across North America reduce or dissolve their elephant programs. The San Francisco Zoo phased out its elephant program around 2004 and hasnt had elephants since. The Toronto Zoo phased out its elephant program years ago, and animal rights activists have pressured other zoos to get rid of elephant exhibits.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums said about 160 African elephants currently live in U.S. zoos. The Oakland Zoo does not breed elephants, which means that any chance of sustaining the population relies on acquiring elephants from other zoos.

The Bay Area has three accredited zoos: Oakland, San Francisco and San Joses Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. Once Donna leaves, there will be only one zoo elephant left in the Bay Area. Safari West, a private 400-acre wildlife preserve in Sonoma County, has no elephants.

Nik Dehejia, CEO for the Oakland Zoo, said that the zoo has never bred elephants during his 17 years working there. We have no plan to breed elephants at this point and into the future, he said. Dehejia said the zoo had considered participating in an AZA breeding program with the Osh, the zoos lone male elephant, but that the plan never came to fruition.

George Wittemyer, a professor at Colorado State University, said the inability for zoos to provide a cognitively stimulating environment similar to the wild may play a factor in the inability to breed in zoos.

They (elephants) tend to not breed well, and I think thats a strong implication of stress, Wittemyer said. We have no issues with elephants breeding in the wild. They dont breed well in captivity.

Another big issue, Wittemyer said, is whether facilities with elephants can replicate the social and environmental stimulation elephants would receive in the wild.

We have some facilities that seem to be doing better with elephants, he said. I think usually those tend to be facilities that have put a lot of thought into mental, physical and social stimulation for their elephants and they have to have more space.

While the loss of Donna adds to the uncertainty of the elephant program at the Oakland Zoo, the focus there now is on the grieving process for those who will miss her.

Its going to be change, Kinzley said. People are going to miss her. Just recognizing that, holding space for that and looking forward to what will come.

Reach Jordan Parker: jordan.parker@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @jparkerwrites.
As San Francisco residents left the city in the early years of the pandemic, they took billions of dollars in income with them.

About 32,000 more people left San Francisco than migrated to the city from 2020 to 2021, according to newly released tax return data from the IRS. Thats slightly less than the 39,000 more who left than came to the city from 2019 to 2020.

Those who left accounted for a hefty sum of income; the income of departing residents in 2020 was almost $8 billion more than the total reported by arrivals. Combined with the net $6.9 billion in loss in reported wages for those who left San Francisco the prior year, people who exited the city in 2020 and 2021 made about $15 billion more than those who arrived.

The difference in earnings reflected the departure of many wealthier residents during the early years of the pandemic. The 148,000 residents who left San Francisco by the time they filed tax returns in 2020 and 2021 collectively made about $22.7 billion, for an average annual income of about $153,000.

Thats a higher average than the people who moved to San Francisco during that period. Those roughly 77,000 residents were parts of households that made about $7.9 billion, or an average of $103,000 a person.

The IRS tracks migration by checking to see if a tax filer puts a different address on their form than they did the previous year, then measuring the number and income of those who changed counties. The agencys count of individuals includes members of households who may not have income, such as dependent children.

The average income for filing households who remained in San Francisco from 2019-20 or 2020-21 was just $117,000, according to the IRS.

Ted Egan, San Franciscos chief economist, said the citys declining population in the early years of the pandemic contributed to its struggling tax revenues, and likely some of its labor shortage. But losing high-income workers wouldnt directly affect the citys finances, as San Francisco doesnt have a personal income tax.

Egan also said that a high average income among people moving away doesnt necessarily mean most of those migrants are wealthy. It could be that the higher average incomes of residents that left the city is driven by a small number of very high earners. Data on individuals is not provided by the IRS, so it is not possible to test this assertion.

Still, data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the San Francisco metro areas median household income fell between 2019 and 2021.

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In most Bay Area counties, the total earnings of departing residents exceeded that of new residents. But for a few, the arrivals had high enough incomes to make up the difference.

Sonoma County lost a little more than 3,000 filers between 2019 and 2021, but new residents brought incomes totaling $505 million more than the residents who left. This appears due to an influx of people with generally higher incomes: while the average earnings for arrivals was $75,000, those who moved from the county made an average of just $54,000.
Oakland residents fighting to prevent coal shipments from running through the west side of the city can now point to scientific evidence showing that coal trains send health-harming pollutants into the air.

A new study from UC Davis has found that air pollution from coal trains that run through the nearby city of Richmond was greater than the pollution from other types of freight trains and passenger trains. Even empty coal cars increased levels of pollutant matter, said lead author Bart Ostro, an epidemiologist with UC Davis Air Quality Research Center.

Prior to the UC Davis report, the only other study surveying coal train pollution in the U.S. was conducted in rural Washington with coal coming from Wyoming, Ostro said.

The researchers felt spurred to do the study when, in 2018, a federal judge overturned a ban on coal handling and storage in Oakland, citing insufficient evidence to support the citys assertion that coal and petroleum coke operations pose a substantial danger to the people in Oakland. Oakland has been in a dispute for years with a developer who is seeking to potentially export coal from the city; a legal case between the two sides is still pending.

Our goal was basically to address the questions from the judge, but we were also surprised that there was no studies (about coal train pollution) in the urban U.S., Ostro said.

Ostro and his team studied uncovered Union Pacific railcars that deliver coal from mines in Southern Utah to the Levin Terminal in Richmond, where that coal is then mostly exported overseas.

They measured levels of particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5)  particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers that can get into human lungs and the bloodstream. PM 2.5 elevates the risk of heart and lung disease, asthma and other respiratory illnesses and premature death.

The additional particulate matter is coal dust that blows off of the top of uncovered coal cars, Ostro said. Coal cars are sprayed with a liquid surfactant that prevents dust from flying off, but that surfactant degrades with time and weathering, Ostro said.

Ostro and his team also found elevated levels of fine particle pollutants in rail yards where coal cars can sit unmoved for days and in neighboring residential communities, as presented in a report to the California Air Resources Board, the air quality regulatory agency that funded the study.

Separately, the Air Resources Board recently passed regulations that require train operators to switch to models that use the cleanest fuels and ultimately to zero-emissions models.

Margaret Rossoff, an organizer with the advocacy group No Coal in Oakland, said she believes the campaign has more leverage now that theres scientific evidence to back up their concerns.

Its bad news, but its also very validating. The problem that we had in the federal case was the studies just didnt exist, Rossoff said.

UC Davis researcher Nicholas Spada, a member of Ostros team, used artificial intelligence to detect the type of train that passed by and if it was a coal train, whether the cars were full or empty, Ostro said. They then matched up those time stamps with the air quality monitors placed alongside the tracks that took measurements every minute, Ostro said.

Previously, studies on coal train pollution were hard to come by because researchers had to manually observe the type of trains that passed by, a time-intensive process, Ostro said. The use of artificial intelligence is a major breakthrough that could help spur more research on the air quality effects of coal trains, Ostro said.

When asked to comment on the results of the study and the effect of coal train pollution, Union Pacific sent an email statement to The Chronicle.

Union Pacific transports coal to the Port of Richmond on behalf of our customers. We are obligated to do so as a common carrier, Union Pacific spokesperson Robynn Tysver wrote.

Richmond is a racially diverse city at the intersection of many different environmental health hazards  a refinery, railroad tracks, highways and the port, said Janet Johnson, lead organizer of No Coal in Richmond. While organizing against coal shipping in Richmond, Johnson said she went to houses where their patio furniture was covered with black.

It wasnt the kind of thing that you could sweep off your windowsill. It was greasy black stuff and black particulate matter dust, Johnson said.

After years of legal battles, Richmond reached a settlement with the Levin Terminal and its suppliers to stop shipments and storage of coal by the end of 2026. As coal prices have increased, so have the number of coal cars pulling into Richmond in recent years, Johnson said.

Its unfortunate but it is the way it is, and we will be living with this until the end of 2026, Johnson said.
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Prosecutors and a defense attorney clashed Tuesday over a toxicology report that showed Cash App founder Bob Lee had drugs in his system the night he was fatally stabbed, with the defense saying the information was relevant and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins saying it was a tactic to denigrate the victim.

The topic arose after a court hearing for Nima Momeni, the man accused of killing Lee on April 4.

Police say Momeni attacked Lee at roughly 2:30 a.m., stabbing him three times with a kitchen knife in San Franciscos Rincon Hill neighborhood after a dispute over the victims relationship with Momenis younger sister, Khazar Elyassnia, who lives with her husband in the nearby Millennium Tower. The nature of that relationship has not been disclosed.

Lee called 911 before he collapsed; his autopsy report showed he died on the operating table at San Francisco General Hospital after doctors worked for hours trying to save him.

The killing was among a number of high-profile violent incidents to occur in San Francisco as the city grappled with concerns about public safety and crime, with many members of the citys tech community seizing on Lees death as an example of crime being out of control.

Less than two weeks later on April 13, however, authorities revealed the crime was not random and arrested Momeni, who is charged with murder. Momeni, 38, was set to be arraigned Tuesday, but his defense attorney, Paula Canny, asked Judge Victor Hwang to continue the case for two weeks.

She told reporters she asked for a continuance to consider timing  and whether she would waive her clients preliminary hearing.

In California, the minute you enter a plea, you have decisions to make as to when the preliminary hearing is going to be held, you have a right to have a preliminary hearing within 10 court days, or 60 calendar days, she said. If you waive that, right, you cant take that back  so its all about timing.

After the hearing, she discussed a toxicology report released earlier this week that showed he had alcohol and cocaine in his system when he died. Ketamine was also found in Lees system after his death, but the autopsy report does not state whether authorities believe Lee took the drug; ketamine is sometimes used as an intravenous anesthetic by paramedics and doctors.

Theres a lot of drugs in Bob Lees system, she said, I mean, Bob Lees system is like the Walgreens of recreational drugs.

She did not explain why she believed the toxicology results were relevant. She also exaggerated what was found in Lees system.

You just want me to say what you already know, she told reporters. And maybe Ill do it, just not today. Every recreational drug that a person could take was in his system  put on your thinking caps  what happens when people take drugs? Generally, they act like drug people. And what did wrong people act like? Not themselves? Not happy-go-lucky, just kind of losery and make bad decisions and do bad things.

In her own press briefing, Jenkins sharply rejected Cannys remarks, characterizing them as a customary defense tactic to denigrate victims reputations.

Regardless of whether somebody has or has not done drugs, that does not give someone a license to kill them, she said. And so we are going to continue course, with the facts that we know, because we believe that regardless of whatever that toxicology report may show that Mr. Momeni is guilty of murder.

Former prosecutor Jim Hammer said Cannys remarks may be part of an effort to present a different narrative and soften up future jurors.

Legally, all that matters is what Mr. Lee did, he said. He could have been the biggest drug addict since the 1960s, but if he didnt do anything to justify the assault on him, then its irrelevant.

Momenis next court date is set for May 18 at 9 a.m.
UPDATE: Prosecutors may pursue death penalty for accused Davis stabbing suspect

A series of stabbings have left two Davis men dead and one woman critically injured in recent days as police in the quiet college town search for answers in the killings.

Here is what is known so far:

When and where did the stabbings take place?

A bystander discovered the body of the first victim, later identified as well-known local author David Henry Breaux, on a bench in Central Park on Thursday morning. The park, a verdant square northeast of the university, is home to the popular Davis farmers market.

A second victim, UC Davis senior Karim Abou Najm, was found at another Davis park two days later. Police responding to Sycamore Park around 9 p.m. Saturday found the student bleeding from multiple stab wounds. He later died.

A third victim, a woman residing in a homeless encampment eight blocks away from the site of the first killing, was stabbed multiple times through her tent on Second and L streets early Tuesday, police said. She survived but was listed in critical condition.

All three stabbings occurred within a mile radius of the UC Davis campus in the college town, home to 67,000 people.

What is known about the victims?

Breaux, 50, whom officials identified as a Stanford University graduate, was known in the area for asking passersby about the meaning of compassion and jotting down their answers in a spiral notebook.

For six months in late 2009, he interviewed people at the southeast corner of Central Park, where he was found dead Thursday.

He published a compilation of more than 3,000 of those anonymous interviews in a 2011 book titled Compassion: Davis, CA. Among locals, his questions earned him the nickname Compassion Guy, city officials said.

Kevin Fagan/The Chroncile

Breaux, a downtown fixture, was gentle and kind, soft-spoken and thoughtful, said Mayor Will Arnold, who knew the 50-year-old from conversations in the park.

Sean Peterson, 35, described Breaux as a paragon of kindness Tuesday, standing near what is known as the so-called compassion bench, named after Breaux, who usually sat on it. Breaux could be found in Central Park nearly every weekend talking to anyone who wanted to talk, he said.

I talked to David for an hour once about compassion, and his whole thing was Never let me feed you information. I just want to hear your thoughts,  Peterson said. I told him compassion to me is the idea of lifting up the individual who is below you no matter who you are, and he totally got that.

Najm, 20, was set to graduate in May with a degree in computer science, UC Davis Chancellor Gary May said in a statement.

By all accounts, he was an exceptional student, son and friend, May said.

May encouraged students to take advantage of counseling services made available in the aftermath of the senseless killings, which he said had left many on the campus afraid and unsettled. Campus counselors were working with the (Najm) family to provide support, May added.

Najms father, Majdi Abou Najm, is a professor of land, air and water resources at the universitys College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Majdi Abou Najm told KCRA that his son began attending Davis Senior High School in 2018 when the family moved to California from Lebanon amid the countrys political tumult.

We came here hoping for safety, the father told the Sacramento television station.

Karim was on his way to the family home following an undergraduate awards ceremony on the night he was killed, Majdi added.

Courtesy Najm family

On Tuesday, family and friends came and went all day at the Najim family home in Davis, a stately two-story beige house surrounded by roses. A large contingent of relatives answered the door, but requested privacy.

Next door, neighbor Ying Yang burst into tears as she talked about Karim, calling him a such a sweet boy. Yang said her son and Karim played basketball together and both majored in computer science, Karim at UC Davis and her son at UC Berkeley.

My heart is just ache, ache, ache, Yang said, tears streaming down her face. My heart cannot stand it.

Looking out at the quiet suburban block, Yang lamented that the family made the move all the way overseas to Davis but then lost their son.

They came from Lebanon for a better life, but something like this happening is a nightmare for every parent, she said.

The third stabbing victim, whom investigators had not publicly identified as of Tuesday afternoon, remained in critical condition at a local hospital. People in the small homeless encampment where she lived near a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. substation described her as a humorous and loving presence.

Shes like the mom around here, said Meech Brooks, 30.

Loc Thanh Nguyen, 53, who camped near the victim, burst into tears when he learned she was stabbed. Every time she sees me, I give her a hug and she says, Be my husband, and we both laugh, Nguyen said. She was cool  and pretty clean.

At a local soup kitchen she regularly attended, people who knew the victim said she was never seen without her small white dog, Toby, who followed her wherever she went. None of the soup kitchen volunteers or attendees knew the dogs location following the womans stabbing, however.

Jason Brooks, 24, a resident of a nearby encampment, said she called police to report her own stabbing.

She is one tough lady, he said Tuesday.

What are authorities doing?

The three attacks in less than a week have left many Davis residents feeling on edge about their safety.

Following the third attack Tuesday morning, law enforcement officials issued a shelter-in-place order while they searched for a man seen running away from the scene. The order was lifted hours later, around 4 a.m., after police failed to locate the man. The orders removal upset some local residents, who took to social media to vent their frustrations with police efforts.

UC Davis offered safety advice to a student body shaken by the attacks.

The UC Davis police department advised students to avoid walking at night or in unlit areas. May, who said many in the campus community were frightened, encouraged students to travel in groups and heed police warnings.

The Davis farmers market, which takes place in Central Park at the scene of the first killing, canceled its Wednesday market, but said it planned to host its Saturday market as usual from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Last Friday, the San Francisco Police Department issued a press release that said a security guard employed by Walgreens had shot and killed a woman during an alleged shoplifting attempt at the pharmacy chains downtown Market Street location.

Like much of the information that gets published in the immediate aftermath of a prominent San Francisco crime incident, however, the details were wrong. An unhoused 24-year-old transgender Black man named Banko Brown had been killed. Police not only misgendered Brown, but the Medical Examiner released his birth name.

That didnt stop the incorrect information from spreading across the internet. Nor did the ultimate correction of that misinformation give San Franciscos online commentariat pause that there may be more to the story. Of course, they should have learned this lesson; rumors around rampant crime and homelessness leading to the death of Cash App co-founder Bob Lee were debunked when one of his colleagues in tech was arrested and charged with his murder. And a former San Francisco fire commissioner who made headlines after he was beaten with a pipe ended up being suspected of terrorizing homeless people with bear spray.

None of that seemed to matter. Bolstered by a weekend New York Times front-page article on San Franciscos woes  centered around the closure of a Whole Foods  schadenfreude ran wild over the fact that an alleged shoplifter had been killed in the act in San Francisco. Elected officials, meanwhile, were largely silent until Tuesday  other than District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who announced on Monday that she would not press charges against the security guard.

Now, days later, a more complex, if still incomplete, tale is emerging  as it almost always does.

Brown  his friends and family insisted at a vigil outside Walgreens on Monday afternoon  was in possession of food when he was shot, and possibly, even a receipt. He was not part of a violent theft ring, but a beloved intern at the Young Womens Freedom Project, helping youth whod interacted with the justice system. And he was also homeless, forced to sleep on BART trains while desperately pursuing permanent housing.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, meanwhile, announced on Tuesday that he hoped Jenkins would revisit her decision not to charge the Walgreens guard, after learning more details of the shooting.

My understanding is that Brown absconded with $14 worth of candy, Peskin told me.

Of course, the full story of Browns shooting remains incomplete  neither the San Francisco Police Department nor the District Attorneys Office would comment with details of the shooting. The District Attorneys Office did confirm with Mission Local that Brown was not armed.

Even without the full picture, however, its obvious that Browns plight and subsequent death appear to be a tragedy of our citys own making.

In many ways, Brown was a poster child for Mayor London Breeds mission to end homelessness in the transgender community, which she announced last May. Citing statistics that trans people are 18 times more likely to experience homelessness than the average person, she promised to be a leader in supporting and protecting trans communities. Despite Breeds pledges to cut the population of homeless youth in half by this year and address racial inequity in our homeless response systems, the city is clearly still failing.

Brown was not supported or protected by San Francisco. He couldnt navigate the citys bureaucratic housing system, despite  his friends and family indicated  being ready and willing to receive help. He was misgendered and deadnamed by city agencies, demonized on Twitter and ignored by elected officials.

So deep are we in our obsessive narratives of crime and safety that the most urgent solution presented in the wake of Browns killing was investing millions more in policing. How that will help homeless youth who still sleep on our public transit systems remains a mystery. Instead, this city seems primed to push people further into desperation and then punish them for it.

At the Monday vigil, supporters of Brown lambasted the city for its absolute failure to address the needs of its Black population. Julia Arroyo, co-director of the Young Womens Freedom Center, where Brown was an intern, said he did everything he could to find housing, to no avail.

He was turned away, and he was asked to sleep on the streets, she said.

This city has set this tone, said Tinisch Hollins, a San Francisco native and executive director of the criminal reform organization Californians for Safety and Justice. This is an example of multiple failures, not just this corporation. Its the entire culture in this city. Taking from a Walgreens is not worth capital punishment.

At a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday afternoon, outraged members of Browns queer and Black community took the mike during public comment, begging for action.

But Jenkins already said she doesnt believe her office has a strong case. So for Browns community, whats left? Will this incident be written off by the city, despite all evidence that its policies and lack of action make it complicit? Will our leaders offer thoughts and prayers in hopes the noise on all sides dies down quickly, supplanted by the next bad news story?

Or will Browns name and legacy, bolstered by the actions of his grieving, angry, friends and loved ones, spur change?

When a young, unhoused, hungry, Black trans person is shot and killed, allegedly for stealing food, its time for a serious moment of reckoning.

Im not sure were going to get it.

This story was updated to include information from the District Attorneys Office that Brown was not armed.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, maintains a list of the Top 20 Largest California Wildfires. Lately, as bigger blazes erupt, its become the norm for the agency to have to update the list each year. All but two of the fires on the current list occurred within the past 20 years; the top five all happened within the past five. That same pattern repeats in other states across the West.

At the same time, more communities are at risk of burning than in years past. More than 460 million acres across the United States are at a moderate to very high risk from wildfires, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Climate change is creating some of the hotter and drier conditions, but urban sprawl and forest management practices over the past century also shape the landscape.

Addressing the heightened challenge fire poses requires rethinking how we approach our relationship with it. One change is how we quantify wildfires. Increasingly, experts suggest that we shouldnt focus so much on their size, but rather on the damage they do. Its not that measuring a wildfires acreage has no value, but the practice is often removed from crucial context. Evaluating the way wildfires cause destruction or interruptions in daily life  such as closing schools or destroying businesses  can help us understand how to better adapt to living with them.

While size is often the featured statistic in news articles and political statements about wildfires, its never been the most telling risk factor for a fires societal damage. Area became the default measurement simply because it was easy for first responders to map using familiar tools like GPS, says Kimiko Barrett, a wildfire policy analyst with Headwaters Economics, a research institute in Bozeman, Mont. Size is also easy to communicate and attention grabbing, University of New Mexico forest ecologist Matthew Hurteau notes.

Before the 1800s, researchers estimate more than 4 million acres burned annually in California  more than 10 times the acreage that burned in the state in 2022. These wildfires originated from natural ignitions sparked by lightning and from cultural burns performed by Native Americans. Indigenous people purposefully set such fires as part of a spiritual practice and to provide ecological benefits, like rejuvenating the soil and encouraging new plant growth. But cultural burning was outlawed by white settlers, and in the early 20th century, the U.S. Forest Service implemented an aggressive fire suppression policy requiring all wildfires be put out by 10 a.m. the morning after they were reported.

The fallacy of this approach became clear within decades, and we are still paying for it, as overcrowded, fire-starved forests provide ready fuel for new burns. In some ways, todays wildfires are making up for lost time. The problem is that communities have sprung up in former wilderness, so while wildfires might not be unprecedented in those areas, their impact on people is now more devastating. Another list kept by Cal Fire, the Top 20 Most Destructive California Wildfires as determined by the number of structures destroyed, makes this clear. It covers the same timeframe as the largest fires list  and, again, the majority of the ranking fires have taken place during the past 20 years.

But fewer than half of the wildfires on the two lists overlap: Correlating big and bad is not necessarily correct. The most destructive wildfire, the 2018 Camp Fire, was more than 20,000 acres smaller than the 20th largest wildfire. The second most destructive, the 2017 Tubbs Fire, was less than a quarter of the size of the Camp Fire. Hurteau points to Colorados 2021 Marshall Fire as another example: Its the most destructive fire in that states history, but only covered about 6,000 acres.

Multiple experts, including Hurteau and Barrett, say counting buildings destroyed is a better measurement than size for understanding a wildfires impact.

Fire scientist and former firefighter Crystal Kolden elaborated on this notion in a 2020 Nature article that encouraged a focus on studying what, rather than how much, is burning. She advocated paying more attention to human impacts, such as how many people are injured or killed in a wildfire and how many are evacuated. In a keynote address to the International Association of Wildland Firefighters Fire and Climate conference last year, Kolden also recommended measuring interruptions to basic services like clean water, electricity and school days, as well as tracking unhealthy air quality levels.

When it comes to measuring the wildfires themselves, Hurteau offers another useful metric for understanding how fires are changing: severity. High severity fires are wildfires that kill more than 75% of the overstory vegetation (like trees) in their path. These severe forest burns can be particularly damaging because they destroy seeds and wipe out ecological diversity. Plus, they create lasting risks to human communities, from damaging watersheds to upping the likelihood of debris flows after storms like the ones much of California experienced this winter.

Turning to more nuanced measurements promotes a deeper understanding of the causes, concerns and specific challenges related to wildfires. Someone who might not be able to imagine what 100,000 acres look like can understand what it means to have a week of school canceled due to smoke days or power shutoffs.

The area of land burned by wildfires is likely to keep growing in the years to come. But smarter measurements help show why more fire doesnt have to correlate with more damage.
In the first ruling on a California gun law since the U.S. Supreme Court reduced the governments authority to regulate firearms, a state appeals court has upheld a ban on semiautomatic AR-15-style rifles that state law classifies as assault weapons.

The Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento said the high-capacity rifles, which can be fired repeatedly without reloading, are weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes. That means a state can still prohibit their sale and possession, the court said, even under the tightened standards the Supreme Court announced last June.

In last years ruling, the high court said Americans have a constitutional right to carry concealed weapons in public, overturning laws in New York, California and other states that required the gun owner to show a specific and serious need for self-defense. In the 6-3 decision, Justice Clarence Thomas also said any state or federal restriction on firearm possession, sale or use is unconstitutional unless the government can show it was consistent with this nations historical tradition of firearm regulation, dating as far back as the nations founding.

But the California court said the Supreme Court had not rescinded criteria it set in a 2008 ruling, which  while declaring, for the first time, that individuals have a constitutional right to possess handguns at home for self-defense  allowed state and federal governments to outlaw dangerous and unusual firearms. That description, the appeals court said, applies to guns like the AR-15.

The ruling, issued Friday, upheld the conviction of a San Jose man, Alex Bocanegra, who drove to the San Joaquin County town of Manteca and fired an AR-15-style rifle at the home of a onetime friend who was having a relationship with Bocanegras wife.

Bocanegra, convicted of assault, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, including eight months for possession of an assault weapon. Using language from the Supreme Courts 2008 ruling, the appeals court said Bocanegra certainly was not acting as a law-abiding citizen who possessed his AR-15 rifle for lawful purposes.

Last years Supreme Court ruling, however, has been invoked in challenges to other long-standing gun laws. A federal appeals court in New Orleans cited the ruling in declaring unconstitutional a 1994 federal ban on gun possession by anyone subject to domestic-violence restraining orders, stay-away mandates issued by judges against those who have struck or threatened a spouse or partner. The appeals court said such gun bans were not part of U.S. historical tradition dating back to the nations founding.

California has had a similar law since 1993. State Attorney General Rob Bonta and his counterparts in 22 other states have urged the Supreme Court to overrule the appeals court, saying the decision threatens both the state laws and the lives of victims of domestic violence.

Other California gun laws have also come under renewed legal attack, including the states limit of one gun purchase per month, a requirement that new handgun models micro-stamp their cartridges so that police can identify them at crime scenes and, in a lawsuit Monday, a 10-day mandatory waiting period for all firearm purchases.

Assault weapons, prohibited in California since 1989, are defined in state law as semiautomatic firearms that either have a pistol grip or magazines that can hold at least 10 cartridges. Those guns were banned nationwide in 1994 under a law written by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, but Congress refused to extend the law when it expired in 2004 and has rejected Feinsteins repeated attempts to renew it. Nine other states have similar laws, and all are being challenged in court.

The National Rifle Association and its allies have steered many of their federal court cases in California to a sympathetic jurist, U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego. In a 2021 ruling declaring portions of the assault weapons ban unconstitutional, Benitezs opening words were, Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals immediately put the ruling on hold, and the law remains in effect. But the Supreme Court has returned the case to Benitez for reconsideration under the standards it announced last year.

Last weeks state appeals court ruling, meanwhile, was the first published appellate decision on the assault weapons law and its validity under the Supreme Courts current standard. Unless overturned on appeal, it will be a binding precedent for all trial courts in the states 58 counties.

The rulings conclusions are not binding on federal courts  including the Supreme Court, which may have the last word on the issue  but they must defer to the appeals courts interpretation of the California law.

Its precedent that needs to be considered by any judge, said Billy Clark, litigation attorney for the San Francisco-based Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. He said the Supreme Court has recognized that the Second Amendment is not unlimited. States can continue to use their police power to pass common-sense gun-safety laws, regulating the sale and possession of particularly dangerous weapons.

I thought the opinion was quite good, John Donohue, a Stanford law professor, told The Chronicle. He said the Supreme Court has affirmed that weapons of war are not protected, and, in the words of retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who trained U.S. forces in Iraq, the AR-15 is accurately called a weapon of war.

But C.D. Michel, lawyer for the California Rifle & Pistol Association, the NRAs state affiliate, said by email that the appeals court ruling was uninformed and legally inconsequential. Benitezs decision is all that will matter, Michel said.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday dismissed a suit accusing Twitter of profiting from sex trafficking by allowing a paying customer to post nude photos of two 13-year-old boys. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals relied on a 1996 federal law that shields tech platforms from liability for content posted by others, a law now under review in the Supreme Court.

The law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, was intended to promote online dialogue and self-regulation by platforms such as Twitter, Google and Facebook by immunizing them from suits over content from their customers, in contrast to publications like newspapers and magazines, which have no such immunity.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in February in a suit by the family of an American woman who was killed by gunmen from the ISIS terrorist group in Paris in 2015. The family accused Google and its YouTube subsidiary of wrongfully profiting by allowing ISIS to post videos of the incident to recruit new members, steering viewers to similar content and sharing advertising revenues with ISIS.

A Ninth Circuit panel ruled in 2021 that Section 230 barred the suit, but encouraged Congress to reconsider the law. Congress has not acted, but the Supreme Court is expected to decide within the next two months whether the law protects online platforms in such cases.

Wednesdays ruling involved lawsuits filed in Twitters home city of San Francisco by two teenagers, both identified only as John Doe. One, who lives in Florida, said he was duped into posting nude photos in 2017 by someone posing as a 16-year-old girl at his school, then blackmailed into providing additional sexually explicit photos and videos by traffickers who threatened to tell his parents and others if he refused.

After his classmates began viewing the videos in 2020, the suit said, the youth faced harassment and bullying and became suicidal, while the other John Doe dropped out of school. The youths lawyers said he and his mother asked Twitter to take down the postings, which by then had been viewed 167,000 times, but Twitter replied that it found no violation of its policies; they then contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which prevailed on the company to remove the posts.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero ruled that Section 230 shielded Twitter from the families claims of participating in child pornography and sex trafficking but allowed them to sue the company for allegedly profiting from the traffickers illegal conduct. The appeals court, however, said such claims were also barred by a Ninth Circuit ruling last fall in a suit against the online network Reddit.

In that case, plaintiffs said Reddit provided a platform that made it easy to share child pornography, that it allowed pornographers to serve as content moderators and that it refused to remove pornographic postings. But a Ninth Circuit panel said the allegations, if proven, would show only that Reddit turned a blind eye to child pornography and not that it actively participated in sex trafficking.

In other words, the appeals court said Wednesday, plaintiffs who seek to hold an online company responsible for content posted by others must show a more active degree of participation in the venture than a continuous business relationship between a platform and its users. The 3-0 ruling was issued by Judges Lawrence VanDyke and Gabriel Sanchez and U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy of Michigan, temporarily assigned to the appeals court.

Lawyers for the youths, led by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said the court had misinterpreted the law.

Congress never intended to give technology companies immunity for knowing violations of the laws protecting victims of child pornography and sex trafficking, the lawyers said in a statement. We will continue to pursue justice for our clients who have been harmed by Twitters irresponsible conduct.

An attorney for Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. But the American Civil Liberties Union and advocates for sex workers, including the nonprofit Free Speech Coalition, had urged the court to dismiss the entire lawsuit.

Allowing such cases to proceed, they argued in a court filing, would require online platforms either to remove protected, societally beneficial content to avoid the threat of liability  thereby depleting the full scope of speech and information available to the public  or they would opt to remain willfully ignorant of content posted on their services to avoid having any possible awareness (and therefore arguably constructive knowledge) of illegal content appearing there.
VIENNA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) family in Vienna is marking Chinese Language Day with a spate of cultural events.

More than 600 people, including representatives of Vienna-based international organizations, diplomats and UN employees, attended the grand opening ceremony on Tuesday of the event at the Vienna International Center (VIC).

This year's event, themed "Home of Confucius, Hub of the Belt and Road," features a host of exhibitions on east China's Shandong Province, the birthplace of the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius. The exhibits include photos of the province's renowned landmarks, local signature products as well as Chinese calligraphy works and paintings by local artists.

Musicians from Shandong also performed the province's folk music pieces with traditional Chinese musical instruments at the opening ceremony, drawing rounds of applause from the audience.

At the ceremony, Li Song, China's Permanent Representative to the UN in Vienna, said that as one of the six official languages of the UN, the Chinese language has helped convey the UN's voices to the world and contributed to the UN's effective functioning.

The Chinese envoy called for upholding multilateralism and cultural diversity and promoting people-to-people exchanges and cooperation.

As part of the event, volunteers from the Confucius Institute at the University of Vienna on Tuesday set up a stand in the VIC where they wrote the names of visitors in Chinese on paper slips and gave them as gifts.

Displaying the slip with his Chinese name at the ceremony, Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), praised the "beautiful Chinese calligraphy" and said the Chinese language "greatly enriches our world."

A forum on cultural exchanges was also held on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Chinese Language Day event. The forum gathered officials and scholars to discuss ways to advance exchanges between different civilizations.

This year's Chinese Language Day event at the UN in Vienna, which will run until May 5, is co-hosted by China's Permanent Mission to the UN in Vienna and the Shandong provincial government. 
In an ironic twist, San Francisco Prides campaign to push back against transphobia, to be unveiled this week, has been disrupted by its own brush with transphobia.

SF Pride was all set to make a big statement this week about anti-LGBTQ attacks by announcing that the battle cry for this years event would be the iconic Twisted Sister rock anthem, Were Not Gonna Take It.

Choosing the 1984 song was intended to show how the community was going to push back on the hundreds of pieces of anti-LGBTQ and anti-drag community legislation being passed around the country and the endless amount of hateful venom spewed online. The bands front man, Dee Snider, a longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights, had agreed to perform the song at the events center stage.

It was shaping up to be an only-in-San Francisco moment  one with the potential to appeal to many different subcultures, and perhaps soften the venom coming from others. It could have helped SF Pride to refortify itself as an institution that has held one of the most powerful political megaphones in the LGBTQ community for the past five decades.

That was the plan until Tuesday, when Pride leaders broke with Snider after learning that he recently supported a transphobic Twitter post by 71-year-old rock star Paul Stanley.

On Sunday, Stanley, who rode to fame more than five decades ago as a member of the band Kiss, tweeted that There is a BIG difference between teaching acceptance and normalizing and even encouraging participation in a lifestyle that confuses young children ... as though (it is) some sort of game and then parents in some cases allow it.

Stanley chided parents who mistakenly confuse teaching acceptance with normalizing and encouraging a situation that has been a struggle for those truly affected and have turned it into a sad and dangerous fad.

Snider, who like Stanley, frequently wore makeup onstage, responded on Twitter: You know what? There was a time where I felt pretty too. Glad my parents didnt jump to any rash conclusions! Well said, @PaulStanleyLive.

And that killed what could have been an image that beamed around the world at SF Prides June celebration: A moment when a 68-year-old cisgender heterosexual rock icon stood up as an ally for the embattled LGBTQ community.

Snider may have been a longtime ally to the community, but Pride officials couldnt feature him after that.

When we were notified about the tweet  we were heartbroken and angry, Suzanne Ford, executive director of SF Pride, said Tuesday. The message perpetuated by that tweet casts doubt on young trans peoples ability to self-identify their gender.

Ford said, With transphobia proliferating and becoming more and more enshrined in law throughout the country  we have to stand up for the most impacted among us.

Ford, a trans woman, knows personally the power that Pride can have. Ford told me that for many San Franciscans, Pride is mostly a rallying point for our community. It started out as a riot, and it has since progressed. Its still a riot, but now we are also celebrating our culture and commemorating our heritage.

But for people who live outside of San Francisco, it means something different. Growing up in rural Kentucky, Ford, 57, recalled seeing clips from Pride on the TV news once a year. It wasnt always in a complimentary way  particularly in the 1970s, when there were few LGBTQ people living openly near her.

Seeing San Francisco Pride on the national news said to me, Oh, theres hope. Theres a place in the world where I could be me if I could get there,  Ford told me. You dont think thats possible when you dont see people like you in your daily life.

Nguyen Pham, the president of the SF Pride board, said the organization realizes that San Francisco represents a beacon of hope to the rest of the nation and in many parts of the world.

What weve found is simply by inserting ourselves as best as we can into more of the mainstream, we gain more visibility, we effect better representation and we demonstrate more inclusion, Pham said. And all of that is baked into this idea that we can change hearts and minds that way.

But this year, SF Pride will have to change hearts and minds without someone who could have reached into different parts of the mainstream. The official theme of this years event: Looking Back and Moving Forward.

Unfortunately, Sniders good intentions were subverted by what he was trying to get people to defeat: transphobia.
The news that Nordstrom will close its two downtown San Francisco locations came as a huge blow to the area, and may serve as a harbinger of even darker times for the citys troubled downtown.

But the announcement that Nordstrom would not renew leases at the Westfield mall and at its Market Street Nordstrom Rack location will also have a very human effect.

Specifically, 333 employees will lose their jobs on Aug. 27 at the Nordstrom location inside the mall, the day that location shutters, while another 46 people will be laid off as of July 1 at the Nordstrom Rack location, the company told state workforce regulators.

Certain employees will be offered the opportunity to transfer to other Nordstrom locations, the company said in the legally required filings sent to the California Employment Development Department. We have not yet determined who will be offered these opportunities.

The closures and layoffs come as downtown retail in particular faces a reckoning as pandemic-fueled remote work has emptied out the citys economic core and as concerns about street crime have entered the national conversation.

On the same block as Nordstroms main store, an alleged shoplifter at a Walgreens was fatally shot by a security guard last week.

Nordstrom also reportedly laid off an unspecified number of tech workers last month, Geekwire reported.

Its workforce has been shrinking for about five years, filings show.

In a January SEC filing, the company said it had about 60,000 employees, about 80% of them hourly employees, while the other 20% are salaried.

That is down from the 72,500 the company employed on a full- or part-time basis in 2017.

Chronicle reporter Roland Li contributed to this report
UPDATE: S.F. District Attorney says she could still file charges in Walgreens fatal shooting

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin on Tuesday said he will formally urge District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to reconsider her decision to not file charges against a Walgreens security officer after authorities said he shot and killed an unarmed man accused of shoplifting last week.

Peskin said information he learned from police about the incident convinced him to weigh in on a prosecutorial decision. The step is highly unusual, and Peskin said he never had urged such a reconsideration during his two decades in office.

I am deeply concerned based on my conversations with law enforcement by the district attorneys decision not to charge at least manslaughter, Peskin said during the meeting.



Peskins comments came after prosecutors declined Monday to file charges against the security guard who was arrested on suspicion of shooting and killing a 24-year-old man Banko Brown near a Walgreens on Market Street. Community backlash mounted during a rally Monday and on Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors meeting when dozens of people spoke out against Jenkins decision.

Peskin told the Chronicle after Tuesdays Board of Supervisors meeting that he has not seen the security footage of the incident, which has not been released to the public, but talked last week to the Central Station police captain, whose officers brought the case to the district attorney as a homicide.



On Wednesday, Peskin said law enforcement told him Brown went into the Walgreens and allegedly helped himself to $14 worth of candy and was then confronted by the security guard. They got into a tussle and after Brown headed out the door, they exchanged words. Peskin said Brown allegedly spat at the guard, who then shot him.



A spokesperson for the D.A.s office confirmed Wednesday that Brown was unarmed.

That doesnt seem to rise to the level of shooting somebody, he said.



The Chronicle reached out to the captain, who couldnt be reached for comment Tuesday evening.



Several supervisors called on the police and D.A. to release video of the incident, but police said they wont release the footage because the investigation remains open and active.



On Wednesday, state Senator Scott Wiener weighed in on the case.



Banko Browns death serves as a reminder of the many ways our country and our community continue to fail our Black and transgender neighbors, he said in a statement. His death is all the more tragic because it was preventable. While we are still awaiting comprehensive investigation results on what occurred that day, initial accounts appear to indicate Banko Brown was unarmed. Businesses employing private security must take appropriate safety precautions to prevent horrific tragedies like this one.



Wiener said residents are closely watching how local law enforcement is handling the investigation.

It is critical that the investigation proceed with urgency and transparency, he added. I will be monitoring this process, and I have every confidence that District Attorney Jenkins and SFPD will conduct a thorough and transparent investigation.

Police Chief Bill Scott told the Chronicle on Friday that the call came in that it was a shoplift that went bad. The person that was shot  allegedly was shoplifting and it was a confrontation and the shooting happened from there.

On Monday, Jenkins announced that prosecutors were declining to file a murder charge against security guard Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony. She said in a statement that the evidence clearly shows that the suspect believed he was in mortal danger and acted in self-defense.

In the incident that led to Browns killing, both threats of force and physical force were used, she told The Chronicle on Monday. Jenkins declined to divulge further details, including whether Brown was allegedly armed. She said prosecutors werent convinced they could prove murder charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

Its never easy to have to come to that conclusion, Jenkins said, but my personal feelings cannot be what governs my decision. It has to be the law.

Peskins comments followed a tense meeting Tuesday where a couple of dozen protesters flooded the City Hall chamber during public comment chanting Justice for Banko Brown, with some holding signs that read Hold DA Jenkins accountable.



At Mondays rally, hundreds of mourners gathered outside the closed Walgreens and remembered Brown as a generous and dedicated member of San Franciscos transgender community.

Supervisor Shamann Walton said during Tuesdays meeting he stood by Peskins move to request a formal reconsideration.

We cannot accept things like that happening in our city, he said.

Supervisors Hillary Ronen, Dean Preston and Ahsha Safai expressed grief over the incident and solidarity with protesters demanding answers. The six other supervisors did not speak on the case during the meeting.

Supervisor Matt Dorsey said in a text to The Chronicle that last Thursdays homicide was a terribly painful loss to a community that loved him very much, but added that in this case, D.A. Jenkins and her office found insufficient evidence to pursue murder charges against the suspect.

I know that outcome doesnt feel like justice to many who knew Banko, but I pray that time and Gods grace can heal the trauma of this tragedy for all involved, Dorsey wrote.

The board closed Tuesdays meeting with an in memoriam to Brown.
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San Franciscos office vacancy crisis may hit The Chronicle building a year before the historic property turns 100 years old.

The 200,000-square-foot building at 901 Mission St. is currently fully leased, but two leases by tech firms Yahoo and Autodesk are expiring this fall and arent being renewed. Along with smaller expirations, 120,000 square feet, or 60% of the building, could be vacant by fall, adding to the citys record-high 29.4% office vacancy rate at the end of March.

The expirations are another drag on the South of Market and nearby Mid-Market economy. Less than two blocks away, Nordstrom is closing two stores and Saks Off 5th is also departing. The area has struggled with homelessness, drug use and vacant storefronts for decades, and the pandemic and remote work have emptied streets, shops and offices further. Last week, an alleged shoplifter was fatally shot in a nearby Walgreens, raising public safety fears.

Yahoo is leaving 901 Mission St. after a decade as a tenant, as the once-dominant search and web company shrinks after multiple ownership changes. The company, which is now headquartered in New York after moving out of Sunnyvale, said in February its laying off 20% of staff or, reportedly, around 1,600 people.

It isnt clear if Yahoo will relocate to another location in San Francisco or leave the city entirely. Yahoo didnt respond to multiple requests for comment. Earlier this year, the company leased 78,000 square feet of office space in Mountain View.

Roland Li / The Chronicle

Hearst Real Estate, whose parent company Hearst owns The Chronicle and 901 Mission St., confirmed it plans to market Yahoos 72,000-square-foot space for lease and is in the process of hiring brokerage CBRE. Hearst Real Estate declined to comment on the specifics of Yahoos lease. Yahoos space was previously occupied by Jack Dorseys payments company Square, now Block.

Autodesk has also been marketing its 34,000-square-foot office for sublease at 901 Mission St. since late 2020, according to a real estate listing on CoStar. A marketing page advertises reduced asking rent of $25 per square foot, around a third of the citys average, but no subtenants have signed on. The lease expires in October.

As more Autodesk employees take advantage of our flexible options, weve reassessed how we use physical office space to support the evolving needs of our team and business, the company said.

The company has also listed part of its headquarters space at One Market Plaza for sublease after adopting a hybrid work schedule.

The Chronicles new, much taller neighbor, the 415 Natoma St. tower, has also struggled to find tenants and is 97% vacant. The tower opened during the pandemic with 640,000 square feet of office space. Only 20,000 square feet, or 3%, has been leased to home service tech company Thumbtack. Its part of the 5M megaproject and owned by Brookfield, which partnered with Hearst on 5M.

The Mid-Market-SoMa West submarket is still very challenged considering so much of the leasing activity is still focused on the flight to quality, said Derek Daniels, Colliers San Francisco research director. People are concerned about safety and amenities.

Colliers is the broker for the Autodesk sublease listing, but Daniels is not directly involved.

Daniels said 415 Natoma St., in particular, had unfortunate timing, with the pandemic freezing most office demand just as the building was completed.

Long term, Daniels remains bullish on the city and is hopeful that the boom in AI will help power a new era of growth.

San Francisco is a supply constrained market, physically and because of Proposition M, which limits office approvals, he said. I think AI is absolutely the next big wave.

Roland Li / The Chronicle

The Chronicle and SFGATE, which operate separately, occupy a total of 30,000 square feet at 901 Mission St. The Chronicles historic newsroom was extensively renovated during the pandemic. Other tenants include Hearst corporate and magazine divisions, along with nonprofits.

Hearst Real Estate also confirmed that the second phase of 5M is on hold due to market conditions and the high cost of construction, which have stymied numerous other projects around the city as well. Plans call for a new 400-unit condo tower next to The Chronicle building, along with a public rooftop park on top of the newspaper offices.

Yahoo was founded in 1995 and was an early internet pioneer. Its since ceded much of its Silicon Valley influence and office space to todays dominant players.

In 2019, Google paid Yahoo $1 billion for seven buildings in its now former Sunnyvale headquarters. Last year, TikTok owner ByteDance signed a massive 658,000-square-foot sublease for Yahoos San Jose offices.

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management bought Yahoo in 2021 for $5 billion from Verizon, which retains a 10% stake. Yahoos brands include popular tech website TechCrunch and another once-mighty internet pioneer, AOL.
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Meta is poised to shed an additional 1,500 workers in the Bay Area as part of its 21,000 layoffs. The social media titan will be slashing jobs across its San Francisco, Burlingame, Sunnyvale, Fremont and Menlo Park offices, according to letters sent to state and local officials on Monday.

The affected employees include hardware and software engineers, product managers and staff from its artificial intelligence teams. These layoffs are expected to be permanent and will take place in June and July, according to the documents submitted by Lori Goler, the companys head of people.
NAIROBI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, said Wednesday it has appealed for 759 million U.S. dollars to provide life-saving support to 16.6 million people, including 12.2 million children in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia in 2023.

Of that, 137.5 million U.S. dollars are needed for Kenya. An additional 690 million dollars are required to provide climate-sensitive resilience support to communities across the affected areas in 2023 and 2024, the UNICEF said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

The statement follows a visit to northeastern Kenya by UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell who on Tuesday met families and refugees struggling to recover from the worst climate-induced drought to hit the region in 40 years.

Russell visited drought-affected Garissa County and the Dadaab refugee camp, a semi-arid town in the county, said even with the onset of rains, it will take time and commitment by the international community for these communities to begin to recover.

"Rain has finally started to come, giving people hope, but it is a long road to recovery. Children are still hungry, they are at risk of cholera, they need to be in school, and many have no prospects for going home," she said.

According to the UNICEF, after five poor or failed rainy seasons in the last three years in the Horn of Africa, many families lost their cattle, crops, and entire livelihoods, putting the lives of more than 1.5 million children at risk due to severe acute malnutrition.

She said even after recent rainfall, the parched ground is unable to absorb all the water, leading to flooding and further devastation.

According to the UN, drought in the Horn of Africa has been compounded by years of conflict and insecurity, the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19, and rising food and fuel prices, partly due to the conflict in Ukraine.

It said the cost of cooking oil, bread, and wheat flour across the region remains high in local markets and many families cannot afford the basic necessities to survive.

More than 2.5 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have been displaced due to drought, according to the UN. "As families are driven to the brink, children are going hungry, missing school, forced into child labor or early marriage and becoming sick, including from cholera outbreaks," it said.

With the cycles of drought followed by flooding, the next devastating crisis may hit before children and their families have had a chance to recover, the UNICEF said.

In Dadaab, near the Somali border, Russell met with newly arrived refugees from Somalia at the Ifo Refugee Camp, where the UNICEF is working with partners to provide nutrition, child protection, and education. She visited a health post providing out-patient health and nutrition services, including for the cholera response, and spoke to families receiving child protection services, including the prevention of child marriage.

"Families continue to arrive in Dadaab from Somalia desperately hoping to survive," said Russell and lauded Kenya for its renewed support to incoming refugees and the local communities, who are themselves affected by the drought.

"We must respond to these emergencies while building long-term resilience in vulnerable areas," she said.

The UNICEF said it's working with governments and partners across the region to support millions of children in need.

Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp, was set up in 1991 to house people fleeing conflict in Somalia. 
The arraignment of Nima Momeni, who is accused of killing Cash App founder Bob Lee, was delayed for a third time at San Franciscos Hall of Justice on Tuesday.

In a hearing that lasted only about 6 minutes, Momenis lawyer, Paula Canny, told San Francisco Superior Court Judge Victor Hwang that she needs more time to better prepare for the trial and asked to postpone the arraignment until May 18. Canny has said that her client will plead not guilty.

Hwang asked Momeni whether he agreed to waive his right to a speedy trial. I trust my people, your honor, Momeni, dressed in orange, said.

After the hearing, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the defense has the right to delay the arraignment as long as it likes. While Jenkins said delays are very typical by the defense, they occur more frequently after the arraignment. The delays, she said, are discouraging for Lees family members, who have packed the courtroom during hearings.

Bob Lee was loved tremendously by his family and by his friends and they have committed themselves to being present at each and every hearing of this case, Jenkins said after the arraignment. They were here for the last court date. I expect them to be here for the next court date as they wait for justice to be pursued in this case. Its a testament to what victims have to endure in this system, they have to be at the beck and call of the court until the defense chooses to move forward.

Momeni, a 38-year-old IT consultant from Emeryville, is charged with murder, and is accused of using a kitchen knife to stab Lee three times in San Franciscos Rincon Hill, a quiet bayside corner of the SoMa neighborhood, early in the morning of April 4. The prosecution said that Momeni was partying with Lee and Momenis sister, Khazar Elyassnia, the day before the stabbing. A witness overheard Momeni confront Lee about whether his sister was doing drugs or anything inappropriate, according to charging papers.

Lee called 911 at 2:36 a.m. and medics rushed to the scene, providing CPR as Lee was gasping for breath. Lee was taken to San Francisco General, where he underwent more than three hours of medical procedures, including an emergency thoracotomy, before being pronounced dead at 6:49 a.m., according to the medical examiners report released on Monday.

Lee had drugs in his system, including alcohol, cocaine and ketamine (an anesthetic that can have hallucinogenic effects), the report said.

Outside the courtroom, Canny spoke with reporters about the toxicology report, stating that it will absolutely factor into the case and referring to Lees system as the Walgreens of recreational drugs.

Of Cannys comments, Jenkins said Tuesday that its typical for the defense to denigrate the reputations of victims. That is a customary defense tactic, she said.

Jenkins said that while she has not had the opportunity to review the medical examiner report, she doesnt believe that at this point that any drugs being present or not play a part in what happens.

News reporters pressed Canny on why shes delaying the arraignment when she knows that the plea will be not guilty.

The minute you enter a plea you have to make a decision about whether youre going to waive time for a preliminary hearing, she said. What I cant decide about is whether or not to waive time for the preliminary hearing. It has nothing to do with the plea. It has to do with the fact that the minute you enter that plea, you have to make timing decisions.

Momeni is now slated to be back in court on May 18; he has been held in jail without bail since his arrest.
On Tuesday, Nordstrom announced that it will close its last two San Francisco locations  its spot at the Westfield San Francisco Centre and the Nordstrom Rack on Market Street  making it the latest retailer to leave the downtown area.

In a statement to SFGATE, the company said it was leaving because the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully.

A spokesperson for Westfield told SFGATE, A growing number of retailers and businesses are leaving the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees, coupled with the fact that these significant issues are preventing an economic recovery of the area. The spokesperson also blamed lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity.

To District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents the area in which the stores are located, the saga is similar to when a Whole Foods in his district announced last month that it would close because of public safety concerns.

Since my appointment to the board, I have been hearing that the mall and its tenants have real public safety concerns, he told SFGATE on Tuesday. I understand and share those concerns, and I chose to seek this job because of them.

Dorsey, a political moderate, was appointed to the Board of Supervisors last year by Mayor London Breed. His appointment was controversial to progressives because he previously worked as a communications director for the San Francisco Police Department. After the Whole Foods closure was announced, Dorsey unveiled plans to introduce a charter amendment that would mandate minimum staffing levels for San Francisco police officers.

Property crime has been a persistent problem for San Francisco  it has higher rates of property crime than other similarly sized cities  and Dorsey has said he believes thats a direct result of not having enough police officers, who are currently prioritizing violent crimes. After the news of Nordstroms departure, Dorsey doubled down on his proposal, saying the mall had asked for more patrols.

With the current police staffing, we cant deal with lower-level quality of life issues, Dorsey said. The reason we cant get there is because were 500-plus officers short.

Dorseys analysis shows San Francisco currently has 1,514 full-duty sworn officers to serve a population of more than 800,000 residents.

Some progressive critics would argue Dorsey is cynically using the news of businesses closures to push for more resources for his old friends at the department (My copaganda supervisor is the worstttttt, wrote one Twitter user). Some would even argue that the businesses themselves are inflating crime fears to cover for poor business decisions. One San Francisco Chronicle opinion piece suggested that Whole Foods should not have opened a 63,737-square-foot store stocked with gourmet cheese and sustainable caviar in a neighborhood where no one can afford to shop there. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms).

Dorsey, who defeated his more progressive challenger Honey Mahogany in last Novembers election, believes progressives and members and the media are out of touch when it comes to crime discourse. If anything, he said, hes perceived as too soft on crime. He said that the Nordstrom closure is already adding fuel to the fire residents are using to craft torches.

I hear this from residents a lot: I appreciate youre proposing policies, but what are you going to do right now about the drug scene in front of my house? Dorsey said. I have been in community meeting after community meeting, and I have never seen San Franciscans as close to pitchforks and torches as they are now. I get yelled at by residents, and I understand their impatience.

He said that his constituents reacted extremely negatively to the Chronicle opinion piece on Whole Foods. The piece attempted to liken the situation to when Walgreens tried to blame the closure of five San Francisco locations on crime, but SEC filings had indicated the chain was already looking to close 200 locations nationwide to cut costs. A Walgreens executive later said that the company cried too much about retail theft when discussing reasons behind closures.

The Chronicle piece featured anonymous Whole Foods employees who alleged that the company almost certainly didnt do its due diligence about the neighborhood before signing the lease, and that store management made dubious decisions, like putting the liquor section by an exit and hiring poorly trained guards who tended to escalate confrontations into violence. Dorsey, who said he shopped at that Whole Foods location, argued that the opinion piece did not actually disprove the fact that the location faced public safety problems. He added that the struggles facing the neighborhood have worsened in recent years, though he also feels strongly that the residents of his district should not simply accept the idea that because of where they live, they dont deserve access to a high-quality grocery store.

For people in my district to read that it was somehow silly for us to think we could have a Whole Foods, that didnt go over well, he said. Its really gaslighting people to say that what were experiencing in San Francisco is the way its always been. We know better. Youre asking us to disbelieve our eyes in the neighborhood and also in the supermarket.

He said that similar attempts to argue that the Nordstrom closure had nothing to do with retail theft or the citys public drug use will be similarly misguided.

Dorsey is so confident that public opinion is on his side when it comes to increased police staffing that he delivered a plea to businesses who are also considering closing locations in the city: I know its been a difficult few years, people have made sacrifices and San Francisco is not coming back as fast as wed like, but the fundamentals remain strong and theres cause for optimism, he said.

The nice thing about a charter amendment is that it will send a message on election night to businesses considering whether to stay that voters are committed to public safety, he added.

Dorsey believes he is making good progress in achieving the six Board of Supervisors votes necessary to place the amendment on the March 2024 ballot without having to resort to an expensive signature-gathering campaign.

When asked whether the charter amendment would include language that worked to increase department efficiency, in light of anecdotes of officers not doing their jobs and a study that found SFPD solves fewer crimes despite larger staffing per city resident and costs per area patrolled than other California jurisdictions, Dorsey said he wants to limit the amendment to staffing.

Even if we didnt have public safety issues in San Francisco, we would still have a police staffing crisis that deserves to be solved, he said. Weve been understaffed for 30 years, so lets just fix this. The great thing about democracy is that on the board we can agree to disagree, and then with a charter amendment, take it to voters and see what they think.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Geoffrey Hinton, an award-winning computer scientist known as the godfather of artificial intelligence, is having some serious second thoughts about the fruits of his labors.

Hinton helped pioneer AI technologies critical to a new generation of highly capable chatbotssuch as ChatGPT. But in recent interviews, he says that he recently resigned a high-profile job at Google specifically to share his concerns that unchecked AI development could pose danger to humanity.

I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us," he said in an interview with MIT Technology Review. "I think theyre very close to it now and they will be much more intelligent than us in the future.... How do we survive that?

Hinton is not alone in his concerns. Shortly after the Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI released its latest AI model called GPT-4 in March, more than 1,000 researchers and technologists signed a letter calling for a six-month pause on AI development because, they said, it poses profound risks to society and humanity.

Here's a look at Hinton's biggest concerns about the future of AI ... and humanity.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE NEURAL NETWORKS

Our human brains can solve calculus equations, drive cars and keep track of the characters in Succession thanks to their native talent for organizing and storing information and reasoning out solutions to thorny problems. The roughly 86 billion neurons packed into our skulls  and, more important, the 100 trillion connections those neurons forge among themselves  make that possible.

By contrast, the technology underlying ChatGPT features between 500 billion and a trillion connections, Hinton said in the interview. While that would seem to put it at a major disadvantage relative to us, Hinton notes that GPT-4, the latest AI model from OpenAI, knows hundreds of times more than any single human. Maybe, he suggests, it has a "much better learning algorithm than we do, making it more efficient at cognitive tasks.

AI MAY ALREADY BE SMARTER THAN US

Researchers have long noted that artificial neural networks take much more time to absorb and apply new knowledge than people do, since training them requires tremendous amounts of both energy and data. That's no longer the case, Hinton argues, noting that systems like GPT-4 can learn new things very quickly once properly trained by researchers. That's not unlike the way a trained professional physicist can wrap her brain around new experimental findings much more quickly than a typical high school science student could.

That leads Hinton to the conclusion that AI systems might already be outsmarting us. Not only can AI systems learn things faster, he notes, they can also share copies of their knowledge with each other almost instantly.

Its a completely different form of intelligence, he told the publication. A new and better form of intelligence.

WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS

What would smarter-than-human AI systems do? One unnerving possibility is that malicious individuals, groups or nation-states might simply co-opt them to further their own ends. Hinton is particularly concerned that these tools could be trained to sway elections and even to wage wars.

Election misinformation spread via AI chatbots, for instance, could be the future version of election misinformation spread via Facebook and other social media platforms.

And that might just be the beginning. Dont think for a moment that Putin wouldnt make hyper-intelligent robots with the goal of killing Ukrainians, Hinton said in the article. He wouldnt hesitate."

A SHORTAGE OF SOLUTIONS

Whats not clear is how anyone would stop a power like Russia from using AI technology to dominate its neighbors or its own citizens. Hinton suggests that a global agreement similar to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention might be a good first step toward establishing international rules against weaponized AI.

Though it's also worth noting that the chemical weapons compact did not stop what investigators found were likely Syrian attacks using chlorine gas and the nerve agent sarin against civilians in 2017 and 2018 during the nation's bloody civil war.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  Big Tech companies such as Google and Meta might soon have to pay media outlets for posting and using their news content under a proposed California measure attempting to save local journalism.

The bill, which cleared an important Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday with bipartisan support, would require Google and Meta to share with California media companies their advertising revenue stemming from the news and other reported content. The amount would be determined through an arbitration process.

Supporters of the bill said it would provide a lifeline to local news organizations that have seen their advertising revenues nosedive in the digital era. Opponents, including trade groups and some journalism groups, said the legislation would be an unprecedented mandate that violates the First Amendment.

The bill would mandate that at least 70% of their revenue go to local news organizations to help pay for reporters' salaries. Big Tech companies would also be prohibited from retaliating against a news outlet for demanding a fee by excluding their content on the platforms.

As news consumption has moved online, community news outlets have been downsized and closing at an alarming rate, said Assemblymember Buffy Wicks of Oakland, who authored the bill, said during the Tuesday hearing.

The Democrat said that California has lost more than 100 news organizations in the past decade.

The dominant type platforms, both search engines and social networks, have such unrivaled market power that newsrooms are coerced to share the content they produce, which tech companies sell advertising against for almost no compensation in return, she said, noting her bill is being backed by major journalism unions such as the News Media Alliance and Media Guild of the West, which represents The Los Angeles Times and other newsrooms.

But critics of the bill said the legislation is unconstitutional for requiring online platforms to post content from all news organizations. It would also reward clickbait content and limit the ability for Google and Meta to fight misinformation on their platforms as it could be seen as retaliation, said a representative from Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group.

Chris Krewson, executive director of LION Publishers, a national news group representing more than 450 independent newsrooms, said the bill is fundamentally flawed and wasn't written with small newsrooms in mind.

The bill would mostly benefit newspaper chains and hedge funds that have gutted local newsrooms in the last few decades, he said. His group represents more than 50 local newsrooms in California, 80% of which are operations with five or fewer journalists. Most of those news outlets wouldn't meet the requirements to benefit, he said.

I applaud the lawmaker for getting bipartisan support on this, Krewson said in an interview Tuesday. But this is backward.

Over the last two years, LION Publishers has received at least $1 million in funding from Meta but Krewson said he's not speaking on the tech company's behalf.

Similar efforts to bolster local news companies have been attempted across the United States, Australia and Canada, among others, with various levels of success. Australia adopted a law in 2021 that resulted in $140 million in payments to news companies from Google and Facebook last year.

U.S. lawmakers are also pushing for similar initiatives, reintroducing a bill in March that failed in the last congressional session and would have allowed news companies to jointly negotiate an advertising rate with tech giants such as Google.

Meta declined to comment on the California bill but pointed to a statement it made to the U.S. Congress in 2022 and another it made to the Canadian government this year when it threatened to pull all news content from its platform if the company would have to pay for news. Google didn't respond to an email seeking comment on the California bill.

Despite clearing another hurdle Tuesday, questions remain about how the bill would be implemented. Some lawmakers noted that Meta's Facebook and Google do not operate the same way. Google scrapes news websites and provides users with summaries of reported content, while Facebook shows content such as photos, videos and articles to users based on their activities on the platform.

Democratic Assemblymember Matt Haney of San Francisco said he's also concerned with how the state would ensure the money goes to local journalists.

How do we actually make sure that this isn't simply profits handed from one company to another big company?" he asked at the hearing Thursday.

Wicks said she plans to have clarifications on those concerns before the June 2 deadline, which is the last day the Assembly could vote on the bill before it is taken up by the Senate. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has not indicated whether he would back such legislation.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Google plans to build two more data centers in Ohio to help power its artificial intelligence technology and other tools, the company and state officials announced Wednesday.

With one data center already up and running near Columbus, the two new locations will bring Google's total investment in Ohio to more than $2 billion, officials said.

Ohio is seeing a wave of big investments by the technology industry.

Intel is building a $20 billion chip factory just east of Columbus, and Honda and LG Energy Solution of South Korea are building a $3.5 billion battery plant between Columbus and Cincinnati that the automaker envisions as its North American electric vehicle hub.

The area around Columbus also is home to data centers operated by Facebook and Amazon.

The two new Google data centers will be built in Columbus and Lancaster.

Ohio is a growing technology hub and data center market, and we welcome these two new Google projects in Columbus and Lancaster to complement the one already in New Albany, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.

Mark Isakowitz, Googles head of government affairs in the U.S. and Canada, would not say how many jobs would be created, adding that data centers typically employ about 50 people at opening and those numbers increase as they expand.

If you look at some of the sites we have around the country, its hundreds and hundreds of people as you build and as you grow, he said.

Data centers have proliferated across the U.S. and become a welcome revenue source for local governments. They also require a large amount of electricity and high-voltage transmission lines.

In northern Virginia, which is home to the biggest cluster of data centers, complaints have grown mostly about the constant noise from fans needed to cool the computers and servers.
Bebeto Matthews/AP

In an about-face, Twitter says it has restored free access to a key tool for verified government and publicly owned services so they can tweet weather, transit and other alerts after New York City's transit agency said earlier this week it would no longer use the platform for its service advisories.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is among countless official and unofficial accounts that abruptly lost access to Twitters API, or application programming interface, to send out automated alerts about service changes and emergencies last week. By Thursday afternoon, senior executives agreed to cease publishing service alerts to the platform altogether.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP)  Computer scientists who helped build the foundations of todays artificial intelligence technology are warning of its dangers, but that doesnt mean they agree on what those dangers are or how to prevent them.

Humanity's survival is threatened when "smart things can outsmart us, so-called Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton said at a conference Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It may keep us around for a while to keep the power stations running, Hinton said. But after that, maybe not.

After retiring from Google so he could speak more freely, the 75-year-old Hinton said he's recently changed his views about the reasoning capabilities of the computer systems he's spent a lifetime researching.

These things will have learned from us, by reading all the novels that ever were and everything Machiavelli ever wrote, how to manipulate people, Hinton said, addressing the crowd attending MIT Technology Review's EmTech Digital conference from his home via video. Even if they cant directly pull levers, they can certainly get us to pull levers.

I wish I had a nice simple solution I could push, but I dont, he added. Im not sure there is a solution.

Fellow AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, co-winner with Hinton of the top computer science prize, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he's pretty much aligned with Hinton's concerns brought on by chatbots such as ChatGPT and related technology, but worries that to simply say We're doomed is not going to help.

The main difference, I would say, is hes kind of a pessimistic person, and Im more on the optimistic side, said Bengio, a professor at the University of Montreal. I do think that the dangers  the short-term ones, the long-term ones  are very serious and need to be taken seriously by not just a few researchers but governments and the population.

There are plenty of signs that governments are listening. The White House has called in the CEOs of Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to meet Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris in what's being described by officials as a frank discussion on how to mitigate both the near-term and long-term risks of their technology. European lawmakers are also accelerating negotiations to pass sweeping new AI rules.

But all the talk of the most dire future dangers has some worried that hype around superhuman machines  which don't exist  is distracting from attempts to set practical safeguards on current AI products that are largely unregulated and have been shown to cause real-world harms.

Margaret Mitchell, a former leader on Googles AI ethics team, said shes upset that Hinton didnt speak out during his decade in a position of power at Google, especially after the 2020 ouster of prominent Black scientist Timnit Gebru, who had studied the harms of large language models before they were widely commercialized into products such as ChatGPT and Googles Bard.

Its a privilege that he gets to jump from the realities of the propagation of discrimination now, the propagation of hate language, the toxicity and nonconsensual pornography of women, all of these issues that are actively harming people who are marginalized in tech, said Mitchell, who was also forced out of Google in the aftermath of Gebru's departure. Hes skipping over all of those things to worry about something farther off.

Bengio, Hinton and a third researcher, Yann LeCun, who works at Facebook parent Meta, were all awarded the Turing Prize in 2019 for their breakthroughs in the field of artificial neural networks, instrumental to the development of today's AI applications such as ChatGPT.

Bengio, the only one of the three who didn't take a job with a tech giant, has voiced concerns for years about near-term AI risks, including job market destabilization, automated weaponry and the dangers of biased data sets.

But those concerns have grown recently, leading Bengio to join other computer scientists and tech business leaders like Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in calling for a six-month pause on developing AI systems more powerful than OpenAI's latest model, GPT-4.

Bengio said Wednesday he believes the latest AI language models already pass the Turing test named after British codebreaker and AI pioneer Alan Turing's method introduced in 1950 to measure when AI becomes indistinguishable from a human  at least on the surface.

Thats a milestone that can have drastic consequences if were not careful, Bengio said. My main concern is how they can be exploited for nefarious purposes to destabilize democracies, for cyberattacks, disinformation. You can have a conversation with these systems and think that youre interacting with a human. Theyre difficult to spot.

Where researchers are less likely to agree is on how current AI language systems  which have many limitations, including a tendency to fabricate information  might actually get smarter than humans not just in memorizing huge troves of information, but in showing critical reasoning and other human skills.

Aidan Gomez was one of the co-authors of the pioneering 2017 paper that introduced a so-called transformer technique  the T at the end of ChatGPT  for improving the performance of machine-learning systems, especially in how they learn from passages of text. Then just a 20-year-old intern at Google, Gomez remembers laying on a couch at the company's California headquarters when his team sent out the paper around 3 a.m. when it was due.

Aidan, this is going to be so huge, he remembers a colleague telling him, of the work that's since helped lead to new systems that can generate humanlike prose and imagery.

Six years later and now CEO of his own AI company called Cohere, which Hinton has invested in, Gomez is enthused about the potential applications of these systems but bothered by fearmongering he says is detached from the reality of their true capabilities and relies on extraordinary leaps of imagination and reasoning."

The notion that these models are somehow gonna get access to our nuclear weapons and launch some sort of extinction-level event is not a productive discourse to have, Gomez said. "Its harmful to those real pragmatic policy efforts that are trying to do something good.

Asked about his investments in Cohere on Wednesday in light of his broader concerns about AI, Hinton said he had no plans to pull his investments because there are still many helpful applications of language models in medicine and elsewhere. He also said he hadn't made any bad decisions in pursuing the research he started in the 1970s.

Until very recently, I thought this existential crisis was a long way off, Hinton said. So I dont really have any regrets about what I did.
DALLAS (AP)  Airlines expecting a hectic summer travel season are planning to hire thousands of new workers this year, lifting a job market that has been hit by layoffs in technology and turmoil in the banking industry.

United Airlines said Wednesday that it hired 7,000 new workers in the first four months of this year and plans to hit 15,000 new hires by year-end, matching the number it hired last year.

By 2026, United projects adding 50,000 workers to a workforce that was about 93,000 at the start of this year.

We are in hiring mode here at United Airlines, Kate Gebo, the company's executive vice president of human resources, told reporters. Airline officials said they already have enough pilots to operate the peak summer schedule.

Airlines have been in a hiring frenzy since being caught understaffed when air travel bounced back from the depths of the pandemic more quickly than anticipated. Shortages of pilots and flight attendants contributed to a jump in the rates of canceled and delayed flights last year.

The nation's passenger airlines received $54 billion in taxpayer money to keep people on the payroll through the pandemic, and they were prohibited from making layoffs, but they got around that prohibition by paying workers to quit or take early retirement.

Since bottoming out in November 2020, airline-industry jobs have jumped by more than 117,000  an increase of 32%  to more than 480,00 as of this February, the latest figures available from the Transportation Department. That is a 5% increase over the pre-pandemic peak.

Delta Air Lines hasn't disclosed its 2023 hiring plans, but CEO Ed Bastian has said the airline has hired nearly 20,000 workers since the start of 2021.

Southwest Airlines planned to hire 7,000 workers this year, but executives said last week they will reduce that number because the airline hasnt received as many new Boeing jets as it expected.

Some of the new hires at United will replace retiring employees. United executives said they plan to hire 2,300 pilots this year and expect nearly 500 to retire, after first giving a lower range of 250 to 300 retirements. Federal law requires airline pilots to retire by age 65.

A pilot shortage has been especially severe at smaller, so-called regional airlines that operate flights for bigger carriers under the United Express, American Eagle and Delta Connection brands.

Gebo said the next bottleneck is expected to involve aircraft technicians. While there is no federal age limit for aircraft mechanics, Gebo said 40% to 50% of United's technicians are already eligible to retire under the airline's guidelines.

United is using career fairs, including a big one in Houston on Thursday, and other tactics to find workers. The tight labor market is causing United to offer higher wages for non-union jobs, Gebo said, and the airline faces higher rates in contracts it is negotiating with pilots and other union workers.

United said 3,800 of its new jobs this year will be in Chicago, where the company is headquartered and runs a big operation at OHare International Airport. Airline executives said they will add another 2,300 in Denver, 2,100 in Houston, 2,000 in Newark, New Jersey, and 1,600 in San Francisco. United has hub airports in each of those cities.
NEW YORK, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Following a record-setting surge in efforts to change curriculums and ban books at schools nationwide, the U.S. education culture war has now reached the stage, reported The Washington Post on Tuesday.

In a number of recent instances, school administrators have intervened to "nix or alter school theatrical productions deemed objectionable -- often because they feature LGBTQ characters or deal with issues of race and racism," the report said.

In Florida's Duval County Public Schools this January, administrators stopped a production of the play "Indecent," which details a love affair between two women, due to its "mature content." In February, Indiana's Northwest Allen County Schools pulled the plug on a production of the play "Marian" after adults raised the alarm over its depiction of a same-sex couple and a nonbinary character.

And in March, Iowa's South Tama County Community School District halted a performance of the play "August: Osage County" over fears that its treatment of suicide, addiction and racism was inappropriate for school-aged children, according to the report.

Censorship of K-12 student productions has been happening for years, Howard Sherman, managing director of the performing arts center at New York's Baruch College who has tracked and fought efforts to end or edit school theater since 2011, was quoted as saying.

Still, this most recent wave of opposition seems more intense and organized than in past years, Sherman said, and more tightly focused on plays and musicals with LGBTQ content. 
WASHINGTON (AP)  The U.S. approved the first vaccine for RSV on Wednesday, shots to protect older adults against a respiratory virus thats most notorious for attacking babies but endangers their grandparents, too.

The Food and Drug Administration decision makes GSKs shot, called Arexvy, the first of several potential vaccines in the pipeline for RSV to be licensed anywhere.

The move sets the stage for adults 60 and older to get vaccinated this fall  but first, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must decide if every senior really needs RSV protection or only those considered at high risk from the respiratory syncytial virus. CDCs advisers will debate that question in June.

After decades of failure in the quest for an RSV vaccine, doctors are anxious to finally have something to offer  especially after a virus surge that strained hospitals last fall.

This is a great first step ... to protect older persons from serious RSV disease, said Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, who wasn't involved with its development. Next, were going to be working our way down the age ladder for whats expected to be a string of new protections.

The FDA is considering competitor Pfizers similar vaccine for older adults. Pfizer also is seeking approval to vaccinate pregnant women, so their babies are born with some of moms protection.

There isn't a vaccine for kids yet but high-risk infants often get monthly doses of a protective drug during RSV season  and European regulators recently approved the first one-dose option. The FDA also is considering whether to approve Sanofi and AstraZeneca's one-shot medicine.

This is a very exciting time with multiple potential RSV solutions coming out after years of really nothing, said Dr. Phil Dormitzer, chief of vaccine research and development for GSK, formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline.

RSV is a cold-like nuisance for most people but it can be life-threatening for the very young, the elderly and people with certain high-risk health problems. It can impede babies breathing by inflaming their tiny airways, or creep deep into seniors lungs to cause pneumonia.

In the U.S., about 58,000 children younger than 5 are hospitalized for RSV each year and several hundred die. Among older adults, as many as 177,000 are hospitalized with RSV and up to 14,000 die annually.

Why has it taken so long to come up with a vaccine? The field suffered a major setback in the 1960s when an experimental shot worsened infections in children. Scientists finally figured out a better way to develop these vaccines  although modern candidates still were first tested with adults.

GSKs new vaccine for older adults trains the immune system to recognize a protein on RSVs surface, and contains an ingredient called an adjuvant to further rev up that immune reaction.

In an international study of about 25,000 people 60 and older, one dose of the vaccine was nearly 83% effective at preventing RSV lung infections, and reduced the risk of severe infections by 94%.

To see how long protection lasts, GSK is tracking study participants for three years, comparing some who get just one vaccination during that time and others given a yearly booster.

Shot reactions were typical of vaccinations, such as muscle pain and fatigue.

There was a hint of a rare but serious risk  one case of Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can cause usually temporary paralysis, and two cases of a type of brain and spinal cord inflammation. The FDA said it was requiring the company to continue studying if there really is a link to the vaccine.

If the CDC ultimately recommends the vaccination for some or even all seniors, it will add another shot for the fall along with their yearly flu vaccine  and maybe another COVID-19 booster.

Well have to educate the population that this virus that not everyone has heard about is actually an important threat to their health in the wintertime, said Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. ___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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If youve ever dreamed about standing on top of a frozen mountain, belting out Let It Go inside an ice castle, well, start making your travel plans. Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland are building versions of a Frozen land inspired by the animated Disney movies. If the land ends up looking anything like the early visuals the Walt Disney Company has released, its going to be extremely cool, with a first-of-its-kind ride.

Hong Kong Disneyland is expected to open Arendelle: The World of Frozen toward the end of 2023. Upon opening, the land will debut two new attractions: Wandering Oakens Sliding Sleighs and Frozen Ever After.
Many people arrive at Disneyland's gates ready for rides and character greetings but blissfully unaware of the foodie adventure that awaits them. The fact is that Disneyland Resort is a gastronomical hotbed that's home to over 100 dining options spread across two theme parks, three hotels and a shopping district. Ranging from casual eateries and meals with princesses to multicourse epicurean experiences, the resort is home to award-winning restaurants and beloved fan favorites.

After deciding where you'd like to dine, your best bet will be to make reservations  a system that can be complicated to navigate. With available reservations opening well in advance of the day you're scheduled to visit, coveted restaurants  like Disneyland Park's Blue Bayou Restaurant  are known to book up as soon as tables become available.

If you're planning a trip to Disneyland, keep reading for the ins and outs of making Disneyland dining reservations.

Do all Disneyland restaurants require reservations?

Disneyland dining can be broken up into three categories: quick service, table service and character dining. For the first option, reservations aren't necessary, but they are often a necessity for the latter two. At quick-service dining spots, guests can purchase items a la carte either in person or, at most locations, via mobile ordering (which we'll get to in a bit). Favorite quick-service locations include the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe in Disneyland Park and Cozy Cone Motel in Disney California Adventure Park.

There are four locations for character dining at Disneyland Resort, with three options located at the resort's on-site hotels  which don't require a park ticket to access  and one inside Disneyland Park at the Plaza Inn. These beloved experiences often book up well in advance and typically carry their own cancellation policies.

Table-service dining at Disneyland operates on a reservation system, with many experiences booking up well in advance. Here, guests are seated and then served by a wait staff. Meals range from casual eats along Main Street, U.S.A., to higher-end experiences, like Napa Rose at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. Select lounges throughout Disneyland Resort  like the Hearthstone Lounge at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa  do not require reservations and guests are able to dine at the bar or in lounge seating on a first-come, first-served basis.

Winston Suk/Disneyland Resort

How do you book Disneyland dining reservations?

Disneyland dining reservations are available 60 days in advance, with bookings opening around 6 a.m. (PT). Guests can book reservations online or in the Disneyland mobile app. An active credit card linked to your account is required to hold a reservation but you won't be charged unless you miss your reservation or do not cancel within the allowed cancellation period.

After your booking is confirmed, reservations are linked to your Disneyland mobile app or online under "My Plans." If your reserved dining location is inside of a theme park, you must also book a park reservation for the date of your visit, as the dining reservation alone won't allow for entry.

How do I cancel a Disneyland dining reservation?

Reservations can be canceled in the Disneyland mobile app or by visiting the resort's website and logging in with the account under which you made the booking. Most restaurant reservations can be canceled up to two hours before reservation time to avoid the missed-reservation fee of $10 per person. Character dining and other experiences may carry their own cancellation policies so it's best to refer to the mobile app for the most up-to-date information. Reservations can also be switched to a different time or day, based on availability.

AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Can you still get a table if all the reservations are booked?

Disneyland's most popular options are known to completely book up the same day that reservations become available  remember, we're talking 60 days ahead of time. If you don't get your desired reservation, there are still some options. More reservations may be released on a rolling basis ahead of your visit and previously booked slots are known to pop back up as other guests change their plans, so it's important to check frequently.

Paid services, like MouseWatcher, are also available and can alert you if and when reservations to any restaurant you are targeting become available. If you still aren't able to make advance dining reservations, last-minute tables may become available using the Disneyland's mobile app "walk-up" feature. These last-minute table bookings become available to guests in close proximity to the restaurant, so be sure to open the app and check when you get close to the place you were hoping to check out.

Photo courtesy of Disneyland Resort

How does Disneyland mobile ordering work?

Mobile ordering is part of the Disneyland app and is a way to place your order and pay for it in advance, skipping the line that can often come with Disneyland's quick-service restaurants. Guests who use mobile ordering simply arrive at the location during their designated time window and grab their food without missing a beat. Mobile order time windows can be adjusted, if any are still available, and guests who don't arrive during their window are refunded.

Does Disneyland sell alcohol?

Disneyland Park is pretty restrictive on alcohol sales and only serves it inside the park at the Blue Bayou Restaurant and Oga's Cantina. Guests may not take their beverages outside of these locations, which is in stark contrast to Disney California Adventure Park, where alcoholic drinks can freely be carried around and purchased from most eateries. You can also buy alcoholic drinks at Disneyland Resort's three on-site hotels.

How much does food cost at Disneyland?

The cost of food is based on the restaurant you pick and the items you order but, as a general rule, meals at quick-service locations typically range between $12 and $15 for adult entrees and around $8 for children (considered between ages 3 and 9 by the resort, but adults can order a children's meal for themselves at quick-service locations). After totaling the expenses during a recent trip to Disneyland, we found that dining was where we spent the most money, after tickets, with two adults combining to rack up nearly $200 on food alone. So, plan your food budget accordingly.



If you're looking for a discount on Disneyland dining, you'll want to consider buying a Magic Key. Holders of this annual pass may be eligible for discounts up to 15% on dining.

This story was edited by Hearst Newspapers Managing Editor Kristina Moy; you can contact her at kristina.moy@hearst.com.
Aprils big celebrity news included Stephen Colbert making some pizza in New Haven and the death of longtime television host Jerry Springer.

Here are some of the famous people who visited or made the news in and around Connecticut in April:
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)  A man charged after a shot was fired into the lobby of a Memphis television station has faced mental health challenges for much of his life, his mother said.

No one was struck by the shot fired Tuesday into the WHBQ station, the Fox affiliate in Tennessees second-largest city, Memphis Police Department Deputy Chief Stephen Chandler said at a news conference. The bullet fired with an AR-style rifle hit glass and a desk, but it wasn't clear if it was fired intentionally, he said. Crisis negotiators helped take the suspect into custody.

He wanted to meet with media. He had a message to send out, Chandler said. He didn't provide more details.

Memphis police later announced that they had arrested Jarrad Nathan, 26, and charged him with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Nathan has had mental health issues since he was young, Marsha McKinney told news outlets.

Hes one of the nicest, kindest (people, but) everybody has another side, too, McKinney said. I think that my son is crying out for attention because he needs some help.

The station said employees were evacuated to a parking lot for about 30 minutes after the shot was fired, while police secured the area.

The suspect first approached the station from a vestibule into the lobby of the station that was locked, wanting to talk, the station said. The suspect then showed the employee that he had a gun.

The employee then left before the suspect fired a shot, the station said. According to video, he then kept trying to open the locked door into the station and became angry, stomping his feet.

Nathan appeared in court Wednesday. He told a judge that he could not afford to pay for a lawyer. The judge said she would appoint a public defender.

He appeared in court on two cases  the station shooting and another aggravated assault. He is being held on $275,000 bond. Nathan said he could not afford bond and he is dead broke. He appeared in court in a wheelchair. Police said there were no injuries when he was taken into custody.

___

AP reporter Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland, contributed to this report.
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DENVER (AP)  Three teens accused of killing a 20-year-old woman while throwing large rocks at passing cars have been charged with murder and other crimes, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Nicholas Mitch Karol-Chik, Joseph Koenig and Zachary Kwak, all 18, each face identical charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, second-degree assault and attempted second-degree assault in the death of Alexis Bartell  and alleged attacks on six other cars in suburban Denver, First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King announced.

Two other drivers suffered minor injuries, according to investigators.

The office of Karol-Chik's lawyer, Holly Gummerson, and Koenig's lawyer, Tom Ward, declined to comment. A messages left for Kwak's lawyer, Emily Boehne, was not immediately returned. During a brief afternoon court hearing, the lawyers all declined to have the charges read.

According to the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office, Bartell was talking on the phone with a friend when she was hit by the rock on April 19. After the call went silent, the friend tracked Bartells location with a phone app and found the woman dead in her car, which had crashed into a field.

Karol-Chik told investigators that Koenig slowed down so Kwak could get a photo of Bartell's car after it crashed into a field. He said all three got excited every time they hit a car with landscaping rocks taken from a Walmart parking lot, but acknowledged he felt a hint of guilt passing by her car, according to court documents.

Kwak said he took the photo because he thought that Karol-Chik or Koenig would want to have a memento of what had happened, according to the arrest affidavits.

Karol-Chik told investigators with the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office that he and Koenig had thrown rocks and even a statue at passing cars on at least 10 other days before Bartell was killed. Kwak heard about what they had been doing and asked to join them, according to Karol-Chik's account in the affidavits.

Karol-Chik and Kwak offered different accounts about who threw the fatal rock. Koenig did not speak to investigators after he was arrested, according to the arrest affidavits.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP)  A man on Tuesday was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the killing of three people at an Alabama church dinner in June.

Robert Findlay Smith, 71, pleaded guilty to capital murder and waived his right to appeal, AL.com reported.

Smith was indicted in the June 16, 2022, shootings of Walter Bart Rainey, 84, of Irondale; Sarah Yeager, 75, of Pelham; and Jane Pounds, 84, of Hoover. They were killed during a potluck dinner at St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, a community just southeast of Birmingham.

I relive the night of June 16 over and over and over, and I probably always will," said Linda Rainey, whose husband was killed. My heart tells me the shooter will also relive that night over and over.

Defense attorney Emory Anthony apologized on behalf of Smith: Were so thankful to the families of each one of those victims because they agreed to allow him to plead to life. He could have been facing the death penalty. So they did not just talk about being Christians, they acted as Christians. I know its hurtful to each one of the family members, but we say thanks to each one of them.

Neither Anthony nor the prosecutors office said they knew why Smith opened fire that night.

I believe hes remorseful, Anthony said.

Police responded to St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, one of Alabamas two most populous cities, on a report of an active shooter. There were about 25 people at the Boomers Potluck, including Smith, who had previously attended the church and at least one of the dinners.

Smith was sitting alone, and a longtime church member approached him and invited him to sit at a table, said the Rev. Doug Carpenter, who founded the church in 1973 and retired in 2005. He identified himself to victim Rainey only as Mr. Smith and refused to join them.

Smith then pulled a handgun and shot three people, according to authorities. Jim Musgrove, a church member, hit the shooter with a chair and wrestled the gun away from him.

Rainey was pronounced dead at the scene. Yeager and Pounds were taken to a hospital where they later died.

This type of senseless murder of three innocent people is certainly a case our office would typically try in front of a jury and seek the death penalty, however, that was not the wish of the three families in this case," District Attorney Danny Carr said. After much discussion, thought and prayer, the families were unanimous that they would prefer a plea of guilty to capital murder and a life without parole sentence."
LIBERTY, Mo. (AP)  The attorney for an 84-year-old man accused of shooting a Black teenager who mistakenly came to his door is asking a court to prevent any new information in the case from being made public.

Andrew Lester is accused of shooting Ralph Yarl on April 13 after the 16-year-old confused Lester's north Kansas City address with a home about a block away where he was supposed to pick up his younger brothers.

The shooting drew worldwide attention and prompted rallies and protests in the Kansas City area, with critics saying Lester, who is white, was given preferential treatment when police released him just two hours after he was arrested.

Lester has pleaded not guilty to armed criminal action and first-degree assault charges and remains free on $20,000 bond. Yarl was shot in the head and an arm and is recovering at home after being hospitalized for three days.

Lester's attorney, Steven Salmon, argued in a legal filing Monday that the court record should be sealed, noting that Lester has been harassed and threatened. Salmon also noted that the publicity could make it difficult to find an impartial jury and that potential witnesses may be reluctant to testify.

The release of further information will continue to add fodder to oftentimes inaccurate and speculative statements about the case, according to the motion. This publicity in the case has already caused a widespread adverse and prejudicial reaction against the defendant and prejudice to his case.

Salmon said Lester has been forced to live away from his home, which has been egged and spray-painted. He said Lester has sought law enforcement assistance when traveling and his wife had to be moved from her nursing home.

Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who is representing Yarl's family, did not immediately return a message seeking reaction to Salmon's request.

Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson said previously that there was a racial component to the case but has not elaborated.

Yarls aunt, Faith Spoonmore, said on Instagram during the weekend that her nephew has debilitating headaches but is starting to have more good days than bad days and is hoping to start playing the bass clarinet again soon. Yarl is an honor student and band member.

Merritt and some civil rights leaders in the Kansas City area say a hate crime charge is warranted and have called for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate.

According to a probable cause statement, Lester told police he lives alone and was scared to death when he saw Yarl on the porch because he thought someone was trying to break in. No words were exchanged before the shooting, but as Yarl got up to run, he heard Lester yell, Dont come around here, the statement said.

Salmon suggested in his court filing that he planned to argue that Lester acted in self-defense, citing Missouris stand your ground law. Missouri is one of about 30 states with laws that say people can respond with physical force when they are threatened.

Lester is scheduled to be in court June 1.
BLOOMFIELD  The Bloomfield Town Council voted Monday to give the Board of Education a 6 percent increase in funding, skyrocketing the mill rate and slashing capital investment projects.

The decision, made after hours of public testimony, marks the end of a months-long tug-of-war between the district and the town over scant funding.

"We have people's livelihoods in our hands," Mayor Danielle Wong said Monday. "We have children, we have seniors, we have teachers, we have businesses that are watching us and what their taxes are going to look like tomorrow."

At the start of the meeting, Acting Town Manager Sharron Howe presented a proposed budget extending a 4 percent increase to the Board of Education with a projected mill rate increase of 5.22 percent. The final budget approved by the town council gave a 6 percent increase to the district and a 6.5 percent increase in the mill rate.

The budget passed with three against the measure  Councilor Kenneth McClary, Deputy Mayor Greg Davis and Wong. The meeting room at 330 Park Ave. was standing room only for the discussion, a higher turnout than any municipal meeting this budget cycle.

"I support the Board of Ed, but my big concern is the overall population here in Bloomfield," Davis said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media Group after the vote. "We have 12 percent under the federal poverty level. How are they going to afford 6 percent, 13 percent over two years?"

Throughout the budget process, arguments centered on two issues  support for teachers and not raising taxes. The deeper complexities of the budget surfaced at Monday's annual town meeting as residents discussed the budget's nuances and the near impossibility of the situation at hand.

Some residents called on the Board of Education to take a deeper look at its budget and why the needs continue growing as students leave the district and test scores show few signs of improvement. One resident, Terry Gilbert, called out the salaries of the employees in the central office as a disproportionately large expense.

"When I look at the budget this year, I cannot understand where this money is going," Gilbert said Monday. "I have looked at the budgets over the years ... the budget needs to go to the teaching staff, the money needs to go to the students. Not to PR or other things that aren't necessary."

A Hearst Connecticut Media Group investigation into Bloomfield salaries showed three central office employees, including the superintendent, making over $100,000 per year as of the 2022-23 school year.

The impetus for the nuanced conversation appeared to be a letter Wong wrote to the Bloomfield Messenger ahead of the annual town meeting, a letter some residents brought up during their public comment.

"It was the best-written article I have read regarding the school system," resident Frank Merblum said. "There are lots of problems regarding the school system today. There are two things she points out: accountability and transparency. It seems like the school system wants us to throw money year after year into whatever they want to fund, but we don't get the results."

In the letter, Wong said that despite the board's "lack of transparency, outstanding questions regarding the BOEs use of funds, a top-heavy administration, and the BOEs refusal to attend public council subcommittees to discuss the town and BOEs finances," she supports the district. She just needs more answers.

"As Mayor, I simply do not have enough accurate information from our BOE leadership to blindly ask our taxpayers to take on more of a financial burden than the current proposed budget will place upon them," Wong wrote. "Therefore, I call for a third-party forensic financial audit. I also implore the BOE and the Council to reset this longstanding problematic relationship."

Wong, who has two daughters in the school district, voted against the 4 percent and 6 percent increase to the Board of Education funding.

The budget increase for the Board of Education also meant slashes in capital improvement projects, such as road improvements and other infrastructure updates.

A group of about 10 Bloomfield educators attended the meeting wearing matching red T-shirts, some standing behind the podium to plead for more money for the district. Gail Jordan, president of the teachers union in the district, said she was relieved the district's budget went up 6 percent but wished the full 8.8 percent increase requested had been fulfilled.

"It brings us to $1.3 million less than what we were looking for," Jordan said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media Group after the vote. "I still think it's going to have a negative impact on our students. But I do understand the balancing act the town council has."

Despite the desperation, it was unclear even to some of the teachers in attendance where the funding shortfall would result in cuts. Each district educator who spoke seemed to assume the shortfall would affect them personally.

Shanna Crimi teaches music at Carmen Arace Intermediate. Before the meeting, she said she showed up because she wanted to make sure that the district had enough funding to put on another musical.

"We haven't been told what is on the chopping block," Crimi said.

The major drivers of the Board of Education budget are the growing tuition for magnet schools and out-of-district placements  students who do not even attend Bloomfield schools.

The Board of Education budget did not show any increased funding for resources within the district other than teacher salaries and benefits packages, but because the tuition costs are fixed, Board of Education Chair Don Harris explained that teachers would be hurt the most.

In her op-ed and before the council Monday, Wong was less than sympathetic to Harris's argument.

"It would be shameful for the BOE to reduce the number of teachers, as they are threatening will happen if the council doesnt increase this years allocation above the 4 percent increase that has been proposed by the Council members who voted for this proposed budget," Wong wrote. "But, lets be clear, by law the BOE, not the Council, gets to decide on how to spend the funding the Council allocates to the schools  in the end it is the school Superintendent who is responsible for any teacher cuts."
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  One potential consequence of California's ballooning budget deficit: Higher taxes for businesses, with increases possible every year for the next decade.

Business owners pay a tax on each of their workers. The money goes into a fund that states use to pay unemployment benefits when people lose their jobs. During the coronavirus pandemic, so many people lost jobs that many of these funds ran out of money.

Twenty-two states borrowed from the federal government so they could keep paying unemployment benefits. Those states must pay that money back, plus interest. Most states have already done this. But California is one of five states that hasn't. The state owes $18.9 billion.

If California doesn't pay the money back, businesses have to do it through higher taxes. California was supposed to start paying off the debt this year with $1.5 billion  $1 billion toward the debt, plus another $500 million to help small businesses pay their increased taxes.

But that was before California had a $22.5 billion budget deficit. Now, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to cancel $1.25 billion of that spending to help cover the state's budget shortfall. That means businesses will have to pay an additional $21 per employee in federal unemployment insurance taxes this year. That tax will keep increasing by $21 every year over the next decade that the debt is not paid off.

It could take at least 10 years for businesses to pay off the debt, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Meanwhile, the Newsom administration expects California will have a multibillion dollar budget deficit not just this year, but also in each of the next three years  meaning it's not likely the state will start paying off the debt anytime soon.

California could have paid off the debt, or at least a sizeable portion of it, in the past two years when it had a combined general fund budget surplus of $119.4 billion. But state officials didn't do that, to the frustration of business owners like Denise Duncan who are now stuck paying the higher tax.

The tax increase won't be a significant burden for Duncan this year because she only has two employees. But she said it angers her she's stuck paying for something that wasn't her fault after the government ordered many businesses to shut down during the pandemic.

We're getting hit over the head with hammers every time we turn around with increased costs, whether it's gas doubling, whether it's insurance and utilities, said Duncan, owner of AT Industrial Products in Pomona. They had a surplus. So why didn't they use it?

One reason is simply the massive size of Californias debt. As the nations most populous state, California also has the largest economy and the most workers. Its $18.9 billion debt is more than twice as large as every other state.

Instead of paying off its unemployment debt, the Democrats in charge spent the money on other things. They gave $21.4 billion of it back to taxpayers, sending three rounds of stimulus checks to help people weather the pandemic and offset rising gas prices. The rest of it went to things like public schools, roads and bridges, health care and homelessness programs.

The Governor's January budget proposal delays some longer-term debt payments to meet the state's more immediate needs, Newsom spokesman Alex Stack said. Having said that, we're still allocating $250 million to pay down this debt, which will save businesses money."

Stack noted the governor will release an updated budget plan next week, adding, "he looks forward to working with the Legislature and stakeholders on state spending priorities.

Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek, whose nonpartisan office advises the Legislature on budget issues, told lawmakers earlier this year that even if the state were to restore the $750 million payment toward the debt, it would not lower taxes for businesses because the the tax rate only changes if the debt is paid in full.

If the Legislature wanted to make this optional payment a couple of years down the road, it probably wouldn't have a material difference for those paying the tax, Petek said.

But the business community says paying at least part of the debt will show the state is serious about paying down the debt.

Yeah, we have the biggest deficit. But you have to start paying it down somewhere," said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable. It's just like it doesn't exist. I think they're just going to let employers pay it. They just intend to push through a hidden tax increase.

In spring budget hearings, Newsom administration officials said their plan was to hope that the federal government would forgive the debt. But Robert Moutrie, policy advocate for the California Chamber of Commerce, said the business community doesn't believe more federal aid will be coming froma divided Congress with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats, the Senate.

Democrats in the state Senate last week proposed raising taxes on 2,500 large corporations so the state could cut taxes 25% for 1.6 million business owners. State Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Democrat from Berkeley and chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said the proposal was not specifically in response to higher unemployment insurance taxes.

Still, Newsom opposes the Senate's plan. He will update his budget proposal next week.
TEHRAN, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Tuesday two of its members were killed and three others injured in an explosion at one of its logistics and support centers in the central city of Damghan, Semnan province.

The IRGC said in a statement published on its official news outlet on Tuesday night that the blast occurred in the evening during the sorting of defective ammunition at the center, which is located in the suburbs of Damghan.

It identified the two killed victims as Jamal Shabestani and Ali Alihosseini, adding that the injured were hospitalized for treatment of their wounds. 
Disease detectives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are probing a new outbreak: the roughly three-dozen coronavirus cases linked to their own annual conference last week.

"CDC is working with the Georgia Department of Health to conduct a rapid epidemiological assessment of confirmed COVID-19 cases that appear to be connected to the 2023 EIS Conference to determine transmission patterns," CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said in an email.

Nordlund said the CDC reported the cases to state health officials who have authority over the location where the conference occurred. Attendees said many people at the gathering did not mask, socially distance or take other precautions that the CDC had recommended earlier in the pandemic.

Fewer than 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases were reported across the United States last week - the lowest levels in nearly two years. But public health experts have cautioned that the vast majority of cases are not being tracked, with many Americans testing at home, if at all, and opting not to report the results. The virus also remains on pace to be one of the top 10 causes of death this year, largely for older and immunocompromised individuals.

Experts said an outbreak of coronavirus cases at a CDC conference - the first time the meeting of disease detectives was held in person in four years - illustrates the persistence of an evolving virus. The four-day conference for epidemic intelligence service officers and alumni, held near CDC headquarters in Atlanta last week, drew about 2,000 attendees who were likely to be fully vaccinated.

"This is, unfortunately, the new normal," Jay Varma, an infectious-disease expert at Weill Cornell Medicine, wrote in a text message. "While it is unsettling to see widespread COVID-19 transmission at CDC's premier public health conference, it's probably the clearest example yet" of the global situation.

Varma added that individuals and organizations should continue to take coronavirus precautions to protect themselves and the most vulnerable as needed. "I hope that organizers of large conferences, especially for health professionals, should, at a minimum, make high-quality masks as abundant and available as toilet paper and ensure that there is adequate ventilation and/or disinfection of air," he wrote.

Nordlund said about 35 people linked to the conference had reported testing positive as of Tuesday.

"Conducting a rapid investigation now will help understand transmission that occurred and assist in refining future public health guidance as we move out of the public health emergency and to the next phase of COVID-19 surveillance and response," she wrote. "Whenever there are large gatherings, especially indoors, such as at a conference, there is the possibility of COVID-19 spread, even in periods of low community spread."

Conference attendees also received an email from the CDC that encouraged them to participate in the survey with the Georgia health department, according to an email shared with The Post.

"If you attended the conference in person, you may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19," the email read. "If you are experiencing symptoms, we recommend you follow CDC guidance for isolation and testing."

The Biden administration has been winding down its pandemic response, with most federal vaccine mandates and the coronavirus public health emergency set to be lifted next week. Public health experts say that while the pandemic's perils have largely receded, they remain wary of future variants and note that the virus continues to evolve.

For instance, a new omicron subvariant, XBB.1.16, nicknamed Arcturus, is becoming more prevalent throughout the United States. The latest CDC tracker shows the variant made up almost 12 percent of cases nationwide for the week ending April 29, up from about 7 percent the week ending April 15. Most of the infections in the United States right now come from XBB.1.5, also an omicron subvariant.
STARKE, Fla. (AP)  A Florida man was executed Wednesday for breaking into a woman's home and stabbing her to death in 1986, a crime committed months after he was released from prison for a rape.

Darryl B. Barwick, 56, was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. Wednesday following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison, the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the inmate's final appeal for a stay of execution earlier in the day.

After being brought into the death camber, Barwick said, "I cant explain why I did what I did. Its time to apologize to the family ... Im sorry. He added that he state needs to show more compassion and kindness for people, criticizing Florida's sentencing of teenagers to life in prison.

Barwick began receiving the sedative at 6:02 p.m. and closed his eyes several minutes later. The warden checked Barwick's eyes, shook his shoulders and yelled his name to make sure he was unconscious before the execution continued.

Barwick didnt meet in person with family members in his final hours, but had spoken with them by phone in recent days, prison officials said ahead of the 6 p.m. execution time. Officials said no relatives of the victim had arranged to witness the execution.

Barwick had confessed to killing 24-year-old Rebecca Wendt in her Panama City apartment on March 31, 1986, after watching her sunbathing outside and following her back to her room. He said he intended to rob Wendt but then killed her as she resisted, stabbing her 37 times as she tried to fight him off.

Wendts bathing suit appeared as though someone had tried unsuccessfully to remove it, officials said. There was no evidence of sexual assault, but medical examiners reported finding semen on a blanket where her body was found.

Authorities said they linked Barwick to the crime through his confession, the semen stain, a witness who saw him heading toward and leaving Wendts apartment, and footprints left inside and outside the apartment.

He was convicted of first-degree murder, armed burglary, attempted sexual battery and armed robbery in November 1986, and sentenced to death two months later on the jurys 9-3 recommendation. The Florida Supreme Court threw out that conviction in 1989 because of prosecutorial misconduct. Barwick was again convicted at his 1992 retrial, and that jury unanimously recommended death.

Barwick killed Wendt less than three months after he was released from prison for raping a 21-year-old woman at knifepoint, according to court records. In his confession for Wendts killing, Barwick said he stabbed her because he did not want to go back to prison.

DeSantis signed Barwicks death warrant last month. It was the third execution conducted in Florida this year after a hiatus dating back to 2019. It also was the states 102nd execution since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.
GREENWICH  Businesses up and down Greenwich Avenue will display local artwork this month as Art to the Avenue returns for its 26th year.

The event, organized by Greenwich Arts Council, kicks off 5:30 p.m. on Thursday with some of the participating businesses holding opening receptions and meet and greets with participating local artists. Art to the Avenue will take place through May 29.

This year's event almost didn't happen at all, said GAC Executive Director Tatiana Mori. But curious merchants ended up spurring the council to go through with it.

"A lot of things shifted after the pandemic," Mori said. "We were closed for about a year and a half and we didn't know what (would) happen this year. Since it was (Greenwich Art Council's) 50th anniversary, the stores started to ask us, 'Are you guys doing it? Are you guys doing it?' So, we decided we'd give it another try."

Last year was the first time since the pandemic that the event was back fully in-person. However, businesses had to be careful as to how many people could be in their store at the same time. This year, Mori said she is hoping the event will draw in the number of people it did prior to the pandemic.

"In the past it's been in the high hundreds (of participants)," Mori said. "So we hope that we will hit that same mark."

About 30 businesses and 50 artists from New York and Connecticut are participating. Merchants were given the opportunity to select the artwork they wanted to display in their store. All the displayed artwork is on sale and 30 percent of the sales will benefit GAC programs.

"Both businesses and shoppers look forward to Art on the Avenue because it combines art with retail and creates a beautiful atmosphere that showcases local artists," said Marcia O'Kane, president and chief executive officer of the Greenwich Chamber of Commerce. "This event supports local business which is so important to the vitality of our town."

Just like last year, members of the Greenwich Senior Center will have an art display up throughout the month on its main floor. The senior center shares a building with GAC.

"It's been so important to collaborate with them," Mori said. "They love that they are able to not only create their work, but now to be on display for everyone to see it."

As a way to honor its 50th anniversary, the GAC will also display some of the local artwork from Art to the Avenue. At 6:30 p.m. on May 13, the GAC will host a gala, where there will be food and live music.

"It's nice to be able to all get together and celebrate a wonderful organization that does so much for the performing arts and the visual arts and pretty much the community," Mori said.

Some aspects of Thursday's opening celebration are weather dependent. The R&B and soul band 9 of Hearts is scheduled to play outside the GAC building on Greenwich Avenue, but will perform indoors if the weather is bad. Other performers, such as the choir that has performed in years past, are on standby due to the uncertain weather, Mori said.

The GAC will make its announcement about how the weather will alter the opening night celebration by noon on Thursday.
PHOENIX (AP)  Human remains that had been buried for decades in a California gravesite and marked as Jane Doe" have been identified as a Navajo woman who went missing from northern Arizona, authorities said.

The Madera County Sheriff's Office hasn't publicly disclosed the cause of death for Christine Lester because it doesn't want to jeopardize the investigation, Phoenix television station KTVK reported Wednesday.

Officials with the sheriff's office near Fresno said a woman was found dead on the side of a rural county road in 1987 but couldn't identify her at the time. The body was exhumed in 2020 to create a DNA profile that authorities were able to match to one Lesters siblings earlier this year.

Lester's family received the remains Monday. Her siblings plan a procession Friday to escort the remains from Flagstaff to a family gravesite on the Navajo Nation, where a memorial service will be held  36 years to the date she went missing and on a day that's designated to raise awareness of missing and slain Indigenous people around the globe.

The then-24-year-old Lester told her family that she was planning to hitchhike  a common practice on the Navajo Nation  from Indian Wells to the Flagstaff mall in May 1987 to buy gifts for Mother's Day. They don't know if she made it there, her siblings said.

We've always had that hope that she'll come through that door and introduce her family, a brother, Herbert Rockwell, told KTVK.

Lester's siblings said they've cherished the good memories they had with her when she was alive.

I'd just like to say Welcome home, Christine, Shadi, which means big sister, Rockwell said.
MANASSAS, Va. (AP)  A large snake brought traffic to a stop at an intersection in Prince William County, Virginia.

The snake was in an electrical panel at the intersection of Prince William Parkway and Sudley Manor Drive and caused a power outage on Monday, the Prince William County Police Department said in a statement. A police officer and an animal control officer worked together to remove the snake from the panel and release it unharmed in the area, authorities said.

The snake was so large that it flipped a breaker switch that shut off the signal, but it didn't damage anything inside the box, officials told news outlets. It's believed that the snake had been living in the box for a while due to molten skin found inside.

When traffic signals aren't working because of a power outage, police say to treat intersections like stop signs.
WATERBURY  One of two state employees charged with cruelty and failure to report abuse last month following an investigation into the treatment of a patient at the Southbury Training School has pleaded not guilty.

Howard Hawk, 52, of Waterbury, entered the pleas Monday at state Superior Court in Waterbury, where he has a pre-trial hearing scheduled for June 14.

Hawk and another direct care provider, 27-year-old Torrington resident David Benson, were arrested last month after a 79-year-old man and resident of the Southbury Training School was admitted to Danbury Hospital with bruising on his chest, according to police.

An aid saw the bruising on the man, who has an intellectual disability and is non-verbal, while attempting to shower him the morning of Jan. 12, according to police.

At the hospital, the man was found to have a broken bone in his upper arm, and the Southbury Training School reported no record of him sustaining any injuries, falls or any kind of trauma prior to that morning, according to a police warrant affidavit.

An investigation into how he sustained the injuries resulted in the arrests of Hawk and Benson, who were each charged with intentional cruelty to persons and failure to report abuse. Cruelty to persons is a class D felony, while failure to report abuse is a violation.

Hawk turned himself in to state police April 6, while Benson was taken into custody April 4.

In an April 17 email, Connecticut Department of Developmental Services communication director Kevin Bronson declined to comment on the matter, citing the ongoing nature of the investigation, but confirmed that Hawk and Benson are employed by DDS/State of CT.

The physicians assistant who reported the incident to police noted that the patient is unable to walk or talk on his own, and said she believed the injuries were the result of unreported trauma, according to the warrant.

A unit director at the Southbury Training School told Trooper Dennis Keane that Hawk recently returned to work following a 30-day suspension for neglect and was assigned to care for the victim the shift before the aid noticed bruising on his chest, according to the warrant.

Keane said he spoke to Southbury Training Schools doctor, who estimated the trauma occurred during the second shift  2:30 to 10:30 p.m. Jan. 11  or third shift from 10:30 p.m. Jan. 11 to 6:30 a.m. Jan. 12, according to the warrant.

Hawk was on duty both shifts, Benson worked the third shift and both men were assigned to the cottage where the victim resides, police state in the warrant.

The warrant states that supervisors, in charge during the second and third shifts, told police they did not receive any notification about any injuries or incidents involving the victim that night.

During a March 24 interview at Troop A headquarters, Hawk stated at no time on second or third shift did he observe physical injuries (on the victim) or how (the victim) suffered the injuries, according to the warrant.

He also claimed to have no recollection of putting the victim in bed and said another staff member might have done it, according to police, who said the other staff member reported having no contact with the victim on Jan. 11.

Hawk and Benson were each held on $15,000 bond prior to their arraignments at state Superior Court in Waterbury, after which they were released on promises to appear, according to court documents.

Benson, who has not yet pleaded to the charges, is next scheduled to appear in court May 16.
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP)  Police officers in Central Washington fatally shot a 27-year-old man Wednesday who was armed with a short-barreled shotgun in his front yard, police said.

Yakima police Capt. Jay Seely said police went to a local residence around 7:10 a.m. after a 911 caller said his brother was suffering mental health issues, off his medication and armed with a sawed-off shotgun, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The United Nations announced Tuesday night that its premier prize for press freedom has been awarded to three imprisoned Iranian female journalists for their commitment to truth and accountability.

The winners are Niloufar Hamedi who broke the news that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died last September while being held by the morality police for wearing her headscarf too loosely, and Elaheh Mohammadi who wrote about her funeral.

Aminis death touched off months-long protests in dozens of cities across Iran. The demonstrations posed one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 2009 Green Movement protests drew millions to the streets.

The third winner is Narges Mohammadi, who has worked for many years as a journalist and is one of Irans most prominent activists.

The U.N. Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization World Press Freedom Prize is named for Guillermo Cano, a Colombian journalism who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper El Espectador in Bogota on Dec. 17, 1986. UNESCO has awarded the prize to coincide with World Press Freedom Day on May 3 since 1997.

UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay announced the winners at a ceremony in New York, saying: Now more than ever, it is important to pay tribute to all women journalists who are prevented from doing their jobs and who face threats and attacks on their personal safety.

Zainab Salbi, chair of the international jury of media professionals that chose the winners, said the brave work of the three winners led to a historical women-led revolution.

They paid a hefty price for their commitment to report on and convey the truth, Salbi said. And for that, we are committed to honoring them and ensuring their voices will continue to echo worldwide until they are safe and free.

In late April, Irans judiciary acknowledged that two reporters who broke news on Aminis death, Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, had been indicted on charges of collaborating with the United States, acting against national security, and creating propaganda against the system.

While nearly 100 journalists have been arrested amid the demonstrations, Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadis reporting was crucial in the days after Aminis death to spread word about the anger that followed. Hamedi works for the reformist newspaper Shargh, while Mohammadi works for the reformist newspaper Ham-Mihan.

Their detentions have sparked international criticism over the bloody security force crackdown that lasted months after Aminis death. According to UNESCO, both Hamedi and Mohammadi have been in Irans Evin Prison since September, and Hamedi has been in solitary confinement.

Since the protests began, at least 529 people have been killed in demonstrations, according to Human Rights activists in Iran. Over 19,700 others have been detained by authorities amid a violent crackdown trying to suppress the dissent. Iran for months has not offered any overall casualty figures, while acknowledging tens of thousands had been detained.

Narges Mohammadi has been repeatedly detained and imprisoned by authorities, and UNESCO said she is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence in Evin Prison. Shes won recognition abroad for her work, including her activism against the death penalty in Iran, which remains one of the worlds top executioners.

UNESCO said she is vice director of the Tehran-based civil society organization, Defenders of Human Rights Center. She also continues to report in print from prison and has interviewed other women prisoners which were included in her book White Torture," the U.N. agency said.
ANKARA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Police detained at least 524 suspects in an extensive anti-drug trafficking operation carried out across 52 Turkish provinces, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday.

In coordination with the Financial Crimes Investigation Board and Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the police traced the financial operators of the network which composed of 598 suspects, including the managers, salesmen, dealers, and manufacturers for about a year, and nabbed 524 of them, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said at a press conference in the capital Ankara.

The minister said that the increasing number of anti-narcotics operations in the country yielded results and cut off heroin trafficking routes through Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkiye.

"In other words, its route shifted from Turkiye to another point as a result of our detentions," he explained.

While there were 941 direct drug-related deaths in Turkiye in 2016, this figure had dropped to 270 by 2022, Soylu added.

Located at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, Turkiye has been grappling with international drug smuggling for many years. There are currently nearly 126,000 drug manufacturers and smugglers imprisoned in the country, Soylu said in an earlier statement in April. 
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BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Union announced fresh plans to ramp up the large-scale production of ammunition, seeking to both benefit Ukraine while the country is at war with Russia and to improve the blocs geopolitical credentials.

Ukraine is poised to launch a planned spring counteroffensive to recover Russian-occupied territory, but the country has burned through ammunition at a furious rate, according to analysts. Western allies have provided ammunition, and the government in Kyiv has asked them to supply much more.

Lets give first, lets deliver first, what Ukraine needs immediately. Because again, we know exactly whats happening on the ground, Thierry Breton, the EU's internal market commissioner, said.

He wants to use at least 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to fund the Act in Support of Ammunition Production, or ASAP, with the goal of providing Ukraine with ammunition and replenishing the stocks in member countries. EU funds would provide half of the money, with the rest co-financed by member states.

European Union nations, lulled into complacency by decades of peace and military protection from the United States through NATO, have badly under-invested in ammunition production. The 27-nation block now wants to make ammunition at a record pace as war is waged on its doorstep.

Breton said the EU still has a large potential production base, especially in the bloc's east, that could be put to use with a concerted focus.

I am confident that we could be able to upskill our industrial base to be able to produce at least 1 million (rounds of) ammunition in Europe for Ukraine over the next year, he said.

Beyond Wednesdays commitments to ramp up production, the EU has already funded the delivery of ammunition to Kyiv from the stocks of member states to the tune of 1 billion euros and committed as such to boost joint procurement.

The EU has long been criticized for failing to back up its economic clout with enough military hardware. Its lack of military stockpiles and limited and slow production capacity undermined its international standing.

With ASAP, the EU seeks to change that.

This is a critical part of Europes strategic capacity to defend its interests and values, and help maintain peace on our continent, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

Besides ammunition, NATO allies and partner countries have delivered more than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine during Russias invasion and war.

Along with more than 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, Ukraines allies have sent vast amounts of ammunition and also trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian brigades, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last week.

Stoltenberg said the 31 NATO allies, which include most EU nations, were committed to shoring up Ukraines military, adding that taking back land the Kremlins forces occupied would give Kyiv a stronger negotiating position if peace talks occur.

The U.S. is sending Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous amount of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition as the launch of Ukraine's planned spring counteroffensive approaches, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  The former top executives of two failed banks will testify before Congress this month as lawmakers dig into what caused a series of collapses at mid-sized financial institutions.

The Senate Banking Committee indicated Tuesday that it will hold a hearing May 16 with Silicon Valley Banks former CEO, Gregory Becker, as well as Signature Banks former chairman and co-founder, Scott Shay, and its former president, Eric Howell.

The committee, which is chaired by Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, will also hold two other hearings this month on the collapse of the banks. Several industry experts will testify at a hearing on Thursday. Then on May 18, Michael Barr, the Federal Reserve's chief regulator, and Martin Gruenberg, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., will testify.

The Fed board was the primary regulator for Silicon Valley Bank in California, while the FDIC was the primary federal regulator for Signature Bank in New York.

Barr issued a report last month that blamed Silicon Valley Banks collapse on poor management, watered-down regulations and lax oversight by Fed staffers. It called for the industry to do a better job policing on multiple fronts to prevent future bank failures.

A separate report from the FDIC said the failure of Signature Bank was likely fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, but also found regulatory deficiencies at FDIC, notably insufficient staffing to adequately supervise the bank.

Senators have directed plenty of ire at the banking industry, regulators and a roll-back of financial stress tests in 2018. But between Democrats and Republicans in a closely divided Congress, there is little agreement on whether any legislation is needed.

Brown, alongside the Senate Banking Committee's top Republican, Sen. Tim Scott, sent a letter in March to executives at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank telling them that they would be expected to testify and warning you must answer for the banks downfall."
BERLIN (AP)  German authorities raided a luxury yacht belonging to a wealthy Russian businessman as part of a probe into possible breaches of Western sanctions imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, officials said Wednesday.

Specialists from the German navy and federal and state police took part in the search of the superyacht at an undisclosed shipyard in northern Germany, Frankfurt prosecutors said in a statement.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  A top House Republican subpoenaed FBI Director Chris Wray on Wednesday for what he claimed are bureau records related to President Joe Biden and his family, basing the demand on newly surfaced allegations he said an unnamed whistleblower made to Congress.

The White House said it was the latest example in the yearslong series of unfounded, unproven political attacks against Biden by Republicans floating anonymous innuendo."

Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee and Accountability, is seeking a specific FBI form from June 2020 that is a report of conversations or interactions with a confidential source. Comer, in a letter to Wray with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said that it has come to our attention that the bureau has such a document that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions when Biden was vice president and includes a precise description about it.

The subpoena seeks all so-called FD-1023 forms and accompanying attachments and documents.

The lawmakers used the word alleged three times in the opening paragraph of the letter and offered no evidence of the veracity of the accusations or any details about what they contend are highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures.

Comer and Grassley said those "disclosures demand further investigation, and they want to know whether the FBI investigated and, if so, what agents found.

To the White House, the subpoena is further evidence of how congressional Republicans long have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically motivated attacks against the Bidens without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests.

A White House spokesperson, Ian Sams, said Biden has offered an unprecedented level of transparency about his personal finances with the public release of a total of 25 years of tax returns.

The FBI and Justice Department confirmed receiving the subpoena but declined to comment further. The president's personal lawyers had no comment.

Republicans claim they have amassed evidence in recent years that raise questions about whether Biden and his family have used their public positions for private gain.

House Republicans have used the power of their new majority to aggressively investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden's business dealings, including examining foreign payments and other aspects of the family's finances. Comer has obtained thousands of pages of the Biden family's financial records through subpoenas to the Treasury Department and various financial institutions since January.

Comer has not revealed much about the findings of his investigation so far. Most recently, Comer claimed one deal involving the Biden family resulted in a profit of over $1 million in more than 15 incremental payments from a Chinese company through a third party.

Both Comer and Grassley have accused both the FBI and Justice Department of stonewalling their investigations and politicizing the agencys yearslong investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes.

Last month, an IRS special agent sought whistleblower protections from Congress to disclose a failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of a criminal investigation related to the younger Bidens taxes and whether he made a false statement in connection with a gun purchase.
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CHICAGO (AP)  An Illinois city on Tuesday banned the mailing or shipping of abortion pills, defying the state's Democratic attorney general and the American Civil Liberties Union, who have repeatedly warned that the move violates Illinois law's protection of abortion as a fundamental right.

The ordinance passed the City Council in Danville, near Illinois' eastern border with Indiana, by one vote, a tiebreaker cast by Mayor Rickey Williams.

This is not the first time since Roe v. Wade was overturned that local abortion restrictions have been adopted. Five local governments in Democrat-controlled New Mexico passed them, but the states supreme court in March blocked enforcement for now. And last year, a town in Ohio decided to rewrite its restrictions rather than defend them in court.

It's not clear how Danville officials intend to enforce the ordinance. Illinois law has long shielded abortion rights. In 2019, Democratic lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker went further, specifying that decisions about contraception and abortion are a fundamental right in the state.

The ordinance proposed in Danville followed public reports that an Indiana clinic planned to open a facility in the city, which is about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the border. Indiana Republicans voted in August to ban abortion, but a legal challenge pending before the Indiana Supreme Court has kept the ban on hold since September.

In a statement released after Tuesday's vote, Ameri Klafeta, director of the Womens and Reproductive Rights Project at the ACLU of Illinois, said Danville officials had approved an unlawful and unenforceable ordinance."

"Illinois has explicitly protected the right to abortion in this state, free from governmental interference, and Danvilles vote today is in clear violation of that law, Klafeta said. We are evaluating next steps to challenge this unlawful ordinance.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul separately warned Danville officials that state law clearly prevented the ordinance's passage and said its approval risked considerable legal liability and expenses.

The Illinois Attorney Generals Office will continue to closely monitor the status of the proposed ordinance and stands ready to take appropriate action to ensure that Illinois law, including the Reproductive Health Act, is adhered to by Danville and its elected officials, Raoul, a Democrat, wrote in the letter dated Monday.

Photos and video footage showed opponents and supporters gathered outside Danville's city hall building and filling the room where council members heard public comments during a four-hour meeting ahead of the tight vote.

Mark Lee Dickson, who oversees the Texas-based Sanctuary Cities of the Unborn organization, was among the supporters inside the council chambers for the vote, according to the Chicago Tribune. The organization has focused on pushing cities nationwide to ban abortion and was previously tied to 2021 efforts to do so in four Ohio cities.

Supportive members of the council amended the proposal Tuesday  adding that it would only take effect when the city of Danville obtains a declaratory judgment from a court that it may enact and enforce the ordinance, according to the Danville Commercial-News.

The city's corporation counsel, though, warned that change would not shield the city from legal action.
CHICAGO (AP)  Illinois lawmakers greenlighted a bill Wednesday that says libraries in the state must adopt an anti-book banning policy to receive state funding, in a vote that fissured along party lines.

The measure, spearheaded by Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, represents a counter-movement to growing efforts to restrict books on topics such as race, gender and sexuality in schools and libraries across the United States.

The legislation has passed both chambers and now heads to the desk of Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said he looks forward to signing it.

This landmark legislation is a triumph for our democracy, a win for First Amendment rights, and most importantly, a great victory for future generations to come, said Giannoulias in a news conference Wednesday after HB 2789 cleared the Senate in a party-line vote.

In order to be eligible for state funding, the bill requires libraries to adopt the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights, which holds that materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation, and should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

Libraries may also develop an alternative policy prohibiting the practice of banning to receive the funds.

Chicago-area Sen. Laura Murphy, a Democrat and one of the bill's sponsors, celebrated its passage.

Our nations libraries have been under attack for too long  they are bastions of knowledge and proliferate the spread of ideas, said Murphy in a news release. Librarians are trained professionals, and we need to trust that they will stock our libraries with appropriate materials  they were hired for their expertise, and they deserve our respect.

All 19 Republicans in the Illinois Senate voted against the measure, including Republican Sen. Jason Plummer, who represents Edwardsville, a city northeast of St. Louis.

Plummer said the bill is an effort by Illinois Democrats to force their extreme ideology on communities across this state and would wrest control from local libraries.

The members of locally elected library boards, who work to increase literacy in their communities, dont need a book-ban agenda foisted on them by Chicago politicians who are just trying to get cheap publicity, Plummer said in a news release.

Its offensive to the ideals of good government to threaten to take public funding away from the very communities that generated that funding through their taxes, he said.

Giannoulias, a Democrat, said he is blown away that this has become a partisan issue.

Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries hit a record-high in 2022, according to a March report from the American Library Association.

Giannoulias, who in January was sworn in as the first new secretary of state in a quarter-century, teamed up with Naperville Democratic Rep. Anne Stava-Murray after parents in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove complained to the high school board about Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe last summer.

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Savage is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  A Missouri state lawmaker said she takes full responsibility for neglecting court cases over moving violations, which led to her arrest this week.

Jefferson City police arrested St. Louis Democratic Rep. LaKeySha Bosley on Monday after an officer pulled her over and discovered a warrant out for her arrest. She was released the same day after posting $300 bail.

The warrant is for a no-show at a hearing for a speeding ticket last year in the southeastern Missouri county of Perry. A judge recalled the warrant Wednesday, according to court records.

Courts have issued several warrants for Bosley's arrest since 2016 after she didn't show up at court hearings for moving violations.

After the St. Louis Post-Dispatch first reported on the warrants in March, Bosley said her lawyer requested the warrants be repealed. A Boone County warrant over not going to a court hearing over expired plates has been recalled. Bosley said the Perry request was previously denied because the court mistakenly determined that the case number was wrong.

There is still a warrant for Bosley's arrest outstanding in the St. Louis suburb of Pine Lawn for not going to court to deal with a 2016 speeding ticket. Bosley said she has repeatedly called the court to resolve the warrant, but staffers there said there is no record of it.

Voters elected Bosley to the House in 2018. She said she is disappointed that her arrest has become a distraction from her work as a lawmaker, particularly in advocating for compensation for people who have been wrongfully convicted and extending Medicaid health care access for new mothers.

Ive been so focused in trying to do a lot of good work in the Capitol (and) making sure that I do the peoples work for the 79th District, Ive neglected my own personal endeavors, Bosley said. Im truly sorry for that, because you cant be a good representative if you personally arent taking care of your business. So I take full responsibility for that."
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JERUSALEM (AP)  A high-profile Palestinian prisoner died in Israeli custody on Tuesday after a hunger strike of nearly three months, Israels prison service announced. His death set off protests in the West Bank and a round of cross-border fighting between Gaza militants and the Israeli military.

Late Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had started airstrikes on Gaza targets, in response to earlier rocket salvos from the coastal strip, run by the militant Hamas group. There was no immediate word on casualties or damage. After a brief pause, the aerial bombardment and rocket fire resumed at dawn Wednesday.

The death of Khader Adnan has also drawn attention to the tactic of hunger strikes  used by prisoners around the world yet considered a particularly crucial tool for Palestinians held by Israel with few other means at their disposal.

Adnan, 45, a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group, helped introduce the practice of protracted hunger strikes by individual prisoners as a form of protest. Palestinian detainees have mostly used hunger strikes to challenge administrative detention, a controversial tactic in which more than 1,000 Palestinians and a handful of Israelis are currently being held without charge or trial.

On Wednesday, two officials from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said a cease-fire has been brokered by Egypt and other regional players. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms of the deal were pending further discussions over when Israel will hand over Khader's body for burial.

Adnan first grabbed international headlines and inspired solidarity protests over a decade ago, when he staged a 66-day hunger strike against his administrative detention. That galvanized hundreds of other prisoners to join the strike, which ended with a deal for his release. He was later arrested again.

Through all levels of Palestinian society  from squalid refugee camps in Gaza to wealthy businesses in the West Bank  Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention are celebrated as national heroes. Israel considers Palestinian prisoners to be terrorists.

Adnan, who was arrested a dozen times and spent nearly a fifth of his life in Israeli prison, became a potent symbol of Palestinian resistance to Israels open-ended occupation, now in its 56th year. His use of hunger strikes as a bargaining chip against Israeli authorities  during two other strikes in 2015 and 2018 that lasted 56 and 58 days, respectively  motivated many other desperate Palestinians in administrative detention to refuse food.

Israels prison service said Adnan had been charged with involvement in terrorist activities following his February arrest. Last week, an Israeli military court denied him bail. A hearing on his appeal was repeatedly postponed.

After the news of his death broke, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired 26 rockets at populated areas in southern Israel, sending shrapnel flying. Three foreign workers were wounded at a construction site in the city of Sderot, Israels rescue service said, without identifying their nationalities. One of the foreigners, a 25-year-old man, was reported to be in serious condition. A few hours later, the military said six mortars shells were fired at Israel, most of them falling short and not reaching Israeli territory.

This is an initial response to this heinous crime, said a coalition of Gaza-based Palestinian militant groups, led by the enclaves militant Hamas rulers. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh called it an assassination," accusing Israel of medical neglect.

Early Wednesday, the Israeli military said its aircraft struck military posts, training sites, weapons storage facilities and an underground tunnel belonging to Hamas. Palestinian residents reported several explosions by Israeli air raids in northwestern Gaza City and other parts of the Strip. Hamas had earlier evacuated military and security targets in anticipation of Israeli strikes.

Air raid sirens sounded and Israeli municipal councils opened public bomb shelters. Field fires broke out. Shrapnel punched holes into pavement, shattered windows and charred cars. Four rockets were intercepted by Israels Iron Dome missile defense system, authorities said.

The Israeli military responded with tank fire into Gaza and said it was planning further retaliation. A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations, said that the army assessed that Islamic Jihad fired the rockets with Hamas' knowledge.

The security establishment will act with determination and force against anyone who tries to harm the citizens of Israel, said Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

A general strike was announced across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians flocked to military checkpoints in the occupied territory, slinging stones. Israeli forces responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. A suspected Palestinian shooting attack in the West Bank lightly wounded an Israeli man. Earlier Tuesday, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired another three rockets that landed in empty fields in Israel.

A march commemorating Adnan in the northern city of Jenin, a hotbed of Palestinian militancy, spiraled into violence Tuesday when Palestinian security forces prevented protesters from reaching the Palestinian Authoritys headquarters. As Palestinians fired into the air and chanted against the PA, long derided for its security cooperation with Israel, Palestinian security forces fired tear gas into the crowd.

With violence surging over the past year and the Israeli military launching near-nightly arrest raids in the West Bank, the number of Palestinians in administrative detention has swelled to the highest number in two decades. Israel says the tactic helps authorities thwart attacks and hold dangerous militants without divulging incriminating material for security reasons.

Palestinians and rights groups say the system is widely abused and denies due process, with the secret nature of the evidence making it impossible for administrative detainees or their lawyers to mount a defense.

As a result, Palestinian prisoners have turned to hunger strikes  whether in large groups with hundreds refusing food, or individually, for decades. Since the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, Israel has jailed thousands of Palestinians. The strikes are often aimed at protesting prison conditions  including the very fact of open-ended detentions  or winning concessions such as family visits.

Over the years, with starving prisoners' shriveled bodies drawing international condemnation, Israeli governments have at times accepted their demands to avoid deaths in custody. The most famous of these deals involved Adnan's lengthy hunger strikes and releases from prison in 2012 and 2015.

But the current Israeli government, the most right-wing in the country's history, has vowed to take a hard-line against the Palestinians. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician, has cracked down on security prisoners, shortening shower times to four minutes, closing prison bakeries and restricting exercise time and family visits.

Ben-Gvir demanded Tuesday that prison officials exhibit zero-tolerance" and ordered prisoners be confined to their cells.

Rights groups blamed Israel for Adnans death, alleging that authorities ignored warnings about his life-threatening condition. Adnan's lawyer said the Israeli prison service retaliated by placing him isolation after he began his hunger strike. He said Adnan had appealed to Israeli authorities to transfer him to a hospital.

We lay the responsibility for his death at the feet of the Israeli authorities," said Dana Moss from Physicians for Human Rights Israel. Hunger strikes are one of the few non-violent tools left to Palestinians as they battle against Israels unfair legal system."

The Israeli prison service said Adnan was in a prison medical facility, but had refused medical treatment until the last moment when his legal proceedings moved ahead. The prison authorities said he was found unconscious in his cell early Tuesday and transferred to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Hundreds gathered at Adnan's home in the West Bank town of Arraba, near Jenin, holding posters bearing his image and calling for revenge. In a rare call for de-escalation, Adnan's widow, Randa Musa, asked Palestinians not to respond with violence.

"We do not want a single drop of blood shed," she told the crowd. We do not want rockets to be fired."
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  Senior South Korean and Japanese officials on Wednesday discussed strengthening relations and coordinating responses to North Koreas nuclear and missile threats in a meeting in Seoul ahead of a summit between the countries leaders.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will host on Sunday Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in their second summit since March. The two U.S. allies have been working to repair relations strained by historical grievances and tighten security cooperation to cope with North Korean nuclear threats.

The talks between South Korean National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong and his Japanese counterpart, Takeo Akiba, were focused on the trilateral security cooperation with Washington and encouraging further global efforts to stem North Korean attempts to evade U.N. Security Council sanctions to fund its nuclear arms program.

Cho and Akiba also discussed facilitating the economic and cultural exchanges and aligning their broader strategies for the Indo-Pacific region, according to Yoon's office.

They later participated in a broader meeting with economic and security officials that discussed issues related to supply chain resiliency, climate change and emerging technologies, Yoons office said.

The summit on Sunday follows Yoons state visit to Washington last week where he and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to strengthen nuclear deterrence to prevent North Korean aggression.

Yoon, Biden and Kishida are also planning to hold a trilateral summit next month at the Group of Seven meetings in Hiroshima, where North Korea is expected to be among the major topics along with Russias war on Ukraine and Chinas assertive foreign policy.

North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles since the start of 2022 as it continues to use the United States expanding military exercises with South Korea and Japan as a pretext to accelerate its weapons development.

The weapons North Korea tested this year include intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland and shorter-range weapons potentially targeting South Korea and Japan. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has punctuated the tests with threats to preemptively use his nuclear weapons in a broad range of scenarios where the North may perceive its leadership as under threat.

North Koreas intensified testing activity and threats of nuclear conflict have pulled Seoul and Tokyo closer together following years of bickering over history. During the summit in Tokyo in March, Yoon and Kishida vowed to rebuild their security and economic relations that had declined over disputes linked to Japans brutal rule of the Korean Peninsula before the end of World War II.

The meeting, which was the first formal summit hosted by Japan since 2011, came after Yoons government took a major step toward improving ties by announcing plans to use South Korean funds to compensate Koreans who were enslaved by Japanese companies during the colonial period.

The plan, which doesnt require Japanese contributions, aims to end a row stemming from South Korean court rulings in 2018 that ordered Japanese companies to offer reparations to the forced laborers. Those rulings irked Japan, which insists all compensation issues were settled by a 1965 treaty that normalized relations.

Yoons push to mend ties with Tokyo has triggered criticism from some forced labor victims and his political rivals, who demand direct Japanese compensation. But Yoon has defended his moves, saying closer ties with Japan are critical for dealing with a slew of regional challenges, especially North Korea.

Japans Trade Ministry said last week that it started procedures to restore preferential trade status for South Korea, days after Seoul took a similar step for Tokyo and requested reciprocity. The countries in 2019 had downgraded each others trade status amid an erosion of ties caused by the forced labor rulings.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi shakes hands with Syrian officials upon his arrival at Damascus International Airport in Damascus, Syria, May 3, 2023. Raisi arrived in Syria on Wednesday with top ministers, marking the first visit by an Iranian president since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, according to the state news agency SANA. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)

DAMASCUS, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Syria on Wednesday with top ministers, marking the first visit by an Iranian president since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, according to the state news agency SANA.

Raisi was received by Syrian foreign ministry officials and representatives from the Syrian presidency at Damascus International Airport.

During the two-day visit, the Iranian president will hold extensive political and economic talks with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, followed by the signing of a number of agreements, SANA said.

The ministerial delegation accompanying the Iranian president includes Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani and other senior officials. 

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi waves upon his arrival at Damascus International Airport in Damascus, Syria, May 3, 2023. Raisi arrived in Syria on Wednesday with top ministers, marking the first visit by an Iranian president since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, according to the state news agency SANA. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)
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BANGKOK (AP)  A popular candidate for prime minister of Thailand said Wednesday shes eager to get back on the campaign trail, just two days after giving birth.

Speaking at a news conference at the hospital in Bangkok where she gave birth, Paetongtarn Shinawatra said her new baby boy wouldnt affect her ability to rally support for her Pheu Thai party with just under two weeks to go before the polls.

I believe good things come along with children, she said, sitting beside her husband, Pidok Sooksawas. I believe that children are my secret power to work, and to lead everyday life.

The newborn, Prutthasin Sooksawas, was brought into the room in a rolling incubator and displayed briefly to the media before being moved out again.

Paetongtarn is the youngest daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, the popular but divisive former prime minister who was ousted by a military coup in 2006. Shes also the niece of Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government met a similar fate eight years later.

Thaksin, who has been in self-exile since the 2006 coup, tweeted Monday after the birth that he would like permission to come home to see his grandchildren, ending the tweet with See you soon. He lives abroad to escape a prison term for abuse of power, a conviction he has decried as politically motivated.

Paetongtarn played down the significance of the message, saying it was just a natural expression of a grandfather who was very happy and excited.

Thaksin is a popular but divisive figure of Thai politics, and there has been concern that his return could be destabilizing.

Of course, the things he said would have a political effect, she said. However, as a family, I think theres nothing wrong to hope for that, especially when theres a good thing happening to the family.

Paetongtarn campaigned throughout her pregnancy. She and the Pheu Thai Party have consistently topped the opinion polls as Thailands favored prime minister candidate and next government. She took the opportunity Wednesday to underline that she was 100% confident of a landslide victory.

Id like to ask the Thai people to remain firm, because this vote is not like any other, she said. Thailand cannot just hope for the best anymore. Thailand needs change, and only the Pheu Thai Party is the best answer for the Thai people now.

Analysts have complimented Paetongtarn on her confident public performances, though the residual popularity of her father remains a factor behind her popularity, especially among poor and working-class Thais. Thaksin, a populist billionaire, championed poor people during his years in power and reaped the benefits at election time.

Even if the Pheu Thai Party secures a big win at the May 14 general election, there is no guarantee Paetongtarn will become prime minister. The top post is selected in a vote involving both houses of Parliament. That includes the Senate, which was appointed by the junta led by current prime minister and candidate Prayuth Chan-ocha, rather than by the public. Prayuth won all the senators votes after the 2019 election.

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Find more of APs Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  A delegation of United States defense contractors and a former senior leader of the U.S. Marine Corps pledged the beginning of deeper cooperation with Taiwan on Wednesday.

Taiwan has faced increasing pressure from China in the years since Tsai Ing-wen was elected president. China, which claims the island as its territory, has poached Taiwans diplomatic allies and sent military planes and ships toward the island on a near-daily basis. It also held large-scale drills modeling a blockade and simulated strikes on important targets on the island twice within the past year.

Speaking at a public forum in Taiwan's capital Taipei, retired Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder said the U.S. wants to be part of the defense capabilities of Taiwan and improve the supply chain resilience of the island. He also emphasized how critical the island's position is for security.

For the Asia-Pacific, I would offer theres not another more important area in the world to maintain peace, Rudder said Wednesday morning at the Taiwan-U.S. Defense Industry Forum. So (when) you hear a free and open Indo-Pacific, this is a small part of ensuring that shared vision remains intact.

"We want to be part of the self-defense capabilities of Taiwan," he said.

U.S. Congress members have called on the Biden administration to follow through on the nearly $19 billion in military sales items they say have been approved but not yet delivered to Taiwan.

Rudder, who was in charge of Marines operations in the Pacific, said the visit was within the U.S.' multiple agreements with China and laws related to Taiwan, such as the Taiwan Relations Act, which requires Washington to ensure Taiwan can defend itself. The legislation was enacted decades ago when the U.S. administration first recognized China and broke off official diplomatic relations with Taipei.

The event was co-hosted by a trade group from the U.S. and another from Taiwan as the public-facing portion of the defense contractors' visit.

Although it's unclear whether the groups will sign specific deals, local media reported that the United States was looking at cooperation in production of certain products. Part of that cooperation would be ensuring both sides can work together to use the weapons systems Taiwan bought alongside the island's existing self-produced defense capabilities. Washington is Taipei's largest unofficial partner and the supplier of a vast majority of Taiwan's defense purchases.

Ill say it very simply: The endgame is joint interoperability, Rudder said.

A group of about 20 activists protested outside. American warmongers are a scourge on Taiwan, read one of the banners.

They sell all sorts of outdated ammunition to Taiwan and make tens of billions of U.S. dollars from Taiwan every year, said David T. Chien, vice-chair of the Blue Sky Action Alliance, which supports unification with China.

Between 6 a.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday, 27 Chinese warplanes and a drone flew toward Taiwan, according to Taiwans Ministry of National Defense. The drone encircled the island, according to a flight map from the defense ministry, while seven navy vessels sailed the waters close by. It was the second time in the past week that a drone circled the island, in what appears to be a new tactic for China to exert military pressure on Taiwan.

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Find more of APs Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
BEIJING (AP)  At least nine people were killed in an explosion at a Chinese petrochemical plant and three others died in a helicopter crash during the country's May Day holiday.

Rescuers recovered the bodies of the nine workers killed in the explosion Monday at the Zhonghua Group plant in an industrial zone in the city of Liaocheng in the northern province of Shandong. One person remained missing and another was hospitalized with injuries, the zones management committee said in a notice Wednesday. An interdepartmental task force has been set up to investigate the cause of the blast, the committee said.
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KIGALI, Rwanda (AP)  Torrential rains caused flooding in western and northern Rwanda, killing at least 129 people, a public broadcaster said Wednesday.

The death toll continues to rise, the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency said Wednesday.

This could be the highest disaster-induced death toll to be recorded in the country in the shortest period, according to available records from recent years, the government-backed New Times newspaper reported.

Francois Habitegeko, governor of Rwanda's Western province, told reporters that a search for more victims was underway following heavy rain Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Strong rainstorms started last week, causing flooding and mudslides that swept away several houses across the country and left some roads inaccessible.

The Rwanda Meteorology Agency has warned that more rain is coming.

The government has in the past asked residents living in wetlands and other dangerous areas to relocate.

The western and northern provinces and Kigali, the capital, are particularly hilly, making them vulnerable to landslides during the rainy season.

The Ministry of Emergency Management reported last month that from January to April 20, weather-related disasters killed 60 people, destroyed more than 1,205 houses and damaged 2,000 hectares (around 5,000 acres) of land across Rwanda.

Parts of East Africa, including Ugandas southwest, also are seeing heavy rainfall.

At least three people drowned in floods last week after a river burst its banks in the remote Ugandan district of Rukungiri.
PARIS (AP)  Frances top constitutional body rejected on Wednesday a last-ditch effort by opposition lawmakers to undo President Emmanuel Macron's law to raise the retirement age to 64, deeming that a proposed bill doesn't meet the needed criteria.

It was the second time that the Constitutional Council has rejected the plan to restore the retirement age to 62, notably via a possible referendum or new bill. Had it passed muster, the process called for would be long and wouldn't stop Macron's law from taking effect.

The council ruled that the proposed legislation doesn't address a required reform regarding social policy ... and therefore judges that it does not satisfy conditions set out in the French Constitution.

Opposition lawmakers, mainly from the left, wanted to launch a complex process in hopes of rejecting Macron's unpopular pension law that was enacted last month.

The Constitutional Councils role was to assess whether the oppositions request meets the legal conditions for a potential referendum. Had it been accepted, supporters would have had nine months to collect signatures from at least 4.8 million, or 10%, of French voters.

Macrons government would then have been able to choose between sending the oppositions text to parliament for debate and eventually a vote, or waiting for six months to put the measure before voters in a referendum. The proposal would only have gone to a national referendum if it weren't debated by lawmakers.

The Constitutional Council rejected a similar proposal in April. The authors revised the measure to add language stating that a change in the financing of Frances pension system is needed.

The process, established in 2015, has never yet led to a referendum.

A favorable ruling wouldn't have suspended the law that Macrons government pushed through by using a special constitutional power to raise the retirement age without a final parliamentary vote.

Macron has defended the reform, saying it's needed to keep the pension system afloat as the population ages.

The measure has prompted months of street protests from opponents who argue there are other ways to finance the pension system, including via a tax on the wealthy or employers instead.

For detractors of the retirement age increase, the battle continues despite the ruling.

A new bill aimed at repealing the retirement reform law is to be examined in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on June 8.

The leftist CGT union, among those leading more than a dozen nationwide protests against raising the retirement age, said defeating this unjust, unjustified and deeply unfair law can only come through continued mobilization. It renewed a call Tuesday by the country's main unions for another round of demonstrations and strikes on June 6.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference following a two-day closed-door meeting on Afghanistan with special envoys from more than 20 countries and international organizations in Doha, Qatar, on May 2, 2023. Guterres on Tuesday warned that Afghanistan faces "the largest humanitarian crisis" in today's world, while calling for more funding for the UN humanitarian response plan. (Photo by Nikku/Xinhua)

DOHA, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday warned that Afghanistan faces "the largest humanitarian crisis" in today's world, while calling for more funding for the UN humanitarian response plan.

The UN chief made the remarks during a press conference in the Qatari capital of Doha following a two-day closed-door meeting on Afghanistan with special envoys from more than 20 countries and international organizations, including China, Russia, and the United States.

Currently, 97 percent of the population in Afghanistan is living in poverty, while two-thirds of the population require humanitarian assistance to survive this year, Guterres said.

He warned that the UN's Humanitarian Response Plan, which seeks 4.6 billion U.S. dollars in funding, has only received 294 million dollars, with a 94-percent shortfall.

Guterres also emphasized that the meeting was about developing a common international approach, "not about recognition of the de facto Taliban authorities."

Answering a question from a reporter, the UN chief said that he would meet with Taliban representatives "when it is the right moment to do so," but not now.

He also criticized the Taliban's negative policies toward women and girls.

The Taliban, the actual ruler of Afghanistan, did not send representatives to the meeting because they were not invited. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference following a two-day closed-door meeting on Afghanistan with special envoys from more than 20 countries and international organizations in Doha, Qatar, on May 2, 2023. Guterres on Tuesday warned that Afghanistan faces "the largest humanitarian crisis" in today's world, while calling for more funding for the UN humanitarian response plan. (Photo by Nikku/Xinhua)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference following a two-day closed-door meeting on Afghanistan with special envoys from more than 20 countries and international organizations in Doha, Qatar, on May 2, 2023. Guterres on Tuesday warned that Afghanistan faces "the largest humanitarian crisis" in today's world, while calling for more funding for the UN humanitarian response plan. (Photo by Nikku/Xinhua)
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP)  Greek authorities on Wednesday rescued a group of 39 migrants who had been abandoned by smugglers on an islet in the river that runs along the country's land border with Turkey, police said.

A police statement said the 13 men, 11 women and 15 children had been ferried across in a plastic boat from the Turkish side of the Evros river.
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NEW DELHI (AP)  No-frills Indian air carrier Go First filed for bankruptcy and suspended its flights for three days starting Wednesday, causing hardships for thousands of fliers.

A statement on the carriers website on Tuesday said the cancellations were caused by operational reasons. "A full refund will be issued to the original mode of payment shortly, the statement said.

In a message to employees on Tuesday, airline chief Kaushik Khona said Pratt & Whitney had failed to supply it with replacements for faulty aircraft engines, the Press Trust of India news agency said. Pratt & Whitney, an American aerospace manufacturer with global operations, had no immediate comment.

Khona said the carrier was doing everything possible to navigate the situation with utmost care and concern for all staff.

Go First had an average of 30,000 daily domestic flyers in March, so the disruption in flights is expected to affect about 90,000 passengers, media reports said.

Nitesh Jain, a businessman, was attempting to buy tickets for his family on another airline at a higher price.

"I booked tickets four months back to save money and now the tickets have been canceled. It's the airlines responsibility to arrange alternate flights for us.

The airline is owned by Indias Wadia group.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindi said the government was helping the airline.

Go First has been faced with critical supply chain issues with regard to its engines. The government has been assisting the airline in every possible manner, he said.

The Indian Express daily said the company's trouble with engines forced it to ground half of its fleet of about 60 aircraft.
Marco Ugarte/AP

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has again complained to the United States that the U.S. government is funding organizations opposed to his administration, this time in a letter to President Joe Biden.

The letter was dated Tuesday, the same day Lopez Obrador met with a White House official. The president made a similar complaint in a diplomatic note two years ago, just before a virtual meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris.
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ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP)  Hundreds of people protested in Paraguays capital for the second straight day Tuesday alleging that this weekends presidential elections were marred by fraud, a claim that President-elect Santiago Pena, electoral authorities and international observers dismissed.

Paraguayo Cubas, a far-right populist outsider with the National Crusade Party who came in third in Sundays presidential contest with 23% of the vote, called for the demonstrations Monday after he received a larger share of the vote than expected on the back of a strong anti-establishment message.

The protests mean Paraguay has become the latest country in the Americas to have a populist candidate call on his supporters to protest the results of an election, alleging fraud without presenting any firm evidence to back up the claims.

Were here requesting an audit of all the records, said Francisco Soteras, who was a candidate for the lower house of Congress under Cubas' party and joined the protesters Tuesday evening. Were already seeing some signs of fraud in this regard. If there is 10% of fraud, were requesting a redo of the elections.

Pena easily won Sundays election with 43% of the vote, a result that shocked analysts who had expected a close race with Efrain Alegre, the second place candidate who represented a coalition of parties that had been described as the best chance in recent history for the opposition to snatch power from the Colorado Party. In the end though, it wasnt even close as Alegre got 27% of the vote.

Despite the lopsided results, Paraguay woke up with roadblocks in numerous points across the country Tuesday, largely set up by Cubas supporters.

This is what the people feel today: discontent, rejection and a bitter feeling that their will was suppressed and the true president of the republic was robbed from them, said Cristian Delgado, another legislative candidate for Cubas' party who joined the demonstrations Tuesday.

Pena called on the government to assure free transit in Paraguays streets.

Unfortunately, today many people were unable to reach their places of work, many people arrived late to their workplaces, Pena said Tuesday as he dismissed fraud accusations.

The Organization of American States, which deployed an electoral observation mission for the vote, said Tuesday that there is no reason to doubt the results of the election.

Cubas supporters clashed with police on Monday night outside Paraguays electoral court in the capital of Asuncion. Some 70 people were detained, prosecutor Fatima Capurro said.

The Attorney Generals Office said Tuesday it would investigate the incidents but that didnt seem to intimidate the protesters who waved Paraguayan flags outside the electoral court later that day.

Alegre, the candidate for the Pact for a New Paraguay who came in second, called on Monday for a manual count of votes and an international audit of the countrys electronic voting system. Alegre had conceded shortly after Sundays vote and didnt denounce fraud, although he changed his tune after protests were launched.

Cubas, who openly admires El Salvadors President Nayib Bukele and his hardline stance against crime, said he would be traveling to Asuncion to lead the protests.

Its impossible, from my modest point of view, for a weary population to have given victory to these drug traffickers, he said in a television interview.

Analysts immediately drew parallels to what happened in Brazil last year when supporters of then-President Jair Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat in October elections and his supporters launched protests, which included roadblocks. His supporters later stormed top government buildings to dispute the outcome of the election in a move that recalled the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Hes following Bolsonaros playbook by calling for demonstrations, said Leandro Lima, a senior political risk analyst at Control Risks, a consultancy.

At the same time though, there is a key difference in that Cubas doesnt enjoy the support from police and military officers like Bolsonaro did. This lack of a military component is something that makes the Paraguay case less complex to handle, Lima said.

The way in which Alegre followed Cubas lead on the fraud claims shows how the populist politician will be an important voice in Paraguayan politics despite coming in third in the elections.

That growth in Cubas' influence comes at a time when there is a regional trend of an anti-establishment populist discourse against traditional politics and institutions, Lima said.

In neighboring Argentina, for example, an anti-establishment right-wing populist politician, Javier Milei, is also strengthening and is seen among the favorite candidates ahead of the October presidential election. -

Politi reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
LIMA, Peru (AP)  The Inter American Commission on Human Rights said Wednesday that Perus military and police forces used excessive force to quell violent anti-government protests, and that they should be investigated as possible extrajudicial executions and massacres.

The commission, an autonomous arm of the Organization of American States, said the violations took place in several regions across Peru, but centered its investigation on the cities of Ayacucho and Juliaca.

Those cities saw the largest number of deaths during the protests from December through February to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and members of Congress.

Among violence detailed in the IACHR report was a fatal clash in Ayacucho on Dec. 15, when soldiers fired rifles at demonstrators who were trying to enter the Ayacucho airport, killing 10 civilians. The IACHR said it reviewed testimonies indicating that soldiers also fired shots outside the airport, hitting bystanders as well as people who were fleeing the confrontations.

The report also found that 18 civilians died on Jan. 9 in Juliaca, including protesters, a brigade doctor and a teen bystander. All of the victims died from bullets, pellets and blunt objects, according to the report.

The protests were carried out, for the most part, by Indigenous peoples and peasant communities, mainly from the southern regions of Apurimac, Ayacucho, Puno and Arequipa, which saw the highest number of victims.

The commission said the killings of protesters may have been extrajudicial executions and massacres and should be investigated with due diligence and with an ethnic-racial focus.

Monitoring the crisis in Peru, it concludes, requires broad, genuine, and inclusive talks with an intercultural and territorial focus, where all the different groups in society are adequately represented.

The unrest began in early December following the arrest of Pedro Castillo, Perus first president of humble, rural roots, following his widely condemned attempt to dissolve Congress and head off his own impeachment.

Protesters, mainly in neglected rural areas of the country still loyal to Castillo, have sought immediate elections, Boluartes resignation, Castillos release and justice for those killed in clashes with police.
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GENEVA (AP)  Switzerland's lower house of parliament has voted to tighten ties with the legislature in Taiwan, a move that could further rankle China after recent visits by Western lawmakers to the island.

The Swiss National Council voted 97-87 with eight abstentions late Tuesday to instruct parliamentary offices to strengthen relations with Taiwan's Yuan legislature, as a way to help strengthen democracy, peace and stability, and deepen economic, political, scientific and cultural exchanges between Switzerland and Taiwan.

Left-leaning parties generally supported the measure, while the main right-wing and free-market parties opposed it. The measure only relates to the lower house; the upper house  the Council of States  doesn't necessarily have to line up for it to take effect, according to the Swiss parliament's press office.

The issue now heads to a foreign affairs committee to explore how to put the measure to work.

If carried out, the Swiss gesture would be a new tactic by foreign lawmakers to support the self-ruled island democracy in the face of intimidation by the mainlands ruling Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to invade.

The measure has been championed by Socialist lawmaker Fabian Molina, who led a parliamentary delegation to Taiwan in February that met with President Tsai Ing-wen.

In a phone interview, Molina said the vote demonstrated Swiss sovereignty  even with a power like China.

Switzerland has very close political relations with China  I would say sometimes too close  because it hinders us to also speak up against certain human rights violations or against certain problems, Molina said. But he acknowledged the vote does not mean that we make a complete U-turn in our relations with China either.

Lawmakers from other countries, including Germany and the United States, have taken part in similar delegations. All come from countries whose governments have diplomatic relations with Beijing rather than with Taiwan, which the mainland claims as part of its territory.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry, in an email, said Switzerland is sticking to its One China policy, which excludes formal diplomatic relations with the authorities in Taiwan; however, exchange on a technical level is possible and desirable.

Liu Yuyin, a spokesman for China's diplomatic mission in Geneva, said the One China principle was the prevailing consensus in the international community and the foundation of China's diplomatic ties with other countries.

Recently, China has stepped up its campaign to isolate Taiwan by peeling away some of the islands few remaining foreign diplomatic partners, most of them poor and in Africa and Latin America.

In March, Honduras became the latest government to break ties with Taiwan and switch official recognition to Beijing.
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PORT SUDAN, Sudan (AP)  The U.N.'s humanitarian chief arrived in Sudans main seaport on Wednesday to seek guarantees for the safe passage of aid deliveries, as thousands of Sudanese and foreign nationals gathered there in hopes of fleeing the conflict-torn east African country.

Martin Griffiths, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator at the United Nations, tweeted that he came to affirm the U.N.'s commitment to the Sudanese people. He arrived in Port Sudan on the Red Sea on the last day of a shaky truce, meant to expire at midnight, which has not quelled the fighting.

However, it is unclear how U.N. agencies can operate with limited staff and supplies amid the chaos, at a time of increasing concern about those trapped and displaced by the battle for control of Sudan. The fighting between forces loyal to two rival generals erupted April 15.

Thousands of U.N. workers were evacuated a week into the fighting, and some U.N. agencies paused their services. The World Food Program suspended operations after three of its workers were killed in fighting in southern Sudan, but the agency has since said it will resume its work.

The fighting, including unprecedented urban warfare in the capital of Khartoum, was preceded by months of escalating tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

At a virtual news conference from Port Sudan, Griffiths said he is seeking guarantees from the warring sides for the safe passage of humanitarian aid. He addressed criticism that the U.N. had not been doing enough by saying it was extremely difficult to work in Sudan.

The World Food Program reported that 17,000 metric tons of food has been looted, including in Khartoum and western Darfour, out of 80,000 metric tons that the Rome-based agency had in Sudan, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Even before the fighting erupted last month, a third of Sudan's population of more than 45 million relied on humanitarian assistance, according to U.N. agencies, which suffer from funding shortfalls.

Six WFP trucks carrying aid to the western region of Darfur were looted on the road, Griffiths said. He singled out Darfur and Khartoum as badly in need of assistance.

Its not as if were asking for the moon," Griffiths said. "Were asking for the movement of humanitarian supplies and people. We do this in every other country, even without cease-fires.

The conflict has so far killed 550 people, including civilians, and wounded more than 4,900. The fighting has displaced at least 334,000 people inside Sudan, and sent tens of thousands more to neighboring countries  Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia, according to U.N. agencies.

More than 42,000 Sudanese who fled the war in their country have crossed into Egypt along with 2,300 foreign nationals since the crisis began, the U.N. refugee agency said. Aid workers are increasingly concerned about lack of basic services in these areas, and also in Port Sudan, some 830 kilometers (500 miles) from Khartoum.

Early on, some Western countries, including France, Britain and Germany, airlifted hundreds of their citizens and other foreigners from airfields near Khartoum, Since then, the focus has shifted to Port Sudan as a base for those looking to leave. Many are still struggling to find a way out.

Hundreds of Syrians, who came to Sudan fleeing their own country's civil war over the past decade, are among the foreigners to leave.

One Damascus-bound flight took off Wednesday, a second was to follow later in the day and more flights were scheduled in coming days, said Tariq Abdel-Hameed, a Syrian in Port Sudan, He said priority was given to women, children and the elderly.

For thousands of Sudanese and foreigners flocking to Port Sudan, it's the last stop before leaving the country. Saudi warships have been ferrying evacuees across the Red Sea to the Saudi city of Jeddah.

It feels really sad to be leaving behind a part of your life, said Saadiya Abdulrahman, a Sudanese-American woman from Khartoum, while waiting with her daughter for their turn to board a Saudi vessel. When their turn came, they first got into a tugboat with dozens of others, to take them to the Saudi ship.

Khartoum has become like a ghost town in some neighborhoods because of all the destruction, said Salah Suleiman, a Sudanese from Khartoum who was among those sailing to Jeddah.

For those who can't afford to leave Khartoum, the most basic goods have become unavailable or unaffordable. Mercy Corps, an aid organization, said Wednesday that prices of basic goods in the city increased more than 130% on average while fuel prices increased more than ten-fold.

On Wednesday, the fighting continued in and around the city. Clouds of smoke were seen over areas of active fighting, and residents hiding in their homes still heard sounds of explosions, with the battles still seemingly centered around key government buildings, such as the Presidential Palace.

There were increasing signs of lawlessness in many neighborhoods, with reports that more diplomatic facilities were being targeted. Armed men stormed the building housing the office of Saudi Arabias cultural attache in Sudan, the kingdom said Wednesday.

A statement on the state-run Saudi Press Agency said an armed group destroyed equipment and cameras, seized some of attache's property and disrupted the attaches systems and servers.

Speaking from Kenya, U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the international community needs to come together and put pressure on the warring Sudanese generals to end the conflict.

All need to use their capacity to put pressure for this horrible and Id say unjustifiable conflict to stop, he said. The present situation is totally unacceptable.

___

ElHennawy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
BEIRUT (AP)  The U.S.-led coalition carried out a drone strike Wednesday in northwestern Syria targeting a senior al-Qaida leader, the U.S. military said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the strike hit a chicken farm near the town of Harem, killing one person. It said the dead man has not been identified yet.
As tens of thousands of drivers zip  or sometimes crawl  over the Bay Bridge every day, a forgotten mansion rests directly below them. The three-story white home, impossible to see from the bridge, was once the last residence of Americas greatest modern admiral. And, for a while, it was the historic roadblock in the way of the Bay Bridges new span.

Quarters 1 was built on Yerba Buena Island in 1900 as part of the only U.S. Navy training station on the West Coast. It was home to the commander of the base and crafted to be appropriately opulent. Large windows framed expansive views of the bay and the East Bay hills beyond and filled the elegant foyer with light. There were plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms, plus a study, spread over its nearly 6,000 square feet.

Some of the Navys highest-ranking officers came and went as residents, including one unfortunate admiral whose entire collection of dress pants went up in flames during a small house fire in 1934. Admiral Senn dispatched the remnants of his once regal wardrobe to the cleaners, but, try as they did, they couldnt restore the garments to ship-shape form, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

OpenSFHistory / wnp14.10275

After World War II, Quarters 1s most famous occupant moved in: Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Nimitz was appointed to take command of the Pacific fleet days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. His exploits in the Pacific Theater made him a household name around the world and helped the United States triumph in what felt like an unwinnable war of attrition on the way to Japan.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE The exterior of the Nimitz House shows signs of disrepair. (Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE) (Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)

In 1947, at the age of 62, Nimitz announced he was retiring as the countrys chief of naval operations. He told the press he wanted to live out his golden years as a babysitter for his grandchildren, but he did keep an office on Treasure Island in his capacity as a special adviser to the secretary of the Navy. Quarters 1 was also his, and its name soon became Nimitz House.

After a lifetime of war, Nimitz relished the peace and quiet of retirement. He split his time between a home in the Berkeley hills and Nimitz House. By 1963, he was living full time on Yerba Buena Island, preferring its proximity to his office and to his beloved San Francisco Symphony. He repeatedly turned down interview requests on birthdays, much to the annoyance of the local press. Few American heroes have ever planned a quieter birthday, the Oakland Tribune opined in February 1964.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Admiral Nimitz has quietly but firmly turned down all requests for interviews, the paper added, and is expected to spend most of the day at his quarters on Yerba Buena Island.

He did receive some very excited visitors that day, however. Hed made friends with the pupils at nearby Yerba Buena Elementary School. One Valentines Day, hed sent them candy  which their teacher said made them very sticky  and the children made him valentines in return. At Christmas, they came to his door to sing carols. For his 79th birthday, 19 little students, plus their teacher Ms. MacIntyre, walked over to Nimitzs house with a birthday surprise: a book about the San Francisco Bay and a handmade card with a poem.

Five-year-old Steven was asked by the Examiner to recite the poem the children had composed for the great war hero. He could only remember one line: We hope you enjoy the book we sent, it will not get bent.

It wasnt exactly great poetry, Ms. MacIntyre admitted. I let them write what they wanted to write. I guess youd say it came from their hearts.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Two years later, Nimitz suffered a stroke. He died in the Yerba Buena mansion, surrounded by family, a few days shy of his 81st birthday. All air traffic had to be paused at SFO to allow for 70 jets to stream overhead during his funeral at Golden Gate National Cemetery.

Decades passed, and the Navy announced it was pulling out of Treasure Island for good in the 1990s. Mayor Willie Browns office contemplated turning Nimitz House into the citys official residence after the last rear admiral moved out.

The mayor wouldnt actually live there. It would be more a ceremonial residence, perhaps a sort of Camp David, a spokesperson from Browns office said.

Instead, at least for a time, Nimitz House became an event venue. The city rented it out for $500  not a bad value for one of the most historic and scenic homes in the Bay Area. But its days as a party spot were short. After the catastrophic collapse of the Bay Bridge during the Loma Prieta earthquake, everyone agreed the aging bridge needed an upgrade, although for more than a decade, no one could quite agree on how to do that.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

In 1998, the feud between the Navy, which still owned Yerba Buena Island, and Brown went public. Navy officials expressed frustration that the new eastern span would flow directly over Nimitz House and the nearby historic residences of other officers. A Navy aide called the plan devastating.

This particular parcel of property is truly valuable, the aide told the Examiner.

Animosity over the fate of Nimitz House was so intense that, at one point, the Navy prohibited Caltrans engineers from stepping foot near the property. But in 2000, the stalemate was finally broken; the federal government transferred the parcel, including Nimitz House, to the state of California, effectively removing the Navys only bargaining chip, the Los Angeles Times reported. On Sept. 2, 2013, the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge opened directly above the once-regal homes of admirals and officers.

What the Navy feared has come to pass. The mansions bright white siding is turning dull and black from car exhaust. A fan flops from the porch ceiling like a dying tulip dropping its petals. Inside, the stunning receiving room still looks bright and cheery, although the loud hum of commuters has all but destroyed its potential as a wedding venue.

Around the house, the hedges are neatly trimmed and a few determined trees shake off the last of their spring buds. Signs erected, probably by the nearby Coast Guard station, warn trespassers to stay out.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Below the constant din of traffic, Nimitz House quietly fades.
San Francisco residents ripped into city leaders Tuesday after District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced that her office would not be filing charges against the private security guard who allegedly shot and killed 24-year-old Banko Brown in front of a Walgreens store last week.

Nowhere was the anger more visible than at City Hall. More than two dozen community members rose to speak during a Board of Supervisors meeting, where they called on elected officials to do something in response to Brown's killing. Many were visibly emotional and didn't mince words when speaking to the board.

The death of Banko Brown ... was nothing short of a lynching, one speaker said. And anyone that stands beside that is standing beside lynching. There is no gray area there. San Franciscos current approach to public safety is not safe at all, nor is it public. It is organized coercion, organized violence against our communities. We keep our communities safe, and we demand that you get your boots off our necks.

Brown, a transgender Black man, was shot and killed outside the Walgreens on Market and Fourth streets near Union Square on April 27 following an alleged shoplifting incident. The alleged shooter  33-year-old Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony  was initially booked into jail by police but was released Monday after Jenkins announced that her office would not be pressing charges. A statement from Jenkins said evidence showed that Anthony, a security guard under contract at Walgreens, felt he was in mortal danger and was acting in self-defense when he shot Brown.

We reviewed witness statements, statements from the suspect, and video footage of the incident and it does not meet the Peoples burden to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that the suspect is guilty of a crime, Jenkins said.

Her decision did not sit well with those in attendance at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting. Many held makeshift signs that said, Justice for Banko Brown, and similar verbal chants were made throughout the hearing. One person offered no comment except to loudly shriek into the microphone, which she said was meant to exemplify how transgender people in the U.S. feel in the current political climate. Others demanded that city leaders resign, and several called out Jenkins by name.

I know plenty of my white girlfriends who actually shoplift, and they dont get fking killed, one resident said.  Frankly, I dont care if this extrajudicial killing leads to riots, looting and graffiti. A life was lost, and lives are more important than property. Brooke Jenkins should fking resign.

Many expressed confusion as to why a security guard at Walgreens would be armed with a firearm in the first place.

I honestly try to be pretty involved in whats going on in the city, but I think I somehow missed the part where private corporations like Walgreens are able to have their own private militias here in the streets of San Francisco, one person said. Why was Banko Brown killed? Murdered over what? Some shampoo? A frickin' bag of chips? Are you kidding me? ... And I want to see a lot more here from you all today than the blank looks on your faces and blank words and platitudes.

Board President Aaron Peskin called a short recess during the public comment section of the meeting as it became clear he was losing control of the chamber. After the public comment section of Tuesday's meeting, Peskin said that he would be asking Jenkins to reconsider her decision.

I am deeply concerned  based on my conversations with law enforcement  by the district attorneys decision not to charge at least manslaughter, he said.  I am inclined to have this board through formal action ask the district attorney to reconsider and reexamine that decision, which I was struck by.

Other members of the board also offered comments following the public outcry, with District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton stating, You do not have the right to execute someone for shoplifting, and The DA most certainly should be charging in this case.

District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey  a Jenkins ally who represents the district in which the shooting occurred  told SFGATE after the meeting he'd like to review the evidence himself before he votes for anything related to reconsideration that Peskin puts before the board.

During the meeting, several members of the public and District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston called on Jenkins to release the security footage Jenkins said her office was in possession of. When SFGATE asked Dorsey whether he agrees with Preston and the residents, Dorsey said he has yet to speak with Jenkins and believes members of the Board of Supervisors should not preempt the offices of other elected officials without speaking to them first.

Im just not going to get in front of an elected prosecutor just as I wouldnt the city attorney or another office, Dorsey said. I want to make sure were doing our job as legislators, so Im hesitant to weigh in right now, but I have a lot more information to get about this.

The anger was not limited to Tuesday's board meeting. Residents staged a vigil outside the Walgreens Monday, where several people expressed similar sentiments. Officials at nonprofits across San Francisco also released statements following Brown's death.

This Walgreens has been more harmful to black community more than anything. A bunch of people steal from this Walgreens every single day. I know because I used to be a loss prevention manager for Old Navy for years, for almost more than a decade, Browns purported mentor, Xavier Davenport, told KPIX-TV at the vigil. Why this black young boy had to be taken away from so senseless from something that everyone in this community and everyone around San Francisco does?

SFGATE politics editor Eric Ting contributed to this report.
TEHRAN, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday condemned Israel for the death of a prominent leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in an Israeli prison.

Nasser Kanaani made the remarks in a statement on the Iranian Foreign Ministry's website, in reaction to the death of Khader Adnan, who died in an Israeli prison on Tuesday after he went on a hunger strike for 86 days.

He said Adnan's "martyrdom" in an Israeli prison further manifested the "rightfulness" of the oppressed Palestinian nation's resistance.

Kanaani noted that the detention of the Palestinian citizen and the way he was treated by Israelis was a flagrant instance of Israel's "inhumane and violent" behavior toward the Palestinian people over the past 70 years, which is tantamount to a "crime against humanity."

He said the silence of the international community and human rights bodies over Israel's acts will further encourage the Israelis to continue their behaviors. 
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

After a catastrophic series against the Sacramento Kings, much-maligned Warriors guard Jordan Poole bounced back with his best game of these playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers. He had 21 points off the bench on a relatively efficient 6-of-11 from three, and was a team-best +7 in 30 minutes. At times, he was the only Warrior who didn't look worn out from the seven-game grind against Sacramento.

And yet. It will take more than that to fully win over the fanbase, because the only shots of Poole's anyone will remember are his last two. The Warriors' final meaningful possessions ended in misses by Poole, and Golden State went down, 117-112. It's early days, but the Lakers have snatched home-court advantage.
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Tuesday, May 2, 2023

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

Severe Weather Statement

National Weather Service Amarillo TX

652 PM CDT Tue May 2 2023

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 730 PM CDT

FOR NORTHEASTERN DALLAM COUNTY...

At 651 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 7 miles west of

Conlen, or 16 miles west of Stratford, moving northeast at 20 mph.

HAZARD...Quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Damage to vehicles is expected.

Locations impacted include...

Conlen.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

Continuous cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm.

Move indoors immediately. Lightning is one of nature's leading

killers. Remember, if you can hear thunder, you are close enough to

be struck by lightning.

The National Weather Service in Midland has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southwestern Ector County in western Texas...

Southeastern Winkler County in western Texas...

* Until 730 PM CDT.

* At 652 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 14 miles southwest

of Goldsmith, or 16 miles east of Kermit, moving east at 15 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage

to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Notrees.

This includes Interstate 20 near mile marker 99.

To report severe weather, contact your nearest law enforcement

agency. They will send your report to the National Weather Service

office in Midland.

...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of southeastern

Andrews, northwestern Midland and southwestern Martin Counties

through 745 PM CDT...

At 652 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 7

miles southeast of Midland International Air and Space Port, or 9

miles south of Midland, moving north at 15 mph.

HAZARD...Wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph and nickel size hail.

IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around

unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is

possible.

Midland, Odessa, Midland International Air and Space Port, Cotton

Flat, Warfield, Midland Airpark and Skywest Airport.

This includes Interstate 20 between mile markers 123 and 149.

If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.

Torrential rainfall is also occurring with this storm and may lead to

localized flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded

roadways.

Frequent cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm.

Lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. Seek a safe

shelter inside a building or vehicle.

LAT...LON 3176 10201 3179 10228 3213 10227 3211 10189

TIME...MOT...LOC 2352Z 192DEG 15KT 3187 10213

MAX HAIL SIZE...0.88 IN

MAX WIND GUST...55 MPH

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Copyright 2023 AccuWeather
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Tuesday, May 2, 2023

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

Severe Weather Statement

National Weather Service Amarillo TX

703 PM CDT Tue May 2 2023

...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR NORTHEASTERN DALLAM COUNTY IS

CANCELLED...

The storm which prompted the warning has weakened below severe

limits, and no longer poses an immediate threat to life or property.

Therefore, the warning has been cancelled. However small hail is

still possible with this thunderstorm.

The National Weather Service in Lubbock Texas has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southern Cochran County in northwestern Texas...

Terry County in northwestern Texas...

Southwestern Hockley County in northwestern Texas...

Yoakum County in northwestern Texas...

* Until 800 PM CDT.

* At 705 PM CDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line

extending from 8 miles northeast of Tatum to near Plains to 4 miles

west of Seagraves, moving northeast at 30 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage

to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Brownfield, Denver City, Plains, Sundown, Bronco, Tokio, Lehman,

and Wellman.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

Torrential rainfall is occurring with these storms, and may lead to

flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways.

_____

Copyright 2023 AccuWeather
WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Tuesday, May 2, 2023

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

Severe Weather Statement

National Weather Service Midland/Odessa TX

713 PM CDT Tue May 2 2023

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 730 PM CDT

FOR SOUTHWESTERN ECTOR AND EAST CENTRAL WINKLER COUNTIES...

At 713 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 15 miles northeast

of Monahans, moving southeast at 15 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to

roofs, siding, and trees.

This severe thunderstorm will remain over mainly rural areas of

southwestern Ector and east central Winkler Counties.

This includes Interstate 20 near mile marker 99.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

To report severe weather contact your nearest law enforcement agency.

They will send your report to the National Weather Service office in

Midland.

The National Weather Service in Midland has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southwestern Glasscock County in western Texas...

Eastern Midland County in western Texas...

* Until 815 PM CDT.

* At 715 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 12 miles south of

Midland, moving east at 15 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage

to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Midland, Cotton Flat, Spraberry and Skywest Airport.

Torrential rainfall is occurring with this storm, and may lead to

flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways.

...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR NORTH CENTRAL ANDREWS COUNTY

IS CANCELLED...

The severe thunderstorm which prompted the warning has moved out of

Andrews therefore, the warning has been cancelled. The warning

remains in effecet for Gaines County.

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 745 PM CDT

FOR CENTRAL GAINES COUNTY...

At 716 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Seminole,

moving north at 25 mph.

HAZARD...70 mph wind gusts and ping pong ball size hail.

SOURCE...Public reported ping-pong ball sized hail 5 miles west-

southwest of Seminole.

IMPACT...People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail

damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles. Expect

considerable tree damage. Wind damage is also likely to

mobile homes, roofs, and outbuildings.

Locations impacted include...

Seminole, Seagraves, Seagraves Airport, Gaines County Airport, Paynes

Corner and Gaines County Park.

Continuous cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm.

Move indoors immediately. Lightning is one of nature's leading

killers. Remember, if you can hear thunder, you are close enough to

be struck by lightning.

_____

Copyright 2023 AccuWeather
WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, May 3, 2023

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Midland has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

West central Reeves County in southwestern Texas...

* Until 600 PM CDT.

* At 504 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 9 miles northwest

of Saragosa, or 12 miles south of Toyah, moving east at 25 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage

to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Pecos, Verhalen, Toyah Lake and Pecos Municipal Airport.

This includes Interstate 20 between mile markers 14 and 15, and

between mile markers 28 and 41.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

Torrential rainfall is occurring with this storm, and may lead to

flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways.

_____

Copyright 2023 AccuWeather
WFO NORMAN Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, May 3, 2023

_____

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

Special Weather Statement

National Weather Service Norman OK

943 AM CDT Wed May 3 2023

...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of northwestern Wichita

and southeastern Wilbarger Counties through 1015 AM CDT...

At 942 AM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm near

Electra, moving northeast at 15 mph.

HAZARD...Half inch hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to outdoor objects is possible.

Locations impacted include...

Electra, Harrold, and Haynesville.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.

Torrential rainfall is also occurring with this storm and may lead to

localized flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded

roadways.

LAT...LON 3396 9909 3404 9911 3417 9889 3417 9887

3415 9887 3416 9886 3416 9883 3414 9880

3414 9877 3413 9876 3413 9874 3402 9867

TIME...MOT...LOC 1442Z 240DEG 12KT 3405 9896

MAX HAIL SIZE...0.50 IN

MAX WIND GUST...<30 MPH

The National Weather Service in Norman has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Northwestern Wichita County in northern Texas...

Southeastern Wilbarger County in northern Texas...

* Until 1015 AM CDT.

* At 946 AM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 4 miles south of

Harrold, moving northeast at 10 mph.

HAZARD...Quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Damage to vehicles is expected.

* Locations impacted include...

Electra, Harrold, and Haynesville.

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2023 AccuWeather
WFO SAN ANGELO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, May 3, 2023

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in San Angelo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Eastern Shackelford County in west central Texas...

* Until 445 PM CDT.

* At 356 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Albany,

moving southeast at 15 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage

to roofs, siding, and trees.

* This severe thunderstorm will be near...

Albany around 410 PM CDT.

Ibex around 445 PM CDT.

Other locations impacted by this severe thunderstorm include Us-

180 Near The Shackelford-Stephens County Line and Mccarty Lake.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of southwestern Reeves,

northern Jeff Davis and east central Culberson Counties through 445

PM CDT...

At 358 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm near

Kent, moving northeast at 5 mph.

HAZARD...Wind gusts up to 50 mph and penny size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around

unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is

possible.

This storm will remain over mainly rural areas of southwestern

Reeves, northern Jeff Davis and east central Culberson Counties.

This includes the following highways...

Interstate 10 between mile markers 179 and 191.

Interstate 20 between mile markers 0 and 6.

If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.

Torrential rainfall is also occurring with this storm and may lead to

localized flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded

roadways.

Frequent cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm.

Lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. Seek a safe

shelter inside a building or vehicle.

LAT...LON 3123 10411 3122 10408 3112 10393 3109 10391

3103 10405 3105 10407 3105 10408 3101 10410

3108 10421

TIME...MOT...LOC 2058Z 229DEG 6KT 3108 10411

MAX HAIL SIZE...0.75 IN

MAX WIND GUST...50 MPH

_____

Copyright 2023 AccuWeather
After an unusually wet winter, the spring season was quite welcome in the San Francisco Bay Area this year, bringing hope for some sunshine. Six weeks into the season, the region has seen some warm spells  but also bouts of rain and cool temperatures.

This week, an area of low pressure spinning off the coast of California is sending bands of rain across the Bay Area. The system also blasted the region with cold air, and afternoon highs this week have been 5 to 10 degrees below normal, according to the National Weather Service.

Many residents may be wondering when it will warm up again.

The answer will be discouraging for sun-seekers. The weather service says there's no sign of a heat event in the next seven days, and confidence in the forecast is high. While conditions are expected to dry up over the weekend, and temperatures are likely to bump up to near normal, cooler weather returns early next week.

What about beyond early next week? It's difficult to forecast the weather with accuracy beyond seven days, but long-term forecasts from the weather service's Weather Prediction Center suggest more cool weather could be on tap for the Bay Area in May. The agency says there's a 50% to 60% chance the Bay Area will see above-normal rainfall and below-normal temperatures this month.

After rains soaked the Bay Area on Tuesday, the region continued to see scattered showers Wednesday, with a low-pressure system rotating counter-clockwise off the coast.

There is ongoing rain happening in the Bay Area right now, said David King, a forecaster with the weather services Bay Area office. Its going to be like that  off again, on again  through the course of the day. As that low drops south, showers will diminish. The rain tomorrow will mostly be along the Central Coast, but maybe one shower randomly pops up in San Francisco.

With the low pressure fully exiting the region and pushing into the desert Southwest by Friday, a ridge of high pressure associated with drier, warmer weather is expected to start building over California. It will continue to build through the weekend but is not predicted to strengthen enough to trigger a significant warmup.

We would consider it a minor warming trend, King said. Any kind of warming that happens this weekend will be minimal. In San Francisco, were not even expecting to get into the 60s. Inland areas are expected to break into the 60s over the weekend.

Temperatures in some spots could get close to normal but are likely to stay a few degrees below. Afternoon highs in early May are on average in the low 60s in San Francisco and in the high 60s in Oakland.

Next week, temperatures are forecast to drop further below normal as a low-pressure system pushes into the Pacific Northwest. The storm is not forecast to reach the Bay Area, but it will push cool air into the region.

Theres no sign of any type of heat wave or getting back into the 80s  for people who want to see fun in the sun, King said.

The good news, King said, is that the late-season rains could help with wildfire conditions this summer. Were projecting that fire season will be delayed because of all the rain we had this winter, and when you add another little storm, it just furthers the confidence that it will start later, King said. But while these rains may help dampen the landscape and big trees, preventing large hot-burning forest fires, they also help grasses to grow. When fire season does kick off, the big concern will be grass fires, he said.
Fire and smoke are seen following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, on May 2, 2023. Israel carried out airstrikes on Tuesday night on the posts that belong to Palestinian militant groups led by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli sources said. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

GAZA/JERUSALEM, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Israel carried out airstrikes on Tuesday night on the posts that belong to Palestinian militant groups led by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

Palestinian security officials in Gaza said that Israeli reconnaissance drones and fighter jets hovered over the coastal enclave, ruled by Hamas, and then several explosions were heard in the northern and central Gaza Strip and western Gaza City.

An Israeli military spokesman said in a press statement that the Israeli air forces began to strike on militants' posts in the Gaza Strip in response to the earlier rocket attacks from the enclave at southern Israel.

No injuries were reported following the Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, the security officials said.

On Tuesday, Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), claimed responsibility for firing 37 rockets and projectiles at southern Israel.

Israeli media reported that at least nine people, including a Chinese worker, were injured after one of the rockets targeted a building in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. One of the injuries was in critical condition.

The Israeli military said in an earlier statement that at least 40 rockets were fired from Gaza throughout the day and continued during the night. In response to the rockets, Israeli tanks fired artillery into Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that the country's top security officials held a special situation assessment meeting, where possible military responses to the rockets were discussed.

The firing of rockets came in response to the death of Khader Adnan, a senior PIJ member who died in Israeli custody after he went on a hunger strike for 86 days.

Adnan's death in Israeli prison has raised the tensions between Israelis and Palestinians which have been flaring up since early January.

The Palestinians said that since early January, around 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while Israel said that 19 Israelis have been killed in a series of attacks carried out by Palestinians. 

Fire and smoke are seen following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, on May 2, 2023. Israel carried out airstrikes on Tuesday night on the posts that belong to Palestinian militant groups led by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli sources said. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Fire and smoke are seen following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, on May 2, 2023. Israel carried out airstrikes on Tuesday night on the posts that belong to Palestinian militant groups led by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli sources said. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Fire and smoke are seen following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, on May 2, 2023. Israel carried out airstrikes on Tuesday night on the posts that belong to Palestinian militant groups led by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli sources said. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
SRT Marine Systems has completed the first phase of a national coast guard maritime surveillance system contract, it announced on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm announced the contract in January last year, with the project being worth a total of 40m.

It said the completed phase was signed off in March after extensive testing, with the contract now moving to the next two phases, which would be worth a total of 24m including taxes.

The next phases were expected to start in the summer, with implementation taking around one year.

SRT said the SRT-MDA System, which was now fully operational and in daily use by the customer, uses advanced Dynamic-Ai technology to automatically detect and alert the Coast Guard to illegal maritime activities, such as smuggling, unlicensed fishing, maritime border incursions, and potential threats to critical infrastructure, such as undersea pipelines.

That information allows the customer to operate based on high-quality marine intelligence, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of operations.

The completion of the first phase of the project represented a significant milestone in the development of the national maritime surveillance system, the SRT board said.

It added that the system would be built up in a series of contracts over several years, with SRT Marine providing surveillance, security, safety, and environmental protection services and technologies.

This significant national Coast Guard customer has a very ambitious long-term plan to build up a sophisticated integrated maritime surveillance system, said chief executive officer Simon Tucker.

This will be achieved through a series of multiple contracts spanning many years.

Tucker said such projects of national scale were highly challenging and complex, with the successful completion of the first phase to such a demanding customer a testament to the SRT-MDA System product and the capabilities of the company.

We now move on to deliver the next phases of this important project.

At 1150 BST, shares in SRT Marine Systems were up 5.6% at 44.35p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
People visit Jianchang ancient city in Xichang, southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 1, 2023. China is witnessing a travel boom during this year's five-day May Day holiday. (Photo by Li Jieyi/Xinhua)

BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- China's tourism industry will reap a bumper harvest during the May Day holiday, which ends on Wednesday, heralding the industry's overall recovery and strong rebound this year.

It was predicted that the five-day holiday, the first such holiday since China optimized its COVID response late last year, will see more than 200 million domestic trips, bringing in a total tourism revenue of over 100 billion yuan (about 14.44 billion U.S. dollars).

This can be seen as a turning point of China's tourism sector. The market performance has truly returned to its 2019 level, according to Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy.

Travel-hungry citizens started to head for tourist attractions across the country on the eve of the holiday. Around 120 million domestic trips are expected to be made by railway passengers from April 27 to May 4 during the holiday transport period, up 20 percent from the same period in 2019, according to a forecast of the railway authorities.

"This is the first time that we go on a long trip over the past three years," said tourist Zhang Zhenyue who was on vacation with his family in the resort island of south China's Hainan Province. "People mountain people sea, but we do have fun here."

The long-lost hustling and bustling is back. Observers believed the lucrative May Day holiday added fuel to the strong momentum of China's tourism recovery.

Data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism shows that more than 1.2 billion domestic trips were made in the first quarter, bringing in 1.3 trillion yuan of tourism revenue, up 46.5 percent and 69.5 percent year on year, respectively.

"Since the Spring Festival especially, more and more elderly people and children have started to travel, indicating that the tourism market is warming up," said Guo Lechun, vice president of the big data research institute under online travel service provider Qunar.

With the pent-up demand for travel greatly unleashed, many cities that were once little known became new tourist destinations, some of which are referred to as "emerging online celebrity cities."

One such city in east China's Shandong Province has become a smash hit since March, with hundreds of thousands of foodies flocking there for local-speciality barbecue.

"It tastes marvelous and is worth waiting for more than three hours," said a tourist surnamed Liu, who drove almost 300 kilometers to the city of Zibo. "What attracts us most is the relaxing and harmonious atmosphere here."

It is estimated that the city with a population of about 4.7 million will receive approximately 120,000 tourist visits during the May Day holiday, a formidable year-on-year surge of 2,000 percent.

Once an old industrial base, the city is now widely known for its distinctive style of cooking, its historical sites and colorful glazed handicrafts, establishing itself as a popular tourist city.

Zibo's success story has also been attributed to the local hospitality and supportive measures that were released in a timely manner for the convenience of tourists, such as stringent price controls for hotels and taxi fares, as well as making improvements to infrastructure.

A central leadership meeting on economic work held on the eve of the holiday stressed the need to improve the country's consumption environment and promote services consumption in the culture and tourism sector.

During the holiday, China's tourism authorities took a spate of measures to ensure the sound operations of tourist attractions and improve the tourist experience, including strengthening the supervision of food safety, limiting passenger flows and controlling price caps.

The tourism recovery also stimulated outbound international trips during the holiday. Data from Alibaba's travel branch Fliggy shows that orders for outbound trips during the holiday increased by 200 percent compared to this year's Spring Festival.

Industrial analysts believe that confidence in China's tourism industry has returned close to the pre-epidemic level. "Tourism plays an important role in boosting catering, accomodation and retail sectors, and its recovery can help drive the overall consumption of the society," said Dai.

A blue paper on China's tourism economy recently released by the China Tourism Academy estimates that about 4.55 billion domestic tourist trips will be made this year, soaring 73 percent from 2022. It also projects that China will see more than 90 million inbound and outbound trips this year. 
Lucknow Super Giants pacer Jaydev Unadkat has been ruled out of the remainder of IPL 2023 due to a left-shoulder injury, which he picked up while training in the nets. According to an report, the 31-year old Indian pacer will be fit in time for the WTC final against Australia, starting on June 7 at The Oval.

Unadkat was going to bowl his first ball in the Lucknow nets when he ran in from around the wicket and his left foot got stuck in the rope that keeps the net up. He had a nasty fall on his bowling elbow and clutched his left shoulder while still on the ground. He was seen with his arm in a sling and an ice pack on his shoulder after the incident.

The report further said that Unadkat travelled to Mumbai for scans and visited one of the specialist consultants appointed by the BCCI. In consultation with the board's medical staff, Super Giants decided to withdraw Unadkat from the IPL. The left-arm pacer expected to head to the NCA in Bengaluru for rehab to get fit to travel to England for the WTC final against Australia.

Unadkat, who had gone wicketless in the three IPL games this season, is among the five fast-bowling options along with Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav and allrounder Shardul Thakur in India's squad for the WTC final.

Apart from Unadkat, LSG skipper KL Rahul is also injured and set to miss few games for his side. Rahul hurt his right leg while chasing a ball in the outfield in the second over against Royal Challengers Bangalore. The results of Rahul's scans and the extent of the injury are still awaited. The batter is also in the WTC squad but his participation is unclear as of now.
Lucknow Super Giants have their fingers crossed over the availability of injured skipper KL Rahul, who has joined Jaydev Unadkat in the recovery room, as they host four-time champions Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. It will be a slightly nervous Lucknow dressing room against CSK, especially because their famed batting line-up failed to chase a total of 126 against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the same venue.

Rahul sustained injury on his right thigh during the match against RCB, while Unadkat slipped badly while bowling at the nets, resulting in a nasty fall. The extent of both the injuries is yet to be ascertained but Rahul came out to bat at No. 11 in LSG's unsuccessful run chase, facing three balls without opening account. His inclusion in the LSG team for match is doubtful.

Players like Kyle Mayers, Nicholas Pooran, Marcus Stoinis and Krunal Pandya have chipped in individually as well as collectively in previous games to keep the Lucknow franchise afloat while skipper Rahul has not been at his best after the two half centuries (74 against Punjab Kings and 68 against Gujarat Titans).

LSG's performance this season has swung wildly. While on the one hand, they have given commanding performances that have become the envy of other sides, they also have a self-destruction button hidden somewhere, which goes off automatically.

Their match against Punjab Kings on April 28 was a reminder what the team can achieve collectively, while their game against RCB was an example of how calamitously a team could lose while chasing a miniscule total of 126. The 257 for five against Punjab Kings, resulting to a 56-run win, had class and composure written all over it, with Mayers, Badoni, Stoinis, Pooran, Naveen-ul-Haq and Yash Thakur all chipping in, while they failed collectively against RCB.

Their weakness of succumbing to pressure, especially when their skipper Rahul might not be able to play due to a likely pulled hip flexor muscle, could give the MS Dhoni-led CSK enough confidence to go all out on the offensive.

LSG may be placed third on the IPL standings with 10 points from nine games but the shattering blow to their morale following the 18-run loss to RCB could be exploited by CSK, who too are on 10 points from nine matches but placed fourth due to an inferior net run rate (NRR).

Though CSK are coming off consecutive losses to Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings, their ability to bounce back can never be underestimated. With the tactical acumen of Dhoni playing a vital role in most of their victories this season, the former India captain could exploit the situation, especially if Rahul does not play.
MyAva, a women's health and wellness firm also based in Bengaluru, has been purchased by Bonatra, a holistic health startup that provides a comprehensive health stack solution to treat, manage, and reverse chronic conditions. With this acquisition, Bonatra hopes to broaden its holistic healthcare initiatives and establish itself as a one-stop resource for the management of chronic illnesses.

A femtech firm called MyAva gives women the tools they need to manage chronic health diseases like polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), thyroid problems, insulin resistance, and more. Evelyn Immanuel began the business in 2019, and since then it has acquired a reputation as a reliable supplier of carefully selected programmes and specialised plans that assist women in enhancing their health and wellbeing.

Contrarily, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) startup Bonatra is directed by a physician and is dedicated to the treatment and management of chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, fatty liver, polycystic ovarian disease (PCOD), obesity, etc.

In order to strengthen its solutions, which are a fusion of medical science, data science, and technology, Bonatra wants to release newer IoMT devices, including a smart ring, in the Indian market over the course of the next six months. The business most recently completed a Pre-Seed Round raising Rs 5.5 crore.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The New York State Department of Civil Service (DCS) has released its May application schedule for New Yorks entry-level civil service exams.

The open-competitive exams are an opportunity to start a career with New York State. These tests are open to anyone who meets the qualifications listed on the examination announcement.

Some exams will be held as in-person written exams in July, while others require candidates to complete an online exam by a deadline. The exams also have different application deadlines. Four exams are available to apply online until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, May 10, while four other exams are available to apply online until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31.

Visit www.cs.ny.gov/examannouncements/types/oc to apply for exams.

The application period opened for the following exams with a deadline of May 31: associate director training 1 (instructional design); associate director training 2 (instructional design); training specialist 1 (instructional design); and training specialist 2 (instructional design).

Exams with a deadline of May 10 include: rehabilitation counselor 1; rehabilitation counselor 2; rehabilitation counselor 1 (Chinese language); and rehabilitation counselor 2 (Spanish language).

According to the state, an application must be submitted online or postmarked by the last date to apply. An application will not be accepted after the application filing deadline has passed.

Application fees range from $35 to $45 for the exams this month.

To be considered for appointment, you must pass the written test. The Department of Civil Service may administer tests either online or with paper booklets and answer sheets.

All positions offer benefits, including paid leave, health benefits and retirement plans. In addition, telecommuting options may be available to employees who meet certain criteria.

To learn more about working for the State of New York, visit the Department of Civil Service website and follow the department on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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This photo taken on May 2, 2023 shows the Tiandu Peak of Huangshan Mountain in east China's Anhui Province. Huangshan, one of China's most famous mountains, is known for its majestic scenic beauty, strange rocks, cloud-shrouded peaks and ancient pines. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. (Photo by Cai Ji'an/Xinhua)

This aerial photo taken on April 26, 2023 shows scenery of Huangshan Mountain in east China's Anhui Province. Huangshan, one of China's most famous mountains, is known for its majestic scenic beauty, strange rocks, cloud-shrouded peaks and ancient pines. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. (Photo by Fan Chengzhu/Xinhua)

Tourists visit Huangshan Mountain in east China's Anhui Province on April 30, 2023. Huangshan, one of China's most famous mountains, is known for its majestic scenic beauty, strange rocks, cloud-shrouded peaks and ancient pines. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. (Photo by Cai Ji'an/Xinhua)

This photo taken on April 10, 2023 shows the Lianhua Peak and a pine tree on Huangshan Mountain in east China's Anhui Province. Huangshan, one of China's most famous mountains, is known for its majestic scenic beauty, strange rocks, cloud-shrouded peaks and ancient pines. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. (Xinhua/Ma Ning)

A tourist takes photos of pine trees on Huangshan Mountain in east China's Anhui Province, April 11, 2023. Huangshan, one of China's most famous mountains, is known for its majestic scenic beauty, strange rocks, cloud-shrouded peaks and ancient pines. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. (Xinhua/Ma Ning)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Police are investigating a burglary where smoke products worth more than $9,000 allegedly were stolen from a storefront at a busy intersection in Sunnyside.

The break-in occurred around 3 a.m. on Tuesday at 1172 Victory Blvd. near the corner of Clove Road, according to a spokesman for the NYPDs Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

Police are seeking to question three males who rode away from the area in a dark Mazda with a hatchback.

The police spokesman said that two unknown males damaged the front door to gain entry to the commercial space. They removed vape products worth around $6,000, tobacco products valued at about $2,000, cigars worth about $1,000 and cigarettes valued at about $500, according to the police spokesman.

The two males were captured on surveillance cameras entering the location and then exiting and leaving with a third male who was driving the Mazda, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

The burglary was reported the next morning around 10 a.m., according to police.

The business appeared to be an unoccupied storefront.

The glass was broken and shattered on the sidewalk.

Graffiti also was scrawled on the windows.

Police were seen dusting for fingerprints on the door frame.

A smoke shop is located on the same block and police were seen inside, but a source with knowledge of the investigation was unable to say whether that business was affected by the heist.

No arrests have been made and the investigation continues, the police spokesman said.

Burglars removed vape products worth around $6,000, tobacco products valued at about $2,000, cigars worth about $1,000 and cigarettes valued at about $500, according to a police spokesman. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)

Police were seen dusting for fingerprints on the door frame. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)

A police officer dusts for prints. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)

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>> NYPD seeks tips in alleged assault on MTA bus on Staten Island
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Police probing the shooting of a teen in the South Beach Houses Tuesday night are trying to determine who fired the gun and are investigating the possibility the victim accidentally shot himself, according to a law-enforcement source.

A 16-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound to the right leg and was taken to Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze in stable condition after a gun was fired around 8:20 p.m. inside 141 Norway Ave., according to a spokesman for the NYPDs Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

Among the possibilities detective are probing is whether the gunshot wound was self-inflicted, the source said.

Officials have not yet determined what led to the teen being wounded.



OTHER STATEN ISLAND NEWS:

>> Source: Suspect who fired into S.I. salon missed gang target, hit innocent teen, woman

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>> NYPD: $9K in smoke products stolen in burglary on Staten Island

>> Husband charged with murder in stabbing death of wife in Richmond

>> Carjackings, threats, scams on Staten Island prompt warning about selling, buying cars on Facebook Marketplace

>> NYPD details terrifying attempted abduction on Staten Island; cops search for two males in brown van

>> NYPD seeks tips in alleged assault on MTA bus on Staten Island
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y  The National Organization of Italian American Women, (NOIAW), will recognize three community leaders for their professional accomplishments, their contributions to the Italian-American community, and for serving as role models for the next generation.

The awards ceremony will take place during NOIAWs Annual Luncheon set for Saturday, May 6 at 11:30 a.m. at The St. Regis New York, in Manhattan.

Honored will be Mary Calvi, TV news anchor/author, Cristina Carabetta, attorney and founder, Betta Bag and Chair of the National Italian American Bar Association, and Joseph Sciame, vice president, St. Johns University and president, Sons of Italy Foundation.

Jill Biden, the First Lady of the United States, who often speaks about her own Italian heritage, will deliver a special pre-recorded message reflecting on the traditions and cultural values she learned in her Sicilian grandfather, Domenicos, South Jersey home  that continue to serve as an inspiration in her life.

Biden, who was scheduled to speak in person, will represent the United States at the Coronation of King Charles III in Westminster Abbey on Saturday.

Patricia Russo, executive director of The Campaign School at Yale and a 2010 NOIAW Wise Woman recipient, will serve as the programs emcee.

NOIAW will also present scholarship awards to young Italian American women for pursuing their higher education at prestigious colleges, law schools, medical schools and universities.

West Brightons MaryRose Barranco Morris is president, Greater New York Region. Maria Tamburri is NOIAW chair and Pat Tinto, NOIAW president of the 43-year-old not-for-profit founded to connect, inspire and empower its members through its shared culture and heritage.

Tamburri and Tinto, explained in a joint statement:

NOIAWs honorees epitomize Italian American women and men, and we know that the numerous accomplishments among the members of NOIAW are remarkable across fields and, in many cases, achieved against all odds.

We also are delighted to be able to share a message from Dr. Biden, who is not only the first Italian American to live in the White House but the first First Lady to continue her career full time outside of the responsibilities of her role as spouse to the President of the United States.=

Since its founding in 1980, NOIAW has flourished, achieving its mission to inspire, empower and connect women through a shared Italian heritage and culture. While its mission has remained steadfast, its membership, programs and accomplishments have expanded and touched many, especially with the introduction of virtual programming during COVID.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- One of the busiest days of the year for the Staten Island Ferry is right around the corner.

With more than 30,000 cyclists gearing up for this years TD Five Boro Bike Tour, the Staten Island Ferry will be charged with transporting thousands to and from the annual event.

The 40-mile tour, set for Sunday, May 7, spans the citys five boroughs, beginning in Lower Manhattan and traveling north into the Bronx, before heading to Queens, Brooklyn and, ultimately, crossing the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and concluding in St. George near the Staten Island Ferry.

With 32,000 participants expected in this years event, the Staten Island Ferry is in for a busy day, serving as the quickest, most convenient way for Staten Islanders to reach the starting line and for non-borough residents to return to other parts of the city after theyve completed the course.

On the day of the event, the Staten Island Ferry will provide 20-minute service from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., 15-minute service from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and regularly-scheduled 30-minute service at all other times.

All cyclists must board the boat on the lower level at both the Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan and the St. George Terminal, located at 1 Bay St. on Staten Island.

Riders must dismount and walk their bicycle while in the waiting area and when boarding and departing the boat. Riding on and off the boat is prohibited.

All bicycles must be stored in the designated storage area on the lower level of each vessel.

Riders may be subject to security screenings at the terminal.

The Staten Island Ferry is free of charge for all passengers and bicycles.

The Department of Transportation, the agency that operates the Staten Island Ferry, is not responsible for any stolen or damage bicycles.

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Delayed Staten Island bike lanes near Bayonne, Goethals bridges expected to be completed this year

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What is the penalty for passing a stopped school bus in New York?

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You may be unaware of who Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) are, but if youve ever had surgery, its likely that a CRNA was involved with your care. As president of the New York State Association of Nurse Anesthetists (NYSANA), I want to provide the facts about CRNAs and why New York needs to recognize CRNAs with licensure.

Nurse Anesthetists were the first healthcare providers dedicated to the specialty of anesthesiology and have safely administered anesthesia in the United States for more than 150 years. CRNAs are Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, who safely administer more than 50 million anesthetics nationwide each year.

There are four different delivery models in which anesthesia is administered; physician anesthesiologist alone; CRNA alone; anesthesiologist medical direction of CRNAs; and medical supervision of CRNAs. Studies have shown that regardless of which model is used or provider administering the anesthetic, the outcomes for patients are the same. Supervision is an artificial construct that is no longer needed, given the education and training of CRNAs in New York.

This was proven during the COVID-19 pandemic when supervision requirements were removed completely. In March 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) temporarily removed physician supervision of CRNAs, thus granting the profession full practice authority.

In New York, Executive Order 202.10 was issued in March 2020 and physician supervision was subsequently waived until the end of the emergency was declared in June 2021. In September 2021, physician supervision was once again lifted when Gov. Kathy Hochul issued Executive Order 4 to address the healthcare worker shortage in the state. Executive Order 4 remains in effect today, which means that for nearly three years, CRNAs have practiced collaboratively with no increase in adverse outcomes for patients.

As the sole anesthesia providers in most of the nations rural hospitals, CRNAs enable these facilities to offer a multitude of surgical services. Removing barriers to practice is a key part to ensure that vulnerable populations have access to care and that there are enough providers available to serve the needs of all patients in New York.

In addition to increasing access to care for all New Yorkers, creating a scope of practice for CRNAs in New York will help to contain costs. Hospitals and surgical facilities are under increased pressure to provide access to high-quality care to the communities they serve and need the flexibility to choose the provider model that makes sense for their unique situation.

Supporting New York Senate bill S769, which will grant CRNAs recognition and a full scope of practice for the first time in New Yorks history, is the innovative, evidence-based answer to improving patient care and access to anesthesia services in New York state. Removing unnecessary supervision requirements increases access to care for all New Yorkers. This must be the priority. Right now, New York is the only state in the country that has not formally recognized the title and scope of practice of a CRNA. No more waiting! New York needs to come through for its CRNAs.

More about supervision, CRNAs, their education, and exemplary safety record at www.anesthesiafacts.com.

(Sean P. McGarry is president of the New York State Association of Nurse Anesthetists.)
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DAMASCUS, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began talks with visiting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who arrived in Syria Wednesday on the first visit by an Iranian president since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, according to the state news agency SANA.

An official reception ceremony was held upon Raisi's arrival at the Al-Sha'ab presidential palace in Damascus, where Assad was waiting for him.

Both leaders reviewed the honor guard before heading into the palace and starting their talks, SANA said.

Raisi was earlier received by Syrian foreign ministry officials and representatives from the Syrian presidency at Damascus International Airport.

The ministerial delegation accompanying the Iranian president includes Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani and other senior officials.

During the two-day official visit, the Iranian president would hold extensive political and economic talks with his Syrian counterpart and sign several agreements, according to SANA. 
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Feeling overwhelmed by climate change? Want to take action but dont know where to start? Co Read moreHow To Take Action on Climate: What You (Yes, You!) Can Do
The Department of Treasury has confirmed it did not refer the leak of confidential government plans to combat tax avoidance to the Australian Federal Police to investigate potential criminal breaches.

Treasury did not refer this matter to the Australian Federal Police, the department said in response to questions from Senator Nick McKim at a recent Senate estimates inquiry.

It comes the same day as the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) released some of the damning evidence that led to a former PwC partner being banned for leaking confidential government plans.

The 148-page document, which was submitted by the TPB to Senate estimates in response to queries from Senator Deborah ONeill, includes heavily redacted internal emails revealing that the sensitive information on plans to combat tax avoidance was widely shared with other staff and partners within the multinational firm.
The new season of MasterChef Australia will air from Sunday night at 7.30pm, broadcaster Network 10 has revealed.

The season debut will come six days after the original planned launch date on Monday May 1.

Ten was forced to delay the broadcast following the news that day that Jock Zonfrillo, one of the shows three hosts, had been found dead in a hotel apartment in Lygon Street, Carlton, around 2am on Monday. He is understood to have died last Sunday.

Ten will air a tribute to Jock Zonfrillo on Sunday, followed by the launch of the new season of MasterChef. Credit: Justin McManus; James Brickwood; Jacqui Way; David Solm; Renee Nowytarger; Nic Walker; Supplied

The season debut will be preceded by an hour-long tribute to the Scottish-born chef-turned-broadcaster, to be presented from 6.30pm on The Sunday Project.
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 Much like the character he plays in the new Amazon spy drama Citadel, Stanley Tucci is a man for the modern era. As an actor, he has escaped pigeonholing by starring in everything from Transformers and The Hunger Games to understated dramas such as Supernova and The Daytrippers. He has also shown a dab hand as a writer (his memoir Taste was published to strong reviews last year) and as host of his own culinary travel series, Searching for Italy. In Citadel, he plays master spy agent Bernard Orlick, who is charming, somewhat suave and perhaps, within the genre, uniquely metrosexual. Far from inheriting the post-sexploitation misogyny that is synonymous with the world of James Bond, Orlick is the sort of spy who has one hand on the trigger, and the HR department on speed dial. By design hes intended to appeal to everyone. And he has a very contemporary talent for nuance. Stanley Tucci in Citadel: The ambiguity of the characters is what makes them interesting. Credit:Amazon What is self-evident from the start is that Orlick is good, and that his rival, the sinister Dahlia Archer (Lesley Manville), is bad. But unlike in the Bond universe, those alignments are not so easy to discern. You cant trust anybody, Tucci says, smiling. I mean, thats sort of one of the points of the show, is that you dont know who to trust in any given moment. I think, in the end, the ambiguity of the characters is what makes them interesting. The series comes as Tucci has reshaped much of his life. In the past decade, he married British literary agent Felicity Blunt, moved from the east coast of the United States to London, and evolved from a character actor, known for roles in Prizzis Honor (1985) and The Lovely Bones (2009), to a man for all seasons. He even brought charm and intrigue to his role as a former criminology professor on death row for killing his wife in last years Inside Man. As the producer and presenter of Searching for Italy, he embarked on both an exploration of that countrys culinary and cultural notes and his own identity as an Italian-American. Its greatest challenge: managing the expectation that he can play himself when the cameras are rolling, rather than hide, as many actors do, behind the safety blanket of Ibsen, Chekhov or Strindberg.

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Stanley Tucci shares a meal in Searching for Italy. It was uncomfortable at the beginning, Tucci says, of learning to be himself in front of the camera. I didnt really know how to do it. You think you know how to do it, and then you realise you dont know how to do it. Now, Im much more comfortable with it. Now, I know how to do it. Part of the appeal in taking on the role of Orlick was the way Citadel updates our ideas about role models. We are not long into the series before bullets are flying and high-tech gadgetry is being used to bail the shows protagonists, Mason Kane (Richard Madden), Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) and Orlick, out of genre-stretching sticky situations. Such scenes feed on the fantastical dreams of our shared cultural childhoods, where our career aspirations began with astronaut, archaeologist or spy, and our role models were  depending on your age  Ellen Ripley, Emma Peel, Indiana Jones, James Bond or anyone in between. Without question, I loved those James Bond movies when I was a kid, Tucci says. I think its fascinating. But I think, also, times are changing, so little girls have that same fantasy and that same interest, and thats really good. Look at what Priyanka Chopra Jonas does in this series. Its really exciting. As projects go, Citadel is not unambitious. Steered creatively by screenwriter David Weil and blockbuster filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo, it has a price tag of $US300 million ($4.53 million) for its six one-hour episodes, and ambitious plans for two spin-off series, one set in India and the other in Italy, both expanding the shows international espionage storyline.

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In the universe of Citadel, Tuccis Orlick is a sort of combo of the James Bond universes M and Q, both commander-in-chief and technical gizmo consultant. Here is your mission, and here is your shoe telephone. Or your exploding earrings. Or your wristwatch that is, in fact, an aeroplane. Stanley Tucci as Bernard Orlick in Citadel. Credit:Amazon Prime He is what you see, but then its enhanced by rewriting, by some improvisation, and then of course, as youre interacting with the other actors, thats going to change your performance and delivery and maybe even what you say, Tucci says of the role. A lot of times I will have a tendency to cut dialogue because I think a lot of things are overwritten, and we can tell so much with our faces, or our bodies, or whatever, or one word. So its something that is always in flux. The expensive fabric of the Citadel universe has been stitched together by the Russo brothers, best known as the architects of the final chapters of the Avengers saga, tying together the strands of Marvels various cinematic strings for the two-part ensemble finish, Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). But unlike most of their contemporaries, who sprang from the school of Star Wars storytelling  and now largely deliver father-son stories as a result  the Russos came from a childhood spent gaming, notably the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. That games specifics  the principle of sandbox storytelling, coupled with a groupthink party approach to play  perhaps makes them uniquely skilled in ensemble world-building. In Citadel, they quickly establish a near-future world where rival intelligence agencies have, at various times, attempted to knock one another out. At present, that score would be Manticore 1, Citadel 0.

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Loading They have an ability to see imaginary worlds and create imaginary worlds better than probably anybody I know, but they also have an understanding of the nuances of human behaviour, Tucci says. And the combination of those two things is what has made them so successful. What makes the Citadel universe so specifically fascinating is that unlike, say, the James Bond universe, where the ethical axis is reasonably clear and you can easily see where everyone sits on it  that is, James Bond is a goodie, and, say, Auric Goldfinger and Francisco Scaramanga are baddies  in Citadel those alignments are less easy to discern. While Orlick is good, and Dahlia Archer is bad, there is an unease around those presumptions, and an expectation that in line with most modern streaming dramas, the Russos are just one episode ahead, with their hands on the rug, waiting to yank it out from under us. A character that isnt ambiguous, really, after a while, you already anticipate what that person is going to do, how theyre going to react to any given situation, and the ambiguity makes it much more interesting, Tucci says. I think that Bernard is somebody who does what he has to do to achieve the results that he wants. The main result that he wants is for Citadel to be successful, for Citadel to be the force of good in the world, as he says. And if sacrifices have to be made, including his own life, thats something that will happen. While Citadel is obviously fictional, Tucci believes the appeal lies in its pseudo-political themes, a dark reflection of the increasingly erratic real world. Theres an intelligence to it, and you see from the very beginning, even in the trailer, the description of these covert entities that are co-ordinating nefarious or good things in the world that people dont know about, he says.

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Its innately political. And it is, without question, commenting on the truthfulness of our government and its infrastructure. I like that, because were sort of walking on quicksand these days. We dont know who to trust. Things were a lot clearer many years ago. Not that everybody was trustworthy, just that it was clearer. We have so much information [today]; some of it is really important because were learning things that weve never learnt before about our governments, most of which arent really very good, and then theres all that disinformation, all those false truths, Tucci says. To have all of those things at once in our society, weve never had that before. Usually, we find out years later. Now, were finding stuff out immediately. A man for all seasons: Stanley Tucci in, from top left, Hunger Games, Inside Man, Supernova, Worth and Julie & Julia. Credit: The decision by the Russo brothers to cast Tucci in Citadel leverages the very specific qualities of the real man. His sex appeal, which is undeniable. His style and sophistication, evident in both his social media life and his memoir. And his presence, attributable perhaps to his New York origins. Without all of those things, Bernard Orlick could not exist. Tuccis self-assurance is evident when you meet him. And he insists that the real-world journey does not fundamentally change him as an actor, even if it changes his perspective of the world in which he acts. I dont know that every role is an exploration of who you are, he says. Its a piece of who you are, but its not [everything] ... if every role were an exploration of who you are, you could do three roles and then youd drop dead. Its a job, you go in, you know your lines, you hit your marks, you make it as truthful as possible, and then you take off your costume and you go home. Otherwise, its not fun. It wouldnt be fun, and it wouldnt be fun for you, and it wouldnt be fun for anybody. But the transformative effect of his Italian journey, Tucci says, has been profound. It has changed my life significantly because I am just me. Thats never happened before. Ive never done that before, with the exception of interviews or something. Maybe one of the reasons were actors is because were not comfortable with ourselves, but I suppose this has made me a little more comfortable with myself.

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Review Eating outEarlwood Bang for your buck: Little Kalymnos serves up nostalgia and Greek family food in Earlwood The first in our monthly series of finding great dining for under $40 for two courses. Bianca Hrovat May 3, 2023 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

1 / 8 Little Kalymnos Taverna serves home-style Hellenic food in Earlwood. Dion Georgopoulos 2 / 8 Fried calamari. Dion Georgopoulos 3 / 8 Little Kalymnos is a family affair, with owners Tammy Tsolakis and Michael Tsapos working with their daughters Tiana and Petroula Tsapos. Dion Georgopoulos 4 / 8 Must-try dish: Chargrilled octopus with a simple lemon and olive oil dressing. Dion Georgopoulos 5 / 8 Dips are made in-house and served with fluffy, warm pita bread. Dion Georgopoulos 6 / 8 Zucchini fritters. Dion Georgopoulos 7 / 8 Moussaka (left). Dion Georgopoulos 8 / 8 Friday and Saturday nights book out weeks in advance. Dion Georgopoulos Previous Slide Next Slide Greek$$$ As the sun sets on a Saturday night, families gather in the car park of a small, Earlwood restaurant to drink, dance and dine on home-style Hellenic food. There is a live band (with a lute player!), a procession of smiling, black-clad waitresses carrying plates of fresh, chargrilled seafood and a colossal sign that stretches into the brilliant orange sky reading: Little Kalymnos Taverna. At first glance, the lively Aegean escape looks somewhat out of place. Its on the dark, quiet end of the main strip, on the same block as an empty, chain-linked lot. But take a closer look, and youll notice the Olympic Gym next door and the street named after Homer (the eighth-century Greek poet credited with writing the Odyssey). This is Earlwood, after all, where 22 per cent of the population reported Greek ancestry in the last census (the most concentrated community in the country!). Little wonder, then, that Friday and Saturday nights at the taverna are fully booked two weeks in advance (consider this your warning).

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Inside, diners chat loudly over bottles of salty island wine (from $8 a glass), sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at white tables piled high with colourful share plates. Little Kalymnos is a family affair, with owners Tammy Tsolakis and Michael Tsapos working with their daughters Tiana and Petroula Tsapos. Dion Georgopoulos The dining room is small but charming, decked out with references to Kalymnos. Co-owner Tammy Tsolakis named the restaurant for her late mother, who grew up on the mountainous Greek island once known for its lucrative sea sponge trade. The decor nods to her history, with golden sponges strewn in netting across the ceiling and an antique diver helmet atop the wine fridge. Tammy and her husband, Michael Tsapios, opened the restaurant in December, realising a dream 20 years in the making. While the pair have no former hospitality experience (Tammy has a background in aged care, while Michael is a panelbeater), theyre helped by Michaels cousin and head chef, Alexi Kotis. The menu is deliberately simple and nostalgic, with a focus on family recipes and fresh produce. The trio of dips with warm, soft pita bread ($28) is a non-negotiable starter, with options like pink tarama, skordalia and tirokafteri made in-house by Kotis.

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Fair warning: Friday and Saturday nights at the taverna are fully booked two weeks in advance. When we arrive, Tammys homemade pastitsio ($22) and the moussaka ($26) are sold out (a devastating development, but a convenient excuse to return). Instead, we go for the lamb souvlakia ($24), the cheesy zucchini fritters ($17), a side of fasolakia, green beans cooked in a punchy tomato sauce ($15). The highlight is the chargrilled octopus ($29), with crispy, charcoaled edges and tender flesh served simply with olive oil and lemon juice. Must-order dish: Chargrilled octopus. Dion Georgopoulos The food is delicious, the portions generous, and every plate that passes us  fried eggplant, king prawns, squeaky saganaki  looks more appetising than the last.

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Our stomachs are full (so full!) but Ive been eyeing off the kataifi ($12) and persuade my dining partner to share a serve. Its a golden nest of syrupy almond and walnut pastry served with sweet, vanilla ice-cream. As we devour it, the band kicks off again and people around us begin tapping their feet. The meal may be over, but the party has only just begun. The low-down Cost: About $40 a head (less if sharing with a bigger group) Must-order dish: Chargrilled octopus ($29) Go-to drink: Start by sipping some ouzo ($13) before moving on to the Greek wine list. Or bring your own  corkage is just $5 a glass. Good for: When you feel like partying with your friends and neighbours 40 under $40: Sydneys top restaurants for getting bang for your buck

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Review Eating outBarangaroo Nobu Sydney is a rite of passage  but is its star power still shining? Its the celebrity Japanese fine-diner every food lover should visit at least once  if you know how to make the most of the experience. Terry Durack May 2, 2023 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

1 / 7 The plush dining room at Nobu Sydney has harbour views and rich textures. Louise Kennerley 2 / 7 A second dining room is hung with origami cranes that sway to the sound of cocktails being shaken in the bar. Louise Kennerley 3 / 7 Nobus celebrated black cod miso is a must if you havent tried it. Louise Kennerley 4 / 7 A delicate plate of freshly made nigiri. Louise Kennerley 5 / 7 Baby prawn tempura with creamy spicy sauce. Louise Kennerley 6 / 7 Wagyu gyoza. Louise Kennerley 7 / 7 The anticucho rib-eye steak. Louise Kennerley Previous Slide Next Slide 13 / 20 How we score Japanese$$$ If you went to dinner at Nobu Sydney and didnt take a picture of yourself, were you really there? Its the existential question of our times. Since chef Nobu Matsuhisa opened the first Nobu in New York in 1994, the Nobu empire has grown to more than 50 restaurants and hotels across five continents. Dining at Nobu is not just going out for a Japanese meal; its a rite of passage. While it opened in Melbourne in 2007 and Perth in 2012, it took its time coming to Sydney, lunching at Barangaroo in December 2020, just in time for the COVID shenanigans. I came a few times for lunchtime sushi (excellent, love it), and now, finally, have come for dinner. Its only taken two years and four months.

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The plush dining room at Nobu Sydney has a central bar and rich textures. Louise Kennerley The entrance is grand (pause for selfie), then you enter a luxurious main dining room, all central bar, harbour views, and rich textures. Further on, a second dining room is hung with origami cranes that sway to the sound of cocktails being shaken in the bar. Nobu regulars know exactly what they want and barely glance at the menu, but newbies need to do their homework. There are Hot and Cold Nobu Classics and Nobu Now dishes, 18 different nigiri and sashimi, 16 maki rolls, and a variety of soups, rice and tempura dishes. Plus kushiyaki, yakimono, shuko (snacks), Nobu tacos, vegetable dishes and 11 desserts. Yes, of course, the celebrated black cod miso is still here; its as big a money-spinner as a roulette wheel, and if you havent had it, then have it ($60). Nobus celebrated black cod miso is a must order if you havent tried it. Louise Kennerley

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Head chef Harold Hurtada has been with the Nobu group for 24 years, previously in Dubai and Cape Town. He does a big line in snacky things, and the crispy rice with spicy tuna ($36) is a look-at-me platter of things to do. First, pick up a sweet little cube of crisped rice from its wooden Japanese sake cup. Next, dip it in a saucer of salty butter soy. Then spoon some finely minced raw tuna on top, and pop it in your mouth. Great fun. From the Nobu Now list come six wagyu gyoza ($42) which arent as beefy and juicy as the word wagyu might suggest. As for nigiri, unagi ($17 for two) is sublime  but what part of lush, warm eel on a finger of freshly tamped, high-grade sushi rice isnt? Tamago is a good test of any sushi bar  will the egg omelette come still-warm from being made just hours earlier, or will it come still cold from being refrigerated? This one ($8 for two) is cold, although nicely constructed and branded with the Nobu logo. The two green olives alongside turn out to be miniature Japanese peaches (wakamomo) instead, and are just plain beautiful. The five essential tips for making sushi at home, from the master Nobu Matsuhisa An order of classic prawn tempura ($16) is misunderstood, and I get baby tiger prawn tempura ($32) instead, the small nuggets smothered in a creamy, spicy sauce that does nothing for me. Known around the world as popcorn shrimp, its another big Nobu money-spinner. The novelty of Nikkei cuisine  the fusion of Peruvian and Japanese that Matsuhisa picked up and ran with  has faded, perhaps. My anticucho rib-eye steak ($70) comes criss-crossed with grill marks, yet feels wet, flabby and not very hot. A dessert special of bombe Alaska ($24) comes as an igloo of too-soft meringue, which softens further under the tableside flambe treatment.

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Nobu regulars know exactly what they want and barely glance at the menu, but newbies need to do their homework. Nobu Sydney, sadly, feels institutionalised. On this occasion, the food has been marred by a number of technical points, although my guess is that they have more to do with volume and turnover  often a challenge in a hospitality empire of this size  than any lack of skill or will. To get the best experience, sit by the window in the main dining room or at the sushi counter, and dine on the made-to-order nigiri, or anything from the sushi bar. That way, youll get the magic, glamour and skill levels that warrant the taking of a photo in the first place. The low-down Drinks: Japanese beer, seasonal cocktails, top sakes, and an exxy wine list of local and French vintages. Vibe: Institutionalised celebrity Japanese, but still a rite of passage Go-to dish: Crispy rice with spicy tuna, $36

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Hatted Surry Hills restaurant Bastardo has opened a spin-off, Trattoria Bastardo, at Philip Street in Sydneys CBD, with a selection of new menu items and a dedicated aperitivo session from 3-5pm. It takes over the former Continental Deli site, adding bold artwork by Mikey Freedom, cosy leather booth seating and an old-school Italian colour scheme. The first look at Bastardo Trattoria in Sydneys CBD, with artwork by artist Mikey Freedom. Supplied Co-founder Ben Milgate tells Good Food the amped-up menu features grilled scotch fillet with bagna cauda and fries (like an Italian steak frites) and rigatoni calabrese with spicy pork mince and njuda (we ran it as a special in Surry Hills, but here its finally made the cut). There are also Bastardo classics from head chef Rudy Ones (Continental Deli), such as mafalda pasta with blue swimmer crab, roma tomato and chilli oil ($40). And the aperitivo hour is set to draw in the corporate crowd with a snack menu of pizze fritte, cured meats and burrata to accompany after-work drinks.

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Bastardos owner, the Porteno Group, opened Continental Deli in the site in 2018, but it didnt quite capture the zeitgeist of the Newtown original. Spaghetti with nduja, clams and white wine from Bastardo in Surry Hills will be available in the CBD. Edwina Pickles Meanwhile, back in Newtown, Porteno Groups expansions are set to continue, according to co-founder Elvis Abrahanowicz. Weve been working on something for a while in that little precinct around Continental Deli, he says. Theres four little shops in a row  and were planning to open three separate restaurants there by the end of the year.

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The plans are awaiting council approval. More information is expected in the following months. Trattoria Bastardos green colour scheme gives old-school Italian vibes. Supplied The opening of Trattoria Bastardo underscores a key Sydney restaurant trend: replicating existing brands, particularly Italian. If you are recreating something, youre not spending time researching glassware, cutlery and service style, says Icebergs co-owner Maurice Terzini. The simplicity of Italian food makes it easier to move than, say, Asian. Other expanding Italian brands include Tottis, which recently opened in Lorne, Victoria, after spreading from Bondi to Rozelle and even the new Allianz Stadium, Fabbrica, which has just opened a pop-up in Balmain, and Italian Street Kitchen, which opens next month in Parramatta, its eighth location.

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The secret when multiplying a quality brand is considered growth, says Terzini. Get it right and youre satisfying a new market, but misfire and risk alienating Australian diners, who are suspicious of businesses with the sniff of chain restaurant about them. The veteran restaurateur has witnessed the challenge firsthand with his CicciaBella brand. Terzini sold the original in Bondi and recently closed the Parramatta branch. Maybe I shouldve replicated it (more closely), he says. Trattoria Bastardo is open for lunch and dinner Mon-Fri.

167 Phillip Street, 02 99227347, porteno.com.au/bastardo-cbd

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Lets have a look at how the markets are going at the close.

AAP reports the local share market has closed slightly in the red after an overnight rate hike by the US Federal Reserve, but has managed to claw back most of its morning losses.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished today down 4.3 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 7193. It had been down by as much as 0.8 per cent in early trading.

The broader All Ordinaries was basically flat, down by 0.8 point, or 0.01 per cent, to 7388.

Rates in the US increased by 25 base points to 5.25 per cent in what the Federal Reserve hinted could be its final rate hike.

Thats a meaningful change, that were no longer saying we anticipate (more rate hikes), chair Jerome Powell said.

City Index senior market analyst Matt Simpson said the markets reaction to the overnight hike was a repeat of what weve seen when the Fed hikes say they might hike some more.

They tell the markets to forget to do any further cuts and the market didnt believe them, he said.

All the major banks had their share prices drop. Credit: Getty

So come a combination of a weak lead from Wall Street, geopolitical risks brewing in the background and concerns over US debt and the bank sector put the market below 7200 today  of course, a week earnings report from NAB didnt help either.

The ASXs financial sector closed deep in the red, down by 2.52 per cent with all big banks experiencing drops.

NAB plunged by 6.4 per cent to $26.72 despite announcements its cash profits had improved by 17 per cent to $4.07 billion, slightly below analyst estimates.

Meanwhile, CBA dropped 2.6 per cent to $95.76, Westpac was down 4.1 per cent to $21.25 and ANZ decreased 2.4 per cent to $23.46.

Out of the ASXs 11 sectors, the property trusts sector finished best, up by 1.95 per cent while the heavyweight mining sector finished strongly rising by 1.24 per cent, alongside energy by 0.1 per cent and industrials by 1 per cent in the green.
Languages are out but artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and health are in, as universities chop and change courses to cut costs and meet student demand.

Eighteen bachelor degrees have been discontinued in Victoria and NSW, despite being identified as areas of national priority or as having the potential to ease skills shortages, the Department of Education said.

Swinburne and UNSW are among the universities that have discontinued some courses. Credit: Kathleen Adele

Japanese, Chinese and Italian languages at Swinburne University and Indonesian at La Trobe University and the University of Western Sydney are among the language course closures since 2019. Swinburne scrapped all foreign language studies as part of deep cost cuts during the pandemic.

COVID-19 restrictions and international border closures wiped out billions in revenue from fee-paying international students, leading to the biggest crisis in higher education in decades. Tens of thousands of people lost their jobs.
HEFEI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- During the May Day holiday, a homestay nestling in hills in Lujiang County, east China's Anhui Province, became a popular destination among holidaymakers.

Covering an area of 142 mu (about 9.47 hectares), the homestay was transformed from abandoned farmhouses and features clear brooks and lush trees. Tourists can enjoy coffee at a cowshed-turned-cafe and barbecue in what was once a shabby stone house.

"Many families enjoy a slow and idyllic life here. All 50 rooms had been booked up by mid-April," said Ma Fengyu, who is in charge of the homestay in Changchong Village, Wanshan Township.

The popular tourist destination was once a run-down area where 13 abandoned farmhouses were overgrown with weeds.

In 2018, the local government started to purchase the houses from local farmers and invited design teams to renovate them into a modern homestay, while seeking to preserve their original characteristics.

"We maintained the original natural scenery and the layout of those farmhouses. We also employ many local farmers as staff at the homestay," said Ma.

The homestay is a fine example of Lujiang's efforts to vitalize idle farmhouses over recent years. Currently, a total of 16 boutique homestays have been built and 34 more are under construction. Local farmers have also turned their idle houses into over 200 homestays and restaurants.

Many farmhouses have also been transformed into offices to meet the needs of companies seeking a more idyllic working environment.

Anhui Zhenwei Architecture Engineering Co., Ltd., for example, has established its branch office in a courtyard near a beautiful creek.

Zhenwei was one of the first enterprises to settle in Lujiang County after authorities last year began encouraging locals to renovate idle farmhouses into offices to attract businesses.

"The house has been completely renovated, and even equipped with cooking ware. We just need to bring our luggage to move in," said She Chengbing, a manager with Zhenwei. "The rural environment is great, and I feel relaxed working here."

The manager added that transportation to the county is also convenient, allowing his company to interact easily with businesses in neighboring regions.

To attract more enterprises, Lujiang County provides long-term free use of a renovated farmhouse for newly registered enterprises whose annual average tax payment reached a stipulated amount, said Wu Nana, deputy head of Wanshan Township.

"Our town has made 110 idle farmhouses available, and signed contracts with over 70 enterprises in various fields," said Wu, adding that more than 240 enterprises have settled in Lujiang.

After being renovated to create homestays or offices, these once idle farmhouses have become new resources and drivers of the local economy. At present, the program has increased the income of local village collectives by more than 20 million yuan (about 2.89 million U.S. dollars) a year, and created about 1,400 jobs for local villagers.

"We will continue to revitalize rural idle resources, in an effort to develop rural industry, utilize resources and promote local culture," said Su Rong, director of the culture and tourism bureau of Lujiang County. 
Police are combing suburban streets in Sydneys south for clues after the suspicious disappearance of a 54-year-old grandfather who hasnt been seen for more than three weeks.

Police said Zoran Popovski was last seen in Hurstville. Credit: NSW Police

Zoran Popovski was last captured on CCTV riding a train from Hurstville to Kogarah before walking along President Avenue, near the intersection with the Princes Highway, about 12.40pm on Friday, April 14. He has not been seen or heard from since.

Popovskis family contacted police when they were unable to reach him the next day. His daughter Rebecca, 26, said she last saw her father on the Thursday and spoke to him just hours before he disappeared.

He wanted to come over to my place, he wanted me to book him an Uber, she said. He would come over to my place nearly every day.
Sydney Water has started using webs of freshwater weed that strip nitrogen, phosphorous and heavy metals from wastewater in a $1.5 million trial to purify sewage.

Wastewater has high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous, which can set off toxic blooms of blue-green algae in rivers and contribute to mass fish kills.

Sydney Water scientist Emma James sampling water from the algae pools. Credit: Nick Moir

The trial is under way at Picton Water Resources Recovery Facility, where workers are using a chemical-free method designed by Australian biotechnology company Pacific Bio to cleanse wastewater with a local strain of macroalgae.

Generally we see really poor health in urban waterways, often unhealthy streams that dont have much biodiversity, Sydney Water scientist Emma James said.
The conference was asked to grant the Liberal executive more power to jettison candidates who were judged so unsuitable they could damage the party. It was an obscure motion, but dressed up as important. It needed a three-fifths majority to pass. But  horrors  a count fell short. Staley wasnt having that. He ordered a recount. This time, Downer grew confused and voted the wrong way. Not to worry, said Staley, and declared there would be yet another vote.

Delegates whod gone outside for a smoke were rounded up and the question was put again. This time, Staley simply declared from the chair that the motion had passed, though there were no scrutineers and no one could be sure about the numbers. Downer survived a few more months until  with Staleys enthusiastic assistance, John Howard replaced him, led the Liberals back to power and kept them there for more than a decade. The Labor Partys whatever it takes fixer, Graham Richo Richardson, was at the Albury conference in the guise of a Channel Nine reporter, having quit the Senate some months previously. He was open-mouthed with admiration at Staleys audacity.

Richo declared even he couldnt have pulled a stunt as outrageous at the Labor Party conferences hed once helped stage-manage. Richardsons judgment was acute: Tony Staley without much doubt was among the shrewdest, toughest and most influential Liberal Party figures of the late 20th century. Tony Staley in 1976. Staley was appointed minister for posts and communications in 1977. Credit: Fairfax Media I once wrote that Staley, who died this week, knew where all the Liberal bodies were buried because hed buried most of them. He phoned the next day to declare his delight with the description. His relentless and eventually fruitless pursuit of Keatings business dealings surrounding the sale of a piggery to powerful Indonesian interests infuriated Keating beyond measure.

I can only say of him  twisted in body, twisted in mind, fumed Keating, clearly referring to Staleys physical disfigurement following his car crash. Another former Labor leader, Mark Latham, later went for the same form of attack, calling Staley that deformed character. Tony Staley in 1998 with then-prime minister John Howard. Credit: Mike Bowers I phoned Staley, seeking a response to Lathams effort. I was greeted by loud laughter and the signature rumbling tone of Staleys voice declaring, I seem to have struck a chord. But of course, my comment is no comment, he added, for his motto was never grant an enemy the satisfaction of a response.

Yet this most political of men was also a romantic who gained his comfort and inspiration from reading poetry, among other intellectual pursuits. Launching a book in Melbourne in 2006 on the poet James McAuley, Staley spoke of how reading poetry helped him keep in touch with the real world. In the real world of political belief and action, James McAuleys poetry had a huge impact on me. When I had some big and lonely decisions to make, James McAuleys work inspired me, and gave me the courage to act. One example of this is when I made the decision, entirely on my own, to resign as assistant to Billy Snedden, the leader of the opposition, and begin the campaign to make Malcolm Fraser leader of the party, and ultimately, prime minister. Two McAuley poems gave me the courage to do what I had to do. One of which was Innocent by Definition, the other, the savagely satirical, Letter to John Dryden, in which he coins phrases like democracy has become democratism, amongst others.
Academic and professional staff from five Victorian universities went on strike on Wednesday, cancelling lectures and tutorials and massing in Melbournes CBD in a co-ordinated push for higher pay and an end to the sectors heavy reliance on casual labour.

Staff from the University of Melbourne brought Carlton traffic to a stop at midday as they marched from the Parkville campus to Trades Hall, joining striking workers who had been bussed in from Monash, Deakin, La Trobe and Federation universities.

University of Melbourne staff and students gather for a four-hour strike over working conditions. Credit: Darrian Traynor

The stopwork action is part of a nationwide industrial campaign by the National Tertiary Education Union, with nine universities in Victoria, NSW and Queensland getting involved this week.

Monash staff voted for a 24-hour stop-work, beginning at 11am Wednesday, while Melbourne, Deakin and La Trobe staff went on strike for four hours. University of Melbourne staff also voted to ramp up their campaign and potentially take open-ended strike action from June unless the university improved its offer in bargaining for the next workplace agreement. Federation University staff are holding rolling stoppages across three campuses.
A plan to overhaul the nations migration program is expected to reduce the number of low-paid immigrants entering the country by up to 31,000 a year, with the federal budget to reveal a much smaller Australia.

A planned increase in the minimum wage threshold for temporary skilled migrants, from $53,900 to $70,000 from July 1, will lead to fewer migrants and ultimately contribute to a shortfall of 620,000 in Australias forecast population.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will reveal a smaller Australia in Tuesdays budget. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Tuesdays budget, to be handed down by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, will also predict the current spike in net overseas migration will quickly fall back to its long-term trend.

Home Affairs Minister Clare ONeil last week released the governments long-awaited migration review, which found the current system was not fit for purpose and could easily be used to exploit potential workers.
Tech giant Uber says giving Australias industrial umpire the power to set standards for gig workers could see them forced to work rostered shifts and banned from taking jobs for multiple delivery and ride-share platforms.

It argues the federal governments proposed changes reflect an employment style of regulation that will reduce availability of services and increase costs for companies, which would be passed on to consumers.

Uber says gig workers are businesspeople, not employees. Credit: James Brickwood

Uber says its drivers and food delivery riders are business owners, likening them to contractors who prepare quotes, pitch for jobs and complete administrative work.

Unlike traditional employees, contractors for gig companies do not have rights to minimum wages, unfair dismissal protections, employer superannuation payments, workers compensation or paid leave. Working conditions in the sector have been under growing scrutiny following a number of delivery rider deaths.
The woman tasked with valuing the states land says the recent erratic nature of the property market has left home owners confused about land tax, vowing to simplify and modernise the complex valuation system for the public.

Freshly minted NSW Valuer-General Sally Dale will channel three decades of private and public sector experience  including years on the road valuing almost every suburb of Sydney  as she takes on the role overseeing the valuation of 2.6 million land parcels every year.

Sally Dale is the first female NSW valuer-general. Credit: James Brickwood

The industry veteran will start the high-profile role in June, ending a chaotic chapter that culminated in the resignation of her predecessor after allegations of bullying and intimidation.

Dale will make faster valuations of forcibly purchased properties a priority after the NSW auditor-general found owners affected by the development of Sydneys new metro train lines had been beset by delays of more than 180 days.
Singapore: Halfway through her first term as president, Tsai Ing-wen vowed to make Taiwan indispensable to the world. Now, as she approaches the end of eight years in office, the leader of this democratic island 160 kilometres off the coast of China has largely achieved that goal.

Three statements in as many weeks have made it clear that the United States and the foreign ministers of G7 countries now view stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of global security and prosperity. The historically hesitant South Korea joined them in a joint statement last week. On Monday in Washington, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos jr agreed that Taiwans future was indispensable to global peace.

Protesters shout and hold posters against a proxy war outside the Taiwan-US Defence Industry Forum in Taipei on Wednesday. Credit: AP

The description is now on track to be endorsed by the leaders of the worlds seven largest advanced economies and Australia when they meet in Hiroshima in mid-May, sealing Taiwans status as the top concern of global powers outside the war in Ukraine. It was only last year that the same group could not go further than reaffirming the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

These statements are agonised over by leaders and officials from each country for months. The leap from important to indispensable is significant. It is designed as a deterrent against an attack by Beijing, but inevitably also raises the expectations of intervention if there is a conflict over Taiwan.
New York: Donald Trump was accused of sexual assault by a second woman in writer E Jean Carrolls civil rape case, with the alleged victim telling the court he was all over her like he had a zillion hands.

Jessica Leeds, 81, told jurors in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday (US time) that the former US president grabbed her chest and ran his hand up her skirt as they sat side-by-side on a New York City-bound jet in the 1970s.

Trump accuser Jessica Leeds testifies in support of writer E. Jean Carroll in Manhattan on Tuesday. Video of Donald Trump is seen on a screen during the hearing. Credit: AP

In stunning testimony on the second week of the trial, Leeds, a former stockbroker who was a travelling saleswoman at the time, claimed the attack occurred after she was upgraded to first class.

The real estate mogul introduced himself, but Leeds, who was in her 30s, said she did not know who he was at the time.




AUCKLAND, New Zealand, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The direct flights between Beijing and Auckland in New Zealand officially resumed on Tuesday as an Air China aircraft carrying over 200 Chinese tourists landed at the Auckland International Airport.

The services had been suspended for more than three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions.

The Chinese tourists were welcomed by a special ceremony featured with traditional Maori dance and singing at the airport on Tuesday afternoon.

Currently, direct flights are conducted between Beijing and Auckland four times every week, according to Air China.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
For years, Carlson espoused views on his show that amplified the ideology of white nationalism. But the text message revealed more about his views on racial superiority. The text alarmed the Fox board, which saw the message a day before the company was set to defend itself against Dominion Voting Systems before a jury. The board grew concerned that the message could become public at trial when Carlson was on the stand, creating a sensational and damaging moment that would raise broader questions about the company. The next day, the board told Fox executives it was bringing in an outside law firm to conduct an investigation into Carlsons conduct. The text message added to a growing number of internal issues involving Carlson that led the companys leadership to conclude he was more of a problem than an asset and had to go, according to several people with knowledge of the decision.

In other messages he had referred to women  including a senior Fox executive  in crude and misogynistic terms. The message about the fight also played a role in the companys decision to settle with Dominion for $US787.5 million ($1.17 billion), the highest known payout in a defamation case. A representative for Carlson said he had no comment. The text is part of redacted court filings, and its contents were previously unreported. The contents of the text were disclosed in interviews with several people close to the defamation lawsuit against Fox. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a message that is protected by a court order. In public filings, it remains hidden behind a block of black text. Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump in July last year. Credit: AP Carlsons messages were collected as part of the defamation lawsuit filed against Fox by Dominion, which accused the network of knowingly airing falsehoods about election fraud. Many messages shared in the case, including those among Fox executives and hosts, were released publicly. But others, including the one between Carlson and one of his producers in the hours after January 6, 2021, remain redacted.

In that text, Carlson described his own emotions as he watched the video of the violent clash, which he said took place on the streets of Washington. Carlson did not describe the race of the man being attacked. Loading Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isnt good for me. Im becoming something I dont want to be. After all, he wrote, Somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I dont care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is? he wrote.

The text message came to the attention of Foxs board of directors and even some senior executives only last month, on the Sunday before the trial was set to begin, according to two people with knowledge of Foxs internal deliberations. At the time, Foxs negotiators were entering discussions about an out-of-court settlement before the swearing in of what was shaping up to be a diverse jury. Members of the activist groups Truth Tuesdays and Rise and Resist gather at the weekly Fox Lies Democracy Dies event outside the News Corporation building in New York. Credit: Getty Loading The next day, the board told Foxs leadership about its plan to have law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz investigate Carlson. That disclosure set up the possibility that there could be a continuing investigation into what was behind Carlsons messages at the same time as a trial, and as he was serving as its top host in prime time. Fox has not commented about Carlsons ousting last week beyond an initial statement announcing that they agreed to part ways and thanking him for his service. It did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday on the contents of Carlsons redacted message.

It remains unclear how the text escaped more notice earlier, given that the Fox legal team was aware of it and other offensive texts written by Carlson. Foxs lawyers had produced the text as part of the discovery process and were involved in the redactions. Carlson had even been asked about it during a deposition, according to several people who have read the unredacted transcripts of his deposition. It was not guaranteed that the text would have been revealed in open court. Dominions lawyers had still not decided whether they would introduce the text in front of the jury, according to people with knowledge of their plans. The two sides disagreed on whether Dominion lawyers could have presented such a redacted message at trial if they had decided to do so, a decision that would have ultimately fallen to the judge. The difference became moot after Fox struck an 11th-hour deal on April 18 to pay Dominion $US787.5 million and avoid trial. How Foxs executives and board handled the case in the months before the trial was scheduled to begin is expected to be at issue in shareholder lawsuits filed against the company in Delaware. Though Carlsons show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, was only a small factor in the Dominion suit, his personal texts were drawing outsize scrutiny.

The text about the fight came on top of a damaging chain of messages that had been revealed publicly before trial, and that were shocking in their own right. Writing to one of his producers after the assault on the Capitol, Carlson described the president he championed on his show as a demonic force and a destroyer. A recurring theme of his show during the six years that it ran in prime time on Fox News was the displacement of white Americans by people of colour. Carlson often framed topics in the news as part of a larger struggle between us and them, with immigrants and other marginalised groups steadily and surely taking from whites what had long been theirs: political and cultural power in the United States. He attacked black social justice activists and portrayed immigrants from Central America as a blight on the nation. He said in 2018 that immigrants make the country dirtier. Loading In the aftermath of a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, at the hands of a gunman who cited white supremacist beliefs in his manifesto, Carlson declared on his show that white supremacy was not a real problem, likening it to a conspiracy theory.
The Association of Caribbean Media Workers joins with our colleagues in Grenada in mourning the passing of Journalist, Odette Campbell.

Ms Campbell, who served the media in Grenada and the wider Caribbean over the decades, contributed immensely to the integration movement through her life-long passion, journalism.

The Caribbean has lost a great woman who has left an indelible mark on the region she loved and served so very well.

Though Odette rose to the position of General Manager of the Grenada Broadcasting Network, she never abandoned her media roots as a journalist and continued to produce content with both local and regional appeal.

Odette, the lady at the other end of the line with that infectious smile that pierced our various forms of communication, is no more. But her works live on not only in our memories but certainly in her works.

The Association of Caribbean Media Workers is deeply saddened at the passing of Ms Odette Campbell, a true integrationist through information. Our sincerest condolences to her fellow journalists in Grenada and the Caribbean as well as her family, relatives, friends and associates.
Greetings to all media workers across the Caribbean on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day being observed on May 3.

The theme of this years World Press Freedom Day- Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a Driver for all other human rights- throws the spotlight on the invaluable role of the freedom to receive and impart ideas.

2023 also marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights

Freedom of Expression is not only enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but is listed as a fundamental right in many of our constitutions in the Caribbean. Indeed, a small number of countries have gone a step further and have enshrined press freedom.

World Press Freedom provides an opportunity to focus on the immense importance and connection of freedom of expression to all other human rights such as education, health, freedom of movement, rest and leisure, and the free will of the people to elect their leaders.

In the absence of freedom of expression, more often than not through the media, the public cannot be properly educated and informed about the other human rights to which they are entitled.

Therefore, the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) urges Caribbean decision-makers to utilize the rapid advances in Social Media as a mass communication tool to facilitate the two-way flow of information on all public interest subjects that touch and concern the many facets of other human rights. The ACM takes a dim view of the increasing practice of decision-makers, especially those in the political sphere, who have resorted to one-way communication through Tweets and Facebook videos and text posts. This approach appears to be a clear avoidance of scrutiny at press conferences and interviews. We urge an end to such a practice that robs the public of details that will potentially allow them to make rational decisions. These deficiencies in freedom of expression are leading to dysfunctional societies.

With the proliferation of Social Media and all its attendant ills of misinformation and disinformation, the ACMs unwavering position is that there is invaluable space for journalism as means of freedom of expression.
Uranium Energy Corp Files S-K 1300 Technical Report Summary for its World-Class Roughrider Project in Saskatchewan, Canada

br />Total Roughrider Project resources are 27.8 million lbs. U3O8 in 389,000 tonnes grading 3.25% U3O8 in the Indicated category and 36.0 million lbs. U3O8 in 359,000 tonnes grading 4.55% U3O8 in the Inferred category (Table 1).

Following the acquisition of the Roughrider Project in 2012, Rio Tinto completed additional delineation and geotechnical drilling during 2012 through 2016, further delineating the Far East Zone and increasing the confidence level of the resources. This new TRS resource is based on 665 diamond drillholes completed to date by Hathor Exploration Limited (aHathora) and Rio Tinto for a total of approximately 228,180 meters of drilling on the Project.

For consistency in approach and to leverage existing technical knowledge of the Project, UEC has completed this TRS resource report with the team at SRK Consulting, building on their excellent technical knowledge and experience with the Project. Most of the gain in indicated resources comes from the Far East Zone that was not previously disclosed by Hathor.

The next steps for the Project by UEC will be to commission an Initial Assessment economic study and complete further delineation drilling to upgrade the current inferred resources to indicated.

The Project has access to all-weather roads and power infrastructure. There is an airport accessible to the public at Points North Landing 6 km from the deposit area.

UECa?s attributed resources now total 226.2 million pounds U3O8 in the Measured and Indicated Categories and 102.7 million pounds U3O8 in the Inferred category across all its projects (1), cementing UECa?s status as one of the largest diversified North American focused uranium companies.

Corpus Christi, TX, May 2, 2023 a Uranium Energy Corp (NYSE American: UEC, the aCompanya or aUECa  https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/uranium-energy-corp/) is pleased to announce that it has filed a Technical Report Summary (aTRSa) on EDGAR disclosing updated mineral resources for the Companya?s 100% owned Roughrider Project (the aProjecta or aRoughridera).

Amir Adnani, CEO and President stated: aOur vision is to develop UEC as the leading Western supplier of secure,100% unhedged uranium, combining a platform of U.S. and Canadian assets. The new Roughrider resource is an exciting catalyst for UEC in Eastern Athabasca and anchors our Canadian high-grade conventional pipeline.A From here, wea?re gearing-up to 1) complete an Initial Assessment economic study at Roughrider and 2) conduct additional drilling to enhance and grow this latest resource. Our future development plans will substantially benefit from the tier one ESG, geotechnical and permitting work completed by Rio Tinto to advance the Roughrider Project towards production.a

Background:

As a U.S. domestic and domiciled company, UEC is now reporting all mineral resources in accordance with Item 1302 of Regulation S-K (aS-K 1300a),

S-K 1300 was adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the aSECa) to modernize mineral property disclosure requirements for mining registrants and to align U.S. disclosure requirements more closely for mineral properties with current industry and global regulatory standards; and

The mineral resource estimate set forth in this TRS for the Roughrider Project has not previously been reported under the S-K 1300 format.

The TRS was prepared in accordance with S-K 1300 and was filed on May 1, 2023 with the SEC through EDGAR on Form 8-K and is also available on SEDAR as a aMaterial Documenta filed on May 1, 2023. The TRS was prepared on behalf of the Company by SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd. (aSRKa).

About the Roughrider Uranium Project

The Roughrider Project is a conventional uranium project located in the eastern Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan, Canada; one of the worlda?s premier uranium mining jurisdictions. The Project is located approximately 13 km west of Oranoa?s McClean Lake Mill, in close proximity to UECa?s existing Athabasca Basin properties. The depth to mineralization at the Project is approximately 200 metres and hosted primarily in the basement rocks below the unconformity.

Resource Disclosure

The mineral resource estimate in the TRS was completed for UEC by SRK. Guy Dishaw, P.Geo, with SRK, is the qualified person (aQPa) who authored the TRS in accordance with Item 1302 of S-K 1300. The Roughrider Project mineral resource estimate was determined using a cut-off grade of 0.45% U3O8 for Long Hole Open Stope (aLHOSa) mining of basement-hosted ore and 0.52% U3O8 for Cut and Fill (aC&Fa) mining in the basement and near the unconformity with the sandstone. A total of 389,000 tonnes containing 27.8 million pounds of U3O8 at an average grade of 3.25% U3O8 have been estimated in the Indicated mineral resource category for the Roughrider deposit. A total of 359,000 tonnes containing 36.0 million pounds of U3O8 at an average grade of 4.55% U3O8 have been estimated in the Inferred mineral resource category for the Roughrider deposit.

The Mineral Resource model for the Roughrider Project, prepared by SRK, considers 665 diamond drill holes drilled from surface from 2007 to 2016. The Mineral Resource Estimate (aMREa) presented therein was prepared by the QP, Guy Dishaw, P.Geo., and has an effective date of January 1, 2023. The QP used the structural framework to guide the development of local mineralized surfaces as the uranium is characterized by discrete high-grade structurally controlled zones of semi-massive to massive uraninite and lower grade, disseminated and fracture filling zones of uraninite within clay altered gneiss. The QP has modelled discrete aveina? models representing high-grade, structurally controlled zones of U3O8 mineralization based on sharp contacts into high grade zones. A parent block size of 4x4x2 m, sub-blocked to 0.5 x 0.25 x 0.25 m, was chosen for the model and the estimate was performed by Ordinary Kriging. Restriction of high-grade samples was performed by modelling the structural intersections that control the distribution of the high-grade mineralization within the deposit.

The MRE primarily utilized uranium geochemical analyses from the Saskatchewan Research Council Geoanalytical Laboratories (aSRCa) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Samples for assay were analysed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (aICP-OESa) for samples collected by Rio Tinto or SRC accredited fluorimetry for samples collected by Hathor. Non-mineralized samples were analysed by either ICP-OES and/or Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Duplicate and independent check analyses were performed on approximately 10% of the mineralized assay database.

Summary capital and operating cost estimates are not included with the TRS since the Company is reporting the results of an initial assessment.

The TRS has been prepared and the technical information in this news release respecting the TRS has been reviewed by Mr. Guy Dishaw of SRK, a QP under Item 1302 of S-K 1300.

Qualified Person

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Chris Hamel, P.Geo., UEC Vice President Exploration, Canada who is considered to be a QP as defined by S-K 1300.

About Uranium Energy Corp

Uranium Energy Corp is the fastest growing supplier of the fuel for the green energy transition to a low carbon future. UEC is the largest, diversified North American focused uranium company, advancing the next generation of low-cost, environmentally friendly In-Situ Recovery (aISRa) mining uranium projects inA the United States and high-grade conventional projects in Canada. The Company has two production-ready ISR hub and spoke platforms in South Texas and Wyoming. These two production platforms are anchored by fully operational central processing plants and served by seven U.S. ISR uranium projects with all their major permits in place. Additionally, the Company has diversified uranium holdings including: (1) one of the largest physical uranium portfolios of U.S. warehoused U3O8; (2) a major equity stake in Uranium Royalty Corp., the only royalty company in the sector; and (3) a pipeline of resource stage uranium projects. The Company\-s operations are managed by professionals with decades of hands-on experience in the key facets of uranium exploration, development and mining.

Safe Harbor Statement

Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented in this news release constitutes aforward-looking statementsa as such term is used in applicable United States and Canadian securities laws. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any other statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as aexpectsa or adoes not expecta, ais expecteda, aanticipatesa or adoes not anticipatea, aplans, aestimatesa or aintendsa, or stating that certain actions, events or results amaya, acoulda, awoulda, amighta or awilla be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and should be viewed as aforward-looking statementsa. Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, the actual results of exploration activities, variations in the underlying assumptions associated with the estimation or realization of mineral resources, the availability of capital to fund programs and the resulting dilution caused by the raising of capital through the sale of shares, accidents, labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry including, without limitation, those associated with the environment, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, title disputes or claims limitations on insurance coverage. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Many of these factors are beyond the Companya?s ability to control or predict. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this news release and in any document referred to in this news release. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and that could impact the Company and the statements contained in this news release can be found in the Company\-s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities.
Straumann Group achieved CHF 596 million revenue in the first quarter and launched advanced digital solutions

Straumann Group reached CHF 596 million in revenue or organic growth of 3.4% in the first quarter of 2023, building upon a very strong comparative basis from the previous year. Overall patient flow remained good in most countries leading to a dynamic growth rate in all regions. In China, patient flow was impacted by Covid-19 effects at the beginning of the quarter and the Volume Based Procurement process in the second part of the first quarter which is reflected in the overall Asia Pacific performance. Revenue in Swiss francs was impacted by a negative currency development mainly related to the Euro, Turkish Lira, Japanese Yen and Chinese Renminbi.

The good first quarter result was accompanied by digital solution launches which will further support our implantology and orthodontics offering in the future.

GuillaumeA Daniellot,A ChiefA ExecutiveA Officer,A said:A aAn exciting first quarter lies behind us with solid growth considering the anticipated challenges and promising digital solutions launched at the International Dental Show in Cologne. It was very rewarding to receive first positive customer feedback on the new digital solutions we have been investing in over the past two years. Our implant portfolio continued to grow in both, the premium and value segment, supported by strong intraoral scanner performance. In addition, we are proud of the wide range of ClearCorrect launches which significantly strengthen our offering in the clear aligner business. With this in mind, we are confirming our full-year outlook despite the uncertainties around potential economic and geopolitical impacts.a

REGIONALA PERFORMANCES

StrongA growthA inA Europe,A MiddleA EastA andA Africa on top of last yeara?s high performance

Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) as the Groupa?s largest region, had a very good first quarter. EMEA grew organically by 9.2% compared to the first quarter of 2022, accounting for CHFA 287 million. This growth was driven by all segments including our core implantology business which was complemented by a strong contribution from orthodontics. Intraoral scanners continued to show high revenue growth particularly in Eastern and Southern Europe as well as in the Middle East. Germany being the largest country drove revenue in absolute terms while Turkey continued to show very strong growth.

NorthA America further builds on strong comparison quarter

North America reached 7.2% organic growth in the first quarter,A while revenue came to CHFA 182A million. The US delivered excellent growth on top of last yeara?s very high baseline. The performance was driven by immediacy implant solutions and intraoral scanners where the business continues to gain market share. Orthodontics improved its service level and showed solid growth in the first quarter. The challenger brand Neodent delivered a very solid performance throughout the quarter.

AsiaA PacificA with negative growth due to China

Without China, the Asia Pacific region reported a solid performance. Among the standout successes were the growth achieved in Japan, Australia, Thailand and India. Also, newly established countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia are accelerating growth. The implantology solutions showed solid growth across the segments while the challenger brands Neodent and Medentika performed very well. The region\-s growth was hampered by the combined effects of Covid-19 in China during the first two months of the year, and the Chinese Volume Based Procurement pricing which has been quickly implemented both in the public and private segments, driving average selling prices to a much lower level.

On the other side, as expected, the implant volume has significantly accelerated at the end of the quarter, coming from the pent-up demand generated from the past few months.

Overall, the Asia Pacific region showed negative organic revenue growth of -23.5% and accounted for CHF 80 million in revenue.

LatinA AmericaA consistently shows high performance

The region grew 20.0% organically, while revenue came to CHF 47 million. All segments performed strongly with Latin Americaa?s home brand Neodent complemented by the Straumann premium implantology segment. A consistent highlight is the VirtuoVivo intraoral scanner market penetration which leads to strong revenue growth. While still at a low base, the orthodontics business grew very rapidly in the first quarter throughout the region. Overall, the regiona?s largest market Brazil grew strongly, while Mexico, Argentina and Colombia also showed very strong performance.A A

STRATEGICA PROGRESSA /A NEWSA HIGHLIGHTS

Continued investment in growth to build a unique customer experience and production capacities

To achieve its growth ambition, the Group keeps on investing in building a unique customer experience through digital solutions, expanding geographically and building manufacturing capacity to deliver on the demand. As an example, Neodent is already planning its next expansion for future growth and acquired additional land for a potential third manufacturing site.

To deliver benefits such as precision and efficiency during cliniciansa? daily practice, Straumann introduced a new software solution for its Virtuo Vivo intraoral scanner which improves the speed and accuracy of digital impression-taking. The intraoral scans are connected to the StraumannA AXS digital platform which will provide a seamless integration between the different solutions, eliminating the need for entering patient data manually in different systems along the treatment journey.

Additionally, Straumann launched Smilecloud, a smile design and centralized collaboration platform, in selected European countries. Smilecloud allows clinicians to design virtual mock-up smiles for patients supported by AI technology and 3D biometric libraries to achieve the best possible outcome for patients. Smilecloud will enable collaboration among dental professionals and will allow them to improve interaction with patients by discussing their future smile design.

Dynamic navigation system for dental surgeries launched

In addition, Straumann launched its first dynamic surgical navigation system to perform implant surgeries in a fully digitally guided workflow. Straumann Falcon is a computer-assisted system that surgeons use to navigate their instruments during dental procedures. Enabling visualization of the precise instrument location in the surgical field in real-time, it allows clinicians to avoid critical anatomical structures and supports precise implant positioning while giving them the flexibility to adapt to the clinical situation during surgery.

ClearCorrect with major launches to improve value proposition

ClearCorrect launched a series of new developments allowing clinicians to treat more advanced cases. To efficiently treat patients who have missing or erupting teeth ClearCorrect introduced pontics, bars, and guides. In addition to improving the aligner itself, ClearCorrect is launching a series of improvements with regards to treatment planning, including an enhanced, dynamic prescription form to improve communication between clinicians and treatment planning teams. For submitting intraoral scans, enhancements have been made to optimize two intraoral scanner integrations. This update to the digital workflow is completed by the launch of ClearPilot 6.0. This software release introduces a series of upgrades designed to give providers a more intuitive and user-friendly treatment planning experience.

Annual General Meeting (AGM)A approvedA allA proposalsA including the election of a new Board member and increasedA dividend

At the recent AGM, the shareholders of Straumann Holding AG approved all the Boarda?sA proposals. This included the election of a new independent Board member Dr. Olivier Filliol, as well as the approval of the 2023 increased cash dividend of CHF 0.80 per share,A whichA wasA paidA on AprilA 13,A 2023.

OUTLOOKA 2023A (BARRINGA UNFORESEENA CIRCUMSTANCES)

Macroeconomic uncertainties remain and geopolitical tensions did not ease up during the last period. However, with an estimated globally addressable market of CHF 19 billion, the Group remains confident that it will continue to gain market share and progress in all its strategic priorities. DespiteA the impact of the Chinese Volume Based Procurement process which will require a year of transition and readjustment in China, the Group will continue to invest in its growth and transformation. As a result, the Group confirms its full-year outlook and expectsA organic revenue growth to be in the highA single-digit percentage range and profitability at around 25% including growth investments.

Disclaimer

This release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the current views of management, and which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Straumann Group to differ materially from those expressed or implied in this document. Statements are made on the basis of management\-s views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance at the time the statements are made. They are subject to risks and uncertainties including, but not confined to, future global economic conditions, pandemics, exchange rates, legal provisions, market conditions, activities by competitors and other factors outside Straumann\-s control. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes may vary materially from those forecasted or expected. Straumann is providing the information in this release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any statements contained in it as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.A A This release constitutes neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation to buy any securities.

[1]A Excluding the effects of currencies and acquisitions

The Straumann Group (SIX: STMN) is a global leader in tooth replacement and orthodontic solutions that restore smiles and confidence. It unites global and international brands that stand for excellence, innovation and quality in replacement, corrective and digital dentistry, including Anthogyr, ClearCorrect, Dental Wings, Medentika, Neodent, NUVO, Straumann and other fully/partly owned companies and partners. In collaboration with leading clinics, institutes and universities, the Group researches, develops, manufactures and supplies dental implants, instruments, CADCAM prosthetics, orthodontic aligners, biomaterials and digital solutions for use in tooth correction, replacement and restoration or to prevent tooth loss.

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, the Group currently employs more than 10a?400 people worldwide. Its products, solutions and services are available in more than 100 countries through a broad network of distribution subsidiaries and partners.
BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has replied to a letter from students participating in a program at the China Agricultural University that dispatches students to the frontlines of agricultural production.

In the letter, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, encouraged the students to make greater contributions to rural revitalization. He also extended festival greetings to China's young people as Youth Day falls on May 4.

Xi said he was gratified to know that the students went deep into the fields and villages to get to know about people's wellbeing and gain knowledge through serving rural revitalization.

Replying to the students' remarks that they had learned to seek truth from facts and maintain close ties with the people only when they went deep into China's rural areas, Xi said that this is the spirit that Chinese youth in the new era should have.

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has made plans for building up China's strength in agriculture, Xi said, hoping the students will closely integrate textbooks with practices in rural areas, and devote their youth and strength to speeding up rural and agricultural modernization and the construction of a modern socialist country.

The program, known as "science and technology backyards," was started in 2009, aiming to study and solve practical problems in the development of agriculture and rural areas, train high-level agricultural talents, and serve rural and agricultural modernization.

So far, the university has established 139 "science and technology backyards" in 24 provincial-level regions. 
Europa is one of the most intriguing moons of the solar system.

Europa is one of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, along with Io, Ganymede and Callisto.

Astronomer Galileo Galilei gets the credit for discovering these Galilean moons, among the largest in the solar system. Europa is the smallest of the four but it is one of the more intriguing satellites.

The surface of Europa is frozen, covered with a layer of ice, but scientists think there is an ocean beneath the surface. The icy surface also makes the moon one of the most reflective in the solar system.

Related: The 10 weirdest moons in the solar system

Researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope spotted a possible water plume jetting from Europa's south polar region in 2012. A different research team, after repeated attempts to confirm the observations, saw apparent plumes in 2014 and 2016. The researchers cautioned that the plumes haven't yet been fully confirmed, but they do provide a suggestion that there is water in Europa's ocean jetting to the surface.

Several spacecraft have conducted flybys of Europa (including Pioneers 10 and 11 and Voyagers 1 and 2 in the 1970s). The Galileo spacecraft carried out a long-term mission in the Jovian neighborhood between 1995 and 2003.

Two missions are planned to visit Europa and other Jovian moons within the next decade, ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission and NASA's Europa Clipper.

Europa facts

Age: Europa is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old, about the same age of Jupiter.

Distance from the sun: On average, Europa's distance from the sun is about 485 million miles (or 780 million kilometers).

Distance from Jupiter: Europa is Jupiter's sixth satellite. Its orbital distance from Jupiter is 414,000 miles (670,900 km). It takes Europa three and a half Earth days to orbit Jupiter. Europa is tidally locked, so the same side faces Jupiter at all times.

Size: Europa is 1,900 miles (3,100 km) in diameter, making it smaller than Earth's moon, but larger than Pluto. It is the smallest of the Galilean moons.

Temperature: Europa's surface temperature at the equator never rises above minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 160 degrees Celsius). At the poles of the moon, the temperature never rises above minus 370 F (minus 220 C).

Missions to Europa

Pioneer 10 (1973 flyby of Jupiter system). This passed too far away from Europa to get a detailed picture, but the mission did note some variations in albedo (brightness) on the moon's surface.

Pioneer 11 (1974 flyby of Jupiter system). The spacecraft made a flyby of Europa at nearly 375,000 miles (600,000 km) away, only allowing it to see some variation on the surface.

Voyager 1 (1979 flyby of Jupiter system). Made a distant flyby of Europa, and also yielded insights about how the gravity of one moon in Jupiter's system influences the gravity of others. For example, Io's volcanism was traced in part to interaction of Io with the moons, as well as with massive Jupiter.

Voyager 2 (1979 flyby of Jupiter system). One of its major discoveries was confirming brown stripes across the surface of Europa, suggesting cracks in the icy surface.

Galileo (orbited Jupiter between 1995-2003). Its most famous discovery at Europa was finding strong evidence of an ocean beneath the icy crust at the moon's surface.

Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) launched on April 14, 2023, and is currently embarking on its 8-year journey to the Jovian neighborhood where it is expected to arrive in 2031. JUICE will look for molecules, such as organic molecules, that are associated with life-giving processes. (Organics are common in the solar system, but the molecules themselves do not always indicate life.)

Europa Clipper (proposed to launch in 2024). Will fly by Europa dozens of times. One of its major goals is to seek out evidence of the apparent plumes that Hubble researchers spotted several times.

Who discovered Europa?

A translation of the key passages of Galileo Galilei's journal detailing his discovery of four moons orbiting Jupiter. Galileo made these sketches after discovering four moons orbiting Jupiter in January 1610. The moons, later named Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede, were the first discovered beyond Earth. (Image credit: NASA)

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Galileo Galilei discovered Europa on Jan. 8, 1610.

It is possible that German astronomer Simon Marius (1573-1624) also discovered the moon at the same time. However, he did not publish his observations, so it is Galileo who is most often credited with the discovery. For this reason, Europa and Jupiter's other three largest moons are often called the Galilean moons. Galileo, however, called the moons the Medicean planets in honor of the Medici family.

It is possible Galileo actually observed Europa a day earlier, on Jan. 7, 1610. However, because he was using a low-powered telescope, he couldn't differentiate Europa from Io, another of Jupiter's moons. It wasn't until later that Galileo realized they were two separate bodies.

The discovery not only had astronomical, but also religious implications. At the time, the Catholic Church supported the idea that everything orbited the Earth, an idea supported in ancient times by Aristotle and Ptolemy. Galileo's observations of Jupiter's moons  as well as noticing that Venus went through "phases" similar to our own moon  gave compelling evidence that not everything revolved around the Earth.

As telescopic observations improved, however, a new view of the universe emerged. The moons and the planets were not unchanging and perfect; for example, mountains seen on the moon showed that geological processes happened elsewhere. Also, all planets revolved around the sun. Over time, moons around other planets were discovered  and additional moons found around Jupiter.

Marius, the other "discoverer," first proposed that the four moons be given their current names, from Greek mythology. But it wasn't until the 19th century that the moons were officially given the so-called Galilean names we know them by today. All of Jupiter's moons are named for the god's lovers (or victims, depending on your point of view). In Greek mythology, Europa was abducted by Zeus (the counterpart of the Roman god Jupiter), who had taken the form of a spotless white bull to seduce her. She decorated the "bull" with flowers and rode on its back to Crete. Once in Crete, Zeus transformed back to his original form and seduced her. Europa was the queen of Crete and bore Zeus many children.

These images show the trailing hemisphere of Jupiter's moon Europa taken by the Galileo spacecraft at a distance of about 677,000 km. The left image shows Europa in approximately true color and the right image shows Europa in enhanced color to bring out details. The bright feature towards the lower right of the disk is the 45 km diameter crater Pwyll. (Image credit: NSSDC Photo Gallery)

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Europa FAQs answered by an expert

We asked Lorenz Roth, a planetary astronomer at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, who specializes in the study of solar system moons including the large moons of Jupiter, also known as the Galilean moons, some questions about Europa.

Lorenz Roth Planetary Astronomer Lorenz Roth is a planetary astronomer at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, who specializes in the study of solar system moons.

How big is Europa? Europa is very similar to our Earth's moon in size. Its diameter is 1/4 of the Earth's diameter.

What is Europa made of? Europa is mostly made of silicate rock (chemical formula SiO_x). The outermost layer is yet made of water ice  H2O.

Does Europa have water? Indeed, there are huge amounts of H2O and there is evidence that below the ice crust H2O exists in liquid form in a global subsurface ocean.

Could Europa support life? Europa is one of the most promising candidates. There is the water ocean under the ice crust which likely has a real ocean floor, so it is in contact with the silicate rock at the bottom.

Europa characteristics

A prominent feature of Europa is its high degree of reflectivity. Europa's icy crust gives it an albedo  light reflectivity  of 0.64, one of the highest of all of the moons in the entire solar system.

Scientists estimate that Europa's surface is about 20 million to 180 million years old, which makes it fairly young.

Pictures and data from the Galileo spacecraft suggest Europa is made of silicate rock, and has an iron core and rocky mantle, much like Earth does. Unlike the interior of Earth, however, the rocky interior of Europa is surrounded by a layer of water and/or ice that is between 50 and 105 miles (80 and 170 km) thick, according to NASA.

From fluctuations in Europa's magnetic field that suggests a conductor of some sort, scientists also think there is an ocean deep beneath the surface of the moon. This ocean could contain some form of life. This possibility of extraterrestrial life is one of the reasons interest in Europa remains high. In fact, recent studies have given new life to the theory that Europa can support life.

The surface of Europa is covered with cracks. Many believe these cracks are the result of tidal forces on the ocean beneath the surface. It's possible that, when Europa's orbit takes it close to Jupiter, the tide of the sea beneath the ice rises higher than normal. If this is so, the constant raising and lowering of the sea caused many of the cracks observed on the surface of the moon.

Obtaining samples of the ocean may not require drilling through the icy crust, should the repeated observations of possible plumes turn out to be actual jets of water. While researchers spotted evidence in 2012, 2014 and 2016, the true nature of the plumes  and why they appear sporadically  requires more observations.

In 2014, scientists found that Europa may host a form of plate tectonics. Previously, Earth was the only known body in the solar system with a dynamic crust, which is considered helpful in the evolution of life on the planet.

Could there be life on Europa?

The presence of water beneath the moon's frozen crust makes scientists rank it as one of the best spots in the solar system with the potential for life to evolve.

The icy depths of the moons are thought to contain vents to the mantle much as oceans on Earth do. These vents could provide the necessary thermal environment to help life evolve.

If life exists on the moon, it may have gotten a kick from deposits from comets. Early in the life of the solar system, the icy bodies may have delivered organic material to the moon.

In 2016, a study suggested that Europa produces 10 times more oxygen than hydrogen, which is similar to Earth. This could make its probable ocean friendlier for life  and the moon may not need to rely on tidal heating to generate enough energy. Instead, chemical reactions would be enough to drive the cycle.

Upcoming missions to Europa

Two upcoming missions to Europa are the European Space Agency's (ESA) JUICE mission which launched in April 2023, and NASA's Europa Clipper mission due to launch in 2024.

Despite launching after JUICE, the Europa Clipper mission will Europa Clipper will reach Jupiter before JUICE, on April 11, 2030. The spacecraft will contain nine scientific instruments on board including cameras, radar to peer beneath the ice and try to figure out its thickness, a magnetometer to measure the magnetic field (and by extension, how salty the ocean is), and a thermal instrument to search for signs of eruptions. The flybys would range in height between 16 miles (25 km) and 1,700 miles (2,700 km). This brings the flybys well into the radiation-heavy zone of Europa, which is tough for a spacecraft to survive. Bringing the spacecraft in and out of the zone will extend its lifetime and make it easier to transmit data back to Earth.

One of Europa Clipper's priorities will be to follow up on the Hubble observations of plumes. "If the plumes' existence is confirmed, and they're linked to a subsurface ocean, studying their composition would help scientists investigate the chemical makeup of Europa's potentially habitable environment while minimizing the need to drill through layers of ice," NASA said in a statement (opens in new tab).

ESA's JUICE mission will visit Jupiter and three of its icy moons: Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. A single orbital spacecraft with no lander, JUICE will orbit Ganymede, the solar system's largest moon, becoming the first probe to orbit a planetary moon other than Earth's. Once it gets to Europa, the mission will look at organic molecules and other components that could make the moon friendly to life. Also, the spacecraft will probe how thick the crust is, particularly over any active regions it finds.
Apple and Google aim to expose Bluetooth tracker abuse



San Francisco, May 2 (AFP) May 02, 2023



Apple and Google on Tuesday proposed a tech standard to make sure people get tipped off when their movements are being tracked with Bluetooth devices like AirTags or Tile.

The tech titans behind rival mobile operating systems that, together, power most of the world's smartphones said the "first-of-its-kind" specification has backing of Samsung, Tile and others.

Small location devices intended as a way for people to find backpacks, laptops, keys, handbags or other items have been used by stalkers to secretly track people such as ex-romantic partners.

"Bluetooth trackers have created tremendous user benefits, but they also bring the potential of unwanted tracking, which requires industry-wide action to solve," Google vice president of Android engineering Dave Burke said in a joint release.

A proposal Apple and Google submitted to a leading internet standards development organization would make Bluetooth tracking devices compatible with detection and alert systems in iOS and Android mobile software.

If adopted as a standard, Bluetooth tracking device makers would have the option of building the capabilities into their products.

"This new industry specification builds upon the AirTag protections, and through collaboration with Google results in a critical step forward to help combat unwanted tracking across iOS and Android," Apple vice president of sensing and connectivity Ron Huang said in the release.

Conceived as an aid for the absent-minded, AirTag sensors have been diverted towards more sinister ends, with manufacturer Apple facing anger -- and lawsuits -- over their use as a stalking tool.

The silver and white gadget the size of a large coin is "an easy way to keep track of your stuff," the Apple website boasts. Customers can attach it to their keys, a wallet or a backpack.

When linked to a smartphone app, a $29 AirTag helps users detect their belongings' real-time location in case they get lost -- but the transmitter can also trail the humans carrying those items.

Unwanted surveillance is a common tactic of abuse, according to Erica Olsen, senior director of the Safety Net Project at the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

"It's imperative for advocates and technology companies to work together on solutions to minimize the opportunities for misuse," Olsen said of Bluetooth trackers.

Center for Democracy and Technology chief executive Alexandra Reeve Givens commended Apple and Google for collaborating on a way to improve detection of unwanted tracking devices.

"We look forward to the specification moving through the standardization process," Reeve Givens said.

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GAZA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Wednesday called on Arab and international mediators to stop the ongoing Israeli aerial strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Ismail Haniyeh, the politburo chief of Hamas, held phone talks with Egyptian and Qatari officials, urging them "to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip," said a press statement issued by his office in Gaza.

The official also spoke with Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO), and asked him to pressure Israel to stop the airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, said the statement.

Meanwhile, Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations are holding intensive talks with the Palestinian and Israeli sides to contain the current wave of tension and reach a ceasefire to stop the hostility, according to Palestinian sources.

Israeli fighter jets, drones, and helicopters carried out dozens of intensive airstrikes on Hamas military posts in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night, Palestinian security officials and eyewitnesses said.

No injuries were reported, but several homes and sites were struck and severely damaged by Israeli missiles all over the coastal enclave that has been ruled by Hamas since 2007, security officials confirmed.

While Israeli fighter jets were striking the Gaza Strip, militants continued to fire dozens of rockets and projectiles from the coastal enclave at southern Israel, wounding at least nine Israelis and causing damage to buildings and vehicles, Israel media reported.

Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), claimed responsibility for firing rockets and projectiles at southern Israel.

The firing of rockets came in response to the death of Khader Adnan, a senior PIJ member who died in Israeli custody after he went on a hunger strike for 86 days.

Adnan's death in Israeli prison has raised tension between Israelis and Palestinians, which has been flaring up since early January. 
IBM eyes hiring pause because AI does the job



Washington, May 2 (AFP) May 02, 2023



The CEO of IBM said he was eyeing to downsize the tech giant's back office workforce by nearly a third because those jobs are being made redundant by advances in artificial intelligence.

In an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Arvind Krishna said that his company would enact a pause in hiring in those roles, and potentially reduce the payroll by 7,800 jobs over several years.

"These non-customer-facing roles amount to roughly 26,000 workers," Krishna said. "I could easily see 30 percent of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period."

Back office employees are only a fraction of IBM's roughly 260,000 workers, and the company has continued to hire in certain roles, even after recently letting go about 5,000 workers in other areas, the Bloomberg report said.

In a statement to AFP on Tuesday, an IBM spokesman cautioned that "there is no blanket hiring 'pause' in place" at the company, based in Armonk, New York.

"We're being very selective when filling jobs that don't directly touch our clients or technology," the IBM spokesman added.

The development of generative AI, as demonstrated by viral applications like ChatGPT, is making it possible to more easily execute less complex work such as certain human resource tasks, data management and other repetitive operations.

A study by Goldman Sachs in March said that as many as 300 million jobs could be lost to AI-powered automation, and one-fourth of current work tasks in the United States and Europe could be automated.

But while the release of ChatGPT took the world by storm late last year, the technology, developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, is prone to mistakes and has led companies to only entrust it with simple tasks for now.

On Monday, Geoffrey Hinton, sometimes considered the godfather of AI, announced that he was leaving Google's industry-leading AI research team and criticized Microsoft for moving too quickly in making ChatGPT-style technology available.

Hinton said that competition between tech giants was pushing companies to release new AI technologies at dangerous speeds, threatening jobs and posing a danger to society.
Hackers promise AI, install malware instead



San Francisco, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2023



Meta on Wednesday warned that hackers are using the promise of generative artificial intelligence like ChatGPT to trick people into installing malicious code on devices.

Over the course of the past month, security analysts with the social-media giant have found malicious software posing as ChatGPT or similar AI tools, chief information security officer Guy Rosen said in a briefing.

"The latest wave of malware campaigns have taken notice of generative AI technology that's been capturing people's imagination and everyone's excitement," Rosen said.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, often shares what it learns with industry peers and others in the cyber defense community.

Meta has seen "threat actors" hawk internet browser extensions that promise generative AI capabilities but contain malicious software designed to infect devices, according to Rosen.

In general, it is common for hackers to bait their traps with attention-grabbing developments, tricking people into clicking on booby-trapped web links or downloading programs that steal data.

"We've seen this across other topics that are popular, such as crypto scams fueled by the immense interest in digital currency," Rosen said.

"From a bad actor's perspective, ChatGPT is the new crypto."

Meta has found and blocked more than a thousand web addresses that are touted as promising ChatGPT-like tools but are actually traps set by hackers, according to the tech firm's security team.

Meta has yet to see generative AI used as more than bait by hackers, but is bracing for the inevitability that it will be used as a weapon, Rosen said.

"Generative AI holds great promise and bad actors know it, so we should all be very vigilant to stay safe," Rosen said.

At the same time, Meta teams are working on ways to use generative AI to defend against hackers and deceitful online influence campaigns.

"We have teams that are already thinking through how (generative AI) could be abused, and the defenses we need to put in place to counter that," Meta head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in the briefing.

"We're preparing for that."
Star swallows planet in first glimpse of Earth's likely end



Paris, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2023



Scientists said Wednesday that they have observed a dying star swallowing a planet for the first time, offering a preview of Earth's expected fate in around five billion years.

But when the Sun finally does engulf Earth, it will cause only a "tiny perturbation" compared to this cosmic explosion, the US astronomers said.

Most planets are believed to meet their end when their host star runs out of energy, turning into a red giant that massively expands, devouring anything unlucky enough to be in its path.

Astronomers had previously seen the before-and-after effects of this process, but had never before caught a planet in the act of being consumed.

Kishalay De, a postdoc researcher at MIT in the United States and the lead author of the new study, said the accidental discovery unfolded like a "detective story".

"It all started about three years ago when I was looking at data from the Zwicky Transient Facility survey, which takes images of the sky every night," De told an online press conference.

He stumbled across a star that had suddenly increased in brightness by more than 100 times over a 10-day period.

The star is in the Milky Way galaxy, around 12,000 light years from Earth near the Aquila constellation, which resembles an eagle.



- Ice in boiling water -



De had been searching for binary star systems, in which the larger star takes bites out of its companion, creating incredibly bright explosions called outbursts.

But data showed that this outburst was surrounded by cold gas, suggesting it was not a binary star system.

And NASA's infrared space telescope NEOWISE showed that dust had started to shoot out of the area months before the outburst.

More puzzling still was that the outburst produced around 1,000 times less energy than previously observed mergers between stars.

"You ask yourself: what is 1,000 less massive than a star?" De said.

The answer was close to home: Jupiter.

The team of researchers from MIT, Harvard and Caltech established that the swallowed planet was a gas giant with a similar mass to Jupiter, but was so close to its star that it completed an orbit in just one day.

The star, which is quite similar to the Sun, engulfed the planet over a period of around 100 days, starting off by nibbling at its edges, which ejected dust.

The bright explosion occurred in the final 10 days as the planet was totally destroyed when it plunged inside the star.

Miguel Montarges, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory who was not involved in the research, noted that the star was thousands of degrees hotter than the planet.

"It's like putting an ice cube into a boiling pot," he told AFP.



- Watching Earth's fate -



Morgan MacLeod, a postdoc at Harvard University and co-author of the study, published in the journal Nature, said that most of the thousands of planets discovered outside the Solar System so far "will eventually suffer this fate".

And in comparison, Earth will most likely end not with a bang but a whimper.

When the Sun expands past Mercury, Venus and Earth in an estimated five billion years, they will make "less dramatic disturbances" because rocky planets are so much smaller than gas giants, MacLeod said.

"In fact, they will be really minor perturbations to the power output of the Sun," he said.

But even before it gets swallowed, Earth will already be "quite inhospitable," because the dying Sun will have already evaporated all the planet's water, MacLeod added.

Ryan Lau, an astronomer and study co-author, said the discovery "speaks to the transience of our existence".

"After the billions of years that span the lifetime of our Solar System, our own end stages will likely conclude in a final flash that lasts only a few months," he said in a statement.

Now that astronomers know what to look for, they hope that soon they will be able to watch many more planets be consumed by their stars.

In the Milky Way alone, a planet could be engulfed once a year, De said.
TotalEnergies sues Greenpeace over claims it 'underreports' emissions



Paris, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2023



TotalEnergies is suing Greenpeace for a symbolic euro over the environmentalist group's claims that the French energy giant is likely "dramatically underreporting" its greenhouse gas emissions, both sides said Wednesday.

Greenpeace in a November report said TotalEnergies' carbon emissions in 2019 "could be almost four times higher" than what the company reported for that year.

The energy giant said Greenpeace and the Factor-X consulting firm that carried out the study had "broadcast false and misleading information, relying on debatable methodology and including multiple errors... and approximations".

Greenpeace said TotalEnergies was suing it in civil court to take down the offending report from its website, in what it described as an attempt to silence its criticism though the burden of legal fees.

"These civil proceedings are not completely harmless. Total(Energies) could have sued us for defamation" in a criminal court, said Jean-Francois Julliard, head of Greenpeace France.

Instead "we know we're in for several years" of written back-and-forth between both sides, he said.

A spokesman for TotalEnergies claimed it was merely contesting flawed calculations that led to "incoherent results".

The company was seeking 1 euro ($1) in damages, he said.

Julliard said that at least the lawsuit, which is to be heard by a Paris civil court, would allow for a debate on the proper calculation of TotalEnergies' actual carbon emissions.

The same court has also been charged with hearing another complaint, this time filed by Greenpeace against TotalEnergies, accusing the energy company of "greenwashing" via misleading advertising.

Many companies have vowed to reach the "net zero" level of greenhouse gas emissions needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the 2016 Paris climate deal.

But campaigners argue that many do not include their indirect greenhouse gas emissions, which are difficult to calculate but make up the larger part of their greenhouse gas footprint.

Thus a company that only counts emissions from operating its oil wells or powering its offices -- but not from the millions of cars burning the petrol made from its oil and the home-heaters burning its gas -- ignores the biggest share of its emissions.

If it then boasts that it has cut its carbon output, it lays itself open to charges of greenwashing.

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Spain's far-right MPs snub visiting Colombian leader



Madrid, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2023



Colombian President Gustavo Petro was snubbed by far-right lawmakers as he began a state visit to Spain on Wednesday calling for deeper ties with Latin America to fight climate change.

Addressing parliament, Petro said his visit was not just about "remembering the past and the historical scars" left as a result of Colombia's past as a Spanish colony, but about "modern-day demands".

His speech was overshadowed by a protest by the far-right Vox, Spain's third largest party, whose lawmakers staged a walkout as Colombia's first leftist president approached the podium.

The protest was in response to Petro's remarks on May 1 about his nation's 19th-century struggle for independence "from the Spanish yoke".

"He's an unrepentant terrorist, a man who insulted Spain before flying over here," Vox leader Santiago Abascal told reporters outside parliament, referring to Petro's involvement with a guerrilla group when he was a teenager.

Abascal was joined by several dozen demonstrators for a protest called by the Madrid Forum, an alliance of right and far-right Spanish and Latin American lawmakers.

"There was never any yoke, but a beautiful brotherhood, with a shared culture, faith and worldview," Abascal wrote on Facebook on May 2, describing it as "outrageous" that the Colombian leader would be allowed to address Spain's parliament.

"The only yoke that exists in Colombia is the one that totalitarians like Petro have imposed on their people."

Placing the climate crisis at the heart of his visit, Petro called for "concrete policies" in defence of the environment when Spain takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1.

With global warming, the world had to chose between "disappearing" or "changing", said Petro who has been pushing the transition to clean energy and a driving force behind an international alliance to protect the Amazon.

He will meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday.

In power since August 2022, Petro is grappling with a major political crisis that saw him replace seven of his ministers last week as he struggles to push a reform programme through Congress.

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JINAN, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Nine people were killed and one injured, with one still missing, after an explosion at a chemical plant in the city of Liaocheng, east China's Shandong Province, local authorities said Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Monday morning at the hydrogen peroxide production area of Luxi Chemical Group under Sinochem Holdings Corporation Ltd.

The injured person was rushed to the hospital for treatment after the explosion occurred.

Previously, five were reported as having been found dead at the site. However, on-site staff have found another four bodies during further search-and-rescue operations.

One person remains missing, and search-and-rescue efforts are still ongoing.

The fire at the scene has been put out, and an investigation into the cause of the incident is underway. 
STAMFORD  A state prosecutor dismissed multiple felony charges against a Bridgeport man convicted of attempted murder in Norwalk following a Connecticut Supreme Court decision last year that overturned multiple convictions in the case.

Supervisory States Attorney Michelle Manning said on Tuesday that the state has decided not pursue a new trial against 25-year-old Onaje Smith after a key witness in the case stated he would not testify.

I have had Norwalk police reach out to the victim of that robbery who was shot and injured in that case. He has met with police and has indicated he does not wish to appear and testify again, Manning said.

In August 2022, the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned convictions on charges of accessory to third-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, accessory to first-degree robbery, accessory to first-degree assault, accessory to second-degree arson and conspiracy to commit second-degree arson on the grounds that the trial court had improperly denied a motion to suppress evidence that police obtained via a search warrant that was not supported by probable cause, the court wrote in its opinion.

The courts reversal, along with the states decision to dismiss the outstanding charges, means that Smiths effective prison sentence was lowered from 35 years to 26 years, Manning said during Tuesdays disposition hearing at the state Superior Court in Stamford.

Smiths convictions on two counts of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and two separate charges of accessory to first-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery still stand.

Manning said Tuesday that the victim had told Norwalk police that he was content knowing Smith will still serve 26 years for those convictions.

Smith and his codefendant Tyreik Gantt, 25, were convicted of numerous felony charges connected to an extended crime spree in Norwalk and Stamford in 2017, which included alleged armed robberies, attempted murder and arson.

Police said the duo robbed two Chinese food delivery drivers in Norwalk in January 2017, shooting one in the leg and arm and stealing his car. Minutes after one of those robberies, Gantt was seen on a surveillance camera at a Stamford gas station pumping gasoline into the back seat of the stolen car, which moments later was found engulfed in flames on Oakwood Place in Stamford.

The two also shot at a rival gang member during a drive-by that same month, Manning said, and both were involved in following that same man into a West Main Street convenience store in Stamford and shooting him in the left temple and abdomen. The man survived.

Days before their scheduled trial in 2019, Gantt accepted an offer from the state and pleaded guilty to all the charges Smith was originally convicted of. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

While Smiths outstanding charges in the Stamford assault were dropped Tuesday, Manning pointed out that the 25-year-old is also still facing several felony charges in Bridgeport that are tied to the 2016 killing of Stamford resident Shane Slinsky.

Smith was arrested by Bridgeport police in February 2018 on charges of murder, felony murder, first-degree conspiracy to commit robbery, third-degree larceny and carrying a pistol without a permit.

Smith is still awaiting trial on those charges in Bridgeport, according to the states judicial website.
DAMASCUS, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and visiting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi signed on Wednesday memorandums of understanding (MOUs) for "long-term and comprehensive cooperation" in various fields, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.

The MOUs cover cooperation in the fields of oil, communications, civil aviation, railways, and agriculture, among others.

Following the signing of the MOUs, Assad was quoted as saying that the talks with Raisi had centered largely on economic issues. He noted that the projects under discussion would give the bilateral relations a strong boost by setting up mechanisms for trade exchange and investment to mitigate the impact of the Western sanctions.

He pointed out that both countries would "benefit from the change in the economic map of the world and the gradual shift of balance towards the East, which would liberate international economies from the domination of the West and, as a result, the blockade (Western nations' economic sanctions) would gradually lose its effects."

For his part, Raisi said he and Assad discussed the development of bilateral relations in all domains, stressing that "we are determined to develop the relations with all regional countries."

Earlier in the day, an official reception ceremony was held upon the arrival of Raisi and his ministerial delegation at the al-Sha'ab presidential palace in Damascus.

Raisi, who is the first Iranian president to visit Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, lauded Syria's victory in emerging from a 12-year conflict.

"Syria's government and people have gone through tremendous hardships, and today we can say that you have weathered and overcome all these problems and achieved victory despite the threats and sanctions imposed against you," Raisi told Assad at the palace.

During the two-day official visit, the Iranian president will hold extensive political and economic talks with Assad, according to SANA. 
A bonfire of EU laws is likely to create more problems than it would solve, according to an Institute of Directors (IoD) survey.

A poll of 949 company bosses asked which policy area offered the greatest opportunity for the UK to reduce the regulatory burden of EU law.

However, most respondents who gave an answer said there was no such policy area. When excluding the 8% who said they didnt know, 51% said their preference is for regulatory stability in the current framework.

This compared to just over one in five respondents who mentioned employment regulation, while one in eight cited financial services regulation. The Financial Conduct Authority announced plans to streamline many UK financial regulations last night, in order to make London listings more attractive.

Environmental regulations and health and safety regulations were both mentioned by around 5% of respondents who gave an answer.

The speed at which government intends to review retained EU law is a recipe for bad law-making, said Dr. Roger Barker, director of policy at the Institute of Directors. Rules and regulations across a range of business-relevant areas could be changed or removed without the normal processes of parliamentary scrutiny or stakeholder consultation.

This gives rise to a level of regulatory uncertainty which is extremely unhelpful for business.

The IoD poll also found that four in five IoD members were at least somewhat aware of the EU Retained Law Bill - which would scrap most EU laws that are still on the books in the UK - and what it covers.

Our polling also demonstrates that there is a surprisingly high level of awareness amongst business leaders of the Bill, Barker said. Far from being an arcane piece of post-Brexit adjustment, our members are very aware of the uncertainty it implies. And they are concerned about what they see.

The IoD boss added that it would make much more sense to simply review existing regulations - both domestic and derived from Brussels - and scrap those that are not needed while keeping those that are.

Ideally, we would like to see this Bill dropped, and the process of regulatory reform pursued in a less politicised manner, he said. No distinction should be made between reforming regulations which have been retained from the EU or which derive from domestic legislation.

Both types of law should be assessed on their merits and with regard to overcoming the specific challenges facing business.
B arratt Developments has said sales have picked up and it will meet City profit expectations, with the UKs largest housebuilder adding to signs of a recovery in the residential market.

Like rivals, the FTSE 100 company saw trading impacted after the aftermath of Septembers mini Budget sent mortgage bills jumping, and on top of that a cost of living crisis has hit demand.

In February Barratt reported early signs of recovery in reservation rates, and chief executive David Thomas has now said: Whilst the economic backdrop remains difficult, we are pleased that more positive sales rates have been maintained through this period and we are now fully forward sold for FY23.

Pre-tax profits for the year to June are expected to meet City forecasts of 876.8 million.

The update comes in the same week that lender Nationwide said that while annual house price growth remained negative in April at -2.7%, there were tentative signs of a recovery with prices rising by 0.5% during the month.

In a trading update for between January and April 23, Barratt said: Reservation activity has reflected the more challenging backdrop for first time buyers but resilient demand amongst existing homeowners, where limited homes for sale in the wider market, the energy efficiency of our new homes and the backdrop of significant rental cost growth, have helped to support demand.

The company said it has fully forward sold its full-year order book to June which stood at 3 billion as at April 23. That is substantially down on 4.5 billion recorded a year earlier, and completed home sales for the full year are set to be between 16,500 and 17,000, down from nearly 18.000 in the year to June 2022.

The slump comes after the sharp reduction in reservations in the final quarter of 2022, and the impact of the closure of the Help to Buy scheme.

Barratt is among those that will be waiting to hear if a report that the government is examining proposals to resurrect Help to Buy comes to anything.
Graham Wylie

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When Graham Wylie was 14 in the early 1970s, he was offered the chance to spend his games periods on the computers at the local technical college instead of playing rugby: he jumped at the chance.

Working a summer job with an accountancy firm while in university, he created the accounting software that would later become Sage, with its name taken from a list of herbs on a pub poster.

Sage grew to a 9 billion company at the turn of the century, though its value had fallen by more than 75% by the time he left his role as UK managing director in 2003, selling most of his remaining shares later that year.

Since then, he has founded IT business Technology Services Group, while he also owned a number of racehorses before stepping back from the sport in 2020. Making up for lost time in games class, Wylie has also co-founded fitness business Speedflex with Alan Shearer and former Newcastle physio Paul Ferris.

Australian-born Johnny Boufarhat founded online events software Hopin in 2019, when an auto-immune disease meant he was stuck in his girlfriends Kings Cross flat.

Barely a year later, most of the world found themselves in a position similar to Boufarhats - the in-person events industry cratered, opening up a market for Hopin.

By March 2021, the business raised $400 million at a $5.65 billion valuation, with funders including Salesforce Ventures and VC fund Andreessen Horowitz.

Post-pandemic life has been tougher for the live events company, though, which underwent three rounds of layoffs in 2022.

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N early four in 10 (39%) older people are not managing their money online and could therefore be at risk of financial exclusion, according to Age UK.

A survey found a high level of support for in-person banking, with three-quarters (75%) of over-65s with a bank account wanting to undertake at least one banking task in person at a bank branch, building society or Post Office.

Age UK commissioned a poll by Ipsos of more than 1,000 people aged 65 and over across Britain in March and April to make the findings.

The research also found that nearly a third (31%) of older people with a bank account feel uncomfortable with online banking.

Even older people who do bank online often want the ability to talk to a bank employee in the flesh about some kind of transaction

The research participants who were most likely to feel uncomfortable using online banking included those aged 85-plus, women, and people on a low income.

Among those who were uncomfortable with online banking, not wanting to be defrauded or scammed, a lack of trust in online banking services, and a lack of IT skills were cited as the main reasons.

The charity wants to see an accelerated rollout of banking hubs, which are places where banks share facilities, helping to plug gaps left by branch closures.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: We need to face up to the fact that huge numbers of older people, the oldest old, especially, are not banking online.

In addition, our new research also shows that even older people who do bank online often want the ability to talk to a bank employee in the flesh about some kind of transaction.

John Howells, chief executive of cash machine and cash access network Link, said: Its vital to protect face-to-face banking services for the millions of consumers who rely on cash.

The proposed national network of shared banking hubs being provided by the banking industry are proving a popular and easy to use way to do that.

The findings were released as consumer group Which? highlighted security concerns around mobile app banking.

Which? wants banks to stop relying on text messages to send sensitive information and fraud warnings. In the event of a phone being stolen, criminals can either view messages sent by text message or put the victims sim card into a different phone and continue to receive messages, the consumer group said.

It highlighted an incident involving a 46-year-old Barclays customer who was in a London pub when his mobile phone was stolen from the pocket of his jacket, which was on the back of a chair.

By the time he had woken up the next morning, 73,000 had been transferred from his accounts to one controlled by a fraudster, the consumer group said.

Which? suggested someone may have potentially shoulder surfed to see the code the man had used to unlock his phone and then tried similar combinations to access the app.

The bank sent a fraud warning via SMS, which is of no use to the account holder if their phone has been stolen, Which? said.

The consumer group said Barclays refunded 15,000 stolen from the mans personal account, but refused to reimburse his business account. Cyber insurance taken out by the mans business meant he got the money transferred from his business account back.

There is no higher priority than the protection of our customers' funds and data

Which? said it has concerns generally about some banks security measures to reset login details.

A spokesman for Barclays said: There is no higher priority than the protection of our customers funds and data. The Barclays app has multiple layers of security, continually undergoing rigorous forms of testing, to provide our customers with the highest level of protection.

We have every sympathy with our customer, who has reported being a victim of a sophisticated and targeted mobile phone theft. Funds sent to a third-party account outside our customers control have been returned in full, as a gesture of goodwill.

We assess each case on its individual merits and, although we dont see signs of fraud, we recognise that this is a complex case involving a loyal customer.

The Barclays customer said: At no time did I feel that the bank listened to me, and they only returned the money to my personal account when put under serious scrutiny by the reporter from Which?

They still maintain that they can see no evidence of fraud, which is completely absurd given the weight of evidence shared, including from the police officer who I reported the crime to at the time.

Jenny Ross, Which? Money editor, said: A lack of strong security protections in some banks mobile apps is a huge concern, and could leave many more consumers at risk of being defrauded.

Banks must up their game to protect customers. Banks also need to ensure they meet their legal obligations to reimburse customers for unauthorised transactions.

Here are some tips from Which? to protect your mobile phone:

1. Add a pin to your sim to stop someone stealing the card and putting it in another phone. You can do this in your phones settings app.

2. Disable preview notifications on your phone to stop thieves viewing messages when your phone is locked. On an iPhone, you can change notification settings under messages. On Android devices, it is notifications on lock screen in your settings app.

3. Consider registering for find my phone using Googles Find My Device or Apples Find My iPhone, so your phone can be located, locked or wiped of data remotely if it is lost or stolen.
Paul Taylor

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Former Google executive Paul Taylors background is in text-to-speech technology. But it was a vision for the banking sector that led him to set up Thought Machine.

He saw cloud computing as the answer to problems at financial companies with out-of-date infrastructure. The company wants to rid banks of legacy systems so that they can run the best available state-of-the-art software.

Thought Machine is not Belfast-born Taylors first enterprise. The former student of linguistics at the University of Edinburgh also founded Phonetic Arts, a text-to-speech firm, which he sold to Google. He then ran the search giant that powered its pioneering use of text-to-speech since 2012 and it has been used on over a billion phones wordwide.

He also sold a similar enterprise, Rhetorical Systems, to Nuance, another global software company.

The self-effacing Ulsterman has referred to himself as one of the worlds worst linguists, despite having a doctorate in the subject and lecturing on it at Cambridge University. During the dotcom boom of the 1990s, he once hired the person in front of him in a queue in an off licence.

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T he Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd is about an aspiring executive  Jen Barber  who is charged with running the digital operations of a fictional corporation called Reynholm Industries.

In episode one, she discovers that her new department isnt located in the salubrious heights of the company HQ, but down in a grotty basement. And it gets worse. Her staff comprises two dysfunctional IT technicians. This pair of socially inept fixers peevishly squabble on the phone to workers upstairs or bewilder them with obtuse jargon. Sound familiar?

The gags in the show have aged well(ish), but the premise has not. Workers in charge of IT systems might once have been a marginalised subculture in corporate life, but now theres more to occupy them. Like multiplying cyber threats, fast moving changes to policy and sudden upgrades to tools themselves.

If the writers of The IT Crowd decided to set a series in 2023, it would be more realistic to place the main characters in corner offices on the main floor. In an uncertain world, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are on an even keel with the top brass.

Threat upsurge

Cyber threats are multiplying  fast. In 2022, attacks increased by 38 per cent globally on the year before according to CheckPoint Research, the intelligence arm of a cyber software company.

Stats pertaining to the UK show that where security is concerned, lightning often strikes twice  or, rather, once every seven days. Figures from the government show that 31 per cent of businesses and 26 per cent of charities suffering attacks are hit at least once a week.

It might be tempting to assume that a new-fangled innovation like AI will offer a cure-all. In truth, the secret to repelling bad actors is more human. That is, a clued-up CISO with a squad of experienced hackers.

Haris Pylarinos is CEO of Hack The Box, an upskilling platform for cybersecurity professionals. He founded the company in 2017 after realising that mitigating threats is more about developing skills (like lateral thinking, imagination and problem-solving) than it is about applying knowledge.

We recognise that the human element is the most important factor in cyber security, he said. Generally, repelling cyber threats requires a lot of thinking. It involves a lot of awareness, understanding all the clever ways criminals might try to fool you in order to gain access or data from you.

Policy problem

Theres an equally urgent issue for organisations that is bringing CISOs to greater prominence. And it might be even more difficult to unpick than the wave of cybercrime set to continue in the coming years. Its the fast-changing geopolitical landscape, where nation states enforce vastly different laws and regulations to do with data as well as tools and systems that are permitted in each place.

Governments are used to managing borders when it comes to people and products, now they are getting better at figuring out how to do the same in the digital sphere. The idea of data sovereignty is growing in importance, where leaders are more exacting about where information is stored, and whether it falls into foreign hands.

For instance, if you are the CEO of a major US corporation that also has big offices in Paris, Frankfurt, Beijing, Jakarta and Delhi, adhering to the digital policies of each, and keeping the business going, becomes an intensely complex Venn diagram of regulation.

Services are sprouting up that are designed to make CISOs lives slightly easier. Worldr is a new company that helps leaders manage some of these headaches. Its a security plug-in for Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp and Slack that helps guard against third party breaches, and also provides a set of tools that make products like these compliant with local laws.

World CEO Max Buchan said: The CISO needs to be more strategic and forward-looking than before. Historically there can be tension between a department whose job it is to look for commercial growth and opportunity, and one whose job it is to look at risk. But when a mistake can mean billions of dollars in fines, people realise how important this stuff is.

CISOs and the departments they run have a tough job. But digital teams are significantly more empowered and recognised than they were a decade ago.

Few of them will hanker for simpler times when the job involved answering the phone and uttering the much-maligned phrase: Hello, this is IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again? Although sometimes that does still work.
F our in 10 Londoners are considering leaving the capital to escape toxic air pollution.

Thats according to research by air-quality intelligence company Enjoy the Air, who surveyed more than 4,000 British adults. The results found more people in London than any other region would move in search of clean air.

It follows a recent study finding that air in every London borough breaches World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on the toxic pollutant nitrogen dioxide.

Air pollution continues to blight our city and cost lives, todays Standard View states in support of extending the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez). We understand the opposition some feel over the Ulez expansion, and share the frustration that the Government and City Hall will not provide more funds for the vehicle scrappage scheme.

But ridding our city of toxic air is the task of this generation of political leaders, and cannot be delayed. Because, once we can all enjoy clean air, future Londoners will wonder how we ever lived without it.

Would you leave London in search of cleaner air? Let us know in the comments or on our Instagram for your chance to be featured on the Evening Standard website.

Yesterday we asked: Should Labour drop their pledge to end university tuition fees?

On Facebook, Dane Raworth saw bigger priorities to fund: With over 2m students in the UK I hate to imagine the cost. People cant afford to heat their home or feed their families. Schools, policing and the justice system, let alone the NHS are on their knees. Theres bigger issues to deal with first.

Instagram user gary.templar didnt see the value: Yes, if these leftie wasters want to go to university to study for a degree thats worth nothing in real life make them pay.

But others saw the importance. stormintormod commented: Disgraceful. No other country in Europe charges the outrageous fees England does. Most western European countries dont charge a penny, the others just a peppercorn amount.

danielwilliams.music said: Best investment you can make in the future. But, universities need to reform and become places of learning again. Less of this social justice cobblers. Teach people things they dont know. Simple.
This photo taken on April 10, 2023 shows damaged houses in Bakhmut, Ukraine. (Photo by Peter Druk/Xinhua)

One billion euros has been allocated to ramp up ammunition production to support Ukraine.

BRUSSELS, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Wednesday adopted a proposal to ramp up ammunition production to support Ukraine, and address a shortage among European Union (EU) member states.

One billion euros has been allocated to the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP), European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said.

Half of the funding will come from the EU budget, while the other half will come from leveraged additional financing.

ASAP is part of a three-track plan to help support Ukraine while making sure the European Union's ammunition stocks are not depleted, the Commission said.

The Act "will strengthen the responsiveness and ability of the Union defense industry to ensure the timely supply of ammunition and missiles in Europe," it added.

Ukrainian artillerymen perform their duties near Bakhmut, Ukraine, April 12, 2023. (Photo by Peter Druk/Xinhua)

ASAP includes an instrument that will help avoid bottlenecks and shortages, and a temporary framework to ensure security of supply.

Financial support under the proposal includes grants to support the European defense industry in increasing its production capacity.

A "Ramp-Up Fund" may also be created to assist the ammunition and missile supply chains in gaining access to both public and private financing.

In order to identify, monitor and anticipate bottlenecks and shortages, the European Commission and the EU member states will conduct a mapping exercise to constantly monitor the availability of ammunition, missiles, and their components.

Euro banknotes and coins are seen in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 30, 2021. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

The ASAP proposal must now be adopted by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament before it can be implemented. It would then apply until mid-2025. 
P erhaps my favourite aspect of economics is how expectations can become reality. If enough people believe something  say about the value of a commodity  it will often shift to that new price. In a world of randomness and chaos, I find it strangely satisfying.

Expectations play an important role in politics too, particularly in the run-up to local elections. All parties like to set a low bar they know they can beat. Thats why a few weeks out from polling day, the Tories started suggesting they might lose 1,000 seats. The thinking goes that when they only lose 200, 300, or even 500 seats, it looks like a reasonable result, particularly for mid-term. Labour of course tries the same thing, though with a little less chutzpa.

The thing is, it shouldnt make a difference. Grizzled political journalists know what the parties are up to. Take the Conservative position  they are performing badly in the opinion polls, so you might expect them to get hammered.

But these local elections are a re-run of 2019, when the party, in what appeared to be the death grip of Theresa Mays leadership, received only 28 per cent of the vote, losing more than 1,300 councillors. In other words, they are already starting from a low base. There is only so much further they can fall.

The parties play this game because it works. Calamitous predictions roll the pitch ahead of time, give ministers doing something to say on the night, and no matter how badly they perform, by morning they can always say words to the effect of people thought we were going to lose 1,000 seats  but we only lost 300, this is a great victory. That is a valuable narrative to eke out.

The absolute classic of the genre  and one of my all-time favourite late New Labour anecdotes  is this one told by former party advisor Theo Bertram, about the 2007 local election results and who won Bury.

But there is a problem with the expectations game  it only works to a point. This is actually true of economics too  if it turns out that the stock generating all types of buzz doesnt actually do anything, it should fall back to its pre-hype valuation. That is because narratives can only bend reality so far, and for so long.

At some stage, after telling yourself and the media that everything is fine, you find yourself heading into a general election 10 or 15 points behind and absent a polling error, no one really cares about your line to take or how well you managed expectations. Because youve just lost power.

In the comment pages, Defence Editor Robert Fox says Ukraine is slowly bleeding Vladimir Putins plan dry. Martha Gill calls No mow May a figleaf hiding this governments abject failure on rewilding. While Ayesha Hazarika urges King Charles to reach out to Harry and Meghan.

And finally, its 25 years to the day since this happened. Would you believe it?

This article appears in our newsletter, West End Final  delivered 4pm daily  bringing you the very best of the paper, from culture and comment to features and sport. Sign up here.
U kraines much-anticipated spring offensive is now likely to be a summer offensive. The ground, unusually muddy this year in the late winter, needs to bake hard to sustain the tanks from western allies.

The airwaves and chatrooms have been full of speculation about how, when and where the attacks will come. The chatter and speculation from former Nato commanders would appear to rob the Ukraine command under General Oleksandr Syrskyi of any element of surprise.

But all the blather and speculation is not unhelpful. The Ukrainian command has kept up its remarkable skill at operational security. This is called OpSec in military-speak, or in common parlance, knowing how to keep schtum. The Ukrainian planners and commanders are only telling those that really need to know about their plan of attack  and that doesnt include their major allies.

It has helped the war of nerves with Russia and its leaders. The winter has been bloody for both sides  the Pentagon estimates Russian forces have lost 20,000 killed and 80,000 wounded in the past four and a half months.

Ukraine has lost heavily, too, mostly along about 45 miles of front between Vukledar, Avdiivka and Bakhmut.

Some have questioned why Ukraines command has committed so heavily to the battle for Bakhmut. The tactic has been to fix the Russian forces committed to Donetsk, preventing them from mounting their own spring offensive. The ploy appears to have worked.

Russia has committed nearly 190,000 to this sector alone, and is frantically trying to recruit new levies through companies like Gazprom, and the Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov.

There is a change in the propaganda offensive of the Putin camp. There is uncertainty, too. The May 9 victory parades, usually the occasion for Russians to celebrate all things military, have been toned down or turned off. In Kursk, Belograd and Crimea they have been cancelled on security grounds for fear of drone strikes, and sabotage.

At the centre of the drama stands the figure of Putin, still secure in the power he created, but his inexplicable war has now directly damaged more than a quarter of a million Russians. In the past four months Russia has sustained more killed and wounded in Ukraine than in the 10 years of the Red Army occupation of Afghanistan to 1989. A record hardly to be envied or emulated.
A ir pollution continues to blight our city and cost lives  toxic air is linked with cancers, circulatory diseases and strokes. And, according to a new survey, four in 10 Londoners are considering moving out of the capital because of it, representing the highest figure in the country.

That is why Sadiq Khan is right to put air quality at the heart of his mayoralty, and why the Evening Standard supports the extension of the Ultra low emission zone (Ulez) to the Greater London boundary, set to come into effect on August 29.

Of course, not everyone agrees. Conservatives in City Hall have campaigned against it, Tory-run local authorities have taken legal action to try and stop it, while central government remains hostile. Yet it is still surprising that London MP Theresa Villiers, a former Cabinet minister, has introduced legislation in Parliament to amend the Greater London Authority Act in order to allow ministers to effectively overturn the Ulez extension.

This is not only an affront to devolution, but a plan to actively keep the capitals air dirty, with profound consequences. Indeed, toxic air pollution caused by London traffic is leading to nearly 4,000 premature deaths a year, according to City Hall analysis.

We understand the opposition some feel over the Ulez expansion, and share the frustration that the Government and City Hall will not provide more funds for the vehicle scrappage scheme. But ridding our city of toxic air is the task of this generation of political leaders, and cannot be delayed. Because once we can all enjoy clean air, future Londoners will wonder how we ever lived without it.

Sudan escalation risk

It is likely that the final UK evacuation flight from Sudan has taken off. Thus far the airlift  the longest and largest of any western nation in the country  had rescued 2,341 people on 28 flights, according to the Government. Our thanks must go to the armed forces for their efforts.

Now, the worlds focus must not turn away. Sudan already faces a humanitarian crisis, one that threatens to descend into civil war. That is not inevitable, and the international community cannot stand by.

Britain and its allies should work with the UN, the African Union and regional leaders to prevent further escalation. Our responsibility is not over once the final flight has departed. We must not give up on the people of Sudan.

Sir Paul and the NPG

It is 50 days until the National Portrait Gallery reopens its doors for the first time in nearly three years, following its multi-million-pound redevelopment.

To celebrate, Sir Paul McCartney is headlining a new festival, linked to an exhibition of some of his never-before-seen photographs taken in 1963-64, as Beatlemania was starting to conquer the world. The festival begins on June 22 as the gallery reopens  just in time for summer.
B ack in 2014, Marvel launched an action movie with a difference. It had superheroes  kind of. It had a banging soundtrack  David Bowie, Blue Swede and the Jackson 5 included  and it was set in outer space.

Now, almost a decade later, fans are finally getting ready to say goodbye to the Guardians of the Galaxy, ahead of the third and final films premiere. Its been a wild ride, but even from the start, director James Gunn knew he was onto something special.

Im not gonna lie, Gunn says, speaking at a recent press conference. I had hopes. I felt really good about it from the beginning. I felt like we were doing something different. I felt like the world needed a space fantasy that was different from ones we had seen before.

One of those key differences: the film rarely, if ever, featured the Avengers, the bread-and-butter superheroes that Marvel built their empire on.

Guardians really was the first movie that was completely outside of the realm. It tied in with Thanos and Infinity Stones, Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios president, says.

"But The Avengers were not in it. And we werent setting up Tony Starks next adventure, or Captain America. And it was really our attempt of saying, we dont wanna just do superhero movies we wanted to do a big space movie.

Big space movie... a still from the upcoming film / Courtesy of Marvel Studios

Returning for one last time as the Guardians are all of the usual suspects: Dave Bautistas Drax; Bradley Coopers Rocket the Raccoon; Karen Gillans Nebula and Groot, the sentient tree-person voiced by Vin Diesel.

Of course, theres also Chris Pratts Peter Quill, aka Starlord, who begins the film dealing with some rather heavy character growth  and as Pratt implies, its about time too. He has been lost. In the beginning, he was running away from the death of his mother, but he got to pretend to be this character based on these pop culture icons of his childhood of the late Eighties, he says.

Hes a guy whos constantly been searching for who he is. And then he found it again in his relationship with Gamora. And so, when thats stripped away from him, hes a guy whos realising that all of these various people that hes found that are Quill, none of them have been the real him.

Change is very much the buzzword for this last adaptation  while Pom Klementieff describes her character Mantis as more used to being around other people. So shes less doing, like, weird stuff  Karen Gillans Nebula is also having to find her place in a world where Gamora is no longer her sister. Though Gamora (played by Zoe Saldana) does feature, this version of the character has been ripped from a different timeline and wants nothing to do with the Guardians.

Post-Thanos being eliminated from her life, [Nebula is] starting to flourish a little bit more and shes starting to have a lighter personality and shes a little more willing to show vulnerability, Gillan says.

However, no good superhero film is complete without a villain, and this time around, the Guardians will be facing a new baddie in the form of Chukwudi Iwujis The High Evolutionary  whom the actor describes as a villain with a god complex.

For Iwuji, finding his way into the character was all about the music. I knew classical music was gonna be a big part of this character, he says. [Hes] obsessed with it, listening to this music. He needs the music as he wanders through his castle at night. And I thought very deeply about Henry IV. He has a great speech about, Heavy is the head that wears the crown. How many thousands of my poorest subjects that at this moment, are asleep.

Chukwudi Iwuji as The High Evolutionary / Courtesy of Marvel Studios

And of course, Guardians wouldnt be Guardians without its iconic soundtrack, which features smash hits from the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. As Gunn says, including them in his films changed the lives of some of these artists who now have big hit songs. And so, I know that when Im choosing a song, its going to be something that a lot of people listen to.

When Im writing, I put the music in along with the script. I write it in some things on this, it was very difficult choosing the music for this movie because in the first two movies, they were basically all Seventies pop hits.

By now, however, Peter Quill has upgraded his Walkman to an iPod  as Gunn says, this presented its own difficulties. I could choose from anything. Its like at the end of Hurt Locker, with him looking at all the stuff on the shelves. And not knowing how to make this choice.

But with the end of the series of the horizon, Gunn is philosophical about the impact the films have had on his life.

My main memories are not going to the premieres, he says. Its being on set and having the little moments. Its doing bits with Chris in between sets. Its talking to Sean. Watching Chuk turn in an amazing performance. Goofing around with Pom, wondering what the hell shes talking about.

Given the Guardians focus on family, jokes and heartfelt performances, theres no better way to remember them by. And it might not be the end. Im gonna see all these people again, Gunn says. Theyre all friends of mine.

Fingers crossed.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 is out in cinemas now
S heridan Smith and Celine Buckens will star in a new TV adaptation of The Castaways, it has been announced.

The UK original drama series is based on the bestselling novel of the same by Lucy Clarke and will be streamed on Paramount+.

The Castaways follows the story of sisters Lori (Smith) and Erin (Buckens) on the holiday of a lifetime in Fiji.

But after a falling out, Erin never boards the island-hopping flight to their tropical resort  and the plane, with Lori on board, never arrives at its destination.

Months later, despite no wreckage or survivors being found, Erin refuses to give up hope her sister has survived.

After Loris credit card is used in a corner shop in a remote village in Fiji, Erin immediately sets out from the UK to investigate the mystery of her sisters disappearance.

Jumping between the two sisters perspectives, viewers will follow Erins present day investigation and Loris struggle for survival following the crash onto a tropical, remote desert island.

Dark secrets revealed in both the past and present slowly reveal the truth about what happened to Lori and her fellow passengers.

Im so excited to be working with Celine Buckens and to be part of this amazing production bringing Lucy Clarkes bestselling novel to life.

Filming on The Castaways is due to begin on location in Fiji and Greece from next month.

Bafta-nominated Smith is known for her roles on both the big and small screen, including Gavin and Stacey, The C Word and The Railway Children, as well as multiple stage productions.

Im so excited to be working with Celine Buckens and to be part of this amazing production bringing Lucy Clarkes bestselling novel to life, she said.

And, as Im currently playing Shirley Valentine in Londons West End, its ironic that I finally get to go to Greece!

Buckens, best known for her role as Talitha Campbell in BBC mini-series Showtrial, said: Im really thrilled to bring Erin to life.

Shes a firecracker and the scripts bring layers and darkness to such an arresting premise. I hope audiences will be as hooked watching it as I was reading it.

Buckens has also been nominated for awards at both the Baftas and International Emmys.

Clarke praised the electric scriptwriting of the TV adaptation and said both Smith and Buckens were cast perfectly.

The Castaways is produced by Clapperboard Studios and Blackbox Multimedia and will be available exclusively on Paramount+.
N etflix s new hit series The Diplomat sees Kate Wyler, a new US ambassador to the UK, defuse international crises, build strategic alliances, and get used to her new life in the spotlight.

Meanwhile, her marriage to fellow career diplomat Hal Wyler begins to struggle under the mounting pressure.

The streaming giant has already confirmed that it will be renewing the show for a second season. The vice president of drama series at Netflix, Jinny Howe, revealed: Fans around the world are loving every minute of The Diplomats gripping and propulsive drama, and embracing Keri Russells powerful performance as Kate Wyler. After that jaw-dropping cliffhanger, we cant wait for them to see what the amazing visionary team of Debora Cahn, Janice Williams and Keri Russell have in store for Season 2."

The eight-part series gives viewers a taste of what a diplomats life must be like. However, the US Embassy in London has clarified on social media what the show got right and what it got wrong.

The embassys spokesperson Aaron Snipe started by revealing that Anne Armstrong was, in fact, the first female US ambassador to the UK, just like the series suggests. The current US ambassador to the UK, Jane Hartley is the second woman to ever serve as an American ambassador in London.

Secondly, Snipe explained that, while on the show the diplomats home is located in Wrotham Park, in real life the ambassador is based in Winfield House . He also jokingly clarified that the diplomats dont take rides from the Met police.

When Kate and Hal Wyler enter their new home on the show, the house manager explains the history of the ambassadors residence. It turns out, everything she says on the show is correct and Barbara Hutton actually did sell her home to the US government after the Second World War for just a dollar.

On the show, behind the ambassadors desk is a portrait of Winston Churchill. Snipe said that this was factually accurate, too.
B etween watching a snack splat on the pavement, Dominic Raabs faux apologies and the realisation that no, drinking natural wine will not make up for a lack of personality, disappointment comes in all shapes and sizes. Naturally, some instances feel more cruel than others and as a child, if you were lucky, one of your first experiences with such a feeling would have been the pure, devastating horror of hearing the word fruit, when you, a greedy, beady-eyed little tyrant ask: Whats for pudding?

Armed with a sweet tooth, at that age a lack of choice feels like the greatest injustice. As adults, however, many privileged enough to afford to eat what they like, when they like feel plagued by it. Menus are too long, there are too many restaurants, there is too much choice on Deliveroo. Someone get Kim Ks team to CGI me a tear. Tiny violins aside, theres something to be said about the sweet relief of surrender. Taking a breath, pressing pause on the buzz of everyday life and trusting someone else to do the thinking; even if that only manifests as devouring whats placed in front of you.

No friend, lover or family member to hand? With the art of omakase, youre free to relish being a recluse. The sophisticated Japanese way of saying, Youll get what youre given (direct translation: Ill leave it up to you), the intimate omakase experience is an appreciation of a sushi chef or masters expertise. Individually handcrafted before diners at speed, each piece must be eaten in one big bite immediately. Popularised in the 1990s, all across the capital there are sushi masters doing it well, from Endo Kazutoshi with Endo at the Rotunda to Nobumasa Sakaguchi at Kaia and Takuya Watanabe of Taku.

Sushi on Jones, where I perch alone on a glib Thursday evening, is an American import, the original of which is a tiny six-seater hut on (jazz hands, please) Great Jones Street, New York. Following rave reviews in The New York Times, three more have sprung up, and this small, sleek operation is tucked away in the vastly different Courtyard food hall, a disorientating New Orleans-style film set perched on the edge of Coal Drops Yard. With eight seats, this outpost has the very same USP, promising diners 20 bites in only 45 minutes, or 12 in even fewer. Enter: the answer to every one of your social woes. Someone you cant stand asking to grab dinner? Youre in and out faster than you can say, Id rather gouge my eyes out. Looking for a non-committal date spot? Kiss goodbye to them and an awkward dessert course. Fancy dining solo but fear confronting your life choices? Congratulations, denial is yours.

Despite the fact its a weeknight, Ive splashed out on 20 courses for 98 and while I wait, and wait, for someone, anyone, to arrive, behind the counter illuminated by a kitsch neon sign saying, Less talk, more eat, the sous chef grates a pile of fresh wasabi. As time ticks by, waiting for the four other bookings to take their seats, I begin to fear the worst: I may have to miss tonights Married at First Sight Australia. At 8.12pm, the chefs concede; apparently, its just me for dinner. And as we launch into proceedings, I long for their servings. Nigiri topped with Cornish halibut and lime, sea bass with yuzu and carefully blowtorched sea bream with ginger, served atop warm, well-formed rice, would have anyone resisting the one bite rule, hoping to savour each piece in two, three or even four mouthfuls. Though as we reach the more obscure fish, something seems amiss. Most of it lacks the one thing sushi demands: freshness. And Im pretty sure the nigiri topped with a slimy, spotted prawn and definitively passed-it madai (Japanese bream), alongside slices of grainy, lightly seared bonito, have served more time here than Liz Truss did in the hot seat.

By the time we finish with a clumsy hand roll, bulging with a generous heap of tired, uncooked tuna, its 8.57pm. And while the chefs are somewhat responsible, Im certain its the no-shows whove left a bitter taste in my mouth. After all, on the edge of a recession, when every bill counts, who can blame a business for stretching their ingredients? And as I watch the disheartened chefs repackage each piece of unused fruits de mer for tomorrows service, I curse you, you no-good no-shows, for you have ruined my supper.
The Met Galas theme hasnt been punk since 2013, but that didnt stop 2023s nostalgic hair styles from infiltrating the red carpet this Monday evening as the biggest names in fame and fashion desended upon the iconic Met steps.

Buzzcuts, mullets and shag cuts were abound, with red carpet darling Florence Pugh debuting her newly shaved head - rumoured to be a result of her role opposite Andrew Garfield in a new romcom, We Live in Time, as well as guests like Amber Valletta, Cara Delevingne and Marion Cotillard all sporting messed up short crops.

Kristen Stewart, too, displayed a notably adrogynous mullet, paired with her Gamine cropped jacket and oversized trousers. A world away from Bella Swans Twilight look for sure.

Florence Pugh debuts shaved head at her first Met Gala (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) / AP

Still, the mullet has been bubbling away since 2020, due to its lockdown-DIY-friendly nature. The shag - think a softcore version of the mullet, which usually requires a little more professional care and styling - was the natural progression for 2022. So why are these well established hair trends only now getting the red carpet treatment?

Getty Images

Bleach London hairstylist Kira Hellsten is thrilled that the Met looks had something more exciting to offer other than long bouncy curls as is typical for such an event. I think it pairs really well with the lack of colour this year, she says, there were a lot of black and white outfits, so that makes things more interesting.

[It seems] with time people have realised its more fun than they thought to branch out, like with the men, who typically turn up dressed like waiters, now theyre getting more inventive.

It doesnt hurt that these hairstyles have become increasingly common on TV and movie sets, forcing actors to adopt a punkier look than they might normally opt for: take Florence Pughs new buzzcut, or Timothee Chalamets pink tinged mullet in last years horror-romance Bones and All to actress Annabelle Dexter-Jones trendy new tousled crop in Successions last season, playing media heiress Naomi Pierce.

Taylor Russell and Timothee Chalamet in Bones and All (2022) / MGM

Perhaps most prominently, Stranger Things single handed revitalisation of the 80s mullet, though Hellsten says this has prompted more of a mullet evolution, rather than a ressurrection: A shaggy haircut is always going to be in, especially for low maintenance looks, and they can actually suit a lot of people, she explains. A mullet is more out there, but theyre way more versatile now - typically when we think of mullets we think of the 80s, really short at the front, long at the back, which is not what it is now. Theres way more variety.

Hellsten hopes the renewed versatility can allow for for more red carpet looks like those seen at the Met, but knows it may just be an avant garde treat. Im hoping well get more fun colours, but still in the realm of reality - like peachy tones, softer, warm tones. Yellow, too... [I] love a yellow. Im hoping people will continue to branch out.
T he family of a woman believed to have been stabbed to death by a stranger yards from her Brixton flat have described her as beautiful and kind hearted.

Johanita Dogbey, 31, was said to have been on the phone to her grandmother who heard a terrible scream when she was attacked from behind during the brutal daylight attack near Brixtons O2 Academy on Bank Holiday Monday.

Her heartbroken family have paid tribute to her. Through tears, her father Yao told MailOnline: We have no words at this moment. My daughter was beautiful and kind hearted. Im sorry, I cant say anything more.

Ms Dogbeys younger brother Maurice told the site: We are trying to understand what has happened and are completely broken. As far as we know there was no link between my sister and the attacker. We are waiting to meet with the police to get a full update.

This whole thing has left us devastated. Its too much for us.

Ms Dogbey was the founder of the Odette Foundation, a charity which worked with people suffering from sickle cell in Ghana and Togo.

Johanita Dogbey / Facebook

A colleague at the foundation told the Standard: She really was a good person.

Im working behind the scenes and on the social media of the charity. Im not sure how I will ever be able to continue without her.

Detectives believe that she was walking along when she was attacked from behind by a man she did not know.

Ms Dogbey was attacked near her flat in Brixton / Facebook

Police said on Tuesday a 33-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder. Detectives have been granted an extra 36 hours to question the man who is currently in police custody.

Several relatives were seen praying at the scene hours after the attack at around at around 4.04pm on Monday in Stockwell Park Walk, Lambeth, south London.

A resident said Ms Dogbey , believed to be of Ghanaian descent, had been on her way to the flat she shares with her mother, father, brother and sister for a birthday celebration.

The mother-of-two, 52, told the Standard: I was with her dad at the crime scene.

He said his daughter had gone to buy a present for her mother and was on her way home.

She was on the phone to her grandmother when she was attacked. The grandmother heard a terrible scream and then the phone dropped. The grandmother phoned the dad who then tried to call his daughters number but got no answer.

Officers applied for a warrant of further detention at Croydon Magistrates Court on Wednesday 2 May following the arrest of a 33-year-old man on suspicion of murder.

Detective Chief Superintendent Seb Adjei-Addoh, local policing commander for Lambeth, said: I am in regular contact with officers leading the investigation into this brutal attack and my thoughts continue to be with the womans family and friends as they come to terms with this awful news. We will do everything we can to support them at this unimaginably difficult time.

I recognise that the community will be experiencing worry and considerable concern and we have extra officers out in the community to answer questions and provide a visible presence.

My police neighbourhood policing teams have visited local community centres and businesses taking on board concerns and to ensure we are having the right conversations with local people at this time.

I would also ask people to share anything that they feel might help the investigating detectives.

Formal identification is yet to take place and a post-mortem examination has been arranged for Wednesday 3 May.
T wo twin brothers who exploited children to sell drugs in a county lines operation have been jailed.

Omar and Malik Aziz, 24, from Streatham, were jailed for three years and two months and nine years respectively on Tuesday at Kingston Crown Court.

The brothers were arrested by officers investigating county lines drugs who raided an address in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and found two missing London boys, aged 14 and 15.

A phone seized from Malik Aziz was found to be the number for a Hatfield drugs line. It had been directing children to supply drugs on their behalf and advertising crack cocaine and heroin for sale.

A gun belonging to Malik Aziz was found at their home / Met Police

Detectives raided the Azizs home and found a bag with a Sig Sauer pistol alongside eight rounds of ammunition.

It belonged to Malik, who was seen in mobile phone footage holding the gun whilst wearing the same distinctive gloves he was wearing when he was arrested.

The identical twins DNA was also found on the gun.

CCTV at their home showed the two missing children before going missing. Detectives believe they were supplied with drugs for onward sale.

More than 2,000 in cash was seized from the address and the driving licence of a third man - Samir Mustafa - was also seized, along with a zombie knife.

Jailed: Samir Mustafa / Met Police

Mustafa was identified as the person who drove the children to and from Hatfield in his Mercedes S Class car, whilst being disqualified.

Malik had earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply crack cocaine/heroin and possession of a firearm.

Omar had confessed to conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

Mustafa, 24, of Stone Street, Reading was also sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply crack cocaine/heroin and driving whilst disqualified.

All three were hit with ten-year Criminal Behaviour Orders, with conditions which bar them from being in the company of anyone under the age of sixteen without the express permission of their parents or legal guardian.

The two children were not prosecuted and were instead referred to Childrens Services from respective local authorities.

Met Detective Constable Dec James said county line drug dealers often exploit young and vulnerable people because these people may be too scared to tell the police.

I hope this sentence sends out a message that we will not tolerate the exploitation of children nor the supply of drugs, he said.

We will pursue those involved, irrespective of whether the victim assists the police or not.

The additional recovery of a loaded firearm associated with these perpetrators reflects the intractable association between drug supply and violence.
BEIRUT, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's General Security Directorate on Wednesday resumed its registration service for Syrian refugees willing to return to their homeland, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The directorate resumed the operation of a registration center in Arsal, a town in northern Bekaa Region, after suspending its operations on Oct. 6 of last year due to logistical reasons, NNA reported.

Around 50 Syrian families who wish to return to their villages in Western Qalamoun mountains and Al Qusayr registered their names on Wednesday, it added.

The directorate said it would continue to provide the service at the center three days a week.

Lebanese authorities have repeatedly called on the international community to assist Lebanon in returning Syrian refugees to their homeland as the country suffers from a dire financial crisis and can no longer host many displaced people on its territories.

According to statistics released by the Lebanese government, around two million Syrian refugees are living in Lebanon, a country with a population of more than 5.5 million. The UN Refugee Agency reported that Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees per capita and per square kilometer in the world. 
R ussian racing driver Nikita Mazepin has begun a High Court fight with British government ministers after being made subject to sanctions in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Mazepin, 24, who used to drive for the Haas Formula 1 Team, wants sanctions lifted and has taken legal action against Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

A judge considered preliminary issues at a High Court hearing in London on Wednesday.

Mr Justice Chamberlain heard that Mazepin and his father Dmitry Mazepin  a Russian businessman  had been made subject to sanctions in mid-March 2022.

In September 2022, Mazepin had requested revocation of his designation but ministers had decided to take no action.

A judge is due to oversee a further hearing in London in June.

Mr Justice Chamberlain was told that Mazepin was involved in a similar bid to get sanctions lifted in Canada.

Neither Mazepin nor his father were at the hearing.

Barrister Tom Leary, who represented Mr Cleverly, told the judge that Haas had terminated its relationship with Mazepin in early March 2022, following the outbreak of war.

He said Mazepin had not driven for a Formula 1 team since.

Mazepin and his father were subject to an asset freeze and travel ban, the judge was told.

Mr Leary indicated that one of the reasons Mazepin wanted sanctions lifted was so that he could travel to Britain to negotiate with race teams for the 2024 season.

Mr Justice Chamberlain suggested that a trial judge might have to stage part of the proceedings in private in order to consider any closed material presented by ministers.

(Mazepin) missed the 2022 season and, almost certainly, the 2023 season and, whilst those sanctions are in place, no Formula 1 team will take him on as a test, reserve or full driver

Barrister Rachel Scott, who represented Mazepin, told Mr Justice Chamberlain in a written case outline: The UK sanctions to which he has been made subject, alongside the imposition of restrictive measures at EU level, effectively ended his racing career.

He missed the 2022 season and, almost certainly, the 2023 season and, whilst those sanctions are in place, no Formula 1 team will take him on as a test, reserve or full driver.

She added: The claimant will, in effect, be unable to negotiate a place on a Formula 1 team for 2024 unless he is free to travel to and from the UK to attend negotiations at teams bases in the UK, bearing in mind that seven of the 10 teams are based in the UK.

Negotiations to join a Formula 1 team usually begin in May or June of the previous year. Thereafter he must be able to enter the UK, not just for the British Formula 1 race, but for briefings, ergonomics design work, training and attending the teams base.
A pensioner has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife after walking into a police station in east London.

The 79-year-old told officers around 9.30pm on Tuesday that he had assaulted his spouse at their home in Elm Park, Hornchurch, on Tuesday night.

Police and paramedics rushed to the property where they found the 77-year-old woman suffering head injuries.

She was later pronounced dead at the scene.

The couples family are desperately trying to understand what has happened, say police.

A crime scene remained in place at the property on Wednesday afternoon, and a homicide investigaion is underway. A post-mortem is due to take place.

Police are appealing for anyone with information about what happened to get in touch.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Rogers, said: Although a person is in custody, this is still an active investigation and we are gathering as much information as possible.

If you know anything that could assist detectives, please contact us at the incident room. We have a family desperately trying to understand what has happened - your information could give them the answers they need and deserve.

Detective Superintendent Richard Vandenbergh of East Area Basic Command Unit, added that extra police officers will be on patrol in the area.

I understand how upsetting this awful crime will be for the local community, he said. We are working with our partners and community groups to provide as much information as we can. I also want to reassure everyone that we are supporting our colleagues in Specialist Crime, as they carry out a detailed and thorough investigation.

Extra officers will also be patrolling and please do approach these officers and speak to them if you have any questions - they are there to listen to you and act on your concerns.

Any witnesses or anyone with any information is asked to call the incident room on 0208 345 3715 or contact via Twitter @MetCC. Please quote Operation Aimgrip.

To give information anonymously contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org.
A Russian banker smirked after he was alleged caught spying on a young woman as she used the toilets at a central London Tube station, a court heard.

Alexey Ostapchuk, 32, was caught peering over the top of the cubicle at Cannon Street as the alleged victim removed her clothes to use the facilities, it is said.

When collared by police, Ostapchuk is said to have apologised and told the officer: Im ready to pay a fine, Inner London crown court heard.

The woman told jurors she said Ostapchuk staring intently at her after the incident, adding: He was smirking as he went by, it was almost like he found it amusing.

She had travelled with friends into Cannon Street on December 10, 2021, and stopped to use the ladies toilet before they headed out for an evening of socialising.

She believed she was alone in the dimly-lit facilities within the station, as she went into a private cubicle and took off the playsuit she was wearing.

From the cubicle next to me, I noticed to the top there was some movement, she told jurors.

It startled me, I kind of jumped up, put my clothing on and left the cubicle.

I remember seeing something out of the corner of my eye, moving at the top of the stall.

Fighting back tears as she gave evidence, the woman said she wanted to get out of there and noticed a man looking over the top of the cubicle as she adjusted her clothing in the mirror.

I noticed this head coming above the toilet cubicle, he was staring at me in the mirror, she said. His head wasnt fully exposed. I knew he was standing on something because he was raised above.

All I could see was his eyes. He was staring and staring.

Prosecutor Richard Witcombe said Ostapchuk is accused of looking at the woman for his own sexual gratification, and faces a charge of voyeurism.

He said as the woman left the toilet and went back upstairs to the main station she looked back and saw the male who had been in the toilets looking at her.

She believed he was staring at her with angry and intimidating eyes as he left the station, the court heard, as she told her friends and Transport for London staff what had happened.

Alexey Ostapchuk came back into the station and went back to the toilets, said Mr Witcombe, telling the court male station staff went back to the ladies toilet to find him.

They went in there and said come on mate, you know you shouldnt be in here. You need to get out..

When confronted by British Transport Police officers, Ostapchuk is accused of saying: Im ready to pay a fine.

It is expected in this trial that he will say in his defence that he had mistakenly entered the ladies toilet, said the prosecutor.

He entered them while feeling unwell, during the time he was in there he vomited, and then he looked out as he went to leave without being seen.

It begs the questions why go out immediately after you have effectively been seen? Why go back into the toilets? Why - when police officers are called  acknowledge your guilty if you have done nothing wrong?

Ostapchuk, a Russian national who works in banking and lives in a 850,000 City apartment, denies voyeurism.

The trial continues.
T wo serving Met police officers have been arrested after a woman reported being raped.

The officers, who were both in Mets North West command and off duty at the time, have been suspended from duty following the arrests, Scotland Yard said.

The arrest come after a woman reported meeting two men at a nightclub in Kingston on Sunday April 30.

It is alleged they took her in a taxi against her will to a house in North London where she was raped.

She reported the incident and both unnamed PCs were arrested.

One was arrested on suspicion of kidnap, rape and common assault.

Following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) he was bailed to return on a date in June in relation to the rape.

The other charges were dropped.

A second PC was arrested on suspicion of kidnap and possession of class A drugs.

A third man  who is not a police officer  was arrested on suspicion of kidnap.

Both were released with no further action after consultation with the CPS.

The Met Police said: The Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed and a referral has been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
T wo Metropolitan Police officers have been arrested after a woman alleged she was kidnapped, assaulted and raped.

The off-duty pair and another man are accused of taking the woman by taxi to a flat following their meeting at a club in Kingston, south-west London.

She raised the alarm after the incident, said to have happened at a north London property early on Sunday, The Sun reported.

The PCs, based on the Mets North West command unit, were detained by colleagues.

One officer was held on suspicion of kidnap, rape and common assault.

Detectives bailed him until June over the sex assault claim but dropped the other two alleged offences.

The second PC was arrested on suspicion of kidnap and possessing Class A drugs, along with the third man for kidnap only.

They were kept in custody and released. Both have been suspended from duty pending further inquiries.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has vowed to clean up the forces reputation following recent scandals including Sarah Everards murder by PC Wayne Couzens, who worked in the same armed unit as serial rapist David Carrick.

It comes just weeks after Baroness Louise Caseys review found the Met institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic.

A police spokesman said: Two serving Met officers have been suspended from duty after being arrested.

The arrests relate to an incident that occurred on Sunday, 30 April and began in Kingston. The officers were off duty at the time.

A woman is being supported by specially trained officers.

The Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed and a referral has been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
H opes of an end to the junior doctors dispute were raised on Wednesday after it emerged that union leaders had held constructive talks with Health Secretary Steve Barclay.

Senior officials in the British Medical Association's (BMA) junior doctors committee held several hours of talks with Mr Barclay on Tuesday, shortly after the NHS Staff Council voted to accept the Government's pay offer.

Junior doctors have staged two rounds of industrial action in a bitter pay dispute, including a 96-hour strike last month. The union is seeking a 35 per cent pay rise to reverse what they calculate to be a 26 per cent cut in pay since 2008.

A BMA spokesperson said: There is significant work to do, and both parties will meet again in the coming days. We are seeking urgent progress.

Both sides had previously been at an impasse, with Mr Barclay branding the BMA's pay claim unreasonable and rebuffing calls to involve Acas, the independent conciliation service.

A Government spokesperson said: The Government and the BMA junior doctors committee held a constructive discussion this afternoon, in preparation for talks aimed at resolving the current junior doctors dispute.

Both parties will meet again in the coming days.

Separately, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) on Tuesday night confirmed it would reballot members for a further six months of strike action after rejecting the Government's pay offer - despite a majority of health unions voting in favour of the deal. Unite have also vowed to keep striking.

The offer consists of a one-off lump sum with an additional 5 per cent pay rise for the next financial year.

While the unions previous strike ballot was disaggregated by individual NHS Trust, the upcoming ballot will apply nationally. This means that nurses would walk out of every hospital in England during a potential strike.

The RCNs chief executive and general secretary Pat Cullen told BBC News: The Government knows only too well that nurses remain in dispute with this government, also junior doctors and a number of healthcare workers that are represented by Unite. So this dispute is far from over.

Mr Barclay vowed to implement the pay deal for all staff on the NHS staff council.

He said: Where some unions may choose to remain in dispute, we hope their members  many of whom voted to accept this offer  will recognise this as a fair outcome that carries the support of their colleagues and decide it is time to bring industrial action to an end.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, urged ministers to release the money for NHS staff as soon as possible and to ensure that local NHS leaders do not have to cover the increased cost from their existing budgets.

Failure to do this would have an extremely negative impact on patient care at a time when there are still millions of people on waiting lists.

The government promised previously that there will be no impact on frontline services or to the quality of care as a result of the offer, which must be reflected in the additional funding that now emerges.
U npaid carers in London contribute more than 19 billion to the capitals economy every year, according to a new study.

A report by Carers UK and the University of Sheffield found that the economic contribution made by unpaid carers has increased by 29 per cent in the last decade.

Unpaid carers are defined as people who look after relatives or friends who have a disability, illness, mental health condition or who need extra help as they grow older.

Sutton was found to be the London borough with the highest increase, with an estimated 493 million worth of care provided  up 38 per cent compared with 2011.

Enfield, Kingston upon Thames, and Tower Hamlets saw increased value of care provided by 37 per cent, to 816 million, 336 million and 638 million respectively.

And the value of unpaid carer in Redbridge and Bexley increased by a fifth to 687 million and 626 million respectively.

The researchers used the latest figures from the 2021 census and calculated the number of people providing unpaid care against the cost for replacement care, taken as 25 per hour in 2021 and 18 per hour in 2011.

Carers UK have warned that a lack of social care funding has meant that the care system is increasingly reliant on unpaid carers, who are often forced to put their physical and mental health needs to one side.

Professor Matt Bennett, Deputy Director of the Centre for Care at the University of Sheffield, said: The economic contribution made by unpaid carers in London has increased by 29 per cent in the last decade and paints a stark picture of the savings they make to health care budgets. Without unpaid carers, our health and social care systems would collapse.

In fact, our work shows that people are providing more hours of unpaid care than ever before. We hope policy makers see the urgent need to act to support unpaid carers.

Helen Walker, Chief Executive of Carers UK, said: It is deeply concerning that the increase in the value of unpaid care over the last decade is a result of fewer carers providing more hours of care.

The ever-declining availability of social care means there is shrinking support for families to pull on - they are left without a choice but to put other areas of their life on hold and provide more care.

Having to care round the clock for a loved one has significant implications for peoples ability to stay in paid work, remain financially resilient and maintain their health. Lacking adequate support, unpaid carers feel they are being taken for granted.
T he world is on the cusp of a first generation of treatments for Alzheimers disease, experts have said, as a new drug was found to slow cognitive and functional decline.

The drug donanemab, made by Eli Lilly and Company, slowed decline by 35% to 36% in a late-stage phase 3 clinical trial, the company said.

Donanemab appeared to slow the decline associated with Alzheimers compared with placebo in 1,182 people with early-stage disease based on those with intermediate levels of a protein known as tau.

The drug also resulted in 40% less decline in the ability to perform activities of daily living, according to the firm.

Almost half (47%) of those on donanemab had no clinical progression of disease at one year compared with 29% on placebo (defined as no decline in the commonly-used Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Sum of Boxes score).

Furthermore, participants on donanemab experienced a 39% lower risk of progressing to the next stage of disease compared to placebo, according to Eli Lilly.

After 20 years with no new Alzheimer's drugs, we now have two potential new drugs in just 12 months

In those patients receiving donanemab, brain swelling, a known side effect of drugs of this type, occurred in 24% of the participants, with 6.1% experiencing symptoms.

Brain bleeding occurred in 31.4% of the donanemab group and 13.6% of the placebo group.

Lilly said the incidence of serious brain swelling in the donanemab study was 1.6%, including two participants whose deaths were attributed to the condition and a third who died after an incident of serious brain swelling.

It said most cases of swelling or bleeds were mild to moderate and responded to treatment.

Daniel Skovronsky, Eli Lillys chief scientific and medical officer, said: This is the first phase 3 trial of any investigational medicine for Alzheimers disease to deliver 35% slowing of clinical and functional decline.

Dr Richard Oakley, associate director of research at the Alzheimers Society in the UK, said: After 20 years with no new Alzheimers drugs, we now have two potential new drugs in just 12 months  and for the first time, drugs that seem to slow the progression of disease. This could be the beginning of the end of Alzheimers disease.

Based on todays early results, donanemab appears to slow the progression of Alzheimers symptoms by 36% (as compared with 27% of last years breakthrough drug lecanemab).

Promisingly, the trial also demonstrated a 40% slowing in decline of everyday activities such as driving, doing hobbies and managing finances.

While weve seen lecanemab could slow progression by over seven months, well need to see the full results to know if donanemab could do the same or even better.

Dr Susan Kolhaas, executive director of research and partnerships at Alzheimers Research UK, said: This is incredibly encouraging, and another hugely significant moment for dementia research.

This is hugely exciting news as it provides further evidence that it is possible to slow down Alzheimers disease

A second drug for Alzheimers has been shown to slow peoples cognitive decline in a rigorous phase 3 trial. Were now on the cusp of a first generation of treatments for Alzheimers disease, something that many thought impossible only a decade ago.

The treatment effect is modest, as is the case for many first-generation drugs, and there are risks of serious side effects that need to be fully scrutinised before donanemab can be marketed and used.

However, this news underlines the urgency of preparing the NHS to make these treatments available should regulators deem them safe and effective.

People should be really encouraged by this news, which is yet more proof that research can take us ever closer towards a cure.

Dr Charles Marshall, honorary consultant neurologist at Queen Mary University of London, said: This is hugely exciting news as it provides further evidence that it is possible to slow down Alzheimers disease.

When the full results are published as a paper we will be able to start carefully balancing the risks and benefits, and this will inform decisions about whether donanemab should be routinely given to patients with Alzheimers disease.

For this to be possible, we will also need substantial new investment in dementia clinics that can deliver accurate diagnosis, treatments that are given as infusions, and appropriate safety monitoring.

Without this, there is a very real risk that existing health inequalities are exacerbated as only a few patients living near large teaching hospitals will be able to benefit.

John Hardy, professor of neuroscience and group leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute, University College London, said: It is great news to have a success with a second anti-amyloid Alzheimer drug.

This should dispel any lingering doubts about this approach. Having two drugs is great for competition.

Dr Tom Russ, director of the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre, said: The results of the donanemab trial are very welcome and will bring many people with dementia and their families some much-needed hope.

The top line results do not give much detail and the publication of the full results in the summer will be very helpful.

While this is another encouraging development, the UK NHS is not ready to implement an infusion-based therapy such as donanemab or lecanemab, should they become licensed treatments in the UK.

There needs to be significant support for struggling dementia assessment services which are still emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic to continue to diagnose, treat, and support people currently presenting while developing new ways to implement the disease-modifying treatments of the (near) future.

The study also enrolled a smaller number of people (552) with high levels of tau, representing later stages of the disease.

When this group was combined with the intermediate tau group, donanemab also demonstrated meaningful positive results, Eli Lilly said, with a 29% slowing of decline on the commonly used Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Sum of Boxes.
F acial recognition technology will be used by police as part of its security operation for King Charles Coronation.

Ahead of events on Saturday a ring of steel was being put in place around Westminster Abbey on Wednesday, with roads closed off, to counter any threat from protesters or terror groups.

Scotland Yard said it intended to use facial recognition technology across central London.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: The watch list will be focused on those whose attendance on Coronation Day would raise public protection concerns, including those wanted for offences or have an outstanding warrant for arrest issued by the courts, or those under relevant offender management programmes in order to keep the public safe.

It comes after a security alert on Tuesday evening when a man was arrested outside Buckingham Palace after shotgun cartridges were allegedly thrown into the grounds.

Deputy assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan, the officer in charge of the operation, added: We want Londoners and visitors coming to the city to enjoy this historic and momentous occasion safely and securely. On Coronation Day we will have the largest one-day mobilisation of officers seen in decades with just over 11,500 officers on duty.

The weekend promises to be a spectacular celebration and the Met police is honoured to be policing such an internationally-important event right across the capital.

Britains largest force, welcomed a research report published on Wednesday that found there were minimal discrepancies for race and sex when the facial recognition technology is used at certain settings.

It was also found to correctly identify between identical twins.

Getty Images

Human rights groups Liberty, Big Brother Watch and Amnesty have said the technology is oppressive and has no place in a democracy.

Katy Watts, lawyer at Liberty, said: We should all be able to live our lives without the threat of being watched, tracked and monitored by the police.

Facial recognition technology is a discriminatory and oppressive surveillance tool that completely undermines this basic right.

This report tells us nothing new  we know that this technology violates our rights and threatens our liberties, and we are deeply concerned to see the Met Police ramp up its use of live facial recognition.

The expansion of mass surveillance tools has no place on the streets of a rights-respecting democracy.

Future Publishing via Getty Image

There will be more than 29,000 police officer deployments over the coming week in the lead up to Coronation Day and over the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend.

Facial recognition in action / PA

The Met said 11,500 officers would be on duty on the day of the Coronation and that the police wanted to ensure that the public enjoyed a spectacular celebration.

It said the force had been preparing for months to keep people safe from any threats, but urged the public to report suspicious activity.

It added that deployments would include officers lining the processional route, managing crowds and road closures, protecting high-profile individuals, and carrying out searches with specialist teams and that officers from our dog unit, firearms unit, marine support, and special constabulary would also be ready to respond to any incident or crime.
V ape pens with a tank size over eight times the legal limit are among 1,000 illegal devices seized from a shop in Notting Hill.

Kensington and Chelsea council, which carried out the raid, is warning of a growing risk of illegal vapes being purchased by unaware teenagers.

Some vape pens had a tank size of 16ml - which would last around 7,000 puffs - well above Britains legal 2ml tank size, which would last around 600 to 800 vapes.

During the raid by trading standards officers, 27 unsafe travel adaptors, nine pouches of oral tobacco and 62 packets of shisha tobacco were also discovered.

The seized vape pens had varying tank sizes from 5ml to 16ml - between 3,000 and 7,000 puffs, the council said on Wednesday.

Kensington & Chelsea council

An unnamed business selling the products will be under investigation and appropriate formal action will be taken to ensure unsafe products are not sold by this trader in future, the council said.

Councillor Josh Rendall said: Illegal vapes are becoming prominent in shops around London with unscrupulous businesses selling non-compliant and oversized fake vapes.

It is becoming a growing trend amongst young people who are unaware that they are buying fakes and the risks it carries with it.

This is a fantastic result for our trading standards team who have been working hard to remove these illegal and dangerous products from our streets and continue to educate retailers about the risks they pose.

We encourage residents to report any concerns about any suspected illegal products to our trading standards team.

Since 2022, more than 4,000 illegal vapes have been seized in Kensington and Chelsea worth 30,000.

The council will be carrying out a series of test purchases in the borough over the coming months to crack down on retailers selling to anyone under the legal age of 18.

In Britain it is illegal to sell cigarettes or vapes with nicotine to anyone aged under 18 and businesses can be prosecuted if they are caught.

In a joint effort London councils have vowed to crack down on shops selling colourful vapes to children by using undercover operations.

Westminster council seized a shocking 6,575 disposable vapes that contained excessive levels of nicotine and 481 nicotine pouches with no safety labelling from an Oxford St store in January.

In November more than 500 of illegal vapes were confiscated from two shops by Barking and Dagenham Council officers.

This week Australia announced that recreational vaping will be banned in a move to curb an alarming rise in the use of e-cigarettes by teenagers.

Vapes are considered illegal in Britain if manufacturers have not notified the medicines and healthcare products regulator, the MHRA, of the products before supplying them on the market.

The notifier is responsible for ensuring the information they submit to us about their product is correct. We then review this information and the declarations of conformity to check the product notification complies with the TRPR.

Retailers could also be caught if they sell vapes from brands that have not been approved, despite containing the legal tank size, nicotine level and recommended puffs.

The highest nicotine strength for vapes is two per cent. All vape products containing nicotine need to carry the correct health warning covering 30 per cent of the front and back of the packet.
TEHRAN, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy seized a foreign oil tanker for what it called a violation in the Strait of Hormuz, without detailing, official news agency IRNA reported Wednesday.

Later in the day, Tehran's Prosecutor Ali Salehi said the tanker has been seized after receiving a complaint from a plaintiff and at the order of a judicial authority, without elaborating further, according to Mizan news agency of the Iranian judiciary.

The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet claimed in a statement on Wednesday that a tanker, flying the Panamanian flag and named Niovi, was seized by Iran.

It added the ship was sailing through the strait from Dubai to the UAE port of Fujairah when it was seized.

The Iranian Army said Thursday it seized a Marshall Islands-flagged ship in the Sea of Oman which, on the previous night, left an Iranian vessel it crashed into in the Iranian waters without fulfilling the obligation to assist the ship in distress.

Two crew members of the Iranian vessel went missing and a number of them sustained injuries following the collision, the Iranian army noted in a statement published on its website on Thursday.

The army said international maritime law mandates providing assistance to the damaged vessel and the injured crew members. 
T he idiocy of Brexit is partially to blame for one of the UK's largest tech firms choosing to list on the New York Stock Exchange over London, it was warned on Tuesday.

Hermann Hauser, who pioneered ARMs technology whilst at Acorn computers, said the City's reputation had "suffered a lot" since Britain left the European Union.

Cambridge-based software company ARM is hoping to raise $10billion with its initial public offering (IPO), an amount he believes would not be possible in Britain.

The firm on Saturday filed with regulators confidentially for a US market listing, setting the stage for this year's largest stock offering.

When asked why the company was being listed in New York over London, Mr Hauser told BBC Radio 4: "The fact is that New York is a much deeper market than London, partially because of the the Brexit idiocy the image of the London Stock Exchange has suffered a lot in the international community."

ARM is one of the UKs few world-class tech companies and its technology is at the heart of most smartphones.

It was bought by investment holding company Softbank for $31 billion in 2016.

The decision to list the firm on the New York Stock Exchange, first announced in March, came after London was dealt a Brexit blow last year when research showed the City had lost its title of Europes largest equity market to France.

Paris became Europes largest centre for trading equities for the first time in November last year and has since has widened the gap. The French capital has a total market capitalisation of $3.13 trillion, exceeding Londons by $250 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Trade from the EU to the UK down has fallen sharply since Brexit, while the loss of hundreds of thousands of European workers has led to labour shortages in some industries.

Combined with the aftermath of the Covid pandemic and the fallout from Russias invasion of Ukraine, the impact of exiting the EU has added to the drag on Britains economy.

Mr Hauser added that there was still a "a lot of support" for ARM in London and the company could eventually be listed in the City.

He said: "ARM of course is a UK company, arguably one of the more globally successful technology companies, and there is a lot of support in the London City for ARM so it would make a lot of sense for ARM to have a secondary listing in the London stock exchange eventually."
R oyal fanatics have been treated to a first glimpse of the Coronation as rehearsals take place down the Mall.

Soldiers dressed in bright yellow and red military uniforms paraded past Buckingham Palace towards Westminster Abbey just after 12.20am on Wednesday.

Crowds ran through St James Park to find the best spots along the Mall with many trying to spot their relatives in their military outfits.

A brass band in yellow uniforms on horseback started the parade after a recording of the national anthem.

Onlookers skipped along next to a band and ran after the regiments of mounted soldiers that followed.

At least 15 tents are already positioned along the Mall and royal fans got to test out what view they will have of the King when a carriage was pulled along the Mall by white horses.

John Loughrey, 68, claimed to be the first person to set up his tent on the Mall on April 27, nine days before the Coronation.

He told the PA news agency: We like the build up, the rehearsals and seeing people throughout the day.

There are a lot of tourists and they come and say they wish they had something like this in their country.

Mr Loughrey explained he had been camping outside royal events for 26 years and spent a month camping out after Princess Charlotte was born.

He added: We did a lot of research. We (picked this spot) because there are no trees so you can see the Red Arrows.

While the carriage and regiments of horses made their way past Downing Street, soldiers and military bands practiced protocols on the Mall.

Soldiers also lined the streets of Whitehall with many holding standards marching in Parliament Square and practised chanting position as Big Ben chimed.

Drumming could be heard across Westminster as different parts of the parade sprung into action.

The rehearsal took place hours after a man was arrested outside Buckingham Palace after throwing suspected shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds.

The Metropolitan Police said he was detained at around 7pm on Tuesday after he approached the palaces gates in central London and threw a number of items.

He was held on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon after he was searched and a knife was found, but he was not carrying a gun.

Cordons were put in place and Scotland Yard said a controlled explosion was carried out as a precaution as the man had a suspicious bag.
A massive security operation was being ramped up today as final rehearsals were taking place for the Coronation of King Charles.

A ring of steel was being put in place around Westminster Abbey, with roads closed off, to counter any threat from protesters or terror groups.

Thousands of police will be deployed to protect the procession and ceremony on Saturday, which will be attended by heads of state and government leaders. As London was set to showcase Britain on the global stage:

The first glimpses of the Coronation were revealed as rehearsals took place in central London in the early hours of today.

Hundreds of soldiers, many on horseback, went from Buckingham Palace, past Trafalgar Square and Downing Street, to the abbey.

The Diamond Jubilee State Coach and Gold State Coach were taken down The Mall.

Coronation rehearsal for HM King Charles III | Wednesday 3rd May 2023 1 / 32 Coronation rehearsal for HM King Charles III | Wednesday 3rd May 2023 PA Wire PA PA AP PA PA PA AP AP PA PA PA PA PA PA REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS AP AP REUTERS

Security minister Tom Tugendhat said the security operation was one of the most important. It followed a security alert last night when a man was arrested outside Buckingham Palace after shotgun cartridges were allegedly thrown into the grounds.

MI5 and the intelligence services, MI6 and the GCHQ spy listening centre, are involved in identifying any threats, including possibly from overseas.

Ministers stated that controversial new public order laws would target guerrilla tactics of climate activists blocking roads in the capital.

The Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, told of the privilege of a lifetime to be one of the first female church leaders to take part in a coronation.

Across the country, community and other groups were planning hundreds of street parties to join in the coronation festivities.

King Charles III leaving Westminster Abbey following a rehearsal for his coronation / PA

The Met Police operation, known as Golden Orb, will be one of the most significant and largest security operations the Met has led.

There will be more than 29,000 police officer deployments over the coming week in the lead up to Coronation Day and over the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend.The Met said 11,500 officers would be on duty on the day of the Coronation and that the police wanted to ensure that the public enjoyed a spectacular celebration.

It said the force had been preparing for months to keep people safe from any threats, but urged the public to report suspicious activity.

It added that deployments would include officers lining the processional route, managing crowds and road closures, protecting high-profile individuals, and carrying out searches with specialist teams and that officers from our dog unit, firearms unit, marine support, and special constabulary would also be ready to respond to any incident or crime.

Police outside Buckingham Palace / Getty Images

It said it intended to use facial recognition technology in central London. A spokesman said The watch list will be focused on those whose attendance on Coronation Day would raise public protection concerns, including those wanted for offences or have an outstanding warrant for arrest issued by the courts, or those under relevant offender management programmes in order to keep the public safe.

Deputy assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan, the officer in charge of the operation, added: We want Londoners and visitors coming to the city to enjoy this historic and momentous occasion safely and securely. On Coronation Day we will have the largest one-day mobilisation of officers seen in decades with just over 11,500 officers on duty.

The weekend promises to be a spectacular celebration and the Met police is honoured to be policing such an internationally-important event right across the capital. Shortly after midnight, the Diamond Jubilee State Coach was accompanied by hundreds of soldiers as it travelled along The Mall, in a rehearsal of the procession.

A police sniffer dog at the scene outside Buckingham Palace / Getty Images

Royal fans waited for over three hours for the parade to make a return journey down The Mall. Hundreds from the Army, Navy and RAF marched through central London before stopping along Whitehall and standing in silence.

Drums were only played by marching soldiers when they returned down The Mall after 3am. The rehearsal had particular poignancy given that just months ago, the funeral procession of Queen Elizabeth had taken a very similar route. The parade began when a brass band on horseback practised as they accompanied the coach as it passed through Westminster. Soldiers from a wide variety of regiments marched down The Mall after 1am.

Other soldiers were spotted parading in Parliament Square and practised changing position as Big Ben chimed.

Artillery regiments rehearsed moving cannons on horseback and soldiers were seen pretending to fire them.

The procession returned to Buckingham Palace shortly after 3am with the bands in full swing.

The Gold State Coach was spotted passing Buckingham Palace shortly after 3.20am.

Prince Louis and the Prince of Wales leaving Westminster Abbey / PA Wire

Mr Tugendhat stressed that police were all over the huge security operation. He told Times Radio: What we have been planning for a number of months now is one of the most important security operations that the country has put into plan.

This Coronation is not just an opportunity to celebrate our new King but also an opportunity to showcase the UK to the world. But he also suggested that groups or individuals may also have been plotting for months to try to disrupt the Coronation. At least 15 tents are already positioned along The Mall and royal fans got to test their viewpoint as they camped out.
A ustralian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had a warm meeting with the King and respected him as the countrys head of state, despite being a republican.

The politician, in the UK ahead of the coronation, spoke after joining Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to tour the BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, where nuclear submarines will be built as part of the Aukus agreement announced earlier this year by UK, Australian and US leaders.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Albanese was asked about meeting the King the previous day.

I support an Australian as Australia's head of state

He said: I support an Australian as Australias head of state.

That doesnt mean that I dont respect the institutions and it certainly doesnt mean I dont respect King Charles, both as a person but also as Australias head of state.

That is our constitutional arrangement that we have.

As the Australian Prime Minister I will respect the arrangements that we have across the board.

He said he could not go into details of the meeting because of protocol.

He added: I can say though that it was very warm, I appreciated the discussion that we had and that King Charles has a great love for and affection for Australia.

He said he told the King that he and the Queen Consort would be welcome visitors to Australia, as would any other member of the royal family.

He added: I certainly am looking forward to being at the coronation on Saturday and Im sure it will be successful.

Asked if he would swear an oath of allegiance to the monarch, he said: I do it every time that Im sworn into Parliament.

Mr Albanese and Mr Wallace spoke to staff and apprentices at the shipyard, where Australians will train to build the SSN-AUKUS submarines.

Mr Albanese said: The Aukus arrangements are about our national security and about our common interests between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, to uphold the international rule of law, to co-operate in both the development of nuclear-powered submarines for Australia, but also with other technological co-operation, with the engagement as a part of Aukus phase two, going forward.

But also, its about something more than our national security, its about jobs and economic prosperity.

Mr Wallace said: The SSN-AUKUS submarines will protect the Euro-Atlantic region for decades to come and with their interoperable submarine design, will ensure mutual compatibility with our Australian and US allies alongside supporting jobs across the UK and demonstrating the experience and skill which embodies British industry.
M inisters are pursuing a vendetta against partygate investigator Sue Gray, Labour has claimed, as the row intensified over her appointment as Sir Keir Starmers next chief of staff.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves accused the Prime Minister of political gimmicks after a Cabinet Office probe into the high-ranking Whitehall officials departure was launched.

The Government investigation into Ms Grays switch to a senior role in the Labour leaders office has been paused because she refused to co-operate, prompting fury from some Tory MPs.

Ms Reeves insisted the Labour party and Ms Gray were co-operating with the normal process for scrutinising new jobs for ex-civil servants run by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba).

The issue here is that there are two inquiries going on, Ms Reeves told Times Radio. There is the usual one, the Acoba process, which Sue Gray is co-operating with fully, and then there is the political gimmick one set up by Government ministers to pursue this vendetta they have got against Sue Gray.

But Security Minister Tom Tugendhat argued that Ms Grays appointment, including when she began conversations with the Labour party, raises questions and should be fully investigated.

The person Im most surprised at, frankly, is Keir Starmer, he told LBC.

Hes painted himself as a white knight in all this and hes not co-operating with the civil service or, rather, hes not asking the person he nominated to co-operate with the civil service body thats investigating it. Thats a decision for him, obviously, but it does raise questions.

In a written statement to the House of Commons yesterday, Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden said the Government would consider next steps after Ms Gray chose not to speak to the investigation.

It was launched following concerns that she had engaged with the opposition while looking into allegations of parties being held in Downing Street during lockdowns.

The Government has submitted a confidential assessment to Acoba, which will consider evidence from a range of sources to make a recommendation on any appropriate restrictions on the appointment, Mr Dowden said.

The watchdog can set recommendations for when senior people leave government.

The failure of the Whitehall inquirys outcome to materialise came after reported intense negotiations between Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and Government ministers.

Mr Case is said to have blocked the plans amid concerns over publishing a politically-charged report days before the local elections when the Government is meant to observe purdah rules on political impartiality.

It came as Ms Reeves was also forced to defend Sir Keirs U-turn on his commitment to abolish tuition fees.

She blamed the Governments handling of the economy for the policy shift.

The Tories have crashed the economy... and that does mean that we need to look again at what we can afford, Ms Reeves said.

Rishi Sunak thinks it is obviously disappointing that Ms Gray chose not to co-operate with the investigation, No 10 said.

The Prime Ministers press secretary denied Labours claim that he is pursuing a vendetta.
A London Conservative MP has announced he will not fight the next general election, saying his time in office "has required great sacrifices in my personal and professional lives".

Matthew Offord has been the MP for Hendon since 2010 and is the first London Tory to confirm they will step down before Britain heads to the polls again next year.

He said resigning would mean he was "able to pursue other interests in my life".

It has been an honour to represent the people of Hendon since 2010 and to work with the many groups and communities that make up the vibrant and diverse nature of the constituency, he said.

My elected status has required great sacrifices in my personal and professional lives, and I have concluded that the next general election is the time for me to leave the baton for someone else to take up."

Mr Offord is the 34th Tory MP to confirm they will not fight the next election, expected next Autumn.

London expected to see a raft of new MPs at the next election.

The capital is due to gain two new constituencies in boundary changes, one in Stratford and another south of the river. Veteran Labour MPs Harriet Harman, Dame Margaret Hodge and Jon Cruddas are also due to retire.

Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Neil Coyle remain suspended by the party and it is unclear whether any of the them will regain the whip before the election.
A new law that could give the Government the power to overturn the Ultra Low Emission Zone expansion to Greater London is to be raised in Parliament.

Plans that would allow Transport Secretary Mark Harper to veto decisions by the London Mayor Sadiq Khan will be proposed by Theresa Villiers on Wednesday.

The Tory MP wants to amend the Greater London Authority Act so the Government can review City Hall plans relating to transport and clean air zones, including the Ulez.

Introducing her Ten-Minute rule Bill, the former Environment Secretary is expected to say: In my 18 years as MP, almost nothing has provoked such strong opposition as the Mayor of Londons plan to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone.

It comes up on almost every doorstep and at almost every meeting. People stop me in the street to tell me how strongly they feel about this.

That is why I am bringing forward a Bill to give the Government power to overrule Mayor Khan and stop ULEZ expansion.

Of course, we need to continue to improve air quality in London but this is the wrong scheme at the wrong time.

Almost 700,000 more drivers in London will have to pay the 12.50 Ulez levy if they use their car when the scheme expands on August 29, according to RAC analysis of figures from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

New research by the Tory party suggests that more than 1.2 million cars in the capitals commuter belt will also be hit by the expansion.

DVLA data shows that Reading, Guildford, and Tunbridge Wells are among the worst affected areas, with a total of more than 135,000, 131,000, and 124,000 non-complaint vehicles respectively.

Chairman of the Conservative Party, Greg Hands MP, said: Londoners and commuters shouldnt have to foot the bill for another one of Mayor Khans half baked ideas.

Cleaning up air quality in the city is important - but hardworking people, businesses and local services shouldnt be penalised in the process.

TfL believes that fewer than 200,000 additional motorists a day - including van drivers and motorcyclists - will be liable to pay the Ulez levy for the first time from August.

Its numbers are based on camera analysis of the vehicles currently driving in the outer doughnut expansion area.

Five Conservative-run councils cleared the first hurdle of their legal fight against the widening of Ulez last month.

A High Court judge ruled that an application from Bexley, Bromley, Harrow, Hillingdon and Surrey Councils for a judicial review into the scheme should proceed to a full hearing in July.

City Hall in January launched a 110 million scrappage scheme for those wanting to upgrade their cars, drawing money from City Halls reserves.

Mr Khan has argued that air in every London borough breaches World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on the toxic pollutant nitrogen dioxide.

Analysis has found the single highest concentration of nitrogen dioxide was found on Harlesden High Street, in Brent, where 116.5 g/m3 was measured on average.

The Mayors spokesman said: The decision to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone London-wide was not an easy one, but necessary to tackle toxic air pollution and the climate crisis.

It is disappointing that some backbench MPs are wasting parliamentary time playing politics. Both No.10 and the Transport Secretary have been clear this is a matter for the elected Mayor.

With around 4,000 Londoners dying prematurely each year due to air pollution, there is no time for inaction and its people in outer London, particularly the poorest households, who suffer the most from the damaging health effects.

Nine out of ten cars in outer London are already ULEZ compliant. For those with the most polluting vehicles the Mayor has launched his 110m vehicle scrappage scheme - the largest scheme ever launched by any city in the UK - to help low-income Londoners, disabled Londoners and micro businesses, sole traders and charities to replace their polluting vehicles.

The Mayor is calling on the Government to match his funding for a targeted national scrappage scheme or providing money to London and the surrounding areas to support the switch to cleaner vehicles.
H endon MP Matthew Offord is the latest Conservative to announce he will not seek re-election, joining a growing list of Tories wanting out of Westminster.

Mr Offord said the role had required great sacrifices in my personal and professional lives, and will not stand again for the seat he has filled since 2010 - when Britain next goes to the polls.

He joins top Tories such as Sajid Javid and former health secretary Matt Hancock, now an independent, in deciding not to run in the next election, which is set to be next May. Labour MPs stepping down include former frontbenchers such as Harriet Harman and Margaret Hodge.

Here is the complete list of MPs likely to be or confirmed to be standing aside.

Matt Hancock, Independent MP for West Suffolk

Matt Hancock / Victoria Jones/PA

Former health secretary Matt Hancock announced he would be stepping down following his appearance on Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, which lost him the Conservative whip.

Sajid Javid, Conservative MP for Bromsgrove

Sajid Javid / Stefan Rousseau / PA

Sajid Javid, who has served as home secretary and chancellor, said he would quit as an MP, but the decision would not mark the end of my Parliamentary activity.

Adam Afriyie, Conservative MP for Windsor

Adam Afriyie / Adam Afriyie / UK Government

Adam Afriyie has been an MP since 2005. He announced that he would step down in July, adding: It is a double and unexpected honour to have been elected the first black Conservative MP in the history of our party.

Dr Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton

Alan Whitehead / UK Government

The 71-year-old MP announced in January that he would be stepping down because he could not give a further five-year commitment to the role of MP.

Alex Cunningham, Labour MP for Stockton North

Alex Cunningham / UK Government

Alex Cunningham has been an MP since 2010 but announced last year that he would not run again.

Barry Sheerman, Labour (Co-op) MP for Huddersfield

Barry Sheerman / Barry Sheerman

Barry Sheerman announced last year that he would be leaving, after representing his constituency since 1979.

Ben Bradshaw, Labour MP for Exeter

Ben Bradshaw / Laura Lean / PA

Ben Bradshaw, who has served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport, announced earlier this year that he would not be running again.

Sir Charles Walker, Conservative MP for Broxbourne

Sir Charles Walker / House of Commons / PA

Sir Charles Walker has been an MP since 2005 but will not run in the next general election. He also said he thought quite a lot of Conservative MPs would quit ahead of the next election.

Chloe Smith, Conservative MP for Norwich North

Chloe Smith / Isabel Infantes / AFP via Getty Images

Chloe Smith has been an MP since 2009. She said in a statement: I hope Ive been able to make a difference, locally, and nationally. In 2024, after 15 years of service, it will be the right time to step back, for me and my young family.

Chris Skidmore, Conservative MP for Kingswood

Chris Skidmore / David Mirzoeff / PA

When announcing he would be stepping down, Chris Skidmore said: With no alternative seat, I have decided that I do not wish to fight another constituency elsewhere in the region or country, especially with a very young family who deserve to see more of their father in their lives.

Colleen Fletcher, Labour MP for Coventry North East

Colleen Fletcher / UK Government

Colleen Fletcher, who has been an MP since 2015, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it was time to move on and pursue some new challenges.

Crispin Blunt, Conservative MP for Reigate

Crispin Blunt / Nikki / UK Parliament / PA

Crispin Blunt will step down after serving as an MP for 25 years. He recently came under fire for supporting MP Imran Ahmad Khan, who was jailed for sexually assaulting a teenage boy.

Dehenna Davison, Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland

Dehenna Davison / Stefan Rousseau / PA

Dehenna Davison, 29, said: Ive dedicated the vast majority of my time to politics, and to help make peoples lives better. But, to be frank, it has meant I havent had anything like a normal life for a 20-something.

Gary Streeter, Conservative MP for South West Devon

Gary Streeter / Chris McAndrew / PA

Gary Streeter said in a statement: It has been an honour and privilege to serve the people of South West Devon and I will continue to do so until the next election.

Harriet Harman, Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham

Harriet Harman / Niall Carson / PA

Harriet Harman has been an MP since 1982 but will not run in the next election.

Hywel Williams, Plaid Cymru MP for Afron

Hywel Williams / UK Government

Hywel Williams will retire after serving as an MP since 2001. He said serving as an MP was a huge privilege and a special honour.

Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham

Jon Cruddas / Jane Mingay / PA

Jon Cruddas will step down after 21 years, and said that serving as an MP has been "the greatest honour of [his] life".

Dame Margaret Hodge, Labour MP for Barking

Margaret Hodge / Yui Mok / PA

Dame Margaret Hodge has served as an MP since 1994 and roles include Minister of State for Work.

Dame Margaret Beckett, Labour MP for Derby South

Dame Margaret Beckett / PA Media

Dame Margaret Beckett has been an MP since 1983 and has been deputy leader of the Labour Party, leader of the House of Commons, later Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, and Foreign Secretary.

Nigel Adams, Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty

Nigel Adams / Commons / PA

Nigel Adams has been an MP since 2010 but said in 2019 that he wanted to step down to pursue other interests.

Paul Blomfield, Labour MP for Sheffield Central

Paul Blomfield / UK Parliament / PA

Paul Blomfield, 69, has been an MP since 2010, a role which he described as an extraordinary privilege. He will step down in the next election.

Dame Rosie Winterton, Labour MP for Doncaster Central

Dame Rosie Winterton / Ian Nicholson / PA

Deputy speaker Dame Rosie Winterton will step down as an MP after serving since 1997.

Wayne David, Labour MP for Caerphilly

Wayne David / UK Government

Wayne David is stepping down due to his age, ahead of his 65th birthday. He said in a statement: While some may disagree, I think at that age, I would not be able to represent my constituents as effectively as I would like. It is time to make way for a younger person.

William Wragg, Conservative MP for Hazel Grove

William Wragg (Parliament TV/PA) / Parliament TV / PA

William Wragg, the vice-chairman of the influential 1922 Committee, is also stepping down. He said in a statement: I shall continue to represent constituents to the best of my ability in the meantime and thank everyone for their wonderful support over the years.

Matthew Offord, Conservative MP for Hendon

Matthew Offord takes a walk / Nigel Howard / ES

The London MP has announced he will not fight the next general election, saying his time in office "has required great sacrifices in my personal and professional lives".

He said resigning would mean he was "able to pursue other interests in my life".
L abour leader Keir Starmer has accused the Government of economic vandalism in a fiery PMQs showdown before Thursdays local elections.

Sir Keir said by the end of this year there would be nearly two million home owners paying the price because of the Tories had crashed the economy last Autumn.

The Prime Minister, in response, said while Labour had failed home owners, the Conservatives were delivering for them.

It comes as the shadow chancellor has accused the prime minister of playing a political gimmick with the investigation into Sue Grays switch to a senior Labour role.

Rachel Reeves told Times Radio that Mr Sunak had a political vandetta against Ms Gray, and he was supposed to be moving on from the era of Boris Johnson.

It was revealed on Tuesday that Ms Gray, the partygate investigator, chose not to take part in the Governmnent probe into her departure from a high-ranking Whitehall position to become Sir Keir Starmers chief of staff.

The investigation has been paused as a result, angering some Tories, but Mr Starmer has insisted that he is confident Ms Gray had not broken any rules.
KIGALI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Heavy rains and flooding that hit Rwanda's western and northern provinces in two days have killed at least 109 people, according to local officials.

Francois Habitegeko, governor of Western Province, told national broadcaster Rwanda Television on Wednesday morning that at least 95 people were killed in flash floods caused by heavy rains in the province between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Northern Province governor Dancille Nyirarugero also confirmed to the television that at least 14 people were killed by heavy rains during the same days.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims during this difficult time," Habitegeko said. "We are working closely with local authorities and emergency services to provide relief efforts and support to those affected by this disaster."

The latest weather forecast by Rwanda Meteorology Agency indicated that the expected rainfall in many parts of the country will be slightly above the range of rainfall usually recorded in May.

According to a recent report by the ministry in charge of emergency management, more than 60 people were killed by disasters in the country between Jan. 1 and April 20. 
T he military flypast over Buckingham Palace to mark the coronation of the King and Queen has been scaled down because of the weather and will now be formed of helicopters and The Red Arrows, the Ministry of Defence said.

More than 60 aircraft from the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force had been due to take part.

But the event will now only involve helicopters and the Red Arrows aerobatic display team, the Ministry of Defence said.

The King and Queen were expected to watch the flypast from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

The display over The Mall and Buckingham Palace was originally meant to last for six minutes, but the scaled-down version will last for less than half of that time.

The MoD said it would last for two minutes and 30 seconds.

The flypast over the palace means there will be restrictions on aircraft flying over London, East Anglia and the North Sea.

Who are the Red Arrows?

Formed in 1964, The Red Arrows are the Royal Air Forces aerobatic display team, and theyre instantly recognisable by their distinctive red Hawk jets.

The team has been putting on displays since it was formed. As the public face of the RAF, they act as ambassadors for the UK at home and overseas. Theyre known for their close formation and precision flying, with trademark moves including the Diamond Nine shape.

The Red Arrows had flown almost 5,000 displays in 57 countries, and their team is made up of pilots, engineers, and support staff. They are based at the RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.

Where will the route be on the coronation day?

Expert pilots will make their way over parts of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex on the way to London. However, because of security reasons, the exact timings and routes will not be publicly revealed.

Provided it goes ahead, the flypast route will be split around all of the counties, each with a general time zone to when people will be able to look to the skies and see the show.

The areas are:

Area A: North Sea and Norfolk Coast, 1.15pm-3pm

Area B: Norfolk (Thetford) and Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds), 1.45pm-3pm

Area C: Suffolk (Ipswich), 2pm-3pm

Area D: Essex (Colchester, Chelmsford), 2pm-2.45pm

Area E: London, 2.10pm-2.45pm

Area F: London (Croydon) and Surrey, 2.20pm-3pm

Area G: Berkshire (Reading), Wiltshire (Swindon) and Oxfordshire (Oxford), 2.20pm-3pm

Area H: Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, 2.20pm-3pm

Area I: Wiltshire (Marlborough, Tidworth), 2.20pm-3pm.

If I cant see them in the skies, how can I watch?

There will be live coverage on BBC One, BBC Two and BBC iPlayer from 07:30am. The service begins at 11:00 in Westminster Abbey. News coverage will also be shown throughout the day on Freeview channel 233, Sky channel 501, Virgin 603 and BT 313.
T he King has directed a change in the wording of official prayers for the royal family, replacing Camilla the Queen Consort with Queen Camilla from the day of the coronation.

A Royal Warrant was issued on Wednesday, three days before Charles and Camilla are set to be crowned in Westminster Abbey.

It indicates that, with effect from May 6, every prayer for the royal family in any form of service authorised for use in the Church of England should use Queen Camilla instead of the words Camilla the Queen Consort.

Charles is, as monarch, the Supreme Governor of the Church, and the change also amends the prayer for the royal family in the Church of Englands Book of Common Prayer.

The prayer will now read: Almighty God, the fountain of all goodness, we humbly beseech thee to bless Queen Camilla, William Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and all the Royal Family: Endue them with thy Holy Spirit, enrich them with thy heavenly grace; prosper them with all happiness; and bring them to thine everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Queen Camilla appeared officially for the first time on the coronation invitations, with Buckingham Palace saying the May 6 ceremony was the appropriate time to start using the title in an official capacity.

Years of debate followed Camillas wedding to Charles in 2005, when aides said she intended to be known as Princess Consort when her husband became monarch.

The late Queen backed Camilla to be Queen Consort in a Jubilee masterstroke, and the former Duchess of Cornwall has been referred to by the Palace as such since the Kings accession.

The wife of a king automatically becomes a queen and only a change in legislation would have prevented Camilla from being so.

The change was issued in a Lambeth Palace circular, and the warrant will be published in the London Gazette, the UKs official public record.
R osemary Coogan, the UKs newest astronaut, has spoken about her experience of training to go into space.

Ms Coogan, who began training at the European Space Agencys astronaut centre in Cologne, Germany, last month, said that it has brought her a huge amount of enjoyment and one of the highlights of her training was a trip to the biology labs.

The agency has its own unit, known as Biolab facility, in the Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station, where astronauts conduct various scientific experiments.

Speaking at her first news conference as an ESA astronaut candidate, Ms Coogan said: The first month of basic training has been extremely varied.

I think one of the highlights has been taking the trip to the biology labs, and starting to look at all the different microscopes

Weve had a lot of different experts come in and share their knowledge.

But I think one of the highlights has been taking the trip to the biology labs, and starting to look at all the different microscopes  some of which we have on the space station (and) starting to do pipetting of samples in completely sterile environments and (also) trying to imagine  now I think we all are  how that might be in a microgravity environment in the next few years.

An astrophysicist with two masters degrees from Durham University and an astronomy doctorate from Sussex, Ms Coogan was selected to join the ESAs astronaut training programme last year, after beating more than 22,500 applicants.

She is training alongside four other astronaut candidates: Sophie Adenot of France; Spains Pablo Alvarez Fernandez; Belgian-Luxembourgish engineer Raphael Liegeois; and Marco Sieber, from Switzerland.

If successful, the 32-year-old, who was born in Northern Ireland, will become the UKs third astronaut, following Helen Sharman, who became the first Briton in space in 1989, and Tim Peake, who went to the space station in 2015.

ESA astronauts usually complete a minimum of three to four years of training before flying to space for the first time.

Frank De Winne, head of ESAs European Astronaut Centre, said, if successful, the first ISS mission for one of the astronauts could be as early as 2026, but the aim is to give all five astronauts the opportunity to go to space by the end of the decade.

Basic training is the first phase of astronaut training, which takes about 13 months, and includes scuba diving to prepare for spacewalks, rigorous fitness assessments, and getting introduced to the fundamentals of spaceflight.

Once basic training is complete, the candidates will become certified astronauts and ready to embark on the second phase, known as pre-assignment training.

This includes advanced training in specific areas, such as systems training, vehicle training, robotics, and extra-vehicular activity training or spacewalks.

The third and final third phase is mission-specific training, which is tailored to the tasks and experiments that astronauts will perform during their mission.

Last year, ESA also unveiled two other UK citizens: John McFall and Meganne Christian  as new astronaut candidates.

Former Paralympian Mr McFall is part of a feasibility study to see if he can fly as a disabled astronaut while Ms Christian is a reserve astronaut who could join the programme if someone else drops out.
B rits may have to bid farewell to the classic roast, as British roast chicken is the latest supermarket item hit with supply issues.

Poultry bosses say the industry is at breaking point, as producers are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the cost of getting the item on the shelves.

Higher energy bills and packaging prices have been blamed for the shortage, with already gaping holes being seen on supermarket shelves.

The British Poultry Council has warned the sector is at breaking point unless shops start to pay more to stock the British classic.

Fruit and vegetable stocks could also be hit as temperatures in Spain and the Mediterranean region have made growing conditions difficult, with the fallout hitting UK imports.

Lidl has become the most recent store to restrict sales of specific fruit and vegetables. According to BBC News, the German discount shop will cap the number of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers that each customer can purchase at three.

It is in line with similar actions taken by Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, and Aldi. Morrisons has gone one step further and is limiting some items to two per person, while Aldi and Tesco only allow three items per customer.

Tobacco packs, peppers, cucumber, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, salad bags, and raspberries are just a few of the things that Asda is restricting purchases of, to three per customer.

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has revealed that shortages of some fruit and vegetables will take two to four weeks to be resolved.

The British Tomato Growers Association also shared that, with the upcoming British tomato-growing season, the stocks should be replenished by the end of March or the start of April.

Food shortages are coming at a time when the president of the National Farmers Union (NFU), Minette Batters, is expected to warn that time is running out for the Government to back British farming.

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, Britain's retailers experienced supply-chain problems; however, as Christmas approached, things seemed to improve.

But turbulent weather in nations where the UK gets its supply from has meant supermarkets have been unable to keep up with demand and fill their shelves.

Which foods are in short supply?

Salad crops

Due to severe weather in Europe and Africa, there aren't enough cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes.

The UK depends on Morocco and Spain for vegetables during the winter but, because of heavy rain and floods, suppliers have been hit by ferry cancellations, which have affected lorry transport.

Supermarkets have also been experiencing shortages of broccoli and citrus fruits.

Eggs

Since the UK has been experiencing food shortages on and off for the past few months, supermarkets were forced to restrict egg purchases late last year.

Higher fuel, feed, and fertiliser costs, as well as avian influenza outbreaks, have increased prices. The British Free Range Egg Producers Association says that the cost of feeding hens has gone up by at least 50 per cent, while the price of fuel has increased by 30 per cent.

And, even though the price of eggs has increased by about 45p at supermarkets and other retailers, farmers are not benefitting from the increase.

Why are there shortages?

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said: Difficult weather conditions in the South of Europe and Northern Africa have disrupted harvest for some fruit and vegetables, including tomatoes.

Growers contend that the shortages are part of a larger problem affecting the UK's food supply.

Due to rising expenses, farmers across the UK have been compelled to reduce their output.

The cost of cultivating a tomato climbed by 27 per cent between 2021 and 2022, according to research released by the NFU in November. This increase was primarily caused by rising energy prices. Other crops, such as lettuce, broccoli, and potatoes, also experienced similar increases.

Despite the fact that Britain has always relied on fresh produce from Spain and Northern Africa over the winter, growers claim this year's need is much greater.

This is because the high expense of heating greenhouses has discouraged growers in Britain and Northern Europe from planting for a winter harvest.

What are the best foods to stockpile?

There are a few affordable foods to stockpile in case of future emergencies.

Dried or canned beans are a versatile kitchen staple, with high fibre.

Rice, grains, and pasta are complex carbohydrates that keep you fuller for longer and can help you manage your cholesterol.

Canned vegetables and fruit can come in handy when there are shortages.

While canned tuna is an inexpensive form of good-quality protein, and peanut butter is also an easily accessible source of protein.

Broth and stock soups are comfort foods and easy to make.

What else has been in shortage?

Last month, The Guardian reported the shortage of medication in the UK.

Throat lozenges, cough mixtures, and some painkillers, antibiotics, and Hormone-Replacement Therapy (HRT) were among the affected items.

The shortage was a result of the prime ministers lack of planning, it reported.
T he Guardian s editor-in-chief has apologised directly to BBC chair Richard Sharp after a cartoon of him published by the newspaper sparked allegations of antisemitism.

The cartoon about Mr Sharps resignation appeared in the Guardian on Saturday, but prompted backlash as it showed the Jewish former banker with exaggeratedly large facial features and anti-Semitic tropes.

Cartoonist Martin Rowson issued an apology, as did the newspaper which also removed the cartoon from its website.

Guardian editor Katharine Viner has now written personally to Mr Sharp to offer a direct apology, according to London-based news organisation The Jewish Chronicle.

The Guardian has also agreed to meet the countrys largest Jewish community group, The Board of Deputies of British Jews, following the row.

The controversial cartoon showed Mr Sharp with a large nose, carrying a box marked Goldman Sachs with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak inside and with a pigs head and an octopus also included.

It was withdrawn after complaints and Mr Rowson issued a lengthy apology explaining the reference to Goldman Sachs was because Mr Sunak worked there with Mr Sharp and was intended as a criticism of cronyism.

Mr Rowson said he knew Mr Sharp was Jewish, because they went to school together, but added that his religion never crossed my mind as I drew him.

He said he had not considered portraying the Prime Minister as a puppet of Mr Sharp was anti-Semitic, adding: I apologise, though Im not going to repeat the current formulation by saying Im sorry if people were upset, which is always code for Ive done nothing wrong, youre just oversensitive. This is on me, even if accidentally or, more precisely, thoughtlessly.

Mr Sharp resigned from the BBC on Friday after being found to have broken rules on public appointments by failing to declare his involvement in an 800,000 loan guarantee for Boris Johnson when he was prime minister. His resignation will take effect in June.

Campaign group the National Jewish Assembly has called for both Ms Viner and Mr Rowson to be dismissed.

The Guardian said it apologises to Mr Sharp, to the Jewish community and to anyone offended.

A Guardian spokesperson said: "Katharine Viner has agreed to meet the Board of Deputies of British Jews and to discuss the issues raised, in the near future."
F estivities are still taking place to celebrate King Charles IIIs Coronation, which took place on Saturday (May 6).

Thousands lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the historic event, watching King Charles and Queen Camilla travel through London before arriving at Westminster Abbey, where the official crowning took place.

Hundreds of world leaders, celebrities, foreign royalty, and friends and family were all in attendance.

But how much is the event estimated to have cost and who pays for it?

Here is everything we know:

How much does the Coronation cost?

No budget has been revealed officially but it is set to cost many millions.

The UK Government has refused to comment on the expected amount it will total but some predictions have suggested it could cost around 100 million.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: Given the coronation is a national state occasion, funding sources will include the sovereign grant and the UK government.

Who is paying for the Coronation?

The bill will be footed by the taxpayer, which is why many want more clarity on the final total.

A YouGov poll found that more than half of Brits do not think it should fall to the Government to pay for the coronation. A total of 51 per cent believe the ceremony should not be funded by public money, compared to a third of those asked who did.

Who has been vocally against the bill?

Labour MPs have called for more clarity on the final cost, citing the cost-of-living crisis and strike action being taken around the country by publicly funded workers, including nurses and junior doctors.

And with only a third of people interested in the coronation, according to a YouGov poll, is it value for money and in the publics best interests?

Labours Richard Burgon, MP for Leeds East, called for a House of Commons debate on the amount of public money being spent on the coronation given the difficult economic times. While Graham Smith, chief executive of the anti-monarch campaign group Republic, said: Charles is already king. There is absolutely no need to go through with this expensive pantomime.

At a cost of tens of millions of pounds, this pointless piece of theatre is a slap in the face for millions of people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.

How much is King Charles worth and what has been the Palace response?

Labour MP Richard Burgon revealed in the House of Commons this week how King Charles is worth billions, and suggested he should have paid for his own coronation.

He said: The King has a reported personal fortune of 1.8bn and, given the monarch already benefits from not paying inheritance tax, its easy to see why so many people are not happy with this.

However, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden revealed how King Charles has requested a slimmed-down event without lavishness or excess as he is mindful of ensuring that there is value for the taxpayer.

He added: It is a marvellous moment in our history, and people would not want a dour scrimping and scraping.

How much were previous coronations?

Similar events in history have come with a rather hefty price tag.

Figures are varied as to how much Elizabeth IIs coronation cost, but it was reportedly 912,000 in 1953  the equivalent of an estimated 20.5m in todays money. While Charless grandfather, George VI, was crowned at a cost of 454,000 in 1937  worth 24.8m in 2023; the most expensive coronation of the past 300 years.

However, the New York Times reported that the 1953 event was actually the most expensive ceremony ever held by the monarchy, costing 1.57 million or the modern equivalent of 56 million. Even her namesakes coronation, that of Elizabeth I, which was thought to be a lavish affair, only cost a little more than 6m in todays money.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was William IV, who did not want a coronation at all back in 1831, and ended up going for such a small affair that it became known as the penny coronation, costing 43,000  worth 3.6m today.

So, if estimates are correct, and King Charless coronation really is costing around the 100 million mark, then this slimmed-down event will actually cost four times the record for the most expensive coronation, or twice as much if we go with the New York Times figure. However, with security more of an issue these days, the higher price tag this time around is attributed at least in part to ensuring the Kings safety.
P rotesters who try to disrupt the coronation can expect very swift action from the Met who will have an extremely low threshold" when dealing with them, the force has vowed.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan pledged the force will not tolerate any criminal activity camouflaged as protest during the event, set to be watched by millions.

A mammoth security operation is underway that will see 11,500 police officers on duty on Saturday and 10,000 military personnel taking part in the ceremony.

Specialist teams have begun scouring areas of central London where events will unfold and will continue monitoring crowds to spot signs of suspicious behaviour.

The plan, dubbed Operation Golden Orb, has been re-examined after a security incident outside Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening when a man who allegedly had a knife threw shotgun cartridges over the palace gates.

The alert prompted a suspicious bag to be blown up in a controlled detonation while the man was detained. The incident is not thought to be terror-related.

Coronation rehearsal for HM King Charles III | Wednesday 3rd May 2023 1 / 32 Coronation rehearsal for HM King Charles III | Wednesday 3rd May 2023 PA Wire PA PA AP PA PA PA AP AP PA PA PA PA PA PA REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS AP AP REUTERS

Mr Adelekan said the security plan had been reviewed in the wake of the incident to make sure there are no gaps.

He said: Were absolutely confident that weve got a plan that will deliver the coronation in such a manner that everyone will come to London and celebrate and there will be no issues whatsoever.

Asked about how officers will deal with protesters, he said: Our priority is around safety and security for everyone thats going to come to this event, and we want to make sure that everyone enjoys it.

We have an extremely low threshold for anybody or anything that will disrupt this event and what you will see is very swift action from us."

Among the forces security protocols for the Coronation is the use of facial recognition technology across central London.

Scotland Yard said its watchlist those whose attendance on Coronation Day would raise public protection concerns.

It comes as new laws to curb protests came into force on Wednesday ahead of Saturdays historic ceremony.

Under the new Public Order Act, protesters who block roads will face up to 12 months behind bars.

King Charles III leaving Westminster Abbey in central London, following a rehearsal on Wednesday for his coronation / PA

An official letter warning of the new powers was sent to anti-monarchy group Republic, which said its campaign around the coronation will proceed as planned.

Republic boss Graham Smith said it is very odd" the letter came from the Home Office and described it as intimidatory".

He told the PA news agency: Weve been liaising closely with the police about the protest for weeks. Weve had meetings with them.

Theyve said very clearly that they have no problems with our plans. I just cant understand why the Home Office thinks its appropriate to send a letter like that, which was anonymous in terms of no persons name on it.

He said there are plans for 1,700 people to protest in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to travel to central London for the event, including scores of foreign VIPs who need close protection.

Commander Karen Findlay, who is Gold Command for the policing operation, said there are more VIPs for the coronation than there were for the Queens funeral.

She described it as an historic, unprecedented mobilisation for police in terms of scale.

Its such an event of constitutional, spiritual importance for us all to be involved in, she said.

A total of 29,000 officer shifts will be used during the days around the coronation, with specialist teams including armed police, sniffer dogs, mounted officers and marine officers on the Thames all taking part.

There will be an airspace restriction across London on Friday and Saturday as part of the extensive security preparations.
Q ueen Elizabet II made history last year as she became the first British monarch to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee - 70 years on the throne.

She became the longest-reigning British monarch in September 2015, when she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

Elizabeth II and Victoria have been the only two British monarchs to reach their Diamond Jubilee.

But six sovereigns have ruled the country for 50 years - reaching their Golden Jubilee.

The nation's longest-reigning monarchs include:

Edward III

Kind Edward III reigned for more than 50 years / Shutterstock / Georgios Kollidas

Edward III became king when he was 14 in 1327, and reigned for 50 years and 148 days.

He was the monarch who first created the Duchy of Cornwall to provide his eldest son, Edward, the Black Prince, with an income - just as it is still used today for heir to the throne, the Prince of Wales.

He also introduced the Order of the Garter. It remains the highest British order of chivalry, awarded by the sovereign for outstanding public service and achievement.

Edward III's reign saw the beginning of the Hundred Years War against France.

Henry III

Henry III ruled for 56 years / Shutterstock / Georgios Kollidas

Henry III ruled for 56 years and 28 days.

The 13th-century king was only nine when he became monarch in 1216. The country was ruled by a series of regencies until 1234, when Henry took over. His reign was marked with rebellions by barons.

James VI of Scotland

The Wisest Fool in Christendom had a long reign / PA

James VI was King of Scotland for 57 years and 246 days.

His mother Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son in 1567, when James was one. He took full control as a teenager.

He also later became King James I of England and Ireland when Elizabeth I died, and was the assassination target of the Guy Fawkes gunpowder plot.

He was nicknamed The Wisest Fool in Christendom and was the father of Charles I.

George III

George III ruled for nearly 60 years / PA

George III reigned for 59 years and 96 days - missing out on his Diamond Jubilee by around 10 months.

But, for the last nine years of his life, he was declared mentally unfit to rule, and his son, the Prince of Wales - later George IV - acted as Prince Regent.

George III is widely remembered for two things: losing the American colonies and his so called "madness" - although he is now actually thought to have suffered from a hereditary physical disorder called porphyria.

He died in 1820, when he was 81.

Queen Victoria

An 1897 photo of long-lived Queen Victoria / PA

Victoria's reign of 63 years and 216 days saw great economic, social and political change.

She was Queen at the age of 18 in 1837 and her time on the throne spanned the rest of the century. She became the figurehead of a vast empire.

Victoria married Prince Albert and had nine children, but mourned her husband's early death for the rest of her life.

She was in ill health by the time she reached her Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and died in 1901, at the age of 81.

Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth celebrated her platinum jublilee / Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Queen Elizabeth II became Britain's longest-reigning monarch in 2015.

She overtook the previous record set by her great-great grandmother Victoria at around 5.30pm on September 9, 2015, at the age of 89 - having been head of state for 23,226 days, 16 hours, and some 30 minutes.

She was also one of the world's oldest monarchs and, at one point, was the world's longest-reigning living monarch.

But the world's longest-reigning monarch in history is King Sobhuza II of Swaziland, who died in 1982.

He was just four months old when he became king and ruled for 82 years and 253 days.

It was estimated that he had about 210 children from at least 70 wives and by the time of his death, had more than 1,000 grandchildren.
J ames Bond star Britt Ekland has said the King will have his dream fulfilled when he is crowned on Saturday.

The 80-year-old actress, who starred opposite Sir Roger Moore in 1974s The Man With The Golden Gun as Mary Goodnight, was a close friend of Princess Margaret, who died in 2002.

Ekland, who was speaking around the 50th anniversary of horror film The Wicker Man, recalled her first meeting with Charles, who was a big fan of the BBC radio comedy show The Goon Show, which starred her then-husband Peter Sellers.

The Swedish actress told the PA news agency: I met Prince Charles first when he was 16.

Theres a picture of me and him and Peter Sellers because he was a great Goon fan and he came out and had lunch and hung out with them.

And then in the 90s when I lived in London all the time, I was part of the Princes Trust, so I met Prince Charles many times in that capacity.

He was always a very approachable young man very polite, very easy to talk to.

Speaking about the Kings coronation on Saturday, she added: He will have his dream fulfilled.

Ekland  who also appeared in British films Get Carter, alongside Sir Michael Caine, in 1971 and Scandal, with Sir John Hurt, in 1989  said she will be watching the coronation on TV in Sweden.

She told PA: I love the fact that I can see it, but I dont have to be there and be pushed and shoved. I like that.

I dont have a friendship with the royal family any more.

The Wicker Man 50th Anniversary restoration will be in cinemas on June 21.
T he final UK evacuation flight is expected take off from Sudan on Wednesday morning, the Foreign Secretary has announced.

James Cleverly urged British nationals still wanting to leave the war-torn nation to make their way to Port Sudan.

It was previously thought the evacuation airlift had ended on Monday when planes left Sudan for Cyprus.

So far during the airlift  the longest and largest by any western nation in Sudan  2,341 people have been evacuated on 28 flights, according to the Government.

Downing Street said 1,195 were British nationals, with other nationalities, including Sudanese dependants of British nationals, also helped to leave.

No 10 confirmed that, as of Monday, 18 Sudanese clinicians had left the country as part of the UK evacuation.

In updated guidance on its website on Tuesday, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: The UK government will run final evacuation flights from Port Sudan on 3 May.

People evacuated from Sudan arrive on a flight from Cyprus into Birmingham airport / PA

If you plan to leave Sudan, you should arrive at the Coral Hotel in Port Sudan by 10am on 3 May to be processed to travel.

After that, no further British evacuation flights will operate from Port Sudan.

Mr Cleverly tweeted: After the successful evacuation of 2341 people on 28 flights, the last UK flight is expected to leave Port Sudan tomorrow.

I urge British Nationals still wishing to leave the country to go to the Coral Hotel in Port Sudan and continue to follow our Travel Advice.

Earlier, the Foreign Secretary said there was still a British military presence at the countrys main seaport on the Red Sea coast as the situation remained dangerous.

As well as officials and military personnel in Port Sudan, the HMS Lancaster warship is off the coast to support Britons.

First flight carrying Britons evacuated from Sudan 1 / 10 First flight carrying Britons evacuated from Sudan PA PA PA PA PA PA PA Sky News

The international focus is shifting to preventing a wider humanitarian catastrophe in the region and Mr Cleverly warned that any further fighting would hamper relief efforts.

The United Nations said Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan and his rival General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have agreed to send representatives to the negotiation table in a bid to establish a more stable truce.

Generals Burhan and Dagalo, both with powerful foreign backers, were allies in an October 2021 military coup that halted Sudans fraught transition to democracy, but they have since turned on each other.
Staff members prepare aid packages for refugees from Sudan, in Aswan, Egypt, May 2, 2023. As the armed conflict continued between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan's Health Ministry on Tuesday announced that the death toll has climbed to more than 550. According to UN statistics, thousands of Sudanese citizens have been displaced or forced to seek refuge in safe areas in Sudan and neighboring countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Chad. (Photo by Radwan Abu Elmagd/Xinhua)

KHARTOUM, May 2 (Xinhua) -- As the armed conflict continued between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan's Health Ministry on Tuesday announced that the death toll has climbed to more than 550.

A total of "550 deaths and 4,926 injuries were recorded in all hospitals in Sudanese states," the ministry said in a statement, adding that the situation was calm in all states except for Khartoum and Central Darfur.

Despite the sixth 72-hour truce, intermittent clashes continued between the SAF and the RSF in various areas in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and Omdurman.

The SAF carried out intensive airstrikes against RSF positions in Bahri (Khartoum North), west of Omdurman, and around the army's general command in central Khartoum, eyewitnesses said.

The RSF, meanwhile, accused the SAF of violating the humanitarian truce.

In a statement on Tuesday, the RSF said it managed to shoot down a SAF military plane, but the SAF spokesman's office could not be reached to comment on the claim.

Regarding the regional efforts to seek a settlement to the armed conflict in Sudan, local media reported an initiative by South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Mayardit for reaching a 7-day cease-fire.

South Sudan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the SAF Commander Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo had accepted the initiative. However, neither side has commented on the statement.

Meanwhile, the Forces of Freedom and Change Alliance (FFC), a civilian political coalition in Sudan, on Tuesday called on the Sudanese people to stage demonstrations demanding the end of the conflict.

"Today (Tuesday), the alliance called for large-scale protests at the areas which are not affected by the conflict to push for negotiations and stoppage of the war," tweeted Yassir Arman, the FFC's spokesman.

"We, in villages and cities which are not affected by the war, must come out in masses to push for negotiations and stoppage of the war," said Arman.

The Sudanese police forces on Tuesday carried out widespread campaigns in Khartoum to combat crimes, blocking the roads to prevent criminals and outlaws from committing illegal activities.

"This step comes as part of the plan of the police force's command which aims to impose prestige of the state and the rule of law," the press office of the Sudanese police said in a statement.

"The campaign tends to secure markets, important commercial sites and vital facilities," it said.

Fighting between the SAF and the RSF in Khartoum and other areas erupted on April 15, with the two sides accusing each other of initiating the conflict which has pushed the country to the edge of a humanitarian crisis.

According to UN statistics, thousands of Sudanese citizens have been displaced or forced to seek refuge in safe areas in Sudan and neighboring countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Chad. 

Staff members provide water for refugees from Sudan, in Aswan, Egypt, May 2, 2023. As the armed conflict continued between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan's Health Ministry on Tuesday announced that the death toll has climbed to more than 550. According to UN statistics, thousands of Sudanese citizens have been displaced or forced to seek refuge in safe areas in Sudan and neighboring countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Chad. (Photo by Radwan Abu Elmagd/Xinhua)

Staff members prepare aid packages for refugees from Sudan, in Aswan, Egypt, May 2, 2023. As the armed conflict continued between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan's Health Ministry on Tuesday announced that the death toll has climbed to more than 550. According to UN statistics, thousands of Sudanese citizens have been displaced or forced to seek refuge in safe areas in Sudan and neighboring countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Chad. (Photo by Radwan Abu Elmagd/Xinhua)

Staff members prepare supplies for refugees from Sudan, in Aswan, Egypt, May 2, 2023. As the armed conflict continued between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan's Health Ministry on Tuesday announced that the death toll has climbed to more than 550. According to UN statistics, thousands of Sudanese citizens have been displaced or forced to seek refuge in safe areas in Sudan and neighboring countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Chad. (Photo by Radwan Abu Elmagd/Xinhua)
T he police and intelligence agencies are mounting a very complex security operation around the coronation  with the eyes of the world set to be on the UK.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat said police are all over it and not complacent about the scale of the challenge.

New laws to curb protests came into force on Wednesday ahead of Saturdays ceremony but Mr Tugendhat said the celebrations will showcase our liberty and our democracy.

Under the new Public Order Act, protesters who block roads will face up to 12 months behind bars.

An official letter warning of the new powers was sent to anti-monarchy campaign group Republic, which said its campaign around the coronation will proceed as planned.

Republic boss Graham Smith said it is very odd the letter came from the Home Office and described it as intimidatory.

He told the PA news agency: Weve been liaising closely with the police about the protest for weeks. Weve had meetings with them.

Theyve said very clearly that they have no problems with our plans. I just cant understand why the Home Office thinks its appropriate to send a letter like that, which was anonymous in terms of no persons name on it.

Mr Smith added: It struck us as intimidatory in a way.

He said there are plans for 1,700 people to protest in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.

Mr Tugendhat said the operation around the coronation will show security can be a liberator in a democracy, not like an authoritarian state where its a controller.

Asked about the letter sent to Republic, Mr Tugendhat said: They have the liberty that anybody in the United Kingdom has to protest. What they dont have the liberty to do is to disrupt others.

And thats where were drawing and making a difference.

Pressed on whether the new laws will prevent protesters unfurling banners in certain locations or getting on to the route of the parade, Mr Tugendhat told the BBCs Today programme: Im not going to go through the details of what you can or cant do for fear of encouraging people to find loopholes in it, for very obvious reason.

He said the presence of foreign leaders at the coronation adds to the complexity of the operation.

Its perfectly possible that were dealing with protest groups who have nothing to do with the UK but are seeking to protest against a foreign leader whos visiting or seeking to make a complaint about something thats happening hundreds or thousands of miles away.

So this is a very complex policing operation, a very complex intelligence operation.

The arrest of a man after suspected shotgun cartridges were thrown into the grounds of Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening was a sign of the effectiveness of the security operation, Mr Tugendhat said.

The police are, to put it mildly, all over it and our intelligence and other security forces are extremely aware of the challenges that we face and ready to deal with them  as the police did quite brilliantly yesterday, he told Times Radio.

He said the coronation is an opportunity to showcase the United Kingdom to the world.

So were very conscious that there are going to be quite literally thousands  possibly hundreds of thousands  of foreign tourists, there are going to be many film crews and journalists from around the world and, of course, were going to have heads of state and government coming to celebrate with us on Saturday.

So this is an enormously important moment for the country.

In response to a suggestion the operation will cost taxpayers at least 100 million, the security minister told Sky News: Its not a figure I recognise.

He said: Its very difficult to pull that out as a separate figure for the simple reason that we have got an enormous amount of effort going in for a major incident like this in different parts of the country  because there are people getting together in streets, theres people getting together in gatherings across the country because this is a moment of national celebration.

What I think is worth looking at, though, is how much this is bringing to the country in terms of the number of tourists who are coming, the amount of attention that is coming and, indeed, I hope, the amount of business that will be generated by heads of state and government and other business people coming to the UK at this time to see what we offer.
A n Essex pub at the centre of a racism row over the displaying of golly dolls has closed.

Five Essex Police officers had seized the collection of dolls, which are based on 18th century minstrels and now regarded as racist caricatures, at the White Hart in Grays on April 4, as part of an investigation into an allegation of hate crime.

Heineken and Carlsberg had since told the pub to stop serving its lager, while maintenance company Innserve refused to continue working on site.

The pub had also been banned from being considered for any awards by the Campaign for Real Ales (Camra) and the group said it would not be included in its Good Beer Guide while these discriminatory dolls continue to be on display.

Landlady Benice Ryley and her husband Chris said this week she had decided, after 17 years running the pub, to retire to Turkey and shut the doors.

She said she was angry and upset and had been crying all week after having her windows smashed and racist scrawled on her walls following the controversy.

In an interview with Thurrock Nub News, Ms Ryley said: I feel gutted, totally and utterly gutted, hurt and upset. Ive had very, very much support from many people about the gollys and a few bits of hates that I dont personally understand because its our part of life.

Young people these days dont understand from years ago where do the gollys originate from. Its such a shame.

Its my collection. They are antiques some of them and I want them back. This is my life now that they have ruined. We have a stigma about our name now and our pub.

She blamed someone on Reddit for starting it all again, adding: I had them as children, my auntie bought me some. [Customers] have bought me the dolls and it started from there.

Police seized golliwogs dolls from the White Hart Inn in Grays, Essex, / Handout

The figures created by American-British cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton began appearing in childrens books in the 19th century.

The physical dolls became popular in Britain in the 1970s but came to be considered a racist caricature of black people.

Admiral Taverns, the company which owns the pub building, said: The licensees have made us aware of their decision to leave the pub.

We will be looking to reopen the pub under the management of new licensees.

No arrests have been made in connection to the alleged hate crime after the seizure of the dolls.

Essex Police are asking for anyone with information or footage to call 101.
J ournalist Ash Sarkar has made headlines after calling the Royal Family a cartel of some very weird people.

She made the divisive comments during a BBC Newsnight debate after a poll revealed that four out of ten Gen Z individuals supported abolishing the Crown.

Sarkar said that young people wanted values of fairness and representation, which was why they felt turned off by the monarchy.

She added: Whatever way you slice it, the monarchy is neither a fair nor representative institution. There have been attempts by the Royal Family to strip themselves of some of the mystery, invite the media in, and show the public what they really do. And what theyve revealed themselves to be is a cartel of some very weird people.

But, who exactly is Ash Sarkar? Here is everything we know.

Who is Ash Sarkar?

Ash Sarkar is the Senior Editor of Novara Media, a left-wing alternative media organisation in the UK. The independent news outlet was founded in 2011 by James Butler and Aaron Bastani, who met during the UK tuition fee protests.

Ms Sarkar also contributes to national newspapers like The Guardian and The Independent, and appears on panel shows.

On top of that, she also teaches classes at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam.

In July 2021, the reporter revealed that her debut book entitled Minority Rule would be published by Bloomsbury.

She is the great-great-niece of Pritilata Waddedar, an East Bengali revolutionary nationalist who was influential during the Indian independence movement.

The London native completed her undergraduate and masters degrees in English Literature at University College London.

On her Instagram account, which has 85,000 followers, she describes herself as: Anarcho-Fabulous. Luxury Communist. Walks like a supermodel. Kebab aficionado.

In March 2021, Sunday Telegraphs Julie Burchill was ordered to pay substantial damages to Sarkar after alleging that the journalist sympathised with fundamentalist Islam. Burchill also wrote a sexual poem about the journalist that included a description of a gender fluid threesome with Marine Le Pen.

Following the defamation case, Burchill later released an apology statement in which she said: I should not have sent these tweets, some of which included racist and misogynist comments regarding Ms Sarkars appearance and her sex life.

What else has Ash Sarkar said about the Royal Family?

The BBC Newsnight comments werent the first time Sarkar was publicly critical of the Royal Family.

In 2018, she appeared on Good Morning Britain and demanded that the national anthem, which was God Save The Queen, should be replaced by a grime banger by the artist Wiley.

And, earlier this year while on BBC Question Time, she said the Royal family was a hideous cartel.
Mr Welby has played an important part in a number of royal milestones, including weddings, christenings, and funerals.

Now, the Archbishop of Canterbury will have a major role in the kings coronationthe first since Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, 70 years ago, in 1953.

So who is Justin Welby, and what is the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury?

Who is Justin Welby?

Justin Welby, 67, has been the Archbishop of Canterbury since 2013. He studied at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, before working in the oil industry for 11 years.

Mr Welby was ordained in 1992 and spent his first 15 years serving in Coventry. He became a Canon of Coventry Cathedral in 2002, and during this time, he worked in Africa and the Middle East.

He was Dean of Liverpool from 2007 to 2011 and Bishop of Durham from 2011 to 2012, before becoming the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Upon becoming Archbishop, he said: There is every possible reason for optimism about the future of Christian faith in our world and in this country."

His personal priorities for his ministry are a renewal of prayer and religious life, seeking reconciliation within the church, and encouraging every Christian to share their faith.

Mr Welby is married to Caroline Welby, with whom he had six children. Their daughter Johanna died aged seven months in 1983.

Growing up, believed his biological father to be Gavin Welby, the son of German Jewish immigrants. However, in 2016, he revealed that his biological father was Sir Anthony Montague Browne, who was a private secretary to Sir Winston Churchill.

Mr Welby lives at Lambeth Palace, which is his official London residence.

Justin Welby has been Archbishop of Canterbury since 2013. / PA

What is the Archbishop of Canterburys role?

Justin Welby is the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, a role that has existed since the year 597. Mr Welby succeeded Rowan Williams, who retired in December 2012.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is a senior member of the House of Lords.

He is one of 26 bishops of the Church of England, and is considered to be the senior bishop. He is viewed bythe Anglican Communion of churches as their spiritual leader.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is often involved in royal ceremonies.

Mr Welby officiated Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding in 2018, and gave a sermon at the Queens funeral in 2022.

He also Christened the Cambridge children, George, Charlotte, and Louis, in 2013, 2015, and 2018, respectively.

The Archbishop of Canterbury will officiate the ceremony on May 6. / via REUTERS

What is the Archbishop of Canterburys role in the coronation?

On May 6, 2023, Mr Welby will officiate the ceremony at the kings coronation at Westminster Abbey.

The Archbishop of Canterbury will greet the king and introduce the ceremony.

He will pay homage to the king, and is expected to say: I, Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, will be faithful and true, and faith and truth will bear unto you, our Sovereign Lord, Defender of the Faith, and unto your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God.

He will then call for the British public to swear allegiance to the king , which he clarified was an invitation; its not a command, according to the BBC.

Mr Welby will proclaim: God save The King, and the people will reply: God save King Charles. Long live King Charles. May The King live for ever.

He will then anoint Camilla with holy oil before presenting her with the Queen Consorts ring.

The Archbishop of Canterbury will then deliver a prayer.
A ccording to this years RSF World Press Freedom Index, disinformation, artificial intelligence, and biased propaganda are threatening journalism in numerous countries across the globe.

The index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSB) showed that 31 countries were found to be in a very serious situation, with the best countries listed as green and the worst in the world as red on the map.

Talking about it, the RSF secretary general Christophe Deloire told The Guardian: There is more red on the RSF map this year than ever before, as authoritarian leaders become increasingly bold in their attempts to silence the press.

The international community needs to wake up to reality, and act together, decisively and fast, to reverse this dangerous trend.

But which countries around the world were found to be the worst and the best for media freedom? Here is what the report revealed.

Which are the worst countries for media freedom?

North Korea

The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea was found to be the worlds worst country for media freedom.

Known for being one of the strictest authoritarian regimes, RSF said it tightly controls information and strictly prohibits independent journalism.

The Korean Central News Agency, which the RSF refers to as the governments official mouthpiece, is the only permitted local news source in the country. And the few foreign press agencies that are allowed to exist are kept under close surveillance.

China

The Peoples Republic of China was the second worst when it came to press freedom.

RSF describes the country as the worlds largest prison for journalists, saying its regime conducts a campaign of repression against journalism and the right to information worldwide.

The biggest media groups in the country are state-owned and directly controlled by the authorities.

Vietnam

Vietnam, the third-worst country for media freedom, was defined as being closely controlled by the single party that has been in power since 1975, with independent journalists and bloggers being jailed.

This has led citizens to use social media and messaging platforms to circulate news and accurate information.

Iran

Following the passing of Mahsa Amini, a student who was arrested for being inappropriately dressed according to the countrys strict Islamic laws, on September 16, 2022, a huge wave of protests began. The press, however, was repressed from covering this, for the most part.

The RSF calls Iran one of the worlds most repressive countries in terms of press freedom and says it is now one of the worlds biggest jailers of reporters.

Turkmenistan

RSF says that the news in Turkmenistan is only in the form of propaganda, praising the government.

The organisation highlights the governments tight control of the press and shared that citizens have no access to worldwide information on the internet and get fined if they try to use a VPN.

Which are the best countries for media freedom?

Norway

Norway was found to be the best country in the world for press freedom, with the nations laws closely protecting journalism.

The RSF describes the media landscape in Norway as vibrant, featuring a strong public-service broadcaster and a diversified private sector.

Ireland

Ireland was crowned the second best when it came to journalism freedom, with reporters allowed to work freely and without state interference.

Denmark

Denmark took the number three spot, with its diverse news landscape.

With the Danish peoples high level of distrust in social networks, the bond between the public media and society is said to have reached a new level of strength during the pandemic.

Sweden

Sweden, the worlds first country to adopt a press freedom law, highly values press independence.

However, the RSF noted, journalists in the country are still targeted by threats, abusive lawsuits, and online hate campaigns.

Finland

When Finland was under Swedish rule, it also benefitted from the worlds first censorship law.

While most media outlets are totally independent, the RSF notes that the recent state secrecy lawsuits against the countrys leading newspaper have created a climate of uncertainty.
A mnesty International have deleted AI-generated images of a female protester being dragged away by police after a backlash from photojournalists.

The human rights watchdog said it artificially edited the images to protect the identities of activists who sometimes face retaliation from authoritarian regimes.

The images include one of a woman being dragged away by blurry-faced police officers during fatal protests that swept across Colombia in 2021.

We have removed the images from social media posts, as we dont want the criticism for the use of AI-generated images to distract from the core message in support of the victims and their calls for justice in Colombia, Erika Guevara Rosas, director for Americas at Amnesty, told The Guardian.

But we do take the criticism seriously and want to continue the engagement to ensure we understand better the implications and our role to address the ethical dilemmas posed by the use of such technology.

Juancho Torres, a photojournalist based in Bogota, told the paper the images would cause credibility issues.

We are living in a highly polarised era full of fake news, which makes people question the credibility of the media. And as we know, artificial intelligence lies. What sort of credibility do you have when you start publishing images created by artificial intelligence?

Gareth Sella was blinded in his left eye when a police officer in Bogota shot him with a rubber bullet at the protests. He argued that hiding the identity of protesters makes sense to protect them from ending up in jail on inflated charges.

According to Colombias Human Rights Ombudsman, at least 42 people have been killed in protests which started on April 28, 2021, over a tax plan the government has since removed. Activists said the protests turned violent after a brutal military police response.

In cases documented by Bogota-based Temblores, women were abducted, taken to dark buildings, and raped by groups of policemen.

Amnesty International said it had used photographs in previous reports but chose to use the AI-generated images to protect protesters from possible state retribution.
T he remains of a missing Australian fisherman have been found inside two crocodiles, Queensland Police say.

The remains were discovered when the two reptiles were euthanised by Department of Environment and Science (DES) wildlife officers following a search for the man.

Police said they believe the remains belong to a missing fisherman, aged 65, from rural Queensland town Laura, pending the formal identification process.

The man has been named by local media as publican Kevin Darmody, who had disappeared while fishing on the Kennedy River at Rinyirru National Park in Far North Queensland on Saturday afternoon.

The mans friend, who was nearby, told DES that he was fishing on the banks of the river when there were splashing noises and he disappeared.

John Peiti told Cape York Weekly that he rushed to see the commotion within half a minute, but there was no sign of his friend - only his flip flops were left on the bank.

There was just no sign of him  no fishing rod, no hat, Mr Peiti said.

Officers believe the two crocodiles - 4.1m and 2.8m long - were involved in an incident with the fisherman and were located upstream from where he was last seen.

Search and rescue operations have been discontinued.

Queensland Police will prepare a report for the coroner after human remains were located within two crocodiles euthanised by Department of Environment and Science (DES) wildlife officers, the force said in a statement on Wednesday.

The national park where the man was last seen fishing is known croc country, the DES said, as it urged locals to report any crocodile sightings.

Crocodiles are a common occurrence in northern Queensland waterways. No waterway in the area can ever be considered crocodile-free, official Government advice warns.

Fishermen are warned to stand at least five metres back from the waters edge and to place unused bait and fish scraps in a bin.

Darmody was an experienced fisherman, friend Bron Jones told Cape York Weekly.

If anyone knew Kev theyd know that he was always one to give advice to tourists about being careful. He knew the risks and he wasnt one to take risks, she said.

In 2021 British tourist Amelie Osborn-Smith said she was very, very lucky to have survived a crocodile attack while on holiday in Zambia.

Meanwhile in 2017 a woman died after falling into the enclosure of her pet crocodile, which had been kept illegally at the farm where she worked in Indonesia.
A court in Belarus has convicted a dissident journalist who was arrested after being pulled off a Ryanair flight that was diverted to the country.

Roman Pratasevich stood trial on charges of organising unrest and plotting to seize power.

The court sentenced him to eight years in prison on Wednesday.

Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, were arrested in May 2021 when their Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was ordered to land in the capital of Belarus, Minsk.

The dramatic arrest elicited outrage in the West, with some leaders saying the planes diversion was tantamount to state-sponsored hijacking.

Belarusian flight controllers ordered the Ryanair jetliner to land, telling the crew that there was a bomb threat against the flight.

No explosives were found on board, and Pratasevich, who lived in exile at the time, was detained once the plane was on the ground.

Sapega, 24, was also arrested. She was sentenced in May last year to six years in prison for inciting social hatred.

Sofia Sapega / Telegram

In response, several Western countries imposed a raft of new sanctions and barred their planes from flying over Belarus.

Pratasevich ran a Telegram messaging app channel that was widely used by participants in mass protests against the disputed August 2020 election that gave authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office.

The reporter appeared on Belarusian state television in 2021, tearfully confessing to his role in anti-government protests.

Then foreign minister Dominic Raab condemned the interview, describing it as disturbing.

Mr Raab said: Mr Protasevichs disturbing interview last night was clearly under duress and in detention.

The persecution of those defending human rights and media freedom in Belarus must stop.

A video confession made by Sofia Sapega after the forced landing also appeared coerced, authorities said.

The founder of the Telegram channel, Stepan Putilo, and another editor of the channel, Yan Rudik, were sentenced in absentia to 20 and 19 years in prison respectfully. Both remain in exile.
E ight children and their guard have been killed in a shooting at a Belgrade school, Serbian police said.

Officers said a seventh-grade student had been arrested following the attack on Wednesday morning in the Serbian capital.

Police in helmets and bulletproof vests cordoned off the area around the Vladislav RIbnikar elementary school in the central Vracar neighbourhood, where the shooting took place.

I saw kids running out from the school, screaming. Parents came, they were in panic. Later I heard three shots, a girl who attends a high school adjacent to Vladislav Ribnikar told state TV RTS.

Casualties were being treated and an investigation into the motives behind shooting was under way, police said in a statement.
D onald Trumps lawyers have said they will not call any witnesses in a civil trial over a writers rape allegation.

The claim is being brought by former advice columnist E Jean Carroll, who alleges that the former president raped her in the mid-1990s.

Trump lawyer Joseph Tacopina said they decided not to put on a defence case after learning that health issues were preventing their expert witness, a psychiatrist, from giving evidence.

Mr Tacopina had previously said Mr Trump would not give evidence at the trial in federal court in Manhattan.

On Wednesday, jurors heard portions of the videotaped deposition he sat for in the case in October.

In one clip, Mr Trump called Carrolls allegations ridiculous and alleged it was just made up."

Donald Trump pictured on a visit to Ireland (Cillian Sherlock/PA) / PA Wire

Ms Carrolls lawyers said they could finish presenting their case on Thursday.

They listed five remaining witnesses, including a former People magazine writer who claims Trump pinned her against a wall and forcibly kissed her at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida in 2005. He denies the allegation.

They also plan to play excerpts of a sworn deposition Mr Trump gave in connection with Ms Carrolls lawsuit, as well as the 2005 Access Hollywood tape in which he boasted about grabbing womens genitals.

Trump denies touching women against their will and has said Ms Carrolls claims are politically motivated attempts to smear his reputation and deny him the White House.

The case is not being heard on Fridays, meaning jurors could hear closing arguments and start deliberating next week.

I think you can reasonably expect to get the case early next week," presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan told jurors.

Ms Carroll first detailed the alleged rape in her 2019 memoir in which she said a chance encounter with Trump in spring 1996 led to him attacking her in a dressing room of a department store.
ADDIS ABABA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopia Government Communication Service (EGCS) disclosed Wednesday that the first round of peace talks between the Ethiopian government and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebel group has concluded without an agreement.

The EGCS disclosed in a press statement that the peace talks which were being held in Tanzania were concluded earlier Wednesday.

"While the talks have been largely constructive, unfortunately, it wasn't possible to reach an agreement on some issues during this round of peace talks," the statement said. "Both parties have acknowledged the need to continue these talks with a view to resolving the conflict permanently and peacefully."

The EGCS also said the Ethiopian government is committed to the peaceful resolution of the conflict in Oromia, Ethiopia's largest region, in accordance with the country's constitution.

The OLA is a breakaway faction of the ex-rebel group Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an opposition political party claiming to fight for the rights of ethnic Oromos who make up about 35 percent of Ethiopia's population.

The OLA, with an estimated 3,000 fighters, operates mainly in the western and southern parts of the Oromia Region, the principal homeland of ethnic Oromos.

In May 2021, the Ethiopian parliament voted to designate the OLA as a terrorist group, a designation still in effect now. 
A Russian fuel depot near a key bridge linking with Crimea was on fire on Wednesday amid reports it was hit by a falling drone.

Videos posted on Russian social media on Wednesday showed flames and huge quantities of black smoke billowing from what appeared to be large tanks emblazoned with flammable warnings. News agency Reuters has not yet been able to independently verify the fire reports or videos.

The fire has been classified as the highest rank of difficulty, Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russias Krasnodar region, said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that there were no casualties.

The blaze broke out as a result of a drone falling on the facility, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported later on Wednesday morning, citing emergency services.

The fuel depot is located in the village of Volna. The hamlet is close to the Crimean bridge over the Kerch Strait, a major artery for Russian forces, as it links the mainland to the Crimean peninsula that was annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The incident came days after a drone strike set ablaze a Russian fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Saturday, in what Moscow called a Ukrainian attack.

Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the Sevastopol attack, in line with what has been its standard practice since the conflict began last February.

Bystanders watch smoke rising above the fuel depot on May 3 / REUTERS

Over the weekend, however, Kyivs military said undermining Russias logistics formed part of preparations for a long-expected counteroffensive, aided by fresh deliveries of more powerful Western weapons.

Blasts derailed a train on Monday in Russias region of Bryansk bordering Ukraine - the second such incident in two days. Russian officials say pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups have made attacks there since the start of hostilities.

Russia has also stepped up attacks on Ukraine ahead of a counteroffensive expected by the latter, with nearly nightly waves of drones and missiles targeting Kyiv and other areas over the past week.

Early on Wednesday, authorities in the Ukrainian capital said they parried Moscows overnight attack as air defence systems destroyed all the drones launched.
A life-like wax figure of King Charles III has been unveiled at Sydneys Madame Tussauds, two days ahead of the coronation.

Its the only wax figure of the monarch outside the UK currently, and was painstakingly created by the team at Londons Madame Tussauds over the course of nine months.

Each hair was individually inserted into his head, and there are thin layers on layers of paint for skin, Mikayla McGlone, Operations Manager at Madame Tussauds Sydney, said.

The monarchs figure stands in one of Charles signature poses, hands clasped behind his back, ready to greet his subjects.

Getty Images

His look was inspired by an outfit worn during a visit to Farm ED, a not-for-profit organisation, in the Cotswolds, in June 2021.

He wears a single-breasted grey Prince of Wales check suit over a lilac shirt, oxblood leather shoes, and off-white flower lapel cufflinks  all custom-made by the real kings tailors and shirt-makers.

Getty Images

Ms McGlone said: As the new head of the Monarchy, were very excited to give a royal welcome to the wax figure of King Charles III.

The likeness is incredible, and I cant wait to see the response from royal fans, who have been requesting his figure join our royal setting for years.

The wax figure will be placed alongside other royal family wax figures including William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales, at the attraction in Darling Harbour.

Queen Elizabeth II will continue to hold a place in the centres World Leader zone, while Harry and Meghan can be found in the A-Lister zone.

A new figure of Queen Camilla was unveiled last week at Madame Tussauds in London. It will stand alongside King Charles in a new Royal Palace Experience that was launched on Friday.

REUTERS

Queen Camillas new figure, unveiled ahead of the Coronation on May 6, is styled on the midnight blue gown she wore to the annual Diplomatic Reception in December 2022, the first of King Charles IIIs reign.

The figure includes replicas of the late Queen Elizabeths Belgian Sapphire Tiara and matching George VI Sapphire necklace, a wedding gift from her father, King George VI, in 1947.
F ive people have received life-saving surgery after a British-Israeli mother was shot dead alongside her two daughters in a shooting in the West Bank.

Lucy Dee, 48, died three days after her daughters, Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, were shot and killed on April 7.

Her surviving daughter met with Lital, a 51-year-old woman who received Mrs Dees heart, at the hospital where the life-saving transplant happened three weeks ago.

She is seen getting emotional as she holds a stethoscope to the womans chest and hears her departed mothers heart beat one more time.

Lucys husband, Rabbi Leo Dee, told the Times of Israel that the family made the decision to donate her organs because everything... that is lifesaving should be given.

Israels National Transplant Center said a 58-year-old woman got one of her lungs, a 25-year-old man received her liver, and a 58-year-old man and a 39-year-old man got her kidneys in successful surgeries.

Hundreds of mourners attended Lucys funeral held at the Kfar Etzion settlement south of Jerusalem.

Describing his wife, the rabbi said: She was someone who gave. That was really her defining feature and because she gave, she encouraged other people to give. The kids picked up from that and theyve learnt to give.

He said Maia had been volunteering in a school in the south of Israel, working as a counsellor to children in the ninth grade.

Mr Dee said his daughters were killed by 20 bullets from a Kalashnikov rifle and his wife was shot twice in the suspected Palestinian shooting.

Mr Dee said he does not hold any hatred towards the Palestinian terrorists believed to be responsible for the attack.

He said: I dont hold any hate towards them. The Israeli security forces will do what they usually do which is track them down and bring them to justice, which I think is right because it prevents the next attack that they might do.
U kraine has denied attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in a failed bid to assassinate President Vladimir Putin.

Russia said on Wednesday two drones had been used in the alleged attack on Putins residence in the Kremlin citadel, but had been disabled by electronic Russian defences before they could strike.

But Kyiv has firmly denied the accusation - the most serious that Moscow has levelled in more than 14 months of war - which it said would allow Russia to justify massive attacks on Ukrainian cities.

In a statement, Ukraines president Volodymyr Zelensky said: We don't attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. We're defending our villages and cities.

The Kremlin has alleged debris from the devices fell on the grounds of the seat of Russias government but did not cause any damage. The statement, which did not explain what caused the drones to break up, said no casualties were reported.

The Kremlin said it considered the attack an act of terrorism and reserved the right to retaliate, state-run RIA news agency reported.

Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were put out of action, the Kremlin said in a statement.

We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the presidents life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned.

The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit.

Kyiv categorically denied involvement in the attack.

Vladimir Putin / AP

We do not attack the Kremlin because, first of all, it does not solve any military problems, Ukraines presidential advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on Wednesday afternoon.

This is extremely disadvantageous from the point of view of preparing our offensive measures.

And most importantly, it would allow Russia to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities. Why do we need this?

The US secretary of state said he could not validate Russia's accusation that Ukraine tried to assassinate Putin, but he would take anything coming from the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt."

Asked if the United States would criticise Ukraine if it decided on its own to strike back in Russian territory, Antony Blinken said those were decisions for Ukraine to make about how to defend itself.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA that Putin wasnt in the Kremlin at the time of the alleged attack, and was working from the Novo-Ogaryovo residence.

President Zelensky has denied any role in the attack / AFP via Getty Images

Putin was not injured, and there was no material damage to the Kremlin buildings, the Kremlin said, adding that the Presidents schedule was unchanged following the incident.

"The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit," it said.

An unverified video circulating on Russian social media including the channel of the military news outlet Zvezda showed pale smoke rising behind the main Kremlin Palace in the walled citadel after the purported incident.

According to text accompanying the video, residents of a nearby apartment building reported hearing bangs and seeing smoke at around 2.30am local time. It was not possible to independently verify the posted footage.

The Kremlin didnt present any evidence from the reported incident, and its statement included few details.Kremlin spokesman Peskov said a military parade would take place as scheduled on Thursday, when Russia will hold its annual Victory Day celebrations.

Victory Day is a key anniversary for President Vladimir Putin, commemorating the Soviet Unions victory over Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

But Russia has reportedly already scaled back this years festivities, citing concerns they could be targeted by pro-Ukrainian saboteurs.
R ussia has scaled back its Victory Day celebrations over fears they could be targeted by pro-Ukraine forces - as Kyiv prepares for its long-anticipated counteroffensive.

Victory Day is a key anniversary for President Vladimir Putin, commemorating the Soviet Unions victory over Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

But several Russian regions have already scaled back celebratory events, citing concerns that pro-Ukrainian saboteurs could target the proceedings.

Security concerns have already prompted the nationwide cancellation of Immortal Regiment civilian processions - a key Victory Day event that sees Russians carry portraits of relatives who fought against the Nazis.

Russian energy, logistics and military facilities have been hit in drone and other attacks since Moscow launched what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine, with a number of fires and explosions reported in recent weeks.

On Wednesday, Moscow authorities reported a fuel depot was on fire near to a crucial bridge that links Russias mainland with Crimea. Days earlier, on Saturday, Moscow blamed Ukraine for another attack that saw another oil depot in Crimeas largest city, Sevastopol, set ablaze.

Russian service members line up before a rehearsal for the 2023 Victory Day military parade / REUTERS

Kyiv has not taken official responsibility for the attacks, but has often made cryptic or sarcastic comments welcoming them as it resists what it calls a Russian war of conquest.

Over the weekend, Kyivs military said undermining Russias logistics formed part of preparations for its long-expected counteroffensive, which will be aided by fresh deliveries of tanks and more powerful Western weapons.

Russian security services are working to ensure that Moscows annual Victory Day parade across Red Square on May 9 can go ahead safely despite the risk of a threat from Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

We are of course aware that the Kyiv regime, which is behind a number of such attacks, terrorist acts, plans to continue its campaign, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

All our special services are doing everything possible to ensure security. Most importantly, the Special Military Operation is being conducted to root out threats to our country.

Putin, his defence minister, and other senior officials usually review the parade - which has in the past included tanks, intercontinental missile launchers and marching troops, as well as a flyover.

Putin traditionally makes a short speech, and similar but more modest military parades are held in other towns and cities.
A boy who gunned down nine people at a Belgrade school had a list of those he wanted to target, Serbian police said.

Allegedly using his fathers handguns, the 13-year-old shot dead eight pupils and a security guard at Vladislav Ribnikar primary school on Wednesday morning.

Seven others were wounded, including a history teacher and six pupils, some suffering from life-threatening injuries.

Veselin Milic, head of Belgrade police, said the attacker had two guns and two petrol bombs and had carefully pre-planned the attack.

He even had ... names of children he wanted to kill and their classes," he told a press conference.

The suspect, named by police as Kosta Kecmanovic, will be placed in a psychiatric institution, said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

A parent escorts her child following a shooting at a school in the capital Belgrade / AFP via Getty Images

An investigation into the motives for the attack was under way, officials said, as the government declared three days of national mourning.

The suspects father, who held the guns legally, had also been arrested.

Serbias prosecution service said in a statement that the father would be charged over the shooting but not his son, who was 13, putting him below the legal age of criminal responsibility of 14.

Wednesdays shooting took place in the central Vracar district of Belgrade.

One pupil, aged 14, told Reuters news agency: I heard noises and I thought some boys, some kids were throwing firecrackers.... But then I saw the security guard falling to the ground.

Health Minister Danica Grujicic, a neurosurgeon who witnessed the impact of the Balkan wars, told reporters in tears that Wednesdays events were perhaps the most horrifying experience I have had as a doctor and as a human being."

Milan Milosevic said his daughter was in the classroom when the attacker burst in.

She managed to escape. (The boy) ... first shot the teacher and then he started shooting randomly," Mr Milosevic, who had rushed to the school, told broadcaster N1.

I saw the security guard lying under the table. I saw two girls with blood on their shirts."

According to the 2018 Small Arms Survey, Serbia globally ranked third with 39.1 firearms per 100 people, and more than 78,000 people have hunting licences.

The survey estimate includes many weapons held illegally since the wars and unrest of the 1990s, despite authorities having issued several amnesties for owners to hand in or register illicit guns.

In the deadliest shooting in Serbia since then, Ljubisa Bogdanovic killed 14 people in 2013. Other mass shootings occurred in 2007, 2015 and 2016.
A man suspected of killing five of his neighbours has been found by police hiding under a pile of laundry in a house in Texas.

Francisco Oropeza, 38, was arrested four days after the shooting late on Friday in the town of Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston

Acting on a tip, authorities said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.

Police had used drones and scent-tracking dogs during the wide search for Oropeza that included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene.

A nine-year-old boy was among those fatally shot with an AR-style rifle after the family confronted him late at night about firing rounds in his yard.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Oropeza had fled the scene after the attack that also left four adults dead.

He said his deputies had been called to the suspects house at least one other time previously over shooting rounds in his yard.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers speaks to the media during a news conference announcing the arrest of murder suspect Francisco Oropeza / AP

Oropeza will be charged with five counts of murder. His bond has been set at five million US dollars (4 million).

They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars, Sheriff Capers said of the families of the victims. He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.

The arrest happened near Conroe, ending what had become a widening dragnet that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions and had seen 80,000 dollars (64,000) in reward money offered.

As recently as Tuesday morning, the FBI said that Oropeza could be anywhere, underlining how investigators for days struggled to get a sense of his whereabouts and candidly acknowledged they had no leads.

The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5.15pm, and a little more than an hour later, Oropeza was in custody, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul.

The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to US immigration officials.

All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Mr Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, nine.
T he US on Thursday has rubbished claims it was behind a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin, one day after Volodymyr Zelensky made a similar denial.

The Kremlin has accused both countries of attempting to assassinate the Russian president in a drone attack in Moscow and said it would be absolutely ridiculous, for either side to deny their involvement.

On CNN, US national security spokesman John Kirby said: Obviously, it's a ludicrous claim.

He added: The United States has nothing to do with it. We don't even know exactly what happened here, but I can assure you the United States had no role in it whatsoever.

In a speech on Thursday, Mr Zelensky said he believed Mr Putin should face justice once his invasion of Ukraine is defeated.

In The Hague, where the International Criminal Court is based, Mr Zelensky urged the global community to hold Putin accountable and told the ICC judges that Russia's leader "deserves to be sentenced for (his) criminal actions right here in the capital of the international law.

Here is everything we know:

What happened?

Russian security chiefs say the Kremlin was attacked by two drones, which had been allegedly sent specifically to kill the Russian president.

They add that high-tech weapons made it into Russian airspace, but they managed to intercept the devices before they could do any real damage.

The security chiefs say the two drones were allegedly making their way to target Putins home in the Kremlin, but were disabled by electronic-defence systems before they could strike or detonate.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin wasnt in the Kremlin at the time and was instead working from his Novo-Ogaryovo home.

What has Russia said?

Russian forces say it believes the drones were an assassination attempt and have warned that they will be looking to retaliate as they see fit. They have said they are particularly annoyed that the alleged attack came in the lead-up to their Victory Day celebrations.

In a statement, issued through the state-run RIA news agency, it was said: Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services, with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were put out of action.

We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the presidents life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned.

The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit.

On Thursday, Mr Putin's spokesman accused the United States of being behind the alleged attack.

Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a daily conference call that the Kremlin was well aware that the decision on such actions and terrorist attacks is not made in Kyiv, but in Washington.

And then Kyiv does what it's told to do, Mr Peskov added, without offering evidence for his claim.

What has Ukraine said?

Reuters News Agency has reported how Ukraine has completely denied sending any weapons of war to assassinate the Russian president.

A senior Ukrainian presidential official told the agency that Kyiv had nothing to do with the alleged attack, and hailed it as the most dramatic accusation Russia has levelled against Ukraine since invading its neighbour more than 14 months ago.

There has been little to show in terms of evidence, but Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russias law-enforcement agencies, posted a video that allegedly shows a flying object approaching the Kremlin Senate building before blowing up just before reaching it.

We do not attack the Kremlin because, first of all, it does not solve any military problems, Ukraines presidential advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on Wednesday afternoon.

This is extremely disadvantageous from the point of view of preparing our offensive measures.

And, most importantly, it would allow Russia to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities. Why do we need this?

Have there been assassination attempts on Putin in the past?

Mr Putin survived another assassination in September 2022, according to media reports in the Mint publication, in what was the most recent attempt before this alleged attack.

It was said Putins limousine was allegedly attacked by a loud bang on its left front wheel, which was followed by heavy smoke.

In May 2022, a top Ukraine intelligence officer told Ukrainska Pravda, an online newspaper based in Kyiv: There was an attempt to assassinate Putin (in March 2022) He was even attacked, it is said, by representatives of the Caucasus, not so long ago. This is non-public information. [It was an] unsuccessful attempt, but it really happened.

The Mirror has reported in the past how Putin has in fact beaten five assassination attempts in total.

In the event of an assassination, PM Mikhail Mishustin would take control of the Russian state, according to Business Insider.
R ussia has scaled back its Victory Day celebrations this year amid fears the celebrations could be targeted by pro-Ukraine forces  as Kyiv prepares for its long-anticipated counteroffensive.

Parts of Russia have scaled back the celebrations for the annual event, citing concerns that pro-Ukrainian campaigners could target proceedings.

Security concerns have already prompted the nationwide cancellation of Immortal Regiment civilian processions  a key Victory Day event that sees Russians carry portraits of relatives who fought against the Nazis.

But what is the annual event all about?

What is Russias Victory Day?

Victory Day is a key anniversary for President Vladimir Putin, in which the Soviet Unions victory over Nazi Germany during the Second World War is commemorated.

Held annually on May 9, Russia marks the day in history when the Soviets were victorious over Nazi Germany in World War II as the most important holiday of the year in the calendar.

It marks the end of what they called the great patriotic war. It is estimated that around 27 million people from the Soviet Union were killed during World War II  this includes both civilian and military deaths.

How does Russia usually celebrate Victory Day?

Parades are held where the family members of those who died during the war walk together and hold aloft pictures of their loved ones. These parades happen in regions throughout the country but the main one is in Moscows Red Square and includes people marching to commemorate their lost loved ones, alongside an organised military parade involving tanks and a flyover.

The Soviet flag is flown from government buildings and public gatherings are organised. President Putin also gives a speech annually, which is televised.

TV networks also broadcast World War II-inspired films, and younger generations are urged to meet up with former veterans to hear stories of their experiences during the war. Fireworks are held in Moscow at the end of the day.

What will happen this year?

Parades in smaller regions of Russia have been cancelled but Russian security services are said to be working to ensure that the main parade, across Red Square, can safely go ahead, despite the risk threatened.

Traditionally Putin, his defence minister, and other senior officials watch the parade, but it is thought at present that he may not watch publicly this year. This has not yet been confirmed.

Putin traditionally makes a short speech but critics say they believe this may be done privately but still televised.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: We are, of course, aware that the Kyiv regime, which is behind a number of such attacks, terrorist acts, plans to continue its campaign.

All our special services are doing everything possible to ensure security. Most importantly, the Special Military Operation is being conducted to root out threats to our country.
L ondon has long been home to good Greek restaurants, but lately there is a stronger whiff of olive oil than usual. The latest place to be announced is Kima, a new fin-to-gill seafood restaurant that will open next month in Marylebone (57 Paddington Street, W1U, kimarestaurant.com). Translating as wave in Greek, Kima will be the third London project from Andreas Labridis and chef Nikos Roussos, the duo behind Opso, which sits opposite the new place (10 Paddington Street, W1U, opso.co.uk), and Carnabys lively gastrobar Ino (4 Newburgh Street, W1F, inorestaurant.com).

Between the three, Roussos and Labridis have built the beginnings of a great empire, bringing Hellenic flavours from sea and land. At Ino, find rich squares of feta over classic salad; at the soon-to-open Kima, grilled octopus, prawns and olive oil-drenched fish, a homage to those white and blue islands so beloved by tourists.

But there has been more of late. Take Esti, a new six-month residency at TT Liquor in Shoreditch (17B Kingsland Road, E2, ttliquor.co.uk). The restaurant, from new-on-the-scene Kostas Vais, has sought to combine traditional Greek cooking with Australian hospitality. On the menu are the likes of twice-cooked lamb ribs with tzatziki and Cornish fish alongside a garlicky skordalia.

It isnt all so humble. Bacchanalia (1-3 Mount Street, W1, bacchanalia.co.uk) is Richard Carings newish Grecian-cum-Roman orgy of a restaurant. Diners sit beneath great porcelain white hooves and Mayfair becomes mythological; you could call it Stath Lets Flats after a lottery win. Its another new spot for taramas, keftedes and juicy Greek sausages and, assault on the senses as it might be, it is rather fun.

Building an empire: Andreas Labridis with chef Nikos Roussos. The pair are opening Kima next month / Press handout

There are old hands that are beginning to pick up renewed attention, too. Andys Taverna in Camden (23 Pratt Street, NW1, andystaverna.co.uk ) was established in 1967 and is every bit a neighbourhood institution. Its a cosy and romantic spot for traditional spanakopita, dolmades and kalamari, and prices only ever veer beyond 20 if steaks enter the equation. Lemonia in Primrose Hill (89 Regents Park Road, NW1, lemonia.co.uk ) is another family run joint that takes diners to the sunny Aegean from a buzzing pocket of north London. It is  and take this as a positive light  a restaurant that might be written by Richard Curtis: convivial, traditional, where old timers serve the chattering classes great bowls of lamb stew and glasses of almost ironic Retsina. Meanwhile, ouzo and fresh fish are the star at the Four Lanterns (96 Cleveland Street, W1T, 020 7387 0704), which came out on top in two reviews by the Standards David Ellis  besting both the soulless Zephyr in Notting Hill (itself Grecian-inspired), and Gordon Ramsays Savoy spot, the River Restaurant, which happens to have some of the same tableware.

And then there is the unassuming Catalyst Cafe (48 Grays Inn Road, WC1X, catalyst.cafe), an industry-favourite that last summer began to stir interest in Greek dining again. Its hyper-modern cooking, carried out by an oft-changing roster of talented chefs, has been called by inventive and exhilarating by the likes of the Standards own chief critic Jimi Famurewa. Charmingly, it is served with at the whimsy of a Mykonos fisherman, smoking a cigarette and downing a strong espresso from the starboard side.

We are residing in feta-clad days. Pass the ouzo and sprinkle on the oregano. The Greeks have come, and London is living their odyssey.
The file photo, taken on April 19, 2023, shows the view of a street in Khartoum, Sudan. (Photo by Mohamed Khidir/Xinhua)

The warring parties in Sudan on Tuesday agreed on a seven-day ceasefire mediated by neighboring South Sudan.



JUBA, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), on Tuesday agreed on a seven-day ceasefire mediated by neighboring South Sudan.

Pauline Adhong Malok, the spokesperson for South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a media briefing in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, that the ceasefire, which was negotiated by South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, will start Thursday to pave the way for peace talks between warring factions headed by the two generals.

"The government of the Republic of South Sudan has obtained the consent of the two parties to the current conflict in Sudan to name their representatives to peace talks to be held at any venue of their choice," Malok said.

She added that Kiir, during a telephone conversation with the two warring Sudanese generals, stressed the need for a longer ceasefire and speedy solution to the conflict that broke out in mid-April.

The file photo, taken on April 15, 2023, shows smoke rising in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. (Photo by Mohamed Khidir/Xinhua)

Kiir is the leader of a team of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Assembly of the Heads of State that is negotiating for an end to armed conflict in Sudan.

Currently in its third week, the conflict in Sudan, which is concentrated in the capital of Khartoum, has triggered a mass exodus of civilians to neighboring countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Chad, and South Sudan.

In addition, foreign countries have evacuated their citizens from Sudan even as the United Nations warns of a looming humanitarian crisis amid a lack of food, clean water, and medicine among civilians trapped in the conflict.

The clashes between the SAF and the RSF have killed more than 500 people and left over 4,000 others wounded so far, according to Sudan's Ministry of Health. 


I am a light sleeper. An extremely light sleeper. So when I moved to a busy high street above a bustling pub, I feared for the eight hours Id become accustomed to and relied on. The only answer was, of course, ear plugs.

If youve ever shared a room or bed with a snorer, you will feel my pain too. There is nothing more frustrating than watching your partner or friend enjoying a sound doze as you pile pillows over your head, crank up rain sounds in uncomfortable earbuds and do everything in your power not to end up with 25 years to life.

While you cant control the audio around you, you can zone it out almost entirely and be able to drift off without a care in the world. A noise pollution-free life may just be a cost-friendly purchase away so that nothing can stand in the way of your full reset and recharge.

Yet all earplugs are not created equal. I know all too well the problem with investing in the wrong shaped option, only to be awoken at the crack of dawn by a gust of wind or worse, the weekly rubbish collection. Meanwhile, the wayward plug was on the other side of the bed after having fallen out midway through the night.

Instead of opting for the cheapest you can have delivered, it is worth taking a bit more care and consideration so that you will have ear plugs that will do the job, and last. They come in different sizes and this is crucial in order for them to remain firmly in place in your ears. There are also new, innovative shapes as well as materials that block out sound more efficiently and are reusable and easy to clean.

How we tested

We hit the hay to put these ear plugs through their paces. We popped them in our ears and slept soundly, living above a pub on a busy North London high street. We looked out for size, comfort, ease in use (because its not always a case of squeezing them into your drums) and most importantly of all, noise cancellation.

Weve done the hard work for you and put a whole array of ear plugs through the sleep test to find the ones sure to guarantee you catch Zs in peace.
E mma Watson has opened up about why she is on a self-imposed break from acting that has so far lasted four years  and whether or not she could be tempted to return.

Paris-born Watson, 33, shot to fame as a child star playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films for 10 years.

Since then, she has started in blockbusters including Disneys Beauty and the Beast live-action remake, Perks of Being A Wall Flower and The Bling Ring.

She was last seen on screen in Greta Gerwigs Little Women back in 2019 and she says the experience made her reevaluate the direction in which her life was going.

I wasnt very happy if Im being honest. I think I felt a bit caged, she said in an interview with the Financial Times.

The thing I found really hard was that I had to go out and sell something that I really didnt have very much control over.

To stand in front of a film and have every journalist be able to say, How does this align with your viewpoint?

Emma Watson has not been seen on screen since 2019s Little Women / Sony

She added: It was very difficult to have to be the face and the spokesperson for things where I didnt get to be involved in the process.

That does not mean to say she will never step in front of a camera again. Watson said she would be open to the idea if the role was right.

She explained she did not want to fracture herself into different faces and people, adding: I dont want to switch into robot mode any more.
W oody Harrelson has shared fresh proof that Matthew McConaughey could be his brother.

The actors are convinced they are related after McConaughey previously suggested his mother had a romance with Harrelsons father when she was separated from her husband.

Harrelson has now revealed that when McConaughey was born, the stars father refused to go to the hospital because he felt he was not his child.

When the Cheers star was asked by actor Justin Theroux on Esquires podcast Explain This if he genuinely believed McConaughey was his brother, he replied: "Well, I dont know because we havent done the testing, but I can say that theres a lot of almost insane coincidences.

His mum had a relationship with my dad right around the time he was conceived, he explained.

The pairs families are already close / Getty Images

That seems like a big coincidence and [when his mum] was going to the hospital to give birth, he goes, That aint my son, and he didnt go to the hospital with her.

The True Detective actors already have a close relationship with McConaugheys children, referring to the Cheers actor as Uncle.

My kids call him Uncle Woody, said McConaughey. His kids call me Uncle Matthew. And you see pictures of us and my family thinks a lot of pictures of him are me.

His family thinks a lot of pictures of me are him.

Appearing on Kelly Ripas Lets Talk Off Camera podcast, he continued: "In Greece a few years ago, were sitting around talking about how close we are and our families.

McConaughey in True Detective, which also starred Harrelson / HBO

And my mum is there, and she says, Woody, I knew your dad. Everyone was aware of the ellipses that my mom left after knew. It was a loaded K-N-E-W.

He said the conversation with his mother prompted him to look into his family history.

We went on to unpack what this knew meant and did some math and found out that his dad was on furlough at the same time that my mom and dad were in their second divorce, said the star, who was estranged from his mother, Mary Kathlene McCabe, for several years.

The man he grew up calling his father, James McConaughey, died in 1992. Harrelsons father, Charles Harrelson, died in prison in 2007.
B luetooth trackers are in theory a simple and elegant way of protecting keys, wallets and other personal effects against loss or theft.

But theres a dark side to them, which the arrival of Apples AirTags has uncovered. If you can use Bluetooth trackers to keep tabs on possessions, you can also use them to track people, as several high-profile stalking cases have demonstrated .

Some tracker makers have tried to act on this. iPhones, for example, will alert you if an AirTag has been nearby for an extended period.

But its not a cross-platform solution. If youre an Android owner, the AirTag tracking app will spot nearby AirTags. However, not only do you need to know the app exists, but you also have to use it proactively. Its not something that will always be searching in the background, leaving Android owners comparatively vulnerable.

Now Apple and Google have announced that theyre working together on an anti-stalking initiative to counter the misuse of Bluetooth location-tracking devices for unwanted tracking.

The proposed industry specification will allow Bluetooth location-tracking devices to be compatible with unauthorised tracking detection and alerts across iOS and Android platforms, Apple says.

The company adds that other third-party Bluetooth tracker makers  Samsung, Tile, Chipolo, eufy and Pebblebee  have all expressed support for the draft specification. This offers best practices and instructions for manufacturers, should they choose to build these capabilities into their products.

This collaboration and the resulting standards are a significant step forward, said Erica Olsen, senior director of the National Network to End Domestic Violences Safety Net project.

These new standards will minimise opportunities for abuse of this technology and decrease the burden on survivors in detecting unwanted trackers. We are grateful for these efforts and look forward to continuing to work together to address unwanted tracking and misuse.

Of course, such increases to visibility intrinsically make Bluetooth trackers less useful for another intended purpose: protecting against theft. If a thief can easily detect a hidden Bluetooth tracker, they can easily find and remove it, preventing the owner from being reunited with the stolen goods.

This is why Tile  one of the companies that have expressed an interest in the proposed industry specification  recently announced anti-theft mode .

This makes its trackers invisible to anyone but the owner, but anybody who enables it will have to submit a government-issued ID and a biometric scan tp the company. If theyre later convicted of stalking via Tile, they will be on the hook for a $1 million (800,000) fine, the company says.

How enforceable this is in practice is debatable. However, it makes Tile one of the few companies trying to square the circle of making Bluetooth trackers both stalker-proof and thief-proof.

Apple and Googles announcement suggests that the industry as a whole is, for now, prioritising making life difficult for stalkers, rather than concerning itself too much with theft.
NAIROBI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Developed countries, which are major contributors to the emission of planet-warming gases like methane and carbon dioxide, should honor their financial commitment to helping Africa adapt to the unfolding climate crisis, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said here Wednesday.

Guterres, who is on an official visit to Kenya, said at a media briefing in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi that the industrial north has a moral obligation to help African countries become climate resilient.

"Developed countries must deliver on the 100 billion U.S. dollars a year promised to developing countries and the loss and damage fund agreed in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt's Red Sea resort city)," Guterres said, adding that delivering climate justice in Africa is crucial for global peace, growth, and stability.

While reiterating that the transition to a green and resilient future is urgent in Africa, Guterres called on developed nations and industry to support the continent's quest for decarbonizing key economic sectors like energy.

The UN chief hailed Kenyan President William Ruto's commitment to a 100 percent transition to clean energy by 2030, adding that the African Union's ambitious Green Stimulus Program will reinvigorate climate response in the continent.

Guterres noted that South Africa's Just Energy Transition Partnership, and Egypt and Nigeria's energy transition plans were bold moves toward low carbon transition in Africa.

The UN chief disclosed that he has proposed a Climate Solidarity Pact in which developed countries lend financial and technical support to help emerging economies in Africa and beyond hasten their transition to green energy.

Guterres observed that despite its minimal contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, Africa continues to bear the brunt of climate disasters like floods and droughts.

He added that the climate-induced drought crisis engulfing the Horn of Africa region is a wake-up call for governments, donors, and the private sector to back community-based resilient programs.

Guterres said 50 percent of climate financing in Africa should be channeled toward adaptation projects to enable communities to withstand climate-related shocks like hunger and water scarcity. 
TRIPOLI, May 2 (Xinhua) -- A group of Libyan female officials and lawmakers has held a meeting to advocate greater women's representation in the country's future parliament, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on Tuesday.

The meeting, attended by 20 female members of the Libyan High Council of State and the House of Representatives (parliament), was held on Sunday under the auspices of the UNSMIL, the UN mission said in a statement.

The UNSMIL technical experts outlined different mechanisms for ensuring greater women's representation in political leadership and presented lessons learned from other countries. The participants then analyzed the pros and cons of the various approaches in the Libyan context, the statement said.

The participants agreed to advocate for allocating the majority of seats through a proportional representation system with candidates presented in lists with alternating women and men candidates.

Currently, women constitute around 15 percent and 16.5 percent of the High Council of State and House of Representatives, respectively, the UNSMIL said.

The newly published 13th Constitutional Amendment includes a temporary measure reserving 20 percent of seats in the House of Representatives for women in the upcoming elections and charged a committee with designating seats for women in the Senate, the UN mission added.

Libya failed to hold general elections in December 2021 as previously scheduled due to disagreements over election laws among the Libyan parties. 
Members of Niagara Folk Arts Multicultural Centre and St. Catharines city councillors pose for a photo with the Folk Arts flag, marking the start of the festival.







A little rain couldnt dampen the spirits of those ready to celebrate the Niagara Folk Arts Festival.

A flag raising at St. Catharines City Hall on May 3 had to be moved inside due to rain, but the gallery was full of onlookers, ready to mark the start of the festival.

Now in its 55th year, the Niagara Folk Arts Festival is Canadas oldest continually running cultural festival.

The goal of the festival is to celebrate the different cultures that make up Niagara, by sharing music, dance, and food from other countries.

This years festival will feature 14 ethnocultural open houses, including an open house from the Ethio-Canadian community for the first time.

The open houses are free to attend, with a pay-as-you-go format for food offerings.

At the flag raising, St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe referred to his own multicultural household, and how they look forward to the festival every year.

My oldest son is Ethiopian, my second oldest son is Jamaican, my third oldest is Haitian, my daughter is a mix of different nationalities. We try to experience and celebrate each of our traditions within the family, he said. Once you experience the different cultures and the different traditions, it makes life so much better ... I think we come to a better place as a community when we work at understanding each of our different traditions and heritages so that we can build a stronger place.

Bob Oleksiew, board chair for the Niagara Folk Arts Multicultural Centre, spoke about the great work that they do.

He said the centre now offers services in 14 different languages.

It's just amazing that people who come here for various reasons can feel that comfort by being able to deal with the issues and the intricacies of integrating into our community, he said.

Pam Seabrook, fundraising and events manager, has been involved with the festival on and off for about 20 years.

This will be the first year since the start of the pandemic that the festival is allowed to operate at full capacity, and Seabrook said theyre only able to do it because of the volunteers.

We have over 1,700 volunteers that run this event, she said. So we're into over 80,000 hours of volunteer time. That's what makes this happen.

Seabrook said itll be nice to get back into the tradition of the open houses.

There is an anxious anticipation, she said. I'm very happy to be part of that mission.

Open houses will be held on various dates from May 5 to 28. Visit niagarafolkartsfestival.ca for the full schedule.

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Its time to get tough on illegal vacation rentals in Niagara Falls, says a local hotel industry official who describes the ongoing situation as the crisis next door.

Its endangering neighbourhoods, said Doug Birrell, executive director of Niagara Falls Canada Hotel Association. Niagara Falls is inundated with illegal vacation rental units in almost every neighbourhood.

He said there are 1,284 active vacation rentals, according to AirDNA, which provides research and market statistics. Just 16 are licensed.

You dont have to guess where the illegal units are, I can show you, said Birrell, who shared a presentation with the Niagara Falls Review Wednesday that he plans to deliver to city council, which includes a map identifying where vacation rentals are located.

His comments come after Coun. Lori Lococo, during an April 18 meeting, called on city staff to keep a close eye on illegal vacation rentals, adding shes receiving calls and emails every day about the issue.

Last August, politicians received an update about the citys strategy to enforce bylaws related to illegally run vacation rental units.

Over the years, residents have voiced concerns about some of their quaint streets being shattered due to a proliferation of vacation rental properties.

In August 2021, the Ontario Land Tribunal approved a city official plan amendment to add definitions and policies respecting vacation rental units.

A licensed vacation rental unit with as many as three bedrooms is permitted in existing dwellings or a dwelling unit within the tourist commercial, general commercial and commercial business zone subject to regulations contained in a bylaw.

Birrell said competition is a good thing if people were to open legal vacation rentals and be subject to the same stringent rules and regulations as hotels, but the vast majority of active units in Niagara Falls are not in permitted zoning.

Ive got a friend who owns four legal (vacation rentals and) hes fed up. He says, Im at a disadvantage, Im one of the 16 whose got a licence, all these other illegal guys, theyre not subject to health and building (and fire inspections).

He pointed to several national news stories highlighting violent incidences at illegal vacation rentals.

Birrell said a recent fatal fire at an illegal rental in Quebec led to that province successfully approaching Airbnb to remove all unlicensed units from its website.

He said he would like to see Ontario take the same approach. But in the meantime, Birrell said the City of Niagara Falls should be doing more than initiating an education campaign through which postcards will be sent to every address in Niagara Falls, explaining the municipalitys bylaw.

During councils last meeting, chief administrative officer Jason Burgess said city staff sent a letter last year to Airbnb and Vrbo notifying them of the municipalitys bylaw and requesting them to provide a list of individuals who are not licensed or for them to monitor the citys licensing list.

In an interview, Burgess said because the bylaw is fairly new, staff want to take an educational approach, but also use enforcement in areas where there are issues.

Birrell said other cities, such as Niagara-on-the-Lake, have got in front of the issue and solved it. He said the municipality contracted a company that can go beyond just identifying where vacation rental properties are located, but also find out who owns the properties, where they live, etc.

Oakville got in front of it. Muskoka got in front of it.

Birrell also fought back against the argument vacation rentals provide supplemental income for people.

He said Skift, a global travel intelligence company, reports less than 10 per cent of these businesses across North America are in a principal residence where the owner resides.

These are ghost hotels.

He pointed to several examples where the hotel industry, which employs 27,000 people in Niagara, provide benefits to the community, whereas illegal vacation rentals dont.

Birrell cited a Globe and Mail article that reported on a study finding vacation rentals have likely removed 31,000 homes out of Canadas rental market.

In some areas, it has forced neighbours to move. Its predicted that by the year 2025, (vacation rentals), if left unchecked, will grow at a rate of 44 per cent a year, he said. Hopefully, the city will get in front of it because weve got a disproportionate amount (of illegal units) relative to our size. Its going to take some manpower. Its going to take an investment at first and then its maintenance once you get it down to a manageable size.

Birrell said the city should establish individual contracts with each vacation rental unit provider, allowing only the display of units that conform to legal standards and possess a valid municipal licence; ensure such properties are subject to health, fire and building inspection, and that units only be licensed in tourist commercial zones and be required to charge and remit the $2 per night transient occupancy tax to the city like hotels do.

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Safia Mustafas family is recuperating in Kenya after fleeing fighting between Sudans army and a paramilitary group, as evacuation flights were diverted due to increased clashes.

Mustafa, 36, of St. Catharines, her mother, 75, and grandmother, 90, were passengers on one of the final evacuation flights last Friday from the Wadi Seidna Air Base, north of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, which took them to Djibouti and onto a commercial flight to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Mustafas flight took off a day before the Canadian government moved flights from the capital city airport and other air bases north of the city to a distant port city as fighting posed safety concerns for flights as of Saturday night.

Upon disembarking in Kenya, Mustafa said she was met by officials from Kenya and Canada who greeted them with open arms.

The Kenya ambassador to Sudan was there meeting and greeting everybody and there was some Canadian representatives there, as well as military (personnel), she said.

In Kenya Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Sudanese evacuees were thankful Canada and allies helped them to safety in their time of need.

Joly said it was emotional listening to people involved with the evacuations, which included people from the Khartoum embassy.

People went through hell, and were fearing for their lives, but at the same time, people are still dealing with the trauma of having to leave their home and their loved ones, she said.

Mustafas family fled their home in Khartoum and made their way to the Wadi Seidna Air Base after fighting between forces loyal to Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the countrys de facto leader, and the paramilitary militia Rapid Support Forces dedicated to former warlord Gen. Hemetti, also known as Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, forced many people to flee for safety.

Canadian military forces moved fast to organize people to leave the country, Mustafa said by phone from her hotel room in the Kenyan capital.

We spent two nights on the air base. I didnt think I could handle the first night, let alone the second night, but somehow we did it, she said.

After being unable to board a British military flight Thursday, Mustafa was assured she and her family would be able to get on a flight out of the country Friday.

But Mustafa said they were again turned away from a Friday flight after being unable to get her grandmother, who is wheelchair-bound, to the plane before it was filled.

I had my grandma, I couldnt push people out of my way, as Im trying to push a wheelchair and all our luggage, she said.

We made it almost to the plane and they (soldiers) were like, No, the plane is full, no more.

Mustafa, exhausted from the ordeal, said her heart sank in her chest watching the doors of the plane close.

Thats when she was told by soldiers another plane had been scheduled but was delayed due to fighting in the area.

At around 5:30, the military told me there was going to be a plane at 8 p.m., she said.

They (Canadian Forces) started organizing, they took us to the hangar and told us make sure we only have one bag per person and to be able to carry the bag onto the plane, she said.

Mustafa said the flight left the air base between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m., unsure as her phone was turned off to conserve battery life.

We boarded. I didnt believe it until the plane had left as we could sense the tension, as everybody was scared, she said.

Our plan is to go to the U.A.E.  my brother and aunt live there  so we can rest and figure out what the next step is, she said.

We will have our visa for Canada. Ill probably come to Canada, but I need to figure out what my mom and grandma are going to do and what their situation is going to be.

With files from the Toronto Star

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KAMPALA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- At least six people, including five members of the same family, were killed by landslides triggered by torrential rains in several villages in western Uganda, a relief agency said on Wednesday.

Five people from one family in Biizi village and another one in Gihuyaga village, both in Murora sub-county in the western district of Kisoro, were killed, said Irene Nakasiita, spokesperson for the Uganda Red Cross Society.

"Red Cross response teams are on ground, and also involved in exhumation and management of the dead, together with the local authorities and community members," Nakasiita said in a statement.

Uganda last month issued a disaster alert warning that parts of the east African country will face floods, landslides, mudslides, hailstorms, and lightning as the first rain season starts.

According to the Ministry for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, parts of eastern, central, western regions and the Lake Victoria basin would experience near-normal to above-normal forms of rainfall up to May.

Heavy rainfall is likely to lead to the destruction of farmland, crops and a surge of water-related diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery and malaria. 
Experts say a new partnership between Bell and Air Canada offering Aeroplan members free Wi-Fi messaging on flights will help strengthen the rewards programs brand after being largely grounded during the pandemic.

The telecommunications giant will sponsor inflight Wi-Fi services across the airlines fleet, including Air Canada Rouge and Air Canada Express planes, starting May 15.

All Aeroplan members travelling worldwide on Wi-Fi-equipped airplanes will be able to send and receive messages on apps such as Apples iMessage, Metas WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, Rakutens Viber and Messages by Google over Wi-Fi.

Access will be available on any Wi-Fi capable device, no matter the passengers mobile carrier, Bell confirmed.

The service will also be available to strategic partner airline loyalty members, including customers of United MileagePlus, Lufthansa Group Miles & More and Emirates Skywards, when their account numbers are associated with an Air Canada booking.

This could mark the beginning of making Aeroplan a stand-alone brand, which it really hasnt been, said Joanne McNeish, a marketing management professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Air Canada is using this partnership and announcement to begin to promote this brand and perhaps give it some strength because it doesnt seem to have any right now.

The companies said the deal will mean additional benefits for Aeroplan customers. That includes offering new promotional rewards and expanding Air Canadas Live TV service on flights to the U.S., starting later this summer.

Were so proud to join with an iconic brand to deliver real value to customers across the country, and, importantly, to those new to our country, said Air Canada executive vice-president and president of Aeroplan Mark Nasr in a news release.

This multi-faceted partnership with Bell will allow Air Canada customers to keep in touch with friends, family, or colleagues wherever they travel.

On select flights, Bell will also offer complimentary mobile SIM cards to international travellers arriving in Canada, allowing them to be connected when they walk off an airplane.

For those new to Canada or visiting, we recognize how important it is to stay connected with family and friends, and the new opportunities being connected can bring, Bell executive vice-president of marketing Claire Gillies said in a news release.

Airline analyst Robert Kokonis said the agreement is a win-win for the Aeroplan brand both for fully engaged Aeroplan members and perhaps Aeroplan members that arent as engaged.

He characterized it as a response to Porter Airlines announcing in late 2022 that it would offer free Wi-Fi on its Embraer E195-E2 fleet, despite the fact that Porters move covers all web browsing rather than only messaging.

If they started to see perhaps unacceptable erosion of market share to Porter on certain select routes, you could see Air Canada decide to go back and roll out free Wi-Fi, not just text message, said Kokonis, president of AirTrav Inc.

Air Canada reacquired the Aeroplan program from Aimia Inc. in January 2019. The loyalty program has undergone a revamp since the pandemic in an effort to boost membership after Air Canada said members indicated they wanted more opportunities to earn and redeem points in their everyday lives.

Kokonis said demand for the rewards program has since roared back, thanks in part to agreements with companies such as Uber and Starbucks, which help reach folks that perhaps maybe dont even have an Aeroplan frequent flyer card.

McNeish cautioned the one caveat to the deal which could hurt Aeroplan is if the inflight connection is poor.

We all know what slow internet looks like, which means it didnt respond in two seconds, she said.

These things start out like theyre always going to operate perfectly. Whats the rollout going to look like?

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE, TSX:AC)

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version used an incorrect word in a quoted sentence by Joanne McNeish.

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I never met Gordon Lightfoot but considered him a childhood friend.

It was this way for generations of Canadians. Mr. Lightfoot, who died Monday at 84, didnt just make music. His songs transcended the studio to magically connect us to one another, to our great country, to our past, to our hopes and heartbreaks.

Bob Dylan said it best: I cant think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I dont like. Every time I hear a song of his, its like I wish it would last forever.

Me too. But trying to reverse-engineer this alchemy is a fools errand.

The Canadian singer-songwriter, who released 20 albums and was well-known around the globe, died Monday at the age of 84 after facing numerous health issues over the past few years.

You could flag Lightfoots exquisite songwriting. Or the bottomless well from which he could conjure earworms. His ability to play with tempo was paranormal. As a lyricist, he was a poet laureate. Listening to Talking in Your Sleep is like reading a Raymond Carver short story. If You Could Read My Mind is the most haunting breakup ballad you will ever hear. Even the fading pause to turbocharge the chorus in Daylight Katy is an act of sheer genius. In silence, he remained in total control.

Gordon Lightfoot was our most enduring and endearing genius.

Its why there are tears in my eyes right now. Canada didnt just lose a troubadour who helped score the soundtrack to our lives. Canada lost a bit of Canada this week.

I have a flashbulb memory of sitting on the floor cross-legged in my childhood bedroom and listening to Canadian Railroad Trilogy. For a kid with a funny name who didnt look like many others in school, Lightfoot became a history teacher, a giver of lore, an emotional healer, a code-breaker to what it meant to be Canadian.

He was a guardian angel on an album cover.

He could make you tap your toes and see the light when life was darkest.

Lightfoot didnt just write songs  he provided free rides we could take when the mood struck. If youve ever driven across this country while blasting Carefree Highway, Sundown or Summer Side of Life, its like Gordon was riding shotgun, a familiar voice bending your ear to help your cynical eyes absorb the beautiful sights.

Gordon Lightfoot made Canada cool.

That he did this for decades while giving a cold shoulder to fame was yet another great reason to admire this great man. Until the end, Lightfoot never lost touch with the small-town boy who wasnt even sure music could earn him a living. He just couldnt help himself. Music, like eating or sleeping, was a biological imperative.

How lucky we were to bask in this unifying force of talent.

I suspect thats why millions of Canadians also have flashbulb memories in which a Gordon Lightfoot song is playing in the background. From first kisses to last goodbyes, from triumphs to kicks in the face, he was always just one play away. His microphone was a national PA system. His guitar was an oracle. And his music  folk, rockabilly, s--tkicker, call it what you want  was most incredible for, as Dylan put it, the lack of clunkers in the sonic mix. Orchestral flourishes, cowbells, triangles, sliding guitars, it didnt matter. Gordon Lightfoot could have recorded an album in which he banged on pots and pans and it would have instantly resonated on the national stage.

The intro whistling on Ribbon of Darkness is captivating. The melancholy of Rainy Day People is somehow uplifting. Even the synths and drum machine effects on Anything for Love work because of his instinctive grasp of chord changes, key signature and the power of lucid lyrics to burrow deep into our connective tissue.

I have no clue about Lightfoots political leanings or where he stood on the big issues. Luckily, he was too busy making music. But listening to his catalogue always felt like you were in the presence of a childhood friend, a wise observer of human existence who had maybe seen and felt too much but was willing to be a tour guide in 4/4 time.

There are columns I dread writing. This is one of them. My heart is too close to the subject. Just as with the passing of Gord Downie and Leonard Cohen, it hurts too much to try to put the loss into words. I cant find the spigot to turn off the tears.

Thank you, Gordon Lightfoot. Thank you for sharing your remarkable gift with a country that needed you more than you could ever possibly know. Thank you for the songs that bridged time and distance to bring us together. Thank you for the gorgeous melodies, harmonies and arrangements. Thank you for the artistic purity. Thank you for Early Morning Rain and Song for a Winters Night. Thank you for turning music into a great equalizer for anyone from any walk of life. Thank you for The Circle Is Small, Me and Bobby McGee and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Thank you for always reminding us of what it means to be Canadian.

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Normally a babbling brook, Cache Creek in British Columbias Interior has become a raging river, with floodwaters flowing right through the communitys firehall, the mayor said.

John Ranta said water levels are the highest hes ever seen in the village located about 80 kilometres west of Kamloops.

With the amount of water coming down, its hard to describe, but putting a few sandbags up is not going to save anything, he said in an interview.

The water is going to go where the water wants to go.

The flooding is worst in the village of Cache Creek, but other areas in the province are also on high alert.

B.C.s River Forecast Centre has issued two flood warnings, its highest-level bulletin, while several lower-level flood watches and high streamflow advisories covered much of the provinces northern, central and southern Interior on Wednesday.

Snow at higher elevations is melting quickly, and with warm weather and rain in the forecast this week, Ranta said the flooding in Cache Creek may get even worse.

One of the homes under an evacuation order is likely lost after the river flowed through the property, he said, while other properties are subject to an evacuation alert.

The river debris, rocks and mud and whatnot, has piled up to the level of the windows of the house, so Im sure (its) soaking wet inside and probably a writeoff.

A post on the Village of Cache Creek Facebook page said 13 properties had been evacuated by Wednesday afternoon.

Stretches of highways 1 and 97 have been closed in both directions, and Ranta said water has inundated the two routes as they intersect in Cache Creek.

The mayor urged residents to stay away from fast-flowing floodwaters and encouraged people to do their best to get through the disaster.

Well get back on our feet in the near future, he said.

The village is operating an emergency centre at the community hall and thats where people should go if they need to leave their homes, Ranta said.

The River Forecast Centre has issued a flood warning for the Thompson region that encompasses communities including Cache Creek, Lytton and Merritt.

A flood warning was also in effect for Whiteman Creek as it flows into Okanagan Lake, where the Okanagan Indian Band has issued an evacuation order for several properties in the Parker Cove neighbourhood, west of Vernon.

Reached by phone on Wednesday, Parker Cove resident Gordon Best said his home is far enough away that hes not worried about flooding, but hes never seen the waters of Whiteman Creek swell so much in his 15 years of living there.

He said part of a road has been washed out and people are using sandbags and other barriers in an effort to keep the floodwaters at bay.

The creeks been high before, but not like this, Best said Wednesday.

Its quite extraordinary.

The provincial government said in a statement it is helping communities prepare for flooding and a stockpile of sandbags is being deployed to communities that need them.

Areas at risk of moderate flooding are expected to expand, especially in the central Interior and Okanagan until Friday, it said.

Into the weekend, significant flood hazard is expected throughout small- and medium-sized watersheds in the Central Interior, Okanagan, Boundary and Southern Kootenays.

The hot weather is expected to ease by Friday when heavy rain and possible thundershowers move in for the weekend in B.C.s Interior, the statement said.

Lower-level flood watches covered the Okanagan, Boundary and Kootenay regions along with areas surrounding the Salmon River between Salmon Arm and Vernon.

The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen has activated several sandbag centres for residents and businesses that need to protect their property.

A flood watch was also in effect for the middle Fraser River plateau, including areas around Quesnel and Williams Lake.

The forecast centre has said snowmelt is increasing, especially in mid-elevation areas, and rain is expected to follow warm, sunny conditions later this week.

In the north, high streamflow advisories were in effect for the Williston region as well as areas surrounding Prince George.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said Cache Creek was east of Kamloops.

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Where the leaders are today on the Alberta election campaign trail:

United Conservative Party Leader Danielle Smith:

CALGARY  Joins Shaye Ganams radio show on CHQR and CHED, visits candidates and their teams.

_

NDP Leader Rachel Notley:

EDMONTON -- Joins candidates and workers to lay out a jobs plan. (11:15 a.m., UA Local 488, 16214 118 Ave. NW)

_

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

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HALIFAX - A woman accused of assaulting police during a housing protest in Halifax has denied intentionally kicking two constables, saying she was avoiding kicks and stomps from landing on her.

Natasha Danais testified Wednesday during her trial on one charge of obstruction and three charges of assaulting police during the Aug. 18, 2021, protest.

The 26-year-old told Halifax provincial court Judge Kelly Serbu that when she went through a police line and landed on her back, she was fearful of the heavy-set Halifax officer shed just been face-to-face with  Const. Chris DeLong.

She testified that the constable had earlier grabbed her by the throat and had kicked her at least three times.

It wasnt the first time Id ended up on the ground in front of him, and hed been kicking and stomping on me and I assumed it was going to be the same thing, she testified.

She said she moved her legs in a bicycle motion as she lay on her back, just trying to prevent myself from being hurt any more, as several officers arrested her and pulled her away.

At the time, municipal workers were attempting to remove a shelter for homeless people in front of the former Halifax public library, and Danais was among the demonstrators Halifax police were pushing out of the way.

Const. Conor Gillam testified Tuesday that Danais had pulled off his medical mask, and constables Brian Palmeter and DeLong told the court she kicked them while she was lying on her back after toppling through the police line.

In Tuesdays testimony, DeLong denied kicking Danais while he faced her on the line, testifying that he was raising his leg in self defence. If I had wanted to kick her it would have looked different than that, DeLong said under cross-examination.

Danais told the court she went to the protest shortly after 10:30 a.m. because shed heard police would be at the sites of the homeless shelters as they were being torn down. She said it was upsetting to her because she believed the people living in the sheds had nowhere else to go.

I felt it was important (to attend) as I had been homeless a few months prior, Danais said.

Danais was shown portions of a video prepared depicting the tense showdown between protesters and police, but had a different perspective on it from that of the officers who testified Tuesday.

(DeLong) was kicking me, also pushed me by the throat. He was standing in front of me with a mask and not responding when I asked him for his name or badge number, she testified.

Later in her testimony, defence lawyer Asaf Rashid submitted a series of photographs that Danais took of herself in the police lockup and on the days following, showing bruising on her legs, chest, neck and ankles.

Danais said when she was arrested she told officers she didnt want to go into a paddy wagon until shed had a chance to learn the name of the officer who had assaulted her. She told the court she only learned DeLongs name later, as she laid complaints against the police and her trial unfolded.

As I was being taken away I was screaming, Whats his name? she testified.

Emilie Black, who also attended the protest to demonstrate against the shelter removals, testified that she was next to Danais as police pushed the demonstrators back.

I remember the officers grabbing Natasha and then seeing Natasha on the ground, she testified.

Rashid is arguing for a stay of proceedings based on police treatment of his client during and following her arrest, saying she wasnt given proper access to legal advice and her Charter rights were violated.

The trial ended Wednesday afternoon with closing submissions from the Crown and defence, with the judge reserving his decision until August.

Late Wednesday, Halifaxs board of police commissioners announced it has commissioned an independent civilian review of the police response to the 2021 protest.

The board said in a news release it has retained a Toronto law firm to examine the role and involvement of Halifax Regional Police in the eviction of unhoused and underhoused individuals and in its handling of the related protests.

The review is scheduled to begin on June 1 and a public report with findings and recommendations is set to be completed May 31, 2024.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

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PORT SUDAN, Sudan (AP)  The U.N.s humanitarian chief arrived in Sudans main seaport on Wednesday to seek guarantees for the safe passage of aid deliveries, as thousands of Sudanese and foreign nationals gathered there in hopes of fleeing the conflict-torn east African country.

Martin Griffiths, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator at the United Nations, tweeted that he came to affirm the U.N.s commitment to the Sudanese people. He arrived in Port Sudan on the Red Sea on the last day of a shaky truce, meant to expire at midnight, which has not quelled the fighting.

However, it is unclear how U.N. agencies can operate with limited staff and supplies amid the chaos, at a time of increasing concern about those trapped and displaced by the battle for control of Sudan. The fighting between forces loyal to two rival generals erupted April 15.

Thousands of U.N. workers were evacuated a week into the fighting, and some U.N. agencies paused their services. The World Food Program suspended operations after three of its workers were killed in fighting in southern Sudan, but the agency has since said it will resume its work.

The fighting, including unprecedented urban warfare in the capital of Khartoum, was preceded by months of escalating tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

At a virtual news conference from Port Sudan, Griffiths said he is seeking guarantees from the warring sides for the safe passage of humanitarian aid. He addressed criticism that the U.N. had not been doing enough by saying it was extremely difficult to work in Sudan.

The World Food Program reported that 17,000 metric tons of food has been looted, including in Khartoum and western Darfour, out of 80,000 metric tons that the Rome-based agency had in Sudan, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Even before the fighting erupted last month, a third of Sudans population of more than 45 million relied on humanitarian assistance, according to U.N. agencies, which suffer from funding shortfalls.

Six WFP trucks carrying aid to the western region of Darfur were looted on the road, Griffiths said. He singled out Darfur and Khartoum as badly in need of assistance.

Its not as if were asking for the moon, Griffiths said. Were asking for the movement of humanitarian supplies and people. We do this in every other country, even without cease-fires.

The conflict has so far killed 550 people, including civilians, and wounded more than 4,900. The fighting has displaced at least 334,000 people inside Sudan, and sent tens of thousands more to neighboring countries  Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia, according to U.N. agencies.

More than 42,000 Sudanese who fled the war in their country have crossed into Egypt along with 2,300 foreign nationals since the crisis began, the U.N. refugee agency said. Aid workers are increasingly concerned about lack of basic services in these areas, and also in Port Sudan, some 830 kilometers (500 miles) from Khartoum.

Early on, some Western countries, including France, Britain and Germany, airlifted hundreds of their citizens and other foreigners from airfields near Khartoum, Since then, the focus has shifted to Port Sudan as a base for those looking to leave. Many are still struggling to find a way out.

Hundreds of Syrians, who came to Sudan fleeing their own countrys civil war over the past decade, are among the foreigners to leave.

One Damascus-bound flight took off Wednesday, a second was to follow later in the day and more flights were scheduled in coming days, said Tariq Abdel-Hameed, a Syrian in Port Sudan, He said priority was given to women, children and the elderly.

For thousands of Sudanese and foreigners flocking to Port Sudan, its the last stop before leaving the country. Saudi warships have been ferrying evacuees across the Red Sea to the Saudi city of Jeddah.

It feels really sad to be leaving behind a part of your life, said Saadiya Abdulrahman, a Sudanese-American woman from Khartoum, while waiting with her daughter for their turn to board a Saudi vessel. When their turn came, they first got into a tugboat with dozens of others, to take them to the Saudi ship.

Khartoum has become like a ghost town in some neighborhoods because of all the destruction, said Salah Suleiman, a Sudanese from Khartoum who was among those sailing to Jeddah.

For those who cant afford to leave Khartoum, the most basic goods have become unavailable or unaffordable. Mercy Corps, an aid organization, said Wednesday that prices of basic goods in the city increased more than 130% on average while fuel prices increased more than ten-fold.

On Wednesday, the fighting continued in and around the city. Clouds of smoke were seen over areas of active fighting, and residents hiding in their homes still heard sounds of explosions, with the battles still seemingly centered around key government buildings, such as the Presidential Palace.

There were increasing signs of lawlessness in many neighborhoods, with reports that more diplomatic facilities were being targeted. Armed men stormed the building housing the office of Saudi Arabias cultural attache in Sudan, the kingdom said Wednesday.

A statement on the state-run Saudi Press Agency said an armed group destroyed equipment and cameras, seized some of attaches property and disrupted the attaches systems and servers.

Speaking from Kenya, U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the international community needs to come together and put pressure on the warring Sudanese generals to end the conflict.

All need to use their capacity to put pressure for this horrible and Id say unjustifiable conflict to stop, he said. The present situation is totally unacceptable.

___

ElHennawy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

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BERLIN (AP)  Berlin police said that two young children were seriously wounded in a knife attack Wednesday at a school in the south of Germanys capital, and a 38-year-old suspect was detained.

The girls, ages 7 and 8, were flown to a hospital. One of them had life-threatening injuries, according to a Berlin police statement.

The attack took place in the playground of the Protestant School in Berlins Neukoelln district, principal Thorsen Knauer-Huckauf said.

The entire school community is deeply affected and shocked, he said in a statement.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner condemned what he described as an incomprehensible deed.

My thoughts in these difficult hours are with the two wounded girls, he said. I wish them a speedy and good recovery.

Wegner expressed his sympathy to the parents, teachers and fellow pupils of the victims, and said he was in close contact with police about the attack.

The head of Berlins state education department said authorities dont have any indication that there was a political or religious motive behind the attack.

Police declined to immediately provide further details about he suspect, saying only that he would be interviewed as part of a homicide investigation.

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This story has been corrected to show that the age of the detained suspect is 38, not 39, after police corrected their information.

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There will be a ghost at the coronation of King Charles III in Westminster Abbey on Saturday.

Were not referring to Father Benedictus, a priest murdered by robbers in the 16th century who is said to appear to Westminster Abbey visitors just before closing time, nor Daniel Pulteney, an 18th-century politician whose statue is said to occasionally turn the pages of the book hes holding, nor any of the other 3,000 people entombed at the thousand-year-old abbey, including 30 kings and queens of England.

We're talking about the spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales, whose flower-covered casket sat in this same church during her funeral service nearly 26 years ago. The ghost of Diana  who she was and what she stood for  definitely looms large over this coronation. No one can change the fact that she was the wife of one king as well as the mother and grandmother to two future monarchs, says Christopher Andersen, an American journalist whose most recent book, The King, is a biography of King Charles III. She continues to cast a huge shadow.

In a parallel universe, this could have been Dianas coronation day too. In this timeline, Queen Diana would be a relatively youthful 62-year-old anointed alongside Charles, presented with the massive Queen Consorts ring and crowned with Queen Marys crown sparkling with stones cut from the Cullinan diamond, the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found.

The story, of course, didnt go that way. They divorced and Diana died tragically, preserved forever in public memory as a luminous, beloved 36-year-old who seemed on the cusp of finally finding the happiness that had eluded her throughout her disastrous marriage. Meanwhile, in a plot twist that seemed highly unlikely in the early 1990s, its Camilla, the woman Diana famously branded the third person in her unhappy union, standing next to Charles as he pledges a life of service to the crown.

Hence the Camilla will never be my queen and "Diana forever" type comments you frequently see on social media posts about the upcoming coronation.

Some people may have forgotten or are simply too young to remember, but when Diana was killed in 1997, Camilla became the most despised woman in the U.K., perhaps even the world, says Andersen. "She was cast as the scheming mistress, a homewrecker, 'that wicked woman' as Queen Elizabeth once called her. To some extent, Camilla was blamed not only for destroying the marriage of Charles and Diana, but also for setting in motion a chain of events that led to Diana's death."

The rather wishful logic goes that if there hadn't been a Camilla, Diana may not have been speeding through that Paris tunnel with Dodi Fayed. "However unhappy she was with Charles, Diana might well have stuck it out for the sake of their children, William and Harry  and yes, we would have been looking at a Queen Diana instead of a Queen Camilla.

Anderson points out that it took Queen Elizabeth II eight years to agree to Charles and Camilla's marriage, and even then, she only went to their reception, which followed a civil service where he notes Charles and Camilla were required by the Archbishop of Canterbury to get down on their knees and plead forgiveness from God for their manifold sins and wickedness.

Another unsavoury detail from this negotiation: Charles also had to promise flat-out to his people that Camilla would never be Queen, says Anderson. Out of respect for Diana, Camilla would only be known as Princess Consort once he ascended to the throne. That was almost 20 years ago, and the Queen eventually warmed to Camilla, to the point where she used one of her final public addresses to specify she wanted Camilla to have the title Queen, albeit with the "Consort" modifier, which will now be dropped after the coronation. Charles must be thrilled that he has been able to deliver what really is the ultimate tribute to his current wife, making her queen," says Andersen.

There are at least two people who its safe to say will be thinking about Diana on coronation day: her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. Both princes have spoken of feeling her presence over the years  in Williams case, it was in that same abbey on his wedding day in 2011  and have channelled their grief into keeping her memory alive in various ways, championing causes she cared about and naming their daughters for her. It seems likely that their emotions on the day  pride for their father, pain at their mothers absence and what might have been, reflection upon the experience of being part of a family whose entire purpose and way of life is distilled in this moment  will be complicated.

For William, the coronation is a glimpse into his future, a reminder of everything that, all being well, will be his one day simply because he was first born into this family.

For Harry, its a reminder of everything hes left behind, the rigid hierarchy that relegated him a spare part, and the machinery of public spectacle (what hes called their deal with the devil, referring to the media) that sustains the British monarchy, and which he has said he believes killed his mother and fears could do the same to his wife. Thats before we get to the fact that Camilla is being crowned too, the person who must have been a painful peripheral figure in their childhoods, and who Harry believes offered him up as a scapegoat to the tabloids in exchange for her own good publicity. Oh, and theres the brothers very public feud, whose battle lines seem firmly drawn between perpetuating the institution, flaws and all, and burning the whole thing down.

In Diana's 1995 interview with Panorama, when she was separated but not yet divorced, she told Martin Bashir that she didnt think shed ever be queen. Instead, she famously said she wanted to be a queen of peoples hearts, which feels strangely prescient when you think about the position she occupies all these years later: Loved by millions, her mythology only growing with time, and still very much a presence.

Sarah Laing is a Toronto-based freelance contributor for The Kit, writing about celebrity and culture. Follow her on Twitter: @sarahjanelaing

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WASHINGTON - Canada is teaming up with the U.S. and Spain in an effort to create legal pathways for migrants and ease the burden of irregular migration in North America.

A joint statement issued by all three countries says Canada is exploring ways to expand its temporary foreign worker program in the agriculture sector.

Ottawa is also looking into allowing more displaced Latin American migrants on humanitarian and economic grounds, and promoting opportunities with small- and medium-sized businesses.

The statement comes as the U.S. ramps up its efforts to deal with the looming end of Title 42, the pandemic-era measure that barred asylum seekers on public health grounds.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced plans to send 1,500 additional U.S. troops to backstop Customs and Border Protection operations at the U.S.-Mexico frontier in anticipation of Title 42 ending May 11.

The U.S. plans to expand the number of visas it issues to Central American migrants by 25 per cent in the current fiscal year, and 10 per cent in fiscal 2024.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

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BAIE-SAINT-PAUL, Que. - Searchers recovered two bodies Wednesday believed to be those of volunteer firefighters swept away by a swollen river this week, as residents of Quebecs Charlevoix region began cleaning up from the devastating flooding.

Provincial police spokeswoman Sgt. Beatrice Dorsainville said the bodies were found by a police helicopter in St-Urbain, Que., around 110 kilometres northeast of Quebec City. They were in the Riviere du Gouffre, about 500 metres from each other, she told reporters. While police said the bodies appear to be those of the missing firefighters, formal identification will have to come from the coroner.

Media reports have identified the firefighters who went missing Monday as Christopher Lavoie, 23, and Regis Lavoie, 55, who were reportedly not related.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault spoke about the men Wednesday during a visit to heavily flooded Baie-St-Paul, which is just downriver from St-Urbain. He noted that one of them was in his 50s and was using his own amphibious ATV to try to reach a couple whose home was surrounded by water. The other man, Legault said, was a boy of 23 years.

Twenty-three years, Legault repeated after a short pause. Its an infinite sadness.

More than 90 millimetres of rain has fallen on St-Urbain since Saturday, Environment Canada reported. More than 60 mm has fallen on Baie-St-Paul, where officials declared a state of emergency earlier this week and where about 600 people were forced from their homes.

Flooding has also been reported in the Lanaudiere and Laurentians regions and in western Quebec. The Public Security Department has said a half dozen communities across the province declared states of emergency due to the heavy rains.

Legault asked people not to rush to judgment about the intervention that led to the deaths. Firefighters, he said, do an essential but risky job. Obviously, we try to minimize these risks as much as possible, but we can say thank you for their courage.

Psychological support and financial aid will be offered to residents of the area, he said. There are also people here who I spoke with who have lost what they built all their lives, Legault said, adding that many have lost family homes that had been passed down through generations.

Legault toured the flood-hit town and spoke to residents who told him they were given five minutes to get out of their homes as the river rose Monday. Some asked what aid would be offered, explaining their insurance didnt cover flood damage.

Baie St-Paul Mayor Michael Pilote told reporters its too early to estimate the cost of the damage, adding that about 350 residences  home to approximately 1,000 people  have been damaged or destroyed.

In the long term, Legault said, the government will look at how to make the region more resilient to severe flooding, which he said used to occur once every hundred years but is now becoming more frequent because of climate change.

Some areas that are particularly prone to flooding, however, will not be rebuilt, he warned. Maybe well have to ask some people to move; in the meantime, well help the people and well work with the mayors.

Meanwhile, thousands of people in the Lanaudiere region were cut off from the rest of the province after flooding forced the Transport Department to close Highway 131, the main route south.

Sipi Flamand, chief of the Atikamekw Council of Manawan, said the highway is an important link for his community of 3,000 people, located about 250 kilometres north of Montreal. Its the safest way for the community to reach essential services, like hospitals, Flamand said in an interview Wednesday.

Emergency vehicles were still being allowed through, he said, adding that while there were concerns about supplies of food and gas, the band council took steps to get essential supplies delivered through secondary forest roads. However, Flamand said he was worried that other nearby rivers could flood, blocking those routes.

The closure of Highway 131 has cut off access to the south for a total of about 8,000 people, said Rejean Gouin, the mayor of Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Que. He said in an interview the closure means people wont be able to get to medical appointments, including chemotherapy.

While the Transport Department has said it plans to repair the road, Gouin said it could take weeks for the water levels to decline enough to allow repairs and that he thinks the road could be partially opened now.

Its our only route, he said.

Meanwhile, in Gatineau, Que., across the river from Ottawa, flooding has forced more than 300 people from their homes, Mayor France Belisle told reporters. She asked those who live along the Ottawa River to leave their homes as a precaution.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

 By Jacob Serebrin in Montreal with files from Thomas Laberge in Baie-St-Paul

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KHARTOUM, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese Army on Wednesday said it agreed to the initiative proposed by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which includes extending the current truce for a week and naming a representative from each side to discuss the truce, according to a statement.

"As part of its initiative to deal with the country's current crisis, the IGAD offered a new proposal including extending the current truce for a week and naming a representative from each side to discuss the truce," the statement said.

"The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) expressed acceptance of the proposal based on the principle of African solutions to the issues of the continent, and in consideration to the humanitarian aspects of our citizens, taking into account the ongoing American-Saudi initiative," it added.

The SAF stressed that it hopes the other party would abide by the requirements of the proposed truce.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has not yet commented on the IGAD initiative.

Fighting between the SAF and the RSF in Khartoum and other areas erupted on April 15, with the two sides accusing each other of initiating the conflict which has pushed the country to the edge of a humanitarian crisis.

According to UN statistics, thousands of Sudanese citizens have been displaced or forced to seek refuge in safe areas in Sudan and neighboring countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Chad.

So far, the deadly clashes have left more than 550 people dead and 4,926 others wounded, according to the Sudanese Health Ministry. 
OTTAWA - International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan has announced $71 million in humanitarian aid for Sudan and two neighbouring countries that are dealing with a large number of refugees in the wake of a violent crisis.

The challenges are immense and they must not be faced alone, Sajjan told reporters Wednesday on Parliament Hill.

The situation is deteriorating and the Sudanese people still need our help.

He saidthe funds will flow through agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross, as well as non-governmental organizations, to provide basic food, water and health services.

Nearly $31 million will go toward Sudan, while slightly more will be sent to South Sudan, which seceded from that country in 2011.

Canada will also send $10 million to the Central African Republic, as part of funds that will flow to at least 14 groups ranging from the World Food Programme to Doctors Without Borders.

Sajjan said Ottawa set aside this funding for the region before the conflict started, but will now speed up the delivery of that cash to help people fleeing violence.

He said Canada will be pledging more money after he makes a visit to the region, likely at the end of this month for the African Development Banks general meetings in Egypt. Sajjan added he hopes to visit Chad and speak with officials from the African Union, which is based in Ethiopia.

By that point, he said it should be clearer which countries have ended up hosting people who are displaced and trying to find safety.

Once we have that assessment and the UN comes up with their appeal, well put in additional funding, he said.

Sajjan said the funding is flexibly structured so groups can scale up existing programs to meet huge flows of people fleeing a devastating escalation in violence that started in Sudan on April 15.

A battle for control of the country erupted after months of escalating tensions between the military and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, turning the capital of Khartoum into a war zone and leading western countries to evacuate their citizens.

Defence Minister Anita Anand said Wednesday that Canada had given up on trying to use a military airport in Khartoum for evacuation flights because of logistical and safety issues. Instead, the military is focusing on helping people who make the perilous journey to Sudans coastline.

We still have two ships off the coast of Sudan and were working very closely with Global Affairs Canada and with our allies to ensure the safety and security of all Canadians, she told reporters.

The UNs humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, arrived in the country Wednesday where he said he is seeking guarantees from the warring sides for the safe passage of humanitarian aid. He noted criticism that the UN has been slow to respond, with its agencies saying they have scant funding and limited staff.

Even before the fighting erupted last month, one-third of the population in Sudan relied on humanitarian assistance.

Both sides have entered into another ceasefire, which, like previous agreements, has not actually quelled the fighting.

Sajjan said it was disturbing how quickly the conflict unfolded after Canadas work with allies to try bringing about peace in the region in recent years. He said large groups of desperate people bring on not only hunger and suffering, but also political instability that can create more crises.

Its important to put it into context for Canadians what the reality is on the ground, and why this funding is so important.

He noted that the UN only gets a fraction of the funding it needs to safely house people who have fled violence. The organization said it has just 15 per cent of the money it needs to support people in Chad. Canada does step up for our portion, Sajjan insisted.

The conflict has so far killed 550 people, including civilians, and wounded more than 4,900. The fighting has displaced at least 334,000 people inside Sudan, and sent tens of thousands more to neighbouring countries  Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia, according to UN agencies.

Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen noted that Sudan hosted a large number of refugees from other countries who now have to flee to a third country just to be safe.

Among the recipients of Wednesdays cash is Save The Children Canada, whose humanitarian head Dalia Al-Awqati said the money is needed to address a critical situation

With the conflict bringing Khartoum to a stop, the limited supply of food and essentials is driving up prices for available commodities to two, three or four times their market value, she wrote in an statement.

Al-Awqati said Ottawa should boost its funding and continue its diplomatic efforts to help African leaders broker a solution and push for humanitarian access.

Canada is well-positioned to have a holistic response to this crisis.

Sajjans parliamentary secretary, Anita Vandenbeld, said the aid workers whom Canada is funding are not just helping people but providing key information on how Ottawa can best respond. She noted three World Food Programme workers were killed last month in Darfur.

These are the aid workers who are the last out and the first back in. They put themselves in the front line because they care deeply, and they have strong knowledge and partnerships on the ground, she said.

Vandenbeld and her colleagues stressed that women will be key to finding a lasting resolution to the crisis, including women Canada has trained to act as peace negotiators.

We cant just look at women as victims. We have to look at them as the leaders and the solutions that come from the womens organizations who are very strong in the region.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

 With files from The Associated Press

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OTTAWA - Canada has slapped fresh sanctions on Iranian officials whom Ottawa blames for the arrest of Mahsa Amini, whose death sparked widespread anti-regime protests last September.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has announced a travel ban and asset freeze on nine people and one prison for gross and systematic human rights violations.

The list includes four members of the so-called morality police whom Canada accuses of being in the squadron that arrested Amini on the grounds of not properly wearing a hijab.

It also includes a regional head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for areas where that military group has violently suppressed protests, called Sistan and Baluchestan.

Canadas eleventh round of sanctions on Iran since last fall also includes the Gohardasht Prison, a notorious jail west of Tehran also known as Rajaei Shahr, where the state has executed people.

The sanctions also include the senior leadership of the drone company Paravar Pars, which has allegedly sent weapons to help Russias invasion of Ukraine

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023..

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OTTAWA Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus younger brother rejected all allegations of foreign interference swirling around the foundation that bears their fathers name, painting the situation as a management crisis as he spoke before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.

I must insist that there was no foreign interference, no possibility of interference, no intention or means of interference at or through the Trudeau Foundation, said Alexandre Trudeau, a current member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

The author and documentary filmmaker  who previously volunteered as the foundations corporate director and a member of its executive committee  said in French that it was instead significant mistakes made by the charitys former president that led to speculation clouding the organization.

Alexandre Trudeau was facing questions before the House of Commons ethics committee, which is probing whether the foundation has any connections to allegations of foreign meddling in Canadian elections.

The scholarship charity is currently mired in controversy over a 2016 donation that a Globe and Mail report linked to an alleged influence campaign by the Chinese government. The younger Trudeau was serving on the foundations board of directors at the time.

The $200,000 donation  $140,000 of which the foundation says the charity actually received  was connected to Chinese businessmen Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng, and sent to the foundation after Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015. The Globe has since reported, citing unnamed sources, that the donation was attributed to Zhangs company, Millennium Golden Eagle International.

Alexandre Trudeau repeatedly said during his testimony that he believed both Zhang and Nius motives were honourable.

The donation to the Trudeau Foundation was made alongside a separate $750,000 gift to the Universite de Montreal to fund scholarships in memory of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

Alexandre Trudeau said he first learned about the funding in late 2013, which was a long way from any notion of a Trudeau government.

The idea that there was a setup here I just think is patently false, he said.

The prime ministers brother also recalled a meeting he had with Zhang, which was facilitated by translators, in which he said the billionaire was primarily enthused about replicating a previous donation he had given to the University of Toronto to the Montreal university.

The Trudeau Foundation, from his point of view, was an unfortunate add-in, Alexandre Trudeau said.

In the time since the initial Globe report came to light, the Montreal-based foundation has said it has issued a refund cheque under the donors name.

But the charity has not escaped the political scrutiny that followed earlier media reports that Beijing interfered with Canadas 2019 and 2021 federal elections, including efforts to support candidates  primarily Liberals  thought to be favoured by the Chinese government.

The Trudeau Foundation announced last month that the political climate surrounding a donation had led to a mass exodus of its top officials, with the resignations of president and CEO Pascale Fournier and the foundations board of directors. A source with direct knowledge of the situation told the Star at the time that internal disagreements had surfaced over the situation after an attempt to refund the donation failed. The foundation has agreed to an independent review of the matter.

Over the past week, the House ethics committee has heard from Fournier and the foundations former CEO Morris Rosenberg.

Fournier told MPs last week that tensions arose after she pushed for an independent forensic audit into donations made by the businessmen  and received pushback when she insisted that some members of the board recuse themselves from any such investigation.

Rosenberg, for his part, told the committee on Tuesday that it was possibly naive of the foundation to believe that engaging with the businessmen would exert a soft power influence over China.

Alexandre Trudeau on Wednesday said that in recent weeks, Fournier had raised questions that would lead some to believe that there were attempts at interference.

He sought to counter a number of claims advanced by Fournier, including the belief that there was something illegitimate about my signing of the donation contract.

He said he was regularly signing cheques at the foundation at the time, that Rosenberg had asked him to sign, and that he was giving approval for the university  in his capacity as a member of the Trudeau family  to use his fathers name to launch a scholarship program.

Before his appearance, Alexandre Trudeau told Quebec newspaper Le Devoir that he would offer himself up as a witness to defend the foundations reputation.

His brother, the prime minister, has criticized what he called ungrounded attacks on the foundation, with which he says he severed ties when he became Liberal leader a decade ago.

With files from the Canadian Press

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The Crown Custodian, Margareta, will attend the coronation of King Charles on Saturday at Buckingham Palace.

"On Friday, May 5, 2023, at Buckingham Palace, Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Crown, and His Royal Highness the Prince Consort will attend the State Reception hosted by His Majesty King Charles. On Saturday, May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey, Custodian of the Crown and the Prince Consort will take part in the Coronation of the King and Queen Consort of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland," the Royal Family of Romania announced on Facebook, on Wednesday.

According to the Royal House, during the 157 years of existence of the Royal Family of Romania, the connection with the Royal Family of Great Britain was constant, based on admiration, affection and respect, both in its official dimension, historically representing the two nations, and in the private, family one. It is a lasting connection, stretched throughout the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, spanning five generations.AGERPRES
We are extremely concerned about the serious consequences of the Russian Federation's war of aggression in Ukraine and their impact on our region. Therefore, I assure you that we will continue to support the Republic of Moldova, both bilaterally and internationally, especially in the relationship with the European Union, said the minister of Defense, Angel Tilvar, after the meeting with the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, on Tuesday, in Chisinau, the Ministry of National Defence informs in a press release.

Minister Tilvar stated, after the meetings with president Sandu and prime minister Recean, that, as minister of National Defense, he was and will always be "a promoter of direct and permanent dialogue" with the authorities of the neighboring country, Agerpres informs.According to the source, during his official visit to the Republic of Moldova, minister Tilvar had, on Tuesday, official meetings with president Maia Sandu and prime minister Dorin Recean, the agenda of the discussions including aspects related to the development of cooperative relations between the ministries of defense from Bucharest and Chisinau, as well as topics related to security in the Black Sea region and the support provided by Romania to the European path of the Republic of Moldova."President Maia Sandu emphasized that Romania is a strategic partner of the Republic of Moldova, with which the authorities from Chisinau consistently cooperate to strengthen national defense and security capabilities. She also expressed her gratitude for Romania's unconditional support of Chisinau's European path, including for the substantial donation offered to improve the logistics system of the National Army," the Ministry of Defense transmits.During the discussions with premier Recean, minister Tilvar reiterated Romania's full support for the European integration path of the Republic of Moldova.Also, the Romanian minister of Defense welcomed the openness of the Republic of Moldova to contribute to the EU missions carried out under the aegis of the Common Security and Defense Policy, the ministry says.
The Chamber of Deputies passed on Wednesday the draft law regarding Romania's participation in the capital increase of the Development Bank of the Council of Europe.

"The increase in the capital held by Romania as a member of the Development Bank of the Council of Europe by 46,490,000 EUR is approved in accordance with the provisions of the Resolution of the Council of Governors No. 463/2022 "Regarding the increase of the Bank's capital," the draft stipulates, Agerpres informs.The amount of the paid-up capital is 13,128,776 EUR and is paid starting 2023, by bank transfer in EUR, annually, in equal installments, until December 31, 2026."The payment of the capital paid in accordance with the provisions of the Resolution of the Council of Governors no. 463/2022 "Regarding the increase of the Bank's capital" is ensured annually from the state budget, through the budget of the Ministry of Finance," the bill also provides.The Chamber of Deputies is the decision-making body in this case.
Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu on Wednesday said that the draft anti-corruption directive published by the European Commission regulates the crime of abuse of functions without a value threshold for criminalisation and criminal liability.

In a press statement released on Wednesday, the Justice Ministry said that it learned about the publication by the European Commission of an anti-corruption legislative package approved by the College of Commissioners, Agerpres informs."This anti-corruption legislative package, published by the European Commission, is a new signal regarding the topicality of the fight against corruption within the European design, and it must be so at the level of each member state, therefore also in Romania. I am glad to note that our national legislation is in many aspects already harmonised with the draft directive, including regarding the crime of abuse of functions, so hotly debated in Romania, which the directive regulates without a value threshold for criminalistion and criminal liability," Predoiu is quoted as saying in the press statement.According to Predoiu, strengthening anti-corruption legislation at the national level in each member state has to be accompanied by good judicial co-operation among the European Union member states and the ad literam observance of the principle of mutual recognition of final decisions in criminal matters."There are still things to be done in this regard in other EU member states, from my point of view. It is counterproductive to frustrate the effort to fight corruption within the EU member states by ignoring the principle of recognition of final decisions in criminal matters in other [European] states. It is a well-known fact that Romania encountered difficulties in the past in some cases of people convicted criminally in Romania who fled from justice to Italy and Greece. The Ministry of Justice has activated all the diplomatic channels at its disposal in this regard since 2020 and will keep this subject on the agenda of bilateral discussions at the level of the European Commission until the closing of all the legal loopholes in the European legislation and the repatriation of all persons who evade justice, in order to execute the final decisions of the courts in Romania. I know that it is a painstaking job, in which a lot of diplomatic and political perseverance is needed, but there is, in my view, no other way and no other acceptable result, and that is why the Ministry of Justice will persevere with these steps until the problems are solved," said Predoiu.According to the press statement, the directive contains a series of key provisions for strengthening the means of criminal law to combat corruption in public and private offices."The directive provides for a modern regulation of the crime of abuse of position, consistent with the definition of the crime of abuse of functions or position in the UN Convention Against Corruption, already accepted in domestic law under Law 365/2004. Within the draft anti-corruption directive, the abuse of position does not contain a value threshold for criminalisation and criminal liability."
The National Bank of Romania has been constantly involved in the process of joining the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 2008, and in accordance with its legal mandate it has engaged in the development of the relationship with the OECD, the governor of the central bank (BNR), Mugur Isarescu, declared on Wednesday.

"The high-level participation that we enjoy today expresses the priority of the Romanian authorities from the perspective of foreign policy, but also of the private sector, the continuation of the reforms that lead to our accession to the OECD, and brings us closer to our strategic international partners. It shows the national commitment and effort of accelerating development to align Romania with advanced economies and the common values of progress and social prosperity. In accordance with its legal mandate, the National Bank of Romania has engaged in the development of the relationship with the OECD. The National Bank has contributed to a series of OECD documents and studies, established direct contacts with the relevant OECD structures and organized high-level or technical meetings between the representatives of our Bank and those of the OECD. In May 2017, I am pleased to remind you, we hosted right here, at the headquarters of the BNR, in this very room, the conference dubbed Romania and OECD Projections In the Present and Future, in a format similar to today," said Mugur Isarescu, at the "Romania in the OECD: towards the Club of International Economic Good Practices" conference, Agerpres informs.He mentioned that after the decision of the OECD Council in 2022 to formally open Romania's accession process, the National Bank was involved in a series of specific measures, including the elaboration of contributions for the self-assessments related to the alignment of national legislation with the provisions of some legal instruments of the OECD."As the focal point for Romania in the relationship with the Committee for Financial Markets of the OECD, the National Bank will coordinate the process of completing the accession questionnaire, based on which this committee will evaluate the level of Romania's preparation for accession in this field. Romania's Partnership with the OECD is essential for promoting the priorities necessary for sustainable development," stated Mugur Isarescu.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) informs that, due to the steps taken by the inter-institutional task-force convened by Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu, on 16 April, the Sudanese citizen, a family member of a Romanian citizen, who traveled to Ethiopia, left the Sudanese territory on Wednesday and entered the Ethiopian territory, being assisted by representatives of the Romanian Embassy in Addis Ababa.

The MAE shows that, so far, since minister Bogdan Aurescu convened the inter-institutional task-force, a number of 46 persons (39 Romanian citizens and 7 of their family members, foreign citizens) have been evacuated from Sudan, Agerpres informs.The Ministry mentions that, at this moment, the attention of the inter-institutional task force is also focused on evacuating a Romanian citizen who, on May 2, contacted the Romanian Embassy in Addis Ababa requesting support for the evacuation from Sudan.Furthermore, the MAE brings to mind that another Romanian citizen, whom the diplomatic mission in Addis Ababa has in its attention, informed that he no longer wants to be evacuated from Sudan.The inter-institutional task-force continues its activity round the clock, monitoring the developments in the area and keeping contact with the Romanian citizens who are still in Sudan and on the territory of other states, who are in transit toward Romania, as well as with the other EU member and partner states, in view of completing the ongoing evacuation procedures, for the Romanian citizen who requested support in view of evacuation. The consular team of Romania's Embassy in Addis Ababa will maintain contact with the Romanian citizen who no longer wishes to be evacuated and will carry out the support steps, if he is to reconsider his decision.The MAE brings to mind that, taking into account the deterioration of the security situation, as of April 17, it raised the travel alert for Sudan to level 8 out of 9 ('Show special attention' - www.mae.ro/travel-alerts/2924) and recommended to all Romanian citizens still on the territory of Sudan to make their presence known by urgently contacting the diplomatic mission of Romania in Ethiopia and to request consular assistance if they wish to be evacuated.The Romanian citizens can request consular assistance at the telephone number of Romania's Embassy in Addis Ababa: +251 116 622 675, the calls being redirected to the Contact and Support Center of Romanian Citizens Abroad (CCSCRS) and taken over by the Call Center operators on a permanent basiS. The Romanian citizens have at their disposal the emergency telephone number of the diplomatic mission: +251 935 350 059.In Sudan, intense clashes are taking place between the forces of the head of the army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who has been de facto ruling Sudan since the coup in October 2021, and those of the leader of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. The fighting, which began on April 15, resulted in more than 500 dead people and thousands of wounded, mainly in Khartoum and in Darfur (west), according to a report which is considered to be underestimated.
NAIROBI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President William Ruto met here Wednesday visiting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to discuss ways of strengthening bilateral cooperation in areas that advance green agenda, blue economy, infrastructure development, trade, and investment.

The visit coincided with the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Kenya and Japan, which was termed by Ruto as "significant."

"Kenya, the Horn of Africa region, and other parts of the African continent are disproportionately affected by climate change and its effects," Ruto said at a joint news conference with Kishida.

"I call upon Japan and the G7 to lend support to initiatives aimed at addressing climate change, which include the African Climate Action Summit which will take place here in Nairobi between Sept. 4 and 6," Ruto told Kishida.

Ruto said Kenya looked forward to Japan's support towards climate adaptation, addressing loss and damage arising from the phenomenon and unlocking investments required to hasten the transition to a greener future.

He noted that Japan has invested heavily in Kenya's geothermal power development through technology transfer, capacity building, and financial support, adding that Japan's support will be crucial to the implementation of African Union's Agenda 2063, the continent's blueprint for sustainable development, political and social renewal.

He urged Kishida to support diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the Sudan crisis which erupted in mid-April between fighters loyal to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudanese Armed Forces, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Ruto also said Kenya will address the double taxation problem facing projects funded by Japan's Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), a issue that threatens the future of 73.4 million dollar ODA projects in the country.

"We are pursuing the expeditious resolution of this matter within the due process of relevant institutions," he said, noting that it was his wish that ODA projects run smoothly, noting that Kenya is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the assistance in Africa. 
Two businessmen from southern Olt County, Constantin Tomescu and Bogdan Timofte, convicted in the "Paintings" criminal case along with the former social-democratic minister of Finance, Darius Valcov, popped up on Tuesday evening at the headquarters of the Olt County Police Inspectorate and were transported to the Craiova Penitentiary in order to serve their sentences, informed the representatives of the Olt County Police Inspectorate.

Darius Valcov, former mayor of the municipality of Slatina and PSD minister of Finance, was definitively sentenced on Tuesday by a panel of five judges with the Supreme Court to 6 years in prison for influence peddling and money laundering, in the "Paintings" criminal file, so dubbed after the prosecutors found over 100 works of art purchased by Valcov through intermediaries, some of them being hidden in the false walls of buildings belonging to the former minister.

In the same criminal file, Minel Prina, also a former mayor of the municipality of Slatina, was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison with execution, and Lucian Petrut Susala, former driver of Darius Valcov, has got 2 years with suspension, with a 5-year supervision term.

Also, Petre Bogdan Timofte was sentenced to 3 years with execution, and Constantin Tomescu received 3 years and 6 months with execution.

The media reported that Darius Valcov would have left for some time in Italy, where several people convicted in Romania fled to escape prison. He did not appear at the last court term. The former mayor of Slatina, Minel Prina, would have also left the country.

The judges upheld the decision to confiscate the sum of 6.2 million RON from Valcov.

In this criminal case, Darius Valcov was sent to court in May 2015 for influence peddling, money laundering and carrying out financial operations, as commercial deeds, incompatible with the public job, assignment that a person performs or concluding financial transactions, using the information obtained by virtue of his position, attribution or task, in the continued form.AGERPRES
Dallas Green was experiencing what he calls a tailor-made midlife crisis.

In the span of a year, Green, who records under the name City and Colour, suffered the loss of his best friend, Karl Bareham, who produced and engineered his records, and a cousin, Nicholas Osczcypko, with whom Green played in his first band.

At the same time, Greens marriage was in trouble. And he was turning 40.

Oh, and one more thing: The pandemic hit, and the music business, as well as the world at large, shut down.

I really had nothing to do but sit there and think about all this stuff, Green says via Zoom from his home in Toronto. But that coincided with me remembering how important making music is for me on a cellular level.

Green remembers how important music had been for his younger self  how it moved him without being attached to any particular life experience. Just that initial beautiful spark of inspiration when a song hits you a certain way and makes you want to create, he says.

All of that coincides with this idea that I could write myself out of how I was feeling.

The end result was City and Colours seventh album, The Love Still Held Me Near, which was released in late March. Writing and recording it may have been therapeutic for Green, but he knew he wasnt taking his listeners somewhere they didnt want to go.

Im thankful that my whole life of writing my own songs comes from a place of using it as a cathartic process, he says. City and Colour has always been journal-entry-type songwriting. I was fortunate to write some really personal songs when I was younger, and it connected with people, which allowed me to feel supported in writing this way.

Green does know the flip side of that kind of writing, though. Hes also a longtime member of the post-hardcore band Alexisonfire, which last year released its first album in 13 years, Otherness.

Thats more of a collaborative process, he says of writing with the band. We throw a lot of stuff into the middle of the room and see what we can agree on.

Some people wonder how Green is able to make such deeply felt, emotional music with City and Colour and at the same time raise hell with Alexisonfire. But Green says it shouldnt be that hard to figure out.

Have you ever played a guitar as loud as you can possibly play? he asks, laughing. Its the best!

From September 2020  which is when Bareham died while scuba diving as the band toured Australia  to May 2021, Green wrote songs for and recorded both albums.

I had never experienced a creative explosion like that, he says.

Once the pandemic let up enough to let people get together once again, Green jammed with the other members of Alexisonfire, which in turn set his own creativity ablaze.

I would come home from a jam with them having created something new and beautiful, and it would fire me up to go into my own writing room, he says. It allowed me to put a magnifying glass on myself and how I was feeling emotionally.

It wasnt that I was dwelling on all this stuff and trying to write a thesis on it, he adds. I was experiencing this other joy in my life, and it allowed me to constantly move forward and take advantage of the time I was being given. That realization of, Oh, (expletive), Im alive!

As the album unfolds  beginning with the grief-stricken opener, Meant to Be, moving all the way through to the closer, Begin Again  Green seems to have indeed turned his despair into more than just a glimmer of hope.

Arriving at that place was anything but certain when he started writing Begin Again, though. With those first few lines like, There aint no relief in this dying game, I thought I was about to unleash a plethora of sadness, he says. But by the end of the record, Begin Again had really turned into this joyful epilogue. It was like, after making the record, I realized that I could help myself heal a little bit.

What City and Colour, Courtney Marie Andrews  When 7:30 p.m. May 7  Where The Factory, 17105 North Outer Road, Chesterfield  How much $40.50-$50.50  More info ticketmaster.com
Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, is known as a recording home to stars including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, B.B. King, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ike Turner and Carl Perkins. And now Brothers Lazaroff can add their name to the roster.

The St. Louis act recorded its new album, Memphis, in a single night last year at Sun Studio. The album includes Pink Supermoon, featuring frequent collaborator Rabbi James Stone Goodman and Stuart Rosenberg, which is gaining local airplay.

Memphis will be performed in its entirety at a release concert May 11 at Joes Cafe & Art Gallery. Brothers Lazaroff also will release a mini-documentary about the recording session.

David Lazaroff says the experience was a magical 24 hours in Memphis. Something about certain rooms feels good. You feel a certain good vibe when its the right combination of geography and material and vibes.

Sun Studio was arguably the birthplace of rock n roll, he says. So many genres were created at Sun. And as a band who loves so many different genres, to go in there and be original, it was so cool to share that history and share that experience with the band.

His brother Jeff Lazaroff says the room lived up to expectations.

Everybody was feeling the vibes the whole time, he says. They were energized by being in the space. It was just powerful to be in that room.

David and Jeff, along with their other brother, Joshua Lazaroff, and a friend were in Memphis for a Bob Dylan concert in April 2022. They took a guided tour of Sun Studios.

Once we got in the room, David and I were looking at each other, and we said we wanted to make music in there, Jeff Lazaroff says. The studio is available for rent after hours.

We went home and said, Lets do it, and we gotta bring in everybody else to do it, David Lazaroff says.

A month later  May 24, Bob Dylans birthday  Brothers Lazaroff returned with the band: Teddy Brookins (bass), Sam Golden (upright piano), Chris Hansen (percussion), Mark Hochberg (violins), Adam Hucke (trumpet) and Freddy Spencer (drums). It was the full bands first time recording together since the pandemic.

It was like a post-pandemic field trip, David Lazaroff says.

I think everybody felt lucky and fortunate to be there and have that experience, Jeff Lazaroff says. It was everybodys first time there, and it was something special.

Goodman, a musician, songwriter and poet, has worked with Brothers Lazaroff for over a decade. Their cousin, Rosenberg, is a Mandocaster player from Chicago.

The record was produced and mastered by Maxwell Citron, Goodmans son-in-law and founder and HOMHOMHOM Records.

Memphis follows the 2020 EP Breathe With You and the 2019 album Sisters and Brothers.

Recording an album in a single night was like they did in the 50s  all live, no overdubs, singing in the same room, David Lazaroff says. It also gave the record a feeling of urgency, as if the band was on a mission.

You gotta nail it  and also accept certain things you didnt nail and accept the roughness of it, Jeff Lazaroff says of the tight deadline. Thats what they did in the old days. They didnt have a choice. Thats always rewarding and fun. Everything clicked, and everybody was in the flow. We didnt have a hiccup.

Brothers Lazaroff showed up at Sun Studio with a variety of songs, some recorded as a duo during the pandemic, fleshed out for the band setting. Collaborations with Goodman also made it onto the album, along with other new songs. Gratitude is a recurring theme.

The group describes Memphis as dirty, gritty and punchy with a sound unlike anything Brothers Lazaroff have made in the past.

We werent just making the music like the folks we love did, Jeff Lazaroff says. We werent trying to sound like B.B. King or Johnny Cash. We wanted to sound like us, and we wanted the sound of the room to come through and for it to not sound like a super-clear record that you could make in a modern studio. Its more of a rock album, how we sound in our basements when were just rocking out.

What Brothers Lazaroff  When 8 p.m. May 11  Where Joes Cafe & Art Gallery, 6014 Kingsbury Avenue  How much Sold out  More info eventbrite.com
ST. LOUIS  Most of the victims were outside. Walking home from school. Playing in the park. Sitting on the stoop of their house.

They didnt know who fired the gun, and they didnt know why.

The children treated for firearm injuries at St. Louis Childrens Hospital were predominantly innocent bystanders, according to recent findings by the University of Missouri School of Medicine in one of the first studies to delve into the circumstances behind the rising number of children getting shot.

The majority of the kids we see are truly caught in the crossfire, said Dr. Lindsay Clukies, a Washington University emergency medicine physician at St. Louis Childrens Hospital.

The study, published this month in the Journal of Surgical Research, was led by Dr. Mary Bernardin, University of Missouri School of Medicine assistant professor of pediatric emergency medicine.

Researchers examined the cases of 156 children who came to St. Louis Childrens Hospital with firearm injuries from 2014 to 2017. Patients with intentionally self-inflicted injuries were not included in the data.

The study found that 72% of the children were shot outdoors by an unknown assailant, whose motivation was unknown in 93% of cases. About 36% were drive-by shootings where shots came from inside a car.

Victims ranged in age from 6 to 17. The median age was 15. Nearly 88% were male and 98% were Black.

Less than 15% of the cases were intentional assaults resulting from situations such as a dispute or attempted robbery, the research showed.

Clukies said the results reinforce why she tries to avoid using the words accidental and violent when she talks about pediatric firearm injuries.

They are predictable and they are totally preventable, so I dont like to use the term accident, she said.

The term violent, makes it seem like the victim was part of confrontation.

There just seem to be a stigma attached to it, Clukies said, and these kids are shed in this light that they are these bad troublemakers, and thats not the case.

Of the patients studied, 40% came from three contiguous ZIP code areas covering parts of north St. Louis and north St. Louis County: 63115, 63120 and 63136. Among neighborhoods in those areas are Greater Ville, Penrose and Walnut Park East in the city and Jennings and Castle Point in the county.

Most of the children  71%  were also shot in the ZIP code they lived in.

I think that what this study shows is we need to balance our efforts, Bernardin said. To combat violence, we need to invest in these communities and decrease the poverty, the crime, the gun prevalence that is in these neighborhoods in order to really prevent the majority of these shootings.

Though the study looked at patients from over six years ago, Clukies said she continues to see the same circumstances. The only thing that has changed, she said, is the volume.

Last year, the hospital cared for 163 children injured or killed by firearms, the most in the hospitals history, she said.

Firearm injuries surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of child deaths in 2020. Assault has become the most common cause of firearm injury among American children and adolescents, surpassing firearm suicide and accidental firearm injuries.

However, very little research exists that investigates the circumstances behind pediatric firearm assault. And conflicting results have been reported among the few studies that do exist.

Bernardin said her team hypothesized that children were less likely to be involved in conflicts that result in them being shot, and perhaps more likely falling victim to the unsafe neighborhoods they live in.

I think most people hear on news that gun violence is leading the cause of death of kids, and they assume that either these are mass shootings in schools or that these are kids who are involved in gangs and drugs and things like that and getting themselves into trouble, she said.

Really, we found neither of those things are accurate. The majority of kids, in St. Louis anyway, are being shot because they are just simply living their lives and being kids, and hanging out outside  they are just in the wrong place in the wrong time.
The Prince and Princess of Wales have released a new photograph of their daughter, Princess Charlotte, to mark her eighth birthday on Tuesday.

Shared the evening before her birthday, the photo shows Charlotte sitting in a white chair wearing a white floral dress and smiling at the camera.

Like many of the images released of the young royals, the palace said it was taken by her mother, Catherine, in Windsor over the weekend.

"Wishing Princess Charlotte a very happy birthday! 8 tomorrow," the Prince and Princess of Wales' official Twitter account said, alongside a balloon and birthday cake emoji.

Charlotte was born at St. Mary's Hospital in west London and is third in line to the British throne, after her father Prince William and older brother Prince George, 9.

Her birthday marks the start of a busy week for the British royal family, which will celebrate King Charles III's coronation on Saturday in a magnificent and deeply religious ceremony at London's Westminster Abbey.

Charlotte's role in the ceremony has not yet been officially announced but her brother George is one of eight boys chosen to "attend Their Majesties during the Coronation Service," the palace said last month.

___

Photos: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis through the years
Tony Messenger Tony Messenger is the metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Tony Messenger Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Every judge in America received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice last month with a simple message:

Stop putting poor people in jail simply because they are poor.

Imposing and enforcing fines and fees on individuals who cannot afford to pay them has been shown to cause profound harm, wrote Kristen Clarke and two other assistant attorneys general.

Clarke heads the departments Civil Rights Division.

Individuals confront escalating debt; face repeated, unnecessary incarceration for nonpayment of fines and fees; experience extended periods of probation and parole; are subjected to changes in immigration status; and lose their employment, drivers license, voting rights, or home, the letter added.

Its the sort of message that shouldnt be necessary. After all, debtors prisons were banned in the U.S. in 1883. But through the rapid rise of fines, fees and other costs  such as the pernicious pay-to-stay bills charged by many counties  courts have created de facto debtors prisons. They have put millions of poor Americans in jail because those Americans lack the income to pay the costs foisted on them.

So it was for Don Noland a decade ago. Then 17 and living in Maplewood, he almost missed his graduation from St. Louis Career Academy because there were multiple warrants for his arrest over unpaid fines related to minor misdemeanors.

I was just a student going to school, trying to graduate. I didnt have any funds to pay the ticket, Noland, now 28 and working for a distribution company, told me.

He faced constant fear of arrest and jail time over the debt. I felt like I was less of a person.

Noland is one of thousands of current or former Maplewood residents who stand to recoup some of the money they lost to the citys unconstitutional practices. Some will receive up to $100 a day for the time they spent in jail as Maplewood sought to collect court costs.

Last month, just before the DOJ letter went out, the city settled a 2016 class action lawsuit filed by ArchCity Defenders; Tycko & Zavareei LLP; and Keane Law LLC. After using traffic tickets and other minor crimes as fundraising tools for more than a decade, Maplewood leaders agreed to pay out $3.25 million in a class action settlement. It was the latest city to do so since ArchCity Defenders started filing debtors prison lawsuits following the uprising in Ferguson in 2014.

After Ferguson became a hashtag, many of us learned for the first time of the taxation-by-citation policies in many St. Louis County municipalities. As the DOJ letter notes, its not just a Missouri problem. And its poor people, particularly poor people of color, who suffer the most when cities use their courts to collect back-door taxes and jail those who cant afford to pay.

This practice far too often traps individuals and their families in a cycle of poverty and punishment that can be nearly impossible to escape, the DOJ letter to judges reads. The detrimental effects of unjust fines and fees fall disproportionately on low-income communities and people of color, who are overrepresented in the criminal justice system and already may face economic obstacles arising from discrimination, bias, or systemic inequities.

The themes in the letter mirror a Missouri Supreme Court decision from 2019 that ended the practice of rural judges jailing people who couldnt afford to pay their board bills for stays in jail. Judges can avoid these unconstitutional practices by first holding hearings on whether defendants can pay court costs and then proceeding to sentencing, the DOJ letter advises. It also tells judges that the DOJ plans to seek proposals for pilot programs to help jurisdictions reform their fines and fees practices.

Along with the Maplewood settlement and a campaign called End Justice Fees launched by the ACLU, Fines and Fees Justice Center and Americans for Prosperity, such pilot programs can help the criminal justice system focus more on public safety and less on extracting money from poor people.

Nine years after Ferguson, that citys insurance company is still battling with ArchCity Defenders over a debtors prison lawsuit. Similar federal civil rights lawsuits are slowly snaking their way through the courts in Oklahoma and South Carolina. Last year, the small city of Brookside, Ala., came under fire when journalists uncovered a scheme to use policing for profit by trapping poor people in debtors prisons.

Kennard Williams has seen the system in action. Hes an organizing manager at Action St. Louis, a civil rights nonprofit. He was drawn to activism in part because of his debtors prison experience in Maplewood, where he too was a victim. In 2011, unable to afford the fines the city imposed on him for traffic tickets, he faced the dilemma many poor people face: drive to work to make money, pay the fines and risk another arrest; or call into work.

He chose his job, and on more than one occasion got locked up in Maplewood because of it.

It just puts burdens on people, Williams says. Any ticket could turn into a warrant and end up in a suspended license. The system was designed to make people fail.
UPDATED at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday with new information on time of shootings, name of man who died

ST. LOUIS  A man was gunned down early Wednesday in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood of St. Louis.

His shooting was the fourth in a span of about 4 hours since Tuesday night in St. Louis. The three other victims survived.

Jason Palmer was shot by a man just before 1 a.m. Wednesday in the 3100 block of Thomas Street, east of Martin Luther King Drive. Palmer died at the scene.

Palmer, 37, lived in the 2100 block of Palm Avenue.

Police have made no arrests.

About an hour earlier, just before midnight Tuesday, a 45-year-old man was critically injured when gunmen pulled up onto the parking lot of Crown Food at 4608 Martin Luther King Drive and opened fire. He was shot in the head and back.

A woman sitting in a parked car with the victim applied pressure to his wounds, police said. She told officers the shots were fired from two people in a gray SUV. Police did not release a detailed description of the suspects. The driver of the SUV and a rear seat passenger rolled down their windows and opened fire, police said. The SUV sped off, heading east on Martin Luther King Drive.

About 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, a 24-year-old man was shot in the chest in the 7300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. Police broadcast a description of the gunman, and officers arrested a 39-year-old man trying to board a Metro bus at Ivory and Schirmer streets.

Police said the suspect didn't have a gun with him but admitted that he shot the man on Pennsylvania. He led officers to a trash bin about two blocks away, in the 200 block of West Steins Street, where police said they recovered a gun.

The victim of the Pennsylvania Avenue shooting told police he was shot after asking the suspect to stop banging on his door. He was stable at a hospital, police said.

About 8 p.m. Tuesday, a 42-year-old man was shot in the 1400 block of Hamilton Avenue by three males wearing ski masks, police said. The victim got a friend to drive him to the hospital, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to forearm. The victim told police he had been traveling north on Hamilton from Ridge Avenue when three people in a white SUV fired shot at him.

Learn about homicide victims and regional trends with this database Learn about homicide victims and regional trends with this database from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
CANBERRA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- An air force mission has successfully evacuated 36 Australians and their families from conflict-ravaged Sudan.

Penny Wong, the minister for Foreign Affairs, on Wednesday confirmed that the group was taken from Sudan to Cyprus in the early hours of the morning on board a plane from the Australian Defense Force (ADF).

"Unfortunately, we still have Australians on the ground, and we'll continue to engage through our consular team with the Australians who are on the ground, and I urge people to make sure they are registered," Wong told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio.

"This brings to, I think 191 Australians that we've assisted or have been able to secure passage out of the country since the crisis began."

She said that the government was hopeful of launching further evacuation flights but nothing could be guaranteed amid a "worsening" security situation in the African country.

"The security situation in Sudan is very dangerous, and it is volatile, and as you know we have been doing all we can to assist Australians with the support of our partners, bearing in mind we don't have people on the ground in an embassy in Sudan," said Wong.

A growing number of countries have evacuated citizens from Sudan since fierce clashes broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in mid-April. 
 Officers Nicholas Beckman and John Looney both were electrocuted on Sept. 3, 1900, in the worst incident in the department's history. Another 13 officers were injured.

At the turn of the century, officers used the call box (found at nearly every street intersection in the city) to call the station to let them know all was well. A missed call from a beat officer caused alarm.

But a heavy power wire with 3200 volts of current had crossed over the police call box at 8th and Carr streets and turned the call boxes into a potential death trap.

Beckman, 26, was knocked unconscious and badly burned when he tried to use the call box on 18th Street between Washington and Carr streets. He died in minutes. Looney, 41, was using the call box at 12th and Morgan streets when he was electrocuted.

Officer Michael J. Burke, who was electrocuted as well, died 14 months later of complications from severe burns.

 Officer Dennis Crane was one of four officers responding to reports of a man firing a shotgun in the air near the Alexian Brothers Hospital on June 1, 1900. As Crane approached the suspect, who had a history of mental illness, the man fired the shotgun into Crane's chest.

 Officer Richard Delaney was shot and killed while he and another officer were trying to arrest a man at a home on North Seventh Street who had threatened to stab his wife. Delaney, 29, went to the front door with his revolver in his hand while the second officer went to cover the rear basement exit. After he heard shots, he saw Delaney stagger down the steps and collapse.

The killer, William Turner, was caught in East St. Louis and prosecuted for Delaney's murder.

 Terence Donnelly was a clerk at the Baden Police Station who was struck and killed by a streetcar on April 7, 1902.

 Officer Michael Reedy, 33, was accidentally shot and killed by a pharmacy clerk who was firing at burglars trying to enter the pharmacy on Oct. 28, 1902.

 Officer William Boka was trying to board a streetcar on Christmas Day 1902 when he fell and was run over by the following streetcar. He died three days later.

 Officer Hugh McCartney had been with the department just two months when he was attacked by a crowd of men and women armed with pistols, bricks and razors on May 16, 1903. He died 15 days later.

 Officer Thomas J. Hadican was taking the Fourth Street streetcar after a night shift on Sept. 20, 1903, when on a sharp curve he lost his grip on the streetcar railing and fell to the pavement, hitting his head. He died a few hours later.

 Officer William Hoagland was struck by a streetcar, throwing him about 10 feet and striking a telephone pole, on Aug. 24, 1903.

 Officer Frank J. Ahern went to a call box and as he stood with the receiver to his ear, he swung his night stick and rapped it on the pavement. As it rebounded, Ahern tossed it over his shoulder, when the nightstick struck the hammer of his revolver, which discharged and struck him in the leg. While being treated at the hospital, he developed blood poisoning but refused to have the leg amputated. He died on Oct. 10, 1904, 35 days after the accident. Ahern, 27, was survived by his wife.

 Detectives Thomas Dwyer, John Shea and James McClusky were helping investigate suspects in a daring train robbery when they got a tip on Oct. 20, 1904, that the robbers were in a Pine Street rooming house. Five officers went to the address; two arrested one of he suspects. Three other officers entered the darkened room, where a gun battle broke out. Dwyer and Shea both were killed; McClusky died the next day.

Officer Humphrey O'Leary was walking his beat after a storm on Sept. 29, 1906, when he discovered downed electrical wires. Concerned for the public's safety, he tried to pick the wire up and was electrocuted. He left behind his wife and a child.

 Officer Lemuel Boyce was working his last shift, believing the job too risky for a widower with a small child, on March 31, 1907 when he responded to a burglary at a saloon and chased the suspects. One of them fired three shots, striking Boyce in the face and chest and killing him.

 Officer Zeno Fults were looking for a man who had shot his brother-in-law when they went to the 2300 block of Chestnut. As Fults opened the back door, the suspect, John Thornton, shot Fults in the arm and heart. He had been married with two sons. His killer was sentenced to prison for life.

 Officer Edward Dellmore got into a fight with an obstinate prisoner in May 1908 and was hit and kicked in the head and abdomen. He complained of pain but continued working. He fell ill in October and died on Oct. 25, 1908, the result of a blood clot on the brain and an abdominal abscess. He was married and had two children.
ST. LOUIS  The majority of a case to remove St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner from office will be allowed to move forward, a judge ruled Tuesday.

In his last act before granting Gardners request to switch judges, Judge John Torbitzky allowed seven of 10 allegations levied by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to proceed despite arguments from Gardners attorneys that there is no legal standing to seek her ouster.

If all of the allegations are found to be true, Torbitzky wrote, the number of alleged incidents and cases impacted ... gives rise to a reasonable inference that (Gardner) has failed to act contrary to a known duty.

Gardners office has faced criticism for years for understaffing and organizational dysfunction. But in February, all of those complaints gave way to calls for her resignation after an out-of-town volleyball player was involved in a crash downtown that resulted in both of her legs being amputated. The driver of one of the vehicles remained out of jail despite violating the conditions of his bond in a pending robbery case dozens of times.

Bailey filed suit to remove Gardner in February, arguing she had failed in her duties to prosecute cases and keep victims informed of developments in their cases. In March, he added 100 pages in a 10-count petition that accused her of not adequately supervising or training her subordinates, violating the rights of victims and defendants and refusing to review police use-of-force cases.

Gardners office argued the entire document should be dismissed, blaming many of the alleged misdeeds on the choices of individual subordinates.

But on Tuesday, Torbitzky said all but three counts should remain. He threw out charges that Gardner violated the Sunshine Law and failed to participate with the police department in destroying evidence for old cases, and he dismissed allegations that Gardner mismanaged her offices finances, finding the allegations, though troubling, do not state a claim under the removal statute.

Torbitzky also rejected blanket arguments from Gardners office that a 59-point subpoena from the attorney generals office asking for information including emails, case records and complaints from victims should be thrown out because its unduly burdensome and compromises prosecutorial privilege.

He found that Gardners office will be forced to provide almost all of the documents within 30 days.

The Missouri Supreme Court is expected to appoint the next judge to oversee the case in the coming days. They will pick up the case where Torbitzky left off.
ST. LOUIS  The ballooning scandals engulfing St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner continued to grow Wednesday as the Missouri attorney general took aim at Gardners enrollment in St. Louis Universitys nursing program.

Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed two subpoenas Tuesday seeking all records tracking Gardners student schedule and clinical work in the program.

If the Circuit Attorney wants to be a nurse, she needs to cease pretending to be a prosecuting attorney, Bailey told reporters Wednesday before renewing his calls for Gardner to resign.

University spokespeople did not respond to questions Wednesday about her class schedule and specific academic program. And Gardners office did not clarify the extent of her enrollment at SLU.

Her office did, however, issue a statement denying that enrollment in the program hampered her work as the citys top prosecutor.

Circuit Attorney Gardner believes the issues in our criminal justice system often relate to our broken health care system, the statement reads. After serving as a line attorney at the Circuit Attorneys Office and seeing firsthand the underlying issues that drive crime, she became a registered nurse. She continues to stay current with classes at St. Louis University to add to her training and advance her mission at the CAO. The Circuit Attorney has done this at great personal cost to her time with her family and loved ones. Any suggestion that she is not fully committed to her duties as Circuit Attorney is blatantly false.

Baileys office filed the subpoenas this week as part of a lawsuit aimed at removing Gardner from office for failing to uphold her duties.

Since then, the dysfunction surrounding Gardners office has only intensified: Nearly a third of her already depleted staff resigned in less than two months, leaving few to handle the citys most violent felony cases. Prosecutors have failed to turn over evidence and repeatedly delayed hearings. A judge filed to hold both Gardner and one of her assistant prosecutors in contempt after no one from the office appeared for a trial and hearing in an assault case. All the while, a bill moving through the Missouri Legislature seeks to strip Gardner of most of her power.

Gardner earned a bachelors degree in health care administration from Harris-Stowe State University in 1999 and returned to school at SLU in 2012 for a masters degree in nursing.

Baileys subpoenas request that SLU turns over all records documenting Gardners course of study, classes, internships and clinical work since at least 2021. It also asks for all emails sent or received by Gardner on the same topics.

Baileys office filed a second subpoena Tuesday to Family Care Health Centers, a primary care clinic with two locations in St. Louis, requesting documents related to any hours Gardner worked at the clinic since 2021. The office is also seeking surveillance video showing Gardners appearances at the clinic and any emails between Gardner and clinic staff.

Baileys lawsuit focuses on Gardners failure to prosecute cases by dismissing charges and allowing others to languish. The suit says her office failed to keep victims informed and failed to review thousands of cases submitted by St. Louis police.

On Tuesday, Judge John Torbitzky allowed seven of 10 allegations levied in Baileys suit to proceed despite arguments from Gardners attorneys that there is no legal standing to seek her ouster.

He also rejected blanket arguments from Gardners office that a subpoena from the attorney generals office asking for a large cache of documents, including emails, case records and complaints from victims, should be thrown out because its unduly burdensome and compromises prosecutorial privilege. He ordered Gardners office to provide almost all of the documents within 30 days.

On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court replaced Torbitzky, in response to Gardners request, filed Friday.

Judge Thomas N. Chapman, of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, will oversee the case. Chapman was appointed to the bench by Republican Gov. Mike Parson in 2018.

Bailey, at the press conference Wednesday, highlighted Torbitzkys rulings, depositions beginning Thursday, and his anticipation for the trial, now scheduled for September. He said the case had crossed a threshold.

There are rumors circulating around Jefferson City and St. Louis about potential resignations, Bailey said there. And Im here to tell you we will pursue this case unless and until such time as she resigns and commits to not running for office in the future.
JEFFERSON CITY  Opponents of a proposal to allow people to carry firearms in churches and on buses and trains say the legislation would make Missouri a less safe state.

In a Senate hearing Wednesday, Rep. Adam Schnelting, R-St. Charles, outlined legislation to allow concealed carry permit holders to bring firearms on publicly funded transportation systems and to places of worship.

Schnelting, who is considering a run for the state Senate next year, said the legislation helps protect Second Amendment rights and allows for self-defense.

There are illegal firearms already on public transit, Schnelting said.

But a diverse group of opponents, including the Missouri Catholic Conference, said the measure was an invitation to more violence.

And, public transit officials say, the legislation could jeopardize federal funding.

St. Louis transit system, for example, is governed by a federal compact barring firearms on public transit.

The bill earlier won House approval on a vote of 102-45, but faces an uncertain future in the Senate. A similar measure failed to garner a vote last year before the Legislature adjourned.

The proposal comes after two high-profile shootings on public transit in the St. Louis region last month.

No one was injured April 13 when a shot was fired on the eastbound MetroLink train in St. Clair County. The gun went off between the East Riverfront station, near the Casino Queen, and the Fifth and Missouri station in East St. Louis, where the train stopped and the man with the gun ran off.

In a separate incident in April, a man was charged with second-degree murder stemming from a fatal shooting incident on a MetroLink train.

Police allege that Terry Alexander, 69, shot Malachi Brown, 21, during an altercation on a MetroLink train around 10 a.m.

Police said they were sitting across the aisle from each other.

During the argument, the defendant displayed a firearm and shot the victim multiple times, St. Louis County Police said in a news release, referencing charging documents on file.

Supporters of the bill, including firearms enthusiasts from southwest Missouri, said people should be able to arm themselves in order to fight back against criminal activity.

Susan Meyers, a Springfield-area gun rights activist, said there should be no gun free zones in the state.

But, Mary Gross, a St. Louis County representative of Moms Demand Action, a gun safety group, said the bill was dangerous and unnecessary.

We see no reason to infuse guns into more places like churches and buses, Gross said.

The Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee sent the measure to the full Senate on a 4-1 vote. The House and Senate are set to adjourn May 12.

The legislation is House Bill 282.
ST. LOUIS  After a four-year delay, most daily trains on Amtraks St. Louis to Chicago route began running Wednesday at speeds of up to 110 mph.

The passenger rail line plans to operate with the new speeds for several weeks before changing schedules based on the old 90 mph maximum.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari declined to say how much time will be trimmed off trips between the two cities that now typically take from 5 hours and 6 minutes to 5 hours and 20 minutes.

In 2021, when Amtrak was allowed to boost the maximum speed on the route by a lesser amount of 11 mph  to 90 mph from 79 mph  trips were reduced by about 15 minutes.

We want to prove ... how far below 5 hours we can get, Magliari said.

The goal, he said, is a demonstrably and reliably shorter travel time than the driving time between the two cities of about 4.5 hours, Magliari said.

Faster rail journeys were among the goals of a $1.95 billion upgrade of the St. Louis-to-Chicago Amtrak corridor that was largely finished in 2017.

But delays in installing and testing new GPS-related safety technology kept Amtrak from hitting the higher 90 and 110 mph speeds as soon as the Illinois Department of Transportation had predicted. Federal officials have now authorized the increase to 110, Amtrak said.

The new 110 mph speeds will be used only in the more open expanses of the route outside the two big metro areas, roughly between Alton and Joliet on the southern fringe of metro Chicago.

Magliari said a new maximum speed of 100 mph is allowed on one of the five daily round-trip runs, the Texas Eagle, because trains used on those trips arent authorized to go any faster.

The 110 mph target speed for the project had been talked about by Illinois officials for more than two decades. The project was funded largely by economic stimulus money allotted in the Obama administration.

Among other improvements were new rails and concrete ties, new stations in Alton and Carlinville and improved street crossing gates to keep vehicles from weaving around crossing bars.

Also added were sidewalk gates barring pedestrians from crossing while a train is approaching and 3-foot-high pedestrian fences at crossings.

To cut delays, second-track segments and sidings were added or lengthened so two trains could run simultaneously in more areas.
JEFFERSON CITY  A push by House Speaker Dean Plocher to enact another major cut in state taxes appears to have fizzled in the Missouri Senate.

As budget negotiations between the House and Senate entered their final stages Wednesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith acknowledged the two Republican-led chambers were still at odds over initiating a significant tax cut, less than a year after lawmakers cut taxes for individuals during a special session called by Gov. Mike Parson.

But he told the Post-Dispatch that differences in the overall budget are being ironed out heading toward a 6 p.m. Friday deadline to send the Legislatures final spending blueprint to Parsons desk.

I think were getting close, said Smith, R-Carthage. I think we can get to a resolution on all those issues.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, said Wednesday his attention was not on cutting taxes.

Right now our focus is on passing a roughly $50 billion operating budget, Hough said, adding, We did over a billion dollar tax cut last fall.

The $1.1 billion plan backed by Plocher was approved in the House in March, but has since sat idle in Houghs committee.

Im not really interested in moving on another tax cut, Hough said.

Along with reducing taxes on businesses, Plocher could have used the cuts as campaign fodder when he departs the General Assembly next year because of term limits. The Des Peres Republican is considering a run for lieutenant governor.

Despite carrying an estimated $5 billion surplus, neither the Senate nor Parson had made tax cuts a priority this year, primarily out of concern of a future economic slowdown.

Hough instead put a premium on spending down some of the surplus, including using $1.4 billion to begin widening Interstate 70 to three lanes in each direction through the states mostly rural mid-section.

Hough suggested the House could take up a smaller initiative sponsored by Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville, that would exempt Social Security income from state taxes.

Missouri is among only 11 states that tax Social Security benefits, according to the Missouri Department of Revenue. The legislation, which is pending in the House, would eliminate filing status or adjusted gross income limitations and allow all Missourians to deduct 100% of their Social Security benefits, beginning in 2024.

The cost of the Social Security tax break is estimated at $318 million.

Derailment of the larger, more comprehensive tax cut sought by Plocher and fellow Republicans would mark another blow to the House, which also watched the Senate eliminate language from the budget that would have banned the state from partnering with organizations, businesses and universities that have diversity and inclusion policies.

Hough said the language could affect major state contracts and hurt state efforts to recruit a diverse workforce at a time when the state is struggling to fill front-line positions.

The Senate also zapped Smiths attempts to reduce funding for libraries in retaliation for libraries suing the state over a 2022 law designed to make it easier to ban certain school books.

Negotiations between the House and Senate on the overall spending plan are set to wrap up before lawmakers return to their chambers on Thursday.

At stake in the talks is the size of the I-70 project, more money for child care programs, higher pay for mental health workers and a 7% increase for state universities and community colleges.

In a nod to lawmakers who represent districts that dont border I-70, the budget is expected to include money to study a future widening of Interstate 44 and improvements to a stretch of Route 63 in southern Missouri.

It also includes $50 million in general revenue to launch a program to improve safety at railroad crossings.

Other spending initiatives inserted by the Senate include restoring Parsons call for $78 million to boost pre-kindergarten programs in the states school districts.

The states minimum teacher salary would be boosted to $38,000 in an attempt to fill vacant positions that have resulted in dozens of Missouri school districts moving to a four-day per week schedule.

Among other big ticket items under consideration is a $461 million Democratic priority aimed at increasing the pay of personal care workers. Under the plan, the base rate of pay for employees who assist people with developmental disabilities would be at least $17 per hour.

The legislation is House Bills 1-15.
An official statewide effort killed more than 6,000 feral hogs across Missouri in 2022  continuing a declining trend, and adding to hope that control efforts are working.

Last years removal of 6,289 hogs by the Missouri Feral Hog Elimination Partnership  a group that coordinates efforts across different agencies, organizations and landowners  marked about 3,000 fewer hogs compared to the year before. The lower total, though, is not because of decreased effort, officials said.

If anything, the efforts have increased but there are simply fewer hogs left on the landscape, said Dan Zarlenga, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Conservation. So in the end, its actually an indicator that the program is succeeding.

Its the second straight year that the hog total has dropped by roughly 3,000 animals, after more than 12,000 were wiped out in 2020  a record that, at the time, capped a streak of sizable gains year after year, according to annual statewide tallies from the MDC.

Weve just been hitting them really hard, said Zarlenga, describing the reversal. It seems to be paying off.

Feral hogs are most prevalent  and problematic  in the Ozark region of the state, covering south-central and southeastern Missouri.

The pigs are an introduced species blamed for widespread property and crop damage. The species also presents potentially costly threats of disease to domesticated swine, which has helped spur the U.S. Department of Agriculture to play a prominent role in efforts to control the population of the wild pigs, alongside other agencies.

Careful trapping methods are often used to target the hogs  ideally to catch an entire group, or sounder, at once  while hunting the animals is not seen by experts as an effective or efficient means of population control.

Some people illegally release hogs in order to sell opportunities to hunt them, MDC officials say, and genetic analysis reveals that humans move the animals between different parts of the state. In 2020, for instance, MDC said that nearly one in every six of the hogs appears to have been moved in its lifetime.
CLEVELAND, Texas (AP)  A man suspected of killing five of his neighbors in Texas after they asked him to stop shooting his gun near their house hid out just miles away from the slayings while he and his domestic partner plotted his escape to Mexico, authorities said Wednesday.

Francisco Oropeza showered and slept at the house outside the city of Conroe on Tuesday while Divimara Lamar Nava got him donuts from a nearby store, a prosecutor said. Lamar Nava also acknowledged delivering a message from Oropeza to his cousins in the area asking them to help him get out of the country, the prosecutor said at Lamar Navas probable cause hearing. The cousins refused to help.

Authorities believe Lamar Nava was talking to investigators at the same time she was trying to help Oropeza, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said at a news conference. She initially told authorities she didn't know where Oropeza was, but later told a federal agent that he showed up at the house about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to the prosecutor at the probable cause hearing.

Oropeza, 38, was arrested there on Tuesday evening, just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the city of Cleveland, where the shootings took place. Acting on a tip, authorities found him hiding under a pile of laundry in a closet after a four-day manhunt. Lamar Nava, 53, was arrested at the house on Wednesday.

Authorities identified Lamar Nava as Oropeza's wife, though jail records list her as not being married but sharing a home address with him.

The slayings Friday sent shudders through a nation already dealing with a wave of shootings that have put the U.S. on a torrid pace for mass killings this year.

Outside the Conroe-area home, yellow police tape could be seen Wednesday in both the front and back, although the officers were gone. Neighbor Angel Lozano recalled looking up from unloading tools from his truck Tuesday night to see unmarked law enforcement vehicles streaming onto his normally quiet street.

"A bunch of people got out with guns and they went straight to the house and surrounded the area, Lozano, 39, said Wednesday, estimating that at least 50 officers surrounded the home two doors down from his. It was a really fast job they did. They got him without people getting hurt or another shooting.

Several others have also been arrested, authorities said, although they only shared details about one of them. Domingo Castilla, a friend of Oropeza, was arrested on Tuesday in the Trails End neighborhood where the victims were shot, Dillon said. Castilla was charged with marijuana possession but authorities also expect to charge him with obstructing Oropezas apprehension, Dillon said.

At a news conference Wednesday, San Jacinto County Chief Deputy Sheriff Tim Kean said he couldnt go into details about the other people who were arrested, including how many.

Oropeza was charged Wednesday with five counts of first-degree murder during a court hearing in jail, said San Jacinto County Justice of the Peace Judge Randy Ellisor. Bond is set at $1.5 million per count, for a total of $7.5 million, Ellisor said. Lamar Nava is being held at the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon. Her bail has been set at $250,000. Bond for Castilla was set at $5,000, Ellisor said.

Oropeza is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to U.S. immigration officials.

Police had previously spotted him on Monday afternoon in Montgomery County, prompting several schools to lock down, Kean said at a news conference outside the county jail Wednesday.

We did confirm that was him on foot, running, but we lost track of him," Kean said.

Kean declined to comment on the tip that led authorities to the Conroe home, which he said was one that had not been previously checked by authorities.

The arrest came after authorities set up a widening dragnet of more than 250 people, drones and search dogs from multiple jurisdictions and offered $80,000 in reward money. The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. A little more than an hour later, Oropeza was in custody, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul.

Lozano said he hadn't known the residents of the home where Oropeza was arrested but would sometimes say hi to them if they were walking by his house. "We never thought he was going to be right next door, he said.

The victims have been identified as Diana Velasquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9, all from Honduras. Velasquez Alvarado's father, Osman Velasquez, said she had recently obtained legal residency in the U.S.

Argentina Guzman's husband, Wilson Garcia, survived the shooting. He said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield the children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

When offering a reward for Oropezas capture, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the victims illegal immigrants, which drew widespread backlash. His office apologized on Monday.

A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velasquez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and her husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras migrant protection service.

Osman Velasquez said his daughter had traveled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister who was already living there.

Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and thats true, he said. "But I never imagined it was just for this.

This story has been edited to correct Kean's title and to note that Wilson Garcia was Sonia Argentina Guzman's husband, not Diana Velasquez Alvarado's.
At one point during the current Missouri legislative session, there was a proposal to exclude state sales tax from groceries. Deemed too detrimental to the states future coffers, however, it was scratched. But several bills regarding the removal of sales taxes from other items appear headed to the governors desk.

Senate Bill 131 offers tax relief for gun aficionados in the form of a credit for the sale of firearms and ammunition as well as an exemption of state and local sales tax for the purchase of the same. More varied consumers will benefit from Senate Bill 143, which includes provisions to exclude sales tax on diapers and all feminine hygiene products. But, of the hundreds of bills currently pending, I found no bill recommending the exclusion of sales taxes on adult incontinence products. Its just another slap in the face of Missouris aged and disabled population.

In 2019, then-Senator Jill Schupp introduced a bill that would have removed sales taxes on both diapers and incontinence products. At the time, she quoted figures from the Division of Budget and Planning that estimated that Missourians annually spent between $1,920 to $2,889 on urinary incontinence diapers, $720 to $2,160 on bowel incontinence diapers, and $550 to $840 per year on childrens diapers. This didnt consider the daily catheters used on the deceptively labeled non-invasive products like the PureWick system. Her bill never got out of committee.

Its wonderful that people needing diapers and/or feminine products will see a reduction in their bills. Reusable types of these items are scarce, expensive, and often inconvenient to use at work or in school. Additionally, they cannot be purchased with Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (food stamp) vouchers.

Still, healthy children will outgrow the need for diapers, and women using period products (ordinarily) do not need them all month. Eventually, women even age out of them. But once a person needs incontinence products (whether male or female) its usually an expense theyll have forever.

I have not purchased Depends or other similar brands since my last senior relative died in 2017. But, for many years before that, our household stockpiled them.

None of my folks was bedfast until the last few months of their lives. But, as is common with age, they started to need more time to rise from a chair or the bed. Not surprisingly rushing to get to the bathroom caused several falls, something that could have resulted in far more serious problems than the embarrassment of wet clothes.

Consequently, my folks wore incontinence briefs 24/7. Sometimes only two per day would be necessary. Other times though, staying dry demanded more. Imagine how cost-prohibitive this could be on a fixed income. For example, consider the difficulty for someone whose total monthly income is $914 a month  the maximum for an individual receiving Supplemental Security Income.

There are many brands of such products, but regardless of the brand, their costs vary according to size and the number of items in each package. Using the extra-large size for comparison, I checked our local retailers for their current costs. At $35.60, the Sams Club version had the lowest cost for a package of 80 items, while Costco had the same number of items for $50.99.

Most other retailers do not offer packages with these many items, period. Walmart sells a 68-count package for $50.08. Targets price for the same number is $54.99, while Amazon has a 60-count for $53.33. Neither CVS nor Walgreens sells packages greater than 26-count at an extra-large size. CVS charges $23.99 for their bag, while Walgreens sells a 12-count for $18.99.

Considered monthly, these amounts might seem small. However, if a person receiving only $914 a month needed to purchase these packages weekly, it might become a conundrum of choosing to stay dry or to pay for other basic necessities like shelter, food and medicine.

Having the sales tax removed from these products would have helped innumerable Missourians if our legislators cared enough to offer and approve such a bill. Since they obviously didnt, I encourage anyone who can afford it to buy several bags of incontinence products and donate them to the food pantries in your area.

Janet Y. Jackson is a Post-Dispatch columnist and Editorial Board member.
18th century gun-law standard should match that eras guns

The U.S. Supreme Court has set a new constitutional standard holding that gun laws today must be historically consistent with laws on the books in the 18th century, when the Second Amendment was codified. It would seem entirely reasonable to therefore allow only the types of guns available in the 18th century be made available today.

Harold Fritts  Bridgeton

Initiative petition bill is a plain-old Republican power grab

Efforts by the Missouri Legislature to change initiative petition rules should set off alarm bells for all Missourians. Make no mistake: This is yet another Republican power grab to silence the voices of Missouri citizens. (Missouri Senate Democrats relent, allow watered-down limit on citizen petitions to advance, April 27.)

The current procedure for ballot measures to change the state constitution by citizen referendum, which requires a 50%-plus-1 majority, has been in place for more than 100 years and is working just fine. Since when does majority rule mean 57%? Under our current initiative petition process, Missouri voters have proposed and passed measures to raise the minimum wage, increase access to health insurance, legalize marijuana and impose new ethics requirements on the Legislature.

So why the proposed change now? Because the Republican legislative majority wants to make it more difficult for Missouri citizens to exercise their right to change the state constitution by majority rule. Its a power grab, pure and simple. As Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo put it, the GOPs goal is to gain more power, to keep power and to consolidate it. The GOP wants to keep decision-making power all to themselves.

Changing the initiative petition rules will make it difficult for citizens to change onerous and restrictive legislation that takes away health care choices for women and transgender people. Missourians must stand together to protect the peoples freedom and our power to make decisions through the ballot.

Dont be fooled. The Legislatures reforms to our initiative-petition process are designed to make it harder for us, the citizens of Missouri, to use our voices to have a say on the laws that govern us.

Kathy Quinlan  Ladue

Judges firearms ruling ignores both history and modern reality

The injunction against the Illinois ban on high-powered firearms by a Southern Illinois federal judge on Friday is an attempt to rewrite the Constitution from the bench. (Illinois ban on high-powered firearms blocked by federal judge, April 28.)

Judge Stephen McGlynn argues that the legislation violates the Constitution and subjects the plaintiffs to irreparable harm by preventing them from purchasing their firearm of choice and from exercising their right to self-defense in the manner they choose. Where precisely are those rights outlined in the Constitution? To the contrary, the Second Amendment specifies that the justification for owning and bearing arms is participation in a well-regulated militia. Theres no mention of self-defense.

Moreover, it seems obvious that public safety is best served by precluding the owning and carrying of deadly weapons of war. It should be obvious that the Framers did not anticipate such weapons. They had in mind muzzle-loaded, single-shot muskets in the hands of citizens organized to defend their state from attack.

The impact of permissive gun laws on public safety is all too obvious. The data is clear: The more guns in an area, the more deaths by firearms. McGlynns ruling is tendentious. He attempts to pass off personal preferences as constitutional mandates ignoring both the text of the Constitution and its historical context, not to mention the dreadful realities on the ground.

Thomas W. Allen  Chesterfield

Baileys transgender restrictions will stigmatize mental illness

As a psychiatric nurse practitioner treating adults in Missouri, I have cared for people living with depression, anxiety, bipolar, and schizophrenia. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has created regulations that would restrict transgender people from accessing medical care unless they submit to forced psychiatric treatment and also prove that they have no mental illness symptoms. This unabashed stigmatizing of mental illness would erode years of progress in public health care policy and private-sector initiatives that have sought to improve outcomes and increase access to high-quality mental health care for all Americans.

The American Psychiatric Association points to studies showing that stigma results in avoidance of care and worse clinical outcomes. With a teen mental-health crisis ongoing and with alarming rates of suicide in our country, we cannot and must not enact laws that increase stigma and shame for the millions of Americans who would benefit from mental health support.

Organizations like Bring Change to Mind, founded by actress Glenn Close, pledge to keep working to increase public acceptance and improve individual access to care. There are many organizations doing similar work, and I have seen the direct benefits of increased public acceptance for the patients I have served.

For the health and welfare of all Americans, we must reject legislation that stigmatizes mental illness.

Olivia Jones  Creve Coeur

Read letters online at STLToday.com
TOKYO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT) said Wednesday that Kumagai Gumi, a major Japanese construction company, issued a false report on concrete test in the construction of a Hokkaido Shinkansen tunnel extension.

According to the JRTT, the tunnel for which the false test report was issued is located in Abuta District in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, and the length of the tunnel is about 4.2 kilometers.

The agency is currently investigating how the false report affected the quality of the tunnel and the progress of the project, it added.

Kumagai Gumi said on the same day that they are aware of the seriousness of the situation and will take measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

According to Japanese regulations, as a test to confirm the strength of concrete, its water content should be tested every 50 cubic meters once before and once after pouring into the foundation. But the JRTT investigation found that Kumagai Gumi has only performed the one test before pouring. 
Four years ago, electric vehicles were still a niche industry, accounting for 1.4% of total vehicle sales in the U.S., according to a report from CleanTechnica, a website covering the cleantech industry. That number, according to the report, quadrupled by 2022, and the Biden administration recently proposed new rules that would make two-thirds of passenger vehicle sales electric by 2032.

A Tesla Model 3 now costs $4,930 less than the average new car, according to an analysis by Bloomberg, even before tax incentives. Electric vehicles have become mainstream  you can even rent one for your road trip.

But what about air travel? Last time I checked, electric airplanes accounted for precisely 0% of the commercial aviation fleet. In 2021, United Airlines announced that it would buy 100 electric planes for operation by 2026. But these planes would hold 19 passengers each and have a flight distance of a mere 250 miles.

So yeah, electric aircraft probably wont soon solve the aviation industrys emission problem. But what will? And, more importantly, why are airlines so far behind on this pressing issue?

The scope of the sustainability problem

Jets burn fuel  lots of it  to move people around the globe. If commercial aviation were its own country, it would rank sixth, between Germany and Japan, in terms of total emissions, according to a report from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

The big problem is this: Theres no reasonable alternative to fuel-gobbling aircraft on the horizon. Hydrogen-powered planes are hypothetically feasible, but the commercial implementation of such technology lies at least 15 or 20 years away, according to a report from Oliver Wyman, a management consulting firm based in New York City. Electric aircraft will probably never carry you across the country, never mind the ocean, because of weight and range limitations.

Airlines can reduce emissions by improving their fleets fuel efficiency. For example, Delta Air Lines estimated it cut 10 million gallons of fuel in 2022 through these efficiency improvement tactics. But these upgrades, such as fuel efficiency improvements to passenger vehicles, can only do so much. At some point, aircraft and operations will be as streamlined as possible, and theyll still be burning loads of fuel.

Thats why many climate initiatives focus on so-called sustainable aviation fuels, or SAFs, to replace the fossil fuel currently used to power aircraft. But, again, the industry is way behind in transitioning to greener options. As of 2019, only about 0.1% of the fuels used were SAFs, according to a World Economic Forum report.

Whats being done to improve sustainability?

If youre like me, reading all these alarming facts fills you with a vague sense of dread and, maybe, guilt. However, there are ways to reduce your carbon footprint while traveling, such as taking more direct flights and visiting transit-friendly destinations. And no, they wont offset the huge carbon impact of deciding to fly in the first place.

Yet, its unreasonable to depend on consumers to change their habits. Vehicle fuel consumption wont become sustainable because everyone decides to stop driving  it will happen because regulations and technological innovation (such as electric vehicles) make sustainable options easy for consumers.

Just as the automotive industry needed a kick from Tesla to start taking electric vehicles seriously, something must happen in aviation to catalyze a similar change.

Many U.S. airlines have made ambitious pledges to improve sustainability through fleet improvements, SAFs and carbon offsets. Yet pledges are one thing, and actually sacrificing short-term profit to reduce emissions is another.

For example, many advocates suggest that first- and business-class travel generates far more per-passenger emissions than economy fares. In fact, according to an analysis by IBA, an aviation consulting firm, the two U.S. airlines with the lowest emissions per passenger are Frontier and Spirit  partly because they pack passengers in so tightly.

In other words, Delta and Alaska could easily slash their emissions by eliminating their first-class cabins. But Im not holding my breath.

Until passengers get serious about holding airlines accountable for their climate pledges, or until federal regulations begin forcing them to, the aviation industry will remain an emissions laggard.

Sam Kemmis writes for NerdWallet. Email: skemmis@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @samsambutdif.
Libya remains divided and deadlocked. There are two main factions, one in the east based in Tobruk and another in Tripoli, in the west. The UN backs the Tripoli faction, as do local Islamic militias and Turkish troops and their mercenaries. The eastern faction controls most of the oil and export ports. The Russian Wagner Group mercenaries are based in the east but now see themselves as peacekeepers and work with the Turks to maintain a ceasefire. This allows Russian oil firms to operate in Libya and do work for the Libyan national oil company. Both factions support national elections to unite the country but neither faction trusts the others enough to proceed with elections. Russia and the Turks refuse to withdraw their troops from Libya until they receive guarantees that their interests in Libya are respected. The UN and NATO oppose that because the Tripoli faction wants to legitimize an illegal treaty signed by the Tripoli faction in 2019 granting Turkey some of Greeces offshore oil and natural gas rights in an area between Libya and Turkey that ignores existing, and internationally recognized, claims on that area. Turkey and Greece are both NATO members and NATO backs Greece in this matter. Turkey wont withdraw its forces from Libya until a new national Libyan government assures the Turks that the illegal agreement is confirmed by a national Libyan government. Many people in both factions do not want to be stuck with a treaty that the UN and NATO consider illegal. Russia is no friend of NATO and is currently at war with NATO in Ukraine. Turkey is also a NATO member but most other NATO members would like to expel the Turks from NATO and there is no legal mechanism for that. Turks and Russians are troublemakers in Europe and Libya is a foreign branch of that mischief.

Egypt, which long supported the eastern faction, is now willing to work with both factions as well as the Turks and Russians to reach a settlement in Libya. For a long time, the primary Egyptian interest in Libya was the threat of Islamic terrorists getting across the Libyan border into Egypt. In Libya the eastern faction proved very effective at controlling Islamic terrorist activities and gradually eliminating most of them. Currently the only Islamic terrorist activity in Libya comes from Islamic terror groups that raise money by working with people smugglers. That is all about getting paid, not carrying out attacks in the name of defending Islam.

Currently, the only fatalities in Libya are the result of people smuggling operations by criminal gangs. This is big business. In 2022 there were over 600,000 of these refugees from 41 African nations. Some of these countries do not cooperate in taking back their citizens stranded in Libya. Some of these refugees flee the detention centers and find a hostile reception for them in Libya. Some are killed and there are reports that others have been enslaved by local militias. The EU (European Union) provides money and other assistance to house stranded refugees and get them back to their homes. The EU also supplies cash for the Libyan Coast Guard for training, new equipment and cash for operations to block smuggling efforts from Libya to Europe. Some of this aid is used to improve border security to stop the refugees from getting into Libya. The EU support has also reduced the ability of people smuggling gangs to get illegal migrants into Libya and then into Europe by boat. These gangs were part of a coalition including Italian and African gangsters who took in over a billion dollars from this in 2015 and found that kind of income was worth fighting for when European and Libyan authorities began efforts to shut them down. Starting in 2017 the eastern faction and some militias in the west worked with Italy to shut down the smugglers. The Libyans have a plan for shutting down all the smuggling gangs and want more support from the EU to do the same with the European gangs which control more of this smuggling than the EU would like to admit. Italy took the lead implementing an EU program to organize (and subsidize) a revived Libyan coast guard and paying southern tribes to go after people smugglers. This effort continues but the smuggling gangs still operate to get migrants into Libya. The smuggling boats are far fewer in Libya and the Libyan Coast Guard regularly intercepts them. Some migrants still get into Europe, usually via Italy, but successful transportation of migrants to Europe has been much reduced because fewer boats are operating and most migrants are detained in Libya and returned to their home countries. Most of the fatalities among the illegal migrants occur at sea when overloaded smuggler boats sink and most of the people on board drown. Since the ultra-extreme ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) factions were destroyed or driven from Libya, there has been very little violence from armed Islamic extremists.

May 2, 2023: Outside the oil export port of Ras Lanuf (620 kilometers east of Tripoli) police chased down and seized pickup truck without license plates that was carrying twenty illegal migrants and headed for a smaller port where they could board a boat and headed for Italy. While the EU (European Union) contributes equipment, cash and advisors for Libyan Coat Guard and police forces, this only reduces people smuggling in Libya. So far in 2023 at least 661 illegals have drowned when their boats sand or capsized during the crossing to Italy. There have been 20,000 such deaths since 2014.

April 26, 2023: In Tripoli, hundreds of residents protested to the city government over local militias recruiting illegal African migrants to act as translators and enforcers against migrants who seek employment in the city. The town of Zawiya, 45 kilometers west of the city, is where the smuggling gangs bring most illegal migrants to board crowded boats for the one way trip to Italy and asylum in Europe. The smuggler gangs bribe local governments to leave the smuggling operations alone. Several of these smuggler boats have capsized off shore and many bodies washed ashore. The migrants spent what money they had for the smugglers and feared dying at sea or being sent back to their home countries. The Tripoli militias were originally formed in 2011 and 2012 to initially overthrow a decades old dictatorship and then establish control of Tripoli and other coastal towns and cities. That effort was only partially successful and Libya still lacks a national government or police forces in Tripoli and other cities that can maintain order and eliminate the militias. The militias remain and operate as criminal gangs. Recruiting locals is more difficult and recruiting illegal migrants does not make the militias any more tolerable. Most coastal towns and cities have shut down the militias but they survive in Tripoli. The demonstrations by local residents against the militias is having an impact, especially when the locals block transportation and a local oil refinery operations. Todays demonstrations continued for another day.

April 6, 2023: The National Oil Corporation has, over the last two years, restored normal oil production levels of 1.2 million BPD (barrels per day) and is maintaining that level of production. The eastern faction forces guard the oil production and export facilities and concentrates its efforts on that. The Turkish forces stay in Tripoli and a few other coastal areas and leave the oil production and exporting activities alone. The two rival Libyan governments cooperate when it comes to oil and split the income from exports. There is a military standoff here because while the Tripoli government can threaten the coastal oil export ports they have not got the ability to advance inland and take the oilfields. These are guarded by eastern faction troops.
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Author Ray Comfort, CEO and founder of Living Waters Christian ministry, is giving away 500,000 hard copies of his book "Defender of the Faith: Ten Weird Facts about the Coronation," to U.S audiences interested in the events happening in London this weekend to celebrate King Charles III's official coronation.

Defender of the Faith

Book cover

According to Comfort, the book is controversial because it flies in the face of an increasingly secularized world-where many profess atheism and most don't honor the Bible. "It's ironic that during the coronation of King Charles, hundreds of millions around the world will essentially be going to church for a two-hour televised church service," Comfort said. "There they will hear many references to the Christian gospel and hear the Bible greatly honored."

The author and TV cohost is referring to the fact that during the church service, when King Charles is presented with the Bible, the Archbishop of Canterbury will say, "Sir: to keep you ever mindful of the law and the Gospel of God as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes, receive this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords."

Comfort added, "I want people to understand the significance of the many strange things that will take place during the May 6 coronation: the meaning behind the presentation of three swords, the diamond-crusted orb, the golden scepter, the ancient coronation chair, the mysterious anointing, the king's extravagant robes, the amazing crown, and so on."

Comfort's ministry has also amassed an army of over 20,000 Christians who on coronation day will give away 16 million copies of what looks like a million-pound English note. These will not only be given freely to the millions of observers lining the streets of London, but also be given away in Europe, Canada, Australia, and other parts of the world.

"While the church service makes numerous references to the gospel, it doesn't articulate it in layman's language. And so we printed the 16 million copies of the commemorative 'million-pound note' explaining it. The word 'gospel' simply means 'good news.' And the good news is that in the Old Testament, God promised to destroy death, and in the New Testament we are told how He did it. That's actually the best news this world could ever hope to hear."

The London Outreach will be live-streamed on Living Waters' YouTube channel, where commentary will also be provided during the coronation church service.

For more details and to request free "Coronation Millions," go to Livingwaters.com/London.

About Living Waters

Living Waters exists to inspire and equip Christians to fulfill the Great Commission. Living Waters seeks to train the members of Christ's Body in the principles of biblical evangelism and to provide them with practical tools to proclaim the gospel. See more at www.livingwaters.com.

Contact Information

Melany Ethridge

[email protected]

(214) 912-8934

SOURCE: Living Waters

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In its quarterly earnings call on April 25, 2023, Alphabet, Inc. highlighted the effectiveness of new Google Ads features by citing a recent Accelerated Digital Media (ADM) case study.

CHICAGO, IL / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / In its quarterly earnings call on April 25, 2023, Alphabet, Inc. highlighted the effectiveness of new Google Ads features by citing a recent Accelerated Digital Media (ADM) case study.

Google Earnings Quote

Accelerated Digital Media's work with Caraway was recognized on Alphabet's earnings call

ADM demonstrated early mastery of Google's new Performance Max (PMax) campaign type on behalf of its client, Caraway. During the call, that success was referenced by Google Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler.

"Caraway, a direct-to-consumer maker of cookware, used Target ROAS to uncap budgets and PMax to optimize and deploy spend across Google inventory," Schindler noted, citing data from ADM's case study: "PMax drove a 46% increase in revenue and 31% jump in ROAS, leading to Caraway's best business day in history.

PMax is an innovative Google Ads campaign type that uses machine learning to optimize spend across multiple Google networks, including search, display, YouTube, and more. Another new feature-the Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) bidding strategy-was also central to ADM's success with Caraway, which is documented in a 2022 case study.

ADM is a leading growth marketing agency serving eCommerce and digital health companies. As a Google Premier Partner, ADM receives advance access to new Google Ads tools like PMax and Target ROAS. The agency prioritizes testing and implementation of new marketing tools to build highly-customized marketing strategies for its clients.

"It's a privilege to help our clients exceed their goals," ADM CEO and Founder Tellef Lundevall said. "But it speaks to the ingenuity of our team when Google then references that success as a way to highlight its new product offerings."

Read the entire case study, "Delivering eCommerce Success Despite Low Product Inventory," and to learn more about ADM and its digital marketing services, please visit https://www.accelerateddigitalmedia.com.

Contact Information:

Jake Meline

Business Development Manager

[email protected]

708-954-6989

SOURCE: Accelerated Digital Media

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Largest Independently Owned Orthopedic Practice in Kansas City partners with HealthMe for Price Transparency and Digital Commerce and Compliance Strategy

NAPLES, FL / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / HealthMe and the Kansas City Orthopedic Alliance (KCOA) announced today they have partnered to provide HealthMe's price transparency platform to help direct-pay patients access healthcare for an upfront, bundled price. Healthcare services available to direct payers include office visits, procedures and imaging studies via a digital marketplace and payment tool that mirrors the shopping experience seen in every other industry. Announced at the Free Market Medical Association conference in Kansas City, the partnership aligns with FMMA's rapidly growing community of physicians, self-funded employers, and others with a shared goal of promoting direct care models built on transparency, affordability, access and a better physician and patient experience.



Featuring six locations, more than 60 providers and the full spectrum of orthopedic services, KCOA entities have been leading providers of orthopedic services in the Kansas City area for close to 100 years. KCOA is committed to pursuing technologies that improve access, the delivery of care and outcomes for its patients. As part of these efforts, the partnership with HealthMe includes the latest digital technologies to help patients get access to the right care at the right price. In addition to providing a secure, patient-friendly payment platform, HealthMe automates the delivery of Good Faith Estimates (GFE) to direct-pay patients so they know the cost of their healthcare in advance.

"With our continued growth and improved access points across the Kansas City area, we continue to add technology and tools to create a truly frictionless patient experience," commented Gene Austin, KCOA Chief Executive Officer. "Our new partnership with HealthMe enhances our ability to extend our services and long-term orthopedic solutions to even more of our community members. The HealthMe platform layered on our clinical expertise helps create the type of care experience our patients deserve."

"We are committed to helping our clients deploy the most patient-friendly technologies that help remove the potential anxiety around the financial component of care. The posting of clear and transparent pricing coupled with convenient payment options has become a core component of the care experience for today's health consumer," commented Michael Having, M.D., HealthMe founder and CEO. "We are honored to have been selected by KCOA for this vital strategic initiative."

About HealthMe"

Price transparency experts and transformers of the patient payment experience, HealthMe's digital payment platform gives medical groups and practices a simple, proven solution to serve the growing population of direct-pay patients and health consumers. Founded and developed by doctors, HealthMe combines the best features of a consumer-friendly marketplace with the security of a specialized healthcare payment processing solution. With validated success in automating the process of Good Faith Estimates (GFEs), HealthMe is the first company to provide GFEs in 11 languages. HealthMe helps patients find the best cost-saving healthcare options while streamlining administrative processes for overburdened staff.

Contact Information:

Darrell Atkin

VP Marketing

[email protected]

760-390-6036

SOURCE: HealthMe

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ARLINGTON, VA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Inspire, the leading patient engagement platform, announced today the launch of its Real-World Evidence (RWE) solutions. Inspire RWE will provide innovative data and analytic solutions to help biopharmaceutical, medical device, and life sciences companies gather patient-centered real-world insights to drive better patient outcomes.





Inspire logo

Inspire logo





Inspire RWE will draw on the company's established patient engagement platform, which includes extensive longitudinal patient-reported and clinical data across thousands of health conditions. By leveraging this platform, Inspire RWE can gather real-world data from millions of patients, providing insights into true patient behaviors, experiences, and outcomes.

"With the launch of Inspire Real-World Evidence, we are introducing a powerful new platform that will enable companies to accelerate their commitment to patient-centered healthcare," said Brian Loew, CEO of Inspire. "By leveraging our proprietary patient engagement platform, we can help companies gain a deeper understanding of unmet patient needs and develop more effective treatments."

Inspire RWE offers a range of real-world evidence generation and dissemination solutions, including real-world data products infused with authentic patient voice, linked and consented medical data for secondary research, siteless virtual patient registries with survey based PRO measures and deep EHR, and patient-focused data and analytics services. These solutions will help Inspire clients develop more holistic evidence generation strategies, providing the right patient data at the right time.

Inspire will unveil its research capabilities as an exhibitor at the upcoming International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) conference May 7, 2023 in Boston. At the conference, Inspire will also present its work to advance understanding of disease burden and unmet needs for a rare condition known as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP).

"We believe that patient-centered real-world evidence is the key to better patient outcomes," said Richard Tsai, senior vice president of Real-World Evidence at Inspire. "Inspire RWE will enable companies to efficiently synthesize, integrate and disseminate evidence, and ultimately, improve patient lives."

About Inspire

Inspire is the world's largest online health community, patient engagement and real-world data platform. More than 10 million people each year come to Inspire to learn about their conditions and find peer support. Inspire also works with leading biopharmaceutical companies and academic researchers to provide real-world evidence and insights about the patient experience, connect patients with life-advancing clinical trials and enable medical breakthroughs. Learn more at about.Inspire.com.

Contact Information:

Lily McCutchan

Sr. Director, Marketing and Communications

[email protected]

212-461-1128

SOURCE: Inspire

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Experienced Executive Focused on Improving Mental Health Patient Outcomes

BRENTWOOD, TN / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Psychiatric Medical Care (PMC), one of the nation's largest providers of mental health services, announces P. Paul Smith, Jr., FACHE as its new chief operations officer. Smith brings more than 30 years of leadership in the healthcare industry to PMC, including experience overseeing behavior health operations for acute care hospitals.

P. Paul Smith, Jr.

P. Paul Smith, Jr.

"I am thrilled to have Paul join our team," said PMC's Chief Executive Officer, J.R. Greene, FACHE. "An exciting future is ahead. We are confident that with Paul's extensive experience and expertise in healthcare operations, we will continue to expand our services and reach more people in need of mental health support."

Before joining PMC, Smith was group president at Bon Secours Mercy Health, the country's fifth-largest Catholic healthcare ministry, where he oversaw operations in four markets that included 15 hospitals. Prior to that role, Smith served as a division president for Community Health Systems, where he provided executive leadership to operations teams supporting 26 acute care hospitals in six states. He supported the creation and execution of strategic plans to grow revenue and EBITDA, and improve patient outcomes. Smith also spent 14 years with Health Management Associates, serving as vice president and chief executive officer of Lake Norman Regional Medical Center in North Carolina.

"It is an honor to join an organization so dedicated to mental health," Smith said. "PMC is built on a culture of kindness and accountability, and I've witnessed that from day one. This company is redefining mental health treatment by developing programs focused on patient outcomes and ensuring high levels of care and compliance in every community we serve."

Smith holds a Bachelor of Arts in business administration and marketing from Mercer University, a Master of Business, and a Master of Health Administration from Georgia State University. He and his family live in the Nashville area.

About PMC

Founded in 2003, Psychiatric Medical Care (PMC) is a leading behavioral healthcare management company with over 250 hospital and health center partners in more than 30 states. PMC manages inpatient behavioral health units, intensive outpatient programs, and telehealth services. The company's services provide evaluation and treatment for patients suffering from behavioral health illnesses, including depression, anxiety, mood disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. For more information, visit psychmc.com.

Contact Information

Mitchell Kline

Marketing Director

[email protected]

615-497-7305

SOURCE: Psychiatric Medical Care

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / The Power Play by The Market Herald has announced the release of new interviews with Mullen Group, Odd Burger, Fineqia International and ARway discussing their latest news.

The Power Play by The Market Herald provides investors with a quick snapshot of what they need to know about the company's latest press release through exclusive insights and interviews with company executives.

Mullen Group Ltd. Announces the Acquisition of B. & R. Eckel's Transport Ltd.

Mullen Group Ltd. is pleased to announce that it has entered into a formal share purchase agreement to acquire B. & R. Eckel's Transport Ltd. The acquisition is scheduled to close today.

For the full interview with Joanna Scott and to learn about Mullen Group, click here.

Odd Burger Signs Letter of Intent to Acquire Zoglo's Food Corp, a leading Canadian plant-based CPG brand

Odd Burger Corporation is pleased to announce that it has signed a non-binding letter of intent with Zoglo's Food Corp. to acquire 100% of its issued and outstanding common shares and combine the businesses.

For the full interview with James McInnes and to learn about Odd Burger Corporation, click here.

Fineqia to Set Up Fineqia Glass Slipper Ventures to Invest in Digital Asset-Focused Companies

Fineqia International Inc., the digital asset and fintech investment business, is pleased to announce its plan to start a new venture capital fund that will invest in innovative companies in the digital asset industry. Fineqia will transfer a selection of its investments to a new company called Fineqia Glass Slipper Ventures, which will form part of FGSV's portfolio. In lieu, Fineqia will receive a proportionate equity interest in the Fund.

For the full interview with Bundeep Rangar and to learn about Fineqia International, click here.

ARway.ai Approved and Now Trading On The OTCQB Exchange

ARway Corporation is disrupting the Augmented Reality Wayfinding market with a no-code, no beacon augmented reality experience platform enabled by visual marker tracking. ARway is pleased to announce that its common shares are now available for trading in the USA on the OTCQB Venture Market under the stock symbol: ARWYF.



For the full interview with Evan Gappelberg and to learn about ARway Corporation, click here.

Interviews for The Power Play by The Market Herald are released daily. To learn more about the companies featured in The Power Play or to explore our other interviews visit The Power Play by The Market Herald.

About The Market Herald

The Market Herald Canada is the leading source of authoritative breaking stock market news for self-directed investors. Our team of Canadian markets reporters, editors and technologists covers the entire listed company universe in Canada. We cover over 3,985 businesses, their people, their investors, and their customers. We write the stories that move the Canadian capital markets.

DISCLAIMER: Report Card Canada Media Ltd. ("Report Card") is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market Herald Limited, an Australian company ("Market Herald"). Report Card is not an advisory service, and does not offer, buy, sell, or provide any other rating, analysis or opinion on the securities we discuss. We are retained and compensated by the companies that we provide information on to assist them with making information available to the public. All information available on themarketherald.ca and/or this press release should be considered as commercial advertisement and not an endorsement, offer or recommendation to buy or sell securities. Report Card is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority in any province or territory of Canada, will not be performing any registerable activity as defined by the applicable regulatory bodies and do not provide nor claim to provide investment advice or recommendations to any visitor of this site or readers of any content on or originating from themarketherald.ca. Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees may from time to time acquire, hold or sell securities and/or commodities and/or commodity futures contracts in certain underlying companies mentioned in this site and which may also be clients of Market Herald's affiliates. In such instances, Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees will use all reasonable efforts to avoid engaging in activities that would lead to conflicts of interest and Market Herald and/or its affiliates will use all reasonable efforts to comply with conflicts of interest disclosures and regulations to minimize any conflict. All the information on this document and/or the website - themarketherald.ca - is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. Report Card does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find on this document and/or website (themarketherald.ca) is strictly at your own risk. Report Card will not be liable for any losses and/or damages in connection with the use of our website. From our website, you can visit other websites by following hyperlinks to such external sites. While we strive to provide only quality links to useful and ethical websites, we have no control over the content and nature of these sites. These links to other websites do not imply a recommendation for all the content found on these sites. Site owners and content may change without notice and may occur before we have the opportunity to remove a link which may have gone 'bad'. Please be also aware that when you leave our website, other sites may have different privacy policies and terms which are beyond our control. Please be sure to check the Privacy Policies of these sites as well as their "Terms of Service" before engaging in any business or uploading any information.

CONTACT:

The Market Herald

[email protected]

themarketherald.ca

SOURCE: The Market Herald

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Ximen Mining Corp. (TSXV:XIM)(FRA:1XMA)(OTCQB: XXMMF) (the "Company" or "Ximen") is pleased to announce that in addition to trading on the TSX Venture Exchange, the OTCQB in the USA, several regional exchanges in Europe as well as the Frankfurt Exchange in Germany, the Company will now start trading on the Gettex Exchange a competing exchange in Germany under the symbol X1MA effective May 4th 2023.

"Over the past few weeks, Ximen has received final permits from both the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low-Carbon Innovation. These permits will allow the Company to advance the Kenville Gold Mine, which has been several years in the making. We are excited to share our progress and story as we move forward with our plans. As part of our strategy, we aim to expand our presence and share our developments with new audiences. We are pleased to announce that the Gettex Exchange has agreed to list our Company, allowing us to trade on their exchange. This move is a part of our overall information strategy, as we aim to build a presence in Europe," says Christopher Anderson, CEO of Ximen Mining.

The Company is also pleased to announce that it has arranged a non-brokered private placement of 6 million units at a price of $0.10 per unit for gross proceeds of $600,000. Each Unit consists of one common share and one transferable common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase, for a period of 60 months from the date of issue, one additional common share of the Issuer at an exercise price of $0.15 per share.

A finder's fee may be paid to eligible finders in accordance with the TSX Venture Exchange policies. All securities issued pursuant to the offering will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of closing. The offering and payment of finders' fees are both subject to approval by the TSX-V. There is no material fact or material change of the Company that has not been generally disclosed.

The Company anticipates closing on/or about May 8, 2023.

The net proceeds from the Offering will be used by the Company for exploration expenses on the Company's British Columbia mineral properties and general working capital.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Christopher R. Anderson"

Christopher R. Anderson,

President, CEO and Director

604 488-3900

Investor Relations: Sophy Cesar, 604-488-3900, [email protected]

About Ximen Mining Corp.

Ximen Mining Corp. owns 100% interest in three of its precious metal projects located in southern BC. Ximen`s two Gold projects The Amelia Gold Mine and The Brett Epithermal Gold Project. Ximen also owns the Treasure Mountain Silver Project adjacent to the past producing Huldra Silver Mine. Currently, the Treasure Mountain Silver Project is under a option agreement. The option partner is making annual staged cash and stocks payments as well as funding the development of the project. The company has also acquired control of the Kenville Gold mine near Nelson British Columbia which comes with surface and underground rights, buildings and equipment.

This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

SOURCE: Ximen Mining Corp

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AUSTIN, TX / ACCSSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Xtra Energy Corp. (OTC PINK:XTPT), a Nevada antimony exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that the Depository Trust Company ("DTC") has approved the company's US-based OTC Markets listing under the symbol "XTPT" to make the company's common shares eligible for electronic clearing and settlement ("DTC Eligibility"). DTC is a subsidiary of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, a US company that oversees the electronic clearing and settlement of publicly traded companies. A member of the United States Federal Reserve System, a limited-purpose trust company under New York State banking law, and a registered clearing agency with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Eligibility includes an electronic method of clearing securities, which expedites the receiving of stock and cash and, as a result, speeds up the settlement procedure for qualified investors.

"Today's announcement is an important milestone towards broadening our market presence across the United States," stated Mac J. Shahsavar, P.Eng. Chairman of Xtra Energy. DTC eligibility provides present and potential Xtra Energy shareholders with a dependable, cost-effective, and efficient method for clearing and settlement of our common shares. Fundamentally, the announcement made today enables Xtra Energy to bolster its engagement with current and prospective investors across the continent."

Xtra Energy invites interested stakeholders and shareholders alike to visit its website to sign-up for regular news alerts, and to support our social media efforts on Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Contact & Learn More:

Xtra Energy Corporation

Phone: 512-412-3636

Corporate Website: https://americanantimony.com/

Corporate Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xtra-energy-corp/

Corporate Twitter: https://twitter.com/xtra_corp

Corporate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xtraenergycorp/

About Xtra Energy Corp.

Xtra Energy Corp. is an antimony exploration company focused on developing its flagship project "American Antimony", approximately 31 miles northeast of Eastgate, Nevada. Xtra Energy Corp. holds a 100% ownership in a 69 lode claim, 1425 acre antimony project surrounding the historically documented Antimony King Mine and covering fourteen (14) other documented antimony mines of the Bernice Mining District. The Company is seeking to develop this expanding portfolio of antimony-rich assets to become a major supplier of antimony based products.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements relate to future events, including our ability to raise capital, or to our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause materially different results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond our control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects our current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see our filings with the OTC Markets Group Inc. Our public filings with the OTC Markets Group Inc are available from commercial document retrieval services and at the website maintained by the OTC Markets at https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/XTPT/disclosure

SOURCE: Xtra Energy Corp.

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ULAN BATOR, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's total imports and exports expanded 50.4 percent year on year to 7.7 billion U.S. dollars in the first four months of 2023, the Mongolian Customs General Administration said on Wednesday.

The Asian country registered a surplus in foreign trade balance as exports exceeded imports by around 2.4 billion dollars, mainly due to a significant increase in the exports of mining products, the administration said.

Mining products accounted for 88.7 percent of the mineral-rich country's total exports in the four-month period.

During the same period, the landlocked country traded with 125 economies. 
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) met in Washington D.C. earlier this week, where the organizations entered into an official partnership to fight HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections, and other conditions, including tuberculosis, hepatitis viruses, and mpox.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005922/en/

PAHO Director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa (left) with AHF President Michael Weinstein. (photo credit: PAHO)

We have worked successfully with PAHO in various unofficial capacities over the past decade in Mexico, Brazil, Haiti, and Peru  were glad to formalize this partnership and begin putting the strength of both our organizations together to help protect people across Latin America and the Caribbean against preventable and treatable infectious diseases, said AHF President Michael Weinstein who signed the agreement with PAHO Director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa.

AHF has worked in Latin America and the Caribbean since 2006 and provides HIV/AIDS care and treatment to more than 228,000 clients in 12 countries in the region. Additionally, AHF has provided humanitarian relief during natural disasters and other crises, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and the 2021 earthquake in Haiti and the refugee crisis along the Colombia-Venezuela border. Work also includes outreach to indigenous communities in remote areas of the Amazon in Peru.

Click here to view PAHOs media release on the signing.

About AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)

AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.7 million people in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005922/en/

US MEDIA CONTACT:

Ged Kenslea, Senior Director, Communications, AHF

+1 323 308 1833 work +1.323.791.5526 mobile

[email protected]

Denys Nazarov, Director of Global Policy & Communications, AHF

+1 323.308.1829

[email protected]

Source: AIDS Healthcare Foundation
A 15-year Veteran Healthcare Executive, She Brings Proven Growth and Leadership Experience

GREENWICH, Conn. & CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aligned Modern Health, the Midwests largest integrative medicine group, today announced the appointment, effective immediately, of Virginia Materese as Chief Executive Officer.

Ms. Materese has more than 15 years of senior executive experience managing and growing healthcare organizations. Prior to joining Aligned Modern Health, she was Chief of Ambulatory & Ancillary Operations of Healthcare Outcomes Performance Company (HopCo), the largest value-based orthopedic care organization in the country, where she managed a team of 1,200 people, overseeing a national network of 32 orthopedic, neurosurgery, physical therapy clinics, and spine and imaging centers.

Virginias background successfully driving results in healthcare makes her an ideal fit to lead Aligned Modern Health through its next phase of growth, said Bill Fiely, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer. She has exactly the kind of operational and strategic development experience that were looking for.

The model that Aligned Modern Health developed is extraordinary, with the highest caliber of care, Ms. Materese said. This is an incredible opportunity to grow and bring this new integrative care platform to patients who can greatly benefit from its effective treatments.

Prior to HopCo, Ms. Materese served as Chief Executive Officer of multi-state premier diagnostic provider Great Lakes Medical Imaging; Director of Operations, DENT Neurologic Institute, Buffalo, NY; and Global Vice President Operations/Mergers and Acquisitions, Natus Systems, a Division of Buffalo-based Natus Medical.

With Virginia on board, and our long-term relationship with the Aligned Modern Health team, the company has a solid foundation to successfully execute its growth blueprint, commented Bret Bowerman, Co-Founder and Partner at Harbour Point Capital, a healthcare services focused private equity firm. As individuals increasingly look toward natural, integrative approaches to health care, Aligned Modern Health is well positioned to meet that demand, both locally and in promising new markets.

Aligned Modern Health currently operates 18 clinics in and around Chicago, staffed by more than 100 highly trained, experienced, and licensed practitioners. The company is a forward-looking integrated medical group providing evidence-based solutions to such health challenges as musculoskeletal pain, anxiety, gastrointestinal distress, metabolic disorders and infertility. Among its clinical offerings are Chiropractic Physical Medicine, Acupuncture, Massage Therapy, Clinical Nutrition, and Functional Medicine.

About Aligned Modern Health (www.alignedmodernhealth.com)

Aligned Modern Health is Chicagolands top rated integrative care destination delivering multiple specialties and treatment options under one roof to help empower patients to live their best life. Aligned Modern Health offers the highest standard of patient centered, evidenced-based care at 18 locations in the Chicago area staffed by over 100 doctors and wellness experts. The range of treatments include Chiropractic Physical Medicine, Acupuncture, Massage Therapy, Functional Medicine and Clinical Nutrition.

About Harbour Point Capital

Harbour Point Capital is a private equity investment firm that partners with the founders and executives of innovative, high-growth healthcare services companies. Harbour Point Capital invests in companies that deliver value to the healthcare system by improving access and enabling the provision of higher quality care at lower cost. For more information, please visit www.harbourpointcapital.com

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Media

For Aligned Modern Health:

Bill Fiely, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer

(773) 598-4387

[email protected]

For Harbour Point Capital:

Anreder & Company

Steven Anreder

Michael Wichman

(212) 532-3232

[email protected]

[email protected]

Source: Aligned Modern Health
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Board of Directors of American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) has declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.60 per common share, payable on August 10, 2023, to shareholders of record on July 7, 2023.

The Board also declared a quarterly dividend on the Companys 3.550% Fixed Rate Reset Noncumulative Preferred Shares, Series D, of $9,072.22 per share (which is equivalent to $9.07222 per related Depositary Share). The dividend is payable on June 15, 2023, to shareholders of record on June 1, 2023.

ABOUT AMERICAN EXPRESS

American Express is a globally integrated payments company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress, instagram.com/americanexpress, linkedin.com/company/american-express, twitter.com/americanexpress, and youtube.com/americanexpress.

Key links to products, services and corporate sustainability information: personal cards, business cards and services, travel services, gift cards, prepaid cards, merchant services, Accertify, Kabbage, Resy, corporate card, business travel, diversity and inclusion, corporate sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance reports.

Source: American Express Company

Location: Global

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005891/en/

Media:

Giovanna Falbo, [email protected], +1.212.640.0237

Andrew R. Johnson, [email protected], +1.212.640.8610

Investors/Analysts:

Kerri S. Bernstein, [email protected], +1.212.640.5574

Michelle A. Scianni, [email protected], +1.212.640.5574

Source: American Express Company
OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (BRK.A; BRK.B)  Berkshire Hathaway Inc.s first quarter earnings release and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q will be posted on the Internet on Saturday, May 6, 2023, at approximately 7:00 a.m. Central time where it can be accessed at www.berkshirehathaway.com.

Berkshire Hathaway will hold its 2023 Annual Shareholders Meeting on Saturday May 6, 2023. Prior to the Annual Shareholders Meeting, Warren Buffett, Berkshires Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Charlie Munger, Berkshires Vice Chairman, Greg Abel, Vice Chairman Non-Insurance Operations and Ajit Jain, Vice Chairman Insurance Operations, will hold a question-and-answer session that will commence at approximately 9:15 a.m. Central time. The question-and-answer session will be broadcast on CNBC beginning at 9:00 am Central time and webcast on CNBC.com beginning at 8:45 am Central time. Visit www.cnbc.com/brklive.

About Berkshire

Berkshire Hathaway and its subsidiaries engage in diverse business activities including insurance and reinsurance, utilities and energy, freight rail transportation, manufacturing, retailing and services. Common stock of the company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading symbols BRK.A and BRK.B.

Cautionary Statement

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Berkshire assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503006077/en/

Marc D. Hamburg

402-346-1400

Source: Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Novel Second-Generation SMA Gene Therapy Rescues Motor Function in Mice, Outperforms Benchmark Therapy

BURLINGTON, Mass. & BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- CANbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. (HKEX: 1228), a leading China-based global biopharmaceutical company committed to the research, development and commercialization of transformative rare disease and rare oncology therapies, announced that data on the novel second-generation gene therapy, developed under the CANbridge and UMass Chan Medical School research agreement, will be presented at the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) 26th Annual Meeting, May 16-20, Los Angeles, CA.

The study reports that a novel second-generation hSMN1-AAV gene therapy vector, consisting of an endogenous SMN1 promoter and codon-optimized human SMN1 transgene in two different AAV serotypes, outperformed the benchmark gene therapy across several endpoints, including lifespan, weight gain and motor functions, in a mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) when administered via intracerebroventricular (ICV) delivery. Furthermore, when delivered via ICV at one-tenth the dose used in both high- and low-dose cohorts in an earlier IV study, the second-generation gene therapy produced similar lifespan and body weight gains and improved motor functions. The benchmark therapy uses a vector similar to that used in the only gene therapy approved for SMA.

ICV delivery of our second-generation SMA gene therapy at one-tenth the dose used in our IV study matches or improves upon the IV results we reported last year at ASGCT, said Gerry Cox, MD, PhD, chief development strategist and interim chief medical officer, CANbridge Pharmaceuticals. We believe that the transgene expression in our second-generation SMA gene therapy better mimics the natural physiological levels of SMN1 in transduced tissues. This gene therapy could offer a safer, more effective and more efficient clinical approach for treating SMA, which aligns with the CANbridge mission to create innovative therapies with improved market access to patients.

Presentation Details:

Title: Low-dose intracerebroventricular delivery of a second-generation AAV gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy achieves efficient and toxicity-free motor function rescue in mice

Poster #: 698

Session Date and Time: Wednesday Poster Session

May 17, 12PM PDT

Authors: Xiupeng Chen, Qing Xie, Hong Ma, Veena Kumanan, Jun Yang, Yijie Ma, Leila Jalinous, Qin Su, Phillip WL Tai, Guangping Gao, Jun Xie

Abstracts are available on the ASGCT website: https://annualmeeting.asgct.org/abstracts.

About UMass Chan Medical School

UMass Chan Medical School, one of five campuses of the University of Massachusetts system, comprises the T.H. Chan School of Medicine; the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing; ForHealth Consulting of UMass Chan Medical School, a public service consulting division; and MassBiologics, the only nonprofit, FDA-licensed manufacturer of vaccines, biologics and viral vector gene therapies in the United States. UMass Chans mission is to advance the health and wellness of our diverse communities throughout Massachusetts and across the world by leading and innovating in education, research, health care delivery and public service. In doing so, it has built a reputation as a world-class research institution and as a leader in primary care education, perennially ranked in the top 10 percent of medical schools for primary care by U.S. News and World Report. UMass Chan attracts more than $300 million annually in research funding, placing it among the top 50 medical schools in the nation. In 2021, the Medical School received a $175 million donation from The Morningside Foundation and was renamed UMass Chan Medical School.

About CANbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc.

CANbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. (HKEX: 1228) global biopharmaceutical company, with a foundation in China, committed to the research, development and commercialization of transformative therapies for rare disease and rare oncology. CANbridge has a differentiated drug portfolio, with three approved drugs and a pipeline of 10 assets, targeting prevalent rare disease and rare oncology indications that have unmet needs and significant market potential. These include Hunter syndrome and other lysosomal storage disorders, complement-mediated disorders, hemophilia A, metabolic disorders, rare cholestatic liver diseases and neuromuscular diseases, as well as glioblastoma multiforme. The CANbridge Next-Generation Innovation and Process Development Facility is developing novel, potentially curative, gene therapies for rare genetic diseases, including Pompe disease, Fabry disease, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and other neuromuscular conditions, and collaborates with world-leading researchers and biotech companies. Animal data from the SMA gene therapy was presented in 2022 at the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), the European Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) and the World Muscle Congress. CANbridge global partners include: Apogenix, GC Pharma, Mirum, Wuxi Biologics, Privus, UMass Chan Medical School, the University of Washington School of Medicine and Scriptr Global.

For more on CANbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc., please go to: www.canbridgepharma.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

The forward-looking statements made in this article relate only to the events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this article. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the data on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. You should read this article completely and with the understanding that our actual future results or performance may be materially different from what we expect. In this article, statements of, or references to, our intentions or those of any of our Directors or our Company are made as of the date of this article. Any of these intentions may alter in light of future development.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230502006076/en/

U.S. Investor Relations:

Chris Brinzey

ICR Westwicke

[email protected]

China Investor Relations

CANbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc.

[email protected]

Media:

Deanne Eagle

Planet Communications

[email protected]

917.837.5866

Source: CANbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Capstone Copper Corp. (Capstone or the Company) (TSX: CS) announced the voting results from its 2023 Annual General and Special Meeting ("AGM") held May 3, 2023 in Vancouver, British Columbia. A total of 524,341,372 common shares were voted at the meeting, representing 75.58% of the votes attached to all outstanding common shares. Shareholders voted in favour of all items of business before the meeting, as follows:

Number of Directors % For % Against Number of Directors to be set at eight 99.90% 0.10% Election of Directors % of Votes For % of Votes Withheld Alison Baker 99.24% 0.76% George Brack 99.10% 0.90% Robert Gallagher 97.61% 2.39% Anne Giardini 99.08% 0.92% John Mackenzie 99.83% 0.17% Peter Meredith 99.94% 0.06% Patricia Palacios 99.94% 0.06% Darren Pylot 98.46% 1.54% Appointment of Auditor % For % Withheld To re-appoint Deloitte LLP as Auditor of the Company for the ensuing year and to authorize the Directors to fix their remuneration 99.85% 0.15% Advisory Vote on Executive Compensation % For % Against To pass an advisory vote on Capstones approach to executive compensation as disclosed in the Management Information Circular 98.68% 1.32% Advance Notice Policy % For % Against To pass a vote on Capstones Advance Notice Policy. 99.97% 0.03% Incentive Stock Option and Bonus Share Plan % For % Against To approve all unallocated options, rights or entitlements pursuant to Capstones Stock Option and Bonus Share Plan. 86.66% 13.34%

Detailed voting results for the 2023 AGM are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503006048/en/

Jerrold Annett, SVP, Strategy & Capital Markets

647-273-7351

[email protected]



Daniel Sampieri, Director, Investor Relations & Strategic Analysis

437-788-1767

[email protected]

Source: Capstone Copper Corp.
Ohio native seeks to drive organizational change by placing exceptional talent

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- A leader by example, Christie Angel has spent three decades engaging her community, building relationships, and advising leaders, all while transforming programs and organizations. Next, this former Columbus CEO of the Year will bring her insight, experience, and perspective to BroadView Talent Partners, serving as Managing Partner of the executive search firms Midwest office in Columbus, OH.

Christie is perhaps one of the most naturally-gifted board governance, advisory, and leadership development professionals with whom I have had the pleasure of working and observing, states Tracy McMillan, CEO and Managing Partner. Her multidimensional leadership tenures, deep experience serving nonprofits, commitment to DEI, and proven dedication to transforming organizations make her a natural fit for our firm.

Christies prior experience includes five years as President and CEO of YWCA Columbus. There, she not only generated some of the largest fundraising numbers in the organizations history, but she reinvented their brand, a transformation in alignment with the national conversation on womens rights, equity, and inclusion. Now, shes found a new home with a firm rooted in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

I got acquainted with Tracy and Broadview through a number of their local searches and was thoroughly impressed. Our philosophies align. I am very excited about the changes right now within the field of executive search that are helping to diversify talent pools, says Christie.

Prior to the YWCA, Christies past professional experiences spanned the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, often intersecting with volunteer positions to find that next great leader. Ive had the privilege of serving on or leading a number of search committees over my career, says Christie. This new path allows me to utilize skills Ive gained over time to deliver organization-wide transformation, all while growing the Columbus office and BroadView Talent Partners presence across the Midwest.

Arguably, some of Christies greatest professional contributions involve working with a host of public officials and their administrations. Supporting the transition teams for Mayor Andrew J. Ginther, former Mayor Michael Coleman, and former Governor Ted Strickland, Christie thrived as a trusted advisor to city and state leaders. She was recruited to Deputy Chief of Staff  by former Mayor Coleman in 2012  where her citywide influence included campaign excellence, legislative impact, cabinet leadership, and strategic partnerships.

We see an incredible opportunity to expand our reach within the Midwest, shares McMillan. Christie will be a major catalyst for client growth and development across the region and nationwide.

Christies Columbus roots run deep. With a Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science in Applied Communication from Franklin University, she is a contributing board member to numerous local organizations, including Campus Partners, Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, the Equity Now Coalition, and the Greater Columbus Arts Council, where she serves as board chair.

Columbus is a growing, dynamic city, shares Christie. As a Midwest hub, there are a lot of opportunities both here and across the state to make a difference. I know the community well and this partnership gives us all a chance to grow.

Christies leadership has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Regional Leader Award from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission and YWCA Women of Achievement (2015). She was selected by her peers as the CEO of the Year in the large nonprofit category (2020). She was also the 2020 recipient of the Nancy Jeffrey Advocate Award from the Community Shelter Board, and was awarded the Dorothy I. Height Award from the National Council of Negro Women, Inc.  Columbus Section. Christie was inducted into the Leadership Columbus Hall of Fame in 2013.

About BroadView Talent Partners

Founded in 2015, BroadView Talent Partners is a national executive search firm dedicated to placing exceptionally talented leadership in the non-profit, community development, affordable housing, association and middle market sectors. We provide clients with an unmatched national network, commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and record of long-tenured placements. www.broadviewtalent.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005207/en/

Kim Daly, Marketing Director

[email protected]

Phone: (970) 301-2077

Source: BroadView Talent Partners
MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Douglas Elliman Inc. (NYSE: DOUG) will conduct a conference call and webcast to discuss its first quarter 2023 results on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 at 8:30 a.m. (ET).

Participants should pre-register for the call using the following link: https://conferencingportals.com/event/XyPNvEjm. Registered participants will receive an email with a calendar reminder, dial-in number and conference ID that allows immediate access to the call on Wednesday, May 10, 2023.

Participants who do not wish to pre-register may access the live webcast at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/320287461. Please join the webcast at least 10 minutes prior to start time.

A replay of the call will be available shortly after the call ends on May 10, 2023 through May 24, 2023 at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/320287461.

About Douglas Elliman Inc.

Douglas Elliman Inc. (NYSE: DOUG, Douglas Elliman) owns Douglas Elliman Realty, LLC, which is one of the largest residential brokerage companies in the United States with operations in New York City, Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut, New Jersey, the Hamptons, Massachusetts, Florida, California, Texas, Colorado, and Nevada. In addition, Douglas Elliman sources, uses and invests in early-stage, disruptive property technology (PropTech) solutions and companies and provides other real estate services, including development marketing, property management and settlement and escrow services in select markets. Additional information concerning Douglas Elliman is available on its website, investors.elliman.com.

Investors and others should note that we may post information about Douglas Elliman on our website at investors.elliman.com or, if applicable, on our accounts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube or other social media platforms. It is possible that the postings or releases could include information deemed to be material information. Therefore, we encourage investors, the media and others interested in Douglas Elliman to review the information we post on our website at investors.elliman.com and on our social media accounts.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230502006123/en/

Emily Claffey/Benjamin Spicehandler/Columbia Clancy

FGS Global

212-687-8080

Source: Douglas Elliman Inc.
Top doctors, researchers, and entrepreneurs meet to discuss the cutting-edge bioenergetic health technologies leading to accelerated healing and propitious outcomes

PARK CITY, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Institute of Bioenergetics hosted its first bioenergetics industry summit in Park City, Utah. The two-day event attracted more than 50 bioenergetic health leaders, researchers, doctors, and companies including Energy4Life, Ammortal, NES Health, and the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. Participants discussed upcoming research, new technologies, and the future collaborations that will introduce bioenergetics to people in need.

Bioenergetic medicine is the next evolution in healthcare that is transforming patient healing in ways weve never seen, said Dr. Jeremy Stich MD, and Chief Medical Officer for the Institute of Bioenergetics.

As an allopathic doctor, I was trained to practice medicine with medication and surgeries. At first, I was cautious of bioenergetics because it addresses the energy system of the body. At the time, I could not measure or clearly explain why it worked. However, I could not ignore the incredible results my patients experienced once adding bioenergetic medicine to their treatments, continued Dr. Stich.

Participants attending the summit shared patient and customer stories about how bioenergetics has helped them on their healing journeys. One story came from Jessica Ballesteros, who used bioenergetic treatments from Dr. Stich to reverse her cervical cancer diagnosis.

As Ballesteros explained, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer that had metastasized to my lungs and lymph nodes. Chemo and radiation treatments were unsuccessful and conventional doctors could only offer me palliative care. I was planning for the end of my life, then I started bioenergetic treatments with Dr. Stich. After one treatment, I came off all pain medication. My neuropathy improved. My outlook on life improved. Months later, I am now cancer free. I have my life again and a future that I am planning. Bioenergetic medicine saved my life, stated Ballesteros.

The future of medicine is bioenergetics. Technology has finally caught up to what science and research has shown us for decades, stated Dr. Greg Eckel, ND, LAc and Chief Medical Officer at the first Energy4Life Clinic in Park City, Utah. Through various technologies and therapeutic practices, were adding quantum physics into clinical settings with patients. As a result, patients are healing faster and experiencing better-quality results with illnesses, including anxiety, depression, chronic neurodegeneration and cancer, said Dr. Eckel.

Harry Massey, who started the Institute of Bioenergetics and is the founder of two bioenergetics companies, Energy4Life and NES Health, stated, The Summit set the stage for how industry leaders plan to continue advancing bioenergetic medicine.

The future of medicine is bioenergetics and it is happening now, said Massey. Bioenergetics addresses the information and energy systems of the body, which ultimately controls how cellular communication works. The cutting-edge technologies and therapies being developed today communicate directly to the cells field-based communication system, which enables cellular repair & regeneration, said Massey.

When patients add bioenergetic treatments to their protocol, we see radically different outcomes. Their quality of life improves remarkably - experiencing more energy and better moods. We are even seeing the reverse of debilitating diseases in patients. Bioenergetics is already transforming peoples lives, and at the Institute were committed to getting these life-giving and life-saving treatments to everyone in need, stated Massey.

For more information on the Institute of Bioenergetics, its research, and upcoming events, visit www.bioenergetics.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005415/en/

Energy4Life: [email protected]

NES Health: [email protected]

Source: Institute of Bioenergetics
Rate Review driven by $770 million in system improvements; settlement includes funding for customer assistance programs

ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- On May 3, 2023, the Missouri Public Service Commission (MoPSC) issued an order approving the rate settlement reached by parties in Missouri American Waters rate review for its water and wastewater operations. The company, the MoPSC Staff, the Office of the Public Counsel, the Midwest Energy Consumers Group, the City of St. Joseph, and Consumers Council of Missouri signed on to the settlement. No parties involved in the rate review objected to the settlement.

We are pleased the Missouri Public Service Commission approved the settlement, which was reached after working diligently with the parties to balance affordability with system investments, said Rich Svindland, president of Missouri American Water. The settlement allows us to recover prudent investments in our treatment plants and pipelines that benefit customers by enhancing service, reliability, resiliency and water quality.

The rate review, which was filed in July 2022, included a request for recovery of nearly $770 million in water and wastewater system improvements from January 2021 to May 2023.

New rates are expected to take effect by the end of May 2023. Most residential water customers will see an increase of about $5 to $7 in their total monthly bill, while most wastewater customers will see an increase ranging from less than $1 to about $7 on their monthly bill, depending on the customers service area.

The MoPSC also approved customer assistance funding.

While a water bill is typically one of the lowest utility bills, we understand its not the only bill that customers pay, said Svindland. We are proud to continue our support for our H2O Help to Others customer assistance program and offer flexible options like installment plans and budget billing, and to help customers facing especially difficult circumstances like rehousing or a critical event.

Information on customer assistance programs can be found at missouriamwater.com > Customer Service and Billing > Payment Assistance Options. Customers in need are also encouraged to apply for the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program, which is a temporary federal program that offers grants up to $750 to help with water and/or wastewater bills.

For more details on the companys rate review, visit missouriamwater.com > Customer Service and Billing > Water and Wastewater Rates.

Missouri American Water

Missouri American Water, a subsidiary of American Water (NYSE: AWK), is the largest investor-owned water utility in the state, providing high-quality and reliable water and/or wastewater services to approximately 1.5 million people. For more, visit missouriamwater.com and follow Missouri American Water on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About American Water

With a history dating back to 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. The company employs approximately 6,500 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and regulated-like drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people in 24 states. American Water provides safe, clean, affordable and reliable water services to our customers to help keep their lives flowing. For more information, visit amwater.com and diversityataw.com. Follow American Water on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

AWK-IR

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503006010/en/

Media:

Christie Barnhart

Senior Manager, External Communications

Cell: 417-529-9781

[email protected]

Source: Missouri American Water
TOKYO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- An explosion in the parking area of a condo building in Yokohama, a city south of Tokyo, burned down six cars on Wednesday, according to local police.

The incident was reported to police at about 5:10 a.m. local time by a resident living in the condominium in the city's Kanazawa Ward.

The fire was put out about an hour later, but six passenger cars parked in the condo's multistorey parking area were burned. No one was injured, according to the Kanazawa Police Station.

The police said that they are investigating the fire on suspicion of arson. 
STAMFORD, CT--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News:

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) held its 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders today. Andre Calantzopoulos, Executive Chairman of the Board, addressed shareholders and answered questions. Jacek Olczak, Chief Executive Officer, gave a business presentation, which included an overview of PMIs:

strong performance in 2022 and encouraging start to 2023;

robust business fundamentals and rapid progress on its smoke-free transformation;

excellent momentum in the heat-not-burn and nicotine pouch categories;

further progress on sustainability, with continued recognition by leading external stakeholders; and

commitment to rewarding shareholders over time.

"Our smoke-free transformation continued apace in 2022, with the growth of smoke-free products to nearly one-third of total net revenues for the year and the achievement of two important milestones -- the acquisition of Swedish Match and the agreement to gain the full rights to commercialize IQOS in the U.S. in April 2024," said Jacek Olczak, Chief Executive Officer.

As a global smoke-free champion with leading brands IQOS and ZYN, we are well positioned to further accelerate our transformation in the years to come, to the benefit of the company, our shareholders, other stakeholders and public health.

Approximately 81 percent of the shares entitled to vote were represented at the meeting in person or by proxy. The shareholders elected 12 nominees for director; approved, on an advisory basis, the compensation of named executive officers; approved, on an advisory basis, a one-year interval for the vote on the compensation of named executive officers; ratified the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers SA as independent auditors; and voted against the shareholder proposal. Final voting results will be included in a Form 8-K that PMI will file with the SEC in the coming days.

An archived copy of the webcast of the meeting will be available for approximately one year from the date of the meeting at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/PM2023. The presentation slides and script will be available at the same website address.

Forward-Looking & Cautionary Statements

The presentation, related discussion and this press release contain projections of future results and goals and other forward-looking statements, including statements regarding expected financial or operational performance; capital allocation plans; investment strategies; regulatory outcomes; market expectations; and business plans and strategies. Achievement of future results is subject to risks, uncertainties and inaccurate assumptions. In the event that risks or uncertainties materialize, or underlying assumptions prove inaccurate, actual results could vary materially from those contained in such forward-looking statements. Pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, PMI is identifying important factors that, individually or in the aggregate, could cause actual results and outcomes to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements made by PMI.

PMI's business risks include: excise tax increases and discriminatory tax structures; increasing marketing and regulatory restrictions that could reduce our competitiveness, eliminate our ability to communicate with adult consumers, or ban certain of our products in certain markets or countries; health concerns relating to the use of tobacco and other nicotine-containing products and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke; litigation related to tobacco use and intellectual property; intense competition; the effects of global and individual country economic, regulatory and political developments, natural disasters and conflicts; the impact and consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine; changes in adult smoker behavior; the impact of COVID-19 on PMI's business; lost revenues as a result of counterfeiting, contraband and cross-border purchases; governmental investigations; unfavorable currency exchange rates and currency devaluations, and limitations on the ability to repatriate funds; adverse changes in applicable corporate tax laws; adverse changes in the cost, availability, and quality of tobacco and other agricultural products and raw materials, as well as components and materials for our electronic devices; and the integrity of its information systems and effectiveness of its data privacy policies. PMI's future profitability may also be adversely affected should it be unsuccessful in its attempts to produce and commercialize reduced-risk products or if regulation or taxation do not differentiate between such products and cigarettes; if it is unable to successfully introduce new products, promote brand equity, enter new markets or improve its margins through increased prices and productivity gains; if it is unable to expand its brand portfolio internally or through acquisitions and the development of strategic business relationships; if it is unable to attract and retain the best global talent, including women or diverse candidates; or if it is unable to successfully integrate and realize the expected benefits from recent transactions and acquisitions. Future results are also subject to the lower predictability of our reduced-risk product category's performance.

PMI is further subject to other risks detailed from time to time in its publicly filed documents, including PMI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and the Form 10-Q for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023. PMI cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not a complete discussion of all potential risks and uncertainties. PMI does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that it may make from time to time, except in the normal course of its public disclosure obligations.

Philip Morris International: Delivering a Smoke-Free Future

Philip Morris International (PMI) is a leading international tobacco company working to deliver a smoke-free future and evolving its portfolio for the long term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. The companys current product portfolio primarily consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products. Since 2008, PMI has invested more than USD 10.5 billion to develop, scientifically substantiate and commercialize innovative smoke-free products for adults who would otherwise continue to smoke, with the goal of completely ending the sale of cigarettes. This includes the building of world-class scientific assessment capabilities, notably in the areas of pre-clinical systems toxicology, clinical and behavioral research, as well as post-market studies. In November 2022, PMI acquired Swedish Match  a leader in oral nicotine delivery  creating a global smoke-free champion led by the companies IQOS and ZYN brands. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized versions of PMIs IQOS Platform 1 devices and consumables and Swedish Matchs General snus as Modified Risk Tobacco Products (MRTPs). As of March 31, 2023, PMI's smoke-free products were available for sale in 78 markets, and PMI estimates that approximately 18.5 million adults around the world had already switched to IQOS and stopped smoking. Smoke-free products accounted for approximately 35% of PMIs total 2023 first-quarter net revenues. With a strong foundation and significant expertise in life sciences, PMI announced in February 2021 its ambition to expand into wellness and healthcare areas and, through its Vectura Fertin Pharma business, aims to enhance life through the delivery of seamless health experiences. For more information, please visit www.pmi.com and www.pmiscience.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005466/en/

Philip Morris International

Investor Relations:

Stamford, CT: +1 (203) 904 2410

Lausanne: +41 (0)58 242 4666

Email: [email protected]

Media: David Fraser

Lausanne: +41 (0)58 242 4500

Email: [email protected]

Source: Philip Morris International
Showcasing at InfoComm 2023, the company announces the 105-inch ultra-wide format Planar UltraRes W Series for customers needing TAA-compliant displays for unified collaboration

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, Planar, a global leader in visualization technology, announced the launch of the Planar UltraRes W Series 105-inch ultra-wide format LCD display, optimized for next-generation collaboration for todays modern hybrid workforce.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005046/en/

Planar announces launch of 105-inch ultra-wide Planar UltraRes W Series, optimized for next-generation collaboration (Photo: Business Wire)

For more than 10 years, Planar UltraRes Series commercial-grade displays have been successfully installed in secure conference rooms around the world. The Planar UltraRes W Series provides customers with a secure, 105-inch ultra-wide format display that is ideally sized to suit the most popular unified communications and video collaboration platforms including Microsoft Teams. Planar UltraRes W Series also features brighter, wider color gamut panels with local dimming.

Available in 105-inch size, Planar UltraRes W Series combines a wide color gamut 5K HDR display with a commercial grade 24x7 fanless industrial design. The Planar UltraRes W Series is available in both non-touch and optically bonded 50-point projected capacitive touch technology.

The demand for more flexible work arrangements is driving the demand to reconfigure meetings spaces, accommodating in-person and remote participants, said Steve Seminario, vice president of product marketing at Planar. This hybrid meeting reality requires an expanded digital canvas to support participants seeing individual video feeds, interacting in team chat and engaging in the actual meeting content which is enhanced by the 21:9, 5102x2160 resolution Planar UltraRes W Series.

Developed in response to customers request for Trade Agreement Act (TAA) compliant 21:9 displays for unified collaboration across numerous geographies, the Planar UltraRes W Series provides a super-fast touch experience, ideal for fast paced collaboration. Planar UltraRes W Series LCD displays are backed by the benefits of Planar, a US-based display manufacturer with 40 years of proven reliability, and local pre- and post-sales support.

Planar UltraRes W Series will be shipping in August 2023 and is available to order now through Planars global network of authorized resellers. For more information visit www.planar.com/UltraResW or visit Planar Booth #2243 at InfoComm 2023.

Planar and UltraRes are trademarks of Planar. Microsoft and Microsoft Teams are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

About Planar

Planar is a global leader in visualization technology, delivering best-in-class image performance for the worlds most demanding environments. From broadcast studios and virtual production and extended reality stages to government, corporate, and educational facilities, the worlds leading organizations use Planars broad selection of display solutions in applications ranging from digital signage, simulation and production to large scale events and large-scale visualization. Planar is the global market leader for LED video displays, narrow pixel pitch LED displays and ultra-narrow pixel pitch LED displays (Futuresource 2022). Founded in 1983, Planar is headquartered in Oregon, USA with offices and manufacturing facilities in Oregon, Europe and Asia.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005046/en/

Blu Print Public Relations: [email protected], 503-850-2454

Planar: Kim Brown, [email protected]

Source: Planar
LYON, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News:

POXEL SA (Euronext: POXEL - FR0012432516), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative treatments for chronic serious diseases with metabolic pathophysiology, including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and rare disorders, today announced that the Universal Registration Document (Document dEnregistrement Universel) for the year ended December 31, 2022 has been filed with the French market authority (Autorite des Marches Financiers, or AMF).

This document is available in English on the AMFs website and on Poxels website www.poxelpharma.com in the Investors / Shareholder Information / Regulatory Documentation section. A translation in French will be available later on the Companys website.

The 2022 Universal Registration Document includes:

the 2022 Annual Financial Report, including the Management Report, and

the Report on Corporate Governance,

the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, also available on the Companys website, in the Investors / Corporate Governance section.

The Companys auditors have issued an audit opinion which includes a material uncertainty related to the going concern and a qualification related to the valuation of one of the Companys assets. The auditors reports as well as the notes to the financial statements are set out in Chapter 3 Financial Information" of the Companys 2022 Universal Registration Document.

Printed copies of the Universal Registration Document are also available to the public free of charge and upon request to the Companys headquarters located at Immeuble Le Sunway, 259-261 Avenue Jean Jaures, 69007 Lyon, France.

About Poxel SA

Poxel is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative treatments for chronic serious diseases with metabolic pathophysiology, including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and rare disorders. For the treatment of NASH, PXL065 (deuterium-stabilized R-pioglitazone) met its primary endpoint in a streamlined Phase 2 trial (DESTINY-1). In rare diseases, development of PXL770, a first-in-class direct adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activator, is focused on the treatment of adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). TWYMEEG (Imeglimin), Poxels first-in-class product that targets mitochondrial dysfunction, is marketed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in Japan by Sumitomo Pharma and Poxel expects to receive royalties and sales-based payments. Poxel has a strategic partnership with Sumitomo Pharma for Imeglimin in Japan, China, and eleven other Asian countries. Listed on Euronext Paris, Poxel is headquartered in Lyon, France, and has subsidiaries in Boston, MA, and Tokyo, Japan.

For more information, please visit: www.poxelpharma.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005858/en/

Investor relations / Media

Aurelie Bozza

Investor Relations & Communication Senior Director

[email protected]

+33 6 99 81 08 36

Elizabeth Woo

Senior Vice President, Investor Relations & Communication

[email protected]

NewCap

Nicolas Fossiez, Aurelie Manavarere or Arthur Rouille

[email protected]

+33 1 44 71 94 94

Source: Poxel SA
Earnings Call to be held 7:30 am CT on Thursday, May 4, 2023

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Texas Pacific Land Corporation (NYSE: TPL) (the Company or "TPL") today announced its financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2023.

First Quarter 2023 Highlights

Net income of $86.6 million, or $11.25 per share (basic) and $11.24 per share (diluted)

Revenues of $146.4 million

Adjusted EBITDA (1) of $115.9 million

Free cash flow (1) of $88.0 million

Royalty production of 20.9 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day

$6.7 million of common stock repurchases

Quarterly cash dividend of $3.25 per share paid on March 15, 2023

As of March 31, 2023, TPL's royalty acreage had an estimated 5.0 net well permits, 7.8 net drilled but uncompleted wells, 3.3 net completed wells, and 59.4 net producing wells.

(1) Reconciliations of Non-GAAP measures are provided in the tables below.

While commodity price volatility has continued into 2023, TPLs high-margin cash flow profile and fortress balance sheet provide the Company the ability to drive value for shareholders through any cycle, said Tyler Glover, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. The Company continues to generate meaningful free cash flow across both of our operating segments. Although broader oil and gas industry activity may be impacted by an evolving commodity price and economic environment, our expansive position across high-quality Permian acreage continues to see strong near-term development while still retaining tremendous value for the long-term.

Financial Results for the First Quarter of 2023

The Company reported net income of $86.6 million for the first quarter of 2023 compared to net income of $97.9 million for the first quarter of 2022.

Total revenues for the first quarter of 2023 were $146.4 million compared to $147.3 million for the first quarter of 2022. Oil and gas royalties of $89.1 million for the first quarter of 2023 include approximately $8.7 million related to an ongoing arbitration between TPL and an operator with respect to underpayment of oil and gas royalties resulting from improper deductions of post-production costs for periods before and through April 2022 (the $8.7 Million Stipulation). Excluding the impact of the $8.7 Million Stipulation, oil and gas royalties decreased $23.7 million due to lower average commodity prices in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the first quarter of 2022. The average realized price declined 23.2% to $44.76 per barrel of oil equivalent (Boe) in the first quarter of 2023 from $58.31 per Boe in the first quarter of 2022. Our share of production remained relatively consistent at 20.9 thousand Boe per day for the first quarter of 2023 compared to 20.8 thousand Boe per day for the same period of 2022. The decrease in oil and gas royalty revenue was partially offset by an increase of $5.8 million in easements and other surface-related income and a combined increase of $8.2 million in produced water royalties and water sales. Our revenue streams are directly impacted by commodity prices and development and operating decisions made by our customers and vary as the pace of development and oil demand varies.

Our total operating expenses of $41.4 million for the first quarter of 2023 increased $18.4 million compared to the same period of 2022. The increase in operating expenses is principally related to an increase in legal and professional fees during the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of 2022.

Quarterly Dividend Declared

On May 2, 2023, the Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $3.25 per share, payable on June 15, 2023 to stockholders of record at the close of business on June 8, 2023.

Conference Call and Webcast Information

The Company will hold a conference call on Thursday, May 4, 2023 at 7:30 a.m. Central Time to discuss first quarter results. A live webcast of the conference call will be available on the Investors section of the Companys website at http://www.TexasPacific.com. To listen to the live broadcast, go to the site at least 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time in order to register and install any necessary audio software.

The conference call can also be accessed by dialing 1-877-407-4018 or 1-201-689-8471. The telephone replay can be accessed by dialing 1-844-512-2921 or 1-412-317-6671 and providing the conference ID# 13734728. The telephone replay will be available starting shortly after the call through May 18, 2023.

About Texas Pacific Land Corporation

Texas Pacific Land Corporation is one of the largest landowners in the State of Texas with approximately 874,000 acres of land in West Texas, with the majority of its ownership concentrated in the Permian Basin. The Company is not an oil and gas producer, but its surface and royalty ownership provide revenue opportunities throughout the life cycle of a well. These revenue opportunities include fixed fee payments for use of our land, revenue for sales of materials (caliche) used in the construction of infrastructure, providing sourced water and/or treated produced water, revenue from our oil and gas royalty interests, and revenues related to saltwater disposal on our land. The Company also generates revenue from pipeline, power line and utility easements, commercial leases and temporary permits related to a variety of land uses including midstream infrastructure projects and hydrocarbon processing facilities.

Visit TPL at http://www.TexasPacific.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that are based on TPLs beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, TPL, and therefore involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Generally, future or conditional verbs such as will, would, should, could, or may and the words believe, anticipate, continue, intend, expect and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, references to strategies, plans, objectives, expectations, intentions, assumptions, future operations and prospects and other statements that are not historical facts. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Although TPL believes that plans, intentions and expectations reflected in or suggested by any forward-looking statements made herein are reasonable, TPL may be unable to achieve such plans, intentions or expectations and actual results, and performance or achievements may vary materially and adversely from those envisaged in this news release due to a number of factors including, but not limited to: the initiation or outcome of potential litigation; and any changes in general economic and/or industry specific conditions. These risks, as well as other risks associated with TPL are also more fully discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. You can access TPLs filings with the SEC through the SEC website at http://www.sec.gov and TPL strongly encourages you to do so. Except as required by applicable law, TPL undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or other statements herein for revisions or changes after this communication is made.

FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL RESULTS (unaudited) Three Months Ended

March 31, 2023 2022 Our share of production volumes(1) (2): Oil (MBbls) 792 796 Natural gas (MMcf) 3,306 3,279 NGL (MBbls) 539 528 Equivalents (MBoe) 1,882 1,871 Equivalents per day (MBoe/d) 20.9 20.8 Oil and gas royalties (in thousands) (2): Oil royalties $ 56,894 $ 71,681 Natural gas royalties 10,956 16,175 NGL royalties 12,615 16,316 Total oil and gas royalties $ 80,465 $ 104,172 Realized prices (2): Oil ($/Bbl) $ 75.23 $ 94.24 Natural gas ($/Mcf) $ 3.58 $ 5.33 NGL ($/Bbl) $ 25.28 $ 33.42 Equivalents ($/Boe) $ 44.76 $ 58.31

(1) Term Definition Bbl One stock tank barrel of 42 U.S. gallons liquid volume used herein in reference to crude oil, condensate or NGLs. MBbls One thousand barrels of crude oil, condensate or NGLs. MBoe One thousand Boe. MBoe/d One thousand Boe per day. Mcf One thousand cubic feet of natural gas. MMcf One million cubic feet of natural gas. NGL Natural gas liquids. Hydrocarbons found in natural gas that may be extracted as liquefied petroleum gas and natural gasoline. (2) The metrics provided exclude the impact of the $8.7 Million Stipulation discussed above.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (in thousands, except share and per share amounts) (unaudited) Three Months Ended

March 31, 2023 2022 Revenues: Oil and gas royalties $ 89,130 $ 104,172 Water sales 21,729 18,820 Produced water royalties 20,134 14,870 Easements and other surface-related income 14,969 9,192 Land sales and other operating revenue 400 281 Total revenues 146,362 147,335 Expenses: Salaries and related employee expenses 10,593 9,385 Water service-related expenses 5,656 2,782 General and administrative expenses 3,552 2,967 Legal and professional fees 16,628 1,719 Ad valorem and other taxes 1,574 2,043 Land sales expenses 3  Depreciation, depletion and amortization 3,404 4,126 Total operating expenses 41,410 23,022 Operating income 104,952 124,313 Other income, net 5,389 76 Income before income taxes 110,341 124,389 Income tax expense 23,773 26,489 Net income $ 86,568 $ 97,900 Net income per share of common stock Basic $ 11.25 $ 12.65 Diluted $ 11.24 $ 12.64 Weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding Basic 7,693,084 7,741,365 Diluted 7,698,398 7,742,710

SEGMENT OPERATING RESULTS (in thousands) (unaudited) Three Months Ended

March 31, 2023 2022 Revenues: Land and resource management: Oil and gas royalties $ 89,130 61 % $ 104,172 71 % Easements and other surface-related income 14,493 10 % 8,894 6 % Land sales and other operating revenue 400  % 281  % Total land and resource management revenue 104,023 71 % 113,347 77 % Water services and operations: Water sales 21,729 15 % 18,820 13 % Produced water royalties 20,134 14 % 14,870 10 % Easements and other surface-related income 476  % 298  % Total water services and operations revenue 42,339 29 % 33,988 23 % Total consolidated revenues $ 146,362 100 % $ 147,335 100 % Net income: Land and resource management $ 65,343 75 % $ 81,156 83 % Water services and operations 21,225 25 % 16,744 17 % Total consolidated net income $ 86,568 100 % $ 97,900 100 %

NON-GAAP PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND DEFINITIONS

In addition to amounts presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (GAAP), we also present certain supplemental non-GAAP performance measurements. These measurements are not to be considered more relevant or accurate than the measurements presented in accordance with GAAP. In compliance with the requirements of the SEC, our non-GAAP measurements are reconciled to net income, the most directly comparable GAAP performance measure. For all non-GAAP measurements, neither the SEC nor any other regulatory body has passed judgment on these non-GAAP measurements.

EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow

EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measurement of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, depletion and amortization. Its purpose is to highlight earnings without finance, taxes, and depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, and its use is limited to specialized analysis. We calculate Adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA excluding employee share-based compensation. Its purpose is to highlight earnings without non-cash activity such as share-based compensation and/or other non-recurring or unusual items. We calculate Free Cash Flow as Adjusted EBITDA less current income tax expense and capital expenditures. Its purpose is to provide an additional measure of operating performance. We have presented EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow because we believe that these metrics are useful supplements to net income in analyzing the Company's operating performance. Our definitions of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow may differ from computations of similarly titled measures of other companies.

The following table presents a reconciliation of net income to EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands):

Three Months Ended

March 31, 2023 2022 Net income $ 86,568 $ 97,900 Add: Income tax expense 23,773 26,489 Depreciation, depletion and amortization 3,404 4,126 EBITDA 113,745 128,515 Add: Employee share-based compensation 2,156 1,319 Adjusted EBITDA $ 115,901 $ 129,834 Less: Current income tax expense (24,079 ) (26,895 ) Capital expenditures (3,773 ) (3,005 ) Free Cash Flow $ 88,049 $ 99,934

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005842/en/

Investor Relations

[email protected]

Source: Texas Pacific Land Corporation
Ground-breaking approval enables adults aged 60 years and older to be protected from RSV disease for the first time

The approval is based on data from the positive pivotal AReSVi-006 phase III trial that showed exceptional efficacy in older adults, including those with underlying medical conditions, and in those with severe RSV disease

US launch is planned before the 2023/24 RSV season

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- GSK plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved AREXVY (respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, adjuvanted) for the prevention of lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in individuals 60 years of age and older. This is the first RSV vaccine for older adults to be approved anywhere in the world.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005829/en/

Tony Wood, Chief Scientific Officer, GSK, said: Today marks a turning point in our effort to reduce the significant burden of RSV. AREXVY is the first approved RSV vaccine for older adults, expanding GSKs industry-leading vaccine portfolio, which protects millions of people from infectious diseases each year. Our focus now is to ensure eligible older adults in the US can access the vaccine as quickly as possible and to progress regulatory review in other countries.

RSV is a common, contagious virus that can lead to potentially serious respiratory illness. It causes approximately 177,000 hospitalizations and an estimated 14,000 deaths in the US in adults aged 65 years and older each year.1,2,3 Older adults, including those with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes and chronic heart and lung disease, are at increased risk of severe RSV illness and drive the majority of RSV hospitalizations.4

John Kennedy, MD, President, American Medical Group Association (AMGA), added: For decades, AMGA and the healthcare community at large have been active in finding ways to increase adult immunizations. As a result, we are pleased that we can now add a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine to providers options for patient care. With this vaccine, Americans over the age of 60, and particularly those with underlying health conditions like COPD, asthma, or congestive heart failure, will have a vaccine to help protect against potentially serious outcomes from RSV.

The US FDA approval is based on GSKs landmark positive pivotal AReSVi-006 (Adult Respiratory Syncytial Virus) phase III trial data. In the trial, the vaccine showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful overall efficacy of 82.6% (96.95% CI, 57.994.1, 7 of 12,466 vs 40 of 12,494) against RSV-LRTD in adults aged 60 years and older, meeting the primary endpoint. In addition, efficacy was 94.6% (95% CI, 65.999.9, 1 of 4,937 vs 18 of 4,861) in older adults with at least one underlying medical condition of interest, such as certain cardiorespiratory and endocrine-metabolic conditions. Efficacy against severe RSV-LRTD, defined as an RSV-associated LRTD episode preventing normal, everyday activities, was 94.1% (95% CI, 62.499.9, 1 of 12,466 vs 17 of 12,494).

The vaccine was generally well tolerated with an acceptable safety profile. The most frequently observed solicited adverse events were injection site pain, fatigue, myalgia, headache, and arthralgia. These were generally mild to moderate and transient.

In June 2023, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will make recommendations on the appropriate use of the vaccine in the US. The vaccine will be available for older adults before the 2023/24 RSV season, which typically starts ahead of the winter months.

In April 2023, the European Medicines Agencys Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) issued a positive opinion recommending the vaccine for the prevention of LRTD caused by RSV in adults aged 60 years and older. A final European regulatory decision is anticipated in the coming months, while regulatory reviews are ongoing in Japan and several other countries.

About AREXVY (respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, adjuvanted)

Respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, adjuvanted, contains a recombinant subunit prefusion RSV F glycoprotein antigen (RSVPreF3) combined with GSKs proprietary AS01E adjuvant.

In the US, AREXVY is indicated for the prevention of RSV-LRTD in individuals 60 years of age and older. GSKs RSV older adult vaccine is not currently approved anywhere outside the US. The proposed trade name remains subject to regulatory approval outside the US.

A clinical trial that aims to expand the population who may benefit from RSV vaccination into adults aged 50-59, including participants with underlying comorbidities, is fully recruited. Results are expected in 2023, together with additional results from the AReSVi-006 phase III efficacy trial and the AReSVi-004 immunogenicity trial. These trials continue to evaluate an annual revaccination schedule and protection/immunogenicity over multiple seasons following one dose of the RSV vaccine. Results from two additional influenza vaccine co-administration trials are also expected before the June 2023 Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting.

The GSK proprietary AS01 adjuvant system contains QS-21 STIMULON adjuvant licensed from Antigenics Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Agenus Inc.

Please see the full US Prescribing Information: https://gskpro.com/content/dam/global/hcpportal/en_US/Prescribing_Information/Arexvy/pdf/AREXVY.PDF

Important Safety Information for AREXVY

The following is based on the US Prescribing Information for AREXVY. Please consult the full Prescribing Information for all the labelled safety information.

Do not administer AREXVY to anyone with a history of a severe allergic reaction (e.g., anaphylaxis) to any component of AREXVY.

Appropriate medical treatment and supervision must be available to manage possible anaphylactic reactions following administration of AREXVY.

Syncope (fainting) may occur in association with administration of injectable vaccines, including AREXVY. Procedures should be in place to avoid injury from fainting.

Immunocompromised persons, including those receiving immunosuppressive therapy, may have a diminished immune response to AREXVY.

The most commonly reported (10%) adverse reactions were injection site pain (60.9%), fatigue (33.6%), myalgia (28.9%), headache (27.2%), and arthralgia (18.1%).

Vaccination with AREXVY may not result in protection of all vaccine recipients.

About RSV in older adults

RSV is a common contagious virus affecting the lungs and breathing passages. Older adults are at high risk for severe disease due in part to age-related decline in immunity, and older adults with underlying conditions are at even greater risk for severe disease. RSV can exacerbate conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and chronic heart failure and can lead to severe outcomes, such as pneumonia, hospitalization, and death. Each year, approximately 177,000 adults 65 years and older are hospitalized in the US due to RSV; an estimated 14,000 cases result in death.3 For adults 60 and older, data suggest an increased risk for severe RSV infection that can lead to hospitalization.5,6 Adults with underlying conditions are more likely to seek medical services and have higher hospitalization rates than adults without these conditions.

About GSK

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together. Find out more at gsk.com/company.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements

GSK cautions investors that any forward-looking statements or projections made by GSK, including those made in this announcement, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such factors include but are not limited to those described under Item 3.D 'Risk factors in the company's Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2022, GSKs Q1 Results for 2023 and any impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Registered in England & Wales:

No. 3888792

Registered Office:

980 Great West Road

Brentford, Middlesex

TW8 9GS

References

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. RSV Transmission. Accessed March 2023. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/about/transmission.html

2. National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Older Adults: A Hidden Annual Epidemic. 2016. Accessed March 2023. Available at: https://www.nfid.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/rsv-report.pdf

3. Falsey AR, et al. N Engl J Med 2005; 352:1749-1759 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa043951. Accessed March 2023.

4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. RSV in Older Adults and Adults with Chronic Medical Conditions. Accessed March 2023. Available at: www.cdc.gov/rsv/high-risk/older-adults.html

5. Tseng HF, Sy LS, Ackerson B, et al. Severe morbidity and short- and mid- to long-term mortality in older adults hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus infection. J Infect Dis. 2020;222(8):1298-1310. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiaa361.

6. Belongia EA, King JP, Kieke BA, et al. Clinical features, severity, and incidence of RSV illness during 12 consecutive seasons in a community cohort of adults 60 years old. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2018;5(12):ofy316. doi:10.1093/ofid/ofy316.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005829/en/

GSK enquiries

Media:

Tim Foley +44 (0) 20 8047 5502 (London)

Simon Moore +44 (0) 20 8047 5502 (London)

Kathleen Quinn +1 202 603 5003 (Washington DC)

Alison Hunt +1 540 742 3391 (Washington DC)



Investor Relations

Nick Stone +44 (0) 7717 618834 (London)

James Dodwell +44 (0) 20 8047 2406 (London)

Mick Readey +44 (0) 7990 339653 (London)

Josh Williams +44 (0) 7385 415719 (London)

Camilla Campbell +44 (0) 7803 050238 (London)

Steph Mountifield +44 (0) 7736 063933 (London)

Jeff McLaughlin +1 215 751 7002 (Philadelphia)

Frannie DeFranco +1 215 751 4855 (Philadelphia)

Source: GSK plc
Cianciarulo Selected to Lead Orange Countys Oldest Law School; Brings Commitment to Supporting Students and Faculty and Helping the Institution Continue to Thrive

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Western State College of Law at Westcliff University, the oldest law school in Orange County, California, with nearly 12K alumni, has named Marisa S. Cianciarulo the next dean to lead the prestigious institution. Cianciarulo will officially assume the role on July 1, 2023, following the retirement of Allen K. Easley, who successfully helmed the organization for more than nine years. The transition follows one of the colleges most successful years marked by the strongest academic incoming class in the schools history, extensive program growth with the addition of a JD/MBA program and full-time faculty additions to support continued expansion. Cianciarulo brings impressive legal, teaching and leadership experience and is passionate about continuing to support students and faculty, build relationships with alumni and the community and focus on curricular offerings while continuing to grow the law school.

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Marisa S. Cianciarulo, the next dean at Western State College of Law, brings extensive legal, teaching and leadership experience and is passionate about supporting students and faculty, building relationships with alumni and the community and increasing curricular offerings. (Photo: Business Wire)

Western State has a rich history of success including significant growth under Dean Easley, and I am honored to become part of this respected institution to help position it for continued success, said Cianciarulo. I am thrilled to work alongside Western States excellent faculty to support our student body and am committed to transparency, internal and external engagement, responsible stewardship of resources and collaborative problem-solving.

Cianciarulo is a passionate, service-oriented leader who has demonstrated a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion throughout her storied career. This aligns perfectly with the culture of Western State, which was recently listed as a top school for diversity by Princeton Review and preLaw Magazine. As dean, her goal is to enhance the visibility of Western State  a pillar of the local legal education community  and inspire investments in the great legal minds of the future that the college produces year after year.

Western State has experienced tremendous growth since the acquisition by Westcliff University in 2019 and we are excited to appoint the next dean to continue this positive trajectory, stated Dr. Anthony Lee, president of Westcliff University. Under Dean Cianciarulos leadership, we expect to see Western State further cement its reputation as a leading law school respected for its strong culture, personalized attention from an accessible faculty focused on student achievement and best-in-class internship and externship opportunities that set students up for success after graduation.

Cianciarulo comes to Western State after having served at Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law as interim dean since 2021. Prior to that, she was the colleges associate dean for academic affairs. During her time at Chapman, she was the founder and director of the Bette and Wylie Aitken Family Protection Clinic, and taught courses in civil procedure, gender and sexual orientation and the law, and immigration and refugee law and policy. She was recognized as Professor of the Year for 2010  2011, awarded tenure in 2012 and received the Valerie Scudder Award in recognition of outstanding achievement in teaching, scholarship and service in 2017. Past experience also includes teaching at Villanova University School of Law and multiple legal industry roles including partner and staff attorney. She is involved with several community organizations, including the Cal Law Pathways Leadership Advisory Council and Jserra High School Law Magnet Program Advisory Board. Cianciarulo earned her J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law.

I am thrilled to turn over the reins of the law school to Marisa Cianciarulo, said Allen K. Easley, outgoing dean at Western State. I believe she is the best candidate for the role, and I know that she cares deeply about leading Western State toward a bright future.

Cianciarulo was selected by a search committee including representatives and stakeholders from the Western State community.

To learn more about Western State College of Law, visit www.wsulaw.edu.

About Western State College of Law: Western State College of Law at Westcliff University is an established institution with a more than 50-year track record of success and a reputation for producing both successful trial lawyers and more than 150 graduates who have been elevated to the bench. It offers subspecialties within the J.D. program to allow every student to find their niche and develop a unique skillset. Western State was acquired in 2019 by Westcliff University, a private university in Irvine, Calif. offering bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees. Since the acquisition, Western State has benefited from Westcliffs ability to swiftly respond to market needs by developing innovative specialty programs in real-time. Together, the schools are now fully integrated and committed to providing advanced higher education opportunities to students both globally and nationally. Visit www.wsulaw.edu to learn more or follow on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Editors Note: Media interested in speaking to expert staff, faculty and leadership at Western State should email [email protected] to facilitate interviews.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005840/en/

Leslie Licano, Beyond Fifteen Communications, Inc.

[email protected] |(949) 733-8679 ext. 101

Source: Western State College of Law at Westcliff University
Labcorp (NYSE: LH), a leading global life sciences company, today announced an agreement to enter into a strategic relationship with Jefferson Health (Jefferson), the largest health system serving the greater Philadelphia area and Southern New Jersey. When complete, the arrangements between Jefferson and Labcorp will serve to build academic collaborations around teaching and the development of innovative tests.

[Labcorp Logo (PRNewsfoto/Labcorp)]

The relationship will expand the scope and productivity of specialty lab testing that is retained by Jefferson, and will further the academic and research missions of Thomas Jefferson University. Jefferson and Labcorp will work together to establish the Innovation Driving Excellence in Academics (IDEA) initiative, with a goal of advancing testing capabilities and technologies to improve health outcomes. Additionally, the parties will work together to improve healthcare services for underserved communities in Philadelphia and surrounding areas by using advanced population health digital solutions to deliver enhanced efficiency for patients.

"Jefferson has delivered healthcare services to patients and providers for decades, and we are proud to join them in that tradition by working together to deliver a complementary and comprehensive suite of laboratory services," said Brian Caveney, MD, Labcorp Chief Medical Officer. "We are also looking forward to collaborating on future research and innovations aimed at improving health outcomes for all people. Labcorp is committed to a smooth transition and maintaining the same high-quality service to customers through a seamless experience."

The new strategic collaboration will deliver efficiency and comprehensive laboratory aspects of healthcare for the communities served by Jefferson through Labcorp's leading clinical laboratory services, robust data and digital tools and extensive network of patient service centers. Patients and clinicians will benefit from Labcorp's scientific expertise and advanced diagnostics in important clinical areas such as oncology, neurology, autoimmune disease, and women's health, as well as gain access to Labcorp's convenient at-home test collection services. Jefferson will continue providing high quality, complex clinical laboratory services for the communities it serves along with its academic partners, including all elements of tissue diagnostics in anatomic pathology and other highly-complex tests, such as molecular and genomic pathology, HLA testing, molecular virology, and flow cytometry, emphasizing personalized medicine and transfusion medicine.

"This strategic relationship enables Jefferson to leverage Labcorp's wide-range of laboratory services, which will help deliver improved outcomes for our patients and optimal service to providers," said Joseph G. Cacchione, MD, CEO, Jefferson. "This collaboration is another example of our continued efforts to provide critical healthcare solutions that will better serve the community and advance Jefferson's academic and research missions."

This relationship follows other strategic collaborations that Labcorp has established with a range of local and regional health systems that have enhanced services for patients and providers.

The transaction is expected to close by mid-year 2023, subject to customary closing conditions and applicable regulatory approvals. Other terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on Wednesday asked President Joe Bidens administration to investigate Fords (NYSE: F) plan to partner with PT Vale Indonesia and China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt in a $4.5 billion nickel processing plant in Indonesia.

Rubio is the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and believes that the venture threatens U.S. national security. He asked the Justice, State, Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security departments as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate the plan.

Rubio's letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken cited Huayou calling the project "one of the flagship projects under the Belt and Road Initiative" when Ford announced the deal in March.

Rubio said the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative is one of the primary mechanisms China "uses to spread its influence around the world and gain control of critical infrastructure and natural resources."

Rubio in March introduced legislation that took aim at Ford's deal to use technology from Chinese battery company CATL as part of the automaker's plan to spend $3.5 billion to build a battery plant in Michigan.

Rubio had already asked the Biden administration to review the deal to use technology from CATL.

Vale and Huayou began construction of the Indonesian plant in November and commercial operation are expected to begin in 2026.

Shares of F are up 0.72% in mid-day trading on Wednesday.

By Michael Elkins | [email protected]
Ryerson Holding Corporation (NYSE: RYI) (the "Company" or "Ryerson") announced today that its principal shareholder, an affiliate of Platinum Equity LLC (the "Selling Stockholder"), has commenced a secondary offering of 2,630,700 shares of its common stock (the "Offering") pursuant to a shelf registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). The Selling Stockholder will receive all of the net proceeds from the Offering. The Company is not offering any shares of its common stock in the Offering and will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares offered by the Selling Stockholder.

In addition, the Company announced that it has entered into a share repurchase agreement with the Selling Stockholder pursuant to which the Company intends to separately repurchase 1,369,300 shares of the Company's common stock directly from the Selling Stockholder (the "Share Repurchase"). The Company expects to fund the Share Repurchase with cash on hand. The Share Repurchase is expected to be consummated concurrently with the closing of the Offering. Although the Share Repurchase will be conditioned upon, among other things, the closing of the Offering, the closing of the Offering will not be conditioned upon the closing of the Share Repurchase.

J.P. Morgan is acting as the sole underwriter for the Offering.

J.P. Morgan may offer the shares of common stock purchased from the Selling Stockholder from time to time for sale in one or more transaction to purchasers, directly or through agents, or through brokers in brokerage transactions, on the New York Stock Exchange, in the over-the-counter market, or through negotiated transactions or otherwise at market prices prevailing at the time of sale, at prices related to the prevailing market prices or at negotiated prices.

A shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (including a prospectus) relating to these securities has been filed with and declared effective by the SEC. The Offering is being made solely by means of a prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus. You may obtain these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC website at www.sec.gov . When available, copies of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the Offering may also be obtained by contacting: J.P. Morgan, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue , Edgewood, New York 11717, by telephone: 1-866-803-9204, or by emailing [email protected].

This press release is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of any securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain said in a letter to members seen by Reuters Wednesday that the Detroit-based union has yet to endorse President Joe Biden for a second term, citing concerns about electric vehicle policies.

"The federal government is pouring billions into the electric vehicle transition, with no strings attached and no commitment to workers. The EV transition is at serious risk of becoming a race to the bottom. We want to see national leadership have our back on this before we make any commitments," Fain said.

Fain met with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and lawmakers last week during a trip to Washington. Fain and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday criticized a General Motors (NYSE: GM) joint venture battery plant for paying workers much less than assembly plant employees even though it benefits from hefty U.S. government tax credits.

Workers at the Warren, Ohio, joint venture Ultium Cells plant near Lordstown start at $16.50 an hour rising to $20 an hour after seven years while union workers at a nearby Ohio GM assembly plant that closed in 2019 made $32 an hour or more.

"The situation at Lordstown, and the current state of the EV transition, is unacceptable. We expect action from the people in power to make it right," Fain said.

Fain said the Ultium plant at full production will receive more than $1.2 billion a year in U.S. battery production tax credits.

Fain noted in his letter that UAW will enter contract talks on behalf of 150,000 workers at General Motors (NYSE: GM), Ford (NYSE: F)and Stellantis (NYSE: STLA). The Detroit Three "are making record profits while workers get left behind. Well stand with whoever stands with our members in that fight." Fain said.

Fain said the union will be "ready to talk politics once we secure a future for this industry and the workers who make it run." He said "another Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster. But our members need to see an alternative that delivers real results."

Shares of F are up 0.64%, while GM and STLA are down 1.01% and 2.14% in afternoon trading on Wednesday.

By Michael Elkins | [email protected]
SYDNEY, May 3 (Xinhua) -- A preliminary report on Wednesday revealed that a Boeing 737 aircraft struck a ridgeline and then crashed during an aerial firefighting task in Western Australia (WA) earlier this year.

According to the report released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the modified Boeing 737 air tanker, callsign "Bomber 139," departed from Busselton Airport on Feb. 6 with two pilots on board to assist fire control efforts near Hopetoun, a town on the state's south coast.

"Arriving at the fire ground, the 737 crew was briefed by a bird-dog aircraft that the tasking was to tag and extend an existing retardant line," said ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell.

The report detailed that Bomber 139 descended to about 400 feet and completed a partial drop of three-quarters of their tank, before the captain stopped the drop as their retardant line was entering a burnt area. The air tanker then repositioned to commence a second drop to use the remaining retardant.

"Flight recorder data shows the throttles were advanced and the engines had accelerated just before the aircraft struck a ridgeline with the stick shaker activating. The aircraft then cleared a small line of foliage, before impacting the ground a second time and sliding to rest," said Mitchell.

"Fortunately, and remarkably, both pilots were able to exit the aircraft through a cockpit window, and suffered only minor injuries," he added.

The aircraft was subsequently consumed in a post-impact fire.

The investigation is still ongoing with a final report expected to be released.

At about 4:40 p.m. local time on Feb. 6, police and emergency services responded to reports of a plane crash in the Fitzgerald River National Park. According to WA Police, the aircraft was believed to have taken off at 3:25 p.m. local time.

"This is the first serious accident involving a Boeing 737 aircraft in Australia, and the second involving a large air tanker firebombing aircraft," Mitchell said in a statement shortly after the accident. 
FILE PHOTO: Prudential Financial Inc logo is seen displayed in this illustration taken, April 10, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

(Reuters) -Prudential Financial Inc reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, as the life insurer saw a decline in assets under management.

The respite in the economy after the markets priced in a milder recession was short-lived as a string of high-profile bank collapses sparked a sector-wide turbulence last month and roiled financial stocks.

As a result, assets under management declined 12.5% to $1.42 trillion in the quarter as investors yanked capital from speculative assets and instead sought refuge in safer bets.

Shares of the New Jersey-based company, down 16% so far this year, fell another 2% in extended trading on Tuesday.

The insurer's after-tax adjusted operating income was $990 million, or $2.66 per share, in the three months ended March 31, compared with $1.19 billion, or $3.10 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average had estimated a profit of $2.93 a share, according to data from Refinitiv IBES.

Prudential had last year said it was making progress in moving its business focus from market-sensitive revenue segments to more stable and recurring sources of income.

Chief Executive Charles Lowrey said on Tuesday the company was advancing its M&A strategy to expand "alternative capabilities and generate additional fee-based revenue".

Peer MetLife Inc will report first-quarter results after market hours on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Maju Samuel)
MONTRAL, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- mdf commerce Inc., a SaaS leader in digital commerce technologies, today announces that Anoka County, Minnesota (the aCountya) has signed a 5-year agreement for the usage of our source-to-pay solution. This initiative will allow the County to streamline and simplify its procurement processes while fully leveraging the data and analytics benefits of eprocurement technology.



Anoka County is the fourth-most populous county in Minnesota, with a population of approximately 358,000. It comprises the northern portion of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area.

The County's decision to use our full source-to-pay solution is significant as it will help to streamline and simplify procurement processes. The eprocurement technology we offer will provide Anoka County with the tools it needs to modernize the way buyers and suppliers connect and transact.

The platform will also provide the County with access to data and analytics, allowing it to make more informed procurement decisions and identify cost-saving opportunities. In addition, the platform's user-friendly interface will make it easier for suppliers to do business with Anoka County, improving collaboration and fostering stronger relationships.

Over the 5-year term of the agreement, the County will undergo a digital transformation within its procurement process, with the eprocurement technology driving efficiency and transparency in public procurement. Anoka County will have access to our fully integrated comprehensive source-to-pay solution, stemming from our 20+ years of experience with a variety of offers, including these workstream functionalities:

SOURCE | Strategic Sourcing to streamline solicitation creation, publication, evaluation and awarding in one easy-to-use platform

CONNECT | Vendor Management to improve insight and automation to connect with vendors throughout the procurement process with qualification, performance management and contract negotiation

CONTRACT | Contract Lifecycle Management to increase efficiency and transparency through collaborative authoring, performance monitoring and overall CLM

PROCURE | Requisition to Pay to improve the entire procurement process through purchase orders, invoicing, payments, spend reporting and an integration with the Countyas ERP

SHOP | Marketplace to provide end users a convenient experience to order off County and co-operative contracts with supplier-uploaded catalogs

aWe are excited to have been selected and trusted by Anoka County as its eprocurement solution. Our source-to-pay technology provides the tools Anoka County needs at this juncture within its digital procurement transformation,a said Mark Eigenbauer, President, eprocurement, at mdf commerce. aOur technology powers the initiatives of public sector procurement. We look forward to helping Anoka County improve efficiency, transparency and ease-of-use throughout the procurement process.a





About mdf commerce Inc.

mdf commerce Inc. (TSX:MDF) enables the flow of commerce by providing a broad set of software as a service (SaaS) solutions that optimize and accelerate commercial interactions between buyers and sellers. Our platforms and services empower businesses around the world, allowing them to generate billions of dollars in transactions on an annual basis. Our eprocurement, ecommerce and emarketplaces solutions are supported by a strong and dedicated team of approximately 650 employees based in Canada, the United States, Ukraine and China. For more information, please visit us at mdfcommerce.com, follow us on LinkedIn or call 1-877-677-9088.





For further information:

Brigitte Guay, DirectoraCorporate Communications

Toll Free: 1-877-677-9088, ext. 5123

Email: [email protected]
CALGARY, Alberta, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canacol Energy Ltd. (Canacol or the Corporation) (TSX:CNE; OTCQX:CNNEF; BVC: CNEC) is pleased to provide the following information concerning the new Lulo 1 gas discovery, production test results for the previously announced Saxofon 1 and Dividivi 1 gas discoveries, and the April 2023 natural gas sales.

April Gas Sales of 180 MMscfpd

Realized contractual natural gas sales (which are gas produced, delivered, and paid for were 180 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfpd) for April 2023.

Lulo 1 encounters 207 feet of net gas pay

The Lulo 1 exploration well, located on the 100 percent operated VIM21 Exploration and Production (E&P) contract, was spud on April 17 and reached a total depth of 8,434 feet measured depth (ft MD) on April 26, 2023. The well encountered 207 feet true vertical depth (ft TVD) of net gas pay with average porosity of 21 percent within the primary Cienage de Oro (CDO) sandstone reservoir.

The well has been cased and various zones will be production tested prior to tying the well into permanent production directly into the Jobo gas treatment facility located only fifty meters from the drilling platform. The success at Lulo has opened an area of deeper potential within the CDO in and around the main producing area that the Corporation intends to pursue aggressively. Upon completion of the well the Corporation plans to immediately drill the Lulo 2 well to appraise the extent of the discovery.

Saxofon 1 tests combined rate of 16 MMscfpd

The Corporation commenced the drilling of the Saxofon 1 exploration well on December 2, 2022 on its 100% operated VIM5 E&P contract located in the Lower Magdalena Basin. As previously reported, the well encountered gas within the Porquero and CDO sandstone reservoirs.

The CDO reservoir was perforated over a 22-foot Interval and flowed at an average rate of 6.1 MMscfpd over 12 hours. The peak rate was 8.4 MMscfpd at a choke of 32/128" and a THP of 2449 psig with no water production observed. The well is currently shut in undergoing the build up phase. The pressure transient data will be interpreted when the gauges are retrieved.

The Porquero reservoir was perforated over a 57-foot Interval and flowed at an average rate of 5.9 MMscfpd over 15 hours. The peak flow rate was 7.2 MMscfpd at a choke of 35/128" and a THP of 1044 psig with 8 barrels of water during the test was produced. The salinity of the produced water indicates that it is completion fluid related to the drilling process. The well is currently shut in undergoing the build up phase. The pressure transient data will be interpreted when the gauges are retrieved.

The Corporation is currently in the process of tying the well into permanent production. A large 3D seismic program will be executed in late 2023 over this part of the VIM 5 block plan for the drilling multiple appraisal and development wells.

Dividivi 1 tests 5 MMscfpd

The Corporation commenced the drilling of the Dividivi 1 exploration well on December 20, 2022 on its 100% operated VIM33 E&P contract located in the Lower Magdalena Basin. As previously reported, the well encountered gas within the primary CDO sandstone and Cicuco limestone reservoirs.

The Cicuco reservoir was perforated over a 12-foot Interval and flowed at an average rate of 3.84 MMscfpd over 9 hours. The peak flow rate was 5 MMscfpd at a choke of 28/128 and a THP of 731 psig. No water production was observed.

The Corporation is currently preparing to execute a long-term flow test of the well in order to formulate a commercial development plan for the discovery. The discovery is located approximately 35 kilometers to the west of the TGI gas pipeline which currently has approximately 260 MMscfpd of spare transportation capacity into the interior of Colombia.

About Canacol

Canacol is a natural gas exploration and production company with operations focused in Colombia. The Corporations common stock trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the OTCQX in the United States of America, and the Colombia Stock Exchange under ticker symbol CNE, CNNEF, and CNEC, respectively.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as plan, expect, project, intend, believe, anticipate, estimate and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions may or will occur, including without limitation statements relating to estimated production rates from the Corporations properties and intended work programs and associated timelines. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Corporation cannot assure that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. They are made as of the date hereof and are subject to change and the Corporation assumes no obligation to revise or update them to reflect new circumstances, except as required by law. Prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. These factors include the inherent risks involved in the exploration for and development of crude oil and natural gas properties, the uncertainties involved in interpreting drilling results and other geological and geophysical data, fluctuating energy prices, the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated costs or delays and other uncertainties associated with the oil and gas industry. Other risk factors could include risks associated with negotiating with foreign governments as well as country risk associated with conducting international activities, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Corporation.

Realized contractual gas sales is defined as gas produced and sold plus gas revenues received from nominated take or pay contracts.

For more information please contact: Investor Relations South America: +571.621.1747 [email protected] Global: +1.403.561.1648 [email protected]

Source: Canacol Energy Ltd.
Union City, Tenn., May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (Union City, Tennessee, May 3, 2023) Discovery Park of America announced new major gifts today to help fund a $1 million permanent exhibit, Duck, Duck, Goose: Waterfowl of the Mississippi Flyway. It will open for the public on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023, at the 100,000-square-foot museum and 50-acre heritage park in Union City, Tennessee.

The family of William A. (Bill) Homra has made a significant gift for the exhibit in memory of Homra, a businessman who had a passion for the sport of duck hunting.

Homra was born and made his home in Fulton, Kentucky. His successful business ventures included Fultons Leader Sporting Goods, The Sportster, Capones Restaurant, Bucks Party Mart and the Hollywood Showcase Theater. An avid hunter and fisherman, Homra began his career selling fishing gear from the back of his van to small grocery stores from Hickman, Kentucky to Reelfoot Lake. Homra was a charter member of the Fulton and South Fulton chapter of Ducks Unlimited.

The Homra family joins Ducks Unlimited, the worlds leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation, as a premier sponsor of the exhibit, which was designed and built by Louisville, Kentucky firm Solid Light. Under the leadership of George Dunklin, Ducks Unlimited past president, the exhibit will include the Ducks Unlimited Conservation Theater in memory of William A. (Bill) Homra and his late son, Allen Homra.

Allen was one of my closest friends, Dunklin said, and I believe he and his father having such a prominent role in the creation of this exhibit on conservation and waterfowl is a tribute and legacy in which they would take great pride.

Allen Homra moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas on a temporary assignment with Edward Jones in 1988, shortly after graduating from the University of Mississippi. He made the area his home for the remainder of his life. Homra built one of the country's Top 10 Edward Jones financial consulting practices. He was a passionate duck hunter and, in addition to supporting numerous nonprofit and faith-based organizations in his community, was a Ducks Unlimited sponsor for 25 years.

Other significant contributions to the exhibit have been made by The George H. Dunklin Jr. Family Foundation, the Deupree Family Foundation, Commercial Bank and Trust Company, Ann and Steve Reynolds, Marisa and Collin Cahill, Dr. Amy and Doug Cahill, Sam Hamra, Todd Endl, Doug Leech, Lisa and Kent Hutchins and Janet and Mike Gossum.

Partners in the exhibit also include the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Five Oaks Lodge, Final Flight Outfitters Inc., First Choice Farm and Lawn, Parkers Outfitting, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Robert E. and Jenny D. Kirkland Foundation. For a complete listing of all donors, visit DiscoveryParkofAmerica.com/duck.

At a recent update with exhibit stakeholders, including associates from Discovery Park and Ducks Unlimited, the designers and exhibit production team at Solid Light presented some of the early exhibit details. The general theme is an exploration of the intersection of waterfowl hunting and conservation and the importance of the Mississippi Flyway. Featured in the exhibit will be:

Research provided by the Cohen Wildlife Research Lab, leading conservationists and researchers in waterfowl migration, illustrating migration patterns and other facts about waterfowl

Interactive touch stations that bring cutting-edge data to life in a fun way

Immersive experiences that give visitors an opportunity to discover waterfowl biology and habitats, along with the sights and sounds of the various types of ducks and geese

The Ducks Unlimited Conservation Experience in memory of William A. (Bill) Homra and Allen Homra, an immersive, scenic world where the latest technology brings to life the stories of the people of Ducks Unlimited and the conservation values for which they are known

An exploration of the art of waterfowl hunting featuring duck and goose calls and decoys that are as much works of art as they are tools

A look at hunting gear used in the sport and its evolution through the years

A recreation of Theodore Roosevelts Maltese Cross Cabin telling the story of the conservation president and his enduring impact on the sport of hunting

A recreation of a Reelfoot Lake-style duck blind on the museums North Lake, providing a one-of-a-kind experience for visitors, especially those unfamiliar with hunting

One stakeholder who participated in the presentation was Kelley Powers, one of the founders and owners of Final Flight Outfitters Inc., a mail-order catalog company, e-commerce site and waterfowl retail store in Union City, Tennessee, and a partner in the exhibit.

Im very impressed with the work Solid Light has done and how they are presenting the information in a fun, interactive way, Powers said. Im sure many will leave with a new appreciation for waterfowl hunting and the work being done in the field of conservation. Im especially grateful this will be in my hometown to add to the overall experience of our visitors from around the world.

Visit DiscoveryParkofAmerica.com/duck to learn more about the exhibit. To partner with Discovery Park on this exhibit or for more information, email Mary Nita Bondurant at [email protected] or call 731-676-3556.

###

About Discovery Park of AmericaThe mission of Discovery Park of America, a premier world-class museum and heritage park located in Union City, Tennessee, is to inspire children and adults to see beyond. Included is a 100,000-square-foot museum featuring 9 interactive exhibit galleries with additional space for temporary exhibits from around the world and a 50-acre heritage park. Discovery Park of America is a 501(c)(3) public charity funded by generous individuals, corporations and foundations including its principal funder, the Robert E. and Jenny D. Kirkland Foundation. For more information, visit DiscoveryParkofAmerica.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

Attachments

Clare Saum Discovery Park of America 7318855455 [email protected]

Source: Discovery Park of America
SANTA ANA, Calif., May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ducommun Incorporated (Ducommun or the Company) (NYSE: DCO), a global supplier of innovative electronic and structural solutions for the aerospace and defense industry, announced today the appointment of Suman Mookerji, the Companys current vice president, corporate development & investor relations to senior vice president, chief financial officer, controller & treasurer. Suman will also continue to lead the corporate development function at the Company. Mr. Christopher D. Wampler, Ducommuns former vice president, chief financial officer, controller & treasurer will continue his employment with the Company in a non-executive capacity to facilitate a smooth transition of responsibilities.

"I am pleased to announce the promotion of Suman to be the next chief financial officer, controller and treasurer of Ducommun, and want to express my gratitude to Chris for his hard work and dedication to the Company, said Stephen G. Oswald, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Ducommun Incorporated. Suman joined Ducommun in 2017 and has been very effective in executing our acquisition strategy over the last six years and more recently in revamping our investor relations function. His finance and accounting skills accompanied with his aerospace and defense industry experience makes him uniquely qualified to help drive our business through the next phase of growth.

Ducommun has a rich history and legacy in the industry, and I am very fortunate to have been part of the leadership team to see the transformation of the business since 2017, said Mr. Mookerji. I now look forward to continuing in this journey in my new role and working with both internal and external stakeholders to drive continuous improvement within the finance function at Ducommun and to deliver better business performance.

Mr. Mookerji joined Ducommun in April 2017 as the vice president, strategy, acquisitions & integration. For the last year and a half, Mr. Mookerji served as vice president, corporate development & investor relations. Prior to joining Ducommun, Mr. Mookerjis professional background included corporate strategy, M&A and post-acquisition integration leadership experience at United Technologies Corporation (now Raytheon Technologies Corporation  RTX), both at the corporate and business unit levels, and at Capital Safety, a former Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts (KKR) portfolio company. Suman started his career in public accounting in 1999 working for Arthur Andersen and then Ernst & Young.

Mr. Mookerji holds an MBA from Babson College and a bachelors degree from the University of Mumbai.

About Ducommun IncorporatedDucommun Incorporated delivers value-added innovative manufacturing products and solutions to customers in the aerospace, defense, and industrial markets. Founded in 1849, the Company specializes in two core areasElectronic Systems and Structural Systemsto produce complex products and components for commercial aircraft platforms, mission-critical military and space programs, and sophisticated industrial applications. For more information, visit ducommun.com.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including relating to Ducommuns expectations relating to the contributions of its newly appointed chief financial officer, controller and treasurer and similar expressions that concern the Companys future performance and results. We generally use the words "believe," "expected," future, "continued," "will" and similar expressions in this press release to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on assumptions currently believed to be valid, but they involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Important uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ from those expressed in the forward looking statements are identified in our reports filed with the SEC, including our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release, and Ducommun does not undertake any obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update the forward looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.

CONTACTS:

Suman Mookerji, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Controller & Treasurer 657.335.3665, [email protected] .

Source: Ducommun Incorporated
DENVER and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Koios Beverage Corp. (CSE: FIT; OTC: FITS) (the "Company" or "Koios") is pleased to announce that all four flavours of Fit Soda are being carried in Hy-Vee grocery stores, a multistate grocery chain based in Des Moines, IA.

Hy-Vee, Inc. is an employee-owned corporation that operates in more than 285 retail stores across eight Midwestern states, with sales of more than $13 billion annually1. The supermarket chain is synonymous with quality, variety, convenience, healthy lifestyles, culinary expertise and superior customer service. Hy-Vee ranks in the Top 5 Most Trusted Brands and has been named one of Americas Top 3 favorite grocery stores. The companys more than 80,000 employees provide A Helpful Smile in Every Aisle to customers every day. For additional information, please visit: www.hy-vee.com.

"We are thrilled to partner with Hy-Vee grocery stores to bring Fit Soda to even more customers," said Chris Miller, CEO of the Company. "We believe that our zero-calorie hydration beverages are a perfect fit for Hy-Vee customers, who are health-conscious and seeking better-for-you beverage options." To view Fit Soda Products on Hy-Vees website you can visit the following link: Fit Soda/Hy-Vee.

Fit Soda has been rapidly expanding and has been placed in other well-known regional grocery chains such as Food Lion, Roche Bros. and Sprouts Farmers Market. With the Companys commitment to producing healthy, delicious, and innovative beverages, Fit Soda is poised for continued growth and success in the years to come.

The better-for-you carbonated beverage space has seen significant growth in recent years and it is expected to continue expanding in the future. Consumers are becoming more health-conscious and are seeking out beverage options that are low in sugar and calories, while still providing a satisfying and refreshing experience. As a result, companies are increasingly offering healthier carbonated beverage options that are made with natural ingredients, contain no artificial sweeteners, and are fortified with vitamins and minerals. This trend is not limited to traditional soda brands, with new companies and startups entering the market to meet the demand for healthier beverages. As the awareness of the benefits of healthy carbonated beverages continues to grow, it is expected that the market will expand even further, creating new opportunities for companies and driving innovation in the industry2.

According to a report by Grand View Research3, the global healthy soda market size was valued at USD 17.2 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.2% from 2021 to 2028.

Olipop, a prebiotic soda maker, has recently achieved a major milestone, hitting $200 million in annual sales just five years after arriving on grocery store shelves4. The company's founder and CEO, Ben Goodwin, attributes Olipop's success to its unique value proposition as a healthier alternative to traditional soda with the same familiar taste. Olipop's sales are set to more than double this year, and larger beverage giants like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have already shown interest in the brand. Goodwin is focused on growing the business and isn't interested in cashing out just yet. Olipop's success is a testament to the growing trend of consumers seeking healthier beverage options, and the company's commitment to quality ingredients and taste has clearly resonated with consumers.

"Fit Soda's significant growth in the healthy soda space can be attributed to our strategic positioning in the market trend towards functional, healthy beverages. Our commitment to quality ingredients and providing a functional beverage that supports recovery and hydration has placed us in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the growing demand for healthier options. As we continue to meet the evolving needs of our consumers and offer a unique value proposition in the competitive healthy beverage market, we anticipate that our growth will accelerate even further" stated, Chris Miller, CEO of Koios.

Fit Soda is expanding its retail footprint by adding new retailers every month, in line with the Company's sales strategy. The Company's focus on providing a healthier alternative to traditional soda has resonated with consumers, and its commitment to quality ingredients and functional benefits has helped it stand out in the crowded beverage market. To continue its growth trajectory, Fit Soda has been working diligently to secure new retail partnerships and expand its presence in existing retailers. This sales strategy is a key part of Fit Soda's growth plan, as it enables the Company to reach new consumers and provide them with a high-quality, functional, better-for-you beverage option. As the Company continues to add new retailers to its network, it is well-positioned to capture an even larger share of the healthy beverage market.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company,

KOIOS BEVERAGE CORP.

Chris MillerChris Miller, CEO, and DirectorFor further information, please contact:Gina Burrus 844-255-6467[email protected]

THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE (CSE) HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE.

About Koios Beverage Corp.

The Company is an emerging functional beverage company which has an available distribution network of more than 4,400 retail locations across the United States in which to sell its products. Koios has relationships with some of the largest and most reputable distributors in the United States, including Europa Sports, Muscle Foods USA, KeHE, and Wishing-U-Well. Koios uses a proprietary blend of nootropics and natural organic compounds to enhance human productivity without using harmful chemicals or stimulants. Koios products have been shown to enhance focus, concentration, mental capacity, memory retention, cognitive function, alertness, brain capacity and create all day mental clarity. Its ingredients are specifically designed to target brain function by increasing blood flow, oxygen levels, and neural connections in the brain.

Koios produces one of the only drinks in the world infused with MCT oil. MCT oil is derived from coconuts and has been shown to help the body burn fat more effectively, create lasting energy from a natural food source, produce ketones in the brain, allowing for greater brain function and clarity, support healthy hormone production, and improve immunity. For more information, please visit our website: https://www.koiosbeveragecorp.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Often, but not always, forward-looking information and information can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, estimates, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information in this news release includes statements regarding: Potential outcomes from the placement of Fit Soda in HY-VEE supermarkets locations and the overall performance of the functional beverage market. The forward-looking information reflects management's current expectations based on information currently available and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include: (i) adverse market conditions; (ii) changes to the growth and size of the functional beverage markets; and (iii) other factors beyond the control of the Company. The Company operates in a rapidly evolving environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is impossible for the Companys management to predict all risk factors, nor can the Company assess the impact of all factors on the Companys business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

The statements in this news release have not been evaluated by Health Canada or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As each individual is different, the benefits, if any, of taking the Companys products will vary from person to person. No claims or guarantees can be made as to the effects of the Companys products on an individual's health and well-being. The Companys products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

This news release may contain trademarked names of third-party entities (or their respective offerings with trademarked names) typically in reference to (i) relationships had by Koios with such third-party entities as referred to in this release and/or (ii) client/vendor/service provider parties whose relationship with Koios is/are referred to in this release. All rights to such trademarks are reserved by their respective owners or licensees.

1 https://www.hy-vee.com/corporate/our-company/2 https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/carbonated-soft-drinks-market3 https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/carbonated-soft-drinks-market4 https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/29/olipop-nears-200-million-in-annual-sales-coke-pepsi-come-knocking-ceo-says.html

Source: Koios Beverage Corp.
SANTA ANA, Calif., May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Judicate West, one of Californias leading providers of private dispute resolution services, has added Judge Claudia J. Silbar, formerly with the Superior Court of Orange County, to its roster of neutrals. Specializing in family law matters, Judge Silbar is based in the Santa Ana office, and she is available as a mediator and private judge.

Judge Silbar is one of the most respected judges to have served on the Orange County Superior Court, where she spent two decades presiding over family law matters. Her quick wit, work ethic and no-nonsense reputation, as well as keen insight into settlement opportunities, will serve her well as a neutral in the private sector, said Alan Brutman, President and Co-Founder of Judicate West. Judge Silbar is a terrific addition to our roster of neutrals. Her love and dedication toward the family law community is second to none, and we are excited to offer her services to our clients statewide.

Appointed by then-Governor Gray Davis in 2001, Judge Silbar served on the Superior Court bench for 21 years, almost exclusively in family law. Prior to her bench appointment, she spent more than 12 years with the Orange County District Attorneys Office, handling felony jury trials, including sexual assault, gang violence and homicides. From her trial work and experience, Judge Silbar was elevated to senior assistant, overseeing all felony trial units, excluding white collar crime. She began her career with the Commonwealth Attorneys Office in Jefferson County, Kentucky, followed by positions with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Los Angeles U.S. Attorneys Office.

Judge Silbar was named Judge of the Year by the Orange County Bar Associations Family Law Section in 2020 and in 2007. She also received the Judicial Officer of the Year award in 2010 from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Judge Silbar served on numerous programs and committees for the Orange County Superior Court, chairing the Temporary Judge Program for 15 years, co-chairing the Custody Guidelines Committee, and sitting on the Mediation and Arbitration Committee. She also co-created and co-chaired the Courts Remote Voluntary Settlement Program. Judge Silbar earned her J.D. from the University of Louisville School of Law (1984) and her B.A. from the University of Kentucky (1980).

About Judicate WestJudicate West is one of Californias leading providers of private dispute resolution services with a distinguished roster of proven neutrals, including retired state and federal court judges plus professional attorney mediators and arbitrators from a wide variety of practice areas. Founded in 1993, the firm prides itself on maintaining the utmost integrity in delivering innovative solutions to all types of civil disputes. The firms successful formula involves top-tier neutrals, a great company culture and an experienced team of ADR professionals dedicated to delivering gold standard service in alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Judicate West has offices in Santa Ana, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco.

Contact:Traci Stuart / Michael Panelli Blattel Communications415.413.4522 / 415.413.4527[email protected] / [email protected]

Source: Judicate West
Focus on executing the strategic plan and delivering shareholder value

MDG1015 pre-clinical data underline potential in solid tumor therapy

Subsequent to Q1, expansion of tools and technologies in our end-to-end technology platform

Guidance confirmed; cash runway maintained through Q4 2024

Martinsried/Munich, May 3, 2023. Medigene AG (Medigene, FSE: MDG1, Prime Standard), an immuno-oncology platform company focusing on the discovery and development of T cell immunotherapies for solid tumors, today reported financial results for the first quarter of 2023. The full Quarterly Statement Q1 2023 can be downloaded here: https://medigene.com/investors-media/reports-presentations/

Since the beginning of 2023, we have been making significant progress on our strategy in addressing the unmet needs in treating solid tumors. We have expanded the technologies in our end-to-end technology platform through our research collaboration with the National Cancer Institute as well as with the addition of a second exclusive costimulatory switch receptor CD40L-CD28, designed to optimize both the efficacy and safety profiles of TCR-T therapies. I remain convinced that our unique end-to-end platform and our approach to its continued innovation will be the key differentiators for Medigene allowing us to develop new, best-in-class therapies, said Selwyn Ho, Chief Executive Officer of Medigene. Further, our internal programs MDG1015 and MDG10xx as well as our partnerships with BioNTech and 2seventy bio have continued to advance well, further validating our end-to-end platform. Finally, we continue to explore options to extend our cash reach beyond 4Q 2024 in order to meet these planned future milestones and create further shareholder value."

Financial and Corporate Development

The financial performance in Q1 2023 was in line with the Executive Management Board's expectations. Revenues amounted to EUR 1.5 million, primarily from the partnership with BioNTech. Reflecting the strong commitment towards advancing the pipeline, R&D expenses amounted to EUR 2.3 million. The Company maintains strong liquidity of EUR 32.1 million, with cash & cash equivalents in the amount of EUR 21.1 million and time deposits of EUR 11.0 million as of March 31, 2023.

The Management Board therefore maintains its guidance for fiscal year 2023 published in the annual report 2022 on March 29, 2023, in its entirety. Management is confident to achieve further progress with partnerships, potentially generating additional milestone payments and revenues.

As previously announced, Medigene moves forward with a strengthened leadership team. During the first quarter, Pamela Keck joined as Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications with more than 15 years of experience in the field, as well as Kirsty Crame, MD, who brings more than 10 years of experience in drug development and clinical operations, focused primarily in immuno-oncology and in cell therapy development, into her role as Head of Clinical Research & Development.

Scientific progress

Presented at the American Academy of Cancer Research (AACR) in April 2023, pre-clinical data for the Companys lead program MDG1015 highlighted the potential for significant benefits of MDG1015 in improving long-term anti-tumor effects by mitigating the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) that currently limits solid tumor therapies. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that the combination of a NY-ESO-1-specific T cell receptor (TCR) combined with co-expression of Medigenes chimeric PD1-41BB switch receptor on the TCR-T cell surface significantly increases anti-tumor activity, compared to T cells expressing the TCR alone.

Just after the end of Q1, Medigene entered into a cooperative R&D agreement with the U.S. National Cancer Institute to evaluate the use of Medigenes proprietary TCRs in novel cell constructs. Also subsequent to the end of the quarter, as announced on May 2, Medigene has partnered with Helmholtz Munich to acquire the exclusive, worldwide rights to the CD40L-CD28 costimulatory switch receptor.

--- end of press release ---

About MedigeneMedigene AG (FSE: MDG1) is an immuno-oncology platform company dedicated to developing T cell therapies to effectively eliminate cancer. Its end-to-end technology platform, built on multiple proprietary and exclusive product development and product enhancement technologies, allows Medigene to create best-in-class differentiated, T cell receptor engineered T cell (TCR-T) therapies for multiple solid tumor indications that are optimized for both safety and efficacy. This platform provides product candidates for both its in-house therapeutics pipeline and partnering. For more information, please visit www.medigene.com

This press release contains forward-looking statements representing the opinion of Medigene as of the date of this release. The actual results achieved by Medigene may differ significantly from the forward-looking statements made herein. Medigene is not bound to update any of these forward-looking statements. Medigene is a registered trademark of Medigene AG. This trademark may be owned or licensed in select locations only.

Medigene

Pamela Keck Phone: +49 89 2000 3333 01 E-mail: [email protected]

MC Services AG

Raimund Gabriel, Julia von Hummel Phone: +49 89 210 228-0 E-mail: [email protected]

In case you no longer wish to receive any information about Medigene, please inform us by e-mail ([email protected]). We will then delete your address from our distribution list.

Source: Medigene AG
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meritage Homes, the fifth-largest homebuilder in the U.S., was honored with the 2023 Hearthstone BUILDER Humanitarian Award for its philanthropic and volunteer efforts last night. Presented by the editors at BUILDER magazine in partnership with Hearthstone, the leading private investment partner in for-sale housing in the U.S., this annual award recognizes homebuilders who demonstrate a lifetime commitment to public service.

Hearthstone is proud to recognize Meritage Homes as our winner of the 2023 Hearthstone BUILDER Humanitarian Award, says Mark Porath, CEO of Hearthstone. The Meritage Cares program is more than a catchphrase. Starting with the executives and cascading to all Meritage employees, they have made the commitment to care for others a part of their company culture, by dedicating time, attention, and resources to helping support those who serve us in the military and children and families who are in need. Being able to highlight Meritages good deeds is exactly the reason the Hearthstone BUILDER Humanitarian Award was founded.

At Meritage, we are all very honored to receive this years prestigious Hearthstone BUILDER Humanitarian Award, shares Phillippe Lord, CEO of Meritage Homes. Our employees embody our core value of Start With Heart each and every day. We are particularly proud of what our teams accomplished in our national giving campaigns from building and donating mortgage-free homes in our communities to veterans to packing meals to fight hunger and hygiene kits for refugees. Through in-kind and cash donations, Meritage has donated over $6.5 million.

The Hearthstone BUILDER Humanitarian Award has contributed $7.5 million to various charities since 1999, making it the single largest charitable award program in the homebuilding industry. In connection with this years award, Meritage selected the nonprofits, No Child Hungry and National Association of Women in Construction, to receive the cash award, which supplemented with donations from Meritage and its vendor partners, totaled $400,000.

Additional Award Wins for Meritage Homes

Meritage was honored to become a ten-time recipient of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year  Sustained Excellence Award. Given our longstanding commitment starting in 2009 to build 100% energy-efficient homes, we have completed over 112,000 Meritage ENERGY STAR certified homes and are proud to be an innovator in the sustainability space.

In the 20th annual Avid Awards, Meritage was recognized for its customer service excellence. Thirteen Meritage divisions were honored, including Southern California, which won the Avid Cup  Production for a second consecutive year. The Avid Cup is the programs top honor, with only one builder in North America receiving the award for the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the production category. The Nashville division was honored with the Gold Award  Production for having the highest customer ratings in the production category in the southeast region. Meritages Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Greenville, Houston, Northern California, Orlando, Phoenix, Raleigh, and San Antonio divisions took home the Avid Benchmark Award for scoring among the top 25% in customer ratings nationwide.

Fortune recognized Meritage as one of the Worlds Most Admired Companies for 2023, a ranking of the best-regarded companies based on reviews from executives and board directors within their own industry regarding customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility and financial strength.

Lord continued, We proudly celebrate these honors from the EPA, Avid, and Fortune, as they are aligned with our corporate values and further our goal to continue to grow our responsible corporate stewardship.

To learn more about Meritages philanthropy, please visit www.meritagehomes.com/why-meritage/meritage-cares.

About Meritage Homes Corporation

Meritage Homes is the fifth-largest public homebuilder in the United States, based on homes closed in 2022. The Company offers affordable, energy-efficient entry-level and first move-up homes. Operations span across Arizona, California, Colorado, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Meritage Homes has delivered over 165,000 homes in its 37-year history, and has a reputation for its distinctive style, quality construction, and award-winning customer experience. The Company is an industry leader in energy-efficient homebuilding, a ten-time recipient of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys ("EPA") ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence Award since 2013 for innovation and industry leadership in energy-efficient homebuilding, and the recipient of the EPA's 2022 Market Leader Award for Certified Homes as well as the EPA's 2022 Indoor airPLUS Leader Award.

For more information, visit www.meritagehomes.com.

Contacts: Emily Tadano, VP Investor Relations and ESG (480) 515-8979 (office) [email protected]

Source: Meritage Homes Corporation
Houston, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NuProbe, a genomics company developing ultrasensitive research assays for detecting and monitoring low-frequency mutations, gene fusions, and copy number alterations (CNAs), recently published research demonstrating capabilities of their blocker displacement amplification (BDA) technology for detection of a JAK2 mutation using qPCR. The research, done in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic, demonstrated concordance of the BDA technology to NGS and ddPCR and detection to 0.05% allele fraction.

Blocker Displacement Amplification (BDA), one of NuProbes core technologies, blocks amplification of normal DNA sequences while selectively enriching variant sequences. BDA enables detection of low-frequency mutations such as those used for assessment of molecular residual disease (MRD).

Read more about BDA.

In the study, 112 clinical samples were retrospectively tested using BDA technology in conjuction with qPCR, droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) without BDA, and NGS. While NGS was determined to be not as sensitive, BDA and ddPCR detected the JAK2 mutation with a high level of sensitivity.

This study showed that this technology is an effective way to detect low-frequency mutations using equipment that already exists in many laboratories, said Yu-Wei Cheng, PhD, a laboratory director at Cleveland Clinic and corresponding author of the study.

In addition to qPCR applications, NuProbes BDA technology is also compatible with ddPCR, NGS, and nanopore sequencing; improving the sensitivity and multiplexing of genomics and molecular diagnostics platforms.

"NuProbe is pleased to support researchers and clinicians in identifying high value molecular biomarkers with better sensitivity, affordability, and breadth," said David Zhang, CEO and co-founder of NuProbe USA. "BDA is a powerful technology that is broadly compatible with and improves the sensitivity of almost all DNA detection platforms."

About NuProbeNuProbe is a cutting-edge genomics company dedicated to advancing human disease research by improving the analytical sensitivity of biomarker detection. Using proprietary technologies, NuProbe develops and validates research panels to address unmet needs for detecting and monitoring low-frequency mutations, gene fusions, and copy number alterations (CNAs). Founded in 2016, NuProbe is a privately held company with facilities in Houston, TX and China.

NuProbes products are for Research Use Only and are not intended for In Vitro Diagnostic use.

Rachel Reed NuProbe USA Inc 715-240-0797 [email protected]

Source: NuProbe USA Inc
VIENTIANE, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Laos and Cuba have pledged to strengthen cooperative relationship and ensure more effective cooperation between the two countries.

General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith made the remarks at a meeting with Roberto Morales Ojeda, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of organization of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) Central Committee, on April 28-30, the Lao News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Welcoming the high-ranking delegation from the PCC, Thongloun expressed his appreciation of the visit, saying it was an important contribution to enhancing friendship and unity between the two parties, states and peoples.

The president promised that Laos would continue to cooperate with Cuba to strengthen their cooperative relationship and ensure it will become more effective.

Morales expressed his satisfaction with the excellent state of relations between Cuba and Laos.

The Cuban party official also met with Vice President of Laos Bounthong Chitmany on Saturday.

The two sides updated each other on the situation in their respective countries and work being carried out by each party, and exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

They signed agreements on inter-party exchanges and cooperation of party schools and youth organizations. 
EINDHOVEN, the Netherlands, LAUSANNE, Switzerland, and BOSTON, MA, USA, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ONWARD Medical N.V. (Euronext: ONWD), the medical technology company creating innovative therapies to restore mobility, function, and independence in people with spinal cord injury, today announced that it will host a webcast to discuss its Q1 2023 business highlights.

The webcast will be held on May 16, 2023, at 2:00PM CET / 08:00AM ET. It will be hosted by CEO Dave Marver and CFO Lara Smith Weber, who will discuss highlights from the first quarter and provide a business update.

To join the webcast via Zoom, please register using this link.

Participants may also join by phone:

+32 2 290 9360 (Belgium)

+49 69 3807 9884 (Germany)

+31 20 794 0854 (Netherlands)

+41 22 591 0156 (Switzerland)

+44 203 481 5240 (United Kingdom)

+1 346 248 7799 (US)

Additional telephone numbers available



Webinar ID: 840 0768 4745

A recording of the webcast will be available on the Companys website following the live event.

About ONWARD Medical

ONWARD is a medical technology company creating innovative therapies to restore mobility, function, and independence in people with spinal cord injuries. The Companys work builds on more than a decade of basic science and preclinical research conducted at the worlds leading neuroscience laboratories. ONWARD ARC Therapy, which can be delivered by implantable (ARC-IM) or external (ARC-EX) systems, is designed to deliver targeted, programmed spinal cord stimulation to restore movement and other functions in people with spinal cord injury, ultimately improving their quality of life.

ONWARD has received eight Breakthrough Device Designations from the US FDA encompassing both ARC-IM and ARC-EX. ARC-EX is an external, non-invasive platform consisting of a stimulator and wireless programmer. Positive top-line data were reported in 2022 from the Companys first pivotal study, called Up-LIFT, evaluating the ability of transcutaneous ARC Therapy to improve upper extremity strength and function. The Company is now preparing marketing approval submissions for the US and Europe. ARC-IM consists of an implantable pulse generator and lead placed near the spinal cord. The Company completed the first-in-human use of the ARC-IM neurostimulator and reported positive interim clinical outcomes for ARC-IM Therapy for improved blood pressure regulation following SCI in 2022.

ONWARD is headquartered in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. It maintains a Science and Engineering Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has a growing US presence in Boston, Massachusetts. The Company has an academic partnership with .NeuroRestore, a collaboration between EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). For additional information about the Company, please visit ONWD.com. To access our 2023 Financial Calendar, please visit IR.ONWD.com.



For Company Enquiries:

[email protected]



For Media Enquiries:

Aditi Roy, VP Communications

[email protected]



For Investor Enquiries:

Lara Smith Weber, CFO

[email protected]



Disclaimer

Certain statements, beliefs, and opinions in this press release are forward-looking, which reflect the Companys or, as appropriate, the Company directors current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve several risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties, and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. A multitude of factors including, but not limited to, changes in demand, competition, and technology, can cause actual events, performance, or results to differ significantly from any anticipated development. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. As a result, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any update or revisions to any forward-looking statements in this press release as a result of any change in expectations or any change in events, conditions, assumptions, or circumstances on which these forward-looking statements are based. Neither the Company nor its advisers or representatives nor any of its subsidiary undertakings or any such persons officers or employees guarantees that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does either accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or the actual occurrence of the forecasted developments. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.
BLUE BELL, Pa., May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PDS, a leading provider of human capital management (HCM) solutions, is pleased to announce that it has formed a partnership with Univerus, a firm specializing in Best-in-Class software solutions designed to meet the end-to-end needs of public and private sector organizations. Univerus has entered into a reseller partnership and is working together with the PDS team to represent the PDS Vista HCM solution.

Univerus is a perfect resell partner for PDS, said Pat Palmer, President, and CEO at PDS. As a trusted SAP Gold Partner, Univerus ERP Services delivers market-leading ERP management systems to clients in both the private and public sector. Univerus was searching for a robust, modern HCM solution to accompany their solutions. PDS is already partnering with the Univerus team on many proposed client solutions, and we look forward to the potential this partnership has to offer.

This is an exciting opportunity for us, said Brad Atchison, CEO of Univerus. The PDS suite of products will strengthen the Univerus technology eco-system. With UNITY infrastructure at the core, and the strength of our SAP Gold Partnership, along with PDS HCM solution, Univerus can deliver market-leading ERP management systems to clients in both the private and public sector.

About Univerus

Univerus Inc. is a North American company headquartered in Pennsylvania and British Columbia with offices and customers throughout the world. Univerus was formed in 2019, however, our product brands have served hundreds of customers for over two decades. Univerus omni-purpose user interface, UNITY, empowers leading teams with a powerful suite of vertical software solutions accessible through an intuitive common platform. For more information on Univerus solutions and services visit www.univerus.com.

About PDS

PDS is a leading provider of HCM systems offering a core suite of recruiting, onboarding, human resource, benefits, payroll, and time and attendance software throughout the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. PDS Vista suite enables organizations to minimize the time invested in administrative HCM and payroll activities by streamlining and automating those processes and facilitating strategic decision-making capabilities. Its innovative, personalized technology is backed by a team of experts who know your name, so you get a truly personalized experience your way, on your terms.

Founded in 1974, PDS is a privately held company headquartered in Blue Bell, Pa. For more information on PDS or PDS Vista solution and services visit www.pdssoftware.com.

PDS and the PDS logo are registered trademarks and Vista is a trademark of Personnel Data Systems, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are properties of their respective owners. Learn more about Vista product capabilities in our Vista Highlights info sheet and in this brief product overview video.

Contact Patricia Palmer [email protected]

Source: PDS
CALGARY, Alberta, May 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pulse Seismic Inc. (TSX: PSD) (OTCQX: PLSDF) (Pulse or the Company) is pleased to report its financial and operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2023. The unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements, accompanying notes and MD&A are being filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and will be available on Pulses website at www.pulseseismic.com.

Pulses Board of Directors today approved a 10% increase to the regular dividend. The new quarterly dividend will be $0.01375 per share, representing $0.055 per share annualized. The total of the regular dividend will be approximately $737,000 based on Pulses 53,569,321 common shares outstanding as of May 2, 2023, to be paid on May 24, 2023 to shareholders of record on May 16, 2023. This dividend is designated as an eligible dividend for Canadian income tax purposes. For non-resident shareholders, Pulses dividends are subject to Canadian withholding tax.

The annual general meeting of the shareholders of Pulse Seismic Inc. will be held at 3:00 p.m. (MDT) on May 3, 2023 in the Viking Room at the Calgary Petroleum Club, 319 5th Avenue SW, Calgary Alberta.

HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE THREE MONTHS ENDED MARCH 31, 2023

Total revenue was $8.4 million compared to $1.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2022;

Net earnings were $2.9 million ($0.05 per share basic and diluted) compared to net loss of $2.5 million ($0.05 per share basic and diluted) in the first quarter of 2022;

EBITDA(a) was $6.6 million ($0.12 per share basic and diluted) compared to $9,000 ($0.00 per share basic and diluted) in the first quarter of 2022;

Shareholder free cash flow(a) was $5.3 million ($0.10 per share basic and diluted) compared to $188,000 ($0.00 per share basic and diluted) in the first quarter of 2022;

In the three-month period ended March 31, 2023 Pulse purchased and cancelled, through its normal course issuer bid, a total of 48,448 common shares at a total cost of approximately $85,000 (at an average cost of $1.74 per common share including commissions); and

At March 31, 2023 Pulse was debt-free and held cash of $10.5 million. The $25.0 million revolving credit facility is undrawn and fully available to the Company.

SELECTED FINANCIAL AND OPERATING INFORMATION (thousands of dollars except per share data, Three months ended March 31, Year ended numbers of shares and kilometres of seismic data) 2023 2022 December 31, (unaudited) 2022 Revenue Data library sales 8,380 1,743 9,345 Other revenue 27 113 225 Total revenue 8,407 1,856 9,570 Amortization of seismic data library 2,286 2,515 9,818 Net earnings (loss) 2,908 (2,518) (7,907) Per share basic and diluted 0.05 (0.05) (0.15) Cash provided by operating activities 5,413 8,629 11,992 Per share basic and diluted 0.10 0.16 0.22 EBITDA (a) 6,615 9 2,035 Per share basic and diluted (a) 0.12 0.00 0.04 Shareholder free cash flow (a) 5,261 188 3,200 Per share basic and diluted (a) 0.10 0.00 0.06 Capital expenditures Property and equipment 4 4 12 Weighted average shares outstanding Basic and diluted 53,614,717 53,748,780 53,703,039 Shares outstanding at period-end 53,596,769 53,733,117 53,626,869 Seismic library 2D in kilometres 829,207 829,207 829,207 3D in square kilometres 65,310 65,310 65,310 FINANCIAL POSITION AND RATIOS March 31, March 31, December 31, (thousands of dollars except ratios) 2023 2022 2022 Working capital 11,136 6,878 6,593 Working capital ratio 13.3:1 7.1:1 6.8:1 Cash and cash equivalents 10,455 5,276 5,822 Total assets 37,220 42,944 35,222 Long-term debt - - - Trailing 12-month (TTM) EBITDA (b) 8,641 38,911 2,035 Shareholders equity 35,679 40,945 33,496

(a) The Companys continuous disclosure documents provide discussion and analysis of EBITDA, EBITDA per share, shareholder free cash flow and shareholder free cash flow per share. These financial measures do not have standard definitions prescribed by IFRS and, therefore, may not be comparable to similar measures disclosed by other companies. The Company has included these non-GAAP financial measures because management, investors, analysts and others use them as measures of the Companys financial performance. The Companys definition of EBITDA is cash available to invest in growing the Companys seismic data library, pay interest and principal on its long-term debt, purchase its common shares, pay taxes and the payment of dividends. EBITDA is calculated as earnings (loss) from operations before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. EBITDA per share is defined as EBITDA divided by the weighted average number of shares outstanding for the period. The Company believes EBITDA assists investors in comparing Pulses results on a consistent basis without regard to non-cash items, such as depreciation and amortization, which can vary significantly depending on accounting methods or non-operating factors such as historical cost. Shareholder free cash flow further refines the calculation by adding back non-cash expenses, net restructuring costs and deducting net financing costs and current income tax expense from EBITDA. Shareholder free cash flow per share is defined as shareholder free cash flow divided by the weighted average number of shares outstanding for the period. (b) TTM EBITDA is defined as the sum of EBITDA generated over the previous 12 months and is used to provide a comparable annualized measure. These non-GAAP financial measures are defined, calculated and reconciled to the nearest GAAP financial measures in the Management's Discussion and Analysis.

OUTLOOK

With seismic data library sales of $8.4 million in the first quarter of 2023, equivalent to 90 percent of sales achieved in all of 2022, and conditions in Western Canadas oil and natural gas industry extending the widespread improvement experienced in 2022, Pulse remains optimistic about the year ahead. Areas of strength continue to include buoyant global demand for fossil fuels, forecasts for continued growth in industry capital investment and field activities, ongoing corporate profitability, and Alberta mineral lease auctions (land sales) through April 30 showing the greatest year-to-date strength in nearly a decade. These positive factors are dampened by continued geopolitical instability and a poor federal regulatory environment.

The Company cautions, as always, that industry conditions do not provide visibility regarding Pulses seismic data library sales levels. Pulses key strengths include zero debt, a low-cost structure, high leverage to increased revenue in its EBITDA margin, no capital spending commitments, Canadas largest licensable seismic data library and strong customer relations.

The Company remains focused on the business practices that have served it throughout the full range of conditions: maintaining a strong balance sheet with access to credit on favourable terms, careful management of cash resources including distributing cash to shareholders when prudent, a low cost structure, a disciplined and rigorous approach to growth opportunities, an experienced and capable management team, and excellent customer care complemented by the initiative to broaden the attractiveness of the seismic data library.

CORPORATE PROFILE

Pulse is a market leader in the acquisition, marketing and licensing of 2D and 3D seismic data to the western Canadian energy sector. Pulse owns the largest licensable seismic data library in Canada, currently consisting of approximately 65,310 square kilometres of 3D seismic and 829,207 kilometres of 2D seismic. The library extensively covers the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, where most of Canadas oil and natural gas exploration and development occur.

For further information, please contact: Neal Coleman, President and CEO Or Pamela Wicks, Vice President Finance and CFO Tel.: 403-237-5559 Toll-free: 1-877-460-5559 E-mail: [email protected]. Please visit our website at www.pulseseismic.com

This document contains information that constitutes forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking information) within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as anticipate, believe, expect, plan, intend, forecast, target, project, guidance, may, will, should, could, estimate, predict or similar words suggesting future outcomes or language suggesting an outlook.

The Outlook section herein contain forward-looking information which includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding:

> The outlook of the Company for the year ahead, including future operating costs and expected revenues;

> Recent events on the political, economic, regulatory, public health and legal fronts affecting the industrys medium- to longer-term prospects, including progression and completion of contemplated pipeline projects;

> The Companys capital resources and sufficiency thereof to finance future operations, meet its obligations associated with financial liabilities and carry out the necessary capital expenditures through 2022;

> Pulses capital allocation strategy;

> Pulses dividend policy;

> Oil and natural gas prices and forecast trends;

> Oil and natural gas drilling activity and land sales activity;

> Oil and natural gas company capital budgets;

> Future demand for seismic data;

> Future seismic data sales;

> Pulses business and growth strategy; and

> Other expectations, beliefs, plans, goals, objectives, assumptions, information and statements about possible future events, conditions, results and performance, as they relate to the Company or to the oil and natural gas industry as a whole.

By its very nature, forward-looking information involves inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks that predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved. Pulse does not publish specific financial goals or otherwise provide guidance, due to the inherently poor visibility of seismic revenue. The Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from the beliefs, plans, objectives, expectations and anticipations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking information. These factors include, but are not limited to:

> Uncertainty of the timing and volume of data sales;

> Volatility of oil and natural gas prices;

> Risks associated with the oil and natural gas industry in general;

> The Companys ability to access external sources of debt and equity capital;

> Credit, liquidity and commodity price risks;

> The demand for seismic data and;

> The pricing of data library licence sales;

> Cybersecurity;

> Relicensing (change-of-control) fees and partner copy sales;

> Environmental, health and safety risks;

> Federal and provincial government laws and regulations, including those pertaining to taxation, royalty rates, environmental protection, public health and safety;

> Competition;

> Dependence on key management, operations and marketing personnel;

> The loss of seismic data;

> Protection of intellectual property rights;

> The introduction of new products; and

> Climate change.

Pulse cautions that the foregoing list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. Additional information on these risks and other factors which could affect the Companys operations and financial results is included under Risk Factors in the Companys most recent annual information form, and in the Companys most recent audited annual financial statements, most recent MD&A, management information circular, quarterly reports, material change reports and news releases. Copies of the Companys public filings are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

When relying on forward-looking information to make decisions with respect to Pulse, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. Furthermore, the forward-looking information contained in this document is provided as of the date of this document and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking information, except as required by law. The forward-looking information in this document is provided for the limited purpose of enabling current and potential investors to evaluate an investment in Pulse. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking information may not be appropriate, and should not be used, for other purposes.

PDF available: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/938b6479-5562-4940-a60a-555767f5b41a

Source: Pulse Seismic Inc.
Dallas, Texas, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New research shows that Istations Indicators of Progress (ISIP) reading assessment accurately predicted student performance on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR). STAAR is the state's testing program and is based on state curriculum standards in core subjects including reading, writing, and more.In partnership with five Texas school districts, researchers examined the relationship between student ISIP reading scores and STAAR reading performance in grades 3-8. Researchers found that middle-of-year and end-of-year ISIP reading percentiles serve as an accurate predictor of where students would score on the STAAR about 80% of the time. This linking study shows that data from Istation is reliable, accurate, and precise.

With ISIP, educators can respond to student needs with confidence, and adapt teaching to ensure students meet and exceed grade-level expectations. Additionally, projection data provides information to help teachers and administrators identify students who may be at risk of not meeting STAAR expectations.

This new research shows that ISIP scores can serve as an accurate predictor of end-of-year student achievement, said Dr. Victoria Locke, PhD, Vice President of Research and Assessments at Istation. Its exciting to give educators the ability to predict how students will do on end-of-year tests based on their ISIP scores.

Read the full study at: https://www.istation.com/research-studies

About Istation

For over 25 years, educators have turned to Istation as an all-in-one solution for online assessment, instruction, and personalized learning. With Istation, schools get a time-saving program that powers pre-K through eighth-grade student achievement in reading, math, and Spanish literacy. Rooted in research and designed to ignite student joy in the classroom, Istations innovative platform drives instructional efficacy and elevates learning to superhero heights!

Ian Sumera Istation Inc. [email protected]

Source: Istation Inc.
ATLANTA, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HOIST, one of the fastest growing beverage products in the United States along with the approved hydration for the U.S. Department of Defense, today announced that it will continue its long-standing partnership with Team Red, White & Blue (Team RWB), Americas leading health and wellness community for Veterans. Kicking off during Military Appreciation Month this May, HOIST and Team RWB will work together ensuring Veterans consider hydration as part of their overall health and wellness.

The health and wellness of Americas Veteran population is important to all of us here at HOIST, said Rachel Trotta, Director of Business Development at HOIST. Were honored to be there for Service Members during their military career, offering them immediate and long-lasting hydration in the field, overseas, and when they need it the most. Through this partnership with Team RWB, were able to continue and expand efforts to support them in their health and wellness journey as Veterans.

As part of the partnership, HOIST will donate a portion of all online sales during the month of July to support Team RWBs programs.

Since 2021 HOIST has supported our members, keeping them hydrated as they pushed themselves and worked toward their health and fitness goals, said Mike Erwin, Founder and Executive Director of Team RWB. Were fired up to continue partnering with HOIST in this new capacity this year and grateful for the support.

In addition, HOIST will have a free powder stick sample and discount included in Team RWB Shop orders. HOIST products will be provided at Team RWB events across the nation encouraging Veterans to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

For more information about HOIST, visit drinkhoist.com or @drinkhoist on Instagram. For more information about Team RWB, visit teamrwb.org or @teamrwb on Instagram.

About HOISTFounded in 2009, HOIST provides IV-level hydration in the form of a bottle alongside a military-grade powdered product for those looking add an elevated hydration to their liquid. Born and built in the Midwest, HOISTs Cincinnati-based team has built a product thats not only a trusted hydration for the U.S. Department of Defense, its also the trusted hydration among many who push their physical and mental boundaries. For more information please visit www.drinkhoist.com.

About Team Red, White & BlueTeam Red, White & Blue (Team RWB), a nonprofit organization founded in 2010, is forging Americas leading health and wellness community for military veterans, families, and their supporters. Team RWB has more than 220,000 members spread across nearly 200 chapters and communities nationwide. To learn more, visit TeamRWB.org or download the Team RWB App today.

Contact: Margaret Britten Team RWB Marketing & Communications Director 978-833-3952[email protected]

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/154659d5-4c55-49c6-9dfb-f1b7dbd9c99f

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/47ede532-00c2-46a0-bbc4-9bab75f4e926

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/21b97c71-1cb7-4f6c-8433-fb059c717d17

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cd6a5804-d74d-4147-9eb1-fc793349bcf9

HOIST logo HOIST IV-Level Hydration logo Team RWB x HOIST Team Red, White & Blue and HOIST have announced an expanded partnership in support of veterans' health and wellness Team RWB x HOIST Team Red, White & Blue and HOIST have announced an expanded partnership in support of veterans' health and wellness Team RWB x HOIST Team Red, White & Blue and HOIST have announced an expanded partnership in support of veterans' health and wellness

Source: Team Red, White & Blue
Washington, DC, May 3, 2023, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) identifies 10 pathway changes involving education, training, and work experience with the greatest potential to improve employment outcomes for young adults. In What Works: Ten Education, Training, and Work-Based Pathway Changes That Lead to Good Jobs, funded by a philanthropic investment from JPMorgan Chase, CEW researchers developed the Pathways-to-Career policy simulation model, which uses longitudinal data to identify promising junctures at which a strategic intervention could increase the likelihood of working in a good jobone we define as providing minimum annual earnings of about $38,000 per year, with a median of $57,000, at age 30.

The Pathways-to-Career model establishes an actionable, solution-oriented framework for improving the economic lives of young adults by simulating the potential impacts of different pathway changes at critical junctures along the route from adolescence to early adulthood. Of the pathway changes CEW identifies as the most effective, some involve increasing educational attainment, especially progressing toward attainment of a bachelors degree. Others replace or combine classroom learning with on-the-job learning, capitalizing on the growth that occurs when workers gain access to jobs in high-demand fields that equip them with both general and sector-specific skills, competencies, and domain knowledge.

"Our research clearly indicates that the bachelors degree is still the most traveled pathway to a good job. But through this work, we also find there are alternative pathways to good jobs through career and technical education (CTE) and work experience, CEW Director and lead author Anthony P. Carnevale said. Pathways to good jobs are especially strengthened through comprehensive policy efforts that layer effective interventions on top of one another.

Layering certain pathway changes can further boost the number of workers in good jobs at age 30 by ensuring that the potential benefits from investments at earlier life stages are fully realized. For example, ensuring college completion after putting the 4.8 million eligible academically prepared young adults in the current cohort of 18-to-22-year-olds on the pathway to a bachelors degree could result in 1.2 million more young adults in this cohort in good jobs at age 30. Thats almost a 60 percent increase over expanding enrollment in bachelors degree programs alone, which could put 765,000 more young adults in good jobs.

The effectiveness of the 10 pathway changes varies by race, gender, and class. For example, specializing in CTE in high school increases the likelihood of having a good job at age 30 for white and Black/African American young adults, but reduces the likelihood of having a good job at age 30 for Hispanic/Latino young adults. In addition, some pathway changes have the potential for much larger numerical gains among white young adults than among Black/African American or Hispanic/Latino young adults simply because more white young adults are eligible for each pathway change.

Nearly every pathway change also has the potential to put more men than women in good jobs at age 30, primarily due to differences by gender in effectiveness and eligibility. The one exception is working in a STEM or other high-paying occupation at age 22. On the whole, because women already have higher average levels of education than men, there is less potential to improve womens economic outcomes by increasing their education without also addressing the gender wage gap among workers with the same levels of educational attainment.

Extending the 10 pathway changes to every eligible young adult would have uneven effects, sometimes increasing instead of decreasing race-, gender-, and class-based gaps in the likelihood of having a good job at age 30. These differences in effectiveness and eligibility have implications for the prospect of using the 10 pathway changes to achieve racial/ethnic, class, and gender justice on a societal level. Narrowing gaps in good jobs is not as simple as making all 10 pathway changes equally available to youth and young adults regardless of race, class, and gender. That approach would more likely increase the gaps by race and gender than shrink them, and it would have little effect on the good jobs gap by class.

JPMorgan Chase is focused on creating a more equitable labor market and powering a stronger economy that works for everyone, said Matthew Muench, head of Jobs and Skills for JPMorgan Chase Global Philanthropy. Good jobs are the foundation of such an economy, but remain inaccessible for too many people. As both a funder and employer, we see immense value in pathways that bring more people into good jobs and thriving careers. Georgetowns research is critical in revealing how career pathways are most effective when they support individuals across multiple stations of that journeywhether it runs through college or another route.

We can build stronger pathways to good jobs in young adulthood through education, sectoral training, and workforce development, said Zack Mabel, report co-author and research professor at CEW. But addressing disparities in access to good jobs also requires combating bias and discrimination in the labor market, directing investments toward individuals from historically disadvantaged groups, and raising wages in undervalued occupations that are mostly filled by workers from marginalized groups and are crucial to the functioning of our society. A coordinated and comprehensive policy strategy is therefore needed to expand access to economic opportunity broadly while also achieving economic justice on a societal level.

The 10 pathway changes that could substantially increase the number of young adults working in good jobs at age 30 are as follows:

For youth in high school: 1. Specializing in career and technical education (CTE) in high school.

For young adults starting on the high school pathway: 2. Entering a certificate or associates degree program by age 22. 3. Entering a bachelors degree program by age 22. 4. Experiencing continuous employment from ages 20 to 22. 5. Working in a blue-collar occupation at age 22. 6. Working in a STEM or other high-paying occupation at age 22.

For young adults starting on the middle-skills pathway: 7. Earning an associates degree by age 26 after enrolling in a certificate or associates degree program. 8. Earning a bachelors degree by age 26 after enrolling in a certificate or associates degree program.

For young adults starting on the bachelors degree pathway: 9. Earning an associates degree by age 26 after enrolling in a bachelors degree program. 10. Earning a bachelors degree by age 26 after enrolling in a bachelors degree program.

To view the full report, including a detailed appendix on methodology, visit: https://cew.georgetown.edu/pathway-changes

###

The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) is a research and policy institute within Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy that studies the links between education, career qualifications, and workforce demands. For more information, visit https://cew.georgetown.edu/. Follow CEW on Twitter @GeorgetownCEW, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Medium.

Katherine Hazelrigg Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce 202.510.8269 [email protected]

Source: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
FILE PHOTO: The logo for Canadian mining company Teck Resources Limited is displayed above their booth at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) annual conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada March 7, 2023. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File P

By Divya Rajagopal

TORONTO (Reuters) -Barrick Gold Corp is not interested in bidding for the copper assets of Teck Resources Ltd as there are few synergies between the companies, CEO Mark Bristow said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday.

Bristow's comments come at a time when Canadian mining company Teck has rebuffed a $22.5 billion unsolicited bid from Swiss mining company Glencore Plc and said it is exploring its own simplified diversification that includes opening its metals and coal business to a competitive bidding process.

"We don't think we bring any synergies to that party," Bristow told Reuters, adding that even if Teck does a clean split of its copper and coal business, its debt is a problem.

"We would just have to take over the debt and we still get the assets that don't bring synergies."

Barrick has been building its copper business organically and said it is exploring copper drilling opportunities in countries such as Chile and Argentina. In the first quarter of 2023 it produced 88 million pounds of copper, down from 101 million pounds a year ago.

"We have always said that if you want to be relevant as a gold miner you have to be in copper business," Bristow added.

Gold is often a byproduct of copper, a critical metal required for electrification and the transition to a greener economy. That has pushed many global miners to hunt for more production assets. Canada's Lundin Mining Corp in March bought a 51% stake in a copper mine in Chile for $950 million.

With limited copper mines available, large mining companies have been looking at separating their base metals and coal businesses to unlock potentially high value from the former.

Earlier on Wednesday, Barrick beat Wall Street expectations for first-quarter profit, as higher gold prices outweighed a decline in production. Barrick shares were up 1.2% by late morning, in a flat broader market.

Teck last month withdrew its plan to split its coal and metals business after it failed to secure shareholders' approval. The company's board rejected the offer from Glencore and said it would come up with a new simplified plan of separation.

Bristow said Glencore's proposal made a "lot of sense" as Glencore could handle Teck's debt and had offered a clean split of Teck's business.

Glencore has offered to sweeten its offer to Teck and has said it will take its offer directly to shareholders if Teck's board does not engage.

(Reporting by Divya Rajagopal; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Mark Potter)
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - IMPACT Silver Corp. (TSXV: IPT) (OTC Pink: ISVLF) (FSE: IKL) ("IMPACT" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed the second tranche of its Non-Brokered financing originally announced on April 6th, upsized on April 12th, 2023 (the "Offering") and closed as a first tranche on April 19, 2023.

The Company received an aggregate proceeds of C$662,604.84 on the issuance of 2,454,092 units (the "Units") of the Company at C$0.27 per unit. Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one full Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Common Share (a "Warrant Share") at a price of C$0.35 per Warrant Share for a period of 24 months from the closing of the Offering. Aggregate gross proceeds from the entire Offering was C$9,006,418.08.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering for exploration, development and general corporate purposes.

In consideration for its services in the second tranche, the Company paid a registered dealer a cash commission equal to 6.0% of the gross subscription proceeds raised from certain subscribers for total commissions of $24,016.50. Additionally, the Company granted an aggregate of 88,950 non-transferable broker warrants to the registered dealer. Each broker warrant entitles the holder to acquire one common share at a price of $0.35 per common share until May 3, 2025.

The securities issued under the second tranche of the Offering are subject to a standard hold period of four months and one day, expiring on September 4, 2023, all in accordance with applicable securities laws. The Offering is subject to the Company's remaining filing requirements with the TSX Venture Exchange.

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and accordingly, may not be offered or sold within the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities requirements or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any securities in any jurisdiction.

ABOUT IMPACT SILVER

IMPACT Silver Corp. (TSXV: IPT) is a successful producer-explorer with two mining projects in Mexico.

Royal Mines of Zacualpan Silver-Gold District: IMPACT owns 100% of the 211 km2 Zacualpan project where four underground silver mines and one open pit mine feed the central 500 tpd Guadalupe processing plant. To the south, the Capire Project includes a 200 tpd processing pilot plant adjacent to an open pit silver mine with an NI/43-101 inferred mineral resource of over 4.5/million oz silver, 48 million lbs zinc and 21 million lbs lead (see IMPACT news release dated January 18, 2016 for details and QP statement, and footnote4 for report reference); Company engineers are reviewing Capire for a potential restart of operations. Over the past 17 years, IMPACT has placed multiple zones into commercial production and produced over 12 million ounces of silver, generating revenues over $241 million.

Plomosas Zinc-Lead-Silver District: IMPACT signed a purchase / sale agreement with Consolidated Zinc Limited (ASX: CZL) of Australia to purchase the Plomosas property and mining operations for US$6 million (cash and shares) plus a 12% NPI (net profit interest) and a third party 1% NSR royalty. Plomosas is a high-grade zinc-lead-silver producer with exceptional exploration potential. Upon closing of the transaction, IMPACT plans to upgrade the mill and mine with the aim to recommence operations in the near term followed by plans for expanding operations. Exploration potential at Plomosas is exceptional with only 600m of the 6/kilometre long structure assessed plus other exploration targets including untested copper-gold targets. Regionally, Plomosas lies in the same mineral belt as some of the largest carbonate replacement deposits in the world.

On behalf of IMPACT Silver Corp.

"Frederick W. Davidson"

President & CEO

For more information, please contact:

Jerry Huang

CFO | Investor Relations

(604) 664-7707 or [email protected]

(778) 887 6489 Direct

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

This IMPACT News Release may contain certain "forward-looking" statements and information relating to IMPACT that is based on the beliefs of IMPACT management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to IMPACT management. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included herein, including, without limitation, statements relating to future silver prices, interpretation of drill results, future work plans, the timing of closing of the Offering, proceeds received and use of funds, the potential of the Company's projects, and potential and plans for the Plomosas project, are forward looking statements. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "planned", "expect", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intends", "believe", "potential", and similar expressions, or describes a "goal", or variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "should", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the expected use of proceeds of the Private Placement.

Such forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks and assumptions, including with respect to, without limitations, exploration and development risks, expenditure and financing requirements, title matters, operating hazards, metal prices, political and economic factors, competitive factors, general economic conditions, relationships with vendors and strategic partners, governmental regulation and supervision, seasonality, technological change, industry practices, and one-time events. There are no assurances the Company will close the acquisition of the Plomosas project. Should any one or more risks or uncertainties materialize or change, or should any underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and forward-looking statements may vary materially from those described herein. IMPACT does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required by law.

The Company's decision to place a mine into production, expand a mine, make other production related decisions or otherwise carry out mining and processing operations, is largely based on internal non-public Company data and reports based on exploration, development and mining work by the Company's geologists and engineers. The results of this work are evident in the discovery and building of multiple mines for the Company and in the track record of mineral production and financial returns of the Company since 2006. Under NI 43-101 the Company is required to disclose that it has not based its production decisions on NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource or reserve estimates, preliminary economic assessments or feasibility studies, and historically such projects have increased uncertainty and risk of failure.

303-543 Granville Street Telephone (604) 664-7707

Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 1X8

www.impactsilver.com

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LinkedIn

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS SERVICES

OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164706
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - Palladium One Mining Inc.(TSXV: PDM) (FSE: 7N11) (OTCQB: NKORF) ("Palladium One" or "PDM") and MetalCorp Limited(TSXV: MTC) ("MetalCorp" or "MTC") are pleased to announce the successful completion of their previously-announced statutory plan of arrangement under the provisions of the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (the "Arrangement"). Pursuant to the Arrangement, among other things, Palladium One acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of MetalCorp. The Arrangement became effective at 12:01 a.m. (Toronto time) on May 2, 2023 (the "Effective Time"), resulting in MetalCorp becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Palladium One.

Under the terms of the Arrangement, each former MetalCorp shareholder ("MTC Shareholders") is entitled to receive, in exchange for each common share in the capital of MetalCorp (a "MTC Share") held, 0.30 of a common share in the capital of Palladium One (each whole share, a "PDM Share") (the "Exchange Ratio"). Further, under the Arrangement, all options to acquire MTC Shares outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time are exchanged for stock options to purchase PDM Shares at the Exchange Ratio.

"The deemed value of the MetalCorp acquisition is approximately $3.3 million paid in shares, and for that Palladium One assumes approximately $1.8 million of cash and for the remainder of the purchase price being approximately $1.5 million obtains optionality on both precious metal and critical mineral projects in Ontario, Canada. Importantly, Palladium One assumes a significant pool of assessment credits and therefore has no spending obligations for many years to come," commented Derrick Weyrauch, President and Chief Executive Officer of PDM.

In order to receive the PDM Shares in exchange for their MTC Shares, registered MTC Shareholders are reminded that they must complete, sign and return the letter of transmittal to Computershare Investor Services Inc., in its capacity as depositary under the Arrangement, together with their certificate(s) or DRS statement(s) representing their MTC Shares, in accordance with the tender procedures described in MTC's management information circular dated March 22, 2023 (the "Circular") which is available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under MTC's issuer profile. Any MTC Shares held in the CDS system were automatically deposited under the Arrangement and the beneficial shareholders thereof will receive the PDM Shares at the Exchange Ratio in respect of such MTC Shares.

If you have any questions or require more information with regard to the procedures for receiving the PDM Share consideration, please contact Computershare Investor Services Inc., by (i) telephone within North America at 1-800-564-6253 or (ii) email at [email protected].

Advisors and Counsel

Bennett Jones LLP is acting as Palladium One's legal advisor. Dickinson Wright LLP is acting as MTC's legal advisor.

Grant of Incentive Awards

Palladium One also announces that its board of directors has granted:

(i) 275,000 restricted share units ("RSUs") to certain employees, advisors and consultants of Palladium One, which vest in three years;

(ii) 1,525,000 stock options to certain officers and directors of Palladium One, which are exercisable for five years at a price of $0.11 per PDM Share with 1/3rd vesting immediately and 1/3rd annually thereafter; and

(iii) 550,000 stock options to certain employees, advisors and consultants of Palladium One, which are exercisable for five years at a price of $0.11 per PDM Share with 1/3rd vesting immediately and 1/3rd annually thereafter.

About Palladium One

Palladium One Mining Inc. (TSXV: PDM) is focused on discovering environmentally and socially conscious Metals for Green Transportation. A Canadian mineral exploration and development company, Palladium One is targeting district scale, platinum-group-element (PGE)-copper-nickel deposits in Canada and Finland. The Lntinen Koillismaa (LK) Project in north-central Finland, is a PGE-copper-nickel project that has existing NI43-101 Mineral Resources, while both the Tyko and Canalask high-grade nickel-copper projects are located in Ontario and the Yukon, Canada, respectively. Follow Palladium One on LinkedIn, Twitter, and at www.palladiumoneinc.com.

For further information contact:

Derrick Weyrauch, President & CEO

Email: [email protected]

Telephone:647-612-6466



Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release is not an offer or a solicitation of an offer of securities for sale in the United States of America. The common shares of Palladium One Mining Inc. have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration.

Information set forth in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address a company's expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release include, without limitation, statements with respect to: the expected synergies and benefits of the Transaction, the future price of nickel, copper, gold, and cobalt, the estimation of mineral resources, costs and timing of the development of projects and new deposits, success of exploration, currency fluctuations, requirements for additional capital, government regulation of mining operations, and environmental risks. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Such factors include, among others, risks associated with the results of regulatory approvals for the Arrangement, the integration of MetalCorp with Palladium One, the quality of the title of MetalCorp to its assets and the extent of any known, unknown or contingent liabilities of MetalCorp, the results of the exploration at Hemlo East or North Rock Copper, the accuracy of the mineral resource estimates at Hemlo East or North Rock Copper; project development; the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in palladium and other commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume; and tax consequences to Canadian and U.S. shareholders. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164673
Initiative enhances safety at Webcor and fosters trust among subcontractors

San Francisco, California--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - Webcor has unveiled an interactive guide to its groundbreaking Executive Safety Walks, making it available to organizations seeking to enhance safety by combining leadership visibility and trust-building actions executives take during and after a Safety Walk.

The interactive module is being launched during Construction Safety Week 2023, which runs from May 1-5. "Safety innovations should never be proprietary," says Webcor President and CEO Matt Rossie. "By releasing this guide to our Safety Walks during Safety Week, we aim to encourage other construction companies to adopt it. No matter where you work, you should be confident that your company is doing everything possible to ensure your safety and wellbeing every day."

The program is easily adaptable for industries beyond construction.

Webcor introduced Executive Safety Walks several years ago as the commercial general contractor and builder set out on a mission to elevate safety and reduce incidents and near misses. Coupled with other initiatives like the "Speak Up for Safety" culture, which empowers all employees-including subcontractors-to voice concerns about potential hazards, the walks have significantly improved safety. Webcor's leaders also maintain that, regardless of project budgets, funds are always available to address safety issues.

Led by the president/CEO, an executive vice president, or a member of the Executive Committee, Executive Safety Walks begin with a meeting with project leadership to review safety statistics and discuss unique safety issues and concerns. Executives then tour the project site, witnessing safety measures firsthand with a "fresh set of eyes" and engaging with front-line workers to gauge their safety perceptions and openness to voicing concerns. Subsequently, executives meet privately with the highest-ranking on-site subcontractor representatives to hear their specific and candid insights and any concerns, and directly reinforce Webcor's safety culture as requiring both a "bottom-up" and "top-down" commitment in order to succeed. "Seeing this visible, in-person demonstration of our commitment to the safety of their people leads subcontractors to have a higher degree of trust in Webcor," Rossie says. "That works to everybody's benefit."

The Walk culminates in a final meeting with project leaders, where executives discuss their findings and outline actions to address any emerging issues. Executives follow up within days to ensure the implementation of corrective measures.

The interactive guide provides comprehensive details on the Walk, including frequency, necessary next steps and follow-up items, post-walk reviews, and schedules. The module also features several downloadable templates, such as an evaluation form template, preparation checklist, and a list of questions for executives to ask on-site tradespeople.

Access the interactive guide at https://executivesafetywalk.webcor.com







Executive Safety Walk online module

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9523/164472_a978f40444d658ff_001full.jpg

Executive Safety Walk at Genesis Marina in Brisbane, CA (Pictured from left to right: Webcor Sr. Vice President/General Counsel Patrick Kirby, Superintendent Omar Hosny, President/CEO Matt Rossie, Construction Manager John Tuttle)

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9523/164472_webcor2.jpg







Executive Safety Walk at Genesis Marina in Brisbane, CA

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9523/164472_a978f40444d658ff_003full.jpg

About Webcor

Webcor, a premier provider of commercial construction services, is known for its innovative and efficient approach, wide range of experience, cost-effective design-build methodology, skill in concrete construction, and expertise in building landmark projects. Webcor's mission is to build structures of superior quality with integrity, continuously improve its processes by employing the best talent in the industry, and add social and economic value to its communities. Founded in 1971 and repeatedly honored as one of the Best Places to Work, Top California Contractors, Largest Bay Area General Contractors, Top Green Contractors, and Top Design-Build Contractors, Webcor has offices throughout the state in San Francisco, Alameda, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego. More information is available on the Webcor website and on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Webcor

Shel Holtz, Sr. Director, Communications

y+1 510-517-3845y

[email protected]

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164472
This photo taken on May 4, 2023 shows Afghan refugees at a border crossing point of Torkham between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. Nearly 600 Afghan refugees have returned from neighboring Pakistan over the past two days, Afghanistan's Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs said Wednesday. (Photo by Aimal Zahir/Xinhua)

KABUL, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 600 Afghan refugees have returned from neighboring Pakistan over the past two days, Afghanistan's Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs said Wednesday.

A total of 579 Afghan refugees have returned over the past two days after years of stay in Pakistan, the ministry said in a statement, reporting the arrival of a group of 343 people on Monday and another batch of 236 on Tuesday.

More than 2.5 million registered Afghan refugees reportedly have been living in Pakistan and about the same number in Iran.

The return of Afghan refugees to their homeland, according to the statement, has been continuing.

Last week, the state-run Bakhtar news agency reported the return of more than 54,000 Afghan refugees from Iran.

The Afghan caretaker government has been urging Afghan refugees living abroad to return home and contribute to reconstruction in the war-torn country. 

Afghan refugees stand in line to return home at a border crossing point of Torkham between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, May 4, 2023. Nearly 600 Afghan refugees have returned from neighboring Pakistan over the past two days, Afghanistan's Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs said Wednesday. (Photo by Aimal Zahir/Xinhua)

An Afghan girl is pictured at a border crossing point of Torkham between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan on May 4, 2023. Nearly 600 Afghan refugees have returned from neighboring Pakistan over the past two days, Afghanistan's Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs said Wednesday. (Photo by Aimal Zahir/Xinhua)
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - West Island Brands Inc. (CSE:WIB) (FSE: 39N0) (OTC Pink: WIBFF) ("West Island" or the "Company") is pleased to provide a corporate update on recent restructuring activities. The Company is currently undergoing a major change in the board of directors and welcomes the appointment of three new directors to board, Mr. Michel P. Gross Ph.D. and Mr. Scott Jobin-Bevans and Mr. Ernest J. Royden. The presence and experience that they offer will undoubtedly contribute greatly to Company's future.

The company also wishes to announce the resignation of the previous board of directors; Mr. Mathieu Couillard, Mr. Rawn Lakhan, Mr. Gurcharn Deol, Ms. Evengelia Kostakis, Mr. Ali Gerba and Mr. Meissam Hagh Panah have all resigned. We thank them for their contribution and wish then well in their future endeavours. Also the Company wishes to announce the resignation of Ms. Veronique Laberge as CFO. Boris Ziger, Company CEO will continue as CEO and will serve as interim CFO until a suitable candidate can be found. Mr. Mathieu Couillard continues with the Company in a consulting capacity assisting with external financing and, financial modeling and strategy.

Furthermore, the Company announces today that it is not in a position to file its audited annual financial statements (the "Annual Financial Statements"), management's discussion and analysis and related certifications for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 as required, as a result of unanticipated delays in securing a new Chief Financial Officer. West island believes that the Annual Financial Statements together with the auditor's report thereon should be finalized by June 15, 2023 and filed, together with Matica's annual management's discussion and analysis for the 2022 fiscal year, by the next business day, namely by June 16, 2023. The Company has filed an application (the "Application") with the Ontario Securities Commission, as its principal regulator, for a management cease trade order in accordance with National Policy 12-203 - Cease Trade Orders For Continuous Disclosure Defaults ("NP 12-203"). This application was rejected and the company expects to be issued a failure-to-file cease trade order (FFCTO) after the due date against the Issuer for failure to file the following continuous disclosure documents by May 1, 2023.

Boris Ziger, West Island CEO, comments, "West Island is restructuring the board of directors with an eye towards future growth and renewed corporate development. As West Island continues to grow and build on past successes the Company needs to bring new perspectives to the board of directors."

About West Island

West Island is a multi-faceted, innovative company in the Quebec cannabis space. Its subsidiary, RoyalMax Biotechnology Canada Inc. D.B.A West Island Culture is a Montreal, Quebec based cannabis company. A Health Canada Licence Holder West Island has standard cultivation licence, standard processing, medical sales and sales licences.

For more information on West Island Brands please visit the website at: westislandbrands.com. West Island cannabis products can be found in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Ontario and Quebec.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

WEST ISLAND BRANDS INC.

Boris Ziger

Boris Ziger, CEO

The Company's public filings are available for review at www.sedar.com and www.thecse.com.

For further information, please contact:

Boris Ziger, CEO at:

Telephone: 416-304-9935

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.westislandbrands.com

Boris Ziger, PDG de :

Tlephone : 416-304-9935

Courriel : [email protected]

Site Web : www.westislandbrands.com

Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information

Certain information in this press release may constitute forward-looking information. This information is based on current expectations that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. The Corporation assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward looking-statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to the Corporation. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in the Corporation's filings with the Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. We seek Safe Harbor.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164707
FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J. , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, today announced that it has been named a "Noteworthy Company" in DiversityInc's annual ranking of the top U.S. companies for diversity.

Since 2001, the DiversityInc Top 50 survey has been the external validator for large U.S. employers that model fairness in their talent strategy, workplace and supplier diversity practices, as well as philanthropic engagement. More than 150 employers, employing a combined total of approximately 8.3 million U.S. employees, submitted data across six key areas: leadership accountability, human capital diversity metrics, talent programs, workplace practices, supplier diversity and philanthropy.

"We understand the power of diversity in creating better products and outcomes for patients, and building a more inclusive and equitable BD," said Nicole Thompson , vice president of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Engagement for BD. "This recognition demonstrates our progress and ongoing commitment."

This year BD was also included in the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index. These recognitions reflect the company's efforts in advancing its environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy to achieve its 2030+ goals for promoting a healthy workforce and communities. These goals encompass maintaining a healthy and thriving workforce that cultivates the company's culture of inclusion, safety, well-being, and also contributes to community and company health.

To learn more about the inclusion, diversity and equity systems, processes and tools that drive action and accountability at BD, read the 2022 Global ID&E Report.

About BD

BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. The company supports the heroes on the frontlines of health care by developing innovative technology, services and solutions that help advance both clinical therapy for patients and clinical process for health care providers. BD and its 77,000 employees have a passion and commitment to help enhance the safety and efficiency of clinicians' care delivery process, enable laboratory scientists to accurately detect disease and advance researchers' capabilities to develop the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics. BD has a presence in virtually every country and partners with organizations around the world to address some of the most challenging global health issues. By working in close collaboration with customers, BD can help enhance outcomes, lower costs, increase efficiencies, improve safety and expand access to health care. For more information on BD, please visit bd.com or connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/bd1/ and Twitter @BDandCo.

Contacts:





Media : Investors : Troy Kirkpatrick Francesca DeMartino VP, Public Relations SVP, Head of Investor Relations 858.617.2361 201.847.5743 [email protected] [email protected]

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SOURCE BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company)
PHOENIX , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Bubbies Ice Cream, the fan favorite mochi ice cream brand that's known for its all-natural, premium ingredients and indulgent taste, announced today the addition of a new mochi flavor to its lineup  Mocha Chip. Available just in time to be the sweet treat of the summer, shoppers can find Mocha Chip at Whole Foods nationwide and additional retailers.

The Mocha Chip flavor offers a twist on the traditional coffee ice cream scoop (or morning coffee) as a mindfully indulgent handheld treat. It's made by wrapping creamy coffee ice cream that's packed with chocolate chips in delicate, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate mochi dough. With only 90 calories per piece, Bubbies' Mocha Chip Mochi Ice Cream provides a better-for-you way to satisfy even the toughest sweet tooth and promises to energize any summer activity, too.

"We can't wait to transport consumers to ice cream paradise with our latest flavor release," said Katie Cline , Vice President of Marketing at Bubbies Ice Cream. "Mocha Chip is an extension of our promise to offer a better-for-you ice cream experience that is on-trend and excites customers. We're excited to introduce Mocha Chip as we head into peak ice cream season so ice cream and coffee lovers alike can enjoy all summer and beyond!"

The super-premium coffee ice cream in this perfectly-portioned sweet treat is made with a unique coffee blend that includes Kona Coffee , which is farmed and processed in the Kona Coffee Belt on Hualalai and Mauna Loa in Hawaii . This sourcing offers a deeper connection to Bubbies Ice Cream since the brand started off as an ice cream shop on the island of Oahu in 1985.

Through each new innovation, Bubbies is taking its frozen novelties to new heights with twists on classic flavors and a continued commitment to using only the best, real ingredients. The new Mocha Chip flavor is no exception as it is Certified Gluten-Free, non-GMO, and made with high quality ingredients (such as no rBST dairy).

Bubbies Mocha Chip Mochi Ice Cream is available to purchase nationwide at Whole Foods, ShopRite, Dave's Marketplace, Roche Brothers , Wegmans, Harmons and at select Wakefern stores with an SRP of $5.99-$6.99 per 6-pack box. Find a store near you by visiting https://bubbiesicecream.com/pages/store-locator.

About Bubbies Ice Cream

Bubbies Ice Cream is an iconic frozen novelty brand best known for its all natural Mochi Ice Cream innovations. From its humble beginnings in 1985 as a scoop shop on the island of Oahu serving up flavors inspired by its island home to becoming one of the fastest-growing mochi brands on the Mainland with more than 20 surprisingly unique flavors, Bubbies never fails in paving new paths to ice cream paradise. Starting with the highest quality real ingredients such as Madagascar vanilla, real fruit puree and no rBST dairy, Bubbies crafts its creamy, super-premium ice cream using the same secret family recipe since 1985.

Bubbies Mochi can be purchased at select Whole Foods Market, Publix Super Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Safeway, H-E-B, and Gelson's Market stores in addition to many other retailers across the country and online via the brand's website.

Find more information at bubbiesicecream.com and follow Bubbies Ice Cream via Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Media Contact:

Lyndsey Siracusano

Rachel Kay Public Relations, a Finn Partners Company

[email protected]

(929) 337-0638

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SOURCE Bubbies Ice Cream
Company Founded by Drs. Philip Kantoff and Neil Bander , both Physicians Recognized for their Pioneering Work in Prostate Cancer and the Field of PSMA Imaging and Theranostics

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Convergent Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of next-generation radiopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer, today announced the completion of a $90 million Series A financing, led by OrbiMed and RA Capital Management with participation from Invus. The financing will support the development of a pipeline of novel radioantibodies, including its lead program with CONV01-, for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.

Dr. Philip Kantoff , Convergent CEO, and Dr. Neil Bander , Chief Scientific Advisor to Convergent, co-founded the company with technology developed in the Bander Lab and licensed from Cornell University. Dr. Bander is the Bernard & Josephine Chaus Professor of Urologic Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and is recognized worldwide for his contributions to prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) biology and the related advancement of PSMA directed imaging and therapeutics. Dr. Bander and his colleagues were the first to validate PSMA as a target in cancer.

Dr. Kantoff is the former Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, former Chief of Solid Tumor Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Chair Emeritus at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kantoff contributed to the advancement of clinical biomarkers and multiple FDA-approved treatments for prostate cancer over his three decades of work as an academic oncologist.

"While considerable progress has been made in the search for effective treatments for prostate cancer, it continues to be the second leading cause of cancer death in men1, representing a significant unmet need," said Dr. Kantoff . "This financing is an important milestone for Convergent and accelerated development of novel radioantibodies, beginning with CONV01-. We view this program as a best-in-class, targeted treatment for prostate cancer and will be advancing CONV01- clinical development over the immediate term. With the founding of Convergent, our focus has been on the amalgamation of world-class expertise to identify and develop new radiopharmaceutical treatments for a wide range of cancers."

Tal Zaks , M.D., Ph.D., Partner at OrbiMed, said, "In our goal of improving healthcare for patients, we believe that Convergent Therapeutics' radioantibody approach is ideally suited to treat cancer and bring effective breakthrough treatments to patients. We look forward to collaborating with the Convergent team, whose extensive expertise in prostate cancer, foundational leadership in radiopharmaceuticals and patient-focused mindset will be invaluable in taking the company forward."

Jake Simson , Ph.D., Partner at RA Capital Management, added, "We are proud to support Convergent and believe its radioantibody technology is an exciting approach to radiopharmaceuticals that will have significant implications for patients. As we witness encouraging progress in the radiopharmaceutical field with new emerging therapies to treat various types of cancer, we believe that Convergent is well-positioned."

In addition to initiating the next phase of clinical development for CONV01-, Convergent Therapeutics is pursuing additional radioantibody targets to treat cancer. The company is currently evaluating other in-licensing and pipeline acquisition opportunities.

Citigroup acted as the sole placement agent for this transaction.

About Convergent Therapeutics, Inc.

Convergent Therapeutics Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing next-generation radiopharmaceutical therapies for prostate and other cancers. The company's proprietary technology was developed by Dr. Neil Bander , Professor of Urologic Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and licensed to Convergent by Cornell University. CONV01-, a monoclonal antibody conjugated to actinium-225 (Ac-225), a radioactive alpha particle emitter, was specifically designed to bind to the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA). A key functional feature of CONV01- is that once bound to PSMA, it becomes internalized, delivering its powerful radioactive payload directly into prostate cancer cells while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. CONV01- has the potential to be the first Ac-225 radioantibody approved for use in prostate cancer treatment. For more information, please visit www.convergentrx.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About OrbiMed

OrbiMed is a leading healthcare investment firm, with over $17 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed invests globally across the healthcare industry through a range of private equity funds, public equity funds, and royalty/credit funds. OrbiMed's team of over 100 professionals is based in New York City , San Francisco , Shanghai , Hong Kong , Mumbai , Herzliya , and other key global markets. www.orbimed.com

About RA Capital Management

RA Capital Management is a multi-stage investment manager dedicated to evidence-based investing in public and private healthcare and life science companies that are developing drugs, medical devices, and diagnostics. The flexibility of its strategy allows RA Capital Management to provide seed funding to startups and to lead private, IPO, and follow-on financings for its portfolio companies, allowing management teams to drive value creation from inception through commercialization. For more information, please visit www.racap.com.

About Invus

Founded in 1985 and with principal offices in New York , Paris and Hong Kong , The Invus Group is an evergreen investment platform with over USD9Bn of assets under management. On the private side, Invus typically focuses on making long-term investments in transformational opportunities with a high-touch approach. The firm has a unique experience in working with companies through their lifecycle from the earlier growth stage to becoming successful public companies. Since its inception in 2003, our Public Equity team has focused on investing in listed innovative biotech companies. Leveraging the team's expertise and reputation in the sector, we launched our private biotech investment activity in 2014. Our Public Equity and Private Equity teams work closely together to build a selective portfolio of private companies focused on the most disruptive innovators in the biotech industry. Our evergreen fund structure with its long-term investment horizon allows us to invest in earlier rounds of financings and continue to support our portfolio companies before and after they go public. We have invested in over 80 private biotech companies in Series A, B, and later rounds. Examples include Moderna, BioNTech, Scholar Rock, Seer, Morphic, Generation Bio, Thrive Earlier Detection, Erasca, ElevateBio, Scorpion Therapeutics, and Schrodinger. Invus has a successful team of investment professionals with significant experience and expertise in the biotech sector. In addition, Invus leverages a team of senior advisors in the conduct of its biotech strategies.

References

Convergent Media Contact

Rob Haney , Ph.D.

Russo Partners, LLC

(401) 632-9316

[email protected]

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SOURCE Convergent Therapeutics
Dr. Robert Jeffress , one of the most influencing evangelical leaders in the world, visited Friends of Zion Heritage Center and Museum in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Friends of Zion Heritage Center and Museum in Jerusalem held an event in honor of Dr. Robert Jeffress , where he presented with the Friends of Zion Award by Nir Kimhi director of FOZ.

The Friends of Zion Award was commissioned by the late 9th President of Israel , and former international Chairman of FOZ, Shimon Peres . It has been given to over 22 world leaders, including former US President George Bush , former US President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence .

Dr. Robert Jeffress is Senior Pastor of the 16,000-member First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas and a Fox News Contributor. He is also an adjunct professor at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Dr. Robert Jeffress thanked Dr. Mike Evans , FOZ Founder, for the prestigious award and said: "I am absolutely overwhelmed by receiving this prestigious award. I was at the oval office with President Trump when he received his award, and I know how much it meant to the president. I talked to Mike Pence last night and he sends his greetings. Pence told me it was the highest point of his career as well, receiving this prestigious award.

"Never in a thousand years would I have dreamed that I, too, would receive this award. I thought the high point of my ministry was saying that opening prayer for the dedication of the embassy in Jerusalem , on that historic day. But this beats even that, so thank you so much for this prestigious honor.

"I truly believe It's important to visit the friends of Zion Museum because it is a reminder of the link between Jews and gentiles. You see how in key moments in history, gentiles stood with Israel whenever nations wanted to wipe Israel off the face of the earth".

"My prayer is that USA will continue to be on the side of Israel . The bible shows us that he who is on the right side of Israel is on the right side of history, and most importantly, the right side of GOD".

Dr. Mike Evans , FOZ Founder, said "I want to congratulate my dear friend, Dr. Robert Jeffress . He is without a doubt, one of the most influential evangelicals on the globe and without a doubt, one of the most pro Israel ".

Officer Assaf Schachar from the border police : "I wanted to thank you, the Christians Zionist, for the contribution, assistance and support that you provide to FOZ

"The State of Israel is a democracy in which the education of our soldiers is an important and essential element.

"FOZ is the bridge between the thousands of soldiers who come here and realize how many Christian friends there are in the world who love Israel and for how many years you have helped us and you continue to support the State of Israel and IDF".

The Friends of Zion Heritage center was established in 2015, in the center of Israel's capital Jerusalem , by founder Dr. Mike Evans , a number one best-selling author, and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for a lifetime of combating antisemitism.

The Friends of Zion Heritage center is a Zionist platform dedicated to the fight against anti-Semitism and BDS, and concerns itself with bolstering awareness for the historical support of the Christian friends of Israel . Their advanced Media Center holds dozens of events, activities, and press conferences in line with the FOZ museum's vision

For inquiries, contact Tal Marom Spokesperson for FOZ [email protected]

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcOQZKHu3OM

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2069094/Friends_of_Zion.jpg

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SOURCE Friends of Zion
TAIPEI , May 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- EirGenix, Inc. (6589.TT) announced on 28th of April that it has completed the phase 1 clinical trial (EGC101) of its second breast cancer biosimilar EG1206A in Europe . Comparing EG1206A to Roch's Perjeta US and EU, results of the clinical data analysis show that the main test indicators have met the pharmacokinetics bioequivalence standard. EG1206A is a biosimilar drug of the second-generation HER2-positive antibody drug Perjeta (pertuzumab). EG1206A has a unique binding mechanism for HER2 receptors which can produce a dual blockade effect. In combination with the first-generation HER2-positive antibody drug Trastuzumab, Pertuzumab has a synergistic effect in the treatment of early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer and metastatic breast cancer.

The success of EG1206A's phase 1 clinical trial is an important milestone for EirGenix and its development of biosimilar drug products for the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer. Following the product launch of its first biosimilar drug EG12014 (trastuzumab biosimilar), EG1206A will soon begin its multi-country, multi-center global phase 3 clinical trials. After the initiation of the phase 3 clinical trials, it is expected that the evaluation of the primary end point indicators will be completed within two (2) years. Concurrently, EirGenix has been negotiating with global pharmaceutical companies for licensing marketing rights of EG1206A to further fast-track the launch of the biosimilar into the global market. Such achievements in EirGenix's product development bring great excitement to the future of Taiwan's biotechnology industry.

1. About EG1206A (pertuzumab biosimilar)

EG1206A is a biosimilar drug of the second-generation HER2-positive antibody drug Perjeta (pertuzumab). The clinical combination of trastuzumab and pertuzumab has a synergistic effect in the treatment of early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer and metastatic breast cancer. Patients with HER2-positive breast cancer account for approximately 20-30% of new breast cancer cases per year. The dual-drug therapy can help to prolong the survival period of breast cancer patients and is a standard treatment strategy recommended by many international treatment guidelines. According to 2022 sales data by Roche (developer of the originator drug Perjeta), global sales of Perjeta (pertuzumab) reached 4.087 billion Swiss Francs ( 4.56 billion U.S. Dollars ). By the time the patent of Perjeta expires in 2026, it is expected that global sales will reach 6 billion U.S Dollars (approx. 180 billion New Taiwan Dollars ). In 2021, Taiwan's National Health Insurance paid 1.02 billion New Taiwan Dollars for Perjeta (pertuzumab) products. EirGenix's EG1206A currently ranks amongst the top globally for most advanced developments of pertuzumab biosimilars. Once EirGenix's products are launched onto the market, HER2-positive breast cancer patients will be provided with more accessible and affordable treatment options.

2. About EirGenix, Inc.

EirGenix has used its reverse engineering technology to develop several biosimilar drug products, including 5 antibody products for the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer. With the continued advancement of EirGenix's product line for HER2-positive breast cancer, there is great optimism in the future development of the international market. In addition to EirGenix's product development, EirGenix will begin production in Q3 2023 at the newly completed second production line of its Zhubei Commercial Production Facility. The completion of the second production line brings EirGenix's total production capacity to 25,500 L. Through the company's innovation and hard work, EirGenix has quickly risen to one of the fastest growing biopharmaceutical companies in Taiwan .

Website: www.eirgenix.com

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SOURCE EirGenix
WASHINGTON , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The board of directors of the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) has declared a second quarter dividend of $1.10 per share for each of Farmer Mac's three classes of common stock  Class A Voting Common Stock (NYSE: AGM.A), Class B Voting Common Stock (not listed on any exchange), and Class C Non-Voting Common Stock (NYSE: AGM). The quarterly dividend will be payable on June 30, 2023 to holders of record of common stock as of June 16, 2023 .

Farmer Mac's board of directors has also declared a dividend on each of Farmer Mac's five classes of preferred stock. The quarterly dividend of $0.375 per share of 6.000% Fixed-to-Floating Rate Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series C (NYSE: AGM.PR.C), $0.35625 per share of 5.700% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series D (NYSE: AGM.PR.D), $0.359375 per share of 5.750% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series E (NYSE: AGM.PR.E), $0.328125 per share of 5.250% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series F (NYSE: AGM.PR.F), and $0.3046875 per share of 4.875% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series G (AGM.PR.G), is for the period from but not including April 17, 2023 to and including July 17, 2023 . These preferred stock dividends will be payable on July 17, 2023 to holders of record of those classes of preferred stock as of July 3, 2023 .

About Farmer Mac

Farmer Mac is a vital part of the agricultural credit markets and was created to increase access to and reduce the cost of capital for the benefit of American agricultural and rural communities. As the nation's secondary market for agricultural credit, we provide financial solutions to a broad spectrum of the agricultural community, including agricultural lenders, agribusinesses, and other institutions that can benefit from access to flexible, low-cost financing and risk management tools. Farmer Mac's customers benefit from its low cost of funds, low overhead costs, and high operational efficiency. Additional information about Farmer Mac is available on Farmer Mac's website at www.farmermac.com.

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SOURCE Farmer Mac
Fedi Building New "Federated Operating System" Category With Initial Rollout to Builder Community

AUSTIN, Texas , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Fedi, Inc., a U.S. based developer of community-empowering financial and data technology, announced today that it has raised $17 million in a Series A round of financing, and is set to pre-launch an Alpha version of Fedi for builders later this month.

CEO Obi Nwosu said: "We are excited that with so much interest in this round, we were able to select investors who are fully aligned on the future we are trying to create with Fedi, the world's first federated operating system."

Fedi aims to be the world's first federated operating system. It will empower individuals to collaborate through "federations"made up of friends, families, neighbours, nonprofit organisations, social clubs, businesses, conferences and other forms of communityto take control of their money, their data, and their digital lives while still protecting user privacy and autonomy. It provides a resilient, privacy-protecting, and simple way for people who don't have access to or don't trust centralised alternatives to secure and use their data and money.

Because Fedi is built on the open-source Fedimint protocol, it makes it easy for developers to build additional apps and modules to complement Fedi's offerings and give more options to users.

"The Bitcoin community already knows the tremendous potential of the protocol," Nwosu said. "But what's most exciting about Fedi is that you don't have to be an existing Bitcoiner, or even particularly tech-savvy, to quickly start using this to solve real problems within your community."

The financing round was led by Ego Death Capital, with participation from TBD, part of Block, Kingsway, Trammell Venture Partners, and Timechain. The Series A brings the total amount raised by Fedi to $21.21 million . Earlier seed round investors included Ten 31, Hivemind, Steve Lee , and Recursive Capital. Fedi is led by CEO Nwosu, who co-founded the company with Eric Sirion and Justin Moon.[ READ MORE ]

About Fedi

Fedi aims to be the first federated operating system, and is also the name of the company building it. Fedi empowers people to collaborate within their communities to take control of their money, their data, and their digital lives while protecting user privacy and autonomy.

For more visit fedi.xyz/aboutus and fedi.xyz/series-a or contact [email protected] .

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SOURCE Fedi
LOS ANGELES , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Henry Rose , a genderless fine fragrance brand founded by Michelle Pfeiffer , announces a Series A investment led by Sandbridge Capital. The partnership marks the brand's first external investment since its launch in 2019.

Henry Rose sets a new precedent for safety and transparency in fine fragrance by disclosing 100% of its ingredients. It was created based on the strictest and most comprehensive health, safety, and environmental standards set forth by two industry leading non-profit organizations, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Products Innovation Institute. It is the first and only fine fragrance to receive both distinctions of EWG Verified and Cradle to Cradle Certified.

Since launching with five fine fragrances via a direct-to-consumer model, Henry Rose has now grown to include 11 fine fragrances and multiple product categories, including home and body. The brand has experienced exceptional revenue growth, more than doubling its new customers year over year and building a loyal community that identifies with the brand's mission. It has expanded into retail distribution with luxury beauty retailers including Credo, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom.

This partnership will be leveraged to further grow Henry Rose's retail distribution, expand its team, and fuel marketing efforts to increase brand awareness. Henry Rose recently tapped YARD NYC to develop the brand's first major advertising campaign, set to be unveiled early this Summer. The campaign will debut with a billboard in Times Square , with additional rollouts planned across OOH and digital platforms.

"We are thrilled to partner with Michelle and her inspired Henry Rose team. There is a tangible groundswell among consumers for ingredient transparency paired with timeless storytelling across the clean beauty landscape," said Ken Suslow , Founder and Managing Partner of Sandbridge Capital. "Michelle has thoughtfully captured this balance, artfully blending her pure mission-driven approach with a compellingly modern offering of best-in-class fine fragrances. We very much look forward to engaging our global brand building expertise in support of Henry Rose's already impressive growth trajectory."

"I founded Henry Rose based on my belief that we shouldn't have to sacrifice quality for safety," said Michelle Pfeiffer , Founder and Creative Director of Henry Rose . "We partnered with Ken and the Sandbridge Capital team not only for the expertise they provide as beauty industry investors, but also for their commitment to our brand's mission. This partnership underscores our shared belief that greater transparency is the future and everyone has the right to know what's in the products they use."

"Over the past four years, Henry Rose has established itself as a disruptor in the beauty industry by challenging the status quo," said Debi Theis , President of Henry Rose . "The brand's evolution to date has been extremely intentional, so it was important to find a partner that would champion, rather than shy away from, our bold stance on ingredient transparency, safety, and sustainability. Ken immediately embraced our values as non-negotiables, and we are thrilled to usher in this next phase of brand growth together."

The Sage Group served as financial advisor to Henry Rose .

For more information, please visit www.henryrose.com.

Press Contact:

Factory PR

[email protected]

About Henry Rose

Henry Rose operates on the belief that ingredient transparency is essential, and was founded to set a new precedent in fine fragrance by disclosing 100% of its ingredients. Henry Rose creates complex and evocative genderless scent experiences based on the strictest and most comprehensive health, safety and environmental standards set forth by two industry leading non-profit organizations, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Products Innovation Institute. It is the first and only fine fragrance to receive both distinctions of EWG Verified and Cradle to Cradle Certified.

About Sandbridge Capital

Sandbridge Capital is a private investment firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York that invests exclusively in high growth global consumer brands, including ILIA, Youth to the People, Thom Browne, Peach & Lily, U Beauty, Farfetch and Rossignol. Since its founding with the backing of an iconic group of consumer industry operators and advisors, Sandbridge has been strategically partnering with brands in the beauty, luxury, health and wellness, and disruptive consumer-based technology segments. For more information on Sandbridge, please visit http://www.sandbridgecap.com.

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KERRVILLE, Texas , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- James Avery Artisan Jewelry, a family-owned jewelry retailer based in Texas , is excited to announce the opening of its latest store in Wylie . The new store is located at the Woodbridge Crossing shopping center at 3400 West FM 544, Ste. 608, Wylie, Texas 75098.

Guests can expect a warm and inviting shopping experience with complimentary in-store services, available at all James Avery stores, like jewelry cleaning and charm soldering.

" Wylie is a vibrant community with a small-town feel that happens to be one of the fastest growing areas in Texas . We're excited to be a part of the community and open our first James Avery store here," says James Avery CEO John McCullough . "This location is convenient for our customers with a wide variety of retailers at this location and with easy access from FM 544, McCreary Road and Springwell Road ."

The new store opens today, and visitors are invited to register for a gift card giveaway. During the grand opening celebration on Saturday, May 20 , there will be drawings for 30 James Avery gift cards valued at $50 , $100 and $500 . Additionally, the first 100 guests will receive a gift with purchase.

"We are excited to welcome guests to our new store in Woodbridge Crossing , and we can't wait for them to shop some of our customer-favorite designs," says store manager Kathy Kolls . "We are opening just in time for last-minute Mother's Day shopping and will have dedicated displays full of gifts for Momincluding designs to celebrate her family, faith and much more."

The store's hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. , and Sunday, 12 to 6 p.m. Store Manager Kathy Kolls and her team are ready to welcome customers to shop in the new store or use the Curbside Pickup or Buy Online, Pickup in Store options at JamesAvery.com.

About James Avery Artisan Jewelry James Avery is a vertically integrated, family-owned company located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. We offer finely crafted jewelry designs for men and women in sterling silver, 14K and 18K gold, bronze and gemstones. James Avery jewelry is designed in the Texas Hill Country, with more than 90 percent of our pieces crafted in Kerrville , Comfort , Hondo and Corpus Christi, Texas using the finest materials sourced worldwide. We are a multi-channel retailer with over 120 James Avery stores in four states. Our jewelry is also available at JamesAvery.com, over 250 Dillard's locations and at Dillards.com and at 38 Von Maur locations and VonMaur.com. You can also find our designs at airport stores in Austin , Houston and Nashville , as well as select Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) locations.

Follow us @jamesavery on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as @jamesaveryjewelry on TikTok for new releases, trends and behind the scenes.

Drawing Details

Odds of winning depend on total number of entries received. Thirty James Avery gift cards will be awarded: 24 $50 gift cards, three $100 gift cards, and three $500 gift cards. Entries accepted May 3 through May 20 . Hourly drawings on May 20 between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. during the grand opening celebration at the Woodbridge Crossing James Avery Artisan Jewelry store. No purchase necessary. Must be at least 13 years old to enter. Only one entry per person, per day. Winners not eligible to win a subsequent gift card in the same promotion. Winners need not be present to win; however, if prize is not claimed within 14 days of drawing, prize will be awarded to an alternate winner. Associates and immediate family members not eligible for this gift promotion.

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SOURCE James Avery Artisan Jewelry
KIEV, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine and the European Union (EU) have agreed to extend for one year their preferential trade regime, which is due to expire on June 5, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Wednesday.

Ukraine and the EU reached agreements on extending the "economic visa-free regime" for another year. Ukrainian businesses will be able to continue selling their goods to the EU without any quotas, duties, or tariffs, Shmyhal wrote in a post on Telegram.

The extension of the preferential trade rules will contribute to the revival of the Ukrainian economy, Shmyhal said.

He noted that the access of Ukrainian agricultural products to the European market has been partially restored after a ban by five neighboring countries.

The European Commission developed a compromise mechanism, which temporarily restricts Ukraine from exporting four types of agricultural products to its neighbors, Shmyhal said.

The Ukraine-EU preferential trade regime, abolishing tariffs and quotas on Ukrainian industrial goods and foods, took effect in June 2022.

Last month, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania imposed unilateral import restrictions on agricultural goods from Ukraine. 
Physicians and Patients Will Gain Access to Enhanced Laboratory Services and Advanced Diagnostic Testing

Labcorp will acquire select assets of Jefferson's outreach laboratory services

will acquire select assets of outreach laboratory services Jefferson will continue to own and operate their existing hospital labs for outpatient and inpatient services

BURLINGTON, N.C. , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Labcorp (NYSE: LH), a leading global life sciences company, today announced an agreement to enter into a strategic relationship with Jefferson Health ( Jefferson ), the largest health system serving the greater Philadelphia area and Southern New Jersey . When complete, the arrangements between Jefferson and Labcorp will serve to build academic collaborations around teaching and the development of innovative tests.

The relationship will expand the scope and productivity of specialty lab testing that is retained by Jefferson , and will further the academic and research missions of Thomas Jefferson University. Jefferson and Labcorp will work together to establish the Innovation Driving Excellence in Academics (IDEA) initiative, with a goal of advancing testing capabilities and technologies to improve health outcomes. Additionally, the parties will work together to improve healthcare services for underserved communities in Philadelphia and surrounding areas by using advanced population health digital solutions to deliver enhanced efficiency for patients.

" Jefferson has delivered healthcare services to patients and providers for decades, and we are proud to join them in that tradition by working together to deliver a complementary and comprehensive suite of laboratory services," said Brian Caveney , MD, Labcorp Chief Medical Officer. "We are also looking forward to collaborating on future research and innovations aimed at improving health outcomes for all people. Labcorp is committed to a smooth transition and maintaining the same high-quality service to customers through a seamless experience."

The new strategic collaboration will deliver efficiency and comprehensive laboratory aspects of healthcare for the communities served by Jefferson through Labcorp's leading clinical laboratory services, robust data and digital tools and extensive network of patient service centers. Patients and clinicians will benefit from Labcorp's scientific expertise and advanced diagnostics in important clinical areas such as oncology, neurology, autoimmune disease, and women's health, as well as gain access to Labcorp's convenient at-home test collection services. Jefferson will continue providing high quality, complex clinical laboratory services for the communities it serves along with its academic partners, including all elements of tissue diagnostics in anatomic pathology and other highly-complex tests, such as molecular and genomic pathology, HLA testing, molecular virology, and flow cytometry, emphasizing personalized medicine and transfusion medicine.

"This strategic relationship enables Jefferson to leverage Labcorp's wide-range of laboratory services, which will help deliver improved outcomes for our patients and optimal service to providers," said Joseph G. Cacchione , MD, CEO, Jefferson . "This collaboration is another example of our continued efforts to provide critical healthcare solutions that will better serve the community and advance Jefferson's academic and research missions."

This relationship follows other strategic collaborations that Labcorp has established with a range of local and regional health systems that have enhanced services for patients and providers.

The transaction is expected to close by mid-year 2023, subject to customary closing conditions and applicable regulatory approvals. Other terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

About Labcorp

Labcorp is a leading global life sciences company that provides vital information to help doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, researchers and patients make clear and confident decisions. Through our unparalleled diagnostics and drug development capabilities, we provide insights and accelerate innovations to improve health and improve lives. With more than 80,000 employees, we serve clients in more than 100 countries. Labcorp (NYSE: LH) reported revenue of $14.9 billion in FY2022. Learn more about us at www.Labcorp.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @Labcorp.

About Jefferson

Nationally ranked, Jefferson , which is principally located in the greater Philadelphia region and southern New Jersey , is reimagining health care and higher education to create unparalleled value. Jefferson is more than 43,000 people strong, dedicated to providing the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients; making our communities healthier and stronger; preparing tomorrow's professional leaders for 21st-century careers; and creating new knowledge through basic/programmatic, clinical and applied research. Thomas Jefferson University, home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College and the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce, dates back to 1824 and today comprises 10 colleges and four schools offering 200 undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 8,400 students. Jefferson Health, nationally ranked as of the top health care systems in the country and the largest provider in the Philadelphia area, serves patients through millions of encounters each year at 18 hospitals (10 are Magnet designated by the ANCC for nursing excellence) and over 50 outpatient and urgent care locations throughout the region. Health Partners Plans is a not-for-profit managed health care organization providing a broad range of health coverage options in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for more than 35 years.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements with respect to the acquisition of the outreach laboratory business of Jefferson Health, the development of a strategic laboratory relationship between the parties, the anticipated benefits of the transaction for providers and patients, and the expected timing to closing.

Each of the forward-looking statements is subject to change based on various important factors, many of which are beyond the company's control. These factors, in some cases, have affected and in the future (together with other factors) could affect the company's ability to implement the company's business strategy and actual results could differ materially from those suggested by these forward-looking statements. As a result, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of the forward-looking statements.

The company has no obligation to provide any updates to these forward-looking statements even if its expectations change. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Further information on potential factors, risks and uncertainties that could affect operating and financial results is included in the company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Forms 10-Q, including in each case under the heading RISK FACTORS, and in the company's other filings with the SEC. The information in this press release should be read in conjunction with a review of the company's filings with the SEC including the information in the company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, and subsequent Forms 10-Q, under the heading MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.

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SOURCE Labcorp
MEMPHIS, Tenn. , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare today announced all five of its adult hospitals received an "A" Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group, a national organization committed to the highest quality of patient safety standards in hospitals and outpatient surgery centers. Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare is the only hospital system to receive A ratings this period. Results of local hospitals can be viewed here.

"We take seriously our mission to deliver high-quality, innovative and compassionate care every day," said Methodist Le Bonheur President and CEO Dr. Michael Ugwueke . "Leapfrog's Spring grades reflect the outstanding and safe care we provided to patients during the last three year rating period, which includes the many peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare systems were truly tested during that time in ways previously unimagined. Earning all A's is a true reflection of our culture of collaboration, focus on continuous learning and unwavering commitment to providing the highest quality patient care."

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare voluntarily submits Leapfrog safety surveys to monitor and track against national healthcare industry standards and benchmarks.

"We are on a continuous journey to achieve increasingly higher levels of excellence," said Ugwueke. "We hold ourselves accountable to deliver the highest quality and safest care because our patients deserve nothing less than our very best."

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare often looks to other industry standards as a means to measure its progress. For example, the Memphis -based organization is the first healthcare system in Tennessee to earn full ISO 9001 Quality Management System certification, the gold standard in demonstrating best practices for delivering consistent patient care.

The healthcare network retains a strong performance on national Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) measures. In fact, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare's 2022 CMS Star ratings are best in the area for overall hospital quality. Methodist Olive Branch Hospital received a 5-star rating, the highest possible score, and is one of just two Mississippi hospitals to earn five stars, an accolade only 14% of hospitals in the U.S. receive.

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare conducts specialized safety training for all Associates and pursues extensive and rigorous accreditations, certifications and designations that validate and reflect its commitment to improving patient care standards.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on preventing medical errors. The grading system is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. Grades are updated twice annually, in the fall and spring. Leapfrog does not provide report cards for children's hospitals.

The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog nonprofit that assigns a letter grade to general hospitals across the country based on over 30 national performance indicators that measure safety practices and presentation strategies.

To view Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare's full grade details and to access hospital safety tips, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org.

About Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare

Based in Memphis, Tennessee , Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare has been caring for patients and families regardless of their ability to pay for more than 100 years. Guided by roots in the United Methodist Church and founded in 1918 to help meet the growing need for quality healthcare in the greater Memphis area, MLH has grown from one hospital into a comprehensive healthcare system with 13,000 Associates supporting six hospitals, including nationally ranked Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, ambulatory surgery centers, outpatient facilities, hospice residence and physician and specialty practices serving communities across the Mid-South. From transplants and advanced heart procedures to expert neurology services and compassionate cancer care, MLH offers clinical expertise with a focus on improving every life we touch.

About The Leapfrog Group

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps for patient safety. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog's other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. For more, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for our newsletter.

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SOURCE Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare
Navajo-Owned Energy Company Commemorates the Success of its First 10 Years and Exceptional Growth of Operations Since Formation

FARMINGTON, N.M. , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC) today celebrated its tenth year of successful operations since its formation on May 3, 2013 . NTEC was established by President Ben Shelly and leaders of the 22ndNavajo Nation Council in an innovative exercise of sovereignty to assert control over the Navajo Nation's abundant natural resources. The immediate goal was to prevent the devastating impact to the Nation of potential closures of the Navajo Mine and Four Corners Power Plant. NTEC rapidly accomplished this objective through the purchase of the Navajo Mine in 2013.

NTEC has grown exponentially since then with the acquisition of a seven percent stake in Four Corners Power Plant in 2018 and the purchase of three mines in Montana and Wyoming in 2019. In its first ten years, the company grew from ten employees to 1,300 and expanded operations to four states with national and international sales. Through royalties, taxes, wages, and community programs, NTEC contributed more than $121 million to the Navajo Nation in 2022 and provides more than 30% of the Navajo Nation's annual General Fund.

"We are incredibly proud of NTEC and the work it does to provide economic and social opportunities otherwise not available to the Navajo people. For the past 10 years, we have fulfilled the company's founding goal of promoting the development of the Navajo Nation's resources to ensure the economic, financial, social, and cultural well-being of the Navajo People and the Navajo Nation," said Vern Lund , Chief Executive Officer for NTEC. "We are committed to continuing this mission through a focus on safe and clean energy practices, while exploring renewable options that position the Navajo Nation for future success."

The celebrations took place today at the Navajo Mine , which is itself marking 60 years of successful operations! NTEC thanks the Council Delegates and local Chapter Representatives for helping us celebrate the event - ahehee'.

About NTEC

NTEC is an autonomous single-member limited liability company, organized under the laws of the Navajo Nation, which owns mines in Montana , New Mexico , and Wyoming . The mission of NTEC is to be a reliable, safe producer of coal, while diversifying the Navajo Nation's energy resources to create economic sustainability for the Nation and the Navajo people. NTEC's sole shareholder is the Navajo Nation.

NTEC is a leader in safety and reclamation and was recognized with the Sentinels of Safety award from the National Mining Association, the Safety Award for Large Surface Mine from the Rocky Mountain Coal Institute, and the National Award for Excellence in Surface Mining Reclamation from the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement in 2022. For more information about NTEC, visit www.navenergy.com.

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SOURCE Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC)
Credit will help company bring 140 new green energy jobs to California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pyka , the global leader in autonomous electric aviation technology, was awarded a $7 million California Competes Tax Credit with the California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), approved last week by the California Competes Tax Credit Committee. The California Competes Tax Credit is an income tax credit for businesses that locate or grow in California . Pyka, headquartered in Oakland, California , is expanding manufacturing of zero-emission autonomous aircraft and providing additional zero-emission aviation careers.

The credit will empower Pyka, who recently launched the world's largest zero-emission autonomous cargo airplane, to generate over 140 new California jobs at all levels of the company including engineering, manufacturing, assembly, logistics, business development and operations, maintenance, and facilities management as well as janitorial positions.

"This support and partnership with GO-Biz accelerates our manufacturing capabilities and facilitates immediate job creation in Oakland and at our test sites across California ," stated Chuma Ogunwole , Pyka Co-Founder & COO. "This award accelerates the application of California's zero-emission autonomous aviation innovation and creates economic opportunities for communities across California ."

Ogunwole continued, "We are thankful to the State of California and GO-Biz for this award and look forward to making California the global hub for zero-emission aviation."

"Pyka is an ideal candidate for the California Competes Tax Credit," said Dee Dee Myers , Senior Advisor to Governor Newsom and Director of GO-Biz. "The company is strengthening California's position as a leader in the electric aviation industry and creating substantial job opportunities in green energy technology along the way."

About Pyka

Pyka is defining the future of fast, environmentally friendly, and accessible electric aviation with industrial autonomous electric airplanes for commercial agricultural spraying and cargo transport. Pyka's technology includes autonomous flight control software, flight computers, high energy density batteries, advanced electric propulsion systems, and carbon composite airframes.

To learn more about Pyka, visit www.flypyka.com

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SOURCE Pyka
NEW YORK , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- OUTFRONT Media Inc. (NYSE: OUT) announced today that its board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend on the Company's common stock of $0.30 per share payable on June 30, 2023 , to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 2, 2023 .

About OUTFRONT Media Inc.

OUTFRONT leverages the power of technology, location and creativity to connect brands with consumers outside of their homes through one of the largest and most diverse sets of billboard, transit, and mobile assets in North America . Through its technology platform, OUTFRONT will fundamentally change the ways advertisers engage audiences on-the-go.

Contacts:

Investors Media Stephan Bisson Courtney Richards Investor Relations PR & Events Specialist (212) 297-6573 (646) 876-9404 [email protected] [email protected]

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SOURCE OUTFRONT Media Inc.
Led by Iron Pillar, the round saw participation from Uncorrelated Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Next47 and prominent angel investors.

SAN JOSE, Calif. and CHENNAI, India , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Supply chain software leader, Pando, today announced its Series B funding of $30 million , bringing total capital raised so far, to $45 million . The round was led by marquee Silicon Valley investors Iron Pillar and Uncorrelated Ventures, with participation from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Chiratae Ventures and Next47. Several prominent American CEOs and angel investors also participated in this round including David Dorman , Chairman of CVS Health and Director on the Boards of Dell and Paypal, Tom Noonan , Director on the Boards of New York Stock Exchange and SalesLoft, Scott Kirk of Bain Capital, Paul Brown of Dunkin', Baskin-Robbins and Neiman Marcus, Nick Mehta of Gainsight, and Amar Goel of Pubmatic. The fresh funds will be used to drive Pando's growth across geographies and industries.

In the last few years, supply chain disruptions have peaked, hindering business growth and consumers' access to quality products. According to a recent Deloitte survey, over 70% of manufacturing executives reported that their companies have been impacted by supply chain disruptions in the past year, with 90% of those companies experiencing increased costs and declining productivity. With global enterprises investing in supply chain technology to improve agility, efficiency and resilience, the logistics tech market is estimated to grow to $25 billion by 2025. Pando is well-positioned to ride this growth wave, and drive supply chain agility for the 2030 economy.

Investors see Pando's platform as critical in the modern supply chain toolkit to bring innovation and resilience to the industry. Mohanjit Jolly , Partner at Iron Pillar who led the Series B, believes that Pando is uniquely positioned to be a global leader in this growing category. "The Logistics Tech market is ripe for disruption  there is high demand caused by volatility, legacy competition that is trying to catch up and a trend towards bundling point solutions. Pando addresses the problem holistically and, with its world-class talent in India and the US, takes a global view to IP-led product development. Their growth with multiple Fortune 500 companies is testimony to the quality of the product and management team, but their focus on building a large long-term business is what got us excited to partner with Abhijeet and Nitin. Iron Pillar is eager to leverage its global network of customers, partners, strategic capital and more to help accelerate Pando's journey."

Pando's recently launched Fulfillment Cloud is a 'single pane of glass' to streamline the end-to-end order-to-fulfillment process of manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and 3PLs. This AI-powered, no-code platform for collaborative fulfillment has proven itself globally, improving service levels, and reducing carbon footprint and costs for several Fortune 500 enterprises such as Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Nivea, Accuride, Danaher, Perfetti Van Melle , and BP Castrol.

"Pando's Fulfillment Cloud has been proven across several industries in the last few years, with strong revenue growth, marquee customer logos, high CSATs, and a fully built-out enterprise-grade platform. Pando is now expanding into new industries and geographies, especially the US." said Abhishek Sharma , Managing Director at Nexus Venture Partners who seeded the company in 2018.

Parvesh Ghai , CRO  Asia Pacific , agrees, "Since Pando's Series A in 2020, our revenue has grown 8x, and our customer base, 5x. We're scaling our North America and Global business with marquee customer wins and a network of strong partners." John Zimmerman , CRO  North America & Europe , adds, "Many large companies in North America and Europe are consolidating their supply chain technology from siloed point solutions to unified platforms, and in-sourcing their logistics from 3PLs. Pando's solution is timely  its end-to-end capabilities and quantifiable value-driven success stories with marquee global brands is driving significant traction in the US market, where supply chain leaders are clamouring for change."

"Most of the brands we love and live with are weighed down by legacy logistics tools that make their products less affordable, accessible and eco-friendly. Pando's platform allows these brands to automate manual processes, modernize legacy systems and plug the gaps between tools without multi-year transformations, delivering change here and now," said Nitin Jayakrishnan , Pando's CEO.

Pando's CTO, Abhijeet Manohar , said, "Whether we take HRMS, CRM, ITSM or SCM  ultimately, enterprise processes are data problems. Enterprises are struggling to piece together a comprehensive view of their supply chain. Just like how the world evolved from legacy applications to new-age cloud technology in these categories, supply chain software is evolving towards Pando."

About Pando:

Pando is a global leader in supply chain technology with its AI-powered, no-code Fulfillment Cloud platform. Pando's Fulfillment Cloud provides manufacturers, retailers, and 3PLs with a single pane of glass to streamline the end-to-end order-to-fulfillment process to improve service levels and reduce carbon footprint and costs. As a partner of choice for Fortune 500 enterprises globally, with a presence across APAC and the US, Pando is recognized by Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum (WEF), and as one of the fastest-growing technology companies by Deloitte.

If you are embarking on digital transformation for your logistics operations, reach out to Pando at https://www.pando.ai.

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SOURCE Pando
Community members may also submit written comments to Regulations.gov

WASHINGTON , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) is announcing registration for an upcoming virtual listening session so the parties involved in the Columbia River Basin (CRB) mediation process can gather information and perspectives from the public to inform the ongoing mediation. FMCS is the neutral, impartial agency facilitating and mediating the CRB negotiations between the U.S. Government and various stakeholders.

The next listening session will take place online Thursday, May 25, 2023 , from 10 a.m.  1 p.m. PDT .

There is strong regional interest in finding long-term and durable solutions to restoring salmon and other native fish populations in the CRB while honoring Federal commitments to Tribal Nations, delivering affordable and reliable clean power, and meeting the many resilience needs of the regional stakeholders.

The next listening session will take place online Thursday, May 25, 2023 , from 10 a.m.  1 p.m. PDT . A limited number of three-minute speaking slots will be available to the public. Members of the press and public are also invited to listen. Advanced registration is required.

To register as a speaker or listener, please visit www.fmcs.gov/CRBListeningRegistration beginning at 12 p.m. PDT Thursday, May 4, 2023 . Please note that spots for speakers are limited and will be accepted only on a "first come, first served" basis using the registration link published at the URL above.

Community members and other interested persons may also submit written comments in response to a Request for Information that will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow. Submitted comments will be available on a public docket and all parties to the mediation will be able to view them.

Comments must be identified by docket number CEQ20230002 and submitted using the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. Interested persons are encouraged to submit comments within 60 days so that their input can best be used in the ongoing mediation process, but comments will be accepted through August 31, 2023 , when the agreement staying litigation and allowing for the mediation is set to expire.

The U.S. Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service (FMCS) is the nation's premier public agency for dispute resolution and conflict management. FMCS was created by Congress as a neutral and independent government agency upon enactment of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 (Taft-Hartley Act) and mandated to resolve industrial conflict and promote labor-management peace and cooperation, minimizing the impact of these disputes on the free flow of commerce. With headquarters in Washington, D.C. and offices across the country, the agency has a proud track record of decades of effective dispute resolution and conflict management services for employers and unions across industries and work activities in the private, public, and federal sectors. FMCS is also recognized for its success facilitating negotiated rulemaking processes and for its robust employment mediation program in the federal sector as well as its global program, partnering with more than 60 countries to provide international consulting and training. For more on FMCS or to request services, visit www.fmcs.gov

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SOURCE Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
NEW ORLEANS , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Together New Orleans and Solar Alternatives unveiled two new solar-powered neighborhood shelters in Broadmoor and Central City on March 25, 2023 . These shelters are part of the Community Lighthouse initiative, which strives to create 86 safe havens within a 15-minute walking distance from every address in the city. These safe havens are vital when commercial power fails in their neighborhoods.

The Broadmoor Community Church and Bethlehem Lutheran Church have been converted into resiliency hubs with charging stations capable of supporting light medical equipment. These hubs are intended to serve as safe havens during extended emergencies, providing residents a place to cool down, rest, warm up, and even access food distribution services.

The solar systems at these hubs were designed, installed, and will be maintained by Solar Alternatives and are the first two completed Community Lighthouse projects. The systems use Canadian Solar 405W panels, Yotta DPI-1200 microinverters, and Unirac SolarMount racking systems and come with fully charged batteries that can hold up to 7,500 watts. Each system has four Tesla Powerwall 2 batteries for power storage, an automatic load control SPAN panel, and two monitoring systems.

These systems can provide up to 20kW of continuous power and serve as community resiliency hubs during power outages. They can power the churches for up to 17 hours, including air conditioning, deep freezers, and refrigerators. After a major storm, they will provide reliable power for cooling, phone charging, meal preparation, and communications for two weeks or more. They will also reduce the churches' utility costs by approximately $168,000 and $178,080 over their lifetimes and reduce carbon emissions by as much as 33 acres of mature forest annually.

Jeffrey Cantin , Solar Alternatives' representative, said, "Through the adoption of renewable energy and investment in resilient infrastructure, we can ensure that our communities have access to reliable power during emergencies and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. This approach creates new opportunities for local economic development while promoting a cleaner and more sustainable energy future," regarding the Community Lighthouse project. Solar Alternatives aims to strengthen the region through low-carbon technology, providing leadership, education, and resources that advance energy security and create a more sustainable future. The company's industry-leading electrical engineers, project managers, and procurement experts worked with Community Lighthouse to develop this energy management system.

The Community Lighthouse project showcases the strength of community-driven initiatives to enhance residents' lives and create more equitable and sustainable neighborhoods. Two more resiliency hubs will be operational over the next three months, with a goal of having 16 in place by the peak of the 2023 hurricane season.

About Solar Alternatives, Inc.

Solar Alternatives, Inc. is the Gulf South's leading solar power and microgrid design-build firm, providing solar and battery backup engineering, installation, and maintenance for commercial and residential facilities. Founded in 2008, the company serves clients across Louisiana , Mississippi , and Texas and has received numerous accolades, including Inc 5,000 Most Successful Companies in Life City Wellness and Sustainability awards. Visit solalt.com for more information.

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SOURCE Solar Alternatives
FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Capitol building is seen in Washington, U.S., April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo

By Gram Slattery and Tim Reid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It is the one topic that everyone on Capitol Hill is talking about and yet hundreds of miles away, on the plains of Iowa and the hills of New Hampshire, none of the Republicans vying for the 2024 presidential nomination have even mentioned it.

The U.S. government could default on its debt in less than a month if Democratic and Republican leaders do not arrive at a deal to raise the nation's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. A default, which would be unprecedented, could cripple the nation's economy and unsettle global financial markets.

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives have issued press releases, passed bills and prepared legislation behind the scenes at a furious pace in recent days in a bid to avert such a scenario. But as Republican presidential hopefuls including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump crisscross the country, they have instead focused on hot-button issues like immigration and transgender participation in youth sports.

That is in part because the issue of the debt limit is a murky one with the public.

A broad majority of voters in both parties believe the debt ceiling presents a good opportunity to debate public policy priorities, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in March. At present, Republicans in the House of Representatives are insisting on a package of conservative reforms in return for raising the debt ceiling, a position congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden reject.

But that same poll showed a wide majority of voters, including 71% of Republicans, think both parties must reach a deal on the issue and avoid a default to save Americans from undue financial stress.

Still, it is unclear how much Republican primary voters know about the debt limit debate - or even care - campaign aides and strategists said.

At dueling events in New Hampshire on Thursday of last week, neither former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley nor Trump, both presidential candidates, brought up the issue.

Of nine attendees interviewed by Reuters at the town hall meeting held by Haley, none mentioned the debt ceiling as one of their top concerns. In a question-and-answer session with the former ambassador, the topic did not come up.

In the absence of pressure from voters, candidates have stuck to red-meat topics likely to linger throughout the primary, like restricting the teaching of gender issues in schools.

"It's a total Beltway issue unless it goes south," said Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, referring to a freeway outside the capital that is shorthand for the dividing line between political insiders and average citizens.

Venturing opinions on tricky policy matters has proven hazardous for 2024 hopefuls in the past.

In March, for instance, DeSantis provoked the ire of party lawmakers and donors for dismissing Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a "territorial dispute," a position that he partially walked back.

There is also little upside for the White House hopefuls to get embroiled in a fight in which everyone ends up muddied.

After weeks of rancorous partisan battles in 2011 over raising the debt ceiling brought the country to the brink of default, disapproval of Congress rose to an all-time high of 82%, according a New York Times/CBS News public opinion poll published at the time.

VAGUE RESPONSES

Reuters reached out to the campaigns of Trump, Haley, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy and businessman Perry Johnson. The news agency also contacted DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who have not yet declared they will run but are expected to do so.

Only Ramaswamy and Johnson, both long-shots for the nomination, responded.

Ramaswamy said he favors tying modest spending cuts to any deal to raise the debt limit but declined to give specifics. He said he strongly supported creating work requirements for people to receive welfare benefits as part of any debt-limit package.

Johnson proposed a "2-cents plan," which would eliminate 2 cents on every dollar in discretionary spending.

Others have addressed the debt ceiling in the past, but only in general terms.

Pence said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" in February that it was important to maintain "the full faith and credit of the United States." He said he "respected" House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's decision to take cuts to Social Security and Medicare off the table.

Pence refused to be drawn in the interview on what spending cuts he would ask for in any deal, merely repeating as he has done all year that cuts to entitlement spending have to be made "in the long term."

Trump, in a January video produced by his campaign, also came out against touching entitlement programs in the context of the debt-limit debate.

Since then, he has remained largely silent on the issue.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery in Washington and Tim Reid in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne in Manchester, New Hampshire, and James Oliphant in Washington; Editing by Ross Colvin and Matthew Lewis)
FILE PHOTO: Debra Tice, a mother of US. journalist Austin Tice, reacts after a news conference in Beirut, Lebanon December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo

By Humeyra Pamuk and Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is extensively engaged on the case of a U.S. journalist who disappeared a decade ago, including with Syria and other countries, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

Austin Tice, a former U.S. Marine and a freelance journalist, was kidnapped in August 2012 while reporting in Damascus on the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He was 31 at the time.

His family believes he is alive and still being held in Syria. The identity of Tice's captors is not known, and there has been no claim of responsibility for his abduction.

President Joe Biden last year said Washington knows "with certainty" that Tice has at times been held by the Syrian government. Syria's government has denied kidnapping or holding Tice.

"Were extensively engaged with regard to Austin  engaged with Syria, engaged with third countries  seeking to find a way to get him home. And were not going to relent until we do," Blinken said in a Washington Post interview on Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that the Biden administration has renewed direct talks with Syria over Tice's case and those of other Americans, citing Middle East officials familiar with the efforts.

When asked about Tice, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she could not confirm any meetings.

Washington suspended its diplomatic presence in Syria in 2012 with the onset of the country's civil war.

State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel in a briefing said the United States has pursued every channel to seek Tice's release.

"We have pursued every channel we can to seek his safe return to his family and will continue to do so, and that includes discussing the case with a number of countries in the region," Patel told reporters.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Daphne Psaledakis; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
BUDAPEST, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian lawmakers on Wednesday passed a judicial reform package required to unblock billions of euros in European Union (EU) funding.

The Hungarian parliament adopted the legal document with 151 votes in favor and 23 abstentions.

"Hungary has now fulfilled its commitments regarding the administration of justice. We expect Brussels to pay the EU funds due to Hungary," Justice Minister Judit Varga wrote on her Facebook page after the vote.

Hungary lost access to billions of euros of EU cash, from the Recovery and Resilience Facility Fund and Cohesion Fund, due to concerns over corruption and the infringement of the independence of the judiciary.

The newly-adopted reform grants enhanced powers to the judges' self-governing body, the National Judicial Council (OBT), which from June 1 can comment on all legislative proposals affecting the judiciary.

In addition, the OBT's legal remedies will be expanded, and the President of the National Court Office (OBH) will be obliged to justify his decisions where the OBT has the right to agree.

In future, the judicial council may personally listen to the presidential candidates of the OBH and the Curia (Hungarian Supreme Court) and exclude those whose independence, impartiality, integrity, or integrity it finds inadequate.

The OBT will have access to all information related to court administration, and will also have its own budget, warranting financial independence.

In line with the EU's expectations, the authorities will not be able to turn to the Hungarian Constitutional Court to appeal final court decisions. 
FILE PHOTO: Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang attends the opening ceremony of the Lanting Forum in Shanghai, China, April 21, 2023. REUTERS/Aly Song

BEIJING (Reuters) -China supports Myanmar in finding its own path to development and urges the international community to respect its sovereignty and help it achieve peace and reconciliation, China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Myanmar had been largely shunned by Western countries since its military overthrew an elected government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2001 and crushed nationwide pro-democracy protests that erupted after the coup.

Neighbouring China, however, has maintained close ties with Myanmar's generals and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, making a rare trip to Myanmar by a senior foreign official, met junta chief Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw on Tuesday.

"China supports Myanmar in exploring a development path with Myanmar characteristics that suits to its national conditions," Qin's ministry cited him as saying in the talks.

China supported Myanmar in "advancing its political transition process and backs relevant parties ... to properly address differences and seek national reconciliation under the constitutional and legal framework", Qin said.

The international community should respect Myanmar's sovereignty and play a constructive role in helping it achieve peace and reconciliation, he said.

Myanmar has been rocked by violence since the coup with pro-democracy activists taking up arms, in some places alongside ethnic minority forces fighting for self-determination, to battle the well-equipped army.

Efforts by Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbours to initiate dialogue have come to nothing.

China is a major buyer of Myanmar's resources, including jade, tin and timber while it has occasionally had to take in refugees spilling across the border from fighting between insurgents and Myanmar government forces.

On economic development, Qin said China would accelerate investment linked to a China-Myanmar Economic Corridor and implement projects on agriculture, education and health care.

China also supported Myanmar on improving its relations with its western neighbour, Bangladesh, the Chinese foreign minister said.

Myanmar broadcaster MRTV said the discussions included increasing border trade and cooperation on energy.

(Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Josie Kao)
A police seal sticks at a door in Siegen, Germany, May 3, 2023, after German police arrested dozens of people across the country on Wednesday in an investigation of the Italian 'Ndrangheta organised crime group, German public prosecutors and state police

ROME/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Police across Europe arrested more than 100 people on Wednesday in a massive crackdown that targeted the Italian 'Ndrangheta mafia, with suspects accused of drugs and weapons trafficking with counterparts in Latin America.

"Today's raids are one of the largest operations carried out so far in the fight against Italian organised crime," said German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, adding they had "dealt a serious blow to the `Ndrangheta."

The swoop was part of an investigation spanning Italy, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Romania, Brazil and Panama, according to European Union law enforcement agency Europol.

The network was devoted primarily to international drug trafficking from South America to both Europe and Australia, Europol said in a statement.

The network used Chinese money brokers in Italy and Colombia to arrange for funds to be moved to pay for drug deals, Italian police commander Massimiliano D'Angelantonio told a news conference.

The 'Ndrangheta clans were also involved in running weapons from Pakistan to South America, supplying Brazilian criminal group PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) in exchange for cocaine shipments, Europol added.

The 'Ndrangheta, which has its roots in the southern Italian region of Calabria, has surpassed Cosa Nostra as the most powerful mafia group in the country, and one of the largest criminal networks in the world.

Some of the 'Ndrangheta families targeted have been involved in clan feuds culminating in mass shootings, including the killing of six people in the German city of Duisburg in 2007, according to Europol.

ICE CREAM PARLOUR

Profits were recycled through real estate, restaurants, hotels, car wash companies, supermarkets, and other commercial activities.

In Germany, investigators targeted an ice cream parlour in the northwestern town of Siegen, which they suspected was being used to launder money and as a strategic hub for the 'Ndrangheta.

Investigator Oliver Huth told reporters they found Italians from Calabria there, some of whom were believed to be involved in drugs while others had links to killings or murders. The cafe has been shut down.

Assets worth 25 million euros ($27.6 million) were seized in Italy, Germany, Portugal and France in "Operation Eureka," launched in 2019 initially to investigate drug smuggling between Calabria and the Belgian city of Genk, according to Italian police.

"We think that among the arrests were several persons of a high value who played a huge role in the organisation, not only in Belgium but in other European countries," said Belgian federal prosecutor Antoon Schotsaert.

Belgian police said they had arrested 13 people.

A total of 108 people were arrested in Italy and other EU countries on the orders of police in the southern city of Reggio Calabria, Italian police said.

Related investigations led to the arrest of 24 people in Germany, they said, as well as a further 53 detentions in northern Italy. The interior minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia said 18 of the arrests were made there.

($1 = 0.9076 euros)

Read more about the 'Ndrangheta in this FACTBOX.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan, Madeline Chambers, Federico Maccioni, Philip Blenkinsop, Charlotte van Campenhout and Emilio Parodi;Writing by Keith Weir;Editing by Bernadette Baum)
U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry attends a Reuters interview at the "Petersberg Climate Conference" in Berlin, Germany May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi

By Alexander Ratz, Sarah Marsh and Valerie Volcovici

BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said on Wednesday China has invited him to visit "in the near term" for talks on averting a global climate change crisis even as diplomatic relations between the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters remain tense.

The United States and China must work together to address climate change, Kerry said in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of a conference on global warming in Berlin.

U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized the meeting but the timing remains to be determined and certain issues must still be clarified, Kerry said. China, for example, first must issue its plan to reduce methane emissions and advance in the transition away from coal, Kerry added.

"This has to be cooperative, notwithstanding other differences that do exist," said Kerry, a former U.S. secretary of state. "This is not a bilateral issue. This is a universal global threat to everybody in every nation."

Referring to the United States and China, Kerry added, "The two biggest economies, biggest contributors to that problem need to be able to come together and work to try to help resolve it."

Kerry said the United States may be able to help China on its methane strategy, a policy that Beijing was due to have announced last year but did not.

China last year briefly suspended talks with the United States on climate, security and other areas in response to a visit to Taiwan by U.S. House of Representatives then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Although China subsequently resumed those talks, relations between the two countries deteriorated again after what the United States described as a Chinese spy balloon traversed American airspace in February, prompting Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a scheduled visit to Beijing.

The State Department since then has expressed a desire to reschedule Blinken's visit, though no date has been set. Blinken said on Wednesday he hopes to be able to reschedule it for sometime this year.

Kerry said he held a virtual conversation with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua "just a week or two ago."

"China has invited me to visit in the near term to be able to meet with him (Xie) to be able to work on work that we've been doing for several years, which is trying to find the pathway forward to be able to cooperate in ways that are beneficial to the world. And hopefully, we'll be able to do that," Kerry said.

Kerry said he also briefly spoke with the Chinese representative attending the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin hosted by the German foreign ministry.

Asked if China offered a constructive approach, Kerry called it too early to tell.

"I have to get into the meeting, I have to figure out exactly where we are," Kerry said.

"We're not pointing fingers and we're not out there trying to, you know, make this part of the other issues that are out there" between the United States and China, Kerry added. "This (climate change) is a free-standing issue which affects China as it affects the United States."

OVERSHOOTING TEMPERATURE TARGET WOULD BE 'FRIGHTENING'

China did not appear to have "fully embraced" the global goal agreed at a U.N. summit in France in 2015 of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), Kerry said.

"It has embraced the U.N. Paris terminology, which is ... well below 2 degrees, and leaves up for grabs what that might mean," Kerry said of China. "To me, there is certainly no way that 'well below 2' is 1.9 or 1.8 or 1.7."

Kerry said the ability to actually achieve that target, however, was "on the borderline right now."

"Some scientists would tell you we've already blown past it. Others will suggest ... we may shoot past it, but come back to it because of the technologies and other capacities we have to deploy clean energy," Kerry said.

Overshooting is a "frightening prospect," Kerry said, given the irreversible effects of passing a tipping point, like the melting of polar ice caps.

As such, the next global climate conference, COP28, scheduled for Nov. 30 to Dec. 10 in the United Arab Emirates, is "critical" and the most important since 2015, Kerry said.

The COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber has faced criticism for also being the head of the UAE's state oil giant, but Kerry said the COP offers "an opportunity for us to bring people to the table who haven't been part of the process."

Kerry said he supports Germany's proposal at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue to set a goal at COP28 to triple renewable energy by 2030, noting Europe's largest economy was a trend-setter in this regard.

(Reporting by Alexander Ratz, Sarah Marsh and Valerie Volcovici; Additional Reporting by Michael Martina and Kate Abnett; Editing by Will Dunham)
FILE PHOTO: Electric power transmission pylon miniatures and Exelon Corporation logo are seen in this illustration taken, December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

(Reuters) - Exelon Corp beat first-quarter profit estimates on Wednesday, as the U.S. electric and gas utility company benefited from customer additions and higher prices.

The company's adjusted net income was 70 cents per share for the quarter ended March 31, higher than analysts' average estimate of 66 cents per share, according to Refinitiv data.

The company, which serves more than 10 million customers through its six subsidiaries, saw higher rates at three of its unitsPECO, BGE and PHI.

However, all units signed on more customers, with ComEd, the company's biggest unit, reporting an increase to 4.13 million total customers from 4.11 million a year earlier.

Last week, Exelon's peers Southern Co and NextEra Energy also beat quarterly profit estimates, helped by higher prices and clean energy investment push.

Exelon affirmed its full-year adjusted profit forecast of $2.30-$2.42 per share.

The company's quarterly revenue rose to $5.56 billion from $5.33 billion a year earlier. Analysts on average estimated $5.27 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

(Reporting by Saikeerthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
FILE PHOTO: Exxon Mobil logo and stock graph are seen through a magnifier displayed in this illustration taken September 4, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

By Kiana Wilburg

GEORGETOWN (Reuters) -An Exxon Mobil unit is in breach of insurance obligations for its first offshore oil project in Guyana in part due to errors by the environmental regulator, a Guyanese court ruled on Wednesday, a decision the government rejected.

Exxon "engaged in a disingenuous attempt" to dilute its obligations under its environmental permit for Liza One, the project that inaugurated Guyana's oil production in 2019, High Court Justice Sandil Kissoon said in the ruling.

An Exxon-led consortium that includes U.S. oil firm Hess and China's CNOOC is producing about 380,000 barrels of oil per day - the South American nation's entire crude output.

Guyana's Environmental Protection Agency and the energy ministry so far has approved five offshore oil and gas projects submitted by the group.

Liza One's environmental permit requires the provision of two forms of insurance coverage, one from the affiliate that stands at $600 million in case of an oil spill, and a parent guarantee committing to cover all costs beyond the $600 million threshold.

According to Kissoon's ruling, Exxon must furnish Guyanese authorities with a liability agreement from an insurance company by June 10, or the Liza One environmental permit will be suspended. The agreement would cover potential damages from incidents including spills.

The company "engaged in a course of action made permissible only by the omissions of a derelict, pliant, and submissive Environmental Protection Agency," the judge wrote.

"The ruling is what it is and we will comply at this time," a spokesperson for the EPA said.

Exxon is reviewing the court decision and evaluating next steps, a company spokesperson said.

The government said the ruling breached its statutory duty by failing to enforce compliance by Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, and that the "Judge fell into error in his findings."

The ruling will be appealed and orders sought to suspend the judgment, the government said in a statement.

(Reporting by Kiana Wilburg in Georgetown; additional reporting by Sabrina Valle; editing by Grant McCool)
People react after a 14-year-old boy opened fire on other students and security guards at a school in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Djordje Kojadinovic

(Reuters) - A 14-year-old boy shot his teacher in a Belgrade classroom on Wednesday before opening fire on other students and security guards, killing eight pupils and a security guard, Serbia's interior ministry said.

Here are details of some previous school shootings and mass killings of children around the world:

- NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, March 27, 2023 - A heavily armed 28-year-old fatally shoots three children and three adult staffers at a private Christian school, before police kill the assailant.

- NA KLANG, THAILAND, Oct. 6, 2022 - A former policeman kills 34 people, including 23 children, during a knife and gun rampage at a daycare centre in northeast Thailand, before shooting dead his wife and child at home and turning his weapon on himself.

- UVALDE, TEXAS, May 24, 2022 - A gunman burst into a classroom in Uvalde, Texas, and shot dead 19 students, aged 9 to 11, along with two teachers.

- KABUL, AFGHANISTAN, May 8, 2021 - Three explosions by a school in Kabul killed at least 80 people, most of them schoolgirls.

- SANTA FE, TEXAS, May 18, 2018 - A 17-year-old student opened fire at his high school outside Houston, Texas, killing nine students and a teacher, before surrendering to officers.

- PARKLAND, FLORIDA, Feb. 14, 2018 - A former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killed 14 students and three educators.

- PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN, Dec. 16, 2014 - Taliban gunmen massacred 134 students and 16 staff in a Peshawar school.

- NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT, Dec. 14, 2012 - A heavily armed gunman killed 20 children from five- to 10-years old and six others, in a rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

- UTOEYA ISLAND, NORWAY, July 22, 2011 - Far-right Norwegian extremist Anders Behring Breivik gunned down 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a Labour Party youth camp on Utoeya island and killed another eight people with a car bomb in Oslo.

- BESLAN, RUSSIA, Sept. 1, 2004 - 186 children were among 333 hostages who died in a chaotic storming of School No.1 in Beslan, after it was seized by rebels demanding Chechen independence.

- LITTLETON, COLORADO, April 20, 1999 - Two student gunmen killed 12 other students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, before killing themselves.

- DUNBLANE, SCOTLAND, March 13, 1996 - A gunman killed 16 children, mostly five-year-olds, and their teacher in Dunblane, Scotland.

(Editing by Edmund Blair)
FILE PHOTO: Anti-abortion rights activists stand outside of the Bread and Roses Woman's Health Center, a clinic that provides abortions while women arrive to receive patient care in Clearwater, Florida, U.S. February 11, 2023. REUTERS/Octavio Jones

By Gabriella Borter and Sharon Bernstein

(Reuters) - State legislatures are wrestling with how much to restrict or expand abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

Here is a snapshot of pending and passed legislation seeking to restrict or protect access in 2023, including details on a law that took effect in North Dakota this week broadly banning abortion and the defeat of abortion ban bills in South Carolina and Nebraska.

RESTRICTIONS

FLORIDA: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban this month, which includes exceptions for rape, incest, human trafficking and the life and health of the mother. It cannot take effect until the state Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the 15-week ban that is currently in place.

IDAHO: Idaho Governor Brad Little signed a bill this month that makes it illegal to help a minor cross state lines to get an abortion without the permission of a parent or guardian. Offenders would face two to five years in prison. The Republican-led state is currently enforcing a near-total abortion ban, with exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother.

MONTANA:

The Republican-led legislature has passed a bill seeking to overturn a 1999 state Supreme Court ruling that found that the state constitution protected a right to abortion. That ruling has prevented lawmakers in the conservative state from restricting abortion further than the current 24-week limit. The bill awaits Republican Governor Greg Gianforte's signature.

The full legislature has also passed a bill that would ban most second trimester abortions by prohibiting a common surgical procedure. If signed by the governor, it would take effect immediately. Planned Parenthood has sued to block the measure.

NEBRASKA: Lawmakers in Nebraska's 50-seat unicameral legislature failed to pass a six-week abortion ban on Thursday, after the chamber did not amass enough votes to end debate on the bill. Much of the debate centered on one member's proposed amendment to allow abortions up to 12 weeks. Abortion is currently legal in the state up to 22 weeks.

NORTH CAROLINA: Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to limit most abortions to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, life-limiting fetal anomalies and the life of the mother. Abortion is currently legal up to 20 weeks. If it passes the legislature, the Democratic governor's power to block the bill would be limited because Republicans now hold a large enough majority in both houses of the legislature to override his veto.

NORTH DAKOTA: North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum on Monday signed a bill that bans abortion with exceptions for cases where the mother's life or health are at serious risk. The law, which took immediate effect, also makes exceptions for rape and incest victims, but only during the first six weeks of pregnancy.

The measure passed despite the state Supreme Court's decision last month not to revive a previous version of the near-total ban, after finding that the state constitution protects abortion rights in some cases.

SOUTH CAROLINA:

The Republican-led House of Representatives is considering a six-week abortion ban that the Senate has passed, despite the fact that the state Supreme Court recently struck down a six-week abortion ban in a 3-2 vote.

The Senate tabled discussion of a near-total abortion ban on Thursday after it had been approved by the House. The chamber voted to delay considering the bill until the next legislative session in January 2024, after a two-day filibuster by the five women senators who felt it was too severe.

TEXAS: While abortion is completely banned with very limited exceptions in Texas, Republican state representatives have introduced legislation that would compel internet providers to block websites that supply abortion pills or provide information on how to obtain an abortion.

UTAH: Republican Governor Spencer Cox in March signed legislation to prohibit the licensing of abortion clinics, which abortion rights advocates say would effectively eliminate access in the state. Abortion is currently banned after 18 weeks in Utah.

WYOMING: The Republican-led state legislature passed a bill in March banning the use or prescription of medication abortion pills, and Republican Governor Mark Gordon signed it into law. It is due to take effect July 1. Abortion is currently legal until viability, about 24 weeks, while a state court is reviewing a challenge to a near-total "trigger" ban, which was took effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned.

PROTECTIONS

CALIFORNIA: A Democratic state senator has introduced a bill to protect doctors who prescribe medication abortion pills to patients in other states.

MICHIGAN: Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation this month repealing a 1931 bill that criminalized abortion.

ILLINOIS: Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker in January signed a law protecting abortion providers and out-of-state patients from legal attacks waged by other states.

MINNESOTA: Democratic Governor Tim Walz in January signed legislation passed by the Minnesota legislature's new Democratic majority that codifies abortion rights in state law, as well as a right to contraception and fertility treatment. The Democratic-led House passed a bill to shield abortion providers and patients from other states' legal attacks, and the Senate is considering it.

OHIO: Abortion rights supporters are trying to collect enough signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the November 2023 ballot that would assert a right to abortion. Abortion is currently legal up to 22 weeks.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Matthew Lewis, Aurora Ellis, Jonathan Oatis and Sharon Singleton)
FILE PHOTO: German Finance Minister Christian Lindner attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi/File Photo

BERLIN (Reuters) - German customs will be strengthened to play a key role in the fight against organised crime and money laundering, and illegally obtained assets will be confiscated, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Wednesday.

"Customs will become even more powerful, specialized and efficient with the new strategy," he said at a news briefing as he presented measures to fight organised crime and money laundering that will be implemented by the second quarter of 2025.

"The objective is to identify technical developments on the perpetrator side at an early stage and to be able to counter this successfully," Lindner said.

Customs will play an important role in financial investigations, helping to track down illegally obtained assets and uncovering money laundering.

"My motto is don't raise taxes, but enforce laws," Lindner said.

Germany was criticised last year by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for failing to do enough to tackle money laundering and prosecuting few people over the crime despite being one of the world's biggest cash centres.

Last year, Lindner said Germany would create a Federal Financial Criminal Police Office as an authority to combat money laundering and financial crimes, set to be operational in 2024.

"We want to complete the conceptual and legislative work this year," Lindner said.

(Reporting by Maria Martinez; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
By Jonathan Saul and Lefteris Papadimas

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece issued a series of warnings to shipowners to avoid sailing close to Iranian waters days before Tehran seized two tankers amid heightening tensions in the region, according to documents and industry sources.

Iran seized a second oil tanker in a week on Wednesday in Gulf waters, the U.S. Navy said, the latest escalation in a series of seizures or attacks on commercial vessels in Gulf waters since 2019.

The incident comes after Iran on April 27 seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, which is being held by authorities in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.

Greece is home to many of the world's leading ship owners, managers and the broader maritime services industry.

"Due to recent Iranian threats of possible retaliation against Greek shipping, we strongly recommend the navigation in the above area as well as in the Straits of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman to be carried out, if possible, outside the waters under Iran's jurisdiction, and under increased caution when sailing near the above areas," Greece's shipping ministry said in an advisory dated April 20 seen by Reuters.

Greek government officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One industry source with knowledge of the situation said shipping companies were advised to leave the area close to Iran.

"Greece has issued a couple of informal warnings for the seafarers in the area a few weeks ago," a Greek shipping industry official with knowledge of the issue told Reuters separately.

The official added that other Greek tankers were "moving away from the area" without providing more details.

Data from analytics company MarineTraffic showed the number of tankers that left Gulf countries near to Iran reached 107 vessels and an additional 36 LNG carriers in the April 19-26 period versus 60 tankers and 26 carriers in the April 27-May 3 period.

About a fifth of the world's crude oil and oil products passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow choke point between Iran and Oman, according to data from analytics firm Vortexa.

Maritime security company Ambrey said following the initial warning by Greece's shipping ministry, it "observed the exodus of an unusually high number of Greek-flagged vessels from the Gulf region".

"Ambrey assess the risk to merchant shipping was not limited to the flag-state but to the affiliations with Greece and the U.S."

Washington has seized a cargo of Iranian oil in recent weeks aboard a tanker managed by a Greek company.

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul in London and Eleftherios Papadimas in Athens; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Li Bing, wife of China's Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Li Chenggang, displays one of her calligraphy works to guests during a Chinese cultural event at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 2, 2023. The event, "Appreciating Masterpieces of Calligraphy and Painting and Sharing the Beautiful Future," included exhibitions of Chinese traditional paintings and calligraphy works, and also offered guests the chance to watch a traditional tea ceremony and taste Chinese gourmet snacks. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)

GENEVA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Looking at the beautiful exhibition from China "allows us to better appreciate and better understand each other," Madhu Seth, president of the Asian Ambassador's Wives Association Geneva, has said.

Seth made the remarks while participating in a cultural exchange event which was held here Tuesday at the Palais des Nations.

The event, "Appreciating Masterpieces of Calligraphy and Painting and Sharing the Beautiful Future," included exhibitions of Chinese traditional paintings and calligraphy works, and also offered guests the chance to watch a traditional tea ceremony and taste Chinese gourmet snacks.

Li Wenci, wife of Ambassador Chen Xu, Permanent Representative of China to the UN Office at Geneva and one of the two organizers of the event, said Chinese culture advocates harmony and beauty, adding that she hoped mutual learning and exchanges will be promoted between different countries.

Li Bing, wife of China's Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Li Chenggang and the other organizer of the event, displayed her calligraphy works to guests, which illustrate her vision of a "peaceful and prosperous life."

Claire Bostock Tang, wife of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General Daren Tang, wrote a Chinese character on rice paper, explaining that "The character means 'togetherness', 'harmony' and 'interconnectedness'." She said she likes this Chinese character very much.

Mette Hartmeyer, wife of Permanent Ambassador of Pakistan to WTO, told Xinhua that she really appreciated these initiatives "where we get exposed to each other's cultural heritage and history."

"It is a great initiative ... to bring these beautiful cultural things" to the people in Geneva and the international community, Sushma Pandey, wife of the Permanent Ambassador of India to the UN Office at Geneva, told Xinhua.

Around 60 people, mainly wives of ambassadors from more than 40 countries to the UN Office in Geneva, as well as female leaders of several international organizations, attended the event. 

Guests watch a traditional tea ceremony during a Chinese cultural event at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 2, 2023. The event, "Appreciating Masterpieces of Calligraphy and Painting and Sharing the Beautiful Future," included exhibitions of Chinese traditional paintings and calligraphy works, and also offered guests the chance to watch a traditional tea ceremony and taste Chinese gourmet snacks. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)

Claire Bostock Tang, wife of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General Daren Tang, writes a Chinese character meaning "togetherness", "harmony" and "interconnectedness" on rice paper during a Chinese cultural event at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 2, 2023. The event, "Appreciating Masterpieces of Calligraphy and Painting and Sharing the Beautiful Future," included exhibitions of Chinese traditional paintings and calligraphy works, and also offered guests the chance to watch a traditional tea ceremony and taste Chinese gourmet snacks. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)
FILE PHOTO: A marijuana plant sits on a table as marijuana enthusiasts mark the informal annual cannabis holiday, 4/20 (four-twenty), corresponding to the numerical figure widely recognized within the cannabis subculture as a symbol for all things related

By Mrinalika Roy

(Reuters) - Green Thumb Industries Inc reported higher first-quarter sales on Wednesday, as customer traffic rose at the cannabis producer's retail stores after more U.S. states legalized the recreational use of marijuana.

The company said its quarterly revenue grew despite continued price compression, helped by strong business performance in states like New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Virginia and Minnesota.

Its total revenue for the quarter rose 2.4% to $248.5 million from $242.6 million last year.

Same-store sales, which account for sales in stores open for more than a year, in the quarter rose 6.3% from a year earlier.

"There's demand from Americans for cannabis products and we continue to execute," CEO Ben Kovler told Reuters.

The Chicago-based company, however, reported a decline in net income, blaming pressure from the tax regime that continues to be unfavourable for federally illegal businesses like cannabis.

Still, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 13.7% to $76.2 million.

"For us to be able to year-over-year expand the margin 300 basis points with pricing pressure is a pretty good situation. Keep in mind pricing is down about mid-teens across the country," Kovler said.

The cannabis industry is in a tight spot due to the lack of access to capital and the banking system, but Green Thumb has continued to generate positive cash flow, which the company said it would invest in building facilities.

"Our $185 million cash balance continues to give us the optionality to make investment decisions that will position us for the increasing demand for legal cannabis, a market estimated by analysts to grow to $75 billion over the next decade," Kovler added.

Capital expenditure is expected to be about $150 million or more for 2023, Kovler said, compared with $240 million last year.

(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)
FILE PHOTO-Television journalists are seen outside the premises of the Supreme Court in New Delhi, India, January 22, 2020. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

By Arpan Chaturvedi

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will set up a committee to look into the problems gay couples face in their day-to-day life, the government told the country's top court on Wednesday during arguments for same-sex unions to be recognised.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has opposed demands to legalise same-sex marriages, some from gay couples, on the grounds that such marriages are not "comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children."

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a committee headed by the country's top bureaucrat would look into practical problems faced by gay couples in their day-to-day life and try to look for an administrative solution.

Mehta however did not signal any change in the government position.

The government would also like the petitioners to give the committee solutions and suggestions, Mehta said.

The petitioners have argued that without legal recognition of being married, they are denied rights such as those linked to medical consent, pensions, adoption or even simpler things like club memberships for couples.

A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dhananjaya Yashwant Chandrachud has been hearing the case since last month.

(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
By Caleb Davis

(Reuters) -A Belarusian journalist who was arrested after being hauled off a Ryanair plane that was forced to land in Minsk almost two years ago was sentenced on Wednesday to eight years in jail on charges of conspiring against the state.

Roman Protasevich, 27, was found guilty of a range of offences including organising mass disturbances, inciting acts of terrorism and slandering President Alexander Lukashenko, the Belta state news agency said.

He had worked as a journalist at the news outlet Nexta, which reported extensively on mass protests against Lukashenko in 2020 following an election that the opposition and Western governments denounced as rigged.

Nexta's founder Stsiapan Putsila and former editor Yan Rudik were sentenced in absentia by the same court to 20 and 19 years respectively. Belarus declared Nexta a "terrorist organisation" last year.

The circumstances of Protasevich's arrest in May 2021 prompted international outrage and triggered European Union sanctions against Lukashenko.

He had been flying from Greece to Lithuania when Belarusian air traffic control diverted the flight to Minsk on the false pretext of a bomb threat. He was arrested and detained along with his Russian then-partner, Sofia Sapega, who was sentenced to six years and is now set to be transferred to serve her term in Russia.

Prosecutors had accused the three defendants of at least 1,586 crimes, including "conspiracy to seize state power", calling for sanctions against Belarus and "creating or leading an extremist group".

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called the trial "fake". She noted that the verdicts were issued on World Press Freedom Day, tweeting that Protasevich had been "the regime's hostage since the Ryanair hijacking".

After his arrest, Protasevich was shown on state television tearfully confessing on state television to involvement in anti-government protests and plotting to topple Lukashenko. The exiled Belarus opposition said the admissions were false and had been coerced.

Video from state media showed him declining to answer questions from journalists in court about whether he would appeal.

(Writing by Caleb Davis; editing by Mark Trevelyan and Kevin Liffey)
By Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) - John Dunlap, a Canadian lawyer, was elected on Wednesday as the new Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, the global lay Catholic religious order and humanitarian group that is emerging from a period of internal upheaval.

Dunlap, 66, becomes the 81st Grand Master in the group's nearly 1,000-year history and the first from the Americas to assume the top position in what is formally known as Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta.

It was founded in Jerusalem in 1048 to provide medical aid for pilgrims in the Holy Land.

Dunlap, who joined the order in 1996 and became what is known as a professed knight in 2008, is the first Grand Master in the order's history not to be elected for life.

According to the group's recently approved new constitution, Grand Masters, who also assume the title of prince, now serve for 10 years. Professed Knights, from which the Grand Masters are chosen, take vows of poverty and chastity as well as obedience to the pope.

Last September, Francis dissolved the order's leadership and installed a provisional government following the death of the last Grand Master in June.

The pontiff moved in an attempt to end five years of often acrimonious debate within the order and between some top members of the group's old guard and the Vatican over the new constitution, which some feared would weaken its sovereignty.

The order has a multi-million dollar budget, 13,500 members, 95,000 volunteers and 52,000 medical staff running refugee camps, drug treatment centres, disaster relief and clinics around the world. It has been very active in helping Ukrainian refugees and war victims.

The order has no real territory apart from a palace and offices in Rome and a fort in Malta, but is recognised as a sovereign entity with its own diplomatic corps and passports.

It has diplomatic relations with 110 states and permanent observer status at the United Nations, allowing to act as a neutral party in relief efforts in war zones.

The new constitution and Dunlap's election was seen a win for reformers, backed by the Vatican, who had sought a more transparent government to bring in fresh blood and allow the order to better respond to its recent massive growth.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella, Editing by William Maclean)
FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks to the media during a news conference at the Old City Hall (Antiguo Palacio del Ayuntamiento), in Mexico City, Mexico January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Romero/File Photo

By Sarah Morland

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico's president asked his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden to stop the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from funding groups hostile to his government, according to a letter presented to journalists on Wednesday, echoing previous Mexican criticism of U.S. interventionism.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador did not specify which Mexican groups the U.S. should stop funding, but he has in the past accused several media organizations of being part of a conservative movement against his government.

"The U.S. government, specifically though USAID, has for some time been financing organizations openly against the legal and legitimate government I represent," he said in the letter. "This is clearly an interventionist act, contrary to international law and the relations which should prevail between free and sovereign states."

The letter calls for Biden's intervention, saying the U.S. State Department in recent days announced that USAID would increase its funding toward such organizations.

Mexico in 2021 had sent a similar letter asking USAID to withdraw funding allocated to non-governmental organizations critical of its government.

A spokesperson for USAID on Wednesday stressed the United States and Mexico's "deep partnership."

"We are committed to working with a variety of local partners, including civil society, to drive inclusive, sustainable, locally-led development," the spokesperson said, noting that "USAID also partners with Mexico's development agency AMEXCID" on migration issues.

Lopez Obrador has previously criticized USAID-backed free speech group Article 19 as well as Mexicans against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), which for years has reported on alleged corruption and lack of transparency in the current and previous administrations.

The State Department, MCCI and Article 19 did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The latest letter comes days after Lopez Obrador backed a proposal to scrap Mexico's freedom of information body, INAI. Lopez Obrador argues that many autonomous bodies are biased against him and waste public funds.

On Tuesday, the U.S. launched a new program intended to defend journalists around the world from legal threats.

The State Department has said there are credible reports on restrictions on free expression and media in Mexico - the deadliest country for journalists last year.

The U.S. has proposed a $63.1 billion 2024 budget for the State Department and USAID, which it says "will make it possible for us to continue to promote U.S. national interests and lead the world in tackling global challenges."

(Reporting by Sarah Morland and Raul Cortes; Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Josie Kao and Leslie Adler)
FILE PHOTO: Amazigh people wear traditional clothes as they celebrate their new year outside the parliament, with calls on the government to recognize the day and put more effort into supporting their language in Rabat, Morocco January 13, 2023. REUTERS/A

RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco's royal palace said on Wednesday the start of the Amazigh year will be an official paid holiday much to the delight of Amazigh activists who campaigned for decades for the recognition of their calendar.

Home to North Africa's biggest Amazigh, or Berber, population, Morocco long marginalised its language and culture in favour of Arabic and French, giving rise to an Amazigh identity movement which has steadily gained influence.

Demands of the Amazigh movement featured prominently in 2011 protests which led to Morocco adopting a new constitution and the Moroccan monarch to devolve some of his power to an elected government.

The first day of the year in the Amazigh calendar, rooted in seasons and agriculture, marks the anniversary of the ascent of Libyan King Sheshonq to the throne of Egypt, according to historians. The new year which begins on Sunday is year 2973.

The day is also celebrated by Arabic-speaking Moroccans who call it the beginning of the agricultural year corresponding to Jan. 13.

Morocco was the first Amazigh nation to officially recognise its ancestral language though activists deplore a lack of proper inclusion of the language at schools and in the administration.

The government has increased the 2023 budget to support Amazigh language by 50% this year, to 300 million dirhams ($30 million) and promised to hire hundreds of official clerks for the language in public services.

(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
FILE PHOTO: Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa speaks, next to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, during the swearing-in ceremony of his new government, at Ajuda Palace in Lisbon, Portugal March 30, 2022. REUTERS/Rodrigo Antunes/File Photo

By Sergio Goncalves and Andrei Khalip

LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese opposition parties called on the president on Wednesday to use his power to dissolve parliament over a growing scandal around state-owned airline TAP, although analysts see the majority Socialist government surviving - for now at least.

Infrastructure Minister Joao Galamba, who oversees TAP, submitted his resignation on Tuesday. But Prime Minister Antonio Costa decided to keep him in the job, snubbing President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa who had made clear he wanted Galamba out.

"The only way to restore democratic normality is to dissolve parliament and to call snap elections," said Rui Rocha, head of the Liberal Initiative party, calling Tuesday's episode an attempt to humiliate the president.

Costa's Socialists won an outright parliamentary majority in January 2022, but his third government in a row has been plagued by instability even as it eked out one of the strongest economic expansions in the European Union, reducing debt and drawing praise from Brussels.

Calling a snap election would make it more difficult for a caretaker government to apply vital EU pandemic recovery funds and support companies and families just as growth slows.

More than 10 ministers and secretaries of state have left their posts in the past year, at least two of them linked to the scandal at TAP over an irregular severance payment to an ex-board member, triggering prior warnings from the president that he could disband parliament if the government loses credibility.

"I will respect whatever decision the president makes, but we assure him and the country that we are prepared to replace this chaotic government," Luis Montenegro, leader of the main opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD), told reporters.

The high-level clash could still lead to a full-blown constitutional crisis, analysts said, but the president will have to tread carefully and consider the potential outcome of a snap election.

"Dissolution is a power that presidents have, without limitations... But the president cannot use this weapon at the risk of the electorate producing an identical or worse situation than the one we have," said political scientist Andre Freire.

Far-right party Chega, the third-strongest in parliament, is seen as the main beneficiary of the scandals and the only feasible partner for the centre-right PSD, which could win the next election, as some polls show, but without a working majority to govern.

Antonio Costa Pinto of Lisbon University said the trend in Europe was for centre-right parties to negotiate government pacts with populist and radical parties, suggesting that the president may consider such a solution worse than a Socialist government.

He added though that if the government keeps making mistakes, Rebelo de Sousa would have no other solution left.

In Freire's view, the unprecedented fallout, in which Costa unexpectedly demonstrated his strength to the president, "does not necessarily mean they will enter into constant turbulence".

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves and Andrei Khalip; Editing by Nick Macfie)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Seventeen people were killed and 29 injured after a public bus and a heavy transport truck collided on a desert highway in southwestern Egypt, the health ministry said on Thursday.

The accident occurred on Wednesday on the Assuit-Kharga highway, some 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Cairo, in New Valley province that shares a long border with Libya, medical and security sources said.

Twenty-six ambulances were dispatched to the scene to ferry the injured to hospitals, a health ministry statement said.

It was not immediately clear how the accident occurred.

Reckless driving, lax traffic rules and poor road conditions cause many vehicular crashes in Egypt.

Road accidents left 7,101 people dead in Egypt in 2021, a 15.2% increase compared with 2020, statistics agency CAPMAS said in a report last year.

(Reporting by Momen Saeed Atallah; writing by Hatem Maher and Jana Choukeir; editing by Chris Reese and Mark Heinrich)
FILE PHOTO-Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during  meeting of the Council of Legislators under Russia's Federal Assembly in Saint Petersburg, Russia April 28, 2023. Sputnik/Alexei Danichev/Pool via REUTERS

By Mark Trevelyan

(Reuters) -Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in an attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin - the most serious allegation that Moscow has levelled at Kyiv in more than 14 months of war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promptly denied any Ukrainian involvement, telling a press conference in Helsinki: "We don't attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory."

A senior Ukrainian presidential official said the incident instead suggested Moscow was preparing a major "terrorist provocation".

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had not been able to validate the reported attack, and that Russian assertions should be taken with a "very large shaker of salt".

Russia reserved the right to retaliate, Putin's office said, and Russian hardliners demanded swift retribution against Zelenskiy himself.

"Two uncrewed aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were put out of action," the presidency said in a statement.

"We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the president's life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned ...

"The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit."

VIDEOS SHOW EXPLOSION OVER KREMLIN

Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russia's law enforcement agencies, posted a video showing a flying object approaching the dome of the Kremlin Senate building overlooking Red Square - site of next Tuesday's Victory Day parade - and exploding in an intense burst of light just before reaching it.

Two similar videos posted on social media showed two objects flying on the same trajectory towards the dome, with the clock on the Kremlin's Spassky Tower reading 2:27 and 2:43. The first seemed to be destroyed with little more than a puff of smoke, the second appeared to leave blazing wreckage on the dome.

Reuters checks on the time and location indicated that the videos could be authentic, although it was not clear how Ukraine, if it were involved, could seriously have expected to kill Putin with a drone strike on the Kremlin - a huge, historic walled citadel in the heart of Moscow.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in comments sent to Reuters: "In my opinion, it is absolutely obvious that both 'reports about an attack on the Kremlin' and simultaneously the supposed detention of Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea ... clearly indicate the preparation of a large-scale terrorist provocation by Russia in the coming days."

The powerful speaker of the lower house of Russia's parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, demanded the use of "weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime".

And former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said the incident "leaves us no option but to physically eliminate Zelenskiy and his clique".

PUTIN 'RARELY GOES TO KREMLIN'

But a British expert on Russia, Mark Galeotti, said it was unlikely that the alleged attack had targeted Putin, who "notoriously rarely goes to the Kremlin, let alone stays there overnight".

"If we presume it was a Ukrainian attack," Galeotti tweeted, "consider it a performative strike, a demonstration of capability and a declaration of intent: 'don't think Moscow is safe.'"

The presidential administration said fragments of the drones had been scattered on the territory of the Kremlin complex but there were no casualties or material damage.

The RIA news agency said Putin had not been in the Kremlin at the time, and was working on Wednesday at his Novo Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.

Victory Day is a major public holiday commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, and a chance for Putin to rally Russians behind what he calls his "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Russia marks the occasion with a huge military parade on Red Square, for which seating has already been erected.

The state news agency TASS said the parade - for which the Kremlin last week announced tighter security - would still go ahead.

Before the drone attack was announced, some 10 hours after the event, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the city had introduced an immediate ban on unauthorised drone flights.

Russia has accused Ukraine of numerous cross-border attacks since the start of the war, including strikes in December on an air base deep inside Russian territory that houses strategic bomber planes equipped to carry nuclear weapons. In February, a drone crashed in Kolomna, about 110 km (70 miles) from the centre of Moscow.

Ukraine typically declines to claim responsibility for attacks on Russia or Russian-annexed Crimea, though Kyiv officials have frequently celebrated such attacks with cryptic or mocking remarks.

(Additional reporting by Felix Light and Jake Cordell; writing by Mark Trevelyan and Kevin Liffey; editing by Nick Macfie)
By Rachna Uppal

DUBAI (Reuters) - Government-led reforms and the growth of private investment in new sectors will help support non-oil economic growth in Saudi Arabia amid an expected sharp slowdown in overall growth this year, a senior IMF official said.

The Saudi economy grew 8.7% last year, as high oil prices boosted revenue and led to the kingdom's first budget surplus in almost 10 years.

The IMF projects that Saudi GDP growth will more than halve, to 3.1%, this year, in line with the forecast for Middle East oil exporters. The forecast, however, is higher than the 2.6% growth rate that the IMF projected in January.

Several OPEC+ member states, led by Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude exporter, recently announced surprise cuts to oil production from May, initially driving up global prices, although global worries and an uncertain demand outlook are weighing on prices.

"This year, with the implementation of the new OPEC+ quotas, we expect the oil sector to slow down," Jihad Azour, director for the Middle East and Central Asia at the IMF, told Reuters, adding that the impact on the kingdom's budget depended on prices.

"The drop in production will affect growth because output will decline, but revenues could grow and this could have a positive impact on both external accounts, the reserves, and the budget deficit," he said.

"Clearly, the strategy over the last five to six years has helped the Saudi economy, and also the public finances, to be less dependent on the cycle of oil."

Saudi Arabia has embarked on an ambitious economic transformation plan known as Vision 2030, investing billions to diversify into sectors such as tourism, launch massive infrastructure projects, and develop the financial and private sectors.

"The size of the non-oil economy is growing and it's mainly driven by the private sector," Azour said.

(Reporting by Rachna Uppal; Editing by Leslie Adler)
HOUSTON, May 2 (Xinhua) -- A gunman suspected of killing five neighbors including a young boy was arrested on Tuesday after days of large-scale manhunt in south central U.S. state Texas, authorities said.

Francisco Oropesa, the suspect, was "caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry," San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told reporters Tuesday, adding that he was "uninjured" and taken to a facility in Coldspring.

Investigators said they believe Oropesa, a 38-year-old Mexican national, was intoxicated late Friday night when he killed five of the ten neighbors who asked him to be quiet because they had a baby who was trying to sleep. He shot inside their home with an AR-15 outside in his front yard.

The shooting took place in Cleveland, a small town about 55 miles (88.5 km) north of Houston. All the victims were from Honduras.

Oropesa was previously deported four times, according to local media reports. 
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad stands with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Damascus, Syria, in this handout released by SANA on May 3, 2023. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The presidents of Iran and Syria on Wednesday signed a long-term strategic cooperation agreement, including a memorandum of understanding on oil industry cooperation, the Syrian state news agency reported.

The signing came during a visit by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Damascus for talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, in the first such visit by an Iranian head of state since war broke out in Syria in 2011.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Gareth Jones)
A firefighter works at the site of a train station hit by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kherson, Ukraine May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

By Elizabeth Piper and Carlos Barria

KHERSON, Ukraine (Reuters) - Russian shelling killed 23 people in and near the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Wednesday, hitting a hypermarket, a railway station and residential buildings, the regional governor said.

"The enemy's targets are the places where we live. Their targets are our lives, and the lives of our children," governor Oleksandr Prokudin said, announcing the latest death toll in an online video on Thursday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday decried the attacks on Kherson, condemning "the bloody trail that Russia leaves behind with its shells".

Prokudin said 46 people had also been wounded in Wednesday's attacks.

The dead included three engineers trying to repair damage inflicted on the power grid in earlier Russian bombardments, local officials said.

Pools of blood and piles of debris lay on the ground outside the Kherson hypermarket after the attacks, Reuters correspondents on the scene said.

Russia did not immediately comment on the attacks in Kherson, one of four Ukrainian regions it said it annexed last September. Moscow has denied targeting civilians in its invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022.

Many windows were smashed at the railway station. Three women who had been eating at the time of the attack said they took cover under a table.

Moscow has stepped up air strikes on Ukraine in the past few days as Kyiv prepares for a counteroffensive in which it is expected to try to retake occupied territory in Kherson region.

Ukrainian troops recaptured Kherson city last November after nearly eight months of occupation, but Russian troops retreated only as far as the opposite side of the Dnipro River, from where they now shell the city.

Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin on Wednesday announced a curfew in Kherson city to last from Friday evening until Monday morning for "law enforcement" reasons. He gave no other details.

(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Olena Harmash and Max Hunder in Kyiv; Editing by Ron Popeski, Grant McCool and Timothy Heritage)
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts after arriving at Aberdeen International Airport in Aberdeen, Scotland, Britain May 1, 2023. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

By Jack Queen

(Reuters) -Donald Trump denied raping writer E. Jean Carroll in a deposition video played on Wednesday for a Manhattan federal jury, as the former U.S. president sought to defend himself in a civil trial without testifying in person.

Trump, front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said in the October 2022 deposition that the alleged rape in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City decades ago didnt happen.

Its the most ridiculous, disgusting story, Trump said in the video, hunched over a conference table as Carrolls lawyers presented documents to him. Its just made up.

Although the deposition footage was not released, portions of the transcript have been filed publicly.

Trump will not be testifying in person, and his legal team told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Wednesday they will not be calling any witnesses.

The trial is in its sixth day and is expected to extend into next week.

Carrolls civil lawsuit for battery and defamation alleges Trump raped her in the mid-1990s and then tarred her reputation by claiming in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform that the former Elle magazine advice columnists case was a Hoax and a lie.

Carroll said during three days of testimony and pointed cross-examination that Trump slammed her against the wall in either 1995 or 1996, put his fingers into her vagina and then inserted his penis.

Denying the allegations, Trump accused Carroll of making up the story to drive sales of a 2019 memoir in which she made her claims public.

Trump has not attended the trial.

"I hear we're doing very well in New York," Trump said on Wednesday when asked why he was not in court. He spoke to reporters in Scotland where he was playing golf.

The trial has also featured testimony from two women who say Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago.

Former People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff told jurors on Wednesday that Trump cornered her at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in 2005 and forcibly kissed her for a few minutes until a butler interrupted the alleged assault.

It really had a profound effect on me, Stoynoff said through tears, describing the intense shame and self-doubt she said she felt after the encounter.

Another woman, Jessica Leeds, testified on Tuesday that Trump kissed her, groped her and put his hand up her skirt on a flight in 1979.

(Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Howard Goller)
FILE PHOTO: A smartphone with a displayed TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

(Reuters) -Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is in talks with partners to invest as much as 10 billion euros ($11.04 billion) to build a chip fabrication plant in Germany, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The venture between TSMC, NXP Semiconductors NV, Robert Bosch GmbH and Infineon Technologies AG will have a budget of at least 7 billion euros, including state subsidies, but is likely to end up closer to 10 billion euros, according to the report.

TSMC is still evaluating the possibility of building a fab in Europe, the company told in an emailed statement to Reuters, but declined to comment further.

TSMC has already been in advanced talks with Saxony, the region where the plant would be built, with focus on government subsidies to support the investment, Reuters reported in March, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Infineon and Robert Bosch declined to comment, while NXP did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for a comment.

($1 = 0.9061 euros)

(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Yana Gaur; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Anil D'Silva)
FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators carry banners during a protest organized by the National Union of Tunisian Journalists, calling for the freedom of expression in Tunis, Tunisia September 9, 2022. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui/File Photo

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's main journalists' union accused President Kais Saied on Wednesday of becoming the number one enemy of press freedom since he seized almost all powers in 2021, a move that the opposition described as a coup.

A free press was a key gain that Tunisians won from the 2011 revolution that ended the autocratic rule of the late President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. But journalists complain now that those freedoms have been eroded.

Reporters Without Borders said on Wednesday that press freedoms had declined significantly in Tunisia in the last year, with the country falling from 94th to 121st on its list.

Mahdi Jlassi, head of the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists, said that state television had become "a trivial propaganda mouthpiece that excludes all opposition voices", after remaining a pluralistic voice over the past decade.

Saied in September decreed a law imposing prison terms for spreading false information or rumours online, a move immediately denounced by journalists as an assault on freedom of speech.

Jlassi said several journalists had been tried under the law, which was "the biggest setback to expression freedom since 2011".

Saied has rejected accusations of restricting press freedom and says no journalist was imprisoned for his opinion. Saied has defended the law as necessary to save Tunisia from years of crisis.

The interior ministry says that there have been no deliberate attacks on journalists' rights but that there may have been "individual mistakes".

Last year, journalist Saleh Attia was jailed for three months for criticising the the role of the army in politics. Journalist Ameur Ayad was jailed for two months for criticising the president. Journalist Nizar Bahloul is facing trial for an article generally critical of the authorities.

Police are currently investigating journalists Mohamed Bougaleb and Monia Arfaoui for defamation after they criticised the minister of religious affairs.

This year, Nourredine Boutar, head of Radio Mosaique, Tunisia's main news outlet, was jailed on charges of conspiracy against the state and money laundering, according to his lawyer, who said that investigators asked him mainly about the radio's editorial line.

The journalists' union says many activists and other citizens had also been imprisoned for social media posts critical of the president and other officials.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Nick Macfie)
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain said the Detroit-based union is not yet endorsing President Joe Biden for a second term, citing concerns about electric vehicle policies.

In a letter to members seen by Reuters on Wednesday, Fain noted several national unions were quick to endorse Biden but the UAW is not yet doing so.

"The federal government is pouring billions into the electric vehicle transition, with no strings attached and no commitment to workers. The EV transition is at serious risk of becoming a race to the bottom. We want to see national leadership have our back on this before we make any commitments," Fain said.

Biden's campaign did not immediately comment.

The new UAW president was in Washington last week and met with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and many lawmakers.

Fain and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday criticized a General Motors joint venture battery plant for paying workers much less than assembly plant employees even though it benefits from hefty U.S. government tax credits.

Workers at the Warren, Ohio, joint venture Ultium Cells plant near Lordstown start at $16.50 an hour rising to $20 an hour after seven years while union workers at a nearby Ohio GM assembly plant that closed in 2019 made $32 an hour or more.

"The situation at Lordstown, and the current state of the EV transition, is unacceptable. We expect action from

the people in power to make it right," Fain said.

Fain said the Ultium plant at full production will receive more than $1.2 billion a year in U.S. battery production tax credits.

The letter noted that the UAW will enter contract talks on behalf of 150,000 workers at General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler-parent Stellantis. Fain said the Detroit Three "are making record profits while workers get left behind. Well stand with whoever stands with our members in that fight."

Fain said the union will be "ready to talk politics once we secure a future for this industry and the workers who make it run." He said "another Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster. But our members need to see an alternative that delivers real results."

GM opened with partner LG Energy Solution the Ultium battery manufacturing plant in August 2022 in Ohio; the pair are building two other JV battery plants in Michigan and Tennessee.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
ZURICH (Reuters) -UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti said on Wednesday that the Swiss bank was working on closing its merger with Credit Suisse by the end of May or early June.

Speaking at the Finanz '23 conference in Zurich, Ermotti also repeated his bank's line that all options were still on the table concerning Credit Suisse's Swiss business.

In March UBS agreed to takeover its struggling cross-town rival for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.37 billion) and said it would assume up to 5 billion ($5.61 billion) in losses as part of a deal hastily arranged by Swiss authorities.

On Sunday, NZZ am Sonntag newspaper reported that the country's largest bank was working towards spinning off Credit Suisse's domestic unit, with its current head, Andre Helfenstein, expected to run it.

The Swiss newspaper cited a source as saying that UBS had come around to the idea of a spin-off, which it initially ruled out, because of growing public and political pressure.

Ermotti on Wednesday also said it was too early to put a figure on how many jobs would be cut as a result of the merger. "Job cuts will not be avoidable," he said.

(Reporting by Noele IllienEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
FILE PHOTO-Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaks during an interview with Reuters, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Sergiy Voloshyn

KYIV (Reuters) - A senior Ukrainian presidential official said on Wednesday that Kyiv had nothing to do with any drone attack on the Kremlin, and that such actions achieved nothing for Kyiv on the battlefield and would only provoke Russia to take more radical action.

Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in comments sent to Reuters that the allegation that Kyiv was behind the attack, and Russia's arrest of alleged Ukrainian saboteurs, could indicate Moscow was preparing for a large-scale "terrorist" attack against Ukraine in coming days.

"Of course, Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin. We do not attack the Kremlin because, first of all, it does not resolve any military tasks," Podolyak said.

Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in a failed attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin.

Podolyak said: "In my opinion, it is absolutely obvious that both 'reports about an attack on the Kremlin' and simultaneously the supposed detention of Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea.. clearly indicates the preparation of a large scale terrorist provocation by Russia in the coming days."

(Reporting by Sergiy Karazy; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Timothy Heritage)
FILE PHOTO: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., December 21, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

By Anne Kauranen and Max Hunder

HELSINKI/KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected on Wednesday Moscow's claim that Kyiv had attempted to attack the Kremlin and said his country would soon start a counteroffensive on its own soil against Russian forces.

Russia earlier on Wednesday accused Ukraine of a failed attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack on the Kremlin citadel in central Moscow, and threatened to retaliate.

Speaking at a press conference in Finland, NATO's newest member, Zelenskiy said his concern was to defend Ukraine's own cities and villages against the Russian invasion launched almost 15 months ago.

"We don't attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory," Zelenskiy said.

Asked why it was in Russia's interests to accuse Ukraine of trying to assassinate Putin, Zelenskiy said: "It's very simple. Russia has no victories. He (Putin) can no longer motivate his society, and he can't just send his troops to their death anymore... now he needs to somehow motivate his people to go forward."

The Ukrainian president also said he was sure the West would supply Kyiv with modern war planes if his country was successful on the battlefield, citing prior examples that had led to Ukraine being granted new types of military aid.

"This is why I am sure we will soon have aircraft. Because we will soon conduct an offensive, and after it I am sure we will be given planes. I would rather it was the other way round, as it would be easier for us, but it is like it is, and we are grateful for everything," Zelenskiy said.

"We need them. Really need them," he said.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said Finland could not donate its U.S.-made Hornets fighters because they were old and few other countries in Europe had similar models, so it would not make sense to build up a service chain.

CASE FOR NATO MEMBERSHIP

The Ukrainian president's visit to Finland, one of only a few journeys he has made abroad since the Russian invasion, was announced only after his arrival amid tight security in the Finnish capital.

He reiterated his case for Ukraine to join NATO, the Western military alliance of which Finland last month became the 31st member in direct response to Russia's invasion.

"We need security guarantees today, while we are not in NATO," Zelenskiy said.

"But in any case, our goal is to have full membership in the alliance. This is one of the reasons why I am here today. The second reason, or to be honest the priority, is strengthening our army."

Zelenskiy held bilateral talks with Niinisto as well as a regional summit that included the prime ministers of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, all of which said they supported Ukraine's ultimate goal of becoming a member of the EU and NATO.

Hundreds of people gathered in central Helsinki to see Zelenskiy arrive, cheering as he appeared in front of the presidential palace.

NO GRAIN?

Zelenskiy said Russia did not appear to be interested in extending the Black Sea grain deal that has allowed vital food exports, but that Kyiv was focused on looking for partners to continue the deal due to expire on May 18.

Asked about the grain deal and whether the alleged attack on the Kremlin would affect negotiations, he said: "I don't see interest from Russia to continue the grain initiative, but this happens every time. But we are not looking for interest from Russia. We are looking for the fulfilment of the agreements with our partners."

(Reporting by Essi Lehto and Anne Kauranen in Helsinki, Olena Harmash and Max Hunder in Kyiv, additional reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo, writing by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gareth Jones, Christina Fincher and Angus MacSwan)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will travel to the Texas border with Mexico this week ahead of the lifting of Title 42, the department said in a statement on Wednesday.

The trip comes as the COVID-19 health policy known as Title 42 is set to end on May 11 and the U.S. prepares for a possible subsequent spike in illegal border crossings.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson)
HAVANA, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The Colombian government and the guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN) on Tuesday resumed peace talks here with both sides voicing hope for a ceasefire agreement.

"We are sitting at the negotiating table to find real solutions in a country overwhelmed by more than six decades of war," said Colombian Senator Maria Jose Pizarro, a member of the government's negotiating delegation.

The talk on Tuesday marked the start of the third round of negotiations and a ceasefire agreement.

Pablo Beltran, head of the ELN delegation, said the rebel group was committed to Colombia and reached for peace.

"Winds of change are blowing everywhere in Colombia, which is why social movements, intellectuals and various sectors opposed to an eternal war are being called on to play a more fundamental role," said Beltran.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the two sides can rely on the Cuban government's efforts to guarantee the success of the peace talks.

"We reaffirm our country's willingness to contribute to the success of this round of talks," he added.

The ELN is Colombia's oldest remaining guerrilla group. The first round of talks took place in November 2021, followed by a second round in February 2023. 
U.S. President Joe Biden and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. walk on the West Colonnade to the Oval Office following a welcome ceremony at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 1, 2023. Carolyn Kaster/Pool via REUTERS

By Karen Lema

(Reuters) - The United States stands with treaty ally the Philippines in the face of harassment by China's coast guard in the South China Sea and remains deeply concerned about "intimidation" by Beijing, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.

A visit to the United States this week by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr highlights the strength and endurance of the alliance between the two countries, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel J. Kritenbrink said.

The Philippines on Friday accused China's coast guard of "dangerous manoeuvres" and "aggressive tactics" in the South China Sea, in another maritime confrontation between the two countries. China said the Philippines vessels made "deliberate provocative moves".

"We remain deeply concerned by (China's) continued intimidation and harassment of Philippine vessels as they continue to undertake really routine patrols within the Philippine exclusive economic zone," he said in a teleconference from the United States.

"Such actions and behaviour on the part of Beijing are truly unacceptable."

Kritenbrink also said the United States and its partners recognised the importance of maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait.

The Philippines and United States on Monday reaffirmed their decades-old security alliance in a trip that marks a dramatic turnaround in their relations, as both countries seek ways to push back China's assertiveness near Taiwan and in the South China Sea.

U.S. President Joe Biden told Marcos on Monday said the U.S. commitment to defending its treaty ally was "ironclad". Marcos said the region had "arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now."

Under Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos' anti-U.S. predecessor, relations soured as he sought to court China while openly rebuking Washington.

Kritenbrink said he was "exceptionally confident" about bilateral ties.

(Reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Martin Petty)
DUBAI (Reuters) -The United States carried out a strike on northwest Syria on Wednesday targeting an unnamed al-Qaeda leader, the Central Command said in a written statement.

"At 11:42 a.m. local time on May 3rd, U.S. Central Command forces conducted a unilateral strike in Northwest Syria targeting a senior Al Qaeda leader," it said, without giving a name or specifying whether the leader had been killed.

The strike comes just days after Turkey announced that its forces had killed the Islamic State group's head in the same zone in northwest Syria, where Turkish-backed rebels hold sway.

Residents of the area, which mostly consists of hilly plains dotted with shrubbery and boulders, told Reuters that they heard three loud blasts that sounded like air strikes.

The White Helmets, a rescue force in opposition-held parts of Syria, said an unidentified drone had carried out a strike in the northwestern province of Idlib and killed a sheep herder.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former Syrian offshoot of al-Qaeda, holds swathes of territory in northwest Syria and its civilian branch also controls civil administrations in the area.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elimam in Dubai, Khalil Ashawi in Istanbul and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Editing by Alex Richardson and Christina Fincher)
FILE PHOTO: U.S. nominee to head World Bank, Ajay Banga, stands with officials during his visit at the headquarters of Ivorian electricity company of Yopougon in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, March 7, 2023. REUTERS/Luc Gnago/File Photo/File Photo

By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The World Bank's board of governors on Wednesday elected former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga to a five-year term as president, ushering in an Indian-born finance and development expert to revamp the lender to tackle climate change and other global crises.

Banga, 63, was nominated for the post by U.S. President Joe Biden in late February and was the sole contender to replace departing World Bank chief David Malpass, an economist and former U.S. Treasury official who served in the Trump administration. He starts the new job on June 2.

The election came after World Bank board members interviewed Banga for four hours on Monday. Malpass' last day at the bank will be June 1. The decision came in a vote by 24 of the board's members, with Russia abstaining, instead of the usual consensus-based process, a source familiar with the process said.

Biden congratulated Banga on his "resounding approval" to run the World Bank, which he described as "one of humanitys most critical institutions to reduce poverty and expand prosperity around the globe."

"Ajay Banga will be a transformative leader, bringing expertise, experience, and innovation to the position of World Bank President," Biden said. "He will help steer the institution as it evolves and expands to address global challenges that directly affect its core mission of poverty reduction  including climate change."

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Banga brought the "right leadership and management skills" to the job, and would play a critical role in pushing forward with additional reforms, including by forging partnerships between the public and private sectors and nonprofit groups.

"Ajay understands that the challenges we face  from combatting climate change, pandemics, and fragility to eliminating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity  are deeply intertwined. He has effectively built a broad global coalition around his vision for the Bank over the course of his candidacy," Yellen said in a statement.

Katie Malouf-Bous, interim head of Oxfam Internationals Washington office, said the bank needed "serious reform" to tackle the widening gap between rich and poor, but that would require huge new public investments and "guardrails around private finance that has run riot for too long."

One senior U.S. official said Banga's election came at a critical moment marked by emerging debt distress in lower- and middle-income countries and ongoing problems in food and energy markets as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine.

"It is a challenging moment, but it's a moment where the World Bank remains more vital than ever, and where getting the evolution of the World Bank is absolutely critical," the official said.

The bank already loans out hundreds of billions of dollars to developing countries but is working to increase its lending to help them address overlapping global challenges such as climate change, conflict and brace for future pandemics.

"The Board looks forward to working with Mr. Banga on the World Bank Group Evolution process ... on all the World Bank Groups ambitions and efforts aimed at tackling the toughest development challenges facing developing countries," the bank said.

The World Bank has been led by an American since its founding at the end of World War Two, while the International Monetary Fund has been led by a European.

Banga, who was born in India and spent his early career there, has been a U.S. citizen since 2007.

Banga has met with officials from 96 governments since his nomination, the source said. He visited eight countries during a three-week world tour to meet with government officials, business leaders and civil society groups, flying a total of 39,546 miles (63,643 km).

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Mark Potter)
FILE PHOTO: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., December 21, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

(Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Washington Post in an interview published on Tuesday that the White House did not inform him about a leak of secret U.S. documents that grabbed attention around the world last month.

"I did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand, Zelenskiy was quoted as saying.

"It is unprofitable for us," he added. "It is not beneficial to the reputation of the White House, and I believe it is not beneficial to the reputation of the United States."

The materials posted online offered a partial, month-old snapshot of the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine's defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said on April 12 the Pentagon document leaks contained a mixture of true and false information about his country's military and downplayed its negative impact.

In response to Zelenskiy's comments, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said: "We are in constant communication with our Ukrainian counterparts about a range of issues, including over the unauthorized disclosures, but we arent going to get into the details of those private discussions."

A Pentagon spokesperson said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken to a number of allies, including Reznikov, regarding the issue.

"Austin has conducted a large number of phone calls, conducted a large amount of outreach to our allies and partners around the world to discuss the matter with them, to highlight how seriously we are taking this issue, to include several conversations with his Ukrainian counterpart, minister Reznikov," Patrick Ryder told CNN.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas in Los Angeles and Eric Beech in Washington; Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)
United States Securities and Exchange Commission

Washington, DC 20549

NOTICE OF EXEMPT SOLICITATION

NAME OF REGISTRANT: CNX Resources Corporation (CNX)

NAME OF PERSONS RELYING ON EXEMPTION: Proxy Impact

ADDRESS OF PERSON RELYING ON EXEMPTION: 5011 Esmond, Richmond, CA 94805

WRITTEN MATERIALS: The attached written materials are submitted pursuant to Rule 14a-6(g)(1) (the Rule) promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Submission is not required of this filer under the terms of the Rule, but is made voluntarily in the interest of public disclosure and consideration of these important issues.

Dear CNX shareholders,

In 25 years of engaging with corporations I have never had to write a letter like this.

I am writing because CNX Resources Corporation (CNX or the Company) has provided false and misleading information and omitted crucial details in at least 17 DEF 14a filings  regarding the climate lobbying shareholder proposal filed by Proxy Impact (the Representative) on behalf of Handlery Hotels (the Proponent), and that this is a violation of the SECs anti-fraud rule (Rule 14a-9).

I realize that most of you have already voted, but this information may make you reconsider your vote - especially if you followed Glass Lewis recommendation  or at least will make you aware of egregious behavior by the Company.

Much of this relates to Mr. Deluliis repeated, false allegations that the Proponent was unwilling to meet and engage with CNX. For example, on March 27, 2023, Mr. Deluliis claimed that the Proponent submi[tted] the proposal and then purposely evad[ed] the Company in violation of ethical and professional duties.1 And on April 17, 2023, Mr. Deluliis claimed that [d]espite numerous attempts at outreach . . . [the Proponent] refuse[s] to engage.2

These statements came despite fact that the Representative provided CNX with five potential call dates between December 14, 2022 and April 25, 2023 and an offer to speak at a mutually convenient time. These dates were offered in the Proponents initial submission in November 2022 as well as in a subsequent communication on April 7, 2023 (see Exhibit A). The Company did not respond to these offers to engage. Instead, Mr. Deluliis resorted to vitriol including, notably, an often-used Twitter hashtag (#HandleryHeist) suggesting that the Proponent was engaged in improper activity.

In addition to being false and misleading, and omitting material facts, Mr. Deluliis, whose tone is often inflammatory, impugns the Proponent and its Representatives character, personal reputation, and integrity without factual foundation (a violation of Rule 14a-9). As demonstrated in multiple DEF 14A filings3 (also see examples in Exhibit B): These include:

 Falsely accuse the Proponent of refusing to engage with the Company while omitting that the Proponent offered multiple meeting times and days that were not accepted by the Company;

 Claim, without any factual basis, that the Proposal is an abuse of the shareholder proposal process; and

 Accuse, without any factual basis, the Proponent and the Representative of filing the resolution for financial gain and/or media attention.

_____________________________

1 https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/cnx-resources/SEC/sec-show.aspx?FilingId=16518155&Cik=0001070412&Type=PDF&hasPdf=1

2 https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/cnx-resources/SEC/sec-show.aspx?FilingId=16566009&Cik=0001070412&Type=PDF&hasPdf=1

3 https://investors.cnx.com/sec-filings (related tweets begin with 3/28/23)

1

These misstatements and omissions are not minor quibbles about wording or interpretations as to which reasonable people might differ. Rather, the Company made false and misleading statements and omitted information that has proven to be material. The Companys extensive repetition of these claims in its DEF 14a filings, on the Company website, on an earnings call and on the Company and Mr. Deluliis social media are likely to have a significant impact on the upcoming resolution vote as evidenced by the fact that, in April, proxy advisory service Glass Lewis acted on this information and released what we believe to be an unprecedented recommendation against the Proposal, citing the Companys misrepresentations about proponents actions and not the substance of the proposal  as the main reason for its recommendation:

Glass Lewis recommendation on CNX climate lobbying proposal #5

 The Company has provided some level of disclosure concerning how its lobbying is aligned with the Paris Agreement; and in this instance, it is not clear that the proponent or its agent has worked in good faith to engage in a dialogue with the Company prior to this proposal going to a vote, thus, we are not of the view that shareholders should support this resolution at this time.

RECOMMENDATION

We recognize the Company has provided some level of disclosure concerning how its lobbying efforts are aligned with that of the Paris Agreement. Although we believe that additional details concerning this assessment would better allow shareholders to understand how it is lobbying on climate-related matters, we have significant concerns with the proponent of this proposal and believe that support for this resolution is not warranted on that basis.

(See Exhibit C)

The Glass Lewis recommendation was sent to thousands of its subscribers. While Glass Lewis lack of due diligence in researching this recommendation is shocking (neither the Proponent or Representative were contacted for comment before making such an accusatory recommendation based on their alleged behavior)  it was based on misleading and omitted information and spurious accusations that have been aggressively promoted by Mr. Deluliis in extensive outreach to investors.

We agree with Glass Lewis that egregious acts of bad faith should be a factor in recommendations, but there is enough public information available to show that Glass Lewis targeted the wrong bad actor.

To date:

The Proponent has filed a climate lobbying resolution, successfully defended itself against a frivolous No Action letter,4 filed an exempt solicitation focused strictly on the merits of the resolution,5 and has not made public posts or remarks and has even refused media inquires.

The Company, by contrast, has refused five proposed call dates for dialogue, filed a frivolous No Action letter (based on Charles Schwabs use of a digital signature in a proof of ownership letter), made public several letters from the CEO to Proponent that uses inflammatory language and makes false allegations (to which Mr. Deluliis seems surprised  and enraged - when the Proponent does not respond to these), and extensively repeats these false claims and publicly trolls the Proponent and Representatives business operations, motives and integrity on social media, the Companys website, on an earnings call, and in filing an extraordinary number of exempt solicitations (because apparently Mr. Deluliis tweets are considered important material information for shareholders).

_____________________________

4 h ttps://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/cf-noaction/14a-8/2023/handlerycnx031623-14a8.pdf

5 https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/cnx-resources/SEC/sec-show.aspx?FilingId=16561974&Cik=0001070412&Type=PDF&hasPdf=1

2

What Mr. Deluliis has not done is to provide the information requested in the resolution.

The Companys report6  consisting of a graphic with two columns asking a Yes or No question lags far behind the standards expected by investors7 and that provided by other companies.

Mr. Deluliis statements on behalf of CNX go far beyond the normal vigorous arguments companies make against shareholder proposals. They blatantly misrepresent the Proponents willingness to engage and provide inaccurate information to shareholders about the Proponent and the Representatives actions, character, and motivations. In both substance and tone, these spurious accusations are unworthy of inclusion in a public companys proxy solicitation statements. Nor are they worthy of a Companys shareholders who expect a CEO to act in a professional manner and provide accurate information.

Michael Passoff

Proxy Impact

_____________________________

6 https://www.cnx.com/cnx/media/Pdf/CNX-Lobbying_Trade-Assoc.pdf

7 h ttps://climate-lobbying.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2022_global-standard-responsible-climate-lobbying_APPENDIX.pdf

3

EXHIBIT A

Proponents offers to speak with CNX: November 2022  April 2023

Handlery Hotels offered to speak with the company in a letter on November 16, 2022

The Shareholder is available for a meeting with the Company regarding this shareholder proposal. The dates/times will be provided by Proxy Impact.

Proxy Impact, Handlery Hotels authorized representative, forwarded that letter to the Company on November 22, 2022, along with proposed call dates.

Handlery Hotels and/or Proxy Impact will be available to speak with the Company via teleconference between 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Eastern time on either Wednesday, December 14, or Wednesday, December 21, 2022. Alternatively, we would be happy to arrange for a call to discuss our proposal at a mutually convenient time.

The Company did not respond.

The Representative responded affirmatively to a request from CNX to have a call and he provided three dates for a call.

The Company did not respond.

4

5

EXHIBIT B

Examples of CNX CEO Deluliis misrepresentations, false claims and spurious accusations to Proxy Service Advisors, Investors and the Public

March 29, 2023, Excerpt from letters from CEO Deluliis to Glass Lewis and ISS

April 21, 2023, Excerpt from letter from CEO Deluliis to ISS

April 27, 2023, CEO Deluliis Comments on CNX Earnings Call

6

March 28, 2023, Social Media Post by CEO Deluliis

7

EXHIBIT C

Excerpts from Glass Lewis recommendation Against CNX Climate Lobbying Shareholder Proposal #5

Based on the misleading information provided by CNX Resources, Glass Lewis made the following recommendation:

8
AUSTIN, Texas  An Air Force Reserve chaplain was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday for attempting to meet a minor for sex, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Maj. Jesse McKee Howard, 43, was convicted by a federal jury in January of attempted enticement of a minor. In addition to prison, Howard also received 10 years of probation and a $5,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Texas. He also must register as a sex offender.

The San Antonio Police Department arrested Howard on Nov. 12, 2020, as the chaplain thought he was meeting up with a 16-year-old transgender girl, according to court records. Howard had spent the previous days sending messages and sexually explicit photos and videos of himself from his on-base office to undercover agents posing as a teenager.

He arrived at the meetup location in uniform, police said.

At the time of his arrest, Howard was assigned to the 433rd Airlift Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland Air Force Base, according to his service record provided by the Air Reserve Personnel Center. He entered the service in March 2005 and has served on at least one overseas deployment to Iraq, according to his awards and decorations.

Air Force officials did not say Wednesday whether his unit has started the process to discharge Howard from the service.

Undercover agents first communicated with Howard in an online chatroom and then moved the conversation to text messaging, according to court documents. In the messages, the agent said his age was 16.

In response to the question, What are you doing? Howard responded with a video of himself masturbating in uniform in an office later determined to be a chaplains office in the chapel facility at the military base.

Howard set up a time to meet with the teenager for sex on Nov. 12, 2020, near a pet store in San Antonio. When he arrived at the location, police were able to run his license plate and pulled him over as he was leaving the parking lot. Howard texted back-and-forth with undercover agents throughout, even describing being pulled over, according to court documents.

The case moved into federal court, and a jury found Howard guilty in January.
U.S. Air Force special operators broke ground this week when they landed planes on highways in Wyoming, marking the latest effort by commandos experimenting with ways to ensure that air power can be delivered when airfields arent an option.

During Exercise Agile Chariot, the Air Force for the first time landed an MQ-9 Reaper drone on a highway along with an MC-130J Commando II, two A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and two MH-6 Little Birds, the 1st Special Operations Wing, headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Fla., said in a statement Tuesday.

Lt. Col. Dave Meyer, deputy mission commander for the exercise, said the operation was unprecedented in terms of size and the number of aircraft making the roadside landings.

An adversary that may be able to deny use of a military base or an airfield is going to have a nearly impossible time trying to defend every single linear mile of roads, Meyer said. Its just too much territory for them to cover, and that gives us access in places and areas that they cant possibly defend.

The operations were carried out Sunday and Tuesday by Air Force special operations teams, who built on recent efforts in Sweden and Latvia, where smaller roadside landings have taken place.

Air Force Special Operations Commands Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind said the aim in Wyoming was to hone the skills required to win a near-peer-competitor fight.

Such maneuvers would likely be critical in any potential military showdown with Russia or China, which could target airfields and other military infrastructure that the Air Force typically relies on to launch and land aircraft.

For the Air Force, the drills are an extension of the Agile Combat Employment concept, which has become a strategic focal point as the military looks for ways to keep powerful adversaries off balance.

During the past year, Air Force Special Operations Command has been testing other unconventional ways to deliver airpower.

For example, in November, U.S. special operations forces flew over the Arctic and rolled a long-range missile out the back of a C-130, dropping it by parachute before it blasted toward its target.

That marked the first ever demonstration in Europe of Rapid Dragon, an experimental program that uses standard air drop procedures to launch air-to-surface cruise missiles.

Part of the Wyoming exercise focused on the 15th Special Operations Squadrons landing of an MC-130J Commando II with two MH-6 Little Birds on Wyomings state Route 789, where it did a quick reaction personnel recovery mission, the military said.

Meanwhile, landing the Reaper on a highway has opened the door for future capabilities, military officials said.

The MQ-9 can now operate around the world via satellite launch and recovery, said Lt. Col. Brian Flanigan, the 2nd Special Operations Squadrons director of operations.

Highway landings are far from unprecedented for military pilots. But the remote Wyoming roads served as a testing ground for the MC-130J to practice resupplying other assault aircraft.

Such capability reduces the need to have a large logistical footprint or haul supplies more slowly by road, said Maj. Matt Waggy, the exercises director.

Its a major step in the right direction.  Our joint force commander can now look at these capabilities as very real options to solve real-world problems, Waggy said.
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan  The home of U.S. Forces Japan might host a liaison office that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will reportedly open in the Japanese capital next year, according to a Tokyo-based security expert.

NATOs plans for the one-person office in Tokyo were reported by Japans Nikkei newspaper on Wednesday.

The office will facilitate regular consultations between NATO, Japan and partners in the region such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, the newspaper reported.

The logical place for the office is at USFJ, according to Brad Glosserman, deputy director and visiting professor at the Center for Rule-Making Strategies at Tama University in Tokyo.

Yokota is also home to the United Nations Command Rear, a subordinate of South Korea-based U.N. Command.

NATO has been showing deeper interest and greater engagement with the region and Japan has been encouraging and supporting that evolution, Glosserman said in an email Wednesday.

Japans Ministry of Defense and USFJ did not immediately respond to phone and email requests for comment on Wednesday afternoon.

NATO, traditionally focused on Russia, is grappling with the challenge posed by a rapid Chinese military buildup and the possibility of conflict in the Taiwan Strait.

In addition to the U.S., other NATO members such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France have sent large military contingents to train in the Indo-Pacific in the past year.

NATOs 2022 Strategic Concept document states that Russia is the most significant threat to Allied security.

However, among other threats it lists Chinas stated ambitions and coercive policies; cyberspace; emerging and disruptive technologies; the erosion of arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation architectures.

NATO and Japan will work together to deal with cyber threats, disinformation, and emerging and disrupting technologies, according to the Nikkei report. They aim to sign an Individually Tailored Partnership Program before the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 11-12, according to the report, which cites unnamed Japanese and NATO officials.

Japan will attend the Vilnius summit along with leaders from South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, the report said.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and then-New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern attended the NATO summit in Madrid last June.

Meanwhile, Japan plans to create an independent mission to NATO, outside an existing mission to the organization at its embassy in Belgium, Nikkei reported.

The plan for the liaison office is a tangible sign of the intensified engagement between NATO and Japan that began last summer when Kishida attended the Madrid Summit, according to Jeff Kingston, a professor of history and Asian studies at Temple University, Japan Campus.

NATO and Japan have boosted their diplomatic engagement as a result of a common threat perception posed by Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine and the implications for the Indo-Pacific, especially Taiwan, Kingston said in an email Wednesday.

Putin has triggered moves towards enhanced security cooperation and highlighted the need to prepare for worst case contingencies, he said. NATO now will have its first outpost in Asia, linking the European and Indo-Pacific theaters.

Stars and Stripes reporter Hana Kusumoto contributed to this report.
AUSTIN, Texas  A judge on Wednesday rejected a request from Army Sgt. Daniel Perry for a new trial because of alleged jury misconduct and scheduled the soldiers sentencing for his murder conviction.

Perry, 36, was convicted of murder April 7 in the shooting death of Garrett Foster on July 25, 2020. Foster, a 28-year-old Air Force veteran, was carrying an assault rifle in downtown Austin during a Black Lives Matter protest, when Perry, who was working a side job as a ride-share driver, turned his car into a group of protesters. Perry, who was also armed, said he shot Foster because Foster pointed his rifle at Perrys car.

Attorneys for Perry alleged there was outside influence on the jury because one juror said another brought in printed copies of online research about the case that the juror did outside of the trial.

The Travis County District Attorneys Office on Wednesday announced Judge Cliff Browns decision to uphold the conviction. Brown scheduled a sentence hearing for Perry to begin Tuesday.

Our office continues to stand by the jurys unanimous decision to convict Daniel Perry for the murder of Garrett Foster, Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza said. We look forward to Mr. Perrys sentencing on Tuesday so that the family of Mr. Foster may continue to heal.

Perrys attorney Doug OConnell declined Wednesday to comment about the judges decision to deny a new trial for the soldier.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has said it is already reviewing Perrys case to present the boards recommendation to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for a possible pardon.

Abbott posted on social media less than 24 hours after Perrys conviction that he intends to pardon the soldier because the governor believes the jurys verdict contradicts the states 'Stand Your Ground' laws of self-defense.

Perry was assigned to Fort Hood, which is about an hours drive north of Austin, at the time of the shooting. He has since been reassigned to 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. The unit has begun to discharge Perry from the Army, service officials have said.

In preparation for Perrys sentencing, Garzas office unsealed evidence in the case, which included dozens of pages of the soldiers text messages, online chats and social media posts. They include Perry sharing racist memes and bigoted conversations with others identified as soldiers, as well as Perry chatting with teenage girls younger than 18, discussing an arrest for public drunkenness, and filing a police report for striking a pedestrian with his vehicle.

The only previous arrest that appeared in a public background search of Perry was a 2005 family violence charge that happened before his military service. He pleaded no contest and served probation.

The Army said April 24 that it had not decided how to move forward with the evidence.

The Army has received the evidence released by the Travis County District Court and is reviewing it to determine appropriate next steps, said Bryce Dubee, a service spokesman.
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea  Students from schools in and around Pyeongtaek city competed Wednesday in the Camp Humphreys Unified Special Olympics, an event that included South Korean athletes for the first time.

Pupils from the South Korean Ebada and Dongbang special-needs schools joined students from all four on-base schools  Humphreys Central Elementary, Humphreys West Elementary, Humphreys Middle and Humphreys High  along with students from nearby Osan Air Base.

Around 55 student-athletes took part in track and field events ranging from standing long-jumps, softball throws and races of 25 meters to 400 meters.

The South Korean students were included after the Department of Defense Education Activity-Pacific signed a partnership agreement with Special Olympics Korea last year.

As the student-athletes competed with the help of volunteers, they were cheered on by around 150 kids, parents and teachers waving handmade posters from the stands.

Lori Pyers-Goodwin, the events coordinator and a Humphreys Middle School teacher for students with severe disabilities, said the number of student-athletes and volunteers has grown since she started the annual event four years ago.

Pyers-Goodwin, a teacher for 22 years, said she has volunteered for the Special Olympics since her childhood and that its always been near and dear to my heart.

Because I work with students with severe disabilities, I see them overlooked sometimes, she said at the event. I wanted to do this to give a chance for my students to shine, stand out, get cheered on and get to be seen as the incredible individuals that they are.

Around 70 volunteers cheered the student-athletes as they crossed the finish lines and threw softballs as far as they could.

Volunteer Joel Black, a childrens physical therapist, said seeing the happiness from the student-athletes and the support from the community was the most amazing thing in the world.

We get to be blessed and to be able to pass on that blessing is a blessing in and of itself, he said.

Army Staff Sgt. Nico Manibusan, a network communication systems specialist in the 2nd Infantry Divisions Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, said it was nice to see the community come together for something like this.

I think this is great, Manibusan said. Its an opportunity for children with special education to come out here and compete amongst their peers and have other schools combined.

His 12-year-old son, Emmett Manibusan, competed in the softball throw and standing long jump.

I threw a soft ball, Emmett said. Yes, yes, yes. It was fun.
WASHINGTON, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The United States will open an embassy in Tonga later this month, with more embassies expected to be established in other Pacific island countries including Kiribati and Vanuatu, said a senior State Department official Tuesday.

Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a hearing on the current administration's fiscal year 2024 budget requirement that the budget will be of help to Washington's "expanded diplomatic presence across the Indo-Pacific, including a new Embassy in the Solomon Islands and planning for new embassies in Kiribati, Tonga, and Vanuatu."

The administration's FY 2024 budget request for the East Asian and Pacific region includes a diplomatic engagement budget of 533 million U.S. dollars and a foreign assistance budget of 1.36 billion dollars, as well as 2 billion dollars to support the U.S. "Indo-Pacific Strategy," Kritenbrink told the senators.

The United States officially announced the opening of its embassy in the Solomon Islands on Feb. 2. 
The U.S. accused Iran of seizing another oil tanker Wednesday in the waters of the Middle East, a move Navy officials said violates international law and destabilizes security in the region.

A dozen boats swarmed the oil tanker Niovi as it transited the Strait of Hormuz at 6:20 a.m. local time, U.S. 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Tim Hawkins said in a statement Wednesday.

The seizure of the Panama-flagged oil tanker follows a similar incident last week when Irans navy boarded the Marshall Islands-flagged supertanker Advantage Sweet in the Gulf of Oman.

That was likely in retaliation for American actions to redirect a tanker attempting to ship Iranian crude oil to China, U.S. officials said last week.

VIDEO:

The Navy releases footage that it says shows a dozen Iranian fast boats swarming the oil tanker Niovi as it transited the Strait of Hormuz today.



The Niovi is being directed to the port of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran, which has seized tanker, the Advantage Sweet. pic.twitter.com/OXhWiD5ZPL  J.p. Lawrence (@JpLawrence3) May 3, 2023

The fast-attack watercraft that swarmed the Niovi belong to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy, the 5th Fleet statement said.

Irans continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are unwarranted, irresponsible and a present threat to maritime security and the global economy, the Navy statement said.

The oil tanker had departed from Dubai and was transiting from the Persian Gulf toward the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, the statement said.

Niovi is the only ship owned by Grand Financing Co., which is registered in Liberia, the International Maritime Organization shipping database said. The Greece-based Smart Tankers Inc., which operates the ship, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The Niovi was forced to head toward Bandar Abbas, on the southern coast of Iran, the 5th Fleet said Wednesday.

The port at Bandar Abbas is where Advantage Tankers, which lists the Advantage Sweet as one of its 18 oil tankers, said its ship was being held.

Iran did not issue any official statements regarding the latest seizure as of early Wednesday afternoon. Irans semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Wednesday the oil tanker had broken maritime rules, without specifying an infraction.

Iran and the U.S. have accused each other of being a destabilizing force in the Middle East, which analysts say is locked in a shadow war between Tehran and Washington.

The Navy statement Wednesday said Iran has harassed, attacked or interfered with the navigational rights of 15 internationally flagged merchant vessels over the past two years.

Iran said it intercepted Advantage Sweet because it fled after colliding with a fishing vessel, injuring two crew members, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.

But the ships operator had no knowledge of any collision, Mark Clark, director of a crisis response company representing Advantage Tankers, said Friday.

An insurance company representative was able to board the Advantage Sweet at Bandar Abbas on April 30 to make sure that the crew was safe, Clark said Wednesday.
The Honolulu Board of Water Supply is still trying to find new water sources to make up for the capacity it lost after the 2021 Red Hill water crisis prompted it to take its Halawa shaft and two smaller wells offline to ensure jet fuel didn't make its way into the public drinking water system.

The reduction in water supply prompted pleas for residents and businesses across Oahu to voluntarily conserve water as the summer months approached in order to avoid mandatory water conservation requirements.

The BWS, which supplies drinking water to most of Oahu, had hoped that six sites it has been exploring would be suitable for well development, but BWS Manager and Chief Engineer Ernie Lau told the " livestream program Monday that four of the locations now appear unsuitable due to site constraints, drainage issues or other problems.

Lau said the BWS is continuing the search, looking at locations that are farther uphill, meaning the wells would need to be deeper.

The search for new water sources began soon after jet fuel leaked from the Navy's Red Hill facility in November 2021, polluting the aquifer that sits just 100 feet below the underground tanks.

The fuel contaminated the Navy's Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam drinking water system, sickening military families. The BWS, which has drinking water wells in the vicinity, shut down its Halawa shaft, which is about a mile from Red Hill, on Dec. 3, 2021, to make sure the contamination didn't migrate into its water distribution system.

This resulted in a 20 % reduction in the water supply for metropolitan Honolulu. Days later it shut down two smaller wells, Aiea well and Halawa well, as an additional precaution.

All three wells remain offline a year and a half later as BWS and state health officials try to better understand whether fuel from the 2021 leak, as well as decades of past leaks from the facility, poses a threat to the nearby county wells.

The BWS is looking to drill more monitoring wells in the vicinity to gauge whether petroleum chemicals are migrating in the direction of the Halawa shaft.

"If we find contamination and there is evidence it is migrating westward across the valley from Red Hill, then I think the decision on a permanent shutdown may be an order, " said Lau.

Lau said the BWS is also conducting a water treatment study to see whether petroleum chemicals, as well as PFAS, chemicals that the Navy has used in its fire suppressant at Red Hill, can be cleaned from the water at the Halawa shaft in the event the water does show contamination.

Concerns about PFAS have increased recently after the Navy reported a 1, 300-gallon leak of the concentrated fire suppressant, called aqueous film-forming foam, at Red Hill in November and two other AFFF spills at Red Hill in recent years have come to light.

The BWS has pegged the cost of new monitoring wells and the development of new wells to replace the lost drinking water capacity at $10 million. The state Legislature is poised to fund half of that. The BWS will have to cover the other half.

The BWS has estimated that it takes about five to seven years to develop a new drinking water well. Lau said that process is now looking more like seven years.

For now he said that Oahu appears to be in a good position as it heads into the summer months, a time when water use spikes amid drier conditions. He said April's water use was well below the five-year average.

If water use gets too high, the BWS will have to move toward mandatory conservation requirements, which can entail restrictions on outdoor irrigation and car washing, among other requirements. Lau said the public would be given adequate warning and that the Water Board would hold a public hearing.

"That is not something that is going to happen overnight, " he said, noting that the advance warning would give residents time to reduce their water use in order to avoid mandatory requirements.

BWS also continues to work toward completing a small water desalination project, which currently could be completed in two to three years. BWS will need to make sure that when the desalinated water is put in its system, it doesn't create water-quality issues when it mixes with the mineral-rich groundwater.

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Saigon, Vietnam, May 6, 1968: Life Magazine photographer Co Rentmeester is examined at a U.S. Army hospital after being hit by a bullet while covering the fighting in Saigon near Tan Son Nhut. Rentmeester was hit in his left hand. The Dutch photographer was hit with the same bullet that also wounded fellow photographer Art Greenspon, a freelancer for the Associated Press. Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces started shelling more than 120 provincial capitals, towns and allied military installations across South Vietnam on May 5, and battled government and U.S. troops inside the capital Saigon. The follow-up punch to the Communist Tet Offensive of Jan. 31 would last several days. The new offensive already had cost the lives of five journalists by the time Greenspon and Rentmeester were hit.

Today, World Press Freedom Day, Archive Photo of the Day salutes those who cover conflict zones not with a rifle, but with a laptop, pen or camera.

During the conflict in Vietnam  including the French-Indochina war years starting in 1955  63 journalists were killed, including one of Stripes' own.

Paul Savanuck was with C Troop, 3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment when their night encampment was overrun by North Vietnamese forces, April 18, 1969. Savanuck was one of 11 Americans killed during the attack. He had just joined Stripes' Saigon bureau two weeks prior.

Since then, conflict reporting has become more deadly. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost the lives of 288 journalists and 70 media workers in the years 2001 through 2021, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Again, the list includes Stripes' own. Two Stars and Stripes contractors were killed delivering the paper to U.S. bases in Iraq in 2005 and 2006.
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa  Salvage crews have recovered a section of a Japanese military helicopter that crashed into the East China Sea last month with 10 aboard, including a lieutenant general.

Two ships from the Tokyo-based Offshore Engineering Co. used a net at 11:50 a.m. Tuesday to raise a portion of the 8th Air Wing UH-60JA Black Hawk from the seafloor, a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force statement said that day.

The heavily damaged piece of fuselage was placed on the deck of a ship and a remotely operated vehicle was deployed to check for unrecovered aircraft parts, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.

The helicopter's flight data recorder was recovered and is being analyzed by the Ground Self-Defense Force, the statement said.

The Black Hawk was on a reconnaissance flight 11 miles northwest of Miyako Airport when it went down April 6 with Lt. Gen. Yuichi Sakamoto, commander of the Ground Self-Defense Forces 8th Division, four members of the divisions headquarters staff, four members of the wing and Camp Miyako commander Col. Masahito Iyota aboard.

Sakamoto, 55, was appointed division commander less than a week before the crash. His body was identified on April 21, the same day Japans coast guard suspended around-the-clock search efforts.

The aircraft section was found April 13 in 350 feet of water just offshore of Irabu Island, southwest of Okinawa.

Six crew members have been recovered from the wreckage and five identified since April 16. Four people aboard the Black Hawk are unaccounted for.
Ten Marine Corps MV-22B Ospreys have arrived in Australias Northern Territory as part of a 2,500-strong rotational force, the Marine Corps said Tuesday.

The Ospreys, from Marine Corps Base Hawaiis Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 363, are deployed to Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin, according to a Marine Corps statement and information released Friday by the U.S. Department of Defense with photographs of the aircraft.

The tiltrotors, air crew and support personnel make up the air combat element of Marine Rotational Force  Darwin, which began its annual seven-month rotation last month.

Ospreys, which take off and land like helicopters but can fly like planes, have supported rotational Marines in the Northern Territory since 2017.

This years rotation includes a command element from the 1st Marine Regiment overseeing 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment and Combat Logistics Battalion 1. All are based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., a spokesman for the rotational force, Maj. Matthew Wolf, said by email March 24.

The Ospreys are supported by a detachment from the Kaneohe Bay-based Marine Wing Support Squadron 174, according to the Marine Corps statement.

We are honoured to extend the legacy of the Australia-U.S. Alliance, working side-by-side with our ADF (Australian Defence Force) Allies to provide a ready force for contingency and crisis response in the region, Marine Corps Col. Brendan Sullivan, commander of the rotational force, said in the statement. Our team is postured and ready to advance shared goals, demonstrate the strength and endurance of our Alliance, and contribute to regional security and partnerships.

Activities the Marines and sailors will carry out with their Australian counterparts prepare them to respond quickly to a regional crisis or contingency or to provide for humanitarian assistance or disaster response, according to the statement.

The 12th contingent of the rotational force since 2012 will practice expeditionary operations, geographically distributed communications, non-combatant evacuation, embassy reinforcement, humanitarian assistance/disaster relief and rapid projection of combat power, the statement said.

They are expected to train in the Northern Territory and other Australian states with troops from friendly nations throughout the Pacific through the end of the rotation in October.

The Marines will participate in the biennial Talisman Sabre exercise in July, Wolf said in March.

That exercise, scheduled to involve 30,000 U.S. and Australian personnel, will run from July 22 to Aug. 4, according to an April 16 statement by Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles office.
(Tribune News Service)  State lawmakers are assigning $25 million to help police replace their aerial drone fleets after Gov. Ron DeSantis administration forced local governments this year to stop using drones made in China.

Under an agreement reached by lawmakers and the DeSantis administration this week, police could apply for funding to replace their Chinese-made drones. The Chinese-made drones would then be turned over to the Florida Center for Cybersecurity at the University of South Florida to analyze what security risks, if any, they pose.

We want to start over with drones to make sure theyre securely safe, said the Senates appropriations chairperson, Sen. Doug Broxson, R-Gulf Breeze.

The agreement attempts to remedy a rare conflict between DeSantis and Floridas police, who loudly protested an administration rule that took effect last month forbidding state agencies and local governments from using non-approved drones. The state said certain foreign-manufactured drones posed security risks.

But police from across the state told lawmakers in March that the drones werent a risk.

And they said that Chinese-made drones, particularly those made by the worlds leading drone manufacturer, Da Jiang Innovations, or DJI, were vastly superior and cheaper than the American- and French-made drones on DeSantis original approved list.

One of the drones from that approved list started a fire in a Palm Beach County Sheriff deputys car, forcing the deputy to pull over and drag out the carpet and flaming object on the side of the road, a department colonel told lawmakers.

The Legislatures solution was blasted by one key GOP lawmaker, who vowed earlier this year to allow police more time to replace their fleets.

Its money, taxpayer money, thats gonna get wasted  wasted, Sen. Tom Wright, R-New Smyrna Beach, said of the $25 million plan.

He estimates that police and local governments have spent at least $200 million on Chinese-made drones. Replacing them will cost at least twice that much because American manufacturers have doubled their prices in recent months, Wright said.

Police have found drones to be critical life-saving tools. Theyre cheaper and faster than launching a helicopter. Having a drone chase a bad guy down an alleyway is safer than sending an officer, officials testified. Drones infrared cameras have helped locate missing people.

Fire departments and mosquito control districts have also found the Chinese-made drones useful.

Some federal agencies have forbidden the use of Chinese drones, but no one, including from DeSantis administration, has been able to say exactly how the drones pose a threat.

DJIs drones cannot connect to the internet, police say, and use software prohibiting them from flying around airports and other critical places. A 2021 U.S. military study found no security risks from DJI drones and recommended them for government use. (The Pentagon later said the report was inaccurate and uncoordinated.)

Wright said the benefits to police outweigh the perceived security risks.

Im very frustrated, Wright said. Im very concerned about our law enforcement officers.

The new rules around drones are likely to benefit Americas fledgling drone industry, including Skydio, one of four companies that made the DeSantis administrations original approved drone list. Lobbyists for Skydio met with DeSantis administration officials in 2021, records show.

Several other states have placed limits on foreign drones, including Arkansas this week. But Arkansas is allowing police to keep using their drones until 2027, according to the online trade publication DroneXL.

Senators last week wanted to allow police to use their DJI drones through their life expectancy, but decided against it after vigorous discussion between lawmakers and the governors office, Broxson said.

Wright said the governors office was against it.

I was told specifically the governors office took it out, Wright said.

DeSantis office didnt respond to requests for comment.

2023 Miami Herald.

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Ukraine denies Russian claim Kyiv sent drones to hit Kremlin

KYIV, Ukraine  Russia claimed it foiled an attack by Ukrainian drones on the Kremlin early Wednesday, calling it an unsuccessful assassination attempt against President Vladimir Putin and promising retaliation for what it termed a "terrorist" act. The Ukrainian president denied it, saying: "We don't attack Putin or Moscow."

Putin wasn't in the Kremlin at the time and was at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti.

There was no independent verification of the purported attack, which Russia authorities said occurred overnight but presented no evidence to support it. Questions also arose as to why it took the Kremlin hours to report the incident and why videos of it also surfaced later in the day.

A video posted overnight on a local Moscow news Telegram channel, shot from across the river from the Kremlin, appeared to show smoke rising over the buildings. It wasn't possible to ascertain its veracity. According to text accompanying the footage, residents of a nearby apartment building reported hearing bangs and seeing smoke around 2:30 a.m.

Another video on social media, which looks to be taken from across Red Square, appears to show the moment a drone explodes in a flash of fire above the roof of the Senate Palace in the Kremlin, near a flagpole flying the Russian tricolor, with debris falling on the roof. It also was not possible to independently verify this footage.

The Kremlin said Russian military and security forces had stopped the drones before they could strike. Nobody was hurt, it added. Its official website said debris from the drones fell on the Kremlin grounds without damage.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on an unannounced visit to Helsinki for talks with the leaders of five Nordic countries, denied any role.

"We don't attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. We're defending our villages and cities," he said at a news conference.

Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the claims could provide a pretext for Russia "to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. was "unable to confirm the authenticity" of Russia's claim.

Asked whether the U.S. believed Putin was a lawful target of any potential Ukrainian strike, Jean-Pierre said that since the start of the conflict, the U.S. was "not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its border."

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that the United Nations "is not in a position to confirm these reports. We strongly reiterate our call on all concerned to refrain from any rhetoric or action that could further escalate the conflict," Haq said.

The purported drone attack would be a significant escalation in the 14-month conflict, with Ukraine taking the war to the heart of Russian power.

Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, said, "It certainly wasn't an attempt to assassinate Putin, because he doesn't sleep in the roof and he probably never sleeps in the Kremlin."

He added it was too soon to prove or disprove whether it was a Russian attempt "either to make Ukraine look reckless or to buck up Russian public opinion" or if it was a Ukrainian operation to embarrass Russia.

James Nixey, director of the, Russia and Eurasia program at the Chatham House think-tank, said "the two most likely possibilities are a 'warning shot across the bows' by Kyiv or a false flag operation by Moscow designed to justify more intense attacks in Ukraine or more conscription."

If it was a warning shot by Kyiv, then it was "yet another shocking security lapse by the Russian state," he said.

"If it's a false flag operation by Moscow, then it reeks of desperation," Nixey added. "And it's a high-risk strategy likely to be exposed, considering how poor their tradecraft seems to be."

The alleged attack prompted calls in Russia from pro-Kremlin figures for assassinations of senior leaders in Ukraine.

The Kremlin claimed the attack was planned to disrupt Victory Day, which Russia celebrates in Red Square on May 9 to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Peskov said the parade would go on as scheduled.

Before the news about the alleged attack broke, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a ban on using drones in the Russian capital, with an exception for those launched by authorities. He gave no reason for the ban, saying only it would prevent the "illegal use of drones that can hinder the work of law enforcement."

Zelenskyy was in Finland seeking greater firepower for his armed forces as they figure out how to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine.

Both Ukraine and Russia reportedly have experienced ammunition shortages after a winter of long-range shelling and missile strikes. Kyiv has been pressing its allies for more as officials consider when to start driving Russian forces out of Ukrainian territory they occupy.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine's counteroffensive is coming "very soon."

This year "will be decisive  for victory," he said.

The Nordic countries  Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland  have been among Kyiv's strongest backers since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Before meeting Zelenskyy, Nordic officials appeared ready to provide more aid.

"Here in the north, we have a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian neighbor, and it is important that we discuss together how to face this new situation," Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre said.

In fighting Wednesday, 16 civilians were killed in a "massive attack" by Russian forces on southern Kherson province, the Prosecutor General's Office said.

Russian fire hit the train station and the only open supermarket in the regional capital, also called Kherson, killing 12 people and wounding 22, officials said. Three energy workers died when they came under fire while making repairs north of the city.

The talks came a day after U.S. officials said Washington plans to send Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous number of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition.

The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been formally announced.

Elsewhere, Russia used Iranian-made drones during its third attack on Kyiv in six days. Explosions were heard in the capital and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defenses shot down 21 of the drones, Ukraine's air force said. No damage or casualties were reported

Meanwhile, a massive blaze broke out at an Russian oil depot in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

He didn't say what caused it, but some Russian media outlets said it was likely from a Ukrainian drone attack. There was no official comment on that possibility.

Residents heard an explosion shortly before the fire erupted, Russian news site Baza said.

Military analysts think Ukraine is targeting Russian supply lines while gearing up for a possible counteroffensive amid improving weather and as it receives more weapons and ammunition from the West.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group whose fighters are a key force in the grinding months-long battle for the eastern town of Bakhmut, was quoted by Russian media as saying Wednesday that he believes the counteroffensive is underway.

"I believe that the offensive of the Ukrainian army has, in fact, already begun. We see the highest activity of enemy aviation, we see the highest activity along the perimeter and inside our front," he said, according to the reports.

Explosions also derailed a Russian freight train and hit a Russian airfield in recent days. Last weekend, a massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two Ukrainian drones, a Russia-appointed official said.

In anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces are focused on destroying logistical routes and centers of Ukraine's armed forces with long-range strikes, Kyiv military officials say.

At the same time, Russia plans to continue talks with the U.N. and other parties to an wartime agreement on facilitating Black Sea agricultural shipments, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said ahead of talks on Friday.

Earlier Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed new consultations between Russia and the U.N. on access of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to the world market would be held in Moscow.

Signed in July and renewed twice, the deal freed Ukrainian grain shipments that were held up in the country's blockaded ports last year. The deal expires May 18 unless Russia agrees to its renewal.

Jari Tanner in Helsinki, and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed.
ISLAMABAD  A Taliban fighter recently fired his rifle into the air at a food distribution event in Afghanistan, an example of their harassment of nongovernmental groups operating in the country, a report from a U.S. watchdog said Wednesday.

The Taliban last December barred Afghan women from working at NGOs, allegedly because they were not wearing the hijab  the Islamic headscarf  correctly and were not observing gender segregation rules. In April, they said this ban extended to U.N. offices and agencies in Afghanistan.

The measure is being actively enforced by the country's intelligence agency, which reports to the Taliban's leadership in Kandahar, although their chief spokesman says there are no obstacles for U.N. operations in Afghanistan.

The latest quarterly report from the watchdog for U.S. assistance to Afghanistan, SIGAR, cited examples of Taliban interference and harassment of NGOs, including the rifle incident.

Organizations face security risks and harassment at Taliban checkpoints, unannounced Taliban visits to NGO offices, repeated requests for information on work plans, budgets, operations, and personnel, and demands for increased involvement in project decision-making and implementation.

The April ban on women working for the United Nations likely signals that they will "continue to interfere" in NGO operations to the detriment of the Afghan people, according to the report.

The U.N. told SIGAR that, in addition to the challenges posed by specific Taliban policies, weak Taliban governance and tension between central and provincial authorities make an effective humanitarian response difficult to implement.

"This dysfunction is expected to limit the ability to implement policies which sustain critical public and basic services and reduce needs," the report said, with the U.N. telling the watchdog that a "more restrictive environment lies ahead."

Aid agencies have been providing food, education and health care support to Afghans in the wake of the Taliban takeover in August 2021 and the economic collapse that followed it. But distribution has been severely affected by the Taliban edict banning women from working at NGOs  and, now, also at the U.N.

The Economy Ministry, which supervises NGO work in Afghanistan, rejected the SIGAR claims. Ministry spokesman Abdul Rahman Habib said there were no reports of checkpoint harassment or other interference.

A "special procedure" to improve NGO performance and solve problems has been shared with all aid agencies and U.N. offices in Afghanistan, he said, without providing further details on the procedure.

He also reiterated that the December order, issued by the ministry, remains in place. Afghan women are permitted to work for NGOs in certain sectors, such as health and education, but not others.

SIGAR's report follows a closed-door U.N. summit on Afghanistan that the world body described as an event where nations and organizations were trying to reach unified stances on human rights, governance, counterterrorism and anti-drug efforts related to Afghanistan.

The Taliban were not invited to the meeting, which was held in Qatar.
A New Jersey mayor who was blocked from attending a White House celebration this week with President Joe Biden to belatedly mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has called on the administration to end the federal "watch list" that he said illegally targets Muslims and others. During a news conference held Tuesday by the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah and several other speakers condemned the list as illegal, discriminatory and unconstitutional. A U.S. Secret Service spokesman confirmed that Khairullah was not allowed into the White House complex, but he declined to detail why. The White House also declined comment.

A New Jersey mayor who was blocked from attending a White House celebration this week with President Joe Biden to belatedly mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan called Tuesday for the administration to end the federal "watch list" that he said illegally targets Muslims and others.

During a news conference held Tuesday in South Plainfield by the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NJ), Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah and several other speakers condemned the list as illegal, discriminatory and unconstitutional. They also called on the U.S. Secret Service and other federal agencies to stop using and distributing the list, which the group says has more than 1.5 million names, a majority of which are "Arab or Muslim sounding."

CAIR has called on the Biden administration to cease the FBI's dissemination of information from what is known as a Terrorist Screening Data Set that includes hundreds of thousands of individuals. The group informed Khairullah that a person with his name and birthdate was in a dataset that CAIR attorneys obtained in 2019.

Shortly before he was set to arrive at the White House for the Eid-al-Fitr celebration on Monday, Khairullah said he received a call from the White House stating that he had not been cleared for entry by the Secret Service and could not attend the celebration where Biden delivered remarks to hundreds of guests.

Khairullah said Tuesday that he has no idea why his information is on the list and that no one in the federal government will tell him, adding that there's "no reason to believe I'm an unsafe person." Khairullah noted that he has been detained a few times and questioned while traveling, experiences that he called "humiliating."

"I'm not upset about not being at the White House," said Khairullah, who was elected to a fifth term as his town's mayor in January. "I'm about human rights. I have a platform to address this issue, but about 1.5 million others don't ... an incident like this makes me question the progress I thought we had made."

Selaedin Maksut, the CAIR chapter's executive director, said there is no transparency in how or why people are added to or removed from the list, and there is no remedy people can seek to have their names removed.

"Two decades after 9/11, we continue to see the harm of the watch lists. We continue to see how it causes difficulties for American Muslims and Americans at large, infringing on their civil rights," Maksut said.

A Secret Service spokesman confirmed that Khairullah was not allowed into the White House complex, but he declined to detail why. The White House also declined comment.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, New Jersey's two U.S. senators  Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, both Democrats, and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. , a Democrat who represents the district where Khairullah lives  announced that they have formally asked the Secret Service and the Biden administration for an explanation of why the mayor was blocked from attending. The trio also asked that he be notified about the "substantive reasons he was denied admission" and that his status be reviewed so he may be able to attend such events in the future.

Khairullah was an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump's travel ban that limited entry to the U.S. of citizens from several predominantly Muslim countries. He also has travelled to Bangladesh and Syria to do humanitarian work with the Syrian American Medical Society and the Watan Foundation.

Khairullah said he was stopped by authorities in 2019 and interrogated at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York for three hours and questioned about whether he knew any terrorists. The incident happened when he was returning to the United States after a family visit to Turkey, where his wife has family.

On another occasion, he said he was briefly held at the U.S.-Canada border as he traveled back into the country with family.

CAIR said Khairullah helped the New Jersey Democratic Party compile names of local Muslim leadership to invite to the White House Eid celebration and over the weekend was a guest at an event at the New Jersey governor's mansion.

Khairullah was born in Syria, but his family was displaced in the midst of the government crackdowns by Hafez al-Assad's government in the early 1980s. His family fled to Saudi Arabia before moving to Prospect Park in 1991. He has lived there since.

He became a U.S. citizen in 2000 and was elected to his first term as the town's mayor in 2001. He also spent 14 years as a volunteer firefighter in his community.

Khairullah said he made seven trips to Syria with humanitarian aid organizations between 2012 and 2015 as a civil war ravaged much of the country.
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service)  An Illinois gun store owner and several gun rights groups asked the Supreme Court on Monday to pause the states bans on assault weapons and large capacity magazines while a challenge to the law plays out in the courts.

The emergency application comes after lower courts in the case declined to halt implementation of the Illinois measures, and as a Supreme Court ruling from last year has been used in dozens of cases seeking to challenge state and federal gun restrictions. In a separate case, a different federal judge in Illinois last week temporarily put the law on hold.

Gun store owner Robert Bevis argued in the high court filing that there cannot be the slightest question that Illinois restrictions violate the Second Amendment right to possess firearms.

The request cites last years Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, where the court struck down New Yorks law about who can carry a concealed weapon. The case also marked a change in the courts approach to the Second Amendment, emphasizing that laws restricting gun possession had to be based on historical examples.

Bevis wrote that lower courts, including the judge in the case, have not gotten the message the high court intended from Bruen.

This Court intended Bruen to be a course correction and a reminder to the lower courts that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right, Bevis said.

The Illinois state legislature passed the law last year and Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed it in January. Bevis challenged the law in federal court.

Judge Virginia Kendall of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found the law constitutionally sound and found that assault weapons were a kind of particularly dangerous weapon that could be banned.

Bevis then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. In briefs in that appeal, Illinois argued that such weapons were not in common use at the time of the founding.

The assault weapons restricted by the Act are not commonly used for self-defense; by design and in practice, they exist for offensive infliction of mass casualties, the brief said.

The case is one of dozens working their way through the federal courts on the limits government can impose on gun ownership.

___

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People visit the Space Tech Expo USA 2023 in Long Beach, California, the United States, on May 3, 2023. The premier space tech expo is held in Long Beach in Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday, featuring the latest cutting-edge innovations, technologies and products in the space industry. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

LOS ANGELES, May 3 (Xinhua) -- A premier space tech expo is held in Long Beach in Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday, featuring the latest cutting-edge innovations, technologies and products in the space industry.

The expo, one of North America's leading conferences, has attracted over 250 exhibitors and more than 3,300 attendees worldwide.

The expo showcases space technologies and services for spacecraft, satellite and launcher systems, components and materials for civil, military and commercial space.

A variety of panel sessions and presentations are held on the sidelines of the expo, covering key industry topics such as optimized system design through additive manufacturing, material development, next-generation robotics for Low Earth Orbit missions, and emerging technologies for future space exploration.

New products and technologies at the expo include satellite tracking antenna systems, vibration isolation products, X-ray inspection equipment and ceramic package solutions.

Communications & Power Industries (CPI), a global manufacturer of electronic components and subsystems focused primarily on communications, defense and medical markets, revealed its latest satellite tracking antenna systems at the show.

Murtuza Motiwala, international sales director of CPI, told Xinhua his company expects to showcase its new technologies at the show, and reach out to potential customers, and experience the latest trends of the space industry.

STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, showcased its semi-conductor products at the show, including space qualified portfolio of radiation-hard products.

The company's microchips are embedded in the most advanced innovations such as electric cars and key fobs, giant factory machines and data centers, washing machines, hard disks, and smartphones.

Andrew Michel, product marketing engineer for space products at STMicroelectronics, told Xinhua the company has businesses in China, and expects more customers in the future.

The company hopes to connect with more clients at the show in satellites design and motor controls sectors, he said.

A space art show is also planned at the expo, showcasing paintings, drawings and digital works on astronauts and space exploration. 

People visit the Space Tech Expo USA 2023 in Long Beach, California, the United States, on May 3, 2023. The premier space tech expo is held in Long Beach in Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday, featuring the latest cutting-edge innovations, technologies and products in the space industry. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

People visit the Space Tech Expo USA 2023 in Long Beach, California, the United States, on May 3, 2023. The premier space tech expo is held in Long Beach in Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday, featuring the latest cutting-edge innovations, technologies and products in the space industry. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

A man tests 3D glasses during the Space Tech Expo USA 2023 in Long Beach, California, the United States, on May 3, 2023. The premier space tech expo is held in Long Beach in Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday, featuring the latest cutting-edge innovations, technologies and products in the space industry. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)
(Tribune News Service)  Frank Bellotti still wont divulge the harrowing secret missions the Scouts and Raiders went on during World War II.

They became the Navy SEALs and Bellotti, who turns 100 Wednesday, was a leader of those brave men.

We did guerrilla stuff, he said. I cant talk about it. Its still Top Secret. I have to keep it secret, Im the only one left.

That loyalty personifies Francis X. Bellotti. He remains a mentor to so many in Massachusetts, but his roots go deep in the Bay State.

The former three-term attorney general  and onetime lieutenant governor  was raised in Dorchester and became an icon from Quincy.

Bellotti transformed the attorney generals office from a backwater political Democratic Party hangout to a non-partisan first-class law office. Thats what he will be remembered for.

But back to his loyalty.

Bellotti comes from the age of handshakes and looking everyone in the eye.

Ive always felt I had a responsibility to the people here in Massachusetts, Bellotti said Tuesday. I never wanted to be away from my base.

He turned down a bid to run for U.S. Senate in 1966, he said, saying the pull of this state was just too strong. He would have been a great governor, too, but lost in his three bids.

Presidential candidates came calling  all of them, he said  and he thought John F. Kennedy was a giant among that crowd. I campaigned for him, Bellotti said. Ive never seen anything like him again. He was almost above the office.

He said that a week before President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

He worked with former Boston Mayor Kevin White and has remained friends with just about every politician who has sat in the mayoral office.

Through it all Bellotti has remained quintessential Boston to the core.

This is a great state, he said. We have more educational and medical institutions than any place in the United States.

He admitted he never thought hed reach the century mark, but Quincy will be the place to be for his 100th birthday bash Wednesday with a celebration at the annual Quincy Law Day at Quincy District Court, named after Bellotti.

Bellotti moved from Boston and is now in nearby Hingham, Mass. His beloved wife, Maggie, died in December. They raised 12 children together.

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WASHINGTON  Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held discussions with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the Pentagon on Wednesday, and the two set security guidelines to boost cooperation and modernize defenses in the Indo-Pacific region.

The two countries have been cooperating on various new defense measures in 2023, including giving American troops access to four additional bases in the Philippines that are close to Taiwan and other potential trouble spots in the South China Sea.

They celebrated the remarkable strides the United States and the Philippines have recently made  for a free and open Indo-Pacific region and rules-based international order shared by both countries, the Defense Department said of the meeting Wednesday between Austin and Marcos.

The meeting produced new bilateral defense guidelines intended to modernize alliance cooperation between the United States and the Philippines and keep the Indo-Pacific free from Chinese aggression.

For decades, the Philippines has been an indispensable friend and ally to the United States, Austin said.

The deepening of U.S.-Philippines ties is the latest move to seek or bolster defensive partnerships in the region. A year ago, China struck a security agreement with the Solomon Islands  a small country east of Papua New Guinea and northeast of Australia  that caused alarm among Western allies.

The defense guidelines announced Wednesday identify four main goals: reaffirming a 1951 U.S.-Philippines defense treaty, fostering a common understanding of shared roles and capabilities, increasing shared dialogue and coordination in all areas of bilateral security, and uniting to solve security problems of shared concern.

The 1951 agreement is essentially a promise to help defend one another if either the U.S. or Philippines was attacked by another country.

To help reach the four goals of the new pact, Washington and Manila agreed to modernize defense capabilities, deepen interoperability, and enhance planning and information sharing, according to the agreement.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the top Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday that the U.S. and Philippines are standing at a transformational moment in their relationship due to the new leadership under Marcos and Chinas rising influence in the Indo-Pacific. Marcos predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, favored closer ties with Beijing.

Specifically, Ryder said one provision of the deal is to expand operational cooperation in the South China Sea, a busy ocean channel that lies west of the Philippines and has been the focus of numerous military activities  and disputes  in recent years.

Last week, there was a confrontation in the sea when a Chinese ship tried to block a Philippine vessel and almost caused a collision. In March, Beijing warned the U.S. of serious consequences after the Navy conducted a freedom-of-navigation operation in what Beijing said were its territorial waters.

This week, the U.S. and Philippines opened the Cope Thunder airpower drills  joint training that features American and Filipino pilots flying together for the first time since in 1990. Both countries also trained together during their annual Balikatan military exercises last month, which the Pentagon said was the largest ever.

Austin and President Joe Biden have repeatedly labeled China as the top U.S. pacing challenge and they have consistently voiced concerns about Beijings views on Taiwan and the potential for an invasion. China considers Taiwan a breakaway Chinese territory and has long stated a desire to reunify with the island. China and Taiwan are separated by the Taiwan Strait on the northern end of the South China Sea.

Wednesdays visit marked the first time Marcos, president of the Philippines since last June and the son of longtime dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., visited the Pentagon. However, he and Austin met during Austins visit to the Philippines in February. Also known as Bongbong, the 65-year-old Marcos first visited the U.S. last September and met with Biden during the general debate of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City. He met again with Biden on Monday at the White House.

This relationship has to continue to evolve, Biden said in a joint news conference with Marcos. We are going to continue to support the Philippines military modernization goals.
UNITED NATIONS  The world's divided nations agreed Wednesday on one thing: There is a lack of trust in a world beset by conflicts and crises.

Diplomats at the U.N. Security Council presented ideas on how to move toward a more peaceful future  a task they see as difficult, but not impossible.

Switzerland's Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, whose country is in its first presidency of the U.N.'s most powerful body, chose the debate on trust, calling it a crucial element for peace. He recalled that when the United Nations was established on the ashes of World War II its mandate was to prevent another world war and there was trust among the former warring nations. Yet today, he said, "we still live with war."

International diplomacy is under stress and U.N. members have to acknowledge they haven't taken account of the frustrations and challenges facing the planet, Cassis said. But the international system where the world's nations act together is "not bankrupt," and "the real failure would be to do nothing," he stressed.

Cassis challenged the Security Council to grasp its responsibility of ensuring international peace and security, rebuild broken bridges, and "reflect on its potential for action in the face of the increasing number of crises."

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia laid out the challenge of rebuilding bridges in stark terms, citing the deep-seated divide and "trust deficit" among the council's 15 members. He blamed what he called the "treacherous activities of our former Western partners."

"Over the last 15 to 20 years, they've managed to destroy step-by-step the green shoots of mutual understanding and cooperation which had sprung up after the end of the Cold War," Nebenzia said, citing what he said were broken promises of no NATO expansion, the West's promotion of revolutions in east European countries formerly part of the Soviet Union, and attempts to impose its own world order.

The Russian ambassador stressed that he was referring first and foremost to Ukraine, which he said "has been relegated to a pawn in the geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the West."

Albania's U.N. Ambassador Ferit Hoxha, whose country is a NATO member, countered that the Security Council's role is "to lead the battle for peace and security and not be taken hostage to contemplate aggression and drivers of instability in the world"  including Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.

He called trust "the glue that holds people in societies together" and said the conflict in Sudan, the frustrating failure to agree on elections in Libya, and the abandonment of Haiti to "the claws of gangs" also demonstrate what happens when there is no unity and a breaking of trust.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and many countries have accused Russia of violating the U.N. Charter  which demands that every country's sovereignty and territorial integrity be respected  by invading Ukraine.

Nebenzia told the council that "in order to overcome this crisis, we need joint efforts to come up with an updated, more sustainable international security architecture."

France's deputy U.N. ambassador, Nathalie Broadhurst, said violating international law and the U.N. Charter including on non-use of force and peaceful settlement of disputes  "and I am thinking in particular of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine  undermines the international order based on common rules."

She said the 193 U.N. member nations must build trust by respecting their international commitments, and the United Nations must help restore trust, including through its peacekeeping missions.

China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun told the council the world faces "a serious trust crisis" and warned that without mutual trust and international rules and order "humanity will once again be subject to the law of the jungle."

He said nothing undermines political trust between countries more easily "than blowing hot and cold or breaking promises in international relations" and "forming exclusive military blocs."

Without naming the West, he accused it of damaging trust by distorting market rules, seeking technological monopolies, suppressing the development of other countries, and using human rights to interfere in a nation's internal affairs.

The world today is more interconnected than ever, Zhang said, and it needs "to join hands globally to meet the challenges we face" and create conditions for trust and lasting peace.
WASHINGTON  The U.S. is sending about $300 million in military aid to Ukraine ranging from howitzers to air-to-ground rockets to small-arms ammunition, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

The latest aid includes Hydra-70 rockets, which are unguided and launched from aircraft. Other items include an undisclosed number of rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems or HIMARS, howitzers, mortars, missiles and Carl Gustaf anti-tank rifles. The aid also includes trucks, trailers and other spare parts.

The equipment and weapons are being given through the presidential drawdown authority, which means it will come directly from Pentagon stocks and sent quickly on an emergency basis. Aid given this way typically means it reaches Ukraine in a matter of weeks. This comes at a time when Ukrainian forces are preparing to launch a much-anticipated spring offensive against Russian forces.

Russia could end its war today, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement. Until Russia does, the United States and our allies and partners will stand united with Ukraine, for as long as it takes.

The military aid announced Wednesday from the U.S. is similar to other weapons and equipment previously sent to Ukraine. It is 37th military aid package given to Ukraine, which has been provided nearly $36 billion in assistance since the war began in February 2022.

The United States, the Department of Defense, we remain committed to working very closely with Ukraine, and our international partners and allies, to ensure they have the security assistance they need to be able to defend their country, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the top Pentagon spokesman.

Here is a list from the Pentagon of what is included in the aid package:

 Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.

 155mm howitzers.

 155mm artillery rounds.

 120mm, 81mm and 60mm mortar rounds.

 Tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided missiles.

 AT-4 and Carl Gustaf anti-armor weapon systems.

 Hydra-70 aircraft rockets.

 Small arms and ammunition.

 Demolition munitions for obstacle clearing.

 Trucks and trailers to transport heavy equipment.

 Testing and diagnostic equipment to support vehicle maintenance and repair.

 Spare parts and other field equipment.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday left for the United Kingdom on a three-day official visit to represent Pakistan at the coronation ceremony of King Charles-III.

In a tweet, the Prime Minister said the UK-Pakistan relations are rooted in shared history and multifaceted bonds that have grown stronger over the decades.

He said the British monarch and the royal family have been great friends of Pakistan.

The Prime Minister will also use the opportunity to attend the Commonwealth leaders' summit as well as engage with other world leaders bilaterally.

According to sources, the prime minister will also meet Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Britain during the visit.

Mr Sharif will inform his brother and former PM of countrys political, economic and partys situation during the meeting.

It should be noted that negotiations are underway between the government and PTI to end the political crisis.

Earlier, a 10-member contingent of Pakistan Army had arrived in Britain to participate in the coronation parade of King Charles on Saturday, May 6.

The Pakistan Army contingent reached the British Army Training Center Pirbright and began rehearsing for the parade.

The parade will be held in honor of King Charles, who ascended to the throne following the passing of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

The Pakistan Army contingent will be among the many military units and organizations from around the world taking part in the parade.

The Pakistani troops will showcase their skills and participate in the parade, which is expected to attract a large audience.

Notably, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will also undertake a visit to the United Kingdom to attend the coronation of Briatians King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla on May 6.

The event is expected to witness the attendance of numerous heads of state from across the globe, including Ireland, France, Spain, Belgium, Japan, Hungary, and Australia.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday has filed a review petition on the Supreme Courts order to hold elections in Punjab on May 14.

It may be recalled that on April 4, Pakistans Supreme Court had declared the Election Commission of Pakistans decision to delay the assembly elections in two provinces, including Punjab, as unconstitutional and ordered the government to hold snap polls in Punjab on May 14.

The Apex Court had also ordered the government to release 21 billion rupees ($73.17 million) to the election commission to organize the elections. The decision was made following a petition filed by the main opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), challenging the Election Commission of Pakistans decision to delay the Punjab polls after the government refused to give funds to conduct the exercise citing the economic crisis.

The electoral watchdog on Wednesday approached the SC, praying to invoke article 245 of the Constitution, arguing that the same article has been invoked multiple times in the past not only to retrospectively validate the actions taken under the Constitution which were outside the timeframe provided by the Constitution but also pre-emptively to make allowance for performance of the constitutional functions.

Citing Haji Saifullahs Case, ECP stated that the full Supreme Court excused the non-observance of 90 days timeline for holding elections and validated the holding of elections after about five and a half month period. Yet again, a larger bench constituted of 11 Honourable judges of the Supreme Court in Reference No. 1 of 1988s, extended the time of four months allowed under Articles 86 and 126 of the Constitution to incur expenditure beyond the period of four months, such expenditure being unavoidable and on account of state necessity.. This Honble Court vide the order under review has itself used Article 254 of the Constitution pre-emptively and mandated the holding of elections beyond the specified period of 90 days.

The ECP in its plea said it is not suggested that article 254 of the Constitution should be used to stultify the constitutional imperative of holding elections within 90 days, but the Honble Court needs keenly to look at the ground realities. It is reiterated that all provisions of the Constitution are required to be read together in harmony so as to make the provisions effective, workable and meaningful.

The ECP prayed to the Supreme Court to accept the instant Review Petition by revisiting, reviewing, reconsidering and recalling its Impugned Judgment dated 04.04.2023, in the interest of justice and equity.
World Press Freedom Day is an occasion to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom and to acknowledge the importance of free and independent media in a democratic society. However, the state of press freedom in Pakistan is a matter of concern, as journalists face threats, harassment, and censorship on a regular basis.

Pakistan has a long history of suppressing media freedom, and the country is ranked 145th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. The situation has deteriorated further in recent years, as journalists face increasing pressure from both state and non-state actors.

Journalists in Pakistan face a range of threats, including physical violence, harassment, and intimidation. Many have been attacked or killed for their work, and impunity for these crimes remains a serious issue. In addition to the risks of physical harm, journalists also face censorship and restrictions on their ability to report on sensitive issues.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 61 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 1992, with 25 of those killed in the last decade alone.

The threats faced by journalists in Pakistan are not limited to physical violence. In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in online harassment and threats, often directed at female journalists. According to a report by the Digital Rights Foundation, 73% of women journalists in Pakistan have experienced online harassment, while 63% reported receiving threats via social media.

The government of Pakistan has been accused of using a range of tactics to stifle press freedom, including the use of repressive laws and regulations, such as the Electronic Crimes Act, which has been used to target journalists and social media users. The government has also been criticized for its control of state media, which is used to propagate the ruling party's message and suppress dissenting voices.

The use of legal and regulatory measures to silence critical voices. For example, the Electronic Crimes Act, which was passed in 2016, has been used to target journalists and social media users who criticize the government or the military.

Non-state actors also pose a threat to press freedom in Pakistan. Militant groups, criminal gangs, and other violent actors have targeted journalists who report on their activities or challenge their narratives. In many cases, these groups operate with impunity, making it difficult for journalists to carry out their work safely.

Despite these challenges, Pakistani journalists continue to play a vital role in holding power to account and providing a voice for marginalized communities. They have exposed corruption, human rights abuses, and other issues of public concern, often at great personal risk.

On this World Press Freedom Day, it is important to recognize the bravery and resilience of Pakistani journalists, and to call for an end to the threats and restrictions that they face. Press freedom is a fundamental right that must be protected, and it is essential for the health of democracy and the well-being of society.






Charge'd Affaires of the United States Andrew Schofer on Wednesday called on Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar and expressed confidence in the policies and initiatives taken by the government of Pakistan for its economic stability.

During the meeting, they exchanged views on further expanding bilateral economic, trade and investment ties between Pakistan and the United States.

The Finance Minister warmly welcomed Andrew Schofer and exchanged views on remarkable bilateral relations held with the United States on economic and trade fronts.

He apprised him of the economy of the country and discussed the current challenges being faced by the country.

Ishaq Dar further communicated about the difficult policy decisions recently being taken by the government with the aim of stabilizing the economy and then taking the economy on an upward curve ensuring sustainable and inclusive growth.

The Finance Minister informed the US Charge d' Affaires about the on-going IMF programme and assured him that the Government is committed to complete the program.

On this occasion, Andrew Schofer, the US Charge d' Affaires voiced his confidence in the policies and programs of Government of Pakistan for economic stability of the country and extended his support to advance the existing economic and trade relations between both the countries.

Senator Ishaq Dar thanked the US Charge d' Affaires and reiterated the desire of the Government to further expand bilateral trade and investment ties with the United States.
Lucknow: Former Chief Justice of Nepal (CJN) Gopal Paranjali has supported making India a Hindu nation. Gopal Paranjali has said that becoming a Hindu nation of India will have a positive impact on the whole world. He said this on Monday (May 1, 2023) in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. Actually, former Chief Justice of Nepal Gopal Paranjali had reached with the delegation to visit the temples located in Govardhan, Mathura.

Chief member of Pashupatinath Vikas Kosh Kathmandu and code writer Arjun Prasad Vastola and 10 other people were present in his delegation. After visiting the temples, he went to Shri Adya Shankaracharya Ashram and took the blessings of Peethadhishwar Swami Adhokshajanand Devtirtha of Govardhanpuri. After this, while talking about India-Nepal relations, he said that Nepal is already a Hindu nation in principle. In such a situation, if India is also declared a Hindu nation, then it will have a positive impact on the whole world. He has further said that after India becomes a Hindu nation, more than 178 crore Hindus living all over the world will also feel proud and their self-confidence will also increase.

At the same time, Arjun Prasad Vastola, a prominent member of Vastola Pashupatinath Vikas Kosh, Kathmandu, said in Mathura that 2530 years ago, Adya Shankaracharya had re-established the Vedic Sanatan culture which had been destroyed by heretics. Now once again everyone will be benefited by the thoughts of Shankaracharya. Vastola has also said that there are countries of Christians, Muslims and Buddhists in the world. Even about 10 million Jews have made a country of their own. In such a situation, India with the largest population of the world should be declared a Hindu nation. India is a divine country. The Ganges of knowledge has always been flowing here. With its declaration as a Hindu nation, the self-confidence of crores of Sanatanis of the world will be strengthened. Along with this, there will be welfare of the world.

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Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb says present coalition government fully believe in freedom of media and would continue to take practical measures to protect journalists.

In a statement on the occasion of Press Freedom Day being observed today (Wednesday) all over the world including Pakistan, she said now journalism in Pakistan was enjoying complete freedom.

The Constitution of Pakistan guarantees freedom of the press and citizens right to access accurate information, the minister said.

Paying tribute to those journalists who lost their lives in search of truth, she said that journalism in Pakistan went through a difficult period from 2018 to 2022.

The minister said that in four years of PTI rule, there was a mysterious censorship in the country that scared journalists.

In 2017, Pakistan was ranked 139th in the World Press Freedom Index, due to PTIs anti-media policies, Pakistans ranking decreased by 12 points.

The person sitting in the chair of the Prime Minister was given the shameful title of Press Freedom Predator, she remarked.

She said that Imran Khan not only silenced journalists but got them kidnapped and they were fired at to pressurise them.

Marriyum said that the PTIs four-year tenure was a dangerous period for journalists as Imran Khan had imposed restrictions on journalism.

She said by imposing such restrictions, one can mislead the people but ultimately the truth has to prevail.

The previous government increased the pressure from the state to muzzle the voice of journalists.

Instead of rectifying his mistakes, Imran vented out the anger of his failures on journalists and media institutions. Journalists make society strong, it is said that information is power and a journalist gives you that power, she maintained.
Stephen Lavery and Eamon Mimnagh masterminded the theft of empty beer kegs raking in hundreds of thousands in profit

Police accompanied Tennents reps to Steven Lavery yard in Mallusk to retrieve their kegs.

These are the disgraced beer keg thieves whove been told theyre drinking in the last chance saloon after raking in a fortune transporting stolen kegs of Tennents to Lithuania.

Stephen Lavery and Eamon Mimnagh  seen here leaving Belfast Crown Court on Friday -masterminded the theft of the empty beer kegs which they sold on to buyers in eastern Europe, raking in hundreds of thousands of pounds of profit.

In total between the two 59-year-old drinks tycoons they had robbed over 250,000 worth of empty kegs from Tennents NI Ltd but the Sunday World understands in the case of Stephen Lavery he had been involved in the practice for many years before he was actually caught.

Steven Lavery

We can also reveal Lavery, who was once banned from being a director after admitting unfit conduct, had got involved in the beer keg scam after he was approached by an organised crime gang based in south Armagh.

On Friday the sticky-fingered businessmen were allowed to walk free from Belfast Crown Court after a judge gave them suspended prison sentences.

But he warned them if they committed any further offences during the suspended sentence period, they would be doing their drinking behind bars.

Lavery walked out of Laganside Courthouse and refused our offer to talk about his crime and within minutes we can reveal he was back in the booze business  texting offers for his Kegs Direct NI service to his regular customers.

Throughout the hearing the two men didnt speak to each other and arrived and left the court separately.

Mimnagh of Blackfort Road, Omagh, Co Tyrone, received a two year sentence suspended for three years after he pleaded guilty to two counts of stealing beer kegs to the value of 202,070.

While Lavery, of Railway Cottages, Helen's Bay, Co Down, admitted the theft of beer kegs worth 50,380 and received an 18-month sentence suspended for three years.

Mimnagh owns Kegs Direct Ireland which supplies beer kegs to pubs in Tyrone and Fermanagh and Lavery owns Kegs Direct Northern Ireland out of premises in Mallusk, Co Antrim.

Belfast Crown Court heard that in 2019 Co Down-based alcohol wholesalers Tennent's NI Ltd reported to police a "suspicion of a large-scale theft of empty beer kegs'' from its premises.

We can reveal Tennents became suspicious and hired a specialist surveillance team to see where all their missing kegs were going.

Eamon Mimnagh

Tennents hadnt a very good control of where all their used kegs ended up, said a pub insider.

So Lavery and Mimnagh saw an opportunity to make a few quid by stealing them and selling them on the continent.

I dont know about Mimnaagh but I know Stephen Lavery was approached by members of a criminal gang based in south Armagh.

It was easy money  they were raking in hundreds of thousands for over five years at least.

Eventually Tennents realised something was wrong and spent a fortune on a surveillance team to see what was going on.

They tracked the lorries  full of their own kegs  to Lithuania. When they had enough evidence they took it to the police.

They were stealing other kegs from other beer companies but they didnt pursue them and so no charges were brought but Tennents was not the only company to be hit.

And youve got to remember the 50,000 worth of kegs was just the kegs the cops caught him in the act stealing. Thats just one lorry load that they could prove  Stephen Lavery was doing this for years. He was doing this once a month so he made a clean fortune from this.

The court was told on Friday how beer kegs are sold by breweries to suppliers but the empty kegs remain the property of the brewery  in this case Tennents.

A prosecution barrister explained tat those suppliers are contractually obliged to return the empty beer barrels to the brewery which are valued at 66 per keg.

After Tennents made a complaint, "Police started surveillance operations into the activities of both defendants,'' the prosecutor said.

"A surveillance operation on Lavery observed 916 beer kegs being loaded onto a lorry.''

The court was told the kegs are usually stacked onto a lorry upright and on pallets with a maximum of 468 kegs being loaded this way.

However, Lavery had come up with a clever way of maximising profits by placing the kegs on their side without pallets meaning they could get 916 kegs stacked onto the lorry which was registered in Dublin.

He explained: "The lorry then made its way to Belfast docks and it was tracked to Cairnryan in Scotland and ultimately to Lithuania where it was unloaded as part of a pre-arranged sale. None of these stolen kegs were recovered.''

Police accompanied Tennents reps to Steven Lavery yard in Mallusk to retrieve their kegs.

The Sunday World can reveal Lavery had been told by Tennents, after he had been caught, to stop selling Tennents but he continued by buying kegs of the beer from a publican in Co Down.

Our picture shows the moment police assisted representatives from Tennents as they raided Laverys Mallusk warehouse and retrieved over 400 of their own kegs  with solicitors serving Lavery with a Cease and Desist order at the same time.

On Friday Judge Paul Ramsey KC was told surveillance operations were conducted against Eamon Mimnagh on two separate dates in March 2019 and both times they were packed to capacity with over 900 kegs.

Mimnagh then drove the lorry to Belfast docks and the court was told none of these kegs, worth 100,760 were ever recovered.

A further surveillance operation was carried out on April 8, 2019 where two lorries were being filled "in an identical fashion''.

"The lorries were intercepted at Dublin docks before boarding a boat. They had been booked to go to Germany and ultimately onto Lithuania.''

A total of 1,842 kegs were recovered at Dublin port with a value of 101,310.

The prosecutor told the court there was a high degree of planning involved in the scam but the court was told both men were ashamed and embarrassed by their behaviour.

"He got tempted to get involved and foolishly he did get involved in this matter. For that he is remorseful,'' said a defence barrister of Mr Mimnagh.

While another barrister for Lavery said: He is extremely embarrassed. He has brought shame on himself and his family. He will never be before the court again.''

Judge Ramsey revealed as a result of the crime: "Tennent's have now tightened up their procedures to make sure this never happens again.''

Telling the men to stand-up Judge Ramsey said: "One does not expect to find gentlemen like you in a Crown Court facing serious charges like this.

"This has been a fall from grace for both of you. You have both indicated how this has brought shame on your professional and personal lives, not just on yourself but also on your families.

"Even though I am suspending these prison sentences, you will still have these convictions against your names.''

Mimnagh offered to pay 20,000 in restitution to Tennent's NI and Lavery will pay the company 10,000 over a period of six months.

Stephen Lavery hit the headlines a decade ago when he was barred from the boardroom for a decade after his Wineworld company went under owing 1.57m.

Lavery accepted unfit conduct including misusing company funds by lending to connected parties, depriving Wineworld of 673,000; going into deals of no commercial benefit and failing to file records on time on three occasions.
The court heard that Keogan had 383 folders of images of women on his phone

A former GP has received a fully-suspended sentence of one years imprisonment for the possession and distribution of sexually explicit images of two children.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Ronan Keogan (51) was involved in thrill-seeking behaviour, was meeting many women for sex and had sent and received naked photos to and from many women of all ages.

The offending came to light after a woman who Keogan was meeting for sex went to gardai reporting that Keogan had sent her a sexually explicit image of a child and told her this girl is 15. He later told gardai the girl was aged 17.

When gardai searched his computer they found 383 folders of images of women on his phone, containing 10,000 images in total. Three of these images depicted a child in a sexually explicit position, one of which he had sent to an adult woman he was meeting for sex.

Keogan of College Square, Terenure pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly distributing child pornography at an unknown location within the State on March 26, 2017.He also pleaded guilty to one count of possessing three child pornography images at an address in Templeogue, Dublin, on May 15, 2017.

The married father-of-two has no previous convictions and has not come to the attention of the gardai since 2017.

During a garda interview, Keogan said anyone he has had sexual contact with was at or above the age of consent. He said he would not knowingly engage in sexual activity with someone not capable of giving consent.

Det Gda Byrne agreed with Lorcan Staines SC, defending, that at the time, his client was in his mid-forties and a GP who ran his own practice. He was an employer in the community, a very well-respected man in the community, and a married father.

The garda agreed with counsel that he had the task of trawling through all of Keogans devices and that there was a much different man behind the scenes compared to the outward persona.

Mr Staines said his clients marriage had broken down. He said his client had a huge appetite for sexual activity and was active on many online dating websites.

He said he was also suffering from stress due to a pending inquest. He was also under the care of a doctor and taking medication for anxiety and depression.

Mr Staines said his client was involved in thrill-seeking behaviour and was meeting many women for sex. Counsel said his client sent and received naked photos to and from many women.

The court heard that the image sent to the woman on Kik was a selfie taken by the girl in the image with no suggestion of any violence in the image. Two other images found on his phone were also selfies taken by the girl.

Mr Staines said his client's behaviours ultimately cost him everything. He has now been removed from the Medical Council, his practice has closed and he will never practice as a doctor again, all due to his own actions, counsel said.

He has also lost all forms of income and his practice was also previously vandalised due to media coverage, Mr Staines told the court.

He asked the court to take into account that this was the lowest level of offending compared to what this court was used to dealing with.

After hearing evidence last month, Ms Justice Patricia Ryan adjourned the case to today for sentencing.

She said that the evidence before her was that the images were at the low level in terms of child pornography, and didn't appear to involve any other persons. She said the images and the conversation with the woman amounted to child pornography, under the law.

She said the court had to take into consideration the personal circumstances of the defendant, including the fact that he was suffering from depression and was taking medication for anxiety. She noted that the tragic death of a patient had had a very bad effect on him at the time of the offending.

She noted the effect of the conviction on the defendant's career, his income, his professional and personal reputation, as well as on his marriage and his family relations.

She said there was nothing in the prosecution case that suggested Keogan had abused his position as a GP to carry out the offending. She noted that the prosecution was able to rely on Keogan's own admissions that the girl in one of the pictures was 15.

She imposed a one year prison sentence and suspended it on condition that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for that period. The judge said Keogan had already received a significant punishment as a result of the convictions, noting also that he would now be a registered sex offender.

When the case first came before Dublin District Court lawyers defending Keogan applied for an order restricting publicity of the case. In response to a query from a journalist, a State solicitor told the court the order should not be in place.

The gagging order remained in place when the case went to the Circuit Court.

Following an informal query from a journalist and formal applications from lawyers acting on behalf of Mediahuis, RTE and other media outlets, the order was lifted.
Lucan man Hughes Foucart (51) had been at a friends birthday party when he got into a dispute with the womans group and spilled a drink

Hughes Foucart had been at a friends birthday party on the day

An IT worker punched a woman on the jaw when he lost his temper in a pub row that started over something trivial but escalated.

Hughes Foucart (51) had been at a friends birthday party when he got into a dispute with the womans group and spilled a drink.

His defence said he may have been trying to hit someone else when he unjustifiably punched the woman, leaving her face swollen and bruised.

Judge Ciaran Liddy adjourned the case for a restorative justice programme report. He said he would strike the charge out, leaving the accused without a criminal record, if the report is positive.

Foucart, of Arthur Griffith Park, Lucan, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to the woman at ONeills pub, Main Street, Lucan on June 17, 2022.

Garda Sergeant Maria Callaghan said the victim was with friends in the smoking area when Mr Foucart came out and got into a verbal dispute with the people she was with, knocking over a drink.

Mr Foucart lost his temper and punched the woman on the side of the jaw.

The victim and accused were strangers to one another. The dispute had been with another person in her company. Mr Foucart had no previous convictions.

The accused had got into a dispute that was so trivial he did not even remember what it was about, his solicitor said.

Mr Foucart was pushed by this person, not the victim, and injured his own wrist before the assault took place.

He may have been trying to hit somebody else but he accepted there were no circumstances where striking a woman is justifiable.

Mr Foucart worked long hours and did not regularly drink or go to pubs but overindulged on the night and his memory was blurred by alcohol.

The defence asked the judge to leave his client without a conviction as his family lived outside Ireland and he needed to be able to travel.

It was an unusual, isolated incident for Mr Foucart.
A Belfast man who admitted having cocaine with intent to supply on the same night he trashed an Airbnb and attacked its owners was warned yesterday he faces an almost inevitable jail sentence.

Standing in the dock of Antrim Crown Court, Kyle Robertson (21) entered a guilty plea to having 600 of criminal property on February 26 last year.

On an earlier occasion, Robertson, from Malvern Way in Belfast, also admitted two drug offences, having cocaine and having the class A drug with intent to supply on the same date.

At the start of February, Robertson stood in the same dock and narrowly avoided going to prison after he admitted assault and criminal damage offences at an Airbnb property, committed on the same date he was arrested for the drug and criminal cash offences.

In that case, the court heard that, at around 9pm on February 26 last year, the police were alerted to an incident at an Airbnb property just outside Ballymena.

When officers arrived, the owners reported how they had answered a knock at their door to be confronted by Robertsons girlfriend in a distressed state, her face covered in blood.

On investigation, the owners found that the rental unit had been trashed and the defendant had left, said prosecuting barrister Suzanne Gallagher.

She said Robertson came back later and, having gone back into the property, assaulted the two owners.

The first victim told police how Robertson kicked her on the left shin and then, having grabbed her phone, stormed off with it outside but came back again. Having kicked his way through the door, he grabbed her by the throat and pushed her against one of the counters, causing pain in her side and tenderness to her throat.

At this stage, the defendant went as if to assault his girlfriend, but the victim shouted at him that the police were coming and he again left the rental unit, said the barrister.

Outside, Robertson attacked the owners car and also assaulted the co-owner, slamming her twice into a wall.

Sentencing Robertson at the time, Judge Devlin warned him that the combination order of two years probation and 80 hours community service was a direct alternative to sending him to jail and ordered him to pay 2,500 compensation.

In court on Tuesday, defence counsel Neil Moore told the judge that Robertson had discharged the compensation order and had only 20 hours of his community service order to complete.

He explained that, for whatever reason, the two aspects of the case had been separated by the prosecution, but assured Judge Devlin its not as if anyone was trying to hide anything or fool Your Honour when you sentenced the previous case.

Its come as a very significant surprise to me, replied the judge, adding that, frankly, if I had known that the previous matters had any link with possessing class A with intent, it may well be that I would have arrived at a very different decision.

Ordering a pre-sentence report and putting the case back to June 21, Judge Devlin warned Robertson that the fact he was granting bail should not for one moment be taken by you that you will not receive a custodial sentence.

It is highly likely, if not inevitable, that you will be receiving a custodial sentence, declared the judge.
The State has appealed a High Court ruling that quashed a judge's refusal to hear the cases of the three accused of identifying the boys who murdered Ana Kriegel

The State has appealed a High Court ruling that quashed a District Court judge's refusal to hear the cases of three people accused of publishing information online identifying the teenage boys who murdered Ana Kriegel in 2018.

The three, who are accused of breaching publication restrictions under the Children Act 2001, won a High Court challenge in July of last year over how a District Court judge refused jurisdiction in the matters.

The three accused were among 10 people charged with similar breaches of the Children Act who were initially told by Judge Brian O'Shea in October 2020 that jurisdiction was accepted and that their matters could be heard at the District Court level.

However, when the matter returned to the District Court on December 2, 2020, Judge John Hughes deemed the offences as being too serious for the District Court and ruled that they should be sent to the higher Circuit Court, where penalties upon conviction can be more severe.

The three then brought a successful judicial review to the High Court challenging the decision, where Ms Justice Siobhan Phelan decided that the matter should be sent back to the lower court for "reconsideration".

The teenagers known as Boys A and B were both convicted of the murder of Ana Kriegel following a trial in 2019. The 14-year-old had been murdered at a disused farmhouse in Lucan, Co Dublin, in May 2018, when the boys were both 13-years-old. They could not be identified by order of the trial judge and under a provision of the Children Act that prohibits the identification of minors accused or convicted of a criminal offence.

Boy A was sentenced to life imprisonment with a review after 12 years, and to eight years for aggravated sexual assault.

Boy B was sentenced to 15 years detention, to be reviewed after eight years, and has appealed his conviction.

Edel Doherty (48) of Rory OConnor House, Hardwicke Street, Dublin, was charged at Dublin District Court accused of posting photos of the convicted boys on Facebook.

Kyle Rooney (26) of Rathfield Park, Raheny, Dublin, was charged with the posting of photos of the two boys on Twitter.

Declan Corcoran (30) of Williams Place Lower, Dublin, was accused of both naming the boys on Twitter and of posting images of them.

The DPP had consented to their trial at District Court level.

Ms Justice Phelan quashed Judge Hughes' decision saying the manner in which the judge approached the issue of jurisdiction was unfair because he did not address the cases individually or give reasons for the change.

At the Court of Appeal today, Sunniva McDonagh SC for the State argued that the return of the matter to the District Court was made in error by the High Court and that "no breach of natural justice had been made" by Judge Hughes.

Ms McDonagh argued that Judge Hughes had correctly weighed all the cases before him when considering the outline of the evidence in each case before making one ruling on all matters instead of making 10 similar rulings in each.

Ms McDonagh said the High Court ruling was not that the reasons given by Judge Hughes were "inadequate" but that the judicial review found that justice had not been seen to be done to any observer of the court.

The barrister said that the 10 accused people knew the reasons the judge said he could not hear a "non-minor" matter.

Mr Justice John Edwards said that Mr Corcoran was accused of "actually naming them [the boys]" which differentiated his case from the other two accused, as it potentially causes "much more serious harm".

"Anyone from Afghanistan to Cork could know by name who they were," said Mr Justice Edwards.

Ms McDonagh said "no argument" had been made at District Court level as to how each case was different. "Even now, it's not clear how they differentiate themselves. The arguments being made now were not made then," she said.

"They were taken aback on Hughes' jurisdiction point," said Mr Justice Edwards.

"Ms Justice Phelan did not find any breach of natural justice. We believe there was no breach by the District Court judge," said Ms McDonagh.

Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly pointed out that the Director of Public Prosecutions did not consider the cases to be "non-minor".

Ms Justice Donnelly said that Judge Hughes did not give a reason as to why the cases were "non-minor" and that he does not mention each case separately in his ruling on jurisdiction.

"He [Judge Hughes] is entitled to revisit the matter. I don't think he has to give reasons as to why he disagreed with his colleague," said Ms McDonagh.

"Would a 'reasonable observer' observe each fact? Justice has to be seen to be done," said Ms Justice Donnelly, who added that it was "not simply a test of what the appellants understood".

Conor Devally SC, for Mr Rooney, said cases had been brought in many counties around the country which were the "exact same" and that the DPP consented to summary dismissal at District Court level to "all" of those cases. "There were at least dozens of cases, possibly more," he said.

"This is an outlier, no matter how grave they appear they were," said Mr Devally.

Mr Justice Edwards said Judge Hughes made his decision on jurisdiction on "a rolled-up basis".

Mr Devally said a failure to give reasons on the jurisdiction ruling was a failure to administer justice in public.

Kathleen Leader SC, for Ms Doherty, said the charge against her client was different to that of Mr Corcoran's in that she did not name Boy A and Boy B and reasons separately addressing her client's charge should have been given.

Ms Leader said no personal circumstances regarding her client had been considered by Judge Hughes. The barrister said Judge Hughes stated he was satisfied that the charges were not minor "but there's no reason at all".

"He [Judge Hughes] simply comes out, refers to no particular case, then refers to them in the plural and doesn't say why," she said.

"Why depart? Why go into jurisdiction and why depart from the stance of his colleague who had dealt with that in October, two months earlier," said Ms Leader.

Feichin McDonagh SC, for Mr Corcoran, said that while there was a "degree of commonality involved", each case was different.

Mr McDonagh said there were "clear distinctions and levels of alleged culpability" among the 10 cases. The barrister said it "couldn't be that the cases were all identical".

Mr Justice George Birmingham, presiding, said the court would reserve its judgement in the matter.
The man (30s) was stabbed twice in the neck in front of horrified commuters, resulting in a large amount of blood loss

Members of the Gardai at the scene of a crime on Ormond Quay, Dublin.   Gareth Chaney

Members of the Gardai at the scene of a crime on Ormond Quay, Dublin.   Gareth Chaney

A row over a stolen mobile phone led to a man being stabbed by a woman in a vicious daylight attack in front of horrified commuters this morning on Dublins quays.

The man, in his early 30s, was stabbed twice in the neck, resulting in a large amount of blood loss.

He is being treated in St James Hospital where his injuries are described as serious but not life threatening.

The incident unfolded shortly after 9am when the man and woman, who are both in the early 30s, stole a mobile phone from a person walking on the street on citys south quays.

Members of the Gardai at the scene of a crime on Ormond Quay, Dublin.   Gareth Chaney

They ran across a bridge to Ormond Quay on the citys northside where it is understood they began rowing about the stolen phone, leading to the man being stabbed twice by the woman.

He lost a lot of blood after being stabbed in the neck and it is lucky that he did not suffer even more serious injury, a senior source said.

Gardai and emergency services arrived quickly on the scene which was sealed off for a period of time this morning.

The victim is said to be in a stable condition in hospital while the woman was arrested and is currently being detained at Bridewell Garda Station.

Sources say the pair are well known to each other and also known to gardai.

Gardai confirmed details of the incident in a statement.

The victim's blood   Gareth Chaney

Gardai attended the scene of a serious assault that occurred this morning Wednesday 3rd May, 2023 at approximately 9.30am, a garda spokesperson said.

An altercation arose between a male and female (both early 30s) on Ormond Quay and the male received a number of stab wounds.

He left the scene on foot and an ambulance was called to Merchants Quay where he has been removed to St. James Hospital for treatment. His injuries are serious but non-life threatening.

A female was arrested a short distance away. She is currently detained at a Garda station in the North Central Division under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

Investigations ongoing, the statement concluded.
WARNING: Graphic image=

A pony has died after it was raced up a Dublin road straight into a parked car.

The horrific incident happened on Tuesday, May 2, outside St. Olivers Training and Education Centre on the Cloverhill Road.

It went straight into a parked car. The people driving the sulky jumped off, took the bits off the sulky and ran, said a spokesperson for My Lovely Horse, the animal welfare charity.

A sulky is a small cart on two wheels attached to the back of a horse which accommodates two people. When racing, they can reach speeds of up to 50 km/hr.

Posting on social media, the horse protection organization explained what happened to the abused animal.

Our volunteer was at the scene. Reports came in of a pony attached to a sulky speeding down the road, the spokesperson said.

The drivers of the horse drawn carriage made a mess of what they were attempting. The animal lost its life after colliding with a stationary vehicle, reportedly.

Accident scene

They took everything and ran. They left this poor pony to die in pain, alone. The Guards and the DSPCA arrived and checked for a chip. Sadly, this poor pony was not chipped and therefore there is no owner to prosecute.

The car the animal hit had no-one in it, thank God. If you passed the accident and have dash-cam footage, please contact us or the Gardai and we will pass it on.

Another animal dies in pain because of cruel humans that just dont give a damn."

Speaking previously about animal abuse, a charity spokesperson said: We need a dedicated Garda animal crime unit now more than ever.

This cruelty needs to stop. We know we have the support of some Gardai that want a position like this. They want to ensure that those who abuse and neglect animals face prosecutions.

Its time. The country needs this, it is absolutely vital,  she added.

Cloverhill Rd

A garda spokesperson released the following statement about the animals death: Gardai from the DMR North region responded to an incident in the Dublin 22 area on Tuesday 2nd May 2023.

An Garda Siochana are investigating all the circumstances surrounding this incident.

No further information is available at this time.

One social media user wrote:One of these heartless nitwits will talk - people need to report whatever they hear to police.

Whilst another said: This so-called sport is just modern-day animal cruelty, someone needs to be held accountable.

And another said simply: Barbaric.
SEOUL: In light of the realignment of the global supply chain, South Korea and Indonesia decided on Wednesday to deepen their economic connections and pursue green technology-based growth, said the finance ministry.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the agreement was reached when Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho visited his Indonesian counterpart, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, outside of the 56th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank, which was held in Incheon, 27 kilometres west of Seoul.

During the meeting, Choo mentioned that South Korean businesses had made investments in a variety of industries in Indonesia, including the petrochemical, battery, and automotive sectors, reports read.

He asked Jakarta to keep working to overcome any potential economic obstacles facing Korean businesses, like cutting raw material tariffs.

By using South Korea's commitment to Indonesia through its Economic Development collaboration Fund, the two nations also decided to increase their collaboration in the green sector.

South Korea opted to more than double the cap on low-interest loans to Indonesia last year, increasing it from the previous $600 million set aside for 201621 to US$1.5 billion for the period of 202226.

First Vice Finance Minister Bang Ki-sun, meanwhile, met separately with Indonesian Minister Bambang Susantono to discuss the Southeast Asian country's proposed move of its capital from Jakarta to Nusantara.

Bang asked Indonesia to pay attention to and support South Korean businesses that wanted to take part in the infrastructure projects required for the relocation during the meeting.

The transfer, which would cost Indonesia approximately 40 trillion won ($29.9 billion), is anticipated to be finished in 2045.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the two countries' establishment of diplomatic relations.

FM asks ADB to support India with more concessional climate finance

A New US panel assails India's religious freedom

South Korea hold first finance leaders' meeting in Japan
Police also said there was drugs and drug paraphernalia hidden in and around the child's car seat

The four who were arrested in Texas

Four people have been arrested in Texas after they robbed a store before making their getaway in a car with an eight-month-old baby on board.

The four were arrested after robbing Dick's Sporting Goods store in the Creekside Shopping Center at around 3pm last Saturday.

According to the New Braunfels Police Department, a man and a woman stole merchandise from the store and then fled the scene in a blue Toyota Corolla.

Another man and woman had been waiting in the vehicle in the car park.

However, a detailed description by witnesses enabled officers to locate the getaway car.

After police gave chase, the driver refused to stop for officers and alternated between very slow and fast speeds before exiting the highway.

After the car was eventually pulled over, the police found four adults and the eight-month-old female infant inside the vehicle.

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Police also said there was drugs and drug paraphernalia hidden in and around the child's car seat.

The child was taken to a local hospital for evaluation and later released to family members with no sign of harm.

The suspects were taken into custody and transported to the Comal County Jail.

Gabriel Alejandro Bobadilla (29) was charged with engaging in organised criminal activity, evading arrest or detention with a vehicle, and endangering a child.

Alexandra Denise Maltos (23) of San Antonio, who is the infants mother, was charged with engaging in organised criminal activity, possession of marijuana, two charges of possession of a controlled substance (for cocaine and methamphetamine), and endangering a child.

Kaeleen Chasity Quichocho (27) of San Antonio was charged with Engaging in Organised Criminal Activity and a warrant for theft out of Bexar County.

And Francisco Javier Villarreal of San Antonio was charged with engaging in organized criminal activity.
Kate and Gerry are still hoping that Maddie who would now be 19, will one day be found alive.

Kate and Gerry McCann have said they are still awaiting a breakthrough as they posted a poignant poem to mark the 16th anniversary of their daughters disappearance.

The couple said Madeleine, who vanished in 2007, age three, is still very much missed as they remembered her on the bitter milestone.

Kate and Gerry added: It is hard to find the words to convey how we feel.

They then posted a poem by Clare Polland, titled The Contradiction as it resonates strongly with us.

The gut wrenching poem contains the lines: "You are not here, Im not myself, but still I talk to you like this."

Another line adds: "I cannot hold you, yet I do: please let me hold you in my head and where you are now, hold me too."

They ended their post by saying: The police investigation continues, and we await a breakthrough.

Thank you to everyone for your support - it really helps.

Christian Brueckner

Kate and Gerry are expected to join friends and family tonight to remember their daughter at a prayer gathering in their home village at 7pm.

Madeleines younger siblings Sean and Amelie, who are now aged 18, will also remember their older sister who was three when she vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

Kate and Gerry are still hoping that Maddie who would now be 19, will one day be found alive.

Her great uncle Brian Kennedy said ahead of tonights event: Kate and Gerry always feel heartened by the attendance of well-wishers.

It is much appreciated that people still want to show such support.

German paedophile Christian Brueckner, who was living in a farmhouse close to Praia da Luz in 2007, has been named as the prime suspect.

But the 45-year-old, who is serving a jail term in his home country for raping a pensioner in Praia da Luz, denies any involvement.

The suspect has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he is under investigation on suspicion of murder.

An investigation began in Germany after prosecutors there discovered "concrete evidence" of her death.

Prosecutors in the northern city of Braunschweig in October charged Bruckner in several separate cases involving sexual offences allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

One of these relates to the rape of Irishwoman Hazel Behan, who was working as a holiday representative on the Algarve in 2004 when she was assaulted.

But last month, the Braunschweig regional court ruled that it does not have jurisdiction to prosecute Brueckner in relation to the sexual offences.

This is because he was last residing outside of the local district in the nearby state of Saxon-Anhalt, officials said.

While the ruling does not affect his current prison term, it may impact the investigation by Braunschweig officials into the McCann case.

Christian Wolters, of the Braunschweig prosecution office, said: "The decision does not change anything: we continue to investigate the Maddie case and the accused remains in custody.

Brueckner, who can only be identified by German officials as Christian B due to the countrys strict privacy laws, is currently serving a seven-year jail term for the rape of a US woman (72) in 2005.

He spent large amounts of time in the Algarve between 1995 to 2007 where he was a drifter with a string of previous convictions for sex offences and child abuse.

In June 2020 he was named as a chief suspect in the disappearance of Madeline McCann, who was last seen on May 3, 2007.

A month later the investigation into the rape of Ms Behan was reopened after she came forward saying she believed Brueckner was her attacker.

Irish woman Hazel Behan

At the time she told police the man involved was about 6ft 1in tall (1.85m), had blond eyebrows, piercing blue eyes and spoke English with a German accent.

Ms Behan said she also noted similarities between her attack and the rape of the American woman.

She previously said she was mind blown when details of his attack on the 72-year-old emerged, saying there were similar tactics and methods in both crimes.

Recalling her attack previously, she said she was awoken to someone calling her name and saw a man armed with a 12in machete standing in the room.
The 38-year-old revealed that she had returned to Portugal this week with her husband Dylan and their three dogs.

Suzanne Jackson has relocated to Portugal with her husband and three dogs for the foreseeable.

Following her stint on Dancing with the Stars earlier this year, the SOSU by Suzanne Jackson cosmetics founder and her husband Dylan decided to swap salsa for sunshine with their three pups - Coco, Harper, and Pixie.

Taking to her Instagram stories, the 38-year-old revealed that she had returned to Portugal as she gushed how its like they never left.

We are back like we never left. We are back down in Portugal for the foreseeable, she said.

It is going to be a nice summer; I have to say I am looking forward to it.

Mute me now if you don't want to see the sunshine and lifestyle down here.

The makeup mogul and Dylan made the move to the Algarve in 2021 and have been splitting their time between there and Dublin over the past two years.

Suzanne Jackson and her husband Dylan O'Connor

However, the pair dont own their own property abroad yet and are continuing to rent after a deal to buy a house in Portugal fell through last year.

Suzanne previously hailed Portugal as her second home when she was asked about her plans after Dancing with the Stars.

Going to Portugal is the plan. For however long I stay in the competition, the plan is to head over to Portugal with the doggies and Dylan and chill over there.

But I havent really thought that far because I am thinking week on week.

It is like our second home over there. We have friends there. We have regular restaurants we go to.

Suzanne previously lived in a 1.8 million mansion in Malahide with her husband, which they had bought back in May 2018 and moved into five months later on Suzannes 33rd birthday.

In their Malahide home, the couple had five bedrooms and a large open plan kitchen, as well as a cinema and bar loft, a cigar room, a walk-in wardrobe, and a gym.

Suzanne and Dylan met about eleven years ago through a mutual friend and have been together ever since.

They announced their engagement while on vacation in the Maldives in 2015 and wed in August 2017 at a ceremony in her hometown of Skerries.
The two superstars are among a collection of authors who will be doing Q&As and signing copies of their latest books

Tom Hanks and Bono both sold out tickets within minutes of going on sale this morning to special readings and talks they are doing at the Dalkey Book Festival in Dublin this summer.

The two superstars are among a collection of authors who will be doing Q&As and signing copies of their latest books at the Co Dublin event.

But most fans were left hugely disappointed this morning when they tried to book tickets at the 10am allotted slot time.

When people logged in to buy the tickets they were told they would be randomly selected for a maximum of two tickets for a reading, but were not allowed to specify which event they were interested in.

Bono

Those who got access were then told they would be in a queue for a minimum of an hour but during that time period they were informed both the Tom Hanks and Bono events were sold out.

The Hollywood legend and two-time Oscar winner Hanks speak at the event on Bloomsday, June 16, diving into his novel The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece.

The book spanning 80 years focuses on several different characters such as a troubled soldier returning from war, a young boy with an artistic gift, an inspired and eccentric director, a pompous film star on the rise and a tireless production assistant.

He will also discuss his journey from the big screen to the page.

Organisers have said ticketholders in attendance will each receive a copy of Hankss novel. Tickets cost 59 a head.

Tickets for Bono cost 40 and hes due to talk about his autobiography, Surrender: 40 songs, one story.

Others taking part in the festival from June 16-18 include The Edge, Ruby Wax Brian Cox, David McWilliams, Dylan Moran, Mariella Frostrup, Deirdre OKane, John Banville, Paul Howard, Roddy Doyle and Fintan OToole.
Heres the first look at some key scenes from this Sundays explosive finale to Kin on RTE1

Heres the first look at some key scenes from this Sundays explosive finale to Kin on RTE1.

These new images show Birdie (Maria Doyle Kennedy) pay a visit to a family member of Kem's girlfriend. What could she be asking for?

Elsewhere, Anthony's botched escape from shooting Glen Wright, during which they knocked someone down, comes with serious consequences, not least when he and the getaway driver return to face the music with Bren

Nuray Batuk arrives back in Dublin

Formidable Nuray Batuk (Oyku Karayel) is back in Dublin following the death of her father, and more than keen to establish herself as the rightful head of her Turkish clan, against the opinion of her cousin Hamza (Kenan Ece).

And distraught Viking (Sam Keeley) wants nothing more than to win back Nikita (Yasmin Seky).

Kin Season 2 trailer released

Viking begs Nikita to reconsider

The conflict is put into overdrive as Michael and Jimmy find common ground. Amanda proposes an unexpected partnership for mutual survival.

Anthony and Nikita try to come to terms with the consequences of their actions.

Birdie sets to work on getting statements retracted

After seven explosive episodes and 1.4 million and counting streams on RTE Player so far, the finale of KIN series 2 hits screens this Sunday on RTE One / RTE Player at 9.30pm.
Higher growth, more water usage and lower remissions requests than expected have given Rotorua Lakes Council $1.8 million more in rates revenue than budgeted.

It has helped the council reduce its forecast operating deficit and offset unexpected costs, including from Cyclone Gabrielle damage.

Rotorua Lakes councillors asked staff to look at its operating deficit forecast earlier this year and on Wednesday were given an update by organisational enablement deputy chief executive Thomas Colle.

He told the meeting the overall operating deficit for the last nine months was at $740,000, down from a forecast $5.6 million in December.

Other factors that contributed to the drop included cost savings initiatives including not filling vacant roles and cancelling planned spending with contractors, according to a report presented to the meeting.

Councillor Robert Lee asked Colle how the rates revenue was $1.8 million higher than budgeted for.

Colle said there were three contributing components, the first being more growth than anticipated.

Higher water usage, predominantly from commercial and rural ratepayers, also generated more revenue.

The third reason was lower than budgeted rates remission requests.

The higher rates revenue helped offset other impacts such as lower-than-expected developer contributions of about $950,000, which were attributed to lower activity.

Mayor Tania Tapsell said this was significant and asked why. Colle said a lot of developers got consent applications lodged ahead of the councils new development policy, which came into effect in December.

Developers were building what was already consented, and there was also a slowdown in activity due to economic conditions.

When the budget was set we did not expect the inflationary cycle, central banks raising interest rates and trying to get a significant slowdown of the economy.

Rotorua Lakes Council organisational enablement deputy chief executive Thomas Colle. Photo / Andrew Warner.

Colle said at the meeting the councils financial challenges included working with a budget that had little to no inflation, as well as unexpected costs from Cyclone Gabrielle and other weather events, and policy changes.

Chief executive Geoff Williams said staff had worked hard over the last few months to deliver the results.

It certainly hasnt just happened. Its happened by an extremely active management approach to expenditure in the organisation.

-Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air.
Cases of image based abuse, also called sextortion are on the rise, despite victims afraid, ashamed or embarrassed to make a complaint.

NetSafe says offenders often target victims by tricking them into sending sexually explicit material before blackmailing them  threatening to share the content unless they pay money.

Katikati Police Sergeant Steve Hindmarsh says he received reports of teenage males being blackmailed into paying money after sending inappropriate pictures to strangers on social media between March 31 and April 5.

His advice to anyone who receives messages and friend requests from complete strangers is to ignore them, block them and report them to the administrator of whatever app you are using.

Dont pay the offenders any money.

Often these scammers are part of very organised groups and can be based anywhere in the world. They will pick on victims in foreign countries so that it makes it very difficult to trace.

The sergeant says the scammers use fake profiles of attractive people to tempt their victims into conversation.

I believe that a large number of people do not report these incidents out of sheer embarrassment at having fallen for the ruse.

Scammers are targeting and blackmailing people into paying money after sending inappropriate pictures to strangers on social media. Photo: NetSafe.

New Zealand Police received 618 reports of sextortion between 2020 and the end of 2022.

Of these, 54 per cent of all victims were males under the age of 25.

The youngest reported victims of sextortion in New Zealand during this period were two 10-year-old children.

Sharing or threatening to share nude or nearly nude images/videos of someone else without their consent can be an offence under the Harmful Digital Communications Act and a potential offence under other Acts.

If prosecuted under the Harmful Digital Communications Act, the penalties can be a fine of up to $50,000 or up to two years jail for an individual, and up to $200,000 for a body corporate.

How does a friendly chat turn into sinister sextortion?

Steve says the situation occurs when an innocent person notices a friend request from a stranger on the internet.

This can be on any number of social media platforms. Or the victim could be in a chat room talking with a number of people and the offender will gain enough trust to become friendly with the potential victim.

He says accepting friend requests from strangers who have attractive profile pictures is a common way for the offending to start though.

The victim can then be enticed into talking and eventually they believe that there is a romantic link with their new friend. One thing leads to the other and often the offender will suggest they swap explicit photos of each other.

They will send explicit photos of themselves and include a face shot and encourage the victim to do the same thing. The victim thinks its safe to do the same believing that the person they are talking to is genuine and oblige by sending explicit photos and a photo of their face back.

The offender will gain enough trust to become friendly with the potential victim. Photo: NetSafe.

Steve says this is when the offender begins the process of trying to obtain money from the victim that they have now entrapped.

The offender will then threaten to send the explicit photos they now have of the victims to everyone in their contact list unless they transfer money to a specified account.

The offender will also send screen shots of the victims contact list to the victim to prove that they now the ability to carry out their threat. At this point the victim is horrified that they have been conned and are fearful of their explicit photos been send to friends and family.

Steve says the victim now has the choice of paying up the money or risk having photos sent to all of their contacts. The victim either ignores the threat, hopes for the best, or they pay it.

Even if payment is made it doesnt necessarily mean the offender will stop there. Often they will demand more and keep going until the victim realises that the demands will never stop.

He says many times the victims of these scams will be teenagers and the psychological effects on them will be immense.

They will be embarrassed and ashamed and they feel quite violated.

Victims of this type of crime are from all age groups, backgrounds and sexes.

Sexual harm support available

Tautoko Mai Sexual Harm Supports social change and prevention manager Julie Sach advises people to never share photographs.

Just dont do it. It can have lasting impacts.

However, if it does happen to you or someone you care about, its important that this gets reported so we can understand the extent of the problem, so we can do something about it.

Police are warning this is on the increase and seems to be overseas people who are doing it for the sole purpose of blackmailing. Dont pay them any money. Dont respond to them. Let a parent or caregiver know. Or contact us and get some help.

Tautoko Mai provide services to help people who have experienced sexual harm. Photo: Tautoko Mai Sexual Harm.

Tautoko Mai Sexual Harm Support have counsellors, social workers, nurses and doctors available to help support people.

Julie says sextortion falls within the scope of their services as its about sexual harm.

We have heeded the warning from police that its on the rise.

She also has advice for parents and caregivers.

Dont think this wont happen to your teenagers. Make gentle inquiries, and be open to hearing about it. Dont overreact but support them through it.

The double blow of losing what seemed a meaningful relationship

Some people cant accept that the relationship was a part of the ruse, and also false.

Netsafe New Zealand chief online safety officer Sean Lyons says the financial and psychological impact comes as a double blow for the person who thinks they have formed a meaningful relationship with someone over a period of time.

The thing about this is theyve talked about themselves in good faith which is how you build relationships with people. But if the intent was to blackmail then all they shared and talked about themselves becomes part of the scam, says Sean.

Victims are also impacted by having their trust in another shattered, causing the loss of confidence in people online. Photo: Supplied.

The threat they are using is now I have all this stuff about you, where you go, your work, your family and they threaten to use all that information, saying theyve not got this image or video and can share that to all of those places and people.

So yes it is an extortion and terrible but also it is a damaging of the trust. So all the feelings about the other person are gone. Its all a criminal act."

Shame and shattered confidence

Sean says while concerned about the financial impact, victims are also impacted by having their trust in another shattered, causing the loss of confidence in people online.

It impacts in the way people who educate themselves, do online transactions and it has far-reaching consequences. Its very much a concern for us and those directly related or involved.

Some people cant accept that the relationship, which seemed meaningful, was a part of the ruse, and also false. Photo: Netsafe.

He says Netsafe have spoken to people who are afraid to physically go out.

They have a sense of shame or embarrassment around it, wondering if people may know.

He says the effects of psychological trauma are impacting people as thoughts of I did something wrong and its my fault play in their minds.

The scammers are skilled and trained in it. These are people who seek to victimise you and have done it many times before. They know how to move a person from a point of trust on to extortion. We need to help people get over shame. They are targets of a criminal act by skilled operators.

A bad year for scams

Sean says the basis of so many scams is the trust part with romance or extortion.

Someone can set up a false Facebook account and borrow someone elses trust.

Its all about building trust by stealing trust. We are convinced to do these things. They are impersonating brands or people such as IRD and banks. The mechanism is the same and the end game is harm in all sorts of ways.

An innocent person can notice a friend request from a stranger on the internet from any number of social media platforms. Photo: Netsafe.

Scams dont look like an overseas official from a foreign nation.

But the bones of the scam are the same mechanism.

Sean says sometimes harm is in the image that are used to blackmail people to produce more images and video.

The shame is so great that talking about it is so difficult.

He says its been a bad year for scams.

More people are reporting. We have had the biggest report year in our history.

Netsafe making impact against Sextortion

In Netsafes quarterly report in March 2023, CEO Brent Carey says they are re-examined their approaches to Sextortion/blackmail webcam harm types and have decided to bring a number of these matters within jurisdiction and therefore into the personal harm reporting scheme.

We are expecting Sextortion reporting to Netsafe to grow.

Netsafe has launched Netsafe Lab with the goal for the lab become the leading entity for online safety technical, policy, data and research folks in New Zealand.

Netsafe CEO Brent Carey. Photo: Supplied.

Netsafes focus on young people this quarter included welcoming a new cohort of their Youth Action Squad, launching our kete of materials to schools and a new interactive online learning platform for use in classrooms.

The bigger impact we have been able to make in education has come about because of a temporary uplift in funding negotiated and finalised between Netsafe and the Ministry of Education last quarter to strengthen cyber security and digital services in kura and schools, says Brent.

We have also been paying close attention to trends in the incitement to commit suicide/self harm space."

The effects of psychological trauma are impacting people as thoughts of I did something wrong and its my fault play in their minds. Photo: Netsafe.

Together with agencies such as the Suicide Prevention Office, Mental Health Foundation, Classification Office, and Ministry of Education we have been meeting voluntarily and regularly to work on the establishment of a protocol for responding quickly when suicide content erupts online; development of response materials that can be pushed out when risky material is going viral; and establishing better working relationships with one another and across tech companies.

We hope that the work of the group will be recognised and funded. It is important work and highlights the willingness of so many to create safe and positive online environments.

Be on your toes

Sergeant Hindmarsh says internet fraud is huge and everyone needs to be on their toes.

Be careful who you trust. On the other hand where a victim knows the identity of a person and they are trying to obtain money through blackmail then Police will act on these complaints where we can.

This activity is abhorrent, says Julie.

Its horrible. People are so ashamed and embarrassed about it. We have to stand up and say its not okay.

How to spot sextortion offending:

Meeting on one app, then being encouraged to continue a conversation on a different platform could be an indicator.

Inconsistencies with a profile or language, and there might be signs that English is a second language.

Introduction of sexualised conversations.

The other person may say that their webcam or microphone not working for video calls/chats, so they could be avoiding giving their true identity.

For victims:

Avoid sending any more images or videos - even if they are threatening you.

Remember - once you have complied with their demands there is nothing preventing them targeting you again.

Save all the online chat, immediately take screenshots. This is important for making a report to the police, we need all the evidence that you can gather.

Block the profile.

Report the content to the platform (e.g. Facebook, Snapchat, PornHub) it is on and request the content is removed

Make a report to Police (via 105) or Netsafe to find out what other options are available to you

For parents and caregivers:

Supervision is essential . This means knowing what your children are doing online, who they are interacting with and what platforms, apps or games they are using.

Having open conversations, often. The most important tip we can give any parent or carer is to start talking to your child about their online activities

Check privacy settings. We recommend parents and carers research and understand app settings, including privacy settings. This could include turning off location settings, setting profiles to private, or turning off chat functions.

Be approachable if your child needs help. Coming forward isnt always easy, and children may feel reluctant to tell you about online issues if they believe they will be punished or have their devices taken away. They must know that it is ok to speak to you or any other trusted adult if something doesnt feel right.

Long term impact. Offenders will often use tactics such as fear or shame to manipulate young people, and make them feel alienated or trapped, like they cannot escape the situation.These situations can be very distressing and can have long term-impacts, and need to be addressed appropriately. Your child is a victim of online child sexual exploitation, and they need your support.

Report suspicious behaviour. Seek help and support, and report inappropriate or suspicious behaviour online

Where to report offending:

New Zealand Police

105 (non-Emergency)

111 (Emergency)

Netsafe

Text Netsafe to 4282

Email: help@netsafe.org.nz (link sends e-mail)

Call Netsafe toll free on 0508 NETSAFE (0508 638 723)

Online report form at netsafe.org.nz/report

Netsafe helpline is open from 8am  8pm Monday to Friday and 9am  5pm on weekends.

If you need support contact Tautoko Mai on 0800 227233.
EU Commission caves  bans import of four types of Ukrainian agricultural products to five countries 3 May, 07:17 PM Harvesting grain in Kyiv Oblast, August 2022 (Photo:REUTERS/Viacheslav Musiienko/File Photo)

The European Commission has suspended imports of four types of Ukrainianagricultural products to five EU countries, according to a May 2 press release.

The measure entered into force on May 2 and will last until June 5, 2023.

It is deemed necessary given the exceptional circumstances of serious logistical bottlenecks experienced in five member states  Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

It concerns only four agricultural products  wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds  originating in Ukraine, and it aims to alleviate the logistical bottlenecks.

Video of day

At the same time, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia have committed to lift their unilateral measures on wheat, maize, rapeseed, sunflower seeds, and any other products coming from Ukraine.

The Commission is ready to reimpose preventive measures beyond the expiry of the current Autonomous Trade Measures Regulation on June 5, 2023, as long as the exceptional situation continues, reads the report.

The European Commission reached an agreement on April 28 with Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia to resolve the crisis of Ukrainian agricultural imports driving down domestic prices.

According to the agreement:

Countries will abandon unilateral restrictions on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products

The EU will allocate EUR 100 million to support affected farmers in those countries

Protection measures will be implemented for the four most sensitive products: maize, wheat, sunflower seeds, and rapeseed

Countries will work to ensure exports to other countries.

In turn, Ukraines Foreign Ministry sent notes to the Polish Embassy in Ukraine and the EU representative in Ukraine on April 28 decrying the categorical unacceptability of the situation regarding trade restrictions on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products.

Poland suspended imports of grain from Ukraine on April 15.

Polish farmers had been protesting for several months against the transportation of Ukrainian agricultural products through Poland to third countries. They claimed that a significant portion of Ukrainian grain does not transit further and stays in Poland, destabilizing Polish markets and pushing down local prices.

Read also: Polish agriculture minister resigns amid anger over Ukrainian grain imports

Later, Hungary and Slovakia also announced a temporary ban on imports of grain and oil crops, as well as some other agricultural products from Ukraine. Bulgaria joined them on April 19, allowing only transit.

A European Commission for Agriculture and Trade representative, Miriam Garcia Ferrer, stated that the EU opposes such bans.

Ukraine and Poland reached an agreement to resume the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products on April 18, Ukraines Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.

Hungary announced on April 19 that it had banned the imports of 25 types of agricultural products from Ukraine into the country, but then greenlit their transit under special conditions.

Romania has not restricted Ukrainian grain transit via its ports.

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Go again better is the theme of YWAM Ships Aotearoas deployment of the YWAM KOHA to Fiji this month.

The Tauranga-based medical aid ship is scheduled to depart on its second voyage to Fiji on May 12, following months of preparation.

We still have space for dentists and dental assistants to serve on the ship, says YWAM Ships Aotearoa managing director Marty Emmett.



The MV YWAM KOHA is scheduled to leave Tauranga for Fiji on May 12. Photo: Supplied.

If you are a dental professional, or you know someone who desires to use their skills to empower health in Fiji, please contact our volunteer registrar at volunteers@ysa.nz.

We are genuinely grateful for all those who have helped prepare the ship, the dental clinics, and the multiple areas of ministry so we can launch the team off to serve again. This truly is a mission driven by us all. Thank you for the part you play.

Go Again Better

With the 2023 theme being Go Again Better, Marty says they aim to accomplish even more than last time.

We hope to be more effective and efficient in empowering health as we partner with health professionals in Fiji. We learnt a lot last year about deploying this vessel and are eager to sharpen our skills and methods.

After three-and-a-half years of dreaming and working towards the goal of using a ship to empower health in the isolated communities of the Pacific this aspiration became a reality as the YWAM KOHA deployed to Fiji on its maiden voyage in 2022.

Arriving in the port of Suva the crew was honoured and warmly greeted at a dockside ceremony featuring national dignitaries, religious leaders and the Fijian Police Band.

The YWAM Koha received a hospitable welcome from the Fijian Police Force and the Fijian Ministry of Health. Photo: Kirk Corrie.

In outreach mode over the following three months, Marty says the ship delivered incredible results to the people of Fiji.

Reflecting on 2022, I am humbled and thrilled at what was accomplished through the YWAM Ships Aotearoa team. More than 3000 health services were delivered and many peoples lives were transformed. I am mindful that this was only possible due to the large team who are a part of the YWAM Ships story.

More than 100 volunteers from many nations participated in this deployment including health care professionals, mariners and general workers. The medical mission was supported by many people across Tauranga, NZ and around the world who donated financially.

We are grateful for the many organisations and the thousands of individuals who had a part in making this deployment successful.

Ship Deployment Schedule - working in seven locations

The YWAM KOHA is scheduled to deploy to the Pacific in mid-May with the primary focus to again be Fiji. The ship will serve four months divided into seven outreaches spread across the maritime islands of this nation.

Sail Window, May 8-19 to Suva for customs and immigration and official functions

Outreach 1June 3 to June 17 working in Kadavu

Outreach 2June 24 to July 8 working in Kadavu

Outreach 3July 15-29 working in Rabi Island

Outreach 4August 5 to 19 working in Rabi Island

Outreach 5August 26-September 9 working in Bua

Outreach 6September 16 to 23 working in Bua

Outreach 7September 30 to October 14 TBD

October 15-24 Clear customs and depart for NZ

We have a long-term commitment to Fiji and the Pacific. Partnerships will continue to undergird everything we do and moving forward together we will continue to empower health in the isolated communities of the Pacific, says Marty.

Having had time to reflect, Im overwhelmed by what we achieved last year, says Marty. Its only through the grace of God and the generosity of hundreds of people.

I think my memory that Ill hold from 2022 is that we lived our dream. I got to touch something Id been dreaming about for four years."

The YSA team with Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka. Photo: Supplied.

We delivered dental work here in our region locally and we delivered the ship to Fiji and served for three months. Ive never been so emotional. Ive never lived in a space where Ive actually touched what Id been envisioning and communicating, for a couple of years at that point.

It was so moving to me personally. I will never forget that. We learned so much last year.

Three aspirations

Marty says they have three major aspirations for 2023 as part of Go Again Better.

Were working to form a long term relationship with the Fiji Government.

On a recent advance trip to Fiji, every leader they needed to connect with opened their door to them, including the High Chief of Fiji, Ratu Epenisa Cakobau, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, the national leaders of the Minister of Health and of Fiji Oral Health Services, and many more.

The Minister of Health confirmed that our partnership agreement had been agreed upon in principle by the multiple stakeholders within the government. It next goes to the cabinet this month to hopefully be approved.

This agreement with the Fiji Government will clear the way for YWAM Ships Aotearoa to freely serve in Fiji for the next decade.

The MV YWAM KOHA sailing in Fijian waters. Photo: Supplied.

We have added more outreaches this year hoping to empower healthy lives for many more individuals. We also aspire to see the crew thrive on this deployment. We realize, to succeed, the mission has to be sustainable for our hard working crew who deliver services to the people in need.

Financially we have seen amazing generosity. Its not an easy season for many, so we are so grateful for every dollar that has been gifted. We view every donation as a gift towards the beautiful people of the Pacific. As such, we have a stewardship mindset over our spending.

With one hand we are preparing to serve in Fiji and with the other we want to keep serving in New Zealand through the Trinity Koha Dental Clinics. Over 1000 people with urgent dental needs were served last year. We want to do more this year. We want to build the vision. We want to change the culture of oral health in our region.

Already this year, the NZ focused Trinity Koha Dental team has been hard at work with over 130 people treated here in the Bay of Plenty. Many more clinics are scheduled throughout the year.

YWAM Ships Aotearoa partnered with Huria Trust to deliver free dental care into the Tauranga community. Photo: Supplied.

More than $1m worth of free dental services has now been delivered to local communities where access to care is limited by the team, whose volunteers say they are just getting started.

YWAM Ships Aotearoa began using their mobile units about two years ago to treat Bay of Plenty locals in urgent need of dental care after Covid -19 prevented their ship from sailing to remote Pacific Island villages to fulfil its original mission.

What became known as the Trinity Koha Dental Clinic has subsequently treated 1882 patients from across the Bay of Plenty, Waikato and East Coast (including Katikati, Judea, Bethlehem, Papamoa, Kawerau and Rotorua). Patients are able to give a koha, but there was no expectation to pay.

Members of the Trinity Koha Dental Clinic team providing dental care. Photo: Supplied.

We set up the clinic where we are invited and where there is great need for urgent dental care, explains Team Leader Sue Cole, who is a retired dentist.

In 2023, we hope to serve more than 1,000 people in need of urgent dental services, says Marty.

We want to empower good oral health, a culture of oral health in the Bay of Plenty and our region.

Medical supplies brought ashore from the ship in Fiji. Photo: Supplied.

He says the third aspiration is to grow YWAM Ships Aotearoa partnerships.

The most critical aspect and our greatest need is partnerships. We are only as strong and effective as the team beside us.

As our services expand, we are aware that we need to grow our support team, the office staff, our clinic team, our mariner team, and our ships technical team.

We are looking for people who want to jump in long term to be a part of this aspirational dream of empowering health in the Pacific.

To join the YWAM Ships Aotearoa team or find out more about joining email info@ysa.nz

Herea to tatou waka ki te whetu, kaore ki te titiwai

Tie our canoe to a star and not to a glow worm
Largest virtual reality space in Spain opens at Cueva de Nerja The new immersive experience at one of the most visited attractions in Malaga province allows visitors to see the galleries not open to the public and 'touch' the cave art

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The new virtual reality room at the Nerja cave opened on Saturday 29 April, allowing people to see parts of the cave that are closed to the public for safety or conservation reasons. Entrance to this new area is included in the price of a ticket to the historic site; one of the most visited natural monuments in the province of Malaga, with more than 436,000 tickets sold in 2022.

The tour lasts around twelve minutes and is virtually guided by the cave's new mascot, the animated character Tadeo Jones, following an agreement with the production company, Telecinco Cinema. It takes the visitor on a journey through Nerja, the Maro waterfall, the geological formation of the cave and the valuable cave paintings, with images of a Neanderthal man.

Visitors are given VR glasses and headphones so that they can fully immerse themselves in this technological immersion, without leaving their chairs. The virtual reality area is divided into two rooms, with a capacity for 360 people per hour in total and up to 65 people in each of the rooms during each experience.

According to information from the Cueva de Nerja foundation, an additional activity is being developed which will be available from June, exclusively for people with reduced mobility or other health problems that prevent them from physically visiting the Nerja cave. It will also show the galleries that are open to the public, allowing those who are not able to enter, to see the inside of the cave.

Ampliar The queue of people waiting to enter the new VR room E. Cabezas

The 360-degree immersive video shows in detail how humans lived on Earth 35,000 years ago and cave paintings can be touched. Nerjas cave has the largest collection of prehistoric art in Europe, with more than a thousand examples which cannot be accessed for conservation reasons. However, now through this technology the public can see them.
UK lawyer sues Wagner, aiming to win billions for Ukrainians 3 May, 03:18 PM Exclusive In the photo - Jason McCue, head of the British law firm McCue Jury & Partners (Photo:Oleksandr Medvedev / NV)

Jason McCue, a British lawyer with extensive experience defending victims of terrorists, explains how class actions by Ukrainians can compensate for the damage from Russian aggression better than international reparations commissions and what he personally does to achieve this.

McCue leads the British law firm McCue Jury & Partners and has been defending the interests of victims of terrorists in court for 30 years. He led cases against the IRA (Irish Republican Army), Al-Qaeda, and Hamas, and appeared in courts around the world - from Britain and the United States to Somalia, Libya and Equatorial Guinea. He has repeatedly sought the withdrawal of sanctioned assets of states in favor of the victims through court verdicts. And now he wants to help the Ukrainians get reparations at the expense of the assets of the Russian invaders - from Yevgeny Prigozhin's mercenaries to dictator Vladimir Putin personally.

Video of day

In November 2022, McCue initiated the first lawsuit against the Wagner mercenary company. The lawyer enlisted the support of the Ukrainian government and an international network of lawyers, investigators and lobbyists built over decades of professional activity. Together they are trying to establish the process of filing class-action lawsuits against Russia in different countries of the world.

NV met with the lawyer during his latest visit to Kyiv to ask about this large-scale project.

NV: Tell us about your program and the trial against PMC Wagner in London.

McCue: PayBack4Ukraine is a program that involves countries all over the world. We have cases in Israel, in Europe, and in America. In every case, the plaintiffs are ordinary Ukrainian peoples who may have lost a loved one, may have lost their businessby this Russian invasion, and they deserve compensation. They deserve reparations for whats going on. These cases will create mass class-actions and take Russian assets, sanctioned or unsanctioned, and bring that money home for the people.

The first case is in London, which weve set up in London, is against the Wagner Group and Prigozhin. That case is eligible for 180,000 Ukrainian evacuees in London on visa. If they all come into the case, it has a cumulative value of $5 billion. Thats $5 billion we can take off the Russian war machine and bring back to Ukrainians.

NV: How did you calculate this amount?

McCue: Each claim has different values, and you average them out. Theres a whole computer model. Theres displacement, theres the cost of having to move home and live in a foreign country. You work out that so many have direct injuries like psychological trauma. Theres an algorithm that the lawyers work out. So you come up with the figure from that.

NV: 180 thousand people are eligible, but how many have joined this case?

McCue: We have not asked anyone yet. So far we have a small group of Ukrainians who are our clients. We need the support of the [Ukrainian] government to use the Diya app to onboard all of those 180,000 into this particular case. But then we have similar cases in America where Ukrainian victims will be eligible for that action. And then in Germany, it will be a different group of eligibility criteria. So the only way in the circumstances of this war of doing this will be to utilize the Diya app, which is perfect. So we have been having meetings with the government on how to make that happen and how we can make that work. And theyve agreed to help, which is fantastic.

NV: Concerning this project with Diya, whom did you meet with in Kyiv this time and what did you discuss about this Diya project?

McCue: Ive just come from the Office of the President, where there was a roundtable meeting with all the relevant ministries that are involved in supporting this programThat is being orchestrated by [presidential advisor Mykhailo] Podolyak. There is a whole center which will direct action as needed.

In December, your government said that they fully backed and supported this campaign, and working together, we can maximize its impact and potential. The meeting held today was the first of a sort of cross-ministry task force supporting this program and all the different actions around the world. As you can imagine, the British action, which my law firm is bringing, and the different actions being brought by lawyers in the United States and in Israel, will have different evidence needs in order to prosecute their cases, and different Ukrainian victims to represent. Thats why this is so unique and brilliant  because it has never been done on this scale before.

The Ukrainian government confirmed that it fully supports our PayBack4Ukraine campaign, and the first press conference was held. Now, thanks to the Office of the President (OP), the first meeting of an interagency task force has taken place, which will facilitate the work on court cases in different countries. At the round table, we met with representatives of a number of ministries and departments; the coordinator was [adviser to the chairman of the OP] Mikhail Podolyak.

Weve done actions for the Rohingya against Facebook for billions of dollars. But this stage has millions and millions of Ukrainians, and this process is so valuable because it works in parallel with reparation commissions and justice tribunals. And this is important, because we know from history, from when Saddam [Hussein]s assets were seized after he was removedwhich is not going to happen herethe reparations payments ended up being a paltry few thousand dollars. Thats not going to repair Ukraine.

These cases that were talking about around the world are for real, actual losses. Whats hard is that they took a lot of work and effort. Weve got to prosecute all those claims and put them together in class actions, but each damages claim has to be worked out individually. But working with your government, we are able to fast track these processes and make something that would have been practically just too difficult actually happen.

NV: So what is the mechanism by which this will work? Will Ukrainians be able to submit their claim through Diya?

McCue: Lets take the UK action. The UK action will make a post on Diya which will say, If you have A, B, and C criteria and want to be in the action, tick this box, and with your permission, we will provide the lawyers with your contact details or whatever documents. We have to do due diligence so they can decide whether to proceed, and then they would be processed into the case that way.

We have agreed upon how to do it. Whats necessary now is procedures for compliance under Ukrainian law. You have a system which always requires orders to be made for something to happen.

But given that, we've been working on this for the last year pro bono. But when you start an action, those cases need funding. You cant take on the Russian war machine if you have one hand behind your back and have no resources. So we have to raise money, which lawyers, experts, and investigators all need. The network weve built for the Ukrainian lawfare program is made honestly of the best lawyers and investigators around the world. And theyve all agreed that when the cases start, they will work at a 20% discount for Ukraine. So weve got to raise this money we need now so that all the actions can start building up. Thats where were at.

Were looking at funding from some private donors, but mostly its going to be crowdfunding from the public, and thats what we talked about with the Office of the President.

NV: From your experience going after organizations like ISIS and the IRA, how does this case against Wagner compare?

McCue: The Wagner case is very easy in a way. Ive sued terrorist groups all over the world. These are organizations that do not have a corporate structure. Wagner is exactly the same. Youre dealing with groups that commit atrocities and criminality with a political motive. Wagner does the same. They are a terrorist group. So for our modeling on how to build the cases, this is easy. What Wagner has done in your country is disgusting. They have met the definition of a terrorist group in every country. All that countries have to do now is wake up, smell the coffee, and start designating Wagner as a terrorist group.

Its not just Wagner. Were also going to target the oligarchs that prop up Mr. Putin. Were also going to target the sanction-busters and those involved in the illegal arms and propaganda trade. This is what this program is going to do with your governments help, by and on behalf of the people of Ukraine.

NV: What charges are being brought against the Wagner Group in the London court?

McCue: There are three things we are going to show. We are going to show that Wagner is a terrorist organization and has committed acts of terrorism against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. We will then show that Wagner was involved in an illegal conspiracy with the Russian Federation, namely Putin, to commit those acts of terrorism. Thirdly, we will show that Putin paid for these acts of terrorism. That is a case that I can guarantee you we are not going to lose. We have seen the evidence, and we have seen what those monsters have done. Theyve bragged about it. And under international law, we will win. We will get a judgment, and then we will enforce it, and we will pursue them for their assets, whether they are sanctioned assets or non-sanctioned assets. And they will go to Ukrainians who deserve it.

NV: If the London court rules against the Wagner Group, which assets will you target and in which countries?

McCue: We are not just going after Wagner. Thats just the first London case. But with Wagner, weve been monitoring them for nearly a decade. There are people in our network like Bellingcat, who have been monitoring and tracking Wagner assets for a long time. These sorts of investigators are providing us on the legal team with information on where the assets are, in whose name theyre registered, and where the contracts are. We have that, and were going to use it and track them.

More importantly, when you win a judgment in a terrorism case or a case involving human rights in a military conflict  a case that is humanitarian in nature  we will have an international precedent for applying a verdict against sanctioned assets. The beauty of it is that this is a method that is already compliant with international law and has lots of precedent, which weve already done, where you can get a judgment against a state from a competent court, and use these exemptions to take the money..

For all this talk of getting reparations from sanctioned money, that wont necessarily happen because its in breach of international law. Countries may say that of course Ukraine deserves this, but its very tricky to just wave a magic wand and confiscate those sanctioned assets. But these lawfare cases, which are particularly crafted with this humanitarian angle, will be able to do this.

NV: Youve said youve gotten seizures of assets in other cases. Can you give some examples?

McCue: One example comes from the victims of [Libyan dictator Muammar] Gaddafis Semtex [plastic explosives] that he provided to the IRA terrorist group. That was used for what would become the model of what became the Libyan Claims Settlement Act in America. Sanctioned money was used to pay those victims, which in those US cases got $10 million each. We were involved in that. The French government took Gaddafis frozen European assets for his Semtex being used on an airplane which blew up in midair. They brought that case, and used that exemption and did it. Then again for the victims of the Lockerbie bombings  10 million per family was taken out of sanctioned assets. This is a well-tried practice in law, and we felt that it needed to be done for Ukrainians. I think thats why the government approached us. Its quite a specialized area of practice.

NV: I wanted to ask about lawsuits against Putin and Russian oligarchs. Are you planning to bring them?

McCue: Yes. There are law firms which are part of the network who have come to me about cases against Putin personally and against so many other oligarchs. We are going through them and figuring out how to prioritize them. At the moment, we have no resources. Weve got the people ready. They contact us from around the world. People are coming to us who have spent their lives doing things like hunting down assets and going after terrorist groups, and this is a great thing for the Ukrainian people to have. Because you cant pull this sort of thing off without a huge network of people working on it who can offer expertise from all sorts of countries and jurisdictions from around the world.

In addition to the Wagner Group, our targets will also be oligarchs obedient to Putin and violators of sanctions, Russian sympathizers involved in the illegal arms trade and distributors of illegal propaganda. All these court cases will be launched with the help of your government on behalf of the Ukrainians. The more of them, the better, because this is the power of people.

Our team consists of lawyers and investigators with experience in tracking down large corporate assets, there are thousands of them, and they constantly contact me with new ideas for what reasons and for what amount we can file claims. Now the difficulty for me is to prioritize them and find resources. But it is very important that we have a huge potential of a network of specialists - without it it is impossible to do a business of this magnitude for Ukraine.

NV: I know you've reached out to YouTube about content related to Wagner. Can you tell us more about that?

McCue: One of the objectives of this program is to hit the Russian war machine with litigation, stop it from being able to function, and bring that money to Ukraianians as reparations. That means going after Russian war machine propaganda. I dont think it is civilized for any multimedia platform to host commercial promotional videos of Wagner to show off its murderous terrorism, to recruit, and to promote its image around the world.

So when The Times published an article about these videos Wagner is posting on YouTube, we wrote a letter to YouTube demanding that all of that content be monitored and taken down, or else we would be looking at legal action. It cannot happen in a civilized society that people are showing videos like this which, by the way, are advancing their commercial interests. Its promoting a commercial enterprise of illegality, and I dont think YouTube wants to do that. I dont think any good social media platform wants to allow them to peddle their propaganda and terrorism. So Im sure that theyll rectify it, and it will be a small victory for our campaign.

NV: How much time did you give YouTube to respond and how will you proceed?

McCue: I was very generous and gave them 24 hours to take the videos down and seven days to respond. Why should a Ukrainian whose child was killed by Wagner have to know that on Youtube, where they watch their TV programs, that theres a rap song about these guys killing Ukrainians?

NV: What will happen if they do not comply?

McCue: If any internet platform around the world acts illegally by publishing this propaganda and terrorism, and there is a case to be made, we will bring legal action on behalf of the Ukrainian people and take huge damages from them. If they think Im joking, they can look at how we did the Cambridge Analytica case against Facebook. These big companies have to understand that there is a social responsibility in being a social networking platform. No Ukrainian and no child anywhere should have to see videos of these guys smashing peoples heads in with hammers. Its wrong, they know its wrong, and it should stop.

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Auburn, N.Y.  An Auburn man pleaded guilty to manslaughter Tuesday for selling his friend fentanyl-laced heroin that lead to that persons death, according to the Cayuga County District Attorneys Office.

Matthew Carnicelli, 34, admitted during his plea that he consciously disregarded the known risk of a fatal overdose when he sold the heroin, according to a Facebook post from Cayuga County District Attorney Brittany Antonacci.

The friend died on October 31, 2022, of a fatal overdose, prosecutors said. Carnicelli knew the dangers of giving the friend the drugs because they were on prescription medications and had a higher chance of death, prosecutors said.

This is the second time Cayuga County prosecutors have held a drug dealer responsible for a death, Antonacci wrote in the post.

Police searched Carnicellis house the day after the death and found more than an eighth of an ounce of fentanyl and he admitted to having it to sell, prosecutors said.

Carnicellis codefendant, Kelli Mitchell,

31, of Auburn, pleaded guilty in February to one count of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, prosecutors said. She is expected to be sentenced on June 1 and faces 6 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Carnicelli pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and faces between three and a half to seven years of prison, prosecutors said.

Staff writer Rylee Kirk covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, story idea, photo, question or comment? Reach her at 315-396-5961, on Twitter @kirk_rylee, or rkirk@syracuse.com.
Syracuse, N.Y.  An Onondaga County Sheriffs Office deputy accused of twice kissing and lifting the skirt of a woman who reported a domestic violence incident that he was investigating has checked into a rehab facility, the district attorney said.

Deputy Brian Lynch, 37, has voluntarily checked into the facility in Florida, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Tuesday.

Lynch was scheduled to appear in court for an extreme risk protection order hearing at 1 p.m. Tuesday to determine if he could buy or possess guns after a judge approved a temporary order preventing him from having guns following his arrest.

Lynch was notified of the hearing while he was at St. Josephs Hospital on Wednesday, April 26, according to court documents.

While deputies were at Lynchs house, they removed a handgun, his official service weapon and a rifle. The temporary order will remain in effect until he can appear in court for the hearing.

Lynch was arrested on April 20 and held in the Onondaga County Justice Center overnight while he awaited arraignment the next morning. He was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief and official misconduct.

The charges stem from accusations he had an inappropriate relationship with the victim of a domestic violence incident he was investigating, according to court papers.

He met the woman on March 21 while investigating an incident with her ex-boyfriend, according to court documents. Later that day, he friended her on Instagram and Facebook, the woman told investigators.

Lynch said in an affidavit that he was trying to have an intimate relationship with her.

He met her again on April 12, when she was at a bar and called police to report her ex-boyfriend hit her, according to court papers. Lynch was a responding officer and drive the woman home. While at her home he kissed her and tried to make further sexual advances, all while he was still on duty, court papers said.

Later that same day, he returned to her house and encouraged her to sign a statement -- she later said in an affidavit had inaccuracies -- to prosecute her ex-boyfriend, investigators said in court papers. She said in a statement to police she was afraid Lynch would be upset with her if she didnt press charges against the man.

On April 17, Lynch told the woman he was going to come over and ignored texts she sent stating she wasnt going to be home, according to court documents. She later got a notification from her Ring camera and saw Lynch trying to break into her house using a knife to pry open two locked doors, which caused damage to the home, she told police.

He later told investigators she agreed he could come and he was breaking in so he could wait inside for her to get home so they could hang out, according to an affidavit.

Lynch also missed a scheduled court appearance on Friday. His next court date has been moved to June 8.

Staff writer Anne Hayes covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at ahayes@syracuse.com.
Otisco, N.Y.  Sheriffs deputies managed to find a missing woman with dementia in less than 30 minutes using a helicopter, deputies said.

An 81-year-old woman was reported missing by her family in Otisco at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday, said Thomas Newton, a spokesperson for the Onondaga County Sheriffs Office on Wednesday.

Deputies and the Otisco Fire Department started searching the woods near Dutch Hill Road, Newton said. The sheriffs office helicopter, Air1, went up to help find the woman, he said.

The helicopter managed to locate her using infrared technology, he said. The helicopter was able to direct firefighters to find the woman, he said.

The woman was missing for less than 30 minutes and was uninjured, he said.

Staff writer Rylee Kirk covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, story idea, photo, question or comment? Reach her at 315-396-5961, on Twitter @kirk_rylee, or rkirk@syracuse.com.
Fayetteville, N.Y.  Liam McGuire once spent hours helping a neighbor learn how to snowboard.

The woman had never snowboarded, but Liam was patient even when she wanted to quit. In the end, the woman remembers she could go down the neighborhood hill and even learned a few tricks.

Thats how friends and family describe Liam: A kind, genuine and patient person who loved to have fun. He was an avid snowboarder, but his passion was skateboarding.

Liam, 16, of Manlius, suffered head injuries when he fell last Tuesday from a skateboard while being pulled by a car driven by a best friend on West Franklin Street near Wellwood Middle School in Fayetteville. Liam died Saturday.

Liam has signed up to be an organ donor, so his donations will help save other lives.

He had a tagline he and his friends often used: I gotchu, said his father Tom McGuire. That means he always had your back, he said.

His dad, his mother, Cindy McGuire, and their daughter, Abby, sat down in their home Monday to talk about Liam and share stories about him.

He had an ability to connect with others and help them, his father said. When Liam spoke, he saw you and genuinely cared, he said.

Liam also exuded excitement, his family said.

Liam was about fun, Tom said.

He just wanted to be where the fun was, his dad said. If his friends wanted to play basketball, soccer or football, he was there.

He used to wrestle and run cross-country, but in the last four years skateboarding became his thing.

Liam picked it up from friends. His first skateboard was a hand-me-down from a friends son. He got his own for a birthday and it became the first of many.

Liam spent a lot of time at what he called The Spot, a DIY skate park off Erie Boulevard East in Syracuse. He and his friends would skate all over Fayetteville and downtown Syracuse.

Liam would always, no matter where they went, ask to go along and skate, said John More, the co-owner of Flower Skate Shop in Syracuse. There were other times Liam would be out skating alone.

Just shows how much passion he had to go out at night and skate by himself, More said.

Cindy said her son would spend hours perfecting tricks. Liam was persistent and would skate at the top of his neighborhood hill with friends until he, eventually, stuck the landing.

Liam was known to the skating community, making friends and meeting new people at skate parks and local skate shops. He spent a lot of time at the skate shop, hanging out with his friends, the owners and workers.

Liam was just a super cool, chill, funny down-to-earth dude, More said. 

It wasnt just about the sport, but the lifestyle of skateboarding that appealed to Liam: the shoes, the clothes and the friendships, too.

Liam had countless skateboards. He would ride one out until the board became too scuffed up before retiring it on his wall in his room and switching it out for a new one. He often bought skateboards, gear and clothes from brands such as Crooked, Real, Antihero and of course Flower.

Liam had other aspirations. He wanted to become a middle school science teacher.

Liam was a junior at Fayetteville-Manlius High School, and conversations around his future soon became more frequent, his family said. A teacher Liam was close with at F-M told his dad that Liam had the makings of patience and connection, something many look for in a teacher.

Liams dad said his son would be fun in the classroom as well.

Liam would be that guy that you see in the movies thats jumping on the table, but he would also get across to kids, Tom said.

A career possibly in science was something Liams sister had in common with her brother. She is a college freshman majoring in biology.

Abby said her relationship with Liam wasnt built through words, but play and sibling fights.

She said he was a thoughtful gift-giver and they played many games together.

She understood as they got older, their differences at times separated them. Abby was an academic and Liam was an athlete. But Abby said Liam was a good brother. And the two had no problem saying how they felt to one another.

Being a sibling was hard and it was easy, she said. It was a lot of anger, but it was a lot of love, too.

Cindy and Tom adopted Abby and Liam from Bogota, Colombia, Abby in 2004 and Liam in 2006. The family this summer was planning a trip to the Colombian capital to visit the orphanage the two were adopted from. They wanted Abby and Liam see where they were born. Liam was adopted when he was four-months-old.

The orphanage was having a celebration and they hoped their kids would get to be a part of it, Tom said.

Liam touched many people. Family and friends gathered Sunday at a vigil in the neighborhood to share stories about him. Thats where one woman shared how Liam spent hours teaching her to snowboard.

Liams best friend was driving the car that Liam was holding on to when he fell. Liams family said the friend and his family stopped by the hospital several times.

Hes crushed, Tom said.

Cindy said their family is concerned for all the Liams friends dealing with his death. She said she hopes they are able to get the support they need to help them grieve and process the loss.

Tom said his family encourages skateboarders to be more careful, take more protections to prevent accidents.

Liams dad said parents would wrap their children in bubblewrap if they could. But you cannot control everything and kids often take risks their parents dont know about, he said.

Cindy and Tom said Liam was a 16-year-old just having fun and they wouldnt want to diminish that.

I wouldnt ever want to take that away from him, or any kid that is feeling that much love in life doing what they love, Cindy said.

Tom said their family will be broken for some time without Liam, but they will hold onto how much good came from Liams organ donations. Hes already helped save six lives so far and others will benefit from his donations too, Tom said the Finger Lakes Donor Recovery program told the family.

On Saturday, loved ones were able to say their final goodbyes to Liam at Upstate University Hospital. Friends, family, classmates, school teachers, administrators and police lined the hall as the hospital staff took Liam along a corridor in a walk of honor, a last chance to recognize an organ donor.

As we walked down the hall, I looked up and saw all those people and I just said, Liam, look at all the people you touched, Cindy said. It was such a beautiful, beautiful thing.

When Liam was getting his drivers permit, he saw the option to become an organ donor his dad said. Hed asked what that meant.

His dad explained that, if you die, your organs are given to people who need them. His dad said Liam looked at him and just said, Im down for it.

5 1 / 5 Liam McGuire

***

Liam McGuires obituary

***

Staff writer Darian Stevenson covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at dstevenson@syracuse.com
Liverpool, N.Y.  Jennifer Wood promised her grandmother she wouldnt give up searching for an answer to her grandfathers disappearance.

Woods grandfather, Guy Pyke, 70, disappeared on April 2, 1999. Her grandmother, Arline Pyke, used to mark the days since his disappearance on a calendar.

Arline Pyke died in 2012, not knowing what happened to her husband, Wood said.

On Wednesday, Wood was at Onondaga Lake Park working on keeping her promise. Wood watched as men in wet suits and rain jackets prepped their equipment to search the lake for her grandfather.

With the help of Adventures With Purpose, Jennifer Wood is searching for her grandfather, Guy Pyke, on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. It has been 24 years since Pyke disappeared on April 2, 1999. (Rylee Kirk | Rkirk@syracuse.com)

The last person who reported seeing him was a cousin, who lived in Evans Mills, north of Watertown. The cousin told deputies Guy pulled into their driveway in his Chevy Blazer and then backed out and drove north.

At the time, police in the United States and Canada were informed of his disappearance but neither country managed to locate him.

In September, 2022 Wood and a team from Adventures With Purpose searched roads and ponds in Jefferson County. The group searches for missing people across the country.

The search found no trace of Pyke or his Blazer, so the group decided to search closer to his home for him.

Pyke, who lived on Aitchison Road just west of Syracuse, used to frequent Walts Hobby Shop close to the lake, Wood said. He would fly - and crash - RC helicopters and always be in need of a part.

A piece to the puzzle also might be Pykes retirement from Allied Chemical, said Bill McIntosh, an investigator and search and rescue specialist with Adventures With Purpose.

He drove that road to Onondaga Lake to go to Allied Chemical thousands of times because he worked there for 50 years, McIntosh said. Going back in time to the 30,000 times you drove to Onondaga Lake makes more sense.

The team goes out in a kayak with a sonar machine, McIntosh said. The sonar can go down, sideways, and 360 degrees, he said. Using the sonar, the team can tell if an object is a windshield, rock, or other object, he said.

The group has successfully found 29 missing people in about two years, he said.

This is about bringing people peace and completing the circle of their life, he said.

It has been 24 years since Guy Pyke disappeared on April 2, 1999. A boat search is being done on Onondaga Lake on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. (Photo Provided by Onondaga County Sheriff's Office)

Staff writer Rylee Kirk covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, story idea, photo, question or comment? Reach her at 315-396-5961, on Twitter @kirk_rylee, or rkirk@syracuse.com.
Description

Molloy University Professor in the School of Education and Human Services, Dr. Vicky Giouroukakis, will sign copies of her latest book, Growing Up in an Immigrant Household and Community: Essays by Descendants of Immigrants, about what it was like to grow up in an immigrant household and community, on Wednesday, May 3 from 6:30PM to 8:30PM at the Archangel Michael Greek Orthodox Church, located at 100 Fairway Dr, Port Washington, NY 11050.

Dr. Giouroukakis is a first-generation American of Greek immigrant parents. She experienced her first incident of otherness when she was in kindergarten and her teacher struggled to pronounce her name, Vasiliki, suggesting they change her name for convenience.

Growing up, Dr. Giouroukakis served as a translator for her mother, who did not know English. When she was sixteen years old, she enrolled her mother in ESL classes in Astoria to help her learn English. Right before the courses were due to begin, her mother decided that she no longer wanted to participate because she was too embarrassed and too nervous to go back to school.

These stories have always resonated with Vicky throughout her life and helped serve as inspiration when writing her book. Divided into five sectionsChallenges and Hardships, Fond Childhood Memories of the Immigrant Community, The Immigrant Household and Food, Life Lessons Learned from Immigrants Parents, Life Lessons Learned from Immigrant Grandparentsthe essays aim to give a voice to descendants of immigrants. The fellow authors with backgrounds from countries all around the world are sharing their personal stories from being raised by immigrant parents or grandparents.

This book is for people who have felt like the other at times in their lives simply because of being different, said Dr. Giouroukakis. Growing up, I struggled with my identity and finding a balance between my Greek and American cultures. My parents were grateful for the opportunities they were able to have when they came to America. They taught me how to work hard and persevere in order to succeed in life. Through this book, I want to honor my parents and all immigrant parents as well as their children, the hardships they endured and the joys they experienced in their household and community as they sought to define their cultural identity.

The book signing will benefit The Archangel Michael Ladies Philoptochos as they provide the opportunity for women who are committed to actively assist those less fortunate and to make a difference. Tickets are available for $35 per person and will include heart hors dourves, wine tasting and an autographed signed book. Please RSVP to Chris at (516) 375-3940 or via email at theJoannous@yahoo.com.
Syracuse, N.Y.  Sixteen guns bought in Georgia have been recovered in Syracuse as part of a multi-state gun trafficking investigation, authorities announced Wednesday.

One person bought all the guns legally in Macon, Georgia, said Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick. The person purchased 52 guns and so far 16 have been found in Syracuse, Police Chief Joseph Cecile said.

Four of the recovered guns were used during crimes, Cecile said.

One gun was used in a murder-suicide, Cecile said. Some of the guns were being used by gang members and three guns were used in more than one crime, he said.

The person buying the guns reported them stolen from a home in Georgia, Cecile said. Police knew it was a fake story because the guns were already in Syracuse, he said.

Two Syracuse residents -- Julius L. Anderson, 32 and Veronica Williams, 35, -- were arrested for gun trafficking, Fitzpatrick said. Their top charge is criminal sale of a firearm, he said. Neither of the suspects had prior gun charges, Fitzpatrick said.

Anderson and Williams were indicted Wednesday. They are being held at the Onondaga County Justice Center jail on $1 million bail, Fitzpatrick said.

A third, yet-to-be-named person is awaiting charges, Fitzpatrick said.

Both Anderson and Williams were charged with first-degree criminal sale of a firearm, 14 counts of criminal possession of a weapon, 16 counts of third-degree criminal sale of a firearm, 16 counts of criminal possession of a firearm, two counts of second-degree criminal sale of a firearm and fourth-degree conspiracy.

Mayor Ben Walsh praised police for catching the traffickers.

To those charged, there is blood on your hands, Walsh said.

The rest of the 52 guns could be on the streets in Syracuse still, he said.

Fitzpatrick questioned why anyone could possibly need to buy 52 guns.

I understand the fervency of peoples Second Amendment rights, their desire for self-protection, Fitzpatrick said, but if someone can explain to me why an individual in Macon, Georgia needs 50 different handguns, Id be more than happy to listen.

Law enforcement in Syracuse was first notified of the Georgia buyer in August 2021, Cecile said. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, in Georgia notified the ATF in Syracuse that someone with ties to the Syracuse area had purchased many handguns. The ATF branch in Georgia flagged the buyer for buying so many weapons.

After the tip, Syracuse law enforcement was looking for guns connected that could be traced back to the Georgia buyer.

Police were able to determine that the guns were being trafficked to Syracuse between May 25, 2021 and Sept. 2, 2021. 16 of those guns were recovered between Sept. 28, 2021, and Feb. 26, 2023, Cecile said.

Syracuse police were also able to find connections between the three suspects, said Sgt. Collin Hillman, an investigator with Syracuse police.

Hillman and several other investigators also went down to Macon in 2022 to further the local investigation, he said.

Macon, which is in Macon-Bibb County, is in the center of the state. That county last year had more than 50 homicides through September.

In 2023, 96% of illegal handguns that Syracuse police have been able to trace are coming from outside the state, Cecile said.

Staff writer Rylee Kirk covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, story idea, photo, question or comment? Reach her at 315-396-5961, on Twitter @kirk_rylee, or rkirk@syracuse.com.
Dune: Part Two trailer

Denis Villenueve has released the first trailer for Dune: Part Two, featuring Timothee Chalamet as a young leader to nomads on a desert planet where Spice is the top commodity, changing people into travelers, mystics and madmen. The cast also includes returning stars Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, and Josh Brolin, plus new additions like Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken and Austin Butler. Dune: Part Two opens in theaters Nov. 3.

DWTS returning to ABC

Dancing with the Stars is returning to ABC after season 31 was released on Disney+, becoming the first live series on the streaming service. The show may have sparked more interest with Gen Z as TikTok star Charli DAmelio won the Mirrorball trophy, but Vulture reports season 32 will air on ABC with some more changes. Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli will be judges, and former DWTS winner Alfonso Ribeiro has been promoted to co-host with Julianne Hough, replacing Tyra Banks. The show will still be available to watch on Disney+ as well because, yknow, Disney owns both.

Trevor Noahs new job

Former The Daily Show host Trevor Noah has a new job. E! reports the comedian will executive produce a U.S. version of the British series Mock the Week for Amazon Freevee with original creator Dan Patterson. The half-hour program features stand-up comedy, panels and improvised games with two teams of comedians mocking current news, pop culture and world events - like a mix of The Daily Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway? A host for Mock the Week has not been named; production will begin next year.

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By Joshua Solomon | Times Union, Albany

Albany, N.Y.  The states retooled bail laws are expected to expand the discretion for judges to incarcerate someone awaiting trial who is accused of a serious crime and also repeat offenders accused of committing felony offenses.

The shift comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Democratic leaders seek to balance improving public safety while ensuring that those accused of a crime are not unjustly held in jail. They are set to approve a $229 billion budget that includes the long-negotiated provisions on bail, despite criminal justice advocates and some legislators calling for lawmakers to vote it down.

Tucked into the proposed changes is a provision intended to address repeat offenders of alleged felony crimes. Its an issue Hochul and certain Democratic lawmakers have said is most concerning to them. Republicans have typically called for more broad-stroke changes to the bail laws.

The change for repeat felony offenses could mark the first time the state is clearly setting a standard beyond ensuring someone will return to court when determining what conditions to set during an arraignment. A judge would be able to also consider a defendants compliance with court conditions in determining whether they are a risk of flight or pose a danger if released.

Under the proposal, if a person charged with a felony and released by a judge with conditions is rearrested on another felony and found to have violated the conditions then the judge would have broader discretion on whether to set bail or send them to jail for the second alleged offense. That additional discretion includes charges for which a judge otherwise would not have been able to set bail.

The alteration is in addition to other changes to the states bail laws, which include a greater reliance on releasing a defendant under supervision.

The Times Union previously reported that supervised programs in New York are underfunded and struggling with increases in caseloads and a lack of infrastructure. The Legislature had initially hoped that supervised release programs could help address a defendants underlying issues, such as unemployment, lack of housing or addiction.

State lawmakers increased funding for that programming to $20 million last year and agreed to keep that funding this year. Programming for anti-gun violence and other public safety measures, after being substantially increased last year, is proposed to be raised again as Hochul seeks to invest more in violence prevention.

Lawmakers who support the measures with the governor hope the various changes, which are often the subject of political debate, can help reduce violent crime and connect defendants with social services that are intended to address underlying conditions. Heres a look at the final changes:



Elimination of least restrictive standard: The change signals to judges that release conditions need to be rational and not excessive, but it doesnt have to be the least restrictive. It could provide judges with similar discretion they had before 2019 changes to the bail laws when they set bail on more serious crimes, such as violent felonies.



More supervision: On misdemeanor and low-level felony cases, judges would have more leeway to set non-monetary conditions, such as supervised release. They are still generally restricted from setting bail or sending someone to jail in those cases.



Bail and non-monetary conditions: A judge can set bail and order someone to be subject to supervision if theyre released from custody. Under the prior statute they could only choose one. The expectation is that judges may set lower bail amounts if they know a defendant would be supervised upon release.



Repeat felony offenders: If a person accused of a felony violates their release conditions and is rearrested for another felony they would be subject to bail or pre-trial incarceration for the second felony arrest.



Mental health and addiction treatment: State officials are hoping to signal to judges that they can use non-monetary conditions for addiction and mental health treatment. State data show it was rarely used and the Times Union reported recently that drug court enrollment has dropped sharply over the last four years.



Increased discretion: Last year, lawmakers agreed to allow judges in cases involving serious crimes to consider a defendants charges, criminal record, prior history of showing up to court, ability to afford bail, violation of orders of protection, use or possession of a firearm and whether the offense caused serious harm to others.



Reporting on pretrial jail population: This would require the Office of Court Administration to report monthly on the number of individuals held in individual jails awaiting trial.

Explaining the bail issue

The issue this year centers around whats known as bail-eligible offenses for alleged crimes which Democratic elected officials have agreed that judges should be able to set bail or send a defendant to jail while they await trial.

Two issues at the center of the debate are repeated thefts and violent crime.

Last year, state officials agreed to allow judges to set bail or remand individuals who were accused of multiple thefts. The issue came as pharmacies and other retail shops began to put their merchandise in locked cases. The intent was to resolve any potential revolving door of larcenies and burglaries.

The issue, prosecutors said, fell to the same problem on other bail-eligible offenses: judges believed they could not hold a defendant in jail pretrial because they had to balance the least restrictive means to ensure they returned to court. They instead may be releasing someone on their own recognizance or with conditions such as an ankle monitor.

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has maintained that the states so-called bail reform of 2019 only was to change what happens at arraignment for low-level offenses, such as misdemeanors and certain non-violent felonies. In those non-serious instances, state leaders agreed to prevent a judge from setting bail or sending someone to jail.

The outcome of the changes to the states bail laws, according to state data, show that on the serious crimes, judges have become less likely to set bail. The small percentage change has led to more defendants released while awaiting trial.

Hochul and prosecutors have argued that is a byproduct of a clause that was added into the 2019 legislation instructing judges to use the least restrictive means to ensure a defendants return to court.

Public defenders contest that the least restrictive means has long been New Yorks standard and the 2019 changes merely codified it. They content it was important because judges had used bail as a tool to jail defendants.

Public defenders also view removing the least restrictive means language as a rollback to the 2019 legislation. They believe it would vastly expand the pretrial jail population.

___

(c)2023 the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.)

Visit the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) at www.timesunion.com
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Some colleges and universities are doing their part to lessen the student loan burden that many graduates are facing by providing loan-free financial aid packages. No-loan institutions offer financial aid packages that feature a combination of grants, scholarships, work-study aid and other components that allow students to attend without having to worry about graduating with debt.

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"No-loan schools are basically telling students of modest or even extremely low income that they should apply if they have the grades and extracurricular [activities] to be considered, and that they don't have to worry about the high price tag as long as they are able to get accepted," Kevin Ladd, chief operating officer and co-creator of Scholarships.com, told U.S. News.

While this does not mean these schools are free to attend, it does mean that these institutions aim to cover each family's demonstrated financial need -- the difference between the cost of attendance and the expected family contribution -- so that loans aren't required to make up the difference.

Here are 12 schools that meet students' full financial needs with no loans.

Mark Yarchoan / Shutterstock.com

Amherst College

On its financial aid website, Amherst states that "we meet 100% of our students' demonstrated need." And in fact, the majority of its students -- regardless of background -- are able to graduate without student loans. The school states that 75% of Amherst graduates in the class of 2021 graduated with no student loan debt.

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Robert F Bukaty/AP/Shutterstock

Bowdoin College

Bowdoin meets the full demonstrated need of every student with grants instead of loans, and nearly half of all enrolled students (48%) receive aid, according to its latest financial aid stats. In addition to providing students with student aid, in 2021 the College replaced summer work obligations with additional scholarships for students from families making under $75,000 a year.

Story continues

In 2022, Bowdoin announced that it would provide all current and future students with a number of technology items (13-inch MacBook Pro, iPad mini, Apple Pencil, and access to a full range of course-specific software).

Take Our Poll: Are You Planning To Buy or Sell a House This Year?

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Brown University

Brown's website states that "100% of every student's demonstrated need is met with an initial package that includes scholarship and work only -- no loans."

gregobagel / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Columbia University

Columbia University's financial aid packages meet 100% of the demonstrated financial need for all first-years and transfers pursuing their first degree and do not include student loans.

"Our need-based aid is in the form of grants and student work only. Loans are not used to meet financial need or included in initial financial aid awards," the university states on its site.

J. Michael Jones / Getty Images

Davidson College

Davidson's trust enables the university to provide no-loan financial aid packages: "Through The Davidson Trust, we meet 100% of your calculated financial need entirely through grants and student employment. Our financial aid packages do not include a loan component, but you have the option of borrowing educational loans as a matter of personal choice," the school states.

Marcio Jose Bastos Silva / Shutterstock.com

Harvard University

Harvard promises that 100% of its students can graduate debt-free.

"The Griffin Financial Aid Office provides need-based aid that allows us to bring the best students to Harvard, regardless of their ability to pay," the university states on its site. "Twenty percent of students pay nothing to attend, and more than half receive need-based scholarships. So, yes -- you can afford Harvard."

Check Out: 22 Side Gigs That Can Make You Richer Than a Full-Time Job

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT's financial aid packages are based on a student's full need and do not include loans: "Full need means that we meet 100% of your family's calculated need through scholarships, grants and student employment," the school states.

The school also plans to award $161.8 million in MIT need-based scholarships in 2022-2023, compared to the $143.8 million awarded in 2021-2022.

Nostalgicwisdom, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pomona College

"For eligible students, the Offer of Financial Aid is composed of grant aid and a modest student employment allotment," the college states on its financial aid site. "While loans are available, Pomona does not use loans to meet a student's financial need."

Pete Spiro / Shutterstock.com

Princeton University

"If offered admission, Princeton will meet 100% of your demonstrated financial need with grant aid," the university states on its site.

Princeton uses the information you supply on your financial aid application and supporting documents to determine how much support the school will provide.

Agent Wolf / Shutterstock.com

Stanford University

"We meet the full demonstrated need, without loans, for every admitted undergrad who qualifies for financial assistance," Stanford states on its website.

Discover: 18 Banks That Don't Use ChexSystems

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Swarthmore College

Swarthmore meets full need and offers loan-free financial aid, though students must participate in work-study.

"Our financial aid awards consist of grants (which do not need to be repaid) and include the expectation that students will work in a part-time campus-based job," the college states on its site.

krblokhin / Getty Images

Washington and Lee

"Washington and Lee University will meet 100% of the institutionally determined need for all students entirely through grants and student employment. No loans will be included in your financial aid award to meet your calculated need," the school states on its site.

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Nicole Spector contributed to the reporting of this article.

All schools on this list are sourced from the U.S. News list of schools that meet full financial need with no loans.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 12 Colleges That Cover 100% of Your Financial Aid
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Full statistics of car exports from India (FY 2023) | Maruti Suzuki leads, Hyundai 2nd



-14% of cars produced in India were exported in FY 202223 to several countries across the world.



-Maruti (39%) remained the biggest exporter of passenger vehicles, followed by Hyundai (23%) and Kia (13%).



-Japanese and South Korean passenger vehicle manufacturers contribute 88% of total exports from India.



-Despite three decades of presence, Indian passenger vehicle makers export contribution is limited to a mere 2%.



-The Nissan Sunny is the most exported passenger vehicle from India.



- Total exports fell short of the highest period of 201617 by 13%. One of the major reasons for lower exports is the exit of major American carmakers, GM and Ford, who stopped Indian export operations completely in 2020 and 2022, respectively.



















FY 2022-23 : Passenger vehicle exporters



-Maruti (39%) remained the biggest exporter of PV, followed by Hyundai (23%) and Kia (13%).



-Kia scaled up export operations very quickly after India's entry in mid-2019 and posted 69% growth over the previous FY.



-Nissan and Renault, too, posted good growth driven by their new crossovers.



-Nissan and Volkswagen have a high dependence on exports for their India-based operations.



-Despite gaining market share back in the Indian market, the export performance of Tata and Mahindra is subdued.







FY 2022-23 : Exporters country of origin



-Japanese and South Korean PV manufacturers contribute 88% of total exports from India.



-Despite three decades of presence, Indian PV makers' export contribution is limited to a mere 2%.





FY 2022-23 : Body style



-In the Indian market, SUV body style products command a 45% share; however, export volume is equally distributed among SUV, sedan, and hatchback body styles.



-34% of sedans produced in India are exported, thus driving back-end synergy in an otherwise declining segment in India.







FY 2022-23 : Fuel



-Exports are dominated by petrol vehicles.



-Electric vehicle exports are dominated by Tata and, if perfected well, could prove to be a new growth engine.



-Toyota and Honda have started exporting hybrid vehicles from India.







Link -Indian passenger vehicle exports grew by 15% in FY 202223 to 6,62,891 units.-14% of cars produced in India were exported in FY 202223 to several countries across the world.-Maruti (39%) remained the biggest exporter of passenger vehicles, followed by Hyundai (23%) and Kia (13%).-Japanese and South Korean passenger vehicle manufacturers contribute 88% of total exports from India.-Despite three decades of presence, Indian passenger vehicle makers export contribution is limited to a mere 2%.-The Nissan Sunny is the most exported passenger vehicle from India.- Total exports fell short of the highest period of 201617 by 13%. One of the major reasons for lower exports is the exit of major American carmakers, GM and Ford, who stopped Indian export operations completely in 2020 and 2022, respectively.-Maruti (39%) remained the biggest exporter of PV, followed by Hyundai (23%) and Kia (13%).-Kia scaled up export operations very quickly after India's entry in mid-2019 and posted 69% growth over the previous FY.-Nissan and Renault, too, posted good growth driven by their new crossovers.-Nissan and Volkswagen have a high dependence on exports for their India-based operations.-Despite gaining market share back in the Indian market, the export performance of Tata and Mahindra is subdued.-Japanese and South Korean PV manufacturers contribute 88% of total exports from India.-Despite three decades of presence, Indian PV makers' export contribution is limited to a mere 2%.-In the Indian market, SUV body style products command a 45% share; however, export volume is equally distributed among SUV, sedan, and hatchback body styles.-34% of sedans produced in India are exported, thus driving back-end synergy in an otherwise declining segment in India.-Exports are dominated by petrol vehicles.-Electric vehicle exports are dominated by Tata and, if perfected well, could prove to be a new growth engine.-Toyota and Honda have started exporting hybrid vehicles from India.
If your Google TV-powered streaming player is feeling a little peppier, youre not imagining it. A recent update enables some key performance improvements that should make Google TV devices feel more responsive as well as substantially roomier.

Announced this week in a Google community post, the Google TV update is rolling out now and may already on your compatible streaming player, Google says.

This news story is part of TechHives in-depth coverage of the best media streaming devices.

Among the improvements in the update are ones designed to boost responsiveness. For example, the update should cut down on the time it takes for Google TV devices to register button presses on the remote.

Wake times should also feel shorter, as well as the loading animation that appears when youre rebooting your player, Google says.

Besides responsiveness, the Google TV update should clear some additional storage space on your device thanks to a new App Hibernation feature.

The new feature flags apps that havent been used in more than 30 days and puts them in hibernation, essentially (as 9to5Google explains) offloading them from your player while keeping your user data intact.

Your device will need to be running on Android 12 or better for the app hibernation feature to work, 9to5Google notes. That includes Chromecast with Google TV players but not all TVs and third-party streaming players.

In another space-saving measure, Google says its now employing Android App Bundles, an open-source publishing format for Android that can cut the size of apps by up to 25 percent, on Google TV devices.

The update comes on the heels of Google TV navigation makeover that added a Family page for streaming content with a rating of PG or lower, an Espanol page with Spanish-language titles, and separate pages for Movies and Shows.

The Google TV navigation revamp also saw the profile switcher move to the top-left corner of the screen, while Search scooted over to the top-right corner.
HWiNFO is an all-in-one solution for hardware analysis and monitoring supporting a broad range of OSes (DOS, Microsoft Windows 95 - Windows 11, WinPE) and platforms (i8086 - Xeon Platinum).

Is HWiNFO CPU and GPU temperature accurate?

Yes, HWiNFO data is reliable and accurate and will inform you about everything it possibly can about your computer. The information is split in 3 windows: a system summary, a full report, and active sensor readings.

Can HWiNFO control fans?

Technically, yes, HWiNFO shows you real-time data on hardware components and allows you to manually control fan speeds. However, you must use this feature carefully. HWiNFO was primarily designed to show system information. If you're looking to control CPU and GPU fan speeds you should take a look at SpeedFan or FanControl, which are specialized tools, both are free and have been tested extensively.

Is HWiNFO compatible with Windows 7?

Yes, HWiNFO is compatible with Windows 7. Depending on your OS, you should choose the corresponding HWiNFO version. HWiNFO32 is compatible with Windows 95 32-bit and later, HWiNFO64 is compatible with Windows XP 64-bit and later. There is also a DOS compatible version.

What are good alternatives to HWiNFO?

Two solid alternatives are Speccy and Open Hardware Monitor, which are also free and easy to use. You should also check out our feature about apps to analyze and monitor your PC.

Features

Comprehensive Hardware Information

Exhausting information about hardware components displayed in hierarchy unfolding into deep details. Useful for obtaining a detailed hardware inventory report or checking of various hardware-related parameters.

System Health Monitoring

Real-time monitoring of a variety of system and hardware parameters covering CPUs, GPUs, mainboards, drives, peripherals, etc. Useful for detection of overheating, overload, performance loss or failure prediction.

Extensive Reporting

Full hardware hierarchy, or quick summary overview. Export into XML, CSV, HTML reports. System monitoring in customizable tables, graphs, tray icons, OSD.

Alerting and Extensions

Customizable alerts on any parameter monitored with user-defined actions. Interfacing with other applications and 3rd-party extensions.

What's New
Facepalm: The latest shot in the Chrome vs. Edge browser war has seen Microsoft issue a Windows update that caused a Chrome function to break. Not surprisingly, the borked feature was a button that allowed users to switch their default browser with a single click.

It appears that the April Windows update KB5025221 had an unexpected effect on Chrome browsers, writes Gizmodo. And the impact was even worse for enterprise users.

In July 2022, Google introduced a new button to Chrome (near the top of the screen) that allowed users to change their default browser with a simple click, eliminating the need to find and navigate the Windows settings menus. It was a popular addition for 8 months, until the April Windows update borked it.

While everyday users who installed the update found the Chrome button now only opens the Default App settings without changing anything, enterprise users discovered an even more annoying issue: every time they opened Chrome, the Windows Default App settings page would also open automatically.

"After today's cumulative update for Windows 10 and 11, 2023-04, every time I open Chrome the default app settings of Windows will open," an IT administrator wrote on the Microsoft support forums."I've tried many ways to resolve this without luck. This is happening to all 600 systems with the update."

One person noticed that the Windows settings page only opened alongside Chrome if Google's browser was the default. "It doesn't happen if we change the default browser to Edge," they said.

Gizmodo discovered that consumer versions of Windows could avoid the problem by changing the name of the Chrome app on a Windows desktop, suggesting this wasn't an unintentional bug within the April update. In response, Google has disabled Chrome's one-click default button.

When asked about the issue, Microsoft pointed to its blog post about app pinning and app defaults in Windows.

Firefox, which also has a one-click default button, was not affected by the update. But Mozilla's Chief Product Officer Steve Teixeira said Microsoft isn't averse to playing dirty.

"When using Windows machines, Firefox users routinely encounter these kinds of barriers, such as overriding their selection of default browser, or pop-ups and misleading warnings attempting to persuade them that Edge is somehow safer. It's past time for Microsoft to respect people's preferences and allow them to use whatever browser they wish without interfering with their choice," Teixeira said.

This is far from the first time Microsoft has used underhand tactics to try and steal user share from Chrome. Earlier this year, non-stable versions of Edge temporarily displayed full-sized banner ads on the Chrome website. They informed viewers that Edge runs on the same Chromium engine as Chrome but with the "added trust of Microsoft."

There was also Microsoft's "How do you do, fellow kids?" moment when a popup informed people that Edge was "so 2008!"
haveseen / Shutterstock.com

The love of travel isnt exactly a new thing, but does appear to be becoming more fervent among younger generations. Millennials travel more than any other generation, according to research from Morning Consult.

Check Out: 18 Legitimate Games & Apps That Pay Real Money in 2023

Learn: How To Build Your Savings From Scratch

Gen Z is showing to have a strong appetite for travel, too, with many young adults valuing authentic experiences and leisure travel. Wonderful and even life-changing as travel can be, it can come at a great cost. Especially right now, when traveling is more expensive than ever.

It prompts the question: How can you get paid to travel? Turns out there are a number of ways to explore the world and get compensated while (or for) doing so.

Create Content for Hotels and Hostels

Garrett Brown, co-founder of Cameron Ranch Glamping, said the top way to make money by traveling right now is to build a UGC (user generated content) portfolio and reach out to hosts or hotels asking if you can come by to make content for them.

Dont expect to get all free stays or [get] paid for it, at first; you have to prove your value over time, Brown said. Follow up with hosts once you have built your portfolio and dont overlook long-form YouTube videos. YouTube long form still has the highest ad payouts or sponsorships compared to only TikTok. Also, be flexible to not only go on weekends. Most hosts book weekends far in advance and for much higher rates. Weekdays are the tough part for us to fill so we gladly accept influencers on weekdays.

Travel Blogging

A tried and true way of making money from (and for) traveling is by writing about it on a blog.

Many destinations will happily pay for travel accommodations, meals and activities in exchange for well-written, published articles, social media posts and even photos, said Pam Howard, the owner and author of Our Adventure is Everywhere. While it takes time, effort and dedication to build a successful travel blog, the opportunities for growth and exploration are endless for those willing to put in the work.

Story continues

Housesitting

A great way to get paid to travel is to housesit.

While youll have to take care of household chores like cleaning, watering plants and [possibly] watching pets, youll have most of the day to explore while also keeping an eye on the home, said Andrew Helling, a seasoned traveler and the editor of Travellersworldwide.com. The thing I like most about this opportunity is that youre often staying in very nice homes, and some homeowners will cover the cost of your travel, albeit for a slightly lower nightly rate.

If you plan to use any international housesitting services, you should consult local regulations around such work.

Work Exchange Programs

Work exchange programs offer another solid way to get paid to travel.

Platforms like Worldpackers, HelpX and Workaway will allow you to find work exchanges around the world, said Peter Lucas, the owner and founder of Relocate to Andorra. You can join a host family in exchange for free accommodation and food  plus sometimes even a stipend  in return for helping out with chores or doing odd jobs. This is the quintessential way of traveling on a budget, and its great for those who dont have much money to invest in travel.

Become a Flight Attendant

If you love traveling and want to make a career out of it, becoming a flight attendant is a great path to consider.

With just a [high school] diploma, you can join the ranks of an exciting and dynamic profession of becoming a flight attendant, said Umar Ali from HopDes.com. Once youre in, you get to explore numerous international destinations. The best part? Your accommodation and food are free! Emirates Aviation College offers one of the best programs all over the world for anyone wishing to become a flight attendant.

Seasonal Jobs at Resorts

Do you have the summer off and want to make some money doing something new that allows you to travel? Look into seasonal work opportunities at booming tourist hubs.

Seasonal jobs at national parks, hostels or ski resorts allow you to live and work onsite in different locations around your home country for a few months at a time, said Claire Ramsdell, a digital nomad and blogger at The Detour Effect. Whats great is that you can usually extend your contract for multiple seasons if youre enjoying it, or you can move on at the end of a season and go someplace new. There is often free employee housing, so while the hourly rate might be low, you get to pocket your entire paycheck.

Teach English Abroad

As a global language, English fluency and literacy is in demand around the world. You can make money by teaching it abroad.

Teaching English in foreign countries can provide you with the opportunity to travel while earning a salary, said Jeremy Albelda, a travel blogger at The World or Bust. Obtain a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification, research countries with high demand for English teachers and apply to schools or language institutions.

Become a Tour Guide

Working as a tour guide is a proven way to get paid to travel while helping tourists learn the history and beauty of a given location.

The best part is that you can choose the type of tours that suit your interests and expertise  be it food tours, historical walking tours or adrenaline-pumping adventure trips, said Astrid Thornton, the founder of Seek Scandinavia. To get started, look for tour companies that align with your interests and apply for a position. Alternatively, you can start your own tour business by marketing your services online or partnering with local tourism agencies. Keep in mind that some countries may require specific qualifications or licenses to work as a tour guide, so do your research beforehand.

Become an Au Pair

If you love children, becoming an au pair could be a great way to travel and get paid while doing so.

As an au pair, youll be responsible for looking after the children and assisting with light household chores in exchange for accommodation, meals and a weekly stipend, Thornton said. This allows you to immerse yourself in a new culture and learn the local language while having the opportunity to explore your surroundings during your time off.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 9 Ways You Can Get Paid To See the World
In brief: Deepfakes is another AI-related area that has people worried. The ability to essentially put words in someone else's mouth could have dangerous repercussions, but China's Tencent is offering to create a deepfake of anyone within 24 hours for $145.

Tencent subsidiary Tencent Cloud launched the service last week, writes The Reg. It can create a high-definition deepfake of any individual, as long as the customer has at least three minutes' worth of live-action video of said person and 100 spoken sentences.

For a fee of $145, the company will provide a deepfake of the person, available in half body (waist-up) or entire body, in as little as 24 hours. The service is available in both Chinese and English.

Tencent says that these AI-generated people could be used as hosts for live-streamed infomercials, which are very popular in China, meaning a real person wouldn't need to be paid to host. The company said the creations could also be used as doctors, lawyers, and other professionals.

There are several options available for the deepfaked humans: realistic, semi-realistic, and cartoon styles in 3D, or real person and cartoon styles in 2D. Customers can decide the videos' backgrounds and the tone of the digital human, and Tencent Cloud can add customized Q&As with realistic tones and inflections.

Tencent Cloud Intelligent Human Products general manager Chen Lei said the company aims to create a fully-automated "AI+ Digital Intelligent Human Factory" platform for creating and selling the deepfakes.

China is leading the way when it comes to deepfakes. The state-owned People Daily news outlet has an AI-created presenter named "Ren Xiaorong," who delivers news 24/7 all year round. The country also used virtual hosts during the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Meet Ren Xiaorong, the latest AI news anchor at state media outlet People's Daily. Read more about this virtual presenter here: https://t.co/EMepqzgBvS pic.twitter.com/IMxyr17vG0  Manya Koetse (@manyapan) March 12, 2023

Deepfakes have been causing controversy since they were first used to replace the faces of adult film actresses with Hollywood stars. Pornhub and Reddit eventually banned them, but deepfakes have become more convincing over the years. In 2022, the FBI warned that criminals were using deepfakes in remote interviews for tech jobs to steal sensitive data. In February, a fake Joe Rogan video in which he appeared to promote testosterone pills spread on TikTok.
The big picture: Setting up a chip factory in the US is an expensive endeavor, especially when compared to doing the same in Asia. Still, companies like TSMC are investing billions into doing just that, wooed by government subsidies and the idea of achieving a geographically diverse supply chain that is less prone to disruptions. As a result, chips made by the Taiwanese giant in the US could end up 30 percent more expensive than those made in its home country.

Back in December, TSMC announced it would pour no less than $40 billion into building two advanced chip factories in Arizona. In other words, the world's biggest chipmaker made the largest direct foreign investment in Arizona history and one of the largest in US history. When they become operational, the fabs will employ thousands of people and produce around 600,000 wafers per year.

The move represents a significant shift in mindset for TSMC leadership, which has traditionally been reluctant to establish chip manufacturing facilities in the US. One reason has to do with Taiwan's policy of keeping its most advanced technologies locally even as it builds external manufacturing arms for a more resilient global supply chain.

Another reason has to do with cost  setting up and operating a factory on American soil is up to 50 percent more expensive than in Taiwan. Then you'd need to source materials like rare earth metals and semiconductor-grade neon as well as a steady supply of water to keep the facility running at full capacity. And last but not least, you need a lot of skilled (and cheap) labor, something that is easier to find in Asia as opposed to North America and even Europe.

Naturally, this means TSMC will have extra costs in the US that will translate into higher prices for wafers made in Arizona as opposed to those made in Taiwan. Some industry insiders estimate that chips made in America on N5 and N4 process nodes will cost up to 30 percent more than those made in the Asian country.

Also read: How did TSMC get so good?

It's not just the US that's more expensive than Taiwan for chip manufacturers, either. Chips made on older, more mature process technologies like N28, N22, N16, and N12 at TSMC's Japanese arm in Kumamoto are also 10-15 percent more expensive to make than similar chips made in the company's home country.

Just like the US, Japan is looking o reignite its once-dominant semiconductor industry. Last year, we learned the two countries kicked off a joint research and development arm for 2nm-class process technologies and beyond.

Still, that's unlikely to bring costs down for US-made chips as wafer suppliers are undergoing capacity expansions that can't keep up with the chip foundry expansions of companies like TSMC, Intel, and Samsung  all of which are building new fabs in the US and elsewhere.

Furthermore, bleeding-edge EUV equipment from ASML is in short supply, and a single machine costs up to $160 million, with the next-generation version set to cost up to $400 million apiece. And research and development costs for chips made using more advanced process nodes have skyrocketed in recent years.

Like Intel and Samsung, TSMC wants to cover some of the cost of setting up its Arizona fabs using $15 billion from the CHIPS Act funding pool. At the same time, TSMC founder Morris Chang has expressed doubts about the US' ability to quickly boost local manufacturing by simply throwing more money at the problem. He also believes sanctions against China have the potential to increase chip prices over time as a result of industry fragmentation.

In the end, even if chip manufacturing is more expensive in the US, companies with deep pockets like Apple will no doubt be happy to pay a little extra to ensure they have a diverse supply chain that isn't prone to the same issues that cropped up in recent years. And with a US presence, TSMC is essentially buying an insurance policy for its operations both in the US as well as in Taiwan  a win-win situation.
A hot potato: The Biden administration is pushing to impose a 30% tax on electricity used by cryptomining operations. The White House says the extra bill is a result of the harm cryptomining causes the environment, the high energy prices, and its lack of benefits.

In an online post, the White House's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) proposed the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax for the fiscal year 2024 budget. It states that the tax addresses the economic and environmental costs of current practices for mining crypto assets. The tax would be introduced in phases across three years, starting at 10% next year, then rising to 20%, and finally to 30%. It's expected to generate around $3.5 billion over a decade.

The CEA wants to introduce the tax because "currently, cryptomining firms do not have to pay for the full cost they impose on others, in the form of local environmental pollution, higher energy prices, and the impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions on the climate."

The White House highlights a New York Times report that states the amount of power used by 34 of the largest cryptomining operations equals the power used by the surrounding 3 million homes. It adds that the amount of electricity used in cryptomining in the United States in 2022 was similar to what is used to power all the country's home computers or residential lighting.

The post goes on to say that the energy consumption associated with cryptomining has negative spillovers on the environment, quality of life, and electricity grids. Moreover, pollution from electricity generation falls disproportionately on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

Also read: What is Crypto Mining? How is this all happening?

Yahoo News notes that other industries that use a lot of electricity, such as chemical and steel, aren't being taxed for their electricity use. The White House said it's because these industries are vital to the economy, supplying jobs and other essentials, while volatile crypto can pose risks to the financial system. "At the same time that the benefits [of cryptomining] have not been fully documented, there are concerns about risk to financial stability, and certainly the environmental concerns," said the White House.

Many countries' governments share the US' concerns about environmental and other issues stemming from cryptomining. China banned it in 2021 - which led to the US becoming the new global mining leader - as have eight other countries. Elsewhere, several US states now restrict cryptomining or charge higher electricity prices for the practice.
Why it matters: The US government's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added three new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog and warned that they are being actively exploited in the wild. One of those vulnerabilities affects the TP-Link Archer AX21 (AX1800) WiFi router, and is being exploited by operators of the Mirai malware botnet.

Alongside the TP-Link router exploit, the two other vulnerabilities placed on the CISA's list include the Oracle WebLogic Server Unspecified Vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-21839 and the Apache Log4j2 Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2021-45046. According to the agency, all three types of vulnerabilities are frequent attack vectors for cybercriminals and pose "significant threat" to users.

The TP-Link router exploit was first detected at the Pwn2Own Toronto hacking event last December, where two different teams were able to breach the device using the LAN and WAN interfaces. The issue was reported to TP-Link in January and the company released a patch for it last month.

In a statement addressing the issue, TP-Link said that it takes security vulnerabilities "very seriously" and works diligently to mitigate any flaw that could jeopardize the security and privacy of its customers. The company also urged all users of the AX21 router to download and install the update as soon as possible.

As per the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), TP-Link's Archer AX21 Wi-Fi 6 routers with firmware versions prior to 1.1.4 Build 20230219 contained an unauthenticated command injection vulnerability which allowed surreptitious remote code execution, enabling hackers to take over the device and use it for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against game servers.

However, despite the fix being available, Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) research group has found that cybercriminals are exploiting the vulnerability in the wild. As per the report, the attacks were first detected on April 11 in Eastern Europe, but have since spread worldwide.

Operators of the Mirai botnet are known for quickly exploiting vulnerabilities in IoT devices, so it's not a major surprise for researchers that they have been able to start targeting the latest flaw so soon after it was disclosed publicly. Either way, applying the patch is the only way to mitigate the vulnerability, so all TP-Link Archer AX21 owners should do it as soon as possible to prevent any possible security risk.
What just happened? This week, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a bipartisan bill that enables cities and towns in the state to offer high-speed municipal broadband service to residents. A now-defunct state law dating back to 2005 required local governments to hold elections to decide whether they could provide cable TV services or municipal broadband to the local communities.

The restrictive old law (SB05-152) is believed to have been formulated under intense lobbying from cable and telecommunication companies and prohibited local governments from spending money on broadband infrastructure without voter approval, thereby impeding infrastructure development.

The new provision eliminates the restrictions, enabling local governments to provide their communities with internet services without holding an election. Colorado Broadband Office Executive Director Brandy Reitter believes the new law better positions the state to establish a competitive broadband market for future generations.

Ars Technica reports that the bill received bipartisan approval from the Colorado State House and the Senate. The House passed it with a 48-14 majority, while the Senate voted it in 31-4.

The Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology issued a press release stating that the state will receive "an impactful amount" of federal broadband funding over the next five years as part of the US Treasury's Capital Projects Fund and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program. Both are aimed at infrastructure improvement and addressing the state's digital gap.

Apart from allowing cities and towns to offer their high-speed broadband services to residents, Senate Bill 23-183 will also enable the state to make optimal use of the upcoming federal broadband funding, including using federal grants for various digital adoption programs.

Many Colorado towns already opted out of the 2005 law in recent years despite solid lobbying by industry groups led by Comcast and CenturyLink. Overall, 120 out of 272 municipalities in the state have voted to give themselves the authority to offer broadband to their citizens. The list includes cities like Denver, which opted out of the old law in 2020, and Fort Collins, which overruled it in 2017.
Through the looking glass: If this week's science news is anything to go by, it won't be long before Big Brother is peering inside our heads. Coming on the heels of US scientists revealing a GPT model that decodes human thoughts into words, Swiss researchers demonstrated a machine-learning model that translates neural activity in mice to video.

Researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) developed a machine-learning algorithm called CEBRA  pronounced zebra but short for Consistent EmBeddings of high-dimensional Recordings using Auxiliary variables. In layman's terms, CEBRA is a model that can decode images from a mouse's brain.

The team has worked on the project for over ten years with early breakthroughs in decoding rudimentary shapes from brainwave activity in humans and animals. Now with the help of advanced machine learning, EPFL scientists have deciphered entire movie clips from the thought patterns of mice.

In its experiments, the team used measurements from two types of mice  those with electrodes inserted into their visual cortex, and a set of genetically modified mice whose neurons glow green when active. Some mice were shown a black and white clip of a man running to a car and retrieving something from the trunk. The data from this subset of mice was used to train CEBRA to correlate brain activity with each video frame.

A second group was shown the same movie while CEBRA processed the brain activity. Aside from some stuttering, likely caused by the mice moving around and not paying full attention, the decoded video matched the actual clip.

Does this mean we're getting close to tech that can project a person's memories or dreams onto a movie screen or computer monitor? Not exactly. Remember that CEBRA could only do this because it was trained with the video clip in advance. While it is not hard to imagine the model advancing enough to recognize images without the specific pretraining seen here, this is far out of reach for now.

The scientists see their breakthrough more as a new research tool. They say CEBRA will provide insights into neurological functions and how the brain interprets stimuli. They believe it will prove useful in helping diagnose and treat brain disorders like Alzheimer's or Tourette syndrome.

That said, other research coming out this week has revealed that we are closer to reading thoughts with machinery than we have ever been. Scientists at the University of Texas, Austin developed a GPT model that analyzes brain activity in fMRI scans and decodes them into words with fairly amazing accuracy. The tech is far from perfect, but it is the first time that a machine has been able to decode thoughts into complex verbal descriptions rather than single words or very short phrases.

You can check out a pre-print version of the CEBRA study at Cornell University's arXiv. They also posted the software files to GitHub for other neuroscientists to use.
Car theft has been rampant in New York for the longest time now, and the NYPD and Mayor Eric Adams are suggesting a new way to alleviate this problem by using the Apple AirTags to keep track of vehicles. All vehicles in New York are potential targets for carnappers, and the Mayor's Office, in accordance with the New York Police Department is offering to provide as much as 500 of the Apple trackers for free.

New Yorkers will be given a chance to keep tabs on their vehicles at all times, or until there is still a charge from the AirTags' batteries that come pre-installed on the device.

(Photo : uc Trinh from Unsplash)

NYPD, Mayor Eric Adams Distributes Free AirTags to Help with Car Theft

A press conference held by the New York City Mayor and the NYPD in the Bronx's 43rd precinct announces the new solution to alleviating car theft in the area, and it is through the use of Apple's AirTags. Mayor Adams is putting their trust in Apple's tiny trackers in keeping tabs on a citizen's vehicle and tracking it in case it gets reported stolen.

The mayor also claimed that there are as many as 500 AirTags that are up for grabs for citizens without a cost, allowing them to gain access to the technology and protect their vehicles.

Its recent press conference was also held in the precinct with a high case of stolen car reports from owners, with as many as 200 vehicles lost in the area.

Read Also: Apple AirTags Help in Recovering $16,000 Worth of Stolen Goods from Airport

New York's Car Theft Cases Are Rising, AirTags to Help It?

According to Ars Technica, the NYPD's crime reports and statistics report claim that as many as 4,492 vehicle thefts already happened this year, a 13.3 percent rise from last year's cases.

The Apple AirTags may help in alleviating the problem, especially as it offers excellent tracking features to know the whereabouts of one's items, as well as the car. However, it would be immediately noticeable when the thief is using an iPhone and senses that there is a tracker in the car.

Apple's AirTags and its Helpful Features

AirTags were made to help people look for their missing devices or items that cannot be tracked in other ways as they cannot connect to the internet or do not have tracking features. The Cupertino company first released this technology in 2021, giving the world the long-speculated Bluetooth tracker that may be hidden away in their belongings.

While many people used it for their things like bags, keys, remote controls, and other loose items that get lost easily, some have used it for other things that are also prone to theft. There are many success stories for the AirTags in the past, including a person stowing it to their electric scooter and one on their bike, helping avoid further losses.

Others have also used it for their luggage, putting the AirTags tracker to ensure that their baggage arrives with them to their destination.

Now, it is a device that the NYPD and the New York Mayor recommend for the growing car theft in the area, as more and more cases see untrackable whereabouts of their vehicles after being reported stolen.

Related Article: Apple Launches Refreshed Firmware Update For AirTag: Version 2.0.24 Now Available

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In a bid to push more people into using the Reels, Facebook is adding a new feature that will help tailor the content seen on this part of the social media by adding more personalization based on what a user follows or interacts with. The company is also adding a customization feature for its Reels feed, centering on giving users control over what to see online.

The personalization feature is similar to what TikTok offers for its For You Page, centering on an excellent algorithm that is highly regarded by its users and critics.

(Photo : MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP via Getty Images)

This photo illustration taken on March 22, 2018 shows a woman looking at Social Networking applications Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Twitter, Messenger and Linkedin on a smartphone in Kuala Lumpur.

Facebook Reels Adds More Personalized Content, Control to Their Feed

Facebook has announced that it is introducing a new feature to its short-form video feed, Reels, that will allow users to have more control over what they see. According to CNET, this move comes as Facebook looks to compete with TikTok, which has become the go-to app for short-form video content.

The new feature will allow users to choose the types of content they want to see in their Facebook Reels feed. Users can now decide whether they want to see videos from specific creators, topics, or hashtags. This will allow users to tailor their feeds to their interests and preferences.

Facebook has been working on making Reels more personalized since it was first launched in 2020. The company has been using machine learning algorithms to recommend content to users based on their previous interactions with the app.

Meta is also introducing a way to control this by offering suggestions from Reels liked by friends, where they may choose between showing more or less of in their feed, with the feature taking this a step further by giving users more control over the content they see.

Read Also: Machine Learning May Aid in Flagging Risky Instagram Conversations, New Study Claims

Facebook to Introduce Similar Features to TikTok's FYP

TikTok's For You page uses an algorithm to recommend videos to users based on their previous interactions with the app. This has been one of the key factors in TikTok's success, as it has allowed users to discover new content that they may not have otherwise seen.

Facebook's latest optimization for the Reels takes a page from TikTok, centering on a more personal experience via the app with more control over their feed.

Facebook Reels vs. TikTok's Platform

Two apps are known to use Meta's Reels features, including Facebook and Instagram that can crosspost each app's content to the other platform, providing an excellent way to gain more exposure to the audience.

However, Facebook still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up to TikTok.

TikTok has over 1 billion active users which it achieved in 2021, with Facebook Reels looking to catch up with the ever-growing app. It remains to be seen whether Facebook's efforts to make Reels more personalized will be enough to lure users away from TikTok.

Facebook's new feature for the Reels is a step towards making it more personalized and tailored to users' interests. The feature is similar to TikTok's For You page, which has been a key factor in TikTok's success.

Related Article: Meta's Ad Platform Experiences Glitch, Causing Ad Campaigns to Overspend

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Today's large corporations and small businesses use WordPress development. Companies can utilize this service by transacting with a WordPress development agency.

You will learn that firms consider developing WordPress websites an effective solution for their operations. The information technology service involves business portals, e-commerce, and blogging.

A WordPress development company employs professionals who build and maintain various websites. And as of 2022, there are about 1.3 billion websites that need development.

Out of this figure, 708 million portals use WordPress today. Information technology industry analysts believe this number will continue to grow. They even forecast that there will be more than 2 million downloads annually.

This discussion explains the demand of developing WordPress websites. You will also discover the top-rated firms offering WordPress development services in 2023.

What Is WordPress Development?

WordPress development refers to the making and maintenance of WordPress websites. As you already know, WordPress is an open-source content management system or CMS. This excellent and well-known platform with General Public License or GPLv2 lets you use, and modify your website.

You do not have to pay when you use WordPress. Businesses choose this flexible and versatile IT solution over other options because it is simple to create quality websites.

WordPress development is for making blogs, membership websites, and e-commerce stores. It is also helpful for portals of businesses, forums, events, and e-learning services.

Making professional portfolios is ideal with WordPress. As you can see, the WordPress solution gives companies endless possibilities for the type of website they can build.

Why Should You Use a WordPress Development Agency's Service?

The services of a WordPress development agency are helpful if you need assistance with your company's WordPress website development. This service provider employs skilled professionals who build and maintain your brand's official portal.

Seasoned developers are adept at creating a website with a low bounce rate. They work towards your firm garnering more leads.

Moreover, WordPress developers know how to keep your website's visitors intrigued using effective visual aids. They implement different add-ons to maintain user engagement with your portal.

Top 10 WordPress Development Agencies to Watch in 2023

Finding the best WordPress service provider is significant. Top companies have a deep understanding on the process of tracking your website's effectiveness.

These firms use the most straightforward tools, like Google Analytics and Search Console. The following are the ten top-rated companies that excel in WordPress development this 2023:

1. eFlair Webtech

eFlair Webtech is a WordPress development agency. It offers WordPress solutions, e-commerce development, and digital marketing and publishing.

This dynamic IT solutions provider, founded in 2012, is into developing mobile and website applications, user interfaces, and user experience.

eFlair Webtech uses all native Android user interface elements. This measure enhances the user-friendliness and simplicity of the firm's products.

Pros:

Ensures the application delivers intuitive and consistent user experiences

Excels in developing, designing, and marketing mobile applications and web properties

Builds applications with core application quality measures

Cons:

Customer service assistance can be slow

2. Techuz Infoweb

Techuz Infoweb offers cloud computing and web and software development. This WordPress services provider, founded in 2013, also delivers other services.

They include UI/UX design and the development of mobile applications and e-commerce. Techuz Infoweb can offer you an edge over your competitors.

The latest tools and technology power its premium-quality services, including iOS and Android applications, from ideation to maintenance.

Pros:

Affordable IT services

Excellent features, creative design, and functionality

Experienced staff who delivers the best practices and high coding standards

Cons:

Some customers believe Techuz Infoweb's organization can still improve

3. WordSuccor Limited

WordSuccor Limited started its operations in 2010. This WordPress development specialist focuses on business and information technology industries.

WordSuccor Limited offers UI/UX design and software and web development. It is one of the leading WordPress website development companies worldwide.

This firm employs experienced and certified programmers to fulfill your project needs. WordSuccor Limited's technology-based strategy reinforces the company to enhance user-oriented WordPress Themes.

These solutions render features like cross-browser compatibility and ease of use.

Pros:

Proficient and experienced team of dedicated WordPress developers

Delivers high-quality WordPress customization solutions and plugin development services

Offers other WordPress services

Cons:

Charges a higher price

4. TinyFrog Technologies

TinyFrog Technologies specializes in the development of e-commerce, web, and software. This WordPress service provider has built more than 1,100 portals.

It has also worked in nearly every industry since it opened for business in 2003. With it, you will find great results for your WordPress project.

After all, this company's focus is WordPress development and web design besides secured maintenance and hosting.

Pros:

Websites engage visitors to the highest level

Effectively makes websites reflect the client's brand personality

Cons:

May take time to work on projects

5. Eight25Media

Eight25Media is one of the best website development firms in Silicon Valley, California. It started in 2011 and has expertise in application development and UX/UI design.

Eight25Media also offers WordPress and cloud computing services. It has delivered outstanding information technology solutions to many small and large enterprises.

Pros:

Experienced and dedicated WordPress developers

International standards-grade mobile applications

Delivers engaging websites

Cons:

Can improve project management on the web development side

6. Artjoker Software

Artjoker Software has a client base stretching worldwide. This prize-winning, full-service design and WordPress service provider aid startups in achieving their business targets.

Artjoker Software has offices in the United States and Ukraine. It gives clients quality website development and mobile application services.

Artjoker Software's takes care of its customers. You will benefit from this company's ability to transform your enterprise and take it to the top of success charts.

Pros:

Experts are committed to clients' full product development cycle

Uses emerging technologies to make customized IT solutions

Cons:

Minor miscommunication with the team

7. EffectiveSoft

EffectiveSoft is a WordPress development agency that started in 2000. It specializes in delivering services related to developing software, web, and mobile applications.

EffectiveSoft also offers cloud computing, UI/UX Designing, CRM, and ERP.

Plus, EffectiveSoft aids clients in accelerating via digital transformation. This firm makes unparalleled value for you as a customer.

Pros:

Responsive and effective communication from the team

Excellent application and platform building

Cons:

Some clients believe EffectiveSoft team members can still learn more

8. TechnoScore

TechnoScore is a mobile and web application development provider, founded in 2006, and with a global reach. TechnoScore specializes in cloud computing, application development, and business intelligence.

This WordPress service provider is also into website development and design. TechnoScore offers unparalleled services with its team of over 200 professionals.

This company has completed more than 1,400 projects from different countries. It has served startups and medium and big businesses from various industry verticals.

Pros:

IT services are innovative, feature-packed, and high-performing

Fast turnaround time

Cons:

Miscommunication with a client can sometimes happen

9. Uplers

Uplers offers WordPress solutions, digital marketing, and software development. It started in 2019 and has served over 350 White Label Agency Partners.

Besides software and web development, Uplers excels in delivering services like e-commerce development and UI/UX designing.

Uplers' notable clients include Facebook, National Geographic, Disney, and Amazon. It has offices in the United States, India, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Pros:

A one-stop digital services firm

More than 500 digital experts provide end-to-end design, web, digital marketing, and email production services

Cons:

Expensive pricing

10. Peerbits

Peerbits started in 2011 and has offices in the United States, India, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.

This company offers WordPress website development, mobile application and software development, and more. Peerbits is a global mobile application development company that aims to provide ingenious mobility solutions.

It is unique from the rest of the IT industry players because it blends its sheer dedication with excellence.

Peerbits caters to clients from varied industry verticals. They include healthcare and life sciences, payments and finance, government, and business services, among many others.

Pros:

Expert in tailoring mobile applications fitting client requirements

Effective communication and good client relations

Cons:

Minor scheduling issues can happen

These 10 top WordPress service providers can aid your business when they leverage WordPress solutions. They will test your platform and implement their creative and ingenious ideas.

Therefore, you can expect your official website to have the latest innovative technologies and features comparable with having WordPress development done in-house.

Thus, your business can capture more customers, which translate to better revenues with a WordPress development agency's assistance.

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
NASA's telescopes have captured a dazzling image of Centaurus A (Cen A), a bright galaxy located 12 million light-years away from Earth with a monstrous black hole at its heart.

13,000 Light-years Long

The image, a composite of data from various NASA observatories, shows the galaxy's supermassive black hole at its center feeding off gas and dust while emitting huge jets of high-energy particles and other materials.



The jet extending from the black hole, as seen in the upper left corner of the image, is an astonishing 13,000 light-years long!



Moreover, there is a dust lane that encircles the center of the galaxy, thought to have been formed by a crash with a smaller galaxy millions of years ago.



The hues depicted in the image correspond to the data sources, with blue indicating X-ray light acquired by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, orange representing X-rays detected by NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) satellite, and the optical light from the European Southern Observatory in Chile appearing as white and gray.



Since 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has been examining Cen A, but the launch of IXPE in 2021 has opened up new possibilities for studying the galaxy.

With its ability to measure the polarization of X-ray light, a property related to the arrangement of electromagnetic waves, IXPE allows scientists to investigate how particles are accelerated to extreme speeds and energies at cosmic objects like Cen A.

Scientists are particularly interested in understanding the cause of the X-ray emissions in the jets of Cen A, and they are relying on IXPE to provide new insights.

However, despite their efforts, scientists have not yet detected X-ray polarization at Cen A, suggesting that heavier particles, such as protons, are not responsible for generating the X-rays. Nevertheless, researchers are diligently examining the data to uncover more information.



Cen A is the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky, and its discovery has provided significant scientific breakthroughs that have helped shape our understanding of the universe. The supermassive black hole at the center of Cen A is just one example of the mysteries of the universe that are still being explored by scientists.

Read Also: Astronomers Raise 'Imminent' Collision of Two Supermassive Black Holes With Combined Mass of 200 Million Suns!

How Super Are Supermassive Black Holes?

Black holes are a thing of cosmic beauty, but their sizes are also beastly. Have you ever wondered just how super these supermassive black holes are?

Well, NASA has released an animation to show the monstrous scale of these large, voracious black holes.

Many large galaxies, including our Milky Way, are known to host supermassive black holes at their centers. These cosmic giants have a mass ranging from 100,000 to billions of times greater than the mass of our sun, as depicted in the animation.

If you want to learn more about these cosmic beasts and visualize just how large and powerful they are, check out this story.

Related Article: Astronomers Observe Shredded Star Gobbled Up by a Black Hole, Reveal Gas Shape Around a Tidal Disruption

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LAGUNA HILLS, Calif., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Adagio Medical, Inc., a leading innovator in catheter ablation technologies for atrial fibrillation (AF) and ventricular tachycardia (VT), announced the completion of enrollment in its Cryocure-VT trial (NCT # 04893317) of ultra-low temperature cryoablation (ULTC) for the treatment of monomorphic ventricular tachycardias. 60 patients with ischemic and non-ischemic cardiomyopathies underwent an endocardial ULTC procedure using Adagio's vCLAS catheter at nine centers in the European Union and Canada. The results of the trial will be used to support Adagio's CE-mark application for its vCLAS catheter in the second half of 2023.

"For years, with much of the energy in interventional electrophysiology directed towards a larger market of atrial fibrillation treatments, the field of VT ablations, and particularly new catheter technologies, has suffered from underinvestment," said Dr. Petr Neuzil, MD, PhD, the Head of Cardiology at Na Homolce Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic, and the highest European enroller in the trial. "To this day we are forced to use the RF catheters originally developed and labeled for ablation of atrial arrhythmias in a much more stringent environment of a human ventricle, and in a much sicker patient population. The innovative vCLAS catheter is an extension of Adagio's ULTC platform, shown to be highly effective in the treatment of AF, but has been designed specifically for the treatment of ventricular tachycardias, with a bidirectionally deflectable shaft and 15 mm-long ablation element capable of creating large, transmural lesions, enabling the termination of arrhythmias deep in the myocardium."

"The initial data from the Cryocure-VT trial published recently in the Journal of American College of Cardiology EP1 demonstrated successful and efficient use of ULTC across the range of established ablation strategies in conjunction with multiple commercially available electroanatomic mapping systems, making it an easy drop-in technology for any VT ablation program," added Dr. Tom De Potter, Associate Director, Cardiovascular Center Department of Cardiology at OLV Hospital Aalst, Belgium, and the lead author of the manuscript. "While long term results are still being analyzed, acutely, purely endocardial ultra-low temperature cryoablation appears to be quite effective in both ischemic and nonischemic patients, the latter being challenging for current RF catheters due to mid-myocardial nature of their scars. Bringing Adagio's ULTC technology into routine clinical practice will accelerate the growth in VT ablation volumes, initially for patients with structural heart disease and eventually in patients with idiopathic ventricular arrhythmias."

Story continues

"We are grateful to all Cryocure-VT investigators for their commitment to the trial, including Drs. Verma and Essebag at McGill University, Dr. Dyrda at Montreal Heart Institute, Dr. Balt and Professor Boersma at St. Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein, Drs. Darma and Dinov at Leipzig Heart Centrum, Dr. Sacher at University of Bordeaux, Dr. Arya at University Hospital Halle and Dr. Vivek Reddy at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York," said Olav Bergheim, President and CEO of Adagio Medical. "Based on the catheter handling and good acute outcomes, the comfort with ULTC technology for VT ablations grew very fast and, towards the end, we literally had to turn enrollments away. This hopefully speaks to a broader market reception once all the data is analyzed and approved by the regulatory bodies. We have initiated our CE-mark submissions and hope to put the vCLAS catheters in the hands of the European clinicians later this year."

1De Potter T, Balt J, Boersma L, Sacher F, et al. First-In-Human Experience with Ultra-Low Temperature Cryoablation for Monomorphic Ventricular Tachycardia. J Am Coll Cardiol EP 2023. in press.

About Adagio Medical

Adagio Medical, Inc. (www.adagiomedical.com) is a privately held company located in Laguna Hills, California developing innovative cryoablation technologies that create contiguous, transmural lesions to treat cardiac arrhythmias, including paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, and ventricular tachycardia. Adagio Medical, Inc. is a Fjord Ventures portfolio company.

Follow Adagio Medical on:

Related Links

https://adagiomedical.com

Cision

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SOURCE Adagio Medical, Inc.
In a massive international crackdown on drug trafficking, US and European authorities arrested nearly 300 individuals, seized more than $53 million, and shut down a dark web marketplace named "Monopoly Market," according to a report by AP.



The dark web is a part of the internet hosted within an encrypted network, accessible only through specialized anonymity-providing tools, and is infamous for selling drugs and other illicit goods.

US Overdose Crisis

The operation aimed at Monopoly Market is the most recent significant takedown of such platforms

Most of the arrests were made in the United States, which is facing an overdose crisis due to synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. These drugs have killed more Americans than the total number of deaths during the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars combined, according to AP.



US Attorney General Merrick Garland delivered a message to the criminals on the dark web, stating that the Justice Department would find them and hold them accountable for their crimes.

Garland added that the number of arrests and money seized in this operation was the highest for any international drug trafficking operation led by the Justice Department.

One of the defendants, based in California, headed an organization that acquired bulk quantities of fentanyl, mixed it with methamphetamine, and sold millions of pills to people via the dark web.

The investigators also followed leads from local police who were investigating overdose deaths, such as a 19-year-old man from Colorado who died of an overdose after purchasing drugs from the dark web.



The operation was also a significant milestone for the FBI, as agents from all field offices visited buyers to educate them about the potential risks associated with purchasing pills online, which are frequently disguised as prescription drugs.

Read Also: Crypto Worth $34 MILLION Seized by the US from a Dark Web Seller | Largest Crypto Forfeiture?

European Operation

Europol, the European Union law enforcement agency that coordinated the international operation, reported that the majority of arrests were made in the US, with 153, followed by 55 in the UK and 52 in Germany.



Catherine De Bolle, Europol's executive director, lauded the coalition of law enforcement authorities across three continents, saying that the operation sent a strong message to dark web criminals.

In various countries, law enforcement officials carried out raids and confiscated 50.8 million euros ($53.4 million) in cash and cryptocurrencies, 850 kilograms of drugs, and 117 firearms. The operation, which spanned nine countries over 18 months, consisted of distinct yet complementary actions.

The Dutch national police's Cyber-Enabled Crime Team, known as SpecTor, participated in the operation and detained ten suspects in the Netherlands.

The leader of the Dutch team, Nan van de Coevering, praised Europol for sharing crucial intelligence, including transaction data and virtual currency addresses, that helped to launch new investigations and enhance existing ones.



Van de Coevering emphasized that the operation's triumph highlighted the importance of international cooperation in the fight against dark web crime.

This crackdown on the dark web drug market is a significant step towards curbing the drug overdose crisis and sends a message to criminals that law enforcement authorities are vigilant in holding them accountable for their illegal activities, even on the dark web.

Related Article: Canada Shut Downs Dark Web Marketplace | 4 People to be Fined $300,000 For Anti-Spam Law Violation

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Fifty percent of parents of children under 18 believe that their child's mental health has suffered in the past year due to social media use, according to a recent national survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of The On Our Sleeves Movement For Children's Mental Health.



The survey has raised concerns about the effects of social media platforms on the mental health of children and adolescents.

Children's Mental Health in the Digital Age

On Our Sleeves advocates for parents and caregivers to regularly converse with their children about the effects of social media on their mental health.



The discussion on safeguarding children's mental health online has become a national topic, with platforms like TikTok implementing new security measures. However, Dr. Ariana Hoet, the clinical director of On Our Sleeves, cautions that these measures are insufficient.



Dr. Hoet warns that social media can trigger anxiety and depression in children, as well as expose them to inappropriate content, hateful language, cyberbullying, and other adverse effects.



However, Dr. Hoet acknowledges that not all social media is negative, as it can promote social connections, relationships, and self-discovery.



According to the survey, only slightly over one-third of Americans (35%) believe that social media positively influences children's mental health, a decrease from 43% in 2022.



"Be curious about what your child is doing on social media. Taking an active role in their social media engagement, instead of simply limiting their exposure, can help them feel comfortable to ask questions, report concerns and seek help when they need it," Dr. Hoet said in a statement.

Read Also: Social Media Triggers Eating Disorders Among Female Athletes, New Study Claims

What should be done?

According to the survey, fewer parents are now comfortable discussing mental health with their children, dropping from 91% in 2022 to 86% in 2023. Effective communication and openness are crucial to promoting these discussions.



On Our Sleeves said that it offers free and user-friendly guides and resources to assist parents and caregivers in initiating conversations about social media's impact and methods to guarantee children's safety.

Experts suggest establishing a family social media strategy to prevent disagreements, promote good choices, and handle misuse.

Additionally, they suggest that parents request their children to display their preferred videos, channels, or online influencers and ask them open-ended questions to better understand their online activities.

They can also educate their children about seeking assistance from a trusted adult if they detect anything dangerous and discuss the reasons for implementing parental controls and settings to regulate social media use.



The survey highlights the need for parents and caregivers to have open communication with their children about social media use and its impact on mental health.



While social media can have both positive and negative effects, parents must take an active role in their children's social media engagement and develop a family social media plan to minimize conflict and ensure their children's safety.

Related Article: Arkansas Approves Bill Requiring Parental Consent for Children to Access Social Media Sites

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Baidu Research, a Chinese tech company, has developed an AI algorithm that could design stable COVID-19 mRNA vaccine sequences in a matter of minutes.

The algorithm, called LinearDesign, has been able to achieve a 128-fold increase in antibody response for COVID-19 vaccine sequences, according to a new study.

Lattice Parsing

The natural instability of mRNA makes it challenging to store and transport vaccines, which is especially difficult in developing countries with limited resources.

Scientists wanted to make better vaccines by improving the stability of the mRNA that tells cells how to make proteins. However, there are so many possible variations of mRNA that can make the same protein that it's hard to find the best one.

To solve this problem, they used a method called lattice parsing, which creates a graph to represent all the possible mRNA sequences. Using this method, they found the best mRNA sequence to make the Spike protein.

The new mRNA vaccine sequences designed using this method were better than the existing ones. For COVID-19 vaccines, the new sequences were up to 5 times more stable, produced 3 times more protein, and triggered 128 times more antibodies. For VZV vaccines, the new sequences were up to 6 times more stable, produced 5.3 times more protein, and triggered 8 times more antibodies.

"The vaccines designed through our method may offer better protection with the same dosage and potentially provide equal protection with a smaller dose, leading to fewer side effects," said Dr. He Zhang, Staff Software Engineer at Baidu Research.

"This will greatly reduce the vaccine research and development costs for biopharmaceutical companies while improving the outcomes."

Read Also: Quick Guide: New AI-Powered App Superchat Allows Users to Chat With DaVinci, Other Historical People!

Baidu's AI Ventures

PaddleHelix is a bio-computing platform based on PaddlePaddle that incorporates the ERNIE-Bio-Computing Big Models developed by Baidu. It applies AI to different areas, including small molecules, proteins/peptides, and RNA, providing a new research realm for AI in life sciences.



The ERNIE Big Model from Baidu has created an extensive big model technology system covering NLP, vision, cross-modal, and bio-computing.



The ERNIE Bot is part of the ERNIE Big Model family and is a large knowledge-enhanced language model (LLM) that has the capability to comprehend and produce human language. Sanofi and Baidu formed a partnership in 2021 to integrate the LinearDesign algorithm into Sanofi's mRNA vaccine and drug development pipeline.



"This research can apply mRNA medicine encoding to a wider range of therapeutic proteins, such as monoclonal antibodies and anti-cancer drugs, promising broad applications and far-reaching impact," Dr. Zhang added.

This study is notable for being the first time in which a Chinese technology company is listed as the primary affiliation in a paper published in the journal Nature.

Related Article: Google Chrome to Update with AI Features, 'GIFI' and 'Searchalong' Among Many Projects Besides 'Magi'

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Microsoft is reportedly testing a new privacy-focused ChatGPT.

But, instead of offering the new version to the public, Microsoft allegedly plans to sell the new private ChatGPT to banks and other businesses.

There's no denying that ChatGPT is very useful. But, despite its popularity, banks and other companies are avoiding it.

This is because of the leak information issues that ChatGPT recently experienced.

Now, The Information claimed that Microsoft is working on a new privacy-focused ChatGPT that businesses can use in their systems.

Privacy-Focused ChatGPT Now Tested by Microsoft!

According to Tech Radar's latest report, Microsoft invested billions of dollars into OpenAI.

Also Read: OpenAI to Introduce New Subscription to ChatGPT-Here's Everything You Need to Know!

This gives the software giant the right to resell ChatGPT technologies. Microsoft is reportedly taking advantage of its rights to OpenAI's artificial intelligence model.

The rumored privacy-focused ChatGPT is expected to be announced by Microsoft in the 2nd quarter of 2023.

People familiar with Microsoft's AI activities believe that this new ChatGPT version would be 10 times more expensive than the original one.

Once it is completed, the new private ChatGPT can be used by banks, medical establishments, and other businesses that are very sensitive when it comes to data security.

Private ChatGPT's Importance

Microsoft's upcoming private ChatGPT is expected to give clients the peace of mind that their sensitive data won't be leaked to the chatbot's main system.

To do this, Microsoft will reportedly run the privacy-focused ChatGPT on dedicated servers.

This will separate businesses from other users using the original ChatGPT, which is plugged into Windows, Edge, and other Microsoft products.

Thanks to this innovation, the sensitive data of banks and other potential clients would be kept safe.

This means the main ChatGPT will not be able to use its data for AI training purposes. Aside from this, the privacy-focused AI chatbot will also prevent inadvertent data leaks.

You can click this link to learn more about the new privacy-focused ChatGPT.

In other news, the AI-generated Michael Jackson cover of "Treasure" recently went viral on TikTok.

Meanwhile, numerous financial experts claimed that artificial intelligence would drastically change the banking industry.

For more news updates about AI and other similar innovations, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: New ChatGPT Grandma Exploit Makes AI Act Elderly-Telling Linux Malware Source Code and More!

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The domains of nine virtual currency exchange firms that were allegedly involved in aiding and abetting cybercriminals were reportedly shut down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Police of Ukraine.

According to a news release issued on May 1, the FBI's Detroit Field Office and Ukrainian law enforcement carried out coordinated, court-authorized operations that resulted in the seizure of these digital currency exchanges' domain names.

Cybercriminals Exploited Seized Domains

Cointelegraph tells us that the exchanges allegedly provided utterly anonymous digital currency trading services to their users, circumventing many laws and restrictions licensed crypto exchanges must follow.

24xbtc.com, 100btc.pro, pridechange.com, 101crypta.com, uxbtc.com, trust-exchange.org, bitcoin24.exchange, paybtc.pro, and owl.gold were among the domains seized by police.

According to reports, these exchanges were made public on online forums dedicated to discussing illegal activities, with many of them involving ransomware, scammers, and other cyber criminals.

Shutting Down Cybercrime Hubs

According to the FBI, these rogue, unauthorized transactions "serve as important hubs in the cybercrime ecosystem." The exchanges allegedly had "lax" anti-money laundering safeguards and collected little or no Know Your Customer information.

The FBI also notes that virtual currency exchangers knowingly supported their clients' unlawful actions by offering their services and became co-conspirators in criminal schemes.

We are also informed that visitors trying to access these websites will now see a seizure notice from the authorities. This sign will tell them that federal authorities have seized the domain name and that operating an unlicensed money service business and facilitating money laundering is a federal crime.

Big Crypto Hauls from the FBI

Over the last few months, the FBI has been involved in several cryptocurrency-related issues and cracking down on illegal activities associated with the virtual currency market.

Last month, an Ohio man was sentenced to 51 months in prison for stealing over 712 bitcoin that were the proceeds of the darknet bitcoin mixer Helix and subject to forfeiture in a then-pending criminal case.

Helix laundered over 350,000 bitcoin valued at over $300 million at the time of the transactions on behalf of customers, with the largest volume coming from Darknet markets.

Read Also: NYPD, Mayor Eric Adams Distributes Free Apple AirTags to Help with Car Theft in the City

Law enforcement seized various assets, including a cryptocurrency storage device containing the illegal proceeds generated through the operation of Helix, which was subject to forfeiture in the criminal case.

Additionally, the US Department of Justice has also recently seized virtual currency worth $112 million linked to cryptocurrency investment scams, known as "pig butchering."

Judges in Los Angeles authorized the seizure warrants for six virtual currency accounts in the District of Arizona and Idaho.

In one case, a US magistrate judge authorized the seizure of an account containing approximately $66.4 million in various cryptocurrencies, which was believed to have been derived from wire fraud schemes.

According to court documents, the six virtual currency accounts were used to launder the proceeds of various cryptocurrency confidence scams.

The fraudsters used the accounts to cultivate long-term, online relationships with victims, eventually enticing them to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platforms.

Instead of investing the funds, the scammers diverted them to cryptocurrency addresses and accounts under their control.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.

Related Article: Mozilla's Fakespot Acquisition to Help Users Identify Fake Shopping Reviews!

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Chat apps are among the technologies that connect many people remotely. The importance of these messaging tools became more evident after people across the globe started spending more time online.

For some, chat apps are used to check if their friends, families, and loved ones are okay. Meanwhile, others rely on these apps for school and work. Aside from these, chat apps can also help you with your business, whether small or big.

If you are still struggling to choose the best business chat app, here are the top 10 best chat apps for business.

Thanks to Brosix, a powerful instant messaging platform designed for small and big businesses, efficient team communication can be achieved remotely.

Founded in 2006, Brosix has always aimed to offer secure team communication solutions. Its top priorities are security and user functionality. Brosix does this by providing team networks with secure collaboration environments. Over the past 17 years, this advanced chat application for business has worked with various organizations and businesses across dozens of countries.

If you are looking for the best business chat app, then here are the reasons why Brosix should be your top choice:

All-in-One Package

Brosix is an all-in-one business chat app; offering all the needed tools to improve your team's productivity. You and your colleagues can benefit from instant messaging and still have complete control over your network and encrypted communication channels.

You Are in Full Control

Unlike other chat apps for business, Brosix allows administrators full control over its instant messaging network. This means that you and your colleagues can adapt the messaging app's internal communication based on your specific needs.

Its Web Control Panel can make your experience more customized. This panel is also easy to use, thanks to its design consisting of four main sections; Settings, Users, Downloads, and Licenses.

P2P Features

P2P (peer-to-peer) file transfer is a method of sending digital data from one device to another. This allows users to have a wide range of devices, from Android to iOS, Mac, Windows, etc.

With P2P, your team will have seamless communication no matter what type of device they are using.

The best thing about Brosix's P2P file transfer is that it has no limit when it comes to data volume and total transfer. Aside from this, the business chat app also ensures that its P2P file transfers are quick and secure.

Zero Configuration and Maintenance

Brosix ensures users will not waste time setting up the business chat app. Since Brosix's necessary server components run on the company's cloud system, they handle all upgrades, maintenance, and configuration operations.

Thanks to this, your team can entirely focus on your business activities without worrying about maintenance and internal servers.

More About Brosix

If your business handles sensitive medical data, you don't have to worry about a thing since Brosix fully complies with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).

With Brosix's security, health plan suppliers and similar organizations can have an encrypted communication messaging system that entirely complies with the regulation requirements.

Brosix's P2P tech allows it to have HIPAA compliance. With P2P transfer, Brosix ensures its users can only access and store all messages and other data. This means that no one can track their data or communication transfers.

If you and your team want a better remote communication experience, sign up for Brosix.

Don't worry. Small and big businesses can try this chat app for business for free without needing a credit card.

Aside from Brosix, here are other chat apps for business that you can try:

Slack is one of the most popular business messaging apps across the globe. If you have worked or are working for IT companies or service-providing businesses, you have probably encountered Slack already.

Slack works efficiently both in real-time and asynchronous communications. This means that this business chat app can help employees in fully remote or hybrid work environments. One of the best functionalities of Slack is its customization feature. Users can easily customize their Slack apps to manage them efficiently.

Another popular feature of Slack is the ability to switch smoother and faster from one account to another. Now, here are other specific Slack features you can take advantage of:

Advanced search modifiers

Pinning messages and reference links to channels

Managing and tracking documents

Streamlining your sidebar

Subscribing to RSS feeds

Setting reminders

Using shared channels across workspaces

Lightning-quick navigation

Although Slack can make your business communication seamless, this chat application still has its downsides. For example, Slack is more expensive compared to other business chat apps. Aside from this, the quality of audio and video calls still needs some improvements.

Microsoft Teams is the go-to of many companies for work collaborations and in-house communications. Microsoft claims it is the ultimate messaging app for organizations, meetings, collaborations, files and app sharing, etc.

This messaging app competes with other top messaging tools, such as Slack, and it is giving them a pretty hard time. However, this collaboration tool only works efficiently when you and your colleagues use Microsoft products.

Despite this limitation, Microsoft Teams is still one of the best business chat apps in the market. To give you more idea about its effectiveness, here are some of its offered features:

It offers a chat function comparable to or even better than the ones found within other collaboration apps.

Microsoft Teams allows all its users to access SharePoint Online, a service that contains a default document library.

Audio conferencing is one of the top features of Microsoft Teams because you can't find this innovation in other business chat tools. With this feature, users can easily join meetings using their phones.

Microsoft Teams allows users to easily add their colleagues to different teams and channels. Unlike Slack, this collaboration app can invite other members to different conversations in the General Channel.

Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other mainstream business chat apps outshine great alternatives that offer advanced features at lesser prices. If you are looking for an underrated but effective collaboration tool, then Flock could be among your top choices.

Flock is a business messaging platform that works well with major operating systems like iOS, Android, etc. This chat app has a free version, which has some restrictions. Despite these limitations, Flock can still add up to 20 people.

It packs features integrated into Microsoft Teams and other mainstream business chat apps. These include task management, scheduling, visual planning tools, etc. Aside from these, here are the other features of Flock that you can definitely take advantage of:

Files sharing and management: It supports video file types, edits files and attack comments, and provides different control access levels; editing, viewing, and commenting.

Communication: It allows users to create surveys, support real-time threads, integrate Gmail and Google Hangouts, etc.

Like Flock, Chanty is another business chat app trying to compete against mainstream collaboration tools. Although it is under the radar, Chanty is still an efficient business chat application, thanks to its artificial intelligence-powered bots.

These AI bots improve Chanty's collaboration and communication features. However, instead of focusing on chats, Chanty is designed for work tasks. To give you more idea, here are Chanty's features you can rely on:

Chanty's Teambook, a single hub, allows users to organize tasks, conversations, pinned messages, and other content. Teambook ensures that all content stays within it.

Chanty allows its users to share multiple contents in a single app. This means that users can share GIFs, YouTube videos, and other social media content, allowing them to save time.

Chanty is an inclusive business chat app. It allows users to connect to third-party apps for a better communication experience. Thanks to this, you no longer have to switch from one account to another to check the work tasks sent to you.

There are many chat apps to choose from, but only a few can help you expand or improve your business. Check out the best chat apps for business, and make business communication within your company seamless.

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Meta, Facebook's parent company, has recently cautioned users about malicious apps and browser extensions that take advantage of public interest in ChatGPT, a popular artificial intelligence-powered chatbot.

In a news release, the company claims it has discovered approximately ten malware families and over 1,000 malicious links posing as tools containing ChatGPT since March. Some links are said to have delivered working ChatGPT functionality and dangerous files.

Is ChatGPT the New Crypto?

At a press conference to discuss the report, Reuters tells us that Meta's Chief Information Security Officer Guy Rosen stated that "ChatGPT is the new crypto" for bad actors.

Rosen and other Meta executives remarked that the company was ready for a number of potential abuses associated with generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT, which can swiftly generate human-like writing, music, and even art.

Meta has discovered these malware operations at various phases of their lifetime and has already observed rapid adversarial adaptation in response to its detection.

Starting from March 2023, Meta has taken steps to safeguard people and businesses against malicious targeting using ChatGPT as bait.

As part of these efforts, Meta has blocked more than 1,000 harmful URLs shared across its technologies. Furthermore, the company has reported various browser extensions and mobile apps to its industry peers.

How Dangerous Is This Malware?

Malware families attack people via email phishing, malicious browser extensions, adverts and mobile apps, and numerous social media platforms to distribute unlawful advertisements from compromised business accounts.

Read Also: Twitter Free API Access Restored for Limited Purposes: Emergency, Weather, and Transportation Alerts Only

Malware is frequently disguised as innocuous-looking files, mobile apps, or browser extensions available in official app stores.

They use prominent themes such as political news, the latest technology, or business productivity solutions to conceal their virus and deceive users into clicking on or downloading it.

Read more about the malware here.

Malicious groups frequently go after personal accounts of people who administer or are related to business pages and advertising accounts before targeting enterprises.

Threat actors may tailor their malware to target a specific online site, including more complex types of account compromise than you'd anticipate from standard malware.

Meta has sent a cease and desist letter to the individuals responsible for the Ducktail malware in Vietnam and has referred the matter to law enforcement. The corporation will investigate all further enforcement tools against bad actors who target customers using its services.

Legislators have identified generative AI systems such as ChatGPT as potentially facilitating the spread of online disinformation operations. Although it was still early, Meta executives predicted that "bad actors" would use the technologies to "try to speed up and perhaps scale up" their activities.

In related news, a data expert recently claimed that the AI tool could be used to develop sophisticated malware capable of stealing data from Windows devices.

What's in the News

Meta has discovered malware distributors who use public interest in ChatGPT to trick users into downloading malicious apps and browser extensions.

The company is preparing its defenses against various cases of abuse associated with generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT.

Since this year, Meta has identified and disrupted nearly ten new malware strains, including those masquerading as ChatGPT browser extensions and productivity tools.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.

Related Article: Snapchat to Feature Ads on My AI Powered by ChatGPT, But It Is Not What You Think (Thankfully)

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The Malaysian government is now under increasing pressure from the United States and the European Union to prevent Huawei from building its 5G network infrastructure, TechRadar tells us in a report.

The United States and the European Union have expressed worry that allowing Huawei to engage in network construction could jeopardize national security and dissuade other investors.

Malaysian Government Now Looking Into 5G Deal

According to reports by MobileWorldLive, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has ordered a review of the 5G network buildout contract awarded to the Swedish conglomerate Ericsson following claims of a lack of openness in the awarding process.

Local operators have also requested the government to allow for the establishment of a second network in order to speed up deployment and improve security.

Western nations fear that Huawei will be awarded the second network, especially since Malaysia approved the project last month. The second wholesale network is scheduled to be finished in January 2024.

What's With Huawei's 5G

Due to security concerns, Germany stated in March that it would prohibit the use of specific components supplied by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE in 5G networks.

This announcement comes on the heels of similar actions taken by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, which have already barred those mentioned companies from selling essential 5G network equipment.

US Officials Sound the Alarm

TechRadar also mentions that the US ambassador to Malaysia, Brian McFeeters, has cautioned that allowing Huawei to participate in network construction might harm competition, impede 5G growth, and harm the country's worldwide reputation as a business-friendly nation.

Similarly, Michalis Rocas, the head of the EU delegation in Malaysia, told the Malaysian government that the EU had invested more than 25 billion in the country and that giving the contract to Huawei would make the country less appealing to investors.

Huawei Remains Under Scrutiny

Western governments, particularly the US, have scrutinized Huawei for some time, with suspicions that the Chinese government is misusing the Chinese telecoms giant. US sanctions have already impacted the firm's revenue for a while.

Furthermore, over the last three years, the company has overcome US sanctions by redesigning and replacing over 13,000 components and 4,000 circuit boards.

According to some sources, the government may order the corporation to embed backdoors into its infrastructure, letting Chinese agents eavesdrop on important Western exchanges.

The Chinese government and Huawei executives have rejected these allegations, with Huawei claiming that it was never requested to do so and would not comply.

Read Also: 5G on Airplanes? EU is Considering Ditching' Airplane Mode'

However, these concerns have prompted some Western countries, including the United States, to prohibit Huawei from constructing critical 5G infrastructure elements.

Malaysia's government is yet to make a final judgment on the network construction contract. However, it must weigh the risks of allowing Huawei to participate against the benefits of having a second network and the potential damage to its international reputation if it ignores the US and EU's warnings.

The stakes are high for Malaysia as it strives to become a significant player in the digital economy, with 5G networks playing a critical role in that effort.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.

Related Article: Germany Bans Huawei, ZTE 5G Components Over Security Concerns

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Nothing CEO Carl Pei certainly knows how to make a splash, as MWC 2023, which took place earlier this year in Barcelona, was awash in the buzz of mobile innovations from across the world. But of main highlight and immediate excitement to most amid the event was the sequel to Nothing's first foray into the smartphone universe, the aptly titled Phone 2, which is poised to set the world ablaze with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 series chip in tandem with loads of awesome new features.

On the heels of the Phone 2 announcement, Nothing has finally confirmed the release on Twitter, earmarking summer 2023 as the official launch window. The social media post features a two-second-long video of a blinking red light attached to the surface of a white device, though little can be made of the tease at the moment.

Additionally, exciting the masses that missed out on the Phone 1 release, the Nothing Phone 2 will be available for purchase in the US at launch. Nothing noted an updated sign-up page where interested consumers could easily get notifications on all things Nothing Phone 2 in the lead-up to its debut date.

Related Article: Nothing Phone (2) Teases 'Premium' Specs: Next Flagship Smartphone

Aside from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8-series chip, which Pei himself highlighted in an interview with Tech Crunch amid MWC, little else is known about the Nothing Phone 2, barring major theories and still-circulating rumors. The Phone 2 is set to appear similar in design to its predecessor, which featured a sleek and boxy design with an opened-out back plate showcasing the phone's innards, which is made all the more tantalizing with a few well-placed LED strips (that Nothing has branded the "glyph interface").

Nothing's original smartphone product debuted with an MSRP of 399 at launch in July 2022 in London. While no official US release made the rounds, a "beta program" was held in the US for those interested in purchasing a 128GB and 8GB of RAM model at $300, making it rather promising for those who are willing to jump ship from Apple's $1,000 plus asking price per new phone releases.

Depending on the overall specs and included features, the Nothing Phone 2 could easily sport a $500 asking price when it drops this summer. The most likely included specs on the Phone 2 will be 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, though again, this is entirely speculation. It could even sport a completely revamped display with a bit more real estate and a 120Hz refresh rate, mirroring its predecessor.

It will most assuredly be built on Android OS and have a much more powerful battery that could go as high as 4,700 mAh and a speedier wattage charging rate of 67W, allowing for a 30-minute or less fully-charged Phone 2 if the rumored specs are to be believed.

Sign up for more information about Nothing Phone 2 on the firm's website and gear up for an exciting launch this coming summer, 2023.

Read Also: Nothing Phone (2) Runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Chip, Confirms CEO Carl Pei

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Multiple reports tell us that Russia has recently accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate President Vladimir Putin with a drone strike on the Kremlin.

According to a Kremlin statement circulating the media, two drones were utilized in the attack, aimed at the Kremlin in the early hours of May 3.

Check out the video of the attack (Courtesy: The Times YouTube)



Russia also alleges that its radar warfare systems destroyed the drones. Moscow has called the attack a terrorist strike and an assassination attempt.

Reuters reports that the drones caused debris to fall on Kremlin grounds, but no one was injured. The administration has accused Ukraine of plotting a terrorist attack, while hardliners have demanded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy be punished immediately.

Ukraine Denies Being Behind Recent Drone Attack

A senior Ukrainian presidential official refuted the claims, calling them the most serious leveled by Moscow against Kyiv in the 14-month conflict. According to the official, Moscow is planning a major terrorist provocation.

Read Also: 2 Americans Arrested for Illegally Exporting Aviation Tech to Russia

On the other hand, Mykhailo Podolyak, the Ukrainian President's adviser, denied Ukraine's involvement in the incident, claiming that it resulted from Russia's preparations for a large-scale terrorist provocation in the coming days.

Podolyak has also stated that hitting the Kremlin accomplished no military goals for Ukraine.

What's next for Russia?

The Kremlin has stated that Russia reserves the right to retaliate, and hardliners have demanded that weapons capable of stopping and destroying Ukraine's terrorist regime be used.

The Guardian tells us that the Victory Day parade will go as planned despite the alleged attack, according to the state news agency TASS. The city of Moscow's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has imposed an immediate ban on unlicensed drone flying.

Victory Day is a key national holiday honoring Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II that Putin uses to mobilize Russians behind his "special military operation" in Ukraine. The event is marked by a massive military parade on Red Square, where seating has already been set up.

Tracing Cross-border Attacks

Since the beginning of the war, Russia has accused Ukraine of numerous cross-border attacks.

In December, Kyiv reportedly launched strikes on a Russian airbase that housed strategic bomber jets with nuclear weapons. In February, a drone crashed around 70 miles from Moscow's downtown.

Last month, a horrific bomb blast rocked a "Street Bar" cafe in the country's capital, killing a military blogger identified as Vladlen Tatarsky and injuring 19 people.

Kyiv usually fails to claim responsibility for assaults on Russia or the Russian-annexed Crimea, although authorities have frequently made cryptic or humorous statements about such attacks.

The alleged strike coincides with increased tensions between Russia and Ukraine, with Russia massing soldiers around the border. Ukraine has accused Moscow of deploying thousands of troops on its edge, which Russia has denied.

The US and its allies have expressed alarm over the developing war and encouraged Russia to de-escalate it.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.

Related Article: Hackers Strike on Anniversary of Ukraine Invasion, Deface Russian Websites

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GREENWICH, Conn., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- AdminaHealth, the leading provider of employee benefits billing solutions for the healthcare, insurance, and voluntary benefits marketplace, is pleased to announce the promotion of Jennifer Collinson to Vice President of Marketing and Communications. In her new role, Collinson will lead all marketing initiatives, work in concert with the company's sales team, and be the primary point for all communications. Collinson's elevated role has an emphasis on developing and executing innovative strategies to promote AdminaHealth's solutions to brokers, carriers, employers, and third-party administrators.

Jennifer Collinson, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, AdminaHealth

Collinson joined AdminaHealth in 2019 as Director of Marketing and Communications. During her tenure, her creativity and fresh ideas, combined with her expertise in brand and marketing strategy, web development, graphic design, and color theory, have played a critical role in developing the company's brand and increasing its visibility in the marketplace.

"Jennifer is an invaluable member of our team, and her contributions have been instrumental in the growth and success of AdminaHealth," said Robert A. Bull, CEO and Founding Member of AdminaHealth. "Her strategic vision, marketing expertise, and leadership skills have been critical in helping us achieve our business objectives. We are thrilled to promote her to Vice President, Marketing and Communications and look forward to her continued contributions as we expand our footprint in the industry."

Prior to joining AdminaHealth, Collinson held senior marketing and communications positions at organizations that distinguish themselves for making an impact and transforming processes and lives. She holds a Master's degree in Brand Development from Bath Spa University's School of Art and Design in England, a Bachelor's degree in Studio Art from Smith College in Massachusetts, and is accredited in applied color psychology by Colour Affects in London.

Story continues

"I am honored and excited to take on this new role at AdminaHealth," said Collinson. "I look forward to continuing to work with our talented team to drive the growth of our business and help our clients achieve their goals."

About AdminaHealth

AdminaHealth is the leading provider of patented billing and payment solutions for the insurance industry. The company's innovative platform simplifies the administration of benefits and streamlines payment processes for brokers, carriers, employers, and third-party administrators. Founded in 2014, AdminaHealth is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, and serves clients throughout the United States.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/adminahealth-promotes-jennifer-collinson-to-vice-president-of-marketing-and-communications-301814856.html

SOURCE AdminaHealth
MG, a Chinese automobile brand, has recalled almost 5,000 of its high-tech SUV models in Australia due to fire concerns.

The recall affects 5,168 plug-in hybrid MG HS PHEV and MG HS+ EV SUVs sold between February 1, 2021, and March 21, 2023.

News.com.au tells us that the recall was issued after it was revealed that incorrectly placed carpets could cause a fire hazard.

Reason Behind the Fire Hazard

The recall bulletin tells us that a manufacturing flaw resulted in the carpet underlay being positioned between the nut and the electrical ground stud, which, over time, due to vibrations when driving, might cause the wiring beneath the floor to overheat, potentially resulting in a fire within the vehicle.

According to MG, no incidents or injuries caused by the problem have been documented in the affected vehicles delivered in Australia.

The firm has stated that it has begun contacting impacted vehicle owners to arrange for inspections and repairs, which would be delivered at no cost to the client if necessary. This recall does not affect the electric MG ZS EV model.

Read Also: Lotus Eletre's Autonomous Feature Could Be Better Than Tesla FSD; Here's the Secret to Level 4 Autonomy

MG prioritizes safety, and as such, the firm has taken this precautionary measure to safeguard the safety of its customers.

According to an MG Motor Australia spokeswoman, the action is a precautionary measure demonstrating the company's dedication to putting its customers' safety first.

The MG Brand's Rising Popularity in Australia

Data from Carsguide.com.au tells us that MG placed eighth, selling 49,582 vehicles and grabbing 4.9 percent of the Australian market in 2022, leaving Subaru, Isuzu Ute, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen in the dust by a wide margin.

The next automaker it would like to surpass is Ford, which now controls 6.2 percent of the Australian market after selling 66,628 units this year, the vast majority of which were its smash-hit Ranger truck.

MG has risen from obscurity to one of Australia's most popular brands, outselling significant manufacturers like Nissan, Subaru, and Honda this year.

More About the Recall Notice

The recall notice, posted on the brand's website, encourages impacted vehicle owners to contact MG customer support at 1800 642 277 to learn more about the recall.

MG has vowed to contact all impacted customers. The recall is expected to impact the company's reputation and may reduce sales in the short run.

The recall comes at a time when automakers are under increased pressure to assure the safety of their vehicles. The issue of faulty automobiles and recalls has become a significant concern for consumers, and automakers are paying substantially to ensure the safety of their goods.

With the rise of electric and hybrid vehicles, automakers must ensure that their products fulfill the highest safety standards to minimize potential concerns.

Stay posted here at Tech Times for more of the latest developments in tech and more.

Related Article: Refreshed Tesla Model 3 Long Range In US Might Come With Chinese-Built LFP Pack

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FILE PHOTO: Airbnb logo is seen displayed in this illustration taken, May 3, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo - DADO RUVIC/REUTERS

Airbnb will encourage people to stay in strangers' spare rooms in a return to its couch-surfing origins, amid rising concerns about the cost of holiday accommodation.

The company said its 1m single-room listings would now be shown in a dedicated section on its app. Privacy information, such as whether the door locks and if it has its own bathroom, will also be added to listings.

Hosts will also be asked to fill out detailed information about themselves, such as their job, hobbies and pets in order to make guests feel more comfortable staying at their properties.

Airbnb was founded in 2008 as a way for people to rent out spare bedrooms and sofas but the site has become increasingly dominated by whole home rentals in recent years.

The San Francisco-headquartered company is now re-promoting single-room rentals as a way to help holidaymakers cope with the cost-of-living crisis.

The average cost of a night booked through Airbnb rose from $122 at the start of 2019 to $168 at the start of last year.

Airbnb said it had recorded a 70pc increase in the number of stays in private rooms in the UK last year amid a squeeze on tourists budgets. It said hosts renting out spare rooms make on average 2,200 a year.

Mcc0104700 Brian Chesky photographed in New York, NY USA - Johannes Kroemer

The company has been seeking to battle criticism that it has become unaffordable and ridden with hidden fees. Last year it started to show the total price of a stay up front after complaints from customers about being stung by items such as cleaning fees.

Airbnb said an update to the app would mean more than 50 new changes, which it said were made after analysing more than 4m customer service requests.

They include allowing users to spread payments over time through a deal with the buy now pay later company Klarna, better checkout instructions, and lower fees for stays of a month or longer.

Brian Chesky, the companys chief executive, said the focus on single rooms moved the company back to its founding ethos. Airbnb was founded after Mr Chesky and his co-founder Joe Gebbia rented out space in their San Francisco apartment in 2007.

Mr Chesky said: With Airbnb Rooms, were getting back to the idea that started it all  back to our founding ethos of sharing. Airbnb Rooms are often more affordable than hotels, and theyre the most authentic way to experience a city. This is the soul of Airbnb.

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Israel bombs targets in the Gaza Strip and the Qassam Brigades counter surface-to-air missiles

Highlights: Al-Jazeera correspondent said that Israeli raids targeted late Tuesday evening several sites of the Palestinian resistance north and south of Gaza City. Israeli Walla website said earlier that the Israeli army had bombed five sites in the Gaza Strip so far. The al-Qassam Brigades said its air defenses were countering airplanes raiding the Gaza strip with surface-to-air missiles. The rocket fire came after official Palestinian human rights organizations announced the death of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan after he went on an 87-day hunger strike in Israeli prisons.

Al-Jazeera correspondent said that Israeli raids targeted late Tuesday evening several sites of the Palestinian resistance north and south of Gaza City, while the occupation army radio said that the launch of 5 rockets from the Gaza Strip was monitored.
French international Sebastien Vahaamahina - 41 caps for the France team, has had his license withdrawn by his club AS Clermont because of a new concussion. The 2nd line had to stop his career at the age of 31. He blames poor management of the concussion protocol by his club. What are the rules? Why is Clermont once again singled out? Lionel Rosso debates in this new episode of the podcast "Dans la melee" with his guests: Jerome Papin, Europe 1 consultant Mathieu Blin, Canal + consultant Philippe Groussard, Canal + journalist Philippe Guillard, former player and director and author of the film "Pour l'honneur"
REPORTSINSIGHTS CONSULTING PVT LTD

The global market for anti-crease agents is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2% between 2023 and 2030, driven by the growth of the textile industry and the development of the fashion industry.

New York, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the research report "Global Anti Crease Agents Market" released by Reports Insights, the market was valued at USD 782.96 million in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% to reach over USD 1,235.61 million by 2030. The growth of the textile industry and the fashion industry is driving the demand for anti-crease agents in order to maintain the quality and appearance of clothing and fabrics. As a result, the global anti-crease agents market is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period.

Key Market Highlights

Globally, Anti Crease Agents are divided based on the type into N-hydroxy-methyl amide anti creasing agent and epoxy compound anti creasing agent.

In the context of product type, the market is separated dye-bath lubricant and wet processing lubricant.

On the basis of application, the market is classified into personal care and public care

The market is geographically divided into five regions: Europe, South America, the Asia-Pacific, North America, and the Middle East and Africa.

North America is projected to register the fastest growing CAGR in the anti crease agents market owing to the adoption of the dynamic fashion trends including crease free fabrics.

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Anti crease agents are used for crease prevention for both synthetic and natural fibers and their blends to enhance the look and performance of the finished textiles. In addition, anti crease agents are applied on the materials that are processed at a low liquor ratio machines along with high shear forces to prevent the crease marks and chaffing.

Increasing demand for textiles owing to the developing fashion trends due to the cultural and social changes is boosting the growth of the anti crease agents market. Additionally, technological advancements in the textile industry is also surging the demand for high fashioned clothes which requires anti crease agents on a large scale. Moreover, the growing need for cotton fabric across developing and developed countries is expected to drive the market growth of anti crease agent. For instance, according to an article published in the ScienceDirect, the global production of fiber exceeded 105 million metric tons in 2018 and is expected to boost with a significant growth rate over the forecast period. However, certain anti crease agents cause strong damage to the fabric including formaldehyde release, chlorine absorption, and other deficiencies that damage the quality of textiles that is likely to hamper the market growth.

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Furthermore, with the increasing concern regarding sustainability, the use of eco-friendly solutions is also on the rise. As a result, the growing demand for the non-formaldehyde-based anti crease agents including polycarboxylic acids is likely to replace conventional formaldehyde-based textile finishing agents.





Global Anti Crease Agents Market Segmentation Details:

Based on Type, the epoxy compound anti creasing agent is projected to offer substantial shares to the global anti crease agent market. Epoxy compound anti creasing agent is used as a crease resisting agent in silk fabrics. Such agents enhance the moisture elasticity of the fabrics and offer other advantages such as non-toxicity, harmless to the human body, and less yellowing effect on the fabrics. Therefore, the rising demand for non-formaldehyde based anti creasing agents is expected to propel the market growth.

Based on Product Type, the dry-bath lubricants segment dominated the anti crease agents market in 2022. These lubricants find a wide range of applications where fabrics are dyed in rope form, ideally in high turbulence machines. As a result, dry-bath lubricants are deployed to reduce the friction between two fabrics or the fabric and machine parts that are most likely to cause creasing.

Based on Application, the personal care segment is expected to register the fastest growing CAGR over the forecast period. The rising consumption of the anti crease agents by the textile industry is driving the market growth. For instance, according to the report published by Statista, in 2023 the global apparel market generated USD 1.53 trillion and is expected to exceed more than 1.7 trillion in 2023. Therefore, the growing textile industry and changing fashion trends are anticipated to boost the product demand.

Based on region, Asia Pacific held the highest market share of the anti crease agents market in 2022. The development of fashion industry in the region due to shifting fashion trends have contributed to the growth of the anti crease agents market. Additionally, the region holds the major share of the worlds clothing exports. For instance, according to International Labor Organization, Asia Pacific produces more than 32 % of clothing exports globally. Therefore, the aforementioned factors accelerated the demand for anti crease agents in the Asia Pacific.

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Report Attributes Report Details Market Size By 2030 USD 1,235.61 Million Forecast Period 2023-2030 CAGR (2023-2030) 5.2% Base Year 2022 Study Timeline 2017-2030 Key Players Finotex Chemical Limited, Sarex textile chemicals, Kolorjet Chemicals Pvt Ltd., Centro Chino Co., Ltd., ProChem Textile Chemistry Industrial Co., HT Fine Chemical Co., Ltd., Rudolf GmbH, S&D Associates, HONGHAO CHEMICAL CO. LTD., Chemi Plus International Limited and, Dymatic Chemicals, Inc. By Type N-Hydroxy-Methyl Amide Anti Creasing Agent

Epoxy Compound Anti Creasing Agent By Product Type Dye-Bath Lubricant

Wet Processing Lubricant By Application Personal Care (Cosmetics, Personal Hygiene Products, and Skincare Products)

Public Care (Hospital Bed Sheets, Hotel Linens, and Towels) Report Coverage Company Ranking and Market Share, Growth Factors, Total Revenue Forecast, Regional Competitive Landscape, Business Strategies, and more. By Geography North America

Asia-Pacific

Latin America

Europe

Middle East & Africa

Find What You Need With Our Detailed Table Of Contents (TOC) & Summary Of Nitrobenzene Market Report @ https://www.reportsinsights.com/industry-forecast/global-anti-crease-agents-market-statistical-analysis-673865

List of Major Global Anti Crease Agents Market Players

The market research report examines various market factors to determine the key drivers, limitations, and opportunities affecting market players. The report includes a SWOT analysis, regional analysis, and segment analysis to give a complete view of the market situation. This evaluation helps to identify possible growth opportunities through the implementation of technology, product utilization, business strategies, and the launch of new products. The following are major market players operating in the market environment 

Finotex Chemical Limited

Sarex textile chemicals

Kolorjet Chemicals Pvt Ltd.

Centro Chino Co., Ltd.

ProChem Textile Chemistry Industrial Co.

HT Fine Chemical Co., Ltd.

Rudolf GmbH

S&D Associates

HONGHAO CHEMICAL CO. LTD.

Chemi Plus International Limited

Dymatic Chemicals, Inc.

Global Anti Crease Agents Market Segmentation:

By Type N-Hydroxy-Methyl Amide Anti Creasing Agent Epoxy Compound Anti Creasing Agent

By Product Type Dye-Bath Lubricant Wet Processing Lubricant

By Application Personal Care Cosmetics Personal Hygiene Products Skincare Products Public Care Hospital Bed Sheets Hotel Linens Towels



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Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., left, talks with Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in the House chamber as the House meets for a second day to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023. AP Images

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill that would ban Congress members from trading individual stocks.

Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republican Matt Gaetz co-sponsored the bill, which would also limit spouses of congressional members from trading.

Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul Pelosi has long been scrutinized for his extensive history of trading stocks.

A rare show of bipartisanship was on display in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday as Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republican Matt Gaetz introduced a bill that would ban Congressional lawmakers from trading stocks.

The Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act would prohibit Congress members and their spouses and any dependents from trading individual stocks. The bill was co-sponsored by AOC and Gaetz, as well as US House representatives Brian Fitzpatrick and Raja Krishnamoorthi.

Lawmakers trading stocks has come under intensifying scrutiny in recent years as some Congress members have made timely trades in certain stocks that they may have had direct influence over or access to sensitive information as a result of the various committees they serve on.

Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi have long been scrutinized for the extensive stock trading done by Paul.

"We must move forward on issues that unite us, including our firm belief that trust in government must be restored, and that Members of Congress, including their dependents, must be prohibited from trading in stocks while they are serving in Congress and have access to sensitive, inside information," Fitzpatrick said in a joint statement.

Some trades that raised eyebrows in recent years include former Senator Richard Burr selling as much as $1.7 million in stock on February 13, 2020 after he was briefed on the threat of the COVID-19 virus. More recently, some members sold bank stocks during the initial collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March.

"The ability to individually trade stock erodes the public's trust in government. When Members have access to classified information, we should not be trading in the stock market on it. It's really that simple," AOC said in the statement.

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The bill would prevent Congressional lawmakers and their spouses and dependents from trading individual stocks. If the bill passed, they would have 90 days to either divest the stocks or place the assets in a qualified blind trust in which they'd have no control over what stocks are bought or sold in the account.

Instead of owning individual stocks, Congress members would be allowed to buy and sell baskets of stocks via mutual funds or ETFs, as well as Treasury securities.

"Members of Congress are spending their time trading futures instead of securing the future of our fellow Americans. We cannot allow the Swamp to prioritize investing in stocks over investing in our country. As long as concerns about insider trading hang over the legislative process, Congress will never regain the trust of the American people," Gaetz said in the statement.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Cinco de Mayo is coming and some may be on the hunt for recipes to celebrate the Mexican victory in the Battle of Puebla.

In Puebla, Mexico, residents commemorate the day with parades, speeches and reenactments. In the U.S., many celebrate the day with tacos and margaritas.

Below see a collection of some food and drink recipes to help celebrate the day at home.
New route adds resilience and flexibility to Arelion's growing network, enabling seamless edge connectivity across the U.S.

STOCKHOLM, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Arelion today announced that it has launched a new route from Denver to the San Francisco Bay Area, connecting through Salt Lake City and Reno. This new route will serve the demand for high-capacity bandwidth services and diverse, low-latency connectivity options in these booming technology and hyperscale data center markets. Arelion's network now provides enhanced resilience and flexibility, offering seamless edge connectivity through its fourth cross-country east-to-west coast U.S. route.

Arelion, connecting a brighter future (PRNewsfoto/Arelion)

As an early adopter in deploying open optical networking solutions, Arelion's new route leverages the latest open optical line systems and supports multi-vendor transponders and coherent pluggable components to deliver multi-terabit scale capacity, enabling 10G, 100G and 400G Wavelengths deliveries with aggressive lead times for the global carrier's customers.

Arelion's new Point-of-Presence (PoP) at Flexential's Centennial campus expands the carrier's Denver metro reach south, providing low-latency connectivity to Denver's thriving scale data centers. With this enhanced metro flexibility, Arelion can also fully bypass Denver's downtown legacy carrier hotels and avoid network congestion, providing added resiliency to its customers.

Reno's data center market is also thriving, with Reno tech companies securing $1.4 billion in funding in 2021 and the region's tech industry adding 41 percent of Northern Nevada's new jobs in 2022. Arelion's new PoP at the Switch Citadel campus in Tahoe Reno provides customers a cost-effective site for serving Northern California, with lower energy costs, renewable energy and more reliable connectivity with lower risk of natural disasters compared to some coastal regions.

Utah's Silicon Slopes region has become a hotbed of tech innovation and investment, attracting billions of dollars in funding. The region's tech industry generates $19.1 billion annually, with a recent report showing tech jobs grew 6.5 percent in 2022. Arelion's new route will serve the significant bandwidth and diversity requirements of Salt Lake City's hyper scale demands, providing low-latency access to four core data center campuses in the area.

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The global carrier's new route also provides additional diversity to serve the rich Bay Area data center ecosystem through diverse East and West Bay routing.

"This network investment in Denver, Salt Lake City, Reno and the San Francisco Bay Area is in direct response to our customers' growing technology demands," said Wes Cantrall, Head of Sales in North America, Arelion. "We bring additional choices for diversity and high capacity to these regions, enabling us to meet companies' terabit-scale needs in these evolving markets. Our ongoing commitment to connect growing edge markets across the country is a testament to our dedication to delivering best-in-class services that enable tech business growth in previously underserved regions."

The new route will go live in late Q2. Further insights into Arelion's North American network expansion:

With its fourth North American east-to-west coast route, Arelion provides enhanced access to its number one ranked Internet backbone, AS1299, as well as the global carrier's portfolio of leading IP and optical technology services, including high-speed IP Transit, Cloud Connect, Ethernet and IPX services for service providers, content providers and enterprises.

About Arelion

Arelion solves global connectivity challenges for multinational enterprises whose businesses rely on digital infrastructure. On top of the world's #1 ranked IP backbone and a unique ecosystem of cloud and network service providers, we provide an award-winning customer experience to customers in more than 125 countries worldwide. Our global Internet services connect more than 700 cloud, security and content providers with low latency. For further resilience, our private Cloud Connect service connects directly to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud across North America, Europe and Asia.

Discover more at Arelion.com , and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Martin Sjogren, Senior Manager PR and Analyst Relations

+46 (0)707 770 522

martin.sjogren@arelion.com

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SOURCE Arelion
Carl Icahn, the famed activist investor whos made a career out of starting corporate brawls, found himself on the receiving end of criticism after Hindenburg Research disclosed a short call against his investment firm.

Shares of Icahn Enterprises closed 20 per cent lower, its biggest drop on record, after Hindenburg claimed in a lengthy report that the company is overpriced, and said it found evidence of inflated valuations for some of its assets.

Carl Icahns investment firm suffered a double-digit drop after a report by short-seller Hindenburg Research. Credit: Bloomberg

The share price wiped more than $US10 billion ($15 billion) from his fortune, according to Bloomberg, All told, Icahns fortune sank by an unprecedented 41 per cent to $US14.6 billion, dropping him from the worlds 58th-richest person to the 119th.

We think Icahn, a legend of Wall Street, has made a classic mistake of taking on too much leverage in the face of sustained losses: a combination that rarely ends well, Hindenburg said in the report.
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 Anyone who wins the Booker, the prime literary prize for English-language fiction, is hopelessly, helplessly busy. Hard on the heels of the presentation and celebratory dinner come the interviews, the literature festivals, the invitations to judge this or curate that. For Bernardine Evaristo, author of 2019 winner Girl, Woman, Other, the Booker effect was mitigated to some extent by COVID, which meant many festivals  including those in Sydney and Melbourne, where she was supposed to tour in 2020  were cancelled or cut back to podcasts. Her work schedule didnt waver, however, because her dance card was already full. I taught for two years online [and did] festivals talking in a blank space on my computer, which wasnt great, she says. But also Ive always been a very busy writer, someone very involved with the literary and arts world. What the Booker win meant was that more people  a great many more people  were taking notice of both her writing and literary activism. Her ongoing projects include curating a list of republished works by Black British authors for Penguin. Weve republished 11; there are another two coming out this year. In 2021, between Zooms, she wrote an account of her creative life, beginning as one of eight children in a mixed race London family, called Manifesto on Never Giving Up. Shes busy now, too. As we sit down in her lounge, she sets her phone alarm for 30 minutes hence. Things to do, places to go. Margaret Atwood (left) and Bernardine Evaristo celebrate their joint Booker Prize win. Credit:Getty Images I feel the need to utilise this moment because it will pass, you know, she says. There have been three more Booker winners since she shared the prize with Margaret Atwood. Soon enough Ill be in the distant past. Oh yeah, Bernardine Evaristo! She won it years ago!

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Evaristo worked towards this for a long time. She is now 63. In Manifesto, she recalls vowing that one day she would win the Booker when she was an emerging poet working with a tiny publisher; her first novel Lara, which delved into her own Nigerian background, was written in verse. She would write six more novels of varying levels of experimentalism before Girl, Woman, Other, a series of interlocking stories focusing on a succession of mostly Black British women. It was a dramatic breakthrough. The previous seven novels had sold around 20,000 copies altogether over 27 years. Within six months of the Booker win, Girl, Woman, Other had racked up estimated sales of a quarter of a million. As a motivational text, her Manifesto has a straightforward message to those who may come after her: Work hard. Dont stop. Loading I just wanted to describe how my own life had been shaped by my creativity in my own words, because I had given so many interviews and talked a lot about myself  a lot!  and it made sense to put it down on paper, she says. I wanted people to know what it took to get to this point as a writer and I thought it was an interesting journey Id had. And I wanted it to be inspirational. Where I came from was inauspicious in so many ways, but look at where Ive arrived! And the reason I got there is because I continued to do what I wanted to do. Manifesto details how inauspicious that background was. Evaristos Nigerian father met her white mother at a dance. Britain in the 60s was openly racist. Bricks were thrown through the familys front window. For the children, being ruled with a rod of iron by a traditional Nigerian patriarch was often painful. I was never treated as an individual by my father and I cant recall any conversations with him that werent lectures, Evaristo writes. His children were lumped together as a single entity. Bernardine was a lonely middle sibling; she started reading, encouraged by her mother, because she was bored. The local library  along with the youth theatre, which was one place where being the only person of colour in the room didnt seem to matter  became her refuge. What becomes very clear in the telling, however, is that both parents set a lasting example to young Bernardine of indefatigable determination. Outside the home, her father was gregarious, courageous and politically committed; despite racist opposition, he became a factory shop steward and a Labour councillor who worked hard for disadvantaged people of all ethnicities. Her mother defied her family  and was summarily discarded by many of them  to marry him.

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I never wanted to see myself as a victim, says Evaristo now. And my father never saw himself as a victim, although he could easily have done. The whole of my upbringing, my background, all the struggles that I faced, the advantages I had, have led me to this point. So I look at everything through a positive prism. Of course she wanted more people to know her work, but she refused to compromise her principles by attempting to write popular fiction. She wanted success, but on her own terms. So, what now? Is she at Everest base camp? Why would you want to write only from your own demographic? Yes. You cant think youve reached the top of the mountain, ever, because what are you going to work towards? Even creatively, you cant think Ive arrived. OK, this is it now, Im the perfect writer! Thats never going to happen. Retirement is equally unthinkable. We live in an ageist society, she says, where we are supposed to accept that we are deteriorating and fade to decorous invisibility. And I refuse to do that. I would never have done that anyway, but to break through and win this prize at the age of 60 gave me this huge boost for the next stage of my creative life. Loading As a writer who started out by interrogating and investigating her own racial identity, she also refuses to be confined by it. She identifies as a Black writer and as biracial within that, but she has written as a Scottish slave in Blonde Roots, a gay Caribbean man in Mr Loverman and a tough kid on a sink estate in Hello Mum: that is the business of the imagination. She understands why indigenous artists object to white writers telling their peoples stories. But as an overriding, universal principle, I feel that people need to be able to explore fiction beyond their own lives. Because why would you want to write only from your own demographic? You dont have people from particular demographics writing particular characters sections in films. Everyone would say thats ridiculous. But somehow when it comes to books, to fiction, some people have this idea you should stay in your lane.

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Onshore fracking has been given the green light in the Northern Territorys gas-rich Beetaloo Basin, clearing the way for a controversial expansion of wells and production in a move that has dismayed traditional owners and environmental groups.

NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the government had finally satisfied all 135 recommendations from the independent Pepper inquiry into fracking, which it commissioned after it lifted the moratorium on fracking five years ago.

The Northern Territory, the Australian government and in fact our partners around the world all have the same ambition to be a net-zero emission economy as soon as we can  but we need an energy source as we step through to that, Fyles said.

We have strengthened government agencies, we have strengthened legislation to rigorously assess environmental management plans.
Or this effort, on cutting country rail fares. Because its fair [geddit?] and the right thing to do. The blokes been at it for years. Here he is with a pre-election pledge way back in 2018 to put free menstrual pads and tampons in Victorian government schools. Its an Australian first. Its the right thing to do.

In fairness to Minns, hes not the only Labor leader in this country wearing Andrews influence on their sleeve. Peter Malinauskas in South Australia took a few leaves from Dans book for his big win early last year, and the Victorians had a big voice in the partys post-mortem of Bill Shortens 2019 defeat which proved a key building block for Anthony Albaneses breakthrough in May 2022. We just wish the new NSW bloke would be a bit more subtle. CITY OF GOD(LESS) Remember former Australian Christian Lobby boss and CBD favourite Martyn Iles? Iles, punted from the lobbys top job for being more interested in preaching the gospel  he says  than working the corridors of power, will soon be ready with a big reveal of his next adventure.

In the meantime, he has been in contemplative mood as he quit Canberra, where the lobby HQ is, and shared his reflections recently with his many followers on the national capitals colder climate, the stark seasons, the lake ... the access to nature, the space. Loading But then the Iles we know re-emerged with, well, a bit of a rant against his fellow Canberrans. Things I wont miss  the wilful resistance to Christianity, and the profound spiritual deadness. Truly, a God-hating city, Iles wrote. But as I said, Hes here ... All the time... whether they like it or not.

You can take the man out of the Australian Christian Lobby  WERE HIGH-ERING! There arent many jobs where youd admit on your application to a penchant for pot smoking. But CBDs attention has been drawn to a gig, paying more than a hundred grand a year, where a track record of pulling bongs is considered no impediment. Loading

State parliaments two Legalise Cannabis Party members David Ettershank and Rachel Payne are putting their backroom team together  theyve already hired three staffers  and are looking for a parliamentary adviser for strategy and communications (on a salary of $102,000 plus super) to complete the team. Ettershank told us that the party was all about performance, noting the huge amount of discrimination against workers taking medicinal cannabis but subject to random drug testing by their employers. We wouldnt be saying to our people that you can or cant smoke or consume cannabis, its all about being able to do the job on the day and be able to do that in a professional manner, the member for Western Metro said. But just-say-no diehards should probably save themselves the bother of dusting off the resume. It would be a difficult position to take if you were opposed in principle to the consumption of cannabis, Ettershank said.

STRATEGIC SCOTT Former PM Scott Morrison is hoping to further strengthen his credentials as a virtuous globalisation master, recently becoming an honorary member of the Centre for a New American Securitys strategic advisory board. Sounds like a parody of the Washington DC military industrial complex, but CNAS is indeed a real think tank  based a stones throw from the White House, founded by Joe Bidens Asia czar Kurt Campbell, bankrolled of course by weapons companies like Northrop Grumman and the US military, and featuring James Murdoch on its board of directors. In his post-prime ministerial pivot to Mr Worldwide, Morrison has become a member of other khaki-tinged foreign think tanks, notably the Hudson Institute and International Democrat Union, both more openly conservative outfits than the relatively bipartisan CNAS. A spokesperson for the former PM told us Morrison was pleased to be working with CNAS to provide a unique Australian and Indo-Pacific insight into global security issues, noting the think tanks support for the AUKUS pact.
Victims left homeless by natural disasters must get priority over tourists in holiday towns, a report has found, after survivors reeling from last years floods were told to pack up and make way for holidaymakers.

Since February last year, the NSW government has booked and paid for more than 207,000 nights of accommodation for flood victims in Northern NSW, the Department of Communities and Justice said, using 397 providers.

Flood victims had to make way for holidaymakers on the Far North Coast of NSW last year.

But relying on tourism accommodation to house traumatised survivors of natural disasters also poses significant issues, a report into the experiences of last years flood victims has found.

Natural Hazards Research Australia found the challenges were especially acute in the Northern Rivers last year, given the floods hit six weeks before Easter and the region is a top tourist destination.
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Dublin, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Artificial Intelligence Market- Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunities, and Forecast, 2018-2028 Segmented By Type (Strong AI and Weak AI), By Technology, By Deployment, By Industry, By Region, Competition" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Global Artificial Intelligence Market is projected to register a CAGR of more than 35.6% during the forecast period. The increasing penetration of digital technologies, rising automotive industry, growing healthcare sector, and higher adoption of hyper-personalized services are fuelling the growth of Global Artificial Intelligence Market.



Artificial intelligence is the reconstruction of human intelligence in computers that have been designed to think and behave like people. Machine learning, machine vision, automation, robotics, and other types of technologies all use artificial intelligence.



The proliferation of the Automobile Industry



Autonomous vehicles are the most widely accessible use of AI in the automotive industry, which is growing as a significant source of AI. AI chips, computer vision, and ML are the key AI technologies associated with self-driving. Moreover, the use of AI in automotive manufacturing will increasingly overlap with the development of sustainable smart cities. 5G connectivity will provide a foundation of low-latency communication from vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and eventually vehicle-to-everything (V2X), which opens up a whole range of AI cases.

In addition, AI will help with centralized traffic management, which will enhance travel efficiency and reduce vehicle energy use from a sustainability standpoint. Mobility providers will continue to use AI in fleet management and real-time vehicle routing, and infotainment systems will be able to support ambient commerce through interactions with smart infrastructure.

For instance, Tesla makes use of cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology, such as autopilot, and uses customer datasets for data analytics to forecast and gather information about consumer requirements, which is then used to enhance the features of its vehicles.



Growing Healthcare Industry



As one of the most important industries in the larger big data environment, healthcare plays a crucial part in a prosperous, productive society. It may truly be a matter of life and death when using AI for healthcare data. AI can help healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses, and other staff members, in their daily tasks.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare can improve patient outcomes, preventive care, and quality of life while also resulting in more precise diagnosis and treatment regimens. By analyzing information from the public sector, the medical industry, and other sources, AI can also forecast and monitor the development of contagious diseases. Thus, AI has the potential to be a key instrument in the fight against diseases and pandemics, which will benefit global public health.



Moreover, the government of several countries, such as India and China, launched numerous initiatives and schemes to proliferate the growth of the healthcare industry. For instance, in India, Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission was announced in 2021 with an outlet of USD 7,776 million over six years. This scheme focuses on developing capacities of health systems and institutions across the continuum of care at all levels, including primary, secondary, and tertiary, and on preparing health systems to respond effectively to current and future pandemics/disasters.



Increasing Internet of Technology (IoT)IoT has seen steady adoption across the business world over the past decade. Every day IoT devices generate around one billion gigabytes of data. By 2025, the projection for IoT-connected devices globally is 42 billion. As the networks grow, the data does too. With AI, IoT has a wide range of benefits for organizations and offers a powerful solution to intelligent automation, such as avoiding downtime, increasing operational efficiency, enabling new and improved products and services, and risk management. Moreover, IoT, along with AI, is revolutionizing many industries, including manufacturing, sales and marketing, automotive, healthcare, etc., which has led to the rising growth of the Global Artificial Intelligence Market in coming years.

Report Scope:



In this report, Global Artificial Intelligence Market has been segmented into the following categories, in addition to the industry trends, which have also been detailed below:



Artificial Intelligence Market, By Type:

Strong AI

Weak AI

Artificial Intelligence Market, By Technology:

Machine Learning

Deep Learning

Natural Language Processing

Computer Vision

Others

Artificial Intelligence Market, By Deployment:

Cloud

On-premises

Artificial Intelligence Market, By Industry:

Healthcare

Retail & E-Commerce

Logistics and Transportation

Manufacturing

Consumer Electronics

BFSI

Others

Artificial Intelligence Market, By Region:

North America

United States

Canada

Mexico

Europe

United Kingdom

Germany

France

Italy

Spain

Asia-Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Singapore

South America

Brazil

Argentina

Colombia

Middle East & Africa

UAE

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

Qatar

Egypt



Key Topics Covered:



1. Service Overview



2. Research Methodology



3. Executive Summary



4. Impact of COVID-19 on Global Artificial Intelligence Market



5. Voice of Customer



6. Global Artificial Intelligence Market Outlook



7. North America Artificial Intelligence Market Outlook



8. Europe Artificial Intelligence Market Outlook



9. Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Market Outlook



10. South America Artificial Intelligence Market outlook



11. Middle East & Africa Artificial Intelligence Market Outlook



12. Market Dynamics

12.1. Drivers

12.1.1. Proliferation of Next-Generation Computer Architecture

12.1.2. Growth in Deep Neural Network

12.1.3. Availability of Enormous Amount of Data

12.2. Challenges

12.2.1. Lack of Data Security



13. Market Trends and Developments

13.1. Rising Demand for Autonomous Vehicle

13.2. Growing Healthcare Industry

13.3. Growing Influence of Chatbots

13.4. Increase in Number of Connected Devices

13.5. Growing Demand from Cyber Security



14. Company Profiles



15. Strategic Recommendations



16. About the Publisher & Disclaimer



A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes

Amazon Web Services

Google LLC

IBM Corporation

Microsoft Corporation

Nvidia Corporation

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd

Intel Corporation

Salesforce, Inc.

Oracle Corporation

SAS Institute Inc.





For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/dc6329

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




North Sydneys first high-rise office block  the modernist MLC Building  has been saved from the wrecking ball after a NSW court rejected a developers bid to demolish it for a gleaming new tower.

The NSW Land and Environment Court on Wednesday refused developer Investa Property Groups multimillion-dollar proposal to raze the block and replace it with a 27-storey office complex.

The MLC Building, designed by Bates Smart McCutcheon, won the NSW Architects Enduring Architecture Prize in 2021. Credit: Edwina Pickles

In her decision rejecting the application, Senior Commissioner Susan Dixon said the buildings owner had not satisfactorily demonstrated why it would be unreasonable to conserve the block.

There is almost unanimity within the professions of architecture and heritage historians that the MLC [Building] is of state, if not national, heritage significance, Dixon said.
Three boys, one just 12 years old, will face court over an alleged series of car thefts including one which resulted in a high-speed chase through Perth.

Police alleged the children  a 13-year-old boy from Belmont, and two boys from Girrawheen aged 12 and 16  clocked up a total of 77 charges between them over an alleged crime spree lasting four days. They were arrested and charged on Wednesday.

WA Police tracked three children who had allegedly stolen a car late on Monday night. Credit: Police Media

The boys were allegedly involved in a series of aggravated burglaries and vehicle thefts and, after allegedly stealing a Mazda CX9 on Monday evening, failed to stop when police intercepted them on Mirrabooka Avenue in Koondoola.

Police then followed the car as it drove through Perth, with a helicopter tracking the pursuit.
London: Piers Morgan, the man who literally wrote the book on the so-called anti-woke backlash, was an interesting choice of interviewer by Anthony Albanese.

This is the man who Kevin Rudd, the prime ministers close friend and recent appointment as ambassador to the US, dismissed as a bully and a thug working for Rupert Murdoch.

Many would be puzzled by why the prime minister thinks he needs to appear on controversial English journalist Piers Morgans show. Credit: Screengrab / Alex Ellinghausen

Australians dont like bullies, we dont like thugs, so I suspect Australians wont like you, Rudd said of Morgan last year.

When the polarising provocateurs international chat show, which airs in Australia on Sky News, launched last year, he posted a picture of himself and Scott Morrison in Sydney on social media. It sent Twitter into meltdown. Labor MPs, including another of Albaneses close allies, Stephen Jones, went on the attack.
Heres something Daniel Andrews and his ministers, squeezed by ever-tighter budgetary constraints and naturally shopworn by the wear and tear of holding office, might want to bear in mind: for Victorian governments in the modern era, the third term has been the death zone.

In the past 50 years, three premiers  Sir Rupert Hamer, John Cain and Steve Bracks  led their parties to three successive election wins. None stayed on to secure a fourth term: Hamer and Cain were forced to step down by a loss of party room support and Bracks resigned for personal reasons. Their governments all fell within two years of their successors taking over.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Credit: Gus McCubbing

Of course, its still early days in the third term of the Andrews government. But the history shouldnt be ignored: after the third win, governments have either unravelled or gone off the boil and then shuffled off to their doom. Andrews before last years election promised to stay for the full four years of this term if the government was re-elected.

Was he fair dinkum? A lot of his colleagues expect him to walk mid-term and hand over to his deputy, Jacinta Allan. Recent talk in the party has focused on the prospect of Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas as Allans deputy. Andrews, Allan and Thomas all hail from the Socialist Left faction. Lest any readers feel the need to reach for the smelling salts at the further prospect of all these radicals turning Victoria into Cuba, my suggestion is not to bother.
The decision to build a $1.1 billion prison near Geelong  which is now sitting idle  was influenced by an expected increase in the remand population as a result of the 2018 tightening of Victorias bail laws, the Yoorrook Justice Commission has been told.

Commissioner Maggie Walter on Wednesday asked Corrections Victoria head Larissa Strong if there was a correlation between the bail reforms and the decision to build the 1248-bed Western Plains Correctional Centre at Lara.

The decision was very much based on the fact that we had an ... increasing prison population, so, yes, Strong said.

The Western Plains Correctional Centre. Credit: Community Safety Building Authority

The prison was mostly intended as a remand facility when work commenced, she said.
New York: Donald Trump denied raping writer E Jean Carroll in a video played at the rape and defamation trial against him, as his lawyers told the court he would not present a defence case.

Lawyers for Carroll played about 30 minutes of excerpts from the former US presidents deposition, including his denial that he sexually assaulted the New York writer in a department store decades ago.

E Jean Carroll arrives at court in New York for Wednesdays hearing. Credit: AP

If it did happen, it would have been reported within minutes, Trump said, adding that someone at the very busy store wouldve heard a commotion and alerted authorities.

Its the most ridiculous, disgusting story. Its just made up.
Sustainable Fuel at NORRA 1000: Meyers Manx and P1 Fuels Revolutionize Off-Road Racing.

Iconic off-road vehicle manufacturer partners with global fossil-free fuel leader for a cleaner and more efficient racing future

COSTA MESA, CA a Meyers Manx a leading manufacturer of dune buggies and off-road vehicles, made history at the NORRA 1000 this week by powering its remastered buggy with P1 racing fuel. The collaboration with P1, the global leader in fossil-free fuels, marks a significant step towards sustainable mobility and performance in vintage engines and legacy motors.

As the automotive industry increasingly focuses on renewable fuels, carbon-neutral vehicles, and sustainable mobility, P1 is at the forefront, helping manufacturers achieve their sustainability goals. By leveraging advanced science and technology, P1 creates cleaner and more energy-dense fuels that offer cost-effective alternatives to traditional fossil fuels for the 1.6 billion road cars with internal combustion engines.

Meyers Manx joins a roster of leading automotive OEMs and engine developers partnering with P1 Fuels as they work towards a future of efficiency and sustainability. The company is also partnering with Serifcan Ozcan who is proving his 911TF Vehicle, which serves as a test platform for innovative companies looking to explore and develop sustainable technologies in challenging environments. This aligns with Meyers Manx's commitment to support off-road motorsports as a testing ground for groundbreaking technologies.

Since its inception in 1967, Meyers Manx has been an icon of off-road racing and American ingenuity. Founder Bruce Meyers' record-breaking 34-hour and 45-minute drive down Mexico's Baja Peninsula in the original Old Red laid the groundwork for the legendary Baja 1000 and inspired a generation of off-road enthusiasts.

P1's CEO, Martin Popilka, said, "Our partnership with Meyers Manx sends a clear message: climate-neutral operation of combustion engines is already possible. We must collaborate with policymakers to scale up technical solutions and make climate-neutral fuel attractive to consumers. This fuel is a crucial component for Germany to achieve climate neutrality by 2045, as some vehicles will still rely on internal combustion engines. We invite government agencies to take a first step now by running parts of their vehicle fleets on CO2-neutral fuel." ###

About Meyers Manx:

Meyers Manx is a premier manufacturer of dune buggies and off-road vehicles, renowned for their iconic design and unmatched performance. Founded in the 1960s by Bruce Meyers, the company embodies adventure, excitement, and the spirit of Baja racing. With an unwavering commitment to innovation and preserving the legacy of off-road racing, Meyers Manx continues to redefine the boundaries of off-road adventure.
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Microsoft Bing search engine in pictured on a monitor in the Bing Experience Lounge during an event introducing a new AI-powered Microsoft Bing and Edge at Microsoft - JASON REDMOND/AFP

Artificial intelligence (AI) will cause real damage when it gets into the hands of bad actors, a Microsoft boss has warned.

Michael Schwarz, the US tech companys chief economist, told the World Economic Forum (WEF): I am confident AI will be used by bad actors, and yes it will cause real damage.

It can do a lot of damage in the hands of spammers with elections and so on, he said in comments reported by Bloomberg.

His warning echoed that of Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI who quit Google this week.

Mr Hinton said in a newspaper interview: It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things.

Mr Schwarzs comments come as the bosses of Microsoft, Google and ChatGPT maker OpenAI have been summoned to the White House to meet US vice president Kamala Harris on Thursday.

The meeting has been called so officials can hold a frank discussion with tech company leaders about the risks of upcoming AI technology.

Scientists from Microsoft and OpenAI claimed in March that they had seen sparks of human-level intelligence from the latters latest creation during laboratory tests.

May0078295 The Daily Telegraph AI - Artificial Intelligence - Toronto, Ontario Canada. Professor Geoffrey Hinton, the British-born Canadian cognitive psychologist and computer scientist, most noted for his work on artificial neural networks and known as The Godfather of AI. He divides his time working for Google and University of Toronto Pictured in his office at Google HQ in Toronto. Weds 16/08/17 - Julian Simmonds

This so-called artificial general intelligence could foreshadow the creation of autonomous robots capable of making their own decisions completely independently from human input.

OpenAIs November release of ChatGPT took the world by storm as the AI chatbot surpassed all previous expectations of the technology.

Its unique selling point is that it is trained on petabytes of data from across the entire internet, meaning users can ask it questions on virtually any topic and receive convincing-sounding answers.

Experts have warned that AI chatbots are capable of hallucinating answers that may be completely wrong, however.

This kind of AI we're talking about right now can sometimes lead to something we call hallucination, Prabhakar Raghavan, the head of Google Search, told a German newspaper in February.

Around $120bn (96bn) was wiped from Googles market value later that month after its ChatGPT rival, Bard, gave a convincing-but-wrong answer to a question. The response was then reproduced in launch publicity material for the chatbot.

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Bard gave an inaccurate answer to the question: What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9 year old about?

It falsely suggested the telescope was used to make the very first discoveries of planets outside the solar system.

The response triggered the biggest single-day fall in Googles share price for five months.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
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Dublin, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Critical Minerals & Energy Investment Conference and Exhibition" conference has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Explore Australia's Critical Minerals Strategy & Hydrogen Energy Opportunities Spurring Investment & Innovation As Well As Discover the Potential Of Critical Energy Resources in Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe For Mining, Renewable Energy, Automotive, Aerospace, Defence, Telecommunications And Agritech Industries

Critical Minerals & Energy Investment Conference and Exhibition is Australia's only event dedicated to critical minerals sector discussing all aspects of exploration opportunities for traditional and emerging commodities, investment strategies, development of new technologies from mobile phones to fighter jets, critical infrastructure, transport, security & renewable energy and expansion of downstream processing to meet future global demand.

Australia has been blessed with extraordinary reserves of critical minerals and produce around half the world's lithium, is the second-largest producer of cobalt and the fourth-largest producer of rare earths. The Government has plans to grow Australia into a critical minerals powerhouse to support supply chain diversification and security of supply on a global scale.

Up to now, production has been concentrated in a few countries and is subject to disruptive geopolitical & market challenges, while rapidly rising demand could result in shortages. The event looks at key elements to responsible sourcing and processing, green investment economy, as well as hydrogen that plays a crucial role in the global energy market's transition to a low-carbon economy.

We anticipate 300 senior-level executives, including over 25 mining companies ranging from explorers, juniors to mid-tier producers, majors and processors for two days of partnering, networking and business matching.

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Join us at an invaluable platform to get access to agenda covering the latest industry issues, and exhibition floor as well as a 1-2-1 meeting matching tool for new partnerships & business opportunities including Presentation Opportunities & Panel Discussions, Ministerial Luncheon, Special Critical Minerals in Defence & Security Industry Breakfast, Networking Drinks, Bespoke Event Partnership & Sponsorship Options.

MINERS MEET INVESTORS

Our investors come from private equity, asset & investment management companies, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, venture capital, family offices or are HNWIs and private investors.

They join from all over Australia, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Americas to look out for the latest mining projects and investment opportunities.

KEY THEMES

Mining Investment Strategies & Trends

Bridging Mining, Energy, Automotive, Space & Defence Industries

Critical Materials Strategy, Supply & Trade

Resources Security, Sustainability & Hydrogen

Global

Commodity Trends

Battery Metals (Lithium, Vanadium, Cobalt, Nickel and Graphite) & Electric Vehicles

Platinum Group Metals Developments

Rare Earth Minerals

Emerging Metals

M&A, Capital Raising & Financing Environment

Risk, Government Regulations & Policy Developments

Junior Miners, New Exploration Projects & Discoveries

Renewable Energy Prospects

Mining Technology Advancements

IoT, Blockchain & Future of Mining

Speakers

Dr Bronwyn Camac

Acting Director

Geological Survey of South Australia

Peter Nicholson

Senior Advisor Australia and Asia

Appian Capital Advisory LLP

Sam McGahan

Marketing Manager

Australian Vanadium Limited

Alex Dorsch

Managing Director & CEO

Chalice Mining Limited

Andrew Hutchinson

General Manager

Critical Minerals Office

Dan Smart

Director, Project & Structured Finance

Export Finance Australia

Stephen Gauld

Managing Director & CEO

Infinite Green Energy

Ron Mitchell

Chairman

London Metal Exchange Lithium Committee

Miranda Taylor

CEO

National Energy Resources Australia (NERA)

Peter Clifford

Director

Paradigm Fuels

Noel Ong

Managing Director

Samso Capital

Hon. Bill Johnston MLA

Minister, Mines, Petroleum, Energy & Industrial Relations

Government of Western Australia

Gavin Lockyer

Managing Director

Arafura Resources Limited

Adam Myers

Partner, Corporate Finance

BDO

David Tasker

Managing Director

Chapter One Advisors

Sarah Sargent

Mineral Investment Specialist

Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety

Luke Cox

Chief Executive Officer

Green Technology Metals

Phil Hearse

Executive Chairman

International Graphite Ltd

Kylah Morrison

General Manager - Western Australia & South Australia

METS Ignited Australia

Frank van Rooyen

Senior Director - Resources & WA

Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility

Peter Pham

Managing Director & Principal Fund Manager

Phoenix Capital Group

Henk Ludik

Executive Chairman

Suvo Strategic Minerals Limited

Megan Joyce

Head of Corporate Finance, WA

ANZ

Graeme Testar

Executive Director, Corporate Finance

Argonaut Securities

Sonia Scarselli

Vice President

BHP Xplor

Rob Wilson

Head of Western Australia & Resources

Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC)

Andrew Spinks

Managing Director

EcoGraf

Michael Brady

Partner, Commercial Contracting, Energy & Resources,

HWL Ebsworth Lawyers

Colin Locke

Executive Chairman

Krakatoa Resources

Richard Beazley

Non-Executive Chairman

MetalsGrove Mining

George Bauk

Executive Director

PVW Resources

Sam Rodda

Managing Director & CEO

Podium Minerals

Daniel Hynes

Senior Commodity Strategist

ANZ Research

Dr Amanda Murphy

Senior Advisor, Critical Minerals

Austrade

Bart Kolodziejczyk

Associate Director - Hydrogen and Clean Technologies

Boston Consulting Group

Dr Chris Golding

Manager, Semiconductors, Electrification and Europe Team

Critical Minerals Office

Behyad Jafari

CEO

Electric Vehicle Council

Peter Kasprzak

Director

Hydrogen Society of Australia

Kristie Young

Non-Executive Director

Lithium Australia Ltd - ChemX Materials Ltd - Tesoro Gold Ltd

Mohan Yellishetty

Associate Professor

Monash University

Matt Fifield

Managing Partner

Pacific Road Capital

Robert Gray

Chief Commodities Strategist

Resource Capital Fund

For more information about this conference visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/eubkz8

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




CHICAGO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Automated Material Handling Equipment Market is expected to reach USD 45.7 billion by 2028 from USD 30.6 billion in 2023, at a CAGR of 8.3 % during the 20232028 period according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The ever-evolving automotive, e-commerce, food & beverage, 3PL, and other industries, along with their continuous production, are major factors driving the growth of the global automated material handling equipment market. Moreover, the need for ASRS and AGVs for several applications is also a key factor contributing to the market growth.

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Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=92483121

Browse in-depth TOC on "Automated Material Handling Equipment Market"

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60  Figures

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Automated Material Handling Equipment Market Report Scope:

Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2023 $30.6 billion Estimated Value by 2028 $45.7 billion Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 8.3% Market Size Available for 20192028 Forecast Period 20232028 Forecast Units Value (USD Million/Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered By Product, System Type, Industry and Region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of World Key Market Challenge Development of flexible and scalable AMH equipment Key Market Opportunities Substantial industrial growth in emerging economies Key Market Drivers Rise in demand for automated material handling equipment across diverse industries



Unit load material handling system is expected to account for the largest share of the automated material handling equipment market during the forecast period.

Unit Load Material Handling Systems held a larger market share in 2022. These systems are majorly used in several industries as they are cost-effective and can effectively handle several items simultaneously. This helps in reducing the number of trips, the time required for loading and unloading, as well as the cost of handling. The growing demand for automated material handling equipment in the e-commerce industry is anticipated to propel the unit load material handling systems market during 20222027.

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The e-commerce industry is projected to account for significant share of automated material handling equipment market during the forecast period.

The growing demand for accelerated order processing and delivering of products to customers in an accurate and undamaged form, rising competition in the e-commerce industry, and a rapidly growing number of online shoppers are propelling e-commerce companies to invest in automated equipment to improve their material handling efficiency. Short delivery times, accurate order processing, advanced shipment tracking, and an increased number of online shoppers are key factors boosting the adoption of warehouse management systems in this industry. The increase in globalization and the emergence of online retailing and bulk retailing escalated the demand for AMHE in the e-commerce industry.

Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=92483121

Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Growing awareness for warehouse automation and the growing e-commerce industry are some of the key factors contributing to the substantial growth of Asia Pacific in the market. The rapid growth of automotive, e-commerce, and healthcare industries in major Asian economies, such as China and Japan, contributed to the growth of the automated material handling equipment industry in the region. Moreover, various national governments in Asia Pacific countries are increasingly emphasizing mainly on safety and security on production floors, for which the deployment of automated material handling equipment is increasingly adopted. The market is experiencing rapid growth in countries such as China and Japan, owing to large investments by manufacturers and suppliers in installing several equipment at warehouses and distribution centers.

The report profiles key players in automated material handling equipment companies such as Daifuku, KION, SSI Schaffer, Toyota Industries, and Honeywell International.

Get 10% Free Customization on this Report: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomizationNew.asp?id=92483121

Browse Adjacent Market: Semiconductor and Electronics Market Research Reports &Consulting

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - AVANTI GOLD CORPORATION (CSE: AGC) (FSE: X37) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Colin Porter as CEO effective as of May 1, 2023.

Colin Porter

Dr. Colin Porter is a geologist with over 25 years' experience in exploration, project management and applied structural geology across Africa. Dr. Porter's expertise spans a wide range of gold mineralization systems including Archaean, Proterozoic and Pan-African orogenic deposits and districts of Africa. Previous roles include Structural Geologist for Anglogold Ashanti, Africa Region with extensive experience in the Birimian craton of West Africa, which included planning and implementation of deposit scale and brownfields exploration at several of Africa's largest mines including (Obuasi, Geita, Sadiola, Morila, Siguiri). Dr. Porter is also well experienced in target generation, design and implementation of exploration programmes at numerous African gold projects including Banfora, (Burkina Fas, Salman/Anwia (Ghana) and Konongo, Ghana. Dr. Porter was the head of exploration and managed all exploration activities at the Zani-Kodo gold project in NE DR Congo, from instigation to definition of a 3Moz resource.

Dr. Porter holds a BSc (Hons) in geology from Queen's University Belfast, a PhD in geology from University of Southampton and is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

Dr. Porter replaces Tony Louie, the Company's former Interim CEO. Mr. Louie will continue to serve as a member of the Company's board of directors. The Company thanks Mr. Louie for his past service as the Company's Interim CEO and ongoing commitment to the Company's success.

About Avanti Gold Corporation

Avanti Gold Corporation is a mineral exploration company working on a Tier-1 gold opportunity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ("DRC"), located in the Fizi territory of South Kivu province, in the DRC. The Misisi Gold Project (or the "Project") has a contained Inferred Mineral Resource of 3 million ounces of gold as reported in the Company's National Instrument 43-101 technical report on the Misisi Gold Project (the "Technical Report").

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The Project is located 250 kilometres south of Bukavu, the provincial capital of the South Kivu Province, in the DRC. The Project is comprised of three contiguous 30-year mining leases, valid until 2045, covering 133 square kilometres of prospective exploration ground along the 55-kilometre-long Kibara Gold Belt. The Kibara Belt is a well-known metallogenic province and hosts a number of other deposits including the Twangiza (5.1 Moz oz Au, source: S&P Global) and Namoya (1.9 Moz, source: S&P Global) gold mines. The Project is host to the Akyanga deposit, which is the subject to Inferred Resource of 44.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.16 grams per tonne gold containing 3.0 million ounces.

Qualified Person

Ephraim Masibhera, a "Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), has reviewed the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release and has approved the disclosure herein. Historical information contained in this news release cannot be relied upon as the Company's Qualified Person, as defined under NI 43-101 has not prepared nor verified the historical information.

This news release also includes references with respect to the Twangiza (5.1 Moz oz Au, source: S&P Global) and Namoya (1.9 Moz, source: S&P Global) gold mines, which are located near the Misisi Gold Project. The Company advises that, notwithstanding their proximity of location, discoveries of minerals on such properties, any promising results thereof are not necessarily indicative of the mineralization of, or located on the Misisi Gold Project, or the Company's ability to commercially exploit the minerals claims which comprise the property or to locate any commercially exploitable deposits therefrom.

For more information on the Misisi Gold Project, please refer to the Technical Report filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Email: info@avantigoldcorp.com

Office: +1 (604) 908-1679

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164640
Batavia, NY (14020)

Today

Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 61F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 41F. Winds light and variable.
Avista Corporation

SPOKANE, Wash., May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avista Corp. (NYSE: AVA) announced that Senior Vice President of External Affairs and Chief Customer Officer Kevin Christie, age 55, will become Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Senior Vice President Regulatory Affairs effective May 11, 2023, after Avistas Annual Meeting of shareholders.



Avistas Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Mark Thies has decided to retire. Although his daily responsibilities will transition on May 11, 2023, following Avistas Annual Meeting, Mr. Thies will stay on as Executive Vice President until his official retirement on October 1, 2023.

Mr. Christies promotion to CFO comes after serving in his current role as Senior Vice President, External Affairs and Chief Customer Officer for Avista, where hes been responsible for regulatory affairs, customer service, customer experience, communications, community outreach and philanthropy, as well as customer energy efficiency and conservation activities, and new products and services.

Mr. Christie joined Avista in 2005 and held various leadership roles in Avistas natural gas business. He was appointed the Senior Director of Finance in 2012 and named Vice President of Customer Solutions in 2015. His responsibilities expanded to Vice President External Affairs and Chief Customer Officer in 2018 and was named Senior Vice President in 2019.

Mr. Christie has extensive experience in finance and the energy industry. Prior to joining Avista, he worked for Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN), where he served initially as an accountant and then progressed to roles as the Director of Pipeline Marketing and Development and the Director of Pricing and Business Analysis. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from Washington State University and has completed various finance programs at Harvard Business School.

Kevins financial acumen and well-rounded experience across our business will serve him well in his new role as CFO. Under Kevins leadership, weve successfully worked with regulators to secure approval and implementation of multi-year rate cases, which contribute to Avistas long-term financial success and stability. Hes been influential in advancing Avistas customer experience platforms and customer-engagement strategy, including deploying and using our smart meter technology to engage customers at a deeper level to support our clean energy transition. Kevin played a key role in acquiring Alaska Electric Light and Power Company to expand our utility footprint. His strategic thinking and proven track record of building credibility and trust are valuable qualities as he assumes CFO responsibilities, said Avista President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Vermillion.

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Mr. Thies retires after 15 years at Avista. He joined the company in September 2008 as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He added responsibilities of Treasurer in 2013, led financial responsibilities in several Avista subsidiaries, and was named Executive Vice President in 2019.

We want to express our gratitude to Mark for his commitment and contributions to Avista as CFO and Treasurer. His extensive experience in finance and the utility sector has earned the respect of many in our industry and proven invaluable as hes built and led our finance team. Marks passion for investor relations has been a driving force to establish strong relationships with bankers and investors to ensure we have access to capital markets to provide critical funding for our business. This essential capital allows Avista to make ongoing investments in our utility systems and infrastructure to provide reliable energy to our customers.

Mark has also been instrumental in overseeing the financial success of some of our other businesses, including the sale of our subsidiary Ecova. His actions have helped build Avistas financial strength and flexibility to position us for the future as we transition this role. We wish Mark all the best as he retires and begins this next chapter in his life, said Vermillion.

Also, as part of Avistas latest leadership transitions, Latisha Hill, who has been Vice President of Community and Economic Vitality since 2020, will add Corporate Communications, Customer Service, and Energy Efficiency to her current responsibilities. Her new title will be Vice President of Community Affairs and Chief Customer Officer effective May 11, 2023, following Avistas Annual Meeting.

Ms. Hill joined Avista in 2005 and has held multiple roles throughout her tenure. She has more than 20 years of leadership in strategic initiatives, inclusive business development, and policy impact.

About Avista Corp.

Avista Corp. is an energy company involved in the production, transmission and distribution of energy as well as other energy-related businesses. Avista Utilities is the operating division that provides electric service to 414,000 customers and natural gas to 379,000 customers. Its service territory covers 30,000 square miles in eastern Washington, northern Idaho and parts of southern and eastern Oregon, with a population of 1.7 million. Alaska Energy and Resources Company is an Avista subsidiary that provides retail electric service in the city and borough of Juneau, Alaska, through its subsidiary Alaska Electric Light and Power Company. Avista stock is traded under the ticker symbol "AVA." For more information about Avista, please visit www.avistacorp.com.

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Contact:

Avista 24/7 Media Line (509) 495-4174

Media: Laurine Jue (509) 495-2510 laurine.jue@avistacorp.com

Investors: Stacey Wenz (509) 495-2046 stacey.wenz@avistacorp.com




Grab your popcorn and get ready for some hot goss. Rumour has it that the police were called on Harrison Boon, the mega MAFS star that he reckons he is after he was alleged to have lost his sh*t on a wild night out.
A Regime Fit for Communist China: Lawsuit Filed Against US Social Media Censorship Collusion

Lawsuit targets groups that aid government censorship and interference in the dissemination of free speech online

The censored tweet from U.S. President Donald Trump, on a phone in Finland, on May 29, 2020. (Olivier Morin/AFP via Getty Images)

A lawsuit by America First Legal (AFL) alleges that certain entities colluded with the American government to enforce censorship of issues like the 2020 election and COVID-19 on social media platforms.

According to a May 2 press release, the federal class action lawsuit was filed against individuals and entities identified as having conspired with the government to deny Americans their inalienable rights, flagging content and creators for government entities so that those entities, in turn, would pressure platforms to remove that content or those creators. They created a regime of surveillance, censorship, and control fit for communist China.

The mass surveillance and censorship unleashed by these parties allegedly targeted the political speech of millions of Americans on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, affecting conservative speech on issues like COVID-19 vaccines, election integrity, and vaccine mandates.

According to the lawsuit (pdf), it challenges probably the largest mass-surveillance and mass-censorship program in American history, which includes two initiativesthe Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) and the Virality Project (VP). Both these programs are said to be ongoing.

The EIP was launched in 2020 and is said to have engaged in the mass surveillance of 859 million posts on Twitter alone.

The lawsuit claims that 72 percent of censorship tickets processed by the EIP were related to the so-called delegitimization of the 2020 election results, with more than 99 percent of those social media posts throttled during the election period.

The lawsuit notes that EIP admitted that it overwhelmingly targeted politically conservative or right-leaning speech for censorship. It cited an EIP report claiming that the primary repeat spreaders of false and misleading narratives included former President Donald Trump and his family.

Left-wing groups like MITRE, Common Cause, the DNC, the Defending Digital Democracy Project, and the NAACP submitted tickets reporting speech to the EIP. However, EIP does not report that any right-wing political groups submitted tickets to the EIP.

The EIP succeeded in getting social media platforms to censor speech. According to the lawsuit, 35 percent of URLs that EIP shared with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok were either removed, labeled, or soft-blocked.

EIP tickets and URLs included millions of social media posts, including almost 22 million posts on Twitter alone over a four-month period in 2020.

The organization repeatedly flagged plaintiff Jim Hofts website, The Gateway Pundit, as a purveyor of social-media misinformation. The Gateway Pundit was ranked above Trump, Breitbart News, and Sean Hannity as a repeat spreader of election misinformation.

Censoring COVID-19 Content

In 2021, the defendants expanded censorship activities to speech related to COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines, and COVID-19 restrictions and mandates.

The Virality Project targets right-leaning political and religious speech associated with distrust and opposition to government mandates, including prominent right-wing speakers, the lawsuit states.

During a seven-month period, VP is said to have targeted narratives that questioned the safety, distribution, and effectiveness of vaccines.

Claiming that vaccines contain material objectionable on religious grounds or are produced by pharma firms that have repeatedly concealed harm in favor of profits was seen as anti-vaccine misinformation.

The VP focuses, not just on misinformation about vaccines, but political speech and political organizing against vaccine passports and vaccine mandates, the lawsuit said.

Conservative speech opposing government-imposed mandates and opposition to vaccine mandates by employers were viewed as misinformation. In addition, opposition to mask mandates and lockdowns were classified as the viewpoint of the right-wing political spectrum, the lawsuit notes.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson was cited 42 times in a VP report, calling him one of the most prominent and sensationalist spreaders of false or misleading information about vaccines throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Others targeted by VP include vaccine safety activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Candace Owens, Dr. Joseph Mercola, and the founder of Americas Frontline Doctors, Dr. Simone Gold.

The lawsuit notes that the VP also targets truthful speech for censorship; it successfully induces social-media platforms to censor and suppress COVID-related speech that was not false or, in many cases, not even violative of platform policies.

The VPs monitoring tracked content with about 6.7 million engagements on social media per week, or over 200 million engagements over a period of seven months.

In March, investigative journalist Matt Taibbi revealed information about the alleged collusion between the Virality Project and Twitter to censor content deemed misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. VP also colluded with the government, he said.

In a social media post, Taibbi called the Virality Project a smash success as government, academia, and an oligopoly of would-be corporate competitors organized quickly behind a secret, unified effort to control political messaging.

Government Involvement

Four entitiesStanford Internet Observatory, University of Washingtons Center for an Informed Public, Graphika, and the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Labcollaborate closely with federal, state, and local government officials to monitor and censor disfavored viewpoints on social media.

The EIP was formed between these four institutions with the aim of censorship and suppression of disfavored speech on social media, the lawsuit states. The entities later focused on speech deemed COVID-19 misinformation under the VP.

The lawsuit indicates that the EIP was created in consultation with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at the Department of Homeland Security. CISA interns are said to have originated the idea for the EIP.

The EIP was designed to fill a gap in the governments ability to police so-called misinformation and disinformation about elections on social media, the lawsuit stated.

Renee DiResta has indicated that the EIP was designed to evade the legal and constitutional issues that would arise if CISA or other government agencies were to engage directly in mass-monitoring and censorship of speech on social media.

In addition to CISA, other government partners who submit tips to the EIP include the State Departments Global Engagement Center (GEC) and the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center, which is an organization of state and local government officials coordinated by the Center for Internet Security pursuant to funding from CISA.

Orwellian, Unconstitutional Actions

The lawsuit insists that the censorship actions of the defendants are brazenly unlawful and unconstitutional as the government is prohibited from inducing, encouraging, or promoting private persons to accomplish objectives that it is constitutionally forbidden from accomplishing.

Defendants launched their colossal mass-surveillance and censorship program, in close cooperation with government officials, precisely because those officials lack the resources and the legal authority to do so directly.

The lawsuit cites the Stanford Internet Observatory and its Director and Research Manager, Alex Stamos and Renee DiResta, Dr. Kate Starbird of the University of Washington, Graphika, and the Atlantic Research Councils Digital Forensic Lab as defendants in the case.

AFL has filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jill Hines, the co-Director of Health Freedom Louisiana, and Jim Hoft, the founder of the popular news website The Gateway Pundit.

Under the Orwellian guise of policing mis and disinformation, the organizations and entities we are suing today are responsible for radically eroding the rights and liberties upon which the survival of free society depends, AFLs President Stephen Miller said.

AFLs lawsuit comes as Republicans in the House have subpoenaed multiple Biden officials for the administrations push to censor social media users by coordinating with Big Tech.

The subpoenas were sent by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, on April 28 to CISA Director Jen Easterly, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, and James Rubin, an official at the GEC.

The three individuals are said to have not responded adequately to requests for providing documents and communications between their agencies and social media platforms.
News Analysis

When nurses have too many patients to care for, medications are given hours late, and patients must wait for basic needs like bathing, toileting, eating, and drinking to be met. Those who cant hold their own cups must wait for a few sips of water and are sometimes found with visibly dry lips.

Some patients lie in their own waste, waiting to be cleaned, and some develop bed sores from not being moved often enough. That, according to Tuesday testimony from a registered nurse, at the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg, where the House Health Committee is considering House Bill 106, the Patient Safety Act.

The bill would establish minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, limiting the number of patients individual nurses could care for at one time, in various cases. For example, the bill calls for a direct care registered nurse in an emergency department to be assigned to no more than four patients, or no more than one trauma patient.

In an intensive care unit, a direct care registered nurse may be assigned to no more than two patients.

In a labor and delivery unit, a direct care registered nurse would be assigned to no more than two patients if the patients are not in active labor; or, one patient if the patient is in active labor or is having complications.

The criteria go on, defining many other scenarios.

Legislation From Union

According to Nurses Journal, California is currently the only state that has passed a law mandating a specific nurse-to-patient ratio in every unit. Other states are considering minimum staffing laws, however, and the push for such legislation could go national. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) are working on similar legislation at the federal level, backed by National Nurses United, a union of registered nurses.

On its website, National Nurses United says 1 million registered nurses with active licenses are not currently working as nurses, but predicts that they would return to that work if hospitals create better conditions.

The average patient-to-nurse ratio in Pennsylvania is 5.6 patients per nurse, for adult medical surgical patients outside the intensive care unit, but the ratio ranges from three patients per nurse to 11 patients per nurse, testified Linda Aiken, Ph.D., R.N., founding director of University of Pennsylvania School of Nursings Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research.

And by the way, the patients in the hospital of the nurse that has 10 other patients, didnt know that before they got there, because theres no transparency in what the staffing ratios are to the public, so theyre unable to take an informed step with regard to which hospital they should go to, Aiken said. This is important because we know from, not only our 25 years of research, but from hundreds of studies that have been done both in this country and in other countries, that nurse staffing levels are one of the most important factors that determine whether patients live from their hospital admission and whether they are readmitted within 30 days, when they go home.

According to Aiken, there is not a nursing shortage. The state has 100 nursing schools and those schools are graduating about 9,000 a year, she said. Nationally, about 185,000 new nurses join the workforce annually.

The problem, nurses say, is that burnt-out nurses have left the profession, are frequently moving from one facility to another to find a better work situation, or have taken jobs as traveling nurses that pay more and give them more control over their hours.

The current crisis in hospitals is caused by hospitals not being able to retain even the nurses they recruit, with turnover being in the 25 percent range, Aiken said. Research shows the hospital crisis can be resolved by appropriate and safe nurse staffing. It takes enough nurses in hospitals to keep the rest of the nurses. The single biggest reason why nurses leave hospitals is their workloads are unsafe and way too high for them to be able to sustain over time.

Wounded by COVID

Several nurses spoke of their difficult work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has shed a stark and tragic light on the state of nursing, and specifically our wellbeing, David Scher of the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association testified. The staffing issue is not new. However, the results of the pandemic have truly brought this issue to the forefront of health care and nursing at large. Understaffing leads to poor patient outcomes, leading to increased burnout of nurses, poor attrition, frequent turnover, thus perpetuating a cycle of sub-optimal staffing.

Several nurses spoke of the moral injury, they have experienced, trying to care for more patients than they can handle and being put into positions of making impossible decisions.

Those of us who worked clinically can attest to this. The one extra patient to your already busy and overwhelming assignment, wont be getting the care they truly deserve because sadly, we are too busy running from one patient to another, Scher said. While we as nurses strive to do our best, that one extra patient can be the straw that breaks the camels back. It is the patient that we so desperately want to give the same care as the others, but due to staffing shortages, they often fall through the cracks.

He recalled worrying about patients on the drive home from his shift, wondering if he had given them the care that they and their loved ones deserved.

This frequent moral injury has snowballed into a significant exodus of nurses leaving the bedside for travel assignments that are often more lucrative and in some cases have better staffing ratios, Scher said. Others have left the bedside entirely.

Hospitals: Government Mandate Is Not the Answer

There is a well-documented national health care workforce crisis and Pennsylvania is projected to have the worst shortfall of nurses among all 50 states. We desperately need more nursesand more of the many health care professionals who support their vital workto care for Pennsylvanians, Liam Migdail, spokesman for the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, told The Epoch Times.

Hospitals are aggressively working to recruit and retain nurses, offering extraordinary pay raises, bonuses, loan repayment, schedule flexibility, and other incentives. Despite these efforts, hospitals report that, on average, more than 30 percent of direct care registered nurse positions remain unfilled, and finding qualified candidates is their top barrier. There simply are not enough nurses.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Kathy Rapp (R-65th District) said hospitals have told her that government-mandated ratios could force them to close units and beds, especially in rural areas where there are fewer people to hire with the needed skills.

Theyre recruiting every single day. Theyre offering bonusessign-on incentivesand if they still cant find these nurses, they will close hospital beds, and maybe entirely, Rapp said during the hearing.

Aiken said rural hospitals have not yet closed in California because of nurse staffing. However, the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform reports six California hospitals are at risk of closing. Legislative proposals have been launched in California to provide emergency loans to hospitals facing closure or those trying to reopen.

State government mandating one-size-fits-all nurse staffing ratios across all hospitals will not produce more nurses or make care safer, Migdail said. Instead, it will result in Pennsylvanians waiting longer for, and having less access to, vital health care, by forcing hospitals to close beds and reduce services to comply with state law.
Apple, Google Team Up to Create Alerts for Spying and Location Tracking

Apple and Google on Tuesday proposed creating alerts amid reports of stalking via Apples AirTag and similar tools, according to a release issued Tuesday.

The new proposed industry standard will allow the Big Tech companies to allow Bluetooth location-tracking devices to be compatible with unauthorized tracking detection and alerts across iOS and Android platform, the joint release said, adding that best practices and instructions will be included for such devices.

Today, Apple and Google jointly submitted a proposed industry specification to help combat the misuse of Bluetooth location-tracking devices for unwanted tracking, the release said.

Samsung, Tile, Chipolo, eufy Security, and Pebblebee have expressed support for the draft specification, which offers best practices and instructions for manufacturers, should they choose to build these capabilities into their products, it added.

Dave Burke, Googles vice president of engineering for Android, claimed Tuesday that stopping unwanted Bluetooth device-based tracking will be adopted across the tech sector. According to a proposal, tech firms are aiming to perform unwanted tracking detection on such devices that can both detect and alert individuals that a location tracker separated from the owners device is traveling with them, and it would also provide means to find and disable the tracker.

Bluetooth trackers have created tremendous user benefits, but they also bring the potential of unwanted tracking, which requires industrywide action to solve, Burke said in the release.

Android has an unwavering commitment to protecting users, and will continue to develop strong safeguards and collaborate with the industry to help combat the misuse of Bluetooth tracking devices.

Erica Olsen, senior director of the Safety Net Project at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, told news outlets that AirTags and similar products are being used by domestic abusers. Its imperative for advocates and technology companies to work together on solutions to minimize the opportunities for misuse, Olsen said of Bluetooth trackers.

Detail of the Bluetooth button of an audio system in Mexico City on Dec. 6, 2018. (Omar Torres/AFP via Getty Images)

An AirTag is a quarter-sized tracking device that sends out a Bluetooth signal to tell the owner of its location. It and other Bluetooth location-tracking devices and tools allow people to find lost luggage, keys, and other items, but there have been increasing reports of people misusing them to stalk, spy on, or track the whereabouts of people.

Security Threat

AirTags were rolled out in 2021, but it wasnt until early 2022 that Apple acknowledged the devices pose a security issue.

AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another persons property, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products. Unwanted tracking has long been a societal problem, and we took this concern seriously in the design of AirTag, it said.

Its why the Find My network is built with privacy in mind, uses end-to-end encryption, and why we innovated with the first-ever proactive system to alert you of unwanted tracking. We hope this starts an industry trend for others to also provide these sorts of proactive warnings in their products.

In late 2022, Apple was sued by two women who alleged that their previous partners used AirTag devices to surveil and track their whereabouts, potentially putting them in harms way.

In June 2022, an Indiana woman also allegedly used the device to murder her boyfriend due to an alleged affair, it was reported, while there have been some reports of such devices being used to steal vehicles and other items.

The New York City Police Department, meanwhile, is giving away 500 AirTags this week to prevent car thefts across the city, announced Mayor Eric Adams earlier this week.

As soon as were notified about a grand larceny autoand even if its days laterwe can still track the car and find the person whos driving and put a brake on what we are experiencing in this city with grand larceny autos, Adams, a Democrat, said at a news conference on Sunday.

Hopefully, we recover your car undamaged, we take a bad guy off the street, and you get your car back to conduct your business, and it doesnt impose on your life, stated John M. Chell, the NYPDs chief of patrol.

Data released by the NYPD shows that there has been a year-over-year increase in car thefts so far in 2023.
Attempt to Remove Soros-Backed Prosecutor Moves Forward; She Vows to Fight Witch Hunt

Days after an embattled prosecutor vowed she would never resign from office, a judge ruled that removal proceedings against her would continue.

On May 2, Visiting Judge John Torbitzky ordered seven out of 10 claims against St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to move forward. He denied her lawyers request to throw out all of the accusations.

Torbitzky has been presiding over the case that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey brought against Gardner, a Democrat.

Gardner has accused Republican Bailey of playing politics.

Bailey filed a petition alleging that Gardner shirked her responsibilities and should forfeit her elected office. Her lawyers say Gardner committed no intentional acts that would warrant her removal.

Torbitzky said he made reasonable inferences that Gardner willfully failed to prosecute cases, make charging decisions, keep victims informed, and ensure defendants and victims receive a speedy trial, as Bailey alleges.

The judge dismissed three allegations that didnt fit the type of conduct that could lead to an officeholders removal.

Gardner also faces other accusations. Last week, a separate judge found that her offices no-shows at court proceedings warranted an allegation of indirect criminal contempt. A hearing in the contempt case is set for May 30.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that an assistant prosecutor involved in that case has resigned, as did a second assistant who avoided a contempt citation.

The recent departures are adding to judges concerns about Gardners office being understaffed, a court spokesman said.

Witch Hunt Alleged

During a public meeting at a local church on April 29, Gardner said her enemies want to capture every word Im saying, so they can use this as a soundbite for criminal contempt or a vehicle to try to take me out of office.

What youre seeing is a witch hunt, she said in the meeting recorded by KSDK News and posted on YouTube.

Gardner declared emphatically: Im not leavin. Im not resigning. Im not doing nothing. [sic] You will have to remove me.

And, at one point, she said, You cant take me out, because Im not afraid of none of this [sic].

Gardner, seeking reelection in 2024, is among many progressive prosecutors who received backing from funds from billionaire George Soros. According to The Missouri Times, Gardners campaign benefited from Soross largesse. Several Soros-backed prosecutors have been accused of being soft on crime.

Change of Judge

In the removal case, Torbitzkys ruling followed an April 18 hearing where he heard arguments from both sides.

The state Supreme Court, which appointed Torbitzky, will need to select another judge to hear the case. Torbitzky had no choice but to grant Gardners lawyers request that he be replaced.

A Missouri procedural rule allows a change of judge once in every civil case, no questions asked. When they filed a motion under that rule, Gardners lawyers gave no reasons for seeking a replacement judge.

Meanwhile, Bailey is accusing Gardners lawyers of stonewalling requests for records and stalling the proceedings.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey speaks to reporters after taking the oath of office in Jefferson City, Mo., on Jan. 3, 2023. (David A. Lieb/AP Photo)

After sixty days, five pleadings, four meet-and-confers, and one hearing, the Circuit Attorneys Office has produced zero documents  The only thing the Circuits Attorneys Office has produced is delay, Bailey said in a May 1 court filing.

Gardners lawyers complained that producing the requested records would be onerous and that some should be blocked from release because they were irrelevant or privileged information.

Torbitsky largely rejected those arguments. The alleged burden does not outweigh the benefit of this information, Torbitzky wrote.

Torbitsky issued a separate order requiring Gardner to provide dozens of categories of records within 30 days.

The Epoch Times has requested comment from Gardners lawyers.

Police Blamed for Failures?

Bailey quoted portions of Gardners public comments in court records, stating she has telegraphed that her defense to the suit will include blaming the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for her failures.

In the YouTube video, Gardner said she had run afoul of the system because she has attempted to reform it.

In office since 2017, Gardner said police used to control the Circuit Attorneys Office before she arrived. Police used to tell the former officeholder what to do, how to do it, who to charge, what to charge, and what to make the case, Gardner said. And I said, Were not doing that today  And people dont like that.

Lamar Johnson (L) embraces St. Louis Prosecutor Kim Garner after St. Louis Circuit Judge David Mason vacated his murder conviction during a hearing in St. Louis on Feb. 14, 2023. (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, Pool)

But Gardner said she would continue to buck the system.

I fight so hard because the people who elected me told me: Do not do things the same way, Gardner said.

Gardner cited the wrongful conviction of Lamar Johnson, a St. Louis man who served 28 years in prison for a slaying he says he didnt commit; a judge agreed, finding reliable evidence of actual innocence.

Gardners office worked with the Innocence Project to get Johnson freed from a state prison; he was released in February.

I dont want any more Lamar Johnsonsand you think Lamar Johns is the only one? Come on now, Gardner said as audience members agreed with her.

Justice System is Titanic

She alluded to Judge Michael Nobles comment during last weeks contempt hearing. He stated that her office was a rudderless ship of chaos.

Gardners retort: When you talk about a rudderless ship Were trying to change the Titanic of a ship to be fair and just.

She said recent staff departures and all the attacks shes faced dont faze her.

I dont care if I have nobody in my office because its about doing the right thing, Gardner said.

Gardner said her efforts to staff her office properly had been sabotaged.

Ive been leading an organization that has been purposely disinvested from day one, she said. People have colluded and conspired, inside the office and out, to make sure were not successful, and Ive still kept it going for over seven years and done our job.

Regardless of the outcome of her battle to keep her job, Gardner said there are far-reaching implications for the people of St. Louis.

Its me now here today. Its gonna be you nextand your family, she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Australia to Raise Tobacco Tax Amid Vaping Crackdown

Cigarette packs on a shelf in a store in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 28, 2022. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The Australian government has announced a new round of tobacco tax increases as it introduces strong measures to reduce the number of people smoking and vaping.

During a speech at the National Press Club on May 2, Health Minister Mark Butler announced that from this September, the federal government would lift tobacco tax by five percent a year over the next three years.

The same tax rate will apply to other loose-leaf tobacco products, such as roll-your-own tobacco.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Australia, he said.

A higher-priced cigarette is a more unattractive cigarette.

The federal government said the changes would make tobacco less affordable, which was in line with the priorities of the National Tobacco Strategy 2023-2030.

Under the strategy, the government aims to reduce the percentage of people smoking daily to below 10 percent by 2025 and to five percent or less by 2030.

It is expected that the tax rise will add $3.3 billion (US$2.2 billion) to the federal budgets bottom line over the next four years, including $290 million of GST payments to the states and territories.

In addition, the minister introduced a $264 million health program that would provide lung screening services to prevent 4,080 deaths from lung cancer.

Under the program, at-risk Australians can receive a lung scan every two years.

Australian Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler speaks at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 28, 2022 . (Martin Ollman/Getty Images)

The government also set aside another $239 million to address lung cancer in the Indigenous community by providing cancer care services that were culturally safe and accessible to First Nations people.

Australia needs to reclaim its position as a world leader on tobacco control, Butler said.

These reform measures will help protect the health of Australians while reducing the pressure on our health system, and critically it will help to achieve a reduction in smoking rates to five percent or less by 2030.

Vaping Crackdown

Apart from announcing a lift in tobacco tax, Butler also outlined the governments strategies to clamp down on vaping among the population, especially young adults and children.

Specifically, the federal government will stop the import of vapes that are not for pharmaceutical use and prohibit the sale of vapes in convenience stores and retail settings.

This means vapes can only be sold as a therapeutic product in pharmacies with the approval of a health professional.

Vaping was sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit, Butler said.

It was not sold as a recreational product  especially not one for our kids. But that is what it has become: the biggest loophole in Australian history.

At the same time, the government will increase the minimum quality standards for vapes to tackle the growing black market by restricting flavours, colours, and other ingredients.

Vapes will also be required to have pharmaceutical-like packaging and reduce nicotine concentrations and volumes.

No more bubblegum flavours or pink unicorn packaging, Butler said.

Pharmaceutical-style packaging and devices, with plain flavours.

Disposable vaping e-cigarette products are displayed in a convenience store in El Segundo, California, on June 23, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

The government will also ban all single-use, disposable vapes and make it easier for people to get a prescription for legitimate therapeutic use.

Only one in 20 doctors are authorised to prescribe vapes to those who need it. That has to change, Butler said.

It will require removing the restrictions on doctors prescribing, so all doctors can write a script for those who really need it.

Meanwhile, the government said the May 9 budget would include $63 million in spending for a public health information campaign to discourage Australians from taking up vaping and smoking.

Another $30 million will be spent on support programs to help Australians quit smoking and vaping, including through enhanced nicotine cessation education and training among health practitioners.

Opposition and Medical Body Welcome Move

Following the health ministers announcement, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton expressed willingness to support measures to reduce vaping among Australians.

There is a significant problem in our country; it needs to be addressed, he said.

I dont want to see vaping as a gateway into smoking, and I want to see us prioritise the health particularly of young people. So we will support sensible measures, but we havent seen anything yet from the government by way of detail.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA), a peak professional body, welcomed the governments move, saying it would help deter more widespread uptake of vaping and smoking.

Vaping has become a critical public health issue, so we are very pleased with the decision to ban all vapes, including recreational vapes, outside of them being prescribed by a doctor as part of a safe and reliable strategy to help people stop smoking, AMA President Steve Robson said.

Banning the retail sale of vapes will help to prevent our children and younger people from taking up vaping and developing a nicotine addiction.

Meanwhile, Alcohol and Drug Foundation CEO Erin Lalor said most Australians used unregulated vaping products without knowing what they contained.

Some people who vape, including young people, maybe unknowingly consuming nicotine and have formed a dependence, she said.
Around 36 Australians Evacuated Amid Sudan Civil Strife

Evacuees rest onboard a Saudi vessel as it travels from Port Sudan to Jeddah on April 30, 2023. (Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images)

Thirty-six Australians have been rescued by the Australian air force, along with dozens of citizens from 15 partner nations, as part of an international effort to evacuate citizens from Sudan.

It comes after the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan warned that fighting between rival groups could spark a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Penny Wong said the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was involved in the international effort to help airlift Australians and others to safety in Cyprus.

A picture taken on April 30, 2023, shows a member of the US military assisting US nationals fleeing war-torn Sudan in boarding an evacuation vessel in Port Sudan amid ongoing deadly clashes between Army forces and paramilitaries. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Currently, Wong said that 191 Australians and their families have been evacuated from the war-torn country amid an ongoing ceasefire that has had constant truce violations. But she noted that Australians were still on the ground with consular assistance being offered.

The security situation in Sudan is very dangerous, and it is volatile, Wong told ABC Radio on May 3. The security situation is worsening.

We have been doing all we can to assist Australians with the support of our partners, bearing in mind we dont have people on the ground in an embassy in Sudan.

Australians Remaining in Sudan Urged to Contact DFAT

Wong urged any Australians currently in Sudan to register with the foreign affairs department.

We are doing all we can in circumstances where we do not have anybody on the ground for the Department of Foreign Affairs. Weve deployed additional officers to neighbouring countries to assist people once they have exited Sudan.

The minister noted that while flights out of the country are possible, Australia has been focusing on using ferries departing from the Port of Sudan to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where consular officers are staying.

More than 190 Australians and their family members have now departed Sudan. Overnight, Australia supported the international evacuation effort with a flight carrying 36 Australians and their family members, as well as citizens from six other countries.  Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) May 2, 2023

The minister said the Australian government was grateful to partner nations the United States, Eygpt, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates for their assistance.

UN Warns 800,000 Could Flee Sudan Conflict

The UN has said they expect the conflict could propel up to 800,000 people to flee the country as clashes between the Sudanese military and rival paramilitary military faction, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), continue to erupt in the capital despite a supposed 72-hour extension to a ceasefire.

This comes as rival factions continually violate a previous ceasefire.

South Sudans foreign ministry said in a statement on May 2 that mediation championed by its president, Salva Kiir, had led both sides to agree a weeklong truce from May 4 to May 11 and to name envoys for peace talks. But it remains to be seen how both parties will proceed. The current ceasefire was due to expire on May 3.

The Sudanese Ministry of Health has estimated that around 528 people have been killed in the fighting, and a further 4,599 are estimated to be wounded, reports Turkish media agency Anadolu Agency. However, the actual toll is expected to be much higher.

On May 1, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the UN, said that more than 100,000 refugees have fled to neighbouring countries like Egypt and Chad, with most being women and children.

The countrys population numbers 46 million.

Smoke billows over buildings in Khartoum on May 1, 2023, as deadly clashes between rival generals forces have entered their third week. (AFP via Getty Images)

In Sudan, the fighting continues to exact a heavy toll on civilians. The World Health Organization warns that many will die due to a lack of essential services and disease outbreaks, Haq said.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 334,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan since the conflict erupted more than two weeks ago.

Haq said that currently, medical stockpiles are running critically low in areas ravaged by the fightingincluding in the capital, Khartoum, and West and Central Darfur.

He also noted that the price of essential goodsincluding staples like fuel, fresh water and basic foodshad risen by at least 40 to 60 percent in some areas.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and partners are scaling up relief efforts as border crossings from Sudan increase, with the UNHCR providing roughly 70,000 core relief items from global stockpiles for Chad, while in Egypt, the UN and the Egyptian Red Crescent are delivering water, food, wheelchairs, hygiene and sanitary kits to new arrivals.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Billionaire Who Funded Lawsuit Against Trump Met With Jeffrey Epstein

A Democrat megadonor who funded a lawsuit accusing former President Donald Trump of defamation met with Jeffrey Epstein at the sex offenders home.

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who has donated millions to Democrats over the years, went to Epsteins notorious island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Hoffman told The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news from records it reviewed, that he was trying to convince Epstein to donate to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he helps advise the universitys Media Lab.

Hoffman also was scheduled to sleep at Epsteins townhouse in New York in 2014.

Hoffman, who couldnt be reached by The Epoch Times for comment, told the Journal he regretted how he interacted with Epstein, after the latter pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution.

It gnaws at me that, by lending my association, I helped his reputation, and thus delayed justice for his survivors, Hoffman said. While I relied on MITs endorsement, ultimately, I made the mistake, and I am sorry for my personal misjudgment.

Former MIT Media Lab head Joi Ito said that Hoffman went to the island at his request, after Ito confirmed to Reid that Mr. Epstein had been an approved donor target for MIT, in accordance with university rules and regulations.

MIT didnt respond to a request for comment. However, the university has previously said it shouldnt have accepted donations from Epstein and that it donated money to nonprofits helping women who have been sexually abused.

In addition to funding a lawsuit against Trump by magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, Hoffman has backed groups that created election disinformation, including a group that worked to suppress Republican voters.

Epstein was later charged with trafficking minors for sexual exploitation. Authorities said he created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit in locations including New York and Palm Beach.

Multiple women have said they were abused on the island owned by Epstein, who died in 2019 in jail while awaiting trial. Epsteins estate settled with the U.S. Virgin Islands for more than $105 million in 2022.

The Journal says it reviewed documents, including Epsteins schedule, that reveal new connections between Epstein and various notable people, including CIA Director William Burns and former MIT professor Noam Chomsky.

Epstein also met with Larry Summers, a Treasury secretary under former President George W. Bush and a top economic adviser to former President Barack Obama, and donated to Summerss wifes nonprofit, the Journal reported. A spokesperson for the couple said Summers regrets meeting with Epstein, and his wife regrets accepting the funds.

Epstein donated to top institutions, including Harvard University and MIT, over the years. Following the federal charges announced in 2019, many launched internal investigations, and some took action, like punishing staff members who were most closely involved with Epstein.

But some people and entities have made false statements about their connections with Epstein, including Edmond de Rothschild Group, which said its CEO, Ariane de Rothschild, never met with Epstein and that the bank never did business with him.

Documents reviewed by the Journal showed Rothschild met with Epstein more than a dozen times and assisted him with various tasks, and the bank acknowledged its earlier statement wasnt truthful. A spokesperson for the bank declined to offer further details.
VANCOUVER, BC, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Array, a full-service marketing agency, has been awarded gold in the prestigious MUSE Creative Awards for their innovative work redesigning B.C. based DMCL Chartered Professional Accountants' website.

Desktop and mobile views of dmcl.ca (CNW Group/DMCL Chartered Professional Accountants)

When it comes to websites that are difficult to comprehend and challenging to navigate, the accounting industry is among the worst offenders. Array has broken the mold by modernizing DMCL's website with an interactive web design that trades corporate suits and ties for a brand full of personality.

Hosted by the International Awards Associate (IAA), MUSE Awards received over 6,300 entries from across the globe. Entries are judged by a roster of industry professionals. The jury's role is to identify companies or individuals whose work showcases excellence and pushes their respective industries forward.

Array's expertise in web design and development has earned them a reputation as one of the top web design agencies in the country. This win marks their 43rd award since their inception in 2009.

"Winning this award is a testament to our team's dedication and passion for creating exceptional website designs," said Kristina Crowson, Managing Partner and Lead Marketing Strategist of Array. "We're thrilled to have been recognized for our work with DMCL, a firm that's willing to push creative boundaries and is committed to providing an exceptional user-experience."

As a leading Canadian accounting firm based in British Columbia, DMCL wanted a website that highlighted the unique personalities and values behind the brand, while showcasing their expertise in a way that resonates with their clients. Their website redesign has garnished attention across industries and has set a new bar for the modernization of the accounting industry's online presence.

"We're incredibly proud of our new website and the recognition it's received," said Krissy Schmidt, Director of Marketing and Client Communications at DMCL Chartered Professional Accountants. "Dmcl.ca provides visitors with the information they need quickly, written in a way that's easy to understand and presented in a manner that lets our visitors know that we're a pretty cool team of accountants. Array did a phenomenal job."

Story continues

For more information about Array's award-winning designs, visit their website at www.arraystudios.com .

For more information about DMCL, visit www.dmcl.ca .

About MUSE Creative Awards

The MUSE Creative Awards is a part of the MUSE Awards Program, which was created by the International Awards Associate (IAA) in 2015. IAA's inception was based on a mission to honor, promote and encourage creativity by providing a new standard of excellence for evaluating media design production and distribution.

About Array

Array is a family of innovative and curious thinkers obsessed with marketing and digital solutions. Based in Nanaimo, B.C. their full-service marketing team is made up of digital marketers, graphic designers, and web developers that help organizations achieve success through campaigns, websites, print, and digital assets. Since 2009, they've won over 46 international awards and continue to foster strong partnerships with businesses looking to push their creative limits and crush their marketing goals.

About DMCL Chartered Professional Accountants

Dale Matheson Carr-Hilton LaBonte LLP (DMCL) is a full-service accounting firm dedicated to helping you achieve and exceed your business goals, no matter how ambitious. As a leading Canadian firm with global reach, we continue to remain agile and responsive, providing our clients with personalized and strategic solutions specific to their industry.

With 32 partners and over 300 team members spread across Vancouver, Surrey, Tri-Cities and Victoria, working with DMCL means having access to a diversified team of expert advisors that view every day as a new opportunity to contribute to the success of their clients: solving costly problems, building long-lasting relationships and always striving for excellence.

Media Contacts

Array

Kristina Crowson

Managing Partner + Lead Marketing Strategist

250.591.2277

kristina@arraystudios.com

DMCL Chartered Professional Accountants

Krissy Schmidt

Director of Marketing and Client Communications

604.687.4747

kschmidt@dmcl.ca

SOURCE DMCL Chartered Professional Accountants

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2023/03/c2265.html
Bipartisan Group Introduces Bill to Make Energy Sanctions Against Iran Permanent

The U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 23, 2023. (Richard Moore/The Epoch Times)

A bipartisan coalition of members of Congress has introduced a bill that would make U.S. sanctions on Irans energy sector permanent.

The Solidify Iran Sanctions Actintroduced on May 1 by Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), and Susie Lee (D-Nev.)would make the sanctions under the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 permanent; its set to expire in 2026.

The Act would eliminate its sunset provision and permit the president to waive sanctions on Iran.

The Iran Sanctions Act is one of the most important tools in U.S. law to compel Iran to abandon its dangerous and destabilizing behavior, McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

This bill takes the long overdue step of striking the arbitrary sunset from the law so that sanctions will only be lifted if Iran stops its threatening behavior. Iran cant run out the clock on U.S. law.

This behavior includes Irans support for terrorism, of which its the leading state sponsor.

The Solidify Iran Sanctions Act (SISA) has the support of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)both groups with influence on U.S. policy on Iran.

The Solidifying Iran Sanction Act is an important bipartisan effort to solidify critical sanctions on the Iranian regime at a time when Tehran is dangerously advancing its nuclear program and targeting U.S. troops, AIPAC stated.

Maintaining Pressure

SISA would help to maintain the backbone of sanctions pressure on Iran for its malign conduct. Since 1996 ISA has been a centerpiece of U.S. efforts to choke off funds going to Iran through the energy sector that were fueling the Islamic Republics global terrorism and nuclear proliferation, FDDs political arm, FDD Action, stated.

Extending the legislation would send the message to Tehran that the Congress will continue to impose sanctions on Iran until it ceases its nuclear program and stops engaging in terrorism.

Iran produces 3 million barrels of oil daily, according to Irans oil ministry on May 2. This is despite U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil.

A companion bill of the Solidify Iran Sanctions Act was introduced in the Senate on May 1 by Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).

Holding Iran Accountable

The Iranian regime continues to increase its nuclear and ballistic missile investments and its support for terrorism and militancy in the Middle East, as further shown by the recent Iranian-backed drone strike in Syria that killed an American citizen, Hagerty said in a statement. The United States should not ease sanctions unless and until the Iranian regime ends its malign and destabilizing behavior.

Sanctions have been critical in holding Iran accountable for its destabilizing actions, including support for terrorist proxies, Rosen said in a statement.

With Iran closer than ever to a nuclear weapon, Im proud to join my colleagues in introducing bipartisan legislation that applies pressure on the Iranian regime.

A Pentagon senior official, Colin Kahl, said in March that Iran could assemble sufficient material for a nuclear bomb in 12 days.
Blinken Expresses Skepticism of Russias Claim of Ukraine Drone Attack on Kremlin

A still image taken from video shows a flying object exploding in an intense burst of light near the dome of the Kremlin Senate building during the alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow, Russia, on May 3, 2023. (Ostorozhno Novosti/Handout via REUTERS)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on May 3 that Russias accusation that Ukraine tried to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin by trying to strike the Kremlin should be taken with a very large shaker of salt.

In a conversation with The Washington Posts David Ignatius, Blinken said he has seen the reports, but cant in any way validate them as we simply dont know.

Blinken went on to say, I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.

So, lets see, well see what the facts are. And its really hard to comment or speculate on this without really knowing what the facts are.

When it comes to Ukraine, which is under daily assaultand not just its incredibly courageous military forces, but its citizens.

Its men, women, and childrenbeing assaulted on a daily basis by this Russian aggression, being bombed out of their homes, their apartments, and their streets, children killed, families torn apart.

Well, we leave it to Ukraine to decide how its going to defend itself, and how its going to try to get back the territory thats been seized from it illegally by Russia over the past 14 months and going back to 2014.

A video posted on the Telegram channel of a local Moscow news outlet showed what appeared to be a drone intercepted over the Kremlin thereby causing an explosion above the building.

The videos authenticity has yet to be confirmed. Russia claimed this was a terrorist act by Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rebutted Moscows accusation.

We dont attack Putin or Moscow, he said at a press conference. We fight on our territory. Were defending our villages and cities.

Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak claimed Russias allegation of Ukraine launching a drone strike over the Kremlin was an attempt to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities.

Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin, said Podolyak.

When asked by Ignatius whether the United States would not criticize Ukraine were it to strike Russian territory, Blinken demurred.

Again, these are decisions for Ukraine to make about how its going to defend itself, how its going to get its territory back, how its going to restore its territorial integrity and its sovereignty, he said.
Bolsonaros Home Raided and Aides Arrested in Brazil Vaccine Probe

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro leaves his home following a search operation, in Brasilia, Brazil, May 3, 2023. (Adriano Machado/Reuters)

BRASILIABrazilian police on Wednesday raided former President Jair Bolsonaros home, arrested his trusted aides, and seized his cell phone as part of a probe into his COVID-19 vaccination records.

The investigation may answer questions about how Bolsonaro, who vowed never to get a COVID-19 vaccine, was registered as vaccinated in health records made public in February.

Supreme Court documents showed federal police had found evidence of tampering with Bolsonaros vaccine records in his last weeks as president in late December, before he flew to the United States, where most foreign visitors must be vaccinated.

Bolsonaro confirmed the raid on his home in Brasilia to journalists and reiterated that he had never taken a COVID vaccine. He denied any role in allegedly forging documents.

For my part, there was nothing falsified. I didnt take the vaccine. Period, he said, adding that his phone was seized.

The vaccine probe is one of many putting the former conservative leader under pressure, including investigations into alleged voter suppression, his attacks on the legitimacy of Brazilian elections, and embezzlement of foreign gifts.

Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing in those cases.

Federal police in a statement said they were serving 16 search warrants and six preventive arrest warrants in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro as part of the operation, without naming those targeted.

The Supreme Court, which is overseeing the case, released court documents on Wednesday that included an arrest warrant for Mauro Cid, one of Bolsonaros personal assistants when he was president, who stayed on as an aide after he stepped down.

Police cited evidence that Cid designed a scheme in which Bolsonaro was registered on Dec. 21 as vaccinated against COVID, court documents showed. The entry, made in a public health office in suburban Rio de Janeiro, was removed a week later, according to the documents.

Bolsonaros personal security officers Max Guilherme and Sergio Cordeiro, who have stayed on as part of his detail, were also arrested in Wednesdays operation over accusations they falsified their vaccine records before flying with Bolsonaro to the United States.

Cid and the other aides could not immediately be reached for comment.

Police said they were investigating a scheme to insert false data in a national COVID-19 database between November 2021 and December 2022.

As a result, they were able to issue vaccine certificates and use them to circumvent restrictions imposed by public authorities in Brazil and the United States, police said.

The investigation points to ideological reasons for circumventing vaccination rules, police said, in order to keep up a discourse of attacking vaccination against COVID-19.

We trust that all legal doubts will be cleared up and it will be proven that Bolsonaro did not commit illegal acts, Valdemar Costa Neto, the head of Bolsonaros political party, wrote on social media.

By Lisandra Paraguassu and Ricardo Brito
California State Senator, Congressional Candidate Arrested for Drunk Driving

California State Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat from Irvine, was arrested for driving under the influence in Sacramento on May 2 and released the next morning.

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) confirmed Mins arrest to The Epoch Times. According to the CHPs report, officers stopped Mins Toyota Camry at 10:51 p.m. for not having headlights on near the corner of Broadway and Riverside Boulevard next to the citys historic cemetery.

The officers followed the vehicle to 9th St. at Broadway, where they observed the vehicle stop at a red light momentarily, but then proceed into the intersection while the light remained red, according to CHPs report of the incident.

When officers spoke to Min, they noticed signs of alcohol intoxication, they reported. The officers conducted a drunk driving investigation and said Min was driving under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol content of more than .08 percent, according to the CHP report.

Min spent nearly four hours in jail, according to the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department.

The CHPs Office of Protective Intelligence, a special division responsible for the protection of state officials, booked Min into the county jail at about 12:30 a.m. on May 3. He was released at around 4 a.m., Sgt. Amar Gandhi, public information officer of the sheriffs department, told The Epoch Times.

Min, 47, is a candidate for Californias 47th Congressional Districtone of Orange Countys most competitive districtsto replace outgoing Democratic Rep. Katie Porter. He posted a message to supporters on his Facebook page following his arrest.

Last night I was cited for a misdemeanor for driving under the influence. My decision to drive last night was irresponsible. I accept full responsibility and there is no excuse for my actions. To my family, constituents and supporters, I am so deeply sorry. I know I need to do better. I will not let this personal failure distract from our work in California and in Washington, Min wrote on May 3.

Porter, also a Democrat, has endorsed Min in his bid to replace her. She is leaving her House seat to run for Senate to replace retiring longtime Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., speaks in Irvine, Calif., on Oct. 14, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, state Treasurer Fiona Ma, state Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond, and state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara have also endorsed Min for Congress.

The Epoch Times reached out to Mins office for comment.

Although some people commenting on Mins statement were supportive of his transparency and accountability, some called for him to resign.

Min was first elected in 2020 to the countys 37th state Senate district, which includes Anaheim Hills, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Newport Beach, Orange, Tustin, and Villa Park.

Former State Sen. John Moorlach, a Republican who narrowly lost to Min in 2020, told The Epoch Times it would be a good idea for Min to consider whether he is fit to remain as a State Senator and seriously reflect on whether he is Congressional material.

DUI arrests of elected officials are not taken well by voters, Moorlach said. Especially when one looks more like an opportunistic politician instead of an elected official.

An outspoken critic of the gun industry, Min has sponsored some controversial anti-gun bills during his time in the state Senate. This year, he introduced a bill to force banks to choose between doing business with the firearms industry or with the state.

He successfully passed a bill in 2022 that banned gun shows on property owned and operated by the state, including the states county fairgrounds.
Canada Pledges $71 Million in Aid for Sudan, South Sudan and Central African Republic

Minister of International Development Harjit Sajjan prepares to appear at the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, studying the government's response to the final report on the Special Committee on Afghanistan, in Ottawa, on April 26, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan is announcing $71 million in humanitarian aid for Sudan and two neighbouring countries that are dealing with a large number of refugees in the wake of a violent crisis.

Sajjan says the funds will flow through agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross as well as non-governmental organizations to provide basic food, water and health services.

Nearly $31 million will go toward Sudan, while slightly more will be sent to South Sudan, which seceded from that country in 2011.

Canada will also send $10 million to the Central African Republic, as part of funds that will flow to at least 14 groups ranging from the World Food Programme to Doctors Without Borders.

Sajjan says the funding is flexibly structured so groups can scale up existing programs to meet huge flows of people fleeing a devastating escalation in violence that started in Sudan on April 15.

He is making the announcement alongside his parliamentary secretary Anita Vandenbeld, Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen and Liberal MP Arielle Kayabaga.
CDC Probing COVID-19 Outbreak After Health Agencys Annual Conference in Georgia

A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., on Sept. 30, 2014. (Tami Chappell/File Photo/Reuters)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched a rapid investigation after more than 30 of its own staff members tested positive for COVID-19 following a conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

A spokesperson for the CDC confirmed to The Epoch Times that the 2023 Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) conference began on April 24 in Atlanta, where the agency is headquartered.

The annual conference, which was previously canceled amid the pandemic, serves as a chance for EIS officers to share their work in leading-edge investigations, scientific findings, and forward-thinking strategies to inform improvements in public healthall while gaining valuable presentation experience, according to the CDCs official website.

CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said that 35 people have since tested positive for the virus as of May 2. To date, everyone we are aware of who has tested positive is isolating at home and monitoring symptoms.

CDC is working with the Georgia Department of Health to conduct a rapid epidemiological assessment of confirmed COVID-19 cases that appear to be connected to the 2023 EIS Conference to determine transmission patterns in this phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nordlund said.

Whenever there are large gatherings, especially indoors, such as at a conference, there is the possibility of COVID-19 spread, even in periods of low community spread, she added.

The Washington Post, citing both current and former CDC staff, reported that moderators at the conference, which was reportedly attended by roughly 2,000 people, had repeatedly warned staff that some attendees had tested positive for the virus.

COVID-19 Cases Decline

Despite this, some of the conference attendees did not wear masks, socially distance, or take other precautions that the CDC had previously recommended during the pandemic.

The Epoch Times has contacted the CDC for comment.

According to the latest CDC data, there have been 1,946 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Georgia within the last seven days and 28 deaths. However, COVID-19 community levels are generally considered low across much of the state, the data show.

Overall, there were 88,330 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported across the United States last week, marking the lowest levels in almost two years. However, experts have warned of a new Omicron subvariant of COVID-19, XBB.1.16, which is becoming more prevalent throughout the United States.

According to the CDC, in the week ending April 29, XBB.1.16a descendant lineage of XBB, a recombinant of two BA.2 descendant lineagesaccounted for 11.7 percent of cases in the United States.

The World Health Organization (WHO) in April upgraded it to a variant of interest, citing its ability to evade immune system response.

However, health professionals have stressed that the variant does not seem to be causing more severe illness in individuals diagnosed with the virus, and the majority of infections across the United States currently stem from the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant.
China Steps Up Use of Exit Bans Against Chinese and Foreigners: Report

Chinas communist regime has been increasing its use of exit bans against its targetsincluding dissidents, officials, and foreign executivesas part of its efforts to tighten controls over the country, according to the latest report by Spain-based rights group Safeguard Defenders.

While its impossible to know how many individuals were targeted by the exit ban at one time due to the lack of official data, the group found strong evidence showing the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] has massively increased the number of people placed under exit bans over the past decade.

One indicator is the surge of the phrase exit ban mentioned in cases on the Supreme Peoples Courts official database, which rose eightfold between 2016 to 2020.

Counting ethnicity-based exit bans, that number is in the millions. Other kinds of exit bans likely number in the tens of thousands if not more, Safeguard Defenders said in the report released on May 2.

Anyone may be a targethuman rights defenders, businesspeople, officials and foreigners, reads the report titled TrappedChinas Expanding Use of Exit Bans.

The regime uses the ban to intimidate foreign journalists, suppress rights activists, pressure their targets overseas to return to China, and control ethnic-religious groups, according to the report.

Exit bans have become one of the many tools used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as part of broad efforts to tighten control over all aspects of peoples lives, it said.

The report identified at least 15 laws that allow the use of the exit ban, an increase of five since 2018. With the complex, vague, ambiguous and expansive local laws, any government body for any reason may issue an exit ban, it said.

The victims are not limited to Chinese citizens. At least two dozen U.S. citizens had been barred from leaving China over the past two years due to the exit bans, the report said, citing a 2021 estimation by John Kamm, founder and executive director of San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation.

A 2022 study by Chris Carr and Jack Wroldsen, professors of business law from California Polytechnic State University, found 128 cases of foreigners subjected to exit bans between 1995 and 2019; among them were 29 Americans.

The closed office of the Mintz Group is seen in an office building in Beijing on March 24, 2023.  Five Chinese employees at the Beijing office of U.S. due diligence firm Mintz Group have been detained by authorities, the company said on March 24. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

The findings come amid rising concerns among foreign businesses operating in China over official scrutiny. In March, the Chinese authorities raided U.S. due diligence firm Mintz Groups office in Beijing and detained five Chinese nationals working for the company. The Beijing office was later shut down. Beijings foreign ministry later said Mintz was suspected of engaging in illegal business operations.

The latest victim is Bain & Co. The authorities questioned the American consulting firms employees in Shanghai, a spokesperson confirmed with The Epoch Times on April 27.

Anti-Espionage Law

The increased scrutiny also came as Chinas rubber-stamp legislature, the National Peoples Congress, passed an amended anti-espionage law and published it on its website on April 26. The legislation, which will come into effect on July 1, allows the authorities to impose exit bans on anyoneChinese and foreigners alikeunder investigation.

Chinese authorities broaden the definition of espionage to all documents, data, materials, or items related to national security and interests. However, it doesnt specify what falls under national security, sparking fears of a more hostile environment for foreign businesses, researchers, and journalists in China.

With the new anti-espionage law, the additional scrutiny of firms providing essential business services dramatically increases the uncertainties and risks of doing business in the Peoples Republic [of China], the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in an April 28 statement, referring to the official name of China. This is a matter of serious concern for the investor community.
China Urges International Respect for Junta-Ruled Burmas Sovereignty

Soldiers stand next to military vehicles as people gather to protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Burma, on Feb. 15, 2021. (Stringer/Reuters)

Chinas foreign minister voiced support for Burmas sovereignty in a rare visit to the military-ruled country on May 2 as Western countries continue to shun the junta for its violence against civilians.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang began his three-day visit to Burmaalso known as Myanmaron Tuesday, where he met with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing and other military junta officials.

Qin said that his visit demonstrated the friendly relations between the two nations and Chinas standing with Myanmar on the international stage, the juntas Information Department said in a statement.

He also met with the juntas union minister for foreign affairs to discuss the acceleration of bilateral projects under the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) and Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Qins trip came a day after his talks with United Nations special envoy Noeleen Heyzer in Beijing, during which he affirmed the need to prevent the escalation of Burmas internal conflict and spillover of crisis.

Qin urged the international community to respect Myanmars sovereignty and support all parties and factions in Myanmar in bridging differences and resuming the political transition process through political dialogue.

With internal and external factors intertwined, the Myanmar issue is complex and has no quick fix, he said, according to his ministry.

In response, Heyzer said the will of the countrys people must be respected and called for dialogue between the junta and opposition to achieve peace in Burma and regional development.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang holds a press conference with the Arab Leagues Secretary-General (unseen) at the leagues headquarters in Cairo on Jan. 15, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)

Burma has been plunged into turmoil since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyis elected government in a February 2021 coup, with violence flaring in several regions as opposition groups clash with the junta.

More than 1.6 million people in Burma have been internally displaced, with an estimated 55,000 civilian buildings destroyed since the military takeover, according to the U.N. on March 16.

In the U.N. statement, Heyzer said that atrocities, beheadings, and the mutilation of rebel fighters bodies have been recorded, together with escalating violence in ethnic areas. But popular resistance persists across much of Burma.

A generation that benefited from Myanmars previous opening up, especially the youth, is now disillusioned, facing chronic hardship, and many feeling they have no choice but to take up arms to fight military rule, she said.

China-Burma Ties

China maintains its close ties with Burma despite widespread condemnation of the juntas removal of Suu Kyis government and bloody crackdown on dissent.

Several Western countries have hit the junta and its businesses with sanctions to block them from generating revenue for weapons.

The former government of Suu Kyi signed 33 bilateral agreements with China in 2020 to implement the CMEC, which is part of Beijings BRI that critics have denounced as a debt trap for smaller nations.

The CMEC involves a number of infrastructure projects in Burma, including a railway connecting Chinas Yunan Province to Kyaukphyu in Burmas Rakhine State, which will provide China with alternative access to the Indian Ocean.

A Burmese woman walks behind a warning sign along the boundary line in the China-Burma border town of Wanding, in Chinas southwestern province of Yunnan, on Sept. 27, 2007. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Tom Andrews, the U.N. human rights expert on Burma, issued a report last year claiming that China, Russia, and Serbia have been supplying the junta with weapons of the sort that are being used to attack civilians.

The report states that Russia and Chinaboth U.N. Security Council membersprovided the military junta with numerous fighter jets and armored vehicles, while Serbia supplied rockets and artillery.

It should be incontrovertible that weapons used to kill civilians should no longer be transferred to Myanmar. These transfers truly shock the conscience, Andrews said.

Around 3,000 civilians in Burma have been killed since the military seized power, the U.N. stated, adding that figures of casualties likely represent an underestimation of the reality on the ground.
Chinas Crackdown on Foreign Firms Is Retaliation Against the West: Former US Intel Official

Police officers and security block the way as they perform crowd control after an official flag raising ceremony to mark National Day next to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2021. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

As reports emerge that China is ramping up its official scrutiny of foreign firms operating in the country, it can be a retaliatory move against foreign entities to allegations of Chinese espionage abroad, according to former senior intelligence official and author Nicholas Eftimiades.

On April 26, the communist regime passed its newly revised anti-espionage law, which will take effect on July 1.

The revision has expanded the definition of espionage, making it broader and vaguer, which increased the range of information and resources that Beijing considers relevant to national security.

Eftimiades said that with this legislative change, the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sent a chilling message to foreign companies in China.

He pointed to a March raid of the Beijing office of Mintz Group, a due diligence firm headquartered in New York. Five Mintz employeesall Chinese nationalswere reportedly detained on suspicion of engaging in illegal business operations, and the regime confirmed those charges.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, a Mintz executive said the company had no idea who was detaining its employees, when they might be released, or why the raid was carried out.

Due to the arrests, Mintz closed its sole office in Chinas mainland. The companys closure is a setback for Chinas global business community, which depends on it for trusted international corporate investigations as part of hiring, transactions, and litigation in China.

Eftimiades also pointed to the arrest of an executive at Japans Astellas Pharmaceuticals Beijing office in April over alleged espionage.

Theyve arrested Japanese business persons; theyve accused the United States of spying. They made themselves the victims in so many ways, Eftimiades told China in Focus on NTD, the sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

I think this is their version of gearing up for either response or retaliation to all the accusations of Chinese espionage globally, he said.

With these acts, he said, the CCP sends the message: Were not going to be victims anymore. Were going to show we can retaliate against foreigners and foreign companies here in China.

Growing Geopolitical Tension

As the author of Chinese Espionage Operations and Tactics, Eftimiades noted that Beijing has ramped up its coercive actions by targeting foreign firms despite its commitment to greater openness and desire to attract more foreign investment.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang reiterated the CCPs new reform and opening-up policy at a recent Boao Forum.

No matter what happens in the world, we will always adhere to reform and opening up, Li stated in his keynote speech on March 30 at the annual meeting of Asias top leaders.

Li also stated that new measures will be introduced to expand access, optimize the business environment, and guarantee project implementation so that all countries can share the dividend of Chinas development.

Yet Eftimiades attributed the changing attitude of the regime to the growing geopolitical tension between China and other powers, including the United States.

So I think thats the key factor here, as the geopolitical tension ratchets up, its gonna put foreign companies in an ever more tenuous position operating in China, he said.

We havent had the geopolitical tension that we have had now, in recent years, as the United States starts to respond to the acts that China has been doing for some period of time, he added.

The recent uptick in coercive actions against foreign companies also manifests how Chinese leader Xi Jinping furthers his consolidation of political power, according to the expert.

The move leads to increasing foreign business and investment withdrawal from China.

Xi Jinping is solidifying political power. Hes already done that. But he is seeking to control more of Chinese society. And as you know, you squeeze your fist, people slip out through your fingers, he said.

And so businesses are getting out, people are getting out. I think you see a large part of the movement of money trying to leave China, not by elites. All of these things are a function of Xi Jinpings consolidating power, he added.

Alex Wu contributed to this report.
Chinese Canadians Say CCPs Brazen Threat Against MPs Family Means Even Greater Risk to Theirs

Conservative MP Michael Chong rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 2, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Recent news that a Chinese diplomat had threatened a Canadian MPs family in Hong Kong highlights the potential for more severe actions against the general Chinese Canadian population and dissidents by the Chinese Communist Party, warns the leader of a rights advocacy group.

Conservative MP Michael Chong said on Twitter on May 1 that he was profoundly disappointed to have learned about threats against his relatives in Hong Kong from the media and not from the Canadian government or Canadian security agencies.

According to a Globe and Mail article citing a 2021 top-secret report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Chinas intelligence service took actions to target Canadian MPs involved in a parliamentary motion that condemned Beijings abuse of Uyghurs in Chinas Xinjiang Province. This included seeking information about one MPs relatives in China. A national security source told the Globe that the MP being targeted was Chong.

Meanwhile, Zhao Wei, the Chinese diplomat who allegedly made the threats, has remained an accredited officer with the Chinese Consulate in Toronto.

This is extraordinarily appalling to us because if the Chinese Consulate officials in Toronto dared to threaten the Official Opposition partys foreign critic, they could have done much worse to ordinary citizens of Canada, Gloria Fung, chair of the Canada-Hong Kong Link, told The Epoch Times.

The Chinese Communist Party [CCP] has been exploiting the fact that Canadians of Chinese ethnic background still have their relatives and family members in China or Hong Kong, and thats why they could use them as hostages in exerting pressure on Canadians, she said.

At the same time, Im quite sure the magnitude and extent of intimidation, harassment, will be much more severe than what they do to other Canadians.

The CCP seeks to control all individuals of Chinese origin, regardless of where they live or what nationality they hold, Fung said, pointing to a remark by former Chinese foreign affairs minister Wang Yi that people of Chinese origin are first and foremost Chinese. Wang made the comment in 2016 in response to concerns raised about the detention of Hong Kong bookseller Lee Bo, who holds British citizenship.

We are Canadians and we do not consider ourselves a Chinese citizen. Therefore, I think this is a very misleading and wrong application of the concept of Chinese national,' Fung said.

Threats Against Diaspora

A Chinese Canadian resident of Toronto who has experienced the CCPs intimidation tactics says it has caused significant distress to her family in China. As a Falun Gong practitioner, Huang Hua was forced to remain in Canada as a refugee because of the severe persecution she would encounter if she returned to China.

Huang Hua, a Falun Gong adherent, speaks at a rally outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto on April 25, 2023. Huang said her family members in China face ongoing harassment and intimidation from the communist authorities. (Andrew Chen/The Epoch Times)

Huangs father and sister still live in China, and she said local police have repeatedly harassed them as part of their intimidation tactics against her.

Her father, who lives in Zhejiang Province, has received warnings from local police for trying to contact her, Huang told The Epoch Times. In October 2019, police raided his home, presumably searching for evidence to convict him for practising Falun Gong.

When Huangs father moved to Sichuan Province to stay with her sister during the COVID-19 pandemic, local police continued to harass the family and to attempt to coerce them to renounce their beliefs, Huang said. In September 2022, when Huang decided to bring her father to Canada, they discovered that his life savings of 700,000 Chinese yuan (approximately C$138,000) had mysteriously disappeared from his bank account.

As an individual [in China], its impossible to get away when the government targets you. You will always lose, Huang said, noting that the family gave up trying to secure a lawyer. In China, the rule of law does not exist.

Even in Canada, Huang said she has been followed to her home by a strangera Chinese man who appears to be monitoring the activities at the location where she and others practise the meditative exercises of Falun Gong.

Calls for Countermeasures

In his statement posted on Twitter, Chong said that when the Liberal government learned that he was being targeted by a foreign intimidation campaign, they should have declared the Chinese diplomat persona non grata and expelled him from Canada, in addition to warning Chong about the threat.

The fact that the government neither informed me nor took any action is indicative of its ongoing laissez-faire attitude toward the PRCs intimidation tactics, he wrote.

The Epoch Times reached out to Global Affairs Canada for comment on whether Zhao Wei will be expelled, but didnt hear back.

Sheng Xue, a Chinese Canadian in Toronto and longtime democracy advocate, echoes Chongs position that Wei should have been expelled.

There should be a countermeasure in response to the role that the Chinese diplomat in Canada has played in this incident. [Canada] should deliver diplomatic demarche and expel this person, Sheng told The Epoch Times.

Such action is a blatant challenge towards Canadian sovereignty. But it is not just a matter of sovereignty, it is also [an act] that extends Chinas transnational repression in Canada.

She noted that one legislative tool to tackle such situations would be a foreign influence registry, which would require individuals or groups working on behalf of a foreign entity to register with the federal government.

This is a very basic and much-needed policy, Sheng said. This law wouldnt just target the CCP, but any foreign entity that seeks to interact with Canada. It would be unfair and unjust for Canadians if any engagement is done through a covert, disguised, deceptive method.

Public Safety Canada is currently conducting public consultations on the merits of implementing a foreign agent registry but has not offered a timeline for its creation. The department works with CSIS and four other agencies and three review bodies to carry out its mandate to keep Canadians safe from a range of risks such as natural disasters, crime and terrorism.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the House of Commons on May 2 that, following release of the Globe report, he has reached out to Chong to reassure him that Canadas national security agencies previously took measures to protect MPs who were on the radar of foreign threat actors. However, he denied having knowledge of the threats to Chongs family back in 2021.
Bennett students represent two of ten teams selected from across the country to attend inaugural O'Neill Symposium with Blue Origin, the Club for the Future, and the Conrad Challenge.

CHICAGO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Two teams of high school students from Bennett Day School , a PreK-12 school in Chicago's Fulton Market and West Loop neighborhood, won a national competition to attend the inaugural O'Neill Symposium hosted by Blue Origin and their Club for the Future after entering the Space for the Benefit of Earth Challenge . The Symposium was held from April 24-26 at Blue Origin's Orbital Launch Site and Manufacturing Complex on Merritt Island in Florida on the Space Coast.

Bennett Day School students and faculty at the ONeill Symposium hosted by Blue Origin and their Club for the Future.

The Space for the Benefit of Earth Challenge, managed by the Conrad Foundation and hosted on the Conrad Challenge student competition platform, asked students to innovate and utilize space resources to solve terrestrial issues on Earth such as clean water, clean power, sustainable food production, and more. The 11th and 12th Grade students at Bennett are studying Space Science in their Project-Based Learning (PBL) course, and competing in this challenge was an extension of their ongoing learning.

Out of nearly 1,000 submissions across the country, only 10 top-scoring teams were selected, and Bennett was proud to have two of the top ten teams selected nationally.

"This experience allowed me to connect with many great minds and meet amazing people who have truly inspired me," said Meryam Elmakoudi , a senior at Bennett who plans to study Biology and Earth & Planetary Sciences at Northwestern University next year. Meryam says she initially did not have much interest in Space Medicine, but now aspires to establish a career in the emerging field.

The Bennett student team named "LunarMed" focused on developing a space medical boot that uses animals of the Earth's oceans to inject a protein that could help astronauts complete mission tasks while being exposed to long flight atrophy and bone breaks or fractures. The team named "Mercury Cats" focused on creating a human waste sanitation system utilizing anaerobic bacillus bacteria to produce fertilizer that could be used to support human survival on the moon as well as for sustainable farming on Earth in areas suffering from hunger or food shortages.

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"We need to move education into the future while working on Earth's problems. It's not too late," said Dr. Shannon Hurst, a teacher at Bennett with over 20 years of experience teaching STEM/science. "In my experience, this was truly a unique and inspiring experience. I am so proud of my students."

At the O'Neill Symposium, teams from Bennett had the opportunity to work collaboratively with other winning teams and subject matter experts from Blue Origin to integrate their projects and present their ideas. They also had the opportunity to tour Blue Origin's rocket production facilities and learn from distinguished guests such as former astronauts, space resource experts, engineers, scientists, and leaders in the future of colonization and exo-planetary travel.

"Students at Bennett really do reach for the stars! This was a rigorous challenge for high schoolers to innovate, design, and pitch ideas to tap into the limitless resources of space for the betterment of humanity," said Cameron Smith, CEO, Co-Founder, and a school parent at Bennett. Smith recently completed a graduate certificate program at the Colorado School of Mines in space resources and is serving as an adjunct teacher in Space Science. "We are deeply appreciative of the impact this experience will have on our happy and excited young learners and leaders."

For more information about Bennett Day School's program and admissions process, visit www.bennettday.org .

About Bennett Day School:

Bennett Day School is an agile and future-focused PreK-12 school, in the innovative Fulton Market district of Chicago, where students are challenged to learn and grow with purpose. This approach delivers happy and engaged students, adults, and faculty via dynamic project-based learning. Bennett prepares students today to be the lifelong learners and leaders of tomorrow.

Media Contact:

Samantha Rud

312-236-6388 ext. 1007

samantha.rud@bennettday.org

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SOURCE Bennett Day School
Chinese Citizen Journalist Who Reported on COVID-19 Released After 3 Years, Homeless

Chinese citizen journalist Fang Bin was released on Sunday after being secretly sentenced to three years in prison by the Chinese communist regime for exposing the true situation of the COVID-19 outbreak in the central Chinese city Wuhan.

On Monday, Fang was reportedly homeless owing to the regimes pressure on his family.

A Wuhan resident who knows Fangs situation but did not want to be identified told The Epoch Times that Fang had been released from prison on April 30. Afterwards, he was sent to Beijing by the Wuhan police, where his son gave him a meal.

Fang was then sent back to Wuhan by Beijing police. His family in Wuhan didnt dare to take him in owing to threats from the authorities.

The Wuhan resident revealed that on the night of May 1 Fang was wandering the streets of Wuhan with no money. He has not been allowed to accept media interviews, and someone is closely following and monitoring him.

Fang Bin is wandering without a home in his homeland and I appeal to [Chinese Communist Party leader] Xi Jinping to let Fang Bin live in peace, said the resident.

Another citizen in Wuhan who knows the situation but also didnt want to be identified told The Epoch Times that Fang must have been tortured in prison. Many people in Wuhan who followed his situation have been monitored by the authorities, and the police purposefully let him out to see who he would contact.

A pro-democracy activist (C) from HK Alliance holds a placard of missing citizen journalist Fang Bin, as she protests outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong on Feb. 19, 2020. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images)

The citizen said that both Beijing and Wuhan police wanted to send Fang to each others city to avoid trouble, and revealed that the State Security and Law Committee of the Wuhan Public Security Bureau held a meeting overnight to discuss how to drive Fang Bin away and prevent him from staying in Wuhan.

The citizen also said that Fang Bins Hanfu, or Han Dynasty-style clothing, company and warehouse in Hankou North Wholesale Market in Wuhan were also seized by authorities.

Nobody knows where all the Hanfu and the companys property are, or who to ask. No one has come out to take responsibility. What is the law? the citizen said.

Revealing the Truth of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Wuhan

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan and the city was suddenly locked down. The Chinese regime covered up the true scale of the outbreak, with Fang visiting many hospitals in Wuhan to film the real situation.

The videos he captured and posted on social media showed how at the Wuchang funeral home, eight bagged corpses could be seen within a few minutes, while at Wuhan Fifth Hospital eight corpses were moved out.

Fang was arrested by the police on Feb. 2, 2020. He was secretly sentenced to three years in prison in 2021 for picking quarrels and provoking trouble.

Medical staff treat patients infected by the COVID-19 CCP virus at a hospital in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 24, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Fang appealed to the Intermediate Court of Wuhan City and in 2022, the court ruled it would uphold the original sentence.

Before Fangs release from prison, a new Twitter account allegedly to be Fangs suddenly appeared. On April 26, a message was posted on the account: Thanks to all netizens, I am back. Dont give up! Keep working hard.

The Wuhan citizen told The Epoch Times that Fang Bin had not been released from prison because he had no access to the internet and overseas social media are blocked by Chinas firewall. The Twitter post may have been released by the Chinese regime to flush out Fangs supporters, the citizen said.

Xiao Lusheng and Hong Ning contributed to this report.
Chinese Entrepreneur Flees China, Sees No Hope for Chinese Economic Recovery

Chinese businessman Meng Jun is pictured in an undated photo. (Courtesy of Meng Jun)

A Chinese businessman has told The Epoch Times that he lost $43-million-worth of business over the three years of lockdowns and Zero-COVID policies during the pandemic in China.

Meng Jun also rejected claims made by the Chinese Communist Party that the countrys economy had recovered due to the Chinese regimes focus on reform and opening uppurportedly to kick-start manufacturing and industry.

I had my personal experience, he said. All the effort I have put in for years went down the drain because of the lockdowns.

Theres no way for China to recover in a few monthsor even in a few years, he said.

Realizing that the communist regimeand the policies it pursuedwere the sole cause of business losses he would never be able to recover from, he took his chance and fled to the United States.

Lockdown Killed My Business

Meng Jun was a manufacturer of latex-based products that were exported primarily to Southeast Asia. His plant was located in an industrial park of Nanning City in southwest China, near the Vietnamese border. His production lines were forced to shut down whenever the city implemented a lockdown. During the COVID pandemic, it was common for individual municipalities to issue lockdown decrees that could last for weeksor even months.

There was no subsidy or assistance from the government for pandemic-related losses, he said. Even worse, Meng said the company continued to suffer financially from having to bribe officials who could arbitrarily ban the company from selling its products in the name of their testing positive for COVID-19.

The strict Zero-COVID policies killed 90 percent of companies inside the industrial park, from packaging to lumber businesses, and no one could withstand it, he said.

The company had to come up with all the fees for pandemic control. They (the Communist Party officials) didnt care, they were only responsible for collecting fees, Meng explained.

In July 2021, when the city was placed under lockdown, all private companies received orders to halt production.

However, Mengs company still had to cover the rent, the workers minimum wages, and nucleic acid tests demanded by the government.

A single positive test case from one employee would result in the quarantine of the entire plants workers.

The workers tests cost him 5,000 yuan ($723.37) per month, and the regime also required testing of the raw materials.

The materials would not receive a stamp of approval if they tested positive, and the losses would have been tremendous, as that would have meant that all materials would be embargoed.

However, Meng said that the tests on the materials soon became a formality. No actual testing was carried outbut the officials would still visit the plant regularly to collect the testing fees.

Meng said that in order to keep production going, every company at the park had to bribe the officials who came with the test forms. It was not really for pandemic control, but to get the money, he said.

The best items to bribe such officials included cash, expensive cigarettes, and alcoholas well as meals at local restaurants, Meng said.

Workers line up to get tested for COVID-19 at the Foxconn factory in Wuhan in central Chinas Hubei province on Aug. 5, 2021. (Chinatopix via AP)

Exceptions to the Rule

While most private entrepreneurs suffered from the lockdowns, government-owned businesses maintained regular production, Meng explained.

Its just too difficult to run a business in China, he said. You would not know until you get out of China and compare it to the outside world.

Between 2020 and 2021, he injected 8 million yuan ($1.16 million) into the company, but lost everything from the lockdowns. He quickly made the decision to close the company after the Chinese New Year in 2022.

When the pandemic hit the area hardest two months later in April, he left China.

With a friends help, Meng managed to obtain a valid nucleic acid test report, which allowed him to pass through Chinese customs. He arrived in the United States with a valid visa.

I am bankrupt, although I am lucky that I escaped, he said. But my wife is still in China.

Meng said he regrets that his wife could not travel to the United States with him. I will not return to China as long as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is ruling the country, he told the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times.

Looking back, Meng describes the pandemic as a farce the CCP staged to control the people.

A Tragic Case

There were many tragic cases under the Chinese regimes strict lockdowns and Zero-COVID policies. Meng said that a businessman he knew, Mr. Chen (a pseudonym), committed suicide at the age of 57 before the Chinese New Year in 2022.

Meng said that Chens business was much larger than his. But the lockdown immediately buried Chen under a debt of 6 million yuan ($870,000), including wages, bank loans, the cost of materials, and rent.

Chen committed suicide due to the unbearable stress caused by debt collectors, he said.

Meng was shocked at the news. Chen was in business for more than 20 years, from a small business to a larger scale, but now [the Zero-COVID policies] cost him his life.

Awakening From the Farce

In 2020, Meng started to search for information on the pandemic by bypassing the Great Firewallthe CCPs internet firewall that prevents Chinese citizens from using the internet to access uncensored information from abroad.

He learned that while other countries had gradually lifted their pandemic controls and recovered economically from the pandemic, the lockdown in China was getting more serious.

He had doubts about the constant propaganda in China regarding the pandemic.

When the white paper movement erupted in 2022, the CCP suddenly relaxed its zero-COVID policies. Subsequent surges in infections due to new variants, a lack of natural immunity in the populace, and other factors led to massive death tolls in China. Mengs father-in-law also died during the pandemic surge.

Online censorship blocked even the Chinese words white paper, he said. Theres no freedom of expression: I cant even hold a piece of paper freely.

Meng saw that its the CCP causing the pandemicit must be held accountable, he said. Several acquaintances of his in industry have all prepared to sell their assets in China in order to move overseas.

They are not fools, he said, adding that Chinas communist regime places itself above the law, and its chaotic policies have made people realize that the COVID-19 pandemic was a farce.

The economic conditions are terrible. Exports were choked, and domestic consumption was down to a terrible level, he said.

Xiao Lusheng and Luo Ya contributed to this report.
Chinese Secret Police Stations Part of Systemic Infiltration: Congressman

National security officials, federal prosecutors, and lawmakers are on the lookout for secret police stations that they believe China has established on U.S. soil.

In September, a report by Safeguard Defenders alleged agents of the Chinese regime had been covertly operating in several countries, using secret police stations as a base of operations to surveil Chinese dissidents and even coercing Chinese expatriates to return to China. The Safeguard Defender report alleged one such secret Chinese police station was operating in New York City.

On April 17, FBI agents arrested two men on charges that they helped operate the alleged Chinese secret police station in New York City.

The Safeguard Defenders report and subsequent FBI arrests have put U.S. officials on the lookout for additional Chinese surveillance bases. Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) now warns that one such station is operating near his district.

They call it a Chinese service center. Its located in Omaha, Nebraska, Flood said in an interview with NTD News on Tuesday.

To some, middle America might seem like an unlikely point of interest for Chinese surveillance operations, but Flood noted that the alleged Chinese service center is not far from Offutt Air Force Base, which serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Commandthe command overseeing U.S. nuclear bombers and both land and sea-based nuclear missiles.

Were a strategic headquarters [] and to have one of these Chinese service centers in our backyard in Omaha, Nebraska, tells you how aggressive and omnipresent the Chinese want to be in every community in America, Flood said. And its startling. It concerns a lot of Nebraskans. It should concern everybody in America that theyre penetrating that far into the middle of our country.

Flood said he has reached out to the FBI in hopes of gaining more information about how this Chinese service station in Omaha has been operating.

I havent had that briefing yet, but Im really looking forward to learning about what theyve been doing in Nebraska and across the nation, he said.

The two men arrested in connection with the alleged secret Chinese police station in New YorkLu Jinawang and Chen Jinpingare both U.S. citizens. The two men worked for an organization that presented itself as an overseas service station, providing citizen services like drivers license renewals for Chinese citizens living abroad.

At the very least, the station was providing some government services like helping Chinese citizens renew their Chinese drivers licenses, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said during an April 17 press conference announcing the arrests. But to do even that, the law requires that individuals like the defendants who act as agents of a foreign government give prior notice to the attorney general before setting up shop in New York City. That didnt happen.

Flood Warns of Broader Chinese Surveillance Campaign

Flood said these covert Chinese police stations are just one component of a broader Chinese campaign to surveil and influence the United States.

U.S. officials believe the Chinese high-altitude balloon that transited the United States earlier this year was another component of this surveillance effort, gathering data from over the United States and relaying it back to China.

In recent years, lawmakers and national security officials have also drawn attention to the Confucius Institutea Chinese cultural program that has paired with universities in the United States. While the Confucius Institute ostensibly operates as a cultural exchange program, critics have alleged (pdf) that Confucius Institute centers have been used to monitor Chinese students studying abroad and spread propaganda on behalf of the Chinese regime.

Lawmakers and U.S. officials have also been wary of Chinese telecommunications firms, such as Huawei, operating in the United States.

Theyre taking advantage of our open system in America, and what theyre doing is systemic, and its a problem, Flood said. Its not just spy balloons. Its not just the Huawei equipment that theyre using to spy on Americans and get data. Its the fact that theyre buying up real estate around Air Force bases like Minot, North Dakota, and they are working in every way they can to undermine the legitimacy of our country and to, you know, achieve their goal of being the worlds sole superpower.

From NTD News
Beijings increasing use of exit bansbarring people from leaving Chinais coming under scrutiny, with both rights groups and foreign businesses voicing concern. And its not just Chinese nationals feeling the impacts. Reports note that scores of foreigners and executives also getting blocked at the border. Whats Chinas end goal here?

Topics in this episode:

Concerns Rise as China Ups Use of Exit Bans U.S. Concerned with Chinas Actions Toward U.S. Firms; Foreign Companies Delaying Investing in China: Burns Biden: Security for the Philippines Is Ironclad Satellite Images Show Chinese Military Blimp We Love China, Not the Communist Party: NY Resident China Is Worst Religious Freedom Violator: Report Taiwan Congratulates Paraguays President-Elect New Govt Pledges to Keep Formal Ties with Taipei Chinas Middle East Envoy Meets Syrian President Chinese Factory Activity Shrinks Unexpectedly Shanghai Predicts Crowds of Tourists for May Holiday A Chilling Effect: Eftimiades on Tensions Over China Putting Foreign Companies in More Tenuous Position

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DeSantis Signs Bill Curbing Financial Use of Woke Investment Principles

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs an anti-crime bill on May 1, 2023 at the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum in Titusville, Fla.. (Courtesy of the Florida Governor's Office.)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill curbing financial companies use of ESG principles to govern investment or lending decisions in the state.

According to DeSantis ESGenvironmental, social, and governmentalhas become a backdoor way for companies to impose woke values on communities that would never approve such things at the ballot box.

At a signing ceremony in Jacksonville on May 2, the governor said the state had already moved last year to prevent ESG criteria from being used to invest public employees pension funds.

He said the state has already pulled $2 billion from giant asset management firm BlackRock.

Young Socialists Switzerland (JUSO) activists take part in a protest against U.S. investment company BlackRock calling for a climate tax on the rich, on the eve of the WEF annual meeting in Davos, on Jan. 15, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

We do not want them to engage in the ideological joy ride. That was not good for the people of the state of Florida.

This years bill expands on that.

According to the governors office, it prohibits financial institutions from discriminating against customers for their religious, political, or social beliefslike owning a firearm, securing the border, or increasing the nations energy independence.

It bans financial businesses from considering social credit scores in lending and banking decisions to prevent Floridians from obtaining financial services like loans, lines of credit, and bank accounts.

Maximise Returns

It blocks the use of ESG in all investment decisions by state and local governments, ensuring that only financial factors are considered the maximize the return on investment. That protects retirees and taxpayers alike.

State and local governments are banned from using ESG in their procurement and contracting processes and when issuing bonds.

And it directs the attorney general and commissioner of financial regulation to enforce these to the fullest extent of the law.

Youve seen this with asset managers who will go and say, Youve got to do this certain ESG project,' DeSantis said.

Understand, ESG is basically just window dressing for doing whatever these people want us to do.

They go to a place like Davos and say youve got to do all this. And then they try to impose that agenda. So its really an elite-driven phenomenon. The ESG is just a way to dress it up.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and his wife Casey (C) are escorted to their seats for a meeting with the Japanese foreign minister at the Iikura Guest House in Tokyo on April 24, 2023. (Eugene Hoshiko/AFP via Getty Images)

At the end of the day, theyre trying to exercise power over our society. Theyre trying to change society. Theyre trying to change policy when it comes to things that they dont like.

Sometimes, ESG-driven companies can be suitable investments, and he said the new state law doesnt prohibit pension funds from investing in them.

What you dont do isyou dont circumscribe that they cant invest in other things like energy and other types of things that are profitable, because thats not good for the people who are retired teachers, retired cops, and the like.

ESG principles have been used to punish businesses like irrigation or traditional energy production, he said. If you have a gun store or youre a gun owner, they dont like that.

Theres certain things they dont like, and people feel the brunt of that.

Congress in March passed a measure overturning a pro-ESG Labor Department rule, but President Joe Biden vetoed it, DeSantis said.

Pursuing Ideology

So Biden stood with asset managers like BlackRock over hardworking pensioners, and hes pursuing ideology over the best interest of their retirement. And that is wrong, and thats not gonna fly here in the state of Florida, DeSantis said.

DeSantis said Florida banks enjoy a special status as the only place where a state with $40 billion in general revenues deposits its money, as opposed to credit unions and other financial institutions.

He said they must pay attention to the new laws to keep that business.

We dont want any banking or lending practices to be imposing an ideological litmus test on your ability to get a loan, a line of credit, or even a bank account, the governor said.

He added that Florida businesses should not be using social credit scores, as is done in China.

DeSantis said he favors banning the use of a central bank digital currencya type of crypto issued by the federal governmentbecause he fears the federal government will impose social credit scores as part of its use.

The Florida Legislature passed a ban on central bank digital currency in the state.

Problems Opening Bank Account

Laura DiBenedetto, a Jacksonville area ammunition manufacturer and retailer, talked about how she and her husband moved from Maui to Florida at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic because DeSantis was the only governor pushing against lockdown restrictions on businesses.

We made the bittersweet decision to say Aloha, Maui and a very hearty hello to the Free State of Florida.

She described the problems they had opening their federally licensed business retailing ammunition online. Its a woman-owned business, and her husband is a veteran, she noted.

Waiting to open a bank account, they had to wait an hour while the branch manager sought permission to do it.

When they signed up for accounting software, the financial people told them they could get away with itDiBenedetto made quote marks with her fingers as she spokebut would be kicked off the platform eventually when the compliance manager learned of them.

In seeking credit card processing for their customers, they were denied by numerous providers, she said. They couldnt borrow from a bank and had to seek private funding. At one point, their bank accounts were frozen.

And their business has allegedly been censored on social media. Shes not allowed to promote it, or post photos or links to the Second Amendment, she said. All of this has hurt her business.

Frozen Accounts

Tina Descovich, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a nonprofit parental advocacy group, told how they had grown rapidly and taken in $300,000 in the first year after their 2021 founding.

Their online payments company froze their accounts just as they raised another $100,000 in April 2022.

It took weeks for them to get the money released, and they went to a different platform, but some recurring donations were still locked in at the old place.

She said the company released those donations just as DeSantis was the keynote speaker at their national convention last July.

They held it for about a month until Governor DeSantis was invited to speak at this conference, [and then] within 24 hours there are no more problems.

Taking questions from reporters afterward, House Speaker Paul Renner discussed the budget containing $75 million to build a University of Florida campus in Jacksonville.

The university, based in Gainesville, doesnt have a big city around it, and Jacksonville doesnt have a major university.

This is a big win-win for both. I think its transformational for the city, Renner, a Jacksonville-area representative, said.

Jacksonvilles business community is highly supportive, he added.

Renner said that planners hope well-skilled college graduates in tech and financial fields will find jobs in Jacksonville after college rather than moving out of state.

He said they hope to emulate Silicon Valley and Bostons success in retaining their graduates, who find many opportunities right where they are.
Digital Fentanyl: The CCPs Cyber Campaign to Destroy America

The social media application logo for TikTok is displayed on the screen of an iPhone in front of a U.S. flag and Chinese flag background in Washington, on March 16, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

Commentary

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has always played the long game. Its pivotal to their strength. They have a disciplined ability to think generationally rather than focus on the political climate of the now. The CCP has zero respect for the rule of law, nor does it abide by any code of ethics. When you have the ability to rule without law, you become the worlds adversary.

The CCP has poured their fentanyl onto our streets via their partners south of our border: the Mexican drug cartels. This led to the untimely deaths of more than 100,000 Americans in 2022 alone due to fentanyl overdoses. Now, China has fashioned this death drug into the form of common candy to make it more appealing to our youth. This is the death train being operated by the CCP. Its the one you can see and feel every day.

Tragically for the United States, the CCP also has a silent killer in the form of digital fentanyl, and its called TikTok. This social media platform is a facet of CCP warfare that remains undetected by most.

The CCP has started an information war on the United States that isnt in the form of news. However, the means by which theyre doing so is only now being accurately reported in the mainstream media. After years of accepting CCP disinformation, our media is finally waking up to the cold hard fact of data theft. The CCP pirates are seizing troves of information daily through TikTok.

The nearly 150 million Americans who sign into the platform daily, nearly half our population, would do well to take a moment to give their thumb a rest and their eyes something to read. Unless, of course, they want the CCP to win.

Unfortunately, through the Biden administrations disastrous foreign policy, we arent set up to win the information war head-on, let alone take on any aspect of it. Download TikTok onto your phone, and the CCP has a four-lane highway into your everyday life for free. We are intentionally giving the CCP a massive money bin of data for free, and Xi is laughing all the way from mainland China. How can we let this be in the United States in 2023?

What are they stealing? Your personal information, information on your family, habits, and hobbies, and your internet footprint for starters. They then collate this information and stack it for use against Americans based on their interests and vulnerabilities. How else do you think Chinese spies infiltrate American lives? Its not Google.

For those saying but Tik Tok is an American company, thats a false narrative, and it was entirely defeated when the CEO of ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, testified before Congress recently. Immediately thereafter, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) demanded public support for TikTok.

Then-President Donald Trump understood the CCPs intention better than anyone: from their Belt and Road Initiative to the manipulation of their currency and their desire to supplant the United States on the global stage. Trump responded strongly, taking steps to ban TikTok, implementing tariffs and trade sanctions, and expelling Chinese diplomats from the United States.

Biden and his administration have not only reversed every single one of these measures, but have also retracted from taking any position against Xi and the CCP. By doing so, we have seen the rise of the petro-yuan to replace the petro-dollar. We have seen Xi broker deals between Saudi Arabia and Iran, inching the worlds largest state sponsor of terror closer to a weapons-grade nuclear program.

We have seen the gall of the CCP come full circle in Xis declaration that he will be the worlds peacemaker. A man who leads a party thats responsible for three modern-day genocides in China, resulting in concentration camps, forced breeding, and torture, is now the self-anointed face of global diplomacy. And every time you log into TikTok, youre empowering his maniacal regime and the degradation of the United States. That may be hard for you to believe, but you can follow the intel, or you can follow AOC.

The CCP has one mission: Replace the United States of America as the world leader. The greatest advantage in warfare is information. The CCP siphons and cycles our data that they steal from TikTok to achieve this end. They do so at any cost because they see no cost thats too great. Therein lies our solution. An overwhelming majority of nations around the world demand a rule of law that respects humanity, not one that binds it in concentration camps.

Tariffs, sanctions, and stopping currency manipulation is a start. We should be shutting down access to the international banking system, ending trade tech relations, and removing CCP spies from U.S. soil. We must stop giving the CCP billions of dollars in U.S. products, technology, and goods only to have them use it against the American people to wage their decades-long mission to replace the United States.

This administration is rewarding the CCPs tyrannical behavior, but each time you sign into TikTok, you are doing the same. Follow the intel and delete TikTok.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
EU Backs Controversial Dutch Plans to Shut Down Farms in Bid to Reduce Nitrogen Emissions

Dutch cows from the farm of Robbin Voorend, who would face 9095 percent cuts to his livestock under the government's nitrogen emissions plan. (The Epoch Times).

The European Commission on May 2 approved a plan by the Dutch government that would compensate livestock farmers in certain areas if they agree to voluntarily close their farms as part of the Netherlands efforts to reduce nitrogen pollution.

Under the new schemes, dubbed LBV and LBV plus, farmers will need to agree to shut down their production capacity definitively and irreversibly and not start the same breeding activity elsewhere in the Netherlandsthe second-largest agricultural exporter in the worldor anywhere else within the European Union.

The schemes will run until February 2028 and are open to small and medium-sized livestock farmers in overburdened Natura 2000 areas in the Netherlands, providing their current nitrogen deposition load exceeds certain minimum levels each year.

In addition, only farmers that can prove they have been constantly producing over the five years before voluntarily closing down production will be eligible for the schemes.

The two Dutch schemes have a total budget of roughly 1.47 billion ($1.62 billion) and are part of the governments plans to reduce nitrogen deposition in nature conservation areas.

Under the 500 million ($551 million) LBV scheme, farmers will be compensated up to 100 percent of the losses they incur by closing down their dairy cattle, pig, and poultry breeding sites, in the form of direct grants, according to a statement from the European Commission.

Chickens from a poultry farm in Winkel, Netherlands, on April 29, 2020. (Olaf Kraak/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

Compensation, Green Bonus

That compensation will cover the loss of production capacity and production rights, according to the statement; funding, however, depends on the area in which the farm is located.

Under the 975 million ($1.77 billion) LBV-plus scheme, which will be open to peak-load emitting breeding sites who emit a high level of nitrogen per year, fixed as a minimum level, including farmers breeding dairy cattle, pigs, poultry, and veal calves, up to 100 percent of losses incurred by the farmers will be compensated via direct grants.

However, some farmers may also receive up to 120 percent in compensation due to the loss of production capacity under that scheme, according to officials.

The European Commission noted in its statement that if closures are done owing to environmental reasons, member states may grant the farmers an additional 20 percent green bonus on top of the compensation for the loss of the value of the assets.

Dutch agricultural exports were worth 122.3 billion last year, according to the national statistics office.

Necessary and Appropriate

According to the European Commission, shutting down certain facilities producing high levels of nitrogen pollution is necessary and appropriate to improve the environmental conditions of the targeted areas and to allow a high-quality, sustainable, and environmentally friendly production as well as help meet the policy objectives such as those in the European Green Deal.

The commission also found that the compensation to farmers is proportionate because it is limited to the minimum necessary and that the compensation brings about positive effects that outweigh any potential distortion of competition and trade in the European Union.

The 1.47 billion Dutch schemes we approved today will facilitate the voluntary closure of livestock farming sites with substantive nitrogen deposition on nature conservation areas, Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president in charge of competition policy at the European Commission, said in a statement.

The schemes will improve the environment conditions in those areas and will promote a more sustainable and environmentally friendly production in the livestock sector, without unduly distorting competition, Vestager added.

Tuesdays news release did not state what will happen to farmers who do not agree to voluntarily give up their lands.

Dutch dairy farmer Martin Neppelenbroek at his farm in Lemelerveld, The Netherlands, on July 7, 2022. (The Epoch Times)

Farmers Under Pressure

Protests erupted across the Netherlands last year when the government initially announced the plan to slash nitrogen emissions across the country, including from farms, by more than 50 percent by 2030, and Prime Minister Mark Ruttes administration made it clear that there is not a future for all Dutch farmers under the governments objectives.

One dairy farmer in the Netherlands interviewed by The Epoch Times last year explained that he would have to cut his livestock numbers by 95 percent in order to meet the governments new environmental regulations.

Another stated that the government had forced him to get rid of 12 cows as part of its efforts to reduce phosphate, and expressed his concerns that he would have to close down his farm if he was forced to get rid of more.

According to Dutch political commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, the plan could see around 3,000 Dutch farmers bought out by the government.

This is how they do it: they put a knife to the farmers throats. They make sure they dont get their licenses renewed, theyre plaguing them with new rules and restrictions every day and then offer them a bride [sic], knowing many will take it out of pure desperation. Its all so vile, Vlaardingerbroek wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

Vlaardingerbroek also questioned the legality of prohibiting the farmers who agree to give up their lands from starting over again in other EU nations.

The whole idea of the EU was supposed to be about freedom of movement and freedom of workers. This is some next-level USSR stuff, Vlaardingerbroek added.
Federal Governments New Design for Royal Coat of Arms Removes Religious Symbols: Report

The federal government will remove all religious symbols from the Canadian crown that sits on the Royal Coat of Arms in a new design that will be unveiled when Prime Minister Trudeau attends the coronation of King Charles III in London on May 6, according to a report.

A depiction of the St. Edwards Crown, which twice appears in the coat of arms, topped by a golden cross, will be replaced by a yet-unreleased design created by the Canadian Heraldic Authority (CHA), according to the National Post.

The CHA is responsible for creating heraldic emblems such as arms, flags, and badges, under the authority of the governor general.

According to sources that spoke to the Post, the symbols including all crosses and fleurs-de-lys will be replaced by maple leaves, snowflakes, and stars. Although its origin is unclear, the fleur-de-lys carries Catholic connotations.

Queen Elizabeth IIs signature shows below the Canadian coat of arms and below that is the signature of former Attorney General Jean Chretien. These names are at the top centre of a proclamation giving Canada independence from Britain in Ottawa, Ont. April 17, 1982. (CP PHOTO/Andy Clark)

The Epoch Times reached out to Governor General Mary Simons office for comment on the reported changes to the Coat of Arms but did not immediately hear back.

Trudeau will attend King Charles coronation at Westminster Abbey along with a number of dignitaries from around the world. The prime ministers itinerary for the trip has not yet been released.

Five RCMP members will also attend the ceremony and ride at the head of the kings escort. Several dozen Canadian Armed Forces members are expected to partake in the coronation procession.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Federal Workers Strike: What They Asked for, What They Got, What Remains

Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada watch a performance as they picket outside Place du Portage in Gatineau, Que., on April 28, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

While the strike action has ended for 120,000 Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) workers, 35,000 Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) workers remain on strike.

The 10-day strike came to an end for most federal employees on May 1, when it was announced PSAC had reached a tentative agreement with the federal government. Treasury Board President Mona Fortier said the deal was expected to cost taxpayers an estimated $1.3 billion per year.

But the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE)an arm of PSAC that represents CRA workershas yet to negotiate a deal with the government.

Heres a look at how the strike has progressed and what demands remain.

What They Asked For

PSAC asked for a 13.5 percent raise for its members over the next three years, due to the rising cost of living, arguing that its workers stepped up during the pandemic and deserve compensation. The government initially offered a 9 percent wage increase over three years, as recommended by the Public Interest Commission.

PSAC also asked for several non-wage benefits, such as employer contributions to its Social Justice Fund, mandatory diversity and inclusion training, and shift premiums for working past 4 p.m. They also asked for employees to be given the option to work from home full-time, instead of the Treasury Boards proposed hybrid model.

The UTE has asked for a 22.5 percent increase over three years, including a 2 percent wage adjustment. This proposal aims to address a wage imbalance between the CRA and Canada Border Services Agency employees, with the latter making 9 percent more on average.

The CRA said on April 19 it had made a fair offer of 9 percent over three years to the union, which mirrors the recommendations of the Public Interest Commission to PSAC.

The CRA has made consistent efforts to address the PSAC-UTEs main priorities, and we remain confident the parties can continue to find areas of potential compromise, through honest discussions and concessions by both sides, the agency said in a statement.

What They Got

On May 1, Mona Fortier announced a tentative deal reached between Ottawa and PSAC. Fortier said the negotiated wage increases of 11.5 percent over four years were in line with the recommendations of the Public Interest Commission.

The increase for the Treasury Board workers totals 12.6 percent compounded over the agreements lifespan from 2021 to 2024. Additionally, on average, PSAC workers in the Treasury Board will receive a pensionable $2,500 one-time lump sum payment representing an additional 3.7 percent of salary.

This wasnt easy. We negotiated, we compromised, and we found creative solutions. And after many long days, nights, and weekends of hard work, weve reached fair and competitive deals for employees, Fortier said.

The deal represents tentative agreements for 120,000 employees in the Education and Library, Program and Administrative, Operational Services, and Technical Services Treasury Board bargaining units. The employees returned to work on May 1.

What Still Remains

PSAC said that while issues related to work hours and information management have been resolved, negotiations around wages, improved job security, and better protection against jobs being contracted out are still ongoing.

The union is also continuing to push for telework agreements to be enshrined in the collective agreement, as the tentative deal does not include such language. On May 1, Fortier said a joint review will be conducted to update that directive for the post-pandemic era, and an additional mechanism will help address individual concerns.

On May 2, UTE said the CRA was continuing to play games by tabling offers significantly inferior to the tentative agreement PSAC signed with the Treasury Board.

They also continue to push for concessions at the table that are simply unacceptable, the union said in a release. This is a slap in the face to the PSAC-UTE members who have been here for Canadians and this government during the pandemic, not only to resolve tax issues, but to deliver vital emergency financial aid to millions of Canadians, in record time.

PSAC said if a deal with the CRA is not reached by May 4, workers plan to picket the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, where the 2023 Liberal National Convention will be held.
Florida Approves Bill Shielding Travel Records of DeSantis, Elected Officials From Public

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to Iowa voters gathered at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa, on March 10, 2023. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Floridas Republican-led Legislature on May 2 approved a bill that would shield the travel records of Gov. Ron DeSantis and other elected officials from being made public.

Senate Bill 1616, also known as the Public Records/Transportation and Protective Services Act, passed the Republican-controlled Florida House in a 8431 vote after clearing the Senate last month.

The bill provides an exemption from public records requirements for records held by a law enforcement agency relating to certain security or transportation services for DeSantis and other elected officials.

It also includes a retroactive clause that would block the release of many records of travels already undertaken by DeSantis, who is widely expected to announce a presidential run and has in recent weeks visited a string of primary states, including New Hampshire, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, and Michigan, to promote his book The Courage to Be Free.

According to the bill (pdf), information obtained by a law enforcement agency authorized by law to provide security or transportation services to officials should not be disclosed to the public if they may endanger the individual. This would include DeSantis, his immediate family, visiting governors and their families, the lieutenant governor, a member of the Cabinet, the speaker of the House of Representatives, the president of the Senate, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, or for persons for whom such services are requested by those officials.

Bill Necessary for Safety of Officials, Law Enforcement

Republicans argued in their bill that the disclosure of such records, including security, operational, and logistical plans; mansion security for DeSantis, facility operations, access, screenings, and clearances; as well as personal information unrelated to official duties of the protected individuals could pose a risk to the officials and hamper law enforcement security efforts if made public.

Florida Statutes, as well as the safety and security of law enforcement agents and personnel providing the security or transportation services, outweigh any public benefit that may be derived from the disclosure of such records, the bill states.

Therefore, it is a public necessity that records held by a law enforcement agency relating to security or transportation services  be made exempt from public records requirements.

The bill will go into effect immediately after it is signed into law by DeSantis.

While Republicans cited security and safety issues as reasons for the bill, Democrats argued that the measure will prevent the public from knowing with whom DeSantis met and what for, pointing to the fact that taxpayers are footing the travel bill.

Democrat state Rep. Ashley Gantt said public officials should maintain transparency with the general public.

Having a level of transparency on the amount thats being spent, where its being spent, we owe the people we work for an answer to that, Gantt said, Floridas WJAX-TV reported. And we have that mechanism in place right now.

Trump Takes Aim at DeSantis Globe-Trotting

Elsewhere, Democrat state Rep. Anna Eskamani noted that the bill includes a retroactive clause for previous travel undertaken by DeSantis and that the measure could have implications with regard to public records requests by journalists as well as opposing candidates.

We should not bend laws to benefit one individual and their political aspirations, said Eskamani, according to the publication.

The bill comes as DeSantis has traveled to Israel, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom over the past week ahead of a widely expected run for president in 2024.

The campaign for Donald Trump, who is also running for president again in 2024, has taken aim at DeSantiss recent globe-trotting.

DeSantiss gubernatorial office, however, refuses to tell reportersand the publichow much taxpayer money has been spent to fund these travels, or how much DeSantiss April globe-trotting will cost, Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, told News Max in April.

Amid the pushback, DeSantis said at a press conference on Monday in Titusville, Florida that he did not propose the bill.

With the security situation, how you do patterns of movements if youre somebody that is targetedwhich unfortunately I am, and I get a lot of threatsthat could be something that could be helpful for people that may not want to do good things, DeSantis said.

Approval of the latest bill comes after the Florida Legislature on April 28 approved a separate bill clarifying that DeSantis may run for president in 2024 while keeping his current position as governor of the state.

Lawmakers voted 7634 to approve SB 7050, which includes a provision that exempts anyone running for president or vice president from the existing resign-to-run requirements, despite Democrats overwhelmingly opposing the move.

Bill Pan contributed to this report.
Berkshire Hathaway Vice-Chair Charlie Munger said Monday that a storm is brewing in the U.S. commercial property market.

As property prices fall, Munger said American banks are "full of bad loans."

"Its not nearly as bad as it was in 2008," he told the Financial Times. "But trouble happens to banking just like trouble happens everywhere else."

WARREN BUFFETT CRITICIZES BITCOIN, SAYS IT 'DOESN'T HAVE ANY INTRINSIC VALUE'

"In the good times you get into bad habits. When bad times come they lose too much," the Berkshire Hathaway executive added as the First Republic Bank saga aired on television behind him, the Financial Times reported.

Berkshire Hathaway has supported other troubled U.S. banks, giving $5 billion to Goldman Sachs in 2008 during the economic recession and a similar total to Bank of America in 2011.

READ ON THE FOX BUSINESS APP

BUFFETT'S BERKSHIRE STOCKS UP ON MORE OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM SHARES

Munger said, "Weve had some disappointment in banks, too."

"Its not that damned easy to run a bank intelligently, there are a lot of temptations to do the wrong thing," he continued. "A lot of real estate isnt so good anymore, and we have a lot of troubled office buildings, a lot of troubled shopping centers. Theres a lot of agony out there."

Warren Buffett (L), CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and vice chairman Charlie Munger attend the 2019 annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, May 3, 2019.

Munger also noted that banks were already pulling back from lending to commercial developers.

"Every bank in the country is way tighter on real estate loans today than they were six months ago," he explained. "They all seem to be too much trouble."

WARREN BUFFETT'S OCCIDENTAL END GAME

Munger told the FT that he had made most of his money from just four investments: Berkshire, retailer Costco, his investment in a fund managed by Li Lus Himalaya Capital and Afton Properties, a real estate venture that owns apartment buildings in California and New Jersey.

According to Forbes estimates, Mungers wealth is $2.4 billion.
Florida Defines Money, Passes Bill to Ban a Central Bank Digital Currency

Floridas House of Representatives passed a bill that seeks to ban the use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the state, which is in line with Republican governor Ron DeSantiss stance on the matter.

The bill SB 7054 (pdf) defines the term central bank digital currency and revises the term money to make CBDCs illegal. Money means a medium of exchange that is currently authorized or adopted by a domestic or foreign government. The term includes a monetary unit of account established by an intergovernmental organization or by agreement between two or more countries. The term does not include a central bank digital currency, according to the bill.

This essentially blocks CBDCs from being treated as legal tender in Florida under the states Uniform Commercial Code. The House passed the bill on Tuesday with a majority vote of 1161.

The bill was earlier passed by the Senate late last month with a vote of 345. It now heads to the desk of Governor DeSantis for signature. The bill comes after he called for outlawing CBDCs in March.

On March 20, DeSantis warned that CBDCs were aimed at controlling the behavior of Americans. How do we know? Because weve seen this happen in other parts of the world. Look no further than China, in seeing the impact of centralized digital currency, he said.

The Peoples Bank of China uses its central bank to monitor citizen behavior, allowing for the surveillance of spending habits and to cut off access to goods and services.

A bill analysis (pdf) cites President Joe Bidens March 9 executive order that asked federal agencies to assess and report the potential benefits and risks of implementing a CBDC in the United States.

Ten banks working with an organization that is part of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently participated in a test for 12 weeks of an interoperable digital money platform that operates exclusively in U.S. dollar, the analysis said.

Financial Surveillance

During a visit to Jacksonville, Florida, on Tuesday, DeSantis vowed to prohibit any federal attempt to impose CBDCs. I think what the danger of digital currency is that they want to make that the sole currency. They want to get rid of crypto, he said.

My view is, if you want to invest in crypto, its up to you. You can do it. You can make those decisions. They dont like crypto because they cant control crypto. So, they want to put everything in a central bank digital currency.

I guarantee you, if they are able to ever get away with that, they will impose ESG [environmental, social, governance] and social credit scores onto that. And thats gonna be a huge reduction in freedom for people in this country.

DeSantis does not believe that Congress will ever authorize a CBDC. But if the Federal Reserve or the Treasury Department attempts to impose it unilaterally, well have a prohibition against that in Florida, he said.

And I think thats ensuring your financial independence and making sure that we dont have a financial surveillance state where they know every transaction that youre making. I think that thats fundamentally wrong. So, were recognizing the dangers with this agenda.

Privacy Issues

During a speech on April 18, Federal Reserve governor Michelle W. Bowman warned that safeguarding privacy is a top concern with regard to CBDCs.

Bowman wants CBDCs to have enough protections to safeguard the privacy of customers and businesses while also being transparent enough to deter criminal activity. The consumer data-privacy protections embedded in present-day payment systems must be extended to future systems, she said.

A recent analysis by the Cato Institute states that CBDCs pose a foundational threat to Americas economic systems with absolutely no upsides.

The costs are so high and the benefits are so low when it comes to a government-issued CBDC. Such a currency would ultimately usurp the private sector and endanger the core freedoms of Americans, it said.

Therefore, it should have no place in the American economy. Congress should explicitly prohibit the Federal Reserve and the Department of the Treasury from issuing a CBDC in any form.
Former FBI Supervisor Arrested for Allegedly Participating in Jan. 6 Capitol Breach

In this image from video footage, former FBI supervisor Jared Wise stands on U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021. (Department of Justice via The Epoch Times)

A former FBI agent has been arrested for allegedly participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.

Jared Wise was taken into custody in Oregon on multiple charges, including knowingly engaging in disorderly conduct with intent to impede government business, according to court documents. He was released after appearing in federal court on May 1.

Wise was captured by surveillance cameras inside the Capitol after entering through the Senate Wing door, according to charging documents. He later engaged Metropolitan Police Department officers, telling them: You guys are disgusting. Im formerIm former law enforcement. Youre disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You cant see it.  Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!

Wise also shouted, Yeah, [expletive] them and Yes, kill em, according to authorities.

Wise worked as a special agent and as a supervisor with the FBI from 2004 through 2017, the bureau stated in filings.

We refer you to the public court documents and dont have any further comment, an FBI spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

Wises public defender didnt respond to a request for comment.

Wise was described as working on counterterrorism investigations in the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe, according to a biography that has since been taken down. He was also described as working in asset management, commercial banking, and investment banking before joining the FBI.

FBI agents were tipped off to his being inside the Capitol on Jan. 26, 2022, by a person whose identity is being shielded by the bureau. The person gave authorities details about Wise, including his name, date of birth, and telephone number.

Agents obtained records from AT&T that show Wises phone on Jan. 6, 2021, using a tower that provides coverage to an area that includes the Capitol. Agents also reviewed surveillance and body camera footage that showed him inside the Capitol that day and on Capitol grounds.

After entering the Capitol at approximately 2:23 p.m., Wise clapped his hands and raised his arms in triumph, an FBI agent said in an affidavit supporting the charges. Wise walked around inside before exiting the same door.

This image from video footage shows a crowd, including former FBI supervisor Jared Wise, inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Department of Justice via The Epoch Times)

A few hours later, Wise was on the Upper West Terrace as people began clashing with law enforcement officers.

He witnessed officers being knocked to the ground. Hes accused of encouraging violence, including shouting: Kill em! Kill em! Kill em!

Wise is suspected of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without legal authority; knowingly and with intent to impede or disrupt government business engaging in disorderly conduct; engaging in disorderly conduct with the intention of disrupting a session of Congress; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in the Capitol.

He made an initial appearance in U.S. court in Oregon, after which he was released on his own recognizance. He was ordered to remain inside the United States, to not possess guns, and to remain off Capitol grounds.

Wises case has been transferred to Washington. The next hearing will be held via Zoom on May 9.
Former Trudeau Foundation CEO Rosenberg Contradicted in Committee on Origin of Chinese Donation

The president and CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation who was at the helm when it received a donation from businessmen tied to the Chinese regime told the House of Commons ethics committee on May 2 that the donation was not foreign, but MPs questioned the assertion with receipts.

Morris Rosenberg said in his opening statement that the donation receipt was made out to the entity that provided the gift, Millennium Golden Eagle Canada Inc., and that a search for corporate records shows that this is a Canadian corporation with headquarters in Dorval, Quebec.

Therefore, this is not a foreign donation, Rosenberg said. The former public servant, who headed the foundation from 2014 to 2018, had told the same thing to a news outlet in 2016 when the controversy first emerged.

The companys address is indeed in Dorval, but its affiliated with a Chinese corporation of the name Millennium Golden Eagle International Media thats backed by Beijing. Its also owned by billionaire Zhang Bin, president of a state-affiliated group and an adviser to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Rosenbergs successor, Pascale Fournier, told the ethics committee on April 28 that Rosenberg had provided misleading information to Canadians in 2016 when commenting on the donation and that the receipt actually showed an address in China.

Conservative MP Luc Berthold, apparently having on hand a copy of the receipt, read out loud the address, which mentions Hong Kong, China.

Berthold asked Rosenberg if he had any concerns that he signed and sent a donation receipt to China for a company incorporated in Canada.

That didnt seem strange after working as a deputy minister of foreign affairs? asked Berthold. The receipt is not saying what youre saying.

Rosenberg, who worked as deputy minister from 2010 to 2013, said he didnt find it strange because we were asked to send the receipt.

Soft Power

Millennium Golden Eagle International Media is listed as one of the executive directors of the China Cultural Industry Association (CCIA) on the CCIAs website.

Fournier had testified that the CCIA was in communication with the foundation to direct it on what to write on the donation receipts. The donation had been framed as coming from businessmen Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng, respectively president and consultant with the CCIA.

The CCIA is an entity directed by the Chinese regime, which Rosenberg called a soft power organization. Soft power is a tool used by states to advance their national interests through influence and persuasion.

Zhang and Niu struck a deal with the Trudeau Foundation and the Universite de Montreal (UdeM) in 2014 to provide them respectively with $200,000 and $800,000. The foundation would run China-related conferences and the UdeM would set up scholarships for students wanting to go to China.

The donation was framed as coming from the businessmen and not corporate or state entities, and to honour former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeaus effort to build relations with communist China. The former PM studied and taught at the UdeM faculty of law.

Conservative MP Michael Barrett called Zhang and Bin cutouts for a soft power operation for the Chinese regime to wield influence in Canada. He asked Rosenberg if he had been sensitized to such threats as a deputy minister.

Did you not find it odd that this donation from Beijing, from cutouts acting directly on behalf of the communist dictatorship in Beijing, were suddenly looking to target a donation to a foundation that bared the name of one of the candidates for prime minister in the election? Barrett asked.

Rosenberg said the donation had to be taken in the context of the time, when just about every university in Canada, many corporations, the government of Canada, including the Harper government, had changed their attitude towards China.

From that perspective, this was seen as a normal and desirable donation consistent with the foundations priorities, Rosenberg said.

Foreign Influence Concerns

The Globe and Mail broke the two stories related to the donation in the context of foreign influence schemes.

The first one, in November 2016, relates to Zhang Bin attending a cash-for-access Liberal Party fundraiser that year where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the guest of honour. The second, on Feb. 28 this year, came regarding the multiple national security leaks surfacing in recent months.

The Globe reported in February, according to a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) source, that an unnamed diplomat at one of Chinas consulates in Canada had in 2014 instructed Zhang Bin to donate money to the Trudeau Foundation, as the Liberals were perceived as poised to take power in 2015.

Conflict within the foundation leadership over how the donation was handled led to most of its leadership resigning in April.

The three directors who stayed on the board are all Trudeau family friends or founding members, including Edward Johnson. He announced after the boards dissolution that an independent review was being launched into the donation.

Alexandre Trudeau, brother of the current prime minister, had been involved early in the negotiations for the Chinese donation deal in 2014. He will testify before the committee on May 3.

Fournier said she couldnt explain how Alexandre Trudeau, a foundation director at the time, had signed the donation contract instead of Rosenberg.

Rosenberg said he approved the donation but [i]t was felt that given that the donation was to honour Pierre Trudeau,  it would be more appropriate for his son to represent the foundation at the ceremony and sign the agreement.

Election Integrity

Rosenberg was tapped to review the 2021 federal election protocol meant to inform Canadians if there was a threat to the integrity of the election. In his report published in February, he said the protocol had worked generally well but made recommendations on improving communications with the public.

He told the ethics committee on May 2 that his review was not meant to determine whether there had been foreign interference, but only if the protocol had worked.

Theres a lot of stuff in that report that is critical of the government, he said, pointing to the 16 recommendations he made.

The protocol said there were no incidents that met the threshold to inform the public of a threat.
Former Trudeau Foundation CEO Rosenberg Met with Chinese Officials

Office of the Trudeau Foundation in Montreal on April 19, 2023. (Noe Chartier/The Epoch Times)

The former CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation who accepted a donation linked to the Chinese regime told a committee he had not met with Chinese officials regarding the issue, but was presented with information that he in fact had.

Conservative MP Michael Barrett asked Morris Rosenberg if he had met with officials from the Peoples Republic of China to arrange the donation, and he replied that it wasnt the case.

Barrett said he was in possession of an access to information record indicating that Rosenberg met with Chinese consular officials on Sept. 24, 2014. Does that jog your memory? asked Barrett.

Yes  Sorry about that, replied Rosenberg, who was testifying before the House of Commons ethics committee on May 2. Rosenberg was at the helm of the foundation from 2014 to 2018.

So we have evidence that the president of the foundation met with consular officials from a foreign government to arrange a donation where they have the brother [of the prime minister sign a donation agreement], said Barrett.

So the foundation met with a foreign government, arranged this donation  and its minuted that it was a requirement to have Mr. [Alexandre] Trudeau personally involved.

Barrett asked Rosenberg, a former deputy minister of foreign affairs, how he could not see this was a foreign influence operation.

Rosenberg apologized for not having looked at the whole list of meeting attendees.

I didnt mean to mislead anybody on that, he said. This was an initiating meeting. This was not about the donation at this point. They were talking about a donation to the University of Montreal and to other universities in Canada.

That was in September 2014, but Alexandre Trudeau, then a foundation director, had been involved in the deal as early as June 2014.

Former Universite de Montreal (UdeM) vice-president Guy Lefebvre, who says he was instrumental in the donation agreement, told Le Devoir that the foundation was not initially part of the donation deal and had inserted itself into the picture.

Chinese businessmen Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng had pledged $1 million to the UdeM and the foundation. Both are affiliated to the state-backed China Cultural Industry Association (CCIA), as is Zhangs company which was the official donor, Millennium Golden Eagle Canada.

Rosenberg told the committee that the donation was not foreign, since it had been made in the name of the company which is registered in Quebec.

This also proved to be incorrect, with MPs reading from a donation receipt issued to the company but sent to an address in Hong Kong.

That didnt seem strange after working as a deputy minister of foreign affairs? asked Conservative MP Luc Berthold.

Millennium Golden Eagle Canada is also affiliated to Millennium Golden Eagle in China, a state-affiliated entity associated with the CCIA.

Alexandre Trudeau will testify at the committee on May 3.
Groups Lobbying for COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Were Funded by Pfizer

A child gets a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Hartford, Conn., on Jan. 6, 2022. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

Multiple organizations that pushed for COVID-19 vaccine mandates received funding from Pfizer, according to financial disclosures.

When Chicago Urban League President Karen Freeman-Wilson said in August 2021 that the benefit of mandates far outweighs concerns about them, she didnt mention that her organization had received a $100,000 grant for a vaccine safety and effectiveness campaign, according to a Pfizer disclosure.

That same month, the National Consumers League said it supported mandates imposed by governments and employers.

In recent weeks, it has become evident that employer mandates are effective at nudging reluctant people to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the group said in a statement.

The organization received $75,000 from Pfizer in the third quarter of 2021 for vaccine policy efforts.

The American Academy of Pediatrics drew more than $250,000 from Pfizer in 2021, the bulk coming before the organization announced support for COVID-19 vaccine mandates for health care workers. The group claimed mandates would curb COVID-19 transmission and cases.

The American Pharmacists Association, American College of Preventive Medicine, Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, American Society for Clinical Pathology, and the American College of Emergency Physicians also received grants from Pfizer before signing a letter that urged the Biden administration to impose COVID-19 vaccine mandates on private employers with 100 or more workers.

Journalist Lee Fang first reported on groups supporting mandates receiving money from Pfizer.

Other groups received money from Pfizer, which makes the most-used COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, after championing vaccine mandates.

Months after the American Academy of Family Physicians called for health care worker mandates, Pfizer granted it $249,000 for a collaborative consumer vaccine awareness and educational campaign.

The American Osteopathic Association received $150,000 for primary care physicians addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in late 2021, after signing on to the call for health care worker vaccination requirements.

The National Hispanic Medical Association received $30,000 in 2021 from the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, which lobbies for vaccine makers such as Pfizer, according to an IRS filing. The organization signed onto a joint statement calling for COVID-19 vaccine requirements for health care personnel.

Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, director of the Bioethics and American Democracy Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told Fang that pharmaceutical companies spend very large portions of their budgets on marketing, including on various health care organizations and third parties, and they do that because they get a return on that investment.

Pfizer and the groups the company funded that also expressed support for mandates didnt respond to requests for comment.

Pfizer also gave grants to institutions that imposed their own COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

New York University, for instance, received $20,000 from Pfizer for countering misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine before the school required vaccination for students and staff members. The Mayo Clinic also imposed a mandate after receiving more than $200,000 from Pfizer.

Other groups didnt explicitly express support for mandates but offered misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines.

The Alliance for Aging Research, which received $150,000 for COVID-19 vaccine campaigns, said that the messenger RNA injected into the body with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines only survives for a few hours in the body, which is not true.

The 100 Black Men of America group, which received $100,000 for vaccine engagement, said that people who received the vaccines will not need boosters, just months before U.S. officials authorized boosters because of waning effectiveness.

And the National Hispanic Council on Aging, which received $100,000 for the Lets Get Vaccinated Policy and Awareness Campaign, said that by getting the COVID-19 vaccine, you protect your health and the health of your loved ones, even though the vaccines dont prevent transmission.

Nearly all of the mandates will have been rescinded as of May 11, with President Joe Bidens administration ending most of the remaining requirements as it lets the COVID-19 public health emergency expire. Several agencies, though, are keeping mandates in place for now.
Health Care Professionals Call for Standardized Provider Directories

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) speaks during a Senate Finance Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Oct. 19, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via Reuters)

Inaccurate health care provider directories cause stress, unnecessary expense, and aggravation for insurance customers every day, according to witnesses testifying before a Senate Committee on Finance hearing on May 3.

Ghost networks are an ongoing, persistent problem, Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said.

Witnesses called on Congress to take steps to standardize directories and hold insurance companies accountable for the issue.

Ghost networks are formed when a health insurance plans directory includes inaccurate information, such as listings for doctors who have retired, never worked for the listed office, or are outside the plans network.

Wyden said this often becomes apparent only after a customer has enrolled in the plan. His staff did a secret shopper survey of health plans and successfully booked an appointment 18 percent of the time. Wyden said one staff member was connected with a high school health office.

In my view, its a breach of contract, he said. The last thing [customers] need from an insurance company is a symphony of please hold music.

Keris Jan Myrick told the committee that she has personal experience with the frustration that a ghost network can provoke.

Myrick is vice president of partnerships for Inseparable, an organization that advocates for improving mental health care policy. During the Obama presidency, Myrick was a director in the U.S. Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

When she moved from Los Angeles to Washington, Myrick consulted her health plans directory to find a new psychiatrist. She described the experience as searching for a needle in a haystack.

Lots of Hay, Very Few Needles

Lots of hay, very few needles. Unfortunately, my experience is not unique, Myrick said.

Myrick, who requires treatment for schizophrenia, said that when she finally found a psychiatrist in Washington who was taking new patients, she was told that the doctor didnt treat schizophrenia.

She was forced to make monthly trips back to Los Angeles to continue seeing her original doctor. Myrick told the committee that people with her illness but without resources could expect to deal with homelessness, the criminal courts, and other problems.

The consequences are dire, Myrick said.

Although the ghost network problem is most prominent in the mental health care sector, Dr. Jack Resneck, president of the American Medical Association, said it affects the entire health care industry. Resneck said its a problem that requires government intervention.

Standardization Is Key

Achieving directory accuracy is not simple, Resneck told the committee.

He said each plan has its own system for updating directory information. So if a doctor is listed in a dozen health care networks and makes a change, his staff must update each directory. Even when they do that, theres no guarantee that the changes will be made.

Resneck said a strong regulatory system would restore consumer confidence in a health care system that cant help them find a doctor.

Enough is enough. We can fix this, he said.

Dr. Robert Trestman, of the Carilion Clinic and Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, Virginia, agreed. As chair of psychiatry and behavioral medicine, he serves a largely rural area, so finding a doctor can already be a challenge. Dealing with a ghost network can be especially difficult for someone with a mental illness.

Process Is Demoralizing

Patients who cant find doctors who will see them often feel that the issue is their fault.

The process, at best, is demoralizing, Trestman said.

On top of all this, Mary Giliberti, of Mental Health America, in Alexandria, Virginia, said theres little incentive for health plans to address the issue.

Some plans intentionally inflate their directories to make it appear that they have more extensive networks than they do. Health insurance providers face no real consequences for this practice, Giliberti said.

She said her organization found that two-thirds of the listings in directories they studied needed to be more accurate.

Customer on the Hook

Consumers who see an out-of-network provider are responsible for the total cost of their care. It doesnt matter that they relied on an inaccurate directory to find that doctor.

Giliberti said this isnt fair.

Why should the patient be on the hook here? It should not be the responsibility of the individual, she said.

Giliberti and other witnesses recommended a carrot and stick solution. Providers that kept accurate directories would be rewarded, while those that didnt would be penalized. The witnesses called for three main elements in any plan: oversight by regulatory authorities, transparency in the process, and accountability.

Dr. Jeff Rideout said his organization had developed such a system. He also said it can be expanded.

Rideout is with the Integrated Healthcare Association of Oakland, California. He said the association had developed a system named Symphony that has a central repository into which health insurance plans place their directory information. The programs are required to update their entries when necessary.

The system automatically audits the directories every 90 days. Symphony will make what corrections it can and notify members of necessary changes it cant make.

Rideout said developers are constantly updating Symphony by adding data categories to help consumers find the needed doctors and health care providers. He said having the central repository makes the job easier.

Still, he conceded that maintaining the system is a complex undertaking.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first-ever respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine for use in adults aged 60 and over on Wednesday.

The approval of its drug Arexvy is a major victory for British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which has been rushing to get its RSV vaccine out to the market before competitors including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna.

Today marks a turning point in our effort to reduce the significant burden of RSV, Tony Wood, GSKs chief scientific officer, said in a statement, adding that the company will now focus on making sure eligible older adults in the United States can get the vaccine as quickly as possible.

The London-based company describes Arexvy as generally well tolerated with an acceptable safety profile. The most frequently observed adverse events associated with the product include injection site pain, fatigue, myalgia, headache, and arthralgia, which the company said were generally mild to moderate and transient.

Arexvy is whats called an adjuvanted vaccine, meaning that it consists of both an RSV antigen, which is a subpart of the virus that prompts the immune system to produce antibodies that fight the disease and an adjuvant which helps generate a stronger immune response.

By contrast, the RSV vaccine candidates developed by Pfizer and Moderna are based on mRNA technology, meaning that they dont contain any antigen or adjuvant, but instead instruct human cells to produce the virus protein that can trigger an immune response. Those candidates, namely Pfizers RSVpreF and Modernas mRNA-1345, are still under FDA review.

GSK had also been developing an RSV vaccine aimed at preventing the disease in pregnant women. In February 2022, however, it voluntarily called off enrollment and vaccination in its phase 3 maternal vaccine program because of safety concerns. This makes Pfizers RSVpreF the only remaining maternal RSV vaccine candidate.

The GSK shot is not currently approved anywhere outside the United States. The company said theyre working toward regulatory review and approval of the product in other countries.

Nearly all American children have been infected with RSV by age two, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH). In healthy people, symptoms of RSV infection are usually mild and resolve within a week.

However, RSV can cause serious illness or death in vulnerable individuals, including premature and very young infants, children with chronic lung disease or congenital heart disease, and people who are over age 65, the federal agency said.

In the United States, RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small airways in the lungs) in children younger than one and causes approximately 58,000 hospitalizations among children under five annually, according to the NIH. It causes approximately 14,000 death of adults over age 65 each year across the country.
Scott Adams is the creator of the famous cartoon strip, Dilbert. It is a strip whose brilliance derives from close observation and understanding of human behavior. Some time ago, Scott turned those skills to commenting insightfully and with notable intellectual humility on the politics and culture of our country.

Like many other commentators, and based on his own analysis of evidence available to him, he opted to take the COVID vaccine.

Recently, however, he posted a video on the topic that has been circulating on social media. It was a mea culpa in which he declared, The unvaccinated were the winners, and, to his great credit, I want to find out how so many of [my viewers] got the right answer about the vaccine and I didnt.

Winners was perhaps a little tongue-in-cheekhe seemingly means that the unvaccinated do not have to worry about the long-term consequences of having the vaccine in their bodies since enough data concerning the lack of safety of the vaccines have now appeared to demonstrate that, on the balance of risks, the choice not to be vaccinated has been vindicated for individuals without comorbidities.

What follows is a personal response to Scott, which explains how consideration of the information that was available at the time led one personmeto decline the vaccine. It is not meant to imply that all who accepted the vaccine made the wrong decision or, indeed, that everyone who declined it did so for good reasons.

1. Some people have said that the vaccine was created in a hurry. That may or may not be true. Much of the research for mRNA vaccines had already been done over many years, and corona-viruses as a class are well understood so it was at least feasible that only a small fraction of the vaccine development had been hurried. The much more important point was that the vaccine was rolled out without long-term testing.

Therefore one of two conditions applied. Either no claim could be made with confidence about the long-term safety of the vaccine or there was some amazing scientific argument for a once-in-a-lifetime theoretical certainty concerning the long-term safety of this vaccine. The latter would be so extraordinary that it might (for all I know) even be a first in the history of medicine. If that were the case, it would have been all that was being talked about by the scientists; it was not.

Therefore, the more obvious, first state of affairs, obtained: nothing could be claimed with confidence about the long-term safety of the vaccine. Given, then, that the long-term safety of the vaccine was a theoretical crapshoot, the unquantifiable long-term risk of taking it could only be justified by an extremely high certain risk of not taking it.

Accordingly, a moral and scientific argument could only be made for its use by those at high risk of severe illness if exposed to COVID. Even the very earliest data immediately showed that I (and the overwhelming majority of the population) was not in the group. The continued insistence on rolling out the vaccine to the entire population when the data revealed that those with no comorbidities were at low risk of severe illness or death from COVID was therefore immoral and ascientific on its face.

The argument that reduced transmission from the non-vulnerable to the vulnerable as a result of mass vaccination could only stand if the long-term safety of the vaccine had been established, which it had not. Given the lack of proof of long-term safety, the mass-vaccination policy was clearly putting at risk young or healthy lives to save old and unhealthy ones.

The policy makers did not even acknowledge this, express any concern about the grave responsibility they were taking on for knowingly putting people at risk, or indicate how they had weighed the risks before reaching their policy positions. Altogether, this was a very strong reason not to trust the policy or the people setting it. At the very least, if the gamble with peoples health and lives represented by the coercive vaccination policy had been taken following an adequate cost-benefit analysis, that decision would have been a tough judgment call.

Any honest presentation of it would have involved the equivocal language of risk-balancing and the public availability of information about how the risks were weighed and the decision was made. In fact, the language of policy-makers was dishonestly unequivocal and the advice they offered suggested no risk whatsoever of taking the vaccine. This advice was simply falseor if you prefer, misleadingon the evidence of the time inasmuch as it was unqualified.

2. Data that did not support COVID policies were actively and massively suppressed. This raised the bar of sufficient evidence for certainty that the vaccine was safe and efficacious. Per the foregoing, the bar was not met.

3. Simple analyses of even the early available data showed that the establishment was prepared to do much more harm in terms of human rights and spending public resources to prevent a COVID death than any other kind of death. Why this disproportionality?

An explanation of this overreaction was required. The kindest guess as to what was driving it was good-old, honest panic. But if a policy is being driven by panic, then the bar for going along with it moves up even higher. A less kind guess is that there were undeclared reasons for the policy, in which case, obviously, the vaccine could not be trusted.

4. Fear had clearly generated a health panic and a moral panic, or mass formation psychosis. That brought into play many very strong cognitive biases and natural human tendencies against rationality and proportionality.

Evidence of those biases was everywhereit included the severing of close kin and kith relationships, the ill-treatment of people by others who used to be perfectly decent, the willingness of parents to cause developmental harm to their children, calls for large-scale rights violations that were made by large numbers of citizens of previously free countries without any apparent concern for the horrific implications of those calls, and the straight-faced, even anxious, compliance with policies that should have warranted responses of laughter from psychologically healthy individuals (even if they had been necessary or just helpful).

In the grip of such panic or mass formation psychosis, the evidential bar for extreme claims (such as the safety and moral necessity of injecting oneself with a form of gene therapy that has not undergone long-term testing) rises yet further.

5. The companies responsible for manufacturing and ultimately profiting from the vaccination were given legal immunity. Why would a government do that if it really believed that the vaccine was safe and wanted to instill confidence in it? And why would I put something in my body that the government has decided can harm me without my having any legal redress?

6. If the vaccine-skeptical were wrong, there would still have been two good reasons not to suppress their data or views. First, we are a liberal democracy that values free speech as a fundamental right, and second, their data and arguments could be shown to be fallacious. The fact that the powers-that-be decided to violate our fundamental values and suppress discussion invites the question of Why?

That was not satisfactorily answered beyond, Its easier for them to impose their mandates in a world where people do not dissent,but that is an argument against compliance, rather than for it. Suppressing information a priori suggests that the information has persuasive force.

I distrust anyone who distrusts me to determine which information and arguments are good and which are bad when it is my health that is at stakeespecially when the people who are promoting censorship are hypocritically acting against their declared beliefs in informed consent and bodily autonomy.

7. The PCR [polymerase chain reaction] test was held up as the gold standard diagnostic test for COVID. A moments reading about how the PCR test works indicates that it is no such thing. Its use for diagnostic purposes is more of an art than a science, to put it kindly.

Kary Mullis, who in 1993 won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for inventing the PCR technique risked his career to say as much when people tried to use it as a diagnostic test for HIV to justify a mass program of pushing experimental anti-retroviral drugs on early AIDS patients, which ultimately killed tens of thousands of people. This raises the question, How do the people who are generating the data that we saw on the news every night and were being used to justify the mass vaccination policy handle the uncertainty around PCR-based diagnoses?

If you dont have a satisfactory answer to this question, your bar for taking the risk of vaccination should once again go up. (On a personal note, to get the answer before making my decision about whether to undergo vaccination, I sent exactly this question, via a friend, to an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins.

That epidemiologist, who was personally involved in generating the up-to-date data on the spread of pandemic globally, replied merely that s/he works with the data s/hes given and does not question its accuracy or means of generation. In other words, the pandemic response was largely based on data generated by processes that were not understood or even questioned by the generators of that data.)

8. To generalize the last point, a supposedly conclusive claim by someone who demonstrably cannot justify their claim should be discounted. In the case of the COVID pandemic, almost all people who acted as if the vaccine was safe and effective had no physical or informational evidence for the claims of safety and efficacy beyond the supposed authority of other people who made them.

This includes many medical professionalsa problem that was being raised by some of their number (who, in many cases, were censored on social media and even lost their jobs or licenses). Anyone could read the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] infographics on mRNA vaccines and, without being a scientist, generate obvious But what if..? questions that could be asked of experts to check for themselves whether the pushers of the vaccines would personally vouch for their safety.

For example, the CDC put out an infographic that stated the following: How does the vaccine work? The mRNA in the vaccine teaches your cells how to make copies of the spike protein. If you are exposed to the real virus later, your body will recognize it and know how to fight it off. After the mRNA delivers the instructions, your cells break it down and get rid of it.

All right. Here are some obvious questions to ask, then: What happens if the instructions delivered to cells to generate the spike protein are not eliminated from the body as intended? How can we be sure that such a situation will never arise? If someone cannot answer those questions, and he is in a position of political or medical authority, then he shows himself to be willing to push potentially harmful policies without considering the risks involved.

9. Given all of the above, a serious person at least had to keep an eye out for published safety and efficacy data as the pandemic proceeded. Pfizers Six-month Safety and Efficacy Study was notable. The very large number of its authors was remarkable and their summary claim was that the tested vaccine was effective and safe. The data in the paper showed more deaths per head in the vaccinated group than the unvaccinated group.

While this difference does not statistically establish that the shot is dangerous or ineffective, the generated data were clearly compatible with (let us put it kindly) the incomplete safety of the vaccineat odds with the front-page summary. (Its almost as if even professional scientists and clinicians exhibit bias and motivated reasoning when their work becomes politicized.)

At the very least, a lay reader could see that the summary findings stretched, or at least showed a remarkable lack of curiosity about, the dataespecially given what was at stake and the awesome responsibility of getting someone to put something untested inside their body.

10. As time went on, it became very clear that some of the informational claims that had been made to convince people to get vaccinated, especially by politicians and media commentators, were false. If those policies had been genuinely justified by the previously claimed facts, then determination of the falsity of those facts should have resulted in a change in policy or, at the very least, expressions of clarification and regret by people who had previously made those incorrect but pivotal claims.

Basic moral and scientific standards demand that individuals put clearly on the record the requisite corrections and retractions of statements that might influence decisions that affect health. If they dont, they should not be trustedespecially given the huge potential consequences of their informational errors for an increasingly vaccinated population. That, however, never happened.

If the vaccine-pushers had acted in good faith, then in the wake of the publication of new data throughout the pandemic, we would have been hearing (and perhaps even accepting) multiple mea culpas. We heard no such thing from political officials, revealing an almost across-the-board lack of integrity, moral seriousness, or concern with accuracy. The consequently necessary discounting of the claims previously made by officials left no trustworthy case on the pro-lockdown, pro-vaccine side at all.

To offer some examples of statements that were proven false by data but not explicitly walked back:

Youre not going to get COVID if you get these vaccinations  We are in a pandemic of the unvaccinated.Joe Biden

The vaccines are safe. I promise you  Joe Biden

The vaccines are safe and effective. Anthony Fauci.

Our data from the CDC suggest that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, do not get sickand its not just in the clinical trials but its also in real-world data.  Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

We have over 100,000 children, which weve never had before, in  in serious condition and many on ventilators. Justice Sotomayer (during a case to determine legality of Federal vaccine mandates).

 and so on and so on.

The last one is particularly interesting because it was made by a judge in a Supreme Court case to determine the legality of the federal mandates. Subsequently, the aforementioned Dr. Walensky, head of the CDC, who had previously made a false statement about the efficacy of the vaccine, confirmed under questioning that the number of children in hospital was only 3,500not 100,000.

To make more strongly the point about prior claims and policies being contradicted by subsequent findings but not, as a result, being reversed, the same Dr. Walensky, head of the CDC, said, the overwhelming number of deathsover 75 percentoccurred in people that had at least four comorbidities. So really these were people who were unwell to begin with.

That statement so completely undermined the entire justification for the policies of mass-vaccination and lockdowns that any intellectually honest person who supported them would at that point have to reassess their position. Whereas the average Joe might well have missed that piece of information from the CDC, it was the governments own information so the presidential Joe (and his agents) certainly could not have missed it.

Where was the sea change in policy to match the sea change in our understanding of the risks associated with COVID, and therefore the cost-benefit balance of the untested (long-term) vaccine versus the risk associated with being infected with COVID? It never came. Clearly, neither the policy positions nor their supposed factual basis could be trusted.

11. What was the new science that explained why, for the first time in history, a vaccine would be more effective than natural exposure and consequent immunity? Why the urgency to get a person who has had COVID and now has some immunity to get vaccinated after the fact?

12. The overall political and cultural context in which the entire discourse on vaccination was being conducted was such that the evidential bar for the safety and efficacy of the vaccine was raised yet further while our ability to determine whether that bar had been met was reduced.

Any conversation with an unvaccinated person (and as an educator and teacher, I was involved in very many), always involved the unvaccinated person being put into a defensive posture of having to justify himself to the vaccine-supporter as if his position was de facto more harmful than the contrary one. In such a context, accurate determination of facts is almost impossible: moral judgment always inhibits objective empirical analysis.

When dispassionate discussion of an issue is impossible because judgment has saturated discourse, drawing conclusions of sufficient accuracy and with sufficient certainty to promote rights violations and the coercion of medical treatment, is next to impossible.

13. Regarding analytics (and Scotts point about our heuristics beating their analytics), precision is not accuracy. Indeed, in contexts of great uncertainty and complexity, precision is negatively correlated with accuracy. (A more precise claim is less likely to be correct.)

Much of the COVID panic began with modeling. Modeling is dangerous inasmuch as it puts numbers on thingsnumbers are precise, and precision gives an illusion of accuracybut under great uncertainty and complexity, model outputs are dominated by the uncertainties on the input variables that have very wide (and unknown) ranges and the multiple assumptions that themselves warrant only low confidence. Therefore, any claimed precision of a models output is bogus and the apparent accuracy is only and entirely thatapparent.

We saw the same thing with HIV in the 80s and 90s. Models at that time determined that up to one-third of the heterosexual population could contract HIV. Oprah Winfrey offered that statistic on one of her shows, alarming a nation.

The first industry to know that this was absurdly wide of the mark was the insurance industry when all of the bankruptcies that they were expecting on account of payouts on life insurance policies did not happen. When the reality did not match the outputs of their models, they knew that the assumptions on which those models were based were falseand that the pattern of the disease was very different from what had been declared.

For reasons beyond the scope of this article, the falseness of those assumptions could have been determined at the time. Of relevance to us today, however, is the fact that those models helped to create an entire AIDS industry, which pushed experimental antiretroviral drugs on people with HIV no doubt in the sincere belief that the drugs might help them. Those drugs killed hundreds of thousands of people.

By the way, the man who announced the discovery of HIV from the White Housenot in a peer-reviewed journaland then pioneered the huge and deadly reaction to it was the very same Anthony Fauci who has been gracing our television screens over the last few years.

14. An honest approach to data on COVID and policy development would have driven the urgent development of a system to collect accurate data on COVID infections and the outcomes of COVID patients. Instead, the powers that be did the very opposite, making policy decisions that knowingly reduced the accuracy of collected data in a way that would serve their political purposes.

Specifically, they 1) stopped distinguishing between dying of COVID and dying with COVID and 2) incentivized medical institutions to identify deaths as caused by COVID when there was no clinical data to support that conclusion. (This also happened during the aforementioned HIV panic three decades ago.)

15. The dishonesty of the pro-vaccine side was revealed by the repeated changes of official definitions of clinical terms like vaccine whose (scientific) definitions have been fixed for generations (as they must be if science is to do its work accurately: definitions of scientific terms can change, but only when our understanding of their referents changes).

Why was the government changing the meanings of words rather than simply telling the truth using the same words they had been using from the beginning? Their actions in this regard were entirely disingenuous and anti-science. The evidential bar moves up again and our ability to trust the evidence slides down.

In his video (which I mentioned at the top of this article), Scott Adams asked, How could I have determined that the data that [vaccine-skeptics] sent me was the good data? He did not have to. Those of us who got it right or won (to use his word) needed only to accept the data of those who were pushing the vaccination mandates.

Since they had the greatest interest in the data pointing their way, we could put an upper bound of confidence in their claims by testing those claims against their own data. For someone without comorbidities, that upper bound was still too low to take the risk of vaccination given the very low risk of severe harm from contracting COVID-19.

In this relation, it is also worth mentioning that under the right contextual conditions, absence of evidence is evidence of absence. Those conditions definitely applied in the pandemic: there was a massive incentive for all of the outlets who were pushing the vaccine to provide sufficient evidence to support their unequivocal claims for the vaccine and lockdown policies and to denigrate, as they did, those who disagreed.

They simply did not provide that evidence, obviously because it did not exist. Given that they would have provided it if it had existed, the lack of evidence presented was evidence of its absence.

For all of the above reasons, I moved from initially considering enrolling in a vaccine trial to doing some open-minded due diligence to becoming COVID-vaccine-skeptical. I generally believe in never saying never so I was waiting until such time as the questions and issues raised above were answered and resolved. Then, I would be potentially willing to get vaccinated, at least in principle.

Fortunately, not subjecting oneself to a treatment leaves one with the option to do so in the future. (Since the reverse is not the case, by the way, the option value of not acting yet weighs somewhat in favor of the cautious approach.)

However, I remember the day when my decision not to take the vaccine became a firm one. A conclusive point brought me to decide that I would not be taking the vaccine under prevailing conditions. A few days later, I told my mother on a phone call, They will have to strap me to a table.

16. Whatever the risks associated with a COVID infection on the one hand, and the vaccine on the other, the vaccination policy enabled massive human rights violations. Those who were vaccinated were happy to see the unvaccinated have basic freedoms removed (the freedom to speak freely, work, travel, and be with loved ones at important moments such as births, deaths, funerals, etc.) because their status as vaccinated allowed them to accept back as privileges-for-the-vaccinated the rights that had been removed from everyone else.

Indeed, many people grudgingly admitted that they got vaccinated for that very reason, e.g., to keep their job or go out with their friends. For me, that would have been to be complicit in the destruction, by precedent and participation, of the most basic rights on which our peaceful society depends.

People have died to secure those rights for me and my compatriots. As a teenager, my Austrian grandfather fled to England from Vienna and promptly joined Churchills army to defeat Hitler. Hitler was the man who murdered his father, my great-grandfather, in Dachau for being a Jew.

The camps began as a way to quarantine the Jews who were regarded as vectors of disease that had to have their rights removed for the protection of the wider population. In 2020, all I had to do in defense of such rights was to put up with limited travel and being barred from my favorite restaurants, etc. for a few months.

Even if I were some weird statistical outlier such that COVID might hospitalize me despite my age and good health, then so be itif it were going to take me, I would not let it take my principles and rights in the meanwhile.

And what if I were wrong? What if the massive abrogation of rights that was the response of governments around the world to a pandemic with a tiny fatality rate among those who were not unwell to begin with (to use the expression of the director of the CDC) was not going to end in a few months?

What if it were going to go on forever? In that case, the risk to my life from COVID would be nothing next to the risk to all of our lives as we take to the streets in the last, desperate hope of wresting back the most basic freedoms of all from a State that has long forgotten that it legitimately exists only to protect them and, instead, sees them now as inconvenient obstacles to be worked around or even destroyed.

From the Brownstone Institute

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.
In another sign of changing attitudes to pandemic policy, infectious disease specialists writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine this month argued against the continuation of universal masking policies for doctors, nurses, and other health care workers.

In the article, the eight authors, who are infectious disease specialists associated with Harvard and Washington University medical schools among others, offer a timeline of the evolving responses to the pandemic. The timeline leaves out the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) initially confusing advice on masking but acknowledges that factors like the development of immunity, the evolution of the virus, and development of pharmaceutical countermeasures have fundamentally reshaped the landscape of the pandemic.

 2023 American College of Physicians. Used with Permission. Erica S. Shenoy, Hilary M. Babcock, Karen B. Brust, et al. Universal Masking in Health Care Settings: A Pandemic Strategy Whose Time Has Come and Gone, For Now. Ann Intern Med. [Epub 18 April 2023] The burden of SARS-CoV-2 has been mitigated over time, the authors state, through access to testing, substantial population-level immunity providing durable protection against severe disease, a series of less virulent variants, and widespread availability of medical countermeasures, which in combination have resulted in decreasing infection mortality rates.

They conclude that SARS-CoV-2 has transitioned to a more stable phase, during which the choice and intensity of mitigation efforts must be commensurate with the risk and align with management strategies for other endemic, transmissible diseases.

Recognizing these changes, the authors state, many pandemic interventions have been deimplemented, but, Masking requirements and other restrictions remain notable exceptions.

Some in the medical field, such as Dr. Kalu Ibukunoluwa and co-authors writing in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology in January, argue for making universal masking requirements in health care settings permanent, stating that such universal source control masking  should become the new normal for all healthcare institutions.

However, Dr. Erica Shenoy, an infectious diseases physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, lead author of the study and her co-authors disagree.

While acknowledging that masking may marginally reduce the risk of transmission between health care workers and patients (and vice versa), the authors argue that this potential benefit is outweighed by the barriers to communication masking brings to interactions with patients.

According to the specialists, masking impedes communication, a barrier that is distributed unequally across patient populations, such as those for whom English is not their first language as well as those who are hard of hearing due to age or other causes.

The increase in listening effort required when masks are used in clinical encounters is associated with increased cognitive load for patients and clinicians, the authors contend, citing several studies to support their argument. Masks obscure facial expression; contribute to feelings of isolation; and negatively impact human connection, trust, and perception of empathy.

The authors go on to question other pandemic-era strategies, including asymptomatic testing and resource-intensive contact tracing, which similarly have experienced a shift in their risk-benefit balance over the course of the pandemic.

A controversial meta-analysis from the highly regarded research institution, The Cochrane Library, published in March found no clear difference between masked and unmasked health care workers in preventing transmission of the flu, nor any clear difference in results using N95 masks versus other masks.

According to Sherri Tenpenny, an osteopathic medical doctor who founded the Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center in Ohio, Masks didnt protect people from getting sick during the pandemic and they certainly should not be used now. More than 150 comparative studies and articles have been published that show mask ineffectiveness and document how masks harm the health of persons who wear them.

She went on to tell The Epoch Times in an email that masking policies for everyone, including health care professionals, should be eliminated because they are not an effective infection prevention strategy.

They dont prevent infection or transmission, she said. They are a belief system, and beliefs are difficult to change. If a person chooses to wear a mask for political correctness or as a sign of social signaling, it is even more difficult for them to stop. They will cling to the lie that masks are of value, even when they are shown a mountain of evidence to the contrary.

The CDC continues to cite mask wearing along with other measures such as social distancing and school closures as contributing to the dramatic drop in influenza rates during the pandemic.
Its 2013. The Harlem Shake is on the radio and e-cigarettes are becoming a thing. A group of researchers convenes to discuss these and other products containing nicotine.

In a 2014 paper detailing the outcomes of that meeting, the authors rated electronic nicotine delivery systems (e-cigarettes) as having only 4 percent of the maximum relative harm of cigarettes.

Critically, the authors stated their understanding of the potential hazards of e-cigarettes was at a very early stage because they lacked hard evidence for the harms of most products on most of the criteria they examined.

In other words, they noted their work was methodologically weak and their estimates were just thatguesses based on their opinions rather than scientific evidence.

But one of those guesstimates has gone on to become the most cited piece of vaping misinformation globally: e-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful than tobacco cigarettes.

The problem is, its wrong.

How the Guesstimate Took Off

Public Health England used the 95 percent figure in its 2015 review of e-cigarettes but failed to mention the caveats of the guesstimate.

This prompted widespread criticism from experts. An editorial in The Lancet medical journal labeled the 2014 paper an extraordinarily flimsy foundation on which to base the major conclusion of Public Health Englands review.

The Lancet editorial notes Public Health England used the guesstimate despite it being based on the opinions of a small group of individuals with no prespecified expertise in tobacco control and an almost total absence of evidence.

The 2015 editorial also raised concerns about conflicts of interest, noting that some researchers involved in developing the guesstimate had connections to Big Tobacco. These conflicts were described further in the British Medical Journal in September, and November 2015.

Despite this, the 95 percent figure remained in Public Health Englands communications. It had also spread to e-cigarette advertising.

By 2020, the guesstimate had become a factoidunreliable information repeated so often it becomes accepted as fact. Yet given the growing evidence of harms associated with e-cigarette use, the factoid was even less valid seven years later.

How It Has Been Used in Australia

The industry and its allies have been so effective at publicizing this unscientific guesstimate, it continues to be used to undermine Australias public health policy.

In submissions made to Australias 2020 Senate Inquiry into Tobacco Harm Reduction, industry bodies and allies leaned heavily on the factoid in their arguments for legalizing e-cigarettes.

They continued to do so in the 2020 Therapeutic Goods Administrations consultation on the rescheduling of nicotine as prescription only and most recently in the 2022 consultation on proposed reforms to the regulation of vaping products to limit importation and improve product standards.

Why Does It Matter?

Although this factoid has been debunked, it continues to influence peoples thinking. Misinformation researchers refer to this as the continued influence effectonce it takes hold, its notoriously difficult to dislodge.

As a digestible, attention-grabbing stat, it circulates in the media and is repeated again and again. And because we are more likely to believe false information when it has been repeated many times (the illusory truth effect), the misinformation becomes truth, even after we have been told its false.

Even this year, harm-reduction experts have used the factoid to argue vaping is less harmful than smoking and that Australia could look to other countries that legally sell vapes to adults without prescription.

Whats the Solution?

We must debunk the myth that e-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful than tobacco cigarettes often and with factual evidence.

Here is that evidence:

E-cigarette use involves the inhalation of toxic substances and is associated with poisoning, lung injury, and burns.

Nicotine e-cigarettes can cause dependence or addiction in non-smokers.

Young non-smokers who use e-cigarettes are more likely than non-users to initiate smoking and become regular smokers.

E-cigarettes do not result in reduced harm if users continue to smoke (which most do). This study found no difference between e-cigarette users and smokers rates of smoking-related disease and self-reported health six years later.

Public health policies should be informed by impartial evidence, not industry-backed guesses. Its time to leave the factoid back in 2013 with The Harlem Shake.

Michelle Jongenelis, Associate Professor, Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
SINGAPORE, May 03, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Concerns over the actual and prospective solvency levels at what was recently Indonesias largest domestic reinsurer has limited its ability to write new business and prompted cedants to place coverage elsewhere during the 1 January 2023 renewals, according to a new AM Best commentary.

The Bests Commentary, "Indonesian Market Hampered by Weakened Domestic Reinsurer Solvency," notes that thinning capital buffers among Indonesias domestic reinsurers leaves them facing the challenge of withstanding further balance sheet shocks amid the increased likelihood for near-term economic uncertainties and unexpected catastrophe events.

PT Reasuransi Nasional Indonesia (Nasional Re) reported a negative regulatory solvency ratio in 2022 after being impacted by capital erosion from significant adverse reserve development, largely related to losses from credit reinsurance. The Bests Commentary also notes that the magnitude of reserve strengthening at Nasional Re was so significant that both its shareholders equity and regulatory solvency ratios fell to negative levels.

This weakened solvency position at Nasional Re led to a coordinated replacement of capacity by cedents to other reinsurers during the recent reinsurance renewals.

"Replacing this reinsurance coverage was further exacerbated by the limited capacity available in Indonesias market given the reduced appetite of international reinsurers," AM Best Director Michael Dunckley said.

Indonesias domestic reinsurers have long been favoured by cedents there, not only because of applicable regulatory requirements to cede their business locally, but also because of their associated lower reinsurance costs and more favourable reinsurance commissions. According to the commentary, non-life insurers in Indonesia favor the use of reinsurance, ceding approximately 45-50% of gross premiums in 2022, with more than half going to domestic reinsurers. However, domestic cedents are becoming more cautious in the selection of reinsurance counterparties given the realisation that even well-established domestic reinsurance market leaders like Nasional Re can pose a risk of default. Notwithstanding, some cedents continue to rely heavily on the use of basic measures such as the counterparties absolute capital bases and market positions as key indicators of creditworthiness.

Story continues

"AM Best considers the markets concentration to domestic reinsurers a source of systemic risk as the impact arising from the failure of the domestic reinsurers would also spill over to the primary market," AM Best Associate Director Chris Lim added.

To access a complimentary copy of this market segment report, please visit http://www3.ambest.com/bestweek/purchase.asp?record_code=331173.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2023 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230502006219/en/

Contacts

Chris Lim, FCII, CFA

Associate Director

+65 6303 5018

chris.lim@ambest.com

Richard Banks

Director, Industry Research  EMEA

+44 20 7397 0322

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Michael Dunckley, CFA

Director, Analytics

+65 6303 5020

michael.dunckley@ambest.com

Edem Kuenyehia

Director, Market Development & Communications

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Follow the money, and you will see Hollywood elites bought by foreign interests to influence American politics. Ex-Fugees rapper Pras Michel has been found guilty of colluding with the Chinese regime to influence American politicians. Michel faced 11 counts over conspiracy to help Malaysian businessman Jho Taek Low and the Chinese regime gain access to U.S. officials.

Michel distributed up to $21.6 million of Lows money to straw donors who then donated the money to Barack Obamas campaign. The straw donors were U.S. citizens, shielding the fact that the funds came illegally from a foreign donor. Michel is alleged to have been paid $70 million by Low to affect the donations scheme and other services he provided. With the upcoming 2024 election, Americans should be wary of how money influences our politicians and how Hollywood entertainers are susceptible to election interference schemes.
Two hospitals broke a law requiring emergency medical care for facilities that are paid by Medicare, federal officials say.

The Freeman Health System in Joplin, Missouri, and the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kansas violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTLA) when they failed to offer necessary stabilizing care to a woman, officials with the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said in notices to the hospitals.

The woman was identified as Mylissa Farmer by her lawyers, who said she was suffering from life-threatening pregnancy complications 17 weeks into her pregnancy when she went to the hospitals.

Doctors should have carried out an emergency abortion after Farmers water broke and it was determined her pregnancy was no longer viable, the National Womens Law Center, which is representing Farmer, said in a complaint to CMS.

CMS investigators reached the same conclusion after the investigation. Officials said Farmer was discharged with an un-stabilized emergency medical condition, which created a reasonable expectation that an adverse outcome resulting in serious injury, harm, impairment, or death will occur to current or future individuals in similar situations if not immediately corrected.

U.S. authorities said EMTLA requires hospitals to provide emergency services even if the services might be illegal under state laws that have come into effect, or were approved, in the wake of the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade. That position isnt universal, though. A U.S. judge in 2022, for example, prohibited hospitals from following that guidance in contravention of Texas law, saying it goes well beyond EMTALAs text, which protects both mothers and unborn children.

EMTLA is silent as to abortion, and preempts state law only when the two directly conflict, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee, said in his ruling.

Missouri law bans many abortions, though it contains exceptions for emergencies. Kansas law allows abortions up to 22 weeks. Both states require a waiting period and counseling prior to an abortion.

Fortunately, this patient survived. But she never should have gone through the terrifying ordeal she experienced in the first place, Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. We want her, and every patient out there like her, to know that we will do everything we can to protect their lives and health, and to investigate and enforce the law to the fullest extent of our legal authority, in accordance with orders from the courts.

Buildings at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., on March 9, 2020. (Charlie Riedel/AP Photo)

Federal officials sent documents to hospitals that receive Medicare funds outlining their obligations under EMTLA and warning that we will not hesitate to enforce your obligations under the law, Becerra added.

Doctors at the two hospitals were said to have advised Farmer that her condition could rapidly get worse but that they could not carry out an abortion due to hospital policies.

A University of Kansas Health System spokesperson told news outlets in a statement: The care provided to the patient was reviewed by the hospital and found to be in accordance with hospital policy. It met the standard of care based upon the facts known at the time, and complied with all applicable law. There is a process with CMS for this complaint and we respect that process. The University of Kansas Health System follows federal and Kansas law in providing appropriate, stabilizing, and quality care to all of its patients, including obstetric patients.

Freeman Health System did not respond to a request for comment.

I am pleased with this decision, but pregnant people across the country continue to be denied care and face increased risk of complications or death, and it must stop, Farmer said in a statement. I was already dealing with unimaginable loss and the hospitals made things so much harder.

What happened to our client Mylissa was not only horrificCMS has just made crystal clear that it was illegal, regardless of where she lived or that states laws. This is an important step in getting Mylissa some justice for the harm she suffered, but no one should ever go through this in the first place, added Michelle Banker, director of reproductive rights and health litigation at the National Womens Law Center.

The notices sent to the hospitals warned that the legal violations placed them on the verge of losing Medicare funding unless they took steps to update how they handle similar cases moving forward.

As of today, both hospitals have taken steps towards coming into compliance, a CMS spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email. CMS is continuing to work closely with them to ensure that they do so.

Failure to comply would mean exclusion from Medicare participation. The hospitals would also be referred to the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, which has the power to remove doctors from state healthcare programs and levy fines against both physicians and hospitals.
Hundreds of Minors Discovered Working Illegally at McDonalds Restaurants Across Kentucky

Hundreds of children, including two 10-year-olds, were found to be illegally working at multiple McDonalds locations across Kentucky, according to the Department of Labor.

In a May 2 news release, the department said investigators from its Wage and Hour Division found approximately 305 children were employed across Bauer Food LLC, Archways Richwood LLC, and Bell Restaurant Group I LLCthree separate franchisees that operate a total of 62 McDonalds locations across Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland, and Ohio.

The minors were working more than the legally permitted hours and performing tasks prohibited by law for young workers, officials said.

Too often, employers fail to follow the child labor laws that protect young workers, said Wage and Hour Division District Director Karen Garnett-Civils in Louisville, Kentucky. Under no circumstances should there ever be a 10-year-old child working in a fast-food kitchen around hot grills, ovens, and deep fryers.

According to the department, among the children discovered illegally working at the restaurants were two 10-year-old minors at a Louisville, Kentucky McDonalds restaurant operated by Bauer Food LLC, where they were not paid and allegedly sometimes made to work as late as 2 a.m.

The two children prepared and distributed food orders, cleaned the store, worked at the drive-thru window, and operated a register, officials said. One of the children was also allowed to operate a deep fryer, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Child Labor Laws

Overall, Bauer Food LLC employed 24 minors under the age of 16 to work more than legally permitted hours, officials said.

Labor law states that children aged 14 years or over are allowed to be employed, although working hours are limited to outside of school hours and to certain amounts each day.

Minors are also prohibited from working in hazardous working conditions, such as jobs involving excavation, driving, and the operation of various power-driven equipment.

Bauer Food was fined $39,711 in civil money penalties to address the child labor violations, the Department of Labor said.

A McDonalds spokesperson told the Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the children were in the store visiting their parent, who works as a night manager, and that franchisee organization management had not approved the minors being in that part of the restaurant. She added that any work the children undertook was done at the direction of and in the presence of their parent.

She also noted that the company has informed all employees regarding the companys policy as it pertains to children visiting their parents or guardians at work.

Unaccompanied minors wait to be processed by Border Patrol agents near the U.S.Mexico border in La Joya, Texas, on April 10, 2021. (John Moore/Getty Images)

More Minors Found Working Illegally

Investigators also found 242 minors between aged 14 and 15 working beyond permitted hours at Archways Richwood LLC, a Walton, Kentucky-based operator of 27 McDonalds locations. Officials said the minors worked earlier or later in the day than legally permitted and more than three hours on school days.

Archways Richwood was ordered to pay $143,566 for the violations.

Elsewhere, the department found 39 workers aged between 14 and 15 were working outside of and for more hours than legally permitted at restaurants operated by Bell Restaurant Group I LLC.

Some of these children worked more than the daily and weekly limits during school days and school weeks, and the employer allowed two of them to work during school hours, the department said. Investigators also found the employer systemically failed to pay workers overtime wages.

As a result of the child labor violations Bell Restaurant Group was ordered to pay $29,267 in civil money penalties and the Department of Labor also recovered $14,730 in back wages and liquidated damages for 58 workers.

The Epoch Times has contacted spokespersons for Bauer Food, Archways Richwood, and Bell Restaurant Group for comment.

Biden Vows to Crackdown on Child Labor

We are seeing an increase in federal child labor violations, including allowing minors to operate equipment or handle types of work that endangers them or employs them for more hours or later in the day than federal law allows, said Garnett-Civils. An employer who hires young workers must know the rules. An employer, parent, or young worker with questions can contact us for help understanding their obligations and rights under the law.

According to Department of Labor data, 835 minors were found to be working illegally across the United States in the fiscal year 2022, of which 688 were found to be illegally employed in hazardous occupations, marking the highest count on record since 2011.

In February, the Biden administration vowed to crackdown on a surge in the illegal exploitation of children for labor in the United States, citing a nearly 70 percent increase in kids being employed illegally by companies over the past five years.

The increase comes amid an ongoing immigration crisis that has led to a surge in children entering the country without their parents.

These reports are unacceptable, deeply troubling, and run afoul of the high expectations we have for the entire McDonalds brand, Tiffanie Boyd, senior vice president and chief people officer at McDonalds USA, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

It is not lost on us the significant responsibility we carry to ensure a positive and safe experience for everyone under the Arches. I know how important it is that every restaurant fosters a culture of safety. As a mother whose teenage son proudly worked at our local McDonalds, I feel this on a very personal level. We are committed to ensuring our franchisees have the resources they need to foster safe workplaces for all employees and maintain compliance with all labor laws, Boyd added.
IN-DEPTH: J6 Attorneys Sound Alarm on Federal Governments Treatment of American Citizens

'Its terrifying to be an American right now,' said Brad Geyer

People gather at the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington for the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, 2021. (Courtesy of Michael Hamilton)

Contrary to the narrative that pervaded the media the evening of Jan. 6, 2021, what attorney Michael Hamilton experienced before he left the rally at the U.S. Capitol Building was a day of peace and prayer.

Hamilton, who also attended seminary many years ago, held a worship service on the front lawn of the Capitol building.

People were singing hymns and with their hands held in the air praising God, Hamilton told The Epoch Times.

Everywhere he went, he said, there were deep-hearted patriots.

Then, three 15-passenger white vans arrived flanked by squad cars that Hamilton said he later confirmed to belong to Antifa, a far-left extremist group.

What Hamilton began to observe was a different, aggressive energy flooding into the crowd shortly thereafter.

All morning people were just walking, but this later infusion was racing and frenzied, he said, and trying to work others into a frenzy.

These new protesters were dressed like Trump supporters, but they were not Trump supporters, Hamilton said. They could disguise their appearance, but not their spirits. They were angry. It was time to leave.

What happened later that day has fueled conflicting narratives and pitted American citizens against the federal government in what has been deemed a partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The prevailing media narrative paints the supporters of former President Donald Trump who were at the Capitol as domestic terrorists, while those who were actually present, like Hamilton, say that what the media and the left have declared took place isnt the real story.

For Brad Geyer, an attorney who represents several J6 defendants whove been accused of conspiring against the government, the real story is much more alarming.

Its basically like this: all hands on deck. Everybody grab a fire bucket and just start dousing the flames, Geyer said. The Bill of Rights is on fire.

The Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, 2021. (Courtesy of Michael Hamilton)

FBI, DOJ Need Complete Overhaul

The list of constitutional amendments protecting the rights of citizens has lost its meaning to the federal government agencies like the DOJ, Geyer said, prompting both Geyer and Hamilton to step into the breach.

Geyer, who worked in several divisions of the DOJ for 21 years, said the law enforcement tactics used against foreign combatants are now being used against American citizens.

Its the story no one is telling, Geyer said.

The FBI is executing unconstitutional search warrants on people with misdemeanors and keeping them in jail without the right to a speedy trial based on the contrived use of laws applied to circumstances that are either taken out of context or simply didnt happen.

The search warrants are out of control, Geyer said. There will be 20 to 30 agents conducting the search. Suspectshusbands and wiveshave reported opening their front door and being covered in red dots.

Exaggerating the reality, federal prosecutors take hyperbolic statements made in texts or on social media posts such as We have to fight and twist them into an exhortation to engage in terrorism, he said.

There are endless examples, Geyer said. They did this across the board.

For the law enforcement agencies appointed to protect the American citizen, the Fourth Amendment no longer applies to them.

I think were run by gangsters, Geyer said. The FBI and the DOJ need a complete overhaul.

Brad Geyer, 2022. (Courtesy of Carolyn Blakeman with FormerFedsGroup Freedom Foundation)

A Spiritual War

Both Hamilton and Geyer have represented defendants in cases not only in the J6 community but also an equally and possibly not unconnected violation of human rights: the COVID policies that forced vaccine mandates and fatal medical treatments that ignored early treatment protocols.

With the arrival of the mask mandates in 2020, Hamilton said he felt called to withdraw from private practice and meet on the frontline what he saw as the beginning of a Marxist siege.

Both Geyer and Hamilton have helped start grassroots medical freedom organizationsthe FormerFedsGroup and Declare Truth, respectivelythat support those who have had to face termination from their jobs due to the COVID vaccine mandate, those who have suffered from hospital COVID treatment protocols such as the use of remdesivir, and those who have been targeted for gender reassignment surgeries.

Though separate focal points, Hamilton said theyre all weaved together into a cohesive, malignant scheme.

The masking, gaslighting, the isolating; telling people its not OK to say what you want to say, think what you want to think, or post what you want to postthese are all the essences of American freedoms, and they are being attacked, Hamilton said. From where I stand, theres a spiritual war going on between good and evil, and people today are having to choose which side to stand on. Those who are doing the dirty work of the enemy are getting free passes right now. Those who are standing up for truth and the Constitution are getting butchered and sacrificed at the altar of this weaponization.

As key public officials and their family members go unprosecuted for allegedly treasonous acts, Geyer pointed out that J6 defendants with only misdemeanor charges continue to sit in jail.

The DOJ has taken license with the Constitution to the extent that sorting through its duplicity has become a jumbled mess, Geyer said.

Its terrifying to be an American right now, Geyer said, adding that the country may already be lost.

Michael Hamilton, 2022. (Courtesy of Kelley Collins)

A Decades-Old Plot

Both Geyer and Hamilton agreed: the building blocks for the foundation of the Marxist plot began to be laid decades ago, with one of its goals being to target children through the education system.

John Dewey, who created the Dewey Decimal System and is consideredor called, at least, in a lot of circlesto be the father of modern education, said 50 years ago that we need to dumb down the reading requirements for high school because readers are thinkers and thinkers are an anathema to a collectivist society, Hamilton said.

To counter this move, Hamilton said a ground-up approach would be to defund the Department of Education and homeschool children.

We need more homeschooling co-ops where they are being taught real values and not gaslighted and brainwashed, Hamilton said.

Though the country could be lost, Geyer said, hes holding onto some hope that it can still be saved.

Theres not a clear path here, Geyer said. Theres too many systems and funding mechanisms. Everything has been rewired.

The question for Geyer is, can enough people be deprogrammed to stave off those who have been brainwashed to the point of no return?

Live Not by Lies

For Hamilton, no matter what happens, the solution is to persist in speaking the truth, especially in those places that were noticeably shut down in a time when the truth had been hijacked, he said.

He pointed to a paper written by Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn called Live Not by Lies, (pdf) in which Solzhenitsyn warned against citizens abandoning the truth in exchange for todays modest ration of food.

He said if you dont give a lie a home, it dies out, Hamilton said. He calls everyone to simply speak the truth where they stand when confronted with a lie and say, No, thats not true. Let me tell you whats real. If everyone does this instead of cowering and hiding, the lies die out, the evil loses its power, and the truth begins to prosper.

The Epoch Times contacted the DOJ for comment.
ANALYSIS: Oil Company Profits Soar

Top oil companies continue to see massive earnings, according to published earnings reports for the first quarter of 2023 this week.

Energy prices have been soaring following Russias invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and due to persistent global demand.

TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and Shell reported a combined record profit of $153.5 billion in 2022 and appear on track for another record year in 2023.

Gas and oil output has been rising despite a recent drop in energy prices, which hit historically high levels last year.

Oil companies have taken further advantage of strong consumer demand for energy amid cost-cutting efforts by investors in the wake of the lockdowns.

Investors are now beginning to fear that a economic slowdown this year could weaken demand for energy while supply-chain costs remain elevated above pre-pandemic levels.

Big Oil Companies See Positive Earnings Reports

ExxonMobil reported a record first-quarter profit on April 31 that was about double the amount over the year-ago quarter and exceeded analysts predictions.

The U.S. oil companys net profit rose to $11.43 billion in the first quarter, compared to last years $5.48 billion, including a $3.4 billion aftertax write-down after it ceased operations in Russia.

We delivered a first-quarter record despite the fact that energy prices and refining margins are softening a bit, Exxon CFO Kathryn Mikells told The Guardian.

Increased fuel production was the biggest contributor to the companys better-than-expected earnings report, said Mikells.

She said that Exxons earnings were driven by more volumes of crude and natural gas from newly launched offshore drilling and refining facilities, which compensated for the drop in energy prices and in fuel production.

Despite the increased revenue, the earnings of both Chevron and Exxon were off more than 40 percent of the record quarterly profits they reached last year.

Chevrons latest earnings report also beat market expectations, with higher-than-anticipated revenue in the first quarter as net profit climbed 5 percent, to $6.57 billion.

On the other hand, the threat of a deep recession toward the end of 2023 suggest that the rise in earnings may have reached their peak last year, investors told The Wall Street Journal.

BP released its first-quarter performance results on May 2, reporting $5 billion in profit for the first quarter of 2023, compared with $4.8 billion for the previous quarter.

However, this is lower than the $6.2 billion gained in the same quarter last year, but the Britain-based firm still set a 10-year record.

TotalEnergies first-quarter results on April 27 reported $5.6 billion in earnings, a 12 percent gain over the $4.9 billion in the same period last year.

Shell is not expected to release its first-quarter report until May 4, but highlights from preliminary earnings estimates suggest $9.13 billion in profit for the period.

In 2022, TotalEnergies announced $20.5 billion in adjusted earnings, while adjusted net income was at $36.2 billion.

ExxonMobil saw $59.1 billion in adjusted net earnings; Chevron gained $36.5 billion; BP took in $27.7 billion, despite a net loss of $2.5 billion linked to losses stemming from the Russian market; and Shell earned $39.9 billion.

British Government Imposes New Taxes on Big Oil

The industrys profit windfall last year had earned some criticism from various quarters, as high fuel costs put a strain on consumer finances, particularly in Europe.

The oil giants continued to benefit from their fuel-producing refineries, which remained profitable, as crude prices dropped and further boosted profits in the first quarter.

Some in the United Kingdom, including Ed Miliband, shadow secretary for climate change and net zero policy, attacked BPs record earnings and accused energy companies of profiting at the expense of British families.

The UKs Office of National Statistics, on April 24, showed electricity prices rise by 66.7 percent and gas prices by 129.4 percent, in the 12 months through March 2023.

To alleviate high energy prices, Whitehall announced the Energy Profits Levy in 2022 to support households dealing with the rising cost of living.

In Britain, oil companies have since been paying millions under a 25 percent windfall tax, which is used to subside household energy bills.

Energy firms operating in the United Kingdom or on the UK continental shelf are subject to the tax until March 2028.

Investors Start Financially Supporting Drilling Again

In America, oil and gas companies have complained about the White Houses reluctance to issue drilling permits and urged the administration to relax regulations, which would allow them to make the investments to lower energy prices.

The Center for American Progress accused energy companies of allegedly not using their excess profits to make key investments in boosting production.

Instead of using this cash to make the investments needed to help lower the price of oil or to fulfill their climate pledges, companies are giving most of it back to their already extremely wealthy shareholders in the form of stock buybacks or giving it back to themselves in the form of executive bonuses, the organization said.

Although there is a need for the U.S. oil industry to boost production to keep up with demand, many companies are still finding it hard to attract money from Wall Street to expand operations.

Many investors have not poured money into drilling after many lost billions during a speculative U.S. fracking boom in the 2010s and due to changing views on carbon emissions.

Political pressure toward a low-carbon economy has begun to have an effect on the industry, especially when it comes to investments, but the overwhelming base of energy companies revenue is still derived from oil and gas.

For example, oil products and natural gas accounted for, respectively, 44 percent and 48 percent of TotalEnergies sales in 2021.

Recent shortages caused by a growing scarcity of oil and gas is pushing energy companies to drill for new discoveries, while attempts by Exxon and Chevron to gain investors begin gaining traction on Wall Street.

Major institutional investors like BlackRock, Capital Group, and Boston Management & Research have increased their positions in Exxon and Chevron, according to FactSet.

Still, the global energy crisis has curtailed attempts to reduce expenditures on oil and gas production for now.

Despite the International Energy Agencys recommendation that energy companies stop investing in new fossil fuels facilities, most firms are still spending to maintain their existing capacity and to continue development.

Energy Markets Face a Volatile Future in 2023

Energy companies and consumers are also dealing with higher energy prices and market volatility, connected to the Ukraine conflict and OPECs recent decision to cut oil production.

OPEC announced a voluntarily production adjustment in April, which extends to the end of 2023.

Several members, including Saudi Arabia, announced an adjustment of 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), Iraq at 211,000 bpd, United Arab Emirates at 144,000 at bpd, Kuwait at 128,000 bpd, Kazakhstan at 78,000 bpd, Algeria at 48,000 bpd, Oman at 40,000 bpd, and Gabon at 8,000 bpd.

Meanwhile, Russias adjustment of 500,000 bpd brings the total additional voluntary production adjustments by the abovementioned countries to 1.66 million bpd.

Last years scramble for for energy sources showed that oil and gas demand will continue to persist for years, even if green energy becomes widely available.

Pierre Breber, Chevrons CFO, said the reopening of China from pandemic-related lockdowns in the coming months would likely increase energy demand in the second half of the year.

Breber said that the Americas economic outlook remains uncertain, even though the energy industry continues to hold up as oil supplies likely remain tight.
IN-DEPTH: ULEZ Will Wipe Out Half a Billion Pounds a Year from Londons Economy: Report

The economic impact of the proposed extension of London Mayor Sadiq Khans Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will wipe out at least half a billion pounds from the capitals economy per year, according to new research.

A new report, commissioned by Fair Fuel UK and written by economic consultancy CEBR, warns that Londons air pollution-cutting scheme that charges motorists by the day to drive will continue to have a significantly negative impact on the citys economy.

Khan disputed the findings of the report.

Khan announced plans to extend the ULEZ, which imposes a charge on drivers of vehicles that do not meet certain emissions standards, to cover the entire city by Aug. 29, 2023.

The expansion has faced fierce opposition from the boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Harrow, Hillingdon, and Surrey County Council, which argue that it will disproportionately affect lower-income households and small businesses. In April, the High Court allowed a legal challenge led by rival councils against ULEZ.

On Wednesday, former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers said that the UK government should be given the power to review and overturn the schemes.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan at City Hall as Transport for London (TfL) launch their consultation on expanding the ULEZ London-wide on May 20, 2022. (Karis Pearson/PA Media)

Impact

CEBR estimated that the negative impact of the existing ULEZ, which covers central London, has a 253 million hit on the citys economy. The proposed ULEZ expansion will have an additional negative impact of 369 million.

The total proposed ULEZ effect for cars and vans will be 538 million.

CEBR claimed, however, it only estimated the direct effects.

Since the impact of the proposed ULEZ on vans is 4.5 times that of the existing ULEZ and hence essentially on business activity, it is likely that the proposed ULEZ has additional indirect economic effects which we have not considered, the study said.

Howard Cox, founder of the FairFuel UK campaign, sits for a photograph in London, on April 5, 2023. (NTD)

Howard Cox, co-founder of pressure group Fair Fuel UK, said: Mayor Khans fixation with an alleged air quality improvement scheme not only unnecessarily fleeces drivers, sole traders, and low-income motorists, it also rips at least half a billion pound out of the capitals economy per year.

It is way past time hard-pressed Londoners rid themselves of this dishonest career politician and support a new mayor that will scrap ULEZ for good, he added.

ULEZ

ULEZ is an area in which vehicles that do not meet certain emissions standards must pay a daily charge of 12.50 to drive or face fines. It currently covers 4 million people, or around 44 percent of Londons population.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced the worlds first ULEZ in 2015 when he was London mayor.

Undated photo of then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. (Andrew Matthews/PA Media)

The scheme currently covers the areas within Londons North and South Circular roads. It is set to expand to the whole of Greater London from Aug. 29, 2023.

To avoid the ULEZ fee, diesel vehicles, which make up the vast majority of vansmust be Euro 6 standard, which generally covers those registered from 2016.

A delivery van driver or tradesperson entering the zone in an older van every working day will rack up more than 3,100 a year in charges.

Drivers who fail to pay face a 160 penalty each day, which is halved if paid within a fortnight.

According to a recent Freedom of Information request, there are 1,400 cameras used for ULEZ enforcement that can read number plates and check vehicle compliance.

Some have previously questioned why the scheme is being pushed even though a planned ban on new petrol and diesel cars is coming in by 2030 and that by 2027 therell be no revenue for ULEZ.

Former MP and political commentator Lembit Opik, who supported the findings of the report, told The Epoch Times that the ban on cars was literal madness.

Opik said that its a suicide note for the British economy because the only people who can afford long-range electric vehicles are rich.

And how are you going to charge your electric vehicle if you live on the 32nd floor of a tenement building in Brixton? he added.

The Ultra Low Emission Zone is to expand to the North and South circulars from 2021. (Transport for London)

Political Agenda

A spokeswoman for the mayor of London told The Epoch Times by email: This hugely flawed report funded by the fossil fuel industry contains a highly-selective use of data and is full of errors.

The report completely ignores swathes of important information, including the positive impact to business of the 110 million scrappage scheme and the huge economic benefits of improving Londoners health. It also ignores the major benefits to businesses of reducing congestion in London, she added.

Around 4,000 Londoners die prematurely each year due to air pollution, children are growing up with stunted lungs, and hundreds of thousands of people in our city are developing life-changing illnesses, such as cancer, lung disease, dementia and asthma, she said.

An anti-ULEZ protest organised by the Together Declaration in London, on April 15, 2023. (Owen Evans/The Epoch Times)

In response to the mayors statement, Cox told The Epoch Times by email that FairFuelUK is and has never been funded by the fossil fuel industry.

It is so sad that Sadiq Khan continues to lie to get his ego-driven personal political agenda in place, he said.

The CEBR report uses his own Transport for Londons data and the deadweight cost measurement assumes Transport for London spends the revenues on scrappage schemes etc. We took that into account. This credible independent study suggests little health impact from the ULEZ expansion too. Londons mayor is running scared and knows he will be slaughtered in the 2024 election, he added.

Toxic Air Claims

A report in March disputed the science behind Khans claim that thousands of people will die from toxic air to justify his ULEZ expansion, saying it was very far from unequivocal.

The report said that neither the UK Health Security Agency nor the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) found evidence of a link between the air pollution scientific literature and the 4,000 deaths claim.

It also claimed historical data show radical improvements in air quality since the middle of the last century.

The report (pdf), written by researcher Ben Pile, was a collaboration between the Together Declaration and Piles campaign group Climate Debate UK.

The Together Declaration, founded by Alan Miller in 2021 in response to COVID-19 measures with the mission to push back against the rapidly growing infringements on our rights and freedoms, has increasingly been vocal on policies that restrict motorists and movement.

At the time, Pile told The Epoch Times that according to this statistical construct, 4,000 deaths per year is equivalent to each Londoner seemingly losing 68 hours of life expectancy per year.

While that may seem bad, life expectancy in the UK, including London, has been increasing at 73 days per year, he added.

He said that the costs of the many anti-car policies being introduced across the UK need to be considered against the alleged, and only trivial and hypothetical, benefits.

Pile also said that depriving people of mobility will have serious economic consequences.

And the far bigger driver of health outcomes than exposure to air pollution is income. An increase of post-housing cost income of 416 per year is associated with an increased healthy life expectancy of 219 daysa far greater benefit than even the total elimination of air pollution can produce, he added.

Pile said that the green agenda risks doing serious harm to peoples health and wealth.

Every investigation reveals green policies to be based in bad science such as Khans. Yet politicians, academia, and much of the media seem completely uninterested in subjecting any green ideology. Until the UK finds its way back to democracy, the public interest is not going to be served, and a great deal of harm is going to be done in the name of public health and saving the planet, he added.

Londons Ultra Low Emission Zone. (PA Graphics)

In response at the time, a spokesman for the mayor of London told The Epoch Times by email: The air quality data used by the mayor comes from globally renowned experts at Imperial College London and is completely robust.

Imperial College London carried out the most accurate scientific investigation into the awful human cost of air pollution in London, using methods accepted by government and recommended by the governments own expert advisers [COMEAP], he said.

He added that many different scientific studies from renowned universities around the world have shown that air pollution increases the risk of getting lung cancer, heart disease, premature births, new cases of asthma, stunted lungs in children, and an increased chance of early death.
Judge Blocks Utah Law Banning New Licenses for Abortion Clinics

A pro-life activist holds plastic unborn babies during a protest on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July, 29, 2010. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

A judge in Utah has temporarily blocked Utah from enforcing a new law that would ban new licenses for abortion clinics in the state.

The law, HB 467, would have barred Utah from issuing licenses for any new abortion clinics and would have phased out existing licenses by 2024.

Planned Parenthood had sued to block the law, saying if the law went into effect, the licensing process for abortion clinics would be eliminated, making it impossible to legally obtain an abortion anywhere but in a hospital and some of their satellite clinics.

In doing so, this would violate the state constitutions rights to privacy and bodily integrity, the abortion provider argued.

Judge Andrew H. Stone of the Third District Court of the state of Utah on Tuesday granted (pdf) the abortion providers request for a preliminary injunction, saying the group has a substantial likelihood to prevail in its argument that the Utah law is not reasonable.

Stone said the court was convinced that the new ban singles out abortion clinics without a rational basis.

There is nothing before the Court to indicate that an injunction would be adverse to the public interest, Stone wrote in his decision.

According to the Guttmacher Institute for reproductive health, hospitals, and satellite clinics have as of 2020 provided roughly 1 percent of abortions in Utah.

Planned Parenthood has four abortion clinics in Utah. Because the law is temporarily blocked, the clinics can continue to provide abortions and other services for now. Utah currently bans abortions after 18 weeks of pregnancy.

The law will remain on hold as the legal challenge from Planned Parenthood advances through the court system.

The courts decision today allows people in Utah to breathe a huge sigh of relief, Sarah Stoesz, the interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said in a statement to outlets.

The office of Utahs Attorney General declined to comment on pending litigation.

Republican lawmakers have previously said the law was designed to provide clarity to hospitals and clarify parts of the legal code that would no longer be relevant once the states abortion restrictions are fully implemented. They also have noted that clinics could apply for expanded licenses as hospitals under the new framework.

Utah is one of many U.S. states that tried to restrict abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

Utah had passed an abortion ban in 2020SB 174that would be triggered if the Supreme Court overturned Roe.

But Judge Stone granted a temporary block of Utahs abortion trigger law, while a lawsuit against the law, brought by Planned Parenthood, continues.

The state is currently appealing the injunction to the Utah Supreme Court.

West Virginia, North Dakota, and Mississippi do not have any abortion clinics due to laws enacted in recent months and years that effectively banned the procedure in the states.
LAPD Losing Officers, Struggling to Hire Amid Rising Crime

Police recruits attend their graduation ceremony at Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters in Los Angeles, on July 8, 2016. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers are retiring in droves and its chief is struggling to recruit new ones while certain categories of violent crime are on the rise.

We, unfortunately, are losing experienced officers, trained officers, and theyre resigning, Tom Saggau, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Protective Leaguethe union which represents most of the departments forcetold The Epoch Times.

Theyre leaving to other jurisdictions that are paying more where theres much less scrutiny and where theres much more trust, he said.

Other departments officers are opting for, he said, are those with the cities of Anaheim and Santa Ana, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles.

We have an exodus of officers, that recruiting only helps so much, so we got to retain who we have as well, he said.

Los Angeles Police Department headquarters in Los Angeles, on Jan. 27, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Saggau said he predicts the department could drop below 9,000 officers this year. The department has lost nearly 1,000 since 2019 and stands at 9,094 sworn personnel as of April.

LAPD officer Deon Joseph, speaking on behalf of himself and not the LAPD, told The Epoch Times that the reason police are leaving forces nationwide is due to the rhetoric seen on social media.

Its very difficult to get people to want to join the police forces because of the rhetoric. It has been so strong over the last six or seven years, Josephwho worked on Skid Row for more than two decadessaid.

There are cities across America who have completely turned [its] backs on police officers, city officials who have bought into the anti-police rhetoric, and basically let police officers know that theyre just a necessary evil instead of an important part of the city family, he said.

But in a bid to strengthen law enforcement citywide, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass believes she can strengthen the department with more spending, according to her $13 billion 202324 fiscal budget summary released last month.

Bass wants to increase the departments budget by less than one percent, which would bring its total for the yearwhich starts July 1to $3.24 billion. She additionally wants to increase the force by at least 400 officers by the end of 2024.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass speaks onstage during EMILYs Lists 2023 Pre-Oscars Breakfast at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 7, 2023. (Araya Doheny/Getty Images for EMILYs List)

Her budgetwhich must be adopted or modified by the Los Angeles City Council by June 1allocates $1 million towards recruiting new officers, including signing bonuses of up to $15,000 and hiring additional civilian employees as 911 operators. The plan also includes bringing back retired officers.

The budget supports urgent efforts to grow the police department, Basss recently-hired budget director Bernyce Hollins said during a hearing on the issue April 26. The mayor has indicated she feels bold action is needed to change the downward trend in the size of LAPD. This is a diverse city and there is no one solution that fits all.

During the hearing, Hollins said Bass understands some of the citys 15 councilmembers may not agree with the need for additional police, but that the mayor was committed to beefing up the force to 9,504 officers.

To divert lower-priority calls away from the LAPD, Bass is also investing in unarmed crisis response teams for mental health and homeless-related calls.

LAPDs proposed budget makes up about 25 percent of the overall city budget.
Leaders of Syria, Iran Meet in Damascus, Reaffirm Strategic Ties

People walk past posters depicting Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, ahead of the May 26 presidential election, in the district of al-Waer in Homs, Syria, on May 23, 2021. (Omar Sanadiki/Reuters)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Damascus on May 3, during the first trip to Syria by an Iranian head of state since 2011.

Raisi is being accompanied on the two-day visit by a high-ranking delegation that includes the Iranian ministers of foreign affairs, defense, energy, and telecommunications.

Soon after Raisis arrival, the two leaders held plenary talks at Assads presidential palace in Damascus, according to Syrias SANA news agency.

SyriaIran relations have remained firm despite severe political and security challenges that engulfed the Middle East, SANA cited Assad as saying at the meeting.

Raisi responded by saying that Syria had surpassed all these difficulties and achieved victory, despite the threats and sanctions imposed on you.

According to the news agency, the two leaders signed a series of bilateral agreements, including one for long-term strategic cooperation between the two countries.

Irans President-elect Ebrahim Raisi speaks during his first press conference in Tehran on June 21, 2021. The hard-line cleric was declared the winner of Irans election, replacing moderate Hassan Rouhani. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)

Syria Still Under Occupation

During the first years of the Syria conflict, much of the country fell under the sway of rebel groupsDamascus calls them terroristsbacked by the West, Turkey, and the Arab Gulf States.

But since 2015, the Syrian government, with Russian and Iranian help, has managed to reassert control over most Syrian territory.

However, the United States and its local alliesthe self-styled Syrian Democratic Forcesstill maintain a sizeable military presence in northeastern Syria.

According to Washington, this military presence, which includes roughly 900 U.S. troops, is necessary to prevent the resurgence of the ISIS terrorist group.

Said to be an Al-Qaeda offshoot, ISIS overran broad swaths of Syriaand Iraqin 2014. It was largely eradicated by 2019, prompting then-President Donald Trump to withdraw most U.S. troops from Syria.

NATO member Turkey maintains a presence in the countrys northwest, which it says is needed to safeguard its border from Kurdish militant groups.

Damascus and Tehran both regard the continued presence of U.S. and Turkish forces as illegal occupations and have repeatedly called for their departure from Syrian territory.

A fighter of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stands atop a Humvee during a joint military exercise with forces of the U.S.-led Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve coalition against the ISIS group in the countryside of the town of al-Malikiya (Derik in Kurdish), Hasakah Province, Syria, on Sept. 7, 2022. (Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images)

Raisi Extols Deep, Strategic Ties

On the eve of his trip to Damascus, Raisi described IranSyria relations as deep and strategic, noting that his visit aimed to further consolidate ties.

He also stressed Tehrans readiness to help rebuild Syrias shattered infrastructure following more than a decade of conflict.

This process should begin as soon as possible, as displaced persons return to their country and normal conditions [in Syria] are reestablished, Raisi said in televised comments cited by Irans IRNA news agency.

Noting that Iran had backed Syria throughout the conflict, he claimed that the United States and Israel had hoped Syria would collapse and that they would break the frontline of the resistance.

Israel carries out frequent attacks on Syrian territory, which it claims target Iranian military assets deployed in the country.

In February, an Israeli rocket attack near Damascus reportedly killed several Iranian military experts.

Since its establishment in 1948, Israellong seen as a key U.S. allyhas fought three major conflicts with Syria.

Israel and Syria have never had diplomatic relations and technically remain in a state of war.

Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike targeting south of Damascus, Syria, on July 20, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Former Foes Seek Reconciliation

With Assad now firmly ensconced in power, several regional countries that had previously shunned Damascus are now calling for reconciliation.

On May 1, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan met with their Syrian counterpart to draw up a roadmap for ending the 12-year-old conflict.

Held in the Jordanian capital of Amman, the meeting also discussed means of reestablishing diplomatic ties between Damascus and several Arab capitals.

It was the first such meeting since 2011, when the Cairo-based Arab League agreed to suspend Syrias membership in the pan-Arab organization.

Last month, the Syrian and Saudi foreign ministers agreed to resume consular services and commercial flights between their countries.

In March, Saudi Arabia agreed to resume diplomatic ties with Iranin a deal brokered by the regime in Beijingfollowing a seven-year hiatus.

Turkey also hopes to reconcile with Syria after more than a decade of mutual hostility.

Next week, the Turkish, Syrian, and Iranian foreign ministers will meet in Moscow for landmark talks, Turkeys top diplomat said on May 3.

The goal of the Moscow-hosted talks is an eventual summit between Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Man Arrested Outside Buckingham Palace After Shotgun Cartridges Thrown Over Fence

Security minister Tom Tugendhat says police mounting 'complex' operation for coronation

A police car outside Buckingham Palace in London on May 2, 2023. (Ben Roberts-Haslam/PA via AP)

Police arrested a man outside Buckingham Palace on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon after an incident on Tuesday night.

The Metropolitan Police said a man approached the gates of Buckingham Palacethe traditional home of the British monarchat 7 p.m. and appeared to throw shotgun cartridges into the grounds of the palace.

In a statement the police said: These have been recovered and will be taken for specialist examination. The man has been arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon after he was searched and a knife was found.

The man was also in possess of a suspicious bag and, after specialist officers attended, a controlled explosion was conducted as a precaution.

But the bag is not believed to have contained a bomb and the police say they believe the incident is not related to terrorism.

It comes as the Met is preparing a huge security operation for the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday.

King Charles III meets members of the public as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral, in the queue along the South Bank, near to Lambeth Bridge, London, on Sept. 17, 2022. (Aaron Chown/PA Media)

Chief Superintendent Joseph McDonald said: There have been no reports of any shots fired, or any injuries to officers or members of the public. Officers remain at the scene and further enquiries are ongoing.

It is not known if the king was in residence at the palace at the time of the incident.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat said the incident was a sign of the effectiveness of the polices operation in London.

Tugendhat said the police and intelligence agencies were mounting a very complex security operation around the coronation, which will take place at Westminster Abbey and will be attended by hundreds of world leaders and other VIPs.

Among the guests will be French President Emmanuel Macron, Germanys President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Italys President Sergio Mattarella, Pakistans Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and the deputy leader of China, Han Zheng.

Coronation Will Showcase Our Liberty and Our Democracy

New laws allowing the police to curb protests came into force on Wednesday but Tugendhat said the coronation would showcase our liberty and our democracy.

Under the new Public Order Act, protesters who block roads could be jailed for up to 12 months.

An official letter warning of the new powers was sent to the campaign group Republic, which is planning a peaceful protest at the coronation.

Police officers patrol at the Buckingham Palace ahead of the coronation of Britains King Charles III in London on April 29, 2023. (Kin Cheung/AP Photo)

The CEO of Republic, Graham Smith, said the letter from the Home Office was intimidatory and he said: Weve been liaising closely with the police about the protest for weeks. Weve had meetings with them.

Theyve said very clearly that they have no problems with our plans. I just cant understand why the Home Office thinks its appropriate to send a letter like that, which was anonymous in terms of no persons name on it, he added.

Republic said hundreds of its supporterswho want to abolish the monarchywill protest in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.

Asked about the letter sent to Republic, Tugendhat said: They have the liberty that anybody in the United Kingdom has to protest. What they dont have the liberty to do is to disrupt others and thats where were drawing and making a difference.

Tugendhat told the BBCs Today programme, Im not going to go through the details of what you can or cant do for fear of encouraging people to find loopholes in it, for very obvious reasons.

He added: Its perfectly possible that were dealing with protest groups who have nothing to do with the UK but are seeking to protest against a foreign leader whos visiting or seeking to make a complaint about something thats happening hundreds or thousands of miles away. So this is a very complex policing operation, a very complex intelligence operation.

Royal Security Incidents in the Past

There have been a number of incidents in the past involving the monarch.

In 1981 Marcus Sarjeant, 17, fired six blank cartridges at the Queen as she rode on horseback during a Trooping the Colour ceremony.

Sarjeant, whose attack was described in court as a fantasy assassination, pleaded guilty to a charge under the 1848 Treason Act and was jailed for five years.

The court heard Sarjeant, a loner who was inspired by attempts on the lives of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Pope John-Paul II, had originally tried to obtain a real gun but had failed and instead fired blanks.

In July 1982 Michael Fagan scaled a wall and climbed a drainpipe, before entering the Queens bedroom and sitting on her bed. He was detained in a psychiatric hospital and released in January 1983.

In February 2022 Cameron Kalani, 44, was given a suspended prison sentence after he was spotted climbing over a wall into the grounds of Buckingham Palace in May 2021.

Kalani admitted trespassing on a protected site, possession of a bladed article, and possession of a wrap of cocaine.

Deputy District Judge Roy Brown told him: You are a very fortunate man indeed. It is just good luck and good fortune that neither you nor anyone else was either seriously injured or killed in the course of your escapade.

PA Media contributed to this report.
(Bloomberg) -- The US Securities and Exchange Commission wants to be let in on some of Wall Streets most confidential information  and quickly.

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In a first, the SEC is going to require big hedge funds to share with regulators major investment losses in near real-time.

The rule, approved Wednesday, marks a significant shift for an industry that tends to prize its secrecy. It also promises to add to businesses administrative headaches. Until now, funds have generally had to report positions in quarterly public filings.

The investing public, in theory, wont be any wiser. Only the SEC will be notified, privately, when significant losses occur. Just how thats going to work remains to be seen. Large hedge funds will have no more than 72 hours, or as soon as practicable, to tell the agency about extraordinary investment losses and major margin events.

The rule is part of a campaign by SEC Chair Gary Gensler to scrutinize private investments funds, whose wagers  both winning and losing  can reverberate through financial markets. The SEC says the stepped-up reporting by hedge funds that oversee at least $1.5 billion in assets will let Wall Streets main regulator, as well as the Treasury Department and other agencies in Washington, get a handle on swift-moving events that may pose systemic risks.

Private funds have evolved significantly in their business practices, complexity and investment strategies, Gensler said. Private funds today are ever more interconnected with our broader capital market.

The SEC proposed in January 2022 allowing just one business day for hedge funds to disclose major events. The agency has dubbed these trigger events and, in addition to big losses, they can include things like significant changes to prime-brokerage relationships, available cash or counterparty defaults. Losses exceeding 20% in a short period would qualify, the regulator said.

Story continues

Industry groups are already flagging concerns that the requirement to quickly report major events will pose its own operational challenges and could result in a deadline even shorter than the 1-day period initially proposed.

While alternative asset managers do not pose systemic risk, we are sympathetic to efforts seeking to monitor risk throughout the financial system, Bryan Corbett, president and chief executive officer of the Managed Funds Association, a trade group representing hedge funds, said in a statement. He added that the group is concerned the new rules may exacerbate stress on funds, harm investors, and increase market volatility without commensurate benefit.

Some triggering events will be difficult to pinpoint to a specific time from which the 72 hours will begin tolling and the lack of a deadline on a business day increases the likelihood of filing deadlines occurring out of regular business hours or over weekends, Jennifer Wood, global head of asset management regulation at the Alternative Investment Management Association, said in a statement.

Others lauded the SECs move.

The importance of this reform is clear, Stephen Hall, legal director and securities specialist at Better Markets, a Washington-based group that advocates for tougher regulation, said in a statement. Private funds are investing in more diverse types of assets, with more interconnections to the financial markets, he said.

Expanded oversight over private fund managers has been a long-time policy goal of Democratic lawmakers, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. But the push to speed up the now quarterly filings, known as Form PF, really picked up in the wake of the trading turmoil after the onset of Covid-19 and when retail investors plowed money into stocks such as GameStop Corp. in early 2021.

Closely Guarded Secrets

Hedge funds and private equity firms have consistently pushed back against any efforts by the SEC to expand the type of data they must confidentially disclose, arguing that its proprietary information that could fall into the hands of unauthorized users through a data breach or other slip-ups. The forms contain some of the private fund industrys most closely guarded secrets and are handled by a very small number of agency staff.

The SEC has handled confidential market information since its founding, Gensler told reporters after the commissions vote, adding that the SECs leadership is focused on cybersecurity.

Under the changes, private equity firms will also have to make faster disclosures for some trigger events, including the removal of a general partner and certain fund terminations. The final rule also requires large firms with at least $2 billion in assets under management to provide more data about their strategies, use of leverage, and a general partners performance compensation.

The agencys three Democrats approved the plan, while its two Republican members voted in opposition.

Separately, the SEC approved changes to increase the data that public companies must disclose about their stock buyback programs. Investors will start getting quarterly or semiannually aggregated information on daily repurchase activity.

The SEC contends the changes will help investors figure out for themselves whether a companys repurchases are being used to actually increase shareholder value or to benefit executives.

--With assistance from David Gillen.

(Updates to add comments from Gensler, industry, and non-profit groups throughout.)

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Man Gets 6 Months in Jail for Killing Cat in Huntington Beach

SANTA ANA, Calif.A 38-year-old man pleaded guilty May 2 and was immediately sentenced to six months in jail for slamming a cat against the windshields of cars in Huntington Beach, killing the feline.

Beau Browning Watson pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals and two counts of vandalism, all misdemeanors. Watson accepted a plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Craig Robison, over the objections of prosecutors that reduced the charges from felonies to misdemeanors.

Watson was given credit for 86 days in custody.

Police were called around 8 p.m. March 21 to the 1800 block of Main Street regarding a disturbance of the peace complaint, said Jessica Cuchilla, a spokeswoman for the Huntington Beach Police Department.

When the officers arrived, they found Browning had smashed the cat against parked cars, breaking two windshields, Cuchilla said.
Man Pleads Guilty in Oceanside Womans 1994 Stabbing Death With Over 2 Dozen Wounds

VISTA, Calif.A man arrested last year for the 1994 stabbing death of an Oceanside woman pleaded guilty this week to a voluntary manslaughter count.

Jesus Jesse Velazquez Ayala, 59, is slated to be sentenced later this month to 12 years in state prison for the killing of 54-year-old Dolores Rabaya.

The victim was found inside her Edgehill Lane home on Jan. 1, 1994 with more than two dozen stab wounds.

The previous evening, Ayalaat the time a 30-year-old Carlsbad residentand Rabaya had been seen together celebrating New Years Eve at a South Coast Highway bar, and they left the establishment together, according to police.

At the time of the murder, an extensive investigation was conducted by  homicide detectives and [Ayala] was identified [as the suspected killer], but charges could not be filed due to a lack of physical evidence, Oceanside Police Department spokeswoman Jennifer Atenza said in a news release issued last year.

After the investigation went cold, the San Diego County District Attorneys Office reopened the case in 2015, and forensic evidence recovered at the crime scene was resubmitted for examination.

Based on the new findings, an arrest warrant was issued for Ayala in 2016. He was arrested in Mexico in February of last year, then extradited to San Diego County. On Monday, Ayala pleaded guilty to the manslaughter count, plus an allegation of using a knife in Rabayas killing.
Maria Bartiromo Responds to Ex-Fox News Producers Allegations

Maria Bartiromo appears on her "Mornings with Maria Bartiromo" program, on the Fox Business Network in New York on June 23, 2015. (Richard Drew/AP Photo)

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromos team issued a response after a former producer claimed that she used her personal connections with then-President Donald Trump to protect her status within the network.

A former producer, Abby Grossberg, filed a lawsuit against Fox News and several others, including former host Tucker Carlson, for what she alleges was harassment and mistreatment during her time at the network. Since Fox News announced Carlsons departure last week, Grossberg has conducted several interviews with news outlets and most recently with Time magazine, where she produced her latest allegations against the network and now Bartiromo.

Grossberg, who had worked with Bartiromo before she joined Carlsons team, claimed Fox News had an environment that was unfavorable to women while discussing Bartiromo. She made similar claims in her lawsuits against the network, filed in the U.S. Southern District of New York.

If they were marginalizing her, she could always say, I can get the President of the United States on the phone, Grossberg claimed to Time magazine. She had that power over Fox, and it protected her.

But Bartiromo responded by saying that her allegations were false. The Epoch Times has contacted Fox News for comment.

I have interviewed four American presidents and several international heads of state during my distinguished career and have had rapports with leading figures across the world, Bartiromos team told news outlets Wednesday in response to Grossbergs claims to Time magazine. These allegations are absurd and patently false.

Fox News also told outlets that Grossbergs comments were false. The spokesperson said Bartiromowho worked at CNBC, CNN, and Fox for decadesdoes not need to rely on any one person or organization as her contacts reach far and wide.

In another statement about Grossbergs assertions, the network also told outlets that it will vigorously defend Fox against all of her unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees.

Maria Bartiromo has cultivated an extensive list of contacts over the course of 30 years that enable her to connect with numerous sources spanning business and politics  across Republican and Democrats, CEOs to analysts worldwide, Fox News also said.

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Meanwhile, Grossberg became the subject of controversy last week when a lawyer representing her told The Spectator that she never actually met in person with Carlson when she worked for him. The lawyer suggested that because Carlson worked at his personal offices in Maine and Florida, a number of staffers didnt meet with him personally.

Tucker Carlson in Esztergom, Hungary, on Aug. 7, 2021. (Janos Kummer/Getty Images)

Like many on the [Tucker Carlson Tonight] staff, Abby never met Tucker Carlson in person because he taped the show from his personal studios in Maine and Florida, and he did not visit Foxs NY HQ during her time there, Kimberly A. Catala, a Grossberg attorney, told the news outlet.

The Epoch Times reached her lawyers for comment and one responded by confirming that her comment to the news outlet was accurate, but accused The Spectator and other media outlets of taking them out of context. Her lawyers also said she frequently communicated with Carlson via text messages, phone, and email.

Since Tucker did not come to the Fox office, he relied on Justin Wells, his executive producer, and others like Alexander McCaskill, senior producer, who were present in the office every day to be his eyes, ears, and mouthpiece, and to convey his tone, as they threateningly reminded Ms. Grossberg, Catala added to the news outlet.

Carlson, who has not publicly responded to her allegations, departed the network last week, according to a news release issued by Fox News. Since then, the Fox News primetime ratings have seen a drop, most recently on Monday night.

Since then, neither Fox News nor Carlson have issued any comments about the split, whether it was amicable, whether Carlson still is under contract at Fox, or if Carlson is free to do other work. Speculation has emerged about why Carlson left the network, and there has been a bevy of what appear to be secretly recorded videos showing Carlson making comments on set, released by the left-wing, anti-Fox organization Media Matters for America.

Last week, Carlsonwho is slated to make an appearance at an Alabama fundraiser on Thursdayreleased a brief video in which he criticized the American medias coverage in general. He didnt address Fox, but he did sign off the video by saying see you soon.

The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are, he said. Theyre completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years, we wont even remember that we had them. Trust me, as someone who has participated.
Marine Corps to Close Historically Female Training Unit as Military Continues Integration

The U.S. Marine Corps is set to officially disband its historically all-female recruit training unit and join the rest of the U.S. military branches that have already been training male and female recruits together.

On Wednesday, the Marines announced the deactivation date for its 4th Recruit Training Battaliona training unit at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina, that once trained female recruits exclusively. The 4th Recruit Training Battalion will officially disband during a deactivation ceremony at Parris Island on June 15.

We will bid farewell to 4th Battalion in a deactivation ceremony that concludes her glorious tenure, closing the final chapter of integrating recruit training, said Brig. Gen. Walker M. Field, Commanding General of MCRD Parris Island and the Eastern Recruiting Region. We are forever grateful to the drill instructors, staff, and legions of Marines who so proudly call 4th Battalion home.

The Marine Corps Parris Island boot camp has handled recruit training for all female recruits since 1949. The Marine Corps has cycled through several female recruit training units since 1949, including the 4th Recruit Training Battalion, which began operations on Nov. 1, 1986.

The entire U.S. military has been gradually integrating women into all aspects of service in recent years, including allowing women into infantry specialties. Along with this broader effort at integration, the Marine Corps has been working to bring females into all aspects of military training fully. In 2019, male recruits began training within the historically all-female 4th Recruit Training Battalion.

Today, successful recruit training standardization makes an all-female training battalion unnecessary, as all recruits have been training in gender-integrated companies since 2022, the Marine Corps said in its Wednesday press statement.

Before 2021, the Marine Corps had only female recruits trained at Parris Island, while Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, remained an exclusive training location for male recruits. However, by 2021, the San Diego recruit depot began receiving and training female recruits. Along with deactivating the 4th Recruit Training Battalion at Parris Island, the service is looking to eventually realign its personnel at both recruit training depots, with a goal to eventually have the San Diego location handle about half of all female recruits.

This is a moment to celebrate the legacy of so many of our Marines who made the transformation through 4th Recruit Training Battalion, said Gen. David H. Berger, the Commandant of the Marine Corps. Its also a moment to celebrate progress. Im proud to see our male and female recruits benefit from having access to the quality of all our leadersat Parris Island and San Diegothrough an unchanging, tough, and realistic recruit training curriculum.

Marine Corps Overwhelmingly Male

The U.S. Marine Corps is the most male-dominated branch in the U.S. military.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) demographics profile for 2021, women represented 17.3 percent of all active-duty military personnel. The active-duty U.S. Air Force (and the U.S. Space Force) was 21.3 percent female, the U.S. Navy was 20.5 percent female, and the U.S. Army was 15.5 percent female.

In 2021, females represented approximately 9.1 percent of all active-duty Marines.

The service has been working for years to drive up its female representation. As far back as 2016, then-Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller set a goal to have females represent at least 10 percent of the active-duty force.

The Debate Over Women in the Military

While military leaders have pushed for more inclusion in all aspects of service, some organizations have been skeptical of how well women can perform in military roles.

In 2015, the U.S. Marine Corps commissioned a study (pdf) of how male-only and gender-integrated units performed. The study found that females, on average, had worse scores for anaerobic power and capacity tests and aerobic capacity tests and were more injury prone. The 2015 study also assessed that all-male squads, teams, and crews demonstrated higher performance levels on 69 percent of tasks evaluated (93 of 134) as compared to gender-integrated squads, teams, and crews and gender-integrated teams performed better than their all-male counterparts on (2) events.

If sex neutrality does not work in fitness tests, why would anyone believe egalitarian theories would work out better on physically demanding battlefields? said the non-profit Center for Military Readiness in a July 2022 statement opposing requiring females to register for the military draft.

Proponents of greater integration of the sexes in the military have argued that as long as women can meet the standards for a particular military role or occupation, they should be allowed to serve in those roles. In a 2019 article for the Modern War Institute, Army infantry officer Micah Ables noted several instances in which he and other male service members failed various training events where female counterparts succeeded.

These soldiers genders did not help or hurt our unit; their fitness, fortitude, and abilitiesor lack thereofdid, Ables wrote. The solution to these problems is to create appropriate, realistic, age- and gender-neutral standards for combat armsnot to ban any entire demographic group because there is a weak standard in place.

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Mendicino Says He and Trudeau Only Learned of Beijings Targeting of Chong From Media

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told reporters on May 3 that he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau only learned of Beijings targeting of Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family from media reports on the issue earlier this week.

Mendicinos comments on the matter come a day after he was asked multiple times in the House of Commons about the date that he learned about the threats but would not give an exact answer.

First thing I want to do is reiterate that we take any threats around foreign interference very seriously, which is why as soon as I became aware of this specific threat in relationship to Mr. Chong that we reached out to him, Mendicino told reporters in Ottawa on May 3.

When asked by reporters when he and Trudeau had become aware of the threats, Mendicino replied that it was Monday, May 1the same day the Globe and Mail broke the story.

To be clear, as the Prime Minister said, he and I found out on Monday, Mendicino said, adding that they immediately reached out to Chong and offered him a briefing on the matter, which Chong accepted.

A Globe and Mail report published on May 1 said that CSIS identified specific actions in 2021 by the Chinese regime to target MPs who were behind a 2021 motion calling Chinas treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities a genocide.

The report also said Beijing sought information on Chongs family living in Hong Kong for further potential sanctions. CSIS head David Vigneault provided the same information to Chong in a briefing on May 2.

Trudeau told reporters earlier on May 3 that he wasnt briefed at a higher level in 2021 about the threats against Chongs family. The prime minister said he only learned about them this week from the media.

CSIS made the determination that it wasnt something that needed to be raised to a higher level because it wasnt a significant enough concern, he said, adding that CSIS only provided him with a generic defensive briefing on China.

Chong also said on May 3 that he received a briefing from CSIS in 2021 about foreign interference threat activities from authoritarian states, but added the briefing was general in nature and did not contain any specific threats.

MPs asked Mendicino and Trudeau in the House on May 2 when exactly they first learned about the threats, but neither directly answered.

In response to criticism from the Conservatives, Trudeau said it was simply not true and irresponsible to suggest that the federal government knew about the threats to Chong since 2021 and did not take any action on the matter.

Chong and several other Conservative MPs asked Mendicino when he first learned about the threats, but he would not respond to the question directly.

This is not a partisan issue. We must all work together to defend the institutions, he said.

Noe Chartier contributed to this report.
Military Leader or Business Manager?, Part 1: Good Leaders or Place Holders

From left, Col. Erica Herzog, commander of the 652nd Regional Support Group, Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman Ramon Colon-Lopez, and U.S. Army Europe Deputy Commanding General for Army National Guard, Maj. Gen. Joe Jarrard talk shortly after the arrival of celebrities from the United Service Organizations tour on Powidz Air Base, Powidz, Poland, Jan. 8, 2020. (DoD photo by Master Sgt. Ryan Matson)

Commentary

Im a little bit of a history nut. Well okay, a lot of a history nut, especially military history. I also have a keen interest in observing people and how they behave. Military leadership has been a subset of those two items that have caused considerable deliberation and consternation on my part. Add to that the fact that the military is always harping on it and touting it as an irreplaceable value to be cultivated with great zeal.

If thats the case then why is the military so cram-packed with useless leaders? Given all the professional development schools and training that a career military person has to take, you would think we would be up to our necks in great leaders throughout all the ranks. Add in the officers who attend the service academies and ROTC and we should be swimming in great leaders. But we arent. Instead, its a veritable piranha tank of self-serving careerists looking for their next promotion.

I read lots of books on military leaders, and as I progress through each one, I find myself drawing comparisons to the leaders of today. (But I need to preface this. Although my background is U.S. Air Force I have worked on numerous inter-service teams and have lots of friends from other branches. What they have told me confirms that they have similar concerns and experiences.) My most recent read was, LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay by Warren Kozak. If you are or want to be, a military leader I highly recommend you pick up a copy. The popular opinion about General LeMay is that he was a warmongering fanatic and Stanley Kubricks movie Dr. Strangelove certainly didnt help this perception. After completing the book, and all the others about LeMay that I could get my hands on, I concluded that he was a great military leader.

As a comparison, one of the more recent generals that came to mind was Gen. Merrill McPeak. During his tenure as chief of staff, we referred to ourselves as being in the McAir-Force. YepMcDonalds reference. I will leave it to you to do some reading on those dark days in the Air Force and for those of us that lived it, we are just grateful its over.

(L to R) Maj. Gen. Brian Miller, commanding general of the 416th Theater Engineer Brigade, Col. Noel Palmer, outgoing commander of the 372nd Engineer Brigade, and Col. Elliot Schroeder, incoming commander of the 372nd Engineer Brigade, salute during a change of command ceremony Sept. 17 on Fort Snelling, Minnesota. (Capt. Floice Kemp/DoD photo)

Tony did lots of really cool stuff. He dumped stripes in favor of a leather crew type name patch. He created a new dress uniform that looked like a Navy one. He spent millions on that project and it only lasted a year. In fact, he modeled the new officer uniform before it was introduced and used the picture in the dress and appearance regulation. He introduced Total Quality Management (TQM) from the civilian world and rebranded it as Quality Air Force (QAF). He spent millions there too and the program was an abject failure. He was pretty much universally disliked, mainly because he ran the Air Force as a corporation. I kid you not, Curtis LeMay would have literally told the guy off and then fired him.

If you do anything, read Kozaks book and compare LeMay to the military leaders youve known or work for now. It will be quite depressing and irritating and will probably result in you consuming mass quantities of alcohol.

In any case, I had been told early in my career that being in the peacetime military is horrible because the deadwood rises to the top. After all, wartime leaders dont do politics well. Then when a war happens, the incapable show pony gets culled in favor of a warhorse. Back to peace and the warhorse goes to the glue factory because the show pony manipulates the outcome. You might challenge me and state that weve been at war since 1991 and my premise is faulty. Well, it needs to be a big war like WWII, Korea, or Vietnam where massive numbers of our guys are getting killed. If its not big, then the show ponies can cover for their lack of skill and leadership.

So my thoughts led me to question where all these bad leaders come from and whether or not this is something new or if its always been this way.

This article first appeared in The Havok Journal.

The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Montana Transgender Lawmakers Bid to Overturn Removal From House Floor Denied

Montana Democrat transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr speaks at a state House legislature session in Helena, Mont., on April 26, 2023. (Montana House Legislature via Reuters/Screenshot via NTD)

Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyrs bid to return to the House floor was quashed by a judge on May 2, meaning the lawmaker will continue to cast votes remotely for the remainder of the legislative session.

District Court Judge Mike Menahan said in a five-page ruling (pdf) that the court lacked the authority to overrule the GOP-led Houses decision last week to censure Zephyr, a biological male who identifies as a bisexual trans woman, from the House floor and debates.

Based on the relief requested, the Court finds Plaintiffs are unlikely to succeed on the merits and therefore cannot satisfy the first requirement, Judge Menahan wrote in his ruling, citing the separation of powers between the judicial and the legislative, legislative, executive and judicial branches.

Plaintiffs requested relief would require this Court to interfere with legislative authority in a manner that exceeds this Courts authority. Plaintiffs also seek injunctive relief which far outpaces the facts at issue here, the judge wrote.

The Montana Constitution explicitly grants each house of the Montana legislature the authority to expel or punish a member for good cause,' he wrote, noting that Because the constitution explicitly reserves this power for the Legislature, the Courts powers are conversely limited.

The ruling means that Zephyr, 34, will continue voting on various bills remotely and will remain barred from the House floor and gallery for the rest of the legislative session, which ends later this week.

Montana lawmakers voted 6832 on April 26 to ban Zephyr from voting on the House floor after the Democrat broke decorum during a debate over a bill banning transgender medical procedures for minors.

Blood on Your Hands

During the debate, Zephyr told fellow lawmakers, The only thing I will say is if you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments I hope the next time theres an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands.

Zephyr later clarified that the lawmaker was referring to the real consequences the House votes could have on the LGBT community.

Speaking to House lawmakers ahead of the disciplinary vote, Zephyr said: When I rose up and said there is blood on your hands, I was not being hyperbolic. I was speaking to the real consequences of the votes that we, as legislators, take in this body. And when the speaker asks me to apologize on behalf of decorum, what he is really asking me to do is be silent when my community is facing bills that get us killed.

However, Zephyrs remarks were condemned by the Montana Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers, who called Zephyrs remarks hateful rhetoric, and demanded an apology.

Zephyr refused to apologize for the comments and was initially censured before being removed days later after a protest broke out in the House gallery among the lawmakers supporters, some of whom were reportedly arrested.

Republican lawmakers argued that protests had put their safety at risk.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, ultimately signed the bill into law last Friday to ban gender-altering procedures for minors in the state.

Zephyr, ACLU Files Lawsuit

Zephyr has since teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to sue the Montana Legislature over the censuring of the lawmaker, arguing the recent actions by Montana lawmakers violate Zephyrs First Amendment rights and the rights of the 11,000 constituents Zephyr represents.

However, lawyers for the state argued that Zephyrs censuring was for good cause following the April 24 demonstration by supporters and asked the judge not to allow the lawmaker back in the statehouse.

One legislator cannot be allowed to halt the ability of the other 99 to engage in civil, orderly, debate concerning issues affecting Montana, the states lawyers wrote in court filings.

On Twitter shortly after Judge Menahans ruling, Zephyr said the decision undermines the democratic principles our country was founded on.

I vow to continue standing for my constituents & community to fight for our democratic institutions. If we cant get justice in the courts, we will get it in the ballot box, Zephyr wrote.

An attorney for Zephyr, Alex Rate, told The Associated Press that an appeal was being considered.

Meanwhile, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said the judges decision was a win.

This lawsuit was nothing more than an attempt by outside groups to interfere with Montanas lawmaking process, Knudsen said in a statement to the publication. Todays decision is a win for the rule of law and the separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution.
One of the most perplexing things in our Western society to many is how morality seems to have disappeared under the umbrella of politics. It seems, for example, to matter more whether one is a Democrat or a Republican than whether one is right or wrong. For that matter, being right or wrong has become identical with being either a Democrat or a Republican! We, in other words, have become tribal rather than rational.

However, as English moralist and essayist Samuel Johnson observed, He who thinks rationally thinks morally. To think triballymy country, my party, my family, my ideas, right or wrongis a perversion of reason. Indeed, Dantes whole poem, The Divine Comedy, can be said to be about the perversion of reason (the intellect) that leads to Hell, damnation, and the unending misery of so much of the human condition in this life as well as the next.

Morality Is No Longer Acceptable

Morality is not really a popular topic these days; it is perhaps considered too opaque, too controversial, and most importantly by far, too judgmental. Did I say judgmental? As author Theodore Dalrymple, also called the Orwell of our time, observed: When young people want to praise themselves, they describe themselves as nonjudgmental. For them the highest form of morality is amorality. Not surprising, then, that New York Times writer David Brooks in his article If it Feels Right talks about interviews conducted across America where two-thirds of the young people either couldnt answer the question [about their moral lives] or described problems that are not moral at all.

And its not just young people. The key aspect of the abolition of nonjudgmentalism is linguistic: Despite the many peoples almost daily experience of good and evil, we have had over 30 years now of a consistent effort by politicians, theologians, media outlets and the rest, to cancel the words good and evil and replace them with an anodyne of words like unacceptable. Vile behaviors and desires are no longer evil; they are unacceptable.

This switch, of course, relegates morality from an absolute to a social norm. And as author and psychiatrist Norman Doidge in his Foreword to Jordan B Petersons 12 Rules for Life, noted: The idea that human life can be free of moral concerns is a fantasy.

Cultural commentator David Brooks explains further: When modern culture tries to replace sin with ideas like error or insensitivity, or tries to banish words like virtue, character, evil, and vice altogether, that doesnt make life any less moral; it just means we have obscured the inescapable moral core of life with shallow language.  Furthermore, the concept of sin is necessary because it is radically true.

Abolishing Evil

Saint Michael and the Angels at War With the Devil, 1448, by Domenico Ghirlandaio. Tempera on panel. Detroit Institute of Arts. (Public Domain)

The problem with abolishing evilor rather attempting to pretend it isnt there and that it can be redefinedis that it is evil itself doing so, and this practice generates further evil. Ptahhotep, a vizier writing over 4,000 years ago, noted that instead of trying to redefine evil, we needed to stop it, for the act of stopping evil leads to the lasting establishment of virtue.

Stopping evil, of course, presupposes that we know what it is. When morality is based on a transcendental realityon spiritual illumination (Buddhism), the gods (the Hammurabi code) or God himself (The Ten Commandments), we can understand evil as an opposite to the transcendental intentions. What we see from these examples of codes or laws is a massive overlap in the areas of core morality: adultery, theft, false witness, murderto take four obvious exampleswhich are condemned. What the actual specifics are (the context), and what the punishments and consequences may be, might vary, but the general direction is very clear.

Sadly, stopping evil is not what politicians and many today want. As Dalrymple says in Our Culture, Whats Left of It, In the psychotherapeutic worldview  there is no evil, only victimhood.

Nobody anymore is responsible for their actions; everyone, potentially, is in need of therapyproblem solved! This idea can be traced back to the Enlightenment and the thinkers it spawned: Marx would be a classic example, since economic factors, according to him, produced social ills, not actual, real people. Ironically, as an amusing sidebar, his wife (or perhaps his mother), was alleged to have said: I wish Karl would spend a little less time talking about capital and a little more accumulating it.

We could add Nietzsche and Freud to the list of thinkers, each explaining human nature away as owing to some other, simplistic factor: Change the economics, become the superman, understand your dreams, and utopia will be here any day!

Visiting Your Psychiatrist

Our culture has embraced a therapeutic model rather than one based on right and wrong. From the series of colored engravings, The Physician As God, Angel, Man and Devil, circa early 17th century, by Johann Gelle after Egbert van Panderen. (Wellcome Images/CC BY 4.0)

The absurdity of all this becomes manifest when one considers what Dalrymple also noted when commenting on one of the most famous funerals of the late 20th century: So universally accepted has the pathological-therapeutic approach to life become that the apostolic heir to St. Augustinethat is to say, the present Archbishop of Canterburyoffered up thanks to God at the funeral service for Princess Dianas vulnerability, as if an appointment with a psychiatrist were mans highest possible moral and cultural aspiration.

If Dalrymples comment was perceptive then, it is 10 times more so now, since proclaiming ones vulnerability and/or fragile mental state seems to be the sine qua non of virtue, as any cursory examination of social media will reveal: See, for example, a major article on the BBC, How LinkedIn Is Changing and Why Some Are Not Happy, questioning why in the last five years a major site for business contacts, Linkedin, has turned into a sob-fest for vulnerable hearts.

What Morality Is Based On

Moses Descends From Mount Sinai With the Ten Commandments, 1662, by Ferdinand Bol. Oil on canvas. Royal Palace of Amsterdam. (Public Domain)

But what is, then, the virtue or morality that we wish, and should be, standing up for? I have mentioned its necessarily transcendent source if it is to have authority. Keep in mind here that rationality begins after one has established the relevant principles which are nonrational: Reason itself cannot be proved by reason. We have to assume that reason is rational in the first place before we invoke it.

That said, reason has specific applications to four areas of life: not committing adultery, not stealing (theft), not lying (false witness), and not killing others (murder). A clue to what we might be standing for might be found in considering what these four crimes have in common. Quite obviously, each one of them injures (an-)other human beings, but how?

I think the answer to thisfrom the Western perspectiveis that each of these activities circumscribes the freedom of another(s): In reverse order, murder takes away anothers freedom to live; false witness takes away freedom of access to truth; stealing takes away freedom of access to tangible and intangible possessions; and adultery takes away the freedom of trust and intimacy with the most important person in anothers life. In other words, the key moral principleassumption evenwe should be standing for is freedom, our individual freedoms and the respect we maintain for the freedom of others.

Writer and newspaper columnist A.N. Wilson in his book, Dante in Love, noted similarly that the story of Christian theologyand it could be said, the whole story of Western thoughthas been an everlasting battle between determinism and some effort at declaring a belief in our freedom to make moral choices. If we are no more than the sum of our DNA, or no more than what the materialist forces of history have made us, or no more than the product of our social environment, then the courts of lawlet alone Hellare monstrous engines of injustice; for how can someone be held to account for his behaviour if it is all preordained?

Freedom is what we are fighting for, and specifically, freedom of the will.

In part 2 of this article, we will dig down a little deeper into the notion of freedom and freedom of the will, and how it is currently imperiled.
MPs Complain Liberals 430-Page Omnibus Bill Will Take Many Hours to Review

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland arrive to deliver the federal budget in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 28, 2023. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

The new federal budget tabled in the House of Commons is 430 pages long and as an omnibus bill, amends or introduces 51 Acts of Parliament, which has MPs complaining it will take a lot of time and work to unpack and debate the contents.

Im am not sure I am really clear how we as a finance committee can give proper scrutiny to something like this, Manitoba Conservative MP Marty Morantz said at a House of Commons finance committee meeting on May 2.

Im not the only one who feels this way when it comes to this sort of omnibus legislation.

A second follow-up bill to C-47, the Budget Implementation Act, is expected to be presented this fall.

Morantz said when the Liberal Party was sitting as opposition in government, they called catch-all omnibus budget bills undemocratic, according to Blacklocks Reporter.

He noted that in 2013, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, then the Liberal MP representing Papineau, Quebec, criticized the Conservative government for unwieldly omnibus bills. According to Morantz, Trudeau said: Omnibus bills prevent Parliament from properly reviewing and debating proposals; we will bring an end to this undemocratic practice.

Bloc Quebecois MP Gabriel Ste-Marie suggested the finance committee would need at least 100 hours to go through the budget legislation. He said, I think its important that every member of the finance committee gets the answers to all their questions before voting on the bill.

Hundreds of Pages

It has been a common complaint from MPs that omnibus bills are being passed by the House and Senate with most parliamentarians never having a chance to read or understand the bills, which sometimes run hundreds of pages long.

Parliament passed two separate omnibus bills, C-74 and C-86, in 2018, that together came to 1,411 pages, the largest in Canadian history.

In 2012, an omnibus budget bill under the Conservative government was 452 pages. In 2013, the budget bill was 309 pages, and in 2014 it was 478 pages, Blacklocks reported.

I thought there was a lesson learned, Morantz said on May 2.

The MP said that a few years ago in a budget bill, a section amended the Criminal Code to allow for deferred prosecution agreements. That initiative led to a major scandal, he said.

That omnibus bill, put forward by the Trudeau government and passed by Parliament in 2018, allowed prosecutors to suspend criminal charges against companies in some cases of alleged corporate wrongdoing.

Bill C-74 modified the Criminal Code to allow a deferred prosecution agreement, and was hidden in budget legislation 582 pages long.

The Liberals said it was to encourage companies to self-report corporate crimes to avoid facing criminal charges like bribery, corruption, and inside trading. The legislation listed 31 qualifying offences, including bribery of a foreign public official, municipal corruption, fraud, theft, forgery and insider trading. The government called it a remediation agreement regime.

At the time, a House of Commons finance committee, made up of all parties, said they were not aware of the change until they heard testimony of a senior official from the justice department.

Then-Liberal MP Greg Fergus, who is now parliamentary secretary to Trudeau, told the committee the change seemed to be a little slap on the wrist for white-collar crime. I do have some serious questions about this, said Fergus. He said that despite reading through most of the bill, he had not picked up on the deferred prosecution provision.

SNC-Lavalin

Bill C-74 was enacted in June 2018 and generated controversy after SNC-Lavalin, facing criminal charges and accusations of corruption dating back to 2015, sought a deferred prosecution agreement in 2019.

SNC-Lavalin was accused of trying to bribe public officials in Libya, including dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and of lobbying the Prime Ministers Office to get a prosecution deferral. In 2021, the company became the first corporation to be offered a settlement agreement using the clause. Executives of the company have since pleaded guilty or been convicted of fraud, bribery, bid-rigging, breach of trust, laundering the proceeds of crime, and making $109,616 in illegal contributions to the campaign of the Liberal Party.

On May 2, Morantz asked the committee if there were any changes in the omnibus budget bill that would benefit any one particular company, Blacklocks reported.

Anyone? Anyone here can answer that? You dont know? There might be? There is a lot of silence around the table, Mr. Chair.
MSNBC Tops Fox News in Primetime Ratings After Tucker Carlson Exit

Fox News continued to see a decline in ratings on Monday after using a new host, coming a week after it was announced Tucker Carlson is departing the network.

In turn, left-leaning outlet MSNBCs primetime ratings prevailed over Fox News on Monday, May 1, according to Nielsen data. For the evening, Fox News brought in 1.598 million total viewers and 164,000 viewers in the 2554 age demographic, while MSNC won 1.693 million viewers and 176,000 viewers in the demographic. No. 3 was CNN with 481,000 total viewers and 109,000 2554 viewers.

In terms of total day viewers, Fox News was still No. 1 in total viewers and demographic viewers, the ratings show.

Last week, Brian Kilmeade filled in during Carlsons 8 p.m. timeslot for a show dubbed Fox News Tonight. This week, Lawrence Jones was tapped to host the program, performing those duties on both Monday and Tuesday nights.

About 2.5 million people watched Kilmeades first show on April 24, while the figure ultimately dropped to about 1.3 million on Friday, April 28, according to Nielsen ratings. Jones Fox News Tonight drew 1.55 millionmore than Kilmeades Friday show, but not by much.

In the 8 p.m. slot, Fox News Tonight performed better than Anderson Coopers CNN show, which drew 634,000 viewers, and MSNBCs All In, which drew 1.2 million.

The top cable news performer on Monday night was MSNBCs Rachel Maddow, who drew 2.2 million. Fox News Sean Hannity also suffered a drop in viewership in the days after Carlsons departure, again losing viewers on Monday night when about 1.7 million watched his 9 p.m. program, the ratings show.

Carlson had averaged more than 3 million viewers per show during the month of March, according to Nielsen. For all of 2022, his nightly program produced similar numbers on average.

When it announced that Carlson would be leaving the network, Fox News said it would use a rotating cast to host what it described as a temporary program before a new show and host is named. Other details about why Carlson was released or what was discussed were not provided.

Over the past several days, there have been anonymously sourced reports and what appear to be leaked videos of Carlson on the set of his show. In one video that was posted by left-wing activist group Media Matters for America, Carlson directly insulted the group in what appeared to be a joke.

In another, Carlson was seen criticizing the networks streaming service, Fox Nation, and that nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks and doesnt work. That clip, released by Media Matters, was reportedly shot in late 2022.

Traffic on Sixth Avenue passes by advertisements featuring Fox News personalities, at the News Corporation building, in New York City, on March 13, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

And theyre making Lifetime movies. But they dont work on the infrastructure of the site. Its crazy. And it drives me crazy because were doing all this extra work and no one can find it. Its unbelievable, actually. I dont know who runs that site, Carlson said to a person off-camera.

Were like working like animals to produce all this content, and the people in charge of it, whoever that guy is, whatever his name is, like, theyre ignoring the fact that the site doesnt work, he also said. And I think its like a betrayal of our efforts. Thats how I feel. So I, of course, I resent it.

Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly speculated on her program that some individuals inside Fox News are leaking the videos and are making spurious claims about Carlson. She also alleged that Carlson was not actually fired from the network but is instead not allowed to host his show. Carlson has not responded to those claims, and he only released a video on Twitter that lambasted the state of the U.S. media landscape.

A Fox News spokesperson, when asked about Kellys claims, directed The Epoch Times to its initial announcement confirming Carlsons departure last week.

When asked about Fox News ratings drop, a spokesperson told The Epoch Times over the weekend that Fox News is leading cable news in primetime and today day (Wednesday, April 24) with viewers and A25-54, referring to the age demographic coveted by advertisers.

For more than 21 years, Fox News Channel has been cable news most-watched network in all categories with more Democrats, Independents and Republicans now tuning in than either CNN or MSNBC, the company said in a statement about its ratings this week. Attracting more than 50 percent of the cable news viewing audience with the top 12 programs in cable news, Fox News powerhouse team of journalists, analysts and opinion hosts are trusted more by viewers than any other news source.
(Bloomberg) -- Bridgetown Holdings Ltd., the US-listed blank-check company backed by billionaires Peter Thiel and Richard Li, is nearing a merger with financial technology firm Hyphen Group, according to people familiar with the matter.

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The companies are finalizing the details of an agreement that could be announced as early as this month, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Bridgetown has conducted due diligence on Hong Kong-based Hyphen and the firms are holding final negotiations with both existing and prospective shareholders, the people said.

A transaction could value the combined entity at a few hundred million dollars and include a private investment in public equity, or PIPE, anchored by institutional investors, Bloomberg News has reported. Li is already among Hyphens investors.

While talks are at an advanced stage, they could still face delays, the people said. A representative for Bridgetown declined to comment, while Hyphen didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bridgetown raised $595 million in a US initial public offering in 2020. Its sponsor, Bridgetown LLC, is a collaboration between the PayPal Holdings Inc. founders Thiel Capital and Lis investment flagship Pacific Century Group.

Hyphen has been working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to review funding options including a listing via a special purpose acquisition company or a private fundraising, Bloomberg News has reported. Its backers include Pacific Century, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Goldman Sachs, the World Banks International Finance Corp. and Experian Plc.

Story continues

Hyphen, formerly known as CompareAsiaGroup, offers comparison tools for credit cards, personal loans, and other financial products, according to its website. It has over 10 million monthly users in markets including Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan.

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Nashville Police Reverse Course on Releasing Shooters Manifesto, Citing Pending Litigation

In this image from video, Audrey Hale points a gun inside The Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., on March 27, 2023. (Nashville Police Department via The Epoch Times)

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) has reversed course from a previous statement to The Epoch Times, when the agency said the manifesto and writings of Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale would be released to the public soon.

The department cited the advice of legal counsel amid litigation filed this week for those same documents to be released.

The Epoch Times contacted MNPD on May 3, but officials would not comment, citing the pending litigation. The story regarding MNPD readying the documents for public release was published April 27.

On May 1, the Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) filed a lawsuit against MNPD over a previously denied public records request for the Hale documents to be released. The Epoch Times reached out to TFA regarding the new delay of the release of the documents.

Officially, no comment in my role as an attorney, John Harris III, an attorney with Schulman Leroy & Bennett and the executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association, said in an email to The Epoch Times.

MNPD Statement

An Epoch Times reporter based outside of Tennessee had their request for the same records denied because they were not a Tennessee resident. Another Epoch Times reporter located within Tennessee also received a denial letter from MNPDs Central Records Division on April 19, citing the investigation still being open.

The home of Audrey Halewho opened fire at The Covenant School Christian school in Nashville, Tenn.sits quietly in its south Nashville neighborhood on March 31, 2023, days after police agencies raided the home following the March 27 shooting. (Chase Smith/The Epoch Times)

Your request is denied based on the following grounds, the denial letter from MNPD stated. The following  law prohibits the release of the requested records: Open CasesRule 16 of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure and Tennessean v. Metro. Govt of Nashville.

While MNPD declined to comment on the seeming change in direction from the previous interview with The Epoch Times, the department posted a brief statement on Twitter.

Covenant investigation update: Due to pending litigation filed this week, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has been advised by counsel to hold in abeyance the release of records related to the shooting at The Covenant School pending orders or direction of the court, MNPD posted on Twitter.

A further public records request for the autopsy of Audrey Hale by The Epoch Times was approved, pending the report being completed, with a timeline of 812 weeks from the date of death for case completion.

TFAs Lawsuit

TFA did not comment to The Epoch Times on the pending litigation, but Harris did release a comment to The Tennessean newspaper.

The (MNPDs) denial failed to identify any underlying criminal proceeding, or even potential defendant, such that the requested materials would be a case under Rule 16 of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Proceeding, Harris said, according to The Tennessean.

TFA filed suit on May 1, alongside former Hamilton County Sheriff James Hammond and Judicial Watch.

In the lawsuit, the parties ask for a court order to force Metro to turn over certain records as specified in the Petition related to the Covenant School shooting that occurred in March 2023, TFA wrote in a post on its website.

TFA notes it sought all records concerning the shooters manifesto, and separately sought disclosure of all email communications of MNPD officials regarding the mass shooting committed by Audrey Elizabeth Hale on March 27, 2023, as well as MNPD officials text messages regarding the same, and copies of the manifesto reported left by Audrey Elizabeth Hale in her vehicle.

Mourners observe the makeshift memorial at The Covenant School in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville, Tenn., on March 31, 2023, four days after six people were killed at the school in a shooting. (Chase Smith/The Epoch Times)

TFA said Hammond submitted another open records request for a wide range of documents including photographs, coroner information, toxicology reports, and video footage from the school. Hammonds request also included many more topics such as investigative reports, MNPD communications regarding the manifesto, and MNPD communications between the FBI, Department of Justice, and Office of the District Attorney for Nashville regarding designating the shooting at a Christian School by a self-identified transgender suspect as a hate crime.'

Metro has denied all of these open records requests, TFA said of Hammonds records requests, according to the TFA website.

The reason given was Rule 16, according to TFA.

TFA added that the individual who was involved in the shooting at The Covenant School was killed by law enforcement on the day of the event. Metro failed to identify any pending criminal investigation that could even possibly result in criminal charges.

The lawsuit seeks a court order that MNPD disclose the requested records and pay TFA and others attorney fees.

Many believe that public access to these records is important for a number of reasons including the interest in determining the actual basis for the homicides particularly in light of Governor Bill Lees call for a special legislative session to consider his gun control proposal that he has presented in the format of a Red Flag law, TFA wrote.
National Citizens Inquiry: Psychiatrist Criticizes Lack of Emphasis on Treatment During Pandemic

A health worker shows a bottle of Ivermectin as part of a study of the Center for Paediatric Infectious Diseases Studies, in Cali, Colombia, on July 21, 2020. (Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images)

On the second day of the National Citizens Inquirys (NCI) stop in British Columbia, a psychiatrist questioned the lack of emphasis governments and public health authorities placed on potential treatments for COVID-19, instead focusing on the creation and distribution of vaccines.

I have absolutely no idea why our government and our public health people did not pursue a treatment research regime while they were attempting to do vaccines. It makes no sense at all, said Dr. Greg Passey, who specializes in treating first responders who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The NCI describes itself as a citizen-led and citizen-funded initiative that is completely independent from government. The inquiry is examining how the pandemic measures put in place by all levels of government impacted Canadians in the four categories of health, fundamental rights and freedoms, social well-being, and economic prosperity.

Passey told the commission that despite receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, he was infected with COVID-19 for the second time in January 2021. Three days after becoming sick, Passey treated himself with ivermectin, vitamins B6, C, and D, and low-dose aspirin, which was a protocol recommended by the United States Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance.

Health Canada said ivermectin has been authorized in Canada for human use for the treatment of parasitic worm infections, but there is no evidence that it works to prevent or treat COVID-19 and it has not been authorized for that use.

Prescription drugs should be taken only under the advice and supervision of a healthcare professional. Patients taking prescription drugs without being examined and monitored by a healthcare practitioner may not receive the appropriate treatment to maintain and protect their health. They may also put themselves at risk for drug interactions or harmful side effects, Health Canada said in an email on May 5.

Passey said he made a full recovery within 24 hours of the treatment, but he was not allowed to speak about it or recommend it to patients.

We were suppressed, we were censored, and I was not allowed to talk about my experience, he said.

The doctor said no levels of government or public health expertsexcept for a few brave doctorsdiscussed putting research into treatments for COVID-19, despite successful and cheap treatments for HIV having been created a few decades earlier.

Passey claimed the public health officers surrendered to the governments narrative around COVID-19 vaccines, and that political science overshadowed and suppressed medical science.

Ivermectin

Passey also criticized the Canadian government and medical authorities for preventing doctors from prescribing ivermectin off-label to patients suffering from COVID-19. Passey said there are some antipsychotic drugs that doctors are allowed to prescribe to patients for PTSD off-label, even though theres no research on it.

Passey said the regulatory colleges of physicians will often allow doctors to prescribe medication off-label, but during the pandemic, ivermectinwhich has antiviral and anti-inflammatory propertieswas not allowed to be given out.

Its safer than Tylenol or ibuprofen. Nobodys ever died of an ivermectin overdose, ever, but people have died from Tylenol and ibuprofen. It continues to astound me, Passey said.

Besides Health Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has also said Ivermectin shouldnt be used to treat COVID-19, and the World Health Organization has said it should only be used for clinical trials.

Editors note: This article has been updated to include comments from Health Canada.
Navy Used Drag Performer in Digital Ambassador Recruiting Program

The USS Ronald Reagan, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered super carrier, participates in an International Fleet Review commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force at Sagami Bay off Yokosuka, Japan, on Nov. 6, 2022. (Issei Kato-Pool/Getty Images)

The U.S. Navy hired a drag performer as part of a now-concluded pilot program designed to boost service recruiting.

Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, the drag performer who goes by the stage name Harpy Daniels, claimed in a November 2022 Instagram post that the service had invited him to become a digital ambassador. In an emailed statement to NTD News on Wednesday, a Navy spokeswoman confirmed that Kelley was employed in the services pilot program.

The Navy Digital Ambassador Program was a pilot initiative designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates as the Navy navigates the most challenging recruiting environment it has faced since the start of the all-volunteer force, said a Navy spokeswoman. The pilot has concluded; we are evaluating the program and how it will exist in the future.

The U.S. military struggled to meet its recruiting goals last fiscal year. The U.S. Navy hit its recruiting goal for active-duty enlisted personnel but missed its goals for recruiting new active and reserve officers, and reserve enlisted personnel. The U.S. Marine Corps was one of the few military services that hit all of its recruiting goals for 2022, while the U.S. Army missed its goal for new active duty enlisted troops by 25 percenta 15,000-recruit shortfall.

The Navy spokeswoman said Kelley was not compensated for participating in the digital ambassador program.

The Navy provided few additional details about how the digital ambassador program worked and how it assessed the recruiting performance of its ambassadors.

Critics Tie Wokeness to Recruiting Woes

Some Republican and conservative critics tied the recruiting shortfalls to politicizing the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and an embrace of socially woke ideology in particular. Those critics noted (pdf) several programs highlighting and promoting racial and LGBT identity, including officially sanctioned drag performances.

Wokeness at the DoD has harmed recruitment, retention, and morale, wasted service members time and taxpayers dollars, and undermined the apolitical character of the military, which is a major threat to democracy and the American way of life, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said in a February statement regarding the Armys recruitment shortcomings.

While conservative critics linked drag performance to the woke ideology they believed hurt military recruiting in 2022, the Navy evidently saw drag performance as a way to appeal to potential recruits. The pilot digital ambassador program ran from the start of the new fiscal year in October 2022 until March 2023.

Kelley rebuffed these conservative critics in a 2022 interview with the USS Constitution Museums website. During the interview, Kelley discussed the controversy surrounding an event where he was scheduled to perform at Langley Joint Air Force Base, saying: I was advertised as a drag performer at the event, and it caused an uproar to many conservatives and Christian extremists. Even Fox News host Tucker Carlson had something to say just to stir many right-wing minds.

Kelley again noted Carlsons criticism of his performance in his November 2022 Instagram post announcing he had been invited to participate in the digital ambassador program, presenting the ambassadorship as a rebuke of the criticisms he has received over the years.

While conservative lawmakers have pointed to drag performances as one example of the woke politicization that they believe has harmed the militarys recruiting, proponents of the militarys current diversity practices have argued theyve helped service members feel more comfortable in the military.

In his interview for the USS Constitution Museum website, Kelley said a sailor who had watched one of his drag performances on board a ship during a Morale, Welfare, and Recreation event had been convinced not to commit suicide.

I found out I saved someones life, Kelley told the interviewer. This person was gay and felt lost and alone, ready to jump ship. But after getting to view my performance, they felt empowered to be themselves and see that our struggles and low morale are temporary. They personally thanked me and said they forgot what life was like for a moment, Kelley added.

Though drag proponents like Kelley have hoped the performances will increase LGBT acceptance in the military, some Pentagon leaders have signaled opposition to funding or officially sanctioning such events.

During a congressional hearing last month, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) asked whether taxpayer funding had gone toward any of several drag performances on military installations. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, the top-uniformed military leader, replied, Id like to take a look at those myself, actually, and find out what actually is going on there, because thats the first Im hearing about that kind of stuff  Id like to take a look at those because I dont agree with those. I think those things shouldnt be happening.

From NTD News
Nordstrom to Close Downtown San Francisco Stores

Birkenstock products are on display at Nordstrom in San Francisco on March 15, 2018. (Kimberly White/Getty Images for ELLE)

Luxury retailer Nordstrom plans to close both of its downtown San Francisco stores because of dramatic changes in the area in the last few years, according to the company.

In all, the company will walk away from nearly 358,000 square feet of downtown retail space. The Nordstrom Rack store on Market Street will close July 1 and the Nordstrom at Westfield San Francisco Centre will close at the end of August, according to a letter circulated on social media.

Jamie Nordstrom, chief stores officer of the brand, reportedly wrote to staff May 2 announcing the companys decision not to renew leases at the San Francisco Center Nordstrom store and the Market Street Rack store.

Weve spent more than 35 years serving customers in downtown San Francisco, building relationships with them and investing in the local community, Nordstrom wrote in the letter. But as many of you know, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully.

The company will look closely at other opportunities in the region and will better serve customers by focusing on 16 nearby Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack locations, as well as online, according to the letter.

The Westfield San Francisco Centre malls owner, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, said the closure underscores the deteriorating situation in downtown San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Standard.

A growing number of retailers and businesses are leaving the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees, coupled with the fact that these significant issues are preventing an economic recovery of the area, said a spokesperson in a statement.

[Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield] has actively engaged with city leaders for many years to express our serious concerns, which are shared by our customers and retailers. We have urged the city to find solutions to the key issues and lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity, the statement read.

Nordstrom has 20 new Rack store openings planned this year with more coming in 2024. The company recently announced a new Nordstrom Rack store in Pinole, Calif., and a remodeling of the Valley Fair Nordstrom store in San Jose.

The closures are unfortunate, Daniel Herzstein, director of public policy at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, told The Epoch Times.

San Francisco has really been struggling, especially downtown, Herzstein said.

Nordstroms decision follows announcements from other big-name retail chains that have recently decided to leave the city.

In April, the Whole Foods Market grocery chain decided to temporarily close its 8th and Market Street location because of safety concerns. A rise in street crime, drug use inside and outside the store, and unsafe conditions for patrons and employees contributed to the decision, according to media reports.

Pedestrians walk by a closed Whole Foods store in San Francisco on April 12, 2023. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

In October 2021, Walgreens also decided to close five San Francisco locations because of rampant, organized theft in the city.

Also, in March, Amazon Go announced a decision to close four downtown stores and end its Bay Area expansion, according to Eater San Francisco. Lifestyle clothing retailer Anthropologie will also close its market Street store May 13, and Banana Republic will shutter its Sutter Street store this spring, reported the San Francisco Standard.

These store closings are a major bump in the road to bringing back downtown, Herzstein said. Right now, we have a once-in-generation opportunity to revitalize our City, and we cant afford to ignore the public safety and quality of life issues on our streets. We need aggressive investments to make downtown safe, clean, and welcoming to all, and we need them now.

A number of business owners and residents are fed up with the rise in crime in San Francisco, as California Insider reported in its recent documentary Leaving California: The Untold Story.

The news of Nordstroms closures come days after a security guard shot and killed a shoplifter at a Walgreens on Market Street. The security guard was arrested after the April 27 incident but San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins decided not to press charges.

We ultimately did not believe we could prove beyond a reasonable doubt here that the security guard had committed murder or any other crime, Jenkins said in a video statement May 1.

Former San Francisco County supervisor Tony Hall said Nordstroms decision was not a surprise.

It doesnt surprise me at all, because of the crime and the shoplifting, Hall told The Epoch Times. Its outright thievery that goes on in the chain stores in San Francisco. Ive seen this firsthand with my own eyes.

The city is completely out of control right now, Hall added. Groups of out-of-town youth enter stores in the city and take merchandise and walk out, without fear of being arrested or stopped in any way, he said.

The only way out is a change of administrationa change in the culture of government that is governing in San Francisco, Hall said.

Requests for comment from Nordstrom were not returned before press time.
North Korean Defector on the Fragility of Freedom

Is America on the road to ruin?

The tactics used here to control people are the same tactics the North Korean regime used to control and enslave us, North Korean defector Yeonmi Park says.

In a recent episode of American Thought Leaders, host Jan Jekielek spoke with Park, author of the new book While Time Remains: A North Korean Girls Search for Freedom in America. They discussed the victimhood pseudo-religion that she sees taking over America, the manipulation of language, and the fight to preserve the ideals of this country.

Jan Jekielek: Yeonmi, congratulations on your new book, While Time Remains. Please tell our viewers what you mean by time running out.

Yeonmi Park: The subtitle of the book is A North Korean Defectors Search for Freedom in America. I actually didnt expect to come to America and have to look for freedom. America was the land of the free and the home of the brave. Unfortunately, I went to Columbia University, where I was reminded of a lot of things that I saw in North Korea. Americans cant recognize those threats because theyve never lived in a truly oppressive country.

So I wrote this book to wake up America to see these threats. The tactics used here to control people are the same tactics the North Korean regime used to control and enslave us.

Mr. Jekielek: In our last interview, I asked if you think its possible for America to become like North Korea. Do you still think thats possible?

Ms. Park: Its very possible. Living through the pandemic, thats when I really understood that America is not immune to oppression. This country can totally become like China or North Korea if individuals stop defending their liberty.

Mr. Jekielek: In your book, you reference Alexander Solzhenitsyns quote, The line between good and evil cuts through every human heart. In 1978, he gave the Harvard Commencement speech. He had exposed the Soviet Union for what it was and had won the Nobel Prize. He was this hero coming out of a very despotic regime. But after this Harvard address, he wasnt so popular anymore. The people running the show were expecting him to tell them how great they were and thank them for helping him. Instead, he basically said, You have some great things here, but I dont think I would wish your system on my home country. People were shocked.

In your case, you could have easily been popular as well, going to the Met Gala every year. You talk about that in this book and what a surreal experience that was. But you chose to be a truth teller, and that caused you some trouble.

Ms. Park: Youre saying I could be the darling of this movement of victimhood. Im a woman. I was raped. I was sold and I could complain all day about how horrible men are. Because the men I met then were rapists. I can totally make the case for the world that men are truly horrible.

When I was trying to write my second book, a lot of people were trying to force me to write a book on how hard it is to be a woman or on how horrible Americas treatment is toward black men, and compare the American prison system with the North Korean concentration system to show how America is brutal towards black men. Of course, if I had written that book, I would be on the New York Times Best Seller list right now.

When I was trying to do my audiobook, we couldnt find a narrator. They would keep bailing out, and they would not want to narrate my book. Eventually, we got a lady and she wanted to use a pseudonym, after we went through 11 people. Just finding a narrator who wanted to narrate the book, not even the writing of the book, was a real challenge.

This is a really shocking thing to see how Americans are afraid and not acknowledging they are living in a somewhat oppressive country. Of course, the extent is not like North Korea and China. Im not saying that. But we are on that path if we dont turn back. We are getting closer every day, especially with the education system, and especially in the current climate where they can say your speech is violence. If its politically incorrect, then you are spreading hate.

Mr. Jekielek: You say, My lifes purpose is to fight for human rights, especially for North Koreans. A number of the people at Columbia where you went to school and many other places would say: Were fighting for human rights. We need to be safe and secure in our thoughts. We dont want to be exposed to dangerous things. They might imagine themselves as fighting for human rights. What do you think about that?

Ms. Park: I was studying economics for the first two years. For the remaining two years, I studied human rights and then got a human rights degree. It was really shocking sitting in the classroom. The professors or students would say that health care is a human right, the rights of LGBTQ+ are human rights, [and] universal income is a human right.

What human rights mean to me has currently lost meaning. Im so sorry to say that. When people say Im a human rights activist, thats not what I mean. Human rights for me are the right to pursue your life in a land where there is no infringement of your speech, your religion, your movement, and your thoughts. It isnt about me demanding that the country give me free education, free health care, free housing, and free universal income. It isnt about entitlement.

But now in America, human rights means that feelings rise over facts, that if I feel gender fluid or like some unicorn or a cat, then I have a right to be respected for that. I dont even know what to say to that. Its a mental condition.

If you go against political correctness, you lose your dignity, your character is assassinated, and you lose your livelihood. The elite decides what we can talk about and what we need to believe.

Mr. Jekielek: A few days ago, The New York Times published an op-ed, The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned? Anyone following actual scientific papers already knew this was the case. But there were a lot of people out there enforcing compliance. You have a child in the New York school system, so you know exactly what Im talking about.

Ms. Park: My son was 2 years old when these lockdowns began. I couldnt afford not to be working, and he had to go to day care. They would demand that he wear a mask for up to eight hours a day in the day care.

Then they would open dog parks, but they would shut down the childrens playgrounds in the summer when theres a warm breeze and sunshine. They said, We need to stay safe. I was thinking, Dogs have more rights than my son right now.

Many people were shunned during that time. If you asked a single question about mainstream orthodoxy, then you were marked as a conspiracy theorist, a danger to public health. You lose your job, you get banned, you get censored. We did this to our own people in the name of public health and the public good. In the name of this one thing, the government destroyed so many lives.

Mr. Jekielek: Im reminded of the power of propaganda in North Korea, which is really unbelievable.

Ms. Park: The North Korean policies are beyond evil, beyond anything that we have seen. They chose to starve their own population. They would choose to let them die from starvation, even though they had every resource to feed them. Until this day, Kim Jong-un uses the same tactic to control the population.

Of course, government is a necessary evil. We need it to keep us safe. We need it to protect us, and we give them power for our military and some public things that we need to run. But we need to keep it as limited as we can.

The thing is, a lot of people think that somehow the government looks out for the best interest for all of us. As long as we give them more power and let them keep growing, somehow theyre going to bring us a paradise, which is exactly what the North Korean regime promised. But they took everything and gave nothing back and made us slaves.

Right now, there are so many Biden promises, like the student debt forgiveness, similar to the same tactics that Kim Il-sung used to buy the votes and become a dictator. When the government keeps promising free things, that becomes very dangerous.

Mr. Jekielek: Years ago, someone told me that when youre getting Facebook for free, the reason is youre the product.

Ms. Park: Youre the product, yes.

Mr. Jekielek: I want to finish up about the masks. It feels like were going to cruise right through the accountability for what was done.

Ms. Park: Yes, suddenly theyre like: Oops, we made a mistake. Lets move on.

This can be a pattern if we let them go like this. There should be consequences for harming people, and they actually harmed so many people.

Mr. Jekielek: What this really speaks to is the cozy relationship between big government, Big Tech, and big education, all these different structures, including big business.

Ms. Park: And mainstream media.

Mr. Jekielek: Mainstream media, yes, and Big Pharma, and all of them working together. It really amounts to a massive amount of power and the ability to shape our perceptions.

Ms. Park: And its getting harder to find the truth. They keep burying the truth. Thats what they do in schools, and even in universities. And if you look for truth, then you are a bigot.

In any dictatorship, the first thing they go for is the media and education. Every country did that during this kind of revolution. This is what people dont understand or are just starting to understandthis is our moment of cultural revolution in America.

The tactics are the same. The media gets compromised. The education system gets compromised. Hollywood produces propaganda, and scientists cannot question the science. That completely defeats the purpose of science.

We dont have a lot of time left. What institution is there right now that is not under a threat from the unification of all these institutions who demand that we follow their commandments?

Mr. Jekielek: A lot of people have been what you would call black-pilled, which means they are thinking to themselves, Whats the point? Ive tried.

Ms. Park: Americans are the freest individuals in human history. No citizens of a country have ever been this prosperous and had this many rights and a bigger voice. There are people in North Korea who do not even know what it means to have a voice. Americans certainly do.

If a North Korean can come to America not speaking a word of English, can become who I am today, anybody in America can make a difference. But that mind of perseverance is lacking. Thats why so many people become pessimistic and nihilistic. Somehow, the world becomes pointless. Fighting for truth and justice is somehow a pointless game.

Theres so much to be grateful for, so much to be excited about, and so many ways to make a difference, but this current culture is so negative, especially to young minds. Its horrifying.

You can complain about a million different things and the list will never run out. But if you decide to be thankful today, to be grateful, that list is never going to run out either. This is like what the Bible taught us. When I asked God how to be happy, he asked me to learn gratitude. Happiness only comes when youre grateful.

Americans have lost that gratitude. In this culture, they almost demand that you be a victim. They ask you to be oppressed and miserable. This is like when people were asking me: Why are you so normal? Why are you so functional?

Were not celebrating the victorious life; were celebrating the misery. Weve stopped telling people: You are strong. You can persevere and be resilient. Instead, were teaching them to be victims and to complain about literally everything and anything, and how not always having a problem is a problem.

Mr. Jekielek: In your book, you said that an increased Chinese Communist Party influence around the world translates into an increase of North Korean reality around the world. Can you explain what you mean here?

Ms. Park: People really dont understand the danger of the CCP. The Chinese regime has been expanding through America, Africa, to the Middle East in Iran, and to all these other countries. They started giving them scholarships. They are offering to build roads and companies and factories, they make them indebted, and then they move in.

For example, in North Korea, the mining towns gave the CCP a 200-year lease, or a 300-year lease. Do you really think 300 years later, North Korea will have anything left when they take back the land? No wayit has become Chinese. Their agenda is really to make the North Korean reality a norm in the world.

Right now, as long as America stands as the defending democracy, people still understand an alternative way of life is possible. A lot of Chinese people want to come to America. They know a superior system exists here. But once the American system goes down, then what do we have? China is left with all this influence, and the entire world is under its power.

Then, what is going to be the norm of our world is going to be the way of China and the way of North Korea. That will truly be a time when humanity will forget that this American kind of life was ever possible. When I was born in North Korea, I didnt even know that I was oppressed. I did not know that life could be different, because thats all I knew. In a few generations, that is easily possible.

China has given money to Harvard, Columbia, MIT, and all the schools, so they cannot criticize China. After I wrote my new book, there was a producer in Hollywood who was trying to make a movie about my first book, and he sent me a script. I was reading the script, and I could not believe it. It says that when I got to China, they gave me refuge, and that was my promised land. They protected me.

So I called up the producer: What are you talking about? This is not what happened. He said, This is the only way we can make a movie about North Korea in the current Hollywood. Thats when I understood how many messages had to be altered.

The depth of this infiltration from China is so deep that I cant even fathom it. I dont think most Americans really understand how deep this is, the infiltration into our system, and its a perfect time for China to infiltrate because Americans are so divided and have lost perspective on whats important in life.

Mr. Jekielek: You have this one term in the book, The warriors of light. Tell us about that.

Ms. Park: An individual is beautiful. I really believe we are unique, and all of us have warriors inside with that beautiful light that we can carry if we recognize it and get in touch with ourselves.

You can stop looking at social media and read more books and find your community. If you are not going to church, create your community. Stay connected to your family and look after each other, and really get back to reading books. There are so many great Western minds. John Stuart Mill wrote On Liberty. These books still move my heart, but nobody else seems to read them. No other system, no civilization ever thought that individuals deserve rights like we have now.

Mr. Jekielek: Some people who feel demoralized might say, Sure, Yeonmi, this is all very interesting, but nothing I do is going to make a difference. Whats your message to them?

Ms. Park: To me, saving the world doesnt mean you will be a Spider-Man superhero. If you learn how to take care of yourself physically and mentally, then you can start taking care of your family. Once that is in order, then you can take care of your community, and then bigger things. But it starts within you. Maybe all you can handle is just yourself, and thats fine. Thats what I teach my son.

We dont need to be these virtuous beings who keep talking about how we need to save everybody and make everybody have equality of outcome. All that it takes is just taking care of yourself and not being a burden to somebody else, and that can be a noble cause.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Northern Territory Green Lights Beetaloo Basin Fracking

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles during a press conference in Darwin, Australia, on May 13, 2022. (AAP Image/Aaron Bunch)

Onshore fracking in the Northern Territorys Beetaloo Basin could be underway as early as 2024 after the government lifted a five-year moratorium.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles says the way has been cleared with all 135 recommendations from the 2018 Pepper inquiry implemented.

We have strengthened government agencies; we have strengthened legislation to rigorously assess environmental management plans, she told reporters on Wednesday.

A new petroleum operations unit will monitor compliance, with an annual investment of $2 million.

About 500km southeast of Darwin, the Beetaloo Basin contains an estimated 500 trillion cubic feet of gas, making it one of Australias most energy resource-rich areas.

The region has been subjected to extensive environmental scrutiny for the past five years following concerns the NT didnt have robust legislation or environmental data that could safely regulate the gas industry.

One of the recommendations of the Pepper inquiry was all greenhouse gas emissions, known as scope one, two and three emissions, must be offset, whether from production or consumption.

Fyles said her government had no jurisdiction to offset greenhouse gas produced via consumption in other states or by offshore sales.

Instead, it will require companies applying for production licences to submit plans on reaching net zero emissions by 2050, fulfilling an earlier government promise.

Mining Minister Nicole Manison acknowledged that with regard to scope two and three emissions, there was work to be done with the Commonwealth.

The government will support projects that meet the necessary environmental and regulatory approvals  noting there are currently no projects in front of us, a spokesman for federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said.

We have a strong plan to reduce emissions by 43 per cent, and we will deliver that.

The federal governments safeguard mechanism reforms includes all industrial facilities with more than 100,000 tonnes of direct emissions.

It includes requirements for any shale gas facility in the Beetaloo Basin to offset direct emissions with Australian carbon credit units or safeguard mechanism credits.

Manison said following five years of legislative reform, including new chain of responsibility legislation and a promise to have net zero emissions by 2050, the NT had the most highly regulated petroleum industry in Australia.

Onshore fracking in the region hinges on the $15 million Strategic Regional Environmental and Baseline Assessment report released in April.

It is deemed to be one of the most extensive environmental baseline assessments done in the industry but also flagged significant concerns about consent from First Nations Traditional Owners.

Fyles maintained Traditional Owners would be able to veto any project.

Nurrdalinji Native Title Aboriginal Corporation represents members with native title interests across the Beetaloo Basin.

The chief minister is incorrect to claim Traditional Owners have the power to veto production on our country, jungai (law man) Johnny Wilson said.

Justice Pepper made it clear in her report this is not true, there is no veto right at the production stage under native title or land rights laws.

He said prior consent many years ago was rescinded now that Traditional Owners understood the many thousands of wells we are looking at now.

The Environmental Defenders Office said the governments decision to go ahead with fracking was a violation of public trust.

We will do everything we can to ensure the plans of every company applying for a gas production licence is thoroughly scrutinised, EDO chief executive David Morris said.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams Criticizes White House for Border Crisis

Eric Adams, Mayor of New York, speaks at the Literacy Partners 2023 Gala at Cipriani South Street in New York on May 1, 2023. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Literacy Partners)

Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams said President Joe Bidens administration is partly to blame for the countrys struggles to handle asylum seekers and illegal border crossers attempting to enter the United States.

Adams fielded questions about Americas immigration and border security policies during a Tuesday press conference. During the press conference, reporters asked Adams about his criticism of Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been sending busloads of migrants from his state to other parts of the country. One reporter asked Adams whether his criticisms of Abbotts migrant busing policies could inflame anti-immigrant sentiments in New York.

Adams denied that his criticisms have ever been directed at migrants.

It is not about the asylum-seekers and migrants, all of us came from somewhere to pursue the American Dream, Adams said. It is the irresponsibility of the Republican Party in Washington for refusing to do real immigration reform, and its the irresponsibility of the White House for not addressing this problem.

In his comments, Adams laid the blame for the present immigration and border security situation at the feet of both Republicans and the presidential administration of his fellow Democrat, Biden.

The New York City mayors comments came about two months after he joined an advisory board promoting Bidens 2024 reelection bid. Adams has targeted the Biden administration in his previous criticisms of the situation at the U.S. southern border. He told the New York Post that his role as a Biden campaign adviser would not prevent him from pressuring Biden to help New York City address an influx of migrant arrivals.

NTD News reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by the time this article was published.

Adams Slams Migrant Busing to NYC

Many of the questions Adams faced during his Tuesday press conference focused on his criticism of migrant buses arriving in New York City. On Monday, Adams posted on Twitter that Abbott was sending new busloads of migrants to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C.

It is also impossible to ignore the fact that Abbott is now targeting five cities run by Black mayors, Adams Monday post reads. Put plainly, Abbott is using this crisis to hurt Black-run cities.

Abbott has been sending busloads of migrants to other states for months now and has targeted self-described sanctuary cities, which are cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities that might arrest or deport illegal immigrants. New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C. have all described themselves as sanctuary cities in the past.

Outgoing Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has similarly criticized Abbott for sending migrant buses to her city. On Sunday, Lightfoot sent Abbott a letter pleading with the Texas governor not to send the migrant buses.

Since we began responding to the arrival of migrants sent by your delegation in August 2022, we have shouldered the responsibility of caring for more than 8,000 men, women, and children with no resources of their own. That number continues to grow, Lightfoot wrote.

Abbott responded to Lightfoots letter, saying, As the mayor of a self-declared sanctuary city, it is ironic to hear you complain about Chicagos struggle to deal with a few thousand illegal immigrants, which is a fraction of the record-high numbers we deal with in Texas on a regular basis.

Abbott told Lightfoot that if she really wants to reach a solution, she must call on the Biden administration to do its job by securing our border.

Bidens Border Plan

The Biden administration has been preparing several new policies in hopes of reducing the number of illegal border crossings and the overall rush of migrants to the U.S. southern border.

One component of Bidens plan entails the rollout of a parole program that allows up to 30,000 migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba to enter the United States each month and stay and work for up to two years. But the Biden administration has insisted that the parole program will be available only to those who enter the country through a legal process and that those caught entering the United States illegally will be expelled and barred from reentry through the parole program.

Another Biden administration policy would generally require asylum seekers to have applied for asylum in any countries they passed through on their way to the United States. U.S. immigration authorities would presume an asylum applicant is ineligible for entry if they did not apply for asylum in other third-party countries, though applicants could still argue a case for why they should be given asylum status in the United States.

Last week, Biden also authorized the U.S. Department of Defense to deploy reserve troops to the U.S. southern border to assist border officials in countering cross-border drug trafficking.

Republican lawmakers recently introduced the Border Reinforcement Act of 2023 as an alternative to Bidens border policies. The Republican bill would provide more funding to resume border wall construction and expand Border Patrols staff to 22,000 agents.

From NTD News
1 in 3 Victorian Ambulances Taking Too Long

A row of Ambulances are seen lined up outside the North Melbourne Public Housing tower complex in Melbourne, Australia on July 8, 2020. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Ambulance response times continue to lag in Victoria, with new data showing it takes more than 15 minutes to respond to one in three critical incidents.

While the new data shows a modest improvement in ambulance response times from January to March 2023, the health system overall in Victoria was still under huge pressure.

Out of the 92,413 Code One cases in the stateside situation, only 65.2 percent of them were treated within 15 minutes during the January-March quarter, well below the 85 percent benchmark set out by Ambulance Victoria.

For local centres and localities with a population greater than 7,500, the 15-minute response time percentage was 69.3 percent, again well below the 90 percent benchmark.

Although the best response rate in recent years was 73 percent in 2014, the Victorian government has blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for the states continuous soaring healthcare service demand.

Victoria Ambulances are seen at the St. Vincent Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 11, 2022. (Diego Fedele/Getty Images)

Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters on May 2 that COVID is not over yet from a hospital point of view.

The rest of us are getting about our lives, and we have normalised this, but we still have more than 300 patients in hospital. Some of them are very unwell, which still puts pressure and a burden on our staff.

Daniel Andrews said there was still room for improvement, but repairing and rebuilding the health system would take time.

While nearly 54 Ambulance Victoria staff take leave daily, it is quite a drop compared with the COVID-related staff sick days during the pandemic period. This has helped improve the response time in general, said Ambulance Victoria.

Opposition Argues Government Not Doing Enough

But Shadow Ambulance Services Minister Georgie Crozier has criticised the state government reported the Herald Sun.

The Andrews government went to the last election promising to fix the crisis that has plagued our ambulance system. Its clear nothing has changed. And its Victorians who suffer, she said.

The Vic government has already spent $26 million (US$17 million) to put in 40 mobile intensive care paramedics across the state and 1.5 billion on a COVID-19 catch-up plan to help with the 46,548 patients to receive surgical procedures in the past three months.

About 79,000 Victorians were still on the elective surgery waiting list by the end of this March.

Andrews said median treatment times move around occasionally while noting the governments commitment to growing the states total surgeries from 200,000 to 240,000 annually.

But Crozier says the health system remains in crisis.

The government might spin all they like about these figures, but they are still damning and very concerning.

Ambulance Victoria

Ambulance Victoria has two official response time targets for Code One patients: within 15 minutes for 85 percent of incidents statewide and 90 percent in centres with populations greater than 7,500.

Response times are measured from the moment a triple zero (000) call was made until the first ambulance arrives on the spot.

Although many factors, including traffic, distance, availability of ambulances and service demand, can affect the response time, the expected benchmark is 15 minutes.

Ambulance Victoria regards those who require urgent paramedic and hospital care as Code One patients, and a lights and sirens response will occur while travelling.

Acute incidents are regarded as not time critical and do not require a lights and sirens response. They are also usually labelled as Code Two cases.
Oregons Secretary of State Shemia Fagan Resigns after Cannabis Consulting Scandal

Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan is under fire for moonlighting as a cannabis consultant for a company run by Democratic donors while her office was auditing the industry. (Oregon Secretary of States office)

Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan will resign next week and officially step down on May 8, the secretary announced on Tuesday.

The resignation comes after it was revealed that Fagan had accepted a lucrative side job as a consultant to a cannabis company.

Her deputy, Cheryl Myers, will step into the position until Gov. Tina Kotek appoints a successor.

While I am confident that the ethics investigation will show that I followed the states legal and ethical guidelines in trying to make ends meet for my family, it is clear that my actions have become a distraction from the important and critical work of the Secretary of States Office, Fagan said in a statement on Tuesday. Protecting our states democracy and ensuring faith in our elected leadersthese are the reasons I ran for this office. They are also the reasons I will be submitting my resignation today. I want to thank the incredible staff in the Secretary of States Office for their hard work and Oregonians for the opportunity to serve them. It has been a true honor to serve the people of Oregon.

Tina Kotek speaks during Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Penn., on July 25, 2016. Kotek said Tuesday she supports the decision by Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan to resign over ethics allegations. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Kotek supports Fagans decision to resign.

I support this decision, Kotek said in a statement. It is essential that Oregonians have trust in their government. I believe this is a first step in restoring that trust. During the upcoming appointment process, my office will do everything possible to support the hard-working staff in the Secretary of States Office and ensure this will not disrupt the May 16 election.

Fagan, a Democrat, apologized on Monday for working for the marijuana company but indicated that she intended to serve out the remaining 20 months of her term. Making matters worse, Fagan worked for two months as a paid consultant for a marijuana business, which has a sketchy financial record, while her office was wrapping up an audit of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission.

Oregon ethics laws allow public officials to have private jobs and many lawmakers, who are part-time paid government employees, do so in order to make ends meet.

Fagans consulting job for Variede Holding, LLC, an affiliate of the cannabis chain La Mota, was first reported on April 27 by Willamette Week. The contract with Variede stipulated that she would be paid $10,000 per month, with bonuses three times that amount if she helped the company get licensed in other states. The secretary of states salary is $77,000 annuallyestablished almost a decade ago.

Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp (R-Bend) praised the news outlet for exposing Fagans side job indiscretions.

Secretary Fagan found herself in a web of ethical violations and it finally caught up to her thanks to exceptional investigative journalism by Willamette Weeks Sophie Peel and Nigel Jaquiss. It is critically important that statewide elected officials exercise good judgment at all times. It is clear that Fagan has broken Oregons trust beyond repair. Its time to return integrity to the Secretary of States office, Knopp said in a statement (pdf).

The audit, released Friday, called for Oregons marijuana regulatory agency to reform some rules for marijuana businesses, saying theyre burdens, combined with federal restrictions.

Fagan apologized for taking the outside job, attributing it to poor judgment and quit the moonlighting job.

I am not here today to defend my rule-following, Fagan said during the virtual press conference Monday. Im here today to own that theres a difference between following all the rules and doing nothing wrong.

I owe the people of Oregon an apology, Fagan added. I exercised poor judgment by contracting with a company that is owned by my significant political donors and is regulated by an agency that was under audit by my audits division.

House Republican Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson (R-Prineville) called on the governor to exercise due diligence and thorough vetting as she appoints a new secretary of state.

Todays resignation of Secretary Fagan reflects the level of corruption occurring in state government. Since the beginning of the year, I have said we need a transparent process. The level of abuse Secretary Fagan flaunted from her official position is just another example of the extreme measures of one-party rule in Oregon, Breese-Iverson said in a statement (pdf). We encourage the Governor to use this opportunity to appoint a person who can restore trust and ethics in the Secretary of States office.

Oregon doesnt have a lieutenant governor so the secretary of state is next in line if the governors office becomes vacant.

Deputy Secretary of State Cheryl Myers said she is ready to take over in Fagans place and will continue to lead while overcoming what she called an unfortunate situation.

This is a resilient agency, with strong division leadership and internal systems that can withstand change, Myers said in a statement. She added that the leadership change will allow agency staff to continue their good work with less distraction moving forward.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
PM Says Republic Debate Long Way Off, As He Prepares to Swear Loyalty to King

Britain's King Charles III speaks with Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, as he receives realm prime ministers in the 1844 Room at Buckingham Palace in London, England, on Sept. 17, 2022. (Stefan Rousseau - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has dismissed concerns about swearing allegiance to the countrys head of state, King Charles III, despite being an outspoken advocate for introducing a republic.

Albanese told Sky News Piers Morgan that he thought it was appropriate after Australians voted against becoming a republic in 1999.

I will do whats entirely appropriate as the representative of Australia. Australians made a choice in 1999, and one of the things that youve got to do is accept a democratic outcome. We made that choice, and I will certainly engage in that spirit, the prime minister said.

I think you can be a lifelong republican, which I am, and still respect our institutions, and certainly I have a great deal of respect for King Charles.

And its a great honour to be here representing  all Australians, [to] wish King Charles well, regardless of the different views people have of our constitutional arrangements.

In 1999, the country held a referendum on whether Australia should stop being a constitutional monarchy and instead embrace a republic model that would see the Parliament elect a president.

Albaneses remarks come after his government appointed the first-ever Assistant Minister for the Republic.

The position of the Australian Republican Movement (ARM) isnt about getting rid of the monarchy,  Albanese said.

The position of the ARM is that an Australian should be the Australian head of state. And thats what I agree with. I think you would do that. But Australia would, I would hope, continue to be involved in the Commonwealth. But Im of the view that an Australian should be our head of state.

I think that should be an appointed head of state, there should be some process whereby democratically elected institutions, in the House of Representatives and the Senate, have a say in that.

The prime minister also said he believed that indecision around the various models for an Australian head of state was the reason that previous attempts at changing the system had failed.

Australian Republicans Concerned About Pledging Allegiance to King

Meanwhile, Australian republicans are concerned that those watching King Charles III coronation have been asked to say: I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successes, according to the law so help me God.

Instead, they are calling on Australians to pledge allegiance to Australians and Australian values instead of to the monarch.

King Charles absurd request demanding all his subjects pledge fealty to him and his heirs and successors during the Coronation ceremony has been rightly met with incredulity, ARM said in a media release on May 1.

Never before has the British monarch demanded such subservience from the Australian people.

They have instead proposed Australians make the following pledge:

I swear that my loyalty is to the Australian people and Australian values of equality, democracy and meritocracy. I pledge to stand against hereditary entitlement and commit to the realisation of these values in our Constitution so that all elected offices under the law, including our Head of State, are accountable to the Australian people.

 The Australian Republic Movement is calling on all Australians to pledge allegiance to Australians and Australian values instead of to King Charles this Saturday: https://t.co/OKLOuyh9FR  Australian Republic Movement (@AusRepublic) May 2, 2023

Monarchists Criticise PM For Failing to Honour Coronation

But, Australian monarchists have criticised the Albanese government for what they deemed a lack of veneration for the coronation.

They have launched a campaign against what they have called the Albanese governments intention of bringing down Australias constitutional system.

We feel that we must now mobilise monarchists throughout the country to protest against the insults that are occurring both to the King and to his people, the Australian Monarchist League said.

In May 2022, we saw the appointment of an Assistant Minister for the Republic. A totally unnecessary act if the prime ministers comment that the issue of a republic was off the table until his next term of government was factual.

It is clear that the Albanese government has no intention whatsoever of doing anything to honour the King of Australia on the day of his coronation, although the prime minister will be attending the actual coronation in London.

He should hang his head in shame, as should all Australian governments, federal and state.

The League also criticised the federal opposition for remaining silent on the issue.

Politicians should remember that monarchists have a vote, and we, unlike politicians, will remember their betrayal of the Constitution, the Crown and the monarchy when called upon to cast their ballot at the time of the next election, they said.
(Bloomberg) -- Electrolux ABs top shareholder is seeking watertight guarantees from Chinese appliance giant Midea Group Co. to address concerns US regulators would block a takeover of the white-goods maker.

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Investor AB, controlled by the billionaire Wallenberg family, has raised a number of concerns about the terms of Mideas proposal and potential execution risks in initial talks with the Chinese company, people with knowledge of the matter said. Its particularly worried about the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US rejecting a Chinese takeover of Stockholm-based Electrolux because of its sizable American business, they said.

The investment firm has asked whether Midea would commit to buying its stake even if the takeover was blocked by regulators, a request the Chinese suitor has so far rebuffed, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Investor AB is key to any deal as it holds a nearly 18% stake in Electrolux and 30% voting rights.

Investor AB and Electrolux view the Midea proposal as undervaluing the company, the people said, without disclosing the exact offer price, though they said it carried a significant premium. The target so far has not been receptive to the approach, which was made in recent weeks, Bloomberg News reported April 30.

Electroluxs B shares were up 7.1% at 1:52 p.m. Wednesday in Stockholm, giving the company a market value of about $4.8 billion and putting it on track to close at the highest level since February 2022. Investor ABs B shares gained 0.9%.

Spokespeople for Electrolux and Investor AB declined to comment, while a representative for Midea didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

Story continues

Mr. Unpopular

Investor ABs unusual request shows the deep-rooted concerns that any major Chinese takeover, even one targeting a maker of dishwashers and refrigerators, would be blocked by Washington as political tensions run high.

Though theres a precedent for successful Chinese deals in Sweden, with Zhejiang Geely Holding Groups successful revival of Volvo Car AB, relations between the two countries have been cooling. Antitrust scrutiny and protectionism in the US and Europe more broadly are already hurting overall deal volumes, leading to the slowest first quarter in a decade.

China isnt Mr. Popular at the moment, Ben Kelly, an analyst at Louis Capital Markets in London, said by phone. The idea that a Chinese company buys a national champion like Electrolux seems to be beyond the pale.

Electrolux has a significant presence in North America, where its brands include iconic Frigidaire appliances, and generated 35% of group revenue in the region last year. While winning over Investor AB could tip the scales in Mideas favor for a deal, Kelly said he could still see US opposition raising hackles.

Chinese companies embarked on a shopping spree several years ago, announcing more than $400 billion of overseas acquisitions during 2016-2017 as the government encouraged them to go global, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The wave of dealmaking has since tailed off after a number of transactions soured and Beijing told some top companies to focus on domestic operations. Chinese firms announced just $44 billion of foreign purchases last year, the lowest level since 2008, the data show.

Midea, which has a market value of nearly $58 billion, has been interested in Electrolux for some time and would only want a friendly deal, people with knowledge of the matter have said. Other Asian appliance makers, including Samsung Electronics Co., have also looked at the Swedish business, the people said.

Stockholm-based Investor AB first invested in Electrolux in 1956 and it remains a core investment today, according to its website.

Investor AB would like to avoid a repeat of the botched sale of Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB in 2021. At the time, it agreed to sell its 35% stake in the drugmaker to private equity firm Advent International and Singapore wealth fund GIC Pte, only to see the deal scuppered by opposition from other shareholder, AstraZeneca Plc.

(Updates with share reaction in fifth paragraph.)

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Poilievre Says He Cant Fathom CSIS Not Advising PM of Threat to MP

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre holds a press conference in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Jan. 25, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre said its hard to believe Canadas spy agency would not have warned the prime minister that the family of an MP was being threatened by a foreign actor.

I cant fathom the thought that an intelligence agency would know of a threat against an MPs family because of a vote conducted in the House of Commons and wouldnt tell the prime minister, Poilievre told reporters in Ottawa on May 3.

The Globe and Mail reported on May 1 that the Chinese regime had sought to target Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family after a 2021 House of Commons vote declaring that the regimes treatment of the minority Uyghurs constitutes a genocide.

The report, based on a leaked Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) assessment, said the Chinese intelligence service Ministry of State Security and a Chinese diplomat in Canada were involved.

Chong was subsequently briefed by CSIS Director David Vigneault on May 2 and said he was told that same information.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on May 3 that he had only learned about the threats against Chong this week from the media.

He said the information had never left CSIS and that higher levels of the government werent briefed about it, but that going forward intelligence agencies would need to advise on such threats even if it doesnt meet their normal threshold.

Even if its a less than threshold threat, according to their views, if it regards an MP or an MPs family, it should be passed up going forward to a political level, said Trudeau.

Poilievre was asked by a reporter how much faith he has in CSIS, and he said the only way to answer that question is to hold a full public inquiry.

We need to know how CSIS conducted itself and to what extent this has really been Justin Trudeaus failure, he said.

The Conservative leader also criticized the fact that the Chinese diplomat involved, Zhao Wei, is still accredited and has not been expelled.

If any one of you [journalists] were to threaten the family of an MP, because of a vote in the House of Commons, youd be in jail. This guy is not only not in jail, hes in Canada, with diplomatic immunity, said Poilievre.

The Epoch Times asked Global Affairs Canada if any action would be taken against Zhao on May 1 but didnt hear back.

CSIS was reached for comment but didnt respond by publication time.
Quebec Elementary School Cuts Short Field Trip After Students Find Dead Body in Woods

A Quebec elementary school had to cut short a field trip after some students discovered a dead body in a wooded area near the southern city of Sherbrooke on May 2.

Noovo Info, which first reported the incident in French, said the students who made the discovery are from the local Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire elementary school.

Despite these unfortunate circumstances, the day was still peaceful for most students at the school, school principal Brigitte Leclerc wrote in an email to parents, reported Noovo.

Leclerc noted that a team of specialized workers was helping the school faculty to provide support to the students after they returned to school.

Rest assured that we have the well-being of your children at heart and that we are making every effort to ensure the necessary support for the students at the school, Leclerc said, according to Noovo.

The school management also advised parents to remain attentive to what their children have to say for the next few days.

The Sherbrooke police told the media outlet on May 2 that investigations are underway.

The Epoch Times reached out to the police for information on the deceased person, but didnt hear back by publication time.
Quit Building Big: Space Force Officials Talk Need for Speed and Agility

Overclassification another challenge for space defense

The reusable first stage of a SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) Falcon 9 rocket returns to land after the launch of the NROL-87 spy satellite payload for the National Reconnaissance Office from the SLC-4E launch pad at Vandenberg U.S. Space Force Base in Lompoc, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

Defense officials told senators what they think the United States must do to compete with China and other rivals in space.

Time, they agreed, is of the essence.

The trick is to quit building big, said Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, in answer to a question from Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) during a May 2 hearing.

I want to be the guy who watches it, has appropriate oversight, but doesnt get in the way and become the gotcha person,' Cramer said.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Oct. 6, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Big satellites take a long time to go build, and the fundamental model we need to drive to is to build much smaller satellite systems, to use existing technology, and do it [in] about three years, Calvelli said.

Not only will we gain speed, but well do technology refresh dramatically faster because every three years, were updating the technology, compared to today, where we might build a satellite over seven to nine years, and youre [not] upgrading that technology until the next block, which is another seven to nine years, so youre taking 15 years to upgrade the technology.

We can move faster, get more in orbit, and upgrade technology faster by building smaller, he continued.

Moving at speed is really important. I think its going to unlock things we havent even considered yet, said John F. Plumb, assistant secretary of defense for space policy.

He said more tolerance for failures would help ensure that rapid development isnt derailed.

We cannot afford to have systems shut down because some small percentage of them failed, and I think thats been the tendency for large, exquisite systems, which is added cost and time, Plumb said.

Plumb and Calvelli testified on the need for speed during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committees Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.

They were there to discuss President Joe Bidens fiscal 2024 budget request for the Department of Defenses space activities.

President Donald Trump stands as chief of space operations as U.S. Space Force Gen. John Raymond (2nd from left) and Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman (1st from right) hold the U.S. Space Force flag as it is presented in the Oval Office on May 15, 2020. Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett stands to the far left. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

The Pentagon wants $33.3 billion in space-related spending. The U.S. Space Force wants $30 billion, up $3.7 billion from its enacted budget for fiscal 2023.

Created by former President Donald Trump, Space Force is part of the Department of the Air Force.

Big-ticket space items include a missile warning and missile tracking system comprising what the budget request describes as a constellation of proliferated low-earth orbit and medium-earth orbit satellites.

Gen. David D. Thompson, vice chief of space operations for Space Force, explained that the move to proliferated satellites furthered a shift from an earlier paradigm, which relied on a smaller quantity of larger satellites.

David Thompson (L), then-vice commander of U.S. Air Force Space Command, testifies before the Senate Aviation and Space Subcommittee in Washington on May 14, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

He told the senators he felt more confident than in past years regarding the United States progress in space relative to China.

Overclassification

Lawmakers and officials also discussed overclassification, seen as another barrier to speedy innovation at the bleeding edge of space technology.

Plumb told Sen. Debra Fischer (R-Neb.) that he and his colleagues were collaborating with the intelligence community to eliminate legacy systems that hamper cooperation on space defense.

Weve got the right partners in the IC [intelligence community], Plumb said.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) asked Thompson whether Washington is developing something related to space defense thats akin to the Five Eyes intelligence linking the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) talks with reporters as he walks through the Senate subway on his way to a vote at the U.S. Capitol on June 21, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Secretary Plumb hosts a forum that we call the Combined Space Operations Initiative, Thompson said.

It includes not only the Five Eyes partners, but weve expanded to other like-minded alliesGermany and France and Japan and even folks like South Korea.

He said spending constraints helped motivate that international coordination. We can no longer afford to provide all of the capabilities ourselves.
Randys Donuts Opens First San Diego Location

Donuts are on display at a Randy's Donuts grand opening in Costa Mesa, Calif., on July 12, 2022. (Julianne Foster/The Epoch Times)

The iconic Randys Donut Shopwhich began in 1952 with a single store in Inglewood, Californiawill open its first location in San Diego May 3.

San Diego is an incredible family city with world-class attractions, and were honored to add our world-famous donuts to the list of reasons why families love San Diego so much, Lawrence Carroll, Randys Donuts vice-president, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.

Known for its oversized large donut-shaped signage, with the addition of the new location in San Diego, the company will now have 29 locations.

The exterior of a Randys Donuts during its grand opening in Costa Mesa, Calif., on July 12, 2022. (Julianne Foster/The Epoch Times)

For the stores grand opening, those that stop by between 6 a.m. and noon will get a free glazed donut.

Additionally, the first 50 customers that say the phrase I love coffee will receive a Randys San Diego travel coffee mug that will be refilled for free with drip coffee at the new shop for the rest of this year.

A raffle will also award another 25 customers with free Randys donuts for a year. Other Randys merchandise and door prizes will be available throughout the day.

According to Carroll, the company is seeking two additional locations to open in San Diego in the next two years and has plans to open eight more in the city in the future.

The new store is at 3737 Murphy Canyon Road.

The interior of a Randys Donuts during its grand opening in Costa Mesa, Calif., on July 12, 2022. (Julianne Foster/The Epoch Times)
Australian medical practitioners can now prescribe ivermectin for COVID-19 among other diseases under new rules confirmed by the nations therapeutic goods authority.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) announced on May 3 that the prescribing of oral ivermectin will no longer be limited to specialists such as dermatologists, gastroenterologists, and infectious diseases specialists.

The movewhich takes effect from June 1, 2023comes amid high rates of vaccination and hybrid immunity against COVID-19 in Australia and thus the use of ivermectin by individuals is unlikely to now compromise public health, the TGA said in a statement.

Despite ivermectin being regularly administered in countries including India, Brazil, and Africa, TGA said that approved vaccines and treatments should still be the preferred choice due to most studies showing that ivermectin is not a useful medicine for COVID-19.

A woman holds a box of ivermectin in Brasilia, Brazil. (Andressa Anholete/Getty Images)

A large number of clinical studies have demonstrated ivermectin does not improve outcomes in patients with COVID-19, the TGA statement said.

The National Covid Evidence Taskforce (NCET) and many similar bodies around the world, including the World Health Organization, strongly advises against the use of ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia even wrote to the panel and advised against removing the Appendix D entry relating to ivermectin because they think that if the treatment is available, people may choose not to get vaccinated.

However, after weighing all risks, the TGA concluded that restrictions should still be removed.

The risk of medical professionals prescribing ivermectin at higher doses, or for use against COVID-19, is low given the overwhelming evidence against ivermectin use for this indication, TGA stated.

Drug Banned Because It Was a Threat to Vaccination Uptake

Australia banned general practitioners from prescribing ivermectin in Sep. 2021.

The concern was the likelihood that persons prescribed the drug for COVID-19 would believe themselves protected and would not get vaccinated, and would not seek the appropriate medical care if symptoms developed, the notice of the final decision by TGA said.

This would pose a significant risk to the community through the spread of the disease as well as the risks to individuals using ivermectin for this purpose.

A person receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Calif., on Dec. 22, 2021. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

They said that ivermectin was being advocated for use in unreliable social media posts, increasing the risk of overdose and misuse.

Additionally, they argued that there were national shortages, although little detail was provided about the supply issues in Australia or in other countries. India even reported an excess production capacity of 23 million units a month of ivermectin.

Study Finds Ivermectin Kills COVID-19

However, in a peer-reviewed study by Monash University in Australia, published in April 2020, it was demonstrated that ivermectin could eliminate SARS-Covid-19-2 in cells in 48 hours.

The team, who have been researching ivermectin for over ten years with different viruses, discovered that a dose of ivermectin could stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus from growing in cells.

We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours, there was a really significant reduction in it, senior research fellow and lead study author Kylie Wagstaff said.

Ivermectin is very widely used and seen as a safe drug, Wagstaff said.

The U.S. FDA has warned against taking ivermectin for COVID-19 because it is horse medication. However, ivermectin packaged for human use (as shown here) has been widely prescribed for decades for a range of maladies, including for the treatment of lice, other parasites and viruses. (Nanette Holt/The Epoch Times)

The scientists said that the FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug has also been shown to be effective in vitro against a broad range of viruses, including HIV, Dengue, Influenza, and Zika virus.

They started investigating whether it worked on the COVID-19 virus as soon as the pandemic was known to have started.

However, the researchers announced a year later that they had paused their work due to insufficient sample size despite securing funding for clinical trials.

The low numbers of COVID cases in Australia in 2020 meant the planned trial in Australia had to be paused, the Monash University laboratory said in an ivermectin research progress update.

This March, they have recommenced a clinical trial to determine whether ivermectin prevents COVID-19 infections.

The trial is enrolling eligible participants based in Melbourne, a Monash University spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

The primary objective of the study is to determine whether or not the drug Ivermectin prevents SARS-Co-V-2 infection in eligible participants after close contact with a COVID-19-positive person.

Those interested are directed to www.closecontacts.com.au for more information on the eligibility and exclusion criteria or to register.

Industry Incentives Under Scrutiny

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical authorities around the world are under growing scrutiny over the funding many receive from the industry itself, with an investigation revealing that half of their funding comes from the pharmaceutical industrythe industry they are supposed to be regulating.

In a report, published in the British Journal of Medicine, it was discovered that the U.S. FDA receives 65 percent of its funding from the pharmaceutical industry, the MHRA (UK) receives 86 percent, and the Australian TGA receives 96 percent of its funding from the pharmaceutical industry.

Additionally, award-winning investigative journalist Maryanne Demasi found in the report that the TGA approved 94 percent of all applications between 2020 to 2021.

She filed for FOIA report to get disclosures on the TGA committee members who had conflicts of interest in their approval of the mRNA vaccines, but the TGA allegedly redacted the identity of these members, highlighting that it was personal information.

Comparing major drug regulators on conflicts of interest, according to data by Maryanne Demasi (The Epoch Times)

The final decision to remove restrictions on ivermectin prescriptions followed an application to remove the rules, according to the process required under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989.

It also took into account advice from an independent advisory committee on the scheduling of medicines and two rounds of public consultations.
Moscow Says Putin Unscathed After Ukrainian Drones Target Kremlin

A Russian Tu-95MS strategic bomber and an Ilyushin Il-78 aerial refuelling tanker fly over the Kremlin and Red Square during a military parade in Moscow on May 7, 2021. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)

Russia is claiming that Ukraine carried out two nighttime drone attacks targeting the Kremlin residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russias presidential press service has reported.

According to a May 3 statement released by the press office, the twin drone attacks occurred late on May 2.

Both drones fell on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscowwithout causing casualties or material damageafter being disabled by electronic warfare measures, according to the statement.

Moscow regards the incident as an act of terrorism and reserves the right to retaliate in the manner, place, and time of its choosing.

We consider this a pre-planned terrorist action and an attempt on the life of the Russian president, the statement reads, going on to assert that Putins daily itinerary hadnt been affected.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters shortly afterward that Putin wasnt in the Kremlin complex when the alleged attacks occurred.

Kyiv, for its part, has yet to issue an official statement regarding the reports. However, a senior Ukrainian presidential official cited by Reuters said Kyiv wasnt involved in the purported incident.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has announced a ban on all unauthorized drone flightseffective immediatelythroughout the Russian capital.

Smoke rises over a fuel tank following an alleged drone attack in Sevastopol, Crimea, on April 29, 2023. (Stringer/Reuters)

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine early last year, drones have been used with increasing frequency by both sides of the conflict.

Late last month, Ukrainian combat drones struck a fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, setting the facility ablaze.

According to Ukrainian officials, 40,000 tons of fuel that were intended for use by Russias Black Sea Fleetheadquartered in Sevastopolwere destroyed by the strikes.

On May 3, a Russian drone struck an oil facility in the central Ukrainian city of Kropyvnytskyi, resulting in a massive fire, Ukrainian officials said.

The Epoch Times was unable to immediately verify the reports.

Reuters contributed to this report.
San Diego County Moves to Hold Special Election to Fill Nathan Fletchers Seat

San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher speaks at a Board of Supervisors meeting on Feb. 7, 2023. (Screenshot via San Diego County)

SAN DIEGOThe San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously May 2 to move forward with a special election on Aug. 15 to fill the District 4 seat being vacated by Nathan Fletcher.

The board voted 40 to advance a resolution, which will be formally presented at the boards May 23 meeting, to call for the special election.

Fletcher, who is in an out-of-state treatment facility, is planning to officially step down from his seat on May 15.

Fletcher announced his resignation March 29 after admitting to an affair with a Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) employee who is suing him for alleged sexual assault and harassment. He has denied the allegations.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors pass a vote of no confidence in Supervisor Nathan Fletcher in San Diego on April 11, 2023. (Screenshot via San Diego County)

If no candidate receives a majority vote in the Aug. 15 primary election, a special general election would be held Nov. 7, according to county officials. Costs could range between $3 million and $5.2 million if the county conducts a primary and general special election.

After hearing from dozens of District 4 constituents Tuesday during an hour-plus public forum, supervisors opted for a special election rather than appointing a replacement to serve out the remaining three-and-a-half years of Fletchers term, or choosing an interim representative who would hold the seat until the county held a special election.

To be honest, none of these options are ideal, board Chair Nora Vargas said, adding she wished the board wasnt facing such a difficult situation.

But she said it is the boards responsibility to ensure a fair and transparent process for the districts 700,000 residents.

During a special meeting on April 11, the board unanimously approved a resolution calling on Fletcher to immediately resign, rather than waiting for his planned May 15 departure date.

Supervisor Nora Vargas speaks at a San Diego Board of Supervisors meeting on May 10, 2022. (Screenshot via San Diego County)

My priority is ensuring that we are able to serve the people of San Diego, Vargas said last month. We encourage him to resign immediately so he (can) focus solely on his treatment, and the people of San Diego can move forward with the representation they deserve.

According to a county attorney, the board has no authority to remove Fletcher from office, and it is up to Fletcher to decide when his resignation will take effect.

Fletcher was one of the most powerful politicians in the county when he announced March 26 that he was entering a treatment center for post-traumatic stress, trauma, and alcohol abuse, and was abandoning a planned run for state Senate. Days later, he announced plans to resign his seat altogether, setting his departure date for May 15.

It was unclear whether Fletcher was aware of the board resolution calling on him to resign immediately.

According to a recent statement from his office, Fletcher is unable to respond due to the fact he is in treatment.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit against Fletcher, former MTS Public Information Officer Grecia Figueroa, alleges that Fletcher groped her on two occasions and pursued a sexual relationship with her for months before she was abruptly fired on the day Fletcher announced his state Senate candidacy.

Fletcher resigned on April 4 as MTS chair.

Figueroa alleges that beginning in 2021, Fletcher began stalking her social media account, then sought to meet with her privately on several occasions. On two of those occasions, she claims he assaulted her.

The complaint alleges Figueroa was intimidated by the dynamic Fletcher had created and says she felt pressured to reciprocate Fletchers advances because she knew he had authority as both a career-politician and as chair of the MTS Board to destroy her career at MTS and to potentially humiliate her publicly if she made him angry.

She alleges that on Feb. 6, she was fired during a closed-door meeting and believes that MTS terminated her employment because she was sexually harassed by defendant Fletcher.

The lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court alleges sexual assault and battery and sexual harassment by Fletcher. It also names the MTS as a defendant and alleges sexual harassment, failure to prevent sexual harassment and retaliation, and whistleblower retaliation.

Fletcher denied Figueroas charges, claiming the affair was consensual.

Fletchers attorney, Danielle Hultenius Moore, said the womans allegations are false and are designed to drive headlines and not tell the truth.

The attorney said the woman pursued Fletcher, who does not and never had authority over her employment.

We will aggressively fight this issue in court and the full record will show the truth, Moore added.

Supervisor Jim Desmond, said Tuesday that it was great to hear a lot of passion, from District 4 residents, and that supervisors have been spent a lot of time mulling over the replacement process.

Supervisor Jim Desmond speaks at a San Diego Board of Supervisors meeting on May 10, 2022. (Screenshot via San Diego County)

While holding a special election could cost several million dollars, theres no price to put on democracy, and letting residents choose a successor is the top priority, Desmond said.

He added that if the county can pay the $1 million-plus tab for Fletchers private security, it can also afford a new election.

Earlier, Desmond called it unacceptable that Fletcher would stay on the board and collect $25,000 from taxpayers during his quasi-resigned period through May 15.

His colleague Terra Lawson-Remer on Tuesday stressed that it was important the county encourage voter participation in a non-partisan fashion as much as possible, given low voter turnout in many off-year elections.

Lawson-Remer said her priority is to ensure that we have grounded, rooted representation for a racially and culturally diverse district that is, in general, politically progressive.

How do we make sure that we have a champion on this board? she asked. Its not such a straight-forward question.

Many District 4 residents who spoke Tuesday asked for a special election and also encouraged the county to increase voter education.

Its vital to a functioning democracy that voters get to choose who will be representing us as a supervisor for the next four years, and potentially eight, said Patricia Mondragon, a policy manager at Alliance San Diego who lives in District 4.

The San Diego Convention Center on July 7, 2016. (John Fredircks/The Epoch Times)

Kathleen Harmon, 92, a longtime city activist known as Queen Mother, said she has lived in District 4 for 67 years and asked the board to let her and other constituents choose a new supervisor.

Monica Montgomery Steppe, a San Diego city councilwoman who recently announced that she was seeking the District 4 seat, said a special election was the best choice despite lack of direct representation for the next few months.

I know its hard in this moment, but I ask you not to change course today, she added.

Along with Montgomery Steppe, Marine Corps veteran Janessa Goldbeck is also a candidate for the District 4 seat.

Some speakers called on the board to appoint a supervisor, saying District 4 constituents currently dont have a voice.

One man said that instead of spending millions on an election, that money should go toward hiring more child care workers or road improvements.

Nate Wollmann, vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 221, also asked the board to appoint Fletchers successor to reflect the constituents values.

Wollmann added that no one could be more disappointed in Fletcher than those of us who voted for him, but his failings shouldnt be tied to the movement that elected him.

Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer said Fletchers chief of staff is still on duty, and he and other staff members can handle residential concerns. She added that District 4 constituents may contact other supervisors offices if needed.
"It's breathtakingly fresh, beautiful, colorful, harmonious, serene," said Martine Heinrich attending Shen Yun at the Palais des Congres in Paris on April 28, 2023. (NTD)

PARIS, France On April 28, Clement Heinrich, a businessman from Alsace, attended one of Shen Yun Performing Arts last shows of 2023 with his wife Martine, a former executive assistant.

Magnificent! Its a show that really makes you dream. I am delighted! he said enthusiastically. So far, this first part of the show has been really, really fantastic. We were expecting a great show, but this exceeds our expectations.

These dancers have a perfect control of their movements, their gestures, the synchronization. Its really perfect on that level!

For the company manager, Shen Yun really exudes all the good human qualities. Compassion  then overall, it brings peace, beauty, harmony.

Clement Heinrich, company director, at the Palais des Congres in Paris, April 28, 2023. (NTD)

This kind of show can only calm people, make them look at each other again, make us find each other again.

New York-based Shen Yun is the worlds premier classical Chinese dance and takes as its mission the revival of 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.

Martine Heinrich, very moved, noted: I think this generation of young people has a lot of merits to pass on this ancestral knowledge, this tradition of more than 5000 years and the courage to reveal to the whole world what the Chinese power does to all those people who just want to love God and want to perpetuate this love of the divine! I think they are really beautiful!

Apart from that, it is true that the show is breathtakingfreshness, beauty, colors, harmony, and serenity. There is perfection in all the movements! Everything is harmony, everything is serenity. I wanted to cry, I was so moved! I also meditate, so I know what inner peace is. For me, it is divine. The show is divine!

Frederic Puzin, a former inspector of National Education, came to discover Shen Yun in Paris on April 28, 2023. (NTD)

Frederic Puzin is a retired national education inspector. His daughters gave him tickets to experience Shen Yun for his birthday.

The show is magnificent, the dancers are extraordinary! The digital background is really well done, he said, referring to Shen Yuns patented animated digital backdrop.

Indeed, Shen Yuns digital projection instantly puts you on the scene. Its website explains: By extending the stage to infinite realms, the projection allows storytelling without limits. A Shen Yun innovation creates seamless interaction between projection and performers on stagean invention so original it has its own patent.

I think its very important to preserve traditions, whatever the country. And the Chinese traditions are particularly ancient. I think its one of the countries with the oldest traditions in the world.

Mr. Puzin also spoke about a story-based dance depicting the ongoing persecution of practitioners of Falun Dafa, the Buddhist meditation discipline based on the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance.

Its good, because theyre taking a step away from the official line that this is a country where everyone agrees with the power, the government. That people can live their religion quietly, I find that essential. To stand up for that faith is to bring tolerance and peace.

Christophe Sadoine, director of a healthcare institution, at the Palais des Congres in Paris on April 28, 2023. (NTD)

Christophe Sadoine is a director of a clinic in Lille. This is the first time Ive come to see this show. And its really amazing because you cant see it anywhere else! Its really very special and I love it!

Throughout the show, you can feel the benevolence and the desire to write a story. Its all about kindness. And the emcees explained that it was based sometimes on true events. That too is interesting culturally and historically.

For Mr. Sadoine, with Shen Yun, We are outside of time! I just finished my week, these last weeks have been very difficult for me and then, poof, I forgot everything in one go! Its true!

The show can bring a reflection on the need for kindness around us, he concluded.

Reporting by NTD and Sarita Modmesaib.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
Chris Clarke and Prudence Clarke enjoyed Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Canberra Theatre in Canberra, Australia, on May 2, 2023. (NTD)

CANBERRA, AustraliaAfter a sold-out performance at the Canberra Theatre, Christian church ministers Chris Clarke and Prudence Clarke shared their impressions of their first time seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts.

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 and sets out every year to revive the magnificence and wisdom of Chinas divinely-inspired culture through breathtaking music and dance, with an all-new, all-original performance each year. Shen Yun declares it is presenting China before communism.

I see a China that is just inviting and welcoming and full of life and diversity and just celebrating in kindness and compassion, Mr. Clarke said.

Shen Yuns artists present classical Chinese dance, ethnic, and folk dances, as well as story-based dances that depict ancient myths and legends as well as modern-day dramas, including depicting how the Chinese Communist Party oppresses the Chinese people.

I think [Shen Yun] shines a lot on the darker side of whats been happening in China with communism and communism around the world. And its a display ofdespite persecutionthat beauty and life can thrive, said Mr. Clarke.

I think its a beautiful representation of [the Chinese peoples] culture and their traditions and their history. And its a shame that those things have been squashed over the years. But its beautiful to see it revived and see it on display for the world to see.

The words Shen Yun translates to the beauty of divine beings dancing.

[Shen Yun] gave me a greater love for the people of China and the nation of China. Its something thats always fascinated us. And to see this show and to be there and to feel the emotion and the passion behind it has just reinvigorated my love and my interest for the country and the people, he added.

Ms. Clarke said Shen Yun was just beautiful, very colourful, very full of life, and vibrant.

She felt happy, blessed, and excited, after leaving the theatre, and said her major takeaway from Shen Yun is that there is hope.

Mr. Clarke said he would most definitely recommend Shen Yun to others.

Its a visual feast. Its a treat for the eyes and the ears and stirs the spirit, he said, calling Shen Yun a celebration of life and spiritthe spirit of people and the spirit within all of us.

Very Calming

Julian Widdup said he enjoyed all the elements of the Shen Yun performance with his wife, Cecilia Widdup. This was the couples second time seeing Shen Yun.

It was an amazing performance; the costumes were great, the colours were great, the dancing and the music, we really enjoyed the music, said Mr. Widdup, who is a non-executive director of a large fund management company in Canberra.

Mrs. Widdup said Shen Yun was quite calming in a lot of ways and very spiritual.

I found it very calming, she said. I just felt very relaxed, very comfortable.

Shen Yuns eight companies are touring simultaneously in 20 countries, covering almost 200 cities altogether this year.

You could see the audience reaction, it was a packed theatre here in Canberra and the audience were really appreciative, said Mr. Widdup. It was a very full show.

Mrs. Widdup said that instead of describing the show to her friends, they need to go and see it.

You can say its wonderful, but until you see it, you dont really know just how amazing it is.

Reporting by NTD, Rebecca Zhu, and Mimi Nguyen Ly.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
Sheriff: Wife of Suspected Illegal Immigrant Gunman in Texas Has Been Arrested

CLEVELAND, TexasA woman identified as the wife of the illegal immigrant suspected of killing five of his neighbors in Texas was arrested Wednesday for allegedly helping the man elude capture for four days, authorities said, and a third person is expected to face similar charges.

Divimara Lamar Nava, 53, identified as the wife of suspect Francisco Oropesa, was in custody in connection with the Friday night shooting, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.

Although Henderson identified Nava as Oropesas wife, jail records list her as not being legally married. The two share a home address, according to the records.

Nava had previously denied knowledge of Oropesas whereabouts, Henderson said, but authorities believe she hid him in the home near Conroe where he was arrested Tuesday.

Lamar Nava was arrested early Wednesday and was being held in the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon, according to online jail records. The records do not list a bond for her and indicate she was arrested by state police at a home in Conroe.

Francisco Oropesa. (San Jacinto County Sheriffs Office via AP)

Also, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said a friend of Oropesas, Domingo Castilla, was also arrested Tuesday in the neighborhood where the shooting took place. Castilla was taken in for marijuana possession but authorities expect to also charge him with other crimes, including hindering Oropesas apprehension, Dillon said.

A four-day manhunt for Oropesa ended Tuesday when authorities, acting on a tip, said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.

At a news conference Wednesday morning in Coldspring, Tim Kean, chief deputy with the San Jacinto County Sheriffs Office, said authorities spotted Oropesa, 38, on Monday afternoon in Montgomery County, prompting the lockdown of several schools.

We did confirm that was him on foot, running but we lost track of him. That was not a false alarm. That was him, Kean said outside the county jail.

The Montgomery County Sheriffs Office had previously said reports of a possible sighting of Oropesa in the area was a false alarm.

Kean declined to comment on the tip the led authorities to the home where Oropesa was arrested as well as on when he had arrived or how he got to there. Kean said the home had not been previously checked by authorities.

Kean said Oropesa only mildly resisted arrest and was not injured.

Kean said there have been several other arrests but I cant go into the details on that.

Kean said the home where Oropesa was arrested has a personal connection to the suspect. He declined to provide more details, but said there was no indication Oropesa was about to leave.

I believe he thought he was in a safe spot, Kean said.

Oropesa was expected to appear before a judge inside the San Jacinto County Jail on Wednesday and the judge would formally set his bond at $5 million, Kean said.

The home is near the community of Conroe, north of Houston and about 20 miles from his home in the rural town of Cleveland. Thats where authorities say he went next door and shot his neighbors shortly before midnight Friday.

Oropesa had been shooting rounds on his property and attack his neighbors after they asked him to go farther away because the gunfire was keeping a baby awake, according to police.

The arrest ends what had become a widening dragnet that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions and had seen $80,000 in reward money offered. As recently as Tuesday morning, the FBI said that Oropesa could be anywhere, underlining how investigators for days struggled to get a sense of his whereabouts and candidly acknowledged they had no leads.

The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15 p.m., and a little more than an hour later, Oropesa was in custody, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul. The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to U.S. immigration officials.

Connor Hagan, an FBI spokesman, said they would not disclose the identity of the person who called in the tipone of more than 200 tips he says investigators received.

Authorities would not say where Oropesa had been since fleeing the scene in Cleveland, which authorities previously said was likely on foot.

Hagan said the three agencies that went in to arrest Oropesa were the U.S. Marshals, Texas Department of Public Safety, and U.S. Border Patrols BORTAC team.

Drones and scent-tracking dogs had been used during the widening manhunt, which included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott offered a $50,000 reward as the search dragged late into the weekend, while others offered an additional $30,000 in reward money.

Capers said that prior to Fridays shooting deputies had been called to the suspects house at least one other time previously over shooting rounds in his yard.

All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Oropesa walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

A home that is the scene of a shooting in which 5 people were killed, in Cleveland, Texas, on April 29, 2023. (KTRK via AP)

A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velasquez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and her husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras migrant protection service.

Osman Velasquez, Dianas father, said Tuesday that his daughter had recently gotten residency and had traveled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister, who was already living there.

Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and thats true, he said. But I never imagined it was just for this.
Brand collaboration to benefit Stop AAPI Hate

DALLAS, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Bonchon, the global restaurant known for its distinctive Korean fried chicken and Asian fusion cuisine, is collaborating with San Francisco-based illustrator Min Heo to create a limited-edition graphic shirt that symbolizes the Korean culture for AAPI Heritage Month. The shirts will be available through the Bonchon website for $20 May 8-31, with all proceeds to be donated to Stop AAPI Hate.

Bonchon AAPI shirt

Heo, renowned for her whimsical and playful art style, incorporated important Korean symbols in the design, which features a blue tiger among hibiscus flowers, the national flower of South Korea.

"Tigers are an important part of Korean culture and folklore, representing power and strength, and are often used symbolically in the fight against AAPI hate," said Heo. "The hibiscus flower is the South Korean national flower (mugunghwa), and the colors are the same as those on the national flag, which I wanted to be represented."

As a brand that was born in Busan, South Korea, Bonchon's goal is to spread the joy of Korean comfort food globally while also paying tribute to, celebrating and safeguarding the AAPI community.

"Bonchon in Korean means my hometown, my roots, and we wanted to celebrate AAPI month by honoring those roots and contributing to a cause that can have a positive impact on the AAPI community," said Bonchon Vice President of Marketing Christina Coy. "Min Heo did a beautiful job creating a design that is true to Korean heritage, and we're eager to see our guests wearing the shirts and joining the fight against bias."

For more information about Bonchon, visit bonchon.com.

About Bonchon

Bonchon is a global restaurant brand known for distinctive Korean double-fried chicken, Asian fusion cuisine and Korean specialties. Born in Busan, South Korea, in 2002, the concept was established in the United States in 2006. Bonchon sets out to have its fans "Crunch Out Loud" by sharing the joy of hand-battered, double-fried, crazy crispy Korean fried chicken with the world. It currently has more than 400 restaurants across nine countries: Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, Myanmar, Australia, Vietnam, France and the United States.

Story continues

The brand has earned several recent accolades. It was recognized by Business Insider as "the gold standard for fried chicken" and included on Nation's Restaurant News' 2022 "Top 500 Restaurants," Fast Casual Magazine's 2022 "Top 100 Movers & Shakers" and Entrepreneur's 2022 "Franchise 500," "Fastest Growing Franchises," "Top Food Franchise" and "Top Global Franchise" lists.

For more information about Bonchon, visit bonchon.com. To learn more about franchise opportunities, visit franchising.bonchon.com.

Media Contact:

Karina Green, karina@spmcommunications.com

817-329-3257

Bonchon (PRNewsfoto/Bonchon)

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SOURCE Bonchon
1 Dead, 4 Wounded in Atlanta Shooting; Suspect Arrested

Images show a shooting suspect in Atlanta, Ga., on May 3, 2023. (Atlanta Police Department via The Epoch Times)

One woman was killed and four others were injured on May 3 in a shooting at a medical facility in Atlanta, police said.

The shooting took place around noon inside a waiting room at Northside Hospital on West Peachtree Street Northwest, according to the Atlanta Police Department.

The four injured women were rushed to Grady Hospital, authorities said. All of the victims transported to the hospital are adults and three of the four are in critical condition, Dr. Robert Jansen, chief medical officer at Grady Health Systems, told reporters outside the hospital.

A 39-year-old woman died at the scene, while the injured women ranged in age between 25 and 71, police said; their names havent been made public.

The suspect was identified as 24-year-old Deion Patterson. He carjacked a vehicle after leaving the hospital and fled the area, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said.

Images of the alleged shooter inside the building showed a dark-skinned male wearing a hooded sweatshirt and dark pants.

The Cobb County Police Department confirmed later on Wednesday that Patterson had been arrested after several hours of search, which involved multiple agencies.

The firearm used in the shooting hasnt been recovered.

Deion Patterson, in a file mugshot. (Atlanta Police Department via The Epoch Times)

A patient is evacuated from a hospital after a man shot people in a building in Atlanta on May 3, 2023. (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images)

Law enforcement officers arrive near the scene of a shooting in Atlanta on May 3, 2023. (Alex Slitz/AP Photo)
Shoplifting Out of Control in California, Public Safety Risks Causing Some to Change Routines

Business owners, consumers, and employees are facing unprecedented risks to their belongings and their safety because of shoplifting crimes affecting local California communities, with a law enacted by voters nearly a decade ago playing a key role, experts suggest.

Passed in 2014, Proposition 47 changed the threshold for felony theft, raising the bar from $400 to $950 per incident enabling thieves to steal just under the upper limit and risk only a misdemeanor.

The policy has had grave consequences, according to experts.

After Prop 47 passed, we saw repeat offenders going into stores and constantly stealing, Rachel MichelinPresident and CEO of the California Retailers Association, which represents businesses across the statetold The Epoch Times. Theft has increased because there are no consequences.

Recent media reports point to a study released in March 2022 by the Center on Juvenile Criminal Justicea nonprofit based in San Francisco with a focus on incarceration reductionsuggesting the law did not result in an increase in property crime, and potentially saved the state $600 million in prison costs.

Critics say the studys methodology was flawed, calculating the laws success based on less recidivism and incarceration for theft.

People hold signs at a rally in front of San Francisco City Hall on April 16, 2023, to call for safer streets without open-air drug markets. (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times)

With fewer arrests under the law, they say, the decrease in imprisonment was a mathematical certainty.

Audits are currently underway by the Joint Audit Committee, studying two Southern California counties to measure the impact of the legislation, as requested by Assemblyman James Ramos (D-Highland) in March and undersigned by 24 representatives.

The review will analyze the effects in Riverside and San Bernardino counties by assessing crime and recidivism rates before and after the law was passed nearly a decade ago.

Maybe in a year when the results come back, then we can see if Prop 47 is doing what its supposed to, Michelin said.

Property Crime, Violence Increasing

The closure last month of Whole Foods in downtown San Franciscowhere thieves reportedly stole 250 shopping carts in less than a yearand a host of other stores shutting down locations, including CVS and Wal-Mart leaving some metropolitan areas due to high crime, suggests that retail establishments are not waiting for the audits findings to make business decisions.

Luxury department store Nordstrom also announced on May 2 to its employees that its two San Francisco locations will be closed in the summer.

Recent incidents have some worried that violence is escalating along with the thefts, after a Home Depot employee in the Bay Area city of Alameda was shot and killed April 18 while trying to stop a female shoplifter.

Pedestrians walk by a closed Whole Foods store in San Francisco on April 12, 2023. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Some shoppers and employees say theyre faced with dangerous conditions and are frustrated theyre not getting help from local lawmakers.

Weve been hit more times than I can count, Cindy Nguyena grocery clerk in San Franciscotold The Epoch Times. Sometimes its just random people stealing, but the worst is when they come in groups and just take what they want.

Policymakers in the city have de-prioritized property crimes, so its not even worth the time to report the incidents, she said.

The police wont even respond, and if they do, they make no effort to actually catch anyone, Nguyen said. Everyone knows this here, especially the criminals.

Family-owned stores like the one where Nguyen works are those most affected by shoplifting, according to experts.

For every big business you see hit, there are probably five or six small businesses, and they cant absorb the cost, Michelin, with the retailers association, said. They cant pay to lock up items, they cant hire security, and theft hits the bottom line.

Measures taken by merchants to mitigate thefts, including securing certain items behind cases and removing merchandise from sales floors, are making the retail experience even less enjoyable, according to some shoppers.

A customer stops to read a sign posted on the front door of a closed Whole Foods store in San Francisco on April 12, 2023. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Now I have to wait for someone to unlock items that used to be on a shelf I could grab, hospitality worker Monica Valdez of the Bay Area told The Epoch Times. Its an inconvenience, it takes even longer to shop, and I just want to get home after work.

The later it gets in the evening, the more anxiety she feels on the streets, she said.

Ive seen people openly stealing from stores in San Francisco and in Oakland, Valdez said. I live in the East Bay and work in the city, and sometimes I feel like its not safe to go in stores by myself.

Crime Keeping Consumers Away

Fear for personal safety is causing some to choose e-commerce options instead of visiting local businesses.

Since the crime has gotten out of control, I now order almost everything I can online, John Williams, a retired business manager from Los Angeles told The Epoch Times. My wife and I are elderly, and we feel its not worth the risk of being robbed or in a store when these maniacs come in and steal everything.

Shoppers moving to the web for more purchases aligns with the recent push by many retailers to focus on their web offerings, according to experts.

Police patrol Union Square in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2021. Stores have increased security in response to a spike in thefts. (Ethan Swope/Getty Images)

Looking for Solutions

In response to whats being termed a public safety crisis, legislators have repeatedly attempted to bring proposals to the floor of the Capitol for a vote, only to have their bills sidelined by the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

The California Retailers Association, in collaboration with the League of California Citiesrepresenting the majority of the Golden States 482 citiessponsored Assembly Bill 1708, introduced on Feb. 17 by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrence) and subsequently killed by the committee April 18.

The bill, which seeks to increase penalties for petty theft, was since granted reconsideration and has been amended by the authors, though there is no date for a new hearing.

In a joint effort in 2022, the retailers association, the California Hotel and Lodging Associationa trade group representing businesses in the industryand Muratsuchi proposed Assembly Bill 2390, which would aggregate petty thefts and lead to felony charges for those stealing more than $950 in combined merchandise.

The bill was introduced in February 2022 and died months later in the safety committee.

With little legal progress being made, and no consequences for criminal actions, some say there is no incentive for shoplifters to stop their destructive behavior.

Until the legislature, particularly the Assembly Public Safety Committee, the attorney general, and all of the [lawmakers] are ready to have the difficult conversations needed to fix this problem, its going to continue to get worse, said Michelin.
Snowy Hydro 2.0 Faces Another 2 Year Delay

A worker takes a look at the cutter head of Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Kirsten at the Snowy Hydro Scheme in Talbingo, Australia, on Dec. 3, 2021. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

Australias largest renewable energy project, Snowy Hydro 2.0, has been hit by another delay pushing out its timeline by another one to two years.

Dennis Barnes, the CEO and managing director of Snowy Hydro 2.0 has provided an update on the progress of the multi-billion dollar project, whose completion date has been extended several times.

The CEO cited three problems for the latest round of delays: issues with tunnelling machines, the availability of materials and labour and the impacts of the pandemic.

A combination of factors has meant that its pretty clear that the schedule will go out by between one and two years, he told ABC Radio.

This means the project is unlikely to be finished until near the end of this decade.

Barnes also said his team was trying to figure out the cost overrun incurred by the delays.

Over the next few months, well work through what the cost implications are.

In 2017, the Malcolm Turnbull government introduced Snowy Hydro 2.0 as an extension to the Snowy Mountains hydro scheme, which was built between 1949 and 1974 to add 2,000 megawatts of generation capacity to the power grid.

The project will connect two dams in southern New South Wales via 27 kilometres of tunnels and a new power station located 800 metres underground.

It will operate similarly to a natural battery by using excess wind and solar energy to pump water from the lower dam to the higher one and release the water during peak periods to produce electricity.

The project was initially estimated to complete in 2021 with a $2 billion budget, which was later revised to $5.1 billion.

In 2022, there were reports that the project suffered a cost blowout of $2.2 billion.

What Caused the Delays

According to Barnes, tunnelling machines were trapped after hitting a soft layer of rock when digging tunnels, causing the project to stand still.

So far, the machines have only completed one percent of the digging work since their deployment in November 2022.

However, the CEO said they would resume working in weeks, not months.

We werent expecting that soft ground. So the effort weve been applying over the last few months is to harden that ground to move the tunnel boring machine forward, he said.

These machines are huge pieces of equipment which we obviously have to be very mindful of safety when we move them forward.

Furthermore, Barnes said the COVID-19 pandemic and bushfires had delayed the mobilisation of the project, which prolonged its schedule.

Other major issues include the lack of materials and labour, some problems with the projects early design and the working sites conditions.

You end up with a combination of these factors, which you know, Ive included in my mind that we have got this delay. The good news is we have made progress on an awful lot of fronts, he said.

Response from Politicians

Following the announcement, Energy Minister Chris Bowen defended Snowy Hydro, saying it was not the only project suffering delays due to COVID-related issues.

There are supply chain consequences for every construction project across the world at the moment from the overhang of the COVID-19 pandemic. But I support Snowy being open and transparent with us, he said.

We have to bring the Australian people with us on this journey, and that means being open and transparent about the challenges as well as the opportunities. And well continue to do that.

Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen speaks to media during the 2018 ALP National Conference in Adelaide, Australia, on Dec. 16, 2018. (Mark Brake/Getty Images)

Opposition energy spokesman Ted OBrien warned that the delays would render Snowy Hydro unable to fill the gaps left by the closures of coal-fired power stations across the country.

The Albanese Labor government has created an energy vacuum in Australia, with baseload power stations being ripped out of the grid without a replacement ready to go, he said

Australias energy reliability is under siege with rolling delays and blowouts under Labor, including the all-important 660-megawatt Kurri Kurri gas plant, which will not provide power for a year later than scheduled in 2024.

Meanwhile, Greens Leader Adam Bandt has called on the government to examine the projects underlying problems.

We need the government to take the lead in the energy transformation. That includes a big build of not only new renewables generation but also a new transmission, he told ABC Radio.

Theres significant problems with some instructions that (Snowy Hydro) got from the last government that hasnt been fully addressed by this government.
South Carolina Marine Dies During Training at Twentynine Palms

U.S. Marines of the First Expeditionary Force (1MEF) train in an urban combat exercise at Range 200 simulated Iraqi village at the Twentynine Palms Marine Base near Twentynine Palms, Calif., on Nov. 14, 2005. (David McNew/Getty Images)

A 20-year-old Marine was killed April 20 during pre-deployment training at Twentynine Palms, California, media reports.

Military spokesperson Lt. Olivia Giarrizzo told Fox News Digital, Cpl. Jackson Forringer died when a gun discharged in the back of a truck carrying military personnel.

No other injuries were reported and an investigation into the incident is underway, according to the news outlet.

Forringer, from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, enlisted in the Marines in July 2021. He arrived for training at Twentynine Palms in late March.

A former marine who knew Forringer, Trey Smith-Tatham told the Marine Corps Times Forringers platoon had been ordered to get in the truck with their rifles loaded.

Smith-Tatham described Forringer as a really good dude, according to the Marine Corps Times.

The fatal incident occurred just weeks after three service members were injured in an on-duty vehicle rollover crash also at Twentynine Palms.

Forringer never met a stranger and was one of the humblest, kind-spirited individuals you could meet, a family member wrote in the short obituary posted online. He loved to give back and help others.

Forringer had recently been adopted after being in foster care since 2019.

His family is holding a graveside service and memorial May 6 in their hometown of Chesnee, South Carolina.
Speaker McCarthys Amazing Week

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy addresses lawmakers during a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, on May 1, 2023. (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP Photo)

Commentary

When it took Kevin McCarthy 15 votes to become Speaker of the House, the Washington establishment concluded that he was pleasant but would be unable to get much done.

The fate of the last two Republican speakers, John Boehner and Paul Ryan, seemed to hang over his head. They had not been able to unify the House Republicans even when they had much larger majorities than McCarthys tiny four-vote margin (the same margin with which Speaker Nancy Pelosi had dominated for the last two years they fail to note). Furthermore, Boehner and Ryan found themselves in a constant running war with the right wing of their conferenceand especially with the Freedom Caucus.

Speaker McCarthy has brought together the Republican Conference and has been much more bipartisan than Speaker Pelosi ever dreamed of. In the first 40 bills passed by the Republican House 86 percent attracted Democrat votes. On several occasions, most of the Democrats voted with the Republicans.

This last week should put to rest any doubts about Speaker McCarthys ability to lead the House. In one short week the House:

On Wednesday had a bipartisan briefing on artificial intelligence hosted by both Speaker McCarthy and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and presented by professors from MIT. This was a follow on to a briefing at MIT last year, when McCarthy took intelligence and Armed Services Committee Republicans to MIT for a briefing on artificial intelligence.

That 90-minute briefing occurred as Republicans were putting the finishing touches on their debt ceiling and savings legislation. They had to iron out two glitches since the Democrats were likely to unanimously oppose the bill. It had to be passed with only Republican votes. In fact, with four hardcore anti-McCarthy votes (minuscule compared to the Boehner-Ryan problems), the House GOP prevailed 217-215. They achieved a $4.1 trillion dollar spending cut in the debt ceiling increase.

This insistence on spending cuts almost exactly mirrors the belief of the American people. Only 24 percent agree with President Joe Bidens demand for a debt ceiling increase with no cuts. Some 46 percent will accept a debt ceiling increase but only with spending cuts. A stunning 16 percent would risk default and oppose any debt ceiling increase because they oppose any more borrowing.

President Biden is in the distinct minority by refusing to cut spending, and his position on not negotiating is a hopeless minority. The American people expect their elected officials to get together. Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will soon find themselves under more pressure to negotiate.

Through several months of planning, listening, and developing a debt ceiling with cuts acceptable to the House GOP, Speaker McCarthy is now the only Washington leader who has passed a bill which would avoid default. Sen. Schumer will presently discover that he could not possibly pass President Bidens debt ceiling with no cuts.

The House Republicans have set the stage for a remarkable conservative victory on the debt ceilingand made the first step toward balancing the budget.

While Republican Whip Tom Emmers effective organization was rounding up the vote on the debt ceiling, Speaker McCarthy was welcoming President Yoon of South Korea for an hour-long, remarkably pro-American address to the Joint Session of Congress.

Then, McCarthy led a bipartisan delegation to Israel, where he will become the first Speaker to address the Knesset in 25 years. He will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the foundation of Israel. I have deep emotions about this moment, because I was the only other speaker to address the Knesset. When I did it, we were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the foundation of Israel.

Typical of McCarthys strategic goals, the congressional delegation he is leading is bipartisan. Indeed, it is one-third Democrat. Symbolically, the delegation includes Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), the co-chairs of the Problem Solvers Caucus.

Speaker McCarthy previously took a bipartisan group of House members to the Reagan Library to meet with the President of Taiwan.

The contrast between Speaker Pelosi and Speaker McCarthy could not be clearer. When she went to Taiwan, she took only Democrats. When she went to Poland and Ukraine, she only took Democrats. When she went to Israel and Germany, she only took Democrats. When she went to Great Britain, she only took Democrats.

As one of the Speakers staff wrote me recently. McCarthy is truly striving to be Speaker of the WHOLE House.

As Ben Domenech summarized in The Transom, Kevin McCarthy is proving his worth.

This was the week these sentiments became indisputable.

From Gingrich360.com

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Statistician Decries Incongruence Around Official COVID-19 Data at National Citizens Inquiry

A nurse at Three Rivers Asante Medical Center runs to a room in the Intensive Care Unit to help as medical staff treat a COVID-19 patient in Grants Pass, Ore., on Sept. 9, 2021. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

On the first day of the National Citizens Inquirys (NCI) stop in British Columbia, a statistician said that based on data from the province, COVID-19 was shown to be no more dangerous than the flu.

With the number of people who died within the median age of death, its very unlikely that none of them had comorbidities, William Munroe testified on Tuesday. COVID-19 itself can be seen as more of an irritant at the end of life rather than life-threatening. Influenza, it can kill young and old. Its no comparison.

The NCI describes itself as a citizen-led and citizen-funded initiative that is completely independent from government. The inquiry is examining how the pandemic measures put in place by all levels of government impacted Canadians in the four categories of health, fundamental rights and freedoms, social well-being, and economic prosperity.

Munroe, who worked for the British Columbia Statistics Agency and started up the Populations Projections Project in 2007, said there was incongruity around how COVID-19 data was presented to the public.

When Monroe analyzed the provinces COVID-19 statistics beginning in March 2020, he said the first incident report released by the British Columbia medical authority showed that the virus was not as deadly as it was being framed as.

It was obvious to anybody who looked at the data from British Columbia and also data from China from January and February that this was age-specific, and the median age of death was as old, if not older than [Canadas average] life expectancy, he said.

According to Statistics Canada, the average age of death in Canada in 2019 was 76.5. However, the average age of those who died of COVID-19 in Canada last year was higher at 83.8.

Munroe also said that the definition of COVID-19 cases was malaligned with the previous definition of disease cases, as Canadians previously had to be sick in order to be counted. He said the inclusion of asymptomatic cases led to the phenomena of people dying with COVID-19, meaning they were counted as a death from the disease even though they had died from something else.

The Epoch Times reached out to B.C.s Ministry of Health for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Texas Shooting Suspect Who Allegedly Killed 5 Arrested, Found Hiding Under Laundry

Suspect Francisco Oropesa, 38, in an undated photo, is accused of killing five in Cleveland, Texas, on April 29, 2023. (FBI Houston)

The mass shooting suspect who allegedly killed five peopleincluding a 9-year-old boylate last month has been arrested after a four-day manhunt, Texas officials said.

Francisco Oropeza, 38, allegedly shot his neighbors on April 28.

The Montgomery County Sheriffs Office and the San Jacinto County District Attorneys Office both confirmed that Oropeza was arrested around 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday, near Conroe.

Authorities, acting on a tip, said they found Oropeza hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.

The arrest was without incident. The district attorneys office said the FBI, Border Patrol, and U.S. Marshals were involved in the arrest.

Oropeza will be charged with five counts of murder, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said. Bond was set at $5 million.

They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars, Capers said of the families of the victims. He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.

Neighbor Who Survived Speaks Out

According to Wilson Garcia, who had survived the shooting, he and two people approached Oropeza to ask him to stop firing rounds in his yard, because a babyGarcias sonwas trying to sleep at their home. However, Oropeza said he could do what he wanted on his property.

Shortly after the neighbors request, Oropeza walked up to their house with an AR-style rifle and started firing, killing five out of 10 people in the house. Garcias wifethe babys motherwas at the front door when she was shot. The babys 9-year-old brother was also among those killed.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

All of the victims were from Honduras, while Oropeza is a Mexican national who has been deported four times. He was first deported in March 2009 and last in July 2016. He was also deported in September 2009 and January 2012, according to U.S. immigration officials.

Oropeza fled the scene following the shooting, sparking a multi-day search for him that ultimately involved about 250 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies. Drones and scent-tracking dogs were used in the search, which included going through a forest a few miles away from the crime scene.

Late into the weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, offered $50,000 as a reward as the search yielded no results.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Text and Online Scammers Targeted in 30 Million Government Crackdown

New strategy will also see 400 investigators join the UK's new National Fraud Squad

A man uses a laptop at an undisclosed location in England on March 30, 2020. (PA)

Text and online scammers will be targeted by a new government-backed fraud squad made up of 400 elite investigators.

The intelligence-led division will be part of a 30 million fightback against scammers that aims to block fraudulent communications at their source and allow suspect bank payments to be delayed.

The new fraud strategy, announced by Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Wednesday, will include banning cold calls on all financial products, such as those relating to insurance or sham cryptocurrency schemes.

It also plans to work with Ofcom to use new technology to further clamp down on number spoofing, so fraudsters cannot impersonate legitimate UK phone numbers.

So-called sim farmsused by scammers to send out mass text scamsare also in the governments crosshairs with plans to ban devices and methods harnessed by fraudsters.

Banks will also be allowed to delay payments from being processed for longer to allow for suspect payments to be investigated under the new plans.

A new system will also replace Action Fraudthe UKs national fraud reporting centreand provide a simpler route for reporting fraud online, according to the government.

Victims will be able to report crimes through an online portal that will provide updates and progress on their case.

The Home Office said the improved service will ensure victims reports are acted upon more effectively.

Anti-Fraud Champion

Welcoming the plans, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government is taking the fight against fraud to scammers.

Scammers ruin lives in seconds, deceiving people in the most despicable ways in order to line their pockets, he said.

We will take the fight to these fraudsters, wherever they try to hide.

By blocking scams at the source, boosting protections for people and bolstering enforcement, we will stop more of these cold-hearted crimes from happening in the first place and make sure justice is done.

The Home Office said that while law enforcement is devolved, measures agreed with industry will have a UK-wide benefit.

It said it will continue to ensure that collective issues are addressed collaboratively to maintain the UKs resilience against fraud.

Braverman said it was vital to adopt a new approach to tackle criminals defrauding the public.

Fraud is a blight on our country with ruthless criminals scamming the British public out of their hard-earned cash, she said.

They exploit peoples trust and steal their life savings, shattering their confidence and leaving them feeling vulnerable. It also fuels serious organised crime and terrorism.

Meanwhile scammers are adapting, taking advantage of new technology to prey on more victims.

It is vital we adopt a new approach to this threat.

Braverman said the fraud strategy will allow government, law enforcement, industry, and international partners to track down criminals, intercept their scams, and bring them to justice.

A new anti-fraud champion, Anthony Browne MP, has also been appointed.

Browne said the tech sector, phone companies, and financial services firms must take responsibility for protecting their users by stopping fraud happening in the first place, and work together to design out fraud.

A representation of the virtual cryptocurrency Ethereum is seen among representations of other cryptocurrencies in this picture illustration. (WorldSpectrum/Pixabay)

Crackdown Criticism

However the newly announced strategy has been described as too little, too late by opposition politicians.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the crackdown fails to match the scale of the problem.

All the home secretary has delivered is a rebadging of existing national teams, and a re-announcement on the replacement of Action Fraud from almost two years ago, she said on Wednesday.

Labours Emily Thornberry also hit out at the government plans.

The shadow attorney general said: This has been billed as a fully-integrated blueprint to tackle the entirety of Britains fraud crisis, yet it ignores the tens of billions being lost to fraud against businesses and the government, and relies on estimates of the cost of fraud to members of the public that are seven years out of date.

The government also said it is working with tech companies to make it as simple as possible to report fraud online, whether it be scam adverts or bogus celebrity endorsements.

In 2021, the National Cyber Security Centre removed more than 730,000 websites running celebrity scams.

Among those most used in bogus ads was Sir Richard Branson and consumer champion Martin Lewis.

Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert, described the measures as a good first step in the right direction.

He added: They should improve prevention and prosecution, but it will be slow going.

Ultimately this is all about putting enough resources in to build a dam to stop the flood. I hope we will see that happen.

Welcoming the governments multi-million pound strategy, Graeme Biggar, director general of the National Crime Agency, said: We want fraudsters to feel the same vulnerability they inflict upon their victims, as we target their infrastructure, expose their identities, and bring them to justice.

City of London Police Commissioner Angela McLaren said she hoped the collective effort would mean better pursuing of fraudsters to reduce the devastating harm they cause.

Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy Rocio Concha said consumers will judge the success of this strategy by whether they end up with better fraud detection, prevention, support, and redress.

MoneySavingExperts Martin Lewis in an undated file photo. (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

Fraud Mastermind

Last year, UK police announced they had helped smash an international fraud operation that had scammed more than 200,000 people.

The website iSpoof enabled criminals to mimic bank telephone numbers and caller IDs, allowing scammers to trick victims out of thousands, and in some cases, millions of pounds.

The Metropolitan Police said victims lost tens of millions of pounds and those running iSpoof made 3.2 million ($3.88 million) over 20 months.

Last month, the man believed to be iSpoofs mastermind pleaded guilty to the Metropolitan Polices largest-ever fraud investigation.

Tejay Fletcher, of Western Gateway, London, appeared at Southwark Crown Court where he admitted to charges of making or supplying articles for use in fraud; encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence; possessing criminal property and transferring criminal property.

He pleaded not guilty to a further three offences which the judge ordered to lie on file.

Fletcher played the leading role as the website administrator for the majority of time iSpoof was operating and received by far the largest share of the profits, making at least 1.3 million.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) intends to use confiscation proceedings to prevent him from profiting from his crimes.

Speaking at the time, CPS specialist prosecutor Thomas Short said: As the leading administrator of the iSpoof website, Tejay Fletcher helped to provide fraudsters with the tools to cheat innocent people on a shocking scale.

Fraud is an insidious crime and the cost to the many victims in this case has not just been financial, it has also caused huge emotional distress and devastation.

We want to encourage all those who think theyve been a victim of a fraud to come forward and report it.

The CPS works closely with police to bring fraudulent offenders like Fletcher to justice and I hope todays conviction sends a strong message to criminals that they can no longer hide behind online anonymity.

Fletcher is due to be sentenced later this month.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Title 42 Set to Expire as Thousands of Migrants Approach Southern Border

Title 42, a Trump-era public health order that gives the government power to automatically expel illegal immigrants, is set to expire on May 11, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

With the expiration of Title 42, all illegal immigrants will be processed under the Title 8 immigration law that is more involved and a longer process.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), a Democrat, told The Epoch Times that Title 42 has been ineffective in keeping illegal immigrants from crossing into the United States.

Title 42, you just expel people and there are no repercussions; they can come right back, Cuellar said. Under Title 8, there are some teeth, which means if someone is deported, there will be a five-year, 10-year, 15-year, 20-year ban or more, which means they cannot come back into the country.

President Joe Biden said in January that his administration will return to the Title 8 order once Title 42 is rolled back: Itsmy prediction isits nottheres nothing particularly insightful about this: Title 42 is going to go away before the end of the year, in terms of the Supreme Court, in my prediction. And then were going to have to use Title 9Title 8.

The Biden administration was quick to roll back many of his predecessors border security measures. The rules were introduced as an emergency health measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The Caravan

The removal of Title 42 comes as thousands of illegal immigrants have been moving in a caravan throughout Mexico to reach the U.S. border and 1,500 hundred troops have been sent to the border by the Biden administration.

These characters will likely try to enter the United States by force, so the protocol of the border, which is to safeguard and protect the passage, will be put to the test, Juan Rojas, a member of the Mexican National Guard, told The Epoch Times.

An estimated over 3,000 migrants from at least 50 countries, including China, will be marching to the U.S. border after Title 42 is rolled back, but the actual figure could be larger than that.

Mexico has recently granted the migrants free passage through the country by giving them visas to expedite their way to the U.SMexico border.

The institute entered into dialogue with the members of the caravan who are in Villa Comaltitlan, Chiapas, with whom it was agreed to set up a processing table to grant them, if they so request, the Multiple Migration Form (FMM) for humanitarian reasons, the Instituto Nacional de Migracion of Mexico stated.

This provides the migrants with the same protections that a U.S. citizen would have while traveling through Mexico.

Sources told The Epoch Times that theyll most likely be controlled or directed by criminal cartels in Mexico and possibly ushered to Juarez, Mexico, which is directly across from El Paso, Texas. Thats the area where a detention facility caught fire in March, killing at least 40 illegal immigrants this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Revolt Is On!

Commentary

Weve crossed the three-year mark of the worst years for freedom in our lifetimes. What do we see? Something Ive expected since the entire fiasco of lockdowns began. I wrongly assumed that it would begin immediately.

It waited three years, but its finally here: a full-on revolt against all the forces that broke the world. The patterns are all around us, from the triumph of conscious nostalgia in art, music, and fashion to the rise of consumer and producer intentionality in economic life.

The message is the same in all cases: Well no longer let the ruling elites of the world control us. Well find meaning and truth in the Before Times.

Consider the situation with Bud Light, an episode thats anything but trivial. A top ad executive made a grave and tone-deaf error in judgment by enabling a clownish fake-trans person as a spokesperson for a beer that previously carried with it a cultural messaging of real America. The executives purpose in pushing the ad campaign was to upgrade the ideological sensibility of the brand.

It didnt work. She and her superior are on leave and silenced. The company badly mishandled public relations by deploying that conventional corporate strategy of aloof and bloodless press releases about coming together and so on.

The enormous error kicked off a consumer, distributor, and wholesaler revolt for the ages, one that continues and is even intensifying. In the latest news, theyre actually giving it away. True story.

Anheuser-Busch is giving away cases for free to every employee of the companys wholesalers, suggesting that the value of the brand in some respects has dropped to zero.

Theyve obviously embarked on a big ad campaign that attempts to reverse the damage, but every new release merely opens up the company again to jeers and insults. There are testimonials of Bud Light truck drivers having to deal with angry passersby.

The sales data is now confirmed: an incredible 21 percent drop in sales of Bud Light and a proportional increase in other brands. The revolt is also affecting all brands owned by the company, not just Bud Light.

The revolt has been confirmed in the several occasions Ive had to talk with retailers and bar owners, who generally cant stand the topic but say theyre sitting on vast surpluses of the beer and dont plan to order more for a long time. People are posting pictures of deep discounts and even rebates for the product at stores, but there it sits.

Ive even heard from an agricultural supplier to Anheuser-Buschan earnest farmer of the old schoolwho has canceled all contracts with the company. Thus, the consumer revolt has even bled into a producer revolt.

Remember that two weeks ago, all respectable commentators in the mainstream media said this would end soon, that this was merely conservative activists drumming up some kind of frenzy on the marching orders from right-wing influencers.

Not so much. This is real, and it shows the genuine power that people have, once they set their minds to it.

You can say that all of this is overwrought. This was just one out-of-touch ad executive who made a minor error. It was just one can and one communication, not even a campaign or an ad. It just caught fire because the recipient posted a grotesque celebration on TikTok.

Thats true, but it misses the core point of the symbolism here.

For three years, regular people have been told to obey their masters on all things. Stay home. No house parties, no gatherings, no fun. Believe what you hear. You have no real rights. The elites know best, and you know nothing. Anything that contradicts the pronouncements of the ruling class is disinformation. They built cages for everyone.

The public anger at this stage of history is now palpable and looking for ways to express itself. In this way, the boycott of Bud Light isnt really about this one beer or one company but symbolizes something much more profound: a mass rejection of the entire model of the few ruling over the many. Its a way of saying that well no longer put up with your attempts to dictate to us and reconstruct our lives and values.

This revolt is evident in many sectors of life today.

Consider how unusual this is. The usual pattern following huge social upheavals of war and depression is to look forward to the future with optimism and hope. That was the tendency after World War I and II. The styles of the 1920s were fresh and fun, and the art, architecture, and modes of living in the 1950s were consciously about the new and the rejection of the old. The mood was to rally around future possibilities and technologies.

The post-lockdown world, however, is dominated entirely by nostalgia for the past and a longing to recapture the values and ways that were stolen from us.

Consider some evidence.

Springtide Research Institute has documented a huge surge in religious belief and practice among young people:

Staggering numbers say theyre depressed, stressed, and lonelythough for young people of faith, religion and spirituality provide healing and hope.  More young people now trust the government less. Faith communities, by comparison, are now more trustworthy according to young people.

The COVID-19 pandemic response involved compulsory suppression of not just religious practice but also the arts and music performances. Now that its over, whats thriving? On Broadway, the time-tested classics are back and even new releases are soaked with nostalgia for what has been lost. The top-earning movies of 2022 are mostly retrospectives, rereleases, sequels, remakes, or elaborations of past hits.

In the symphony halls today, its the same. Look at the lineup: Its almost entirely the masters of old.

In January, I tried to get tickets for a New York Philharmonic performance of Gustav Mahlers 9th Symphony this month. Composed between 1908 and 1909, its a deeply contemplative and exceedingly painful look back at the Belle Epoque with an undertone of the end times. Its also very long and difficult. I figured attendance would be sparse. Nope, it sold out five months in advance. I resorted to friends of friends to get tickets.

This is really unusual, a strong sign of the times.

And what was the theme of the Met Gala this year? It was the work of Karl Lagerfeld, and what made the headlines were his oldest and strongest designs that he made for Chanel, which themselves were dripping in retrospective celebrations of the past.

The smash hit was Nicole Kidman wearing a 20-year-old dress that itself is reminiscent of the 1880s.

Spotify reports that among its strongest streaming performers are the throwbacks of Fleetwood Mac, Nirvana, Guns N Roses, and the Beatles. Its not unusual today to encounter people in their 20s who know more about 1970s music than people who are in their 40s. This is partially a reflection of the changed economics of streaming, in which older genres enjoy an advantage like never before. But it also represents a deep cultural longing to get back what weve lost.

Once you see it, you cant unsee it: vintage fashion, vinyl records, Polaroid cameras, legacy video games, and the love of throwback photos and videos on all social media venues. Think of all the people you know who have left the cities for the countryside, seeking peace, connection to nature, and family unity. Its all about the desire to connect with the past, find truth in the familiar, and reject the artificiality of the managerial elites who so badly failed us.

Of course, this revolt expresses itself in politics. We still live with democratic forms around us and people are intent on using every bit of power they have to influence the future. This accounts for the huge surge of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. among Democratssomething absolutely no one would have predicted a year ago. This is the perfect symbol of our times: nostalgia combined with the fury of revolt.

I was trying to think of episodes in history when culture consciously attempted a recapturing of lost styles and ways in the course of a massive revolt against prevailing elites. So far as I can tell, the last time we experienced this was in the late 18th century, with the revival of classical architecture, learning, and music. It also was the age of the great revolutions, both American and French. This is what our times most reflect. Its about the search for meaning in the context of rejecting the lies and plans of the contemporary gods that failed.

So, yes, this is about much more than Bud Light. Its only a symbol and a point of action. Theres far more going on beneath the surface.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
RESTON, Va., May 03, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to the World Population Review, about 33 percent of inmates in Mississippi return to prison within three years of release, most of whom have never completed high school. The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) is on a mission to address this alarming trend through a new partnership with The Keystone School, an accredited private online school for students nationwide. This partnership will help expand access to career-focused education for incarcerated individuals across the state.

"Were excited to collaborate with the Mississippi Department of Corrections to help support incarcerated people on their path to successful rehabilitation and reintegration into society," said Erica Rhone, Head of School for Keystone. "Our program is designed to meet the unique needs of students in non-traditional learning environments, and we are just as committed to helping incarcerated people achieve their educational goals and gain the skills they need to succeed in today's workforce."

Through this partnership, eligible participants can earn a high school diploma through the schools online adult learner program, with a focus on career readiness, in as little as 21 months or less. Participants will have access to self-paced online courses featuring a comprehensive high school curriculum, including core academic subjects such as English/language arts, math, science, and social studies. The curriculum also includes specialized courses that align with a students chosen career pathway in fields such as information technology, business management, criminal justice, and more. Additionally, students will have access to graduation advisors for support and feedback.

"Education is key to reducing recidivism and breaking the cycle of repeat incarceration," said Burl Cain, Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. "This partnership with The Keystone School is another tool to advance basic adult education and is a step in the right direction for inmates to create brighter futures for themselves, their families, and our communities."

Story continues

This new partnership will be implemented across three MDOC correctional facilities: South Mississippi Correctional Institute, Flowood Community Work Center, and Marshall County Correctional Facility. The Keystone School will provide technical support, curriculum development, and graduation advisors for the program.

About The Keystone School

The Keystone School from Stride, Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nations leading online and blended learning program provider, is an accredited private online school for independent learners who seek a highly flexible education. With more than 40 years of experience in distance learning, Keystone offers flexible education programs for students in all grades and of all ages to help them achieve their unique academic and personal goals. Learn more at www.keystoneschoolonline.com.

About Mississippi Department of Corrections

The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) is a state agency of Mississippi that operates correctional institutions and facilities. Headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, MDOC protects and promotes public safety primarily through the efficient and effective custody, care, and rehabilitation of individuals convicted and sentenced for felony crimes. Learn more at www.mdoc.ms.gov.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005621/en/

Contacts

Jismeri Castillo

Corporate Communications

Stride, Inc.

jcastillo1@k12.com
Tories Call for Expelling Chinese Diplomat Over Targeting of MP

Conservative member of Parliament Michael Chong speaks to reporters on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 3, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

The Chinese diplomat who reportedly worked to target an MP should have been expelled long ago, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and the implicated MP said on May 3.

Poilievre said Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government knew for two years that a foreign agent was in this country threatening the family of a Canadian MP and that he did absolutely nothing. He didnt kick the foreign agent out. He didnt inform the MP, he did nothing to protect the family.

Conservative MP Michael Chong was briefed by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) on May 2 about a scheme involving a Chinese intelligence service and a Chinese diplomat in Canada to retaliate against him and his family for his advocacy for human rights in China.

The brief came a day after the Globe and Mail reported on a leaked 2021 CSIS assessment on the matter. Chong told reporters that the government confirmed the report in the Globe and Mail.

They confirmed that this individual participated in a campaign against MPs in the House of Commons, Chong said in reference to Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei, who is accredited as a consular officer at the Chinese Consulate in Toronto, according to Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

Chong called Zhao a diplomat in name only, and said he is in fact a foreign intelligence officer whose job it is to coerce and subvert our democracy.

For the Government of Canada to continue to accredit this individual and allow this individual to remain in Canada is a complete abdication of responsibility.

Previous Globe and Mail reporting from a national security source described Zhao as a suspected intelligence actor.

A person in Canada is targeting me and my family, with the approval of the Government of Canada. This individual needs to be declared persona non grata immediately, said Chong.

The Epoch Times asked Global Affairs Canada if any action would be taken against Zhao on May 1 but didnt hear back.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier that day that he only found out about the threats against Chong this week through media. He said that the information had never left CSIS due to the agency deciding a threshold had not been met to inform government.

CSIS made the determination that it wasnt something that needed to be raised to a higher level because it wasnt a significant enough concern, he said. CSIS was contacted for comment but didnt immediately respond.

Chong was asked by a reporter whether he believes the prime minister when he says he only found out on May 1 about the issue.

I think the prime minister and the government ministers have to come clean about who knew what and when, he replied.

The Conservative MP, who serves as his partys foreign affairs critic, said its not new that family members of Canadians are being targeted by the communist regime in China in order to coerce and intimidate.

What is new here, what is at issue, is that the government did nothing about a person in Canada that was targeting me and my family and targeting other Members of Parliament.

Canada has been embroiled for months in a scandal on Chinese interference spurred by national security leaks in the media.

So far two elected officials identified in the leaks as Chinese regime associates, one at the federal level and one in Ontario, have resigned from their party caucuses over the allegations.
A triplet whose mom curated a special time capsule for her and her siblings to open when they turned 25 has shared the special moment, and the capsules incredible contents, with the world.

Jamie Poepoe lives in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and works as a human resources professional. Jamies mom, Lisa, 60, and dad, John, 63, are separated but both live near Charlotte in North Carolina.

I am one of four kids, Jamie told The Epoch Times. The tripletsScotty, Jonnie, and Jamie (in birth order)are 25 years old, and we have an older sister, Jessie, wholl be 27 in June.  My triplet brother and I are the only two left in Pittsburgh.

John and Lisa with their four children. (Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

Jamie, Scotty, and Jonnie with their parents. (Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

The triplets time capsule. (Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

(Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

When Jamie was a child, her mother began compiling a time capsule to give her kids on their 25th birthday. Jamie vividly recalls staring at this mystery box on a shelf above her brothers closet growing up and never quite believed the time would come to open it. But ahead of the triplets birthday on April 21 this year, the time was right.

My older sister, Jessie, had one of her own, and the triplets had one to share, Jamie said. When we left for college, I forgot about the time capsule. We chose to open the capsule a week before our birthday, as it would be the only time in April that we would almost be all together.

With their triplet sister, Jonnie, in a different state preparing to move for work, Jamie and Scotty opened the time capsule by themselves with Jonnie on FaceTime. Jamie recorded the special moment.

I wanted to be able to remember that moment forever and replay it when we wanted to, she said.

Lisa with her children: the triplets and Jessie. (Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

The siblings. (Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

(Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

The time capsule comprised a wealth of treasures from the triplets childhood, including letters from family members and close family friends, baby clothes and toys, and even a videotape. Mom Lisas love and care was evident throughout.

Jamie said: My mom wrote multiple letters to us.  In one letter, she shared that she chose for us triplets to have one time capsule instead of three in the hopes that it would bring us together on our birthday. She chose the age 25 since it was a very pivotal point in her life; she knew we would have made multiple big life decisions by now, and were about to make many, many more.

There were bibs from our first birthday party, onesies my mom made with our names on them, hats from the hospital when we were first born, crystal cross pendants, a newspaper from April 21, 1998, customized wine bottles from our baby shower, customized baby shoes that had our names on the sole of one shoe and our birthday on the other, beanie babies and dolls that we had loved, and a half-dollar for each of us from our grandpa.

(Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

(Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

(Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

For Jamie, the letters went straight to her heart and the objects prompted deep nostalgia.

In one letter from my uncle Mike, he described pop culture in 1998 and the world wide web becoming relevant, Jamie said. Our family had described what our house was like with multiple infants and a toddler: diapers stacked from the floor to the ceiling, toddler toys all over, cribs, car seats, boosters, strollers, crying!

My mom had written almost ten letters to us. My favorite was where she described all of our personalities, even as young as one year old. The part that resonated with me the most was where she noted that, throughout our 25 years, she was certain we had spent our lives being compared to one another in school, sports, appearances, everything  but she had vowed to always see us as our own unique individuals.

(Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

The siblings were laughing, smiling, and shedding happy tears as they opened the time capsule. They even laughed at the capsules scrappy appearance, and perfectionist mom, Lisa, explained that she had been too overwhelmed with four children under the age of three to make the box more beautiful.

Between breastfeeding, changing diapers, a husband who was a pilot, and a toddler who needed to be constantly entertained, she had her hands full, Jamie said. [I]t was a miracle she remembered to keep those items safe to compile them into the capsule.

(Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

(Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

(Courtesy of Jamie Poepoe)

Jamie was so touched by the time capsule, which remains at her moms house in North Carolina, that she vows to create something similar for her future children.

As we get older, coming together has become harder and harder, Jamie said. Seeing the capsule made me feel like the time we spent all together in the same household went by so quickly, and I wish I had not taken it for granted.

Reading all of the letters back was extremely emotional and put how much our parents love us into perspective. The fact that they took time to set items aside to keep for 25 years, and moved it across states, was incredible!

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
Trudeau Says CSIS Chose Not to Brief MP Chong on Beijing Threat to Family

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to reporters ahead of a caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 19, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Spencer Colby)

The decision not to warn Conservative MP Michael Chong on efforts by the Chinese regime to target his family in Hong Kong was made by Canadas spy agency, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on May 3.

Trudeau said the government wasnt briefed on the information collected on the issue by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and that he only learned about it from the media this week.

CSIS made the determination that it wasnt something that needed to be raised to a higher level because it wasnt a significant enough concern, he told reporters in Ottawa.

Trudeau said CSIS decided to instead provide a generic defensive briefing on China. Chong says he has been briefed on foreign interference but not on the specific threats against him or his family.

The Globe reported on May 1 that the Chinese spy service was seeking information on MP Chongs family in China to retaliate for his advocacy for human rights in the country.

The report was based on a leaked CSIS assessment on foreign interference, which said that the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) had taken specific actions to target Canadian MPs who were behind a 2021 House of Commons motion which called Beijings treatment of the Uyghur minority a genocide.

The Globe further reported that Zhao Wei, a diplomat working out of the Chinese consulate in Toronto, was involved in the scheme.

Chong was subsequently briefed by CSIS on May 2 and says he was provided the same information.

The prime minister said he told intelligence agencies that going forward, upper levels of the government should be briefed on such information.

When there are concerns that talk specifically about any MP, particularly about their family, those need to be elevated, even if CSIS doesnt feel that its a sufficient level of concern for them to take more direct action, we still need to know about it at the upper government level, he said.

The Epoch Times reached out to CSIS but didnt immediately hear back.

Global Affairs Canada was also contacted on May 1 to know whether it would take action against Zhao Wei, who is still an accredited diplomat in Canada, but no response was provided.

Previous Globe reporting from a national security source described Zhao as a suspected intelligence actor. He is registered as a consulate officer with GAC.

When the government became aware an elected MP was being targeted for an intimidation campaign by a PRC [Peoples Republic of China] diplomat here in Canada, they should have taken two actions. First, they should have informed me. Second, they should have declared the diplomat persona non grata, Chong wrote in a May 1 statement.
Trump Ally Jim Marchant Announces 2024 Senate Run in Nevada

Jim Marchant, Republican candidate for Nevada secretary of state, speaks with supporters at a rally for Nevada Republican gubernatorial candidate, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo at the local Republican Party offices in Henderson, Nevada, on Nov. 6, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Nevada Republican Jim Marchant announced Tuesday that hes running for a U.S. Senate seat in Nevada in 2024, entering a critical race in the swing state against incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).

We have to encourage principled, America First, MAGA candidates to run for office. That is why I am announcing today that I am running for United States Senates of Nevada, Marchant told a cheering crowd at a Make America Great Again rally in Las Vegas.

Theres nothing more precious than our freedom and personal liberty, he added. And Im running for United States Senate to protect Nevadans from the overbearing government, from Silicon Valley, from big media, from labor unions, from the radical gender change advocates, where Jacky Rosen has failed you. But I will not fail you.

Marchant, who unsuccessfully ran for Nevada secretary of state in 2022, touted his experience as an innovator and founder of three technology companies, including the Federation of Internet Service Providers of America.

At Tuesdays rally, the 66-year-old entrepreneur portrayed himself as a MAGA conservative who will fight to expose and overcome censorship, gender-altering ideologies advocated by President Joe Biden, and foundational threats posed by digital currencies.

The Silicon Valley tyrants have blocked our free speech, Marchant said. Those who dare to stand up for patriotism and traditional values are banned online, and their views and materials are removed to the darkest corners of the liberal search engines.

If America goes to the communist, theres no place else to go, he added.

Marchant is the first significant Republican to challenge Rosen, 65, a first-term Democrat holding a crucial seat in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats have a slim majority. Rosen announced her reelection bid in April.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) speaks to reporters in Washington on May 10, 2022. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Reacting to Marchants announcement in a post on Twitter, Rosen asked for more donations to support her campaign, saying shes counting on donors to fight back against the far-right, extremist GOP.

Nevadans deserve a Senator who will fight for them, not a MAGA election denier who opposes abortion rights even in cases of rape and incest, Rosen said. While far-right politicians like Jim Marchant spread baseless conspiracy theories, Ive always focused on solving problems for Nevadans.

2024 Battleground Target

Democrats face an even more challenging environment to keep their slim majority in 2024. Nevada is likely to be one of the nations most competitive Senate races after hosting the closest contest of 2022.

Last month, Rosen said that the outcome of the upcoming race in Nevada could decide control of the Senate for either party, noting that the race will be one of the toughest in the country.

In a brief interview following his Tuesday announcement, with campaign adviser Dick Morris at his side, Marchant did not walk away from his prior claims, saying he believes the presidential election in 2020 was probably stolen.

I have serious doubts, Marchant said. Ive been on record for a long time trying to prove how the election, I believe, was not up-and-up. I think it was probably stolen. There were a lot of ways they were able to figure out how to manipulate the system.

Marchant toured rural Nevada counties last year to encourage local lawmakers to eliminate voting machines and adopt paper ballots. He was the architect of a hand count in rural Nye County, which became one of the first jurisdictions nationwide to attempt the slower, less reliable method of counting votes.

The Nye County effort was ultimately conducted alongside machines due to state regulations, a string of lawsuits, and concerns from the Republican Nevada secretary of state, who the party censured for pushing back against false claims of widespread election fraud.

Federal campaign finance reports for the filing period ending March 31 showed Rosen raised over $10 million for the race and had $6 million to spend. Marchant was not yet listed by the FEC on Tuesday. State election reports showed he spent almost $550,000 on his secretary-of-state bid.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Two Police Officers Stabbed, Person Dead in SA

A police line is seen outside a house where four-year-old Cleo Smith was found in Carnarvon, Australia, on Nov. 3, 2021. (Tamati Smith/Getty Images)

A police officer is fighting for life, and another is seriously injured after they were stabbed and their attacker shot dead in a small South Australian town.

Sergeants Ian Todd, 53, and Jordan Allely, 32, were stabbed when they went to a house in Crystal Brook on Wednesday morning.

They had gone to the Symons St property to follow up on a fairly minor incident at the local supermarket the previous day.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said Sgt Todds injuries were life-threatening, and he had been airlifted to Royal Adelaide Hospital in a critical condition with stab wounds to his neck, arms and hands.

Sgt Allely was in a serious but stable condition with wounds to his right leg and arm. He was also airlifted to RAH.

Sgt Allely is an officer in charge at Crystal Brook, about 200km north of Adelaide, and Sgt Todd holds the same role at nearby Port Germain. Both have relatives in the force.

Stevens did not identify the offender but said he was found dead by police who responded to the first calls for assistance.

He described both officers as highly regarded in their local communities.

Theyre good people. They are respected. The way they do their job is also respected, he said.

Im sure this will be felt quite harshly by those local communities.

This is not an indication of the type of activity we normally see in small regional communities, but we really dont know whats happening beneath the surface in some situations.

A commissioners inquiry is underway along with a coronial investigation with major crime detectives, a forensic science team and internal investigations officers expected to remain at the scene for some time.

Both officers were wearing stab-resistant vests and had body-worn cameras.

Stevens said their families were being taken to Adelaide, and the force was giving them as much support as possible.

This is something we accept as a possibility as a result of the nature of the work we do, he said.

There are inherent dangers in policing, but our officers are trained to conduct their duties as safely as possible.

The sad reality is that police officers are injured quite frequently on duty, and were very hopeful both  Ian and Jordan come through the injuries theyve received.

A shop worker in Crystal Brook, who believed she served the dead man earlier in the day, said they had chatted about the rain and his dog.

Not long after, we found out there was a siege down the street where he lived, she told Adelaide radio FIVEaa.

From there, we found out more information about exactly what did take place.

Which is pretty scary and hard to hear. These things dont really happen to a small country town very often.

SA Police Association President Mark Carroll said the incident showed how quickly situations could escalate.

Policing is a highly dangerous occupation. We try to be as safe as we possibly can, he said.

But its so unpredictable. People can do things in an instant.

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said the incident will be difficult news for the South Australian community to absorb.

Our frontline workers do an inherently difficult and dangerous job each day when they go to work, he said.

They exercise this duty with courage and bravery.

No South Australian police officer has been killed while on duty for more than 20 years.
UCP Leader Danielle Smith Takes Public Questions, Explains Platform in Facebook Live Event

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks to members of the media during a press conference in Ottawa, on Feb. 7, 2023. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

Albertas United Conservative Party Leader Danielle Smith made a video appearance on the nightly broadcast of the UCP War Room to answer questions from the public about her partys election platform on the first day of the official campaign.

Bruce McAllister, former MLA for Chestermere/Rockyview and former host of the Global News morning show, served as the host of the live event, which aired on Twitter and Facebook, and invited the public to ask questions on the comment page.

The UCPs biggest and first campaign promise was a no tax hike guarantee. Smith said that former Premier Ralph Klein brought in a similar promise, writing legislation to force any government contemplating a sales tax to hold a referendum of the people. Smith said it makes sense.

If the provincial government wants to increase personal and corporate income taxes, she suggested, it should be subject to that same level of buy-in from the general public.

Smith suggested that there is natural economic growth from giving money back to the people, especially in the middle of an affordability crisis.

According to Smith, the UCPs decision to reverse an NDP corporate income tax rate from 12 percent to 8 percent has resulted in higher corporate tax revenue for the province. In fact, were now at [$]6.4 billion in tax revenue, more money than we ever have, she said.

She said in her view, the government has to give money back to the people. The federal carbon tax  keeps on just blistering our families with higher and higher costs of everything.

Health Care Reform

Smith also highlighted changes to health care that have been made under a UCP government. The province under the UCP has spent a record amount of money on health care and eliminated user fees charged by the NDP, she said.

According to Smith, since being elected as premier of the province in fall of 2022, the province is carrying out 6,000 to 6,500 surgeries a week and working on a surgery backlog.

Were cutting it down at a rate of 3,000 surgeries a week. And we are going to have that backlog completely cleared by this time next year. Well be the first province in the country to do so, she said.

According to the UCP leader, the province has made massive progress in hospital wait times and emergency care by allowing paramedics to provide more treatment on-site, and implementing a new system of non-ambulance transfer to move patients for basic medical appointments.

She said the UCP government has also provided support for continuing care for the elderly. It begins with homecare, so people can stay in their homes longer.

We want to have the type of facilities where you can age in place, where you might be able to enter in independent living and as you need support, move on to assisted living. And then as you need even more support, be able to have long-term care that way. You can also, if youve got a couple that is aging at different rates, be able to keep them in the same facility so that theyre not separated, said Smith.

Social Disorder

The current premier said the province has to overcome social disorder by addressing root causes. She said an untreated mental health condition can turn into an addiction, then turn into homelessness, and chronic homelessness puts pressure on the health care system, she suggested.

Smith said the UCP increased funding from $87 million to $275 million for mental health treatments for children, additional addiction treatment beds, and a 211 helpline for same-day counselling support.

We created the virtual opioid dependency program, which allows for somebody to call, and again, same day be able to get on one of the safer drugs that you can use as an opioid replacement. Theres a particular injection type drug that you get an injection and youre good for 30 days, said Smith.

She said the UCP government also expanded treatment care beds, with 10,000 spaces able to treat 29,000 people a year.

When it comes to crime, Smith said the province has to get tough and tackle addiction. Smith called for the federal government to stop the catch and release program and reform the bail system.

Weve got to be compassionate for those  who are down on their luck and who need a little bit of a hand up. But we have to be on tough, really tough on those who are creating the public disorder, said Smith.

She said drug addicts need an avenue for treatment and recovery. I dont think theres such a thing as a safe supply of heroin, or crystal meth, or fentanyl. They are making more of these drugs available and the consequences are devastating, she said. We do not want Calgary or Edmonton or any of our midsize cities to become Vancouvers Eastside.

NDP

NDP Leader Rachel Notley was also on the campaign trail, laying out a platform for health care in Alberta, which included a pledge to launch the largest healthcare recruitment campaign in the provinces history, and to connect 1 million more Albertans with a family doctor within the next 10 years. She promised an NDP government would create good-paying jobs now, and for generations to come.

Notley said if elected, she would bring transformational changes to public healthcare, and ensure doctors worked more evenings and weekends. She has also promised free birth control pills and other contraceptives.

Notley and the NDP have stated they will legislate protection of the Canada Pension Plan by passing a law preventing any Alberta government from leaving the plan.

In some areas of the NDP campaign, details are lacking for now.

For example, on the issue of housing, the party said, Albertas NDP will be releasing a clear plan to tackle the immense housing challenges facing Alberta communities today.

Notley and the NDP did not respond to a request for comment on the partys campaign made by The Epoch Times.
UK Lawmakers Voice Concerns Over AI Explosion, Urge Measures to Prevent Misuse

Ai-Da Robot, the world's first ultra-realistic humanoid robot artist, appears at a photo call in a committee room in the House of Lords in London on Oct. 11, 2022. (Rob Pinney/Getty Images)

British MPs have raised concerns about the recent explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) and have asked what the government has done to prevent misuse of the fast-developing technology.

At a debate on AI regulation in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Tory former minister Tim Loughton said that AI is open to abuse by criminals and malign players such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

He told MPs: When advances in medical technology around genetic engineering, for example, raise sensitive issues, we have debates on medical ethics, we adapt legislation and put in place robust regulation and oversight.

The explosion in AI potentially poses the same level of moral dilemma and it is open to criminal use, for fraud, impersonation and by malign players such as the Chinese government for example.

As leaders in AI, what should the UK be doing to balance safety with opportunity and innovation?

Science Secretary Chloe Smith, who is standing in for Michelle Donelan who is on maternity leave, said the government recognises many technologies can pose a risk when in the wrong hands.

But she added: The UK is a global leader in AI, with the strategic advantage that places us at the forefront of these developments.

Now, through UK leadership, including at the OECD and the G-7, the Council of Europe, and more, we are promoting our vision for a global ecosystem that balances innovation and the use of AI underpinned by our shared values, of course, of freedom, fairness, and democracy. Our approach will be proportionate, pro-innovative and adaptable.

She also said that the governments integrated review of the UKs security and foreign policy recognises the challenges that are posed by China.

Election Integrity

Labours Darren Jones raised concerns over the potential for AI to be used to the detriment of the countrys democratic process.

Jones, who chairs the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, asked ministers what steps they are currently taking to protect the integrity of elections in light of AIs ability to create convincing images, audio, and video hoaxes.

Smith replied: I can understand his concerns and the anxiety that sits behind his question.

We have a fully developed regime of electoral law that already accounts for election offences such as false statements by candidates, but in addition to the existing regulations we are setting out an approach on AI that will look to regulators in different sectors to apply the correct guidance.

We will also add a central coordinating function that will be able to seek out risks and deal with them flexibly, appropriately, and proportionately.

Global Standards

Tory former Cabinet minister Greg Clark, chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, spoke about the need for the UK to set out an international approach to the standards in AI.

Clark said, At its best, Britain has been highly influential in setting international standards, combining confidence with security.

He asked if the minister agreed that the UK should now seize the initiative and set out an international approach to the standards in AI so that we can gain all of the benefits that come from AI but make sure we dont suffer the harms attendant on it.

Smith responded, I think the short answer there is yes.

She said that the UK does have a global leadership position and will therefore seek a leadership role so any regulation of AI that may be needed reflects our values and strikes the correct balance.

Risk to Humanity

AI has been on the rise, with ChatGPT coming to prominence in recent months after a version was released to the public last year.

Following the launch of the latest version of ChatGPT in March, some AI professionals signed an open letter, written by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, warning that the technology poses profound risks to society and humanity.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was among the signatories, has been outspoken about his concerns with AI in general, holding that it poses a serious risk to human civilization.

AI is perhaps more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design, or production maintenance, or bad car production, in the sense that it is, it has the potentialhowever small one may regard that probability, but it is nontrivialit has the potential of civilizational destruction, he told Fox News in a recent interview.

Another fear Musk revealed is the worry that AI is being trained in political correctness, which he maintained is just a form of deception and saying untruthful things.

Geoffrey Hinton, the British computer scientist who has been called the Godfather of AI, recently left his position as a vice president and engineering fellow at Google so he could join the dozens of other experts in the field speaking out about the threats and risks of AI.

It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things, Hinton, 75, told The New York Times in an interview.

Samantha Flom and PA Media contributed to this report.
UK Parliamentary Committee Warned of Dangers of the Chinese Agenda in the Arctic

Russia has not 'deprioritised' Arctic since Ukraine invasion, peers told

The Russian "50 Years of Victory" nuclear-powered icebreaker is seen at the North Pole on Aug. 18, 2021. (Ekaterina Anisimova/AFP via Getty Images)

A parliamentary committee in London has heard of a growing interest in the Arctic by the Chinese regime and the danger posed in the region by its strategic alliance with Russia.

On Wednesday the House of Lords international relations and defence committee heard from three experts about the threat in the Arctic Circle posed by Russia and also by China.

In 2012 the CCP declared China was a near Arctic state and it has increasingly challenged the dominance of the Arctic Council and its eight membersCanada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.

Mathieu Boulegue, a global fellow at the Polar Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, said: China has demonstrated a willingness to change the norms and the governance facts in the Arctic. They want a free-for-all global commons.

He said: If you dont protect big institutions and this sense of national interest in the Arctic, then you could very well imagine a not-so-distant future where China tries to coalesce a certain number of states.

Different Norms for the Arctic

Boulegue said such an alliance could then push for different norms in the Arctic, not necessarily better norms, but norms that would fit the Chinese agenda.

Imagine all the shipping nations in Asia  in the Gulf for instance  all pushing in the same direction with China at the forefront, that would completely and drastically change the way we approach the Arctic, he added.

Boulegue: It might be a far-fetched scenario, but if we can think about it, then theres probably a plan for it somewhere in Beijing.

China and Russia have grown closer since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with Beijing buying increasing amounts of oil and gas and helping the sanctions-hit Kremlin economically, but stopping short of supplying weapons.

Nick Childs, a senior fellow for naval forces and maritime security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said there was a question, whether there is a bill to pay in Moscow for Chinese support for Russia and he said it may take the shape of a renewed request by China for, greater naval access from Russian bases in the Arctic as a way of further increasing its presence in the long-term.

Labour peer Lord Anderson asked what importance should be given to a recent Sino-Russian summit in Murmansk.

Boulegue said there was a lot of posturing by both Russia and China and he said: Lets judge it by the substance and see how deep this collaboration goes. So far they are testing the waters, so to speak, in terms of soft security, constabulary forces search and rescue, better communication and collaboration and sort of soft security element.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin make a toast during their dinner at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21, 2023. (Pavel Byrkin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

If this is pushed further in terms of hard security or military exercises or drills or more military intent in the region than yes, we will have cause for concern, he added.

But so far, I think its part of this package of relationship between Russia and China where they are really trying to increase the footprint together and show that they can do better together than apart, Boulegue added.

Childs said one of the casualties of the fallout from the Ukraine conflict was the increasing desire of Russia and China to play a greater role in the Arctic and, potentially setting up a rival sphere of influence, as far as Arctic governance is concerned.

Lord Stirrupwho was Chief of the Defence Staff from 2006 until 2010asked if Russia felt threatened in the Arctic by Finland, and potentially Sweden, joining NATO.

Russias Sense of Vulnerability

Katarzyna Zysk, professor of international relations and contemporary history at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, said: Definitely. It increases Russias sense of vulnerability. In general, many unintended consequences of the Russian assault on Ukraine has performed to reshape Arctic security, co-operation, and governance regimes for Russia.

It has heightened the role of the Arctic as an arena for a confrontation between Russia and the West, again, stimulating the Russian threat perception, Zysk added.

It has also been influenced by the ripple effect of the ongoing strategic competition between the United States, China, and Russia, she added.

She said despite getting bogged down in Ukraine and finding it increasingly sapping their military and economic strength, Russia had not deprioritised the Arctic. In fact, the opposite has happened.

Zysk said: The political will to prioritise the Arctic seems to stay strong in Moscow. It has been corroborated in a number of ways as a doctrinal and policy implementation level, including in the updated maritime doctrine in July last year, which has moved the Arctic to the top of the list of regional priorities.

Undated file handout photo of RRS Sir David Attenborough during its maiden voyage to Antarctica. (British Antarctic Survey)

Lord Boateng, a former Labour MP and government minister under Tony Blair, asked what more Britain could do to assist NATO in the Arctic.

Childs said Britain had missed a trick when it commissioned the Antarctic survey ship RSS Sir David Attenborough.

UK Missed a Trick

Childs said: It may be that the UK missed a trick when, when the British Antarctic Survey ordered the Sir David Attenborough ship, not ordering three so the Royal Navy could have two, an Antarctic and an Arctic patrol vessel. That would be able to signal intent and capability in the region, but not in a provocative way.

He said Britain needed to deliver a more consistent and transparent message in terms of presence in the Arctic.

Childs said Britain seemed to have forgotten since the Cold War the importance of an actual credible deterrence in the region.

But he said Britain did not want to overheat the situation and he said it was important to show presence rather than escalate or provoke.

Childs said it was interesting that the United States and Canada were both reinvesting after a long gap in their icebreaker capabilities and he added: Whether the UK should also look seriously at raising its Arctic and ice-capable forces is an open question.
US Chamber of Commerce Warns of Heightened Risk for Firms Doing Business in China

Revised law spells risky business due to broader definition of espionage

(L to R) Chinese economists Yu Bin and Han Wenxiu, with Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates LP, during the China Development Forum 2023 in Beijing, on March 25, 2023. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

The United States Chamber of Commerce has sounded the alarm about a dramatic increase in the hazards and uncertainties associated with conducting business in China due to the regimes increased official scrutiny of U.S. corporations there.

The influential business group said that it was closely monitoring the situation and noted that industries subject to heightened official scrutiny include professional services and due diligence firms.

The organization further stressed in an April 28 statement that the services these firms provide are fundamental to establishing investor confidence in any market, including China.

The warning came just a few days after the communist regime passed its newly revised anti-espionage law, which will take effect on July 1.

The revision has expanded the definition of espionage, making it broader and vaguer, which increased the range of information and resources the nation considers relevant to national security, the chamber added.

The U.S. group called the growing scrutiny as a result of the legislative change a matter of serious concern for the investor community and likely is as well for their local business partners in China.

According to the lobby group, despite senior Chinese officials stated commitment to greater openness and attracting foreign investment, foreign investment will not feel welcomed in an environment where risk cant be properly assessed and legal uncertainties are on the rise.

Probes of Foreign Businesses

The business environment in China has worsened following a spate of probes and investigations against foreign businesses.

Last week, Chinese authorities interrogated staff at the Shanghai offices of American consultancy firm Bain & Company, and seized laptops and other papers. The purpose of the surprise raid on April 26 is unclear, as is the status of the employees who were questioned and their nationalities.

The incident followed a March raid on the Beijing offices of the Mintz Group, a due diligence firm. Five Mintz employees were reportedly detained on suspicion of engaging in illegal business operations, and the regime confirmed those charges. Although the detained workers are Chinese nationals, Mintz is headquartered in New York.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, a Mintz executive said that the company had no idea who was detaining its employees or when they might be released, nor why the raid was carried out.

Due to the arrests, Mintz closed its sole office in Chinas mainland. The companys closure is a setback for Chinas global business community, which depends on it for trusted international corporate investigations as part of hiring, transactions, and litigation in China.

Also in March, Beijing said it would begin reviewing products sold by U.S. chip maker Micron Technologies due to concerns about cybersecurity threats.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the Beijing office of Deloitte, one of the worlds Big Four accounting firms, was fined RMB 211.9 million (about $30.8 million) and suspended for three months for failing to adequately audit China Huarong Asset Management, Chinas Ministry of Finance announced on March 17.

Meanwhile, Chinas Ministry of Finance accused Huarong and its investment arms of internal governance lapses, failing risk controls, and seriously distorting accounting information from 2014 to 2019.

Huarong is central to Chinas financial system, one of four institutions created by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the late 1990s to solve the problem of bad loans at state-owned banks. It then built an empire by lending to high-risk companies, using access to cheap loans from state-owned banks.

Foreign Companies Should Be Very Worried

Mr. Huang, an executive of a foreign company in Hong Kong, told The Epoch Times on April 27 that the revision of the CCPs anti-espionage law may have the greatest impact on companies and employees involved in three types of businesses.

The first type is those whose business in China involves investigation, or those who have accounting capital review business, such as Deloitte and four other major accounting firms. They may have some sensitive information.

The second is the investment analysis report companies, he said.

The third type is enterprises that have cooperation or economic and trade exchanges in medical biotechnology and software in China.

Huang said Chinas national security laws are not comparable with the national security and anti-terrorism laws of most Western countries, and the Chinese communist legal system is incompatible with common international laws.

Because the CCPs legal operations often violate human rights, foreign companies and their employees will be very worried, he warned.

Alex Wu, Jenny Li, Angela Bright, and Reuters contributed to this report.
US Military Readiness in Decline Since 2017: Government Watchog

U.S. Navy Riverine Squadron 3 sailors work with Philippine Navy SEALS in the South China Sea. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Gregory A. Harden II)

The seconds-in-command of five U.S. military branches gave detailed updates about how their services are enhancing combat readiness during an April 19 hearing before the House Armed Services Committees Readiness Subcommittee.

So, when the same four generals and an admiral were slated to again address readiness in a May 2 hearing before the Senate Armed Services Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee, expectations were the same story, just a different chamber, with a rehash of presentations from their previous hearings.

That assumption proved correctthe flag officers recounted efforts to improve training and exercises, secure supply chains, boost the Pentagons industrial base, and address recruiting shortfalls, safety concerns, and maintenance backlogs while focusing on two primary areas of operations, the Western Pacific in facing off against China, and in Europe in staring down Russia.

An Air Force F-35 fighter jet takes off for a training mission at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah. (George Frey/Getty Images)

However, a sixth witness provided a twist: Diana Maurer, the Government Accountability Offices (GAOs) director of defense capabilities and government accountability.

Maurer, a GAO number-crunching efficiency analyst, came prepared with 37 recent reports bundled in a report that she highlighted in 48 pages of written testimony excerpted in succinct, stark testimony.

What we have found is rather troubling. Broadly speaking, mission capabilitycan units execute their missions?has declined since 2017, she said, not wasting words.

Even Space Force Takes Hit

While the Army and Marines improved in the ground domain, the Navy and Air Force experienced declines in readiness across the sea, air, and space domains, Maurer said.

In resource readiness, which she explained as being people, equipment, and supplies, we found the sea domain declined while ground, air, space domains generally reported improvement, she said, before adding there is still a lot of ground to make up.

Overall, Maurer said, the reports document that nearly two decades of conflict has degraded military readiness and that many of GAOs recommendations to remedy cited issues in previous readiness reports were never considered.

The latest analysis includes more than 130 recommendations in the 37 reports listed in my statement, she said. The [Department of Defense] has moved on some but 100 remain open.

She highlighted some of the readiness issues identified by the GAO.

Maurer said in 2022, the office tested 49 aircraft types being used by the Navy and Air Force.

Only two met their annual mission-capable goals. The vast majority missed by more than 10 percent, she said.

The USS Virginia attack submarine returns to the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Conn. (Jack Sauer/AP Photo)

The F-35 program, in particular, suffers from a variety of sustainment woes, Maurer said, noting fleet-wide mission-capable rates for the fighter have declined every year since 2020

The Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps face substantial gaps between what it costs to fly [F-35s] and what they can afford, she said.

GAO analysts maintain in 2022 the Navy pushed aside $1.8 billion in deferred ship maintenance, mainly in cruisers and amphibious ships.

Over a 10-year period, maintenance delays went up and cannibalizations also increased while steaming hours went down. The Navy is also facing a significant crewing shortfall, Maurer said.

The office analyses criticized the Army for helicopter safety practices. The reports also show shortfalls in rail support and in Sea-Lift training that affects readiness and ability to get to the fight, she said.

Air Force maintenance and supply issues limit the availability of aging aircraft, Maurer said. From 2011 to 2021, only three Air Force aircraftB-2s, RC-135s, and UH-1N helicoptersmet their annual mission-capable goal in most years, the GAO documents.

Not even the foundling Space Force was spared by the accountability office.

Space Force faces unique readiness challenges because DOD is still trying to figure out what it is, Maurer said. DOD can better incorporate involving Space Forces mission into its readiness approach.

Flag Officers Agree

GAOs assessments, criticisms, and suggested recommendations drew little comment from the panel during the hearing until Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H). said she was disappointed with the decline in readiness and asked the flag officers if they agreed with Maurers assessments.

They all did and they all said they are either responding to or evaluating GAOs recommendations.

U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Randy Georgenominated last week by President Joe Biden to succeed the retiring Gen. James McConville as Army Chief of Staffsaid the service is using the GAO report to enhance mobilization and investing $10 million in rail capacity to ferry battle tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles.

Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti said the Navy is very aware of issues cited in the report and has been addressing them even before GAO identified them as problems.

Troops from U.S. Army mechanized units wait to take part in live fire exercises during the multinational Defender Europe 20 military exercises in Poland, on Aug. 11, 2020. (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

The Navy has been increasing its number of days at sea and its budget request seeks billions to draw down ship maintenance backlogs, she said, noting that in 2022 there were reductions in delays in maintenance and that a shipyard optimization plan addresses issues in the nations four public shipyards was initiated.

The shipyard optimization plan was endorsed by Shaheen because of one the four naval shipyards is in Portsmouth, New Hampshirethe state she represents.

Franchetti said the Navy has made strides in extending the service life and lethality of F-18 Super Hornets and elevated their fleet readiness to 80 to 85 percent.

We have a lot more work to do, she conceded. Were grateful for the work GAO has done.

U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said he also agreed with most GAO findings about maintaining aging aircraft.

Fifty-three percent of [the Air Forces] aviation assets are exceeding expected service lifespans, he said. They break 65 percent more and take 15 percent longer to repair.

That has a spiraling effect on readiness elsewhere, he said.

Readiness Enhanced

Prior to Maurers testimony, the service officials offered past-is-prologue accounts of an increasing tempo of exercises, deployments, and training programs in 2022 that will continue in 2023 and beyond.

There are currently an average of 143,000 sailors and two amphibious groups with a combined 5,000 Marines at sea on any given day.

At least 80,000 of those naval forces and one amphibious group are in the Western Pacific at all times.

Meanwhile, there are more than 142,000 Army troops in Europe, including 17,000 in rotationally deployed units along NATOs eastern flank since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

In 2022, the NavyMarine Corps flew nearly 1 million hours, sailed more than 22,000 days, and participated in nearly 100 exercises, Franchetti said in her testimony.

The Navy has stepped up its deployments since 2022 to accommodate a significantly higher operations tempo than five years ago, she said, especially in the Western Pacifics South China Sea, where Chinas growing navy is building and arming artificial islands along commercial sea lanes.

Taking up a battlegroup station in the South China Sea deters and complicates the PRCs decision-calculus and regional plans while reassuring our allies and partners of American resolve and capacity to check the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) illegal territorial claims, Franchetti said.

In 2022, the Navy deployed 95 ships, 28 submarines, and 75 aviation squadrons to the Western Pacific, maintained continuous strategic deterrence patrols by ballistic missile boomer submarines, and conducted numerous Freedom of Navigation Operationsshow the flag transits through contested watersin the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, she said.

The U.S. Army, too, is picking up its training and readiness pace and also doing so with an emphasis on addressing the pacing challenge presented by China, George said.

In addition to forces stationed in Hawaii, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, the Army plans to dispatch combat units to the Western Pacific for seven- or eight-month deployments in the coming years, he said in his testimony.

After years of diminished activities due to the pandemic, we have resumed and expanded our multinational exercise programs, George said, with emphasis on the Indo-Pacific where, in 2022, the Army participated in a massive exercise in Thailand with the militaries from 29 nations.

Russias invasion of Ukraine tested the readiness of the U.S. military and its NATO allies to respond in a way that deterred further westward advances by Putins armies and provide meaningful assistance for a besieged nation, he said.

Within hours of the invasion, the Army deployed soldiers from pre-positioned units to NATOs eastern flank, George said. Right now, 142,000 remain in Europe, including 17,000 in rotationally deployed units. Many are supporting weapons supply chains and training Ukrainian soldiers, he said.

In response to Russias invasion, Franchetti said in her testimony that the Navy deployed 27 ships, 14 submarines, and 31 aviation squadrons to Europe to send a strong deterrence message to Putin and reassure our NATO allies and partners that we are committed to their security.

Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith said in testimony that the Marines delivered one of those deterrence messages, when the 22nd U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) of the USS Kearsarge battlegroup participated in Baltic Sea maneuvers, including amphibious landings with Swedish and Finnish forces, in May-June 2022.

Also 2022, he said, the corps deployed its first newly created Marine Littoral Regiment (MLR) to the Western Pacific and, in March 2023, activated its third MLR.
UOB's flagship art competition expands to the fifth country, Vietnam, this year.

SINGAPORE, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Art meets Fashion with a collection of 36 limited edition art wearables introduced at a fashion showcase for charity sale as UOB officially launched the 42nd edition of its flagship UOB Painting of the Year competition at National Gallery Singapore this morning.

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Speaker of Parliament and Advisor to the National Council of Social Service, and Mr Wee Ee Cheong, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, UOB, with UOB Painting of the Year artists and JOURNEY artists at the 42nd UOB Painting of the Year launch event

Doing right by the community through art for good

The UOB Painting of the Year Art x Fashion showcase featured wearables co-designed by 10 artists, comprising UOB Painting of the Year artists and artists with disabilities from JOURNEY by TOUCH Community Services. In collaboration with local fashion label ANS.EIN, the unique pieces are a culmination of a three-month partnership where UOB Painting of the Year artists were paired with artists with disabilities to paint their passion on canvas, and transforming them into wearable art for charity sale[1]. Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Speaker of Parliament and Advisor to the National Council of Social Service, was the Guest-of-Honour at the event.

Mr Wee Ee Cheong, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, UOB, said, "Appreciating and creating art can help uplift spirits and connect communities. Our showcase this year illustrates how art can be present in our everyday lives, including in fashion. I am heartened to see that our UOB Painting of the Year artists are bringing their talents into the community to collaborate with artists with disabilities from TOUCH Community Services, bringing the joy of art to a wider audience. In line with our Purpose to build the future of ASEAN, UOB is pleased to expand our flagship competition to Vietnam this year for many more to uncover their passion for art."

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin said, "The partnership between the public and private sectors is vital in uplifting different communities. As we strive towards nurturing a more caring and inclusive Singapore, I am encouraged to see UOB, the UOB Painting of the Year artists and TOUCH Community Services, coming together to raise funds and awareness for the differently-abled community, and devoting their time and resources to equip JOURNEY's artists with useful art skills that they can use to fuel their passion for art."

Story continues

In line with the opening of this year's UOB Painting of the Year competition, all showcased art wearables will be on sale from 31 May via JOURNEY's website (www.journeyspecial.com). All proceeds will go to TOUCH Community Services to support JOURNEY's work in Art and Education for special needs groups.

Mr James Tan, Chief Executive Officer of TOUCH Community Services said, "Art is a universal language through which humanity speaks. We are honoured to be working alongside UOB and ANS.EIN to launch this fashion-for-a-cause initiative. We hope this will shed light on the creative talents of our special needs artists under the JOURNEY brand, who co-created the artworks with given themes such as 'Oriental' and 'Floral'. We are heartened by the support of our collaborative partners towards this cause, and look forward to seeing these artworks donned by members of the community."

Programme identity design for the 42nd UOB Painting of the Year competition

Programme identity design for 42nd UOB Painting of the Year competition

The programme identity design for the 2023 UOB Painting of the Year competition was unveiled by Mr Tan Chuan-Jin and Mr Wee Ee Cheong at the launch event. Inspired by the 2022 UOB Southeast Asian Painting of the Year winning artwork, Dystopia by Thai artist Chomrawi Suksom, the evolving sphere symbolises our world in a constant state of change and renewal, represented by different cultures and identities. This is aligned with the Bank's long-term commitment to constantly evolve and stay relevant, and to do right by the community. In line with this, UOB's flagship competition will expand its reach and launch in Vietnam this year.

Call for entries and the enhanced prize awards for Emerging Artist Category

As the leading patron for the arts in Asia, the UOB Painting of the Year competition has uncovered more than 1,000 established and aspiring artists across the region over the last four decades. The 42nd UOB Painting of the Year competition is open to Singapore citizens and permanent residents, who can submit their entries digitally at UOBandArt.com. Submissions are open from 3 May 2023 to 31 July 2023.

The five country winners from Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam will compete for the coveted UOB Southeast Asian Painting of the Year award, with a prize award of S$13,000 on top of their country award prize, and a chance for a residency programme at the renowned Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan. In addition, to further support the pursuit of art by aspiring artists in the region, UOB has raised the prize money for the Emerging Artist Category, with the Most Promising Artist of the Year winner receiving S$5,000, up from previous years[2].

The Singapore winners and the winner of the prestigious regional award, the UOB Southeast Asian Painting of the Year will be announced at an awards ceremony at Victoria Theatre on 8 November 2023.

Three-time award winner Lester Lee presents solo exhibition at UOB Art Gallery

As part of the series of activities lined up for the 42nd UOB Painting of the Year Call-for-entries campaign, the solo exhibition titled Randomness by Lester Lee, 41st UOB Painting of the Year (Singapore) top winner, will be launching on Friday, 12 May 2023 at the UOB Art Gallery, located at the ground floor of UOB Plaza 1. Through this exhibition, Lester presents his latest body of work that expresses his experiential discovery process to find new directions and to make a statement.

Established in 1982, the UOB Painting of the Year competition is the longest-running annual art competition in Singapore and one of the most prestigious in Southeast Asia. Past winners include Singapore Cultural Medallion winners Mr Goh Beng Kwan, Mr Anthony Poon and Mr Chua Ek Kay, as well as 2016 Benesse Prize winner, Thai artist Ms Pannaphan Yodmanee.

To view the appendices, please click here.

1] Details of participating artists can be found in Appendix A. [2] More details can be found at UOBandArt.com and in Appendix B

About UOB and Art

UOB's involvement in art started in the 1970s with its collection of paintings by Singapore artists. Today, the UOB Art Collection has more than 2,600 artworks, made up primarily of paintings from established and emerging Southeast Asian artists.

UOB plays an active role in communities across the region, most notably through its long-term commitment to art. As the leading patron of the arts in Asia, the Bank continues to make art accessible to a wider audience through a diverse range of visual art programmes, partnerships and community outreach across the region.

The Bank's flagship art programme is the UOB Painting of the Year competition, which was started in 1982 to recognise Southeast Asian artists and to offer them the opportunity to showcase their works to the wider community. The competition was extended to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and in 2023, to Vietnam. It is now the longest running art competition in Singapore and one of the most prestigious in Southeast Asia.

Over the past 41 years, the competition has cultivated and advanced the careers of many artists in Singapore. Notable among them are Mr Goh Beng Kwan (1982 winner), and the late Mr Anthony Poon (1983 winner) and Mr Chua Ek Kay (1991 winner), who received the Singapore Cultural Medallion, Singapore's most distinguished art award.

The competition has also recognised talents from across the region through the UOB Southeast Asian POY award. Previous winners include Chomrawi Suksom from Thailand in 2022, Mr Saiful Razman from Malaysia in 2021, Mr Prabu Perdana from Indonesia in 2020, Mr Anagard from Indonesia in 2019, Mr Suvi Wahyudianto from Indonesia in 2018, Mr Sukit Choosri from Thailand in 2017, Mr Gatot Indrajati from Indonesia in 2016, Mr Anggar Prasetyo from Indonesia in 2015, Mr Antonius Subiyanto from Indonesia in 2014 and Ms Stefanie Hauger from Singapore in 2013.

Together with the UOB POY winning artists, UOB also runs art workshops for underprivileged and special needs children regularly. At these workshops, the young learn art techniques from art professionals and award-winning artists.

In recognition of the Bank's long-term commitment to art, UOB was presented with the National Arts Council's Distinguished Patron of the Arts Award for the 18th consecutive year in 2022.

About UOB

UOB is a leading bank in Asia. Operating through its head office in Singapore and banking subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, UOB has a global network of around 500 offices in 19 countries and territories in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. Since its incorporation in 1935, UOB has grown organically and through a series of strategic acquisitions. Today, UOB is rated among the world's top banks: Aa1 by Moody's Investors Service and AA- by both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

For nearly nine decades, UOB has adopted a customer-centric approach to create long-term value by staying relevant through its enterprising spirit and doing right by its customers. UOB is focused on building the future of ASEAN  for the people and businesses within, and connecting with, ASEAN.

The Bank connects businesses to opportunities in the region with its unparalleled regional footprint and leverages data and insights to innovate and create personalised banking experiences and solutions catering to each customer's unique needs and evolving preferences. UOB is also committed to help businesses forge a sustainable future, by fostering social inclusiveness, creating positive environmental impact and pursuing economic progress. UOB believes in being a responsible financial services provider and is steadfast in its support of art, social development of children and education, doing right by its communities and stakeholders.

Cision

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SOURCE UOB
US, Philippines Call for Peace Across Taiwan Strait in Joint Statement

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and U.S. President Joe Biden walk up the West Wing colonnade on their way to the Oval Office on May 1, 2023. (Leah Millis/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

The United States and the Philippines reaffirmed on May 1 the need for peace across the Taiwan Strait amid the Beijing regimes intimidating actions against the self-ruled island.

President Joe Biden and his Philippine counterpart, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., issued a joint statement in connection with their meeting at the White House that reaffirmed their commitment to deepen the U.S.Philippines security alliance.

Marcoss visit to the United States marked the first by a Philippine president in more than a decade.

We are facing new challenges. And I cant think of any better partner to have than you, Biden told the Philippine leader.

Marcos emphasized the importance of the United States as his countrys sole treaty ally in the Indo-Pacific region, which he said is facing arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now.

It is only natural for the Philippines to look to its sole treaty partner in the world to strengthen and to redefine the relationship that we have and the roles that we play in the face of those rising tensions that we see now around the South China Sea and Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions, he said.

President Joe Biden meets Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Oval Office on May 1, 2023. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The leaders affirmed their commitment to freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea and maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, where China has increased its military activities.

Both allies affirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of global security and prosperity, the joint statement reads.

Taiwans Foreign Ministry applauded the U.S.Philippines joint statement, stating that it highlighted the high degree of consensus among countries in the region on preserving cross-strait peace and stability.

The BidenMarcos meeting occurred as Beijing was accused of violating the Philippines territorial zone in the disputed South China Sea, which China claims almost entirely based on its nine-dash line. More than 100 Chinese militia maritime vessels were spotted within the Philippines exclusive economic zone from April 18 to April 24.

A Chinese Coast Guard ship with bow number 5201 blocks a Philippine coast guard ship as it maneuvers to enter the mouth of the Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, in the South China Sea on April 23, 2023. (Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

Hours before departing for Washington on April 30, Marcos urged Beijing to establish a direct communication line between their officials to prevent dangerous collisions between vessels in the disputed waters.

The Philippines goal is simple: We work for peace. We will not encourage any provocative action.  We will not allow that to happen, he told reporters.

China Envoy Threatens Philippines

Chinese envoy Huang Xilian earlier criticized the Philippines for granting the United States greater access to its military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

The Philippines would unequivocally oppose Taiwans independence if it genuinely cared about the 150,000 Filipinos living in Taiwan, Huang said at a forum in Manila on April 16.

We will not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures, he said.

Huang warned that allowing the United States to have access to Philippine military bases would only inflame the situation.

In response, the Philippine Department of National Defense reiterated that its decision to expand the EDCA sites wasnt directed against any country but rather to bolster its defense capabilities.

Amid the tensions in the cross Straits, however, the department deems it prudent to prepare for any contingencies to ensure the safety of Filipinos overseas, especially those based in Taiwan, it stated.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to conquer it by force if necessary. But any attack on Taiwan could threaten Philippine security because of its proximity to Taiwan, which shares a sea border off the Luzon Strait.

The Philippines earlier granted the U.S. military access to four new military bases, including a naval base, an airport in Cagayan province, and an army camp in Isabela provinceall located near Taiwan.

The 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty dictates that the United States and the Philippines will defend each other if either is attacked.

The United States warned Beijing on April 29 that any armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft would invoke the mutual defense treaty.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson Enters the Race for Governor

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson speaks at a press conference outside the Federal Detention Center, as Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee (L) and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (R) listen, in SeaTac, Washington, on June 9, 2018. (Karen Ducey/Getty Images)

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is entering the race for governor in 2024, the Democratic candidate announced on Tuesday in a campaign ad posted on YouTube.

Fergusons announcement comes one day after current Governor Jay Inslee announced that he will not seek a fourth term, leaving the door open for a new governor to take over in 2024.

Ive never been afraid to take on big fights. From the Trump Admin & gun lobby to anti-abortion extremists & corporate interests, Ive taken on powerful adversaries and won. Thats just the start. Im proud to announce my exploratory campaign for WA Gov, Ferguson said in a Twitter announcement.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson speaks at a news conference about the states response to President Trumps revised travel ban, on March 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Ferguson will spend the next few weeks traveling across Washington to begin his campaign and connect with Washington voters.

I look forward to listening and learning from Washingtonians in every county and corner of this great state, Ferguson said during his announcement.

Ferguson was first elected attorney general in 2012, took office in 2013, and was last elected to the position in 2020.

During his time as Attorney General, Ferguson fought and won several lawsuits against former President Donald Trumps administration, including a lawsuit against the administrations family separation policies at the border.

Ferguson also launched the Wing Luke Civil Rights Division to investigate and end discrimination in various sectors including employment, housing, and education.

Last week Ferguson announced that he, along with state legislators started a centralized Organized Retail Crime Unit to coordinate, investigate, and prosecute multi-jurisdictional retail crime statewide.

These are not petty thefts, Ferguson said in a statement. These are multi-jurisdictional, organized crime rings that endanger the safety of employees and customers, damage our economy, and drive up costs for all Washingtonians. This centralized, statewide unit will serve as a force multiplier to combat these sophisticated crimes and hold the perpetrators accountable. I look forward to working with the Task Force to maximize the effectiveness of this unit.

In his personal life, Ferguson is a graduate of the University of Washington and New York University law school. He and his wife Colleen are parents to 15-year-old twins, Jack and Katie.

Together with Inslee, Ferguson also requested the AR-15 rifle ban that the governor signed into law last month.

The House today put public safety above the interest of the gun lobby, Ferguson said in a statement. The devastation of mass shootings extends far beyond the casualties and injuries. Mass shootings traumatize entire communities. We must stop selling these weapons of war in Washington.

Assault weapons have contributed to some of the deadliest shootings over the last decade, and keeping more of them out of our communities will make Washington a safer place, Gov. Inslee said in a statement. I applaud the bill sponsors and the Attorney Generals Office for helping advance this crucial public safety measure.

Governor Jay Inslee spoke to Dave Ross and Colleen OBrien on Seattles Morning News about Fergusons recent announcement and isnt ready to support the next potential candidate for governor just yet.

I havent thought about those electoral issues. I have tremendous respect for Bob; he has been a tremendous Attorney General, Inslee told Ross and OBrien. He won something like 40 out of 41 cases when the Trump administration was trying to put their hands on the great state of Washington, so I do have a lot of respect for him. I havent thought through the electoral part of this.

Ferguson said he looks forward to building a grassroots coalition as he moves forward with his campaign.

Washingtonians must have the freedom to make their own health care decisions, Ferguson said, to be safe, to breathe clean air and drink clean water, to be free from discrimination, to start a small business, to make a living wage and have a safe work environment, to have opportunities to succeed in all kinds of careers.
CM Baghel pledges to construct 5000 new buildings for anganbadi centres





Staff Reporter

RAIPUR,

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has pledged to construct 5000 new buildings for anganbadi centres in Chhattisgarh. The Chief Minister made this announcement during the Abhar Sammelan event held at the Science College Ground in the state capital on Tuesday. Baghel also announced that anganbadi assistants and workers would be honoured throughout State on November 14.

Under the Saksham Scheme, the annual income limit for beneficiaries will be increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. Additionally, the loan limit for womens self-help groups will be increased from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 6 lakh. In the upcoming assembly session, the Chief Minister has also assured that the honorarium for block coordinators and master trainers will be raised. He has announced that his government has increased the honorarium of anganwadi workers, anganwadi assistants, and mini anganwadi workers in State. The honorarium of anganwadi workers has been increased from Rs 6,500 to Rs 10,000 per month, while the honorarium of anganwadi assistants has been increased from Rs 3,500 to Rs. 5,000 per month. The honorarium of mini anganwadi workers has been increased from Rs 4,500 to Rs 7,500 per month. In addition, an additional amount of Rs. 2,200 will be given per month to Mitanins, who are community health workers in State.

Baghel also highlighted that his government has taken significant steps in the fields of health and education in Chhattisgarh, and said that the State is no longer known as Naxalgarh. The Chief Minister expressed his gratitude towards Anganbadi workers, assistants, and mitanins for their services to the community. Baghel also acknowledged the significant role played by his government in reducing malnutrition rates in the state. During his address, T S Singhdeo, Minister for Public Health and Family Welfare Department, praised Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel for fulfilling the promises made in the manifesto for anganwadi workers, Anganwadi assistants, and Mitanins. Singhdeo also stated that the State government would work towards providing better health services to the people of the state with the assistance of Mitanins.

Anila Bhendia, the Minister for Women and Child Development Department, expressed that Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is committed to providing respect and empowerment to the women of the state and making them self-reliant. Bhuvnesh Yadav, Secretary of Women and Child Development Department, and Bhim Singh, Director of Health Services also spoke on the occassion. Some anganbadi workers, assistants, and mitanins also shared their views and expressed gratitude towards the Chief Minister for hiking their honorarium. In recognition of their excellent services, six Anganbadi workers and five mitanins were felicitated during the programme. The Chief Minister was also garlanded by mitanins, anganbadi workers and assistants. The event was attended by several public representatives and officers, including Parliamentary Secretary Gurudayal Banjare, MLAs Satyanarayan Sharma, Dhanendra Sahu, Kuldeep Juneja, Dr. Vinay Jaiswal, Dr. K K Dhruw, Anita Yogendra Sharma, Chairperson of State Commission for Women Dr Kiranmayi Nayak, State Mineral Development Corporation Chairman Girish Dewangan, Speaker of Raipur Municipal Corporation Pramod Dubey, and others. Thousands of Anganbadi workers, assistants, and mitanins also participated in the programme.
Durg (Rural) to be a spectacle of fight of strategy between Cong and BJP





By E V Murli &

Prasanta Sarkar

The upcoming assembly election in Durg Rural constituency promises to be a riveting spectacle, with the current Home Minister, Tamradhwaj Sahu, touted as the Congress candidate. In the previous election held in 2018, Tamradhwaj Sahu had emerged victorious over his BJP opponent, Jageshwar Sahu, by a margin of 27,112 votes, and thus holds a considerable advantage in the constituency dominated by the Sahu community.

Both the Congress and the BJP are expected to field candidates from the Sahu community, but the voters of Durg Rural have demonstrated their wisdom and conscientiousness during previous elections. They are cognizant of their rights and demand a candidate who will work for the betterment of the constituency. While caste equations have an impact on electoral politics, the image and performance of the candidates hold greater sway in parliamentary elections. In most cases, the candidate with a better image among the people triumphs, regardless of their caste.

Tamradhwaj Sahu is the strongest contender for the Congress ticket in Durg Rural. A towering leader in the Congress party, he was almost appointed as the Chief Minister of the state after the previous elections, despite not having made any significant contributions to state politics at the time. However, his nomination was eventually opposed, and the Congress high command was forced to change the chief ministerial candidate. Even so, Tamradhwaj Sahu remains a force to be reckoned with in his community and the government.

However, Tamradhwaj Sahus performance as a minister in the Congress government has consistently come under attack from the BJP, labelling him as weak. This has led many to question whether Tamradhwaj Sahu is a safe bet for the upcoming elections. Although he won the Durg Lok Sabha seat during the BJP wave, his supporters are in a dilemma about his ability to retain the Durg Rural seat this time. Hence, the sudden change in his supporters stance is bewildering. If Tamradhwaj Sahu decides to shift to Bemetara or any other constituency, several candidates, such as Pradesh Congress Committee General Secretary Rajendra Sahu, former MLA Pratima Chandrakar, Jayan Deshmukh, Bunty Harmukh, and others, are vying for the Congress ticket. Pratima Chandrakar, who is close to the Chief Minister, had previously contested and lost the election, and it remains to be seen whether the party will reconsider her claim. Rajendra Sahu, meanwhile, stated that many claimants are in the running for the Durg Rural ticket, but the final decision rests with the high command. On the other hand, the BJP is expected to field a fresh face, with the names of former Zila Panchayat President Maya Belchandan and Lalit Chandrakar doing the rounds. Jageshwar Sahu, who lost to Tamadhwaj Sahu in the previous election, is also in the fray, but his supporters backing is insufficient to bolster his claim. The BJPs senior party leader suggests that an OBC candidate is likely to be fielded, given the constituencys caste equations, as caste has increasingly become a crucial factor in electoral politics. While the BJP is keeping a close eye on the Congress partys moves and strategies, the Congress is optimistic about a better performance this time, citing the rural and farmer-friendly schemes of the Bhupesh Baghel government. They believe this will ensure their victory in the 2023 elections. However, the BJP is confident that 2018 will not repeat itself and that they will emerge victorious, casting doubt on the Congress win.
FDA turns on heat, acts against 334 pharmacies for violating rules





By Rutu Borkar

Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) took action against 334 pharmacies in Nagpur district for violation of guidelines pertaining to selling prescribed drugs and medical instruments. The action was initiated after finding various irregularities by the chemists. Among the 334 chemists, the major breach documented by FDA was pharmacies running sans licence, non-renewal of licence, shifting of shops and godowns without permission, or not sharing crucial information with the concerned authority, and substandard material quality. During the checks, the FDA team also found that some of the chemists are engaged in sale of medical devices for which a separate licence has to be procured.

Selling drugs in absence of a registered pharmacist at a chemist store, storing expired products, and selling physician samples to consumers are some of the factors that contributed to subsequent actions by the FDA. Many a time, banned drug contents are found to be stored at the pharmacies. Government issues directions from time to time regarding ban on sale of medicines or combinations which have been determined harmful for humans. So, when such contents are found during examination of the pharmacies, action is bound to follow, a source in the FDA said.
IAF chief meets Lankas top military leaders





COLOMBO,

CHIEF of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari on Tuesday met Sri Lankas top military leaders and exchanged views on several matters of bilateral importance, while recalling the long-standing friendship between the two countries, amid Chinas growing influence in the island nation.

Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari, who arrived here on Monday on a four-day official visit to Sri Lanka, called on the Commander of the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF), Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana at Air Force Headquarters here.

As part of Indias commitment towards capacity-building of Sri Lanka Armed Forces, Chief of Air Staff of the Indian Air Force presented AN-32 propellers to ensure high operational readiness of the aircraft held with Sri Lanka Air Force. Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari #CAS @IAF_MCC donated AN-32 propellers to Commander @airforcelk at Katunayake Air Base on behalf of Government of India. Highlights Indias resolute commitment towards capacity building of SriLanka Armed Forces, the Indian High Commission in Colombo tweeted.

The Chief of the Air Staff is visiting Sri Lanka at the invitation of Air Marshal Pathirana. He was received upon arrival by the Commanding Officer SLAF Station Colombo, Air Commodore Suresh Fernando, and was presented a Guard of Honour which was conferred by the Colour Squadron of the SLAF, Sri Lankas News 1st channel reported. He also met with the Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Vice Admiral Priyantha Perera at the Navy Headquarters, Colombo.

Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari also met Major General Senarath Yapa, Commandant National Defence College, Sri Lanka and delivered a talk on the transformation of the Indian Air Force to senior Sri Lankan Armed Forces officers attending the College, it added.

He also gifted books worth 10 million Sri Lankan Rs to the prestigious college. During the discussions, the two sides exchanged views on several matters of bilateral importance, whilst recalling the long-standing friendship between the two countries. After his arrival here on Monday, Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari sought the blessings of Lord Buddha at the sacred Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo. The visit will enhance the existing professional ties and bonds of mutual cooperation between both nations, an official statement said.
India hands over Fast PatrolVessel, landing craft to Maldives





NEW DELHI :

DEFENCE Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday handed over a fast patrol vessel and a landing craft to the Maldives as Indias gift at an event in Male even as he and Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih held talks to expand the already close bilateral strategic ties. In his address at the ceremony in presence of top civil and military brass of the island nation, Singh said the IndiaMaldives relationship is truly special and that it has evolved as a model for the entire region to follow.The Defence Minister also highlighted the need for India, the Maldives and other like-minded nations of the region to enhance cooperation in addressing the common challenges in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). At the handing-over ceremony, Solih commissioned the offshore patrol vessel into the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF).

The India-Maldives relationship is truly special. Our relationship has withstood the test of time and we have always supported each-other in the hours of need, Singh said at the handing-over ceremony. Hours after arriving in the island nation on a three-day visit, Singh held extensive talks with his Maldivian counterpart Mariya Didi and Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid in Male with a focus on expanding the bilateral strategic ties. The Defence Minister said the relationship between the two countries has evolved as a model for the entire region to follow.
MOIL registers Best Performance in April





Business Bureau

With a production of 1.31 lakh tonnes of Manganese Ore in April, 2023, MOIL has registered Best April Production performance since inception, with a significant growth of 26 per cent over April, 2022. Breaking a multi-year record, sales at 97,838 tonnes for the month has also been best for any April month and 72 per cent higher than April, 2022.

Giving utmost thrust to exploration, MOIL achieved core drilling of 7,530 metres in April 2023, which is 3.6 times that of April, 2022. The company has made an ambitious plan of carrying out exploration in brown-field and green-field areas during FY24.

Production of Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide (EMD) has also been best for any April month, higher by 6 per cent than April, 2022. EMD is a 100 per cent import substitution product, used mostly for pharmaceuticals and manufacturing of batteries. Ajit Kumar Saxena, Chairman cum Managing Director of MOIL Ltd,, congratulated all the staff members on these achievements and reposed confidence of continuing the growth trajectory in the coming times.

MOIL Ltd is a Schedule-A, Miniratna Category-I CPSE under the administrative control of Ministry of Steel, Government of India. It is the largest producer of manganese ore in the country, contributing ~45 per cent of the domestic production. It operates eleven mines in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The company has ambitious vision of more than doubling its production to 3.00 million tonnes by 2030. MOIL is also exploring business opportunities in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh and Odisha, besides other areas in Madhya Pradesh.
Canacol Energy Ltd.

CALGARY, Alberta, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canacol Energy Ltd. (Canacol or the Corporation) (TSX:CNE; OTCQX:CNNEF; BVC:CNEC) is pleased to provide the following information concerning the new Lulo 1 gas discovery, production test results for the previously announced Saxofon 1 and Dividivi 1 gas discoveries, and the April 2023 natural gas sales.



April Gas Sales of 180 MMscfpd

Realized contractual natural gas sales (which are gas produced, delivered, and paid for were 180 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfpd) for April 2023.

Lulo 1 encounters 207 feet of net gas pay

The Lulo 1 exploration well, located on the 100 percent operated VIM21 Exploration and Production (E&P) contract, was spud on April 17 and reached a total depth of 8,434 feet measured depth (ft MD) on April 26, 2023. The well encountered 207 feet true vertical depth (ft TVD) of net gas pay with average porosity of 21 percent within the primary Cienage de Oro (CDO) sandstone reservoir.

The well has been cased and various zones will be production tested prior to tying the well into permanent production directly into the Jobo gas treatment facility located only fifty meters from the drilling platform. The success at Lulo has opened an area of deeper potential within the CDO in and around the main producing area that the Corporation intends to pursue aggressively. Upon completion of the well the Corporation plans to immediately drill the Lulo 2 well to appraise the extent of the discovery.

Saxofon 1 tests combined rate of 16 MMscfpd

The Corporation commenced the drilling of the Saxofon 1 exploration well on December 2, 2022 on its 100% operated VIM5 E&P contract located in the Lower Magdalena Basin. As previously reported, the well encountered gas within the Porquero and CDO sandstone reservoirs.

The CDO reservoir was perforated over a 22-foot Interval and flowed at an average rate of 6.1 MMscfpd over 12 hours. The peak rate was 8.4 MMscfpd at a choke of 32/128" and a THP of 2449 psig with no water production observed. The well is currently shut in undergoing the build up phase. The pressure transient data will be interpreted when the gauges are retrieved.

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The Porquero reservoir was perforated over a 57-foot Interval and flowed at an average rate of 5.9 MMscfpd over 15 hours. The peak flow rate was 7.2 MMscfpd at a choke of 35/128" and a THP of 1044 psig with 8 barrels of water during the test was produced. The salinity of the produced water indicates that it is completion fluid related to the drilling process. The well is currently shut in undergoing the build up phase. The pressure transient data will be interpreted when the gauges are retrieved.

The Corporation is currently in the process of tying the well into permanent production. A large 3D seismic program will be executed in late 2023 over this part of the VIM 5 block plan for the drilling multiple appraisal and development wells.

Dividivi 1 tests 5 MMscfpd

The Corporation commenced the drilling of the Dividivi 1 exploration well on December 20, 2022 on its 100% operated VIM33 E&P contract located in the Lower Magdalena Basin. As previously reported, the well encountered gas within the primary CDO sandstone and Cicuco limestone reservoirs.

The Cicuco reservoir was perforated over a 12-foot Interval and flowed at an average rate of 3.84 MMscfpd over 9 hours. The peak flow rate was 5 MMscfpd at a choke of 28/128 and a THP of 731 psig. No water production was observed.

The Corporation is currently preparing to execute a long-term flow test of the well in order to formulate a commercial development plan for the discovery. The discovery is located approximately 35 kilometers to the west of the TGI gas pipeline which currently has approximately 260 MMscfpd of spare transportation capacity into the interior of Colombia.

About Canacol

Canacol is a natural gas exploration and production company with operations focused in Colombia. The Corporations common stock trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the OTCQX in the United States of America, and the Colombia Stock Exchange under ticker symbol CNE, CNNEF, and CNEC, respectively.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as plan, expect, project, intend, believe, anticipate, estimate and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions may or will occur, including without limitation statements relating to estimated production rates from the Corporations properties and intended work programs and associated timelines. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Corporation cannot assure that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. They are made as of the date hereof and are subject to change and the Corporation assumes no obligation to revise or update them to reflect new circumstances, except as required by law. Prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. These factors include the inherent risks involved in the exploration for and development of crude oil and natural gas properties, the uncertainties involved in interpreting drilling results and other geological and geophysical data, fluctuating energy prices, the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated costs or delays and other uncertainties associated with the oil and gas industry. Other risk factors could include risks associated with negotiating with foreign governments as well as country risk associated with conducting international activities, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Corporation.

Realized contractual gas sales is defined as gas produced and sold plus gas revenues received from nominated take or pay contracts.

CONTACT: For more information please contact: Investor Relations South America: +571.621.1747 IR-SA@canacolenergy.com Global: +1.403.561.1648 IR-GLOBAL@canacolenergy.com




NEW REALITY





THE new reality of Kashmir is that it has been attracting record numbers of tourists -- foreign and domestic -- thanks to the sense of security now the region enjoys well over three years after the abrogation of Articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution. This is totally contrary to the doomsday predictions made by opponents of the idea, not just in India but also in the countrys neighbourhood. The entire region now has an atmosphere of peace and security and has started attracting great numbers of tourists. There may have been some difficulties still left in the handling of the post-Special-Status situation, but the overall picture is of assurance. People of Kashmir and elsewhere in India now feel that the region is an integral part of the country. This is the biggest gain from the changed circumstances.

Despite this, Pakistan has been shouting itself hoarse against the abrogation of Special Status, though it has nothing to do with the internal arrangement of any kind in India. Just a little time ago, Pakistans Foreign Minister Mr. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had made uncouth remarks about India and its leadership and Kashmir. Pakistan also tried to raise the Kashmir issue once again at the United Nations, though with no avail. It was because this stance of Islamabad that Pakistan was unwelcome at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in India. Yet, Pakistan has refused to learn its lessons. It still harbours a stupid hope that some day it would be able to annex Kashmir. Its leadership does not seem to realise that the day may not be too far when India is able to snatch back those parts of Kashmir occupied illegally by Pakistan. For, the people in PoK and other regions like Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan are very unhappy with Pakistan and are engaged in grim struggles for independence. They expect India to help them in that struggle.

One of the most critical motivations for all those people in Pakistan is the improved condition in Jammu and Kashmir -- indicated by resumption of tourism in a big way, resumption of social life in fullness, resumption industrial and educational activity in the region, and promise of resumption of full political activity at appropriate moment. The people in those disturbed parts under Pakistans illegal or immoral possession now look forward to having conditions of peace and harmony in their respective regions similar to those in Jammu and Kashmir.

This new and happy reality, obviously, hurts Pakistan no end. That is the reason it has stepped up its terror sponsorship across the border in India in the past some time. It also hoped to put obstacles in the G-20 meeting in Kashmir by trying to create an atmosphere of terror. None of those efforts seems to work for Pakistan as Kashmir continues to demonstrate how happy a place it has become in the new atmosphere of assurance and security.

One of the most important factors in the positive change of atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir is the massive dose of developmental projects worth thousands of crores of rupees. Those projects encompass a wide range of social arena and are aimed at benefitting common people in an unprecedented manner. This also is a reason why the Pakistanis are very disturbed by the developments in Jammu and Kashmir. Let alone all that, the progress Jammu and Kashmir is making in the past three years is phenomenal, to say the least, and is acting like a catalytic agent by attracting greater prosperity to the area, the increased numbers of tourists being only one pointer. There are several other aspects of the new scenario in Jammu and Kashmir that have made Pakistan a very unhappy neighbour.
NIA raids 14 locations in Bihar, Jkhand in Naxal conspiracy case





NEW DELHI,

IN A major crackdown on overground workers, supporters and associates of Naxals, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday conducted searches at 14 locations across Jharkhand and Bihar in a conspiracy to expand, revive and propagate the ideology of the banned terrorist organisation.

The searches at eight locations in Jharkhand covered the Ranchi office of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikash Andolan ( VVJVA) and the houses of the associates and supporters of Naxals in Bokaro, Dhanbad, Ramgarh and Giridih districts. In Bihar, the searches were conducted at six locations in Khagaria, Gaya and Aurangabad districts. All the suspects whose houses were searched have links with Politburo and Central Committee members of Naxals, said the agency.

Incriminating documents relating to the activities of the banned outfit, along with several mobile phones, DVD discs, documents related to Majdoor Sangathan Samiti ( MSS ) and VVJVA, as well as bank account details, were seized during the searches.

The NIA registered the case on April 25 last year under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and various sections of the Indian Penal Code against the Politburo and Central Committee members of Naxals, for hatching a conspiracy to spread the organisations ideology in these two States, as well as other Indian States, including Chhattisgarh.
Over 10,000 Govt doctors to go on indefinite strike from today





Staff Reporter

More than 10,000 doctors of Madhya Pradesh are going on an indefinite strike from Wednesday in support of their several demands. The nursing staff will also support them in the indefinite strike, in such a situation it is believed that the states health system may face difficulties in these circumstances.

On the other hand, on Tuesday, doctors in Government hospitals stopped their services from 11 am to 1 am (two hours) on the call of the doctors federation. Doctors in State-run hospitals including Hamidia and JP Hospital in the State capital. They came out of OPD at 11 am, due to this the patients had to suffer and they return home without getting treatment. The maximum effect of the two-hour strike by doctors of Government hospitals on Tuesday was seen in the hospitals attached to the medical colleges of Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Rewa.

Notably, doctors have been demanding for a long time to remove the anomalies of the department and implement DACP on the lines of the Centre. In such a situation, the agitation is going on for the implementation of DACP policy and interference of administrative officials. It is said that when no positive initiative was seen on the demands of the doctors, then the government/autonomous doctors federation announced a state-wide strike. Doctors working in government hospitals across the state, under the banner of Government/Autonomous Doctors Federation, protested by tying a black band on their arm on Monday.

Doctors also say that during the talks with the Government on March 31, consensus was reached on many issues. Consent was expressed on behalf of the Government, but the Government did not issue an order regarding this. About 15,000 doctors working in Government hospitals of the State protested against this by tying black bands. All primary health centres, community health centres, district hospitals, civil hospitals, medical college doctors, contractual doctors and bonded doctors participated in this state-wide protest. Government officials are being negligent in issuing orders for the report of the high-level committee constituted by the CM. For this reason, the federation has decided to agitate again. Demands of doctors
Patients at Govt hospitals suffer as doctors halt duties for 2 hrs





Staff Reporter

Patients who approached different Government hospitals for receiving treatment for their health issues, had to return empty handed on Tuesday. Thanks to the doctors who halted their duties for two-hours to put pressure on the State Government to fulfill their demands. Intensifying their protest for three-point demands, the doctors of all the Government hospitals halted all the healthcare and OPD services for two hours on Tuesday. It may be mentioned that Dynamic Assured Career Progression (DACP) is the top-most demand of doctors who also demanded to re-enforce old pension scheme and check interference of non-medical officers in administrative and medical-related activities. On Monday also, the doctors in Jabalpur district staged symbolic strike as a part of State-wide protest under the banner of Combined Doctors Association.

They attended their duties tying black bands. It was their first phase of protest to intimidate the higher authorities to fulfill their demands or be prepared to face the consequences. Doctors from all the government hospitals including Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical Hospital, Seth Govinddas District Hospital, Rani Durgavati Hospital, Civil Hospital Ranjhi and all health centres in rural areas actively participated in the strike on Tuesday by putting their works on halt for two hours.
Shift establishments from LIT campus within a month, State HTE tells RTMNU





By Vikas Vaidya

Maharashtras Higher and Technical Education (HTE) department has asked Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU) to shift all its establishments from the campus of Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT).

LIT, which is a conducted college of Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), recently got the status of Unitary Public University. With A+, the decks were cleared for the institute to become autonomous. As per rule, once the institute gets A+ grade from NAAC, it becomes eligible to get autonomy.

In a public speech, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had vowed to provide LIT the status of University, like the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP). LIT had sent a proposal to the State Government seeking Unitary Public University status, which would allow LIT to start courses of particular speciality. For this, LIT needs more space on its campus. At present, RTMNU has its examination section, Mandela Hostel, the building given to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University (on the right side at the entrance), the hall set up by RTMNU Employees Union (on left side at the entrance), Post Graduate Department of Microbiology, Post Graduate Department of Biochemistry and Rajiv Gandhi Biotechnology. The Higher and Technical Education department in its letter sent to Registrar of RTMNU has given reference of the letter by Director of LIT and the report submitted by Dr G D Yadava. The letter has clearly instructed RTMNU to vacate the LIT campus. It has also asked university to transfer all the teaching posts to LIT and get option from non-teaching staff whether they want to stay with RTMNU or go with LIT.

In a special instruction the department told RTMNU to handover the building where the work of examination and result is going on to LIT. It has directed RTMNU to submit the proposal for new building where it can continue its examination-related work. University is expected to transfer the corpus fund to LIT, the letter made it clear.

Meanwhile, Dr Raju Mankar, Director of LIT had already sent the proposals to state Government which says, The institute is planning to start 14 new courses. The courses are not necessarily of chemical engineering. They are mostly of emerging trends like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Sciences etc. It has also proposed to start Centre of Excellence and introduce changes suggested in National Education Policy (NEP). It will also start running Incubation Centre.

Ajay Deshpande, the past President of LIT Alumni Association welcomed the development and attributed its credit to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who pursued the matter. Deshpande pointed out that it was Fadnavis who brought Indian Institute of Management at Nagpur, and other national level institutes to Nagpur. Now with LIT getting status of Unitary Public University is a big thing for Nagpurians. We hope that from this academic year LIT will function as Unitary Public University. It is been a long pending and much-needed move to make a prestigious institute, an independent university. We have many such plans adding specialsations. Our strong well placed alumni network will be our USP for placements, expressed Madhav Labhe, Chairman of LITAA.
Sudanese fleeing fighting flood already overwhelmed port city, Egypt border





CAIRO,

SUDANESE fleeing the fighting between rival generals in their capital flooded an already overwhelmed city on the Red Sea and Sudans northern borders with Egypt, as explosions and gunfire echoed on Tuesday in Khartoum.

Many exhausted Sudanese and foreigners arrived in Port Sudan, the countrys main seaport, joining thousands who have waited for days to be evacuated out of the chaos-stricken nation. Others have been driven in packed buses and trucks, seeking shelter in Egypt, Sudans northern neighbour. Much of the capital has become empty, said Abdalla al-Fatih, a Khartoum resident, all residents of our street fled the war. The fighting, now in its third week, has turned Khartoum and its neighbouring city of Omdurman into a battlefield. Fierce clashes taking place inside residential neighbourhoods that have become ghost areas, residents say. The conflict, which capped months of worsening tensions, pits the military, led by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, against a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Al-Fatihs family managed to get out of Khartoum over the weekend after they spent the past two weeks trapped in their home in Khartoums neighbourhood of Kafouri, a major flashpoint since the fighting broke out on April 15.

They arrived in Port Sudan late on Monday, after an exhausting 20-hour trip, he said. There, they found thousands, including many women and children, camping outside the port area. Many had been there for more than a week, with no food and other services, he said.

Port Sudan has become a hub for foreign Governments to evacuate their citizens air and sea. At the congested crossing points with Egypt, thousands of families have waited for days inside buses or sought temporary shelter in the border city of Wadi Halfa to finalise their paperwork to be allowed into Egypt. Yusuf Abdel-Rahman is a Sudanese university student who crossed into Egypt along his family, through the Ashkit crossing point late on Monday. They spent their night at a community hostel in Egypts southern city of Aswan, and plan to board a train to Cairo later Tuesday, he said. Abdel-Rahmans family went first to the Arqin crossing point over the weekend. It was overcrowded and they couldnt reach the Customs area. They then decided to move to the Ashkit crossing.
Vision Jabalpur members open Sukanya Samruddhi Yojana bank accounts of 251 girls





Staff Reporter

Noble gesture of members of Vision Jabalpur ensured future security of 251 daughters of labourers on the occasion of May Day. Members of Vision Ordnance handed over bank pass books of Pradhan Mantri Sukanya Samruddhi Yojana to beneficiary girls in a graceful programme organised at DB Club, GCF Estate.

Chief guest on the occasion was MLA, Cantt, Ashok Rohani while Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation, Chairman, Vinod Gontia, former Member of Parliament, Jaishree Banerjee and Vision Jabalpur, President, Rajendra Singh were special guests. Speaking on the occasion, MLA Ashok Rohani applauded the unique initiative of members of Vision Jabalpur for opening Sukanya Samruddhi Yojana accounts of girls belong to poor families to materialise the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. MLA Rohani further said that the initiative of Vision Jabalpur will accord the girls to the main stream of development by providing them education and their marriage. It may be noted that members of Vision Jabalpur who were retired from Ordnance Factories have contributed their pension amount for opening Sukanya Samruddhi bank accounts of girls.

On the occasion, Dr T K Saikia, Kanhaiyya Raikwar, Himanshu Shrivastava and others honoured to members of Vision Jabalpur for their valuable contribution for providing a bright future to girls of poor families. Vision Jabalpurs Takchandra Adhikari, Roop Kumar, R S Thakur, S K Yadav, Kaitan Fernandes and others expressed their gratitude towards members and guests for making the programme a grand success.
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Connecticut's standing in the nation's advanced manufacturing sector has reached a level where companies from outside the state are starting to find it attractive to move here.

Twice in the past five weeks, out-of-state manufacturers in the housing sector have announced plans to come to Connecticut. Manufacturing experts and state officials say the decisions announced by Baltimore-based Blueprint Robotics and Fullstack Modular, which is moving to Hamden from Brooklyn, N.Y., show that Connecticut's advanced manufacturing sector is a force to be reckoned with.

Blueprint Robotics, which uses high-tech equipment to make wood frame components that are used in the construction of multifamily housing, announced in late March that it plans to build a 450,000-square-foot factory off Day Hill Road in Windsor. And last week, Fullstack Modular announced the company was moving out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard into a 123,000-square-foot building off State Street in southern Hamden, where the company's headquarters and new manufacturing facility will be located.

Patrick McMahon, Windsor's economic development director, said Blueprint Robotics executives told him that one factor that swayed them to locate their factory in Connecticut was the depth and breadth of Connecticut's advanced manufacturing workforce. Blueprint Robotics is looking to hire as many as 120 people in Connecticut when its new factory opens in mid-2024.

Roger Krulak, the founder and chief executive officer of Fullstack Modular, said he is impressed by the talent pool in Connecticut.

"The amount of outreach I've received from the technical schools and colleges has been nonstop," Krulak said.

John Boyd, whose Florida-based company evaluates locations for corporations, said modular manufacturing of multi-housing components "is a growth industry, and Connecticut will now be a center of excellence."

Boyd said advanced manufacturing "is a real strong suit for Connecticut and has been for a long time," before the term advanced manufacturing became a business buzzword.

"The state has a long history in the aerospace and defense sectors," he said. "The companies in these sectors make rigorous demands in terms of the level of precision from companies that make parts for them. That requires a critical mass of vocational schools and manufacturing programs at the college and university level."

The focus on advanced manufacturing starts at the highest levels of state government, according to Paul Lavoie, Connecticut's chief manufacturing officer.

"Our strategic advantage is we're the only state that has a chief manufacturing officer that works for the governor," Lavoie said. "We're the only state that gives these companies a seat at the table."

There are 4,400 advanced manufacturing companies in Connecticut that employ 162,800 workers, according to data compiled by the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

"One of Connecticut's strengths as it relates to manufacturing is that our workers score very high in terms of a high level of productivity," Lavoie said. "We're number four in that metric. And we're number three in terms of the most educated workforce."

He said in terms of types of manufacturing, Connecticut "is not a good match for companies that are looking for low-cost labor"

Lavoie describes advanced manufacturing as "the creation of sophisticated parts using advanced technologies."

"Connecticut is a high-value, low-volume manufacturing state," he said. "Shops tend to be smaller in size as well.

"But we're starting to see other geographical regions reach out to us because they can't find the type of workforce they need where they are currently located," Lavoie said.

The first evidence of that trend, he said, came in 2013 when the Swedish company Assa Abloy, the world's largest lock maker, moved Yale Locks & Hardware back to Connecticut from Tennessee after an absence of more than 50 years. Assa Abloy has a facility on Sargent Drive in New Haven.

Ron Angelo, president and chief executive officer of the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology in East Hartford, described advanced manufacturing in the state as "evolutionary forces at work" in the sector.

"You'd be pretty amazed at how things are made, " Angelo said. "Whether what is being made is very complicated or something very simple, it's probably being made using advanced manufacturing processes. When you look at Connecticut, we're in a very enviable position" when it comes to advanced manufacturing.
SIMSBURY  Dozens of residents turned out at a continued Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing to once again express their feelings about a planned affordable housing complex.

Glastonbury-based attorney Peter Alter spoke first, telling the commission that the scope of the project at 446 Hopmeadow St. had been reduced from 80 units to 64, including 61 one-bedroom and three two-bedroom apartments, and that the number of parking spaces had been increased from 94 to 102. Alter said that 20 units would be dedicated as affordable for 40 years and reminded the commission that traffic and safety concerns had been addressed by town officials and staff and that the proposal was consistent with the town's conservation plan.

Alter also noted that the town, with 5.9 percent of affordable housing, was well below the state-mandated 10 percent threshold.

"There is no question that the town of Simsbury is lacking in affordable housing," Alter said.

Following Alter's remarks, commission Chairman David Rogers Ryan suggested closing the hearing because it was only extended to receive the Inland and Wetlands Commission's report. The commission voted 5 to 1 with one abstention last week to approve the plan.

"We've had three and a half hours of public discussion," Rogers Ryan said to catcalls from the audience before agreeing to extend public comment further.

What followed was 90 minutes more of comments, mostly reiterating previously expressed concerns over wetlands encroachment, public safety, traffic issues and the four-story building's design.

Some have said the building looks like a prison, a '70s college dorm or basic training barracks.

Longtime resident Ann McDonald, who lives adjacent to the proposed development, told the commission that she was not opposed to affordable housing but was concerned about the size and the likely damage it would cause to trees on her property.

"There goes our property value," said McDonald, who suggested reducing the scope of the project to 30 apartments and 40 parking spaces. "No one is going to buy that land and look at that complex."

Proponents of the planned development say that it offers a means for young and old Simsbury residents to continue living in town when housing prices are soaring and continuing to make a living in town is increasingly difficult.

Pete Harrison was among the minority of those in favor of the project. Harrison, director of DesegregateCT, a coalition of nonprofits and residents advocating for better local and state land use policies, said he lives in affordable housing about a mile from the proposed development.

"There are not a lot of affordable homes in Simsbury. I know that personally and professionally," Harrison said. "You are trying to get this right, and I think you have gotten it right."

The project would be built by New York City-based Vessel Technologies, which specializes in building affordable housing through efficient construction methods using standardized designs and modular building techniques to streamline the construction process.

Josh Levy, Vessel's executive vice president, was also among the nearly two dozen people to speak. Levy noted that projects like this one always go through changes to make them better before they are approved and that was the goal here, but he also questioned some residents' intentions.

"People keep saying how much they want affordable housing, but they don't share any ideas about how to create it," he said to more catcalls.

The zoning commission closed the public hearing and did not take a vote on the project Monday. It may but is not required to vote at its next meeting May 15.
New initiative from Destination Canada looks to amplify local conference ambassador programs, highlighting the academics and industry leaders who are attracting key business events.

VANCOUVER, BC, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Destination Canada is proud to announce the launch of the Canadian Visionaries Network ("CVN"). A national platform, the CVN is composed of Canada's network of academic, industry, and association leaders, whose knowledge capital and industry excellence has helped to secure high-profile conference wins aligned with Canada's six priority economic sectors. The CVN currently consists of 28 founding members across these key sectors including: life sciences, agribusiness, advanced manufacturing, finance and insurance, technology, and natural resources.

Destination Canada Logo (CNW Group/Destination Canada)

The CVN was designed to support the growth and reach of local conference ambassador programs from coast-to-coast-to-coast  whose priority will continue to focus on the bidding opportunities that bring international events to Canada  and raise awareness of the country's immense intellectual capital offerings, promoting Canada on the international stage.

"Canada is home to visionary minds pushing the boundaries of global innovation," says Virginie De Visscher, Senior Director, Business Events, Destination Canada. "This expertise is especially important for attracting international conferences to the country's diverse destinations, as it gives organizations the chance to supercharge their event agendas with acclaimed keynote speakers, captivating state-of-the-art site tours, unparalleled networking opportunities and more."

The CVN operates on the understanding that Canada's thought leaders are invaluable not only for accelerating Canada's global reputation as a best-in-class innovation ecosystem and leading host of business events but strengthening local conference ambassador programs and bid activity.

Adds De Visscher, "Among Canada's many strengths as a host for international business events, it's the thought leaders and an openness to collaborating, sharing ideas and innovation, that truly puts Canada in a league of its own. The Canadian Visionaries Network exemplifies this as well as the integral role these talented and inspiring individuals have to play in our industry's resilience. The CVN also includes several TED speakers from TED@Destination Canada , a first-of-its kind event and partnership with TED that was held in New York this past February."

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In 2022, Canada hosted nearly 430 international business events and welcomed approximately 271,000 international business event delegates (visitors) (Source: Destination Canada Research).

More information on participating CVN members can be found here .

About Destination Canada

At Destination Canada, we believe that tourism enhances the quality of life of Canadians and enriches the lives of visitors. We believe that Canada's diversity, its greatest asset, is also what touches travelers' hearts most deeply.

Our mission is to influence supply, and build demand for the benefit of locals, communities and visitors through leading research, alignment with public and private sectors, and marketing Canada nationally and abroad. In addition, our Business Events team leverages in-depth global market analysis to target international clusters aligned with Canada's priority economic sectors.

Our work in destination development ensures that we are able to sustain a premier four-season tourism economy that is regenerative in nature  supporting our economy and the environment.

Destination Canada's Business Events team is charged with growing Canada's share of international business events by promoting the country's unique meeting, convention, and incentive event possibilities. By driving awareness of Canada's leading economic strengths and how local knowledge capital can elevate business events, Destination Canada's Business Events team helps international organizations meet with purpose in Canada.

Destination Canada is a Crown corporation wholly owned by the Government of Canada.

For further information, visit http://www.destinationcanada.com .

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SOURCE Destination Canada
NORWALK  Local legislators have shelved their proposal to dissolve the Norwalk Transit District after officials at the bus service committed to evaluating routes and improving service.

Their proposed bill, which called for CTTransit to take over most of the district's work after this year, will not move forward this legislative session.

After numerous conversations with representatives of the Norwalk Transit District, we will be putting a hold on our proposed legislation to dissolve the Norwalk Transit District and merge the services into the operations of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, state Sen. Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, announced in a joint statement with other Norwalk legislators. These discussions have resulted in a number of promised changes which we believe, if implemented, will result in better services for the residents who rely on our local public transportation. We will be watching the actions of the Norwalk Transit District and listening to riders over the next year to determine the progress of the district.

Norwalk Transit District Director Matt Pentz said he is happy to have the opportunity to address the communitys concerns.

The main concern regarded the number of routes and the overall accessibility of the Norwalk bus system. Since the bill was proposed, Pentz has met with Duff, other legislators as well as city officials to come up with a plan about how to address the issue.

The initial concerns had to do with the level of service the residents of Norwalk were receiving, Duff said We felt that it wasnt adequate.

Norwalk Transit District offers a variety of services, including the WHEELS bus, with 10 fixed bus routes within Norwalk and a regional route from Norwalk to Bridgeport to Milford, according to its website. The district also offers evening and weekend shuttles, as well as commuter shuttles that meet Metro-North trains at stations in Greenwich, Norwalk, Westport and Wilton to get riders to workplaces.

A WHEELS 2U ride-sharing service is available in Norwalk and Westport. Services for riders with disabilities are offered in Norwalk, Stamford, Westport and Wilton, while there are services for riders over the age of 65 in Westport.

The routes were not kept up with the growth of the city, said Jim Travers, Norwalks director of Transportation, Mobility and Parking.

To remedy the concerns, Norwalk Transit District is launching a comprehensive operational analysis study to better understand the demands of Norwalk residents.

I think this is going to help a lot because I think one of their concerns was that we havent done any route changes in a while, Pentz said. They have pointed to some routes that were cut, so this operation analysis is going to give us an opportunity to look at our current routes and look at how the city is changing to modernize the routes and just kind of evolve our transportation network.

Pentz said this analysis will last about 12 to 14 months and requires community engagement. Passionate about local governance, Pentz said he is glad the Norwalk Transit District has the opportunity to listen and adapted for the community.

We are just glad to have had the dialogue with everybody; Senator Duff and the Norwalk delegations, they came in one day, so we really had a good conversation, Pentz said. I thought it was productive. We are here to work with them.

Travers said he is also looking forward to partnering with the Norwalk Transit District "to ensure that the routes respond to the current needs of the transit riders as well as the future demands that we foresee in a growing city."

Duff said the bill worked in the sense that it led to "new relationships" and "cooperation." He and Travers said they want to see a five to 10 year strategic plan for the Norwalk Transit District to ensure communitys needs continue to be met.

We need to make sure the residents of Norwalk have confidence in the transit district and that their needs are being met. Duff said. Thats most important.
EDWARDSVILLE  A sometimes heated meeting of the Madison County Boards Government Relations Committee resulted in the denial of another request by Chairman Kurt Prenzler to place former state Rep. Dwight Kay on the Madison County Transit (MCT) District Board.

The session ended in a three-way shouting match Tuesday between county board members who were not members of the committee.

The board voted 4-2 against the appointment of Kay. Voting no were Chair Stacy Pace, Denise Wiehardt, Alison Lamothe and Mike Babcock. Voting yes were Jason Palmero and Dalton Gray. Shawndell Williams was absent.

A final decision will be made by the full Madison County Board.

Kay had been recommended for appointment to the MCT board to replace Kelly Schmidt who resigned Feb. 28.

Prenzler has tried several times to place Kay on the MCT board. Kay had initially been recommended for the post in April, but Prenzler pulled his name from consideration before the committee meeting at that time.

In January, Prenzler had asked that Kay replace sitting MCT Board Chairman Ron Jedda, whom Prenzler had tried several times to replace.

Kay spoke at Tuesdays meeting, leading to a wide-spread discussion, much of it from Babcock and Lamothe, both critical of comments Kay had made on the Madison County Conservative Caucus Facebook page.

A Jan. 9 post compared the committee to the war movie The Hurt Locker.

In his reply, Babcock noted they were looking for constructive, not destructive people.

Lamothe said the committee is not a rubber stamp and must ask difficult questions.

We should not be denigrated publicly on social media when we do our jobs, she said.

Babcock said that, because of those issues, he would not be voting for Kay, who then criticized Babcock for not considering his qualifications.

Kays Facebook comments specifically dealt with the committees treatment of Randy Presswood, who was nominated earlier this year for a seat on the Metro East Sanitary Districts Board. The motion to appoint Presswood died for a lack of a second.

Earlier in Tuesday's meeting, the board heard from Presswood during public comments. He said he was attacked and bullied by the committee, and that they tried to insinuate I did something wrong at my place of employment, which was not factual.

He also said MESD board members show up for a half hour per month and vote to pay the bills. He noted that in addition to their approximate $15,000 annual salary, they receive paid insurance.

After Presswoods comment, Babcock said Prenzler had control of the MESD board for years, and did nothing.

Prenzler responded that at the time he made several appointments to the MESD board in 2017, the insurance was part of the union contract. By the time it had expired, the Illinois General Assembly had taken away one of Prenzlers appointments and given it to Granite City in what was considered a political move against the increasingly Republican Madison County Board.

After that, MESD reapproved the insurance, Prenzler said.

It is wrong, he said. I agree  this has to stop.

Prenzler said what happened to Presswood was a bushwhacking, while Babcock said part of his opposition to Kay was about attitude.

Board member Mick Madison, who is not a member of the committee, noted that qualifications were not the main issue.

Chairman Prenzler has an aptitude for trying to cause drama at the county board, Madison said. He tries to put the same person up for spots on boards and commissions that have already been turned down. He does it over and over; he likes to play games with the board.

Presswoods name came up several times later during the more widespread discussion about Kays appointment.

While Gray said he would support Kay, both Babcock and Lamothe said they would be voting against his appointment.

Several times, Kay's ability to work with others and whether or not he would be supportive of MCT operations were brought up.

Gray, the only committee member to defend Kay, said there might be some personal issues but Kay has the qualifications and it would be a loss if he was not able to serve on the MCT board.

In addition to committee members, board members Madison and Paul Nicolussi were frequent contributors to the debate.

Prenzler then said Kay was highly qualified to serve on the board, while Lamothe noted that Kays transportation experience was in commercial transportation, not public transportation or dealing with MCTs extensive bike trail system.

She also asked whether he had MCTs best interest of the organization at heart.

Nicolussi said if there was drama, Prenzler cannot be blamed for it.

Pace then spoke, saying, Qualifications are important, but you have to be able to work with other people, and adding the Facebook posting was alarming and raised questions.

Prenzler then reasserted his claim that the committee, specifically Babcock, bushwhacked Presswood.

Pace then shut down discussion and adjourned the meeting, but board member John Janek commented before adjournment that there appeared to be a great deal of animosity among several board members and Prenzler.

Madison continued to assert that Prenzler was bringing drama to the appointments, while Janek accused him of lying.

The committee also acted on a number of other appointments, which will be ratified by the full board at its next meeting.
EDWARDSVILLE  The Madison County Historical Society (MCHS) will offer two new exhibits and a companion program beginning May 7 and May 10.

Migration and Health in National and Global History will be presented at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 7, at the Main Street Community Center at 1003 N. Main Street in Edwardsville. The speaker, Kathleen Vongsathorn, is an associate professor of history at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where she teaches the history of health, disease and science.

The program was created to showcase the two exhibits to follow on May 10.

Madison County has a long history of immigrants and migration. The exhibits and presentation look at some of the difficulties experienced by new arrivals.

Unfortunately, in matters of health, misconceptions can create racial schisms that are often undeserved. Immigration has affected Americans since its earliest times when Europeans brought disease with devastating results for the Native American population.

Vongsathon will describe other times when migration and health made a difference.

Outside/Inside: Immigration, Migration, and Health Care in the United States, an exhibition from the National Institute of Health, uses a combination of documents and images to explore the history of immigrant health and the experiences of many immigrants and migrants with the US healthcare system since the late 1800s.

Health care played a role in inclusion and exclusion, in assimilation and discrimination, in dividing communities and in strengthening them.

MCHS was one of 19 universities and public libraries approved as a recipient of this National Institute of Health/National Library of Medicine traveling exhibition.

Historian and Northern Illinois University educator, Beatrix Hoffman, PhD, guest curated the traveling exhibit. The exhibition and a companion website were produced by the National Library of Medicine.

Closer look

The second exhibit, created by MCHS museum curator Jenn Vanbibber, is a companion piece titled Roadways and Roadblocks, telling the story of immigrants searching for a route toward naturalization, the process by which foreign-born residents can become U. S. citizens.

The exhibit will include some of the materials collected recently during History Harvest events held to collect information for a coming permanent exhibit on immigration to Madison County. The information in Roadways and Roadblocks will be more closely related to Madison County rather than the national perspective presented by the NIH/NLM materials.

For the first time in seven years, the exhibits will be in the Societys Weir House museum building at 715 N. Main St. in Edwardsville. Although renovations are not yet complete for the entire building, exhibit spaces on the first floor will be ready.

The exhibits will be here May 10- June 17.

Both of the exhibits and the presentation will be free and open to the public. The Madison County Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that owns and operates the Madison County History Museum and Archival Library at 715-801 N. Main St. in Edwardsville.

The library has regular hours Wednesday-Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sunday 1-4 p.m. For additional information call either the library at 618-656-7569 or the society at 618-656-1294. The societys website can be found at https://madcohistory.org/.
Editors Note: In recognition of National Historic Preservation Month, local historian Cindy Reinhardt tells the stories behind some of Edwardsvilles historic buildings in a series of eight articles in the month of May. The articles will be published each Tuesday and Thursday this month.

402 E. Vandalia St.

The Kendall House

Alton Telegraph, June 8, 1893

O. T. Kendall will build a nice residence on Vandalia Street, nearly opposite the one now being erected by C. H. Burton, the lawyer. Mr. Kendall paid $1,000 for a lot fronting 100 feet on Vandalia Street.

Otis T. Kendall and his wife, Jessie (Hughes) Kendall, had the charming Victorian cottage at 402 E. Vandalia St. built for their family, but didnt live there for long. Otis was a partner in Kendall and Delicate, a grocery store on St. Louis Street that opened in December 1892. In the summer of 1896, the partnership was dissolved, and Otis obtained a position as a motorman with the Alton Street Car Company.

Within a few months, the Kendalls sold the house to Charles Sheppard and his wife, Olive (Morgan) Sheppard, who moved in with their 1-year-old son Charles Howard, whom they called Howard.

Charles was born in England in 1866, and immigrated to America with his parents and five siblings when he was 4 years old. The family settled in Nebraska, where he spent his youth. Olive was born in Iowa and her family moved to the same area of Nebraska where they met.

In the early 1890s, Charles and Olive moved to Madison County where he started an engineering firm offering surveying as well as civil engineering services to his clients. In 1894, the Sheppards moved to Edwardsville and, in 1900, he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, William Howard Morgan. Their engineering firm was responsible for a great deal of work done on the levee systems in Madison County more than a century ago.



Charles was also a long-time engineer for the City of Edwardsville. Its interesting to note that in 1904 he ran for the position of County Surveyor on the Democratic ticket. His business partner, who was also his brother-in-law, ran for the same position on the Republican ticket. When reporters asked Mrs. Sheppard whom she was supporting, her husband or her brother, she declined comment. Her brother won the position. The two men were not known to have an adversarial relationship, so it may have been a way to guarantee that the countys surveyor position would be in their firm.

The engineering firm founded by Charles Sheppard is still in existence today. Charles oldest son, Howard, followed in his fathers footsteps. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in engineering in 1917. After service in World War I, he returned to Madison County where he and John Schwaab established an engineering firm in Alton.

The two firms often collaborated, and when Charles Sheppard was killed in an automobile accident in 1928, the firms merged. The new company became Sheppard, Morgan and Schwaab Engineers with offices in Alton and Edwardsville. Morgan and Schwaab died in the 1940s with no heirs to follow in the business. Today the firm is led by Charles A. Cas Sheppard, the great grandson of Charles and Olive. Offices are in Alton.

Returning to their personal story, the Sheppards had a second child, Leila, in 1898 and a third, Robert, in 1906. In addition, Charles widowed mother also lived with them from time to time. It is no surprise that they looked to a larger house. In 1908, they purchased the house at 805 St. Louis St. and sold their Vandalia Street house to attorney Edward Hill and his wife, Naomi, for $4,500.



The Hills were newlyweds when they purchased the house. He was an established attorney who practiced law in Madison County for 50 years. Both were natives of Madison County. They had two daughters, but neither stayed in the area.

While the Hills were living in the house, the highway designation on Vandalia changed, giving them a front row seat on Route 66, Americas Mother Road. Edward died in January 1947, and Naomi died just 37 days later.

There have only been two owners of the house since then, and the most recent owners have been especially good caretakers for this lovely historic home. Except for the windows, the Victorian details have been well-preserved, retaining the charm of another time.

Sources for this article include materials from the Madison County Archival Library, articles from past issues of the Edwardsville Intelligencer, the Office of the Recorder of Deeds, and a conversation with a Sheppard family descendant.

If you have questions about this article, please contact Cindy Reinhardt at cindy.reinhardt@madcohistory.org or 618-656-1294.
Submitted

SPRINGFIELD  Land of Lincoln Honor Flight (LLHF) Mission No. 66 is scheduled for Tuesday, May 16, from Springfield Abraham Lincoln Capitol Airport to Washington, D.C. and back the same day.

The flight includes four Korean-era veterans and 87 Vietnam era veterans. Area communities represented will include Alton, Bunker Hill, Dorsey Edwardsville, Godfrey, Grafton, Granite City, Mt. Olive, White Hall and Wood River as well as Florissant, Missouri and Noblesville, Indiana.



The 91 veterans and their 85 guardians will arrive at the airport at 4 a.m. to travel to Washington D.C. on a chartered Sun Country 737 aircraft to visit the World War II, Korean and Vietnam War memorials, as well as Arlington National Cemetery Tomb of the Unknowns, the Lincoln Memorial, the National Air & Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, and the U.S. Air Force Memorial.
DIVERNON  The death toll from a massive crash Monday on Interstate 55 has risen to seven.

Illinois State Police said it was believed there were six fatalities, but determined Tuesday that remains thought to be one person were actually two.

Thirty-seven people were injured in a series of crashes in north- and south-bound lanes of I-55 between Farmersville and Divernon. About 70 vehicles were involved and injuries ranged from minor to critical, according to state police.

The crashes have been attributed to low visibility resulting from a dust storm. The same section of the interstate was closed Tuesday afternoon because of high winds and low visibility.

Coroners from Macoupin, Montgomery and Sangamon counties are assisting in identification of victims. As of Tuesday, one name had been released: that of Shirley Harper, 88, of Franklin, Wisconsin. Official have identified the hometowns of three others  two from Champaign and one from Florissant, Missouri.

The crash required a significant mobilization of emergency crews. According to state police, law enforcement officers responded from Divernon Police, Hillsboro Police, Litchfield Police and the Macoupin County and Montgomery County sheriff's departments. Firefighters were called from Carlinville, Chatham, Divernon, Farmersville, Girard, Pawnee, Rochester, Shell Creek, Springfield and Virden.

Emergency medical services were provided by five helicopters from Air Evac and Arch, America Ambulance Service, Bunker Hill Ambulance Service, Carlinville Ambulance, Chatham Ambulance, Echo 6 Ambulance, Gillespie/Benld Ambulance, Hillsboro Ambulance, Litchfield Ambulance Service, Medic First Ambulance, Morrisonville Ambulance Service, Nokomis Ambulance, Pawnee Ambulance, Prairieland Ambulance Service, Raymond Ambulance Service, Stoughton Ambulance and Virden Ambulance Service.

Illinois Secretary of State Police, Illinois Department of Transportation, Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Illinois Emergency Management Agency also provided on-scene personnel, police said.
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Linkedin Deni Ghifari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, May 3, 2023

Foreign tourists visiting Indonesia in the first quarter of 2023 surged by more than 500 percent year-on-year (yoy), Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data show, marking a huge improvement after the easing of pandemic restrictions.

BPS head Margo Yuwono said on Tuesday 2.24 million foreign tourists visited in the first quarter, which was already 41.08 percent of the total foreign tourist visits in 2022.

However, he noted the figure was still a long way from reaching pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, there were approximately 3.75 million foreign tourists within the first quarter.

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Cannabix Technologies Inc.

Cannabix has developed a contactless alcohol breathalyzer for employers and vehicles

Cannabix Technologies Inc.

Cannabix Contactless Alcohol Breathalyzer (Wall and Vehicle Versions)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cannabix Technologies Inc. (CSE: BLO) (OTC PINK: BLOZF) (the Company or Cannabix) developer of breath testing devices for law enforcement and the workplace reports that it has filed an International Patent Application (PCT) titled, Contact-Free Breath Analysis Device and Method (PCT/CA2023/050409). This PCT application was the next step in converting the Companys provisional patent filed in 2022 related to contactless breath sampling technology. This PCT covers new innovations and intellectual property related the development to the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) without the use of mouthpiece or straws.

Development and Certification Plan for Contactless Alcohol Breathalyzer (CAB)

The Company has developed its CAB technology for workplaces (a wall-mounted version, see Figure 1) and an in-cabin vehicle version (Figure 2). Cannabix commenced pilot testing of its workplace CAB with Montana based Friedel, LLC (Friedel Clinic) in March 2023 and the device is preforming well with over 300 breath samples taken thus far. Due to the encouraging usage results and unique market position of the CAB device, Cannabix has begun efforts to build a commercial workplace CAB unit for certification. The CAB device joins the Companys portfolio of marijuana breath testing technologies under development.

The Company has received strong interest from the U.S. and Australia for development and commercialization of a CAB wall mounted workplace unit targeted for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Alcohol is still the number one threat to workplace safety in the U.S., however more workers are testing positive for marijuana than ever before (1). An increasing number of employers are taking proactive measures to safeguard their workers and their operations by implementing alcohol testing procedures. Workplace testing instances typically include random testing, reasonable cause testing, pre-employment testing, pre-promotion testing, post-incident testing, and return-to-work testing. The wall mounted CAB would be targeted for all of the above testing instances, and would be especially effective with pre-access alcohol testing before and during work hours. Furthermore, the device could be used in bars, restaurants and hotels and a whole host of other targeted locations and organizations. Video of CAB can be seen at https://cannabixtechnologies.com/technology/contactless-alcohol-breathalyzer/

Story continues

Cannabix Contactless Alcohol Breathalyzer (Wall and Vehicle Versions)





The Company has commenced discussions with electronics certification companies in Canada and Germany to develop a certification plan and prepare for standards testing (for alcohol devices). The Company is also rapidly developing plans for this product for the United States and Canadian markets.

CAB Features

Company engineers have been developing a robust feature set for the CAB that includes contactless and direct breath testing, photo identity confirmation, time and attendance features. A live data management portal for managers seeking real-time Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) results via the text and email has been developed. This data management system uses best in class Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its cloud-based infrastructure and security.

CAB Calibration, Sensor Array and AI

Cannabix engineers have developed a pre-calibrated modular cartridge that will allow organizations to quickly and easily maintain their CAB devices. Furthermore, it will allow for distributors of the CAB an efficient way to support devices in the field. The wall mounted CAB would act as a primary touch point for employees on a routine basis to submit breath samples as they enter their place of work. Breath and other information captured with the device will provide a rich set of data to employers for occupational health, safety, personal and human resource purposes. Cannabix engineers are also working on ways to boost value by incorporating multiple sensory cartridges as well as new AI algorithms to provide meaningful data to both users and administrators, including adding sensors for 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Rav Mlait, CEO of Cannabix stated, We are very excited to move forward with certification efforts for the Contactless Alcohol Breathalyzer. We have moved our device development to a common technology platform with similar chipsets, hardware components and software for both marijuana and alcohol screening devices. This includes our handheld Breath Collection Unit (BCU) for THC, THC Breath Analyzer (THCBA) and Contactless Alcohol Breathalyzer (CAB). This strategy will allow us to better scale and streamline our development. Furthermore, our use of AI algorithms across this platform is quickly broadening our capabilities.

Vehicle Alcohol Breath Screening

The Company initially developed its CAB technology in response to interest in new vehicle alcohol detection technologies. Recently on April 20, 2023 Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) highlighted a new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that shows strong public support for equipping all new cars with impaired driving prevention technology, as mandated in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (2). In November 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives, passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) which called for new cars to come equipped with technology that will detect alcohol in breath. The legislation directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to set new safety standards within three years for impaired driving safety equipment on all new vehicles (3) (4).

The Vehicle CAB technology developed by Cannabix allows for a driver to direct a breath sample towards a small orifice integrated into a device behind the steering wheel for in-cabin vehicle use  in a completely contactless manner. The CAB is fundamentally different than existing alcohol breathalyzers and interlock systems that require users to use a mouthpiece or straw and directly blow into a handheld device that is connected to the vehicle usually with a cable. The Cannabix CAB could be integrated into various locations in the vehicle cabin. The CAB provides a warning, pass or fail result along with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) level on the screen for the driver to see. This kind of technology holds potential to be integrated with interlock systems and be used in various settings including automotive, heavy-duty equipment, heavy transport vehicles, watercraft and motorbikes. The Company is actively seeking a partner to advance this technology.

Readers are advised that, although the Company has achieved proof of concept prototype for the CAB, the testing method and device is still in the preapproval stage and accordingly the Company is not currently making any express or implied claims that the technology will proceed to commercial use.

(1) https://ohsonline.com/Articles/2022/10/01/Alcohol-Is-Still.aspx?Page=1 (2) https://madd.org/press-release/new-jama/ (3) https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/alcohol-detection-systems-could-prevent-more-than-a-fourth-of-u-s-road-fatalities (4) https://www.madd.org/press-release/auto-technology-that-stops-drunk-driving-now-required-by-law

About Cannabix Technologies Inc.



Cannabix Technologies Inc. is a developer of marijuana breathalyzer technologies for law enforcement and the workplace. Cannabix is working to develop drug-screening devices that will detect THC - the psychoactive component of marijuana that causes impairment using breath samples. Breath testing for THC would allow employers and law enforcement to identify recent marijuana use that better aligns with impairment. Cannabix devices are in the advanced prototype and pre-clinical testing stage.

We seek Safe Harbor.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Rav Mlait

CEO

Cannabix Technologies Inc.

For further information, contact the Company at info@cannabixtechnologies.com

The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information can include without limitation statements based on current expectations involving a number of risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company, such as final development of a commercial or prototype product(s), successful trial or pilot of company technologies, no assurance that commercial sales of any kind actually materialize; no assurance the Company will have sufficient funds to complete product development. There are numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and the Companys plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information, including: (i) adverse market conditions; (ii) risks regarding protection of proprietary technology; (iii) the ability of the Company to complete financings; (iv) the ability of the Company to develop and market its future product; and (v) risks regarding government regulation, managing and maintaining growth, the effect of adverse publicity, litigation, competition and other factors which may be identified from time to time in the Company's public announcements and filings. There is no assurance that its development of breathalyzer technology will provide any benefit to the Company, and no assurance that any proposed new products will be built, will be successful in beta testing or clinical trials. The is no assurance that the Company will enter into any partnerships to advance any of its corporate initiatives or technologies. There is no assurance that any patent pending or provisional patents technologies licensed by the Company or owned by the Company will receive patent status by regulatory authorities. The Company is not currently selling commercial breathalyzers. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d3fc468f-1cba-482e-b700-e82570507204.




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Linkedin Olga Nedbaeva (AFP) Paris, France  Wed, May 3, 2023 10:40 6 d5259e4d93052b0e76bee70b055bd731 2 Food food,France,cuisine Free

"My mum doesn't agree with what I do here: at home, we don't eat like this," laughs Alan Geaam, the first Lebanese chef to earn a Michelin star in Paris.

The self-taught chef, who fled his country's civil war in 1999, nonetheless believes that promoting Lebanon's culinary riches means combining them with some of "the elegance and refinement" of French cuisine.

At his self-titled restaurant in the well-heeled 16th district of Paris, the tabbouleh comes in three different textures, there are trompe-l'oeil peanuts made from foie gras, and super-light baklava with seasonal fruits.

"You don't get a Michelin star with traditional Lebanese cuisine," said Geaam, who earned his in 2018.

"Tabbouleh has been made for a thousand years, no one has touched it. Today, this cuisine needs rejuvenating," he told AFP.

The traditionally closed and snobbish world of French gourmet food has been slowly prised open to foreign influences in recent decades.

But cooks like Geaam show how the influences cut both ways in fine-dining establishments, with foreigners putting French twists on their native recipes.

Enrique Casarrubias's friends thought he was crazy when he opened a high-end Mexican restaurant, Oxte, in Paris in 2018.

Could a butcher's son, who started out cooking street food to sell in the market of his village, really crack the world of Parisian haute cuisine?

'Taste of childhood'

By finding complex new ways to recreate the memories of his youth, he pulled it off.

He has reworked Mexico's famous mole sauce of chocolate and chillies with beetroot, carrots and French herbs.

The street snack of fresh fruit with lemon, salt and spice -- which he ate every day on his way home from school -- is reimagined as a luxurious dessert with avocado and a kick of mezcal.

"Mexicans come into the restaurant and say they don't recognise any of it, but then they taste it and have tears in their eyes because it reminds them of their childhood," Casarrubias told AFP.

It was a similar approach for Raphael Rego, who earned a Michelin star for Oka by combining Brazilian and French ideas -- such as the moqueca fish stew with elements of the Marseille's bouillabaisse soup.

"At the beginning," he admits, "Brazilians did not understand. Today, the star gives me the necessary visibility."

Others have been introducing homespun influences more gradually.

Philip Chronopoulos was already a starred culinary artist at the Palais Royale Restaurant when the Covid-19 pandemic forced a pause on the industry, and gave him time to think up ways of bringing touches from his native Greece to his menu.

There is now feta ice cream, tarama made from fois gras and spanakopita (a herb and feta pie) seasoned with the yellow wine of France's Jura region.

It earned him a second Michelin star last year.

"I would like my plates to become even more Greek," he told AFP, though he admits it can be tricky to find suitable elements from Greece's "sunny cuisine", especially during the long Parisian winter.

Topics : food France cuisine
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Linkedin Tunggul Wirajuda (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, May 3, 2023 09:09 6 d5259e4d93052b0e76bee70b055b7b07 1 Lifestyle travel,tourism,sustainable-tourism,futurist,VR Free

The future seems bright and exciting for the different varieties of Indonesian travelers as they look to hit the road in ways that suit them.

For Adhyani Yani Noer Indrati and her husband Tito Priambodo, an Indonesian couple based in Sweden, hitting the road is as much about the environment as the destination.

We emphasize sustainability [during our travels], whether it be taking part in a sustainable program while on our trip or proactively minimizing carbon emissions, Yani said. Their destinations of choice include Indonesian islands like East Nusa Tenggara, as well as those in Norway or Sweden. We also like to collect trash when we go snorkeling or hiking. So as travelers, you can say we are Pioneering Pathfinders.

A varied approach

Yani and Tito are among the 35 percent of Indonesian travelers identifying their Traveler Tribe as Pioneering Pathfinders for Traveler Tribes 2033, an Amadeus global travel technology company, which reported on travel for the next 10 years. Based on more than 10 thousand respondents from 15 countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Australia and China, the report identified four distinct traveler tribes: Pioneering Pathfinders, Travel Tech-influencers, Excited Experientialists and Memory Makers, in Indonesia and around the world.

Pioneering Pathfinders are technology trailblazers focusing on sustainability and environmentally friendly travel. Perhaps even more interesting is that it is identified as a progressive tribe and the most optimistic about the future of travel, noted Amadeus senior vice president for customer success management Frederic Barou of the report, which was based on the responses of travelers and travel experts alike on a three-month survey between July and October 2022.

Serenity: Sunrise over a mountain is viewed from a Balinese temple (Pexels/Stijn Dijkstra) (Pexels/Stijn Dijkstra)

Thirty-one percent of Indonesians are Travel Tech-influencers, [which are] mostly young business travelers with modest incomes who are confident it will rise as they travel the world in search of opportunities. Excited Experientialists [] embody the you only live once [YOLO] movement, have no favored way of travel, and are open to limitless possibilities. Memory Makers are [] comfortable with themselves, emphasizing people and on-trip experiences.

Barou noted that the latter two categories comprise 18 and 16 percent, respectively, of Indonesian travelers. They include Wanda, who identifies as a Memory Maker.

For me, making memories is the primary reason for me to travel, asserted Wanda, whose destinations of choice have included the Australian state of Queensland with its capital Brisbane, and Bali. I am fine organizing the trip and itinerary by myself. After all, hitting the road is about who you travel with and making the most of the travel experience during the journey.

Post-pandemic travel revival

The VFS Global outsourcing services company attributes the increasing mobility of these types of Indonesian travelers going overseas to the ongoing revival of travel in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visa applications from Indonesia in 2022 touched around 60 percent of the 2019 pre-pandemic levels driven by pent-up demand, the opening of international borders, and eased COVID-related protocols, said VFS Global Australasia head Kaushik Ghosh in Jakarta on April 11. But he noted that COVID-19 still cast its shadow. Health considerations continue to be a key determining factor in the new normal, with a growing section of travelers becoming conscious about health and safety. As a result, an increasing number of travelers opt for services that provide a seamless visa experience and prioritize safe travel.

Ghosh asserted that the services include the Visa At Your Doorstep [VAYD] that enables travelers to book the entire visa experience at a location of their choice. Compared with 2021, VAYD saw a 37 percent rise in 2022, along with the Mobile Visa Application Center.

Barou reiterated VFS findings. COVID-19 [] has had a lasting impact on the travel industry. More trips to reconnect with nature and loved ones, as well as more travel focused on improving health and well-being, will be part of these changes due to the pandemic, which created a scarcity of travel and human interaction, he noted, while also highlighting the role of biometric technology and artificial intelligence (AI) as future forces expected to drive travel by 2033, particularly for Indonesian travelers.

The use of biometric data to allow quick access through passport control is part of the top-five technologies Indonesians look forward to in 2033.

He asserted that other technologies Indonesian travelers highly anticipate include alternative payment methods, enabling them to pay for trips by cryptocurrency, in virtual reality, or facial recognition by 2033.

Technological innovations

Barou maintains that state-of-the-art technology in super apps, biometrics, touchless technology, virtual reality (VR) and increased automation will be a primary driver of a very different experience of travel and make travel smoother. He highlighted the use of Metaverse for a more immersive travel experience.

Metaverse is expected to bring [] virtual tours, a virtual travel expansion [trips to the past, to Mars, etc.] [and] become a source of inspiration for travelers to have a taste of what they can experience during their actual excursion, in other words, try before you buy.

Barou noted that AI will loom large in the future of travel, as it can help industry players to prepare themselves better for the travelers demands and also for travelers to better plan their journeys. Most of all, the Traveler Tribes 2033 report showed us that using AI to make trip planning quicker [] represents what excites Indonesian travelers the most about trips in 2033.

Whether these innovations will live up to their billing is yet to be seen. But what is certain is that the prospect of innovations for travel in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of various types of travelers in shaping the industry means the field is one to watch well into the future.
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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Wed, May 3, 2023 16:54 6 96f72165d1db80845b6b1c241c04b7d0 1 Archipelago North-Sumatra,Kualanamu-airport,death,police Free

The operator of Kualanamu International Airport in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, has dismissed five members of staff following the death of a 43-year-old woman who is thought to have fallen down an elevator shaft at the airport.

PT Angkasa Pura Aviasi Kualanamu Airport dismissed two senior managers in charge of operational and technical functions and three security personnel in charge of the CCTV system.

Executive director Achmad Rifai said that the dismissals were part of a personnel evaluation and an improvement in procedures at the airport.

Rifai said the measures were taken following the discovery of the body of Asiah Shinta Dewi Hasibuan at the airport on April 27.

We fully support the process carried out by the authorities while we wait for the results of a police investigation, Rifai said on Tuesday. Rifai also apologized to the public for the incident.

Asiahs body was discovered in an airport elevator shaft on Thursday after being reported missing three days previously.

Deli Serdang Police have questioned 12 witnesses. Head of criminal investigations Comr. I Kadek H. Cahyadi said the police had questioned airport officials and security personnel and also asked for information from the victims family.

Her family said Asiah was on a phone call with her niece, who was at the airport prior to departing for Malaysia on April 24, when she became trapped in the elevator.

The family had asked the airport management to check the CCTV recording thoroughly after losing contact with Asiah, but the management refused citing procedures.

The family was also forbidden from checking the elevators CCTV. Asiah's family members asked airport officials to help look for her. When they failed to do so, the family members conducted their own search to no avail. (dre/gev)
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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Wed, May 3, 2023 13:03 6 5fceed71997e5776a1634d25dc5d0401 1 Archipelago North-Sumatra,police,dishonorable-discharge,crime,ethics-violation,assault Free

North Sumatra Police have dishonorably discharged Achirudin Hasibuan for failing to intervene to stop his son from assaulting a university student in December following an ethics hearing on Tuesday.

Achiruddin previously held a middle officer rank of Adj. Sr. Comr. Prior to the hearing, he was arrested and relieved of his duty as chief of operations at the provincial police drug crimes directorate.

The [police] ethics panel decided to dishonorably discharge him, North Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Panca Putra Simanjuntak.

Achiruddin has filed an appeal against the verdict.

Achirudins 19-year-old son, Aditya Hasibuan, has been charged with assault under Article 351 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Aditya allegedly assaulted 19-year-old university student Ken Admiral on Dec. 21, 2022, and damaged his car. The next day, the victim went to Adityas house in Medan to demand compensation, but Aditya allegedly assaulted him again, in front of his father.

Panca said instead of intervening, Achiruddin did nothing to prevent the assault and ordered his subordinate to point a weapon at Ken.

Irwansyah Putra Nasution, Kens legal attorney, welcomed the verdict and is hopeful that the appellate hearing would uphold the verdict.

A video of Adityas alleged assault has been circulating on social media, gaining attention because of its similarity to an alleged assault by Mario Dandy Satrio against the teenage son of a member of GP Ansor, the youth wing of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the nations largest grassroots Muslim organization, which was also recorded and made national headlines.

Marios alleged assault brought public attention to his familys lavish lifestyle, including his possession of a Jeep Rubicon and Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Last month, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named Marios father, former mid-ranking tax collector Rafael Alun Trisambodo, a suspect on charges of taking bribes from taxpayers for the past 12 years. (dre)
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Linkedin Nur Janti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, May 3, 2023

A shooting incident occurred just before noon on Tuesday at the Central Jakarta headquarters of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), authorities have confirmed.

Two MUI employees were injured during the incident, while the shooter died due to unknown causes at a nearby health facility.

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Linkedin Nidal al-Mughrabi and Henriette Chacar (Reuters) (The Jakarta Post) Jerusalem/Gaza  Thu, May 4 2023

A Palestinian hunger striker died in Israeli custody on Tuesday, sparking an exchange of fire between Israel and armed groups in Gaza, before three Palestinian officials said the sides had agreed to a cease-fire.



Earlier, Israeli jets struck in Gaza as armed groups there fired rocket barrages toward Israel in response to the death of Khader Adnan, a prominent political leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad faction, following an 87-day hunger strike in an Israeli prison.



Adnan, who was awaiting trial, was found unconscious in his cell and taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead after efforts to revive him, Israels Prisons Service said.



He is the first Palestinian hunger striker to die in Israeli custody in more than 30 years.



Hundreds of people took to the streets in the occupied Palestinian territories to rally and mourn Adnans death, which Palestinian leaders described as an assassination.



In Gaza, an umbrella group of armed Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for a series of rocket salvoes fired toward Israel during the day.



The Israeli military said it had identified at least 30 rocket launches that set off sirens in southern Israel, including in Ashkelon around 14 kilometers north of Gaza, and sent people running to bomb shelters.



Two rockets landed in the small Israeli city of Sderot just east of Gaza, wounding three people, including a 25-year-old foreign national who Israels ambulance service said sustained serious shrapnel wounds.



Late on Tuesday, plumes of smoke spiraled into the night sky and explosions could be heard as the Israeli military said it hit targets across Gaza, including weapons manufacturing sites and training camps of Hamas, the Islamist group that governs Gaza.



Islamic Jihad spokesman Tareq Selmi said fighting had ended by dawn on Wednesday. Two Palestinian officials said Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations helped secure a reciprocal and simultaneous cease-fire that largely seemed to hold.



In the West Bank city of Hebron, shops observed a general strike. Some protesters burned tires and hurled stones at Israeli soldiers, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets at them. There were no reports of injuries.



Since 2011, Adnan conducted at least three hunger strikes to protest detention without charges by Israel. Other Palestinian prisoners have used the tactic, sometimes en masse, but none had died since 1992.



Adnans lawyer Jamil Al-Khatib, and a doctor with a human rights group who recently met him, accused Israeli authorities of withholding medical care.



We demanded he be moved into a civilian hospital where he could be properly monitored. Unfortunately, such a demand was met by intransigence and rejection, Al-Khatib told Reuters.



Adnan, 45, was a baker and a father of nine from Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Islamic Jihad has a limited West Bank presence but is the second most powerful armed group in Gaza, where Israeli forces fought a brief war against it last August.



Lina Qasem Hassan of Physicians for Human Rights in Israel said she saw Adnan on April 23, at which point he had lost 40 kilograms and was having trouble moving and breathing, but was conscious.



His death could have been avoided, Qasem Hassan told Reuters, saying several Israeli hospitals had refused to admit Adnan after he made brief visits to their emergency rooms.



The Prisons Service said hospitalization had not been an option, as Adnan had declined even a preliminary inspection.

Fight is continuing



Physicians for Human Rights said Israeli authorities had denied requests by Adnan and his family to visit him in prison.

Speaking from the familys home in the northern West Bank town of Arraba near Jenin as mourners arrived to pay their respects, Adnans wife, Randa Musa, said: Our message to all the resistance groups is, we do not want the weapons that were not used to free the sheikh [Adnan] to be used after his death. We do not want to see any bloodshed.

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Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, May 4 2023

The spike in maritime piracy incidents over the last three months in the Strait of Malacca, one of the worlds busiest commercial sea-lanes, is alarming at a time of simmering tensions in the adjacent South China Sea. Unchecked piracy can give major powers like China and the United States justification to boost their naval presence in and around the strait, only to put regional security at risk.

As Indonesia is widely deemed to be a source of the piracy in the Malacca Strait, the government needs to intensify collaboration with its two littoral neighbors, Malaysia and Singapore, in the fight against armed robbery in the waterway.

For its part, Jakarta has stepped up its measures to eradicate maritime piracy, though this is by no means easy because the criminals are suspected of having the support, if not protection, of unidentified parties, including rogue elements within the Indonesian Navy. Such allegations lack proof, and have therefore been flatly denied.

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Linkedin Nur Janti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, May 4 2023

The government is prepared to clear the names of at least 39 Indonesians who were rendered stateless while they were abroad during the 1965 Communist purge, if they are willing to return to Indonesia.

The Law and Human Rights Ministry is currently drafting the necessary policies.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD said the government intended to declare that the political exiles had never betrayed the country.

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Linkedin A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, May 4 2023

A Sudanese envoy in Jakarta gave their assurance that once the conflict in its country died down, Indonesian students would be able to return to Sudan to finish their studies.

On April 15, disputes between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out into an armed conflict, killing hundreds and wounding thousands in over two weeks of fighting.

Sudanese Ambassador to Indonesia Yassir Mohamed Ali Mohamed said a lot of Indonesian students had been evacuated safely out of Sudan while the fighting continued, but he expressed hope that once the conflict died down the students would come back.

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Linkedin Maher al-Mounes (The Jakarta Post) Agence France-Presse/Damascus  Thu, May 4 2023

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Damascus on Wednesday, state media said, on the first visit by a head of state from the Islamic republic since Syria's civil war broke out 12 years ago.

Raisi was due to meet his ally, President Bashar al-Assad, at a time more regional governments are re-engaging with the Syrian regime as it seeks to rebuild after the years of civil war.

During the conflict, Tehran has provided economic, political and military support to Syria, helping Damascus claw back lost territory and positioning Iran in a leading role as Assad seeks to focus on reconstruction.

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MCLEAN, Va., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) has been notified of an unsolicited mini-tender offer by TRC Capital Investment Corporation (TRC) to purchase up to 1,500,000 shares of COF common stock, representing less than one percent of COF's common stock outstanding. The offering price of $93.47 per share is 4.46 percent below the closing price per share of COF's common stock on April 17, 2023, the last trading day prior to the date of the offer (April 18, 2023).

Capital One Financial (PRNewsfoto/Capital One Financial Corporation)

The company recommends that common stockholders who have not responded to TRC's offer take no action. COF common stockholders who have already tendered their shares may withdraw their shares by providing the written notice described in the TRC offering documents prior to the expiration of the offer, currently scheduled for 12:01 a.m., New York City Time on May 17, 2023. The company further recommends that stockholders do not tender their shares in response to TRC's offer because the offer is subject to numerous conditions, including TRC obtaining financing for the offer. There is no guarantee the conditions of the offer will be satisfied.

The company does not endorse the TRC unsolicited mini-tender offer and is not affiliated or associated in any way with TRC, its mini-tender offer, or its mini-tender offer documents.

Because TRC's mini-tender offer is for less than 5% of the company's outstanding shares, it is not subject to many of the disclosure and procedural requirements of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules that are designed to protect investors. TRC has made similar unsolicited mini-tender offers for stock of other public companies. The SEC has cautioned investors about mini-tender offers, providing guidance to investors at https://www.sec.gov/reportspubs/investor-publications/investorpubsminitend.

Stockholders should obtain current market quotations for their shares, consult with their broker or financial advisor, and exercise caution with respect to TRC's mini-tender offer. The company requests that a copy of this news release be included with all distributions of materials relating to TRC's mini-tender offer related to the company's common stock.

Story continues

About Capital One

Capital One Financial Corporation ( www.capitalone.com ) is a financial holding company which, along with its subsidiaries, had $349.8 billion in deposits and $471.7 billion in total assets as of March 31, 2023. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has branches located primarily in New York, Louisiana, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 100 index.

Visit the Capital One newsroom for more Capital One news.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/capital-one-recommends-stockholders-reject-mini-tender-offer-from-trc-capital-investment-corporation-301815131.html

SOURCE Capital One Financial Corporation
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Linkedin (AFP) Brasilia, Brazil  Wed, May 3, 2023 08:58 6 d5259e4d93052b0e76bee70b055b79c6 2 Americas Google,Brazil,disinformation,bill,legislation Free

The Brazilian government accused Google Tuesday of deceitful and abusive propaganda against a bill to tackle disinformation online, ordering the United States tech giant to stay out of the debate or label its positions as advertising.

The row came as lawmakers in Brazils lower house prepared to vote on the so-called fake news bill  dubbed the censorship bill by critics  which aims to make tech companies regulate disinformation, hate speech and violent content on their platforms.

Brazils National Consumer Protection Bureau ordered Google, which has criticized the bill, to label as advertising messages on its site warning the legislation could make your internet worse and increase confusion about what is true or false in Brazil.

The bureau gave the company two hours to balance that with counter-propaganda or face a fine of one million reais (US$200,000) an hour.

Justice Minister Flavio Dino accused Google of manipulating search results to display content opposed to the bill more prominently  a charge the company denied.

No one should be manipulating Brazilians freedom of expression, Dino told a news conference, accusing Google of abusing its platform to promote its own position.

Addressing the same conference, consumer protection secretary Wadih Damous announced a series of measures against what he called Googles deceitful and abusive propaganda.

Googles Brazilian home page had prominently displayed a message against the bill, linking to a blog post by the companys public policy director, Marcelo Lacerda.

Lacerda warned of undesirable consequences of the bill, including inadvertently protecting those who spread disinformation, by preventing companies from implementing their own terms of use.

The link to the blog was removed from Googles Brazilian home page Tuesday. A Google spokeswoman told AFP it had been scheduled to expire anyway, saying the decision was not related to the government's measures.

The bill, which has already passed the Senate, was introduced three years ago  one in a series of efforts worldwide to grapple with the flood of misinformation online.

It shot to prominence more recently, after supporters of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro invaded the halls of power in Brasilia on Jan. 8, allegedly egged on by social media disinformation claiming their candidates 2022 election loss to leftist successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was fraudulent.

Bolsonaro attacked the bill Monday in an interview with conservative news site Revista Oeste, calling it the beginning of the end of our freedom.

Topics : Google Brazil disinformation bill legislation
Long in the planning, Abrons Arts Center has announced it will kick off a renovation project this month, with the goal of improving physical access to the building in multiple ways.

The design and construction is being led by Li/Saltzman Architects, a women-owned architecture firm committed to environmentally and socially responsible design.

We spoke with Ali Rosa-Salas, Vice President of Visual and Performing Arts at Henry Street Settlement, about the upcoming project. Rosa-Salas came to Abrons in 2017 and has been serving as artistic director and chief curator of the centers performance and exhibition programming, as well as manager of its artist residency programs, since the end 2022. She succeeds Craig Peterson, who became president of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council last September.

Rosa-Salas told us the renovation has been many years in the making, with a lot of stake holders involved, a tremendous amount of support from Henry Street Settlement, to make this possible. She mentioned it was in the works when she initially came on board, almost 6 years ago.

She explained the construction is happening in phases: The first part of construction is focusing on the lobby and front entrance. We will be installing a LULA [limited use/limited application elevator], which will allow all of our constituents to enter the art center from one entry point. Currently, because of the way the 1915 playhouse building and the 1975 part of the building came together, a lot of those pathways have to be navigated by stairs, so with the integration of the LULA, folks [with a diversity of mobility needs] trying to access the second floor can come into the main entrance, like everyone else.

The project includes making ADA-compliant restrooms in the lobby as part of the first phase, as well. Then the second stage will be focusing on the amphitheater face lift, she said. So well be increasing the square footage of that space, by moving the exterior wall and replacing the windows and well be doing some infrastructural upgrades to the experimental theater, which is adjacent to our amphitheater space.

As construction is slated to be complete next spring, one challenge has been to plan carefully in order to have the least amount of disruption for their programs and classes. Programming in the Playhouse wont be disrupted, she said, but, We will be hosting a lot of summer programming outdoors, and in partnership with Henry Street Settlement and different community partners. The silver lining is its an opportunity to experiment with doing things in different places  a lot outdoors and our galleries will be largely offline for the next year, so were actively seeking and working with partners in the area, like Artists Alliance at Essex Market, who will serve as our exhibitions presenting partner.

In the meantime, Rosa-Salas made sure to note a program that is coming up that she is particularly excited about  The Feels: District 1 Arts Festival 2023, opening on May 9  featuring the work of K12 students from 23 public schools in District 1. The exhibition highlights painting, sculpture, and performance created by young artists of the Lower East Side.
Douglas Emmett (NYSE:DEI  Get Rating) updated its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $1.87 to $1.93 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $1.89.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Douglas Emmett from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and increased their target price for the stock from $13.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 5th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Douglas Emmett from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an underperform rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 29th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Douglas Emmett from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Friday, April 21st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Douglas Emmett from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group lowered shares of Douglas Emmett from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $16.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $15.78.

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Douglas Emmett Price Performance

DEI traded down $0.46 on Tuesday, reaching $12.17. The company had a trading volume of 3,337,767 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,546,992. The company has a market cap of $2.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.89 and a beta of 0.94. Douglas Emmett has a 52-week low of $10.62 and a 52-week high of $30.50. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $12.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a current ratio of 2.77.

Douglas Emmett Announces Dividend

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 30th. Douglas Emmetts dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 138.18%.

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cibc World Markets Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Douglas Emmett by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 88,337 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $2,952,000 after buying an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Douglas Emmett by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 218,255 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $7,294,000 after buying an additional 635 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in shares of Douglas Emmett by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 97,549 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $2,183,000 after buying an additional 761 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Douglas Emmett by 16.9% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,420 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $248,000 after buying an additional 1,071 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aspire Private Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Douglas Emmett by 253.2% during the 4th quarter. Aspire Private Capital LLC now owns 1,660 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $26,028,800,000 after buying an additional 1,190 shares in the last quarter. 97.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Douglas Emmett

(Get Rating)

Douglas Emmett, Inc is a real estate investment trust, engages in the acquisition, development, ownership, and management of real estate properties. It operates through the following segments: Office, and Multifamily. The Office segment comprises rental of office space and other tenant services, including parking and storage space rental.

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Invesco California Value Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:VCV  Get Rating) declared a monthly dividend on Tuesday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.035 per share by the investment management company on Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $0.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 12th.

Invesco California Value Municipal Income Trust Price Performance

NYSE VCV traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $9.75. The companys stock had a trading volume of 94,626 shares, compared to its average volume of 80,441. Invesco California Value Municipal Income Trust has a fifty-two week low of $8.51 and a fifty-two week high of $11.10. The companys 50-day moving average is $9.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.67.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jane Street Group LLC purchased a new position in Invesco California Value Municipal Income Trust in the 3rd quarter valued at about $91,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Invesco California Value Municipal Income Trust in the 3rd quarter valued at about $155,000. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in Invesco California Value Municipal Income Trust in the 1st quarter valued at about $178,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Invesco California Value Municipal Income Trust by 18.3% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 17,807 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $197,000 after purchasing an additional 2,760 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Invesco California Value Municipal Income Trust by 8.7% in the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 26,404 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $279,000 after purchasing an additional 2,108 shares in the last quarter. 10.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Invesco California Value Municipal Income Trust

Invesco California Value Municipal Income Trust operates as a closed-end investment fund/investment trust. Its investment objective is to seek to provide common shareholders with current income exempt from federal and California income taxes, consistent with preservation of capital. The company was headquartered on December 21, 1992 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

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Invesco Trust for Investment Grade Municipals (NYSE:VGM  Get Rating) declared a monthly dividend on Tuesday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.0361 per share by the investment management company on Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $0.43 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.46%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 12th.

Invesco Trust for Investment Grade Municipals Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of VGM traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $9.72. The company had a trading volume of 95,111 shares, compared to its average volume of 110,104. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.82. Invesco Trust for Investment Grade Municipals has a fifty-two week low of $9.00 and a fifty-two week high of $11.20.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Invesco Trust for Investment Grade Municipals

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Guggenheim Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Invesco Trust for Investment Grade Municipals by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 1,562,221 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $18,152,000 after purchasing an additional 112,975 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Invesco Trust for Investment Grade Municipals by 34.1% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,030,528 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $10,357,000 after acquiring an additional 262,276 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Invesco Trust for Investment Grade Municipals by 55.0% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 598,096 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $6,011,000 after acquiring an additional 212,348 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Invesco Trust for Investment Grade Municipals by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 335,343 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $3,370,000 after acquiring an additional 8,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in shares of Invesco Trust for Investment Grade Municipals by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 175,430 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $1,642,000 after acquiring an additional 3,711 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 23.63% of the companys stock.

Invesco Trust for Investment Grade Municipals Company Profile

Invesco Trust For Investment Grade Municipals is a closed-end management investment company. Its investment objective is to provide common shareholders with a high level of current income exempt from federal income taxes, consistent with preservation of capital. The company was founded on January 24, 1992 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

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Kingsway Financial Services Inc. (NYSE:KFS  Get Rating) (TSE:KFS) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 399,700 shares, a growth of 5.1% from the March 31st total of 380,400 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 68,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.9 days. Approximately 2.4% of the companys stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kingsway Financial Services

In other Kingsway Financial Services news, Director Joseph Stilwell sold 65,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.03, for a total value of $586,950.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 659,454 shares in the company, valued at $5,954,869.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Kingsway Financial Services news, Director Joseph Stilwell sold 65,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.03, for a total value of $586,950.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 659,454 shares in the company, valued at $5,954,869.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Gregory Paul Hannon acquired 22,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $8.96 per share, with a total value of $197,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 29,500 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $264,320. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have purchased 23,697 shares of company stock worth $212,136 over the last three months. Insiders own 56.40% of the companys stock.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kingsway Financial Services

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Kingsway Financial Services by 17.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 547,719 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $3,012,000 after acquiring an additional 79,836 shares during the period. Stilwell Value LLC increased its position in shares of Kingsway Financial Services by 2.4% in the first quarter. Stilwell Value LLC now owns 7,391,464 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $40,653,000 after buying an additional 172,494 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Kingsway Financial Services by 48.1% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,949 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $115,000 after buying an additional 6,801 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Kingsway Financial Services by 4.7% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 400,998 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $2,286,000 after buying an additional 18,183 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC increased its position in Kingsway Financial Services by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 93,398 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $648,000 after purchasing an additional 12,711 shares in the last quarter. 68.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Kingsway Financial Services Stock Performance

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on KFS shares. TheStreet downgraded Kingsway Financial Services from a b rating to a c+ rating in a report on Friday, March 31st. StockNews.com downgraded Kingsway Financial Services from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Monday, March 13th.

Shares of NYSE KFS traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $8.39. 25,013 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 66,057. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.21. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.07. Kingsway Financial Services has a 1-year low of $5.15 and a 1-year high of $10.60. The firm has a market cap of $221.08 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.43 and a beta of -0.31.

About Kingsway Financial Services

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Kingsway Financial Services, Inc operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of financial services. It operates through the following segments: Extended Warranty and Leased Real Estate. The Extended Warranty segment provides after-market vehicle protection services distributed by credit unions.

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Agiliti, Inc. (NYSE:AGTI  Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,390,000 shares, a decline of 12.2% from the March 31st total of 3,860,000 shares. Currently, 10.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 235,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 14.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AGTI shares. Morgan Stanley lowered Agiliti from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $18.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, January 6th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Agiliti from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $19.86.

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Agiliti Price Performance

Shares of AGTI stock traded down $14.38 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $2.05. The company had a trading volume of 211,750 shares, compared to its average volume of 240,542. Agiliti has a 12 month low of $14.15 and a 12 month high of $22.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $274.27 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.76, a PEG ratio of 18.99 and a beta of 1.28. The firms fifty day moving average is $16.09 and its 200 day moving average is $16.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.60.

Insider Activity at Agiliti

Agiliti ( NYSE:AGTI Get Rating ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, March 7th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $281.68 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $272.42 million. Agiliti had a return on equity of 10.90% and a net margin of 2.69%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Agiliti will post 0.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In related news, EVP Lee M. Neumann sold 5,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.28, for a total transaction of $76,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 53,647 shares in the company, valued at $819,726.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Lee M. Neumann sold 5,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.28, for a total transaction of $76,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 53,647 shares in the company, valued at $819,726.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO James B. Pekarek sold 14,668 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.03, for a total value of $220,460.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 249,071 shares in the company, valued at $3,743,537.13. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 67,804 shares of company stock worth $998,237 over the last three months. Company insiders own 4.49% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AGTI. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its holdings in shares of Agiliti by 180.8% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,536 shares of the companys stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 989 shares in the last quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Agiliti in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Group One Trading L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Agiliti in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Clear Street Markets LLC acquired a new position in Agiliti during the 4th quarter worth $40,000. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System acquired a new position in Agiliti during the 4th quarter worth $114,000.

About Agiliti

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Agiliti, Inc engages in manufacturing, management, maintenance, and mobilization of mission-critical, regulated, reusable medical devices. It also offers comprehensive medical equipment management and service solutions to reduce capital and operating expenses, increase medical equipment and staff productivity and support improved patient safety and outcomes.

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Universal Health Realty Income Trust (NYSE:UHT  Get Rating) CEO Alan B. Miller acquired 2,395 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 3rd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $43.18 per share, for a total transaction of $103,416.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 147,141 shares in the company, valued at $6,353,548.38. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Universal Health Realty Income Trust Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of UHT stock traded down $0.15 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $42.58. 55,797 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 48,826. The stocks fifty day simple moving average is $48.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $49.89. Universal Health Realty Income Trust has a 1-year low of $40.92 and a 1-year high of $57.52. The company has a market cap of $587.60 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.27 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 9.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57.

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Universal Health Realty Income Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 20th were paid a $0.715 dividend. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 17th. Universal Health Realty Income Trusts dividend payout ratio is currently 195.89%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Universal Health Realty Income Trust

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. WealthTrust Axiom LLC increased its holdings in Universal Health Realty Income Trust by 1.7% during the first quarter. WealthTrust Axiom LLC now owns 35,944 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $1,729,000 after buying an additional 612 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Universal Health Realty Income Trust by 13.0% in the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 3,873 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $186,000 after acquiring an additional 446 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Universal Health Realty Income Trust by 17.6% during the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,290 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 791 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its position in Universal Health Realty Income Trust by 23.8% during the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 10,434 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $502,000 after purchasing an additional 2,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Universal Health Realty Income Trust by 308.0% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 13,407 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $645,000 after acquiring an additional 10,121 shares during the last quarter. 63.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Separately, StockNews.com assumed coverage on Universal Health Realty Income Trust in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating on the stock.

Universal Health Realty Income Trust Company Profile

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Universal Health Realty Income Trust operates as a real estate investment trust. It engages in investing and leasing healthcare and human service facilities through direct ownership or joint ventures. The firm focuses on investing in acute care hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, sub-acute facilities, medical office buildings, free-standing emergency departments, and childcare centers.

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Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO  Get Rating) was the target of a significant decline in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 15,200,000 shares, a decline of 10.7% from the March 31st total of 17,030,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 8,310,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.8 days. Approximately 0.9% of the companys stock are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altria Group

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P acquired a new stake in Altria Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Altria Group by 85.6% during the 4th quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 542 shares of the companys stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Altria Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Altria Group by 153.8% during the 1st quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 731 shares of the companys stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 443 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Altria Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. 58.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on MO. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Altria Group from $49.50 to $47.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Monday, January 23rd. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a buy rating for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. They issued a buy rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $45.50.

Altria Group Price Performance

NYSE MO traded down $0.60 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $47.18. 7,589,692 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,236,540. Altria Group has a 52-week low of $40.35 and a 52-week high of $57.03. The company has a market capitalization of $84.27 billion, a PE ratio of 15.18, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.59. The firms 50-day moving average is $45.89 and its 200-day moving average is $45.80.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 27th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.19 by ($0.01). Altria Group had a net margin of 22.44% and a negative return on equity of 245.43%. The business had revenue of $4.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.89 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.12 EPS. The firms revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Altria Group will post 5.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 24th were issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 23rd. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.97%. Altria Groups dividend payout ratio is currently 120.90%.

About Altria Group

(Get Rating)

Altria Group, Inc operates as a holding company, which engages in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes in the United States. It operates through the following segments: Smokeable Products, Oral tobacco products, and Wine. The Smokeable Products segment consists of cigarettes manufactured and sold by PM USA and machine-made large cigars and pipe tobacco manufactured and sold by Middleton.

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Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (TSE:CP  Get Rating) (NYSE:CP)  Analysts at Atb Cap Markets increased their Q2 2023 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Canadian Pacific Railway in a research note issued on Wednesday, April 26th. Atb Cap Markets analyst C. Murray now forecasts that the company will earn $1.13 per share for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $1.12. The consensus estimate for Canadian Pacific Railways current full-year earnings is $4.49 per share. Atb Cap Markets also issued estimates for Canadian Pacific Railways Q3 2023 earnings at $1.33 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $1.27 EPS, FY2023 earnings at $4.64 EPS, Q1 2024 earnings at $1.23 EPS, Q2 2024 earnings at $1.37 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $1.51 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $1.43 EPS and FY2024 earnings at $5.54 EPS.

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Canadian Pacific Railway (TSE:CP  Get Rating) (NYSE:CP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 31st. The company reported C$1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$1.06 by C$0.04. The business had revenue of C$2.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$2.45 billion.

Canadian Pacific Railway Stock Performance

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on CP. CIBC reduced their price objective on Canadian Pacific Railway from C$128.00 to C$125.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 1st. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Canadian Pacific Railway from C$116.00 to C$122.00 in a report on Thursday, March 16th. TD Securities increased their price objective on Canadian Pacific Railway from C$120.00 to C$125.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, April 27th. BMO Capital Markets set a C$130.00 price objective on Canadian Pacific Railway and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, April 18th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price objective on Canadian Pacific Railway from C$105.00 to C$115.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of C$110.67.

CP stock opened at C$106.43 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average of C$104.71 and a 200-day moving average of C$104.21. Canadian Pacific Railway has a 12-month low of C$86.42 and a 12-month high of C$111.43. The firm has a market cap of C$99.09 billion, a PE ratio of 26.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 51.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Senior Officer Keith E. Creel sold 3,608 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$77.31, for a total value of C$278,934.48. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Canadian Pacific Railway Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 31st. Investors of record on Friday, June 30th will be given a $0.19 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 29th. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Canadian Pacific Railways dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.86%.

Canadian Pacific Railway Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates a transcontinental freight railway in Canada and the United States. The company transports bulk commodities, including grain, coal, potash, fertilizers, and sulphur; and merchandise freight, such as energy, chemicals and plastics, metals, minerals and consumer, automotive, and forest products.

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Carrier Global Corporation (NYSE:CARR) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript April 27, 2023

Operator: Good morning and welcome to Carrier's First Quarter 2023 Earnings and Strategic Update Conference Call. I would like to introduce your host for today's conference, Sam Pearlstein, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please, go ahead, sir.

Sam Pearlstein: Thank you and good morning and welcome to Carrier's conference call to discuss the transactions we announced last night along with first quarter 2023 earnings. With me here today are David Gitlin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Patrick Goris, Chief Financial Officer. We will be discussing certain non-GAAP measures on this call which management believes are relevant in assessing the financial performance of the business. These non-GAAP measures are reconciled to GAAP figures in our earnings presentation, which is available to download from Carrier's website at ir.carrier.com. There are two presentations available there, one for the strategic actions, and one for the first quarter 2023 results. The company reminds listeners that the sales earnings and cash flow expectations and any other forward-looking statements provided during the call are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Carrier's SEC filings including Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K provide details on important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Once the call is open for questions, we ask that you limit yourself to one question and follow-up to give everyone the opportunity to participate. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Dave Gitlin.

David Gitlin: Well, thank you, Sam, and good morning, everyone. A big day for us and we appreciate your flexibility joining us this morning on short notice. Today we are announcing a new Carrier, a new direction and an exciting transformation, a game-changing opportunity to acquire Europe's premier company in the most attractive market in our space, allowing us to capitalize on the energy transition in Europe. Combined with the planned exits that we are also announcing, Carrier will become a simpler, focused, pure-play leader in intelligent climate and energy solutions that generates higher growth and superior shareholder returns. Before we discuss this transformation in more detail, we will cover the highlights of our Q1 results on slide two.

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In short, good news, the team executed very well. We beat our forecast on the top line with 4% organic growth with double-digit growth in aftermarket controls commercial and light commercial HVAC and global truck trailer. Orders were modestly positive in the quarter with year-over-year orders performance improving as the year progressed. Adjusted EPS of $0.52 exceeded our projections and we generated significantly more free cash flow year-over-year. Based on our strong Q1 results, we now have confidence in the high end of our full year adjusted EPS guidance range. Before we discuss our exciting announcement about our future, let me take a brief look back on how far we've come already on slide three. I am so proud of our team's accomplishments since spin.

In short, we do what we say we're going to do. Our commitments were to drive sustained growth, improved margins through rigorous cost reduction, increased aftermarket revenues, deliver strong free cash flow, innovate and ensure customer loyalty, energize our teams and culture and strengthen our portfolio and balance sheet. We have grown sales at an 8% CAGR since 2020. And since 2021, we have expanded margins by 150 basis points and have driven an adjusted EPS CAGR of 19%. We have effectively driven significant productivity, growing our aftermarket double digits annually and have introduced over 400 new products over the past three years. We launched important new platforms for our building and cold chain ecosystems Abound and Lynx, with both getting superb traction with our customers.

We dramatically improved our portfolio, positioning ourselves in the fast-growing VRF market with the acquisition of Toshiba's HVAC business and Giwee, while completing the sale of Chubb and our bearer shares. We improved our balance sheet, reducing our net debt by 50% from $10 billion to $5 billion all while doing $2 billion of share buyback and increasing our dividend payout ratio from 17% in 2020 to a targeted 30% this year. This outstanding performance has been made possible by our world-class workforce and agile new stand-alone culture. As a result of all of that, Carrier stock price has appreciated 229% since our spin date compared to 66% appreciation for the S&P 500. So with our foundation firmly in place and a track record of execution, we are now announcing a purposeful shift in our strategy, which is what you see on slide four.

We have a very clear and compelling vision, to be the world leader in intelligent climate and energy solutions. Strategically, we are positioning ourselves in the fastest-growing geographies, with highly differentiated channel access and the most comprehensive and differentiated suite of sustainable technology and services. Digitally enabled life cycle solutions will increase aftermarket and recurring revenues. Our energized team will continue to drive unparalleled customer loyalty and superior shareholder returns. This strategic shift in our vision has led us to the decision to further focus our portfolio and align it with faster-growing end markets, which leads to the announcement that we're making today on slide five. The first is the acquisition of Viessmann Group's Climate Solutions business, the premier company in the highest growth segment in the heat pump and energy transition markets.

This will also expand our capabilities as a one-stop shop for renewable and climate management solutions. We are also announcing that we are initiating the process of exiting our fire and security and commercial refrigeration businesses. The former decision was easy, combining with the best asset in the best market could not be more compelling and exciting. The latter decision was tough. We love these businesses and our people in them. We have tremendous brands, gross margins, market positions and customer stickiness. But we saw the benefit of focus as we spun from UTC and we are confident that further focus will create additional tremendous value. The result will be a new Carrier, with higher revenue and EBITDA growth profiles, leading market positions globally with a portfolio unlike any other company in the world.

So let me start with an overview of Viessmann Climate Solutions business on slide six. Viessmann Climate Solutions with 11,000 team members as part of the family-owned Viessmann Group, who have established market leadership over its 106-year-old history. The company has made a purposeful shift from fossil fuel boilers, such that now 70% of its portfolio consists of premier heat pumps, digitally enabled services, solar PV and battery offerings. It also has highly differentiated boiler business that includes state-of-the-art hydrogen-ready offerings. About 40% of its sales are in Germany, with very strong positions in France, Poland and Italy. Those four countries make up more than 50% of the heat pump installed base in Europe with 20% annual heat pump growth rates.

The combination of Carrier and Viessmann's Climate Solutions creates a tremendous game-changing opportunity. And as a result, the Viessmann founding family is showing great confidence in the combined entity, taking 20% of the purchase price and equity which has been fixed at signing. And we look forward to Max Viessmann joining our Board of Directors. Furthermore, we are excited to welcome the tremendous Viessmann team to the Carrier family to help us realize our shared vision. Carrier and Viessmann share a very similar journey as you see on slide seven. A phrase that we have used a lot to describe Carrier is a 100-year-old startup. Interestingly, Viessmann is very much the same. Both companies had visionary founders, who largely created and shaped the markets that we're in and both of our businesses have evolved into agile, rapid innovation, climate-focused, digital industrial leaders.

Together, we are establishing a new global climate champion and that is one of the many reasons why Viessmann Climate Solutions just fits like a glove, as you see on slide eight. Thanks to the generations that came before as a Carrier, we have established market-leading positions globally. But when we spun, we had two strategic gaps, BRF, which we have now addressed with the acquisitions of Toshiba and Giwee and European residential light commercial heating, which we are now addressing with the premier asset in the space. These transformative moves position Carrier with market-leading positions now globally. So as we look at slide nine, you see the three primary rationales for this tremendously exciting acquisition. First, it is the most attractive market in our space globally.

Second, Viessmann Climate Solutions is the premier asset in that market. And third, it positions our portfolio to expand into integrated renewable offerings in a unique and differentiated way. So I'll address each of these three elements starting on slide 10, explaining why the market itself is so attractive. The megatrends that you see here are reshaping our industry. Climate change and sustainability, energy, security and the rapid adoption of green energy solutions accelerated by government, regulations and incentives. These secular trends are indeed global but are clearly most acute in Europe. Europe has long been out in front on sustainability. The Paris Agreement and the European Green deal set a target for a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Fit for 55, targeted 40% renewable energy in Europe by 2030, which was recently raised to 45%, when the EU passed REPowerEU following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. REPowerEU also aims to double the current rate of individual heat pumps to reach 10 million additional units over the next five years. Likewise, 17 European countries have announced or implemented bans on newly installed fossil fuel heating systems for homes, which has been supported by government subsidies. The result is the massive growth that you see on Slide 11. There are 8.5 million heat pumps in European homes, which is expected to increase 25% annually to 40 million by 2030. Residential battery sales are also projected to increase over 20% annually during this time frame with a double-digit annual increase in residential solar PV sales as well.

Carrier does not offer solar PV and home battery solutions today. So Viessmann Climate Solutions offering provide Carrier the perfect opportunity to pursue an incremental fast-growing annual TAM of $35 billion. The shift to heat pumps is unique and compelling given the mix-up opportunity that you see on Slide 12. First is the rapid adoption of heat pumps, from selling about one million per year, going up to 10 million per year in 2030. Now factor in the positive mix impact with heat pump selling for as much as 4x per unit compared to boilers. The result of that combination is that the EU residential heat pump market is expected to grow revenues 25% annually for the coming years. The opportunity is tremendous. So turning to Slide 13. Let me provide some additional color on why Viessmann Climate Solutions is the premier company in this space.

HVAC, Aircon

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Thanks to Professor Dr. Martin Viessmann, who represents the third generation of the founding family and his courageous move 30 years ago. Viessmann Climate Solutions is one of the very few companies in Europe that primarily sells directly to installers. 75,000 of them, with whom they have deep, long-standing relationships. This highly differentiated channel allows for best-in-class customer intimacy, rapid innovation in response to the customer desires and digital connectivity. Likewise, the Viessmann brand is iconic and highly trusted across Europe. It has often been compared to as the Mercedes of residential heating brands. During German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's most recent New Year's address, he singled out Viessmann as a shining example of the innovative side of Germany.

It has the highest ranked heating and energy brand in Germany and has been the most trusted OEM for almost two decades. The result, thousands of customers recognize and demand Viessmann climate solutions and are willing to pay a premium for it. Its excellent reputation is largely driven by its track record of product leadership and premier innovation as you see on Slide 14. Viessmann Climate Solutions has leaned in to the use of natural refrigerants and as heat pumps require 50% less floor space and installation time. They also developed a new integrated heating solution called Viessmann Invisible, a patented concept which optimizes space and aesthetics by integrating the heat pump, air handler, water tank and accessories into a decorative indoor panel.

They are at the digital forefront providing innovative heating as a service offerings and generating subscription-based recurring revenues. The result, outside top and bottom line growth as you see on Slide 15. We expect approximately 700 million of EBITDA on 4 billion of sales in 2023. Fast forward to 2025, we expect those numbers to increase to over 900 million and 5 billion respectively. That's double-digit top and bottom line growth and it's nothing new for them. They've done it in the last few years and we expect it to continue going forward. So best asset in the best market. What's equally exciting is that the combination positions Carrier to enter an entirely new market, given that Viessmann Climate Solutions has effectively established and ecosystem approach as you see on Slide 16.

Viessmann has done a masterful job of creating common and distinctive designs across its product portfolio, that all interact seamlessly with one another so the consumer becomes attached to its ecosystem with multiple interoperable products, digital and value-added services. Max Viessmann and his team have effectively implemented this strategy. Its solar PV battery, and heat pump systems can all be installed at different times, but are then seamlessly interconnected and interoperable, all underpinned by their common digital platform one base. One base gives the customer an easy, reliable and quick way to operate their energy system via an app. The platform bundles devices and electronic applications, into one single climate and energy solution for the home.

The beauty as you see on Slide 17, is that Viessmann Climate Solutions is the only company in the industry with such a comprehensive solution level offering. When you combine Viessmann Climate Solutions unique market position and breadth of offerings, with Carrier's technology and global channels, the opportunity for us to create unique value to our homeowner and other customers and importantly the planet is truly differentiated. Homeowners in Germany with boilers spend on average 2,200 per year, on gas heating. Switching to an electric key pump, can reduce the owner's cost by over 20% to 1,700 per year. If those same homeowners implemented a complete renewable solution, with solar PV, battery storage, heat pumps and an energy management solution with effective grid management and controls, they could -- annual heating bills by 60% to 80% to about 700 per year.

Those same owners same homeowners would also reduce their individual carbon footprint by about 50%. So the world continues to be more electrified, integrated solutions provide a step change in customer value and benefit to our planet. This broad suite of offerings, introduces a new addressable market to Carrier, as you see on Slide 18. Heat pump sells for about 4x the price of a boiler. When you add solar PV, battery and accessories and services, the installed price can be as high as 15 to 20x the installed price of a stand-alone boiler. The result is Carrier's ability to now pursue a 35 billion fast-growing market opportunity. The key to success is effectively integrating and coming together as one team. We have done it so effectively before, and I have no doubt that we'll continue to do it again, as we see here on Slide 19.

Viessmann Climate Solutions is a highly integrated successful well-run business. It has tremendous people, one ERP system, one brand, a deep well-established channel and a strong operations and innovation. We have been very impressed with Thomas Heim, Viessmann Climate Solutions CEO and his leadership team. Thomas will lead Carrier and Viessmann Climate Solutions, Center of Excellence for our combined residential and light commercial European business, which will continue to be headquartered in Allendorf, Germany. After completing the acquisition and business exits, the vast majority of our business will be HVAC. As a result, Chris Nelson and I have collaboratively agreed to streamline the organization. Our superb HVAC business leaders, will now report directly to me and Chris will be departing Carrier next month.

He has served the company for 19 years, so well, and we wish him nothing but the best. Another reason for confidence in the integration is how well our cultures align as you see on Slide 20. A passion for customers and results, unwavering commitment to our people values and purpose, innovation, community and a deep passion for the environment. Together, we will achieve important and compelling sustainability targets. We are aligned and cannot wait to move forward together as one team. Our base business case, includes the cost synergies that you see on Slide 21. We have identified 200 million of cost synergies the vast majority of which will be achieved by year three and we have a track record of over achieving our projections. On Toshiba, we committed to 100 million of synergies and we are tracking to do meaningfully better than that.

Viessmann Climate Solutions is a rapidly growing business, so this is not about employment reductions. Rather about 85% of the cost synergies are driven by procurement and in-sourcing. For example, we anticipate in-sourcing differentiated inverter drives from Toshiba, heat exchangers from our facilities in Spain and Poland as well as other components like rotary compressors and vents. Cost synergies are expected to increase Viessmann Climate Solutions margins by over 200 basis points within three years. There were also revenue synergy opportunities, which we have not included in our base estimates, such as introducing multi-tier offerings into Viessmann Climate Solutions channel and leveraging its digital ecosystem offerings and technologies more broadly across Carrier's channel.

Now I will turn it over to Patrick to take you through the transaction itself on Slide 22.

Patrick Goris: Thank you Dave. The enterprise value is 12 billion, which is about 13 times forecasted 2023 EBITDA assuming 200 million of run rate synergies. We are very pleased that the Viessmann founding family elected to take 20% of the transaction value in Carrier equity and that the family is making a long-term holding commitment. They share our excitement about the future -- the future value we believe this transaction will provide to our stakeholders. The number of shares are based on a VWAP prior to signing and are those fixed. The balance of the purchase price 9.6 billion will be funded through a combination of cash on hand and debt. With respect to cash we have $3.3 billion at the end of Q1 and we expect that to grow to about $4.5 billion by year-end excluding the impact of the acquisition since we paused share repurchases.

We have fully committed financing in place for about 7 billion and have hedged the cash portion of the euro-based purchase price. Given Viessmann Climate Solutions growth profile, the acquisition is expected to add over 100 basis points to Carrier's overall revenue and EBITDA growth profile. We expect a high single-digit free cash flow yield starting in year five. While the acquisition is expected to be adjusted net income accretive in 2024, we expect the acquisition to be adjusted EPS accretive starting in 2025, because of the additional shares outstanding. Retaining solid investment-grade credit ratings is very important to us. Yesterday Moody's, S&P and Fitch have reaffirmed our current investment-grade ratings following the announcement of this transaction.

Excluding proceeds from the business exits, we plan on deleveraging quickly following the transaction returning to about 2x net leverage in 2025 after which we expect to resume share repurchases. The timing and net proceeds of the business exits may of course accelerate the timing of both the deleveraging and the resumption of share repurchases. We expect to repurchase the equivalent number of shares issued to the Viessmann founding family as soon as we reach our target leverage. This could happen as soon as 2024. Finally, we remain committed to a sustainable and growing dividend and expect the transaction to close around the end of 2023.

David Gitlin: Well, thank you Patrick. So the $1.1 billion business that we are exiting at high single-digit EBITDA margins last year, we have invested significantly in restructuring and improving the margins of the business, which will significantly benefit the business going forward. We expect to exit this business over the course of 2024. To be clear, we are retaining our cold chain solutions and transport refrigeration business which includes truck, trailer, container, Sensitech sensors and our Lynx platform and all the related aftermarket and digital offerings. So in summary on slide 25. These moves position us as a higher top and bottom line growth company. Had we made these transformational moves three years ago, Carrier's revenue CAGR would have been 2x the rate that we indeed achieved, mid-teens rather than 8%, thus giving us confidence that we are transforming into a sustained higher growth profile company.

With Viessmann Climate Solutions, we are now positioning ourselves to be the Global Climate Solutions Champion. We are buying the premier asset in the premier market. We are standing by our commitment with our portfolio to be clinical and dispassionate and though we are selling tremendous franchises, the result will be a focused differentiated carrier that drives higher growth and returns for our shareholders and value for our employees and customers. And with that, we'll open this up for questions.

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Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH  Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 321,400 shares, an increase of 7.4% from the March 31st total of 299,200 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 175,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.8 days.

Banco de Chile Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE BCH traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $20.91. 18,801 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 176,696. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.89. The company has a market capitalization of $10.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.37. Banco de Chile has a 12 month low of $15.64 and a 12 month high of $22.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.02, a current ratio of 1.71 and a quick ratio of 1.52.

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Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 3rd. The bank reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $563.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $881.37 million. Banco de Chile had a net margin of 47.81% and a return on equity of 31.64%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Banco de Chile will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Banco de Chile Increases Dividend

Analyst Ratings Changes

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 30th. Investors of record on Friday, March 17th were given a $1.3688 dividend. This is a boost from Banco de Chiles previous annual dividend of $1.33. This represents a yield of 5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 16th. Banco de Chiles payout ratio is currently 49.54%.

Separately, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Banco de Chile in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $23.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Banco de Chile

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its position in Banco de Chile by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 35,078 shares of the banks stock valued at $730,000 after acquiring an additional 2,958 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its position in Banco de Chile by 138.2% in the 3rd quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,553 shares of the banks stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 1,481 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its position in Banco de Chile by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 11,439 shares of the banks stock valued at $238,000 after acquiring an additional 1,131 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in Banco de Chile by 96.9% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,764 shares of the banks stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 1,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Veriti Management LLC acquired a new stake in Banco de Chile in the 4th quarter valued at $679,000. 0.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Banco de Chile Company Profile

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Banco de Chile SA engages in the provision of banking services. It operates through the following segments: Retail, Wholesale, Treasury, and Subsidiaries. The Retail segment consists of consumer loans, commercial loans, checking accounts, credit cards, credit lines, and mortgage loans. The Wholesale segment includes corporate clients and large companies where the product offering focuses on commercial loans, checking accounts and liquidity management services, debt instruments, foreign trade, derivative contracts, and leases.

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Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP  Get Rating) (TSE:BIP.UN) have received an average rating of Moderate Buy from the nine brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $43.58.

Several analysts have recently commented on BIP shares. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating for the company. Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $47.00 to $45.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and issued a $47.00 price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research report on Thursday, April 13th.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BIP. Clear Street Markets LLC bought a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Pacifica Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 305.4% during the 1st quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 1,792 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 1,350 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 136.4% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,028 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 1,170 shares during the period. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC purchased a new stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the 1st quarter worth about $63,000. Finally, Power Corp of Canada purchased a new stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in the 1st quarter worth about $73,000. 57.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE BIP opened at $34.21 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $34.35. The firm has a market cap of $15.68 billion, a PE ratio of 244.36 and a beta of 0.89. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 1 year low of $30.03 and a 1 year high of $43.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP  Get Rating) (TSE:BIP.UN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The utilities provider reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.71 by ($0.74). The firm had revenue of $3.71 billion for the quarter. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 1.20%. On average, research analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.01 EPS for the current year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.382 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 27th. This is a boost from Brookfield Infrastructure Partnerss previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.53 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.47%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partnerss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 1,092.86%.

About Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

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Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP operates as an infrastructure company, which engages in the management of diversified portfolio of infrastructure assets that will generate sustainable and growing distributions over the long-term for unit holders. It operates through the following segments: Utilities, Transport, Midstream, and Data.

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CACI International Inc (NYSE:CACI  Get Rating)  Research analysts at William Blair upped their FY2023 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of CACI International in a note issued to investors on Thursday, April 27th. William Blair analyst L. Dipalma now forecasts that the information technology services provider will post earnings per share of $18.40 for the year, up from their prior forecast of $18.32. The consensus estimate for CACI Internationals current full-year earnings is $18.43 per share.

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Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Cowen increased their target price on CACI International from $313.00 to $330.00 in a report on Monday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on CACI International from $355.00 to $357.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. StockNews.com raised CACI International from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, 888 reissued a maintains rating on shares of CACI International in a report on Friday, April 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, CACI International has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $338.20.

CACI International Trading Down 2.4 %

NYSE:CACI opened at $308.70 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The businesss 50 day moving average is $296.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $297.66. CACI International has a 52 week low of $245.32 and a 52 week high of $319.33. The company has a market cap of $7.26 billion, a PE ratio of 19.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

CACI International (NYSE:CACI  Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 26th. The information technology services provider reported $4.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $4.64 by $0.28. CACI International had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 5.57%. The firm had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.66 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.64 EPS. CACI Internationals quarterly revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis.

Insider Buying and Selling at CACI International

In other CACI International news, Director William L. Jews sold 1,018 shares of CACI International stock in a transaction on Friday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.43, for a total transaction of $289,549.74. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,065 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,293,927.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.23% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CACI International

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its position in shares of CACI International by 1,046.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 375,387 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $97,998,000 after purchasing an additional 342,637 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of CACI International by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 317,684 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $95,492,000 after purchasing an additional 16,403 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its position in shares of CACI International by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 122,190 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $36,729,000 after purchasing an additional 13,482 shares during the period. Martingale Asset Management L P increased its position in shares of CACI International by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 63,099 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $16,474,000 after purchasing an additional 1,585 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of CACI International by 14.0% in the 1st quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 54,414 shares of the information technology services providers stock worth $16,122,000 after acquiring an additional 6,679 shares during the last quarter. 87.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About CACI International

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CACI International, Inc operates as holding company, which engages in the provision of information solutions and services in support of national security missions and government transformation for intelligence, defense, and federal civilian customers. It operates through the Domestic Operations and International Operations segment.

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Copa Holdings, S.A. (NYSE:CPA  Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,880,000 shares, an increase of 9.9% from the March 31st total of 1,710,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 392,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.8 days. Currently, 6.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Copa

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Copa by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 4,845,291 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $324,683,000 after buying an additional 63,179 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Copa by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,298,119 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $275,855,000 after buying an additional 297,595 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Copa by 67.5% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 808,205 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $67,218,000 after buying an additional 325,800 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Copa by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 625,226 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $51,999,000 after buying an additional 27,009 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Copa by 559.6% during the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 546,018 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $34,601,000 after buying an additional 463,244 shares in the last quarter. 75.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on CPA. StockNews.com began coverage on Copa in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They set a buy rating for the company. Cowen upped their price objective on Copa from $98.00 to $117.00 in a research note on Friday, February 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Copa from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and upped their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $132.00 in a research note on Friday, January 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Buy and an average target price of $112.13.

Copa Stock Performance

Shares of CPA stock opened at $89.81 on Wednesday. The businesss 50 day simple moving average is $90.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.35. Copa has a one year low of $55.25 and a one year high of $98.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.54 billion, a PE ratio of 10.39 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

Copa (NYSE:CPA  Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The transportation company reported $4.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.09 by $0.40. Copa had a return on equity of 24.49% and a net margin of 11.74%. The business had revenue of $890.61 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $887.42 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.98 earnings per share. The firms revenue was up 54.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Copa will post 11.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Copa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 5th were issued a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.65%. This is a boost from Copas previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 4th. Copas dividend payout ratio is presently 37.96%.

Copa Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Copa Holdings SA engages in the provision of air transportation. It operates through the following geographical segments: North America; South America; Central America; and Caribbean. The firm offers international flights to Costa Rica, Jamaica, Colombia, and other cities. The company was founded on May 6, 1998 and is headquartered in Panama.

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Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM  Get Rating) (TSE:AEM)  Cormark raised their Q2 2023 earnings per share estimates for Agnico Eagle Mines in a research report issued on Monday, May 1st. Cormark analyst R. Gray now forecasts that the mining company will post earnings of $0.48 per share for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $0.35. The consensus estimate for Agnico Eagle Mines current full-year earnings is $2.05 per share. Cormark also issued estimates for Agnico Eagle Mines Q3 2023 earnings at $0.48 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $0.48 EPS, FY2023 earnings at $2.02 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $2.62 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $2.83 EPS.

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A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on Agnico Eagle Mines in a research note on Monday, April 3rd. They issued an outperform rating for the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Agnico Eagle Mines in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Agnico Eagle Mines in a research report on Monday, April 3rd. They issued an outperform rating on the stock. National Bank Financial decreased their target price on Agnico Eagle Mines from C$89.00 to C$88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 14th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on Agnico Eagle Mines from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Agnico Eagle Mines currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $70.63.

Agnico Eagle Mines Stock Performance

NYSE AEM opened at $58.13 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $28.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 27.58 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 2.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $51.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.92. Agnico Eagle Mines has a twelve month low of $36.69 and a twelve month high of $60.25.

Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM  Get Rating) (TSE:AEM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 17th. The mining company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.02. Agnico Eagle Mines had a return on equity of 6.41% and a net margin of 40.12%. The business had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.46 earnings per share. Agnico Eagle Miness revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Agnico Eagle Mines

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT raised its holdings in shares of Agnico Eagle Mines by 7.4% in the first quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT now owns 5,353 shares of the mining companys stock worth $273,000 after buying an additional 369 shares during the period. Strategy Asset Managers LLC grew its stake in Agnico Eagle Mines by 9.9% in the first quarter. Strategy Asset Managers LLC now owns 7,636 shares of the mining companys stock worth $389,000 after purchasing an additional 686 shares in the last quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. grew its stake in Agnico Eagle Mines by 7.4% in the first quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 5,264 shares of the mining companys stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 364 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Agnico Eagle Mines by 7.4% in the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 8,172 shares of the mining companys stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 560 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Agnico Eagle Mines in the first quarter worth approximately $187,000. 58.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Agnico Eagle Mines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 1st will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.75%. Agnico Eagle Miness payout ratio is 31.50%.

Agnico Eagle Mines Company Profile

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Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. engages in the exploration and production of gold. It operates through the following segments: Northern Business, Southern Business, and Exploration. The Northern Business segment comprises of LaRonde mine, LaRonde Zone 5 mine, Lapa mine, Goldex mine, Meadowbank mine including the Amaruq deposit, Canadian Malartic joint operation, Meliadine project and Kittila mine.

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Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS  Get Rating) was upgraded by Piper Sandler from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research report issued on Monday, The Fly reports. The brokerage presently has a $271.00 target price on the real estate investment trusts stock, up from their previous target price of $242.00. Piper Sandlers target price would suggest a potential upside of 24.79% from the companys current price.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on ESS. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Essex Property Trust in a research report on Thursday, February 9th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Essex Property Trust in a research report on Wednesday, March 29th. They set an underweight rating and a $208.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a sector underperform rating to a sector outperform rating and set a $240.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $260.00 to $245.00 in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a market perform rating to an underperform rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $239.00 to $200.00 in a research report on Monday, April 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Essex Property Trust has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $248.33.

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Essex Property Trust Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of Essex Property Trust stock opened at $217.17 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $214.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $217.54. The company has a market cap of $14.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.75. Essex Property Trust has a fifty-two week low of $195.03 and a fifty-two week high of $325.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Essex Property Trust

Essex Property Trust Company Profile

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 24.8% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 2,261 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $781,000 after buying an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 88,915 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $30,718,000 after buying an additional 1,050 shares in the last quarter. Prudential PLC acquired a new stake in Essex Property Trust during the 1st quarter worth approximately $475,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,614,782 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $3,667,195,000 after buying an additional 184,047 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 53,635 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $18,530,000 after buying an additional 1,847 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.76% of the companys stock.

(Get Rating)

Essex Property Trust, Inc operates as a real estate investment trust. It engages in the ownership, operation, management, acquisition, development, and redevelopment of predominantly apartment communities. The company was founded by George M. Marcus in 1971 and is headquartered in San Mateo, CA.

Further Reading

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Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:FBIN  Get Rating) has earned an average recommendation of Hold from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $67.60.

Several brokerages recently commented on FBIN. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Fortune Brands Innovations from $70.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Friday, February 17th. Bank of America lowered Fortune Brands Innovations from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Monday, January 30th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Fortune Brands Innovations from $82.00 to $70.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Fortune Brands Innovations from $67.00 to $72.00 in a report on Friday, April 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered Fortune Brands Innovations from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $63.00 in a research report on Friday, January 13th.

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Fortune Brands Innovations Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE FBIN opened at $63.11 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.01 billion, a PE ratio of 13.90, a P/E/G ratio of 5.72 and a beta of 1.50. The companys 50-day moving average is $59.21. Fortune Brands Innovations has a fifty-two week low of $49.51 and a fifty-two week high of $77.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

About Fortune Brands Innovations

Fortune Brands Innovations ( NYSE:FBIN Get Rating ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 26th. The company reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.10. Fortune Brands Innovations had a return on equity of 26.73% and a net margin of 9.32%. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.31 EPS. The companys quarterly revenue was down 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortune Brands Innovations will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc manufactures and supplies home and security products and services. The company operates through the following segments: Cabinets, Plumbing, Outdoors & Security. The Cabinets segment manufactures custom, semi-custom, and stock cabinetry, as well as vanities, for the kitchen and bath.

Further Reading

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Prologis (NYSE:PLD  Get Rating) and Vestin Realty Mortgage I (OTCMKTS:VRTA  Get Rating) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, risk and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Prologis and Vestin Realty Mortgage I, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

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Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Prologis 0 2 17 1 2.95 Vestin Realty Mortgage I 0 0 0 0 N/A

Prologis currently has a consensus price target of $143.90, indicating a potential upside of 17.49%. Given Prologis higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Prologis is more favorable than Vestin Realty Mortgage I.

Profitability

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Prologis 41.06% 5.53% 3.61% Vestin Realty Mortgage I N/A N/A N/A

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Prologis and Vestin Realty Mortgage Is net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

This table compares Prologis and Vestin Realty Mortgage Is top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Prologis $5.97 billion 18.93 $3.36 billion $3.31 37.00 Vestin Realty Mortgage I $2.44 million 0.90 -$650,000.00 N/A N/A

Prologis has higher revenue and earnings than Vestin Realty Mortgage I.

Volatility & Risk

Prologis has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vestin Realty Mortgage I has a beta of 1.56, indicating that its stock price is 56% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

75.8% of Prologis shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Prologis shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.2% of Vestin Realty Mortgage I shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Prologis beats Vestin Realty Mortgage I on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Prologis

(Get Rating)

Prologis, Inc. engages in providing logistics solutions and services. It operates through the Real Estate and Strategic Capital segments. The Real Estate segment includes rental operations and development. The Strategic Capital segment represents the management of co-investment ventures and other unconsolidated entities. The company was founded by Hamid R. Moghadam in 1991 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

About Vestin Realty Mortgage I

(Get Rating)

Vestin Realty Mortgage I, Inc. invests in loans secured by real estate through deeds of trust or mortgages in the United States. It also invests in, acquires, manages, or sells real properties. The company was formerly known as Vestin Fund I, LLC. Vestin Realty Mortgage I, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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StockNews.com upgraded shares of Holly Energy Partners (NYSE:HEP  Get Rating) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

HEP has been the subject of several other reports. Raymond James upped their price target on Holly Energy Partners from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, January 23rd. Barclays raised their target price on Holly Energy Partners from $17.00 to $18.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 10th.

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Holly Energy Partners Stock Performance

NYSE HEP opened at $16.13 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $17.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $18.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The company has a market cap of $2.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.11 and a beta of 0.90. Holly Energy Partners has a 1-year low of $15.12 and a 1-year high of $20.00.

Holly Energy Partners Announces Dividend

Holly Energy Partners ( NYSE:HEP Get Rating ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 24th. The pipeline company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.02. Holly Energy Partners had a return on equity of 23.88% and a net margin of 39.60%. The company had revenue of $142.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $148.10 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.43 earnings per share. The firms revenue was up 20.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Holly Energy Partners will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 1st will be issued a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 28th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.68%. Holly Energy Partnerss dividend payout ratio is presently 79.10%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of Holly Energy Partners by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 43,810 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $719,000 after buying an additional 1,446 shares in the last quarter. Tiedemann Advisors LLC increased its stake in Holly Energy Partners by 36.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tiedemann Advisors LLC now owns 76,179 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $1,250,000 after buying an additional 20,266 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Holly Energy Partners in the 3rd quarter worth about $170,000. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System bought a new position in Holly Energy Partners during the 4th quarter worth about $196,000. Finally, CFM Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Holly Energy Partners during the 4th quarter worth about $644,000. 25.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Holly Energy Partners Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Holly Energy Partners LP engages in the business of operating a system of petroleum product and crude pipelines, storage tanks, distribution terminals, and loading rack facilities. It operates through the Pipelines and Terminals, and Refinery Processing Unit segments. The Pipelines and Terminals segment includes petroleum products, crude pipelines and terminal, tankage, and loading rack facilities.

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Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW  Get Rating) had its price objective cut by equities research analysts at Barclays from $205.00 to $203.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, The Fly reports. Barclayss price target would indicate a potential downside of 13.39% from the companys current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. UBS Group lifted their price target on Illinois Tool Works from $213.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. StockNews.com began coverage on Illinois Tool Works in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a buy rating for the company. Credit Suisse Group increased their target price on Illinois Tool Works from $259.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Illinois Tool Works from $250.00 to $227.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 13th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Illinois Tool Works from $232.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $228.50.

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Illinois Tool Works Stock Performance

Shares of ITW stock opened at $234.39 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $71.45 billion, a PE ratio of 23.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $234.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $227.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. Illinois Tool Works has a 52-week low of $173.52 and a 52-week high of $253.37.

Insider Buying and Selling

Illinois Tool Works ( NYSE:ITW Get Rating ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 2nd. The industrial products company reported $2.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.23 by $0.10. Illinois Tool Works had a return on equity of 87.15% and a net margin of 19.04%. The firm had revenue of $4.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.98 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.11 EPS. Illinois Tool Workss revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Illinois Tool Works will post 9.5 EPS for the current year.

In related news, CEO Ernest Scott Santi sold 235,656 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.29, for a total transaction of $58,039,716.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 213,538 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $52,592,274.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Illinois Tool Works news, Vice Chairman Christopher A. Oherlihy sold 60,137 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.26, for a total value of $14,809,337.62. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 40,072 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $9,868,130.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ernest Scott Santi sold 235,656 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.29, for a total transaction of $58,039,716.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 213,538 shares in the company, valued at $52,592,274.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Illinois Tool Works

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,392 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $318,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC now owns 1,366 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $301,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Bank OZK grew its position in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Bank OZK now owns 5,065 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $915,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank grew its position in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 1,277 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $281,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arjuna Capital grew its position in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 5,986 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,319,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. 79.83% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Illinois Tool Works Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Illinois Tool Works, Inc engages in the manufacture of industrial products and equipment. It operates through the following segments: Automotive OEM, Test and Measurement and Electronics, Food Equipment, Polymers and Fluids, Welding, Construction Products, and Specialty Products. The Automotive OEM segment produces components and fasteners for automotive-related applications.

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KuicK Research

More Than 800 Cancer Antibodies Are In Clinical Trials In China Says Kuick Research

Delhi, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- China Cancer Antibodies Market Trends & Clinical Trials Insight 2023 Report Highlights:

China Cancer Antibodies (Monoclonal, Bispecific, Trispecific, Tetraspecific) Market Trends & Sales Insight

Insight on More Than 800 Cancer Antibodies In Clinical Trials In China

Insight on More Than 30 Cancer Antibodies Commercially Approved In China

Clinical Trials Insight By Phase, Indication, Location, Companies, Licensee, Mono/Combination Therapy Approach

Clinical Overview & Patent Insight

Brand Name & Approved Orphan Designation information

China Pharmaceutical Sector Regulatory Affairs & Policies Outline

Insight On 50 Companies Involved in Development Of Cancer Antibodies In China

Download Report:

https://www.kuickresearch.com/report-china-cancer-antibodies-market-size

China has emerged as one of the predominant clinical research and development epicenter leading the development of cancer antibodies in the global pharmaceutical industry landscape. In order to remain relevant and competent in the industry, Chinese researchers and pharmaceutical companies have tried to encapsulate all developments happening on the global landscape in the regional market as well. This has led to the entry of multispecific antibodies in Chinas pipelines at various drug development stages. The Chinese clinical researchers have been meticulously conducting studies and clinical evaluation for different multispecific antibodies in the country, which has led to the development of world-class products that are now competing with multispecific antibodies on the global scale.

Following the success and acceptance of monoclonal antibodies in the international market, researchers took this a step forward and developed multispecific antibodies out of which, many bispecific antibodies have gained regulatory approvals in China as well. Following the same path, Chinese homegrown companies were quick to adapt to these changes and have developed and introduced similar bispecific antibodies in their domestic pipelines. Currently, Akeso, Tasly Biopharmaceuticals, Xuanzhu, YZY Biopharma, Alphamab and Innovent Biologics are some major drug developers in China that have bispecific candidates in their pipelines that are under clinical evaluation.

Story continues

Tetraspecific antibodies are another kind of multispecific antibody, which are under research and development. China-based Sichuan Baili Pharmaceutical, and its subsidiary SystImmune based in the US, pioneered the development of tetraspecific antibodies. The companies have four tetraspecific antibodies in early phases of clinical evaluation with one namely GNC-038 progressing into phase II trials for the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma. The positive clinical outcome of these 4 candidates have stirred up the development of tetraspecific antibodies globally and many candidates are now in development or under preclinical investigation.

Multispecific antibodies have shown their clinical benefits over the years in different indications and with rising competition in the global market, Chinese pharmaceutical companies have been riding the wave. Many companies have achieved regulatory milestones for their candidates that have demonstrated excellent anti-cancer effects in certain cancer indications. In October 2022, Akeso received the Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) from Chinas drug regulatory authority National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for its candidate Ivonescimab (AK112), a bispecific antibody directed towards the PD-1 and VEGF for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who have been resistance to previous treatment with immuno-oncology drugs. Ivonescimab has been developed using Akesos proprietary tetrabody technology and is the only drug candidate having the designation for PD-(L)1 resistance lung cancer treatment in China.

Though the country has pioneered the clinical evaluation of tetraspecific antibodies, bispecific antibodies have been dominating the clinical development pipelines in the region. This is understandable because the lack of tetraspecific antibodies in the global pharmaceutical market makes it a risky field to venture and invest in. However, with efforts from Sichuan Baili Pharmaceutical and SystImmune, this is expected to change soon. Moreover, with Chinese pharmaceutical companies boasting of their technically advanced proprietary platforms, more of these are anticipated to make use of such platforms to develop additional multispecific antibodies for different indications having different formats.

Though the concept of multispecific antibodies was devised first by the non-Chinese companies, but the researchers and drug developers in China have now commenced the development of these in the domestic market as well. Monoclonal antibodies still dominate the antibodies segment of China, but this is slowly changing as more companies are investing in the development of bispecific antibodies now. Comparable with the international market, the research on trispecific and tetraspecific antibodies has been slow in China; however, Sichuan Baili potentially has the research capabilty to overturn this as it slowly makes progress in clinical trials. Many market drivers are now fueling the market for multispecific antibodies in China in addition to the development and rising competition in the international market. Moreover, with the increasing funding and research, and clinical collaborations taking place in the market, China is anticipated to become the next hotspot for the development of multispecific antibodies in coming years.

CONTACT: Contact: Neeraj Chawla neeraj@kuickresearch.com https://www.kuickresearch.com




StockNews.com started coverage on shares of International Tower Hill Mines (NYSE:THM  Get Rating) in a research note published on Sunday. The firm issued a sell rating on the stock.

International Tower Hill Mines Price Performance

NYSE:THM opened at $0.54 on Friday. International Tower Hill Mines has a fifty-two week low of $0.38 and a fifty-two week high of $0.92.

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International Tower Hill Mines Company Profile

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International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. is a mineral exploration company, which engages in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties. It holds the right to acquire interest in an advanced stage exploration project in Alaska, known as the Livengood Gold Project. The company was founded by Jeffrey A.

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StockNews.com cut shares of KB Financial Group (NYSE:KB  Get Rating) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Saturday morning.

Separately, Bank of America cut their target price on shares of KB Financial Group from $55.38 to $46.15 in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st.

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KB Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of KB opened at $36.61 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $37.07 and a 200-day moving average of $38.88. KB Financial Group has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $49.17. The company has a market cap of $14.97 billion, a PE ratio of 4.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.83, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.73.

Institutional Trading of KB Financial Group

KB Financial Group ( NYSE:KB Get Rating ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 2nd. The bank reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter. KB Financial Group had a net margin of 17.90% and a return on equity of 12.87%. The company had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts forecast that KB Financial Group will post 9.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of KB Financial Group by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 18,979 shares of the banks stock valued at $927,000 after purchasing an additional 378 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in KB Financial Group by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,419,748 shares of the banks stock worth $69,327,000 after acquiring an additional 23,138 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in KB Financial Group by 19.4% during the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 18,669 shares of the banks stock worth $911,000 after acquiring an additional 3,032 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in KB Financial Group by 57.9% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 8,795 shares of the banks stock worth $429,000 after acquiring an additional 3,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in KB Financial Group by 17.5% during the 1st quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 720,294 shares of the banks stock worth $35,226,000 after acquiring an additional 107,023 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 5.80% of the companys stock.

KB Financial Group Company Profile

(Get Rating)

KB Financial Group, Inc engages in providing financial services through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following segments: Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, Other Banking Services, Credit Card, Life Insurance, Investment and Securities business. The Corporate Banking business segment provides services such as loans, overdrafts, deposits, credit facilities and other foreign currency activities.

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Sunnova Energy International Inc. (NYSE:NOVA  Get Rating)  Analysts at Northland Capmk reduced their Q2 2023 earnings estimates for shares of Sunnova Energy International in a note issued to investors on Thursday, April 27th. Northland Capmk analyst A. Sinha now expects that the company will earn ($0.63) per share for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of ($0.31). The consensus estimate for Sunnova Energy Internationals current full-year earnings is ($1.16) per share. Northland Capmk also issued estimates for Sunnova Energy Internationals Q3 2023 earnings at ($0.40) EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at ($0.14) EPS and FY2023 earnings at ($1.86) EPS.

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NOVA has been the topic of several other research reports. Capital One Financial reiterated an overweight rating on shares of Sunnova Energy International in a research note on Tuesday, March 21st. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Sunnova Energy International from $28.00 to $35.00 in a report on Friday, April 28th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Sunnova Energy International from $35.00 to $31.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 14th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Sunnova Energy International in a report on Thursday, March 2nd. They set a sector outperform rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Finally, B. Riley cut their price target on shares of Sunnova Energy International from $32.00 to $31.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $34.95.

Sunnova Energy International Stock Down 5.6 %

NOVA stock opened at $16.26 on Monday. Sunnova Energy International has a 12 month low of $12.46 and a 12 month high of $31.47. The firm has a market cap of $1.87 billion, a PE ratio of -9.34 and a beta of 2.08. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.02, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Sunnova Energy International (NYSE:NOVA  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 26th. The company reported ($0.70) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.58) by ($0.12). Sunnova Energy International had a negative net margin of 30.75% and a negative return on equity of 13.71%. The company had revenue of $161.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $159.54 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.30) earnings per share. The companys revenue was up 146.0% on a year-over-year basis.

Insider Activity at Sunnova Energy International

In related news, insider Kelsey Hultberg sold 2,400 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.03, for a total value of $33,672.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 19,974 shares of the companys stock, valued at $280,235.22. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 4.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sunnova Energy International

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Flputnam Investment Management Co. increased its holdings in Sunnova Energy International by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. now owns 43,714 shares of the companys stock worth $787,000 after buying an additional 1,087 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Sunnova Energy International by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 23,808 shares of the companys stock valued at $526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,879 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in Sunnova Energy International in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $842,000. NinePointTwo Capital LLC purchased a new position in Sunnova Energy International in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $340,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Sunnova Energy International by 362.9% in the 3rd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 296,163 shares of the companys stock worth $6,539,000 after purchasing an additional 232,186 shares in the last quarter.

Sunnova Energy International Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Sunnova Energy International, Inc operates as a residential energy service provider. It offers solar energy systems, electric vehicle chargers, and home solar protection. The company was founded by William Jackson Berger in 2012 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

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Nuveen New York AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NRK  Get Rating) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, May 1st, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.034 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, June 1st. This represents a $0.41 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 12th.

Nuveen New York AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NRK traded down $0.01 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $10.32. 30,380 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 157,457. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $10.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $10.35. Nuveen New York AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund has a twelve month low of $9.38 and a twelve month high of $11.80.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nuveen New York AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Nuveen New York AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $130,000. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in Nuveen New York AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $146,000. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC boosted its holdings in Nuveen New York AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 14,725 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $163,000 after purchasing an additional 980 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Nuveen New York AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Finally, Susquehanna International Group LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Nuveen New York AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund during the 4th quarter worth approximately $265,000.

About Nuveen New York AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund

Nuveen New York AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed-end investment trust. Its investment objectives is to provide current income exempt from regular federal income tax and the alternative minimum tax applicable to individuals and to enhance portfolio value. The company was founded on July 29, 2002 and is headquartered in Chicago, IL.

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Old Mutual Limited (LON:OMU  Get Rating)s stock price shot up 0.4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as GBX 51.40 ($0.64) and last traded at GBX 50.40 ($0.63). 488,763 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 46% from the average session volume of 333,840 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 50.20 ($0.63).

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Barclays decreased their price objective on Old Mutual from GBX 62 ($0.77) to GBX 60 ($0.75) and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 7th.

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Old Mutual Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of 2.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 720.00 and a beta of 1.15. The companys fifty day simple moving average is GBX 51.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is GBX 52.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 96.32, a current ratio of 0.44 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

Old Mutual Increases Dividend

Old Mutual Company Profile

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 13th will be issued a GBX 2.27 ($0.03) dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 4.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 13th. This is a positive change from Old Mutuals previous dividend of $1.25. Old Mutuals dividend payout ratio is currently 5,714.29%.

(Get Rating)

Old Mutual Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides financial services primarily in South Africa and rest of Africa. The company operates through Mass and Foundation Cluster, Personal Finance and Wealth Management, Old Mutual Investments, Old Mutual Corporate, Old Mutual Insure, and Rest of Africa segments.

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PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (OTCMKTS:BKRKF  Get Rating) was downgraded by investment analysts at HSBC from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued on Monday, The Fly reports.

PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk Stock Performance

Shares of OTCMKTS:BKRKF opened at $0.34 on Monday. PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia has a 52 week low of $0.25 and a 52 week high of $0.35. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $0.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $0.30.

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About PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk

(Get Rating)

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PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk is a holding company, which engages in the provision of financial services. It operates through the following segments: Micro Business, Retail Business, Corporate Business, and Subsidiary Business. The Micro Business segment offers banking products and services to individual and micro entrepreneurs.

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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (OTCMKTS:SSNLF  Get Rating)s share price reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $40.60 and last traded at $40.60, with a volume of 0 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $40.60.

Samsung Electronics Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $5.24 billion, a PE ratio of 15.15 and a beta of 0.88. The businesss 50-day moving average is $40.60 and its 200 day moving average is $40.60.

Samsung Electronics Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd. engages in the manufacturing and selling of electronics and computer peripherals. The company operates through following business divisions: Consumer Electronics, Information Technology & Mobile Communications and Device Solutions. The Consumer Electronics business division provides cable television, monitor, printer, air-conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and medical devices.

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Houston American Energy Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:HUSA  Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 545,000 shares, a decrease of 12.3% from the March 31st total of 621,600 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 190,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days. Currently, 5.8% of the companys stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HUSA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Houston American Energy in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a sell rating for the company. TheStreet downgraded shares of Houston American Energy from a c- rating to a d+ rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 14th.

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Houston American Energy Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of NYSEAMERICAN:HUSA traded down $0.08 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $2.13. 132,925 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 181,058. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $3.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $3.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 24.58 and a quick ratio of 24.57. Houston American Energy has a 12-month low of $2.09 and a 12-month high of $8.60.

Institutional Trading of Houston American Energy

About Houston American Energy

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Houston American Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $89,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Houston American Energy by 186.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 384,546 shares of the oil and gas exploration companys stock valued at $1,707,000 after acquiring an additional 250,200 shares in the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Houston American Energy during the 1st quarter valued at $441,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Houston American Energy by 293.0% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 48,185 shares of the oil and gas exploration companys stock valued at $214,000 after acquiring an additional 35,925 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp acquired a new position in Houston American Energy in the 1st quarter worth $138,000. 12.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

(Get Rating)

Houston American Energy Corp. engages in the development, exploration, exploitation, acquisition, and production of natural gas and crude oil properties. It holds interest in the Texas Permian Basin, the onshore Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast region and in the South American country of Colombia. The company was founded on April 2, 2001 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

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StockNews.com downgraded shares of Nokia Oyj (NYSE:NOK  Get Rating) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on NOK. Raymond James reduced their price objective on Nokia Oyj from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 21st. DNB Markets downgraded Nokia Oyj from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th. TheStreet raised Nokia Oyj from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 8th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Nokia Oyj from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $5.73.

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Nokia Oyj Stock Down 1.4 %

NYSE:NOK opened at $4.10 on Friday. Nokia Oyj has a 1 year low of $4.07 and a 1 year high of $5.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market cap of $23.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.19, a PEG ratio of 5.42 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $4.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.67.

Nokia Oyj Increases Dividend

Nokia Oyj ( NYSE:NOK Get Rating ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 19th. The technology company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.03). Nokia Oyj had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.57%. The business had revenue of $5.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.74 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.08 earnings per share. The firms revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Nokia Oyj will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 25th will be paid a $0.0329 dividend. This represents a $0.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. This is a boost from Nokia Oyjs previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 24th. Nokia Oyjs dividend payout ratio is presently 10.13%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of NOK. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its position in Nokia Oyj by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 121,224 shares of the technology companys stock worth $518,000 after purchasing an additional 5,565 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of Nokia Oyj in the 3rd quarter worth about $16,575,000. Profund Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Nokia Oyj by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 88,401 shares of the technology companys stock worth $410,000 after acquiring an additional 11,086 shares in the last quarter. Tegean Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Nokia Oyj in the 3rd quarter valued at about $641,000. Finally, Waterfront Wealth Inc. grew its stake in shares of Nokia Oyj by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. now owns 280,866 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $1,254,000 after buying an additional 11,903 shares during the period. 7.57% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Nokia Oyj

(Get Rating)

Nokia Oyj engages in the provision of network infrastructure, technology, and software services. It operates through the following segments: Mobile Networks, Network Infrastructure, Cloud and Network Services, and Nokia Technologies. The Mobile Networks segment offers technologies for Radio Access Networks (RAN) as well as Microwave Radio Links (MWR) for transport networks.

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U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GOAU  Get Rating)s share price rose 3.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $19.73 and last traded at $19.73. Approximately 30,828 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 7% from the average daily volume of 32,981 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.11.

U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF Stock Performance

The firms 50 day moving average price is $17.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.26. The company has a market cap of $104.59 million, a P/E ratio of 8.94 and a beta of 0.99.

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Institutional Trading of U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF

A hedge fund recently bought a new stake in U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF stock. Bard Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GOAU  Get Rating) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 129,700 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,331,000. Bard Financial Services Inc. owned approximately 2.45% of U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF as of its most recent SEC filing.

About U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF

The U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF (GOAU) is an exchange-traded fund that mostly invests in materials equity. The fund tracks an index of 28 precious metal mining firms listed in the US, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong or South Africa. Holdings are selected by fundamental factors and weighted in fixed tiers.

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Dublin, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "2022 Herbals - Tmall & Taobao, China E-commerce Market Data" database has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Are you interested in unlocking insights into the rapidly growing China ecommerce market for herbal supplements?



The data subscription service provides you with valuable information on consumer behavior and preferences, top-selling product categories and brands, pricing strategies, trends, and more. With The data, you can make informed decisions about market entry, product development, and marketing optimization that can help you succeed in this highly competitive industry.



Whether you're a startup looking to break into the market or an established business seeking to expand your reach and grow your profits, the China ecommerce data subscription for health supplements is a powerful tool that can help you stay ahead of the curve.



The analyst acquires product level data for each platform on a weekly basis, including sales volume, price, promotion, brand, store, link and other available information, and aggregates it by month. All the data is carefully processed, classified and tagged with a selection of over 4000 brands, functions, ingredients, target users, formats, packaging, and country of origin labels.



You will be able to access the data through Qlik Sense, a powerful web-tool that gives you access to the data to explore trends and market drivers, and deep dive into brands, companies, stores, segments and product details.

This is facilitated by four select dashboards which include Segments, Executive Summary, Performance Drivers and Category Details. All dashboards can be filtered through the main filters or based on your search and selections across dashboards.



Segments dashboard: Easily see the performance over time of your category and sub-categories and explore ingredients, function, format and other trends.



Executive Summary dashboard: Provides brand performance at a glance. Always have key metrics at your fingertips and understand how the market and competitors are changing.



Performance Drivers dashboard: Your cheat-sheet for all things brands. Expands upon the Executive Summary with more details. Understand who wins and who loses and what pricing strategy your competitors are driving.



Category Detail dashboard: Explore parent companies, brands, stores and individual items in detail. Product level information includes product name, store, price, volume, value, platform link, etc.



Data reporting in other forms, such as monthly Excels, dedicated reports, API access are available as upgrades upon request.



This data product provides monthly data for 2022.



Data Specification

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Category: Herbals



The Herbals category consists of the following sub-categories: General Herbals; Alfalfa; Apple Cider Vinegar; Black Cohosh; Ginseng; Green Tea; Lecithin; Mulberry; Mushroom; Spirulina; Turmeric



Platform: Taobao, Taobao Global, Tmall, Tmall HK.



Timeframe: January 2022 to December 2022. Monthly Data.



The analyst is a data service and ecommerce intelligence provider specializing in the Health and Wellness Sector.



Key Topics Covered:



Monthly data for the respective category and subcategory (if available):

Product Name

Shop Name

Price

Sales Volume

Sales Value

Platform

URL

Tags - Brand

Function

Ingredient

Country of Origin

Format

Package

Target User

Web portal to access data with following dashboards:

Segments

Executive Summary

Performance Drivers

Category Detail

A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes

Renhe Group Co. Ltd.

Allnature Pharm

Tongren Tang

China Resources Shenghai Health Technology Co. Ltd.

Pillbox

Korea Ginseng Corp. Esmond Natural

Green-A

Rxon

Jzjt

H&H

Jamieson Wellness

Chongqing Shanren Bioengineering Co. Ltd.

Fancl

Xiuzheng Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd.

Health Spring

Mega Nutrition Life

Hpgc

Anhui Caoshanhu Biotechnology Co. Ltd

Perfect

Wxyz

Xiangyun Yansong

Greenstorm

Beijingchenghaihu

Joincare

Ntipodean Pharmaceuticals

Inc. Mkule

Blackmores

Bai He

Now Foods

Gaungyao

By-Health

Conba

Jilin Northeast Changbaishan Health Food Co. Ltd.

Gold Partner

Gnc

Golden Sun

Herbsense

Hong Fu Loi

Mellin

Homecare

Lys Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Svelty

Xian Zhi Lou

Kakoo

Nestle

Aotu Technology Limited

Encare

Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Holdings Company Limited

Ziguang Technology

Jilin Aodong Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd.

Kang Long Group Corp

Jiangxi Xiushui Miraculous Tea Industry Co. Ltd

Jiangsu Yuchenyuan Biotechnology Co. Ltd

Purasana

Isdg

Huiren

Xingjiu Industry Co. Ltd.

Life Extension

Yue Qing

Joy Life

Hk Yoke Co. Limited

East Hubei Trade

Hjynzwzy

Jiyantang

Nature's Care

Nutrition Care

Xiamen Kingdomway Group Company

Vivatime

Zeebeyroy

Artemis

Folotto

Zk

Sunfly

Rongmingxuan

Shankayou

Fdsw

Wright Life

Hangzhou Huqingyutang Group Co. Ltd.

Nvone

For more information about this database visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/xknkdj

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




(Bloomberg) -- Chinese financial data providers have recently stopped providing detailed information on the nations companies to overseas clients, underscoring the growing difficulty foreign firms face when trying to obtain data that Beijing may deem sensitive.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Wind Information Co. in recent months ended allowing clients using its platform outside mainland China from accessing its corporate registry database, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The change is due to regulatory requirements, and other parts of their service are continuing as normal, they said, declining to be identified because the matter is sensitive.

Investors operating in China are facing a more challenging environment despite Beijings push to improve ties globally. US consultancy firms are under the spotlight in particular, with authorities in recent weeks targeting the China offices of Bain & Company, Mintz Group and Capvision, according to media reports. The government last month passed a new counter-espionage law that expanded the list of activities that could be considered spying, intensifying the risks for foreign firms.

The move underscores the CCPs building of a new wall to the rest of the world, said George Magnus, author of Red Flags: Why Xis China is in Jeopardy, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. In decades of private sector and academic research, Ive stumbled into occasional publishing problems with sensitive governments, but never come across sensitive governments shutting down or restricting access to domestic data sources.

Wind collects data on more than 200 million enterprises and 270 million legal representatives and executives, according to its website. It has information about company shareholders and affiliates, fundraising and investing activities, legal disputes and operation risks.

Story continues

Registry databases at Qichacha and TianYanCha  companies that provide similar services  have also been inaccessible for some time to users outside mainland China, according to several other people.

More than 10 overseas users of Wind contacted by Bloomberg said they could still access other data from Wind apart from the corporate registry database, and didnt have problems renewing subscriptions to the service. The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that some unidentified foreign firms, including think tanks and research firms, were unable to renew subscriptions to Wind over what the company described as compliance issues.

Dont Bother Investing in China Unless Youre Chinese: Shuli Ren

Wind and TianYanCha didnt respond to email requests sent to addresses listed on their websites. A representative for Qichacha didnt respond to a request for comment. The Cyberspace Administration of China didnt respond to two phone calls and a fax. The nation is still on holiday for Labor Day.

Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, also offers data and information to the financial services industry.

Scrutiny of US consultancies is increasing. Police visited the Shanghai office of Capvision, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing four unidentified people familiar with the matter. Bain confirmed last week that Chinese authorities questioned staff at its Shanghai office, without revealing details on the nature of the investigation. In the most extreme case so far, all five of Mintzs local staff were detained during a raid, the New York Times reported in March.

Office Raids

The increasing pressure on foreign companies operating in China appears to run counter to Beijings efforts to improve diplomatic ties in the wake of the countrys reopening. Premier Li Qiang  the countrys No. 2 behind President Xi Jinping  vowed in March to establish a broad space for international companies to develop there. China has welcomed a host of leaders and business delegations, including from Germany and France. Last month, Chinas Politburo urged greater efforts at boosting foreign investment.

Global investors have turned more cautious on the country, despite improving economic fundamentals. The MSCI China Index is down about 16% from its January peak, while MSCI Inc.s global index is little changed in the same period.

Foreign Executives in China Ask Whos Next? After Bain Probe

Concern about transparency of information in the worlds second-largest economy has grown, undermining the investing case. Last October, the government postponed the release of several major economic reports, including gross domestic product figures, without providing a reason for the delay. The World Health Organization repeatedly called for China to be more open about the Covid situation within its borders.

China has tightened control over its domestic financial industry since the National Peoples Congress in March, when Xi unveiled a set of reforms aimed at deepening oversight of the private sector and key strategic industries.

The financial sector is a pivotal component of Chinas national security, in President Xi Jinpings view, said Diana Choyleva, chief economist at Enodo Economics, a London-based research firm focused on China. With a comprehensive regulatory overhaul approved at the NPC in March, the supreme leader aims to assume full control of Chinas sprawling financial industry.

--With assistance from Tom Hancock, Bei Hu and Charlotte Yang.

(Updates throughout with additional detail, quotes and context.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
According to the World Health Organisation, a cease-fire was declared after another collapsed, throwing Africas third-largest country into chaos. As the battle for control of Sudan enters its fourth week and health rapidly deteriorates in the capital, Khartoum, fears are growing that the conflict could be deadly in the bleak aftermath of the brutal fighting.

The Sudanese Medical Association has warned that a complete collapse of the health care system could occur within days. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), hospitals were bombed and two-thirds of hospitals in Khartoum were closed. Officials said more than a dozen medics had died. Hidden victims are also dying of various diseases as basic health care is lacking, said Dr. Abdullah Atia, executive director of the Medical Association. We receive a lot of calls every day: Where shall I go?, he said.

The New York Times had reported millions of civilians are stilltrapped. The ceasefire, allowing civilians to flee, ends at midnight on Sunday, January 30, 2023, and the Rapid Support Forces led by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagolo  who is widely known as Hemedti announced it would extend its humanitarian aid, but another day of fighting was reported in the three-day truces capital. On Sunday, Sudanese forces which agreed to extend the ceasefire accused the Rapid Support Forces of violating the ceasefire and occupying hospitals.

As the situation escalated, the UN Secretary-Generals office said it had immediately sent Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. The scale and speed of what is unfolding is unprecedented in Sudan, Secretary-General Spokesman Stefan Dujarric said. As the situation worsened, many countries had rushed to evacuate their citizens by any means necessary. In the midst of all these, The Sudan Ministry of Health could not be found anywhere, and the doctors association received little support from the government with little contact.

According to eyewitnesses and officials, the sanitation facility was used by the militants as a defensive position. Officials also said paramilitary groups had taken over the national laboratory. Like others, Dr. Atia, who spoke by phone from Khartoum to correspondence of the New York Times by phone from Khartoum, said samples of diseases like malaria and tuberculosis could become weapons of death if they fell into the wrong hands.

Another problem, he added, was the uncollected bodies in the morgue and other bodies on the streets. The Medical Association later said in a statement that more and more corpses were strewn about on the streets, causing catastrophe to the environment. Hundreds of paramedics have fled, and rumors are circulating that rapid support forces are kidnapping paramedics and forcing them to use weapons to treat wounded personnel. Dr. Atia said the abduction was not confirmed, but dozens of Sudanese doctors association members were missing.

The lack of medical staff with little manpower to deal with the situation is even worsening; Only eight medical staff remain in Al Ban Jadid Hospital in eastern Khartoum which normally employs at least 400 people. Dr Atia said there were four people working at Al Joda Hospital in Khartoum in the south: an anaesthetist, a surgeon, and two nurses. However, glimmers of hope have been offered by some NGOs.

On the way from Jordan to Sudan Port, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced on Sunday that eight tons of medical supplies were being delivered, while MedecinSans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) said it had donated medical supplies to three hospitals in Khartoum. In a statement, Patrick Youssef, African Red Cross regional director, said Health care workers in Sudan have been doing the impossible, caring for the wounded without water, electricity and basic medical supplies,

At a field hospital in Al Mamoura, Dr. Mohamed Karrarimprovised an intercostal drainage system using a sterilised soda bottle to pump blood from the punctured lung of a gunshot victim. Working long shifts in the trauma ward of the now closed Ibrahim Malik University Hospital in central Khartoum has helped him prepare, but now Dr. Karrar must deal with the noise of war coming from his room. Guests home are now turned into an operating room. I know Im in danger in these areas, he said, but those sick, wounded people need me. In al-Nada, medics and patients hid under beds and tables several times a day to avoid aerial bombardment and heavy artillery fire. Dr. Mohamed Pars, who was present at the scene, said everyone was so nervous that the sound of the oxygen tanks opening scared the staff.

At the start of the conflict, a private agency Al-Nada decided to treat only pregnant women and children in order to provide shelter to a handful of more than 24,000 women. According to WHO, these people should give birth in the next few weeks. Dr. Fath said 220 babies were born here in the first weeks of the war, most of which survived. He said a woman had travelled to a war zone and barely made it to the emergency room. Her husband showed Dr. Fath the bullet holes in his car. They have to go through this hell to get to the hospital, said Dr. Fath. Neighbours seeking help come to Dr. Start ringing his doorbell. Now, according to him, he is preparing medicine at home and hiding in his car.

Waking Up the Nigeria Healthcare

On the one hand, we should realise that this country is all we have. And that when our ship breaks down elsewhere, we can only return home safely; Its one thing to have the japa idea and another to have a safe and secure Nigeria to always return to. This is by no means obvious and therefore the territorial integrity and internal security of our country should always be at the top of our list of priority national concerns.

Another lesson is that Nigerian battle drummers are considering indiscriminate destruction of life and property in Sudan, if only to ease their hearts and linger for a while. War never really solved anything; it only creates problems that can only become a reality in the years to come. The headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces was once an operational organisation. Today it has turned into hideous ruins. The beautiful city of Khartoum is abandoned. Everyone is terrified, hiding in fear, longing for the sweet release of peace. Another lesson is the futility of inciting separatism.

Sudan and South Sudan were once a country until they parted ways in 2011 after southern Sudan voted for independence following decades of armed struggle by the mainly Christian and Animist south against rule by the Arab Muslim north. Neither country has been at peace ever since, with both contending with further rebellions that have exerted a heavy toll on their respective population.

In regard to the health sector, adequate funding is essential for the untold day of a well-functioning health system. Its lack thereof negatively impacts service delivery in any health system, including primary healthcare. Nigeria must prioritise its primary healthcare system including its financing mechanisms. In addition to capital allocation, it is important to ensure timely disbursement as well as efficient and transparent use of allocated funds.

At this point, it is essential that the federal government and stakeholders design a solid framework for the use of funds and have sustained advocacy for funds to be directed toward health. The sugary drink tax could be a win for public health, a win for public revenue, and a win for health equity. However, public awareness is also needed to ensure consumers are aware of the adverse effects of sugary drinks, and evidence from other countries that have imposed similar taxes on sugar shows that the price of higher sugar intake had a greater impact on reduced consumption.

This which is a common factor is the brain drain of medical professionals - is a matter of immediate concern. The pandemic, although not a new development, has accelerated the rate at which healthcare workers leave Nigeria, not even yet in warring circumstances. Health worker retention rates will continue until the drivers of healthcare worker migration, promotions, wage increases and quality of life improvements are not addressed.
The Labour Party has urged Nigerians to disregard the activities of the factional group of the party led by Lamidi Apapa.

The party also spoke against plans to hold illegal National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Bauchi by the factional caucus.

The Acting National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, said this at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja tagged Labour Party on the Developments in the party particularly on the illegal NEC meeting holding in Bauchi.

Ifoh thanked Nigerians for keeping faith with the party in its quest to reclaim the mandate given to it by the people through the tribunal.

We also learnt though painfully that there will always be a judas in every twelve and in our own case, it is about six of our former leaders who are now suspended.

A suspended Deputy National Chairman, choosed to betray the worthy course of reclaiming Nigeria by selling their conscience to the devil and made money their mammon.

As I address you now, six of them, in furtherance of the directives from their paymasters, are meeting in Bauchi for a fake and unlawful National Executive Council (NEC).

Surprisingly, this is coming barely two weeks after the party held its very successful NEC meeting in Asaba, Delta that was attended by all NEC members including the 36 state chairmen, secretaries and all members of the NWC, he said.

Ifoh held that the NEC was attended by most of the elected members of the national assembly, leaders and presidential candidate of the party, trustees including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC).

Seated here in this hall are all the state chairmen of our party across all the 36 states and FCT.

Only last night, all our 36 member-elect of the House of Representatives and our eight Senator-elect were represented in a caucus meeting held with the National Working Committee.

Then again, I ask? who are these NEC members that will attend their jamboree in Bauchi, he was saying.

Ifoh said that article 13:2A of LPs constitution was clear on the composition of the NEC, which included state chairmen and secretaries and all other officers.

We have it on good authourity that their sponsors are leaving nothing to chance and have vowed to continue to instigate crisis in Labour Party with the intention of benefiting from the instability which they hope will affect the partys case at the tribunal, he said.
The Nigerian Senate has appealed to the Centre for Criminal Court in United Kingdom for clemency in the sentencing of Nigerias former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice.

The plea is coming barely 48 hours before the the UK Court delivers judgement on case involving the former Deputy Senate President and his wife.

Recall that Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, were convicted of conspiring to exploit a street trader of his kidney in the first such case under modern slavery laws.

The couple told the court that the organ was for their daughter, Sonia, aged 25, and they were convicted with a verdict expected on May 5.

Intervening ahead of the sentencing, the Senate in a motion by the Minority Whip, Chukwuka Utazi, on Wednesday, pleaded for mercy and leniency.

Senator Utazi cited Orders 10 and 11 to seek the leave of the Senate to request clemency on behalf of Ekweremadu and two others.

Utazi said, Senator Ike Ekweremadu as a former Deputy Senate President for 12 years and the former Speaker of Economic Community Of West African States Parliament and considering the enormous contributions he did make in the development of democracy in Nigeria and West Africa and beyond.

They are seen as first offenders and they do not have any previous criminal records, considering that Ekweremadu was ignorant of seeking out a kidney donor to come to the United Kingdom and even applying to British Government in Abuja for a visa for the donor.

He added, The Senate is not happy with the conviction of the Ekweremadus and ignorance of the law is not an excuse, but they were faced with these circumstances in a bid to save their dying daughter Sonia.

The Senate is joining in the plea by asking for Clemency in the coming sentencing two days away. That Clemency may be extended to the Ekweremadus considering that all of the convicts are first offenders.

Utazi noted that since the matter was in the United Kingdom, a novel approach to the sentencing of convicts is adopted by tempering justice with mercy, as the publicity already given to the trial was enough warning to the would-be offenders in the future.

He noted, That considering the long history of good relationship existing between Nigeria and the British government and considering that this is the first time that the Senate is making this kind of plea to the British government to yield to our request for Clemency for the Ekweremadus in their sentencing.

On a similar note, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, supported his colleague stating that the Senate had taken a number of steps previously to intervene in the issue. The Senate then pleaded for clemency.

Lawan said, Let me reiterate what our colleague here has presented to us. Distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremadu served as Deputy Senate President for 12 years.

He has brought in so much effort to the development of Parliaments in Africa and across the world and he has never been found wanting and therefore what has happened is very unfortunate and very sad.

I have written a letter to the British Judicial Authorities about two-three weeks ago seeking clemency on behalf of the Senate. I signed the letter and have it delivered to the authorities in the United Kingdom.

Lawan added, We are now using this particular intervention to seek clemency in the sentencing. The conviction has already been done but we are seeking Clemency because this is the first time our Colleague is getting involved in this kind of thing.

I want to commend Distinguished Senator Chukwuka Utazi for bringing up this issue and let me conclude by seeking tempering justice with mercy by the British Judicial Authorities that when it comes to sentencing, they should consider that this is the first time ever that Distinguished Senator Ekweremadu will be facing this kind of situation.
Two American Universities, Triune Biblical University Extension, New York, USA and Prowess University, Delaware recently hosted a joint convocation and Honorary Doctorate Award ceremony at the campus of the University of Lagos,Nigeria.

The event was put together in partnership with Leadtimes African Magazine attended by many top Scholars, prominent dignitaries in Nigeria and Diaspora as well and the graduands, awardees and their friends.

Cross section of guest during the convocation

Professor Gerald Ndubuishi Okeke a renowned University don officiated the event on behalf of Prof.Daniel Durujiaye Adeleke the President/Chancellor of TBU Global Extension University, USA.

In his address, he advised the graduands and awardes to effectively utilize the huge knowledge they received in the institutions for the development of humanity and service to God.

The University don urged them to also be a good example and ensure positive behaviour both in character and learning in their daily lives.

Evangelist Vincent Ezima, the lead convocation speaker in his lecture titled: 'Enhancing Accelerated Capacity Building through Good Governance in Leadership ' .

PROF.GERALD NDUBUISHI OKEKE, the officiating professor during the convocation event

Evangelist Ezima stated that the activities and conduct of good leadership must impact positively for the development of that organisation and society at large.

He also stressed that the graduands must show capacity in skills and always respect the law, be humble in service, show love to everyone and above all be God fearing in any environment they find themselves.

However, the graduands of TBUGLEX-USA were also recognized for their hard works and commitment throughout their studies which earned them a place of honour in the institution.

Cross section of University Dons during the event

Moreover, the event also featured the conferment and presentation of honorary Doctorate degrees to distinguished individuals from both TBUGLEX-USA as well as Prowess University, making history in the process.

Amb.General(Dr)Godwin George Umo, OON led other DISTINGUISHED awardes while Dr Mrs Olajide Oluwafunmilola was one of the representatives of TBU Global Extension University, USA during the convocation ceremony.
Firehouse Subs Cobourg owner Pritvanti Patel is showing her appreciation to Northumberland Hills Hospital (NHH) nurses by extending National Nurses Week throughout May.

In a recent release, it states that some of the ways Patel is celebrating  and donating to  the hospitals nurses are:

 On May 8, Patel is donating and hand-delivering 50 meals to nurses working the night shift at NHH.

 From May 8 through 14, NHH team members who show proper proof of employment, such as an ID badge, can enjoy a free medium drink and their choice of chips with the purchase of a medium or large sub.

 15 per cent of sales will be donated to the Northumberland Hills Hospital Foundation throughout May when any guest shows the special certificate to the cashier.

For Patel, its all about celebrating and honouring hard-working health-care heroes.

I am honoured to celebrate National Nurses Week all month long for our neighbours at Northumberland Hill Hospital, said Patel, in the release. The month of festivities planned is to show my extreme gratitude for all of the hard-working health-care heroes, who provide expert care to our community and save lives daily.

As the local operator of the Cobourg restaurant since September 2021, Patel is dedicated to sharing the brands commitment to giving back through Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation of Canada, which has granted more than $2.5 million to hometown heroes in Ontario, reads the release.

Firehouse Subs Cobourg is at 1111 Elgin St. W. For more information, call 905-372-0313.

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A former Peterborough woman has been placed on probation for a pair of thefts in 2021.

The woman pleaded guilty to two counts of theft under $5,000 in the Ontario Court of Justice in Peterborough on Tuesday, May 2.

According to the agreed statement of facts, the woman and a man were observed by a loss prevention officer in Greg's No Frills in downtown Peterborough on August 4, 2021 filling a cart with groceries.

The woman was also seen loading a bag with steaks and bacon before leaving the store without paying for the items. The officer attempted to stop the woman in the parking lot but she dropped the bag of meat and fled, court heard.

No Frills reported to police that the beef and pork products were a complete loss due to spoiling and cost the company about $150.

Through surveillance, the woman was identified and arrested.

Further, the woman was arrested and charged again about a month later after she stole items, including sunglasses, from a vehicle at a downtown business. The vehicle was also damaged in the theft, and the owner was out around $650 between the loss of the stolen items and the damage.

As part of her suspended sentence, the woman was placed on 12-months probation and ordered to pay restitution.

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With the heating season almost at a close, its a good time to take stock of your homes energy use. How much electricity did you use over the winter? What about natural gas, propane, or fuel oil? Do you know how much greenhouse gas your home emitted this winter?

A new community greenhouse gas emissions inventory was recently completed by staff at the City of Peterborough. This inventory gives a more elaborate picture of what actions we must do as a community to meet our climate targets.

As of 2021, our homes have contributed to 23 per cent of Peterborough-Nogojiwanongs total greenhouse gas emissions. Our homes account for 114,779 tonnes of CO2 annually. Locally, only on-road transportation emits more.

Emissions from the residential sector have decreased by about 12,500 tonnes from 2011 levels, but residential emissions still need to go down by about 45,000 additional tonnes of CO2 to meet the 2030 climate target. This means a reduction of over 2 tonnes of CO2 for every single detached or semi-detached home in Peterborough.

The good news is that there is a tremendous opportunity for homeowners to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In our area, 82 per cent of homes were built more than 30 years ago, when there were less stringent building codes. Simple retrofits like topping up attic insulation can reduce a homes emissions by 10 per cent or more.

However, to meet these ambitious targets, well need to do more than what simple retrofits can offer. Most homes in Peterborough emit between 5 and 8 tonnes of CO2 annually, depending on age, insulation levels, and heating type. To meet our targets, many homes will need to conduct deep retrofits. A deep retrofit will reduce energy use by 50% or more.

The latest community greenhouse gas inventory revealed the extent of emissions produced by housing in Peterborough. Deep energy retrofits are needed to lower the energy demand of homes, says Coun. Joy Lachica, chair of the citys environment and climate change portfolio.

Deep retrofits consist of three elements: 1) improving the building envelope, 2) updating mechanical systems, and 3) adding renewable energy.

Eric Ta is the energy co-ordinator at Green Communities Canada, a national non-profit working to expand deep retrofits in Canada. As a homeowner, a deep energy retrofit can improve the comfort, durability, and indoor health of your home, while lowering maintenance and monthly utility costs, they say.

Deep energy retrofits will increase the overall future value of your home.

A deep retrofit first focuses on improving the building envelope. This means adding insulation to attics as well as to walls, sloped ceilings, and basements. Improving the envelope also means making the home more airtight, so that less warm air is leaking to the outside in winter. To do this, you repair or replace windows, weatherstrip doors, and seal up cracks and holes in the building.

Alex Joseph, the senior manager of deep energy retrofits with Green Communities Canada explains the next two steps of a deep retrofit: Once your building envelope is airtight and insulated, then the mechanical system can be upgraded. The added benefit is that these systems can be smaller due to the reduced heating and cooling load. Consider adding solar to your roof or yard where space exists. Solar systems are modular and can be added in stages and installed and connected as funding permits.

Electric air-source heat pumps are a popular choice for many homeowners that wish to upgrade their mechanical systems. A heat pump can drastically reduce a homes emissions from heating and cooling and is the most efficient choice for heating your water.

If youre thinking about undertaking a deep retrofit on your home, there are supports available.

The Home Efficiency Rebate Plus program offers grants up to $10,000 for Enbridge customers to install measures such as insulation, air sealing, heat pumps, and solar panels (up to $5,000 for non-Enbridge customers). The Canada Greener Homes Loan offers a $40,000 interest-free loan to further assist with upgrades.

In addition, the City of Peterborough is in the process of developing the Home Energy Efficiency Program, which will provide additional low-interest loans to support deep retrofits.

GreenUP believes that these programs, and the homeowners who choose to undertake deep retrofits, are exactly the type of leadership we need to reduce our residential emissions.

The Home Energy Efficiency Program will help guide homeowners through the renovation journey and direct them to select third-party financing or property tax repayment methods to fund the retrofit. Once launched, the Program can support many Peterborough homeowners to access capital to undertake extensive energy renovations that will lower utility costs and greenhouse gas emissions, says Councillor Lachica.

To be eligible for any of these programs, the first step is to book an EnerGuide home energy assessment with GreenUP (https://www.greenup.on.ca/home-energy). A registered energy adviser will assess your homes energy use, perform a blower door test, and provide recommendations for how best to upgrade your home to reduce energy and emissions.

Over the next several months, GreenUP will be covering the elements of deep retrofits in greater detail online, over the news, and with engaging webinars.

Learn more about the need for deep retrofits in the Peterborough- Nogojiwanong area at our upcoming webinar on May 12 from 12:15 to 1 p.m. or by registering here: https://www.greenup.on.ca/event/your-home-made-energy-efficient-deep-retrofits/.

Clara Blakelock is a program manager and registered energy adviser at GreenUP. Learn more at greenup.on.ca.

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The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is officially on strike for the first time in 15 years, and theyve brought their writing talents to the picket line.

Hundreds of screenwriters and supporters flooded to the Los Angeles and New York headquarters of major media companies in time with the guilds strike, which kicked off Tuesday afternoon.

The work stoppage was called after negotiations with the group representing major studios and streaming services broke down Monday night. In a statement, the WGA said the studios responses were wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing.

Signs at the WGA strike

Aside from the chants and snappy shirts, picketers arrived armed with clever, striking and hilarious signs. I told ChatGPT to write a picket sign and it sucked, one read. My pronouns are: Pay/Me, wrote another.

Heres a sampling of our favourites.

Meanwhile, TV host and writers guild member Adam Conover made an appearance on CNN Tuesday, during which he lambasted David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery which owns the news network, for making $250,000,000 last year.

Thats about the same level as what 10,000 writers are asking him to pay all of us, collectively, Conover said.

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As thousands of writers set down their pens and take to the picket lines south of the border, Canadas Hollywood-infused film industry is watching closely.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and its more than 11,000 member screenwriters are officially on strike for the first time in 15 years, citing issues with pay, concerns over AI automation, shrinking writers rooms and more.

Experts say script-less U.S. productions filming in Canada could soon be delayed or shuttered, causing the loss of thousands of Canadian jobs. Given enough time, however, Hollywood may start buying up Canadian productions to get around the strike.

Heres what you need to know.

U.S. productions in Canada first to be impacted

Without their American writers, the many U.S. productions filming in Canada may soon have to cancel or delay shooting, according to Alex Levine, a screenwriter and president of the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC).

These shows are written by American writers and American showrunners, but produced and crewed here in Canada, shot on our locations, shot on our soundstages, Levine said. All of those shows are going to stop when they run out of scripts.

This will impact the hundreds of thousands of Canadian workers, Levine continued. In 2020, foreign investment into Canadian film production topped $6 billion, accounting for almost half of the industrys contribution to Canadas GDP that year. That same year, global productions in Canada employed over 129,000 Canadians.

In fact, we do more (work on U.S. productions in Canada) than we do Indigenous or domestic production, which is unfortunate, Levine said. So all of the Canadians that work on those shows, whether its the Teamsters that drive the trucks, the art department, wardrobe, makeup, everybody who works on that show  and theres a lot of Canadians working on those shows  will be out of work.

Dave Forget, the executive director at the Directors Guild of Canada, said: For now, U.S. service productions already in progress remain active right across Canada  but we are closely monitoring the possibility of delays or shutdowns on some shows.

Could Canadian writers take U.S. union jobs?

While its possible some Canadian writers might head south to fill the jobs of striking colleagues, workers in the industry say its unlikely  it could hurt their future job prospects.

Its been made pretty clear to everyone that if you decide to go and take union jobs down there while theyre on strike, people will remember that, said Ian MacIntyre, a Toronto-based TV and animation writer who worked on shows like Inspector Gadget and DeGrassi: Next Class.

And while MacIntyre hasnt heard of anyone being officially blacklisted over the action, it will be frowned upon for sure.

At the same time, I havent heard of anyone I know seriously discussing doing that, he added.

Levine is similarly unconcerned: (The WGA) is our sister guild and we support them and are in solidarity with them. We have told our membership not to take struck work, not to query, to pitch or to work for American companies that the Writers Guild of America is on strike with.

American broadcasters may buy up Canadian content

The U.S. industry may buy up Canadian content for American TV, should the strike last long enough, said Daniel Keyes, an associate professor of cultural studies and media studies at UBC Okanagan. He said theres historical precedence.

This would benefit Canadian producers as it always has, historically, if the strike is prolonged, Keyes told the Star. For example, during the 2007 WGA strike, American broadcasters bought up Canadian productions to fill empty timeslots and get around the job action.

Historically, shows come here because of a strike, and then they find with the weak Canadian dollar and various tax credits that its cheaper to stay here and produce here  and they remain, Keyes said.

Levine expects some of that to happen again, but noted most Canadian shows these days already have a U.S. partner, and are shown on American networks.

Its not going to be like it was, where productions that only aired in Canada are suddenly bought up by American broadcasters, he continued. But you may find broadcasters showing more of those shows to fill up empty timeslots, as well as more international programming shown on American TV, Levine said.

How are Canadian unions reacting?

Canadian film unions, from the Writers Guild to numerous Directors Guilds, are supporting the WGA. Theyre striking over issues (relevant) for us in Canada as well, and in fact are issues writers face globally. So we support them  but we are not striking in solidarity.

The WGC has a separate agreement with producers than the WGA, which they will be negotiating at the end of the year. Levine said theyll bring up some of the issues highlighted by the WGA, and that theyre seeing how (the WGA is) approaching these negotiations and were hoping that theyll be successful.

According to MacIntyre, its a tough grind to be a TV writer here in Canada  but we always assumed if youre a writer down in L.A., youre making money hand over fist.

It turns out that the reality is, over the last decade, its increasingly rare that (writers) can even make ends meet.

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Long term investing can be life changing when you buy and hold the truly great businesses. While the best companies are hard to find, but they can generate massive returns over long periods. Don't believe it? Then look at the Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) share price. It's 384% higher than it was five years ago. If that doesn't get you thinking about long term investing, we don't know what will. On top of that, the share price is up 24% in about a quarter. This could be related to the recent financial results, released recently - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.

Since the stock has added US$7.5b to its market cap in the past week alone, let's see if underlying performance has been driving long-term returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Chipotle Mexican Grill

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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.

During five years of share price growth, Chipotle Mexican Grill achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 41% per year. This EPS growth is reasonably close to the 37% average annual increase in the share price. Therefore one could conclude that sentiment towards the shares hasn't morphed very much. Indeed, it would appear the share price is reacting to the EPS.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Chipotle Mexican Grill shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 42% over the last year. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 37%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. 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 instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Chipotle Mexican Grill that you should be aware of.

Story continues

Chipotle Mexican Grill 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 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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The art of getting along continues to be tricky. It may seem like everyone has their own agenda and is unwilling to work together. With emotions heightened, we're encouraged to take a cool, diplomatic approach to handling any issues that crop up. For those of us who often go above and beyond in helping others, exercising healthy boundaries may be helpful today. On the flip side, there may be those of us who may need a little more practice with compromising and teamwork. Either way, we should do our best to stay clear of petty drama.

ARIES

(March 21 to April 19)

Open communication and co-operation are the keys to working through any family or relationship tension. Take a grown-up approach.

TAURUS

(April 20 to May 20)

You might have a lot going on. You can free up your schedule by prioritizing what's really important and putting everything else on the back burner.

GEMINI

(May 21 to June 20)

If you're shopping today, try to limit your purchases to stuff you really need. Aside from that, don't feel pressured to prove yourself to anyone. Sit firmly in your power.

CANCER

(June 21 to July 22)

Your patience might be running thin today. If you're overwhelmed, get some support and some rest.

LEO

(July 23 to Aug. 22)

Don't get too far ahead of yourself as you work toward your goals. Take it one step at a time.

VIRGO

(Aug. 23 to Sept. 22)

You may be feeling the urge to help others or go to bat for a friend. For now, focus on yourself and what you need.

LIBRA

(Sept. 23 to Oct. 22)

You might be feeling quite ambitious, but you run the risk of overdoing it. Take time out to get centred, refocused and emotionally fed.

SCORPIO

(Oct. 23 to Nov. 21)

Anxiety or worrying could be an issue today. Talking your thoughts through with someone you trust could be calming for you.

SAGITTARIUS

(Nov. 22 to Dec. 21)

You can't be everything to everyone, but you can be true to yourself. And that's what is most important.

CAPRICORN

(Dec. 22 to Jan. 19)

Are you giving yourself enough credit for how hard you work or how much you do for others? If you're not, start now.

AQUARIUS

(Jan. 20 to Feb. 18)

You may need to think twice about jumping into a new commitment. There may be important information or details that you're missing. Hold off for now.

PISCES

(Feb. 19 to March 20)

Don't rush a new relationship. Consider if this is someone you want around for a while. Too, if you're in need of some warmth and affection, connect with friends.

FOR TODAY'S BIRTHDAY

You're protective of your loved ones, and you're energized by the close bonds that you share with others. You're unfazed by emotional vulnerability, as you tend to wear your heart on your sleeve. You're also fearless and ambitious. You don't hesitate to jump into action when faced with a challenge or when going after a goal. Your take-charge attitude is something that people admire about you. You roll up your sleeves, and you get the job done. This year, if there's any aspect of your life that you're feeling "blah" about, you'll have an opportunity to improve it.

BIRTHDATE OF:

Cheryl Burke, dancer/television host; Amy Ryan, actress; Dule Hill, actor.

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Q Im a 24-year-old male looking to start my life over. I was an unruly teenager. I was mean to girls and into every drug I found. I drank a lot, slept a lot and avoided school, though I didnt flunk out.

My parents werent helpful; my mom is a functioning alcoholic and my dad travels for work but never seems to make ends meet. They fight about money, his travel and her drinking.

I couldnt wait to leave their house and go out on my own. I signed up for university, chose a program because the prettiest girls were in it and moved into residence. My parents helped financially on the condition I kept my grades up.

I didnt, they stopped the cash flow and I dropped out. I found work in bars and construction and lived with friends until I could afford rent. Ive been on my own for five years. Ive matured, stopped all the drugs (though I still drink for fun), and Im a much nicer person.

I think Id like to go back to school but Im not sure for what, how Ill afford it and if its the right thing for someone my age. Id love your advice.

Starting over

A At 24, youre not starting over, youre starting a new chapter. Yes, you started the road most travelled, hit a few too many potholes and got derailed. Thats OK. In fact, many would suggest that starting university at 24  when you have a much better idea of who you are and how you want your life to look  is the better route.

Since theres no pressure on you, I suggest taking time to do your research. Talk to a guidance/career counsellor. Its possible to find an unaffiliated one online. They can help you narrow down the multitude of options out there.

Once youve found a few programs that interest you, and schools that offer these programs, look at the financials including housing. Ask about financial assistance through scholarships, grants or aid. Since youre paying, youre going to want to consider your options carefully.

And then go for it! I think its fantastic you have the courage and confidence to face the world head-on.

Q My husband and I divorced years ago. Since then, I have had many relationships. Some lasted years, others only months. But I havent found someone to last forever. I had a long-term boyfriend in high school, another in university and then met my husband in grad school. We married and had two children before his mental health took over and our marriage dissolved.

Ive tried to be the best parent possible, especially since my ex was incapable of maintaining his relationship with the children. My children have suffered, from the divorce, the misunderstood abandonment and their own inherited mental health issues.

Theyre now older, independent, but still live at home. I have a good job, own my own home, keep myself fit and healthy. Why arent I meeting the right guy?

Disillusioned and lonely

A Youve been through a lot and you still have a full plate. Its time you make time for yourself, to look within and figure out who you are and what you want out of life.

If being outdoors is where you feel happiest, for example, join a local hiking club where youll meet like-minded people . and their friends. Create an online dating profile with as much as specifics as you comfortably can. For example, your dating range, your goal (not looking for one-nighters), your deal-breakers (pets, smokers, religion, etc.).

Be open to trying new things and meeting new people. I cant guarantee anything, but if you keep looking, you should find who youre looking for.

FEEDBACK: Regarding the woman who loses her friend whenever shes not around (March 20):

Reader 1: Does this writer even know what the neighbour does when not at the farm? Have they even bothered to ask? Just knowing could provide an answer. It could also open the possibility of further shared interests.

Lisi: I love this! You make a very good point. Knowing what her friend does when shes in the city could have a huge impact. She may understand much better why the friend disappears. And, as you also suggested, it could lead to more of a connection between them.

Reader 2: She sounds overly dependent on this one friend. She needs to cultivate new friendship(s)!

She should be encouraged to broaden her horizons by seeking out new friendships through the local church(es), volunteer work, and/or getting involved in community activities during the time her only friend is away in the city.

Ellie Tesher and Lisi Tesher are advice columnists for the Star and based in Toronto. Send your relationship questions via email: ellie@thestar.ca or lisi@thestar.ca

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Just in time for spring, when tree and flower pollen become the bane of existence for allergy sufferers, doctors are warning that there could be another reason for those red, itchy eyes: COVID-19.

The new, fast-spreading COVID variant XBB.1.16, also known by its nickname Arcturus, has experts concerned that it may be associated with the appearance of pink eye, or conjunctivitis, a swelling of the thin invisible membrane that covers the white part of the eye.

While XBB.1.16 has not yet been conclusively linked to pink eye, doctors say anecdotal evidence seems to suggest those infected with the new variant, particularly children, may experience fever in combination with conjunctivitis.

Pink eye generally doesnt produce an ill child, says Dr. Phil Hooper, president of the Canadian Ophthalmological Society and an ophthalmologist at Western University in London. They have runny eyes, they rub their eyes, they look terrible but they still see well, they still play and interact in a usual fashion.

Pink eye associated with a fever and the child being unwell, thats unusual and should prompt concern.

Hooper adds that if youve been in a setting where COVID has been reported or your child has been in contact with a person with COVID or who develops the virus, and then you or your child develop pink eye and seem to be unwell, that would be a bit of a red flag.

XBB.1.16, an offshoot of Omicron, was first detected in January and was designated a variant of interest two weeks ago by the World Health Organization. The variant is projected to cause just over 22 per cent of new infections in Ontario by May 3, up from just 5.2 per cent in mid-April, according to Public Health Ontario.

South of the border, the spread of Arcturus has been steadily rising over the past two months and currently makes up about 12 per cent of all COVID cases detected in the United States.

Its growth is due to its ability to out-compete other existing variants, including the last major Omicron descendent XBB.1.5, or Kraken, which up until Arcturus, was considered the most transmissible Omicron subvariant so far.

A preprint study by researchers at the University of Tokyo suggests Arcturus is about 1.17 to 1.27 times as infectious as Kraken.

Late last week, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said observational data suggests people infected with Arcturus may be more likely to experience conjunctivitis as a symptom of their COVID infection, along with more traditional COVID symptoms, such as fever, cough and shortness of breath and that residents should be aware that red, itchy eyes may be a sign of COVID.

These symptoms should not be simply dismissed as a result of pollen or seasonal allergies, especially if someone more vulnerable to severe illness could be exposed, the department said on April 27.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology is cautioning parents not to hit the panic button if their child has pink eye, which is a common infection.

Lots of things can cause conjunctivitis, such as colds, different viruses and bacteria, said Dr. Sonal Tuli, clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, in a statement. Without a swab, we cant confirm that the reported eye symptoms were really caused by the coronavirus.

The Academy noted that pink eye in COVID patients isnt unheard of. Citing studies from previous waves, it noted that pink eye did occur in adults with COVID at a rate of about one to three per cent.

Dr. Dina Kulik, pediatrician and founder of KidCrew Medical, a multidisciplinary childrens health clinic in Toronto, says she has seen a lot of patients recently who have tested positive for COVID at home and also have pink eye. She notes, however, that the pink eye infection could be unrelated to COVID.

COVID from the get-go has never been one-size fits all. Lots of people are asymptomatic completely, some people have sore throats, some people have coughs, some people have fever, some people have stomach-flu symptoms, she says, There is a lot of pink eye going around in the community so with this rise in this new Omicron strain, its possible that some of these kids have COVID.

The good news is that Arcturus does not seem to cause more severe illness than previous variants, a fact borne out in public health indicators, such as hospitalizations, ICU admissions and wastewater signals, which do not appear to be rising at present, says Dr. Fahad Razak, an internist at St. Michaels Hospital and an associate professor at the University of Toronto.

It also probably reflects the fact that were entering warmer weather, when a decrease in the general spread of respiratory viruses starts to occur, he says. So youre probably seeing a few factors come together.

Kenyon Wallace is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @KenyonWallace or reach him via email: kwallace@thestar.ca

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VATICAN CITY (AP)  The Holy Sees No. 2 official confirmed Wednesday the existence of a Vatican peace mission to try to end Russias war in Ukraine, days after Pope Francis raised eyebrows with an offhand revelation of a secret operation that was already underway.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, expressed surprise that officials in both Russia and Ukraine claimed ignorance of the Vatican initiative when they were asked about Francis comments. Speaking on the sidelines of a book launch Wednesday, Parolin said that both capitals had been informed, Vatican News reported.

Based on my knowledge, they know, but you know how it is, in bureaucracies it could be that communications that are supposed to arrive dont arrive, Parolin was quoted as saying. These are just my interpretations, but I know that both parties were informed.

Francis revealed the existence of a Vatican mission on Sunday night during a news conference en route home from a weekend visit to Hungary. During his three days in Budapest, Francis held private meetings with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has maintained relations with Moscow, as well as with the former foreign envoy of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has strongly supported the war.

Francis was asked during the news conference if either Orban or Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church could help facilitate Vatican mediation to try to end the war.

You can imagine that in this meeting we didnt only talk about Little Red Riding Hood, right? Francis replied.

He repeated his willingness to do whatever it takes to end the war. Also, there is a mission going on now, but it is not public yet. Lets see how ... When it is public I will talk about it, he said.

Parolin confirmed Francis comments, though he spoke of a mission in the future tense, not of one already underway.

Parolins comments came as Francis on Wednesday greeted the current foreign envoy of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Anthony, at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peters Square. Parolin stressed that Anthony was in the Vatican as part of regular contacts between the two churches and that his presence was unrelated to the peace mission.

The Vatican has a tradition of diplomatic neutrality and working behind the scenes to end conflicts, and Francis has tried to not antagonize Moscow in his repeated expressions of solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Last week, before Francis went to Hungary, Ukraines prime minister called on the pontiff and asked his help in particular to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  A Southern California lawmaker who is running for Congress was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving Tuesday night, according to law enforcement and jail records.

Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat who is running in the competitive 47th congressional district, said in a Facebook post that he was cited with a misdemeanor for driving under the influence. Min was released Wednesday morning after being arrested by California Highway Patrol, the Sacramento Sheriffs Department said. It wasnt clear if he would have to appear in court.

My decision to drive last night was irresponsible. I accept full responsibility and there is no excuse for my actions, Min posted Wednesday. To my family, constituents and supporters, I am so deeply sorry. I know I need to do better. I will not let this personal failure distract from our work in California and in Washington.

A spokesperson for Mins Senate office declined to comment.

The Orange County congressional race is shaping up to be one of the most contested races for 2024 and Mins arrest quickly prompted the National Republican Congressional Committee to condemn his candidacy.

Voters will rightfully question David Mins judgement after this incident, but will California Democrats? NRCC spokesperson Ben Petersen asked in a statement.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee didnt immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Min was arrested around 10:50 p.m. near the Capitol, according to a police report. He was driving without headlights, then ran a red light, the report says.

Min showed signs and symptoms of alcohol intoxication, a California Highway Patrol officer noted in the report. Min was booked in the Sacramento County jail.

Many state lawmakers stay overnight in Sacramento during the week rather than returning home to their districts.

Min is vying for the competitive Congressional seat in Orange County now represented by Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, who is leaving her post to enter a race to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Min, who has secured Porters endorsement, is the most prominent Democrat in the race. Former Assemblyman Scott Baugh, a Republican, is also running.

Min, a Harvard-educated lawyer and a former congressional aide to U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, was elected to the state Senate in 2020. He chairs the Senates Committee on Natural Resources and Water.

Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins wouldnt say whether Min would face disciplinary action.

Like Senator Min, were disappointed in his actions, but pleased that hes taken responsibility and apologized, she said in a statement.

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OTTAWA - Countries around the world whose currencies pay tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II now have a new monarch  and a decision to make about whether the King has a place on their money.

Since the queens death in September, Canada has stayed mum on whether or not it intends to put the Kings likeness on its coins and bills.

But other members of the Commonwealth have moved more quickly towards enshrining his visage on their cash  or instead moving away from any kind of royal tribute.

Unsurprisingly, the United Kingdom was the first country to move forward with new banknotes that will feature King Charles, unveiling the designs in December.

The Bank of England says the new banknotes will come into circulation in mid-2024.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand also said after the queens death that it would be preparing to change out the image it uses on coins for one approved by the new King. It said the transition would take several years.

Australia went in the other direction, deciding not to place King Charles on its new five-dollar bill. Its central bank announced in February that the country was opting for an Indigenous design instead.

But the King is still expected to appear on Australian coins that currently bear the image of Queen Elizabeth.

The decision to include the portrait of King Charles on banknotes and coins is largely symbolic.

But even symbolic details can reflect the relationship between a country and the monarchy, as well as the level of public support for the institution.

Different countries are going to approach it differently, depending on the level of attachment to the monarchy and the strength of the republican movement in each country, said Jonathan Malloy, a political science professor at Carleton University, referring to campaigns that seek to separate countries from their relationships with the Crown.

In the Caribbean, many countries have been contending with conversations on what role the monarchy should play. Barbados, for example, ditched the British monarch as its head of state in 2021.

Other Caribbean nations that still belong to the Commonwealth have said little about whether King Charles will be depicted on their banknotes and coins.

However, the Antigua Observer reported earlier this year that the governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, Timothy NJ Antoine, said there may be no appetite for that.

In Canada, the federal government has not disclosed whether it plans to move ahead with placing the monarch on Canadian currency, appearing to avoid the conversation altogether.

A spokeswoman for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland would only say that additional details will be forthcoming.

Malloy said thats not surprising, noting there appears to be a partisan divide when it comes to the monarchys role in the country.

He said the Liberal government may be hesitant to discuss the future of Canadian currency and the monarch because its overall stance on the monarchy has been murky. Meanwhile, the Conservatives have traditionally stood more boldly with the Royal Family.

I dont think Prime Minister Trudeau wants to get rid of the monarchy, but he also doesnt want to call attention to it, he said.

Whereas the Conservatives, Im sure, would put (King) Charles on the money.

The Royal Canadian Mint and Bank of Canada are waiting for the federal government to make a decision regarding the future of coins and banknotes.

As always, the minister of finance is responsible for approving the form and material of any new banknote, including the portrait subject, in accordance with the Bank of Canada Act, Bank of Canada spokeswoman Amelie Ferron-Craig said in an email.

As such, it would be up to the government to announce if the Kings portrait is going to appear on any banknote.

According to the Royal Canadian Mint, Canada has included a likeness of the reigning monarch on its coins since it started production in 1908.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

 With files from The Associated Press.

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Unionized workers who keep the lights on in Ontario have been given a jolt in pay.

About 5,000 members of the Power Workers Union, who run Ontario Power Generation nuclear, hydro and thermal facilities across the province, have ratified a two-year deal retroactive to April 1, 2022.

Under the agreement, the workers  who had been without a contract for more than a year  will receive a 4.75 per cent increase for the first year and 3.5 per cent for the second, plus signing bonuses totalling $5,000.

Thats a more lucrative payout than in other recent Ontario public service labour settlements, and far exceeds the one per cent wage cap that was in place under the controversial Bill 124.

The 2019 law, which limited wage increases for nurses and other public servants to one per cent annually for three years, was struck down as unconstitutional in an Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruling five months ago.

Premier Doug Fords Progressive Conservatives are challenging that decision.

In a statement that did not address the amounts in the Power Workers deal, Energy Minister Todd Smith said he was pleased by the accord.

The women and men of the PWU play a key role in building Ontarios clean energy future, said Smith.

I look forward to continued collaboration as we build the generation we need to power our growing population and economy, including Canadas first grid-scale small modular nuclear reactor, he said.

PWU spokesman John Ives would not comment on the terms of the accord, saying only that union members had ratified it.

Ontario Power Generation spokesman Neal Kelly said the collective agreement brings value and certainty to employees and meets OPGs operational needs.

The agreement is a fair and reasonable outcome for employees as we lead the clean energy transition through safe, reliable, affordable power generation, said Kelly.

The contract, which expires next March 31, includes provisions for employees of the Pickering nuclear generating station, which OPG has said will stop producing electricity in September 2026.

A transition agreement would provide job security for regular employees through any Pickering end of commercial operations downsizing and redeployment, according to a joint statement sent to employees by Crown utility and the union.

The statement also referred to changes to the nuclear staffing agreement which includes conversion of a certain number of terms and potentially more based on Pickerings positive refurbishment announcement, hinting that more news is coming soon.

Fords government is eager to refurbish the Pickering facility, which currently generates enough power for 1.5-million homes. Its A reactors are slated to close in 2024 while its B units would continue another two years.

While refurbishing Pickering, which dates back to 1971, would take years, OPG said it could lead to another three decades of reliable, clean and zero-emissions electricity from the facility.

With Ontarians moving toward electric vehicles, Queens Park is mindful that the strain on the electricity grid will only grow in the years ahead.

Robert Benzie is the Stars Queens Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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Phuket Immigration demands title deeds, home walk-throughs for permit to stay extensions

PHUKET: Phuket Immigration is refusing to accept applications for one-year extensions unless the foreigner provides a copy of the Chanote land title for property where the foreigner is staying  even if the foreigner is only renting the property  and photographs of inside the home where the foreigner is staying, including in the bedroom.

immigration

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 3 May 2023, 06:27PM

Photo: The Phuket News / file

The requirements were confirmed by Pol Sen Sgt Maj Nounphan Srijow, designated as a Squad Leader, who refused an application on these grounds earlier today (May 3).

The requirement for a foreigner to provide a copy of a Chanote title for a property the foreigner does not own appears to be an attempt by Phuket Immigration to hold foreigners staying in Phuket responsible under Section 38 of the Immigration Act, which applies only to landlords and householders.

During the TM30 debacle, it was confirmed by previous Phuket Immigration chiefs that applications for one-year permits to stay will not be refused for information that foreign applicants are not required to provide under Immigration laws.

Phuket Immigration Chief Pol Col Thanet Sukchai today dodged the question whether the officer was today legally empowered to refuse the application on the grounds above. He presumed the officer has the right.

Col Thanet recently ramped up efforts to have landlords and householders report to immigration any foreigners staying at the premises, and has started fining people  namely Thai nationals  for not abiding by the law. He has even issued yellow cards to warn landlords of the seriousness of their transgression.

Regarding the photographs required of inside the home where the foreigner is staying, The Phuket News has previously been informed of one incident when a foreigner was asked to do a walk-through of the home where he was staying to show an immigration officer through a video chat on a mobile phone what the home looked like  a procedure that normally requires a search warrant approved by a court for an officer to enforce.

Col Thanet Sukcha told The Phuket News today, Its the Phuket Crime-Free scheme. If a foreigner is staying in a place, the person must have photos to prove that he or she is really staying [there].

For the title deed, I am not sure what [job] he does. The enforcement is very strict now. It is not a rejection but the documents [required] are not complete and [the immigration officer] just asked [in order] to gather all the documents required. If the documents are complete, the visa will be extended, Col Thanet said.

However, The Phuket News was present today when the application was flatly refused without the copy of the Chanote title deed and photos of the interior of the house, including the bedroom. It was not a request; it was a requirement.

Asked specifically about the need for a foreigner renting a property being required to present a copy of the Chonte title deed, Col Thanet said, Its back to the question of what job he [the foreigner] does It is case by case.

There are basic documents that are required with a checklist but the extra documents are considered request case by case which depends on the immigration agents consideration.

Of note, the officer today required a copy of the reverse side of the Chanote title also be provided, ensuring that Phuket Immigration is aware of any financial encumbrances on the property.

For a one-year extension, I am not the one who approves. I am only the middleman sending the request [for visa extension] to Hat Yai [home of Immigration Division 6 headquarters] for approval there and if the documents are not ready, it will go as a circle nonstop, Col Thanet said, alluding that he is only following orders.

You can ask [the foreigner] to pass his passport to [the reporter] and explain what was the issue and what type of visa he is extending. I can have a look and sort out what is the problem, Col Thanet offered.

The foreigner whose application was flatly refused without the extra documents today is a British national who has been living and working  fully legally  in Phuket for more than 20 years.

As reported to Phuket Immigration each year, the foreigner has been living in the same rented house with his wife and child for more than 12 years. His application was for a one-year permit to stay on the basis of being married to a Thai.

The Phuket News was informed late this afternoon that the foreigner, who works in local media, will be subjected to a video call walk-through of the his rented home by an immigration officer  on the presumed condition that his application for a one-year permit to stay will be denied if he refuses.

The Phuket News has informed several consuls on the island of the new rules to refuse applications on the two issues above.
Phuket prisoners to get vocational training in boatbuilding

PHUKET: Ten inmates from Phuket Prison will start training as boatbuilders from next Monday (May 8) under a project to provide prisoners with skills to use to support themselves after their release from jail.



By The Phuket News

Wednesday 3 May 2023, 09:00AM

The project was announced at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding yesterday (May 2) between Phuket Provincial Prison and Roeng Varee boatbuilders located in Soi Palai 2, Chalong.

Present at Phuket Provincial Hall for the signing was Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew. Signing the MoU on behalf of Phuket Prison was Kritsana Tipayachan, with Roeng Varee Managing Director Krisada Pichetphonsanon signing the MoU on behalf of the boatbuilding company.

Krisana Thipayachan, Commander of Phuket Provincial Prison, explained that the project is part of a larger ongoing effort by the Department of Corrections to provide outplacement work for prisoners to provide them with vocational training.

The aim of the project is to equip prisoners with skills to use after their release so they can earn a living and support themselves and their families, he said.

Roeng Varee produces works on about 50 boats a year, including construction, repairs and refits to customers specifications, he added.

Under the MoU, the project will start with 10 inmates who will work at the boatyard for three months. The inmates will work Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:30pm, but not on Saturdays and Sundays.

The inmates will be paid the minimum wage in Phuket of B354 a day for their work, he said.

The inmates selected must have less than three years and six months of their sentence remaining. Any drugs inmates selected must be serving their sentence for their first offence, and must not have committed a major offence.

Phuket Provincial Prison sincerely hopes that society will accept inmates working in establishments outside the prison, to give prisoners an opportunity to generate income and reduce expenses for the family while in prison, and it can be used as a starting point for a new career, Mr Krisana said.
Investigating Potential to Commence Small Oxide Mining Operations

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2023) - Compass Gold Corp. (TSXV: CVB) (Compass or the Company) is pleased to provide an update on additional assay data on recently completed deep reverse circulation drilling, and surface channel and grab sampling at the Tarabala prospect, located on the Company's Sikasso Property in Southern Mali (Figure 1).

Highlights

Coarse-grained "nuggety" gold is confirmed at Tarabala, and likely present at other locations along the Tarabala Trend

Best interval with increased gold: 19 m at 1.68 g/t Au (from 170 m), compared to 0.84 g/t Au from cyanide extraction (an increase of 200%)

Nuggety gold shown to occur in fresh rock at depth, and not solely in the near-surface weathered laterite

Metallic screen fire and cyanide extraction assay results are in good overall agreement

Reconfirms that mineralization remains open at depth and along strike

The Company is considering the development of a small mining operation on high-grade near-surface gold mineralization to generate a near-term revenue stream

Compass CEO, Larry Phillips, said, "While our primary goal has always been to discover a large, open-pittable gold deposit in Mali, our technical team has successfully identified several exciting wide, near-surface mineralized trends typically containing gold grades of about 1 g/t Au. These are outstanding results, as many of the largest mines in West Africa are producing gold at grades of between 0.75 and 1.1 g/t Au. In fact, the drilling and assaying we have recently completed on our Tarabala prospect have clearly demonstrated the potential to develop one or more small, near-surface mines which could generate ongoing revenue to fund the exploration work required to develop a far larger, open-pittable gold resource."

Dr. Madani Diallo, Director and Country Manager, added, "During our ongoing quest to uncover an open-pitiable, high-grade gold deposit, we have completed 20,000 m of drilling and intercepted several large sections of lower-grade mineralization along the 20 km long Massala-Tarabala-Moribala trends. We are excited about working to define open pittable low-grade gold resources that are easy to mine and process with an appropriate plant as done elsewhere in the region, such as AngloGold Ashanti's Siguri mine in Guinea, which has been mining gold from a series of 18 pits at average grades of less than 1 g/t Au since 2008. Such operations are particularly attractive at a time when the gold price is approaching US$2,000/oz."

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Dr. Sandy Archibald, PGeo, Technical Director, added, "Our latest results are extremely encouraging and continue to validate our view that, due to the presence of nuggety gold along our mineralized trends, conventional fire assaying has very likely under-reported gold grades within the main target zones like Tarabala. We look forward to further testing the open structure along strike and down dip."

Next Steps

Compass plans to collect and test a series of large (10-15 kg) channel samples from existing surface workings at the Tarabala prospect to test gold recoveries from the near-surface zone. If results are positive, additional channel samples will be collected at prospects along the Tarabala and Moribala trends.

The Company is also finalizing plans for a deep trenching and pitting program at the main Tarabala prospect to develop the optimal scenario for mining gold from the near-surface laterite. This program will involve the excavation of five 5-m deep, and 100-m long trenches, and the collection and analysis of the recovered 1 m channel samples. In addition, a series of 5 m deep pits will be dug every 20 m between the trenches and the channels sampled and analysed for gold.





Figure 1: Location of drilled prospects and artisanal workings along the Tarabala and Massala faults.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1861/164641_895eaef1c4db4a5b_001full.jpg

Recent Tarabala Drilling Results

Six RC drill holes (1,036 m) were drilled in early March at the Tarabala prospect to test the down-dip extension of mineralization previously identified by near-surface drilling (Figure 1). The 1-m sample intervals were analysed for gold using cyanide-leach (LeachWELL) analysis and the results reported in a Compass press release on April 18, 2023. The analysis identified a wide zone of gold mineralization (greater than 10 m) in five of the six holes (Table 1). The widest intercept was 19 m @ 0.84 g/t Au (from 170 m, SARC022), and the highest grade was 13 m @ 3.30 g/t Au (from 84 m, SARC019), which included a 1 m @ 18.90 g/t Au (from 86 m). The presence of high-grade gold samples in fresh rock is indicative of coarse-grained ("nuggety") gold. To investigate the presence of nuggety gold, duplicate sample intervals were analysed using the Metallic Screen Fire Assay (MSFA) technique, which uses different crushed and sieved fractions to determine the presence of coarse-grained gold. The results of the Metallic Screens are tabulated in Table 1.

Table 1. Comparison of Cyanide extraction and Metallic Screen Fire Assay of mineralized intervals identified during recent RC drilling at the Tarabala prospect.

Hole ID From (m) To (m) 1,2 Interval (m) Cyanide (g/t Au) MSFA (g/t Au) % Difference SARC017 145 150 5 0.60 1.13 188.3 SARC018 119 129 10 0.39 1.34 3446 SARC019 84 97 13 3.30 1.14 -35 SARC020 125 128 3 0.99 0.58 -59 SARC020 134 136 2 0.52 0.55 107 SARC022 170 189 19 0.84 1.68 200

1True thicknesses are interpreted as 70-90% of stated intervals.

2 Intervals use a 0.2-gram-per-tonne gold cut-off value.

The greatest increase in grade was present in SARC018 where 10 m @ 0.39 g/t Au (cyanide) became 10 m @ 1.34 g/t Au (MSFA), a 344% increase. The widest drilled intercept was encountered in SARC022, where 19 m @ 0.84 g/t Au (from 170 m, SARC022), (cyanide) increased to 19 m @ 1.68 g/t Au (from 170 m, SARC022), (MSFA), which doubles the grade of the interval. Increases were also seen in intervals in SARC017 and part of a narrower interval in SARC022. The largest decrease was present in SARC019, where 13 m @ 3.30 g/t Au (from 84 m), was reduced in grade to 13 m @ 1.14 g/t Au (from 170 m, SARC022). This reduction is expected since the nature of coarse gold means the variability (heterogeneity) is likely to be high even in duplicate samples from the same interval. What is promising about this sample interval is that the MSFA showed gold was still above 1 g/t Au in the bedrock.

Important takeaways from the work are: coarse gold is present in bedrock samples, grades are generally higher in the MSFA samples, and grades in the widest intervals are greater than 1 g/t Au.





Figure 2: Summary map of drilling on the Tarabala Trend and the location of the recently completed RC drill holes. The cross-section shows both down-hole cyanide leach and MSFA results for SARC022.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1861/164641_895eaef1c4db4a5b_002full.jpg

Tarabala Channel Sampling Results

A total of twenty-two, 5 kg surface samples (12 channel and 10 quartz vein grab) were collected from four areas over a strike length of 600 m of artisanal workings at Tarabala in March 2023. The samples were analysed for gold using cyanide leach extraction ("cyanide") and metallic screen fire assaying (MSFA). The aim of the sampling was to compare assaying techniques for surface samples, and determine if the samples displayed coarse gold. The channel samples collected from artisanal workings on the surface projection of mineralization from SARC017-19 contained 8 m @ 1.72 g/t Au (cyanide leach) and 8 m @ 1.08 g/t Au (MSFA). Due to safety considerations, it was not possible to sample the complete 12 m mineralized zone. The highest-grade sample analysed by cyanide leaching contained 9.83 g/t Au, whereas the same sample analysed by MSFA contained 3.71 g/t Au. The average grade of the zone, excluding the high-grade interval, was 7 m @ 0.56 g/t Au (cyanide) and 7 m @ 0.71 g/t Au (MSFA).

Four samples collected 80 m north of the channel samples on the main north-south veins system averaged 0.58 g/t Au (cyanide) and 0.50 g/ Au (MSFA). Two samples collected to test east-west cross-cutting veins contained 0.10 g/t Au (cyanide) and 0.09 g/t Au (MSFA).

Two samples of mineralization sampled 450 m south of the channel sample location averaged 0.78 g/t Au (cyanide) and 0.56 g/t Au (MSFA). The final samples collected were an additional 50 m to the south, with the highest grade recorded being 5.38 g/t Au (cyanide) and 7.35 g/t Au (MSFA). The sampling locations are close to where an air core drill hole intercepted 5 m @ 2.86 g/t Au (from 8 m, SAAC083) in December 2020.

Statistical analysis of the surface and drilling cyanide versus MSFA assay results showed that coarse gold was slightly more abundant in surficial samples (one in four, or 25%), compared to one-in-six (17%) of the bedrock samples.

Technical Details

All six RC holes at the Tarabala prospect were drilled at dips of 55, with azimuths of 270 (towards the west). Hole lengths varied from 115 to 200 m, for a total depth of 1,036 m. Drilling was performed by FTE Drilling, a Canadian company with a Malian subsidiary based in Bamako. All samples were prepared by Compass staff, and an appropriate number of standards, duplicates and blanks were submitted and analysed for gold using cyanide-leach (LeachWELL) analysis at ALS (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso), and follow-up metallic screen fire assay at SGS (Bamako, Mali).

AngloGold Ashanti's Siguri mine has been in production since 2008, with the ore being exploited from 18 pits. As of 2019, the total ore reserves in the Proven and Probable category at Siguiri were estimated to be 72.33 Mt graded 0.76 g/t Au, containing 1.76 Moz of gold. The mineral resources (Measured, Indicated and Inferred) stood at 185.6 Mt with a grade of 0.95 g/t Au, and a total contained gold of 5.7 Moz. Production details are from the AngloGold Ashanti website and annual report.

About Compass Gold Corp.

Compass, a public company having been incorporated into Ontario, is a Tier 2 issuer on the TSX- V. Through the 2017 acquisition of MGE and Malian subsidiaries, Compass holds gold exploration permits located in Mali that comprise the Sikasso Property. The exploration permits are located in three sites in southern Mali with a combined land holding of 1,173 sq. km. The Sikasso Property is located in the same region as several multi-million-ounce gold projects, including Morila, Syama, Kalana and Komana. The Company's Mali-based technical team, led in the field by Dr. Madani Diallo and under the supervision of Dr. Sandy Archibald, P.Geo, is conducting the current exploration program. They are examining numerous anomalies first noted in Dr. Archibald's August 2017 "National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Sikasso Property, Southern Mali."

Qualified Person

This news release has been reviewed and approved by EurGeol. Dr. Sandy Archibald, P.Geo, Compass's Technical Director, the Qualified Person for the technical information in this news release under National Instrument 43-101 standards.

ForwardLooking Information

This news release contains "forwardlooking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the Company's planned exploration work and management appointments. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forwardlooking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by such information. The statements in this news release are made as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forwardlooking information except as required by applicable law.

For further information please contact:

Compass Gold Corporation

Larry Phillips - Pres. & CEO

lphillips@compassgoldcorp.com

T: +1 416-596-0996 X 302

Compass Gold Corporation

Greg Taylor - Dir. Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

gtaylor@compassgoldcorp.com

T: +1 416-596-0996 X 301

Website: www.compassgoldcorp.com

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/164641
Anyone travelling through downtown Galt recently may have thought they were seeing a scene from "The Handmaids Tale" or "Silent Hill."

Instead, the Downtown Cambridge BIA and University of Waterloos School of Architecture have partnered to exhibit student work in a local business. Several pieces from Jessica Hanzelkovas recent thesis project, The Artifacts of No-Place, will be on display in the window of Colour Dress Boutique, 34 1/2 Ainslie St. N., as of May 3.

This new partnership between the school and the BIA allows the School of Architecture a unique opportunity to showcase some of the creative and innovative work that takes place within our school every day, said Julie Dring, advancement manager at the Waterloo School of Architecture, in a release.

We hope to integrate voices from the school throughout Cambridge by sharing the creativity of our school with the community in new and exciting ways.

Brian Kennedy, executive director of the Downtown Cambridge BIA, said he is excited to see this brand-new partnership open for the spring season.

The School of Architecture is an integral part of the downtown and city, Kennedy said.

We are excited to have the opportunity to raise awareness of the remarkable work undertaken at the School of Architecture and share a glimpse of the creative talent being fostered there. Paired with our strategic digital marketing campaign, the exhibit will hopefully engage a wider audience for both partners and encourage people to visit downtown Cambridge.

Hanzelkova graduated from the School of Architecture in 2020 and now works at Vancouver-based architecture firm Human Studio. The artifacts in the three-month display were utilized to disrupt identification and play with the boundaries of the body, as Hanzelkovas thesis abstract explains, performances connect the thesis to a long history in cultural studies, critical theory and feminism, which interrogates the gaze between the subject and object.

The School of Architecture and Downtown Cambridge BIA hope this display to be just the first of many such collaborations, the release stated.



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A 19-year-old Cambridge resident has been arrested and is facing several charges in connection with an armed robbery in Saugeen First Nation.

Grey Bruce OPP said on April 26, just after 8:40 p.m., officers responded to a report of an armed robbery in progress at a business on Highway 21 in Saugeen First Nation.

Two individuals were arrested, including a 23-year-old Kitchener resident, who was charged with armed robbery.

The Cambridge resident was also arrested and charged with armed robbery, possession of a loaded prohibited or restricted firearm, discharge of a restricted firearm or a prohibited firearm with intent, assault with a weapon, possession of a prohibited device or ammunition, disguise with intent, assault causing bodily harm, uttering threats  cause death or bodily harm, and possession of a firearm knowing serial number has been tampered with.

Both accused were held pending a bail hearing at the Ontario Court of Justice in Walkerton and remain in custody.

Anyone with information regarding this investigation can call the OPP at 1-888-310-1122. Anonymous information can be given through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or leave an anonymous online message at https://crimestop-gb.org/ to be eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $2,000.

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The 2023 Mental Health Week is from May 1 to 7.

The campaign for this year, My Story, encourages people to speak about their lived experiences and mental health journeys.

One in five Canadians experience a mental illness or mental health issue, but all of us have mental health and need to take care of it, a press release from the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington reads.

To support mental health and the mental health of the women in your community, Join in or donate to the Shoppers Drug Mart Run for Women on Saturday, May 13 at Conestoga College, Doon campus.

Walk or run five kilometres, 10 kilometres or one kilometre little steps virtually or in-person.

Save $5 off registration with promo code 'CMHAWW23' https://www.runforwomen.ca/Cities/Waterloo.aspx

Shoppers Drug Mart has organized a silent auction as part of their fundraising efforts for Run for Women and there are 24 items to bid on, including Dyson hair styling products, an Apple Watch and Lenovo Chromebook.

Bidding is open; visit https://airauctioneer.com/run-for-women-cmha-waterloo-wellington-2023/table to bid.

For more information, visit https://www.runforwomen.ca/Cities/Waterloo.aspx.

RELATED STORIES Wilmot Township Through Your Lens: Gorgeous sunrise in New Hamburg

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This column will be updated weekly with open work positions, workshops, and other opportunities in Cambridge, Ontario and the Waterloo Region. Have feedback on how to make the column better, or would like to let us know of an open job role, email us at newsroom@cambridgetimes.com with the subject line: WHOS HIRING.

WHOS HIRING

The roles below were found through the website: https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/youth, a government website where youth, ages 15 to 30, can search for working opportunities. There are also other job hunting services in Cambridge and the Waterloo Region that you may learn more about in this article.

PROJECT PLOUGHSHARES  PEACE RESEARCHER AND MULTIMEDIA INTERN ($19.95 PER HOUR, SEASONAL, FULL TIME)

Waterloo, Deadline to Apply: May 15, 2023

According to the organizations website, Project Ploughshares is the peace research institute of The Canadian Council of Churches. They are currently looking for a Peace Researcher or Peace Research Intern for 10 weeks during the summer of 2023. Applications are due May 15, 2023.

They are also looking for a multimedia intern to help create integrated marketing, media, and communication strategy for non-profit; develop and help to implement social media strategies to increase supporters and donations  among other responsibilities. The deadline to apply is also May 15, 2023.

Additional information and where to apply: https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/jobsearch/jobposting/38123320?source=searchresults

SHORE CENTRE  PREGNANCY SUPPORT PROGRAMS WORKER ($19.95 PER HOUSE, SEASONAL, FULL TIME)

Kitchener

The Sexual Health Options, Resources & Education  SHORE Centre was founded in 1972 and originally named Planned Parenthood Kitchener-Waterloo, followed by Planned Parenthood Waterloo Region, according to the about section of the organizations website.

They are currently looking for a Pregnancy Support Programs Worker and Health Educator that can provide administrative support, assist with logistics including planning and purchasing for home deliveries of clients in need, help with social media posts of relevant resources, and in the development of informational resources and handouts for counselling clients, among other additional tasks, according to the job description.

If you are interested in reproductive health education, this job is for you.

Additional information and where to apply: https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/jobsearch/jobpostingcsj/38143036?source=searchresults and https://www.shorecentre.ca/employment/

GUELPH COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE (CHC)  RESEARCH ASSISTANT ($18.10 PER HOUR, SEASONAL, FULL TIME, REMOTE)

Guelph, Deadline to Apply: May 5, 2023

The Guelph Community Health Centre (CHC) is a not-for-profit community-based health and social service organization. The CHC encompasses a downtown main office, and clinic, a health hub, an EarlyON Child and Family Centre, and a satellite clinic.

They are currently looking for a research assistant (ages 15 to 30 years old) as part of Canada Summer Jobs. The research assistant would be involved in Gathering and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data, supporting focus groups and/or key information interviews; supporting the development and implementation of program evaluation frameworks; collecting and compiling published literature and supporting literature reviews, and more according to their job description.

Additional information and where to apply: https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/jobsearch/jobpostingcsj/38224932?source=searchresults and https://guelphchc.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=70&source=guelphchc

GALT ISLAMIC CENTRE  COMMUNITY ORGANIZER ($15.55 per hour, seasonal, full time)

Cambridge

Galt Islamic Centre is a registered charity located at 82 Beverly St. in Cambridge, Ont. They are currently looking for a community organizer for the summer, according to the Government of Canadas Canada Summer Jobs bank.

Additional information and where to apply: https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/jobsearch/jobpostingcsj/38142686?source=searchresults

CTA LAB  LABORATORY TESTER ($17 PER HOUR, SEASONAL, FULL TIME)

Cambridge

According to their website, CTA Lab is a Canadian Owned and Operated Materials Testing Laboratory, in business since 1998. Our material testing focuses on asphalt, aggregate and concrete materials for Ministry of Transportation and Municipal Projects.

They are currently looking for a Laboratory Tester as part of Canada Summer Jobs initiative. If you are interested in civil, mechanical, or material engineering, this job is for you. There is very little information on their website, and on Canada Summer Jobs website, so its best to contact prior to applying as soon as possible as no deadline is mentioned either.

Additional information and where to apply: https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/jobsearch/jobpostingcsj/38140276?source=searchresults

Have feedback on how to make the column better, or would like to let us know of an open job role, email us at newsroom@cambridgetimes.com with the subject line: WHOS HIRING.

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KITCHENER  Police arrested a man after a homeowner reported that a break-in was happening at a Kitchener residence.

Waterloo Regional Police responded shortly after midnight Tuesday to the area of Robert Ferrie Drive and South Creek Drive.

When they arrived, officers found a man in the backyard of the home, and arrested him after a brief struggle.

A 42-year-old Cambridge man was charged with break and enter to a dwelling house with intent to commit an indictable offence, trespass/prowl near a dwelling house, resisting arrest, and assaulting a peace officer.

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KITCHENER  A man with serious injuries was turned away from Grand River Hospital twice in December after he collided with a police cruiser while on his bicycle in an attempt to flee officers, a Special Investigations Unit report reads.

The mans second trip to Grand River Hospital came Dec. 23, four days after the first. After being turned away, he went to Cambridge Memorial Hospital where he was diagnosed with five fractured ribs, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding.

He was admitted to the Cambridge hospital, had surgery and remained there for four days.

Grand River Hospital said it cannot provide specific information about the case because of patient privacy reasons.

Speaking generally, when someone comes to the emergency department for care they are registered, triaged, and seen by a physician or nurse practitioner, provided they dont choose to leave on their own first, Grand River Hospital spokesperson Michelle Meyer wrote in an email.

The Special Investigations Unit was called in to investigate the incident that started with police responding to a report of a robbery near downtown Kitchener.

On Dec. 19, 2022 at 12:34 a.m., security cameras caught two men with bikes taking items from a construction site at 741 King St. W, reads the SIU report. The two allegedly took wood boards, spools of metal cable, tools and a propane tank.

Caliber Communications, a security system provider, called polices non-emergency line at 1:03 a.m. to report the robbery and another time to tell police that the men were leaving the construction site.

At 1:35 a.m., Waterloo Regional Police were called to the site, near King Street West and Wellington Street South.

When one of the officers arrived on scene, he saw one of the men fleeing and followed him on foot. The man then got back on his bike.

The officer chased the 30-year-old man as a second officer arrived on scene in his Ford Explorer cruiser. All parties were now in front of a nearby Tim Hortons.

The second officer tried to block the mans path with the cruiser, sliding on ice and hitting the man with the front drivers side of the car, the SIU report read.

The man and his bike were pulled under the vehicle. The first officer helped him out.

Police arrested the man and he was taken to Grand River Hospital.

He was found to have no fractures or internal injuries and the hospital released him. Police then released the man from custody on an undertaking.

Four days later, the report said the man complained to his mother about chest pain and returned to Grand River Hospital.

He was turned away again. He then sought treatment at Cambridge Memorial Hospital.

The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of police officers, special constables and peace officers that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault or the discharge of a gun at a person.

The SIU reports that it has not found reasonable grounds to charge the officer involved in the December incident.

The incident was not reported until a week after it happened, so the SIU could not examine the scene.

The man and the involved officer denied an interview with the SIU, the report reads. The officer also did not release his notes to the SIU.

In the absence of statements from the (officer) and (the 30-year-old man), it is difficult to ascertain exactly what happened in the moments preceding the collision, SIU director Joseph Martinos decision statement reads.

The SIU reviewed the second officers cruiser GPS data, notes from witnesses, a motor vehicle collision report, communications recordings, and the procedure for suspect apprehension pursuits.

Slippery road conditions were taken into account in Martinos decision.

The second officers cruiser was taken out of service the day the collision happened and was examined by police.

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Vantage Market Research, The North Star for the Working World

WASHINGTON, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Conductive Ink Market is valued at USD 3.2 Billion in 2022 and is projected to reach a value of USD 4.29 Billion by 2030 at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 4.3% over the forecast period 2023-2030.



Market Overview

The industry is driven by rising consumer demand for compact and effective electronic devices. Additive manufacturing processes use Conductive Inks for improved conductivities and effective functioning. The main trend worldwide Conductive Inks Market is silver Conductive Inks, largely used in PV cells and membrane valves. A prominent factor in the market growth for Conductive Inks is the consumer goods sector, used in applications like sustainable packaging.

We forecast that the silver flakes in Conductive Ink market sales will account for more than 26% of total sales by 2030. Silver flakes are tiny silver particles with brilliant brilliance. Pure silver is hammered into extremely thin sheets to create them, then sliced into tiny squares. Jewelry, art, and other ornamental items are made from silver flakes. They can also be found as a component in a wide range of products.

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Market Dynamics

Growing Demand from Consumer Electronics Support Market Expansion

Consumer demand for lightweight and tiny electronic gadgets has fuelled demand for miniaturization in the consumer electronics market. The functional effectiveness of the gadget can be considerably improved by using lightweight material while reducing material input and saving energy. Conductive Ink is a practical, economic, and dependable choice for replacing traditional circuit arrangements and wiring, which can reduce component weight and enhance efficiency. Yet, using Conductive Inks can reduce material density and component weight, allowing for easier handling. This aspect continues to be important in increasing their consumption, affecting the growth of the Conductive Ink market.

Story continues

Increased Demand in Automotive Sector Drives Market Growth

The use of Conductive Ink in the automobile industry is one of the trends currently being observed in the global Conductive Ink market. Due to the growing necessity for Conductive Ink in airbag gantry cranes, car seat buttons, and windshield demisters, the need for Conductive Ink is rising. Conductive Ink has been expanded to include the car's heaters and seat occupancy sensors. To reduce costs and build entire circuits without messy wiring, major participants in the automotive industry are shortening the use of wired materials. Due to its electrical qualities, which are becoming more advantageous in various applications, including touch screens, molded circuits, glass heaters, and hot temperatures that die to attach, the need for Conductive Ink is now increasing.

Top Players in the Global Conductive Ink Market

DuPont (U.S.),

Vorbeck Materials (U.S.),

Applied Nanotech Holdings Inc. (U.S.),

Sun Chemical Corporation (U.S.),

PPG Industries Inc. (U.S.),

Creative Materials Inc. (U.S.)

Henkel AG & Co. KGaA (Germany),

PChem Associates Inc. (U.S.),

Heraeus Holding GmbH (Germany),

Johnson Matthey (UK),

Poly-Ink (France),

NovaCentrix (U.S.),

Creative Materials Inc. (U.S.)



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Top Trends in the Global Conductive Ink Market

One trend that Vantage Market Research (VMR) expects to see in the Conductive Inks industry is the growing demand for electronic displays. The battery-powered signal is one of the knowledge inputs for an electronic display. In display panels, Conductive Inks are being used more and more. Examples include cell phones, laptops, wearable electronics, television, workstations, intelligent watches, and remote monitoring.





Another trend that VMR predicts will continue in the Conductive Inks industry is its increasing trend of graphene. Developing nanotube graphene Conductive Inks for their various applications in the circuits and components of flexible electronics has required a lot of work. Graphene-enhanced inks are typically far less expensive than Conductive Inks made of silver and copper. Printed electronics Conductive Inks are increasing due to the demand for small, light devices in the consumer electronic and semiconductor industries, which is expected to boost the global Conductive Inks market.



Top Report Findings

Based on the Type, the Silver Flakes category controls most of the Conductive Ink market's revenue. Because of the excellent thermal, electromagnetic, and resistance to chemicals, silver-based Conductive Inks are frequently employed in the production of high-performance electronic devices. Moreover, their use in producing flexible and printed electronics has been facilitated by their capacity to conduct electricity in the oxide state. This is primarily due to silver particles' relatively low melting point, which made it easier to produce the thin conductive films used in flexible substrates. In light of this, the marketplace for silver inks is anticipated to develop significantly, which will support the expansion of the Conductive Ink market.





Based on Application, most of the Conductive Ink market's revenue is controlled by the automotive category. Due to its electrical qualities, which are becoming more advantageous in various applications, including touch screens, molded circuits, glass heaters, and hot temperatures that die to attach, the need for Conductive Ink is now increasing.



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Recent Developments in the Global Conductive Ink Market

In April 2022, Electroninks Inc. developed a new suite of MOD (Metal-Organic Decomposition) Conductive Ink solutions i to improve its market position. Similarly, in January of the same year, Nano Dimension introduced the next-generation nanoparticle Conductive Ink in collaboration with XTPL S.A.

February 2021 - Quad Industries and Henkel Industries have expanded their strategic partnership to accelerate the development of printed electronics solutions. The alliance will provide clients with comprehensive and timely development help, beginning with direct access to the firms' R&D teams, which include material and production expertise in printed electronics.

Automotive Category of Conductive Ink Market Projected to Generate a Major Quantity of the Application Segment Revenue

For better understanding, based on the Application, the Conductive Ink market is divided into Photovoltaics, Membrane Switches, Displays, Automotive, Bio-Sensors, RFID, Printed Circuit Boards, Thermal Heating, Pharmaceuticals Formulation, Food & Nutrition, and Other Applications.

The Automotive market was the largest by Application, and it is anticipated to hold the top spot during the projected period. Applications for Conductive Inks in the automobile sector include printed circuit boards (PCBs), sensors, and displays. The end-use market for Conductive Inks will develop quickly throughout the forecast period. The rising need for wearable technology and sensors is fueling the expansion of the Conductive Ink market in the healthcare sector.

On the other hand, the Photovoltaic category is anticipated to grow significantly. Conductive Ink has been utilized extensively in solar cell panels due to its high conduction, lower electrical resistivity, excellent adherence to indium tin oxide and cadmium tin oxide, improved printing accuracy, and low curing temperature. To compete with conventional grid power systems, the solar (photovoltaic) industry has also been under intense pressure to lower the cost of raw materials and boost production efficiency. Using Conductive Inks in such a situation offers the sector a workable option. The photovoltaic (PV) sector has been expanding steadily on a global scale, with China dominating the PV market in terms of generation capacity over the recent past and the foreseeable future.

Asia Pacific Region in Conductive Ink Market Expected to Generate More than Half the Global Region Wise Revenue

The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to do so in the coming years. Rapid urbanization, rising disposal income, and leadership balance sheets leading to greater infrastructure spending are some of the primary factors driving the growth of the Asia pacific Conductive Ink market. The government has entered several Characterized By significant (PPPs) to develop the country's electronics and automobile industries. Furthermore, its concerted efforts to deliver inexpensive modern gadgets propel the Asia Pacific market.

North America regional market is projected to grow the fastest in the Conductive Inks market. Because the United States is the world's second-largest automaker, Conductive Inks are in high demand in the regional market. The market in the USA is growing due to a huge customer base of solar energy, high disposable income, mass manufacturing capability, and the readily accessible range of electronic devices. The presence of key global companies and regional manufacturing facilities has also significantly contributed to developing the North American Conductive Ink market.

Browse market data Tables and Figures spread through 141 Pages and in-depth TOC on Conductive Ink Market Forecast Report (2023-2030).

Global Conductive Ink Market Segmentation

By Type

Silver Flakes

Carbon / Graphere

Silver Nanoparticles

Silver Nanowire

Silver Coated Copper Nanoparticles

Carbon Nanotube Inks

Copper Flakes

Copper Nanoparticles

Copper Oxide Nanoparticle Inks

Conductive Polymer

Other Types



By Application

Photovoltaics

Membrane Switches

Displays

Automotive

Bio-Sensors

RFID

Printed Circuit Boards

Thermal Heating

Pharmaceuticals Formulation

Food & Nutrition

Other Applications



By Region

North America United States Canada Mexico

Europe Germany UK France Italy Spain Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific China Japan India South Korea South-East Asia Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America Brazil Argentina Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa GCC Countries South Africa Rest of MEA



Read Full Report with TOC @ https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/conductive-ink-market-2112

Scope of the Report:

Report Attributes Details Market Size in 2022 USD 3.2 Billion Revenue Forecast by 2030 USD 4.29 Billion CAGR 4.3% from 2023 to 2030 Base Year 2022 Forecast Year 2023 to 2030 Key Players DuPont, Vorbeck Materials, Applied Nanotech Holdings Inc., Sun Chemical Corporation, PPG Industries Inc., Creative Materials Inc., Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, PChem Associates Inc., Heraeus Holding GmbH, Johnson Matthey, Poly-Ink, NovaCentrix, Creative Materials Inc. Customization Options Customized purchase options are available to meet any research needs. Explore customized purchase options https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/conductive-ink-market-2112/request-sample



Key Questions Answered in the Conductive Ink Market Report are:

What is the current size and projected growth rate of the conductive ink market?

What are the main types of conductive ink available on the market, and what are their key properties and applications?

What are the main drivers, challenges, and opportunities for the conductive ink market?

Which regions or countries are the largest consumers and producers of conductive ink?

Who are the major players in the conductive ink market, and what are their market shares, product portfolios, and recent developments?

What are the key technological developments and trends in the conductive ink market, and how are they expected to impact the market in the future?

What are the regulatory and environmental factors that may affect the growth of the conductive ink market?

What are the main applications of conductive ink in various industries, such as electronics, automotive, healthcare, and energy?

What are the main distribution channels and marketing strategies used in the conductive ink market?

What are the main challenges and opportunities for new entrants in the conductive ink market, and what are the key success factors?

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Flow Chemistry Market - Global Industry Assessment & Forecast: https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/flow-chemistry-market-2069

Titanium Dioxide Powder Market - Global Industry Assessment & Forecast: https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/titanium-dioxide-powder-market-1957

Hydrogenation Petroleum Resin Market - Global Industry Assessment & Forecast: https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/hydrogenation-petroleum-resin-market-1953

Synthetic Fibers Market - Global Industry Assessment & Forecast: https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/synthetic-fibers-market-1924

Nitric Acid Market - Global Industry Assessment & Forecast: https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/nitric-acid-market-1923

Fermentation Chemicals Market - Global Industry Assessment & Forecast: https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/fermentation-chemicals-market-1921

Ethylene Market - Global Industry Assessment & Forecast: https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/ethylene-market-1920



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KITCHENER  Melinda Vasilije died of multiple stab wounds to the chest and neck, a forensic pathologist testified Tuesday at Ager Hasans murder trial.

Vasilije was stabbed 47 times, including six times in the chest, Dr. Linda Kocovski, who performed the autopsy, testified. Two wounds pierced her right lung.

She had 27 stab wounds on her neck  three of them potentially fatal, Kocovski told the jury.

Vasilije, 22, died on April 28, 2017, in her apartment on Country Hill Drive near Block Line Road in Kitchener.

Hasan, now 30, is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Vasilije, his ex-girlfriend. The Hamilton man admits he stabbed her. The Crown rejected his guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Vasilije was stabbed six times in the right arm, four times in the left arm, three times in the back and once in the head, Kocovski said.

She also had defensive wounds, which can happen when a person being stabbed grabs the knife to protect a vulnerable part of the body.

Kocovski said she also found bruises and scrapes on Vasilijes body.

Dried blood was found on Vasilijes hands and on the bottom of her right foot.

After the killing, Waterloo Regional Police began searching for Hasan. He could not be found, but he exchanged WhatsApp messages and emails for several weeks with Det. Peter Collison.

Hasan claimed self-defence.

Detective I did not attack her first, Hasan wrote on WhatsApp. She came at me with a knife ...

My hands got cut trying to protect myself. I then u (sic) had to do something back and it got out of hand.

Hasan photographed and made videos of injuries to his hands after the killing. They were shown to the jury on Tuesday.

In the messages, Collison pleaded with Hasan to turn himself in.

Im ready to turn myself in. I just want a proper deal, Hasan wrote at one point.

He was arrested several months later.

Evidence of his failure to turn himself in to police must not be considered by you when deciding this case, Justice Gerry Taylor instructed the jury on Tuesday.

Ager Hasans failure to turn himself in to police is irrelevant with respect to whether the Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Ager Hasan committed murder rather than manslaughter.

The evidence is only relevant to explain why Ager Hasan was arrested several months after the date of Melinda Vasilijes death.

The trial continues Wednesday.

 With files from Jeff Outhit

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WATERLOO REGION  Bargaining resumes Thursday to end a strike by drivers at Grand River Transit, a Region of Waterloo news release states.

Transit employees walked off the job Monday after rejecting a tentative agreement recommended for approval by union negotiators with UNIFOR Local 4304.

The transit union says major issues are scheduling and wages. Waterloo regional government said Wednesday it is fully committed to reaching an agreement that is competitive for GRT staff and affordable for residents.

The strike has shut down conventional buses and Mobility Plus buses that are used by people with disabilities. Ion trains are still operating in Kitchener and Waterloo as rail transit is provided by a separate company.

The shutdown of conventional buses has the greatest impact on students, low-income commuters without cars, and young adults, based on passenger and commuter data. Roughly half of Grand River Transit passengers are students attending high schools, two universities and a community college.

The last transit strike in 2020 lasted 11 days. Local 4304 represents more than 650 drivers and nearly 90 skilled trade and support workers.

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Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramseys radio show and collection of books have made him one of the most well-known finance personalities in the business. He touts an aggressive approach to eliminating debt and regaining financial freedom.

Student Loans: Court Allows $6 Billion in Forgiveness Funds To Proceed for 200,000 Borrowers

Related: New Student Loan Forgiveness Rule Simplifies Process  Who Qualifies?

Although credit card debt is a frequent topic of Ramseys, so too is student debt, which is currently a huge burden on many younger Americans just trying to make a living. If youre looking for a way to pay down your student loans fast, try some of these tips from Dave Ramsey himself.

Make More Money

On one of his side gigs. Yet, she was still spinning her wheels when it came to paying down her roughly $22,000 in student loan debt.

After commending her on her fearlessness to work hard, Ramsey stated that the jobs she was working werent doing the trick, and never would. As Ramsey said to the young woman, We need to make some money.

Ramseys suggested course of action was to ditch the low-paying side gigs  some of which he noted paid even less than being a babysitter  and focus on getting better jobs. With more money, Ramsey said, paying off even $22,000 in student loans should take less than two years.

Take Our Poll: What Are You Worth to Your Company?

Rethink Your Housing

If youre struggling to get your income up, the only other way to make more room in your budget to pay down your student loans is to reduce your spending. As housing is generally the biggest monthly expense that Americans have, its oftentimes a great place to start.

Ramsey addressed this on a radio call with a woman who was earning roughly $40,000 per year but was paying $1,450 per month in rent. Although he noted that the amount of rent the woman was paying was not necessarily crazy for where she lived, in terms of the percentage of her income it was consuming, it was a problem. Youre probably gonna have to rethink your housing, sooner rather than later.

Story continues

Ramsey further elaborated, Its not a good long-term plan  whether you have student loan debt or not  to pay $1,450 when you make 40 grand.

Use the Debt Snowball Method

The Debt Snowball Method is one of the two most commonly used strategies to pay down debt, and it is the one popularized by Ramsey. Using this method, youll start by listing your debts in order from smallest to largest. Then, youll make minimum payments on the largest debts and throw all the money you can towards the smallest one.

The idea is that youll get emotional wins from knocking off your smallest debts fast, keeping you going for the long haul until all of your debt is eliminated. This can be particularly valuable if youve got numerous student loans, not to mention if you also have other debts such as auto loans or credit card bills.

Draw Your Emergency Fund Down to $1,000

Ramsey strongly believes that having a $1,000 emergency fund is critical to building a long-term financial foundation. But if youve got a high level of student debt and your emergency fund is also overstuffed, Ramsey suggests that you attack that debt first  while maintaining a $1,000 emergency fund.

This is the course of action that Ramsey advised on his radio show to a caller who had multiple student loans  about $51,000 total  in addition to an auto loan of a few thousand dollars. When learning that the callers smallest student loan was $6,700, Ramsey suggested that the caller use his emergency fund to pay off your car and your smallest student loan. The emotional effect of those wins, according to Ramsey and his co-host (and daughter) Rachel Cruze, would get the caller well on the path to completely eliminating his debt.

The Bottom Line

Ramseys advice for those struggling with student loan debt is essentially the same he has for those with any type of debt  tighten your budget, list down your debts from smallest to largest, use the Debt Snowball Method, increase your income and direct all excess income, such as tax refunds and bonuses, to your debt.

Every individual case is different, of course, but you should be able to apply some or even all of these tips to help pay down your student loans quickly.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Dave Ramseys 4 Tips To Pay Down Your Student Loans Fast
Need of commercialisation of artificial insemination in pigs

|

Tukheswar Chutia, Bhabesh Mili, MO Kurien and G Dhanan Jaya Rao

Livestock is an integral part of agriculture farming in India. It contributes 4.1% of total National GDP, which is highest amongst agriculture and allied sectors. Among all livestock species, pig has a huge potential to contribute faster economic return to the farmers, because of high fecundity, better feed conversion efficiency, early maturity and short gestation interval. The marginal farmers, especially in entire North Eastern region of India have enormous opportu- nity to improve their socio-economic status and livelihood through piggery.

Almost every household of North Eastern region consume pork. Latest livestock census data shows a declining trend of pig population from 13.52 million (17th Livestock census) to 9.06 million (20th Livestock census). Having potential to improve socio economic status and livelihood of tribal peoples, especially in North Eastern States of India, it necessitates improvi- sation of traditional piggery practices, especially breeding.

Piggery in India is mostly confined within the weaker section of rural society, especially within tribal masses. Although the Government has offered attractive subsidy and scheme to the livestock entrepreneurs to boost up piggery industry, still this industry is not growing remarkably in our country. One of the major causes of declining trend of pig population is sticking with traditional method of breeding via natural service.

In this system, a community boar is use for breeding within that community. No organized germplasm centre is available for pig in our country. Therefore, farmers are solely dependant on natural service unlike developed countries. The rearing of boar for breeding is cost effective as well as is not feasible for backyard pig farmers, where they are confined to maximum 2 to 3 nos. of pig only. Thus, widespread use of AI will be an alternative to age old natural service with superior male germplasm for breeding will defiantly boost up piggery industry in our country.

A success of AI in terms of fertility lies on decision of right time for AI in a breed able female animal. Pig is a polyoestrous and polytomous domestic animal, can yield many crops in a year. Gilt attains maturity at the age of 6-11 months depending on the size, breed and nutrition and other managemental factors. However, poor body condition, imbalanced nutrition may delay the onset of puberty and sexual maturity. The age of sexual maturity of exotic breed, crossbred and local pig varies from 9-11 months, 8-11 months and 6-7 months, respectively.

The length of estrous cycles varies from 18-24 days in pig. The duration of estrus is 2-3 days; this may vary according to breed and age of the pig. Detection of estrus is paramount in order to achieve success in pig breeding. The estrus sign and symptoms are almost same in both gilts and sows; however the duration and intensity may vary. The signs of estrus includes swelling and reddening of vulva, pink and moist of vulva mucous membrane, mucus discharge, mounting on other animals, excited for male, off fed, pressing the swollen vulva against hard wall or floor, standing reflex with erect ears and arched back with rigid, motionless posture etc. It is always recommended that the female should always be bred or inseminated when it is in standing heat or estrus. However, it cant be detected in all cases, which can be easily recognized in the presence of a mature boar.

Breeding Management

The gilt should be bred only when it is physically fit and having the proper growth at the time of estrus. It is always recommended that gilt should not be bred in first heat/ estrus as it will most likely result in poor quality oocytes. Fence line contact or direct contact of the mature breeding boar for 15-20 minutes per day, stimulate the hypothalomo-pituitary-gonadal axis of gilts, and thereby hasten puberty. Gilt has a tendency to show signs of estrus when other pen mates come to estrus. Therefore, housing estral and non-estral gilts or sow together may enhance reproductive activity of the delayed pubertal gilts. The delayed puberty can be overcome by hormonal therapy. Numbers of exogenous hormones have been used for augmentation as well as estrus synchronization in developed countries to enhance the reproductive performance in pig. Estrus synchronization coupled with fixed-time AI will be viable option to improve fertility rate in pig.

A healthy adult sow usually comes into estrus at around 5-7 days after post weaning. However, it also depends on farrowing to weaning interval. In commercial pig farm, weaning is done at various days of lactation, viz. 28 days, 35 days, 42 days or 56 days. Early weaning at 28 or 35 days of lactation does not have much effect on body weight loss in sow. Thereby, sow may be ready for next breeding/service within a week after weaning. The post weaning body weight has immense effect on reproductive performance in sow.

A healthy sow exhibits next heat at the earliest, immediately after removal of lactation and suckling stimulus. However, weaning should not be done too early because it will depress the litter size. Sucking stimuli inhibit hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis. Thus, removal of suckling stimulus causes activation of the same.

A plan weaning of sow with different lactation length also render the estrus synchronization, this is called natural synchronization of estrus. Understanding of endocrine profiles of pig especially on female reproduction, which has opened up a new vista in piggery through synthetic hormones therapy for enhanced reproductive effi- ciency, especially estrus synchronization coupled with fixed time AI.

Artificial Insemination of Pig

In Artificial Insemination, processed and preserved semen collected from genetically superior boar is deposited in the female reproductive tract at the time of estrus/heat by means other than sexual intercourse. A double insemi- nation is always ideal to meet maximum conception and fertility rate. Generally, AI is done on second day evening from the day of onset of estrus followed by third day morning at 12 hours interval in sow.

(To be contd)


Five months after the Ward 13 city councillor Alex Wilson and the new ward office team took over, improving communication with constituents and creating opportunities for community solutions to a variety of challenges are top priorities.

Wilson held the first ward town hall, an Open Office meeting on April 26, to introduce the expanded staff team, summarize what theyve been working on, and whats coming.

Were operating from a place of continuous improvement, Wilson said. We have to build a relationship. We want to do better, thats our goal. Hopefully, this is a good start to that relationship.

The ward office is not currently offering in-person drop-in office hours for constituents, and Wilson directed residents to make appointments by emailing ward13@hamilton.ca or calling 905-546-2714.

They hope to start providing scheduled office hours soon.

We reallocated the ward office budget, Wilson said. Now we have two full-time staff spread over three people.

Wilson officially introduced ward office staff Micaela Corcoran, Jody Aberdeen and Sophie Geffros.

Corcoran, the only full-time staffer, previously worked for NDP MP Matthew Green and MPP Sandy Shaw.

She said her focus is case work which includes multiple interactions with a particular person on a specific issue. Since the office opening in early December, theres been an average of 60 cases a week and about 1,150 cases in total so far.

A case looks like us supporting you with what is typically an ongoing issue, she said.

Corcoran noted there have been concerns about communication.

We take that very seriously. Im the one full-time staff person. It can be challenging at times to respond within one to two days. We want to acknowledge that, Corcoran said. We have to prioritize. We do have people at risk of homelessness  emergency situations. That means reordering priorities.

She said road safety is an issue across the entire ward and a major project for Wilsons office. A road safety town hall is anticipated by the end of May.

Other issues so far this term include the Carmeuse waste burning proposal; bylaw enforcement; dumping in rural areas; Bill 23 consequences for the Greenbelt; snow clearing; the municipal budget; Wentworth Lodge lands and other public spaces; short-term rental housing; houselessness and tenant issues and recreation programming and facilities.

Aberdeen is developing a social media strategy and working on a twice-monthly newsletter.

Geffros has been involved in the ward offices push for the city to become a living wage employer, protecting tenants facing issues such as renovictions and solid waste management.

She said some may wonder why summer students should be guaranteed a living wage, and said the city doesnt have enough lifeguards and park Supies, for example, to offer full programming.

If we want to see robust communities, we need a living wage, Geffros said.

Wilson said the office is dealing with the same compounding crises facing the entire city  including housing and homelessness, where to build, climate and biodiversity, and declining sewer and water infrastructure.

They said part of the effort involves breaking down silos that have separated councillors at city hall.

Were going to do this together, Wilson said. Were going to do this as a community.

That means residents are involved, and the councillor suggested the ward office can help connect people with concerns about specific issues to others already working on solutions.

Wilson said people have asked what might happen to the local community council, continued by past ward representatives Art Samson, Russ Powers and Arlene VanderBeek.

Were going to take on more of a project-based approach, Wilson said. What does our community council look like? Its not one thing. It has to be customized.

Wilson suggested residents can develop their own groups to start city building themselves.

The office is planning to create a youth council and seniors advisory council before the end of 2023.

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Global Market Insights Inc.

Delivery robot industry is expected to register 25% CAGR between 2023 and 2032 due to increasing use of delivery robots in the retail business.

Selbyville, Delaware, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As per the report published by Global Market Insights Inc., the Global Delivery Robot Market was estimated at USD 500 Million in 2022 and is expected to surpass a valuation of $ 6 Billion by 2032, progressing at a CAGR of 25% from 2023 to 2032. The report provides a detailed analysis of top winning strategies, drivers & opportunities, competitive scenario, wavering market trends, market size, statistics & estimations, and major investment pockets.

Increasing use of delivery robots in the retail sector will shape market growth. According to a recent survey, around 25% of retailers already utilize robotics solutions in their business. Technological & legal developments triggered the replacement of traditional delivery methods with robotic alternatives. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic motioned the demand for contactless deliveries. In the retail sector, the use of service and delivery robots for in-store sales is expanding rapidly. Companies in the market are collaborating with technology firms and other manufacturers to introduce robots that can be used in retail settings and are profitable.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/5558





Developments in robotic software for improved efficiency

Delivery robot market share from the software segment is expected to cross USD 1.5 billion by 2032. Robots can do the essential task by entering and processing data with the aid of software, which is like a set of rules for it to function properly. Companies are introducing delivery robots with advanced software systems. For instance, in October 2022, a Kochi-based startup, Rosversity, introduced NUE, a delivery robot. The company created a software suite to control and map the robots' memories. Fleet management software, which enables multi-robot navigation and management, is used to control the robot.

Story continues

Key reasons for delivery robot market growth:

Increasing use of delivery robots in the retail industry

Growth in the hospitality and healthcare industries

Increasing use of delivery robots in college campuses

Rising e-commerce and online food industries

Increasing government initiatives & investments in robot manufacturing companies

The use of compact 3-wheel robots across multiple verticals

In terms of the number of wheels, the delivery robot market share from the 3-wheel segment is predicted to record over 25% CAGR from 2023 to 2032. In the coming years, the 3-wheel robots are expected to expand owing to their multiple advantages. Improved mobility and the capacity to make quick turns make these robots highly preferable across various business verticals. These robots can precisely navigate spaces that a four- or six-wheeled autonomous robot cannot by rotating in place to change its direction of motion at a press of a button.

Deployment of delivery robots in retail sector to drive market expansion

Based on end-use, the delivery robot market share from the retail segment is anticipated to reach more than USD 1 billion by 2032. In the retail sector, delivery robots are being employed to increase worker productivity, cut labor costs, and make last-mile deliveries. Retailers can increase productivity across the board, from store operations to logistics and supply chain management. It allows them to enhance consumer relations by using delivery robots that move quickly from warehouses to storefronts.

These robots are also preprogramed to converse with clients, respond to their inquiries, and provide instructions. For instance, in April 2023, a convenience franchise store CU demonstrated an autonomous delivery robot by partnering with Mobinn, which is an in-house venture of the Hyundai Group. This robot uses the stairs and has the capacity to go up and down hills as well.

China using delivery robots in e-commerce and logistics verticals

Asia Pacific delivery robot market size is predicted to observe more than 30% CAGR from 2023 to 2032. The demand for delivery robots in the region will increase due to China's fast-expanding e-commerce economy and rising customer propensity for online shopping. The usage of delivery robots in business operations is a top priority for regional e-commerce and logistics firms. As of March 2022, the Alibaba Group's Xiaomanlv autonomous robots had delivered more than 10 million packages around China. More than 200 Chinese institutions have installed the company's robots, which are used to deliver packages sent via the Cainiao Post mailing system.

Secure a copy of the premium research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/securecheckout/paymenta/5558?gmpaycod=sugmp

Competitive sphere of the global delivery robot market share

JD.com, Alibaba Group, Kiwibot, Nuro, Relay Robotics, ST Engineering, and Starship Technologies are the principal players in the delivery robot industry. To obtain a competitive edge, businesses in the delivery robot industry are concentrating on joint ventures, acquisitions, and the introduction of new robots.

Partial chapters of report table of contents (TOC):

Chapter 3 Delivery Robot Industry Insights

3.1 Impact of COVID-19 outbreak

3.2 Impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war

3.3 Delivery robot industry ecosystem analysis

3.4 Technology & Innovation landscape

3.5 Patent analysis

3.6 Key news & initiatives

3.7 Regulatory landscape

3.8 Industry impact forces

3.9 Growth potential analysis

3.10 Porters analysis

3.11 PESTEL analysis

Chapter 4 Competitive Landscape, 2022

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Company market share, 2022

4.3 Major Market Players, 2022

4.4 Competitive positioning matrix

4.5 Strategic outlook matrix

Chapter 5 Delivery Robot Market, By Solution

5.1 Key trends, by solution

5.2 Hardware

5.3 Software

Browse Our Reports Store - GMIPulse @ https://www.gminsights.com/gmipulse



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An Ancaster man wanted in connection with two Mob shootings, including the murder of Hamiltons Angelo Musitano six years ago, has been named one of the top 25 most wanted criminals in the country.

The Bolo program, which stands for be on the lookout, works in co-operation with police and Crime Stoppers to publicize unsolved cases. On Monday, Bolo unveiled its top 25 list in Toronto, before life-sized, cardboard cutouts of the most wanted figures.

Daniel Tomassetti is in the No. 21 space. The 32-year-old is wanted by Hamilton and York Regional police for two 2017 shootings tied to traditional organized crime figures.

Hamilton police homicide Det. Sgt. Jason Cattle, who is in charge of the Musitano murder investigation, said he reached out to the Bolo program last year after seeing their help solve a case.

He hopes their platform will help amplify their search for Tomassetti and lead to new tips in the six-year-old case stalled since Tomassetti fled to Mexico.

On March 14, 2017, 28-year-old Mila Barberi was killed in the parking lot of Teknika Lighting in Woodbridge. She was an innocent bystander, killed by a bullet meant for her boyfriends family. Her boyfriend, Saverio Serrano, was shot but survived.

On May 2, 2017, Hamilton mobster Angelo Musitano, 39, was gunned down in the driveway of his Waterdown home.

Police later formed a multi-jurisdictional investigation dubbed Project Scopa after linking the two murders through surveillance video that showed the same vehicle used in both cases. Police found both the Serranos and Musitanos were under surveillance by their killers, including being followed and trackers placed on their vehicles, before the organized hits.

In both cases, police say the shooter was Michael Cudmore, a Hamilton criminal and hired gun, who fled to Mexico after the shooting. He was found murdered in a burnt car on the side of the road in June 2020.

Tomassetti, who police allege was the organizer of the surveillance and shootings, also fled to Mexico. He flew to Cancun on Jan. 27, 2018.

The Ancaster resident previously lived with his parents and ran a travel agency that police say did not appear to be a functioning business. But he did have travel connections in Mexico, including teaching fitness classes. He was scheduled to fly back on Feb. 3, but never showed.

A third co-accused Jabril Abdalla  a friend of Tomassetti  was the only man to spend time in jail. He was arrested in Hamilton and charged in the murders, but pleaded guilty in 2021 to participating in a criminal organization. According to the agreed facts in that plea, he agreed to register two cars in his name and drive Cudmore and Tomassetti, but did not know about murder plots.

The Spectator detailed the murders and the search for the killers and the twists in the Abdalla court case in an award-winning series Trigger.

Cattle said police have continued to get some tips about possible sightings of Tomassetti, but all have proven negative. Some of those tips have come from Canada. However, there is no official record of him ever leaving Mexico.

The Hamilton police board has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Tomassetti.

Interpol has also issued a red notice for Tomassetti, who is wanted for two counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder for the shooting of Serrano. That international wanted notice includes a picture of him on a boat taken from social media that police believe is from before he fled.

Police believe Tomassetti and Cudmore were hired to carry out the murders, which began a Mob war, but have never charged anyone.

Angelos older bother Pasquale (Pat) Musitano, the boss of the crime family, was shot and killed in a Burlington parking lot in July 2020. No one has been charged in his death.

Bolo has been around five years and this is the second year for the top 25 most wanted list. It is program of the Stephan Cretier Foundation, a charitable organization established by Cretier, who is also the founder and CEO of Garda World Security Corporation.

Max Langlois, general manager and leader of the Bolo program, said it is intended to support public safety in a way that complements police investigations. They pay for targeted advertising, including everything from bus shelters and billboards to social media.

Langlois said the success of the program shows they are filling a need. For instance, in the first year of the top 25 list last year, the No. 1 target, Abilaziz Mohamed, was arrested within hours of being named and charged with first-degree murder. The website lists 17 solved cases that have been featured by Bolo.

The popularity of the program has grown and they received many submissions for their top 25 list. The committee, which is chaired by Langlois and includes police from across the country, selects and ranks the wanted parties. Langlois said the Tomassetti case was selected in part because of the organized crime connection, the fact that it involves several police services and the active reward in Hamilton.

Anyone with information is asked to call Hamilton police Det. Nesreen Shawihat at 905-546-4863 or the York Regional Police homicide unit at 905-830-0303 ext. 7865.

Nicole OReilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com

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Hamilton police cleared a bomb threat at Sherwood Park Secondary School on Tuesday afternoon.

Const. Krista-Lee Ernst said police responded to the Mountain high school around 1:30 p.m. after staff found the threat scrawled on a bathroom wall.

The school evacuated its students prior to police arrival, Ernst said. Officers searched area and located no threat.

Police continue to investigate the source of the threat.

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A 77-year-old man missing since Tuesday night has been found safe.

Hamilton police issued a public appeal Wednesday morning for help finding William Robert, who had been last seen near St. Josephs Hospital around 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Shortly before 11:30 a.m. Wednesday police said the Flamborough man has been located in good health.

Police thanked the public for their help.

Reach The Spectator newsroom at 905-526-3420 or news@thespec.com

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The saga of a partially demolished downtown Hamilton church and a 30-storey condo tower long expected to rise from the rubble behind it has reached yet another milestone without shovels in the ground.

The city has extended the projects heritage permit by a year with the expectation of regular condition updates from the propertys new owner on what remains of James Street Baptist during the continued preamble to construction.

At this point in time, Im anxious to see something go there, says Janice Brown, a member of the municipal heritage committee.

The remains of the former James Street Baptist church at James Street South and Jackson Street East. The Hamilton Spectator

In the meantime, an engineering report advises the churchs remaining facade and tower arent about to crumble but will need more attention as time marches on.

The masonry is in poor condition, but it does not present an immediate risk to the public and the stability of the structure, the analysis found.

Since it was knocked down nearly a decade ago, the 145-year-old semi-razed church still cuts a dramatic and forlorn profile on its weedy, debris-strewn lot at the corner of James and Jackson streets.

The Connolly development is expected to be built at James Street South and Jackson Street East at the site of the former James Street Baptist church. The Hamilton Spectator

Lets get that cleaned up and lets see something happen, especially when you look at our downtown core, said Brown, who pointed to a host of other condo projects underway.

Like Brown, Coun. Cameron Kroetsch lamented the state of the partial churchs backyard and asked city staff if the developer could be urged to clean it up.

I think its a potential opportunity to have some temporary green space until and whenever, if ever, this development gets built, said Kroetsch, the downtown areas new councillor.

The Connolly project has had more than one false start since a Toronto developer knocked the old church down in 2014.

Louie Santaguida had aspired to incorporate the facade into a future condo building, but in 2017, amid financial troubles, those efforts fizzled.

In 2019, Hue Developments bought the property and announced plans to resurrect the project with an infusion of capital.

Broken windows in the remains of the James Street Baptist church. The Hamilton Spectator

Then in September 2022, Allen Le Nam said his firm, a subsidiary of a larger Vietnam-based corporation, had to pull the plug due to pandemic-related woes.

Thats around when 98 James South (2022) Inc. bought the parcel, according to property records.

Michael Budovitch, vice-president of special projects and business development with Milborne Group and listed as the ownership groups director, didnt respond to The Spectators request for a project update.

In a previous email, Budovitch noted his firm doesnt own the property but is a consultant for the investor group.

Brown calls it a good sign the new proponents plan to monitor the condition of the church remnant amid the stalled development plans.

An engineering report advises James Street Baptist church's remaining facade and tower aren't about to crumble but will need more attention as time marches on. The Hamilton Spectator

Recent crack monitor reviews commissioned by the property owner showed no significant signs of structural distress, city staff noted in a report before the heritage committee.

But the facade needs restoration, and the longer thats delayed, the more its cost and scope are expected to escalate.

Gillam Group, the Connollys construction manager, didnt respond to a request for comment but offers a project overview on its website.

Among its key challenges is the logistics of building a tower on a very tight piece of land.

The site does not easily accommodate an efficient layout, thereby requiring close integration between the design and construction team to optimize the design.

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TORONTO - Some of the most active companies traded Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:

Toronto Stock Exchange (20,407.56, down 207.54):

Manulife Financial Corp. (TSX:MFC). Financials. Down 15 cents, or 0.56 per cent, to $26.68 on 13.0 million shares.

Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU). Energy. Down $2.00, or 4.79 per cent, to $39.77 on 11.5 million shares.

Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB). Energy. Down $1.06, or 1.98 per cent, to $52.54 on 8.5 million shares.

Athabasca Oil Corp. (TSX:ATH). Energy. Down 25 cents, or 7.58 per cent, to $3.05 on 8.3 million shares.

Toronto-Dominion Bank. (TSX:TD). Financials. Down 91 cents, or 1.11 per cent, to $81.08 on 7.6 million shares.

Cenovus Energy Inc. (TSX:CVE). Energy. Down $1.22, or 5.47 per cent, to $21.07 on 7.5 million shares.

Companies in the news:

Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (TSX:CP). Transportation. Down 97 cents, or 0.90 per cent, to $106.43. State authorities in Maine have hit Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. with a violation notice over fallout from its cleanup efforts after a freight train went off the tracks last month. Officials sent a notice of violation to the railway after heavy construction equipment deployed to access the crash site caused a significant amount of sediment to enter local waters in violation of a pollution control law, according to Maines Department of Environmental Protection.

Restaurant Brands International Inc. (TSX:QSR). Restaurants. Up $2.65, or 2.77 per cent, to $98.27. Tim Hortons restaurants in Canada kicked off the year with a double-digit increase in sales, fuelled by higher customer traffic and faster service at the coffee and doughnut chain, its parent company said on Tuesday. Restaurant Brands International Inc. reported a first-quarter profit of US$277 million, up from US$270 million a year earlier, as its revenue also climbed higher. The company, which includes Burger King, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Firehouse Subs, posted a 10.3 per cent increase in comparable sales across its brands and a 4.2 per cent net increase in restaurants.

Royal Bank of Canada. (TSX:RY). Financials. Down $2.93, or 2.18 per cent, to $131.44. HSBC Holdings plc said the sale of its Canadian division to Royal Bank of Canada is going to take longer than first expected, but that the deal remains a key priority. London-based HSBC said it now expects to complete the $13.5-billion transaction in the first quarter of 2024, rather than late this year as it guided when it announced the deal last November.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2,2023.

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It might be known as fashions biggest night out, but that doesnt mean beauty takes a back seat. When it comes to preparing for the Met Gala, no detail is overlooked. There are skin treatments with the most in-demand facialists in the world, trims and colour touch-ups with the top hair pros in the business, lash and brow services, spray tans, mani-pedis and perhaps most importantly, endless discussions between the glam team and attendee about devising the perfect hairstyle and makeup to complement the overall vision.

Judging by the looks on display on those famous Metropolitan Museum of Art steps, all that hard work definitely paid off. Here, we round up the biggest beauty statements of the 2023 Met Gala.

Black ribbons

Hair bows, particularly black ones, are having a moment. We spotted a slew of them at the Oscars back in March, then Hailey Bieber wore one a few days ago in an homage to Audrey Hepburn at a Tiffany event (how fitting) and last night, they were everywhere, from Sydney Sweenys O.T.T. tule version to Priyanka Chopras modern, deconstructed take. The romantic hair accessory did seem quite fitting considering the evenings themeKarl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beautyrecalling classic Chanel.

Micro-bangs

Theres something about an abridged fringe that feels very Paris in the 20s, and thus very Chanel. Emily Ratajkowski teamed hers up with a black bow (double trend points there) while Lizzo contrasted textures, opting for straight bangs and a curly updo. And how darling did Olivia Rodrigo look with her subtly curled fringe?

Pastel lids

Spring-y shades of pink and green made many appearances last night, most notably on the lids of Naomi Campbell, Eva Chen and Suki Waterhouse, the latter of whom sported the prettiest watercolour-esque eye makeup. This is your sign to try a little colour on your lids this season.

Headbands

Black ribbons werent the only trending hair adornment of the night. Headbands were also huge. As demonstrated by red carpet hosts Emma Chamberlain and La La Anthony as well as rapper Cardi B, the accessory is best paired with bold earrings and silky smooth tresses.

Barbie ponytails

The 30-centimetre plastic doll appears to have a choke hold on fashion right now. Not only is pink reigning supreme on runways and in the makeup aisle, but Barbies bouncy pony is also having a moment. Cue Kendall Jenner and Paris Hilton donning ultra-high ponytails last night. (Notice how a strand of hair was used to cover the elastic for a more elegant feel.)

Watermelon lips

Rather than traditional crimson, it was all about pinky reds when it came to lipstick last night. Salma Hayek and models Liu Wren and Irina Shayk all rocked the hue, with Shayk even swiping it on her lids for a monochromatic makeup moment. A little softer and less serious than true red, the shade feels perfect for the warmer months, recalling a juicy slide of watermelon.

Flipped ends

Sixties-style curved ends and a deep side-part give a bob cut a fun, retro twist. Just take it from Ashley Graham, who actually snipped her locks right before the event, and Margaret Qualley, another attendee who gets double trend points thanks to her watermelon pout.

Silver shadow

Icy eyeshadow was seen sparkling up the lids of several guests, including Rihanna, Gigi Hadid and Kim Petras. After the resurgence of Y2K fashion, we should have known it was only a matter of time before the early aughts makeup trend plotted a comeback.

Shock transformations

Head-turning statements are highly encouraged at the Met Gala and what could make a bigger statement than debuting a whole new look on the famous steps? Thats what Florence Pugh, Jessica Chastain and Marion Cotillard chose to do, respectively unveiling a shaved head, bleach-blonde locks and a bubblegum mushroom cut.

French manis

As far as nail art goes, the standout trend of the night was no doubt French tips (the evening did pay homage to a designer who spent most of his life in Paris, after all). Dua Lipa and Karlie Kloss opted for classic white, Jenna Ortega and EmRata went with dramatic black and Gabrielle Union matched her mani to her scarlet dress.

Katherine Lalancette is the beauty and lifestyle director of The Kit. She writes about beauty and trends. Reach her on email at kl@thekit.ca or follow her on Twitter: @kik_tweets

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VANCOUVER  A B.C. citys bylaw that rezones property as rental-only has withstood another court challenge, affirming legislation brought in by the province to protect renters.

Its a legal victory that has Ontario housing advocates once again turning their eyes to developments on the West Coast.

The City of New Westminster, a Vancouver suburb of about 70,000 people, won a provincial appeals court decision Monday, preserving a zoning bylaw preventing owners from living in their properties in areas designated for rental use only. The aim is to protect rental units by not letting individual owners move in or demolish them to build condos.

The bylaw is not inconsistent with the Residential Tenancy Act, Justice Harvey Groberman wrote in his summary of the judgment, confirming an earlier courts verdict. Further the Local Government Act, reasonably interpreted, gave the municipality authority to enact it.

The case centred around owners of units in six buildings that had been built as rental housing but were stratified, enabling the units to be sold to individual owners if desired. The shift to a condo building  called strata buildings in B.C.  could, under provincial law, open renters to being evicted if building owners wanted to move in themselves.

However, New Westminster rezoned the buildings to be rental-only in 2019, after the province passed a law enabling cities to do so. (Building owners could still live in suites if they had been living in them prior to the city making the zoning change.)

The owners legal bid was meant to get the bylaw quashed, but the Court of Appeal for B.C. rebuffed them on Monday, rejecting the argument that the rezoning was vague and outside of the citys jurisdiction. (According to the judgment, the owners were all corporate landlords with no intentions of actually occupying the units themselves.)

Mayor Patrick Johnstone said the victory shows the B.C. law could help all cities in the province preserve rental stock, and also proved wrong those who slammed the rezoning when it was passed.

We heard two things: we heard that we would lose in court, and we were also told that rental investment would end in New Westminster, Johnstone said. Both have turned out to be false.

He said rental units in the city are now being built at a rate faster than anywhere else in the region. Mondays decision sends the message the courts will protect the right of cities to rezone to rental-only, he added.

You dont often hear good news about cities acting boldly to protect vulnerable renters, Johnstone said. Its a good day for renters in New West and provincewide.

Howard Shapray, lawyer for the owners, said he believes his clients had solid arguments, but added that its too early to know if they intend to take the case to a higher court.

Were still pondering the issue, he said. We have to identify an issue of national importance, something that would attract the attention of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Some would like to see similar laws introduced in Ontario.

Ontarios NDP housing critic, University-Rosedale MPP Jessica Bell, said such rezoning protections are needed in her province. Bell said rental housing has been in increasing jeopardy, across the GTA in particular.

We have seen developers continue to prioritize the construction of condos over purpose-built rentals because they make their profit more quickly, Bell said. A purpose-built rental is a long-term investment.

She said about 3,000 rental units in Toronto are at risk of being demolished and turned into condos. Municipalities need more tools to protect such rental stock, she said.

Its not the first time New Westminster, a historic city on the banks of the Fraser River that was the provinces first capital city, has caused a stir with its laws around rentals. The city also won a court challenge in 2021 of regulations aimed at stopping so-called renovictions, when an owner boots out a tenant, ostensibly to make renovations, but then puts the property on sale.

Those regulations require that landlords of purpose-built rentals provide for temporary accommodation of tenants forced out due to renovations. Landlords must also send the tenant a written offer to move back, at the same rent, when the renovations are complete.

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EdmontonIt was a ruling that was always going to cast a shadow over UCP Leader Danielle Smith.

On the second day of the Alberta election campaign, a judge ruled that a Calgary street pastor who tried to have the Alberta premier intervene in his criminal proceedings was guilty of mischief in relation to a COVID blockade.

As news of the conviction emerged on Tuesday, Smith was not taking any questions from media about the case many believe had thrust her into an unwanted ethics review on the eve of the election campaign.

Pastor Artur Pawlowski was at the Coutts, Alta., border blockade last year to support protesters decrying COVID-19 public health measures. Judge Gordon Krinke also found him guilty Tuesday of breaching a release order.

Crown prosecutors had argued that a speech Pawlowski gave to protesters incited them to continue disrupting the border. Pawlowski had pleaded not guilty.

His case was thrust into the public spotlight after a phone call between him and Smith was publicized by the Alberta NDP in March. Just weeks before his criminal trial began, Smith, sitting as premier, talked to him on the phone for 11 minutes and said shed make inquiries about his case.

Albertas ethics commissioner is investigating whether Smith interfered with the administration of justice.

The ruling comes as the province enters the second day of an election that polls have pegged so far as a neck-and-neck battle between Rachel Notleys NDP and Smiths UCP, with all eyes on the close race in Calgary. The campaign on Tuesday was light on new policies being rolled out by either party, but the Pawlowski ruling potentially throws a wrench into the UCPs election campaign.

Smith was not made available to the media on Tuesday. She instead toured Calgary speaking to voters and volunteers.

Notley, meanwhile, attended two events, one in Calgary and one in Red Deer, where she spoke about health-care issues and took questions from reporters.

She was asked if Smith should publicly address the Pawlowski ruling, which had not come down when she gave her response.

Danielle Smith is on video very clearly announcing that she plans to interfere with the administration of justice on behalf of somebody whose actions cost our economy hundreds of millions of dollars, said Notley.

I dont care if its today, if it was a month ago when she claimed she was going to sue people (the CBC and NDP were threatened with lawsuits after publicizing the phone call), or two weeks from now. Quite frankly, Albertans are very, very nervous about the extreme nature of Mr. Pawlowskis views.

Danielle Smith clearly, clearly aligns herself with him  up to and including being prepared to interfere with the administration of justice on his behalf, so she needs to answer for that.

Smith has been criticized for her stance during her partys leadership race pledging to grant clemency to people hit with charges during the pandemic  something thats not in her power to do as premier.

Pawlowski saw a helping hand in Smith as she ascended to the premiers office through winning the UCP leadership race in October.

The pastor was also hit with a charge under the Alberta Critical Infrastructure Defence Act of wilfully damaging or destroying essential infrastructure. A ruling on that charge was put off. Penalties on the other charges could range up to jail time.

He received the guilty verdicts a day after publicly launching his own political campaign.

On Monday, Pawlowski posted a video to his Twitter account of him and former Conservative MP Rob Anders, who was wearing a black hoodie with a maple leaf and the words arrest Trudeau next to it.

The video was posted as a way for him to launch a party and ask for candidates to run. Anders said vote for the new party if you dont believe in 15-minute cities and you want to free truckers and free pastors. He made a remark about the LGBTQ community and then said people should throw their support behind them to end jabs.

While Smith was not available to the media Tuesday, the UCP has decided to do a nightly broadcast on Facebook Live, the first of which she appeared on Monday night. Smith has also put in place a policy of not taking follow-up questions from reporters when she is available.

The host of the UCP war-room broadcast, Bruce McAllister, said on a Facebook livestream Monday night that the partisan show will talk about platform news from the NDP and UCP because the media has a tendency to report things one way from time to time.

We will make sure that we are fact-checking what is reported and bring you the straight goods, said the former Wildrose party MLA who served in the legislature from 2012 to 2015, including when the party was led by Smith.

Christine Myatt, a senior consultant with New West Public Affairs and former director of communications for premier Jason Kenney, said the risk of not having Smith up in front of the media is that the UCP cedes ground to attacks from the NDP.

I think its unfortunate that theyve made this choice because I think they have a really strong message and its one that Albertans need to hear, she said.

As for what effect the Pawlowski ruling may have on the campaign, Myatt said it will likely be muted.

I think that the NDP and to some extent the media are going to want to make this an issue, she said. The vast majority of Albertans are not on Twitter, and theyre not glued to social media 24/7, which is where a lot of this plays out.

While it may generate a day or two of negative media coverage, overall, I dont think this is going to be a huge election issue.

With files from The Canadian Press

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The University of New Brunswick has appointed three professors from other institutions to conduct a formal investigation into allegations of academic fraud against a former PhD student who is also a high-profile ally of former United States president Donald Trump.

The academic credentials of Doug Mastriano, a retired U.S. army colonel and Republican politician, were called into question last fall when several scholars alleged that his 2013 doctoral dissertation was plagued by factual errors, fabrications, omissions and amateurish archeology.

At the time, the Pennsylvania state senator was widely known for his active role in the movement to overturn Trumps 2020 election defeat. With Trumps support, he won the Republican nomination to run for state governor, but he lost that race on Nov. 9, 2022.

Mastriano dismissed the allegations last fall, saying left-leaning professors at UNB were unable to deal with his political views and military background.

In response to the initial allegations, university officials conducted a preliminary assessment of a formal complaint, and reviewed the schools policies for awarding doctoral degrees. The results of those efforts were not made public.

The formal complaint was submitted on Oct. 6, 2022, by James Gregory, an instructor and PhD candidate at the University of Oklahoma, who documented 213 allegations of academic misconduct in Mastrianos dissertation about U.S. army Sgt. Alvin York, a highly decorated First World War infantryman.

On March 3 of this year, Gregory received a letter from UNBs vice-president of research, David MaGee, who said he had determined the allegations had sufficient substance to warrant a formal investigation under the schools Responsible Conduct in Research policy.

The three-member investigation committee must submit its findings and recommendations to MaGee within 60 days of its formation. But the universitys policy says their confidential report will not be released to the public.

Gregory said he asked MaGee about what would happen with the investigation report.

He was very quiet when I asked how long it would take and if I would be told the results, Gregory said in an interview Tuesday. The answers were very vague.

MaGee did not respond to a request for an interview. Other members of the universitys administration declined to be interviewed, citing privacy concerns.

If the committee determines Mastriano committed scholarly misconduct, it can recommend disciplinary actions, but the policy does not provide details of what that means.

As for MaGee, he has several options: accept the findings in whole, or in part; forward the report to the appropriate senior administrators for possible disciplinary actions; determine a non-disciplinary remedy; and/or notify any relevant third parties, including funding agencies and publishers.

Jeffrey Brown, a longtime history professor at UNB, was among the first to raise red flags about Mastrianos dissertation in 2012. As a member of the examining board that reviewed Mastrianos work, Brown said his suggestions for revisions were not taken seriously.

He said the main problem with the 500-page paper was that it relied too heavily on a 1928 autobiography that has been called into question by other historians for being a simplistic portrait of Yorks life. Brown also cited shortcomings with an archeological dig Mastriano led in France. The professor said two qualified experts came forward in 2008 to dispute Mastrianos findings.

In 2014, Mastriano wrote a book based on the dissertation.

Gregory, author of Unravelling the Myth of Sgt. Alvin York, said he became concerned about Mastrianos work after he cited a passage from Mastrianos 2014 book in an article. Gregory said he received messages indicating the material was questionable and decided to have a closer look at the book and the dissertation.

His dissertation and subsequent book are built upon falsified research, Gregory alleges in his Oct. 6 complaint to UNB.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

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The death of the ISIS leader in Syria is a significant disruption to the organization, as it jeopardizes strategic moves and communications, experts say.

On Sunday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said intelligence forces had killed Abu Hussein al-Qurayshi in Syria, though the claim has not been confirmed.

(Al-Qurayshis) death, if true, is a major blow to ISIS, said Alex Wilner, an associate professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University.

Terrorist organizations require leaders to be able to provide strategic guidance, according to Wilner, so targeting, arresting or killing terrorist leaders in quick succession impedes organizational development.

It also forces those next in line to burrow deeper underground, stripping their ability to engage with supporters effectively.

Having lost multiple top leaders over a year shows that the group is struggling on multiple fronts, according to Wilner.

ISIS is on the ropes. Its members and leaders are hounded across the globe. They have few friends, even among other militant organizations. Even the Taliban targets them in Afghanistan, which says quite a lot, he said.

The group is still very active in Iraq and Syria. They claim attacks weekly, and so sleeper cell activity is ongoing, said Amarnath Amarasingam, assistant professor in the School of Religion at Queens University.

In terms of disruption, though, taking out leadership is important. It creates a lot more communication that can be monitored, potentially slows down attacks, and slows down plots that are in the works. So, it should indeed have some impact on daily operations.

But that doesnt mean that ISIS is no longer a global threat.

ISIS may be at a nadir, but it has proven its resilience in the past. It would be hard-pressed to organize or facilitate sophisticated terrorist attacks in the West today, as it did repeatedly over the past decade, said Wilner.

But it can still motivate lone actors to conduct violence in its name.

The extremist group was mostly dismantled and driven out of Iraq in 2017 and of Syria in early 2019, but in both countries, the group has maintained its presence by transitioning from semiconventional warfare to hit-and-run attacks.

Islamic State founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was hunted down by U.S. forces in a raid in northwest Syria in October 2019. Al-Qurayshi, who joined ISIS in 2013, according to Turkish intelligence, rapidly ascended the ranks of ISIS. He was declared the so-called new caliph last November, after his predecessor Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in a battle.

None of the al-Qurayshis are believed to be related. Al-Qurayshi is not their real name but comes from Quraish, the name of the tribe that Islams Prophet Muhammad belonged to. The Islamic State claims its leaders hail from this tribe and al-Qurayshi serves as part of an IS leaders nom de guerre.

According to a memo to the Turkish media from intelligence sources on Monday, the Turkish special forces acted on intelligence which said al-Qurayshi, who had gone underground, had resurfaced in Jinderes, in Afrin district in the north of Syria, and was about to go on the move again.

A special operations team targeted a house in Jinderes where al-Qurayshi, was hiding. After he did not respond to calls to surrender, the special ops team entered the building. Realizing that he would be caught he detonated his suicide vest, the memo said.

A U.S. official told the Star that they have no information to support Turkeys claim. Turkey has been the part of the U.S.- led military coalition which battles ISIS in Syria since 2015.

Our partners and #Coalition continue to target ISIS leaders and its terrorist fighters on the battlefield as its an important aspect of our mission, tweeted U.S. Major General Matthew McFarlane, Combined Joint Task Force commander, on Monday.

Erdogan said Turkish intelligence had been monitoring al-Qurayshi for a long time and suggested that Turkey is the only country in NATO that fights against the terrorist group in the most results-oriented and effective way.

A United States Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesperson reiterated Washingtons commitment to the fight against ISIS.

While the so-called territorial caliphate of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria was destroyed, the group maintains the capability to conduct operations in the region, and desires to strike outside of it, said Major John Moore, in an email to the Star.

This threatens the security and stability of the region and poses risk to the U.S. homeland, and those of our partners and allies.

U.S-led coalition forces conducted 37 operations, against ISIS in Syria and Iraq in March alone, killing nine, and detaining 18 ISIS operatives.

While plots and attacks against Western countries have declined since the groups peak influence and operations, explained Amarasingam, their desire to attack the West has not diminished.

Given its strong presence in parts of Africa and the Afghanistan/Pakistan region, (ISIS) definitely has a global presence, Amarasingam said.

They are receding back to terrorist activity and will wait out their next opportunity. It is simply that they are operationally less capable of doing this at the moment, and so you have these one off plots and arrests that you hear about periodically, said Amarasingam.

Despite recent setbacks, the risk of ISIS resurgence in the Middle East remains, leaving the region vulnerable to attacks directed or inspired by the group, a recent UN report said.

ISIS is currently estimated to have 5,000 to 7,000 members and supporters spread between Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, roughly half of whom are fighters, according to the report.

With files from The Associated Press

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Disney's (DIS) high-profile battle with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reached new heights on Monday after the governor's hand-selected Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board launched a countersuit against the company, citing "backroom deals" favorable to the media giant.

The news came after Disney filed a lawsuit against DeSantis and the board last week, asking the federal court to intervene and order the governor to stop punishing the company for what it says is constitutionally protected free speech.

A question Disney shareholders may have is what the ongoing fight means for the entertainment giant. One former Disney executive told Yahoo Finance it won't hurt the business.

"You're not going to see any impact on the attendance of the parks...I don't think 99% of people out in the world are even thinking about it, or care about it," Lee Cockerell, former executive vice president of operations for the Walt Disney World Resort, told Yahoo Finance Live in an interview on Wednesday.

Robert Iger, Chief Executive Officer of Disney, attends the 25th Television Academy Hall of Fame on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020 at the Television Academy's Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)

The fight with DeSantis stems from what has largely been seen as a politically-targeted response over Disney's reaction to the so-called "Don't Say Gay" law, which forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.

In 2022, then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek condemned this law at the company's annual shareholder meeting after initially deciding not to speak publicly on the matter.

That decision set off a political firestorm which continues today, with current Disney CEO Bob Iger defending the company's actions and denouncing DeSantis' practices during its annual meeting of shareholders held earlier this month.

"A company has a right to freedom of speech just like individuals do," Iger said at the time, describing DeSantis' policies as "anti-business" and "anti-Florida."

The Florida governor, who announced new legislation that would require Disney to adhere to further inspections of its theme parks, previously said he's open to developing land near Disney as a way to exercise further control, floating possibilities like a state park or even a state prison. He also suggested the board should consider raising taxes on the company.

Story continues

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis arrives at the Foreign Office in London, Friday, April 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)

Disney 'did the best' it could

Disney's lawsuit categorized the DeSantis fight as a "targeted campaign of government retaliation orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disneys protected speech  [that] now threatens Disneys business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights."

In a statement sent to Yahoo Finance in response to the lawsuit, the governor's communications director, Taryn Fenske, said, "We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state. This lawsuit is yet another unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law."

As the battle intensifies, some have suggested Disney move its operations to another state like Texas  although Cockerell categorized any move as an impossibility.

"This is like a city. It's a mammoth place," he said. "[Disney] is gonna be [in Florida], and they're gonna be here for a long, long time  probably forever."

The former executive added Disney had no other choice but to act against the governor.

"I don't think there was any other way to go," he said, adding Disney was caught in the middle. "You can't do the 'right thing' one way or the other. We had employees on one side, and we had the government on the other side. Disney did the best they could."

Alexandra Canal is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193 and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com

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As King Charles IIIs and Queen Consort Camillas coronation day nears, you may looking for places to mark the historic, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime event from a spot that isnt your living room couch.

Heres whats happening in Toronto for the coronation, where you can watch and how you can take part in the events.

When is the coronation ceremony?

The Kings coronation service at Westminster Abbey in London will begin Saturday, May 6 at 6 a.m. EDT (11 a.m. British Summer Time.) However, coronation events are scheduled for that entire weekend, the Stars Joshua Chong reported in his comprehensive guide to the coronation.

In Canada, the ceremony will be televised across the country  including on CBC platforms  and will be available to watch on Canadian Heritages YouTube channel. It will also be available to watch on the Crown in Canada Facebook page.

(And right here, on the Star.)

City of Toronto events

As part of the National Illumination Initiative, the City of Toronto will illuminate local landmarks emerald-green to mark the coronation. Prominent sites that will be lit on May 6 and 7 include the Toronto sign at Nathan Phillips Square and the Princes Gates at Exhibition Place.

As well, the city launched a new digital archival exhibit looking back at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

At Coronation Park near Ontario Place, the city will also commemorate the coronation by planting a ceremonial oak tree and raising the Canadian Coronation Flag.

Coronation Tea by the Costume Society of Ontario

In honour of the coronation, the Costume Society of Ontario is hosting a tea party on May 6 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Campbell House Museum for $30 per person.

Patrons can experience a delightful afternoon of elegant sipping and nibbling, and a presentation from a guest speaker who spent time with members of the House of Windsor, including King Charles III and his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Gala Coronation Concert at St. James Cathedral

The choir of St. James Cathedral is marking the coronation of King Charles III with a concert  which people can attend for $28  featuring the Coronation Anthems performed by their choir and a professional orchestra at 7:30 p.m. on May 6.

The anthems to be performed were created by George Frederick Handel and were written for the coronation of George II in 1727.

The Office of the Lieutenant Governor Events

Ontario will mark the upcoming coronation of King Charles with carnival rides outside the legislature, a 21-gun salute and free admission to 10 attractions across the province.

Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell and Premier Doug Ford will join Indigenous leaders for a ceremony at Queens Park on May 6 to honour the new king.

The province says it will host a Fun Royal Fair on the lawn of the legislature from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.  the event will be free and open to the public.

The Coronation Concert hosted by St. James Cathedral is also noted on the offices list of events for the coronation, along with a coronation-themed Doors Open experience on May 27 and 28 at the Lieutenant Governors Suite at Queens Park from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

More ways Ontario is celebrating

In addition to Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswells events, the province is offering free admission on May 6 to cultural attractions like the Art Gallery of Ontario, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Ontario Science Centre, the Royal Ontario Museum and Upper Canada Village.

Thirty-nine provincial parks will also be open and offer free admission. Spots can be reserved online through the Ontario Parks Reservation System, or from OntarioParks.com.

This list will be updated as more events become available.

With files by Joshua Chong and Canadian Press

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A Mississauga man who has allegedly been selling sodium nitrite  a lethal but legal poison involved in a rising number of suicides  has been arrested after two people were found dead in Peel Region.

Officers from the 11 Division criminal investigations bureau said one of the adult victims died suddenly at the end of March and was believed to be connected with the consumption of the substance purchased through an online company owned by the suspect. Police did not provide information on the second alleged victim.

The suspect, police allege, marketed and distributed the sodium nitrite online internationally, targeting individuals at risk of self-harm.

Police believe there could be more victims.

Sodium nitrite is a preservative salt used in meat processing. The chemical is safely used in deli-meat preparation for products such as ham, bologna and bacon, where very small amounts are used to cure the meat and give it a reddish colour. When intentionally consumed in high doses, it can be deadly as it reduces oxygen levels and impairs breathing. Researchers in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom have warned about a recent increase in deaths by suicide involving the substance.

Kenneth Law, 57, faces two counts of counselling or aiding suicide.

Police said that after a months-long investigation they have been made aware of about 1,200 packages shipped to at least 40 different countries that were allegedly sent by Law through businesses connected to a Mississauga post office box. Police said they are unsure of the contents of all the packages.

We cant say categorically all of those (packages) contain sodium nitrite, Peel Deputy Chief Marc Andrews said.

Several companies are believed to have been used by the suspect to sell the substance, including Imtime Cuisine, AmbuCa, Academic/ACademic, Escape Mode/escMode and ICemac, according to police.

Peel police and the Ontario Provincial Police warned residents to be wary of packages shipped from those businesses to individuals at-risk of self-harm in communities across Ontario.

The ongoing investigation has found that packages may have been sent to more than a dozen communities across the province, the OPP said in a press release.

Authorities are encouraging anyone who has received a package from any of the listed companies to contact their local authorities.

Investigators are working in collaboration with multiple jurisdictions across Ontario, nationally and internationally.

Sodium nitrite has been the focus of a soaring number of suicide cases abroad. Late in April, the Times of London reported seven deaths by suicide, including four in the U.K. and three in the U.S.

The Times approached Law in person outside a GTA post office and reported that he confirmed he was selling sodium nitrite, but said: Im not assisting anything. Im selling a product.

The Star has not independently confirmed the details of the Times investigation. The Star has also sent a detailed request for comment to an email address and called a GTA phone number listed on the now-defunct website but did not receive a response.

In October, the coroners office in the U.K. mailed its findings to a Mississauga PO box address that was listed on what appears to have been Laws website, which now returns a page reading: This site cant be reached.

RELATED STORIES GTA Police investigating report GTA man sold chemical used in U.K. suicides

An archive of the site, retrieved in October, includes sodium nitrite as one of only five products available for purchase, at an advertised purity of 99.999 per cent.

A more recent archive from January of this year included a disclaimer, in big red text, stating that due to the potential self-injury of underage customers, any sodium nitrite orders would require photo ID submitted to an email address appearing to belong to Law.

Law is scheduled for his first court appearance on Wednesday for a bail hearing.

We will not tolerate criminal actions by those who prey on vulnerable individuals in our community, Andrews said.

If you are thinking of suicide or know someone who is, there is help. Resources are available online at www.crisisservicescanada.ca or you can connect to the national suicide prevention helpline at 1-833-456-4566, or the Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868.

With files from Jason Miller and The Canadian Press

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Bullets were fired through a window at the Toronto courthouse that handles bail hearings, police said Wednesday.

Toronto police tweeted that the shooting possibly occurred sometime overnight at the 2201 Finch Ave. W. courthouse. No injuries were reported.

A police spokesperson confirmed that the bullets went through a window, and said the investigation continues.

The courthouse near Highway 400 recently started handling only bail hearings for all of Toronto, while all other provincial criminal matters in the city are merged into a new courthouse downtown.

Legal Aid Ontario told staff that the window in question is part of the bail program office, according to an email obtained by the Star. Its unclear if the office was targeted.

The bail program, which is independent of legal aid, supervises adults out on bail who do not have a surety. A surety is someone who promises to the court that theyll ensure an accused person will abide by their bail conditions, and who could potentially lose money if they fail in their duties.

In light of the incident at the bail program office, bail program staff have had to evacuate the office until further notice, Legal Aid Ontario said in the email, saying the staff in the office do not have access to their computers, phones or clients.

The email said bail program staff are operating in the courthouse hallway, to deal with people coming in to report to court as part of their bail conditions.

Bail has gained increased attention in recent months, with police and politicians calling for reform to make it more difficult for repeat violent offenders to be released, including on firearm offences.

Last week, the provincial government announced $112 million in funding for police to better monitor potentially dangerous people out on bail.

Some of the funding will also go toward dedicated prosecutors and experts to handle complex bail hearings.

Since it began hearing only bail matters in March, the 2201 Finch Ave. courthouse has been grappling with the influx of cases. Multiple cases are squeezed into one court  some of which end up sitting until 7 p.m. or later  leading to matters being postponed.

Jacques Gallant is a Toronto-based reporter covering courts, justice and legal affairs for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @JacquesGallant

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Mayors of Toronto finds themselves at the mercy of provincial premiers, because in law, the provincial government is the Big Boss of all Ontarios cities. If a premier with a majority government wants to replace the elected mayor of Toronto with a beloved pet Labradoodle, and convert the city council chamber into a roller derby rink, they can. Any premier has that power.

The thing about Doug Ford is that you get the sense he might do it. Other premiers have imposed things on the city  Bill Davis cancelled the Spadina Expressway, Kathleen Wynne forbade road tolls  but Ford has made mucking in the citys business his signature move.

Which is why, as the Stars David Rider explored in a story last weekend, the Ford Factor is a theme of this mayoral byelection campaign. Everyone knows the premier is going to take an overactive interest in the city. So if youre the new mayor, how are you going to manage that?

Josh Matlow has been putting up his dukes to adopt an adversarial position. Mark Saunders doesnt seem to have encountered a Doug Ford policy he hasnt liked. The other leading candidates  Olivia Chow, Ana Bailao, Mitzie Hunter and Brad Bradford  seem to be somewhere in between on that spectrum, talking to various degrees about managing a productive relationship.

It really is a rock-and-a-hard-place question. The premier has the power, so you cant win a legislative rumble. But the citys leader cant afford to just roll over and let Ford throttle the municipal government  that way lies Lord Mayor Labradoodle, in effect if not in fact.

When he came to speak with me on the This Matters podcast this week, former mayor David Miller  whos now an executive with the C-40 Cities organization  offered his own perspective. I recall from his years in office that relations with the federal and provincial governments were defining issues, including campaigning for a new financial deal for cities, negotiating transit agreements, and getting new taxing and governing authority in the City of Toronto Act.

Doug Fords kind of a unique character. Hes a bully, Miller said. How do you handle bullies? Youre taught when youre a child, you stand up to them. In Millers opinion, John Tory too often relied on backroom relations with the premier, making him ineffective or complicit in Fords impositions on the city. His first piece of advice for the next mayor is to stand up and oppose him, instead. I think theres an art to that, he says, but that has to be the goal, you have to stand up for the city of Toronto and the people of Toronto. And weve seen even with Doug Ford, when entities stand up to him, hes capable of backing down.

Indeed, a few major episodes of Ford backing down in the face of public pressure spring to mind. On cuts to Toronto public health, on overriding the rights of a striking labour union and on a poorly thought-out lockdown on playgrounds, for instance.

But how do you stand up, as the less officially powerful party in a negotiation? Miller says theres a powerful trump card the mayor has. The power of the position of the mayor, and this is what John Tory completely failed to do, from my perspective, is to bring together the people of Toronto around a common vision. Its massively powerful. And it starts with your election campaign, he says. If you have the people  or a solid majority of them  united behind your vision of the city, your mandate as the politician elected by the most voters of any in the country makes you a political force to be reckoned with in any negotiation.

Miller talks about his own measures of success in dealing with Premier Dalton McGuinty, and Prime Ministers Paul Martin and Stephen Harper  in things like getting a share of the gas tax, the new municipal revenue tools, getting funding for housing and transit programs. He says that uniting Torontonians behind a vision, and then making common cause with leaders of other Canadian cities  strategically, on a few key priorities  was the recipe for success.

But I can observe the power of the mayor of Torontos mandate from another position. Rob Ford often appeared to be able to bend the Liberal provincial government to his will, especially in cancelling some LRT lines and planning subway lines, instead. On the one big issue on which John Tory memorably picked a public fight with Doug Ford  public health cuts  the premier backed down. Wynne spiked Torys road toll plan, but she gave him hundreds of millions of dollars in gas tax money instead  and only did so after Tory had publicly united city council behind the idea of tolls.

So perhaps theres something for potential mayors to learn there. Sometimes you need to walk softly, but the mayors office can be a big stick, too.

But Miller thinks that works best if you convince a big chunk of voters to support an identifiable program. You have to be able to say you laid out a vision and people support it, and now you are implementing it.

The dynamic of this byelection means it may be possible for someone to win the job by squeaking in as a vaguely acceptable option. The strong mayor powers mean you might be able to govern city council that way. But its hard to see how you could have a strong mandate to stand up for the city against other governments that way.

Which leads to some advice to candidates from Miller for today, out on the campaign trail. It means youve got to speak to the bigger issues, you know how were building  or ensuring actually, I should say how were ensuring  excellent public transport in all neighbourhoods, how were ensuring a city where people from every neighbourhood have real opportunity, where nobody is left behind, how were ensuring the environmental health of our city, and public health, how were ensuring our city is safe and prosperous, those kinds of big issues.

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TORONTO - Ontarios lack of a long COVID strategy has led the health sector to cobble together fragmented clinics that are at risk of closure and may lead to little to no support for patients, internal Ministry of Health documents warn.

Long COVID is not yet well understood, but the current and likely rising volume of patients will have an effect on Ontarios recovery and may place added pressures on emergency rooms, say the documents obtained under a Freedom of Information request.

Ontario does not have a coordinated approach to care for patients with PCC (Post COVID-19 Condition), the health ministrys strategic policy branch wrote last June.

While some providers are responding to the immediate demand for post-COVID care, these offerings are insufficient, fragmented, and unsustainable without dedicated funding.

Between 10 and 20 per cent of people who have had COVID-19 still experience symptoms 12 or more weeks post-infection, the documents note. Researchers estimate 1.4 million Canadians are living with long COVID. The documents highlight possible effects on both the health-care system and the economy, with a survey suggesting more than 70 per cent of long COVID patients have had to take time off work.

Other provinces are national leaders in PCC care, the document says, pointing to British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec.

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore have made conflicting statements as to whether a long COVID strategy is in the works, so The Canadian Press submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

The documents include an undated 34-page record withheld in its entirety because it would reveal cabinet deliberations, a two-part presentation to the health ministers office from the strategic policy branch in October, and an almost entirely redacted document from December titled, Ministry of Health Proposed Announcement/Opportunity: Post COVID-19 Condition (PCC).

Jones office would not say what long COVID announcement was in the works in December or why it never happened, and a spokesperson also declined to shed any further light on what the ministry is doing to develop a long COVID strategy.

Instead, Hannah Jensen noted that the government had implemented a long COVID fee code for doctors to use when assessing and managing patients.

We will continue to work with our healthcare partners to better connect Ontarians to the high-quality care they need when they need it, she wrote.

Dr. Kieran Quinn, a clinician-scientist at Sinai Health System who researches long COVID, said developing a provincial strategy to support people with long COVID is essential, though it wont be easy.

It will help to minimize potential inequities in health and social outcomes that we see in many conditions, including long COVID, he said in an interview.

There are challenges in the timing and design of that strategy, which are related to a poorly understood condition  there are probably multiple subtypes of long COVID  and an evolving definition, as our knowledge and understanding of it evolves with that.

There are concerted national and provincial efforts to review the best evidence to inform care pathways, he said.

I hope that in the near future we will have some meaningful discoveries to support (long COVID patients) and there will be some progress on what this strategy will look like from the provincial government, Quinn said.

A ministry briefing in October to the ministers office  in order to seek ministers office approval on a proposed approach to supporting Ontarians with Post COVID-19 Condition  said that standardization in diagnostic assessment, referral criteria and educational resources are essential to ensure consistency in care.

The PCC care model needs to be nimble and responsive to emerging evidence, the document said. A provincially coordinated approach would be most effective.

In the absence of a co-ordinated provincial strategy, several hospitals have established long COVID clinics, but they have mostly relied on redeployed resources and shifting funding from other areas of the hospital.

This model is not sustainable and could result in little to no support for Ontarians with PCC, the briefing warned. These clinics are currently at risk of closure due to lack of funding.

At least one of those clinics has already closed.

Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor, Ont., set up a long COVID clinic in the summer of 2021 by moving around some resources from other outpatient programs, but by the next summer it was increasing wait times for those other programs too much and they had to close it.

Janice Dawson, the hospitals vice-president of restorative care and chief nursing executive, said government funding was a little bit all over the map, with only some clinics receiving money  not including Hotel-Dieu Grace.

The ministry briefing documents say that in 2021-22 the government gave Ontario Health $2.3 million to reimburse expenses for eight hospitals that operated long COVID clinics.

For 2022-23, the documents say no funding commitments had been made.

Dawson said the Hotel-Dieu Grace clinic found the most common symptoms they were treating were brain fog, chronic fatigue, anxiety and regaining taste and smell. The hospital is still taking referrals for long COVID patients, and directing them for treatment based on their symptoms, such as sending a patient to their cardiac or pulmonary clinic, Dawson said.

But having a co-ordinated approach and a provincial strategy would greatly benefit patients, she said.

It opens the door to have a better collaborative effort between sectors, Dawson said.

Mental health can be talking to rehab, we can be talking to acute care ... It probably also opens the door to how (Ontario Health Teams) could support this type of strategy, and it opens the door to the conversation around needing dedicated funding in which to do it.

The hospital had a preliminary conversation with Ontario Health about possible funding in December, but has not heard anything since then, Dawson said.

Were talking about $200,000, she said. Its not a huge amount of money to be able to do this.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

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A Mississauga man who has been charged in connection with what police allege is targeting individuals at risk of self-harm, by selling sodium nitrite  a lethal but legal poison involved in a rising number of suicides  appeared in a Brampton court Wednesday where his case was adjourned to next week.

Donning a black zip-up jacket, Kenneth Law, charged with two counts of counselling or aiding suicide, appeared via video from a holding cell at the Brampton courthouse where he confirmed his identity to the courts before seeking an adjournment.

Peel Regional Police investigators allege that at least two people have been found dead in Peel Region, including an adult victim who died suddenly at the end of March and was believed to be connected with the consumption of the substance purchased through an online company allegedly linked to the suspect. Police did not provide information on the second alleged victim.

The case heard in the Ontario Court of Justice on Wednesday was adjourned to May 9. Its not yet clear if a special bail (show cause) hearing  typically used for complex proceedings where the hearing is too lengthy to be accommodated in regularly scheduled bail courts  will be required in this case and whether it will go ahead when the matter comes back up Tuesday.

Speaking to the Star via phone Wednesday, David Law, Kenneth Laws younger brother, said he was flabbergasted that something like this would happen to someone I grew up with, and that his 57-year-old brother, from whom he has been estranged for about 11 years, is now facing the courts on serious allegations.

David Law said investigators in the case, dressed in plain clothes, visited with him for about an hour at his workplace Wednesday, but he declined to share the contents of that conversation.

He said after reading of the shocking allegations in the press last week, he decided to call his brother, who agreed to meet with him in Mississauga Friday. David called the brief meeting bittersweet, considering that it was the first time that they had met in person in about a decade.

He said the conversation with Kenneth centred around family affairs and not much was said about what was swirling around in the local and British press. Late in April, the Times of London reported seven deaths by suicide, including four in the U.K. and three in the U.S.

Peel police allege the suspect marketed and distributed sodium nitrite online internationally, targeting individuals at risk of self-harm. Police believe there could be more victims.

Toronto police have since released their own public safety alert advising Torontonians to be aware of lethal substance alleged to have been sold to individuals at risk of self-harm, and that sodium nitrite can be lethal in certain amounts

Sodium nitrite is a preservative salt used in deli-meat preparation, where very small amounts are used to cure the meat and give it a reddish colour. When intentionally consumed in high doses, it can be deadly as it reduces oxygen levels and impairs breathing.

Several companies are believed to have been used by the suspect to allegedly sell the substance, including Imtime Cuisine, AmbuCa, Academic/ACademic, Escape Mode/escMode and ICemac, according to police.

Peel police and the Ontario Provincial Police warned residents to be wary of packages shipped from those businesses to individuals at-risk of self-harm in communities across Ontario.

The ongoing investigation has found that packages may have been sent to more than a dozen communities across the province, the OPP said in a press release. Authorities are encouraging anyone who has received a package from any of the listed companies to contact their local authorities.

If you are thinking of suicide or know someone who is, there is help. Resources are available online at www.crisisservicescanada.ca or you can connect to the national suicide prevention helpline at 1-833-456-4566, or the Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868.

Jason Miller is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering crime and justice in the Peel Region. Reach him on email: jasonmiller@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @millermotionpic

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As the Toronto mayoral campaign reaches a record number of candidates, the City is seeking thousands of people over the age of 18 to help run the byelection to elect a new mayor this summer.

Voting place election officials are needed to help Toronto residents vote in person throughout six advance voting days  from June 8 to June 13  and election day on June 26.

Applicants can now register to book an interview for positions such as ballot officer, tabulator officer, customer service officer and standby officer, the city said in a press release.

Anyone at least 18 years old who can legally work in Canada can apply. People hired will be assigned roles based on their knowledge, experience and the availability of positions at the time of their interview, the release said. The City will aim to place applicants at a voting location close to their home address.

People who are interested can find more information about the job responsibilities, requirements, time commitments and pay on the Toronto Elections employment website. Most listed positions are recorded as paying between $265 and $425.

By Tuesday, a record-breaking 67 people had thrown their hats in the ring in Torontos mayoral race.

The Stars online tracker will help you stay up to date on key candidates  and potential candidates  in the race to replace John Tory with what we know about them and their campaigns.

Well keep updating the tracker until candidate registration closes on May 12.

With files from David Rider.

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Toronto city councillor Michael Thompson has fired his legal team from a high-profile law firm, a move that could delay progress in his criminal case, court heard Wednesday.

Thompson is charged with two counts of sexual assault relating to two separate incidents and two complainants that allegedly took place in Ontario cottage country last summer.

In Bracebridge court Wednesday morning, Thompson, councillor for Ward 21 Scarborough Centre, said he was seeking the courts permission for his lawyers Jennifer Brevorka and Sarah Strban from the Toronto law firm Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP to no longer represent him. No reason for the request was provided in the court hearing.

Crown prosecutor Mareike Newhouse did not oppose the request, though she called it an unfortunate development as trial dates were expected to be set next week.

This is obviously going to cause some delay, but we are hoping Mr. Thompson has a plan moving forward and will be in a position to retain new counsel very shortly, she said.

Thompson told the court he is in the midst of seeking new counsel and should have a new lawyer in a week or two.

Ontario Court Justice Raymond Williams granted Thompsons application to remove Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP as his listed legal representation.

The next lawyer Thompson hires will be his third since being charged. He was initially represented by defence lawyer Calvin Barry, but Barry quickly stepped down, citing their close personal friendship.

The Ontario Provincial Police arrested Thompson on Sept. 29, 2022 and charged him with assaults that allegedly occurred separately on July 3, 2022 and July 4, 2022 in the Township of Muskoka Lakes.

Thompson has denied the allegations.

The case returns to court on May 17 for an update.

Alyshah Hasham is a Toronto-based reporter covering city hall and municipal politics for the Star. Reach her via email: ahasham@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @alysanmati

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York Regional Police have found a 13-year-old girl who went missing in Vaughan on Tuesday.

In a tweet posted just after noon on Wednesday, police said the girl has been located safely as a result of a tip from a member of the community.

The police service had deployed its search and rescue team and set up a command post on Wednesday in the hunt for the missing GTA girl.

Police said the 13-year-old went missing from her home in the area of Thornhill Woods Drive and Autumn Hill Boulevard in Vaughan on Tuesday.

She last spoke to her family at around 4:20 p.m. before leaving her home on foot and left her personal things behind.

Police said the girl was considered a vulnerable missing person and that they were concerned for her safety.

On Wednesday morning police tweeted that its search and rescue unit was engaged.

In response to comments on Twitter asking why an Amber Alert was not issued, police said the alerts are only sent out in specific child abduction cases.

There was no evidence that the girls disappearance was an abduction, police said.

MB Marissa Birnie is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @marissabirnie

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KIGALI, Rwanda (AP)  Torrential rains caused flooding in western and northern Rwanda, killing at least 129 people, a public broadcaster said Wednesday.

The death toll continues to rise, the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency said Wednesday.

This could be the highest disaster-induced death toll to be recorded in the country in the shortest period, according to available records from recent years, the government-backed New Times newspaper reported.

Francois Habitegeko, governor of Rwandas Western province, told reporters that a search for more victims was underway following heavy rain Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Strong rainstorms started last week, causing flooding and mudslides that swept away several houses across the country and left some roads inaccessible.

The Rwanda Meteorology Agency has warned that more rain is coming.

The government has in the past asked residents living in wetlands and other dangerous areas to relocate.

The western and northern provinces and Kigali, the capital, are particularly hilly, making them vulnerable to landslides during the rainy season.

The Ministry of Emergency Management reported last month that from January to April 20, weather-related disasters killed 60 people, destroyed more than 1,205 houses and damaged 2,000 hectares (around 5,000 acres) of land across Rwanda.

Parts of East Africa, including Ugandas southwest, also are seeing heavy rainfall.

At least three people drowned in floods last week after a river burst its banks in the remote Ugandan district of Rukungiri.

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The anywhere economy is estimated to add $19.4 trillion in cumulative GDP and an average of 10% productivity growth in the ten studied countries by 2030

Two-thirds of executives believe remote work and digitalization has helped diversify the workforce

The anywhere economy is projected to create 2.6 million jobs in rural areas in 2030 alone

SAN FRANCISCO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- DocuSign, Inc . (NASDAQ: DOCU) today released findings from a new report, "Unlocking the potential of the anywhere economy," that examines the opportunities and challenges the anywhere economy brings to people, businesses and countries. The findings of the report reveal we have entered an era that is poised for considerable business growth and the potential to experience new levels of productivity.

The research, undertaken by think tank Economist Impact , reveals insights from two global surveys across ten countries to gauge the sentiments and experiences among consumers and executives in the U.S., Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Ireland, the UK, Brazil, Mexico and Canada, as well as new econometric models that forecast the potential impacts of the anywhere economy in these countries. The report reveals that both executives (59%) and consumers (47%) expect the anywhere economy will continue to accelerate, with an overall positive impact on job creation, a broadened range of online services, and improved equity and well-being.

"At DocuSign, we believe that technology can and should be a force for good, a way to lift people up and bring people together," said Allan Thygesen, Chief Executive Officer, DocuSign. "To realize the extraordinary surge in productivity and expansion of the global economy that's possible over the coming decade, leaders will need to embark on a new journey that's rooted in innovation, transformation, and ultimately trust in our digital future."

Driving Economic Growth Through Enhanced Productivity and Innovation

The report shows that the anywhere economy will catalyze economic growth by boosting productivity and spurring innovation. In fact, more than three-quarters of surveyed executives agree that the flexibility to work at any time and from any location has increased productivity. Innovations, new product demands, and transformation of how commercial relationships are conducted can also improve workers' productivity at the micro level.

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According to the report forecast, the anywhere economy has the potential to boost productivity growth, defined as gross domestic product (GDP) per worker:

As the anywhere economy expands, productivity is expected to grow in all ten countries, increasing at an average rate of 10% from 2021 to 2030.

The top 5 countries with the biggest increases are the UK (12%), Canada (11%) Germany (11%), France (10%) and the US (10%).

The anywhere economy is estimated to add $2.6 trillion to the combined GDP of the ten countries in 2030, and add a cumulative amount of $19.4 trillion for the period 2022-30.

Business expenditure on R&D in all ten countries is also estimated to increase significantly, capturing growth ranging from 29% to 51% in 2030 compared with 2021 levels. The top 5 countries with the biggest increase are the UK (51%), France (47%), Germany (44%), the US (44%) and Canada (42%).

Expanding the Talent Pool and Capitalizing on DEI

The rise of hybrid work enabled organizations to consider candidates from a wider geographic range and introduced new opportunities for historically underrepresented individuals. The majority (77%) of executives agree that the anywhere economy has had a positive impact on their ability to hire from a wider pool of candidates, while more than 60% said they hired workers in new locations because of the possibility of remote working.

At the same time, the flexibility to work remotely improved experiences for groups such as women, working parents, older adults, and individuals with disabilities, encouraging them to stay engaged in the workforce for longer.

Two-thirds of executives reported that the adoption of remote work and increased digitalization have contributed to diversifying the workforce, and more than three-quarters agreed that flexible work schedules made their workforce more diverse and equitable. According to the report's forecasts, the anywhere economy will:

bring an additional 25 million women into the labor force in 2030 alone, and the average female labor force participation rate will be nearly 60%  up from 55% in 2021.

bring an additional 10 million people aged 65+ into the labor force in 2030 alone.

Shifting Economic Power Among Rural and Urban Environments

The anywhere economy is shifting economic power for rural and urban residents, with people aspiring to relocate due to increased flexibility and connectivity. Workers are now persuaded that moving to smaller cities may give them better housing and comparable access to education and amenities without a consistent time-consuming commute to the office.

Nearly 60% of consumers , for example, say they would want to live in a different place if cost, work and community ties were not barriers.

One-in-four people seek nomadic opportunities and would prefer to continuously travel all over the world.

17% of companies have moved their offices from a large city to the suburbs and 25% decreased the size of their premises. One-third of companies also opened more satellite offices.

This migration is also spurring economic growth in rural areas with projections that an additional 2.6 million jobs will be created in rural areas, in the ten countries studied, in the year 2030 alone. The U.S. will see the largest increase in job creation in rural areas with 860,000 new jobs expected in 2030.

Making the "Anywhere Economy" a Reality

The benefits of the anywhere economy can only be realized if new systems are built on a foundation of trust. There is an implicit trust in permitting employees to work away from where they can be supervised directly, likewise in signing a contract with a supplier on a different continent or purchasing a product online without seeing it in person.

Deepening trust at all levels including in digital systems and technology, information, employees and employers, and between consumers and the online companies they patronize, is critical for the expansion of the anywhere economy.

The complete findings can be found in the full " Unlocking the potential of the anywhere economy " report.

Methodology

"Unlocking the potential of the anywhere economy" is a research program conducted by Economist Impact and sponsored by DocuSign. As part of the research, Economist Impact conducted two global surveys in September 2022 of 764 business executives and 2,800 consumers in Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Ireland, the UK, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the US. These surveys were paired with a series of interviews with experts in addition to developing a series of econometric models examining the potential impacts of the anywhere economy  both positive and negative  in the ten countries through a variety of socio-economic lenses.

Economist Impact also identified four areas that are expected to be the most impacted by the anywhere economy and selected eight indicators expected to be the most significant externalities, including: workplace transformation, labour force and talent pool, development equality, and trade and economic development. These impacts were projected at the macro level from 2022-30 for the ten countries included.

About DocuSign

DocuSign redefines how the world comes together and agrees, making agreements smarter, easier and more trusted. As part of its industry leading product lineup, DocuSign offers eSignature, the world's #1 way to sign electronically on practically any device, from almost anywhere, at any time. Today, over 1 million customers and more than a billion users in over 180 countries use DocuSign products and solutions to accelerate the process of doing business and simplify people's lives. For more information visit http://www.docusign.com .

Copyright 2023. DocuSign, Inc. is the owner of DOCUSIGN and all its other marks ( www.docusign.com/IP ).

About Economist Impact

Economist Impact combines the rigour of a think-tank with the creativity of a media brand to engage a globally influential audience. The organisation believes that evidence-based insights can open debate, broaden perspectives and catalyse progress. The services offered by Economist Impact previously existed within The Economist Group as separate entities, including EIU Thought Leadership, EIU Public Policy, EIU Health Policy, Economist Events and SignalNoise.

Economist Impact builds on a 75-year track record of analysis across 205 countries. Along with framework design, benchmarking, economic and social impact analysis, forecasting, and scenario modelling, the organisation provides creative storytelling, events expertise, design-thinking solutions and market-leading media products, making Economist Impact uniquely positioned to deliver measurable outcomes to its clients.

Media Relations

Megan Gregorio

media@docusign.com

Cision

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SOURCE DocuSign, Inc.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexicans living abroad sent home a total of almost $14 billion in the first three months of 2023, an 11.4% increase over the same period of 2022, the countrys central bank said Tuesday.

While still considerable, the rate of growth in remittances appears to be slowing, after large pandemic-era increases in 2022 and 2021. In March, remittances for the month were actually down 1.2% compared to the same month last year.

That may be related to the Feb. 28 decision by the government to stop accepting remittances through the government-owned Bienestar bank.

The government said the decision was made to avoid duplicating the functions of another government transfer office. But some experts said it was a reaction to signs that drug cartels may have been using remittances through the Bienestar bank to launder money.

The Bienestar bank has not yet responded to questions about reports that there had been a surge in remittances sent through the bank to the cartel-dominated state of Sinaloa.

Remittances grew by 13.4% in 2022, totaling about $58.5 billion for the year as a whole. In 2021, remittances grew by an astounding 27.1%, totaling about $51.6 billion for the year.

Remittances now surpass almost all other sources of the countrys foreign income, including tourism, oil exports and most manufacturing exports.

Mexico receives more money from remittances than any other country except India. Indian migrants send home about $100 billion each year.

Still, no one is getting rich in Mexico from remittances; the average amount each migrant sent was $391, according to the Bank of Mexico.

Remittances as a percentage of Mexicos GDP have almost doubled over the previous decade, growing from 2% of GDP in 2010 to 3.8% in 2020, according to the government. Between 2010 and 2020, the percentage of households in Mexico receiving remittances rose from 3.6% to 5.1%.

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ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP)  Hundreds of people protested in Paraguays capital for the second straight day Tuesday alleging that this weekends presidential elections were marred by fraud, a claim that President-elect Santiago Pena, electoral authorities and international observers dismissed.

Paraguayo Cubas, a far-right populist outsider with the National Crusade Party who came in third in Sundays presidential contest with 23% of the vote, called for the demonstrations Monday after he received a larger share of the vote than expected on the back of a strong anti-establishment message.

The protests mean Paraguay has become the latest country in the Americas to have a populist candidate call on his supporters to protest the results of an election, alleging fraud without presenting any firm evidence to back up the claims.

Were here requesting an audit of all the records, said Francisco Soteras, who was a candidate for the lower house of Congress under Cubas party and joined the protesters Tuesday evening. Were already seeing some signs of fraud in this regard. If there is 10% of fraud, were requesting a redo of the elections.

Pena easily won Sundays election with 43% of the vote, a result that shocked analysts who had expected a close race with Efrain Alegre, the second place candidate who represented a coalition of parties that had been described as the best chance in recent history for the opposition to snatch power from the Colorado Party. In the end though, it wasnt even close as Alegre got 27% of the vote.

Despite the lopsided results, Paraguay woke up with roadblocks in numerous points across the country Tuesday, largely set up by Cubas supporters.

This is what the people feel today: discontent, rejection and a bitter feeling that their will was suppressed and the true president of the republic was robbed from them, said Cristian Delgado, another legislative candidate for Cubas party who joined the demonstrations Tuesday.

Pena called on the government to assure free transit in Paraguays streets.

Unfortunately, today many people were unable to reach their places of work, many people arrived late to their workplaces, Pena said Tuesday as he dismissed fraud accusations.

The Organization of American States, which deployed an electoral observation mission for the vote, said Tuesday that there is no reason to doubt the results of the election.

Cubas supporters clashed with police on Monday night outside Paraguays electoral court in the capital of Asuncion. Some 70 people were detained, prosecutor Fatima Capurro said.

The Attorney Generals Office said Tuesday it would investigate the incidents but that didnt seem to intimidate the protesters who waved Paraguayan flags outside the electoral court later that day.

Alegre, the candidate for the Pact for a New Paraguay who came in second, called on Monday for a manual count of votes and an international audit of the countrys electronic voting system. Alegre had conceded shortly after Sundays vote and didnt denounce fraud, although he changed his tune after protests were launched.

Cubas, who openly admires El Salvadors President Nayib Bukele and his hardline stance against crime, said he would be traveling to Asuncion to lead the protests.

Its impossible, from my modest point of view, for a weary population to have given victory to these drug traffickers, he said in a television interview.

Analysts immediately drew parallels to what happened in Brazil last year when supporters of then-President Jair Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat in October elections and his supporters launched protests, which included roadblocks. His supporters later stormed top government buildings to dispute the outcome of the election in a move that recalled the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Hes following Bolsonaros playbook by calling for demonstrations, said Leandro Lima, a senior political risk analyst at Control Risks, a consultancy.

At the same time though, there is a key difference in that Cubas doesnt enjoy the support from police and military officers like Bolsonaro did. This lack of a military component is something that makes the Paraguay case less complex to handle, Lima said.

The way in which Alegre followed Cubas lead on the fraud claims shows how the populist politician will be an important voice in Paraguayan politics despite coming in third in the elections.

That growth in Cubas influence comes at a time when there is a regional trend of an anti-establishment populist discourse against traditional politics and institutions, Lima said.

In neighboring Argentina, for example, an anti-establishment right-wing populist politician, Javier Milei, is also strengthening and is seen among the favorite candidates ahead of the October presidential election. -

Politi reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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A clear and present danger.

For more than a year now  for nearly a decade, since occupying and annexing Crimea, in fact  that is what Russia has been for neighbouring Ukraine.

But a rash of increasingly bold incidents  capped by the apparent attack of two drones Wednesday on the Kremlin in Moscow  purport to show the script being dangerously flipped as an emboldened Ukraine readies its bid to retake occupied territories.

Unmanned aerial vehicles crashing into the cupola of the Kremlin Senate building, home to President Vladimir Putins executive office, werent deadly, according to Russian officials.

But they are among the boldest and most symbolic strikes against the seat of Russian political power since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian officials say Putin was not present at the time and that there were no other casualties. Video of the aftermath appeared to show part of the buildings roof on fire, right beneath the fluttering Russian flag.

However, the Kremlin press service referred to the incident as a planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt targeting the president.

Russia reserves the right to take countermeasures wherever and whenever it deems appropriate, it added.

In other words, the attack risks ushering in a new and unpredictable stage in the deadly conflict.

Moscow says Ukraine is behind the drone attacks, though an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied the countrys military or intelligence services were responsible.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken struck a skeptical note as well.

I see the reports. I cant in any way validate them. We simply dont know, he said. Second, I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt. So, lets see. Well see what the facts are.

Maria Popova, an associate professor specializing in post-Soviet politics at McGill University, said she sees no upside for Ukraine to conduct such a spectacular attack in Russian territory.

It would only galvanize the Russians, she said. That is completely counterproductive for Ukraine. Why would the Ukrainians want that?

Leaked Pentagon documents, however, revealed that the United States urged Ukrainian intelligence against carrying out attacks in Moscow last February, on the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion.

Russia said that Ukrainian drones were used to strike a fuel depot last week in Sevastopol that was used by Russias Black Sea naval fleet.

And last month, Ukraines head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, boasted in an interview with media outlet New Voice that Ukrainian drones were capable of reaching Moscow.

In the absence of its own supplies of massive firepower, agility, stealth and surprise attacks have become at trademark of the Ukrainian forces.

But Popova suggested the Kremlin drone attack could have been a provocation  a false flag operation planned by Russias security services in order to justify an eventual heavy-handed response.

Any number of hawkish Russian factions could have an interest in escalating the war, said Lasha Tchantouridze, a professor of international affairs at Norwich University in Vermont.

If they did it, the main reason would have been to provoke (Putin) to do something more than the Russian state has done (so far), he said.

The reaction in Ukrainian circles, and among others opposed to the Putin regime, stretched from celebration over the symbolic reverberations of the strikes to trepidation about potential repercussions.

The security breach came as the Russian state and its military forces prepare for the annual May 9 Victory Day parade through Red Square, celebrating the Soviet Unions defeat of Nazi Germany. It is something of a national holiday with deep cultural and historical significance for Russians.

Though such celebrations have been called off for security reasons in some Russian cities near the Ukrainian border, the Moscow parade will go on as planned, the Kremlin said Wednesday.

But after hearing the news and viewing the video images of an explosion above the red-walled fortress, Muscovites will certainly have one wary eye on the sky if they dare come out for the parade next Tuesday.

That could be viewed as a strategic victory.

While Putin has sought to insulate his people from the economic shocks of the war and outlawed any expressions of anti-war dissent, Ukraine and the West have been trying with sanctions, diplomatic protests and a fierce information war to make Russians feel and understand the impacts of the conflict being waged in their names.

Beyond targeting his Kremlin offices, the threat of an armed strike on Moscow is one of Putins greatest concerns, and among his stated reasons for invading Ukraine.

A few days before giving the order to his troops, Putin spoke of the existential threat posed by the eastward encroachment of the NATO military alliance. American cruise missiles, if launched from Ukraine, could reach Moscow in 35 minutes, he said, while ballistic missiles could reach the Russian capital in eight minutes and hypersonic assault weapons in just five.

It is like a knife to the throat, Putin said.

While Kyiv and its NATO backers are committed to achieving the goal of Russias military defeat, there are differences over how to get to an eventual victory.

Ukraine is said to be planning a counter-offensive in the coming days or weeks aimed at reclaiming occupied Ukrainian territory. Some analysts have predicted a major drive that could push Russia back to pre-invasion positions by the end of the summer.

But Tchantouridze said that western countries would prefer to see a drawn-out war of attrition in which Russian forces are severely degraded before being dealt an ultimate defeat.

Surprise attacks, whether the work of the Ukrainian state or of a group waging a clandestine fight against Russia, offer a way of getting around the limitations that NATO countries have imposed upon Kyiv.

Two drones crashing behind the Kremlin walls in the middle of the night will not bring Russia to its knees, but the mess that it makes does present Putin with a domestic challenge.

He must now decide how to react.

The sinking last year of the Moskva, a Russian warship, in the Black Sea  a Ukrainian military missile strike against a Russian military asset  was an important early strategic and psychological victory for Ukraine that was largely hushed up by Moscow.

Two high-profile assassinations on Russian territory that killed journalist Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist Aleksandr Dugin, and military blogger Vladen Tatarsky, were attributed by Russian officials to Ukraine, but have been handled by the criminal justice system.

And last October, the day after Putins 70the birthday, a massive explosion destroyed part of the bridge linking mainland Russia to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. The bombing was an embarrassment for Moscow, but also a military setback, since Crimea is a supply hub and staging area for Russian forces.

The main reason for the attack on the Kremlin is the confidence of Zelenskyy and Washington and NATO in impunity, that there will be no harsh response from Russia, Sergei Markov, a pro-Russian political analyst, wrote on Telegram. Russia has already allowed the West to cross dozens of red lines, and there is a firm belief in the West that Russia is afraid to retaliate harshly.

The most worrisome of Russias red lines is the one used to justify the use of its nuclear arsenal in the event of an existential threat to the Russian state, though there has been no suggestion that Putin has or is considering ordering his nuclear forces to a higher alert status in the wake of the drone incidents.

Markov wrote that the use of smaller tactical nuclear weapons wont give much of a military effect.

And it will lead to real political isolation of Russia in the world.

Some Russian political leaders have already embraced that isolation and abandoned aspirations of regaining the favour of the West.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the hawkish deputy chair of Russias security council, wrote on Telegram that the Kremlin attack forces Russia to return to its original goal of regime change in Ukraine.

After todays terrorist attack, there are no options left except for the physical elimination of Zelenskyy and his cabal, he wrote.

Others in Putins political entourage will be urging him to hold off, if not for the facts about who was behind the drone attack, then at least for the most advantageous moment to respond.

The Russian leadership is not single-minded  though they come across as such  so theyre going to think about it first.  Theyre considering a response, Tchantouridze said.

Even if they find out that it was done by some rogue element in Russia or in Ukraine without the knowledge of the Ukrainian command, they can use this as a measure to retaliate against Ukrainian civilian objects.

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ISLAMABAD (AP)  A Taliban fighter recently fired his rifle into the air at a food distribution event in Afghanistan, an example of their harassment of nongovernmental groups operating in the country, a report from a U.S. watchdog said Wednesday.

The Taliban last December barred Afghan women from working at NGOs, allegedly because they were not wearing the hijab  the Islamic headscarf  correctly and were not observing gender segregation rules. In April, they said this ban extended to U.N. offices and agencies in Afghanistan.

The measure is being actively enforced by the countrys intelligence agency, which reports to the Talibans leadership in Kandahar, although their chief spokesman says there are no obstacles for U.N. operations in Afghanistan.

The latest quarterly report from the watchdog for U.S. assistance to Afghanistan, SIGAR, cited examples of Taliban interference and harassment of NGOs, including the rifle incident.

Organizations face security risks and harassment at Taliban checkpoints, unannounced Taliban visits to NGO offices, repeated requests for information on work plans, budgets, operations, and personnel, and demands for increased involvement in project decision-making and implementation.

The April ban on women working for the United Nations likely signals that they will continue to interfere in NGO operations to the detriment of the Afghan people, according to the report.

The U.N. told SIGAR that, in addition to the challenges posed by specific Taliban policies, weak Taliban governance and tension between central and provincial authorities make an effective humanitarian response difficult to implement.

This dysfunction is expected to limit the ability to implement policies which sustain critical public and basic services and reduce needs, the report said, with the U.N. telling the watchdog that a more restrictive environment lies ahead.

Aid agencies have been providing food, education and health care support to Afghans in the wake of the Taliban takeover in August 2021 and the economic collapse that followed it. But distribution has been severely affected by the Taliban edict banning women from working at NGOs  and, now, also at the U.N.

The Economy Ministry, which supervises NGO work in Afghanistan, rejected the SIGAR claims. Ministry spokesman Abdul Rahman Habib said there were no reports of checkpoint harassment or other interference.

A special procedure to improve NGO performance and solve problems has been shared with all aid agencies and U.N. offices in Afghanistan, he said, without providing further details on the procedure.

He also reiterated that the December order, issued by the ministry, remains in place. Afghan women are permitted to work for NGOs in certain sectors, such as health and education, but not others.

SIGARs report follows a closed-door U.N. summit on Afghanistan that the world body described as an event where nations and organizations were trying to reach unified stances on human rights, governance, counterterrorism and anti-drug efforts related to Afghanistan.

The Taliban were not invited to the meeting, which was held in Qatar.

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MADRID (AP)  Colombian President Gustavo Petro began a state visit to Spain on Wednesday to seek support for his peace plan for the South American country, and to discuss economic investment and migration policy.

Spanish King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez greeted Petro in Madrid. He is scheduled to address lawmakers at Spains Parliament and to attend a state dinner hosted by the Spanish royals.

Sanchez, Spains Socialist leader, is a backer of Petro, an ex-rebel who became Colombias first leftist president last year.

One of the main topics on his agenda is his peace process with the National Liberation Army (ELN), a guerrilla organization still active after the dissolution of FARC, a group which spent decades pursuing rebellion.

Last week, ELN militants killed nine Colombian soldiers in an attack, complicating efforts by Petro to negotiate a lasting peace.

The Colombian leader seeks Spains full support for his plan, which he will likely explicitly obtain from Sanchez, according to reports from high-ranked officials in the European country.

Starting in July, Spain is set to hold the European Unions rotating presidency, a six-month period in which Madrid aims to revitalize Europes relations with Latin America. That includes plans by Spain to hold a summit between Latin America and the EU in the early days of its presidency.

Almost 500,000 Colombians, a third of whom hold dual nationality with Spain, reside in the European country.

The visit to Europe comes two weeks after Petro traveled to Washington to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden amid deep differences on drug policy and Venezuela.

Spain recently announced a collaboration with the United States and Canada on establishing migrant centers in Latin America to facilitate orderly and safe migration.

It is a step forward for Spain, which is taking the initiative regarding a certain lack of action by Europe in this matter, Anna Ayuso, senior researcher for Latin America at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), told The Associated Press.

Spain is the leading European recipient of Latin American migration and in recent months it has sponsored specific initiatives to accept migrants from American countries in humanitarian situations. One of these initiatives was offering nationality to 100 Nicaraguan opponents exiled by Daniel Ortega in February 2023.

There is a shift of strategy from emphasizing containment, as promoted by (former U.S. President Trump), to facilitating orderly migration and preventing irregular migration, which, in the end, is encouraged international crime, said Ayuso.

Spains far-right Vox party said that its lawmakers would not attend the speech by Petro. Its supporters held a small protest outside the Parliament.

Petros is the only state visit that Spain is set to host this year. King Felipe and Queen Letizia welcomed Petro and his wife, Veronica Alcocer, whose car arrived at the Royal Palace accompanied by soldiers on horseback. A military band played and canons were fired in their honor.

The Colombian leader is set to sit down with Sanchez on Thursday, when he will attend a meeting with the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations.

The confederation is the countrys leading business group, representing 2 million companies and self-employed entrepreneurs. Petro is expected to push his economic agenda, particularly in green energy and digitization.

Petro wants to present Colombia before Europe not only as a country committed to peace but also a stable one that deserves the trust of investors, Ayuso said.

On Friday, Petro will visit Salamanca University, where he studied.

___

Joseph Wilson contributed to this report from Barcelona.

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BERLIN (AP)  Police across Europe arrested dozens of people, raided homes and seized millions of euros in assets on Wednesday, in a coordinated crackdown on Italys ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, one of the worlds most powerful, extensive and wealthy drug-trafficking groups.

The operation, coordinated by European Union judicial cooperation agency Eurojust, aimed to dismantle a network that includes the ndrangheta, Colombian drug producers and paramilitary groups, and moves tons of cocaine to Europe and Australia each year.

The investigation uncovered how these networks used ports in Ecuador, Panama and Brazil to ship the Colombian drugs to northern European ports while also dealing in weapons. The drug proceeds were then laundered through restaurants, ice cream shops and car washes, and money sent back to Colombian drug producers via a Chinese wire transfer service, according to Italian officials and a Carabinieri press release.

With todays coordinated measures across Europe, law enforcement authorities have dealt a serious blow to the ndrangheta, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said. Todays raids are one of the largest operations to date in the fight against Italian organized crime.

In Italy, Carabinieri police backed by helicopters said arrest warrants were served on 108 people, who were accused of mafia association; possession, production, and trafficking of drugs and weapons; money laundering; and other crimes.

One of the key figures in the network was a former powerful boss, Rocco Morabito, who was arrested in 2021 in Brazil after nearly 20 years as a fugitive. The investigation also confirmed the enduring strength of a handful of well-known ndrangheta clans that operate in the Calabrian town of San Luca.

In Germany, more than 1,000 officers searched dozens of homes, offices and stores in the states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia, prosecutors said in a joint statement. Over 30 suspects who had outstanding warrants were arrested.

In addition to Italy and Germany, arrest warrants were also served in Belgium, France, Portugal, Romania and Spain, while raids were also conducted in Slovenia.

Portugals Judiciary Police said its officers had arrested a 62-year-old Italian man on charges of criminal association, money laundering, and drug trafficking as part of the European operation, which was dubbed Eureka. They also seized about half a million euros and various documents, among other confiscated items.

European authorities have been waging a campaign against the Calabria-based ndrangheta in recent years, as the group has eclipsed the Sicilian Mafia as the key mover of tens of billion euros in cocaine in recent decades moving from South America to Europe.

At a press conference in the Calabrian capital Reggio Calabria, officials estimated the operation had resulted in the seizure of 23 tons of cocaine over years of investigation, which deprived the ndrangheta of some 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in drug revenue. In addition, they announced that assets worth 25 million euros were seized.

Margaritis Schinas, vice president of the EUs executive commission, said the operation delivered a lightning strike, as was the name of the operation, against the ndrangheta organized crime syndicate ... with over 100 arrests.

In Germany, the main focus of the operation was in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, with around 500 officers deployed in each state. In North Rhine-Westphalia, 51 houses, apartments, offices and business premises were searched and 15 suspects were arrested.

The ndrangheta has been firmly established in Germany since the 1970s. It is considered the strongest of the Italian organized crime groups in the country, and is mainly focused on international narcotics trafficking, according to the German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation.

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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP)  The presidents of Iran and Syria signed Wednesday a series of long-term cooperation agreements on oil and other sectors to bolster economic ties between the two allies.

Irans Ebrahim Raisi, leading a large economic and political delegation, met with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, after landing in the war-torn country for a two-day visit  an Iranian presidents first visit to Damascus since 2010.

Tehran has been a main backer of Assads government since a 2011 uprising turned into full-blown civil war and has played an instrumental role in turning the tide of the conflict in his favor.

Iran has sent scores of military advisers and thousands of Iran-backed fighters from around the Middle East to Syria to fight on Assads side. Tehran has also been an economic lifeline for Assad, sending fuel and credit lines worth billions of dollars.

Syrian government forces have regained control of large parts of the country in recent years, with the help of its two main allies  Russia and Iran.

With Arab governments that once advocated Assads downfall now slowly making amends with Damascus, Iran appears to be hoping to reap the rewards for its decades-long support of the Syrian president with investment and economic opportunities to help alleviate its own ailing economy.

Syrian state media said Raisi and Assad signed agreements and memorandums of understanding related to several sectors, including oil, agriculture, railways and free trade zones.

Irans state-owned railway company has long aspired to expand its network through neighboring Iraq and Syria, linking it to the Syrian port of Lattakia on the Mediterranean Sea to boost trade. Syrias opposition and Tehran critics see this as another Iran attempt at growing its political influence.

The deal are important also for Syria, whose economy has hit an all-time low over the past decade, with spiraling inflation, a currency plunge and rampant power cuts.

In an interview with pan-Arab television channel Al-Mayadeen ahead of his visit, Raisi called for reconstruction efforts and for Syrian refugees who fled the countrys war to return home.

Syrias government and people have gone through great hardship, Syrian state media quoted Raisi as telling Assad during their meeting. Today, we can now say that you have overcome all these problems and were victorious, despite the threats and sanctions imposed against you.

Raisi was also to visit the Sayida Zeinab and Sayida Ruqayya shrines, both holy sites in Shiite Islam, as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument dedicated to Syrian soldiers killed in battle.

The last Iranian president to visit Syria was President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2010.

Raisis visit comes as some Arab countries, including Egypt and regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, have been opening up to Assad and their foreign ministers have visited Damascus in recent weeks. Syrias foreign minister also visited the Saudi capital of Riyadh in April, the first such visit since the two countries cut relations in 2012.

In March, Iran and Saudi Arabia, a main backer of Syrian opposition fighters, reached an agreement, brokered by China, to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions.

The Iran-Saudi reconciliation is likely to have positive effects on countries where the two fought proxy wars, including Syria.

Syria was widely shunned by Arab governments over Assads brutal crackdown on protesters. The breakdown in relations culminated with Syria being ousted from the Arab League in 2011. Syrias civil war has since killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the countrys pre-war population of 23 million.

America and its allies failed on all fronts against the resistance, and could not achieve any of their goals, Irans new ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, told Irans state news agency on Tuesday.

Like Syria, Iran is under Western sanctions, which alongside decades of mismanagement, has plunged its national currency to new lows. Months of anti-government protests failed to unseat the ruling clerics and talks on Tehrans return to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which lifted sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Irans nuclear program, have long become stalemated.

In 2015, when the nuclear deal was signed, Irans currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar. In February, it hit a record low of 600,000 for $1.

A week before the Iranian presidents visit to Damascus, Irans minister of road and urban development, Mehrdad Bazrpash, met with Assad in the Syrian capital, where he delivered a message from Raisi supporting the expansion of ties, Irans state IRNA news agency said.

Irans military presence in Syria been a major concern for Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment along its northern border. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years  but rarely acknowledges them.

Since the beginning of 2023, Syrian officials have attributed a dozen strikes on Syrian territory to Israel, the latest of which came early on Tuesday and put the international airport of the northern city of Aleppo out of service.

___

Chehayeb reported from Beirut.

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MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A Ghana national pleaded not guilty in federal court Wednesday to stealing about $2.4 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party in a wire fraud scheme.

Paul Williams Anti, 59, was charged in February with embezzlement, online court records show.

According to court documents, scammers manipulated state GOP employees email accounts in October 202 to divert funds meant for vendors into the scammers bank accounts. Williams Anti allegedly controlled two of those accounts.

A cybersecurity firm that the state GOP hired to investigate found that an employees email account had been altered so that any message with the words invoice, wire transfer or bank would automatically move to an email folder the scammers could access.

The scammers then increased the amount charged as well as the payee account information, then sent the messages to another GOP employee. That worker unknowingly sent the money to fraudulent accounts, according to court records.

Court documents dont name the state GOP as a victim. But a party spokesperson confirmed Wednesday to the Wisconsin State Journal that the party was involved.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security arrested Williams Anti in New York City in February. He had 30 identification documents under nine different names, Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Duchemin said Wednesday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker ordered Williams Anti to remain in custody, calling him a flight risk. He noted that Williams Anti has family in Ghana and the United Kingdom.

If I let him out, hed be gone in 60 seconds, Crocker said.

Williams Anti could face up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted.

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In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market index fund. But every investor is virtually certain to have both over-performing and under-performing stocks. At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Domino's Pizza Group plc (LON:DOM), since the last five years saw the share price fall 17%. On the other hand the share price has bounced 5.8% over the last week.

While the stock has risen 5.8% in the past week but long term shareholders are still in the red, let's see what the fundamentals can tell us.

Check out our latest analysis for Domino's Pizza Group

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. 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 the unfortunate half decade during which the share price slipped, Domino's Pizza Group actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) improve by 7.2% per year. Given the share price reaction, one might suspect that EPS is not a good guide to the business performance during the period (perhaps due to a one-off loss or gain). Alternatively, growth expectations may have been unreasonable in the past.

It is unusual to see such modest share price growth in the face of sustained EPS improvements. We can look to other metrics to try to understand the situation better.

Revenue is actually up 3.1% over the time period. A more detailed examination of the revenue and earnings may or may not explain why the share price languishes; there could be an opportunity.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

Balance sheet strength is crucial. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

Story continues

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, Domino's Pizza Group's TSR for the last 5 years was -2.9%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

Domino's Pizza Group shareholders are down 7.9% for the year (even including dividends), but the market itself is up 1.5%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 0.6% 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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Domino's Pizza Group (of which 1 is a bit concerning!) you should know about.

But note: Domino's Pizza Group may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

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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SAN DIEGO (AP)  A decade ago, it was a safe bet that anyone stopped by U.S. authorities at the southern border was probably Mexican. Thats no longer the case, complicating Biden administration efforts to prevent a swell of migration when it lifts pandemic-related asylum limits next week.

Now, people come from dozens of countries, with large showings from Peru, Venezuela, Haiti, India, Russia and elsewhere. Only about a third are from Mexico  down from 85% in 2011.

With the expiration on May 11 of Title 42  which suspended migrants rights to asylum to prevent the spread of COVID-19  more people are expected to arrive.

Illegal crossings tumbled after President Joe Biden announced asylum restrictions in January, but they have risen since mid-April. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said they have been hovering around 7,200 daily, up from about 5,200 in March.

The administration plans to rapidly screen migrants and quickly send home those who dont qualify. But people will be treated differently depending on their nationality.

A look at how the plans vary depending on where the migrants are from:

CHNV

Not a catchy acronym, it stands for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. In December, these four nationalities accounted for 40% of all people stopped at the border. By March, they made up only 3%.

Biden announced Jan. 5 that up to 30,000 people from the four countries could enter on parole every month if they applied online and had a financial backer. Mexico agreed to take back the same number from those countries who entered the U.S. illegally. Texas and other Republican-led states have challenged such broad use of parole authority; a trial is scheduled June 15 in Victoria, Texas.

Mexico said late Tuesday that it would continue taking back people from the four countries who were expelled from the United States. Combined with parole for those who apply outside the United States, it is a carrot-and-stick approach that was first applied to Ukrainians after Russias invasion.

Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans have benefitted from their governments refusal to accept deportation flights, though Cuba accepted its first since December 2020 on Monday and has pledged to accept more. Haiti is wracked by gang-fueled violence, making flights there a major challenge.

CENTRAL AMERICAS NORTHERN TRIANGLE

Families and unaccompanied children from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador largely drove migration to the U.S. border throughout the last decade. Then came Title 42.

Mexico agreed to take back people from what are known as Northern Triangle countries from the start of Title 42 in March 2020. Many have been waiting months, or years, for it to end.

The U.S. has long, deep relationships with governments in the region, which, while expensive and time-consuming, makes it relatively easy to fly people home. Guatemala and Honduras accepted half of all U.S. removal flights last year  727 combined  according to Witness at the Border, a group that tracks flights.

On Tuesday, the U.S. said it would admit 100,000 people from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who are coming for family reunification.

MEXICANS

In some ways, a shared land border that stretches from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas, makes Mexicans the easiest to remove because it is only a short drive to the nearest official border crossing.

Also, unaccompanied children from Mexico and Canada are not covered by a 2008 anti-trafficking law that grants special legal protection to children traveling alone from other countries. They are quickly sent home.

But Mexicans have also been protected from some of the most restrictive policies. A virtual asylum ban on those who travel though another country to the U.S. border wouldnt apply to Mexicans. A final version of that measure is expected before May 11 and to be quickly challenged in court.

EVERYONE ELSE

Mexicans and people from Central Americas Northern Triangle countries accounted for barely half of all people stopped for crossing the Mexican border illegally in March, representing a major change in just the past few years.

Explanations for the others who make up the other half vary by nationality. Russians, for reasons that are unclear, have been among the top winners of 740 slots made available at U.S. border crossings with Mexico under CBPOne, a mobile app that was introduced for asylum-seekers in January. U.S. officials say they are the top nationality on the app, along with Haitians and Venezuelans.

Migrants from Venezuela, Haiti and elsewhere go through the dangerous Darien Gap connecting Colombia and Panama. Last year, 250,000 made the inhospitable jungle crossing, according to the Panamanian government, many of them children.

The U.S., Colombia and Panama announced a joint effort to stem migration through the Darien Gap, but details are unclear.

THE UNKNOWN

The Biden administration said last week it would open processing centers soon in Guatemala and Colombia, allowing people seeking refuge to avoid the treacherous journey over land. It said it was looking to open others but didnt name locations.

___=

Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in McAllen, Texas, contributed.

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Canada announced recently it had reached a significant milestone: welcoming over 30,000 Afghan refugees to the country since 2021, putting it on track to resettle at least 40,000 by the end of 2023.

Newcomers are critical in shaping the nations economy, particularly given the ongoing challenges around an aging population and persistent post COVID-19 labour shortages.

In 2022, Canada welcomed 437,180 immigrants  the highest on record, according to Statistics Canada. Further, the government announced a plan to welcome 1.5 million more by 2025.

Despite the need and the numbers, we continue to hear stories of highly skilled and foreign-trained newcomers facing challenges in transitioning to life in Canada.

The concept of the Canadian Experience is still a stereotype for some employers and creates barriers to joining the labour market and expediting the settlement process. Additionally, the costs and availability of housing are major issues  as it is for many Canadians. While efforts are being made by the government and settlement services to encourage newcomers to settle outside of major urban centres, there is a lack of vital support in those areas.

While some may see newcomers as a burden on our system, the numbers prove that to be the opposite. Data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shows that refugees join Canadas middle-class within five years of their arrival and, over time, pay more in income taxes on average than they receive in public benefits and services.

When it comes to home ownership, 65 per cent of refugee families who have been in Canada for 10 years or more live in homes they own, compared to 70 per cent of Canadian born citizens.

As Canada welcomes more people from around the world, the need for infrastructure to support the growth in our housing markets, schools, and health care systems, is critical. The appropriate funding and management of this growth needs to be considered by all levels of government, and support from various organizations, like Polycultural Immigrant and Community Services, is paramount.

Between 2021 and 2022, Polyculturals Afghan Initiative Program supported over 7,000 government-assisted refugees who were brought to Canada under the emergency evacuation initiative. And the organization has also provided settlement and housing supports to nearly 1,500 Ukrainian temporary residents under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel. Overall, over 30,000 immigrants were supported by Polycultural over the last year.

Polycultural works with Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), provincial, regional, and local partners to address the needs of the refugees, including providing employment services, language classes, access to health care, and support in finding housing.

By 2036, up to 30 per cent of the countrys population will be immigrants. The government and its partners should continue to aid newcomers and advocate for the funding and investments that enable Canadas newest citizens to truly thrive in their new home.

Marwan Ismail is the executive director of Polycultural Immigrant and Community Services, a charitable, non-profit, community-based agency.

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Amid such scant media coverage of the ongoing persecution of the Uyghur minority in China, when was the last time you read about or saw a TV report on their plight? Likely, not lately. Given its one of the most egregious and appalling crimes against humanity of our time, the lack of attention paid to Uyghurs dire situation is disturbing.

We know from the Holocaust and other genocides that in the face of extreme human rights violations, the worlds indifference, inaction and silence can be deadly for the victims, literally.

Already notorious for widespread human rights abuses in Tibet and Hong Kong, Chinese dictator President Xi Jinping and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are doubtless delighted the minority it persecutes most  the Uyghurs  receives short shrift by foreign journalists and politicians.

A mainly Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority group in China, the Uyghurs have long suffered from the CCPs discriminatory actions. Numbering around 10 million, they live in the countrys northwestern province, known officially as Xinjiang.

In recent years, the CCP has increased its repression of the Uyghurs, that many experts denounce as genocidal. It includes state-imposed restrictions on religious freedom, language rights, cultural expression and freedom of movement.

The charge of genocide is a serious one, and its true it should not be made lightly, Canadian international human rights lawyer Sarah Teich wrote in a report last summer, titled Justice for Uyghurs. However, the atrocities occurring in Xinjiang (East Turkestan) have been found by multiple credible bodies to constitute genocide.

Since 2017, the Chinese government has detained more than a million Uyghurs in what it calls re-education camps and subjected those not detained to extensive surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labour and involuntary sterilization. Using satellite images, individual testimonies and leaked Chinese government documents, researchers have documented the CCPs vicious campaign, describing it as the largest incarceration of a minority group since the Holocaust. A sobering reference if ever there was one.

Last year, a UN Human Rights office report revealed patterns of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in the camps. Most people detained in the camps were never charged and had no legal avenue to challenge their detentions. Often, their only alleged crime is being Muslim, with many denounced by the CCP as extremists or terrorists for simply practicing their religion.

In February, Canadas Parliament, to its credit, unanimously voted for Canada to take in 10,000 Uyghur refugees.

Intimidation of Uyghurs abroad by Beijing is commonplace, including efforts to detain and deport them back to China. It has also pressured other governments to repatriate those who fled China.

Just this week, a leaked top-secret intelligence assessment from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) on Chinese government foreign interference in Canada, revealed that Chinas intelligence service has taken specific actions to target Canadian MPs, (notably Conservative MP Michael Chong), linked to the February 2021 parliamentary vote condemning Beijings oppression of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities. Canada was one of the first to recognize the CCPs campaign against the Uyghurs as genocide, followed by the U.S., U.K. and the Netherlands.

Chinas response hits close to home for me. During the last Parliament, while serving as an MP and chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I repeatedly raised the issue of the Uyghurs and advocated imposing Magnitsky sanctions to hold gross human rights abusers, like China, to account.

Last week, the human rights organization I head, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, hosted a webinar highlighting the Uyghur genocide. As re-education camp survivors gave their testimony, they were Zoom bombed multiple times in an attempt to silence their voices. According to the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project (URAP), our event co-host, such harassment is commonplace when courageous Uyghurs share their horrific experiences.

If the post-Holocaust vow of Never Again still stands for something, it should be updated to Never Again Now. That means we must use all means at our disposal  economic, diplomatic, cultural  to step up pressure against China to end its genocidal persecution of the Uyghurs. Now.

Michael Levitt , a Toronto-based freelance contributing columnist for the Star, is the president and CEO of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC). @LevittMichael

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I read with interest Steve Mann from SwimOPs article in the Toronto Star last week. Mann is a terrific advocate for swimming on the waterfront and hes helped dozens of people discover that we are a city on the lake. My own colleagues at Therme have gone swimming with Steve  just one of the many ways were seeking feedback from people who currently use the West Island at Ontario Place in its current state.

In his piece, Mann referred to a beach at the West Island. The beach Steve refers to has been created because of wave action that has stripped away the fill from which the West Island at Ontario Place was constructed. Its hardly a pristine space and includes old interlock brick.

But people have made the most of this area, and while theres no question that a small group of hardy swimmers can enjoy it currently, its also inaccessible for many.

It was by learning from this group whove found joy at the south side that we were inspired to think about creating a swimming experience that families across Toronto could enjoy, especially once the space is a short walk from a subway station.

Thats why we have committed to building a free public beach  about the same size as Sunnyside Beach  located west of Ontario Place. Well remove the harsh walls that currently block access to the water. An artificial reef will create new fish habitat and shield the new beach from wave action for those just learning to swim.

Brand new public change rooms will be constructed, open to all. Food and beverage options will be available. Thousands of people who might be less familiar with the water, and who dont visit Ontario Place right now, will have the chance to enjoy the lake the way Mann does today.

Recognizing that there are some who currently enjoy swimming near Ontario Place, the city has previously agreed to modify its sewage outflow, to ensure that during peak swimming season, the water remains clean. The location of the citys piping outflow is difficult, and even though its only used when the system overflows in heavy rains and floods, its still a problem  and not a problem that we can solve on our own. We would love for Mann to join us in working with the city to ensure that conditions for swimming are excellent year round.

And based on how much Mann loves the experience swimming on the south shore, we incorporated his feedback as well. Weve added large steps descending gradually to the water. Someone who walks down to Ontario Place will have the chance to sit on those steps and admire the view of the lake.

Or they can plunge into Lake Ontario and enjoy the swimming as they do today. Its just one way were reflecting the feedback we receive. Make no mistake  our designs for the nearly 12-acre public space make it possible for Mann and anyone who enjoys the current experience to keep swimming on the south side the same way they do today.

Ultimately, we agree with Mann that Lake Ontario is a gift that more people should enjoy. Were grateful for the changes hes helped us to make. Now, theres a chance for us to work together to make the swimming experience as accessible as possible not just for visitors from across the city, but for families who will discover Ontario Place for the first time. Working together, we can make it possible for people from Thorncliffe Park, Liberty Village, Mississauga, or Bracebridge to say today, we went swimming at Ontario Place.

Simon Bredin is senior manager, communications and public engagement, at Therme Group Canada.

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In a world of disinformation, rising autocracy and corruption, good journalism has seldom been as necessary, as difficult and as dangerous.

World Press Freedom Day is being observed Wednesday, 30 years after it was established by the United Nations, and the news is somber.

There are increases around the world in the number of journalists murdered or jailed. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported in January that 67 news media workers were killed last year, most in Mexico, Ukraine and Haiti and the highest number since 2018.

At this World Press Freedom Day, there are names and faces that demonstrate the hard reality of journalism in a dangerous time.

In China, Dong Yuyu, a prominent journalist and former Harvard University fellow who was also a contributor to the New York Times, has been jailed and faces at least 10 years in prison for having made contact in his work with foreign diplomats and academics.

The regime called that espionage. Cedric Alviani, a regional director with Reporters Without Borders, properly calls that ridiculous.

It is only natural for a journalist to be connected with foreign diplomats and academics as sources and it is just ridiculous for the Chinese regime to brand such connections as espionage.

Dong, 61, was arrested in Beijing while having lunch in a hotel restaurant with a Japanese diplomat.

His arrest is a message to foreigners and Chinese that trying to understand each other might lead to trouble, his family told the Stars Joanna Chiu. We hope the world will pay attention.

In Russia, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been in prison for a month, the first American journalist detained in Russia on spying charges since the Cold War.

He was on assignment for the WSJ when arrested March 29 in Yekaterinburg by Russias Federal Security Service.

He was a journalist who was doing his job and journalism should not be a crime, said the Journals Gordon Fairclough.

Polina Ivanova, a Journal colleague of Gershkovich, has organized a letter-writing campaign to her friend in a bid to keep his spirits up.

Evan has been taken hostage by the Russian state, Ivanova wrote. Espionage: that is the excuse it gives for sending a group of plain-clothes thugs to grab our funny friend and push him hooded into a car; that is the reason why he is now forced to sit in a cell, trapped, alone, and waiting.

Gershkovichs friends and colleagues continue to lobby for his release. The Canadian Journalists for Free Expression has launched a social media campaign in support of Dong.

The role of trusted journalism

To create a safe environment for journalists and set an example for places with weaker traditions of democracy and a free press, citizens must see the crucial need for and support credible reporting.

In her recent book In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Cover-up and the True Cost of Silencing the Press, Katherine Corcoran put it bluntly.

A society without truth is a scary place to live, wrote the former Associated Press bureau chief for Mexico and Central America.

Journalists who work in dangerous places with dangerous people do so, Corcoran said, as an act of faith, a belief that what you did was essential to society and human freedom.

It is. Especially at this moment. And its worthy of the strongest support.

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OTTAWAPublic Safety Minister Marco Mendicino refused more than a dozen times Tuesday to say when he learned of allegations that the Chinese government targeted members of a Conservative MPs family  prompting outrage and expressions of support for the MP from all sides of the House of Commons.

Mendicino dodged questions from opposition MPs in the House of Commons about the issue, stating in French that it was scandalous to suggest the government would neglect to protect an MPs family.

The Globe and Mail reported Monday that security officials believed in 2021 that Beijing had targeted relatives of WellingtonHalton Hills MP Michael Chong as part of a campaign to influence Canadian politics.

The report prompted Chong to accuse the government of failing to inform him that his relatives in Hong Kong were targeted. And on Tuesday, Chong rose in the House of Commons and said he has confirmed the serious, grave details that a Chinese diplomat in Canada  whom the Conservatives are demanding the government expel  was involved in conducting these intimidation operations.

Chong added that it is now clear Canadians cant rely on the government to discharge its role as a defender of the realm and that it is up to House Speaker Anthony Rota  as the figurehead of the Commons  to send a clear and unambiguous signal that it is unacceptable for China to intimidate MPs and their families.

But while the government has denied it ignored or failed to act upon such information, Mendicino and his office are refusing to say when they first learned Beijing allegedly tried to intimidate Chongs family.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau charged it was irresponsible to suggest that any government might sit on a matter of such seriousness.

Security officials also briefed Chong, on all the information that could be provided, Mendicinos spokesperson Alexander Cohen told the Star.

Chong has not responded to questions and interview requests from the Star this week.

But when the Conservatives  including Chong himself  repeatedly pressed Mendicino to say when the government found out about the allegation, the public safety minister refused to say.

I want to express solidarity to him and to his family, and that we will continue to work with him and all parliamentarians to make sure that he and all parliamentarians get the support that they need, Mendicino said during Question Period Tuesday.

We must all work together to defend the institutions, the communities, and most importantly, the parliamentarians who serve those institutions to protect our democracy.

Mendicinos responses prompted outrage from the opposition benches. What a gutless response, said Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman. What if that happened to that ministers family? I have the same question. When did he know?

Other MPs offered support and praise for Chong, with New Democrat MP Heather MacPherson saying the allegations that Beijing targeted his family had shocked the entire House of Commons.

Outside the House, Mendicino told reporters that national security agencies decide what information can be released, and that matters that relate to critical facts cant just be released carelessly or without thought to federal secrecy laws.

I am confident that we are putting in place the measures that are necessary to protect parliamentarians, but candidly speaking, we have to be vigilant that the threat landscape is becoming more complex, he said.

Cohen, Mendicinos spokesperson, later said the government will not comment on the validity of potential leaked classified information.

The exchange in Parliament occurred amid ongoing concerns about allegations of Chinese government interference in Canadian politics. In the face of a slew of media reports  citing spy agency documents and national security sources  that detailed Beijings alleged influence campaigns, the government has argued it takes threats of foreign interference seriously. It also appointed former governor general David Johnston to decide whether to hold a public inquiry into the matter, as all three opposition parties are demanding.

Canadian Security Intelligence Service has publicly declared Chinese state interference a threat to Canadas security. The spy agency has also said that foreign interference is becoming more frequent and sophisticated, and has been detected targeting people in potential positions of influence at all levels of government.

With files from Stephanie Levitz

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It is unusual for an election in South America to have as much resonance in distant Asia as the just concluded essay in Paraguay did. The victory of Santiago Pena of the conservative Colorado party means that Paraguay will remain one of the worlds 13 countries to have formal diplomatic ties with China, a position his centre-left rival Efrain Alegre was determined to change if voted to power. In the event, Mr. Pena, a protege of former President Horacio Cartes, has won the countrys Presidential election convincingly, recording a 15 point lead over Mr. Alegre.

Paraguays ruling party received more than 42 per cent of the popular vote and was promptly congratulated by Taiwan, which saw its support in South America drop a few weeks ago when Honduras switched allegiance from Taipei to Beijing. A handful of nations recognize Taiwan, and their numbers have been dwindling as China has used its economic heft to coerce support, an initiative derisively described by Taipei as chequebook diplomacy. Mr. Alegre had announced in the run up to the election that he would recognize Beijing if elected, because he felt that strong ties with China were necessary for Paraguay, whose agriculture-driven economy needs markets for beef and soy, both consumed in large quantities by the Asian giant. Mr. Pena on the other hand had pledged continued support to Taiwan, and the issue had been hotly debated during the campaign.

The election outcome will therefore also come as a boost to the United States, which while adhering to the one-China policy, has been a strong supporter of Taiwan. While it did not announce its preferences either way, Washington had viewed the loss of Honduras from the Taiwan camp with some consternation. The issue is of equal significance to Beijing, which in a diplomatic outreach to Paraguayan farmers and lawmakers three years ago had pitched strongly for a switch in allegiance, arguing that beef and soy exporters stood to benefit hugely if this happened.

The Taiwan issue was not the only one to feature in the Paraguay poll. Indeed, the economy, plagued by rising fiscal deficits and slow growth figures, and corruption were major issues that dominated the discourse. Mr. Pena overcame criticism of being a proxy of Mr. Cartes, described by the US State Department as a man involved in significant corruption, to secure his mandate. But fears remain that he will allow his mentor a dominant role in governance.

After all, Mr. Pena had served as Finance Minister under Mr. Cartes, and was a member of the board of a bank owned by the former President. The optics suggested that these fears are not without basis. Mr. Cartes, who is the leader of the Colorado Party, stood beside Mr. Pena as the latter celebrated his victory.
DORE COPPER MINING CORP

Plan View and Long Section Showing the Jaculet Target

Figure 2. Plan View and Long Section Showing the Jaculet Target

Plan View Showing the Cedar Bay Southwest Zone Extension (left side)

Figure 3. Plan View and Long Section Showing the Cedar Bay Southwest Zone Extension (left side)

Long Section Showing the Cedar Bay Southwest Zone Extension (right side)

Figure 3. Plan View and Long Section Showing the Cedar Bay Southwest Zone Extension (right side)

Plan View of Copper Rand Property Showing the Jaculet and Cedar Bay SW Targets

Figure 1. Plan View of Copper Rand Property Showing the Jaculet and Cedar Bay SW Targets

TORONTO, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dore Copper Mining Corp. (the "Corporation" or "Dore Copper") (TSXV: DCMC; OTCQX: DRCMF; FRA: DCM) is pleased to announce its plans to drill several high priority copper-gold targets in the Central Chibougamau mining camp, located in proximity to its existing Copper Rand mill, near Chibougamau, Quebec (Figure 1). The drilling program is scheduled to start at the end of June.



High Priority Drilling Targets:

Jaculet (Figure 2)

The Jaculet mine, located 2.5 kilometers by road from the Copper Rand mill, was in operation from 1960 to 1971 and produced a total of 1,091,000 tonnes at 1.84% Cu, 1.44 g/t Au and 6.85 g/t Ag (20,074 tonnes of Cu and 1.57 tonnes Au)1. Jaculet was mined to a depth of 366 meters (1,200 feet) and the shaft was deepened to 500 meters (1,650 feet) in 1972. The Jaculet mineralized system consists of two distinct shear zones, known as Zone 1 and Zone 2, which both remain open at depth with very little development below 366 meters.

Two surface holes completed in 1956 by Chibougamau Jaculet Mines Ltd. intersected Zone 1 at a vertical depth of approximately 400 meters. Hole V17 and V17A (wedge from V17, located approximately 50 meters to the east) intersected 4.55% Cu and 0.86 g/t Au over 6.7 meters and 4.25% Cu and 0.59 g/t Au over 6.4 meters, respectively.

Dore Copper plans to drill two holes for a total of 1,300 meters. The first hole will test the potential down plunge extension of holes V17 and V17A in Zone 1. The second hole will test another potential ore shoot located approximately 400 meters to the west.

The Jaculet deposit is defined by two distinct subparallel shear zones, known as Zone 1 and Zone 2, separated by approximately 200 meters, where the veins within both zones typically range from 91 to 137 meters in strike length. Zone 1 extends for approximately 500 meters and has an average strike of 290 with a northerly dip ranging from 55 to near vertical. Mineralization in Zone 1 consists of chalcopyrite and minor pyrite within the sheared and altered gabbroic anorthosite. Zone 2 extends for approximately 670 meters in length and is oriented at 80 north dipping 80-85 to the south. Mineralization consists of stringers of pyrite with erratic lenses of chalcopyrite associated with siderite, sericite and chloritoid.

Story continues

Cedar Bay Southwest Zone Extension (Figure 3)

The Southwest Zone, located 300 meters southwest of the Cedar Bay Main Zone, was partially developed by Campbell Chibougamau Mines Limited up to the 200-meter (650-feet) level, right at the property limit with Patino Mining. The potential extension of the Cedar Bay Southwest Zone along strike to the southeast was never tested by Patino Mining and subsequent companies that controlled that ground. In total, approximately 800 meters of strike length have not been tested up to the Lac Dore Fault.

Dore Copper plans to drill two holes from the same pad for a total of 1,500 meters to test the potential southeast extension of the Cedar Bay Southwest Zone.

The Cedar Bay mine operated from 1958 to 1990 and produced 3.9 million tonnes grading 1.56% Cu and 3.22 g/t Au1. The ore from the mine was processed at the Copper Rand mill located 5 kilometers by road. The deposit was mined to a depth of 670.5 meters and the existing shaft extends to a depth of 1,036 meters. Dore Copper, while private, completed four holes (including wedges) totaling 4,842 meters in 2018 and reported an Indicated resource of 130,000 tonnes at 9.44 g/t Au and 1.55% Cu, and an Inferred resource of 230,000 tonnes at 8.32 g/t Au and 2.13% Cu (effective date of December 31, 2018)2. During 2020, the Corporation completed 9,025 meters of drilling and successfully extended a number of mineralized lenses (the 10-20A and 10-20B).

Figure 1. Plan View of Copper Rand Property Showing the Jaculet and Cedar Bay SW Targets

Figure 1_Plan View of Copper Rand Property Showing the Jaculet and Cedar Bay SW Targets

Figure 2. Plan View and Long Section Showing the Jaculet Target

Figure 2_Plan View and Long Section Showing the Jaculet Target





Figure 3. Plan View and Long Section Showing the Cedar Bay Southwest Zone Extension

Figure 3_Plan View Showing the Cedar Bay Southwest Extension Figure 3_Long Section Showing the Cedar Bay Southwest Extension

Qualified Person

Sylvain Lepine, M.Sc, P.Geo, MBA, Vice President Exploration of the Corporation and a "Qualified Person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release.

About Dore Copper Mining Corp.

Dore Copper Mining Corp. aims to be the next copper producer in Quebec with an initial production target of +50 million pounds of copper equivalent annually by implementing a hub-and spoke operation model with multiple high-grade copper-gold assets feeding its centralized Copper Rand mill2. The Corporation has delivered its PEA in May 2022 and is proceeding with a feasibility study.

The Corporation has consolidated a large land package in the prolific Lac Dore/Chibougamau and Joe Mann mining camps that has historically produced 1.6 billion pounds of copper and 4.4 million ounces of gold3. The land package includes 13 former producing mines, deposits and resource target areas within a 60-kilometer radius of the Corporation's Copper Rand Mill.

For further information, please contact:

Ernest Mast Laurie Gaborit President and Chief Executive Officer Vice President, Investor Relations Phone: (416) 792-2229 Phone: (416) 219-2049 Email: ernest.mast@dorecopper.com Email: laurie.gaborit@dorecopper.com

Visit: www.dorecopper.com

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Sources for historic production figures: Lacroix, S., Doyon, M., Perreault, S., Nantel, S., Gaudreau, R., Dussault, C.,and Morin, R., 1997, Rapport des geologues residents sur lactivite miniere regionale en 1996: Ministere des Ressources naturelles du Quebec Report DV97-01, 102 p. Technical report titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Chibougamau Hub-and-Spoke Complex, Quebec, Canada" dated June 15, 2022, in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101). The Technical Report was prepared by BBA Inc. with several consulting firms contributing to sections of the study, including SLR Consulting (Canada) Ltd., SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. and WSP Inc. Sources for historic production figures: Economic Geology, v. 107, pp. 963989 - Structural and Stratigraphic Controls on Magmatic, Volcanogenic, and Shear Zone-Hosted Mineralization in the Chapais-Chibougamau Mining Camp, Northeastern Abitibi, Canada by Francois Leclerc et al. (Lac Dore/Chibougamau mining camp) and NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Joe Mann Property dated January 11, 2016 by Geologica Groupe-Conseil Inc. for Jessie Ressources Inc. (Joe Mann mine).



Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "forecast", "expect", "potential", "project", "target", "schedule", "budget" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof. Specific forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to aiming to be the next copper producer in Quebec with an initial production target of +50 Mlbs of copper equivalent annually, implementing a hub-and spoke operation model; and completing a feasibility study.

All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the timing and ability of the Corporation to receive necessary regulatory approvals, and the plans, operations and prospects of the Corporation and its properties are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, actual exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, delays or inability to receive required regulatory approvals, health emergencies, pandemics and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Corporation with securities regulators. Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause such actions, events or results to differ materially from those anticipated. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

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 news release.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9358c202-3eb0-4d0c-9351-222a3450b5f3

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The SCO defence ministers meet was held in Delhi last week. While the meet was attended by all defence ministers of the organisation except Pakistan (which attended virtually), statements emerging from discussions and bilateral meetings displayed differences between main players.

There were more accusations than acceptance between them. Rajnath Singh, as the host, held bilateral discussions with all his counterparts. All were productive except the one with China.

The Indo-China bilateral resulted in both nations issuing their own statements indicating there was no common meeting ground and differences continue to exist. Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart, General Li Shangfu, did not shake hands prior to the meet, indicating initial disagreements.

The Indian statement read, The Raksha Mantri categorically conveyed that development of relations between India and China is premised on prevalence of peace and tranquillity at the borders.

He added, all issues at the LAC need to be resolved in accordance with existing bilateral agreements and commitments. The Indian stand has not changed and is in sync with comments made by foreign minister S Jaishankar to his Chinese counterpart.

India also rejected the Chinese proposal to recommence military engagements between the two sides. India projected its determination to continue with the standoff and keep relations frozen at the current state unless the LAC issue is resolved.

China, in its statement insisted that the situation on the border was generally stable and that both sides continue communicating through military and diplomatic channels. It added, It is hoped that the two sides will work together to continuously enhance mutual trust between the two militaries and make due contributions to the development of relations between both countries.

China was hinting that India accept the LAC in its current form and move forward with bilateral ties. For India, restoring ties implies conveying that it has accepted the changed LAC as the new normal. Hence, while diplomatic engagements continue in multilateral forums, tensions remain. The other interesting bilateral was between India and Russia.

The bilateral statement, issued by India read, They (both defence ministers) expressed satisfaction over the continued trust and mutual respect between the two countries, particularly in defence and reiterated their commitment towards strengthening the partnership.

They acknowledged the unique, long-lasting and time-tested relationship between India and Russia. The statement was diplomatically positive but what followed in the meeting was not.

The Russian defence minister, General Sergei K Shoigu, in his address to the SCO body accused the US of working to contain China. He stated, The US and its allies are actively opposing the formation of a multipolar world in the Asia-Pacific with counter measures through military and political alliances such as the QUAD and AUKUS.

The conflict in Ukraine is a clear demonstration of this criminal policy. Its real aim is to inflict strategic defeat on Russia, threaten China and maintain its monopoly position in the world. Russia was sending the message of its proximity to China and distrust of the growing Indian alliance with the US. Comments of the Iranian defence minister, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, echoed the Russian line. In his address he stated, expansionist policies of the West and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have accelerated in a bid to revive the unipolar world.

The West and NATOs actions in the Ukraine crisis are signs of this fact. Proxy wars and terrorism are means in the hands of some big powers who seek domination. Irans anger against the US and its allies was evident, and expected. The Chinese defence minister offered to implement the Global Security Initiative (GSI), deepen strategic mutual trust, enhance anti-terrorism cooperation, expand fields for cooperation and improve cooperation mechanisms, so as to contribute to global and regional peace and stability.

China has been selling the GSI as a counter to the US, but with little success. Rajnath Singh, while addressing the gathering concentrated on terrorism, radicalisation, respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and taking care of legitimate interests of nations of the group.

The hint was obviously at Pakistan and China. Pakistans special advisor to the Prime Minister on defence was present through video conferencing. Rajnath stated, If a nation shelters terrorists, it not only poses a threat to others, but for itself too. If we want to make the SCO a stronger and more credible international organisation, our top-most priority should be to effectively deal with terrorism. Terrorism impacts all members of the organisation.

At the end of the meet, all member countries signed a protocol, as against an agreement, expressing their collective will to make the region secure, peaceful and prosperous.

As compared to recent G 20 meetings, the SCO defence ministers meet did arrive at a consensus on some subjects. While the meet may be considered a success and the aim set forth achieved, differences between major members of the organization as also between Asia and the west were clearly highlighted. India, which was the host, is a member of the QUAD and a US partner. It had sought to avoid dragging the US and its allies into formal discussions of the SCO but was aware it would happen, especially with Russia, China and Iran in the group. Both Russia and Iran hinted that Indias growing proximity with the US may not bode well in the long term.

China has already sent that message on multiple occasions. Growing Russia-China proximity will remain a matter of concern for India despite normal bilateral ties. Moscow, henceforth, may either remain neutral or ignore Indian concerns. Indo-China relations currently appear frozen with no signs of a thaw in coming days.

With both nations refusing to bend from their current stance, India seeking de-escalation and disengagement and China insisting on India accepting the current alignment of the LAC, tensions will continue as will attempts at salami slicing. Whether the foreign ministers meet of the SCO, scheduled this week in Goa brings about a change in IndoChina ties remains to be seen.

This could possibly be the last chance before President Xi visits India for both the SCO and G 20 meets. Finally, US and West-bashing can be expected to continue in Goa.

(The writer is a retired Major-General of the Indian Army.)
Chief minister and Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee urged people to unite against jumla politics and reiterated that the BJP can be defeated when the Opposition parties come together and India will win the war against the divisive forces. Miss Banerjee tweeted India deserved change for the better. Theres no bigger power than the power of people.

On the occasion of Ma Mati Manus Divas, I urge everyone to unite against jumla politics. When opposition parties come together, BJP will lose the battle and India will win the war against the divisive forces.

She has over and again said the saffron party will not come to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Last month, Samajwadi party leader Akhilesh Yadav and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy have met Miss Banerjee at her Kalighat residence and and discuss the prospects of Opposition unity.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav also met her and she requested Nitish Kumar to summon an all-party meeting in Patna. It was learnt that an all-party meeting will be held in Patna soon. It may be recalled that Jayprakash Narayan had called a meeting in Patna and gave a clarion call to defeat Mrs Indira Gandhi in the mid-1970s.

Finally, Janata Dal defeated Congress in 1977 and came to power in Delhi. During her visit to Odisha in April, Miss Banerjee met chief minister Naveen Patnaik and discussed the opposition unity. Miss Banerjee today maintained that the BJP does not believe in any development.  They believe only in dividing society. They let loose the central agencies to scare the opposition leaders.

The BJP has converted the central agencies into party offices. It has destroyed the institutions and destroyed the democratic fervour of the country. She said the federal structure of the country should be preserved at any cost.  India has always believed in federalism. Now, the BJP is deciding what food we should take, and what dress should wear.

It is a party that spreads communal venom throughout the country. They let loose Muslims against the Christians. Trinamul Congress said the power lies in the people and to save the country change should take place in Delhi.  The Centre is involved in a series of scams. The country should come out of Jumla policies, she maintained.

It may be recalled before the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Miss Banerjee tried to bring the Opposition under one umbrella. A meeting was held at Brigade Parade ground in which all the opposition parties participate including Congress. But the opposition unity did not take place.

Miss Banerjee has taken the initiative to unite the opposition. All the opposition parties have protested against the highhandedness of the central agencies and political experts said this would be the cementing factor in forming the opposition unity.
Haryana Police have reunited 880 missing children and 819 adults with their families in 30 days as part of the special drive, Operation Smile.

The police have also rescued 405 child beggars and 722 child labourers who were found doing odd jobs for their livelihood.

Sharing the information on Wednesday, a Haryana Police spokesperson said while 774 missing children were traced by the police field units, 106 were found during the search operations conducted by Haryana Police Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs).The special month-long drive Operation Smile was concluded on 30 April.

During the drive, a maximum 173 missing children were traced and reunited with their families in Gurugram, followed by 143 children in Faridabad, 60 in Kurukshetra, 45 in Bhiwani, 43 in Panipat and 38 in Rewari. Railway Police Haryana reunited 53 missing children with their families.

Among adults, Faridabad and Panipat districts reunited 81 each missing persons with their families. Karnal reunited 69 adults, Gurugram 62 adults, Rohtak 56, Bhiwani 44 and Rewari 34 adults reunited with their families.

The Additional Director General of Police (crime), OP Singh said all the districts and AHTU units inspected 489 shelter homes were inspected during the operation.
With the Supreme Court refusing to commute the death sentence of Balwant Singh Rajoana, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday accused the Union government of backtracking on the release of Rajoana. Rajoana was convicted in the case of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh assassination.

In a statement, SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said the Central government has hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community as it first promised to commute the death sentence of Rajoana to life in 2019 in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, and then went back on its word by refusing to decide on the mercy petition filed on Rajoanas behalf by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in March, 2012.

The SAD alleged a tactical understanding between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was coming in the way of release of the Bandi Singhs (Sikh prisoners).

Asking the BJP to make its stand clear on the issue, Majithia said former Punjab BJP incharge Gajendra Shekhawat had signed a form seeking the release of Rajoana while paying his obeisance at Takht Sri Damdama Sahib, one of the five takhts or Seat of Temporal Authority of Sikhism.

The same party is, however, coming in the way of the detenues release in the Supreme Court which is also an insult to the holy Takth, the SAD leader said.

Majithia said the Sikh community was already feeling that it was being discriminated against because it was a minority following the release of Bilkis Banos rapist, but the manner in which the Centre tried to link the release of Rajoana with national security in a previous affidavit had hurt it even further.

Sikhs have made the most sacrifices for the countrys freedom and even now are guarding the nations border. The community feels the Rajoanas release will help the process of reconciliation and the centre should respect this sentiment instead of opposing it, he added.

Majithia said the Sikh community felt that the Centre would uphold the solemn commitment made in 2019 when it announced Rajoanas death sentence would be commuted to life and that eight other Sikh detenues, who had completed nearly double of their life sentences, would also be released.

Sadly this commitment was not implemented and the human rights of all Bandi Singhs, including Rajaona, are being violated, he added.

Majithia said the AAP government in Delhi had also adopted the same stance as the BJP and was withholding the release of Prof Devenderpal Singh Bhullar, a 1993 Delhi bomb blast case convict, for more than one year now.

Like in the case of the Centre, the AAP government in Delhi is sitting over the release orders of Prof Bhullar with the matter not being decided despite repeated meetings of the Sentence Review Board, he added.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC) celebrated its 29th Foundation Day on Wednesday. On the occasion, the annual Managing Directors Awards were given away to 57 meritorious employees as recognition of their outstanding contribution in the last one year.

Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs & Chairman, DMRC, was the chief guest on the occasion, while Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar graced the event as the guest of honour.

The prestigious Metro Woman of the Year, Metro Man of the Year, Best Metro Station, Best Depot, and a special award for contribution to the use and promotion of Raj Bhasha were also given away on the occasion.

Lauding the achievements of DMRC as an organisation, Manoj Joshi, the Chief Guest, exhorted the Delhi Metro to explore newer avenues and go to a higher level. We have demonstrated that we have the capacity to shift gears and go to a higher pedestal in terms of finances, technology and managerial finance, he said during his address.

Naresh Kumar also addressed the gathering. He said, Delhi Metro has established itself as an organisation to transform urban transport not only in India but globally. You have done a commendable job to establish yourself as a global company.

DMRC chief Vikas Kumar spoke about the various projects taken up by the organization. Our involvement with the Dhaka Metro has been well appreciated and we are hopeful of getting more such assignments in the days ahead. In fact, our endeavours to get projects abroad will further enhance Indias credibility as a nation with the necessary technical know-how to build major infrastructure in other countries, he said.

The event culminated with the announcement of the Best Depot and Best Station awards.

Janakpuri West Metro Station and Yamuna Bank Depot were declared the best metro station the best metro depot, respectively.

This years winners are: Metro Man of the Year: Neeraj Kanwat, Senior Station Manager/ Line Supervisor. And the Metro Woman of the Year award goes to Ms. Meenakshi, Head Station Controller/ Train Operator.
The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has moved the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre and others not to allow the screening or release of the film The Kerala Story in theatres, OTT platforms and other such avenues, besides seeking removal of the films trailer from the internet.

Earlier on Tuesday, the apex court had declined to immediately hear a plea seeking a stay on the release of the controversial movie direceted by Sudipto Sen and produced by Sunshine Pictures.

A bench comprising justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna observed that the censor board has already cleared the movie and the petitioners should rather challenge the films certification before an appropriate authority.

The bench said that the exhibition of films entails a different process, therefore the plea seeking a stay on the release of the movie cannot be clubbed with hate speech matters.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Nizam Pasha urged the bench to hear their plea saying that the movie will release on Friday.

The fresh plea filed by Jamiat said: The movie is clearly aimed at spreading hatred and enmity between different sections of society in India. The message the movie imparts is that non-Muslim young women are being lured into converting to Islam by their classmates and subsequently, they are trafficked to West Asia where they are forced to join terrorist organisations.

The plea said, The movie demeans the entire Muslim community and it will result in endangering the lives and livelihoods of the petitioners and the entire Muslim community, and this is a direct infringement under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

The movie gives the impression that apart from extremist clerics who radicalise people, ordinary Muslim youngsters, their classmates, also play an instrumental role in luring non-Muslims and radicalising them by posing as friendly and good-natured people, in accordance with instructions given by extremist scholars, said the plea.

The plea, filed through advocate Ejaz Maqbool, alternatively sought a direction to the Central Board of Film Certification to further identify incendiary scenes and dialogues for removal or show a disclaimer stating that it is a work of fiction and the characters in the movie bear no resemblance to any person living or dead.

The plea said, The movie promotes the view that love-jihad is being used to lure non-Muslim women into converting to Islam and also joining the ISIS. However, an investigation by the state police carried out in 2009 revealed that there was no evidence of love-jihad in Kerala.

As soon as the teaser of the film was released, the ruling CPI(M)-led Left and the opoosition UDF in Kerala had demanded that the film should not be screened.

The state committee of Muslim Youth League has even announced a reward of Rs 1 crore for the individual who proves the allegations levelled in the movie.

A right-wing activist and founder of the Hindu Seva Kendra Pratheesh Viswanath also offered Rs 10 crore to prove the opposite  that no one from Kerala has gone to Syria to join IS.

The film starring Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani and Siddhi Idnani in key roles traces the journey of four female college students in Kerala who become part of Islamic State.
The BJP and Congress in Madhya Pradesh have locked horns over the poll promise to ban the Bajrang Dal made by the grand old party in its manifesto almost 1,000 kilometres away in Karnataka.

State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Wednesday questioned MP Congress chief Kamal Naths stand on the promise in view of his avowed devotion to Lord Hanuman.

In his reply, Nath argued that anyone spreading hatred must face action.

Former MP CM and senior Congress Digvijaya Singh called the Bajrang Dal an organisation of goons while Chouhan declared the Bajrang Dal a staunch nationalist organisation.

The state CM said that the Congress is talking about banning the Bajrang Dal, which opposes terrorism and love jihad while creating an atmosphere of patriotism. He expressed shock over the Congress comparing the Bajrang Dal with the banned Islamist organization Popular Front of India (PFI).

Kamal Nath asserted that those who spread hatred and create controversies must face action, as this is a matter of concern for our social unity.

Congress Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh also jumped into the fray with a tweet, Narendra Modi jis religion is Hindutva and not Hindu or Sanatan Dharm.

As Savarkar ji has said Hindutva has nothing to do with Hindu Religion, Bajrang Dal has nothing to do with Lord Hanuman. It is an organization of goons, Digvijaya Singh further tweeted.

The Congress, in its election manifesto for the May 10 Karnataka State Assembly polls, has said it will take strict action as per law including imposing a ban on organisations like the Bajrang Dal and PFI, as they were promoting enmity among communities.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) politics of hatred will never succeed in Punjab.

Addressing a press conference in Jalandhar, AAP Punjab chief spokesperson Malwinder Singh Kang said Opposition parties and their leaders dont have any actual issues because all they know is politics of hatred.

Politics of hatred will never succeed in Punjab, Punjabis pray for Sarbat da bhala. So talk about real issues, why Modi never talks about demonetization, GST and about his capitalist friends. Why is the BJPs central government not releasing Punjabs RDF (rural development fund) and GST, he asked.
The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh is facing an unenviable task to retain all the 10 corporations like it did in 2017 polls in the first phase of civic polling in the state to be held on Thursday.

On the other hand, there is a challenge before the principal Opposition party, Samajwadi Party, and on the other, the BSP and the Congress have put up a good fight against the BJP as the urban local bodies polls are considered a rehearsal for the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.

Political experts believe that the impact of the results of the civic elections will remain till the Lok Sabha elections.

There is a direct contest between the BJP and the SP in most of the constituencies in the civic elections, while at some places the candidates of the BSP and the Congress were turning it into a triangular contest.

In the 2017 civic elections, out of a total of 16 municipal corporations, except Aligarh and Meerut municipal corporations which were won by BSP, the ruling BJP had won all the municipal corporations. This time around, elections are being held for the first time in Shahjahanpur Corporation in the municipal elections.

This time, the BJP has fielded around 400 Muslim candidates in the civic polls, but none for the mayors post. Similarly, the BSP has fielded eight Muslim mayoral candidates out of the 10 in the first phase.

In the first phase elections will be held on May 4 in Saharanpur, Moradabad, Agra, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Mathura-Vrindavan and Firozabad Municipal Corporation. The BJP has re-nominated the outgoing mayor Vinod Agarwal in Moradabad while new faces have been given a chance in the remaining Mayors seat.

The BJP Government and the organisation have also exerted their full might in these elections. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had visited 21 districts from April 24 to May 2 where poling is schedule in the first phase. Election meetings have been held in all the ten municipal corporations of the first phase. The CM has held two to three rallies in Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Varanasi. Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak have also sought votes in support of party candidates by visiting most of the districts. BJP state president Bhupendra Singh Chowdhary also visited two to three districts every day.

The BJP also started the process of getting SP, Congress and BSP leaders to join the party to win the civic elections. Rahis Chandra Shukla, who was the SP candidate in the Prayagraj assembly elections, was inducted into the party. Former state secretary of SP Munna Tripathi, veteran leader of SP in Farrukhabad Narendra Singh Yadav, his daughter district panchayat president Monika Yadav and other leaders were also included in BJP. Leaders of opposition parties in big numbers were inducted into the BJP even in various districts too.

In 2017, the SP did not win a single municipal corporation, but in these elections there is a chance for SP to secure its existence in the municipal corporation. SP President Akhilesh Yadav started his election campaign in the last round of the first phase. He campaigned through metro rail, road show and meeting in support of SP candidates in Gorakhpur, Lucknow and Saharanpur Municipal Corporation. Most of the SP candidates are contesting elections on their own though some SP state leaders have gone on campaign in some seats.

BSP supremo Mayawati has kept distance from the election campaign. Mayawati has fielded candidates in all 10 municipal corporations in the first phase but she did not campaign in support of any candidate. The candidates of BSP are contesting elections only with the coordination of regional coordinators.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that health services are essential services and should not be affected under any circumstances.

CM Chouhan gave the directive while addressing the Collectors and Commissioners of all the districts through Video Conferencing from CM House late on Tuesday night. During the meeting, CM Chouhan also received information about the arrangements of health facilities from the officials.

Health services are under essential services and there should be no hindrance to it. Leave no stone unturned for the smooth operation of emergency and critical services in the state. Going on strike is unethical (referring to the protest of health workers), but there is a provision for action. Make necessary arrangements in medical colleges and hospitals and take services of PG doctors, CM Chouhan said.

The CM added that uninterrupted health services should run smoothly at the district hospital, community and primary health centres. Take all necessary steps for the same. Collectors, the Commissioner and the Dean of the Medical College should make necessary arrangements to ensure proper treatment.

There should be no interruption in the treatment of serious patients. Sufficient arrangement of doctors should be maintained and maintain continuous communication with private nursing homes. Arrangement of sufficient quantities of ambulances should be maintained. The state government will bear the cost of treatment in private hospitals under Ayushman Bharat Yojana, CM Chouhan added.

He further said, Doctors are considered to be a God to save human life. Dont play with human life and make arrangements everywhere. Health services should not be affected under any circumstances. Patients should not have any problem during an emergency.
Market Research Future

Rising Use of Drones for Surveillance & Monitoring Purposes Drives the Global Drone Camera Market

Tokyo, Japan, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a comprehensive research report by Market Research Future (MRFR),  Drone Camera Market  Research Report: By Type, Applications, End-Users - Forecast Till 2030, the Drone Camera Market is anticipated to acquire a valuation of approximately USD 66.2 Billion by the end of 2030. The reports further predict the market to flourish at a robust CAGR of over 29% during the assessment timeframe.

Drones are, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), flying mini-robots, or miniature pilotless aircraft, have broken through rigid traditional barriers in various industries. Over the past few years, drones have evolved greatly from entry-level drones used for recreational purposes to high-end drones used to establish and take aerial shots easily. Today, drones with cameras are increasingly used by filmmakers and photographers to shoot videos and photographs.

These compact, lightweight, and reasonably priced drones allow users to locate and capture images. With the help of advanced cameras, drones send users real-time video using a video transmitter. Therefore, innovative UAV technology is extensively used across commercial, industrial, and military sectors for applications ranging from quick deliveries of supplies to scanning an unreachable military base.

Today drones with HD cameras are used in several applications, including aerial photography for journalism & film, express shipping & delivery, gathering information/supplying essentials for disaster management, thermal sensor drones for search & rescue operations, geographic mapping of inaccessible terrain & locations, precision crop monitoring, building safety inspections, unmanned cargo transport, law enforcement & border control surveillance, storm tracking & forecasting hurricanes and tornadoes, and several others.

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Among these, military usage of drones has become the largest application area, spanning target decoys, combat missions, research & development, supervision, and more. According to MRFR, military spending will remain the main driver for increased drone uses in the coming years, and these drones will play a causal role in the resolution of future battles, replacing human pilots.

Commercial usage of drones is gaining momentum as multiple industries use drones to execute their daily regular business functions. Although the commercial drone industry is still in its embryonic stage, it has already begun to see major investments from industrial conglomerates, IT consulting & chip companies, and major defense contractors.

Sea-air-integrated drones have far-reaching applications across various marine-based industries. Besides, UAVs would continue to be used in various military operations for their high convenience in reducing losses and enabling the execution of high-profile and time-sensitive missions.

Personal drones are used for film-making, recording, still photography, and gaming by common tech-savvy enthusiasts. However, as the sales of personal drones rise, the safety concerns associated with them among regulators and law enforcement agencies tend to go up for watching potential drone collisions with airplanes and crashes.

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Drone Camera Market Key Players

Players leading the global drone camera market include

Aerialtronics DV BV

Canon Inc.

Controp Precision Technologies Ltd.

DJI

DST Control

FLIR Systems, Inc.

Garmin Ltd.

GoPro, Inc.

Panasonic Corporation

Sony Corporation

Report Scope:

Report Metric Details Revenue forecast in 2030 USD 66.2 Billion Growth Rate CAGR of 29% from 2023 to 2030 Base Year 2022 Study Period 2023-2030 Key Market Opportunities Emergence of biomaterial Drone Camera implants Key Market Drivers Rising prevalence of cervical spondylosis in corporate professionals Growing cases of cervical injuries in automobile crashes

Browse In-depth Market Research Report (141 Pages) on Drone Camera Market:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/drone-camera-market-10764

Industry Trends

The future of the constantly evolving drone technology is currently undergoing groundbreaking improvements. With seven potential generations, most current technology sits in the fifth and sixth generations. As these technologies evolve, drones will become safer and more dependable. On the other hand, the strict USFAA legislation would hamper subsequent mass adoption.

Rapidly dropping prices of customized commercial drones with new functionality would allow its extensive uses in various niche spaces. Modern drones could soon be adopted in agriculture for doing everyday tasks like fertilizing crops on an automated basis, monitoring traffic events, surveying hard-to-reach places, or even delivering food.

The rising adoption of drone cameras and the increasing awareness of home safety and monitoring solutions drive market growth. Besides, the advents of various innovative drones with 360-degree, 4K cameras offering to capture hands-free and hassle-free recording and directly connect to the app to stitch the recorded footage into a 360-degree format boost the market size. Also, the increased perimeter security needs and the rising trend of smart homes influence market revenues. The market is projected to grow significantly over the next few years.

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Drone Camera Market Segments

The report is segmented into types, resolutions, applications, end-users, and regions. The type segment comprises SD Cameras and HD Cameras. The resolution segment comprises 12 MP, 12-20 MP, 20-32 MP, 32 MP, and above.

The application segment comprises photography & videography, thermal imaging, surveillance, and others. The end-user segment comprises commercial, military, homeland security, and others. The region segment comprises the Americas, Asia-Pacific, MEA, Europe, and rest-of-the-world.

Drone Camera Market Regional Analysis

North America leads the global drone camera market, witnessing the rising adoption of drones in the commercial and military sectors across the region. Besides, advancements in drone and imaging technologies influence the value of the regional market. Favorable government initiatives for regulating the commercial use of drone cameras to enhance safety foster the Drone Camera Market demand.

Additionally, rising investment by the players in upgrading and developing the models of drone cameras boosts the region's market shares. Augmenting adoption of drones in the construction industry for 2D and 3D modeling & mapping, waste reduction, land surveying, and other purposes substantiates the Drone Camera Market size.

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Drone Camera Market Competitive Analysis

Fiercely competitive, the global drone camera market appears fragmented with various dynamic and diversified international players. Key industry players form a competitive landscape, continually innovating and seeking strategic plans such as M&A activities. Through increasing investments in R&D activities, they strive to develop a portfolio of cost-effective solutions.

For instance, on Apr. 14, 2023, DJI, a leading drone maker, launched a new high-end professional cinema camera drone named Inspire 3 in Shenzhen. Inspire 3 is a cinema camera drone with a Zenmuse X9-8K Air camera, and it will be available by the end of June this year. The Zenmuse X9-8K Air camera offers an 8K video recording and imaging system. The Inspire 3 is an updated version of DJI's cinematic drone series, launched in late 2014 and was refreshed with the Inspire 2 in 2016, offering a 5K camera.

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Health services in government hospitals all over Madhya Pradesh were gravely paralysed on Wednesday, as nearly 15,000 government doctors began their indefinite strike in support of their long-pending demands.

The doctors accused the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP state government in the state of being insensitive and indifferent to their genuine demands.

Terming the strike unethical, Chouhan said there was a provision to take action against the doctors who strike from work. He exhorted the doctors, who are held in the highest esteem by patients, not not play with their lives.

As a consequence of the doctors strike, more than 30 major surgeries had to be postponed at Bhopals Hamidia Hospital, which is the largest government hospital in MP. Patients and their relatives were seen frantically searching for doctors in the hospitals Out Patient Department (OPD), which was also shut down due to the strike.

The protesting doctors stayed away from all types of medical duties, emergency duties, educational lectures in medical colleges, administrative work and medico-legal services.

In the wake of the strike call, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a review meeting and conducted a video conferencing with senior officers of all districts late night yesterday. The CM directed the officials to ensure necessary alternative arrangements so that proper and timely treatment could be provided to patients in all government hospitals.

Subsequently, the district administration authorities in the state capital Bhopal and all other districts made efforts for arrangements with private hospitals and reserved beds there so that patients from government hospitals could be shifted to private hospitals.

Bhopal Commissioner Maal Singh Bhaydiya and Collector Ashish Singh reached the Hamidia Hospital in the morning along with a team of officers to oversee the alternative arrangements made for the assistance of patients.

Ashish Singh said 150 doctors from private hospitals have been engaged to serve in the OPD and wards, while 1500 beds have been reserved in private hospitals for patients requiring to be shifted for critical care.

State Medical Education Director John Kingsley said the government doctors and interns who are undergoing post-graduate studies while being in government service have been pressed into service in view of the doctors strike. He said doctors from private hospitals have also been engaged to treat patients in government hospitals and serious patients requiring critical care would be shifted to private nursing homes and medical colleges.

The government doctors federation chief convener Dr Rakesh Malviya averred that the doctors have been forced to go on strike due to the BJP state governments apathetic attitude towards the government doctors.

Dr Malviya claimed that at a meeting on 31 March this year between government doctors representatives and the state government officers and ministers, a consensus had been reached and the government had assured to fulfill the demands. He charged that despite giving its accord, the state government has not issued any orders for implementing the demands till date.

Dr Malviya also said that on the directives of CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a high-level committee was constituted on 17 February this year to pave the way for implementing the Dynamic Assured Career Progression (DAP) scheme for government doctors in MP. He said the committee, headed by the Additional Chief Secretaries of the Health Department and Medical Education Department, had given its consent to implement the DACP for the benefit of government doctors of MP, but till date no such orders have been issued.

DACP is the main demand, amongst many others, of the striking doctors. The other demands include rectification of disparities in the rules of working of the health department, medical education department and ESI.

Doctors have also been protesting against the appointment and interference of administrative officers in medical departments.

Another demand is to reserve seats in the state government health service for contractual MBBS doctors working with the National Health Mission (NHM).

The junior doctors have been demanding reduction in the bond amount towards rural service and decreasing the tuition fee in the medical colleges.
Indias ranking in 180 countries in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index has slipped to 161, according to a latest report released by global media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF). In comparison to India, Pakistan has fared better when it comes to media freedom as it was placed at 150, an improvement from last years 157th rank. In 2022, India ranked at 150.

Sri Lanka also made significant improvement in the index, ranking 135th this year as against 146th in 2022.

Norway, Ireland and Denmark occupied the top three positions in press freedom, while Vietnam, China and North Korea constituted the bottom three.

The ranking is based on a countrys performance in five broad categories: political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context and safety of journalists. Of the five, Indias ranking was lowest in the safety of journalists category (172) and best in the social indicator category (143).

While India has ranked consistently low over the past few years, its rank has plunged to the lowest this year. In February last year, the Union government declined to agree with the views and country rankings listed in the World Press Freedom Index since its published by a foreign NGO.

The violence against journalists, the politically partisan media and the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in the worlds largest democracy, ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right, the report said.

Commenting on the media landscape of India, the report said, Originally, a product of the anti-colonial movement, the Indian press used to be seen as fairly progressive but things changed radically in the mid-2010s when Narendra Modi became prime minister and engineered a spectacular rapprochement between his party, the BJP, and the big families dominating the media. The prime example is undoubtedly the Reliance Industries group led by Mukesh Ambani, now a personal friend of Modis, who owns more than 70 media outlets that are followed by at least 800 million Indians.

Similarly, the takeover of the NDTV channel at the end of 2022 by tycoon Gautam Adani, who is also very close to Narendra Modi, signalled the end of pluralism in the mainstream media. Very early on, Modi took a critical stance vis-a-vis journalists, seeing them as intermediaries polluting the direct relationship between himself and his supporters. Indian journalists who are too critical of the government are subjected to all-out harassment and attack campaigns by Modi devotees known as bhakts, it added.

According to the report, there are more than 100,000 newspapers (including 36,000 weeklies) and 380 TV news channels currently operating in the country. Since January 1, 2023 one journalist was killed in the country while 10 journalists are behind bars.

With an average of three or four journalists killed in connection with their work every year, India is one of the worlds most dangerous countries for the media, the report stated.

Journalists are exposed to all kinds of physical violence including police violence, ambushes by political activists, and deadly reprisals by criminal groups or corrupt local officials, it added.

On safety of journalists, the RSF report underlined that terrifying coordinated campaigns of hatred and calls for murder are conducted on social media. Such campaigns are often even more violent when they target women journalists, whose personal data may be posted online as an additional incitement to violence, the report said.

The RSF comes out with a global ranking of press freedom every year. It is an international NGO whose self-proclaimed aim is to defend and promote media freedom. Headquartered in Paris, it has consultative status with the United Nations. The objective of the World Press Freedom Index, which it releases every year, is to compare the level of press freedom enjoyed by journalists and media in 180 countries and territories in the previous calendar year.

The RSF defines press freedom as the ability of journalists as individuals and collectives to select, produce, and disseminate news in the public interest independent of political, economic, legal, and social interference and in the absence of threats to their physical and mental safety.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad on Wednesday submitted his resignation from his post as the partys general secretary, a day after party supremo Sharad Pawar announced his decision to step down as its president.

I have resigned from my post of National General Secretary and I have sent my resignation to Sharad Pawar Saheb. All office bearers of Thane NCP have also resigned after Pawar Sahebs announcement, Jitendra Awhad told ANI. On Tuesday, Pawar had said that he is stepping down as party chief, with the surprise announcement drawing emotional reactions from thousands of NCP leaders, workers and supporters who urged him to reconsider.

Among those who urged Pawar to reconsider included Chhagan Bhujbal, Jitendra Awhad and Dilip Walse Patil.

Pawar, a former Maharashtra Chief Minister and union minister was seen as a key architect of moves towards opposition unity ahead of the 2024 electoral battle.

Pawars nephew Ajit Pawar, who had earlier said that Pawar Saheb himself had said about the necessity of change in guard a few days back later said that the NCP veteran would take two to three days to rethink his decision.

Sharad Pawar, who founded the NCP in 1999, has held the post of party chief for the past 24 years.

The veteran politician while announcing his decision, said he will not contest elections and had also recommended constitution of a committee of senior NCP leaders to decide on the future course of action.

The committee will include Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, PC Chacko, Narhari Zirwal, Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujabl, Dilip Walse-Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, Jitendra Awhad, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Jaydev Gaikwad and chiefs of party frontal cells, he said.

I have three-year tenure remaining in Rajya Sabha. I will not contest elections henceforth. In these three years, I will concentrate more on issues concerning to state and the country. I will not take any additional responsibilities. I started my political career on May 1, 1960. Yesterday we celebrated May Day. After this prolonged political career, one must think about stopping somewhere. One must not be greedy. I will never take the position of sticking to a post after so many years. Therefore, you might feel uneasy. But I have decided to retire from the post of the NCP chief, Pawar said.

Speaking after the release of his autobiography, Pawar said that it was time for a new generation to guide the party and the direction it intends to take.

The NCP leader, however, said that he would not take retirement from public life even after resigning from the party post.

Even though I am stepping down from the post of president, I am not retiring from public life. Constant travel has become an integral part of my life. I will continue attending public events, and meetings. Whether in Pune, Mumbai, Baramati, Delhi or any other part of India, I will be available to all of you as usual. I will continue to work round the clock to solve the peoples problems, he said.

Moments after senior NCP leader Sharad Pawar announced his resignation from the party presidents post, Ajit Pawar supported the decision saying that the next party chief will work under Sharad Pawar only.

Pawar Saheb (Sharad Pawar) will always be the head of the NCP family. Whoever will be the new President will work only under Pawar Sahebs guidance, Ajit Pawar told the party cadre who were protesting against Sharad Pawars decision urging him to withdraw it.

Party workers and leaders, however, demanded that Sharad Pawar withdraw his decision.

Ajit Pawar asked the party workers and leaders not to become emotional.

Pawar Saheb himself had said about the necessity of change in guard a few days back. We should see his decision in the light of his age and health also. Everyone has to take a decision according to time, Pawar Saheb has decided and will not take it back.

Ajit Pawar said the members of the committee suggested by Sharad Pawar to elect the next party President are not from outside, but are from within the NCP family itself.

Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawars daughter Supriya Sule along with several other party leaders held talks with protesting party workers.

Ajit Pawar assured the protesting workers that the prominent leaders are going to meet Sharad Pawar, and urged the workers to go back home.

He later said that they conveyed to Sharad Pawar that workers want him to remain the party president.

We told him (Sharad Pawar) that the workers are quite upset. We also told him that party workers want him to remain the party president along with having a working president. He said he will rethink his decision and needs 2-3 days NCP leader Ajit Pawar told reporters as he held talks with protesting party workers in Mumbai.

The development has come amid some recent reports that Ajit Pawar may be warming up to BJP amid his ambitions to be chief minister. Ajit Pawar, a former state Deputy Chief Minister, has denied these reports.
KPCC president K Sudhakaran has on Wednesday sought an honest investigation into the alleged corruption in awarding contracts to install Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled cameras in the state.

Speaking to media persons in Kannur, Sudhakaran alleged that a huge robbery has taken place in the AI camera project and only an honest investigation will bring out the truth. He dared the chief minister to investigate and submit a report in the matter.

Sudhakaran added that the Congress is considering legal options on the AI camera controversy.

He alleged that the company that had taken the tender for the AI cameras is related to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Prasadeo, the company involved in the AI camera controversy, is linked to the Chief Minister, Sudhakaran alleged.

Coming out against the vigilance probe in the AI camera issue, Sudhakaran said nothing would come out from it. Only a free and fair probe by an independent agency would bring out the truth, he said

Meanwhile, leader of the Opposition VD Satheesan on Wednesday said that the AI camera project was a fraud in the first place and the deal was started with a conspiracy. He said the corruption in the AI camera installation has reached the doorstep of the chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan as one of his relatives was involved in it.

Satheesan said since the chief ministers sons relative is involved in the scam, the CM is the main accused in the matter. The Opposition leader said that the chief minister is being given one last chance to reply on the issue.

We are giving the CM an opportunity to respond to the allegations. He should give an answer, Satheesan said.
Addressing election meetings in poll-bound Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday continued to target the Congress, saying the grand old party protected the masterminds of terror.

If there is instability in Karnataka, your fortune will also remain unstable. Congress is the enemy of peace in Karnataka it is the enemy of development. Congress protects the masterminds of terrorpromotes appeasement, he said at a rally at Moodabidri town in Dakshina Kannada.

Pointing out that a few years ago in Rajasthan many people were killed in an explosion, Modi said the Congress government and the police still let the culprits out of jail without any punishment being given to them.

Appeasement is the only identity of the Congress party. Do you want to let them rule this state? Let Karnataka be destroyed? Whichever state wants progress and prosperity they will put the Congress party out first. If peace is there in society, Congress cant be at peace. If the country is progressing, Congress cant tolerate it, the PM said.

He accused the Congress of pursuing the policy of divide and rule. Karnataka has seen its scary face. The Congress was saving terror suspects and letting them out.

I have a dream of taking the countrys economy to the third position from the present fifth place. Without Karnataka state, I cant achieve it. No one noticed India until it became the fifth-largest economy. We have surpassed the UK, which had ruled India for 250 years and made us slaves. This is what the Modi government can do, the PM said.

The BJP, he said, wanted to make Karnataka the number one state in terms of development but the Congress wanted to make the state the ATM of a family.

The PM appealed to first-time voters to vote for the BJP in order to make their careers and shape the countrys future. If you elect an unstable government, your career will become unstable. Congress is an enemy of peace and investors run away from states where Congress is ruling, he said.

Our country respects soldiers but the Congress, our Army, soldiers and Army chiefs. At a time when the whole world is giving respect to Indian democracy, the Congress is defaming the nation worldwide, he said.
Under Operation Kaveri, 328 more Indians landed at the New Delhi International Airport from strife-torn Sudan on Tuesday night. Nearly 3,000 stranded Indians have reached India till now.

328 more passengers have landed in New Delhi. #OperationKaveri moving steadily forward as around 3000 have reached India now, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted. Committed to ensuring that no Indian national is left behind in Sudan, India started Operation Kaveri on April 24 and deployed its military planes and warships in the war-torn country.

Narendra Modi hai toh mumkin hai. I love you Indian government, one of the evacuees said.

Meanwhile, another evacuee said that the Indian embassy of Sudan, Riyadh and the General Counsel from Jeddah have all coordinated to bring them back.

I am very happy coming back to India. The situation in Sudan is very critical. Bombing and firing are going on in the entire country. I am thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for evacuating us under Operation Kaveri, another evacuee said.

Excellent effort was done by the Indian government. It is the governmnet which cares for the people, and responds to the people in their time of need, Captain Sunil Chaddha said.

Meanwhile, the 20th batch of stranded Indians has departed from Sudan for Saudi Arabias Jeddah. 20th batch of evacuees departs from Port Sudan. IAF C-130J flight with 116 passengers is en route to Jeddah, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, another Operation Kaveri flight carrying 231 Indian evacuees reached Gujarats Ahmedabad on Tuesday from Saudi Arabias Jeddah, Jaishankar said.

Another #OperationKaveri flight lands in Ahmedabad. 231 more passengers have reached home safely, the EAM tweeted.

Under Operation Kaveri, the 10th flight carrying Indian nationals left Jeddah earlier on Tuesday.

The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Sudan has warned that the humanitarian crisis in the country is turning into a full flown catastrophe and that the risk of spillover into neighbouring countries was worrisome.

It has been more than two weeks of devastating fighting in Sudan, a conflict that is turning Sudans humanitarian crisis into a full-blown catastrophe, Abdou Dieng, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, told a briefing of member states via video link.

Fighting is underway in Khartoum as the UN warns that Sudan is at a humanitarian breaking point.

Rival military forces accuse each other of new violations of a ceasefire that they had just agreed to extend as their devastating conflict enters a third week.

Sudan continues to face bloodshed as a result of clashes between the army and paramilitary forces.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Sunday said that nearly 2300 evacuee Indians have reached the country.
All schools inside Army installations were on Wednesday shut in the wake of a red alert sounded across the Jammu-Pathankot highway following inputs hinting at a terrorist attack. Parents of students of Kendriya Vidalayas (in military premises), Army and Air Force schools received SMS on Tuesday night not to send their wards to school for security reasons.

All schools within the military installations in Jammu, Kathua, Samba (J&K) and Pathankot (Punjab) remained shut as a precautionary measure, reports said.

Security in the region has been beefed up in view of the threat input. BSF also intensified patrolling along the international border with Pakistan in the Kathua, Samba and Jammu districts. Sources said there were inputs of Pakistan-backed terrorists planning attacks before and during the G20 Summit in Srinagar. Ladakhs Leh is also hosting one such meeting.

The groups of Pakistani terrorists, who had shot down seven civilians (including two children) in targeted killing in a Hindu dominated village of Rajouri on 1 January and five soldiers in Poonch district on 20 April, are not yet trapped despite widespread search by the Army and security forces in the twin border districts. Their movement was, however, noticed by civilians but efforts to track them down have not yielded any results.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to National Investigation Agency (NIA) on a plea moved by Naeem Ahmad Khan, a Kashmiri separatist leader, challenging the framing of charges against him in a terror funding case.

A division bench comprising justices Sidharth Mridul and Talwant Singh issued notice to the agency and listed the matter on August 3, 2023. Khan has challenged the trial court order passed on March 16, 2023. The court will also hear the bail matter of Khan on the next date of hearing.

He has challenged various charges framed against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) in a case of alleged terror funding.

Khan was arrested in July 2017. He was remanded to judicial custody after interrogation. He is under judicial custody since August 14, 2017.

It is submitted in the appeal that the prosecution has completely failed to substantiate any allegations related to the Appellants alleged affiliation or even any remote connection with any banned or terrorist organisation, let alone any evidence to contend that the appellant was involved in the raising of the funds for a terrorist act.

It is the allegations of the agency that some letters recovered from Khans residence revealed that he was funding the terror activities out of the commission he earned for getting students admitted to medical College in Pakistan.

Earlier, Naeem Khan had challenged the order denying him bail.

On December 22, the Trial Court refused to grant bail to Naeem Khan and said, Since the nature of the allegations and evidence collected during the investigation require leading of evidence to prove different facts, which would take a substantial amount of time. In such a situation, the delay in the trial, to my mind cannot be entertained by this court once a question of bail is governed by specific mandate under sections 43-D(S) of UA(P) Act..

Trial Court further stated Right from the day when different charge sheets were filed in this case till date, there has been no delay in the trial. Rather a process/enquiry u/s 207 Cr.P.C., the question of consideration of plea of guilt of other accused as well as deciding the question of charge, have been expeditiously decided by Predecessor of this court only with the view to ensure fair and expeditious trial to other co-accused.

This court however would like to mention here that earnest efforts would be made for expeditious trial of the matter so that there should not be unnecessary delay in completing the trial and this court is very much conscious of a period of incarceration of different accused persons including applicant, added the Trial Court.

Senior Counsel Siddharth Luthra appearing for NIA had submitted that since charges in this case have already been framed, the court has already concluded regarding the sufficiency of evidence against the accused for framing of charge under different offences of UA(P) Act and IPC.

Senior Advocate Luthra had also contended that such exercise of evaluating the evidence in detail scrutiny having been done now at the stage of bail as per the requirement of section 43-D(S) of UA(P) act, only the authenticity of accusation against the accused is to be seen which is far lighter than consideration at the stage of charge. Therefore accused is not entitled to bail on account of the bar of Section 43-D(S) of the UA(P) Act.

The bail petition moved stated that the accused had been incarcerated for six years suffering from various health issues like hyperuricemia and rheumatoid arthritis. Bail plea further stated that prosecution evidence is yet to start and there are around 400 prosecution witnesses and documents running into thousand pages, the prosecution is seeking to prove. As such trial is likely to take a very long period of time.

Earlier, the Court framed the charges against other Kashmiri separatist leaders who are accused in the case after Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam, Md Yusuf Shah, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Khan, Md Akbar Khanday, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Abdul Rashid Sheikh and Naval Kishore Kapoor formally signed the court order copy and said they are ready to face trial in the case.

In March 2022, the NIA Court ordered the framing of charges against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, Kashmiri separatist leaders including Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam and others under various sections of UAPA in a case pertaining to the terrorist and secessionist activities that disturbed the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

The court had also ordered the framing of charges against Kashmiri politician and former MLA Rashid Engineer, Businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Bitta Karate, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Avatar Ahmad Shah, Naeem Khan, Bashir Ahmed Bhat, alias Peer Saifullah and several others under various sections of IPC and UAPA including criminal conspiracy, waging war against the country, unlawful activities, etc.
Two Pakistani terrorists were killed on Wednesday in North Kashmirs Kupwara district in an encounter with security forces. They had infiltrated into Indian Territory from a Pakistan Army-backed launch pad across the Line of Control (LOC).

A Srinagar-based Defence Ministry spokesman said that based on a specific intelligence input provided by SSP Kupwara of a likely infiltration from one of the terrorist launch pads across the LOC towards Machhal sector, troops were put on high alert on 1 May.

A well-coordinated counter infiltration grid was put in place in this rugged and extremely difficult area. A number of additional ambushes including those of Indian Army and Special Operations Group (SOG) Kupwara were placed along the likely routes of infiltration.

The alert troops in ambushes braved continuous bad weather marked by incessant rainfall, poor visibility and significant drop in temperature for two consecutive nights. At around 8.30 am on 3 May, the terrorists were sighted by the troops having infiltrated onto this side of the LOC. Following which an intense firefight ensued resulting in the elimination of the two terrorists.

Bodies of the deceased terrorists have been recovered along with two AK series rifles, magazines and huge quantities of war-like stores. Further extensive search of the area is under progress.

The spokesman said the identity of terrorists and the terrorist group they are affiliated with is being ascertained. This successful intelligence-based operation is yet another example of close synergy between Indian Army, J&K Police and all agencies. The security forces stand steadfast to defeat the nefarious designs of inimical elements supported by our adversary to disrupt peace and harmony of the area, he added.
In a unique collaboration to safeguard the misuse of location-tracking devices, Apple and Google on Tuesday said they have jointly submitted an industry specification to help combat the misuse of Bluetooth location-tracking devices for unwanted tracking.

The first-of-its-kind specification will allow Bluetooth location-tracking devices to be compatible with unauthorised tracking detection and alerts across iOS and Android platforms.

Samsung, Tile, Chipolo, eufy Security, and Pebblebee have expressed support for the draft specification, which offers best practices and instructions for manufacturers.

Apple launched AirTag to give users the peace of mind knowing where to find their most important items, said Ron Huang, Apples vice president of Sensing and Connectivity.

This new industry specification builds upon the AirTag protections, and through collaboration with Google results in a critical step forward to help combat unwanted tracking across iOS and Android, Huang added.

The specification has been submitted via theAInternet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a leading standards development organisation for review and comment over the next three months.A

Bluetooth trackers have created tremendous user benefits, but they also bring the potential of unwanted tracking, which requires industrywide action to solve, said Dave Burke, Googles vice president of Engineering for Android.

Android has an unwavering commitment to protecting users, and will continue to develop strong safeguards and collaborate with the industry to help combat the misuse of Bluetooth tracking devices, he added.

In addition to incorporating feedback from device manufacturers, input from various safety and advocacy groups has been integrated into the development of the specification, said Apple and Google.
(Bloomberg) -- Eli Lilly & Co.s shares climbed in early US trading after its experimental drug for Alzheimers slowed the progress of the disease in a final-stage trial, paving the way for the company to apply for US approval.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The drug, donanemab, slowed the disease by 35% over a year and a half in a trial of 1,182 patients with early-stage Alzheimers, Lilly said Wednesday in a statement. About 24% of subjects on the drug experienced brain swelling and an overlapping 31.4% had bleeding in the brain, side effects that have been seen with similar drugs. The company said it plans to apply for US approval this quarter, and the shares rose as much as 5.1% at the New York market open.

The results represent the second time Alzheimers was slowed in a final-stage trial by a drug that clears a brain protein called amyloid. They bolster the controversial theory that the abnormal protein plays a key role in the disease. The success means patients and their caregivers could soon have another therapy shown to slow the disease alongside Eisai Co.s Leqembi, which was approved in January. The study is also a vindication for Lilly, which has spent billions of dollars and decades of research time on Alzheimers drug development.

We think this is actually a level of efficacy not seen in previous trials, said Mark Mintun, Lilly group vice president for neuroscience R&D, in an interview.

The price of the new drug will be in the range of similar therapies, Chief Executive Officer Dave Ricks told CNBC. Leqembi, the product from Eisai and partner Biogen Inc. that was the first to slow Alzheimers in a final-stage trial, received expedited US approval in January and has a list price of $26,500 a year. The partners have applied for full approval based on a final-stage trial that showed it slowed cognitive and functional decline by 27% on a slightly different scale. Biogen rose 1.7% in New York.

Story continues

Full approval is important for Alzheimers drugs, because the US Medicare program has indicated it wont broadly cover amyloid-lowering drugs without it. The Medicare program that covers US older and disabled people has said it will only cover the new dementia drugs in tightly limited clinical trials until more evidence that they work is available.

Most analysts praised the results. Citigroups Andrew Baum called it the new gold standard in Alzheimers drugs, while Paresh Malhotra, professor of clinical neurology at Imperial College London said we are now entering the treatment era of Alzheimers disease.

Side Effects

One significant drawback of amyloid-lowering antibodies such as donanemab is that they can cause brain swelling and bleeding. While most of these cases do not cause symptoms, they can lead to hospitalizationor worse.

In Lillys final-stage trial, three patients who had received donanemab died after experiencing such side effects. The company didnt release details as to whether these patients had brain swelling, brain bleeding or both.

Bloomberg Intelligence analysts John Murphy and Sam Fazeli said the trial suggests Lillys drug doesnt have a strong competitive edge versus rival Leqembi.

While reduction in the pace of disease progression with Lillys donanemab was similar to Leqembi over 18 months, the rates of serious complications were worse, they wrote in a note. They also pointed to a higher rate of brain bleeding in the Lilly trial.

The trial also looked at a population of 552 patients who were deemed to be at a greater level of disease severity based on brain scans. When that group was combined with the larger, less acute population, the drug showed less impressive results, slowing the progress of the disease by 22% over 18 months.

Lilly had tried to get accelerated approval for donanemab based on its ability to lower amyloid in the brains of patients. A mid-stage trial published in 2021 showed that donanemab slowed decline from Alzheimers disease by 32%. But in January, the Food and Drug Administration said it wouldnt clear the drug because not enough of the subjects had received the drug for a full 12 months. That setback put the focus on Lillys larger, final-stage trial.

Over the years, most human studies of amyloid-lowering drugs have fallen short or produced mixed results in Alzheimers patients, in spite of research linking the abnormal protein to the disease. Companies have begun testing drugs at earlier stages of Alzheimers, hoping to show greater impact on cognitive decline, and have developed more-potent amyloid removers such as donanemab.

Lilly will present the results of the trial at an Alzheimers conference in July.

(Updates with opening shares in second paragraph)

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Rana Ayyub, a controversial Indian journalist writing for US media, has called for shifting global attention to media freedom in India as she spoke at a Unesco-sponsored event at the world body.

It is important for the world to shift its attention to India because we do not really talk about India as much and I really hope you do that in the days to come, she said on Tuesday questioning New Delhis democratic credentials and its press freedom at the conference held on the eve of the World Press Freedom Day in the General Assembly chamber.

When we talk about attacks in the press, we normally never look at India as much because India is seen as this place of democracy, you know, syncretic values and cultural pluralism.

Earlier at the 30th Anniversary of the World Press Freedom Day Global Conference, New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger got the criticism of India rolling, saying that in India, authorities have raided newsrooms and treated journalists essentially as terrorists.

In countries where press freedoms were strong, including the United States, journalists now face systematic campaigns to undermine their credibility, followed by attacks on the legal protections that safeguard their work, he said.

Samantha Power, the administrator of the US governments Agency for International Development (USAID), announced the launch of Reporters Shield, a programme to offer investigative journalists around the world insurance from defamation lawsuits and legal threats meant to silence critical voices.

Ayyub, who works for The Washington Post, said while seated at the General Assembly dais: I have normally seen world leaders talk about democratic values right here at this podium (and) some of us journalists watching it on TV look at them and like, Hey, you are anything but democratic.

While detailing what she said were attacks on press freedom, she said: I come from India, the land of democracy, which prides itself on, about democratic values. I love my country more than I love any other entity in the world, but which is why it is more important for me.

She claimed that she was facing legal warfare through charges of money laundering and tax evasion and cases of defamation for her work as a journalist going back to an undercover assignment where she said she wore eight cameras on my body posing as a Hindu nationalist.

She referred to the killing in 2017 of journalist Gauri Lankeshwar, who had translated her book into Kannada and who she said had dismissed threats as paper tigers.

She said that she has been receiving threats of death and physical attacks on social media and at her house.

Mumbai Police, she asserted, were indifferent saying that the threats were only online.

Ayyub, who stressed her Muslim identity, claimed that there is a sustained attack on the 200 million Muslim minorities on the lower caste in India systematically even as the country gears up to hold the G20 Summit in India, where world leaders are coming to India and (will be) talking about the virtues of democracy.

Notably, the published list of speakers at the conference did not include anyone from China, either working there, or a dissident abroad.
Pakistan witnessed a slight increase in the number of terror attacks in April with a total of 48 incidents, which led to 68 deaths and 55 injuries, according to a new report.

In its report released on Tuesday, the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies said the new figures were higher than the 39 militant attacks recorded in March, resulting in 58 deaths and 73 injuries, reports Xinhua news agency.

The data showed a 23 per cent increase in militant attacks, a 17 per cent spike in deaths, and a 25 per cent decrease in the number of injured people, the Islamabad-based think tank said.

Fatalities among security forces also increased 35 per cent in April, it added.

Pakistani security have increased their operations against terror groups, the report said, adding that they killed at least 41 militants and arrested 40 in April.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained the most affected province, with 49 per cent of the total attacks reported last month, according to the report.

Last week, the militarys media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had announced that total of 293 people were killed and 521 others injured in 436 terrorist attacks in Pakistan since January this year.
South Koreas new coronavirus cases rose to over 20,000 on Wednesday as the daily caseload continued to log on-week growth on eased virus restrictions.

The country reported 20,197 cases, including 26 imported cases, bringing the total caseload to 31,212,598, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

Wednesdays tally was a marked growth from the previous days 15,741 infections and also higher than 16,380 cases a week earlier.

The country added eight Covid-19 deaths Wednesday, raising the death toll to 34,505.

The number of critically ill patients came to 142, up from 137 a day earlier, the KDCA said.

Following the removal of the mask-wearing mandate in March, weve seen an increase in the number of daily infections. New daily cases rose 3 per cent last week from a week earlier, though the virus situation has been managed in a stable manner, Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said.

In March, South Korea lifted the mask mandate for public transportation, though it remains for medical facilities, pharmacies and facilities vulnerable to infections, in an effort to support peoples return to pre-pandemic normalcy.

The government is also considering shortening the mandatory Covid-19 isolation period to five days from the current seven starting this month.
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Thousands of Montrealers turn out to celebrate Israels 75th anniversary

Despite a bit of inclement weather, some five thousand Montrealers, including many students from the islands Jewish high schools, turned out April 26 for a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the rebirth of Israel.

The participants first gathered at Phillips Square for the first time in several years, and then proceeded in a massive parade of blue and white flags to Place du Canada.

The enthusiasm was especially intense as the participants danced to music provided by James Karls and batted around numerous colourful beach balls.Numerous dignitaries were on hand, including Israeli Consul-General Paul Hirschson, Consuls-general from Morocco, Panama, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Mexico, Germany and Armenia; Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather, a representative of DArcy McGee MNA Elisabeth Prass,Montreal Opposition leader and St. Laurent city councillor Aref Salem and St. Laurent borough councillor Jacques Cohen, Cote St. Luc Mayor Mitchell Brownstein, Hampstead Mayor Jeremy Levi and councillors Michael Goldwax and Jack Edery, Pointe Claire Mayor Tim Thomas, Dollard des Ormeaux councillor Errol Johnson, Cote des Neiges-NDG councillors Sonny Moroz and Stephanie Valenzuela, former CSL councillor David Tordjman, Eta Yudin of CIJA, Marvin Rotrand of Bnai Brith Canadas League For Human Rights, Rabbi Reuben Poupko, Rabbi Mordechai Zeitz, Montreal Holocaust Museum director The Honourable Jacques Saada, the president of the CSUQ, members of the Filipino community and Iranian-Canadian supporters of Israel. Hirschson told the cheering crowd that were now almost 10 million people in Israel and were only just beginning.

By our 100th birthday in 2048, well be over 15 million people in Israel. The first 75 years were about establishment, we created an innovative economy, bringing technology to the world in many industries; we built a defence and security infrastructure, ensuring we overcome threats past and present; and we laid the groundwork for cultural excellence  art, dance, theatre, film and more. Together, with Jews and Jewish organizations around the world, we were the first at Ukraines borders, bringing aid. We are proudly number one, both our government agencies and our many NGOs, at bringing drinking water and electricity to remote villages across Africa. Over 350,000 African farmers have come to Israel for training in modern agricultural methods.

Hirschson added that Israel is making peace.

Full peaceful diplomatic relations with Egypt and Jordan, with the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan and just two months ago, Chad opened up an embassy in Israel, bringing us to a new reality  more than half of the Arabs in the world are now our partners. We still need a deal with the rest, I know, and with some work, it will come. But for the first time ever, we are more than halfway there. There is an expiry date for the Arab-Israel conflict, and were only just beginning. The next 75 years is what is going to really be exciting. Chag Sameach, everybody, lets make this a party!

There were also video greetings, the first from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Friends of Israel around the world, together were celebrating 75 years of Israels independence. What a transformation its been to our people. Seventy-five years ago, we emerged from the Holocaust, scattered around the globe, decimated, annihilated by the worst evil in history. Yet today, Israel is a rising power around the world. Its a juggernaut, one that is esteemed by the nations around the world, one that is helping people around so many countries in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America and elsewhere. Weve become the example of how you build something, seemingly from nothing. We do more with less. But its not from nothing that we built this  we built this based on the age old dream that we never gave up, to return to our homeland, to be able to defend ourselves, to be able to create and forge a future, a future of peace not only for ourselves but others as well. And indeed, weve achieved peace, first with Egypt and Jordan, and most recently, in the Abraham Accords with four other Arab states. I intend to lead the expansion of this peace. We have a brilliant future ahead of us, its possible if we march toward it together. Despite the robust arguments we do have in Israels robust democracy, we will march forward together!

The next video greeting was from the leader of the federal Conservative Party and leader of the Official Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre.

Today, we celebrate Israels 75th anniversary. We celebrate the return of the Jews to their ancestral and indigenous homeland. Finally, in 1948, after thousands of years in diaspora, suffering persecution and hardships, the Jewish people successfully reestablished sovereignty in their ancestral homeland. On Israeli Independence Day, we celebrate the resilience of the Jewish people, after decades of unimaginable oppression across the globe, most notably and most horrifically, the Holocaust. Ultimately, the Jewish people triumphed and reclaimed their natural right to be masters of their own fate. Even so, today, Israel continues to face many threats and challenges. Todays celebration comes just weeks after a series of deadly terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Tel Aviv. As Canadians, it is our duty to condemn this violence in the strongest terms and to continue to stand with Israel as Israel defends its right to exist in peace and security. Israel represents a beacon of light in the Middle East, even in the face of these ongoing trials. Israel doesnt compromise our shared values of democracy, equality and peace, these values that we are celebrating today. Israels democracy is dynamic and strong, its society is open and free. The Israeli story continues to inspire us and remind us that freedom will always prevail. On behalf of Canadas Conservatives, Happy Israel Independence Day!

The third video greeting was from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Today, were coming together to celebrate Israels 75th anniversary and the close bonds between our two countries. We have one of the largest Jewish communities in the world.... While were here to celebrate today, Id also like to recognize the frightening rise of antisemitism in our country. Attacks against the Jewish people go against everything we stand for, thats why were stepping up. Through our anti-racism strategy, weve adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances working definition of antisemitism. Last year, we invested in the construction of a new Holocaust Museum in Montreal and passed legislation against the denial or downplaying of the Holocaust. And we will continue to support Canadas special envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, The Honourable Irwin Cotler, and the leadership of our own MPs, like Anthony Housefather and Rachel Bendayan. Theres a lot more work to do and well continue working with you. We also celebrate the promise of peace and stability and the respect for human rights, and a promise of a solid democracy....On behalf of the Government of Canada, I wish Israelis, Jewish communities across Canada, and all those celebrating this important milestone, a Yom Haatzmaut Sameach!

Im very excited to be here, said Mayor Levi of Hampstead. Its a great event and Im looking forward to the next 75 years.

Its a wonderful day, Mayor Brownstein of CSL said. Its a miracle that the Jewish people have this country that has grown and is a model for all communities.

The event concluded with the awarding of two $500 Visa gift cards to an Ecole Maimonide student and a youth under 18 and a trip to Israel. Cantor Adam Stotland led a prayer for Israel, and sang O Canada and Hatikvah.
Eli Lilly (LLY) reported positive results for its Alzheimer's drug, donanemab, and plans to file for approval with the FDA by the end of the quarter.

The drug slowed clinical decline by 35% in the patient population and 40% less decline in the ability to perform daily activities, according to a statement from the company Wednesday.

Wall Street seemed to be pleased. Eli Lilly stock closed up 6.68% to $431.19 on Wednesday.

There is, however, some concern among experts. Two patients died from the drug, and a third died during the clinical trials, the company said. The reason behind those deaths is unclear, company executives said. There are also side effects like brain swelling, which was observed in about a third of the 1,700 patients in the trial.

But, overall, the reaction to the announcement has been positive, largely because the company has spent more than two decades on the drug's development, and other, older Alzheimer drug candidates have failed.

Wall Street analysts believe the drug will compete well with rival Biogen's (BIIB) Leqembi, which is awaiting full FDA approval, potentially by July.

Some differences between the rivals: Lilly's drug is given by infusion, once monthly. By comparison, Biogen's Leqembi slowed cognitive decline by 29% and is infused once every two weeks.

Donanemab was developed to target plaque buildup in the brain, a theory that Biogen, with partner Eisai (ESAIY), pursued in their trials of Leqembi. But the theory is controversial within the scientific and medical communities.

The reason: Leqembi targets what are called beta amyloid plaques, which build up in the brain and have been seen in Alzheimer's patients. But not all scientists agree that those plaques are the right target to help treat the disease.

Lilly Biotechnology Center is shown in San Diego, California, on March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Lilly's drug targets the same plaque, as does Leqembi and its predecessor Aduhelm  both Biogen drugs that have been mired in controversy over the theory that the levels of plaque buildup correlate to cognitive decline for Alzheimer's patients. Some experts don't think it's the right target and that side effects, like brain swelling, are too common.

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In addition, the Biogen drugs are facing skepticism after the company was also accused of being too cozy with the FDA throughout the development of Aduhelm, which also came under fire for its high price of $56,000 per year. Even after dropping the price, the drug has struggled.

Though Biogen/Eisai's drug is on the market, it is not fully approved, which has hampered the duo's revenue potential from Medicare, the country's largest payer, which will not cover it until it gets full approval. That would stand true for Lilly's new drug as well.

It's why Eli Lilly provided an unusually large amount of detail of the trial results in its statement Wednesday, said Dan Skovronsky, Lilly's chief scientific officer. He spoke at STAT's Breakthrough Summit.

"There's just so much skepticism in Alzheimer's. Maybe because of the history of failure, maybe because of lecanemab (Leqembi). We didn't want to be in another situation like that," Skovronsky said.

He added the details were to prove that the results were "not noisy and make sure we don't give the skeptics any extra ammunition."

Eli Lilly's drug would be the third in the new class of drugs targeting the plaques, and Skovronsky hopes Medicare will change its stance on restricting coverage, which he says is unfair and costly to elderly Americans. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is requiring patients to pay out of pocket  or forces them to participate in clinical trials.

"That doesn't feel fair. That's not how we should treat elderly Americans. That's not the reason why we have Medicare, it's not to coerce people to do research. I'm all for clinical research, I want more patients to participate in research, but it needs to be free choice, not holding [them] hostage by withholding government benefits," Skovronsky said

Skovronsky said the next step is to "get this submitted as quickly as possible" for regulatory approval.

When asked about the three deaths in the clinical trials, Skovronsky said he believes it could be related to an overlapping disease that some Alzheimer's patients have, but more research is required.

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Not having a daughter, I had never heard of the Judy Blume books.

I did not realize what a treat I was in for when I went to the screening of Are you there, God? Its me Margaret. This is definitely a chick flick, but also a fun must-see movie for all girls over 11 (and their mothers and grandmothers).

Even if you dont have a daughter, go see this flick. Its about the trials women go through during puberty but it is done with so much humor .

Margaret Simon is just 11 going on 12 when her family moves from her grandmothers New York City apartment to a home in Farbrook, New Jersey. Margaret quickly befriends a group of girls in her class who form a secret club that are processing the transformation from being a girl to becoming a woman and all that entails.

Margaret's mother is Christian and her father is Jewish. Margaret has been raised without an affiliation to either faith and does not practice an organized religion, although she frequently prays to God in her own words, beginning by saying, "Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret.

When she finds out her mothers folks are Christians who rejected her mother because she married a Jew, Margaret chooses to study people's religious beliefs as part of a school assignment. Margaret hopes to resolve the question of her own religion in the process. Part of her study involves attending different places of worship to better understand religious practice and also to see if one of them might be right for her.

Are you there, God? Its me Margaret stars Abby Rider Fortson in the title role of Margaret. She is 18 but makes me believe she is 11 by her actions. She is terrific in this role and is an actress to watch. I think she is headed for stardom.

Academy Award nominee Rachel McAdams plays Margarets mother. Her feelings about her mother-in-law are very nuanced. McAdams does a fantastic job as a woman who has always worked to one who doesnt know what to do with her time. Her hair always looked like a dog chewed on it and her clothes didnt fit and were always wrinkled. I wasnt sure what point the writers and director were trying to make with that.

Academy Award winner Kathy Bates played the Jewish grandmother perfectly, if not a little stereotypically. I loved her. Benny Safdie played Margarets father.

It was directed by Kelly Fremon Craige and written by Craige and Judy Blume the author of the book Are you there, God? Its me Margaret.

It is currently showing in Alton, Edwardsville, Jerseyville and Granite City. I give it 5 stars.
Industry Veteran Assumes Leadership of Fast-Growing Software Engineering Services Company

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Encora , a global next-gen product engineering provider, today announced that Anand Birje has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer, effective May 15, 2023. Birje will work closely with Encora's founding CEO Venu Raghavan, who remains at the company as Executive Chairman. Birje joins Encora from HCL Tech, where he has served most recently as the President of the Digital Business Services division.

Anand Birje - New CEO of Encora

"It is my great honor to welcome Anand to Encora as our next CEO. His deep experience in fast-growing tech and in scaling global businesses through exponential growth, makes him the ideal leader for Encora," said Venu Raghavan, founder and CEO, Encora. "Speaking personally, I am heartened to entrust the future of Encora  a company that has been my enduring privilege to build  to a leader of Anand's experience, insight, integrity, and compassion. I look forward to working closely with Anand to help drive Encora's strategic priorities."

"I am thrilled to join Encora, one of the world's fastest growing digital engineering services companies," said Birje. "As new and emerging digital technologies transform the global economy, there is a growing need for technology partners with mastery across technical, strategic, and industry-specific domains. Encora stands out as a paragon of what is possible when unparalleled technical expertise is cultivated in a people-centric culture that is truly global and authentically diverse."

During his time at HCL, Birje focused on digital applications & platforms, cloud native development, data engineering & analytics, data consulting, and UX design practices. In the last three years, the Digital Business Services division has been the fastest growing of HCL Tech's divisions. Birje was responsible for driving the global go-to-market strategy, practices, and delivery teams across all industry verticals spanning US, Europe, Asia Pacific and LatAm. As a founding member of HCL Tech's Infrastructure Services division, Birje played a pivotal role in growing that business to over $2.5BN in under a decade. In addition to his executive leadership roles, Birje has spearheaded a range of strategic acquisitions to expand delivery and consulting capabilities across U.S. and Europe.

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"We are excited to welcome Anand to Encora," said Shweta Jalan, Managing Partner, Advent International, Encora's principal investor. "His proven track record of leadership and transformational growth are perfectly matched with Encora's vision and aspirations. We also extend our deepest gratitude to Venu for his visionary leadership. Encora has a bright future, thanks to the incredible team and business that Venu has created."

Encora provides digital and software engineering services to innovative companies across tech-enabled industries. The company has delivered industry-leading growth (+46% 3-year revenue CAGR) through disciplined focus on technical skill development, metrics-driven governance and the cultivation of an inspiring workplace environment. 90% of Encorians work in an office that is certified as a Great Place to Work, spanning all six Latin American countries with business operations, as well as India.

Encora is backed by private equity firms Advent International and Warburg Pincus and hosts offices in 14 countries around the world. To learn more about the global next-gen product engineering provider and its new CEO, please visit the website at www.encora.com.

About Encora

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and backed by private equity firms Advent International and Warburg Pincus, Encora is the preferred innovation partner to some of the world's leading technology companies. It provides next-gen services such as Predictive Analysis, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Cloud, and Test Automation. Encora has deep cluster vertical capabilities in HealthTech, FinTech, HiTech, IAM & Cybersecurity, Digital Commerce, Travel & Hospitality, Supply Chain & Logistics, Telecom and other specialized industries. Encora is an established leader in outsourced product development services that specializes in innovation acceleration for leading-edge technology companies. With over 9,000 associates in 40+ offices and innovation labs across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, India, and Asia Pacific, Encora's global talent pool, micro-industry vertical expertise and proprietary agile engineering capabilities enable clients to improve their speed to impact. For more information, please visit www.encora.com.

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The Telegraph

EDWARDSVILLE  A homeless East Alton man was charged with failing to register as a sex offender Tuesday by the Madison County States Attorneys Office.

James M. Heil, 24, was charged May 2 with unlawful failure to register as a sex offender, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the East Alton Police Department.
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FOSTERBURG  Firefighters from four departments on Tuesday afternoon battled a blaze that burned away the roof of a dwelling and its three-car attached garage in the 2400 block of Seiler Road in rural Fosterburg.

At about 1:35 p.m. Tuesday, Fosterburg firefighters were called to the unoccupied house with a report of heavy smoke coming from the structure.
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CHICAGO  Riverbend lawmakers on Tuesday afternoon responded quickly to a federal jury's conviction of four top lobbyists and executives at a state-regulated utility in Illinois' highest-profile corruption case since former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted 13 years ago.

The jury convicted the defendants on all counts in the case in which prosecutors alleged former state lawmaker and lobbyist Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and former contract lobbyist Jay Doherty were involved in a multi-year scheme to gain longtime former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigans support for legislation that would benefit the utility's bottom line.

"While its already widely known, this case demonstrates just how corrupt the system is here in Illinois," said state Sen. Erica Harriss, R-Glen Carbon.

"While Im encouraged by the guilty verdicts, there is still a long way to go to reform the system that has plagued our state for far too longt," she said. "If anything, I hope this case finally puts pressure on the General Assembly to enact reforms to fix a system where politicians too often serve their interests ahead of those they are supposed to represent.

State Rep. Amy Elik, R-Alton, said the verdict reaffirmed what has been wrong with Illinois government for decades "and further proves why we need stronger anti-corruption reforms signed into law.

"The corrupt acts by these lobbyists connected to former Illinois House Speaker have been decades in the making," she said. "I hope this guilty verdict sends a message to the Democrat leadership that the old way of conducting business in the legislature should be over and its time to pass meaningful anti-corruption reforms in the legislature.

State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, said no one should have been surprised by the verdict against the four defendants.

"Their actions, working with confidants of longtime Speaker Madigan to abuse the trust of all Illinoisans, are unacceptable and cannot continue in the Illinois General Assembly," Davidsmeyer said. "I call on my colleagues in the Democrat majority to finally show some leadership on real ethics reforms to stop this culture of corruption and root out this criminal behavior.

State Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, said the trial showed the public "that Illinois is still severely plagued by corruption.

"The former House Speaker and his allies organized a scheme which was designed to put money in their pockets and help them hold on to power, all at the expense of the hard-working people of this state," he said. "This case is another black eye for a state that has had far too many already.

Let me be very clear: corruption in Illinois does not start and end with a handful of people. We have a systemic problem," Plummer said. "Until Democratic leadership decides to get serious about ethics reform and cleaning up government, then corrupt and powerful individuals will continue to abuse the system for their own gain.

At trial, prosecutors presented secretly recorded videos, wiretapped phone calls and hundreds of emails to show how the four former Commonwealth Edison executives and lobbyists were what they called "the grandmasters of corruption." Prosecutors alleged that the utility paid out $1.3 million in jobs, contracts and payments to associates of Madigan over eight years in exchange for favorable treatment on legislation in Springfield that would affect the state's largest electric utility.

Defense attorneys said the four never bribed anyone and that the government's star witness, former utility executive Fidel Marquez, was an opportunist who blamed others for his failure to assign work to subcontractors associated with Madigan.

Madigan served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021 and was speaker of the Illinois House from 1983 to 1995 and again from 1997 to 2021. He wielded additional power as chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois.

Madigan, who resigned after losing the House speakership in January 2021, has been charged with 23 counts of racketeering, bribery, and official misconduct alongside McClain in a separate case that could go to trial in April 2024.

In July 2020, ComEd agreed to pay $200 million to resolve a criminal investigation into the years-long bribery scheme. As part of a deferred prosecution agreement, ComEd admitted it arranged jobs, vendor subcontracts and payments in a bid to influence Madigan.
EDWARDSVILLE  The Madison County Historical Society (MCHS) will offer two new exhibits and a companion program beginning May 7 and May 10.

Migration and Health in National and Global History, will be presented Sunday, May 7, at 2 p.m. at the Main Street Community Center at 1003 N. Main Street in Edwardsville. The speaker, Kathleen Vongsathorn, is an Associate Professor of History at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where she teaches the history of health, disease and science. The program was created to showcase the two exhibits to follow on May 10.

Madison County has a long history of immigrants and migration. The exhibits and presentation look at some of the difficulties experienced by new arrivals. Unfortunately, in matters of health, misconceptions can create racial schisms that are often undeserved. Immigration has affected Americans since its earliest times when Europeans brought disease with devastating results for the Native American population. Vongsathon will describe other times when migration and health made a difference.

Outside/Inside: Immigration, Migration, and Health Care in the United States, an exhibition from the National Institute of Health, uses a combination of documents and images to explore the history of immigrant health and the experiences of many immigrants and migrants with the US healthcare system since the late 1800s. Health care played a role in inclusion and exclusion, in assimilation and discrimination, in dividing communities and in strengthening them.

MCHS was one of 19 universities and public libraries approved as a recipient of this National Institute of Health/National Library of Medicine traveling exhibition.

Historian and Northern Illinois University educator, Beatrix Hoffman, PhD, guest curated the traveling exhibit. The exhibition and a companion website were produced by the National Library of Medicine.

The second exhibit, created by MCHS museum curator Jenn Vanbibber, is a companion piece entitled Roadways and Roadblocks, telling the story of immigrants searching for a route towards naturalization, the process by which foreign-born residents can become U. S. citizens.

The exhibit will include some of the materials collected recently during History Harvest events held to collect information for a coming permanent exhibit on immigration to Madison County. The information in Roadways and Roadblocks will be more closely related to Madison County rather than the national perspective presented by the NIH/NLM materials.

For the first time in seven years, the exhibits will be in the Societys Weir House museum building at 715 N. Main Street in Edwardsville, Illinois. Although renovations are not yet complete for the entire building, exhibit spaces on the first floor will be ready. The exhibits will be here May 10- June 17.

Both of the exhibits and the presentation will be free and open to the public. The Madison County Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that owns and operates the Madison County History Museum and Archival Library at 715-801 N. Main Street in Edwardsville. The library has regular hours Wednesday-Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sunday 1-4 p.m. For additional information call either the library at 618-656-7569 or the society at 618-656-1294. The Societys website can be found at https://madcohistory.org/.
ALTON  An Alton teen is dead and a suspect is in custody following a Tuesday afternoon shooting.

At about 12:50 p.m. Tuesday, Alton Police responded to a report of a juvenile victim with a gunshot wound to the chest in the 2600 block of Maxey Street, according to Alton Police Chief Jarrett Ford. The 15-year-old male was transported to a local hospital by members of the Alton Fire Department, Ford said; despite lifesaving efforts, the teen died of his injuries.
ROME (AP)  More than a quarter-billion people in 58 countries faced acute food insecurity last year because of conflicts, climate change, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's war in Ukraine, according to a report published Wednesday.

The Global Report on Food Crises, an alliance of humanitarian organizations founded by the U.N. and European Union, said people faced starvation and death in seven of those countries: Somalia, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.

The report found that that the number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent food aid  258 million  had increased for the fourth consecutive year, a stinging indictment of humanitys failure to implement U.N. goals to end world hunger, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

While the increase last year was due in part to more populations being analyzed, the report also found that the severity of the problem increased as well, highlighting a concerning trend of a deterioration.

Rein Paulsen, director of emergencies and resilience for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, said an interplay of causes was driving hunger. They include conflicts, climate shocks, the impact of the pandemic and consequences of Russia's war in Ukraine that has had an impact on the global trade in fertilizers, wheat, maize and sunflower oil.

The impact has been most acute on the poorest countries that are dependent on food imports. Prices have increased (and) those countries have been adversely affected, Paulsen said.

He called for a paradigm shift so that more funding is spent investing in agricultural interventions that anticipate food crises and aim to prevent them.

The challenge that we have is the disequilibrium, the mismatch that exists between the amount of funding money thats given, what that funding is spent on, and the types of interventions that are required to make a change, he said.

The U.N. World Food Program's new chief issued a warning that the Rome-based agency's resources to provide food aid amid the surging needs are running dangerously low. Executive Director Cindy McCain told panelists at an event to present the report that the agency could be forced to make heart-breaking decisions to slash assistance if substantial new funding doesn't materialize quickly.

McCain noted that she had just returned from Somalia, where, she said, millions are teetering on the edge of hunger and catastrophe. She sounded a poignant note: We all know it doesn't have to be that way.

Acute food insecurity is when a persons inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.

The EU's commissioner for international partnership, Jutta Urpilainen, said that the bloc's strategy to fight hunger includes supporting initiatives aimed to boost local production and reduce dependence on unsustainable imports.
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BERLIN (AP)  Police across Europe arrested dozens of people, raided homes and seized millions of euros in assets on Wednesday, in a coordinated crackdown on Italys ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, one of the worlds most powerful, extensive and wealthy drug-trafficking groups.

The operation, coordinated by European Union judicial cooperation agency Eurojust, aimed to dismantle a network that includes the n'drangheta, Colombian drug producers and paramilitary groups, and moves tons of cocaine to Europe and Australia each year.

The investigation uncovered how these networks used ports in Ecuador, Panama and Brazil to ship the Colombian drugs to northern European ports while also dealing in weapons. The drug proceeds were then laundered through restaurants, ice cream shops and car washes, and money sent back to Colombian drug producers via a Chinese wire transfer service, according to Italian officials and a Carabinieri press release.

With todays coordinated measures across Europe, law enforcement authorities have dealt a serious blow to the ndrangheta, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said. Todays raids are one of the largest operations to date in the fight against Italian organized crime.

In Italy, Carabinieri police backed by helicopters said arrest warrants were served on 108 people, who were accused of mafia association; possession, production, and trafficking of drugs and weapons; money laundering; and other crimes.

One of the key figures in the network was a former powerful boss, Rocco Morabito, who was arrested in 2021 in Brazil after nearly 20 years as a fugitive. The investigation also confirmed the enduring strength of a handful of well-known ndrangheta clans that operate in the Calabrian town of San Luca.

In Germany, more than 1,000 officers searched dozens of homes, offices and stores in the states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia, prosecutors said in a joint statement. Over 30 suspects who had outstanding warrants were arrested.

In addition to Italy and Germany, arrest warrants were also served in Belgium, France, Portugal, Romania and Spain, while raids were also conducted in Slovenia.

Portugals Judiciary Police said its officers had arrested a 62-year-old Italian man on charges of criminal association, money laundering, and drug trafficking as part of the European operation, which was dubbed Eureka. They also seized about half a million euros and various documents, among other confiscated items.

European authorities have been waging a campaign against the Calabria-based ndrangheta in recent years, as the group has eclipsed the Sicilian Mafia as the key mover of tens of billion euros in cocaine in recent decades moving from South America to Europe.

At a press conference in the Calabrian capital Reggio Calabria, officials estimated the operation had resulted in the seizure of 23 tons of cocaine over years of investigation, which deprived the ndrangheta of some 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in drug revenue. In addition, they announced that assets worth 25 million euros were seized.

Margaritis Schinas, vice president of the EU's executive commission, said the operation delivered a lightning strike, as was the name of the operation, against the ndrangheta organized crime syndicate ... with over 100 arrests.

In Germany, the main focus of the operation was in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, with around 500 officers deployed in each state. In North Rhine-Westphalia, 51 houses, apartments, offices and business premises were searched and 15 suspects were arrested.

The ndrangheta has been firmly established in Germany since the 1970s. It is considered the strongest of the Italian organized crime groups in the country, and is mainly focused on international narcotics trafficking, according to the German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation.
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BERLIN (AP)  A Jesuit priest and a scientist are appearing before a German court Wednesday charged with coercion in connection with a climate protest last year.

The Rev. Joerg Alt and Cornelia Huth, a biologist and member of the group Scientist Rebellion, blocked a road in Munich on Oct. 28.

Numerous similar protests have taken place across Germany and other countries recently as climate activists try to draw attention to the urgency of tackling global warming.

The public and political response to such road blockades has been mixed. While some German mayors have said they support the protesters' cause. if not their means, activists have also faced violence from enraged motorists and calls for tough punishment from conservative politicians.

So far, most courts have acquitted the protesters or handed down fines, though in at least one recent case a judge sentenced three activists to prison terms ranging from three to five months.

Also appearing before the Munich regional court is Luca Thomas, a student from Bayreuth.

The trial comes as Germany hosts a key diplomatic meeting aimed at paving the way for greater international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions at this year's U.N. climate summit.

Activists accuse the government of failing to do enough to put Germany on course to meet its goal of cutting emissions to net zero by 2045.

___

Follow AP's coverage of climate issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
PRINCE ALBERT, SK, May 2, 2023 /CNW/ - On May 2, 2023, at approximately 2:40 pm, inmate Isiah Hanson fled from Prince Albert Grand Council, a minimum-security Section 81 spiritual healing lodge.

Isiah Hanson - Escape (CNW Group/Correctional Services of Canada Prairie Region)

Prince Albert Grand Council immediately contacted the Prince Albert Detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a warrant for the inmate's arrest has been issued.

Isiah Hanson is 25 years old, measures 173 cm (5'8") in height and weighs 62 kg (137 lbs). The inmate has a medium complexion, brown eyes, and brown hair.

The inmate is currently serving a sentence of 2 years for possession of a prohibited/restricted firearm, possession of property obtained by crime  under $5000, failure to comply with order  at large, and failure to attend court  at large.

Anyone who has information on the whereabouts of Isiah Hanson is asked to contact the police.

Prince Albert Grand Council and the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) will investigate the circumstances of this incident and are working with the police to locate the offender as quickly as possible.

CSC has given the police all of the information available to help arrest the inmate.

Follow the Correctional Service of Canada on Twitter ( @CSC_SCC_en ) and Facebook ( www.facebook.com/CorrectionalServices ).

For more information, please visit the website www.csc-scc.gc.ca .

SOURCE Correctional Services of Canada Prairie Region

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The ESG 2030 Roadmap targets include 1,000 MW of rooftop solar power capacity and creation of an ESR Group Foundation programme with an investment capacity of up to US$20 million

HONG KONG, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ESR Group Limited ("ESR" or the "Company", together with its subsidiaries as the "Group"; SEHK Stock Code: 1821), APAC's largest real asset manager powered by the New Economy, has reaffirmed its commitment to accelerate its long-term sustainable growth by unveiling its ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) 2030 Roadmap across the enlarged Group.

ESR's ESG 2030 Roadmap is built on the significant progress achieved under its 2025 Roadmap which was launched in November 2020. The ESG 2030 Roadmap covers three key pillars under its ESG Framework: Creating a Human Centric environment that is safe, supportive and inclusive for internal and external stakeholders; Developing and maintaining a sustainable and efficient Property Portfolio; and Delivering outstanding Corporate Performance for sustained and balanced growth.

Some of the key achievements of the Group's progress to date include:

Human Centric  Gender ratio of 45%, exceeding the 40/60 women/men target by 2025  Zero workforce fatalities among ESR Group employees Property Portfolio  Installing close to 100 MW rooftop solar power capacity across the enlarged Group, exceeding its initial target of 52 MW by 2025  On track to obtaining sustainable building certifications for 50% of the Group's portfolio, with 39% of the Group's portfolio of assets already certified Corporate Performance  Secured ~US$3 billion in Sustainability-Linked Loans ("SLLs") to date, strengthening the Group's leadership in sustainable financing  Recognised for robust and exemplary ESG disclosure with outstanding 2022 rankings in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark ("GRESB") Assessment, MSCI ESG Ratings and Sustainalytics ESG Risk Ratings

Jeffrey Shen and Stuart Gibson, ESR Group Co-founders and Co-CEOs, said: "Since the launch of the ESG 2025 Roadmap in 2020, we have taken big strides forward in our ESG journey. With the successful acquisition of ARA and its subsidiary LOGOS, we aspire to expand and accelerate our ESG efforts across the Group. The remarkable scale and synergies of our enlarged Group today have strengthened our position as an ESG steward as we continue to raise the bar on our ESG actions and impact, creating long-term value for our stakeholders."

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Under its enhanced ESG 2030 Roadmap, ESR has established ambitious targets across the three key pillars to accelerate positive impact as an enlarged Group. These targets include:

Human Centric  Maintain a safe working environment by targeting Zero ESR workforce fatalities  Achieve and maintain gender ratio of 50/50 women/men  Creation of an ESR Group Foundation programme with an investment capacity of up to US$20 million Property Portfolio  Set up 1,000 MW of solar power capacity on the rooftop of assets  Attain sustainable building certifications and ratings for 50% of the Group's portfolio  Reduce energy consumption intensity in line with the Group's Net Zero Carbon commitment and decarbonisation roadmap Corporate Performance  Achieve a 3-Star GRESB rating average  Maintain a culture of strong corporate governance  Adhere to UN PRI principles in our investment and asset management policies and practices

Tang Boon Kang, ESR Group Head, Governance & Sustainability and Emma Larsson, ESR Group ESG Officer, said: "ESR has achieved great progress on the targets set out in our 2025 roadmap. As we lead the way forward in the transition to a more inclusive, low-carbon and climate resilient future, our ESG 2030 Roadmap will sharpen our focus in driving ESG efforts forward as an enlarged Group. It includes new targets that are coherent with our 2025 roadmap and drive greater accountability as we continue to accelerate best-in-class practices across the Group."

In conjunction with unveiling of the ESG 2030 Roadmap, ESR has published its ESG Report 2022 which can be found on the Group's website. The ESG Report 2022 describes the Group's achievements in line with its vision to be a leading provider of Space and Investment Solutions for a Sustainable Future.

Under the Human Centric pillar, the Group has developed employee engagement initiatives focusing on employee well-being, diversity, equity and inclusion, and training; contributed positively to the communities where it operates; and built modern logistics facilities with human centric design. Under the Property Portfolio pillar, the Group has accelerated its renewables strategies, continued its focus on sustainable & efficient operations and sustainable building certifications & ratings, and adopted the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Framework to mitigate climate change. Under the Corporate Performance pillar, the Group has maintained its high standards of corporate governance, integrated ESG factors into its investment and asset management policies and practices and improved its performance in the global ESG benchmarks and ratings.

Please refer to ESR's ESG 2030 Roadmap and ESG Report 2022 for details.

About ESR

ESR is APAC's largest real asset manager powered by the New Economy and the third largest listed real estate investment manager globally. With approximately US$150 billion in total assets under management (AUM), our fully integrated development and investment management platform extends across key APAC markets, including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, India, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, representing over 95% of GDP in APAC, and also includes an expanding presence in Europe and the U.S. We provide a diverse range of real asset investment solutions and New Economy real estate development opportunities across our private funds business, which allow capital partners and customers to capitalise on the most significant secular trends in APAC. ESR is the largest sponsor and manager of REITs in APAC with a total AUM of US$46 billion. Our purpose  Space and Investment Solutions for a Sustainable Future  drives us to manage sustainably and impactfully and we consider the environment and the communities in which we operate as key stakeholders of our business. Listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, ESR is a constituent of the FTSE Global Equity Index Series (Large Cap), Hang Seng Composite Index and MSCI Hong Kong Index. For more information on ESR, please visit www.esr.com

Investor Relations Marilyn Tan Group Head, Investor Relations +65 6601 9361 marilyn.tan@esr.com Media Contact Kathleen Goh Senior Director, Group Corporate Affairs Tel: +65 6972 2192 kathleen.goh@esr.com

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Job Title: Driver (Short Term)

Organisation: United States Peace Corps

Duty Station: Kololo, Kampala, Uganda

Reports to: General Services Manager

About US:

The Peace Corps is an agency of the United States Government, which sends American Volunteer development workers to assist in capacity building and technical assistance activities in over 70 countries worldwide. The United States has enjoyed diplomatic relations with Uganda for over 30 years. Ambassador Natalie E. Brown currently heads the U.S Mission to Uganda. The Mission is composed of several offices and organizations all working under the auspices of the Embassy and at the direction of the Ambassador. Among the offices operating under the U.S Mission to Uganda are:

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Centers for Disease Control

Peace Corps

Job Summary: The Driver will operate Peace Corps vehicles in accordance with Peace Corps and U.S. Government requirements and with supervisor instructions to transport cargo and personnel, Trainees, and Volunteers to appointments in Kampala and, as may be needed, throughout the countryside, where Peace Corps and its Volunteers work within Uganda. The incumbent will also have assigned responsibility in the oversight and backup performance of periodic maintenance and repairs of Peace Corps.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Driving:

Contractor will operate official Peace Corps vehicles to transport passengers and cargo.

Vehicle maintenance and repair:

Contractor will ensure that vehicles are maintained and repaired, either in-house or at referral site. With the GSO, Contractor will design, stock, and maintain vehicle maintenance systems and operate an in-house servicing capability. She or he will also wash and clean the vehicles as needed.

Other Duties:

Record Keeping

Contractor will maintain vehicle logs that record each trip taken, odometer readings and time of departure and arrival for each trip. Each time that fuel is put in the vehicle, the Contractor will document on the mileage sheet the amount, odometer reading and date obtained. Any maintenance must also be recorded.

Pick-up messages and parcels. She or he will make purchases as requested. She or he will do surveys of prices of goods.

Load and unload heavy items into/from vehicles, as well as help move furniture and equipment from one part of the office and residences to another.

Other duties as assigned by the GSO and/or the DMO:

Standard Roles and Responsibilities

Occasional Money Handler: The PSC may be requested to courier cash and/or purchase orders to various vendors who furnish supplies and/or services to PST/IST training site, or other locations as directed by the Contracting Officer. The PSC may also be requested to courier cash to PC trainees or volunteers. The PSC will not be functioning as a procurement or disbursing official but will only be acting as an intermediary between the Contracting or Disbursing Officer and the recipient. In the case of dealing with vendors, the PSC will not exercise any procurement discretion concerning the supplies or services to be purchased or the cost limits of these purchases; these will be determined by the Contracting Officer.

The PSC may be requested to courier cash and/or purchase orders to various vendors who furnish supplies and/or services to PST/IST training site, or other locations as directed by the Contracting Officer. The PSC may also be requested to courier cash to PC trainees or volunteers. The PSC will not be functioning as a procurement or disbursing official but will only be acting as an intermediary between the Contracting or Disbursing Officer and the recipient. In the case of dealing with vendors, the PSC will not exercise any procurement discretion concerning the supplies or services to be purchased or the cost limits of these purchases; these will be determined by the Contracting Officer. S&S: Operates Peace Corps vehicles safely at all times. Immediately communicates Volunteer safety and security concerns and issues to the Safety and Security Manager (SSM) and CD. Knowledgeable and supportive of Peace Corps safety and security policies and procedures, including the timely reporting of suspicious incidents, persons or articles.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

At a minimum, the ideal candidate for the United States Peace Corps Driver job must demonstrate the following:

Education: Completion of elementary school is required or specialized vehicles repair and maintenance trainings are highly desired.

Prior Work Experience: At least three years of professional chauffeur experience and a valid local drivers license for following types of vehicles is highly preferred. Classes: B (motor cars),C (medium commercial), DL (light omnibus), DM (medium omnibus)

Language Proficiency: Ability to speak, read, and write in English (Level III) is required.

Knowledge and ability: Must be familiar with local traffic laws and area traffic patterns is required; knowledge and prior work experience with electronic recordkeeping (computer usage) is also highly desired.

Preferred Qualifications:

Education: Completion of elementary school is required; secondary and related trade school or specialized vehicles repair and maintenance trainings are highly desired.

Prior Work Experience: At least three years of professional chauffeur experience and a valid local drivers license for following types of vehicles is highly preferred. Classes: B (motor cars),C (medium commercial), DL (light omnibus), DM (medium omnibus)

Language Proficiency: Ability to speak, read, and write in English (Level III) is required.

Knowledge and ability: Must be familiar with local traffic laws and area traffic patterns is required; knowledge and prior work experience with electronic recordkeeping (computer usage) is also highly desired.

Duties require the ability to deal with officials and occasionally VIPs in a relaxed but competent and professional manner.

Ability to work effectively with a diverse group of staff, businesspeople, property owners and PC Volunteers.

Demonstrated experience of cross-cultural communication skills is highly desired.

Ability to work a regular Monday through Friday schedule with evening and weekend hours and travel to countryside as may be needed.

Must be legally able to work in Uganda.

NB: Only Electronic Submissions will be accepted.

How to Apply:

Please submit a Word formatted letter of interest, resume, names and contact information for three references to ug-applications@peacecorps.gov

Clearly indicate your name and the position applied for on the subject line of the cover email as well as on all the attachments: For example Katungi Jacob_Driver

for the Driver Position. Do not write any other words in the subject line of your mail. Submitted documents become the property of the Peace Corps and will not be returned.

Deadline: 15th May 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
(Bloomberg) -- Estee Lauder Cos. shares plummeted the most on record after the beauty company cut its forecast for the third time in six months, as travel recovers more slowly than expected in the key market of China.

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The retailer now expects annual sales to be down about 10% to 12% for the fiscal year ending in June, worse than its previous guidance for a 5% to 7% decline. The slower-than-expected return to travel shopping in Asia is causing significantly greater headwinds than were expected just a few months ago, Chief Executive Officer Fabrizio Freda said in a statement on Wednesday.

Estee Lauders shares tumbled as much as 21% in New York trading, the most since the company went public in 1995. The stock is trading at its lowest level since November.

The more downbeat forecasts caught Wall Street by surprise, since the owner of the Clinique, The Ordinary and Le Labo brands has been grappling with weakness in Asia for months and executives had already been preparing analysts for significant declines in sales.

But we did not assume another negative EPS revision for FY2023, Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh wrote. We incorrectly believed managements implied back-half guidance for earnings down more than 15% (at the low end) included a cushion and captured travel retail headwinds.

Estee Lauder executives had said in February that they were expecting a rebound in the current quarter that ends in June, as more Chinese shoppers travel to domestic hot spots including Hainan. The popular island province generates around 14% of Estee Lauders sales, according to estimates from analysts at TD Cowen.

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But the company now says it wont be able to meet even those lowered expectations.

Excluding some items, profit is now expected to be between $3.29 and $3.39 per share for the fiscal year, far short of the $4.97 that analysts had estimated. The company had already lowered its forecast twice because of continued weakness in China.

Estee Lauder said that traffic to the popular travel destination Hainan has exceeded prior-year levels, a sign that domestic Chinese tourism is rebounding. But shoppers on the Chinese island arent buying as many of its high-end beauty products as the company expected. That raises the risk of discounts in coming months, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Deborah Aitken and Andrea Ferdinando Leggieri wrote in a research note.

Common Occurrence

Estee Lauder will need another quarter or two to sell through its oversupply of products in Hainan. The companys fiscal-year outlook downgrades seem a common occurrence, the analysts wrote. The company also cited weakness in travel retail sales in South Korea.

The downbeat outlook from Estee Lauder is a contrast from many of its competitors. Coty Inc., LVMH, LOreal SA and Kering SA have all said that sales in China have begun to accelerate in the current quarter after a slow start to the year.

Given that competitors recently posted strong prints and provided generally positive commentary on the outlook for China, Estee Lauders lowered outlook today is a bit of a surprise, RBC Capital Markets analyst Nik Modi wrote. However, we continue to believe that Chinas reopening will be a positive to Estee Lauder, although it may now be delayed until the back half of calendar 2023.

The company also said its acquisition of the Tom Ford brand, which closed last week, will dilute full-year earnings by about 3 cents to 4 cents a share.

(Updates with analyst commentary, additional context starting in fourth paragraph.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
On the outskirts of the national capital, a Rs 1,000 crore electronics plant is slowly rising ground up, aiming at a late monsoon launch. Perhaps larger, in size and scope, than its big budget investment would be the ambition that is fuelling it  to do a Make in India model that can take on nothing less than Chinas dominance as the factory to the world.

And no, there is no PLI, the production-linked incentive offered by the Indian government to kickstart local manufacturing, involved.

Ekkaa, a Haryana-based third-party manufacturer of LED TVs aims to do with its OEM/ODM model what China has been doing for decades  manufacture to specifications, and at a very affordable scale, electronics products for various brands big and small. So far, the company had limited itself to primarily making LED TVs for local Indian brands as per their requirement, clocking Rs 600 crore in revenues last year. But all that will change soon once the new plant gets operational.

Ekkaas vision? A state-of-the-art plant that will make TVs, washing machines, speakers, wearables and even commercial display screens for brands local and international. The ambition is unbridled  beat China at its own game.

The new facility at Noida will be the largest in terms of capacity in the country, with a potential to ramp up to nine lakh units per month in the next three years, claimed Sagar Gupta, director of Ekkaa Electronics.

The company claims to cater to 150 Indian TV manufacturers, mostly local brands who want affordable TVs to sell to their demographics in various parts of the country. But with the new plant, the aim is to play China to emerging nations, starting with taking orders from Africa and the Gulf and, as a company statement hopes, over a period of time, to Europe and USA as well.

Taking the Modi governments vision of Make in India and vocal for local one step further are companies like Ekkaa and Aequs, the latter trying a similar model with electronic toys and consumer durables.

The reasoning is simple  to make use of Indias demographic and cost factor advantage even as Chinas factory to the world status is under threat post-Covid, not just with nations of the world looking at alternative options, but also, as Gupta put it, China is pricing itself out of the market as living standards get higher and the cost of manufacturing in the mainland gets pricier.

India is aiming to hit 300 billion dollars in electronics manufacturing by 2026.
A day after Go First filed for voluntary insolvency resolution citing "failing engines supplied by Pratt & Whitneys International Aero Engines," the US-based aircraft engine manufacturer has reacted to the statement.

According to the company, Go First has a lengthy history of missing its financial obligations to Pratt. "Pratt & Whitney is committed to the success of our airline customers, and we continue to prioritize delivery schedules for all customers. P&W is complying with the March 2023 arbitration ruling related to Go First. As this is now a matter of litigation, we will not comment further", an official spokesperson for the company told ANI.

This came as Go First alleged that it has been facing engine-related issues for some time now. A statement by the company said grounded aircraft "due to Pratt & Whitney's faulty engines" ballooned from 7 per cent of its fleet in December 2019 to 50 per cent in December 2022. This cost the company a loss of 108 billion rupees ($1.32 billion).

Go First's grounding came two months after reports emerged that the company was considering legal action against American aerospace conglomerate Raytheon Technologies, parent of engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, for not providing compensation for dozens of A320neo aircraft grounded due to engine supply delays.

Half of Go First's fleet had to be grounded due to the service reliability of the PW1100G-JM geared turbofan (GTF) engines. Though Go First has sought compensation, the engine maker has so far refused to pay.

Raytheon Technologies had earlier acknowledged that its GTF engines had had reliability issues, reported Reuters. The report added that Pratt & Whitney was quoted saying it was affected by industry-wide supply chain pressures and that it expects those to ease later this year, which would support increased output of new and overhauled engines.

Meanwhile, Go First reportedly owes financial creditors 65.21 billion Indian rupees ($798 million). As of April 30, Go First Air had not defaulted on any of these dues, it said in the bankruptcy filing. "However, considering the present financial situation of the corporate applicant defaults to financial creditors would be imminent," the filing said.

Lenders were caught unaware by the bankruptcy filing and a meeting is being planned, a Reuters report added. Though the lenders had met Go First's management a few weeks ago, no intimation was given.

"I am a little stunned to hear of them file for bankruptcy," said Mark Martin, CEO at aviation consulting firm Martin Consulting LLC. "I still feel that this might not be the end of Go First. This must be a vehicle and a means for somebody new to take over," he told Reuters.
Indian investors looking to invest in commercial properties will soon have another choice as the first retail focused Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) will go public soon.

REITs are companies that own income-generating real estate assets like large office parks, hotels and shopping centres. REITs are listed on stock markets. Just like people invest in mutual funds, they can buy REIT units. While the underlying assets in mutual funds are stocks or debt securities, in case of REITs it is real estate. REITs offer a good choice for people to invest in top quality real estate assets without buying the entire property. REIT investors earn regular dividend income.

The market for REITs has been fairly large in many developed markets. It is estimated there are close to 900 listed REITs with a combined equity market cap of around $2 trillion. Singapore alone has over 40 REITs, making it the largest REIT market in Asia excluding Japan.

In India, however, REITs are a fairly recent phenomenon. The first REIT in India - Embassy Office Parks - made its debut only in 2019. Since then, two others - Brookfield India REIT and Mindspace Business Parks REIT have gone public. All of them are focused on the commercial office sector. The portfolio of these three REITs largely includes rent yielding large business and technology parks in cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and the National Capital Region.

The Select City Walk shopping mall in New Delhi will also be a part of this REIT.

Now, Nexus Select Trust will open new avenue for investors looking to invest in rent yielding retail real estate like shopping malls. Nexus has the largest portfolio of shopping centres in India. Currently, it has 17 Grade-A shopping centres across 9.8 million square feet in 14 cities. Some of its properties includes Nexus Ahmedabad One Mall, Nexus Amritsar, Nexus Seawoods in Navi Mumbai, the Elante mall in Chandigarh, Nexus Whitefield and Nexus Shantiniketan in Bengaluru, Nexus Vijaya Chennai and The Pavilion Pune among others.

The Nexus Select Trust portfolio also includes two hotel assets and three office assets. The issue, which will open for subscription on May 9 and close on May 11, has been priced in the Rs 95-100 per unit band. The total offer is for Rs 3,200 crore and includes a fresh issue of Rs 1,400 crore and an offer for sale of up to Rs 1,800 crore from existing investors.

Nexus Select Trust said that the funds raised from the fresh issue will be used for prepayment or repayment of certain debts of the asset SPVs (special purpose vehicles) and the investment entity, as well as acquisition of stake and redemption of debt in certain asset SPVs.

Nexus Select Trust is backed by global private equity giant Blackstone. Incidentally, this will be third REIT from Blackstone in India. The Embassy Office Park REIT was co-sponsored by Blackstone and Embassy Group. Mindspace REIT was co-sponsored by Mumbai-based developer K. Raheja Corp and Blackstone. Blackstone exited Mindspace REIT last year, selling its remaining stake to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).

Blackstone's stake in Nexus will come down to 43 per cent from 59 per cent post the IPO. However, Blackstone executives say they will remain long-term investors in the company.

Like other organised retail firm, Nexus Select Trust too was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic as malls were shut for a long period of time. But, as the pandemic has ebbed and consumer confidence has grown, retailers including Nexus are seeing a good rebound. Nexus Select Trust's net loss narrowed sharply to Rs 10.9 crore in the year ended March 2022 from around Rs 199 crore in 2020-21. Revenue during the period surged 45 per cent to over Rs 1,318 crore.

Between financial year 2018-2020, its tenant sales across the 14 shopping centres increased at an 11 per cent compounded annual rate and projections are they will grow 6-10 per cent per annum.

A large youth population, a growing middle class and rising incomes, coupled with under penetration of organised retail offers huge growth opportunities for retailers and shopping centres in the country.

India's consumption is estimated to have grown at a 10 per cent compounded annual rate from $966 billion in FY2015 to $1.87 trillion in FY22.

Consulting firm Knight Frank estimates shopping mall sales in India's top eight cities will touch $39 billion by FY2028, growing at a 29 per cent CAGR between FY22-FY28.

To cash in on the growing opportunity, Nexus is looking to acquire new malls to grow its business. Typically, once Blackstone makes an acquisition of a shopping mall, it is then brought under the portfolio of Nexus, which operates the mall. In 2021, seven shopping malls were acquired from the Bengaluru-based real estate developer Prestige Group.

Officials said it will continue to seek acquisition opportunities, and large consumption centres like state capitals will be among the focus areas for growth.
Here is a quick look at major theatrical releases this week.

The Kerala Story: May 5

The controversial Hindi film based on religious conversions and radicalisation in the state, will arrive in theatres on Friday, May 5. The film arrives amid massive protests and petitions challenging the film's release in theatres. Directed by Sudipto Sen, the film stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani and Siddhi Idnani.

2018  Everyone is a Hero: May 5

The Malayalam thriller, based on the Kerala floods that ravaged the state in 2018, is another eagerly awaited release this week. Written and directed by Jude Anthany Joseph, the film tells the stories of people who battled the calamity and save lives. The film features an ensemble cast of Tovino Thomas, Kunchacko Boban, Asif Ali, Aparna Balamurali, Vineeth Sreenivasan among others.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3: May 5

The third installment of the Marvel franchise arrives in theatres on Friday, and will be available in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Directed by James Gunn, the film features Chris Pratt, Zoe Zaldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper among others. Indian fans were in for a pleasant surprise when Marvel Studios roped in Bollywood actor Salman Khan to promote the film. In a hilarious promotional video shared by Marvel India, the actor was seen turning into Groot, one of the franchise's much-loved characters.

Afwaah: May 5

The Bollywood film starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Bhumi Pednekar in the lead roles also arrives in theatres this Friday. The Sudhir Mishra directorial also features Sharib Hashmi, Sumit Kaul and Sumeet Vyas. The thriller that throes light on how social media can be used to instigate violence, revolves around a top advertising professionals and a political heiress who get caught up in a vicious rumour cycle created by social media.

Ugram: May 5

The Telugu thriller arriving in theatres on Friday revolves around a cop probing the missing of his wife and son. Directed by Vijay Kanakamedala, the film stars Allari Naresh and Mirnaa.
Two militants were killed on Wednesday in an encounter with security forces at Pinchad area of Machil in Kupwara.

The encounter started after security forces launched a search operation in the area after information about the presence of militants. During the search operation, militants fired at the security forces triggering an encounter in which two militants were killed.

Earlier, the police had shared information about the operation in the area. Encounter going on near Pichnad Machil area of #Kupwara district. Army and Kupwara police on job. Further details shall follow, police tweeted.
The Congress manifesto committing to act against Bajrang Dal has snowballed into a major controversy in the poll-bound Karnataka with the Bajrang Dal workers taking to the streets to protest against the grand old party.

Hours after the manifesto came out, the Bajrang Dal workers staged a protest near the Congress office in Mangaluru and burned the party manifesto on Tuesday. Demonstrations were taken out in Udupi too.

In the manifesto, the Congress had promised "firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations such as the Bajrang Dal and the Popular Front of India (PFI) spreading hatred among communities on grounds of caste and religion."

The action will include a "ban" against such organisations, the party promised.

The VHP too came out against the manifesto. Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the youth wing of the RSS-affiliated Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

Protest marches were taken out by the Bajrang Dal near the Congress headquarters in Delhi too. The protestors demanded that the party withdraw its promise of banning the outfit if voted to power in Karnataka.

"The Bajrang Dal is "the pride of the country" and if the Congress does not change its Karnataka poll manifesto to withdraw the promise, a massive countrywide agitation will be launched," VHP leaders said at the protest.

VHP International Joint General Secretary Surendra Jain too hit out at the Congress party for comparing VHP with PFI calling the move 'highly objectionable.' "Comparing VHP with anti-national, terrorist and banned organisation PFI is highly objectionable", Jain said.

The VHP leader told ANI that the way Congress and PFI have allied and Bajrang Dal has become an eyesore of the Congress. "Sonia Gandhi cannot cheat the people of the country. The way Congress has wrongly tried to defame Bajrang Dal, the country's people will not accept it and Bajrang Dal workers are taking it as a challenge. We will answer that too and will not let your plans succeed," he added.

The issue resonated in the BJP campaigning on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself leading the offensive on Congress' anti-Bajrang Dal stance.

While speaking at a rally in Vijayanagara, Prime Minister Modi said he was fortunate that he got the opportunity to pay obeisance to the land of Hanuman. "But see the misfortune that when I have come to pay my respect to Hanuman's land, at the same time, the Congress in its manifesto has decided to lock up Lord Hanuman.

"Initially, they locked up Prabhu Shri Ram (Lord Ram). And now they want to lock up people who say Jai Bajrang Bali'," the prime minister said. "It is the misfortune of the country that the Congress had a problem with Prabhu Shri Ram and now it has a problem with the people who say 'Jai Bajrang Bali'," he added.

Other BJP ministers too joined the chorus as they alleged the Congress for opposing both "Lord Rama and Lord Hanuman" and following politics of appeasement and division.

"The devotees of Lord Hanuman are the Bajrangis of Bajrang Dal and the Congress Party has announced in its election manifesto that it would ban the Bajrang Dal. If the devotees of Lord Hanuman rebel, then the Congress will be uprooted from the country, Karnataka CM Basavraj Bommai's office quoted him as saying in a statement.
The Army on Wednesday said the encounter in which two militants were killed was an infiltration bid from one of the launch pads from across the line of control (LoC) towards the Machil sector in Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir.

Defence spokesman in Srinagar, Lt Col Emran Musavi, said a well-coordinated counter-infiltration grid was implemented in the rugged area.

Additional ambushes by the Indian Army and J&K Polices Special Operation Group (SOG) Kupwara were placed along the likely infiltration routes, he said. The alert troops in ambushes braved continuous bad weather marked by incessant rainfall, poor visibility and a significant drop in temperature for two consecutive nights.

Around 8.30am on May 3, militants were sighted by the troops as having infiltrated into own side of the LoC, An intense firefight ensued, resulting in the killing of two militants.

He said the bodies of the two militants have been recovered, along with two AK series rifles, magazines and a huge quantity of war-like stores. A further search of the area is on.

The spokesman said the identity of militants and the group they are affiliated with are being ascertained.

This successful intelligence-based operation is another example of close synergy between the Indian Army, J&K Police and all agencies, he said.

Earlier, the police said that two militants were killed in an encounter with security forces at the Pinchad area of Machil in Kupwara.

It said the encounter started after security forces launched a search operation in the area after information about the presence of militants.

Encounter going on near Pichnad Machil area of #Kupwara district. Army and Kupwara police on the job. Further details shall follow, police had tweeted.
A day after NCP chief Sharad Pawar's surprise announcement that he is stepping down as the chief of NCP, the political outfit he founded and helmed since 1999, the BJP has said the party's survival was in jeopardy.

BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday told ANI there is going to be a "bigger change" in Maharashtra politics. "Since a lot of days, there has been some turmoil in Maharashtra politics. There have been some talks going onThis is a result of it."



He added that NCPs survival is in jeopardy, Sharad Pawar is losing his power.



However, the Congress on Tuesday reacted to Pawar's decision to step down as the party chief is an internal matter and it would not be proper for it to interfere in it. "This is their internal matter. He (Pawar) is a very respectable political leader of the country. He has respect among all parties. It is not proper that we interfere in the internal decision of their party," Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera told reporters.



His former associate and senior Congress leader Tariq Anwar said Pawar must have a plan for the future. Adding that Pawar will not take any decision without thinking through," Anwar told PTI that resignation is Pawar's "personal decision" and every politician has a right to take his own decisions.



"What the internal matter is we do not know, but as far as I know Sharad Pawar, he does not take any decision without thinking it through. He is a tall leader and if he has resigned from the post, he would have a plan for the future. It depends on him what is to be done," the Congress general secretary said.



Baramati cries for 'Pawar Saheb'

In the NCP home turf of Baramati, the news of Pawar's resignation came as a bolt from the blue for the party workers who want him to continue heading the outfit.



As the news travelled to Baramati in western Maharashtra, located around 250 km from Mumbai, its residents struggled to come to terms with the development. "Pawar Saheb should not resign. The party is there because of him, and he should not relinquish the reins. He should not think of stepping down and be at the helm of the affairs as long as possible for him," said Jawahar Shah, who runs educational institutes in Baramati.



Shah said before going public, Pawar may have discussed the dramatic move with his ambitious nephew Ajit Pawar, who has been at the centre of intense political speculation over the last few weeks. "It is highly possible they had a discussion before this announcement. Pawar Saheb would not take this kind of decision alone," he said.



Shah said the people in Baramati, represented in the Lok Sabha for long by the Maratha politician, want him to continue heading the party, which was a constituent of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra till June last year.



"It is everyone's desire and demand that Pawar Saheb remains the NCP chief. The party's base has expanded because of his efforts," he said.



Yogesh Jagtap, who is associated with the NCP, said Pawar's decision has come as a shock not only to the people of Baramati but the entire state of Maharashtra.



"In the current volatile political situation, Pawar Saheb's leadership is much needed. He is a fatherly figure and the state today needs Pawar saheb's leadership...he should remain active in politics," he said.



"The way Balasaheb Thackeray cannot be replaced in the Shiv Sena (founded by him) by anyone, in the same way, Pawar saheb can't be replaced in the NCP. Till the last moment, he should remain the party chief, and while controlling the reins of the party, Saheb should develop a team and create the next level of leadership. Ajit Pawar is already ready, as everyone knows the functioning of Ajit Pawar," said Jagtap.



(With inputs from PTI)
Several environmental and wildlife groups have filed a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over SpaceX's recent launch of its giant rocket from Texas.

The Starship rocket flew 39 kilometers high before exploding over the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, causing environmental groups to sue the FAA for not fully considering the environmental impacts of the Starship program near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. The plaintiffs have asked the court to throw out the FAA's five-year license granted to SpaceX.

The FAA has declined to comment, stating that it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The agency is overseeing the accident investigation and has grounded all SpaceX Starships until it is certain that public safety will not be compromised.

The launch of a full-size Starship is the first of its kind, with the company planning to use it to send people and cargo to the moon and, ultimately, Mars. However, environmental groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity, American Bird Conservancy, Surfrider Foundation, Save RGV (Rio Grande Valley), and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas believe that it is crucial to protect life on Earth while looking to the stars in this modern era of spaceflight. They argue that federal officials should defend vulnerable wildlife and frontline communities, rather than give a pass to corporate interests that want to use treasured coastal landscapes as a dumping ground for space waste.

The launch pad is on a remote site on the southernmost tip of Texas, just below South Padre Island and approximately 32 kilometers from Brownsville. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported last week that large concrete chunks, stainless steel sheets, metal, and other objects were hurled thousands of feet from the pad, causing a plume of pulverized concrete to send material up to 10.2 kilometers northwest of the pad.

SpaceX founder and CEO, Elon Musk, said his company could be ready to launch the next Starship in six to eight weeks with the FAA's approval. He has promised to make improvements to the next Starship before it flies. The self-destruct system will need to be modified so that the rocket explodes immediately, rather than 40 seconds or so afterward, as was the case with this inaugural run. Musk said changes are being made at the launch pad to avoid what he called a "dust storm and rock tornado" at the next launch.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Etihad Airways, Abu Dhabi's state carrier, on Tuesday signed an agreement with technology firm Astra Tech that allows customers to make flight bookings using artificial intelligence within chat app BOTIM, Astra Tech said.

BOTIM, which is mostly known in the region as a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) app, relaunched as what it calls an "ultra app" on Monday.

One of the services it provides is a generative pre-trained transformer (GPT), AI technology that rose sharply in popularity following the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November.

Under the deal between Etihad and Astra Tech, the airline's clients will be able to book flights just by typing in the basic details of the service they require, with the technology then completing the booking itself.

Astra Tech has said its GPT is the first that works in the Arabic language. It is also available in English.

"Through the BOTIM GPT module developed by Astra Tech, flights and other travel-related services are integrated into the Botim app, offering a convenient and innovative way for customers to book Etihad flights," Astra Tech said.

Astra Tech bought BOTIM last year for an undisclosed sum from about 12 investors, Astra Tech founder and BOTIM CEO Abdallah Abu Sheikh told Reuters last month.

BOTIM is one of the top three digital remittance providers in the UAE, one of the other services the app provides, Sheikh said.

Sheikh is the main shareholder of Astra Tech. He said one of its bigger investors is Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence firm G42, which is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a brother of the country's president and the UAE's national security adviser, who oversees a sprawling business empire.

"We also had a few more strategic investors that we'll be announcing hopefully soon," Sheikh said, adding they include "strategic" institutions from the region as well as one or two international institutions.

(Reporting by Yousef Saba; Editing by Jan Harvey)
Few geographies are witnessing the intense game of strategic one-upmanship between giant neighbours India and China in the archipelago of Maldives.

With a favourably-disposed government led by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in power in Male, India stepped up its military-diplomatic outreach by handing over two indigenously-made shipsa fast patrol vessel Huravee and a landing craft assault shipto the Maldives on Tuesday.

The ships were handed over by Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh who is on a three-day official day visitfrom May 1-3to the Maldives National Defence Forces (MNDF) on Tuesday.

Singh and his Maldivian counterpart Mariya Didi also laid the foundation stone for the MNDF Coast Guard Ekatha Harbour. The development of the Coastguard Harbour and repair facility at Sifavaru is one of the biggest grant-in-aid projects of India in the archipelago.

A joint press communique issued by the two sides said both sides agreed to enhance and deepen cooperation in the defence and security domains.

During his meeting with Singh, President Solih applauded the significant progress achieved in the hydrography surveys being conducted with assistance from India as well as in providing the equipment to undertake the study.

Already, two Dhruv Advanced Light helicopters, a Dornier aircraft and several Indian ships are in operation in the Maldives.

But public interest in the Maldives is focused on the Indian help in developing the harbour in Uthuru Thilafalhu (UTF for short) which many say has strong military implications.

India is believed to be helping Maldives in developing the UTF basecomprising a coastguard harbour and dockyardin a strategically located atoll just northwest of the capital Male.

President Solih leads the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) which swept to power in April 2019.

The main opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), led by former president Abdulla Yameen, accuses Solih of adopting a pro-Indian position, while Yameen stands accused of catering to Chinas interests.

Several infrastructure projects were inked with China including acceding to Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) when Yameen was in power.

In 2021, India edged out China by grabbing a key 6.7 km bridge-and-causeway link connectivity project that will connect Male with the three neighbouring islands of Villingili, Gulhifahu and Thilafushi. This is the biggest-ever infrastructure project in the Maldives and dwarfs the 1.39 km Maldives-China Friendship bridge connecting Male with Hulhule and Hulhumale to its east.

In recent years, the Indian Ocean region has become the hotbed of activity by Chinese ships in the backdrop of the rapid development and modernization of the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in terms of the numbers of ships and submarines.
Myanmar's ruling military council on Wednesday said it was releasing more than 2,100 political prisoners as a humanitarian gesture. Thousands more remain imprisoned on charges generally involving nonviolent protests or criticism of military rule, which began when the army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.



State-run MRTV television reported that the head of Myanmar's military council, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, had pardoned 2,153 prisoners on the most important Buddhist holy day of the year, marking the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha.

The releases began on Wednesday, but may take a few days to be completed. The identities of those released were not immediately available, but would not include Suu Kyi, who is serving a prison term of 33 years on more than a dozen charges her supporters say were trumped up by the military.

According to an official announcement on state media, all of the prisoners granted pardon on Wednesday had been convicted under a section of Myanmar's penal code that makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear, or spread false news, and carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.

The terms of the pardon warn that if the freed detainees violate the law again, they will have to serve the remainder of their original sentences in addition to whatever term they are given for their new offense.

Mass prisoner releases are common on major holidays in Myanmar. The last release of so many political prisoners at one time occurred in July 2021, when 2,296 prisoners were freed.

In November last year, several high profile political prisoners, including an Australian academic, a Japanese filmmaker, an ex-British diplomat and an American, were released as part of a broad prisoner amnesty that also freed many local citizens held for protesting the army takeover.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners had said on Tuesday that 17,897 people taken into custody since the 2021 army takeover remained in detention.

The group keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the repression of the military government.

Prisoner releases appear to be efforts by the hard-line military government to soften its image as a major human rights abuser.

Last week, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Myanmar's military to take the initiative in finding a way out of the country's violent political crisis, including releasing political detainees, after a surprise meeting with Min Aung Hlaing.

A statement following the meeting said Ban supported the international community's calls for the immediate release by the Myanmar military of all arbitrarily detained prisoners, for constructive dialogue, and for utmost restraint from all parties.

The amnesty also came a day after Min Aung Hlaing met with the visiting foreign minister of China, which has provided key support to his regime since it seized power.

MRTV said on Tuesday that Qin Gang held talks in the capital, Naypyitaw, with Min Aung Hlaing and other top officials and exchanged views on bilateral relations, Myanmar's political situation and conditions needed for its stability and development.

China has strategic geopolitical and economic interests in Myanmar, its southern neighbour, and is one of the few large nations that has maintained good relations with its military government, which is shunned and sanctioned by many Western nations for its takeover and brutal repression of its opponents.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army took power. Its takeover prompted peaceful protests that security forces suppressed with bloody violence.

Violence has since escalated with the rise of armed resistance around the country and major military efforts to suppress it.

As of Tuesday, 3,452 civilians had been killed by the security forces since the military takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
A four-day manhunt in Texas for a gunman accused of killing five neighbors ended Tuesday not far from the site of the shooting when authorities, acting on a tip, said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.



Francisco Oropeza, 38, was captured without incident near Houston and about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from his home in the rural town of Cleveland, where authorities say he went next door and shot his neighbors with an AR-style rifle on Friday night after some of them had asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because it was keeping a baby awake.

He will be charged with five counts of murder, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said. Bond was set at $5 million.

They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars, Capers said of the families of the victims. He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.

The arrest happened near Conroe, ending what had become a widening dragnet that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions. As recently as Tuesday morning, the FBI said that Oropeza could be anywhere," underlining how investigators for days struggled to get a sense of his whereabouts and candidly acknowledged they had no leads.

The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15 p.m., and a little more than an hour later, Oropeza was in custody, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul. The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to U.S. immigration officials

Connor Hagan, an FBI spokesman, said they would not disclose the identity of the person who called in the tip one of more than 200 tips he says investigators received. Authorities did not say who owned the house, whether Oropeza knew them or if anyone else was inside when he was found.

Hagan said the three agencies that went in to arrest Oropeza were the U.S. Marshals, Texas Department of Public Safety and US Border Patrol's BORTAC team.

Drones and scent-tracking dogs had been used during the widening manhunt, which included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott offered $50,000 in reward money as the search dragged late into the weekend.

Capers said that prior to Friday's shooting deputies had been called to the suspect's house at least one other time previously over shooting rounds in his yard.

All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velsquez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and her husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras' migrant protection service.

Osmn Velsquez, Diana's father, said Tuesday that his daughter had recently gotten residency and had traveled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister, who was already living there.

Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and that's true, he said. "But I never imagined it was just for this.

Garcia said Oropeza came running over to their house on Friday loading an AR-style rifle after he and two other people had asked him to stop firing off rounds late at night. Garcia said Oropeza told him he could do what he wanted on his property.

In offering the reward, Abbott called the victims illegal immigrants," a partially false statement that his office walked back and apologized for Monday after drawing wide backlash over drawing attention to their immigration status. Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said they had since learned that one of the victims may have been in the country legally.
Jessica Leeds, an 81-year-old retired stock broker, while testifying against Donald Trump said that the former president groped her as they were seated next to each other on an airplane in 1979. Leeds said it felt like Trump had a zillion hands. She was testifying against him at a civil lawsuit by writer Jean E Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her at a luxury store in New York in 1996.



Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina said that Trump would not be giving evidence in court. Leeds told the court that she was on a flight to New York when she met Trump. He was sitting near the window when he introduced himself and they shook hands. Leeds said she had no idea who he was as she lived outside New York at the time.

"There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue," Leeds told AFP. "He was trying to kiss me, grabbing my breasts," she added. Over time, Trump has repeatedly denied all allegations of sexual assault. He has never been criminally prosecuted over any such claims. Leeds added that Trump also tried to put his hand up her skirt before she fought him off and walked to the back of the plane. Leeds said the attack lasted for seconds but felt like forever.

Leeds first made her allegations in 2016 ahead of the elections, in an interview with the New York Times. In the weeks running up to the elections, several women came out, accusing Trump of sexually assaulting them. Trump denied all the allegations.
Ranchi, May 3 (PTI) The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has recommended the name of P M Prasad for the post of Chairman and Managing Director of Coal India Limited, sources said on Wednesday.

Prasad is currently the chairman cum managing director of the Ranchi-based CIL arm - Central Coalfields Ltd.

The PESB on Wednesday recommended Polavarapu Mallikharjuna Prasad's name for the post of CIL chairman and managing director, the sources said.

Prasad was among seven officials interviewed for the post, the sources added.
SINGAPORE, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Straive, a leader in delivering technology-driven data/AI solutions for EdTech, Research, and Information Services to leading global organizations, today announced the appointment of Ankor Rai, an experienced data technology leader, as its Chief Executive Officer. Straive is owned by BPEA EQT, part of EQT Group, a purpose-driven global investment organization focused on active ownership strategies.



Ankor succeeds Ratan Datta, who led Straive for over a decade, with the last seven years as President and CEO. Effective May 1, Ratan will assume the role of Vice Chairman to support the transition to Ankor and will continue to be a member of Straive's board of directors.



Ankor joins Straive from EXL, where he was a member of the Executive Committee and served as Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer. Over 20+ years, Ankor has led the growth of high-value data-led tech businesses by developing high-impact solutions for Fortune 1000 companies across North America, the UK, and Asia. Ankor helped grow EXL's Analytics business from a niche analytics practice into a full-stack analytics powerhouse. Before that, he was a partner at Inductis, one of the original pioneers of data and analytics in the industry.



"Over the last 15 years, Ratan has greatly influenced the company's growth and diversification. The transformation he has brought in the company's strategy and structure leaves Straive positioned well for the future. On behalf of our Board of Directors, I would like to thank Ratan for his exceptional leadership at Straive. Ankor brings an outstanding track record of building customer-centric data, analytics, and AI businesses to service clients across sectors and geographies. I am excited to welcome Ankor to the firm, and I look forward to working with Ankor, complemented by our talented leadership team, to take Straive to new heights," said Josh Blair, Chairman of the Board.



"I am very excited about the market opportunity for Straive. Today, we help our clients create new data, insights, and knowledge and integrate that into complex digital workflows for learning and education, scientific research, and other business operations. As our clients address new opportunities around data, analytics, AI, and digital technologies, Straive's capabilities are critical to executing such complex transformations seamlessly," said Ankor Rai.



"We are thrilled to have Ankor join Straive as the Chief Executive Officer. His experience in building data analytics and AI business at scale, combined with the experience of integrating such next-gen capabilities into redesigned human-in-loop operations, is critical for our clients today. We look forward to Ankor deepening our relationship with our clients by adding even more value to their businesses," said Hari Gopalakrishnan, Partner, BPEA EQT.



About Straive (erstwhile SPi Global)



Straive is a market-leading content technology enterprise that provides data services, subject matter expertise (SME), and technology solutions to multiple domains, such as research content, e-Learning/EdTech, and data/information providers. With a client base scoping 30 countries worldwide, Straive's multi-geographical resource pool is strategically located in seven countries: Singapore (headquarters), India, Philippines, USA, Nicaragua, Vietnam, and the UK.



Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1891596/StraiveTMLogo.jpg



(Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with PRNewswire and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.). PTI PWR

PWR
Renowned AI innovator and thought leader, Professor Somdip Dey, has announced the release of his much-awaited book on artificial intelligence (AI). The inventor of the QR code-based degree certificate system and co-creator of the Nosh app, Dey has made remarkable contributions to society by leveraging AI and machine learning technologies. His latest endeavor aims to improve AI literacy among the masses, bridging the skills gap in this critical domain.







Somdip Dey's impressive background includes developing the QR code-based degree certificate system, a revolutionary approach now widely used in India, which enables easy access to graduates' grades and credentials through a simple QR code scan from their degree certificates. His other notable creation, the Nosh app uses AI to minimize food waste in consumers' households, further showcasing his dedication to improving lives through technology. Earlier this year, Dey was felicitated as an Outstanding Achiever at the India UK Achievers Honours, alongside other notable figures such as Parineeti Chopra, Raghav Chadha, Adar Poonawalla, Menaka Guruswamy, Aditi Chauhan, Samir Saran, and Marya Shakil. Currently, he serves as a Professor of Practice in AI/ML at the Woxsen University, Hyderabad, and has been named an MIT Innovator Under 35 (Europe) in AI/Robotics for his impactful works.



Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize industries and improve people's lives in numerous ways. For instance, AI-powered virtual assistants like ChatGPT have transformed how users interact with technology, providing personalized and contextualized responses to queries. AI has also made significant strides in healthcare, with algorithms capable of diagnosing diseases, predicting patient outcomes, and even suggesting treatment plans. In the automotive sector, self-driving vehicles are inching closer to reality, thanks to advancements in AI and machine learning.



Dey's book, titled The Roadmap to AI Mastery: A Guide to Building and Scaling Projects, is a comprehensive guide to understanding the fundamentals of AI and its real-world applications. It is designed to empower readers with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI and its implications for various industries.



The need for AI literacy is more urgent than ever, as skill shortages plague the technology sector. According to a recent report by the World Economic Forum, the global AI skills gap is estimated to reach 97 million by 2025, with India, the US, and the UK among the most affected countries. In India, the IDCs Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey reports 74% of the enterprises stated that lack of skill impedes overall innovation. The United States also faces a talent shortage, with over 300,000 AI-related job openings and just 100,000 qualified professionals. The United Kingdom is not immune either, with an estimated 38% of businesses reporting a lack of AI talent to meet their needs (as cited in the IBM Global AI Adoption Index).







Dey's book addresses this critical gap by providing an accessible and engaging resource for individuals interested in AI and its practical applications. Through his expert insights, readers will gain a solid understanding of AI concepts and techniques, empowering them to leverage this technology in their personal and professional lives.



By fostering AI literacy among the masses, Dey aims to democratize access to the transformative power of AI and inspire the next generation of innovators. As the world continues to grapple with the challenges posed by rapid technological advancements, Dey's book is a timely and essential contribution to the ongoing efforts to educate and prepare society for the AI-driven future.



In The Roadmap to AI Mastery: A Guide to Building and Scaling Projects, Dey not only shares his wealth of knowledge and experience in AI but also offers a vision for a more inclusive and equitable technological landscape. As AI continues to shape the world around us, it is crucial that individuals from all walks of life have the opportunity to participate in and benefit from this technological revolution. By demystifying AI and making it accessible to a wider audience, Dey's book sets the stage for a future where the transformative power of AI can be harnessed to solve pressing global challenges, drive innovation, and improve the human experience.



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(Disclaimer: The above content is a press release and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.). PTI PWR

PWR
New Delhi, May 3 (PTI) No-frills carrier Go First filing for insolvency proceedings and cancelling flights is bad for the airline industry as the move will reduce capacity and could push airfares in certain routes, travel agents' grouping TAAI said on Wednesday.

Bogged down by an acute financial crunch due to grounding of more than half of its fleet amid P&W engine supply woes, Go First has cancelled flights for three days starting May 3.

Besides, the Wadia group-owned airline has filed for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

"It is bad for the (airlines) industry... It is such a fragile industry... we lost crores of rupees in Kingfisher Airlines, in Jet Airways and we have another one going into insolvency (proceedings)," Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) President Jyoti Mayal told PTI.

The developments at Go First, which has been flying for more than 17 years, also come at a time when the domestic air traffic is on an upward trajectory.

Mayal said that right now there is demand for air travel as it is holiday time and "we do expect fares going up in sectors it (Go First) was flying. In the coming weeks, fares are likely to go up."

Regarding booked tickets, she said it is the company that has to provide refunds and if it goes into insolvency, the rules are different. "Those are the challenges we are going to be facing".

TAAI has around 2,800 members. In the summer schedule that is on from March 26 to October 28, Go First is to operate 1,538 flights per week.
New Delhi, May 3 (PTI) The Delhi government will soon notify "operational guidelines" for its film policy to formalise incentives based on various criteria including shoot days and the number of locals in the production crew, an official said.

There would be a "scoring system" to determine the score through which film producers can understand the number of subsidies they can avail, the tourism department official, familiar with the development, explained.

The Delhi Film Policy-2022 was launched last year in May to promote the city as a hub for movie production through a slew of measures.

Since then, the government has facilitated 13 film and web series shoots till March. These include two Hollywood films.

Until now, the subsidies were not formalised and were flexible, said the official, adding that the "new guidelines will help in homogenising the system".

The guidelines will also mention how credits should be given after and before the movie.

The Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) acts as a facilitator for film productions in the capital.

"We have held meetings with stakeholders to formalise the guidelines. The government is framing operational guidelines for the policy which will give details about incentivising for subsidy depending on the percentage of Delhi-based crew involved in the production," the official told PTI.

"We were not strict until now on how the credits should be mentioned. But from now onwards, through these guidelines, we will lay out how a producer should give the credit," said the official.

Giving details about the guidelines, another DTTDC official said the rules talk about incentives and subsidies to be given to the producers.

"One of the components of a film policy is to have operational guidelines. The film policy talks about incentives and subsidies to be given to the producers. If more than 75 per cent of the film crew is hired from Delhi, then there are certain incentives. There would be a scoring system to determine how much subsidy can be given to producers," the official told PTI.

The policy provides a single-window e-film clearance system facilitating permission for the shoot in 15 days. A portal in this direction was readied by bringing over 25 agencies for various permissions related to film production.

The e-film clearance, i.e, completely online single-window clearance mechanism, was finalised by holding regular meetings with various agencies and other stakeholders like production agencies even during the Covid period through video conferencing sessions.

For procuring a film shooting clearance, one will have to visit the Delhi Tourism website - www.delhitourism.gov.in - and apply for film shooting by clicking on the 'e-Film Clearance' icon.
New Delhi, May 3 (PTI) "The Great Abandonment", a documentary by filmmakers Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya on India's migrant exodus during the Covid-induced nationwide lockdown in 2020, was on Wednesday announced the winner in the 'Documentary English' category at the Human Rights Press Awards.

The awards, announced on World Press Freedom Day on May 3 every year, are given in recognition of outstanding reporting on human rights issues across Asia.

Abraham and Madheshiya, known for their feature documentary "Cinema Travellers" and short documentaries "Searching for Saraswati", "The Hour of Lynching: Vigilante Violence in India", said it is humbling to receive the honour for their latest work.

"'The Great Abandonment', our film about the exodus of migrant workers, has won first prize at the Human Rights Press Awards, awarded by Human Rights Watch. It was adjudged the best documentary (available) in English and was recognised as an 'Extraordinary documentary where the absence of narrative and journalistic voices allows the voices of the afflicted - and their faces, in moving silence - to be the focus.' "The news has just been announced on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. The film was made in a difficult and delicate political moment, and it is humbling to see it recognised," the filmmakers said in a joint statement.

According to the official synopsis of the 27-minute documentary shared by Abraham and Madheshiya, "In 2020, India announced one of the harshest Covid lockdowns in the world, causing nearly 200 million migrant labourers to be stranded without wages, food and housing.

"Many undertook long journeys to return to their home villages, while others, caught in limbo with their families, were forced to wait, living on the street or under flyovers they had once laboured to build."

The film, supported by Pulitzer Center and Field of Vision and co-produced by the British publication The Guardian, premiered at IDFA and has played at prestigious festivals including Sheffield Doc Fest, Palm Springs Short Fest and Doc Edge International Documentary Film Festival.

Human Rights Press Awards, given by Human Rights Watch and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, also recognised reporting on the fifth wave of Covid that engulfed Hong Kong, the Myanmar military's persecution against the Rohingya, and human trafficking of African students by Taiwanese universities as part of the winners' line-up of the 2023 Human Rights Press Awards.

The awards were previously administered by the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong, but Human Rights Watch and Arizona State University assumed responsibility after the Chinese governments imposition of the national security law in Hong Kong in June 2020 which led to the closure of at least nine media outlets there.

"The Great Abandonment" is available on the official website of The Guardian.
BOSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Exaltare Capital Management, LLC ("Exaltare"), a Boston based private investment firm with a focus on franchise and multi-unit investments, acquired GF Midwest, Inc. ("GF Midwest" or "the Company"). GF Midwest, headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, is one of the largest developers and operators of the Good Feet Store, operating 23 franchises across 9 states. The Good Feet Store has served customers by selling proprietary arch supports to alleviate pain and increase performance and comfort for over 30 years.

Exaltcare Captial Management Logo

GF Midwest was founded by Arnold Pereira in 2000, who was one of the first franchisees in the Good Feet Store brand. The Company has grown to 23 retail locations and is the second largest franchisee in the Good Feet system. Following this investment, Arnold Pereira will continue to be the Company's Chief Executive Officer and remain a significant shareholder.

Exaltare's Managing Partner & Founder, Omar Simmons, said, "We are excited to partner with a leading franchisee in the Good Feet Store system. GF Midwest has a strong track record of growth and we plan to help scale the Company via new store development and acquisitions. The Company's growth plan will help it enable more customers to live healthier, more active lives."

Arnold Pereira stated, "This partnership with Exaltare will enable GF Midwest to accelerate its growth. I am excited to work with the Exaltare team  with their experience in growing franchised multi-unit businesses, they stood out as a great partner for the next phase of growth for GF Midwest."

Richard Moore, the Chief Executive Officer of the franchisor, Good Feet Worldwide, said, "We are delighted and honored to have Exaltare joining the Good Feet family as a strategic partner to one of our longest-standing and largest franchisees, the Pereiras. Exaltare brings deep and relevant expertise based on its track record of successful health and wellness investments, such as those in Planet Fitness and Urban Air. Having worked with Exaltare before Good Feet, I know first hand how well Exaltare collaborates with its portfolio companies, seeking to add value while allowing the company to operate the business on a day-to-day basis. Exaltare is a perfect fit with Good Feet's mission, brand, and business overall."

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This acquisition is Exaltare's third platform in franchising, and in each platform, Exaltare has been the first institutional investor in the franchise system. In Planet Fitness, Exaltare grew its platform from 15 units to 108 before selling a controlling stake in 2021. In 2022, Exaltare invested in the Urban Air franchise system by forming Elevated Venture Holdings, with parks in Texas, Florida and Oklahoma, and is actively grow via acquisition and development.

The transaction was financed by Exaltare Capital, Genesis Park and Tecum Capital who provided debt and equity capital.

Exaltare's Director, Alexei Popov, stated, "We could not be more excited to join forces with our partners in this investment  Arnold Pereira and the GF Midwest team, the Good Feet system, and our financing partners, Genesis Park and Tecum Capital. This is our first investment alongside Genesis Park and Tecum Capital, and they have been great partners and flexible and supportive throughout the transaction."

Triago advised on capital raising for this transaction while DLA Piper acted as Exaltare's legal advisor.

About Exaltare Capital Management

Exaltare Capital Management is a private investment firm with a focus on franchise and multi-unit investments. ECM's principals have significant private equity and operational experience that enables the firm to be a value-added partner to its portfolio companies. Exaltare looks to invest in founder-owned businesses with $2 to $25 million of EBITDA. Since 2012, Exaltare has completed 17 platform and add-on transactions in multi-unit and franchised businesses, representing over 250 individual locations and over $900 million of capital. For more information, visit www.exaltarecapital.com.

About The Good Feet Store

Founded in 1992, The Good Feet Store is the market-leading manufacturer and retailer of premium, personally fitted arch supports, with more than 200 retail locations in the U.S. and abroad. Engineered for comfort and pain relief in more than 400 styles and sizes, Good Feet Arch Supports are personally fitted to the precise needs and preferences of its customers and are backed by a Manufacturer's Lifetime Limited Warranty. The Good Feet Store operates with an end-to-end approach to maximize performance and ensure consistent quality standards. Good Feet Arch Supports are manufactured in a state-of-the-art facility in Carlsbad, California, and supplied exclusively to its retail locations. Each Good Feet Store location is staffed with well-trained Good Feet Arch Support Specialists who provide customers with a no-obligation, free, personalized fitting. To learn more about The Good Feet Store and Good Feet Arch Supports, and to see Good Feet Store reviews from actual customers, visit www.goodfeet.com.

About Genesis Park

Genesis Park is a Houston-based private credit and equity investment firm. Its current investment fund, GP Capital Partners, LP, is licensed as a Small Business Investment Company ("SBIC") by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Genesis Park supports growth and later stage lower middle market businesses through flexible debt and equity capital solutions and strategic guidance. Genesis Park generally targets companies with at least $10 million of revenue and $2 million of EBITDA, with proven business models and seasoned management teams. Managed by four experienced investment professionals with broad regional relationships, Genesis Park is committed to partnering with the companies and management teams in which it invests to facilitate growth, transition, and success. For more information, visit www.genesis-park.com.

About Tecum Capital

Tecum Capital is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based private investment firm deploying capital in lower middle-market companies. Tecum provides mezzanine debt and equity investments in growth-oriented middle-market companies across the broader high-value manufacturing, value-added distribution, and business services sectors. Our team partners with independent sponsors, family offices, committed funds, business owners seeking succession plans, and management teams to create shared success. Tecum focuses on businesses with EBITDA greater than $3 million. Tecum seeks to invest $5 million to $20 million in potential portfolio companies. Tecum manages two Small Business Investment Company ("SBIC") licensed funds and is currently investing out of Tecum Capital Partners III, L.P, a $300 million fund launched in September 2021. Since 2006, the team has collectively invested more than $850 million in over 100 platform and add-on acquisitions. For more information, please visit www.tecum.com.

Cision

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SOURCE Exaltcare Capital Management
Mumbai, May 3 (PTI) Shah Rukh Khan on Wednesday made headlines after a video of the Bollywood superstar surfaced online in which he was seen pushing away the hand of an intruding fan when he tried to click a selfie with the actor as he was walking out of the airport here.

Khan, 57, was leaving from the airport along with his manager Pooja Dadlani and bodyguards when he was mobbed by fans and onlookers.

According to videos circulating on social media platforms, Shah Rukh is seen blowing kisses to the crowd as he exited the airport.

A man, dressed in a black-and-white outfit, quickly took out his phone and started clicking a selfie with the actor, which the latter avoided by blocking the person's hand.

Shah Rukh's security team also stopped the person from further coming close to the actor.

The "Pathaan" star, dressed in all black with a pair of sunglasses on, is then seen walking towards his car as he waded through the crowd of paparazzi and bystanders.

The incident drew a mixed response from social media users, with some calling out Shah Rukh for being rude and others criticising the fan for not respecting the actor's personal space.

"Imagine someone has just arrived after a long flight and you're flashing lights in their face without any permission. Shah Rukh Khan is only a human after all. For f*'s sake, give him some privacy for once," a fan wrote on the microblogging site.

"#ShahrukhKhan success has gone over his head in the last 10 years he was humble after one hit he is going mad Pushed an airport official while he was trying to take selfie his bodyguard nearly pushed him to the ground There should be strict action against this arrogant star," said another on Twitter.

It is not clear where Shah Rukh was returning from. He was shooting in Srinagar last week for the upcoming film "Dunki". According to the pictures shared by his official fan club on Twitter, it appears the actor flew in from Doha.
Mumbai, May 3 (PTI) The Indian film industry is making great strides internationally, said actor Ayushmann Khurrana on Wednesday as he endorsed going global with local content.

Citing the example of the Oscar-winning "The Elephant Whisperers", the actor said he had never imagined that a bond between man and animal will win India an Academy Award.

"Ten years ago, I had gone to this wildlife sanctuary at the trijunction of Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, and witnessed first hand the relationship between man and animal. I never thought that in 2023, that relationship would've been told worldwide and give us an Oscar.

"The more we're connected to our roots, the more we'll move ahead. The more local we go, the more global we reach. Our film industry is at the cusp of global greatness. I am fortunate to be living in a time where the world has become a creative melting pot of culture," Khurrana said at the inaugural event of the 23rd edition of FICCI Frames here.

Directed by Kartiki Gonsalves, "The Elephant Whisperers" -- depicting an unbreakable bond between two abandoned elephants and their caretakers -- won the short documentary Oscar, a maiden victory for India in the category. Telugu track "Naatu Naatu" from "RRR" also won the best original song Oscar, making it the first time two India-made productions bagged the cinema world's biggest prize.

Khurrana, popular for offbeat films such as "Vicky Donor", "Andhadhun", "Article 15", and "An Action Hero", said India is being looked at as a creative juggernaut.

"...and our industry is being globally welcomed. I'll always aspire to contribute to the world of cinema through my craft, in the choices I make, and stories I tell," he added.
Chennai, May 3 (PTI) Acclaimed actor Vikram broke his rib during "Thangalaan" rehearsals and is taking time off his professional commitments, said his manager on Wednesday.

Directed by Pa Ranjith, Thangalaan is reportedly set against the backdrop of mining fields in the early 19th century.

Suryanarayanan M, Vikram's manager, informed fans and followers of the actor on Twitter.

"Chiyaan sustained an injury during rehearsals resulting in a broken rib due to which he will not be able to join his Thangalaan unit for a short while.

"He thanks everyone for your love and promises to be back on his feet and rocking at the earliest," Suryanarayanan wrote in the post.

Vikram was most recently seen playing Chola crown prince Aditha Karikalan in Mani Ratnam's period action epic "Ponniyin Selvan II".

The actor's manager also thanked the audiences for "the astounding response" for the film.
Kathmandu, May 3 (PTI) A Nepali labourer has died while two Indian workers were injured by falling rocks inside an under-construction hydropower project in the country's Koshi province, police said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday night at the 900 MW Arun III Hydropower Project's audit-2 tunnel in the Sankhuwasabha District.

The 27-year-old Nepali labourer died on Wednesday morning while undergoing treatment at the Sankhuwasabha District Hospital, police said.

Two Indian nationals from Guwahati in Assam, who were working on the site sustained injuries in the incident.

They were identified as Samamati Walita, 23, and Saimuddin Ali, 23 and are currently undergoing medical treatment at the district hospital, according to the police.

The Arun II Hydropower Project is being constructed by Indias Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam and more than 300 workers, including those from Nepal and India, have been hired for its construction.
London, May 3 (The Conversation) King Charles III is the first British monarch who has previously had a civil marriage and a civil divorce.

In 1981, Charles, then the Prince of Wales, married Lady Diana Spencer in a fairytale wedding watched by 750 million people worldwide.

However, the royal couple separated in 1992 and they were divorced in 1996. The marriage had spectacularly broken down.

Charles later went on to marry his long-time love interest Camilla Parker-Bowles. They married in a civil ceremony in 2005. This broke with the tradition of royal family members getting married in an Anglican church ceremony.

The extramarital relationship of Charles and Camilla prevented them from being remarried in church.

But there was a subsequent service of prayer and dedication. Queen Elizabeth II declined to attend the wedding, reportedly because it conflicted with her role to uphold the Christian faith as supreme governor of the Church of England.

The accession of Charles to the throne is not only politically significant, but also carries religious importance. Charles is the defender of the faith and the supreme governor. Charles status as a divorcee puts him at odds with his religious roles.

King Henry VIII was infamous for having six wives in the 16th century. He annulled his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon. This meant the marriage was never legally valid to begin with.

King George IV was almost successful in divorcing his wife Queen Caroline in 1820.

At the time, divorce could only be granted by Act of Parliament. The trial took place in the House of Lords. The king accused his wife of committing adultery as grounds for divorce.

However, Prime Minister Lord Liverpool eventually withdrew the divorce bill due to political pressure.

King Edward VIII was forced to abdicate in 1936 because he wanted to marry an American divorcee Wallis Simpson. This conflicted with his role as supreme governor.

While Charles was in a similar position to his great-uncle in his marriage to Camilla, they lived in different worlds. The Conservative government and the Church of England simply could not tolerate Edwards marriage to a divorcee. It was viewed as an affront to morality.

Similarly, Princess Margaret was pressured to not marry the divorcee Group Captain Peter Townsend. As the sister of the queen, the marriage would have been scandalous in some circles.

Queen Elizabeth called 1992 the annus horribilis (horrible year) for the royal family. Her three children Prince Charles, Princess Anne and Prince Andrews marriages had all broken down. Divorce by then had become increasingly acceptable in society.

Charles had to seek his mothers permission to marry Camilla. The Royal Marriages Act 1772 stipulated that all descendants of King George II were required to seek the consent of the sovereign to marry.

This law was repealed in 2013. Only the first six persons in the line of succession now have to seek the sovereigns permission to marry.

There was controversy at the time whether a member of the royal family could legally marry in a civil ceremony. The Marriage Act 1836 permitted civil marriages. But the law stated this did not apply to members of the royal family.

The British government released a statement declaring Charles could legally enter into a civil marriage. The view was the Marriage Act 1949 had repealed the previous legislation.

The government also argued there was a right to marry under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights.

The civil marriage of Charles and Camilla symbolised the changing values of society. The view of marriage had shifted from a moral commitment to a celebratory union. This marked the modernisation of the monarchy over tradition.

The accession of a divorcee as king a generation earlier would have been unpalatable to many. But Charles embodies the modern character of monarchy and the liberal values of wider society.

Charles has recently affirmed his commitment to Anglican Christianity. This is an acknowledgement of his constitutional role in the Act of Settlement 1701. Only Protestant Christians can claim succession to the crown.

It also affirms his role as nominal ruler of the Church of England. The monarch still appoints bishops on the advice of the prime minister. Anglicanism is the official state religion of England.

Yet Charles is also pushing for a modern monarchy. He has viewed himself as a defender of diversity. Upholding a space for multifaith practice and expression of secular ideals form part of the agenda of his reign.

The monarchy faces a tension between modernity and tradition. As a divorced and remarried monarch, Charles III represents the reinvention of the crown, an ancient institution that seeks to embrace its role in a multicultural, religiously diverse and more open and tolerant society. (The Conversation) RUP
Jerusalem, May 3 (PTI) Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen will be visiting India next week in what is being seen as the build-up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to New Delhi later this year.

Cohen will be on a three-day visit to India from May 9 to 11 during which he will hold discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

He will visit Mumbai for a day.

It is the third high-level visit by senior Israeli officials in less than three months, coming in quick succession after Knesset (Israeli parliament) speaker Amir Ohana's trip at the end of March-early April and also Economy Minister Nir Barkat's visit to India last month.

Cohen will be accompanied by a business delegation. Collaboration in the field of innovation with a focus on agriculture and water management is likely to prominently feature in discussions during the Israeli foreign minister's visit.

He will also be advancing a consular agreement being worked out to bring Indian workers to Israel to work in the construction sector.

The high-level visits are being seen as a prelude to the much-anticipated visit of Prime Minister Netanyahu to India later this year.

In January, Modi invited Netanyahu to visit India at an early date.

His visit to India in 2019 during his previous stint as the prime minister was called off due to scheduling issues. Both sides were working on a plan for his visit to India in 2021 but that did not materialise as he was ousted from power in June that year.

Netanyahu came back as the prime minister in December after his Likud party formed a coalition with some other parties following the elections.

The 73-year-old political veteran was sworn in as Israel's prime minister on December 29 in a comeback at the head of a hard-right cabinet.

The ties between India and Israel have been on an upswing in the last few years in a range of sectors including defence, agriculture and water management.
London, May 3 (PTI) A man was arrested at the gates of Buckingham Palace in London on Tuesday evening as he threw suspected shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds, Scotland Yard said.

The incident, just four days before the Coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, involved Metropolitan Police specialist officers conducting a controlled explosion "as a precaution".

The suspect at the scene remains under arrest on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and cordons were put in place after the man was also found to be in possession of a suspicious bag.

"Officers worked immediately to detain the man and he has been taken into police custody," said Joseph McDonald, Chief Superintendent of the Met Police.

"There have been no reports of any shots fired, or any injuries to officers or members of the public. Officers remain at the scene and further enquiries are ongoing," he said.

The force said roads that were closed in the wake of the incident have largely reopened and the majority of the cordons have been lifted.

The Met Police is undertaking one of its largest policing operations as it prepares for the historic Coronation procession that will leave the palace grounds and head towards the Abbey on Saturday morning.

Thousands of military personnel have been training for the grand spectacle, involving officers on horseback and foot marching as part of the regal procession through the streets of London.
Dubai, May 3 (AP) An explosion on Tuesday evening struck a base in Iran belonging to the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, killing two workers, local media reported. There was no word on any damages in the blast.

The state-run IRNA news agency said the explosion occurred during a "movement of ammunition" at the Guard base on the outskirts of the city of Damghan, in northern Semnan province.

The report offered no other details about the source of the explosion. IRNA added that he incident was under investigation.

The semi-official Fars news agency said on its Telegram media channel that two workers at the base were killed and three were wounded in the explosion. It identified the two killed by name but gave no other details.

The Guard, whose expeditionary forces operate across the wider Middle East and aid Iranian-allied militant groups such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas group, and Iran's military have been targeted before, raising tensions in the region.

In February, satellite photos showed damage to what Iran at the time describes as a military workshop targeted by Israeli drones, the latest such assault amid a shadow war between the two countries. Iran offered no explanation of what the workshop manufactured.

International concerns have mounted over Tehran enriching uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, with experts warning the Islamic Republic has enough fuel to build "several" atomic bombs if it chooses. (AP)



RDT
Islamabad, May 3 (PTI) Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan has been advised to take "complete rest" for 10 days to avoid further complications with his injured leg, a leader from his party said on Wednesday, a day after he was reportedly injured during a melee at the Lahore High Court.

In November, Khan, 70, was wounded in his lower leg after a gunman opened fire on a convoy carrying the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. He was leading a march on Islamabad to demand snap elections.

PTI Senator Shibli Faraz said in a tweet that Khan was injured again during his appearance at the Lahore High Court on Tuesday.

He wrote: "Imran Khans leg got injured again yesterday at the Lahore High Court due to the jostling brought about because of the lack of security provided by the government.

Doctors have advised [Imran] to rest for 10 days," the PTI Senator tweeted.

A medical board of the Shaukat Khanum Hospital has also advised Khan complete rest, sources were quoted as saying by Geo News.

Officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, warned that if the PTI chief does not rest then his leg, hit by bullets in Wazirabad during the long march last year, may "swell".

Swelling is a sign of threat and he may require another surgery in such a scenario, said the sources within the medical board. It also advised the PTI chief from avoiding moving unnecessarily and not to put pressure on his affected leg.

More than 100 cases have been registered against Khan since he was voted out of office through a no-confidence motion in April last year. But he has not been arrested in any of the cases so far.

After sustaining injuries, Khan has sought relief on medical grounds and skipped a number of court appearances.

Reacting to the latest development, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah took a jibe at the former premier, alleging that a fake report was secured from Shaukat Khanum Hospital to avoid court appearances.

"The advice of 10-day rest is actually advice to avoid cases, the election petition was also to avoid lawsuits, and the assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were also dissolved to avoid lawsuits. After the bucket, box, dust bin, Shaukat Khanum's false report has been presented, said the interior minister.

Sanaullah said that as soon as the court ordered Khan to appear before the police, the report was presented as a medical excuse.

Imran Niazi has to answer in Toshakhana, Tyrian ... and other theft cases, said the minister. When the garbage can did not work, then the excuse of complete rest is being used to avoid court appearances and not give answers.

Earlier in the day, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) expressed annoyance over the non-appearance of Khan in a case.

The court warned former Khan that it may cancel his interim bail as it expressed its staunch dissatisfaction over his persistent absence from court hearings in various cases.
Berlin, May 3 (AP) Berlin police said Wednesday that they are getting ready for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to visit Germany's capital this month.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz invited Zelenskyy to come, and the Berlin police department is preparing for the visit to take place May 13-14, police spokesperson Anja Dierschke said.

It would be Zelenskyy's first visit to Germany since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The chancellor's office did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation.

Scholz's spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, told German news agency dpa that the chancellor's appointments would not be announced until Friday for the following week.

Dierschke said Zelenskyy was expected in Berlin on the evening of Saturday, May 13, in the evening.

The next day, the president and the people of Ukraine are set to receive the International Charlemagne Prize, awarded annually by the western German city of Aachen for contributions to European unity.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is scheduled to give the speech honouring Zelenskyy. (AP)



GRS
By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Greg Roumeliotis and Marie Mannes

COPENHAGEN/NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. asset manager Apollo Global Management Inc plans to apply for approval from Swedish and Danish regulators to take a majority stake in SAS AB as part of the Scandinavian airline's rescue plan, a source familiar with the matter said.

The news of interest from the U.S. asset manager sent the embattled carrier's shares up as much as 14% in Wednesday morning trading. At 1011 GMT, they were up 5.9%.

SAS has lost almost 60% of its value since it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last July, seeking to slash costs and debt after wage talks with pilots collapsed.

A deal with the U.S. private equity giant, which has also invested in U.S. and Mexican airlines, would be a test of European Union rules, which prevent more than 50% of an airline being held outside the bloc of 27 members.

Given a large part of Apollo's capital originates from Europe-based investors, the fund is hoping to get approval for a deal, according to the source, who declined to be identified because the matter is confidential.

No final decision has yet been made on a possible investment, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The first source said a deal could be done before the year-end.

Apollo and SAS declined to comment.

Apollo will mainly work with aviation regulators in Sweden and Denmark to secure approval, the first source said.

The European Commission would also be involved, but the national regulators would be responsible for giving the go-ahead for a change of ownership.

The move comes as the airline looks for large investors and seeks to raise equity as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan.

It has also secured a $700 million debtor-in-possession (DIP) loan from Apollo to fund it through process. The U.S. company could become a major shareholder in SAS by converting that loan to equity at the end of the process.

The airline has struggled to compete in Europe's fragmented aviation sector, like other national carriers such as Italy's ITA Airways and Portugal's TAP, which are to be bought by larger groups to revive their balance sheets.

Story continues

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

Any deal would likely need support from Sweden and Denmark, which each own about 22% of SAS. The remainder is controlled by private shareholders.

Denmark's finance ministry told Reuters it was looking for one or more shareholders to take a majority stake in SAS. Any bailout would require the airline to maintain Copenhagen as a key passenger hub, it said.

Sweden has said it won't inject more cash in SAS.

The sources said SAS would maintain its Scandinavian identity, playing down speculation it could get a new hub or be transformed into a low-cost carrier under a new owner.

This wouldn't be Apollo's first foray into the airline industry.

In 2018, it invested in Sun Country Airlines in an effort to help turn it around, helping it go public in 2021.

The company also became the largest shareholder in Mexican airline Aeromexico in 2020 following Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Those experiences show it can approach long-term investments flexibly, the two sources said.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen, Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Marie Mannes in Stockholm; Writing by Josephine Mason; Editing by Louise Heavens, Bernadette Baum and Mark Potter)
(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)
London, May 3 (PTI) The operation to secure the Coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, known as Golden Orb, will be one of the largest security operations ever mounted in London with as many as 11,500 officers on duty for the mega event, Scotland Yard said on Wednesday.

The Metropolitan Police said there will be more than 29,000 police officer deployments over the course of this week in the lead up to Coronation Day on Saturday and the rest of the long celebratory Bank Holiday weekend, which runs until Monday.

A proverbial ring of steel is expected to be in place in the UK capital as thousands of Londoners and visitors turn out to enjoy the "once in a lifetime moment of national significance and pride".

The Met said it has been planning for Operation Golden Orb for many months and will be using facial recognition and other specialist units to ensure public safety.

"We want Londoners and visitors coming to the city to enjoy this historic and momentous occasion safely and securely," said Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan.

"On Coronation Day we will have the largest one-day mobilisation of officers seen in decades with just over 11,500 officers on duty. The weekend promises to be a spectacular celebration and the Met Police is honoured to be policing such an internationally important event across the capital, he said.

He said the Met Police has a long history of policing such events and will be drawing upon its diverse expertise from across the organisation, using officers and specialist units to keep people safe. It comes a day after a male suspect was arrested at the gates of Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening after throwing shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds. The force has ruled out a terrorism link with the incident, which necessitated a controlled explosion on the suspects bag.

"London is one of the most exciting and diverse cities in the world and throughout the celebrations, we will be at the heart of and doing all we can to be connected with the people and communities we serve. Our officers are here to help you, if you feel like something doesnt look right please speak with us, added Adelekan.

Led by a highly experienced command team who have also been involved in delivering other recent significant events, the "multi-layered" security operation will include officers lining the processional route, managing crowds and road closures, protecting high profile individuals, and carrying out searches with specialist teams.

There will also be officers from dog unit, firearms unit, marine support, and Special Constabulary ready to respond to any incident or crime.

"We intend to use facial recognition technology in central London. The watch list will be focused on those whose attendance on Coronation Day would raise public protection concerns, including those wanted for offences or have an outstanding warrant for arrest issued by the courts, or those under relevant offender management programmes in order to keep the public safe, the Met Police said.

"Our tolerance for any disruption, whether through protest or otherwise, will be low. We will deal robustly with anyone intent on undermining this celebration, it warned.

Outside central London, people will be enjoying around 1,800 registered events and local officers alongside cadets and volunteers will be in their local communities to assist at several street parties.

The Met Police, the UK's largest police force, will be assisted by the British Transport Police, City of London Police, Thames Valley Police and also officers from other police forces around the UK.
Kyiv, May 3 (AP) Russia claimed it foiled a Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin early Wednesday, calling it an unsuccessful assassination attempt against President Vladimir Putin and promising retaliation for what it termed a terrorist act. Ukraine denied any involvement, saying Moscow could use it for further escalation of the war.

Putin wasn't in the Kremlin at the time and was at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti.

There was no independent verification of the reported attack on the Kremlin, which Russia authorities said occurred overnight but presented no evidence in support of the claim. Nor did officials say why it took more than 12 hours to report the incident.

Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak denied any involvement.

Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin, he said. He said the claims would provide a pretext for Russia to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities in coming days.

The alleged attack immediately prompted calls in Russia from pro-Kremlin personalities to carry out assassinations on senior leadership in Ukraine.

The purported drone attack would be a significant escalation in the 14-month conflict, with Ukraine taking the war to the heart of Russian power.

The Kremlin said Russian military and security forces stopped the drones before they could strike. Nobody was hurt, it added.

The claims came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made an unannounced visit to Helsinki for talks with the leaders of five Nordic countries. He is trying to secure greater firepower for his armed forces as they figure out how to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy told a Helsinki news conference before Russia's drone attack claims that Ukraine's counteroffensive is coming very soon. This year will be decisive  for victory, he said.

The Kremlin's website said debris from the drones fell on the grounds of the Moscow landmark without damage.

A video published overnight on a local Moscow news Telegram channel, filmed across the river from the Kremlin, appeared to show smoke rising over the buildings. It wasn't possible to ascertain its veracity.

According to the text accompanying the video, residents at a nearby apartment building reported hearing bangs and seeing smoke at around 2:30 a.m.

The Kremlin claimed the attack was planned to disrupt Victory Day, which Russia celebrates in Red Square on May 9 to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Foreign dignitaries are expected to attend.

Peskov said the parade would take place as scheduled.

Shortly before the news about the alleged attack broke, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a ban on using drones in the Russian capital, with an exception for drones launched by authorities.

Sobyanin didn't offer any reason for the ban, saying only that it would prevent the illegal use of drones that can hinder the work of law enforcement.

Zelenskyy made no comment in Helsinki, though he was due to attend a news conference there later in the day.

The Nordic countries  Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland  have been among Kyiv's strongest backers since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Before the meeting with Zelenskyy in Finland's capital, Nordic officials appeared ready to provide more aid as the war stretches into its 15th month.

There is still an urgent need for military support to ensure that the Ukrainians stand as strong as possible in the fight against Russia, Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen said in a statement.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre, another of the summit attendees, said: Here in the north, we have a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian neighbor, and it is important that we discuss together how to face this new situation.

The talks came a day after U.S. officials said Washington plans to send Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous number of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition.

The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been formally announced.

Elsewhere, Russia used Iranian-made drones during its third attack on Ukraine's capital city in six days.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defenses shot down 21 of the Russian drones, Ukraine's Air Force Command said. No damage or casualties were reported

Meanwhile, a massive blaze broke out at an Russian oil depot, local officials said Wednesday.

The depot erupted in flames in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, located east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

He didn't say what caused the fire, which was described as extremely difficult to put out. But some Russian media outlets said it was likely caused by a Ukrainian drone attack overnight. There was no official comment on that possibility.

Local residents heard an explosion shortly before the fire erupted, Russian news site Baza said.

Military analysts think Ukraine is targeting supply lines in the Russian rear while gearing up for a possible counteroffensive amid improving weather conditions and as it receives large amounts of weapons and ammunition from its Western allies.

Explosions also derailed a Russian freight train and hit a Russian airfield in recent days. Last weekend, a massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two of Ukraine's drones, a Russia-appointed official said.

In anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces are focused on destroying logistical routes and centers of Ukraine's armed forces with long-range strikes, Kyiv military officials say.

At the same time, Russia plans to continue talks with the United Nations and other parties to an wartime agreement on facilitating Black Sea agricultural shipments, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said ahead of talks on Friday.

Earlier Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that a new round of consultations between Russia and the U.N. on access of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to the world market would be held in Moscow.

Signed last July and renewed twice, most recently in March, the deal unblocked Ukrainian grain shipments that were held up in the country's blockaded ports last year. The deal will expire on May 18 unless Russia agrees to its renewal.

In the latest Ukrainian civilian casualties, three people died and five were wounded when a supermarket in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson came under fire on Wednesday.

According to Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs, the attack on the only operating hypermarket in Kherson happened at around 11 a.m. local time.

A round-the-clock curfew is to be introduced in Kherson from 8 p.m. on Friday through 6 a.m. on Monday, Kherson Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin announced.

During these 58 hours, it is forbidden to move around or stay on the streets of the city. Also, the city will be closed for entry and exit," Prokudin said.

The measure is necessary, he said in a video on social media, so that law enforcement officers can do their job and not put you in danger, but didn't provide further details.

Both Russia and Ukraine reportedly have experienced ammunition shortages after a winter of long-range shelling and missile strikes as the conflict became bogged down in a war of attrition.

Ukraine's government has been pressing its allies to give it more as officials consider when and how they might start trying to drive Russian forces out of the Ukrainian territory they have occupied. (AP)



NSA
Beirut, May 3 (AP) The US-led coalition carried out a drone strike Wednesday in northwestern Syria targeting a senior al-Qaida leader, the US military said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the strike hit a chicken farm near the town of Harem, killing one person. It said the dead man has not been identified yet.

The strike was the latest of a series of similar attacks over the past years that have killed senior members of the Islamic State group or al-Qaida.

The US Central Command said that shortly before noon, US forces conducted a unilateral strike in northwestern Syria, targeting a senior al-Qaida leader. It added that more information would be provided "as operational details become available.

US Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East said the strike on Wednesday reaffirms CENTCOM's steadfast commitment to the region and the enduring defeat of IS and al-Qaida.

Most of those targeted over the past years had been members of Horas al-Din, which is Arabic for Guardians of Religion. The group includes hardcore al-Qaida members who broke away from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest al-Qaida-linked militant group in Idlib province.

In 2017, a U.S. airstrike killed a former aide to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida's second in command in Syria, Abu al-Kheir al-Masri.

Idlib is the last major rebel enclave in war-torn Syria. (AP)



NSA
Washington, May 3 (PTI) India is among the 14 countries that do not adhere to any protocols concerning international parental child abduction (IPCA), according to a United States report.

The Department of State's 2023 annual report on IPCA that was submitted to the US Congress on Tuesday was referring to a pattern of noncompliance.

"India does not adhere to any protocols with respect to international parental child abduction. In 2022, India continued to demonstrate a pattern of noncompliance. Specifically, the competent authorities in India persistently failed to work with the Department of State to resolve abduction cases," it said.

"As a result of this failure, 65 per cent of requests for the return of abducted children remained unresolved for more than 12 months," the report added.

The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (1980), signed by 96 countries, provides for a mechanism to return a child internationally abducted by a parent from one member country to another.

On average, these cases remained unresolved for three years and ten months. The mediation cell, established in 2018 by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights with the objective of mediating custody disputes, is yet to resolve any abduction cases between the United States and India, it said.

India was previously cited for demonstrating a pattern of noncompliance in the 2015-2022 annual reports. In 2022, the department received one initial inquiry from a parent regarding a possible abduction to India for which no additional assistance was requested or necessary documentation was received as of December 31, 2022.

After India formally refused the proposal for a US-India Joint Committee on IPCA in 2021, the department presented a new proposal to the Indian government to create a bilateral dialogue on IPCA following the US-India Consular Dialogue. In response to which, in October 2022, India hosted representatives from the Office of Children's Issues in its capital and held IPCA discussions for the first time outside of the annual Consular Dialogue, it said.

The State Department said in 2022, the competent authorities in India regularly failed to work with the Department of State toward the resolution of pending abduction cases.

Moreover, the competent authorities have failed to resolve cases due to a lack of viable legal options, which contributed to a pattern of noncompliance, it added.

The other "non-complying" countries as stated by the report are Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras, Jordan, Peru, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Moscow, May 3 (PTI) India and Russia on Wednesday reaffirmed their readiness to bolster constructive counter-terror cooperation in the bilateral format and within the UN, BRICS and the SCO, as the two sides exchanged assessments of essential terrorist threats at the global and regional levels.

The 12th meeting of the Russia-India working group on fighting terrorism took place in Moscow. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov and his Indian counterpart Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, led the two sides during the meeting.

Russia and India discussed both countries national experience in the fight against terrorism and extremism and exchanged assessments of essential terrorist threats at the global and regional levels," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"The sides reaffirmed their readiness for bolstering constructive counter-terror cooperation in the bilateral format and on multilateral platforms, primarily, within the UN, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the statement said.

The consultations took place ahead of the two-day meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) nations in Goa from Thursday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be attending the meeting.

The participants in the meeting stressed the importance of further developing international interaction in this sphere to fight the use of modern technologies for terrorist goals and the spread of terrorist and extremist ideology and to counter financing and other financial support of terrorism, it said.

The next meeting of the working group will take place in New Delhi within the timeframe agreed upon by the parties.
Memphis, May 2 (AP) A shot was fired at a Memphis television station on Tuesday, but no one was wounded, the station said.

The suspect then hid in a nearby business before he was arrested about two hours later, police said.

WHBQ, the Fox affiliate in Tennessee's second-largest city, reported that the shot was fired about 11:30 a.m. The bullet came down outside the front door of the lobby of the building, which is in a commercial area near the University of Memphis campus.

Police said the armed suspect went into a nearby hamburger restaurant, and authorities advised the public to stay out of the area. The university and Memphis police said about two hours later that the suspect had been taken into custody. No injuries were reported, Memphis police said.

The university issued an advisory telling students and faculty to shelter indoors. It later said that normal campus activity could resume.

The station said employees were evacuated to a parking lot for about 30 minutes after the shot was fired, while police secured the area.

We are all back inside the building now and are still safe, the station said in a news story posted on its website.

The suspect first approached a station employee outside of the gate wanting to talk, the station said. The suspect then showed the employee that he had a gun.

The employee then ended the conversation and left before the suspect went to the front of the building and fired a shot, the station said.

Police did not release any immediate information about the suspect.

Memphis Police Department Deputy Chief Stephen Chandler told reporters that it was not clear if the shot was fired intentionally or by accident. He said the shot was fired with an AR-style rifle and the bullet hit glass and a desk.

An apartment complex and businesses near the station were evacuated. Chandler said crisis negotiators spoke with the suspect while he was inside the restaurant and helped take him into custody.

He wanted to meet with media. He had a message to send out, said Chandler, without providing details about what the suspect wanted to say. (AP)



NSA
San Francisco, May 3 (AP) U.S. regulators say Facebook misled parents and failed to protect the privacy of children using its Messenger Kids app, including misrepresenting the access it provided to app developers to private user data.

As a result, The Federal Trade Commision on Wednesday proposed sweeping changes to a 2020 privacy order with Facebook  now called Meta  that would prohibit it from profiting from data it collects on users under 18. This would include data collected through its virtual-reality products. The FTC said the company has failed to fully comply with the 2020 order.

Meta would also be subject to other limitations, including with its use of face-recognition technology and be required to provide additional privacy protections for its users.

Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises, said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. The company's recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures. (AP)



NSA
Melbourne, May 3 (360info) This weekend's coronation of King Charles III has put the role of monarchies back in the spotlight.

The role of Charles as the head of the Commonwealth is largely ceremonial.

Despite this, the Archbishop of Canterbury has asked the public to pledge allegiance to the King in a "chorus of a million voices", for the first time in history.

Traditionally, hereditary peers were expected to kneel before touching the crown and kissing the monarch's right cheek.

"A transition to a new sovereign inevitably prompts questions about whether the monarchy remains fit for purpose," said Sally Raudon, social anthropologist at the University of Cambridge.

She said 2015 research looked at how the crown functioned in Australian society compared to the United Kingdom and the post-colonial Commonwealth realms of Canada and New Zealand, and predicted the likelihood of republican reform in any of these countries.

Members of the Commonwealth have varying support for the king, ranging from Jamaica's push towards becoming a republic to New Zealand retaining 'God Save the Queen' ('God Save the King') as its second national anthem.

With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the glue that bound 56 disparate nations is gone, said Craig Prescott, Lecturer in Law at Bangor University.

Elizabeth II personified the monarchy's link to the past. For good or ill, she was part of the Commonwealth story.

The Commonwealth [now] faces two main questions: the constitutional future of the Commonwealth realms, and the future of the Commonwealth itself.

Monarchies represent many things to people power, history, culture and colonialism. These hereditary institutions were once the most common form of government before a 20th-century shift towards republicanism saw the majority lose their legitimacy, placing power in the hands of the people.

"Some people's reluctance to break away from the monarchy could be seen as a nationalist response to growing ethnic diversity and the perception of a cultural threat," they said.

Citizens favouring the monarchy are more likely to display negative sentiments towards cultural groups they are not a part of Asians and Indigenous Australians in Australia, and Quebecers and Indigenous peoples in Canada."

Modern monarchies take on several different forms. From constitutional monarchies with restricted political power, to absolute monarchies with influence across all aspects of government.

In Indonesia, the province of Yogyakarta has special privileges under the national democratic government, placing the sultan as de facto governor with its allocation of funds in the national budget.

People in the Pacific island nation of Tonga pride themselves on being the last remaining monarchy in the Pacific and having never ceded their sovereignty.

In the mountain-locked country of Bhutan, the king has been crucial in the transition from absolute monarchy to democracy.

And while Japan's constitutional monarchy may have lost its governing power following World War II, research found the emperor's opinion can still have a lot of sway.

Where the public once looked at monarchies as a representation of continuity, stability and tradition, much of their powers have now diminished, with only a few still hanging on modernised and in new forms. (360inf.org) AMS

AMS
Toronto, Nadjim Frechet, Universite de Montreal and Yannick Dufresne, Universite Laval.

Toronto, May 3 (360info) As the UK prepares for the coronation of King Charles III, questions regarding Commonwealth countries' continued loyalty to the British crown are once again in the public mind.

Support for the monarchy varies widely across Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The majority of Australians support a republic, while New Zealand retains 'God Save the Queen' (now 'God Save the King') as its second national anthem.

But research found support for or against the monarchy seems more based on affective, symbolic factors than rational or pragmatic concerns.

For example, some people's reluctance to break away from the monarchy could be seen as a nationalist response to growing ethnic diversity and the perception of a cultural threat.

Citizens favouring the monarchy are more likely to display negative sentiments towards cultural groups they are not a part of Asians and Indigenous Australians in Australia, and Quebecers and Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Over decades, cultural diversity in Australia, Canada and New Zealand has de-emphasised the sense of a British heritage.

Instead, all three countries have seen increased immigration through the second half of the 20th century, challenging a collective identity that had previously been articulated around Britishness.

Those triggered by growing ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity in their country are therefore more likely to support the crown as a symbol of their British heritage.

People displaying pro-immigration attitudes are generally less supportive of monarchy in Australia and Canada, although the immigration issue does not seem to be linked to the issue of monarchy in New Zealand.

An analysis of national electoral studies in each country reveals changing levels of support for the monarchy.

It found the majority of Australians support a republic, although support has softened since the failed 1999 referendum on the issue.

In Canada, support for the monarchy is slightly higher, but has decreased drastically since the end of the 1980s.

This drop in support coincided with a period of constitutional politics, marked by Canada's patriation of the Constitution in 1982 allowing for changes to the Constitution to be made in Canada rather than only through the parliament of the United Kingdom.

Today, only a slight majority of Canadians favour retaining the monarch as the head of state.

The story differs in New Zealand, where most citizens still prefer to retain their ties to the British monarch.

In New Zealand whether or not the country should become a republic is less of a divisive issue, as shown by its more stable support for the monarchy over time.

To better understand how growing cultural diversity can trigger a nationalist response and loyalty to the crown, it is helpful to understand the idea of ethnic versus civic nationalism.

Ethnic nationalism is based on cultural unity, people are considered to be part of the same society on ethnic grounds, for example if they have a shared ancestry, language or culture.

In civic nationalism inclusion is based on either birth or other legally established procedures. Under this definition anyone could potentially become an Australian, Canadian or New Zealand citizen.

These concepts of the nation are often intertwined and all forms of nationalism lie somewhere along the ethnic-civic continuum.

But for those who hold a more ethnic concept of their nation, increasing cultural diversity could make them feel threatened. This could explain in part how cultural diversity and support of the monarchy might interact.

It is hard to predict what will happen in these Commonwealth realms from now on, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will likely continue to become more culturally diverse.

Whether future generations will attach as much importance to the institution of the monarchy and what they see it symbolising as their forebears did also remains to be seen. (360info.org) AMS

AMS
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Regions Bank

Regions Bank, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Press release picture

By Kim Borges

As part of Regions Bank's Earth Day celebration, Doing More Today is highlighting ways Regions associates, customers and community partners are making life better by helping protect our environment. Here, we see the impact of clothing waste and two nonprofits helping keep textiles out of landfills.

Purge, purge, purge.

Many of us have streamlined our closets during the past three years due to changes in work attire.

Next time - consider this:

But there are ways to reduce environment impacts - while enhancing community impacts.

One Regions Bank community partner extending the shelf life of clothing is Connections to Success in St. Louis, Missouri. The nonprofit provides people living in poverty with a comprehensive network of resources to become economically self-sufficient.

Regions associates are all-in, providing financial donations, teaching financial education, assisting with mock interviews and conducting clothing drives for the organization's boutique.

"Each client we serve receives an average of 10 items," explained Lynda Keeton, director of Resource Development for the nonprofit's St. Louis and Central Missouri region. "Many of our clients have to make hard decisions every day on how to spend the little amount of money they have and are not in a position to purchase professional interview clothing, whether new or from a thrift shop. Our workwear program empowers the self-esteem and confidence of our clients and can be the difference in them securing employment."

Story continues

Linda Lockwood from Regions' Institutional Services group has been plugged in with Connections to Success for over a decade. Five years ago, she facilitated a connection between the organization and a large department store to provide thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise to the nonprofit's clients.

"One of the best things about this relationship is that it's expanded the reach of Connections to Success," said Lockwood. "The boutique has provided purses, and it's also provided undergarments, a need that is often overlooked. Those generous donations have resulted in increased self-confidence for clients."

The impact Connections to Success has made since opening its doors 25 years ago is significant.

"We've distributed more than 132,000 items to help those we serve secure employment opportunities," said Keeton.

And even the items Connections to Success can't provide directly to clients are still being put to use.

"There are several ways we redirect items our clients can't use," said Keeton. "Twice a year, we host a pop-up style sale featuring items that are considered more casual wear, as well as overstock inventory or out-of-season items. These items are sold at a very low cost so they are accessible to everyone we serve. Funds raised allow us to replenish our boutique with shoe polish, bags, and other operational items. We also provide overstock and other items we are unable to use to fellow local charities."

The result is creating a brighter - and a greener - future.

"Repurposing clothing, handbags and shoes is a win-win," said Keeton. "Anytime we can take an item that could potentially end up in a landfill and instead allow it to inspire a journey to economic independence, we've created a win for that woman and a win for the environment. It's a way we can all do our part to support the earth and to be kind to one another."

See the impact another nonprofit is making thanks to donated items: Goodwill is another place where many turned to donate items during the pandemic. Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont in Charlotte, North Carolina, a Regions Foundation grantee, resold and gave a second life to nearly 17 million items in its retail stores and more than 132,000 items via e-commerce in 2022 alone. It also recycled or refurbished more than 1.1 million pounds of electronics. The Regions Foundation is a nonprofit primarily funded by Regions Bank.

"When you donate to Goodwill, you're not only giving items a second chance, but you're also helping people in your community on their pathway to prosperity," said Jose Luis, chief operating officer for Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont. "As a social enterprise, proceeds from the sale of donated goods fund job training and employment services offered free of charge. In 2022, Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont provided support to more than 7,700 people in the Charlotte region thanks to donors and shoppers in our community."

About the Regions Foundation

The Regions Foundation supports community investments that positively impact the communities served by Regions Bank. The Foundation engages in a grantmaking program focused on priorities including economic and community development; education and workforce readiness; and financial wellness. The Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation funded primarily through contributions from Regions Bank.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Regions Bank on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Regions Bank

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/regions-bank

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Regions Bank





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/752754/Extending-the-Fashion-Runway




Palghar, May 3 (PTI) Twenty five people were injured when their bus rammed into a trailer truck after the latter's driver applied brakes suddenly in Maharashtra's Palghar district, police said on Wednesday.

The accident took place at around 10 am on Tuesday near Kudus when the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus carrying 65 passengers was heading from Palghar to Wada area, they said.

The driver of a trailer truck applied brakes suddenly. As a result, the bus which was behind the truck rammed into it, an official from Wada police station said.

Twenty five people, including the bus driver and conductor, were injured, he said.

Local people and police rushed to the spot and helped in transporting the injured people to a nearby public health centre, the official said.

A 47-year-old woman, who was seriously injured, was shifted to the Wada rural hospital for treatment, he said.

A probe was on into the incident, he added.
Nagpur, May 3 (PTI) Police have busted a prostitution racket in Nagpur city of Maharashtra, and rescued three women, including an Uzbek national, an official said on Wednesday.

The operation was conducted by the social security wing of the crime branch early morning on Tuesday, in which two men were arrested, he said.

A 37-year-old man and his friend (40) were operating the sex racket. Following a tip-off, the police nabbed them and recovered from them six mobile phones, one four-wheeler and other items collectively worth Rs 10.51 lakh, the police said.

A case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against the duo at the Sonegaon police station.
Thane, May 3 (PTI) Two boys drowned in a water-filled quarry in Bhiwandi town of Maharashtra's Thane district where they had gone to swim, police said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday and their bodies were recovered this morning, they said.

"These two boys - aged nine and 14 - went to the quarry to swim along with other children from Narpoli locality. However, they drowned in the water and they could not be traced till late evening. But their bodies were found floating on the water this morning," an official of Bhoiwada police station said.

A case of accidental death was registered and their bodies sent for post-mortem to a government hospital, he said.
Jabalpur (MP), May 3 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday directed the doctors of government hospitals, who went on indefinite strike earlier in the day, to resume work with immediate effect.

A division bench of Chief Justice R Malimath and Justice Vishal Mishra said the doctors shall not go on even a token strike without seeking the court's permission as a Public Interest Litigation on the issue has been pending before it.

The PIL was filed by Inderjeet Kunwarpal Singh, a former corporator of Jabalpur Municipal Corporation, in February 2023 when the doctors had planned to go on indefinite strike, said his lawyer Sanjay Agrawal.



But they had called it off later.

From April 12 to May 2, 2023, the doctors observed two hours' strike every day, and from Wednesday they went on indefinite strike, the lawyer said.

The agitating doctors' demands include facilities for their colleagues posted in rural areas and end to alleged bureaucratic interference.

The agitation is being organised by different medical associations under the umbrella body of the Madhya Pradesh Shaskiya Swashasi Chikitsak Mahasangh after failed talks with the government. Nearly 13,000 doctors are participating in the protest, claimed the Mahasangh. PTI ADU COR NR

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Kolkata, May 3 (PTI) A court in West Bengal's Jhargram district on Wednesday sentenced a man to death by hanging for killing his grandmother.

Additional Sessions Judge 1st Court Jhargram Jimut Bahan Biswas convicted Radhakantha Bera for killing his 60-year-old grandmother Tarubala Bera and ordered that he be hanged till death.

"Radhakanta's act is barbaric, satanic, demonic, and beyond human comprehension. I think that it is within the domain of 'rarest of the rare case', which demands death penalty of the accused," the judge said.

As per the case details, on February 9, 2017, Radhakanta out of previous animosity forcibly pulled Tarubala Bera and took her to a nearby 'Shiva temple' in their village and attacked her with a sharp weapon and beheaded her.

He then buried his grandmother's head and the weapon and fled.

Acting on the FIR lodged by the victim's daughter Arati Bera at Sankrail Police Station, police arrested Radhakanta.

Several witnesses were examined in the case.
Bhubaneswar, May 3 (PTI) The opposition BJP on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to the Odisha Chief Electoral Officer seeking deployment of central armed police force personnel during the by-poll to the Jharsuguda assembly segment on May 10.

A BJP delegation led by Dilip Mallick submitted the memorandum to the CEO alleging that the law and order situation in the state, particularly in Jharsuguda has "deteriorated".

The BJP delegation claimed that 71 of the 253 polling booths of the Jharsuguda assembly constituency are highly sensitive. Therefore, steps should be taken to ensure extensive security arrangements in these booths, BJP state media cell chief Dilip Mallick said.

This apart, they demanded CCTV camera arrangement, drone cameras should also be deployed in and around these booths, he said, adding that CAPF personnel must be deployed in Jharsuguda to ensure free, fair and impartial bypoll.

Meanwhile, in a major jolt to the opposition party ahead of the by-poll, BJPs Jharsuguda district unit president Mangal Sahoo quit his post and joined the ruling BJD on Wednesday.

Sahoo said he decided to leave the saffron party and join the BJD as he was immensely inspired by Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaiks ideals. He joined the BJD in the presence of a senior party leader.

Sahoo also met Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar.

In another related development, the chief minister sanctioned half an acre of land and Rs 3 crore for the construction of a building at Bhubaneswar for people belonging to Agria Samaj, dominant in Jharsugududa assembly segment.
Benaulim (Goa), Mar 3 (PTI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is set to hold separate bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang and Russia's Sergey Lavrov at a beach resort in Goa on Thursday on the sidelines of a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) amid rapidly evolving regional security situation.

In the talks with Qin, Jaishankar is once again expected to convey that India-China ties cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas, people familiar with the matter said.

Qin, Lavrov, their Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and foreign ministers of other SCO countries are arriving in Goa on Thursday to attend a crucial conclave of the SCO that is taking place ahead of the annual summit of the grouping in the first week of July. India is the current chair of the grouping.

The two-day SCO foreign ministerial meeting will begin with a gala reception at a luxury beach resort in Goa on Thursday while the main deliberations will take place on Friday.

The people cited above said Jaishankar will hold separate bilateral talks with his counterparts from almost all SCO countries. However, there is no clarity on such a meeting between Jaishankar and Bhutto-Zardari.

The bilateral meeting between Jaishankar and Qin will be the second one in the last two months. The Chinese foreign minister visited India in March to attend a meeting of the G20 foreign ministers.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Jaishankar held talks with Qin during which he conveyed to his Chinese counterpart that the state of India-China relations is "abnormal" because of the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh.

Last week, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu at a meeting that China's violation of existing border agreements "eroded" the entire basis of ties between the two countries and that all issues relating to the frontier must be resolved in accordance with the existing pacts.

The meeting on April 27 took place in New Delhi on the sidelines of a conclave of the SCO defence ministers.

The ties between India and China 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.

The Indian and the Chinese troops are locked in a standoff in a few friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh for the last three years though they disengaged in several places following a series of military and diplomatic talks.

India has been maintaining that the relationship between the two countries should be based on "three mutuals" -- mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interests.

The people cited above said Jaishankar and Russian foreign minister Lavrov in their meeting are set to review the overall bilateral ties with a focus on trade and commercial engagement.

India has been pressing Russia for urgently addressing the trade imbalance that has been in favour of Moscow.

India's trade deficit with Russia jumped significantly in the last few months after it procured significant volumes of discounted crude oil from that country in the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis.

Sources said Lavrov will arrive in India as scheduled notwithstanding escalation in tension between Russia and Ukraine. Russia on Wednesday accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in an unsuccessful attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin.

The talks between Jaishankar and Lavrov are also set to cover a number of issues relating to bilateral ties and regional situations, they said.

Jaishankar is also likely to hold separate bilateral talks with his counterparts from some other SCO countries on Friday.

India is hosting the SCO in its capacity as the grouping's chair.

The people said the foreign ministers will deliberate on overall challenges facing the region in the backdrop of the current geo-political turmoil and the state of bilateral ties between the member nations would not impact the discussions.

The SCO is an influential economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping, which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.

India has shown a keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS), which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence.
New Delhi, May 3 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP on Wednesday sparred over the indefinite hunger strike called by the opposition party in Delhi against alleged excessive spending on the renovation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's official residence here.

While the ruling AAP claimed the protest has turned out to be a dud and even BJP workers did not participate in it, the opposition party hit back saying ministers of the Arvind Kejriwal government were trying to mislead people by spreading lies.

The BJP has been attacking Kejriwal and AAP, alleging that the chief minister spent Rs 45 crore on the renovation of his official residence between 2020 and 2022.

On Monday, it launched an indefinite dharna near Kejriwal's 6, Flagstaff Road, Civil Lines residence, asking him to open his bungalow to the general public so that they can witness his "lavish living", even if the entry into it is ticketed.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak said the hunger strike has found no support among the people of Delhi as the BJP was "indulging in politics of lies".

"Bharatiya Nautanki Party only knows theatrics. Their indefinite fast has completely failed. Today morning, we clicked pictures at 8.30 am, 9.30 am and 10.30 am, and there was nobody at the protest site," the AAP leader claimed.

"Leave aside the people of Delhi, even BJP workers are not participating in the strike because they know that the saffron party is indulging in politics of lies," Pathak added.

Responding, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said the ruling party leaders are rattled by the exposure of the "scam" involving the beautification of the chief minister's official bungalow at an expenditure of Rs 45 crore of public money.

"Aam Aadmi Party's fury has increased so much due to the campaign and dharna being run by the Delhi BJP that now AAP minister Saurabh Bharadwaj is making false claims on Twitter since the morning," he said.

Kapoor said Bhardwaj has damaged the dignity of his ministerial berth by resorting to falsehood.

In the AAP press conference, Pathak said the people of Delhi have rejected the BJP in the Assembly and the MCD elections as they "love their son Arvind Kejriwal".

"Today, I called up a BJP worker asking him why he wasn't part of the party's protest. The BJP worker said those participating in the hunger strike are indulging in theatrics," he claimed.

Pathak further said the BJP worker he spoke to admitted that the renovation was not done at Kejriwal's personal house but at his official residence which was built in 1942.

The AAP leader also asked the BJP to share a list of people who were sitting on indefinite hunger strike. "Today is the third day and by this time, a person who is sitting on an indefinite hunger strike starts losing weight and his ketone levels go up and blood pressure fluctuates," he said.

"They should issue the medical bulletin of these people by this evening," Pathak added.

The AAP MLA said that if they need help, a team of doctors will be sent to carry out a medical checkup and issue a bulletin.

He alleged that if the BJP failed to do so, it will prove that the strike is a "flop operation" and "nothing more than theatrics".

While the BJP has been trying to corner Kejriwal and AAP over the renovation issue, the ruling party leaders have alleged that the BJP was trying to divert attention from the more pressing issues faced by the country.
Udhampur/Jammu, May 3 (PTI) Patience is running thin for the residents of over 50 villages in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district who have been waiting for the last two years for a new bridge over a rivulet and say the administration needs to be "shaken out of its slumber".

The 70-year-old Birwan bridge in the Army cantonment, one kilometre ahead of the Northern Army Command headquarters, was declared unsafe two years ago after it developed cracks, hitting Army movement and forcing over one-and-a-half lakh population to take an 18-km detour to reach the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.

Chairman of Udhampur District Development Council Lal Chand, however, appealed to the people to have patience, assuring them that the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the executing agency, was waiting for the soil testing report to start the construction of the double-lane bridge.

He also said that Locl MP and Union minister Jitendra Singh was monitoring the project.

The Army has immediately built a temporary steel bridge in place of the Birwan bridge, but the new construction could not be used for more than two months. Later, a bailey bridge was built by the Army with restrictions on the movement of goods and commercial vehicles.

"We have staged protests demanding a new bridge. But nobody paid any heed. We are suffering economic losses because we have to pay additional transportation charges," the president of Beopar Mandal N C Bhatti told PTI.

He demanded a bridge which could be used by passenger vehicles.

General Secretary of Senior Citizens Forum Garhi Amreek Singh said the administration had plans to build a bridge for over 30 years.

"The delay in starting the work is because the administration is fast asleep they need to be shaken out of their slumber. The people are suffering as they have to spend an extra two hours to reach their destinations," Singh said.

He said the government should consider starting the Jammu-Udhampur and Katra-Udhampur service through the bailey bridge immediately for the convenience of the people.

Sumit Mangotra, a local Congress leader, said the administration started dismantling the old bridge six months ago and that rekindled hope among the locals that a new bridge would be built within a year.

The work, however, stopped within two weeks and there was no headway since then, he said, adding the local shopkeepers were the worst hit by the collapse of the original bridge.

DDC chairman Lal Chand said, "The debris of the old bridge already stands cleared. The design of the double-lane bridge with footpaths on both sides is ready and we are expecting the work to start immediately after the soil testing report is received."

"Soil testing was imperative as the original bridge and the steel bridge collapsed due to the sinking of the earth. It is like a swamp which needs to be tackled before the construction work starts," he said.

Chand, who is a BJP leader, said the main problem was the water supply pipes passing through the area to the army cantonment. The issue has been resolved, he said.

"We have also been in touch with the authorities concerned. The bridge will be a reality soon," Chand asserted.
Dehradun, May 3 (PTI) The Uttarakhand government on Wednesday approved the Chief Minister Skill Upgradation and Global Employment Scheme to help youths of the state pursue careers abroad.

The state cabinet gave its approval to the scheme, Mukhya Mantri Kaushal Unnayan aur Vaishavik Rozgar Yojana, at its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Chief Secretary S S Sandhu told reporters.

The special thing about the scheme is that youths interested in pursuing careers abroad will be prepared by the state government which will develop their skills accordingly and help selected candidates in getting their tickets and visas, he said.

In the first phase, selected candidates will be trained in hospitality and nursing sectors by institutions which have expertise in the field and expressed interest in training the youths of the state, he said.

A workshop will be held here on May 9 where interested candidates will be screened and after selection, trained for jobs available in the elderly care sector in Japan, Sandhu said.

Selected candidates will be trained in the language, culture and work ethics of the country where they are going to work, he said.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Teh Tarik, the unofficial national frothy tea drink has been a favourite amongst locals for generations. But due to an increasingly hectic and active lifestyle, Malaysians has less time to sit and sip their teh tarik. With this in mind, F&N Beverages Marketing Sdn Bhd, one of the largest beverage manufacturers and distributors launched F&N Teh Tarik in an on-the-go convenient format in April 2020 to address this need. The new brand campaign reinforces the brand positioning "Biar Ori, Baru Sempoi" and features an exciting brand film and a theme song entitled "Biar Ori, Baru Sempoi, exclusively sung by popular homegrown singer and rapper, MK K-Clique.

(from left) Izanie Nadzim (Head of Insights) , Tiffany Tan( Head of Marketing, F&N Dairies), MK K-Clique, Thompson Chuah (Marketing Manager, F&N Dairies), Ng Eng Cheang (Managing Director, Commercial Operations Malaysia), Chan Poi Ling (Director, Modern Trade & E-commerce) attended the launch of Biar Ori, Baru Sempoi campaign.

This new F&N Teh Tarik campaign aims to resonate with open-minded Malaysian in a lively and stimulating manner  at the same time enabling those who want to enjoy their favourite Teh Tarik whenever and wherever they are.

Brewed using F&Ns signature dairy creamer and real tea, F&N Teh Tarik ORI provides a chilled Teh Tarik with a familiar sensation. Designed to be consumed on the go, F&N the Tarik is the perfect companion after a day at work or when you catch up with friends. The product is now available in 2 variants - ORI and Less Sweet and in both slim can and bottle format, making it the perfect drink with a satisfying taste that can be enjoyed anytime and anywhere!

"Initially made available during the height of the pandemic back in 2020, F&N Teh Tarik aimed to bridge the gap for those who were missing the authentic 'mamak experience'. To continue the momentum and connect with younger Malaysians in a more exciting and energetic way, we have launched this new campaign 'Biar Ori' which signifies the most original taste and 'Baru Sempoi' which means the coolest in its most awesome form to get closer to the hearts of every Malaysian and make sure the F&N Teh Tarik is available and accessible to everyone on-the-go anytime, anywhere," said Tiffany Tan, Head of Marketing, F&N Dairies for F&N Beverages Marketing Sdn Bhd.

Story continues

Staying true to the brand's commitment to offer Malaysians vibrant and flavour-packed drinks wherever they are, the campaign will also place a one-of-a-kind interactive vending machine across major transit areas in Malaysia that offers Malaysians a chance to 'shake up' their own can of Teh Tarik for the entire month.

The F&N Teh Tarik ORI and Less Sweet will also be launched onto East Malaysia shores this May, as part of the Brand's efforts to extend its offerings to all Malaysians.

For more information on F&N Teh Tarik, please visit www.fn.com.my or the official social media page @fnndairies on Facebook & Instagram.

Cision

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New Delhi, May 2 (PTI) Delhi Urban Development Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Tuesday demanded that the lieutenant governor conduct a high-level inquiry into alleged corruption in the MCD while it was under the BJP's control.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) earned a revenue of about Rs 8,900 crore in the financial year 2022-23, a rise of more than 22 per cent compared to the earnings in the year before, according to officials.

The three erstwhile civic bodies of Delhi were unified into the MCD in May 2022.

The "perennially cash-strapped" MCD has registered record revenue receipts in 2022-23, witnessing a jump of 22.77 per cent over the year (FY 2021-22) prior to it, when the figure was Rs 7,249.25 crore, a senior official of the Raj Niwas said.

Following the release of these figures, Bharadwaj said LG V K Saxena's comments have raised questions on the 15-year tenure of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the MCD.

He expressed concerns about the LG's statement over the MCD's revenue growth over the last year.

"The LG's statement about the MCD's earnings increasing from Rs 7,249 crore to Rs 8,900 crore in 2022-23, indicating a revenue growth of about Rs 1,650 crore, raises some questions. We hope he will answer these questions," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said.

The questions raised by the LG were -- were the old officers of the MCD replaced with new ones in 2022-23, were the old officers of the property tax department replaced with new officers in 2022-23, was the MCD commissioner replaced with a new commissioner in 2022-23 and were all the MCD employees replaced with new employees in 2022-23, Bharadwaj said.

Noting that the MCD was under the BJP's control from 2007 to 2022, he said over the last one year, the civic body was run in accordance with rules and regulations and managed by officers and hence, the BJP government at the Centre was not able to interfere in its functioning.

"As such, when the LG claims that he has put an end to the revenue leakages within the municipal corporation, leading to a significant increase in revenue, it implies that the LG also acknowledges that the revenue of the municipal corporation was looted for the last 15 years under the BJP," the AAP leader added.

He demanded that the LG conduct an investigation into the "loot" that he claimed had stopped in the MCD after 15 years.

"The LG has a habit of conducting an investigation for trivial matters, so I request that since he has claimed that the revenue loot of the MCD was stopped over the last year, he should conduct an investigation as to who was looting the MCD for the last 15 years," Bharadwaj added.

He further said since the LG "himself has acknowledged that a revenue loot was taking place in the MCD for years, he should constitute a high-level committee to investigate and reveal to the people of Delhi who were involved in looting their tax money for the last 15 years".
Prayagraj (UP), May 2 (PTI) Umesh Pal's wife Jaya Pal issued a poster here on Tuesday, expressing her gratitude for the decimation of the killers of her husband and BSP MLA Raju Pal. The poster carried the images of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP MLA Sidharth Nath Singh.

It also had the images of Umesh Pal, Jaya Pal and Raju Pal.

At a public meeting of Adityanath here, some people arrived with a poster that read in Hindi: "Umesh Pal, Raju Pal ke hatyaro ko mitti mein milane ke liye dhanyavad (thanks for decimating the killers of Umesh Pal and Raju Pal). Bulldozer Baba zindabad, Sidharth Nath Singh zindabad", Singh, the MLA from Allahabad West, confirmed.

A pamphlet carrying the name and photograph of Jaya Pal and making an appeal to people to extend support to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh has also gone viral on social media.

"Whatever Yogiji had said, he has delivered. He has decimated the mafia," the pamphlet read.

Umesh Pal and his two police security guards were shot dead on February 24 outside his residence in Prayagraj's Dhoomanganj area.

Based on a complaint from Jaya Pal, a case was registered on February 25 against gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad, his brother Ashraf, wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam, and nine others.

On March 28, an MP-MLA court held Ahmad and two others guilty in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case and sentenced them to life imprisonment. That was Ahmad's first conviction even though more than 100 cases were registered against him.

The 60-year-old former Samajwadi Party MP was brought from the Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat to Uttar Pradesh by road for hearing in the case in Prayagraj.

On April 15, Ahmad and Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three men posing as journalists in the middle of a media interaction, while police personnel were escorting them to a medical college here for a checkup.
Thane, May 3 (PTI) The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) here has awarded a compensation of Rs 1.19 crore to the Mumbai-based family of a 33-year-old man killed in a road accident in 2019.



MACT member M M Walimohammed, in the order passed on April 25, directed Gulnar Plastics Pvt Ltd at Silvassa, the owner of the offending vehicle, and its insurer Tata AIG General Insurance Company Ltd, to jointly and severally make the payment of Rs 1,19,64,400 to the claimants within two months along with an interest of seven per cent per annum from the date of filing of the claim.

If they fail, they will have to pay the interest at eight per cent per annum till the realisation of the compensation amount, as per a copy of the order made available on Wednesday.

The claimants in the petition were deceased Shailesh Mishra's wife, minor daughter and parents.

Their counsel S L Mane told the MACT that Mishra worked as a manager with a garments company and earned Rs 60,000 salary per month.

The claimants submitted that on June 17, 2019, Mishra was travelling in a car from Kandivali to Andheri on the Western Express Highway in Mumbai.

Another car came in a high speed from the wrong side and dashed Mishra's car near Durgadi in Goregaon. Mishra received severe injuries and died on the spot.

He was the only earning member of the family, the claimants said.

The lawyers of the offending car owner and its insurer contested the claim on various grounds.



The MACT in its order said the FIR followed by spot panchnama (inspection), the accidental death report and statements referred prove the involvement of the offending vehicle and the negligent driving of its driver.

The police papers are relied by the parties, it said.

The opponent insurance company is directed to pay the compensation and is at liberty to recover the amount from the owner of the vehicle," it said.

The MACT directed that on realisation of the amount, a sum of Rs 25 lakh be kept in a fixed deposit in the name of the deceased's child, Rs 15 lakh FD in his wife's name and Rs 10 lakh each be paid to the parents of the deceased. The balance amount be paid to Mishra's wife, it directed.

The compensation amount includes figures under various conventional heads, including loss of estate, loss of consortium as well as funeral expenses.
Bengaluru, May 3 (PTI) The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress manifestos have provided much zest to electioneering for the May 10 Karnataka assembly polls, which was initially thought to be a bland battle without much ado.

In the past two days, the two manifestos have taken centre stage and it is likely to spur the campaigning till the elections are over.

The documents providing a vision of the two national political parties for the next five years suddenly became the talk of the town like never before.

While the BJP released its "nationalistic" manifesto with a Hindutva hue on May 1, the Congress made its "secular" manifesto public on May 2. The BJP has called its manifesto Praja Pranalike-2023 (Citizens Manifesto-2023) and the Congress Paradise of peace to all.

Amid the two giants, the JD(S) too brought out its Janata Pranalike (Peoples Manifesto).

The ruling BJP has promised in its manifesto to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The party also promised to create a special wing in the state called Karnataka State Wing against Religious Fundamentalism and Terror (K-SWIFT).

The party said if it was voted to power, it would allocate Rs 1,500 crore to develop Kalyana Circuit, Banavasi Circuit, Parashurama Circuit, Kaveri Circuit and Ganagapura Corridor to transform Karnataka into Indias most favoured tourist destination.

The BJP manifesto revolves around Six A's, namely Anna (food security), Akshara (quality education), Arogya (affordable health), Aadaya (assured income), Abhaya (social justice for all) and Abhivruddhi (development).

Free cooking gas cylinders thrice a year for BPL families on Ugadi, Ganesha Chaturthi and Deepavali festivals and 'Atal' food centres to provide affordable and healthy food are other lucrative offers.

The BJP has also promised to launch the 'Poshane' scheme through which every BPL household will be provided with a half litre of Nandini milk every day and five kg 'Shri Anna - siri dhaanya' (millets) through monthly ration kits.

The 'Sarvarigu Suru Yojane' is a scheme under which the Revenue Department will identify and distribute 10 lakh housing sites across the state to the homeless beneficiaries, if the BJP is voted to power.

The Congress was doing well with its five guarantees and the proposed pro-people policies but it stirred up a hornets nest by saying in its manifesto that it would ban organisations like the Bajrang Dal and the Popular Front of India that spread hatred.

The Congress said it was committed to taking firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred amongst communities on the grounds of caste and religion.

We believe that the law and Constitution is sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities. We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on such organisations," the party said in its manifesto.

Since most Bajrang Dal activists are also the cadres of the BJP, the Congress eventually drew the ire of the saffron party in general and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular, who got ammunition to target his rival party.

The Congress in its manifesto has decided to lock up Lord Hanuman. Initially, they locked up Prabhu Shri Ram (Lord Ram). And now they want to lock up people who say Jai Bajrangbali'.

The BJP has been projecting Congress as an anti-Hindu party. The Prime Minister claimed it was an attempt to lock up Bajrangbali and his devotees after "locking up" Lord Rama in Ayodhya till the late 1980s when the door of the temple was opened. He even made a point to chant Jai Bajrangbali at the beginning and end of his speech to convey the message that his party stood with the Bajrang Dal.

The possibility of banning the Bajrang Dal eclipsed the promising guarantees of Congress, which are 'Gruha Jyothi', 'Gruha Lakshmi', 'Anna Bhagya', 'Yuva Nidhi' and 'Shakti'.

Gruha Jyothi promises 200 units of free electricity a month to all households. Under 'Anna Bhagya', every person in a BPL (below poverty line) family will receive 10 kg food grains, which can be rice or millets including ragi and jowar every month.

Under the 'Yuva Nidhi' scheme, Rs 3,000 per month will be provided to all unemployed graduates and Rs 1,500 a month for all unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18 to 25) for two years.

While the 'Shakti' scheme proposes free travel for women throughout the state in regular government-run KSRTC/ BMTC buses, under the 'Gruha Lakshmi' scheme, each woman head of a family will receive Rs 2,000 monthly assistance.

The party also promised to enact a 'Karnataka Whistleblowers Protection Act' if voted to power.

The Congress said it would demand Karnataka's rightful share from the Centre in total taxes collected, and fight against the efforts to "dilute the Constitutional rights in the federal system".

The party said it would reject the National Education Policy and formulate a State Education Policy.

The Janata Dal (Secular) on its part has promised to restore the four per cent reservation given to the Muslims under 2B category of Other Backward Castes, which the BJP government scrapped at the fag end of its tenure, recently.

Also, the party led by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has promised to provide an assistance of Rs two lakh to women who marry youths that are engaged in farming as their occupation.

It has vowed to "throw out" Amul and save Karnataka's Nandini dairy brand, calling it Kannadiga's identity, among various assurances.

The party has also assured that it would bring in a law reserving jobs for Kannadigas in the private sector, and to provide free higher education for economically-weaker students.
Pilibhit (UP), May 2 (PTI) A police constable and his brother were booked for allegedly gang-raping a woman on the pretext of marriage, police said on Tuesday.

According to the police, the woman, who is a resident of Saharanpur district, wrote a letter to the superintendent of police alleging that the accused constable had promised to marry her after they came in contact with each other.

She alleged that the accused took her to different hotels and continued to rape her following which she became pregnant twice, they said.

The woman also alleged that about six months ago she had lodged a complaint against the accused person at a police station. However, the accused constable on January 25 this year made her give an affidavit regarding their marriage to the police. After this, he took her to Shamli at the residence of his elder brother, police said.

The woman, in her complaint, said the accused person and his brother both raped her at gunpoint there, they said.

Police said a case has been registered in this connection investigation launched.
Noida, May 3 (PTI) The Noida Police has nabbed a 23-year-old man in connection with an inter-state fake Indian currency racket that was busted last month with the arrest of five people, an official said on Wednesday.

The sixth arrestee was held on Tuesday and has been identified as Mobin Khan, a native of Lucknow, whose brother was among those held on April 11 in connection with the racket, the official said.

The police also claimed to have recovered counterfeit notes of face value Rs 8,500 ( 17 notes of 500 denomination) from Khan's possession when the Sector 24 station officials nabbed him near the district court in Surajpur.

The police had on April 11 arrested Faiz Khan, Ayush Gupta, Shibu Khan, Aditya Gupta and Hari Om Atri while fake notes having face value of Rs 6.48 lakh were seized from them.

"Mobin Khan said his brother Shibu Khan had been arrested last month. He had come here to talk to a lawyer about his brother's bail. He said he was short on money but had fake notes of face value Rs 15,000 with him which he brought here. He had used the other notes during his trip here and fake notes of face value Rs 8,500 were remaining with him," a police spokesperson said.

Khan was on police radar ever since the case came to light and he was held on the basis of inputs through electronic surveillance, manual intelligence and informer's tip-off, the spokesperson added.

The police said an FIR has been lodged at the Sector 24 police station under Indian Penal Code sections 489 A, 489B, 489 C and 489 D (all related to counterfeit notes) and the accused sent to jail.
MATT TIERNAN, Chariho, Boys Volleyball, Senior; Tiernan had 36 kills in a five-set win against Mount St. Charles. Tiernan also had 28 kills in a loss to La Salle Academy.

SEAN BERGEL, Wheeler, Baseball, Junior; Bergel allowed just three hits and one run as Wheeler defeated St. Bernard. It was the first loss of the season for the Saints.

BRANDON TAVARES, Stonington, Golf, Junior; Tavares shot a 4-under 32 in a win against Woodstock Academy. The round was the best by a Stonington golfer in a number of years. Tavares also had a round of 1-under and another at even par during the week.

TYLER BRAYMAN, Westerly, Boys Volleyball, Sophomore; Brayman finished with 23 kills, 10 assists and three blocks in a win against Cranston West. It was the first loss of the season for Cranston West.

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- The company successfully operated booth at the event, introducing the participation-driven Game-Fi platform NAODA to global users offline

- Special POPs 'Attend NAO!' issued to booth visiting NAODA users during event

SEOUL, South Korea, May 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Web 3.0 and gaming platform creator FLASK announced that the company successfully participated in Consensus 2023, the world's largest blockchain conference held in Austin, Texas from April 26-28.

FLASK Successfully Participates in Consensus 2023 The Worlds Largest Blockchain Event.

FLASK operated a booth at the conference and showcased NAODA (http://naoda.xyz/), the company's participation-driven Game-Fi platform, on a global stage.

Consensus was started in 2015 and is considered the most influential crypto event, gathering different elements of the crypto community including DeFi, blockchain, Web3 and the metaverse. The event brings together developers, investors, founders, brands and policymakers to discuss trends and innovations occurring in the crypto space. This year's event featured talks on a variety of topics, including Web 3.0, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and next-generation software as a service (Saas), and attracted attendees from 112 countries around the world.

"We are delighted to take part in Consensus 2023, the world's most influential blockchain event, and introduce NAODA to global users offline," said Byoung-jae Lee, CEO of FLASK. "We will focus on fostering an ecosystem with differentiated community-driven platform experiences, and also redefining the online gaming experience through high-quality games that will be released in the second half of the year."

As a sponsor of the event, FLASK met with global users and industry stakeholders to introduce the beta version of the NAODA platform and share its achievements thus far. In addition to the development of its NAODA ecosystem, the company also made efforts in expanding its global business at the event, sharing its vision and long-term strategy, which bridges the gap between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 through the popularization of blockchain games.

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FLASK also provided unique digital gifts to attendees who visited the booth. The company issued special editions of NAODA's Soulbound Token (SBT), including "Attend NAO!". These Proof of Participation (POP) badges within NAODA serve as credentials for participating in community and gaming activities.

FLASK shared that more than 61,000 POPs were issued within a month after the release of the beta version of NAODA. In addition, with users actively participating, POPs ranked third in terms of transaction volume among others on Polygonscan ERC-1155, a platform that allows users to check the transaction volume of the Polygon blockchain in real time.

About FLASK

FLASK, a KOSDAQ-listed company, is a technology innovator that was relaunched in 2022 with ambitions to lead the expansion of blockchain and Web 3.0 technologies. The development of its blockchain-based game platform and game titles is driven by top talent who have experience working at leading companies such as Kakao Games, NCSoft and Neowiz. FLASK CEO Byoung-jae Lee was formerly General Manager at EA Studios' Spearhead and at EA Seoul Studio for EA Korea, leading several projects for FIFA Online. Additional team members helping drive the business include global talent from companies like the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). FLASK plans to provide expanded GameFi services through its blockchain game platform NAODA and its high-end games, which are scheduled for release in the first half of this year. Learn more at: https://flask.global/

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SOURCE FLASK




The commander of the Naval Special Warfare Center who was reprimanded in connection with the death last year of a Navy SEAL candidate has been pulled out of his job about two months early, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Navy Capt. Brian Drechsler is being moved to another job as Navy officials seek new leadership for the Center, more than a year after SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen collapsed and died of acute pneumonia just hours after completing the grueling Hell Week test.

Drechsler was one of three Navy officers who received administrative non-punitive letters as a result of Mullens death. They were not directly blamed for his death and Drechsler has not been formally relieved of duty, although such an investigation is likely a career-ender. His transfer is the first step in an ongoing review to determine if any additional punishment is warranted. Officials said Drechsler will be serving as a special assistant at Naval Special Warfare Command, and had been planning to retire.

Mullens death has shined a light on the brutal Hell Week that pushes SEAL candidates to their limits. The five-and-a-half day test involves basic underwater demolition, survival and other combat tactics, and during the test sailors get to sleep just twice, for two-hour periods only. It tests physical, mental and psychological strength along with leadership skills, and is so grueling that at least 50% to 60% dont finish it.

In a brief statement released Tuesday, the command announced the change in leadership, but made no mention of Mullen. It said Navy Capt. Mark Burke will take over command of the center. The decision was made by Rear Adm. Keith Davids, who took over as commander of Naval Special Warfare Command last August. Officials said the change was done to bring new leadership in to address the ongoing challenges and not due to poor performance or wrongdoing.

Two others got non-punitive letters: Capt. Brad Geary, commanding officer of Naval Special Warfares Basic Training Command, and an unnamed senior medical officer. The medical officer remains in his same job and Geary moved to a staff job, in a change that was planned before the death.

In a message to his command, obtained by The Associated Press, Drechsler said, It is crucial that we maintain the momentum we have made to improve our training, safety, and medical oversight while balancing the need to forge the worlds greatest warriors.

A report released last October by the command concluded that Mullen, 24, from Manalapan, New Jersey, died in the line of duty, not due to his own misconduct. It said he had an enlarged heart that also contributed to his death, which came soon after he successfully finished Hell Week, which is part of the first phase of assessment for SEAL candidates striving to get into the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL, or BUD/S, class. The training was at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, California.

The report also raised questions about the monitoring of SEAL candidates as they grind through the arduous tests, and the adequacy of medical scrutiny on the sailors, who often avoid seeking medical help out of fear it will disqualify them.

Since Mullens death, Drechsler and the command have instituted a number of changes, including advanced cardiology screening of SEAL candidates for heart problems; pneumonia prevention shots; more medical scrutiny after Hell Week ends; increased training regarding performance-enhancing drugs; and expanded training for instructors.

The medical examiners autopsy report found that there was no evidence of performance-enhancing drugs in Mullens system and that they were not a contributing cause of death.

Mullen first began BUD/S in July 2021, but suffered heat stroke and left the class for recovery. He was cleared to join another class, went through orientation and began again in January 2022.

The report said that during his first week, classmates said he had breathing issues, and they believed it to be swimming-induced pulmonary edema, which occurs when fluid accumulates in the lungs. The breathing problems were not reported to medical staff, the report said.

It said he was seen by medical staff during during the Hell Week test due to shortness of breath and problems with his knee. In medical checks after the test ended, his lungs were deemed abnormal and he went to the barracks in a wheelchair due to swelling in his legs. His condition worsened, and a medical officer recommended they call 911, but that wasnt done until about 90 minutes later. He was taken to the hospital and died.

The reluctance by some candidates to seek medical help as well as the potential use of banned drugs by SEAL candidates are issues the Navy has been looking into.

Officials acknowledge that the use of performance-enhancing drugs has been a persistent problem, particularly with special operations forces and service members trying to get through rigorous training and evaluation courses. Some additional testing for the drugs is already being done in connection with the SEAL course. Since February 2022, more than 75 candidates  out of 2,500  tested for higher testosterone levels, indicating possible drug use. Most returned to training after additional tests, or dropped out. About a dozen were determined to be using performance-enhancing drugs.

The banned drugs were a key focus of the ongoing investigation by the Naval Education and Training Command, or NETC. The command is taking a deeper look at the entire SEAL training course, including policies, procedures and proper oversight by commanders. The results of that investigation are expected to be released in about a month.

NETC is also reviewing the personnel decisions to determine if they were adequate or if any actions should be taken against others at the command.

Drechsler is a 1999 graduate of the Naval Academy, served in SEAL units throughout his career, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and has received the Legion of Merit award and three Bronze Stars, including two with a combat v for heroism. Burke is also a 1999 graduate of the Naval Academy and served in SEAL units through his career, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and received a Silver Star, five Bronze Stars with combat v for heroism and a Purple Heart.

(AP)




Rep. Mike Lawler, a dear friend of his Jewish constituents in NY-17, reflected Wednesday on his two-day trip to Israel earlier this week with 19 of his Congressional colleagues led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and joined by local Rockland askanim.

I was honored to be in Israel to celebrate the 75th anniversary of one of our strongest and closest allies in the world, Lawler told YWN. I had the chance to visit Jerusalem, experience the Holy Land, and meet with leaders throughout the Israeli government. It was truly a humbling experience that Im honored to have partaken in. In addition, I was excited to see so many constituents who were in Israel to join the festivities.

Indeed, numerous of Lawlers constituents were present on the trip, including Rockland County community askan Hershy Margeratten, Skver Rosh Kehilla Avigdor Ostreicher, and others.

The two-day visit by the congressmen was intended to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Israels independence, as well as to deepen security and economic cooperation between the US and Israel.

The visit was historic as well; Kevin McCarthy on Monday became just the second US House speaker to address the Knesset, during which he trumpeted Israels achievements and promised to strengthen ties with the Jewish State.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)




Russias defense chief on Tuesday urged a state company to double its missile output, as a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive looms and both sides in the 14-month war reportedly feel an ammunition crunch.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, speaking at a meeting with top military brass, said the state-owned Tactical Missiles Corporation had been fulfilling its contracts in a timely manner.

But, Shoigu added, right now it is necessary to double the production of high-precision weapons in the shortest possible time.

Analysts have been trying to figure out whether Russia is running low on high-precision ammunition, as its missile barrages against Ukraine have become less frequent and smaller in scale.

The U.K. defense ministry noted in an assessment Tuesday that logistics problems remain at the heart of Russias struggling campaign in Ukraine.

Russia does not have enough munitions to achieve success on the offensive, it said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday described Washingtons latest estimate of Russias losses in Ukraine as spun out of thin air.

The White House said Monday it now estimated that just since December Russia had suffered 100,000 casualties, including more than 20,000 killed, as Ukraine rebuffed a heavy assault by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. estimate was based on newly declassified American intelligence. He did not explain how the intelligence community derived the number.

Washington doesnt have the opportunity to give any correct numbers. They dont have such data, Peskov said.

Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, say they are readying their own counteroffensive  and stockpiling ammunition to sustain it along potentially long supply lines.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Monday that the key things for the assaults success were the availability of weapons, prepared, trained people, our defenders and defenders who know their plan at their level, as well as providing this offensive with all the necessary things  shells, ammunition, fuel, protection, etc.

As of today, we are entering the home stretch, when we can say: Yes, everything is ready, Reznikov said in televised comments.

Also Tuesday, Denmark said it was donating 1.7 billion kroner ($251 million) in aid to Ukraine, including mine clearance vehicles, munition, field bridges and money for air defense that will be needed for a counteroffensive against Russian forces that are dug in behind multilayered defensive lines, including hundreds of kilometers (miles) of trenches.

We know that the Russians have entrenched themselves in the occupied territories of Ukraine with trenches, minefields and other obstacles to stop a Ukrainian offensive, acting Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said.

The material in the donation package is important to pave the way for Ukrainian tanks and the armored infantry in the front line.

In recent months, amid winter weather, the conflict has become bogged down in a war of attrition that has depleted ammunition stocks.

The Kremlins forces took aim at Ukraines critical infrastructure with long-range strikes, while Kyiv has zeroed in on Russian targets with precision artillery provided by its Western allies.

In February, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Ukraine was using up ammunition far faster than its allies could provide it.

According to some estimates, Ukraine was at that time firing up to 6,000-7,000 artillery shells each day, around a third of the daily amount that Russia is using almost one year into the war.

Sporadic nighttime Russian shelling continued to hit Ukrainian areas early Tuesday, officials said. At least seven civilians were wounded, authorities said.

(AP)




Is there anything she doesnt lie about, deflect, or refer to someone else?

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made a doozy of a comment to reporters during a briefing Monday, claiming that when it comes to illegal migration, youve seen it come down by more than 90 percent.

90%! What an accomplishment. If only it were true.

False, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin commented on a clip of the remark. There was a window of time earlier this year where encounters with Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and Cubans did temporarily dip 90% after a policy change, but other countries, like China, shot up over 800%. Illegal crossings, including Venezuelans, back at peak highs now.

And in direct contradiction to her half-brained and obviously false comment, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz reported on the same day that officers had apprehended 22,220 people, 806 pounds of methamphetamine, 283 pounds of marijuana, and 62 pounds of cocaine in just 72 hours.

But dont worry; the White House says theyve solved the border problem!

Meanwhile, on Tuesday Fox news Peter Doocy questioned KJP on her outrageous claim:

DOOCY: You said yesterday that when it comes to illegal migration, youve seen it come down by more than 90%. Where did that number come from?

JEAN-PIERRE: If the dramatics could come down a little bit

DOOCY: Whats dramatic about asking a question?

JEAN-PIERRE: I was speaking about the parolee program.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)




The U.S. Secret Service said Monday it blocked a Muslim mayor from Prospect Park, New Jersey, from attending a White House celebration with President Joe Biden to belatedly mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Shortly before he was set to arrive at the White House for the Eid-al-Fitr celebration, Mayor Mohamed Khairullah said he received a call from the White House stating that he had not been cleared for entry by the Secret Service and could not attend the celebration where Biden delivered remarks to hundreds of guests. He said the White House official did not explain why the Secret Service had blocked his entry.

Khairullah, 47, informed the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations after he was told he would not be allowed to attend the event.

The group has called on the Biden administration to cease the FBIs dissemination of information from what is known as a Terrorist Screening Data Set that includes hundreds of thousands of individuals. The group informed Khairullah that a person with his name and birthdate was in a dataset that CAIR attorneys obtained in 2019.

Khairullah was an outspoken critic of President Donald Trumps travel ban that limited entry to the U.S. of citizens from several predominantly Muslim countries. He also has travelled to Bangladesh and Syria to do humanitarian work with the Syrian American Medical Society and the Watan Foundation.

It left me baffled, shocked and disappointed, Khairullah said in a telephone interview as he made his way home to New Jersey on Monday evening. Its not a matter of I didnt get to go to a party. Its why I did not go. And its a list that has targeted me because of my identity. And I dont think the highest office in the United States should be down with such profiling.

U.S. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed that Khairullah was not allowed into the White House complex, but declined to detail why. Khairullah was elected to a fifth term as the boroughs mayor in January.

While we regret any inconvenience this may have caused, the mayor was not allowed to enter the White House complex this evening, Guglielmi said in a statement. Unfortunately we are not able to comment further on the specific protective means and methods used to conduct our security operations at the White House.

The White House declined to comment.

Selaedin Maksut, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of CAIR, called the move wholly unacceptable and insulting.

If these such incidents are happening to high-profile and well-respected American-Muslim figures like Mayor Khairullah, this then begs the question: what is happening to Muslims who do not have the access and visibility that the mayor has? Maksut said.

Khairullah said he was stopped by authorities in 2019 and interrogated at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York for three hours and questioned about whether he knew any terrorists. The incident happened when he was returning to the United States after a family visit to Turkey where his wife has family.

On another occasion, he said he was briefly held at the U.S.-Canada border as he traveled back into the country with family.

The group said Khairullah helped the New Jersey Democratic Party compile names of local Muslim leadership to invite to the White House Eid celebration and over the weekend was a guest at an event at the New Jersey governors mansion.

Khairullah was born in Syria, but his family was displaced in the midst of the government crackdowns by Hafez al-Assads government in the early 1980s. His family fled to Saudi Arabia before moving to Prospect Park in 1991. He has lived there since.

He became a U.S. citizen in 2000 and was elected to his first term as the towns mayor in 2001. He also spent 14 years as a volunteer firefighter in his community.

Khairullah said he made seven trips to Syria with humanitarian aid organizations between 2012 and 2015 as a civil war ravaged much of the country.

I am Syrian and you know it was very difficult to see what we saw on TV and and social media, and not respond to help people, he said. I mean we felt very helpless.

(AP)




A review of a Montana nuclear missile base where an unusual number of troops have been diagnosed with blood cancer has found no current risk factors that could explain it, the Air Force says.

The service has been investigating the issue since reports surfaced in January of at least nine missileers who had served at Malmstrom Air Force Base who were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In the months since, more than 30 cancer cases at Malmstrom and the nations other nuclear missile facilities, including F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California have come to light.

But the medical review found that overall, there were no factors identified that would be considered immediate concerns for acute cancer risks, the Air Forces 711th Human Performance Wing said in a report obtained by the Associated Press.

Additionally, there was nothing specifically noted at Malmstroms main base or operational missile sites that would indicate a specific reason for increased cancer, the report said.

The findings by the Air Force  which do not mean it will stop investigating the issue  are bringing both frustration and renewed grief to the families whose service members are fighting cancer, or have already died.

But some also hope a spotlight on the issue will at least result in the Air Force carrying out a full cancer study of all the men and women who have worked with the nations nuclear warheads, and hopefully an easier path to medical care.

Rhonda Wesolowskis son Air Force Capt. Jason Jenness was a senior missile launch officer in the 1990s with the now-deactivated 564th missile squadron at Malmstrom. He died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2001 at the age of 31.

Even back then, his mother says, she was concerned his cancer had to do with his service, and his friends were concerned, because there were rumors. But when she reached out to the Air Force, I got a form letter, she said. To her, the letter left her feeling that the cancers were being swept under the rug.

Her son, Jason Jenness, died five months after his diagnosis.

I knew it was too big. Too big a fight, she said of trying to push the Air Force to figure out why her son and other missileers were getting sick. I still think its too big a fight. Im very happy that theres some spotlight being put on it, because then it will make people more aware, and kids who are going into the service may ask more questions, and it may help in that regard.

Jeff Fawcett Jr.s father also served with 564th missile squadron at Malmstrom, from 1988 to 1992. He died in 2016 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, both types of blood cancers. He was 56.

Jeff Fawcett Sr. served for 25 years  and if he was alive now, would never be able to bring himself to the conclusion that his missileer service might have been connected to his cancer, his son said. He loved the military, Fawcett Jr. said.

But the son is hoping the Air Force will do more to look for possible causes. Because the elder Fawcett served a 20-year military career, he received lifetime military medical care. Walter Reed doctors said his six-month battle could have cost more than $1 million if the family had to go through a private hospital and insurance, Fawcett Jr. said.

His care didnt bankrupt my family, the son said. But what if youre a young lieutenant who did four years and got out, and 15 years later you have an awful blood cancer and you are paying God knows how much?

Missileers are young military officers who monitor, operate and stand ready to fire the nations nuclear warheads  sitting alert in underground launch control centers for shifts that can last from 24 to 48 hours.

But both the launch control centers and the missile silos they oversee were built more than 60 years ago. In the decades since, as the facilities have aged, former and current missileers have worried about asbestos in the hardened facilities, about ventilation of the air they have breathed from old duct systems while underground, about the water they have drunk and emissions from equipment they used.

The review did make recommendations to address some of those concerns, including that the Air Force consider a deep clean of each launch control center, that it clearly mark safe boundaries for radio frequency sources, and to cease the practice of burning classified documents while locked inside the launch control center.

The Air Force is committed to continuing to investigate the issue and will conduct an epidemiological study of cancers within the missile community, the service said.

To conduct the initial review, the Air Force sent medical teams to Malmstrom, to F.E. Warren and to Minot from Feb. 27 to March 7 to talk to crews and assess each facility.

Dean Shockley was a young enlisted man at Malmstrom serving in the bases 341st maintenance group, where he worked on the missile silos from 1987 to 1989  the same time frame that Fawcett Sr. was an officer there. In 2022, also at the age of 56, Shockley was diagnosed with an inoperable glioblastoma, a brain tumor.

Shockley, like most enlisted members, did not serve a full 20-year military career. He left after five years of military service.

It took his wife Garlanda Shockley a month of constant calls daily, several times a day to get the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover some of the medical costs, she said. Their insurance to date has covered most of the rest. But the potential that the coverage could stop, and the costs that would create, weighs on her.

I have so much to worry about, I would like to know that he is cared for, Garlanda Shockley said.

(AP)




The Florida Legislature on Tuesday approved a sweeping immigration bill pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, bolstering the Republicans controversial migrant-relocation program as he prepares to announce a presidential run.

The GOP-controlled House gave the proposal final passage on a party-line vote with Republicans in support. It passed the Senate last week and now moves to the governors office to be signed into law.

DeSantis, who is expected to launch his presidential candidacy in the coming weeks, has made immigration a top priority and has espoused hard-right positions on undocumented immigration geared toward winning support among Republican primary voters.

The bill provides $12 million for DeSantis migrant relocation initiative, which drew national attention last year when the governor flew a group of South American migrants from Texas to Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts, a move intended to protest federal immigration policy.

The measure also expands requirements for businesses with more than 25 staffers to use E-Verify, a federal system that determines if employees can legally work in the U.S. It prohibits local governments from providing money to organizations that issue identification cards to people illegally in the country and invalidates out-of-state drivers licenses held by undocumented immigrants.

Another provision would require hospitals that accept Medicaid to include a citizenship question on intake forms, which critics said was intended to dissuade undocumented immigrants from seeking medical care.

This bill is politically driven, and its an anti-immigrant bill that will hurt and even kill undocumented immigrants, said Rep. Susan Valdes, a Democrat.

DeSantis framed the legislative package as a counter to Democratic President Joe Bidens border policy, previously saying we wont turn a blind eye to the dangers of Bidens Border Crisis. We will continue to take steps to protect Floridians from reckless federal open-border policies.

The governors Republican allies in the statehouse largely mirrored his rhetoric.

We cant solve the problem in Washington. But we can send a message that says in Florida, weve had enough, said Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican.

Republicans control a supermajority in the Florida Legislature and have focused on DeSantis priorities this session as the governor moves to stack conservative policy wins ahead of his presidential campaign announcement.

(AP)




It took a full extra month and five extensions, but Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders have finally come to an agreement on a 2023-24 budget. The $229 billion document includes many items that were the focus of Agudath Israels advocacy efforts and are beneficial to yeshivas and their families. These provisions include security funding, free meals for school children, an expansion of a child tax credit, and the saving of a program that currently provides close to $92 million to Jewish schools.

Universal Meals

A lot of attention was given to the push for universal school meals by a large statewide coalition, which included the Agudah. The legislative effort was led by Senator Michelle Hinchey and Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas. The final budget did not go nearly as far as was hoped, but will allow many schools and districts to serve free meals to all of their students, thanks to an allocation of $134 million. Agudah is working to help Jewish schools participate in this expansion and will continue to push for a truly universal program.

Rabbi Yehoshua Pinkus, Director of Yeshiva Services for Agudath Israel commented, This expansion will encourage more schools to serve meals to their students, helping many struggling families, and improving childrens ability to learn and function properly throughout the day.

Saving the Mandated Services Aid Program

One of the most significant budget victories for nonpublic schools is what is not in the final budget. Mandated Services Aid (MSA), the largest source of funding for nonpublic schools, faced a potential drastic 8% cut and problematic language that would have placed the entire program into jeopardy. However, thanks to the advocacy efforts of Agudath Israel and its coalition partners and the staunch support of many legislators, in particular Senator Shelley Mayer, Chair of the Senate Education Committee as well as Assemblymembers David Weprin and Simcha Eichenstein, the crisis was averted.

MSA, first passed in 1974 as a result of the efforts of the legendary Agudah leader Rabbi Moshe Sherer and others, reimburses schools for a host of services mandated by the state including testing, attendance taking, pupil data, immunization and more. Traditionally, the state has always reimbursed schools the full amount of their claims.

The executive budget, first released in February, allocated just over $193 million for combined MSA and CAP (Comprehensive Attendance Program). This allocation had not been increased for the third consecutive year, despite being $17 million below what the State Education Department requested in order to fulfill anticipated claims.

More troubling though, was budgetary language that capped the program at the amount allocated, which means that if claims exceed actual allocations as expected, schools would not be paid in full. Agudah immediately sprang into action and helped lead the nonpublic school response to this crisis. Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, Agudahs Director of New York Government Relations, testified before a joint committee about the risk to the MSA program. He later organized a coordinated response uniting the religious and independent schools and receiving the support of legislative leaders.

Mandated Services, has been a staple of nonpublic school funding for close to 50 years, said Rabbi Silber, who coordinated the Agudah advocacy efforts. We were proud to work with a broad group of nonpublic school advocates in bringing this concern to legislators.

MSA and CAP reimbursements enable us to keep the students safe and properly fulfill state requirements without passing on additional costs to our parent body, said Rabbi Baruch Rothman, Director of Institutional Advancement at Yeshiva Darchei Torah. We are grateful to Agudath Israel for their tireless and persistent advocacy to preserve the continued existence of the program, added Rabbi Rothman.

Empire State Child Credit

The budget also includes a major expansion of childcare funding by extending the Empire Child Credit to include children under the age of 4. This expansion, first proposed by Senator Jeremy Cooney and Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi, has also been an Agudah legislative priority since last session.

Non-Public School Safety and Equipment Security Grant

Lastly, the budget allocates $45 million for the Non-Public School Safety and Equipment (NPSE) Security Grant. This program provides security and safety to nonpublic schools and was recently expanded to allow for critical capital needs that enhance safety. $25 million was also maintained for religious and independent schools, community facilities and summer camps under the Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes program.

We thank Governor Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Heastie and all their legislative colleagues for listening to our communitys concerns, said Rabbi A. D. Motzen, Agudath Israel of Americas national director of government affairs. We similarly thank our community members who traveled to Albany, reached out to their legislators, or took other steps to make their voices heard. It worked.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
A former holiday camp manager has pleaded guilty to 36 sexual offences against boys who he met online.

Cameron Osman, 44, posed as a 16-year-old girl to incite sexual acts and engage in sexualised chat, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Osman, from Southampton, was arrested in 2021 shortly after resigning from his job at PGL's Windmill Hill adventure centre in East Sussex.

He is due to be sentenced at St Albans Crown Court on 30 June.

Police said they found no evidence of Osman grooming children at the activity centre near Herstmonceux.

The defendant, who used the online alias Lizzielemon, found victims on Instagram, teenage dating website MyLol and flirting site LoveCrush, the NCA said.

Osman contacted 76 boys from across the UK who were aged between 12 and 16 in 2020 and 2021, the NCA said.

Investigators in the USA also discovered sexualised chat with underage boys in 27 countries, the agency reported.

'Callous predator'

Osman, of Coniston Road, pleaded guilty to charges including causing or inciting boys to engage in sexual activity, St Albans Crown Court said.

He also admitted attempting to incite a girl to engage in sexual activity, sexual and attempted sexual communication, inciting sexual exploitation and making indecent images of children, the court added.

Victims lived in locations including Greater London, Cardiff, Glasgow, Belfast, Luton, Portsmouth, Oxford, Chatham, Norwich, Braintree, Hull, Plymouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Kettering, Slough and Worcester, police said.

NCA operations manager Danielle Pownall said: "Cameron Osman callously preyed on vulnerable teenage boys, masquerading as a teenage girl for his own sexual gratification.

"I have no doubt, if we had not stopped Osman he would have gone on to commit more severe offending.

In a statement, PGL said: "The National Crime Agency has confirmed that none of these charges relate to guests at our centre.

"The safety and security of our guests is of paramount importance and all of our employees are subject to stringent safeguarding checks, including enhanced DBS clearance before and during employment.

"All such checks and clearances were in place for this individual."

Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.




After a tense night overnight Tuesday of continued rocket launches from Gaza and IDF retaliatory strikes, Arab media reports said that a ceasefire agreement between IDF and Gaza terror groups was reached at about 4 a.m.

The ceasefire was mediated by Egyptian, Qatari and UN officials, according to a Reuters report. However, there were no official notice from Israel indicating a ceasefire and IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday morning that all options are still on the table.

The IDF announced a return to the routine on the homefront early Wednesday morning, including the resumption of classroom studies in communities near the Gaza Strip.

A total of 104 rockets were launched at Israel from Gaza in the 24 hours before the ceasefire. Dozens of rockets were launched at Sderot, Ashkelon and nearby areas overnight Tuesday, with one rocket exploding in the courtyard of a home in Ashkelon. BChasdei Hashem, there were no injuries but the house and car were damaged.

The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted 24 rockets, 48 rockets landed in open areas, 14 fell within Gaza, 11 landed in the sea and it is unknown where the remaining 7 landed. The Iron Dome intercepts missiles heading for populated areas and the IDF is investigating why several rockets landed in populated areas.

Prior to the ceasefire, Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi slammed the government in an interview on Army Radio.

Israel is providing immunity to Gaza terrorists while theyre shooting at us. A sovereign Israeli government is allowing Israeli citizens to be shot at. This is a terrible message to the terrorists, a terrible message to Israeli citizens, and worst of all, a terrible message to the leader of Iran.

Davidi was one of many politicians and officials who slammed the government for its weak response to the rocket launches, including members of the coalition. Likud MK Danny Danon stated on Wednesday morning: In order to restore deterrence, we should have gotten up this morning and heard how many terrorists were eliminated last night. If we continue to bomb empty targets, were inviting the next round. Thats not how deterrence is established.

The escalation in Israels south began early Tuesday morning when Gaza terror groups launched three rockets into Israel following the announcement of the death of senior Islamic Jihad terrorist Khader Adnan, who was found unconscious in his cell in an Israeli prison following an 86-day hunger strike.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)




The Otzma Yehudit party, headed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, announced on Wednesday that it is boycotting Knesset votes on Wednesday and will hold a special party meeting in Sderot due to the weak response in Gaza.

The move followed reports of an unofficial ceasefire between Israel and Gaza terror groups.

Many additional members of the coalition also slammed the government for its response to the rocket fire from Gaza. Settlements Minister Orit Struck (Religious Zionism) said on Reshet Bet: Our government is continuing the policy of the previous government  Gaza is not paying the price for the terror of Hamas. The IDFs response cannot in any way be called paying a price. We should have woken up to some destroyed buildings in Gaza and dead terrorists.

Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi slammed the government on Wednesday, telling Radio 103FM: The government adopts a policy of granting immunity to terrorists and buries its head in the groundWe are paralyzed  this is a lax policy.

Davidi addressed the Prime Minister: You are making a serious mistake when you adopt the policy of allowing terrorists to continue living, which gives terrorists life insurance. Islamic Jihad and Hamas control everything that happens in our region in recent months because the government adopts a policy of granting immunity to terrorists. Not a single terrorist pays with his life and even the heads of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fail to pay any price for the orders to kill us.

The mayor warned: You cant always say that because there is no perfect solution, well continue the delusional solutions that the Israeli government is offering today.

The head of the Sdot Negev Regional Council, Tamir Aidan, also slammed the government: The reality imposed on us is completely delusional and the decision for a ceasefire proves once again that those who are running the show are the terrorist organizations and not the State of Israel. If until now we dragged our feet and only reacted, today we are not even reacting as expected from a sovereign country that endangers the lives of its residents. This is not how security is created, this is how our security is harmed.

I demand that the Israeli government and its head order the security forces to initiate severe offensive operations and strike at the heads of the vile terrorist organizations, and we, for our part, offer full support to the IDF and the security forces to act in order to restore deterrence and a normal routine to our residents.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)




Eli Lilly and Co. said Wednesday its experimental Alzheimers drug appeared to slow worsening of the mind-robbing disease in a large study.

In the 18-month trial, people in the early stages of Alzheimers who received infusions of donanemab showed 35% less decline in thinking skills compared to those given a dummy drug, Lilly announced in a press release.

The drug is designed to target and clear away a sticky protein called beta-amyloid that builds up into brain-clogging plaques that are one hallmark of Alzheimers.

A similar amyloid-targeting drug, Eisai and Biogens Leqembi, recently hit the market with similar evidence that it could modestly slow Alzheimers  and also some safety concerns, brain swelling or small brain bleeds.

Donanemab also comes with that risk. Lilly said in its study, the brain side effects caused the deaths of two participants and a third also died after a serious case.

The preliminary study results havent been vetted by outside experts. Indianapolis-based Lilly plans to release more details at an international Alzheimers meeting this summer and is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval of the drug.

(AP)
Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE:AMP  Get Rating) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,140,000 shares, an increase of 9.6% from the March 31st total of 1,040,000 shares. Currently, 1.1% of the companys stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 615,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on AMP shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Ameriprise Financial from $400.00 to $385.00 in a report on Thursday, April 27th. StockNews.com downgraded Ameriprise Financial from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Ameriprise Financial from $360.00 to $338.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Ameriprise Financial from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Tuesday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Ameriprise Financial from $355.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, January 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $349.70.

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Insider Activity

In related news, insider Joseph Edward Sweeney sold 6,390 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.35, for a total value of $2,238,736.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 10,955 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,838,084.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider Joseph Edward Sweeney sold 6,390 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.35, for a total value of $2,238,736.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 10,955 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,838,084.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO William F. Truscott sold 11,480 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $355.33, for a total value of $4,079,188.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,489 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $6,214,366.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 57,982 shares of company stock worth $20,441,165. 0.73% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ameriprise Financial

Ameriprise Financial Trading Down 2.8 %

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BDO Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ameriprise Financial by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. BDO Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,073 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $3,136,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Ameriprise Financial by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 123,272 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $31,059,000 after purchasing an additional 3,688 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust increased its position in shares of Ameriprise Financial by 38.1% during the 3rd quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,551 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 1,255 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in shares of Ameriprise Financial by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 5,776 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,456,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the period. Finally, Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ameriprise Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at $209,000. 81.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shares of NYSE AMP opened at $294.20 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $30.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.46. Ameriprise Financial has a 12-month low of $219.99 and a 12-month high of $357.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $309.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $318.10.

Ameriprise Financial (NYSE:AMP  Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The financial services provider reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.21 by $0.04. Ameriprise Financial had a return on equity of 77.32% and a net margin of 15.41%. The firm had revenue of $3.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $3.69 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.98 EPS. The firms revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Ameriprise Financial will post 30 EPS for the current year.

Ameriprise Financial Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 19th. Investors of record on Monday, May 8th will be given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 5th. Ameriprise Financials dividend payout ratio is currently 27.43%.

About Ameriprise Financial

(Get Rating)

Ameriprise Financial, Inc operates as a holding company. The firm provides financial planning, asset management and insurance services to individuals, businesses and institutions. It operates through the following business segments: Advice & Wealth Management, Asset Management, Retirement & Protection Solutions, and Corporate & Other.

Further Reading

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Edge Capital Group LLC lowered its stake in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A  Get Rating) by 34.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 198 shares of the medical research companys stock after selling 105 shares during the quarter. Edge Capital Group LLCs holdings in Agilent Technologies were worth $30,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of A. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Agilent Technologies by 1.9% during the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 32,943,190 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $4,004,242,000 after buying an additional 629,153 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Agilent Technologies by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,955,720 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $3,033,368,000 after purchasing an additional 257,455 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Agilent Technologies by 0.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,152,295 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $1,598,661,000 after purchasing an additional 73,495 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Agilent Technologies by 10.7% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,478,670 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $787,483,000 after purchasing an additional 627,517 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Agilent Technologies by 67.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,336,607 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $309,203,000 after purchasing an additional 942,651 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.51% of the companys stock.

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Agilent Technologies Stock Down 1.1 %

A stock opened at $134.52 on Wednesday. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $112.52 and a fifty-two week high of $160.26. The businesss 50-day moving average is $137.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $144.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 2.11. The company has a market cap of $39.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.03.

Agilent Technologies ( NYSE:A Get Rating ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 28th. The medical research company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.06. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 30.35% and a net margin of 19.09%. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.21 earnings per share. Agilent Technologiess revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Agilent Technologies declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, January 9th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the medical research company to buy up to 4.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the companys leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Agilent Technologies Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 4th were paid a $0.225 dividend. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 3rd. Agilent Technologiess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.32%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on A. SVB Leerink increased their target price on Agilent Technologies from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, January 6th. Credit Suisse Group increased their target price on Agilent Technologies from $165.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised Agilent Technologies from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and increased their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. StockNews.com cut Agilent Technologies from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Agilent Technologies from $170.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, March 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Agilent Technologies presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $163.31.

Agilent Technologies Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Agilent Technologies, Inc engages in the provision of application focused solutions for life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets. It operates through the following segments: Life Sciences and Applied Markets, Diagnostics and Genomics, and Agilent CrossLab. The Life Sciences and Applied Markets segment offers application-focused solutions that include instruments and software that identify, quantify, and analyze the physical and biological properties of substances and products, as well as the clinical and life sciences research areas to interrogate samples at the molecular and cellular level.

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LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Ford Motor (NYSE:F  Get Rating) by 5.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,790,159 shares of the auto manufacturers stock after purchasing an additional 300,577 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLCs holdings in Ford Motor were worth $67,340,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Snider Financial Group lifted its position in Ford Motor by 100,345.2% during the 1st quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 219,805,167 shares of the auto manufacturers stock worth $3,717,000 after acquiring an additional 219,586,336 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Ford Motor by 43,624.1% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 44,970,209 shares of the auto manufacturers stock worth $503,666,000 after acquiring an additional 44,867,359 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Ford Motor by 340.0% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 6,148,550 shares of the auto manufacturers stock worth $68,864,000 after acquiring an additional 4,751,190 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Ford Motor by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 332,380,925 shares of the auto manufacturers stock worth $3,722,666,000 after acquiring an additional 4,518,888 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ford Motor by 61.2% during the 1st quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 8,968,152 shares of the auto manufacturers stock valued at $151,652,000 after buying an additional 3,404,530 shares during the last quarter. 49.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Ford Motor

In other news, CFO John T. Lawler sold 29,821 shares of Ford Motor stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.07, for a total transaction of $389,760.47. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 443,683 shares in the company, valued at $5,798,936.81. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Ashwani Kumar Galhotra sold 24,850 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.01, for a total transaction of $323,298.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 511,605 shares of the companys stock, valued at $6,655,981.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO John T. Lawler sold 29,821 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.07, for a total value of $389,760.47. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 443,683 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,798,936.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,592 shares of company stock worth $1,740,843 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the companys stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Ford Motor Stock Performance

A number of research firms have weighed in on F. StockNews.com began coverage on Ford Motor in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Ford Motor from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Ford Motor from a hold rating to a sell rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $13.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. lowered Ford Motor from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 15th. Finally, Benchmark reduced their price target on Ford Motor from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $15.22.

Shares of Ford Motor stock opened at $11.80 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.20. Ford Motor has a one year low of $10.61 and a one year high of $16.68. The company has a market cap of $47.04 billion, a PE ratio of -23.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.54.

Ford Motor (NYSE:F  Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 2nd. The auto manufacturer reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.60 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $41.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $40.73 billion. Ford Motor had a positive return on equity of 17.45% and a negative net margin of 1.25%. Ford Motors revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.26 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ford Motor will post 1.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ford Motor Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 26th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 25th. Ford Motors dividend payout ratio is presently -117.65%.

Ford Motor Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Ford Motor Co engages in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of automobiles. It operates through the following segments: Ford Blue, Ford Model E, and Ford Pro, Ford Next, and Ford Credit. The Ford Blue, Ford Model E, and Ford Pro segment includes the sale of Ford and Lincoln vehicles, service parts, and accessories, together with the associated costs to develop, manufacture, distribute, and service the vehicles, parts, and accessories.

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Edge Capital Group LLC bought a new position in The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW  Get Rating) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 166 shares of the specialty chemicals companys stock, valued at approximately $39,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Standard Family Office LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sherwin-Williams in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. MADDEN SECURITIES Corp acquired a new position in shares of Sherwin-Williams in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. RFP Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Sherwin-Williams during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Sherwin-Williams during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Capital Directions Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Sherwin-Williams during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Sherwin-Williams Stock Performance

SHW stock opened at $231.88 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.03. The company has a market capitalization of $59.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.07. The Sherwin-Williams Company has a 12 month low of $195.24 and a 12 month high of $283.15. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $223.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $231.78.

Sherwin-Williams Dividend Announcement

Sherwin-Williams ( NYSE:SHW Get Rating ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.84 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $5.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. Sherwin-Williams had a net margin of 9.41% and a return on equity of 86.29%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.61 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Sherwin-Williams Company will post 8.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 19th will be given a $0.605 dividend. This represents a $2.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 18th. Sherwin-Williamss dividend payout ratio is 29.69%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Sherwin-Williams from $260.00 to $285.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Sherwin-Williams from $220.00 to $240.00 in a report on Thursday, April 27th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Sherwin-Williams from $270.00 to $251.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Sherwin-Williams from $260.00 to $235.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 27th. Finally, Zelman & Associates lowered shares of Sherwin-Williams from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sherwin-Williams currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $257.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sherwin-Williams news, SVP Bryan J. Young sold 2,750 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $220.76, for a total value of $607,090.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,955 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,756,145.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.55% of the companys stock.

Sherwin-Williams Company Profile

(Get Rating)

The Sherwin-Williams Co engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, and sale of paint and coatings. It operates through the following segments: America Group, Consumer Brands Group, and Performance Coating Group. The America Group segment manages the exclusive outlets for Sherwin-Williams branded paints, stains, supplies, equipment, and floor coverings.

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VANCOUVER, BC, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - FPX Nickel Corp. (TSXV: FPX) (OTCQB: FPOCF) ("FPX" or the "Company") is pleased to present results from a recently completed metallurgical testwork program which confirms that the Baptiste nickel resource has been comprehensively modelled for magnetic recovery across all mine phases, thereby achieving a high degree of confidence for projected magnetic separation recoveries across the entire mine life. The testwork utilized representative samples from all production phases of the planned Baptiste Nickel Project ("Baptiste") mine plan and was conducted using the process flowsheet and design criteria from the in-progress Baptiste preliminary feasibility study ("PFS"). Testwork results clearly demonstrate the Davis Tube Recovery ("DTR") assaying procedure is an excellent proxy for magnetic nickel recovery for Baptiste material, and that the Baptiste resource is very consistent in terms of magnetic nickel recovery, therefore providing heightened confidence in the estimated metal production profile and resultant cash flow across the entire mine life.

FPX Nickel Corp. Logo (CNW Group/FPX Nickel Corp.)

Highlights

Metallurgical testwork clearly demonstrated consistent magnetic separation nickel recoveries across all phases of the Baptiste mine plan

DTR nickel values are strongly correlated to expected magnetic separation nickel recoveries, validating the DTR nickel procedure as a geometallurgical screening tool for the Baptiste resource estimate

Variability testwork results complete the metallurgical testwork database for the concentrator portion of the Baptiste PFS, with subsequent news releases on hydrometallurgical testwork results and the final PFS recovery basis to follow in the second quarter of 2023

"We are very pleased with the results from our PFS variability testwork program, which have demonstrated near constant magnetic nickel recovery during the entire Baptiste mine life," commented Andrew Osterloh, FPX Nickel's Senior Vice-President, Projects & Operations. "The results confirm that the Baptiste resource estimate's geometallurgical basis, founded on DTR nickel, effectively eliminates geological variability, heightening confidence in the metal production profile and resultant cash flow in the Baptiste PFS mine plan. As we wrap up our robust PFS metallurgical testwork campaign, the team is now fully focused on advancing a mature PFS configuration, with the overall effort remaining on track for completion in September 2023."

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Background

The Baptiste mineral resource estimate (see the Company's November 14, 2022 news release) is based on a dataset where every interval of mineralized core has been assayed for DTR nickel and total nickel, along with a suite of other elements. DTR nickel analyses measure only the magnetically recoverable nickel which is hosted in medium- to coarse-grained awaruite (nickel-iron alloy), whereas "total nickel" analyses measure both magnetically and non-magnetically recoverable nickel, the latter being nickel hosted in fine-grained awaruite or nickel sulphide minerals. The DTR method is the global industry-standard geometallurgical test for magnetic recovery operations and exploration projects.

With the reporting of the Baptiste resource in DTR nickel, the Company is presenting a project basis which has been screened for any mineralogical variability present at Baptiste which could influence magnetic separation recovery. An analogy for such a geometallurgical screened model would be an acid-soluble copper resource basis in a copper oxide deposit. Presenting the Baptiste resource in this manner provides heightened confidence in the estimated metal production profile and resultant cash flow across the entire Baptiste mine life.

On completion of pilot-scale demonstration of the Baptiste metallurgical flowsheet in January 2023 (see FPX's January 24, 2023 news release), the Company undertook an additional testwork program with two key objectives, being (1) to identify any geological variability in magnetic nickel recovery through the planned Baptiste mine production phases; and (2) to demonstrate that the DTR procedure is a proxy for magnetic nickel recovery for Baptiste material.

Testwork Program

The Company re-engaged Corem (Quebec City, Quebec), who previously executed bench- and pilot-scale testwork for Baptiste, to conduct the variability testwork. Testing involved a series of composites representing all major phases of the planned mining operation. The grade of the tested composites were well aligned with the PFS mine plan, which predicts annual average grades ranging between 0.11-0.15% DTR nickel (and 0.21 to 0.22% total nickel) over a 30-year mine life.

A standard variability testwork ("SVT") protocol was developed to evaluate both the primary and cleaner magnetic separation stages using the optimum process flowsheet and design criteria as defined in FPX's testwork database. These parameters also form the basis of the current PFS process plant design, including a primary grind size of 250 microns (P 80 ), a final regrind size of 18 microns (P 80 ), and magnetic separation using continuously operated low-intensity magnetic separators ("LIMS"). The SVT tests 20-kilogram samples to ensure sufficient primary magnetic separation concentrate is available to accurately test cleaner magnetic separation performance. Table 1 presents key results from the variability testwork program.

Table 1  Variability Testwork Results



Head Grade, % DTR Ni Primary Mag Sep DTR Nickel Recovery1 Cleaner Mag Sep DTR Nickel Recovery Overall Mag Sep DTR Nickel Recovery2 PEA Mine Phase 1A-D PEA Mine Phase 1C/D PEA Mine Phase 1E PEA Mine Phase 2ABC (NE) PEA Mine Phase 2ABC (NW) 0.157 0.125 0.141 0.109 0.128 92% 93% 93% 93% 93% 99% 99% 100% 98% 99% 91% 92% 93% 92% 92%

Notes: 1. Bench-scale DTR nickel recovery; does not include any consideration for preferential grinding as witnessed during pilot-scale testing 2. Total magnetic separation recovery may not be the direct product of primary and cleaner recovery due to rounding

As seen in Table 1, the variability testwork program demonstrated near constant DTR nickel recovery in magnetic separation testwork over the range of head grades expected in the Baptiste mine plan. This clearly demonstrates that nickel recovered using the DTR nickel analytical method directly correlates to nickel recovered in the SVT procedure. This relationship confirms that the DTR method is an excellent proxy for expected magnetic nickel recovery from the Baptiste deposit, validating the Baptiste mineral resource estimate as a comprehensively geometallurgically screened model. Using DTR nickel results as the basis for the Baptiste resource, instead of total nickel values, effectively incorporates expected magnetic separation performance and heightens confidence in Baptiste's metal production profile during the entire mine life.

As footnoted in Table 1, as the SVT procedure is conducted on batch ground material, there is no consideration included for the preferential grinding benefit witnessed during pilot-scale testing (see the Company's January 24, 2023 news release). The difference between SVT results (92-93% DTR nickel recovery in the primary stage) and pilot-plant results (94% DTR nickel recovery in the primary stage) is consistent with the estimated preferential grinding benefit at the primary grind size selected for the PFS (P 80 of 250 microns).

Combined with the previously reported pilot-scale magnetic separation and results from the extensive flotation program on a representative life-of-mine composite, the variability testwork results complete the metallurgical testwork database for the concentrator portion of the Baptiste PFS. Later in the second quarter of 2023, following completion of the PFS process design, the Company plans to issue another news release summarizing the final recovery basis for Baptiste based on the PFS concentrator design. Testwork on the hydrometallurgical refinery for the production of cobalt mixed hydroxide precipitate ("MHP") and battery-grade nickel sulphate is nearing completion and results are forecast for release in the first half of May 2023.

Qualified Person

The metallurgical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosures for Minerals Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101") and supervised, reviewed, and verified by Jeffrey B. Austin, P.Eng., President of International Metallurgical and Environmental Inc., a "Qualified Person" as defined by NI 43-101 and the person who oversees metallurgical developments for FPX Nickel.

About the Decar Nickel District

The Company's Decar Nickel District represents a large-scale greenfield discovery of nickel mineralization in the form of a naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy called awaruite (Ni 3 Fe) hosted in an ultramafic/ophiolite complex. FPX's mineral claims cover an area of 245 km2 west of the Middle River and north of Trembleur Lake, in central British Columbia. Awaruite mineralization has been identified in several target areas within the ophiolite complex including the Baptiste Deposit and the Van Target, as confirmed by drilling, petrographic examination, electron probe analyses and outcrop sampling. Since 2010, approximately US $28 million has been spent on the exploration and development of Decar.

Of the four targets in the Decar Nickel District, the Baptiste Deposit has been the focus of increasing resource definition (a total of 99 holes and 33,700 m of drilling completed), as well as environmental and engineering studies to evaluate its potential as a bulk-tonnage open pit mining project. The Baptiste Deposit is located within the Baptiste Creek watershed, on the traditional and unceded territory of Tl'azt'en Nation and Binche Whut'en First Nation, and within several Tl'azt'enne and Binche Whut'enne keyohs. FPX has conducted mineral exploration activities to date subject to the conditions of our agreements with the Nations and keyoh holders.

About FPX Nickel Corp.

FPX Nickel Corp. is focused on the exploration and development of the Decar Nickel District, located in central British Columbia, and other occurrences of the same unique style of naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy mineralization known as awaruite. For more information, please view the Company's website at www.fpxnickel.com or contact Martin Turenne, President and CEO, at (604) 681-8600 or ceo@fpxnickel.com.

On behalf of FPX Nickel Corp.

"Martin Turenne"

Martin Turenne, President, CEO and Director

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is considered "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. These statements address future events and conditions and so involve inherent risks and uncertainties, as disclosed in the Company's periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. Actual results could differ from those currently projected. The Company does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE FPX Nickel Corp.

Cision

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Freddie Mac

MCLEAN, Va., May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today reported its First Quarter 2023 financial results and filed its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The companys Form 10-Q and earnings press release, along with the First Quarter 2023 financial results supplement are available now on the Investor Relations page of the companys website.



The company will hold a call at 9 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) today, May 3, 2023, to share its results with the media. The call will be concurrently webcast, and the replay will be available on the companys website for approximately 30 days.

Freddie Macs mission is to make home possible for families across the nation. We promote liquidity, stability, affordability and equity in the housing market throughout all economic cycles. Since 1970, we have helped tens of millions of families buy, rent or keep their home. Learn More: Website | Consumers | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

MEDIA CONTACT: Frederick Solomon

703-903-3861

Frederick_Solomon@FreddieMac.com

INVESTOR CONTACT: Laurie Garthune

571-382-4732








(Bloomberg) -- Frances Constitutional Council rejected a second attempt to hold a referendum on President Emmanuel Macrons decision to raise the retirement age to 64, as opponents are running out of options to overturn the unpopular pension reform.

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The request doesnt satisfy the necessary conditions, the council said in a ruling published on Wednesday.

The verdict, while widely expected, is a fresh blow for labor organizations and opposition parties. Unions have already called for more strikes on June 6 to maintain pressure on the government with a 14th day of nationwide protests that began in mid-January and still have strong public backing.

The most recent marches on Monday saw the biggest turnout in more than two decades for the Labor Day holiday, which is typically dedicated to workers rights. The event saw violent clashes between some protesters and police, however, with hundreds arrested and more than 400 police officers wounded.

The referendum proposal was filed by left-wing opposition lawmakers. It sought to have the current minimum retirement age of 62 enshrined in legislation and would have secured funding for pensions via a higher tax on income.

Had it been deemed constitutionally viable, its proponents would have had nine months to collect the signatures of at least 10% of registered voters, or around 4.8 million people, to move it forward. This likely would have re-invigorated members of the opposition and protesters, though it would still have needed a further six months for possible review by parliament.

This doesnt completely draw a line under attempts to overturn the reform, as a group of independent, centrist lawmakers, known as LIOT, has submitted a proposal to repeal it that the National Assembly is due to consider on June 8 - two days after the next round of strikes.

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The initiative is fraught with challenges, however, as Macrons party could use delay tactics to prevent its review before a parliamentary deadline of midnight. Its also unsure whether the conservative Republicains will back the proposal. Even if the National Assembly adopts it, its unlikely to get through the Senate.

The referendum procedure hasnt succeeded since it entered into force in 2015. The council did allow one to proceed over the sale of Paris airports operator Aeroports de Paris, but it failed to garner enough signatures.

The council rejected a first attempt to hold a referendum on the pension reform last month, arguing that it was legally untenable as it wouldnt have changed the current state of the law. The nine-member body made up chiefly of former politicians and senior civil servants also approved the main elements of the overhaul, allowing Macron to sign it swiftly into law. Its due to be applied in September.

--With assistance from Tara Patel.

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SARATOGA SPRINGS  More than two decades ago, Amy Augustine gifted friends and co-workers a batch of freshly baked peanut butter dog treats.

She didnt know it then, but the offering would propel her into a thriving career serving pets and their owners.

Founded in 2001, Lazy Dog Cookie Company is a popular wholesale dog treat manufacturer known for its all-natural ingredients. The company has grown significantly over the years, transitioning from the garage of Augustines Saratoga Springs home into a 10,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on Washington Ave.

For Augustine, the venture began as a passion project she did on the side of her career as a microbiologist. After giving out treats to her colleagues at the lab and receiving widespread praise, she was inspired to bring the products to farmers markets and fairs. Business boomed to the point where Augustine decided to leave her job and focus full-time on growing the brand.

When she and her husband, Keith Augustine, moved to Saratoga Springs in 2005, it wasnt long before he also left his career behind as a regional manager for Heinz Ketchup to spearhead sales for the budding treat business.

I think pet parents are more concerned about ingredients, but also the company and what they stand for and because of social media, people have better access to that information, and they do their research, he said. Its not just about getting new customers but also making sure they stay  and ours do.

Lazy Dog Cookie Company sells various unique treats meant to celebrate customers pets. Their menu includes Mutt Mallows, soft-baked natural dog treats, crunchy cookies, ice cream and other seasonal items. Their best-seller and award-winning flagship product are their Pup-PIEs, vegan oven-baked pies that each come with ten slices in a range of flavors.

The company was founded on the principle of giving back to animal rescue organizations and charities. For the past 10 years, theyve partnered with Dogs on Deployment, a national nonprofit that provides foster support to military pet owners when they go overseas. A portion of sales also goes toward the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, a local organization that finds safe havens for retired racehorses.

But their mission is more than just supporting animal welfare. The company has joined forces with Saratoga Bridges, a nonprofit serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, to start a program where individuals can come to the facility two days a week to learn job skills.

Augustine encourages people to check out the business not just for its tasty dog treats but also for the principles behind our organization, what we stand for and the organizations we support.

Lazy Dog Cookie Co. can be found at all major retail chains including Petsmart, Petco and Pet Supplies Plus as well as local suppliers like Bensons Pet Center. Customers can also place sales through the brands website.

Weve always tried to have high-quality ingredients and make treats fun for people to share with their pets that look like something you would buy for yourself but with great ingredients, he said.
COLONIE  The Colonie Art League this week announced the five recipients of the 2023 Art Scholarship Awards during a reception at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Latham.

The winners, from five area high schools, are: Shaelen Bates, Troy High School; Vivian He, Colonie Central High School; Lucy Lee, Shaker High School; Emily Leslie, Schenectady High School, and Lavender Scott, Albany High School. They each received a $500 scholarship and a gift card from Arlenes Artist Materials.
When I wrote about the new Galleria 7 Market in Latham five years ago, food halls had long been popping up in larger metropolitan areas but less so upstate. The nationwide trends toward poke bowls and sushi burritos had finally made it to the Capital Region, and the makeover of the former Plaza 7 Commons by the Rosetti Development Co. was dubbed a food market experience, as if wed be getting our own little Eataly.

If that was a conceptual stretch, Galleria 7 did co-locate Hooked Seafood, the steak-and-beer Chops & Hops, Annas Wood-Fired Pizza, The White Apron smoothies and salads and Moroccan Tagine under one roof with a double set of clear retractable garage doors for a plein-air feel and a white pergola patio for al-fresco dining. It single-handedly diversified lunch options on Troy-Schenectady Road, putting lobster rolls, gyros and Thai rolled ice cream in the hands of hungry office warriors.

But over time vendor hours were inconsistent, with some open when others were closed, and changeovers left vendor spots vacant. Hooked moved into larger space nearby, and the 2020 pandemic lockdown shuttered all doors.

So here I am, taking a spin five years on and finding Galleria 7 Market has hit its stride with a stellar lineup of mainly veteran vendors in a best-hits compilation. Best of all, the nine dining options share hours, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., which will shortly expand to 9 p.m. Shalimar is leading the charge for even later weekend hours with live sitar music planned for Friday nights. In short, Galleria 7 caught a more cohesive lunch-to-dinner vibe, and the industrial space is wired for work, with a 20-person table featuring outlets and coat hooks. With snack vendors and space like this, you might not need a coworking membership at all.

Visit galleria7market.com for links to each vendor.

Shalimar Express, Falafel Express

After 30 years owning and operating multiple locations of Shalimar Indian Restaurant, Leo Khan sold them, planing to retire, only to find himself assisting his son Ahmed, an MBA student at the University at Albany, in opening Shalimar Express and Falafel Express in the Galleria 7 space. For Shalimar Express, Ahmed hired veteran chef Mohammed Bhutta, recently of Curry Patta in Altamont, and his mother, the baker behind Indian dessert company Meva Sweets, to make the Indian and Middle Eastern desserts (gulab jamun, kheer, baklava) at both vendor spots.

Although Shalimars full restaurant menu is available online for those wishing to order more broadly, Shalimar Express has a dozen appetizers (samosas, chaat, pakora) and savory curry-and-rice bowls (lamb, chicken, saag paneer) into a streamlined, quick-order menu. The namesake Shalimar Express is a combo of one of three meat curries and one of three vegetable curries with fresh naan bread and a bottle of water priced at a wallet-friendly $14. Extras like stuffed paratha rolls, naan breads and chai drinks or mango and strawberry lassi are available too. Price: $5 to $15.

Meanwhile, Falafel Express focuses on Mediterranean wraps, gyros and rice plates with falafel, grilled kebabs and spin sauce, alongside dolmas and shareable hummus, mutabel, muhammara and baba ghanoush with warm, fluffy pita bread. Price: $6 to $19.

Kobe Hibachi

Kobe Hibachi is the only original vendor still putting out customizable fresh poke bowls and handheld sushiritos (sushi burritos). Grab a form and choose your main protein, sauces, rice or salad combo, and a variety of toppings from masago fish eggs to edamame and seaweed. Or order sushi (maki) rolls, noodles, dumplings or hibachi lunch or dinner combos, all priced closely around the $20 mark. Price: $4.45 to $24.45.

Power Surge Nutrition (PSN)

Power Surge Nutrition is the new spot for fresh-pressed juices and smoothies, brought to Galleria 7 by Gabe Young, owner of Powerhouse Gym in Colonie. Try the cold-kicking Power House with carrots, apple, orange, lemon and ginger root; the tropical Mermaid Juice with matcha and blue spirulina added to apple, lemon and pineapple; or power up with a banana, strawberry, PB&J or coffee protein smoothie from a list of two dozen combos. PSN also carries smoothie bowls, salads, slushies, fresh-squeezed lemonade and chocolate-covered strawberries. Juices can be ordered in advance in larger to-go quantities including half gallons and 3-, 6- or 18-juice combos packaged in 12-ounce bottles. Price: $8.25 to $9.25. Large volume to-go orders: $24 to $150.

La Capital Tacos

La Capital Tacos, which exploded on the Troy scene and swiftly opened satellite locations in Galleria 7 and The Night Owl in Saratoga, is filling the taco void with their selection of mix-and-match tacos, taco bowls, quesadillas and burritos. Dont miss their birria tacos with dipping broth or citrus-and-jalapeno spiked shrimp ceviche with chips and guacamole. Online catering orders available. Price: $3.50 to $15.50. Family platters of 20 tacos: $64.25 to $75.

See Susie's 13 must-stop taco spots in the greater Capital Region.

Viva Empanadas

Fresh from Brooklyn, where owner Veronica Agama previously operated an empanadas food truck in Bushwick, Viva Empanadas is the newest addition after Agama made the move upstate last year. A tight menu of classic empanadas is rounded out by Ecuadorian arepas, Cuban beef tostones, Spanish paella and Peruvian rotisserie chicken. The empanada platter allows you to choose five flavors across the gluten and gluten-free lists including Chilean pino with beef, olives and egg; the chicken and potato Colombianita; sesame seed-and-black bean veganlicious; and cheese and scallion Dverde. With colorful crusts ranging from crispy corn to yucca and green plantain, the magic is in the brittle, crisp shell and generously seasoned fillings. Price: $4.50 to $18.50.

Latham Wood Fired Pizza

Latham Wood Fired Pizza has taken over the incumbent pizza stage complete with brick oven pizza. Owner Mike Almer, a native of Bosnia, gives his pizza dough a 24-hour rise and loads the fire with oak wood. Almers brother owns Mercatos III Italian Restaurant & Bar, also in Latham, and Mike moved here to helm this pizza spot. His dough blisters beautifully for a chewy, yeasted base and a variety of topping options from broccoli-ricotta to Buffalo chicken. Available by the slice (the $8 minimum means youll need to buy two) or as whole pies, you wont go wrong with pizza and an order of wood-fired wings, and you might want to add their tiramisu. Price: $5 to $17.

Herbies Burgers

The unstoppable Herbies Burgers started out on Lark Street but quickly spawned sibling locations in Guilderland, Troy, Galleria 7 and one just announced for Jay Street in Schenectady. Beloved for its retro vibe and equal billing of meat and vegetarian burgers, a double cheeseburger with either patty hits the spot with cheese, sauteed onion, pickle and special sauce. You should add their proprietary bacon jam for a dollar more. Choose from flavored milkshakes or plant-based vegan milkshakes. And you know you want their extra-thin shoestring fries with that. Price: $2.95 to $10.95.

Three Pastas

Homemade pasta anchors this build-your-own Italian eatery, where your chosen base can be bathed in a variety of sauces from pomodoro to beef ragu or carbonara with added protein and vegetable sides. Ribollita wedding soup is curiously alongside the decidedly un-Italian mulligatawny soup, but options for meat or eggplant lasagna keeps the Italian focus. Price: $3.50 to $11 plus additions.
WALLKILL  On Wednesday, Edward V. Holley entered Wallkill Town Court unbound by the constraints detainees are subjected to since he was released from jail last week.

Holley, 42, of Wawayanda, is accused of killing Megan McDonald 20 years ago in the Orange County town of Wallkill. State Police arrested and charged him with second-degree murder April 20. But when the Orange County district attorneys office missed the six-day deadline to obtain a grand jury indictment against him, Holley had to be released from jail, where he was being held without bond.

On that final day of the deadline, Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler also announced he was recusing himself from the case, citing a conflict of interest that dates back to his days in private practice, when he represented a prior person of interest to investigators.

For Wednesdays appearance, Holley donned a blue button-up shirt and red slacks. He was before Town Judge Peter Green for just two minutes. Newly appointed special prosecutors Julia Cornachio and Laura Murphy asked for more time to review evidence in the case. Green set their next court date for June 7.

Police say Holley bludgeoned McDonald to death in March 2003. Her body was found off rural Bowser Road. An autopsy determined her cause of death to be blunt force trauma, citing multiple skull fractures and brain injuries. The case went unsolved for two decades, despite its high profile in the community.

Provided by New York State Police

Holley had been among a list of suspects throughout the investigation into McDonalds death. He was interviewed four times but told police that he did not kill her, according to the felony complaint against him filed by State Police. Police said McDonald had a romantic relationship with Holley and had broken up with him days before she was killed. Police described what happened to her as intimate partner violence.

Cornachio declined to make a formal statement to reporters outside the courthouse. She said her office has to review 20 years of evidence, which will take some time, and then decide if the case is strong enough to present to a grand jury.

Were very new to the case. This is our first appearance and we have a lot of materials to go through, Cornachio said. Were going to be doing that very diligently and as expeditiously as we can. ... The fair thing to do, and the right thing to do, and our responsibility is to go over all the evidence very carefully.

Holley would not provide a comment as he left the courthouse, but Weber maintained that he is not guilty.

Lana Bellamy / Times Union

The defense attorney also expressed skepticism that the new prosecutors will take the case to a grand jury after reviewing the evidence.

If the (criminal) complaint is all they have, Im not so sure, he said.

Weber, who is a former Newburgh police officer, raised alarms last week when he said the prosecution had not shared discovery in the case. But on Wednesday, he said the new prosecutors are addressing the issue and had asked him to provide a large-capacity memory stick so they could transfer the data.

Wait until the evidence gets here, Weber said to reporters. And, like I told you last week, dont jump to conclusions.
COXSACKIE  Seven prisoners at Coxsackie Correctional Facility were hurt  one with the sharpened end of a chicken bone  during two back-to-back fights late last month that correction officers said were the result of gang rivalries.

The first fight began at about 6:45 p.m. on April 23 when two men began exchanging punches in the prison yard. The violence quickly escalated when four other prisoners joined, according to the New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the union representing prison guards in the state.

The four prisoners stopped brawling when confronted by staff, but the first two combatants continued to punch each other until they were pepper sprayed, according to the union.

As order began to be restored, two of the prisoners who joined the initial fight chased a third across the prison yard, with one of the pursuers grabbing the prisoner while the other cut him across the face with a weapon, according to the union. A prison guard ordered all three against the wall, but the man who had been cut charged the guard, who put him in a body hold and forced him onto the ground, where he stopped struggling, according to the union.

Just 15 minutes later, two other prisoners began to fight, ignoring orders to stop until they were both pepper-sprayed.

In total, seven prisoners received minor injuries and were treated at the infirmary, including the man who was slashed, who had a superficial laceration to his face, according to the union. Prison guards searched the yard after the fights and found a sharpened chicken bone, which they believed was the weapon used to slash the victim.

Three of the men connected to the initial fight were locked in solitary confinement, with the other four locked in their respective cells, according to the union, and all face disciplinary charges. It is unclear what, if any, disciplinary action the two men involved in the separate fight will face.

Four days later, prison guards found two ceramic shanks during their search of two prisoners and their cells. They also face disciplinary charges.

The unions mid-Hudson region vice president Chris Moreau called for an end to the HALT Act in a statement condemning the fights.

Passed in March 2021, the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act limits solitary confinement in prisons to 15 days, with a cap of 48 hours for prisoners under 21, over 55, pregnant or postpartum, or for prisoners who are disabled.

Violence in prisons will continue until our elected officials who supported and voted for the HALT Act wake up and realize it is an utter failure, according to Moreau.

James Miller, the unions spokesman, said though three of the prisoners were put in solitary confinement, the HALT Act reduced the punishment into a slap on the wrist for engaging in violence.
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HUDSON  What would you do if someone gave you a guaranteed monthly income of $500 a month for five years, no strings attached?

At Hudsons luxury boutique hotel, The Maker, it would not even cover one nights stay in the cheapest room or buy a $550 bottle of 2017 Shaker Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon on the menu.

Hudson, however, is a tale of two cities.

Million-dollar second homes, chic restaurants and high-priced antique shops along Warren Street tell a Hudson narrative of upper-crust privilege. But thats only part of the story.

For the working class as well as the 23 percent of Hudsons 6,000 residents who live below the poverty line, HudsonUP, a program known as universal basic income, is a godsend.

Its been a blessing. $500 might not be a lot of money to some people, but its a lot of money to me. It came at a time when I needed it the most, said Kayah Payton, 47, a lifelong Hudson resident who works as a clerk with the Hudson Housing Authority.

On her third submission to the HudsonUP lottery, she was selected. She learned of the good news last October when she was in the hospital after a workplace shoulder injury.

I started screaming Thank you, God! Thank you, God! said Payton, who has used the cash to pay down credit card and student loan debt. She also has paid car insurance, bought extra groceries and covered living expenses she struggled to pay with a reduced paycheck during a stint on workers compensation for her shoulder injury.

We work with the people that visitors and the wealthy city folks dont often consider, said Joan Hunt, director of the HudsonUP pilot program. It has enrolled 128 individuals within Hudsons 2.3-square-mile city limits at $500 a month guaranteed income for five years.

If you can afford to stay at The Maker Hotel and order a $550 bottle of Cabernet, you are not worried about a scarcity mindset, a persistent fear among Hudsons marginalized.

Its a very real fear for many people about losing ones housing, not having enough food to eat and living each day under a lot of stress, Hunt said. Being able to rely on $500 each month reduces that scarcity mindset.

The 128 people selected for the five-year HudsonUP pilot program are a diverse group who range in age from college students to people in their 80s. They include artists, health care workers, food workers, seniors on fixed incomes and single mothers raising several children.

They tell the true story of Hudson and represent our diversity, Hunt said.

Data is gathered on pilot study participants who consented to be interviewed by principal researcher Leah Hamilton, associate professor of social work at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C.

A significant rise in employment, about 150 percent above the baseline for the second-year cohort, has been verified. That counters a persistent negative stereotype about the guaranteed monthly income program.

We get pushback that getting free money will make people lazy and theyll stop working, Hunt said. Our research shows the exact opposite. In addition, the research has shown that participants are increasing their savings by meaningful amounts.

Hunt has heard from participants who were able to purchase a car, which allows them to drive to work, shop for groceries and schedule doctors appointments. A few people were able to make a down payment on a first house. Others can afford to rent an apartment after a stretch of being unhoused. Some returned to college to finish a degree.

Its so different for everybody, Hunt said. Some are finally able to afford a vacation or provide a nice birthday party for their children.

Participants were chosen by a weighted lottery, using an algorithm developed by HudsonUPs advisory board and run by an independent Yale University researcher. The minimum criteria are: Over age 18; live within the city limits; and earn less than Hudsons median income of $39,386 a year. The algorithm factors in gender, race, income and other criteria. Proof of a city address is required, but there is no penalty for moving out of Hudson. Well over 1,000 people applied and rounds of selections were made, with cohorts of 25, 50 and 53  or 128 total. One person died and was allowed to transfer the benefit to a family member.

Established in October 2020, HudsonUP was one of the first of its kind in the nation, with funding from Hudson philanthropists Susan Danziger and her husband, Albert Wenger, a venture capitalist. Their charity is called The Spark of Hudson. It works in collaboration with community groups and was championed by Hudson Mayor Kamal Johnson and Andrew Yang, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who grew up in Schenectady. Yang advocated for a $1,000-a-month guaranteed income for every American over age 18 through his not-for-profit Humanity Forward Foundation.

The concept is not new. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called for a guaranteed income as the simplest and most effective solution to poverty and a way to ease mental stress caused by financial insecurity. It is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he oughta lift himself by his own bootstraps, King told a Stanford University audience in 1967.

We have more and more evidence that universal basic income is inexpensive and that it indeed increases well-being and is considered a promising approach in alleviating poverty, said Susan Appe, an associate professor at Rockefeller College at the University at Albany who studies the role of philanthropy. Based on what I have seen and know, I am convinced this is a promising policy intervention.

The concept is spreading. Hunt has spoken to officials from numerous communities who want to adopt the Hudson pilot program. She has met with Peter Gannon, president and CEO of the United Way of the Greater Capital Region in Albany.

Gannon received a $175,000 grant from Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, half the amount needed, for a pilot program that will provide $1,000 a month for one year earmarked for 25 pregnant women or with newborns who meet income criteria.

We see positive evidence and favorable outcomes in communities where its been done. We want to be innovative in our approaches to combating poverty, said Gannon, who hopes to get a limited pilot underway in July.

For Paytons part, she sets aside a small portion of the $500 deposited each month into her bank account and pays it forward.

God did this for me and since I was blessed, I want to use some of it to bless someone else, Payton said.

Paul Grondahl is the Opalka Endowed Director of the New York State Writers Institute and a former Times Union reporter. He can be reached at grondahpaul@gmail.com
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta Platforms' business group is seen in Brussels

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday accused Meta's Facebook of misleading parents about protections for children and proposed tightening an existing agreement on privacy to include a ban on making money from minors' data.

Specifically, the FTC said Facebook misled parents about how much control they had over who their children had contact with in the Messenger Kids app and was deceptive about how much access app developers had to users' private data, breaching a 2019 agreement on privacy.

The FTC's proposed changes include barring Facebook from making money off data collected on users under age 18, including in its virtual reality business. It would also face expanded limitations on using facial recognition technology.

Meta shares fell as much as 2% on Wednesday but pared most of those losses and were off 0.3% at $238.50.

Meta, which also owns Instagram, relies on digital ads targeted on the basis of its users' personal data for more than 98% of its revenue.

The company maintains the world's biggest social networks, but is battling short video app TikTok for young users' attention after it soared to popularity with American teens several years ago.

In a statement, Meta said the FTC action was "a political stunt" and that the FTC failed to act against "Chinese companies, like TikTok."

"We will vigorously fight this action and expect to prevail," the company said.

The FTC move on Wednesday is the first step in the process of changing the 2019 agreement. Facebook will have 30 days to respond. The company also can appeal any commission decision to an appeals court.

"This is a very substantial statement from the FTC about whether or not Meta has fulfilled its duties to protect children," said Debra Williamson of Insider Intelligence, adding that "the revenue implications are not likely very large."

Williamson said that some 5.2% of Facebook's monthly U.S. users are under 18, along with 12.6% of Instagram users.

Story continues

"Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises," said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "The companys recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures."

The FTC has twice before settled with Facebook over privacy violations.

The first was in 2012. Facebook agreed in 2019 to pay a record $5 billion fine to resolve allegations it had violated the 2012 consent order by misleading users about how much control they had over their personal data. That order was finalized in 2020.

Separately, the FTC sued to stop Meta from buying the virtual reality content maker Within Unlimited but lost in court. The agency also asked a federal court in 2020 to order Facebook to sell Instagram, which it bought for $1 billion in 2012, and WhatsApp, which it bought for $19 billion in 2014. The case is underway.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz and Katie Paul; Editing by Deepa Babington and Bill Berkrot)
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SARATOGA SPRINGS  A City Council meeting meant to extend an olive branch to the Black community with an apology and a plan to enact restorative justice practices ended in chaos with dozens of Black Lives Matter activists chanting over council members.

Tuesday nights meeting was the second since February that ended abruptly after BLM activists took issue with Commissioner of Public Safety Jim Montagnino  first for not quickly enacting all 50 points in the city police reform plan and then in protest of Montagninos opposition to Mayor Ron Kims restorative justice resolution. Making matters worse was Montagninos insinuation that BLM activists might have vandalized the citys Civil War statue.

I suspect there are people in this room who know who toppled it, he said.

Montagninos objection to an apology with comments, which included a statement about centuries of Anglo-American law and Judeo-Christian ethics rejecting collective guilt, sparked the activists to unfurl a banner reading the peoples meeting and chant drop the charges  a reference to disorderly conduct violations filed by Montagnino against BLM leaders and siblings Lexis Figuereo and Chandler Hickenbottom after they spoke out at meetings in February and April. Figuereo faces an additional misdemeanor of obstructing a government administration.

I was definitely disgusted, Figuereo said. It reminded me of (former Assistant Police Chief) John Catone blaming us for violence in the city. To hear another public official make false claims against us, its disgusting.  It devalues us and makes him look stupid.

When asked about his saying that, Montagnino said on Wednesday, BLMs anger over the statue comment is beyond remarkable.

He dared suggest that was slander when he has been openly accusing members of the Saratoga Springs Police Department of murder with no evidence whatsoever, Montagnino said, referring to the death of Darryl Mount after a 2013 police foot chase. How a person who slanders others routinely comes up with something as ridiculous as that, I dont understand. Clearly Lex just wants chaos.

Kim, who said he will reschedule the meeting for later this week, is blaming Montagnino for the chaos.

Police should be de-escalating and avoiding conflict, Kim said. Unfortunately, Jim Montagnino had the back stairway packed with police and there were at least 10 (Saratoga County) sheriffs vehicles at High Rock Park (which sits behind City Hall). Hes escalating these (BLM) actions. I dont support their action to disrupt the meeting, but Jim is playing right into their hands.

Yet Montagnino, who heads the city police department that is being investigated by the state attorney general for potential civil rights violations in its dealing with BLM, is pointing a finger at Kim.

The city is not getting its business done falls squarely on the mayors shoulders, Montagnino said. Its his responsibility to maintain order. He has chosen not to do it. He just sat there and watched it devolve.

During the protest, before the meeting was adjourned, there was a testy exchange between the two men, with Montagnino asking Kim What are you going to do, Mr. Mayor?

While Kims response could not be heard, Kim got up to face Montagnino. Kim said on Wednesday he asked Montagnino, Is arresting people your solution?

Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi said it appeared to be. Based on the number of police waiting outside the meeting, she said it looked like Montagnino was planning on many arrests Tuesday night. However, she said the meeting started off orderly with people making public comment within their allotted four minutes.

Then came Kims restorative justice resolution that led to Montagnino to mention Anglo-American law and deny the citys racist past, saying residents joined the Union Army to fight the scourge of slavery. Thats when the crowded started to boo and shout him down.

Sanghvi defended Kims resolution on restorative justice, in which victim and victimizer meet to discuss solutions, by saying housing discrimination, employment discrimination are all realities that have existed. Not just for Black people but also for various immigrant communities  the Italian immigrant community (like my in-laws), Irish, Jewish, Hispanic and Asian communities have all seen discrimination and bias. We cant deny these facts. ... For restorative justice to work, we have to first acknowledge the truth. And the truth is that racism, discrimination and bias exists in this country, in this state and this city.

Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran called Montagnino disgusting in his tactics saying his comments were incendiary.

The rest of the all-Democratic Council agreed, passing the resolution with a 4-1 vote to cheers.

Figuereo said BLM does not have an issue with the council, but with Montagnino, who he says has stolen the progress the city has made on race relations. He said Montagnino ran and won on improving how police handle BLM protests, which prior to Montagnino, included going at them with riot gear, shooting them with pepper spray pellets, tackling, arresting and holding protesters on violations and misdemeanors. Now, he said, Montagnino is pushing the wrong things by pressing charges on activists.

As for more charges and arrests against BLM members, Montagnino said Wednesday the decision has not been made.

Figuereo said that BLM doesnt expect Montagnino to drop the charges. But the group does want Montagnino to implement all 50 points of police reform including those that Montagnino opposes, like a ban on no-knock warrants, except in most extreme cases. The council passed that with a 4-1 vote in April, with Montagnino voting no.

Jim is burning the bridge we were building, Figuereo said. We need true change.

And he added, an apology and restorative justice reforms will go a long way.

Even my 3-year-old knows to apologize when doing something wrong, he said. This is relationship 101.

Kim said Montagnino needs to answer questions about Tuesdays meeting, including how much in overtime \Montagnino spent on the heavy police presence at the meeting.

Im sure there are more appropriate uses of the polices time, Kim said.

Note: The headline was updated on Thursday morning.
BALLSTON SPA  A Mechanicville man who claims he was assaulted last year in South Carolina has filed a negligence suit against the vice chair of fundraising for the Saratoga County Republican Committee and three members of his family.

Marc Salvadore is seeking damages from Justin Baker for injuries he sustained in April 2022, when Baker's two teenage boys allegedly punched and kicked Salvadore, causing severe, serious and permanent personal injuries. Reports from the Georgetown County, S.C. sheriff's office's indicated that the 50-year-old's eye socket was fractured during the alleged assault.

The two young men and their mother, Crystal Baker, are also named in the suit. Justin Baker is the son of former Mechanicville Mayor Dennis Baker. Salvadore's attorney alleges that Justin and Crystal Baker allegedly furnished alcohol to their underage sons. The March 21 court filing in Saratoga County Supreme Court also contends that the Bakers, who owned the vacation home where Salvadore stayed last year, didn't keep it free from dangerous conditions including intoxicated and/or violent individuals.

The suit alleges Salvadore is still suffering and will continue to suffer great pain and emotional distress" and that his injuries are permanent and limit and restrict his activities.

Justin Baker told the Times Union that he has written documented proof of who supplied the alcohol, and it was not he or his wife. Moreover, he said, there is not a violent bone in either of my kids bodies.

Baker also said all charges related to the incident  misdemeanor aggravated assault and drunkenness  were dismissed and his sons records expunged because there was nothing there. The Georgetown County Sheriff's Office confirmed on Monday that the records had been expunged, though the Magistrate Court of Georgetown County said the teens had been convicted of disorderly conduct.

They have been hung out to dry for infractions that have occurred, Baker said, calling the negligence suit frivolous. He also said he will have a countersuit that will turn everyone on their head.

Salvadores attorney, William Keniry, declined to comment.

This is not the first time one of Baker's sons has been accused of assault. The now 19-year-old was named in a police report related to a February 2022 incident in which a Saratoga Springs High School senior sustained a concussion and a back injury when Baker allegedly threw the teen against a granite counter and then fell, striking his head. The account in the police report also alleged the Baker teen punched the alleged victim.

Saratoga Springs police, despite urgings from the commissioner of public safety, did not file charges against anyone in that incident, saying that the 17-year-old victim "was prone to concussions."

It was a missed opportunity, said Commissioner of Public Safety James Montagnino, who suspended the lieutenant who refused to arrest and charge the Baker teen. It might have been a deterrent to criminality if he was brought to justice in the first place.

Justin Baker said that his son never touched the Saratoga Springs teen and that the alleged victim attacked his son for having a 'Blue Lives Matter' sticker on his phone.

We are a family that believes in law and order, Justin Baker said. He attacked my son because of that.

District Attorney Karen Heggen recused herself from the younger son's September charges in a different case of misdemeanor assault, reckless endangerment and driving while intoxicated after a two-car crash in Halfmoon. Heggen said she did that because the teen is related to a friend of mine.

He pleaded guilty to DWI and is expected to be sentenced to three-years probation in Halfmoon on Wednesday night, an Albany County District Attorney spokesman said.

Justin Baker rejected any allegations that his family has received preferential treatment because of their local political connections.

"That's nonsense," he said. "I'm no (former Gov. Eliot) Spitzer or (Majority Leader Chuck) Schumer. We got nothing."

The 19-year-old pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence and is expected to be sentenced to three years of probation on Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the Albany County district attorney's office.
New York State Police

ROUND LAKE  The Round Lake Bypass, a road workers use to get to GlobalFoundries and other places, has reopened after a tanker truck rolled over Wednesday morning and closed the road, State Police said.

The closure, located northbound at the Curry Road Traffic Circle, was announced shortly after 8:30 a.m.. Trooper Stephanie O'Neil confirmed around 1 p.m. Wednesday the tanker was upright and confirmed the road had reopened at 2 p.m..
Vermont on Tuesday became the first state in the country to change its medically assisted suicide law to allow terminally ill people from out of state to take advantage of it to end their lives.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed the bill that removes the residency requirement for the decades-old law.

Last year in a court settlement, Oregon agreed to stop enforcing the residency requirement of its law allowing terminally ill people to receive lethal medication. It also agreed to ask the Legislature to remove it from the law.

Before Vermont removed its residency requirement Tuesday, it had reached a settlement with a Connecticut woman who has terminal cancer to allow her to take advantage of its law, provided she complies with other aspects of it.

We are grateful to Vermont lawmakers for recognizing that a state border shouldnt determine if you die peacefully or in agony, said Kim Callinan, president and CEO of Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit advocacy organization, in a statement. Patients routinely travel to other states to utilize the best healthcare options. There is no rational reason they shouldnt be able to travel to another state to access medical aid in dying if the state they live in doesnt offer it.

Vermont is one of 10 states that allow medically assisted suicide. Critics of such laws say without the residency requirements states risk becoming assisted suicide tourism destinations.

Mary Hahn Beerworth, executive director of the Vermont Right to Life Committee, testified before a legislative committee in March that the practice was, and remains, a matter of contention.

To be clear, Vermont Right to Life opposed the underlying concept behind assisted suicide and opposes the move to remove the residency requirement as there are still no safeguards that protect vulnerable patients from coercion, said Beerworth, adding she had a number of concerns including what liability Vermont could incur if the drugs failed to end a patients life.

Supporters of Vermonts medically assisted suicide law say it has stringent safeguards, including a requirement that those who seek to use it be capable of making and communicating their health care decision to a physician. Patients are required to make two requests orally to the physician over a certain timeframe and then submit a written request that they signed in the presence of two or more witnesses who arent interested parties. Witnesses must sign and affirm that patients appeared to understand the nature of the document and were free from duress or undue influence at the time.

Lynda Bluestein, 75, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Diana Barnard, a physician from Middlebury, sued Vermont in federal court last summer, claiming its residency requirement violated the Constitutions commerce, equal protection, and privileges and immunities clauses. Barnard specializes in hospice and palliative care and has patients from neighboring New York state, which, like Connecticut, doesnt allow medically assisted suicide.

Bluestein said Tuesday that the change in Vermont means that so many other people in the Northeast can take advantage of the state's law.

"Im thinking even more importantly that this is going to cause other states, the other jurisdictions that have medical aid in dying, to look at their residency requirement, too," she said.

For Cassandra Johnston, 38, of Clifton Park, New York, the news was such a relief." She was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer last year and lives a 40-minute drive from Vermont.

It gives me such a peace of mind to know that if I need that peaceful and compassionate option that it's right next door, Johnston said. And it's life-changing for someone like me. It really is.

______

Rathke reported from Marshfield, Vt.
When Rensselaer County's Republican elections commissioner, Jason T. Schofield, was arrested last September and accused of absentee ballot fraud, this board argued that he should take a leave of absence while the charges were being resolved.

While he deserved the presumption of innocence, we noted, county residents were entitled to an elections official who was above reproach, or at least not under indictment. "Every day Mr. Schofield comes to work, the legal cloud under which he now finds himself casts its shadow over the board of elections," we wrote.

We reiterated this call in December, when Republicans on the County Legislature voted to reappoint Mr. Schofield to another four-year term despite the pending charges. After it was subsequently revealed that Mr. Schofield had notified the court he would plead guilty just hours before the legislature voted to reappoint him, we reminded the county's GOP officials that we had told them so.

This history is once again germane because Rensselaer County has a fresh chance to respond appropriately to alleged wrongdoing by an influential official  or three of them, actually: Richard W. Crist, the countys director of operations; James R. Gordon, director of the countys Bureau of Central Services; and Leslie A. Wallace, a longtime political consultant who serves as assistant for constituent relations in the office of county Executive Steve McLaughlin.

All three were charged by federal prosecutors last week as part of the same investigation that scooped up Mr. Schofield and a former Troy councilwoman, Kimberly Ashe-McPherson, who pleaded guilty last summer. The new indictment alleges the trio took part in a scheme that involved pressuring county employees to sign absentee ballots that were then filled out by others in an apparent effort to prevent Democrats from securing the Working Families Party line.

While hijacking a third-party ballot line is part of a long and non-proud tradition in New York politics, it is not illegal. Ballot fraud, however, is most definitely against the law.

The guilt or innocence of these county officials will be determined in the months to come. For right now, the county needs to recognize the peril of allowing them to remain in their offices, much less managing a group of employees they're alleged to have exploited for political gain. None of them has been elected to their jobs with the county (though Mr. Gordon also serves on the North Greenbush Town Board); they can be placed on paid leave immediately.

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That decision appears to be in the hands of Mr. McLaughlin, whose own past history of toxic workplace behavior  he was sanctioned by the state Assembly for alleged sexual harassment (he denies it) and was forced to apologize for using misogynistic obscenities against his former top legislative aide  does not bode well for his doing the right thing.

The federal magistrate who arraigned the defendants warned them against any behavior that might be construed as witness intimidation, but asking alleged wrongdoers to behave properly isn't enough. Maybe Republicans on the County Legislature can press Mr. McLaughlin to sideline these three  if those elected officials have learned their lesson by now.
ALBANY  New York will become the first state to ban gas stoves in new construction beginning in 2026, enacting a proposal that inflamed political conversations in the final weeks of the state budget negotiation. Proponents say the change moves the state much closer to meeting sweeping emissions goals in the next decade.

Budget legislation will require most new construction with fewer than seven stories to ban fossil fuel combustion beginning in 2026, while buildings taller than seven stories will be barred from using fossil fuel power beginning in 2029  effectively banning gas-powered stoves and furnaces.

The plan had garnered much skepticism among Republican lawmakers and many in the power industry who have questioned the states ability to keep energy production affordable and reliable under the new mandates. The debate over the proposed gas stove ban went national after federal officials hinted earlier this year they were considering policies along similar lines.

Legislative leaders have pushed back against criticism that the measure, along with other climate policies included in the budget, could lead to greater cost burdens for residents.

We will never burden everyday New Yorkers in our climate fight, or ask them to give up more than our greatest polluters, said Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins during remarks on the floor Tuesday shortly after lawmakers approved the final spending plan. That means you can keep your gas stove, you can stay in the home youve always known, and you can keep the job youve always had  we are simply building climate-conscious policies into these spaces.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and leaders of the Legislature included numerous carve-outs in the fossil fuel ban for commercial kitchens, emergency generators, hospitals and other medical facilities, as well as critical infrastructure including wastewater treatment facilities.

Environmental groups had pushed the fossil fuel ban along with other measures they said would help the state hit climate targets laid out by a sweeping 2019 law that mandated reducing New Yorks fossil fuel emissions by 40 percent in the next decade. The states residential buildings account for the second highest source of those emissions.

But many in the power industry have balked at the proposals. The details matter, the complexities matter. The last thing we can jeopardize in New York is reliability, said Gavin Donohue, president of the Independent Power Producers of New York.

Donohue pointed to a greater strain that will be pushed onto the states electric grid, with some estimating that the new energy needs would require a grid with a capacity at least four times larger than what it is today.

In todays environment, we dont have enough electricity to make make these goals happen, Donohue said.

Other measures that made it into the budget were less of a surprise. Hochuls cap-and-invest program will require companies that emit greenhouse gases to pay a fee based on annual emissions over a cap set by the state. That cap would lower over time to compel top emitters to cut back on their emissions or face steep fines.

Funds from the program are slated to benefit climate change mitigation projects, including helping to foot the bill for heat pump installation and electric vehicles, as well as storm management. Hochuls office has estimated the move could generate up to $1 billion in the coming years.

The budget leaves much of the final details on cap-and-invest to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Other measures championed by environmental groups included a move to empower the New York Power Authority to handle much of the states production of renewable energy.

The budget also includes plans to decarbonize 15 of the top emissions-producing buildings that are owned by the state through the transition to sources such as thermal energy.

An infusion of around $400 million will maintain current spending levels for the states Environmental Protection Fund, another move cheered by environmental groups who argue the investment will generate more dollars from resulting economic activity.

We didnt get everything we wanted, but we got some foundational things that we can build on for the future, said state Sen. Pete Harckham, a Westchester Democrat who chairs the chambers Environmental Conservation committee.

Harckhams bill to curtail packaging waste did not make it into the budget. He said its one of the measures still on the table in the waning weeks of the legislative session.
ALBANY  The state's retooled bail laws are expected to expand the "discretion" for judges to incarcerate someone awaiting trial who is accused of a "serious" crime and also "repeat offenders" accused of committing felony offenses.

The shift comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Democratic leaders seek to balance improving public safety while ensuring that those accused of a crime are not unjustly held in jail. They are set to approve a $229 billion budget that includes the long-negotiated provisions on bail, despite criminal justice advocates and some legislators calling for lawmakers to vote it down.

Tucked into the proposed changes is a provision intended to address "repeat offenders" of alleged felony crimes. It's an issue Hochul and certain Democratic lawmakers have said is most concerning to them. Republicans have typically called for more broad-stroke changes to the bail laws.

The change for repeat felony offenses could mark the first time the state is clearly setting a standard beyond ensuring someone will return to court when determining what conditions to set during an arraignment. A judge would be able to also consider a defendant's "compliance with court conditions" in determining whether they are a risk of flight or pose a danger if released.

Under the proposal, if a person charged with a felony and released by a judge with conditions is rearrested on another felony and found to have violated the conditions then the judge would have broader discretion on whether to set bail or send them to jail for the second alleged offense. That additional discretion includes charges for which a judge otherwise would not have been able to set bail.

The alteration is in addition to other changes to the state's bail laws, which include a greater reliance on releasing a defendant under supervision.

The Times Union previously reported that supervised programs in New York are underfunded and struggling with increases in caseloads and a lack of infrastructure. The Legislature had initially hoped that supervised release programs could help address a defendant's underlying issues, such as unemployment, lack of housing or addiction.

State lawmakers increased funding for that programming to $20 million last year and agreed to keep that funding this year. Programming for anti-gun violence and other public safety measures, after being substantially increased last year, is proposed to be raised again as Hochul seeks to invest more in violence prevention.

Lawmakers who support the measures with the governor hope the various changes, which are often the subject of political debate, can help reduce violent crime and connect defendants with social services that are intended to address underlying conditions. Here's a look at the final changes:

Elimination of least restrictive standard: The change signals to judges that release conditions need to be rational and not excessive, but it doesn't have to be the least restrictive. It could provide judges with similar discretion they had before 2019 changes to the bail laws when they set bail on more "serious" crimes, such as violent felonies.





The change signals to judges that release conditions need to be rational and not excessive, but it doesn't have to be the least restrictive. It could provide judges with similar discretion they had before 2019 changes to the bail laws when they set bail on more "serious" crimes, such as violent felonies. More supervision: On misdemeanor and low-level felony cases, judges would have more leeway to set non-monetary conditions, such as supervised release. They are still generally restricted from setting bail or sending someone to jail in those cases.





On misdemeanor and low-level felony cases, judges would have more leeway to set non-monetary conditions, such as supervised release. They are still generally restricted from setting bail or sending someone to jail in those cases. Bail and non-monetary conditions: A judge can set bail and order someone to be subject to supervision if they're released from custody. Under the prior statute they could only choose one. The expectation is that judges may set lower bail amounts if they know a defendant would be supervised upon release.





A judge can set bail and order someone to be subject to supervision if they're released from custody. Under the prior statute they could only choose one. The expectation is that judges may set lower bail amounts if they know a defendant would be supervised upon release. Repeat felony offenders: If a person accused of a felony violates their release conditions and is rearrested for another felony they would be subject to bail or pre-trial incarceration for the second felony arrest.

If a person accused of a felony violates their release conditions and is rearrested for another felony they would be subject to bail or pre-trial incarceration for the second felony arrest. Mental health and addiction treatment: State officials are hoping to signal to judges that they can use non-monetary conditions for addiction and mental health treatment. State data show it was rarely used and the Times Union reported recently that drug court enrollment has dropped sharply over the last four years.





State officials are hoping to signal to judges that they can use non-monetary conditions for addiction and mental health treatment. State data show it was rarely used and the Times Union reported recently that drug court enrollment has dropped sharply over the last four years. Increased discretion: Last year, lawmakers agreed to allow judges in cases involving serious crimes to consider a defendant's charges, criminal record, prior history of showing up to court, ability to afford bail, violation of orders of protection, use or possession of a firearm and whether the offense caused "serious harm" to others.

Last year, lawmakers agreed to allow judges in cases involving serious crimes to consider a defendant's charges, criminal record, prior history of showing up to court, ability to afford bail, violation of orders of protection, use or possession of a firearm and whether the offense caused "serious harm" to others. Reporting on pretrial jail population: This would require the Office of Court Administration to report monthly on the number of individuals held in individual jails awaiting trial.

Explaining the bail issue

The issue this year centers around what's known as "bail-eligible" offenses for alleged crimes which Democratic elected officials have agreed that judges should be able to set bail or send a defendant to jail while they await trial.

Two issues at the center of the debate are repeated thefts and violent crime.

Last year, state officials agreed to allow judges to set bail or remand individuals who were accused of multiple thefts. The issue came as pharmacies and other retail shops began to put their merchandise in locked cases. The intent was to resolve any potential "revolving door" of larcenies and burglaries.

The issue, prosecutors said, fell to the same problem on other "bail-eligible" offenses: judges believed they could not hold a defendant in jail pretrial because they had to balance the "least restrictive means" to ensure they returned to court. They instead may be releasing someone on their own recognizance or with conditions such as an ankle monitor.

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has maintained that the state's so-called "bail reform" of 2019 only was to change what happens at arraignment for "low-level" offenses, such as misdemeanors and certain non-violent felonies. In those non-serious instances, state leaders agreed to prevent a judge from setting bail or sending someone to jail.

The outcome of the changes to the state's bail laws, according to state data, show that on the "serious" crimes, judges have become less likely to set bail. The small percentage change has led to more defendants released while awaiting trial.

Hochul and prosecutors have argued that is a byproduct of a clause that was added into the 2019 legislation instructing judges to use the "least restrictive means" to ensure a defendant's return to court.

Public defenders contest that the "least restrictive means" has long been New York's standard and the 2019 changes merely codified it. They content it was important because judges had used bail as a tool to jail defendants.

Public defenders also view removing the "least restrictive means" language as a "rollback" to the 2019 legislation. They believe it would vastly expand the pretrial jail population.
With it having been National Workplace Wellbeing Day on Friday, its a good time to shine a spotlight on staff wellbeing.

Whether you are a business owner or an employee within a company ensuring your health and the health of your staff is priority.

As Sir Richard Branson says, Take Care Of Your Employees And Theyll Take Care Of Your Business.

So, lets take this a step further and rather than having just one day to embrace workplace wellbeing, let it be something that is sustained all year round.

After all, healthier and happier staff create a positive working environment.

Here nutritionist Laurann OReilly explains some of the benefits of having a wellness programme as well as strategies as to how you can sustain employee wellness within your workplace.

The Benefits of Workplace Wellbeing Programmes

Most workplaces within Ireland and internationally have already progressed to having an

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy. This is particularly important due to the issue of climate change and the need to protect the environment. However, its equally important to focus on the social aspect and protect the health of employees too.

- Improved Social Connection: After the social isolation of our long lockdown, we now more than ever require a greater need of social connection and whilst many staff still work remotely, providing online and onsite social events and activities can provide staff with a greater sense of inclusion and belonging within their workplace.

- Reduced Absenteeism: Studies have found that companies which implemented comprehensive wellness education and programmes resulted in a 14-19% reduction in absenteeism. By providing staff with the knowledge, skills and opportunities to improve their health and reduce stress, this in turn results in improved immunity and less days off due to illness.

- Reduced Staff Burn Out: As many workplaces can be fast paced and often demanding on top of the stresses of everyday life, having health promoting and stress reduction strategies in place to support staff can play a major role in preventing the dreaded burn out. As leadership and business strategist Greg McKeown says burnout is not a badge of honour

- Improved Productivity: Improved employee health can result in higher levels of energy and lower levels of stress. This can in turn have a positive impact on overall work engagement and productivity.

- The Wider Impact: The effects of wellness education also translates outside of the workplace and into the home. As IBEC state improved wellbeing has a far-reaching impact, not only for your employees, but for their families and communities too

Sustaining Staff Wellness Within Your Workplace

- Ask The Staff: One way of really tailoring your wellness programme to the needs of your staff is to ask them what they need in terms of support, skills training and activities to provide a health promoting work environment.

Tip: This could be done by providing staff with a simple questionnaire

- Staff Dont Be Afraid To Ask: If you are a staff member and feel that you and your team could benefit from wellness activities or training, dont be afraid to ask. Afterall, you are far more productive when you are functioning at your best.

- Creating Opportunities For Movement: This is particularly important for those who have desk-based jobs. One large US study found that workplaces with an implemented wellness program had an 8.3% higher rate of employees engaging in regular exercise. Workplace physical activities are not only great for weight maintenance but also helps to maintain healthy bones, joints, helps to carry oxygen around the body as well as producing stress booting endorphins.

Tip: This can be achieved through activities such as steps challenges, workplace fitness events and online or onsite guided fitness classes.

- Ergonomics: Improving Your Work Set Up: Its important to keep in mind that we spend a great deal of our day in our working space. Ergonomics aims to create safe, comfortable and productive workspaces. Dohrmann Consultancy explains how when designing a workspace, its important to consider a persons body size, strength, skill, speed and sensory abilities (vision, hearing). Adjustments can then be made to meet each individuals needs.

Tip: Think of adjustments that you may need such as having a comfortable and supportive chair and raising your laptop to eye level to reduce neck pain.

- Reducing Stress & Building Resilience: Both work and life can often be demanding so its important to gain those valuable skills which can teach us how to manage our time, stress when it arises and how to achieve a healthy work-life balance. As IBEC states its important to take a moment to rebalance and refocus on supports that will benefit employees' social, mental, and physical wellbeing

Tip: Tools and activities such as guided meditation, yoga, mindfulness and learning breathing techniques can often be done onsite or remotely

- Providing Nutrition Education: We can often underestimate the importance of healthy eating in terms of staff wellness. Nutrition not only plays a key role in providing energy for the working day, but it is also essential for regulating our blood sugar levels (preventing the afternoon slump and sugar cravings), providing essential nutrients to combat stress, maintaining a healthy immune system, influencing our mood, memory, concentration and overall performance.

Tip: If you are a staff member or company and would like a nutrition talk or workshop within your workplace, which is specifically tailored to the needs of your staff, contact Nutrition By Laurann at info@nutritionbylaurann.ie or see https://nutritionbylaurann.ie/corporate-nutrition-ireland/
May 03, 2023

The accelerating growth of AI is allowing the customer support sector to become more productive, creative, and focused. In fact, companies are using it to learn more about their customers and provide superior self-service options. Unsurprisingly, AI will have a role in 95 percent of all customer interactions by 2025.







However, selecting the ideal technology for your business might be challenging due to the ever-changing support environment and a lot of available solutions. Well, keeping up with developments in AI is a good place to begin. The integration of AI technologies provides substantial support to the customer service functions of Ontario betting apps and popular social media platforms.

So, how would AI assist in customer service this year? Let's take a look:

24/7 AI-Driven Self-Service

It is much easier to support clients and answer their questions as they learn about what you offer with AI-powered self-service solutions (like chatbots).

The AI assistant helps with common inquiries and takes down relevant data from customers in real-time. The bot is able to recommend articles from the knowledge base, how-to manuals, and other materials that the customer service team thinks may be of use to them. In addition, AI-powered chatbots allow consumers to find their own solutions, even outside normal business hours, reducing the burden on support employees.

With bots taking care of routine questions, human representatives have more time to address more complicated problems, resulting in quicker responses and an overall enhanced customer service experience.

Predictive Analytics

The need of the hour is to provide timely and effective solutions to client issues. Predictive analytics comes into play at this point. Data mining, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are used to project what consumers will do next based on their past actions (such as purchases, product views, searches, etc.). The data may also be used to facilitate efficient case routing, which involves instantly linking consumers with the most qualified agent.

Customer service representatives can also use predictive analysis to find the customers who are most likely to leave the ship. Accordingly, the satisfaction score will rise due to providing customers with relevant and proactive solutions, and the rate of customer turnover will decrease.

Reduced Errors

When your team handles each customer service request by hand, mistakes are more likely to occur due to typos or agents failing to provide relevant information. Customers may see your team in a negative light if they get replies that are riddled with inaccuracies.

Similarly, representatives may have to spend time correcting errors. Let's say that every day, a representative spends 30 minutes fixing mistakes. That's almost equal to losing a full work month per year to the correctional system. By automatically collecting consumer facts and providing operators with all the details they need to solve an issue, chatbots may reduce the chance of human mistakes.

The capacity of AI to assess a huge quantity of client data also helps to eliminate confirmation bias in the decision-making process. This allows you to better estimate customer churn, provide personalized suggestions, and anticipate your clients' needs and wants.

AIOps for Proactive Customer Support

Being able to prevent problems before they arise is essential for providing outstanding customer service. However, not all monitoring technologies provide you with the whole picture. You need to understand your customers' needs and actions. Is there a way out of this dilemma? New-generation AIOps programs analyze the whole support ecosystem and help determine which problems should be addressed first.

With the use of AI and ML, they provide vital information about customers' profiles, support histories, previous resolutions of comparable situations, etc., to the support staff, allowing them to customize their interactions with customers and provide proactive help.

Moreover, AIOps is an important application of case categorization. Case field values can be determined with less human interaction with their support. Predictive intelligence is used to automatically complete fields like choosing boxes and radio buttons based on historical records. As a result, there are many benefits, including better data quality, less agent fatigue, and quicker problem-solving times.

Automated Machine Learning for Simplifying User Reviews

Processing client feedback in a timely manner is crucial to providing exceptional service. However, manually acting on it may be tedious and time-consuming. Automatic Machine Learning (AutoML) is what comes to the rescue!

AutoML helps in the categorization of customer feedback, which, in turn, increases efficiency. The AI-powered categorizations can be used to dispatch automatic answers and direct feedback, such as complaints, to the most competent support staff. As a result, both the speed with which problems are solved and the satisfaction of the consumer are enhanced.

In a Nutshell

Customers must always come first in any successful business. Artificial intelligence (AI) and its offshoots, such as machine learning, allow businesses to provide superior service to customers. We can safely predict that by the end of 2023, AI assistance will serve as the backbone of flawless customer service.

Now that you know what to expect from AI in 2023, you can take the next step and incorporate an AI-powered forum into your current technology stack.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) poses a slew of cybersecurity risks, particularly in social engineering scams that are prevalent in Hong Kong, according to a cybersecurity firm that is also deploying AI to counter the threat.

The emergence of advanced generative AI tools such as ChatGPT will enable certain types of scams to become more common and effective, said Kim-Hock Leow, Asia CEO of Wizlynx Group, a Switzerland-based cybersecurity services company.

"We can see that AI voice and video mimicking continues to seem more genuine, and we know that it can be used by actors looking to gain footholds in a company's information and cybersecurity [systems]," 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.

Social engineering like those conducted over the phone or through phishing emails are designed to fool victims into believing they are conversing with an authentic person on the other end.

In Hong Kong, scams conducted through online chats, phone calls and text messages have swindled people out of HK$4.8 billion (US$611.5 million). AI-generated audio, video and text are making these types of scams even harder to detect.

In one example from 2020, a Hong Kong-based manager at a Japanese bank was fooled by deepfake audio mimicking his director's voice into authorising a transfer request for US$35 million, according to a court document first reported by Forbes.

The scammers ultimately made off with US$400,000, as the manager also believed he had emails in his inbox confirming the director's request.

Just a year earlier, a similar scam led a British energy company to wire US$240,000 to an account in Hungary.

Governments are starting to wake up to the new threat. In February, Beijing's municipal public security bureau warned in a statement on WeChat that "villains" may use generative AI to "commit crimes and spread rumours".

Story continues

In March, the US Federal Trade Commission issued a warning about scammers weaponising AI-cloned voices to impersonate people, adding that all they need is a short audio clip of the person's voice from online.

A much likelier scenario than AI audio or video, however, is AI-generated text used in phishing emails, according to Leow.

"Everyone gets phishing attacks, but they are sometimes easily detectable due to the length, typos, or because they lack relevant context to you and your job," he said.

"But now, cybercriminals can use new AI language models to increase the sophistication of their phishing emails."

Banknotes seized as part of scam involving phishing messages sent to Hong Kong residents are seen at police headquarters in Wan Chai. Experts warn that phishing scams could become more sophisticated through the use of AI. Photo: Sam Tsang alt=Banknotes seized as part of scam involving phishing messages sent to Hong Kong residents are seen at police headquarters in Wan Chai. Experts warn that phishing scams could become more sophisticated through the use of AI. Photo: Sam Tsang>

One way this might work is by using a tool like ChatGPT to clean up and professionalise the language of a message. This can include quickly conducting background research on an entity or industry for added contextual information to personalise phishing emails, Leow explained.

Wizlynx, whose clients include finance companies and government-affiliated entities in Hong Kong, and companies like it are now deploying ChatGPT themselves to better fight these more sophisticated scams.

Tactics include using the chatbot to generate phishing emails for training purposes. Wizlynx is also using it to identify vulnerabilities and conduct research on cybersecurity systems.

"Based on the knowledge and data that AI can gather and generate over time, cybersecurity professionals can use it to get more accurate identification of a security system's risk and vulnerability areas," Leow said.

"We have to encourage cybersecurity professionals and other industries to make use of ChatGPT itself to improve defences," he added. "In a way, it is a double-edged sword that will be used for both cybersecurity and cybercrime."

Some of the threats cybersecurity firms point to remain hypothetical for now. Digitpol, a global provider of digital risk solutions, has warned that AI models can be trained to bypass security filters and detection signatures by quickly writing malware and malicious code.

Leow said he is unsure if AI-generated malware has been used in recent attacks, but noted that currently available security measures can only minimise the risk of these highly sophisticated threats.

"We will have to hope that the owners of ChatGPT and other generative AI models will do everything they can to minimise the chances of abuse by bad actors," he said.

The terms of service from ChatGPT creator OpenAI prohibit the use of its technology for illicit purposes. The company also has technical solutions in place, but there is a risk that bad actors could bypass ChatGPT's filters, according to Leow.

Dark web forum posts identified in a January report from Check Point Research indicated that cybercriminals have figured out how to manipulate ChatGPT into producing basic but viable malware.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.

Cybercrime is expected to cost US$8 trillion globally this year in damages that include stolen funds, property loss and reduced productivity, according to a report from Cybersecurity Ventures.

The losses would be larger than the gross domestic product of every country except the US and China.

In the face of this threat, cybersecurity experts will continue to evolve in what is becoming an AI arms race, according to David Fairman, Asia-Pacific chief information officer for Netscape.

"In the coming years and months, we will see security teams effectively embracing AI to improve threat identification and automate much of the defence process," Fairman said.

"AI is commonly used in many of the latest cybersecurity products that are used by security teams today, and we will see this continue to evolve."

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.
May 03, 2023





U.S. Democratic Senator Michael Bennet introduced a bill this Thursday pushing for the creation of a task force commissioned with identifying the shortfalls in regulatory oversight of artificial intelligence.

The AI rush is afoot, as computer-generated art and powerful chatbots continue to make headlines. The colossal success of OpenAIs conversational tool ChatGPT had many companies double down on their AI efforts to keep up the pace. But as AI-powered services become ever-so-sophisticated, lawmakers are scratching their heads with how to regulate this nascent technology.







A senior U.S. senator from Colorado, Michael Bennet is the latest prominent voice to join the AI conversation. Under his bill, a task force would be assigned with targeting AIs shortcomings and recommending reforms in U.S. policies when required. Cabinet members could be called to step in alongside officials from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Office of Management and Budget, as well as civil liberties officers from several State Departments and executive branch agencies. Working for no more than 18 months, the task force would be shut down after issuing a final report.

During a news conference in Washington, Bennet advocated for increased education on artificial intelligence issues. Yet, he also warned there would be much improvisation and iterative approaches, for AI was new to everyone in the government. And AI technology also feels like uncharted territory for Bennets fellow Senators.

Earlier this week, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, called for artificial intelligence companies to ensure the responsible deployment of new technologies and prioritize security measures in their ongoing research. The Democratic Senator sent letters to some of the biggest names in the field, reaching out to CEOs of Meta Platforms, Midjourney, Apple (News - Alert), and OpenAI, among other tech giants. Urging AI creators to put security at the forefront of their work, Warner expressed his concern about the latent risks of AI technology in the absence of some level of regulation.

And elected officials are not alone in ringing the alarm. In March, hundreds of high-profile tech entrepreneurs signed an open letter admonishing the worlds leading AI labs to hold back on training all-powerful digital minds. Advanced AI and machine learning software should be managed with commensurate care, the letter says, since they could herald a profound and unprecedented change in human history. But as companies pour billions of dollars to gain the upper hand on this burgeoning technology, experts fear this out-of-control race could lead humanity to the brink of catastrophe.

With a list of signatories including such illustrious names as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (News - Alert) and tech billionaire Elon Musk, siding with many distinguished academics in the AI field, this cautionary letter made waves. But it didnt stay unanswered for long. As reported by CNBC, Bill Gates (News - Alert) pushed back against the proposed interruption of AI training. The tech luminary shared his thoughts on the virtual impossibility of asking one particular group to halt their AI activities globally. Gates added that a pause would not solve the challenges.

Meanwhile, experts taking the stand during a Senate subcommittee hearing argued that pausing AI development may hamper U.S. competitiveness. Beyond a mere economic standpoint, breakthroughs in AI might transform other critical domains like warfare and cybersecurity.

While countries channel artificial intelligence to ensure national security, individuals benefit from the technology in their everyday lives, too. ChatGPT is already the go-to platform for IT employees, journalists, and students alike. Generative AI is revolutionizing entire sectors as well, from the film business to the gaming medium. With the ability to enhance gameplay mechanics and craft unique non-playable characters, AI is taking immersion in video games to the next level.

The iGaming industry has also leveraged AI technology to protect player privacy and provide a safer space for gamers altogether. Thats why reviewing hubs like CasinoReviews.com emphasize security and reliability in their recommendations. With the help of a team of experts, newcomers can find the best casino out there to play it safe. Each site is vetted according to a strict reviewing process, which accounts for key decision-making criteria like pay-out speed, convenient banking options, and user experience. A strong commitment to responsible gambling is also of the essence to make the cut.

Artificial intelligence is already prevalent in the daily lives of web users. Still, the heightened competition between Silicon Valley giants is giving pause to regulators and tech leaders alike. Officeholders and lawmakers are walking a fine line between drafting new regulatory regimes and staying on top of the AI race, thus. Regardless, a legal framework for AI technology is bound to emerge in the coming months in an effort to curtail AIs potential threats to civil liberties, privacy, and due process.
[May 03, 2023] Palladius Capital Management and Marquee Funding Group Provide Construction Financing for 115-Key Upscale Hotel in Hillsboro, Oregon

Palladius Capital Management ("Palladius"), a vertically-integrated real estate investment manager focused on pursuing multifamily, student housing, hospitality and select thematic investment strategies, today announced that, in joint-venture partnership with Marquee Funding Group, it has originated a $11.5 million loan to finance the construction of Cambria Hotel Hillsboro, a four story, 115-key asset located at 5523 NE Huffman St. in Hillsboro, Oregon. The fixed-rate loan carries a term of 24 months and is provided to sponsors Evergreen Hospitality Development, a Washington-based hotel developer and manager, and Fine Hotel Group, an Orange County, California-based hotel management company. "We are excited to provide this financing to two high quality sponsors who understand the local market exceptionally well and have a sound business plan to own and operate a high performing hotel supported by multiple demand generators," said Afshin Kateb, CFO and Head of Hospitality Investments. "This transaction illustrates that during these volatile capital markets times, while most regional banks have materially reduced their lending capacity, we remain present and ready to lend to qualified projects. Our decades of experience owning, operating and financing hotels gave us great confidence in making this loan, and we look forward to contributing our knowledge to support the project's success. This origination demonstrates our unique ability to structure bespoke financing solutions that are beyond the capabilities of other lenders." The 22,000 square-foot upscale hotel will be constructed on land that is owned by Majestic Realty Co., which is adjacent to Majestic Brookwood Businss Park, a master-planned 118-acre commercial development in the heart of Hillsboro's business sector. Hillsboro, the fifth largest city in Oregon, has been dubbed "Silicon Forest" given the area's heavy tech presence. Companies like Intel, Adobe, McAfee, Salesforce, and Nvidia call Hillsboro home. The market also houses other major employers, including Nike's global headquarters, Applied Materials, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, among others. The hotel will also benefit from its proximity to the popular Orenco Station neighborhood, an award-winning transit-oriented community that features a diverse collection of retail shopping and popular restaurants.



Commenting on Palladius's views on the hotel market, CEO Nitin Chexal stated, "We are firm believers in the long-term fundamentals supporting well-located hotels. We pay close attention to hospitality real estate and have been investing in it for years; we plan to be an active lender on a national scale on projects that meet our investment criteria. Recovery within the hospitality sector has been extremely market - and in some cases submarket - specific, as widely varying demand drivers create disparate impacts on regional and local hospitality ecosystems. In this case, the Hillsboro market demonstrates robust leisure demand and is beginning to show signs of recovery in business travel." Palladius's debt platform targets construction and transitional commercial real estate lending, which it holds on its balance sheet. It originates, acquires and manages first mortgages, B-notes, mezzanine debt and preferred equity across most commercial real estate assets, including hospitality, multifamily, student housing, and single-family housing.

About Palladius Capital Management Palladius is a diversified real estate investment manager that leverages institutional best practices, technology and operational expertise to drive value creation for institutional and individual investors. Led by a team of commercial real estate, finance and technology veterans, Palladius pursues value-add and core-plus strategies targeting multifamily, student housing, hospitality and other thematic investment strategies through its affiliates. Based in Austin, TX, Palladius manages and operates approximately $600 million of real estate across the U.S. and is focused on building a highly progressive platform that promotes diversity and inclusion. To learn more, visit www.palladius.com. About Marquee Funding Group Marquee Funding Group, Inc. is a full-service mortgage banking firm specializing in the origination, investment sale, and servicing of privately placed real estate loans more commonly known as hard money / private equity loans. Marquee funds all types of loans in both the consumer and commercial marketplace by offering access to borrowers that cannot find a source of institutional financing. Marquee has the ability to arrange debt on all types of real property. Marquee's founders have been working together since 1994 and the dream of Marquee Funding Group came to fruition in 2009. The firm is managed by experienced mortgage professionals dedicated to offering the highest quality products and services in the industry. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005272/en/

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[May 02, 2023] Taiwan Startup Stadium Empowers Startups to Expand Overseas with Annual Go Global Startup Bootcamp

TAIPEI , May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Taiwan Startup Stadium successfully concluded its annual Go Global Startup Bootcamp on April 25, 2023, at t.Hub in Taipei. This event was part of a series of two Level Up Bootcamp training events and was exclusively designed for Taiwanese startups looking to expand globally. The bootcamp attracted over 20 participants from diverse backgrounds. The event's highlight was the presence of guest speakers and industry experts who shared their valuable insights and experiences with the attendees. The speakers covered a range of topics including internal operations, business development, public relations strategy, and marketing strategy. This year's Go Global Startup Boocamp also featured a panel discussion with three successful startup executives from KKday, FunNow, and A.V. Mapping. They shared their personal experiences of expanding into overseas markets, as well as provided the attendees with practical knowledge and inspiration. In addition, the attendees had an exclusive 1-on-1 office hour opportunity with the panel speakers, which was a unique chance to receive personalized advice and feedback.



The bootcamp also provided an excellent networking opportunity for attendees to connect with like-minded individuals and industry peers, exchange ideas, and build lasting relationships. "We are thrilled with the success of this year's Go Global Startup Bootcamp," said Allen John Ku, Director of Taiwan Startup Stadium. "On top of gaining practical knowledge, we also hope that the attendees have made meaningful connections within this community." Taiwan Startup Stadium has announced that the next bootcamp of the same series, the Termsheet Bootcamp, will be hosted on May 18th and 19th. This event provides an opportunity for startups to gain a comprehensive understanding of fundraising and investment. Please follow along on Taiwan Startup Stadium's Facebook page and Linkedin page for more information!

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/taiwan-startup-stadium-empowers-startups-to-expand-overseas-with-annual-go-global-startup-bootcamp-301813724.html SOURCE Taiwan Startup Stadium

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[May 02, 2023] Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group Unveils Winners of 2023 Global E-commerce Challenge

SINGAPORE, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Talented young minds from universities in China, Spain and Singapore have been hailed as winners of the 2023 Alibaba Global E-commerce Challenge organized by Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group ("AIDC") after a series of rigorous competitions both at the regional and the global levels. The 2023 Alibaba Global E-commerce Challenge aimed to identify young talent from around the world that can help shape the future of AIDC. Open to university students and recent university graduates worldwide, participants were tasked to develop creative solutions to problems inspired by some of AIDC's real day-to-day businesses scenarios. Since launching in March, this year's competition has received an overwhelming response with around 3,500 individuals representing 141 renowned universities from 59 countries and regions participating. After the intense regional rounds held in Europe, the Americas, East Asia and Southeast Asia, nine teams were selected to enter the global finals held in Singapore from April 27-28. The finalists vied for the top three spots by pitching live to a judging panel formed by AIDC executives, to present their proposals around market opportunities and strategies for some of the businesses under AIDC, including Alibaba.com, AliExpress and Lazada. Team "Chunyi Capital", formed by students from Peking University, took first place of the global finals for their innovative approach and teamwork, while Team "Checkout Champs" and Team "Merlion Consulting", formed by students from ESADE Business School and National University of Singapore respectively, earned second and third place. The three winning teams were awarded prizes worth up to RMB50,000. In addition, AIDC will extend internship offers to select participants of the global finals. "We were impresed by the insightful and innovative proposals by the finalists in the Alibaba Global E-Commerce Challenge. AIDC is committed to nurturing young talent in the international digital commerce space and we are excited to welcome some of the bright minds from the competition as interns with our company. We look forward to seeing their future success," said Lilian Jiang, Chief People Officer of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group.



"We are humbled and elated to have won the Alibaba Global E-Commerce Challenge. This competition has been an incredible journey, pushing us to our limits and helping us develop a deeper understanding of the digital commerce sector. We look forward to applying the knowledge and skills we have gained to drive positive change in the industry. Thank you to the organizers and judges for this opportunity," said Chunyi from Team Chunyi Capital at Peking University. Several earlier participants of the competition, including HUA Wen, who placed third in the previous edition of the competition, have joined AIDC and made significant contributions to the team. Sharing her advice with this year's winners, Hua said: "When opportunities arise, don't be afraid to challenge yourself and don't let societal expectations dictate your choices. Life is about experiences, not just fulfilling a purpose."

To enhance the finalists' experience during their time in Singapore, AIDC arranged a tour of its Singapore office for all participants to allow them to gain a deeper understanding of its organization, interact with the AIDC team, and witness its operations in action. The experience provided valuable learning opportunities for the finalists and helped them gain a more comprehensive understanding of the e-commerce sector. AIDC operates multiple international commerce retail businesses, including Lazada, AliExpress, Trendyol and Daraz, which provide commerce infrastructure and local market insights to support brands and merchants in serving local consumers with a wide product selection and unique customer experiences. The company also operates Alibaba.com, a leading platform for global business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce founded in 1999 that aims to make it easy to do business anywhere. To find out more about the 2023 Alibaba Global E-commerce Challenge, please visit: https://www.alibabagec.com/ View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/alibaba-international-digital-commerce-group-unveils-winners-of-2023-global-e-commerce-challenge-301814148.html SOURCE Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group

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[May 03, 2023] Profen to Deliver High Performance Networks across Turkiye and beyond with SES's O3b mPOWER system

The energy companies, government agencies, the telco companies and humanitarian aid organisations in Turkiye, the Middle East and Africa will soon be able to access high-performance, low-latency satellite-based connectivity services, Profen and SES announced today. The combined capacity and infrastructure agreements will see Profen, the global high-tech solutions company, deploy SES's second-generation medium earth orbit (MEO) system - O3b mPOWER - and build a gateway in Turkiye to jointly deliver high-performance connectivity to serve identified market opportunities of more than 10 Gbps. By installing the O3b mPOWER gateway at the core of its networks, Profen's customers in industries such as telecommunications, energy and humanitarian aid organisations can roll-out more secure networks and minimise latency by reducing the required hops between endpoints. In addition, Profen will be providing a range of services such as mobile backhaul, disaster recovery and private 5G, enabling local companies and neighboring ones in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and central Asia to enjoy the services that are backed by robust service level agreements. The partnership is designed to enhance the digital infrastructure and broadband services of the region. According to data from the International Telecommunication Union, Turkiye has more than 71 million internet users for a penetration rate of 83%. The same research also shows that while there are plans to deploy 5G networks across the country, today almost 82 million cellular mobile connections are still on 3G and 4G networks in 2023. The partnership between Profen and SES will not only boost digital infrastructure and broadband services but enable both companies to provide connectivity solutions to various market segments, ultimately resulting in improved network coverage, faster speeds, low-latency and enhanced reliability and security. "The launch of the O3b mPOWER system represents a significant milestone for the satcom industry, and we are proud to be at the forefront of this technological revolution. As a leading provider of high-tech solutions, Profen is committed to delivering innovative and reliable connectivity services to our customers. With the deployment of SES's O3b mPOWER gateway in Turkiye, we are excited to offer our customers on land, out at sea or in the skies unprecedented access to high-performance, low-latency satellite-based connectivity services." said Cem Odaman, Chief Business Development Officer at Profen. "We are very excited to partner with Profen and to jointly introduce high-throughput and low-latency satellite-enabled services to Turkiye and surrounding regions. With O3b mPOWER, Profen will have access to a reliable and high-speed network, whenever and wherever they need it, allowing them to quickly and flexibly address the changing connectivity demands of their customers, including the highly anticipated 5G technology," said Brendan O'Callaghan, Global Head of Enterprise and Cloud at SES. Two launches have already taken place in December 2022 and April 2023, with a third and final launch of two additional satellites still to come, bringing the total number of satellites to six. The system is expected to be operational by the third quarter of 2023, enabling companies and organisations to benefit from high-performance network services offering industry-best throughput, predictable low latency, and ultra-reliable service availability. For more information on how O3b mPOWER can bring a new level of performance to satellite-enabled communications, visit the newsroom.



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Read our Blogs > Visit the Media Gallery > About SES SES has a bold vision to deliver amazing experiences everywhere on earth by distributing the highest quality video content and providing seamless connectivity around the world. As the leader in global content connectivity solutions, SES operates the world's only multi-orbit constellation of satellites with the unique combination of global coverage and high performance, including the commercially-proven, low-latency Medium Earth Orbit O3b system. By leveraging a vast and intelligent, cloud-enabled network, SES is able to deliver high-quality connectivity solutions anywhere on land, at sea or in the air, and is a trusted partner to the world's leading telecommunications companies, mobile network operators, governments, connectivity and cloud service providers, broadcasters, video platform operators and content owners. SES's video network carries ~8,000 channels and has an unparalleled reach of 369 million households, delivering managed media services for both linear and non-linear content. The company is listed on Paris and Luxembourg stock exchanges (Ticker: SESG). Further information is available at: www.ses.com. About Profen Founded in 1995, Profen is a leading player in the global communications technologies market. With its own research and development center and offices in Istanbul, Ankara, Konya, Tewkesbury (UK), and Baku (Azerbaijan), Profen has been providing cutting-edge solutions to customers around the world for more than 28 years. Profen offers top-notch satellite communication services to the partners and clients worldwide. Profen strengthens its services via privately owned and operated Data Centers and Ground Stations in Konya and Ankara locations. Profen's multiple locations in Turkey ensure company's position to meet various needs coming from the clients and partners while giving the most reliable and sustainable services possible. In the time where uninterrupted communication is essential, our multiple data centers and ground stations have become a prominent instrument for increased availability, disaster recovery and improved scalability. Profen has the unique capability to design, manufacture and provide engineering services with satellite background and implement turn-key solutions for its clients while combining different technologies and disciplines. Learn more about Profen: www.profen.com Follow Profen on: LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Twitter Read our Blogs > Visit the Media Center > View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230502006298/en/

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[May 03, 2023] Behind Mitra Bukalapak's Success in Harnessing the Power of Indonesia's Micro Businesses

JAKARTA, Indonesia, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Mitra Bukalapak, an online-to-offline (o2o) player and a subsidiary of Indonesian tech company Bukalapak ("IDX:BUKA") is a platform that offers end-to-end solutions for mom-and-pop stores (warungs). The company has disrupted the business model of warungs, which are often constrained by limited product offerings and lack of resources required to scale up. After utilizing the Mitra Bukalapak app, warung owners have enjoyed a significant increase of up to 3 times in income. Mitra Bukalapak significantly boosted the overall revenue of BUKA and in Q1 2023, Mitra Bukalapak accounted for 46% of Bukalapak's Total Processing Value (TPV). This upward trajectory is accompanied by the increase in numbers of registered small businesses in Mitra Bukalapak, from 13.1 million at the end of March 2022 to 16.8 million at the end of March 2023.



A study conducted by Nielsen in November 2022 reported Mitra Bukalapak has accomplished a 57% penetration rate among mom-and-pop stores using o2o platforms, making it the leader in the o2o market. The growth was driven by an improvement in the product mix and a greater variety of service offerings to the Mitras. They can sell over 42 types of virtual products and financial services, from phone credit top-ups and money transfers to game vouchers and train tickets. This offering does not only help warungs gain capabilities of modern retailers, but also empowers them to act as financial inclusion agents in their communities.

Going beyond helping warung owners attain financial success, Mitra Bukalapak also instills a growth mindset that inspires them to continuously think ahead as entrepreneurs. "Our approach goes beyond providing technology and one-time promotional programs for Mitras. We created regular educational sessions that cultivate a growth mindset and entrepreneurial spirit among our Mitra community members. The community boasts 130,000 members from across the country. These members get to join our gathering events where they can meet fellow warung owners, build their own network, and learn from each other. We strongly believe that peer learning would be the most effective way for these micro business players to get inspired and achieve success," said Howard Gani, CEO of Mitra Bukalapak. Following the success of creating impacts on warungs, Mitra Bukalapak seeks to extend the solutions to other verticals that share similar pain points with warungs. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/behind-mitra-bukalapaks-success-in-harnessing-the-power-of-indonesias-micro-businesses-301814279.html SOURCE Bukalapak

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[May 03, 2023] Eseye announces new agreement with Orange to enhance global IoT connectivity offering

New agreement with the wholesale arm of Tier - 1 mobile operator Orange, enables Eseye to solve permanent roaming issues for customers in many territories.

This agreement provides enabling Eseye's customers to access Orange Wholesale France networks and roaming partners further adding to their existing carrier footprint.

Allows Eseye to utilise Orange Wholesale's existing roaming footprint of more than 220 destinations globally and over 700 network operators. GUILDFORD, England, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Eseye, a pioneer of leading-edge cellular IoT connectivity solutions, today announced it has entered into an agreement with Orange Wholesale France to enhance its global IoT connectivity solution offering with additional localisation capabilities which will enable enterprises to avoid permanent roaming challenges. Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators and has 242 million mobile customers in 26 countries. Its Business Unit Orange Wholesale France is a leader in wholesale global IoT connectivity. Thanks to its unique international footprint, giving access to the best networks in terms of speed and coverage, and a wide range of connectivity options  including 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, LPWA and upcoming new radio technologies  Orange Wholesale France it is a strong partner for Eseye. Indeed, Orange Wholesale France, with its extensive roaming agreements specifically for IoT use cases across many countries and regions, provides Eseye with an excellent building block in its mission to solve global IoT challenges for enterprises. Not only does it increase Eseye's footprint, but it also augments the deeper technical localisation agreements that Eseye already has in place in regions such as North America, Brazil and Turkey, where there are restrictions on permanent roaming agreements in order to localise devices. Eseye brings deep device, connectivity, and technical leadership expertise to every IoT project working closely with clients to build a custom strategy that delivers success. With a vision to deliver every IoT project right first time from design to deployment it has been first to market on numerous occasions, solving challenging industry issues and leading the way in IoT connectivity solutions. In particular, Eseye has successfully solved permanent roaming issues for enterprises.



Adam Hayes, Chief Operating Officer, Eseye comments: "Sponsored roaming is a highly effective way of delivering IoT services but unfortunately it doesn't solve all use cases. Adding the Orange Wholesale offering with Eseye's unique technical localisation capabilities means we are able to offer wide-ranging access to local networks and roaming partners. Our vision is to provide the most comprehensive global IoT connectivity solutions to the market. We pioneered the localisation trend, solving IoT problems in difficult jurisdictions such as North America and Brazil. As a result, we know how much engineering investment and work is involved in achieving full technical localisation and we are dedicated to ensuring we meet our customers' evolving IoT deployment needs." Yannick Decaux, SVP Mobile Wholesale and Interconnection, Orange Wholesale France adds: "Eseye is an experienced, deeply technical, IoT connectivity solution provider and therefore the perfect partner for us to engage with via our global connectivity agreement. We have been impressed by the organisation's commitment to solving some of the most challenging IoT problems and the company's desire to make global IoT connectivity available to all enterprises; a vision that we also uphold. I am looking forward to working closely with the team and enabling Eseye to leverage our IoT Roaming solution."

ABOUT ORANGE WHOLESALE FRANCE

Orange Wholesale France's mission is to offer network solutions to all French and international operators and to market Orange's fixed and mobile infrastructures in France. As a market leader with over 800 wholesale customers operators, Orange Wholesale France currently provides network infrastructure access to more than 1.2 million km of civil transmission arteries, broadband network access (copper and fiber) reaching nearly 40 million homes and businesses, including 13 million on third-party networks, mobile network access to all 2/3/4/5G mobile networks covering mainland France and French overseas territories as well as to more than 700 international roaming agreements worldwide. It also offers IoT connectivity solutions all over the world to its international partners. Orange Wholesale France's 1,200 experts are committed every day to provide best-in-class solutions on networks that are monitored 24/7 with a dedicated customer support. ABOUT ESEYE

Eseye empowers businesses to embrace IoT without limits. We help them visualise the impossible and bring those solutions to life through innovative IoT cellular connectivity solutions that enable our customers to drive up business value, deploy differentiated experiences, and disrupt their markets. Our pioneering IoT connectivity hardware, software, and platform technology allow businesses to overcome the complexity of IoT deployment and develop, deploy, and manage IoT projects at scale with a high degree of success. Supported by a powerful partner ecosystem, we seamlessly connect devices across 190 countries, agnostic to over 700 available global networks. www.eseye.com View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/eseye-announces-new-agreement-with-orange-to-enhance-global-iot-connectivity-offering-301813402.html

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[May 03, 2023] InvestmentPitch Media Video Discusses ARway Corporation's Continued Disruption of Augmented Reality Wayfinding market, Integrating with Magic Leap AR Glasses

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ARway Corporation (CSE:ARWY) (OTCQB:ARWYF) (FSE:E65), an AI-powered platform that provides augmented reality experiences for indoor spaces, has begun integration development with Magic Leap Glasses, one of the most widely used AR Glasses, and expects to complete the integration in the next 60-days.

A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on the image or link below: For more information, please view the InvestmentPitch Media video which provides additional information about this news and the company, along with video comments from Evan Gappelberg, CEO. The video is available for viewing on  InvestmentPitch  and on  YouTube . If these links are not enabled, please visit www.InvestmentPitch.com and enter ARway in the search box. Magic Leap glasses are a fascinating augmented reality inovation designed to create a seamless blend between the virtual and real worlds, allowing users to experience digital content in a way that feels as if it's a part of their physical environment. Magic Leap glasses use advanced technologies like eye-tracking, spatial sound, and six degrees of freedom or 6DoF, which refers to the number of axis that a rigid body can move freely in 3D space.



Eye-tracking technology enables the glasses to detect where the user is looking and adjust the virtual content accordingly. Spatial sound technology creates an audio experience that is tailored to the user's position in space, making the virtual content sound like it's coming from the right direction. 6DoF technology allows users to move around freely and interact with digital content as if it's a part of the real world. Magic Leap has received billions of dollars in funding from high-profile enterprise companies like Google and Alibaba, which underscores the potential value of this technology. As Magic Leap Glasses continue to gain traction and adoption, investors can expect to see increased demand for integrated products and services such as those provided by the ARway.ai platform.

ARways platform allows users to easily create experiences for navigation, tours, information sharing, notifications, advertising, and gamification. With the integration, ARway will provide a software package for agencies, brands and corporations to create and publish large-scale location persistent AR experiences to Magic Leap 2 devices from the ARway platform, leveraging ARway's computer vision and extended tracking technologies. The integration comes at a pivotal time, as Magic Leap is now natively supporting OpenXR, a royalty-free, open standard that provides high-performance access to Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, collectively known as XR-platforms and devices, thereby creating an accessible augmented reality ecosystem that benefits both enterprises and developers across industries. The global indoor positioning and indoor navigation market is expected to reach US$44 Billion by 2025, representing a 7-year compound annual growth rate of 42%, according to Allied Market Research. The shares, which began trading in November, are trading at $0.81. For more information, please visit the companys website www.arway.ai or contact Evan Gappelberg, CEO, at 866-274-8493. For Investor Relations, contact Julia Viola at [email protected] . About InvestmentPitch Media InvestmentPitch Media leverages the power of video, which together with its extensive distribution, positions a companys story ahead of the 1,000's of companies seeking awareness and funding from the financial community. The company specializes in producing short videos based on significant news releases, research reports and other content of interest to investors. Disclaimer The information in this InvestmentPitch Media Ltd video is for the viewers information only. ARway has paid a fee not exceeding $2,000 in cash to have its current news release produced in video format. The corporate information is based on information that is publicly available. Any information provided by InvestmentPitch Media Ltd., through its media services is not to be construed as a recommendation or suggestion or offer to buy or sell securities but is provided solely as an informational media service. InvestmentPitch Media Ltd makes no warranties or undertakings as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. All due diligence should be done by the viewer or their financial advisor. Investing in securities is speculative and carries risk. CONTACT:

InvestmentPitch Media

Barry Morgan, CFO

[email protected]





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[May 03, 2023] RANGE RAISES $12MM SERIES A LED BY GRADIENT, GOOGLE'S AI FUND, TO REVOLUTIONIZE WEALTH MANAGEMENT

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Range , the all-in-one AI WealthTech platform, announced it had raised $12m in funding led by Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-focused venture fund. The round also included Expa (founded by Garrett Camp, former Chairman and Co-founder of Uber), Red Sea Ventures, 8-bit Capital, and individuals Randy Reddig (co-founder, Square), Adrian Aoun (CEO & founder at Forward Health), Severin Hacker (co-founder & CTO of Duolingo), and Dan Lewis (co-founder & CEO of Convoy). "We started this company to help families better manage their wealth," said Fahad Hassan, co-founder and CEO of Range. "With our new investors and their experience in AI, we believe this partnership and financing will allow us to assist families during unprecedented times of economic chane and uncertainty. Our products will allow everyone to access the advice and tools typically only available to the wealthy."



The funding will be used primarily to grow the product and engineering teams to accelerate offerings to Range's customers. Range plans to integrate their wealth management tools with various AI technologies to automate aspects of wealth and tax planning. "Understanding your current wealth and where your family can develop new opportunities for wealth creation is on the minds of everyone. The team at Range is determined to leverage new technologies, specifically AI and large-language models, to give families more control and visibility into their financial future , " said Darian Shirazi, General Partner at Gradient Ventures, who also joins Range's board of directors. "We're thrilled to partner with Fahad, David, and the entire Range team as they pursue their noble vision to improve the financial lives of families globally. "

Range was founded in 2021 by Fahad Hassan and David Cusatis. An all-in-one wealth management tool to make financial planning accessible to everyone, Range has in-house financial advisers to optimize investment services, tax planning, estate planning, retirement planning and insurance needs. ABOUT RANGE

Range puts wealth management into the hands of everyone with a platform aimed at simplifying and democratizing access. The all-in-one tools are powered by proprietary AI technology and aided by a team of world class licensed financial advisors. With no minimums required, personalized guidance, financial tools, machine-learning insights, and 24/7 support, Range is revolutionizing the wealth management industry. For more information, visit www.range.com . ABOUT GRADIENT VENTURES

Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-focused venture fund, helps founders build transformational companies. The fund focuses on helping founders navigate the challenges in developing new technology products, using the latest best practices in recruiting, marketing, design, and engineering so that great ideas can come to life. Gradient was founded in 2017 and is based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit www.gradient.com. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/range-raises-12mm-series-a-led-by-gradient-googles-ai-fund-to-revolutionize-wealth-management-301814467.html SOURCE Range

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[May 03, 2023] Carvana Expands Chicago Presence With Newest Iconic Car Vending Machine

Carvana, an industry pioneer for buying and selling used cars online, today launched its newest Car Vending Machine near Chicago, located in Schaumburg, Illinois. The state-of-the-art steel and glass structure stands a staggering 12 stories tall with a 43-vehicle capacity offering local car buyers a second location in the Chicago area to partake in the full Car Vending Machine experience. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005169/en/ Carvana Opens Second Car Vending Machine in Chicagoland (Photo: Business Wire) Carvana customers can save valuable time by shopping online, and can choose to either pick up their vehicle at the Schaumburg Car Vending Machine or have the vehicle delivered to their home. When customers opt for a Car Vending Machine pick up, upon their arrival at the tower, they will be greeted by a Customer Advocate and receive a commemorative, oversized Carvana coin to activate the automated vending process. Then, Carvana customers get a front-row seat to watch their nwly purchased vehicle descend through the brightly lit vending structure from the heart of the all-glass tower.



Whether Chicagoans are shopping for a vehicle big enough to bring the whole family to Wrigley Field, or are in need of an all-weather vehicle prepared for the chill of Lake Michigan winters, Carvana offers an inventory that can best serve the needs of the Windy City. "We first launched in the Chicagoland area over six years ago and the response has been overwhelming," said Alyssa Simmons, Carvana Market Operations Manager. "Since then, we've opened one vending machine in Oak Brook, and are excited to be adding a second location in Schaumburg. We're looking forward to bringing even more great car-buying experiences to Chicago area residents."

Carvana is proud to be expanding their presence in Chicago. The debut of the newest Car Vending Machine marks the second of its kind in the Prairie State, and the 37th in the U.S. It is located at 1717 N Penny Lane, Schaumburg, IL 60173. Location hours are Monday through Sunday from 9 AM to 7 PM CT. About Carvana (NYSE: CVNA) is an industry pioneer for buying and selling used vehicles online. As the fastest growing used automotive retailer in U.S. history, its proven, customer-first ecommerce model has positively impacted millions of people's lives through more convenient, accessible and transparent experiences. Carvana.com allows someone to purchase a vehicle from the comfort of their home, completing the entire process online, benefiting from a 7-day money back guarantee, home delivery, nationwide inventory selection and more. Customers also have the option to sell or trade-in their vehicle across all Carvana locations, including its patented Car Vending Machines, in more than 300 U.S. markets. Carvana brings a continued focus on people-first values, industry-leading customer care, technology and innovation, and is the No. 2 automotive brand in the U.S., only behind Ford, on the Forbes 2022 Most Customer-Centric Companies List. Carvana is one of the four fastest companies to make the Fortune 500 and for more information, please visit www.carvana.com and follow us @Carvana. Carvana also encourages investors to visit its Investor Relations website as financial and other company information is posted. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005169/en/

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Market Research Future

Genset Market Technology Accelerates Growth by Rising Demand for Uninterrupted and Reliable Power Supply

New York, US, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a Comprehensive Report by MRFR/Market Research Future (MRFR),  Genset Market Research Report Information by End-Use, Region, Application, Fuel Type, and Power Rating, kVA - Forecast Till 2030, the global genset market is predicted to bolter substantially during the assessment timeframe from 2022 to 2030 at a healthy growth rate of approximately 5.3%. The reports further project the market to attain a valuation of around USD 30,590.5 Million by the end of 2030. As per the reports, the genset market was worth nearly USD 18.64 billion in the year 2021.

Genset Market Overview:

The global market for Genset has recently displayed massive development. The main aspect causing a surge in the performance of the market is that utilities across the globe have begun to use genset to improve their operations and efficiency. Furthermore, the increasing industrialization, particularly in developing countries such as India and China, is also considered one of the crucial parameters enhancing market performance.

Competitive Analysis

The listing of the prominent leaders across the global market for Genset includes players such as:

Kohler Co.

Caterpillar

Himoinsa S.L.

Cummins

Yanmar Co.Ltd.

Wartsila

Generac Holdings Inc.

Kirloskar Electric Company

Siemens

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

General Electric

ABB Ltd

MTU Onsite Energy

PARAMAC

Among others.





Buy Premium Research Report Now:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=1709



Genset Market USP Covered

Market Drivers

The global market for Genset has recently displayed massive development. The main aspect causing a surge in the performance of the market is that utilities across the globe have begun to use genset to improve their operations and efficiency. Furthermore, the increasing industrialization, particularly in developing countries such as India and China, is also considered one of the crucial parameters enhancing market performance. Moreover, factors such as growing popularity in commercial and industrial applications, infrastructural developments, and stringent environmental norms are also likely to influence market performance over the coming years positively.

Story continues

Market Restraints

On the other hand, certain aspects may impede the market's growth. The primary parameter restricting the market's growth is the high cost of initial investments.

Genset Market Report Scope:

Report Metrics Details Market Size 2030 2030: USD 30,590.5 Million CAGR during 2022-2030 5.30% CAGR Base Year 2021 Forecast 2022-2030 Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Power Rating, Fuel Type, Application and End-Use Key Market Opportunities New product launches and R&D Amongst major key Players Key Market Drivers Growing demand for uninterrupted and reliable power supply Growing demand for hybrid diesel gensets





Browse In-depth Market Research Report (111 Pages) on Global Genset Market:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/genset-market-1709



Genset Market COVID-19 Impact

Global industrial activities and business operations experienced a major setback given to the rise of the global health crisis in the form of COVID-19. The pandemic affected public health across nearly 225 countries, along with all industrial operations. All these situations led to the imposition of full or partial lockdowns across most regions worldwide. Subsequently, the industry operations were halted, and some businesses shut down. Given the sudden fall in demand for construction activities during the pandemic and the halt of most industrial operations, the Genset market experienced many sudden & unexpected issues throughout the pandemic. On the contrary, now that the majority of the globe is being rapidly vaccinated and industrial operations are returning to normal, the market is predicted to witness a considerable expansion and recovery in revenue generation over the assessment period.

Genset Market Segment Analysis

Among all the power rating types, the low-power generator segment is anticipated to ensure the top spot across the global market for gensets over the review era. The presence of a wide application base in commercial and residential sectors is considered the main aspect supporting the development of the segment. Generators having a capacity under 80kW are utilized as power backup solutions in residential homes to power devices such as geysers, water pumps, AC units, water purifiers, and others. Moreover, the low cost of these generators is also likely to enhance the segment's performance over the coming years. On the contrary, the high-power generator segment is predicted to showcase the maximum growth rate over the coming years. The segment's growth is ascribed to the aspects such as the huge requirement for continuous power supply and rising demand in power, manufacturing, & the marine industry.

Among all the application areas, the commercial application segment is anticipated to secure the top position across the global market for gensets over the assessment era. The prime parameter supporting the development of the segments is the wide application scope, including various industry areas, such as hospitality, data centers, educational institutions, agriculture, telecom, healthcare, government centers, and others. On the other hand, the industrial diesel generator segment is anticipated to showcase the maximum development over the assessment period given to the aspects such as huge product demand, citing their heavy power consumption operations and favorable government policies for industrial development in emerging nations.



(*If you have any special requirements, please let us know)

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Genset Market Regional Analysis

The global genset market is analyzed across five major geographies: South America, the APAC region, the Middle East & Africa, the European nations, and North America.

The research reports by MRFR suggest that the Asia-Pacific region is predicted to hold the top position across the global solar panel market over the assessment years. The main parameter supporting the development of the regional market is the escalating number of power outages. Furthermore, the immediate requirement for continuous power by the growing industrial and commercial sectors across the region is also considered a crucial aspect causing a rise in the regional performance market. Moreover, the growing requirement for proper grid infrastructure in the region is also anticipated to enhance the performance of the regional market over the review era. The other nations across the region, such as Australia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia, are also witnessing a considered development in the market.

The North American regional market for gensets is anticipated to showcase substantial growth over the assessment period.

Related Reports:

Gas Genset Market Research Report Information by Fuel, Power Rating, Application, End-User and Region - Global Forecast till 2030

Diesel Genset Market Research Report Information By Probability, Power Rating, Application, End-Use - Forecast till 2030

Generator Sales Market Research Report by Type, by Fuel, by End-use, by Portability, and Region - Global Forecast till 2030

Diesel Generator Market Research Report Information By Power Rating, By Portability, By End-Use, And By Region  Market Forecast Till 2030

About Market Research Future:

Market Research Future (MRFR) is a global market research company that takes pride in its services, offering a complete and accurate analysis regarding diverse markets and consumers worldwide. Market Research Future has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.

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[May 03, 2023] Baker Hill Hosts Prosper 2023 with Record Attendance

Baker Hill's annual user conference took place in Scottsdale, Arizona in April 2023 CARMEL, Ind., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Baker Hill , a leading financial technology provider in delivering solutions for loan origination, risk management and analytics, announced that Prosper 2023 was among its most successful user conferences to date, with 65 financial institutions from across the U.S. in attendance, as well as eight of the company's fintech partners, who sponsored the event. As Baker Hill's premier user conference, Prosper provides financial institution leaders with the latest insights on the state of the banking industry, as well as an opportunity to discuss best practices for loan origination and risk management in the current economy to set a foundation for infored strategic planning.



This year's event, which took place in Scottsdale, Ariz., featured Jim Marous, one of the top five financial industry influencers in the U.S. and co-publisher of The Financial Brand, as the opening keynote speaker. Dale Jarrett, NASCAR Hall of Famer and three-time Daytona 500 winner, concluded the conference with a motivational keynote. The Prosper agenda also featured 18 breakout sessions focused on best practices in lending, risk management, compliance and analytics. Throughout the three-day event, attendees discovered ways to best leverage Baker Hill NextGen and explored the trends shaping the future of the financial industry.

"Prosper 2023 was one of our largest user conferences to date with nearly 200 attendees. The Baker Hill team was proud to host so many of our valued bank and credit union clients, as well as our partners in person this year," said John M. Deignan, president and CEO of Baker Hill. "We strive to make Prosper collaborative and engaging by empowering attendees to exchange perspectives with their peers and other industry leaders on the trends impacting the credit industry. Given the success of this year's event, Baker Hill's team is looking forward to Prosper 2024." About Baker Hill

Baker Hill is in the business of evolving loan origination by combining expertise in technology with expertise in banking. Built on decades of walking alongside banks and credit unions as they provide vital resources to their communities, Baker Hill NextGen is a configurable, single platform SaaS solution for commercial, small business, consumer loan origination, and risk management that grows along with you as your business needs change. Baker Hill is lending evolved. For more information, visit bakerhill.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/baker-hill-hosts-prosper-2023-with-record-attendance-301814047.html SOURCE Baker Hill

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[May 03, 2023] Boulo Solutions Founder Shares Expertise at Second Annual Governor's Summit on Talent Retention and Work-based Learning

CEO Delphine Carter to participate in panel with local leaders on hiring remote workers

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Boulo Solutions' founder and CEO Delphine Carter will share her front-line insights during a panel discussion on "The Pros and Cons of Working Remotely" at the Second Annual Governor's Summit on Talent Retention and Work-based Learning. Boulo Solutions is the recruiting industry's go-to resource connecting results-driven employers with a diverse talent poolincluding women, mothers, and caregiverslooking for flexibility. Presented by the Alabama Office of Apprenticeship and EDPL's FuelAL initiative, the conference brings together 350 participants across the stateemployers, education officials, local economic developers, and chambers of commerceto discuss the issues and innovative solutions around schools, communities, and employers trying to attract new talent. Boulo Solutions matches growth-mind employers with the talent they need to succeed. The firm advocates for flexible work arrangements to reach "hidden talent" not found on traditional job boards or applying to company postings. Boulo defines flexibility as having an adjustable schedule beyond 9-to-5 and a 5-day workweek to include remote and hybid work arrangements, caregiver-friendly policies, and results-driven metrics.



Delphine Carter founded Boulo after discovering "carpool geniuses" in her "mom" life. These educated women with proven work histories had side-lined their careers because of a lack of flexibility in the workplace. Delphine has become an advocate for working mothers and other caregivers and a champion of flexible policies that benefit the entire workforce and help achieve work-life balance. The issue of remote work is significant to the US economy. When the pandemic forced millions of women out of the workforce, the country reached a point where fewer women were contributing to the economy than at any time during the last 30 years. Delphine Carter suggests that a strong economy requires an equitable workforce, so efforts to help women remain in and return to the workforce, including flexible work arrangements, are the solution.

Details of the panel presentation: "The Pros and Cons of Working Remotely"

Second Annual Governor's Summit on Talent Retention and Work-based Learning

Wednesday, May 3, 2023 from 3:55-4:50 pm

Riverview Plaza Hotel, Mobile, AL

Panelists: Delphine Carter , CEO and Founder, Boulo Solutions

, CEO and Founder, Boulo Solutions Abe Harper , President, Harper Technologies

, President, Anne Matthews , M.Ed. SHRM-CP, Talent Strategist "We specialize in sourcing quality candidates for flexible full-time, part-time, and contract job opportunities across Alabama and the US, many of those being remote jobs," explained Boulo Solutions CEO and Founder Delphine Carter. "This is a unique opportunity to share some of the proven ideas we've seen work for other companies. Changing expectations about what success looks like and how companies work can open the door for new groups to enter or remain in the workplace." About Boulo Solutions

Boulo Solutions' staffing capabilities help businesses diversify their workforce by pairing them with women rarely found on other platforms. They connect this hidden workforce to companies offering jobs with caregiver-friendly cultures. Boulo's current customer base focus is on innovative businesses with a flexible culture. Local companies, including Alabama Power, Protective Life, O'Neal Steel, Therapy Brands, Wyndy, Digital Motion, Bronze Valley, and Immediate, among others, have hired women through Boulo Solutions. Media Contact: Delphine Carter 205-566-6441 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/boulo-solutions-founder-shares-expertise-at-second-annual-governors-summit-on-talent-retention-and-work-based-learning-301813531.html SOURCE Boulo Solutions

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[May 03, 2023] Sophos Announces Partnership with Measured Analytics and Insurance to Unlock Cyber Insurance Premium Savings for Customers

OXFORD, United Kingdom, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sophos , a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, today announced a partnership with Measured Analytics and Insurance ("Measured"), the AI-powered cyber insurance provider. The new partnership unlocks Measured insurance premium savings for Sophos U.S.-based customers in recognition of their strong cyber defenses.

New research published today finds that cyber insurance adoption is now the norm with 91% of organizations reporting having coverage, with an additional eight percent reporting they dont currently have coverage but plan to obtain it in the next year. For those that purchased a cyber insurance policy in the last year, 95% say that the quality of their cyber defenses directly impacted their insurability: 60% say it impacted their ability to get coverage

62% say it impacted the cost of their coverage

28% say it impacted the terms of their policy

Insurance coverage, in turn, plays a role in an organizations ability to recover from an attack: Organizations with cyber insurance are more likely to be able to recover data that was encrypted in a ransomware incident: 98% of those with a standalone policy and 97% of those with cyber as part of a wider insurance policy were able to recover encrypted data after a ransomware attack, compared to 84% of those without cyber coverage



Organizations with standalone cyber insurance policies are almost four times more likely to pay the ransom to recover encrypted data than those without cyber coverage: of those that had data encrypted in a ransomware incident in the last year, 59% of those with a standalone cyber insurance policy paid the ransom, compared with 37% of those with cyber as part of a broader insurance policy and 15% of those that dont have cyber insurance

The caliber of an organizations cybersecurity defenses in protecting against active adversaries is critically important. Organizations need to properly configure and manage security technologies and also effectively respond to threats  and that requires an expert talent skillset, sai Raja Patel, senior vice president of products at Sophos. Industry-first threat detection and response capabilities now enable Sophos to meet customers where they are and with exactly what they need to ensure superior security outcomes. This partnership is validation that Sophos security solutions and managed detection and response (MDR) services are industry best, and were pleased that our customers can now be rewarded for their commitments to optimizing defenses.



Sophos endpoint customers looking to secure insurance coverage can now opt-in to share their security posture from the Sophos Central platform with Measured. Real-time assessments are exclusively used to determine policy eligibility and premium discounts based on the various Sophos offerings used, protection status and security hygiene of protected assets, and compliance with Sophos recommended security policies. The connection between robust cyber defenses and optimized cyber insurance makes this partnership a natural extension of our innovative, analytic approach to cyber underwriting, said Jack Vines, CEO at Measured. We are trailblazing a frictionless path to cyber insurability through data-driven, quantifiable underwriting. Were rewarding organizations that use Sophos with better coverage and lower rates because of their stronger cyber hygiene and lower risk profile.

Data from the report, The Critical Role of Frontline Cyber Defenses in Cyber Insurance Adoption, comes from an independent global study of 3,000 cybersecurity/IT professionals across 14 countries conducted in January and February 2023. About Sophos

Sophos is a worldwide leader and innovator of advanced cybersecurity solutions, including Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and incident response services and a broad portfolio of endpoint, network, email, and cloud security technologies that help organizations defeat cyberattacks. As one of the largest pure-play cybersecurity providers, Sophos defends more than 500,000 organizations and more than 100 million users globally from active adversaries, ransomware, phishing, malware, and more. Sophos services and products connect through its cloud-based Sophos Central management console and are powered by Sophos X-Ops, the companys cross-domain threat intelligence unit. Sophos X-Ops intelligence optimizes the entire Sophos Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem, which includes a centralized data lake that leverages a rich set of open APIs available to customers, partners, developers, and other cybersecurity and information technology vendors. Sophos provides cybersecurity-as-a-service to organizations needing fully-managed, turnkey security solutions. Customers can also manage their cybersecurity directly with Sophos security operations platform or use a hybrid approach by supplementing their in-house teams with Sophos services, including threat hunting and remediation. Sophos sells through reseller partners and managed service providers (MSPs) worldwide. Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, U.K. More information is available at www.sophos.com . Please note that Sophos is not a licensed insurance producer and does not sell, solicit or negotiate insurance products. By providing access to any third-party websites, Sophos is not recommending or endorsing any such third parties, or any products or services offered by such third parties. To the extent you access a third-party website from a Sophos website, please be advised that Sophos does not investigate, monitor, or check any third-party websites, or the content of such websites, for accuracy, appropriateness, or completeness, and you are solely responsible for your interactions with such third parties. About Measured Insurance

Measured Analytics and Insurance is a US-based cyber insurance provider that utilizes proprietary, AI-rich data analytics and national security grade threat intelligence to deliver smarter cyber insurance products. The combination of flexible cyber underwriting solutions, data-driven insights and strategic partnerships with leading cyber security companies makes Measured the cyber risk solutions provider of choice. Learn more at measuredinsurance.com .

Contact: Samantha Powers, [email protected]

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[May 03, 2023] Breaking the Cycle-With New Partnership, Stride's Keystone School Bridges Education Gap for Incarcerated Mississippians

According to the World Population Review, about 33 percent of inmates in Mississippi return to prison within three years of release, most of whom have never completed high school. The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) is on a mission to address this alarming trend through a new partnership with The Keystone School, an accredited private online school for students nationwide. This partnership will help expand access to career-focused education for incarcerated individuals across the state. "We're excited to collaborate with the Mississippi Department of Corrections to help support incarcerated people on their path to successful rehabilitation and reintegration into society," said Erica Rhone, Head of School for Keystone. "Our program is designed to meet the unique needs of students in non-traditional learning environments, and we are just as committed to helping incarcerated people achieve their educational goals and gain the skills they need to succeed in today's workforce." Through this partnership, eligible participants can earn a high school diploma through the school's online adult learner program, with a focus on career readiness, in as little as 21 months or less. Participants will have access to self-paced online courses featuring a comprehensive high school curriculum, including core academic subjects such as English/language arts, math, science, and social studies. The curriculum also includes specialized courses that align with a student's chosen career pathway in fields such as information technology, business management, criminal justice, and more. Additionally, students will have access to graduation advisors for support and feedback.



"Education is key to reducing recidivism and breaking the cycle of repeat incarceration," said Burl Cain, Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. "This partnership with The Keystone School is another tool to advance basic adult education and is a step in the right direction for inmates to create brighter futures for themselves, their families, and our communities." This new partnership will be implemented across three MDOC correctional facilities: South Mississippi Correctional Institute, Flowood Community Work Center, and Marshall County Correctional Facility. The Keystone School will provide technical support, curriculum development, and graduation advisors for the program.

About The Keystone School The Keystone School from Stride, Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading online and blended learning program provider, is an accredited private online school for independent learners who seek a highly flexible education. With more than 40 years of experience in distance learning, Keystone offers flexible education programs for students in all grades and of all ages to help them achieve their unique academic and personal goals. Learn more at www.keystoneschoolonline.com. About Mississippi Department of Corrections The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) is a state agency of Mississippi that operates correctional institutions and facilities. Headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, MDOC protects and promotes public safety primarily through the efficient and effective custody, care, and rehabilitation of individuals convicted and sentenced for felony crimes. Learn more at www.mdoc.ms.gov. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005621/en/

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[May 03, 2023] Georgia MLS launches first phase of AI-Automation with Restb.ai

PHOENIX, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Restb.ai , the leader in artificial intelligence and computer vision for real estate, today announced that Georgia MLS (GAMLS) unlocked for its members the first phase of AI technology integration by successfully launching Restb.ais property image tags. With this product integration, GAMLS implemented the unique ability to automatically detect the room type/home space of all uploaded property images (e.g., bedroom, bathroom, floorplans, etc.), providing RESO-standardized field classifications.

During the listing creation process, GAMLS will now leverage AI-powered tagging to analyze all property images and determine the room type or home space depicted in each photo. Additionally, the listing input form is pre-populated with the relevant information identified in the photos. Agents can review all AI-generated details before providing final confirmation. Once all phases of Restb.ais MLS Product Suite are fully integrated, it will help reduce agent listing upload time by pre-populating features, enriching the MLS data, and increasing the number of fields populated per listing for all active and new listings. Moreover, by tagging and labeling each image, the property listings displayed on MLS, Broker and Agent websites will become ADA-compliant. GAMLS CEO, Richard Boone, said, Saving our members a significant amount of time by automating the listing input means greater business productivity and that can help them become more successful. Georgia MLS remains at the front of the line when it comes to adopting breakthrough tecnology that delivers incredible value to their agent and broker members, said Lisa Larson, Restb.ai Managing Director, North America. And this is just the beginning of the many benefits our AI will deliver to improve agent workflow. Additionally, GAMLS has identified other use cases they can leverage the Restb.ai tags, Larson added.



The complete list of Restb.ais MLS Product Suite is available at https://restb.ai/company/press-releases/restb-ai-mls-suite . To learn more about Restb.ai solutions for real estate, contact Managing Director Lisa Larson at [email protected]

About Georgia MLS (GAMLS) Georgia MLS, Georgia's largest real estate marketplace, has provided real estate tools, services, and education to real estate professionals for over 60 years. With brokerage offices ranging across the state of Georgia, members have consistently sold more homes through Georgia MLS than any other multiple listing service in the state. Georgia MLS combines innovative technology solutions with unmatched value so that members have the resources to respond to the changing needs of the real estate consumer. Headquartered in Tucker, GA, GAMLS services 52,000+ agents in 4,400 offices across the Southeast and the nation. For more information on Georgia MLS, visit www.gamls.com. About Restb.ai Restb.ai, the leader in AI and computer vision for real estate, provides image recognition and data enrichment solutions for many of the industrys top brands and leading innovators. Its advanced AI-powered technology automatically analyzes property imagery to unlock visual insights at scale that empowers real estate companies with relevant and actionable property intelligence. Restb.ai is like having a real estate expert instantly research and provide a deep insight into each of the 1 million property photos uploaded daily. For more information on Restb.ai, visit its website . For Restb.ai related media inquiries, please reach out to [email protected] or Kevin Hawkins [email protected]  206.866.1220.



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[May 03, 2023] Three Technology Leaders Release Roadmap for Modern Government Budgeting

MADISON, Wis. and VANCOUVER, BC and BOSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Balancing Act by Polco, Envisio, and Questica, a division of GTY Technology, today released a white paper outlining a modern budget process for local governments. "A Roadmap for Real Collaboration in Budgeting" proposes an integrated, iterative, and transparent government budgeting process that leverages technology tools to steer government in the wisest possible direction. New white paper by three govtech leaders provides modern budget process to align communities and their governments. "As three government technology leaders, we are acting on a confluence of technological advances, stimulus funding for governments to revamp systems and processes, and rising public expectations for participation in government," said Chris Adams, President of Balancing Act by Polco, a provider of simulation-based public engagement tools. "We are committed to working together to inspire a sea change in the budget process." The global pandemic demonstrated a critical need for flexible processes, scenario planning, and open conversations with elected officials and constituents. It also revealed what is at stake when trust in government declines: productive relationships between elected officials, government staff, and residents, anda better quality of life for the community.



"Because trust in government is eroding, there is significant pressure to act on this once-in-a-generation opportunity for real collaboration and change," said Mike Bell, CEO of Envisio, the most widely used strategic planning and performance management solution in local government. "An integrated process optimizes and aligns the work of government with the needs of the community." "A Roadmap for Real Collaboration in Budgeting" describes the limitations of the status quo, offers solutions combining the best practices in public engagement, strategic planning, and outcomes-based budgeting, and concludes with details on an upcoming readiness assessment for civic leaders to determine how prepared they are for change. It also builds on recommendations from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and the Rethinking Budgeting initiative created in collaboration with the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and the National League of Cities (NLC).

"In our work with more than a thousand local governments across North America, we speak daily with budget leaders and elected officials who describe navigating an outdated and inflexible budget process," said Stefan Baerg, Head of Enterprise and Mid-Market Sales for Questica, a division of GTY Technology, a provider of cloud-based public budgeting software. "Our methodology is to take what's best from legacy practices, transition to more effective  digital  systems, and orient the culture, people, processes, and tools within a public sector organization toward a process supporting government-community alignment." "A Roadmap For Real Collaboration in Budgeting" is available for download at rblearning.net. About Balancing Act by Polco

Balancing Act by Polco provides online simulation tools for budgeting and housing that bridge the gap between people and the policies that impact their lives. Balancing Act is used by more than 150 public and private entities worldwide. Learn more at abalancingact.com. About Envisio

Envisio is the most widely used strategic planning and performance management solution in local government. Leaders from more than 150 cities, counties, and school districts use Envisio to execute plans, measure and report on performance, make evidence-based decisions, and build trust and transparency with elected officials and communities. Learn more at envisio.com About Questica Incorporated

For over 20 years, Questica has partnered with public sector organizations to enable data- driven budgeting and decision-making, while increasing data accuracy, productivity and improving stakeholder trust. Over 700 organizations are using Questica's budgeting, performance, transparency and engagement software solutions. Learn more at questica.com. Media Contact:

Stacey Hartmann

[email protected] View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/three-technology-leaders-release-roadmap-for-modern-government-budgeting-301813965.html SOURCE Envisio; Balancing Act by Polco; Questica / GTY Technology

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[May 03, 2023] Iterate.ai Announces Magnus Tagtstrom as Corporate VP of Emerging Tech and GM for Europe

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Iterate.ai , whose innovation ecosystem enables customers to build production-ready enterprise applications, today announced the appointment of Magnus Tagtstrom as Corporate VP of Emerging Tech and GM for Europe. Tagtstrom has decades of experience leading digital innovation projects and optimizing critical business processes, with particular expertise in AI technologies. He will work with Co-Founder/CTO Brian Sathianathan and the executive team to accelerate the Interplay roadmap, and he will lead Iterates business expansion across Europe.

Tagtstrom joins Iterate with 20+ years of technology and business leadership. His career has had a particularly strong focus on digital strategy and execution within the retail sector, an industry where Iterate has seen outsized demand for low-code innovation . Tagtstrom most recently served as the Global Vice President of Innovation at Alimentation Couche-Tard. While there, he advanced and successfully deployed several new digital deploymentsincluding the worlds largest computer-vision-based checkout deployment in retail, and pay-by-plate functionality in many of the global companys convenience stores and gas stations. Successfully wielding advanced AI capabilities has been key to Tagtstroms accomplishments, and has helped enable the $60 billion enterprise to innovate quickly and release new projects with high frequency. Tagtstrom began with Circle K (owned by Alimentation Couche-Tard) in 2011, serving several roles that included leading global fuel supply chain optimization. His tenure at Alimentation Couche-Tard and Circle K followed nearly eight years as a management consutant at Accenture, where he also focused on retail technology strategy. Tagtstrom holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelors degree in Business from Lund University in Sweden.



Ive been fortunate to seefirst-hand, at Alimentation Couche-Tardhow Iterates low-code code platform can turn a digital innovation dream into a reality, and do so at scale, said Tagtstrom. Low-code and AI are quickly becoming use-or-be-left-behind strategies for businesses across industries. By continuing to quickly and securely incorporate the most impactful new technologies into its Interplay platform, Iterate is playing a pivotal role in ensuring its customers can stay ahead of competitors and deliver truly unique digital experiences. Im thrilled to be joining Iterate for its next stage of growth. Some of the world's largest and most innovative companiesincluding Ulta Beauty, Circle K, and Pampered Chefuse the Interplay low-code platform to develop, scale, and iterate applications at a fraction of the time and expense it would take to hardcode and launch similar capabilities. The platform has continued to add cutting-edge, pre-coded technologies that customers can implement with drag-and-drop simplicity, including AI, machine learning, IoT, API data connections, and other capabilities. Most recently, the low-code platform added generative AI functionality, including fully-integrated Stable Diffusion, ChatGPT, and other OpenAI tools that accelerate the development of customized and differentiated applications and customer experiences.

Magnus brings Iterate a rare combination of proven business acumen and deep technology understanding, said Brian Sathianathan, co-founder and CTO at Iterate.ai. Hes an award-winning leaderseveral times overwho has had an immense and lasting impact on innovation at Alimentation Couche-Tard. We also believe that his perspective, working closely with Interplay on the customer side, will be invaluable to both the low-code platform decisions we make and to our go-to-market strategy in Europe. Were excited to welcome Magnus, a longtime partner to Iterate, to the team. About Iterate.ai Iterate.ai is the simplest, safest, and quickest way to get innovation done. Iterate offers Interplay: a low-code enterprise development platform with built-in capabilities for AI, IoT, big data, and a host of startup API connections. Iterates platform has three patents granted and nearly a dozen more pending. The companys solutions appeal to executives and corporate innovators who seek low-risk, systematic ways to scale in-house, near-term digital innovation initiatives. Iterate has a global presence in North America (Silicon Valley, Colorado), Europe, and Asia (India/Sri Lanka). Contact

Kyle Peterson

[email protected]m A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2acae63a-bd80-4b43-b1f7-a5d58bb5097f



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[May 03, 2023] Blue Yonder Showcases Revolutionary Company Vision at ICON 2023; Releases Q1 2023 Company Highlights

Blue Yonder Holding, Inc. (Blue Yonder), a leading digital supply chain and omni-channel commerce fulfillment provider, today released its Q1 2023 company highlights and company vision shared at its annual customer conference, ICON 2023. Quarterly Company Highlights In Q1 2023, Blue Yonder showed significant progress in several areas of its business and is announcing new initiatives, including: Plans to invest up to $1 billion in product innovations over the next three years. Added 37 new customer logos in Q1 2023. Some of the customers who selected or extended their footprint with Blue Yonder during the quarter include: Americas: Detroit Diesel Corporation, G500 Network, onsemi, Tropicana Brands Group, United States Postal Service APAC/EMEA: Bleckmann, Distell Ltd., Saigon Union of Trading Co-operatives, Seedcom Logistics

in Q1 2023. Some of the customers who selected or extended their footprint with Blue Yonder during the quarter include: Featured in 10 key technology industry analyst reports from Forrester, Gartner and IDC (see full list below). Looking to onboard 1,000 SaaS and supply chain talent in the next 12-18 months. Company Vision During its annual customer conference, ICON 2023, Blue Yonder leadership unveiled how the company will future-proof supply chains with a clear vision, the right partnerships, and an innovative roadmap. Blue Yonder is enabling its customers to drive real business value by delivering an unmatched end-to-end customer experience and enabling business leaders to meet their digital transformation and sustainability goals. Key highlights include: Delivering Interoperability of Supply Chain Execution Capabilities: Retailers and consumer products manufacturers are challenged to predict orders, place inventory and labor in ideal locations, and fulfill orders at the speed of demand. Blue Yonder is bringing its transportation, warehouse, store execution, order management (OM), workforce, and labor management solutions under one solution portfolio to offer that end-to-end capability for retailers, manufactures and third-party logistics (3PL) companies. By bringing these solutions together, Blue Yonder is able to increase integration and interoperability while delivering the expectations of commerce seamlessly. Introducing a New and Disruptive Class of Applications that are Cognitive and Connected: Traditional planning processes lack the agility to react in the moment of need, and are hindered by inflexible hierarchies, siloed systems, and inadequate schedules. Blue Yonder is reimagining the planning process to compress time horizons, reduce complexity, and unify data to drive improved business outcomes. It's creating a single planning solution that harnesses information across systems and sources, streamlines interactions and simplifies decisions to quickly respond to business needs. Blue Yonder's next-generation cognitive planning suite unifies supply chain planning, merchandising, and category management solutions. The solutions leverage cognitive artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) capabilities to automate scenarios, processes, and decision-making. This is made possible by the Snowflake Data Cloud, which unifies data across internal and external sources and delivers scalability to power the simultaneous execution of hundreds of scenarios. Generative AI and Co-pilots: Blue Yonder is on the forefront on adopting advanced technologies like large language models and quantum computing solutions. The company is demonstrating supply chain co-pilots utilizing generative AI technologies to transform the user experience. These co-pilots allow supply chain planners to significantly improve the productivity and effectiveness of their time, and simplify the machine-user interaction dramatically. Quantum computing technologies are also being explored to solve the most complex supply chain problems where traditional computing techniques fall short. The company plans to accelerate the adoption of these advanced technologies within Luminate Platform in 2023. Unified Resource Management: There is an increased need to better orchestrate both humans and machines, including robots. Traditionally, these resources were coordinated independently across the end user's operation, leading to siloed management and decisions. Blue Yonder announced its plan to establish a Unified Resource Management, integrating labor scheduling and execution solution in real time to create highly efficient and streamlined enterprise at every node in the supply chain, from scheduling people and robots to reserving trucks and warehouse doors. Unified Resource Management evolves workforce software into an enterprise operations solution, coordinating all resources and acting as a digital assistant to dynamically execute a success plan for product movement. These composable microservices will provide available to promise and commit microservices of human and non-human resources across the supply chain. The company plans to release the first microservice, Dynamic Warehouse, in Q3 2023. Elevating Luminate Platform Powered by Snowflake: Blue Yonder is one of the first supply chain software companies to build an enterprise solution with both analytical and transactional data loads for the Planning domain, natively on Snowflake. In his ICON keynote, Snowflake chairman and CEO, Frank Slootman, said Snowflake shared Blue Yonder's commitment to develop a strategic partnership that extends Snowflake's capability to support Blue Yonder's unique supply chain data workloads, including bringing together analytical and transactional workloads for the Execution and Planning domains. This follows on the heels of last year's partnership announcement between Snowflake and Blue Yonder, which allowed Blue Yonder to integrate Snowflake's data capabilities into its Luminate Platform, an end-to-end supply chain solution, that enables retailers, maufacturers, and 3PLs to leverage Blue Yonder's data cloud offerings to access, share and consume live governed data, industry-specific datasets and data services at scale - without the latency, cost and effort required with traditional marketplaces. Composable Upgrades: The architecture of Blue Yonder's cognitive applications on Luminate Platform, and the integration of existing Blue Yonder supply chain technologies onto the platform enable existing customers to adopt the composable upgrade methodology. This permits customers to use their existing Blue Yonder IP alongside new cognitive applications seamlessly - and consume new capabilities at their own pace. Expanded Relationship With Accenture to Increase Adoption of Modern, Connected Supply Chains: In his ICON keynote, Paul Daugherty, group chief executive - Technology and chief technology officer at Accenture, discussed the strategic expansion of the relationship between Accenture and Blue Yonder to develop and go-to-market with new solutions and offerings to provide organizations with supply chains that are resilient, responsive and sustainable. Accenture cloud-native platform engineers and industry experts will work with Blue Yonder to engineer, define, validate, and build solutions on Blue Yonder's Luminate Platform. The companies will take the solutions and offerings to market together to joint customers, leveraging Accenture's delivery experience. This will help customers compress transformation and reinvent their supply chains to fuel profitable growth and optimize costs. Helping Companies Meet Sustainability Needs: According to Blue Yonder's 2023 Supply Chain Executives Survey, 84% of executives have either increased or kept sustainability initiatives the same over the past year. The survey also showed more organizations are planning to maximize sustainability by seeking sustainable upstream operations and investing in technology and automation that realizes greener supply chain and fulfillment options. To help its customers, Blue Yonder offers the following sustainability functionalities: Logistics: Blue Yonder's Transportation Management System (TMS) enables customers to optimize and leverage advanced analytics capabilities to reduce empty miles while enhancing customer service, transportation network throughput, and driver schedules. Blue Yonder's Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Labor Management solutions allow customers to make their operations and labor practice more sustainable by tracking performance metrics and adjusting as needed, to reduce waste and improve employee engagement and retention. Commerce: The need for sustainable fulfillment continues to rise as both consumers and companies are looking for transparency and insight to understand the environmental impact. To help solve this, Blue Yonder is enhancing its OMS microservices to give companies analytics related to green operations and emissions for consumer deliveries. Additionally, Blue Yonder is working to give consumers insight to the carbon impact of their purchase options for various fulfillment options when checking out via a company's online cart. This includes the carbon impact for the consumer having the items shipped express delivery versus a "greener" delivery option such as having all items shipped together rather than piecemeal, as well as helping give consumers a choice on the packaging used and its carbon impact.

According to Blue Yonder's 2023 Supply Chain Executives Survey, 84% of executives have either increased or kept sustainability initiatives the same over the past year. The survey also showed more organizations are planning to maximize sustainability by seeking sustainable upstream operations and investing in technology and automation that realizes greener supply chain and fulfillment options. To help its customers, Blue Yonder offers the following sustainability functionalities:



Product innovations on display during ICON include:

Warehouse Execution System: Announced late last year, Blue Yonder's Warehouse Execution System will be in general availability in Q2. An intelligent cloud-native solution powered by Luminate Platform, it is equipped to unlock opportunities to maximize efficiencies for human and machine, as well as accelerates time-to-value across the warehouse. The solution brings together Blue Yonder's Warehouse Tasking, Robotics Hub, and other advanced solutions, along with in-depth analytics and reporting capabilities.

Announced late last year, Blue Yonder's Warehouse Execution System will be in general availability in Q2. An intelligent cloud-native solution powered by Luminate Platform, it is equipped to unlock opportunities to maximize efficiencies for human and machine, as well as accelerates time-to-value across the warehouse. The solution brings together Blue Yonder's Warehouse Tasking, Robotics Hub, and other advanced solutions, along with in-depth analytics and reporting capabilities. Integrated Demand & Supply Planning for Consumer Industries : To enable CPG manufacturers to reconnect their demand and supply plans, Blue Yonder is making Integrated Demand & Supply Planning for Consumer Industries generally available in Q2. Customers can build resiliency, manage disruptions and exceptions, and improve customer service and revenue with a single end-to-end integrated supply chain plan, role-based workflows, and advanced planning analytics.

: To enable CPG manufacturers to reconnect their demand and supply plans, Blue Yonder is making Integrated Demand & Supply Planning for Consumer Industries generally available in Q2. Customers can build resiliency, manage disruptions and exceptions, and improve customer service and revenue with a single end-to-end integrated supply chain plan, role-based workflows, and advanced planning analytics. Adaptive Fulfillment and Warehousing: Announced late last year, Blue Yonder's Adaptive Fulfillment and Warehousing solution will be in general availability in Q2. The native SaaS solution suite is designed to serve today's warehousing and store fulfillment operations with a simple, scalable solution. These new domain-centric services allow customers to maintain high inventory accuracy with the speed and efficiency required to serve growing demand.

Announced late last year, Blue Yonder's Adaptive Fulfillment and Warehousing solution will be in general availability in Q2. The native SaaS solution suite is designed to serve today's warehousing and store fulfillment operations with a simple, scalable solution. These new domain-centric services allow customers to maintain high inventory accuracy with the speed and efficiency required to serve growing demand. Cognitive Demand Planning: As part of the company's next generation planning capabilities, the first solution launched by Blue Yonder is Cognitive Demand Planning. Backed by AI/ ML capabilities, this solution leverages Luminate Platform's data services to make faster decisions, with greater resilience, and increased collaboration across organizational boundaries. The SaaS solution combines technology and deep business expertise to drive autonomous and agile planning, empowering companies to break through the accuracy ceiling, enhances planner productivity, and reduces time to value.

As part of the company's next generation planning capabilities, the first solution launched by Blue Yonder is Cognitive Demand Planning. Backed by AI/ ML capabilities, this solution leverages Luminate Platform's data services to make faster decisions, with greater resilience, and increased collaboration across organizational boundaries. The SaaS solution combines technology and deep business expertise to drive autonomous and agile planning, empowering companies to break through the accuracy ceiling, enhances planner productivity, and reduces time to value. Yard Management: Launching in Q2, Blue Yonder's Yard Management is an intelligent SaaS solution, fully integrated with Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and developed to monitor the movement of trailers in yard facilities to minimize complexities and human intervention as operational conditions and priorities changes throughout the day. Yard Management extends and enhances yard capabilities while harnessing the power of AI and ML to unlock greater opportunities for more efficiency and visibility in the yard. Additional Resources: Technology Industry Analyst Recognitions: Forrester An Introduction to OKRs For AR Planners, with Kevin Lucas AR Planning with OKRs, with Kevin Lucas Gartner Magic Quadrant for Transportation Management Systems, 2023, Brock Johns, Oscar Sanchez Duran, Carly West, 28 March 2023. Critical Capabilities for Transportation Management Systems, 2023, Brock Johns, Oscar Sanchez Duran, Carly West, 28 March 2023. Market Guide for Retail Merchandise Financial Planning, 2023, with Jonathan Kutner The Advancement of Supply Chain Control Towers, with Christian Titze Emerging Tech Impact Radar: Enterprise Software with Wataru Katsurashima, Shailendra Upadhyay, Balaji Abbabatulla, and Fernando Pereiro Market Guide for Retail Workforce Management Applications with Sam Grinter and Kelsie Marian How to Digitize and Optimize Transportation Procurement Using Technology, with Nathan Lease and Carly West IDC IDC's Worldwide Enterprise Infrastructure Workloads Taxonomy, 2023, Heather West, Max Pepper, Olga Yashkova, Natalya Yezhkova

Learn how Blue Yonder's customers are persisting during times of disruption to digitally transform their supply chains and reimagine the consumer experience: Arcadia Cold Nestle Purina Petcare

About Blue Yonder Blue Yonder is the world leader in digital supply chain transformations and omni-channel commerce fulfillment. Our end-to-end, cognitive business platform enables retailers, manufacturers and logistics providers to best fulfill customer demand from planning through delivery. With Blue Yonder, you'll unify your data, supply chain and retail commerce operations to unlock new business opportunities and drive automation, control and orchestration to enable more profitable, sustainable business decisions. Blue Yonder - Fulfill your PotentialTM blueyonder.com "Blue Yonder" is a trademark or registered trademark of Blue Yonder Group, Inc. Any trade, product or service name referenced in this document using the name "Blue Yonder" is a trademark and/or property of Blue Yonder Group, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of the companies with which they are associated. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005450/en/

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[May 03, 2023] Microchip Technology's Steve Sanghi Shares His Personal and Business Journey in "Up and to the Right"

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz., May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Renowned semiconductor industry leader, Steve Sanghi, has released his long-awaited book, Up and to the Right: My Personal and Business Journey Building the Microchip Technology Juggernaut. Sanghi led Microchip Technology for over three decades, transforming the company from a failing enterprise to a market leader with a market capitalization of $43 billion.

In this book, Sanghi shares his personal journey from growing up in small towns in Northern India to building a successful career in the United States. The book also provides insights into the transformation of Microchip Technology from a struggling company on the verge of bankruptcy in 1990, to a leading semiconductor supplier to industries such as industrial, automotive, data centers, communications, consumer, aerospace, and defense. Up and to the Right chronicles the conscious design and implementation of Microchip's Aggregate System, which significantly accelerated the company's rate of improvement. The book also delves into Microchip's strategic planning process and its acquisition strategy, which helped scale the company 10X. Readers will find aluable insights into building a successful enterprise and the necessary steps to achieve success.



"This book is not only about Microchip's success story but also about the importance of building a strong organizational culture and creating a sense of purpose and shared values among employees," said Sanghi. "It is my hope that the lessons learned from Microchip's journey will inspire other business leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs." Up and to the Right is a must-read for anyone interested in the semiconductor industry, business and management, or simply seeking inspiration from an extraordinary leader. The book targets a wide range of audiences, including Microchip's 22,000 employees, businesspeople in the technology industry, students aspiring to be successful businesspeople, and anyone looking to learn from one of the most successful semiconductor stories in the industry.

About the Author Steve Sanghi led Microchip Technology for over three decades, transforming it from a struggling company on the verge of bankruptcy in 1990 to a market leader in the semiconductor industry with a market capitalization of $43 billion. Sanghi has won numerous awards during his tenure, including the Global Semiconductor Alliance's Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award in December 2022, the Global Semiconductor Alliances highest honor. He also co-authored the book Driving Excellence: How The Aggregate System Turned Microchip Technology from a Failing Company to a Market Leader (Wiley; April 2006). The book is available for purchase on major online retailers and in physical bookstores worldwide or here. High-res image available through Flickr or editorial contact (feel free to publish): Image: www.flickr.com/photos/microchiptechnology/52862247285/sizes/l/

Editorial Contact:

Marcy Hatch Padilla

480-792-5981

[email protected]



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[May 03, 2023] Anoka County (Minnesota) joins our growing 6,500+ public sector buying organizations in choosing our full eprocurement solution

MONTREAL, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- mdf commerce Inc., a SaaS leader in digital commerce technologies, today announces that Anoka County, Minnesota (the County) has signed a 5-year agreement for the usage of our source-to-pay solution. This initiative will allow the County to streamline and simplify its procurement processes while fully leveraging the data and analytics benefits of eprocurement technology.

Anoka County is the fourth-most populous county in Minnesota, with a population of approximately 358,000. It comprises the northern portion of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. The County's decision to use our full source-to-pay solution is significant as it will help to streamline and simplify procurement processes. The eprocurement technology we offer will provide Anoka County with the tools it needs to modernize the way buyers and suppliers connect and transact. The platform will also provide the County with access to data and analytics, allowing it to make more informed procurement decisions and identify cost-saving opportunities. In addition, the platform's user-friendly interface will make it easier for suppliers to do business with Anoka County, improving collaboration and fostering stronger relationships. Over the 5-year term of the agreement, the County will undergo a digital transformation within its procurement process, with the eprocurement technology driving efficiency and transparency in public procurement. Anoka County will have access to our fully integrated comprehensive source-to-pay solution, temming from our 20+ years of experience with a variety of offers, including these workstream functionalities:



SOURCE | Strategic Sourcing to streamline solicitation creation, publication, evaluation and awarding in one easy-to-use platform CONNECT | Vendor Management to improve insight and automation to connect with vendors throughout the procurement process with qualification, performance management and contract negotiation

CONTRACT | Contract Lifecycle Management to increase efficiency and transparency through collaborative authoring, performance monitoring and overall CLM PROCURE | Requisition to Pay to improve the entire procurement process through purchase orders, invoicing, payments, spend reporting and an integration with the Countys ERP SHOP | Marketplace to provide end users a convenient experience to order off County and co-operative contracts with supplier-uploaded catalogs We are excited to have been selected and trusted by Anoka County as its eprocurement solution. Our source-to-pay technology provides the tools Anoka County needs at this juncture within its digital procurement transformation, said Mark Eigenbauer, President, eprocurement, at mdf commerce. Our technology powers the initiatives of public sector procurement. We look forward to helping Anoka County improve efficiency, transparency and ease-of-use throughout the procurement process.



About mdf commerce Inc.

mdf commerce Inc. (TSX:MDF) enables the flow of commerce by providing a broad set of software as a service (SaaS) solutions that optimize and accelerate commercial interactions between buyers and sellers. Our platforms and services empower businesses around the world, allowing them to generate billions of dollars in transactions on an annual basis. Our eprocurement, ecommerce and emarketplaces solutions are supported by a strong and dedicated team of approximately 650 employees based in Canada, the United States, Ukraine and China. For more information, please visit us at mdfcommerce.com, follow us on LinkedIn or call 1-877-677-9088.



For further information:

Brigitte Guay, DirectorCorporate Communications

Toll Free: 1-877-677-9088, ext. 5123

Email: [email protected]



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BOGOTA, Colombia, May 03, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GeoPark Limited ("GeoPark" or the "Company") (NYSE: GPRK), a leading independent Latin American oil and gas explorer, operator and consolidator, announces that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.13 per share ($7.5 million in the aggregate) payable on May 31, 2023, to the shareholders of record at the close of business on May 18, 2023. All figures are expressed in US Dollars.

The Company remains committed to return approximately 40-50% of free cash flow after taxes1 to its shareholders while executing self-funded and flexible work programs.

____________________

1 Free cash flow is used here as Adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditures, mandatory interest payments and cash taxes. 2023 cash taxes include GeoParks preliminary estimates of the full impact of the new tax reform in Colombia, irrespective of the timing of its cash impact, expected in 2023 or early 2024. The Company is unable to present a quantitative reconciliation of the 2023 Adjusted EBITDA which is a forward-looking non-GAAP measure, because the Company cannot reliably predict certain of the necessary components, such as write-off of unsuccessful exploration efforts or impairment loss on non-financial assets, etc. Since free cash flow is calculated based on Adjusted EBITDA, for similar reasons, the Company does not provide a quantitative reconciliation of the 2023 free cash flow forecast.

NOTICE

Additional information about GeoPark can be found in the "Invest with Us" section of the website at www.geo-park.com.

Certain amounts and percentages included in this press release have been rounded for ease of presentation.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS RELEVANT TO FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements. Many of the forward- looking statements contained in this press release can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as anticipate, believe, could, expect, should, plan, intend, will, estimate and potential, among others.

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Forward-looking statements that appear in a number of places in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations, regarding various matters, such as operational and financial performance, including free cash flow generation and the expected excess cash flow returns to shareholders and dividend payment. Forward-looking statements are based on managements beliefs and assumptions, and on information currently available to the management. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to various factors.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update them in light of new information or future developments or to release publicly any revisions to these statements in order to reflect later events or circumstances, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. For a discussion of the risks facing the Company which could affect whether these forward-looking statements are realized, see filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005662/en/

Contacts

INVESTORS:



Stacy Steimel

ssteimel@geo-park.com

Shareholder Value Director

T: +562 2242 9600



Miguel Bello

mbello@geo-park.com

Market Access Director

T: +562 2242 9600



Diego Gully

dgully@geo-park.com

Investor Relations Director

T: +5411 4312 9400



MEDIA:



Communications Department

communications@geo-park.com
[May 03, 2023] Moveworks Unveils No-Code, Generative AI Platform for Building Conversational AI Use Cases

TMCnet News The enterprise today deploys hundreds of SaaS (News - Alert) and cloud-based applications and systems, each containing valuable data and thousands of distinct workflows and automations. Unfortunately, many employees lack the access and expertise of which apps to use and where to find the right information within each. This results in a small army of service owners and experts who help employees navigate these systems.



Until now, there has been no unified interface capable of allowing these systems to communicate with one, let alone enable them to take intelligent action and surface valuable information. Moveworks, the conversational AI platform for the enterprise, announced the launch of Creator Studio. The no-code, generative AI platform enables the building of any conversational AI use case in minutes.

Creator Studio provides a natural language interface that acts as an enterprise-wide copilot for employees, making it easy for anyone to generate conversational AI use cases, search for information and take action across every application. The platform integrates Moveworks with any system across the enterprise. With Creator Studio, language becomes the universal interface for every system and workflow across the enterprise. The platform allows anyone across any department to design custom conversational AI use cases in minutes, without the need for coding, scripting, or complex dialogue flows. As a result, employees have instant access to the information and resources they need to get their work done, all from one centralized location. The launch of Creator Studio offers an easy-to-use conversational AI platform to improve employees' productivity by reducing their reliance on service owners. With this platform, employees will have access to the information they need to complete their work efficiently and quickly. Moveworks also announced that Creator Studio is department, industry, language, and platform agnostic. It enables every team to connect to any system across their entire business. The platform is composed of three workspaces that allow customers to extend the power of Moveworks throughout their entire enterprise. Paths enables service owners to build new conversational flows and connect them to any business system for automation in minutes. It removes the need for dialogue flows altogether and generates any custom conversational AI use case by leveraging the power of generative AI and best-in-class LLMs, like GPT 3.5 and GPT-4. Queries enables service owners to build entirely new conversational queries and connect to any business system in seconds. It connects employees to the right data from one place, whether a sales director needs to know the latest status of a deal in their CRM, or a finance manager needs to check the status of a purchase order in their billing system. Events integrates with any application to streamline notifications and send proactive, actionable recommendations before it's too late. The pace of work is faster than ever, and with every business striving to do more with less, important events often fall through the cracks, from remembering employee anniversaries to proactively cleaning up your disk space. 'Employees face daily challenges when interacting with various business systems - from updating an account in a CRM, to checking the status of a purchase order," said Moveworks Founder and President Varun Singh. "They often rely on service owners and admins to bridge this gap, which ultimately results in gross inefficiency. With Creator Studio, we are finally empowering service owners to automate their repetitive tasks within minutes using the power of generative AI." Moveworks has seen growth since its founding in 2016. It has raised over $200 million in funding and has been recognized by numerous industry publications as one of the fastest-growing AI companies in the world. The company's conversational AI platform has been deployed by leading enterprises across a range of industries, including finance, healthcare, and technology. Moveworks is based in Mountain View, California, and has offices around the world. The introduction of Creator Studio is a milestone for the company. It represents a significant expansion of the capabilities of its conversational AI platform, making it easier than ever for enterprises to build custom use cases and integrate Moveworks with their existing systems. The benefits of Creator Studio are clear. By providing a centralized interface for all of an enterprise's systems and workflows, it enables employees to find the information they need more quickly and easily. This, in turn, reduces the burden on service owners and experts, who no longer need to spend their time helping employees navigate complex systems. Instead, they can focus on more strategic initiatives that drive business value. The introduction of Creator Studio is an important development for the conversational AI space. It represents a significant step forward in the democratization of AI, making it easier for enterprises of all sizes to take advantage of the technology's benefits. With its no-code, generative AI approach, Creator Studio has the potential to revolutionize the way enterprises work, enabling employees to find the information they need more quickly and easily and freeing up service owners and experts to focus on more strategic initiatives.





Edited by Greg Tavarez



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A quick update on convictions, police action and any good news we can find amid this town's struggle to overcome rising violence.



Check TKC news gathering . . .

Guns, crime rise on list of top problems in US: Gallup The number of Americans listing guns and crime as the top issue facing the U.S. has ticked up, according to a new Gallup poll. Seven percent in the poll said that guns and gun control were the top issue facing America, while 6 percent said the same of crime and violence.

Child grabs wrong backpack, accidentally brings gun to Olathe elementary school KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A student at Madison Place Elementary School in Olathe did not know the backpack he grabbed to take to school had a gun inside. A statement from the school's principal said the student, "accidentally brought the incorrect backpack from home, which contained the weapon, and was unaware of the gun's presence in the bag."

Kansas City man sentenced for attacking girlfriend at Walmart KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City man is sentenced to 18 years in prison for stabbing his girlfriend inside a Walmart Supercenter. A judge sentenced 26-year-old Brian S. LeNoble to 15 years for first-degree domestic assault and three years for armed criminal action. The sentences will run consecutively.

Missouri man pleads to 'evisceration and dismemberment' murder of woman photographed in cage and bound to gantry crane 'commonly used for deer' A 60-year-old man in Missouri will spend the rest of his days behind bars for killing, eviscerating, and dismembering a 33-year-old woman who was also photographed in a cage and bound to a gantry crane.

Suspect in NKC officer's killing may not go to trial until 2025 LIBERTY, Mo. - The suspect in the killing of a North Kansas City officer might not go to trial for two years. At a hearing Tuesday, a Clay County judge said Joshua Rocha may not go to trial until 2025 because of the nature of the case, but nothing has been set in stone yet.

Trial begins on Kansas Highway Patrol traffic stop tactics KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Shawna Maloney recalls the sound of her personal belongings being thrown about as Kansas Highway Patrol troopers searched her family's RV during a cross-country vacation in March 2018. The trooper who initiated the traffic stop and early morning search on Interstate 70 found nothing illegal.

KCPD 911 call taker spends 16 minutes on phone with suicidal woman, helps save her life KANSAS CITY, Mo. - For 19 years, Annie Casey has answered the call as a 911 dispatcher with the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department Communications Unit. "It's been good helping people," Casey said. As a call taker, Annie has encouraged people through hard times, no matter how long it takes.

Developing . . .
A quick update regarding an ongoing political slap fight over power, authority and professional conduct.



Check-it . . .



According to Missouri court records, special Judge John Torbitzky dismissed the motion Tuesday. This allows a quo warranto lawsuit against Gardner to advance to trail.



Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey originally filed a writ of quo warranto against Gardner on Feb. 23, accusing her of neglecting her duties as circuit attorney. He amended his petition last month to include additional allegations of neglect.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Judge denies Kim Gardner's motion to dismiss Missouri AG case ST. LOUIS - A judge denied a motion from St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to dismiss the Missouri attorney general's case that attempts to remove her from office. According to Missouri court records, special Judge John Torbitzky dismissed the motion Tuesday. This allows a quo warranto lawsuit against Gardner to advance to trail.

Yet another Missouri official may take Soros-backed prosecutor to court as more assistants resign A George Soros-bankrolled prosecutor in St. Louis already facing a legal effort by Missouri's attorney general to fire her for allegedly neglecting her duties may soon be hit with a separate lawsuit from another top state official as her office struggles to carry out basic tasks amid a striking wave of staff resignations.

'The time for delay is over': Missouri AG argues Gardner has failed to turn over documents In a 77-page filing, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey accuses St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner of employing disbarred attorney. ST. LOUIS - After 60 days, five pleadings, four meetings and one hearing, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's Office has not produced a single document to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's Office seeking to oust her, according to court documents filed late Monday.

Developing . . .
Because this learned local dude has achieved a steady career working in the industry . . . We respect his opinion . . . Here's a perspective on the drama that's much more interesting than most streaming shows:



There's currently no timetable for how long the strike will last, but (local Oscar-winning writer/director Kevin) Willmott says he's hoping it will be over by June or July.



"I've been through a couple of these, and it's always a painful experience," Willmott said. "Because they always take a lot longer than you hope they would."

That's too bad . . . In the meantime, so many other creators and creatives continue to share their work online for audience that continue to gain ground against traditional studio fare.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
A debate that will consume a great many denizens of the discourse who are constantly checking phones and probably not contributing much to the gross domestic product . . . Take a peek:



Missouri Senator Josh Hawley questioned Interior Secretary Deb Haaland Haaland on the Biden administration green energy plan, which he called a 'radical climate agenda,' specifically asking why the U.S. does not mine for resources like zinc, lithium nickel graphite and cobalt.



He said all of these resources could be mined in the U.S., but are instead being outsourced to China.



'Jobs for blue collar workers in this nation are valuable resources. The livelihood and wellbeing of American families are valuable resources. The ability of America to have our own industry and not be dependent on China is a valuable resource,' Hawley said.



'Why should those things for millions of Americans be sacrificed in favor of your agenda for radical climate agenda?'



'I know that there's like 1.9 jobs for every American in the country right now. So I know there's a lot of jobs ' Haaland responded, but was cut off by the Missouri Republican senator.



'Wait a minute, wait a minute. You're telling me we've got too many jobs in the country?' Hawley scoffed with a sarcastic chuckle.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Hawley slams Interior Sec for saying there's too many blue collar jobs Hawley slammed Biden's 'radical climate agenda' during a hearing Tuesday The senator criticized Interior Secretary Haaland for saying there are 'too many' U.S. jobs for blue collar workers to fill Republicans argue more natural resource production and mining should happen domestically to provide jobs, up competition and decrease reliance on China Sen.

Top Biden official suggests there are too many jobs while defending climate agenda in tense exchange Interior Secretary Deb Haaland defended her decision to shut down a Minnesota critical mineral mine, saying that there were already a lot of jobs available for Americans. Haaland's remarks came in response to a question about her decision this year to ban mining across 225,504 acres near Duluth, Minnesota, from Sen.

Developing . . .
The exhibit The Last Day of Work can be viewed on the exterior of the Mount Dennis Library for the month of May. Alderson says that this is the first step to bring photography back home to Kodak building.
Ideally, your overall portfolio should beat the market average. But even the best stock picker will only win with some selections. At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Glarner Kantonalbank (VTX:GLKBN), since the last five years saw the share price fall 16%.

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.

View our latest analysis for Glarner Kantonalbank

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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.

During the unfortunate half decade during which the share price slipped, Glarner Kantonalbank actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) improve by 1.5% per year. Given the share price reaction, one might suspect that EPS is not a good guide to the business performance during the period (perhaps due to a one-off loss or gain). Alternatively, growth expectations may have been unreasonable in the past.

Given that EPS has increased, but the share price has fallen, it's fair to say that market sentiment around the stock has become more negative. Generally speaking, though, if the company can keep growing EPS then the share price will eventually follow.

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. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

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What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Glarner Kantonalbank, it has a TSR of 0.9% 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!

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Glarner Kantonalbank has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 6.7% in the last twelve months. And that does include the dividend. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 0.2% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. 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 instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Glarner Kantonalbank (1 makes us a bit uncomfortable) that you should be aware of.

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 Swiss 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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The increasing demand for induction cook tops can be attributed to their energy efficiency, safety features, precise cooking capabilities, easy cleaning, and stylish design.

Clifton, New Jersey, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Induction cooktops are more energy-efficient than traditional gas or electric stovetops. They are safer because they don't use an open flame or exposed heating elements. They also have safety features such as automatic shut-off and child lock. Induction cooktops provide precise temperature control and heat distribution, making them ideal for cooking delicate dishes that require exact cooking temperatures. Induction cooktops have a smooth surface with no grates or burners to clean, making them easy to wipe down after use. Induction cooktops have a sleek and modern design that appeals to many homeowners, and they come in a variety of sizes and colors to match any kitchen decor.

Key Takeaways:

The built-in induction cooktop market is valued at over USD 10 Billion and is further to grow rapidly at a CAGR of 7.55%.

The commercial induction cooktop market has less than USD 10 Billion in revenue and is projected to grow rapidly at a CAGR of 9.10%.

Specialty store remains the main distribution channel with over 60% revenue share while online sales accounts for only 7.96% share.

Germany & France are important markets for induction cooktops in Europe with a 12.16% share in global revenues.

Get a free sample report: https://www.bonafideresearch.com/samplereport/230119161/global-induction-cooktop-market

Induction cooktops are becoming more intelligent and connected. Many new models come with features such as WiFi connectivity, voice control, and app integration, which allow users to control and monitor their cooktops remotely. Manufacturers are making them even more efficient by incorporating features such as automatic pan detection and power management. Design is becoming an increasingly important factor for consumers when choosing an induction cooktop. Manufacturers are responding to this trend by offering a variety of colors, finishes, and materials to suit different kitchen styles and preferences. Portable induction cooktops have gained popularity in recent years, as they offer a convenient and space-saving alternative to traditional cooktops. They are particularly popular among people living in small apartments or who frequently move. As more people become aware of the benefits of induction cooking, the adoption rate of induction cooktops is expected to increase in the coming years. This is likely to lead to increased competition among manufacturers and lower prices for consumers. Technological trends like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Connectivity, Power Booster, Smart Sensors, automatic shut-off, bridge elements, and touch controls, are making induction cook tops more user-friendly, safer, and energy-efficient. This will drive future market growth with increased adoption in the Asia Pacific region. Says, Mr. Dhwipal Shah, Research Director with Bonafide Research.

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The demand for induction cooktops has been growing rapidly, particularly in developing countries, where urbanization is increasing, and households are seeking more energy-efficient and convenient cooking solutions. The induction cooktop industry is becoming more sustainable, with many manufacturers adopting eco-friendly practices and materials. This includes the use of recycled materials in manufacturing and reducing energy consumption during use. Built-in induction cooktops are designed to provide a sleek and modern look to a kitchen. They are also often more expensive than freestanding induction cooktops due to the cost of installation and the need for a separate wall oven. Freestanding induction cooktops, on the other hand, are versatile as they can be moved to different locations if needed. The increasing demand for freestanding induction cooktops can be attributed to the growing popularity of induction cooking, as well as the convenience, affordability, and safety benefits that these appliances provide.

In a residential setting, induction cooktops are often preferred because of their energy efficiency, precise temperature control, and ease of use. Induction cooktops typically feature intuitive controls, making them easy to use for home cooks of all levels. In a commercial setting, induction cooktops are often used in situations where precise temperature control is necessary. However, some commercial kitchens may still prefer gas or electric cooktops for their ability to quickly heat up large pots or pans and for their ability to produce an open flame.



Consumers who prioritize a wide selection and expert advice may prefer specialty stores, while those who prioritize convenience and affordability may prefer supermarkets or hypermarkets. Specialty stores that focus on home appliances or kitchenware may offer a wider selection of induction cooktop models and brands, as well as more knowledgeable staff who can provide advice and guidance on choosing the right cooktop for a specific need or budget. These stores may also offer installation and after-sales support, which can be valuable to consumers. On the other hand, supermarkets and hypermarkets may offer a more limited selection of induction cooktops, but they may be more convenient for consumers who are already shopping for groceries or other household items. They may also offer competitive pricing and promotions that can make induction cooktops more affordable for budget-conscious consumers.

To access the complete report: https://www.bonafideresearch.com/product/230119161/global-induction-cooktop-market

Europe is one of the leading regions in the induction cooktops market. This is because of its stringent safety regulations for household appliances, and induction cooktops are considered safer than gas or electric cooktops region's focus on sustainability and energy efficiency. Furthermore, the popularity of open-plan kitchens and modern kitchen designs in Europe has also contributed to the growth of the induction cooktops market. In Germany, the market for induction cooktops is driven by a combination of factors, including the country's focus on energy efficiency and sustainability, as well as its reputation for high-quality engineering and design.

North America is the second largest market due to the popularity of modern kitchen designs. Induction cooktops offer a sleek and modern look that fits well with the design preferences of many North American consumers.

The Asia Pacific region is expected to drive future growth in the induction cooktops market due to factors such as rising incomes, increasing urbanization, and growing interest in energy efficiency, safety, and convenience. The Asia Pacific region is expected to be a key driver of future growth in the induction cooktops market. The region has a large and growing population, rising income levels, and increasing urbanization, all of which are expected to drive demand for household appliances including induction cooktops. The region has a large and growing middle class, with rising incomes and a growing interest in modern and convenient household appliances.

South America and the Middle East and Africa regions have a relatively smaller share in the induction cooktops market compared to other regions. One reason for the lower share of these regions in the induction cooktops market is the relatively lower penetration of electricity in some areas. Gas is still the primary cooking fuel in many households in these regions, which limits the demand for electric appliances such as induction cooktops. Induction cooktops are generally more expensive than traditional gas or electric cooktops, which may make them less accessible to consumers in these regions.

Get customized reports as per requirement: https://www.bonafideresearch.com/product/customize/230119161/global-induction-cooktop-market

Considered in the Report

Geography: Global

Historical Year: 2017

Base year: 2022

Estimated year: 2023

Forecast year: 2028

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Market Dynamics

2.1. Market Drivers

2.2. Challenges

2.3. Opportunity

2.4. Restraints

2.5. Market Trends

2.6. Covid-19 Effect

2.7. Supply chain Analysis

2.8. Policy & Regulatory Framework

2.9. Industry Experts Views

3. Research Methodology

3.1. Secondary Research

3.2. Primary Data Collection

3.3. Market Formation & Validation

3.4. Report Writing, Quality Check & Delivery

4. Market Structure

4.1. Market Considerate

4.2. Assumptions

4.3. Limitations

4.4. Abbreviations

4.5. Sources

4.6. Definitions

5. Economic /Demographic Snapshot

6. Competitive Landscape

6.1. Competitive Dashboard

6.2. Business Strategies Adopted by Key Players

6.3. Key Players Market Share Insights and Analysis, 2022

6.4. Key Players Market Positioning Matrix

6.5. Consolidated SWOT Analysis of Key Players

6.6. Porter's Five Forces

7. Global Induction Cooktop Market Outlook

7.1. Market Size By Value

7.2. Market Size and Forecast, By Geography

7.3. Market Size and Forecast, By Product Type

7.4. Market Size and Forecast, By Application

7.5. Market Size and Forecast, By Distribution Channel

8. North America Induction Cooktop Market Outlook

8.1. Market Size By Value

8.2. Market Share By Country

8.3. Market Size and Forecast By Product Type

8.4. Market Size and Forecast By Application

8.5. Market Size and Forecast By Distribution Channel

8.6. US Induction Cooktop Market Outlook

8.6.1. Market Size By Value

8.6.2. Market Size and Forecast By Product Type

8.6.3. Market Size and Forecast By Application

8.6.4. Market Size and Forecast By Distribution Channel

TOC Continued...

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The Global Kitchen Hood market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.86% to be valued a USD 11.11 Billion by 2028. The market is expected to be driven by energy efficiency, open-concept kitchen designs, and increasing urbanization and disposable incomes in emerging markets. Many modern kitchen hoods feature energy-efficient motors, LED lighting, and advanced filtration systems that help to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact. The North America n region is the largest market for kitchen hoods, due to a combination of consumer awareness, construction activity, manufacturing and distribution infrastructure, and regulatory factors. The Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at 6.96% as the fastest-growing market for kitchen hoods in the coming years, driven by increasing urbanization, rising disposable incomes, and a growing interest in modern kitchen designs and appliances. Key players in the market include companies such as AB Electrolux, BSH Hausgerate GmbH, Whirlpool Corporation, and Panasonic Corporation, among others. South America and Middle East & Africa are also growing at steady growth rate by the forecast period.

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The Global Air Fryer market is valued at USD 2.72 Billion in 2022 and is further expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.43%; driven by factors such as increasing focus on healthy eating and lifestyle choices, growing demand for convenient and time-saving appliances, and a high level of consumer awareness and adoption of new technologies. Another key driver of the air fryer market is the growing demand for convenient and time-saving appliances. Europe is leading the air fryer market as consumers embrace healthier cooking methods and look for convenient and versatile appliances to use in their kitchens. North American is the second largest with a 31.69% share, driven by a growing interest in healthy eating and cooking, as well as a high level of consumer awareness and adoption of new technologies. Asia Pacific region is the fastest growing market for air fryers at 12.82%, driven by the region's growing middle class, increasing health awareness, and changing food habits. Key players in the market include companies such as Koninklijke Philips N.V., Tefal, De'Longhi Group, and Groupe SEB, among others. South America and Middle East & Africa are growing at more than 10% CAGR by 2023-28.

The Global Built-in kitchen appliances market is valued at USD 17.70 Billion and further expected to continue to grow at a CAGR of 6.04%; driven by factors such as increasing focus on home renovation and remodeling, a growing trend towards open-plan living spaces, and a high level of consumer awareness and adoption of high-end appliances. One major driver is the increasing focus on home renovation and remodeling, as consumers seek to upgrade their kitchens with modern and high-end appliances. North America is the largest market for built-in kitchen appliances due to the growing trend towards home renovation and remodeling, and the preference for premium and high-end products, followed by Europe. Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.38%. Key players in the market include companies such as Bosch Home Appliances, Electrolux AB, LG Electronics, and Whirlpool Corporation, among others.

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SPHERICAL INSIGHTS LLP

The Global Vutrisiran Market Size was valued at USD 595.8 Million in 2022 and the Worldwide Vutrisiran Market size is expected to reach USD 1,998.7 Million by 2032, according to a research report published by Spherical Insights & Consulting. Companies Covered: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Orphalan, AstraZeneca, Vivet Therapeutics, Pfizer Inc., Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., Noble Pharma Co., Ltd., Merck & Co., Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals and among others.

New York, United States , May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Vutrisiran Market Size is to grow from USD 595.8 Million in 2022 to USD 1,998.7 Million by 2032, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.8% during the forecast period.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had some impact on the global Vutrisiran market. One potential impact of the pandemic on the vutrisiran market is that it may have caused delays in clinical trials and regulatory approvals. Many clinical trials have been delayed or disrupted due to COVID-19, which could potentially delay the approval and launch of new medications like vutrisiran. Also, the pandemic has caused significant economic disruption around the world, which could impact the availability of funding for healthcare research and development, as well as the ability of patients to afford medications like Vutrisiran.

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Vutrisiran is a medicine used to treat hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (hATTR), a rare and progressive genetic disease impacting several organs and tissues such as the nerves, heart, and kidneys. RNA interference (RNAi) technology is used to silence the production of the protein responsible for the abnormal accumulation of amyloid fibrils in the body. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved vutrisiran in September 2021, and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved it in November 2021. It is currently available in the United States, Europe, and other regions across the world. vutrisiran, a chemically modified double-stranded siRNA produced by AMVUTTRA, depends on RNA interference to target mutant and wild-type TTR messenger RNA (mRNA), resulting in its degradation and a reduction of serum TTR protein levels.

Story continues

The recent FDA and EMA regulatory approvals for vutrisiran have increased medication accessibility across greater regions, which could boost demand for the treatment. Moreover, the increasing frequency of chronic diseases is the primary driving force behind this therapeutic industry. Furthermore, one of the major factors driving revenue growth in the vutrisiran market is an increase in the number of patients suffering from transthyretin amyloidosis around the world. The prevalence of hATTR is increasing as a result of better diagnosis and increased disease awareness. Moreover, the increased number of clinical trials for better medications and therapies, as well as the increased emphasis on transthyretin amyloidosis research and development, are driving market revenue growth. Furthermore, the revenue growth of the vutrisiran market is going to be restricted more in the coming years due to a lack of qualified employees. However, it is expected that a lack of diagnosis and the high cost of therapy will limit market growth revenue. vutrisiran is a costly treatment that requires continuous monitoring of patients to ensure its safety and effectiveness, which may limit vutrisiran's market expansion.

Browse key industry insights spread across 200 pages with 100 market data tables and figures & charts from the report on " Global Vutrisiran Market Size , Share, and COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Drug Class (Antisense Oligonucleotide, Nucleic Acids, Nucleotide, Nucleosides, & Others), By Route of Administration (Injectable, Parenteral, Subcutaneous), By Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacies, Retail Pharmacies, Online Pharmacies, & Others), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa), Analysis and Forecast 2022 2032". Get Detailed Report Description Here:

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The antisense oligonucleotide segment is dominating the market with the largest market share during the forecast period.

The global vutrisiran market is classified into antisense oligonucleotide, nucleic acids, nucleotide, nucleosides, & others, based on the type. Among these, the antisense oligonucleotide segment is projecting significant growth because antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) have emerged as a promising class of drugs for treating a wide range of hereditary and rare illnesses, including hATTR. Antisense oligonucleotides are synthetic chemicals that bind to certain messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and modify their expression or function, decreasing protein synthesis.

The subcutaneous segment is influencing the largest market share over the forecast period.

Based on the route of administration, the global vutrisiran market is segmented into oral and injectable, and subcutaneous. During the projected period, the subcutaneous segment will hold the greatest market share owing to the mode of action and formulation of the medicine, vutrisiran will most likely be delivered via subcutaneous injection. This is because vutrisiran is an RNA-based therapy, specifically an RNA interference (RNAi) molecule designed to reduce the synthesis of abnormal transthyretin (TTR) protein in people with hATTR. Furthermore, subcutaneous injection is a simple and practical technique of drug delivery, and many patients can be taught to self-administer subcutaneous injections at home.

The hospital pharmacies segment is influencing market share growth during the forecast period.

On the basis of distribution channels, the global vutrisiran market is bifurcated into hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, online pharmacies, & others. Throughout these segments, hospital pharmacies are influencing the market during the forecast period, as hospital pharmacies specialize in managing and delivering prescriptions used in the hospital context, particularly expensive treatments like Vutrisiran. Several antisense oligonucleotides have already been licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of illnesses such as spinal muscular atrophy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. These materials are provided to hospital pharmacies, which can assist to ensure that Vutrisiran is administered appropriately to patients.

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North America is leading the market with the largest market share over the forecast period

North America is expected to have the highest revenue growth during the projected period due to the presence of significant manufacturers and the rising number of diagnostic procedures performed in the area. Furthermore, factors such as the high frequency of hATTR, the availability of favorable reimbursement policies, and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, the company that developed Vutrisiran, A solid pipeline of RNAi-based therapies may help the Vutrisiran market in North America grow.

Europe is expected to witness significant revenue growth throughout the projection period, owing to the company that developed Vutrisiran, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, which has a robust pipeline of other RNAi-based medications in development for a variety of illnesses.

Competitive Analysis:

The report offers the appropriate analysis of the key organizations/companies involved within the global market along with a comparative evaluation primarily based on their product offering, business overviews, geographic presence, enterprise strategies, segment market share, and SWOT analysis. The report also provides an elaborative analysis focusing on the current news and developments of the companies, which includes product development, innovations, joint ventures, partnerships, mergers & acquisitions, strategic alliances, and others. This allows for the evaluation of the overall competition within the market. Major vendors in the Global Vutrisiran Market include Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Orphalan, AstraZeneca, Vivet Therapeutics, Pfizer Inc., Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., Noble Pharma Co., Ltd., Merck & Co., Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals, and other market players.

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Recent Development

In June 2022, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is developing a robust pipeline of alternative RNAi-based treatments for a variety of disorders. The success of vutrisiran has boosted investor trust in the company and increased funding for its other pipeline medications, potentially resulting in additional therapy options for patients.

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By Jeff Murphy, May 3, 2023





University of Central Missouri alumnus David Hoffmann will receive the honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, during 2023 Spring Commencement exercises.



WARRENSBURG, MO  The presentation of five individual awards honoring the achievements of exceptional faculty members, students and alumni and the conferring of degrees on hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students will highlight 2023 Spring Commencement exercises at the University of Central Missouri. While all students who have completed their degree requirements are not expected to participate, more than 2,000 new graduates are eligible to walk in one of four ceremonies planned the weekend of May 5-6 in the Multipurpose Building.



Commencement begins with the graduate ceremony at 6 p.m. Friday, May 5, honoring students in the College of Health, Science and Technology. This will be followed by the graduate ceremony recognizing students in the College of Education; College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; and the Harmon College of Business and Professional Studies, at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 6.



Graduation festivities continue at 1:30 p.m. Saturday for undergraduate students who have earned degrees from the College of Health, Science and Technology, College of Education, the THRIVE certificate program, and General Studies degree program. In the final ceremony of the weekend, at 5 p.m. Saturday, the university will confer degrees upon students who completed graduation requirements in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Harmon College of Business and Professional Studies; and the Crisis and Disaster Management program.



During the Friday evening ceremony, David Hoffmann, a UCM alumnus who has an outstanding career as a businessman and entrepreneur, will be honored through the presentation of the honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters. Hoffmann also will present the keynote address during this ceremony, and will be the keynote speaker at all Saturday commencement exercises.



An honorary degree recognizes individuals who have done outstanding work in their profession and in service to others in ways that inspire university students, employees and alumni. Hoffmann exemplifies the spirit of this award. In 1989, he founded DHR International, the worlds largest privately held executive search firm. Following the success of this company, he invested in the establishment of Osprey Capital, LLC, a private family office, which includes 110 brands in 27 countries and 200 properties worldwide. Throughout his career, Hoffmann has also contributed to community revitalization efforts and supported non-profit organizations in communities where he has resided in the states of Colorado, Florida and Illinois, and elsewhere in the United States. Most recently, he and his wife, Jerri, also a UCM graduate, have returned to their Missouri roots to support efforts to revitalize Americas first wine region in Augusta.



Additional awards presented during Saturday commencement exercises will recognize the achievements of UCM faculty members and students. This includes the Governors Award for Excellence in Education presented to Michelle L. Amos, associate professor of literacy, at 10 a.m.; Byler Distinguished Faculty Award presented to Scott Strohmeyer, professor of nutrition, kinesiology, and health studies, at 1:30 p.m.; and Charno Awards presented to Paige VanBlarcum, candidate for Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, at 1:30 p.m., and Cade Tremain, candidate for a Bachelor of Science in Political Science, at 5 p.m.



Individuals who want to learn more about the 2023 Spring Commencement, including viewing the weekend schedule and how to access a livestream of each ceremony, can do so at the event website.




Ukraine can expect to receive ammunition for Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, donated by Germany, from August this year.

According to DW, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this during a public dialogue in the town of Bendorf.

According to him, production is now being set up, but this will take some time.

Scholz said that Ukraine cannot use weapons supplied by Germany to attack Russian territory.

"These rules are followed by other Western countries that supply Ukraine with weapons to counter the Russian attack, the chancellor explained and added that everything should be done with all the necessary help to prevent a war between Russia and NATO," the report reads.

According to DW, the list of weapons transferred to Ukraine, which is regularly updated on the website of the German government, includes 34 Gepard systems with 6,000 rounds of ammunition. Germany also plans to provide Ukraine with three more such systems and 300,000 rounds of ammunition.
In the United Kingdom, as part of the multinational training operation, the New Zealand Defence Force personnel are helping turn Ukrainian recruits into capable soldiers, providing them with skills needed to survive and be effective in frontline combat.

The relevant statement was made by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

In particular, 65 professionals from New Zealand are in the United Kingdom, where they will instruct Ukrainian recruits in mastering such skills as weapon handling, marksmanship, combat first aid, and offensive and defence operations in various environments.

A reminder that, on August 15, 2022, the New Zealand Government and New Zealand Defence Force officially announced a further significant deployment of 120 New Zealand Defence Force personnel to the United Kingdom to help train Ukrainian soldiers.

Photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Over the past day, units of Ukraines artillery forces hit an enemy control post, 12 manpower and equipment clusters, four ammunition depots, and an air defense system.

Thats according to a war update, published by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Wednesday morning, Ukrinform reports.

"The enemy launched three missile strikes, 39 air strikes, and 63 times employed MLR systems targeting positions of our troops and populated areas. Civilians were injured, private residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed and damaged," the report said.

It is also noted that overnight Wednesday, Russian terrorists once again attacked Ukraine using Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drones. Information about the consequences of this attack is being clarified.

The likelihood of the enemy launching more missile and air strikes across the entire territory of Ukraine remains high, the General Staff warned.

The enemy continues to focus its main efforts on conducting offensive operations in the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Maryinka directions where over 30 assault efforts were recorded. Bakhmut and Maryinka remain at the epicenter of hostilities, where Ukraines defenders are holding their defenses.

On the Volyn and Polissia axes, the operational situation has undergone no significant changes. No signs of an enemy offensive grouping being formed were detected.

On the Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna axes, enemy artillery shelled the settlements of Hasychivka, Yeline, Bleshnya, Karpovychi, Tymonovichi, Leonivka, and Muravyi of Chernihiv region; Znob-Novgorodsk, Uralov, Seredyna-Buda, Kucherivka, Rivne, Vorozhba, Volfine, Mykolaivka, Myropillia in Sumy region, as well as Veterynarne, Vilkhivka, Hatyshche, Vovchansk, and Potikhonove in Kharkiv region.

In the Kupiansk direction, the enemy ran no offensive operations, actively flying UAVs to spot artillery fire. Krasne Pershe, Fiholivka, Novomlynsk, Lyman Pershyi, Kupiansk, Kislivka, Krokhmalne, and Berestove of Kharkiv region were subjected to artillery and mortar shelling.

In the Lyman direction, the enemy launched offensive efforts in the area south of Dibrova, sealing no gains. Makiivka in Luhansk region and Bilohorivka, Verkhnokamianske, and Spirne in Donetsk region were hit by artillery fire.

In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy continues its offensive. Fighting continues for the town of Bakhmut. In addition, the occupiers attacked - with no success - in the direction of Ivanivske and Predtechyne. Vasyukivka, Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Novomarkove, Hryhorivka, Khromove, Bakhmut, Ivanivske, Chasiv Yar, Kostyantynivka, Predtechyne, Diliivka, and Pivdenne of Donetsk region were affected by enemy shelling.

In the Avdiivka direction, the enemy carried out offensive actions in the Pervomaiske district of Donetsk region, without gains. They also shelled Novokalynove, Avdiivka, Severne, Tonenke, Karlivka, and Netailove.

In the Marinka direction, enemy attacks were repelled in the Maryinka area. Krasnohorivka, Heorhiivka, Pobieda, and Novomykhailivka of Donetsk region came under enemy fire.

The enemy launched no offensive moves in the Shakhtarske direction, while shelling Novoukrainka and Prechystivka in Donetsk region.

The enemy remains on the defensive in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson directions, having opened fire at more than 30 settlements. Among them are Vremivka and Novosilka of Donetsk region; Hulyaipole, Bilohirya, Mala Tokmachka, Novodanilivka, Novoandriivka, and Kamianske of Zaporizhzhia region; Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk region; Zolota Balka, Dudchany, Kachkarivka, Vesele, Lvove, Ivanivka, Mykilske, Antonivka, Dniprovske, Kizomys of Kherson region, and the city of Kherson.

According to the General Staff, the Russian occupiers continue the process of forcible issue of Russian passports in the temporarily captured territory of Kherson region. In order to accelerate the process, the invaders are conducting demonstrative raids aimed at intimidating the local population with possible deportation and alienation of property. A convoy of empty buses, accompanied by FSB operatives, drives across settlements to inform residents, referring to the decree recently signed by Vladimir Putin on the deportation of non-Russian citizenship from the occupied territories, set an ultimatum: either they renounce their Ukrainian passport in favor of a Russian one or they are immediately evicted from homes and their property gets seized.

"In the past day, the Air Force of the Defense Forces carried out eight strikes on enemy manpower clusters, while rocket and artillery units hit a command post, 12 clusters, four ammunition depots, an air defense system, and one more important enemy target," summed up the General Staff.

As reported, since February 24, 2022, the Defense Forces have eliminated 191,420 Russian aggressors.

Photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
We walked around the wartime Ukrainian art exhibition The Muses Are Not Silent at Ukraine House in Denmark. My guest knew most of the war symbols and obviously had deep knowledge in Ukrainian history. Working from the frontlines for the last 9 years in Ukraine, best-selling author and The Guardian foreign correspondent Luke Harding became a true expert on Ukraine.

Now he presents in Ukraine House in Denmark his latest book "Invasion: Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival, published in November 2022 by Vintage and Guardian Faber. It is one of the first accounts of the war that has transformed international relations and which has led to an outpouring of support for Ukraine in the US, UK and beyond.

Luke Harding was in Kyiv on Feb. 24, 2022, when russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He has visited most of the de-occupied territories where he personally saw all of the horrors of war crimes committed by the russian military in Bucha and Irpin, as well as the Kharkiv and Kherson regions, among others. Harding still works on the frontline where he records peoples stories and shares voices of the locals with the world.

- Luke, what was your personal reaction to the full-scale invasion in February 2022?

- It was no surprise to me. I thought it was going to happen in some form.

Back in January, February 2022, in the pre-war stage, I was writing about politics. I was at the press conference with Volodymyr Zelensky and Boris Johnson. I was talking to London about what might happen. And everything was in the realm of geopolitics, of international relations, political significance, etc.

On February 24th I got a call from a contact saying it's going to start at 4 a.m. Then getting out of bed at my hotel in central Kyiv. When I was downstairs in the basement bomb shelter I was thinking about politics

Around 6 a.m. I noticed a mom coming into the shelter with her two kids. And the kids were sitting on chairs, filling in their coloring books. And I can't remember if I was crying, but I certainly realized that this terrible war was going to kill a lot of civilians  if not these children, then other children, which turned out to be true. And I sort of thought, look, I cant do politics but what I need to do is to tell the human story. And that would be my goal as I covered the war, obviously to write about soldiers and to write about civilians caught up in this. Whether it's young people, old people, families.

- You've seen many wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria What is the main difference in Ukraine?

- First of all, for me it feels personal. Because I lived in Moscow, then I was kicked out of there (between 2007 and 2011, he was the Guardians Moscow bureau chief. In February 2011, the Kremlin deported him from the country in the first case of its kind since the Cold War - ed.).

I was harassed for quite a long time by the FSB. They broke into my apartment, opened the window of my son's bedroom and made me think that maybe our kid would fall out. FSBs goal was to make me leave the country, which I didn't do. And I had kind of reserves of stubbornness and determination, which I'm not sure I didn't know I had, but I found them.

I've been writing about the Russian regime ever since. And it's not that I'm sort of elevating myself to Putin's level and saying it's me against Putin. Of course not. But the point is that I perhaps understood this regime quicker than other people, because I had an insight into just how dark and evil their world is.

And secondly, what makes it different from conflicts I've covered in Afghanistan and Iraqis the genocidal character.

- Would you call this war a genocide?

- Yes, it is a genocide. We could see it in Bucha and other liberated Ukrainian cities. People who were murdered were not military but unarmed civilians

putin doesnt want to just occupy Ukraine, he wants to destroy ukraincy, he wants to de-ukrainized Ukraine. Thats why in the occupied territories Ukrainian books are burnt, Ukrainian language is forbidden, everything is russified.

putin basically wants to destroy the idea that Ukraine is a nation of people with its own culture, language, way of life, democratic instincts. That's anathema to him. He wants it to be a weak, Moscow-controlled, Slavic, in inverted commas, brother state. That's how he thinks it should be.

And if he was nobody, he could have these fantasies in his basement and we'd all be fine. But he is the ruler of a large and powerful country, 140 million people, a nuclear arsenal and a big army.

- Many experts compare russia to nazi Germany in 1939 and putin to hitler. What are your thoughts about these historical parallels?

- What is happening in Ukraine is essentially russian fascism. I think its important to call it like that. Its a fascistic attempt of one country to devour another. We know what happened in Bucha because it was de-occupied but there will be hundreds of Buchas like that.

Putin has become addicted to fantastical thinking. And he's sufficiently powerful that he can try and remake realities that correspond to how he thinks it should be. That's very dangerous.

He does not read the Internet, he does not really use a mobile phone, he relies on secret reports of the intelligence agencies. He has absolute paranoia about his personal survival. He thinks what he is doing to Ukraine isn't an invasion, he sees himself as a restorer of the russian empire.

- We talk a lot about the cultural impact which russia used against Ukraine for many years  through the church, language, music, media etc. Will russia lose the cultural war?

- Russia sort of lost the cultural war, I think. And it's interesting. I know a lot of Russian writers in exile. For example, Mikhail Shishkin, who's just written a book, basically expressing solidarity with Ukraine calling for the downfall of the Putin regime. I know Sergei Lebedev, who's a brilliant novelist. He lives in Berlin, another kind of exile from the regime. They understand what is going on.

But I understand the Ukrainian reaction. I understand why they are getting rid of Bulgakov, why they are renaming the streets called after Pushkin, why they're removing monuments to Soviet heroes and air force pilots that no one has ever heard of. It is a decolonization process.

And the thing is, there are new heroes, there are new myths, there are new legends. There'll be new statues, whether it's to the heroes of Mariupol,

whether it's to Azovstal, whether it's to young guys who were executed in Bruscia, whether it's to activists who've died in the East, who volunteered to fight and were killed aged 24, 25. And this is right, this is how it should be.

- Unfortunately, the price is too high

- Ukraine is having 50 years of development in one year. And that strikes me about Ukraine. In my country it took 800 years to reach this stage.

Ukraine is evolving at warp speed. Super fast. And you wouldn't want it to be like this, but it is like this. The country that comes out of this will be stronger, more united, and more resilient.

- What other global opportunities will this war bring to Ukraine?

- Ukraine has already become the most famous country in the world. You know, two years ago, most people couldn't find it on a map. Even Europeans struggled to identify it.

Now we have a map of Ukraine in the Guardian office. Not a small one, but a very big map, about two meters long. You wouldn't wish it that way, but here we are.

Ukrainian writers are getting English translations. Ukrainian poetry is being translated. They're finding an international audience. Who in the West was reading Ukrainian poetry before 2022? Not so many people. Now Ukrainian talents have opportunities to be discovered.

Ukrainian songs are in Eurovision. Ukrainian flags are hanging everywhere. Still. Recently I had a walk in villages in rural England and I find Ukrainian flags flying from churches and from ordinary houses. That's amazing! That is a sign of the empathy, the solidarity that people in Europe feel for what's happening in Ukraine. And they understand what's going on. And they sympathize with Ukrainian people, with women, with kids. Ukraine wanted to join the West, and on a human level, it has joined the West, in terms of population shifts.

And what we just now need is Ukrainian victory, so that all the politics can be worked out.

- Ukrainians are worried that the West is tired of this war. What is your feeling?

- I heard that European solidarity lasts and its not just for a year. We recognize Ukraine as a European country and it will be a member of the EU. If russia leaves it alone for 5 seconds, it would be a super successful country.

Maya Zakhovaiko, Copenhagen

Photos by the author, Christopher Cherry and Stefan Schultz
President of Finland Sauli Niinisto has said that his country will continue to support Ukraine and is already preparing the 15th military aid package.

He announced this at a joint press conference with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We will support and continue to support you. The 15th package is now under preparation, and Im sure that the next one is 16th, said Niinisto.

As reported by Ukrinform, President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Finland on an official visit on Wednesday, where he will take part in a Nordic-Ukrainian summit.

Also, on the sidelines of the summit, Zelensky will meet with the prime ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Finland has already provided Ukraine with military aid worth more than EUR 900 million.

Photo: Getty Images
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto explained that Finland cannot give Ukraine Hornet fighter jets until it receives new aircraft.

He said this when answering questions from journalists at a joint press conference with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Our position is geographically significantly different from most EU and NATO countries... We once bought Hornets, and now we are replacing them with F35s. This is a very large expenditure for a small country like ours... But we know that we need a strong defense. We can't give up the Hornet until we get the new aircraft. And, unfortunately, by that time, the Hornets will be virtually useless," he said.

He also noted that when it comes to the discussion about aircraft for Ukraine, it concerns the issue of F16 fighters.

"We don't have them, we have Hornet fighters, they are quite old," he added.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, President Zelensky arrived in Finland on Wednesday for a visit, where he will participate in the Ukraine-Northern Europe summit.

On the sidelines of the summit, the head of state will also hold separate bilateral meetings with the prime ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

Finland has already provided Ukraine with military assistance worth more than 900 million euros.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal at a meeting in Kyiv with the delegation of the Assembly of Portugal led by Parliaments President Augusto Santos Silva discussed support for Ukraine and assistance in its recovery.

Shmyhal wrote this on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

"Our conversation was focused on the support for Ukraine and assistance in its recovery. I invited Portuguese business to invest in our country now, because the recovery of Ukraine will be the largest project since the Second World War. We hope for Portugal's support for Ukraine's European integration and Euro-Atlantic aspirations," Shmyhal wrote.

He thanked for the efforts made by the Assembly of Portugal to support Ukraine: financial, humanitarian, sanctions.

"We appreciate the prompt transfer of weapons, equipment, as well as the training of our military," Shmyhal stressed.

As reported by Ukrinform, on May 2, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva discussed the interaction between the countries on the path of Ukraine's integration into the European Union and expectations from the NATO summit in July, the needs of Ukrainian defenders and the peace formula.

Photo: Cabinet of Ministers
Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solskyi met with Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Romania Petre Daea in Bucharest.

According to the Ukrainian ministrys press service, the ministers discussed a model of work on the transit of Ukrainian grain crops through Romanian ports next season.

The parties also discussed the European Commissions decision to ban the import of some agricultural products from Ukraine to five countries of the European Union.

As Ukrinform reported, on May 2, 2023, the European Commission officially announced the introduction of "exceptional and temporary" preventive measures against imports from Ukraine, which limit the delivery of agricultural goods from Ukraine to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The restrictions will apply to four agricultural products: wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seed originating in Ukraine - and will remain in effect until June 5, 2023.

Photo: Ministry of Agrarian Policy
- Hyundai Bioscience announcing the receipt of the phase 2 clinical study report of XaftyTM and its plans for the emergency use authorization

- Planning fast track process in oversea countries to enter the global market

SEOUL, South Korea, May 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Bioscience (KOSDAQ 048410) announced on the 28th that it had received the clinical study report for the COVID-19 phase 2 clinical trial of its antiviral drug 'Xafty' (code name: CP-COV03).

In the announcement, Hyundai Bioscience shared its plans to proceeding emergency use approval (hereafter, EUA) and approval process with the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). Hyundai Bioscience plans to pursue other feasible fast-track processes for Xafty in oversea countries as well.

In this clinical trial, Xafty shortened the time required to improve 12 COVID-19 symptoms, including fever and cough, by 4 days compared to the placebo group. When taken within 3 days of symptom onset, the high-risk group improved the recovery time of 12 symptoms 6 days earlier than the placebo group. In addition, the viral load (virus level) was reduced by 56% by 16 hours after the first dosing, which is 14 times that of the placebo group (4% reduction).

Hyundai Bioscience research director, DR. G.W. Jin commented "COVID-19 is an RNA virus. It is characterized by a very fast infection rate and constant creation of variants within the same virus family. Hyundai Bioscience's Xafty has excellent efficacy against not only COVID-19 but also all corona-type viruses such as SARS and MERS. With drug repurposing, Xafty has safety and price competitiveness, making it a game changer for COVID-19."

These clinical results may be possible with Xafty's active ingredient, niclosamide's mechanism to remove viruses by activating cell autophagy, unlike existing antiviral drugs that inhibit viral replication. As a result of in vitro study on 48 types of drugs selected from 3,000 FDA- and IND-approved drugs by the Pasteur Korea Institute in 2021, niclosamide, an approved anthelmintic drug, was selected as the top candidate for COVID-19 antivirals. Hyundai Bioscience developed Xafty by repurposing niclosamide as a COVID-19 antiviral.

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In this COVID-19 clinical trial of 300 patients, Xafty proved its safety with no serious adverse events. Considering its no known concomitant contraindications and its price competitiveness compared to existing COVID-19 treatments, Xafty is expected to be a standard COVID-19 treatment in the global market.

This clinical trial was carried out in consideration of the Korean EUA system in terms of scale. If Xafty is approved for emergent use, Korea would attain 'pharmaceutical sovereignty' as a country with a leading antiviral drug.

Hyundai Bioscience initially planned to enroll 180 patients in this clinical trial but expanded it to 300 to target the EUA introduced in Korea in March 2021.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hyundai-bioscience-announced-positive-phase-2-clinical-study-results-of-the-global-blockbuster-candidate-for-the-covid-19-antiviral-drug-301814055.html

SOURCE Hyundai Bioscience
New Zealand's government has announced an increase in its support for Ukraine, allocating NZD 5 million ($3.1 million) for a number of initiatives.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said this in a statement on Wednesday, Ukrinform reports, citing The Guardian.

According to the report, the funds will be spent on various initiatives supporting Ukraine, including Ukraine Humanitarian Fund, the UNHCR, and the International Criminal Court's Office of the Prosecutor and Trust Fund for Victims.

A deployment of 95 New Zealand defense personnel working to train Ukrainian troops near London will be extended by a year to June 30, 2024. Two personnel will participate in Western-led space training programs in Poland, but will not enter Ukraine, Hipkins added.

Additional sanctions will target 18 entities and 9 individuals supporting Russia.

"Unfortunately the conflict appears set to continue for some time. We and likeminded partners will not back off and allow Russia to impose their might on the innocent people of Ukraine," Hipkins said.

On August 15, 2022, the New Zealand government decided to deploy 120 Defense Force personnel to the United Kingdom to help train Ukrainian soldiers.

In November 2022, it was announced that New Zealand would send a further 66 defense personnel to Britain to train Ukraine's military.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived for a meeting with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki.

The official ceremony of their meeting was broadcast live on the Facebook page of the Office of the President of Ukraine, according to Ukrinform.

Niinisto met Zelensky near the Presidential Palace in Helsinki. After a short handshake, the two leaders went to the porch of the palace, listened to the anthems of the two countries and greeted the delegations.

Zelensky arrived in Finland on Wednesday. He will hold talks with his Finnish counterpart and take part in a one-day Nordic summit.

On the sidelines of the summit, the Ukrainian leader will hold bilateral meetings with the prime ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Photo: Twitter
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky met with Speaker of the Parliament of Finland Petteri Orpo and Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Stre.

Zelensky wrote this on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

During the meeting with Petteri Orpo, I thanked for supporting our country in these difficult times of fighting against Russian aggression. I am grateful to the Finnish people for such a great and powerful support for our people and, of course, our military on the battlefield. After all, our key task today is to de-occupy all our territories, Zelensky wrote.

At a meeting with Jonas Gahr Stre, the parties focused on the situation on the frontline and the defense support Ukraine receives from Norway.

I thank the people, the government and the parliament of Norway for supporting our people and our military, the entire Ukrainian society, the President stressed.

As reported, President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Finland on a visit to participate in a Nordic summit.

Photo: Ukrainian Presidents Office
Sweden will provide assistance to Ukraine on its way to EU membership, as well as in the issue of the return of children illegally deported to the Russian Federation.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden stated this at a joint press conference with the president of Ukraine and leaders of Northern Europe in Helsinki on May 3, Ukrinform reports.

"We continue to support Ukraine's merit-based accession process and assist in reform efforts that will pave the way for Ukraine to start the EU accession talks," said the head of the Swedish government, calling the decision to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership historic.

He added that during Swedens presidency of the EU, the country is working to ensure that Russia is held accountable for the crimes committed against Ukraine, in particular for the crime of aggression. At the same time, the prime minister emphasized the rights of Ukrainian children, whom Russia forcibly transferred to its territory.

"This must have consequences. Sweden was the first EU country to propose sanctions on this ground. And we'll continue our efforts to address this deeply disturbing issue. In June we will host a high-level meeting on protection of children," Kristersson said.

According to the government head, the meeting will be focused on providing legal assistance to Ukraine in the matter of child protection against the background of "Russias uncivilized war".

Kristersson added that Sweden welcomes the important steps taken by the European Union to provide Ukraine with ammunition. He said supporting Ukraine against the background of Russian aggression is "the most important task of the EU and an existential issue" because Ukraine is fighting for the freedom of all Europeans.

According to the head of the government, Sweden has already mobilized about EUR 2 billion in bilateral aid, providing Ukraine with significant amounts of offensive weapons, including IFVs, tanks, modern air defense systems, and also training the Ukrainian military. The country will continue to provide assistance to Ukraine for as long as its needed, he assured.

As reported, President Zelensky arrived in Finland on Wednesday, where he took part in the Ukraine-Nordic summit.

Photo: Presidents Office
About 51% of Austrians believe it is important that the European Union and its member states continue to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, while 36% think the opposite.

Thats according to an opinion poll run by the Austrian Society for European Politics (OGfE).

"Nearly half (51%) consider it very important (25%) or rather important (26%) that the EU and its member states continue to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression," OGfE reported.

At the same time, slightly more than a third of Austrians (36%) do not think so. To the question, "how important, in your opinion, is it for the European Union and its member states to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression?" 15% of respondents chose the option rather unimportant", and 21% - "not at all important". Another 13% of respondents were undecided.

In addition, about 9% of Austrians still consider Russia a "reliable" partner for Austria. On the other hand, 79% of respondents hold the opposite opinion.

As for Ukraine, only 28% of Austrians rated Ukraine as a trustworthy partner. At the same time, 50% of respondents in Austria do not see Ukraine as one.

As for the United States, 34% consider the United States a trustworthy partner, but 47% hold the opposite opinion.

The survey also showed that Austrians support remaining a member of the EU and strengthening European cooperation in the field of security and defense, while joining NATO remains strongly rejected.

Thus, 68% of respondents are in favor of Austria remaining a member of the European Union, and 25% are in favor of pulling from the bloc.

If a referendum on Austria's accession to NATO were to be held now, six out of 10 respondents (61%) would vote against it, and two out of 10 (21%) would vote for the move. Another fifth of the population (19%) has no opinion on the matter.

At the same time, two-thirds of Austrians (67%) are in favor of strengthening cooperation between EU member states in the field of security and defense, 20% hold the opposite opinion, and 13% are undecided.

The survey was conducted from April 11 to 13, 2023, as 1,000 people were polled online across Austria. Statistical error stands at +/- 3.16%.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, more than 100 Austrian former high-ranking generals, ministers, politicians, ambassadors and other diplomats, security and foreign policy experts, journalists, scholars and businessmen called on the country's leadership to start a national discussion on Austria's future security and defense policy and adopt a new security doctrine.

The current version of Austria's Security Strategy, which is the fundamental document in the field of national security and foreign policy, still considers the Russian Federation as an "important" and "strategic" partner of the European Union on a par with the United States.

The federal government announced work on drafting a new document.
| By Lou Cortina and Jen Badie

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) will celebrate the Class of 2023 at its annual commencement ceremony May 18 at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena on the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). This is the second year in a row that UMB will hold its Universitywide commencement at the UMBC venue after celebrating virtually in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the ceremony, UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, will unveil a new University honor, the Presidents Distinguished Gold Medal, and award it to Norman R. Augustine, MSE, the former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp. Augustine also was named UMBs inaugural Presidents Distinguished Scholar in 2019. The gold medal is awarded to an individual who has provided outstanding service and leadership to UMB and beyond.

(l-r) Norman Augustine, Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, Martha Somerman, and Joanna Ye

Augustine has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in business and government, receiving numerous accolades including the National Medal of Technology, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Distinguished Public Service Award, and the Department of Defenses highest civilian decoration, the Distinguished Service Medal, five times.

He also has chaired several notable commissions, including the Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program in 1990 and the National Academies Rising Above the Gathering Storm committee in 2005  one of the first groups to sound the alarm on the United States slipping competitiveness in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Throughout Norm Augustines career, he has shown what it means to be a leader, Jarrell said., FACS. He is receiving UMBs inaugural Presidents Distinguished Gold Medal in honor of his exemplary service to the nation and service to UMB. I am proud to honor him at this years commencement.

UMB also will award honorary degrees to Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, MAS, BSN 80, RN, FAAN, and Martha Somerman, DDS, PhD. Nathan-Pulliam, a former Maryland state senator and delegate who is well-known advocate for expanding access to health care, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Public Service degree. Somerman, the former director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), will be recognized as an Honorary Doctor of Science.

During her five-year tenure in the state Senate and 20 years in the House of Delegates, Nathan-Pulliam advanced numerous health policy initiatives, worked to reduce health care disparities and inequalities, and strived to strengthen the health care delivery system. She is an alumna of UMSON, which named her an inaugural Visionary Pioneer in 2014 and this year honored her contributions to nursing, education, and public health by adding her name to the facade of the schools expanded footprint along Lombard Street.

Sen. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam has had a profound impact on health care in the Maryland region. Keenly aware of problems with access and quality of care, she served as a leading advocate for improved health care for the underserved and for addressing health care disparities, said Jane M. Kirschling, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Bill and Joanne Conway Dean of the School of Nursing. There is virtually no area of health care policy and legislation that was not touched by her during her 25-year tenure. She has substantially impacted the lives of thousands of individuals, particularly underserved populations.

Somerman, who currently is the field chief editor of the journal Frontiers in Dental Medicine, was a University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD) faculty member from 1984 to 1991. She went on to become a professor and department chair at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and dean of the University of Washington School of Dentistry before being named director of NIDCR. For more than 40 years, her contributions to research and learning have driven the advancement of oral care in the context of overall health and inspired multiple generations of scientists.

During her tenure as NIDCR director, Dr. Somermans vision and oversight played a critical role in guiding clinical researchers as they delved into complex issues related to dental, oral, and craniofacial health and diseases, seeking pioneering methods of diagnosing and treating these diseases, said UMSOD Dean Mark A. Reynolds, DDS, PhD, MA. Her leadership, expertise, and mentorship as a clinician-scientist have advanced our understanding of dental, oral, and craniofacial diseases and led to novel discoveries and methods of treatment significantly improving the overall health of many.

Joanna Zhao Ye, who will be receiving her Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, will be the Student Speaker. Ye is president of the University Student Government Association and the DPT Class of 2023. In addition to her studies and leadership roles, Ye has been active in research during her time at UMB, serving as a research assistant in geriatric physical therapy and physical therapy education.

Joanna takes great pride in her experiences as a leader and advocate, and she has excelled in her time as a DPT student, said UMSOM assistant professor Jason R. Falvey, PT, DPT, PhD. She was an author on a peer-reviewed publication during her training and led the presentation of this work at a national conference  very impressive accomplishments for a DPT student.

The procession into Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena will be led by four marshals who have combined for well over 100 years of service to UMB:

University Marshal: M.J. Tooey, MLS, AHIP, FMLA, former associate vice provost and dean, Health Sciences and Human Services Library, UMB

M.J. Tooey, MLS, AHIP, FMLA, former associate vice provost and dean, Health Sciences and Human Services Library, UMB Student Marshal: Raymond C. Love, PharmD, BCPP, FASHP , professor and vice chair of collaborative initiatives, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy

, professor and vice chair of collaborative initiatives, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy Faculty Marshal: Erika Friedmann, PhD , professor and associate dean for research, University of Maryland School of Nursing

, professor and associate dean for research, University of Maryland School of Nursing Staff Marshal: Susan McKechnie, CPA, former assistant vice president for financial services and university controller, UMB

For more information about the ceremony and to read about the honorees and student speaker, go to UMBs commencement website.
Alzheimer Society of Canada

Canadas largest fundraiser for dementia supports Alzheimer Society programs for people living with dementia and their caregivers

TORONTO, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On the weekend of May 27-28, Canadians from coast-to-coast will once again lace up their shoes for the IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimers (the Walk), the countrys largest fundraiser in support of the more than 600,000 people in Canada living with dementia, their families, friends and caregivers.



An increasing number of Canadians are being impacted by dementia. In fact, according to The Alzheimer Society of Canadas latest projections, by the year 2050 more than 1.7 million people will be living with dementia. As the number of people with dementia increases, so does the need for services.

Now in its eighth year as a national event, the IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimers has raised more than $41 million to fund life-changing Alzheimer Society programs and services that help people affected by dementia. These supports include counselling, day programs, respite for caregivers, evidence-based resources and assistance for people who are newly diagnosed.

Together with IG Wealth Management and thousands of supporters from coast-to-coast, we encourage Canadians to join and fundraise for their local Walk. The money you raise directly benefits people living with dementia and caregivers in your community, says Kevin Noel, Interim CEO, Alzheimer Society of Canada.

Participants can sign up, create their teams and start fundraising by visiting WalkForAlzheimers.ca . Walkers are also encouraged to share why theyre walking on social media, using the official hashtag #IGWalkForAlz.

IG is once again proud to support the Alzheimer Society in their important work to help people living with dementia and their caregivers across Canada, said Damon Murchison, President and CEO, IG Wealth Management. We know that dementia can cause a significant physical, emotional and financial burden. Thats why our employees and advisors are committed to helping support and empower the communities in which we live and work through the Walk as well as through other programs throughout the year. The IG team will be out in force on Walk weekend  we hope Canadians across the country will join us.

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By joining a Walk in their community, participants will make an undeniable positive impact in their community, bringing hope to the lives of people living with dementia and their families.

Who are you walking for? Join today at WalkForAlzheimers.ca !

About the Alzheimer Society

The Alzheimer Society is Canadas leading nationwide health charity for people living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Active in communities across Canada, the Society provides information, programs and services to those living with a diagnosis and their caregivers. The Alzheimer Society Research Program is Canadas leading funder of research into better understanding the causes of dementia, improving treatment and care, and towards finding cures.

About IG Wealth Management

Founded in 1926, IG Wealth Management is a national leader in delivering personalized financial solutions to Canadians through a network of advisors located across Canada. In addition to an exclusive family of mutual funds and other investment vehicles, IG offers a wide range of other financial services. IG Wealth Management has $115.9 billion in assets under advisement as of March 31, 2023, and is a member of the IGM Financial Inc. (TSX: IGM) group of companies. IGM Financial is one of Canada's leading diversified wealth and asset management companies with approximately $260.4 billion in total assets under management and advisement as of March 31, 2023.

Media Contacts

James Harrison

Alzheimer Society of Canada

647-407-5412

jharrison@alzheimer.ca

Hilary Bassett

IG Wealth Management

416-951-7558

hilary.bassett@igmfinancial.com




In the news release, IGM FINANCIAL REPORTS FIRST QUARTER EARNINGS, issued 03-May-2023 by IGM Financial Inc. over PR Newswire, we are advised by the company that this amended and restated news release reproduces the news release filed earlier today with the addition of footnote 2 and a clarification to the related text. No other changes have been made to the original version. They have made a corresponding change to the analyst presentation on their website.

IGM FINANCIAL REPORTS FIRST QUARTER EARNINGS

Readers are referred to the disclaimer regarding Forward-Looking Statements,

Non-IFRS Financial Measures and Other Financial Measures at the end of this Release.

WINNIPEG, MB, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - IGM Financial Inc. (IGM or the Company) (TSX: IGM) today announced earnings results for the first quarter of 2023.

IGM Financial Inc. Logo (CNW Group/IGM Financial Inc.)

IGM Highlights

Net earnings of $381.3 million or $1.60 per share compared to $219.3 million or $0.91 per share in 2022. Adjusted net earnings, excluding other items, 1 were $206.5 million or $0.87 per share for the first quarter of 2023.

Net earnings for the first quarter of 2023 included a gain on the sale of Great-West Lifeco Inc. shares of $174.8 million, net of tax.

Assets under management and advisement of $260.4 billion, up 4.4% from the prior quarter and down 2.9% from the first quarter of 2022.

Net inflows were $990 million compared to net inflows of $2.5 billion in 2022.

"Positive investment returns for our clients and a continued focus on expense management resulted in solid earnings for the quarter," said James O'Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of IGM Financial Inc. "We were pleased to announce the acquisition of a 20.5% interest in Rockefeller Capital Management and our entry into the U.S. wealth management market."

Net earnings available to common shareholders for the first quarter of 2023 were $381.3 million or $1.60 per share compared to $219.3 million or $0.91 per share in 2022. Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders, excluding other items,1 for the first quarter of 2023 were $206.5 million or $0.87 per share compared to $219.3 million or $0.91 per share in 2022.

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Wealth Management

Reflects the activities of operating companies that are principally focused on providing financial planning and related services to Canadian households, and includes the activities of IG Wealth Management and Investment Planning Counsel, which has been reclassified as discontinued operations.

Net earnings in the first quarter of 2023 were $107.4 million and represented 52.0% of IGM's adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders. This was a decrease of 11.5% compared to the first quarter of 2022.

Assets under advisement at March 31, 2023 were $146.8 billion, an increase of 4.6% from $140.4 billion at December 31, 2022 and a decrease of 0.8% from $148.0 billion at March 31, 2022.

IG Wealth Management

Assets under advisement at March 31, 2023 were $115.9 billion, an increase of 4.6% from $110.8 billion at December 31, 2022 and a decrease of 0.4% from $116.3 billion at March 31, 2022.

Quarterly net client inflows were $504 million, compared to net client inflows of $1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

Quarterly gross client inflows were $3.7 billion, down 8.4% from gross client inflows of $4.0 billion in 2022 and represented the second highest quarterly gross client inflows in the history of the Company.

ASSET MANAGEMENT

Reflects the activities of operating companies primarily focused on providing investment management services, and represents the operations of Mackenzie Investments.

Net earnings in the first quarter of 2023 were $48.4 million and represented 23.4% of IGM's adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders. This was a decrease of 7.1% compared to the first quarter of 2022.

Total assets under management were $193.8 billion, an increase of 3.8% from $186.6 billion at December 31, 2022 and a decrease of 5.7% from $205.5 billion at March 31, 2022. Third party assets under management were $117.0 billion at March 31, 2023, an increase of 3.4% from December 31, 2022 and a decrease of 6.2% from March 31, 2022.

Investment fund net sales of $72 million were down from net sales of $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

Mutual fund gross sales of $2.3 billion were down from $2.9 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

ETF business - ETF assets under management totalled $12.8 billion at March 31, 2023, an increase from $12.4 billion at December 31, 2022 and down slightly from March 31, 2022. Excluding investment in ETFs by IGM's managed products, ETF assets under management were $5.1 billion at March 31, 2023, compared to $5.2 billion at December 31, 2022 and $5.8 billion at March 31, 2022.

STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS AND OTHER

Represents the key strategic investments made by the Company, including China Asset Management Co., Ltd. (ChinaAMC), Great-West Lifeco Inc. (Lifeco), Northleaf Capital Group Ltd., Wealthsimple Financial Corporation, and Portage Ventures LPs, as well as unallocated capital.

On January 12, 2023, the Company closed the previously announced transaction to acquire Power Corporation of Canada's 13.9% interest in ChinaAMC, increasing the Company's overall investment in ChinaAMC to 27.8%, and to sell a portion of the Company's investment in Lifeco, reducing it from 4.0% to 2.4%.

Great-West Lifeco Inc.  The Company's proportionate share of Lifeco's first quarter estimated earnings was $20.6 million2 compared to $30.7 million in the first quarter of 2022.

China Asset Management Co., Ltd.  The Company's proportionate share of ChinaAMC's first quarter earnings was $28.1 million compared to $13.5 million in the first quarter of 2022.

Dividends

The Board of Directors has declared a dividend of 56.25 cents per share on the Company's common shares which is payable on July 31, 2023 to shareholders of record on June 30, 2023.



1 Other items in 2023 consisted of a gain on the sale of a portion of the Company's investment in Lifeco of $174.8 million after-tax ($179.1 million pre-tax). 2 The Company recorded its proportionate share of first quarter Lifeco earnings using consensus analysts' earnings estimates as Lifeco is now reporting quarterly earnings after the Company.



FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements in this Release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements based on certain assumptions and reflect IGM Financial's current expectations. Forward-looking statements are provided to assist the reader in understanding the Company's financial position and results of operations as at and for the periods ended on certain dates and to present information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. These statements may include, without limitation, statements regarding the operations, business, financial condition, expected financial results, performance, prospects, opportunities, priorities, targets, goals, ongoing objectives, strategies and outlook of the Company, as well as the outlook for North American and international economies, for the current fiscal year and subsequent periods. Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "estimates", "seeks", "intends", "targets", "projects", "forecasts" or negative versions thereof and other similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "may", "will", "should", "would" and "could".

This information is based upon certain material factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection as reflected in the forward-looking statements, including the perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that are believed to be appropriate in the circumstances. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to management, they may prove to be incorrect.

By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved.

A variety of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's and its subsidiaries' control, affect the operations, performance and results of the Company, and its subsidiaries, and their businesses, and could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations of estimated or anticipated events or results. These factors include, but are not limited to: the impact or unanticipated impact of general economic, political and market factors in North America and internationally, interest and foreign exchange rates, global equity and capital markets, management of market liquidity and funding risks, changes in accounting policies and methods used to report financial condition (including uncertainties associated with critical accounting assumptions and estimates), the effect of applying future accounting changes, operational and reputational risks, business competition, technological change, changes in government regulations and legislation, changes in tax laws, unexpected judicial or regulatory proceedings, catastrophic events, outbreaks of disease or pandemics (such as COVID-19), the Company's ability to complete strategic transactions, integrate acquisitions and implement other growth strategies, and the Company's and its subsidiaries' success in anticipating and managing the foregoing factors.

The reader is cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements. The reader is also cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events carefully and not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Other than as specifically required by applicable Canadian law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statements are made, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise.

Additional information about the risks and uncertainties of the Company's business and material factors or assumptions on which information contained in forward-looking statements is based is provided in its disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada, available at www.sedar.com.

NON-IFRS FINANCIAL MEASURES AND OTHER FINANCIAL MEASURES

This report contains Non-IFRS financial measures and non-IFRS ratios that do not have standard meanings prescribed by IFRS and may not be directly comparable to similar measures used by other companies. These measures and ratios are used to provide management, investors and investment analysts with additional measures to assess earnings performance.

Non-IFRS financial measures include, but are not limited to, "Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders", "adjusted net earnings", "adjusted earnings before income taxes", "adjusted earnings before interest and taxes" (Adjusted EBIT), "earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization before sales commissions" (EBITDA before sales commissions), and "earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization after sales commissions" (EBITDA after sales commissions). These measures exclude other items which are items of a non-recurring nature, or that could make the period-over-period comparison of results from operations less meaningful. EBITDA before sales commissions excludes all sales commissions. EBITDA after sales commissions includes all sales commissions and highlights aggregate cash flows.

Non-IFRS ratios include the following:

Ratio Numerator Denominator Adjusted earnings per share (Adjusted EPS) Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders Average number of outstanding common shares on a diluted basis Return (Adjusted return) on equity (ROE, Adjusted ROE) Net earnings (Adjusted net earnings) available to common shareholders Average shareholders' equity excluding non-controlling interest ROE (Adjusted ROE) excluding the impact of fair value through other comprehensive income investments Net earnings (Adjusted net earnings) available to common shareholders Average shareholders' equity excluding non-controlling interest and the impact of fair value through other comprehensive income investments net of tax



Refer to the appropriate reconciliations of non-IFRS financial measures, including as components of non-IFRS ratios, to reported results in accordance with IFRS included in IGM Financial Inc.'s most recent Management, Discussion and Analysis.

This report also contains other financial measures which include:

Assets under Management and Advisement (AUM&A) represents the consolidated AUM and AUA of IGM Financial. In the Wealth Management segment, AUM is a component part of AUA. All instances where the asset management segment is providing investment management services or distributing its products through the Wealth Management segment are eliminated in our reporting such that there is no double-counting of the same client savings held at IGM Financial's operating companies.

Assets under Advisement (AUA) are the key driver of the Wealth Management segment. AUA are savings and investment products held within client accounts of our Wealth Management segment operating companies.

Assets under Management (AUM) are the key driver of the Asset Management segment. AUM are a secondary driver of revenues and expenses within the Wealth Management segment in relation to its investment management activities. AUM are client assets where we provide investment management services, and include investment funds where we are the fund manager, investment advisory mandates to institutions, and other client accounts where we have discretionary portfolio management responsibilities.



FIRST QUARTER WEBCAST AND CONFERENCE CALL

IGM Financial Inc.'s First Quarter 2023 results conference call and webcast will be held on Thursday, May 4, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. ET. The webcast and conference call can be accessed respectively through igmfinancial.com/en or by phone at 1-800-319-4610 or 1-416-915-3239.

The most recent Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) of operating results are available on IGM Financial Inc.'s website at igmfinancial.com/en.

ABOUT IGM FINANCIAL INC.

IGM Financial Inc. is one of Canada's leading diversified wealth and asset management companies with approximately $263 billion in total assets under management and advisement at April 30, 2023. The company provides a broad range of financial planning and investment management services to help more than two million Canadians meet their financial goals. Its activities are carried out principally through IG Wealth Management, Mackenzie Investments and Investment Planning Counsel. IGM Financial is a member of the Power Corporation group of companies.

IGM FINANCIAL INC.





















Consolidated Statements of Earnings













(unaudited) Three months ended March 31 (in thousands of Canadian dollars, except per share amounts) 2023

2022







Revenues





Wealth management $ 534,111

$ 561,211 Asset management 236,154

256,135 Dealer compensation expense (79,326)

(91,116) Net asset management 156,828

165,019 Net investment income and other 10,949

(2,495) Gain on sale of Lifeco shares 179,118

- Proportionate share of associates' earnings 53,044

48,400

934,050

772,135







Expenses





Advisory and business development 245,641

244,968 Operations and support 201,775

203,087 Sub-advisory 15,846

17,407 Interest 28,055

27,979

491,317

493,441 Earnings before income taxes 442,733

278,694 Income taxes 63,361

62,291 Net earnings from continuing operations 379,372

216,403 Net earnings from discontinued operations 3,129

3,762 Net earnings 382,501

220,165 Non-controlling interest (1,163)

(849) Net earnings available to common shareholders $ 381,338

$ 219,316







Earnings per share (in dollars)





Net earnings available to common shareholders from continuing operations





- Basic $ 1.59

$ 0.90 - Diluted $ 1.59

$ 0.89 Net earnings available to common shareholders





- Basic $ 1.60

$ 0.91 - Diluted $ 1.60

$ 0.91

IGM FINANCIAL INC.























































Financial Highlights

























As at and for the three months ended March 31

























(unaudited)













2023

2022

Change



































Net earnings available to common shareholders ($ millions)



















Net Earnings













$ 381.3

$ 219.3

73.9 %

Adjusted Net Earnings (1)













206.5

219.3

(5.8)



































Diluted earnings per share



























Net Earnings













1.60

0.91

75.8



Adjusted Net Earnings (1)













0.87

0.91

(4.4)



































Return on equity



























Net Earnings













24.6 %

14.0 %







Adjusted Net Earnings (1)













13.3 %

14.0 %







































Dividends per share













0.5625

0.5625

-





































































Total assets under management and advisement (2) ($ millions)





$ 260,448

$ 268,328

(2.9) % Total assets under management (2)













225,887

237,119

(4.7)



Wealth Management































Assets under advisement (2)













146,792

148,005

(0.8)





IG Wealth Management































Assets under management (3)













104,069

107,187











Other assets under advisement













11,804

9,094











Assets under advisement













115,873

116,281

(0.4)





Investment Planning Counsel































Assets under management (3)













4,834

5,201











Other assets under advisement













26,092

26,533











Assets under advisement













30,926

31,734

(2.5)



Asset Management (Mackenzie Investments)



























Mutual funds













56,490

60,291











ETFs (4)













5,086

5,848











Investment funds













61,576

66,139











Institutional SMA













6,826

7,090











Sub-advisory to Canada Life













48,582

51,502











Third party AUM













116,984

124,731











Sub-advisory and AUM to Wealth Management







76,785

80,814











Total assets under management













193,769

205,545

(5.7)





































































Net Flows













Asset









($ millions)











Wealth Management

Management (5)























IG Wealth

Management Investment Planning

Counsel

Mackenzie

Investments

Intersegment

Eliminations

Total (2)



For the three months ended March 31, 2023





























Mutual fund net sales (3)





$ (273)

$ 54

$ 86

$ -

$ (133)





ETF net creations





-

-

(14)

-

(14)





Investment fund net sales





(273)

54

72

-

(147)





Institutional SMA net sales





-

-

98

-

98





IGM product net sales





(273)

54

170

-

(49)





Other dealer net flows





777

259

-

3

1,039





Total net flows





504

313

170

3

990





































(1) Non-IFRS Financial Measures:



2023 adjusted net earnings excluded a gain on the sale of a portion of the Company's investment in Lifeco of $174.8 million after-tax ($179.1 million pre-tax).

(2) Consolidated results eliminate double counting where business is reflected within multiple segments. (3) Includes separately managed accounts. (4) Total ETFs in the Asset Management section including ETFs held within IGM investment funds were $12.8 billion at March 31, 2023 compared to $12.9 billion at March 31, 2022. (5) Asset Management flows activity excludes sub-advisory to Canada Life and the Wealth Management segment.

SOURCE IGM Financial Inc.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2023/03/c1320.html
Brasilia, Brazil, 12 April 2023 - The activities of organized groups in Latin American prisons are a reality increasingly present throughout the region. Alternatives such as regional police, legal and penitentiary cooperation, coordinated transnational actions, and the improvement of penitentiary management in line with international minimum standards can stop this threat.

On March 27- 28, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) organized the workshop Regional Cooperation and Interinstitutional Coordination: Tools for Organized Crime Response in Brasilia, with the participation of justice and public security actors from Brazil and Paraguay. Aiming to share successful experiences of coordination between Brazil and Paraguay and to contribute to strengthening cooperation in the fight against organized crime inside and outside prisons, the activity was attended by representatives of the Ministries of Justice and Public Prosecutor's Offices of both countries, in addition to the National Police and the National Anti-Drug Secretariat of Paraguay and the Brazilian Federal Police.

Throughout the first day of the event, police representatives were able to share the priorities and strategies adopted by their agencies to contain organized crime, as well as the impact of Operation New Alliance in the region, a result of cooperation between the National Secretariat for Drug Policy (SENAD Paraguay) and the Brazilian Federal Police. Likewise, representatives from the National Secretariat for Penal Policies (SENAPPEN/MJSP) and the Ministry of Justice of Paraguay spoke about the measures adopted to respond to the actions of factions in the prison system.
May 3 2023

Barratt Developments has opened the door to the latest townhouses and apartments to complete at Fishwives Causeway, Portobello.

The Strand by EMA Architects will deliver 435 homes when fully complete, including colony-style properties.

Anne Ross, sales director at Barratt Homes and David Wilson Homes East Scotland, remarked: Location is key when we build our homes, so were proud to be able to offer a selection of ready-to-move-into properties in some of the most popular areas in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

These homes are perfect for first time buyers or downsizers looking to mix the hubbub of the capital with suburban living.

Live for a few years full completion is expected early next year.
ISLAMABAD, May 3 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2023 ) :Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) is one of the most dangerous places in the world where people associated with the press and media are performing their professional duties in the most difficult circumstances.

According to a report compiled by Kashmir Media Service Editor, Raies Ahmed Mir, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, today, twenty journalists have been confirmed killed while performing their duties during the Kashmiris' ongoing liberation struggle since 1989.

They include Shabbir Ahmed Dar, Mushtaq Ali, Muhammad Shaban Wakeel, a woman scribe Aasiya Jeelani, Ghulam Muhammad Lone, Ghulam Rasool Azad, Pervez Muhammad Sultan, Shujaat Bukhari, Ali Muhammad Mahajan, Syed Ghulam Nabi, Altaf Ahmed Fakhtoo, Saidan Shafi, Tariq Ahmed, Abdul Majid Butt, Javed Ahmed Mir, PN Handoo, Muhammad Shafi, Pradeeep Bhatia, Ashok Sodhi and Rayees Ahmad Butt.

The report pointed out that the journalists face manhandling, abductions, murder attempts, harassment, detentions, summoning to police stations and death threats by Indian Army, police and other agencies almost routinely in the territory.

It said that in the occupied territory, almost routinely, the journalists face manhandling, abductions, murder attempts and death threats by the Indian troops and all this has made their everyday work extremely difficult. It revealed that the Kashmiri journalists and many other scribes while performing their professional duties are roughed up, injured and detained by the troops on fake charges in the territory.

Indian police and sleuths of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested photojournalists, Kamran Yousuf, on 04 March 2017, Aqib Javeed on 02 July 2019, Khalid Gul on 06 December 2022, and Manan Gulzar Dar on 10 October 2021, for highlighting the brutalities of the Indian troops during the pro-freedom demonstrations in the territory.

They were later released after long detentions. Another journalist Qazi Shibli was booked under the black law, Public Safety Act (PSA) on 08 August 2019 and was released on 23 April 2020. Other journalists including Aasif Sultan, Fahad Shah, Sajjad Gul, Sartaj Altaf Butt and Irfan Meraaj are still facing illegal detentions in different jails in India and IIOJK.

The journalists were also not allowed by the authorities to perform their professional duties to write ground situations, news and reports on Indian forces' cordon and search operations in the occupied territory.

A freelance French journalist, Comiti Paul Edward, was arrested by the Indian police when he was video-graphing the pellet victims in Srinagar city on International Human Rights Day (December 10) in 2017.

Comiti Paul Edward later in an interview said that the Kashmiris were facing the worst kind of military repression and human rights violations at the hands of Indian troops and India did not want these happenings in Kashmir to be known internationally. In his documentary released in 2018, Paul Comiti exposed the killing of Kashmiris by Indian forces.

Annie Gowan, Bureau chief of The Washington Post for India, was restricted by the authorities in a house in Srinagar on 31st July 2018 and was not permitted to move about in the territory for reporting.

The Pulitzer-winning Kashmiri photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo was stopped by immigration authorities on 02 July 2022 at New Delhi airport when she was going to attend a photography event in Paris and again on 17 October 2022 Sanna Irshad Mattoo was stopped by the Indian immigration authorities on New Delhi airport when she was to take a flight to New York to receive the 2022 Pulitzer prize in a ceremony there.

The freelance journalist Aakash Hassan was barred by the Indian Immigration officials at New Delhi Airport from boarding a flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 26 July 2022 without giving him any reason, the report said.

Although India has snatched every right including the right to freedom of the press in the occupied territory, Kashmiri journalists are determined to fight India's assault on media freedom.

Local journalist bodies have called upon the international community to come to the rescue of the Kashmiri journalists. Victimization of journalists in Kashmir has increased manifold since August 05, 2019.

Amnesty International India in a statement said that the arrest of Kashmiri journalist Irfan Meraaj under black law was yet another instance of the long-drawn repression of human rights and the crackdown on media freedoms and civil society in the region of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Indian authorities should prioritize ending impunity for the human rights violations that human rights defenders and journalists have bravely documented and exposed, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, and ensure that human rights defenders and activists can work in a safe and enabling environment without any fear of reprisals," Aakar Patel, chair of the board at Amnesty International India said.
Brussels, May 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2023 ) :The leaders of Kosovo and Serbia promised to work together to urgently identify the remains of people still missing following the 1990s conflict, the EU's foreign policy chief said Tuesday.

Of the 6,065 cases of people who have gone missing following the 1998-99 war, 1,621 remain unresolved, Josep Borrell said.

The pledge came after Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic held talks in Brussels mediated by the European Union to normalise ties between the two countries.

The fate of the missing is one of many hot-button issues thwarting the normalisation.

Kurti and Vucic "reaffirmed the importance of resolving the fate of the remaining missing persons, to bring closure to the suffering of their loved ones and to foster lasting reconciliation and peace", Borrell said in a statement.

They also "noted the urgent need for additional joint efforts to alleviate the situation of the affected families and the wider community", he added.

The "operational details" will be agreed at the next meeting of the EU-facilitated talks at the chief negotiators' level.

"Resolving the issue of missing persons is not only a humanitarian obligation.

It is also a crucial enabler for reconciliation and trust between people," Borrell said.

Kurti later said the agreement started the talks on a "high positive note".

Serbia has long refused to recognise Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence made in 2008, with perennial bouts of unrest erupting between Belgrade and its former breakaway province.

One of Serbia's demands during talks is an Association of Serb Majority Municipalities that would provide Serbs with a degree of autonomy within Kosovo.

Vucic told reporters after Tuesday's talks that "Pristina does not want to fulfil the obligation. It's clear to me, we've reached a wall." But Kurti said after the meeting that Kosovo was "interested in finding a solution".

"I proposed a draft vision showing the framework governing minority rights... Serbs will have rights and together we will have a society that leaves no one behind."The Kosovo war, the last of the 1990s conflicts that tore apart the former Yugoslavia, claimed some 13,000 lives. It ended after a NATO bombing campaign forced Serb forces to withdraw.
Washington, May 3 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2023 ) :The United States on Wednesday announced a new $300 million military aid package for Ukraine that features a slew of ammunition ahead of a planned offensive against invading Russian forces.

The package "includes additional ammunition for US-provided HIMARS (rocket launchers), additional howitzers, artillery and mortar rounds, and anti-armor capabilities that Ukraine is using to push back against Russia's unprovoked war of aggression," the Defense Department said in a statement.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre cited "extensive work by the US government over the past few months to fulfil Ukraine's request ahead of its planned counter-offensive."The United States has provided more than $35.7 billion in security assistance for Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in late February 2022.
ISLAMABAD, May 3 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2023 ) :Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif is scheduled to leave for the United Kingdom today to represent Pakistan at the coronation ceremony of King Charles III.

"The UK-Pakistan relations are rooted in shared history & multifaceted bonds that have grown stronger over the decades," the prime minister in connection with his visit to the Kingdom tweeted on Wednesday.

Shehbaz Sharif said the British monarch and the royal family had been great friends of Pakistan.

He said he would also attend the Commonwealth leaders' summit as well as engage with other world leaders bilaterally.
(@FahadShabbir)

Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain welcomed a senior delegation of World Bank led by the Vice President World Bank Human Development Group Ms. Mamta Murthi here on Wednesday

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2023 ):Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain welcomed a senior delegation of World Bank led by the Vice President World Bank Human Development Group Ms. Mamta Murthi here on Wednesday.

Chief Economist at World Bank Mr. Norbert Shady and Senior Education Specialist Ms. Izza Farrakh were also a part of the delegation.

Secretary Education Mr. Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry attended the meeting along with other senior ministry officials.

Federal Minister Rana Tanveer welcomed the delegation and acknowledged the work being done by the World Bank in Pakistan.

He said that this work is noble and he appreciated the support and cooperation of World Bank.

He said that critical projects are underway in collaboration with World Bank that needs to be expedited on emergency basis.

He said that the Government of Pakistan under the leadership of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has put high importance on education.

Rana Tanveer highlighted the focus of the government to address the high number of Out Of School Children in the country, which stands at 22.8 million.

He said that increasing girls' education is a point of focus while simultaneously enhancing financing for girls scholarships.

Rana Tanveer said that by strengthening National Education Data and Information System we can make better and more informed policies.

He reiterated that promoting skills, technical and vocational education for youth bulge is a top priority for the current government.

Rana Tanveer said that by increasing Internet connectivity to maximum parts of the country, especially remote areas, could enable distance-learning opportunities for all.

He said that by enhancing digital learning practices in the education sector and by developing a distance education ecosystem, we could provide blended learning solutions through technology-enabled opportunities in the entire country.

Federal Minister Rana Tanveer said that one of the areas of focus is to streamline Madrassas and religious education centers that offer regular educational opportunities to students nationally.

He said that a special regulatory authority has been set up which has registered 14,000 Madrassas nationally out of 40,000.

He said that a resilient education system in the wake of health and climate-caused emergencies and disruptions including floods, will be a key focus in all future policies of the government.

Rana Tanveer said that the issue of Out of School Children is a top priority that needs urgent focus. He continued that the challenge of OOSC cannot be efficiently tackled unless we have accurate and relevant data.

Rana Tanveer said that we need in-depth data on OOSC in order to design effective and efficient strategies.

He said that Pakistan also needs state-of-the-art training institutes for teachers.

He emphasized the role of teachers in imparting high-quality education to students.

Minister briefed the delegation about the Recent estimates which suggest that over 34,000 public education institutions were damaged or destroyed (Source: UN Education Sector Working Group).

At least 2.6 million students in the country have been affected by the floods.

He further said that research by the World Bank suggests that as many as 1 million children may drop out and not return to school as a result of the flood damage to education and that the total costs of loss and damage to education is estimated to be $780 million.

Vice President World Bank Human Development Group Ms. Mamta Murthi acknowledged the role of the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training in the implementation of the ongoing World Bank funded projects.

She thanked the minister for his relentless support and said that the priorities of the World Bank and the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training align.

Rana Tanveer also assured the delegation of full cooperation and support.

He said that it is imperative to work together to ensure progress.

Minister said we should leverage the global knowledge base and experience of the World Bank and use it to our advantage.

Minister said that youth is the future of Pakistan and a successful youth means a successful Pakistan hence all of their issues should be addressed on top priority.
IMCD N.V.

ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands (3 May 2023)  IMCD N.V. (IMCD or Company), a leading distributor of speciality chemicals and ingredients, today announces that it signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of Allianz Group International S.A.S. (Allianz). Allianz is a distributor of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) serving the Colombian market.

Since entering the market in 2019 through the acquisition of a pharmaceutical ingredients distributor, IMCD Colombia has become an emerging leader in delivering speciality chemicals, ingredients and formulatory solutions across all our core business segments in Colombia, said Pilar Castellanos, Managing Director, IMCD Colombia. We are pleased to continue expanding our expertise and footprint in Colombia through Allianzs wide portfolio of APIs. This new addition will be instrumental in helping our customers and partners drive marketplace innovation and reinforces our commitment to increase our capabilities in supporting our customers and partners.

Established in 2002, Allianz is ISO 9001:2015 certified and INVIMA certified for storage, sampling, dispensation, and distribution of APIs to the Colombian market. As one of the first Colombian companies to specialize in the distribution of APIs, Allianz is committed to understanding the changing demands of the pharmaceuticals industry, while offering solutions that adhere to quality, service, regulatory and compliance trade standards.

IMCDs history and increasing reputation, especially throughout Latin America, has been exciting to witness and now be a part of, said John Garzon, Chief Executive Officer, Allianz. Joining IMCD Colombia reflects our dedication to continue serving our customers with quality service, logistics expertise and the expanded resources and technical expertise that IMCD is known for.

Headquartered in Bogota, Colombia, Allianz has 25 employees and generated a revenue of approximately COP 31.0 billion in financial year 2022 (approximately EUR 6.9 million). The closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to take place in May 2023.

Story continues

Attached, please find the full press release in pdf format.

Attachment




Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding on a long-term strategic comprehensive cooperation plan between Damascus and Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said

CAIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding on a long-term strategic comprehensive cooperation plan between Damascus and Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.

Raisi arrived in Damascus earlier in the day for an official two-day visit, which marked the first trip of the Iranian president to the Syrian capital since the start of the civil war in the country in 2011.

"The Presidents of Iran and Syria, referring to the signing of cooperation documents between the two countries, emphasised the importance of the 'comprehensive long-term strategic cooperation programme between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Syrian Arab Republic' in order to secure the interests of the two nations and other nations in the region," the Iranian ministry said.

The memorandum was one of a slew of some 15 economic and political documents inked by the presidents during their historic meeting at the Syrian People's Palace in Damascus, the state Iranian broadcaster IRIB reported.

"The two countries are determined to develop relations and there are many fields for expanding cooperation. In our talks, we are also pursuing the acceleration of the implementation of the agreements between the two countries, and I am sure that the expansion of relations between Tehran and Damascus will benefit the two nations and the region," the Iranian ministry quoted Raisi as saying.

The presidents chaired a meeting of high-ranking delegations who discussed ways to consolidate political relations and deepen commercial and security cooperation between the two countries. Assad invited Iran to play a bigger role in restoring stability and security in Syria as well as in the reconstruction of war-torn areas.
The Atlanta Police Department said on Wednesday that it is responding to an active shooting with multiple people injured

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) The Atlanta Police Department said on Wednesday that it is responding to an active shooting with multiple people injured.

"We are working an active shooter situation inside a building... We are aware of multiple people injured.

No suspect in custody," the Atlanta Police Department said in a statement via Twitter.

The police urge people in the area to secure their buildings and shelter in place, the statement said.

The public will be kept updated on the situation through the Atlanta Police Department's social media accounts and website, the statement added.
Police in Brazil searched ex-president Jair Bolsonaro's home and seized his cell phone on Wednesday in an investigation into allegations of falsifying Covid-19 vaccination records, an allegation the far-right vaccine skeptic denied

Braslia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2023 ) :Police in Brazil searched ex-president Jair Bolsonaro's home and seized his cell phone on Wednesday in an investigation into allegations of falsifying Covid-19 vaccination records, an allegation the far-right vaccine skeptic denied.

Bolsonaro, who faced widespread criticism as president for his unorthodox handling of the pandemic, denied faking a Covid-19 vaccination certificate for himself, accusing the authorities of trying to "fabricate" a case against him.

"There was no falsification on my part. None," he told journalists clustered in the garage of his home in Brasilia after the early-morning raid.

"I haven't been vaccinated, period," he said.

"I'm surprised... by the search and seizure operation in an ex-president's home, trying to fabricate a case." Bolsonaro, 68, said police had also seized his cell phone and inspected his family's vaccination records.

The ex-army captain, who led Brazil from 2019 to 2022, defied expert advice on managing Covid-19, which has claimed more than 700,000 lives in Brazil.

During his presidency, Bolsonaro touted the medication hydroxychloroquine against the disease, despite studies finding it ineffective, and joked the vaccine could "turn you into an alligator." Federal police confirmed they were investigating "the insertion of falsified Covid-19 vaccination data" into the health ministry's electronic vaccination records system, but did not mention Bolsonaro by name.

"The falsified entries, which occurred between November 2021 and December 2022, resulted in the alteration of the true Covid-19 vaccination status of the individuals in question," police said in a statement.

"As a result, the individuals were able to emit vaccination certificates and use them to evade health restrictions put in place by authorities in Brazil and the United States." Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States in December, after losing a bitterly divisive election to veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The US requires international air travelers to present proof of vaccination against Covid-19, a requirement the White House announced Monday would end on May 11.

The requirement does not apply to foreign government officials.

Bolsonaro said he had not been asked to present proof of vaccination in the United States, where he arrived on December 30 last year -- the second-to-last day of his presidency.

He applied for a six-month visa to remain in the US as a private citizen after the end of his presidential term.

A close ally of US ex-president Donald Trump, Bolsonaro stayed in Orlando, Florida, until late March, snubbing Lula's inauguration on January 1.

- Top aide arrested - Police said they were carrying out 16 search and seizure orders and executing six arrest warrants as part of the operation.

Brazilian media reports said police had arrested a top Bolsonaro aide, army officer Mauro Cid.

Bolsonaro returned to Brazil on March 30, vowing to fight Lula's government in his new job as honorary president of his Liberal Party (PL), but faces numerous legal battles.

He has already faced questioning by federal police in two cases.

One was over accusations of inciting riots inside the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court on January 8 by supporters refusing to accept his election loss.

The other was over accusations he tried to illegally keep millions of Dollars worth of diamond jewellery received as a gift from Saudi Arabia during his presidency.

He faces a total of four Supreme Court investigations that could send him to prison, and 16 cases before Brazil's Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE).

The TSE, which is notably investigating Bolsonaro's unproven claims of fraud in the country's voting system, could strip him of his right to run for office for eight years, taking him out of the 2026 presidential race.
Canada will be providing Sudan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic with C$71 million ($52 million) worth of humanitarian aid to help mitigate the conflict's impact on the affected populations, Global Affairs Canada said on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) Canada will be providing Sudan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic with C$71 million ($52 million) worth of humanitarian aid to help mitigate the conflict's impact on the affected populations, Global Affairs Canada said on Wednesday.

"Today, the Honorable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, announced that Canada has allocated over $71 million in humanitarian assistance funding to UN, Red Cross and other NGO partners for Sudan ($30.69 million), South Sudan ($31.12 million) and the Central African Republic ($10 million)," the ministry said in a statement.

Ottawa expressed deep concern over the ongoing conflict in Sudan, and its toll on the humanitarian situation of the Sudanese people and neighboring countries, the statement said, who already are affected by poverty, violence, and food insecurity.

The Canadian government also called on the parties involved to ensure the protection of civilians and infrastructure to facilitate the countrywide humanitarian efforts, the statement continued.

Sajjan, who was quoted in the release, said Canada stands ready to provide additional assistance and continues to call on the warring parties to cease hostilities.

Earlier today, the International Organization for Immigration (IOM) said over 334,000 have been internally displaced and more than 115,000 have sought refuge in neighboring countries as a result of the conflict in Sudan. On Tuesday, Sudan's Health Ministry said at least 550 people have been killed and over 4,900 injured since the conflict began.

On April 15, violent clashes broke out between the Sudanese regular armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, with the epicenter located in Khartoum. Government forces accused the RSF of mutiny and launched airstrikes against their bases. Abdel Fattah Burhan, the head of the Sudanese military, has issued a decree disbanding the RSF.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

DOHA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) China does not plan to recognize the government of Afghanistan under the Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorism) in the near future, as Beijing awaits confirmation of their promise not to use the country's territory to attack other states, Chinese Special Envoy for Afghanistan Yue Xiaoyong told Sputnik.

Yue took part in a two-day meeting of special envoys for Afghanistan with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Qatar. It was the first meeting since the Taliban too over the country in August 2021.

"For China, although the recognition issue cannot be solved soon, but that doesn't mean we should not have active engagement with the interim government of Afghanistan because we believe this is an issue of humanitarian assistance ... The country suffered for 20 years (under) foreign occupation. We believe this is an opportunity for this country for the first time to hold the fate of the country into their own hands.

We should show our respect for this country, for their sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity," Yue said.

The Chinese diplomat noted that the ruling movement of Afghanistan should break with terrorist groups in practice and substantiate their assurances not use their territory for attacks on other states.

Yue also believes that the recognition of the Taliban government should be decided on by each country individually, not collectively. Beijing's priority at the current stage is not recognition, but provision of assistance to people in Afghanistan, he said.

Following the talks, Guterres told reporters that the recognition of the Taliban was not on the agenda and it was "not the right time" to meet with their representatives yet.
The Czech Republic signed the Artemis Accords at a ceremony podcast from NASA headquarters in Washington, the US space agency said in a statement on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) The Czech Republic signed the Artemis Accords at a ceremony podcast from NASA headquarters in Washington, the US space agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Acting Assistant Secretary Jennifer Littlejohn, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and US Ambassador to the Czech Republic Bijan Sabet welcomed the Czech Republic as the 24th Artemis Accords signatory at a ceremony on May 3 at NASA Headquarters," the State Department said in an accompanying press release.

Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky signed on behalf of the Czech Republic, the release said.

The signing of the Artemis Accords opens up new opportunities for high-tech cooperation between the United States and the Czech Republic, the release added.

The accords are a set of non-legally binding principles grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 to guide civil space exploration and use on the Moon and beyond, according to the release.
The European Union unveiled proposals on Wednesday to crack down on corruption in the bloc, including a plan to "blacklist" non-EU individuals accused of corruption worldwide

Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2023 ) :The European Union unveiled proposals on Wednesday to crack down on corruption in the bloc, including a plan to "blacklist" non-EU individuals accused of corruption worldwide.

The plans come just months after a bribery scandal in the European Parliament rocked the EU and after a 2022 survey showed corruption remained a serious concern for EU citizens with 68 percent saying they believe it is still widespread in their country.

"Over the years, I am watching what factors are decreasing the trust of people in democracy. And there are two: abuse of power and corruption," European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said.

The proposals will bring the EU's 27 member states closer to standardising definitions of what constitutes corruption, going beyond bribery to also include trading in influence, abuse of office, obstruction of justice and illicit enrichment.

They would also force member states to harmonise jail terms with minimum and maximum penalties and aim to make it easier for cross-border cooperation between member states' police forces.

Another new rule goes beyond Europe and would see individuals and entities who committed "serious acts of corruption" have their assets frozen in the bloc and be banned from the EU.

The plans will need to be approved by the EU's 27 member states and the parliament.

The blacklist proposal is similar to the US Magnitsky act, a law under which Washington punishes foreign government officials implicated in corruption or human rights abuses.

The act is named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison in pre-trial detention in 2009 amid allegations of mistreatment.

"We are sending a clear message: the EU is not open for business to those who engage in corruption, wherever that occurs," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill found former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao guilty of aiding and abetting the death of George Floyd in May of 2020, court documents revealed.

"The Court concludes the State has proven Thao's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on the charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd," the verdict, filed on Monday, said.

The judge said Thao knew his three fellow officers were on top of Floyd and restraining him in the prone position with knees forcefully pinning down his neck, middle back, and lower back and arms restraining Floyd's legs and arms - which had been handcuffed behind his back.

Cahill said Thao, 37, who waived his right to a jury trial, "actively encouraged the other three officers and assisted their crime by holding back concerned bystanders, declining to render medical aid to Floyd, not instructing any of the other three officers to render medical aid to Floyd, and not permitting any of the bystanders to render medical aid to Floyd, including the off-duty Minneapolis firefighter on the scene trained in CPR.

"

Three other officers who were involved in restraining Floyd have been convicted on state and Federal charges. All of the officers involved in his murder were fired the day after he was killed. Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder in April 2021 and later pleaded guilty to a federal charge of violating Floyd's civil rights. He will spend more than 20 years in prison.

J. Alexander Kueng, a Black man, who helped to pin Floyd to the concrete as he struggled for air and who had his knee on Floyd's torso, pleaded guilty to manslaughter last October. In February 2022, Kueng was also convicted of violating Floyd's constitutional rights by not providing medical care or intervening to stop Chauvin. He is serving a three-year sentence and a three-and-a-half-year sentence concurrently.

Thomas Lane, who pinned Floyd's legs, pleaded guilty in May 2022 to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Lane was also convicted of violating Floyd's rights. He is serving two sentences - two-and-a-half years and three years - concurrently.
(@FahadShabbir)

China has an unbiased position and understands the reasons of the situation in Ukraine, Moscow appreciates Beijing's readiness to contribute to the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis through political and diplomatic means, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) China has an unbiased position and understands the reasons of the situation in Ukraine, Moscow appreciates Beijing's readiness to contribute to the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis through political and diplomatic means, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik on Wednesday.

Earlier in April, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui, who was the former Chinese Ambassador to Russia, will head the country's delegation to Kiev and other countries for consultations on the political settlement of crisis in Ukraine.

"We proceed from the fact that China not only has an unbiased position on the Ukrainian crisis, but also perfectly understands the causes and essence of what is happening," Zakharova said.

Moscow appreciates Beijing's readiness to contribute to the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, the diplomat added.

"We highly appreciate the sincere willingness of our Chinese friends to contribute to the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis through political and diplomatic means," Zakharova concluded.
(@FahadShabbir)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th May, 2023) NATO is concerned that Russia could attack critical infrastructure in Europe and North America as part of the Ukrainian conflict, Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security at NATO David Cattler said on Wednesday.

"We see a significant risk that critical infrastructure in Europe and potentially North America could be targeted by Russia as part of its war on Ukraine," Cattler said, as quoted by Politico.

Russia's potential strike could target underwater gas pipelines and cables that carry 95% of internet traffic as Moscow would allegedly aim to "disrupt Western life" and gain leverage over those countries that actively provide support to Kiev, according to the NATO official.

Cattler added that Russia was "actively mapping" infrastructure of Ukraine's partners, and another evidence of Russia's alleged plans is its active patrols in the Atlantic that are now "at a higher level" than they have been in years.

"When you look at the evidence of their activities now, the places they are doing surveys, overlaid with this critical undersea infrastructure .

.. you can see that they are at least signaling that they have the intent and the capability to take action in this domain if they choose," the NATO assistant secretary general said.

The vulnerability of critical infrastructure was especially exposed by the blasts on the Nord Stream pipelines last September, Politico reported.

The Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, built to deliver gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany were hit by explosions last September and rendered partially dysfunctional, with the incident still under investigation by Denmark, Germany and Sweden, as well as separately by Russia.

Russia considers the explosions at the two pipelines an act of international terrorism. There are no official results of the investigation yet, though US journalist and Pulitzer prize winner Seymour Hersh alleged that the explosions were organized by the United States with the support of Norway. Following Hersh's report, Moscow reiterated its calls for an impartial and thorough investigation. The US has denied its involvement in the incident.
MONTREAL, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Imperial Tobacco Canada (ITCAN), a leading tobacco and vaping products company, distributing high-quality nicotine products to over 29,000 retailers across Canada, is pleased to appoint Frank Silva as President and Chief Executive Officer. This appointment took effect April 1, 2023.

Imperial Tobacco Canada Logo (CNW Group/Imperial Tobacco Canada)

Mr. Silva has a long history with ITCAN, and its parent company BAT, that includes roles at local, regional, and global levels. Mr. Silva has served as Regional Marketing Director for BAT's Asia Pacific and Middle East region (APME), Vice-President of Marketing and Sales at ITCAN, and Marketing Director for BAT UK & Ireland. At the Global level, he was instrumental in developing BAT's Harm Reduction strategy, which is core to the company's expansion into new categories, currently focused on less harmful alternatives to smoking.

Most recently, Mr. Silva has been working with Reynolds American, BAT's division in the United States. During that time Mr. Silva was Senior Vice President of Digital and Consumer Experiential Marketing, President of Reynolds Sales & Trade Marketing Services as well as Senior Vice President of Reynolds premium brand portfolio, Newport, Camel & Natural American Spirit. His extensive experience and proven track record will be valuable assets to drive ITCAN's journey towards A Better Tomorrow.

"I am thrilled to return home to ITCAN as President and CEO," said Mr. Silva. "I would like to extend my gratitude to my predecessor, Ralf Wittenberg, for his hard work and leadership over the past three years. He has left me a solid business with incredible people, and I believe we are well positioned to continue demonstrate leadership in the tobacco harm reduction space.''

Ralf Wittenberg will return to BAT's global headquarters in London as Commercial Director, Nicotine Reduced Risk Products (RRP).

With his experience in tobacco harm reduction, Mr. Silva will be pivotal in continuing ITCAN's focus on offering a portfolio of less harmful alternatives to adult smokers. He believes that with the right regulatory framework, a continued increase in the acceptance of tobacco harm reduction, and the right enforcement to ensure nicotine products are not sold to youth, Canada can reduce smoking rates below 5% before Health Canada's stated goal of 2035.

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"I am excited by what the future holds for ITCAN. As a Canadian, I am vested in the company and in the country. I believe we have the right strategy and the best people to continue our transformation," continued Mr. Silva. "We have a strong legacy of innovation and leadership, and I am confident we will deliver A Better Tomorrow for all our stakeholders."

About Imperial Tobacco Canada

Imperial Tobacco Canada is Canada's leading tobacco and vaping products company and is part of the world's most international tobacco group: BAT. BAT is a global multi-category consumer goods business, operating in over 180 markets. Our vision is to build A Better Tomorrow by reducing the health impact of our business through offering a greater choice of enjoyable and less risky products for our consumers.

Our strong foundations, together with our capacity for cutting-edge innovation, are a platform for us to build more sustainable products for our adult consumers, and a more sustainable business for our colleagues, shareholders, and communities.

SOURCE Imperial Tobacco Canada

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2023/03/c3376.html
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

DOHA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) The building of the Cultural Attache of Saudi Arabia in Sudan was attacked and looted by a group of armed men on Tuesday, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said.

"The building of Saudi Arabia's Cultural Attache in Sudan was attacked on Tuesday. A group of unknown gunmen has stolen property from the office, taking out systems and servers," the ministry said in a statement on Twitter.

Riyadh "strongly condemned the attack" and called for "respect for the inviolability of diplomatic missions," as well as "holding the attackers accountable for their actions.

"

The ministry reiterated its call for the halt of the violence in the country and the protection of diplomats, foreign residents, and Sudanese civilians.

On April 15, violent clashes broke out between the Sudanese regular armed forces and the RSF, with the epicenter located in Khartoum. The parties to the conflict have introduced a number of temporary nationwide ceasefires since then, but none has helped in settling the conflict yet.

According to the Sudanese Health Ministry, at least 550 people have been killed in the conflict, and nearly 5,000 have been injured.
Sudan is moving toward a full-scale conflict and the effect on the human rights situation in the country has been "catastrophic," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Wednesday

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) Sudan is moving toward a full-scale conflict and the effect on the human rights situation in the country has been "catastrophic," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Wednesday.

"The latest country to move toward full-blown conflict is Sudan. The human rights impact of the current fighting has been catastrophic. It is heartbreaking," Turk said during a meeting of the UN Security Council.

The future of Sudan depends on the level of confidence of the people in the Sudanese institutions, Turk added.

On April 15, clashes broke out between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in and around the capital of Khartoum. The parties to the conflict have introduced a number of temporary nationwide ceasefires since then, but they have not helped yet settle the conflict.

According to the Sudanese Health Ministry, at least 550 people have been killed so far and nearly 5,000 have been injured.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

ISTANBUL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) Ankara accepted the proposal of the Sudanese authorities to move the Turkish embassy from Khartoum to Port Sudan due to the ongoing clashes in the African country, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.

"The Sudanese side has suggested moving the embassy from Khartoum to Port Sudan, they will give us place there. Fierce fighting and street clashes are going on in the area, where our embassy is located. We have decided to temporarily move the diplomatic mission to Port Sudan," Cavusoglu told Turkish broadcaster NTV.

Bullets hit the embassy's building in Khartoum, several Turkish nationals were injured during the clashes, he also said, adding that Turkey has evacuated 2,061 people from Sudan, 1,763 out of them being Turkish citizens.

On April 15, violent clashes broke out between the Sudanese regular armed forces and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, with the epicenter located in Khartoum. The parties to the conflict have introduced a number of temporary nationwide ceasefires since then, but none has helped in settling the conflict yet.

According to the Sudanese Health Ministry, at least 550 people have been killed in the conflict, and nearly 5,000 have been injured.
(@FahadShabbir)

The governments of Uzbekistan and Germany have signed a declaration on deepening multifaceted cooperation, the press office of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said on Wednesday

TASHKENT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) The governments of Uzbekistan and Germany have signed a declaration on deepening multifaceted cooperation, the press office of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said on Wednesday.

Mirziyoyev was paying an official visit to Germany from May 2-3. The president held talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday.

"The sides underscored the importance of continuing the political dialogue. The parties welcomed the signing of the intergovernmental declaration on deepening multifaceted cooperation during the visit," the office said after the meeting.

During the visit, 16 intergovernmental documents in the economy, trade, finance, education, science, and innovation have been signed, the office said.

The sides also agreed to implement new trade, investment, and technological projects worth $9 billion, including cooperation in green energy, as well as mining, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries, modernization of transport infrastructure, digitalization of agriculture, and innovation, the statement read.

To support the projects of German companies in Uzbekistan, agreements on a full-scale partnership with German banks KfW and Deutsche Bank and the German Society for International Cooperation were reached.

The sides agreed to launch "a dialogue platform in the Germany-Central Asia format," the office said.

According to the statement, Scholz supported Uzbekistan's new regional policy to create an atmosphere of friendship and mutual trust in Central Asia and deepen integration in the region. The German side also expressed its readiness to support "Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO (World Trade Organization) and the early signing of an agreement on expanded partnership and cooperation with the European Union."
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen will head to Japan next week for the G7 finance ministers' meeting to discuss global economy issues and the Ukraine conflict, the Treasury said on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2023) US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen will head to Japan next week for the G7 finance ministers' meeting to discuss global economy issues and the Ukraine conflict, the Treasury said on Wednesday.

"Secretary of the Treasury Janet L.

Yellen will travel to Niigata, Japan, from May 11 to May 13 to participate in the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting," the Treasury said in a statement.

Yellen will discuss with her counterparts the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and its spillovers to the global economy, the statement added. She will also discuss issues concerning domestic investments, supply chains and economic security.

The secretary is also expected to reaffirm the G7's leadership in the coalition supporting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, including through the price cap on Russian oil, the Treasury noted.
UW and Wyoming SBDC Network to Host HUBZone Workshop in Lovell May 11

Small-business owners can learn how to obtain federal contract dollars through becoming HUBZone-certified companies Thursday, May 11.

Janean Forsyth and Deb Farris will present a Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network workshop titled HUBZone Opportunity Workshop: Big Horn County from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Bank Meeting Room at Big Horn Federal Savings Bank, located at 8 E. Main St. in Lovell. To register, go here. Registration is free.

The Wyoming SBDC Network offers business expertise to help Wyoming residents think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their business. The Wyoming SBDC Network is hosted by the University of Wyoming with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

The HUBZone program fuels small-business growth in historically underutilized business zones with a goal of awarding at least 3 percent of federal contract dollars to HUBZone-certified companies each year. The government limits competition for certain contracts to businesses in historically underutilized business zones. It also provides preferential consideration to those businesses in full and open competition.

Forsyth is the Wyoming APEX Accelerator program manager, and Farris is deputy district director of the U.S. SBA for the Wyoming district office.

Before a business can participate in the HUBZone program, it must first be certified by the U.S. SBA.

Joining the HUBZone program makes businesses eligible to compete for the programs set-aside contracts. HUBZone-certified businesses also get a 10 percent price evaluation preference in full and open contract competitions. For more information on the HUBZone program, go here.

For more information, call Maureen Johnson, marketing, communication and database manager for the Wyoming SBDC Network, at (307) 343-0925 or email mjohn125@uwyo.edu.
India enters worlds top ten in annual robot installations

FRANKFURT, Germany, May 03, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sales of industrial robots in India reached a new record of 4,945 units installed. This is an increase of 54 percent compared to the previous year (2020: 3,215 units). In terms of annual installations, India now ranks in tenth position worldwide. These are findings of the report World Robotics, presented by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

"India is one of the worlds fastest-growing industrial economies," says Marina Bill, President of the International Federation of Robotics. "Within five years, the operational stock of industrial robots has more than doubled, to reach 33,220 units in 2021. This corresponds to an average annual growth rate of 16% since 2016."

Today, India is the worlds fifth largest economy measured by manufacturing output. According to World Bank data, Indias manufacturing value added in 2021 was USD 443.9 billion, a 21.61% increase from 2020.

The automotive industry remains the largest customer for the robotics industry in India with a share of 31% in 2021. Installations more than doubled to 1,547 units (+108%). The general industry in India is led by the metal industry with 308 units (-9%), the rubber and plastics industry with 246 units (+27%) and the electrical/electronics industry with 215 units (+98%).

Impressive potential for India

The long-term potential of robotics in India becomes clearer when compared to China: Indias robot density in the automotive industry, which is the number of industrial robots per 10,000 employees, reached 148 robots in 2021. Chinas robot density hit 131 units in 2010 and skyrocketed to 772 units in 2021.

The Indian government supports growth in the industrial sector: Today, the country's GDP of about USD 3 trillion ranks in fifth place, head-to-head with the UK and France  behind Germany, Japan, China and the USA - the International Monetary Fund reports.

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Outlook India

"As a result of the recent supply chain disruption, companies are rethinking their nearshoring strategies in Southeast Asia," says Marina Bill. "India has traditionally been a popular destination for nearshoring in the manufacturing segment. The Indian government wants the country to be considered for new diversification options such as friendshoring, which is partnering with countries that share similar values and interests."

FULL TEXT press release at: https://ifr.org/ifr-press-releases/

About IFR

www.ifr.org

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005452/en/

Contacts

Press

Carsten Heer

phone +49 (0) 40 822 44 284

E-Mail: press@ifr.org
Five years ago, Chinese investors began turning Sihanoukville, a sleepy coastal city with pristine beaches, into a gambling mecca rivaling Macao and Las Vegas, but that ended with a ban on online gambling and the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 200,000 Chinese workers had to return home.

Casinos closed and partially built skyscrapers, resorts and condominium projects were left abandoned. One pro-government media outlet described the remaining skyline as a stark reminder of botched investments, mostly by Chinese nationals.

Housing has slumped by as much as 90% in recent years according to the Cambodian Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Chantha Lach, like many small private investors, told VOA he was hoping for better times and foreign investment.

Many Cambodians want the Chinese investor to return because the property prices are dreadful, and we want the Chinese businesspeople to return to help the market to recover, he said.

In response, Cambodia is drawing up an action plan to clean up more than 1,100 incomplete buildings in Sihanoukville. Suggestions include tripling the local population to 1 million with visa-friendly regimes for foreigners and tax breaks for Cambodias expanding middle class.

Authorities are also considering a 2026 deadline for developers, ordering them to either tear down or complete buildings still under construction.

One of the biggest challenges is to ensure that these half-completed projects, which are dotted around Sihanoukville city, are ready for construction, said David Totten, managing director of the investment company Emerging Markets Consulting in Phnom Penh.

So there needs to be a process of validating that. In some cases that might involve removing the existing construction, starting over from scratch, he said.

Totten also said about 50% of the incomplete buildings left suspended or abandoned have created legal issues regarding ownership and responsibilities.

A large proportion of those, ownership may be in doubt, legal entities that are the beneficial owners of those projects may no longer exist or be relatively inactive, he said. There will be a lot of challenges therefore in claiming those properties from previous owners.

Investors are trickling back

A substantial Chinese-funded upgrade of the controversial Ream Naval base, about 30 kilometers east of Sihanoukville, is also under way. The United States is concerned the base could extend Chinas military presence in Southeast Asia, where Beijing is increasingly assertive over its contested claims to the South China Sea.

Washington said Ream will be Chinas second foreign naval base, after Djibouti.

However, Beijing and Phnom Penh have dismissed those concerns, saying it is not a Chinese base. Cambodia said the bases facilities will be open for many nations.

Not far from Ream, construction of a new tourist development, known as the Bay of Lights, is being built on 934 hectares of land reclaimed from the sea by Canopy Sands Development, led by Chinese businessman Chen Zhi.

The project is expected to be completed by 2028. However, Harrison White, editor of the Cambodia Investment Review news outlet, said much more is planned for the area and further construction could last until 2040.

The projects going to be bringing a very large amount of investment, approximately $16 billion, could even be more, he said.

As the project goes along, were expecting [the] population to grow to 160,000, as well as 330,000 jobs, as well as many more, maybe even 3 million more tourists that are going to visit the region, he added.

Cambodia wants economic growth to return to pre-pandemic levels, buoyed by Chinese investors and tourists, which, according to the Tourism Ministry topped 2.36 million visitors in 2019 and generated about $1.8 billion in revenue.

The ministry also said Chinese investment in tourism-related sectors accounted for more than 50% of total foreign direct investment and there has been speculation that Chinese people will be allowed to emigrate and work there.

Some projects, like the Chinese-funded $2.5 billion expressway linking Phnom Penh with Sihanoukville, have been finished. Another expressway will be built by China Road and Bridge Construction from the capital to the Vietnamese border.

There are multi-billion-dollar plans to link the Thai and Vietnamese borders and the south coast through a network of high-speed railways. Most will be built by Chinese investors and fit neatly within Beijings Belt and Road Initiative, which is reemerging in a post-pandemic world.

Cambodia is very much in need of appealing to foreign buyers. The country itself, whilst [having a population of] only 17 million, is sitting in a region of billions, with China, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and many more, are looking to enter the market, White said.

So, these sorts of projects are critical for Cambodia to ensure itself open to foreigners, and also to develop its economy, he added.

The cost of these investments is raising eyebrows. On Friday, the minister of public works and transport, Sun Chanthol, said 150 infrastructure projects worth about $30 billion had been prioritized for 2022-2030. A tall order given Cambodias GDP was just $27 billion in 2019.

Sreynat Sarum contributed to this report.
Sudans warring military factions agreed Tuesday to a new week-long cease-fire starting Thursday, although more airstrikes and shooting in the Khartoum region continued. The U.S. announces $300 million in additional military aid for Ukraine. On World Press Freedom Day 2023, journalists face an increasingly hostile environment.
The growing threat of far-right extremism in Australia has prompted opposition lawmakers to propose a new law to federally criminalize the public display of Nazi symbols. Experts say Australias response to white nationalism is similar to that in other countries.

A parliamentary inquiry in Australias federal parliament Tuesday heard the Nazi salute and swastika were universally recognized symbols of mass murder and hate that have been weaponized by far-right extremists.

The Australian Senates Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee is considering a proposed new law introduced by the shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, a member of Australias conservative opposition.

Her bill was introduced in parliament just days after a group of men from the Nationalist Socialist Network  a fringe Australian organization  repeatedly performed the Sieg Heil salute on the steps of Victorias state parliament in March.

Greg Barton, a terrorism expert and professor of Global Islamic Politics at Deakin University, said that the proposed new law in Australia is like those introduced in other countries.

He told VOA Wednesday that the international response to far-right symbols and gestures varies. Nazi symbols are banned in Germany, but not in the United States.

There is a long-term example of Germany being much tougher for understandable reasons on Nazi symbols and Nazi ideas in public expression. Across Europe there is sort of a mixed pattern, Barton said.

It frankly was not a big problem in Australia. So, law tends to follow need once it became clear that there was now Nazi activity and they were deliberately using these symbols to try and get media response and to try and get attention and to try and recruit.

Barton added that the global rise of white nationalism is a challenge for authorities.

We have though seen since the Second World War groups all across the world that have been attracted to what they think are the powerful ideas of national socialism and to the symbols and imagery partly perhaps because it is just seen as being so much an outlaw activity that it has its own power of attraction, Barton told VOA.

There has been a long history in Australia, not large but increasingly growing  Growing quite rapidly across Europe and North America and certainly if you look at violent extremism the number one motivation for attacks and, unfortunately, deaths in America at the moment is by far various forms of far-right extremism.

Australias Department of Home Affairs has described the current threat from Neo-Nazi groups as "complex, challenging and changing".

Under the proposed laws, a person who knowingly displays a Nazi symbol in Australia would face a fine of up to $18,000 and up to 12 months in prison.

Most Australian states and territories have already banned the swastika, an ancient hooked cross motif that was appropriated by Adolf Hitlers Nazis in Germany in the 1920s.
TORONTO, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Today, the Ontario government announced a new investment to help police in the province-wide crack down on auto theft. Following this announcement, Kim Donaldson, Vice-President, Ontario, IBC, issued the following statement:

Insurance Bureau of Canada Logo (CNW Group/Insurance Bureau of Canada)

"IBC commends the Ontario government on its $51 million commitment to invest in new measures to help police combat organized crime across the province. We are especially pleased to see funding to support the creation of new auto theft prosecution teams, who will be responsible for investigating and prosecuting criminal organizations profiting from stolen vehicles. This sends a strong message that auto theft is not a victimless property crime and perpetrators who threaten public safety should expect criminal sanctions.

In addition, we are pleased to see funding going towards the creation of an organized crime towing and auto theft team to help stamp down on organized crime's involvement in towing and auto theft. IBC continues to call on all orders of government, as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canada Border Services Agency, to come together to address this growing issue in a coordinated manner.

Across Ontario, auto theft has become an increasingly prevalent concern, with a vehicle stolen every 48 minutes. This new funding is a meaningful and positive step towards better protecting Ontarians and their families."

About Insurance Bureau of Canada

Insurance Bureau of Canada is the national industry association representing Canada's private home, auto and business insurers. Its member companies make up the vast majority of the property and casualty (P&C) insurance market in Canada. For more than 50 years, IBC has worked with governments across the country to help make affordable home, auto and business insurance available for all Canadians. IBC supports the vision of consumers and governments trusting, valuing and supporting the private P&C insurance industry. It champions key issues and helps educate consumers on how best to protect their homes, cars, businesses and properties.

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For media releases and more information, visit IBC's Media Centre at www.ibc.ca. Follow us on Twitter @InsuranceBureau and like us on Facebook. If you have a question about home, auto or business insurance, contact IBC's Consumer Information Centre at 1-844-2ask-IBC.

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President Joe Biden next week will meet with the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate in an effort to avoid a catastrophic default on the nation's debts, which could occur in as little as one month.

The United States government's ability to borrow money is constrained by a limit on the amount of debt the U.S. Treasury Department can incur, known as the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is currently set at $31.4 trillion, which the government hit in January, forcing the Treasury to use what it refers to as "extraordinary measures" to continue paying the nation's bills without going into default.

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the extraordinary measures will soon be exhausted, possibly as soon as June 1, and that unless Congress authorizes more borrowing, the country will soon be unable to pay all of its obligations on time.

In a letter to lawmakers on Monday, Yellen said it was urgent that Congress acts quickly "to preserve the full faith and credit" of the U.S., reminding them that waiting until the last minute can result in damage to the country, even if technical default is averted.

"We have learned from past debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States," Yellen wrote.

Also on Monday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a statement essentially agreeing with Yellen.

"Because tax receipts through April have been less than the Congressional Budget Office anticipated in February, we now estimate that there is a significantly greater risk that the Treasury will run out of funds in early June," it said.

Same goal, different path

Leaders of both parties have expressed their desire to avoid a federal default, but they advocate different methods of doing so.

House Republicans, led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, say they intend to raise the debt ceiling, but only after Democrats agree to a slate of broad spending cuts that would eviscerate Biden's domestic agenda and institute a number of policies popular with conservatives, including new work requirements on individuals receiving public assistance.

Last week on a party-line vote, the House passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would raise the debt ceiling by up to $1.5 trillion through March 31, 2024. The bill would cut government spending by $4.8 trillion over the next decade. Much of the savings would come from unspecified spending cuts spread across much of the government.

Specific programs targeted for major cuts include recent increases to the budget of the Internal Revenue Service, a controversial student debt relief measure taken by the White House, and spending on renewable energy that the president has championed.

'Hostage-taking'

The threat implicit in the Republican position is that if Democrats fail to accept the cuts, the country will advance closer and closer to default until lawmakers strike a deal, or the government finds itself unable to pay its bills.

Biden and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate argue that Republicans' strategy, which they criticize as "hostage-taking," is irresponsible. They have called for Congress to pass a "clean" debt ceiling extension, meaning a bill with no additional provisions attached. They frequently point out that Congress passed three clean debt limit bills during former President Donald Trump's term, all with Democratic support.

Any debt limit increase would have to pass both the House and the Senate, and with the latter under slim Democratic control, the House bill gutting Biden's agenda is a non-starter.

House Democrats on Tuesday said they would attempt to force a vote on a clean debt limit increase through an arcane mechanism known as a "discharge petition," which allows a majority of members of the House to demand a vote on a bill without the cooperation of leadership. Discharge petitions are rarely successful, and because Republicans have the majority in the House, this one would require at least five Republicans to join the Democrats  an unlikely prospect.

Impact of default could be global

Experts warn that if Congress and the White House are unable to strike a deal, and the U.S. finds itself unable to pay its bills on time, the impact on the economy  for the United States and the broader world  could be devastating.

"The result would be a self-inflicted severe recession that is totally unnecessary and obviously counterproductive," Mark Hamrick, Washington bureau chief for Bankrate, told VOA. "It's been demonstrated time and time again that the debt ceiling is not a useful tool in restraining federal spending. Therefore, we're talking about adding potential downside to the U.S. and global economies for no reason, and at a time when there's already heightened concern about the risk of recession."

Joseph E. Gagnon, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told VOA that the disruption caused by a default by the U.S. Treasury would reverberate far beyond the U.S. itself.

He pointed out that the Great Recession of 2008-2009 was a global financial crisis partially triggered by the collapse of two major U.S. firms  the investment bank Lehman Brothers, which failed, and the insurance and financial services conglomerate American International Group, which was bailed out.

"That really caused a huge panic around the world, not just in the U.S.," Gagnon said. "And realize that the U.S. Treasury is far, far bigger and has far, far more financial [obligations] being held by other people."
President Joe Biden is hailing the new head of the World Bank as a transformative leader who will integrate climate change into the list of challenges the lending institution faces in its work with developing countries.

On Wednesday, executive directors of the World Bank selected Bidens nominee, Ajay Banga, to lead the institution. The India-born naturalized American citizen is a former credit card executive.

Ajay Banga will be a transformative leader, bringing expertise, experience, and innovation to the position of World Bank president, Biden said in a statement. And together with World Bank leadership and shareholders, he will help steer the institution as it evolves and expands to address global challenges that directly affect its core mission of poverty reductionincluding climate change.

The World Banks current president, David Malpass, resigned in February amid calls for his removal over remarks in which he appeared to downplay the role of human actions and fossil fuels in creating climate change. He will depart in June, with less than a year left in his five-year term.

The banks board said in a statement that they look forward to working with Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard, on all the World Bank Groups ambitions and efforts aimed at tackling the toughest development challenges facing developing countries.

Cornell professor Richard Clark, who studies policymaking at the World Bank, says Banga faces pressure to reorient the World Banks lending portfolio to tackle climate change more aggressively. He could do this in several ways, but each has its pitfalls.



Clark laid out three options in a Cornell University press release: Banga could ask member states for more resources, but the U.S. Treasury chief has said she will oppose the move.

Secondly, he could loosen the banks capital requirements  the amount of liquid assets a bank is required to hold  but that could challenge the banks credit rating.

And finally, Clark said, Banga could reallocate funds to support climate initiatives, by moving money away from poverty reduction and infrastructure projects. But low-income countries  which prioritize growth  oppose the idea.

More generally, developing nations have long been frustrated with the fact that the World Bank is governed primarily by rich Western countries who may put their own needs ahead of those of the developing world, Clark said in remarks earlier this month.

The American president conventionally nominates the winning candidate, though any member nation can nominate someone. The United States is the largest shareholder in the bank, and the largest donor to a sub-group of the bank that Banga will also control, the International Development Association.

The board said the process of choosing Banga  which included a four-hour interview on Monday  included an open, merit-based, and transparent nomination where any national of the Banks membership could be proposed by any executive director or governor through an executive director.

But the selection was not without diplomatic drama. News agencies reported that one of the boards 25 members  Russias Roman Marshavin  abstained from the vote, though the remaining 24 members supported Banga. State-run Russian media reported that Marshavin told them he had been in talks with other countries about alternative candidates, including some Russian financiers.

When asked about the vote, a senior Biden administration official said the administration is happy how it turned out.

"Ajay was elected with resounding approval from the executive directors and will start his mandate with incredibly strong support from the membership of the World Bank, said the official who declined to be identified in a routine background briefing with reporters.

The bank has also faced criticism from fiscally conservative Americans, who disagree with some of its lending policies.

At the World Bank, China continues to receive billions in loans, even though it should not be eligible based on its income level, said Brett Schaefer, of the Heritage Foundations Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.

China, the banks fifth-largest debtor, has repaid a substantial amount of its outstanding debt in recent years and moved from second place in 2010.

China began working with the World Bank in 1980. At the time, the bank considered China a lower-income nation.

By World Banks measure, China is now within reach of attaining status as a high-income nation.

India is the banks largest debtor and has been for more than a decade.

Banga starts work on June 2.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he is hopeful that he can reschedule a visit to China this year after postponing a planned trip to Beijing in February because of a Chinese spy balloon downed by the U.S. military.

Blinken's remarks reflect what experts see as signs of a thaw in the U.S.-China relationship, including a recent high-level meeting in Beijing between American and Chinese officials, as well as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's plan to resume inspections in China as soon as this summer.

"I am," said Blinken on Wednesday when asked by The Washington Post if he is hopeful that his China trip could be rescheduled this year. The top U.S. diplomat said it is important that the United States and China "reestablish regular lines of communication at all levels and across our government."

"We need to have a floor under this relationship. We need to have some guardrails on it. And the way to do that is through engagement," Blinken said.

Later Wednesday, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters that he will not "offer a moment in time, metric or assessment" about when Blinken's China trip would happen.

A day earlier, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns voiced frustration at the lack of access to high-level officials in China.

"I think access for all of us in the U.S. government  that includes members of our Cabinet  has really ebbed and flowed over the last year," Burns said during a Tuesday event organized by the Washington-based Stimson Center. "There have been periods of time, I'm thinking now of early summer of last year, where we had a lot of access and a lot of communication back and forth."

"We are ready to talk," Burns said. "What we really need is a more broad-based engagement at the Cabinet level, and the United States is ready for that."

He added that U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has never supported an icing of the U.S.-China relationship.

Congressional critics have urged U.S. officials not to engage in talks with Beijing just for the sake of talking.

"What I hate to see is us finding ourselves in a situation where the [Chinese Communist Party] is making demands on us, and that we in some way are acceding to those demands just so we can get some sort of high-level visit over in Beijing and a photo opportunity," Bill Hagerty, a Republican senator from Tennessee, said Tuesday.

"We need to be pressing them [Chinese officials] at every level," added Hagerty during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy.

Signs of a thaw

Burns met on April 20 with Liu Jianchao, who is a minister in the international department of the CCP Central Committee.

Liu heads the party's international liaison department that conducts foreign policy, usually dealing with foreign ruling and opposition parties.

"We discussed the many challenges in U.S.-China relations," Burns said in a tweet.

Dennis Wilder, a former CIA top China analyst who is now an assistant professor of Asian studies at Georgetown University, said that "given the tense state of bilateral ties," Chinese President Xi Jinping would almost certainly have had to personally approve the meeting between Burns and Liu.

"His meeting with Burns therefore was unusual and signaled a willingness of Beijing to upgrade his interactions to senior party authorities beyond the foreign ministry," Wilder told VOA on Wednesday.

The meeting was the highest-level known engagement between American and Chinese officials in Beijing since Blinken's talks with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in Munich on the margins of the February Munich Security Conference.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is preparing to resume its inspections in China, which had been postponed since March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The inspections of food facilities and medical devices could start as soon as this summer.

On Wednesday, Blinken said an April 26 phone call between Xi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was "a positive thing."

When asked about China's offer to mediate an end to the Ukraine war, Blinken said: "It's certainly possible that China would have a role to play in that effort, and that could be very beneficial."

The West has repeatedly rejected China's 12-point plan calling for a de-escalation and eventual cease-fire in Ukraine on the grounds that it would lock in place Russian territorial gains, including its illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and additional land seized in eastern Ukraine since February 2022.

VOA's Mandarin Service contributed to this report.
Journalists in Cameroon are calling on the government to end threats against reporters, including illegal detentions, prison time, and killings. Journalists are holding conferences across the country to mark May 3 as World Press Freedom Day. They also are demanding justice for two colleagues killed this year and for at least five reporters currently imprisoned.

Cameroonian journalists say they are increasingly facing oppression, threats, attacks, illegal detentions and the killing of reporters. Journalists blame senior state officials for what they say are increasing media abuses and attempts to silence reporters.

Journalist Samson Ngangeh Websi is a member of the Cameroon Association of English-speaking Journalists, or CAMASEJ. He spoke in Yaounde during a series of conferences organized by CAMASEJ and the International Francophone Press Union, abbreviated as UPF in the French language.

Websi says Cameroonian laws are hostile to the media.

"A journalist can be charged for libel and defamation and sent to prison. Now we have the 2014 law on the fight against terrorism in Cameroon," said Websi. "Many provisions in that law are really scaring journalists, because according to that law, a journalist can be charged for supporting terrorism simply by publishing articles or being in possession of information, which is considered by the government as sensitive."

Conferences urging the government to protect reporters and revise hostile legislation took place in several towns across the country, officials said.

CAMSEJ says reporters Thomas Awah Junior, Tsi Conrad, Mancho Bibixy and Kingsley Njoka are being held at the Yaounde-Kondengui prison for threatening Cameroon's sovereignty. The reporters were accused of collaborating with western separatists, but they say they were simply doing their job as reporters.

Paul Chouta, a reporter critical of the government of Paul Biya, spent two years in prison from 2019 after he was abducted and tortured by unknown armed men in Yaounde.

Samuel Wazizi, who worked for Cillen Music Television, was arrested in 2019 for allegedly supporting anglophone separatists. He was not seen in public for more than a year. In 2020, the military declared that he died in government custody in August 2019.

In January, the mutilated body of Martinez Zogo, a popular radio personality, was found in Yaounde five days after he was abducted by unknown individuals.

Jean-Jacques Ola Bebe, another radio presenter, was found dead outside his home in the capital on February 2, allegedly gunned down by unknown assailants.

Both reporters on their radio programs said that many senior officials wanted to kill them, but they would continue digging deep into corruption involving government ministers.

Since then, journalists have been complaining of death threats and intimidation. Reporters say they want justice for all journalists that have been killed in Cameroon. The reporters say the government always claims to have opened investigations to punish killers and persecutors of journalists, yet findings are never made public.

Cameroon's communication minister, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, said on World Press Freedom Day the government will protect all journalists. He said reporters should avoid excesses and respect the nations laws.

Cameroonian journalists also accuse the state-funded National Communication Council, or NCC, of silencing reporters. Reporters say the NCC receives orders from senior officials, especially President Paul Biya, who appoints the council president.

The NCC has sanctioned more than 135 media organs and journalists for what it calls biased reporting over the past 10 years. Requests for the journalists and media organs to be punished are usually from senior officials, including ministers, lawmakers and others who say their rights are abused by reporters.

NCC president Joe Chebongkeng Kalabubse denies the organization is a government instrument used to crack down on the media.

"This institution [NCC] was created by a law, voted by the National Assembly [parliament] of the Republic of Cameroon, which means it is a decision of the people of Cameroon. When a complaint comes up, we listen to all the parties," said Kalabubse. "We have a judicial department who then prepares, either to incriminate or to vindicate, based on the rules that govern the profession and the council."

In its World 2023 Press Freedom index, Reporters Without Borders says Cameroon has one of Africas richest media landscapes but is one of the continents most dangerous countries for journalists, since they operate in a hostile and precarious environment.

Cameroon has more than 600 newspapers, about 200 radio stations and upwards of 60 TV networks, yet producing independent and critical reporting is still very challenging, according to RSF.
Concerned over its shrinking population, China is proposing new legislation to encourage ethnic Chinese around the world to relocate to China, bringing with them technical and entrepreneurial skills learned abroad.

Changes aimed at creating a more welcoming environment for millions of "the Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad" are laid out in an April 24 report to the National Peoples Congress. However, critics fear the new policy could also open a back door to increased monitoring and harassment of overseas Chinese.

The proposed legislation comes after China reported in January that its population had fallen for the first time in six decades, a decline that began a decade or so earlier that will have profound implications for its economy and the world.

Frederic Rocafort, an attorney and former U.S. consular officer in Guangzhou, said while declining population numbers may not reach a level of concern that calls for large-scale immigration, any country can benefit from adding talent to its workforce.

"Overseas Chinese could also play a role in increasing Han populations in certain areas. Meanwhile, Overseas Chinese could help China address demographic challenges by encouraging settlement in China by members of the diaspora," Rocafort, international practice group chair at Harris Bricken, a law firm based in Seattle, told VOA Mandarin via email on April 26. "At the same time, there are also economic reasons, such as encouraging the diaspora to invest in China  it is also a way of accelerating technological development. Members of the diaspora could also contribute favorably to China's economic agenda."

Han are the dominant ethnic group within China.

Overseas Chinese total 10.7 million, according to a UNESCO report. If the descendants of Chinese immigration that began on a large scale in the 16th century are included, there are about 60 million overseas Chinese, according to the report. The UNESCO report says, "Since the 1980s, over two-thirds of the foreign investment accepted by the Chinese government has come from expatriates."

The government-affiliated Global Times, says the 60 million overseas Chinese are found "across 200 countries and regions." The proposed legislation does not define who is "overseas Chinese," saying only that the profound Chinese culture is the common soul.

It is unclear whether the new legislation will regulate the details of the overseas activities of Chinese government organizations.

The report also suggested continuing to promote "the construction of harmonious overseas Chinese communities and guiding overseas Chinese to abide by the laws of the country where they live."

Last month, the FBI arrested two New York City residents for allegedly operating an underground, illegal police station for China's Ministry of Public Security in one of the citys Chinese enclaves. Both men are American citizens and one had "a long-standing relationship of trust" with the Chinese government, according to prosecutors.

The station, one of more than 100 that China operates worldwide, allegedly monitored and harassed Chinese activists and dissidents in the United States as part of what U.S. prosecutors call China's "transnational repression" campaign.

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA's Henry Ridgwell

Rocafort said strengthening ties to the diaspora is a way of counteracting the increasing negativity toward the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in countries like the U.S.

"Overseas Chinese might be perceived within China as more receptive to more nuanced views on the CCP, which they could then transmit to audiences in other countries where they have ties," he said.

Rocafort believes that irrespective of how this proposed law may define overseas Chinese, it is almost certain that many American citizens who are ethnically Chinese will fall under the category.

He urged the United States government to consider the implications of American citizens being more tightly brought into the Chinese government's orbit and to take notice of any provisions that call for activities overseas by any Chinese government organizations (or organizations potentially linked to the Chinese government), "even if ostensibly benign, as they could help deepen CCP influence abroad."

"Countries like the United States must be vigilant and carefully monitor any attempts by the Chinese government to increase its influence abroad under the guise of protecting diaspora communities," he said. "Their potential as advocates for the CCP is likely part of what is behind efforts to promote integration by overseas Chinese."

Teng Biao, a former human rights activist in China who is now a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, told VOA that one purpose of the legislation is to protect Chinese people who break local laws in foreign countries.

He said if the legislation passes, China's "infiltration and overseas surveillance will be intensified. The lure of overseas Chinese, including foreign citizens of Chinese descent, always functions together with the harassment and attacks against overseas activists and dissidents."
Osamu Furukawa has driven lots of Japanese cars for his business converting classic gasoline-powered models to electric. But his favorite ride is an import: A battery-powered SUV from China's BYD Auto.

BYD Auto is part of a wave of Chinese electric car exporters that are starting to compete with Western and Japanese brands in their home markets. They bring fast-developing technology and low prices that Tesla chief financial officer says "are scary."

Furukawa said he ordered an ATTO 3 when it went on sale January 31, for its user-friendly features and appealing price of $33,000  or about one-quarter less than a Tesla.

"It's perfect," Furukawa said in his office in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo.

Other ambitious Chinese EV exporters include NIO, Geely Group's Zeekr and Ora, a unit of SUV maker Great Wall Motors.

Some compete on price. Others emphasize performance and features, putting pressure on Western and Japanese premium brands.

NIO, which has persuaded buyers in China to pay Tesla-level sticker prices of up to $80,000, says its latest SUV goes on sale this year in Europe. The ES6 boasts voice-activated controls and a range of 610 kilometers on a charge.

"We are very confident the ES6 will compete in this premium SUV market," NIO's founder and CEO, William Li, said in an interview at the Shanghai auto show.

Sales of battery-powered vehicles and gasoline-electric hybrids in China almost doubled last year to 6.9 million vehicles, or half the global total.

That was supported by multibillion-dollar subsidies from the ruling Communist Party, which is trying to make China a creator of clean energy and other technologies. That rattles U.S. and European leaders who see China as a strategic and industrial competitor.

Chinese brands are "serious competition," according to David Leah, an analyst for GlobalData.

They have "more competitive battery technology" and can "achieve greater economies of scale," Leah said in an email.

BYD Auto, owned by battery maker BYD Co., edged ahead of Tesla in total 2022 sales at 1.9 million vehicles. Half were gasoline-electric hybrids, while Tesla's fleet is pure electric.

"We have a lot of respect for the car companies in China," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a January 25 conference call with financial analysts. "They work the hardest and they work the smartest."

Chinese brands are developing EVs to compete without subsidies as Beijing shifts the burden to the industry by requiring them to earn credits for selling electrics. Prices start as low as $14,500 for a compact SUV with a 400-kilometer range on one charge.

"The Chinese are scary," Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said on the analyst call.

Chinese EV brands mix research and design centers in the United States and Europe with factories in China.

Geely's Zeekr plans to launch an all-electric sedan and an SUV this year in the Netherlands and Sweden. Its mini-United Nations of Chinese and European designers is in Gothenberg, Sweden, adjacent to Volvo Cars, another Geely brand, while its factories are in China.

"Our ambition is to be a key player in electrified mobility in Europe within this decade," said Zeekr CEO Spiros Fotinos, a Toyota and Lexus veteran. With a "clear global ambition," he said, "we're looking at the opportunities and right timing for other markets."

CEO Carlos Tavares of Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Peugeot and FIAT, warned in January that Europe needs a strategy to compete with China's lower prices. European-made electrics cost 40% more than Chinese models, according to Tavares.

"It's a very bleak scenario," Tavares told German magazine Automobilwoche. "But it doesn't have to go that way."

BYD Auto's exports quadrupled last year to 55,916 sedans, SUVs and hatchbacks. Most went to India, Thailand, Brazil and other developing markets. BYD announced a 1,000-vehicle sale last year to Mexico's VEMO for the biggest EV taxi fleet outside China.

State-owned BAIC, headquartered in Beijing, said a dealer in Jordan ordered 1,000 units of its compact EU5 sedan in January. The company said it plans to launch two to three more electric vehicles in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Europe.

What about the United States, the biggest, richest market?

Chinese EV brands are skittish about a sprawling country that demands big investments in dealerships and charging networks, especially while Washington and Beijing are feuding over security, technology and human rights.

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA's Keith Kocinski

"This is not an easy task," said NIO's Li. "Our products and services need to be prepared."

BYD Auto has been in the U.S. market for a decade selling battery-powered transit buses assembled at a factory northeast of Los Angeles. It is "still in the process" of deciding whether to sell SUVs and sedans to Americans, the company said in a written response to questions.

Political tensions "make it difficult for a Chinese company to launch, EV or otherwise," in the United States, Leah said.

In Europe, Great Wall's Ora sells its 03 model starting at $20,000. Ora tries to stand out among dozens of fledgling brands by marketing its cars as being designed for women, their body sizes and daily needs.

"This is a second or third car for a household. It can be used by a wife or daughter to commute to work, to go out with friends or to go shopping," said Ora's deputy general manager, Tan Jian.

In Europe, BYD Auto has partnerships with dealership chains in Britain, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands. The company says it also has delivered cars in Belgium, Denmark and Austria. It has a deal with European rental company SIXT that BYD says will lead to sales of up to 100,000 vehicles over the next six years.

In Japan, BYD Auto plans to have 100 showrooms by the end of 2025. Its Dolphin hatchback and Seal sedan are due to hit the Japanese market this year. The company says it also has exported some 4,000 ATTO 3s to Australia.
Journalist Margaret Sullivan says that when she received word that former colleague Evan Gershkovich had been detained in Russia on spy charges, The color of the world changed.

Sullivan was in a Washington hotel room watching the news when her former editorial assistant Gershkovich appeared on television.

The pair had worked together when Sullivan was the public editor at The New York Times. She is now a columnist at The Guardian.

It just really hit me hard from a personal standpoint to imagine this wonderful, humorous, intelligent, helpful, dedicated journalist in the situation, charged with espionage for merely doing his job, Sullivan told VOA. So I felt very upset and certainly angry but mostly concerned for him.

Gershkovichs arrest in late March comes at an all-time high of journalists being jailed globally. Media watchdogs warn that press freedom is in decline globally. And by late 2022, at least 363 journalists were jailed around the world in retaliation for their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The arrest of a journalist has a ripple effect for newsrooms, as colleagues and the greater media community grapple with concern for jailed colleagues and efforts to report on the cases.

Its an experience that Ben Dunant knows all too well. Dunant was in Britain in May 2021 when he received a 5 a.m. phone call to say that his colleague and friend  American journalist Danny Fenster  had been arrested in Myanmar.

Dunant, now editor-in-chief of the English-language news magazine Frontier Myanmar, had already left Myanmar for safety reasons a few months after a February 2021 coup. But Fenster, then the magazines managing editor, decided to stay a little longer.

At first, there wasnt really time to absorb the emotional impact, because there were some immediate practical steps to take to mitigate the extreme situation, Dunant told VOA from Bangkok. And as I did then consider what had happened throughout the day, there was just this incredibly strong sense that that couldve been me.

Survivors guilt is a normal response to this kind of trauma, according to Katherine Porterfield, a psychologist at Columbia Universitys Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.

Its incredibly distressing to think about a person losing their liberty because of the work that they do  and that you do, Porterfield said. Its very distressing to think of someone whose human rights are really being violated in your field, doing your job. So I think that journalists need to recognize that that stress is valid.

In Dunants words, I felt it was just incredibly arbitrary and unfair. There was no good reason why it would be Danny and not me.

That toll can come into play when journalists are tasked with reporting on their colleagues and friends, Porterfield said.

When youre touched by the content, in any way, of your own story, she said, you are going to be more vulnerable as a journalist.

The problem is when journalists ignore the fact that theyre having a reaction  minimize it, deny it, say its not valid, and then just charge ahead, Porterfield said.

With Gershkovichs case, Sullivan says that The Wall Street Journal has been doing a great job at maintaining attention on his case. I dont see his situation fading from our interest and our concern, Sullivan said.

Gershkovich also worked as an editorial assistant for Elizabeth Spayd, who succeeded Sullivan as The New York Times public editor. Like Sullivan, Spayd said she was heartbroken to hear of the arrest.

Were pushing because hes a journalist, Spayd said about Gershkovich. There are few more worthy causes in journalism than trying to get someone out whos essentially being held hostage.

Frontiers Dunant said that Fensters case was an emotional challenge from the outlet, but an added difficulty was the military-imposed barriers to reporting on the situation, including a trial that took place behind closed doors.

Fenster was eventually released in November 2021.

I was absolutely overjoyed. It felt like a weight was lifted off of all of us, Dunant said. It was just an incredibly happy day after weve had so much bad news from Myanmar.

But some cases are prolonged.

Emily Angwin, a freelance reporter in the Philippines, worked in Beijing as an anchor at the Chinese state-run TV channel CGTN from 2019 until her colleague Cheng Leis arrest on espionage charges in 2020.

Cheng, an Australian national, had a closed-door trial last year, but China has still not publicly announced the verdict.

She is a strong and resilient woman, but that uncertainty of being behind bars without a verdict or a sentence would take its toll on anyone, Angwin told VOA.

Leis detention is heart wrenching, not just because she is my friend, a former colleague and a fellow Australian but also because she is a journalist, Angwin said. Angwin added that Chengs detention was a contributing factor in her decision to leave China and report elsewhere.

Lei was a great colleague to have. We both connected as two Aussies and particularly as Melburnians, Angwin added, recalling how Cheng always knew where to get a good meal or cocktail. I miss her dearly and hope she gets some certainty about her situation as soon as possible.

Sullivan and Spayd agreed that journalists have a duty to draw attention to cases like Gershkovichs and advocate for a free press.

I think its OK for journalists to stand for certain kinds of things, and press freedom is absolutely at the top of the list, Sullivan said. Whether its a personal story or a column or contributing to a news story about it, I just dont see anything wrong with that.
German police arrested dozens of people across the country on Wednesday in an investigation of the Italian 'Ndrangheta organized crime group, German public prosecutors and state police said.

The 'Ndrangheta is based in the southern region of Calabria, the toe of Italy's boot, and has surpassed Cosa Nostra to become the most powerful mafia group in the country - and one of the largest crime networks in the world.

The crackdown was part of a coordinated probe by investigators in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain as well as Europol and Eurojust, they said.

The suspects are accused of money laundering, criminal tax evasion, fraud and smuggling of drugs, they added.

State police in Bavaria said the arrests were the result of more than three years of an investigation dubbed "Operation Eureka."

It said that Italian and Belgian investigators believe that the crime group smuggled close to 25 tons of cocaine between October 2019 and January 2022 and funneled more than $24.24 million from Calabria to Belgium, the Netherlands and South America.

Among those arrested were four people in Bavaria, 15 in North Rhine-Westphalia, and 10 in the southwestern German state of Rhineland Palatinate, and police seized potential evidence at dozens of locations including homes and offices.

Two suspects who were under investigation in the western state of Saarland, were arrested in Italy. Police did not identify them, saying only that one was 47 years old and the other 25.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters in Kenya the fighting in Sudan needs to stop now, before more people die and the conflict becomes a regional one.

During a visit to Kenya on Wednesday, Guterres called on the warring parties in Sudan to put the interests of the Sudanese people first.

"The Sudanese are facing a humanitarian catastrophe, hospitals destroyed, humanitarian warehouses looted, million facing food insecurity," he said.

For that reason, he said, both Sudanese generals need to put an end to the more than two weeks of fighting.

"The fighting needs to stop and to stop now before more people die and this conflict explodes into an all-out war that could affect the regions for years to come," Guterres said.

South Sudan brokered a seven-day cease-fire between Sudanese Army Chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti. There are no indications that the new cease-fire will work when previous cease-fires have seen fighting continue.

Guterres told reporters the United Nations is ready to help the Sudanese people.

"The [U.N.] emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths is now in Sudan to help ensure the continued flow of humanitarian assistance," he said.

The secretary-general will attend a state dinner Wednesday hosted by Kenyan President William Ruto, whose leadership and other progress in the region was lauded at Wednesday's press briefing.

"The recent cease-fire in Libya and the peace agreement in the Central African Republic are a cause for optimism," Guterres said. "I salute Kenya's leadership role in the peace processes in the Democratic Republic of Congo."

The U.N. chief will travel to Bujumbura, Burundi, later in the week to discuss peace and security in the region, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Russia accuses Kyiv of attacking Kremlin with drones, Ukraine denies accusations. President Zelenskyy visits Finland. The EU plans to manufacture more ammunition for Ukraine and themselves. A look at journalists the world over on World Press Freedom Day, plus political theater during wartime.
Merriam-Websters Dictionary defines woke as being 1. aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice). And 2. Disapproving: politically liberal (as in matters of racial and social justice) especially in a way that is considered unreasonable or extreme.

But how did woke go from the first definition to the second definition? Over and over during the legislative session, I heard legislators use woke as the second meaning: disapproving in a way that is considered unreasonable or extreme/liberal. But does becoming aware of racial and social justice issues in and of itself make it extreme or unreasonable? It seems that those who use the second definition would say yes.

More: Conlon: We're relaunching 'Perspectives' under a new name, with new views

I was born and raised in mid-Michigan and went to Missouri Synod Lutheran schools from grades six through 12. My parents, being immigrants from Bangladesh, did not know much about U.S. History. When I came home from school, they never asked me about what I learned in history, nor did they offer more context of what I was learning. But they lived through the worst genocide in world history, the elimination of Bengalis from East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh. Their truth is different from that of the oppressors, and they made sure to teach me that.

Today, though, I find myself assuring my two boys, who are in second and sixth grades, understand the truth of American History. I add context of Native American genocide and African American slavery and its impact on our society, and systems that govern our lives today. Why? because I believe that is our reality. During Black History Month, on our family movie night I chose Ruby Bridges on Disney+, the same movie a parent in St. Petersburg, Florida complained about and asked their school to stop showing elementary students, because the parent feared the film might teach children that white people hate Black people. Well, they did then, and many still do.

Story continues

Ruby Bridges was a 6-year-old Black girl who attended an all white public elementary school in New Orleans in 1960, after segregation was found unlawful. The movie is scary. Watching adults, children, teachers, principals treat a 6-year-old with spit, death threats and seclusion in the school is unfathomable but cannot be denied. And my 8-year-old did get scared, and we talked about it. We talked about:

How brave it was for Ruby to go to school every day

How brave it was for her parents to want her to have the best education

How brave it was for her teacher to make sure she was safe when no one else in the school did

More: Trump needs to be held accountable, Noem needs to clarify stance on school choice: Your letters

We also talked about how far we have come with the great diversity and inclusion of students we have in our public schools in Sioux Falls.

Understanding the real history of the United States is what in fact grows my love for my country, and I want my kids to love our country for who she truly is, not who we fairy tale her to be.

From a young age, I have been privileged to travel to 12 countries. The harshest and most blatant discrimination I faced was when I studied abroad in Israel my junior year of college. My semester in Israel and Palestine taught me how racism, discrimination and inhumanity exists in all places.

Two of us in the group faced harsh discrimination regularly as we crossed borders into the West Bank, Gaza and Israel proper during our semester. I was the only Muslim in the group and my colleague was the only Palestinian Christian. Every time we crossed borders, 18-year-old IDF soldiers would enter our minivan, ask for our passports, and every time they would point their AK-47 at me and taunt me by saying, "Islam....That's your last name, you can't really be an American...."

We never talked about these moments as a group, but it surely influenced our group's understanding of the deep-seeded racism there. When my planes wheels touched down at Chicago OHare International Airport after a semester there, I burst into tears, because I knew I wouldnt have to encounter IDF soldiers and that even with our dark history of slavery, genocide of Native Americans and continous systemic racism, we have made progress, and we need to continue to do so.

As we progress in our understanding of how racism, slavery and genocide impacts our society, it becomes necessary to acknowledge it, sit with it and figure out what we are going to do with it. Those who are scared to understand the truth cannot be the ones who curtail this progress.

Those who are not equipped to have the conversation with their 8-year-old, or their 40-year-old self, cannot be the reason why we cannot acknowledge these horrific events actually happened.

History is written by the victors, but the truth lies with the oppressed.

Taneeza Islam, executive director of South Dakota Voices for Peace and an immigration attorney. And this column is part of an ongoing series of perspectives, called "Speaking Truth to Power," written by voices from a cohort of community leaders and residents weighing in on social issues and current events in South Dakota. The goal is to elevate voices from a diverse group of individuals by challenging issues through different views to contribute to ongoing community conversations.

Editor's note: "Speaking Truth to Power" columns will now run monthly, given the 2023 legislative session has ended. For more information, email News Director Shelly Conlon at sconlon@argusleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Islam: The rise of 'woke' culture, or maybe, how it really is
Greeces Supreme Court has barred a convicted neo-Nazi from competing in upcoming national elections. But despite that decision, the court has allowed another extreme-right, nationalist party to run, raising fears that it can soak up reactionary votes, and enter parliament.

The Greek Supreme Court assembly voted nine to one to disqualify Ilias Kasidiaris and his party, called The Greeks, from the May 21 polls.

It is the first time a party has been banned since the 1974 restoration of democracy, in the birthplace of democracy.

In its 400-page ruling, the Supreme Court called Kasidiaris undemocratic, citing his conviction and imprisonment in 2020 for targeting migrants, members of the LGBT community and left-wing politicians while at the helm of Golden Dawn, an ultranationalist neo-Nazi party that has also been designated a criminal organization.

Sixty other leading members and active supporters of that party, among the most violent neo-Nazi movements in Europe, were also jailed at the time, pushing Golden Dawn out of the parliament and out of operation.

"This ruling, he says, is historic and it strengthens but also shields democracy," said government spokesman Akis Skertso.

From prison, appealing to a massive following, Kasidiaris blasted the ruling. He said it was a broad swipe against democracy and vowed to challenge it both at home and at the European Union Court of Justice.

Polls published this week show Kasidiaris public support at about 4%, just over the 3% threshold needed to win entry into the Greek parliament. And while his disqualification now makes it easier for incumbent conservatives to win the May 21 polls, another decision by the Supreme Court has allowed a far-right party called EAN to run.

That has observers and politicians concerned.

"The bigger issue is where Kasiadiris will drive his supporters to. They are not insignificant numbers," explained Kostas Chrysogonas, a candidate with the socialist PASOK party.

The far-right EAN party is run by a former Supreme Court justice.

Last month, Kasidiaris named that retired justice the head of his party before he broke off to form his own political grouping or what some fear may open a back door for Kasidiaris return to active politics.
Hong Kong's leader on Tuesday stepped up a campaign to shut down further democratic challenges by unveiling plans to eliminate most directly elected seats on local district councils, the last major political representative bodies chosen by the public.

Chief Executive John Lee said the proposed overhaul will reduce the proportion of directly elected seats in the municipal-level organization to about 20%  from some 90% currently. That is lower than the level when these bodies were first set up in the 1980s, when Hong Kong was ruled by Britain.

He said the rest of the 470 seats will be filled by government appointees, rural committee chairpersons and others elected by local committees that are staffed by many pro-establishment figures.

"I do not agree that pure counting (of) election votes means democracy," he said. "Different places have their own systems that must take into consideration all the characteristics and all the elements of that place."

The planned electoral changes are widely seen as part of Beijing's increasing control over the former British colony, which was promised autonomy when it returned to China in 1997. Two years ago, Hong Kong amended its electoral laws for its legislature, drastically reducing the public's ability to vote and increasing the number of pro-Beijing lawmakers making decisions for the city.

In the past, the race for the seats of the city's district representatives usually drew little international attention as the councilors mainly handled municipal matters, such as organizing construction projects and ensuring that public facilities are in order.

But their councils took on importance after the city's pro-democracy camp won a landslide victory in the last poll at the height of the anti-government protests in 2019.

Many pro-democracy district councilors eventually resigned in 2021, after authorities introduced an oath-taking requirement to ask them to pledge allegiance to the city. Their mass resignations followed media reports that councilors may have to repay their wages if they are later disqualified from office, which the government had not confirmed or denied at the time.

Critics regarded the requirement as part of a broader crackdown on the pro-democracy movement after the massive protests and enactment of the sweeping national security law in 2020.

The resignations and other disqualifications had left just about one-third of the elected representatives still working in the councils, Lee said.

He said all incoming members will be vetted by a committee to ensure "patriots" are administering Hong Kong. Officials also planned to introduce a monitoring mechanism to allow investigations of councilors whose performance "failed to meet the public's expectation."

Lo Kin-hei, the chairman of Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy party, said members of the public will feel disappointed with the government's move to cut the number of directly elected seats. He predicted there will be fewer people who can run when potential candidates face so many restrictions.

The next district council election is expected to take place later this year.
The United Nations announced on Tuesday night that its premier prize for press freedom has been awarded to three imprisoned Iranian female journalists "for their commitment to truth and accountability."

The winners are Niloufar Hamedi, who broke the news that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died last September while being held by the morality police for wearing her headscarf too loosely, and Elaheh Mohammadi, who wrote about her funeral.

Amini's death touched off monthslong protests in dozens of cities across Iran. The demonstrations posed one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 2009 Green Movement protests drew millions to the streets.

The third winner is Narges Mohammadi, who has worked for many years as a journalist and is one of Iran's most prominent activists.

The U.N. Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization World Press Freedom Prize is named for Guillermo Cano, a Colombian journalism who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogota on December 17, 1986. UNESCO has awarded the prize to coincide with World Press Freedom Day on May 3 since 1997.

UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay announced the winners at a ceremony in New York, saying: "Now more than ever, it is important to pay tribute to all women journalists who are prevented from doing their jobs and who face threats and attacks on their personal safety."

Zainab Salbi, chair of the international jury of media professionals that chose the winners, said the brave work of the three winners "led to a historical women-led revolution."

"They paid a hefty price for their commitment to report on and convey the truth," Salbi said. "And for that, we are committed to honoring them and ensuring their voices will continue to echo worldwide until they are safe and free."

Reporting informed world

In late April, Iran's judiciary acknowledged that two reporters who broke news on Amini's death, Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, had been indicted on charges of collaborating with the United States, acting against national security, and creating "propaganda against the system."

While nearly 100 journalists have been arrested amid the demonstrations, Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi's reporting was crucial in the days after Amini's death to spread word about the anger that followed. Hamedi works for the reformist newspaper Shargh, while Mohammadi works for the reformist newspaper Ham-Mihan.

Their detentions have sparked international criticism over the bloody security force crackdown that lasted months after Amini's death. According to UNESCO, both Hamedi and Mohammadi have been in Iran's Evin Prison since September, and Hamedi has been in solitary confinement.

Hundreds killed, thousands detained

Since the protests began, at least 529 people have been killed in demonstrations, according to Human Rights activists in Iran. And more than 19,700 others have been detained by authorities amid a violent crackdown trying to suppress the dissent. Iran for months has not offered any overall casualty figures, while acknowledging tens of thousands had been detained.

Narges Mohammadi has been repeatedly detained and imprisoned by authorities, and UNESCO said she is serving a 16-year prison sentence in Evin Prison. She's won recognition abroad for her work, including her activism against the death penalty in Iran, which remains one of the world's top executioners.

UNESCO said she is vice director of the Tehran-based civil society organization, Defenders of Human Rights Center. She also continues to report in print from prison and has interviewed other women prisoners which were included in her book "White Torture," the U.N. agency said.
For two months, Fatima Begum, 55, has mourned her daughters death. Her cries echo loudly, surrounded by relatives and neighbors in the Soibugh neighborhood of Budgam district on the Indian side of Kashmir.

On the morning of March 7, Begums 28-year-old daughter Aarifa Jan left her familys home for a computer training center located a few hundred meters away. When she failed to return that evening, the family filed a missing person report with the local police.

We were unable to reach her, as her phone appeared to be switched off, Mazoor Ahmad Malik, Jans maternal uncle, told VOA. Police called a few people [in] for questioning the next day to probe the missing complaint, he added.

Two days later, Malik said, police intensified their investigation. An acquaintance of the family, identified as Shabir Ahmad Wani, was interrogated after Jans phone records were obtained to help trace her whereabouts.

He said during the interrogation made-up stories to save himself, but police carried out the investigation during which he [admitted to killing] my niece, Malik said. The criminal turned out to be a well-known carpenter in our village, he said.

To hide his crime, he chopped the body into multiple pieces and buried them at several locations in and around his vicinity, Malik added.

Crime against women rising

In the past couple of years, the Indian side of Kashmir has experienced a surge in violence against women, including murder, rape and physical assault.

Indias National Crime Records Bureau reported that the region saw a 15.2% growth in crimes against women in 2021. The report, as summarized in The Hindu newspaper, said 3,937 cases were reported in 2021 compared to 3,405 cases in 2020 and 3,069 in 2019.

Romaan Muneeb, a lawyer who deals with crimes related to women, believes the rise is caused by several factors, including a lack of awareness about womens rights, drug abuse and a lack of seriousness in upholding laws by authorities.

The crime rate in Kashmir may not be as high as in other parts of India, [but] it is crucial to raise awareness about the laws implemented by the Union of India to protect women, Muneeb said. Failure to do so will likely result in an increase in crimes against women, he added.

Nisar Ahmad Chiloo, a resident of the Eidgah neighborhood of Srinagar, has packed his and his daughters luggage in order to visit Chennai, the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, for her further treatment.

On February 1, 2021, 25-year-old Tamana, whose name has been changed to protect her identify, was on her way home from work when two men riding a scooter intercepted her and threw acid in her face.

We have had a tough time since that particular day, Chiloo said. So far, she has undergone 25 eye operations and two on her face at two different hospitals in Chennai, he told VOA, adding that his entire family has yet to recover from the incident.

Both of the men responsible for the crime are in police custody, Chiloo said. One of the attackers was his daughters former fiance.

We called off the engagement after we discovered that he was not a good person, as he used to take my daughter's hard-earned money and gold ornaments, Chiloo said.

The crime he committed was the result of our refusal to continue the engagement, Chiloo said adding that his daughter turned out to be brave and is determined to ask for capital punishment in court.

Mir Sabeen, 33, from Srinagar, told VOA that she had to return to her parents house along with her son after she was victimized by her in-laws and husband soon after her marriage.

For three years, I bore everything. But once I felt unsafe, I returned to my parents home, Sabeen said. I filed a police complaint, as well, but nothing happened, she added.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Shafi Khan, the father of Aarifa Jan, appealed to the government to award death sentences to everyone who has committed gruesome crimes.

Life imprisonment is not a solution to put a brake on rising crimes. Rather, it inspires others to commit more and more crimes," he said, adding, Capital punishment will not erase the pain in our hearts but will provide us some satisfaction that the criminals are no longer alive."
Israeli jets hit targets across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, in response to rocket barrages fired by militant groups earlier in the day following the death of a Palestinian hunger striker in Israeli custody.

Plumes of smoke spiraled into the night sky as the jets hit targets including training camps of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the coastal enclave.

At the same time, sirens sounded near the southern Israeli town of Sderot and other areas around Gaza as Hamas radio reported that militant factions were continuing their bombardment of Israeli targets.

The fighting, about a month after the last cross-border exchange of fire between Israel and Gaza, came after the death of Khader Adnan, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad group, who died after 87 days on hunger strike.

Adnan, who was awaiting trial, was found unconscious in his cell and taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead after efforts to revive him, Israel's Prisons Service said. He was the first Palestinian hunger striker to have died in an Israeli prison in more than 30 years.

Hundreds of people took to the streets in blockaded Gaza and the occupied West Bank to rally in support of Adnan and to mourn his death, which Palestinian leaders described as an assassination.

In Gaza, an umbrella group of armed Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for a series of rocket barrages fired toward Israel during the day.

The Israeli military said at least 26 rockets were fired from Gaza. Two landed in Sderot, wounding three people, including a 25-year-old foreign national who Israel's ambulance service said sustained serious shrapnel wounds.

In the West Bank city of Hebron, shops observed a general strike. Some protesters burned tires and hurled stones at Israeli soldiers who fired tear gas and rubber bullets at them. There were no reports of injuries.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met security officials to assess the situation. An Israeli Defense Force official said Israel would respond at a time and a place of its choosing.

Since 2011, Adnan had conducted at least three hunger strikes in protest of detentions without charges by Israel. The tactic has been used by other Palestinian prisoners, sometimes en masse, but none had died since 1992.

Adnan's lawyer, Jamil Al-Khatib, and a doctor with a human rights group who recently met him accused Israeli authorities of withholding medical care.

"We demanded he be moved into a civilian hospital where he could be properly monitored. Unfortunately, such a demand was met by intransigence and rejection," Al-Khatib told Reuters.

Adnan, 45, was a baker and a father of nine from Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Islamic Jihad sources said he was one of its political leaders. The faction has a limited West Bank presence but is the second most powerful armed group in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where Israeli forces fought a brief war against it last August.

Lina Qasem-Hassan of Physicians for Human Rights in Israel said she saw Adnan on April 23, at which point he had lost 40 kg and was having trouble moving and breathing but was conscious.

"His death could have been avoided," Qasem Hassan told Reuters, saying several Israeli hospitals had refused to admit Adnan after he made brief visits to their emergency rooms.

The Prisons Service said hospitalization had not been an option as Adnan had declined "even a preliminary inspection."

Physicians for Human Rights said Israeli authorities had denied requests by Adnan and his family to visit him in prison.

Speaking from the family's home in the northern West Bank town of Arraba near Jenin, Adnan's wife, Randa Musa, said: "Our message to all the resistance groups is, we do not want the weapons that were not used to free the sheik (Adnan) to be used after his death. We do not want to see any bloodshed."

Before the rockets, Hamas radio said an Israeli tank shelled one of the group's observation posts in Gaza.

"Our fight is continuing and the enemy will realize once again that its crimes will not pass without a response," Islamic Jihad, which preaches Israel's destruction, said in a statement.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Association, Adnan had been arrested by Israel 12 times, spending around eight years in prison, mostly under so-called "administrative detention," or detention without charges.

Israel says such detentions are required when evidence cannot be revealed in court due to the need to keep intelligence sources secret. Palestinians and rights groups say Israel routinely uses such detentions, which deny due process, to hold hundreds of Palestinians for prolonged periods of time.

This time, Adnan was arrested and indicted in an Israeli military court on charges that included links to an outlawed group and incitement to violence, the Prisons Service said.
Israeli strikes on north Syria's Aleppo province overnight killed four Syrian officers and three Iran-backed fighters, putting the area's international airport out of service, a war monitor reported Tuesday.

During more than a decade of war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israeli missiles targeted "the Aleppo international airport area and the Nayrab military airfield area" nearby late Monday, reporting explosions at both facilities and "severe damage."

Strikes "completely destroyed" a munitions depot in the Nayrab airfield area, killing four Syrian army officers and "three pro-Iran foreign fighters, said the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a vast network of sources on the ground, raising the toll from four dead.

Israeli missiles also slammed into Syrian air force factories in the Safireh area of Aleppo province, "causing extensive material damage," it said, adding that the sites were used by pro-Iran fighters.

The Observatory and state media said the strikes knocked out the Aleppo airport.

Officials did not immediately provide further information on when the facility was expected to reopen or the nature of the damage.

"At around 11:35 p.m. (2035 GMT) ... the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack with several missiles... targeting Aleppo international airport and a number of sites in the vicinity of Aleppo," state news agency SANA said, citing a military source.

"A soldier was killed and seven people were wounded including two civilians," SANA said, reporting "material losses.

Previous Israeli strikes have put both Aleppo and Damascus airports out of service.

While Israel rarely comments on the strikes it carries out on Syria, it has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-foe Iran to extend its footprint in the war-torn country.

Iran-backed militias have a heavy presence in the Aleppo region after providing key ground support to the army in its recapture of rebel-held districts of the city in 2016.

On March 22, an Israeli missile strike destroyed a suspected arms depot used by Iran-backed militias at Aleppo airport, the Observatory said at the time, with authorities saying that raid put the airport out of service.

On March 7, three people were killed in an Israeli strike on the airport that also brought air traffic to a halt.

On Saturday, three civilians were wounded in Israeli air strikes near the Syrian city of Homs, state media reported, with the Observatory saying a Hezbollah munitions depot at the Dabaa military airport was destroyed.
Nearly a month since armed conflict began between rival factions of the military government of Sudan, efforts by the international community to broker a truce in the country have failed as both parties repeatedly violated three cease-fire agreements.

But leaders in East Africa say they will bar military rule in the region.

Speaking in Nairobi on Tuesday, Kenyan President William Ruto said Sudan had already made progress toward governance and that East Africa leaders would not allow what he termed a small disagreement to destroy those gains. He also said the soldiers would be held accountable.

"They have absolutely no reason to destroy people's businesses, people's livelihoods, cause unnecessary chaos and mayhem, when the quarrel can be solved by dialogue or conversation," he said. "And we are determined to stop our continent from sliding into military rule. The continent is ready, and we are prepared to build our democratic institutions and get the people of this continent to choose the government they want."

Experts such as Macharia Munene, an analyst on international relations in Kenya, say that despite its failure to end conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the East African Community regional bloc stands a chance to persuade Sudan's military to end fighting because it is in the military's interest, as the country itself hopes to become an EAC member.

"Concerted effort is what is needed," he said, urging anyone with connections to Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan or General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, to "use those avenues to point out that it is in their interest to stop killing each other, and to convince the leaders that they do not want to be perpetual pariahs in the region."

The fighting has left 400 people dead and has displaced more than 800,000 people since erupting on April 15, according to the United Nations. Each military faction has defended its stance.

Nick Westcott, director of the Royal African Society, sees the conflict as a chance for the East African region to move past failures in the DRC independently and persuade warring soldiers to lay down their arms.

Westcott pointed to MONUSCO, the U.N. peacekeeping force in the DRC. The EAC force sent to DRC "was complementary to that, and its presence was agreed [upon] by various parties involved, particularly Kinshasa authorities," he said. "In Sudan, there is no existing authority and no agreement on any party that they should be the force coming for peace, not at this stage."

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development agreed last week to send South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir, Kenya's Ruto and Ismail Omar of Djibouti to help broker a cease-fire in Sudan. Sudan's former colony brokered the latest cease-fire, and Munene said it was in Kiir's interest that Khartoum end its war because of his dependence on the port for trade.

"Being a landlocked [country], you know, it is an oil-producing country, and the oil goes through Khartoum to the Red Sea," he said. "So South Sudan is hurting."

Kiir on Tuesday said he'd held separate telephone conversations with Burhan and Dagalo, both of whom agreed to send representatives to talk.
Vigilante killings are surging in Haiti's capital and surrounding areas, where an additional five men were slain and set on fire Tuesday by a crowd that left one of the bodies near a police station in an upscale community.

The male victims were apparently brought out alive from the slum of Jalousie outside Port-au-Prince and then killed, according to people in the crowd. Most of the bodies were left strewn along the road that leads to the home of former President Jovenel Moise, who was killed in July 2021. A fifth body was left close to the police station in suburb of Petionville.

"It's horrible for them to be killed in front of the eyes of the police," said Jean Marc Etienne, who witnessed the scene while sitting in a park in front of the station. "That shows nobody is safe, that anybody can be killed."

The Associated Press visited the police station, where authorities declined to comment. A police spokesman did not return calls for comment.

At least 18 people have been reported killed by crowds in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas since last week, although videos and pictures shared on social media suggest the number is higher. The images largely show crowds pelting men with big rocks and setting fire to gasoline-soaked tires placed around or over their bodies.

The killings come as some Haitians say they are tired and angry over escalating gang violence, with the United Nations noting a 20% increase in killings from January to the end of March, compared with the last quarter of 2022. In addition, 637 kidnappings have been reported so far this year, a 63% increase compared with the last three months of 2022.

"The police and the justice (officials) have to take control," Etienne said of the vigilante killings.

Overall, more than 130,000 Haitians have fled their communities as gangs break into homes, set them on fire, and kill people in territory held by rival gangs.

On Monday, Prime Minister Ariel Henry condemned the ongoing vigilante killings and ordered people to "calm down."

"The insecurity we experience is appalling," he said, adding that people should not be dragged "into mindless violence."

Some Haitians have condemned the violence on social media, saying that alleged gang members also have a right to life and that they don't support a growing vigilante movement.

Pictures and videos shared on social media have shown Haitians sharpening machetes and using big trucks to block entrances into neighborhoods as they vow to root out gangs that the U.N. says control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince.

Over the weekend, Haiti's National Police issued a statement saying officers are dismantling gangs across the country that are "terrorizing the civilian population."

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed for the immediate deployment of a foreign armed force, a plea that the U.N.'s special envoy to Haiti echoed last week. It's a request that Haiti's prime minister first made in October, but the U.N. Security Council has shown no interest.
New developments:

The Kremlin claims Ukraine launched two drones at Russian President Vladimir Putins residence overnight but that security services disabled them, and Putin wasnt injured. The Russian claim couldnt be immediately verified, and a Ukrainian official denied any involvement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in The Hague, to visit to the International Criminal Court.

Southern Russian refinery targeted by drone.

Kyiv, Odesa targeted by Russian missiles and drones.

Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles and drones attacked Kyiv and Odesa in the early hours of Thursday.

The Kyiv city government said, The Russians have attacked Kyiv using Shahed loitering munitions and missiles, likely the ballistic type," but added that all the missiles and drones had been destroyed.

The Ukrainian southern military command said that 12 of the 15 drones launched at Odesa had been destroyed. Three struck a university campus, but there were no casualties.

The Kremlin claimed Wednesday that Ukraine launched two drones at Russian President Vladimir Putins residence overnight but that security services disabled them, and the Russian leader was not injured.

Thursday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the United States decided on the attack and that Ukraine carried it out.

The Russian claims could not be immediately verified, and a Ukrainian official said the Kyiv government had nothing to do with any alleged drone attack on the Kremlin.

The Kremlin said it regards these actions as a planned terrorist attack and an attempt on the president, and it reserved the right to retaliate. It said that timely actions taken by the military and special services had disabled the drones.

Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the incident, according to his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he could not verify the Kremlin reports. I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt, he said.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in comments sent to the Reuters news agency that the allegation that Kyiv was behind the attack, and Russia's arrest of alleged Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea, could signal that Moscow was planning a large-scale "terrorist" attack against Ukraine in the coming days.



"Of course, Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin. We do not attack the Kremlin because, first of all, it does not resolve any military tasks," Podolyak said.



"In my opinion, it is absolutely obvious that both 'reports about an attack on the Kremlin' and simultaneously the supposed detention of Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea  clearly indicates the preparation of a large-scale terrorist provocation by Russia in the coming days, Podolyak said.

Zelenskyy in The Hague

The Ukrainian leader arrived late Wednesday in the Netherlands after making a surprise visit earlier in the day to Finland to participate in a summit with the leaders of five Nordic nations.

Zelenskyy is expected to meet with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, deliver a speech at The Hague and meet with officials of the International Criminal Court on Thursday, according to a statement by presidential spokesman Sergiy Nykyforov. The ICC in March issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on a war crimes charge.

A product storage area at a refinery in southern Russia caught fire after a drone attack Thursday. However, the Russian Tass news agency said the fire at the Ilsky refinery, near the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk in the Krasnodar region was put out after two hours and the facility was now working normally.

On Wednesday, Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russias southwestern Krasnodar region, said on the messaging app Telegram a fuel depot in the village of Volna was targeted by a drone. He said there were no reports of casualties from the fire.

Volna is near the bridge spanning the Kerch Strait that separates mainland Russia from the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The bridge, which is a vital link for Russias military to transport supplies to its soldiers in Ukraine, was partially destroyed by a truck bomb last October that Moscow blamed on Kyiv.

Wednesdays fuel depot fire comes after a suspected drone attack last Saturday on an oil depot in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol.

The British Defense ministry in its daily intelligence update posted on Twitter said the attacks on Russian fuel depots in occupied Ukraine and the Russia Ukraine border area will likely force adjustments to Russias military refueling operations to mitigate targeting.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Myanmar's junta pardoned more than 2,000 political prisoners to mark a Buddhist holiday on Wednesday, with families rushing to prisons for tearful reunions with loved ones jailed in a sweeping crackdown on dissent.

The military has arrested thousands of protesters and activists since the February 2021 putsch that ended Myanmar's brief democratic experiment and plunged the country into turmoil.

Pardons were granted to "2,153 prisoners serving sentences under Penal Code 505 (a) to mark Kasone Full Moon Day", a festival marking the birth of the Buddha, the junta said in a statement.

The law carries a maximum three-year jail term.

About 50 people gathered outside Yangon's sprawling, colonial-era Insein prison following the announcement, AFP reporters said.

As a yellow bus pulled out of the complex, some in the crowd held paper bearing their relatives' names up to the windows.

One man reunited with his weeping family outside the prison took his baby into his arms.

Ma Ye Ye was waiting to see if her son, who was arrested under the law in 2021, would be freed.

"He was arrested for nothing," she said, requesting a pseudonym for fear of retaliation.

"He just walked through a security gate and soldiers arrested him."

"I was thinking this morning that it would be really good if my son was to be released on this Buddha day," Ma Khin, another mother waiting in the crowd said, also requesting a pseudonym.

"Then I received phone calls from my relatives that there would be an amnesty... I don't know if he will be on the list, but it's my duty to come and wait for him."

The military ordered the pardons "for the peaceful mind of the people and on humanitarian grounds," it said.

Those who re-offend will have to serve the remainder of their sentence with an additional penalty, it added.

Myanmar typically grants amnesties to thousands of prisoners to mark national holidays or Buddhist festivals.

Crackdown

Wednesday's announcement comes as Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang is in the country for talks with the internationally isolated generals.

On Tuesday he met junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, becoming the highest-profile Chinese official to meet the top general since the putsch.

"China advocates that the international community should respect Myanmar's sovereignty and play a constructive role in helping it achieve peace and reconciliation," Qin said, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

Several Beijing-backed infrastructure projects are slated to run through northern Myanmar and link China's landlocked Yunnan province with the Indian Ocean.

More than 21,000 people have been arrested since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government, according to a local monitoring group.

At least 170 journalists have been arrested during that span, according to the United Nations.

Suu Kyi has been detained since the early hours of the coup.

In December, the junta wrapped up a series of closed-court trials of the 77-year-old Nobel Peace laureate, jailing her for a total of 33 years in a process rights groups have condemned as a sham.

More than 3,400 people have been killed in the military's crackdown on dissent since the coup, according to a monitoring group.
The EU-sponsored program will exhibit at SIAL Toronto and conduct experiential and educational activations for consumers, media and culinary professionals

TORONTO, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ -- The Italian Milling Industry Association (ITALMOPA) is extending the reach of its Pure Flour from Europe program into Canada to promote the safety, versatility and superior quality of Italian and European organic flour and semolina. Co-funded by the European Union, ITALMOPA's program launched in 2021 at SIAL India and rolled into the United States last year.

(PRNewsfoto/Pure Flour From Europe)

"The EU and member country Italy are at the vanguard of food safety, quality and environmental sustainability, which elevates almost all culinary creations," said ITALMOPA President Andrea Valente. "This centuries-old mastery, coupled with modern production technologies and EU's stringent standards, yields the highest quality flour and semolina available for professional chefs and bakers and discerning consumers."

Valente says the campaign addresses the growing worldwide demand for nutritious, eco-friendly ingredients grown without synthetic fertilizers. Organic flour and semolina from ITALMOPA member companies deliver on all these attributes.

Beginning in May, Canadian culinary professionals, opinion leaders, distributors and retailers, food journalists and content creators, and consumers preferring premium organic, sustainable flours and semolina will experience the benefits of the Pure Flour from Europe program.

ITALMOPA will exhibit at SIAL Canada in Toronto's Enercare Centre May 9-11. At Booths 819, 821 and 823, attendees can see cooking demonstrations and taste the culinary delights of handmade pasta using Italian flour.

ITALMOPA will also host a series of events at Eataly Toronto (Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON M4W 1A6), including private culinary workshops with professional chefs and a dinner and educational presentation for media, influencers, digital content creators and industry leaders in retail and distribution. Additionally, ITALMOPA will offer in-store consumer promotions May 8-14, including product education and an opportunity to win products, cookbooks and campaign merchandise.

Story continues

About ITALMOPA

Founded in 1958 and based in Rome, ITALMOPA represents 82 companies across Italy that mill soft durum for the production of flour and semolina for pasta, breads, pastries, pizza and more. Learn more at pureflourfromeurope.eu

(PRNewsfoto/Pure Flour From Europe)

SOURCE ITALMOPA--PURE FLOUR FROM EUROPE

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2023/03/c3340.html
Press freedom is under threat now more than ever, but there is still reason to be hopeful, journalists said at a Wednesday event commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of World Press Freedom Day.

Reporters, press freedom experts and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken gathered at The Washington Post headquarters in the nations capital to discuss the most pressing challenges and threats facing journalists around the world, ranging from arrest and disinformation to physical assaults and lawfare.

Russias arrest last month of American Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on groundless espionage charges was widely condemned during the event.

We know that journalists around the world are increasingly under siege, Blinken said. Thats now manifested itself once again very powerfully in Evans detention and incarceration in Moscow.

We have a country in the case of Russia that, like a handful of other countries, is wrongfully detaining people, using them as political pawns, using them as leverage in a practice that is absolutely unacceptable, Blinken said.

In 2022, at least 363 reporters were detained over the work, marking a new global high and a 20% increase from 2021, according to the press freedom group the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Blinkens conversation with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius was briefly interrupted when a few protesters stormed the stage calling for the release of Julian Assange, the jailed WikiLeaks founder whom the United States has accused of espionage for releasing leaked U.S. military documents.

See related video by VOA's Cindy Saine:

The Wall Street Journals Washington bureau chief Paul Beckett said Evan was drawn back to Russia as a journalistic duty, to report on a country that was part of him, but needs a lot of explanation to an international audience.

Theres some foreign correspondents who operate in embassy circles, and diplomatic circles and government circles. And theres some who operate on the ground, Beckett said. And hes very, very much an on-the-ground reporterperfectly comfortable in those other circumstances, but really brought the country alive by being out there.

Harassment, retaliation, prison

On another panel, multiple journalists discussed the harassment, retaliation and jail time they had personally experienced as a result of their work.

Adefemi Akinsanya, an international correspondent at Arise News in Nigeria, recalled how police physically assaulted her in 2021 while she was covering memorials marking the one-year anniversary of killings of protesters in the city Lagos.

I was defending myself and my person. I was defending the members of my team. I was defending our equipment. But I think, inadvertently, I was also defending free press, Akinsanya said. And what we didnt realize in the moment was that that attack was so much more than us.

Danny Fenster, an American journalist who was arrested in Myanmar in May 2021, said that his arrest was likely intended to intimidate other journalists and stop them from covering the post-coup situation in the country.

At the time, he was managing editor of the English-language news magazine Frontier Myanmar.

They had, I think, found that they could send a statement to international journalists  Don't come here, dont pay attention to this, Fenster said. They needed to send a message, even stronger, to the international community.

Fenster was released in November 2021.

Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, counted the highest number of journalists detained and arrested last year since the press freedom group started counting, said Clayton Weimers, RSFs U.S. bureau executive director.

But its not all doom and gloom, Weimers said. We make progress all the time.

Sometimes that progress is slow. Nigeria, for instance, is now ranked 123 in the world in terms of press freedom. Last year it was ranked 129.

That is welcomed, because if it were the other way, we wouldnt be happy about it, Akinsanya said. But Nigeria still has a long way to go, she added.

Even when youre confronted with the negative aspects of this work that we do as journalists, the fact that we continue to persevere is hopeful to me, Akinsanya said.

On Tuesday, an international fund was announced that will aim to support independent media amid its decline.

Guterres shares concerns

At the United Nations in New York, UNESCO marked press freedom day with high-level discussions and panels.

At one, VOA Persian host Masih Alinejad presented a draft resolution condemning transnational repression and the targeting of journalists. Alinejad, who was forced into exile from Iran in 2009, was the target of a kidnapping attempt by Tehran in 2021.

On this day we call upon all Member States to promote, protect and fulfill the right of freedom of opinion and expression, several U.N. leaders said in a joint statement. The safety of journalists and media workers must be considered an integral part of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and key to countering disinformation, including in conflict settings.

In a statement Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed the importance of press freedom and shared his concerns about threats facing journalists around the world.

This day highlights a basic truth: all our freedom depends on press freedom, the Secretary-General said. Press freedom represents the very lifeblood of human rights.
A woman identified as the wife of a Texas man suspected of killing five of his neighbors was arrested Wednesday for allegedly helping the man elude capture for four days, authorities said, and a third person is expected to face similar charges.

Divimara Lamar Nava, 53, identified as the wife of suspect Francisco Oropeza, was in custody in connection with the Friday night shooting, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.

Although Henderson identified Nava as Oropezas wife, jail records list her as not being legally married. The two share a home address, according to the records.

Nava had previously denied knowledge of Oropezas whereabouts, Henderson said, but authorities believe she hid him in the home near Conroe where he was arrested Tuesday.

Nava was arrested early Wednesday and was being held in the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon, according to online jail records. The records do not list a bond for her and indicate she was arrested by state police at a home in Conroe.

Also, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said a friend of Oropeza's, Domingo Castilla, was also arrested Tuesday in the neighborhood where the shooting took place. Castilla was taken in for marijuana possession, but authorities expect to also charge him with other crimes, including hindering Oropeza's apprehension, Dillon said.

Found in a closet

A four-day manhunt for Oropeza ended Tuesday when authorities, acting on a tip, said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.

At a news conference Wednesday morning in Coldspring, Tim Kean, chief deputy with the San Jacinto County Sheriffs Office, said authorities spotted Oropeza, 38, on Monday afternoon in Montgomery County, prompting the lockdown of several schools.

We did confirm that was him on foot, running but we lost track of him. That was not a false alarm. That was him, Kean said outside the county jail.

The Montgomery County Sheriffs Office had previously said reports of a possible sighting of Oropeza in the area was a false alarm.

Kean declined to comment on the tip that led authorities to the home where Oropeza was arrested as well as when he arrived or how he got there. Kean said the home had not been previously checked by authorities.

Kean said Oropeza only mildly resisted arrest and was not injured.

Kean said there have been several other arrests "but I cant go into the details on that."

Kean said the home where Oropeza was arrested has a personal connection to the suspect. He declined to provide more details but said there was no indication Oropeza was about to leave.

"I believe he thought he was in a safe spot," Kean said.

Oropeza was expected to appear before a judge inside the San Jacinto County Jail on Wednesday and the judge would formally set his bond at $5 million, Kean said.

The home is near the community of Conroe, north of Houston and about 32 kilometers (20 miles) from his home in the rural town of Cleveland, where authorities say he shot his neighbors with an AR-style rifle shortly before midnight Friday.

Oropeza had been shooting rounds on his property and attacked his neighbors after they asked him to go farther away because the gunfire was keeping a baby awake, according to police.

The arrest ends what had become a widening dragnet that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions and had seen $80,000 in reward money offered. As recently as Tuesday morning, the FBI said that Oropeza could be anywhere," underlining how investigators for days struggled to get a sense of his whereabouts and candidly acknowledged they had no leads.

The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15 p.m., and a little more than an hour later, Oropeza was in custody, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul. The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to U.S. immigration officials.

Connor Hagan, an FBI spokesman, said they would not disclose the identity of the person who called in the tip  one of more than 200 tips he says investigators received.

The hunt for the suspect

Authorities would not say where Oropeza had been since fleeing the scene in Cleveland, which authorities previously said was likely on foot.

Hagan said the three agencies that went in to arrest Oropeza were the U.S. Marshals, Texas Department of Public Safety, and U.S. Border Patrols BORTAC team.

Drones and scent-tracking dogs had been used during the widening manhunt, which included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene. Republican Governor Greg Abbott offered a $50,000 reward as the search dragged late into the weekend, while others offered an additional $30,000 in reward money.

Capers said that prior to Friday's shooting, deputies had been called to the suspect's house at least one other time regarding shooting rounds in his yard.

All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velasquez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and her husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras migrant protection service.
U.S. lawmakers called for an enforceable code of ethics for justices on the nations highest court Tuesday, saying recent concerns have once again highlighted that the U.S. Supreme Court is the one branch of the U.S. government that lacks those standards.

The court should have a code of conduct with clear and enforceable rules so both justices and the American people know when conduct crosses the line. The current highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards, Senator Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday.

Unlike the executive and legislative branches and every other federal bench, the Supreme Court does not have a written ethics code. Justices are required to follow some ethics requirements as laid out in federal statutes.

Lawmakers are asking for those new guidelines following an investigation last month by journalism nonprofit ProPublica showing Justice Clarence Thomas has accompanied billionaire and conservative donor Harlan Crow on luxury vacations for the last two decades.

Thomas also faces concerns about conflicts of interest due to his wifes involvement in attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He has served on the court since 1991 when he was narrowly confirmed after public accusations of sexual harassment.

In an April 7, 2023, statement, Thomas explained why he did not report his gifts from Crow, whom he described as a close personal friend.

Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable, Thomas said.

The ethics concerns arise with public trust in the nations highest court at an all-time low. According to an October 2022 Gallup poll, only 40% of Americans approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing, and 58% say they disapprove  the highest number since that poll started in 1972.

But Senate Republicans pointed to ethics concerns about liberal-leaning Supreme Court justices and said this is just the latest attack from Democrats who are unhappy about a conservative majority on the court.

This assault on Justice Thomas is well beyond ethics, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Tuesday. It is about trying to delegitimize a conservative court that was appointed through the traditional process.

Republicans said they were concerned by previous inflammatory remarks made by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer suggesting justices should fear the consequences of their decisions. Republicans have also suggested that justices should receive increased security in light of threats to Justice Amy Coney Barretts children and a suspected assassination attempt against three conservative justices.

Every five minutes, the Democratic Party wants to give lectures about upholding our institutions and protecting democracy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday. But just as often, they find a way to undertake some new reckless attack against the courts and the rule of law. Im proud of how our nations highest court has weathered these latest baseless attempts to attack its authority.

Multiple pieces of legislation have been introduced in the U.S. Senate that if passed would institute a code of conduct governing justices. Independent Senator Angus King and Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski would hold the Supreme Court to the same standards as other federal judges. Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse also introduced legislation that would require justices to submit to the same ethics standards as members of Congress.

The Supreme Court has the lowest ethical standards in government, Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel and senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, told senators on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court does not have an internal ethics enforcement body," Payne said. Justices rely on ethics advice from random and anonymous sources instead of in-house ethics experts. This leads to incorrect and inconsistent interpretations of the law. Also, investigations of misconduct are extremely rare.

Durbin invited Chief Justice John Roberts to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about those concerns and possible solutions. Roberts declined, citing the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution and the need to preserve judicial independence.
A top United Nations official is calling on Sudan's rival military leaders to publicly commit themselves to the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance to millions of people struggling to survive amid escalating fighting.

At the end of a three-day troubleshooting visit to the region, Martin Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said the Sudanese people face a humanitarian catastrophe.

Speaking by video link from Port Sudan, Griffiths said it was essential that the leaders of the two warring factions publicly back the efforts of humanitarian agencies to provide relief to those in need.

He said he was already working on a plan to get supplies where they are needed and that he sought "to be sure that we have the commitments publicly and clearly given by the two militaries to protect humanitarian assistance."

Griffiths said it was important for them "to deliver on the obligations to allow supplies for people to move, and that we should do that  even when there is no formal natural cease-fire."

Griffiths said he and Volker Perthes, U.N. special representative for Sudan, spoke Wednesday with Sudanese Armed Forces leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

In their talks, he said they stressed the need for humanitarian aid to reach the people. But for that to happen, Griffiths said he told the generals that strong guarantees on the safety of aid workers and supplies had to be backed up with agreements from the top.

"It seems to me that getting those commitments is a condition precedent for large-scale humanitarian action," Griffiths said. "And I say large-scale because humanitarian action is continuing day by day by day, and it has been a mistake to suggest that it stopped."

Griffiths said the U.N. was hampered in its ability to provide for the Sudanese people because of severe funding shortages. He said only $200 million of the U.N.'s $1.7 billion appeal for Sudan, which was launched before this crisis, has been received.

He said money is needed to get assistance to the different parts of Darfur and to hardest-hit urban areas, especially Khartoum.

Besides money, Griffiths said, "We need access, we need airlift, we need supplies that do not get looted.

"The World Food Program today told me six trucks of theirs which were going to Darfur were looted, despite assurances of safety and security."

He reiterated, "We need to be very, very clear about commitments made to ensure the safety of moving the supplies from Port Sudan, or indeed from Chad to Darfur to Port Sudan and westwards to places of need."

Griffiths said medicines, food, clean water, fuel and other critical commodities are desperately needed.

He said the Food and Agriculture Organization and WFP told him Wednesday about "the importance of getting the food and seeds into places which are going to be hard to reach because of the rainy season that is coming in June," and corresponds with the planting season.

Since fighting between the two warring factions began more than three weeks ago, at least 334,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan, and more than 100,000 have fled to neighboring countries in search of assistance and protection.

Sudan's Federal Ministry of Health reports some 528 people have been killed and 4,620 injured, although U.N. agencies say they believe the toll to be much higher.
A high-ranking United Nations official arrived Wednesday in violence-torn Sudan as the deadline approaches for the latest shaky cease-fire agreement between the two warring factions.



U.N. emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths tweeted that he was in the beleaguered city of Port Sudan to reaffirm the @UN's commitment to the Sudanese people.

Not everyone is welcoming the U.N. presence in Sudan.

Protesters demanded that the head of the U.N. mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, leave the country immediately.

The demonstrators, who gathered at military headquarters in Port Sudan, accused Perthes of fueling conflict in Sudan.

Speaking on behalf of protesters, Mohammed Hassan, the paramount chief of the Beni Amer tribe Port Sudan, demanded Perthes leave the state within 72 hours.

"We dont have any personal issue with him but we are anxious for the future of this country," Hassan said. "Whenever he goes, there is nothing good that he leaves behind. We are here demanding that this man should leave this state alongside all his supporters.

Hassan and other protesters reassured the military of their full support to end the war in Sudan.

Port Sudans military commander, Major General Mohammed Osman, said he appreciated the efforts of Port Sudan citizens who chose to live in peace with one another.

Scores of people have crowded into Sudans main seaport to escape the nearly three-week-old fighting between Sudanese government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Sudans health ministry says 550 people reportedly have been killed and more than 4,900 wounded since the fighting began on April 15 after relations between the two factions fell apart.



South Sudans foreign ministry announced Tuesday that Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, have agreed to a new weeklong cease-fire agreement that will take effect Thursday.



Previous cease-fire agreements of various lengths have consistently been violated during the fighting, however, with neither side able to secure a quick victory nor showing any signs of backing down  raising the specter of a prolonged conflict that could draw in other countries.



South Sudanese President Salva Kiir stressed the importance of a longer truce and the naming of envoys to peace talks, to which both sides agreed.



Burhan and Dagalo were allies in Sudans transitional government after a 2021 coup, and they shared power as part of an internationally backed transition toward free elections and civilian government.



With fighting now in its third week, the conflict has forced 100,000 people to flee Sudan for safety, and it is creating a refugee crisis in neighboring impoverished countries, the United Nations said.



Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said his government would support talks in Sudan between the rival factions but said he also was "being careful about not interfering in their domestic matters."



"The entire region could be affected," he said in an interview Tuesday with a Japanese newspaper, as an envoy from Sudan's army chief met with Egyptian officials in Cairo.



The U.N. World Food Program said Monday it was resuming work in the safer parts of Sudan after a pause earlier in the conflict after some aid workers were killed.



The agency said in a statement on Monday that distribution of food is expected to commence in the states of Gedaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile in the coming days to provide life-saving assistance.



"The risk is that this is not just going to be a Sudan crisis, it's going to be a regional crisis," said Michael Dunford, the aid agencys East Africa director.



The United Nations migration agency said earlier this week that at least 334,000 people have been internally displaced in Sudan since deadly fighting broke out last month, in addition to the 100,000 who have fled the country. The U.N. refugee agency, meanwhile, has warned the fighting could cause more than 800,000 people to flee the northeastern African country.



The top U.N. official in Sudan, Volker Perthes, told The Associated Press on Monday that Sudan's warring generals have agreed to send representatives  potentially to Saudi Arabia  for negotiations.



The Sudanese ambassador to the United States, Mohamed Abdalla Idris, told VOA he hopes the cease-fire eventually will lead to meaningful long-term peace talks.



He said, a cease-fire, truce, is a two-way traffic, and noted peace can only be realized if all parties respect the terms of any deal.



The fighting in Sudan has forced foreign governments to pull their citizens from the country.



Russias military announced Tuesday that more than 200 people will be evacuated on four military transports.



Hundreds of Americans reached the eastern city of Port Sudan last weekend, watched over by U.S. military drones. Saudi officials said Monday that a U.S. Navy ship took more than 300 evacuees from Port Sudan to the Saudi port of Jeddah.



The U.S. State Department said Monday that three U.S. convoys evacuated more than 700 people since Friday and reported a total of more than 1,000 U.S. citizens have been evacuated since the violence started.

The violence has also spread to Sudans western Darfur region, where the RSF began as the Janjaweed militia, which was formed by former authoritarian president Omar al-Bashir from Arab tribal militias working alongside government troops in a brutal war against ethnic minority rebels.



The non-governmental Norwegian Refugee Council issued a statement condemning the violence that has claimed more than 190 lives, including that of an NRC volunteer. The statement said dozens of settlements have been burned and destroyed as a result of the fighting.



Families across Sudan, including those of our colleagues, are being torn apart, and having to choose between remaining trapped in the battlefield, or risking their lives to flee or reach an overcrowded hospital, said Jan Egeland, the NRCs Secretary-General.



They are running out of everything, including water, food, electricity, fuel, and cash, Egeland continued. We need the international community to put as much effort into secure humanitarian access, regardless of ceasefire and in providing aid to millions of people as they have in evacuating their own citizens.

Michael Atit in Khartoum; Margaret Besheer at the United Nations; Anthony LaBruto; John Tanza, Nike Ching at the State Department contributed to this story. Some information in this report came from The Associated
The United States and Mexico have reached agreement on a new plan to control the flow of illegal border crossings while also allowing migrants to enter the U.S. on humanitarian grounds.

The plan was announced Tuesday after a meeting between Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and U.S. Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall in Mexico City.

Under the plan, the United States will accept migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela as part of a humanitarian parole program, while Mexico has agreed to accept migrants from those four nations who entered the United States illegally.

The U.S. will also accept about 100,000 people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras under a family reunification program.

The agreement comes ahead of the end of COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the administration of former President Donald Trump known as Title 42. The restrictions allowed U.S. officials to quickly expel tens of thousands of migrants for illegally entering the country.

The Title 42 policy will officially end on May 11.

In a related move, the administration of President Joe Biden has agreed to send an additional 1,500 active-duty military personnel to the southern U.S. border as local and state officials brace for a surge of migrants from Central and South America.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
The United States is providing about $300 million in new military aid for Ukraine in a package that is expected to include more artillery rounds and rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) ahead of an expected Ukrainian offensive, according to defense officials.

The Pentagon officials, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity ahead of the package's release later Wednesday, said the latest aid also includes Hydra 70 air-launched unguided rockets to provide air support and anti-armor capabilities needed to push back Russian ground forces that have dug into occupied areas of Ukraine.

Heavy trucks and spare parts also will be included.

Wednesday's aid package marks the 37th authorized presidential drawdown of military equipment from U.S. Defense Department inventories since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.

Moscow began a renewed offensive in Ukraine this year that has stalled, and Kyiv is preparing for a massive counteroffensive that is expected to begin in the coming days or weeks.
The United States is on track to open a new embassy in Tonga this month, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia said on Tuesday, part of efforts to step up its diplomatic presence in the Pacific region to counter China.

Daniel Kritenbrink told a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the United States was also continuing to engage with Vanuatu and Kiribati about opening proposed new embassies in those countries.

The State Department said in March it plans to open an embassy in Vanuatu. The United States has diplomatic relations with the South Pacific island nation, but these are currently handled by U.S. diplomats based in Papua New Guinea.

The United States reopened its embassy in the Solomon Islands this year after a 30-year absence.

Despite the diplomatic push, the Solomon Islands announced in March it had awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara.

The United States and regional allies Australia and New Zealand have had concerns that China has ambitions to build a naval base in the region since the Solomon Islands struck a security pact with Beijing last year.

Washington has also been working to renew agreements with the Marshall Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia under which it retains responsibility for the islands' defense and gains exclusive access to huge swaths of the Pacific.

The Biden administration is seeking $7.1 billion from Congress over the next two decades for economic assistance to the three countries, funds seen as key to insulating them from growing Chinese influence.

The United States is also planning a possible Biden stop in Papua New Guinea on May 22 as part of stepped-up engagement with the Pacific-island region, according to officials familiar with the matter.
New developments:

An explosion has derailed a second train in the Bryansky region of Russia adjacent to Ukraine and Belarus.

The White House estimates 20,000 Russians have been killed in eastern Ukraine since December. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said almost half of them were part of the Wagner Group mercenary force.

The head of the Wagner Group says his fighters aren't getting the supplies they need due to the lack of support from Moscow.

Ukrainian troops are pushing back against Russian troops in the beleaguered city of Bakhmut, launching counterattacks that have forced Russian soldiers to abandon some positions.

The United States is sending Ukraine about $300 million in military aid, with the official announcement expected as early as Wednesday, U.S. officials said, as Ukraine gears up for a spring counteroffensive.

The package will include rounds for artillery, howitzers, along with rockets for HIMARS, mortars, missiles and anti-tank rifles.

For the first time, the U.S. is sending Hydra-70 rockets, which are launched from aircraft and could be used in air support for advancing Ukraine ground forces.

The weapons will come from Pentagon stocks and resemble earlier deliveries.

The 37th shipment of arms to Ukraine since Russia's invasion, February 2022, comes as Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Ukraine is in the "home stretch, when we can say: 'Yes everything is ready.'"

Second attack in Russia

For the second day in a row, an explosion on Tuesday in a Russian region bordering Ukraine caused a freight train to derail, the local governor said in a social media post, but there were no casualties.

"An unidentified explosive device went off near the Snezhetskaya railway station. There were no casualties," Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on Telegram.

"As a result of the incident, a locomotive and several wagons of a freight train derailed," he added, without saying who was responsible.

Russian authorities say the region, which borders Ukraine and Belarus, has seen multiple attacks by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 14 months since Russia invaded.

An explosion went off Monday in the same region, also causing a train to derail.

Both sides have denied targeting civilians since the Russian invasion on Ukraine began in February 2022.

Leaked documents

In an interview Tuesday in The Washington Post, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the White House did not inform him about a leak of secret U.S. documents last month.

"I did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand," Zelenskyy told The Post.

Of the leak, he said, "It is not beneficial to the reputation of the White House, and I believe it is not beneficial to the reputation of the United States."

The materials posted online included a snapshot of the war in Ukraine. The New York Times first reported on the leaked documents on April 6.

On April 12, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said the Pentagon document leaks contained a mixture of true and false information about his country's military and downplayed its negative impact, Reuters reported.

In response to Zelenskyy's comments, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told Reuters: "We are in constant communication with our Ukrainian counterparts about a range of issues, including over the unauthorized disclosures, but we aren't going to get into the details of those private discussions."

A Pentagon spokesperson said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken to a number of allies, including Reznikov, regarding the issue.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
A wind farm in Namibia and a floating solar farm on Zimbabwe's massive Kariba Dam are among the new green energy projects Chinese companies are looking at investing in this year after Beijing pledged to help African countries address their energy problems with renewable sources rather than fossil fuels.

"Chinese overseas renewable energy investments aim to deliver China's international climate commitments of accelerating the energy transition away from fossil fuels in Africa, China's largest trading partner," Lei Bian, a policy fellow at the The London School of Economics and Political Science, told VOA.

Making good on its green energy priority, China is the world's biggest producer of solar and wind power.

"China is clearly showing some leadership here, and they should be commended for that," Tony Tiyou, CEO of clean energy company Renewables in Africa, told VOA.

But, analysts noted, Chinese companies also benefit financially from Africa's need for such projects.

Africa's need for energy

African countries contribute the least to global warming, and only about half of the continent's population has access to electricity. Many countries also have huge power deficits.

South Africa, for example, is experiencing a power crisis due to aging coal power stations and an overstretched grid, and it experiences daily rolling blackouts that are crippling the economy.

The country already has several Chinese-backed green energy projects, including the Northern Cape's De Aar wind farm, which is managed by a subsidiary of China Energy Investment Corporation.

One of the first actions by new Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa was to meet last month with Chinese Ambassador Chen Xiaodong to discuss how China might help.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington referred VOA to a statement about the meeting that said the men had discussed "the provision of emergency power equipment, dispatch of technical experts, technical consultation and personnel training and other support to South Africa."

According to the statement, Ramokgopa told the Chinese ambassador that "South Africa looks forward to learning from China's experience in power development, strengthening cooperation in the power field between the two countries, and helping South Africa to get rid of the power crisis as soon as possible."

'Small is beautiful'

Many of the latest green energy projects China has announced in Africa are relatively small investments, analysts noted, compared with the large Belt and Road infrastructure initiatives (BRI) of the past, such as ports and railways.

This is in keeping with Beijing's shift to what leader Xi Jinping described as "small is beautiful" projects, which in part focus on China's so-called Green Silk Road.

For example, in April, Namibia's power utility NamPower and a joint Namibian-Chinese venture signed a deal to develop a 50-megawatt wind power plant in the town of Luderitz for about $100 million, according to a statement sent to VOA by NamPower.

"The Namibia project  makes a lot of sense in that scale. One hundred million is roughly in this kind of 'small is beautiful' range that the Chinese are interested in at the moment. [As] part of that pivot they've also stipulated they're particularly interested in working on projects relating to green energy," said Cobus van Staden, the managing editor of The China Global South Project.

"These are relatively small [but green] projects compared to mega hydro and coal power stations or railway projects in the previous era of BRI," Wei Shen, a political economist at Britain's Institute of Development Studies, told VOA.

One not-so-small project that has yet to be signed off on is a 1,000-megawatt floating solar farm on Zimbabwe's Kariba Dam. China Energy Engineering Corp. has proposed the $1 billion idea to Zimbabwean authorities, saying it will install 1.8 million photovoltaic panels over 146 modular floating units if the project goes ahead.

Zimbabwe has very large lithium reserves and is obliging companies that extract it to also refine it in Zimbabwe.

"So this is, of course, very energy intensive, and the companies that are doing that refining and extracting are Chinese, so there is potential there for collaboration between Chinese companies to provide the kind of energy solutions" lithium mining needs, Van Staden said.

Zimbabwean officials referred questions about the project to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, which did not respond to VOA.

No to coal with exceptions

Beijing's focus on green energy comes after it faced criticism for its previous projects in Africa. Environmentalists have accused Chinese companies of polluting the environment and damaging wildlife habitats with their mining operations and infrastructure projects.

While Xi has been praised by some analysts for his 2021 pledge to not build any more coal plants abroad, van Staden noted that Xi is still working hard on securing oil and coal flows into China itself to make sure the world's second-biggest economy is energy secure.

"While the Chinese on the one hand have the world's biggest solar capacity and solar production and it installs more renewables than any other country in the world, it's also installing more nonrenewable conventional energy capacity than anywhere in the world," he said.

China has been investing in exploration and production of oil and gas in Africa. Reports say more than 25% of China's imported oil and gas come from the continent, making Africa the second-largest regional source behind the Middle East.

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation and France's TotalEnergies are the major investors in a crude oil pipeline project in East Africa, despite concerns about displacing residents and damage to the environment. Supporters of the project point to Africa's need for electricity.

"However, the majority of projects that are under planning are low-carbon energy sources, including 11 GW of hydropower and 5 GW of solar and wind power," a 2022 report by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center stated.

China, US and beyond

"For some African countries, such as Zimbabwe, China is largely the only available bilateral lender and developer at the current stage," Wei said. "But there are African markets that Chinese companies have to compete with other foreign companies, such as South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, among others."

Van Staden said that while China and the U.S. are both involved in the space, their approaches to the demand for African renewable energy differ.

"While the Chinese companies have a very close working relationship with the Chinese government, which means that it's relatively easy for them to arrange funding for these projects  on the U.S. side that relationship isn't nearly as close," he said.

"The U.S. government has a lot of plans for expanding renewable energy in the Global South, but U.S. companies aren't necessarily always so interested in working in those markets," said van Staden.

Bian, of The London School of Economics and Political Science, told VOA that China and other international development partners need to work together to scale up renewable energy investments in lower-income countries.

"No country alone can close the tremendous climate financing gaps, meaning that collective efforts from all countries with all sources of finance are much needed to achieve the net zero transition globally and in Africa," she said.
Jack Ma, the face of Chinese entrepreneurship and the founder of Alibaba Group Holding, has assumed professorships in at least four schools outside mainland China, as he keeps an arm's length from the business empire he created.

Ma, who returned to China last month, has stepped down from his corporate roles and also ceded control of Ant Group, the fintech group affiliated with Alibaba. He has also largely refrained from public activities since a controversial speech in Shanghai in late 2020 - where he said Chinese banks had a "pawnshop" mentality - that led to Ant's mega-IPO being called off at the last minute.

However, Ma has maintained ties to education, including a role on the advisory board at Tsinghua University's management school, and he has recently taken on new titles at different schools in a sign the billionaire, who turns 58 this September, is returning to public life as an educator and researcher.

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.

Last month, Ma accepted a three-year term as honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), a role that is set to draw him closer to the city. He will focus on research in finance, agriculture and entrepreneurial innovation, but has no plans to give public lectures or speeches, the Post reported earlier.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

On top of that, Ma has also joined Tokyo College as a visiting professor, the college at University of Tokyo said in a statement this week. In this role, Ma is expected to "provide advice and support to the major research topics" and conduct joint research in areas of "sustainable agriculture and food production", the statement said. Ma is also expected to "share his rich experience and pioneering knowledge on entrepreneurship, corporate management and innovation" with the Japanese school's faculty and students.

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Separately, the African Leadership University, which has a campus in Kigali, Rwanda, said it had appointed Ma as a visiting professor, citing his "vast experience in entrepreneurship and sustainable development". The African school said the appointment also "aligns with his long-term passion for education", referring to Ma's early days as an English teacher in China.

Jack Ma (second right) has maintained his ties with educational institutions. Photo: Handout alt=Jack Ma (second right) has maintained his ties with educational institutions. Photo: Handout>

Fred Swaniker, founder of the African school, noted in a statement that Ma's expertise would be "invaluable to our students and motivate them to dream bigger, think outside the box, and pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations with even greater passion and determination".

Another school that appointed Ma as a visiting professor was Tel Aviv University in Israel, which gave the Alibaba founder an honorary doctoral degree in 2018. In a statement issued in late April, the school said Ma was expected to contribute to "research efforts on sustainable agriculture and food".

"The university's faculty and students are also enthusiastic about the opportunity to learn from one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world," the school added.

Ma is known for his respect and admiration of technology innovation in Israel. At his speech in Tel Aviv in 2018, Ma told the audience that "we believe small is beautiful and small is powerful, and Israel proves that small is powerful".

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.
The announcement of a seven-day cease-fire in Sudans troubled capital is being welcomed  but what happens now? Washington says officials continue to engage with Khartoum, as the African Union does the same. VOAs Anita Powell reports from the White House. Nike Ching contributed to her report.
Police in Zambia have surrounded the home of former President Edgar Lungu and are demanding they search it as part of a corruption probe.

A spokesman for Zambia's former ruling Patriotic Front party, Raphael Nakachinda, told VOA that police forcefully gained access to the Lusaka home of the former president.

"It's not only unconstitutional, but criminal  this government never to respect the supreme law of the land, which is the constitution, which confers the former president with immunity," Nakachinda said.

Zambian police spokesman Dan Mwale told VOA on Wednesday afternoon that police were still outside the property.

"Police officers are at the former head of state's residence. Currently, we can't give out a statement as to why we have surrounded the house," Mwale said.

The police action comes 10 months after Zambia's anti-money laundering agency summoned former first lady Esther Lungu over the ownership of 15 luxury flats in Lusaka.

Investigators said they believed the apartments were ill-gotten gains. The Lungus denied wrongdoing, according to the Patriotic Front party spokesman.

No charges were filed and Lungu's lawyer told journalists the matter was closed.

Critics say a government campaign against corruption is being used to target and intimidate political opponents.

Numerous officials who served under former President Lungu have been arrested, and his family members questioned.

Current President Hakainde Hichilema has denied allegations that his fight against corruption is targeting opponents. Lungu's party was defeated by Hichilema and his United Party for National Development nearly two years ago.
WASHINGTON - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says Zimbabwes First Lady should not stop media practitioners from covering her events like what happened a few days ago when her handlers blocked reporters from taking photos while she was participating in a state function.

In a statement, CPJ said it was worrying that Mrs. Auxillia Mnangagwa is barring some journalists from covering her events.

According to the Media Institute of Southern Africa, some of her security aides recently barred five journalists from covering her visit to the Museum of African Liberation in Zimbabwes capital, Harare.

MISA also reported that on the following day, some members of her security staff and Mnangagwas spokesperson blocked another journalist from photographing a separate event.

CPJ says the countrys leaders should ensure that reporters have access to the First Lady.

Some state officials have been quoted as saying Mrs. Mnangagwa is entitled to her privacy. Nqaba Matshazi of the Media Institute of Southern Africa told VOA Zimbabwe Service that they are engaging the government over this issue in order to ensure that all journalists have access to state officials and the First Lady. Today is World Press Freedom Day amid reports that there were a few incidents of violence against journalists in Zimbabwe this year compared to last year.

According to Reporters Without Borders, the media situation in Zimbabwe has improved slightly since the late President Robert Mugabes ouster in 2017 and access to information has increased and self-censorship declined.

Reporters Without Borders said in a statement to mark World Press Freedom Day that the media landscape in Zimbabwe is exhibiting an encouraging increase in diversity but remains dominated by state-controlled media.
WASHINGTON - Divorce court documents filed by Bona Mugabe Chikores estranged husband, Simba Chikore, have revealed that the two have almost two dozen farms and over 25 upmarket houses and a mansion in Dubai worth billions of dollars.

The documents indicate that the mansion in Dubai is worth millions of dollars. Chikore further accused Bona, the daughter of the late former President Robert Mugabe, of walking away from the marriage with cash amounting to US$760,000.

Most of the properties listed in the court documents are in upmarket places in Harare. They include a couple of houses in Helesnvale, at least 10 along the famous gated Carrick Creagh Road and in other suburbs.

According to ZimLive, an online publication, Bona and Simba Chikore say they have lost love and affection for each other and have been living apart for more than nine months.

She wants to have full custody of their three children and US$2,700 maintenance per month for each kid. But Chikore wants the couple to share property before the courts make a decision on the custody of the minors.

Bonas lawyer, Fungai Chimwamurombe, told VOA Studio 7 that the properties in the court papers were legitimate. Simba Chikores attorney, Rogers Matsikidze, also confirmed the legitimacy of the properties. Chimwamurombe says his client is disputing the value of the properties.

Citizens Coalition for Changes Ellen Shiriyedenga says the amount of wealth revealed in the divorce case is an indication of rampant corruption in Zimbabwe and the skewed manner in which land was grabbed from white commercial farmers and parceled out to Zanu PF sympathizers and supporters.

Shiriyedenga says is seems that the late president was corrupt as he allowed his daughter and son-in-law to abuse the land reform scheme to amass a large number of farms.

Zanu PF Central Committee member, Joseph Tshuma, concurred, noting that the ruling party does not encourage its members to grab so many farms for their own benefit.

They (Bona and Simba) have to carry their own cross  and face the law if they broke it while accumulating so much wealth.
Wars flare up from Sudan to Ukraine. As a result, the global military spending is growing. Europe spent 13% more in 2022 than in 2021 on weapons and military operations, recording the sharpest increase in 30 years. Italys annual military spending has risen to more than 30 billion, or an average of more than 80 million a day.

At the same time, the real causes of wars continue to be hidden and mystified. President Biden declared that the tragic violence in Sudan is inconceivable and must stop.

He thereby erased a fact, when he was Vice President of the Obama Administration, he was a major architect of the US strategy that fuelled the war in Sudan to split the country in two. Thus, the artificial state of South Sudan, possessing 75% of Sudanese oil reserves, was born in 2011. This fact resulted in the further extension of internal conflicts and external interference for the control of the Sudanese region, which is important because it is rich in oil, natural gas, gold, and other raw materials, and because it has a key geostrategic position on the African continent.

In Ukraine, the United States, NATO, and the European Union continue to fuel the war against Russia, supplying the Kyiv regime with increasing quantities of weapons and all kinds of military assistance. At the same time, they make the Kyiv regime erase anything Russian from Ukraine and its history.

After Kyiv decreed to burn 100 million Russian books based on literary classics  a practice analogous to that of Hitlers Nazism  Zelensky signed a law banning Russian place names and other symbols of the fundamental Russian component of Ukrainian history. Their use is considered by law a criminal act and entails serious penalties.

Zelensky also signed a law according to which, in order to obtain Ukrainian citizenship, an exam is required not only on the language but also on the history of Ukraine. This is rewritten by historians who exalt characters such as Stepan Bandera, a collaborator of Hitlers Nazism.

[It is worth noting that Zelensky is of Russian-Jewish descent. His mother tongue is Russian. Until recently he was not fluent in Ukrainian.]

In the same framework, the Ukrainian Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the symbols of the SS Galicia Division  made up of Ukrainian Nazis who committed heinous crimes  are not Nazi and can therefore be used as political symbols even in demonstrations. The Italian government undertakes to rebuild this Ukraine by investing billions of euros stolen from Italian citizens.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 2, 2023 / Klondike Gold Corp. (TSXV:KG)(FRA:LBDP)(OTCQB:KDKGF) ("Klondike Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed its previously announced private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of $2,618,930.11 through the issuance of: (i) 14,059,348 flow-through units (each, a "FT Unit") at a price of $0.115 per FT Unit for gross proceeds of $1,616,825.02 (the "FT Offering"); and (ii) 9,543,858 non-flow-through units (each, a "NFT Unit" and, together with the FT Units, the "Units") at a price of $0.105 per NFT Unit for gross proceeds of $1,002,105.09 (the "LIFE Offering" and, together with the FT Offering, the "Offering").

Each FT Unit consists of one (1) common share in the capital of the Company issued on a "flow-through" basis pursuant to the Income Tax Act (Canada) and one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"), entitling the holder to purchase an additional common share in the capital of the Company (a "Common Share") at a price of $0.20 for a period of twenty-four (24) months from the date of issuance. Each NFT Unit consists of one (1) Common Share and one Warrant.

In conjunction with the financing, an aggregate of $111,476 in finder's fees and 987,621 non-transferable finder warrants (each, a "Finder's Warrant") were paid. Each Finder's Warrant is exercisable into one (1) Common Share at a price of $0.20 for a period of twenty-four (24) months from the date of issuance.

The Company intends to use the gross proceeds from the FT Offering to continue exploration and development of the Company's Yukon properties and the net proceeds from the LIFE Offering for exploration expenditures on the Company's properties and for general working capital purposes.

The securities issued in connection with the FT Offering are subject to a four month statutory hold period expiring on August 29, 2023, in accordance with applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. The LIFE Offering is being conducted pursuant to the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption (LIFE), under National Instrument 45-106 -- Prospectus Exemptions, and as a result, the NFT Units will not be subject to any statutory hold periods.

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Two insiders of the Company participated in the Offering and acquired an aggregate of 2,990,000 NFT Units for total consideration of $313,950. The purchases by these insiders constitutes "related party transactions" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The issuances are exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as they are distributions of securities for cash and the fair market value of the units issued to, and the consideration paid by, the insider did not exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization. No new insiders were created, nor any change of control occurred, as a result of the Offering.

ABOUT KLONDIKE GOLD CORP.

Klondike Gold is a Vancouver based gold exploration company advancing its 100%-owned Klondike District Gold Project located at Dawson City, Yukon, one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world. The Klondike District Gold Project targets gold associated with district scale orogenic faults along the 55-kilometer length of the famous Klondike Goldfields placer district. Multi-kilometer gold mineralization has been identified at both the Lone Star Zone and Stander Zone, among other targets. The Company has identified an Initial Mineral Resource of 469,000 Indicated and 112,000 Inferred gold ounces1, a milestone first for the Klondike District. The Company is focused on exploration and development of its 727 square kilometer property accessible by scheduled airline and government-maintained roads located on the outskirts of Dawson City, Yukon, within the Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation traditional territory.

1 The Initial Mineral Resource Estimate for the Klondike District Property was prepared by Marc Jutras, P.Eng., M.A.Sc., Principal, Ginto Consulting Inc., an independent Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101. The technical report supporting the Mineral Resource Estimate entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Klondike District Gold Project, Yukon Territory, Canada" has been filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com effective November 10, 2022. Refer to news release of December 16, 2022.

ON BEHALF OF KLONDIKE GOLD CORP.

"Peter Tallman"

Peter Tallman

President and CEO

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Telephone: (604) 609-6138

E-mail: info@klondikegoldcorp.com

Website: www.klondikegoldcorp.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information:

"This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This information and statements address future activities, events, plans, developments and projections. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information and statements are frequently identified by words such as "may," "will," "should," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and similar terminology, and reflect assumptions, estimates, opinions and analysis made by management of Klondike Gold in light of its experience, current conditions, expectations of future developments and other factors which it believes to be reasonable and relevant. Forward-looking information and statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause Klondike Gold's actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information and statements and accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed thereon. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary include but are not limited to the availability of financing; fluctuations in commodity prices; changes to and compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including environmental laws and obtaining requisite permits; political, economic and other risks; as well as other risks and uncertainties which are more fully described in our annual and quarterly Management Discussion and Analysis and in other filings made by Klondike Gold with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and available at www.sedar.com. Klondike Gold disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements except as may be required."

SOURCE: Klondike Gold Corp.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/752617/Klondike-Gold-Closes-Financing-Raising-2618930




Drowning By Numbers (1988). Photo: Severin Films

Back in the 1980s and 90s, Peter Greenaway was more than just an acclaimed art-house filmmaker. With movies like The Draughtsmans Contract (1982), A Zed & Two Noughts (1985), Drowning by Numbers (1988), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), and Prosperos Books (1991), he seemed to represent the infinite possibilities of cinema. Here was an unabashedly intellectual director and writer who didnt fuss with typical notions of narrative and character. He structured his films around games, numbers, and lists. But the pictures were majestic and hypnotic. You could lose yourself in Greenaways dense and layered compositions, precise camera moves, and savvy use of music. Thats probably why these films were often genuine hits. Among directors who came later, Wes Anderson and Ari Aster clearly owe a great debt to Greenaway. And Yorgos Lanthimos probably just plain wouldnt exist without him.

Now, one of Greenaways greatest works, Drowning by Numbers  perhaps most easily described as a surreal comedy about three women who drown their husbands  is on 4K. A nice presentation is essential for this director, because his frames are so often filled with in-jokes and other fascinating odds and ends. The Drowning release arrives on the heels of a recent restoration of The Draughtsmans Contract. One hopes this means that more Greenaway films will be rereleased and reappreciated after a period when they seemed to have gone out of fashion.

The director hasnt stopped working, continuing to make movies in his distinct style. As we speak, hes preparing to direct a new movie in Italy, starring Morgan Freeman. His most recent feature, Walking to Paris, was finished some years ago but has still not been released after it was, as he puts it, virtually kidnapped by a laboratory. In recent years, Greenaway has traveled the world giving multimedia presentations about famous artworks. When I last spoke with him, it was for the 2009 release of his film Rembrandts JAccuse, which had the director closely analyzing Rembrandts The Night Watch and decoding a murder mystery within it. (Of course, this being Greenaway, some of the facts he related were completely made up.) Today, looking back at his early films and the overall arc of his career, the director seems refreshingly candid and self-reflective.

It does seem like your films have been experiencing something of a renaissance. Both Drowning by Numbers and The Draughtsmans Contract were recently restored and rereleased. I see more people rediscovering The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover and A Zed & Two Noughts. Is there something in film culture that has changed, so that people are appreciating your films a bit more now?

There always was, Im very happy to say, a hard-core audience. There were those people who were fascinated about the relationship of painting to cinema. There were those people who were interested in my embrace of new technology  not necessarily the same people. And, I suppose, there were people who were certainly interested in this rather eccentric English filmmaker who didnt exactly play Hollywood games. So I think those people still stayed on. And I do get very, very encouraging correspondence: Mr. Greenaway, you changed my life. One has to be careful about that sort of approach. But its always nice to know that, maybe, youve had a little event in changing peoples appreciation of cinema. And of course, there are a lot of people who are actually in Hollywood now and have copied the Greenaway aesthetic. I will not name names.

At the time Drowning by Numbers was released, you said in an interview that two years might have to go by before you could describe the film. Now that several decades have gone by, and the film has come out on 4K, how would you describe it?

Well, I think it has a great sense of lyricism. Like a lot of my films, theres very much  whats the Italian expression? Genius loci, a sense of place. And that is still there, even though sometimes its raining or very misty or you cant see very far. I enjoy that. I was self-conscious about making it, but retrospectively, some of the irritations, difficulties, and malpractice have disappeared, so I would now regard it positively.

On my big revisit of this film, after such a long gap of time, I was actually surprised at how beautiful some of those landscapes were. Let me be indulgent. There is a scene where Madgett and his son, Smut, are sitting up against an oak tree eating blackberries. Theres a beautiful and really artificial-looking landscape, sunset behind them, rather like copying Caravaggio. The sun is going down, and the light is green. Thats really rather strange. But for a weird quirk of landscape atmosphere in September and that part of the world, the sun did go down and the light was green, and we tried to capitalize on things like that.

We were blessed with a very good female cast with three interesting actresses. Joely Richardson is still around. I saw a photograph of her a couple of days ago escorting her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, at a film festival. The eldest of the three ladies, Joan Plowright, is still alive, but unfortunately shes now blind. And I occasionally bump into the middle Cissie, Juliet Stevenson. Its very difficult, isnt it? Ive created problems for myself  and, no doubt, for you  calling all the characters the same name, Cissie. But that was a deliberate sort of Chekhovian idea.

Im 80 now. My God, Im 80 now. So its a hell of a long time since we made this film. But Ive just been on the telephone about casting our new film, which has got Morgan Freeman playing the major role and will be shot in the city of Lucca in Tuscany, we hope, probably about halfway through May. Still lots and lots of problems. Its my first real brush with Hollywood, and Im beginning to understand why people try and avoid that particular connection.

Helen Mirren in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989). Photo: Mary Evans/Everett Collection

Its your first brush with Hollywood? Did they not try to get you back in the 80s after The Cook, the Thief?

Yes, I had an agent after the success of The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. There were people knocking on my door all the time. And looking back, do you remember a film called Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I was the first director asked to actually film that. Would you believe that? I found that absolutely extraordinary. I think that was because of a Hollywood agent who didnt really understand my cinema at all. God bless him. But I was the name to conjure with for six months. So he threw me in there, and I managed to be one of the first directors to actually read the script.

Did you ever see Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Yes, I did. I always admired that actor, Bob Hoskins. I remember seeing him on British childrens television a long, long time before he became even remotely a name. I like the prospect of combining notions of animation with live action, which became very fashionable after that film, I believe.

Rewatching Drowning by Numbers, I was struck by how personal it feels now, which was not something Id have said when I first saw it.

Theres a lot of stuff in Drowning by Numbers which is very, very personal. The little boy, Smut, is really me at age 10 or 11. (Not that I would remotely think of circumcising myself, of course  that has to be fictionalized.) And the circumstances of the geographical location I knew very well. My father had a very small cottage in a place called Walberswick. It was an area where Sunday-afternoon painters used to spend a lot of their time.

Tell me about structuring Drowning by Numbers around games and numbers.

Well, Im a game player and, should we say, very cavalier about notions of reality. I mean, look at us now. Were playing a sort of game, arent we? The interviewer-interviewee sort of phenomenon. Im a full believer in: Why let the truth get in the way of a good story? Game playing obviously involves elements of cheating, too, and that sort of cheating is somehow curiously legitimate.

Ive always been interested in something we could call a nonnarrative cinema. I dont really believe that cinema needs to tell you a story. Im trained as a painter, and the very best paintings, I sincerely believe, are nonnarrative. They are about statements, about ideas. And I took this particular viewpoint into the manufacture of cinema. The idea of narrative concerns, Im sure, is very much essential to all conventional filmgoers and filmmakers. But I wanted to continue my fascination with painting landscapes. The European sort  not just Turner and the famous English landscape painters but very much related to my fascination with Dutch landscapes. There are extraordinarily moody landscapes of late Rembrandt, for example.

It was said, once upon a time, Make sure you get into a Greenaway film. You wont necessarily become famous or celebrated  But you watch  the film youre in next will make you a celebrity.

You note that you were influenced by landscape painters, but you demonstrate such control over the frame  it almost feels like you created all those trees and meadows specifically for the purposes of each shot. Was it a challenge to maintain the natural beauty of the landscape while trying to impose your own aesthetic?

I was very much a stickler for getting the compositions that I wanted. This sounds a rather strange thing, but we deliberately used artificial light in God-given light. There was sort of a game between God and our artificial lights. I tried very hard to do as much filming as we could at magic hour. Those are very brief periods. It was meant to be a summer film. But we were filming in late summer  so September, October  and the leaves had already begun to fall off the trees. So we got a little army of art students who came along and glued the leaves back on the trees, which creates a certain artificiality about the thing. And the elements of artificiality are, for me, to be treasured.

You say youre not the biggest fan of narrative structure, but film is a temporal medium. You have, say, two hours. And you have to keep holding an audiences attention. So when 

Wait a minute, I can see where youre going! You dont have to go that way, of course. You must have seen The Draughtsmans Contract. Absolute static frame. Its like a series of turning pages in a book or going to a picture gallery. Theres this image, theres this image and this image. And theres not always a determined urgency to tell you a story. I want to show you this picture, and it shows you this and this and this, and I want to show you this picture, and it shows you this and this and this.

But with a nonnarrative cinema, how do you work with actors? Actors are often looking for motivation or emotional through lines. When youre working in this very different structure, whats that conversation like?

There are only, I think, about three actors who ever refused to work with me. So it couldnt have been too uncomfortable for them. One of those people was Alec Guinness, because we wanted to use him in a very early film. But I think he discovered I was an atheist, and hes a very profound Roman Catholic. (Or was  the gentleman is now dead, of course.) So maybe there were reasons which have nothing necessarily to do with civics but with beliefs. There are one or two other actors who refused to work with me for reasons along the lines that youve determined: How do I get, Mr. Greenaway, from A to B to C to D? Well, you dont. You just have to listen to me, and Ill tell you what to do.

Do the actors know what theyre in for when they sign up?

Well, they have a script. I write a very fulsome script. And lo and behold, I dont want the actors to move too far away. I wont be so obstinate to say, You cannot actually offer me some of your own ideas. Dont be stupid. Thats what actors are there for. But there is a way. I dont want you to change the words, or if you do, its only an and and a but and a because you are allowed to change. One or two people did, as it were, object to the so-called straitjackets they thought they were in. But look, I am not a realistic filmmaker. I believe cinema is imminently, and indeed eminently, artificial. Lets preserve that artificiality.

Brian Dennehy in The Belly of an Architect (1987). Photo: Hemdale Films/Everett Collection

There have, indeed, been a number of great performances in your films  sometimes from actors who later became stars. I think Julia Ormond and Ralph Fiennes in The Baby of Macon are incredible. I was watching Prosperos Books the other day, and theres young Mark Rylance!

It was said, once upon a time, Make sure you get into a Greenaway film. You wont necessarily become famous or celebrated by being in a Greenaway film. But you watch  the film youre in next will make you a celebrity. And curiously, although were game playing again, a lot of that was true. Helen Mirren had very much a theatrical reputation, but there was a way  and I think she would even agree  that The Cook, the Thief gave her a push forward in Grand Guignol notions of cinema. Julia Ormond, I think, was virtually unknown before she appeared in The Baby of Macon. Not that she would, I think, wish to repeat the experience. It was a torturous and difficult role for her to play. Shed often come to me in tears at the end of the day, saying, I cant do this anymore. I cant do this anymore. But there she was  first woman on the set the following morning. I think its probably part of the mythology of being an actor. They really want to be challenged, dont they? Do the worst, Mr. Greenaway. Do the worst, and Ill come and present myself.

I was really struck by Brian Dennehys performance in The Belly of an Architect.

Me too. Retrospectively, toward the end, when hes contemplating his death by cancer, he gives us an extraordinarily moving performance. I know a lot of other people have thought the same thing. Ive met his daughter a couple of times since then, and she has always said that that was Brians favorite movie, and Im happy about that.

I want to ask about your collaboration with Michael Nyman. You didnt work together again after Prosperos Books, but for a while, your work was very closely associated, and his music was critical, Id say, to many of these early films.

Yeah, I would agree with that wholeheartedly. He had a sense of irony. Its quite difficult, isnt it, for music to be ironic? I mean, we can name people, Saint-Saens, for example, and a lot of people round about the turn of the century who were beginning to, in fact, come up against cinema. And cinema had a great change in its uses of music in all sorts of different ways. It was a continuity there.

Whats the current situation with Walking to Paris, your film about Constantin Brancusi? As I understand, youve been done with that film for some time, but it hasnt been released.

As far as Im concerned, we created a cutting copy, which I was certainly satisfied with. But there was an enormous quarrel between producers. We had three co-producers, and getting co-producers to all be at the same place at the same time and agree was problematical. I believe there was some financial chicanery going on, and its very difficult to put my finger on it. But the Italians ran out of money and that became a bone of great contention. Unbeknownst to me, the film rights were sold to an Italian laboratory in Rome, and they managed to grab hold of the original material. The cutting copy was a comparatively 4K standard, and I was quite happy with it. But we still had to refine the details and grade it properly. There were lots of tricks of fire and water and so on, which had to be engineered. So they have now virtually kidnapped the film, and its stuck in a Roman laboratory. I cant access it, they wont sell it back to me, and I cant get the rights. And the original producer, Kees Kasander, has proven to be a very difficult character to deal with. Im about to do a small retrospective in Turin, where I have various projects, and Im going to show it there. But the credo has to be that I cannot really show it to a paying audience, because who knows what litigation might come flying in my direction? You must know this: Avoid attorneys.

Whats the new film youre working on?

Its called Lucca Mortis. Lucca is the name of the city. Lucca Mortis is chiming, rhyming with rigor mortis. And its very much about death, but its not a zombie movie. We spent, what, maybe the last three decades arguing ourselves into the ground about sex. Now its about time we put death really under the examination.

I made a film in Mexico about Eisenstein, Eisenstein in Guanajuato. Many Mexicans encourage you to treat death as a friend and not as a stranger or an enemy. So it embraces the idea that, okay, we all know certainly and absolutely were going to die, but lets be civilized about it. Lets embrace notions of euthanasia, questions of personal suicide. Its very much in the news now across all the media. Lets make a serious film that has, Id like to think, a lot of irony and humor in it.

This interview has been edited and condensed.
Polite Society stars Ritu Arya (left) and Priya Kansara (right). Photo: Saima Khalid/Focus Features

In Polite Society, the debut feature film from We Are Lady Parts creator Nida Manzoor, Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya play Ria and Lena, Pakistani British sisters on the edge of a cataclysmic estrangement. For their entire lives, the pair has supported each other creatively (younger sister Ria wants to be a stuntwoman, while older sister Lena goes to art school) and withstood their parents gentle concerns and the more overt judgment of their conservative community. But when Lena drops out of school and starts dating the handsome and wealthy geneticist Salim (Akshay Khanna), coveted by all the Muslim aunties as a prime arranged-marriage candidate, Ria goes ballistic, convinced that Salim and his mother, Raheela (Nimra Bucha), have nefarious plans for Lena. Shes not wrong. And so Polite Society barrels through a whirlwind of dry comedy, high-energy fight scenes, and sisterly bickering as Ria sets out on a mission to save Lena from the Stepford Wife cardigan phase shes worried will separate the two forever.

Seated together at the Soho Grand Hotel in New York, Kansara and Arya exude the same effervescent chemistry that makes their work in Polite Society so endearing. They hold hands, with Kansaras gold-glitter fingernails catching the light; they make full eye contact when sharing memories from the set, reciprocally delighted by each others presence. We both felt like we lived our dreams, and we got to do it together, Kansara says.

What would you say you learned from one another while making this film?

Priya Kansara: Ritu has this incredible curiosity. She questioned the script: Why did Lena walk into the room in the first place? I dont even think she would have stayed here for that long. It was really empowering to see somebody ask questions to the director, to the writer. I was like, These are also potential questions that I can ask myself about Ria. Thats one thing that I learned from you: to be more curious and to never be scared of questioning.

Ritu Arya: Wow, thank you. What did I learn from you? I want to say the positivity and bright energy you brought. Its contagious  that openness, that spreading of sunshine.

How did you each approach playing sisters? Do you have siblings?

PK: I have a younger brother. Two of my cousins are very much like my sisters. I grew up seeing Ria and Lena in my life. That relationship is very close to me, and it was one of the things that really attracted me to the entire project.

RA: Ive got two brothers, one older, one younger, so I had so much to draw on  how much I feel a responsibility to support my younger brother especially. Lena doesnt want to get out of bed because shes in this dark place, but then she helps Ria with her videos. I really wanted to pull that out of the script more. When I was video-ing Priya, and Lena is like, Youre awesome, youre amazing, thats how I am when Im helping my younger brother do an audition tape. Their dancing stupidly in the living room wasnt originally in the script, either. There are these moments that I have with my brothers that no one else understands.

Ritu, Im curious if you stayed in touch with Nida after you worked together on the We Are Lady Parts short.

RA: When We Are Lady Parts got green-lit as a series, scheduling meant I wasnt able to do it. But I was rooting for her. I feel like shes a soul sister. I think we met up a couple times for a coffee, and I did Doctor Who with her. Life happens and you get super-busy. Like anyone, the audition came through my agents. I didnt even know she had made this or was in the process of developing it. I wasnt sure if Id have to audition, because Id worked with her a couple of times, but no, I auditioned and got the part.

Sounds like it was serendipitous.

RA: Thats how it felt. When I went to audition for We Are Lady Parts, I remember feeling, This is bigger than me. Id actually written a script about an all-brown-girl punk band, and the lead character was called Zyra. When the audition came through for Lady Parts, I was like, Who the hell is this woman whos managed to hack my laptop? I was, like, suspicious. I went in there being like, Lets see how dodgy this is. When I got that part, Ive never cried so much. I knew it would be the beginning of a relationship that would mean a lot to me. I wouldnt be here now if it wasnt for that moment. We joke about it, how we helped each other manifest.

Photo: Saima Khalid/Focus Features

There are four action scenes that I think really capture the films hyperreal aesthetic, comedic tone, and the complexity of its choreography. Lets start with the first video that Ria and Lena film for Rias channel, Khan-Fu. Ria is trying to master a backward spin kick.

RA: I genuinely had so much love for Priya on that day, because it was really cold, and I was lucky enough to be wearing a big hoodie but she was wearing this small little ninja outfit. It was really early in the morning.

PK: In the script, Lena has a few words of encouragement, but Nida gave us the freedom to run with it. We just did it over and over and over again. It was kind of like improv. Whats the word?

RA: Riff.

PK: Thats it! You were just riffing. You smashed it, man.

RA: Oh my God, you smashed it. I remember one of the takes, I really wanted it to make it into the movie, but it didnt. We had to go back inside, and I was finding different methods for Lena to get Ria inside, and there was one where I was like [lowers her voice into a hushed yell], Theres a zombie attack! I acted like a zombie chasing after her. Maybe it was too weird, too fast, or too much of an homage to Edgar Wright.

Ritu, were you actually filming Priya with a cell phone during those Khan-Fu, I am the fury scenes?

RA: Oh, yeah, yeah. Ive got so many videos of her still, saying the same fucking thing. [Laughs] I shouldnt swear. All of you saying, I am the fury.

You brought up Edgar Wright. The Khan vs. Khan fight between Ria and Priya feels so Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, with the sisters throwing each other through walls.

PK: Its very Edgar Wrighty and Jackie Chan, in that we use the location and the props in the room, like the hair straightener. That was all very strictly choreographed. The fight tells so much story as well, because Lena just kicks Rias ass. Shes clearly a better fighter and the one that Ria learned from.

Do either of you have a favorite prop that you used during that fight? Lena shoving Rias face into the picture frame might have been my favorite.

PK: That was a really nice touch. Also, that picture 

RA: That picture is so weird!

PK: Awkward!

Nimra plays terrifying so well. She is going to be the next Bond villain; she has to be.

RA: Im doing this with my hand. [They lean in together to re-create the picture pose, with Aryas hand in an awkward position under her face.] We took so many pictures; why did they pick that one?

So you relished the opportunity to destroy it.

PK: Yeah, we kind of did! This wasnt a prop, but I really like the bite scene, too. That is one of my favorite performances of Ritus. I remember on the day, people were crying watching the monitors. You move people like I have seen nobody else do. You play Lena with depth and nuance that I dont think anybody even saw on the page. You created that. I remember being in that scene, and I was like, Ria wouldnt cry, but I am crying right now! I literally had to hold it together.

And the waxing scene, during which Raheela forces Ria to get waxed and is trying to intimidate her into no longer investigating Salim. Its shot like a James Bond torture sequence. Priya, are you actually getting waxed?

PK: We use honey; it wasnt wax. I grew out my leg hair for this scene, and even then, it just wasnt quite long enough. We wanted it to be comedically long. The scene starts with Nimra in the chair, and she rises from the dark into an Im doing my villain monologue situation. Theres a close-up of me screaming into the camera. I was like, I cant believe this is my job. This is what I do for a living, guys. That scene is very intense, and Nimra plays terrifying so well. She is going to be the next Bond villain; she has to be.

The waxing thing was really nostalgic. In South Asian culture especially, I was told, Dont shave, your hair will grow back thicker. My mom used to tell me that religiously. Going into the waxing, I was like, It is torture. When Id go to India and get my wax done, they would use a butter knife to put the wax onto my legs. This is the full Desi experience in my local village. I remember telling this to Nida when we were rehearsing: Can we use a butter knife? It was really fun to put our own spins on these things.

Nimra Bucha also plays an evil mom in Ms. Marvel. Shes clearly having so much fun in this film.

PK: She is one of the loveliest human beings on this planet, which is ironic, because she plays such an evil character. But shes made for the screen. Shes terrifying but also really sexy; I have a really big girl crush on her. She was there on set, asking the cleaners if they wanted cups of tea. After we wrapped, she invited me around. We really liked these tofu sandwiches that we used to get when we were rehearsing stunts. She remade those sandwiches for me. And as an actress, she brought some really fun ideas. It didnt matter how evil her character was being, she always had the time to check her hair and make sure she looked good.

RA: In this industry, I hate it, but you can feel like youre losing currency as a woman when you get older because there are so many more roles for younger people, and that can sometimes create bitterness. Thats a theme of the movie as well, what that can do to you. Thats what makes it so special and inspiring when people like Nimra and Shobu Kapoor, who play the moms, were just rooting for us. We felt so much love and support. It makes me so excited that thats how were progressing as a society and a culture.

Photo: Saima Khalid/Focus Features

In the films wedding fight scene, youre both fighting your way out of the reception hall in these beautiful and elaborate costumes. Did you have to practice with the outfits every time?

AR: I was super-excited, and then when I put on the wedding dress, I was like, How am I going to fight in this? Its so heavy! This was much easier in my joggers. Its a whole new skill  not just with the weight of the dress but also with the jewelry being such a hazard.

PK: It was dangerous! They had to pin the jewelry on to her so it wouldnt fly up and slap her in the face.

AR: Priyas braid kept whipping her in the face. It was a whole thing. I had these big industrial metal clips underneath the dress to try and hoist up the masses of petticoats so my leg could go up and do these high kicks. It was very cathartic, the scene where we kick all the aunties asses.

PK: The No, shame on you bit was 

Both: Ahh. [Laugh together.]

Also during the wedding, Priya, you re-create the choreography from the song Maar Dala, originally performed by actress Madhuri Dixit in the film Devdas. Were you familiar with the film?

PK: I remember watching Devdas when I was a kid. Seeing this in the script was one of the things I was most excited for: Im gonna live my childhood dream, be in a Bollywood sequence. We could be a little bit wacko with all the moves. I included the Marvel drop, and I wanted to do all the finger guns, slices, and chops. We worked really closely with the choreographer, Nileeka Bose. And there was a detail in the script that they do the dance quite shit-ly. None of the girls know what theyre doing, and Ria wants to make Salim uncomfortable. It was really fun to pay homage to this iconic Bollywood number but in a way that feels true to this film.

RA: I remember watching you do it in rehearsal. I was blown away. I remember Nida saying, Can you not make it as good? I just dont know if Ria would be as good at dancing as you are.

I feel like this is a role that Ive worked ten years to get.

What was the biggest challenge of shooting this film for you both?

PK: The stunt stuff was all very new to me, but I felt really passionate about doing as much of it as I possibly could because of how important that stuff is to Ria. Now, Im not a stuntwoman. I only started learning martial arts when I got the part for this film. There was one day in particular where Ria has this redemption moment and she does a big kick; it was the second-to-last day of the shoot. We were filming on a hill, so it made it harder because thats not how we rehearsed it. I was on a wire, and it was freezing cold. I couldnt quite get my legs straight.

After the scene wrapped, I went back to the greenroom and started crying because I felt like Id done the worst job in the world. Ritu came up to me and was like, I want you to remember that youre not a stuntwoman. My stunt double, Erin Rose, has years and years and years of martial-arts experience. Ritu was like, You know whats justice to Ria? She gets the best person for the job. Somebody whos capable of doing that bit justice. This is not about you. Im so thankful that you had that conversation with me. It reminded me to let go of my ego when it comes to how we feel about our characters and what we want to do for them.

RA: I had just been there when I was doing my first few stunts for Umbrella Academy. It was 4 a.m., and theyd left my stunts until that time. It was really hard in those circumstances to be able to get it.

It was hard playing Lena when shes passive; I try not to be like that in life. She doesnt listen to the people who love her. Shes not listening to Ria; shes sleepwalking through this wedding. That was a hard thing to yield to  but its what was needed. The story is the little sister saving her big sister, and that was at times tricky for me. But its a matter of believing in the whole story, and Im proud of that.

Do you remember what felt different about filming your last scenes together versus your first ones?

PK: The first scenes we filmed together were at the Eid soiree.

RA: In those first days, like any relationship or any friendship, youre curious and youre getting to know each other, and were also in this euphoric, giddy feeling of doing this movie we love with some people we love. Were pinching ourselves. I feel like this is a role that Ive worked ten years to get. By the end of the shoot, weve had days and days of hanging out together and crying and laughing and dancing and singing, so there was just more depth in our relationship. I felt like I could just be myself. I had such genuine care for your well-being. During the last scene we filmed, we were just holding each others hands.

PK: Taking moments together.

RA: Taking it in together.

PK: The last day of the shoot was the scene where the sisters have their burgers. We shot that in front of the London skyline. At that point, we both felt like we lived our dreams, and we got to do it together. Youre the other person on this journey who truly understands feeling lucky to have learned so much, to have explored so much through these characters. And then theres also that bittersweetness of, This is ending now. Now I have another sister in my life. That didnt end.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Amanda Seyfried and Jimmy Fallon. Photo-Illustration: Vulture. Photos: Getty Images; NBC

Hollywood royalty is on the side of labor. The Writers Guild of America called for a strike on May 2 after negotiations for fair pay and streaming-era regulations broke down, leaving late-night and variety television immediately impacted, the future of your favorite show an open question, reality and animated TV the only sure things  and no Pete Davidsonhosted SNL episode. Celebrities voiced their support for the strike in the days and weeks leading up to the anticipated walkout, but the first Monday in May proved to be the most fruitful moment to get them on the record about the then-potential seismic event. Everything changed with streaming, and everyone needs to be compensated for their work, Amanda Seyfried told Variety on the Met Gala red carpet. Its fucking easy. I dont get it. Jimmy Fallon, who also attended the fashion extravaganza, said he wouldnt have a show if it wasnt for my writers, and I support them all the way. Game of Thrones mastermind George R.R. Martin expressed support for the writers in a blog post: No one wanted this  no writer with an ounce of sense, anyway  but the producers and the studios and the networks and the streamers gave us no choice. Below are the celebrities in support of the writers strike and those on the front lines.

President Biden

"I sincerely hope the strike gets resolved, and writers are given a fair deal as soon as possible. This is an iconic, meaningful American industry & we need the writersand all the workersto tell the stories of our nation, and the stories of all of us." - @POTUS #WGAStrong #1u pic.twitter.com/cyH7HrTK6G  Writers Guild of America, East (@WGAEast) May 9, 2023

Jennifer Coolidge

Lisa Ann Walter

Lala Kent

Vanderpump Rules Star Lala Kent No Longer Attending MTV Movie & TV Awards Amid Writers Strike (Exclusive) https://t.co/yfO5EJxIXF  The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) May 4, 2023

Ben McKenzie

Drew Barrymore

Ziwe

exploiting laborers is very hater behavior  ziwe (@ziwe) May 4, 2023

Gina Prince-Bythewood

WHY IM STRIKING: We want everyone to succeed...but we want our fair share - Gina Prince-Bythewood, director, The Woman King, outside Warner Bros in Burbank today #WritersStrike pic.twitter.com/4PBDIQFuwV  Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 4, 2023

Timothy Simons

Why Im Striking: Ive never said a funny thing without a writer - Veep actor Timothy Simons tells Deadline outside of Netflix in LA today #WritersStrike pic.twitter.com/LFkv3uH9r2  Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 4, 2023

John Mulaney

Dermot Mulroney

Dermot Mulroney, SAG-AFTRA, and Robert Ramsey, WGA, on why theyre striking: You can hardly make a living anymore [in the entertainment industry]... #WritersStrike pic.twitter.com/XGl1rzVKUy  Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 4, 2023

Snoop Dogg

Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Cynthia Nixon

Cynthia Nixon at #WritersStrike in NYC today: I feel like its important to be out here because writers are some of my best friends and some of my heroes... pic.twitter.com/VxrRNiCMvF  Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 3, 2023

Mike Schur

WHY IM STRIKING: Writing as a career is under threat, Mike Schur tells Deadline on the picket line outside of the Paramount lot in LA today #WritersStrike pic.twitter.com/QhBW5FNtq3  Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 3, 2023

Bill Nye

Mark Hamill

I stand with @WGAWest and @WGAEast and fully support them in their strike.



"If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage."#WGAStrong  Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) May 2, 2023

Jay Leno

Jay Leno just came to Disney to hand out donuts to us writers. Thank you @jayleno for the solidarity!! #WGAStrong pic.twitter.com/4pq8kpWTSk  Caroline WGA Captain Renard (@carolinerenard_) May 2, 2023

Rob Lowe

Rob Lowe on the picket line outside of the Paramount lot in LA today: Were only as good as the writing we get #WritersStrike pic.twitter.com/x7UASNi1af  Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 2, 2023

Amanda Seyfried

Amanda Seyfried on the potential WGA strike: "My writer friends think it's going to happen." #MetGala https://t.co/OcPy5cjK1f pic.twitter.com/zkMT2aIqZU  Variety (@Variety) May 2, 2023

Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon on the potential writers strike: "I wouldn't have a show if it wasn't for my writers, and I support them all the way." https://t.co/m94XaFKHbE pic.twitter.com/oKLq4GrgkR  Variety (@Variety) May 2, 2023

Quinta Brunson

AI cant write Tariqs raps  pic.twitter.com/5VEbdXOj5F  j a d a (@jadawadas) May 3, 2023

Quinta Brunson, at the #MetGala, on the potential writers strike that could happen as soon as Tuesday.



"I'm a member of WGA [Writers Guild of America] and support WGA, and them getting  we, us  getting what we need." https://t.co/3Xv5AzigsM pic.twitter.com/1aDQsh8d0L  The Associated Press (@AP) May 1, 2023

Olivia Wilde

When Olivia Wilde was asked about the writers' strike she said:



"I support the writers," and "I support unions."



That's how it's done. pic.twitter.com/iObmQhBzGx  More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) May 2, 2023

Brian Tyree Henry

Brian Tyree Henry on the potential writers strike: I just hope that everyone is treated equallyPeople strike for a reason. #MetGala https://t.co/OcPy5cjK1f pic.twitter.com/5hq6gg85D2  Variety (@Variety) May 1, 2023

Edie Falco

Just spoke to Edie Falco who was supposed to appear at Peacock NewFront today to promote her new series. She will not cross our picket line and is canceling her appearance.

Thank you Edie. #UnionStrong #WGAStrong#SAGAFTRASolidarity  WGA Strike Captain Warren Leight (@warrenleightTV) May 2, 2023

Mindy Kaling

Seth Meyers

Boots Riley

U know hard I promote I'm A Virgo

Posting&reposting anything that helps do that.



That ALL stops soon as a #WGAStrike is called.



Its a move showrunners r making in hopes2make negotiations go faster.



Still hope ppl see the show, but I wont put in work for it during the strike.  Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) April 30, 2023

Melanie Lynskey

I stand with the WGA members voting to strike! The main thing any of us have to go on when choosing a project is the quality of the script. Its everything. There is no industry without writers. They deserve to be able to make a living! https://t.co/yeWxa1ALCv  Melanie Lynskey (@melanielynskey) April 11, 2023

Yvette Nicole Brown

Writers are ESSENTIAL. I stand with the @WGAWest. They deserve what they have been asking for. I pray the producers go back to the table with a deal they can say yes to. #WritersStrike #UnionSolidarity  https://t.co/Sd1LQb7DdV  yvette nicole brown (@YNB) May 2, 2023

Zach Cherry
Beastie Boys Story. Photo: Apple+

Dont have Apple TV+ yet?

Apple has spent a fortune on star-powered TV series, but it has grown its film database more carefully, picking up projects from film festivals like TIFF and Sundance or developing its own. One of its strongest sections is nonfiction filmmaking projects about musicians, celebrities, nature, and the state of the world, and directors like Spike Jonze, Todd Haynes, and David Guggenheim provide interesting windows into various fascinating subjects. Here are the nine documentaries most worth your time this weekend  a guide well keep regularly updated with the best picks on the streaming platform.

Beastie Boys Story

Year: 2020

Run time: 1h 59m

Director: Spike Jonze

A legend of the music-video scene and director of Her and Being John Malkovich, Spike Jonze brings a sharp eye to this filmed version of a stage show done by the two remaining members of the Beastie Boys, Mike D and Adam Horovitz. A conversation between the two intercut with clips from their youth, this is a funny, vibrant piece of filmmaking that ultimately becomes a moving examination of how people change as they mature but never lose that Beastie inside.

Beastie Boys Story

Billie Eilish: The Worlds a Little Blurry

Year: 2021

Run time: 2h 20m

Director: R. J. Cutler

Billie Eilish burst on to the scene as a fully formed pop star, making 2019s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? into an instant smash. Eilish was smart enough to allow a film to be produced during the creation of that album, so this is a companion piece of sorts to her breakthrough hit, but its more than just fan service. An illuminating look at a young person who needs to create to express herself, its a smart, revealing peek behind the curtain.

Billie Eilish: The Worlds a Little Blurry

Boys State

Year: 2020

Run time: 1h 49 m

Directors: Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine

Politics are formed early in life. If you need proof, just watch this riveting documentary about more than 1,000 teenage boys who attend a program in Texas that forces them to build a government from scratch. Its fascinating to see young men become politicians  in both the positive and negative intonations of that word. Winner of the U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance in 2020, this was one of Apples early acclaimed hits.

Boys State

Bruce Springsteens Letter to You

Year: 2020

Run time: 1h 30m

Director: Thom Zimny

One of the most important musicians has reached a fascinating stage of his career, looking back over his personal and professional personas with the voice of a poet. Bruce Springsteens 2020 album, Letter to You, is a late-career masterpiece, an unpacking of life and death in a reunion with the E Street Band for the first time since 2014. This excellent music doc chronicles its production with a big heart.

Bruce Springsteens Letter to You

Dads

Year: 2020

Run time: 1h 20m

Director: Bryce Dallas Howard

The star of Jurassic World knows a thing or two about having a famous dad, and she used her relationship with Ron Howard to help shape this directorial debut, a look at what its like to be a father in the 2020s. Bryce Dallas Howard interviews famous dads and sons like Jimmy Fallon, Judd Apatow, Will Smith, Kenan Thompson, Jimmy Kimmel, and, of course, her own pop. The film can feel a little insulated in its look at largely privileged people, but its telling that issues between fathers and sons are so universal.

Dads

The Elephant Queen

Year: 2019

Run time: 1h 36m

Directors: Mark Deeble, Victoria Stone

The first documentary produced by Apple was actually a nature film, a study of elephants on the African savanna that should appeal to fans of projects like Planet Earth. Once again, the creators here keep their distance, allowing subjects to exist without interference. We are merely observers of Athena, a 50-year-old elephant and matriarch of a group of pachyderms. This is a moving look at some of the planets most majestic creatures.

The Elephant Queen

Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds

Year: 2020

Run time: 1h 37m

Directors: Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer

Who better to examine the impact of interstellar bodies on the planet Earth than one of its most ardent documentarians, the brilliant Werner Herzog. The director of Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams teams up with Clive Oppenheimer in this examination of meteorites. The pair traveled to 12 different locations on six continents to unpack not just the science behind these fireballs but the cultural importance theyve had for centuries.

Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds

Louis Armstrongs Black & Blues

Year: 2022

Run time: 1h 46m

Director: Sacha Jenkins

One of the founders of jazz gets a bio doc that largely uses his own words to tell his life story. Louis Armstrong was billed as the U.S.s first pop star, and Sacha Jenkinss approach is to not only detail his musical impact but how he shaped society and culture with his unique voice and personality. Louis Armstrong was an American icon, and this film gives the legend his flowers.

Louis Armstrongs Black & Blues

The Velvet Underground

Year: 2021

Run time: 2h

Director: Todd Haynes

The director of Velvet Goldmine and Im Not There once again approaches a pivotal chapter in music history with his unique flair and craftsmanship. This telling of the life and success of the Velvet Underground embraces their avant garde influence by unfolding in a unique form  cut together with the spirit of their music. Premiering at Cannes in 2021, this is one of Apples most esteemed projects.

The Velvet Underground
Six-zero-zero. Photo: Jessica Miglio/Marvel

The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 promotional tour is going for broke: Last month, director James Gunn dropped the entire movie soundtrack in a Spotify playlist, then revealed that Chris Pratt is capable of saying the word fuck. (Congrats to all who celebrate!) Gunn now has a new revelation: When his new movie hits theaters this weekend, fans will be watching one of apparently more than 600 distinct versions of it. Six-zero-zero. The Guardians film you see in one theater wont be the same as one you watch in another. Huh?

This isnt a Blade Runner or Brazil situation, thankfully. Releasing hundreds of versions of the same film to theaters isnt unusual these days  if were talking about big-budget, effects-driven blockbusters. Its definitely the most complex delivery Marvels ever done, Evan Jacobs, Disneys VP of Finishing and Stereo, told The Hollywood Reporter, and Disney wants theaters to maximize their screen size for the audience. So wherever you go to see it, youre gonna see the best version.

To the casual moviegoer, it may seem like the simplest thing in the world to switch on a projector and hit play, but as weve reported before, theaters are more complicated than that, and no studio exec wants the release of a $250 million franchise film to go visibly awry. Preparing cuts tailored to the sound, local languages, aspect ratios, and screen sizes permitted by theaters has become part of the worldwide release process. For reference, more than a thousand versions of Avatar: The Way of Water were sent to theaters for its release. As THR notes, its typical for hundreds of discrete versions of Marvel films to be sent to theaters, though 600 is the most theyve sent. This process is related to the choice of whether to see a film in Imax  remember the confusing, seven-option rollout of Denis Villeneuves Dune? Its a similar deal here but at a much larger, less immediately perceptible scale. The variations from one Imax-3D theater to another may not be so drastic, but theoretically, movies are optimized for that theater to the best of the studios and distributors ability.

In the case of Guardians 3, Gunn apparently had a hand in preparing those 600 delivery versions  as he did in making Imax versions for his previous Guardians films. Hes essentially said, Im gonna pop in and out creatively [and youll] suddenly see something more immersive and bigger, thats going to fill your screen, Jacobs told THR. Some versions will be shown with a variable aspect ratio, in which about 45 minutes of the movie expand vertically from a letterboxed 2.39:1 ratio to a flat 1.85:1  a change that might be timed to the visual, thematic, or musical demands of a given scene. Some select standard-format theaters will present this version, while most will show the film in 2.39:1 all the way through. Another 1.90:1 version was prepared for the Imax crowd.

Stanley Kubrick's letter to projectionists for showings of Barry Lyndon in 1975. pic.twitter.com/pZO9zbkjOq  Don Winslow (@donwinslow) July 24, 2022

If that all sounds overly technical, its worth noting that directors have long seen distribution as an integral part of filmmaking itself. People like Gunn, Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, and James Cameron typically attach letters to their films detailing how they should be shown. In 1975, Stanley Kubrick released Barry Lyndon with an exacting, ten-point memo specifying the lamberts onscreen and how the score should be played (on an LP): An infinite amount of care was given to the look of Barry Lyndon; the photography, the sets, the costumes; and in the careful color grading and overall lab quality of the prints, and the soundtrack, he wrote. All of this work is now in your hands.

The idea is that the same care will go into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3  whether you wind up screening version No. 1 or 598. On Twitter, Gunn actually downplayed the 600 number, writing,  I think of it more as maybe 10 versions but it still seemed like a lot to oversee. Presumably, the tweaks beyond those ten versions are so minor that they wont materially change your experience. Just hope that Chris Pratts f-bomb sticks around in most of them.
White House Plumbers The Beverly Hills Burglary Season 1 Episode 1 Editors Rating 2 stars * * Previous Next   Previous Episode Next Episode  Photo: HBO/PHIL CARUSO@

About halfway through the first episode of the new HBO miniseries White House Plumbers, G. Gordon Liddy and his wife, Fran  played by Justin Theroux and the impeccably outlandish Judy Greer, respectively  have Gordons co-worker E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and his wife, Dorothy (Lena Headey), over for dinner.

In lieu of a little light music, Liddy puts on a record of Hitlers speechifying, which he finds as stirring as Dot finds it repulsive. The volume is comically loud. Everyones screaming to be heard. The Liddys are oblivious to the offense theyre causing; Howard is a WWII vet and his wife was a CIA agent involved in recovering stolen art. The Hunts, bound by collegial politesse, wont object to their host blasting Nazi invective into their eardrums alongside the cheese plate. Its completely deranged and hysterical, just a few centimeters past preposterous. (It helps the joke along if you know that Liddy really did say that listening to Hitler recordings as a boy made me feel a strength inside I had never known before.)

Then a local kid throws an egg at the house. Liddy runs upstairs, grabs a gun, and jumps from a second-floor window to surprise and terrorize the egg assailant while Hitler barks. Despite the unflinching physicality Theroux brings to his role, this is not funny. Its kind of stupid. Even if it really happened, it feels stupid to watch it. Theres too much happening at the same time. I already get that Liddys an idiot, but all of a sudden, there is confusion about what kind of idiot he is. The central proposition of White House Plumbers is the largely accepted one that the criminal masterminds behind the Watergate scandal were actually clumsy buffoons, which would be a more amusing conceit if they didnt also completely derail American democracy, seeding distrust in the government and in elections that persists today. Not all Watergate films need to be gravely serious  Im a big fan of the satirical teen comedy Dick  but White House Plumbers, at least in the first hour, flits so excessively between dark comedy and broad comedy, irony and slapstick, that its overall effect on me was bewilderment.

The series opens on a night that only threatens to be familiar to audiences of All the Presidents Men. Gordon and Howard are poised at the entrance to D.C.s Watergate office building, but they wont be able to break in to DNC headquarters because they havent brought the right tools to pick the door lock. In fact, this is the teams second attempt, and they wont actually cross the threshold until attempt No. 4. Everything the first episode of White House Plumbers teaches you about the men responsible for the biggest scandal in U.S. political history, you can basically glean from this scene. Its such a succinct depiction of what follows that Im sort of shocked they didnt cut it. It renders the rest of the episode redundant. And its more controlled tone  black and irreverent  makes all the farcical stuff that comes next feel chaotic.

Still, we rewind about a year. Howard, a disgraced former CIA agent, is putting in long boring days at a PR firm and writing novels on the side. At home, he rails against Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, which Howard believes ended his career at the agency. Like many a disgruntled suburban dad, he spends long periods of time in the basement, mostly ignoring his four children, who conspicuously call him Papa and not Dad or, as I would have guessed, Sir. Its Dot who runs the ship at home, managing their brood and typing up Howards pulpy potboilers at the kitchen table. When Charles Colson  Nixons White House lawyer  calls, Howard assumes hes on the verge of a comeback. In the aftermath of the Pentagon Papers, Nixon told Charles to bring in a real son of a bitch to investigate the leak, hence the cutesy code name: White House Plumbers.

This is, to some extent, a political series, which means that, in homage to Aaron Sorkin, our characters must walk-and-talk down the hallowed corridors of American governance. As Howard gets ushered back into favor, were treated to a whos who of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the federal office building in which most people who say they work at the White House actually work.

Theres Nixon stooge Bud Krogh, a deputy assistant responsible for onboarding Howard, played by Rich Sommer (in real life, Kroghs memoir was part of the inspiration for this series). Domhnall Gleeson plays White House counsel John Dean. And then, of course, Howard meets Gordon, an eccentric ex-FBI agent, who will be his partner in crime. None of these men are individual characters at this point  just blowhards with a collective distaste for commies. And they all think theyre the one in charge of a special project to discredit Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who released a classified Pentagon investigation into the Vietnam War to the press. Gary Cole plays G-man Mark Felt, the only guy we meet who has no interest in helping the plumbers (and who, decades later, will be revealed to be Deep Throat in Bob Woodward and Carl Bernsteins reporting).

Big-sky thinkers Howard and Gordon concoct a scheme to break in to Ellsbergs psychiatrists office to see if maybe he confessed his Russian allegiances to his shrink. But they spend more time bickering about whether to call the mission a black-bag op or just a black op than they do planning the top-secret scheme. White House Plumbers is the story of two unexceptional men finding friendship and failing up. They recon the doctors Beverly Hills office in ludicrous yet entirely penetrable disguises. They take photos of themselves on a camera borrowed from the CIA but then forget to take the film out before returning it. Not so top secret after all.

When it comes to conducting the actual theft of Ellsbergs medical records, Howard recruits some of the Cuban operatives he worked with back in his CIA days to do the job for free. But theres no plan B in case the doctors cleaner happens to lock the back door or if the doctors filing cabinet cant be opened, both of which happen on the night of the attempted burglary. The walkie-talkies dont work. Howard, who is meant to be staking out the shrink, loses him. A low-speed car chase leaves Gordon covered in two hot coffees, which didnt really work for me as a gag but left my husband in hysterics. (Its because its two coffees, he patiently explained.)

In the end, the Cubans completely trash the doctors office but still dont find the file. Not that it matters  the LAPD improbably attributes the crime to drug-seeking junkies, and Nixons people approve of Gordon and Howards tactics even if they didnt get results this time around. The Bozo Brothers are moved off the White House roster and onto the payroll of CREEP. Forget traitors. Now, Gordon and Howard are in the crucial business of keeping Nixon president by whatever means necessary. You impressed the right people, Dean tells the boys just after Nixon fires Krogh for being unable to stomach the darker electoral arts. He gives them a million dollars to put toward espionage and sabotage, electronic surveillance, and better walkie-talkies. Its so much money that the Plumbers absolutely should have sprung for the full suite of lock-picking tools, but like the shows cold open itself, Im jumping too far ahead.

Lingering among the scenes in which two American idiots jump-start dead careers are glimpses of Gordon and Howard and their families  moments which, to some extent, transform them into real people. In these scenes, Gordon is more than a blundering weirdo; hes a Nazi who makes his kids line up on the stairs like the von Trapps and rehearse how they greet colleagues such as Howard when they come to dinner. Gordons still a caricature  dont get me wrong  but its all somehow sadder.

And sadder even still is the Hunts homelife. Howard and Dorothys daughter, Lisa, was in a car accident a few years ago and continues to suffer from PTSD. She wants to quit college, but her dad wont let her. Meanwhile, the couples younger sons are disconcertingly adept at managing and avoiding the conflict in their house. At one point, Dot tells Howie that they need to have a serious talk, but we cant be sure what its about because it never happens. The closest they come to intimacy is bad sex, which Howard initiates after a flight attendant slips him her number on the flight back from Beverly Hills. Howard doesnt finish until Dorothy agrees to call him Edward in bed, the code name he was using on his successful/unsuccessful L.A. mission.

Created by Veep writers Peter Huyck and Alex Gregory and directed by another Veep alum, David Mandel, White House Plumbers occasionally elicits laughs worthy of that series. But mostly, the pilot had me thinking about Scandal, another show about the distressing underbelly of U.S. politics. Shonda Rhimes has said her show worked, in part, because Obama was president and the country was optimistic. You can always tell any horror story you want to when the light is on, she said in 2017, reflecting on scripting political drama in the age of Trump. But now the lights are off, and now I think people dont want to watch horror stories; they want you to light a candle somewhere.

I dont think anyone watching White House Plumbers will fail to see the parallels between the cynicism of what happened with Watergate (or didnt happen three times, and then finally happened) and the state of politics today, in which Trump is leading in the Republican polls after, well, everything that happened after the last election and the one before that.

But after the first episode, its hard to trust the show has a candle  or even just a matchbook  at the ready.
Lactalis Canada

Highlights progress on ESG priorities and contributions to the wellbeing of people, planet and communities it serves

Lactalis Canada Releases 2022 ESG Report

Lactalis Canada 2022 ESG Report highlights progress on ESG priorities and contributions to the wellbeing of people, planet and communities it serves.

TORONTO, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lactalis Canada, the Canadian dairy leader behind iconic brands like Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond, Balderson, Astro and Lactantia and a subsidiary of France-based Lactalis Group, today released Lactalis Canadas 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report which highlights the companys drive to embed real and meaningful change across the organization and contribute to the wellbeing of the people, planet and communities it serves.



Lactalis Canadas 2022 ESG Report is a roadmap to transform our business even as we grow, innovate and adapt to evolving global circumstances and is designed to enable responsible and profitable growth and deliver value for all Lactalis Canada stakeholders  our people, consumers, customers, suppliers, dairy farmers, governments, industry and community partners, said Mark Taylor, President & CEO, Lactalis Canada. Our report also outlines our efforts to advance three priorities to meet the evolving expectations of our customers and Canadian consumers  circular economy and packaging, climate action, and animal welfare.

Lactalis Canadas report is directly aligned with the companys global ESG framework set by Lactalis Group, focusing on three key pillars of impact: People & Communities; Authentic Products & Heritage; and Land & Resources. In 2022, Lactalis Canada continued to integrate sustainable business practices into the day-to-day management of the company, improving its performance across these pillars:

People & Communities

Nurtured diverse and inclusive culture, creating employee-led and leadership championed DE&I Council and launching DE&I focused training initiative.

Enhanced employee engagement and investments in wellness programs, including biometric screening and mental health training. Earned a place on Forbes 2022 list of Canadas Best Employers for the second consecutive year.

Established new Safety Executive Council and improved year-over-year safety incident rate by 20%.

Invested over $2.6 million to more than 50 charitable organizations across the country, including contribution of nearly one million litres/kilograms of nutritious high-quality milk and dairy products; donated equivalent of 3.4 million meals to food banks and feeding programs across the country.

Launched Lactalis Canada Community Enrichment Fund to empower each of Lactalis Canadas operational sites to make meaningful impact at the local level through participation and support of community programs.



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Authentic Products & Heritage

Supported launch of Lactalis Groups Act for Quality worldwide initiative, aiming to set industry benchmark for food safety and product quality in Canada.

Advanced implementation of ambitious animal welfare practices and programs by contributing to Lactalis Group Animal Welfare Policy and modernization of the Canadian Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Dairy Cattle.

Made measurable progress in reducing amount of sugar and salt across product portfolio, and continued to advance clean label initiatives to simplify ingredient declarations on products, including removal of artificial colours and flavours across a variety of products.

Continued to expand Canadian and local sourcing programs, adopting several well-known assurance seals such as Blue Cow logo, and Made in Ontario and Aliments du Quebec certifications.

Land & Resources

Reduced Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions intensity by 10% over three years, and lowered consumption of natural gas, through equipment upgrades, replacement projects and better management practices.

Reduced carbon footprint and fossil fuel consumption, achieving a 75% reduction in carbon emissions (CO 2 eq) in transport activities across the east to west corridor.

Through better eco-design, reduced amount of corrugated packaging used by over 41,000 kg and amount of plastic by more than 20,000 kg.

Converted 4,407 tonnes of organic solids waste into 2,200 cubic metres of biogas, which can be used as energy recovery and avoiding its discharge into landfill.

We know our success is not measured by our words, but by our actions. Many opportunities and challenges lie ahead for both our company and our industry, added Taylor. We are proud of the progress weve made, but we recognize there are areas where we need to improve to achieve our targets. We will continue to evolve Our Plan and be guided by our core values, our key stakeholders, and by the global insights and best practices of the Lactalis Group.

To read Lactalis Canadas 2022 ESG Report click here.

About Lactalis Canada Inc.

With 140 years of brand heritage, Lactalis Canada is committed to enriching and nurturing the lives of Canadians by producing nutritious and great tasting dairy products. Named on Forbes list of Canadas Best Employers, Lactalis Canada directly employs more than 4,000 employees, supports hundreds of farming families and contributes to the livelihoods of thousands of Canadians who provide essential services to Lactalis Canada's more than 30 operating sites including 19 manufacturing facilities. The companys iconic brands include Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond, P'tit Quebec, Balderson, Cheestrings Ficello, aMOOza!, Astro, Khaas, siggis, IOGO, IOGO nano, Olympic, Lactantia, Beatrice, Galbani, and President. Lactalis Canada is part of Lactalis Group, the worlds leading dairy company, headquartered in Laval, France. For more information, visit www.lactalis.ca.

Media Contact:

Sarah Sutton

Manager, Corporate Communications, Lactalis Canada

sarah.sutton@ca.lactalis.com

c: (437) 249-2730

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1662d962-4259-45ee-a8a7-3c5d2d3a28a9




MADISON  The next presidential election will take shape on the shores of Lake Michigan now that Democrats have chosen Chicago to host their 2024 national convention, taking place a month after Republicans will gather in Milwaukee to nominate their presidential nominee.

National Democrats will convene in the Democratic stronghold of Illinois four years after organizing and then calling off the 2020 national convention that was supposed to take place in Milwaukee but was ultimately carried out mostly virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee gave a nod to the importance of Wisconsin and other Midwestern states to its presidential strategy.

"The DNC is returning to the Midwest, a critical Democratic stronghold: Illinois along with Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota  part of the blue wall  were crucial to the 2020 victory of President Biden and Vice President Harris and to Democrats success in the 2022 midterm elections," party officials said in a statement.

More: Wisconsin House delegation seeks 50% bump in money to cover Milwaukee's security costs for the Republican National Convention

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Madison who will likely be on the ballot in 2024, said Tuesday the recent state Supreme Court race underscored the region's role in Democratic victories.

"The decisive results we saw in our Supreme Court race last week prove that Democrats win when they invest in the Midwest. Thats exactly what our party is doing by hosting our convention here," Baldwin tweeted.

The decision was announced Tuesday after President Joe Biden signaled his support of Chicago over Atlanta and New York City.

Chicago is a great choice to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention, said Biden, who has said he plans to run for re-election in 2024. Democrats will gather to showcase our historic progress including building an economy from the middle out and bottom up, not from the top down."

Story continues

The Democrats' national convention will take place at the United Center in downtown Chicago from August 19-22 in 2024. Republicans will gather in Milwaukee from July 15 to July 18 largely at Fiserv Forum in the city's downtown.

Fiserv Forum will serve as the centerpiece for the convention, along with a newly expanded Wisconsin Center. Delegates are expected to be housed within 30 minutes of the main convention sites.

More: Milwaukee will host a Republican presidential primary debate, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel confirms

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who lobbied heavily for the Republicans to bring their convention to the city, said Milwaukee could also benefit from the Democratic convention in Chicago.

With the Republicans selecting Milwaukee and Democrats choosing Chicago, it is clear the Midwest is front-and-center this Presidential election cycle. Im happy for Chicago, and I will certainly extend an invitation to Democratic convention goers to come on up to Milwaukee.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in December: "We look forward to our continued work with the beautiful city of Milwaukee to make this convention week a success. Republicans will stand united in Milwaukee in 2024 to share our message of freedom and opportunity with the world."

The local host committee, headed by Reince Priebus, a former White House chief of staff under ex-President Donald Trump, is responsible for raising funds for the event, with a target of $65 million.

On Tuesday, McDaniel said "we look forward to the DNCs convention where their radical agenda will be on full display for the world to see."

"Voters will soundly reject whichever out-of-touch liberal the Democrats nominate in Chicago and instead elect our Republican nominee as the next President of the United States," she said.

Alison Dirr of the Journal Sentinel contributed.

Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Chicago to host DNC a month after Republicans gather in Milwaukee
Baths of Diocletian hosts Listante e leternita. Tra noi e gli antichi from 4 May until 30 July.

An ancient ceremonial carriage discovered at Civita Giuliana near Pompeii is one of the star attractions in a major new exhibition at the National Museum of Rome - Baths of Diocletian.

The newly-restored chariot, believed to have been used in ceremonies such as weddings, is among 300 Roman, Greek and Etruscan artefacts included in the exhibition which runs from 4 May until 30 July.

Many of the works are on display for the first time, including the Civita Giuliana chariot and the newly-unearthed statue of Hercules from the Appia Antica Archaeological Park in Rome.

Alle Terme romane di Diocleziano la mostra LIstante e lEternita

Al #Tg5 #cultura pic.twitter.com/vCFVgKbWjl  Gennaro Sangiuliano (@g_sangiuliano) May 2, 2023

Other treasures on show include the Tabula Chigi from the Roman National Museum and numerous masterpieces usually kept in storage in Italy and Greece, including the Kore of Thera statue.

The casts of two anonymous men who perished after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius almost 2,000 years ago are also included in the exhibition which is supported by the culture ministries of Italy and Greece.
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Dublin, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Latin America MNO Directory 2023-2024" directory has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This database will help telecom service providers interested in doing business with mobile network operators throughout Latin America.

The latest 'Latin America MNO Directory' features over 133+ operators from over 39 countries.

The product is known among industry stalwarts as the most trusted resource for gaining backdoor access to decision-makers holding influential positions within operator businesses.

The 2023 special edition offers a new design and almost 3 times the number of management contacts as compared to the older edition. Over the past 14 years, these Directories have paved the way for telecom vendor businesses to connect with mobile operators/service providers and enabled thousands of business connections and collaborations to flourish.

Latin America MNO Directory is carved out as a niche product that specifically helps 'service providers to mobile operators' obtain and gain new business. Featuring important operator business info to contacts of key executives holding influential roles, the Directory offers the following information for any mobile operator business across Latin America:

Operator Details - Registered Name, Brand, Region, Market Share (%), Ownership, Group Information

Business Details - Network portfolio, Subscribers/ Growth Trend, Network Penetration, Technologies offered, Contact Details.

Online presence - website/ URL

CXO/Management/Decision-Makers/Influencer contacts

Formats Available - PDF & Excel

What's special about the 2023-2024 edition:

Whole Latin America covered: 133+ Operators from over 39 countries

100% Anti-Spam US Law, European GDPR, Latin American Laws compliant

1100+ CXO/Management/Decision-making contacts: Up to 300% more contacts than the previous edition

Available in PDF & Excel: New user friendly PDF & campaign friendly XLS design

First time with detailed Executive Summary & Questions Answered: Giving a clear and precise understanding of the Latin American telecom market to corporates.

1-Update free of cost (subject to availability)

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For more information about this directory visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/5q7pi6

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Starbucks set to open in centre of Rome on 11 May.

Starbucks is preparing to open a new outlet opposite the Italian parliament in central Rome, as the American multinational coffee chain continues to expand in Italy.

Works are currently underway to refurbish the building on Via della Guglia, with the new outlet set to open on Thursday 11 May according to Gambero Rosso.

Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports that Starbucks will celebrate its opening day by staying open from 07.00 until 21.00.

The arrival of Starbucks in the historic centre of the Italian capital is heralded with a "Coming Soon" sign on the building, located just off Piazza Montecitorio.

The venue, formerly a bar-restaurant, is just steps away from the chamber of deputies or the lower house of the Italian parliament.

The building's facade boasts a Starbucks advert with a picture of two women sipping coffee alongside a message, in Italian, that says: "Like being among friends".

Starbucks gets ready to open in front of the Italian parliament in Rome. pic.twitter.com/1l5ERDRqxY  Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) April 29, 2023

The news comes after recent rumours of a possible Starbucks opening in Galleria Alberto Sordi, a shopping mall on the central Via del Corso currently undergoing major renovations.

The rumour was fuelled by an advert by Percassi, the sole licensee partner with Starbucks in Italy, which read: "Starbucks continues to grow and one of its next stops will be in Rome, where we will soon open a new welcoming store in the centre."

Starbucks had sought baristas and managers for both the new outlet in the city centre as well as at its first outlet in the greater Rome area, at the Castel Romano shopping mall, where it launched in April 2022.

In September La Repubblica newspaper reported that Starbucks was planning to open a 600-m outlet near Rome's Termini station, with an eye on the tourists and pilgrims set to arrive in Rome for the Vatican's Jubilee Year in 2025.

The chain had intended to launch near the Vatican in 2020, at the former Maraldi bookshop on Via dei Bastioni di Michelangelo, however this plan was reportedly abandoned due to the covid pandemic.

There were also rumours that Starbucks would open in Rome's central Piazza S. Silvestro - another high-density tourist area - in the Palazzo Marignoli building that houses the new flagship Apple store.

Starbucks launched in Italy in 2018, opening at Piazza Cordusio in Milan, and in October 2021 it announced plans to open more than 20 new stores in Italy by the end of 2023.

The company made international headlines in February when it launched the new Starbucks "Oleato" range of olive oil-infused coffee drinks in Italy.

Photo credit: Chutima Chaochaiya / Shutterstock.com
Former governor of Delaware to serve in Rome.

US president Joe Biden has nominated Jack Markell as Washington's new ambassador to Italy, filling a post left vacant for more than two years, according to Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Markell, 62, will come to Rome after serving as US ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based role he has held since January 2022.

In 2021 Markell was the White House coordinator of Operation Allies Refuge which helped to evacuate Afghan civilians after the US military withdrew from Afghanistan.

An adviser and close friend of President Biden, Markell is a member of the Democratic Party and served two terms as governor of Delaware from 2009 to 2017.

Born in Newark in 1960, Markell is married to Carla Smathers with whom he has two children in their twenties.

Markell's predecessor in Rome, Lewis Eisenberg, nominated by former US president Donald Trump, completed his mandate in January 2021.

During a visit to Rome last summer, the then speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi sparked speculation that she was set to become American ambassador to Italy, however the rumours were dismissed as "utter nonsense" by her office.
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  The president of long-haul carrier Emirates suggested on Tuesday that it could reach deals with more firms to share routes after the start of a similar arrangement with U.S.-based United Airlines. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Tim Clark, who joined the airline in 1985 when it was first launched, also suggests Emirates remains ready for expansion as the carrier again takes flight following the grounding during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to journalists at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, Clark said that the United deal  as well as one with Air Canada  showed that carriers were no longer just looking at Emirates as a dastardly competitor. U.S. airlines had complained for years about unequal competition from Mideast carriers, describing them as receiving unfair government subsidies to operate.

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Emirates, though owned by Dubais hereditarily ruled government, always denied having an unfair advantage. United had been one of the American firms challenging Emirates, though a deal in recent years saw the dispute dropped. United now flies as well to Dubai, a destination it abandoned in 2016 amid the dispute.

Clark hinted that other airlines could reach similar route deals with Emirates, known in the aviation industry as code-share partnerships.

Im not going to say who they are because its early days, but clearly the doors been opened, he said.

Clark separately said he welcomed new competition from Saudi Arabia as well, which recently announced plans to create a new carrier called Riyadh Air as part of trillions of dollars worth of spending planned in the kingdom.

Meanwhile, Clark said Emirates hoped to receive new aircraft from Boeing Co. in the coming two years, some 150 777Xs and 30 787 Dreamliners. Emirates also has 50 Airbus A350-900s on order.

While waiting for the orders, Emirates is carrying out retrofits on its fleet of double-decker Airbus A380s. Some still remain grounded since the pandemic. Clark said he hopes theyll all get off the ground by next summer.

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Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

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Thailand is heading into a general election  the second since a 2014 putsch  with a group of ex-generals and their associated parties seeking to extend their nearly decade-long reign. The former coup leaders have a clear head start before even a single vote is cast, as they enjoy the support of their handpicked Senate, which plays a big role in determining the next prime minister. Still, voters are unhappy about the soaring cost of living and record household debt in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Young people have also become more vocal in their demands for better jobs and more freedom of expression in the wake of street protests a couple years ago. Such hot-button issues, on top of changes to voting rules, might give the opposition a better shot this time at ousting Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha and his pro-establishment regime.

1. Will Thailands election be democratic?

The vote, set for May 14, is the second being held under the 2017 charter drafted by allies of the military rulers. They stayed in power in the first vote, in 2019, even though they were well short of a majority in the House of Representatives. The deciding factor then was the 250-member Senate, an appointed body that they gave a big say in the selection of premier. The upper house has the same role this time, so a junta-backed candidate who sweeps the Senate needs just 126 votes in the 500-seat House of Representatives to take office. On the other hand, opposition parties would need to win 75% of the lower house seats to offset the Senates weight. That seems a tall order. Still, the Senate might find it difficult to go against the popular mandate in the event a single party or alliance secures a majority of elected lawmakers. A new leader will need a royal endorsement from King Maha Vajiralongkorn, seen as a mere formality, before he or she can take the job.

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2. Whats dominating the election discourse?

Its the economy. Most parties are touting economic policies to tackle the high cost of living and household debt, as well as raise near-stagnant wages, create better-paying jobs and increase crop prices. Thailands post-pandemic recovery has been the weakest in Southeast Asia, with just 2.6% growth last year, compared with 8.7% and 7.4% for Malaysia and Vietnam, respectively. The only bright spot is a better-than-expected rebound in tourism, which provides jobs to about 20% of the workforce and accounts for 12% of gross domestic product. That should pick up further this year with the expected return of Chinese tourists, freed from Covid Zero restraints at home. But a global slowdown is hurting Thai exports and a strong dollar is once again pummeling the baht and driving foreign investors away.

3. What differentiates the two camps?

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The pro-military, royalist parties are highlighting the relative stability since the coup in 2014 and the repositioning of the economy into a manufacturing hub for green industries such as electric vehicles, smart electronics and chips, which has the potential to generate hundreds of thousands of jobs. Its also committed billions of dollars to building high-speed railway lines, including a connection to China via Laos. The opposition has accused Prayuths administration of failing to stem corruption and mismanaging the economy during the pandemic. It also says democratic values and freedom of expression have been casualties since the coup, and points to the squashing of youth-led street protests before and during the pandemic.

4. Who are the key players?

Prayuth, who has joined a new political party, the United Thai Nation party, is again the man to watch. While the former general trails some of the other possible candidates, hes built an image as a clean administrator, totally loyal to the monarchy and religion. Hes widely expected to win Senate support if his party wins enough seats and puts his name forward. (In Thailand, only nominated candidtes for premier from a party that secures at least 5% of seats are eligible for the top job.) Former military chief Prawit Wongsuwan is another contender for the top job, though his Palang Pracharath party has seen a lot of defections ahead of the elections. The Pheu Thai party linked to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by an earlier coup and now lives in exile in Dubai, was leading in early surveys. His daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, was an early frontrunner but saw her approval rating drop after she took a break from campaigning to give birth to her second child. Pita Limjaroenrat and his progressive Move Forward saw a late surge as campaigning gained momentum. But the partys been seen as politically untouchable for the other parties because of its push for changes to the monarchy to conform with democratic principles and liberal stance on social issues. Anutin Charnvirakul, the leader of the Bhumjaithai Party and the force behind the decriminalization of marijuana last year, is seen by some analysts as a potential kingmaker.

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5. What happens after the vote?

Preliminary results will be available on the same night of the polling, but the formation of a government will likely take months. With Thailand returning to a dual ballot system  one for a constituency candidate and another for a party  large parties should have an edge. Thats expected to help military-linked Palang Pracharath, which won the most votes in 2019, as well as Pheu Thai, which led the elected government that was overthrown in the 2014 coup. Pheu Thai is rooted in poor, rural regions in the north and northeast and has long riled Thailands urban establishment and royalist elite. It or its previous incarnations have taken the most seats in every election in the past two decades, even if it finished second in the popular vote in 2019. But Pheu Thai is unlikely to win enough to form a government on its own, given the Senates role. That might open the door for the pro-establishment parties to cobble together a coalition. Though the militarys ranks have splintered, a fractured mandate might bring them back together to thwart the other parties.

6. What happened to youth-led protests?

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The demonstrations that swept the streets of Bangkok and other Thai cities in 2020 and 2021 broke a long-held taboo with their call for changes to the monarchy and a loosening of the so-called lese-majeste laws, which criminalize insults against the king and close family members. Following a crackdown by the Prayuth administration, the movement has withered, with many of the leaders either in jail or out on bail. Some of the activists, however, are running in the election with the Move Forward party.

7. Is cannabis legalization an issue?

Thailand became the first in Asia to decriminalize cannabis, leading to a mushrooming of dispensaries selling everything from buds to marijuana-laced food and drinks to cosmetics. While the government touted liberalization as a way to promote it as a cash crop for medical use and lift farmer incomes, the haphazard manner of legalizing it left plenty of loopholes. Some ruling coalition members as well as the opposition have been demanding an outright ban on cannabis use for recreational purposes or an effort to re-criminalize the plant, citing its impact on children and youth.

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 A QuickTake on Thailands moves on gay rights and legalizing marijuana.

 Nida surveys on the Thai elections.

 An article by Somkiat Tangkitvanich, president of the Thailand Development Research Institute, on Thailands generation war.

 Bloomberg Opinions Daniel Moss asks what to make of Thailands new economic appeal.

(Updates with election set for May 14)

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

2023 Bloomberg L.P.

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WASHINGTON  Newly opened records that belonged to Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens give the public a behind-the-scenes glimpse at his decades on the court, including the tense struggle over the 2000 presidential election and major cases on affirmative action and abortion. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Documents that became available Tuesday show the justices strong, personal reactions as they considered Bush v. Gore, with conservatives complaining about the tone of their liberal colleagues writings.

They also show Stevens crowing about the courts 2003 decision upholding affirmative action, which he termed a great victory. The current, more conservative court in contrast seems likely to do away with that very decision by early summer.

As a group, the papers reflect a different time on the court, which was more moderate and less divided in the years before Stevens retired in 2010. Today, the court has six conservatives and three liberals. Just last year conservatives won major victories on issues including gun rights and abortion, overturning Roe v. Wade in a momentous decision that gave states the ability to ban abortion after nearly 50 years.

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Bush v. Gore, which ended Floridas presidential recount and sent Republican George W. Bush to the White House over Democrat Al Gore was perhaps the most momentous case during Stevens tenure. His papers show that two justices in the majority that ruled for Bush griped privately that the liberal justices dissents were overly harsh and would contribute to negative public reaction.

The dissents, permit me to say, in effect try to coerce the majority by trashing the Court themselves, thereby making their dire, and I think unjustified, predictions a self-fulfilling prophecy, Justice Anthony Kennedy, the author of the main opinion, wrote in a memo.

Justice Antonin Scalia noted in another memo that he is the last person to complain about hard-hitting dissents, having written his fair share. Still, Scalia wrote, Going home after a long day, I cannot help but observe that those of my colleagues who were protesting so vigorously that the Courts judgment today will do it irreparable harm have spared no pains  in a blizzard of separate dissents  to assist that result.

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Stevens himself was the author of one of those dissents, writing: Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this years presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nations confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.

Polling after the Bush v. Gore decision did in fact show a modest decrease in confidence in the court and, like for many of the countrys democratic institutions, confidence has waned in the last two decades. But more recently, polling after the courts abortion decision showed a sharp drop in public approval.

Stevens, who died in 2019, is among 38 justices who have donated their papers to the Library of Congress, which is adjacent to the Supreme Court. His papers include drafts of opinions, communications between the justices and Stevens notes from the justices private conferences. Much of the material is typed, but there are also handwritten notes, though Stevens cramped and angular handwriting can be hard to decipher.

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Stevens was appointed to the court in 1975 by Republican President Gerald Ford and at first was considered a centrist, but he came to be seen as the courts leading liberal. Stevens said that he hadnt changed but that the court had grown more conservative around him. He did change his views on some issues, however. He came to believe the death penalty is wrong and morphed from a critic of affirmative action to a supporter.

In the Grutter v. Bollinger case from 2003, Stevens was in the majority that voted to preserve affirmative action. Shortly before Justice Sandra Day OConnors opinion for the court came out, Stevens wrote to fellow liberal Justice David Souter: If either one of us had written it, we would have said much more, but on balance we really have a great victory.

Other cases covered by the newly available documents include:

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 The courts 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed the right to abortion and was thrown out last year along with Roe v. Wade. The courts most recent abortion decision became public in an explosive leak ahead of its publication, and Stevens papers show there were similar concerns about a leak in Casey. After an article in Newsweek magazine about what was allegedly going on inside the court in regards to the case, Chief Justice William Rehnquist sent a note admonishing the justices law clerks they were to communicate as little as possible with members of the press. In the case of any matter pending before the court, the least possible communication is none at all, he wrote, underlining the last three words.

 The courts 2002 opinion in Atkins v. Virginia that outlawed the execution of people with intellectual disabilities, then referred to as mentally retarded. Stevens was the author of the opinion, and a draft of it began: Like children, the mentally retarded Kennedy wrote that the phrasing was likely to cause disappointment, perhaps even resentment, among persons and groups who work to advance the cause of retarded persons. Stevens omitted the reference in the final 6-3 opinion, which Kennedy joined.

The Library of Congress first made a selection of Stevens papers available in 2020. Those papers largely covered 1975 to 1984. The newly opened selection includes cases decided as recently as the middle of 2005.

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The justices papers are considered personal property, and nothing dictates the justices must keep any records or make them public. Stevens is among several justices, along with Harry Blackmun and Thurgood Marshall, whose papers became public while at least one colleague still was on the bench.

Stevens most recent files covering the period of 2005 to 2010, when the court ruled in two major gun rights cases, will not be open until 2030. That most recent period is when Stevens served with several current members of the court: Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The only current justice represented in the newly opened papers is Justice Clarence Thomas.

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Associated Press reporter Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.

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Follow the APs coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

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Electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi has reported slowing sales, but analysts say its results are stronger than expected as consumers face increasing pressure from interest rate rises.

The $4.9 billion retailer revealed on Wednesday that while quarterly sales were still well above pre-COVID levels at its stores in Australia and New Zealand and at whitegoods retailer The Good Guys, momentum slowed in the three months to March 31 compared with the same time last year.

JB-Hi-Fi chief executive Terry Smart says the companys no-frills retail model will serve it well as the economy slows. Credit: Eamon Gallagher

Same-store sales at JB Hi-Fi Australia slipped by 0.1 per cent in the March quarter, the third quarter of its fiscal year. Sales at the Good Guys fell by 3.8 per cent compared with the same period in 2022.

Sales at the companys New Zealand stores were up by 10.8 per cent.
Public interest journalism is a key democratic pillar, serving as a critical safeguard of our human rights. But press freedom is all too often fragile. This is why, 30 years ago, the United Nations first declared World Press Freedom Day, which is marked today.

Australia likes to present itself as a bastion of media freedom, and an exemplar to other nations in our region. Yet the past decade has seen a sustained assault on press freedom in this country. Raids on the ABC and News Corp, the prosecution of journalists sources, the introduction of Draconian secrecy laws, heightened state surveillance powers and inaction on transparency and accountability reform  collectively, these measures saw us plummet down world press freedom rankings. Previously unimaginable intrusions on press freedom have become shockingly commonplace.

David McBride (left), who went to the ABC to expose alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, and Richard Boyle (right) who blew the whistle about wrongdoing at the Tax Office. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen/Joe Armao

Since taking office almost a year ago, the Albanese government has taken positive steps to reverse the tide. The Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, KC, has dropped the prosecution of whistleblower Bernard Collaery, committed to overhauling whistleblowing and secrecy laws and, in February, convened a press freedom summit. These moves should be commended.

But there is one area of glaring inaction. Two whistleblowers remain on trial: Richard Boyle, who blew the whistle to the ABC and this masthead about wrongdoing at the Tax Office; and David McBride, who went to the ABC to expose alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
Two police officers have been stabbed and their alleged attacker shot dead in a regional South Australian town.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said Brevet Sergeant Ian Todd, 53, and Brevet Sergeant Jordan Allely, 32, were hospitalised with serious injuries after they attended a property at 10.15am (10.45am AEST) on Wednesday at Crystal Brook, about 200 kilometres north of Adelaide.

The occupant allegedly stabbed the two officers before police shot the man dead at the scene.

The police commissioner said Todd, from nearby Port Germein, sustained life-threatening critical injuries after being stabbed in the neck, arm and hands. He was flown to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
LHV Bank

Highlights:

LHV UK Limited will shortly submit its application to change its name to LHV Bank Limited (LHV Bank)

LHV Bank is the first institution to receive a licence without restrictions from the PRA in 2023, just over a year after application submission

The bank will transition from a branch of Estonian AS LHV Pank to a fully authorised and regulated UK bank

LHV Bank operates in two business lines  Banking Services and SME Lending, with plans to accept retail deposits and expand offerings for e-commerce businesses

Projected to reach profitability by the end of its first year of operations, due to its consistently profitable Banking Services business line

LHV Bank is fully capitalised, with customer deposits protected up to 85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

London, 3 May 2023: LHV Bank, a leading provider of Banking Services and SME Lending solutions, announces it has been authorised as a credit institution by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), becoming the first institution to receive a banking licence without restrictions in 2023.

This milestone achievement allows LHV Bank to accept customer deposits and transition from operating under the temporary permissions regime as a branch of Estonian retail bank AS LHV Pank (LHV Pank) to being a fully authorised and regulated bank by both the PRA and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The decision to pursue a UK banking licence was made in 2021, and LHV submitted its application in March 2022. Following a close collaboration with the PRA and the FCA, the bank has secured the licence in just over a year, demonstrating its commitment to regulatory compliance and high standards.

Madis Toomsalu, Chairman of LHV Bank, stated, Receiving the licence without restrictions in just over a year since submitting our application validates the exceptional work of our team and the professional operation weve built. We expect LHV Bank to achieve profitability by the end of our first year of operations. Our ability to generate additional capital internally positions us strongly for further growth in the dynamic UK banking market.

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Erki Kilu, the CEO of LHV Bank, added, In addition to our existing Banking Services and SME Lending activities, we plan to start accepting retail deposits later this year and expand our banking solutions offering to e-commerce businesses, maintaining the same level of convenience, reliability, and security that our existing clients have come to expect.

Connecting Traditional Banking and New-Generation Financial Services

A new-generation financial institution, LHV Bank connects the traditional banking sector with cutting-edge financial services, delivering best-in-class, cloud-native payments and banking infrastructure. Operating in the UK since 2018, LHV is a member of all major UK and EU payment schemes and, as such, its extensive offering includes real-time multi-currency payments, current and savings accounts, acquiring, indirect scheme access, open banking, and FX solutions, which are used by over 200 leading fintechs like Airwallex, Currencycloud, Truelayer, and Wise.

With a team of 130 employees and offices in London, Leeds, Manchester and Tallinn, LHV Bank enables its portfolio companies to serve over 10 million end-customers. Last year, the bank processed over 25 million payments valued at over 90 billion. Through its offering, its client base has access to a pool of 500 million potential clients across the UK and Europe, making LHV Bank one of the largest providers of Banking Services.

Technological Expertise

LHV Bank has made significant investments in technology, implementing the best-in-class core-banking solution, developing leading cloud-native services and building in-house payments modules and API solutions tailored to fintech clients.

Commitment to Reliability, Security, and Financial Performance

With an emphasis on reliability and security, LHV Bank employs prudent risk and liquidity management practices. LHVs diverse service offerings and broad customer base have helped to de-risk its revenue streams, contributing to the consistent profitability of the Banking Services business line  last year, it generated 11.5m profit for LHV Pank.

As a result of the banking licence, the company is currently undergoing the Business Transfer process to move all operations to the new bank. After the transfer, the UK branch of LHV Pank will be deregistered, and LHV Bank will continue to operate as a separate entity. The underlying strong financial performance of the business line means that LHV Banks financial plan projects profitability by the end of its first year of operations.

AS LHV Group (LHV Group), the parent company of LHV Bank and LHV Pank, decided to pursue a UK banking licence to better highlight the financial performance and value proposition of its Banking Services business line to investors. LHV Group is a fast-growing Estonian financial group with over 10 billion in financial assets, operating in the banking, asset management, and insurance sectors, serving nearly 400,000 direct customers and employing over 900 professionals.

SME Lending Offerings

Last year, LHV Bank acquired Bank Norths SME Lending business line and received regulatory clearance from the FCA to start issuing SME loans. SME Lending has been a key strength of LHV Group, which has delivered 15 years of consecutive growth in this space. LHV Bank offers commercial real estate investment loans and trading loans starting from 0.5m to SMEs in the UK, with loan brokers serving as the primary sales channel for SME loans. LHV Banks strengths lie in its faster lending process, loan managers long-term experience, and understanding of local entrepreneurs needs. Leveraging its expertise, strong balance sheet and the proven demand for SME loans, LHV Bank plans to establish a robust lending business quickly, with operations in Manchester and London.

Growth Plans

With its banking licence, LHV Bank plans to expand its offering to a broader audience. This includes accepting retail deposits, which will be available later this year, as well as introducing Banking Services to e-commerce businesses. LHV Bank is fully capitalised, and customer deposits are protected under the FSCS up to a limit of 85,000.

***Ends***

For more information, please contact:

Priit Piip priit.piip@lhv.com +44 (0) 77 864 50 536 Press Officer

Images

For high-quality images, please click the link here.

About LHV Bank

LHV Bank, a fully licensed UK bank, specialises in Banking Services for global fintechs and SME Lending solutions for UK businesses. The SME Lending division offers commercial real estate investment loans and trading loans from 0.5m to small and medium-sized businesses in the UK.

As a leading Banking Services provider, LHV Bank delivers a wide range of services, including real-time multi-currency payments, accounts, acquiring, indirect scheme access, open banking, and FX solutions. Over 200 renowned fintech companies, such as Airwallex, Currencycloud, Truelayer, and Wise, utilise LHV Bank to serve more than 10 million end customers and access a pool of 500 million potential customers across the UK and Europe.

LHV Bank gained its UK banking licence in May 2023 and intends to expand its offerings to e-commerce businesses and start accepting retail deposits later this year.

Website: www.lhv.com




The WCO in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Program (Ozone Action) and the Basel Convention Secretariat, has conducted an awareness raising workshop for the Mozambique Tax Authority (AT) and officials from the Mozambique Ministry of Land and Environment (MTA), to sensitize their Customs departments on the Basel Convention and the Montreal Protocol. The workshop was held from 17th to 19th April in Maputo, Mozambique, under the auspices of the Trade Facilitation and Customs Modernization Programme for Sustainable Development in SubSaharan Africa (Sida-WCO TFCM Programme), with funding from the Government of Sweden.

The three-day event emphasized the important role of Customs administrations in fighting against climate change and contributing to the sustainability of the global environment. In that regard, the WCOs role in cooperating with other global partners to ensure Customs administrations are effective in implementing Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) such as the Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movement of hazardous waste, and the Montreal Protocol on the control of substances that deplete the ozone layer, was highlighted with clear purpose. A team of experts from the WCO, UNEP and the Basel Convention Secretariat conducted interactive discussions and presentations on addressing the critical areas of work and cooperation for both Customs and Environment agencies to efficiently implement controls for the transboundary movement of hazardous waste, and ozone depleting substances regulated by the two agreements.

A combined total of twenty  eight (28) participants representing the Mozambique Tax Authority and the Ministry of Land and Environment, benefitted from the workshop by enhancing their knowledge and understanding of the policies, trends and enforcement controls related to the Basel Convention and Montreal Protocol. The interactions also fostered the commitment between the Mozambique Tax Authority and the Environment Ministry to collaborate better at the borders.

The Sida-WCO TFCM Programme is collaborating with the WCO Environment Programme and relevant international environment organizations to provide technical assistance for selected Customs administrations in the SADC and EAC regions to address the trade related issues that adversely affect the environment while implementing the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.

For more information on the Sida-WCO TFCM Programme, kindly contact: capacity.building@wcoomd.org.
From 25 to 28 April 2023, the Ethiopian Customs Commission (ECC) hosted a National Advanced Workshop on the Harmonized System in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Workshop was delivered by two experts from the WCO within the framework of the EU-WCO Programme for the Harmonized System in Africa (HS-Africa Programme), funded by the European Union, as part of the comprehensive package of assistance to support ECCs work on building capacity for Harmonized System classification.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Azizew Chanie Abebe, Customs Operation Deputy Commissioner of the Ethiopian Customs Commission, expressed his appreciation for the technical assistance provided so far by the WCO and expressed the hope that this assistance would be strengthened in the future. He pointed out that this training was very important for the ECC, as it was expected to help Customs officers enhance their HS classification skills in different areas. It was further considered a good opportunity for them to gain an insight into the establishment of a Customs Laboratory in Ethiopia. He also emphasized the substantial role that the Workshop would play in their national engagement in the AfCFTA.

The Workshop was attended by 40 Customs Officers from across different Customs Offices of the country and from the headquarters of the ECC. The objective of the course was to deliver an advanced training on theoretical and practical aspects of the HS in the areas of mineral products, chemicals, medicaments versus food products, plastics, textiles and high tech products, as well as to ensure that the participants understand the principles of tariff classification of goods in the HS. Moreover, the Workshop aimed at assisting the ECC in determining technical requirements for the establishment of a Customs Laboratory.

As part of the assistance to ECCs work, the WCO Secretariat purchased two microscopes and two balances, funded by the European Union within the framework of the EU-WCO Programme for the Harmonized System in Africa. The equipment were used for training purposes during the course to identify textile fibres and were handed over to the ECC after the Workshop.

Participants worked on a number of case studies where they classified specific products which presented complexities in classification, and, during the training on the textile Chapters, they had the chance to practice on the identification of various types of textile fibres using the above equipment.

At the end of the Workshop, Mr. Getu Legesse Almaw, Director of Tariff Classification and Rules of Origin of the Ethiopian Customs Commission, thanked the WCO and the European Union for the continued support to the ECCs work on building capacity for Harmonized System classification as well as for the discussion and guidance on defining the technical requirements for the establishment of a Customs Laboratory.

For more details, please contact hs@wcoomd.org.
What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Lindsay Australia's (ASX:LAU) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. The formula for this calculation on Lindsay Australia is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.14 = AU$42m  (AU$428m - AU$128m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).

Therefore, Lindsay Australia has an ROCE of 14%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 7.6% generated by the Transportation industry.

See our latest analysis for Lindsay Australia

roce

In the above chart we have measured Lindsay Australia's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

Lindsay Australia is displaying some positive trends. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 14%. The company is effectively making more money per dollar of capital used, and it's worth noting that the amount of capital has increased too, by 70%. So we're very much inspired by what we're seeing at Lindsay Australia thanks to its ability to profitably reinvest capital.

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In Conclusion...

To sum it up, Lindsay Australia has proven it can reinvest in the business and generate higher returns on that capital employed, which is terrific. And a remarkable 356% total return over the last five years tells us that investors are expecting more good things to come in the future. With that being said, we still think the promising fundamentals mean the company deserves some further due diligence.

If you'd like to know about the risks facing Lindsay Australia, we've discovered 1 warning sign that you should be aware of.

While Lindsay Australia isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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(Bloomberg) -- The recent flurry of bidding activity for Australian lithium producer Liontown Resources Ltd. reflects broader optimism in the sector, according to one of the countrys top miners of the key electric-vehicle battery metal.

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The intense interest in Liontown, which has become an acquisition target after it spurned three bids in five months from the worlds top lithium producer Albemarle Corp., is a really strong point of evidence about the outlook, Pilbara Minerals Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Dale Henderson said.

Full credit to Albemarle who are walking the talk  their CEO has spoke to the necessity for all lithium projects to come online, and here they are voting with their money, Henderson said in a Bloomberg Television interview broadcast Wednesday. It just underscores the support for the long-term proposition for lithium.

The lithium sector is set for further consolidation around longer-term assets, Liontown Chief Executive Officer Tony Ottaviano said in a separate interview, while defending the companys recent rejection of a multi-billion dollar bid for the business.

There is a lot of demand for spodumene coming out of China, and then more broadly around the world, Ottaviano told Bloomberg Television interview Wednesday. With global demand for lithium set to boom, bigger companies that buy longer-term assets will stand to benefit as consolidation starts to emerge, he added.

Liontown in March rejected a A$5.5 billion ($3.7 billion) offer from Albemarle, which is expected to be a key topic of interest at the US miners earnings call to shareholders on Thursday in New York. Ottaviano denied local media reports of an ongoing bidding war for his company.

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At the end of the day, theres a difference of opinion around value and thats where it sits at the moment, he said about Albemarles offer. Weve had no further formal approaches.

Meanwhile, Pilbara Minerals, one of Australias top lithium miners, said earlier this year it will nearly double production by late 2025 to meet soaring demand for the key electric-vehicle battery metal.

READ: Lithiums Next Big Risk Is Grand Supply Plans Falling Short (1)

The Perth-based miner plans to push ahead with the expansion, despite a recent steep pullback in lithium prices as more supply comes online, Henderson said. The resulting slide in company valuations has helped open the door to potential acquisitions in a sector still dominated by junior and mid-sized players.

Its an incredible market and Pilbara looks always to capitalize on that, he said. Were not holding back on our investment.

(Updates with Liontown comments from fourth paragraph)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Visiongain Reports Ltd

Visiongain has published a new report entitled Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) 2023-2033. It includes profiles of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) and Forecasts Market Segment by (Value (US$ Billion), Volume (BCM)) Market Segment by Transport Fuel (Heavy-Duty Vehicles, Passenger Vehicles, Marine Transport, Other Transport Fuel) Market Segment by End-Use (Domestic Use, Industrial Use, Commercial Use, Transportation Use, Utilities and Power Use, Other End-Use) plus COVID-19 Impact Analysis and Recovery Pattern Analysis (V-shaped, W-shaped, U-shaped, L-shaped), Profiles of Leading Companies, Region and Country.



The global liquified natural gas (LNG) market was valued at US$275.0 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.9% during the forecast period 2023-2033.

Fuel Flexibility is Aided by LNG Infrastructure

The development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure can provide opportunities for the LNG market and increase fuel flexibility. LNG is a versatile and clean-burning fuel that can be used in various applications, including power generation, industrial processes, and transportation.

The infrastructure required for the production, transport, and storage of LNG includes liquefaction plants, LNG carriers, regasification terminals, and storage tanks. The development of this infrastructure can provide access to LNG for a wider range of customers, including those in remote areas or without access to pipelines.

In the transportation sector, LNG can be used as a fuel for ships and trucks, providing a cleaner alternative to traditional diesel fuels. LNG-powered ships can reduce emissions of sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM), as well as greenhouse gases (GHG) such as carbon dioxide (CO2).

The fuel flexibility provided by LNG infrastructure can also help to improve energy security by diversifying the sources and types of fuel available. LNG can be sourced from multiple regions and is not subject to the same geopolitical risks as oil. This can help to reduce the dependence on oil and mitigate the impact of oil price volatility.

Story continues

Download Exclusive Sample of Report

https://www.visiongain.com/report/lng-market-2023/#download_sampe_div

How has COVID-19 had a significant negative impact on the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Market?

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the global LNG market, leading to a decline in demand, delays in new projects, and a drop-in price. However, the market is expected to recover in the coming years, driven by the growing demand for cleaner energy sources, particularly in developing countries.

In terms of demand, the pandemic has had a significant impact on LNG importers, particularly in Asia. China, the world's largest LNG importer, saw a decline in demand due to reduced economic activity and the shutdown of manufacturing plants. India, another major importer, also saw a decline in demand due to the closure of businesses and transportation systems.

The pandemic has also affected LNG pricing. In the first half of 2020, LNG prices fell to record lows, driven by the drop in demand and the oversupply of LNG. However, prices have since rebounded due to the recovery of demand and supply disruptions caused by weather events and maintenance work at production facilities.

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the LNG market is expected to recover in the coming years. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that LNG demand will rebound in 2021 and continue to grow in the coming years. Developing countries in Asia and Africa are expected to increase their demand for LNG as they seek to meet their growing energy needs.

How will this Report Benefit you?

Visiongains 340-page report provides 165 tables and 209 charts/graphs. Our new study is suitable for anyone requiring commercial, in-depth analyses for the global liquified natural gas (LNG) market, along with detailed segment analysis in the market. Our new study will help you evaluate the overall global and regional market for Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). Get financial analysis of the overall market and different segments including market value, market volume, transport fuel, and end-use, and capture higher market share. We believe that there are strong opportunities in this fast-growing liquified natural gas (LNG) market. See how to use the existing and upcoming opportunities in this market to gain revenue benefits in the near future. Moreover, the report will help you to improve your strategic decision-making, allowing you to frame growth strategies, reinforce the analysis of other market players, and maximise the productivity of the company.

What are the Current Market Drivers?

High Demand for Small-Scale Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

The increasing demand for energy sources that are both economical and efficient in terms of energy use is one of the main factors fueling the market's expansion. Additionally, the product's widespread acceptance in the transportation sector is accelerating market expansion. The requirement for liquefied natural gas (LNG) has increased due to the rising energy demand, leading to an increase in LNG production (LNG). As a result of government initiatives to boost rural electrification and the abundance of distant places without electricity, demand for liquefied natural gas has surged (LNG). The market for small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) will continue to increase due to the quick industrialization and strong demand for natural gas as a transportation fuel. Additionally, the rise in market value will be fueled by the drop in natural gas prices and the swings in crude oil prices brought on by overproduction.

Increase in Clean Energy Demand

The liquefied natural gas market is anticipated to expand over the course of the forecast period due to key factors including rising end-user demand for clean energy in sectors such as transportation fuel, power generation, mining, and industrial, as well as government initiatives to strengthen gas pipeline infrastructure. The global nominal natural gas liquefaction capacity has grown, according to a report by the International Gas Union.

In both Europe and the USA, where power generation had been stagnating between 2010 and 2019 before dipping by 3% in 2022, the economic recovery spurred power generation. This higher power production in Europe and the USA was exceptionally supported by a rising coal-fired generation, in a context of soaring gas prices, and by a strong growth in renewable power generation (despite a lower wind generation in the EU, which was more than offset by an improved nuclear availability).

Download Exclusive Sample of Report

https://www.visiongain.com/report/lng-market-2023/#download_sampe_div

Where are the Market Opportunities?

Technology and Government Policy Integration

The integration of technology and government policy can certainly create opportunities for the LNG market. Here are a few examples:

Increased use of technology in the LNG industry can improve efficiency and reduce costs. For example, the use of digital monitoring systems can help to optimize LNG plant operations, reduce downtime, and increase overall production. Government policies that incentivize the adoption of such technologies can spur innovation and investment in the industry.

Government policies that promote the use of LNG as a cleaner alternative to other fossil fuels can create new markets for LNG producers. For example, policies that incentivize the use of LNG in transportation (such as in trucks and ships) can increase demand for the fuel.

Government policies that support the development of LNG infrastructure can create new opportunities for LNG producers. For example, policies that promote the construction of LNG import and export terminals can create new markets for LNG producers and help to connect supply and demand.

Improved Economics Aiding the Growth of the LNG Market

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is becoming increasingly competitive in the energy market as the economics of producing, transporting, and consuming it continue to improve. Some of the key factors driving this trend include:

Cost reductions in liquefaction: The process of converting natural gas into LNG has become more efficient, resulting in lower costs for producers. This is partly due to advancements in technology and engineering, which have made liquefaction plants more energy-efficient and streamlined.

Increasing economies of scale: As the global demand for LNG grows, producers are building larger liquefaction facilities to meet this demand. This results in lower costs per unit of LNG produced, as the fixed costs associated with building and operating these facilities are spread over a larger output.

Advances in shipping: LNG can now be transported more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before. This is due to the development of specialized LNG carriers, which can carry larger volumes of LNG and have improved energy efficiency. Additionally, new shipping routes are being developed to connect LNG producers with new markets, further reducing transportation costs.

Growing demand for natural gas: Natural gas is increasingly being recognized as a cleaner and more environmentally-friendly alternative to coal and other fossil fuels. As a result, demand for natural gas, and LNG in particular, is expected to continue to grow in the coming years.

Competitive Landscape

The major players operating in the liquified natural gas (LNG) market are BG Group plc, BP Plc, Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Chevron Corporation, ConocoPhillips Company, Eni S.p.A., Equinor ASA, ExxonMobil Corporation, Gazprom PJSC, INPEX Corporation, Petronas Dagangan Berhad, Qatargas, Royal Dutch Shell Plc., TotalEnergies SE, Woodside Energy Group Ltd. These major players operating in this market have adopted various strategies comprising M&A, investment in R&D, collaborations, partnerships, regional business expansion, and new product launch.

Recent Developments

20 Feb 2023, Shell has acquired the largest producer of renewable natural gas (RNG) in Europe, its portfolio of operating plants, associated feedstock supply and infrastructure, its pipeline of growth projects, and its in-house expertise in the design, construction, and operation of innovative and differentiated RNG plant technology by purchasing shares in Nature Energy

08 March 2023, PETRONAS has launched the LNG bunkering business with long-term partner TIGER GAS under the PETRONAS Marine brand. This follows the completion of its first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation for the latter's Tiger Maanshan, the world's largest dual-fuel deck cargo ship, of approximately 500 tonnes of LNG. As a result, TIGER GAS becomes the first Chinese customer of PETRONAS LNG bunkering services.

To access the data contained in this document please email oliver.davison@visiongain.com

To find more Visiongain research reports on the gas sector, click on the following links:

Do you have any custom requirements we can help you with? Any need for a specific country, geo region, market segment or specific company information? Contact us today, we can discuss your needs and see how we can help: oliver.davison@visiongain.com

About Visiongain

Visiongain is one of the fastest-growing and most innovative independent market intelligence providers around, the company publishes hundreds of market research reports which it adds to its extensive portfolio each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis across 18 industries worldwide. The reports, which cover 10-year forecasts, are hundreds of pages long, with in-depth market analysis and valuable competitive intelligence data. Visiongain works across a range of vertical markets with a lot of synergies. These markets include automotive, aviation, chemicals, cyber, defence, energy, food & drink, materials, packaging, pharmaceutical and utilities sectors. Our customised and syndicated market research reports offer a bespoke piece of market intelligence customised to your very own business needs.

Contact:

Oliver Davison

Visiongain Reports Limited

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7336 6100

Email: oliver.davison@visiongain.com

Web: www.visiongain.com




Calls by Ontarios education minister for teachers unions to accept private mediation in the midst of bargaining came as a surprise to those at the negotiating table, with Niagaras secondary schools union president calling the remarks premature.

During a news conference on student mental-health literacy, Stephen Lecce said he wants a deal in place before the start of the new school year to keep kids in a stable, positive, safe learning environment.

Teachers with Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO), Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF), Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) and the French-language union Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens have been working without a contract since the end of last summer.

In November, education workers with Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) voted in favour of a new contract with the Ontario government.

But OSSTF District 22 president Shannon Smith said Lecces comments were something that I wasnt expecting.

I would suggest OSSTF has been engaged in the bargaining process throughout the year in the hopes of negotiating a fair contract for members, said Smith, clarifying she is unable to comment on where the two sides remain in negotiations.

Lecce credited private mediation in helping reach the CUPE deal, as the neutral party puts pressure on all of us, unions, the government, the school boards, to get a deal done.

But Smith said mediation is often seen as a last resort, and to my knowledge, we were not at that stage yet, so it seems premature.

Its also troubling that this is announced at a press conference and not at the bargaining table.

In a written statement through Niagara elementary unit president Jennifer McArthur, OECTA president Barb Dobrowolski said the same. While she is in agreement that mediation can be beneficial, in this case the two sides are not far enough along in the bargaining process to warrant the use of a mediator.

To get a deal done, Dobrowolski said, the government and teams representing school boards should come better prepared and ready to negotiate.

The governments continued limited availability, which has been three to four days per month at most, is not conducive to setting a quicker pace for negotiations, she said.

Larry Savage, a professor of labour studies at Brock University, said the decision by the minister to suggest mediation at this stage  before negotiations have reached an impasse  is an odd strategy.

Instead of reflecting upon the CUPE education worker dispute, the minister is negotiating in public rather than at the bargaining table, and that is more politics than sensible labour relations, said Savage.

In Savages view, negotiating in public, as the minister did with CUPE, hinders the governments ability to secure negotiated settlements.

His rhetoric is often inflammatory and, therefore, sows distrust in the bargaining process, he said. I think deep down the minister is driven by partisan political considerations, not whats best for teachers, students or the education system.

Karen Brown, president of ETFO, clarified on social media that the union has not been invited to participate in private mediation, writing to the minister, let the bargaining teams do their jobs and stop misleading the public if youre serious about reaching the finish line.

Local bargaining groups negotiate with school boards, including District School Board of Niagara and Niagara Catholic District School Board, once a deal is reached in central negotiations.

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2023 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid

Type: Compact, five-door crossover, front-engine, electric all-wheel drive

Engine: Two-litre, inline-four cylinder; 150 horsepower at 6,000 revolutions per minute; 139 lbs.-ft. at 4,400 rpm. System total: 196 horsepower.

Fuel economy (Regular gasoline): 5.2 litres/100 km in the city; 6.2 l/100 km on the highway; 5.6 l/100 km combined; observed 4.5 l/100 km

Cargo capacity: 609 litres or 21.5 cubic feet; 1,750 l or 61.8 cu. ft., with rear seats folded

Prices: SE $33,985; XSE $36,755 (plus destination, taxes and fees)

A couple of years back, I took the then-new Toyota Corolla Cross on a long-distance, Christmas road trip. I liked the little Toyota; it had a much more comfortable cabin than the Corolla hatch or sedan, and more cargo space. But there were things that made it a non-starter for me: the Cross was sluggish and had a small tank, pessimistic fuel gauge and mediocre fuel economy.

I was stopping for a fill-up every 300 km to 350 km.

For 2024, Toyota has made a change that could fix these things. The Corolla Cross now offers a hybrid powertrain (components that push your vehicle forward) that Toyota has done best, ever since the first Prius showed up at dealers.

The Corolla Cross launched with a two-litre, four-cylinder engine that produced 169 horsepower (hp) and 161 lbs.-ft. of torque (motive force). It was the same engine as the standard Corolla, paired with a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT).

Corolla Cross Hybrid gets a two-litre, four-cylinder engine, too. This one only makes 150 hp and 139 lbs. ft. of torque. But it has a friend along for the ride: a permanent magnet synchronous motor that takes the total up to 196 hp.

It is the same driveline as in the latest Prius. (The driveline is the system that distributes power from the engine and transmission to the wheels.) It turns the Corolla Cross from a slug into something with a lot more pep.

Toyota shrunk the gas tank even more, unfortunately, from 47 litres to just 40 l. But the fuel economy figure is now 5.2 l/100 km in the city and 6.2 l/100 km on the highway.

Based on my own driving in the Cross Hybrid in the hills east of Carlsbad, Calif., along with some high-speed highway driving, those figures arent out of reach. My average was in the four litres/100 km-range, an impressive number.

Because you need to use max power less of the time, engine noise is less intrusive. Its still not quiet, but it makes much less noise. Wind and road noise are still high, but thats about par for this segment.

Because youre not flooring it all the time, the ride is more comfortable, too. And less stressful  making the Corolla Cross Hybrid a better place to spend time on your commute or weekend drive.

Toyota says S grade vehicles, such as the SE and XSE Corolla Cross Hybrids, have a sport-tuned suspension, something gas L models do not.

All-wheel drive is standard on the Corolla Cross Hybrid. That, along with Toyota deciding to launch it only in the more sporty S grades, creates a bit of a price gulf between the two versions of the model. A base model gas Corolla Cross L FWD (front-wheel drive) is $29,399.50. The entry point for the Hybrid is the $33,985 SE. As the gas LE AWD (all-wheel drive) is just $685.50 less than the hybrid SE, an amount youll probably make up for in fuel use in the first six months, we cant imagine many buyers seeking out the gas variant.

Inside, hybrid and gas versions are nearly identical. The hybrid adds buttons for electric vehicle (EV) mode, and thats about it.

So buyers can expect the same Corolla hatch and sedan-inspired dashboard. Its not Toyotas best work stylistically, but the ergonomics are solid. It has plenty of buttons and switches for nearly all features.

The Corolla Cross Hybrid gets Toyotas latest infotainment system. It has natural voice-recognition and response. An eight-inch touchscreen shows you the new system.

Despite the extra bits that come with the hybrid, cargo space is unchanged. Toyota says the hybrid has the same 609 litres, or 21.5 cubic feet, as a gas model with power moonroof. Fold all the seats and there is a total of 1,750 litres (61.8 cu. ft.) of easily accessible space for your gear.

Toyota identifies the hybrid with a new grille. More of the nose is covered, which probably helps the aerodynamics. Other distinguishing features include the wheels and badges and paintwork.

Corolla Cross Hybrid will be offered with special two-tone combos: silver, red, and blue with a black roof, and Acidic Blast, a kind of shimmering gold, also with a black roof.

Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 is standard. It includes upgraded system sensors with better detection capability than previous versions. It has adaptive cruise; detection that you may be about to hit a pedestrian; lane departure alert with steering assist, and the usual other driver aids. Blind Spot Monitoring is standard, too. Emergency Driving Stop is new. The system monitors your inputs. If it thinks youre inattentive or non-responsive, it will bring the vehicle to a stop.

Expect the 2024 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid to start arriving at dealers in a few months. (Toyota is still working to catch up with pandemic-related back orders.)

There are nicer interiors in this segment, larger cabins, and vehicles that are more fun to drive. But there are none that can manage this level of fuel efficiency, with a large cabin and loads of gear as standard.

Correction  May 3, 2023: This article was updated to correct the price of the 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid XSE.

Correction  May, 4, 2023: This article has been updated to correct engine specifications for the 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid.

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MONTREAL - A Montreal man is suing the citys police force and two of its officers for $125,000 after being handcuffed and detained by officers who suspected he had stolen his own car.

Brice Dossa, a 44-year-old Montrealer originally from Benin, is seeking damages from the city and from the officers named in the lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Dossa, who is Black, alleges he was the victim of racial profiling, illegal arrest and detention and excessive force during an incident he describes as humiliating.

It took place Nov. 3 in the parking lot of a Montreal shopping centre, and a video of the arrest was widely shared on social media.

In the video, Dossa can be seen angrily asking the plainclothes officers why they handcuffed him before verifying whether the vehicle belonged to him and asking whether it was because he is Black.

The court filing notes he had to wait handcuffed after he had been cleared of suspicion because the officers did not have the keys and had to call for colleagues to bring a set.

Montreal police would not comment on Wednesday since the matter is before the courts, but last November they addressed the video of Dossa in a series of tweets.

The tweets said two car theft investigators found an unoccupied Honda SUV in a mall parking lot that allegedly had damage around one of its locks consistent with an attempted theft. The citizen who came to take possession was briefly detained for investigative purposes before being released unconditionally, the tweets said.

In the filing, Dossa denies there were any marks on the vehicle, a 2021 Honda CRV.

Dossa worked as an orderly and an Uber driver and says he has not been able to work since the incident due to post-traumatic stress disorder. He has no family in Quebec, where he has permanent resident status. The court document says he had to return to Benin in February for emotional support from his parents.

Dossas lawyer, Malyka Jean-Baptiste, said in an interview her client never received an apology from the police. He has also filed a complaint with the police ethics commission.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

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Two Taylor Dental offices and 25 other Benevis-supported dental practices nationwide celebrate Sharing Smiles Day by providing oral health treatment at no cost to uninsured or underinsured children on Sunday, May 21, 2023

METAIRIE & MONROE, La., May 03, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Taylor Dental & Braces is proud to announce it will participate in parent company Benevis eighth annual Sharing Smiles Day on Sunday, May 21, 2023 at the practices locations in Metairie and Monroe. Clinicians and hygienists at both offices will offer free dental care such as dental exams, limited emergency care, extractions, and restorative care, with cleanings offered on a limited basis, to uninsured or underinsured children and their families as part of this national volunteer event. Families are encouraged to register in advance at www.SharingSmilesDay.com.

The offices are located at:

2222 Clearview Pkwy, Metairie, LA 70001 from 9:00 AM  12:00 PM CT

2820 Louisville Ave, Monroe, LA 71201 from 8:00 AM  12:00 PM CT

In the U.S., rates of untreated tooth decay are twice as high for children from low- or limited income families compared with children from middle- or high-income families, according to the JAMA Network. Over the past seven years, Sharing Smiles Day has provided dental relief to more than 2,500 patients across 11 states to help combat poor oral health in children and educate families on healthy dental habits. More than 300 volunteers from Benevis and partner practices will proudly participate in this years event.

"Our network of local dental practices provides high quality oral healthcare for children and families in 120 communities across 13 states and D.C.," said Bryan Carey, CEO of Benevis. "Sharing Smiles Day is my favorite day of the year. It is a great way for us to open our doors and provide needed services, and we look forward to creating smiles by providing excellent dental care at no cost to members of our communities."

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Central to the mission at Benevis is improving access to essential dental healthcare and creating dental homes for families with various forms of insurance, including Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP). To deliver on its mission, Benevis supports a network of like-minded, community-focused dentists that prioritize patient health to make a national impact. In addition to providing compassionate care, clinical teams educate children and families about daily brushing, flossing, and the importance of good nutrition for a healthy smile.

Sharing Smiles Day is open to children up to age 18 and adults who do not have Medicaid or other forms of dental insurance. To learn more, please watch our video, or to register for dental care by clicking here.

About Taylor Dental & Braces

Taylor Dental & Braces is one of Louisianas leaders in Medicaid and affordable dental care for children and their families. Supported by Benevis, Taylor Dentals ten locations serve over 45,000 children on Medicaid annually. Taylor Dental and its doctors are committed to improving lives by providing high-quality dental care in a fun, compassionate environment. To learn more about Taylor Dental, visit www.TaylorDentalGroup.com.

About Benevis

Benevis is a leading dental support organization (DSO) for practices focused on delivering life-changing dental care and orthodontics. Through comprehensive dental practice support services that expand access to dentistry, Benevis has a 20-year history of providing the highest quality care to approximately 5 million children and adults in underserved communities. Its support services are employed in more than 100 locally branded dental offices that have delivered treatment during 1.2 million visits. Benevis also advocates for programs and legislation that ensure all families have access to the oral healthcare they need and deserve. For more information, visit Benevis.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005362/en/

Contacts

Media

Kay Blazar

SVM PR for Benevis

Benevis@svmpr.com

401-490-9700
Coronation ceremonies are a rare experience, both for the public and for the monarchy itself.

The United Kingdoms last coronation took place in 1953 (it was also the first to be televised) and saw Queen Elizabeth II crowned in Westminster Abbey, surrounded by symbolic and rich-in-history items: a graffiti-covered seat, countless jewels and even a metal orb.

But what do they all mean?

As the world awaits the coronation of King Charles III, the Star dusted off the history books  and consulted with a royal expert  to learn more about what to expect on coronation day  May 6  and the hidden meaning behind regalia set to be part of the grand ceremony taken in by Brits and royal watchers alike.

St. Edwards Chair, or the Coronation Chair

Made in the 1300s and used in coronation ceremonies since, including the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Charles will take his seat in St. Edwards Chair  more commonly known as the Coronation Chair  during his coronation ceremony.

While literally fit for royalty, it may not be an item youd expect to see used by a monarch. The two-metre-high, pointed chair is covered in graffiti, believed to be from schoolboys who engraved their names in the wood over the years. Perhaps most famously, one tourist carved the words P. Abbott slept in this chair 5-6 July 1800 on the seat.

It speaks to a time when a lot of what we now consider to be priceless historical artifacts were a lot more accessible to members of the public, said royal expert Carolyn Harris. Its striking.

Placed in the centre of Westminster Abbey for coronation ceremonies, in front of the High Altar, the oak chair was made to house the Stone of Scone, a medieval coronation chair of the past  and present.

A royal expert fact: Security in Westminster Abbey was so poor in the late 17th century, diarist Samuel Pepys reported seeing the remains of Catherine de Valois, or Catherine of France, in a way unlikely to happen today: not during a funeral procession, but in an area so close to the public you could touch her mummified remains if you wanted to.

The Stone of Scone

Not uncommon for Royal items and regalia, the Stone of Scone has become quite a controversial object, said Harris. It was stolen at one point.

The 336-pound stone slab placed under the Coronation Chair is believed to have been carried to Egypt from Bethel before it made its way to Scotland in a winding turn of events and was used by early Scottish kings during their coronations.

Brought back to England from Scotland by King Edward at the time of the Scottish Wars of Independence, the slab became a part of the coronation regalia. But there was a real controversy about this very important Scottish artifact being housed at Westminster Abbey, Harris explained.

So much so that it was stolen by the Scotts in 1950, but was recovered a year later and then kept in a vault. In 1996, former British prime minister John Major announced the stone would return to Scotland, and agreed it could leave Scotland only for coronation ceremonies at Westminster Abbey.

The Stone of Scone is a relic of medieval days, Harris said, and hearkens back to a period of time where the Royal throne was less than grand. (It looks like concrete.)

A royal expert fact: The Stone of Scone has come to symbolize for some the role of the monarch as monarch of England and Scotland.

The Sovereigns Orb

Commissioned in the 1660s for King Charles II, the Sovereigns Orb is presented during the coronation ceremony to, according to the Tower of London, remind the monarch their power is derived from God.

Its a small, hollow, golden orb adorned with a jewel-covered cross mounted on top and bands of gems and pearls covering its circumference, which divides it into three sections. Those sections represent the three continents in the medieval times.

One of many items in the Crown jewels, the Sovereigns Orb is placed in the right hand of the monarch during the coronation ceremony and is placed on an altar before theyre crowned.

A royal expert fact: During the English Civil Wars, Parliament melted down the original Crown jewels thinking there wouldnt be further coronations. New items were commissioned when their bets turned out to be wrong.

The Ampulla and Coronation Spoon

The Ampulla was made of gold in 1661  new jewels this time, because they melted the old ones  while the Coronation Spoon is believed to have been made in the 1300s. Both are used to anoint monarchs with oil.

According to the BBC, the oil to be used in King Charles IIIs coronation was produced specifically for the coronation using olives harvested from two groves on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. The oil was then consecrated at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which was built on the traditional site of Jesus crucifixion and burial.

The BBC reports a canopy may be held over the coronation chair during the anointment to conceal the King from view, as its considered to be the most sacred part of the coronation.

A royal expert fact: The Coronation Spoon survived the melting down of the Crown jewels as the person who purchased it held onto it, eventually returning it in hopes of gaining good favour with the monarchy.

The True Cross

The Apostolic Nunciature donated fragments of the True Cross to King Charles III, believed to have been the one on which Jesus was crucified, according to Vatican News, as an ecumenical gesture on the occasion of the centenary of the Anglican Church in Wales.

The wooden fragments will lead the coronation procession, and were delivered to the Royal Chapel of St. James in London in an act Harris said shows King Charles IIIs commitment to interfaith dialogue.

It symbolizes good relations between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church  and that certainly wasnt always the case, Harris said.

A royal expert fact: Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic Church after Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. He secretly married Anne Boleyn, and was subsequently excommunicated from the Church.

St. Edwards Crown

Made in 1661  you know, because of the melting debacle  St. Edwards Crown is solid gold and set with rubies, amethysts, sapphires, garnet, topazes and tourmaline gems, which was commissioned for Charles II.

According to the Royal Collection Trust, six monarchs have worn the five-pound crown in the past 360 years, making King Charles III the seventh to wear it. (The sixth was Queen Elizabeth II, who wore it during her coronation in 1953.)

After being presented with other items during the ceremony, the Archbishop of Canterbury will crown the King as trumpets sound and guns fire across the country.

When King Charles III leaves Westminster Abbey, he will wear the Imperial State Crown  made in 1937  which is used for state openings in Parliament and other occasions.

Its more frequently seen in public, said Harris of the two-pound crown fitted with 2,868 diamonds and 17 sapphires, the Black Prince Ruby and St. Edwards sapphire.

A royal expert fact: Some monarchs want crowns specifically made for them, including George IV who commissioned an extravagant diamond crown. Unluckily for him, he had to sell off the diamonds afterward, so only the shell of his crown remains.

Given financial turmoil across the world, it would perhaps be unfavourable for King Charles III to have commissioned a crown of his own, opting for music commissions instead, including from Andrew Lloyd Webber.

When is the coronation happening anyway?

The coronation of King Charles III takes place at Westminster Abbey on May 6, and will also see Queen Consort Camilla be coronated in a ceremony conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The ceremony and celebrations will begin with a procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, which are set to begin around 11 a.m., or around 6 a.m. Toronto time.

Correction  May 3, 2023: The Stone of Scone was brought back to England, not Britain, from Scotland by King Edward at the time of the Scottish Wars of Independence.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. and Mexican officials have agreed on new immigration policies meant to deter illegal border crossings while also opening up other pathways ahead of an expected increase in migrants following the end of pandemic restrictions next week.

Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall spent Tuesday meeting with Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and other top officials, emerging with a five-point plan, according to statements from both nations.

Under the agreement, Mexico will continue to accept migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua who are turned away at the border, and up to 100,000 individuals from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador who have family in the U.S. will be eligible to live and work there.

Despite sharing a 1,951-mile border with the U.S., Mexico had been notably absent from the rollout last week of a fresh set of efforts, including the creation of hubs outside the United States where migrants could go to apply to legally settle in the U.S., Spain or Canada. The first centers will open in Guatemala and Colombia.

The COVID-19 restrictions have allowed U.S. officials to turn away tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border, but those restrictions will lift May 11, and border officials are bracing for a surge. Even with the restrictions, the administration has seen record numbers of people crossing the border, and President Joe Biden has responded by cracking down on those who cross illegally and by creating new avenues meant as alternatives to a dangerous and often deadly journey.

Mexicos support is critical to any push by the U.S. to clamp down at the southern border, particularly as migrants from nations from as far away as Haiti are making the trek on foot up through Mexico, and are not easily returned back to their home countries.

With Mexico now behind the U.S., plus an announcement Tuesday that 1,500 active-duty U.S. troops are deploying south for administrative support, and other crackdown measures in place, border officials believe they may be able to manage overcrowding and other possible issues that might arise once the COVID-19 restrictions end.

Biden, who announced his Democratic reelection campaign a week ago, is trying to signal his administration is making a serious effort to tamp down the number of illegal crossings, which has been a potent source of Republican attacks. He also is trying to send a message to potential border crossers not to attempt the journey.

But the effort also draws potentially unwelcome comparisons to Bidens Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, whose policies Biden frequently criticized. Congress, meanwhile, has refused to take any substantial immigration-related actions.

The U.S. will continue to turn away Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who cross illegally. Mexico said Tuesday it would continue to accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from the four countries that are making up a ballooning share of the overall illegal border crossings, with no easy way to quickly return migrants to their home countries.

According to data on asylum seekers in Mexico, people from Haiti remained at the top with 18,860 so far this year, higher than the total for the whole of 2022.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is accepting 30,000 people per month from the four nations for two years and offering them the ability to legally work, as long as they come legally, have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks.

The administration also plans to swiftly screen migrants seeking asylum at the border itself, quickly deport those deemed as not being qualified, and penalize people who cross illegally into the U.S. or illegally move through another country on their way to the U.S. border.

In addition, 1,500 active-duty personnel will be deployed to the border area for 90 days and will be pulled from the Army and Marine Corps. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will look to backfill those troops with National Guard or Reserve troops during that period, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said. There are already 2,500 National Guard members at the border. They are not working in a law enforcement capacity, but their mere presence sends a message.

Then-President Trump deployed active-duty troops to the border to assist border patrol personnel in processing large migrant caravans, on top of National Guard forces that were already working in that capacity.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre downplayed any similarity between Bidens immigration management and Trumps use of troops during his term. DOD personnel have been supporting CBP at the border for almost two decades now, she said. So this is a common practice.

But some in Bidens own party objected to the decision.

The Biden administrations militarization of the border is unacceptable, said Senate Committee on Foreign Relations chair Bob Menendez, D-N.J. There is already a humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, and deploying military personnel only signals that migrants are a threat that require our nations troops to contain. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Pentagon on Tuesday approved a request for troops made by the Department of Homeland Security, which manages the border.

As a condition for Austins previous approval of National Guard troops to the border through Oct. 1, Homeland Security had to agree to work with the White House and Congress to develop a plan for longer-term staffing solutions and funding shortfalls to maintain security and immigration processing without the use of Defense Department resources, Pentagon officials said.

As part of the agreement, the Pentagon has requested quarterly updates from Homeland Security on how it would staff its border mission without service members. It was not immediately clear if those updates have happened or if border officials will be able to meet their terms of the agreement  particularly under the strain of another expected migrant surge.

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Tara Copp, Zeke Miller, Rebecca Santana, Lolita Baldor and Michael Balsamo in Washington and Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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ADAMS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP)  Voters in one of Michigans most conservative counties have ousted a small-town clerk accused of improperly handling voting equipment after casting doubt on President Joe Bidens election victory.

Stephanie Scott lost Tuesdays recall election in Hillsdale Countys Adams Township to Suzy Roberts, who got 406 votes to Scotts 214, according to unofficial results reported by the county clerks office.

Roberts, a Republican who identifies as an independent, filed as non-party-affiliated in the recall election because Michigan law does not allow for challengers to file under the same political party, the Hillsdale Daily News reported previously.

Scott had run unopposed as a first-time Republican candidate when she was chosen in the November 2020 election to handle the voting in Adams Township, a reliably Republican community where the ticket of Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence received nearly 76% of the vote that year.

But she joined a crew of GOP elections officials around the nation who have questioned the accuracy of U.S. voting systems. Scott is among a number of elections officials around the country accused of mishandling voting equipment in their zeal to uncover fraud.

Before Tuesdays recall election against Scott, her challenger said that the lying has to stop.

Somehow, nationwide, we have to make lying wrong, said Roberts, 69. If you got caught in the lie there was a feeling of shame. It has to be wrong again.

A message seeking comment was left Wednesday with Roberts. Scott and her attorney did not answer questions or provide comment before Tuesdays election, and additional messages seeking comment were left Wednesday.

During preparations for her townships November 2021 election, Scott said she had voting accuracy concerns and had considered paper ballots and a hand count before settling on using the same voting system.

The state intervened after Scott allegedly refused to allow a contractor to perform preventive maintenance and failed to conduct accuracy tests, among other issues. She was stripped of her duties running township elections in October 2021.

When the Hillsdale County clerks office took custody of an election tabulator and a voter-assist terminal from township offices to prepare for a public accuracy test, they discovered the tabulators tablet had been removed. It was later seized by Michigan State Police after Scott allegedly refused to turn it over.

One of Scotts supporters, Adams Township Supervisor Mark Nichols, also lost in Tuesdays recall election. Challenger Randy G. Johnson bested Nichols by 394 to 222 votes, unofficial results show.

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OTTAWA - The prime ministers brother insisted to members of Parliament on Wednesday that the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation has not been part of any foreign interference attempts by China, as the organization continues to be dogged by questions about controversial donations.

Alexandre Trudeau, who has been involved in the foundation since its early days and was an executive director until 2020, said the donations from Chinese businessmen were negotiated before his brother became prime minister.

I must insist there was no foreign interference, no possibility of interference, no intention or means of interference at or in the Trudeau Foundation, he told the House of Commons ethics committee.

This is a waste of time.

The committee is investigating the circumstances around a pair of 2016 and 2017 donations from Chinese billionaire Zhang Bin and another Chinese businessman, Niu Gensheng, that totalled $140,000.

The Globe and Mail had reported in February, citing an unnamed source, that the donors appeared to offer the money in the hopes of influencing the new Liberal leader ahead of a federal election in which he might defeat the ruling Conservatives.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly said that it has been about a decade since he had any involvement with the foundation.

Alexandre Trudeau volunteered to appear before the committee to dispel what he called misinformation, affirming that he does not discuss public affairs with his brother and they did not speak in the run-up to his testimony.

Trudeau said talks with the Universite de Montreal about a donation intended to honour his father began in December 2013, a long way from any notion of a Trudeau government, or even a Trudeau Opposition leader.

At the time, the Conservatives were the governing party, with the New Democrats serving as the official Opposition.

Morris Rosenberg, who was appointed as the foundations CEO in 2014, told the committee on Tuesday that the negotiations were finalized in 2015 prior to the election that saw Justin Trudeau ascend to power.

The donations had been made in tandem with a $750,000 contribution to the Universite de Montreal.

Reports by Quebec-based newspaper Le Devoir suggest that, according to people involved in the negotiations at the university, the donors intended for all of the money to go toward the school.

Alexandre Trudeau said Zhang had previously donated $800,000 to the University of Toronto and was excited to broker a similar deal with Universite de Montreal.

He said after the foundation was approached by Universite de Montreal in 2013, Zhang seemed a little irked that the charitable organization was suddenly involved.

He was friendly, but not overly so, Trudeau told the committee, adding that he was not directly involved in the negotiations.

Trudeau defended the fact that his signature appeared on a cheque used to make the donation, saying he had signing authority at the foundation and he felt it was appropriate to play that role for a gift that was intended to honour his father.

The donations were also aimed at trying to get Chinese students exposed to Canadian ways, he said.

Trudeau argued that Zhang is a well-known philanthropist and said he doesnt believe the billionaire was part of some elaborate plan to influence the prime minister. As far as Im concerned, hes an honourable man.

Doing business with China in 2016 was not as controversial as it is in 2023, Trudeau added: Things have changed.

Rosenberg, who was a deputy minister of foreign affairs under Stephen Harpers Conservative government from 2010 to 2013, made a similar point during his testimony on Tuesday.

He said that in retrospect, the foundation and other Canadian organizations were naive to think they could have soft-power influence on China during a push to establish such connections at the time.

Rosenberg said the Universite de Montreal thought that exposing Chinese people to our way of life, our rule of law would affect China through osmosis.

I dont think we saw the current regime coming, and it took a while to change our mind, he said.

Trudeau, who has built a career as a documentary filmmaker, declined to speak to media prior to his testimony on Wednesday.

He arrived at the committee room and sat in the witness chair about 40 minutes before the meeting began, at one point talking to the committee clerk about where the cameras in the room were.

On Wednesday, the prime minister said he hadnt talked to his brother for several weeks.

I think that my brother will be able to explain very well what happened and his perspective, and people will see very clearly that on the subject of the Trudeau Foundation, I have not had direct or indirect engagement for many years, he told reporters on French.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

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LONDON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Most voters in Wales would vote to keep the monarchy in a referendum tomorrow, new polling from Lord Ashcroft has found. However, most believe the royal family needs to be scaled back and modernised, and more believe the monarchy feels like an English institution than something shared by the whole UK.

How countries where King Charles is head of state would vote tomorrow in a referendum on the monarchy  Lord Ashcroft Polls

Findings from the survey include:

54% of voters in Wales said they would choose to remain a constitutional monarchy in a referendum tomorrow, while 23% would vote to become a republic. 23% said they didn't know or would not vote. (Voters in England would keep the monarchy by 57% to 22%, and in Scotland by 46% to 32%. Voters in Northern Ireland said they would choose a republic by 46% to 42%).

70% of Welsh voters choosing the status quo said the monarchy was a good thing for the country; the remainder said the alternative we ended up with would probably be worse (23%) or that the process of changing would probably be too disruptive (5%).

Only 30% of pro-republic voters in Wales said becoming a republic would bring real, practical benefits; 66% said the monarchy was wrong in principle and should be replaced whether there were practical benefits or not.

64% said they had a favourable view of Prince William, making him the most popular living royal in Wales (72% had a favourable view of Queen Elizabeth). 63% were favourable towards Princess Anne, the Princess of Wales and the late Princess Diana, and 57% towards King Charles. 21% had a favourable view of Prince Harry, and 15% of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

Majorities in Wales agreed that the monarchy means we have more stability in the country than we would have without it (64%), that the King can unite everyone in the country no matter who they voted for (57%), and that the monarchy "might seem a strange system in this day and age but it works" (66%). Two thirds (67%) thought the royal family did a better job of connecting with ordinary people than elected politicians.

However, by 48% to 43% people in Wales said the monarchy felt like mostly an English thing rather than an institution shared by the whole UK. They were evenly divided as to whether they felt the monarchy was for everyone, or only for some types of people. 69% said the royal family should be scaled back and its cost significantly reduced, and 76% that it needed to modernise to survive.

Just under a third (32%) said the titles of the Prince and Princess of Wales should be abolished since they had no real connection with Wales; 51% thought they represented a valuable tradition that should be maintained.

Asked to choose between two statements, 69% saw the monarchy more as "a valuable force for stability and continuity", and 31% as "part of a colonial past that has no place in the country today." By 58% to 24%, people in Wales rejected the idea that the King should issue an apology for the UK and the monarchy's part in this history of slavery and colonialism.

Asked where their sympathies lay between Prince Harry and the rest of the royal family, 11% of Welsh voters said they sympathised more with Harry and Meghan, and 39% with the King and Prince William; 15% sympathised with both, and 29% with neither.

Lord Ashcroft's polling found six countries in which more said they would vote to become a republic than to keep the monarchy: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Jamaica and the Solomon Islands.

Story continues

659 adults in Wales were interviewed online between 3 and 15 March 2023, and 4 focus groups were held with people from Cardiff, Swansea, Aberystwyth and North Wales. A total of 22,701 adults were interviewed in the 15 countries in which King Charles is head of state. The full report, Uncharted Realms: The Future of the Monarchy in the UK and Around the World, together with full data for each country, is available for free at LordAshcroftPolls.com

LORD ASHCROFT KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, pollster and author. He is a former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party and honorary Chairman of the International Democrat Union. His recent political books include Going For Broke: The Rise of Rishi Sunak, First Lady: Intrigue at the Court of Carrie and Boris Johnson, and Red Knight: The Unauthorised Biography of Sir Keir Starmer.

LordAshcroftPolls.com // LordAshcroft.com // Twitter/Facebook: @LordAshcroft

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If you know of local business openings or closings, please notify us here.

PREVIOUS OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS

- Air Products & Chemicals Inc. plans to invest a half-billion dollars to produce environmentally friendly hydrogen in New York state.

- The Trexlertown Chick-Fil-A plans to add a second drive-thru lane as part of a plan to reduce traffic congestion.

- The Harrisburg-based Mid Penn bank has opened its first full-service branch in the Lehigh Valley in South Whitehall.

- The Allentown Planning Commission put off a decision on a new Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at the site of the former Nostos Greek restaurant.

- The former Star Crete concrete plant at the intersection of Farmersville Road and Easton Avenue has been sold for $1.58 million, and that may clear the way for a medical office building.

- The local business SuperSets Gym will open its third location in Allentown's South Mall, with no opening date set yet.

- The jewelry boutique Versant will close later this year, but the business will be consolidated at Gary Werkheiser's other location in Saucon Valley Square.

- The DSW Woodmill Commons has moved to Berkshire West, 1101 Woodland Road in Wyomissing.

- Trainer Michael Melendez has opened his new Reading Extreme Boxing Club where PacSun used to operate in the Berkshire Mall.

- Frackville NAPA Auto Parts held a grand opening with the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce and Frackville Business & Professional Association.

- Fyzical Therapy & Balance Centers in North Manheim Township held a grand opening, in conjunction with the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce and Pottsville Business Association.

- PDC Machines, a maker of hydrogen compressors, showed off a new plant in Lower Salford.

- Maya Capital Partners has acquired Amwell Valley Self Storage, a 265-unit storage business on Route 31 in Ringoes, New Jersey.

- Norwescap is buying the former Sullivan's on the Main restaurant in Phillipsburg to renovate the building and then use it for programs to help educate and feed people.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  A delegation of United States defense contractors and a former senior leader of the U.S. Marine Corps pledged the beginning of deeper cooperation with Taiwan on Wednesday.

Taiwan has faced increasing pressure from China in the years since Tsai Ing-wen was elected president. China, which claims the island as its territory, has poached Taiwans diplomatic allies and sent military planes and ships toward the island on a near-daily basis. It also held large-scale drills modeling a blockade and simulated strikes on important targets on the island twice within the past year.

Speaking at a public forum in Taiwan's capital Taipei, retired Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder said the U.S. wants to be part of the defense capabilities of Taiwan and improve the supply chain resilience of the island. He also emphasized how critical the island's position is for security.

For the Asia-Pacific, I would offer theres not another more important area in the world to maintain peace, Rudder said Wednesday morning at the Taiwan-U.S. Defense Industry Forum. So (when) you hear a free and open Indo-Pacific, this is a small part of ensuring that shared vision remains intact.

"We want to be part of the self-defense capabilities of Taiwan," he said.

U.S. Congress members have called on the Biden administration to follow through on the nearly $19 billion in military sales items they say have been approved but not yet delivered to Taiwan.

Rudder, who was in charge of Marines operations in the Pacific, said the visit was within the U.S.' multiple agreements with China and laws related to Taiwan, such as the Taiwan Relations Act, which requires Washington to ensure Taiwan can defend itself. The legislation was enacted decades ago when the U.S. administration first recognized China and broke off official diplomatic relations with Taipei.

The event was co-hosted by a trade group from the U.S. and another from Taiwan as the public-facing portion of the defense contractors' visit.

Although it's unclear whether the groups will sign specific deals, local media reported that the United States was looking at cooperation in production of certain products. Part of that cooperation would be ensuring both sides can work together to use the weapons systems Taiwan bought alongside the island's existing self-produced defense capabilities. Washington is Taipei's largest unofficial partner and the supplier of a vast majority of Taiwan's defense purchases.

Ill say it very simply: The endgame is joint interoperability, Rudder said.

A group of about 20 activists protested outside. American warmongers are a scourge on Taiwan, read one of the banners.

They sell all sorts of outdated ammunition to Taiwan and make tens of billions of U.S. dollars from Taiwan every year, said David T. Chien, vice-chair of the Blue Sky Action Alliance, which supports unification with China.

Between 6 a.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday, 27 Chinese warplanes and a drone flew toward Taiwan, according to Taiwans Ministry of National Defense. The drone encircled the island, according to a flight map from the defense ministry, while seven navy vessels sailed the waters close by. It was the second time in the past week that a drone circled the island, in what appears to be a new tactic for China to exert military pressure on Taiwan.

Find more of APs Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
WEST READING, Pa.  West Reading Borough Council President Ryan Lineaweaver said the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into a deadly explosion at the RM Palmer Company continues.

"We can expect their final report in about 12-24 months, according to their estimations," Lineaweaver said.

NTSB releases preliminary findings on explosion at R.M. Palmer Company Investigators from the NTSB examined the accident site, secured evidence and completed interviews with Palmer employees and members of the public nearby at the time of the accident.

Meanwhile, Lineaweaver said neighbors will see construction and cleanup efforts continuing at the impacted properties.

"They will hear some construction," Lineaweaver said. "They will hear potentially waterproofing the north facing wall on Building 1."

In an update, the borough said properties will soon be returned to the owners, who will be responsible for the remaining cleanup efforts.

The borough also said police, the fire marshal and the code department are working to ensure the safety of cleanup. The borough anticipates continued security on the affected block.

Lineaweaver said the American Red Cross has been assisting people who were impacted. Mental health resources have been available at Holcomb Behavorial Health Systems as well.

Lineaweaver says The United Way has also offered resources. He is thanking the community for the support.

"They've been absolutely incredible," he says of the community. "We've done amazing things just locally, trying to raise money for those affected."

It's a community that he said is chipping in, any way it can.

"We've received a great number of messages, phone calls, emails from people reaching out trying to help," Lineaweaver said, "so it's very endearing that people want to help our community in the way that they have."

West Reading Mayor Samantha Kaag said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey will be visiting the area this week to discuss resources.
BETHLEHEM, Pa.  Bethlehem City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday night to send a proposed ordinance to rezone a property on the city's Southside to its community development committee for further review and discussion.

Councilmembers Wandalyn Enix and Grace Crampsie Smith opposed sending the bill back to committee.

The proposal on the table is to rezone the property at 119 Technology Drive to CB-Central Business zoning from the current IR-Industrial Redevelopment zoning to make way for a proposed development of a 240-unit, six-story apartment building.

Multi-family dwellings is a permitted use in the CB zoning district.

2:47 Bethlehem residents, council question developer about 240 proposed apartments The building at 119 Technology Drive would be home to 240 apartments, an e-gaming room, an on-site gym, a co-working space and other amenities.

Last month, council held a public hearing on the rezoning proposal during which some residents raised issues about the additional traffic it would bring to the area.

In March, the Bethlehem Planning Commission voted to recommend the zoning change for the property.

Developer Kevin Serfass, vice president of Serfass Companies, said his company proposed the rezoning.

"Putting myself in the position of a current business owner of today on Third or Fourth streets  if somebody told me there was going to be 300 new residents a block and a half away, I would have rolled out the red carpet for them," Serfass said. "I would ask City Council to roll out the red carpet for them."

Serfass added that there are 750 members of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, and he said he believes most of them would be supportive of new residents to create more feet on the street.

Eaton Avenue resident William Scheirer said he has a contrary view.

"Do we want to become a city with more congestion and more noise?" Scheirer asked. "A total of 20 sizable apartment buildings have been built, proposed, or somewhere in between, with half of them on the Southside."

Council President Michael G. Colon said he would not be in favor of rezoning.

"I appreciate Mr. Serfass' interest in investing a significant amount of money on that lot and turning that building into this more valuable residential high-rise," Colon said.

"I'm just not of the opinion right now," Colon continued," as it relates to different conversations that are going on at the state level and the governor's stated initiatives for the new governor's platform and trying to bring job creators into Pennsylvania, that I would be in favor of rezoning this parcel."

Councilwoman Kiera Wilhelm said the proposed project addresses a critical need for housing, and is good for businesses on both sides of the river. The nearly 4-acre site is near the Philip J. Fahy Memorial Bridge.

"It's hard to think of a place that is more in the center of Bethlehem than this location, and that invites residents to walk and bike to businesses on both sides of the river," Wilhelm said. "It activates an important entry point to the city, and it engages the community with a river in a new way."

Councilmember Grace Crampsie Smith said there are many points to consider on both sides of the issue.

"I am really concerned about what the fabric of the Southside is going to look like if we're going to rezone and then go residential with a high-rise apartment building," Crampsie Smith said.

"As we keep on building these high-end luxury apartments, I'm not convinced that it's helping us address our affordable housing crisis," she continued, "because I know for a fact that the majority of folks in Bethlehem cannot afford these apartments."

Councilmember Wandalyn Enix said she agrees that Bethlehem needs housing, specifically geared toward home ownership.

"We're the gem of the Lehigh Valley, and we want to stay that way and not have a big city built," Enix said. "Also, I feel very, very strongly about the fact that we need to promote higher pay, paying jobs and careers, and I think that we need to stick with the technological emphasis that this (property) was built for."

The land in question is currently occupied by IQE Plc, a U.K.-based maker of semiconductor wafers. The company will close its doors by 2024.

2:25 Mixed reactions to proposed apartment building in south Bethlehem The Bethlehem City Council will hold a public hearing Tuesday night to review what a developer calls 'one of the largest redevelopments' in city history.

Councilwoman Paige Van Wirt said there are good points on both sides.

"I really think that the rest of the Southside riverfront, especially stimulated by the construction of the new ArtsQuest building, is going to become much more of a residential arts-associated neighborhood," Van Wirt said. "And I think we have to respect those forces of capitalism, and in fact, I think we need to harness them."

Councilwoman Rachel Leon said she has complex feelings about the project.

"I haven't had enough conversations with residents of the Southside to put my mind at ease either way," Leon said. "I'm just torn on it, and I just need to talk to more people who are very vested in this and live there."

Councilwoman Hillary Kwiatek said she was leaning toward rezoning if the vote were to take place at Tuesday's meeting.

"However, if there is a desire for more conversation in a different venue, I would be open to listening to that," Kwiatek said.

Council hopes to hold the community development committee meeting later this month.
Northampton County Council will meet for the first time Thursday with its new 5-4 Republican majority.



This time, the tide did not turn from an election. Council President Kerry Myers switched parties last week and is running as a Republican write-in candidate for District 2, which covers the Easton area.



Myers did not make it onto the ballot as a Democrat because he did not have 250 valid signatures on his nominating petition. Kelly Keegan, a Democrat, is the only District 2 candidate who will appear on the May 16 primary election ballot.



His switch turned the tide to the GOP. Myers played down the political aspect of the switch, saying county government is about service, not party.



The GOP majority includes Myers, Thomas Giovanni, John Goffredo, John Cusick and John Brown. The four Democrats are Tara Zrinski, Lori Vargo Heffner, Ron Heckman and Kevin Lott.



While the Myers switch adds some potential drama, the council agenda for Thursday is light. The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission will make an annual presentation to council.



The LVPC has been in the news recently, after Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure objected to the organization's planned move to Allentown from Hanover Township (Lehigh County). McClure said the move will extend driving times to LVPC events for Northampton County representatives.



He also objected to the terms of the lease for the Allentown waterfront property, and said staying in Hanover would be cheaper.



His counterpart in Lehigh County, Philips Armstrong, said the move will save money over time because the commission will not have to spend money on renovations.



The move was decided upon by the LVPC board's Executive Committee, not the staff. The LVPC's professional staff sets development standards for the 62 towns in Lehigh and Northampton counties.



Council will also review an application for a state grant for Hangdog LV, a rope-climbing and zipline outdoor venue in Williams Township.



The full council meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. in the government center at 669 Washington St., Easton. A link to watch a livestream of the meeting will be posted on the county website.



At 5 p.m., council's Human Services Committee will hear a monthly report on Gracedale, the county nursing home in Upper Nazareth Township. The Economic Development Committee will hear a presentation from the Northampton County Housing Authority at a 3:30 p.m. meeting.



Agendas and links to committee meetings are posted on the website.
TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey officials say a campaign manager for a would-be candidate in the 2021 governor's race has been charged with election fraud.

James Devine, 61, admitted to investigators that he filed nearly 2,000 bogus petitions to try to get his candidate on the ballot for the Democratic primary, said the New Jersey Attorney General's Office.

The Lambertville man sent about 2,000 fraudulent voter certifications around April 5, 2021 to support a petition to get gubernatorial hopeful Lisa McCormick on the ballot for the June 8, 2021 Democratic primary election, the AG said.

The New Jersey Democratic State Committee noticed suspicious similarities with the certifications, and a judge removed McCormick from the ballot on April 13, citing the irregularities, officials said.

Devine was charged with a third-degree offense involving nomination certificates, a third-degree charge of tampering with public records or information and a fourth-degree charge of falsifying or tampering with records.

Third-degree crimes carry a 3-5 year prison sentence and $15,000 fine, and fourth-degree offenses could lead to 18 months in prison and a $10,000 fine.
HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania is one step closer to protecting LGBTQIA+ rights statewide.

By only four votes, the Fairness Act, sponsored by Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, passed Tuesday night in the Pennsylvania House.

"It was an emotional moment for me and for so many advocates who have been trying to see this bill move in the House literally for 22 years," said Rep. Kenyatta, who is also the first LGBTQIA+ person of color ever to serve in the Pennsylvania Legislature.

It was an especially powerful moment for the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBTQ Center in Allentown, which played a pivotal role in getting the original anti-discrimination ordinance for the Lehigh Valley LGBTQ community.

"Allentown was the first city in the state to have an ordinance like this, so it being statewide is a huge game-changer," said Bradbury-Sullivan spokesperson Braden Hudak.

Hudak said the problem right now is, while businesses and landlords are legally prevented from discriminating against people for their sexual orientation or gender identity in Allentown, it's not like that in other communities.

"If somebody wants to move across the Commonwealth, that they don't leave one jurisdiction where their housing is protected and then go to another place where they could be kicked out of their home for putting up a picture of their wedding," said Rep. Kenyatta.

"You can lose and gain rights about 10 different times just on that drive to Philadelphia, and it's really no way to live," said Hudak.

The Fairness Act now moves on to the state Senate, which is currently held by Republicans, but the bill did have some bipartisan support, and both Kenyatta and Hudak are staying optimistic.

"This is the way forward, and we're hopeful that the bill will pass," said Hudak.

"Every single Pennsylvanian deserves that dignity and respect, and we're not going to stop until that's the law of the land," said Rep. Kenyatta.

Many of our Republican representatives in the Lehigh Valley voted against the Fairness Act, including Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, Rep. Milou Mackenzie, Rep. Ann Flood, and Rep. Zach Mako. None of them responded to our request for comment Wednesday.
HERSHEY, Pa. - The Pennsylvania State Police marks its 118th year.

In a special ceremony, state police officials read off the names of the 102 troopers killed in the line of duty and lay a wreath at the memorial wall in Hershey.

While it is a moment to reflect, it's also a time to look to the future. Currently, efforts are underway to bring more diversity to the state police through targeted recruitment efforts.

"We agree with assessments that law enforcement agencies should reflect the populations of the communities they serve. And so we're looking to recruit more minorities, including women," said State Police Communications Director Myles Snyder.

Snyder says the first class of female troopers was in 1972.

"Pennsylvania State Police was the first state police agency in the United States to bring women into the regular command structure," Snyder said.

Snyder says today, less than 10 percent of the force is women. But that is a metric state police hope to change.

Snyder says another memorial for fallen state troopers will be held Saturday at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy.
HARMONY TWP., N.J. - A New Jersey woman is facing animal cruelty charges for conditions on her Harmony Township farm.

Andrea DeCarlo was charged in April for failing to care for her horse, sheep and a ram, said the Warren County Prosecutor's Office.

The horse was severely underweight with inadequate shelter and eating hay soaked in urine and feces, the prosecutor said. DeCarlo also had several malnourished sheep with little shelter and exposed to areas with broken glass and sharp nails, as well as a ram with an injured leg, missing hair and in poor health.

The state Department of Agriculture visited her property on Montana Road three times over the last few months with recommendations to fix the conditions, but DeCarlo didn't make any effort to fix the issues, the prosecutor said.

She was charged with three counts of animal cruelty for failing to provide necessary care for the animals. A fourth-degree crime has a maximum sentence of 18 months in New Jersey state prison.
LONDON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- More voters in Northern Ireland would choose to become a republic tomorrow than remain a constitutional monarchy  though the UK as a whole would vote to keep the royals, according to new polling from Lord Ashcroft.

How countries where King Charles is head of state would vote tomorrow in a referendum on the monarchy  Lord Ashcroft Polls

Findings from the survey include:

46% of voters in Northern Ireland said they would vote to become a republic in a referendum tomorrow, while 42% would choose to remain a constitutional monarchy. 12% said they didn't know or would not vote. (Voters in England would keep the monarchy by 57% to 22%, Wales by 54% to 23%, and Scotland by 46% to 32%).

91% of strongly Unionists and 70% of broadly Unionist voters said they would keep the monarchy; 86% of strongly Nationalist and 77% of broadly Nationalist voters would choose to become a republic. Those saying they were neutral on the constitutional question backed a republic by 59% to 20%.

Northern Ireland voters aged 65 and over backed the monarchy by 48% to 34%; those aged 18 to 24 said they would vote for a republic by 48% to 35%.

59% of Northern Ireland voters said they had a positive view of Princess Anne, making her the most popular royal in the Province. She was followed by the Prince and Princess of Wales (both 54%) and King Charles and Sophie, Countess of Wessex (both 47%). Among Unionists, the most popular figures were the Prince and Princess of Wales; Nationalists were most favourable towards Prince Harry and Meghan  though 40% of broadly Nationalist voters also had a favourable view of Princess Anne.

72% of those voting to keep the monarchy said it was a good thing for the country; 21% said the alternative we ended up with would probably be worse, and 7% said the process of changing would probably be too disruptive.

Only 14% of those preferring a republic said this would bring real, practical benefits; 85% of them said the monarchy was wrong in principle and should be replaced whether there were practical benefits or not. 51% of pro-republic voters agreed that "in an ideal world we wouldn't have the monarchy, but there are more important things for the country to deal with."

68% of Northern Ireland voters said they thought the King and the royal family cared a lot about the country. This included a majority (55%) of broadly Nationalist and 30% of strongly Nationalist voters. Northern Ireland voters were divided as to whether the royal family (47%) or elected politicians (53%) did a better job of connecting with ordinary people.

26% said the royal family helped the political situation in Northern Ireland, 27% said they made the situation worse, and 42% said they made no difference to Northern Ireland politics.

Asked where their sympathies lay between Prince Harry and the rest of the royal family, 20% had more sympathy for Harry and Meghan and 37% for the King and Prince William; 8% had sympathy for both and 33% (including more than half of Nationalists) for neither.

Lord Ashcroft's polling found six countries in which more said they would vote to become a republic than to keep the monarchy: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Jamaica and the Solomon Islands.

Story continues

1,156 adults in Northern Ireland were interviewed online in March 2023. A total of 22,701 adults were interviewed in the 15 countries in which King Charles is head of state. The full report, Uncharted Realms: The Future of the Monarchy in the UK and Around the World, together with full data for each country, is available for free at LordAshcroftPolls.com

LORD ASHCROFT KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, pollster and author. He is a former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party and honorary Chairman of the International Democrat Union. His recent political books include Going For Broke: The Rise of Rishi Sunak, First Lady: Intrigue at the Court of Carrie and Boris Johnson, and Red Knight: The Unauthorised Biography of Sir Keir Starmer.

LordAshcroftPolls.com // LordAshcroft.com // Twitter/Facebook: @LordAshcroft

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WASHINGTON (AP)  A top House Republican subpoenaed FBI Director Chris Wray on Wednesday for what he claimed are bureau records related to President Joe Biden and his family, basing the demand on newly surfaced allegations he said an unnamed whistleblower made to Congress.

The White House said it was the latest example in the yearslong series of "unfounded, unproven" political attacks against Biden by Republicans "floating anonymous innuendo."

Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee and Accountability, is seeking a specific FBI form from June 2020 that is a report of conversations or interactions with a confidential source. Comer, in a letter to Wray with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said that "it has come to our attention" that the bureau has such a document that "describes an alleged criminal scheme" involving Biden and a foreign national "relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions" when Biden was vice president and includes "a precise description" about it.

The subpoena seeks all so-called FD-1023 forms and accompanying attachments and documents.

The lawmakers used the word "alleged" three times in the opening paragraph of the letter and offered no evidence of the veracity of the accusations or any details about what they contend are "highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures."

Comer and Grassley said those "disclosures" demand further investigation, and they want to know whether the FBI investigated and, if so, what agents found.

To the White House, the subpoena is further evidence of how congressional Republicans long "have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically motivated attacks" against the Bidens "without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests."

A White House spokesperson, Ian Sams, said Biden "has offered an unprecedented level of transparency" about his personal finances with the public release of a total of 25 years of tax returns.

The FBI and Justice Department confirmed receiving the subpoena but declined to comment further. The president's personal lawyers had no comment.

Republicans claim they have amassed evidence in recent years that raise questions about whether Biden and his family have used their public positions for private gain.

House Republicans have used the power of their new majority to aggressively investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden's business dealings, including examining foreign payments and other aspects of the family's finances. Comer has obtained thousands of pages of the Biden family's financial records through subpoenas to the Treasury Department and various financial institutions since January.

Comer has not revealed much about the findings of his investigation so far. Most recently, Comer claimed one deal involving the Biden family resulted in a profit of over $1 million in more than 15 incremental payments from a Chinese company through a third party.

Both Comer and Grassley have accused both the FBI and Justice Department of stonewalling their investigations and politicizing the agency's yearslong investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes.

Last month, an IRS special agent sought whistleblower protections from Congress to disclose a "failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition" of a criminal investigation related to the younger Biden's taxes and whether he made a false statement in connection with a gun purchase.
JERUSALEM (AP)  Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed a 58-year-old man and wounded five others on Wednesday, Palestinian health officials said, even as the latest spasm of violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the enclave appeared to ebb.

Israeli fighter jets struck targets in Gaza in response to salvos of rockets launched by Palestinian militants at Israeli territory on Tuesday. But after sunrise, the violence seemed to subside as both sides signaled they wanted to avoid a wider conflict.

The exchange erupted when a prominent Palestinian detainee died in Israeli custody after an 87-day hunger strike. The death of Khader Adnan, 45, a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group credited with popularizing hunger strikes as an effective form of activism, reverberated across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where he is revered as a national hero.

Protests erupted at Israeli military checkpoints and a general strike shuttered stores across the territories. Palestinians and rights groups have blamed Israel for his death, accusing prison authorities of medical negligence.

London-based Amnesty International on Wednesday described Adnan's treatment in Israeli prison as inhumane" and degrading, citing a doctor who visited his cell and said authorities rebuffed his requests for medical attention. Israel's prison service claims Adnan refused medical treatment until it was too late.

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired 100 rockets into southern Israel late Tuesday, seriously wounding a foreign worker at a construction site. The Israeli military said its warplanes struck tunnels, arms production sites and military installations belonging to the ruling Hamas militant group in Gaza.

The Israeli strikes sent shrapnel slicing through the house of 58-year-old Hashil Mubarak in Gaza City, his son Hatem said. As their roof collapsed, shards of metal struck Mubaraks chest, killing him, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Mubarak was rushed to the hospital and could not be resuscitated.

We were sleeping at home safe and sound when we heard a giant explosion from a missile, Hatem recalled as mourners filled his neighborhood mosque and took turns bending down to kiss his father's forehead.

He was martyred, he said.

After a quiet few hours, the Israeli military announced that residents in southern towns no longer needed to remain close to bomb shelters. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem thanked Palestinian militants for confronting Israeli aggression and concluding the round of the conflict.

The U.N.'s envoy to the Mideast, Tor Wennesland, said he welcomed the restoration of calm" after a violent 12 hours. Had our efforts failed, we would risk being in the midst of another deadly escalation, he said.

But not everyone welcomed the calm. Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir lambasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over what he described as a weak response to the rocket fire from Gaza.

Ultranationalist lawmakers in Netanyahus coalition, including Ben-Gvir, won a record number of seats in the general election in November, after campaigning on a pledge to reduce terrorist threats and take a hard-line against the Palestinians. The latest rocket attacks have already heightened calls from the politicians' right-wing supporters to make good on their promises.

Ben-Gvir's party, called Jewish Power, announced its members would boycott all parliament voting on Wednesday in protest.

Netanyahu hit back at Ben-Gvir, saying that only the prime minister, defense minister and security forces are tasked with handling the sensitive and complex security events in Israel.

If this is not acceptable to Minister Ben-Gvir, he does not have to stay in the government, Netanyahu's Likud party said in a statement.

The spike in violence comes at a time of heightened tensions in the occupied West Bank under Israel's most right-wing government in history. On Wednesday, Israeli security forces demolished the family houses of two Palestinians who carried out deadly attacks against Israelis last fall.

Israel defends its decades-old policy of leveling family homes of attackers as a deterrent. The practice has long drawn criticism from human rights groups that call it collective punishment, forbidden by international law. Some also question its effectiveness in preventing future attacks, saying such demolitions only exacerbate tensions and fuel hatred in Palestinian communities.

The military said it entered the northern West Bank town of Haris and destroyed the home of 18-year-old Mohammed Souf, who killed three Israelis in a stabbing and car-ramming attack last November before being killed. The military also leveled the home of Younes Hilan, who was arrested on suspicion of fatally stabbing an Israeli man in October.

Also in the West Bank on Wednesday, Israeli forces shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian outside the city of Bethlehem. The Israeli military alleged that the Palestinian refused to cooperate at a checkpoint and tried to attack soldiers. Security forces responded first by firing into the air and then shooting the suspected assailant, the military said.

Israel-Palestinian fighting has surged over the past year. Roughly 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire and 49 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

Associated Press writer Mohammad Jahjouh in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.
BANGKOK (AP)  Myanmars ruling military council on Wednesday said it was releasing more than 2,100 political prisoners as a humanitarian gesture. Thousands more remain imprisoned on charges generally involving nonviolent protests or criticism of military rule, which began when the army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

State-run MRTV television reported that the head of Myanmars military council, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, had pardoned 2,153 prisoners on the most important Buddhist holy day of the year, marking the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha.

In a separate report, it said Min Aung Hlaing had commuted the death sentences of 38 prisoners to life in prison. The report provided no details about them.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, there were 112 prisoners on death row as of Tuesday who had been put there since the army takeover. The group keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the repression of the military government. At least four executions have been carried out since the military seized power.

The prisoner releases began Wednesday but may take a few days to be completed. The identities of those released were not immediately available, but do not include Suu Kyi, who is serving a prison term of 33 years on more than a dozen charges her supporters say were trumped up by the military.

According to an official announcement on state media, all of the prisoners granted pardons on Wednesday were convicted under a section of the penal code that makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear, or spread false news, and carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.

The terms of the pardons warn that if the freed detainees violate the law again, they will have to serve the remainder of their original sentences in addition to whatever term they are given for their new offense.

Two prisoners freed from Yangon's notorious Insein Prison told The Associated Press they continue to support opposition political activities.

One arrested in 2021 said the terms under which they were released meant they would be on a government watch list.

"But we know what we have to do. And we learned a lot from prison. Using that, we will continue to fight for the revolution," said the former prisoner, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons.

The human rights organization Amnesty International said in an email that Anyone imprisoned for peacefully opposing the military coup in Myanmar should never have been jailed in the first place."

This long-overdue release should mark the first step towards the immediate release of all individuals who have been arbitrarily detained for exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly or other human rights," the group's deputy regional director for campaigns, Ming Yu Hah, said. Amnesty International remains deeply concerned about the further thousands of individuals who are still unjustly languishing in prisons across the country where they face torture and other ill treatment."

Mass prisoner releases are common on major holidays in Myanmar. The last release of that many political prisoners at one time occurred in July 2021, when 2,296 prisoners were freed.

In November last year, several high-profile political prisoners, including an Australian academic, a Japanese filmmaker, an ex-British diplomat and an American, were released as part of a broad prisoner amnesty that also freed many local citizens held for protesting the army takeover.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners had said Tuesday that 17,897 people taken into custody since the 2021 army takeover remained in detention.

Prisoner releases appear to be efforts by the hard-line military government to soften its image as a major human rights abuser.

Last week, former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Myanmars military to take the initiative in finding a way out of the countrys violent political crisis, including releasing political detainees, after a surprise meeting with Min Aung Hlaing.

A statement following the meeting said Ban supported the international communitys calls for the immediate release by the Myanmar military of all arbitrarily detained prisoners, for constructive dialogue, and for utmost restraint from all parties.

The amnesty also came a day after Min Aung Hlaing met with the visiting foreign minister of China, which has provided key support to his regime since it seized power.

MRTV said Tuesday that Qin Gang held talks in the capital, Naypyitaw, with Min Aung Hlaing and other top officials and exchanged views on bilateral relations, Myanmars political situation and conditions needed for its stability and development.

Qins visit followed a meeting Monday in Beijing with U.N. special envoy for Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer, who stressed that a robust international response to the crisis requires a unified effort by neighboring nations working together to stop the violence, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Wednesday.

Heyzer emphasized Chinas important global role and its support for the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations' efforts to facilitate peace, Haq said, while Qin underscored that the international community "must act prudently and pragmatically" to prevent the Myanmar conflict from intensifying and spilling over into the region.

China has strategic geopolitical and economic interests in Myanmar, its southern neighbor, and is one of the few large nations that has maintained good relations with its military government, which is shunned and sanctioned by many Western nations for its takeover and brutal repression of its opponents.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army took power. Its takeover prompted peaceful protests that security forces suppressed with bloody violence. Violence has since escalated with the rise of armed resistance around the country and major military efforts to suppress it.

As of Tuesday, 3,452 civilians had been killed by the security forces since the military takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
CLEVELAND, Texas (AP)  A man suspected of killing five of his neighbors in Texas after they asked him to stop shooting his gun near their house hid out just miles away from the slayings while he and his domestic partner plotted his escape to Mexico, authorities said Wednesday.

Francisco Oropeza showered and slept at the house outside the city of Conroe on Tuesday while Divimara Lamar Nava got him donuts from a nearby store, a prosecutor said. Lamar Nava also acknowledged delivering a message from Oropeza to his cousins in the area asking them to help him get out of the country, the prosecutor said at Lamar Navas probable cause hearing. The cousins refused to help.

Authorities believe Lamar Nava was talking to investigators at the same time she was trying to help Oropeza, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said at a news conference. She initially told authorities she didn't know where Oropeza was, but later told a federal agent that he showed up at the house about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to the prosecutor at the probable cause hearing.

Oropeza, 38, was arrested there on Tuesday evening, just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the city of Cleveland, where the shootings took place. Acting on a tip, authorities found him hiding under a pile of laundry in a closet after a four-day manhunt. Lamar Nava, 53, was arrested at the house on Wednesday.

Authorities identified Lamar Nava as Oropeza's wife, though jail records list her as not being married but sharing a home address with him.

The slayings Friday sent shudders through a nation already dealing with a wave of shootings that have put the U.S. on a torrid pace for mass killings this year.

Outside the Conroe-area home, yellow police tape could be seen Wednesday in both the front and back, although the officers were gone. Neighbor Angel Lozano recalled looking up from unloading tools from his truck Tuesday night to see unmarked law enforcement vehicles streaming onto his normally quiet street.

"A bunch of people got out with guns and they went straight to the house and surrounded the area, Lozano, 39, said Wednesday, estimating that at least 50 officers surrounded the home two doors down from his. It was a really fast job they did. They got him without people getting hurt or another shooting.

Several others have also been arrested, authorities said, although they only shared details about one of them. Domingo Castilla, a friend of Oropeza, was arrested on Tuesday in the Trails End neighborhood where the victims were shot, Dillon said. Castilla was charged with marijuana possession but authorities also expect to charge him with obstructing Oropezas apprehension, Dillon said.

At a news conference Wednesday, San Jacinto County Chief Deputy Sheriff Tim Kean said he couldnt go into details about the other people who were arrested, including how many.

Oropeza was charged Wednesday with five counts of first-degree murder during a court hearing in jail, said San Jacinto County Justice of the Peace Judge Randy Ellisor. Bond is set at $1.5 million per count, for a total of $7.5 million, Ellisor said. Lamar Nava is being held at the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon. Her bail has been set at $250,000. Bond for Castilla was set at $5,000, Ellisor said.

Oropeza is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to U.S. immigration officials.

Police had previously spotted him on Monday afternoon in Montgomery County, prompting several schools to lock down, Kean said at a news conference outside the county jail Wednesday.

We did confirm that was him on foot, running, but we lost track of him," Kean said.

Kean declined to comment on the tip that led authorities to the Conroe home, which he said was one that had not been previously checked by authorities.

The arrest came after authorities set up a widening dragnet of more than 250 people, drones and search dogs from multiple jurisdictions and offered $80,000 in reward money. The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. A little more than an hour later, Oropeza was in custody, said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul.

Lozano said he hadn't known the residents of the home where Oropeza was arrested but would sometimes say hi to them if they were walking by his house. "We never thought he was going to be right next door, he said.

The victims have been identified as Diana Velasquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9, all from Honduras. Velasquez Alvarado's father, Osman Velasquez, said she had recently obtained legal residency in the U.S.

Argentina Guzman's husband, Wilson Garcia, survived the shooting. He said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield the children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

When offering a reward for Oropezas capture, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the victims illegal immigrants, which drew widespread backlash. His office apologized on Monday.

A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velasquez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and her husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras migrant protection service.

Osman Velasquez said his daughter had traveled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister who was already living there.

Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and thats true, he said. "But I never imagined it was just for this.

This story has been edited to correct Kean's title and to note that Wilson Garcia was Sonia Argentina Guzman's husband, not Diana Velasquez Alvarado's.

Merchant reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Jake Bleiberg in Dallas; Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas; Mike Wyke in Coldspring, Texas; Marlon Gonzalez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
The presidents of Iran and Syria have signed a series of long-term trade agreements in Damascus to bolster economic ties between the two allies. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, leading a large economic and political delegation, met with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday after landing in the war-torn country for a two-day visit. Tehran is a main backer of Assads government since a 2011 uprising turned into full-blown civil war in Syria and has played an instrumental role in turning the tide of the conflict in his favor. Syrian state media reported that the two leaders signed agreements related to several sectors, including oil, agriculture, railways and free trade zones.
ISLAMABAD (AP)  The Talibans intimidation, threats and attacks on Afghan journalists are unacceptable, the U.N. said Wednesday, as it expressed concern for the future of the country's media.

Many journalists lost their jobs after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, with media outlets closing over a lack of funds or because staff left the country. Women journalists face additional hardships because of work bans and travel restrictions.

During their previous rule in the late 1990s, the Taliban barred most television, radio and newspapers in the country.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said that although journalists continue to work, they are forced to navigate unclear and often arbitrary boundaries of reporting against an ever-present threat of repression and closure.

Its comments coincide with World Press Freedom Day, which is observed May 3.

The UN secretary-generals special representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, said the day was a moment to show solidarity with the Afghan journalists trying to maintain independent reporting.

Journalists are being forced to make editorial decisions based on fear, not public interest," said Otunbayeva. The persistent intimidation, threats, and attacks on journalists are unacceptable. We urge the Taliban de facto authorities to guarantee the freedom and independence of the media, and the safety of journalists, women and men alike.

Deputy Broadcasting Minister Mahajar Farahi denied that journalists face obstacles in Afghanistan, saying the media is carrying out its activities in a normal way.

The Afghan press has improved compared to the past and we are still trying to work on solving the media's problems, Farahi told The Associated Press. We do not consider ourselves obliged to respond to every propaganda.

Media watchdog Reporters without Borders ranks Afghanistan 152 out of 180 countries in its latest World Press Freedom Index, released Wednesday. It said the environment for reporters continues to worsen and women journalists have been literally erased from public life.

It said 43% of Afghan media outlets disappeared after the Taliban takeover of August 2021. Of the 10,780 people working in Afghan newsrooms, 8,290 men and 2,490 women, at the beginning of that month, just 4,360 were still working in December, 3,950 men and 410 women.
By Mei Mei Chu and Rozanna Latiff

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Malaysia said on Wednesday it will adopt a dual network model for its 5G rollout next year following widespread concerns about pricing and competition over a single state-run network.

The decision is the latest by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's six-month-old administration aimed at dismantling monopolies and promoting competition, though it could create tension with Western countries that wanted Malaysia to stick with its original plan.

Malaysia had in 2021 unveiled a plan for a state-owned agency, Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), to own the full 5G spectrum, with various carriers using the infrastructure to provide mobile services.

Malaysia has now decided to allow a second entity after DNB's coverage reaches 80% of populated areas, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said in a statement.

"This model also takes into account the sustainability of the telecommunications industry ecosystem in Malaysia thus ending the monopoly element that is often associated with DNB," Fahmi said.

DNB has achieved 57.8% coverage of populated areas and is on track to reach 80% by the end of the year, he said.

The government's announcement confirmed a report by Reuters last month on a plan to introduce a second 5G network from January 2024.

The single-ownership plan had been met with industry concern over pricing, transparency and monopoly. A recommendation by major carriers for a second 5G provider was rejected by the previous government in March last year.

The plan came under renewed scrutiny after Anwar announced a review after taking office in November, saying it was not formulated transparently by the previous administration.

DNB rejected that assertion.

It has said a single network would reduce costs, improve efficiency and accelerate the building of infrastructure.

It was not clear how the proposal for a second 5G network would affect DNB's existing agreements with its development partner, Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson, and other mobile operators.

Story continues

On Tuesday, the Financial Times reported that the European Union and the U.S. had warned Malaysia of risks to national security and foreign investment amidst efforts by China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to bid for a role in its telecoms infrastructure.

Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Fahmi told a press conference he would meet interested diplomats to discuss the issue, and Malaysia would be "neutral" in commercial considerations.

"As a sovereign country, Malaysia has the right and power to set our own policies without the interference of other parties," Fahmi said.

(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu and Rozanna Latiff; writing by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Martin Petty and Robert Birsel)
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A man has been charged over the alleged cyber-crime theft of more than 200,000 from a woman in Aberdeen.

Police Scotland said the 26-year-old suspect had been arrested and charged in Kent.

It was in connection with a "high-value cyber-enabled fraud" said to have targeted a vulnerable woman's online finances.

Police said the man was expected to appear at Aberdeen Sheriff Court at a later date.
Andrew G. Arnott appointed to global head of retail

Colin Fitzgerald joins as global head of institutional

BOSTON and LONDON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Manulife Investment Management, the global wealth and asset management brand of Manulife, has announced new appointments to its institutional and retail channels. Andrew G. Arnott has been appointed to global head of retail, with responsibility for the organization's global retail business, and Colin Fitzgerald has been named global head of institutional, with the vision of creating a unified presence for our institutional customers across both public and private market investment solutions.

Colin Fitzgerald, global head of institutional, Manulife Investment Management (CNW Group/Manulife Investment Management)

Mr. Arnott and Mr. Fitzgerald are accountable for the strategy, growth, and overall success of the retail and institutional organizations, respectively. They join Aimee R. DeCamillo, global head of retirement, in delivering the global strength of Manulife's wealth and asset management business and, together, serve more than 17 million customers across five continents. Mr. Arnott, Ms. DeCamillo, and Mr. Fitzgerald report to Paul R. Lorentz, CEO, Manulife Investment Management, and are members of the leadership team.

"I'm pleased to announce Andy and Colin in these new positions to support our investors' objectives and our overall global growth strategy," said Mr. Lorentz. "They join Aimee DiCamillo, our global head of retirement, who was appointed last year, in pivotal roles for our firm. Together, they'll enhance the overall experience we're delivering to our institutional, retirement, and retail clients. Our investors' success and the value we provide to them is dependent on our ability to take the best ideas from all our regions and investment teams and apply them on a global scale. I have confidence in Aimee, Andy, and Colin and in their leadership, which will bring collaborative innovations and solutions to our customers."

Global head of retail

Mr. Arnott has held multiple leadership roles at Manulife Investment Management, including head of wealth and asset management, United States and Europe, and president and CEO, John Hancock Investment Management, the U.S. retail brand of Manulife Investment Management. Mr. Arnott brings a wealth of organizational and industry expertise to his position, including more than 25 years of experience in the asset management industry. Since 2012, he's led all aspects of John Hancock Investment Management's business, from investments, sales, marketing, finance, and product development to operations and technology. During this time, he oversaw a more than 300% increase in the U.S. retail business's assets under management. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Boston University and a master's in finance from Northeastern University.

Story continues

"I'm excited to focus on the global product and retail strategy at a time when evolving our business to meet the growing needs and expectations of individual investors is paramount. I'm confident that these global enhancements to our operating model will bring new opportunities to investors. "Working with the leaders of our public and private markets investment teams on additional solutions for our retail investors is just one of the ways we'll find more synergies to leverage our diverse investment capabilities and global footprint," said Mr. Arnott.

Based in Boston, Mr. Arnott will work in collaboration with regional heads to ensure the retail strategy reflects the nuances of local markets while focusing on expanding global distribution relationships and increasing global efficiency. Through a product development pipeline strengthened by investment teams in 19 markets, as well as one of the largest subadvisor platforms in the world, and overseen by a global manager research team, the firm is well positioned to meet the growing needs of individual investors.

Global head of institutional

Mr. Fitzgerald joins Manulife Investment Management from Credit Suisse, where he was global head of distribution, asset management, responsible for expanding the company's global distribution footprint. Prior to that, he was at Invesco where he served as CEO of Invesco Asset Management Limited, head of EMEA distribution, and head of EMEA institutional. He also spent time as head of institutional for Fidelity and as global head of key accounts and consultants at Robeco. His extensive experience in sales, business development, and international institutional markets extends back many years through roles in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Malaysia, and the United States.

"I am truly delighted and humbled to have the opportunity to contribute to Manulife Investment Management's ongoing success. Throughout the years, it has built upon a foundation of making decisions easier and lives better to provide investment solutions to clients around the world," said Mr. Fitzgerald. "By consistently engaging with our clients and leveraging technology, we strive to deliver a seamless and personalized experience that surpasses expectations. I look forward to growing the institutional business hand in hand with our teams and delivering the expertise and capabilities that meet investors' current and future needs."

Based in London, Mr. Fitzgerald will work closely with the institutional leadership team to build on the growth of Manulife Investment Management's institutional business, which serves clients across the globe. The firm's global set of capabilities include asset allocation, specialized fixed-income and equity investing, and private markets expertise, which includes agriculture, timberland, infrastructure equity, private equity and credit, and real estate equity. It manages over $400 billion of institutional client assets with a team of more than 650 investment professionals.

About Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management is the global brand for the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than a century of financial stewardship and the full resources of our parent company to serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Headquartered in Toronto, our leading capabilities in public and private markets are strengthened by an investment footprint that spans 19 geographies. We complement these capabilities by providing access to a network of unaffiliated asset managers from around the world. We're committed to investing responsibly across our businesses. We develop innovative global frameworks for sustainable investing, collaboratively engage with companies in our securities portfolios, and maintain a high standard of stewardship where we own and operate assets, and we believe in supporting financial well-being through our workplace retirement plans. Today, plan sponsors around the world rely on our retirement plan administration and investment expertise to help their employees plan for, save for, and live a better retirement. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com.

Andrew Arnott, global head of retail, Manulife Investment Management (CNW Group/Manulife Investment Management)

Manulife Investment Management Logo (CNW Group/Manulife Investment Management)

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Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO  Get Rating) saw a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 884,100 shares, an increase of 5.0% from the March 31st total of 841,700 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 268,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Assured Guaranty from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 5th. Roth Capital reaffirmed a buy rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st.

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Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO traded down $1.51 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $52.77. 164,295 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 257,681. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $53.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.48. Assured Guaranty has a twelve month low of $45.21 and a twelve month high of $67.13. The firm has a market cap of $3.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.67 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

Assured Guaranty ( NYSE:AGO Get Rating ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 17.15% and a return on equity of 4.88%. The firm had revenue of $292.00 million for the quarter. As a group, analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 8th were paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 7th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. This is a boost from Assured Guarantys previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Assured Guarantys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 57.73%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,158,570 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $583,035,000 after purchasing an additional 108,726 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,928,269 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $504,714,000 after purchasing an additional 410,594 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,365,129 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $271,771,000 after purchasing an additional 88,278 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,122,427 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $69,882,000 after purchasing an additional 74,488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 792,123 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $49,317,000 after acquiring an additional 12,987 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.51% of the companys stock.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

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Assured Guaranty Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of credit protection products to the U.S. and international public finance, and structured finance markets through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following segments: Insurance and Asset Management. The Insurance segment includes the companys domestic and foreign insurance subsidiaries and their wholly-owned subsidiaries that provide credit protection products to the U.S.

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Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH  Get Rating) saw a large decline in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,290,000 shares, a decline of 14.0% from the March 31st total of 1,500,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 503,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on BKH. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Black Hills from $71.00 to $65.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 9th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Black Hills from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $79.00 to $60.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Black Hills from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and lowered their price target for the company from $81.00 to $68.00 in a report on Friday, February 10th. Mizuho downgraded shares of Black Hills from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and lowered their price target for the company from $71.00 to $60.00 in a report on Thursday, February 9th. Finally, Scotiabank downgraded shares of Black Hills from a sector outperform rating to a sector perform rating and set a $67.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Black Hills currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $67.29.

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Black Hills Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:BKH traded down $1.20 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $64.17. 403,880 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 474,256. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.25 billion, a PE ratio of 16.38, a P/E/G ratio of 8.00 and a beta of 0.59. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $63.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.47. Black Hills has a 12-month low of $58.81 and a 12-month high of $79.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.52.

Black Hills Announces Dividend

Black Hills ( NYSE:BKH Get Rating ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.11 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.17 by ($0.06). Black Hills had a net margin of 10.13% and a return on equity of 8.59%. The firm had revenue of $791.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $657.67 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.11 earnings per share. Black Hillss revenue was up 40.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Black Hills will post 3.73 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.90%. Black Hillss payout ratio is currently 62.66%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Black Hills

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Black Hills by 6.0% in the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 51,624 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $3,257,000 after buying an additional 2,910 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Black Hills during the 1st quarter worth approximately $405,000. CM Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Black Hills during the 1st quarter worth approximately $371,000. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its stake in Black Hills by 33.4% during the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 58,362 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $3,683,000 after buying an additional 14,611 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in Black Hills by 17.8% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 5,717 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $361,000 after buying an additional 865 shares in the last quarter. 88.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Black Hills

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Black Hills Corp. is a diversified energy company. It operates through the following segments: Electric Utilities, Gas Utilities, and Corporate and Other. The Electric Utilities segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The Gas Utilities segment provides natural gas in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming.

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American Equity Investment Life Holding (NYSE:AEL  Get Rating) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,780,000 shares, a decline of 12.8% from the March 31st total of 5,480,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 659,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.2 days. Approximately 5.8% of the companys stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AEL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of American Equity Investment Life in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating for the company. Piper Jaffray Companies lowered shares of American Equity Investment Life from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 21st. Raymond James cut their target price on shares of American Equity Investment Life from $48.00 to $47.00 and set a strong-buy rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of American Equity Investment Life in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of American Equity Investment Life from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 5th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $44.40.

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American Equity Investment Life Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AEL traded up $0.10 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $38.76. The company had a trading volume of 486,724 shares, compared to its average volume of 625,246. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.23. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $37.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.01. American Equity Investment Life has a 12 month low of $28.05 and a 12 month high of $48.37. The firm has a market cap of $3.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.88.

Insider Activity at American Equity Investment Life

American Equity Investment Life ( NYSE:AEL Get Rating ) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 17th. The financial services provider reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.96 by ($0.17). American Equity Investment Life had a net margin of 86.25% and a return on equity of 9.84%. The company had revenue of $654.45 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $652.84 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.04 EPS. The firms quarterly revenue was down 41.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that American Equity Investment Life will post 5.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other American Equity Investment Life news, Director Alan David Matula acquired 7,100 shares of American Equity Investment Life stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $35.50 per share, with a total value of $252,050.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 39,942 shares in the company, valued at $1,417,941. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.59% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. TD Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in American Equity Investment Life in the third quarter worth about $608,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in American Equity Investment Life by 49.9% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,208 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares in the last quarter. Phase 2 Partners LLC acquired a new position in American Equity Investment Life in the third quarter worth about $7,563,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its position in American Equity Investment Life by 135.2% in the third quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 30,917 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,153,000 after purchasing an additional 17,771 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new position in American Equity Investment Life in the third quarter worth about $8,401,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.03% of the companys stock.

American Equity Investment Life Company Profile

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American Equity Investment Life Holding Co engages in the development and sale of fixed index and fixed rate annuity products. It focuses on the following portfolios: commercial mortgage loans, agricultural mortgage loans, and residential mortgage loans. The company was founded by David J. Noble on December 15, 1995 and is headquartered in West Des Moines, IA.

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Banco Santander-Chile (NYSE:BSAC  Get Rating) has been given a consensus rating of Hold by the eight research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $19.75.

BSAC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com lowered Banco Santander-Chile from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Friday, March 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Banco Santander-Chile from a neutral rating to a sell rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 11th.

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Banco Santander-Chile Stock Performance

Shares of BSAC opened at $18.79 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.23, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.85 billion, a PE ratio of 11.18, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.72. Banco Santander-Chile has a 1 year low of $13.37 and a 1 year high of $20.37.

Banco Santander-Chile Increases Dividend

Banco Santander-Chile ( NYSE:BSAC Get Rating ) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 3rd. The bank reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.34 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $527.54 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $593.05 million. Banco Santander-Chile had a net margin of 18.02% and a return on equity of 19.24%. On average, analysts predict that Banco Santander-Chile will post 1.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 19th. Investors of record on Friday, January 1st were paid a dividend of $1.2511 per share. This represents a yield of 4.9%. This is a positive change from Banco Santander-Chiles previous annual dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 19th. Banco Santander-Chiles payout ratio is currently 55.36%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Banco Santander-Chile by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 32,084 shares of the banks stock worth $725,000 after buying an additional 5,280 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Banco Santander-Chile in the first quarter worth $423,000. APG Asset Management N.V. bought a new position in shares of Banco Santander-Chile during the 1st quarter worth about $936,000. Thomas White International Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Banco Santander-Chile by 14.9% in the 1st quarter. Thomas White International Ltd. now owns 150,003 shares of the banks stock worth $3,389,000 after acquiring an additional 19,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in Banco Santander-Chile in the 1st quarter valued at about $7,510,000. 9.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Banco Santander-Chile Company Profile

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Banco Santander Chile SA engages in the provision of commercial and retail banking services. It operates through the following segments: Retail Banking, Middle-Market, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Other. The Retail banking segment offers consumer loans, credit cards, automobile loans, commercial loans, foreign exchange, mortgage loans, debit cards, checking accounts, savings products, mutual funds, stock brokerage, and insurance brokerage.

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Shares of Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO  Get Rating) (NYSE:BMO) have been assigned a consensus rating of Hold from the fourteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has given a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$148.95.

A number of brokerages recently commented on BMO. TD Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$145.00 to C$140.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. National Bankshares reduced their price objective on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$135.00 to C$133.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$146.00 to C$149.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on Bank of Montreal from C$154.00 to C$151.00 in a research report on Monday, March 27th. Finally, Cormark reduced their price target on Bank of Montreal from C$148.00 to C$147.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 1st.

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Bank of Montreal Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of Bank of Montreal stock opened at C$118.26 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of C$83.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.92, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a 50-day moving average price of C$122.43 and a 200-day moving average price of C$126.63. Bank of Montreal has a twelve month low of C$113.47 and a twelve month high of C$138.85.

Bank of Montreal Dividend Announcement

Bank of Montreal ( TSE:BMO Get Rating ) (NYSE:BMO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 28th. The bank reported C$3.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of C$3.13 by C$0.09. The firm had revenue of C$6.47 billion for the quarter. Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 21.06% and a net margin of 40.56%. On average, equities analysts expect that Bank of Montreal will post 13.5249169 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 28th will be paid a dividend of $1.43 per share. This represents a $5.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.84%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 27th. Bank of Montreals dividend payout ratio is currently 28.61%.

Bank of Montreal Company Profile

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Bank of Montreal engages in the provision of diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, personal loans, small business lending, cash management, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers.

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Belden (NYSE:BDC  Get Rating) issued an update on its FY 2023 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $6.95-$7.25 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $6.86. The company issued revenue guidance of $2.71 billion-$2.76 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $2.69 billion. Belden also updated its FY23 guidance to $6.95-7.25 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on BDC. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Belden in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They set a strong-buy rating on the stock. Loop Capital raised their target price on shares of Belden from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Belden from $93.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Benchmark lifted their price objective on shares of Belden from $88.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Belden from $76.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, February 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $97.00.

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Belden Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of BDC traded up $2.06 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $81.55. 232,104 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 285,285. Belden has a 12-month low of $47.89 and a 12-month high of $92.33. The company has a current ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $3.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.64 and a beta of 1.32. The stocks fifty day moving average price is $82.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $79.15.

Belden Dividend Announcement

Belden ( NYSE:BDC Get Rating ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 8th. The industrial products company reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.09. Belden had a net margin of 9.77% and a return on equity of 26.70%. The firm had revenue of $659.07 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.17 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.32 earnings per share. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Belden will post 6.75 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 14th were given a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 13th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. Beldens dividend payout ratio is currently 3.48%.

Insider Activity at Belden

In other Belden news, EVP Anshuman Mehrotra sold 4,360 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.99, for a total value of $379,276.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,682 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,103,207.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Belden news, Director Jonathan C. Klein sold 2,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.49, for a total value of $203,725.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,553 shares in the company, valued at approximately $941,453.97. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Anshuman Mehrotra sold 4,360 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.99, for a total value of $379,276.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,682 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,103,207.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Belden by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,346 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $384,000 after buying an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd lifted its position in shares of Belden by 88.0% during the 1st quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 515 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Belden by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 23,687 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,312,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA raised its stake in Belden by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 14,581 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $777,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guggenheim Capital LLC raised its stake in Belden by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 7,862 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $435,000 after purchasing an additional 595 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.88% of the companys stock.

Belden Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Belden, Inc engages in the provision of innovative signal transmission solutions. It operates through the Enterprise Solutions and Industrial Solutions segments. The Enterprise Solutions segment offers network infrastructure solutions, as well as cabling and connectivity solutions for broadcast, commercial audio/video, and security applications.

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BOSTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Manulife Investment Management, the global wealth and asset management brand of Manulife, announced today that Kristie Feinberg, CFA, has been appointed head of U.S. and Europe, Manulife Investment Management, and president and chief executive officer, John Hancock Investment Management, Manulife's affiliated investment manager in the United States, effective May 1, 2023.

Kristie Feinberg, CEO, John Hancock Investment Managment, & head of U.S. & Europe, Manulife Investment Management (CNW Group/John Hancock Investment Management)

Ms. Feinberg was previously Manulife Investment Management's chief financial officer and global head of strategy. She succeeds Andrew G. Arnott, who was appointed to a new role as global head of retail at Manulife Investment Management while maintaining his former responsibilities during Ms. Feinberg's transition to her new role. Mr. Arnott was appointed global head of retail effective June 2022, and is accountable for the strategy, growth, and overall success of the organization's global retail businesses. Manulife Investment Management is committed to retail investors on a global scale and operates across a diverse footprint of markets with a strong presence in Asia, Canada, and the United States.

Mr. Arnott was appointed head of U.S. and Europe for Manulife Investment Management in 2018 and was president and CEO of John Hancock Investment Management since 2012. During this time, he oversaw a more than 300% increase in the U.S. retail business's assets under management.

"We're thrilled to name Kristie to the role of head of U.S. and Europe, Manulife Investment Management, and CEO of John Hancock Investment Management, and are grateful to Andy for his leadership and commitment to growing the business by capitalizing on our core strengths across retail, institutional, and retirement to provide holistic wealth and investment solutions to our clients," said Paul R. Lorentz, CEO, Manulife Investment Management. "To support our global growth plans, Andy will now focus on enhancing value for our retail customers and intermediaries globally. Kristie will bring her on-the-ground knowledge and asset management acumen to her new role, which will benefit from her deep background in finance to align with our growth strategy."

Story continues

"I'm proud to lead the U.S. and Europe businesses through the next stage of growth for our firm," said Ms. Feinberg. "The choices available to our investors made possible through our unique multimanager model, our private markets and alternative investments capabilities, and our retirement solutions for sponsors and participants bring a full spectrum of opportunity to create and build portfolios. We're extremely well positioned to share our market and investment expertise with financial professionals, intermediaries, partners, and clients and are committed to bringing value to our clients."

"Congratulations to Kristie on her well-deserved new role, and I'm excited to hand the reins to her as I know our U.S. and European businesses will be in great hands. We've worked very closely together on the transition and will continue to partner as we drive higher levels of global leverage and local excellence for our investors and partners," added Mr. Arnott.

Ms. Feinberg joined Manulife Investment Management in 2021 from Invesco, where she served as both CFO and global head of treasury and, before that, she was corporate treasurer and business controller at Oppenheimer Funds. Ms. Feinberg graduated from St. Cloud State University with a bachelor's degree in economics and from Columbia Business School with an M.B.A. in finance. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute. Ms. Feinberg is a member of Manulife Investment Management's leadership team and reports to Paul Lorentz, and she's based in Boston.

About John Hancock Investment Management

A company of Manulife Investment Management, we serve investors through a unique multimanager approach, complementing our extensive in-house capabilities with an unrivaled network of specialized asset managers, backed by some of the most rigorous investment oversight in the industry. The result is a diverse lineup of time-tested investments from a premier asset manager with a heritage of financial stewardship.

About Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management is the global brand for the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than a century of financial stewardship and the full resources of our parent company to serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Headquartered in Toronto, our leading capabilities in public and private markets are strengthened by an investment footprint that spans 19 geographies. We complement these capabilities by providing access to a network of unaffiliated asset managers from around the world. We're committed to investing responsibly across our businesses. We develop innovative global frameworks for sustainable investing, collaboratively engage with companies in our securities portfolios, and maintain a high standard of stewardship where we own and operate assets, and we believe in supporting financial well-being through our workplace retirement plans. Today, plan sponsors around the world rely on our retirement plan administration and investment expertise to help their employees plan for, save for, and live a better retirement. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com.

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Boston Partners reduced its holdings in shares of United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE:URI  Get Rating) by 13.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,009,771 shares of the construction companys stock after selling 158,556 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners holdings in United Rentals were worth $363,778,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in shares of United Rentals by 7,691.1% in the first quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 3,506 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $1,245,000 after buying an additional 3,461 shares during the period. Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of United Rentals by 14.6% in the first quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 2,296 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $815,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of United Rentals by 16.8% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 7,941 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $2,821,000 after purchasing an additional 1,140 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in United Rentals by 50.1% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,914 shares of the construction companys stock worth $678,000 after acquiring an additional 639 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential PLC bought a new stake in United Rentals during the first quarter worth $560,000. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on URI. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on United Rentals from $505.00 to $498.00 in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on United Rentals from $435.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird lowered United Rentals from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $425.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Monday, March 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on United Rentals from $399.00 to $406.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on United Rentals in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, United Rentals presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $421.08.

United Rentals Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE URI traded up $0.82 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $356.24. 364,825 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 912,757. The company has a 50 day moving average of $399.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $380.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61. United Rentals, Inc. has a 12 month low of $230.54 and a 12 month high of $481.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.48 billion, a PE ratio of 11.40, a PEG ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.82.

United Rentals (NYSE:URI  Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 26th. The construction company reported $7.95 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $8.12 by ($0.17). The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.17 billion. United Rentals had a return on equity of 36.77% and a net margin of 17.65%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 30.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.73 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that United Rentals, Inc. will post 42.18 earnings per share for the current year.

United Rentals Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 9th. United Rentalss dividend payout ratio is 18.99%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO William E. Grace sold 725 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $359.63, for a total transaction of $260,731.75. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 6,520 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,344,787.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO William E. Grace sold 725 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $359.63, for a total value of $260,731.75. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 6,520 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,344,787.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Matthew John Flannery sold 12,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $477.99, for a total transaction of $5,735,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 101,276 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,408,915.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.53% of the companys stock.

United Rentals Profile

(Get Rating)

United Rentals, Inc engages in the equipment rental business. It operates through the General Rentals and Specialty segments. The General Rentals segment includes the rental of construction, aerial and industrial equipment, general tools and light equipment, and related services and activities. The Specialty segment focuses on the rental of specialty construction products such as trench safety equipment, power and HVAC equipment, fluid solutions equipment, mobile storage equipment and modular office space.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding URI? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE:URI  Get Rating).

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Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE:BR  Get Rating) issued an update on its FY 2023 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $6.91-$7.17 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $6.92. The company issued revenue guidance of -.

Broadridge Financial Solutions Trading Up 6.3 %

NYSE:BR opened at $153.26 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $18.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.21 and a beta of 1.00. Broadridge Financial Solutions has a 1 year low of $131.35 and a 1 year high of $183.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.30, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The stocks fifty day moving average price is $141.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $142.60.

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Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE:BR  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $2.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.01 by $0.04. Broadridge Financial Solutions had a return on equity of 40.38% and a net margin of 9.13%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.93 earnings per share. The firms quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Broadridge Financial Solutions will post 6.91 EPS for the current year.

Broadridge Financial Solutions Dividend Announcement

Analyst Ratings Changes

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 15th were given a $0.725 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 14th. This represents a $2.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. Broadridge Financial Solutionss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.73%.

BR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research reduced their price target on shares of Broadridge Financial Solutions from $137.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 5th. TheStreet raised Broadridge Financial Solutions from a c+ rating to a b rating in a research note on Thursday, February 2nd. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Broadridge Financial Solutions in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Raymond James increased their target price on Broadridge Financial Solutions from $180.00 to $183.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada started coverage on Broadridge Financial Solutions in a research note on Monday, April 24th. They issued an outperform rating and a $169.00 price target on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $161.40.

Insider Transactions at Broadridge Financial Solutions

In other Broadridge Financial Solutions news, Director Robert N. Duelks sold 1,425 shares of Broadridge Financial Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.06, for a total transaction of $201,010.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,275 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $885,151.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Broadridge Financial Solutions

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BR. Personal Capital Advisors Corp bought a new stake in Broadridge Financial Solutions during the 4th quarter valued at about $248,000. Prelude Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Broadridge Financial Solutions in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $236,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new position in Broadridge Financial Solutions in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $235,000. Horizon Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Broadridge Financial Solutions during the 1st quarter valued at $228,000. Finally, Menard Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Broadridge Financial Solutions in the 4th quarter worth $218,000. 86.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Broadridge Financial Solutions

(Get Rating)

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc engages in the provision of investor communications and technology solutions to banks, broker-dealers, mutual funds, and corporate issuers. It operates through the following segments: Investor Communication Solutions and Global Technology and Operations. The Investor Communication Solutions segment offers services for broker-dealer investor communication, customer communication, corporate issuer, advisor solutions, and mutual fund and retirement solutions.

Further Reading

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Canandaigua National Corp cut its position in Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI  Get Rating) (TSE:CNR) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,669 shares of the transportation companys stock after selling 124 shares during the quarter. Canandaigua National Corps holdings in Canadian National Railway were worth $793,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Canadian National Railway by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,762,307 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $2,350,111,000 after buying an additional 800,108 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 12,333,700 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $1,655,948,000 after purchasing an additional 625,000 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 8,671,552 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $945,638,000 after purchasing an additional 531,876 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 180.5% in the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,977,754 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $709,550,000 after purchasing an additional 3,846,281 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Canadian National Railway by 9.4% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 5,504,388 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $593,679,000 after buying an additional 470,804 shares during the period. 86.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Argus decreased their price target on Canadian National Railway from $155.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Canadian National Railway from $114.00 to $116.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 25th. Credit Suisse Group raised their target price on Canadian National Railway from $126.00 to $133.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 25th. National Bank Financial raised their target price on Canadian National Railway from C$175.00 to C$178.00 in a research note on Monday, April 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut Canadian National Railway from a neutral rating to a sell rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Canadian National Railway currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $143.50.

Canadian National Railway Stock Down 1.2 %

Canadian National Railway Cuts Dividend

CNI stock opened at $118.37 on Wednesday. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $117.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $119.74. The stock has a market cap of $78.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.63, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.90. Canadian National Railway has a twelve month low of $103.79 and a twelve month high of $129.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 9th will be paid a $0.5835 dividend. This represents a $2.33 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 8th. Canadian National Railways payout ratio is 38.47%.

Canadian National Railway Profile

(Get Rating)

Canadian National Railway Co engages in rail and related transportation business. Its services include rail, intermodal, trucking, supply chain services, business development and maps and network. Its offers their services in automotive, coal, fertilizer, food and beverages, forest products, dimensional loads, grain, metals and minerals and petroleum and chemicals industries.

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StockNews.com started coverage on shares of China Green Agriculture (NYSE:CGA  Get Rating) in a research report report published on Sunday morning. The brokerage issued a sell rating on the basic materials companys stock.

China Green Agriculture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CGA opened at $3.23 on Friday. China Green Agriculture has a 52 week low of $3.16 and a 52 week high of $9.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $4.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.50.

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China Green Agriculture (NYSE:CGA  Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 21st. The basic materials company reported ($0.27) EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $24.54 million during the quarter. China Green Agriculture had a negative net margin of 37.35% and a negative return on equity of 36.71%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

China Green Agriculture Company Profile

An institutional investor recently bought a new position in China Green Agriculture stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP purchased a new stake in China Green Agriculture, Inc. ( NYSE:CGA Get Rating ) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 11,368 shares of the basic materials companys stock, valued at approximately $115,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 0.13% of China Green Agriculture as of its most recent SEC filing. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 0.14% of the companys stock.

(Get Rating)

China Green Agriculture, Inc engages in the research, development, production, and sale of various types of fertilizers and agricultural products. It operates through the following segments: Jinong, Gufeng, and Yuxing. The Jinong segment includes fertilizer products, with focus on humic acid-based compound fertilizer.

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Clorox (NYSE:CLX  Get Rating) had its target price increased by investment analysts at Bank of America from $130.00 to $140.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, The Fly reports. Bank of Americas price objective would suggest a potential downside of 19.43% from the stocks previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. StockNews.com cut Clorox from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Saturday. Barclays boosted their price target on Clorox from $108.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research note on Friday, April 14th. Raymond James boosted their price target on Clorox from $165.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup assumed coverage on Clorox in a research report on Thursday, February 16th. They set a neutral rating and a $155.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Clorox from $147.00 to $149.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Clorox currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $147.69.

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Clorox Stock Up 3.6 %

NYSE:CLX traded up $6.04 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $173.76. 983,303 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,176,230. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $157.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $149.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.08, a P/E/G ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.30. Clorox has a 1 year low of $120.50 and a 1 year high of $174.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.04.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Clorox

Clorox ( NYSE:CLX Get Rating ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 2nd. The company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.29. Clorox had a return on equity of 89.97% and a net margin of 6.16%. The firm had revenue of $1.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.31 earnings per share. The companys revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Clorox will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Clorox by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 5,132 shares of the companys stock worth $720,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Kennon Green & Company LLC grew its position in shares of Clorox by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. Kennon Green & Company LLC now owns 1,558 shares of the companys stock valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. Robinson Value Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Clorox by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Robinson Value Management Ltd. now owns 11,285 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,584,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. M Holdings Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of Clorox by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. M Holdings Securities Inc. now owns 7,523 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,056,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the period. Finally, Perigon Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Clorox by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,617 shares of the companys stock valued at $208,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.12% of the companys stock.

Clorox Company Profile

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The Clorox Co engages in the manufacture and marketing of consumer and professional products. It operates through the following business segments: Health and Wellness, Household, Lifestyle, and International. The Health and Wellness segment consists of cleaning products, professional products and vitamins, minerals and supplements mainly marketed and sold in the United States.

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Thunder Mountain Gold (OTCMKTS:THMG  Get Rating) is one of 102 public companies in the Metal mining industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Thunder Mountain Gold to similar businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, dividends, risk and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

0.0% of Thunder Mountain Gold shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 21.2% of shares of all Metal mining companies are owned by institutional investors. 29.5% of Thunder Mountain Gold shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.8% of shares of all Metal mining companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

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Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Thunder Mountain Gold and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio Thunder Mountain Gold $300,000.00 -$1.25 million -4.00 Thunder Mountain Gold Competitors $8.04 billion $2.16 billion -2.42

Profitability

Thunder Mountain Golds competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Thunder Mountain Gold. Thunder Mountain Gold is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

This table compares Thunder Mountain Gold and its competitors net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Thunder Mountain Gold -415.33% -185.48% -59.67% Thunder Mountain Gold Competitors -400.91% -3.37% -3.46%

Risk and Volatility

Thunder Mountain Gold has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Thunder Mountain Golds competitors have a beta of 0.32, suggesting that their average stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Thunder Mountain Gold and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Thunder Mountain Gold 0 0 0 0 N/A Thunder Mountain Gold Competitors 920 2153 2769 95 2.34

As a group, Metal mining companies have a potential upside of 33.79%. Given Thunder Mountain Golds competitors higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Thunder Mountain Gold has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Summary

Thunder Mountain Gold competitors beat Thunder Mountain Gold on 8 of the 10 factors compared.

Thunder Mountain Gold Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Thunder Mountain Gold, Inc. operates as a mineral exploration company, which engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of premier precious and base metal properties. Its projects include South Mountain located southwest of Boise, Idaho and Trout Creek located in Nevada. The company was founded on November 9, 1935 and is headquartered in Boise, ID.

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Essential Properties Realty Trust (NYSE:EPRT  Get Rating) and Kimco Realty (NYSE:KIM  Get Rating) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Essential Properties Realty Trust and Kimco Realtys net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

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Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Essential Properties Realty Trust 50.10% 6.07% 3.86% Kimco Realty 10.23% 1.82% 0.99%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Essential Properties Realty Trust and Kimco Realtys top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Essential Properties Realty Trust $300.07 million 12.12 $134.13 million $1.07 22.83 Kimco Realty $1.73 billion 6.65 $125.98 million $0.24 77.21

Institutional and Insider Ownership

Essential Properties Realty Trust has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Kimco Realty. Essential Properties Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kimco Realty, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

97.2% of Essential Properties Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.3% of Kimco Realty shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Essential Properties Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Kimco Realty shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Essential Properties Realty Trust has a beta of 1.26, suggesting that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kimco Realty has a beta of 1.44, suggesting that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Essential Properties Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Kimco Realty pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Essential Properties Realty Trust pays out 102.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Kimco Realty pays out 383.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Essential Properties Realty Trust has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years and Kimco Realty has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Essential Properties Realty Trust and Kimco Realty, as provided by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Essential Properties Realty Trust 0 2 5 0 2.71 Kimco Realty 0 6 5 0 2.45

Essential Properties Realty Trust currently has a consensus target price of $25.93, suggesting a potential upside of 6.12%. Kimco Realty has a consensus target price of $23.08, suggesting a potential upside of 24.54%. Given Kimco Realtys higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Kimco Realty is more favorable than Essential Properties Realty Trust.

Summary

Essential Properties Realty Trust beats Kimco Realty on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Essential Properties Realty Trust

(Get Rating)

Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. engages in the acquisition, ownership, and management of single-tenant properties that are net leased on a long-term basis. Its portfolio includes the following: Captain Ds, Art Van Furniture, Mister and Zips Car Wash, AMC Theaters, Perkins, 84 Lumber, Mirabito, Ruby Tuesday, and White Oak Station. The company was founded on January 12, 2018 and is headquartered in Princeton, NJ.

About Kimco Realty

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Kimco Realty Corp. is a real estate investment trust (REIT) headquartered in New Hyde Park, N.Y., that is one of North Americas largest publicly traded owners and operators of open-air shopping centers. As of December 31, 2018, the company owned interests in 437 U.S. shopping centers comprising 76 million square feet of leasable space primarily concentrated in the top major metropolitan markets.

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Eaton (NYSE:ETN  Get Rating) had its price target upped by stock analysts at Barclays from $145.00 to $159.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, The Fly reports. Barclayss price target points to a potential downside of 8.23% from the companys current price.

ETN has been the topic of a number of other reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Eaton from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Eaton from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, March 3rd. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Eaton from $160.00 to $168.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Eaton from $188.00 to $189.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Eaton from $149.00 to $161.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $174.17.

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Eaton Stock Up 2.6 %

Eaton stock opened at $173.25 on Wednesday. Eaton has a fifty-two week low of $122.50 and a fifty-two week high of $178.75. The stock has a market cap of $69.04 billion, a PE ratio of 28.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.12. The firms 50-day simple moving average is $166.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $161.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.38.

Insider Transactions at Eaton

Eaton ( NYSE:ETN Get Rating ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 8th. The industrial products company reported $2.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $5.34 billion. Eaton had a net margin of 11.86% and a return on equity of 18.31%. The companys quarterly revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Eaton will post 8.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In other news, insider Joao V. Faria sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.00, for a total value of $338,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 67,166 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $11,351,054. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, insider Joao V. Faria sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.71, for a total transaction of $441,775.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 71,314 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $12,601,896.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Joao V. Faria sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.00, for a total transaction of $338,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 67,166 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,351,054. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 33,377 shares of company stock valued at $5,864,193 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.53% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Eaton

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ETN. Horan Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Eaton by 228.6% during the 4th quarter. Horan Securities Inc. now owns 161 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new stake in Eaton during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. RFP Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Eaton during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. purchased a new stake in Eaton during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in Eaton during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors own 80.19% of the companys stock.

Eaton Company Profile

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Eaton Corp. Plc is a power management company, which provides energy-efficient solutions for electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical power. It operates through the following segments: Electrical Americas and Electrical Global, Aerospace, Vehicle, and eMobility. The Electrical Americas and Electrical Global segments engage in sales contracts for electrical components, industrial components, power distribution and assemblies, residential products, single and three phase power quality, wiring devices, circuit protection, utility power distribution, power reliability equipment, and service.

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Everest Re Group (NYSE:RE  Get Rating) had its target price lifted by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $435.00 to $445.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, The Fly reports. Wells Fargo & Companys target price would suggest a potential upside of 16.46% from the companys previous close.

RE has been the subject of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Everest Re Group from $455.00 to $468.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 10th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Everest Re Group in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a buy rating for the company. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Everest Re Group from $385.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, February 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Everest Re Group in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. They issued a market perform rating and a $380.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $410.60.

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Everest Re Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:RE traded up $0.12 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $382.12. The companys stock had a trading volume of 17,756 shares, compared to its average volume of 283,260. Everest Re Group has a fifty-two week low of $244.57 and a fifty-two week high of $394.99. The company has a market capitalization of $16.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.32 and a quick ratio of 0.32. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $365.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $345.45.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Everest Re Group

Everest Re Group ( NYSE:RE Get Rating ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 1st. The insurance provider reported $11.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $12.48 by ($1.17). Everest Re Group had a net margin of 4.96% and a return on equity of 12.36%. The firm had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $10.31 EPS. Everest Re Groups revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Everest Re Group will post 46.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of RE. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Everest Re Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Everest Re Group in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Everest Re Group by 57.6% in the 4th quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 104 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management bought a new stake in Everest Re Group in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Financial Management Professionals Inc. raised its stake in Everest Re Group by 1,171.4% in the 1st quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 89 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.38% of the companys stock.

Everest Re Group Company Profile

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Everest Re Group Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of reinsurance and insurance services. It operates through the following segments: Reinsurance, and Insurance. The Reinsurance segment writes property and casualty reinsurance and specialty lines of business, including marine, aviation, surety, and accident and health business, on both a treaty and facultative basis, through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies primarily within the U.S.

Further Reading

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Fukuoka Financial Group, Inc. (OTC:FKKFF  Get Rating)s stock price hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $17.36 and last traded at $17.36, with a volume of 0 shares. The stock had previously closed at $17.36.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Daiwa Capital Markets lowered Fukuoka Financial Group from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 5th.

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Fukuoka Financial Group Stock Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average of $17.36 and a 200-day moving average of $17.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.92 billion, a PE ratio of -32.14 and a beta of 0.03.

About Fukuoka Financial Group

Fukuoka Financial Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides various banking services to individual and corporate customers. The company accepts various deposits, such as current deposits, ordinary and other demand deposits, time deposits, and negotiable certificates of deposit, as well as provides loan products.

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Fortune Business Insights

Key companies covered in moisturizer market are L'Oreal S.A. (France), Estee Lauder Inc. (U.S.), Unilever Plc (U.K.), The Procter & Gamble Company (U.S.), Shiseido Co. Ltd. (Japan), Beiersdorf AG (Germany), Henkel AG & Company, KGaA (Germany), Johnson & Johnson Private Limited (U.S.), Kao Corporation (Japan), Coty Inc. (U.S.), and more players profiled.

Pune, India, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global moisturizer market size was valued at USD 10.12 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 10.60 billion in 2023. The market is projected to touch USD 14.40 billion by 2030, recording a CAGR of 4.48% during the forecast period of 2023-2030.

Moisturizing products are quickly becoming a crucial part of customers skincare routines as it is important to keep the skin hydrated. These products offer a wide range of important skin benefits such as increasing skin hydration, making skin smooth & soft, and mitigating water loss, and improving & maintaining the texture and quality of skin. Rising disposable incomes have encouraged more people to invest in high-quality skincare brands, which will boost the moisturizer market growth.

Fortune Business Insights presents this information in a report titled, "Global Moisturizer Market, 2023-2030."

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https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/moisturizer-market-103869

List of Key Players Profiled in the Moisturizer Market Report:

L'Oreal S.A. (France)

Estee Lauder Inc. (U.S.)

Unilever Plc (U.K.)

The Procter & Gamble Company (U.S.)

Shiseido Co. Ltd. (Japan)

Beiersdorf AG (Germany)

Henkel AG & Company, KGaA (Germany)

Johnson & Johnson Private Limited (U.S.)

Kao Corporation (Japan)

Coty Inc. (U.S.)

Report Scope & Segmentation:

Report Attributes Details Forecast Period 2023-2030 Forecast CAGR 4.48% 2030 Value Projection USD 14.40 Billion Market Size in 2022 USD 10.12 Billion Historical Data 2019-2021 No. of Pages 189 Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Company Profiles, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors and Latest Trends Segments Covered By Type

By Form

By End-User

By Region Regions Covered North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East and Africa Moisturizer Market Growth Drivers Growing Spending on Beauty Products to Favor Market Expansion Mounting Millennial Consumer Interest in Skincare Products to Support Market Growth

Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/moisturizer-market-103869

Story continues

Segments:

Face Moisturizing Products Witness Strong Preference among Customers Due to their Skincare Characteristics

In terms of type, the market is segmented into face moisturizer and body moisturizer. The face moisturizer segment captured the largest market share as customers are increasingly buying skincare items that they can easily incorporate into their regular skincare regime. Since the face is the most visible body part as compared to others, it is important to keep the face skin hydrated and healthy. This is why customers are spending more on high-quality face creams to give them anti-aging and hydration benefits.

Cream-based Moisturizers to Gain Popularity for their Skin Protection Benefits

Based on form, the market is divided into gel, lotion, and cream. The cream segment is predicted to capture a significant market share over the coming years. Over the years, skin protection has become a top priority for customers while doing their skincare routine. Cream-based formulas can offer great protection to the skin against harmful UV rays and prevent the skins water loss, which will enhance their demand among customers.

Moisturizing Products to Gain Notable Traction among Men with Rising Popularity of Mens Skincare

In terms of end-user, the market is bifurcated into men, women, and infants & kids. The mens segment is projected to record a notable CAGR during the forecast period. The demand for a dedicated skincare and beauty regimen for the male population has grown considerably in recent years. Many high-end cosmetics brands are introducing skincare lines that cater specifically to men. These factors will enhance the adoption of moisturizing products among men.

Geographically, the global market is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Middle East & Africa.

COVID-19 Impact:

COVID-19 Pandemic Disrupted Supply Chain Networks and Impeded Market Growth

The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the market growth as developed and developing countries faced severe economic crisis due to a major slowdown in industrial activities. The beauty and cosmetics industries were also adversely affected by the outbreak as travel and movement restrictions were imposed, which reduced customer spending on luxury products.

Many skincare and cosmetic stores were temporarily closed to mitigate the spread of the virus, which further slowed the sales of cosmetics and skincare products. These factors impeded the expansion of the global moisturizer market share.

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https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/get-a-quote/moisturizer-market-103869

Report Coverage:

The report offers an elaborative analysis of the industry and focuses on crucial aspects, such as type, form, leading companies, and key end users. The report also offers insights into the latest market trends and underlines top industry developments. In addition to the factors mentioned above, the report covers several factors that have contributed to the markets growth in recent years.

Drivers and Restraints:

Customers Increase their Spending on Beauty Products, Accelerating Market Growth

Customers are becoming more conscious about their appearance and are taking steps to reverse the signs of aging. The rising disposable incomes of people across the world has motivated them to splurge on high-quality beauty and skincare products. These products can help them maintain their youthful skin despite taking on the stresses of a busy lifestyle and environmental pollution. The growing popularity and spending on skincare products in developing countries is another factor that will expand the moisturizer market size.

However, stringent regulations and harmful effects of using synthetic beauty ingredients are expected to hinder the market growth.

Regional Insights:

Asia Pacific to Dominate the Market due to Rising Spending on Beauty Products

The Asia Pacific market is predicted to lead the global market share during the forecast period as moisturizing products are becoming quite popular in India and China. Reputed brands, such as Olay, L'Oreal, Kiehls, and others, are setting up their production base in China and giving local brands a tough competition. Indian customers are also gaining awareness of the benefits of skincare products, which will further spur the product demand in the country.

European countries, such as Finland, Russia, Germany, and Denmark, experience extreme cold climates and long winter seasons, causing dull and dry skin. This factor significantly increases the demand for moisturizing products in the region, thereby contributing to the regions market expansion.

Competitive Landscape:

Key Companies Adopt Robust Business Strategies to Stay Ahead of Market Competition

Several reputed industry participants are using various strategies, such as collaborations, new product launches, and regional expansion, to help them keep up with their market rivals. These companies are also focusing on launching sustainably produced skincare items to attract more customers. The customizations and heavy discounts offered by these firms will help them grow their market presence.

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https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/ask-for-customization/moisturizer-market-103869

Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities

Key Insights Overview of the Parent Market Industry SWOT Analysis Supply Chain and Regulatory Landscape Market Analysis and Insights (in Relation with COVID-19) Impact of COVID-19 on the Market Supply Chain Challenges due to the Pandemic Potential Opportunities to Support the Market

Global Moisturizer Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2019-2030 Key Findings / Summary Market Product Estimates and Forecast By Type Face Moisturizers Body Moisturizers By Form Cream Lotion Gel By End User Men Women Infant & Kids By Region North America Europe Asia Pacific South America Middle East & Africa



TOC Continued...!

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https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/moisturizer-market-103869

Key Industry Development:

February 2023: Shiseido Company Ltd., a leading Japanese cosmetics manufacturer, launched two new moisturizing products under its skincare brand, SIDEKICK. These products are being sold at the SHISEIDO Beauty Square in Japan and through Chinas EC (e-commerce) channels.

Read Related Insights:

Cosmetics Market Size to Reach $415.29 Billion by 2028 | Industry to Generate 5.0% CAGR during (2021-2028)

Skincare Market Size to Hit $145.82 Billion by 2028 | At 5.52% CAGR

Feminine Hygiene Products Market to Reach USD 54.52 Billion by 2028 | Feminine Hygiene Products Industry Striking CAGR of 5.22%

About Us:

Fortune Business Insights delivers accurate data and innovative corporate analysis, helping organizations of all sizes make appropriate decisions. We tailor novel solutions for our clients, assisting them to address various challenges distinct to their businesses. Our aim is to empower them with holistic market intelligence, providing a granular overview of the market they are operating in.

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Gibson Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC  Get Rating) by 6,200.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 27,909 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock after buying an additional 27,466 shares during the quarter. Gibson Wealth Advisors LLCs holdings in W. P. Carey were worth $2,140,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Quent Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 40.4% in the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 775 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the period. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 31.1% in the 3rd quarter. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. now owns 4,310 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $301,000 after purchasing an additional 1,022 shares during the period. Tobam lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 54.4% in the 4th quarter. Tobam now owns 1,223 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $96,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. Utah Retirement Systems lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 34,276 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $2,392,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. Finally, NorthRock Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of W. P. Carey in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $421,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.73% of the companys stock.

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W. P. Carey Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of W. P. Carey stock traded down $0.02 on Wednesday, reaching $72.45. The companys stock had a trading volume of 89,300 shares, compared to its average volume of 944,522. The company has a market capitalization of $15.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a P/E/G ratio of 10.51 and a beta of 0.78. The firms fifty day simple moving average is $76.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $78.72. W. P. Carey Inc. has a 52 week low of $67.76 and a 52 week high of $89.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

W. P. Carey ( NYSE:WPC Get Rating ) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $427.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $406.24 million. W. P. Carey had a return on equity of 7.23% and a net margin of 40.51%. The companys quarterly revenue was up 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.35 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that W. P. Carey Inc. will post 5.18 earnings per share for the current year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 31st were issued a $1.067 dividend. This is a positive change from W. P. Careys previous quarterly dividend of $1.07. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 30th. This represents a $4.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.89%. W. P. Careys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 142.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on W. P. Carey in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating for the company. JMP Securities restated a market outperform rating and issued a $86.00 target price on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Tuesday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on W. P. Carey from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, February 13th. Finally, 92 Resources reiterated a maintains rating on shares of W. P. Carey in a research note on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $86.80.

W. P. Carey Company Profile

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W.P. Carey, Inc is an investment trust company, which engages in the commercial real estate business. It operates through the Real Estate and Investment Management segments. The Real Estate segment owns and invests in commercial real estate properties. The Investment Management segment structures and negotiates investments and debt placement transactions for real estate investment trusts, and manages portfolios of real estate investments.

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Gibson Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV  Get Rating) by 6,200.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 17,073 shares of the airlines stock after purchasing an additional 16,802 shares during the period. Gibson Wealth Advisors LLCs holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $616,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Forum Financial Management LP boosted its position in Southwest Airlines by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 7,067 shares of the airlines stock worth $323,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares during the period. WESPAC Advisors LLC grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. WESPAC Advisors LLC now owns 15,645 shares of the airlines stock valued at $527,000 after buying an additional 295 shares during the last quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.6% in the first quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,639 shares of the airlines stock worth $396,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Utah Retirement Systems lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.6% during the third quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 49,913 shares of the airlines stock worth $1,539,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,997 shares of the airlines stock valued at $303,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. 74.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock traded up $0.56 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $30.52. The companys stock had a trading volume of 1,092,662 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,982,199. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $31.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $34.75. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $28.81 and a 52 week high of $48.18. The firm has a market cap of $18.16 billion, a PE ratio of 29.96, a P/E/G ratio of 0.35 and a beta of 1.15.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Southwest Airlines ( NYSE:LUV Get Rating ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The airline reported ($0.27) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.21) by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.73 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 2.65%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.32) earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current year.

A number of research firms have weighed in on LUV. Barclays downgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Friday, March 10th. Cowen cut their price target on Southwest Airlines from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a strong-buy rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 5th. Melius downgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and set a $39.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, February 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Southwest Airlines from $56.00 to $52.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $45.15.

Southwest Airlines Company Profile

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Southwest Airlines Co engages in the operation and management of a passenger airline. The firm also offers ancillary services such as early bird check-in, upgraded boarding, and transportation of pets and unaccompanied minors. It operates in the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.

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Frederick County Bancorp (MD) (OTCMKTS:FCBI  Get Rating) and First Northern Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:FNRN  Get Rating) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

5.9% of First Northern Community Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 32.2% of Frederick County Bancorp (MD) shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.6% of First Northern Community Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

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Profitability

This table compares Frederick County Bancorp (MD) and First Northern Community Bancorps net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Frederick County Bancorp (MD) 11.41% N/A N/A First Northern Community Bancorp 25.15% 12.65% 0.84%

Earnings and Valuation

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Frederick County Bancorp (MD) $18.62 million 3.11 $2.96 million N/A N/A First Northern Community Bancorp $62.81 million 1.65 $15.88 million $1.09 6.46

This table compares Frederick County Bancorp (MD) and First Northern Community Bancorps top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

First Northern Community Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Frederick County Bancorp (MD).

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Frederick County Bancorp (MD) and First Northern Community Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Frederick County Bancorp (MD) 0 0 0 0 N/A First Northern Community Bancorp 0 0 0 0 N/A

Risk & Volatility

Frederick County Bancorp (MD) has a beta of 0.34, indicating that its stock price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Northern Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.43, indicating that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

First Northern Community Bancorp beats Frederick County Bancorp (MD) on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Frederick County Bancorp (MD)

(Get Rating)

Frederick County Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Frederick County Bank that provides various banking services to individuals and commercial enterprises in the Frederick County, Maryland. It offers deposit products, including personal checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, and health savings accounts; and business checking accounts, savings and money market accounts, and certificates of deposits. The company provides home equity, home equity fixed rate, mortgage, installment, vehicle, and unsecured loans, as well as home equity line of credit and lines of credit; and commercial loans, such as term loans, lines of credit, letters of credit, and real estate finance. It also offers cash management services comprising automated clearing house, wire origination, remote deposit capture, and zero balance account services. In addition, the company provides mobile deposit capture, overdraft protection, debit and credit card, automated teller machine, and night depository services; and business courier and merchant processing services, as well as online banking and bill pay services. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Frederick, Maryland.

About First Northern Community Bancorp

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First Northern Community Bancorp is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services to individual and corporate customers. It offers different loan category such as commercial, commercial real estate, agriculture, residential mortgage, residential construction, and consumer. The company was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Dixon, CA.

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Highland Capital Management LLC reduced its position in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK  Get Rating) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 49,729 shares of the utilities providers stock after selling 230 shares during the period. Highland Capital Management LLCs holdings in Duke Energy were worth $5,122,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in DUK. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new stake in shares of Duke Energy during the 1st quarter worth about $40,000. Cibc World Market Inc. lifted its position in shares of Duke Energy by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 47,250 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $5,276,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Duke Energy by 29.5% during the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,751 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $1,089,000 after buying an additional 2,223 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Duke Energy by 447.8% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,260 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $141,000 after acquiring an additional 1,030 shares during the period. Finally, Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 6,505 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $726,000 after buying an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. 63.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on DUK shares. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Duke Energy in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Duke Energy from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Duke Energy from $99.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Thursday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $111.00 to $103.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $107.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 4th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $105.60.

Insider Activity

Duke Energy Stock Up 0.4 %

In other Duke Energy news, SVP Louis E. Renjel sold 1,900 shares of Duke Energy stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.90, for a total value of $189,810.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9,967 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $995,703.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website . 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

DUK stock opened at $97.99 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market cap of $75.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.43. Duke Energy Co. has a 1-year low of $83.76 and a 1-year high of $114.50. The stocks fifty day simple moving average is $96.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.19.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK  Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 9th. The utilities provider reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.05. Duke Energy had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 8.45%. The business had revenue of $7.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $5.27 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 EPS. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.61 EPS for the current year.

About Duke Energy

(Get Rating)

Duke Energy Corp. engages in the distribution of natural gas and energy related services. It operates through the following segments: Electric Utilities and Infrastructure, Gas Utilities & Infrastructure and Commercial Renewables. The Electric Utilities and Infrastructure segment conducts operations in regulated electric utilities in the Carolinas, Florida and the Midwest.

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ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd decreased its position in shares of Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ  Get Rating) by 9.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,310 shares of the companys stock after selling 925 shares during the quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltds holdings in Constellation Brands were worth $2,158,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Constellation Brands by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,601,280 shares of the companys stock worth $2,902,327,000 after buying an additional 313,344 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Constellation Brands by 52.1% in the 3rd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,582,020 shares of the companys stock valued at $593,276,000 after buying an additional 884,513 shares in the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC increased its position in shares of Constellation Brands by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 1,610,593 shares of the companys stock valued at $370,049,000 after buying an additional 70,416 shares in the last quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. increased its position in shares of Constellation Brands by 56.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 1,224,813 shares of the companys stock valued at $281,315,000 after buying an additional 440,230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Constellation Brands by 17.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,172,206 shares of the companys stock worth $270,000,000 after purchasing an additional 178,034 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.87% of the companys stock.

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Constellation Brands Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE STZ traded down $0.39 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $228.17. The companys stock had a trading volume of 171,171 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,330,287. Constellation Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $208.12 and a 52 week high of $261.32. The company has a market capitalization of $41.81 billion, a PE ratio of -448.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The companys 50-day simple moving average is $222.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $230.64.

Constellation Brands Increases Dividend

Constellation Brands ( NYSE:STZ Get Rating ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The company reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.86 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.02 billion. Constellation Brands had a negative net margin of 0.70% and a positive return on equity of 20.48%. The firms revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.37 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Constellation Brands, Inc. will post 11.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 4th will be paid a $0.89 dividend. This is a positive change from Constellation Brandss previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 3rd. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. Constellation Brandss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -627.44%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Credit Suisse Group decreased their price objective on Constellation Brands from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 6th. Cowen cut Constellation Brands from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $275.00 to $200.00 in a report on Friday, January 6th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Constellation Brands from $279.00 to $277.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Cowen downgraded shares of Constellation Brands from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and cut their target price for the company from $275.00 to $200.00 in a research note on Friday, January 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $295.00 price objective on shares of Constellation Brands in a research report on Monday, April 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Constellation Brands has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $252.58.

Constellation Brands Profile

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Constellation Brands, Inc engages in the production, marketing, and distribution of beer, wine, and spirits. It operates through the following segments: Beer, Wine and Spirits, Corporate Operations and Other, and Canopy. The Beer segment includes imported and craft beer brands. The Wine and Spirits segment sells wine brands across all categories-table wine, sparkling wine, and dessert wine-and across all price points.

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Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. (NYSE:IVR  Get Rating) was the target of a large increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,760,000 shares, an increase of 11.2% from the March 31st total of 3,380,000 shares. Approximately 9.7% of the companys stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 952,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Invesco Mortgage Capital from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 13th. StockNews.com began coverage on Invesco Mortgage Capital in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating for the company.

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Invesco Mortgage Capital Stock Performance

IVR traded down $0.47 on Tuesday, hitting $9.78. The company had a trading volume of 1,456,541 shares, compared to its average volume of 938,746. The stock has a market capitalization of $378.58 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.77 and a beta of 1.64. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $11.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $12.37. Invesco Mortgage Capital has a 12-month low of $9.48 and a 12-month high of $18.80.

Invesco Mortgage Capital Cuts Dividend

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 10th were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 16.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 6th. Invesco Mortgage Capitals payout ratio is currently -12.64%.

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. PL Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Invesco Mortgage Capital by 184.5% in the first quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 385,494 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $4,275,000 after purchasing an additional 250,000 shares during the last quarter. Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Invesco Mortgage Capital by 20.2% during the 1st quarter. Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC now owns 19,425 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $199,000 after purchasing an additional 3,271 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Invesco Mortgage Capital in the 1st quarter valued at $114,000. Straight Path Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Invesco Mortgage Capital by 190.0% in the first quarter. Straight Path Wealth Management now owns 29,000 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $322,000 after purchasing an additional 19,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in Invesco Mortgage Capital by 33.7% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 24,780 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $275,000 after buying an additional 6,240 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 53.54% of the companys stock.

About Invesco Mortgage Capital

(Get Rating)

Invesco Mortgage Capital, Inc is a real estate investment trust. It engages in the business of investing, financing, and managing mortgage-backed securities and other mortgage-related assets. The company was founded on June 5, 2008 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

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John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF (NYSEARCA:JHMM  Get Rating) saw unusually-high trading volume on Wednesday . Approximately 239,966 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 1% from the previous sessions volume of 242,247 shares.The stock last traded at $47.04 and had previously closed at $46.80.

John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a PE ratio of 13.93 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $47.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $47.79.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in shares of John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF by 49.4% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 70,710 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,716,000 after purchasing an additional 23,372 shares during the period. Equitable Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF by 13.7% during the first quarter. Equitable Holdings Inc. now owns 28,855 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,516,000 after buying an additional 3,466 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF by 22.6% in the 1st quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 57,399 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,720,000 after purchasing an additional 10,577 shares during the period. Flow Traders U.S. LLC boosted its position in shares of John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF by 94.0% in the 1st quarter. Flow Traders U.S. LLC now owns 10,982 shares of the companys stock valued at $577,000 after purchasing an additional 5,321 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF in the 1st quarter valued at $2,544,000.

About John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF

The John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF (JHMM) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the John Hancock Dimensional Mid Cap index. The fund tracks an index of US firms ranked 200-950 by size, weighted by multiple factors relative to their sector peers. JHMM was launched on Sep 28, 2015 and is managed by John Hancock.

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John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III (NYSE:HPS  Get Rating) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, May 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.11 per share on Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.26%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 10th.

John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 2.6% annually over the last three years.

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John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III Price Performance

NYSE HPS traded up $0.11 on Wednesday, hitting $14.26. 11,597 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 55,980. The companys 50 day moving average price is $14.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $14.68. John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III has a twelve month low of $13.60 and a twelve month high of $17.74.

Institutional Trading of John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III

John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III Company Profile

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III during the 4th quarter worth about $208,000. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III by 26.1% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 569,728 shares of the companys stock valued at $8,221,000 after acquiring an additional 117,784 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC grew its stake in John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III by 45.3% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 74,919 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,081,000 after acquiring an additional 23,341 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 49,534 shares of the companys stock valued at $743,000 after acquiring an additional 4,557 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors purchased a new position in John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III during the 2nd quarter valued at about $103,000.

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John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III operates as a closed-end management investment company. It seeks to provide a high level of current income consistent with preservation of capital by investing in securities that, in the opinion of the Advisor, may be undervalued relative to similar securities in the marketplace.

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loanDepot, Inc. (NYSE:LDI  Get Rating) dropped 8.7% on Monday . The stock traded as low as $1.63 and last traded at $1.67. Approximately 243,616 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 47% from the average daily volume of 455,655 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.83.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on LDI. Credit Suisse Group downgraded loanDepot from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, January 9th. Bank of America restated a market perform rating on shares of loanDepot in a report on Thursday, March 9th. Finally, William Blair cut shares of loanDepot from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Thursday, March 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $1.83.

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loanDepot Stock Down 3.0 %

The firm has a market cap of $506.33 million, a PE ratio of -0.92 and a beta of 2.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.17. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $1.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1.82.

Insider Activity at loanDepot

Institutional Trading of loanDepot

In other loanDepot news, Director Dan Binowitz sold 9,999 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.59, for a total value of $25,897.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 216,820 shares in the company, valued at $561,563.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website . In other news, Director Dan Binowitz sold 9,999 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.59, for a total transaction of $25,897.41. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 216,820 shares of the companys stock, valued at $561,563.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website . Also, insider Jeff Alexander Walsh sold 63,303 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.98, for a total value of $125,339.94. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 4,349,827 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $8,612,657.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Insiders have sold a total of 719,459 shares of company stock valued at $1,352,278 over the last quarter. 88.65% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in loanDepot during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in shares of loanDepot during the third quarter valued at $32,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of loanDepot in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Jane Street Group LLC raised its stake in loanDepot by 26.2% in the 2nd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 27,513 shares of the companys stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 5,711 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new stake in loanDepot during the 4th quarter worth about $42,000. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About loanDepot

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loanDepot, Inc engages in originating, financing, selling, and servicing residential mortgage loans in the United States. It offers conventional agency-conforming and prime jumbo, federal assistance residential mortgage, and home equity loans. The company also provides settlement services, which include captive title and escrow business; real estate services that cover captive real estate referral business; and insurance services, including services to homeowners, as well as other consumer insurance policies.

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McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG  Get Rating) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 32,774 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 811 shares during the period. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc.s holdings in Procter & Gamble were worth $4,967,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PG. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 224,570,227 shares of the companys stock valued at $28,351,991,000 after acquiring an additional 2,197,165 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 1.1% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 161,904,833 shares of the companys stock valued at $20,440,487,000 after acquiring an additional 1,811,085 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 108.5% in the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,339,628 shares of the companys stock valued at $421,628,000 after acquiring an additional 1,737,742 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 431.3% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 1,542,800 shares of the companys stock valued at $194,779,000 after acquiring an additional 1,252,400 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Procter & Gamble by 139.3% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,718,903 shares of the companys stock worth $260,517,000 after buying an additional 1,000,548 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.13% of the companys stock.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Procter & Gamble news, insider Susan Street Whaley sold 435 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction on Friday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.82, for a total transaction of $61,691.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 10,840 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,537,328.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Jon R. Moeller sold 2,151 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.34, for a total transaction of $295,418.34. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 226,748 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $31,141,570.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Susan Street Whaley sold 435 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.82, for a total transaction of $61,691.70. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 10,840 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,537,328.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 99,859 shares of company stock valued at $15,478,441 in the last 90 days. 0.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Procter & Gamble Price Performance

NYSE PG traded up $0.95 on Wednesday, hitting $157.38. The company had a trading volume of 1,583,794 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,583,789. The company has a market capitalization of $370.94 billion, a PE ratio of 27.25, a PEG ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.41. The companys fifty day moving average price is $146.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $144.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.59 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The Procter & Gamble Company has a 12-month low of $122.18 and a 12-month high of $158.11.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG  Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 21st. The company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $20.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.32 billion. Procter & Gamble had a net margin of 17.69% and a return on equity of 32.18%. The firms revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.33 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 5.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Procter & Gamble Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.9407 per share. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 20th. This is a boost from Procter & Gambles previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. Procter & Gambles payout ratio is 65.51%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Procter & Gamble from $139.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Friday, January 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Procter & Gamble from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Monday, April 24th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Procter & Gamble in a research note on Thursday, February 16th. They issued a buy rating and a $160.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Procter & Gamble from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, April 24th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Procter & Gamble from $160.00 to $167.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $162.13.

Procter & Gamble Profile

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Procter & Gamble Co engages in the provision of branded consumer packaged goods. It operates through the following segments: Beauty, Grooming, Health Care, Fabric & Home Care, and Baby, Feminine & Family Care. The Beauty segment offers hair, skin, and personal care. The Grooming segment consists of shave care like female and male blades and razors, pre and post shave products, and appliances.

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Cinco de Mayo is almost here.

To celebrate the Mexican holiday Friday, many restaurants offer specials on food and drinks, from tacos to margaritas and even pizza.

According to Numerator, 40% of U.S. consumers plan to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, with many planning on going out for food or drinks at their local Mexican restaurant. Most Cinco de Mayo celebrants plan to purchase something for the holiday, with food and alcoholic beverages at the top of their shopping lists.

No matter how you plan to celebrate, you can find Cinco deals and freebies at your local restaurants from Applebee's and Chipotle to Taco Bell. You can even get free guac on the Rock. Remember to check if your nearest location is participating before heading out.

Cinco De Mayo: How did the holiday become more popular in the United States than Mexico?

Reviewed: Shop these 5 last-minute buys for your party

What is Cinco de Mayo?

Theres more to the cultural celebration, which has become more of an American holiday than a Mexican one, than beer and chips and salsa.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates Mexicos victory over France in the Battle of Puebla in 1862, though its often mistaken in the U.S. for Mexicos Independence Day (thats on Sept. 16).

7-Eleven

7Rewards and Speedy Rewards loyalty members can get 10 mini tacos for $2.

The offer is available in-store now until Friday.

Applebee's

Applebee's is celebrating spring with $6 cocktails and beer.

The restaurant chain's latest Mucho Cocktails include a margarita with 1800 Reposado tequila, blue curacao, passion fruit, pineapple, cherry and lime, and a part margarita, part daiquiri frozen drink.

Guests who prefer beer can get a limited-time offer on a Modelo Especial draft.

The offer is available now and for dine-in only, except where carry-out alcohol is permitted by law.

Astral Tequila

Get $10 off your purchase of Astral Tequila on Drizly through Cinco de Mayo. Use the code FORTHEHOUSE and you'll get $10 off and help Astral Tequilas Adobe Brick Project, which provides bricks upcycled from spent agave from the tequila distillation that are used to build homes for those in need in Jalisco, Mexico where the tequila is produced.

Story continues

Bar Louie

On Cinco de Mayo, Bar Louie is offering $7 Dos Sauza Margaritas during happy hour and 50% off bar bites such as chicken quesadillas.

Participation and pricing may vary, so check your nearest location for details.

Bubbakoos Burritos

To celebrate the holiday and Bubbakoo's Burritos' 15th anniversary in 2023, the Mexican-fusion chain is giving out 15 free taco kits, complete with chips, hard and soft shell tacos, protein and toppings. Enter to win by liking, commenting and sharing the brands posts on social media through Friday. Winners will be announced via social media on Friday and will receive digital gift cards to claim their prize.

Buffalo Wild Wings

Buffalo Wild Wings will have special happy hour and late-night deals for Cinco de Mayo. The promotion includes the following deals:

$5 strawberry margaritas from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

$3 chips and salsa from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

$4 hatch chile queso from 9 p.m. to close.

$4 chips and guacamole from 9 p.m. to close.

Chipotle

Chipotle is offering free delivery through Friday with promo code CINCO23 for online orders and orders in the app. The fast-food chain is also encouraging its fans to convert those who haven't tried the restaurant to create a "Time To Finally Try Chipotle" event on the online event site Partiful. Through Friday, invite friends who haven't tried Chipotle and include #ChipotlePartyPromo in the event description. Then send @Chipotle a direct message on Instagram with a link to the Partiful event. Each day, Chipotle will RSVP to the first 20 Partiful events sent to @Chipotle on Instagram via direct messages and will drop one BOGO code per RSVPd guest (up to 25 BOGO codes per event). Chipotle is also revealing its most popular order  a Chicken Burrito Bowl  and has added it to the online menu as "the First Timer Bowl."

Chipotle has revealed its most popular order  a Chicken Burrito Bowl  and has added it to the online menu as "the First Timer Bowl" ahead of Cinco de Mayo.

Don Julio Tequila

Through Sunday, Don Julio Tequila is giving out 100,000 Don Julio Cincos, each unlocking $5 to spend at a local bar or restaurant of your choice. Just follow Don Julio Tequila's Instagram account for each day's allotment of Cincos, each of which can be redeemed for $5 added to your Venmo account. Spending your Don Julio Cinco at a bar/restaurant is suggested but not required.

El Pollo Loco

El Pollo Loco is offering new and existing Loco Rewards members a free Crunchy Birria Taco with the purchase of any Shredded Beef Birria entree on Friday.

Consumers can sign up for Loco Rewards via the El Pollo Loco app or online.

'Guac on The Rock' free guacamole

Through Sunday, order guacamole and a cocktail made with Dwayne The Rock Johnson's Teremana tequila and get reimbursed for up to $10 for your guacamole order. For more details and to locate restaurants, go to guacontherock.com. Receipts can be uploaded on that site through Wednesday; rebates will be sent via Venmo. Not valid in all markets, based on state laws. You must be 21 or older. Reimbursements are capped nationwide at $1 million.

Dwayne The Rock Johnson's Teremana tequila will buy your guacamole through May 7. Just order guac and a cocktail made with Teremana tequila and get reimbursed for up to $10 for your guacamole order. To more details and to locate restaurants go to guacontherock.com.

Hooters

From Monday to Friday, Hooters is offering deals on drinks including:

$5 Dos Equis XX Big Daddy.

$5 Patron shots.

$2 shots of el Jimador Silver tequila and Bosscal mezcal.

$12.50 pitchers of Legendary Margarita.

Jose Cuervo Tequila

Through Friday, May 5, Jose Cuervo is giving away "dumb" Cuervo flip phones to encourage fans of the tequila to get together in real life on the holiday. In addition to the devices, which have T-Mobile service through May and can be extended, Cuervo is also giving away thousands in cash. Go to the Cuervo website to enter to win. Winners will receive cash via Venmo on Cinco de Mayo to purchase a round of drinks for friends.

Actress Haley Lu Richardson (White Lotus) teamed with Jose Cuervo for its "Go Off This Cinco" promotion. The brand is giving away "dumb" Cuervo flip phones to encourage fans of the tequila to get together in real life on the holiday. You can win one or cash by going to the Cuervo website by the end of May 5.

Millers Ale House

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with $2.99 House Margaritas at Millers Ale House on Friday.

The offer will be available all day and isn't available in Georgia.

Moe's Southwest Grill

Moe Rewards members get double points on purchases on Friday and restaurants will be giving out free T-shirts to the first 50 guests that visit Moe's on the holiday. To become a Moe Rewards member, download the app and sign up to take advantage of the deal. Service fee applies to online and in-app orders; bonus points are deposited into the account 24 to 48 hours after a qualifying order.

On Friday, Moe's Southwest Grill restaurants will be giving out free T-shirts to the first 50 guests on the holiday.

On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina

Sip on $6 Cinco Ritas on Cinco de Mayo at On The Border.

Round Table Pizza

From Friday through Monday, get $10 off any two large or extra-large pizzas at menu price at participating Round Table Pizza locations for dine-in, carry-out, or delivery.

Taco Bell

For Cinco de Mayo, the fast food chain is taking 20% off any Taco Party Pack from May 5 to May 7 in the Taco Bell app (one per user; cravings pack not included).

If you use delivery apps DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates and GrubHub from May 5 to May 7, get a free Nachos Bell Grande with orders of $20 or more.

Taco Bell is giving customers 20% off any Taco Party Pack from May 5 to May 7 for Cinco de Mayo.

Taco Johns

Bigger Bolder Rewards members can get a free meat and potato burrito with any purchase, including breakfast, on Friday.

Tijuana Flats

From Friday to Sunday, Tijuana Flats guests can enjoy certain menu items for $5 each. The deal is redeemable in-store, through the Tijuana Flats Rewards app, and online. The promotion includes the following menu items:

Tijuana Trio.

Dueling Queso.

Chips and guac.

Chips and queso.

Margaritas.

Two for $5 beers.

Two for $5 Mexican Cokes.

Participating locations will have extended hours for Cinco de Mayo, opening from 10:30 a.m. to 12 a.m. and late-night events will occur from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. Starting at 8 p.m. on Friday, Tijuana Flats locations will host a variety of in-store contests and activities giving guests the chance to win such as free tacos.

Tijuana Flats Rewards members will get double points on purchases made between 8 p.m. and 12 a.m. on Friday.

If you're planning to celebrate at home, Tijuana Flats is offering 50% off eight-pack margaritas for pick-up orders between 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday with a $130 minimum food purchase. The margarita offer is only available at Florida locations.

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks is offering specials on drinks through Friday. The promotion includes the following deals:

$5 michelada.

$5 house margarita.

$5.50 Mexican Candy.

$6.50 Corazon tequila sunrise.

$6.50 Milagro Silver Paloma.

$6.50 Herradura Reposado Ranch Water.

$7.50 margarita on "The Rock."

$8.50 watermelon margarita.

$8.50 Don Julio blackberry margarita.

$8.50 Patron Silver margarita.

$8.50 Casamigos spicy margarita.

$9.50 Dobel Diamante margarita.

$12.50 Casamigos Anejo old fashioned.

$16 Import Buckets of Corona, Dos Equis, or Modelo.

$20.50 Cincoro Hall of Fame margarita.

Cinco de Mayo themed quesadilla-sandwich stack into slices and served with guacamole and salsa.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cinco de Mayo deals 2023: Get deals with this Chipotle code, and more
Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK  Get Rating) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,510,000 shares, an increase of 11.0% from the March 31st total of 1,360,000 shares. Currently, 2.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 543,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Mohawk Industries Price Performance

MHK stock traded down $2.25 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $101.07. The company had a trading volume of 581,042 shares, compared to its average volume of 596,296. The company has a market capitalization of $6.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -45.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.27. Mohawk Industries has a 12-month low of $87.01 and a 12-month high of $158.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $98.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $103.18.

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Mohawk Industries (NYSE:MHK  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The company reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.47. Mohawk Industries had a negative net margin of 1.21% and a positive return on equity of 8.46%. The business had revenue of $2.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.74 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.78 EPS. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Mohawk Industries will post 8.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Insiders Place Their Bets

MHK has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Mohawk Industries in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating for the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Mohawk Industries from $83.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research report on Monday, February 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Mohawk Industries from $104.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 10th. Credit Suisse Group lowered their target price on shares of Mohawk Industries from $109.00 to $103.00 in a research note on Monday, March 20th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Mohawk Industries from $110.00 to $108.00 and set an underperform rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $129.77.

In other news, insider Suzanne L. Helen sold 4,250 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.23, for a total value of $438,727.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,453 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,388,753.19. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Suzanne L. Helen sold 4,250 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.23, for a total transaction of $438,727.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,453 shares in the company, valued at $1,388,753.19. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Suzanne L. Helen sold 5,200 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.59, for a total transaction of $621,868.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 14,853 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,776,270.27. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 12,150 shares of company stock valued at $1,374,876. Company insiders own 18.90% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Mohawk Industries by 10.6% in the 1st quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 304,193 shares of the companys stock valued at $30,486,000 after acquiring an additional 29,219 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Mohawk Industries by 1,441.3% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 72,717 shares of the companys stock valued at $7,288,000 after acquiring an additional 67,999 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Mohawk Industries by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 3,731 shares of the companys stock valued at $374,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Mohawk Industries by 206.1% in the 1st quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 22,961 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,301,000 after acquiring an additional 15,460 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Olstein Capital Management L.P. raised its position in Mohawk Industries by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P. now owns 111,000 shares of the companys stock worth $11,124,000 after purchasing an additional 8,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.85% of the companys stock.

About Mohawk Industries

(Get Rating)

Mohawk Industries, Inc engages in the manufacture, design, and distribution of residential and commercial flooring products. It operates through the following segments: Global Ceramic, Flooring North America (NA), and Flooring Rest of the World (ROW). The Global Ceramic segment manufactures ceramic, porcelain, and natural stone tile products used for wall and floor applications.

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Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. (TSE:INE  Get Rating)  Equities researchers at National Bank Financial decreased their Q1 2023 EPS estimates for Innergex Renewable Energy in a report released on Wednesday, April 26th. National Bank Financial analyst R. Merer now anticipates that the company will post earnings of ($0.09) per share for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of ($0.02). The consensus estimate for Innergex Renewable Energys current full-year earnings is $0.30 per share.

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Innergex Renewable Energy (TSE:INE  Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 22nd. The company reported C($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of C$0.02 by C($0.14). The company had revenue of C$203.64 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of C$211.20 million. Innergex Renewable Energy had a negative net margin of 9.38% and a negative return on equity of 6.40%.

Innergex Renewable Energy Stock Down 0.9 %

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. CIBC lowered their target price on shares of Innergex Renewable Energy from C$19.00 to C$17.50 in a research note on Friday, April 21st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Innergex Renewable Energy from C$19.00 to C$17.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 24th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Innergex Renewable Energy from C$19.00 to C$18.00 in a report on Thursday, January 19th. National Bankshares lifted their price objective on Innergex Renewable Energy from C$20.00 to C$21.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. Finally, TD Securities decreased their price objective on Innergex Renewable Energy from C$19.50 to C$17.50 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Innergex Renewable Energy has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of C$19.35.

Shares of INE opened at C$13.62 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of C$2.78 billion, a P/E ratio of -31.67, a P/E/G ratio of 20.61 and a beta of 0.35. Innergex Renewable Energy has a 12-month low of C$13.48 and a 12-month high of C$20.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 405.34. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of C$14.54 and a 200-day moving average price of C$15.46.

Innergex Renewable Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 17th. Investors of record on Monday, April 17th were given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 30th. Innergex Renewable Energys payout ratio is currently -167.44%.

Innergex Renewable Energy Company Profile

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Innergex Renewable Energy Inc operates as an independent renewable power producer in Canada, the United States, France, and Chile. It acquires, owns, develops, and operates hydroelectric facilities, and wind and solar farms, as well as energy storage facilities. The company operates through three segments: Hydroelectric Power Generation, Wind Power Generation, and Solar Power Generation.

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NIPPON STL & SU/S (OTCMKTS:NSSMY  Get Rating)s share price reached a new 52-week low on Monday . The company traded as low as $7.02 and last traded at $7.02, with a volume of 8339 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $7.06.

NIPPON STL & SU/S Stock Down 0.6 %

The stocks 50-day moving average price is $7.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

About NIPPON STL & SU/S

(Get Rating)

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation engages in steelmaking and steel fabrication businesses worldwide. It operates in five segments: Steelmaking and Steel Fabrication, Engineering and Construction, Chemicals, New materials, and System Solutions. The company offers steel plates; hot- and cold-rolled steel sheets and coils, coated steel sheets, color coated steel sheets, electrolytic tin plates, and electrical steel sheets; bar and rod materials; and structural steel products.

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The AES Co. (NYSE:AES  Get Rating)  Research analysts at Zacks Research boosted their Q2 2023 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of AES in a report released on Friday, April 28th. Zacks Research analyst A. Dutta now forecasts that the utilities provider will earn $0.42 per share for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $0.41. The consensus estimate for AESs current full-year earnings is $1.72 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for AESs Q3 2023 earnings at $0.37 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $0.62 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $0.07 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $2.04 EPS.

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AES (NYSE:AES  Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. AES had a positive return on equity of 37.94% and a negative net margin of 3.99%. The companys revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.45 EPS.

AES Price Performance

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Wolfe Research cut AES from an outperform rating to a peer perform rating in a report on Monday, April 17th. StockNews.com cut AES from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Friday, April 21st. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on AES from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 20th. TheStreet cut AES from a b- rating to a c rating in a report on Monday, February 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $32.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $30.90.

Shares of AES stock opened at $22.60 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.12 billion, a PE ratio of -25.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.94. AES has a 12 month low of $18.62 and a 12 month high of $29.89. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $23.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.93.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 1st will be paid a $0.1659 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 28th. AESs payout ratio is presently -75.86%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 100,670 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $2,424,000 after purchasing an additional 2,771 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in AES by 789.0% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 49,128 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $1,183,000 after buying an additional 43,602 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in AES by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 51,076 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $1,230,000 after buying an additional 2,599 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in AES by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 920,216 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $22,159,000 after buying an additional 11,653 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amalgamated Bank increased its position in AES by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 174,654 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $4,206,000 after buying an additional 1,118 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.46% of the companys stock.

AES Company Profile

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The AES Corp. engages in the provision of power generation and utility services through its renewable and thermal generation facilities and distribution businesses. It operates through the following segments: U.S. and Utilities Strategic Business Unit (SBU), South America SBU, MCAC SBU, Eurasia SBU. The U.S.

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Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (NYSE:CP  Get Rating) (TSE:CP)  Stock analysts at Atb Cap Markets lifted their Q2 2023 EPS estimates for Canadian Pacific Kansas City in a report released on Wednesday, April 26th. Atb Cap Markets analyst C. Murray now forecasts that the transportation company will post earnings per share of $0.84 for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $0.83. The consensus estimate for Canadian Pacific Kansas Citys current full-year earnings is $3.33 per share. Atb Cap Markets also issued estimates for Canadian Pacific Kansas Citys Q3 2023 earnings at $0.98 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $0.94 EPS, FY2023 earnings at $3.43 EPS, Q2 2024 earnings at $1.01 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $1.06 EPS and FY2024 earnings at $4.10 EPS.

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Canadian Pacific Kansas City (NYSE:CP  Get Rating) (TSE:CP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 31st. The transportation company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.02. Canadian Pacific Kansas City had a net margin of 40.22% and a return on equity of 9.56%. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.83 billion.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City Stock Down 1.5 %

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 1st. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City from $90.00 to $89.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City from $78.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. Finally, CIBC decreased their price objective on shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City from C$128.00 to C$125.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $89.21.

CP opened at $78.16 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. Canadian Pacific Kansas City has a 1-year low of $65.17 and a 1-year high of $82.96. The company has a market capitalization of $72.76 billion, a PE ratio of 25.88, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.02. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $77.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $77.06.

Institutional Trading of Canadian Pacific Kansas City

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City by 750.0% in the 4th quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 340 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. BerganKDV Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City by 193.9% in the 1st quarter. BerganKDV Wealth Management LLC now owns 338 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. BDO Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City by 928.6% in the 4th quarter. BDO Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 360 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company purchased a new position in shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City in the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. 72.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 30th will be issued a $0.141 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 29th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. Canadian Pacific Kansas Citys dividend payout ratio is currently 18.21%.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City Company Profile

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Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. provides rail freight transportation services. It offers rail services linking Canada, the United States and Mexico. The company was founded on June 22, 2001 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

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KORE Group (NYSE:KORE  Get Rating) and Telenor ASA (OTCMKTS:TELNY  Get Rating) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for KORE Group and Telenor ASA, as provided by MarketBeat.

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Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score KORE Group 0 1 3 0 2.75 Telenor ASA 0 4 2 0 2.33

KORE Group presently has a consensus target price of $6.70, suggesting a potential upside of 503.60%. Telenor ASA has a consensus target price of $125.00, suggesting a potential upside of 933.06%. Given Telenor ASAs higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Telenor ASA is more favorable than KORE Group.

Earnings & Valuation

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio KORE Group $268.45 million 0.32 -$106.20 million ($1.37) -0.81 Telenor ASA $10.33 billion 1.64 $4.69 billion $3.21 3.77

This table compares KORE Group and Telenor ASAs revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Telenor ASA has higher revenue and earnings than KORE Group. KORE Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Telenor ASA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

KORE Group has a beta of 2.75, suggesting that its stock price is 175% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Telenor ASA has a beta of 0.49, suggesting that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

34.9% of KORE Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of KORE Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares KORE Group and Telenor ASAs net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets KORE Group -38.70% -19.34% -6.27% Telenor ASA 39.55% 38.51% 6.70%

Summary

Telenor ASA beats KORE Group on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About KORE Group

(Get Rating)

KORE Group Holdings, Inc. provides Internet of Things (IoT) services and solutions worldwide. It offers connectivity, location-based, device solutions, and managed and professional services that are used in the development and support of IoT technology for the Machine-to-Machine market. The company provides Connectivity-as-a-Service; IoT solutions and analytics to fleet tracking companies; and asset monitoring, communications, and industrial IoT services. It serves customers operating in a range of sectors, including healthcare, fleet and vehicle management, asset management, communication services, and industrial/manufacturing. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia.

About Telenor ASA

(Get Rating)

Telenor ASA engages in the provision of telecommunications, data, and media services. Its products and services include mobile communication, fixed line communication, and broadcasting activities. It operates through the following segments: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, DNA-Finland, dtac-Thailand, Digi-Malaysia, Grameenphone-Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Other Units. The Norway, Sweden, and Denmark geographical segments include fixed services like telephone, internet and TV, and leased lines. The Other Units segment is composed of global wholesale, digital services, and corporate functions. The company was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Fornebu, Norway.

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American Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:AFG  Get Rating) saw a large increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 951,500 shares, an increase of 6.3% from the March 31st total of 895,500 shares. Currently, 1.2% of the companys stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 372,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on AFG. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on American Financial Group in a report on Thursday, January 19th. They set a market perform rating and a $155.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com began coverage on American Financial Group in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of American Financial Group from $166.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $163.25.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John B. Berding sold 5,417 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.62, for a total value of $740,070.54. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,083 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,929,659.46. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 14.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

American Financial Group Price Performance

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in American Financial Group by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 10,823 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $1,576,000 after purchasing an additional 284 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in American Financial Group by 26.6% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 14,648 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $2,133,000 after acquiring an additional 3,076 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in American Financial Group by 4.0% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 5,474 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $798,000 after acquiring an additional 212 shares in the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its stake in shares of American Financial Group by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 50,464 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $7,610,000 after purchasing an additional 2,635 shares during the period. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. increased its holdings in shares of American Financial Group by 23.8% during the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 5,617 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $818,000 after purchasing an additional 1,081 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.04% of the companys stock.

Shares of AFG opened at $121.21 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.44 and a quick ratio of 0.44. The companys fifty day moving average price is $123.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $133.09. American Financial Group has a 1-year low of $113.85 and a 1-year high of $150.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.32 billion, a PE ratio of 11.51 and a beta of 0.82.

American Financial Group (NYSE:AFG  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The insurance provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.95 by $0.04. American Financial Group had a return on equity of 23.52% and a net margin of 12.76%. The business had revenue of $1.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.12 EPS. The companys quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that American Financial Group will post 11.7 EPS for the current year.

American Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 14th were issued a $0.63 dividend. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 13th. American Financial Groups dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.93%.

American Financial Group Company Profile

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American Financial Group, Inc is an insurance holding company, which engages in property and casualty insurance, focusing on commercial products for businesses, and in the sale of fixed and fixed-indexed annuities in the retail, financial institutions and education markets. Its Property and Casualty Insurance Products include Property and Transportation, Specialty Casualty, and Specialty Financial.

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Modiv Inc. (NYSE:MDV  Get Rating) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 16,600 shares, a drop of 6.7% from the March 31st total of 17,800 shares. Currently, 0.3% of the companys shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 11,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.4 days.

Institutional Trading of Modiv

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Modiv by 56.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 307,385 shares of the companys stock valued at $4,488,000 after acquiring an additional 111,266 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Modiv by 365.9% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 80,380 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,174,000 after acquiring an additional 63,129 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC acquired a new position in Modiv in the 2nd quarter valued at about $298,000. UBS Group AG increased its position in Modiv by 851.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 10,024 shares of the companys stock valued at $146,000 after acquiring an additional 8,971 shares during the period. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in Modiv by 1,706.6% in the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,186 shares of the companys stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 2,065 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 6.19% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on MDV shares. EF Hutton Acquisition Co. I reissued a buy rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of Modiv in a research note on Friday, February 24th. B. Riley lowered their price target on Modiv from $19.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $18.90.

Modiv Price Performance

Modiv Cuts Dividend

Shares of MDV traded up $1.22 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $11.92. 58,641 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,534. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $11.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.60. Modiv has a twelve month low of $9.61 and a twelve month high of $19.25. The company has a market capitalization of $89.95 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.92, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of -0.15.

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 28th will be given a dividend of $0.0958 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 11.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 27th. Modivs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -115.00%.

Modiv Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Modiv Inc, (the Company) was incorporated on May 14, 2015 as a Maryland corporation. The Company was formed to primarily invest, directly or indirectly, in real estate owning entities which own single-tenant income-producing properties located in the United States, which are leased to creditworthy tenants under long-term net leases.

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Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON  Get Rating) issued an update on its second quarter earnings guidance on Monday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $1.45-1.55 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53. Sonoco Products also updated its FY 2023 guidance to $5.70-$6.00 EPS.

Sonoco Products Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of SON traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $59.56. 546,346 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 456,893. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.93. Sonoco Products has a 52 week low of $51.52 and a 52 week high of $65.96. The company has a market cap of $5.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.63, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.71.

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Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON  Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. Sonoco Products had a net margin of 6.43% and a return on equity of 32.53%. The firms revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.85 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Sonoco Products will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Sonoco Products Increases Dividend

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 10th will be issued a $0.51 dividend. This is a positive change from Sonoco Productss previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 9th. Sonoco Productss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.22%.

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Sonoco Products from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report on Monday, March 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on shares of Sonoco Products from $61.00 to $57.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 15th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Sonoco Products in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Sonoco Products from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, April 20th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Sonoco Products from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $66.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ernest D. Haynes III sold 1,834 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $110,040.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,729 shares of the companys stock, valued at $103,740. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Sonoco Products news, insider Ernest D. Haynes III sold 1,834 shares of Sonoco Products stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $110,040.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,729 shares of the companys stock, valued at $103,740. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert R. Hill, Jr. purchased 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $56.00 per share, for a total transaction of $560,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 20,065 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,123,640. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 3,458 shares of company stock valued at $207,291. 0.51% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sonoco Products

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SON. Creative Planning increased its position in Sonoco Products by 4.1% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 5,426 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $309,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC increased its position in Sonoco Products by 3.5% in the first quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 7,289 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $456,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in Sonoco Products by 1.8% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 17,102 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $1,070,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its position in Sonoco Products by 0.7% in the third quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 56,018 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $3,178,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in Sonoco Products by 4.6% in the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 8,810 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $551,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.43% of the companys stock.

About Sonoco Products

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Sonoco Products Co engages in the manufacture of industrial and consumer packaging products and services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Packaging, Paper and Industrial Converted Products, Protective Solutions, and Display and Packaging. The Consumer Packaging segment offers round and shaped rigid containers, fiber and plastic caulk and adhesive tubes, and aluminum, steel, and peelable membrane easy-open closures for paper and metal cans.

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State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN  Get Rating) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 694,541 shares of the information technology services providers stock after selling 10,960 shares during the quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System owned about 0.11% of Accenture worth $185,331,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Affiance Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. My Personal CFO LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. EWG Elevate Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Ten Capital Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 61.8% during the 3rd quarter. Ten Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 123 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. 73.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total transaction of $1,750,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 174,084 shares of the companys stock, valued at $48,753,965.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total transaction of $1,750,375.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 174,084 shares in the company, valued at $48,753,965.04. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,954 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.05, for a total value of $827,267.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 24,459 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $6,849,742.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,010 shares of company stock valued at $4,180,030 in the last three months. 0.08% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Accenture Stock Performance

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Edward Jones raised shares of Accenture from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 15th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, March 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, March 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $314.00.

NYSE ACN opened at $276.74 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $271.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $276.45. The company has a market cap of $174.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a one year low of $242.80 and a one year high of $322.88.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN  Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 23rd. The information technology services provider reported $2.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.49 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $15.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $15.59 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 30.73% and a net margin of 11.00%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.54 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 13th will be given a $1.12 dividend. This represents a $4.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 12th. Accentures dividend payout ratio is currently 41.25%.

Accenture Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Accenture Plc engages in the provision of management consulting, technology, and outsourcing services. It operates through the following geographical segments: North America, Europe and Growth Markets. The company was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

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(Reuters) - Twitter chief Elon Musk has "threatened" to reassign National Public Radio's Twitter account to another company, the U.S.-based broadcaster said on Tuesday.

Musk suggested that he would reassign the network's main account, under the @NPR handle, to another organization or person, NPR said.

NPR stopped posting content to its 52 official Twitter feeds last month in protest against a Twitter designation that implied government involvement in its editorial content.

Musk, in an email to an NPR reporter, asked about its engagement with Twitter, the public broadcaster said.

"So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?" NPR quoted Musk as saying.

"Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant," he said in another email. "Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR."

NPR and Twitter did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.

According to Twitter's policy, users should log in to their account at least once every 30 days to avoid permanent removal due to prolonged inactivity.

PBS and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation followed NPR and stopped posting on Twitter following similar labeling.

Twitter later dropped the labels but the outlets that were targeted have not resumed activity, their profiles showed on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Stockman Wealth Management Inc. trimmed its stake in Lockheed Martin Co. (NYSE:LMT  Get Rating) by 5.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 15,875 shares of the aerospace companys stock after selling 877 shares during the period. Lockheed Martin makes up about 1.8% of Stockman Wealth Management Inc.s portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest position. Stockman Wealth Management Inc.s holdings in Lockheed Martin were worth $7,723,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 1,337 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $650,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Lockheed Martin during the 4th quarter worth $1,332,000. Highland Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Lockheed Martin by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC now owns 7,271 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $3,537,000 after purchasing an additional 520 shares during the period. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Lockheed Martin by 92.4% during the 4th quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 2,763 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $1,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,327 shares during the period. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in Lockheed Martin by 23.8% during the 4th quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 189,084 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $91,932,000 after purchasing an additional 36,327 shares during the period. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lockheed Martin news, Director John Donovan acquired 506 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $495.17 per share, for a total transaction of $250,556.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,830 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,401,331.10. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Stephanie C. Hill sold 2,391 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $490.84, for a total transaction of $1,173,598.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,604 shares in the company, valued at $6,186,547.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John Donovan purchased 506 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 19th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $495.17 per share, with a total value of $250,556.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,830 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,401,331.10. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Lockheed Martin Price Performance

Several research firms have commented on LMT. Robert W. Baird downgraded Lockheed Martin from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $513.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, April 12th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Lockheed Martin from $546.00 to $579.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Lockheed Martin from $542.00 to $532.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Lockheed Martin from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a positive rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Lockheed Martin from $478.00 to $496.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $494.79.

Shares of LMT stock traded down $2.04 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $456.85. The company had a trading volume of 148,036 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,404,500. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $478.84 and a 200-day moving average of $474.17. The company has a market capitalization of $115.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.97, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.67. Lockheed Martin Co. has a 12-month low of $373.67 and a 12-month high of $508.10.

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT  Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 18th. The aerospace company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $6.08 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $15.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.01 billion. Lockheed Martin had a return on equity of 67.75% and a net margin of 8.60%. The businesss revenue was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $6.44 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Lockheed Martin Co. will post 26.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Lockheed Martin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 1st will be given a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.63%. Lockheed Martins payout ratio is 54.84%.

About Lockheed Martin

(Get Rating)

Lockheed Martin Corp. is a global security and aerospace company, which engages in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of technology systems, products, and services. It operates through the following business segments: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control (MFC), Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS), and Space.

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TELUS Co. (TSE:T  Get Rating) (NYSE:TU)  Analysts at Cormark issued their Q1 2023 EPS estimates for shares of TELUS in a research note issued to investors on Monday, May 1st. Cormark analyst D. Mcfadgen expects that the company will earn $0.27 per share for the quarter. The consensus estimate for TELUSs current full-year earnings is $1.12 per share.

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TELUS (TSE:T  Get Rating) (NYSE:TU) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 9th. The company reported C$0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of C$0.28 by C($0.05). The business had revenue of C$5.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$4.98 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 8.83% and a return on equity of 10.19%.

TELUS Price Performance

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of TELUS from C$33.00 to C$32.00 in a research note on Monday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of TELUS from C$34.00 to C$33.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of TELUS from C$36.00 to C$33.00 in a report on Monday, February 13th. CIBC upgraded shares of TELUS to a buy rating and set a C$31.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, January 12th. Finally, TD Securities lowered their price target on shares of TELUS from C$32.00 to C$31.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of C$31.91.

T opened at C$28.60 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 142.59, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.52. The companys 50-day moving average is C$27.61 and its 200 day moving average is C$27.85. TELUS has a fifty-two week low of C$25.94 and a fifty-two week high of C$32.48. The firm has a market capitalization of C$41.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.87, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.66.

TELUS Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 10th were issued a $0.351 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 9th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.91%. TELUSs payout ratio is currently 121.74%.

TELUS Company Profile

(Get Rating)

TELUS Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of telecommunications and information technology products and services in Canada. It operates through Technology Solutions and Digitally-Led Customer Experiences segments. The Technology Solutions segment offers a range of telecommunications products and services; network revenue; mobile technologies equipment sale; data revenues, such as internet protocol; television; hosting, managed information technology, and cloud-based services; software, data management, and data analytics-driven smart food-chain technologies; home and business security; healthcare software and technology solutions; and voice and other telecommunications services.

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Thornburg Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO  Get Rating) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 252,931 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $34,247,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Schubert & Co grew its stake in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 96.2% in the 4th quarter. Schubert & Co now owns 204 shares of the companys stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. RFP Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Novo Nordisk A/S in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Tsfg LLC purchased a new position in Novo Nordisk A/S during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Worth Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S in the first quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Financial Management Professionals Inc. raised its position in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 95.0% during the 3rd quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 312 shares of the companys stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. 6.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

NVO has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from 925.00 to 1,100.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 3rd. Credit Suisse Group raised Novo Nordisk A/S from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, April 13th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Novo Nordisk A/S in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a strong-buy rating on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $687.50.

Novo Nordisk A/S Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of Novo Nordisk A/S stock traded down $0.97 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $166.23. The company had a trading volume of 345,721 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,404,333. Novo Nordisk A/S has a 52-week low of $95.02 and a 52-week high of $172.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $376.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a 50 day moving average of $154.20 and a 200 day moving average of $136.81.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO  Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 1st. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.02. Novo Nordisk A/S had a return on equity of 73.39% and a net margin of 31.44%. The business had revenue of $6.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.74 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 4.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 27th were paid a dividend of $1.1887 per share. This is a positive change from Novo Nordisk A/Ss previous semi-annual dividend of $0.58. This represents a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 24th. Novo Nordisk A/Ss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.70%.

About Novo Nordisk A/S

(Get Rating)

Novo Nordisk A/S is a global healthcare company, which engages in the the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical products. It operates through the Diabetes and Obesity Care, and Biopharm segments. The Diabetes and Obesity Care segment includes insulin, GLP-1 and related delivery systems, oral antidiabetic products (OAD), obesity, and other serious chronic diseases.

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Trillium Asset Management LLC decreased its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 860,832 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 14,754 shares during the period. Trillium Asset Management LLCs holdings in Bank of America were worth $28,511,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 60.0% in the 3rd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 103,645,596 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $3,130,177,000 after buying an additional 38,870,780 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its position in Bank of America by 835.9% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 28,077,300 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $929,920,000 after buying an additional 25,077,300 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Bank of America by 1,356.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 20,390,322 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $615,788,000 after buying an additional 18,990,473 shares during the last quarter. Snider Financial Group boosted its position in Bank of America by 9,477.3% in the 1st quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 14,448,357 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $5,956,000 after buying an additional 14,297,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in Bank of America by 3,474.6% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,658,881 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $480,579,000 after buying an additional 11,332,721 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.34% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity

In other news, insider Matthew M. Koder sold 105,054 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.27, for a total value of $3,600,200.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 319,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,959,648.81. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Matthew M. Koder sold 105,054 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.27, for a total transaction of $3,600,200.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 319,803 shares in the company, valued at $10,959,648.81. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Matthew M. Koder sold 214,745 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.91, for a total value of $7,711,492.95. Following the sale, the insider now owns 214,747 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $7,711,564.77. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.27% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Bank of America Stock Up 0.9 %

A number of brokerages have commented on BAC. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Bank of America from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Bank of America from $38.00 to $34.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 10th. Atlantic Securities lowered Bank of America from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Bank of America from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Bank of America from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $36.83.

Shares of BAC traded up $0.24 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $28.40. The stock had a trading volume of 20,660,036 shares, compared to its average volume of 55,241,656. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.21. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $26.32 and a twelve month high of $38.75. The firm has a market cap of $227.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC  Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.11. Bank of America had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 21.85%. The firm had revenue of $26.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.80 EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.4 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 2nd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 1st. Bank of Americas payout ratio is 26.43%.

Bank of America Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Bank of America Corp. is a bank and financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking and nonbank financial services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking, Global Wealth and Investment Management (GWIM), Global Banking, Global Markets, and All Other. The Consumer Banking segment offers credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.

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Taylor Morrison Home Co. (NYSE:TMHC  Get Rating)  Equities research analysts at Wedbush cut their Q4 2023 earnings estimates for Taylor Morrison Home in a report released on Wednesday, April 26th. Wedbush analyst J. Mccanless now expects that the construction company will post earnings per share of $1.70 for the quarter, down from their previous forecast of $2.15. The consensus estimate for Taylor Morrison Homes current full-year earnings is $6.47 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Taylor Morrison Homes Q1 2024 earnings at $1.39 EPS, Q2 2024 earnings at $1.71 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $1.88 EPS and Q4 2024 earnings at $2.33 EPS.

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Taylor Morrison Home (NYSE:TMHC  Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 26th. The construction company reported $1.74 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.45. Taylor Morrison Home had a return on equity of 24.14% and a net margin of 13.04%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

Taylor Morrison Home Stock Performance

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on TMHC. Credit Suisse Group increased their target price on shares of Taylor Morrison Home from $41.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 27th. Barclays boosted their target price on Taylor Morrison Home from $40.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Taylor Morrison Home from $33.00 to $42.00 in a report on Thursday, April 27th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Taylor Morrison Home in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $38.08.

TMHC stock opened at $41.90 on Monday. Taylor Morrison Home has a one year low of $20.05 and a one year high of $43.20. The firm has a market cap of $4.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 1.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 6.09. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.07.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Taylor Morrison Home

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TMHC. Leuthold Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Taylor Morrison Home during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,772,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Taylor Morrison Home by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,522,766 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $198,754,000 after acquiring an additional 333,454 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC boosted its position in shares of Taylor Morrison Home by 43.4% during the 3rd quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 12,758 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $298,000 after acquiring an additional 3,861 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Taylor Morrison Home by 1,160.2% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,563,247 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $47,445,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advisors Preferred LLC acquired a new position in shares of Taylor Morrison Home during the 3rd quarter valued at about $103,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.33% of the companys stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William H. Lyon sold 264,730 shares of Taylor Morrison Home stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.45, for a total transaction of $10,973,058.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 32,127 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,331,664.15. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Taylor Morrison Home news, CFO Louis Steffens sold 2,719 shares of Taylor Morrison Home stock in a transaction on Monday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.48, for a total transaction of $104,627.12. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 65,772 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,530,906.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Lyon sold 264,730 shares of Taylor Morrison Home stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.45, for a total transaction of $10,973,058.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 32,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,331,664.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 446,197 shares of company stock valued at $17,891,851 in the last three months. 5.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Taylor Morrison Home

(Get Rating)

Taylor Morrison Home Corp. engages in the business of residential homebuilding and the development of lifestyle communities. It operates through the following segments: East, Central, West, and Financial Services. The East segment includes operations in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Orlando, Raleigh, Southwest Florida, and Tampa regions.

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Manitowoc (NYSE:MTW  Get Rating) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report issued on Monday, The Fly reports. The brokerage presently has a $17.00 price objective on the industrial products companys stock, up from their prior price objective of $14.00. Wells Fargo & Companys price objective would suggest a potential upside of 0.53% from the stocks current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Manitowoc from a neutral rating to a sell rating and raised their target price for the company from $13.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Monday, April 3rd. Citigroup increased their price objective on Manitowoc from $11.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Monday, March 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Manitowoc from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Manitowoc from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $14.50.

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Manitowoc Stock Up 4.3 %

Manitowoc stock opened at $16.91 on Monday. Manitowoc has a fifty-two week low of $7.53 and a fifty-two week high of $20.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $594.72 million, a PE ratio of -4.80 and a beta of 2.04. The companys 50-day moving average is $16.69 and its 200-day moving average is $12.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.82 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Manitowoc

Manitowoc ( NYSE:MTW Get Rating ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $621.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $562.36 million. Manitowoc had a positive return on equity of 6.09% and a negative net margin of 6.08%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Manitowoc will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current year.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MTW. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Manitowoc by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,253 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,023 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of Manitowoc by 43.6% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,775 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 1,146 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in Manitowoc by 0.5% in the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 231,483 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,791,000 after purchasing an additional 1,179 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its stake in Manitowoc by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 51,942 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $403,000 after purchasing an additional 1,382 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Manitowoc by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 90,500 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $829,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.27% of the companys stock.

About Manitowoc

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The Manitowoc Co, Inc provides engineered lifting solutions. The firm designs, manufactures, markets and supports product lines of mobile telescopic cranes, tower cranes, lattice-boom crawler cranes, boom trucks and industrial cranes under the Grove, Potain, Manitowoc, National Crane, Shuttlelift and Manitowoc Crane Care brand names.

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WPP (LON:WPP  Get Rating) had its price target hoisted by investment analysts at Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft from GBX 1,170 ($14.62) to GBX 1,230 ($15.37) in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, The Fly reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschafts target price suggests a potential upside of 36.45% from the companys previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on WPP from GBX 1,240 ($15.49) to GBX 1,260 ($15.74) in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Barclays raised their target price on WPP from GBX 1,200 ($14.99) to GBX 1,250 ($15.62) and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, February 24th. Shore Capital reiterated a buy rating on shares of WPP in a report on Thursday, April 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of WPP to a buy rating and raised their price objective for the stock from GBX 920 ($11.49) to GBX 1,158 ($14.47) in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, WPP has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of GBX 1,175.33 ($14.68).

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WPP Stock Performance

WPP stock traded down GBX 9.40 ($0.12) during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching GBX 901.40 ($11.26). 1,608,437 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,107,725. The firm has a market cap of 9.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1,502.33, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 172.61. The stock has a 50-day moving average of GBX 963.31 and a 200 day moving average of GBX 903.48. WPP has a 12 month low of GBX 713 ($8.91) and a 12 month high of GBX 1,082 ($13.52).

Insider Buying and Selling at WPP

About WPP

In other news, insider Mark Read sold 154,765 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 933 ($11.66), for a total transaction of 1,443,957.45 ($1,804,044.79). Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the companys stock.

(Get Rating)

WPP plc, a creative transformation company, provides communications, experience, commerce, and technology services in North America, the United Kingdom, Western Continental Europe, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Eastern Europe. The company operates through three segments: Global Integrated Agencies, Public Relations, and Specialist Agencies.

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REPORTSINSIGHTS CONSULTING PVT LTD

The global nitrobenzene market is expected to experience significant growth during the forecast period from 2023 to 2030. The market is projected to register a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.8% during this period, driven by the expanding application of nitrobenzene in various industries such as automotive and construction chemicals.

New York, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Based on the Global Nitrobenzene Market research report published by Reports Insights, the market was valued at USD 10.95 Billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.8% to reach USD 18.19 Billion by 2030.

List of Major Global Nitrobenzene Market Players

The market research report examines various market factors to determine the key drivers, limitations, and opportunities affecting market players. The report includes a SWOT analysis, regional analysis, and segment analysis to give a complete view of the market situation. This evaluation helps to identify possible growth opportunities through the implementation of technology, product utilization, business strategies, and the launch of new products. The following are major market players operating in the market environment 

Bann Quimica Ltda Aromsyn Co., Ltd. Dow Inc. Merck KGaA Alfa Aesar (Thermo Fisher Scientific) TCI Chemicals Pvt. Ltd. Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. Panoli Intermediates India Private Limited LobaChemie Pvt. Ltd. Sadhana Nitro Chem Ltd.



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Nitrobenzene is a pale yellow, toxic, and water-soluble liquid with molecular formula C 6 H 5 NO 2 . Nitrobenzene is synthesized through two different procedures including the nitration of the benzene ring in the presence of concentrated sulfuric acid and nitric acid and by the electrophilic substitution of a halogen on a benzene ring with the nitro group.

Nitrobenzene is used as an organic solvent to mask unpleasant odors resulting from shoes and paints. In addition, they are primarily used as a precursor for aniline, which is an aromatic compound widely used to manufacture dyes, explosives, plastics, and photographic and rubber chemicals. As a result, all the aforementioned factors are proliferating the demand for nitrobenzene.

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Furthermore, the increasing growth of the pharmaceutical industry is boosting the demand of the market. Nitrobenzene is used in the pharmaceutical industry for the production of drugs including analgesic paracetamol or acetaminophen. For instance, according to the report published by Statista, the revenue in the analgesics segment is generated to be USD 33.16 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow annually by 6.49% by 2027. Hence, the increasing growth of analgesics is expected to drive the demand for nitrobenzene over the forecast period.







Global Nitrobenzene Market Segmentation Details:

Based on Application, in 2022, the aniline segment accounted for the largest market share in nitrobenzene market. Aniline is obtained from nitrobenzene by catalytic hydrogenation reaction and further the aniline produced is widely used in rubber industry for the processing of rubber chemicals and products such as balloons, car tyres, gloves, and others. Additionally, aniline is an organic base toxic aromatic amine, particularly in the manufacture of dyes. Thus, all the aforementioned factors are driving the growth of nitrobenzene market for the production of aniline.

Based on End-Use Industry, the agriculture segment is anticipated to offer substantial shares to the global nitrobenzene market growth during the forecast period. In the agriculture industry, nitrobenzene is used to enhance the plant canopy and induces profuse flowering, thereby, increasing the yield.

Furthermore, nitrobenzene is used for the manufacturing of pesticides including insecticides and fungicides that are used to control weeds, insect infestation, and diseases. As, a result, the growing need for crop protection and higher yield is driving the growth of the nitrobenzene market.

Based on region, in 2022, Asia Pacific accounted for the largest market share in nitrobenzene market due to growing construction and pharmaceutical industries that require nitrobenzene for the production of various drugs and construction materials including adhesives and sealants. For instance, according to the report published by Statista, in 2022, the production volume of nitrobenzene in India amounted to 61.14 thousand metric tons and in 2021, the production volume increased to 76 thousand metric tons. Hence, the increased production of nitrobenzene for the manufacturing of various pharmaceutical and construction applications is proliferating the growth of the market in the region.

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Report Attributes Report Details Market Size By 2030 USD 18.19 Billion Forecast Period 2023-2030 CAGR (2023-2030) 5.8% Base Year 2022 Study Timeline 2017-2030 Key Players Bann Quimica Ltda, Aromsyn Co., Ltd, Dow Inc., Merck KGaA, Alfa Aesar (Thermo Fisher Scientific), TCI Chemicals Pvt. Ltd., Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., Panoli Intermediates India Private Limited, LobaChemie Pvt. Ltd., and Sadhana Nitro Chem Ltd. By Application Flavoring

Perfume Additive

Aniline

Rubber Chemicals

Pesticides

Dyes

Shoe & Floor Polishes

Cosmetics

Leather Dressings

Paint Solvents

Others By End-Use Industry Construction

Pharmaceutical

Automotive

Leather

Agriculture

Food & Beverages

Others Report Coverage Company Ranking and Market Share, Growth Factors, Total Revenue Forecast, Regional Competitive Landscape, Business Strategies, and more By Geography North America

Asia-Pacific

Latin America

Europe

Middle East & Africa

Key Market Highlights

The global nitrobenzene market size is estimated to exceed USD 18.19 billion by 2030 and grow at a CAGR of 5.8% during the forecast period (2023-2030).

Globally, nitrobenzene is divided based on the application into flavoring, perfume additive, aniline, rubber chemicals, pesticides, dyes, shoe & floor polishes, cosmetics, leather dressings, paint solvents, and others.

On the basis of end-use industry, the market is classified into construction, pharmaceutical, automotive, leather, agriculture, food & beverages, and others.

The market is geographically divided into five regions: Europe, South America, the Asia-Pacific, North America, and the Middle East and Africa.

North America is estimated to support the market growth during the forecast period due to the increasing automotive industry particularly in the U.S. that requires nitrobenzene to manufacture different parts of the vehicle including windows, rear glass panes, and fronts.

Find What You Need With Our Detailed Table Of Contents (TOC) & Summary Of Nitrobenzene Market Report @ https://www.reportsinsights.com/industry-forecast/global-nitrobenzene-market-statistical-analysis-673869



Recent Developments

In April 2020, Sumitomo Chemical Company, Limited acquired four South American subsidiaries in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, owned by group companies of Nufarm Limited for increasing the sales network of crop protection products in South America, including Brazil.

In June 2022, Sadhana Nitro Chem announced the commencement of first para-aminophenol (PAP) plant production by carrying hydrogen-based catalytic reduction of nitrobenzene.

Global Nitrobenzene Market Segmentation:



By Application Flavoring Perfume Additive Aniline Rubber Chemicals Pesticides Dyes Shoe & Floor Polishes Cosmetics Leather Dressings Paint Solvents Others

By End Use Industry Construction Pharmaceutical Automotive Leather Agriculture Food & Beverages Others



Discover More With Reports Insights Library Of Others Research Reports:-

1-Chloro-3-nitrobenzene Market Analysis By Regions (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, Middle East And Africa), Size, Growth, Trend and Forecast with Impact Analysis of COVID-19 (2022-2028)

Beverage Flavoring Systems Market Size, Regional Trends, Growth, By Regions (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, Middle East And Africa), Segment Analysis, Key Technology Landscape, Market Dynamics, and Forecast (2022-2030)

Conductive Polymers Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis, By Type (Polyaniline (PANI), Polypyrrole (PPY), Polyphenylene vinylene (PPV), Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), Polyacetylene, Others), By Application (Anti-staticPackaging &Coatings, Photographic Film, Solar Cell, Display Screen, Polymer Capacitor, LED Lights, Others), By Region and Segments, Growth, Forecast Period 2022 - 2030 Size, Share & Trends Analysis,

Synthetic & Bio-based Aniline Market Size, Regional Trends, Growth, By Regions (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, Middle East And Africa), Segment Analysis, Key Technology Landscape, Market Dynamics, and Forecast (2022-2030)

Specialty polymers market size was worth over 86.8 Billion USD in 2022 and is anticipated to reach over USD 153.6 Billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period (2022-2030).

About Reports Insights Consulting Pvt Ltd

ReportsInsights Consulting Pvt Ltd. is the leading research industry that offers contextual and data-centric research services to its customers across the globe. The firm assists its clients to strategize business policies and accomplish sustainable growth in their respective market domains. The industry provides consulting services, syndicated research reports, and customized research reports. Topnotch research organizations and institutions to comprehend the regional and global commercial status use the data produced by ReportsInsights Consulting Pvt Ltd. Our reports comprise in-depth analytical and statistical analysis on various industries in the foremost countries around the globe.

CONTACT: Contact: Email: sales@reportsinsights.com USA: +1-214-272-0393 Europe: +44-20-8133-9198




NOMINATE A REMARKABLE INDIVIDUAL WHO IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN HEALTH SCIENCES BY JULY 14.

OTTAWA, ON, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - The Health Research Foundation (HRF) of Innovative Medicines Canada is pleased to announce that nominations are now open for the 2023 Medal of Honour. This award recognizes a remarkable individual whose health sciences policy or research contributions have improved the lives of Canadians and advanced health research in Canada and internationally.

Nominate a remarkable individual who is making a difference in health sciences by July 14. (CNW Group/Innovative Medicines Canada)

"Canada has a longstanding history of leadership in health sciences and the Health Research Foundation is proud to celebrate individuals who have contributed to this legacy," said Mel Cappe, Chair of the HRF Board of Directors. "We look forward to recognizing an outstanding individual who has helped improve the health of Canadians with the 2023 Medal of Honour."

The HRF Medal of Honour was first awarded in 1945 to Sir Alexander Fleming for the discovery of penicillin. Since then, recipients have included Dr. Charles Best for the co-discovery of insulin, the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney for his contributions to the Canadian health-care system, and, most recently, Dr. Allison McGeer for her work in Canada's fight against COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

"The Medal of Honour is an important Canadian symbol of recognition for those who have dedicated their lives to enhancing the health and well-being of individuals at home and abroad," said Pamela Fralick, President of Innovative Medicines Canada. "We are honoured to acknowledge their significant accomplishments and contributions to our society."

To nominate an outstanding individual, complete the nomination form at hrf-frs.com/awards by July 14, 2023. The award recipient will receive $20,000 to donate to a research-based Canadian academic institution of their choice and will be presented with the Medal of Honour at the HRF Awards Reception in Montreal in November.

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For more information on the HRF, visit: hrf-frs.com.

About the Health Research Foundation

The Health Research Foundation (HRF) of Innovative Medicines Canada is a non-profit organization that invests in Canadian academic health research and promotes the value of research-driven health innovation in Canada. The HRF is one of the leading private health foundations in the country and its contributions help prevent illness, treat disease, and improve Canada's health-care systems. The organization is committed to addressing health challenges through research excellence, stakeholder partnerships and the advancement of public policy.

About Innovative Medicines Canada

Innovative Medicines Canada is the national association representing the voice of Canada's innovative pharmaceutical industry. The association advocates for policies that enable the discovery, development, and delivery of innovative medicines and vaccines to improve the lives of all Canadians and supports the members' commitment to being a valued partner in the Canadian health-care system. The association represents 49 companies that invest nearly $1.4 billion in R&D annually, fueling Canada's knowledge-based economy, while contributing $8 billion to Canada's economy. Guided by the Code of Ethical Practices, all members work with governments, private payers, health-care professionals, and stakeholders in a highly ethical manner.

The Health Research Foundation (HRF) of Innovative Medicines Canada is a non-profit organization that invests in Canadian academic health research and promotes the value of research-driven health innovation in Canada. (CNW Group/Innovative Medicines Canada)

SOURCE Innovative Medicines Canada

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2023/03/c6586.html
(Bloomberg) -- Oil fell for the third straight day as weak demand data from the US added to concerns that the global economy is heading toward recession.

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The recent skid, which has brought West Texas Intermediate down 14% for the year, shows that a plan by OPEC and its allies to regain control of the market by cutting production starting this month isnt yet working. Brents prompt spread, which reflects the price difference between July and August futures, has narrowed to a premium of 15 cents. Thats down from a premium of as high as 43 cents at the start of the week, suggesting that traders see near-term supply outstripping demand.

This is the toughest knife to catch since the pandemic-era rally, said Daniel Ghali, a commodity strategist at TD Securities. The deterioration in Brents timespread suggests a significant slump in commodity demand expectations, with traders implicitly expecting that we are crash-landing. This is the first time that recessionary concerns have begun to be priced into energy markets.

The Federal Reserve boosted rates 25 basis points Wednesday and hinted at a possible pause in its aggressive tightening campaign, though the news failed to arrest crudes decline.

Meanwhile, momentum-driven accounts, such as those overseen by commodity trading advisors, have exacerbated volatility, with estimates showing they are maxing out short bets.

Gasoline Demand

In the US, a government report Wednesday showed gasoline demand contracting and fuel supplies swelling. Jet fuel demand also dropped, while remaining slightly above year-earlier levels.

On the supply side, Russia has shown no signs of a sustained drop in crude flows out of the country, despite its pledge to cut production by 500,000 barrels a day. Exports jumped back above 4 million barrels a day in the week to April 28, a level surpassed only once since the countrys troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

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However, there are concerns that Irans seizure of a second oil tanker in a week may disrupt shipping in one of the worlds most important trade routes. Pipeline shipments from Iraqs north and its Kurdish region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan remain idled due to a dispute between the two nations.

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Jeffrey Epstein, March 28, 2017 [AP Photo/New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP]

A report in the Wall Street Journal, published on the newspapers front page Monday morning, links important figures in the US business and political elite to financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who died in a federal prison in Manhattan in 2019 under circumstances that strongly suggest he was murdered to keep him quiet.

The Journal reporters wrote that they had gained access to Epsteins private diary and other documents, which include thousands of pages of emails and schedules from 2013 to 2017, [that] havent been previously reported. The diary listed meetings with dozens of individuals, though it supplied little information about the content or subject of the meetings. The bulk of these engagements were at Epsteins palatial townhouse in Manhattan.

Among those prominently mentioned in the Journal report were two high-level officials of Democratic administrations: William Burns, currently CIA director, formerly deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration; and Kathryn Ruemmler, currently general counsel for Goldman Sachs investment bank, who was White House counsel in the Obama administration.

CIA Director William J. Burns [Photo: Central Intelligence Agency]

Two liberal, pro-Democratic Party cultural figures were also named in Epsteins diary: Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and director of the American Symphony Orchestra; and Noam Chomsky, retired MIT professor (now 94) and occasional critic of US foreign policy, one of the founding fathers of the anti-Marxist pseudo-left.

There is no suggestion that any of these individuals took part in Epsteins now notorious exploitation of teenage girls. They did not fly on Epsteins private plane to his estate in Florida or his private island in the Caribbean, like former President Bill Clinton, future President Donald Trump, senators George Mitchell and John Glenn, attorney Alan Dershowitz and Britains Prince Andrew (brother of the new king).

Rather, they met with Epstein as a billionaire who had unparalleled connections with other billionaires, long after his role as master procurer for the US ruling elite had begun to come to light.

In particular, Ruemmler, who had been a US Attorney in Georgia and headed the Justice Department prosecution of Enron, would have been acquainted with the prosecutor who let Epstein off with a legal slap on the wrist, Alexander Acosta, the US Attorney for south Florida, who was later Trumps secretary of labor.

Ruemmler had several dozen meetings with Epstein as the Manhattan legal representative of Ariane de Rothschild, when the banking family was seeking new sources of investment among the US super-rich.

Kathryn Ruemmler (former White House counsel, now Goldman Sachs counsel) [Photo: Pete Souza]

The most important connection reviewed by the Journal account was between Epstein and his longtime banker, JPMorgan Chase, which only closed Epsteins accounts in 2013, five years after the financier pled guilty to a solicitation charge in Florida involving a 14-year-old girl. Representatives of JP Morgans private bank, which handles the affairs of super-rich clients, continued to meet with Epstein until at least 2017.

In the course of their nearly 20-year relationship, the bank would come to manage some 55 Epstein-related accounts containing hundreds of millions of dollars, the Journal reported. Epsteins principal advocate within the bank was Jes Staley, who ran the Asset Management Division from 2001 to 2009. During that period the division more than doubled in size, from $605 billion to $1.3 trillion.

Staley went on to become CEO of Barclays Bank in Britain from 2015 to 2021, when he was forced out over revelations that he had concealed his close ties to Epstein. This relationship included exchanging 1,200 emails during a four-year period, in the course of which Epstein sent him suggestive photos of teenage girls, while Staley, a visitor to Epsteins properties in Florida and the Virgin Islands, wrote back at one point, That was fun. Say hi to Snow White.

Much of the new information is the result of two lawsuits filed in federal court in Manhattan concerning Epsteins activities in the Virgin Islands, where his private island, Little St. James, the scene of much of the sexual abuse, is located.

The suits by the Virgin Islands Attorney General and by one of Epsteins victims, now a young woman, are against JPMorgan Chase. (The young woman, identified only as Jane Doe, is also suing Deutsche Bank.) They charge that the bank played a major role in financing the abuse that continued in the decade after Epsteins initial conviction for solicitation and are seeking compensation for the victims.

JPMorgan acknowledged the meetings with Epstein but claimed bank officials met with him as the representative of other bank clients, not about his own investments. Such work was the starting point for Epsteins rise to great wealth and the continuing source of his enormous income. In a single such deal in 2004, for connecting Highbridge Capital Management with JPMorgan, Epstein raked in a $15 million finders fee when the bank bought a controlling stake in the hedge fund for $1 billion.

The bank has also countersued Jes Staley, claiming that he knew of Epsteins involvement in sex trafficking but concealed this information from other bank executives. Despite this claim, federal District Judge Jed Rakoff issued a ruling May 1 that JPMorgan could be found liable for damages if the plaintiffs could prove that Staley or other bank officers knew of Epsteins exploitation of young girls.

Given the existence of internal emails, uncovered in the lawsuits, in which mid-level JPMorgan employees discussed Epsteins indictment in 2006 and subsequent guilty plea to one count of soliciting, this should be easy to demonstrate. JPMorgan compliance staff warned executives about Epstein, and they reclassified his accounts as high risk, the Virgin Islands lawsuit claims.

In 2010, a compliance officer sent an email to an executive that read: See below new allegations of an investigation related to child traffickingare you still comfortable with this client who is now a registered sex offender. The bank continued to profit from Epsteins accounts for another three years, and bank officials met with him regularly for four years after that, according to his private diary.

From left, billionaires Mortimer Zuckerman, Sergey Brin, and Michael Ovitz [AP Photo/Scott Roth, Evan Agostini, Evan Agostini]

The list of those who have already given depositions in the Virgin Islands suits is a whos who of billion-dollar fortunes. They include Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google; Thomas Pritzker, executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels and brother of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Obama Education Secretary Penny Pritzker; Michael Ovitz, former CEO of Disney; Leon Black, Wall Street financier; and Mortimer Zuckerman, real estate mogul and publisher.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, himself a billionaire, has been subpoenaed. On April 25, Judge Rakoff ordered him to set aside two entire days to give sworn testimony in the suits. At least 20 lower-level bank officials have already given depositions, according to reports in the Journal and the Business Insider website.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon [AP Photo/Michel Euler]

The suits have become the subject of a vicious conflict within top circles in the US Virgin Islands. Governor Albert Bryan, a Democrat who once approved lucrative tax benefits for an Epstein-owned company, according to the New York Times, fired Attorney General Denise George on December 31, 2022, four days after she filed the lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase. In March of this year, he removed her interim successor, Deputy Attorney General Carol Thomas-Jacobs, by appointing her to a judgeship. Assistant Attorney General Ariel Smith is now interim attorney general, but the lawsuit continues.

Significantly, there has been almost no reporting of the Virgin Islands suits and the high-profile depositions in the corporate media aligned with the Democratic Party, particularly the New York Times. This is in keeping with the role of the Times in relation to Epsteins death in prison, where the newspaper unquestioningly parroted the declarations of prison officials that he had died by suicide, despite the contrary evidence uncovered by his family, who hired longtime medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden to conduct a second autopsy.

The Times continues its silence on this topic even as the federal Department of Justice refuses to release its final report on Epsteins death. A lengthy article in Business Insider March 14 documented the complaints of lawyers for Epsteins victims and of Mark Epstein, Epsteins brother and next of kin, that the DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz has still not released a final report, some three and a half years after the alleged suicide.

Mark Epstein said he still had not been able to obtain some medical records, including the report by the EMTs who were called to the scene when Epstein was found hanging from a rolled-up sheet in his cell. The two critical questionshow did Epstein die, and how did the prison staff in the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) allow it?have not been answered, the Business Insider account declared. The report continues:

Within those questions are a number of smaller mysteries, still unresolved. Why was Epsteins body moved after his death, in violation of jail protocol? If his body was found hours after he already died, why did paramedics try to push air into his lungs? If he hanged himself, why does Baden believe the bone fractures in his neck were more consistent with strangling? Why would he tear strips of bedsheets to make a noose instead of using the cord of his sleep-apnea machine? Why werent the cameras watching his cellblock working the day he died? Who else was incarcerated in the same block, and did they see anything?

Two MCC prison guards were fired for failing to regularly check on Epstein, as required, particularly given a previous suicide attempt. The Bureau of Prisons shut down the MCC in August 2021 and transferred all the inmates to other prisons.

In a separate criminal case, Nicholas Tartaglione, the former cellmate of Epsteins, who was moved out just before the alleged suicide, was convicted April 6 of four counts of murder. A policeman turned drug dealer, Tartaglione killed Martin Luna, subordinate in the drug ring whom he suspected of stealing money, and three nephews whom Luna had brought to a meeting as reinforcements.

Tartaglione was in the cell during the first suicide attempt by Epstein, and the selection of such a prisoner, charged with crimes involving torture and execution-style killings, to share quarters with Epstein, raises many unanswered questions.

It appears that the reports in the Wall Street Journal, owned by ultra-right billionaire Rupert Murdoch, and in Business Insider, owned by the Axel Springer media group, publisher of several Murdoch-style right-wing tabloids in Germany, are part of a ferocious conflict within the ruling elite.

The Journal report comes only two weeks after Murdoch was forced to agree to a $787 million payment to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a lawsuit over slanders against the company promoted by Fox News after the November 2020 US presidential election, which provided political fuel for Trumps attempted coup against Congress on January 6, 2021.

Viewers of Succession will have no difficulty in recognizing the methods employed in the largely subterranean conflict within this narrow and infinitely corrupt social stratumperhaps 2,000 billionaires who actually rule America. Here everyone knows everyone (including their vices and weaknesses), but a mutual amnesty usually keeps such information out of the public domain.

And there is little doubt that some scenes in the film Eyes Wide Shut, which depict depravity and violence among wealthy New Yorkers, are inspired by a reality that goes much further.
The largest outpouring of popular opposition in Israels history took place on March 26, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus plans to neuter the countrys judicial system, the only arm of the state that his coalition of fascists and ultra-orthodox religious parties does not control.

It culminated in a full-scale walk out by workers the following day, shutting down government operations in Israel and overseas, education, healthcare, public services, transport and major industries.

Israelis opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial overhaul plan set up bonfires and block a highway during a protest moments after the Israeli leader fired his defense minister, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, March 26, 2023. [AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg]

Netanyahus judicial coup is bound up with a broader agenda of reinforcing Jewish Supremacy, apartheid rule, Jewish prayer at the al-Aqsa Mosque; rolling back already circumscribed anti-discrimination measures through sweeping changes to Israels legal system; and stepping up police and military repression against the Palestinians, and workers, Jewish and Palestinian, in Israel itself. It entails the gutting of what remains of Israels public services and massive transfers to the religious schools and seminaries.

Such a programme means eliminating the few restrictions on government power.

The scale of the opposition, precipitated by Netanyahus firing of his defence minister, Yoav Gallantwho warned that the plan to curtail the powers of the Supreme Court was splitting the Israel Defense Forces and posed a threat to Israels securityled to the temporary suspension of the legislative plans.

This came after three months of Saturday evening protests animated by justified fears of a dictatorship of the religious Zionists and the extremist settlers and anger over Netanyahus corruption, now the subject of a major trial. The protest movement has been fueled by immense social inequality, under conditions of soaring rents and prices in a country where around 20 percent of its 9.3 million population live in poverty and a handful of families have staggering levels of wealth; the impact of the global pandemic and the broader capitalist crisis fueling a strike wave by millions globally. It was also spurred on by opposition to the pogrom-like attack by settlers on Palestinians in Huwara in February.

This marked the greatest political crisis in Israels 75-year history, with Netanyahu and others admitting the country was on the brink of civil war. The weekly protests have continued, even after Netanyahu retracted his firing of Gallant. Repeated polls have shown that the vote for Netanyahus Likud party would collapse if an election were held now. He would win just 20 seats, down from 32 today, and his coalition bloc 50 seats, down from 64. Former Defence Minister Benny Gantz and his National Unity party would win around 30 seats, enabling him to form a coalition government.

But Netanyahu is pressing ahead nevertheless. His legislative pause came with a concession to the far-right, the establishment of a new National Guard, under the control of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of the fascist Jewish Power. The same forces employed against the Palestiniansfascistic settlersin the occupied territories will now to be used against Israels Palestinian citizens and Jewish workers and youth as well.

On Thursday evening, tens of thousands of pro-government protesters gathered in Jerusalem in what was advertised as the march of a million, in support of the governments plans and to insist that the judicial coup go ahead. Protesters chanted We don't want compromise, and Fire [Attorney General Gali Baharav] Miara! as prominent coalition figures, including Justice Minister and Likud member Yariv Levin, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the fascist Religious Zionism, Ben-Gvir and his fellow Religious Zionism legislator Simcha Rothman, took to the stage.

Haaretzreported that Israel's anti-overhaul protest movement responded to the right-wing demonstration by saying, From this evening, the mask is off, and Israel is on the brink of dictatorship, and pledging to continue the protests. It added, Only one vote separates Israel from a dangerous messianic dictatorship, saying that talks entered by the opposition parties, brokered by Israels figurehead president Israel Herzog, have proven a scam.

Parliament, reconvening on Sunday after a one-month recess, is expected to pass legislation that will enable the government to control the appointments to the Supreme Court. Gantz said that the talks at the Presidents Residence, haven't seen progress on any of the issues - especially the issue of the judicial appointments' committee.

Throughout, Gantz and other opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Yair Lapid and former generals and security and intelligence chiefs, have sought to confine the protests to vague demands for an end to the judicial coup. They have refused to even call for new elections.

According to leaked reports from US intelligence, moreover, the Histadrut corporatist trade union federation called the mass strike on March 27 only after a call from Netanyahustressing that this would in fact give him bargaining power with his coalition partners, calling it off the minute after his announcement of the legislative pause.

Committed like Netanyahu to the Zionist project of settlement expansion, annexation of the occupied territories and Jewish Supremacy, these self-proclaimed leaders have opposed all attempts to mobilise support among Israeli Arabs and the Palestinian population of the occupied territories more so. Early attempts to include the Palestinians were discouraged and Palestinian flags were ruled out of order. Instead, the demonstrations have been drowned in a sea of blue and white Israeli flags, provided and paid for by the organisers and distributed every week, crowding out the home-made banners that were a feature of the earlier protests. Their intention was to send a signal to the bourgeoisie and Israels international backers in the US and Europe that this was not a left, pro-Palestinian or anti-Zionist movement.

These Zionist leaders have stolen the traditional symbol of right-wing protests, including the infamous annual Jerusalem Day Flag March, marking the capture of East Jerusalem during the June 1967 Arab Israeli war. Far-right and religious Israelis celebrate the day, which falls on May 18 this year, by marching through the Damascus Gate and the Old City carrying Israeli flags and hurling racist abuse at East Jerusalems Palestinian residents.

Gantz and Co are right-wing politicians who represent Israels high-tech employers and the most affluent social layers. Differing little in their policies from Netanyahu, they fear that a power grab by a scandal-ridden and indicted prime minister, beholden to fascistic forces, endangers the stability of capitalist rule and the Zionist state. Their aim is to engineer some kind of national unity government that would oust the fascists. They have the backing of the Biden administration, concerned that its regional subcontractor will provoke a Palestinian uprising that could spill over into Israel and its neighbours and jeopardise the covert war against Iran and its allies in the region that is an essential component of Washingtons broader plans for war with Russia and China.

The so-called centrist leaders that presently control the protest movement offer no way forward for either Israeli or Palestinian workers and are handing the initiative back to Netanyahu and his fascistic supporters. The struggle against Netanyahus judicial coup takes place as workers are coming into struggle against their capitalist leaders all over the world, including in the occupied West Bank where teachers have been on strike for the last two months. It is part of a broader, international struggle whose features, whatever the local differences, are broadly similar: opposition to war, dictatorship and economic hardship.

The central task is to take up the difficult task of unifying the working class, Jewish and Palestinian, independently of their traditional leaderships and together with workers throughout the region and in the main imperialist centres, against the source of war, dictatorship and poverty, capitalism, and for the reorganisation of the world economy on a socialist basis. This is the perspective of Permanent Revolution fought for by the International Committee of the Fourth International.
The World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) is publishing further correspondence from postal workers in Britain exposing the sweatshop conditions being enforced by Royal Mail, with the full collaboration of the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

The latest comments are from postal workers opposing the CWUs sell-out joint agreement with Royal Mail announced April 21. The WSWS assessment of the rotten deal and the statement of the Postal Workers Rank and File Committee have provided a pole of attraction for those rejecting the deal and considering the way forward.

CWU leaders Dave Ward and Andy Furey confirmed last week that the agreement signed behind the backs of postal workers and rubber stamped by the CWU Postal Executive Committee will go to a ballot on May 17. The drawn-out timetable is a bid to buy time and wear down rank-and-file opposition among 115,000 Royal Mail workers. The initial attempt to sell the deal as a win by CWU headquarters met a storm of criticism across social media, including on the unions official accounts.

Wimborne, East Dorset: I am voting No. The revisions forced on us recently by executive action have increased workload on each postie. Deliveries are unmanageable and cannot be done in time.I break off and bring it back to the office.

The agreement between Royal Mail and the CWU is a betrayal of postal workers. It changes nothing. More work and less time to complete your duty in the time. Plus, finish times of 16.30 in the winter will mean busier days and working in the dark. And beyond 4.30 pm. Most deliveries are being failed because they cannot be delivered on time. The list goes on.

Work already is pretty stressful. And the last three years has added to mental health issues and sickness. We are no longer delivering a service to the customer. Its all about profit on the backs of the postal workers to line pockets of the bosses and shareholders.

Swindon, Wiltshire: We are failing 40/50 walks daily in our office as management are focusing on tracked or premium parcels, and no overtime is being paid for us to help complete these walks. Walks are not going out for 2/3 days but management dont care. We are being bullied into leaving mail in the frames to make way for delivering parcels only, and the union are doing nothing about it.

Bromley, Kent: Bromley postie for years. Seen many changes. Accepting of change, willing to change, understanding the need for changes. What Im struggling with is how a company can make three quarters of a billion pounds in profit one year and scream poverty the next, and blame the fact that we stood up and refused to be stomped on. Yet not one senior manager has been held accountable.

The fact that the rich keep getting richer off the backs of the hard workers of this country is disgusting. Being told to accept an inferior way of life, by those that have caused it and whom it will have no effect on, is completely astounding.

We have been severely let down by those whom we put our trust in and give our hard-earned money every week to protect our rights, jobs and our company. Fed up and p***** off is an understatement. Stop s****** on the little guy. Im sure this site gets inundated with comments like mine, but please feel free to use, if necessary, my comments at your leisure.

Orpington, Kent: I pulled out of the union years ago because they never even fought privatisation of the Royal Mail. I thought this union were socialist. The first step away from socialism is to own a property. I bet all of them own their own houses. I hope this union gets disbanded, they do not represent me or most posties I talk to.

Southport, Lancashire:Royal Mail have given staff an unachievable workload, knowing that mail will fail. They dont care about the customer, just profit.

Sheffield, South Yorkshire: Never known a time like it in more than 20 years on delivery. Absolutely unachievable workload, mail and parcels going undelivered for days. We have a DOM [Delivery Office Manager] who is ambitious to say the least and has forced in these changes at lightning speed to look like golden boy, when its chaos in reality.

Staff are being suspended for minor things that a quiet word would resolve in normal circumstances. Undoubtedly there is a wider witch-hunt against long-serving full-time staff, as were considered a ball and chain around Royal Mails neck. I dont know what kind of future staff theyre hoping to recruit, walking for 6 hours and not much more than minimum wage!

CWU have been conspicuous by their absence during the last 5 months. Never saw the back of area reps when they were pushing for a massive yes vote but nothing since. When Royal Mail ignored the first joint statement, agreeing to put on hold all revisions, then carried on anyway, they should have had us out at the first opportunity and sung from the hills to the media about why.

The dire financial situation doesnt wash with me either. I think the Tories are complicit in this as most of them have their fingers in the pies of the hedge funds that are pulling all the strings. Personally, I would have called their bluff, gone into admin and watched all the cockroaches scurry out from under the rocks to see who is really behind all this.

Leeds, West Yorkshire: This is a shock. After all the slogans of a back paid wage increase and no change in start times the agreement is a surrender document for us.

I work in one of Leeds delivery offices, and this is as precise as I will get because of fear of losing my job. The problem truly lies within upper management, and Ill tell you why. We are lucky to have fairly human managers. They are aware of how to get the job done; you need staff on your side. But this is now a worthless fact. They are being pushed by a regional manager (their boss) to enforce changes and so on.

Its terrible, thinking about the future. Mail is still being left for days in fittings. Because again, their computer planner is telling the regional boss we should have even LESS people. I should be on 25 hrs contract! I mean, how does this work? There are 6-10 duties failing DAILY. And yet they are supposed to be reducing peoples contract even MORE?!

About CWU, as a delivery person I feel betrayed. If the start times are changed, I will be forced out (because of school runs) to look for another job. Therefore, Im not impressed nor scared about the future of Royal Mail if we vote no. Couldnt care less. Literally. Because if its a YES vote, I will be changing jobs. So might as well see the ship sink along with all the CEO... I mean, officers quarters and enjoy the show. No surrender. Mercy is a crime! I hope the above statements will prove valuable to you. Im very scared about my job, but all the above is truthful and correct.

Glasgow, Scotland: I work in a Glasgow Delivery Office and the union has let revisions and new start times go ahead while in dispute. Sell out merchants.

Sign up and support the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee and find out more about its work here. The Committees email address is rmpw.rfc@gmail.com
This is the report delivered by Alex Lantier to the 2023 International May Day Online Rally held on April 30. Lantier is the national secretary of the Parti de legalite socialiste (PES), the French section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). To view all speeches, visit wsws.org/mayday.

I bring fraternal greetings from the Parti de legalite socialiste (PES) to this International Online May Day Rally.

On this May Day, millions of workers will march against French President Emmanuel Macron and his illegitimate pension law that is opposed by three-quarters of the French people.

The International May Day 2023 online rally

The working class struggle against Macron is of world significance. In every country, workers face the same essential conditions. The capitalist states use military-police violence to violate democracy and impoverish the working class. And as they scheme against the people, these governments rely on corrupt union bureaucracies to disorient and strangle workers struggles.

Against this, the PES advocates the building of a mass movement of workers and youth, independent of the bureaucracies, for a general strike to bring down Macron.

Macron is cutting pensions to enrich the financial oligarchy at home and wage war abroad. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, he has helped Frances billionaires, including the worlds wealthiest man, Bernard Arnault, increase their wealth by more than 220 billion.

While the French ruling class wages war on Russia in Ukraine and discusses what to do if Washington launches a war against China, Macron calls for a war economy to be established throughout Europe. To raise French military spending by more than 15 billion per year, he is slashing pensions by more than 13 billion per year.

When Macron announced the cuts in January, the overwhelming majority of the French people opposed him. Millions of workers and youth marched in repeated nationwide protests called by an alliance of all of the union bureaucracies.

Protesters march during a demonstration against pension changes on Thursday, January 19, 2023 in Paris. [AP Photo/Lewis Joly]

Macron responded not as the president of a democratic regime but as the dictator of a police state. He sent heavily armed riot police to assault millions exercising their right to protest and pickets of workers exercising their constitutional right to strike.

The ruling class blocked every means of opposing Macrons cuts within the framework of the existing capitalist state. Macron rammed his cuts through the National Assembly without a vote. In March, the Assembly refused to censure him. In April, Frances Constitutional Council rubber stamped the reform.

Riots broke out across the country after Macron forced his cuts through and again after the Constitutional Council rubber stamped it. The working class is in a political struggle with the capitalist state.

France is in an objectively revolutionary situation. Polls by the capitalist media show that two-thirds of the French people are in favor of a general strike to paralyze the economy and bring down Macron. And after he rammed his cuts through the Assembly, as offices of his party were burning, polls found 62 percent supported harder action against Macron.

How is it then that the will of the people has not been carried out? How is it that Macron remains in power?

Just as Macron rides roughshod over the will of the people, the union bureaucracy rides roughshod over the will of the workers. With the support of a pathetic band of political charlatans, fraudulently dubbed the left by the capitalist media, the union bosses work to save Macron.

As riots erupted against the illegitimate law, the bureaucrats denounced violence and warned against political insanity. They called off strike action and pleaded with Macron for mediation.

A few Stalinist deputies of Jean-Luc Melenchons New Popular Union staged a sham march on the Elysee presidential palace, presenting Macron politely with a petition begging him to reconsider.

In reality, there is nothing to negotiate with Macron, the president who styles himself king by the divine right of the banks. Our party does not forget the sans-culottes who stormed the Bastille and brought down the absolute monarchy that ruled by divine right. We say that the workers today face the task of bringing down Macron.

This crisis again confirms the lessons Marx and the Bolsheviks drew from the great and tragic experience of the Paris Commune of 1871. It was the first time workers rose up, took power and built a workers state, only to be drowned in blood by the capitalist Republic.

Rue de Rivoli after the street battles of the Paris Commune [Photo: Tangopaso]

The state does not mediate between the classes; it is the product of the irreconcilability of class conflict. The capitalist state imposes the dictatorship of the capitalist class. That is what we are witnessing. The task facing workers is not to reform the capitalist state but to build their own independent organs of struggle once more and transfer power to these organizations in a socialist revolution.

Therefore the PES calls on workers and youth to mobilize from below, independently of the union bureaucracies. The vast social and industrial power of the working class must be mobilized to remove Macron and abolish the draconian powers of the presidency. Only through a powerful rank-and-file movement in the working class can the will of the people be implemented, holding a general strike to bring Macron down.

The PES calls on workers and youth to convene general assemblies in workplaces and schools, to adopt resolutions demanding the removal of Macron. The PES calls for the formation of committees of action, independent of the union bureaucracies, to coordinate this campaign and hold strikes and protests. Our goal is to make workers aware of their collective strength and organize the working class to prepare a general strike.

Above all, the PES fights to draw workers attention to class struggles unfolding outside their own country.

This May Day, the day of international proletarian unity, mass struggles are erupting on every continent, and rank-and-file organizations are emerging around the world to wage these struggles independently of the corrupt bureaucracies.

These powerful struggles show that the movement against Macron is not a struggle to replace one president with another, nor to cobble together a new capitalist government to replace him. They are part of a great and historic struggle against capitalism, to transfer power to the working class and to build socialism. Thank you.
Events and media interviews over the past week have shed further light on the very right-wing, pro-capitalist and nationalistic nature of the Australian Labor governments proposed referendum to entrench in the countrys constitution a new institution to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Alice Springs, January 2023. [Photo: Facebook/AlboMP]

The interviews, featuring the main indigenous architects and proponents of the Voice, mark a stepping up of the Yes campaign for the Voice, which will accelerate over the next months financed by wealthy family foundations and corporations.

It is increasingly clear that this proposal, for an unelected indigenous advisory body with the constitutional right to be consulted by parliament and every level of government, is one of two key pillars of the Albanese governments agenda. The other is the unprecedented escalation of war against China, in which Australia is slated to play a central role, accompanied by the imposition of historic cuts to spending and attacks on the wages and conditions of the working class to pay for the massive military buildup.

The Albanese government, backed by the corporate elite, is cynically exploiting the widely-felt hostility among workers and youth toward the crimes of capitalism against the indigenous population to further a program of war, wage-cutting and the slashing of social spending for the entire working class.

The Voice seeks to take to a totally new level decades of moves by successive governments and big business for reconciliation and constitutional recognition. This means reconciliation with the same capitalist profit system that massacred and sought to eradicate the indigenous population and recognition within the anti-democratic capitalist constitution.

That also means further elevating, as an entrenched part of the political establishment, a privileged indigenous layer of CEOs, bureaucrats and senior academics, ever more based on business, that is organically hostile to the working class, particularly the indigenous working class.

Patriotism and war

First of all, a yes vote for the Voice is being presented as a patriotic duty, necessary to unite the nation or complete the national unity of Australia. This will soon be promoted by a massive advertising blitz heavily backed by the corporate boardrooms.

The purpose is to project a manufactured facade of national harmony and inclusivity. This is not just a diversion from mounting social inequality and working-class discontent. It is being developed to help place the population on the frontline of a US-led war against China and spend hundreds of billions of dollars on an unprecedented military buildup, as outlined by the governments Defence Strategic Review, released last week.

As that report stated repeatedly, this requires an all of nation mobilisation, that is, a total war economy. As is increasingly evident to workers and youth, that can be achieved only at the cost of working-class wages, living standards, and essential social programs, such as disability services, public health, education and housing, and welfare payments.

Hand-in-hand with this program will be the suppression of any opposition among workers and young people. The transformation of the conditions and rights of ordinary people in order to undertake this war effort cannot be implemented democratically.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese personally led the charge last week, using this years annual Anzac Day, glorifying Australian imperialisms past wars, as a vehicle for connecting the Voice to the requirements of war. Great prominence was given to the indigenous soldiers who served and died for the country in previous wars, including both world wars and the Vietnam War.

Albanese told the dawn service at the national war memorial in Canberra: [W]e must acknowledge the truth that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who donned the khaki fought harder for Australia than Australia was sometimes willing to fight for them.

He linked this unmistakeably to the Voice proposal, saying: Yet we learn, and we keep taking steps forward together.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney was more blatant in trying to stoke nationalism in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) magazine last Friday. Bitterly denouncing and witch-hunting opponents of the Voice plan, she said: Of course, there will always be those that seek to hold us back. Those doubters, those wreckers, they want to hold Australia back. Well, we want to take Australia forward. We want to make Australia far more united, more hopeful and more reconciled than ever before.

The AFR magazine said this declaration dovetailed with the plans for the multi-million dollar Yes campaign: [It] chimes with what is expected to be the final phase of the campaign, that the referendum is a moment of national unity, that voting Yes will be an act of patriotism. An earlier phase, earmarked for the start of the campaign proper, will make the case that the overwhelming majority of Indigenous Australians back the Voice.

There is no evidence cited for this latter assertion, despite being the centre piece of the first phase of the campaign for the Voice referendum. In reality, there is widespread suspicion and distrust toward it, especially in working-class areas. That is the major reason why the Langton-Calma report, setting out the details of the Voice scheme, proposed selection, not election, of the members of the Voice.

Anti-democratic details buried

One of the more revealing interviews in the same magazine was with Megan Davis, a constitutional legal professor and one of the central figures in drafting the Voice plan, based on the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart. Her outline of the yes campaign emphasised the need to hide the details of the 2021 report by two indigenous professors, Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, on how the Voice would operate.

Throughout 2022 and into early 2023, Albanese cited the Langton-Calma model when he was asked for detail on the Voice. Then the report suddenly disappeared from public debate. According to the AFR, Pat Anderson, who co-chairs the Uluru Dialogue with Davis, and former High Court chief justice Robert French told the Albanese government in February to stop referencing it.

Davis played a key role in moving the debate away from the nitty-gritty to the bigger picture, the AFR said approvingly. We dont want Australians to vote on a model A and model B, Davis told the AFR. What we want Aussies to vote on is the principle.

As the WSWS has pointed out, the Langton-Calma report, commissioned by the previous Liberal-National Coalition government, rejected the very idea of elections to the four-year posts on the Voice, saying voting would undermine the legitimacy of the scheme.

Instead, the proposed Voice would consist of 24 unelected members, mainly chosen by the existing bodies and vested interests, such as land councils and government-funded service providers, that have presided over the social misery suffered by most indigenous people, augmented by a burgeoning number of indigenous business owners.

The report advocated selection to Voice local, regional and national bodies. The reasons it gave for rejecting elections included potential conflicts over the eligibility and indigeneity (establishing the degree of Aboriginality) of Voice voters and members, and fears of low voter turnout that could affect the authority of the Voice.

The anxiety over low turnout points to the lack of support among most indigenous people for the Voice project.

A right-wing vehicle

In fact, despite constant assertions that the Voice will benefit all indigenous people, there is nothing grassroots about the Voice scheme. It is a creation of governmentsCoalition and Labor. That was further laid bare by an interview in the Australian with its main architect, indigenous lawyer Noel Pearson, a vehement advocate of welfare-cutting and supposed self-determination via business activity.

As the interview explained, the proposal for a constitutionally-entrenched Voice was first concocted in 2014 by Pearson and Julian Leeser, a Coalition MP and, until his recent resignation, its indigenous affairs spokesperson.

Pearsons initial partnership was with then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whom Pearson said had agreed to the idea. At the same time, Abbott was slashing funding for indigenous services and pushing for the closure of remote communities.

After Abbott was ousted in 2015, his successor Malcolm Turnbull teamed up with then Labor Party opposition leader Bill Shorten, to establish and fund a Referendum Council. Through that government-appointed body, Pearsons Voice proposal became the basis for a government-financed process, with equally handpicked gatherings, that agreed to support the Voice as part of the Uluru statement in 2017.

Pearson also outlined the nationalist core of his scheme. He told the Australian that recognition was essential in having a unifying national narrative. He stated: Constitutional recognition answers a spiritual need in the Australian nation.

Pearson said he had spent years with Leeser and two right-wing legal figures, Australian Catholic University (ACU) vice-chancellor Greg Craven and ACU academic Damien Freeman, to develop a conservative model for recognition that would have bipartisan support.

The anti-working class basis for that conservative model was illustrated when Pearson said requiring ministers and public servants to consult with a Voice would have kept alcohol bans in place in Northern Territory indigenous communities, thus effectively blaming and punishing Aboriginal people for the social blight created by capitalism.

That is in line with Pearsons repressive record, which includes operating government programs to end supposed welfare passivity, like the Cape York Welfare Reform Trial, which withholds welfare payments from parents who allegedly fail to address the truancy of their children.

A big business project

The AFR magazine also highlighted that the Yes campaign is funded by corporate sources, led by Visy chief Anthony Pratt, a multi-billionaire, and the Paul Ramsay Foundation, whose funds are derived from a private healthcare empire. Therell be TV and online advertising, as well as billboards, social media and in-person events around the country, the AFR reported.

The Voice is on track to be one of the biggest advertising vehicles of the year. The cost of the Yes campaign alone is expected to be more than what one of the major parties would spend on an entire federal electionwhich was about $25 million in 2022.

No less than four main business-backed groups are campaigning for Yes: Uluru Dialogue led by Davis and Anderson, From the Heart led by Dean Parkin, Uphold & Recognise led by businessman Sean Gordon and founded by Leeser and Freeman, and Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition (AICR).

AICR has a high-powered board, chaired by corporate heavyweight Michael Chaney, who has headed some of Australian capitalisms biggest companies, and indigenous filmmaker Rachel Perkins. It includes Pearson, BHP director Catherine Tanna, ex-Liberal Party director Tony Nutt, former Rudd government adviser Lachlan Harris and Mark Textor of CT Group, who is running polling.

According to the AFR: The organisation is offering funding to Yes activities and advice on matters including how to direct resources, interpreting polling results and framing key messages for voters.

Corporate tax deductibility

A joint interview in the Saturday Paper with Rachel Perkins and top corporate lawyer Danny Gilbert, also described as an AICR co-chair, underscored the big business character of the Voice.

Gilbert, who co-founded one of the countrys largest corporate law firms, Gilbert + Tobin, said that in 2019, after long discussions with his old friend Noel Pearson, he helped establish the AICR, although it sat dormant for a time. Gilbert said we had to virtually put it on the shelf, because the charities commission under the former commissioner would not give us deductible gift recipient status. We were only able to achieve that when Labor came into office.

So all the corporate donations are also tax write-offs, courtesy of the Labor government!

In sum, the Labor governments promotion of the Voice cannot be separated from its program of militarism and attacks on working class living conditions. In fact, the Voice is a necessary component of that program, while trying to dress it up as somehow progressive.

The highly-featured interviews in corporate media outlets point to growing nervousness in ruling circles about the passage of the Voice referendum. That is part of the intensifying crisis of the Albanese government and the political establishment as a whole, as the brutal class character of its program becomes clearer through cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), healthcare, housing and welfare, alongside huge military spending and income tax cuts for the wealthy.
This is the report delivered by Deepal Jayasekera, the General Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in Sri Lanka, to the 2023 International May Day Online Rally held on April 30. To view all speeches, visit wsws.org/mayday.

Dear Comrades,

As a result of the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, the South Asian region is increasingly being affected by the growing danger of world war. In addition to the escalation of war against Russia, the US is intensifying its war preparations against China. Under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has been transformed into a frontline state of the US war drive against China.

The International May Day 2023 online rally

The US and India are aggressively working to integrate the countries of South Asia, including Sri Lanka, into their military-strategic offensive against China. The whole South Asian region is increasingly being dragged into the vortex of intensifying geopolitical tensions, which could lead to a nuclear Third World War. These developments make it necessary for workers in South Asia to join with their counterparts around the world in the campaign waged by the ICFI to build an international anti-war movement based on socialist policies.

Within the context of the global crisis of capitalism, intensified by the US-NATO war against Russia, the political situation in Sri Lanka has reached a decisive turning point. The offensive by the government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe on the basic social and democratic rights of Sri Lankas workers, youth and rural poor has reached a new stage, with the approval of the $2.9 billion bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Last year, a popular uprising in which the working class played the central role, ousted the Rajapakse government. Wickremesinghe, his successor, is carrying out what Rajapakse failed to do due to popular opposition to the harsh IMF-dictated austerity measures. The working class is entering into struggles against the Wickremesinghe government in defense of their social rights.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, accompanied by heads of the armed forces, at 75th Independence Day ceremony in Colombo on February 4, 2023. [Photo: Sri Lanka presidents media division]

The Wickremesinghe government is intensifying state repression, aiming for a crackdown on these developing struggles of the working class. He has imposed essential service orders outlawing strikes and other class actions by workers in several public sector enterprises.

The Wickremesinghe government deployed the military to break a strike by petroleum workers against privatization. It also sent 20 strikers, mainly union leaders, on compulsory leave. These measures are a grave warning to the entire working class on what will be its response to any such strike against IMF austerity.

The Wickremesinghe government replaced the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and passed a new, more draconian, Anti-Terror Bill (ATB). Successive governments have used the PTA against their political opponents and against workers, youth, and rural poor in order to suppress their struggles.

Now, the crisis of bourgeois rule and the developments in the class struggle have reached new levels. The government knows that the PTA is not enough and a much more draconian repressive law is needed. Hence, the new ATB. This new legislation will give wide powers to the president to unleash state power to brutally suppress any opposition to the governments policies, including IMF-enforced austerity.

The Wickremesinghe government is intensifying its class war against the working class.

For defending their basic social rights, the working class is coming into struggle against the governments austerity measures, resulting in a head on collision with the government. What is developing in Sri Lanka is a revolutionary conflict between the working class and bourgeois ruling class.

The working class needs to prepare politically, theoretically and organizationally for this conflict.

The bourgeois opposition parties, mainly the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), have no fundamental differences with the Wickremesinghe government over its economic policy, whatever criticisms they make. In the same way as the government, they are committed to the IMF austerity program.

The real concern of the SJB and JVP is that the Wickremesinghe government is incapable of implementing IMF austerity while suppressing popular opposition. Thus, they intend to form their own government and carry out the IMF program by brutally suppressing popular opposition.

The SEP is intervening in these sharp political developments against all parties of the bourgeois political establishment and their trade union and pseudo-left agents, such as the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), by advancing a revolutionary socialist alternative for the working class.

In the mid-July protests last year, during the popular uprising against the previous Rajapakse government, the SEP launched a campaign to build a Democratic and Socialist Congress of Workers and Rural Masses (DSC). This campaign is continuing. We have centered our campaign on opposing the brutal assault by the government against workers, including against their social and democratic rights.

This new strategic initiative was announced in an SEP statement published on July 20, 2022. We explained that the aim of our campaign is to build the DSC, an independent political movement of the working class, rallying rural poor to establish a government of workers and peasants based on socialist internationalist policies.

Protesters gather in a street leading to the presidents official residence in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, July 9, 2022. [AP Photo/Amitha Thennakoon]

The decisive lessons to be drawn from last years popular uprising are to challenge bourgeois rule, which has become intolerable for the working people. The working class needs an independent political program and strategy. The trade unions, acting as open agents of the government and bosses, aim to suppress workers growing struggles. The lesson that workers must draw from their bitter experience with the unions is that the fight for their social and democratic rights requires the formation of their own rank-and-file action committees.

We are fighting to build the DSC, which will be based on democratically elected representatives from these action committees throughout the island.

Our struggle to build an independent political movement of the working class is done in coordination with the IYSSE and bound up with the campaign launched by the ICFI to build an international mass movement of workers and youth against imperialist war.

When the working class enters into struggle against the austerity measures of the government, including strikes and protests, the trade unions and pseudo-lefts like the FSP work together to derail this movement by attempting to trap them within the bourgeois parliamentary framework, as they did during last years popular uprising. They are working as the main obstacle against the working class, which is fighting for their basic democratic and social rights.

The aim of the DSC is to establish a government of workers and peasants, to develop a mass independent political movement of the working class. The struggle to build a government of workers and peasants will be part of a broader struggle for socialism in South Asia and internationally.

We urge workers, youth, intellectuals and rural poor to join us in establishing a government of workers and peasants and to bring forward this campaign, to build a DSC and join the SEP.

Thank you, Comrades.
The election of Kai Wegner as the new Mayor of Berlin last Thursday has exposed the character of the new state executive he now heads in the German capital. It was only in the third round of voting that the Christian Democrat (CDU) politician was elected by a simple majority, and presumably only with the votes of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Kai Wegner [Photo by Sven Teschke / CC BY 2.0

The new grand coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats (SPD) has 86 votes in the House of Representatives (state assembly), the opposition partiesGreens, Left Party and AfDtogether have 73. Wegner initially received only 71 yes votes, with 79 in the second round. To be elected in the first two rounds would have required an absolute majority of 80 votes.

After the end of the second ballot, the Green and Left Party parliamentary groups had requested that the all-party Council of Elders be convened, as there had never been a third ballot in the Berlin state assembly before and open legal questions had to be clarified.

Wegner was finally elected with 86 votes in the third round. However, the fact that these came exclusively from SPD and CDU deputies is not considered likely in view of the previous votes.

It would seem Wegner came to power with the votes of the far-right. In a press release, to end any further speculation, the AfD faction in the House of Representatives published the names of ten deputies who allegedly voted for Wegner. This cannot be verified due to the ballot being secret, but both the previous reservations expressed against a grand coalition and the openly right-wing character of the new Senate (state executive) make AfD support very likely.

SPD members had only voted by an extremely narrow margin of 54.3 percent for the coalition agreement negotiated with the CDU. Some parts of the SPD fear the party will lose its last vestiges of popular support by entering this coalition. Februarys recall election was a disaster for the SPD. The party lost a total of 111,000 votes in its former stronghold since the original election in September 2021, which was annulled by Berlins Constitutional Court, and recorded its worst result in history.

While CDU and SPD representatives repeat the mantra that the majority came solely from the votes of the two parties, the Left Party and Greens have criticized the election of the governing mayor with the help of the far-right. For example, Thuringias state Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left Party) told RND: If you want to protect parliamentarism, then you must never put yourself in the hands of this political force [the AfD].

This is hard to beat in terms of hypocrisy. It was Ramelow himself who, following his re-election in 2020, used his own vote to help AfD legislator Michael Kaufmann into the office of vice president of the Thuringia state parliament. At the time, he declared he had very fundamentally decided to clear the way for parliamentary participation, which must be granted to every parliamentary group, even with his own vote.

A closer look at the coalition agreement of the new Berlin state government makes it clear that large parts could just as easily have been penned by the AfD. Beyond the irrelevant phrases and declarations of intent regarding health, education, and social policy, it consists mainly of plans for an extreme right-wing law-and-order policy.

In addition to a massive increase in personnel and funding for the police and security authorities, the grand coalition intends to create the necessary legal basis for more extensive telecommunications surveillance. With the usual references to the threat of terrorism, online searches using Trojan software are to be made easier for the security authorities.

Through the expansion of so-called no-knife zones and video surveillance in public spaces, stop-and-search will be reintroduced through the back door. In the name of public order, the right of assembly is to be drastically curtailed. In the process, demonstrations are to be more easily prevented and the powers of the police expanded. Accompanying this is the implementation of an extension of preventive detention from two to five days, which can be used to detain activists and those the authorities find disagreeablewithout their having committed a crime.

The incoming state cabinet also underscores the right-wing nature of the coalition. Wegner himself stands on the far-right fringe of the CDU. He talks the talk of a Leading German Culture and in the past has openly shown solidarity with the far-right former head of the secret service, Hans-Georg Maassen. The latter, could of course also be a member of the Berlin CDU, he declared.

The secret service now sits directly at the cabinet table in the new state government. The new Justice Senator (state minister) is Felor Badenberg. The 47-year-old non-party member has worked for the domestic intelligence agency, which is riddled with far-right forces, since 2006 and was most recently vice president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as Germanys secret service is called. Between 2013 and 2018, she worked closely with Maassen, jointly drafting reports to the Bundestag (federal parliament) and government.

Franziska Giffey (SPD), the outgoing mayor and head of the state government, will take over the economic portfolio. She is also on the right wing of her party and, together with the Left Party and the Greens, with whom the SPD was then in coalition, made it clear she ruthlessly enforces cuts against the population when it is in the interests of big business.

Stefan Evers (CDU) will be finance senator and Wegners deputy. His task is to intensify the social attacks of the previous state government. Evers is considered the strategic head of the Berlin CDU. He was largely responsible for the partys election campaign, which focused almost exclusively on law-and-order. Evers was one of the agitators of the racist campaign against immigrants after New Years Eve, saying that the alleged perpetrators were not punished quickly and severely enough.

Manja Schreiner (CDU), an outspoken representative of big industry, will be responsible for transport and climate protection. As the mouthpiece of the construction industry, she has spoken out vehemently against the rent cap and any expropriation of real estate corporations. Any measure for environmental protection, no matter how cosmetic, is a thorn in her side if it runs even the slightest bit counter to the interests of industry.

The department of construction and housing will be taken over by the current State Secretary Christian Gaebler. The Social Democrat will ensure close cooperation with the real estate sharks. Gaebler epitomizes the line of the past building senator Andreas Geisel (likewise SPD). The latter called the expropriation of private housing corporations demanded by the population economically crazy and openly demanded the result of the referendum be disregarded.

The SPD politician Iris Spranger remains interior senator. Most recently, she had come to the defence of the Berlin police despite the mounting cases of violence and harassment against immigrants, claiming that there was no racism in the Berlin police. Her task will be to further strengthen the right-wing repressive apparatus to subdue the growing social and political opposition among workers and youth in the capital.

The extreme right-wing agenda of the new Senate, which relies on the fascists of the AfD, underscores the importance of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP, Socialist Equality Party) campaign in the recall state election. The SGP warned that any new bourgeois government would advance the policies of rearmament and social cuts and suppress the growing popular resistance to them. The only way to stop these policies is through the independent mobilization of workers based on a socialist program, for which the SGP fought in its election campaign.
John Comaroff is the Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African-American studies and of Anthropology, and Oppenheimer Research Fellow in African Studies, Harvard University. Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1945, Comaroff attended the University of Cape Town and earned his PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1973. He has taught at the University of Wales (1971-72), the University of Manchester (1972-78), the University of Chicago (1979-2012) and Harvard University (2012 to the present). Comaroff was voted one of Harvards favorite professors by the Class of 2019 in recognition of [his] impact on the senior classs Harvard experience (Class of 2019s Yearbook).

He has been invited to present his work at over 60 universities in 28 countries. He is the co-author, along with his wife Jean Comaroff, of numerous books, including Of Revelation and Revolution (in two volumes, 1991, 1997); Ethnography and the Historical Imagination (1992); Millennial Capitalism and the Culture of Neoliberalism (2001); Ethnicity, Inc. (2009); Theory from the South (2011); The Truth About Crime (2016); and Zombies and Frontiers in the Age of Neoliberalism: The Case of Post Colonial South Africa (2022).

We spoke recently on a video call. This is the first of two parts.

* * * * *

David Walsh: Could you explain how and whenand whyyour family on both sides ended up in South Africa?

John Comaroff: The classical South African immigrant backgrounds: Jewish Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pogroms and the flight of Jews from Europe. My maternal family were from Lithuania, as was my wife Jeans paternal family. Were not sure exactly where my paternal family came from, but it was somewhere in the western end of the Russian Empire, either Belarus or Ukraine. Basically, they were driven out of Europe by antisemitism.

My paternal grandfather arrived in Birmingham during the 1890s depression and went to what was to become Rhodesia, as a laborer, in Cecil Rhodess Pioneer Column. He died young, and my father, also from a relatively poor background, migrated south. He eventually became a small shopkeeper in Cape Town.

DW: You have cited the comment of the postwar South African prime minister under the National Party government, D. F. Malan, as saying that had the Axis powers won the war, the [Nazi] Final Solution would have been applied in South Africa. What was the context of that remark? Was he saying it threateningly?

D.F. Malan, South African prime minister, 1948-1954

JC: Yes, it was threatening. Or at least it was taken as such by members of my parental generation, from whom I heard this said. I am not sure of the context, though, and, after 1948, according to some histories, antisemitism in South Africa actually diminished. But, with some real justification, the fear of it did not. South Africa was deeply divided between its conservative Afrikaners right and its liberal, predominantly English centera conservative liberalism, but liberal nonetheless. The governing party at the time of South Africas entry into World War II under Jan Smuts was pro-British, pro-Allied powers, but the Afrikaners, i.e., descendants of the Dutch and German population, etc., were pro-Axis and had wanted to go to war on the side of Germany and Italy.

In fact, some members of what was to become their future government were imprisoned for their Nazi sympathies. So, after the war, in 1948, when they came to power under the National Party, reflecting back on what might have happenedhad South Africa gone into the war on the Axis side, that is, and had the Axis powers wonit was perfectly logical to fear what might lie ahead.

DW: But this had to be very menacing and threatening to Jewish families living there.

JC: It was. My parents spoke about it a great deal. My father was your standard conservative, petty-bourgeois businessman. My mother was more socially critical, and very sensitive to the realities of apartheid. So I was brought up with those sensibilities.

In the Jewish calendar, Yom HaShoah, the Day of Remembrance, was a major day in the education of young Jews, myself included. From very early on, every Yom HaShoah, which came, ironically, close to the Zionist holiday of Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israels Independence Day, we were all dragged into Jewish community halls and shown the most horrendous film footage of the Holocaust. So one was extremely aware of the elision of recent history with the history of the present in South Africa.

However, to be honest, I didnt experience a great deal of antisemitism as a kid. But I did see a lot of racist anti-blackness close to home. As a result, my concern was much less personally with antisemitism than it was with anti-black racism.

DW: Youve described growing up in South Africa in the 1950s and 60s, the dark years of apartheid, as a very violent society. Official violence, everyday violencewhat sorts of violence?

JC: Both sorts of violence really. If one kept ones eyes open, one saw the South African police arresting and brutalizing black workers, especially domestic workers. Under South African law, all black persons had to carry a pass, basically an internal passport. That passport had to document their employment, their residence, their right to be in the city, and so forth. Any white person, under the law, could stop any black person and demand to see their pass.

Police at Sharpeville Massacre, March 1960

If they didnt have it on their person, or if their pass was not endorsed with legitimate employment details, they could be arrested. At one point in my growing up, I remember that one out of every 234 black South Africans was in prison, itself an institution notorious for its unremitting brutality. By contrast to this everyday violence, the other form was the kind of governmental violence that gave us the Sharpeville Massacre [in 1960, in which 69 people were killed and 180 injured] and the various massacres that were to follow.

There was a widely repeated joke, a very dark piece of humor, when I was a teenager: it had it that the South African cops were the only police in the world that fired warning shots into the air and regularly missed.

DW: I was going to ask about Sharpeville. You were 15, it must have had a major impact.

JC: Oh, my reaction to Sharpeville was sheer horror. I recall vividly the day itself, and the events, the mass protests, that followed. At the time, I was a member of a Jewish socialist youth movement, and in that context became intensely aware of black protest. I got a lot of my education there, thats when I first encountered Marxism.

The leader of the group that I was a member of later committed suicide as an exile in London. He had been arrested under the Immorality Act for having a partner of color. He was a member of the South African Congress of Democrats, which was the white left-wing group in the Congress Alliance [led by the African National Congress].

I joined this [Jewish socialist] group when I was just 14 and as a result was drawn into the conversations of young members of the Congress of Democrats. That was where I was educated into what South African politics was all about, what the Congress movement was all about. So, when Sharpeville happened, I was able to understand it as an extraordinary moment that expressed the essence of apartheid violence.

Apartheid wasnt only about race. South Africa was a prime case in which race and class fused with one another in an extraordinarily violent formation of so-called racial capitalism. Americans tend to read apartheid as merely racist. But it was much more complex. It was a triangulated structure in which race, class and gender were literally burned into the South African reality, and undergirded its political economy. If you understood that, everything else became clear.

Demonstrators discarding their passbooks to protest apartheid, 1960 [Photo by Universal Studios / CC BY 1.0

DW: What was the political perspective of the organization you belonged to?

JC: It was, broadly, a pro-Congress movement. This was, of course, before the Black Consciousness movement arose under Steve Biko. This was in the early 60s, after the Defiance Campaign, when all the Congress movements were banned and went underground. All oppositional political discussion became deeply secretive. The Jewish socialist movement to which I belongedwhich had a Zionist element as well, as did virtually all South African Jewish organizations at the timewas legal, but all of its sympathies were with the underground groups. I worked as a university student in the offices of that movement. Our phones were bugged and we were kept under the surveillance of the South African security police.

DW: Were you attracted to the Communist Party at all?

JC: Thats a very interesting question. The South African Communist Party, by the 60s, was a rather shadowy presence. It had been underground for a long time. So, no, we had no relation to the Party as such, although there were certainly Party members in our networks. But nobody talked about Party membership openly because the dangers were huge.

DW: When you were of an age to think about such things, what was your attitude towards the Soviet Union and the so-called socialist bloc?

JC: Sympathetic. In a way, we were undereducated in the intricate politics of Moscow and the Soviet Union, especially after 1956 [Khrushchevs secret speech lifting the lid on the crimes of Stalinism], which complicated matters entirely. I was still pretty young then, and my awareness of the internal politics of the international socialist movement at that stage was limited.

In some ways, I wish I had been five years older because I think I would have understood the matter better then. But, interestingly, when I taught at the University of Manchester in the early 70s, the backwash of 1956 was still being argued. We had one married couple among our colleagues who probably divorced over 1956, so I became much more conscious of it later on. The immediacy of the South African struggle in some ways elided differences on the left.

DW: Were you aware of Trotskys writings at that point?

JC: No, only later. I was aware of Trotsky as a heroic figure, but not as social theorist. Remember, everything on the left was banned in South Africa at the time. I managed to get illicit copies of things like Marxs The German Ideology, chunks of the Grundrisse, etc., etc., through surreptitious exchanges under difficult conditions. But those books were not even in the University of Cape Town library.

DW: You describe the difficulty of explaining to students what it was like growing up in a fascist education system. You mention in an interview that there wasnt a single text by Marx or anything smacking of socialism or communism openly available in the library. To access such works you had to go and sit in a cage on the librarys fifth floor.

JC: You had to get special permission to do it, and it was read under supervision.

DW: You referred to taking part in protests all the time. What was the character of those protests?

JC: At that time, most of those protests fused liberal and left-wing anti-apartheid tendencies. The University of Cape Town campus during the mid-sixties was constantly a site of protest and unrest. I joined those protests all the time. They were about basically everything, including the exclusion of black scholars from the university faculty. The constant imposition of more and more repressive, fascistic laws brought us out into the streets. Protest was pretty constant and so was its repression. South Africa, incidentally, remains a center of almost daily mass protest, but it is now mainly about joblessness, crime and corruption, and the lack of public servicesand is centered primarily in black urban areas, where unemployment is endemic.

Repression became more lethal after we left South Africa. In fact, my dear friend David Webster, an anthropologist and anti-apartheid activist, was assassinated outside his home in 1989, not long before Nelson Mandela was released. He had come to live with us in Manchester for a while when he was a visiting fellow at the University of Manchester. We begged him not to go back to South Africa because we saw the violence that was looming larger and larger, especially after 1976 and the Soweto uprising, when things became much more dangerous.

DW: When you were growing up, which intellectual or political figures, past or present, were the first ones that were important to you?

JC: Again, through the Jewish socialist movement, of course, my most significant confrontation was with Marx. But there were also Jewish socialists of the 19th century, like Moses Hess, who edited the Rheinische Zeitung where he worked with Marx. Also Dov Ber Borochov, who wrote about the inverted pyramid of the Jewish class structure in Europe, and how the primary object of Labor Zionism was its reinversion, the creation of a Jewish working class in what was to be a Palestine-Israel. This, in part, was why the kibbutz was so central to Labor Zionist ideology.

Moses Hess, 1870

I was dezionified later on, but again, in the wake of the war and the Holocaust, Zionist socialism seemed a very logical place to be. A lot of South Africans on the left got their education in Jewish youth movements. In addition to Marx and the Zionist socialist writers, I also got fragments of Engels The Conditions of the English Working Class, though I dont remember how. Ironically, when I worked at the University of Manchester years later, my office was across the road from the building in which that book was written.

DW: What about cultural or literary figures? What was important to you at that age?

JC: I had a rather strong Romantic tendency. I read a lot of Dickens, and a lot of Charlotte Bronte. I was very interested in novels like Shirley [1849 novel by Charlotte Bronte], which was one of the first feminist books about capitalism. I also read a lot of Russian authors. I was entranced by Pasternak, by Chekhovs short stories, among other things.

I also read a lot of South African literature. From early on, I read Nadine Gordimer, who later became a friend, although we didnt actually interact very often because she remained in South Africa. But she came to visit us in the US a couple of times. I was quite classical in my readings then. Maybe that was partly my bourgeois-Jewish background.

DW: There are worse things. This is obviously a large question, but why were you drawn to anthropology?

JC: That is a complicated question. I spent a year in Israel after school. My cousin, but a generation older, so genealogically my uncle, had gone to Israel at the time of independence, of Nakba, and later became minister of health in Moshe Sharetts government. He was very much of the Israeli left of the time.

He was a psychiatrist but had a deep influence on me intellectually. He happened to be the brother-in-law of the late Max Gluckman, the South African-born anthropologist who was the head of the anthropology department at Manchester, who later became a colleague. He was a major figure in the discipline and in African Studies. So there was a relationship there. Gluckman himself had been a member of the Communist Party, although his anthropology was anything but Marxistwe used to joke about his Maxism, his Marxism of the precapitalist world.

In any event, during that year in Israel, through long discussions with my uncle, I became interested in anthropology. Also, it was the only discipline in South Africa at the time, even though it had been deeply implicated in colonialism, that took seriously a concern with the vast majority of the population, its black indigenous citizens.

Also, I realized that if I were to become an anthropologist, I would have to learn an African language and that seemed to me an almost sacred obligation, living in a country most of whose people spoke African languages.

DW: Could you describe the fieldwork you did in the late 1960s?

JC: To take a step back, our undergraduate anthropology professor at the University of Cape Town was Monica Wilson, an extraordinarily gifted scholar and teacher. Interestingly, she was one of the first people to draw an analogy in the early 1950s, in a classic essay, between McCarthyism and African witchcraft.

Monica Wilson in Palestine, 1948

She was a remarkable anthropologist and advisor. Jean and I were of the left. Thats why we went to the London School of Economics to do our doctoral work. Monica Wilson called us into her office one day and said, Where will it be for you [for graduate school]? Oxford, Cambridge? No, youre too politicalLSE. It was at the time a well-known leftist school.

She said to us, if you want to do fieldwork in the South African context, you will have to go to live among a people who live in a borderland, because the chances are youre going to have trouble with the South African security police. You may not be allowed to finish your fieldwork. Go to a place where you can actually complete it on the other side of the border if necessary.

So we went to the South Africa-Botswana borderland in what is now the North West province, near the historically famous town known in English as Mafeking, in Setswana as Mahikeng, the place of rocks, which was where the Siege of Mafeking occurred [in 1899-1900 during the Second Boer War] and where Baden-Powell, who later started the Boy Scouts, made his name, albeit as a rather dubious heroic figure. Our fieldwork was conducted in a Tswana chiefdom, the Barolong boo Ratshidi.

My very first book involved editing Sol Plaatjes Mafeking Diary [A Black Mans View of a White Mans War], which is an account of the siege. We are now preparing the 50th anniversary edition of the publication, which is, to me, a very poignant moment. Plaatje, himself of Tswana extraction, then a young man with limited education, was to become the first general secretary of the South African Native National Congress, later the African National Congress [ANC]. He was also to be one of the countrys great literati: Among other things, he wrote the first novel published by a black person in South Africa, translated Shakespeare into his mother-tongue, Setswana, and emerged as a major public intellectual. Today there is a university and an urban municipality named after him, a scholarly industry around his writings, and much else besides.

Mafeking Diary

For our doctoral research, Jean and I had to select topics. She worked on ritual and religion under apartheid; her dissertation was to become a classic, Body of Power and Spirit of Resistance. I was interested in political life and African law. I didnt believe all that stuff about African tribal politics being, as it were, primitive. Remember, in the 1960s, African political systems were still described in these terms, which, from everything I read, seemed anything but true...

Who could read of the Ashanti Empire or Great Zimbabwe, or, indeed, the interlacustrine states like Buganda or Busoga, and think of them as primitive? They were extremely complex states with highly elaborate legal systems. Also, I always wondered what the relationship was between chiefly politics and national black politics. One of the most famous figures in the community in which we worked was a man called Silas Modiri Molema, who had been the treasurer of the ANC; a doctor, he was also a widely published historian of local political life. Molema was known to be a part of a dynastic chiefly family. Furthermore, a leading royal figure in a closely related Tswana chiefdom, J.S. Moroka, also a doctor, had been president of the ANC. All this led me to an interest in the relationship between what was called tribal politicswhich struck me as anything but tribal (tribe is itself a deeply pejorative term in South Africa)and national politics.

My research on politics and law, society and culture, among the Barolong boo Ratshidi, was also a route to a more general understanding of colonial politics in that South African theater, which was a very troubled one. It was where Cecil John Rhodess notorious Road to the North was supposed to have taken off into Africa. The Cape to Cairo Railway was to cross there from South Africa into Bechuanaland, now Botswana, and to serve as the spine of Rhodess imperial ambitions. It was, in short, a very complex geopolitical node in Southern Africa. Many decades later it was also on the route that those fleeing from the apartheid regime took to escape the country.

'The Rhodes Colossus'a cartoon by Edward Linley Sambourne, published in Punch after Cecil Rhodes announced plans for a telegraph line from Cape Town to Cairo in 1892

Mahikeng, that is to say African Mahikeng, was also a nodal point in South African history. Not only was it the site of the famous Siege of 1899-1900, but Bechuanaland, just to the north, was where the Jameson Raid [1895-96] started out; this military folly was integral to Rhodess effort to take over the Transvaal and its goldfields. And just to its south were the diamond fields on land once owned by indigenous populations, land that had been annexed by Britain.

Here, it seemed to me, was a microcosm of South African political history, of long-running struggles over land and labor, between the Tswana, the British and the Boers. At the time I was both intellectually naive and under-educated. I had had a few years of anthropology under an authoritarian regime. I didnt know what I know today, but it appeared to me to be a place to understand the complexities of South African politics from the fringe.

I was also aware of Lenins commentwhich, oddly, Monica Wilson echoedthat if you want to understand a structural system, look at it from its peripheries. From that vantage one sees all kinds of things there that you dont see at its center, in the eye of the storm, so to speak. That turned out to be true: it was from there that I began to understand what, in effect, South African racial capitalism really was all about.

The experiences of that fieldworkalthough my thesis was about the political history of the chiefdom and its relationship to the greater story of South African colonialismprimed much of my, and our, later work because it gave us an insight into South Africa that we could never have seen from outside.

DW: Under what conditions did you then leave South Africa?

JC: Oh, because of the security police basically. We had, under South African law, to maintain a residence in the white town of Mafeking. The town was bisected by a railway line. The African town was on one side, the white one on the other. Under the conditions of our research permit we had to have an apartment in Mafeking, which we did.

We also had a homestead in the village, at which we stayed for much of the time. But we had to appear in the white town. A security cop moved in next door to our apartment within a couple of months of our arrival. There were two white Marxists in the town. One ran the Mafeking Mail, the historic local newspaper. His name was Joe Podbury. The other, who lived nearby, Bruce Little, was a local chemist. They warned us about the security cops going around the white community asking about us.

The black Anglican priest in Mahikeng, Father Chipfupa, was also aware that the security police were watching us way too closely. He decided to get us ritually washed by a traditional healer. So he schlepped us miles off into the bush one night at 3 a.m. Tswana believe that the best healers come from far away. Also, that you do not tell a really good healer why you are there; it is their job to know. He divined that we were there because of the malign attentions of the South African police. He ritually washed us and made mewho had to take off most of my clothes for the treatmentpromise not to have a bath for a week. Jean got off more lightly: she could remain fully clothed and was allowed to wash.

When we left the field after 19 months, largely because the security police seemed to be getting way too close, the Reverend Chipfupa said to us, See, it worked.

We had to be very careful of the attention of the authorities. The man with whom I subsequently wrote a book on African law, Simon Roberts, was then working in Gaborone for the new Botswana government. Botswana had only become independent in 1966 and he was working in the attorney generals office on the Constitution.

We were careful to get copies of our field notes out of South Africa through Roberts, because we were afraid that they might be seized and/or read when we were not aware of it.

We were very aware of the dangers. By the time we left, in August 1970, the security police were getting close. Once, we were taken in, but not questioned; we were literally put in a room and left there by the policefor God knows how long, because our watches were taken.

It was sort of standard infantile terror, just to make us aware they were watching us. We were driving along one day, stopped, pushed into a car and taken to a security centerand left there to sweat it out, wondering what was about to happen to us. That was the point at which we knew that things were not great. Also, Chipfupa, to whom we were close, had been a pastor to Robert Sobukwe [prominent anti-apartheid activist and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress], which is why he was in Mafikeng cooling his heels and was probably also being watched.

It was also known that we were very close friends with Podbury, who had been a member of the Communist Party. There was every reason to believe that things were heating up.

John and Jean Comaroff [Photo]

DW: Your collaboration with your wife is obviously both unusual and productive. Could you say something about how that partnership was born and developed?

JC: Weve been married for 55 years, so it developed a long time ago. We first met in anthropology class in South Africa in 1965. I was very aware of her presence. She was extremely beautiful, extremely bright and was top of the class the first year. The second year the class dropped from about 100 students to nine of us, or seven of us, or something like that.

So we got to know each other, got to argue very early on. Our first argument, however, was about my smoking, to which she objected, although she could produce an exquisite philosophical argument for almost anything on the planet.

We made a bet as to which one of us would come top of the class the following year, and whoever did would owe the other a meal. I ended up owing her the meal, which I attribute to the prejudice of our professor for me; being brighter than Jean is something I would never, ever claim to have any right or basis to claim.

We married early because we knew we were leaving the country, believing that, if we stayed much longer, wed land up in serious trouble. So going abroad to do our graduate work and emigrating were part of the same moment, although we did later think of going back. At that point in time, the great debate among our peers in South Africa was: Do you leave or do you stay?

Father Chipfupa once said to us in Mafikeng when we were doing our field work, Look, let me tell you something. This countrys going to have a race war. He didnt talk class, he talked race, he was a liberal Anglican. He said, We dont want you in our gunsights. This is not going to be an issue in which there is a middle ground. If you value your friendship to me and to the people whom you have come close to here, you should leave.

We were profoundly influenced by that, which is one of the reasons we didnt change our minds and decide to go back after we finished our PhDswe missed home deeply, its attractions and its strugglebut went to work in Manchester. Im very glad we did because Manchester was probably the most exciting university in England at the time.

To be continued.
Roger Waters performs in concert at Crypto.com Arena, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022, in Los Angeles. [AP Photo/Chris Pizzello]

On April 24, an administrative court in Frankfurt ruled in favor of Roger Waters legal request that the decision of the city government and the state of Hesse to cancel his concert at Festhalle Frankfurt on May 28 be overturned.

In social media posts on Thursday, Waters wrote the concert in Frankfurt on the 28th will go ahead.

The internationally acclaimed musician and co-founder of the English rock band Pink Floyd also wrote: I cant wait to bring my message of love and peace to Germany in May, there to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, not only with all my brothers and sisters in the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement, but also with the rest of the burgeoning anti-war, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian, anti-establishment movement that warms this bleeding heart.

Waters performance of his This Is Not a Drill tour concert in Frankfurt was canceled on February 24 by the city administration, known as the Magistrat, in league with the state government of Hesse on the basis of the thoroughly false and baseless accusation that the musician is an antisemite.

In attempting to carry out their act of disgraceful political and artistic censorship, a coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, Free Democrats, Christian Democrats and Volt party representatives came together to terminate Waters concert immediately and for good cause.

According to a report in Deutsche Welle, the Frankfurt court ruled that, as the owners of concert organizer Messe Frankfurt, the state and city were obliged to make it possible for Waters to stage the concert as contractually agreed.

Part of the accusations against Waters by the censors has been the attempt to conflate his persistent opposition to the Israel government with antisemitism. In their statement, the Frankfurt officials called Waters one of the most widely spread antisemites in the world.

The Frankfurt censors sought to present, as proof of his antisemitism, the use by Waters, in the past, of the Star of David on a giant inflatable pig that circulates around the arena during the concert. They also pointed to presence of images in the concerts that borrow from the symbolism of the Nazi Party and Hitlerite National Socialism in a crude attempt to claim that Waters was glorifying and identifying with fascism and the racism of the Nazi movement.

As quoted by Waters in his social media post, the Frankfurt court rejected these accusations and said, His use of costume parodying the German Third Reich during the show is an acceptable use of artistic license to warn us all of the dangers of the current resurgence of fascism in the West.

The court also said Waters did not glorify or relativize the crimes of the Nazis or identify with Nazi racist ideology. On the question of the significance of the concert venueFesthalle Frankfurt was the site of the deportation of 3,000 Jews just after Kristallnacht on November 9-10, 1938the court said the choice of location was especially poor taste, but the show should go on and be viewed as a work of art.

While the court apparently failed to specifically state that Roger Waters is not an antisemite, it is evident that the ruling left room for the corporate and state media to continue slandering him as one. For example, in its report on the ruling, Deutsche Welle repeated the claim, Waters shows often feature giant inflatable pigs emblazoned with aggressive or brooding slogans.

The publication of the German government broadcaster then repeated the false claim that he used crude tropes in the past and then said, Waters insists hes not an anti-Semite. Meanwhile, these pro-imperialist media outlets have linked the campaign to shut down Waters European concert dates with his opposition to the war in Ukraine.

A report in Rolling Stone on April 25 said, Waters stance on Israel and its occupation of Palestine is one of many geopolitical issues hes come under fire for in recent years (the other big one lately being his pro-Russia leanings in regard to the war in Ukraine). In his opposition to the provocation of the war in Ukraine by US-NATO, Waters has been very clear about his opposition to the Putin regimes militarism and has never articulated a pro-Russia position.

Rolling Stone also attempted to bolster lies against Waters by referring to an interview he gave the publication last year in which he said he did not accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. The IHRA working definition connects statements that the Israeli state is racist with physical manifestations of anti-Semitism.

These same kinds of techniqueswhich serve to pollute public understanding of the issues in Israel and the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza as well as the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine with confusion and outright falsehoodsare used repeatedly against anyone, especially public figures, who adopts views that do not track with the narratives of the US State Department on these questions.

In his social media post on the Frankfurt courts decision, Waters elaborated further on his views about the Zionist state and its treatment of Palestinians. He wrote, In light of this enlightened decision:

1. Can we please stop conflating criticism of the policies of the government of the apartheid, racist, state of Israel with anti-semitism!

2. Can we please agree to scrap the absurd IHRA definition of anti-semitism, a worthless piece of paper, whose only possible use is to obfuscate the real meaning of the term?

3. Can we congratulate the German people for having laws that protect freedom of artistic expression? And urge them to prevail upon their government to please stop using militarized police to ban, and violently put down, peaceful BDS demonstrations organized in support of our oppressed brothers and sisters in Palestine.

An online campaign launched by podcaster and political commentator Katie Halper demanding that Waters performance in Frankfurt be permitted to go forward received more than 36,000 signatures and the endorsement of dozens of prominent artists, musicians and journalists in the weeks leading up to the ruling. News reports said that the Frankfurt city government will appeal the administrative court decision.
Fortune Business Insights

As per the report by Fortune Business Insights, the global online trading platform market size is projected to reach USD 15.34 Billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 6.4% during the forecast period.

Pune, India, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to Fortune Business Insights, global online trading platform market size was valued at USD 9.32 Billion in 2022 and is projected to grow from USD 9.94 Billion in 2023 to USD 15.34 Billion by 2030, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.4% during the forecast period.

Technological advancements and integrating trading platforms on mobile phones are new major factors estimated to generate various market opportunities. Fortune Business Insights presents this information in its report titled, Online Trading Platform Market Forecast, 2023-2030.

An online trading platform market is a platform used to screen live market prices and assist users in buying, selling, and holding stock. The trading platforms include services, such as international currencies, trading in bonds, stocks, and other financial tools.

Key Industry Development:

June 2022: Bank of America and City Bank launched a new independent company, Octaura, that helps to develop an open-market electronic trading platform to manage collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) and syndicated loans in real-time.





Request a Free Sample PDF:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/online-trading-platform-market-104934





Key Takeaways

The increasing demand for the customized trading platform from end-users, such as government and non-profitable banks, is anticipated to drive the demand for these solutions.

Integration of Chatbots with Trading Platforms to be an Emerging Trend

By Interface Type Analysis: High Demand for Customized and Downloadable Trading Platforms from Brokers to Boost Desktop Segment

Online Trading Platform Market size in North America was USD 3.94 Billion in 2022





Discover the Leading Players Featured in the Report:

"Companies leading the global online trading platform market are Td Ameritrade Holding Corporation (U.S.), Interactive brokers (U.S.), E-TRADE (U.S), Profile Software (U.K.), Chetu Inc. (U.S.), Empirica (Poland), Pragmatic Coder (Poland), EffectiveSoft Ltd. (U.S.), Rademade Technologies (Estonia), Devexperts LLC (Germany)"

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Report Scope & Segmentation

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2023 to 2030 Forecast Period 2023 to 2030 CAGR 6.4% 2030 Value Projection USD 15.34 Billion Base Year 2022 Online Trading Platform Market Size in 2022 USD 9.32 Billion Historical Data for 2019 to 2021 No. of Pages 115 Segments covered Interface Type, End-user and Geography Online Trading Platform Market Growth Drivers Artificial Intelligence is anticipated to boost the Adoption of Trading Platforms





Browse Complete Report Details:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/online-trading-platform-market-104934





Drivers & Restraints:

Artificial Intelligence is anticipated to boost the Adoption of Trading Platforms

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is anticipated to change the future of such platforms and is also expected to drive online trading platform market growth. Recently, companies are adopting AI in their trading platforms in the form of robo-advisors. The platform permitted with AI technology helps users to observe billions of trading data pointers and execute practices at the best price.

However, strict rules and regulations regarding the adoption of online trading platforms is hampering the market growth.

Market Segments:

By Interface Type

Desktop

Web-based

Mobile App based

By End-Users

Banking and Financial Institutions

Brokers

Others

By Region

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific





Regional Insights:

Escalating Business of Online Trading in North America to Dominate the Market Growth

North America is estimated to lead the market from 2023-2030. Due to major players in the market, such as Chetu Inc., Artezio LLC., ETNA., EffectiveSoft Ltd., TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation, and others, growth has been witnessed.

Europe is projected to grow with a subsequent CAGR from 2023-2030. Private banking institutions in countries such as Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Benelux, and others.

Asia Pacific is one of the rapidly-growing regions in the market. Banking and financial institutions in Oceania, China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and South Korea are escalating their investments to accept a customized trading platform.





Quick Buy - Online Trading Platform Market Research Report:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/104934





Competitive Landscape:

Innovative Launch Operations by Key Players to Boost Market Growth

Players in the market have launched new techniques in the market to boost the market growth with their solutions and to elevate the competition in the market. It includes the launching of new patterns, such as investments, and the launch of new and advanced products in the market. Companies have been applying new plans, such as partnerships and mergers, to support their position in the market. In March 2021, Profile Software acquired Euronext Contevo to expand its product portfolio with specialized trading and fund management solutions.

FAQs

How big is the Online Trading Platform Market?

Online trading platform market size was USD 9.32 Billion in 2022.

How fast is the online trading platform market growing?

The online trading platform market will exhibit a CAGR of 6.4% during the forecast period, 2023-2030





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Cloud Analytics Market Size, Share, Growth & Forecast 2023-2028

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The Biden administration confirmed Tuesday that it is sending 1,500 active-duty soldiers to the southern border in advance of an expected surge of migrants entering the US through Mexico after COVID rules that permit mass expulsions are lifted on May 11.

Responding to questions at a press briefing in the afternoon, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre downplayed the significance of the policy by claiming such action is a common practice. She also claimed the troops will not be performing law enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants, or migrants.

Jean-Pierre also said that the military deployment will free up Border Patrol agents to perform their critical law enforcement duties. In other words, the end result of the troop deployment will be a crackdown on immigrants attempting to exercise their right to come into the US.

In a subsequent Department of Defense (DoD) press conference, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the deployment would be for 90 days and the troops will be pulled from the Army and Marine Corps. General Ryder added, This deployment to the border is consistent with other forms of military support to DHS over many years.

There are currently 2,500 National Guard soldiers at the US border with Mexico. The number of troops sent by Biden is approaching the 5,200 troops at the border during Donald Trumps presidency.

Arizona's Republican Governor Doug Ducey meets Arizona National Guard soldiers prior to their deployment to the Mexico border at the Papago Park Military Reservation in Phoenix on April 9, 2018 [AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin]

The claim by the White House that the troops will not be involved in border enforcement is undermined by a published DoD statement, attributed to General Ryder, which says that the duties of the 1,500 soldiers will include ground-based detection and monitoring until Customs and Border Protection can address these needs through contracted support.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been warning that lifting the Title 42 rules less than two weeks from now will result in a surge of asylum seekers coming into the US. Enacted by the Trump administration during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic to initiate the mass expulsion of immigrants, the Title 42 rules have been used by Biden to carry out the same policy for the past two years and four months.

A federal court struck down Title 42 last November, ruling in favor of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of civil liberties and immigrant rights groups, and declared the rules were based on an unprecedented and unlawful invocation of the Public Health Service Act. Title 42 authorized US immigration authorities to prohibit the entry of asylum seekers on the grounds that they posed a public health risk by coming into the country.

As American Civil Liberties Union Attorney Lee Grant said at the time of the judicial decision, Title 42 was never about public health, and this ruling finally ends the charade of using Title 42 to bar desperate asylum seekers from even getting a hearing. While the Biden administration claimed it was in favor of lifting the Title 42 restrictions, it used the rules to carry out more expulsions of migrants than Trump did.

Now, the decision to send troops to the border by President Biden further exposes that the hysteria over migrants entering the US and policy of repression at the border are completely bipartisan and central to both the domestic and foreign policy strategy of the entire ruling establishment.

The troop deployment is also combined with the announcement last Thursday by DHS Director Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken that new immigration rules were being put in place that would effectively continue the ban on asylum seekers.

These changes will take the form of regional processing centers in several countries of Latin America where asylum seekers must make an appointment. Once the evaluators, who will be contracted by the US State Department, determine that an individual or an entire family is ineligible for asylum, they will be identified and, if they attempt to cross the southern border anyway, they will be banned from entering for five years and could be prosecuted criminally.

Others who attempt to enter the US without first visiting a processing center will be deported immediately back to their country of origin. As Secretary Mayorkas said in a State Department press conference last Thursday, Beginning on May 12th, we will bewe will place eligible individuals who arrive at our southern border in expedited removal proceedings.

When Biden ran for president, he contrasted himself to the fascist Donald Trump and claimed during his campaign he would establish orderly and compassionate procedures for asylum seekers. This has proven to be a pack of lies and, if anything, the Biden immigration program is emerging as a more comprehensive and organized system of attacks on the democratic rights of migrants.

The fact is that Biden is working feverishly to prove his tough border policy credentials to the extreme nationalist and xenophobic Republicans in Congressmany of whom do not even recognize him as a legitimately elected presidentso he can work with them to implement a program of austerity at home combined with war against Russia and China abroad.

The return of asylum seekers to the countries of Latin Americawhere US imperialism has for more than a century plundered natural resources and established military dictatorships to enforce brutal exploitation and the domination of the region by American multinational corporationsis central to the strategy of both the Democrats and Republicans to stoke up nationalist and anti-foreigner sentiments, seeking to block and divide the growing movement of the working class against the capitalist system internationally.
BANNOCKBURN, Ill., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Option Care Health, Inc. (the "Company" or "Option Care Health") (Nasdaq: OPCH), the nation's largest independent provider of home and alternate site infusion services, announced today financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023.

Option Care Health Logo (PRNewsfoto/Option Care Health, Inc.)

First Quarter 2023 Financial Results and Highlights

Net revenue of $1,015.8 million, up 10.9% compared to $915.8 million in the first quarter of 2022

Gross profit of $229.0 million, or 22.5% of net revenue, up 14.0% compared to $200.9 million, or 21.9% of net revenue, in the first quarter of 2022

Net income of $39.2 million, or $0.22 basic earnings per share, up 29.5% compared to net income of $30.3 million, or $0.17 basics earnings per share, in the first quarter of 2022

Adjusted EBITDA of $93.8 million, up 20.6% compared to $77.8 million in the first quarter of 2022

Cash flow from operations of $89.8 million compared to $32.7 million in the first quarter of 2022

Cash and cash equivalents balance was $297.8 million at the end of the first quarter of 2023

Completed stock repurchase of approximately $75.0 million

Launched Naven Health, the national infusion nursing platform founded in the acquisitions of Infinity Infusion Nursing and Specialty Pharmacy Nursing Network

Received the 2023 Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award

John C. Rademacher, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "The Option Care Health team's commitment to providing extraordinary patient care in the post-acute and ambulatory setting delivered another quarter of strong financial results. As we look to the balance of the year, our focus is on continuing to execute on our mission to transform healthcare by providing innovative services that improve outcomes, reduce costs and deliver hope for patients and their families."

Mike Shapiro, Chief Financial Officer, commented, "We are very pleased with the results we delivered in the first quarter. Based on this momentum, we are increasing our earnings outlook for the full year."

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Mr. Shapiro continued, "Acute revenue continued to perform well this quarter as we build upon our reputation as a trusted and dependable partner to health systems. Our stable chronic patient census and double digit chronic revenue growth also contributed to outperformance in a quarter that is typically lower in consolidated revenue. In addition, we drove considerable clinical labor leverage as a result of efficient utilization of our infusion suite network, in which approximately 26% of our nursing visits occurred in the quarter. Moreover, our procurement strategies and disciplined cost management enabled us to expand Adjusted EBITDA margins to over nine percent in the quarter."

Updated Full Year 2023 Financial Guidance

For the full year 2023, Option Care Health expects to generate:

Net Revenue of $4.15 billion to $4.375 billion

Adjusted EBITDA of $380 million to $395 million

Cash Flow from Operations of at least $240 million

Additionally, the Company continues to anticipate an effective tax rate of 27% - 29% and net interest expense of approximately $61.0 million to $65.0 million.

The foregoing full year 2023 financial guidance excludes the impact of the Company's pending combination with Amedisys, Inc. ("Amedisys").

Conference Call

In a separate press release issued today, Option Care Health announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to combine with Amedisys, a leading provider of healthcare in the home.

Option Care Health and Amedisys will host an investor conference call today at 5:30 p.m. EDT to discuss the details of the transaction. Details for such call are available in the separate press release issued today. In light of the transaction announcement, we will forego our previously scheduled first quarter of fiscal 2023 earnings conference call.

About Option Care Health

Option Care Health is the nation's largest independent provider of home and alternate site infusion services. With over 7,500 team members including more than 4,500 clinicians, we work compassionately to elevate standards of care for patients with acute and chronic conditions in all 50 states. Through our clinical leadership, expertise and national scale, Option Care Health is reimagining the infusion care experience for patients, customers and team members. To learn more, please visit our website at OptionCareHealth.com.

Investor Contacts

Mike Shapiro Bob East, Asher Dewhurst, Jordan Kohnstam Chief Financial Officer Westwicke T: (312) 940-2538 T: (413) 213-0500 mike.shapiro@optioncare.com optioncarehealth@westwicke.com

Forward-Looking Statements - Safe Harbor

This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "project," "estimate," "expect," "may," "should," "will" and similar references to future periods. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we may make regarding future revenues, future earnings, regulatory developments, market developments, new products and growth strategies, integration activities and the effects of any of the foregoing on our future results of operations or financial conditions.

Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the following: changes in laws and regulations applicable to our business model; changes in market conditions and receptivity to our services and offerings; pending and future litigation; potential liability for claims not covered by insurance; and loss of relationships with managed care organizations and other non-governmental third party payers. For a detailed discussion of the risk factors that could affect our actual results, please refer to the risk factors identified in our SEC reports as filed with the SEC.

Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

Note Regarding Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to reporting financial information in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the Company is also reporting Adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Adjusted EBITDA is not a measurement of financial performance under GAAP and should not be used in isolation or as a substitute or alternative to net income, operating income or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP, or as a substitute or alternative to cash flow from operating activities or a measure of the Company's liquidity. In addition, the Company's definition of Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures reported by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA, as defined by the Company, represents net income before net interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense, loss on extinguishment of debt, and restructuring, acquisition, integration and other. As part of restructuring, acquisition, integration and other, the Company may incur significant charges such as the write down of certain longlived assets, temporary redundant expenses, professional fees, potential retention and severance costs and potential accelerated payments or termination costs for certain of its contractual obligations. Management believes that Adjusted EBITDA provides useful supplemental information regarding the performance of Option Care Health's business operations and facilitates comparisons to the Company's historical operating results. We have not reconciled Adjusted EBITDA guidance to net income as management believes creation of this reconciliation would not be practicable due to the uncertainty regarding, and potential variability of, material reconciling items. For a full reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most comparable GAAP financial measure, please see below.

Schedule 1

OPTION CARE HEALTH, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (IN THOUSANDS)(UNAUDITED)











March 31,

December 31,

2023

2022







ASSETS





CURRENT ASSETS:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 297,776

$ 294,186 Accounts receivable, net 395,209

377,542 Inventories 249,643

224,281 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 86,908

98,330 Total current assets 1,029,536

994,339







NONCURRENT ASSETS:





Property and equipment, net 105,571

108,321 Intangible assets, net 21,677

22,371 Referral sources, net 334,001

341,744 Goodwill 1,533,569

1,533,424 Other noncurrent assets 106,048

112,737 Total noncurrent assets 2,100,866

2,118,597 TOTAL ASSETS $ 3,130,402

$ 3,112,936







LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY





CURRENT LIABILITIES:





Accounts payable $ 448,890

$ 378,763 Other current liabilities 169,676

186,588 Total current liabilities 618,566

565,351







NONCURRENT LIABILITIES:





Long-term debt, net of discount, deferred financing costs and current portion 1,057,787

1,058,204 Other noncurrent liabilities 103,830

103,278 Total noncurrent liabilities 1,161,617

1,161,482 Total liabilities 1,780,183

1,726,833







STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY 1,350,219

1,386,103 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY $ 3,130,402

$ 3,112,936

Schedule 2

OPTION CARE HEALTH, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF EARNINGS (IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT PER SHARE AMOUNTS)(UNAUDITED)







Three Months Ended

March 31,

2023

2022 NET REVENUE $ 1,015,848

$ 915,784 COST OF REVENUE 786,843

714,848 GROSS PROFIT 229,005

200,936







OPERATING COSTS AND EXPENSES:





Selling, general and administrative expenses 147,866

133,969 Depreciation and amortization expense 14,514

14,722 Total operating expenses 162,380

148,691 OPERATING INCOME 66,625

52,245







OTHER INCOME (EXPENSE):





Interest expense, net (13,834)

(12,246) Other, net 1,438

1,269 Total other expense (12,396)

(10,977)







INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAXES 54,229

41,268 INCOME TAX EXPENSE 15,021

10,993 NET INCOME $ 39,208

$ 30,275







Earnings per share, basic $ 0.22

$ 0.17 Earnings per share, diluted $ 0.21

$ 0.17







Weighted average common shares outstanding, basic 181,262

179,961 Weighted average common shares outstanding, diluted 182,735

181,681

Schedule 3

OPTION CARE HEALTH, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (IN THOUSANDS)(UNAUDITED)





Three Months Ended

March 31,

2023

2022 CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES:





Net income $ 39,208

$ 30,275 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operations:





Depreciation and amortization expense 15,225

15,979 Other non-cash adjustments 22,498

21,131 Changes in operating assets and liabilities:





Accounts receivable, net (17,812)

(28,766) Inventories (25,362)

(34,089) Accounts payable 70,127

76,872 Other (14,132)

(48,721) Net cash provided by operating activities 89,752

32,681







CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES:





Acquisition of property and equipment (5,760)

(5,359) Net cash used in investing activities (5,760)

(5,359)







CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES:





Purchase of company stock (75,000)

 Other financing cash flows (5,402)

(1,145) Net cash used in financing activities (80,402)

(1,145) NET INCREASE IN CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS 3,590

26,177 Cash and cash equivalents - beginning of the period 294,186

119,423 CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS - END OF PERIOD $ 297,776

$ 145,600

Schedule 4

OPTION CARE HEALTH, INC. QUARTERLY RECONCILIATION BETWEEN GAAP AND NON-GAAP MEASURES (IN THOUSANDS)(UNAUDITED)







Three Months Ended

March 31,

2023

2022 Net income $ 39,208

$ 30,275 Interest expense, net 13,834

12,246 Income tax expense 15,021

10,993 Depreciation and amortization expense 15,225

15,979 EBITDA 83,288

69,493







EBITDA adjustments





Stock-based incentive compensation 5,988

4,178 Restructuring, acquisition, integration and other 4,496

4,111 Adjusted EBITDA $ 93,772

$ 77,782









Cision

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SOURCE Option Care Health, Inc.
OrbiMed Advisors LLC

NEW YORK, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OrbiMed is excited to announce the opening of its inaugural London office, located at 22a St. Jamess Square. This expansion is a logical culmination of OrbiMeds many decades of commitment to the European life sciences industry.



With approximately $1.5 billion currently invested in 50 public or private European companies, OrbiMed is an established leader in the European life sciences industry, stated Managing Partner Carl Gordon. We look forward to building on this strong foundation to provide even greater local support for our network of European portfolio companies, entrepreneurs, and limited partners.

Matthew Rizzo, General Partner of OrbiMed said, As part of this expansion, we will accelerate the availability of credit and financing solutions to support healthcare growth and innovation across Europe.

OrbiMeds European business activities include serving as the Portfolio Manager for the Worldwide Healthcare Trust PLC and the Biotech Growth Trust PLC, which currently boast more than $3 billion in combined assets under management.

Dimitrios Weedon, Managing Director, has joined OrbiMed as the initial London-based team member, focusing on structured private credit, growth equity, and royalty monetization opportunities. Further team additions are planned to focus on public and private equity investments. Dimitrios can be reached by email: WeedonD@OrbiMed.com.

About OrbiMed

OrbiMed is a leading healthcare investment firm, with over $17 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed invests globally across the healthcare industry, from start-ups to large multinational corporations, through private equity funds, public equity funds, and royalty/credit funds. OrbiMed seeks to be a capital provider of choice, providing tailored financing solutions and extensive global team resources to help build world-class healthcare companies. OrbiMeds team of over 100 professionals is based in New York City, London, San Francisco, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Herzliya, and other key global markets.

Story continues

Contact

Carter Neild, CFA

Phone: (212) 739.6400

Email: NeildC@OrbiMed.com

www.OrbiMed.com




For the past month, the S&P 500 has been hovering mostly around the 4100s without breaking out meaningfully in either direction. However, J.P. Morgans head of technical strategy Jason Hunter thinks that is about to end, and not in a good way for the bulls  at least in the short term.

We continue to expect a sell off from that area to retest medium-term support at the 3764 Dec low and 3760 Oct 61.8% retrace this spring, and look for an eventual extension back to key levels near 3500 by early summer, Hunter recently said. We believe that will ultimately set a cycle bottom, especially if that weak performance is accompanied by impulsive yield curve steepening. Until that setup emerges, we suggest maintaining a bearish bias and staying defensively positioned.

That cycle bottom is about 15% lower than current levels, so if Hunter is correct, were in for a deep summer plunge. However, thats not to say there are no opportunities out there for investors to take advantage of in the meantime.

Taking the advice to stay defensively positioned, Hunters analyst colleagues at J.P. Morgan have an idea about which stocks can do that job. Weve ran a pair of their recent picks through the TipRanks database to see whether theres widespread agreement on Wall Street that these names offer protection from any incoming pain. Lets check the results.

Alight, Inc. (ALIT)

The first JPM pick well look at is Alight, a company offering employee management solutions. Alight provides BPaaS (Business Process as a Service) for payroll and benefits administration via the firms Worklife platform, which makes use of data analytics and AI.

Alight provides services to customers across different industries, particularly wealth, health and human resources and has grown into an international concern with the services reaching ~100 countries. With more than 16,000 employees, the business serves more than 4,300 customers as well as 30 million workers and their families.

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With more than 25 years of industry know-how to draw upon, Alight is a trusted name in the HR and benefits administration services space and counts some top names amongst its client base. New additions in the most recently reported quarter  for 4Q22  included Chipotle Mexican Grill, General Electric and Cintas.

Elsewhere in the quarter, the company beat expectations on the headline metrics. Revenue reached $942 million, amounting to a 9% year-over-year increase and coming in ahead of consensus by $24.25 million. Likewise on the bottom-line, adj. EPS of $0.21 just edged ahead of the $0.20 forecast. The company also announced a two-year restructuring plan targeting better margins and cash flow conversion and anticipates the efforts will result in yearly savings of $100 million (3% of revenues).

Highlighting the companys defensive credentials, J.P. Morgan analyst Tien-tsin Huang lays out the bull-case for Alight.

With continued BPaaS outperformance and strong visibility into FY23, we remain positive about near-term results and continue to consider ALIT an undervalued utility with attractive defensive growth Alight has a sticky business model with highly recurring revenue and top-of-class retention. Alight trades at a discount to peers, and we believe growth acceleration and margin expansion on the back of the BPaaS transformation have the potential to provide healthy upside, Huang explained.

Quantifying this bullish stance, Huang rates ALIT an Overweight (i.e., Buy) to go alongside a $12 price target. The implication for investors? Potential upside of 32% from current levels. (To watch Huangs track record, click here)

Huang is certainly not alone in his confident take. All recent reviews  6, in total  are positive, naturally culminating in a Strong Buy consensus rating. The forecast calls for 12-month returns of 53%, considering the average target stands at $13.92. (See ALIT stock forecast)

Juniper Networks (JNPR)

Next under the JPM microscope is Juniper Networks, a specialist in network infrastructure products. Catering to ISPs (internet service providers), cloud providers, governments, public sector organizations, and other enterprises, Junipers offerings run the gamut from routers and switches to network management software and network security products.

With almost 11,000 employees and a $9.6 billion market cap, its no surprise to see Juniper generates an impressive amount of revenue. In the recently reported 1Q23 statement, the top-line increased by 17.1% year-over-year to reach $1.37 billion, beating the Streets forecast by $30 million. It was a similar story at the other end of the scale, as adj. EPS of $0.48 trumped the $0.43 anticipated by the analysts.

Looking ahead to Q2, Juniper guided for revenue of ~$1.41 billion, give or take $50 million, compared to the Streets $1.40 billion forecast. Adj. EPS is expected to reach $0.54, plus or minus $0.05. Consensus had $0.53.

Looking further ahead than that, J.P. Morgans Samik Chatterjee thinks Junipers defensive attributes are sound and believes investors should take the long-term view when considering the companys prospects.

Looking to FY24, Juniper guided to growth despite a tough comp from FY23, led by expectations to exit the year at a backlog 2x the pre-pandemic levels as well expectations for better order trends than in recent quarters as lead times stabilize, the analyst explained. More importantly, we believe investors should view the set up for multi-year revenue growth to drive significant multi-year earnings growth, with Juniper committed to operating leverage and margin expansion [We] continue to see Juniper positioned as most defensive and resilient relative to the peer group on a relative basis.

These comments underpin Chatterjees Overweight (i.e., Buy) rating while his $42 price target implies one-year share appreciation of 44% is in the cards. (To watch Chatterjees track record, click here)

In total, 8 analysts have waded in the with JNPR reviews over the last 3 months, and these break down into 5 Buys, 1 Hold and 2 Sells, for a Moderate Buy consensus rating. Going by the $36 average target, investors will be pocketing returns of ~24% a year from now. As an added bonus, Juniper also pays a $0.22/share quarterly dividend, which currently yields 2.82%. (See JNPR stock forecast)

To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
Getty Images / Drew Angerer

Shares of PacWest and Western Alliance each fell more than 25%, leading bank stocks lower on Tuesday.

The slide follows First Republic being seized by regulators and taken over by JPMorgan this week.

"This part of the crisis is over," JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon said after his bank took over First Republic.

PacWest Bancorp and Western Alliance Bancorp each plunged by more than 25% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off in regional bank stocks a day after JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon's said that the latest leg of the crisis is over.

Shares of PacWest and Western Alliance fell as much as 26% and 27%, respectively. The S&P Regional Banks Select Industry Index fell 7%, while the KBW Regional Banking ETF fell 6%. Other banks caught in the sell-off include Zions Bancorp, which was down as much as 23%, and Fifth Third Bancorp, which fell 7%.

The crash in regional bank shares comes a few days after First Republic Bank failed and was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and its assets sold to JPMorgan. The collapse followed weeks of uncertainty about the bank's health following the failures in March of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

After the announcement, Dimon looked to soothe lingering concerns of more banking sector trouble, saying that "this part of the crisis is over."

"There are only so many banks that were offsides this way," Dimon said on Monday. "There may be another smaller one, but this pretty much resolves them all."

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser echoed similar sentiments. In an interview with Yahoo Finance Live on Monday, the bank exec described the news as "a palpable sense of relief from everybody this morning because it's sad to see a bank fail, for sure."

Fraser added: "This was the last remaining main uncertainty of the small handful of banks that did not do a good job with asset liability management and also were the victim of the steepest rate curve increase you've seen in 40 years."

Read the original article on Business Insider
BOSTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / PAN Communications, an integrated marketing and PR agency for B2B technology and healthcare brands, was selected on Tuesday night as PRovoke Media's 2023 Technology Agency of the Year.

More than 150 firms submitted entries for consideration in early March, and winners were announced last night at PRovoke's annual SABRE Awards ceremony in New York City.

"Technology has been the backbone of our firm since we started this business nearly 28 years ago," said founder and CEO Phil Nardone. "This win signals the deep expertise and talent our team brings to their work every day and would not happen without the strong partnerships we share with our clients and the purposeful work we've accomplished together over the last year. I couldn't be prouder of this team and the work they do."

PAN Communications, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Press release picture

Fueled by an integrated approach and cross-functional problem solving, PAN saw 17% growth last year. Organic growth has increased 105% since 2020, supercharged by integrated marketing. The offering is integral to new business, which made up 53% of the firm's revenue growth in 2022.

PAN's expertise in integrated marketing and PR positions the firm to not just weather economic headwinds with client partners, but to come through them stronger than before. The agency implements a three-pronged approach to support clients in building brand awareness, creating demand and igniting growth through strategic, integrated campaigns that move seamlessly across channels and areas of expertise. PAN's leaders and teams think like marketers and execute like specialists, making them invaluable strategic partners, accountable to collective success and always pushing to innovate ideas and move a story forward.

The firm was also recognized by PRovoke as one of the top two Best Small Agencies to Work For based on the strong employee-first culture, HyFlex work model, unique benefit packages and an emphasis on belonging. PAN has crafted intentional working protocols to ensure employees feel connected and can seamlessly collaborate, whether they are in-office, hybrid or remote. As part of the firm's dedicated mentorship model, each employee is paired with a senior mentor within the organization who supports them not only learning the nuances of our industry, but also in carving their own unique career path.

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About PAN Communications

PAN Communications is a mid-size integrated marketing & PR agency with over 200 employees internationally. PAN helps companies transform ideas into captivating stories that align to mid- and late-stage growth strategies through the firm's NXT Stage approach. Headquartered in downtown Boston, PAN has additional office locations in San Francisco, New York, Orlando, and London, as well as a growing virtual community. The agency's teams are positioned to help companies emerge in new markets and scale globally, with experience driving integrated strategy across a variety of brands like Veeam, Devo, Radial, athenahealth, Absolute Software and Aurora Solar. For more information visit our website at pancommunications.com and follow us on Twitter (@PANcomm).

Contact

Alyssa Tyson

atyson@pancomm.com

SOURCE: PAN Communications





View source version on accesswire.com:

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Paramount Global (PARA) reported quarterly results before the bell on Thursday that missed expectations on both the top and bottom lines as the company continues to battle advertising headwinds and greater losses within its streaming division.

The company reported a direct-to-consumer loss of $511 million in the first quarter compared with a loss of $456 million in the prior year period.

"Looking ahead, we are focused on continuing to drive market-leading streaming growth while navigating a dynamic macroeconomic environment," Paramount CEO Bob Bakish said in the earnings release, praising Paramount+ and Pluto TV for reaching milestones of 60 million subscribers and 80 million MAUs, respectively. The company also updated its dividend policy, cutting its quarterly cash dividend to $0.05 per share from $0.24 a share.

"The updated dividend policy we have announced today will further enhance our ability to deliver long-term value for our shareholders as we move toward streaming profitability," Bakish said, adding on the earnings call the company is committed to enacting more cost-saving measures like divesting non-core assets.

The company said it has restarted the sale process for Simon & Schuster after the publishing giant's sale to Penguin Random House collapsed late last year.

Paramount shares saw losses accelerate into the close as investors digested the report. The stock finished Thursday's trading day down roughly 28%.

Here are Paramount's first-quarter results compared to Wall Street's consensus estimates, as compiled by Bloomberg:

Revenue: $7.27 billion versus $7.43 billion expected

Adj. earnings per share (EPS): $0.09 versus $0.14 expected

Paramount+ subscriber net additions: 4.1 million versus 3 million expected

Global Pluto monthly active users (MAUs): 80 million versus 82 million expected

Paramount recently announced it would merge its Paramount+ and Showtime streaming services into one product to take on larger competitors. It also unveiled a restructuring plan that combines Showtime with MTV Entertainment Studios. The company is eyeing greater integration between its cable television and streaming offerings amid escalating cord-cutting trends.

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Paramount continued to lean on its franchises to drive streaming service subscriptions, with spinoffs for popular series like "Yellowstone," "Dexter" and "Billions" currently in the works amid the Showtime/Paramount+ rebrand.

As a result of the merger of the two streaming services, the company previously said it'd be taking a content impairment charge between $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in the first quarter, but said it expects $700 million in future annual expense savings.

That, coupled with previously announced price hikes of its streaming tiers, should help lift revenues and ease pressures on the bottom line, with the company guiding a return to positive free cash flow and earnings growth in 2024. Free cash flow came in at negative $554 million in the first quarter versus the prior year period's $243 million.

Despite solid subscriber growth, ad softness continued to hammer the media giant's bottom line as macroeconomic challenges, coupled with a lack of political advertising and fewer NFL games, sent ad revenue plummeting.

Advertising within the company's TV media unit fell 11% year-over-year in Q1 after falling 7% in the fourth quarter. Management has maintained the second half of the year will see improvements in the ad market.

Paramount CEO Bob Bakish speaks as he attends an interview during the Barron's Roundtable at the Fox Business Network in New York, Friday, Aug. 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

'Always looking' to unlock shareholder value

The company has tip-toed around recent reports of a potential sale of the company's BET Media Group, which includes cable channels BET and VH1, after producer Tyler Perry and media mogul Byron Allen reportedly expressed interest in purchasing a majority stake.

Paramount also turned down a $3 billion-plus offer for Showtime from former executive David Nevins, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra weighed in on the sales rumors in an interview with Yahoo Finance Live in March: "There's been speculation around BET. We don't comment on M&A speculation. ...But I will say that, in general, we are always looking at different ways to create value for our shareholders."

"To the extent that there are ways to do that  by buying assets, by selling assets, by restructuring assets  we look at all of those very carefully," he said.

Paramount has long been rumored as a potential acquisition target due to its small size relative to competitors. The media giant boasts a current market cap of just about $15 billion, which pales in comparison to Disney's (DIS) $183 billion and Netflix's (NFLX) $142 billion.

"Consolidation has been the rule in business for a long time, certainly been the rule in media," Paramount CEO Bob Bakish revealed during a UBS media conference late last year. "So, it's hard for me to bet on anything other than consolidation [happening] in the future."

Alexandra Canal is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193 and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com

For the latest earnings reports and analysis, earnings whispers and expectations, and company earnings news, click here

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
China Rescue Dogs found homes across the United States for 22 canines, including corgis and French bulldogs, recently saved from the dog meat trade

Courtesy of China Rescue Dogs

These 22 dogs have something to smile about.

The content canines  17 golden retrievers, two corgis, a French bulldog, a sheepdog, and a Malamute  are all pets saved from dog meat farms with the help of China Rescue Dogs. The nonprofit is dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating dogs caught in the dog meat trade.

After China Rescue Dogs pulled the pups from their dire circumstances, the organization got each canine veterinary care, a microchip, and the interest of potential adopters. After being medically cleared to travel in late April, the dogs patiently sat through a 12-hour flight from China to Los Angeles.

The flight costs for the 22 dogs were covered by WeatherTech Founder and CEO David MacNeil, who became dedicated to helping canines stuck in the dog meat trade after seeing an upsetting clip.

Related:Rescue Throws Big Goodbye Party for Newly Adopted Dog Who Spent Over 1,000 Days at Shelter

"I was first moved to action after seeing a video of a sick golden retriever without the use of its back legs being dragged by his neck. We named him Oden and were able to get him to America and save him," MacNeil said in a statement about the recent China Rescue Dogs flight. "We have nothing but compassion for animals that were bred in inhumane circumstances for their meat, exist locked in horrific cages, and cannot help themselves as they suffer terribly every day until they die."'

Courtesy of China Rescue Dogs

In California, the 22 dogs MacNeil and China Rescue Dogs worked to save were greeted by dozens of happy faces, many belonging to the pooches' adopters. Before the dogs left for Los Angeles, China Rescue Dogs found homes for all the pups with animal lovers across the U.S.

Pet parents from Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Utah, and Virginia, showed up at the Los Angeles airport to meet their new dogs in person for the first time.

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Related:'Demon' Dog Ralphie Excels at Agility Training After Adoption: 'He's Going to Do Amazing Things'

"We are delighted to have successfully brought these dogs over, assuring them love and safety for the rest of their lives," Jill Stewart, co-founder of China Rescue Dogs, said.

China Rescue Dogs is now raising funds for another rescue flight, so the nonprofit can get more canines out of the dog meat trade before the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, which runs from June 26 to July 1, according to China Rescue Dogs.

Courtesy of China Rescue Dogs

While the Chinese government has taken steps to crack down on the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, the annual event persists. China Rescue Dogs estimates that the 2023 festival could lead to 50,000 dog deaths a day.

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 celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

"It is especially important that we clear our shelters in China now  as far in advance of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival as possible  so we can rescue and protect more dogs from certain death. We want to fly at least another 50 dogs here in May," said Stewart.

To learn more about China Rescue Dogs and support the organization's efforts, visit the nonprofit's website.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.
The reality TV star received her fourth engagement ring while on vacation in Japan

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for iHeartMedia

Caelynn Miller-Keyes has four engagement rings yes, four.

The Bachelor in Paradise star, 27, opened up on her podcast Help! We Suck At Being Newlyweds with beau Dean Unglert, 32, and Jared Haibon, 34, about receiving her fourth engagement ring from Unglert and why she has acquired so much wedding bling.

Just as their May 1st episode was coming to a close, Unglert jumped in and said, "Oh, I gave Caelynn her new engagement ring," before encouraging her to show it off for the camera.

Miller-Keyes holds it up for the camera, saying that her new ring is "so pretty" before Haibon asked Unglert, "So you bought a brand new ring?"

Related:Dean Unglert and Caelynn Miller-Keyes' Relationship Timeline

John Salangsang/Shutterstock

Unglert then explained that he "got a sponsored ad from Brilliant Earth" and thanked the brand for the sponsorship, saying, "Thank you very much for supplying the ring."

The conversation made Miller-Keyes confess that "It is my, uh, fourth ring." To which her soon-to-be husband jokingly added, "Her fourth ring and definitely her last."

Haibon then pried more info out of the couple about why she had four rings. Miller-Keyes replied, "I've got the one I'm wearing, this is number four, number three was the replica, number two is my middle finger that he proposed with, and number one is still lost."

Their co-host was still confused, needing more information about "Where did the third one come from?"

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.

"I got just like a replica ring," explained Miller-Keyes. Unglert added how Miller-Keyes "was embarrassed by how small the proposal ring was." She denied that claim, though, saying, "No, Dean wouldn't let me show anyone. He was like, 'Don't show anyone,' 'You're not allowed to show anyone.' "

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Ungler then confessed, "I wanted you to secretly be like, 'I don't care. I love it so much' " to which Miller-Keyes doubled down, saying, "I said I don't care, and you're like 'no.'"

The hilarious confession comes after the couple got engaged in October of last year in a scenic display of love on the beach of the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

The reality TV star explained that the ring he proposed with wasn't the original one he intended after he lost the first one in his garage.

Sara Jaye Weiss/Shutterstock

Related:Dean Unglert Says Caelynn Miller-Keyes Was 'Angry' at Him Before He Proposed: 'She Was Crying'

"It might be in the garage somewhere, but yeah, the moral of the story is don't put your engagement rings in the junk drawer," Ungler said on the same podcast. "So I did have to go out and buy a placeholder ring for now, but it's not quite as nice as the first one was."

Three rings later, in February of this year, the couple announced they would tie the knot on a ranch in Colorado.

"I couldn't imagine a more perfect place to marry this perfect guy," Miller-Keyes captioned a sneak peek of their wedding venue on Instagram.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.
Behind the Atelier is a fashion-focused series that examines the unique backstories and design processes behind the fashion industry's most captivating talents. Pulling back the curtain on each designer's creative space and practice, Behind the Atelier provides an inside look into the industry's most exciting names.

For the 14th installment of the series, Hypebae tapped Philip Post of dertbag, the Connecticut-based streetwear designer, to take us behind the scenes of his atelier and community-centric storefront. In a candid conversation, the multihyphenate artist revealed how the inception of his brand began in his parents garage, how designing with intention, honesty and authenticity remain at the crux of his artistic practice, and ways his label is superseding the traditional modes of streetwear by injecting positivity and meaningful change into the world.



philip post dertbag behind the atelier designer interview streetwear

Ensconced in the ornate beauty and lush history of the Bishop Arcade Mall lies the dertbag atelier, home of the renegade streetwear brand, and a thriving fashion destination that serves the community of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Founded by designer Philip Post at the tender age of 16, the attainable, luxury streetwear brand born out of his parents garage, has been indexed in the streetscape zeitgeist since launching in 2007, and later followed by opening his brick-and-mortar in 2013.

The Connecticut-born artist, who operates on the axis of street culture, hip-hop and art, has shaped the defining aesthetics and origins of 00s streetwear  cultivating an unprecedented range of elevated apparel that has been worn by Tyler the Creator, Steve Lacy, Kanye West, and M.I.A. The self-made entrepreneurs entrypoint into the design world began after he was diagnosed with Crohns disease and colitis at 13. As a result, the wunderkind began making one-off, graphic T-shirts to wear at school in order to distract himself from the life-altering diagnosis, eventually turning his dream of owning his own fashion brand into a tangible reality within a few years.

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Dedicated to constructing timeless clothes that seamlessly intertwine individuality, comfort and practicality, Philip has deepened his evolutionary creative practice by designing with intention, and translating personal challenges into a source of light during times of darkness. His brands name, which is an acronym that stands for, Divine Energy Radiates Through Beauty and Genius, is a testament to how the luminary emanates hope for his local community, in addition to positively impacting streetwear at large.

Propelled by an anti-fashion rhetoric that has cemented dertbags cultural cache within the landscape, his conviction to craft has been enacted through a continual state of refinement and reinvention of the brands distinctive codes. With August 2023 marking the 10 year anniversary of dertbags Bridgeport storefront, the prolific talent has spawned an expansive web of like-minded creatives and devout patrons  across the US and around the world  who are drawn to his soulful artistry and supernatural energy. Generating bespoke graphics, cut-and-sew garments rooted in tasteful functionality along with hand-dyed and hand-painted styles  all made from durable, high-quality materials like recycled cotton or natural ripstop fabric  his cutting-edge designs are illustrative of how the art of fashion can be used to unearth the human experience.

To get to know the designer, Hypebae sat down with Philip Post of dertbag to discuss ways in which his design methodology is fueled by the desire to create positive change, why exploring recurring themes such as evolution and self-discovery are an integral part of his artistic practice, and how the community hes built is a vital part of his brand.

philip post dertbag behind the atelier designer interview streetwear

What was the catalyst that inspired you to start making clothing?

When I was 10 years old, I got diagnosed with Crohn's Disease while switching from public to private school. All the kids were required to have laptops and the cool kids got Apple MacBooks when they first came out. I had a Dell and it was equipped with Adobe Fireworks which was like a bootleg Photoshop and I started making robot faces out of different shapes and colors. I ironed on the robots I made onto T-shirts and started selling them in 6th grade. That was the start of making clothing. I was fortunate enough to be exposed to art my whole life and grew up with it in my house. I went to my dads art studio growing up. My mom, who is a writer, encouraged creativity and gave me her fathers art books when I was of age to appreciate them. I think what my parents instilled in me was knowing that having a creative outlet and being able to make money from your art is a possibility  that had a huge influence on me. In a way, I want to inspire people the same way my family inspired me.

philip post dertbag behind the atelier designer interview streetwear

How do your designs serve as a mode to channel your life experiences?

What sets me apart with how I create clothing is using this frequency of who I am and not being afraid to show people that. My work is an extension of who I am. People have seen me grow up alongside my brand and my supporters have evolved with me, and have helped to create the identity for the brand. Im inspired by life and seeing beauty in the mundane or natural occurrences which allows me to formulate my thoughts or ideas into a collection. By designing clothes, Im able to figure out who I am and what my purpose is. Thats where my brands acronym comes into play. I am trying to create Divine Energy Radiating Through Beauty and Genius.

philip post dertbag behind the atelier designer interview streetwear

Tell me about your store located in Bridgeports historic Bishop Arcade Mall and what it personally means to you.

Around my senior year in high school, I was working towards solidifying my brand and ended up opening my shop after I graduated in August 2013. The atelier is tucked away on the second floor of the Arcade Mall, so its kind of a hunt to find it. I like the fact that people who have never been inside the mall are in awe of the buildings architecture and then they come into my space, and its a different world. We dont have a lot of places where people can go to buy original tasteful clothes and in the 10 years of owning the shop its become an epicenter for the creatives of Connecticut who know whats up, and a destination spot for out-of-towners. Time is the most valuable thing we have and these moments where people are taking the time to check out the shop, and experience what Ive made are the highest compliments. Its important to show people I can serve my community with my brand and not be in a big city to do that.

philip post dertbag behind the atelier designer interview streetwear

How has the use of hand-dyeing and incorporating braille played a role in shaping your design aesthetic?

In 7th grade, there was this local brand called Kultjah. Jermaine West, whos an artist from Norwalk owned the brand and had a shop in South Norwalk. He was screenprinting and hand-dyeing his own clothing which was really unique and cool. Kultjah was definitely a big inspiration for me. I remember buying my first manual screen-printing press off of eBay. I started going on YouTube and was figuring out how to squeeze the emulsion or how long I should wait for the light to hit.

Everything that I taught myself about dyeing ended up helping me when I was working at YEEZY because they didnt really have anyone who was knowledgeable about how pigment or liquid dye could be used. With dyeing, I really see it as an art. When referring to my work, I like to say that the screen-printed pieces are more like acrylic paint because that type of paint dries so quickly, and then the ready-to-wear designs are more like oil paint because it takes more time to produce.

In 2012, was when I started to use braille because I loved how the dots and circles can be seen as abstract, and also double as a branded design when injected into screen-prints or with snap buttons that spell out dertbag. Growing up with a disabled mother and having a disability myself, its really important for me to shed light on the realities of coping or adapting to a different way of life by using clothing as a way to represent the disability community. I create with intent and I believe having the right intention can lead to a more honest design.

philip post dertbag behind the atelier designer interview streetwear

How did working with Kanye West influence your career trajectory?

In the summer of 2016, I was brought on by Ye to work for YEEZY season 4 for about 10 days and was also helping with designing Saint Pablo tour merch. After my 10 days ended, I asked if I could come back and I was able to work on YEEZY season 5. Around January or February that year, Ye asked me to be the art director for the YEEZY x adidas apparel line. I had a team of four people that I managed and we created the adidas Calabasas collection which never ended up coming out.

That experience was my version of going to school and getting a crash course in fashion. I was learning how to put collections together, producing runway shows, learning the business of running a brand, and working under pressure while producing at the highest level possible. That was the first time I really saw money. Being financially-free and having someone like Ye believe in me gave me space to create, and be me.

philip post dertbag behind the atelier designer interview streetwear

How is your design methodology defined by creating with intent?

Theres been a lot of uncertainty that comes with running my business and learning how to refine my craft. I want to create a better world through art by being able to inform taste and eventually, create spaces for the people in my community who may be less known, but are just as talented. I feel like its my duty as a creative person and an OG streetwear member from the 00s scene to use the position and power I have to help. I want to take on challenges and really shift the world if given the opportunity. The goal is to have dertbag and my name be associated with goodness and heightening the vibration or frequency in a person by making them feel good about themselves, and continuing to create with intent.

philip post dertbag behind the atelier designer interview streetwear

What advice would you offer to younger generations looking to pursue a creative career path?

I'm really keen on the 10,000-hour rule and becoming a master with how many hours you put towards your work. If you have the right intent, try not to cut corners, be honest about what youre making, and put yourself out there, the more people will connect and appreciate what youre creating. Coming from a place of pure intent and pursuing something thats bigger than money is important. The more you can create and be in touch with the reason behind why or what youre choosing to make, the more youre able to figure out who you are, and how you can master and get better at what you do. Nothing is ever finished in the process of making art, you can always be better and you can always expand your knowledge. But, I think it takes true discipline and a firm belief system to present your work to the world, and continue to learn from your experiences to make it better.

philip post dertbag behind the atelier designer interview streetwear

What has been one of the most significant collections youve created since launching your brand in 2007 and why?

When I was in the hospital from my Crohns flare up, which led to emergency surgery and left me with an ostomy bag, all I could think about was creating clothing. I was in a hospital bed for about a month and during that time I wanted to create a collection called, DERTBG SAVED MY LIFE, as a testament to how the brand is what really keeps me going. I was 80 pounds going into the hospital and 90 pounds going out. I had to relearn how to walk, I had to gain weight, I had to grieve for my old-self after being on the verge of death, and adapt to having an ostomy bag. I came home from the hospital in late August of 2021 and dropped the collection in November.

The people that were around me when I was sick and visited me in the hospital or at home, were the ones that helped me out on creating the collections lookbook imagery. My best friend Guz, who was the first person to visit me when I got home, modeled and styled the shoot. My friend Ashlyn, who visited me in the hospital post-surgery, let me use her parents horse farm for the shoot and Marina, who drove me to the hospital when I needed surgery, came and helped out on set for the day. I wanted to prove that I could come back stronger and create a higher standard for how I design.

philip post dertbag behind the atelier designer interview streetwear

With 10 years of experience owning and operating your own store, what have you learned throughout the years and what do you envision for your future?

I want the atelier to be a space thats an epicenter for all types of individuals. I would like to think that Im someone, where people can come and ask me questions about culture  whether thats art, fashion or music. Conversations with people that pass by the shop, leave me more inspired to continue to do what I do. If Im able to put someone on to a new idea or interested in the culture Im a part of  I want to show them things that are tasteful and inspiring. Whether thats an old Japanese street style book, an archival fashion book or a retrospective of an artist I admire. I think being exposed to these different things that influence me, help explain the idea of the brand to people while also showing the history of subcultures that have come before. Its important that people are exposed to beauty in a tasteful way. I believe seeing things that inspire you can open up new doors in a persons mind.

One of my real goals is to try to get a contemporary museum or a public art space for Bridgeport with a space thats designed by my favorite architect, Roger Ferris. I was fortunate to be exposed to Rogers architecture growing up. The Watermill Center, which is the private school I went to, was designed by him and thats where I met Ye for the first time. I believe experiencing Rogers work has helped inform my idea of what a space should be and how that can be mirrored with the clothes someone chooses to wear.

Ive always wanted to do a charity event or design an exclusive shirt with the Crohns & Colitis Foundation. I think what Ive gone through and what Ive been able to accomplish is a big win for people that have Crohns, colitis or an ostomy bag. Being able to shed light on my experiences or these realities people go through with my brand, and the clothes I create is really important to me  just by continuing to represent a community of people who dont always have a voice or are unseen in the eyes of others.

philip post dertbag behind the atelier designer interview streetwear
A crash on U.S. Highway 54 left Jay Drake Murrey, 25, of Nottingham, New Hampshire dead after his vehicle collided head-on with a semi-truck.

New Mexico State Police responded to the crash site just north of Carrizozo where they found Murrey dead from his injuries.

New Mexico State Police did not release the name of the 55-year-old man who was driving the semi-truck. He was transported to an area hospital for injuries sustained during the crash. His medical condition was not released to the media.

Alcohol is not believed to have played a role in the crash. New Mexico State police are investigating the incident.

Juan Corral can be reached at JCorral@gannett.com or on twitter at @Juan36Corr.

This article originally appeared on Alamogordo Daily News: New Hampshire man dies in crash on U.S. Highway 54
Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page, Dave Grohl, Mick Jagger and More Pay Tribute to 'Architect of Rock and Roll' Little Richard

I am the emancipator. I am the architect. I am the one that started it all.

 Little Richard

That is quite a boast, even in the context of rock and roll (and a bit dubious, given that Ike Turner is more credibly acknowledged as the origin seed). But this documentary (streaming now) amply argues the case that before Little Richard, who died in 2020, rock and roll was fairly irrelevant on the cultural landscape.

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Combining fascinating footage and recorded observations from Richard Penniman himself and others, director Lisa Cortes has built an amazing insight into one of the most intriguing and perplexing performers of all time. The interviews are excellent, and she incorporates several sequences of current musicians re-enacting some pivotal moments of Richards career.

The film takes a mostly chronological approach, and Little Richard provides his backstory of growing up queer  My daddy wanted seven sons, and I was messing that up. Deep conviction in the church formed part of Richards bedrock, but a chance invitation in 1947 by the legendary Rosetta Tharpe for his first stage performance convinced him, at 14, that he had to get out of Macon, Georgia. Although cross-dressing and homosexuality were illegal nearly everywhere at the time, he was able to pursue both while performing on the so-called Chitlin Circuit.

The film also explores the seminal influences of Esquerita and Billy Wright, performers who pushed the edge of conventionality at the same time.

A couple of radio hits for Richard allowed him back into his dads approval. By 1953, Richard formed his own band and fellow musician Lloyd Price convinced him to get a demo to Art Rupe at Specialty Records. The label wanted a cross between B.B. King and Ray Charles, not the direction that Richard wanted to go. But one song had particular potential, after cleaning up the rather graphic lyrics about anal sex. Tutti Frutti, made radio-friendly, became ubiquitous, timeless, and crucial to the explosion of rock and roll.

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As the single took off, it was covered (and smoothed out) by Elvis Presley and Pat Boone, eventually selling more than Richards original. Long Tall Sally became an even bigger hit, and was likewise covered by top white stars. At the time, transistor radios and radios in cars were how white people heard Black music, kept strictly separate in most other aspects of society.

The influence of the church and gospel music was never far from Richard, creating an inevitable tension with his biological inclinations. His star continued to ascend; by 1956 he joined a Black all-star tour, starting at the bottom of the bill, but by the end he was headlining. No one wanted to follow him. Despite firmly enforced segregation laws, white teenage kids gleefully attended his concerts.

Whether it was actually Sputnik, the Russian satellite, or, as he says, seeing angels in the Australian sky, in the late 1950s, Little Richard, at the peak of his career, dropped secular music and headed back to religion full-time. He enrolled in a very conservative Black religious school and recorded an album with the Quincy Jones Orchestra, doing very restrained sacred music.

By 1962, after marriage and a tour in England, our hero was back to playing his hits at ever more torrid performances.

We were almost paralyzed with adoration, said John Lennon when the Beatles shared a bill in Liverpool in late October 1962. In 1963, the Rolling Stones opened for Little Richard, and just as Paul McCartney had watched and learned from the side of the stage, Mick Jagger did likewise. Seeing Richard using the whole stage was a big takeaway for Jagger  that was unprecedented for the more static British artists then.

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Whatever modicum of the straight life Richard tried to maintain, by 1967 he was divorced. In the early 70s, all sorts of drugs were part of his daily routine, and the church was again Richards refuge. God let Adam be with Eve, not Steve, he declared, and also claimed he had been gay, but was no longer.

He was good at liberating others, but not good at liberating himself, observes one music scholar, Jason King. Richard by then was selling Bibles and making church appearances, bringing in a relative pittance of income. John Branca, later famous as Michael Jacksons lawyer, was called in to opine on the contractual inequities of labels failing to make payments. I wouldve liked to have seen more of this footage from that interview, as Branca tackled an all-too-familiar and pervasive blight in the music industry.

Interviews range from Tom Jones to John Waters, pointing to Little Richard as their primary influence (presumably delivering different influences). Nile Rodgers reveals that David Bowie wanted him to produce Bowies 1983 Lets Dance album to sound just like Little Richard. (I wish I had known that when I found myself improbably sitting next to Little Richard a few years later, at a Bowie concert.)

Little Richard missed the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inaugural ceremony in 1986, at which he was inducted, because of a car accident caused by his falling asleep at the wheel. But he is rightly there, forever.

This is an excellent film, well worth your time.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

The post Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page, Dave Grohl, Mick Jagger and More Pay Tribute to Architect of Rock and Roll Little Richard appeared first on SPIN.
9 Can't-Put-Down Music Memoirs of 2022

Comedian Hannibal Buress will host and perform at the 2023 edition of the independent artist-focused Libera Awards, which will be handed out June 15 at Town Hall in New York. Also confirmed to take the stage are Margo Price, blues veteran Shemekia Copeland, Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn, Sudan Archives, Seratones, Gaby Moreno, Tamtam, and Buress Eshu Tune project.

Motown legend Martha Reeves and 98-year-old Marshall Allen and the Sun Ra Arkestra will receive the Independent Icon awards, and both will perform. Reeves will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of her breakthrough smash with the Vandellas, Heat Wave.

More from Spin:

Richard and Zahn will be backed by a full orchestra for a performance from their 2022 collaborative album Pigments. Tickets for the event are on sale now.

I havent hosted anything in a while, so this will be an interesting night, Buress admits. Im not sure if Im crossing WGA picket lines by doing this gig. If I am, my apologies. I stand with the writers, but I also got some shit to do. Im wearing steel toe boots just in case anyone wants to run onstage unexpectedly.

Independence isnt about a genre  its about choosing your own path, says Lisa Hresko, the GM of Libera organizers the American Association of Independent Music, Inc. (A2IM). The Libera Awards showcases independent musics top talent, represented across both the amazing slate of nominees and dynamic performers. A2IM couldnt be more excited to bring this years Libera Awards, traditionally an industry-only event, to the historic Town Hall to demonstrate the collective power, artistry, and community of independent music.

Wet Leg had a leading six Libera nominations this year, while Sudan Archives, Allison Russell, Fontaines D.C., and Soul Glo have three each. In the days before the awards, A2IM will host Indie Week at the InterContinental New York Times Square.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

The post 9 Cant-Put-Down Music Memoirs of 2022 appeared first on SPIN.
Thin Lizzy at the Yokohama wharf, Kanagawa, September 1980

The Royal Ulster Constabulary must have been looking for an easy win when they decided to bust Thin Lizzy for drugs  it almost seems too simple, like getting the Gallagher brothers to carry round a swear jar. It was 1980 and Phil Lynotts mob had a new guitarist to bed in, with blues virtuoso and sometime Pink Floyd six-stringer Snowy White recently joining.

Whites first jaunt with his new bandmates was a tour of Ireland, and he must have wondered what hed let himself in for when the group and their entire touring party ended up at the headquarters of the RUC in Enniskillen. The late music journalist Harry Doherty was there and recounted the scenario in Classic Rock: The RUC had put roadblocks up to stop the band as they headed for a gig in Co. Antrim, he wrote.

Lizzys reputation for hard drugs as well as hard rock had preceded them but word of an RUC bust had been leaked and the band were prepared. At the station, we were all questioned individually; some of the band, including Snowy White, were stripped down to their underwear, but nothing was found. Later, I found that one of the entourage, a close friend of Phils, had dropped four grams of cocaine into a waste bin on the way in  and picked it up again on the way out!

The RUC were determined to sniff something out, though. Later that night at the Antrim gig, the band got word that the drugs squad would be in the audience and making an unscheduled visit backstage. Orders went out to dispose of any drugs in the vicinity.

Snowy White recalled his eventful introduction to the band in Classic Rock. I told one of the cops: Im probably one of the cleanest musicians youll get round here. I dont even smoke cigarettes. Just tell me, he asked, for my own peace of mind  do the band take drugs? No, I said, I havent seen any at all!

And with that, the RUC dropped the case and those clean-living boys in Thin Lizzy could get on with business.
The mother-daughter duo attended the Jean Paul Gaultier x The Webster launch of the ready-to-wear Flowers collection on Tuesday in New York City

Kylie Jenner Instagram Kylie Jenner and daughter Stormi

Kylie Jenner just proved that mother-daughter matching is always in.

On Tuesday, the Kylie Cosmetics founder, 25, posted photos on Instagram wearing Jean Paul Gaultier with 5-year-old daughter Stormi, who sported a similar print by the designer.

The duo attended the Jean Paul Gaultier x The Webster launch of the ready-to-wear Flowers collection earlier in the evening.

Kylie, who is the face of the new campaign, wore a sheer nude and floral frock topped with a corset by the designer while her mini fashionista modeled colorfully printed leggings paired with a ruched long-sleeved top.

In one of the snaps, Kylie displayed a sweet, playful smile with her daughter as they posed in front of the event decor, which featured Kylie wearing one of Gaultier's iconic '90s-style cone-shaped bustiers.

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.

Related: Kylie Jenner Coordinates Outfit with Daughter Stormi Before Heading to 2023 Met Gala: Photo

The Kardashians star also posted mirror selfies, showing her nude bra and corset peeking through.

"She's a jpg girl ," the proud mom of two, who shares Stormi and 15-month-old son Aire with Travis Scott, captioned her photo series.

The luxury line drops on Friday, according to the official JPG Instagram page, with the brand's latest campaign's creative direction helmed by Florence Tetier and photography by Elizaveta Porodina.

Staying loyal to the JPG brand, Kylie and Stormi also served up some looks from the French fashion house on Monday when Mom left for the Met Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For the famed annual fashion event, the beauty mogul opted for a bright-red evening gown and a coordinating lilac robe with red trim, while Stormi (who is too young to attend) sported a black-and-white JPG logo T-shirt, along with a denim jacket, jeans and matching black-and-white sneakers.

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Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Kylie Jenner at the 2023 Met Gala

RELATED GALLERY: The Best Moments from the 2023 Met Gala

In an Instagram caption, Kylie gave a shout-out to Haider Ackermann for designing Monday night's custom look for her, writing, "HAIDER ACKERMANN FOR JEAN PAUL GAULTIER ."

"Thank you to the entire @jeanpaulgaultier team and @h.a ! i love you guyssss  you make my fashion dreams come true," she added.

The reality star also shared a shot of herself and Ackermann, 52, posing for a photo (pizza in hand!) ahead of the event.

The 2023 Met Gala marked Kylie's sixth time at the exclusive affair and her second consecutive appearance after stepping out last year.

Speaking to Vogue correspondent La La Anthony alongside her sisters Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner, Kylie said Monday, "I'm looking forward to making more memories with my sisters, seeing all the fashion. I'm just here for a good time."

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Read the original article on People.
Global Market Insights Inc.

Pharmaceutical Drug Delivery industry is anticipated to register 7% CAGR between 2023 and 2032 due to growth in the biologics market.

Selbyville, Delaware, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



The pharmaceutical drug delivery market value is predicted to reach over USD 3.2 trillion by 2032, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights Inc.

Technological developments are expected to support the production of a novel, user-friendly, accurate, and patient-friendly pharmaceutical delivery systems. Major pharmaceutical companies are pumping funds into R&D in order to produce cutting-edge and new drug delivery systems, like needle-free injectors, implants, nanotechnology, and peptide encapsulation.

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A surge in demand for effective eye treatments is projected to fuel market gains

Pharmaceutical drug delivery market from the ocular drug delivery segment to expand at 7% CAGR by 2032. Liquid formulations, semi-solid formulations, and ocular devices are the three categories of ocular drug delivery systems. Eye drops and liquid sprays are included in the liquid formulations. The eye ointments and gels make up the semi-solid formulations.

Ocular devices are used to treat eye conditions such as amblyopia, diabetic retinopathy, and cataracts. Fast absorption rates, homogeneous medication delivery, and simple administration are some of the benefits of ocular drug delivery. In 2023, ENTOD Pharmaceuticals launched a new ocular aesthetic range that helps improve eye comfort.

Browse key industry insights spread across 850 pages with 1650 market data tables & 17 figures & charts from the report, Pharmaceutical Drug Delivery Market - By Route Of Administration (Oral, Injectable, Self-Injectors, Topical, Pulmonary, Nasal, Transmucosal), By Application (Infectious Diseases, Cancer, Cardiovascular, Diabetes, Autoimmune Disease), Facility Of Use (Hospitals, Clinics, Home Care Settings, Diagnostic Centers) - Global Forecast to 2032 in detail along with the table of contents:

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https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/pharmaceutical-drug-delivery-market



Increasing burden of cardiovascular disease on healthcare systems

Pharmaceutical drug delivery industry from the cardiovascular diseases segment is set to exhibit over 7.2% CAGR by 2032. Cardiovascular diseases have become more common and are estimated to be responsible for 17.9 million fatalities annually. Drug delivery plays a vital role in the overall treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Oral drug delivery, injectable drug delivery, and implanted drug delivery are some of the popular options that can be used for successful therapy.

A surge in patient footfall across diagnostic centers

Pharmaceutical drug delivery market from the diagnostic centers segment to cross over USD 194.5 billion by 2032. The market for diagnostic centers has grown due to the increasing frequency of infectious and chronic disorders. Infectious diseases like the COVID-19 virus, among others, are influencing the rate of disease spread. Diagnostic centers help patients suffering from such diseases recover with an appropriate treatment plan.

Development of new products in the Europe region

Europe pharmaceutical drug delivery industry to grow over USD 792.5 billion by 2032. The growing elderly population and rising healthcare spending will aid in market outlook. Additionally, the market will develop technologically advanced products for the healthcare sector. Large pharmaceutical manufacturers are also located across Europe, which will support the regional industry expansion.

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Competitive landscape of the global pharmaceutical drug delivery market

Pfizer Inc., GILEAD SCIENCES, INC., Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie Inc, Eli Lilly and Company, Merck & Co. Inc., Sanofi, Amgen, Inc., AstraZeneca plc, and Bayer AG, are some of the key players in the market.

Browse Our Reports Store - GMIPulse @ https://www.gminsights.com/gmipulse

About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology.

CONTACT: Contact Us: Aashit Tiwari Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights Inc. Toll Free: +1-888-689-0688 USA: +1-302-846-7766 Europe: +44-742-759-8484 APAC: +65-3129-7718 Email: sales@gminsights.com Read More News @ https://ibmag.com/




Depending on how you measure success, the recently concluded Washington legislative session was either really great, not as terrible as normal or a frustrating combination of progress and setbacks for the employer community.

Lets start with the positive: Lawmakers took meaningful steps to address the states affordable housing crisis. They passed nine bills to increase housing supply, including legislation to speed up permitting of new development, condominium reform to encourage construction of condos and townhomes, and legislation to increase missing middle housing such as duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes and cottage housing.

None of these measures will solve our states housing problems, but its by far the most action lawmakers have taken on the issue in recent memory and these bills, combined with the record $1 billion allocated for new housing investments, will make a positive difference.

Lawmakers also passed legislation to enable professionals with licenses from other states to work in Washington, a long-needed move that will help address our workforce shortage. And they overwhelmingly approved a bill that will boost production of sustainable aviation fuel. These low-carbon fuels are critical for the aviation sector to cut emissions, and this legislation will help Washington attract new business investment to the state.

Staying positive, employers were relieved so see lawmakers pass a new two-year state budget without raising general taxes. This doesnt mean legislators didnt think about it. They spent more time than they should have talking about proposals to raise the real estate excise tax and to lift the voter-approved cap on property tax increased. In the end, those ideas were not approved, but we should expect them to return next year.

And after years of astonishing growth in the state budget, lawmakers slowed the growth in state spending to a still healthy 9%. This might not seem like a great accomplishment, but compared with the 24% growth weve seen recently, its a move in the right direction.

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On a less-than-positive note, lawmakers failed to pass any kind of broad-based tax relief. This was disappointing, but not surprising. If they had really wanted to give taxpayers relief, they would have done it the previous year when they had an unprecedented $15 billion budget surplus.

They also drew down the states reserves to a level that might not be sufficient if the state enters a recession. Given the uncertainty in the economy and the potential for a recession sometime in the next year, they would have been wise to put aside more money for a rainy day.

Failure to addresses any of the unresolved issues with the states long-term care program will go down as an important missed opportunity. In February, a coalition of more than 200 Washington employers sent a letter to the governor and lawmakers urging them to either fix the outstanding issues with the program, or once again push pause. They did neither, so expect this issue to receive more attention this summer when employees begin to see a new payroll tax withheld from their checks.

One of the most challenging issue areas for employers was employment law, which saw passage of several new hurdles. They include ergonomics legislation that reversed a citizens initiative, rules that allow the state to set staffing quotas for warehouses, and an expansion of the list of circumstances where an employee can voluntarily leave work and be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.

Every legislative session is a mix of good and disappointing outcomes, and this one is no exception. Lets hope the progress on longstanding issues like housing, workforce and taxes ends up overshadowing the multiple missed opportunities lawmakers had to act as champions for the economy.

Kris Johnson is president of the Association of Washington Business, the states chamber of commerce and manufacturers association.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Legislative session yields decidedly mixed results
Music mogul and icon, Missy Elliott, will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2023 in the performer category. As the only rapper inducted this year, the Virginia icon will join the likes of other impresarios including Willie Nelson, The Spinners, DJ Kool Herc, Chaka Khan, Don Cornelius and more.

A Tribe Called Quest was also nominated, but will not be inducted this year.

More from VIBE.com

John Sykes, Chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation stated in a press release, This years incredible group of Inductees reflects the diverse artists and sounds that define rock & roll. We are honored that this Novembers Induction Ceremony in New York will coincide with two milestones in music culture; the 90th birthday of Willie Nelson and the 50th Anniversary of the birth of Hip Hop.

Elliott, nee Melissa Arnette Elliott, will be acknowledged for her decades of contributions to Hip-Hop and more through her songwriting, production, and unforgettable visuals. The four-time Grammy winning trendsetter dominated airwaves in the late 1990s and 2000s whilst creating historic Platinum-selling albums including Supa Dupa Fly, This Is Not A Test, Da Real World, Miss E So Addictive, The Cookbook, and the 2x multi-Platinum album Under Construction.

Missy Elliott photographed in Los Angeles Dec. 17, 2002.; The Lot; Missy Elliott, Self Assignment, December 17, 2002; Los Angeles; California.

Besides even more certified Platinum singles and features, the 51-year-old also made herstory as the first woman rapper and third rapper ever to be honored with a MTV Video Vanguard Award and to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She also holds two honorary doctorates and was honored with the Womans Entrepreneurship Day Music Pioneer Award, presented by the United Nations.

KRS-One with arms crossed.

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In addition, one of Hip-Hops founding fathers DJ Kool Herc will also be included in this year of inductees as the world celebrates Hop-Hops 50th anniversary. The Bronx-native will be honored for the groundbreaking foundations laid for the global musical genre that has become a cultural dominance. Herc is a living legend, as he historically used two turntables at one time to mix music and create his signature Merry-Go-Round technique.

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Because of the New York icon, b-boys and b-girls became an iconic element of Hip-Hop culture as his experimentation with music flowed through breakdancers. Hercs innovative style of DJing helped create the blueprint for Hip-Hop tunes, as his remixes to songs like Incredible Bongo Bands Apache, Jimmy Castors Its Just Begun, and James Browns Give It Up or Turn It Loose, are still heard around the world today.

DJ Kool Herc attends The Source Magazines 360 Icons Awards Dinner at the Red Rooster on August 16, 2019 in Harlem, New York City.

According to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame CEO and President Joel Peresman, he stated via Rolling Stone, Were very happy with this years class. People always try to pigeonhole what rock and roll is, but our story has always been that its a wide tent. It includes all different kinds of genres.

He added, We think this class really shows the breadth of rock and roll. When you have Missy Elliott, Sheryl Crow, and the Spinners along with Rage Against The Machine and Willie Nelson, youre covering a lot of things.

The eighth annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on Friday (Nov. 3) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Congratulations to the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class!

Click here to read the full article.
Ohio EPA

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has approved a final permit for American Landfill to drill an 8,000-foot-deep Class I non-hazardous waste injection well on its property in northern Sandy Township for the disposal of wastewater.

The agency issued the final permit on March 30. Ohio EPA Director Ann Vogel, who was appointed to the position in January by Gov. Mike DeWine, approved and signed the permit. Her predecessor, Laurie Stevenson, stepped down at the end of December. The permit, which was announced publicly on Thursday, is set to expire four years from that date.

The construction timeline for the injection well is not clear. Landfill officials had indicated in November they hoped to start construction of the injection well in 2024. They submitted the permit application in January 2022. The Ohio EPA issued a draft permit in October.

The permit expires within 18 months of the effective date, or by the end of September 2024, if the landfill has not "undertaken a continuing program of construction" or has not entered into a binding contract to complete construction within a reasonable time.

A spokeswoman for Waste Management, which operates the landfill, wrote in an email that the company intends to adhere to that timeline. She wrote that the company acknowledges receipt of the permit and "the facility continues to operate under the highest standards, with strict oversight and permitting of the Ohio EPA."

The state agency stressed that American Landfill, which has operated in Sandy Township since 1976, will need to get another permit from the Ohio EPA before it could dispose of wastewater known as leachate in the injection well. That would require another public meeting, public hearing and period for the public to submit comments.

An Ohio EPA statement said to avoid contamination of local water sources, the injection well must be able to send the wastewater to depths far lower than the lowermost water sources, which are generally up to 500 feet below the surface.

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Related: Residents raise questions about well permit for Sandy Township landfill

Related: American Landfill seeks to construct injection well

Landfill officials said they want to build the injection well so the company no longer has to transport by truck 160,000 gallons a day of leachate to area sewage plants in Akron, Canton and Alliance to be processed. It adds up to about 5,000 truck trips per year.

The leachate is a result of rainwater flowing through the waste disposed of in the landfill. The sewage plants treat the leachate before releasing it as water into rivers and streams. American Landfill said in November it accepted about 3,000 tons of waste a day. The landfill itself is 380 acres on 1,200 acres owned by Waste Management.

Jill VanVoorhis of Sandy Township, who was an activist for the now-defunct group Citizens Against American Landfill Expansion, said she's not aware of anyone having the appetite to file an appeal of the permit approval with the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission. Her group's appeals to the commission in the 2000s against the landfill's expansion ultimately failed.

The deadline to file an appeal is 30 days after the March 30 approval.

"It's not surprising that (Ohio EPA officials) always seem to go with the waste industry on anything," said VanVoorhis, who was one of more than 40 residents who attended Ohio EPA's public hearing on the permit in November at Indian Run Christian Church in Osnaburg Township. "It's the same thing over and over. Whatever the waste industry wants is what the waste industry gets, whatever the impact on the community or the lack of study on what it could do to the environment. ... It's just what we have learned to live with."

In November, Ohio EPA staff at the public meeting said American Landfill's injection well was set to be the 11th Class I, non-hazardous injection well in Ohio but the first at a landfill site and the first in Stark County. The well would have multiple layers of cement casing. And American Landfill said it would build a monitoring well to seek to detect any signs of leachate contamination of water sources from the injection well.

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Ohio EPA clears American Landfill to build wastewater injection well
Clark Beverage Group, which is a distributor of beverages like Coca-Cola, will add 30 new jobs with its $100 million expansion in Madison County.

Clark Beverage Group, which is a distributor of beverages such as Coca-Cola, will add 30 new jobs with a planned $100 million expansion in Madison County.

The company will be closing its Jackson location as part of the expansion, but the transition won't be completed until 2025. All of the more than 300 employees who currently work in the Jackson plant will have the opportunity to move and work in the Madison plant.

Development: Germantown Village expected to anchor Gluckstadt as its city center

According to a press release, the expansion involves the addition of new sales and distribution facility, as well as the acquisition of more equipment to better serve the consumers. The companys investment will help support more local suppliers.

This $100 million investment and expansion into the Madison County Mega Site represents Clark Beverage Groups commitment to our employees and their families for growth, as well as our strong relationship with our consumers and communities which we serve every day in Mississippi," said Clark Beverage Group Chief Operating Officer Ken Skutnik.

The Mississippi Development Authority is providing assistance in support of the project through the Mississippi Flexible Tax Incentive, or MFLEX. Madison County also is assisting with the project.

Madison County is excited they have chosen the Madison Mega Site for their state-of-the-art facility," Madison County Board of Supervisors President Gerald Steen said.

Clark Beverage Group, a fourth-generation family-owned bottler, is headquartered in Kentucky and started distributing Coca-Cola in 1903. The new Madison facility is expected to be the flagship plant for the company.

The company offers a diverse group of national and international brands of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages in Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana, Mississippi and Tennessee and employs about 950 people across the five states. Clark Beverage Group operates five locations in Mississippi.

The new facility is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2025.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Clark Beverage Group plans $100 million expansion into Madison County
The victim, who has been identified as Andrew Thomas Henges, was leaning over the railing early Saturday morning when the fall occurred, according to police

Broussards1889

A Texas college student has died after accidentally falling from a balcony in Louisiana, according to police.

Andrew Thomas Henges, 19, of Beaumont, was attending an event when he fell to his death, according to CBS affiliate KBTX-TV.

The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) tells PEOPLE the victim was leaning over the railing of a balcony on Loyola Avenue early Saturday morning "when he accidentally fell to [the] ground."

The young man was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the NOPD.

Related:Wash. Student, 16, Dies After Reportedly Getting Impaled Through Eye During P.E. Class: 'Tragic Accident'

Texas A&M's Delta Tau Delta fraternity paid tribute to Henges on social media, describing him as "humble, selfless, loving, strong, and proud."

"This fraternity is terribly saddened by the death of our brother, Andrew," they wrote, "but we are forever thankful for the wonderful memories that he left for us all."

Tuesday was the last day of classes at Texas A&M, which did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment, according to the school's Facebook page.

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 celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Henges graduated from Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School in Beaumont in 2022, and was studying biology at Texas A&M, according to KBTX-TV.

Delta Tau Delta said Henges "was soft-spoken but carried a heart of gold" who "deeply cared for others."

"His passing is and will always be unbelievably tragic," the fraternity wrote on Instagram, "but the impact he had on the men of this fraternity and everyone he knew outside of it is far from that."

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Related:College Senior Dies From Brain Tumor After Suffering from Brain Hemorrhage on Spring Break Trip

A funeral for Henges will be held Saturday afternoon at Trinity United Methodist Church in Beaumont, according to Henges' obituary.

A gathering with loved ones will be held at Broussard's funeral home the day prior.

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Read the original article on People.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Ct., speaks along side Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation subcommittee hearing on Feb. 1, 2022 on Capitol Hill in Washington. | Anna Moneymaker, Associated Press

A bipartisan bill similar to Utahs recent efforts to regulate teen social media use was reintroduced in the U.S. Senate Tuesday by Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

Described in a statement by Blackburns office as comprehensive bipartisan legislation to protect children online and hold Big Tech accountable, the 50-page Kids Online Safety Act would prevent social media platforms from targeting minors with addictive algorithms, and gives parents greater control over their childrens accounts.

According to the bills text, parents would be able to limit screen time, restrict features that encourage compulsive use, control personalization systems, and limit access to their profiles.

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Parents would also be able to monitor their childrens accounts by tracking the time spent on social media, restricting their ability to purchase items and controlling different safety settings.

It also requires social media companies mitigate content that promotes suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and unlawful products for minors like gambling and drinking.

The bill sailed through the Commerce Committee in 2022 with a 28-0 vote. Still, dozens of groups  including the American Civil Liberties Union  warned that the law would force companies to over moderate and limit helpful resources for children. The bill ultimately did not pass after an attempt to include it in a spending package.

The bill has since been refined, including one provision that ensures platforms will not limit searches related to access to support services, like suicide prevention, as warned about last year by advocates.

But its critics remain, including Ari Cohn, a First Amendment lawyer based in Chicago who previously called Utahs social media laws a huge First Amendment problem.

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KOSA (Kids Online Safety Act) 2.0 raises more questions than it answers, Cohn said in a statement Tuesday. What constitutes reason to know that a user is under 17 is entirely unclear, and undefined by the bill. In the face of that uncertainty, platforms will clearly have to age-verify all users to avoid liability  or worse, avoid obtaining any knowledge whatsoever and leave minors without any protections at all.

Parallels to Utahs laws

The Kids Online Safety Act is the latest attempt by lawmakers to curb what they say is the harm caused by teen social media use, which according to some studies, is linked to depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm and even suicidal ideation.

In late March, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed two of the countrys first and most restrictive bills into law that, come March 2024, will require some kind of age verification for all social media users and give parents greater control over their childrens accounts.

These are first of their kind bills in the United States. And thats huge that Utah is leading out on this effort, Cox said at the time.

Sponsored by Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, SB152 will require a social media company to verify the age of a Utah resident before opening an account. For prospective users under 18 years old, the bill directs the social media company to obtain the consent of a parent or guardian before the account is live.

The law also restricts what accounts the minor can message, allows parents to set time limits, shields the minor from targeted ads and gives parents access to the minors profile.

And HB311, sponsored by Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, prohibits social media companies from using a design or feature that causes a minor to have an addiction to the companys social media platform.

Whats unclear is how the bill will use age verification  McKell told the Deseret News after the bill signing that it cant be limited to a government form of ID, and that lawmakers and the division are looking for other options.

Thats also an unanswered question in the Kids Online Safety Act. The bill directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to study the most technologically feasible options for age verification with an emphasis on the privacy of minors.
Snake manages to get to Gardar. However, Gardar fights back and leaves with Arnheid. Here are the details for the release date and time of Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 18, titled The First Method.

When Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 18 Releases

Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 18s release date in the United States is Monday, May 8. The episode will be out in Japan on Tuesday, May 9, at 12:30 a.m. JST.

Vinland Saga is on Crunchyroll and Netflix. Crunchyroll is simulcasting the second season. The episode with English subtitles will be out an hour after it airs in Japan. In the United States, that would be at the following times on Monday:

11:30 a.m. ET

10:30 a.m. CT

8:30 a.m. PT

Where to Watch Vinland Saga

Vinland Saga Season 2 is available to watch on Crunchyroll and Netflix.

Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 17 Recap

Snake and Thorfinn continue their one-on-one, recognizing each others strengths. Thorfinn ends up hitting Snake a few times, while Snake cuts Thorfinns face once. The fight ends when Snake reaches Gardars side. Arnheid and Sverkel plead with Snake to let Gardar go, but Snake questions if Gardars life is worth more than his five men that died. Snake stabs Gardar in the chest. Shortly after, Gardar gets up and chokes Snake. Arnheid convinces Gardar to let go of Snake, telling him they should go home.

Gardar asks about Hjalti, and Arnheid lies by saying she left him with Gardars brother. Sverkel allows Gardar and Arnheid to use the cart, and they leave. While Gardar is dying, he sees his past life, the birth of Hjalti, and raising him. He also recalls his life as an enslaved person, a warrior, and leaving his family behind. Before dying, he tells Arnheid hes never leaving their side again. As Arnheid mourns, the retainers arrive on their horses.

The post Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 18 Release Date & Time appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary force, speaks in Paraskoviivka, Ukraine in this still image from an undated video released on March 3, 2023. Concord Press Service/via REUTERS

The Wagner Group lost more than 100 people in a single day, the organization's founder said Tuesday.

Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin issued a repeated plea for more ammunition from Russia's military.

The paramilitary group has suffered heavy losses during the fighting in Bakhmut.

The Wagner Group, the Russian paramilitary organization that has suffered significant casualties throughout the brutal fighting in Bakhmut, lost more than 100 people in a single day during an effort to capture 160 meters of land, according to the mercenary group's leader.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group and a one-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, described the assault in an audio recording posted to his Telegram channel this week.

Prigozhin said units of Wagner soldiers advanced on the Ukrainians' position in Bakhmut on Tuesday, ultimately capturing 53,000 square meters, but losing 103 people during the process. The leader blamed an ongoing lack of necessary ammunition for the slaughter.

"We are still not given ammunition in the required amounts," Prigozhin said in the audio recording.

The repeated plea for more artillery shells comes just three days after Prigozhin threatened to withdraw his Wagner forces from the stalemated region over shell shortages. In an audio statement published to Telegram on Saturday, Prigozhin said the group lost 94 fighters that day due to a lack of ammunition, according to Al Jazeera.

Prigozhin's ultimatum is the most recent escalation in a months-long clash between Russia's military brass and the mercenary group, which has continually complained about a lack of official support, despite supplying tens of thousands of fighters to Russia's war effort and suffering significant losses in recent months.

"If the ammunition deficit is not replenished, we are forced  in order not to run like cowardly rats afterward  to either withdraw or die," Prigozhin said in the Saturday Telegram message.

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Prigozhin has previously said that his Wagner troops receive only 800 of the 4,000 shells requested daily, according to Washington DC-based think tank, The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), in a predicament he has come to refer to as "shell hunger."

In an interview with a Russian military blogger published on Saturday, Prigozhin delivered a direct ultimatum to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu over the ammunition shortages, threatening to withdraw his troops if they didn't receive a response in 24 hours.

Despite his weekend threat, Prigozhin did not appear to withdraw his troops ahead of Tuesday's movements, even as he claimed to still be suffering from "shell hunger."

Prigozhin's recent reports of heavy losses seem, at least in part, to contradict Russia's recent claims that the country is whittling down Ukraine's forces in the east, as the bloodiest, longest battle of the war thus far drags on in Bakhmut.

The Wagner Group sparked global outrage earlier in the war after offering convicted prisoners a chance at freedom in exchange for their fighting in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials said last month that the group can only afford to throw its bodies into the fighting in Bakhmut for another two months before it runs out of men.

Translations by Oleksandr Vynogradov.

Read the original article on Business Insider
TORONTO, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Canada Health Infoway (Infoway), Jean Coutu and Brunet are pleased to announce that they have entered into an agreement to onboard and deploy PrescribeIT, Infoway's national e-prescribing service, in their RxPro Pharmacy Management System.

PrescribeIT/Canada Health Infoway Logo (CNW Group/Canada Health Infoway)

Starting this spring, this agreement will make the service available gradually to more than 560 pharmacies operated by pharmacist owners under the Jean Coutu and Brunet banners across Ontario, New Brunswick and Quebec over the next few months.

PrescribeIT enables prescribers to send prescriptions and renewals electronically to a patient's pharmacy of choice, resulting in more efficient patient care and improved communication between clinicians.

"PrescribeIT will make filling a prescription easier and more convenient for patients. It will also free up time for pharmacists to spend on patient care and make their communication with prescribers more efficient," said Nathalie Plante, Vice President, Pharmacy and Health Care, Jean Coutu and Brunet.

"Jean Coutu and Brunet affiliated pharmacies have deep roots in Quebec and we are thrilled they have partnered with PrescribeIT to help change how medications are delivered," said Jamie Bruce, Executive Vice President, Infoway.

"This agreement with Quebec's largest pharmacy retailer is a major milestone in our strong partnership with Quebec, where the Ministere de la Sante et des Services sociaux has made e-prescribing a priority in its plan to modernize health technology," Bruce added.

PrescribeIT is now live in 688 communities Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island, and Infoway is working with other provinces and territories to develop rollout plans. More than 10,000 prescribers and 6,000 pharmacy sites are enrolled in the service. See the interactive locator map.

About Jean Coutu

Founded in 1969, the Jean Coutu network is one of the most trusted names in Canadian pharmacy retailing, with more than 420 franchised stores in Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario under the banners PJC Jean Coutu, PJC Sante and PJC Sante Beaute. For more details, visit jeancoutu.com.

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About Brunet

Established in 1855, Brunet's engagement is to provide Quebecers with personalized advice and services related to their health. Brunet, which network represents around 140 franchised stores in Quebec, continues its development by continuously improving its products and services. For more details, visit brunet.ca.

About Canada Health Infoway

At Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) we believe a more connected and collaborative system is a healthier system, and we work with governments, health care organizations, clinicians and patients to make health care more digital. We're working to ensure that everyone is able to access their personal health information, book appointments, get prescriptions, view lab test results and access other health services, online. We're working with our partners to transform the health system because we know that digital in health can be as transformative as digital has been in other aspects of our lives. We're an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government. Visit us online at www.infoway-inforoute.ca.

About PrescribeIT

Canada Health Infoway is working with Health Canada, the provinces and territories, and industry stakeholders to develop, operate and maintain the national e-prescribing service known as PrescribeIT. PrescribeIT will serve all Canadians, pharmacies and prescribers and provide safer and more effective medication management by enabling prescribers to transmit a prescription electronically between a prescriber's electronic medical record (EMR) and the pharmacy management system (PMS) of a patient's pharmacy of choice. PrescribeIT will protect Canadians' personal health information from being sold or used for commercial activities. Visit www.PrescribeIT.ca.

MEDIA INQUIRIES

Angela Jonsson

Chief of Staff and VP, Public Affairs

Canada Health Infoway

416.358.0103

Email Us

Follow @Infoway

JEAN COUTU AND BRUNET

Media Relations

1.800.463.2190

media@metro.ca

INQUIRIES ABOUT PRESCRIBEIT

Tania Ensor

Vice President, External Relations, PrescribeIT

Canada Health Infoway

416.707.6285

Email Us

Follow @PrescribeIT_CA

Jean Coutu and Brunet Logos (CNW Group/Canada Health Infoway)

SOURCE Canada Health Infoway

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2023/03/c4070.html
Get thee to New Yorks museums and get thee to them now. Life in the Big Apple begins anew in springtime and arriving with it is a bounty of new exhibitions and goings-on at the citys many museums and cultural institutions. The first Monday in May heralds the start of the most anticipated of them alla new installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute, christened by the annual Met Gala extravaganza. But aside from this, the Met and its peers are just as busy with a myriad of other exhibits to cater to every type of museum-goerfind our guide below.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Following the Met Gala festivities, the Costume Institutes 2023 exhibition opens to the public on May 5. A dedicated love letter to the career of the late Karl Lagerfeldthe creative director that made Chanel, Fendi, and Chloe the brands they are todayKarl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty collages some 150 pieces of clothing from the aforementioned houses (ranging from his first creative expressions in the 1950s to his final 2019 Chanel collection) with the designers sketches and other juxtaposed multimedia footage.

Karl Lagerfeld - A Line of Beauty_Dress, House of CHANEL (French, founded 1910), Spring-Summer 2019 Haute Couture; Courtesy Patrimoine de CHANEL, Paris. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo  Julia Hetta The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Julia Hetta

Karl Lagerfeld - A Line of Beauty_Sketch of CHANEL dress, Spring-Summer 2019 Haute Couture; Courtesy Patrimoine de CHANEL, Paris. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The exhibition presupposes that most modern designers (read: anyone designing clothes in a post-Lagerfeld world) strive to take on Lagerfelds legacy in one way or another. His artistic pursuitsmeticulous sketching, namely, and an obsession with modernityare only part of this. Lagerfeld-as-impresariothe discerning, collecting, black-and-white uniform-donning personalitysome would say almost eclipsed his work. Each room presents contrasting lines of interest for Lagerfeld; artisanal versus mechanical, floral versus geometric, rococo versus classical. But things get interesting when they drop that approach in the final room and focus on the satiricalthis room is full of tongue-in-cheek references to Lagerfelds own celebrity as well as some unexpected acts of kitsch, camp, and whimsy (think a dress embroidered with a candlestick so that the wearers head pops out of the wick).

If you find yourself at the Met on or after May 22, youd be remiss to miss out on Van Goghs Cypresses, which will run through August 27.

The American Museum of Natural History

Across Central Park on the Upper West Side, a whole new building at the American Museum of Natural History makes its debut. The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation opens May 5 and, among many other things, brings all kinds of bugs to NYC. Manhattans newest residents live in the Gilder Centers vast and impressive insectarium and vivarium, which between them account for all sorts of butterflies and some 500,000 leafcutter ants, among others. Theres also Invisible Worlds, an immersive experience that will have even skeptics of such installations (that have swept through cities the world over since Van Goghs swirls starred in an episode of Emily in Paris a few years back) darting around guiding water through root systems with their feet. The true highlight, whether or not you're a fan of architectural wizardry, is the Jeanne Gang-designed building itself. Swirling upward with no dead ends and an artfully-incorporated Collections Core, this Derinkuyu-esque beauty fills the viewer with a wonder so childlike that this writer may or may not have teared up a bit at the sheer joy of getting to walk around in it.

Sanle Sory/Tezeta/Courtesy David Hill Gallery

Brooklyn Museum

Manhattan is not the only borough with an exceptional fashion exhibition in the coming months. The Brooklyn Museum, located a few blocks east from Grand Army Plaza and the mouth of Prospect Park, is preparing to open Africa Fashion on June 23. This will be the largest-ever presentation of its kind in North America, highlighting the continents creativity and global impact from the independence eras beginning to today. With an eye towards the future, the exhibit will feature fashions from contemporary designers including Thebe Magugu (South Africa), Lafalaise Dion (Cote dIvoire), and Gouled Ahmed (Djibouti), as well as some very exciting names that have yet to be announced. If last autumns fabulous Mugler exhibit is any indication, this will be very special.

The Brooklyn Museum is also bracing for the opening of the citys buzziest Picasso retrospective (there will be more to come as part of the global Picasso celebrations to mark 50 years since the iconic painters death). Its Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby opens June 2do not let the pun of the title, nor questions around comedian Gadsby serving as curator, deter you from attending. This exhibition promises prominent Picasso pieces from the Musee Picasso, Museum of Modern Art, and the museums own as well as private collections for your viewing pleasure, along with conversation with twentieth- and twenty-first century feminist artists such as Cindy Sherman and Laurie Simmons.

Whitney Museum of American Art

Now through August, the Whitney is presenting Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map, the first New York retrospective on the long-undersung Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation artist. On display here are Smiths drawings, prints, paintings, and sculptures, fine examples of American Pop art and Neo-Expressionism. Within the same window, the museum has Josh Kline: Project for a New American Centurya collection of moving image, science-fiction works examining the potential futures on our horizon with an eye towards the climate crisis.

Jonathan Dorado

Museum of Modern Art

The folks at MoMas main headquarters are busy as ever, with five major exhibitions on the docket for the spring and summer season. Already underway through August 12, Georgia OKeeffe: To See Takes Time showcases over 120 pieces from four decades of OKeeffes portfolioexpect works on paper and key paintings sorted by their key motifs for a better appreciation of the ideas OKeeffe would return to time and time again.

Coming soon to Midtown is The Encounter: Barbara Chase-Riboud/Alberto Giacometti (May 5-October 9), a collection inspired by the Paris meeting of two expatriate sculptors in 1962. Then, American Barbara Chase-Riboud paid the first of several visits to Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacomettis Montparsse studio. Now, their sculptures will share a gallery at MoMA in celebration of what became a shared visual language. MoMAs New Photography exhibition series also returns on May 28, this time featuring seven artists from Lagoss art community.

MoMA PS1

Over in Long Island City, MoMA PS1 has no less on offer than its sister institution. The highlight here is Standing on the Corner: Seven Prepared Pianos for the Seven African Powers (June 1October 9), where avant-garde musical ensemble Standing on the Corner will unveil an exciting audiovisual exhibition concerned with the African and Puerto Rico diasporic communities in New York City. Plan your visit around set performance dates, to be announced, for live accompaniment, but even if you wind up wandering through during off-hours, youll still be able to enjoy the installation.

Installa(on view, Sarah Sze: Timelapse, Slice, 2023, March 31September 10, 2023, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photo: David Heald  Solomon R. Guggenheim Founda(on, New York David Heald/Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

Deborah Feingold

Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum

A more romantic take on Picasso can be found at the Guggenheim, where Young Picasso in Paris will open May 12 and run through August 6. With just 10 works, all created within a single year of the artists stay in the French capital, this is an intense yet lovely look at a lesser-known period of Picassos career with the Guggenheim collections own Le Moulin de la Galette (1900) as the star. Guggenheims other two exhibitions Sarah Sze: Timelapse and Gego: Measuring Infinity opened on March 31 and run through September 10the former, full of Szes site-specific interventions meditating on the digital age; the latter, a stimulating collection of sculpture and textile from one of the great twentieth-century artists.

Originally Appeared on Conde Nast Traveler
The claim: Japan is sending tanks to Ukraine

An April 18 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows a series of clips depicting soldiers in action and military equipment on the move.

"Japan Has Warned Russia for the Last Time: Japanese Tanks are on Their Way to Ukraine! Big Support," reads the video's caption.

The video was shared more than 100 times and viewed more than 80,000 times in two weeks.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Our rating: False

There is no evidence that Japan is sending tanks to Ukraine. The country has strict rules that prevent it from sending weapons to countries involved in a conflict. Japan has sanctioned Russia and provided financial aid to Ukraine.

Japan has given financial aid to Ukraine, but no weapons

Japan has imposed sanctions against Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, and it has provided Ukraine with economic support and some equipment, including helmets, bulletproof vests and drones, according to a PBS NewsHour report.

But Japan hasn't sent tanks or any other weapons to Ukraine.

There is no mention of a plan to send tanks to Ukraine in any recent statements released by Japan's defense or foreign affairs ministries. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Ukraine in late March, but multiple news reports about his visit don't say anything about sending tanks.

Fact check Israel has given humanitarian aid to Ukraine but isn't fighting there

Japan has not sent weapons to Ukraine, but it has pledged about $5.5 billion in financial aid, according to the Associated Press. There have been no reputable media reports of a plan to send tanks.

Japan has strict rules that "effectively forbid (it) from exporting weapons or defense equipment to countries involved in conflicts," according to The Japan Times. However, Japan has considered revising those rules to allow weapons to be sent to countries fighting off an invasion.

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Multiple countries, including the U.S., U.K. and Germany, have committed to sending tanks to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia, but Japan has not yet made such a commitment.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Check Your Fact also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant fromFacebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Japan has provided financial aid to Ukraine, but no tanks
TikTok is facing a complete ban in the United States amid Chinese surveillence and interference fears (The Associated Press)

Australia has become the latest country to ban TikTok from government devices due to security concerns surrounding the Chinese-owned app.

It follows similar bans from the US, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, the EU and UK, while India and Afghanistan have enforced complete bans of the viral video app

The ban comes amid growing worries that China could use the company, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, to harvest users data to advance its political agenda, undermining Western security interests.

It also risks renewing diplomatic tension between Australia and its largest trading partner after things eased somewhat since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took office in May at the head of a Labor government.

TikTok said it was extremely disappointed by Australias decision, calling it driven by politics, not by fact.

The ban will come into effect as soon as practicable, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said in a statement, adding that exemptions would only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security measures in place.

With Australias ban, all members of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network  which consists of Australia, Canada, the United States, Britain and New Zealand  have banned the app from government devices.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, in testimony before the US Congress last month, repeatedly denied that the app shares data or has connections with the Chinese Communist Party.

TikToks Australia and New Zealand General Manager Lee Hunter said TikTok should not be singled out.

There is no evidence to suggest that TikTok is in any way a security risk to Australians and should not be treated differently to other social media platforms, Hunter said in a statement.

The Australian newspaper late on Monday reported Albanese had agreed to the ban after a review by the Home Affairs department.

Dreyfus confirmed the federal government had recently received a Review into Foreign Interference through Social Media Applications report and that its recommendations remained under consideration.

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The ban comes on the day Australian and Chinese officials held talks in Beijing in a bid to normalise trade as the World Trade Organization prepares to release findings into an Australian complaint on barley tariffs.

Things are going well, but of course, itll take some time to turn this ship around, Trade Minister Don Farrell told Sky News, referring to prospects for improving trade relations.

In 2018, Australia banned Chinas Huawei from providing equipment during the rollout of its 5G network, riling China. Ties soured further after Canberra called for an independent investigation into the origin of Covid-19.

China responded by imposing tariffs on Australian commodities.

Australian lawmakers can still use TikTok on personal phones but some, including federal Government Services Minister Bill Shorten and Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews, have decided to delete their accounts.

While TikTok comes under mounting pressure over the potential Chinese influence over the platform, it also faces criticism over its influence on children.

TikTok has said the administration of President Joe Biden demanded its Chinese owners divest their stakes or face a potential US ban.

A bipartisan Senate bill known as the RESTRICT Act would give the White House new powers to ban apps and other technologies coming from China if passed.

Additional reporting from agencies.
Photo: Courtesy of Behno

In our long-running series "How I'm Making It," we talk to people making a living in the fashion and beauty industries about how they broke in and found success.

What would the fashion world look like if we centered and celebrated the people that labored to physically create product? At Behno, a handbag line founded by Shivam Punjya, we get to see that Utopian ideal as a full-fledged reality. Punjya didn't set out to build a fashion brand, though, but rather something more humble: a factory.

Last week marked 10 years since Rana Plaza, a garment factory in Bangladesh, collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people. It was the deadliest accident in the history of the garment industry. That incident changed the course of Punjya's work and life, eventually putting him on the path to establishing Behno. (The word means "sisters" in Hindi.)

Behno's bags are handmade in India, in factories governed by a set of overarching guidelines called the Behno Standard, which aims to chart a new course in the welfare of workers in the global garment trade by providing them with access to healthcare, family planning, worker mobility and satisfaction and gender rights.

Punjya, who's New York-based, realizes he's part of a very privileged industry: "How do we use this space to make some sort of change when this industry impacts so many people globally?" is a question he's regularly asking himself. "I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I'm a Cancer," he offers by way of explanation while talking about how he's been emotional since he was a child, impacted by the world's disparities.

Ahead, we talk to Punjya about what he's learnt from putting workers first, Behno's India expansion with a mega Bollywood brand ambassador, how being in New York grounds him and crystallizes his vision and more.

Photo: Courtesy of Behno

How did you find your way into the fashion industry?

I had a very non-traditional journey into fashion. In grad school, I was writing my thesis on folic acid supplementation for women of reproductive age and doing my study in Jaipur and Hyderabad, in India. A lot of our study participants were textile weavers. At the time, I didn't really think much of their livelihood  I was focused on collecting the data for my research. Then, Rana Plaza collapsed. That was a very emotional moment, because just a few months before, I was literally in the field working with a lot of women very similar to those that were murdered in that atrocity. It just shook me up, and it was a little too close to home, even though I spent only six months with the study population.

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I was talking about it with my family. I have a big family of two moms and two dads  my mom's younger sister married my dad's younger brother, and we lived in one home in California. It's like a joint family, which used to be very common in India and now is less so, but very uncommon here. My dads essentially gave me one piece of advice: Either you have to make peace with it, or you do something about it.

I was going to go into consulting  had everything lined up  and then decided not to. I wanted to build a factory in India that re-envisioned what traditional manufacturing looks like, and include garment workers and artisans at the center of that narrative.

So you built the back end first?

I always knew that top-down policies are not very effective, especially when community members aren't involved in the conversation. The Behno Standard is bottom-up. I spent about eight months in India visiting factories and talking to garment workers. I then went back to California, lived in libraries and tried to do as much research as I could on what garment workers wanted and valued, rather than what outsiders thought they valued.

What did you hear from workers about what they really wanted?

This was the first time they were even asked what they valued or what mattered to them. That was a huge key takeaway, because it's as simple as engaging someone in a conversation or giving them a seat at the table. Sometimes, a lot of them don't know what to say because they feel this fear of overstepping. There are power dynamics and gender dynamics. While I did some of the focus groups, we also made sure that I wasn't the only one, because I'm still an outsider  a man from California  which also changes the conversation. We wanted to make sure we had key informants.

The things that we thought mattered weren't necessarily the top things they prioritized, because of social dynamics. For example, for us, it was very much about fair wages, but that's like the baseline. That's something most people should already be doing. For them, events like weddings are financially prioritized over healthcare, but when there's a medical emergency, it becomes a financial burden. So [getting them] access to health care clinics was important. It helped us figure out how to use our resources to bridge those gaps, given the nuance of the communities that we're working with.

Could you explain a little bit about how you implement the Behno Standard?

A lot of [factories] are doing good work  it's just about augmenting the social programming they do, or providing a methodology for them to better their practices.

What we implement in the north of India is very different from the south. There are a lot more women working in factories in south India versus the north. Then, the leather industry is very male-driven. It's not a cookie-cutter approach. The Behno Standard has, over time, become a gold standard, like our North Star. That's what we strive for, and then we extract from it whatever is applicable to the different regions and factories that we work with.

Photo: Courtesy of Behno

What was your vision for the design and aesthetic of the brand back then?

I never really envisioned a brand. When we built the factory, a lot of people were concerned about what the factory could manufacture, so we wanted to create a small collection to show what quality our factory could produce. But in that process, we got a little bit of attention  like, 'Oh, this sensibility is interesting.' That's how Behno was born.

There were three presumptions that I kept hearing about Made in India at the time: that it was low quality, created in sweatshops and hippy-dippy in aesthetic. The third presumption was just ignorant to me, because India does phenomenal tailored pieces  we have tailoring houses literally making the world's best pieces for larger brands. I was trying to demonstrate to the world that India can make a minimal, well-constructed product that's not made in a sweatshop.

I also had my own sensibility in terms of design, which was a bit more clinical and modern, wanting to showcase that not everything that comes from India can be pigeonholed into a certain aesthetic.

Our first collection was Fall 2015. It was ready-to-wear, which we did for about five seasons. Then we took a break and pivoted to handbags about four years ago. We started designing handbags just as a stylistic element for lookbooks, but buyers started paying attention to them. We started to realize that our social impact was as important as our financial business, because without us making products that are moving, we're not making a social impact. So we made a 100% pivot to handbags. We now do some ready-to-wear, but it's more curated.

What do you wish the average person on the street knew about the fashion industry and how it works?

It'd be nice if consumers challenged how they approach the 'made in' conversation. A product made in developing countries can be amazing, if not better, than a product that's made in a country in the West that we hold in high [esteem], like Spain, Italy or France.

Something else I would encourage consumers to ask themselves is how often they introduce new pieces into their wardrobe. The 'it' bag should really be seasonless. It's the one in your wardrobe you keep going to over and over. It's nice to celebrate great design, but there's a rat race in our industry to constantly come up with something that's going to break through the noise. We should look at what's been sitting in our wardrobes that we haven't been using, why that's the case and how we can stop making those mistakes.

Photo: Courtesy of Behno

What are the design elements that you put into Behno bags that make them enduring pieces?

Our signature design element is the knot, used in a couple of our bags. At first glance, it's a knot  it's cute. But for us, it's very much a symbol of communities coming together, holding hands.

If you open our bags, the tops of some of the locks are in the shape of a wave, which is a nod towards sustainability. We also have our signature leathers, a pebbled leather and a Nappa leather.

Behno is rooted in minimalism. Our code redefined what new luxury is for us, and that's some combination of impact, heritage and craftsmanship, at this price point. Luxury doesn't have to be a product that's expensive. You can have a luxuriously-made product that's more accessible.

Behno has recently become available in India. Tell us more about the Indian expansion and what white space you hope to fill in that market.

About two years ago, we realized that we have huge engagement from India, both on our site and on social media. And it started to kind of bother me that we weren't distributed in the Indian market. I don't want to call myself colonial, so to speak, but I started wondering, 'What am I really doing with India? I'm manufacturing everything proudly there while focusing on our ethics, but we're extracting. We're not really servicing the Indian client.' So we started thinking about bringing the product in a meaningful way to India.

There are a lot of phenomenal brands in India, but our sense of minimalism and modernism, as well as the quality of the bags at this price point, [is what will set us apart]. We aren't one of those logomania brands. Now people are talking about quiet luxury, and we're more of a quiet luxury brand.

You've also got a huge Bollywood actress, Katrina Kaif, as a brand ambassador and investor. Why was that important?

We realized that in a space like India, we needed an ambassador that was a global citizen. I reached out to Katrina's team with very little expectation, but she was really gracious. We clicked before we even started talking about the business aspect. She was pulling up photo shoots to send references for campaigns  it was really nice to have someone so engaged in that initial conversation. She didn't really know anything about Behno but over time she started to learn a lot and wanted to invest in the company.

She also represents who we are as a brand. We're global in nature. The Indian consumer is very discerning, and that goes back to deep practices that South Asia has had for generations... In India, we have both Western-centric dressing and also a South Asian sense of dressing, and they cross lines all the time.

Do you have any suggestions for other brands who may be wanting to pay similar attention to welfare practices for their workers?

Being on the ground, visiting the factories and spending time in the countries that you're manufacturing in is the most important thing. It's the only way we can have conversations with factory owners and garment workers, to understand what their day to day is. When you're on the factory floor, you see much more than just a product  you're seeing the working relationship. And once we see something, it's hard to unsee it. But if you're sitting behind a computer in New York, you don't see it, and ignorance is bliss.

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Because bigger is better.

Cindy Ord/MG23/Getty Images

Are you ready for a big hair era? Well buckle up, because the iconic bold hairstyle of the 50s is back in a voluminous way.

The bouffant hairstyle, known for its glossy puff often at the crown of the head, has been a staple for women across decades. The look is said to have started in France, then made popular in the 50s thanks to the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O, and now celebs everywherefrom Anne Hathaway to Sydney Sweeneyare rocking the voluminous do, too.

I think the modern way is to not wear it as perfectly as it was in the 50s, says Nunzio Saviano, hairstylist and founder of Nunzio Saviano Salon. Its a glamorous hairstyle but you can add simple accessories like headbands to make it wearable for every day.

If youre ready to embrace all that volume and puff, keep reading to find out how to style the bouffant.

How to Create The Bouffant

If youre trying to create a more glamorous bouffant a la Anne Hathaway at the Met Gala, we asked her hairstylist Orlando Pita how to achieve the look.

First, make sure youre working with clean hair and apply a styling foam, like Orlando Pita Play Great Inflate Air Whipped Styling Foam, to bring on the fullness before prepping the hair for styling. After a blow out and quick styling using a 1-inch barrel curling iron, apply a volume-boosting hairspray to increase fullness and shine. Tease generously and complete the look by wisping your hair back. You can also add a hair piece in the back to create that perfectly romantic half-updo.

For a more every-day puff, Lisa Epperson, stylist for NYC salon FEKKAI Soho, recommends an easy 3-step process:

Apply mousse or a volumizing spray to wet hair to give you visible lift at the root and give the appearance of thicker hair (pro tip: use a product that also has a heat protectant agent, like the FEKKAI Root Lift Volume Spray).

Blow out hair with a large round brush and use Velcro rollers to set each section for extra volume

Comb out and backcomb hair at the crown while leaving out some face-framing pieces. Either pin the sides up for a half-up half-down hairstyle or leave down. Finish off the look with a hairspray.

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ButHow Do You Undo It?

All that hairspray can be daunting to remove, but its not difficult to undo.

First and foremost, you must brush out your hair starting from the ends and moving your way up to the crown in sections. The trick is to make sure youre using a flexible hold hairspray as it gives you all the hold you need while being able to brush out easily, says Epperson. Once brushed though, make sure to follow up with a scalp massage and use a scalp scrub to remove any product build-up.



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Read the original article on Real Simple.
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

SPEAKER MCCARTHY MEETS WITH TAIWANS PRESIDENT AT REAGAN LIBRARY

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley played host to a meeting Wednesday that is likely to produce political shockwaves.

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, and a bipartisan contingent of lawmakers  including Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Fontana, the third-ranking Democrat in the House  met with the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, despite concerns that such a meeting could provoke China.

It is the first known meeting on U.S. soil between a House Speaker, second in line for the presidency, and the president of Taiwan since the U.S. formally broke ties with Taiwan in 1979, according to the AP.

In a press conference with Tsai on Wednesday, McCarthy called Taiwan a successful democracy, thriving economy, and global leader in heallth and science.

The friendship between the people of Taiwan and America is a matter of profound importance to the free world, and it is critical to maintain economic freedom, peace and regional stability, McCarthy said.

Taiwan, formally called the Republic of China, has been separate from China, formally the Peoples Republic of China, for nearly three-quarters of a century.

Though the United States has maintained close ties with Taiwan it walks a very fine line in doing so without angering China. The two countries do not have formal diplomatic relations. For example, President Tsais visit to California isnt being referred to as a state visit, but rather as a transit en route to Central America, according to the Associated Press.

While the meeting didnt generate wall-to-wall media coverage in America  being somewhat overshadowed by Tuesdays criminal arraignment of former President Donald Trump  but as Politico columnist Jonathan Martin noted on Twitter, it is likely to be a huge deal in Beijing.

It will get a fraction of US media attention as Trump but this image is gonna detonate in China, Martin wrote.

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CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM LED TO DECREASED SCHOOL PERFORMANCE, PPIC REVEALS

California students are still reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a spike in chronic absenteeism, according to a recent blog post from the Public Policy Institute of California.

In 2021-22, 30% of public school students missed at least 10% of the school year (18 days or more), according to the PPIC. This led to poorer performance on the Smarter Balanced English and math tests, especially math.

For example, schools that experienced an increase in absenteeism of about 18 percentage points (the median increase across schools) saw roughly a 2.5 percentage point decline in English proficiency and a 4.2 percentage point decline in math proficiency, according to the PPIC.

However, the PPIC points out that correlation doesnt necessarily mean causation.

It could be that the same factors are responsible for both changes, according to the post, which listed possible factors as pandemic deaths or illnesses in the community.

However, even if the relationship between chronic absenteeism and proficiency is not causal, it may have profound implications for learning recovery, the PPIC post read.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Any doubt in your mind, given his Twitter feed for last 6 months, his jargon, PAC creation, & trip to Rep strongholds that @GavinNewsom is infinitely more focused on anything other than California? Wouldnt it be nice if he hunkered down to focus on issues here- like housing $$?

- Assemblyman Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin, via Twitter.

Best of The Bee:
Lutz Huelle, who nailed his first collaboration with AZ Factory in October, is back for an encore, and a recurrent role helming pre-collections, WWD has learned.

His next product story, to be unveiled next month for the pre-spring 2024 season, also comes with a heightened commitment to sustainability, with the aim of creating half the collection from deadstock materials.

More from WWD

Predicated on joy, the collection is to expand on themes from Huelles first effort, which perfectly captured the offhand couture look pioneered by AZ Factorys late founder Alber Elbaz.

The first collaboration with AZ Factory was the most fabulous and inspiring experience, and Im overjoyed at being able to continue to collaborate with this incredible team, Huelle told WWD. The spirit and values of AZ Factory have always been an integral part of my own work, and I cant wait to start working on this next chapter.

Huelles raw-edged tailoring, cocktail dresses, billowing poplin shirts and crisply cut denim pieces are currently selling briskly on the AZ Factory online store, according to Mauro Grimaldi, a Richemont executive.

A look from AZ Factory by Lutz Huelle for spring 2023.

Its performing very well, he enthused, noting that the spring 2023 collection was also wholesaled to about 30 top international retailers including Selfridges and Matchesfashion in the U.K., Saks Fifth Avenue in the U.S., 10 Corso Como and Sugar in Italy, Printemps in France, and I.T in China.

Huelle recently made personal appearances for his AZ Factory effort at specialty store Andreas Murkudis in Berlin, and Bongenie Grieder in Geneva, where the designer returns regularly as head of the fashion and accessories design department at art and design school HEAD.

AZ Factory is a joint venture between Compagnie Financiere Richemont and Elbaz, billed as a creative hub for smart, solutions-driven fashions that care.

So far, it has clocked eight collaborations with guest amigos including Thebe Magugu, Ester Manas, Cyril Bourez, ShelterSuit and Tennessy Thoreson. Molly Molloy and Lucinda Chambers, the duo behind the Colville label, created an AZ Factory range for fall 2023 retailing.

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Huelle was the first seasoned, established talent to work with the creative studio Elbaz had assembled before dying from COVID-19 in April 2021.

Grimaldi, a strategic adviser to Philippe Fortunato, chief executive officer of fashion and accessories maisons at Richemont, said establishing pre-collections, which offer a longer full-price selling window, lays a more solid commercial foundation for AZ Factory after an initial period of experimentation.

The brand plans to continue participating in Paris Fashion Weeks, inviting mainly absolute beginners to take a a crack at couture, and a rotating cast of guest amigos for the main womens ready-to-wear runway showcases.

Its studio also continues to turn out product stories, with a range of printed silk pajamas due out this summer.

Grimaldi lauded that Huelle fully embraced the AZ Factory opportunity, which he sees as a creative exchange between a guest designer and AZs studio and atelier.

It really resonated with what Alber had in mind  to do fashion that is practical, and that empowers women in an environment that is joyful, Grimaldi said. The real beauty of this project is that what comes out is something greater than just the sum of the two creative teams.

We are a factory; we are a laboratory, he continued. This is a place where you can experiment with new ideas and you can do something that you might not consider in your own brand.

Grimaldi stressed that AZ Factory is not looking for tributes to Elbazs design legacy, and therefore does not search for guest talents whose fashions resemble what the Israeli designer became known for at a succession of European houses, including Guy Laroche, Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche and Lanvin.

We think the best tribute to Alber is supporting people who are super creative, and at the same time have values, but not necessary clothes, in common with him.

Grimaldi said hes unfazed that the guest designer strategy keeps proliferating, with Lanvin the latest to announce its establishing a Lanvin Lab for creative partnerships.

The executive noted that most European players who invite rotating guest creatives, such as Jean Paul Gaultier, play the heritage card, whereas we are much more into the experimental and

unpredictable side of the curation.

We are not a heritage brand. Alber did not have time to create codes, he explained. We underline more and more the identity of being a factory.

Grimaldi sidestepped questions about the precise duration of the recurrent collaboration with Huelle, characterizing it as open-ended. Lets say that its as long as both sides consider that it is joyful to do that, he said with a smile.

Huelle and partner David Ballu founded the Lutz brand in Paris in 2000 and it has been a mainstay of the Paris calendar. Over the years, Huelle has also consulted for brands including SMax Mara, Brioni and Delpozo.

A Central Saint Martins graduate, Huelle cut his teeth at Maison Martin Margiela, which he joined in 1995 and where he became responsible for the development of its knitwear and Artisanal lines. He won Frances prestigious ANDAM fashion award in 2000 and 2002.

Best of WWD

Click here to read the full article.
This article originally appeared on Outside

Gabby Beckford told her story to producer Stepfanie Aguilar for an episode of The Daily Rally podcast. It has been edited for length and clarity.

In Iceland in the summer, the sun doesnt go down except for four hours. So, everyone just slowly goes to bed. Were talking about the next day making plans and stuff. And Im sweating. Im like, I am such an idiot. If they find out, theyre gonna be mad at me. Or if they find out, theyre gonna be like, Why are we letting kids on this trip?

I am a military kid through and through, so Ive moved around my whole life. Today, Im in Tacoma, Washington.

By the end of high school, back in Stafford, Virginia, I was so burnt out. I was so academically focused that I think thats where I got a lot of my self worth, proving myself and getting those As.

I didnt do the typical movie high school things. So now going into college, how can I balance having fun and making memories and meeting people, having a good quality of life, and doing what Im supposed to be doing?

Because of financial reasons, it was a college that was an hour away. And I was like, Oh my God, Im only going an hour away. Where is the adventure? Where is the razzle dazzle?

So, in that interim summer between high school and college, I stumbled upon a trip to Iceland that was half in the city, the capital Reykjavik, and half backpacking through the wilderness. And I thought, This is what Im looking for. This will set me up for college, and it will help me manifest the person that I wanna be in college and the people I wanna surround myself with. Im gonna start off with a cool challenge. It just sounded great on paper.

Did I do any research before I went? No. Did I look at how fit I had to be to backpack the Laugavegur Trail for four days? No. I really went based off vibes.

First hiking day, I was in the front, I was just high on adrenaline and endorphins, and every photo I have, if its a selfie, everyone else is in the back of me. Im running up the hills, these beautiful rainbow colored sand hills and these glaciers. And Im like, Life is amazing. This was my first real backpacking and outdoors experience.

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Other people were in college already, and there was a college professor who was there, who was around 40. So I was the youngest, I was the only person of color. I was one of three women. I was like, what am I doing here?

But from high school doing such advanced classes, I was used to being the youngest person in the room anyway. Now going into college and just getting out of high school, I wanted to not be perceived like that anymore.

So, on this trip, Im like, Okay, this is my chance. Im gonna be tough. Im gonna transform. Its gonna make a man out of me. Were gonna be good.

So its the end of the first day. Everyones like, "Alright, take out your sleeping bags and take out your tents." Everyone knew we were all sharing a tent each. The other girl Id met on the trip was like, "Oh so were sharing a tent." Were getting along pretty well. We put up the tent and shes like, "Take out your sleeping bag. Lets make sure we can both fit."

And I was like, What? They have sleeping bags?

I had a flashback in that moment to hiking, and I was like, Everyone is so slow. This bag is so light, yall are acting like this is so heavy. I did not have a sleeping bag. I don't know why I thought that someone else was carrying it, or maybe I just thought they compacted so well that one guy was carrying all of them.

I didnt have a sleeping bag. I was like, "Girl, psst." Shes like, "What?" Im like, "Were in trouble."

And of course were already in the wilderness. If I had thought of this yesterday, I could have bought one. No. So, I was like, "Please dont tell them. I dont want them to worry. I dont want someone to have to leave the trip and go get a sleeping bag."

My focus was to not bring down the trip, really. Everyone else was very experienced in the outdoors, had been backpacking before, had been hiking and had the best gear. And I was an imposter.

Luckily, the girl who I was talking to, shes five-foot-ten, and Im five-foot-two, and shes like, "I mean we could probably work something out. We wont tell them now, but well see how this goes."

I put my little jacket on, I think Ill be fine. Ultimately, we ended up back to back sausaged into this sleeping bag. Face to face, back to back. It was just a weird thing. It just kind of worked out. We were back spooning each other, and we had to turn our heads to peek out for air, and we just cocooned together.

I think anyone else wouldve been like, "This is an invasion of personal space. Why do I have to do this with this girl?" But, she was very nice. She pitied me, and Im grateful.

The next day I was feeling very sore, but I thought the terrain really couldnt get worse than what it was because it was very vertical. And thats when theyre like, Okay, were going into the Dragons Nest, which is volcanic spiky rocks. It's like bouldering. Just huge boulders you have to navigate. Iceland is absolutely gorgeous, and the appeal of the country is how variable its landscape could be.

But it shocked me and beat my ass.

The wind was absolutely blistering the next day. We couldnt even hear each other, the wind was so loud. And I think the third night was when I was the coldest to my bones. I was squeezed into that sleeping bag with that girl; were back to back. And I remember just laying in my hot dog sleeping bag, tears going down my face. Because it was so hard.

I also remember in that moment thinking, Do I wish I hadnt come? And I was like, No, I would rather be doing this than being back in that time period where I felt really limited to my studies or limited to high school, and I couldnt explore the world around me.

In those hardest moments, I could still feel myself growing.

That first day I was overexcited and suffered for it later. So, the next day, I made sure to drink a lot of water and take rests when I needed to. And so, though it was difficult, I could feel every day I was getting better and better.

The biggest risk that I felt wasnt my physical wellbeing. It was that I was dragging down the team, or that anxiety that I wasnt doing as well as everyone else was. Which is why I think I overcompensated in the beginning, being in the front of the pack and not asking for anything on the trip, or going into the trip. Not being like, "Hey, can you double check my pack to make sure I have everything?" I guess I didnt wanna show that weakness.

If I could go back to that version of myself at 17, I would say, Have confidence in yourself and go for it. Dont be afraid of looking stupid. I think I would just tell myself its okay to be new at something. Its okay to be bad at things at the beginning. You just have to start and thats how you become good at them. So I would just say be bad. Do it anyway.

Since her first backpacking trip at age 17, Gabby Beckford has become an intrepid adventurer, traveling to 47 countries, 14 of them solo. You can follow her many adventures on Instagram @packslight.

You can follow The Daily Rally on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you like to listen, and nominate someone to be featured on the show here.

For exclusive access to all of our fitness, gear, adventure, and travel stories, plus discounts on trips, events, and gear, sign up for Outside+ today.
Prosafe SE

With reference to press release dated 8 December 2022, the Safe Zephyrus semi-submersible vessel for safety and maintenance support has as planned commenced the firm commitment period of 650 days on 30 April 2023 offshore Brazil with Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras).

In preparation for operations, contract and regulatory compliance scopes were performed en-route to and whilst in Brazil ensuring that the Safe Zephyrus could efficiently commence contract.

Jesper K. Andresen, CEO of Prosafe says: Prosafe set a goal of commencing contract with Petrobras on 1 May 2023, and this has been successfully achieved early. This success is a testament to the capabilities and focus of the organisation with collaboration between the North Sea and Brazil business units, and we look forward to a successful operational contract period.

Prosafe is a leading owner and operator of semi-submersible accommodation vessels. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange with ticker code PRS. For more information, please refer to www.prosafe.com





Stavanger, 3 May 2023

Prosafe SE



For further information, please contact:



Jesper K. Andresen, CEO

Phone: +47 51 65 24 30 / +47 907 65 155



Reese McNeel, CFO

Phone: +47 47 51 64 25 17 / +47 415 08 186



This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.




Indiana's Georgetown Drive-In will celebrate Kentucky Derby weekend by opening for the summer season, with an upcoming Marvel movie set to hit the screen first.

The drive-in theater, at 8200 State Road 64 in Georgetown, will open May 5, it said on its website, with a showing of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

The Georgetown Drive-In opened in 1951 with only one screen. The historic theater, now equipped with two screens, celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2021.

Audio from movies shown on the screen is transmitted through FM radio, though drive-in window speakers are available "for the nostalgically inclined," the website said. It's a cash-only business with a playground and a snack bar that serves popcorn, hot dogs, sodas and other movie fare.

More: Party on Main Street! Summer Beer Fest to bring 200+ brews to downtown Louisville

More: Date night, mimosas and trivia: Louisville Zoo to host spring and summer events for adults

Reach Ana Rocio Alvarez Brinez at abrinez@gannett.com; follow her on Twitter at @SoyAnaAlvarez.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Georgetown Drive-In theater opens in May with Guardians of the Galaxy
Sen. Linda Ujifusa is sponsoring a bill that would amend state law to allow veterans of the United States National Guard who served in military conflicts to receive exemptions on their property taxes.

The brave men and women who served in combat areas in the National Guard should be eligible for the same tax benefits as our other veterans, said Ujifusa, D-Portsmouth, in a press release. This bill is the least we can do to show our appreciation for their sacrifice.

Speaking to The Daily News, Ujifusa, who is a member of the Senate Special Legislation and Veterans Affairs Committee, was quick to give credit for the proposal to her predecessor in District 11.

Members of the Rhode Island National Guard 43rd Military Police Brigade gathered with family for a departure ceremony in 2022. A bill filed by R.I. state Sen. Linda Ujifusa would extend property tax exemptions to members of the National Guard.

My predecessor Jim Seveney had been working on it, she explained, and when I first got elected he flagged this.

She said she has not discussed the bill with any constituents, but called it a no-brainer to include National Guard veterans alongside veterans of the active duty branches of the US armed services.

State law provides a $1,000 property tax exemption to veterans who served in active conflict settings

Under current state law (Section 44-3-4 of RI General Laws entitled "Property Subject to Taxation"), active duty military veterans who served in a war, conflict or undeclared war  including every veteran who served from 1947-1991 during the Cold War  are eligible for a $1,000 exemption on their property taxes.

Iraq War anniversary: Newport veterans reflect on service, society and the legacy of the Iraq War

There is an additional tax exemption for veterans who were prisoners of war, an additional $10,000 exemption from local taxation on real property for some disabled veterans and disabled veterans who own homesteads acquired or modified with a grant from the VA may be completely tax exempt. Some municipalities have also passed ordinances providing larger exemptions to combat veterans.

Veterans of the National Guard are not eligible for such exemptions, even if they were deployed to a conflict zone.

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The National Guard has frequently been deployed to combat settings throughout American history

You would think National Guard veterans would be included naturally, and they would get the same benefits, said Anselm Richards, a National Guard veteran who fought in Iraq and now serves as the Newport VFW post commander. My ID card never said National Guard; it said Army. Why would we not be treated the same? I wear the same uniform, I take the same tests, Im held to the same standard and I fight the same enemy.

Noting the history of service of guardsmen predates the establishment of the United States, Richards continued, Whats fair is fair  bullets dont discriminate, right? Tours of duty dont discriminate. Why are we treating one veteran or one servicemember any different than another?

Housing: Development adding 91 condos on Portsmouth, Middletown border advances. What to expect.

The Rhode Island National Guard traces its history from the Trainee Band in Portsmouth, which was the first colonial defensive force established in Rhode Island on May 13, 1638. Since then the RI National Guard has served in conflicts including World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Noble Eagle and Operation Iraqi Freedom. In these latter three operations, part of what the federal government has nebulously termed the Global War on Terror, the RI Guard suffered its first combat casualties since World War II.

Sen. Louis Dipalma, D-Middletown, who heads the finance committee where Ujifusas bill is currently waiting to be discussed, agrees that National Guard combat veterans deserve to be included in the tax exemption.

Dipalma, who said he expected the bill to come up on the finance committees docket in late April or May, said, (National Guard combat veterans) categorically should be includedanything involving money you have to talk about the policy first. Put the money aside. We should do it if its the right policy, and then we have to figure out if we can afford it.

Municipal property tax exemptions for Newport County combat veterans

 Newport: the property tax exemption for combat veterans is $4,000.

 Tiverton: the town council may provide an additional tax credit of $200 or greater.

 Little Compton: may exempt real property of totally disabled veterans up to $6,000.

 Middletown: may exempt the real property of totally disabled veterans in the amount of $5,000.

 Portsmouth: may provide for an exemption of $2,000 on real property.

 Jamestown: may provide for a tax credit or exemption to any veteran of the United States armed services regardless of their qualified service dates, who was honorably discharged or who was discharged under conditions other than dishonorable, or to the unmarried widow or widower of that person.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Property tax exemptions in RI for National Guard proposed at Statehouse
Well, Kim Kardashian certainly quashed those rumors about the Kardashians not being invited to this year's Met Gala.

The 42-year-old entrepreneur and reality TV star attended fashion's most important event of the year in a Schiaparelli dress made entirely out of strands of pearls. The look was phenomenal, to say the least.

Alongside her, daughter North West rocked a white-and-pink tweet jacket by Chanel, blue jeans, and layers of Chanel necklaces.

So much for a Met Gala sans Kardashians; this year, even the next generation of Kardashians got a close-up look at the red carpet.

Reality star Kim Kardashian stepped out for the New York fashion event with her daughter, North West. Kardashian walked the red carpet solo, while North, Kardashian told Vogue on the red carpet, is actually in the car watching us all walk up the red carpet.

North and Kardashian were photographed leaving their hotel together though:

MEGA - Getty Images

Kardashian kept her dress in line with the evenings Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty theme. With her hair in a loose updo, Kardashian wore a sheer threaded taupe gown adorned with real pearl strings, while West matched in a white-and-pink tweet jacket by Chanel, blue jeans, and layers of Chanel necklaces.

Kardashian told Vogue of her red carpet look, This year I just wanted to feel glamorous. I really didnt feel the pressure. She added that she connected pearls with Lagerfeld and wanted to be dripping in them on the red carpet. Her look was designed by Schiaparelli.

Dimitrios Kambouris - Getty Images

Kardashian's appearance at the Met Gala comes after the entrepreneur got attention for wearing a transparent suit to her Time 100 Summit talk the week previously, also in New York City. Kardashian paired it with a bandeau top and matching heels. She wore her hair up.

Raymond Hall - Getty Images

At the event, Kardashian spoke about how she would be fine giving up her reality TV career to just practice law full time. Kardashian is currently doing a law apprenticeship, which is a route in California where she can become a lawyer without attending law school or even finishing a college degree. She said during her Time 100 talk that she intends to take the bar in February 2025.

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Of her own future, she quipped, I joke with my mom [Kris Jenner]who's my managerI say, Kim K is retiring, and I'm just going to be an attorney. So you can go help my siblings so you can still have a job.

I would be just as happy being an attorney full-time and doing that, she added. The journey just really opened up my eyes to so much. It gets overwhelming because there's so much to be done... I would totally spend more time doing thatcameras, no cameras.

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Nurses and health care providers rally outside PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield to demand more staffing.

About 50 nurses from Eugene, Springfield and surrounding areas gathered in a downpour Monday evening to rally for more staffing and support from PeaceHealth.

According to the Oregon Nurses Association, PeaceHealth Sacred Heart has nearly 300 nurse vacancies, which it says are contributing to longer wait times for patients. It is asking the health company to adopt safe staffing standards as part of contract negotiations.

One bill in the state Legislature, House Bill 2697, would establish nurse-to-patient ratios in certain hospital units in hopes that requiring the state to follow minimum staffing standards would help retain remaining nurses and encourage nursing staff to return to the state workforce.

Hospitals would be required to create staffing committees to develop hospital-wide staffing plans required to be submitted to the Oregon Health Authority.

The ratio would also extend to nursing assistants, making Oregon the first in the nation to do so, according to testimony from Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland, during a March work session.

The ratios outlined in the bill are:

One direct care registered nurse to one patient for emergency department trauma patients, patients in active labor or experiencing complications in the labor and delivery units, and patients in operating rooms.

One registered nurse to two patients in intensive care units, labor and delivery units for patients not experiencing active labor or complications, and in post-anesthesia care units.

One nurse to three patients in intermediate care units.

One nurse to four patients in oncology, cardiac telemetry, pediatric and medical-surgical units. Medical-surgical units will have until 2026 to implement the one-to-four ratio. It will be one to five until then.

Set ratios for psychiatric units are not outlined in the bill. Instead, a multidisciplinary subcommittee of the nurse staffing committee will be tasked with determining the staffing plan for that unit.

For certified nursing assistants, hospitals will not be allowed to assign them more than seven patients at a time during a day or evening shift and more than 11 patients at a time during a night shift.

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Rep. Travis Nelson, D-Portland, who is a nurse, called the legislation "a wonderful achievement" during an April 4 work session.

"It's something that appears to work for the hospitals and I know it's going to make the working conditions and the lives of our nurses and healthcare workers a lot better."

If signed into law, the bill would take effect Sept. 1 with nurse-to-patient ratios taking effect in June 2024 and new committees in December 2024. State enforcement would begin in June of 2025.

The bill was referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means Monday.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Nurses rally in Springfield for more staffing, support
While gas stove bans spread slowly city by city, the New York state legislature became the first in the nation to approve a ban on gas stoves across the entire state. On Tuesday, New York lawmakers approved the ban in many newly constructed commercial and residential buildings. The move, which is part of the state's $229 billion 2024 budget, is meant to decrease the states use of fossil fuels and the harmful effects of gas stoves.

For gas stove fanatics, theres no need to worry yet. The New York gas stove ban applies to new construction and will go into effect for buildings under seven stories in 2026. It will not affect taller buildings until 2029, and wont apply to gas stoves already installed in homes.

For commercial buildings, there are some exceptions. The budget requires exemptions such as emergency backup and standby power, [and] commercial food establishments as well as other critical infrastructure, says Governor Hochuls office.

The statewide ban follows a similar ban passed in New York City in 2021. That ban also has a delayed timeline and takes effect this December for buildings under seven stories and in 2027 for taller structures. New York City is not alone: More than 100 jurisdictions across the US have passed some form of legislation requiring zero emissions from buildings, in areas like Brookline, Massachusetts and Seattle, Washington.

Commercial and residential buildings contribute about 13% of all heat-trapping emissions, mostly from gas appliances like stoves. Whats perhaps more concerning about gas stoves is their effects on our health. While in use, gas stoves release nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde in harmful levels. Using a gas stove has proven to be harmful to cooks lungs, among other serious health risks.

The movement to ban gas stoves has been spreading across the country in recent years, often sparking heated partisan debates. Many Republicans argue that a ban on gas stoves is an overreach of governmental power, making the issue part of a newly drummed-up culture war around appliances. Dont tread on Florida, and dont mess with gas stoves! Ron DeSantis tweeted in January. God. Guns. Gas stoves, tweeted Jim Jordan that same day.

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A gas stove ban in Berkeley, California, which was passed in 2019, was also overturned just a few weeks ago, when the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals found it to violate the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975. The judge claimed that by limiting the fuel source of stoves, the ordinance bypassed a federal law that gives the government authority to set energy-efficiency standards for appliances. President Bidens administration has stated that he does not support a federal ban on gas stoves, but 20 states with Republican-controlled legislatures have passed preemptive laws that will prohibit bans on gas stoves.

Its clear gas stoves remain incredibly populartheyre used in around 40% of all US homes, and in a whopping 80% of American restaurants. But as gas stove bans continue to be considered in legislatures around the country, now at the state level, and as induction cooking becomes more popular, home cooks may need to find new methods of cooking. Who knows? Maybe theyll like it after all.

Originally Appeared on Bon Appetit
The specter of Greg Ballard is haunting the 2023 mayoral election. The colossal upset by the unknown Marine Corps veteran and political novice in 2007 remains a reference point for Indianapolis politics.

Could lightning strike twice? And what have both parties and their candidates learned from Ballards shocking victory? How much different are the issues and the voting patterns now as opposed to 16 years ago?

It wouldnt take long to exhaust the similarities between Ballard and the new Republican nominee for mayor, Jefferson Shreve.

Sure, their contests involved running against incumbents who won re-election handily the first go-around. Bart Peterson won re-election in 2003 by 25%. In 2019, Joe Hogsett was given another four years by 45 points.

They are both graduates of Indiana University and are seeking the mayors office at a time when crime, taxes and infrastructure concerns are top of mind for voters.

And thats about it.

Shreve is a former city-county councilor who has considerable experience interacting with voters. He also just reaped the windfall of his brilliant entrepreneurship  selling his company, Storage Express, for $590 million in 2022. Additionally, Shreve spent nearly $2M on campaign ads in the run-up to yesterdays primary.

Ballard served for 23 years as an officer in the Marine Corps, had no political background or network, raised less than $300,000 total, and, incredibly, didnt air a single television commercial until after Columbus Day.

2023 Marion Co. primary results: Indianapolis voters oust 3 Democratic incumbents from City-County Council

See the returns: Latest Indiana election results from counties around the state

The foundation of the comparison, clearly, is the Democratic stronghold that is Marion County. Petersons election in 1999 was the beginning of a string of victories that cemented the dominance of Democratic politics in Indianapolis.

Interrupted only by the twin triumphs of Carl Brizzi for prosecutor in 2002 and 2006 (Brizzi was one of the best natural campaigners Ive ever seen); and Ballards stunning upset in 2007 and hard-fought re-election in 2011, the Democrats are on a winning streak reminiscent of the GOP dominance that spanned four decades.

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Republican mayoral candidate Jefferson Shreve speaks on stage Tuesday, May 2, 2023, during his election night watch party at the Hotel Tango in Indianapolis.

The 2022 countywide election results testify to how things have changed since the days of Dick Lugar and Bill Hudnut. The Democrats won all six races on the ballot (with two races being unopposed) and captured more than 60% of the vote on average.

And while there is certainly an undercurrent of restlessness among the Marion County electorate this year, there are no signs  yet  that it will reach the fever pitch of 2007.

If the politically toxic brew of high crime and high taxes boils over in the next few months as it did in that watershed year, Shreve will represent an incumbents biggest nightmare: a well-funded challenger with a record matching the philosophy and concerns of nearly every voter.

More: Hogsett, Shreve win Indianapolis mayoral primaries

While Ballards victory was very much a bottom up grassroots phenomenon, Shreves advantages will allow him to implement a top down effort in which his campaigning is significantly reinforced by ads, mailers, and a lot of his own shoe leather.

Hell need any advantage he can get because Joe Hogsett is undeniably one of the most indefatigable campaigners and fundraisers in modern Indiana politics.

My curiosity will be piqued during town halls and the debates. Every reelection campaign is a referendum on the incumbent, and Mayor Hogsett will have to answer some difficult questions as to the direction and future of our beloved capital.

Shreve deserves enormous credit for taking on this challenge. With a 20 percentage point deficit in registered voters in Marion County, Republicans know that any political contest will be incredibly arduous. Shreve, however, has engaged some of the brightest political minds in the GOP, and he wont lack for the attention of people not happy with the status quo.

Shreve also has a renewed and vigorous Marion County Republican Party (under Chairman Joe Elseners leadership) to serve as his wingman.

Robert Vane

Do you think Indianapolis is safer, healthier, and more vibrant than it was eight years ago?

The voters answer to this question will determine the outcome of the election.

Robert Vane is the principal at public relations firm Veteran Strategies Inc. He was deputy chief of staff and communications director in the Mayor Greg Ballard administration and served in the United States Army.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: What Shreve can learn from Ballard's Indianapolis mayoral win in 2007
Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne may have officially retired from taking part in lengthy world tours, but as far as the man himself is confirmed, he'll continue playing shows every now and again, even if he has to be physically wheeled out to do them.

"I remember some good gigs and Ive done my fair share of fucking bad gigs," he tells Metal Hammer in an exclusive interview in their latest issue, conducted by none other than Tenacious D. "A guitar player can change his guitar. A drummer can change the drum. If my voice goes, Im fucked. One time I was at a gig at Nassau Coliseum in New York. On the way to the gig, my voice went out. The kids were already there and I thought, What the fuck am I gonna do now? I went out and tried to sing and they gave me a standing ovation. The kids would rather see you being bad than go home.

"I mean, doing a live show is what I live for," he continues. "Ive had to cancel my [2023] European tour but Im determined. Ive gotta do more gigs if I have to get someone to wheel me out there. I mean, you cant retire from this game. Its not a job, its a fucking passion. I dont know how to do anything else. The thought of sitting in my house all day... Im a road dog, you know? Ive been doing it fucking 55 years. Its the best thing to have ever happened to me.

The latest issue of Metal Hammer

Ozzy was recently confirmed for the first ever Power Trip festival, which takes place later this year in California and boasts an insanely heavyweight lineup also featuring Iron Maiden, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, AC/DC and Tool. Ozzy's inclusion in the lineup surprised many given his recent retirement announcement, but it's becoming increasingly clear that Ozzy is determined to continue playing shows while he still can, even if they're only occasional special events.

Read more from Ozzy's special interview with Tenacious D only in the new issue of Metal Hammer magazine, out now. Order your copy here.
ANGELA WEISS

The magic of Chanel is its ability to allow anyone who steps into it to feel glamorous. Over his decades at the label, Karl Lagerfeld created a dependable uniform of tweed jackets, ballet flats, and chunky gold belts that required no instructions. They were pieces that could easily work in your wardrobequick templates for looking fabulous.

So when the Costume Institute at the Met announced that it would be doing a Lagerfeld retrospective for 2023, it was pretty clear how the topic would play out on the red carpet. All you needed was tweed, pearls, camellias, the colors black and white, or perhaps something bridal as a nod to his tradition of ending every Chanel couture show with a wedding gown. The bigger challenge for guests was how to embody the current eras fashion values while staying on theme. As the red carpet unfolded last night, it became obvious that the stars who really stood out were the ones who were able to adopt the uniform to their own personal style.

Sean Zanni

As expected, there were plenty of archival Chanel dresses on the red carpet last night. Long time friend of the house Penelope Cruz opted for a hooded gown originally worn by Ines de la Fressange in 1988. Nicole Kidman referenced Nicole Kidman in a Chanel Haute couture gown from 2004 she had previously worn in a Chanel No. 5 commercial. Gisele twirled in a feathered cape she was styled in for a 2005 Harpers Bazaar editorial. None of the archival pieces quite embodied the unadulterated risk-taking weve come to expect from the Met Gala, but the clothes, and the women in them, were gorgeous.

Lagerfeld was famous for his own personal uniformdark suit, huge glasses, fingerless glovesand plenty of guests mimicked his signature personal style. The most successful were those who did a less literal ode, like Letitia Wright in Prada or Kristen Stewart in Chanel menswear. Like Lagerfeld, they both love a good suit, and they brought their own distinctive takes to the red carpet, which feels as much a tribute to the late designers impact on fashion than anything.

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Sean Zanni

Maybe the only costume-y choice that truly worked was Doja Cat, whose red carpet looks often transcend into performance art. She showed up dressed as Lagerfelds beloved cat Choupette in a hooded cap with ears, facial prosthetics, and a custom Oscar de La Renta dress made of 350,000 silver-and-white bugle beads. The gown took more than 5,000 hours to makenow thats commitment. (Jared Leto took a less artful approach, in a fuzzy catsuit like those you see worn by street performers in Times Square.)

Kevin Mazur/MG23

What was really successful, though, were the pieces by Thom Browne. Hes a master of tailoring but also has a keen sense of individuality, dressing Teyana Taylor in a custom tweed gown with sharp cutouts at her hips for a sexy look that would only look right on her. When I interviewed Taylor before the gala, she mentioned how Browne designs for misfits and the other, while still making them feel at home. Jenna Ortegas waist-cinching corset, cascading ruffle skirt, and platform oxfords were another riff that worked, interpreting her goth-inspired wardrobe in a way that still fit the theme. Browne paid homage to Lagerfelds design heritage while turning out looks that were undeniably his and respecting his guests sartorial identities.

Michael Buckner

When the galas theme was announced, it was met with some resistance due to Lagerfelds controversial takes on everything from plus-size bodies to the Me Too movement. In recent years, the Met Gala red carpet has played host to political statements, but we didnt see much of that this yearunless you count the presence of stars like Ashley Graham, Lizzo, and Precious Lee, which is a statement in itself about the shifting perceptions of beauty since Lagerfelds career first began. Michaela Coel perhaps came closest in her surrealist Schiaparellli gown, explaining to reporters that Elsa Schiaparelli and Lagerfeld were rivals and she was playing the part of the villain; then again, that was a tweak Lagerfeld himself might have enjoyed.

Christopher Polk

Alexa Chung also brought a refreshing take on the Chanel bride with a frothy dress by Dublin-based designer Roisin Pierce that specifically referenced the ceremonial pieces worn by unmarried mothersknown as "fallen women"of Ireland's Magdalene asylums. There were plenty of brides on the red carpet, but Chung's look challenges the notion of what a matrimonial dress has to look like and who can wear it.



ANGELA WEISS

By the time Rihanna arrived on the red carpet, nearly two hours late, everyone said they were hungrystarved, even!for some drama! Some fantasy! A true moment! The indisputable star of the galas carpet left her hotel in a Fendi fur coat from Fendi fall/winter 1997 worn by Naomi Campbelll before changing into her final look. She was cocooned in a Masion Valentino camellia cape that she shed as she walked up the steps, revealing a simple white gown with a dramatic but subtle white train, a singular camelia at her chest. When asked how she felt on the red carpet, she said Expensive. A master of the quick quip, Lagerfeld might have enjoyed that, too. After all, his most lasting contribution to fashion was his ability to turn it into a status symbol.

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LittleBee80 - Getty Images

Waking up with a puffy face happens from time to time, especially if you drank one too many glasses of wine the night before or overdid it snacking on salty potato chips. But if your face is so swollen that you cant open one of your eyes, you look like a blowfish  or one of those sad, but adorable dogs with swollen cheeks after a bee sting)  your body may be trying to tell you something. In fact, chronic facial swelling is often among early warning signs that something more serious is going on.

A number of health issues can cause facial swelling, among other instances of inflammation in your body. Swelling is always extremely noticeable on your face, and whether it's isolated or chronic, can be hard to ignore, says Josie Conte, D.O., C-NMM, a board-certified osteopathic manipulative medicine specialist at Maine Dartmouth Collaborative Care Center. The area of the face has a high level of blood supply, and the skin tends to be thin, she explains. The swelling can be caused when the small blood vessels lose their integrity and become leaky, allowing fluid to move more easily into the tissues.

Inflammation, hormones or allergens can all contribute to the deterioration of small blood vessels over time, she adds. These sources of facial swelling can be examined and potentially isolated before becoming larger issues that often require a long-term treatment plan.

While infrequent swollen cheeks or under eyes aren't much to fret about, if it seems to come out of nowhere, and you also have difficulty breathing or swallowing, are experiencing pain or numbness, have a fever or can't move part of your face  it's time to call your doctor immediately or visit the emergency room.

Experiencing chronic facial swelling that doesn't cause you any of these worrying symptoms? You may be wondering where they come from, then. Below, healthcare providers are sharing some of the most common causes of facial swelling and ways you may resolve the root issue over time.

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This article generalizes clinical treatment information highlighted by doctors and specialists and is not intended to be a complete list of symptoms and/or treatments. It is meant to be educational in nature, and isn't a substitute for actual medical or treatment advice from a licensed professional. Remember: Always call 911 if you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency.

Facial swelling causes

Inflammation, infections and allergies are among the most likely reasons that trigger fluid buildup in the tissue of your face, which leads to swelling, according to materials published by the Mount Sinai Health System. This swelling can range from mild to severe, and may even extend to your neck and upper arms. Learn more below about specific causes and how to work with your doctor to resolve them.

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Treatment



First, dont panic. Most of the time, facial swelling can be treated at home, Conte stresses. Heres how you should attempt to calm swollen facial features at first:

Apply a cold compress. Stay hydrated. Sleep upright. Take an over-the-counter antihistamine.

To prevent future swelling, avoid drinking too much alcohol and eating salty foods, and dont sleep in your makeup.

Karl Tapales - Getty Images

When to see a medical professional

Monitor your facial swelling symptoms closely and at least once daily, if not more frequently, Dr. Wada advises. How quickly are they developing or progressing? Is there a component of itching or a burning sensation? Answers to these questions will help your doctor make their assessment," she adds.

Before relying solely on over-the-counter products that may promise relief  including antihistamines, pain relievers or hydrocortisone creams  you should work to eliminate guesswork on potential allergic reactions with your doctor. Call your doctor if you notice swelling and cannot pinpoint why it is occurring, especially if it persists longer than 48 hours or worsens at any point, says Conte.

If you have any of these symptoms  in any combination or severity  head to the emergency room immediately:

Swelling in your throat, tongue, or lips  as in, your throat feels tight and itchy.

Difficulty breathing.

Racing heart.

Dizziness.

Fever of 103F or higher.

When facial swelling is a medical emergency

According to clinical care advice published by University of Florida Health, doctors will work with you to pinpoint the exact cause of your facial swelling. They'll determine if additional diagnostic tests are needed in clinic, so be prepared to answer questions like:

How long has your swelling lasted, and when did it begin?

Have you taken anything to treat it, and has it worked?

Have you come into contact with something that you may be allergic to?

What medication are you taking?

Did you recently injure yourself, or undergo surgery?

What are the other symptoms you are currently experiencing?

Bottom line: When your face swells up, it can certainly be alarming. Many things can cause it, from an allergic reaction or infection, to a dental problem or even a dermatology issue. Usually, its not anything to worry too much about. But, when your swelling comes with difficulty breathing, a high fever or your throat feels like its closing up, it's crucial that you contact your healthcare provider immediately or head to your local emergency room.

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Experts say a "reversal" treatment for medication abortion isn't supported by science. (Illustration: Nathalie Cruz; photo: Getty Images)

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly recently vetoed legislation that would require clinics to tell patients that a medication abortion can be "reversed" using an unproven treatment.

"Kansans made clear that they believe personal health care decisions should be made between a woman and her doctor, not politicians in Topeka," Kelly said in a statement after rejecting the legislation. She also noted that there was "uncertain science" behind the concept of an abortion reversal.

This isn't the first time Kelly has pushed back against this kind of legislation: She also vetoed a similar measure on abortion reversal in 2019.

Medication abortion accounts for more than half of all abortions performed in the U.S. It involves taking two prescription medications: mifepristone, followed by misoprostol. Mifepristone "blocks the hormone progesterone, which supports a healthy pregnancy, and misoprostol causes uterine cramping and shedding of the endometrium," women's health expert Dr. Jennifer Wider tells Yahoo Life.

A "reversal" involves giving doses of progesterone after mifepristone is taken  but before misoprostol is taken  to try to prevent pregnancy loss. (Supplemental progesterone is used to try to lower the risk of miscarriage in certain pregnancies, Dr. Lauren Streicher, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life.)

But this reversal treatment isn't supported by science. "There is no medical evidence to support the assertion that a medication abortion can be reversed," Sarah Diemert, director of medical standards integration and evaluation at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, tells Yahoo Life. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) directly spoke out about this online, adding that "legislative mandates based on unproven, unethical research are dangerous to women's health."

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But where did this concept come from and what purpose does it serve? Here's the deal.

The abortion reversal concept comes from a small and flawed study

The idea of an abortion reversal comes from a 2012 case series on six women who took mifepristone and were then given different doses of progesterone. Four of those women continued with their pregnancies, but ACOG points out that it's difficult to know if the progesterone caused the pregnancies to continue or if other factors were at play. The study also did not have a control group (i.e., patients who did not take progesterone after mifepristone) and is therefore considered weak evidence, ACOG says.

Taking mifepristone alone also isn't a guarantee that an abortion will work, Streicher says: "The reason you use mifepristone and misoprostol is that if you use mifepristone alone, it doesn't always work."

The study wasn't supervised by an institutional review board or an ethical review committee, which ACOG says also raises a lot of questions about ethics. "This was a small experiment and its mixed outcomes is not science," Wider says. "The so-called reversing of abortion is not accepted as a safe or ethical procedure in modern medicine."

There was also a 2020 study that sought to evaluate abortion reversal in a controlled setting, but ACOG says it was ended early due to safety concerns in participants.

So, why do claims that abortion can be reversed exist?

The idea of telling people that they can reverse an abortion seems like it would make people who are uncertain if they want to terminate a pregnancy feel more comfortable at least starting the process. So why do some anti-abortion advocates want patients to be told that an abortion can be reversed?

It's not entirely clear. "It's completely political  and throws facts and medical evidence out the window for political gain," Wider says. Streicher says she has "no clue" why someone would want to promote an abortion reversal, but theorizes that this might be a reason: "Maybe they think that if we can get to them soon enough and make them realize what a big mistake they've made, we can reverse it."

Overall, the concept of an abortion reversal exists "to create confusion, stigma and unnecessary restrictions around abortion, which has been overwhelmingly proven to be safe and effective," Diemert says.

Wider says the growing movement of politicians telling doctors how they can and should practice medicine is "horrible." She adds, "The welfare of the patients is never the top priority, which it always should be."

Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Life's newsletter. Sign up here.
Sales and growth industry expert Andrea Fassari joins Provenirs team to respond to the increasing demand in a digital-first market for the companys automated decisioning, real-time data and advanced analytics

LONDON, May 03, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Provenir, a global leader in data and AI-powered risk decisioning software, today announced that Andrea Fassari has been appointed Country Manager in Italy. Fassari will lead Provenirs sales operations in the region, responsible for implementing new strategies to enhance the companys plans to further expand its risk decisioning solutions to financial services businesses in the region.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230428005517/en/

Fassari brings more than fifteen years experience in sales, marketing and operations, with strong expertise in overall sales performance, as well as closely aligning sales objectives with a companies core strategy. Hes held senior roles at UNGUESS, CONNEXIA and Accenture, where he successfully implemented new target market initiatives by coordinating large teams to meet client needs.

Provenir is experiencing significant demand for its industry-leading data and AI-powered risk decisioning platform that blows past traditional credit decisioning software by letting businesses harness the power of decisioning, data AI and from one unified, no-code user interface. Based in Milan, Fassari will be a crucial part of Provenirs international sales team to drive sales strategies to enable the achievement of the business's goals and targets.

"Financial services firms worldwide are increasingly looking for a credit risk decisioning platform that allows them to make smarter decisions, faster," said Frode Berg, Provenirs Managing Director of Europe. "As a recognised industry leader, Provenir is helping its clients to be more competitive, more agile and ready to rapidly respond to evolving business needs, but we wont stop there. Andrea will form an integral part of our expansion into Italy, as we continue on our journey to delivering our unified risk decisioning ecosystem. Were excited to have him onboard!"

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About Provenir

Provenir helps fintechs and financial services providers unlock the secret to smarter credit risk decisioning.

The company brings together the power of decisioning, data and AI to drive instant decisions. This unique offering gives organizations the ability to power decisioning innovation across the full customer lifecycle, driving improvements in the customer experience, access to financial services, business agility, and more.

Provenir works with disruptive financial services organizations in more than 50 countries and processes more than 3 billion transactions annually.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230428005517/en/

Contacts

Viali Munteanu

Cognito Media (for Provenir)

viali.munteanu@cognitomedia.com

+44 (0) 7547 819 438
Plus, the actor tells EatingWell that his favorite frozen food is even loved by his parents.

Paras Griffin/Getty Images

Simu Liu has entered the food space, and to say we're excited is an understatement.

The actor, best known for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Kim's Convenience and the upcoming Barbie, has joined frozen Chinese food brand MiLa as their new chief content officer, where he plans to guide the company's marketing and communication efforts.

But this isn't just a normal business endeavor for the star; Liu was fully inspired by both the food and the mission that MiLa offers.

"Many Asian kids, like myself, grew up being made fun of for the taste, look or smell of food that wasn't familiar to other kids," Liu said in a press release. "MiLa is demystifying Chinese cuisine and creating an inclusive conversation around third culture in a way that I'm thrilled to be a part of."

Related:Whenever I Miss My Mom's Cooking, I Make These Delicious Veggie Dumplings

In an interview with EatingWell, MiLa co-founder Jennifer Liao talked about the common misconceptions about Chinese food that the brand plans to combat, including authenticity in their products versus what's popularized in the country.

"What's popular in the U.S. right now is more American Asian cuisine, like Panda Express and P.F. Changs where you have orange chicken, or General Tso's, all of those are actually American dishes that didn't originate in China," she said. "I really enjoy those, but it's just its own cuisine."

But there's also the issue of balancing authenticity with marketability, and MiLa plans to create more inclusive products while maintaining their signature flavors.

"Right now, we're looking at how do we have authentic Chinese food here, but also make it our own in a way where we have these traditional, classic dishes that we have available, but we'll also have eventual evolution in terms of the flavor profile and the ingredients," Liao explains. "For soup dumplings, there's no vegan or gluten-free options that exist. So there's the question of, is this authentic if you change what that soup dumpling looks like? And I think that yes, it's authentic to us because we're Chinese American living in the U.S. and this is what the audience and the market looks like."

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Speaking of their xiao long bao, when EatingWell asked Simu Liu if there is a MiLa product that reminds him of his childhood, he had a clear answer.

"Their frozen soup dumplings are restaurant-quality and something to write home about," Liu tells EatingWell. "I've experienced it firsthand with my parents, whose stamp of approval is not so easily given. When they raved about the products, I knew I had to get involved."

We tried the pork soup dumplings, which is MiLa's self-proclaimed "hero product," and we agree: they're worth the hype. The dumplings are deliciously juicy and only take 11 minutes to make in your steamer. They're also available with shrimp & pork and savory chicken fillings.

Not sure what to pair these soup dumplings with? Try our Simple Cabbage Salad or Pea Pod and Carrot Stir-Fry for a fresh bite.

Up next: 6 "Polite" Things You Do at a Chinese Restaurant That Are Actually Rude
Look, if you hang some fruit in a museum, it's going to get eaten.

Cindy Ord / Getty Images

Earlier this year, the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea debuted WE, an exhibition of 38 works by Maurizio Cattelan, the provocative Italian visual artist. But earlier this week, the number of pieces in that career-spanning retrospective dropped to 37 for about half an hour after a hungry visitor ate one of them.

Noh Hyun-soo, a student at Seoul National University, helped himself to an artwork called Comedian, which consisted of a banana that was duct-taped to the museums wall. After he peeled and ate the banana, Noh pulled the tape back and put the now-empty peel back in its place. In a video of the incident, several other people in the gallery shouted at Noh as he approached the banana, and the room fell silent as he took his first bite.

When asked why he ate the artwork, Noh couldnt have been more casual about it. I didnt eat breakfast, so I ate it because I was hungry, he said, according to Korean broadcaster KBS. In a followup phone call with the outlet, Noh said that he considered Cattelans art to be a rebellion against a certain authority, and believed that maybe his own actions could be another rebellion against rebellion.

Related:Why Are People Throwing Food at Priceless Works of Art?

After about 30 minutes, museum staffers replaced the banana peel with an uneaten banana. (Under normal circumstances, the banana is replaced with a fresh one every two to three days.) A museum spokesperson told CNN that Cattelan was told about what happened to the artwork, but he didnt have any reaction to it.

That couldve been because this has happened before. Cattelan debuted Comedian at Art Basel Miami in 2019, and it promptly sold for $120,000. As did a second version, and a third was priced at $150,000 but that one was eaten by artist David Datuna. (He said that his spontaneous snack was a performance piece called Hungry Artist.)

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I began to think: What can I do with this banana? How can I bring it to yet another level? And how to do it also with comedy? Datuna said during an interview with The Guardian. So I ate the banana. It is something deeper.

The Cattelan exhibition at the Leeum Museum is scheduled to run through July 16. If you plan on checking it out, you might want to pack a snack, just in case the art starts making you hungry.



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Read the original article on Food & Wine.
Photo: Guajillo studio (Shutterstock)

Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexicos victory over France in the Battle of Puebla, but over time it has become a general reason to enjoy Mexican food and drinks here in the United States. Regardless of the size of their Mexican populations, every U.S. state has a taste for Mexican fare. So, whos doing it best this year?

Health consultancy YorkTest has released data on which popular Cinco de Mayo dishes have become even more popular in each state since last year. To determine this, YorkTest looked at Google Keyword Planner data from the past year and noted which terms related to Mexican cuisine had the biggest change in search volume over 2022, a sign of a spike in interest around these dishes.

Read more

Surprisingly, only two types of tacos took the top spot in just seven states. Shrimp tacos with mango salsa was the most popular dish in Colorado, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Chipotle carne asada tacos reigned supreme in Georgia, Iowa, South Carolina, and South Dakota. But thats it for tacos. Both varieties can be absolutely delicious, but I would suggest switching things up in honor of the holiday by trying some al pastor, chorizo, or chicharron, which are made of pork belly.

Across the nation, it does seem that a newfound appreciation for traditional Mexican food is helping to expand the publics palate beyond the typical Tex-Mex fare. Google data indicates that searches for Enchiladas Verde, a dish of spicy, chicken-stuffed tortillas slathered in cheese and green salsa, saw a 150% increase in searches in the past year, making it the most popular Cinco de Mayo recipe overall. Taquitos, which are different from enchiladas in that they are fried until golden brown, were also popular in many states, including Connecticut, Delaware, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

On the beverage front, popular Cinco de Mayo drinks remain fairly straightforward. Spicy jalapeno margarita was the most popular recipe in 13 states including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, and Indiana. The only other drinks that topped the list in any state were a Cadillac Margarita and a paloma.

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The Cadillac is really just a regular margarita made with top-shelf ingredients, such as reposado tequila and Grand Marnier. But we must give a shoutout to The Takeouts home state of Illinois for being a little different and posting a 50% increase in searches for paloma, making it the only state with this cocktail as its most popular Cinco de Mayo recipe. For others looking to honor the culture behind this heavily imbibed holiday, I would recommend trying a cocktail with Mezcal in it, or exploring new varieties of tequila.

Other states with commendable outliers included Alaska, with homemade tortillas as its most popular recipe; New Hampshire and North Dakota, the only states most interested in homemade tomatillo salsa; and Virginia, with its eyes on Pozole.

Whichever way your state chooses to celebrate this year, I hope the menu is full of intense and comforting flavors alike, just as traditional Mexican cuisine always is.

More from The Takeout

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Click here to read the full article.
Ugandas parliament has advanced the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act, which will stand as one of the harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the world if it is signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni.

Although Museveni sent the so-called Anti Homosexuality Bill back to parliament for revisions in April, the amended bill is functionally the same, according to The Guardian. The bill, which advocates have nicknamed Kill the Gays, maintains the death penalty for aggravated homosexuality, which refers to any same-sex act in which the victim is a minor, the offender is living with HIV, the offender is a parent or guardian, or if the victim is disabled.

Additionally, the bill punishes the promotion of homosexuality with a 20-year prison sentence, and would charge those who knowingly allow their premises to be used for acts of homosexuality with a seven-year jail sentence. However, a measure that previously would have required people to report homosexual activity was amended to only apply when a child is involved; failure to report carries a jail sentence of five years or a fine of 10 million Uganda shillings, or roughly $2,682 USD. Although Museveri also requested that the revised bill include provisions related to rehabilitation of persons who have in the past been engaged in homosexuality but would like to live normal lives again, the updated bill contains no such language.

371 MPs voted in favor of the bill on Tuesday. The bill will now head back to Musevenis desk to be signed into law, returned to parliament, or vetoed. If Museveni returns it to parliament, it will pass into law without the presidents assent.

Many African countries  and former British colonies around the world  have laws criminalizing homosexuality as a legacy of colonialism. According to a 2014 Washington Post analysis, 57% of countries with anti-gay laws have a British colonial origin, with almost 70% of countries with British colonial origins continuing to criminalize queerness.

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TOPSHOT - LGBT refugees from South Sudan, Uganda and DR Congo walk on the way to their protest at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 17, 2019.

LGBTQ\+ Ugandans Are Fleeing as Kill the Gays Legislation Advances

A version of the bill will likely be signed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Activists have condemned the legislation, with Ugandan human rights lawyer Nicolas Opiyo telling The Guardian in April that the wave of homophobia and transphobia in Uganda has nothing to do with Ugandan or African values.

It is a disguised campaign by American evangelicals through their local actors, Opiyo alleged. Their campaigns have now been organized under what appears to be local professional entities such as Christian lawyers groups, parliamentary forums and so forth.

In fact, according to a 2020 analysis by Open Democracy, American evangelical groups have spent millions of dollars in Africa since 2007. One group called the Fellowship Foundation wrote the original Kill the Gays legislation in 2009; between 2008 and 2018, the group sent more than $2o million to Uganda alone. Other groups spending money on activities in Africa include Alliance Defending Freedom, which is also behind much of the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation proliferating in state legislatures around the U.S.

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Originally Appeared on them.
Destination Mansfield's latest Visitors Guide has grown to 60 pages, highlighting people and places in Richland County.

Richland Countys 2023 Visitors Guide has grown from 44 pages to 60 pages over the last three years and is the second to be built with the countys new branding program from the ground up.

We dont have a shortage of things to put in our guide, which is a statement to make for Richland County, Destination Mansfield/Richland County President Lee Tasseff told the county commissioners as he unveiled the publication at their meeting Tuesday.

The focus on this years guide is the Buckeye Imagination Museum, which is featured on the cover and an inside four-page spread. Tasseff said the cover is designed so the children in the picture appear to be flying off the page.

This is just one of the handful of photo shoots we did, Tasseff said, noting that all the people pictured in the guide are county residents as they were last year.

Another feature that was continued from 2022 is highlighting people who left Richland County and came back or who are transplants. This years featured individuals are Nikia Fletcher, who left for 15 years after college and came back to be an educator in the Mansfield City School district; Louie Andres, who came to the area in 1992 to head Malabar Farm State Park and now is at Pleasant Hill Lake Park; and Carmon and Duncan Macfarlane of the Phoenix Brewing Company.

Tasseff said the narratives in the publication and the selection of photographs were done with the help of Lake Erie Publications He also pointed out that the branding effort was expanded to elevate the image of the community with more than 100 local residents in the photographs.

We didnt hire anybody to show up and thats the best part. Were reflecting the community and what we do, so if you come to visit, you may see some of those people, Tasseff said.

A total of 80,000 copies were printed and are now being distributed around the county, northeast Ohio and Ohio in general. Commissioner Darrell Banks said he already has seen the guide on display in Medina County.

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New branding video expected later this year

Commissioner Tony Vero asked Tasseff about progress on a branding video that is being developed to also promote the community. Tasseff said the script is in review and rewrite.

Once the script is approved, after that everything flows  from who does voiceover, if the images are already here or we need to shoot some new stuff, he said. It will be the first comprehensive video shot.

Tasseff added that while it takes time behind the scenes to get everything complete, officials hope to have the video ready by fall. He said there also has been a soft launch of a website Brand Richland where organizations can go and download material such as logos, photos and community information.

One of the things thats on target to be done this year is to visit mayors around the county and introduce the brand to them and show heres how to integrate it into their printed materials and online communications and that kind of stuff, Tasseff said.

An electronic version of the visitors guide is available on the Destination Mansfield-Richland County website.

Commissioners approve bids for several projects

In addition to reviewing the visitors guide, commissioners approved a $7,983 proposal from Page Asbestos Service to remove tile flooring in the Sheriffs Department detective bureau, a hallway by the office and the Park Building and a $10,681 quote from Kastran Karpets to install carpets at the sheriffs office. They also approved a $38,605 proposal from Brennstuhl Construction of Bellville to do concrete work on the handicapped ramp, including widening it, and to remove the concrete planters at the county administration building.

The planters are getting deteriorated and they need to be removed so theyre just going to take them out and put in flat concrete, said county maintenance supervisor Josh Hicks. Theres also an option for stamped circles that could be for the military branches of service.

Commissioners made no decision on the circles, which also could be sandblasted.

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Destination Mansfield Richland County shows off new visitors guide
The Raleigh Police Department responded to crashes that killed 27 pedestrians in 2022; the State Highway Patrol handled two others on highways just yards from the city limits.

Here, based on crash reports filed with the state Division of Motor Vehicles and death certificates from the state Department of Health and Human Services, are what we know about each person and how they died:

1. Jan. 12, about 2:30 p.m. Miriam J. Dorsey, 77, was walking in the parking lot outside her apartment building when she was hit by a maintenance truck backing out of a parking space. Police said the drivers view out his rear window was partially blocked by the load in the truck bed. They cited him with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle.

2. Jan. 21, about 4:30 p.m. Erin Simanskis, a 63-year-old editor at WRAL-TV, was hit by a van on Western Boulevard after she got into a minor accident during a snow storm and got out of her SUV to speak to the other driver. The man was also hit and seriously injured. The driver of the van took off on foot but was arrested a few days later and charged with felony hit/run death, felony hit/run serious injury and failure to reduce speed. Police suspected he had been drinking, but he was not charged with DWI.

3. Feb. 6, about 10:15 p.m. Christina T. Hernandez, a 25-year-old bartender, had run out of gas on Interstate 540 and was standing on the shoulder next to her SUV with a roadside assistance worker when they were both hit by a Honda Accord going 70 mph. The driver of the Accord drove off but was later arrested and charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle, two counts of felony hit-and-run, failure to stop and failure to move over.

4. March 5, about 12:45 a.m. Emmanuel E. Jenkins, 36, was crossing Capital Boulevard just north of Cavalry Drive when he was hit by the driver of a Buick who had a green light at the intersection. Police estimated the car was going about 30 mph when it hit Jenkins, who was walking outside of the crosswalk. Police determined that Jenkins had failed to yield the right of way to the car and did not cite the driver.

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5. March 6, about 8:20 p.m. A 72-year-old man was crossing New Bern Avenue west of Hedingham Boulevard when he was hit and killed by the driver of a Toyota going 55 mph in a 45-mph zone. The driver was cited with DWI. The victims name was not available.

6. March 8, about 3 a.m. Jonathan S. Willruth, a 39-year-old landscape worker from Maine, was run over by the rear wheel of a Jeep after jumping on the running board in a hotel parking lot off South Saunders Street. He died more than two weeks later.

7. March 13, about 9:10 p.m. A man walking with a bicycle was hit as he crossed Capital Boulevard just south of Crabtree Boulevard. The driver of the Kia told police that the man had darted in front of him, and the crash report indicates that the drivers visibility was obstructed, though it doesnt elaborate. Police did not cite the driver. The victims name was not available.

8. March 15, about 6:35 a.m. Chayan Gonzalez Zagada, a 36-year-old construction worker, was apparently trying to cross eastbound I-440 near where it merges with I-40 in Southeast Raleigh when he was hit by a pickup truck going 65 mph. The road is four lanes wide, and state troopers noted that it was before dawn on a stretch of highway without overhead lights.

9. March 15, about 11:55 p.m. Madiba Bazin, 59, was crossing Six Forks Road at Lynn Road when he was hit in the crosswalk. Bazin did not have a Walk signal and apparently tried to outrun the Toyota, which had a green light. The Toyotas driver was going an estimated 11 mph over the 45 mph speed limit but was not cited, according to the crash report.

10. April 16, about 9:30 p.m. Jacob E. Butler, a 39-year-old recording engineer in the music industry, was reportedly lying in westbound I-40 near the Lake Wheeler Road overpass when he was hit by a car or truck that did not stop.

11. April 20, about 3:55 a.m. Joshua B. Lint, 34, was crossing westbound I-440 on the bridge over Lake Boone Trail and had nearly made it to the shoulder when he was hit by a pickup truck going an estimated 68 mph. He was lying in the road when he was hit a second time by a car. Police noted the highway was dark without any overhead lights.

12. June 13, about 12:55 a.m. Kelvin S. Wiggins, 35, was hit by a car going about 50 mph on Capital Boulevard between Calvary Drive and North New Hope Road. The driver of the car told police that Wiggins was seated in the center lane, and police said they suspected he was impaired by drugs or alcohol.

13. June 14, about 10:15 p.m. Wayne S. Cassidy Jr., 34, was walking east on or near the side white line of Chapel Hill Road when he was hit from behind by a car going 45 mph. Cassidy died more than a month later. The driver was charged with DWI. There are no sidewalks or street lights where Cassidy was hit.

14. Aug. 14, about 2:36 a.m. Diane Marie Bass, 59, was walking on the shoulder of northbound Capital Boulevard near Calvary Drive when she was hit from behind by an SUV going 55 mph. The driver was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle. There are no sidewalks or street lights where Bass was hit.

15. Aug. 27, about 4:46 p.m. Albert D. James Jr., a 53-year-old mason from Durham, was hit on eastbound I-40 about a mile east of Chapel Hill Road. Police indicate that there was heavy traffic at the time and that the driver swerved to avoid hitting vehicles that had stopped because of James darting into the road, and ended up hitting him.

16. Sept. 9, about 9:10 p.m. Tamara M. McNeil, a 24-year-old food service worker from Florida, was hit by an SUV on northbound Capital Boulevard about 250 feet south of Calvary Drive. The driver told police that McNeil was lying in the right turn lane.

17. Sept. 23, about 12:36 a.m. Ricky McKie Mabry, a 37-year-old laborer from South Carolina who did welding work, was crossing northbound Capital Boulevard between Yonkers Road and I-440 when he was hit by an SUV going 40 mph. Police suspected Mabry was impaired by alcohol.

18. Oct. 12, about 7:05 a.m. Faramarz Zeinahvazi, 76, was hit by the rear left corner of a school bus as it turned from southbound Six Forks Road into the bus lane at Carroll Middle School. Zeinahvazi, who lived nearby, was walking south on a sidewalk on Six Forks and was crossing the entrance to the bus lane when he was hit. The bus driver was apparently unaware she had hit him, and police initially thought he had been struck by an unknown vehicle that had driven off.

19. Oct. 13, about 12:07 a.m. Charles L. Baylor Jr., a 29-year-old cook, was walking on the shoulder of South Saunders Street when he was hit from behind by an SUV going 35 mph. The driver drove off but was later arrested. Police suspected the driver was impaired by alcohol and indicated that he was driving in an erratic, careless, negligent or aggressive manner.

20. Oct. 25, about 4:56 p.m. Jose A. Mejia Lopez, a 65-year-old landscaper, was walking off the side of Fox Road near his home when the driver of a pickup ran off the road and hit him at about 50 mph. The truck then swerved across the intersection with Town Drive and hit a tree. The driver was charged with aggravated felony death by vehicle, aggravated felony serious injury by vehicle, reckless driving, failure to maintain lane control and failure to reduce speed. There is no sidewalk where Mejia was walking. The speed limit is 35 mph.

21. Oct. 28, about 8:27 p.m. Yobani Rosario Andelis, a 35-year-old construction worker, was hit by a car going 45 mph as he crossed New Bern Avenue about 140 feet east of New Hope Road. The road was dark and unlit by street lights, according to police.

22. Nov. 4, about 4:42 p.m. Gloria E. Jeney, 91, was crossing Country Club Trail at Stoneface Way on a motorized scooter when she was hit by a car at an estimated 25 mph. Jeney lived nearby. There are sidewalks with ramps leading to the pavement at the intersection but no marked crosswalks. Traffic on Country Club Trail does not have to stop at the intersection.

23. Nov. 11, about 8:05 p.m. Derrick Lanier Branch, a 59-year-old factory worker from Wake Forest, was crossing Capital Boulevard a quarter mile north of Calvary Drive in heavy rain when he was hit by several cars and trucks. Police say the driver of the first vehicle, a Kia K5, stopped, got out to look back at Branch down in the roadway, then drove off. Theyre still looking for the driver. Police also say its not clear how many cars and trucks hit Branch while he was down.

24. Nov. 15, about 8:39 a.m. Sarah Meilike, 38, who had just begun working at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, was hit by an SUV while walking in a crosswalk on South Wilmington Street at Chapanoke Road south of downtown Raleigh. Police say a Dont Walk sign was flashing as Meilike tried to get across six lanes of northbound South Wilmington. The driver was not cited.

25. Nov. 19, just after 10 a.m. Hailey Brooks, 11, was performing with a dance troupe in the Raleigh Christmas Parade on Hillsborough Street when the driver of a pickup truck towing a float reportedly lost his brakes and drifted into the dancers from behind. Police charged the pickup driver with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, careless and reckless driving, improper equipment, unsafe movement and carrying a firearm in a parade. A grand jury recently indicted him on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, a felony.

26. Nov. 26, about 7:32 p.m. Samantha Briggs, 12, was hit as she and four others were crossing Hillsborough Street near Bashford Road after a trip to a Sheetz convenience store on nearby Chapel Hill Road. Police say the driver swerved into the center turn lane, hit Briggs at 45 mph and kept going. The driver still has not been found. There are no street lights, crosswalks or sidewalks in the area.

27. Nov. 29, about 8:10 p.m. Ronge Mwanakyungu, a 27-year-old rideshare driver, attempted to cross westbound New Bern Avenue about 70 feet west of Hedingham Boulevard when he was hit by a car going 45 mph. Theres no crosswalk at Hedingham and no street lights in the area.

28. Dec. 8, about 5:25 p.m. Evaristo Carranza Soto, a 58-year-old construction worker, was hit while crossing Poole Road near Kennedy Street just after dark. The driver was going an estimated 42 mph in a 35-mph zone. Police suspected Soto, who lived nearby, was impaired by medication, drugs or alcohol and that he walked into the path of the car.

29. Dec. 14, about 8:20 a.m. Otoniel Hernandez, 35, was hit in the far right lane of westbound Glenwood Avenue near Hollyridge Drive. Police says Hernandez darted into the far right travel lane in front of the oncoming SUV.

Researcher David Raynor contributed.
From left to right: Hope Williams, Tameko Patterson and Josie Kraemer at a Women's History Month panel at East Stroudsburg High School South on Friday, March 31, 2023.

Students at East Stroudsburg High School South closed out Womens History Month on March 31 with a series of panels featuring community leaders in politics, business, activism and mental health.

Michael Healeys multicultural perspectives students welcomed Hope Williams, a graduate student at East Stroudsburg University; Josie Kraemer, executive director of Institutional Research at ESU and a Stroudsburg school director; Tameko Patterson, an ESU trustee and the Pennsylvania president for the National Council of Negro Women; state Rep. Maureen Madden; state Rep. Tarah Probst; state Sen. Rosemary Brown; Dr. Michele Vella, a psychologist; and Dr. Jennifer Dress, a clinical psychiatric pharmacist.

Here are a few takeaways and pieces of advice students received in the wide-ranging discussion:

Consider East Stroudsburg University

There can be a perception that attending college locally can feel like 13th grade, some panelists acknowledged when asked about advice on choosing a school. Pattersons son felt that way, but ended up loving ESU after transferring there, and Williams had said she wouldnt return to East Stroudsburg but is now getting a masters degree there.

It is a very diverse school, which is something that Wilkes was not, and I really missed that when I was at Wilkes, she said.

We have great faculty. Were very diverse, said Kraemer, who is working on a doctorate degree and whose daughters attended ESU. She also highlighted the schools proximity to New York and New Jersey and community college credit transfer agreements.

The resources are right here. We are graduating smart young people, and we need you here. We need you here for the future of our community and to fix things that we didnt quite get right, said Madden, a former ESU and Northampton Community College professor, who added that three of her four staffers are ESU graduates.

'Are you a good neighbor?': 'Are you a good neighbor?': East Stroudsburg University celebrates Dr. King's legacy

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It takes a village

Probst moved 11 times while growing up, but one thing was consistent: We always had my grandmother and my aunt right around the corner. So I was fortunate to have a village.

They, along with her single mom, formed the team that raised Probst and her brothers.

My mom would start dinner, my grandmother would come over and finish it, she said. We would all eat very well. And I just feel that although growing up poor, I grew up with a village and love and I feel that that is so essential.

Politics is your life

People may feel that politics is boring or hard to follow, Brown said, but If youre not interested politics, remember, politics is your life.

She advised students that just because you dont know everything, doesnt mean you should ignore everything and to get to know the details of issues. Get into the weeds. If you are going to understand an issue, and you are going to be involved, which you should be, know the weeds and know whats important to you.

How do you spend your time?

Time is not a limitless thing. We have time. And so you have the opportunity to either waste it or do something productive with it, Vella said, advising students to write down and consider how they spend their time.

Dr. Michele Vella, a psychologist, speaks to students at East Stroudsburg High School South on Friday, March 31, 2023.

On how to deal with disappointment

It depends on the size of the disappointment, but in more significant cases Dress generally pauses, reflects on how shes feeling and why, writes down her thoughts, and takes time to de-escalate before sending an email or having a conversation.

Sometimes that takes an hour and I can go back, and Im clear-headed and Im ready to have the conversation. Other times it takes a couple days. And its fascinating to see how your perspective can change when you just give yourself enough time to de-escalate and use all of your brain to figure out whats going on.

This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: East Stroudsburg South closes out Women's History Month with panel
When planning your next trip with air travel, flights out of the Boise Airport are a good bet nationally for actually getting to your destination.

Idahos primary airport consistently ranks in the top five for lowest percentage of canceled flights every year. Thats according to an analysis of U.S. Department of Transportation 2022 flight cancellation data for the nations 75 largest airports by travel insurance company InsureMyTrip.

Boise ranked No. 5 last year, behind only the air hubs in Salt Lake City and three Hawaiian cities. Its the third time over the past four years, including commercial travel impacts during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, that the Boise Airport has held a top-five ranking.

The Boise Airport consistently ranks among the top airports in the U.S. for its low flight cancellation percentage. In 2022, it ranked No. 5, with about 1.2% of flights canceled during a record-breaking year for passengers.

In order, the U.S. airports with the worst cancellation records last year included Buffalo Niagara International Airport, Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, New York Citys LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. More than 5.5% of flights out of Buffalo were canceled in 2022, the analysis showed.

Meanwhile, the Boise Airport last year recorded flight cancellations of about 1.2% with Salt Lake City a hair better at 1.1%. Boises percentage represents fewer than 350 takeoffs canceled out of more than 29,000 scheduled outbound flights for the year, according to airport data.

Boises temperate weather, including limited annual snowfall, is a leading factor that Boise Airport officials cited for their positive cancellation performance record. In 2021, the recent year when the airport ranked No. 8 nationally, its cancellation percentage was still about 1%, InsureMyTrips analysis found.

On average, Boise receives 20 inches of snowfall annually, according to the National Weather Service, which takes measurements at the Boise Airport. Salt Lake City averages about 52 inches of snow a year.

Technology also plays a role in ensuring scheduled flights make it out of Boise, said Sean Briggs, an airport spokesperson. The airport is one of a limited number in the U.S. approved by the Federal Aviation Administration for pilots to fly in low visibility, he said, in part because of an instrument landing system situated on the airports main runway.

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We are fortunate to have a mild climate with little snow and good visibility, resulting in weather that typically does not delay commercial flights, Briggs told the Idaho Statesman by email. The Boise Airport is also one of a handful of airports in the country that is certified to allow aircraft to operate in visibility as low as 300 feet runway-visual-range.

Alaska Airlines is the Boise Airports lead commercial air carrier, operating on 15 of the airports 26 nonstop routes. The Seattle-based airline doesnt specifically seek out airports with favorable flight cancellation records, but does try to avoid those with bad histories, said Alaska Airlines spokesperson Ray Lane.

We certainly do appreciate that Boise is so easy to operate in, and it does help us to ensure that our guests can arrive on time and make their connections, Lane told the Statesman by email.

Alaska Airlines, based in Seattle, is the Boise Airports leading commercial air carrier.

Boises most recent top-flight ranking came at the same time that the airport had its busiest-ever year for travelers, at nearly 4.5 million passengers in 2022. That topped the prior record of more than 4.1 million passengers set in 2019  another banner year in which the Boise Airport also had a top-five cancellation record.

Already this year, the airport is again on pace to break its annual passenger record. Through January and February, typically two of the Boise Airports slowest months, passenger counts are up nearly 20% over 2022 numbers. Each month also was the busiest month on record for January and February.

Airport officials are confident the record-breaking passenger totals wont impact the local air hubs national ranking for percentage of canceled flights going forward.

As the Boise Airport continues to see an increased level of passenger traffic and flight operations, we expect our cancellation rate to remain low, Briggs said.
An American Airlines mechanic was found guilty of trying to smuggle more than 25 pounds of cocaine by hiding it in a compartment beneath the cockpit of a plane, authorities said. The stash had a street value of up to $320,000.

The mechanic, 55-year-old Paul Belloisi, was convicted Tuesday by a federal jury in Brooklyn of conspiring to possess cocaine, conspiring to import cocaine and importing cocaine, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the eastern district of New York announced in a news release. The verdict, which followed a weeklong trial in district court, carries a potential prison sentence of up to 20 years.

Belloisi worked as a mechanic for American Airlines at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Prosecutors say that during a routine random search on Feb. 4, 2020, customs officers and agents from the airports anti-terrorism contraband enforcement team found 10 bricks of cocaine, weighing roughly 25 1/2 pounds, stashed inside a hidden electronics compartment below the cockpit of an American Airlines flight from Montego Bay.

An image released by the United States Attorney's Office in 2020 show a cut-out jacket Paul Belloisi allegedly used to smuggle cocaine bricks. / Credit: United States Attorney's Office

Agents removed the cocaine bricks and replaced them with fakes, which they sprayed with a substance that glows under a special black light. Authorities then placed the aircraft under surveillance and, before it was scheduled to take off for its next flight, saw Belloisi drive up to the plane and enter the electronics compartment. When they later confronted him, law enforcement officers saw his gloves glowed under their black light, indicating that he had touched the fake bricks. At the time Belloisi was apparently also carrying an empty tool bag, and "the lining of his jacket had cutouts sufficiently large enough to hold the bricks," according to the district attorney's office.

"As proven, the defendant was caught red-handed trying to facilitate the smuggling of a large stash of cocaine hidden in an electronics compartment of the aircraft." said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in a statement. "This corrupt airline mechanic not only abused his position of trust and undermined the security of a vital border crossing in our district, but was also willing to potentially endanger the safety of travelers as well as the community."

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After Belloisi's arraignment in 2020, authorities said that his attempt to smuggle such a significant quantity of drugs internationally suggested that he was an "inside man" who abused his position at American Airlines.

Richard Donoghue, then the U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of New York, said in a statement that "this airline mechanic abused his position as a trusted employee and his access to sensitive areas of JFK Airport to participate in the clandestine importation of cocaine."

Day two of Hollywood writers' strike is underway

Potential economic impacts of the Hollywood writers' strike

London makes final preparations for King Charles III's coronation
Another rate hike from the Federal Reserve. And Russia says a drone attack on the Kremlin was an attempt to kill its president.

 Well, hello there! Laura Davis here. It's time for Wednesday's news!

 But first, a big bear scare! A school principal got a morning surprise when a black bear jumped out of a dumpster and sent him running. See the video here!

The Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here.

One last interest rate hike?

The Feds most aggressive rate-hiking campaign in 40 years may be history. The Federal Reserve raised its key short-term interest rate by a quarter percentage point Wednesday and signaled it could now pause if inflation continues to ease as expected. In a statement after a two-day meeting, the central bank removed previous guidance that some additional policy firming (rate hikes) may be appropriate to lower yearly inflation to its 2% target. Here's what you need to know.

Woman accused of hiding suspected killer of 5 in Texas

The man accused of killing five of his neighbors in rural Texas was taken into custody Tuesday after a four-day search, authorities said, and a woman was arrested Wednesday on accusations that she was keeping him hidden. Officials said Divimara Lamar Nava, 53, previously denied knowing the whereabouts of suspected gunman Francisco Oropeza, 38, and was hiding him in the home near Conroe, Texas, where he was found. More updates.

 Developing now: Numerous law enforcement agencies were searching for a 24-year-old man suspected of fatally shooting one woman and injuring four others inside a waiting room at a hospital in Midtown Atlanta before carjacking a vehicle and fleeing the scene, police said. Live updates.

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A multitude of law enforcement officials responded to the scene of active shooting in Midtown Atlanta on Wednesday.

What everyone's talking about

The Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.

FDA approves world's first RSV vaccine

For the first time, a vaccine was approved to combat severe respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. On Wednesday, the FDA approved Arexvy for adults 60 and older. In trials, the drug was 82% effective at preventing lower respiratory tract illness caused by RSV, and 94% effective in those who had at least one underlying medical condition. RSV infects nearly everyone by age 2 and typically causes cold symptoms, but it also strikes later in life, causing more than 177,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths among older adults each year. What you need to know.

 More news in medicine: Eli Lilly says new Alzheimer's drug donanemab slows early stages of disease by 35%.

Was drone attack an attempt to kill Putin?

Early Wednesday, fragments of two Ukrainian drones slammed into the Kremlin, causing a fireball near the roof of the iconic building complex. In a statement, the Russian government vowed retaliation for what it characterized as an assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was outside Moscow at the time. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was meeting with Nordic leaders in Helsinki, denied any role. Here's the latest.

Oleksandr Vashenko, 44, walks by an explosion crater as he carries a bag of bread to distribute it to his neighbors in Siversk, Donetsk region, Ukraine.

A break from the news

Laura L. Davis is an Audience Editor at USA TODAY. Send her an email at laura@usatoday.com or follow along with her adventures  and misadventures  on Twitter. Support quality journalism like this? Subscribe to USA TODAY here.

This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Subscribe to the newsletter here.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fed's interest rate hike, Atlanta shooting, Kremlin: Wednesday's news
BOSTON and NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Provident Healthcare Partners ("Provident"), a leading healthcare investment banking firm, announced it has advised Coastal Cancer Center in signing a partnership agreement with OneOncology. Coastal Cancer Center, which is led by Dr. Emily Touloukian, has six medical oncologists, a hospitalist, and eight advanced practice providers caring for patients at four locations in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Provident's deal team is being led by Managing Director Kevin Palamara and Director Dustin Thompson.

"It's been a pleasure working with the Provident team. We are grateful for the expertise and experience that they provided, ultimately culminating in our partnership with OneOncology taking our Company to the next level and ensuring continued growth," noted Dr. Emily Touloukian, President of Coastal Cancer Center.

"We're excited to have had the opportunity to guide Coastal Cancer Center through this transaction process. Coastal is a great fit as OneOncology's platform in the South Carolina market. The resources provided by OneOncology will help strengthen Coastal's growth trajectory and we wish both sides nothing but success in their partnership," commented Thompson.

About Coastal Cancer Center

Coastal Cancer Center offers patients medical oncology, and hematology, as well as the convenience of an in-office lab, oral pharmacy, and advanced medical imaging services, including PET/CT. Coastal Cancer Center intends to grow by attracting additional medical oncologists and multispecialty physicians to practice in Myrtle Beach, while also expanding services across the continuum of cancer care. To learn more, visit www.coastalcancercenter.com.

About OneOncology

OneOncology was founded by community oncologists, for community oncologists, with the mission of improving the lives of everyone living with cancer. The company's goal is to enable community oncology practices to remain independent and to improve patient access to care in their communities, all at a lower cost than in the hospital setting. OneOncology supports its platform of community oncology practices through group purchasing, operational optimization, practice growth, and clinical innovation. The company's 960 cancer care providers care for approximately 528,000 patients at more than 300 sites of care nationwide. To learn more, visit www.oneoncology.com or LinkedIn.

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About Provident Healthcare Partners

Provident is a leading healthcare investment banking firm specializing in merger and acquisition advisory, strategic planning, and capital formation services for healthcare companies. The firm has a comprehensive knowledge of market sectors and specialties, including oncology. Provident also has unsurpassed experience and insight into the M&A process, which includes working with a multitude of investors such as private equity firms and strategic consolidators. For additional information, visit www.providenthp.com or follow Provident on LinkedIn.

Contact: Provident Healthcare Partners

Gina Casiello

877-742-9800

gcasiello@providenthp.com

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/provident-healthcare-partners-advises-coastal-cancer-center-301814024.html

SOURCE Provident Healthcare Partners LLC
Vermont on Tuesday become the first state in the nation to update its medically assisted suicide law to allow out-of-state terminally ill people to use the procedure to end their lives.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill removing the residency requirement for the decades-old law. Vermont is the latest state that allows either medically assisted suicide or authorizes medical aid in dying, according to Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

"We are grateful to Vermont lawmakers for recognizing that a state border shouldnt determine if you die peacefully or in agony, Compassion & Choices President and CEO Kim Callinan said in a statement Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

In March, Vermont had reached a settlement with Lynda Bluestein, a 75-year-old Bridgeport, Connecticut, woman with terminal cancer to allow her to take advantage of its law, provided she complies with certain aspects of the state guidelines.

"I was so relieved to hear of the settlement of my case that will allow me to decide when cancer has taken all from me that I can bear," Bluestein, who has fallopian tube cancer, told the Associated Press. "The importance of the peace of mind knowing that I will now face fewer obstacles in accessing the autonomy, control, and choice in this private, sacred and very personal decision about the end of my life is enormous."

'DEATH THAT WAS MEANINGFUL': Connecticut woman becomes first non-Vermont resident allowed assisted suicide right

Vermont legislators sought to 'doing the right thing,' expert says

Almost as soon as last years lawsuit was filed, several state legislators began calling local organizations such as Patient Choices Vermont, which educates residents about medical aid in dying, help to find strategies to fix the law, Betsy Walkerman, the groups president, told USA TODAY on Tuesday.

Walkerman said many Vermont residents go to nearby states like Connecticut, Massachusetts, and even New York for health care and it seemed only right that her state provide similar options.

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"Were very pleased that the signed the legislation that was supported passed overwhelmingly in the state House and the Senate based on a recognition that medical care really does cross state borders," Walkerman said. "People should have equal access to medical care that is consistent with their priorities and values. Its doing the right thing."

'THIS IS A COMPROMOISE': Vermont Senate OKs end-of-life legislation

New York doctor also pleased with Vermont's assisted suicide law change

Another woman, Diana Barnard, a physician from Middlebury, Vermont, also sued Vermont in federal court last year, claiming its residency requirement is a violation of the state's Constitutions commerce, equal protection, and privileges and immunities clauses.

Barnard, who specializes in hospice and palliative care and has patients in New York state, similar to Connecticut, doesnt allow medically assisted suicide, is pleased with Vermont's updated law.

"I thank Vermont lawmakers for repealing the residency requirement for medical aid in dying for the sake of all of my out-of-state patients," Barnard said in a statement. "I know they will be greatly relieved to have access to this end-of-life care option, whether they decide to use it or not."

How Vermont will handle the updated law is unknown

Walkerman added with Vermont being one of the smallest states in the nation with a population of nearly 650,000, theres uncertainty about how much it can handle those who are seeking medical assistance "to control the timing of their end-of-life status."

She said those seeking an option in Vermont should first do a checklist, which includes discussions with their primary care physicians and their family, to make sure the state is the right choice to meet their needs.

"We dont know exactly how its going to go here. Our doctors who are familiar with this option already have full practices," Walkerman said. "Exactly how this going to evolve is unknown at this time."

Vermont Rep. Willem Jewett, D-Ripton, chats with his daughter, Anneke, during the first day of the Legislature in Montpelier on Jan. 5, 2004. He died on Jan. 12, 2022. Jewett, who had cancer, helped pass a Vermont's aid-in-dying law that allows terminally ill patients to ask their doctors for a lethal dose of medication.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Assisted suicide law in Vermont first to allow nonresident use
The hunt for 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza, suspected of opening fire at his neighbors home and killing five people last week, ended Tuesday in Cut and Shoot, where authorities finally caught up with the fugitive.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Oropeza was taken into custody after authorities received a tip about his location, according to a USA Today report. He was charged with five counts of murder and was booked in the Montgomery County Jail. He is expected to be transported back to San Jacinto County where the shooting occurred.

He was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry, Capers said at a press conference Tuesday evening.

Where is Cut and Shoot, Texas?

Cut and Shoot is a small rural city 40 miles north of Houston in eastern Montgomery County. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 1,087.

Up until 2006, Cut and Shoot was considered and referred to as a town. Then the city council voted to have their municipality considered and called a city.

In the City of Cut and Shoot, we are defined less by boundaries on a map than by the sense of shared values our residents hold dear, according to the citys website. Small town values, guided growth, preservation of historical, cultural, and natural heritage are just a few of the core principles that makes the City of Cut and Shoot a wonderful place to call home.

How did Cut and Shoot get its most Texan of names?

The name apparently came out of a tense standoff in the community that almost led to violence in 1912. The dispute was over the design of a church steeple, who would be allowed to preach at the communitys only church and conflicting land claims, according to the Texas State Historical Association.





A small boy at the scene reportedly declared, Im going to cut around the corner and shoot through the bushes in a minute!, an account on the TSHA website states.

What the boy said stuck with residents and was later adopted as the towns name.
A Florida woman was arrested over the weekend after she allegedly assaulted Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., during an event at Miramar Beach.

Authorities were called to the scene and arrested 41-year-old Selena Chambers of Tallahassee after it was "found she intentionally threw a glass of wine at Representative Gaetz after shouting obscenities at him," according to the Walton County Sheriff's Office.

Law enforcement officials said Chambers was "charged with battery on an elected official and issued a $1,000 bond" before being released the following day.

The alleged assault took place as Gaetz and his wife were in attendance for the South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival.

MATT GAETZ LAMBASTS SMEARS BY MSNBC, CNN OVER UNPROVEN ALLEGATIONS: 'A REFUGE FOR SCOUNDRELS AND WEIRDOS'

Selena Chambers, left, was arrested over the weekend after she allegedly threw a glass of wine on Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.

Responding to the alleged assault during his podcast, Gaetz, who has represented Florida's 1st Congressional District since 2017, said he will press charges against the woman and will "never allow the safety of northwest Floridians to be compromised."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"We were enjoying catching up with new friends and old," Gaetz said as he described the events leading up to the assault. "As I was chatting with one gentleman, a lady threw a drink on the both of us, and she was promptly arrested."

HOUSE REJECTS GAETZ RESOLUTION TO REMOVE US TROOPS FROM SOMALIA

"I want to thank the great folks at the Walton County Sheriff's Office who ensured this did not escalate and that everyone is kept safe," he added.

Gaetz said he will be "pressing charges against this individual in order to uphold the civility our community deserves," and he described Chambers as a "left-wing author" who "became very obsessed with Donald Trump and engaged in something called resistance expression."

Describing the incident as "very strange," Gaetz said, "Whenever there's a conservative who acts out of line, it's like the biggest story in the world. But when you get a radicalized leftist breaking the peace in my community, who traveled here by the way from Tallahassee, Florida, I doubt it'll get the same pickup, but we will make sure that there are appropriate consequences through the legal system because that's what the safety of our community demands."
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) launched an investigation into directions given to U.S. marshals to not arrest protesters outside Supreme Court justices homes after a draft decision overturning federal abortion protections was leaked.

He pointed to a federal law that prohibits demonstrations that intend to interfere with or influence judges.

The probe comes a year after the bombshell leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion in Dobbs vs. Jackson Womens Health that overturned Roe v. Wade, which sparked protests outside the homes of conservative justices.

In a letter requesting information from U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald L. Davis, Jordan referred to training materials that directed marshals to not arrest those demonstrating outside justices homes.

The training materials provided to the U.S. Marshals strongly suggest that the Biden Administration is continuing to weaponize federal law enforcement agencies for partisan purposes, Jordan wrote in the letter, first shared with The Hill.

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), center, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), left, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), second from right, and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), right, take their seats before a House Judiciary Committee Field Hearing on April 17 in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Federal law 18 U.S.C.  1507 prohibits pickets or parades in or near a building housing a court of the United States, or in or near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge, juror, witness, or court officer when it is with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer.

While authorities apprehended the man who intended to do harm to Justice Kavanaugh, we are aware of no other arrests or charges for agitators demonstrating outside of the justices homesdespite the actions clearly violating federal law, Jordan said in the letter, referring to a June 2022 arrest of a man who authorities say threatened to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh and was found outside his home with a gun, hammer, knife and pepper spray.

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Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) in a March Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing unveiled training slides for U.S. marshals who were assigned to protect the homes of Supreme Court justices.

The slides said the federal statute directly implicates activities that also involve the [First Amendment] right to free speech, to assemble, and to petition the government, interpreting the statutes language of intent of influencing any judge as applying to criminal threats and intimidation, not 1st A protected protest activities.

Roberts struggles to keep Supreme Court out of ethics fight

Avoid, unless absolutely necessary, criminal enforcement actions involving the protest or protestors, particularly on public space, another slide said.

Do not engage in protest-related enforcement actions beyond that which are strictly and immediately necessary and tailored to ensure the physical safety of the Justices and their families, another slide said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland had said in a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing earlier in March that marshals had the authority to arrest demonstrators under that statute.

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, April 14, 2023. The Justice Department has charged 28 members of Mexicos powerful Sinaloa cartel, including sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, in a sprawling fentanyl-trafficking investigation. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, April 14. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The marshals have been advised, and they know  the marshals on the ground have full authority to arrest people under any federal statute including that federal statue, but they have to make the determination on the ground whether they can do that in a manner that is safe and able to protect their main mission, Garland said.

When Britt presented the slides to Garland later in the month, he responded that he had never seen those materials. Garland noted that he was the first Attorney General whos ever ordered the marshals to protect the residences of the justices and protect them 24/7.

But that doesnt mean that they are in any way precluded from bringing other kinds of arrests, Garland said.

The Judiciary Committee chairman requested documents and communications between the U.S. Marshals Service and the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Maryland, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, and the Executive Office of the President about enforcement of the statute from May 2, 2022  the date of the Supreme Court opinion leak  to the present. Jordan requested the information by 5 p.m. May 17.

The U.S. Marshals Service said they had received and were reviewing Jordans letter but had no immediate comment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A massive collection of jewels is set to go on sale by Christies, but the size of the haul isnt the only part of the auction thats getting attention.

On Wednesday, May 3, the auction house will offer 700 jewels from Austrian heiress Heidi Horten in what will probably be one of the biggest jewelry sales in history, according to The New York Times. The collection is anticipated to fetch more than $150 million, a sum that would surpass the $137 million sum that the Elizabeth Taylors collection yielded.

More from Robb Report

Horten, who passed away last year, received a substantial inheritance after the death of her first husband, Helmut, in 1987, according to Christies. But the auction house has disclosed that the business practices of Mr. Horten during the Nazi era, when he purchased Jewish businesses sold under duress, are well documented. Horten, the auction house admits, forced Jewish businesses to sell to him under threat of harm from the Nazis.

As counter to this ugly history, Christies stated that proceeds of the sale will benefit The Heidi Horten Foundation, as well as an array of causes she supported during her lifetime such as medical research and child welfare. Christies also said that following the sale, it would make a significant contribution to an organization that advances Holocaust research and education.

We are aware there is a painful history, Anthea Peers, president of Christies Europe, Middle East and Africa, told the Times. We weighed that up against various factors, but added that the foundation is a key driver of philanthropic causes.

Munich-based journalist Stephanie Stephans father was on the board of a company that was sold to Horten by force, according to the newspaper. Stephan published an affidavit from another Jewish business owner who claimed that Horten had threatened them with being deported to concentration camps if they didnt agree to sell their assets. A historian hired by Heidi Horten has claimed that Helmut Horten never finalized the purchase of Stephans fathers company and disputed the accuracy of the affidavit, according to the Times.

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How Helmut Hortens documented link to the Nazis will impact the final sale of the vast jewelry collection remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: well have an answer soon.

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Click here to read the full article.
The Cane Corso is the most popular dog breed in North Carolina, a new study says.

The study, conducted by the Dog Advisory Council, was based on data from the American Kennel Club and Google search trends.

Cane Corsos are somewhat intimidating in appearance, with a large head and rippling muscles beneath their short dark coats, the group said in a statement. The Cane Corsos Latin name roughly translates to bodyguard dog, the perfect description for these incredibly protective and vigilant dogs. Despite this harsh exterior, Cane Corsos are affectionate with their family and eager to please them.

The breed has been rising in popularity across the US ever since it was first recognized as a breed by the American Kennel Club in 2010, veterinary surgeon Lizzie Youens said in the groups statement.

Loyal and loving, Cane Corsos can make excellent pets, she said. However, they are large, intelligent, and very active dogs who need an experienced owner with the time to dedicate to training and exercise. These powerful dogs can weigh more than 100 pounds and can be highly assertive, so they are recommended for households with older children only if in a family setting.

Cane Corsos were also the most Googled dog breed in 45 other states, including Florida, Georgia, Connecticut, and Indiana, the council said.

Rounding out the top five in North Carolina were the French bulldog, Australian shepard, Shih Tzu and Shiba Inu.
Anthony Pattersons trial on sex charges involving children will not begin in May as planned.

Anthony Patterson, center, sits flanked by his attorneys in 78th District Court Wednesday. Judge Meredith Kennedy agreed to move his trial on sex charges involving children to October because of new allegations against the former auto dealer.

At a hearing Wednesday, 78th District Court Judge Meredith Kennedy set a new trial date of Oct. 30. The delay comes after five new serious charges were lodged against Patterson, former president of the Patterson Automobile dealership.

His defense lawyers wanted more time to prepare for the new allegations, which were filed after Brooke Grona-Robb, a Texas Assistant Attorney General who is aiding in the prosecution, and an investigator interviewed two young girls who are alleged victims of Patterson. The interviews, conducted in late April, resulted in new charges of aggravated sexual assault and sexual performance of a child being tacked onto indecency and trafficking of a person charges Patterson already faced.

The District Attorneys Office did not oppose moving the trial date. Grona-Robb did, however, ask that stiffer bail requirements be imposed on Patterson because of the new charges. She said Patterson has traveled out of town to meet with his attorneys, which was a violation of his bail terms.

Its not necessary for him to travel to Dallas. His attorneys can come here, she said.

Pattersons lawyers argued that Patterson got permission to leave town and has otherwise obeyed the terms of his bond.

Judge Kennedy said her concern was that Patterson was a flight risk, noting that he had quickly posted $2.5 million bail after spending a single night in jail on the new charges. She set a hearing for June 1 to decide whether new bond conditions should be set.

Pattersons attorneys also hinted they are considering a change of venue request  moving the trial out of Wichita Falls -- but said they hadnt decided yet.

Patterson was first arrested Feb. 3, 2021. A Texas Ranger's arrest report alleged he told a Vernon woman he met on a "sugar daddy" website in 2017 that he was attracted to children. The woman, Jandreani Bell, told a DA's investigator and an FBI agent that Patterson was a wealthy man who paid her for sex. She later told a DA's investigator and the Texas Ranger that she began bringing her two young female relatives with her from Vernon to Wichita Falls for Patterson. The girls were ages 8 and 10 at the time. In the subsequent interviews with the girls, now 14 and 16, they described other sexual contact with Patterson in 2017 that led to the new charges.

If convicted, Patterson faces up to life in prison. For now he remains free on the original terms of his bail. Bell also faces charges in connection with the allegations and is free from jail.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Patterson trial delayed until October because of new charges
TORONTO, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ Today, the Ontario Government announced that it is investing $51 million dollars in the fight against auto theft by creating a dedicated Auto Theft Team led by the Ontario Provincial Police, a new community safety grant, and a Major Auto Theft Prosecution Response team.

Equite Association Logo (CNW Group/Equite Association)

Equite Association has been a long-standing partner of the OPP and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, and has been supporting this reform in Ontario, in collaboration with our partners, to gain real traction in the fight against auto crime. In response to this positive announcement, Equite Association offered the following statement of support:

"Equite Association would like to commend the Ontario Government and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) for the creation of the auto theft team and the auto theft prosecution team. Auto theft increased by 40% in Ontario in 2022, and that trend is continuing this year. It is a national crisis that is costing Canadians well over a billion dollars every year and erodes public safety. These stolen vehicles are either being sold to unsuspecting consumers in Canada or are being exported oversees; with the proceeds going to fund organized crime including the trafficking of weapons, drugs other related crimes. We are confident that the establishment of the auto theft team and the auto theft prosecution team are vital steps toward diminishing this crime in Ontario. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with our partners in the OPP and other law enforcement agencies as we work together to safeguard Canadians against this rapidly growing crime."

Terri O'Brien, President & Chief Executive Officer, Equite Association

About Equite Association

Equite Association is a not-for-profit, national organization, supporting Canadian property and casualty (P&C) insurers. Equite combats the multi-billion-dollar insurance crime problem that exploits vulnerable Canadians through advanced analytics, intelligence best practices, and coordinated investigations. Delivering improved service and fraud analytics for vehicle, property, and cargo recovery to its members, Equite collaborates with law enforcement, partners and industry organizations to protect Canadians against exploitation.

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Learn more about Equite Association at https://www.equiteassociation.com/.

SOURCE Equite Association

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2023/03/c9514.html
An Athens woman was scammed recently when a man posing as an agent of the Board of Pardons and Paroles said her son would be released from prison if she paid $988 for an ankle monitor.

The scam was one of a similar number occurring throughout the state that has prompted the state Department of Community Supervision to issue a public alert on the crime and issue notices to those incarcerated to beware of the scam. DCS supervises people on parole and probation.

The State Board of Pardons & Parole also issued a statement Tuesday warning the public about the scam.

The Georgia Parole Board neither requires a fee nor will ever ask for money to consider an offender for parole or set a release date, Parole Board Chairman Terry Barnard said.

Oconee Blotter: Woman driving too slow in fast lane and stopping in middle of road arrested

Suspect sought: Police seek suspect, motive in shooting death of Athens man

The Parole Board is working with law enforcement and funneling to officers the information they are receiving from the public in an effort to stop the crime, according to the Parole Boards Communications Director Steve Hayes.

In the Athens case, the woman reported to Athens-Clarke police that she was contacted April 26 by an Officer Flint, and he informed the woman that her son would be released from prison early on parole, but he would need to wear an ankle monitor.

The caller named Flint required the $988 fee be paid on a Venmo app and he would come by the womans house on April 28 to install the equipment. When that day arrived and Flint didn't show, she became suspicious and called police.

Anyone who is a victim or receives a similar call can contact their local police department or reach out to the Department of Community Services at (678) 783-4337.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens woman sends money thinking son will be paroled from prison
State employees will now have more time to spend at home, following the birth or adoption of a new child without having to worry about pay.

Paid family leave benefits for state employees were expanded Tuesday to 100% pay for up to 12 weeks, according to the Governor's Office.

I want to make sure that South Dakota continues to be the best state in the nation to live, work, and raise a family  and that starts with making sure our state employees have the resources they need to care for their families, Gov. Kristi Noem said in a statement. By expanding South Dakotas Paid Family Leave opportunities, we will give our states hardworking moms and dads the chance to bond with a new child during the precious first few weeks after birth or adoption.

More: Gov. Kristi Noem's family leave plan dies in South Dakota House Appropriations debate

Previously, paid leave for state employees was eight weeks with 60% of pay, according to South Dakota Searchlight.

The rules packaged, passed by the Legislature's Rules Review Committee, comes after attempts from the Noem administration during the Legislative session in February to extend paid family leave for state employees while also allowing private businesses to buy into the insurance benefits program.

As part of the two-prong bill package, businesses would also be allowed to apply for grant funding to help them cover the paid family leave program.

Neither bill passed, leaving Noem the option to extend leave for state employees through the Rules Review process.

The extended family leave program will be enacted 20 days after the rules package is delivered to the Secretary of State's office.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: State employees now have extended family leave with 100% pay in SD
The GOP-controlled Texas Senate on Tuesday passed a proposal allowing the state to overturn elections in Harris County, home to the states most populous city Houston.

The legislation penalizes county officials for running out of ballot paper at some voting sites in the 2022 election, the Houston Chronicle reported. Still, more importantly, it gives Republican Gov. Greg Abbott precedent-setting power to undo election results.

The measure would give Abbotts appointed secretary of state the authority to hold a new election in the county if it runs out of paper at 2% or more of its polling sites for more than an hour, the newspaper noted.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott would have precedent-setting power to reverse elections if the bill passes as expected.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott would have precedent-setting power to reverse elections if the bill passes as expected.

The bills Republican co-author, state Sen. Mayes Middleton, said, There is no excuse why we cant competently run our elections and have adequate ballot paper.

But Senate Democrats saw the move as simply handing the governor a way to reverse results as Republicans like former President Donald Trump and losing Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake tried to do.

Harris County, which once skewed Republican, voted nearly 56% Democratic in the last presidential election. Abbott and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz lost the county in recent re-election races.

You want to vest in a political appointee the ability to make a decision as to whether or not an election should be overturned and reheld? state Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) said.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee told the Chron that the bill was about targeting the largest county in the state, which is led by people of color.

County Commissioner Adrian Garcia said it was a form of election denial.

The bill now goes to the Republican-controlled Texas House.

Middleton said the shortage stopped countless people from voting on election day, Fox 26 reported.

But a Houston Chronicle study concluded that the paper shortage did not alter the outcome of the elections in Harris County, defying Republican claims of voter suppression in GOP-leaning areas. There was no evidence voters were systematically disenfranchised, according to the study.

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Abbott had previously said the paper shortage would necessitate new laws directed at Harris County, Newsweek reported.

At least a dozen Harris County Republican candidates contested the 2022 results, Houston Public Media reported.

Related...
The Sarasota County Schools logo as seen from behind the School Board table.

The Sarasota County School Board convened Tuesday afternoon to vote on several agenda items, including a charter school renewal, various contracts and other spending.

Here are three things that happened at Tuesday's meeting.

Sarasota superintendent search: Parents, community voice concerns at first public forum

At New College: DeSantis-appointee New College board denies tenure for five professors

Foster says Pre-K will stay

During her update, district interim superintendent Allison Foster said the non-exceptional student education pre-kindergarten program will continue despite federal COVID-19 funding drying up in 2024.

"I want to thank the community for sharing public comments at meetings, in person, through email and by phone," Foster said of the decision to continue the program. "We recognize the need for high-quality educational programs for our pre-K learners."

She said she has directed Pre-K director Tracey Cardenas and Chief Financial Officer Bonnie Penner to work with the School Board to address the program's sustainability as funding shifts.

Updates on book challenges

Foster asked Rob Manoogian, the supervisor of the district's instructional materials and library services department, to provide an update about challenged library books in schools.

Manoogian said there are two book challenges currently under review: "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison and "Looking for Alaska" by John Green.

"Lawn Boy" is about a 22-year-old biracial man who is fired from his lawn mowing job, and the novel follows his complex life and his attempts to find a new job, with a commentary on class and race. "Looking for Alaska" is a coming-of-age novel about a boarding school student who deals with a traumatic loss of a friend. The novel was a New York Times bestseller and won the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature from the American Library Association.

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He said both books were at Riverview High, and committee findings have been sent to the parent who filed the complaint who could then take further action and appeal. District officials and records were not immediately available in reference to the book challenges.

Another book, titled "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk, was removed from the libraries at Venice and North Port High Schools. Manoogian said the book, which was about a sex-addict con man who works at a colonial reenactment museum, had only been checked out once at one school and never at the other dating back to the beginning of the school's library indexing system in March of 2013.

The book's removal happened without the completion of the established challenged materials process, something which Board Chairwoman Bridget Ziegler defended. She read the memo Manoogian sent all board members about the book, which said the book would not have been appropriate to purchase today and doesn't comply with current legislation.

"After following current vetting guidelines established by the state, this book clearly would not be approved for purchase if it were recommended as a new title," the memo read. "It is not age and grade-level appropriate. It is not suited for students' needs and their ability to comprehend the content."

School charter renewed

The School Board approved a 15-year charter renewal for Sarasota Suncoast Academy. The school, which has received an "A" grade from the state every year except 2014 and 2016, teaches almost 800 students.

The school came before the School Board for charter renewal a year early, which the school's principal Steven Crump said was partly because it wanted to explore building an additional permanent structure to replace portable classrooms.

Board members commended the principal on the highly effective charter school and approved the renewal unanimously.

Follow Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. He can be reached at sbwalker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota School Board Meeting Recap: Pre-K, Book bans, charter renewal
NEW PHILADELPHIA  A few voters decided a small number of issues in villages and townships in Tuesday's primary election.

Strasburg voters rejected by a 197-129 vote a 3.7-mill, five-year additional levy for police protection, according to unofficial results from the Tuscarawas County Board of Elections. It was the second ballot appearance for the issue, which voters also rejected in November.

Also going down to defeat was a 0.5% income tax increase requested in Port Washington, which was to have targeted road maintenance and repair. The issue failed by a 10-to-44 vote.

Votes were tied at 27 on a 0.6-mill, four-year renewal levy for maintaining Union Cemetery in Port Washington.

"We are not done with the election," Gail Garbrandt, director of the elections board, wrote in an email.

She said the agency needs to count 19 provisional ballots and any absentee ballots that arrive postmarked by May 1. The elections board will officially certify results May 15.

"If the levy remains tied it fails  there are no recounts on issues, only candidates," Garbrandt wrote.

Voters approved two money issues: a 1-mill, five-year replacement levy for fire equipment in Warwick Township, including the village of Tuscarawas, and a 1.5-mill, five-year levy for fire protection in Bucks Township, which consisted of a 1-mill renewal and a 0.5-mill increase,

The Warwick Township issue passed with a 59-to-31 vote. The Bucks Township issue was approved 11 to 6.

Issues on ballot in May 2 primary elect: Tuscarawas County Board of Elections rejects candidate's petition for May primary

Fire levy: Warwick Township seeking replacement levy for fire equipment

Primary election issue: Port Washington seeks income tax increase for road paving

Seven liquor options for Sunday sale of alcohol were on the ballot.

Breitenbach Wine Cellars locations in Dover and Sugar Creek townships received voter approval to sell beer and liquor, in addition to wine, throughout the week, including on Sundays. Owner Duke Bixler said the request was made in response to requests to have beer, liquor and mixed drinks at weddings.

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BellStores locations in New Philadelphia and Strasburg received voter approval for local liquor options allowing Sunday sales of wine and mixed beverages, Similar issues were rejected for BellStores in Bolivar and Sandy Township.

The Zoar Market in Lawrence Township received approval for Sunday sale of wine and mixed beverages.

Reach Nancy at 330-364-8402 or nancy.molnar@timesreporter.com.

On Twitter: @nmolnarTR

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Tax issues decided Tuesday in villages and townships
Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old motorist who died after being brutally beaten by Memphis Police officers, was killed by blunt force trauma, attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said after they and the family viewed the autopsy report.

The family viewed the autopsy report Wednesday, nearly four months after Nichols' death, and Crump said the manner of death was homicide. The attorneys said the autopsy report was similar to an independent one conducted in January. That report said Nichols "suffered extensive bleeding."

"The legal team representing the family of Tyre Nichols acknowledges the release of the medical examiner's report, the contents of which are highly consistent with our own reporting back in January of this year," Crump and Romanucci said in an email statement. "We know now what we knew then. Tyre Nichols died from blunt force trauma and the manner of death was homicide. The official autopsy report further propels our commitment to seeking justice for this senseless tragedy."

Read this: What Memphis mayoral candidates have to say on policing, public safety after Tyre Nichols

Although the family and attorneys have seen the autopsy report, the full report has not been publicly released. When asked when it would be available, an employee from the West Tennessee Forensic Center told reporters from The Commercial Appeal and Associated Press they could not say when it would be released.

When asked if the report was complete, the employee said they could not answer that.

Nichols was first pulled over in a traffic stop, which was initially said to be for reckless driving. That claim was later walked back by Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis, who said there was no evidence to say Nichols had committed any crime.

During the initial stop, two officers from MPD's SCORPION Unit, which stands for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, pulled Nichols from his car and dragged him to the ground. A third SCORPION Unit officer arrived as Nichols was being pulled to the ground and held his legs down.

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Eventually, after officers yelled conflicting commands at Nichols, he jumped up and began to run away. At that point, former-Officer Preston Hemphill fired his taser at Nichols.

Nichols carried on running towards his mother's home with officers in pursuit. An officer caught up to him about 1000 yards from his mother's home. Officers proceeded to punch, kick, pepper spray and hit Nichols with a baton. He was left bruised and bleeding when officers dragged his body across the pavement and leaned him against an unmarked police car.

Over the next 20 minutes, officers milled around the area as Nichols slouched over by the car. When emergency medical technicians arrived, they appeared to not provide much attention to Nichols. Eventually he was taken to St. Francis Hospital via ambulance in critical condition. He died three days later.

Five now-former MPD officers -- Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin, Desmond Mills and Justin Smith -- face criminal charges, including second-degree murder and kidnapping. Hemphill, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy announced Tuesday morning, will not face criminal charges.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Tyre Nichols death ruled homicide, blunt force trauma cited
By David Morgan, Richard Cowan and Katharine Jackson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday called on President Joe Biden to accept their party's debt-ceiling package or make a counter-offer, while a top Democrat said the Senate might try to advance a "clean" debt-ceiling hike next week.

With barely a month to go before a possible catastrophic U.S. default, leaders of both parties hardened their standoff over the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. Republicans in the Senate said Democrats needed to take seriously Speaker Kevin McCarthy's legislation that passed the House of Representatives along party lines last week.

"You've got a choice between accepting the House bill or entering a discussion," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters.

Senator John Thune, McConnell's top lieutenant, told reporters that there is strong support for the House legislation. "Everybody wants to see us succeed, and that means getting some legitimate, meaningful reforms as part of this process," he said.

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer leads a 51-49 majority, but would need the support of at least nine Republicans to pass a bill lifting the debt ceiling without conditions.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Tuesday said his caucus was preparing a possible way to maneuver around Republican opposition, but that tactic could work only if the Senate passed a bill of its own.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen informed Congress on Monday that the U.S. government will be unable to meet all its obligations "potentially as early as June 1" unless lawmakers act on the debt ceiling.

Soon afterward, Biden invited McCarthy, Schumer, McConnell and Jeffries to a White House meeting on May 9.

(Graphic: 'X-Date' pain - https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-DEBT/TREASURY/jnpwykamnpw/chart_eikon.jpg)

Schumer then began navigating a bill that would suspend the debt ceiling until December 2024 without conditions through the Senate, while the White House said Biden would "stress that Congress must take action to avoid default without conditions."

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McConnell dismissed the idea of a Senate debt ceiling bill, saying a resolution would have to come from McCarthy and Biden. "There is no solution in the Senate," he said.

Schumer told reporters that he would wait until next week's White House meeting before deciding how to move forward.

"We have to stand firm," the top Senate Democrat said. "I look forward to the president explaining in the meeting to the speaker directly the harm that he proposes to cause and I hope it'll cause cooler heads to prevail."

The failure of Congress to act on the debt ceiling would result in a catastrophic first-ever U.S. default that could cripple the nation's economy and unsettle world global financial markets.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Katharine Jackson in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone, Andy Sullivan and Matthew Lewis)
Reuters/Jim Urquhart

Militia leader Ammon Bundy says he wont appear in court because theres too much paperwork. Witnesses against him say they wont appear because theyre afraid of retaliation.

Bundy, the leader of the right-wing activist group Peoples Rights Network (PRN), is facing a lawsuit from St. Lukes, an Idaho hospital that accuses Bundy and his followers of defamation and harassment. Since St. Lukes filed its lawsuit last May, Bundy has refused to attend court dates or respond to legal filings. Instead, hes boasted of throwing court documents in the garbage, while the PRN has urged members to come to Bundys home to shield him from police.

But a flurry of recent filings have put Bundy in new legal jeopardy. After a series of legal losses, hes filing to move the case to federal court, while evading arrest on contempt charges.

Stephen Piggott, a program director at the extremism-monitoring nonprofit Western States Center, said Bundys response to the lawsuit has been part of a larger campaign to strongarm opponents.

Since its inception, PRN has relied on threats, intimidation, and political violence as a key strategy, Piggott told The Daily Beast. I think the goal of this strategy has been to have a chilling effect on the democratic process. The St. Lukes case is just the latest in a long line of examples.

Bundys feud with St. Lukes began in March 2022, after the infant grandson of a PRN member was treated in the hospital for malnourishment against the familys wishes in a child welfare case. Bundy led the PRN in a protest that temporarily shut down the hospital. PRN supporters flooded hospital phone lines with explicit death threats, and hospital staff became targets for doxxing and QAnon-flavored lies about sex trafficking.

St. Lukes responded with a defamation suit against Bundy, the PRN, and several associates. But rather than fight the defamation claims in court, Bundy has ignored the lawsuit, refusing to appear in court or acknowledge legal documents.

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I just throw it all away, he said in a December video, while holding a stack of court papers. I literally just take it from the mail and throw it in the garbage.

Ammon Bundy Is Threatening Anyone Trying to Serve Him Court Papers, Lawsuit Claims

The tactic has not won him favors with the court. A judge last month issued a civil arrest warrant for Bundy, citing his behavior in the case. The following week, the judge handed St. Lukes a default ruling in its lawsuit against Bundy, due to Bundys failure to appear in court.

Days later on March 1, Bundy finally sent a document to the courtnot to acknowledge his loss, but to demand the trial to be moved to federal court. His justification: the volume of paperwork in the state case was too much for him.

Petitioner Ammon Bundy, has never appeared in the State Case, due to the tens of thousands

of documents thrust upon him who is Pro Se and has no counsel, his petition reads.

But some legal documents havent even made it to Bundys garbage can, according to recent court filings. Last month, St. Lukes attorneys accused Bundy of threatening process servers who delivered court documents to his house. Bundy threatened the delivery workers with trespassing charges, and made similar threats against sheriffs deputies who tried serving him with papers. The Gem County Sheriff temporarily stopped trying to serve Bundy with papers, citing fears of violence from Bundy, who has previously participated in two armed standoffs against the federal government.

After a sheriffs vehicle was spotted near Bundys home last week, the PRN sent followers an emergency alert, falsely claiming that Ammon Bundys [sic] home in idaho is currently surrounded by law enforcement. He is calling for people to come to his aid.

Some supporters have stayed on Bundys property for over a week, Piggott said. Although many departed the property a few days, I think members are on red alert and are ready to mobilize whenever Bundy or PRN leaders put out the call, he added.

Those unable to come to his house have been encouraged to call the Gem County Sheriff and ask him not to take action against Bundy.

The Knives Are Out For Right-Wing Shock Jock Steven Crowder

Ammon chose to live in Gem county and not Ada county with the reasonable expectation to be protected against the unconstitutional, liberal, leftist, WOKE agendas so prevalent in Ada county and other large urban areas across the country, reads a PRN sample letter for supporters to send the sheriff.

Bundy and supporters have also intimidated witnesses in the St. Lukes case, the hospitals lawyers allege.

Bundys arrest warrant was based on evidence that hed continued to harass plaintiffs, in violation of a court order to leave them alone, Idaho Statesman first reported Monday. Erik Stidham, an attorney for St. Lukes, told the Statesman that at least three witnesses had backed away from testifying in the case, for fear of harassment from Bundy and his network.

Affidavits from plaintiffs revealed a pattern of intimidating behavior. Natasha Erickson, a St. Lukes pediatrician who is suing Bundy, wrote that shes been subjected to an ongoing harassment campaign, even after the court issued a protective order.

The unrelenting and false rhetoric used by Bundy and PRN has disrupted my daily life for several months and shows no sign of ceasing, she wrote. The ongoing statements have caused me chronic stress and anxiety and have left me in a constant state of concern for my safety and the safety [of] my family, my colleagues, my patients, and my friends.

Those statements include false allegations of kidnapping and abuse, alongside photos of Erickson on a PRN-aligned website.

Erickson pointed to recent statements in which Bundy hinted at violently resisting the St. Lukes lawsuit. The threats and the smear campaign made it more challenging for me to establish my claims in this case because it has the effect of deterring other people who might otherwise set up and be witnesses in this case, she wrote.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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RFA/Latino Community and Lower Valley Reporter

Heyo, Im Jasper. Nice to meet you. I cover a wide variety of news, but I try to focus on the Latino community and the Lower Yakima Valley. I want to sharestories and perspectives from the Yakima Valley. Im interested in economics, labor, geography and the environment, but the most important issues will always be the ones the community cares about. If you have something worth saying, Ill listen and try to write it down. Im a gosei from Northeast Los Angeles and I got my start as a student journalist and editor covering sports in the Bay Area. Im a massive soccer fan and I still love to play. I also love water in all its forms, the word copacetic and trying new things. I want to read more, and I like to cook, but Im not great at either. Have fun out there!
Irwin Naturals

LOS ANGELES, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Irwin Naturals Inc. (CSE: IWIN) (OTC: IWINF) (FRA: 97X) (Irwin or the Company) announces that the British Columbia Securities Commission has issued a failure-to-file-cease trade order (CTO) pursuant to National Policy 11-207  Failure to File Cease Trade Orders and Revocations in Multiple Jurisdictions in respect of the securities of the Company as a result of the Company not having filed its annual financial statements and managements discussion and analysis and related officer certifications for the financial year ended December 31, 2022 (collectively, the Required Filings), which were required to be filed by May 1, 2023. The CTO prohibits the trading, whether direct or indirect, by any person of any securities of the Company in each jurisdiction in Canada in which the Company is a reporting issuer for as long as the CTO remains in effect, subject to certain limited exceptions.

The delay in filing the Required Filings is a result of additional time required by the auditor to review several acquisitions completed by the Company during the 2022 fiscal year. The Company has also entered into multiple definitive agreements during the 2022 fiscal year, which has required considerable time and resources from the finance department of the Company and the auditor. For further details related to these events, please refer to the Companys press releases and the Companys interim financial statements for the period ended September 30, 2022 and the accompanying Managements Discussion and Analysis.

The Company is continuing to work with the auditor to complete the Required Filings as soon as possible, at which point the Company will seek to have the CTO revoked. However, there is no assurance that the Company will be able to remedy its filing default and have the CTO revoked in a timely manner or at all.

Board of Directors

Unrelated to the issuance of the CTO, the Company also announces that Marc-David Bismuth has tendered his resignation as a director of the Company effective immediately, and that the Company is actively recruiting a replacement to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Mr. Bismuth. The Company thanks Mr. Bismuth for his contribution and services and wishes him well on his future endeavours.

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About Irwin Naturals

Irwin Naturals has been a household name and best-in-class herbal supplement formulator since 1994. It is now leveraging its brand to enter into both the cannabis and psychedelic industries. On a mission to heal the world with plant medicine, Irwins growing portfolio of products is available in more than 100,000 retail doors across North America where nearly 100 million people know the Irwin Naturals brand. In 2018, the Company first leveraged its brand to expand into the cannabis industry by launching hemp-based CBD products into the mass market. The Company is now leveraging its famous halo of brand trust with an objective to become one of the first household name brands to offer THC-based products and psychedelic mental health treatment. Irwin Naturals became a publicly traded company on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) in August 2021. The Companys shares began to be traded on the OTCQB Venture Market in November 2021. More information on the Companys stock can be found via Bloomberg as well as the Wall Street Journal.

Klee Irwin

________________________________

Klee Irwin

Chief Executive Officer

T:310-306-3636

investors@irwinnaturals.com

IR Information

For investor-related information, please visit ir.irwinnaturals.com/, call (800) 883-4851, or email Investors@IrwinNaturals.com.

Press Contact

Irwin Naturals Investor Relations

Cassandra Bassanetti-Drumm

T: 310-306-3636

investors@irwinnaturals.com

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of management of the Company with respect to performance, business and future events. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "may", "will", "would", "could", "should", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "expects", "plans", "intends", "anticipates", "targeted", "continues", "forecasts", "designed", "goal", or the negative of those words or other similar or comparable words. Forward-looking statements are based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business and the industry and markets in which the Company operates. These statements include, without limitation, statements expressed or implied regarding our expectations related to the filing of our Required Filings and the timing thereof; the timing of the completion of the Companys audit; and the issuance, duration and subsequent revocation of the CTO, if any, by the securities commissions or regulators and the timing thereof. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, readers should not place undue reliance on such information. The Company does not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law.

Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Irwin Naturals Inc.




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Global Market Insights Inc.

Remote Patient Monitoring Devices industry is anticipated to register 11% CAGR between 2023 and 2032 due to growing adoption of remote patient monitoring devices.

Selbyville, Delaware, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



The remote patient monitoring devices market value is likely to grow by over USD 41 billion by 2032, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights Inc.

The rapid expansion of telehealth and virtual care technology after the COVID-19 outbreak has spurred the adoption of RPM systems. In January 2023, Cadence, a health technology business, and Ardent Health Services collaborated to implement a remote patient monitoring (RPM) program at Ardent's facilities in six states, allowing patients to receive remote treatment for chronic diseases from the comfort of their own homes.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/5563







Increasing occurrences of diabetes to boost blood glucose monitoring devices demand

The blood glucose monitoring devices segment is foreseen to witness 11% CAGR by 2032. Blood glucose monitoring devices are gaining significant traction owing to the rising number of individuals suffering from obesity, diabetes, and age-related illnesses. Furthermore, healthcare technology providers are introducing easy-to-use diabetes management systems, which are slated to contribute to segment development.

High prevalence of coronary heart diseases to enhance cardiovascular diseases segment gains

The remote patient monitoring devices market from the cardiovascular diseases segment crossed USD 2.5 billion in 2022. Heart disease has increased dramatically in recent years, not only among the old and middle-aged but also among the younger generations of China, the U.S., India, and other such major regions.

According to experts, India is estimated to report the highest number of cardiac fatalities globally by 2030. Thus, an increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, such as cardiac arrhythmias, coronary heart diseases, heart stroke, and other heart diseases, is projected to fuel segment outlook by 2032.

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Browse key industry insights spread across 290 pages with 250 market data tables & 17 figures & charts from the report, Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market Size By Product (Cardiac Monitoring Devices, Blood Pressure Monitoring Devices, Neurological Monitoring Devices, Respiratory Monitoring Devices, Multiparameter Monitoring Devices, Blood Glucose Monitoring Devices, Fetal and Neonatal Monitoring Devices, Sleep Monitoring Devices), By Application (Cardiovascular Diseases, Cancer, Diabetes, Neurological Disorders, Infectious Diseases, Respiratory Diseases), By End-use (Home-care Settings, Long-term Care), Forecast, 2023  2032 in detail along with the table of contents:

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/remote-patient-monitoring-devices-market



Advantages of cost-effectiveness to accelerate long-term care segment revenue

The remote patient monitoring devices market from the long-term care segment is set to accrue USD 7 billion by 2032. Remote patient monitoring technology has emerged as a significant tool that allows healthcare providers to collect user-generated health data via mobile devices, providing access to patient care while lowering total costs by eliminating the need for hospital stays. They provide real-time data that is utilized to analyze the patient's urgent health status.

Rising investment in the development of healthcare services to boost the Europe industry share

Europe remote patient monitoring devices market is to reach over USD 10 billion by 2032, driven by the rising frequency of cardiovascular illnesses and the increasing number of surgical operations. Furthermore, high demand for enhanced treatment and massive investments in the progression of healthcare services and technologically better goods are expected to drive regional business growth by 2032.



Secure a copy of the premium research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/securecheckout/paymenta/5563?gmpaycod=sugmp

Product portfolio expansion efforts to define the competitive landscape

Boston Scientific Corporation, Baxter International Inc., Honeywell International, GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers AG, VitalConnect, GE Healthcare, OMRON Corporation, Dragerwerk AG & Co KGaA, DexCom, Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, and Cisco Systems are some of the eminent firms operating in remote patient monitoring devices industry.

Browse Our Reports Store - GMIPulse @ https://www.gminsights.com/gmipulse

About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology.

CONTACT: Contact Us: Aashit Tiwari Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights Inc. Toll Free: +1-888-689-0688 USA: +1-302-846-7766 Europe: +44-742-759-8484 APAC: +65-3129-7718 Email: sales@gminsights.com Read More News @ https://ibmag.com/




The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has recently awarded over US$20 million in grants to researchers and universities across America. The funding will support research projects in areas such as nuclear security, nonproliferation, and energy.

NNSA is an agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that is responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science. This recent funding announcement is part of NNSA's ongoing efforts to support the research and development of advanced technologies that can help safeguard the nation's nuclear materials and facilities.

Supporting research and innovation

The grants will support a wide range of research projects at universities across the country. Some of the areas of focus include:

Developing new technologies for detecting and identifying nuclear materials

Enhancing the safety and security of nuclear power plants

Improving the efficiency of nuclear energy production

Strengthening cybersecurity measures for nuclear facilities

Developing advanced materials for nuclear applications

In addition to supporting research, the funding will also help train the next generation of nuclear scientists and engineers. Many of the grants will support graduate and postdoctoral research positions, providing opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience in cutting-edge research.

Partnerships and collaboration

One of the key strengths of NNSA's research program is its emphasis on collaboration and partnerships. Many of the projects funded through this latest round of grants involve partnerships between universities, national laboratories, and industry partners.

For example, one project will involve collaboration between researchers at the University of Michigan, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Idaho National Laboratory. The project aims to develop new methods for detecting and characterizing nuclear materials using advanced imaging techniques.

Another project will involve collaboration between researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, Berkeley. The project aims to develop new materials for use in nuclear reactors, with the goal of improving their efficiency and reducing their environmental impact.

Advancing Nuclear Security and Energy

The research funded through these grants has the potential to have a significant impact on both national security and energy production. By developing new technologies for detecting and identifying nuclear materials, researchers can help prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and other threats to national security.

At the same time, research in the area of nuclear energy can help advance the development of cleaner and more efficient energy sources. This is particularly important as the world seeks to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and transition to a low-carbon economy.

Conclusion

The grants awarded by NNSA will help support cutting-edge research and innovation in the areas of nuclear security and energy. By investing in the development of new technologies and training the next generation of nuclear scientists and engineers, NNSA is helping to ensure that America remains at the forefront of nuclear science and technology.

With continued investment in research and collaboration between universities, national laboratories, and industry partners, the potential for further breakthroughs in the field of nuclear science is enormous. As such, these grants are an important step towards achieving a safer, more secure, and more sustainable future for all.
The ranch-style Decker plan will open for tours on Saturday at Parkside

BRENTWOOD, Calif., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Richmond American Homes of California, a subsidiary of M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MDC), is excited to announce that a brand-new, fully furnished model home will open for tours on Saturday, May 6, at the inviting community of Parkside (RichmondAmerican.com/Parkside) in Brentwood. Featuring only 36 homesites, this exclusive enclave showcases three inspired ranch and two-story floor plans with the open layouts and designer details today's homebuyers are seeking.

The Decker is one of three Richmond American floor plans available at Parkside in Brentwood, California.

Prospective homebuyers and area agents are encouraged to visit Parkside for tours of the brand-new Decker model home for Saturday, May 6, or Sunday, May 7.

More about this community:

New ranch and two-story homes from the $800s

Three inspired floor plans with designer details

2 to 5 bedrooms, approx. 2,010 to 3,680 sq. ft.

Convenient location near San Francisco, East Bay Area & several major employers via Highway 4

Close proximity to notable shopping, dining, parks & trails

Those who choose to build a new home from the ground up at Parkside will have the opportunity to work with professional design consultants at the builder's Home Gallery to select colors, textures, finishes and fixtures for their new living spacesa complimentary service!

Parkside is located at 1983 Helena Way in Brentwood. Call 925.679.6003 to schedule a tour or visit RichmondAmerican.com to learn more about this must-see community.

About M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.

M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1972. MDC's homebuilding subsidiaries, which operate under the name Richmond American Homes, have built and financed the American Dream for more than 230,000 homebuyers since 1977. MDC's commitment to customer satisfaction, quality and value is reflected in each home its subsidiaries build. MDC is one of the largest homebuilders in the United States. Its subsidiaries have homebuilding operations across the country, including the metropolitan areas of Denver, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Riverside-San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Orlando, Jacksonville, Seattle, Portland, Boise, Nashville, Austin, Albuquerque and Huntsville. MDC's subsidiaries also provide mortgage financing, insurance and title services, primarily for Richmond American homebuyers, through HomeAmerican Mortgage Corporation, American Home Insurance Agency, Inc. and American Home Title and Escrow Company, respectively. M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "MDC." For more information, visit MDCHoldings.com.

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MDC Richmond American Home Logo (PRNewsfoto/M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.)

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/richmond-american-debuts-new-model-home-in-brentwood-301815264.html

SOURCE M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.
The National Nuclear Security Administrations (NNSA) Assistant Deputy Administrator for Global Threat Reduction, Andrew Bieniawski, was honored with the Charles B. Curtis Award from the Nuclear Threat Initiative on Oct. 4th. The award recognizes the work done by NNSAs Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) and Bieniawski to reduce the global risks from weapons of mass destruction. The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) recognized ten extraordinary leaders in the field of threat reduction in honor of NTIs tenth anniversary.



GTRIs mission is to reduce and protect vulnerable nuclear and radiological materials at civilian sites worldwide, working in direct support of President Obamas goal to prevent the acquisition and use of those dangerous materials in weapons of mass destruction and other forms of terrorism. GTRI works to convert, remove and protect sensitive materials.



The Nuclear Threat Initiatives Charles B. Curtis Award acknowledges the extraordinary success of the GTRI team over the years in improving global nuclear security, said NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Nonproliferation Anne Harrington. Under Andrews leadership, the GTRI team has made tremendous strides to reduce the amount of vulnerable nuclear material around the globe and has played a key role in implementing President Obamas nuclear security agenda."



Recent successes of GTRI include:



 Removal of 50 kilograms (111 pounds) of highly enriched uranium (HEU) fresh fuel from three sites in Ukraine, through a joint effort with Ukrainian partners in December 2010.



 Completion of a large-scale campaign to provide secure long-term storage for more than 10 metric tons of HEU and three metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium in Kazakhstan  enough material to make 775 nuclear weapons. Over the course of 12 shipments, the nuclear material was transported from the BN-350 reactor in Aktau to a new secure storage facility in eastern Kazakhstan.



 Removal of the final HEU from Chile, making it the fifth country to remove all of its HEU since President Obama called for an international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years. The operation in Chile was successfully completed despite a massive earthquake on Feb. 27, 2009, and numerous aftershocks that occurred while the GTRI team was in the country.



In addition to safely removing nuclear and radiological material and transporting it to secure facilities, GTRI works to convert research reactors to operate using Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) to further reduce global dependence on HEU. GTRI has converted 22 reactors to operate on LEU since 2004 and shut down twelve HEU reactors without conversion.



Source: NNSA
Today

Sunny skies. High 92F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.

Tonight

Clear. Becoming windy late. Low around 60F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.

Tomorrow

Mainly sunny. High 83F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
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- Romania will receive almost 30 million euros from the European Commission to support farmers affected by cheap grain imports from Ukraine, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Petre Daea, announced on Tuesday. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro

- At a meeting on Wednesday, the government approved by memorandum the "Neutral Romania 2050" scenario for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with the option chosen being a milestone by which Romania pledged to uncouple its economic development from increasing emissions, Environmental Minister Tanczos

- The Social Democratic Party (PSD) requests the government to devise in a fast-track procedure a regulatory act providing for the temporary suspension of grain imports from Ukraine."To this effect, the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Tourism, which manages Romania's trade policy, must work together

- Romania will restrict grain and oilseeds exports from Ukraine, will implement additional security measures for the means of transport transiting the country's territory and will introduce direct customs controls for all agri-food products coming from Ukraine, the Ministry of Agriculture and Development

- The discussions of the minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea, with his Ukrainian counterpart, Mikola Solski, in online format, will begin on Wednesday, around 2:30 p.m., under the conditions in which Romania supports the reintroduction of customs duties for grain imports from Ukraine (accelerated safeguarding)

- The Minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea, will discuss on Wednesday with his Ukrainian counterpart, Mikola Solski, about the impact of Ukrainian grain imports and the measures that can be taken to manage this crisis.According to the Minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea, the discussion between the two

- The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, and his Moldovan counterpart, Nicu Popescu, discussed on Wednesday, in Bucharest, the current state of the neighbouring country's European integration efforts, as well as the consequences of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the security

- The Minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea, stated on Wednesday that all products entering the country, including those from Ukraine, are checked by the state institutions in customs, and they do not represent a danger for human consumption or animals. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri.
Market Research Future

Security Cameras Market Research Report Information, By Type (Infrared (IR) Bullet, Dome, and Box), By Application (Indoor, and Outdoor) By Professional Service (Consulting, Installation, and Support), By Resolution (Full HD, HD, and Non HD), And By Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, And Rest Of The World)

Tokyo, Japan, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a comprehensive research report by Market Research Future (MRFR),  Security Cameras Market Research Report Information, By Type, By Application By Professional Service, By Resolution, And By Region  Market Forecast Till 2030, the market is anticipated to acquire a valuation of approximately USD 31.07155411 billion by the end of 2030. The reports further predict the market to flourish at a robust CAGR of over 18.30% during the assessment timeframe.

Security Cameras Market Overview:

Security camera manufacturers are enhancing their product line with advanced security and threat detection for connected home devices. They add new capabilities to their flagship security offering, including home security cameras, providing a simple and comprehensive network and device protection.

The new generation of security cameras offers increased threat protection that users can install on their computers, smartphones, and tablets at a negligible cost. This extra protection enables greater security at home and connected devices, helping keep them safe from viruses, phishing, and other attacks.

Industry players started developing AI-based solutions enabling the detection and security monitoring cameras. This, along with the digital transformations across industries and the rise in the global economy, has contributed to the market upend. The security cameras market has witnessed a constant uptick over the past few months.

Solution providers are also fostering R&D investments to develop security cameras. With the rising public and personal safety needs and the extensive adoption of advanced security cameras in residential, commercial, and industrial /manufacturing facilities, the market is expected to exponentially in the next few years.

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Get Free Sample PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/7744

Key players active in the market are-

Motorola Solutions, Inc. (US)

Swann Communications Pty. Ltd (US)

Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd (China)

Arlo Technologies Inc (US)

Godrej Security Solutions (India)

Shenzhen Leshi Video Tech. Co., Ltd (China)

ADT Inc. (US)

Logitech International SA (Switzerland)

Vivint, Inc. (US)

FrontPoint Security Solutions, LLC (US)

Sony Corporation (Japan)

SimpliSafe, Inc. (US)

Samsung Communications (South Korea)

Panasonic Corporation (Japan)

Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc (US)

Report Scope:

Report Metric Details Revenue forecast in 2030 USD 31.07155411 Billion Growth Rate CAGR of 18.30% from 2022 to 2030 Base Year 2021 Study Period 2022-2030 Key Market Opportunities Increasing consumer interest Key Market Drivers Greater concerns over security Shift from traditional security cameras

Browse In-depth Market Research Report (100 Pages) on Security Cameras Market:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/security-cameras-market-7744

Industry Trends

The proliferation of Wi-Fi-enabled security cameras in homes and the rise in theft cases worldwide drive the market growth. Moreover, advances in IoT sensing devices and increasing uses of intelligent imaging devices influence the development of the market. Law enforcement agencies grappling with the inability to detect faces created significant demand for surveillance devices.

The spurring rise in end-use industries creates vast opportunities for market growth. Moreover, the increasing uptake of wireless/IP cameras to monitor social distancing during COVID-19 challenges escalates the market valuation. The rising uptake of surveillance solutions in government establishments for public protection and the growing adoption of cloud-based security services for indoor and outdoor surveillance foster the market value.

Additionally, the increased adoption of security cameras in the commercial landscape pushes market revenues. The emergence of 5G networks, digital transformation across industries, and the proliferation of Industry 4.0 are megatrends boosting the market size of security cameras. Uses of smart connected devices are anticipated to grow regardless of vertical.

Simultaneously, improvements in cellular technologies 5G/4G/LTE drive the market growth, improving connectivity and powering new applications. Despite significant growth prospects, the market still witnesses major setbacks, such as low awareness of advanced security solutions. Also, the high initial implementation and maintenance costs affect the market health.

Additionally, privacy and data breach concerns pose challenges to market growth. Nevertheless, increasing uptake of the advanced technologies would support market growth throughout the assessment period, as security needs would become even more critical.

Buy Full Research Report:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=7744

Security Cameras Market Segments

The security cameras market forecast is segmented into types, applications, resolutions, professional services, end-users, and regions. The type segment is sub-segmented into infrared (IR) bullet cameras, dome security cameras, point tilt & zoom (PTZ) cameras, box security cameras, wireless/IP cameras, and other cameras. The application segment is sub-segmented into indoor security cameras and outdoor security cameras.

The resolution segment is sub-segmented into high definition (HD) & full HD, and non-HD. The professional service segment is sub-segmented into consulting services, installations, deployment services, maintenance & support services, and others. The end-user segment is sub-segmented into residential/home, commercial/public space, industrial/manufacturing facilities, and others.

Regional Analysis

North America dominates the global security cameras market. The presence of major players and well-developed infrastructure in this region defines the largest market landscape. Moreover, the increasing adoption of security cameras in industrial automation, medical, transportation, logistics & supply chain, and consumer electronics industries provide significant opportunities to the market players. The proliferation of smart home appliances and concepts, alongside the rising uses of consumer electronics, increase the region's security cameras market share.

Competitive Landscape

The security cameras market is expected to witness significant product launches and implement several strategic approaches, such as collaboration, mergers & acquisitions, expansion, and product/technology launches. Market players make significant investments to drive research & development activities and expansion plans.

Check for Discount:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/7744

For instance, on Apr.11, 2023, EZVIZ, a leading smart home solution brand, launched an AI-powered outdoor security camera. With the H8 3K 360 Pan, and Zoom(PTZ), this outdoor Wi-Fi camera is one of the smartest security cameras. The all-new EZVIZ H8 Pro 3K is designed to detect activity and movement seamlessly with AI-powered capabilities and features.

EZVIZ makes some of the best security cameras on the market, including indoor and outdoor cameras like the EZVIZ C8C, the EZVIZ C3W, and the EZVIZ C3N. The EZVIZ H8 Pro 3K is packed with features useful for protecting and monitoring homes while deterring intruders and communicating with visitors.

Related Reports:

Waterproof Security Cameras Market Research Report Information By Product, By Range, By Application And By RegionMarket Forecast Till 2032

Smart Cameras Market Research Report Information By Type, By Sensor Type, By Scanning Type, By Application, By Connectivity and By Region  Market Forecast Till 2030.

Digital Camera Market Research Report: Information By Product Type, Lens Type, Sensing Technology, and Application, and By Region - Forecast till 2030

About Market Research Future:

Market Research Future (MRFR) is a global market research company that takes pride in its services, offering a complete and accurate analysis regarding diverse markets and consumers worldwide. Market Research Future has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.

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Locuri din Romania unde poti petrece un weekend romantic

Atunci cand vrei sa petreci un weekend romantic in Romania, cu siguranta ai o multime de destinatii din care poti alege. Fie ca vrei orase vechi, incarcate de istorie, sate romantice, privelisti minunate in natura, orice preferi pentru un weekend romantic, in Romania le gasesti pe toate.Locuri [citeste mai departe]
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- 32 Israeli deputies sent an appal to the Cabinet of Israels Minister of foreign Affairs with the call to provide As wide an international support as possible to the national aspirations of the peoples of South Azerbaijan. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro

- PRESIDENCY:- President Klaus Iohannis continues official visit to Brazil (18-19 April) Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro  Help your friends know more about Romania! Share this article on Facebook Share

- In December 2022, the public administration debt (government debt) increased to 667.308 billion lei, compared to 654.545 billion lei in the previous month and 577.522 billion lei at the end of 2021, according to data published by the Ministry of Finance on Thursday. Fii la curent cu cele mai

- The arrears to the general consolidated budget increased by 3.36pct, in January 2023, compared to the previous month, up to 292.11 million RON, from 282.59 million RON, according to the data published on the website of the Ministry of Finance (MF). Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri.

- Romania is to implement a structural reform of education through the package of laws that was drawn up by the Ministry of Education and that was presented by the minister Ligia Deca, says prime minister Nicolae Ciuca. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe

- Over one tone of drugs has been sized in 2022, Police Chief Commissioner Dan Octavian with the General Inspectorate of Romanian Police (IGPR) stated, told Agerpres. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro  Help your friends

- The National Integrity Agency (ANI) established that former mayor Sorin Oprescu was in a state of incompatibility, when he worked as a doctor at the University Hospital, told Agerpres. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro 

- Minister of Development, Public Works and Administration Cseke Attila has signed 30 new financing contracts under component C5 - Renovation Wave in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) worth a total of RON 440,857,833.47, told Agerpres. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri.
Stiri pe aceeasi tema

- Romania will receive almost 30 million euros from the European Commission to support farmers affected by cheap grain imports from Ukraine, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Petre Daea, announced on Tuesday. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro

- Agriculture Minister Petre Daea: Romania can contribute to development of risk analyses in order to reduce PFAS substances in food products.Romania is aware that PFAS are a serious threat and can commit to a contribution for the development of risk analyses and the reduction of these substances,

- Romania will restrict grain and oilseeds exports from Ukraine, will implement additional security measures for the means of transport transiting the country's territory and will introduce direct customs controls for all agri-food products coming from Ukraine, the Ministry of Agriculture and Development

- The discussions of the minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea, with his Ukrainian counterpart, Mikola Solski, in online format, will begin on Wednesday, around 2:30 p.m., under the conditions in which Romania supports the reintroduction of customs duties for grain imports from Ukraine (accelerated safeguarding)

- The Minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea, will discuss on Wednesday with his Ukrainian counterpart, Mikola Solski, about the impact of Ukrainian grain imports and the measures that can be taken to manage this crisis.According to the Minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea, the discussion between the two

- Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu welcomes Romania's election on Wednesday as a member of the Executive Boards of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), as a representative of the

- The Minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea, stated on Wednesday that all products entering the country, including those from Ukraine, are checked by the state institutions in customs, and they do not represent a danger for human consumption or animals. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri.

- The Government will approve an emergency ordinance regarding the granting of support to animal breeders, to offset for some of the problems they faced in 2022, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Wednesday at the beginning of the Cabinet meeting. Minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea stated that the
The Budapest Transport Centre (BKK) has proposed that current traffic rules barring private cars from Budapests landmark Chain Bridge should be kept, BKK head Katalin Walter told a press conference.

The ban was introduced for a trial period after the bridges reconstruction, and BKK has concluded that it should be made permanent, Walter said.



Since December last year, vehicles of public transport, taxis, motorbikes and bicycles have been using the bridge, while pedestrians will be allowed to cross when the reconstruction is fully completed. At the press conference, Samu Balogh, the cabinet chief of the mayor, noted that the final decision will be made at the first residents meeting of the city.



Providing figures of an analysis of traffic since the partial reopening of the bridge in mid-December last year, Adam Bodor, BKKs mobility development director, noted a 54% drop in travel time for buses to cross the bridge from the Pest side to the Buda side during peak hours.



Bodor said current traffic rules have attracted cyclers to use the bridge more frequently, with their numbers doubling to 1,958 per day in April compared with 2019.



As a result of this new model, the citys carbon dioxide emissions have dropped by 29 tonnes per day, said Bodor, adding that emissions in the area around the bridge had dropped by one tonne per day.



MTI Photo
President Katalin Novak on Tuesday said she will attend the coronation ceremony of King Charles III.

Sharing the official invitation card she received, Novak said in a post on Facebook that she will travel to London on Friday to attend the Coronation of Their Majesties in Westminster Abbey taking place the following day.



I would like to express my high regard for the Royal Couple, and further strengthen the alliance between Hungary and the United Kingdom the president said.



Meanwhile in Castle District, Momentum Party Protests: 'Hungary At Furthest Point From Europe'



Opposition Momentum has argued that Hungary has never been so far from Europe, in a statement to mark the 19th anniversary of the countrys accession to the European Union.



The Momentum Movement on Monday put an EU flag on the fence in front of the Carmelite Monastery in the Castle District which houses the Prime Ministers Office.



[W]e must remind ourselves that theres no European prosperity without European values and freedom, MEP Anna Donath said. She insisted that the fence cordoning off the PMs office building symbolised the gulf between Hungary and the rest of Europe.



Referring to a recent student demonstration there, she said police had resorted to defending the cordon with tear gas. Donath also decried the absence of EU flags on public buildings in Hungary. Theres nothing to celebrate, she said.



Referring to a proposed law on the status of teachers, she said the new rules would deprive teachers of their basic human and employment rights, and she called the bill an act of revenge by the government.
The Papal visit has provoked fierce recriminations across the political divide. Each side accuses the other of instrumentalising the presence of the Pontiff for political purposes.

In Magyar Hang, Szabolcs Szereto warns that it would be futile to expect redemption from Pope Francis, but the truth he represents has a moral impact. As an example, he quotes Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjens statement that the Papal visit cannot be interpreted in political terms.



Besides, he believes that while the Pope is sincere in his message of peace, the Hungarian government pursues a rhetoric of war in Hungary. What Szereto finds perhaps even more disquieting is that Hungarian society, as he sees it, resigns itself to whatever happens in the country.



In a similar vein, Katalin Lukacs writes in Heti Vilaggazdasag that Pope Francis cannot solve Hungarys problems and cannot tell Hungarians what to think of their own government.



The Catholic historian, a former member of the Christian Democratic party who now supports the opposition warns that for such earthly matters, Hungarians dont need the Pope or anyone else from outside the country.



They are strong enough to do their own job but may draw inspiration from the Popes presence and example. If we are ready to faint in front of PM Orban for 30 pieces of silver, Lukacsi writes, then not even Jesus himself can deliver us from ourselves, never mind Pope Francis.



In Magyar Narancs, opposition leaning theologian Rita Perintfalvi hopes that the Popes spiritual message will help Hungary overcome what she sees as its extraordinary moral degradation. She lambasts those Hungarians who blame Ukraine for the war and want Ukrainians to stop defending themselves.



She describes Hungary as a typical terrain for missionaries where solidarity has vanished from society, for instance towards the migrant masses of recent years. In this context, she lambasts Hungarian church leaders for only selectively hearing the Popes messages.



Perintfalvi also accuses the government of trying to use the Papal visit for its own propaganda purposes.



In his Mandiner editorial, Gergely Vagvolgyi criticises those progressives within the Catholic Church who try to use Pope Franciss visit to promote their own agenda. They represent a minority within the church, he remarks, but their voice reverberates in the liberal press and thus they are overrepresented in public debates.



Their goal, he continues, is to change the churchs teachings on the nature of humans and the role of the family. He warns them against using the message of the Pope to justify their own ideals.



In Demokrata, Andras Bencsik, who is otherwise famous for his highly opinionated editorials, points out that the main message of the Pope is of course one of love, although he admits that different people might interpret it differently.



Our troubles, Bencsik writes, stem from humans themselves, who have placed themselves on Gods throne and created laws that serve their own egotism. Those who see the Christian message of love as their own heritage, however, cling to the hope that love and compassion will mitigate passionate hatred and bring redemptive reconciliation and peace.



Pope Francis Visiting Hungary



Commentators across the political spectrum equally welcome the Popes visit to Budapest, although with different emphasis.



In Nepszava, Tamas Ronay quotes earlier articles by the left-wing daily to prove that its columnists have always appreciated the positions expressed by Pope Francis including his reforms or his support for migrants or again his struggle against the conservatives of his own church.



By contrast, he writes, right-wing Hungarian commentators have regularly expressed disparaging views about Francis, but since he made his decision to visit Hungary public, they suddenly started eulogizing him. Ronay suggests that those commentators have changed their minds because they interpret the papal visit as a gesture of political support.



In Magyar Nemzet, Levente Sitkei carefully refrains from making political remarks and confines himself to welcoming the Pope and hoping that his visit will help boost social morale. Hungary is still a Christian country, he writes, although the number of churchgoers is decreasing.



Nevertheless, Sitkei continues, there is still a strong sense of community among Hungarians and during his three-day visit, Pope Francis will personally experience the openness of ordinary Hungarians to the message of peace and fraternity that he represents.



This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of XpatLoop.com or the publisher.



Your opinions are welcome too - for editorial review before possible publication online.



Click here to Share Your Story
The main point of investing for the long term is to make money. But more than that, you probably want to see it rise more than the market average. Unfortunately for shareholders, while the Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) share price is up 44% in the last five years, that's less than the market return. But if you include dividends then the return is market-beating. The last year has been disappointing, with the stock price down 4.7% in that time.

Since the long term performance has been good but there's been a recent pullback of 3.0%, let's check if the fundamentals match the share price.

Check out our latest analysis for Sempra Energy

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 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).

Over half a decade, Sempra Energy managed to grow its earnings per share at 42% a year. This EPS growth is higher than the 8% average annual increase in the share price. Therefore, it seems the market has become relatively pessimistic about the company.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

We know that Sempra Energy 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?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. 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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. We note that for Sempra Energy the TSR over the last 5 years was 69%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

Story continues

A Different Perspective

While it's never nice to take a loss, Sempra Energy shareholders can take comfort that , including dividends,their trailing twelve month loss of 1.7% wasn't as bad as the market loss of around 2.6%. Of course, the long term returns are far more important and the good news is that over five years, the stock has returned 11% for each year. It could be that the business is just facing some short term problems, but shareholders should keep a close eye on the fundamentals. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Sempra Energy better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Sempra Energy (at least 1 which is significant) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

We will like Sempra Energy 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 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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Parliaments For a Diverse Hungary group of opposition MPs is preparing to submit its first amendment to ensure protection to LGBTQ people, Momentum MP David Bedo told a press conference.

The opposition group was formed by five parties with the aim of amplifying the voice of Hungarys gay community in and outside of parliament, Bedo said.



Laszlo Sebian-Petrovszki, a deputy of the Democratic Coalition, quoted journalist Andras Bencsik, one of the oldest opinion leaders of Fidesz, as recently making fun of homosexuals facing execution in Uganda.



The ruling party has not distanced itself from Bencsiks remarks, which leads us to think that what he said is in line with Fideszs position, he said. Sebian-Petrovszki also slammed the civil code for not including gay people among groups protected against hate speech, and said the opposition bill, to be submitted later on Tuesday, would add minorities based on sexual identity or orientation.



If the amendment is passed, LGBTI people could go to court when confronted by hate speech, he added.



In the past all actions against minorities started with hate speech, leading to a curbing of their rights and then to physical violence, Sebian-Petrovszki said, adding that that trend must be interrupted.
The right wing in Hungary is punching above its weight, the head of the Center for Fundamental Rights said ahead of the CPAC Hungary conference to be held on May 4-5.

Our sovereignty must be asserted while building global alliances, Miklos Szantho said in an interview published by mandiner.hu on Monday.



Commenting on the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference, he said the Hungarian event was the only European CPAC that was a big draw for the worlds major right-wing figures.



The idea of the trinity of God, homeland, and family as pillars of civilisation was shared from the Potomac to the Danube, Szantho said.



Meanwhile, he said the importance of protecting the integrity of Ukraine cannot be overestimated in terms of ensuring that the region never lives under the shadow of the Russian threat again. But, he added, the question should be raised as to what kind of West we want to offer Kyiv as an alternative.



Referring to the upcoming CPAC Hungary, Szantho said two incumbent prime ministers, two former prime ministers, four party heads, two congressmen, former and future senators, as well as countless representatives from Europe, and politicians and journalists from South America to Israel would attend.
From the organisers: A big event is located in Aquincum Civil Amphitheater, between ancient ruins, where we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd's greatest album.

Magical lights at the setting sun, where we are investigating Pink Floyd's adventurous road and arrival to The Dark Side of the Moon.



Expect mind-blowing analog sound effects combined with unique LED lights, and a selection of terrific songs from the late sixties, early seventies, and more surprises.



Keep Floyding guarantees authentic instruments and enthusiastic performance! :)



Source and tickets: tixa.hu
LINCOLN  State senators who met recently to talk about the transgender health care bill couldnt find much common ground.

A series of meetings by lawmakers to discuss a potential amendment to the controversial bill ended last week without a compromise.

Opponents say there was no real attempt to reach agreement in the meetings, and noted that the bills main sponsor described them only as a listening exercise, not negotiations. Supporters say they entered the sessions in good faith, hoping to improve the bill, but there was no way to reach a solution that pleased everyone.

I think we agreed to disagree, said State Sen. Teresa Ibach of Sumner, who supports the measure.

Legislative Bill 574 would ban gender-affirming care  including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries  for individuals under 19. Backlash to the bill has included a session-long filibuster that continues to slow down the Legislature.

LB 574 needs to pass just one more round of debate before it goes to Gov. Jim Pillens desk to be signed into law. Following a chaotic second round, a group was formed to discuss a potential amendment that would address some of the concerns with the bill.

The group was composed of eight state senators, representing both supporters and opponents, including the bills introducer, Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, Speaker of the Legislature John Arch, and Sens. John Cavanaugh, John Fredrickson, Lynne Walz, Ben Hansen, Tom Briese and Ibach.

After four meetings, Kauth called an end to the discussions. She has yet to officially introduce her amendment, but she told The World-Herald that the primary component would be a grandfather clause that exempts patients who were receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy as of March 1. Other than that, she said the amendment will clarify that treatments such as talk therapy and counseling remain legal, as well as make some minor technical changes.

John Cavanaugh, an opponent, said Kauths planned amendment doesnt include many changes she wasnt already considering before the meetings started. Both he and Ibach agreed that Kauth entered the meetings already thinking about adding a grandfather clause.

She comes in with a proposal and leaves with the same proposal, Cavanaugh said.

Ibach said a grandfather clause made sense to her and other supporters. She said they dont want to put families in a bind if their children are already undergoing treatment.

Opponents had their own amendment in mind, Cavanaugh said, based on the concerns they heard from lawmakers who supported the bill in previous rounds of debate. Their plan would include additional criteria for young patients to qualify for gender-affirming care. To qualify for surgery, a patient would need to meet a set of eight conditions. To qualify for puberty blockers or hormone therapy, they would have to meet seven conditions.

The criteria in the bill opponents proposal covered a range of steps, including obtaining parental consent, recommendations for at least two physicians from different clinics, and a review of the potential side effects of such treatment. For surgeries, the patient must have already undergone treatment for gender incongruence for at least a year.

None of those proposals are likely to make it into the Kauths amendment, based on her description of her plans. Ibach said she believes Kauth genuinely wanted to learn more about the oppositions perspective, but their suggested changes were not what she envisioned for the bill.

For his part, opponent John Fredrickson said he went into the meetings interested in finding ways to improve the bill. But he said supporters seemed more concerned about how many lawmakers would vote for or against it.

Frankly, I dont think thats a good way to make policy, Fredrickson said. I think we have to think about  what is the best policy for Nebraska, Nebraskans, and then worry about the numbers later.

Kauth has said part of the reason she ended the meetings was her concern that additional changes would lose support for the bill. Even so, she said, the meetings also were meant to find and make improvements to the legislation.

LB 574 has garnered just enough votes to make it past each round of debate so far. If just one of those votes isnt there in the final round, the bill will fail.

Several LB 574 supporters have expressed confidence that even without an amendment, the original bill has enough votes to pass. But that may not be true.

Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward said she would not support the bill as it is currently written. Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth said he wants to see the amendment before he makes his decision. Both lawmakers voted yes on LB 574 in the second round, though they had been present but not voting in the first round.

Both Hughes and Brandt said members of the meeting team consulted them about their thoughts on the bill. Hughes said her one of her main priorities was adding a grandfather clause, but she also expressed interest in adding steps to qualify for treatment, similar to what bill opponents proposed.

Brandt said he hoped for an amendment that addresses more complex circumstances that arent covered by the original bill, such as what would happen if a trans person under 19 moves to Nebraska from another state and has already received treatment.

Cavanaugh said he does not believe Kauths proposed amendment will do enough to address such concerns. And Fredrickson said a grandfather clause on its own is a limited solution, since it will eventually become obsolete.

Its just a delayed implementation of a full ban, Fredrickson said.

Photos: 2023 Nebraska legislative session
New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday met Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)`s Governor Hayashi Nobumitsu on the sidelines of the 56th Asian Development Bank (ADB)`s annual meeting, in Incheon, a city in South Korea. According to the finance ministry`s tweet, the finance minister encouraged the engagement of JBIC with Indian financial institutions such as Exim Bank, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and lending banks to leverage the strength and complementarities of both countries for facing local, regional and global financial challenges.

The finance minister during the meeting spoke of the Indian government`s initiatives towards facilitating investment, like the production-linked incentives (PLIs) scheme, National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), reforms in goods and services tax (GST) and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), among others. She also expressed hope that JBIC will use this enabling environment as an opportunity to expand marine products and seaweed processing in India, according to a tweet from the finance ministry.

During the discussions, Hayashi informed FM Sitharaman that JBIC has already made an investment of USD 5 billion in infrastructure and manufacturing sectors in India and stated that JBIC is also looking at opportunities in the marine food processing sector in India.Nirmala Sitharaman arrived here in South Korea on Tuesday for a four-day official visit. On her arrival at the Incheon airport, Sitharaman was received by the Ambassador of India to the Republic of Korea, Amit Kumar.

FM Sitharaman, along with an Indian delegation, is attending the 56th Annual General Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) along with investor/ bilateral and other associated meetings, in Incheon, a city in South Korea from May 2-5, the Ministry of Finance said in an official release.Official ADB member delegations, observers, non-governmental and civil society organisations, journalists, financial institutions, banks, and other private sector enterprises will also be present at the meetings.

Moreover, during the visit, "Sitharaman will participate in annual meeting focal events like the Governors` Business. She will also be a panellist in the ADB Governors` Seminar on Policies to Support Asia`s Rebound", the official release said.
New Delhi: The World Trade Organisation (WTO) should look at the issue of farm subsidies with an open mind as it impacts the food security needs of emerging economies in the backdrop of Covid pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday. Speaking at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Governor's seminar on 'Policies to support Asia's rebound', Sitharaman said sooner a solution is found out by the WTO, the better it would be for the world.

"Since WTO was founded, there has been a grievance with respect to the export of agricultural products and generally in trade, the voice of the Global South and emerging markets has not been heard at par with that of the developed countries," she said. The 'Global South' largely refers to countries in Asia, Africa and South America.

Subsidies for agriculture and poor farmers in developing countries were not counted at all and were frozen, she said, adding that in context of Covid and Russia-Ukraine war, food and fertilizer security have become important.

"We will all have to talk again (about food and fertiliser security) at the WTO with an open mind," the minister said. "There is better food security in the developed world compared to developing countries. Trade agreements have come about in a lopsided way, for which solutions have to be found," Sitharaman said.

Under global trade norms, a WTO member country's food subsidy bill should not breach the limit of 10 per cent of the value of production based on the reference price of 1986-88. As part of permanent solution, India has asked for measures like amendments in the formula to calculate the food subsidy cap and inclusion of programmes implemented after 2013 under the ambit of 'Peace Clause'.

As an interim measure, the WTO members at the Bali ministerial meeting in December 2013 had agreed to put in place a mechanism popularly called 'Peace Clause' and committed to negotiating an agreement for a permanent solution.

Under Peace Clause, WTO members agreed to refrain from challenging any breach in prescribed ceiling by a developing nation at the dispute settlement forum of the WTO. This clause will stay till a permanent solution is found to the food stockpiling issue. PTI DP JD CS. The PTI correspondent is in South Korea on invitation of the Asian Development Bank
Mumbai: Sharad Pawars revised autobiography Lok Majhe Sangati', which focuses on events post-2015, has revealed that the former had made it clear to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 that there can be no truck with BJP. The book, which was released recently, revealed that the Bharatiya Janata Party was keen on a post-poll alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2019, but Sharad Pawar was against it.

In his book, Pawar also admitted that there were informal talks between some NCP and BJP leaders after the 2019 assembly polls in Maharashtra when there was uncertainty over government formation.

The BJP started exploring whether there could be any possibility of an alliance with the NCP, but I was not involved in the process. This was only BJP's desire and there were no formal talks with the BJP. But there were informal talks between select leaders from the two parties, Pawar wrote.

The Maratha strongman said since the NCP had little interest, it decided not to go with the BJP. It was necessary to state this very clearly to the BJP. Accordingly, he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the winter session of Parliament in November 2019, Pawar wrote in the book.

The NCP leader met PM Modi on November 20, 2019, and apprised him of farmers' distress in Maharashtra when President's rule was imposed in the state. Pawar then had refused to comment on what transpired between him and Modi as there was uncertainty over government formation in the state and the NCP, undivided Shiv Sena and Congress were in talks of an alliance.

I met PM Modi and told him very clearly that there could be no political truck between us (BJP and NCP). But while I was saying this, it has to be noted that there was a section of leaders in the party who wanted ties with the BJP, Pawar said in his book.

Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar broke ranks and took oath as deputy chief minister in the short-lived Devendra Fadnavis government. During the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee too, the BJP wanted an alliance with the NCP which was in its nascent stages, Pawar claimed.

Even in 2014, there were attempts by the BJP to have NCP in its camp, Pawar added. The BJP was the single largest party in the state after the 2014 assembly polls but fell short of a majority. The Shiv Sena, BJP, Congress and NCP had contested separately in assembly polls.

I was not present during the 2014 talks with the BJP, but I was aware of it. But suddenly, the BJP mended its ties with the Shiv Sena which even became part of the government. With this our leaders realised that it was not appropriate to trust the BJP, Pawar said.

Springing a surprise, Pawar on Tuesday announced at the book release that he would be stepping down as chief of the NCP, the political outfit he founded and helmed since 1999.
Kalaburagi (Karnataka) [India], May 2 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was on a visit to poll-bound Karnataka had a light-hearted interaction with children in Kalaburagi on Tuesday. Prime Minister held a mega roadshow in Kalaburagi. Before the roadshow, PM Modi seeing a bunch of children cheering for him, went towards them and had an endearing conversation. Prime Minister asked them whether they study or not. He asked the children what they wanted to be when they grew up. One of the children replied doctor while another said police officer.

PM Modi then asked, "Do not you want to become the PM?" One of the children said, "I want to become like you." In past also, PM Modi was seen interacting with children on several occasions.

Meanwhile, during the roadshow, people queued up on both sides of the road through which the Prime Minister`s cavalcade passed and cheered for him. They also showered flower petals on him.While riding on the top of a truck, PM Modi greeted people by waving his hands.

In a major boost to the Bharatiya Janata Party`s (BJP) election campaign in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held massive roadshows and public meetings in the poll-bound state over the past few days. PM Modi held mega roadshows in Mysuru and Bengaluru last month.

The BJP`s challenge in Karnataka is to retain power, for which party president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are having massive campaigns. Notably, Karnataka is the only southern state where the BJP is in power.

"The Karnataka elections are also being considered as the semi-finals of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. That`s why BJP is showing more focus on Karnataka than any other state," sources said.

The BJP is seeking a second term in the state and has exuded confidence in returning to power with a full majority.Karnataka Assembly polls will be held on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13.
New Delhi: The Election Commission on Wednesday issued a notice to Congress leader Priyank Kharge for making alleged derogatory remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying prima facie he has violated provisions of the Model Code Of Conduct.

The apex poll panel has asked Priyank, the son of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, to respond to the notice by May 4 evening as to why appropriate action for violation of the Model Code of Conduct should not be taken against him.

Priyank stirred a controversy by calling PM Modi nalayak which evoked a sharp response from the ruling BJP. The BJP had moved the poll panel against Priyank for using abusive language against Prime Minister Modi.

Priyank, seeking re-election from Chittapur in Kalaburagi district, recently said that PM Modi claiming to be a son of the Banjara community and promising to take care of them was "inept" because he and his party had created confusion about reservations for the SC community.

What would Priyank Kharge be doing if he wasnt Mallikarjun Kharges son? It is anybodys guess! It is quite rich for someone, who is feeding of his fathers name, to call a democratically elected PM nalayak. It is fine to disagree with the PM, criticise him, but calling him pic.twitter.com/ohDGFPEwFA  Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) May 1, 2023

His remark comes days after his father Mallikarjun Kharge's "venomous snake" barb aimed at PM Modi.

Mallikarjun Kharge, however, stoutly defended his son and said he never made such comments. The Congress president said, "No. No. It is very wrong. He never said it. Don't put these words into his mouth. He attacked the Parliament member (not Modi) who abused him. So, don't put these words into his mouth (saying it was meant) for PM Modi. I am sorry, everywhere this is going on (misquoting) purposely.

Priyank while addressing a poll gathering quoted from PM Modi's speech and said, "When you (PM Modi) came to Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) what did you tell the people of Banjara community? "Aap sab log dariye mat. Banjara ka ek beta Dilli mein Baitha hai (You do not be afraid. A son of Banjara is sitting in Delhi)."

Priyank further said though PM Modi claimed to be the son of the Banjara community, confusion was created on reservation by the BJP regime in Karnataka.

Priyank, who had been a minister in the Siddaramaiah government said, "The Prime Minister during his earlier visit said he was a son of the Koli community and the Kabbaliga and Kuruba communities. Today he calls himself a son of the Banjara community."

In response, BJPs Karnataka unit filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Congress President Mallikarjin Kharge's son and MLA Priyank Kharge over his 'Nalayak' remarks about PM Modi.
New Delhi: The Bajrang Dal on Tuesday staged a protest against the Congress for promising to ban the outfit in Karnataka if voted to power in the state. The Bajrang Dal workers, who staged a protest near the Congress headquarters in Delhi and Karnataka's Mangaluru, demanded that the party withdraw its promise. They were also seen burning the Congress manifesto for the May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections and raising slogans against party leader Rahul Gandhi.

In its Karnataka election manifesto released on Tuesday, the Congress said that it is committed to take firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations such as the Bajrang Dal and the Popular Front of India (PFI) 'spreading hatred' among communities on grounds of caste and religion. The action will include a 'ban' against such organisations, the Opposition party promised.

The Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the RSS-affiliated Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

VHP leaders, who also staged a protest in Delhi, said that the Bajrang Dal is 'the pride of the country' and that if the Congress does not change its Karnataka poll manifesto to withdraw the promise, a massive countrywide agitation will be launched.

"Bajrang Dal is an outfit which ignites the flame of nationalism, saves the modesty of lakhs of women, protects gau mata (mother cow) from slaughter, and donates blood to save lakhs of people in the country. Bajrang Dal is the pride of the country and the Congress compares it with the banned terror outfit PFI," VHP spokesperson Vijay Shankar Tiwari told reporters.

He said the Congress has prepared a plan for 'committing suicide' by comparing Bajrang Dal with PFI, which was banned by the central government in September last year for its alleged terror activities. He alleged that the Congress was hand in glove with terrorists and rioters.

With its promise to ban the Bajrang Dal, the Congress has 'once again proved that it is anti-Hindu', he charged.

Delhi VHP secretary Surendra Gupta said the Congress should either change its 'mindset' or accept that it is 'anti-Hindu'.

"The Congress central leadership should intervene and withdraw the party's poll promise, else we will launch a massive agitation across the country," he said.

'Nationalist organisation' being 'defamed': VHP on Congress manifesto

The Vishva Hindu Parishad on Tuesday slammed the Congress for promising to ban the Bajrang Dal in Karnataka if voted to power in the state, saying by doing so, the party has defamed a 'nationalist' organisation.

In a video message, VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain said the Bajrang Dal will take the Congress' poll promise to ban it as a challenge and give a reply to the party in 'democratic ways'.

ALSO READ | PM Modi Slams Congress' Karnataka Manifesto That Promises To Ban Bajrang Dal

"While releasing its manifesto for the Karnataka polls, the way the Congress has compared the Bajrang Dal, a nationalist organisation, with the PFI, an infamous anti-national, terrorist, and banned organisation, is unfortunate," he said.

Every member of the Bajrang Dal is 'dedicated' to serve the country and society while the entire world is aware of the activities of the PFI, Jain added.

"You cannot deceive the people of the country, (senior Congress leader) Sonia Gandhi. The way you have attempted to defame the Bajrang Dal, the people of the country will not accept it. Every activist of the Bajrang Dal will take it as a challenge," he said.

Hitting out at former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he also said that her party's 'hidden agenda' has come out in the open with its poll promise.

The Bajrang Dal and the people of the country accept this challenge and 'a reply will be given in all democratic ways', the VHP leader added.
PROVIDENCE  The state agency that runs the Eleanor Slater Hospital  which cares for some of the state's most vulnerable people  has a new chief medical officer after a bumpy couple of years that saw a parade of CMOs come and go.

Richard Charest, the director of the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, announced on Tuesday that Katharine Woods, who had been the chief medical officer of the Arizona State Hospital, has been hired to fill that role in Rhode Island.

Among her other titles: assistant deputy director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, and before that she was medical director for hospital psychiatry and director of neurotherapeutics at Banner-University Medical Centers South Campus, in Tucson, Arizona.

More: Neronha investigates, rings alarm bells about patient care at state hospital

New appointment follows turmoil with the hospital and department

Woods started her new job on Monday, taking over from Dr. Sue Ferranti, who had been serving as interim chief medical officer since the abrupt departure of Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, less than a year after taking the job.

McCance-Katz returned to the hospital  that she left for a top mental-health post in Trump-era Washington  at a time of turmoil that saw her predecessor (Dr. Brian Daly) quit and the CEO suspended without pay before quitting.

And she is leaving at a point the hospital  with about 200 patients across two campuses in Cranston and Burrillville  is under investigation by the Rhode Island attorney general and Disability Rights Rhode Island, an independent, federally mandated "protection and advocacy system for the state of Rhode Island."

Woods is a graduate of Harvard University, the University of Southern California, and the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed her residency at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut and is Board Certified in Psychiatry.

Story continues

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Woods has accepted the position of Chief Medical Officer, Charest said. She brings a great deal of experience and knowledge to this role and she understands the needs of our patients at Eleanor Slater Hospital, as well as the needs of individuals who receive services that are supported by BHDDH.

"In addition to her experience as a physician, Dr. Woods also has extensive teaching experience, including seven years as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona," according to the BHDDH announcement.

The Arizona State Hospital had its own share of controversy, amid legislative calls for reform.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: New chief medical officer for Eleanor Slater Hospital announced
New Delhi, May 2 (PTI): India on Tuesday brought back home a total of 559 people under its mission to evacuate stranded Indians from violence-hit Sudan. While 231 Indians arrived in Ahmedabad, another batch of 328 citizens were brought to New Delhi. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted, "328 more passengers have landed in New Delhi. #OperationKaveri moving steadily forward as around 3000 have reached India now." Earlier in the day, 231 people reached Ahmedabad.

"Another #OperationKaveri flight lands in Ahmedabad. 231 more passengers have reached home safely," Jaishankar said in another tweet.

Separately, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said a group of 20 Indians crossed over to Chad through the adjoining land border with Sudan.

"Our teams are facilitating their journey back home," he said on Twitter.

A group of 20 Indians crossed over to Chad through the adjoining land border with Sudan.

On Monday, India brought back 186 people under the evacuation mission that was launched a week back. On Sunday, 229 Indians arrived in Bengaluru while 365 people reached Delhi on Saturday. Under the evacuation mission, 754 people arrived in India in two batches on Friday.

Also Read: Explained: What is Sudan Crisis? Know All About The Conflict

The Indians were brought back home from the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah where India set up a transit camp for the evacuees. The first batch of 360 evacuees returned to New Delhi in a commercial plane on Wednesday. The second batch of 246 Indian evacuees arrived in Mumbai in a C17 Globemaster aircraft of the IAF on Thursday.

Under 'Operation Kaveri', India has been taking its citizens in buses from conflict zones of Khartoum and other troubled areas to Port Sudan from where they are being taken to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah in Indian Air Force's heavy-lift transport aircraft and Indian Navy's ships.

Also Read: Sudan Crisis: India Temporarily Relocates Embassy From Khartoum To Port Sudan

From Jeddah, the Indians are being brought back home in either commercial flight or IAF's aircraft. Sudan has been witnessing deadly fighting between the country's army and a paramilitary group that has reportedly left around 400 people dead.
BENAULIM: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is set to hold separate bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang and Russia's Sergey Lavrov at a beach resort in Goa on Thursday on the sidelines of a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) amid rapidly evolving regional security situation. People familiar with preparations for the conclave said there is no plan yet for a structured bilateral meeting between Jaishankar and Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhtutto-Zardari.

But they did not rule out a pull aside between the two foreign ministers. Qin, Lavrov, Bhutto-Zardari and foreign ministers of other SCO countries are arriving in Goa on Thursday to attend a crucial conclave of the SCO that is taking place ahead of the annual summit of the grouping in the first week of July. India has been maintaining that Pakistan must show seriousness towards fighting terrorism and that talks and terror cannot go together.

Bhutto-Zardari's trip to India will be the first visit from Islamabad since 2011. The then Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar had visited India that year. Khar is currently serving as the minister of state for foreign affairs. In the talks with Qin, Jaishankar is once again expected to convey that India-China ties cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas, people familiar with the matter said.

The two-day SCO foreign ministerial meeting will begin with a gala reception at a luxury beach resort in Goa on Thursday while the main deliberations will take place on Friday. The people cited above said Jaishankar will hold separate bilateral talks with his counterparts from almost all SCO countries. However, there is no clarity on such a meeting between Jaishankar and Bhutto-Zardari.

The bilateral meeting between Jaishankar and Qin will be the second one in the last two months. The Chinese foreign minister visited India in March to attend a meeting of the G20 foreign ministers. On the sidelines of the meeting, Jaishankar held talks with Qin during which he conveyed to his Chinese counterpart that the state of India-China relations is "abnormal" because of the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh.

Last week, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu at a meeting that China's violation of existing border agreements "eroded" the entire basis of ties between the two countries and that all issues relating to the frontier must be resolved in accordance with the existing pacts. The meeting on April 27 took place in New Delhi on the sidelines of a conclave of the SCO defence ministers.

The ties between India and China 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. The Indian and the Chinese troops are locked in a standoff in a few friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh for the last three years though they disengaged in several places following a series of military and diplomatic talks.

India has been maintaining that the relationship between the two countries should be based on "three mutuals" -- mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interests. The people cited above said Jaishankar and Russian foreign minister Lavrov in their meeting are set to review the overall bilateral ties with a focus on trade and commercial engagement.

India has been pressing Russia for urgently addressing the trade imbalance that has been in favour of Moscow. India's trade deficit with Russia jumped significantly in the last few months after it procured significant volumes of discounted crude oil from that country in the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis. The people cited above said Lavrov will arrive in India as scheduled notwithstanding escalation in tension between Russia and Ukraine. Russia on Wednesday accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in an unsuccessful attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin.

The talks between Jaishankar and Lavrov are also set to cover a number of issues relating to bilateral ties and regional situations, they said. Jaishankar is also likely to hold separate bilateral talks with his counterparts from some other SCO countries on Friday. India is hosting the SCO in its capacity as the grouping's chair.

The people said the foreign ministers will deliberate on overall challenges facing the region in the backdrop of the current geo-political turmoil and the state of bilateral ties between the member nations would not impact the discussions. The SCO is an influential economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations. It was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping, which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region. India has shown a keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS), which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence.
Mumbai: A day after Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar resigned from his post, his deputy and senior party leader Praful Patel has said that he is not interested in becoming party president. Praful Patel, who is also the NCP Rajya Sabha MP, on Wednesday categorically being a contender for the top party post. He asserted that NCP founder Sharad Pawar ''remains the party chief'' till he reconsiders his decision to step down from the post, and there would be no discussions to pick his successor till then.

Speaking to reporters here, Patel, who is also the NCP's national vice president, added that he himself was not in the running for the top post.

The committee, which Pawar himself set up on Tuesday to decide on his successor, did not meet on Wednesday, Patel said. "If the situation arises, the committee will decide on Pawar's successor and the decision will be unanimous. He sought time to think over his decision after the party asked him to reconsider it, and till the final decision is arrived at, there is no question of deliberating on his successor," Patel said.

"There is no vacancy," he said, adding, "Whether Pawar remains president or not, he is the party's identity and soul."

Supriya Sule Or Ajit Pawar: Who Will Succeed Sharad Pawar?

The NCP leader was reacting to speculation about Supriya Sule emerging as the choice for national president and Ajit Pawar as the Maharashtra unit chief. A section of the media also reported that Praful Patel could succeed Pawar.

Amid all speculations, the party was trying to persuade Pawar to reconsider his decision, Patel said. "Party workers should have patience and stop resigning from their posts en masse (in protest against Pawar's decision)," he said.

As he was the convenor of the committee, he would inform when its meeting is scheduled, Patel told the reporters. He also denied that state NCP chief Jayant Patil was upset with the party. Patil was in Pune to attend a meeting of his sugar cooperative factory, Patel said.

Jitendra Awhad Resigns As NCP Gen Secy

Meanwhile, NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad resigned from his post as the party`s general secretary, a day after party supremo Sharad Pawar announced his decision to step down as its president.

"I have resigned from my post of National General Secretary and I have sent my resignation to Sharad Pawar Saheb. All office bearers of Thane NCP have also resigned after Pawar Saheb`s announcement", Jitendra Awhad told news agency ANI.

Sharad Pawar Resigns As NCP Chief

On Tuesday, Sharad Pawar shocked everyone by announcing that he is stepping down as party chief. His sudden and surprise announcement drew emotional reactions from thousands of NCP leaders, workers and supporters who urged him to reconsider.

Among those who urged Pawar to reconsider included Chhagan Bhujbal, Jitendra Awhad and Dilip Walse Patil. Pawar, a former Maharashtra Chief Minister and union minister was seen as a key architect of moves towards opposition unity ahead of the 2024 electoral battle.

Pawar`s nephew Ajit Pawar, who had earlier said that "Pawar Saheb himself had said about the necessity of change in guard a few days back" later said that the NCP veteran would take two to three days to rethink his decision.

The Vajramooth' rallies of the Maha Vikas Aghadi - the alliance of the NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) - were postponed due to the hot summer conditions and it was decided on Sunday when a rally was held in Mumbai, Patel said. "It has nothing to do with Pawar stepping down as NCP chief," he said.
New Delhi: Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Wednesday said that the resignation of Sharad Pawar as Nationalist Congress Party chief will not affect the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, which comprises the Congress, NCP, and Shiv Sena (UBT). Speaking to the news agency ANI, he also said that the veteran politician's decision to step down was the NCP's internal matter.

"It will not impact Maha Vikas Aghadi," Nana Patole told ANI when asked if Sharad Pawar's resignation as NCP chief would affect MVA.

It is notable that Pawar was instrumental in the formation of the unlikely alliance of his NCP, Congress, and their then ideological foe Shiv Sena in 2019.

Earlier on Tuesday, senior Maharashtra Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat had said that Pawar, 82, should not step aside when a 'new freedom struggle' is going on.

"Sharad Pawar's presence has extraordinary importance when a new battle for freedom is going on in the country to save the Constitution and democracy, and in such a situation, Pawar should not step aside," he said.

Senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said Pawar's decision has taken everyone by 'surprise'.

"A lot of party workers and leaders are urging him to reconsider his decision and we have to await the final outcome," he said.

Sanjay Raut, who is a leader of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and is considered to be close to the NCP supremo, said that leaders like Pawar 'never retire' from politics.

"Leaders like Pawar never retire from politics or social work. This development pertains to their internal party matter and it is not appropriate to comment on it," he said.

But the country and state need his guidance and leadership, Raut added.

He said that considering 'some recent developments, it (Pawar's decision) was not unexpected'. The Rajya Sabha MP also recalled that Sena founder Bal Thackeray had at one point in the 1990s decided to step down, but later changed his mind due to the party cadres' insistence.

Raut also said that the development will not affect the MVA.

As Sharad Pawar Decides To Step Down As NCP Chief, Party Leaders Urge Him To Stay On

As NCP supremo Sharad Pawar on Tuesday announced he has decided to step down as chief of the party he founded and helmed since 1999, many were seen crying and pleading with the 82-year-old wily Maratha strongman to reconsider the surprise decision.

Pawar's dramatic move, which was announced at an event in Mumbai to release the updated version of his Marathi autobiography, could now have a bearing on national and Maharashtra politics ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

A meeting of a committee of party leaders -- which Pawar said should decide on the election for his successor -- was held at his residence later, after which his nephew Ajit Pawar announced that his uncle will need two to three days to 'think over' his decision.

The decision by one of the tallest Opposition leaders in the country, who could bring their parties together against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the upcoming General elections, also comes amid intense speculation over Ajit Pawar's next political move.

"I am with you, but not as NCP chief," Pawar said.

ALSO READ | 'NCP Is There Because Of Sharad Pawar': Baramati Rallies Behind Its Most Famous Son

Many NCP workers refused to leave the venue of the book launch event even after Sharad Pawar left for his residence. They also threatened to go on a hunger strike and a worker even reportedly threatened to kill himself if Pawar did not relent.
New Delhi: Amid a row over the release and screening of the movie 'The Kerala Story' which claims to reveal the hidden truth, CPI MP Binoy Viswam has written to the Centre stating that "the official trailer of the film is nothing but a politically motivated hatred campaign against Kerala and the Muslim community." The CPI leader, in his letter to I&B Minister Anurag Thakur, also urged him to initiate into the fallacious claims being made through the movie"

#TheKeralaStory | CPI MP Binoy Viswam writes to I&B Minister Anurag Thakur, stating that "the official trailer of the film is nothing but a politically motivated hatred campaign against Kerala and the Muslim community."



The MP urges him to "initiate an enquiry into the pic.twitter.com/UdypLrT1tz  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

The makers of the movie have claimed that around 32,000 missing women" in the state got converted, radicalised and deployed in terror missions in India and the world. Reacting to it, top political leaders and Ministers in Kerala have now united on opposing the movie 'The Kerala Story,' while Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor have cited Sangh propaganda and false claims in opposing the movie respectively.

Tharoor took to the micro-blogging site Twitter and posted It may be *your* Kerala story. It is not *our* Kerala story along with a poster of the movie. The controversial movie's poster features a woman, wearing a burqa, who has a rather distraught expression with tears in her eyes. The Kerala Story movie poster says uncovering the truth that was kept hidden.

SC Rejects Plea By Muslim Body Against 'The Kerala Story'

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a plea by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind seeking a direction to the Centre and others not to allow the screening or release of the movie entitled `The Kerala Story` at theatres, OTT platforms and other such avenues, and also that the trailer should be removed from the Internet.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said it cannot allow the Supreme Court to become a "super Article 226 court" (a super high court) and entertain everything raised using Article 32. Article 226 provides for high courts to issue instructions or writs to government authorities.

Advocate Vrinda Grover mentioned the Muslim body`s plea before the court and submitted that the Kerala High Court was not hearing the matter before the film`s release on May 5. Grover argued that they are vilifying the community and marketing it as the truth and also, they do not have a disclaimer also that this is a work of fiction.

Senior advocate Harish Salve pointed out that the Kerala High Court is already seized of the matter. The Chief Justice asked petitioners to move the Kerala High Court which is hearing similar matters and said the high courts are manned by seasoned judges and Kerala High Court judges are aware of local situations.

The counsel, representing the Muslim body, said the apex court can ask the high court to hear the cases relating to the release of the film on May 4. The film is slated for release on May 5.

After hearing submissions, the top court said the relief sought under Article 32 can be pursued before the high court and "we do not entertain it on this ground and we grant liberty to the petitioners to move the high court. The high court can take this up for early hearing..."

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to immediately hear a plea seeking a stay on the release of the controversial movie The Kerala Story.

A bench comprising Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna observed that the censor board has already cleared the movie and the petitioners should rather challenge the film`s certification before an appropriate authority. This bench is currently hearing matters in connection with hate speeches. The bench said that the exhibition of films entails a different process, therefore the plea seeking a stay on the release of the movie cannot be clubbed with the hate speech matters.

The fresh plea filed by the Muslim body said, "The movie is clearly aimed at spreading hatred and enmity between different sections of society in India. The message the movie imparts is that non-Muslim young women are being lured into converting to Islam by their classmates and subsequently, trafficked to West Asia where they are forced to join terrorist organisations."

The plea said, "The movie demeans the entire Muslim community and it will result in endangering the life and livelihood of the petitioners and the entire Muslim community in our country and this is a direct infringement under Articles 14 & 21 of the Constitution."

"The movie gives the impression that apart from extremist clerics who radicalise people, ordinary Muslim youngsters, their classmates, also play an instrumental role in luring non-Muslims and radicalising them by posing as friendly and good-natured, in accordance with instructions given by extremist scholars," said the plea.

The plea, filed through advocate Ejaz Maqbool, alternatively sought a direction to the Central Board of Film Certification to further identify incendiary scenes and dialogues for removal or show a disclaimer stating that it is a work of fiction and the characters in the movie bear no resemblance to any person living or dead.

(With Agency Inputs)
Lucknow: The whirlwind campaign of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the first round of municipal elections came to an end on Tuesday with public meetings in Prayagraj, Jhansi, and Lucknow. On one side, the Chief Minister gave out a strong message to mafias and criminals, on the other side, he also talked of development in the state.

On his first trip to Prayagraj following the murder of gangster Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf, Yogi quoted a couplet from the Ramcharitmanas and said, "Karm pradhan vishwa rachi rakha/jo jas karihe so tas phal chakha (The universe is based on deeds/as you sow, so shall you reap). While in Jhansi, he said that he will not let any criminal wander freely in the state."He also appealed to people to vote for BJP candidates in Lucknow.

While seeking votes for BJP`s mayoral candidate Umesh Chandra Ganesh Kesharwani, Yogi said that the land of Prayagraj does not tolerate atrocities adding that nature does justice to all who do injustice.CM Yogi quoted from Ramcharitmanas and said, "Karm pradhan vishwa rachi rakha/jo jas karihe so tas phal chakha (The universe is based on deeds/as you sow, so shall you reap).

"The Uttar Pradesh CM said that the BJP government was committed to empowering people in every section of society and did not believe in the divisive politics of appeasement practiced by the opposition parties."The government is moving forward with the basic principle of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas," he asserted.

Lashing out at the previous governments, the CM said that the opposition parties did appeasement politics, which naturally involved discrimination and created divisions in society, but we worked for the development of all."Today, UP is achieving new heights under the guidance of PM Modi by moving forward with nationalist thinking, shedding dynastic and casteist mentality," he added.

In Jhansi, the Chief Minister accused the previous governments of neglecting the development of the Bundelkhand region and looting its natural resources and said that no one would now dare to do so in his government."After independence, Bundelkhand was supposed to participate in the development process, but the people in power never gave development any thought.

Instead, their henchmen never thought twice about plundering Bundelkhand`s resources," he said."As a result, the people of Bundelkhand were forced to migrate and the youths became unemployed," he said, adding "Modi Ji gave a vision of development.

PM Modi inaugurated a massive plant of Bharat Dynamics and the Defense Corridor node in this region, which will employ thousands of young people."Listing the development works done by his government for the region, Yogi Adityanath said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the Bundelkhand Expressway, which has become the lifeline of Bundelkhand, and soon the government is going to start its Jhansi link.

"We have announced Rs 6,000 crores for constituting the Jhansi Bundelkhand Industrial Development Authority (JBIDA). Now the youth of Bundelkhand will not need to migrate to other cities as they will get employment here itself," he said.

The Chief Minister noted that the seven districts of Bundelkhand, one of India`s most parched regions, will soon have access to clean drinking water through the Har Ghar Nal Yojana. In Lucknow, the Chief Minister said that the BJP was set to emerge victorious in the first phase of municipal elections to be held on May 4. He stated, "I have visited 37 districts and 10 municipal corporations that are going to polls on May 4, and feel that people have made up their minds to shower their blessings on BJP candidates. I am confident of the BJP candidates` landslide victory in the first phase of municipal elections.

"CM Yogi said that the triple engine government was a must to ensure the effective use of funds allotted by Central and State Governments for developmental works and appealed to people to vote for BJP candidates and to cast their ballots even before breakfast.

"Lucknow is the largest municipal corporation in the state with 110 wards. It is a place that has been represented by towering personalities like former prime minister Atal Bhai Vajpayee and Lalji Tandon. Today it is being represented by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Today, Lucknow is being developed as a node of the Defence Corridor. The Brahmos missile will also be manufactured in Lucknow. There is Metro as well", the CM informed. He added that the green corridor is also being built in Lucknow. "Kisan Tak is becoming the lifeline of Lucknow and we are planning to form a Special Protection Group soon to clean the Gomti River so that it becomes like the Ganga," he said.

"We are also planning to introduce a night safari in Lucknow. We will also rehabilitate street vendors, linking them with PM SVANidhi Yojana. We will also give houses to all those who have a piece of land, but have a salary of less than Rs 3 lakh per annum", CM Yogi added.
MAU/AZAMGARH: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took his campaign for the urban local body polls to gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari's home district Mau on Wednesday, saying that those who crippled law and order in the area were themselves moving in wheelchairs now. Ansari, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a 2007 Gangster Act case by a court last week, was seen being moved in a wheelchair once before being brought to a jail in Uttar Pradesh from Punjab.

"This is the same district where Ramlila could not be organised, the district where the SP and BSP allowed these professional criminals and mafia to create chaos in their regimes. Since the double-engine government assumed power in Uttar Pradesh, these professional criminals can now be seen on wheelchairs," Adityanath said.

Later speaking in Azamgarh, he said the district was once known for its saints, revolutionaries and intellectual and artistic richness. "There was a lot of expectation from the district after independence. However, the district moved in the opposite direction because of neglect. Until 2017, Azamgarh was struggling for its identity. Its people did not even get rooms in hotels and dharamshalas in other cities," the chief minister said.

But "some people" gave country-made pistols to the youth, instead of pens, he said. "Times have changed. We are helping the youth move away from sword to pen. We are making them skilled by connecting them with technology," he said. Adityanath also took a jibe at Akhilesh Yadav, saying five years ago the Samajwadi Party chief had come to Azamgarh for campaigning, but today if he comes by road, he won't be able to recognise the district.

Referring to a significant drop in the maximum temperature in most parts of north India, including Uttar Pradesh, due a change in the weather system, Adityanath said it showed "even the nature is with us". The chief minister is leading the BJP campaign for the ULB polls, addressing multiple election meetings in parts of the state daily. On Tuesday, he addressed an election meeting in Prayagraj, the home turf of slain gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad.

On Wednesday, he launched the party's campaign for the second phase from Maghar, a town in Sant Kabir Nagar district in eastern Uttar Pradesh, saying it was once considered a "gateway to hell" but the BJP government has worked to develop it into "paradise". He also addressed a meeting in Ballia. "Death in Maghar used to mean going to 'nark' (hell), but saint Kabir changed that notion and it became paradise in the double-engine government. The double-engine government has set up Saint Kabir Academy to promote research on his values and ideals, including social equality and harmony," he said.

"People will feel that the chief minister himself is coming to campaign in the municipal elections. Yes, I am coming because the money will be sent from Delhi and Lucknow and we want the money to be put to the best use in the interest of the public," Adityanath said in Maghar. "There was money even before 2017, but the poor did not get houses. Money was wasted. It went to the pockets of a few for 70 years. Otherwise, every poor person would have had a toilet and a house by now. There would have been proper arrangements for drainage in urban areas," he alleged.

Speaking about infrastructure development, Adityanath said the link expressway of the Purvanchal Expressway goes to Gorakhpur via Sant Kabir Nagar. "We did not discriminate when it came to development. We did not look at one's caste or religion to provide them benefits of government schemes," he said, according to an official statement. The first phase of the polls will be held on May 4 and the second phase on May 11. The counting of votes will be done on May 13.
NEW DELHI: A video showing an Uttar Pradesh Police constable allegedly chasing and harassing a schoolgirl going back home has emerged from the state's capital Lucknow. The policeman seen in the viral video has been identified as Shahadat Ali. The viral video footage, shot by another woman who was also passing by, shows a girl student riding her bicycle and the police constable in question chasing her on his scooter.

Enraged by his actions, the woman and another unidentified person who were also passing by at the same time confronted the policeman and questioned him why was he chasing the girl.

In the video, the two can be heard asking why there was no number plate on the policeman's scooter. Who are you brother (Aap kaun ho bhai sahab)? Do you know her (the victim girl student)?" the woman asks the cop. To this, the policeman claims that the girl student is his childs classmate. Following that, the woman tells the policeman to park his scooter on the side.

When asked to tell the name of his childs school, the policeman gives an incorrect name. The woman claims that this policeman harasses schoolgirls almost daily.

The two then tell him to remove his helmet for identification and question him about the missing number plate on his scooter. To which, the police constable says, It has no number plate since this is an electric vehicle.

The video soon went viral on social media and evoked a sharp response from netizens who demanded strict action against the police constable.

Taking cognizance of the matter, Lucknow Police later issued a statement and said, Having taken cognizance of the incident, legal action is being taken against the aforementioned police officer by filing a complaint with the Police Station Cantt. The departmental action procedure has been initiated.
Honda India is set to unveil its upcoming mid-size SUV for the country on June 6. Before the unveiling of the car, the company announced that the new SUV will be called Elevate and will be launched later this year. Furthermore, this SUV will start its life in the Indian market and will be launched overseas.

Before its debut, glimpses of the SUV have been revealed in several spy shots of the car leaked earlier. Based on the pictures, the SUV will have an upright stance and probably a strong front-end design.

Also read: Delhi Cab Users Forgot Most Items In Uber; TV, Commode Among Unique Things

The nature of the SUV is further depicted by features like muscular wheel arches, a headlight design representing the Honda DNA, and similar other features.

Moving on, the SUV is expected to be 4.3 meters in length. With this size, the SUV is expected to provide ample space in the interiors of the car. Expectations are the new SUV will be based on a platform that draws from the previous Honda models in India. To be specific, the car will be based on the same platform as the Honda City.

Since the car is based on the same platform as Honda City, it is expected to have a hybrid engine. Furthermore, the car will have a 1.5-litre engine that will be tuned to provide the SUV with good fuel efficiency.

This new SUV is expected to be a game changer for the company in the Indian market. It will invade a market that Korean and Indian automakers already dominate. In other words, the SUV will compete against models like Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, and Volkswagen Taigun.
Before the pending merger, Air India and Vistara announced an interline partnership. The partnership of the two Tata Group airlines will allow customers to use the services of both airlines across the network. The partnership of the airline will come into effect starting April 5, 2023.

With this partnership, customers will be able to book mixed itineraries on a single ticket across both the airlines. They also receive their boarding passes for all the sectors booked on a single ticket at the start of their journeys and travel hassle-free as their luggage gets checked-in through to their final destinations.

Also read: Go First Bankruptcy: Booked A Ticket With Airline? Here's How To Get A Refund

Vinod Kannan, Chief Executive Officer, Vistara, said, "This partnership brings together two leading airlines in India to offer greater convenience and enhanced connectivity to customers traveling across our joint network. This is reflective of our deep-rooted commitment to offering our customers the finest and the most convenient way to fly across the world. We are delighted to strengthen our relationship with Air India further and connect our customers to new destinations in their wide network."

Campbell Wilson, CEO & MD of Air India, said, We are pleased with our interline partnership with Vistara, which will provide greater connectivity and convenience to our joint customers travelling within and outside of India on both our expanding route networks. Our common commitment to excellence in safety and customer service lies at the forefront of this partnership. We look forward to serving Vistaras customers with additional travel choices to Air India destinations across the Americas, Europe, Far East, Australia, and the Middle East.

Vistara already has an interline cooperation with Air India for irregular operations (IROPs), enabling both airlines to offer alternative first available options to their customers on each others flights to minimise inconvenience in case of any operational disruptions. Additionally, Vistara has interline through check-in agreements with 43 other airlines, of which it has Codeshare with Air Canada, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, and United Airlines.
Small Pharma Inc.

Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, Dr. Carol Routledge, will deliver a poster presentation on data from the Companys SPL026 Phase IIa clinical trial in patients with Major Depressive Disorder

LONDON, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Small Pharma Inc. (TSXV: DMT) (OTCQB: DMTTF) (the Company or Small Pharma), a biotechnology company focused on short-duration psychedelic-assisted therapies for mental health conditions, is pleased to announce that Dr. Carol Routledge, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, will deliver a poster presentation at the 34th CINP World Congress of Neuropsychopharmacology in Montreal, Canada which is taking place on May 7-10, 2023.



The poster will showcase positive data from the Companys Phase IIa trial of SPL026, the first placebo-controlled study of a short-duration psychedelic for the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The trial investigated the efficacy, safety and tolerability of a 21.5mg intravenous dose of SPL026, a proprietary synthetic formulation of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), with supportive therapy in 34 patients with moderate/severe MDD.

Title: Efficacy, Safety and Tolerability of SPL026 with Support Therapy in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

Date: Monday May 8, 2023

Time: 10:15  10:45 a.m. and 4:00  4:30 p.m. (EDT)

Location: Level 2 Foyer, Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

About Small Pharma

Small Pharma is a biotechnology company progressing a pipeline of short-duration psychedelic-assisted therapies for the treatment of mental health conditions. The Companys current focus is on exploring new therapeutic approaches for depression. Small Pharmas lead candidate, SPL026, is a proprietary synthetic formulation of N, N-dimethyltryptamine. The Company is advancing clinical programs of SPL026 and SPL028 with supportive therapy for the treatment of mental health conditions, and was granted an Innovation Passport designation from the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (the MHRA) for IV SPL026 with supportive therapy for MDD. In addition, Small Pharma has a pipeline of proprietary preclinical assets in development.

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Contact Information:

Small Pharma Inc. & Investor Relations:

George Tziras, Chief Executive Officer

Email: ir@smallpharma.co.uk

Media Relations:

Jenny Maguire, Head of External Affairs

Email: jenny.maguire@smallpharma.co.uk

Cautionary Note

Small Pharma makes no medical, treatment or health benefit claims about its proposed products. The MHRA or other similar regulatory authorities have not evaluated claims regarding its therapies and other next generation psychoactive compounds. The efficacy of such therapies has not been confirmed by MHRA-approved research. There is no assurance that such therapies and other psychoactive compounds can diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or condition. Vigorous scientific research and clinical trials are needed. Any references to quality, consistency, efficacy and safety of potential therapies do not imply that Small Pharma verified such in clinical trials or that Small Pharma will complete such trials. If Small Pharma cannot obtain the approvals or research necessary to commercialize its business, it may have a material adverse effect on Small Pharmas performance and operations.

The TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.




As Go First Airlines grounded flights all of its flights starting today till May 5 amid bankruptcy, passengers who booked their tickets with the airlines are left in the middle of nowhere. The low-cost airline promoted by the Wadia Group on Tuesday announced that its flight operations will remain cancelled from May 3 to May 5 amid a severe cash crunch. As per a statement issued by the airline, the long standing issue with US engine maker Pratt & Whitney resulted in grounding of half of its fleet, which resulted in a cash crunch, that further resulted in a domino effect as all the flights are now cancelled.

Not only this, Go First has applied for voluntary insolvency proceedings at the NCLT. This has left all the Go First passengers worried about their tickets and refunds. While the airline added that a full refund will be issued to the passengers, those who booked tickets in advance are now stranded with limited options in hand. Either they will book a flight at the higher price due to late booking, or they will have to cancel the journey on routes where only Go First operated the flights.

As reported by ANI, counters of Go First Airlines lie deserted at Amritsar airport as the cash-strapped airlines ground their flights. A passenger of Go First Airlines said that the airline is only talking about giving a refund but "I have my flight to Mumbai, as I reached the airport there was nobody at the counter...we asked to adjust us to other flights but the airline is only talking about giving us a refund," said Gurvinder Singh the passenger.

Another passenger who booked her ticket with Go First Airlines said that the flight was cancelled suddenly and should have been given another flight. "Our flight was cancelled suddenly. They should have given us another flight. They are telling us they will refund us after 7 days," said another passenger.

"Due to operational reasons, GoFirst flights for 3rd, 4th and 5th May 2023 have been cancelled. We sincerely apologise to our loyal customers. We assure you that we will be back with more information soon. A full refund will be issued through the original mode of payment shortly," mentioned the official Twitter account of the airline.

DGCA, on the other hand, has issued a show cause notice to the airline for cancelling the flights without prior intimation to the aviation body. Also, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the Government of India has been assisting Go First Airlines in every possible manner but it is incumbent upon the airline to make alternative travel arrangements for passengers so that they do not face inconvenience.

"Go First has been faced with critical supply chain issues with regard to their engines. The GOI has been assisting the airline in every possible manner. The issue has also been taken up with the stakeholders involved," Scindia said.

"It is unfortunate that this operational bottleneck has dealt a blow to the airline`s financial position. It has come to our knowledge that the airline has applied to the NCLT. It is prudent to wait for the judicial process to run its course," he added.

On Tuesday, Go First Airlines said that due to the non-supply of engines by the US-based Jet engines manufacturer, operations will remain cancelled. "Go First is facing financial crunch due to non-supply of engines by US-based jet engines manufacturer Pratt and Whitney (P&W) that has forced grounding more than 50 planes," a Go First official told ANI.
Flyers of Go First were stranded at Delhi airport on Wednesday as the airline failed to inform passengers about the cancellation of flights. The counters of the budget airline, owned by the Wadia Group, wore a deserted look on Wednesday morning. Passengers flocked to other counters to find fares of other airlines, surged to exorbitant amounts amid the crisis. According to reports, Go First`s counters at Chennai Airport witnessed a deserted look as no passengers had lined up. However, all other airlines` services were busy.

Upon enquiring about the situation, officials from the Go First said, "Since flight-cancellation intimation was given in prior to all the passengers who have booked, no discomfort is faced by them."

Also read: Air India, Vistara Enter Interline Partnership Ahead Of Airlines' Merger

Go First Airlines on Tuesday announced that its flight operations will remain cancelled from May 3 to May 5, adding that a full refund will be issued to the passengers. A passenger bound for Patna from Indira Gandhi Airport in New Delhi, Priyanka Agrawal, said, "My flight to Patna was at 9 am. They have zero support system. I had my meetings lined up in Patna. I had to cancel these meetings and had to cancel my return flight, too."

Frustrated, she vented out, "Because of this, the fares of IndiGo flights to Patna went up to around Rs 19,000. Now, who will compensate?"

"I left Meerut around 3 am, but after reaching here, I got to know that my flight has been cancelled...no one is ready to say anything clearly..," Harender Singh, a passenger who booked his ticket with Go First Airlines. Another passenger who booked his ticket with Go First Airlines said, "With a lot of difficulties, we managed to plan a holiday to Leh and booked all the tickets..."

Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said that the Government of India has been assisting Go First Airlines in every possible manner, but it is incumbent upon the airline to make alternative travel arrangements for passengers so that they do not face inconvenience.

On Tuesday, India`s aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), issued a show cause notice to India`s low-cost carrier Go First Airlines, for not providing prior intimation of the cancellation of flights on May 3 and May 4 to DGCA.

"It has come to the notice of DGCA that Go First has cancelled all scheduled flights of 3rd May and 4th May 2023, respectively. No prior intimation has been given to DGCA for such cancellations, which is non-compliance with conditions for approval of schedule," an official statement issued by DGCA said.

DGCA has sought a reply from Go First Airlines within 24 hours of the issuance of the show cause notice. In this regard, Go First Airlines said that due to the non-supply of engines by the US-based Jet engines manufacturer, operations will remain cancelled.
New Delhi: Media is the fourth pillar of democracy because a nation can`t flourish if its press is not free. On May 3 the world celebrates the freedom of the press and cinema has multiple times represented the situation of journalism in our society.

On World Press Freedom Day, let`s take a look at actors who played journalists in films and web series.

SRK and Juhi Chawla in `Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani`

Shah Rukh Khan with Bollywood diva Juhi Chawla essayed the role of journalists for rival channels. The two journalists kept competition aside to fight for justice for an innocent man who was accused of being a terrorist.

Kartik Aaryan in `Dhamaka`

Actor Kartik Aaryan is known for his comic and boy-next-door avatar nailed in the role of a prime-time journalist. The story narrates the ground reality of the press is desperate to create breaking news without even giving a single thought about the lives of innocent people. Kartik was well appreciated by the critics for the movie.

Anushka Sharma in `PK`

The blockbuster movie `PK` features Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in the role of a TV journalist. Sharma`s character of Jagat Janani helps an alien (Aamir Khan) in finding his voice to shake the throne of a corrupted religious guru played by Saurabh Shukla.

Preity Zinta in `Lakshya`

Actress Preity Zinta in `Lakshya` addressed the role of Romila Dutta a brilliant and bold journalist who isn`t afraid to do her job even in the circumstances of War. 2004 film went on to become one of the most celebrated movies of the Greek god of Bollywood Hrithik Roshan.

John Abraham and Arshad Warsi in `Kabul Express`

The movie `Kabul Express revolves around the disturbing events that happened in Afghanistan post-US-invasion. John Abraham and Arshad Warsi played two young journalists who covers the real-time events of mass destruction in the land of Afghanistan.

World Press Freedom Day marks a day to tribute to restless services by journalists as observers of democracy.
New Delhi: Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath has informed netizens about a new kind of part-time job offer scam running on WhatsApp. He warned that someone whom he knew got scammed and lost money. He described the entire part-time job offer scam in the Twitter thread.

ALSO READ | Communication App Zoom Gets Pan-India Telecom Licence

Scamsters have been using different ways to trap innocent customers and to siphone off money from their accounts. The rate of scams has been doubled in the last few years because of increase usage of smartphones and digitisation.

Nithin Kamath explained the scam that it started with a response to a part-time job offer on WhatsApp. The first few tasks were about leaving fake reviews for resorts & restaurants in random places like Peru  Rs 30k was transferred to the bank for the tasks completed.

Someone I know got scammed & lost money.



It started with a response to a part-time job offer on WhatsApp. The first few tasks were about leaving fake reviews for resorts & restaurants in random places like Peru. ~Rs 30k was transferred to the bank for the tasks completed. 1/8 May 3, 2023

ALSO READ | FM Sitharaman Meets Japan Bank In Incheon, South Korea

He added that a telegram group had been created with other swho claimed to do these tasks. The next task for the group was to trade on a mock crypto platform, following a bunch of rules. Profits generated were allowed to be withdrawn, even without transferring any real money.

They dont use Bitcoin or Ethereum, but random crypto tokens were used whose prices fraudsters could easily manipulate. The group was now asked to transfer real money to generate higher returns. Others in the group claiming to transfer nudged my friend to do so as well, he added.

He further added, I guess the risk didn't seem much since the money transferred was the Rs 30K earned through the platform. But greed took over, and more money was transferred, probably due to peer pressure from others in the group who claimed to have made large transfers and profits.

The person, Kamath told, tried to withdraw but couldnt and was told that a certain number of traders was required. The fear of being unable to withdraw the money took over, and more money was added to trade. This amounted to Rs 5 lakh, a large amount for any person.

The account seemed like a real crypto account, with account balance, ledger, P&L, etc. But it was all fake; everything on it was manipulated, including the telegram group. The crypto price movements were also manipulated to generate profits and sow greed at the start, Kamath said.

Kamath informed in the thread that the police shared many cases  even well-educated folks borrowing tens of lakhs and losing it in such sophisticated scams. He further informed that everyone is target, and we need to create awareness. The important thing to remember is that there is no easy way to make a lot of money quickly.
MHT CET Admit Card 2023: The Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test Cell will release the MHT CET hall ticket 2023 on the official website- mhtcet2023.mahacet.org soon. Candidates taking the PCM and PCB entrance exams can access their admit cards by entering their application number and date of birth. The release date of the MHT CET 2023 admit card has not been officially confirmed. According to sources, the Maharastra state cell would issue the admission card today, May 3. Candidates should constantly visit the official website for the most recent changes.

The correction window was open from April 21 to April 25, 2023. The PCM and PCB exams will be held in two sessions, the first from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and the second from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

MHT CET Admit Card 2023: Here's how to download

Visit the official site of MAHACET at mahacet.org.

Click on MHTCET 2023 link available under CET link.

A new page will open where candidates can click on MHT CET 2023 Admit Card link available on the page.

Enter the required details and click on submit.

Your admit card will be displayed on the screen.

Check the admit card and download the page.

Keep a hard copy of the same for further need.

Candidates are advised to duly check all the information provided in MHT CET 2023 admit card. In case of any discrepancy or error in the details mentioned in the MHT CET admit card 2023, candidates should contact the authorities without delay.
MP Board Result 2023: Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education, MPBSE is expected to release the MP Board Results 2023 for the 10th, and 12th exams soon on the official website. The Board has not yet specified a specific date for its release. However, in an interview with a media organization, Board officials stated that the candidates should not expect the results until after May 20, 2023, and the checking of class 10 papers has not yet been done.

In March, the Madhya Pradesh Board held class 10 and class 12 exams. Between March 1 and March 27, 2023, the Class 10 board exam was held. The Class 12 board test began on March 2 and will conclude on April 1, 2023. All of the exams were given in a single shift between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m.

MP Board Result 2023: Here's how to check the result

Registered candidates who took the exam should go to the official website of MPBSE.

On the homepage, click on Class 10 or Class 12 link

After being redirected to another page, enter the required details

Post submitting the details, result will be displayed on the screen

Check the result and download the page

Take its printout for future reference

The results for Class 10 and 12 will be released simultaneously by the MP Board. The results were announced last year on April 29, 2022. In 2022, the pass rate for Class 10 was 59.54 percent, and the overall pass rate for Class 12 was 72.72 percent. The pass percentage will be disclosed alongside the results this year as well.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has allowed the Centre to carry out inspection of 123 delisted properties taken over from the Delhi Waqf Board while ensuring minimal disruption in their day-to-day administration by the body. Earlier this year, the Land and Development Office (L&DO) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) had decided to take over 123 properties from the Board, which included mosques, dargah and graveyards, based on the report of a two-member committee.

The deputy L&DO in a letter to Board chairman Amanatullah Khan on February 8 had informed about the decision to absolve the Delhi Waqf Board from all matters related to the 123 properties based on the committee report. In a recent order, Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri issued notice on the petition by board against the Centre's move to de-list these 123 properties and said the applications filed by the petitioner for interim relief of stay would be kept pending for disposal after the completion of pleadings in the matter.

The Centre said at this stage, it was confining its request only to the physical inspection of the properties in question, after which all the relevant material would be placed before the competent authority. "In view thereof, pending a final decision in the present petition, respondent may act upon its letter dated 08.02.2023 to carry out the inspection while ensuring minimal disruption in the day-to-day administration of the subject properties by the petitioners,? said the court in a recent order.

The court noted that although the matter has been 'heard in some detail', the issue dates back to 1911 and it would be appropriate to call for a detailed counter affidavit from the Centre as well as hear the petitioner board. "This calls for a more detailed hearing as the issues at hand involve complex facts and legally nuanced arguments advanced by the parties," observed the court as it listed the case for hearing on November 2.

The Centre has opposed the Board's claim over the 123 properties, saying the Board has no stake in them as they were acquired pursuant to land acquisition proceedings initiated between 1911 and 1914 and the mutation was carried out in its favour. The Board has contended that the properties have always been with it and the Centre has no power to "absolve" it of them, while urging the court to direct the maintenance of status quo as an interim measure at this stage.

In its reply to the petition challenging the take-over, the Centre has stated that all 123 properties were acquired pursuant to land acquisition proceedings between 1911 and 1914, compensation was paid, possession was taken and mutation was carried out in its favour. It has also claimed that possession has always been with the Centre and these acquisitions have attained finality and have been used for creating infrastructure.

"In terms of the undisputable and incontrovertible position on record, the properties in question were the subject matter of land acquisition proceedings between 1911 and 1914, pursuant to which these 123 properties were acquired, compensation was paid, possession was taken and mutation was carried out in favour of Government," the reply has said.

"The property so acquired were thereafter used for the purposes of creating infrastructure and buildings etc. That are now identified as the urban scape of Delhi. It is, therefore, submitted that the allegation on behalf of the Petitioners that they have always retained possession is clearly misconceived," it added.

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Board, has argued that the petitioner has been in "continuous possession known to one and all" in relation to the properties and the law grants no power to the Centre to take away waqf properties. The Centre has asserted that the petition was without merit and deserved to be rejected.

It has also alleged that the petitioner has "no interest" in the said properties as it never appeared before the committee looking into the issue of acquisition. Earlier, the Board, also represented by lawyer Wajeeh Shafiq, has argued that all 123 properties cannot be now taken away on the basis of the report of the two-member committee that has not even been supplied to it.

It has submitted that the dispute pertaining to the properties is over 100 years old and the Centre, in the present case, "outsourced" the decision-making to the committee which wrongly concluded the Board has no interest in the properties in spite of representations made to it. It was earlier claimed that these 123 properties were clearly demarcated through four surveys conducted in 1970, 1974, 1976 and 1984 and were later assented by the President that they were waqf properties.
NEW DELHI: The Manipur government on Wednesday suspended mobile internet services for the next five days in the state to tackle the worsening law and order situation after tribal groups took out rallies in several districts of the state. Along with a ban on large gatherings, a night curfew too has been imposed in several districts of the state.

The order came after hundreds of people turned up for the 'Tribal Solidarity March' called by a student body in all the ten hill districts of the state to oppose the demand for inclusion of the Meitei community in the ST category.

The All Tribal Students Union of Manipur (ATSUM), which called for the march, said it was organised to protest moves to include the "Meitei community in the ST category".

Lawmakers of the valley areas have earlier openly endorsed the demand by some Meitei organisation for ST status for the majority community in Manipur, alarming communities who figure in the scheduled tribe list.

The Meiteis who make up 53 per cent of the state's population inhabit the Manipur valley, which accounts for about a tenth of the former princely state's land area, and claim that they are facing difficulty in view of "large-scale illegal immigration by Myanmarese and Bangladeshis".

The hill districts which account for much of the state's land mass are inhabited mostly by tribals - including the Nagas and Kukis - mostly live are protected from encroachment by valley people by various laws.

Tribal villagers from interior hill areas came in buses and open trucks to the nearest hill district headquarters to attend the rallies.

In Naga-dominated Senapati town, the district headquarters with the same name and located about 58 km from the capital town of Imphal, the local bodies forced the total shutdown of markets and suspension of public transport from 10 am to 1 pm to ensure that the maximum number of demonstrators participate in the rally.

Thousands of tribals who make up about 40 per cent of the population, joined the processions, waved placards and raised slogans opposing ST status for the Meitei community. Representatives of the Senapati District Students' Association also met the deputy commissioner and apprised him of their concerns.

At Churachandpur, the second largest town in the state, people defied prohibitory orders and gathered at the public ground and took a rally till Tuibong peace ground to show their support to ATSUM, police said.

Prohibitory orders were clamped for an indefinite period in the town last week following violent protests against a drive to evict villagers from reserved forest areas. Security forces were rushed to the town from other parts of Manipur to control the situation after the vandalisation of a venue where Chief Minister N Biren Singh was scheduled to address a programme.

Similar rallies were also held at Tengnoupal, Chandel, Kangpokpi, Noney, and Ukhrul where even school students were seen among participants, police said.

Section 144 imposed in Manipur's Bishnupur

The Bishnupur district administration in Manipur on Wednesday imposed section 144 across the district in view of the law and order situation. The move came after violence was reported in Bishnupur on Wednesday. "Assembly of five or more persons, which is likely to turn unlawful, and carrying of sticks, stones, firearms without a valid license, weapons or objects of any description which can be used as offensive weapons, prohibited in the whole jurisdiction of Bishnupur district with immediate effect," read the order.

Manipur | Assembly of five or more persons, which is likely to turn unlawful, and carrying of sticks, stones, firearms without a valid license, weapons or objects of any description which can be used as offensive weapons, prohibited in the whole jurisdiction of Bishnupur district pic.twitter.com/17GrRlRKQk May 3, 2023

The prohibition will be imposed till further orders. The order was imposed at 6 pm on Wednesday.
Mulki: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made a frontal attack on the Congress and said the entire politics of the main opposition party is based on the "divide and rule" policy, and charged it with going across the world defaming the country when India's democracy and development were being "appreciated and respected globally".

Congress Enemy Of Peace & Development: PM

Calling Congress the "enemy of peace and development", the Prime Minister also accused the party of insulting and abusing India's defence forces. "Congress is an enemy of peace and development. When Congress is there, investors will flee. Congress protects 'aakas' (boss) of terror, they encourage appeasement," PM Modi said.

Addressing a public meeting here in Dakshina Kannada district of coastal Karnataka, which is a BJP stronghold, he said the Congress's only identity was "appeasement politics". "Will you (people) allow such a Congress to come to power, will you allow Karnataka to get ruined?"

The PM continued by saying, "Across the country whichever state wants peace and development, the first thing people there do is to oust Congress from there. If there is peace in society and the country is progressing, Congress cannot sit peacefully or will not be able to digest it. Congress's entire politics is based on divide and rule policy."

Congress Protects Masterminds Of Terror: PM

Alleging that Congress tried to save those who were arrested for conspiring to spread terror, PM Modi claimed that it not only withdrew cases against such anti-social elements but also released them.

The "reverse-gear" Congress also takes electoral help from anti-national forces, the Prime Minister further alleged. Noting that the whole country respected and honoured the defence forces, PM Modi claimed that the Congress insulted and abused the military brass and soldiers.

"The whole world appreciates and respects India's democracy and development," he said, "but the Congress is going across the world defaming the country." "America, Australia, Japan, UK...In every corner of the world, India is being appreciated or not? Why?... It is not because of Modi, it is happening because of your (people's) votes. It's the strength of your votes, which formed a strong and stable government in Delhi," he added.

Congress Will Bury Karnataka In A Pit: PM

Talking about the development, the Prime Minister said, "We want Karnataka to become number one in industrial and agriculture development, fisheries and port. We are working on it." He claimed that the Congress wanted to make Karnataka the "number one ATM" for its 'shahi parivar' (royal family) sitting in Delhi.

Karnataka BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel and Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje among other BJP leaders were present at the rally. PM Modi also cautioned that the Congress that "takes 85 per cent commission in every programme or scheme" would take Karnataka back by decades and "bury it in a pit". "People of Karnataka have to be very cautious about Congress, JD(S) are also similar kinds of people," he said.

Vote For BJP: PM Urges Karnataka Voters

The Prime Minister urged people to bring in BJP with a "full majority and strong and stable government in Karnataka", for it to be "praised and respected across the country and the globe".

Speaking in this coastal town, PM Modi also highlighted the various programmes of BJP governments at the state and centre for the welfare of fishermen and the fisheries sector, including inland fisheries. Stating that India had the world's third largest startup ecosystem today, PM Modi said the country had about one lakh startups and nearly a hundred unicorns.

"The BJP government is giving policy support to the startup ecosystem. We are working on preparing lakhs of young innovators for the future," he said.

Pointing out that India had reached the fifth position among major global economies under the BJP govt, surpassing the UK that had colonised us, the Prime Minister said, "This is the Modi government which put England behind and came to the fifth position... I want your support to now reach the third position among global economies. I need Karnataka's support in this effort."
Smart Communications

Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, AMP and Bendigo Bank Recognised for Excellence in Customer Conversations

SYDNEY, Australia, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smart CommunicationsTM, a leading technology company focused on helping businesses engage in more meaningful customer conversations, today announced the winners of the 2023 SCALE Awards from the this years conference, INNOVATE APAC 2023 which was held in Sydney, Australia on March 22nd, 2023. This in-person event featured in depth lessons and insights from Smart Communications customers, executives, industry partners and more. The SCALE Awards honor customer excellence in digital transformation to make customer conversations smarter.



Companies from all over the world leverage Smart Communications industry-leading customer communications management solution, SmartCOMMTM and digital forms automation solution, SmartIQTM to reimagine the customer experience and improve internal efficiencies that impact a companys bottom line. Together, the solutions are integrated in The Smart Communications Conversation Cloud platform  the only cloud platform delivering personalised omnichannel conversations across the entire customer experience.

We are highly inspired by the great achievements of these breakout companies who particularly embodied our conference theme of Conversations without Limits by reimaging customer conversations to be faster, smarter and more interactive, said James Brown, CEO of Smart Communications. These customers are showing innovation, resilience and growth and we celebrate their achievements.

The three APAC companies to receive 2023 SCALE Awards were:

Best Customer Experience: This award honors how Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation has transitioned to a cloud-first strategy, incrementally providing an optimised customer experience at touchpoints across the value chain while keeping up with regulatory changes. Looking to consolidate 30 different legacy tools to just a few, Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation is standardising and streamlining the customer journey as well as revamping business processes to create efficiencies. Utilising best-of-breed solutions, SmartCOMM, Mulesoft and Salesforce, helped them create the best-possible customer experience.

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Pacesetter Award: This award recognises one of the top four banks serving Australia and New Zealand for going above and beyond in its digital-innovation efforts while delivering a high performance. As the company built its strategy to compete for digital-first customers, it needed a scalable, cloud-native solution for customer communications to support high growth. By implementing SmartCOMM, the team was able to support use cases across the bank and reduce the cost of multiple legacy on-premise CCM solutions. Non-technical users in the lines of businesses can now self-serve and update templates without relying on IT teams to make changes. The team also chose SmartIQ to digitise and automate forms-based data collection, such as tax self-certification forms. With this innovative use of SmartIQ, the bank enabled customers to provide requested tax information via preferred channels while also reducing the cost of obtaining the required information. They credit cloud-native solutions as a key enabler for their agile delivery model.

Lifetime Achievement (AMP): This award spotlights an early adopter of digital transformation and a true industry leader when it comes to leveraging technology to provide innovative customer experiences. After deciding to retire legacy document-generation systems, AMP envisioned an enterprise-wide communications platform managed by a central business team rather than IT. SmartCOMM has provided AMP multi-channel capabilities, greater use of shared content, and established common business rules across all documents.

AMPs centralised team was able to reduce the number of templates by 60% and create the agility required to launch new products or react to external events in a matter of days rather than weeks. Digital delivery of communications has gone from 0% to 70% and physical print and postage costs have significantly reduced with volumes now low enough to only require twice weekly printing. AMP reduced the amount paper needed by 8.2m pages, which is three times the size of the Sydney Westfield Tower, with an effective 36 million ton reduction in carbon omissions.

Lifetime Achievement (Bendigo Bank): This award recognises Bendigo Bank, which was one of the first customers to embrace digital transformation of their documents. Initially replacing its mainframe-based automated lettering system with a hybrid platform, the bank has now adopted the pure cloud SmartCOMM solution and replaced additional legacy systems. This has created organisational efficiencies and agility all while delivering an incredible customer experience. Bendigo Bank is also using SmartIQ across the enterprise to digitise processes like loan origination and client onboarding.

INNOVATE 2023 has demonstrated a business shift from focusing on purely transactional communications to evaluating the entire customer lifecycle so to create more personalised and timely customer conversations, continued Brown. It was inspiring to hear how our customers and partners are leveraging our cloud-native applications to embark on digital transformation projects that are delivering agility and real ROI value to their business and employees alike while creating more rewarding customer experiences and profitable customer relationships.

About Smart Communications

Smart Communications provides the platform that leading organizations trust to deliver personalized, consistent and compliant conversations across all touchpoints and channels. The Conversation Cloud consists of SmartCOMM for enterprise-scale customer communications, SmartIQ for digital forms transformation, and SmartDX for trade documentation. Over 650 enterprise organizations across the globe rely on Smart Communications to simplify and automate complex processes and deliver highly secure, frictionless experiences across the customer lifecycle. To learn more, visit smartcommunications.com.

CONTACT: Media Relations Contact: Roberta Patterson, rpatterson@smartcommunications.com, 1-919-450-7736




New Delhi [India], May 3 (ANI): Dwarka district police raided various locations across the national capital and Haryana early morning on Wednesday, and recovered Rs 20 lakh cash, weapons and other illegal materials from the hideouts of the members of a criminal gang, officials said. This comes a day after gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was killed in Tihar jail on Tuesday. Deputy Commissioner of Police M Harshawardhan said, "Dwarka Police has raided the hideouts of gangsters and their associates sitting abroad. Raids have been conducted at some locations in Delhi including Sonipat and Jhajjar."

"About 20 lakhs have been recovered from a place from Delhi, apart from this weapons have been recovered from Jhajjar and other places in Haryana," DCP Harshawardhan said. According to official sources, some people have also been detained during the action. "Search operation is underway. Delhi Police is collecting details of recoveries from other states," DCP added.

Gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was killed allegedly by rival gang members in Tihar jail on Tuesday. Preliminary results of an autopsy conducted on the body of Tillu Tajpuriya after his death suggested that the jailed gangster was attacked over 45 times, with over two dozen injuries found on his head. According to hospital sources, in the initial post-mortem report, it was found that Tillu Tajpuriya was given 45 wounds. Five were found on his waist, while around seven wounds were on the head portion.

Also Read: Who Was Tillu Tajpuria, The Dreaded Criminal Killed By Rival Gang In Tihar Jail?

Earlier on Tuesday, Delhi Police Special Cell arrested two criminals belonging to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang following an encounter between the criminals and the police team in the Rohini area. They were nabbed after an exchange of fire.

According to Delhi Police, the arrested persons Rajat and Habib were involved in the Surendra Matiala murder case. They were affiliated with the Kapil Sangwan Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Police seized two pistols and six live bullets from their possession.
India: In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday alleged that the ruling BJP looted more than Rs 1.5 Lakh Crore in more than three years of its rule in Karnataka and the PM did nothing to stop this loot. In the last three and a half years, they (BJP) have looted Rs 1.5 lakh crore from Karnataka. With that money, they could have built 100 AIIMS hospitals, 30,000 smart classrooms and houses for 30 lakh poor people. Today, they cannot talk about your issues in front of you, so every day they raise some new issue which has nothing to do with your development, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said while addressing a rally in Indi, Vijayapura in the poll-bound southern state.

Karnataka | In the last three and a half years, they (BJP) have looted Rs 1.5 lakh crore from Karnataka. With that money, they could have built 100 AIIMS hospitals, 30,000 smart classrooms and houses for 30 lakh poor people. Today they cannot talk about your issues in front of pic.twitter.com/v8Buz1TftI  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2023

The Congress leader also wondered why the "omnipresent and omniscient" Prime Minister could not see the "loot" happening in Karnataka by the '40 per cent commission government' of the BJP.

Addressing a public rally here ahead of the Assembly election on May 10, Priyanka sought to know why the 'Vikas Purush' (development man) Narendra Modi still says that he has a dream of developing Karnataka and presents it to the nation as the "development model".

The whole world calls the Prime Minister "omnipotent", supreme, and "greatest of all" and 'Vikas Purush', the Congress leader said in a sarcastic tone, adding that PM Modi keeps saying that it is his dream of developing the state and projecting it as a model for the rest of the country.

"You (Modi) are supreme, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Why couldn't you fulfil your dream? When your own government was plundering people by becoming '40 per cent commission governent' what were you doing?" Priyanka Vadra asked. PM Modi had shut his eyes to the "loot and plunder" in Karnataka because he was busy in "dreaming", she said in the verbal attack on PM Modi.

"You were busy dreaming big, so you allowed the loot and theft to happen. You didn't stop anyone. How is this? Why is your government called '40 per cent commission Sarkara'?" Vadra said.

The Congress general secretary alleged that the contractors were dying by suicide and are writing to the "omniscient" about the 40 per cent commission being charged but no reply has come out till now. She also accused the Prime Minister of being silent on the farmers taking their lives.

PM Modi's Frontal Attack On Congress

Earlier, while addressing a big rally in Akola, PM Modi called an enemy of peace and development and urged the voters to bring BJP with a massive mandate in Karnataka again. PM Modi on Wednesday made a frontal attack on the Congress and said the entire politics of the main opposition party is based on the "divide and rule" policy, and charged it with going across the world defaming the country when India's democracy and development were being "appreciated and respected globally".

Congress Enemy Of Peace & Development: PM

Calling Congress the "enemy of peace and development", the Prime Minister also accused the party of insulting and abusing India's defence forces. "Congress is an enemy of peace and development. When Congress is there, investors will flee. Congress protects 'aakas' (boss) of terror, they encourage appeasement," PM Modi said.

Addressing a public meeting here in Dakshina Kannada district of coastal Karnataka, which is a BJP stronghold, he said the Congress's only identity was "appeasement politics". "Will you (people) allow such a Congress to come to power, will you allow Karnataka to get ruined?"

The PM continued by saying, "Across the country whichever state wants peace and development, the first thing people there do is to oust Congress from there. If there is peace in society and the country is progressing, Congress cannot sit peacefully or will not be able to digest it. Congress's entire politics is based on divide and rule policy."

Congress Protects Masterminds Of Terror: PM

Alleging that Congress tried to save those who were arrested for conspiring to spread terror, PM Modi claimed that it not only withdrew cases against such anti-social elements but also released them.

The "reverse-gear" Congress also takes electoral help from anti-national forces, the Prime Minister further alleged. Noting that the whole country respected and honoured the defence forces, PM Modi claimed that Congress insulted and abused the military brass and soldiers.

"The whole world appreciates and respects India's democracy and development," he said, "but the Congress is going across the world defaming the country." "America, Australia, Japan, UK...In every corner of the world, India is being appreciated or not? Why?... It is not because of Modi, it is happening because of your (people's) votes. It's the strength of your votes, which formed a strong and stable government in Delhi," he added.
Srinagar: Security forces on Wednesday killed two terrorists in a gunfight near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kupwara district of north Kashmir. The search operation is still going on in the Pinchad village of the Machil sector where the encounter took place. According to an official, Jammu and Kashmir police and Army launched a joint operation after getting information about the presence of terrorists in the area. When they approached the suspected spot, the terrorists opened fire on them, leading to a fierce exchange of fire.

The official said two terrorists were killed in the gunfight and their bodies and weapons were recovered. He said the area was still under cordon and the search operation was continuing to ensure no more terrorists were hiding there. Kashmir zone police also confirmed the encounter in a tweet.

Jammu Kashmir is on high alert ahead of the G20 meeting in Kashmir starting on May 22. After the Poonch attack in which five soldiers were martyred, the borders, both LoC and international border, were put on red alert. It is believed that the terrorists who carried out the Poonch attack had recently infiltrated. The patrolling on the borders has been intensified to prevent any infiltration or arms smuggling by terrorists across the border.

Also Read: 14 Apps Reportedly Used In Jammu and Kashmir For Spreading Terror Banned By Govt

High Level Meet Held In Kashmir On VBIED Threat

Vijay Kumar, the Additional director general of police of Kashmir held a high-level security meeting in South Kashmir's Anantnag on Saturday. The meeting discussed the emerging threat of VBIEDs (Vehicle BorJne Improvised Explosive Devices) and other modes of terror attacks, as well as security challenges for the upcoming G-20 Summit meetings and the yearly Shri Amarnath pilgrimage. Agencies across Jammu and Kashmir are on high alert after a recent terror attack in Poonch in which five army soldiers were killed. It is said that the terrorists had a VBIED.

Also Read: Meet Shabbir Hussain Khan, 'Blood Man Of Kashmir' Saving Lives Since 1980

In response to the attack, many security upgrades have been implemented across Jammu and Kashmir, especially in Kashmir which is hosting the G20 meeting next month followed by the Amarnath pilgrimage. The ADGP stressed that security forces should focus on National Highway security due to the emerging threat of VBIEDs and other potential modes of terror attacks.
Washington: `Yellowstone` star Kevin Costner and his wife Christine Baumgartner are separating. Baumgarten has filed for divorce after 18 years of marriage. As reported by People, Costner`s representative said, "It is with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action." "We ask that his, Christine`s, and their children`s privacy be respected as they navigate this difficult time," the representative added.

In November, Costner spoke fondly of his wife, "My wife does things that just completely... It just helps. The house is prettier because of her. Everything is warmer because of her. There`s these little things that she does and I think it's the power of love, but that she makes her home that way," reported People. The pair tied the knot in September 2004 and have three children together, sons Cayden, 15, and Hayes, 14, daughter Grace, 12. Costner, 68, also has four older children from previous relationships-daughters Annie and Lily and sons Joe and Liam.

Baumgartner was always keen to start a family with Costner. The actor revealed to Extra that on day one of their relationship, Baumgartner told him, "If you`re going to be with me, you need to know that kids are at the end of the road for me with you, if that's going to happen." "Our house is like a river: You`ve just got to get into the flow of it," he added. "And whatever you thought it was going to be, maybe it still can, but it`s going to have to work with what the day brings."

This is Costner`s second marriage after his 16-year marriage to Cindy Silva, which ended in divorce in 1994. The Field of Dreams actor has starred in `Yellowstone` for five seasons as the powerful Montana patriarch John Dutton.
New Delhi: Padavettu, the debut Malayalam production of Yoodlee Films, the film studio of Saregama India Limited, has received the 'Honourable Jury Mention' at the 13th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival. The political action thriller, helmed by Liju Krishna and headlined by Nivin Pauly.

The title Padavettu stands for the battle for justice and narrates the story of an aspiring athlete in rural Kerala whose dreams are shattered after an accident. Confined to his home, he is manipulated by a political party but gradually transforms into a force of resistance against heedless privilege and oppressive power. It is also an inspirational tale of one man against a vitiated system and his triumph over adversity as he stops being a pawn, takes back his power and inspires others to rise against injustice. The film released in theatres on 21st October 2022 and is currently streaming on Netflix.

Lauding the cast and crew of Padavettu, Sr. Vice President, of Films & Events at Saregama India Ltd, Siddharth Anand Kumar says, This honour is a testimony to the hard work and dedication of the Padavettu team. We knew right from the onset that Liju was a talent to watch out for. This is a story that was very close to his heart and we also became equally invested in it. Nivin too played his role with great conviction. Praises like these validate our intention of creating content-driven films across languages and we will continue to look for stories that are a class apart."

Nivin Pauly says that this recognition is a well-deserved honour for Malayalam cinema and adds, Malayalam cinema has always stood apart for its realism and its impactful stories and now it's connecting with an incredibly diverse and vast audience. 'Padavettu' is a universal story that anyone can relate with and am very happy that it has not only been loved by the audience but is also being recognised by an esteemed jury."

Director Liju Krishna agrees and says, This honour will encourage me to continue making cinema that I believe in. Due to the pandemic, we faced many challenges while shooting and releasing this film, but it is heartening that Padavettu has been recognised at such a prestigious platform like the Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival."

The film is directed by Liju Krishna and co-produced by Sunny Wayne. The movie also stars Shine Tom Chacko, Aditi Balan, Shammi Thilakan, Indrans, and Remya Suresh.
New Delhi: Time and again National crush Rashmika Mandanna ruled over the hearts of the masses with her various kinds of looks. Be it in films or reality, the actress has been adored by millions of people across the nation for her enchanting aura. Now, to rise the fashion quotient a bit higher, Rashmika has dropped some uber-cool and funky new look that has left her fans and netizens going gaga over it.

While introducing a range of her new look, Rashmika shared some stunning pictures on her social media in which she can be seen in different attires, some are in a cool yellow jacket and lower to a black hoodie on black oversized pants to a full green dress with white sneakers. Inspired by Japanese Minimalism and a combination of fashion with sports, Rashmika shot this photoshoot for an International brand and she further jotted down the caption while introducing her new look to her fans.

Rashmika's new look is absolutely quirky and indeed stunning as it looks and very different from what we have seen the actress before in. Her new look has indeed started a whole new conversation among her fans who are loving this different look of the actress.

On the work front, the actress will be next seen in Animal along with Ranbir Kapoor and Pushpa: The Rule along with Allu Arjun.
Moscow: A video went viral on Russian social media on Wednesday showing a plume of smoke over the Kremlin, after Moscow said that it foiled a Ukrainian drone attack aimed at President Vladimir Putin, who has a residence in the walled complex. The video was posted in the early hours of Wednesday on a group for residents of a neighbourhood that faces the Kremlin across the Moskva River and picked up by Russian media, including the Telegram channel of the military news outlet Zvezda.

Watch The Kremlin Drone Attack Video Here:

According to Russian media, two unidentified drones were targeted at the Kremlin last night.



"As a result of their fall and scattering of fragments, there were no victims and material damage. President of Russia was not injured as a result of Ukrainian attack" - Putin's office pic.twitter.com/w7Bv1jQzYk May 3, 2023

Attempt By Ukraine To Assassinate Putin: Moscow

Russian authorities on Wednesday accused Ukraine of attempting to attack the Kremlin with two drones overnight in an effort to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin decried the alleged attack attempt as a terrorist act and said Russian military and security forces stopped the drones before they could strike.

In a statement carried by Russian state-run news agencies, it said no casualties took place. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti that Putin wasn't in the Kremlin at the time and was working from the Novo-Ogaryovo residence.

The Kremlin added that Putin was safe and his schedule was unchanged. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities. The Kremlin didn't present any evidence from the reported incident, and its statement included few details.

Tass quoted the statement as saying that the Kremlin considered the development to be a deliberate attempt on Putin's life ahead of the Victory Day that Russia celebrates on May 9.

Separately, Kremlin spokesman Peskov said that the May 9 Victory Day parade would go ahead in Moscow despite the incident, the state-run TASS news agency reported. Russia retains the right to respond when and where it sees fit, the Tass report said, quoting the statement.
HSINCHU, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Material "safety" and "quality" are paramount to medical device manufacturers. Therefore, ICP DAS - BMP (Biomedical Polymers), a Taiwan medical-grade TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) supplier, will partake in CMEF (ICMD) to further make known our highly-stable TPUs from 14 to 17 May.

Sourcing Ideal Medical Device Materials Experience ICP DAS - BMP medical-grade TPUs at 2023 CMEF Shanghai, China

ICP DAS - BMP offers visitors ideal medical manufacturing materials, including three series of Alithane (ALP series), Durathane (ALC series), and Arothane (ARP series). All TPU pellets have passed the USP Class VI and/or ISO 10993 biocompatibility tests. Moreover, we developed a unique one-step polymerization process to produce high-performance TPU pellets available in various colors, radiopaque fillers (Tungsten/Barium Sulfate) and hardness.

Vascular access devices  fundamental and yet critical  are widely used in patient care such as hemodialysis, chemotherapy or chronic illnesses. Highly-reliable materials need to be used in the manufacture of medical device components to minimize the risk of catheter-related infection. ICP DAS - BMP TPUs, with lot-to-lot consistency and outstanding processability, have been chosen by worldwide clients to produce components of central venous catheters (CVC) such as peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC), non-tunneled and tunneled catheters. Other applications are guidewire coatings, etc.

ICP DAS - BMP believes conducting thorough quality inspections for every batch of materials produced is a significant first step to ensure patient safety. We are dedicated to providing high-quality TPUs that enhance the treatment experience.

Meet our professionals at Hall 8.1, N44, from 14 to 17 May @ National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC).

About ICP DAS - BMP

Amid soaring worldwide demand for TPU from the medical industry, ICP DAS established a new business unit ICP DAS - BMP in 2018 to develop and produce medical-grade TPU. We have obtained ISO 13485 manufacturing certification for our TPU to ensure product safety and quality.

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ICP DAS - BMP has its own laboratories for polymerization, physical & chemical properties analysis, mechanical testing, and cytotoxicity testing. In addition, TPUs that we manufacture are USP Class VI and/or ISO 10993 certified: ISO 10993-4 for hemocompatibility testing, ISO 10993-5 for cytotoxicity testing, ISO 10993-10 for irritation and skin sensitization testing, ISO 10993-11 for systemic toxicity testing, and ISO 10993-23 for irritation testing. Our product series also comply with REACH and RoHS.

For more details, please visit our website: https://bmp.icpdas.com/

(PRNewsfoto/ICP DAS Co., Ltd.)

Cision

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SOURCE ICP DAS Co., Ltd.
Moscow: Russia on Wednesday said it reserves the right to retaliate "anywhere and anytime it deems necessary" in response to the alleged drone attack on President Vladimir Putins residence in the Kremlin complex. Senior Moscow officials said that two Ukrainian drones attempted to strike Kremlin early on Wednesday morning, but the raid was thwarted, the RT reported.

The President was not hurt in the "terrorist attack", and the Kremlin complex did not suffer any damage, Putin`s office said, as per the report. Putin`s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti that the Russian leader was not in Kremlin when the raid happened, adding that Putin was working at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow on Wednesday.

Ukraine launched two drone attacks overnight intended to strike the Kremlin residence of Putin, the President`s office said, RT reported.

The drones were downed using electronic warfare measures and caused no casualties or damage, it said in a statement. Moscow considers the incident an "act of terrorism".

The incident occurred late on Tuesday night, and both unmanned aircraft fell on the grounds of the Kremlin, according to the President`s office. His schedule was not affected, RT reported. "We consider this a pre-planned terrorist action and an attempt against the Russian President," it added.

The incident happened "ahead of Victory Day and the parade on May 9, when foreign guests are expected to be present".

WATCH: Drone Attack On Kremlin

KREMLIN DRONE ATTACK



- Russia says two Ukrainian drones attacked Kremlin overnight



- Drones downed with no victims or material damage to the Kremlin



- Moscow says it was a terrorist attack and attempt on Putin's life



- Russia says it reserves right to respond when and how it pic.twitter.com/loZA6c3Fvd  The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) May 3, 2023

There is footage circulating on social media, which purports to show the aftermath, with a plume of smoke rising against the night cityscape from the territory of the historic seat of Russian power.

The video was posted in the early hours of Wednesday on a group for residents of the neighbourhood that faces the Kremlin across the Moskva River and picked up by Russian media, including the Telegram channel of the military news outlet Zvezda.

No Role In Kremlin Drone Attack: Ukraine

Meanwhile, Ukraine denied any role in the drone attack on Kremlin. "Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin," presidential spokesman Mikhaylo Podolyak said. "Ukraine does not attack the Kremlin because, firstly, that does not solve any military aims."

He suggested the attack was "staged" by Moscow. "Such staged reports by Russia should be considered solely as an attempt to prepare an information background for a large-scale terrorist attack on Ukraine."

Moscow's mayor, meanwhile, announced a ban on unauthorised drone flights over the Russian capital.
Former South African President Jacob Zuma looks on in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in South Africa, Monday, April 17, 2023. The corruption trial of Zuma was postponed again as he seeks to have the lead prosecutor removed from the case by claiming he is biased. (Kim Ludbrook/Pool via AP)

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP)  The corruption trial of former South African President Jacob Zuma was postponed again Monday as he seeks to have the lead prosecutor removed from the case by claiming he is biased.

Zuma has already succeeded in getting a new judge to oversee his trial.

Zuma, who turned 81 last week, has argued that prosecutor Billy Downer is biased against him and compromises the former leader's right to a fair trial. Zuma is involved in a separate legal case against Downer and a journalist over the leaking of the ex-president's medical records by state prosecutors.

Zuma is facing multiple counts of corruption, as well as racketeering, fraud, tax evasion and money laundering, with some of the charges relating to bribes he is alleged to have taken from French arms manufacturing company Thales to provide political protection for an arms deal worth more than $1 billion signed by the South African government in 1999.

Thales, which was then known as Thomson-CSF, is a co-defendant in the corruption trial.

The charges relate to a time when Zuma was a politician on the rise and later a deputy president of South Africa, but before he became president in 2009. He was forced to resign as president in 2018 because of corruption allegations.

Some of the alleged wrongdoing dates back as far as the mid-1990s, yet Zuma only went on trial two years ago after the charges were dropped and reinstated multiple times amid political interference.

Despite the trial officially starting in May 2021, no testimony has yet been heard because of a series of applications made by Zuma to get the initial judge to recuse himself and to remove Downer.

Judge Nkosinathi Chili, the new judge, said Monday that the case would resume on Aug. 15 and 16, when Zuma's lawyers and prosecutors will present their arguments over whether Downer should remain on the case.

Zuma faces a minimum of 15 years in prison if he is convicted of involvement in major corruption. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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The case is highly politically sensitive in South Africa given the support Zuma still holds in parts of the country and the influence he has retained within the ruling African National Congress party.

Deadly rioting and looting broke out and more than 300 people were killed in a week of unrest when Zuma was sentenced to a 15-month prison term in 2021 for contempt of court in relation to another corruption inquiry. Zuma was released early from that jail sentence on medical parole.

The riots were the worst civil unrest in South Africa since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994.

___

More AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Southern Energy Corp. ("Southern" or the "Company") (TSXV:SOU)(AIM:SOUC)(OTCQX:SOUTF) has extended the expiration date of its common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") issued under the non-brokered private placement (the "April 2021 Private Placement") of units (each, a "Unit") of the Company, which closed on April 29, 2021, from April 29, 2023 to December 31, 2023. This amendment is being implemented by the Company to encourage the exercise of the Warrants and to aide in the liquidity and trading of the common shares ("Common Shares") of the Company.

Southern Energy Corp., Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Press release picture

Each Unit issued under the April 2021 Private Placement was comprised of one Common Share and one Warrant. Each Warrant entitled the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of CAD0.32 anytime prior to April 29, 2023. This amendment permits holders of such Warrants to exercise their Warrants anytime prior to December 31, 2023.

As of the date hereof, of the 17,078,125 Warrants issued under the April 2021 Private Placement, 8,331,250 have been exercised and 8,746,875 remain unexercised. Of the Warrants that remain unexercised, 1,943,750 are held by Directors/PDMRs of the Company. The extension remains subject to final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange.

Total Voting Rights Update

Further to the Company's announcements on 6 May 2022 and 23 August 2022 regarding the application to AIM for a total block admission of 18,863,750 new Common Shares in the Company (the "Block Admission"), a monthly update to the Company's total voting rights as a result of the exercise of instruments subject to the Block Admission during April 2023.

As at 30 April 2023, Southern had 139,041,285 Common Shares in issue. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company, under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules. There are no Common Shares held in treasury and each Common Share entitles the holder to a single vote at general meetings of the Company.

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For further information, please contact:

Southern Energy Corp. Ian Atkinson (President and CEO) +1 587 287 5401 Calvin Yau (CFO) +1 587 287 5402 Strand Hanson Limited - Nominated & Financial Adviser +44 (0) 20 7409 3494 James Spinney / James Bellman Canaccord Genuity - Joint Broker +44 (0) 20 7523 8000 Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor / James Asensio Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited - Joint Broker +44 (0) 20 7710 7600 Callum Stewart / Ashton Clanfield Tennyson Securities - Joint Broker +44 (0) 20 7186 9033 Peter Krens / Pav Sanghera Camarco +44 (0) 20 3757 4980 Owen Roberts / Billy Clegg / Hugo Liddy

About Southern Energy Corp.

Southern Energy Corp. is a natural gas exploration and production company. Southern has a primary focus on acquiring and developing conventional natural gas and light oil resources in the southeast Gulf States of Mississippi, Louisiana, and East Texas. Our management team has a long and successful history working together and have created significant shareholder value through accretive acquisitions, optimization of existing oil and natural gas fields and the utilization of re-development strategies utilizing horizontal drilling and multi-staged fracture completion techniques.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Southern Energy Corp.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/752569/Southern-Energy-Corp-Announces-Warrant-Amendment-and-Total-Voting-Rights-Update




Fortune Business Insights

Key companies covered in specialty fertilizers market are The Mosaic Company (Florida, United States), Nutrien Ltd. (Saskatoon, Canada), ICL (Tel-Aviv Yafo, Israel), Yara International ASA (Oslo, Norway), Haifa Chemicals Ltd. (Haifa, Israel), EuroChem Group AG (Switzerland), Coromandel International Limited (Secunderabad, India), Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile (Chile), OCP Group (Casablanca, Morocco), Compo Expert GmbH (Germany), and more players profiled.

Pune, India, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global specialty fertilizers market size is set to gain impetus from the urgent need to support the growth of a wide range of crops and plants by using effective fertilizers. This information is given by Fortune Business Insights in a new report, titled, Specialty Fertilizers Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, and Regional Forecasts, 2020-2027. The report further states that the market size was USD 24.26 billion in 2019. It is projected to reach USD 39.37 billion in 2027, thereby exhibiting a CAGR of 6.8% in the forecast period.

Get a Free Sample Research Report:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/sample/specialty-fertilizers-market-100527

List of the Leading Companies Profiled in the Global Specialty Fertilizers Market are:

The Mosaic Company (Florida, United States)

Nutrien Ltd. (Saskatoon, Canada)

ICL (Tel-Aviv Yafo, Israel)

Yara International ASA (Oslo, Norway)

Haifa Chemicals Ltd. (Haifa, Israel)

EuroChem Group AG (Switzerland)

Coromandel International Limited (Secunderabad, India)

Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile (Chile)

OCP Group (Casablanca, Morocco)

Compo Expert GmbH (Germany)

Report Scope & Segmentation:

Report Attribute Details Forecast Period 2020-2027 Forecast CAGR 6.8% 2027 Value Projection USD 39.37 Billion Market Size in 2020 USD 24.85 Billion Historical Data 2016-2018 No. of Pages 130 Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Company Profiles, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors and Latest Trends Segments Covered By Type

By Application Method

By Crop Type

By Region Regions Covered North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East and Africa Specialty Fertilizers Market Growth Drivers Rapidly Rising Global Population to Drive the Growth of the Market Increasing Inclination towards Precision Farming Practices to Boost Growth





Specialty fertilizers are fertilizers that are tailored to meet specific nutrient requirements of crops, soil conditions, or growing conditions. These fertilizers are designed to provide a targeted release of nutrients, improve nutrient availability, and enhance nutrient uptake by plants.

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Specialty fertilizers are fertilizers that are formulated to meet specific nutrient requirements of particular crops, soil types, or growth conditions. These fertilizers contain a combination of nutrients that are tailored to the specific needs of plants, and they are often designed to be more efficient and effective than traditional fertilizers.

Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/specialty-fertilizers-market-100527

How is This Report Developed?

We refer to secondary data sources, such as press releases of end-user facilities, investor presentations, annual reports, and industry journals to gather authentic information of the market. Our unique bottom-up approach helps in generating crucial data about the competitive landscape and recent industry developments, such as new product launches, collaborations, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, contracts, and acquisitions. We also conduct extensive primary research to collect information about the current trends of the specialty fertilizers industry.

Drivers & Restraints-

Increasing Soil Contamination to Bolster Growth

The global population is surging day by day. It is therefore stressing the food security. Specialty fertilizers are tailor-made, concentrated, and highly efficient. They can easily improve crop yield by offering significant nutrients required by various plants. Apart from that, the surging soil contamination and declining arable land would propel the specialty fertilizers market growth in the upcoming years. However, the expensive nature of customized and micronutrient fertilizers may obstruct the demand for specialized fertilizers.

Segment-

Water-soluble Fertilizers Segment to Lead Fueled by Compatibility with New Technology

Based on the type, the water-soluble fertilizers (WSFs) segment is set to remain at the forefront throughout the forthcoming years. This growth is attributable to the low water requirements and effective usage with modern irrigation technology. The controlled-release fertilizers segment generated 10.34% in terms of the speciality fertilizers market share in 2019.

Regional Insights-

North America to Remain at the Forefront Stoked by High Demand from U.S. & Canada

Geographically, North America held USD 7.56 billion in terms of revenue in 2019. It is anticipated to retain its dominant position in the near future. The rising need to fulfil the nutritional requirements of plants in Canada and the U.S. would propel the demand for specialty fertilizers in the region.

Asia Pacific is anticipated to hold a substantial specialty fertilizers market share in the years to come. The region is expected to register a CAGR of 7.36% in the upcoming years. Governments of various countries are offering subsidies to promote the usage of specially formulated fertilizers. Coupled with this, the ongoing development in the agriculture sector, especially in India and China, would augment the demand for these fertilizers.

Competitive Landscape-

Key Players Focus on Acquisition Strategy to Compete in Global Market

The global market houses several prominent companies that are mainly aiming to compete with their rivals by focusing on the merger and acquisition strategy. A few others are participating in new product development to gain a competitive edge. Below are the two latest industry developments:

October 2020 : ICL signed an agreement for acquiring Fertilaqua by investing around USD 120 million. It would enhance the companys customer base and broaden its portfolio of specialty plant nutrition.

September 2018: Grupa Azoty purchased COMPO EXPERT. It would help the former to strengthen its position in the field of agricultural solutions for benefitting its customers.

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Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities

Key Insights Overview on the fertilizers Market Supply Chain Analysis Industry SWOT Analysis Recent Industry Developments - Policies, Mergers & Acquisitions, and New Product Launches Market Analysis and Insights (in Relation with COVID-19) Impact of COVID-19 on the Market Supply Chain Challenges due to the Pandemic Potential Opportunities Due to COVID-19

Global Specialty Fertilizers Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2016-2027 Key Findings / Summary Market Size Estimates and Forecast By Type (Value) Controlled-release Fertilizers Water-soluble Fertilizers Agricultural Micronutrients Customized Fertilizers By Application Method (Value) Soil Foliar Fertigation By Crop Type (Value) Cereals Pulses & Oilseeds Fruits & Vegetables Turf & Ornamentals Others By Region (Value) North America Europe Asia Pacific South America Middle East & Africa



TOC Continued!

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Read Related Insights:

Specialty Fertilizers Market Size , Regional Forecast, 2020  2027

Water Soluble Fertilizer Market Size , Share Regional Forecasts, 2020  2027

Phosphatic Fertilizers Market Size , Share & Industry Analysis Regional Forecast, 2019-2026

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Photo: /Rob Kruyt Tents and shelters in Vancouver's Strathcona neighbourhood

It is safe to say that British Columbians remain dissatisfied with the way in which elected officials  including B.C.'s new premier and new municipal councils  have managed the issue of homelessness.

Just over one in five residents of the province (21 per cent) believe the federal government has done a very good or good job coming up with solutions to deal with homelessness.

This is up one point since August 2022, when Research Co. and Glacier Media last examined this issue.

The stagnant rating for Ottawa is terrible news for the governing Liberal Party, which pledged to reduce chronic homelessness by 50 per cent by 2028. In November, Auditor General Karen Hogan pointed out that the federal government does not know if its initiatives are working. Most British Columbians appear to share Hogans point of view.

The rating is only marginally better for the B.C. provincial government (28 per cent, up one point) and municipal governments (27 per cent, down two points). In Metro Vancouver, where mayors in the two most populous municipalities are in the first year of their tenures, 58 per cent of residents rate the efforts to deal with homelessness as bad or very bad.

When British Columbians rate the problem locally, the numbers are not particularly dramatic. About one in four (24 per cent, down three points) think homelessness is a major problem in their neighbourhood and 40 per cent (down two points) believe it has increased over the past three years.

The numbers on these two questions are stable when residents assess their municipality. More than half (52 per cent, unchanged) think homelessness is a significant issue and 64 per cent (up one point) say it is getting worse. Views are more fatalistic on a provincewide basis, with 80 per cent of respondents (up one point) saying that homelessness has increased across B.C.; 78 per cent (up five points) consider it a major problem.

One aspect where the perceptions of British Columbians seem to be hardening is the perceived causes of homelessness. More than three in five of the provinces residents (63 per cent, up three points) believe addiction and mental health issues are to blame a great deal for the current state of affairs  by far the highest number among five different issues tested.

Fewer than half of British Columbians (47 per cent, down six points) think a lack of affordable housing is to blame a great deal. The proportions are lower for poverty and inequality (34 per cent, down seven points), the personal actions and decisions of individuals (31 per cent, up one point) and a bad economy and unemployment (19 per cent, down five points).

The province remains split on whether this is a challenge that can be successfully tackled. For 50 per cent of British Columbians, homelessness can be eradicated with the proper policies and funding. For 48 per cent, it will always be a problem.

There may be a divide on the future, but not on some possible solutions to alleviate the crisis. More than four in five British Columbians (82 per cent, up two points) agree with increasing temporary housing options for people experiencing homelessness, and more than three in four (77 per cent, down one point) would offer incentives to developers if they focus on building affordable housing units.

Most British Columbians also favour two other policies: Devoting tax money to build units to house homeless residents (67 per cent, unchanged) and changing zoning laws to allow property owners to build more units on standard lots (62 per cent, up two points).

Some of the political players have changed, but the dissatisfaction of British Columbians on how homelessness is being handled remains. The survey confirms that most of the provinces residents continue to regard housing policies as their preferred way to mitigate the crisis. It is up to elected officials, whose favourability on this issue is painfully low, to take action.

Mario Canseco is president of Research Co.

Results are based on an online study conducted from April 23-25, among 800 adults in B.C. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region in Canada. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

This article first appeared in Business In Vancouver.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Shutterstock / Shutterstock

Although federal student loan payments have been paused since March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, theres nothing preventing borrowers from paying back their loans if they want to.

Housing Market 2023: Prices Are Now So High That Banks Are Losing Money on Mortgages

More: How To Build Your Savings From Scratch

Some borrowers have done so to take advantage of 0% interest during the pause. This means that if you make loan payments during the zero-interest period, the full amount will be applied to your principal balance once youve paid all the interest that accrued prior to March 13, 2020, along with any fees for defaulted loans, according to the Federal Student Aid website.

But most borrowers have opted to sit tight because of the federal student loan forgiveness plan announced by President Joe Biden in August 2022. The plan brought hope to cash-strapped Americans because it promised to cancel up to $20,000 in debt per borrower.

That hope has since dwindled down to almost nothing because of legal and political pushback against the plan. Following a series of lawsuits, the forgiveness plan is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the recently passed U.S. House debt-ceiling bill would immediately terminate federal student loan forgiveness no matter how the SCOTUS rules, though the House bill is unlikely to make it past the Senate.

The question now is whether borrowers should go ahead and resume payments even with the pause in place, and with no official determination of the forgiveness plans fate. No matter how the court rules, payments will likely resume sometime by late August 2023. Paying loans now means you still have a few months to take advantage of 0% interest and pay more toward your loans principal.

On the other hand, if you have less than $10,000 in student debt  the maximum forgiveness for most borrowers  you might be paying money you dont need to if the forgiveness plan ultimately gets approved.

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Even if the Supreme Court rules against it, that doesnt mean it will get killed altogether, according to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

It depends on the grounds of the courts ruling, Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a recent Instagram post. The worst-case scenario is SCOTUS tossing out all authority to do anything on it. But that would be dangerous, for the courts legitimacy and rulings are usually more nuanced than that. If they point out some aspect of the program that they take issue with, its possible that gives us something to work with.

Regardless of how the Biden plan plays out, you still might want to delay resuming payments until you explore other debt relief options. As USA Today recently reported, 47 states and Washington, D.C., have their own forgiveness plans  and many offer multiple options. Most are geared toward specific professions and require that you work in those professions to qualify for relief.

Another option is to see whether your loan might qualify for forgiveness under a borrower defense to repayment claim. As previously reported by GOBankingRates, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in March issued a ruling that could mean $6 billion in student loan forgiveness for more than 200,000 borrowers, though it is not related to the Biden loan forgiveness plan.

Take Our Poll: Who Has Given You the Best Money Advice You Have Ever Received?

Find: How Bidens First Veto Impacts Your Retirement Savings  and Why Lawmakers Are Torn

A borrower defense to repayment means you have legal grounds to discharge federal student loans if your school misled you or engaged in other misconduct in violation of certain laws.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Should You Start Paying Student Loans or Wait For Bidens Student Debt Relief Plan?
Then-New York Fed President Bill Dudley in 2018. VICTORIA JONES/AFP via Getty Images

Bond and stock markets would crash in a debt crisis, even if the US avoids immediate default.

That's according to former New York Fed President Bill Dudley, writing in a Bloomberg op-ed.

"I have one message for those observing or involved in the standoff over raising the US federal debt limit: Be afraid, be very afraid."

Failure to lift the debt ceiling would devastate stocks and bonds, even if the US government prioritized payments to stave off an immediate default, Bill Dudley wrote in a Bloomberg column.

The warning comes after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the government could run out of money and trigger an economic crisis as soon as June 1.

"I have one message for those observing or involved in the standoff over raising the US federal debt limit: Be afraid, be very afraid," said Dudley, who previously served as president of the New York Federal Reserve. "At this point in the financial and economic cycle, the consequences of failing to reach a deal would be particularly dire."

This is as months-long gridlock continues to impair action to avert the crisis, given that Republicans and Democrats are becoming more entrenched in their positions, Dudley wrote. Since January, the US is relying on "extraordinary measures" by the Treasury to keep servicing debt.

While Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was able to pass a House bill to lift the debt ceiling, Dudley doesn't much sign of progress toward an agreement as it targets key Democratic initiatives, such as student loan forgiveness, while adding requirements for programs such as Medicaid.

Meanwhile, the White House has maintained that it will only agree to a "clean" deal that lifts the debt ceiling without any spending cuts or other conditions.

If lawmakers can't agree to raise the borrowing limit, President Joe Biden likely wouldn't pursue "gimmicks," such as minting a $1 trillion coin, Dudley said. Instead, it's more likely that the Treasury would prioritize payments on government debt, while federal workers would have to wait to be paid.

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But that would still precipitate a market crash, he added.

"Even if prioritization averted an immediate default on Treasury securities, the damage would be vast. Markets  still dealing with the consequences of a rash of bank failures  would be shocked, having expected the usual last-minute deal," Dudley wrote.

"Stocks and bond prices would decline violently, Treasuries would gyrate as investors worried about how long the payment prioritization would protect them, and money market mutual funds might pull out of government debt en masse."

Already, bond traders have demonstrated worry, causing the yield on three-month Treasury bills, which would mature around when the default deadline arrives, to skyrocket to a two-decade high.

And a market crash may be necessary for the GOP to raise the debt limit without conditions, said Rep. Jim Himes, a Democratic member of the House Financial Services Committee, last month.

"Sadly, I think it's going to take that kind of market signal to wake my ideologically frenzied friends up and just say, 'Let's move on and do some real stuff,'" he said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
StoreDot aims to manufacture its leading XFC batteries on three continents: the US, Europe, and Asia

Company deploys a strategy of making batteries where its automotive manufacturing customers are located, localizing its supply chain, reducing carbon impact and enabling just-in-time production

StoreDot is set to produce its groundbreaking extreme fast charging cells in local gigafactories, rather than building its own facilities in the mid-term

StoreDot will continue to develop its cells in its labs in the US and Israel and remains on target for mass production readiness of '100in5' cells by 2024 delivering at least 100 miles of range for each five minutes of charging

HERZLIYA, Israel, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- StoreDot, the pioneer of extreme fast charging (XFC) high energy battery solution for electric vehicles has announced its global manufacturing strategy in three continents  to best serve its global automotive customers.

StoreDot announces its global manufacturing strategy in the US, Europe & Asia to best serve its global automotive customers. (PRNewsfoto/StoreDot)

StoreDot's manufacturing strategy is focused on localizing its supply chain in the US, Asia, and Europe, allowing it to serve its OEM customers in their own locations, reducing carbon impact, and enabling just-in-time production efficiency.

StoreDot plans to collaboratively produce these batteries in existing and future local gigafactories, rather than building its own facilities in the mid-term and production is on track to commence later next year.

Dr Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot CEO "Today's announcement is an important milestone for StoreDot as we build our global supply chain and manufacturing footprint. We look forward to working with our OEM partners in the US, Europe, and Asia to supply them with our world class extreme fast charging batteries. It's important that leading battery developers like StoreDot can deliver batteries consistently, efficiently, conveniently, and sustainably, as we care greatly about the environmental impact of battery supply chains. By serving our OEM customers from their own locations we can do this more effectively while demonstrating our commitment to net zero."

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This announcement follows news at the beginning of the year that its groundbreaking XFC batteries and systems are now being tested by over 15 global automotive brand manufacturers, and that it has additional potential manufacturing partnerships in the pipeline for this year.

StoreDot now has a growing network of strategic global partnerships and investors, spanning the entire battery ecosystem. To date it has received investments from global automotive manufacturers including Daimler, VinFast, Volvo Cars, Polestar and Ola Electric.

Last year, StoreDot revealed its '100inX' strategic technology roadmap which featured 100in5, 100in3 and 100in2 of miles per minute of charging - three generations of StoreDot technologies of silicon-dominant XFC, semi solid state and post-lithium architectures. The roadmap reaffirms that the timings for these will be delivered to automotive OEMs over the coming decade with 100in5 by 2024, 100in3 by 2028 and 100in2 by 2032.

About StoreDot:

StoreDot is the pioneer and global leader of extreme fast charging (XFC) electric vehicle batteries that overcome the critical barrier to mainstream EV adoption  charging anxiety. The company has revolutionized the conventional Li-ion battery by designing and synthesizing proprietary organic and inorganic compounds, optimized by Artificial Intelligence algorithms, to make it possible to charge an EV in under ten minutes  the same experience as refueling a conventional combustion engine car.

Through its '100inX' product roadmap, StoreDot's battery technology aims to deliver 'Range on Demand': 100 miles charged in 5 minutes in 2024, 100 miles charged in 3 minutes by 2028, and extreme energy density solution enabling 100 miles to be charged in 2 minutes by 2032. StoreDot's strategic investors and partners include Daimler, bp, VinFast, Volvo Cars, Polestar, Ola Electric, Samsung, TDK, and its manufacturing partner EVE Energy. StoreDot's agnostic technology is designed to utilize existing standard production lines with no changes to process or equipment. In 2022, the company achieved a world first by demonstrating a live extreme fast charging of an EV battery cell in 10 minutes capable of over 1000 consecutive XFC cycles. This technology is now under testing with over 15 automotive OEMs. StoreDot is on target for mass production readiness of 100in5 technology by 2024.

StoreDot's media kit can be found at this link.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2068318/StoreDot.jpg

Cision

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SOURCE StoreDot
GREENWICH, Conn., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Strategic Venue Partners (SVP), the leading provider of wireless infrastructure-as-a-service, is proud to announce the expansion of its leadership team with the addition of three new executives to meet the demand of the company's explosive growth. The new hires include Andrew Chavez as Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Kevin Shea as Senior Vice President of Project Management and Construction and Megan Wesley as Vice President of Marketing. Backed by years of experience in client relationship management, project management and marketing, these new executives will play a crucial role in further expanding the business and bringing the SVP experience to more enterprises and venues across the U.S.

(PRNewsfoto/Strategic Venue Partners, LLC)

With over 25 years of leadership experience in the digital infrastructure industry, Andrew Chavez previously led the North American Sales & Marketing Team for Extenet Systems, where he successfully delivered year over year growth while building a high-performing team that significantly increased the company's valuation. He has also held an Executive Advisor position at Tupl and worked with Nokia, where he led the North American team responsible for signing the largest contract in the company's history with T-Mobile. As Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Andrew will be responsible for driving SVP's overall growth strategy while bringing his customer-centric approach to bridge the needs of venues, enterprises and carrier partners alike.

Leveraging extensive experience in the RF, technical construction and operation management fields, Kevin Shea has served in a variety of leadership and management roles, most recently as the Director of In-Building Solutions for USA Groups. In that role, he designed, delivered and supported reliable wireless solutions for commercial carrier, public safety and private communications networks. In his new role as Senior Vice President of Project Management and Construction, Kevin will oversee all aspects of SVP's service delivery from solutions engineering to installation, testing, commissioning and management. Possessing a powerful mix of technical expertise, leadership experience, and deep-seated industry connections, Kevin will be integral in transparently supporting SVP's enterprise, venue, carrier and other service provider partners.

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With a unique combination of telecommunications marketing and commercial real estate experience, Megan Wesley, as Vice President of Marketing, will play a key role in helping new and existing customers understand SVP's value not only as a provider of wireless infrastructure-as-a-service, but also as a powerful partner in managing every aspect of in-building infrastructure deployment. She will be responsible for evangelizing SVP's message to the broader market, helping carriers, venues and enterprises understand how SVP excels at delivering excellence, transparency, adaptability and thoughtfulness at every step of the way. Before joining the team, Megan served as the Vice President of Account Management and Digital Marketing at Jaymie Scotto & Associates, where she excelled at driving multi-touch marketing campaigns and thoughtful brand awareness strategies.

"We are thrilled to welcome Andrew, Kevin and Megan to our team. Together, these three experts will help us further develop these critical areas within SVP and amplify our unique offering as we position ourselves for continued growth ahead. SVP is comprised of extremely talented individuals that possess the right relationships, expertise and finesse, which reinforce our position for long-term success. Having the best people on our team means that we can continue to deliver the best experience to our customers and partners," says Justin Marron, CEO of Strategic Venue Partners.

The three new executives will be joining the SVP team next week in New Orleans for Connect (X), May 8-10.

For more information about SVP, visit the company's website at strategicvenue.com.

About SVP:

Strategic Venue Partners (SVP) is the leading provider of in-building wireless connectivity-as-a-service. SVP is transforming wireless connectivity by partnering directly with venues to develop, install, own and operate customized in-building wireless systems like Distributed Antenna Systems, Wi-Fi, Public Safety Systems, fiber assets, Internet Protocol Television, Real Time Location Services and Citizens Broadband Radio Service CBRS (OnGo) private LTE. SVP's unique long-term approach to developing critical infrastructure removes the connectivity burden from enterprise businesses through meeting existing needs while also planning for future infrastructure changes and developments. Learn more about how SVP is transforming wireless connectivity at www.strategicvenue.com.

Media Contact:

Megan Wesley

mwesley@strategicvenue.com

Cision

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SOURCE Strategic Venue Partners, LLC
Pekic / Getty Images

The financial fate of millions of Americans hangs in limbo as the Supreme Court considers whether or not it will let through the Biden administrations student loan forgiveness plan. According to a recent survey by Credit Karma, 53% of people with outstanding federal student loans say their financial stability depends on their loans being forgiven.

Student Loans: Court Allows $6 Billion in Forgiveness Funds To Proceed for 200,000 Borrowers

See: How To Build Your Savings From Scratch

Sixty days after the Supreme Court makes its decision on student loan forgiveness, student loan payments are set to resume. The Supreme Court must issue a ruling by June 30, so the 60-day countdown will start by then at the very latest.

And for many, those student loan payments  which have been paused since the pandemic struck in 2020  will be very difficult to manage.

For the Americans who were already struggling with student loan debt before the pause, the resuming of student loan payments will result in considerable financial hardship, said Katie Ross, EVP, American Consumer Credit Counseling. In general, Americans finances will become stretched again, so they likely wont have as much disposable income, or be able to put away as much towards savings or other financial goals.

How can one make their student loan payments more manageable? Alas, they may have to start paring down on expenses such as the following.

Gym Memberships

Gym memberships in the U.S. cost between $20 and $60 a month, on average. It may be time to cancel yours.

There are still other free ways to stay active, like jogging or body weight workouts, Ross said.

Haircuts

Depending on where you live and the type of hair you have, haircuts can be expensive.

They can cost anywhere from $20 to $60, Ross said. Beauty school haircuts are usually cheaper, or you may consider cutting your own hair.

In some locations, haircuts will run even higher than $60, so you might want to either shop around or go a little longer between trims.

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Brand-New Clothing

Cutting back on buying unnecessary clothes can also save you much-needed money. If youre a shopaholic though, this may be really tough. In that case, aiming to buy secondhand instead of brand-new items could make a substantial difference.

You can consider cheaper ways of getting new looks, like going to thrift stores or shopping for your favorite brands on sites like Poshmark or Ebay, Ross said. Just remember to stick to your new budget.

Cut Other Costs: Unplug These Appliances That Hike Up Your Electricity Bill

High-End Electronics

The retail revenue from consumer electronics sales in the United States is expected to reach close to $485 billion by the end of 2023, according to Statista. Is all this spending on shiny new things really essential to your quality of life?

Upgrading to the latest and greatest electronics every year can be costly, and it may not be necessary for most people, said Hanna Olivas, the co-author of Becoming An Unstoppable Woman In Finance: 29 Strategic Financial Experts.

Spa Treatments and Beauty Services

Spa treatments and beauty services are heavily marketed as self-care. And while they can help you to feel better, theyre not essential for self-care, which you can do through meditation, breathwork and other free holistic practices.

Americans can save money by opting for more affordable spa treatments or doing beauty services at home, Olivas said.

Cable or Satellite TV

Cable TV isnt as popular as it used to be thanks to the prevalence of streaming services, but its far from phased out. Same with satellite TV. A 2021 survey found that 56% of Americans say they watch cable or satellite TV. These may be unnecessary expenses.

Americans often pay for expensive cable or satellite TV packages that they do not fully utilize, said Percy Grunwald, co-founder at Compare Banks. By reducing or eliminating these services and opting for more affordable streaming options, they can save a significant amount of money. The savings can range from $50 to $150 per month, depending on the services and packages.

Dining Out

People spent 20.7% more at restaurants than they spent on groceries in 2022, according to Commerce Department data put together by JLL. While its true that groceries are ridiculously pricey right now, it will still generally be much cheaper to prepare your own food.

By reducing the number of meals eaten out each month and cooking at home instead, individuals and families can save a substantial amount of money, Grunwald said. The savings will depend on the frequency and type of dining out, but it could easily add up to a few hundred dollars per month.

Subscription Services

Ours is a nation absolutely obsessed with subscription services. And these services really add up.

Simply slashing subscriptions and memberships can help, said Derek Miser, investment advisor and CEO at Miser Wealth Partners in Knoxville, Tennessee. This is especially true if these memberships or subscriptions are seldom used. Doing this can result in savings of hundreds of dollars a year.

Travel

Theres no way to make cutting out travel sound good, but alas, its more expensive than ever and should perhaps be put on hold as student payments resume. If you cant handle the idea of not traveling at all, opt for methods of travel that are cheaper than flying.

By cutting back on expensive trips and opting for more affordable options, such as road trips or camping, individuals and families can save a significant amount of money, Grunwald said. The savings will depend on the individuals travel habits, but it could easily add up to thousands of dollars per year.

Spacious Housing

This is a big one  definitely the biggest on the list. If able, try to look for a cheaper place to live.

A one-bedroom apartment, for example, could be considered a luxury compared to a studio apartment, Ross said. The average one-bedrooms rent in the U.S. is $1,769, and the average studio apartments rent is $1,635.00. Costs vary greatly state to state, but youll typically save more money renting a studio apartment.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Student Loan Forgiveness: 10 Expenses To Cut From Your Budget When Payments Resume
PRINCETON, N.J. and PARIS, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Taiho Oncology, Inc. and Servier today announced the publication of results from the pivotal Phase 3 SUNLIGHT* clinical trial of trifluridine/tipiracil (LONSURF), alone or in combination with bevacizumab, in refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) in the May 4, 2023, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Results of this multinational trial, led by Professor Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD, Head of Medical Oncology, Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain, showed that treatment with the investigational combination of trifluridine/tipiracil and bevacizumab resulted in statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in overall survival and progression-free survival for patients with refractory mCRC following disease progression or intolerance on two prior chemotherapy regimens compared to trifluridine/tipiracil alone. In addition, the median time to worsening of ECOG (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group) performance-status score was significantly delayed in patients receiving the investigational combination of trifluridine/tipiracil and bevacizumab. The safety profile of the investigational combination was consistent with that of each agent.

"Individuals living with metastatic colorectal cancer and who have progressed following fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin, irinotecan, bevacizumab, and anti-Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) antibodies  if RAS wild-type  have limited treatment options. There is a growing need for new approaches that improve survival in this population," said Marwan Fakih, MD, Professor, Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research, City of Hope, and lead U.S. investigator for the SUNLIGHT trial. "The publication of the SUNLIGHT results in the New England Journal of Medicine speaks to the quality of the science and potential impact of this investigational combination on the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer."

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Added Professor Tabernero: "Trifluridine/tipiracil plus bevacizumab may represent a meaningful new treatment option in patients with mCRC who have progressed after two lines of therapy."

Based on results of the SUNLIGHT trial, Servier and Taiho Oncology submitted respectively a type II variation for approval to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for trifluridine/tipiracil in combination with bevacizumab for the treatment of adult patients with mCRC who have been previously treated with fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin-, and irinotecan-based chemotherapy, an anti-VEGF biological therapy, and if RAS wild-type, an anti-EGFR therapy. Taiho Oncology announced on April 18, 2023, that the FDA accepted the sNDA for Priority Review and set an anticipated Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) action date of August 13, 2023.

Please click here for the Original Article, "TrifluridineTipiracil and Bevacizumab in Refractory Metastatic Colorectal Cancer."

Please click here for a NEJM "Quick Take" video summarizing the article findings.

About Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide1 with nearly 1.4 million people diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC) each year equating to 10% of the global cancer cases.1 CRC is the second most common cause of cancer mortality, accounting for 881,000 deaths globally in 2018.2 The worldwide incidence of colorectal cancer is expected to exceed 3 million cases annually by 2040,3 and the number of deaths is predicted to increase by more than 70% to 1.6 million per year.3

About the SUNLIGHT Trial

SUNLIGHT is a multinational, randomized, active-controlled, open-label, two-arm Phase 3 clinical trial to investigate the efficacy and safety of trifluridine/tipiracil plus bevacizumab versus trifluridine/tipiracil alone, in patients with refractory mCRC following two chemotherapy regimens. A total of 492 patients were randomly allocated (in a 1:1 ratio) to receive trifluridine/tipiracil in combination with bevacizumab or trifluridine/tipiracil monotherapy. The primary objective was to assess trifluridine/tipiracil plus bevacizumab versus trifluridine/tipiracil alone, in terms of OS (primary endpoint). Key secondary endpoints were PFS, overall response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR) and quality of life (QoL), as well as the safety and tolerability of trifluridine/tipiracil used in combination with bevacizumab in comparison with trifluridine/tipiracil monotherapy.

The SUNLIGHT trial was conducted by Servier and Taiho Oncology, Inc. For more information on SUNLIGHT, please visit: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04737187 .

About LONSURF

LONSURF is an oral nucleoside antitumor agent discovered and developed by Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. LONSURF consists of a thymidine-based nucleoside analog, trifluridine, and the thymidine phosphorylase (TP) inhibitor, tipiracil, which increases trifluridine exposure by inhibiting its metabolism by TP. Trifluridine is incorporated into DNA, resulting in DNA dysfunction and inhibition of cell proliferation.

Indications and Use in the United States

LONSURF is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with:

Metastatic colorectal cancer previously treated with fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin- and irinotecan-based chemotherapy, an anti-VEGF biological therapy, and if RAS wild-type, an anti-EGFR therapy; and

Metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma previously treated with at least two prior lines of chemotherapy that included a fluoropyrimidine, a platinum, either a taxane or irinotecan, and if appropriate, HER2/neu-targeted therapy

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS

Indications and Use

LONSURF is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with:

Metastatic colorectal cancer previously treated with fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin- and irinotecan-based chemotherapy, an anti-VEGF biological therapy, and if RAS wild-type, an anti-EGFR therapy

metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma previously treated with at least two prior lines of chemotherapy that included a fluoropyrimidine, a platinum, either a taxane or irinotecan, and if appropriate, HER2/neu-targeted therapy.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS

Severe Myelosuppression:

LONSURF caused severe and life-threatening myelosuppression (Grade 3-4) consisting of neutropenia (38%), anemia (18%), thrombocytopenia (5%), and febrile neutropenia (3%). Two patients (0.2%) died due to neutropenic infection. A total of 12% of LONSURF-treated patients received granulocyte-colony stimulating factors. Obtain complete blood counts prior to and on day 15 of each cycle of LONSURF and more frequently as clinically indicated. Withhold LONSURF for febrile neutropenia, absolute neutrophil count less than 500/mm3, or platelets less than 50,000/mm3. Upon recovery, resume LONSURF at a reduced dose as clinically indicated.

Embryo-Fetal Toxicity:

LONSURF can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Advise pregnant women of the potential risk to the fetus. Advise females of reproductive potential to use effective contraception during treatment and for at least 6 months after the final dose.

USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS

Lactation: It is not known whether LONSURF or its metabolites are present in human milk. There are no data to assess the effects of LONSURF or its metabolites on the breast-fed infant or the effects on milk production. Because of the potential for serious adverse reactions in breast-fed infants, advise women not to breastfeed during treatment with LONSURF and for 1 day following the final dose.

Male Contraception: Because of the potential for genotoxicity, advise males with female partners of reproductive potential to use condoms during treatment with LONSURF and for at least 3 months after the final dose.

Geriatric Use: Patients 65 years of age or over who received LONSURF had a higher incidence of the following compared to patients younger than 65 years: Grade 3 or 4 neutropenia (46% vs 32%), Grade 3 anemia (22% vs 16%), and Grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia (7% vs 4%).

Hepatic Impairment: Do not initiate LONSURF in patients with baseline moderate or severe (total bilirubin greater than 1.5 times ULN and any AST) hepatic impairment. Patients with severe hepatic impairment (total bilirubin greater than 3 times ULN and any AST) were not studied. No adjustment to the starting dose of LONSURF is recommended for patients with mild hepatic impairment.

Renal Impairment: No adjustment to the starting dosage of LONSURF is recommended in patients with mild or moderate renal impairment (CLcr of 30 to 89 mL/min). Reduce the starting dose of LONSURF for patients with severe renal impairment (CLcr of 15 to 29 mL/min) to a recommended dosage of 20 mg/m2.

ADVERSE REACTIONS

Most Common Adverse Drug Reactions in Patients Treated With LONSURF (5%): The most common adverse drug reactions in LONSURF-treated patients vs placebo-treated patients with mCRC, respectively, were asthenia/fatigue (52% vs 35%), nausea (48% vs 24%), decreased appetite (39% vs 29%), diarrhea (32% vs 12%), vomiting (28% vs 14%), infections (27% vs 16%), abdominal pain (21% vs 18%), pyrexia (19% vs 14%), stomatitis (8% vs 6%), dysgeusia (7% vs 2%), and alopecia (7% vs 1%). In metastatic gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ), the most common adverse drug reactions, respectively were, nausea (37% vs 32%), decreased appetite (34% vs 31%), vomiting (25% vs 20%), infections (23% vs 16%) and diarrhea (23% vs 14%).

Pulmonary emboli occurred more frequently in LONSURF-treated patients compared to placebo: in mCRC (2% vs 0%) and in metastatic gastric cancer and GEJ (3% vs 2%).

Interstitial lung disease (0.2%), including fatalities, has been reported in clinical studies and clinical practice settings in Asia.

Laboratory Test Abnormalities in Patients Treated With LONSURF: The most common laboratory test abnormalities in LONSURF-treated patients vs placebo-treated patients with mCRC, respectively, were anemia (77% vs 33%), neutropenia (67% vs 1%), and thrombocytopenia (42% vs 8%). In metastatic gastric cancer or GEJ, the test abnormalities, respectively, were neutropenia (66% vs 4%), anemia (63% vs 38%), and thrombocytopenia (34% vs 9%).

Please see U.S. full Prescribing Information.

https://www.taihooncology.com/us/prescribing-information.pdf

About Taiho Oncology, Inc.

The mission of Taiho Oncology, Inc. is to improve the lives of patients with cancer, their families and their caregivers. The company specializes in the development of orally administered anti-cancer agents and markets these medicines for a range of tumor types in the U.S. Taiho Oncology's growing pipeline of antimetabolic and selectively targeted anti-cancer agents is led by a world-class clinical development organization. Taiho Oncology is a subsidiary of Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. which is part of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. Taiho Oncology is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey and oversees its parent company's European and Canadian operations, which are located in Zug, Switzerland and Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

For more information, visit http://www.taihooncology.com

About Servier

Founded to serve health, Servier is a global group governed by a Foundation that aspires to have a meaningful social impact, both for patients and for a sustainable world. With its unique governance model, it can fully serve its vocation with a long-term vision: being committed to therapeutic progress to serve patient needs. The 21,400 employees of the Group are committed to this shared vocation, source of inspiration every day.

As a world leader in cardiology, Servier's ambition is to become a renowned, focused and innovative player in oncology by targeting hard-to-treat cancers. That is why the Group allocates over 50% of its R&D budget to developing targeted and innovative therapies in oncology.

Neuroscience and immuno-inflammatory diseases are the future growth drivers. In these areas, Servier is focused on a limited number of diseases in which accurate patient profiling makes it possible to offer a targeted therapeutic response through precision medicine.

To promote access to quality care for all at a lower cost, the Group also offers a range of quality generic drugs covering most pathologies, relying on strong brands in France, Eastern Europe, Brazil and Nigeria.

In all these areas, the Group includes the patient voice at each stage of the life cycle of a medicine.

Headquartered in France, Servier relies on a strong geographical footprint in over 150 countries and achieved a revenue of 4.9 billion in 2022.

More information on the new Group website: servier.com

Follow us on social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

LONSURF is a registered trademark of Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

*The SUNLIGHT trial is a Phase III Study of triflUridine/tipiracil in combiNation with bevacizumab vs trifLurdine/tipIracil sinGle agent in patients witH refractory meTastatic colorectal cancer

Taiho Oncology Media Contact:

Judy Kay Moore

Taiho Oncology, Inc.

574-526-2369

jumoore@taihooncology.com

www.taihooncology.com

Servier press contact

Group: presse@servier.com I Tel. +33 (0)1 55 72 40 21

US: Julia.Ferreira@servier.com I +1 857.262.3852

1 Digestive Cancers Europe. Prevalence of Colorectal Cancer. Available at: https://digestivecancers.eu/colorectal-cancer/prevalence-of-colorectal-cancer-prevalence/?menu_id=13873. Last accessed: May 2023. 2 Tabernero J., Taieb J., Prager G., et al. Trifluridine/tipiracil plus bevacizumab for third-line management of metastatic colorectal cancer: SUNLIGHT study design. Future Oncol. 2021.17(16): 19771985. Available at: https://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/full/10.2217/fon-2020-1238. Last accessed: May 2023. 3 World Health Organization. International Agency for Research on Cancer. Global burden of colorectal cancer in 2020 and 2040: incidence and mortality estimates from GLOBOCAN. Available at: https://www.iarc.who.int/news-events/global-burden-of-colorectal-cancer-in-2020-and-2040-incidence-and-mortality-estimates-from-globocan/#:~:text=The%20authors%20predict%20that%20by,an%20increase%20of%2073%25). Last accessed: May 2023.

LON-PM-US-1681

Servier Logo

Cision

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SOURCE Taiho Oncology, Inc.
VANCOUVER, BC, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Tarachi Gold Corp. (CSE: TRG) (OTCQB: TRGGF) (Frankfurt: 4RZ) ("Tarachi" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated January 26, 2023, it has signed a definitive agreement dated May 2, 2023 (the "Agreement") with Compania Minera de Atocha S.A. de C.V. ("Atocha") for the sale of the Company's Magistral Project (the "Magistral Project") in Mexico (the "Transaction").

Tarachi Gold Corp. logo (CNW Group/Tarachi Gold Corp.)

Pursuant to the Agreement, Tarachi expects to receive cash payments totaling US$5,700,000 (approximately C$7.6 million) from Atocha as follows:

US$2,550,000 will be paid directly from Atocha to Tarachi on or before closing.

US$500,000 of the US$1,000,000 currently held in a Canadian escrow account will be released to Tarachi on or before closing.

The remaining US$500,000 in the escrow account will be released to Tarachi when Atocha concludes negotiations with the Ejido Magistral, or after 12 months, whichever occurs first.

US$500,000 will be paid to Tarachi six months from closing, less any contingency costs, if any, that arise after closing that were incurred by Tarachi but not identified during due diligence.

US$500,000 will be paid to Tarachi when 50% of the tailings located on the Magistral Project (the " Magistral Tailings ") have been mined, sold and/or processed or after the first complete calendar year of operation at the Magistral Project, whichever occurs first.

US$500,000 will be paid to Tarachi when 100% of the Magistral Tailings have been mined, sold and/or processed or after the second complete calendar year of operation at the Magistral Project, whichever occurs first.

The amount of value-added tax currently owing as that tax benefit is realized by Atocha during operations and product sales from the Magistral Project will be paid to Tarachi, estimated to total approximately US$650,000. Tarachi anticipates the tax benefit will be realized by Atocha and paid to Tarachi within the first year of commercial operations at the Magistral Project.

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The schedule of payments, but not the total sum, differs slightly from the letter agreement announced by Tarachi on January 26, 2023.

In connection with the execution of the Agreement, Tarachi has also agreed with Manto Resources S.A. de C.V. ("Manto") to settle all outstanding obligations owed to Manto relating to the Magistral Project in exchange for 15% of all payments Tarachi receives from Atocha.

The Company and Atocha expect to close the transaction on or before May 17th, 2023.

The Company would also like to announce that Todd Roth has stepped down from his role as VP Operations to pursue other opportunities. The Company would like to thank Mr.Roth for his efforts in helping Tarachi develop the Magistral project over the past year.

About Tarachi Gold Corp.

Tarachi is a Canadian-listed junior gold exploration company focused on exploring and developing projects in Mexico.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain "ForwardLooking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forwardlooking information" under applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "will", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "hope", "target", "plan", "forecast", "may", "would", "could", "schedule", "potential" and similar words or expressions, identify forwardlooking statements or information. These forwardlooking statements or information relate to, among other things: completion of the Transaction; receipt by Tarachi of all amounts owed to it pursuant to the Agreement; the actual amount of tax benefits payable to Tarachi; and payment by Tarachi to Manto of amounts owed to Manto.

Forwardlooking statements and forwardlooking information relating to any future mineral production, liquidity, timing of completion of reports and studies, enhanced value and capital markets profile of Tarachi, future growth potential for Tarachi and its business, and future exploration plans are based on management's reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the price of silver, gold and other metals; no escalation in the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic; costs of exploration and development; the estimated costs of development of exploration projects; Tarachi's ability to operate in a safe and effective manner and its ability to obtain financing on reasonable terms.

These statements reflect Tarachi's respective current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of other assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forwardlooking statements or forward-looking information and Tarachi has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: the Company's dependence on one mineral project; precious metals price volatility; risks associated with the conduct of the Company's mining activities in Mexico; regulatory, consent or permitting delays; risks relating to reliance on the Company's management team and outside contractors; risks regarding mineral resources and reserves; the Company's inability to obtain insurance to cover all risks, on a commercially reasonable basis or at all; currency fluctuations; risks regarding the failure to generate sufficient cash flow from operations; risks relating to project financing and equity issuances; risks and unknowns inherent in all mining projects, including the inaccuracy of reserves and resources, metallurgical recoveries and capital and operating costs of such projects; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties; laws and regulations governing the environment, health and safety; the ability of the communities in which the Company operates to manage and cope with the implications of COVID-19; the economic and financial implications of COVID-19 to the Company; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; employee relations, labour unrest or unavailability; the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine; the Company's interactions with surrounding communities and artisanal miners; the Company's ability to successfully integrate acquired assets; the speculative nature of exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities or grades of reserves; stock market volatility; conflicts of interest among certain directors and officers; lack of liquidity for shareholders of the Company; litigation risk; and the factors identified under the caption "Risk Factors" in Tarachi's management discussion and analysis and other public disclosure documents. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forwardlooking statements or forward-looking information. Although Tarachi has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. Tarachi does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forwardlooking statements or forward-looking information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.

SOURCE Tarachi Gold Corp.

Cision

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Thailand in talks with CATL, others on potential battery plants, govt official says FILE PHOTO: Auto Shanghai show, in Shanghai

By Devjyot Ghoshal

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is in talks with China's CATL and other battery makers to build production facilities in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy that has ambitions to become a regional EV production hub, a government official said.

These discussions come as Thailand, a regional autos hub, pushes to become a key player in the global electric vehicle (EV) supply chain outside of China by offering tax cuts and subsidies to drive EV adoption and production.

"We are talking to many companies, not only CATL but many companies in the battery industry," said Narit Therdsteerasukdi, Secretary General of Thailand Board of Investment (BOI).

"This is one of our goals. That we would like to attract battery cell producers to set up their factory in Thailand."

Narit did not give details and it was not clear how advanced the discussions were.

CATL, or Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CATL, the world's dominant battery supplier with a 37% market share, currently has no production facilities in Southeast Asia, its website shows.

The Ningde, Fujian-based company last year announced a strategic collaboration with a subsidiary of Thai energy major PTT Pcl to "explore potential cooperation and development opportunities in battery-related business" in the region.

ARUN PLUS, the PTT subsidiary, is part of a joint venture with Taiwan's Foxconn that is building a facility with a goal of manufacturing EVs in Thailand as early as 2024.

THAILAND'S EV AMBITIONS

Thailand is the tenth-largest auto manufacturing economy with production dominated by Japanese automakers including Toyota and Isuzu.

By 2030, Thailand aims to convert around 30% of its annual production of 2.5 million vehicles into EVs, according to a government plan.

In the past few years, Thailand has drawn investments from EV companies, mainly Chinese, including Great Wall Motors and BYD Co.

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But Thailand wants to attract EV suppliers as well as assembly plants, including local production of batteries and other key components, like chargers, Narit said.

Narit said the government's goal was to direct support and subsidies to land larger battery production facilities.

Thailand is prioritising support for investments that will fund plants with a capacity of more than 8 gigawatt hours (GWh), he added.

A plant of that size would produce enough cells to power more than 106,000 EVs with a 75 kilowatt-hour battery.

CATL currently has 13 battery production hubs, 11 in China, one in Hungary and one in Germany. Its 14-GWh plant near Erfurt, Germany began ramping up production this year.

CATL, which has been expanding rapidly outside China, has contracts with Ford Motor, Honda Motor Co and BMW, among others. Its batteries also power Volkswagen's I.D. series and Tesla cars built in China.

(Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Himani Sarkar)
Convicted murderer Darryl Barwick is poised to become the third inmate executed in the state of Florida in less than three months. Barwick is set to be executed at 6 p.m. ET Wednesday at Florida State Prison.

Why did Darryl Barwick get death penalty?

Darryl Barwick

Barwick was found guilty of first-degree murder in November 1986 and sentenced to death two months later following the jury's 9-3 recommendation. He was also convicted of armed burglary, attempted sexual battery and armed robbery.

Live updates: U.S. Supreme Court denies stay of execution for Darryl Barwick

In 1986, Darryl Barwick was 19 years old when prosecutors say he saw a pretty, young woman sunbathing by the pool of her apartment complex in Panama City and followed her home.

Prosecutors say he had been watching her and went back to his house nearby to grab a knife and gloves before returning to 24-year-old Rebecca Wendts apartment.

Florida death penalty: Florida's death row threshold is now the lowest in the country. What you need to know:

Murder conviction: Darryl Barwick was 19 when he brutally stabbed a sunbather. He faces justice 36 years later.

Wendt and her sister, Michael Ann, had moved to the Florida Panhandle from Huron, Ohio. Michael Ann Wendt returned home from working in Fort Walton Beach that day in March to find her sisters bloody, bathing suit-clad body wrapped in her bedroom comforter and left in the bathtub. She had been stabbed 37 times.

History of sexual assault

Barwick was arrested about two weeks after the slaying and confessed to police. He told them he only meant to rob Wendt and stabbed her after she resisted. However, the medical examiners office found semen on the comforter wrapped around Wendts body and blood tests showed Barwick was within 2% of the population that could have left the semen on the blanket.

Barwicks brothers would later testify at trial that Barwick, who had a criminal history of sexual assault, confessed to them he killed Wendt because she had seen his face and he didnt want to go back to prison.

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How long has Barwick been on death row?

Warrant signed: DeSantis signs death warrant in Panhandle murder. It's the third in three months.

Now 56, Barwick has been on death row for 36 years, and he is scheduled for execution May 3 after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant on April 4.

Barwick was initially sentenced to death in 1987, but the Florida Supreme Court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial. He was convicted again in 1992 and was sentenced to death after a unanimous jury recommendation, according to a document from Attorney General Ashley Moodys office that was filed Monday at the Supreme Court.

State and federal courts have rejected a series of appeals by Barwick.

Barwick is one of 294 men on Floridas death row, most are middle-aged or older. According to the most recent available data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average time between sentencing and execution has increased by two-thirds in the past 20 years  from 11.4 years in 2000 to 18.9 years in 2020.

After a three-and-a-half year hiatus brought on by COVID-19, DeSantis has signed death warrants for three death row inmates in less than three months.

Florida execution history

Barring a stay by the U.S. Supreme Court, Barwicks execution will be the third in less then three months in Florida.

Donald Dillbeck execution: He used his last words to insult Ron DeSantis

Second execution: 'Ninja killer' Louis Gaskin executed at Florida State Prison for killing Palm Coast couple

DeSantis signed the death warrant as the state was still preparing for the April 12 execution of Louis Gaskin, who was convicted in the 1989 murders of a Flagler County couple.

Louis Gaskin

The death warrants for Gaskin and Barwick came after the state on Feb. 23 put to death Donald David Dillbeck, who murdered a woman in 1990 during a carjacking in a Tallahassee mall parking lot. Dillbeck, 59, was the 100th inmate executed in Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Donald David Dillbeck

Before Dillbecks execution, the state had not carried out a death sentence since Gary Ray Bowles was put to death by lethal injection in August 2019 for a 1994 murder in Jacksonville.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida execution: Darryl Barwick 3rd death penalty inmate set to die
FILE PHOTO: Mexico's flag flutters next to the Metropolitan Cathedral at Zocalo Square in Mexico City

By Daina Beth Solomon

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Thousands of pro-business union contracts in Mexico are set to expire as Mexico ends a historic campaign to wipe out deals between employers and unions cozy with management that have kept wages low, a key commitment under a North American trade deal.

Of 139,000 collective contracts in Mexico, unions will ultimately aim to ratify 33,000, or about a quarter, via worker votes, a requirement to keep them active, Labor Minister Luisa Alcalde said on Tuesday, hours after a final deadline.

The remainder will dissolve, although workers will maintain the same pay and benefits.

Mexico committed to eliminating these so-called "protection contracts" under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a trade pact that replaced the 1994 NAFTA.

Labor authorities expected unions to forego holding votes for most contracts, largely because many were designed to protect company interests and had no worker backing or active unions.

"This is historic, because we finally managed to rid the labor market of pretend contracts and fake unions," Labor Minister Alcalde said in an interview.

"This is all about having good representatives to defend worker rights and obtain better benefits and salaries."

Since the vote process began four years ago, workers have cast ballots on some 20,000 contracts in sectors spanning autos, retail and mining. The remaining 13,000 votes are scheduled through July, although some unions may pull out.

Only about 400 contracts have so far been voted down, which some experts see as a sign of conflict of interest in the union-run votes.

The Independent Mexico Labor Expert Board, a U.S. advisory committee, said in March the small number of rejected contracts "raises serious doubts about the credibility" of the process.

The Labor Ministry last month accused a powerful union of stealing ballots during a vote at a Goodyear tire plant, echoing similar allegations at automaker General Motors in 2021, which led to the first USMCA labor complaint.

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Alcalde said she expects unions to aim to establish new contracts in place of ones that were canceled.

"The first thing is they need to convince workers that they will represent them better," she said.

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Photo: The Canadian Press An aerial view of Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. Global Affairs says two Canadians have been killed in Bakhmut, as tributes pour in for the men who were from Ontario and Alberta. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Libkos

Paul Hughes says one of the most difficult moments of his life was placing a Canadian flag over the body bag of a soldier from Alberta killed during a bloody battle in eastern Ukraine.

Hughes carefully drove an ambulance carrying the body of Kyle Porter for more than four hours away from an area near Bakhmut where the Canadian and another soldier, Cole Zelenco, were killed during fierce fighting last week.

I draped the Canadian flag over him. That hit me as hard as Ive been in hit in the 14 months Ive been in Ukraine, Hughes said in a phone interview from Kharkiv after retrieving Porters body Tuesday.

My heart goes out to (their families). The deepest condolences.

Global Affairs said in an emailed statement that the department is aware of reports that two Canadians died in Ukraine. It said its following up with authorities but cannot release more information due to privacy considerations.

Family and aid workers identified the two Canadians.

Zelenco was from St. Catharines, Ont., and was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, Mayor Mat Siscoe posted on social media. Zelenco was described in an online fundraiser as strong and courageous with a fierce sense of loyalty.

An honorary ceremony is taking place in Ukraine, the fundraiser said, and his body is expected to be back in Canada in two weeks.

Hughes said he did not know the two Canadian soldiers, but troops in their unit described them as brave heroes.

These two men are heroes and are heroes in this country, Hughes said. They are so highly respected by their comrades.

Hughes is a farmer and community activist from Calgary who has been in Ukraine for more than a year. He runs HUGS Helping Ukraine, a grassroots support agency that partners with local humanitarian agencies, out of Kharkiv.

He received a call from another aid organization that said two Canadians had died in a devastating battle. He knew he had to help his fellow Canadians in whatever way he could.

Hughes drove his organizations ambulance to an area not far from where the two men were killed in the eastern Donbas region, which has seen the fiercest and most prolonged fighting of the war. It sounded like hundreds of bombs dropped in the short time he was retrieving the soldiers body, Hughes said.

Hughes said it has been a barbaric and vicious war and where the men were killed is an epicentre.

Its hell on earth. Its a bad, bad, bad place, Hughes said.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress expressed condolences on social media to the families and friends of the two men.

(They) will be remembered for their bravery and their sacrifice in defence of Ukraines freedom and peace in Europe, the post said.

The Ukrainian Canadian community honours their memory.
COVID-19 No Longer Ranked among Top Five Telehealth Diagnoses Nationally or in Any Census Region, according to FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker

NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- National telehealth utilization declined 6.8 percent in February 2023, from 5.9 percent of medical claim lines in January to 5.5 percent in February, according to FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker.1 The decline followed three months of growth from November 2022 to January 2023. In February, telehealth utilization also decreased in all four US census regionsthe Midwest (8.7 percent), the South (8.3 percent), the West (6.2 percent) and the Northeast (1.5 percent). The data represent the privately insured population, including Medicare Advantage and excluding Medicare Fee-for-Service and Medicaid.

Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, February 2023, United States

Top Five Telehealth Diagnoses

In February 2023, COVID-19 no longer ranked among the top five telehealth diagnoses nationally or in any region. The previous month, it had ranked in third place nationally and in the Northeast and in fourth place in the South.

In February, mental health conditions, the top-ranking diagnosis nationally and in every region, rose from 65.9 percent of telehealth claim lines nationally in January to 66.7 percent in February. Also in February, sleep disorders entered the rankings in the Midwest, replacing encounter for examination in fifth place.

Asynchronous Telehealth

In February 2023, hypertension was the most common diagnosis via asynchronous telehealth in the Northeast and the Midwest, rising from second place.2 Hypertension continued to rank second nationally and in the West and fourth in the South, as it had in January.

In February, mental health conditions fell from third to fourth place nationally among the top five diagnoses via asynchronous telehealth.

Audio-Only Telehealth Usage

In February 2023, utilization of audio-only telehealth services decreased nationally and in the Northeast and South. It increased in the Midwest and in rural areas of the West, but stayed level in urban areas of the West. Utilization of audio-only telehealth services was generally higher in February in rural areas than urban areas, except for in the South, where audio-only telehealth services accounted for 10.1 percent of telehealth claim lines in urban areas compared to 5.5 percent in rural areas.

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Telehealth Cost Corner

For February 2023, the Telehealth Cost Corner spotlighted the cost of CPT3 97802, therapy procedure for nutrition management, each 15 minutes. Nationally, the median charge amount for this service when rendered via telehealth was $50.48, and the median allowed amount was $32.36.4

About the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker

Launched in May 2020 as a free service, the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker uses FAIR Health data to track how telehealth is evolving from month to month. An interactive map of the four US census regions allows the user to view an infographic on telehealth in a specific month in the nation as a whole or in individual regions. Each infographic shows month-to-month changes in volume of telehealth claim lines and audio-only telehealth usage (urban versus rural); the Telehealth Cost Corner, which presents a specific telehealth procedure code with its median charge amount and median allowed amount; and that month's top five telehealth diagnoses and top five diagnoses via asynchronous telehealth.

FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: "We welcome sharing these varying windows into telehealth utilization as it continues to evolve. This is one of the many ways we pursue our healthcare transparency mission."

For the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, click here.

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About FAIR Health

FAIR Health is a national, independent nonprofit organization that qualifies as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code. It is dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 41 billion claim records and is growing at a rate of over 2 billion claim records a year. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data productsincluding benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics and market indicesto commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health includes among the private claims data in its database, data on Medicare Advantage enrollees. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health's systems for processing and storing protected health information have earned HITRUST CSF certification and achieved AICPA SOC 2 Type 2 compliance by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish, which enables consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offers a rich educational platform on health insurance. An English/Spanish mobile app offers the same educational platform in a concise format and links to the cost estimation tools. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal's book An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

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1 A claim line is an individual service or procedure listed on an insurance claim.

2 Asynchronous telehealth is telehealth in which data are stored and forwarded (e.g., blood pressure or other cardiac-related readings transmitted electronically; A1c levels transmitted electronically).

3 CPT  2022 American Medical Association (AMA). All rights reserved.

4 A charge amount is the provider's undiscounted fee, which a patient may have to pay when the patient is uninsured, or when the patient chooses to go to a provider who does not belong to the patient's plan's network. An allowed amount is the total fee paid to the provider under an insurance plan. It includes the amount that the health plan pays and the part the patient pays under the plan's in-network cost-sharing provisions (e.g., copay or coinsurance if the patient has met the deductible).

Cision

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SOURCE FAIR Health
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Torq Resources Inc. (TSXV:TORQ)(OTCQX:TRBMF) ("Torq" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of its 85% completed soil survey from the Santa Cecilia gold - copper project located in the world-class Maricunga belt in northern Chile, approximately 100 kilometres (km) east of the city of Copiapo. The project is located immediately adjacent to the Norte Abierto project held by Newmont and Barrick, which is comprised of the Caspiche and Cerro Casale gold - copper porphyry deposits (Figure 1).

The results of the soil survey are based on a total of 1,503 of 1,735 soil samples that have been collected on a 70 metre (m) by 70 m grid across the Santa Cecilia hydrothermal system. The results indicate a total of seven porphyry targets, one of which is being drilled in the current program. The soil geochemistry results, in conjunction with structural mapping, have divided the property into seven distinct structural blocks that are interpreted to represent different levels of an idealized porphyry system (Figures 2 - 3). Each of the blocks acts independently from the other with different levels of porphyry emplacement observed and with the block bounding structures representing prospective structural corridors for the emplacement of high-grade causative intrusions. The Company's technical team believes each target area has the potential for a major porphyry discovery.

A Message from Michael Henrichsen, Chief Geological Officer:

"The seven porphyry targets we have identified demonstrate the potential for multiple major porphyry discoveries at Santa Cecilia. We believe the adjacent Norte Abierto project owned by Newmont and Barrick is part of a cluster of porphyries that exist within the more than 10 square kilometre hydrothermal system that defines the Santa Cecilia project. The soil geochemistry has provided the Company with a clear data layer that can be used to target the mineral endowment. The positive correlation between mapped structures and geochemistry demonstrates that we are in a mineral system with high potential, predictive porphyries. We are currently completing our second drill hole on the project before pausing the program for the Chilean winter season. We look forward to refining our drill plan for the newly identified porphyry targets over the coming weeks, creating a pipeline of targets for the continuation of our first phase of drilling at the project, which is expected to commence in October."

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Target Areas:

The target areas are primarily defined by the presence of gold and molybdenum, both immobile elements that are directly associated with observed porphyry mineralization in historical drilling and mineralized surface exposures. In addition, the presence of bismuth-selenium-tellurium (Bi-Se-Te) anomalies have been used to identify thermal plumes, which are associated with underlying porphyry systems. The presence of copper was also used to define target areas but is considered less reliable as it is highly mobile during the weathering and overprinting that takes place during hydrothermal events, which are associated with both the porphyry and epithermal style mineralization that has been observed across the property.

Gemelos:

The undrilled Gemelos target is located 1.5 km southwest of the Caspiche deposit and is characterized by a 600 m by 400 m area with strong gold and molybdenum soil anomalies (Figures 5 - 6). Within this anomalous gold and molybdenum area, banded quartz-magnetite veinlets are observed in both dacitic porphyries and overlying volcanics on surface, which indicates that the porphyry target is at shallow depths. In addition, a Bi-Se-Te anomaly is observed offset to the southwest of the gold and molybdenum anomaly that could be associated with the observed porphyries to the northeast, as it may represent a thermal plume associated with a different porphyry body at depth (Figure 4).

Pircas Norte:

The undrilled Pircas Norte target is characterized by a 1 km by 600 m gold - molybdenum - copper anomaly where dioritic to quartz dioritic porphyry bodies are poorly exposed on surface (Figures 5 - 6). Three historical rock samples taken from these porphyry bodies reported a best result of 1.4g/t gold and 0.5% copper associated with the sheeted quartz-pyrite-chalcopyrite and banded quartz-magnetite veinlets within the porphyry bodies that exhibit chlorite alteration after secondary biotite. The majority of the Pircas Norte block is under colluvium cover and therefore the soil anomalies have been critical in defining the scale of the target. Due to mineralized porphyry being present on surface no higher level Bi-Se-Te anomalies are observed in the Pircas Norte block.

Pircas Sur:

The Pircas Sur target area has five shallow (less than 150 m) historical drill holes, drilled by a major mining company between 1988-1990, testing for shallow oxide gold epithermal mineralization. These drill holes did not test the underlying porphyry targets that the Company has identified. Targets within the Pircas Sur block represent a higher level of the porphyry system, with two Bi-Se-Te anomalies overlapping with gold and/or molybdenum anomalies (Figures 4 - 6). The western and eastern target areas within the Pircas Sur block measure 700 m by 500 m and 500 m by 400 m, respectively. These anomalies are characterized geologically by extensive silicification, vuggy silica, quartz-alunite ledges and phreatic breccias that collectively represent a higher-level epithermal part of the system on the project. Copper is not anomalous in the Pircas Sur block, which is consistent with a higher level epithermal environment.

Cerro Anillo:

The Cerro Anillo block is characterized by a 250 m wide north-east trending structural zone that represents the boundary between the Pircas Norte and Sur blocks and the Cerro del Medio block. Both epithermal and porphyry styles of mineralization have been observed in this structural zone where dioritic porphyries with sheeted quartz-magnetite veinlets and abundant quartz-alunite alteration are present. The overlapping styles of mineralization have demonstrated that this structural block has acted as a focal point for both mineralizing hydrothermal fluids and porphyry bodies and is considered highly prospective for potential high-grade causative intrusions.

Cerro del Medio:

The Cerro del Medio block is characterized by the largest Bi-Se-Te anomaly on the property and is coincident with gold, molybdenum and copper anomalies that are concentrated along a northeast trend over a 1.2 km by 600 m area (Figures 4 - 7). The Cerro del Medio target area is geologically characterized on surface by epithermal style mineralization where vuggy silica, quartz-alunite ledges and pyrite-enargite have been observed. In addition, porphyry mineralization is observed within the target area where dioritic porphyries with sheeted quartz veins are cut by later quartz-limonite veins. The large-scale nature of the thermal plume Bi-Se-Te and molybdenbum anomalies demonstrate a large-scale porphyry system is present at depth, with the underlying 2012 discovery drill hole of 925.7 m of 0.21 g/t gold, 0.27% copper and 82 parts per million molybdenum within wall rock demonstrating the potential for a large-scale discovery associated with a higher-grade causative intrusion within the Cerro del Medio block.

Flanco Norte and Vetas Condor:

The prominent east - west trending structure that has been mapped across the project area exhibits coincident Bi-Se-Te, copper and gold anomalies over an area of approximately 1 km by 500 m (Figures 4, 5, & 7). A drill hole from 2012 tested this area at depth and returned an intercept of 868.8 m of 0.2% copper, 156 ppm molybdenum and 0.09 g/t gold. This intercept is hosted within wall rock and Torq's technical team believes there is the potential for a high-grade causative intrusion along these east - west trending geochemical anomalies.

At Vetas Condor a 500 m by 500 m gold anomaly is associated with east-trending quartz alunite ledges and associated gold - silver epithermal mineralization (Figure 5). A historical exploration tunnel oriented sub-parallel to the quartz alunite ledges totals approximately 1,100 m and has demonstrated consistent mineralization over several hundred metres. The first 32 m of the tunnel returned 2.38 g/t gold and 101 g/t silver and the next 132 m returned 0.66 g/t gold and 13.5 g/t silver. In addition, approximately 436 m into the tunnel, a high-grade vein sampled 58 g/t gold and 27 g/t silver over 2 m. Three short historical drill holes were drilled near the entrance of the tunnel and intercepted 20 m of 6.82 g/t gold and 16.8 g/t silver, including 2 m of 55 g/t gold and 121 g/t silver. Torq's technical team believes that the mineralization at Vetas Condor has not been adequately drill tested for the definition of a potentially high-grade epithermal system.

Torq Resources Inc., Tuesday, May 2, 2023, Press release picture

Figure 1:Illustrates the location of the Santa Cecilia project and the surrounding Caspiche and Cerro Casale deposits, held by Newmont and Barrick in the Norte Abierto joint venture, within the Maricunga belt.

Torq Resources Inc., Tuesday, May 2, 2023, Press release picture

Figure 2: Illustrates the presence of seven distinct structural blocks across the Santa Cecilia project. Each structural block has important characteristics which represent different vertical levels within an idealized porphyry. The Company's technical team believes that the structural corridors that define the individual blocks have the potential to host high-grade causative intrusions.

Torq Resources Inc., Tuesday, May 2, 2023, Press release picture

Figure 3: Illustrates an idealized porphyry section with the targets from each structural block identified. Gemelos and Pircas Norte are believed to be partially exposed porphyry systems and Cerro del Medio, Pircas Sur and Flanco Norte represent porphyry targets at relatively shallow depths. The Vetas Condor and Cerro Anillo blocks show the potential for higher level epithermal targets.

Torq Resources Inc., Tuesday, May 2, 2023, Press release picture

Figure 4: Illustrates bismuth-selenium-tellurium targets that represent thermal plumes above potential porphyry mineralization. Target depths for the porphyries are based on geophysics and are thought to be within several hundred metres from surface.

Torq Resources Inc., Tuesday, May 2, 2023, Press release picture

Figure 5: Illustrates gold anomalies and target areas across the project area. These gold anomalies can be directly associated with gold mineralization associated with outcropping porphyries, as highlighted by the blue target areas at Gemelos, Pircas Norte and Pircas Sur. The other gold anomalies associated with the thermal plumes are interpreted to have gold introduced into the mineralized system by both porphyry and epithermal events overprinting one another.

Torq Resources Inc., Tuesday, May 2, 2023, Press release picture

Figure 6: Illustrates molybdenum anomalies across the project area that are interpreted to be directly associated with either porphyry mineralization on surface or at shallow depths.

Torq Resources Inc., Tuesday, May 2, 2023, Press release picture

Figure 7: Illustrates copper anomalies across the project area. Potential porphyry mineralization is interpreted to occur at surface or at shallow depths where copper, gold and molybdenum anomalies overlap, such as at the Gemelos and Pircas Norte target areas.

Michael Henrichsen, P.Geo. (the Company's Chief Geological Officer), is the qualified person who assumes responsibility for the technical contents of this press release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,

Shawn Wallace

CEO & Chair

For further information on Torq Resources, please contact Natasha Frakes, VP, Communications, at (778) 729-0500 or info@torqresources.com.

About Torq Resources

Torq is a Vancouver-based copper and gold exploration company with a portfolio of premium holdings in Chile. The Company is establishing itself as a leader of new exploration in prominent mining belts, guided by responsible, respectful and sustainable practices. The Company was built by a management team with prior success in monetizing exploration assets and its specialized technical team is recognized for their extensive experience working with major mining companies, supported by robust safety standards and technical proficiency. The technical team includes Chile-based geologists with invaluable local expertise and a noteworthy track record for major discovery in the country. Torq is committed to operating at the highest standards of applicable environmental, social and governance practices in the pursuit of a landmark discovery. For more information, visit www.torqresources.com.

Soil Sampling

Approximately 1-3 kg of soil material was collected on a 100 m x 100 m grid and sent to ALS Lab in Copiapo, Chile or La Serena, Chile for preparation and then to Santiago, Chile and Lima, Peru for analysis. All samples are assayed using 30 g nominal weight fire assay with AAS finish (Au-AA23) and multi-element super trace four acid digest ICP-AES/ICP-MS method (ME-MS61L). QA/QC programs for 2022-2023 soil samples using internal standard samples and duplicates, lab duplicates, standards and blanks indicate good accuracy and precision in a large majority of standards assayed.

Forward Looking Information

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking information in this release are statements that relate to plans for future exploration programs. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different (either positively or negatively) from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by some of the principal forward-looking statements. See Torq's Annual Information Form filed March 27, 2023 at www.sedar.com for disclosure of the risks and uncertainties faced in this business.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Torq Resources Inc.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/752627/Torq-Identifies-New-Porphyry-Targets-at-the-Santa-Cecilia-Gold-Copper-Project




New Teleperformance Survey Shows Air Travelers' Growing Use of Digital Channels Such as Apps, Instant Messaging and Chat to Get Airline Support, Driving the Need for Robust Multi-Channels of Support

NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The airlines that will stand out during the upcoming busy spring and summer travel season are those that are ready to support today's most frequent travelers  millennials and Gen Zers  across a variety of digital channels such as instant messaging, video and text, according to a survey by Teleperformance Business Insights Lab.

Teleperformance logo (PRNewsfoto/Teleperformance)

While calling, email and web forms continue to be the customer service channels used most by airline travelers, nearly 70% of travelers who have contacted airline customer service before and after the pandemic say their interactions with airlines have changed since the 'new normal'. Almost a quarter of travelers (24%) now say they're branching out and trying new channels to contact the airlines, and a quarter (26%) report using more self-help options to get the support1.

These findings derive from the Teleperformance Business Insights Lab Survey, in which 87,000 consumer interviews were conducted across 20 sectors and 16 countries. Now in its ninth year, the survey queried consumers across topics ranging from customer service channel preferences and metrics, including more than 4,800 airline customers1. The Business Insights Lab looked into travelers' use of airline support channels and their preferences to help airlines understand how travelers want to be served and what channels airlines should consider adding to their contact options.

Digital Support Channels Are Getting Busier

Contacting airlines for help through an airline's mobile app rose 29% since 2019. Instant messaging with airlines' customer service was up 71% since before the pandemic, and texting airlines grew 105%. Travelers told Teleperformance they are also using other ways to seek help from airlines including automated chat and video. These trends are more pronounced across younger demographics. Read additional findings from the survey here.

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"One of the most significant changes in the travel industry since the pandemic is the growing demand for flexibility among travelers. This includes a demand for more diverse contact options and travelers' rising preference for digital channels that provide flexibility in how they receive help and support," said Rahul Jolly, President of Global Travel and Hospitality, Teleperformance. "Building out and enhancing support capabilities across emerging digital channels can help airlines differentiate themselves, provide positive experiences and help customer retention."

1Online survey conducted of 4,803 airline customers across 16 countries between August and September 2022. Survey participants booked their flights and completed travel within the 12-month period preceding the survey date. Survey conducted following ICC/ESOMAR guidelines, with a sample population representative of general population for age and gender.

ABOUT TELEPERFORMANCE GROUP

Teleperformance (TEP  ISIN: FR0000051807  Reuters: TEPRF.PA - Bloomberg: TEP FP), a global leader in digital business services, serves as a strategic partner to the world's largest companies in many industries. It offers a One Office support services model including end-to-end digital solutions, which guarantee successful customer interaction and optimized business processes, anchored in a unique, comprehensive high touch, high tech approach. More than 410,000 employees, based in 91 countries, support billions of connections every year in over 300 languages and 170 markets, in a shared commitment to excellence as part of the "Simpler, Faster, Safer" process. This mission is supported by the use of reliable, flexible, intelligent technological solutions and compliance with the industry's highest security and quality standards, based on Corporate Social Responsibility excellence. In 2022, Teleperformance reported consolidated revenue of 8,154 million (US$8.6 billion, based on 1 = $1.05) and net profit of 645 million.

Teleperformance shares are traded on the Euronext Paris market, Compartment A, and are eligible for the deferred settlement service. They are included in the following indices: CAC 40, STOXX 600, S&P Europe 350, MSCI Global Standard and Euronext Tech Leaders. In the area of corporate social responsibility, Teleperformance shares are included in the CAC 40 ESG since September 2022, the Euronext Vigeo Euro 120 index since 2015, the EURO STOXX 50 ESG index since 2020, the MSCI Europe ESG Leaders index since 2019, the FTSE4Good index since 2018 and the S&P Global 1200 ESG index since 2017.

For more information: www.teleperformance.com. Follow us on Twitter: @teleperformance

Cision

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SOURCE Teleperformance
(Bloomberg) -- When UBS Group AG integrates Credit Suisse Group AG in the coming months, the Swiss bank plans to run staff from the scandal-prone former rival through what Chairman Colm Kelleher dubbed a culture filter to weed out potential bad apples.

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The inconvenient truth for UBS is that the vetting wont do anything for the legal headaches already working their way through courts from Switzerland to Singapore. The cleanup will fall to UBS chief legal counsel Barbara Levi once the deal closes  expected later in May.

The long list of unresolved cases span an embarrassing criminal conviction for facilitating a Bulgarian cocaine traffickers money laundering to a half-a-billion dollar settlement in a bribery scandal related to a tuna fishing fleet in Mozambique.

Read more: How Scandal and Mistrust Ended Credit Suisses 166-Year Run

All told, the civil liabilities could reach into the billions, and then theres criminal risks as well. The deal itself has also raised new issues as owners of at least $6 billion of bonds fight against getting wiped out.

While the price UBS is paying is low enough to allow the bank to absorb unexpected exposure, legal issues are among the key unknowns as Switzerlands two biggest banks merge. Spokespeople for both companies declined to comment on the status of key cases or how theyll evolve once the deal closes.

Read more: UBS Gears Up for Record Breaking Gain Once Credit Suisse Closes

The litany of Credit Suisse issues comes as UBS winds down its own backlog, including an expected agreement with US authorities over residential mortgage-backed securities that date from the 2008 financial crisis. In France, UBS has lodged a top court appeal following a 1.8 billion ($2 billion) criminal conviction in a tax case in 2021.

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Heres where things stand in the key cases:

Cocaine Conviction to Geneva Jeopardy

Credit Suisse had vowed to appeal the first-ever criminal conviction of a major Swiss lender in the countrys history. While a fight to overturn a verdict reached last June might have made sense to defend its reputation, the calculus will change after the takeover.

Read more: Credit Suisse Convicted in Historic Money-Laundering Case

Given an appeal trial would again dredge up embarrassing details about Credit Suisses compliance practices, UBS may want to led it slide.

Getting rid of the other outstanding criminal case will be trickier. A Geneva prosecutor identified last June more than $60 million that he believes was laundered through Credit Suisse.

Yves Bertossa last year alleged Credit Suisse failed to prevent eight transactions perpetrated by former wealth manager Patrice Lescaudron between 2008 and 2014. Genevas top financial-crime prosecutor said the dealings constituted aggravated money laundering by the lender.

Credit Suisse has consistently maintained that Lescaudron, who was convicted of a long-running fraud scheme, was a lone wolf who hid his deceit. A spokesman for the Geneva prosecutor confirmed that Bertossas probe is still underway.

Read more: Swiss Prosecutor Sees Millions Laundered Via Credit Suisse

Under Swiss criminal law, theres scope for UBS to be held liable even if the infraction happened before its involvement, according to Katia Villard, a professor of criminal law at the University of Geneva.

Its quite clear that you can no longer prosecute a person after they die, but corporate criminal liability is different, she said. If Credit Suisse ceases to exist as a legal entity, UBS could then become, in my view, the new target.

Genevas prosecutor could instead choose to indict individual bankers rather than Credit Suisse, according to Kern Alexander, a professor of law and finance at the University of Zurich.

If authorities do go after the lender, Swiss corporate law doesnt allow an acquiring company to limit criminal liability that may arise from the target companys previous actions, he said. UBS may, however, have sought to secure immunity from any of Credit Suisses legacy criminal cases as part of the deal, he added. The company declined to comment.

Georgian Retribution

As part of the Lescaudron fallout, former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili is contesting cases in Bermuda and Singapore to recover losses stemming from the wealth manager dipping into the billionaires account in an effort to cover losses from other clients.

The Bermuda unit of Credit Suisse, which managed a sizeable portion of Ivanishvilis fortune turned a blind eye to Lescaudrons criminal behavior, a judge in the island nation ruled in early 2022. Credit Suisse is appealing the verdict, which set damages at more than $600 million.

A lawyer for the Bermuda unit argued during the appeal that the calculation is overly simplistic as it treats the entire portfolio as a single block. Moreover, he said its predicated on theoretical returns during an extended bull market, giving the billionaire a second bite of the cherry.

Read more: Credit Suisse Fights $600 Million Hit From Rogue Banker Case

Theres a linked case in Singapore, where Ivanishvili is suing a Credit Suisse trust that managed a separate part of his fortune. The Georgians lawyers said theyre seeking about $800 million in total. The lawsuit wrapped up in Singapore in February, but a verdict is still months away.

CS Trust Singapores main lawyer surprised observers during the trial by conceding it had failed in its fiduciary duties and should have flagged unauthorized transfers. Although that may have been an attempt to limit the trusts liabilities, it could have a bearing on whether the judge rules in the tycoons favor.

Regardless of the deal, we expect all of Credit Suisses legal obligations in the ongoing litigation for recovery of losses resulting from mismanagement and fraud perpetrated by Credit Suisse personnel to be met, said a spokesman for Ivanishvili.

Read more: Singapore Trial of Credit Suisse Rogue Banker Enters Final Leg

UBSs ultimate exposure might be limited. The two courts will likely adjust damages depending on the outcome at the other. Also, the funds covering the Bermuda judgment have been fully provisioned for. Credit Suisse declined to comment on whether any money for potential trial losses in Singapore has been set aside.

Tuna Bribes

Starting in London in September, UBSs legal team could face a 13-week civil trial over Credit Suisses role in the $2 billion tuna bond scandal. To resolve a US Justice Department criminal probe over a fundraising scandal that saw hundreds of millions looted from Mozambique, the bank agreed in 2021 to pay almost $475 million.

Read more: Credit Suisse Unit Pleads Guilty Over Mozambique Bond Scandal

The loans were for three maritime projects including a tuna fishing fleet and a surveillance operation to protect Mozambiques coastline against pirates. Three former Credit Suisse bankers were convicted in the US for accepting bribes.

Authorities in Mozambique accuse Credit Suisse of ignoring multiple red flags when arranging the loans to state-backed companies. The Swiss lender denies those claims. In this case too, theres the possibility UBS chooses to settle to avoid the embarrassment of a lengthy London trial.

US Entanglements

In late March  just days after the forced sale to UBS  the US Senates finance committee said it had uncovered major violations of Credit Suisses $2.6 billion plea deal over helping Americans cheat on taxes. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who chairs the committee, said its investigation shows the bank didnt live up to the 2014 deal and that the pending takeover does not wipe the slate clean.

Credit Suisse has said it doesnt tolerate tax evasion and is actively cooperating with the Justice Department. Its not clear what penalties could result from the allegations.

Read more: Credit Suisse Blasted for Tax Cheats Amid Global Bank Tumult

The Swiss lender also suffered a legal setback in March. A New Jersey court rejected its bid to defeat class-action status in a $1.8 billion lawsuit from investors in its VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short Term exchange-traded notes. The potential cost of losing at trial makes a settlement likely and in the range of $500 million, according to Elliott Stein, Bloomberg Intelligences senior litigation analyst (Click here for the full report).

In another US issue, Credit Suisse faces private civil litigation that concerns some $2 billion in claims related to its role in selling residential mortgage-backed securities, which contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. Recent court decisions point to a potential settlement in the range of $400 million to $800 million, according to Stein.

Greensill Debacle

Credit Suisse said a year ago that investors should brace for a five-year fight with insurers and some borrowers over the implosion of a $10 billion group of funds linked to disgraced financier Lex Greensill. That leaves nearly four years for UBS to contend with.

On top of efforts by former partners to claw back more of their cash, the UKs Serious Fraud Office is investigating allegations of money laundering by Sanjeev Guptas GFG Alliance, to which Greensill was a major lender.

Read more: Credit Suisse Seriously Breached Rules in Greensill Case

Swiss banking regulator Finma began enforcement proceedings against four former Credit Suisse staffers after concluding in February that the lender seriously breached its risk-management obligations in the Greensill Capital supply-chain financing affair.

Archegos Fiasco

While Credit Suisse has settled with a clutch of US pension funds over losses related to the 2021 implosion of Archegos Capital Management, at least one more has sued the banks board for alleged reckless conduct that contributed to a $4.7 billion writedown.

Read more: Credit Suisse Board Sued by Retirement Fund for Archegos Debacle

Unlike other banks working with the family office that managed billionaire Bill Hwangs fortune, Credit Suisse was slow to unwind its positions and was caught with major losses.

Russian Sanctions Probe

UBS and Credit Suisse are connected on at least one issue. On March 23  just four days after the shotgun wedding was announced  it emerged that both were among those subpoenaed by the Justice Department in a probe into whether financial professionals helped Russian oligarchs evade sanctions.

Read more: Credit Suisses Rich Vein of Russian Money Is Running Dry

The US inquiries are focused on identifying staff that dealt with sanctioned clients and how those clients were vetted over the past several years. Before fresh sanctions were imposed following President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine, Credit Suisse was a magnet for wealthy Russians. At its peak, the bank managed more than $60 billion for clients from the country and was still managing about $33 billion as recently as May 2022.

Bond Backlash

In addition to legacy legal issues, the combination has raised new ones. Some disgruntled owners of $17 billion in Credit Suisse bonds that were wiped out in the hastily-arranged deal are gearing up for a fight. Switzerlands Federal Administrative Court confirmed its received four lawsuits representing at least $6 billion in additional-tier 1 debt, while hundreds have sued Switzerlands banking regulator Finma.

Read more: Exit Bankers, Enter Lawyers in Credit Suisse Saga

This might be merely a nuisance for UBS, because the risk was clearly stated in the offering. Also, any litigation has to be brought under Swiss law, cutting off the potential for New York firms to sue in the US financial capital.

These lawsuits likely face low odds, said Bloomberg Intelligences Stein. My reading of the bond documentation is that it would be very hard for bondholders to succeed on the merits.

--With assistance from Jonathan Browning, Marion Halftermeyer and Gaspard Sebag.

(Updates with comments from Credit Suisse units lawyer in Georgian Retribution section. A previous version of this story had an incorrect spelling of the Georgian billionaires name in one reference.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
TipRanks

Trying to navigate the ups and downs of the stock market and predict its future direction can seem like a complicated and daunting task. But as with almost anything, keeping it simple is often the key. And one of the most straight forward strategies is to keep an eye out for the insiders moves. After all, these corporate officers are privy to their companies inner workings. So, when an insider is seen picking up shares of the company they work for, especially in bulk, it sends a clear signal t
VANCOUVER, BC, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Usha Resources Ltd. ("USHA" or the "Company") (TSXV: USHA) (OTCQB: USHAF) (FSE: JO0), a North American mineral acquisition and exploration company focused on the development of drill-ready battery and precious metal projects, is pleased to announce that, subject to the approval of the TSX Venture (the "Exchange"), the Company has executed five (5) options (the "Option Agreements") with 2758145 Ontario Ltd. (the "Vendor") of Atikokan, Ontario, for the right to purchase an undivided 100% interest in five (5) additional lithium pegmatite projects located in Ontario: the "Lee Lake", "Mead", "Bluett", "Gathering Lake" and "Triangle Lake" Projects.

Usha Resources (CNW Group/Usha Resources Ltd.)

"We are very pleased to be able to add such quality projects to our growing portfolio of hard-rock lithium assets," said Deepak Varshney, CEO of Usha Resources. "Each of these properties has the technical merit to be the next major discovery in Ontario's growing lithium hotbed. As we leverage our experience and initial success at Jackpot Lake to help drive friendly terms for these latest acquisitions, our Australian relationships and on-going discussions are also heating up with the shared belief that all of our Canadian assets, including White Willow, can develop into successful and fiscally prudent partnerships that benefit our shareholders and move these projects forward while carefully managing our share structure."

The acquisition of these assets is a continuation of the Company's strategy to build an accretive portfolio of highly complementary hard-rock assets to its 100% owned flagship Jackpot Lake Lithium Brine Project ("Jackpot Lake"), where the Company is presently undertaking its maiden drill program with the goal of defining a 43-101 resource. On April 12, 2023, the Company reported the highest lithium grades ever at the Project, assaying 820 ppm Li, with an average of 334 ppm Li in thirty samples collected from shallow surface soils (<500 ft), at over four times the reported historical average, comparing very favourably to the reported average of 100 ppm for the Esmeralda Formation, one of the potential sources of the lithium enrichment for the brines present in Clayton Valley which hosts Albemarle's Silver Peak Lithium Brine Mine, the only producing lithium operation in the United States[i].

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The Company is presently awaiting results from the limited drilling completed as part of the first hole at Jackpot Lake and will shortly resume drilling to 2,000 feet in order to complete well installation to the bottom of the basin and sampling of the higher-porosity sand and conglomerate zone that is the focus for expansion in Clayton Valley and where the Company believes the best potential brines may be present.

"This summer will be a very busy time for the Company as we complete the initial two drill holes at Jackpot Lake and begin exploration of our hard rock assets," Varshney continued. "With a working capital of approximately 3 million, limited costs remaining at Jackpot Lake as we progress towards a maiden 43-101 lithium brine resource estimate, and the flexibility to potentially partner with strategic companies from Australia on our lithium pegmatite assets, Usha is well positioned to advance and grow from our market capitalization of just over 12 million today."

Portfolio Highlights

USHA has optioned 5 properties totalling 13,408 hectares, bringing its lithium property portfolio in Ontario to 7 properties covering 29,088 hectares.

USHA is now positioned within four (4) additional major lithium-cesium-tantalum ("LCT") pegmatite districts in Ontario with strong geological potential in addition to its district-scale White Willow Lithium-Tantalum Project (15,680 hectares) where it has almost 200 pegmatites and already has a confirmed fertile LCT pegmatite system bearing high-grade coarse-grained tantalite only known to be found at one other locality in Ontario which is the North Aubrey pegmatite at Green Technology Metals (GT1) Seymour Lake Project where GT1 has identified a 9.9 Mt resource at 1.04% Li 2 O (see the Company's news release dated March 28, 2023 ).

Gathering Lake and Triangle Lake: 8,938 hectares collectively within the prolific Georgia Lake pegmatite field, east of Rock Tech Lithium's Georgia Lake Deposit, which hosts a 10.6 Mt indicated resource at 0.88% Li 2 O and 4.22 Mt inferred resource at 1.04% Li 2 O, and Imagine Lithium's Jackpot Discovery which has identified 25.5 metres at 1.21% Li 2 O. Lithium occurrences in this field run along a primary fault which runs through Triangle Lake and is adjacent to Gathering Lake, suggesting that the mapped pegmatites on these properties may be highly fractionated LCT-pegmatites that bear spodumene.

Lee Lake: 2,476 hectares adjacent to the west of GT1's North Seymour Lake Claims and approximately 10 kilometres northwest of the Seymour Lake Project which hosts a 9.9 Mt resource at 1.04% Li 2 O. Lee Lake is within the same greenstone belt that is host to Seymour Lake and is adjacent to the claim block that will be a focus in 2023 for expansion by GT1 to make new proximal lithium discoveries and strategically grow the resource base for Seymour.

Mead: 1,001 hectares adjacent on both east/west boundaries to Brunswick Resources' Hearst Project, where it has an on-going drill program to assess the spodumene-bearing Decoy pegmatite and other pegmatites along trend to the west/southwest towards the Mead Property up to 2 kilometres from the claim boundary. Mead is located within the same granite-sedimentary belt as Decoy, and aerial imagery has confirmed the presence of outcropping pegmatites at Mead on trend with Decoy, suggesting the potential that this project may contain highly fractionated LCT-pegmatites that bear spodumene.

Bluett: 993 hectares adjacent to Critical Resources Limited's Mavis Lake Project, where it has already drilled over 20,000 metres and is drilling a further 20,000 metres in 2023 to define a maiden resource. Bluett is confirmed to have pegmatite dykes in both drill core and outcrops and is along a major subprovince boundary, demonstrating strong potential that this project may contain highly fractionated LCT-pegmatites that bear spodumene.

The Terms of the Agreements

Pursuant to the Option Agreement, the Company may acquire a 100% interest in each of the "Lee Lake", "Mead", "Bluett", "Gathering Lake" and "Triangle Lake" Projects by paying the consideration outlined in the table below:

Property Lee Lake Bluett Mead Gathering Lake Triangle Lake Payment Cash Shares Cash Shares Cash Shares Cash Shares Cash Shares Signing $10,000 75,000 $5,000 50,000 $5,000 50,000 $12,000 50,000 $13,350 50,000 1st Anniversary $20,000 100,000 $12,500 75,000 $12,500 75,000 $12,500 75,000 $12,500 75,000 2nd Anniversary $40,000 125,000 $20,000 100,000 $20,000 100,000 $20,000 100,000 $20,000 100,000 3rd Anniversary $60,000 150,000 $25,000 187,500 $25,000 187,500 $25,000 187,500 $25,000 187,500 Total $130,000 450,000 $62,500 412,500 $62,500 412,500 $69,500 412,500 $70,850 412,500



The Company has granted to the Vendor a 2% net-smelter returns royalty (the "NSR") for each of the "Lee Lake", "Mead", "Bluett", "Gathering Lake" and "Triangle Lake" Options of which the Company may purchase half at any time for consideration of $1,000,000 per option.

Qualified person

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Andrew Tims, P.Geo., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Usha Resources Ltd.

Usha Resources Ltd. is a North American mineral acquisition and exploration company focused on the development of quality battery and precious metal properties that are drill-ready with high-upside and expansion potential. Based in Vancouver, BC, Usha's portfolio of strategic properties provides target-rich diversification and consist of Jackpot Lake, a lithium project in Nevada; White Willow, a lithium project in Ontario; and Lost Basin, a gold-copper project in Arizona. Usha trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol USHA, the OTC Exchange under the symbol USHAF and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol JO0.

USHA RESOURCES LTD.

"Deepak Varshney"

CEO and Director

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking statements:

This news release may include "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and are based on a number of estimates and/or assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking information are neither promises nor guarantees and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties, uncertain and volatile equity and capital markets, lack of available capital, actual results of exploration activities, environmental risks, future prices of base and other metals, operating risks, accidents, labour issues, delays in obtaining governmental approvals and permits, and other risks in the mining industry.

The Company is presently an exploration stage company. Exploration is highly speculative in nature, involves many risks, requires substantial expenditures, and may not result in the discovery of mineral deposits that can be mined profitably. Furthermore, the Company currently has no reserves on any of its properties. As a result, there can be no assurance that such forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

______________________________ i Monk, L. et al. 2011. Geochemistry of Lithium-rich brines in Clayton Valley, Nevada, USA. Society of Geology Applied to Ore Deposits Bi-annual Meeting, Antofogasto, Chile.

Cision

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SOURCE Usha Resources Ltd.
Vaccentis AG

Dr Ingrid Rauter

Dr Ingrid RauterCMO of Vaccentis

Zurich, Switzerland, May 3, 2023 - Vaccentis AG, a clinical-stage Swiss biopharmaceutical company developing patient-individualized medicines, today announced the appointment of the experienced life science executive Ingrid Rauter as Head of R&D and Chief Medical Officer.

Ingrid Rauter, PhD, has successfully led global research and clinical development programs for pipeline and marketed products for over ten years. She joins Vaccentis from at Amgen Inc., where her most recent role was as Global Medical Affairs Asset Lead Early Inflammation Pipeline. She also held key clinical development roles with increasing responsibilities at Takeda, Sandoz and Baxalta. Dr Rauter was honored by a prestigious fellowship in immunology at Harvard Medical School and has been recipient of scientific awards including the Herbert-Herxheimer Award of the German Society of Allergology and Clinical Immunology and the Erwin Schrodinger Fellowship of the Austrian Science Fund.

I am delighted to welcome Dr Ingrid Rauter to Vaccentis as Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D, said Martin Munte, Chief Executive Officer of Vaccentis. Ingrid brings a wealth of experience in biopharmaceutical industry R&D and medical affairs to Vaccentis. Over the last six months as an external consultant, she created a clear and compelling clinical and regulatory plan. Her expertise will especially inform and de-risk the late-stage clinical development of VCC-001, our autologous adjuvant renal tumor vaccine to treat non-metastatic renal cell carcinomas post-nephrectomy. She also will help us to leverage our autologous vaccine development platform to shape the Vaccentis pipeline strategy for future successes.

The appointment further strengthens Vaccentis executive leadership team, following the July 2022 appointment of Martin Munte as CEO and the May 2022 appointments of three experienced entrepreneurs to the Board of Directors: Matthias Oertle, Marcel Frei and Subhasis Roy.

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Ingrid Rauter, CMO, said, I am excited to further contribute to Vaccentis as it is poised for a new phase in its product development and corporate growth. Working with the new agile leadership to progress the pipeline holds exciting prospects for patients and the company. VCC-001 is particularly compelling to me as it is a highly de-risked therapeutic-candidate with great potential; its value can be unlocked through rigorous clinical development. I look forward to completing development of this potentially highly impactful therapeutic so that we can offer it to patients suffering from renal cell carcinoma.

VCC-001 is an autologous adjuvant renal tumor vaccine in late clinical development to treat non-metastatic renal cell carcinomas post nephrectomy. VCC-001 is individually prepared from each patients tumour and therefore includes the specific tumour-associated antigens from the patients tumour. These are then administered in the vaccine such that they inform the immune system on how to build an immune response tailored to fight the patients cancer. The personalized vaccine has the potential to reduce risk of recurrence as well as protect against development of metastases.

Patients treated with VCC-001 compared to a control group had a significantly better progression-free survival; these data were published in the leading peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet (Jocham et al., in 2004). In a separate consecutive 10-year retrospective overall survival (OS) analysis, including 1,267 RCC patients who underwent radical nephrectomy in 84 hospitals and were subsequently treated with VCC-001 and compared to propensity-matched historical controls, it was shown that patients with pT3 stage RCC had 5-year OS rates of 71.3 and 53.6%, respectively, and 10-year OS rates of 65.4 and 36.2% (p = 0.022), respectively (May et al. 2009).

Vaccentis AG is a clinical-stage Swiss biopharmaceutical company developing patient-individualized medicines to improve patients chances of recovery from chronic and malignant diseases. Vaccentis lead product VCC-001, which is in late-stage clinical development to treat non-metastatic renal cell carcinomas post nephrectomy. Vaccentis proprietary production methodology reduces complexity and allows for a 3-4 week vaccine delivery time, significantly shorter than normally seen with other personalized biologics.



For further information, please contact:

Vaccentis AG

Martin Munte

Chief Executive Officer

+41 79 4282297

info@vaccentis.com Investors & Media

Jacob Thrane

Cohesion Bureau

+33 6 95 52 85 73

jacob.thrane@cohesionbureau.com

Attachments




VALLOUREC

Vallourec: Availability of the

2022 universal registration document

Meudon (France), May 3rd, 2023

Vallourec announces the availability of a new version of its 2022 Universal Registration Document (URD), in accordance with applicable regulations. This new version cancels and replaces the version of this document that was filed with the Autorite des marches financiers (AMF) on April 17th, 2023 in ESEF format (European Single Electronic Format) under the reference D.23-0293.

The English translation of this document may be consulted on the Companys website www.vallourec.com and at the Companys registered office, 12 rue de la Verrerie - Meudon (92190).

It is equally available on the AMF website: www.amf-france.org .

This document includes in particular:

- the 2022 annual financial report;

- the report of the Board of Directors on corporate governance;

- the statutory auditors reports;

- the statement of auditors fees

- the description of the stock repurchase program;

- the statement of non-financial performance.

About Vallourec

Vallourec is a world leader in premium tubular solutions for the energy markets and for demanding industrial applications such as oil & gas wells in harsh environments, new generation power plants, challenging architectural projects, and high-performance mechanical equipment. Vallourecs pioneering spirit and cutting-edge R&D open new technological frontiers. With close to 16,000 dedicated and passionate employees in more than 20 countries, Vallourec works hand-in-hand with its customers to offer more than just tubes: Vallourec delivers innovative, safe, competitive and smart tubular solutions, to make every project possible.

Listed on Euronext in Paris (ISIN code: FR0013506730, Ticker VK), Vallourec is part of the CAC Mid 60, SBF 120 and Next 150 indices and is eligible for Deferred Settlement Service.

In the United States, Vallourec has established a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program (ISIN code: US92023R4074, Ticker: VLOWY). Parity between ADR and a Vallourec ordinary share has been set at 5:1.

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For further information, please contact:

Investor relations

Connor Lynagh

Tel : +33 (0)1 49 09 39 77

Investor.relations@vallourec.com



Press relations

Heloise Rothenbuhler



Tel: +33 (0)1 41 03 77 50



heloise.rothenbuhler@vallourec.com Individual shareholders

Toll Free Number (from France): 0 800 505 110

actionnaires@vallourec.com





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Company Logo

Global Vascular Patches Market

Global Vascular Patches Market

Dublin, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Vascular Patches Market" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report analyzes the trends in the vascular patch market with data from 2021, estimates from 2022, projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through the forecast period of 2022 to 2027), and regional markets. This report highlights the current and future market potential of vascular patches and provides a detailed analysis of the competitive landscape.

The report covers regulatory scenarios, drivers, restraints, and opportunities. The report also offers market projections for 2027 and provides the market shares for key companies.

Vascular patches play an increasingly important role in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases for several reasons, including the increasing prevalence and incidences of chronic heart diseases. These factors are anticipated to augment the demand for vascular patches during the forecast period. For instance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 18.2 million adults aged 20 and older have coronary artery disease (CAD) in 2020. Similarly, 30.3 million adults were diagnosed with heart disease in the U.S. in 2018.



Inorganic strategies among market players are also boosting the vascular patch market. For instance, In 2019, LeMaitre Vascular Inc., a manufacturer of devices for the treatment of peripheral vascular diseases, purchased the CardiCel and VascuCel patch business from Australian biotech company Admedus Ltd. (now known as Anteris Technologies), for $15.5 million. The companies also signed a license agreement for tissue processing technology restricted to the CardioCel and VascuCel lines.



Other factors, such as innovation, technological advances and the launch of novel products from market players, are expected to increase demand for vascular patches during the forecast period. However, during this time, limitations of vascular patches and product recalls may impede market growth. Leaders in the vascular patch market include Johnson & Johnson MedTech, Edwards Lifesciences Corp., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Getinge AB, Baxter, W. L. Gore & Associates, LeMaitre Vascular and Artivion.



The global market for vascular patches was valued at $631.5 million in 2020. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.1% to reach over $1.0 billion by the end of 2027. The growth of the global market is attributed to factors such as the rise in the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, the growing adoption of biological patches, and an increase in the geriatric population. In this report, the global market for vascular patches is segmented based on patch type, application and region.

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Report Includes

An overview of the global market for vascular patches

Estimation of the market size and analyses of global market trends, with data from 2021, 2022 and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2027

Characterization and quantification of market potential for vascular patches by application, type, and region

Brief description about various processes such as carotid endarterectomy, aortic aneurysms, profundaplasty, surgical patch angioplasty and vascular bypass surgery, and discussion on type and material of vascular patches to be used for the particular process

Discussion on advantages and drawbacks of biological vascular patches and synthetic vascular patches, and their role in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases

Identification of market drivers, restraints and other forces impacting the global market and evaluation of current market trends, market size and forecast, and technological advancements within the industry

Market share analysis of the key companies of the industry and coverage of events like mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborations or partnerships, and other key market strategies

Company profiles of major players within the industry, including B. Braun SE, Baxter International Inc., Edwards Lifesciences, Johnson & Johnson Services Inc., and Terumo Corp.

Key Attributes:





Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 103 Forecast Period 2022 - 2027 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2022 $717.4 Million Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2027 $1012 Million Compound Annual Growth Rate 7.1% Regions Covered Global



Key Topics Covered:





Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Summary and Highlights

2.1 Overview

Chapter 3 Market Dynamics

3.1 Market Drivers

3.1.1 Rising Prevalence of Cardiovascular Diseases Globally

3.1.2 Increasing Adoption of Biological Vascular Patches

3.1.3 Growing Geriatric Population and Changing Lifestyles

3.2 Market Restraints

3.2.1 Product Recalls

3.2.2 Limitations Associated With Vascular Patches and Their Applications

3.3 Market Opportunities

3.3.1 Inorganic Strategies Among Market Players

Chapter 4 Market Overview

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Current Market Trends

4.2.1 Currently Available Vascular Patches

4.3 Emerging Technologies

4.3.1 Products in the Pipeline

Chapter 5 Regulatory Landscape and Reimbursement Scenario

5.1 Regulatory Landscape

5.1.1 North America

5.1.2 Europe

5.1.3 Asia-Pacific

5.1.4 Asean Countries

5.2 Reimbursement Scenario

5.2.1 Pricing and Reimbursement Overview

5.2.2 U.S.

5.2.3 Europe

5.2.4 Asia-Pacific

Chapter 6 Impact of Covid-19 on the Market

6.1 Overview

6.1.1 Covid-19 Crisis

6.1.2 Impact of Covid-19 on Cardiovascular Diseases

6.1.3 Impact of Covid-19 on the Vascular Patch Market

6.1.4 Covid-19 Measures

Chapter 7 Market Breakdown by Patch Type

7.1 Types of Vascular Patches

7.1.1 Biologic Vascular Patches

7.1.2 Synthetic Vascular Patches

Chapter 8 Market Breakdown by Application

8.1 Applications for Vascular Patches

8.1.1 Carotid Endarterectomy

8.1.2 Aortic Aneurysms

8.1.3 Profundaplasty

8.1.4 Vascular Bypass Surgery

8.1.5 Vascular Repair and Reconstruction

Chapter 9 Market Breakdown by Region

9.1 Overview

9.1.1 North America

9.1.2 Europe

9.1.3 Asia-Pacific

9.1.4 Rest of the World

Chapter 10 Analysis of Market Opportunities

10.1 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

10.1.1 Threat of New Entrants

10.1.2 Threat of Substitutes

10.1.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

10.1.4 Bargaining Power of Buyers

10.1.5 Degree of Competition

Chapter 11 Competitive Landscape

11.1 Company Share Analysis

11.1.1 Recent Developments in the Market for Vascular Patches

Chapter 12 Company Profiles



Chapter 13 Appendix: Abbreviations

Companies Mentioned

Artivion Inc.

B. Braun Se

Baxter International Inc.

Edwards Lifesciences Corp.

Getinge Ab

Johnson & Johnson Medtech

Labcor Laboratorios Ltda.

Lemaitre Vascular Inc.

Terumo Corp.

W. L. Gore & Associates Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/b6n9vl

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




Photo: The Canadian Press NDP MP for Winnipeg Centre Leah Gazan speaks during a news conference about the continued loss of missing and murdered Indigenous women, Tuesday, May 2, 2023 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

The House of Commons unanimously backed a motionTuesday declaring the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls a Canada-wide emergency  and calling for funding for a new system to alert the public when someone goes missing.

Leah Gazan, who represents a Winnipeg riding, presented the motion to her colleagues in the afternoon. She previously led an effort for the House to recognize the residential school system as a genocide, which it did last fall.

"The truth is the truth," she told reporters after Tuesday's vote. "It's one thing to acknowledge truth, it's another thing to act on it."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said advancing reconciliation with Indigenous people is one of his top priorities since forming government in 2015.

In 2019, he accepted the findings of a national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, which said the crisis amounted to a genocide.

Trudeau has since been criticized by groups such as the Native Women's Association of Canada for failing to deliver on his commitments to fulfil the many recommendations directed at the federal government.

Statistics show Indigenous women continue to disappear and to be the victims of violence at a higher rate than non-Indigenous women. Late last year, Winnipeg police announced that the remains of several First Nations women  all believed to have been murdered by the same man  were found in a landfill outside the city. That catapulted the issue back into the spotlight.

Gazan and other advocates have continued pushing for a public alert system that would send a notification to phones, televisions and radios when an Indigenous woman disappears.

She said she imagines it operating like an Amber Alert, which is an emergency notification that goes out when a child is missing and believed to be in danger.

"There's no reason why that can't happen tomorrow," Gazan said, adding the country also has systems for weather alerts. "It just takes political will."

Back in February, one of the last times Gazan raised the issue, a spokesperson for Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair's office said provincial governments operate emergency alert systems and it would be up to them to choose whether to adopt any new systems.

However, Gazan said that she believes Ottawa has a role to play and that she has been working to organize preliminary meetings between the government and advocates to discuss what an alert system could look like.

She said the alert would no doubt need to work across jurisdictions and told reporters that some Indigenous communities operate alerts of their own.
Versaterm

Intelligent conversational functionality enables community members to easily file non-emergency reports, boosting community engagement and operational capacity

OTTAWA, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Versaterm Public Safety , a global public safety solutions leader, today announced the launch of its conversational AI-powered Case Service Reporting . Community members can easily submit non-emergency reports by holding conversations with a virtual investigator via voice, web, text, or an agencys mobile app. This intelligent solution for non-emergency reporting aids agencies in meeting their community members expectations for immediate service and extends the agency's capacity to handle other priority incidents.



Consumer brands in the private sector have set new standards for service excellence. Community members now expect the same level of care and modern technology from their public safety agencies. With Case Service Reporting, we are applying the power of AI and intelligent automation to revamp the non-emergency reporting experience, focusing on improving community engagement and service delivery, said Rohan Galloway-Dawkins, Vice President of Products, Versaterm Public Safety.

The advanced conversational functionality in Case Service Reporting enables a virtual investigator to guide reporting parties through the filing process by attentively listening, thoughtfully questioning, and seamlessly adapting to responses. The solution helps the community overcome challenges with complex online self-filing systems that often use unfamiliar police terminology, which can increase the rate of incomplete reports for agencies. Case Service Reporting writes the report in full compliance with the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), issues a case number following agency validation, and provides community members with regular updates throughout the review process.

One of the first agencies to deploy these new AI capabilities within Case Service Reporting is the Austin Police Department (APD). The APD is leveraging intelligent virtual investigators to proactively communicate with community members. Launched in March 2023, APDs system provides Austin community members with personalized attention to their incidents with support for multiple languages, including English, Arabic, French, Hindi, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

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This technology will streamline the reporting process, alleviate the current backlog for APD non-emergency requests submitted via 3-1-1, and provide community members personalized attention to their incidents. We are proud to be among the first police departments to introduce this next-generation technology to meet expectations for service and transform our agencys future operations, commented the Austin Police Department.

Within Versaterms end-to-end public safety ecosystem, Case Service Reporting is a module that extends the capabilities of Versaterm's Record Management System .

About Versaterm Public Safety

Versaterm Public Safety is a global public safety solutions company helping agencies transform their organizations by providing innovative solutions, expertise, and an unwavering dedication to customer service. Formed in 1977, we are on a journey to build an ecosystem that will enhance community safety by creating purposeful integrations across the public safety spectrum. We deliver intuitive tools developed for public safety agencies, forensic labs, court systems, schools, and other institutions. Our selective growth strategy focuses on improving customer and user workflows for more efficient and effective operations, leading to better service and more just outcomes. For more information, visit versaterm.com , LinkedIn , or Twitter .

Media Contact:

Edward Lin

Merritt Group, Inc.

versaterm@merrittgrp.com




If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing amount of capital employed. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. With that in mind, we've noticed some promising trends at Watches of Switzerland Group (LON:WOSG) so let's look a bit deeper.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for Watches of Switzerland Group, this is the formula:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.18 = UK164m  (UK1.2b - UK310m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to October 2022).

Therefore, Watches of Switzerland Group has an ROCE of 18%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Specialty Retail industry average of 13% it's much better.

View our latest analysis for Watches of Switzerland Group

roce

In the above chart we have measured Watches of Switzerland Group's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What Does the ROCE Trend For Watches of Switzerland Group Tell Us?

We like the trends that we're seeing from Watches of Switzerland Group. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 18%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 233%. So we're very much inspired by what we're seeing at Watches of Switzerland Group thanks to its ability to profitably reinvest capital.

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One more thing to note, Watches of Switzerland Group has decreased current liabilities to 25% of total assets over this period, which effectively reduces the amount of funding from suppliers or short-term creditors. Therefore we can rest assured that the growth in ROCE is a result of the business' fundamental improvements, rather than a cooking class featuring this company's books.

The Bottom Line On Watches of Switzerland Group's ROCE

A company that is growing its returns on capital and can consistently reinvest in itself is a highly sought after trait, and that's what Watches of Switzerland Group has. Since the stock has returned a staggering 252% to shareholders over the last three years, it looks like investors are recognizing these changes. With that being said, we still think the promising fundamentals mean the company deserves some further due diligence.

Before jumping to any conclusions though, we need to know what value we're getting for the current share price. That's where you can check out our FREE intrinsic value estimation that compares the share price and estimated value.

While Watches of Switzerland Group isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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The Weeknd is teaming with Blue Bottle Coffee of Oakland, Calif., on a new Samra Origins coffee line, which launches in May.

The Weeknd is brewing what he hopes is another hit. But this one is music for your taste buds.The musician has partnered with Oakland, California-based specialty coffee company Blue Bottle Coffee on Samra Origins, a new brand of coffee products, the first of which becomes available May 9. Samra Origins is named after The Weeknd's mother and honors his Ethiopian roots and the culture of the country long considered the birthplace of coffee.

Born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye in Canada, The Weeknd is the son of Ethiopian immigrants Makkonen and Samra Tesfaye. Ethiopian culture is an important part of my identity and Im proud to work alongside the Blue Bottle Coffee team to shine a light on Ethiopian traditions, values, and of course, coffee, he said in a press release.

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The first Samra Origins coffee available is the Exceedingly Rare Ethiopia Wolde Faye Koricha COE #7 ($65 for a tin of 100 grams of beans, about four ounces), a single origin whole bean coffee purchased through the prestigious Ethiopia Cup of Excellence competition and auction, and represents the pinnacle of Ethiopan coffee.

For the upcoming Summer blend series, Benjamin Brewer, Blue Bottle's head of innovation and quality, created three blend variations for The Weeknd and his mother to taste; they sought to arrive at a coffee similar to what she brews at home.

The Weeknd has partnered with Oakland, California-based specialty coffee company Blue Bottle Coffee on Samra Origins, a new brand of coffee, with the first becoming available May 9.

"We went back and forth with tastings and research to come up with the perfect blend," The Weeknd said in an email interview. "I wouldnt put anything out that I wasnt hands-on with."

You can sign up now at samraorigins.com to get on the waitlist and be notified when the coffee goes on sale May 9. The coffee will also be available at select Blue Bottle cafes in the U.S. as a warm and cold brew. Founded in Oakland, Calif., in 2002, Blue Bottle has cafes in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and internationally in Korea, Japan, and China.

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Samra Origins coffee, a partnership with Abel The Weeknd Tesfaye and his record label, XO, and Blue Bottle Coffee of Oakland, Calif., launches in May with a limited release of Exceedingly Rare Ethiopia Wolde Faye Koricha COE #7 ($65 per 100 gram tin), available exclusively online at www.samraorigins.com.

The Weeknd's new coffee buzz

Recently named the world's most popular artist by Guinness World Records, The Weeknd said his coffee taste has evolved from lattes  made with espresso and steamed milk  to Americanos, which are made with two espresso shots and hot water. "Coffee is key for me, it helps me focus and tap into creative flow in a really concerted way," he said.

He teamed up with Blue Bottle Coffee, because "they have the best tasting coffee  its really that simple," he said in an email interview with USA TODAY. "I have become really tuned into coffee and feel my palate has been honed and Blue Bottle is always so consistent."

Musician The Weeknd has partnered with Oakland, California-based specialty coffee company Blue Bottle Coffee on Samra Origins, a new brand of coffee products, with the first coffee available May 9.

On a normal day, he only has coffee in the morning. But while on set of "The Idol," the HBO drama series he co-created with Sam Levinson ("Euphoria") that arrives June 4, he might have coffee all day, The Weeknd said. And when it comes to music, he said, "many coffee-fueled days and nights went into the making of all the music for the show  The Idol."

What historic connection does The Weeknd have to coffee and Ethiopia?

The entertainer says he recalls watching his mother perform Buna Tetu, a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony meant to show a sign of respect for guests. "This sensory experience helped shape my understanding of community and taught me to always honor my roots," he said in the press release. "Samra Origins is a true passion project that I hope will inspire curiosity and encourage support for Ethiopias people, while also spreading the warmth and friendship so ingrained in Ethiopian culture.

Blue Bottle is making a donation to The Weeknds XO Humanitarian Fund, which is administered by World Food Program USA and will target emergency food assistance in northern Ethiopia. His commitment to Ethiopian culture and charity made collaborating with The Weeknd an easy decision, Blue Bottle Coffee CEO Karl Strovink in an email interview.

"We share a mutual love for Ethiopia  its coffee, culture, and people  and a commitment to helping those in need," Strovink said.

Samra Origins coffee, a partnership with Abel The Weeknd Tesfaye and his record label, XO, and Blue Bottle Coffee of Oakland, Calif., launches in May with a limited release of Exceedingly Rare Ethiopia Wolde Faye Koricha COE #7 ($65 per tin of 100 grams of beans, about four ounces).

How much coffee do Americans drink?

Americans drink an estimated 491 million cups of coffee daily, according to the National Coffee Association.In its spring 2023 National Coffee Data Trends report, released April 4, it found 83% of U.S. coffee drinkers had coffee at home in the past day, an increase of 4% since January 2020. More than one-third (35%) had coffee away from home, up from a low of 31% in January 2021 but still down from pre-pandemic levels of 41% in January 2020.

Traditional drip coffee makers remain the most popular way to make coffee at home, used by 41%, followed by single cup brewers, cold brew and espresso machines.

More coverage from USA TODAY

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Weeknd: Coffee may be his next hit, teams with Blue Bottle Coffee
ENA, ACEP members tell of their first-hand experiences and how new legislation can help

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, leaders and members from the Emergency Nurses Association and the American College of Emergency Physicians joined forces on Capitol Hill to call for action to mitigate workplace violence against health care workers and increase mental health care resources for patients.

(PRNewsfoto/Emergency Nurses Association)

"Emergency departments are the front door to the hospital. It is the health care safety net in many communities," said ENA President Terry Foster, MSN, RN, CEN, CPEN, CCRN, TCRN, FAEN. "Every patient who arrives in the emergency department deserves the absolute best from the nurses, physicians and other health care providers  but that isn't possible the longer workplace violence is considered part of the job or if an urgent emphasis isn't placed on improving access to mental health care resources and in, and beyond, the ED."

Two recently introduced pieces of legislation were the focus of the State of Emergency Nursing event held on Capitol Hill with dozens of ENA members in attendance. The first being the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (H.R. 2663 and S. 1176) which directs OSHA to require health care and social service employers to develop and implement workplace violence prevention plans that are worker-driven and comprehensive to ensure the safety of patients and workers.

The second piece of legislation, the Improving Mental Health Access from the Emergency Department Act (S. 1346) would develop a competitive grant program that creates more resources for emergency departments to adapt more collaborative and cohesive care models to connect patients in mental health crisis with appropriate resources in their communities. It also aims to increase access to inpatient beds and alternative care settings, which will help alleviate boarding and overcrowding issues.

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"Emergency physicians and emergency nurses strongly believe that threats and attacks against health care workers are unacceptable," said ACEP President Christopher S. Kang, MD, FACEP. "Emergency care teams must be dedicated to patient care without fearing for their safety. We must also address the mental health care crisis in this country that emergency physicians see and manage every day. More resources and better coordinated care can improve the patient and physician experience, outcomes and well-being."

The Capitol Hill event coincided with the Emergency Nurses Association's annual Day on the Hill event that included 170 emergency nurses visiting legislators to discuss these key issues.

Speakers at the Capitol Hill event shared their personal experiences to help illustrate the realities of both issues in the emergency department.

Emergency nurse Christian Stone of Washington, D.C.: "I have a background of seven years in EMS, which I thought prepared me pretty well to be an ED nurse, but nothing honestly prepared me to walk into work every night just to be screamed at, spit on, swung at, cursed out, kicked, threatened and more by patients and their family members while I'm just trying to do my job."

Emergency nurse Dan Nadworny of Massachusetts: "Over the last 10 years, we have fought to remove the stigma of mental health and we have encouraged people to come forward to seek help. We have asked patients to be honest and vulnerable with their caregivers. However, what I am seeing now is that when those patients speak up and ask for help they are often lost. What is unfortunate is when these patients come to the ED for help they are often there for days, weeks or even months with no treatment or therapies due to the lack of care opportunities."

About the Emergency Nurses Association

The Emergency Nurses Association is the premier professional nursing association dedicated to defining the future of emergency nursing through advocacy, education, research, innovation, and leadership. Founded in 1970, ENA has proven to be an indispensable resource to the global emergency nursing community. With 50,000 members worldwide, ENA advocates for patient safety, develops industry-leading practice standards and guidelines and guides emergency health care public policy. ENA members have expertise in triage, patient care, disaster preparedness, and all aspects of emergency care. Additional information is available at www.ena.org.

ENA Media Contact:

Morgan Wietecha

Media Relations Strategist

847-460-4038

morgan.wietecha@ena.org

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/workplace-violence-mental-health-care-featured-during-ena-capitol-hill-event-301815209.html

SOURCE Emergency Nurses Association
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2023 / Ximen Mining Corp. (TSXV:XIM)(FRA:1XMA)(OTCQB:XXMMF) (the "Company" or "Ximen") is pleased to announce that in addition to trading on the TSX Venture Exchange, the OTCQB in the USA, several regional exchanges in Europe as well as the Frankfurt Exchange in Germany, the Company will now start trading on the Gettex Exchange a competing exchange in Germany under the symbol X1MA effective May 4th 2023.

Ximen Mining Corp, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Press release picture

"Over the past few weeks, Ximen has received final permits from both the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low-Carbon Innovation. These permits will allow the Company to advance the Kenville Gold Mine, which has been several years in the making. We are excited to share our progress and story as we move forward with our plans. As part of our strategy, we aim to expand our presence and share our developments with new audiences. We are pleased to announce that the Gettex Exchange has agreed to list our Company, allowing us to trade on their exchange. This move is a part of our overall information strategy, as we aim to build a presence in Europe," says Christopher Anderson, CEO of Ximen Mining.

The Company is also pleased to announce that it has arranged a non-brokered private placement of 6 million units at a price of $0.10 per unit for gross proceeds of $600,000. Each Unit consists of one common share and one transferable common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase, for a period of 60 months from the date of issue, one additional common share of the Issuer at an exercise price of $0.15 per share.

A finder's fee may be paid to eligible finders in accordance with the TSX Venture Exchange policies. All securities issued pursuant to the offering will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of closing. The offering and payment of finders' fees are both subject to approval by the TSX-V. There is no material fact or material change of the Company that has not been generally disclosed.

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The Company anticipates closing on/or about May 8, 2023.

The net proceeds from the Offering will be used by the Company for exploration expenses on the Company's British Columbia mineral properties and general working capital.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Christopher R. Anderson"

Christopher R. Anderson,

President, CEO and Director

604 488-3900

Ximen Mining Corp, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Press release picture

Investor Relations: Sophy Cesar, 604-488-3900, ir@XimenMiningCorp.com

About Ximen Mining Corp.

Ximen Mining Corp, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Press release picture

Ximen Mining Corp. owns 100% interest in three of its precious metal projects located in southern BC. Ximen`s two Gold projects The Amelia Gold Mine and The Brett Epithermal Gold Project. Ximen also owns the Treasure Mountain Silver Project adjacent to the past producing Huldra Silver Mine. Currently, the Treasure Mountain Silver Project is under a option agreement. The option partner is making annual staged cash and stocks payments as well as funding the development of the project. The company has also acquired control of the Kenville Gold mine near Nelson British Columbia which comes with surface and underground rights, buildings and equipment.

Ximen Mining Corp, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Press release picture

This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

SOURCE: Ximen Mining Corp





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/752858/Ximen-Mining-to-Start-Trading-on-the-Gettex-Exchange-in-Germany




The Fairy Godmother Project, a Fredericksburg-based nonprofit serving families facing pediatric cancer, soon will host a local-business scavenger hunt.

The hunt, set for May 46, will cover Caroline Street, spanning from the Rappahannock Regional Library to the Fredericksburg Train Station at the intersection of Caroline Street and Lafayette Boulevard.

The event aims to highlight some of the local businesses downtown while spreading the message of the nonprofits mission, organizers said.

A lot of people, by word of mouth, know what the Fairy Godmother Project is, but also dont know exactly what we do, said FGP development coordinator Krysta Ward. We hope to share what services we provide, our location in Fredericksburg, and that we serve families facing pediatric cancer, because sometimes even that gets lost in our message.

Unlike a traditional scavenger hunt, FGP is introducing a digital twist. Participants will locate, scan and collect QR code clues to solve the puzzle.

A QR code is a type of bar code that users scan using the camera on a smartphone or tablet to access information online.

Successful hunters will have the opportunity to win prizes donated by participating businesses. Winners will be announced May 8.

Our downtown businesses have been working with us no matter what we are doing. Whether it be through donating gift cards, prizes or letting us camp out at their location, said Ward. It was overwhelming how much everybody was willing to donate. I think now were at over $500 worth of prizes.

Since January, FGP has been collaborating with businesses along Caroline Street to allow hunters to scan QR Codes in their windows from the sidewalk. Some businesses will invite participants to come inside to find a hint for the next clue.

In addition to being an informative and fun event, it is also a way to recognize our supporters downtown, who have supported us since the beginning, said Ward.

While all of the clues will be numbered 1 through 20, participants are encouraged to lead the hunt however they please, as the codes do not need to be collected in order.

The hunt itself is family friendly, said Ward. Using your smartphone, you can scan the QR codes to access the puzzles. Well also provide physical copies of the tracker for those who prefer to write down their clues with pen and paper.

Hunters can also stop by the Fredericksburg Visitor Center at 706 Caroline St. to collect printed directions, a list of rules, physical copies of the code tracker as well as a swag bag, which will contain items ranging from snacks, to FGP pens.

With a staff of four, volunteers are the backbone of the nonprofit, Ward said.

When local resident Cristy Yonts learned about FGPs scavenger hunt, she gathered friends and family to create and contribute over 100 swag bags for the event.

Even if you dont have the money, dedicating your time means so much to what these people are doing, said Yonts. I lost both my father and my grandmother to cancer. When my loved ones passed away, our family had to deal with everything. It was very difficult to go through that, but we would have people bringing meals to us. Often you dont realize, its the small things that make a difference.

Yonts hopes to encourage others to give the gift of time and, in return, experience the reward of bringing people together and helping families facing cancer.

My family cant wait to go join the scavenger hunt, said Yonts. Were excited to be able to enjoy everything and show our support.

Those looking to join in but cant make it downtown are also able to participate and win prizes by posting on social media. Guidelines and tags for Facebook and Instagram posts are located on FGPs website and Facebook page.

All scavenger hunt entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Saturday, May 6, through the form, which also can be found on FGPs website and Facebook.
Kudos to lawmakers

Editor,

Congratulations to our state lawmakers for passing bill LB 77, permitless concealed carry.

They understand that law abiding, responsible citizens of Nebraska will not be deprived of our Constitutional right to defend ourselves, our family and our friends from thugs, deranged individuals and terrorists.

Law enforcement cannot stop the crime. By the time they are able to respond to the threat, the carnage is over. How can anyone honestly believe that any bad guy will adhere to any gun law?

Gary Tuma

Blair

Support for all

Editor,

I think its good that we are supporting new businesses in our community, but lets not forget the ones who have been a mainstay for many years, forming the foundation for present-day Tekamah.

The Chatt Community Center recently celebrated its 50th anniversary recently and no recognition was given from the Chamber of Commerce, the city council or the mayor.

This is not just a place for old people. It is for everyone and it provides a vital service to our community. They want the Chatt Center to support various events in our community but dont support the Chatt.

I think an apology is owed to Debbie and her staff. They are doing a wonderful job keeping the center going. They deserve our respect and recognition.

Reta Meyer

Tekamah
Memorial services for Tom Paine will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 6, 2023, at Campbell Aman Funeral Home in Blair. Paine, 67, of Spiker, left quietly for his eternal fishing trip at 7:04 a.m. Friday, April 21, 2023.

He was born Sept. 1, 1955 in Omaha to Hildreth and Charlotte Paine. Tom attended Blair High School and graduated in 1973. He then attended Southeast Community College in Milford. Tom and Carol Wenske were united in marriage on Oct. 19, 1979, at Camp Fontanelle in the outdoors where the monarch butterflies flew overhead.

Tom had many life adventures. Some of the most prominent memories in his early years were riding down the front stairs of the family home in a cardboard box and hiding behind the couch at diaper changing time. He was also the famous kitchen cupboard climber. As he got older, it was hunting for relics such as arrowheads, stone tools and old bottles in Fish Creek. He learned to play pool in the basement of his grandparents home and continued to play through the years, from the Blue Ribbon days up to his last trip to Arkansas.

Tom was a hard worker. He started as a dishwasher and bussed tables at the Blair Marina and also worked as a sacker in a grocery store. He began working construction and worked with many area contractors through the years. He was not afraid of heights and was known for working on tall barns and churches in the area. He helped frame new homes and even helped build a log home. For two years he worked in the California oil fields as a seismic vibrating truck operator and dynamite shooter before returning back to Nebraska to continue working in construction.

Toms mom encouraged the kids to sing and Tom loved music. Later in life, he enjoyed singing with the radio on Sunday road trips listening to Acoustic Storm. The road trips included every minimum maintenance road he could find and the oldest looking bridges to stop and walk over. Toms Saturday morning greeting was, Dont forget to tune into Greg Wagner. no matter where he was or what he was doing.

When Tom retired it was to fish. He spent time up north to chum on the Missouri River, or was in Minnesota or Arkansas to fish.

Tom was a family support and care giver to many family members and friends. He was always available to anyone that was in need.

Tom is survived by his wife Carol; siblings: Mary Blobaum and Jeanie (Steve) Beck; siblings-in-law Cyndy Paine and Dan Gunchick; nieces, nephews, extended family and countless friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, and siblings Carl Paine and Susie Paine-Gunchick.

Campbell Aman Funeral Home was in charge of the arrangements.
Fremont Public Schools has announced the signing of two Fremont High School seniors with the United States Armed Forces.

These students are committing to several years with their respective military branches.

We are incredibly proud of these individuals for serving their country and representing Fremont High School as they travel the world and learn new skills, said Myron Sikora, Fremont High School principal.

Peyton Harman signed with the United States Army. He will be moving to Colorado to serve as a military police officer. Harman participated in the FHS School-to-Career program job shadowing Kevin Kavan, FPS Safety and Security Coordinator and the Dodge County Sherriffs Office. His recruiter is Sgt. Guinto.

Madison Petersen signed with the Army National Guard. She will be attending St. Louis University. Petersens recruiter is Sgt. Megan Liekhus.

Mark Shepard, superintendent of schools, said, This is a great example of a school district honoring and celebrating with their students and families the great commitment to our country and their future. This is a very meaningful, very special celebration.
In my first year as the leader of Nebraska Extension, Ive been humbled and gratified to witness the powerful accomplishments of the people across this state. When Nebraskans work together, we maximize opportunities for individuals, families and communities. Its clear to me the people of Nebraska Extension, covering all 93 counties, are vital in this collaborative progress.

No other institution connects so widely and deeply with Nebraskans than Nebraska Extension. Extension experts share practical, research-based knowledge in a wide range of fields, from farm finance to mental wellness, nutrition to community development.

In pursuing our statewide mission, Nebraska Extension  part of the University of Nebraska from its earliest years  has adopted strategic aims we call The Big 3:

Strengthen Nebraska agriculture and food systems.

Inspire Nebraskans and their communities.

Enhance the health and well-being of all Nebraskans.

By focusing in these three areas, we are delivering at our best to Nebraskans from all walks of life. Here are just a few examples from 2022:

More than 440,000 Nebraskans attended programs or contacted local Extension professionals in regard to pest, insect and landscape/horticulture topics.

Ag producers who farm or manage more than 132,000 acres attended Extensions 2022 On-Farm Research Network Results meeting. Extension specialists provide Nebraska farmers and ranchers with extensive year-round support statewide, sharing information on a range of practical production and planning needs.

Nebraskans downloaded Extensions informative BeefWatch podcasts some 30,000 times.

Extensions Early Childhood programming reached more than 202,000 children.

Our Growing Together Nebraska program worked with 12 Nebraska communities to provide locally grown produce to 41 food pantries and emergency food distribution sites. In 2022, this initiative supplied more than 32,000 pounds (more than 97,000 servings) of fruits and vegetables.

More than 140,000 Nebraska age-eligible children participated in Extensions 4-H programs, focusing on experiential learning.

We are proud of those numbers, but what really matters are the individuals, families and communities behind the statistics. For example, when catastrophic floods struck huge areas of Nebraska in 2019, causing $2.6 billion in losses, Extension professionals took action. Coordinating donations of livestock feed, pharmaceuticals, hay and fencing supplies. Helping families connect to emergency nutritional assistance and find available contractors. Working with producers to restore damaged farm ground.

In my travels around the state, Ive heard countless stories from Nebraskans about their work with Extension. Here are a couple of experiences I think more people should know about:

David Barnes, from Lynch, points to the help Extension provided when his town explored opening a community grocery co-op in 2021. Extension professionals helped the Lynch steering committee address a range of bureaucratic, regulatory and business challenges. The Nebraska Cooperative Development Center, housed in the University of Nebraska-Lincolns Department of Agricultural Economics, also provided support.

In February, the co-op marked its first-year anniversary as well as its community success: Sales over the past year were 50% above the projection. Without their help, it wouldnt have happened, Barnes, the manager of the co-op, says of Extension professionals.

Carime Ruvalcaba, Grand Island resident, worked to set up the first bilingual day care in Nebraska to receive a Child Development Associate credential, officially designating high-quality care. A range of Extension professionals provided specialized assistance to Ruvalcaba as she received training, set up the center and navigated government processes.

Would she recommend Extension to other Nebraskans? Totally, she says. Extension specialists are very professional. They have a lot of experience in issues that help educate and grow small businesses.

Are we satisfied with these contributions? Of course not. Were looking to the future, striving to have an even bigger impact. As an example, we are exploring a major multi-faceted partnership with the University of Nebraska Medical Center to bolster statewide service to enhance health and wellness. Dr. Ali Khan, dean of UNMCs College of Public Health, is exploring alongside us. He says, The greatest strength for UNMCs collaboration with Extension is their community engagement. Theres an opportunity for UNMC and the various colleges to work with Extension within these communities  programmatic-related activities, case-related activities, research-related activities. Thats all on the table with the interaction with Extension.

When Nebraskans work together, our communities move forward. Nebraska Extension is proud to be partnering with Nebraskans, border to border, inspiring fulfilled, prosperous and healthy lives.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Brazil's Federal Police searched former President Jair Bolsonaro's home on Wednesday and seized his phone, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly, said that Bolsonaro will be deposed at Federal Police headquarters and also confirmed that one of his closest allies, Mauro Cid, was arrested.

Asked about the search of Bolsonaros home, the Federal Polices press office provided a statement saying officers were carrying out 16 searches and six arrests in Rio de Janeiro related to the introduction of fraudulent data related to the COVID-19 vaccine into the nation's health system. The statement didn't name Bolsonaro or Cid.

Television network Globo broadcast images that showed police inside Bolsonaros condominium complex in Brasilia.

Local media reported that the vaccine cards of Bolsonaro and his family members were altered. During the pandemic, Bolsonaro repeatedly sowed doubt about the efficacy of the vaccine.

We trust that all doubts the Judiciary has will be clarified and it will be proven that Bolsonaro didnt do anything illegal, the leader of Bolsonaros political party, Valdemar Costa Neto, wrote on Twitter.

The police statement said that the insertion of false data occurred between November 2021 and December 2022, and enabled the people whose vaccine cards were altered to comply with the U.S. vaccine requirement to enter the country.

The investigation indicates the the objective was to sustain the discourse aimed at attacking the vaccine against COVID-19, the statement said.
WASHINGTON  Farm and commodity trade association leaders lobbied for updating commodity programs and strengthening crop insurance programs at a Tuesday hearing of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee.

The industry officials said that federal crop insurance and the Department of Agricultures Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage programs are not serving as a true safety net for farmers and that reference prices for crops must be increased to counter declining farm income and high input costs.

A reference price is the estimated cost of an agricultural product set in the farm bill, used for crop insurance and commodity risk management program reimbursement purposes. The last update to reference prices came in the 2014 farm bill.

The commodity assistance title of the farm bill, called Title I, contains the commodity insurance programs, federal crop insurance, certain disaster relief programs for products like sugar, and a fixed-rate loan program that uses commodity stocks as collateral.

Rob Larew, president of the National Farmers Union, said in the Tuesday hearing that while the 2018 farm bill provided a strong financial safety net for farmers, it is being tested in new and unprecedented ways.

Whatever we can do to build on those successes in Title I, making sure that we update the price triggers and the reference prices, making sure that we broaden and strengthen the success of crop insurance, I think will go a long way towards providing that certainty, he said.

Commodity risk management program payouts under the 2018 farm bill totaled $33 billion from 2018 to 2023, and crop insurance indemnities totaled roughly $27 billion over 2021 and 2022. These totals also do not account for the roughly $90 billion in ad-hoc disaster aid distributed over that same time period, mostly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2018 farm bill, which expires at the end of September 2023, was projected to cost $867 billion over 10 years when enacted, and has cost roughly $428 billion over the past five years.

Crop insurance

Zippy Duvall, a witness and president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, told the committee Tuesday that what he hears most often from farmers about the farm bill is the need to strengthen and expand federal crop insurance programs.

Federal crop insurance plans can be purchased for both specialty and commodity crops by acres planted, and generally cover up to 85% of a given years market price for the good.

Caleb Ragland, a witness and row crop farmer from Kentucky, said federal crop insurance is one of the main tools he uses on his farm to stay viable. He said that protecting the programs from cuts and harmful amendments should be a top priority for legislators in the coming farm bill.

Without crop insurance, the risks would be more than many farmers and lenders could handle, he said. It certainly would be for me and my family.

Arkansas Republican Sen. John Boozman asked Duvall about the benefits of the flexibility of the current safety net, in light of talk in Congress of tying eligibility to climate practices, and mandatory payment limits.

Our farmers go to those risk management products to be able to protect their farm, for enough revenue to be able to get to the next crop in the wake of a disaster, he said. Those are real threats. We need not dilute the program. We need to make it better, not more challenging.

Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, a Democrat, asked Larew and Duvall how to better provide crop insurance options for specialty crop farmers in the coming farm bill.

Duvall said that the most important thing is to make sure that the crop insurance program is funded correctly and is easy for farmers to use.

Larew suggested more actively applying a provision of the Federal Crop Insurance Act to encourage adoption and continued use of climate-smart agricultural practices by developing new specialty crop insurance policies.

Reference price increases

All of the industry representatives on the panel spoke in favor of raising reference prices for the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs in the upcoming farm bill.

The Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs protect farmers from poor growing seasons and low prices, respectively. These federal programs, located in Title I of the farm bill, are intended to lessen the risk of farming for producers of major commodities like corn, wheat, soybeans and other crops.

I know it takes a tremendous amount of money to get those where they need to be so we can keep calling them a safety net, said Kody Carson, a past chairman of the National Sorghum Producers. And Im not sure if its two inches above the concrete that is doing the American farmer a lot of good.

Brent Cheyne, president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, said that cuts were made to crop insurance in previous farm bills in efforts to be fiscally conservative that caused the farm safety net to come up short in recent years.

He added that this lack of funds required the federal government to institute the existing ad-hoc disaster payment program, which has delivered relief too late to salvage growing seasons for producers.

Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota asked the panelists how they could improve the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs for farmers.

Larew suggested allowing producers to enroll in both programs at the same time in a given year, as oftentimes they do not know which program will better support their operation.

Harold Wolle, a vice president of the National Corn Growers Association, added that the ARC program could be improved if Congress removed the provision stating that county payment rates to farmers cannot exceed 10% of the county benchmark revenue. He said this rule has limited the assistance provided to producers experiencing major disasters.

He added that strengthening the reference price escalator in the PLC program will allow for more responsive price protection. The provision for reimbursement is capped at 115% of the statutory reference price for corn, or $4.26 per bushel, which is far below market price.

Debt ceiling worries

Stabenow said that the ongoing threat of default on the nations economy has her concerned about funding cuts to the ARC and PLC programs in the farm bill.

She said the last debt ceiling crisis in 2011 resulted in annual cuts of 5.7% to these mandatory programs year-over-year, and she worries about similar changes in the ongoing negotiations.

If we do not have additional funding in the baseline, were going to need to focus on our top priorities, and need your best thinking on how we do this together to be able to target this, she said.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa asked how Congress might bolster the farm safety net without costing the country more money.

I think weve just got to make sure that we determine whats going to keep our safety net strong, and determine what its gonna take to keep our farmers strong, so that we keep our national security strong, Duvall said. But to do it without any more money, I dont have any suggestions.

Grassley also asked Larew if commodity farmland owners should be eligible for safety net programs if they are not actively farming the land, given that the largest 10% of farms in the United States have received 70% of the payouts.

Larew said the National Farmers Union supports provisions that limit payments to those who are truly invested in management and labor, and would be willing to work with Congress to find ways to ensure that those rules are being met.

Baseline spending for the coming farm bill is projected at $1.5 trillion over the next 10 fiscal years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
A Sarpy County woman's "thank-you" card and donation to Planned Parenthood in response to a 37-year-old man's anti-abortion mailing did not justify a protection order, the Nebraska Court of Appeals said in an opinion Tuesday.

Isaac Koch, who recently moved to Alabama from the Nebraska town of Richland, near Columbus, last year appealed a Colfax County judge's denial of a harassment protection order against the woman, identified in the order as "Susan S.," whom he didn't know.

According to the order, Koch sent an envelope to her address and others containing a pamphlet called "Life in the Womb," which contained a link to a video that compared the Holocaust to "premeditated miscarriage" and described abortion as "murder of children in the womb."

In response, the woman sent him a handwritten thank-you note "for the lovely reminder about misinformation. I have donated to Planned Parenthood in your name."

Koch said the act seriously intimidated him and served no legitimate purpose.

He sought a protection order preventing her from harassing him and his two children, who don't live with him, for a year, and ordering her to "withdraw any donation and provide written proof to [him] within 10 business days."

Koch claimed Planned Parenthood was conducting activities in other states that is illegal in Nebraska and therefore it is illegal to donate to that organization in Nebraska. And he contended her actions were crimes, including conspiracy to commit murder.

When the judge denied his request for a protection order, Koch appealed.

Writing for the panel, Court of Appeals Judge Riko Bishop said: "Even assuming that Susans alleged conduct could be considered by a reasonable victim as seriously terrifying, threatening, or intimidating, Koch did not allege sufficient facts to show that Susan had engaged in a harassing course of conduct as required by statute."

It involved a single letter, not a series of events.

It is the second appeal involving Koch and a protection order that the Court of Appeals has ruled on in less than a year.

In September, they affirmed his plea-based conviction for attempted violation of a domestic abuse protection order where he admittedly tied himself to a chair and covered his mouth with duct tape in an attempt to get the woman who had a protection order against him in trouble.

He was sentenced to 60 days in jail in the case.

Photos: Abortion debate at Nebraska Legislature
Accessibility to the legislative process is unique to the Nebraska Unicameral and an aspect that is essential to our states success. Every piece of legislation is given a hearing where members of the public are invited to testify to show either support, opposition or a neutral position for the bill. For those who are not able to attend the hearings, comments are able to be sent prior to the hearing to be documented in the records.

During my time as senator, we have improved comments for the record by eliminating the confusing emailing practice and instead providing a link on the bills actual web page. The legislature is also broadcasted live on Nebraska Public Media. Even with all these options, the hours of the session often interfere with work schedules and it can still be difficult to track the events at the Capitol. This is where LB 254 is needed.

In an effort to continue to increase transparency and make the proceedings available to our constituents at any time of the day, LB 254 will create a publicly accessible internet archive of all video recordings of the legislature and its committee hearings. Especially with a session like we have been having this year, Im in full support and look forward to offering yet another opportunity for my constituents to follow along with what we do here in Lincoln.

A lot of questions are raised as to why there seems to be a hold up in the session this year. People email or call, asking about different bills they are passionate about and wondering how far along they are in the legislative process. Often times, I have to let them know that the legislation significant to their needs will not be discussed in debate because we wont have time this year.

There are certain senators who dont like LB 574, the Let Them Grow Act. This bill has found support from the majority of the body though and looks like it will pass. Because of that, a tantrum in the form of constant filibusters makes it impossible for issues that are important to constituents to be heard.

Another bill that has caused some drama here is LB 562, the E-15 Access Standard Act. I actually worked to come to an agreement with Senator Dorn and the Governor to make LB 562 less of a mandate and more of an incentive program based on my principle against mandates. While this may help small farmers due to the additional demand for corn, it in turn benefits Cargill. I want to do both. But I do have to watch out for my district and the burden Cargill puts on the community by way of road traffic and water consumption.

I would like to see the state join in and help with some of these expenses if more corn is going to be processed here. This is why I am working to promote my bill, LB 672, and the grant for towns like Blair who are involved in agricultural investments for Nebraska.

Next week, Ill review the state budget that the Appropriations Committee has put together for us. If you have questions or comments, please contact Carson Clayton or Ellie Stangl in the District 16 office at (402) 471-2728 or email me at bhansen@leg.ne.gov. To follow along with the session, please visit nebraskalegislature.gov or you may watch the live stream when available at nebraskapublicmedia.org.
Community service is at the heart of everything that Cheyenne Mountain High School senior Garrett Wellens does. In May 2021, Wellens and a group of peers founded the Interact Club. The group has since grown to the point that it now donates hundreds of pounds of uneaten fruit to local farms for livestock feed, works with Project Imagine in Kenya to provide menstrual products and education for girls and has raised $4,000 for libraries in underserved communities.

Wellens also served on the Young Mens Service League with his mother, Kristin Guggenhime.

We have worked with Care and Share, served meals to the homeless at Marian House, created bags and delivered meals for Project Angel Heart and generally made a positive impact together on our community, Wellens said. We are all given gifts and it is our responsibility to use those gifts and give back.

Although Wellens grew up without a father, he has been surrounded by male role models who have taught him the importance of integrity, honesty, respect and love. The outpouring of support from the men in his family, his community of fathers, has driven Wellens to be a positive influence not only on others in the community through his volunteer efforts but for his sister, Charlotte  who Wellens calls his best friend  as well.

When he was in the third grade, Guggenhime signed Wellens up for the John D. Williams Cotillion where he was taught ballroom dancing and manners. Wellens participated as a student through the eighth grade when he was asked by the organization to become a student instructor.

I never expected it to affect me in the substantial way it did, Wellens said. I am proud that I have been able to act as a role model for the younger kids for the past four years.

In 2022, Wellens, who is a member of the Chickasaw Nation through his maternal grandmothers family, spent over three weeks on tribal lands to connect with a part of his culture. He spent time practicing beading and flint knocking, performing stomp-dances and playing stickball.

I learned from some of the most knowledgeable and passionate people I have ever met, Wellens said. This experience gave me a connection to a community I had never even considered, and I will always be grateful for the relationships that I made there.

Because of his academic success, Wellens earned the Chickasaw Nation Outstanding Achievement Award for 2021-2022.

In Garrets life, he demonstrates his hunger for knowledge by making an effort to learn something new every day, said CMHS Counselor Ellen Hinkley. He has a true passion for life and seeks advanced knowledge in every aspect he experiences, while also recognizing there is always more to learn.

Wellens cites his AP Physics C: Mechanics as his greatest academic achievement as much for the difficulty, rumored to be impossible, as the courage it took to take the class.

Something my friends and I often say when life gets hard is: Aint nothing but a peanut, Wellens quipped. What started as a lighthearted teenage joke quickly morphed into a reminder for Wellens that he has managed all of the adversities life has thrown at him so far and while circumstances may be at times overwhelming, by changing ones perspective troubles become just "peanuts."

Wellens will be attending Dartmouth College in the fall where he will double-major in computer science and mathematical data science.

There are many ways my future could go, and I am equally excited about all of them, Wellens said, but what I know for sure is that I will make my community a better place through my love for learning and tenacious attitude.
Editor's note: This story was changed to reflect Avelo's updated flight schedule.

Avelo Airlines will push off from the gate for the first time at Colorado Springs Airport Wednesday.

The low-fare carrier announced earlier this year that it would add exclusive nonstop service from the Colorado Springs Airport to Los Angeles via the Hollywood-Burbank Airport.

The first inbound Avelo flight will arrive at 11:55 a.m. with the first departure set to take off at 1:55 p.m., airport officials said.

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The route, typically planned to operate twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays, will run Mondays and Fridays from May 5 to May 15. The new flights will provide Colorado Springs the only nonstop flights to L.A. on a Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft. United previously offered nonstop service to Los Angeles International Airport but discontinued that service at the start of the year.

Avelo, a new airline, took flight for the first time on April 28, 2021. It serves about three dozen destinations across the U.S. Colorado Springs is Avelos only destination in the Mountain Time Zone besides Boise, Idaho.

Avelo's launch is the first of several new routes being added at Colorado Springs Airport this spring and summer.
Detectives from the Colorado Springs Police Department are still trying to figure out who killed 20-year-old Angelina Sicola, a University of Colorado at Colorado Springs student that was found murdered in 2013.

The police department recently took to Facebook to share information about the 10-year-old cold case. On May 2, 2013, Sicola's body was discovered in her Colorado Springs apartment.

An autopsy revealed that she died by "forcible strangulation," according to the post.

"Since 2013, investigators have conducted interviews with numerous friends, neighbors, co-workers, fellow students, and social media contacts of the victim, but no suspect has been identified," CSPD said.

According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Sicola worked at the Taekwondo Center at the time of her death.

Investigators are still working to solve this case. Anyone with information regarding this murder is asked to contact the Colorado Springs Police Department at 719-444-7000.
Three years ago, Breonna Taylor was fatally shot in her Kentucky apartment by police executing a no-knock warrant for her ex-boyfriend. Taylor's death inspired national outrage and debate on the use of search warrants that allow police to forcibly enter peoples homes without warning.

Colorado lawmakers are tackling the issue with Senate Bill 254.

If made law, the bill would only allow courts to authorize no-knock warrants if there is a credible threat to a person's life, in addition to restricting other kinds of warrants. The state legislature gave final approval to the bill on Tuesday, sending it to the governor for final consideration.

Executing no-knock or knock-and-announce warrants can be extremely dangerous for both law enforcement and the subject of the warrant," said bill sponsor Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora. This bill will put important guardrails around the use of these tactics, and help ensure avoidable tragedies like the killing of Breonna Taylor never happen in Colorado.

For knock-and-announce warrants, the bill would require law enforcement to: identify themselves as law enforcement; wear a uniform or badge; wear an activated body camera; wait a reasonable time before forcibly entering; and, execute the warrant between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., unless otherwise authorized by a judge. These restrictions wouldn't apply in emergency situations.

SB 254 passed the House Tuesday in a 42-23 vote, following the Senate's 27-7 passage last month.

The bill received bipartisan support and opposition, though the votes hewed largely along party lines, with most Democrats voting "yes" and Republicans voting "no." Between both chambers, five Democrats voted against the bill and five Republicans voted in favor of it.

Some critics said it would take away a necessary tool from law enforcement, arguing that no-knock warrants allow officers to catch suspected criminals off-guard before they can arm themselves or dispose of evidence.

"It's an officer safety issue," said Sen. Perry Will, R-New Castle, who voted against the bill. "I don't know how many others in this room have worn a badge and executed search warrants. I've done that in my career many, many times. ... If it's really bad individuals, you really need that element of surprise."

Proponents countered that preserving evidence is not worth risking lives, and no-knocks can often result in residents shooting at officers because they are unaware that they are law enforcement. This happened in the Taylor case, in which her boyfriend shot an officer and called 911 when law enforcement broke down the apartment door, thinking the officers were intruders.

At least 22 people were killed by police during the execution of no-knock warrants throughout the country from 2015 to 2022, The Washington Post reported. In one case, an officer was also killed.

"The bill is designed with the purpose of officer and law enforcement safety," Fields said. "We want to make sure that if you are going to execute a search warrant, that we want to keep everyone safe."

Bill passes to make falsely reporting mass shootings a felony in Colorado

Other opponents of the bill argued that it is unnecessary.

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Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Fort Lupton, a former law enforcement officer, said no-knock warrants are rarely used and most law enforcement agencies follow the bulk of the bill's other requirements anyway.

"I have no problem with the policies. It's the message that it sends," said Evans, who voted against the bill. "It makes law enforcement feel like they are not trusted to be able to make good decisions."

On the other side of the political spectrum, Democrats who opposed the bill seemingly did so because they believe it does not go far enough.

Bill sponsor Rep. Elisabeth Epps, D-Denver, alluded to this herself, saying if she was not sponsoring the bill, she might not have voted in favor of it because it lacks an enforcement provision.

"This bill doesn't reflect what this body can and should do," Epps said. "Have you ever heard of law enforcement asking to criminalize a behavior and saying, 'We want to make it against the rules, but there will be no penalty, no consequence, no fine, no punishment'? It hasn't happened."

But proponents of the bill argued that it struck the right balance, evident by it receiving any bipartisan support at all.

Fields and other lawmakers have been working to address no-knock warrants for years. In 2021, the legislature passed a bill sponsored by Fields, requiring a study group to look into the use of no-knock warrants and forced entry.

The group  consisting of law enforcement, lawmakers, attorneys and advocates  concluded that no-knock warrants are "undesirable and should be avoided," calling them dangerous for both residents and law enforcement officers and recommending their use be minimized "to the greatest extent possible."

SB 254 largely aligns with the group's recommendations.

"This is a bill that deals with the intersection between personal privacy and public safety," said Sen. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, who voted for the bill. "Finding the right balance is not easy, and the sponsors have done that."

The bill will be sent to Gov. Jared Polis in the coming days. If signed, it will go into effect immediately.

States including Florida, Oregon, Connecticut and Virginia have fully banned no-knock warrants, while many other states only allow them in certain circumstances. In 2020, Aurora became the first city in Colorado to ban no-knock warrants.

Aurora officer's search of 17-year-old was unconstitutional, appeals court rules
Students at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs will no longer be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, the university announced in a news release Wednesday. The requirement will end on May 15 for all students, faculty and staff.

The university will continue providing COVID-related resources.

The change is welcome news and offers the campus community a choice in their future COVID-19 vaccination decisions, University of Colorado Regent Ken Montera said in a statement. While the campus will remain vigilant in its efforts to keep the community safe, it is also important to bring back a sense of normalcy to the daily activities on campus.

The requirement issued across the University of Colorado system was UCCSs last remaining pandemic restriction after mask mandates were lifted last spring, according to Assistant Vice Chancellor for Health and Wellness Stephanie Hanenberg. Its lifting comes less than a month after President Joe Biden signed a resolution to end the national state of emergency that has been in place for three years.

The decision was a direct response to the national emergencys ending, Hanenberg said, but the university will continue to provide rapid antigen and PCR testing at the wellness center to those who request it.

We just are hoping people stay mindful that COVID is still present. If somebody feels sick, dont come to class or work so theyre not spreading it to others, Hanenberg said.

UCCS joins Pikes Peak State College in leaving vaccination up to students and staff. Pike Peak State College never required vaccinations, according to a spokesperson, but the school was supportive of the safety measure and provided students with weekly vaccination clinics on campus.

A vaccine requirement remains in effect at Colorado College, where 89.7% of the school community has been vaccinated and boosted. Religious, medical and personal exemptions apply.
Barry Morphew Tuesday filed a $15,000,000 federal civil rights lawsuit which states that he was wrongfully arrested, jailed and prosecuted for the alleged murder of his wife, Suzanne, nearly two years ago, for "a crime he did not commit."

The lawsuit lists 20 defendants involved in the unsolved case, including the entire prosecution team headed up by 17th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley, law enforcement officials, such as Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze, Chaffee County, and numerous investigators with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the FBI, some of whom no longer work for the organizations.

Mrs. Morphew was reported missing May 10, Mother's Day 2020, but the last proof-of-life photo was a cellphone selfie she sent her lover the day before at around 2 p.m. Hundreds of people turned out to search for her including divers, volunteers on horseback and hikers who combed through sometimes treacherous mountain terrain.

The complaint alleges that Morphew was targeted by law enforcement as Suzanne Morphew's alleged murderer as early as May 13, 2020, around the time they found her bicycle helmet off to the side of the highway just under a mile from the couple's home.

The 185-page complaint was filed by three law firms: Samler and Whitson, Eytan Law and Fisher and Byrialsen. In a prepared statement, Attorney Jane Byrialsen said: "Barry Morphew's Constitutional Rights were trampled on, he and his daughters have suffered great harm, and we will not tolerate such abuses of power."

The complaint alleged that investigators lied, omitted and manufactured information, which would fit their theory that Barry Morphew murdered his wife in a fit of rage over the affair and hid her body sometime between the afternoon of May 9 into the early morning of May 10.

The complaint goes after multiple officers personally and in their official capacities. State law enforcement organizations are also being sued.

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The Colorado Bureau of Investigation said it would have no comment regarding the complaint and similarly, when contacted, the FBI said it "will not comment on pending litigation." A number of the investigative people named in the lawsuit did not return The Denver Gazette's request for comment.

Nearly two years ago, Chaffee County District Judge Patrick Murphy found probable cause for Morphew to be arrested on charges of first-degree murder, tampering with a deceased human body and tampering with physical evidence. Four months later, Murphy found probable cause for Morphew to stand trial on those charges.

Soon after, the 129-page arrest affidavit  which Murphy said was "by far, the lengthiest and most detailed affidavit the Court has ever seen in almost 30 years of experience with criminal cases"  was unsealed. That day, the-then-53-year-old Morphew was released from jail on $500,000 cash bail and walked out of a Chaffee County courtroom flanked by both adult daughters.

In April 2022, on the eve of Morphew's trial, the prosecution filed a motion to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning the case can be filed again.

Suzanne Morphew, 49, disappeared from the couple's Maysville home east of Salida in May 2020. Investigators have not found her remains. It was this fact that led prosecutors to the decision to dismiss the case.

Without this crucial evidence, and without the victims body, the People cannot move forward at this time in good faith, they wrote.

Spezze told The Denver Gazette in an earlier interview that investigators continue to look for Suzanne Morphew.
Photo: The Canadian Press FILE - A Twitter logo hangs outside the company's offices in San Francisco, on Dec. 19, 2022. Elon Musk threatened to reassign NPRs Twitter account to another company, according to the non-profit news organization, in an ongoing spat between Musk and media groups since his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last year. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Elon Musk threatened to reassign NPRs Twitter account to another company, according to the non-profit news organization, in an ongoing spat between Musk and media groups since his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last year.

So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company? Musk wrote in one email late Tuesday to NPR reporter Bobby Allyn.

NPR stopped tweeting from its main account after Twitter abruptly labeled NPRs main account as  state-affiliated media  last month, a term thats also been used to identify outlets controlled or heavily influenced by authoritarian governments. Twitter then changed the label to  government-funded media.

NPR said that both labels were inaccurate and undermined its credibility  noting the nonprofit news company operates independently of the U.S. government. Federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting accounts for less than 1% of NPRs annual operating budget, the company said.

The last tweets on NPRs main account are from April 12  when the news organization shared a thread of other places readers and listeners can find its journalism.

Twitter temporarily slapped other news organizations  including the BBC and PBS  with government-funded media labels. PBS also stopped using its Twitter account in response.

An article written by Allyn late Tuesday, the NPR tech reporter detailed the messages that the billionaire owner of Twitter sent regarding NPRs account. Musk pointed to the NPR's choice to stop tweeting as reasoning behind possibly reassigning the account.

Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant, Musk wrote in one email. Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR."

According to Twitter's online policy, the social media platform determines an account's inactivity based on logging on  not tweeting. Twitter says that users should log in at least every 30 days to keep their accounts active, and that accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity.

Musks comments and his actions, however, do not always match and it is uncertain if he will actually reassign NPRs handle, regardless of Twitter's published policy on account activity.

When asked by NPR who would be willing to use NPRs Twitter account, Musk replied, National Pumpkin Radio, along with a fire emoji and a laughing emoji, NPR reported.

It is unknown if NPR has logged into its account, which currently has a blue check without the previous government-funded media label, since April. The Associated Press reached out to NPR for comment early Wednesday.

Musk disbanded Twitter's media and public relations department after the takeover.

As of Wednesday, the NPR Twitter handle still appeared to belong to NPR. If Musk does reassign the account to another user, experts warn of misinformation and further loss of credibility.

"Potentially losing access to a handle as a form of pressure is really just a continuation of eroding the credibility of information sharing on Twitter," Zeve Sanderson, executive director of New York Universitys Center for Social Media and Politics told The Associated Press.

For journalism, theres not only brand safety concerns, but in addition to that, there are a ton of concerns around misinformation potentially being perceived as a lot more credible  because someone (could be) tweeting from from the NPR handle when its really not them, Sanderson added.

It is the latest volley in what many experts describe as a chilling and uncertain landscape for journalism on Twitter since Musk acquired the company in October.

In addition to removing news organization's verifications and temporarily adding labels like government-funded media" on some accounts, Musk abruptly suspended the accounts of individual journalists who wrote about Twitter late last year.

In response to Musk's Tuesday emails, Liz Woolery, digital policy lead at literary organization PEN America said that it is hard to imagine a more potent example of Musks willingness to use Twitter to arbitrarily intimidate and retaliate against any person or organization that irks him, with or without provocation.

Its a purely authoritarian tactic, seemingly intended to undermine one of the countrys premier and most trusted news organizationsone that is especially important to rural communities across the U.S. Woolery added in a Wednesday statement to The Associated Press.
In 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court gave its approval to a special type of guilty plea, one in which a criminal defendant maintains his innocence while, at the same time, accepting a plea deal from the prosecution.

Those "Alford pleas," named after the case North Carolina v. Alford, are permissible when a defendant believes it is in his best interest and, the Supreme Court added, when there is "a factual basis for the plea."

On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court placed Alford pleas under a microscope to answer a question that has divided other state and federal courts. Is an Alford plea constitutional when a defendant pleads guilty, insists he is innocent, but there is not, in fact, strong evidence he is guilty of the charge?

"Alarming rates of people are pleading to things they didnt actually do," argued attorney Krista A. Schelhaas, representing Delano Marco Medina in his challenge to his own Alford plea in Lake County. "These are the people who are continuing to say, 'Im innocent.' And its not that we would never accept that plea. Its that we would verify. The Constitution requires theres a verification process."

But some justices observed during oral arguments that defendants may have good reason to plead guilty to an offense they did not commit if it helps them avoid a likely guilty verdict on other, potentially more serious charges.

"I think this case seems to have a be-careful-what-you-wish-for quality when it comes to criminal defendants," said Justice William W. Hood III.

Medina pleaded guilty to a felony menacing charge, in which the prosecution claimed he held a knife to his victim's throat. In exchange for a one-year prison sentence, the prosecution dismissed five other traffic and criminal cases against Medina in a "global disposition."

Medina's attorney told the trial judge that, in Medina's "heart of hearts, he does not believe he's guilty" of menacing, but he was pleading guilty to take advantage of the deal. The defense waived the procedural requirement that there be evidence of guilt, known as a factual basis. The trial judge proceeded with the understanding that Medina had entered an Alford plea and told him he "cannot come back" and change his mind.

Later, Medina attempted to withdraw his plea, claiming he had not understood it and that new evidence would show he did not commit menacing after all. At the same time, Medina admitted he was guilty in his other dismissed cases.

The Court of Appeals examined whether Medina's plea was knowing, voluntary and intelligent, which is a requirement of due process. A three-judge panel looked to the Alford decision, which involved a defendant who pleaded guilty to murder while maintaining his innocence because a guilty verdict at trial could have resulted in the death penalty. The panel determined Alford did not contain a constitutional requirement for strong evidence of guilt.

While other courts have found that a factual basis for guilt is intertwined with the knowing, voluntary and intelligent requirement, the Court of Appeals opted against placing Colorado in that cohort.

"Given the benefit of the bargain of a 'very generous' deal as described by the prosecutor, and Medinas acknowledgment that he was guilty of some but not all charges in his six criminal cases, this is a situation where competing interests were contemplated and served by a global disposition," wrote Judge Sueanna P. Johnson in finding Medina's plea constitutional.

On appeal to the state Supreme Court, the justices acknowledged the safeguard that comes from convicting defendants only when there are facts suggesting their guilt.

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"The defendant doesnt have to admit guilt, but the whole point of saying theres some factual basis is to ensure we dont enter a judgment of conviction against an innocent person," said Justice Richard L. Gabriel.

However, countered Justice Monica M. Marquez, sometimes prosecutors will add a charge for a defendant to plead guilty to, in exchange for dismissing the original charges that were supported by evidence.

"Its set up in a way to benefit the defendant for potentially other reasons. It seems that your rule requiring a factual basis would prohibit those kinds of plea agreements," she told Schelhaas.

Schelhaas responded that she was asking the court to resolve a narrow problem: Defendants who believe they are innocent and do not fully understand the consequences of pleading guilty.

She referred to the "innocence problem," a term used by scholars to describe the act of pleading guilty because of a favorable offer from the prosecution, despite a defendant's plausible or actual innocence. Belmont University professor Lucian E. Dervan has written that plea bargaining became commonplace during the Prohibition era, and now roughly nine in 10 defendants plead guilty.

"Today, defendants whose guilt is uncertain are offered plea bargains as often, if not more often, than those for whom the evidence is particularly strong," Dervan wrote in 2012. "Not only are these defendants of questionable guilt offered plea bargains, their bargains are often more generous and, therefore, more irresistible than those offered to defendants against whom the government believes it has a strong chance of success at trial."

The Colorado Attorney General's Office argued there is nothing special about Alford pleas, and warned the justices away from imposing any additional requirements to assist defendants who happen to believe they are innocent.

"Doing so would provide a defendant who says the magic words of Im guilty, but Im also innocent with more rights than any other defendant entering into a guilty plea," said Assistant Attorney General Grant R. Fevurly.

"Should we just ignore the innocence problem?" Hood asked him.

Yes, Fevurly responded, because Medina was not innocent.

Ultimately, some members of the Supreme Court were receptive to the notion that trial judges should independently verify there is strong evidence of guilt before accepting a guilty plea from a defendant who maintains his innocence.

"What I infer from Alford," said Justice Carlos A. Samour Jr., "in order to protect the defendant's rights, the court has to satisfy itself that there's some evidence of guilt. That this person the court is allowing to plead guilty ... should be allowed to continue with his plea because there is strong evidence of guilt in the record."

The case is Medina v. People.
As the end of Letecia Stauch's trial draws near, the jury will soon be forced to answer the question of her sanity, and will have two drastically different reports to contend with.

One expert claims that Stauch suffers from dissociative identity disorder and was insane when she allegedly killed Gannon. The other claims Stauch does not suffer from dissociative identity disorder, was sane when she allegedly killed Gannon, and that she highly suspects Stauch may have been faking her symptoms entirely.

On Tuesday, the defense got the chance to call its first witness of the trial after nearly five full weeks of testimony, and the long-awaited testimony of the defenses expert, Dr. Dorothy Lewis, began.

Lewis, who conducted the sanity examination for the defense, is a clinical psychiatrist who used to teach at New York University and Yale University and whose research was described as "groundbreaking" by her attorney. She also was the subject of the HBO documentary "Crazy, Not Insane."

Lewis concluded that Stauch was insane at the time she allegedly killed Gannon, and that she suffers from dissociative identity disorder, vastly contrasting with the findings of Dr. Loandra Torres, a forensic psychologist who works at Colorado's state hospital in Pueblo, who testified for the prosecution last week.

She was psychotic at the time, not in touch with reality, and I dont think she knew the difference between right and wrong. I dont even know if she knew what she was doing, Lewis said.

Max Wachtel, a forensic psychologist based in Denver who has conducted several sanity evaluations in criminal cases in Colorado, spoke with The Gazette this week and discussed the abnormalities in Stauch's case.

Wachtel said that it is actually incredibly common for two experts to have a difference in opinion on sanity reports in a criminal case.

"It comes down to a credibility contest  which expert does the jury believe more?" Wachtel explained. "Usually, you can find two credible experts who will conclude differently on sanity."

What makes the Stauch case much more abnormal, according to Wachtel, is the major difference at which the two experts disagree.

Wachtel explained that usually when sanity is brought up in a criminal case, it's because there is a clear and well-documented history of severe mental illness with the defendant, and that the existence of the mental illness is not disputed by the prosecution or its expert.

Wachtel pointed to the trial of James Holmes, the Colorado man who shot and killed 12 people in an Aurora movie theater in 2012. Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to all charges, and during his trial, according to Wachtel, Holmes' issues with mental illness were never disputed by the prosecution.

"Usually, if somebody has raised the defense of not guilty by reason of insanity, it's because something is there. The person probably does have a mental illness," Wachtel said. "That was the case with the Aurora theater shooting. It was very clear the shooter had severe mental illness. Nobody was claiming he was faking that, and that's typically what you see in insanity defenses."

Holmes was found guilty on all charges in 2015.

The Stauch case differs from most sanity cases, with Torres and the prosecution both heavily disputing that Stauch suffers from any severe mental illness at all, while the defense and Lewis claim she suffers from an incredibly serious mental illness.

We began to wonder if she was exaggerating, Torres said during her testimony on Thursday. All of it seems a bit farfetched to me in terms of dissociative identity disorder.

On Tuesday, Lewis testified that she had diagnosed Stauch with dissociative identity disorder, that she was "one of the most mentally ill people," she had met, and that she actually spoke with one of Stauch's alleged personalities.

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Lewis claimed that during one of her interviews, Stauch had taken on the "Maria" personality, which Stauch claimed was the one who killed Gannon in an interview with Torres, and spoke with a Russian accent.

Another unusual trait of Stauch's trial is the lack of evidence supporting a severe mental illness from the defendant, something Wachtel described as "incredibly unusual for an insanity plea." Wachtel explained that often in cases where sanity is the defense, there will be major evidence to show that the defendant had a documented history of mental illness before the incident.

"It's really unusual, especially for somebody who is claiming (dissociative identity disorder)," Wachtel said. "For that person to have never been diagnosed with PTSD, or to never mention anything to a primary care physician, that's unusual. That's a huge hurdle the defense will have to get over."

On Tuesday, the defense's first witness, Dr. Ronda Niederhauser, testified that while she diagnosed Stauch with anxiety in 2019, she did not believe Stauch suffered from any severe mental illnesses either time they met, less than two months before Stauch allegedly killed Gannon.

"If I had concerns about her ... I would have placed her on a 72-hour hold," Niederhauser said during cross-examination.

Additionally, over the course of the trial, the prosecution has asked numerous witnesses, including Torres, their thoughts on Stauch's sanity, and all have stated they don't believe Stauch had ever suffered from any severe or debilitating mental illness.

Torres on Friday told the prosecution one of the key reasons she found Stauch to be unreliable  and one of the key reasons she didn't diagnose dissociative identity disorder  was the lack of any of Stauch's family members claiming they knew of her multiple personalities.

She talks about having this mental illness since she was 16 years old, and its never repeated anywhere," Torres said on Friday regarding the lack of corroborating evidence from those who know Stauch. "That's meaningful to me."

Lewis, who said she didn't speak with any of Stauch's family members, testified during cross-examination that the importance of what the family says is less relevant to her because they have reasons to not be entirely truthful.

"I find what they do when nobody is watching is more impactful," Lewis said during cross-examination.

One of the few points agreed upon by both sets of experts is that dissociative identity disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder, is an extremely controversial diagnosis. Wachtel, who said he has diagnosed people with dissociative identity disorder in the past, stated that the reason for that is twofold: There are numerous people who dispute that dissociative identity disorder is even a real mental health condition; and defendants often lie about having it in criminal cases.

"Dissociative identity disorder is one of the most faked mental illnesses when it comes to sanity evaluations," Watchel said. "If somebody is going to fake it, they typically either claim a fake psychosis or multiple personalities."

Lewis' cross-examination, conducted by prosecutor Dave Young, ended the day on Tuesday and was some of the most heated testimony of the trial thus far. During the cross-examination, Young accused Lewis of conducting a sanity examination that was not thorough, of being biased, and that she has a "disregard for court rules."

Lewis, who is over 90 years old and uses a wheelchair, arrived late to court this afternoon, and also did not turn in her sanity report to the court until four days before jury selection.

Lewis was clearly unhappy with Young's line of questioning, and stated numerous times that she stands by the findings of her sanity report and that she doesn't determine sanity for a paycheck.

Lewis' cross-examination will continue on Wednesday morning, where Young told the court he intends to play footage from Stauch's interview with Lewis to the jury.
A 19-year-old who was arrested in March and accused of planning a mass shooting at schools in Colorado Springs appeared in court Wednesday afternoon, where a judge approved a request by the defense to delay a hearing.

At the preliminary hearing on June 30, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday, a judge will determine if there is enough evidence to bring the case to trial. The preliminary hearing will be held in Kiowa at the Elbert County Courthouse.

Court records show William Whitworth is charged with attempted first-degree murder after deliberation, attempted first-degree murder with extreme indifference, criminal mischief, menacing and interference with staff, faculty or students of educational institutions.

Whitworth is being held at the Elbert County jail, where Whitworth reportedly indicated to an employee in April a continued plan to commit a mass shooting at a school in Academy District 20, where Whitworth was a student at three schools for a total of nine months between 2014 and 2016.

At a hearing April 13, a judge raised Whitworth's bond to $750,000 from $75,000. The mandatory protection order conditions were also modified to include GPS monitoring and no contact with any public or private school property or institution in Colorado.

Whitworth, who is transitioning to female, was arrested March 31 and accused of planning a mass shooting when investigators found instructions on how to build homemade bombs and a whiteboard with the floor plan to Timberview Middle School in Whitworth's bedroom, according to arrest records obtained by The Gazette.

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The affidavit states that Prairie Hills Elementary and Pine Creek High School, both in Colorado Springs, were also listed as targets in one of Whitworths notebooks, which contained a detailed list of people to be killed. Investigators did not find any weapons in the home, but they did find a liquid that is used to clean firearms.

Deputies also found a manifesto with the names of mass shooters, political commentators and more while searching Whitworths home, according to the affidavit. A notebook was found with instructions on how to make firearms using a 3D printer and how to make homemade explosives. Whitworth admitted to watching a YouTube video on how to build a detonator, according to the affidavit.

Law enforcement originally responded to the home after Whitworth's sister reported Whitworth behaving violently and referring to school shootings.

Deputies found Whitworth lying in bed, drunk, in a room piled with trash that had several holes in the wall, according to the affidavit.

When authorities asked why Whitworth wanted to shoot up a school, Whitworth said: No specific reason. Whitworth also admitted to being about a third of the way from doing it (committing a mass shooting), the affidavit states.
College is seen by many as a transformative time of self-discovery in a young persons life, and 20-year-old Angelina Angie Sicola was no exception.

Angie probably would have been some TV personality, her mother Pamela Lively said. She was very outgoing, and always the kind of person who would make friends. She could walk up to anybody and start a conversation. She was very fun, and very funny.

A communication student and talented Taekwondo athlete and teacher, Angie had a bright future ahead of her, family members said.

That is, until that future was taken away  along with her life.

This week marks 10 years since the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs student was murdered. A decade later, the case remains unsolved, leaving a family desperate for answers.

Lively said the day her daughter's body was found was supposed to be another routine day for Angie and her family. Angie had plans in the morning to meet her father for a doctors appointment, and Lively was occupied with her job as a teacher at the Air Academy High School.

When Angie didnt show up to her appointment that morning, her father became worried and decided to go to her apartment to check on her. It wasnt like Angie to be tardy without explanation, Lively said.

It was like it was yesterday, Lively said. Angies dad is the one who found her.

I was driving back to the Air Force base when I got the call from her dad and he told me that Angie was dead, and I was just screaming. I pulled over, and I was just screaming, 'What are you telling me, why are you telling me this, why are you telling me this?' Your brain just cant understand, Lively said.

They (the high school) got substitutes for my colleague and me and she drove us to her (Angies) apartment. And we couldnt go in, but we were there for some hours, Lively said.

Angie was strangled. With no sign of forced entry to her apartment, family and investigators believe Angie knew the person who ended her life.

It wasnt until the next day that they told us it was a homicide, Lively said. Angies dad told me the circumstances in which she was found, and I wont repeat those, but her body was discarded like it was a piece of garbage.

Lively said at first, the family was hopeful theyd be brought proper closure and justice.

I believe early on they followed every lead they possibly could, Lively said.

A decade later, Lively said she has grown frustrated with how the Colorado Springs Police Department has handled her daughters case.

The detective that was originally on the case before it became a cold case, he always kept me well informed, Lively said. The other day I emailed the department out of frustration, and I discovered both of the cold case detectives that were there last year are no longer with the department.

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One of them had emailed me a few months ago and told me she was leaving the unit, but the other one didnt.

According to Lively, her family is still in the dark about whos leading the investigation in her daughters case.

In 2019, Lively was told investigators were going to use genetic genealogy in Angie's case, a method that was successful in apprehending Californias Golden State Killer in 2018. Now, Colorado Springs police say that avenue is no longer a possibility.

When Detective (Brian) Cummings emailed me back to apologize for the turnover in the cold case department, he said Angies case does not qualify for genetic genealogy as discussed in our meeting last year, Lively said. He said advancements in DNA technology may change that in the future, but as it stands right now it is not a possibility.

Police spokesperson Robert Tornabene said he's unsure who initially told the family genetic genealogy would be an option and can only speak about what the investigative team has advised Lively and her family over the past year.

"This case is actively being worked," Tornabene said.

According to Tornabene, several factors can disqualify an investigation from being eligible for genetic genealogy, including having an insufficient DNA sample, which leads to an inability to develop a complete DNA profile.

"For any case that is not suitable for genetic genealogy, the advancements in technology for DNA can change the opportunity for reexamination," Tornabene said.

According to Tornabene, once a homicide investigation is open for a year, the case is considered "cold." Colorado Springs police are investigating 121 cold homicide and missing person cases.

Lively said that although Angies case has been considered cold for a number of years, she remains hopeful that justice will come.

Theres no such thing as closure, but we will not have peace until her killer is behind bars. Thats when we can have some peace, Lively said.

For Amber Sicola, Angies sister and best friend, there is no ambiguity when it comes to seeking justice for Angie.

Justice would be finally knowing what happened, why it happened and a conviction, Amber Sicola said. Angie was a strong, confident woman who always made others laugh or smile with her silliness and kindness. She was driven to be independent and successful in everything she tried.

The family is still offering a $10,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of Angies killer.

I talk to Angie every day. People ask me how, you know, how you cope. Im not strong. Give me an Academy Award if thats your conclusion. Im really very fragile, Lively said.

I named her Angelina because I loved the name, I never paid much attention to what it meant. When I looked it up later, it means a messenger from God. We all assume shes watching over us, we live our lives with that assumption, and thats how we get by.
Two weeks after they went on a rock-throwing spree which proved fatal, three teenagers accused of killing a 20-year-old Arvada woman were in the same room Wednesday for the first time since their arrest. Nicholas Karol-Chik, Zachary Kwak and Joseph Koenig  handcuffed, wearing orange jumpsuits and plastic clogs  took their seats in a Jefferson County courtroom and did not look at each other.

First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King Wednesday formally charged Karol-Chik, Koenig and Kwak with thirteen counts each in connection with Alexa Bartell's alleged murder, which shocked the community.

The charges were:

One count of first-degree murder with extreme indifference

Six counts of criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder

Three count of second-degree assault

Three counts of criminal attempt to commit second-degree assault

Kwak smiled at his family, who attended the hearing, but the bespectacled Karol-Chik stared straight ahead and appeared to ignore his fathers gaze.

Each answered yes, your honor in clear voices when they were asked by First Judicial District Court Judge Christopher Zenisek whether they understood the charges against them and each one waived their right to have their preliminary hearings held in 35 days. That hearing is where prosecutors present evidence to the judge, who must decide if enough exists to send the defendants to trial.

Seven members of Bartells family, including her mother, Kelly, entered the courtroom and took up the first row. They listened intently to the proceedings, which were over within 15 minutes.

Colorado trial attorney and former Denver Chief Deputy District Attorney Craig Silverman said the high-profile and dastardly nature of the crime elevated what would normally be a routine event.

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"The start of any criminal case is like the meeting at home plate before the real game begins," Silverman said.

Bartell died when a rock thrown from an oncoming truck smashed into her windshield, hit her in the head, and exited the back window of her yellow Chevy Spark, according to police.

She was on the phone with a friend as she driving on Indiana Street, a remote two-lane highway in Broomfield, when the line went silent at 10:45 p.m. Wednesday April 19. Her funeral was last weekend.

Three other drivers were injured in the crime spree which lasted 45 minutes as the three suspects allegedly drove around northwest Jefferson County lobbing landscaping rocks from either a sun roof or from side windows, according to the arrest affidavit. Seven cars were hit between 10:00 and 10:45 p.m. that night.

In a chilling statement to Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies, Kwak said after they hit Bartell's car, the three made a U-turn and drove by and he took a photo of the car for a memento. The next day, the teens vowed to stay mum about their night of deadly mischief and came up with a corroborating story about what happened, according to the arrest affidavit.

Despite those plans, Kwak and Karol-Chik gave investigators conflicting stories as to who threw the rock which killed Bartell. Koenig never gave an interview.

Investigators arrested the three last week. Koenig's father, Mark, was also arrested when deputies showed up at his house to arrest his son. He was released and faces a charge of obstruction.

The defendants are next due in court May 16.
Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh, a former South Carolina lawyer, admitted he "invented" a story that his dogs caused the family's housekeeper to fall down the stairs fatally.

Murdaugh was convicted on March 2 on two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of his wife and son. He will serve consecutive life sentences for the murders of his wife, Maggie, 52, and his son, Paul, 22, in June 2021.

ALEX MURDAUGH TRIAL: 'BIGGEST PIECE OF EVIDENCE' WAS MURDERER TAKING STAND, SOUTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS

Prosecutors said during the murder trial that Murdaugh secured $4.3 million in insurance settlements for the sons of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh's housekeeper at the hunting estate, Moselle, where Paul and Maggie were killed.

However, prosecutors said Murdaugh kept most of the settlement money for himself.

Defendant Alex Murdaugh is cross examined by prosecutor Creighton Waters while testifying during his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. Joshua Boucher/AP

Murdaugh claimed in 2018 that Satterfield died in a "trip and fall" accident after one of Murdaugh's dogs got under Satterfield and caused her to fall down the stairs, fatally hitting her head. However, the story turned out to be a lie fabricated so Murdaugh could force his insurers to make a payment.

"No dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield on February 2, 2018," according to court documents filed on Monday. "After Ms. Satterfield's death, Defendant invented Ms. Satterfield's purported statement that dogs caused her fall to force his insurers to make a settlement payment, and he stated that she was not on the property to perform work."

Monday's filing served as a response to a lawsuit filed by Nautilus Insurance Company accusing Murdaugh of committing insurance fraud concerning Satterfield's death. The company sued Murdaugh, ex-attorney Cory Fleming, and others in May 2022, stating that the information they received from Murdaugh about the case was incorrect and that the defendants pocketed $3.8 million from Nautilus and $500,000 from Lloyd's of London that was intended for the Satterfield family.

Murdaugh's lawyers argued in their response to the lawsuit that, if he lied about the circumstances of the fall, the Satterfields were not entitled to the money in the first place  which Eric Bland, lawyer for the late housekeeper's family, said is just another lie to help Murdaugh avoid judgment on his financial misconduct.

Michael Tony Satterfield, son of Gloria Satterfield, points out Alex Murdaugh during Murdaugh's double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. Sam Wolfe/AP

The disbarred South Carolina lawyer is charged with 99 financial crimes after he allegedly embezzled close to $9 million from clients and his family's decades-old law firm, as well as $490,000 from the state. Judge Clinton Newman, who presided over the murder trial, will also preside over the financial trial.

The prosecution focused mostly on Murdaugh's financial crimes as a motive for the murders of his wife and son, as news of his misconduct was set to be exposed in court just days after the murders took place. Murdaugh admitted to the financial crimes on the witness stand.

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"I took money that was not mine, and I shouldn't have done it," he testified. "I hate the fact that I did it. I'm embarrassed by it. I'm embarrassed for my son. I'm embarrassed for my family."

The trials could take place in multiple counties, including Colleton County, where the murder trial was held. Prosecutor Creighton Waters said during Murdaugh's sentencing that the financial crimes range in location from Hampton, Beaufort, Orangeburg, and Allendale. A date for the beginning of the financial trial has not been established.

Original Location: Alex Murdaugh says he 'invented' housekeeper's fatal accident with dogs

Washington Examiner Videos
ROME/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Police across Europe arrested more than 100 people on Wednesday in a massive crackdown that targeted the Italian 'Ndrangheta mafia, with suspects accused of drugs and weapons trafficking with counterparts in Latin America.

"Today's raids are one of the largest operations carried out so far in the fight against Italian organised crime," said German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, adding they had "dealt a serious blow to the `Ndrangheta."

The swoop was part of an investigation spanning Italy, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Romania, Brazil and Panama, according to European Union law enforcement agency Europol.

The network was devoted primarily to international drug trafficking from South America to both Europe and Australia, Europol said in a statement.

The network used Chinese money brokers in Italy and Colombia to arrange for funds to be moved to pay for drug deals, Italian police commander Massimiliano D'Angelantonio told a news conference.

The 'Ndrangheta clans were also involved in running weapons from Pakistan to South America, supplying Brazilian criminal group PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) in exchange for cocaine shipments, Europol added.

The 'Ndrangheta, which has its roots in the southern Italian region of Calabria, has surpassed Cosa Nostra as the most powerful mafia group in the country, and one of the largest criminal networks in the world.

Some of the 'Ndrangheta families targeted have been involved in clan feuds culminating in mass shootings, including the killing of six people in the German city of Duisburg in 2007, according to Europol.

ICE CREAM PARLOUR

Profits were recycled through real estate, restaurants, hotels, car wash companies, supermarkets, and other commercial activities.

In Germany, investigators targeted an ice cream parlour in the northwestern town of Siegen, which they suspected was being used to launder money and as a strategic hub for the 'Ndrangheta.

Investigator Oliver Huth told reporters they found Italians from Calabria there, some of whom were believed to be involved in drugs while others had links to killings or murders. The cafe has been shut down.

Assets worth 25 million euros ($27.6 million) were seized in Italy, Germany, Portugal and France in "Operation Eureka," launched in 2019 initially to investigate drug smuggling between Calabria and the Belgian city of Genk, according to Italian police.

"We think that among the arrests were several persons of a high value who played a huge role in the organisation, not only in Belgium but in other European countries," said Belgian federal prosecutor Antoon Schotsaert.

Belgian police said they had arrested 13 people.

A total of 108 people were arrested in Italy and other EU countries on the orders of police in the southern city of Reggio Calabria, Italian police said.

Related investigations led to the arrest of 24 people in Germany, they said, as well as a further 53 detentions in northern Italy. The interior minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia said 18 of the arrests were made there.

($1 = 0.9076 euros)

Read more about the 'Ndrangheta in this FACTBOX.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan, Madeline Chambers, Federico Maccioni, Philip Blenkinsop, Charlotte van Campenhout and Emilio Parodi;Writing by Keith Weir;Editing by Bernadette Baum)
A top House Democrat endorsed Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) in the contentious California Senate primary.

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) threw his weight behind his colleague Wednesday, touting her accomplishments in the House and her commitment to progressive causes. Clyburn was widely credited as being President Joe Biden's lifeline during the 2020 Democratic primary.

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS PESTER NEWSOM WITH REQUESTS TO REPLACE MISSING SENATOR

"Barbara Lee is the voice Americans need now in the U.S. Senate," Clyburn said in a statement. "She stands by what she believes in, and she doesn't back down. In the House, she is an extremely accomplished legislator with a record of delivering historical achievement to end poverty, eradicate HIV and AIDS, and work for global peace."

Both are former chairs of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Clyburn is widely considered to be more centrist than Lee. His endorsement is significant due to his ties to House leadership. He is currently the House assistant Democratic leader and previously served as the House majority whip under Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who endorsed Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in the California contest.

Back in the 2020 election cycle, Biden's campaign was on the ropes following a string of defeats in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. After Clyburn endorsed him, Biden managed to eke out a win in South Carolina and mount a comeback.

The California race, featuring a bruising showdown between Lee, Schiff, and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), has split the party. Earlier this week, she scored the backing of Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).

Lee also enjoys the endorsement of Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Steven Horsford (D-NV), Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Lucy McBath (D-GA), Terri Sewell (D-AL), Troy Carter (D-LA), and Gregory Meeks (D-NY), according to her campaign.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

As the race to succeed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) heats up, a handful of progressives have urged the 89-year-old senator to step down. So far, she has declined to do so and has reportedly conveyed optimism that she could return to the upper chamber next week, having been absent since February.

Under California's primary system, the top two Democrats could end up facing off in the general election.

Original Location: Jim Clyburn endorses Barbara Lee in heated California Senate contest

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Police arrested a suspect in connection with a mass shooting in Cleveland, Texas, that left five dead.

The arrest of Francisco Oropesa, 38, was confirmed in a press release from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department.

DOJ MAKES MORE THAN 200 ARRESTS IN INTERNATIONAL DARK WEB DRUG TRAFFICKING SCHEME

"On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, at about 7:00 pm, Francisco Oropesa, who was wanted in connection with shooting that occurred in Cleveland, Texas, was taken into custody in Montgomery County without incident," it said. "We would like to thank all local, state, and federal agencies who collaborated in this effort."

A posted wanted sign for a mass shooting suspect is shown Tuesday, May 2, 2023, in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred Friday, in Cleveland, Texas. David J. Phillip/AP

Oropesa is accused of taking an AR-15 rifle and shooting five family members, including a 9-year-old, "execution style" Friday night after the neighbors asked him to stop shooting his gun in the backyard because they were trying to sleep.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers revealed at an FBI press conference that Oropesa "was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry."

The suspected shooter was discovered following an anonymous tip. Capers confirmed that the source would be receiving an $80,000 reward for the information. The FBI revealed that the tip was received at roughly 5:15 p.m., and the suspect was arrested at 6:30 p.m.

Oropesa is being charged with five counts of murder and is being held on $5 million bond.

Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson told the Associated Press that Orosepa was arrested near Conroe, roughly 20 miles from the site of the shooting. The five-day manhunt had grown to include 250 people from multiple jurisdictions. Oropesa had been deported four separate times before his arrest.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The arrest comes just one day after the FBI said it had "zero leads."

The Washington Examiner reached out to the FBI's Houston office.

Original Location: Texas mass shooting suspect found by police after dayslong manhunt

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By Mohamed Nureldin and Nafisa Eltahir

KHARTOUM (Reuters) -The United Nations pressed Sudan's warring factions on Wednesday to guarantee safe passage of humanitarian aid after six trucks were looted and air strikes in the capital undermined a supposed truce.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said he hoped to have face-to-face meetings with Sudan's warring parties within two to three days to secure guarantees from them for aid convoys to deliver relief supplies.

The meeting could take place in Khartoum, the capital, or another location, Griffiths told Reuters in a phone interview from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, following a visit to Port Sudan intended to plan a large-scale relief operation.

"It's important to me that we meet physically, face-to-face to discuss this, because we need it to be a public, accountable moment," he said.

The U.N. has warned that fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which erupted on April 15, risks causing a humanitarian catastrophe that could spill into other countries. Sudan said on Tuesday that 550 people had died, with another 4,926 wounded, so far in the conflict.

Air strikes were heard in Khartoum and the adjoining cities of Omdurman and Bahri on Wednesday, even as the two sides had agreed to extend a series of shaky and broken truces for a further seven days from Thursday.

In Khartoum, millions were still trying to shelter from open warfare between an army using air strikes and heavy artillery and RSF forces embedded in residential neighbourhoods.

Most hospitals were out of service and many areas were without power and water as supplies of food and fuel dwindled.

With international mediators pressing for peace talks, Sudan's army said it would send an envoy for talks with South Sudan, Kenyan and Djibouti leaders.

Aid has been held up in the nation of 46 million people where about one-third had already relied on relief assistance.

Speaking earlier, Griffiths said he had been told by the U.N.'s World Food Programme that six of their trucks travelling to the western region of Darfur had been looted en route, despite assurances of safety and security.

Griffiths, in the Reuters interview, said he spoke by phone to army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, on Wednesday to tell them that specific aid corridors and airlift operations were required.

"We are very clear now in our operational requirements as to what we need in terms of commitments from them," he said.

PRESSURE GENERALS, SAYS UN

In Nairobi, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the international community must tell the two leaders the situation is unacceptable. The two generals must face pressure to stop fighting, begin dialogue and allow a transition to civilian government, he said.

Burhan's envoy, Dafallah Alhaj, said in Cairo the army accepted talks but there would be no face-to-face discussions with the RSF and communication would be through mediators.

South Sudan has said both sides have agreed to the ceasefire and to send representatives to talks. Hemedti said in a tweet on Wednesday he was committed to "opening and securing safe corridors." RSF later in a post on Facebook claimed its forces "still control 90% of the three cities of Khartoum" and said it affirmed a "full commitment to the declared humanitarian truce."

About 100,000 people have fled Sudan with little food or water to neighbouring countries, the U.N. says.

The conflict has spread to Darfur where the RSF emerged from tribal militias that fought beside government forces to crush rebels in a war dating back 20 years.

The army and RSF joined forces in a coup two years ago and had shared power as part of an internationally backed transition towards free elections and civilian government.

(Additional reporting by Paravicini Giulia in Nairobi and Omar Abdel-Razek and Alaa Swilam in Cairo; Writing by Michael Georgy and Cynthia Osterman; editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, William Maclean, Mark Heinrich, Nick Macfie and Leslie Adler)
Photo: The Canadian Press Bell is teaming up with Air Canada to offer free messaging for all Aeroplan members worldwide on Wi-Fi-equipped airplanes across the air carrier's fleet. An Air Canada flight departing for Calgary takes off at Vancouver International Airport, in Richmond, B.C., on Friday, March 20, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Experts say a new partnership between Bell and Air Canada offering Aeroplan members free Wi-Fi messaging on flights will help strengthen the rewards program's brand after being largely grounded during the pandemic.

The telecommunications giant will sponsor inflight Wi-Fi services across the airline's fleet, including Air Canada Rouge and Air Canada Express planes, starting May 15.

All Aeroplan members travelling worldwide on Wi-Fi-equipped airplanes will be able to send and receive messages on apps such as Apple's iMessage, Meta's WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, Rakuten's Viber and Messages by Google over Wi-Fi.

Access will be available on any Wi-Fi capable device, no matter the passenger's mobile carrier, Bell confirmed.

The service will also be available to strategic partner airline loyalty members, including customers of United MileagePlus, Lufthansa Group Miles & More and Emirates Skywards, when their account numbers are associated with an Air Canada booking.

"This could mark the beginning of making Aeroplan a stand-alone brand, which it really hasn't been," said Joanne McNeish, a marketing management professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.

"Air Canada is using this partnership and announcement to begin to promote this brand and perhaps give it some strings because it doesn't seem to have any right now."

The companies said the deal will mean additional benefits for Aeroplan customers. That includes offering new promotional rewards and expanding Air Canada's Live TV service on flights to the U.S., starting later this summer.

"We're so proud to join with an iconic brand to deliver real value to customers across the country, and, importantly, to those new to our country," said Air Canada executive vice-president and president of Aeroplan Mark Nasr in a news release.

"This multi-faceted partnership with Bell will allow Air Canada customers to keep in touch with friends, family, or colleagues wherever they travel."

On select flights, Bell will also offer complimentary mobile SIM cards to international travellers arriving in Canada, allowing them to be connected when they walk off an airplane.

"For those new to Canada or visiting, we recognize how important it is to stay connected with family and friends, and the new opportunities being connected can bring," Bell executive vice-president of marketing Claire Gillies said in a news release.

Airline analyst Robert Kokonis said the agreement is a win-win for the Aeroplan brand "both for fully engaged Aeroplan members and perhaps Aeroplan members that aren't as engaged."

He characterized it as a response to Porter Airlines announcing in late 2022 that it would offer free Wi-Fi on its Embraer E195-E2 fleet, despite the fact that Porter's move covers all web browsing rather than only messaging.

"If they started to see perhaps unacceptable erosion of market share to Porter on certain select routes, you could see Air Canada decide to go back and roll out free Wi-Fi, not just text message," said Kokonis, president of AirTrav Inc.

Air Canada reacquired the Aeroplan program from Aimia Inc. in January 2019. The loyalty program has undergone a revamp since the pandemic in an effort to boost membership after Air Canada said members indicated they wanted more opportunities to earn and redeem points in their everyday lives.

Kokonis said demand for the rewards program has since "roared back," thanks in part to agreements with companies such as Uber and Starbucks, which help reach "folks that perhaps maybe don't even have an Aeroplan frequent flyer card."

McNeish cautioned the one caveat to the deal which could hurt Aeroplan is if the inflight connection is poor.

"We all know what slow internet looks like, which means it didn't respond in two seconds," she said.

"These things start out like they're always going to operate perfectly. What's the rollout going to look like?"
By Brendan O'Boyle and Kylie Madry

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -The United States will continue to accept migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela under a humanitarian program after May 11, when the COVID-19 health policy known as Title 42 is set to end, the U.S. and Mexican governments said on Tuesday.

Mexico, for its part, will continue accepting back migrants returned to the country on humanitarian grounds, both nations said in a joint statement.

The announcement comes as the U.S. prepares for the end of the Title 42 policy and a possible subsequent spike in illegal border crossings.

The U.S. has said it plans to ramp up deportations after May 11.

Mexico has been accepting migrants deported from the United States under the Title 42 policy, which allows the U.S. to rapidly expel migrants including Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans illegally entering the U.S.

A U.S. official said last week that the U.S. intends to continue expelling migrants of those four nationalities back to Mexico after the program's end date.

The statement came after Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with White House Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall earlier in the day to discuss migration ahead of Title 42's impending end.

Tuesday's announcement indicates that a U.S. humanitarian parole program providing legal migration pathways for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans will continue after May 11.

Sherwood-Randall told Mexican authorities "that the humanitarian parole program will continue," Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told journalists following the meeting.

Mexico also pushed for the further expansion of the program, as well as other legal pathways to entering the United States, Ebrard added.

The two countries also said the United States would accept some 100,000 people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras under a family reunification program announced last week, but did not give a time frame for that number.

Additionally, the countries agreed to boost efforts to combat human smuggling following a U.S. agreement with Colombia and Panama to curb migration through the dangerous jungle region separating the two nations.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Stephen Coates)
In Denver last week, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken shocked many when he said that the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-49 is overdose by the opioid fentanyl.

The Secretary was in Denver for the Cities Summit of the Americas, a conference that brought together 250 mayors from across the Western Hemisphere for a discussion of common concerns, including the opioid crisis and its impacts on homelessness, crime and social disruption.

Secretary Blinken also visited Denvers Crime Lab for a discussion with Mayor Michael Hancock on how cities are contending with the opioid crisis. He singled out Denver as a city making innovative efforts to advance public safety.That the secretary of state used his platform to highlight the opioid epidemic underscores the complicated international challenge Denver and other cities have been wrestling with post-COVID.

In addition to the fentanyl epidemic, the U.S. also suffers from an epidemic of gun violence. These problems did not begin in Denver, but neither is being ignored, and in fact, Denver is leading (as Secretary Blinken noted) in solutions.

Critics who chirp that Denver is in Decay or who claim that public safety has been ignored with benign neglect are engaging in political rhetoric. Feeding cynicism and outrage is not new in politics. Bumper sticker slogans are cheap and easy; finding solutions to problems that are deeply imbedded in human frailty is much harder.

While homelessness and housing affordability were top of mind with Denver residents in the 2019 mayoral election, other big issues were economic mobility, traffic, displacement (gentrification), and it often seemed to me that a common complaint was that Denver was growing too fast. No one had yet heard about COVID, and if the word fentanyl was ever mentioned in a mayoral debate, I dont remember it. Then, in 2020 a global pandemic shut down the world.

Then, the brutal racist killing of George Floyd, a tragic break in community and police relations that had many sad consequences, including a depletion in the ranks of police officers and those aspiring to become police officers.

Then, the so-called great resignation, with hundreds of people leaving jobs and downtown office spaces left vacant as people learned to work virtually.

Then came the epidemic of opioid addictions, heralding a new kind of public health crisis on top of the dislocations caused by COVID.

These compounding challenges have been at the center of attention for every city and metropolitan area in the last two years. Lay on top of this the escalating number of gun deaths and mass shootings that take place on a near-weekly basis in the United States, and it is no wonder that people feel discouraged about the future.

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I remain optimistic, however, and particularly so as it relates to Denver.

A year ago, Mayor Hancock announced a public safety action plan that called for recruiting and training more police officers. We are now up to 92% operating strength that doesnt include 32 academy recruits and another class this month. If we havent completely turned the corner on recruitment, we are getting close  with kudos to Police Chief Ron Thomas and Public Safety Director Armando Saldate.

Denver is also the first city in the country to partner with the U.S. attorney (Cole Finegan) to add prosecutors for gun-related crimes.

Despite the political discomfort it created, Mayor Hancock called on the state legislature to make changes to a well-intentioned but disastrous law that loosened criminal penalties for possession of fentanyl. Thankfully the law was changed, and district attorneys now have tools to go after traffickers without a possession loophole.

The mayors insistence that Denver craft a law enforcement strategy that combines public health and public safety has meant that city agencies are not operating in separate silos. Sheriff Elias Diggins has pioneered expanding medically assisted treatment (MAT) so those jailed for possession have a recovery alternative to incarceration.

Denvers innovative STAR program means that clinicians and not police officers can respond to behavioral health problems, and a new AID center links low level-offenders with crisis-intervention services.

These programs and additional tools for law enforcement are beginning to make a positive change in our streets, and whoever is elected to serve as Denvers next mayor will benefit from continuing this progress.

I am optimistic because the candidates, Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough, are pragmatists not driven by ideological extremes. They are very much in line with Mayor Hancocks approach. A new face will preside in City Hall when we finally turn the corner on opioid-related crime, but the seeds of future success are being sown today.

Alan Salazar is chief of staff for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. Salazar has served as chief strategy officer for Democratic former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; as chief of staff to former U.S. Rep. and later U.S. Sen. Mark Udall; as deputy chief of staff and policy director for former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, and in key staff posts for former Colorado U.S. Sens. Tim Wirth and Gary Hart.
More than two years ago, when the Colorado Supreme Court found that juries, not judges, must decide if people accused of felony drunk driving are repeat offenders, it prompted defendants found guilty of other offenses to wonder whether their own prior convictions were something prosecutors must prove to juries beyond a reasonable doubt.

In two instances where prior convictions raise the severity of the crime under Colorado law  animal abuse and failing to register as a sex offender  the state's Court of Appeals answered no, that judges alone can decide the defendant's recidivism merits an enhanced sentence.

On Tuesday, Colorado's highest court considered whether such a practice actually violates the federal or state constitutions. The justices acknowledged that currently, a judge may take a jury's verdict for a misdemeanor and transform it into a felony conviction, solely based on priors.

"If we say the jury doesnt get to decide a question that has remarkable consequences for a defendant, lifelong consequences," said Justice Richard L. Gabriel, "why is that OK to take that away from a jury?"

The Supreme Court heard two cases that involved similar circumstances. A Lincoln County jury convicted Constance Eileen Caswell of 43 counts of animal abuse, which is ordinarily a misdemeanor. Caswell admitted she had a prior animal abuse conviction on her record, prompting the trial judge to sentence her for a felony  as Colorado law requires for repeat offenses.

In the second case, a Denver jury convicted Charles K. Dorsey for failing to register as a sex offender. Twice in 20 years, he did not register by the annual deadline, which is a class 6 felony. After a jury convicted Dorsey the second time, prosecutors showed the trial judge paperwork documenting his prior conviction and the judge sentenced Dorsey on a more serious, class 5 felony.

Caswell and Dorsey's appeals implicated four intersecting cases from both the state and federal Supreme Courts decided over a span of 25 years:

 Almendarez-Torres v. United States, in which the U.S. Supreme Court explained in 1998 that prior convictions could be used to enhance a defendant's sentence

 Apprendi v. New Jersey, two years later, stated any fact that increases punishment for a conviction beyond what the law provides must be proven to a jury  except prior convictions (known as the "Apprendi exception")

 Linnebur v. People, a 2020 decision of the Colorado Supreme Court, determined prior drunk driving convictions must be proven to a jury based on the state's DUI law, and were not sentence enhancements for a judge to apply after the verdict

 People v. Kembel, decided earlier this year, clarified that when a defendant is on trial for a felony DUI in Colorado, jurors must hear about the current drunk driving offense and the prior drunk driving convictions all at the same time

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Taken together, the cases suggest that while legislatures may structure laws differently to make prior offenses part of the sentence or part of the charged crime, the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a jury trial places a limit on the types of evidence judges can use to increase punishment after the jury's verdict.

The state's Court of Appeals, in examining Caswell and Dorsey's convictions, decided that unlike the felony DUI law, the legislature had clearly intended for prior convictions to be sentence enhancers for animal cruelty and failure to register as a sex offender. Consequently, it did not examine the constitutionality of allowing a judge to transform a misdemeanor to a felony or a felony to a higher class of felony.

On appeal to the state Supreme Court, the defendants argued that Apprendi and Almendarez-Torres did not directly address the practice of enhancing a sentence using prior convictions, and the U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled on the propriety of a judge alone elevating a misdemeanor to a felony.

"It does not comport with the Sixth Amendment to block the jury from performing its vital function," argued public defender Jessica A. Pitts, with a conviction that "transforms a person into a felon, a scarlet letter they will wear for the rest of their life."

She pointed out that, in addition to harsher sentences, felons encounter "collateral consequences," like restrictions on firearm ownership and difficulty obtaining housing or employment due to stigma.

Pitts added that, legally, the U.S. Supreme Court appears interested in walking back the Apprendi exception for prior convictions. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in 2005 that criminal defendants have been "unconstitutionally sentenced" thanks to the original Almandarez-Torres rule, and he supported reconsidering it. Last year, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch warned there was "little doubt" the court would have to address the constitutionality of sentencing based on prior offenses.

Public defender Meredith K. Rose, representing Dorsey, speculated the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet addressed whether juries must consider recidivism because the issue contains a "double-edged sword." As Colorado's Linnebur and Kembel cases showed, jurors may be required to hear damaging information about a defendant's criminal history across a range of offenses, perhaps making convictions more likely.

"There are fairness questions on both sides," she said. "Whether the defendant is deprived of his right to a jury trial on something thats so important as to raise the felony level of the offense, versus, do we want these things to be proved to a jury?"

Caswell and Dorsey's attorneys explained, however, that if jurors are asked to decide the existence of prior convictions, they may ultimately find the defendant sitting in front of them did not commit a prior offense beyond a reasonable doubt.

Gabriel believed the defendants were correct that the U.S. Supreme Court appears increasingly less willing to tolerate withholding evidence of recidivism from juries when used to change the offense level itself.

"If the Constitution says the defendant has the right to a jury trial, it doesnt matter that there may be consequences the defendant doesnt like," he said.

The cases are Caswell v. People and Dorsey v. People.
House Democrats on Tuesday night restored substantial portions of what had been gutted out of Gov. Jared Polis' housing proposal by the Senate, despite sources indicating the changes could doom the bill to failure.

At the behest of the bill's Democratic House sponsors, Reps. Iman Jodeh of Aurora and Steven Woodrow of Denver, the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee added 15 amendments to the bill, and Senate Bill 213 won a 9-4 party-line vote from the panel.

Key provisions that had been removed from the Senate version, most notably state control of zoning, went right back into the measure.

It was no secret that House Democrats planned to put back much of what had been taken out, but, by doing so, they set up a showdown with the Senate and potentially risk the governor's key signature proposal dying in the final days of the legislative session.

The House panel also restored several other concepts removed through Senate changes.

They included mandating that municipalities allow accessory dwelling units and requiring the Department of Local Affairs to develop a model code that municipalities would be required to use in developing denser housing in transit-oriented areas and "key corridors." The term is defined as areas within a quarter-mile of a road served by municipal bus service, and which would be identified by the state Department of Transportation.

Tuesday's hearing drew in municipal officials, who were angry the bill is going back to something resembling the original version, and housing advocates, including other elected officials, who praised House Democrats for the same thing.

The mayor of Centennial, Stephanie Piko, accused the House Democratic sponsors and the governor of abandoning good faith negotiations. Meanwhile, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers warned of "a period of long and contentious litigation if SB 213 becomes law."

"This notion you can remove the powers of home rule cities after 150 years of land use by calling it a matter of statewide concern is an issue that will be very hard to win in the courts," he told the committee.

Suthers noted his community has its own housing plan that solicited feedback from residents.

"For the governor and legislature to decide they can do a better job, count me very skeptical," he said, adding the legislation will render local citizens largely voiceless in land use matters and weaken trust in government.

Kevin Bommer of the Colorado Municipal League said that, a month ago, he had testified on legislation his group could support.

It "sure isn't this bill," he said.

Bommer offered a quote that he indicated will be exhibit A in the lawsuit that will inevitably come from SB 213 if it's enacted.

"Over 85 years of Supreme Court jurisprudence support local governments' ability and responsibility to enact zoning codes and land use ordinances that fit the needs of their communities. Not only is local governments' robust land use authority supported legally, it also makes sense from a policy perspective. A local government is elected to represent its community members and is ultimately responsible for preserving the character of the community."

The quote, from 2015, was from a legal brief filed by then-U.S. Rep. Jared Polis.

Municipalities want a partner in the state, not an adversary, Bommer added.

Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue, who supported the introduced version of SB 213, warned the committee to "tread carefully with further changes to the bill."

The lack of affordable housing in her county is a crisis, she said. While the bill  before the House amendments  "may not represent all of our goals," it accomplishes several important strategies, including requirements on planning with climate in mind, she said.

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SB 213 also begins an important conversation on limited water resources, Pogue said, adding that allowing multi-family housing near transit and walkable commercial areas lessens traffic, reduces pollution, protects water and increases affordability.

Pogue also noted the last-minute changes planned for the bill could result in unintended consequences. Housing is a matter of concern both for local communities and statewide, and "we must find a balance" between those two areas, she said.

In a statement, Aurora City Councilman Juan Marcano said the housing shortage and affordability crisis is "growing more severe every day."

"Its impacting Coloradans across the state. SB23-213 will provide an opportunity to do away with the dated, restrictive policies, often rooted in racism, that local communities have inherited over decades and that prevent us from creating truly inclusive and affordable communities, Marcano said.

The bill's next stop is the House Appropriations Committee and then the House floor. Assuming it wins approval from House Democrats, it will then head back to the Senate.

And that's where the real showdown begins, though Woodrow told Colorado Politics he believes enough Senate Democrats will back the changes to avoid that showdown.

"Everything we've done to this point has been in consultation with our allies in the Senate," he said. "There's obviously many moving parts to the bill, and with each different conversation, the calculus has to be adjusted somewhat. We are obviously paying close attention to that. We're not trying to set up a showdown."

Woodrow said they didn't restore all the up-zoning in Tuesday night's amendments. What was restored was certain local governments have to allow for ADUs and transit-oriented development. He said even those in the Senate who expressed reservations about state standards really like the ADUs or the transit-oriented development.

What they don't like, he added, is middle housing, such as duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes that would replace a stand-alone house  the Senate doesn't like the idea of someone telling a neighbor that a triplex is being built.

That's not in the bill anymore, he said.

The bill, as amended, restores minimum standards that municipalities set their own codes on ADUs, transit-oriented development and key corridors. It's only if they ignore the statute that the state model code, developed by Department of Local Affairs, goes into effect.

"We're not trying to run fool's errand," Woodrow added.

Jodeh said the concern around middle housing is that someone wouldn't want a neighbor building a duplex on their property, but building a mother-in-law suite, pool house or casita, "you should be able to do that" under the design standards in place.

"The holistic approach with the entire bill, edited as it was last night, gives us a much stronger path in the Senate," she said.

Senate Democrats who view statewide control of local government zoning as unconstitutional are preparing for that showdown, with only a limited set of outcomes available.

The Senate could reject the House amendments and ask for a conference committee. That may be an exercise in futility, given that House Democrats are determined to allow for state control of zoning and there are Senate Democrats who are just as adamant that they won't support it.

Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, D-Arvada, has said on several occasions that state control of housing, which she called unconstitutional, is her "bright line" and that she would not vote for the bill if it includes that provision.

Should she rally enough of her colleagues, the Senate could instead vote to adhere to its position, which several sources told Colorado Politics is the more likely move.

If the House does not recede from its position and revert to the Senate position, the bill dies on the calendar.
Colorados former state court administrator was purposely set up to take the fall in a three-year-old judiciary scandal to ensure "the powers that be" could walk away unscathed, his attorney told The Gazette.

Breaking more than a yearlong public silence after exposing a multi-million-dollar contract given to a fired Judicial Department executive that was intended to avert a threatened tell-all sex-discrimination lawsuit, Christopher Ryan said through his attorney that his reputation was intentionally destroyed to protect those complicit in the scandal.

Theyve completely ruined Chriss reputation, completely and unjustifiably, attorney Phillip Geigle told The Gazette in an interview. There was nothing to hold Chris to account for. He did everything he was instructed to do by his superiors, including the chief justice, and he did it ethically and legally.

He added: This process has been conducted with one goal in mind, to protect the powers that be and in no way is designed to get to the truth of the matter.

The Judicial Department through a spokesman said it had no comment.

Geigle spoke out following a Gazette exclusive last week that revealed prosecutors had chosen not to investigate Ryan and three others recommended for criminal inquiry by state auditors who looked into the scandal.

Prosecutors at the Denver district attorney's office said they received auditors recommendations too late to beat the statute of limitations on any alleged crimes so they closed the file.

The Gazette revealed that even though auditors could have told prosecutors of their findings as long ago as May 2021  leaving enough time to investigate further and file charges if merited  that didnt happen.

Despite a state law requiring auditors to immediately tell law enforcement about potential fraud, lawyers at the Colorado attorney generals office and the Judicial Department argued over whether the word meant at the time it was discovered or when auditors filed a completed report.

That report went through nine months of rewritings engineered largely by those same lawyers before prosecutors were told about auditors findings in a report that was highly redacted of critical information necessary for them to investigate.

And when prosecutors tried to get at the missing information, they were told to sign non-disclosure agreements or provide a grand jury subpoena in order to receive it.

For them to suggest a grand jury subpoena is absurd, especially when its a referral for prosecution made by the judiciary and auditors in the first place, said Geigle, a former assistant prosecutor in Denver.

And you need some sort of place to start with, Geigle added. What can you do with a redacted report? It was a setup from the start.

That lawyers argued over the definition of a word and redactions is the blind leading the blind and innocent people like Chris get caught in the cross-fire, their reputations completely ruined, Geigle said.

Ryan disclosed in February 2021 that a judicial training contract worth as much as $2.75 million was given to a company owned by Mindy Masias, the former chief of staff in the Judicial Department's office of the state court administrator, to prevent her from filing a tell-all lawsuit. She was an unsuccessful candidate for Ryan's job and later faced firing over financial irregularities.

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The details of what Masias would reveal in her lawsuit were disclosed in a two-page memo read during a January 2019 meeting between Ryan, then Chief Justice Ben Coats, chief justice counsel Andrew Rottman, and Eric Brown, the departments director of human resources and close friend of Masias.

The memo contained a number of allegations of judicial misconduct that were intentionally kept quiet or received no discipline, including a confidential settlement of harassment allegations against a then-appellate court judge so as not to prevent him from being named to the Supreme Court, which occurred later. Ryan said it was Coats who authorized the contract after hearing what Masias was prepared to reveal in her lawsuit.

Ryan resigned his position in July 2019 during a newspapers investigation into the Masias contract. Brown also resigned and the contract was canceled. Coats retired in December 2020.

Following Ryans disclosure about the memo in February 2021, the justices publicly released a copy after saying they were viewing it for the first time. Current Supreme Court Chief Justice Brian Boatright and the other justices jointly denied any wrongdoing occurred and that Coats would not have done anything wrong.

Months later it was revealed the justices were aware of the memo all along but had not actually seen it until then.

Several investigations were launched when the memo was disclosed, including the state auditors inquiry, which included a whistleblower letter that appeared around the time the contract was awarded to Masias. The letter did not contain any allegations about the contract.

The letter contained allegations of fraud and wasteful spending throughout the department. Auditors later found Masias and Brown had been paid to speak at a variety of national conferences while also collecting their state paychecks.

Auditors also said it appeared Ryan had negotiated a lucrative severance agreement for a department employee who was a personal friend. Geigle challenged the assertion, saying Ryan only signed off on the deal after a Judicial Department attorney helped with its negotiation.

Auditors also determined the process that awarded Masias the contract had been manipulated, but did not discuss the allegation that it was a quid-pro-quo deal.

Without elaborating, prosecutors said they chose only to investigate Masias and Browns alleged double-dipping.

That prosecutors later decided not to pursue the inquiry simply hurts Ryan further.

This is not at all satisfying. You have out there that its a saved-by-the-bell argument, that Chris got off somehow, Geigle said. Thats wrong. Chris has been cooperative since Day 1 and investigated six ways to Sunday and theres nothing there and judicial knows it. They sat on this all for 10 months and then it goes to the DA where it would not see the light of day since they couldnt do anything with it.

Geigle said Ryan hopes for better from the remaining investigations by the Commission on Judicial Discipline, the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, two companies hired by the Judicial Department, and the FBI.

Theres been a complete lack of transparency in all of this and as a citizen, Im asking what the hell is going on over there, Geigle said of the Judicial Department. Were not yet there to the truth of the matter and we hope it comes out.
Today is May 2, 2023 and here is what you need to know:

Polis, lawmakers ask voters to counter impending property tax spike

Gov. Jared Polis on Monday unveiled a much-anticipated proposal to offer tax relief to Coloradans, a key provision of which is to ask voters to fix the problem via the ballot box this November.

The proposal seeks to do three things: Provide immediate property tax relief, address the problems that arose from the voter-approved repeal of the Gallagher Amendment in 2020, and provide a mechanism to prevent property tax rates from increasing faster than income, tied to the Denver-Boulder Consumer Price Index.

The move comes as the Colorado lawmakers stare down the barrel of looming crisis, one in which property taxes are expected to increase this year by as much as 50% for many homeowners.

Flanked by Democratic lawmakers, business owners, homeowners and other supporters, Polis said the proposal will reduce residential property tax increases by 50% on average.

Critics immediately called the proposal insufficient  akin to bringing a squirt gun to a burning building. Proponents said the multipronged approach offers tangible relief.

Colorado lawmakers want to block constituents on social media

Courts throughout the country have deliberated for years on whether elected officials have the right to block their constituents on social media. Now, Colorado lawmakers are trying to take the decision into their own hands.

If made law, House Bill 1306 would give all elected officials in the state the power to block someone from viewing or interacting with the official's social media pages  for any reason. This would apply to their personal social media accounts, even if they use them for official business, but not accounts attached to a specific political office.

The bill passed the House in a 43-20 vote on Monday and is now being sent to the Senate for consideration.

Colorado's Jared Polis signs $38.5 billion state spending plan into law

Gov. Jared Polis on Monday signed the main bill that puts into place the spending plan for Colorado's state government for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

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The budget, at $38.5 billion, is the largest in history and about $1.2 billion more than the current year's spending plan.

Most of the increase, about $822 million, is for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing and intended to cover the expiration of enhanced federal Medicaid matching funds tied to COVID-19 emergency declarations.

Surrounded by all six Joint Budget Committee members, the first time since 2018, the governor called the budget prudent and fiscally responsible. He noted its record investment in K-12 education and its first-time funding for universal pre-kindergarten education for 25,000 families.

The budget also includes investments in water that the governor said will draw down tens of millions in federal dollars that will support water projects, as well as the state water plan.

Nearly 1 in 4 DPS students with a threat assessment deemed high level of concern

More than 350 students so far this school year have had a threat assessment, at least 42 of whom across Denver Public Schools (DPS) required a pat down the week an East High School student shot two administrators five weeks ago.

There are approximately 89,200 students in the district.

A threat assessment is in response to a behavior and can lead to a student being placed on a safety plan, similar to one 17-year-old Austin Lyle was under. Police accuse Lyle of shooting two East High School administrators who patted him down for weapons on March 22.

Treasury's Yellen says US could default as soon as June 1

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen notified Congress on Monday that the U.S. could default on its debt as early as June 1, if legislators do not raise or suspend the nation's borrowing authority before then and avert what could potentially become a global financial crisis.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders, Yellen urged congressional leaders to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by acting as soon as possible to address the $31.4 trillion limit on its legal borrowing authority. She added that it is impossible to predict with certainty the exact date of when the U.S. will run out of cash.

We have learned from past debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States," Yellen said in the letter.
In an unprecedented flexing of its authority, the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline late Tuesday requested a public censure of former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan "Ben" Coats for his role in a multi-million dollar contract that was awarded to a former employee who faced firing.

It is the first discipline ever requested by the commission to anyone who sat on the state's highest court, much less its chief.

The censure is for Coats' failure to "perform judicial and administrative duties competently and diligently," one of the cornerstones of the state's code of judicial conduct, according to a copy of the 13-page document obtained by The Denver Gazette.

Coats allowed the contract to be awarded to former Chief of Staff Mindy Masias, despite a number of warning signs that indicated it could be problematic, the commission concluded, as well as a variety of lapses in judgment.

Coats admits to the violations as part of a settlement agreement with the commission and waived his right to a formal hearing, according to the filing.

The censure is largely ceremonial and carries no other penalty. Coats retired in December 2020 and his law license is inactive.

Coats' attorney, John Gleason, told The Denver Gazette that he had no comment.

The censure is not yet public because it is merely a recommendation by the discipline commission and must be reviewed and approved by the Supreme Court. The justices all recused themselves early Wednesday from that process, and, under new rules the court adopted earlier this year, a panel of seven judges from the Court of Appeals is to be named to take their place.

It's unclear when that appointment will occur. The court declined to comment through a Judicial Department spokesman.

The commission's recommendation somewhat falls in line with an earlier investigation by the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, which oversees attorney licenses, that noted Coats was wrong in allowing a "dysfunctional and toxic" atmosphere to pervade the State Court Administrator's Office that he presided over. But OARC said it could not find any convincing evidence that Coats knowingly approved the alleged quid pro quo contract to silence Masias.

Masias threatened a tell-all sex-discrimination lawsuit that would reveal decades of judicial misconduct that were either dismissed or handled leniently, a sharp contrast to the harsh discipline she faced. Former State Court Administrator Christopher Ryan, the highest civilian position in the Judicial Department, alleged Coats approved the contract to prevent the lawsuit.

OARC's legal regulation committee chose to close the case and not issue any punishment.

The discipline commission, however, said its investigation found that Coats was far more involved in awarding the multi-million dollar judicial training contract to Masias, particularly in that he allowed it to be awarded despite Coats' earlier willingness to fire her and other allegations of misconduct that were being looked into.

Coats had explained to investigators that he would allow the contract only if it went through normal procurement procedures that included a public bid and, more importantly, that no other allegations of misconduct surfaced against Masias.

Coats said his decision to award Masias the contract barring any other wrongdoing was in "consultation with the full Supreme Court," the commission wrote.

The commission's investigation uncovered a number of instances where Coats became aware of additional concerns about Masias' conduct, including an anonymous whistleblower letter that laid out a number of problems in the judicial department. One allegation was that a security employee within the department was asked to surreptitiously track the movements of others, including Masias and her former Human Resources director, Eric Brown.

Masias negotiated a separation agreement with that employee, Jane Hood, which contained a non-disclosure clause that Coats said was one of the "stupidest things he had ever heard of and was outraged that the Supreme Court had not been informed," according to the commission's filing. The commission's censure recommendation said there were assertions Masias used public funds to keep Hood quiet about what Hood had learned from that surveillance.

The commission said Coats  and the rest of the Supreme Court  failed to back away from the Masias contract even after investigations were launched into the whistleblower letter's allegations.

"Even though there existed allegations of serious misconduct by Masias, the veracity of which were subject to a barely begun formal investigation (by the state auditor), neither Justice Coats nor the Supreme Court ordered a halt to the consideration of Masias for a contract," the commission censure says.

Moreover, the commission said it was "particularly concerning" that Coats didn't wait for the auditor's investigation to conclude before approving the deal and hadn't bothered to tell the Attorney General's office about the pending contract despite its request to investigate the contents of the whistleblower letter.

The commission noted that department inquiries into Masias' conduct over falsified expenses  the root of why she was being fired  showed Coats was told about its findings, although Coats said he wasn't.

Coats said he only learned of the internal inquiry by the audit staff after Ryan had resigned when news of the contract went public. Coats told commission investigators that had he seen the internal audit memo, "he likely would have decided that Masias would be unfit to work for the Judicial Department in any capacity."

The commission said Coats actually received an email about the audit more than six months earlier and Coats made no inquiries about it.

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The commission hired law firm Rathod Mohamedbhai in Denver a special counsel to conduct the investigation.

The OARC's investigation left open the possibility that other lawyers involved in the contract-for-silence scandal could face scrutiny and admonished Coats for having an obligation to report their misconduct but didnt. The OARC's legal committee did not say whether the lawyers implicated by the investigation, who were not identified in the statement, have been separately disciplined by OARC or the Supreme Court.

State Supreme Court chief sought to restrict media's access to information surrounding scandal investigation

Reached Wednesday, Ryan said he's not surprised by the outcome of the commission's inquiry.

"This is a stipulated resolution where any factual findings have been heavily negotiated by Coats and his counsel," Ryan said. "Regardless, this stipulation to public censure is an admission, and from my prior life inside the system, I know quite well how the plea bargains work."

Over the summer, he testified to legislators that he stood by his assertions that Coats approved giving Masias the contract in order to prevent her threatened lawsuit, and that findings of any subsequent investigations "were designed to protect the robes."

Judicial discipline proposals headed to General Assembly

Masias and Brown have never spoken publicly about the contract since the first stories appeared nearly four years ago. It's unclear whether either testified to the commission's investigators.

The commission's recommendation comes more than two years after newspaper accounts revealed the quid pro quo allegations. Newspaper stories about the initial contract in 2019 ultimately forced its cancellation, especially after it revealed that Masias had surreptitiously recorded a conversation with then-Chief Justice Nancy Rice.

Discipline commission told Supreme Court justices they had conflict of interest in investigation and should recuse; they haven't

A company Masias had newly formed was awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to conduct judicial training just months after she faced firing over financial irregularities. The contract was awarded following a public bid process that yielded no submissions, not even from Masias.

In a January 2019 meeting described by Ryan, Brown read from a two-page memo in which he outlined the litany of misdeeds Masias was prepared to reveal in a lawsuit if she were fired. The meeting was also attended by Coats and Rottman, according to Ryan.

Ryan said Coats was disturbed by what was being read from the document and wanted to know how to prevent the lawsuit. Coats and Rottman told investigators who looked into a different aspect of the deal that they brushed off what Brown was reading and were more concerned for Masias' well-being because she had taken personal leave for a medical condition.

Ryan and Brown would resign from their jobs in 2019 following initial newspaper accounts about the contract, which was quickly cancelled. Word of the memo and its contents, however, wasnt publicly disclosed until February 2021, following a state audit that put much of the SCAOs financial problems at Ryans feet. The Supreme Court at first refused to release the memo but made it public following the newspaper stories.

The revelation created an uproar. Six separate investigations including the OARCs were launched and a special legislative committee was created to explore reforming the judicial discipline process.

Two investigations by companies separately paid for by the Judicial Department have determined Coats never personally approved the contract in exchange for Masias silence and that the allegations of judicial misconduct were not precisely as claimed. Those investigations also determined that Coats had allowed the deteriorating conduct within his department to get away from him.

A number of critics have challenged the investigations findings, noting that neither inquiry had interviewed its key players: Ryan, Brown and Masias.

All three were referred to the Denver District Attorneys office for criminal investigation, but that went nowhere when prosecutors said Judicial Department delays in getting the material to them were so protracted that it prevented any meaningful effort to pursue it.

District Attorney Beth McCann announced her office had closed the matter without doing any inquiry of its own.

No charges in Colorado judiciary scandal investigation; prosecutors cite delayed report

The FBI was conducting its own inquiry, according to people interviewed by the agents. Its unclear the status of that investigation and the agency does not comment on pending matters.

The commission has battled with the Supreme Court throughout the investigation, claiming its been stalled in its request for evidence  the commission was forced at one point to issue a subpoena  and being pressed to fall in line with the high courts mandates on how to proceed.

That ultimately led to legislative reforms that are about to become law, including a complete change to the judicial discipline process and state constitutional amendment which voters are likely to be asked to approve in 2024.

Said Ryan: "I am looking forward to the changes to the judicial discipline process that have resulted from all of this."
Members of the Colorado Supreme Court heard on Tuesday that they should not upend 150 years of property rights, encourage trespassing and open the floodgates to lawsuits challenging, segment by segment, whether people can wade and fish in waterways that cut across private land.

On the other hand, the justices also heard that Colorado stands alone among western states in failing to ensure the public has recreational access to certain streams and rivers  an obligation dating back to statehood.

Those weighty policy dilemmas stem from a rudimentary legal question: Can 81-year-old Roger Hill ask a court to declare he may stand in his favorite fishing spot in the Arkansas River without getting chased off for trespassing?

"Its just hard for me to believe, in a state that prizes so much its outstanding outdoor recreational opportunities, that the state of Colorado would say, 'Sorry, public, you cannot bring this lawsuit and the state is allowed to basically deny that it has any responsibility to protect public access,'" Mark S. Squillace, an attorney for Hill, told the justices during oral arguments.

The facts of the case are relatively straightforward. Hill enjoys standing on the bed of the Arkansas River to fish in a spot owned by Mark Everett Warsewa and Linda Joseph. The property owners have attempted to deter Hill's trespassing by throwing rocks, firing a gun and threatening to call authorities. Hill filed a lawsuit in Fremont County asking a judge to declare the state actually owns the riverbed and, consequently, Warsewa and Joseph cannot exclude him.

"We dont want people to have to get arrested or issued a criminal summons and risk an altercation in order to have the legal relations resolved," said Justice William W. Hood III in explaining the purpose of a declaratory judgment. "We want their status to be resolved in the abstract so we dont have ugly situations."

The complication arises through a pair of legal theories that govern property rights for rivers and streams. Under the "equal footing doctrine," each state, upon its admission to the union, gained ownership of beds underneath rivers and streams that were navigable at the time  meaning 1876, in Colorado's case. Non-navigable riverbeds were property of the United States and conveyed to private owners through land patents, which is how Warsewa and Joseph came to own the disputed riverbed.

Second, the "public trust doctrine" provides that states hold, "in trust" for the public, the title to navigable waterways, namely to protect commerce. Hill's lawsuit ultimately seeks to declare his preferred portion of the Arkansas River navigable at statehood, thus making it state-owned and, ultimately, open to public use.

However, there are several roadblocks unique to Colorado.

"What do we do about the fact that our court has said on numerous occasions that we dont have a public trust doctrine?" asked Justice Melissa Hart.

"What do we do with case law from this court, over a century old, that has said a couple of different times the rivers in Colorado were not navigable at statehood?" added Justice Monica M. Marquez.

Last year, the Court of Appeals cleared the way, in part, for Hill's lawsuit. A three-judge panel agreed Hill could not technically seek a court ruling on behalf of the state that Colorado owns the riverbed, as Hill had no special interest in the property other than using it like any member of the public.

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At the same time, the panel allowed him to pursue a declaratory judgment that he could not be excluded from the spot, as Warsewa and Joseph had taken action specifically against him for using the riverbed.

"If, as Hill alleges, the relevant segment of the river was navigable at statehood, then the Warsewa defendants do not own the riverbed and would have no right to exclude him from it by threats of physical violence or prosecution for trespass," wrote Judge Ted C. Tow III.

Multiple outside organizations weighed in to the Supreme Court urging a reversal. They pointed out Colorado already works with private property owners to achieve public access in waterways, and it would be dangerous to give people standing to sue only if they trespass on private land and are threatened with violence or prosecution.

"Incentivizing trespass is not sound public policy, will inflame tensions between private property owners and stream-based recreationists, and undermines the existing efforts of ... landowners to resolve potential conflicts with river users through negotiated access agreements," wrote the Colorado Farm Bureau and multiple landowners on the Western Slope.

However, 12 professors of natural resources and property law pointed out that Colorado is the only western state that has not acknowledged whether its waterways are navigable and open to public access. In other states, court cases have affirmed the duty to hold waterways "in trust" for the public, which the other branches of government have then implemented. Although there have been efforts to enact the public trust doctrine in Colorado, they have been unsuccessful.

"We may be an outlier," observed Hart, "but it may be because of our political branches that were an outlier."

Members of the Supreme Court recognized the many apparent contradictions within Hill's case. For example, the Court of Appeals ruled Hill could not ask for the state to be declared the riverbed owner, but that would be the only logical explanation if he were permitted to fish there lawfully.

And crucially, Hill must show he has a legally protected interest at stake to even pursue his lawsuit  but whether he has an interest hinges on the public's right to access the riverbed in the first place.

In the state's view, the desire to fish unmolested is not specific enough to give Hill standing to sue.

"The interest that hes seeking to vindicate is one that, under his theory, belongs to the whole public," said former Solicitor General Eric R. Olson. "Theres nothing special about him."

The case is State of Colorado v. Hill.
Members of Colorados Supreme Court would violate the state Constitution by approving a rule under which they would step down as overseer of any discipline matter that involves them and appoint appellate judges to replace them, according to public testimony Wednesday about the measure.

The justices are looking to pass a new rule, properly known as Rule 41, that would require the court to recuse itself from several matters of judicial discipline, including those in which a sitting or former justice is accused of wrongdoing in an effort to avoid any perceived conflict of interest.

The rule suggests the seven justices replace themselves with a panel of randomly selected members of the Court of Appeals, a move some say also harbors several conflicts of interest. Others point to similar rules in other states.

The rule is the courts response to a three-year scandal that, in part, had allegations that several instances of judicial misconduct over several years went unreported to the states Commission on Judicial Discipline. The scandal brought forth investigations into former Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Ben Coats. Its unclear whether any other justice is under inquiry.

At a public hearing before the court Wednesday, the executive director of The Judicial Integrity Project in Denver said only voters can change the Constitution that limits how appellate court judges can be used.

Does the Supreme Court have the power to increase the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals to add judicial discipline complaints? No, Chris Forsyth said. The Court of Appeals is a legislatively created court, whose jurisdiction is limited by the statutes. The Constitution does not allow for the Court of Appeals on disciplinary matters.

He added: Absent a constitutional amendment, who presides over disciplinary matters cannot be changed.

The General Assembly is expected to propose voters take up a constitutional amendment in 2024 that would restructure how judicial discipline is handled. Other sweeping changes to how judicial discipline will happen were proposed Monday in House Bill 23-1019, which is sponsored by Rep. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat, and Republican Minority Leader Rep. Mike Lynch of Wellington. Other sponsors include Sens. Bob Gardner, the Republican assistant minority leader, and Julia Gonzales, D-Denver.

Forsyth did not suggest the rule couldnt be approved after a constitutional amendment is passed that would allow for it.

But until then, justices are still allowed to sit in judgment of their peers if they are subject to disciplinary proceedings.

Rule 41 would take immediate aim at any conflict of interest the justices could be perceived to have, but Forsyth suggested the rule cannot withstand a constitutional challenge  which ironically would likely be determined by the high court proposing it.

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The discipline commission has said in letters to the court that it prefers a three-person tribunal made up of a lawyer, judge and citizen to oversee any discipline case and the Supreme Court would only determine whether any proposed penalty is legal and justified.

The commission also said any replacement to the Supreme Court should instead come from a pool of district court and appellate judges.

The court currently can dismiss a case outright or decide to keep any proposed discipline from it from becoming public.

But rather than address Forsyths assertion directly, the justices instead peppered him with questions that had more to do with a pair of investigations the Judicial Department paid for to look into the scandal.

Additionally, the justices seemed to praise the thoughts of Brittany Kauffman, the CEO of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver. The organization was co-founded in 2006 by Rebecca Love Kourlis, who stepped down as a Colorado Supreme Court justice to be IAALSs first executive director.

Colorado's extensive use of confidentiality agreements costs millions, silences whistleblowers

Kauffman told the justices that Rule 41 is a good idea and that 13 other states handled discipline matters similarly. The rule, she said, runs parallel to one recommended by the American Bar Association.

Kauffman did not address  and none of the justices asked her  whether Forsyths contention about the appellate court judges and the Colorado Constitution held any merit.

Is there any part of the rule that causes you concern or heartburn, Justice Carlos Samour asked Kauffman.

No, I dont think so, she said.

Its unclear how soon the court might approve, reject or amend the proposed rule.
Photo: Dan Toulgoet The Metro Vancouver region is expected to welcome 50,000 newcomers annually by 2025, with many relying heavily on transit.

Immigration has historically been the largest component of growth in Metro Vancouver, but TransLink planners are warning an anticipated significant increase of newcomers in the next few years will put further pressure on transit and the roads.

The federal government has plans to welcome 465,000 new permanent residents to Canada in 2023, increasing to 500,000 in 2025. Previously, Metro Vancouver has accounted for 11 per cent of immigration settlement, averaging to roughly 36,000 people per year.

Lower Mainland mayors heard in a recent presentation from TransLink planner Nick Lovett that Metro Vancouver could see about 50,000 new immigrants coming to the region annually by 2025  and many will rely on the transit system.

"Recent immigrants and [non-permanent residents] such as students and temporary visa holders are more likely to rely on transit," Lovett told the mayors in March. "This is because of where they settle in the region  close to transit and transit-oriented development areas."

Historically, many new immigrants have settled south of the Fraser River in Surrey and other communities and landed jobs where working from home is not an option. Lovett pointed to jobs in construction, manufacturing and warehouses as examples.

Data from the 2021 census shows a correlation between areas with recent immigrants and non-permanent residents and transit commute mode share, reinforcing observations from immigrant settlement agencies that new Canadians rely heavily on transit.

'Labour force needs'

A report that accompanied Lovett's presentation said the findings underscore the importance of transit in meeting labour force needs and settlement of immigrants, who play an essential role in the economy.

"B.C. has very low rates of natural population growth  births minus deaths  and so it's highly reliant on immigration to meet labour force needs," Lovett said.

"One hundred per cent of labour force growth is attributable to immigration. This is also true of Canada as a whole. So this is why the federal government is raising immigration targets. Of course, this does have an impact on the region."

While the higher-than-forecast immigration levels are not necessarily expected to persist long-term out to 2050, Lovett said they add to the immediate pressures facing the transit and transportation systems.

That pressure prompted the Mayors' Council on Regional Transportation to make several recommendations to the federal government in February, arguing for more investment to accommodate population growth, including $250 million in "emergency transit relief funding" to be matched by the provincial government.

A news release that accompanied the document noted the present demand on TransLink, with boardings already at 82 per cent of pre-pandemic levels  the highest among North American cities.

"Overcrowding on the system, especially south of the Fraser and other fast-growing communities, is approaching levels not seen since before the pandemic when TransLink was struggling to keep up with surging demand," the release said.

$479M for TransLink

The provincial government responded in March to the mayors' calls for more funds, announcing $479 million for TransLink  an investment noted at the March 24 mayors' meeting by Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, who doubles as chairperson of the mayors' council.

"It was important because the alternative to the province stepping up was significant service reductions to our region, increased congestion and poor outcomes for all of our communities," West said.

"So I'm very pleased that we were able to avert that alternative that, unfortunately, a number of cities across North America are having to contend with. That being said, our work is far from over. We know that we need to bring the federal government to the table. That's an absolute imperative."

Part of that ask of the federal government is to develop a new funding model for public transit that is more resilient and equitable by avoiding overreliance on transit fares and property taxes.

Nearly half (41.8 per cent) of Metro Vancouver's 2.6 million residents were born outside of Canada, with one out of every 17 people having immigrated since 2016. In the 2021-2022 year, the region witnessed record levels of immigration, partly due to COVID-suppressed numbers in 2020-2021.
It's Cinco de Mayo on Friday, and while that's usually an occasion to discuss tacos, as we did two years ago, the timing on a Friday night has us in the mood for some appropriately themed libations (with an appropriately appointed designated driver).

So let us begin our journey with a flight. A margarita flight.

Taking flight

Like the many taprooms that offer a flight of beer or the local wineries that offer tastings with four or five small servings of vino, Tacos El Machin in Corvallis serves up a flight of margaritas. That's four flavors of your choice  there's a whopping 20 from which to choose  in 5-ounce portions for $19.

It's the very fact that there are so many varieties that prompted the idea for a flight, General Manager Marisol Martinez said. You can try everything from mixed berry, to mango dragon fruit.

Martinez's favorites are the guava and passionfruit. She keeps it on the tropical side. But crowds tend to like the heat: the spicy tamarind and jalapeno margaritas.

Asked what makes a good margarita, she said, while of course it's good tequila, it's all about the fruit.

"We use actual fruit, not the syrups," she said.

The owners behind Tacos El Machin, Noe and Edith Morales, also own Blue Agave in Albany, a street tacos and margaritas bar where they also serve flights. Pineapple, spicy chamoy (a flavorful Mexican sauce), raspberry, blood orange and guava are just a few of the refreshing, colorful options.

You can also order a flight of margaritas at El Palenque Mexican Restaurant, with locations in Albany and Corvallis. We have it on good authority (hiccup!) that their Cadillac margaritas are excellent. The Grand Marnier is poured into your drink tableside, so you know you're getting what you paid for.

But with so many margaritas and so little time, you know we had to crowd-source some answers. After putting out a call to readers on Facebook, here's what they recommend.

What readers say

"No comparison anywhere to the blood orange margaritas at Seeds Italian Bistro in Lebanon," wrote Candi Caputo Malone. She's not even a fan of margaritas, "but these are awesome."

There were lots of nominations for Tacovore in the Timberhill Shopping Center in Corvallis. They also use fresh juice in their margaritas, an owner told us in 2021.

"Honestly, Tacovore has delicious margaritas! Simple, delicious, to the point. Also, you cant beat grocery shopping or browsing Ross on a slight buzz." OK, we're withholding that contributor's name!

The similarly sounding (but unrelated) downtown eatery TacoVino has a mezcalarita, which one website called "margarita's sexier cousin." It's made with mezcal, which, like tequila, comes from the agave plant but has a strong smoky flavor. Jeff Rowe says it's "sublime."

They also have a cardamom ginger margarita, which is Deanna Yoba's "all-time fave."

Looking for a smaller twist? Murphy's on the River garnishes their margaritas with black lava salt.

Other restaurants with flights include La Roca in Albany (which has a cucumber lime combination that sounds so refreshing!).

Looking for skinny margaritas?

According to the USDA, there are 274 calories in an average 8-ounce margarita. Some readers wanted to let you know that you can watch your waist without sacrificing flavors.

They recommend the skinny spicy margarita in Ixtapa in Lebanon (there's another Ixtapa in Philomath) and the skinny blackberry margarita at Los Dos Amigos in Albany.
A Linn County judge has called out a defense attorney over a legal strategy aimed at getting a new trial.

The case involved 42-year-old Sweet Home resident Alanna Nicole Partin, who was sentenced for sex crimes that victimized two young girls. The crimes occurred in 2019; one victim was younger than 9 at the time and the other was younger than 5.

In a letter dated April 25 that was entered into court records, Judge Rachel Kittson-MaQatish said defense attorney Jason Thompson acted highly inappropriately by contacting a juror who served on the case.

Thompson argued for a new trial prior to sentencing, citing what he called an irregularity in the proceedings. He alleged jury instructions werent followed, and the jurors knowledge of Partins status as a convicted felon tainted the outcome.

The juror, Zachary Parker, is a corrections officer. He said he only looked up Partin after the jury completed its service and did so out of concern for his personal safety, wanting to ensure Partin was not held in the facility where he works.

Following testimony from Parker and a prison records employee who accessed Partins information for him, Kittson-MaQatish denied the motion for a new trial.

I had never had this happen before, and I was a bit shocked that a juror was taking the stand, Kittson-MaQatish wrote in her letter a week after the sentencing.

Citing Uniform Trial Court Rules, Kittson-MaQatish said Thompson needed the courts permission before contacting or issuing a subpoena to a juror. She also noted the privacy and peace of jurors is paramount to the judicial system.

Specifically, Thompson should have demonstrated reasonable ground to believe a mistake was made in announcing or recording the verdict, or that the juror or jury was guilty of fraud or misconduct sufficient to set aside or modify the verdict, according to the judge.

You had no right or authority to contact the juror or subpoena him to court, she wrote. Additionally, your basis for a new trial and reason for contacting this juror did not rise to the level for the court to even grant you contact with him.

Every defendant on trial runs the risk of being looked up by a juror, Kittson-MaQatish wrote, although juries are instructed not to do that. She said Parker was credible in his claim that he didnt look up Partins custody status while he was serving on the jury.

Kittson-MaQatish wrote that she is greatly sorry she wasnt aware of the trial court rule when Parker was called to the stand. She said her letter is both an apology to Parker and also makes it clear to Thompson that it wont happen again.

Had I been aware, he would have never been allowed to testify, and you would have been admonished for calling him, she wrote. I have no doubt he was made to feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, and possibly in harms way.

Thompson took up his defense in a letter of his own that was sent three days later.

After consulting with other lawyers and judges, Thompson disagreed that subpoenaing Parker constituted contact with him, and indicated a discussion was held in chambers about what would transpire before the juror was called to the stand.

Thompson also disagreed that Partin  by exercising her right to a jury trial  ran the risk of a juror looking up information about her. Given Thompsons reason to believe that did happen, the matter was handled appropriately in the courtroom, he wrote.

No one objected to the issuance of subpoenas or the calling of the witnesses prior to their testimony at this hearing, Thompson wrote. And, had you excluded either witness, then we would have objected and made a record on why that exclusion was improper.

The merits of the motion for a new trial and the courts rulings will be considered by the Oregon Court of Appeals in due course, Thompson added. He also noted extremely difficult circumstances in representing Partin.

Criminal defense is at a crossroads in this state and publicly shaming lawyers who do this difficult work will not help, he wrote.

Partin, who has claimed the court system has no authority over her, was found guilty on four charges of first-degree sexual abuse in a December jury trial in Linn County Circuit Court.

In April, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the sexual abuse charges, having already been sentenced to 3 years in prison in connection with a weapons charge.

Prosecutors previously said there were other suspects in the Partin case. A trial was set for one person, prosecutors confirmed, but it has since been canceled and hasnt been rescheduled.

When Partin initially appeared in court under the charges, through her attorneys, she repeated her claim that she is a Minnesota corporation and does not recognize the name she was charged under.

Partin has four cases under appeal in Linn County and is set for sentencing in June in a Benton County Circuit Court case, according to court records.
Chinese engineers working with the Indonesia's Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway cheered up for the project on the International Workers' Day.

As a landmark project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, the railway is scheduled to start operation this year.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
A patient lies in a gurney awaiting care as staff work in the emergency room area at St. Bernard Hospital in Chicago on Nov. 29, 2022. The hospital went from an F grade for safety to an A according to the Leapfrog Group ratings of hospitals. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

A South Side hospital has earned an F for safety, while another has clawed its way from an F to an A, according to new ratings from the nonprofit Leapfrog Group.

Roseland Community Hospital was the only hospital in Illinois to earn an F this spring. Meanwhile, St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center in Englewood earned an A for safety, after getting an F just two years ago.

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Statewide, about 26% of hospitals earned As, making Illinois 28th in the country for its percentage of hospitals with top scores  the same ranking as the last time grades were released in the fall. The Chicago areas most prestigious hospitals also saw their grades hold steady from the fall, with Rush University Medical Center and UChicago Medicine again notching As, Northwestern Memorial Hospital earning a B and Loyola University Medical Center getting a C.

Leapfrog releases the grades twice each year, with ratings based on more than 30 measures of patient safety from the federal government, a Leapfrog survey and other sources. Measures include falls and trauma, hand hygiene and death rates among surgical patients with serious, treatable conditions.

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With each release of grades comes debate about the importance and accuracy of hospital ratings. A number of organizations release hospital ratings each year with often differing results. Hospitals that earn top marks often advertise their grades and ratings to try to attract more patients and dollars, while those that do poorly question the methodology behind the grades and argue that they dont paint a full picture of a hospitals quality.

Roseland President and CEO Tim Egan said in a statement about the hospitals new F grade, We are terribly disappointed by Leapfrogs assessment, but we also know that Leapfrog does not calculate social determinants of health, nor does it evaluate the challenged community we serve.

Deborah Christian, the Acute Care Unit and Intensive Care Unit clinical coordinator at Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago, looks at patients charts on May 2, 2023. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

Roseland has already put in place a number of patient safety programs and created a committee thats tasked, in part, with earning an A grade from Leapfrog. Roseland is also in negotiations with the state to implement a transformation plan that would include quality improvement initiatives, Egan said.

Egan also pointed to a separate recent rating by the Lown Institute, which ranked Roseland as the No. 2 hospital in Chicago for its fair share spending  the amount it spent on charity care and in its community compared with what it likely saved through tax exemptions.

Leapfrog, led by business interests seemingly focused on lowering insurance costs, gave Roseland an F, Egan said. These alternate ratings agencies showcase what was proved at the heights of COVID: We are all in the same storm but not in the same boat.

Leapfrog was founded by large employers and others who purchase health insurance, with an aim of empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions, according to Leapfrog.

Other hospitals, however, are celebrating the new grades. Three Illinois hospitals  UChicago Medicine, Elmhurst Hospital and Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield  have earned As 23 consecutive times. Theyre among only 20 hospitals nationwide to earn so many straight As.

Its something that we keep as a priority, said Elmhurst Hospital President Dr. Kimberley Darey, of safety. Its something that we have ingrained in our culture.

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Employees at Elmhurst are encouraged to speak up if they see something unsafe, said Sherri Leahy, vice president of quality and safety for the south region of NorthShore-Edward-Elmhurst Health. Elmhurst also has an advisory council made up of people whove been patients at the hospital, she said.

Nurse Donnene Loid prepares a room in the family birthing center at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital on May 2, 2023. The hospital has received 23 consecutive A grades for safety from Leapfrog. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

St. Bernard Hospital is also now celebrating its latest Leapfrog grade  literally. Hospital leaders plan to hand out cupcakes to workers Wednesday and show a video highlighting the hospitals accomplishments, following the A grade.

Its been a harrowing journey for St. Bernard, which got an F for safety just two years ago. After that F, the hospital hired Michael Richardson as chief quality and patient safety officer. He and others improved the hospitals system for making sure medication was administered correctly, installed technology to remind staff to sanitize their hands when entering and exiting patient rooms and reshaped its culture for dealing with mistakes.

St. Bernards grades climbed, from an F to a C, then a B and now an A.

St. Bernard has put a lot of work into getting where we are now, Richardson said. It shows the community that were really committed to safety. ... We want to show the community that St. Bernard has definitely changed.

Nationally, New Jersey had the highest percentage of hospitals earning A grades. Zero hospitals received A grades in Delaware, the District of Columbia or North Dakota.

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Leapfrog also found that, nationally, the average risk of three health-care associated infections  Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), central line-associated bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections  rose to a five-year high in hospitals during the pandemic.
A recent $230,000 grant will extend and strengthen a health care initiative in the Dan River Region.

The Institute for Advanced Learning and Researched last week announced the money from AmeriCorps, a federal agency for service and volunteerism.

Specifically, the grant will funnel funds to a local AmeriCorps program known as REACH  Regional Engagement to Advance Community Health. The service provides things like public health workshops and educating residents on better health avenues.

We are so excited to see the positive and tangible impact that our REACH AmeriCorps members will continue making on health outcomes of individuals, families and the community as a whole, said Dana Silicki, advanced learning program manager at the Institute. This grant will allow REACH AmeriCorps to continue serving the Dan River Region by addressing health and education needs.

The Institute is looking for 15 part-time workers  putting in about 25 hours a week  to be community health educators. These people will lead community health workshops over a nine-month period, according to a news release.

The workshops will target specific health needs for the regions population and address chronic health issues facing residents.

Last year, Danville landed near the bottom when it comes to health outcomes in a list published by the the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Danville ranked No. 127 out of 133 areas of Virginia for negative health outcomes. Its the identical position from the 2021 list.

The REACH partnership is committed to addressing systemic barriers to physical and mental health services for at-risk populations, and health education outreach offered by the REACH AmeriCorps program is a key part of that, Dr. Cassandra Shelton, REACH program manager, said in a statement. The continued funding of REACH AmeriCorps will allow us to effectively and systematically improve health education and access.

The program provides what it calls direct outreach and education service in Danville and Pittsylvania County, along with Caswell County, North Carolina.

The REACH AmeriCorps program works with the The REACH Partnership  an effort supported by The Health Collaborative of the Dan River Region  to deploy workers to help with the physical and mental needs of clients. Known as community health workers and community paramedics, they work to address  the myriad social determinants of health, according to the release.

The REACH Partnership includes the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research  the lead and fiscal agent  Virginia Cooperative Extension, Piedmont Access to Community Health Services, Gateway Health, Sovah Health Danville, Compassion Healthcare, the Danville Life Saving Crew, Caswell County EMS, Danville-Pittsylvania Community Services and Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

A $6.3 million grant from the Danville Regional Foundation funds the efforts for the partnership.
Danville Utilities customers can expect a small increase in their monthly bills starting this summer after Danville City Council voted to approve the cost adjustment during its meeting Tuesday night.

Council voted in favor of other items as well, including a raise in minimum pay for all city government employees, an 80% increase for City Council members and the mayor and pay hikes for the city manager and the city attorney.

However, three of the nine council members opposed the rate increases for water and electric.

Danvilles utility bills are higher compared to those of other localities in the state, Councilman Lee Vogler pointed out.

The city has numerous projects going on and is seeing a lot of money come in, Vogler said, referring to recent increases in sales tax revenues and millions more in tax revenue expected from the upcoming Caesars Virginia casino.

Weve got all this money coming in, but then were asking them [residents] to pay a little bit more, Vogler said, just before voting against the increase. Im just having a hard time wrestling with that one.

Councilmen Bryant Hood and Madison Whittle also opposed the move. Mayor Alonzo Jones, Vice Mayor Gary Miller and council members Sherman Saunders, Larry Campbell, James Buckner and Barry Mayo voted in favor.

Under the changes that will go into effect July 1, monthly customer charges for water and electric will go up from $9.50 to $10.50 and $11 to $12.50, respectively. Also, the rate for water consumption will inch up from $2.50 per 100 cubic feet to $2.55 per 100 cubic feet.

However, the electric customer charge increase will be offset by a slight decrease in the energy charge for electric.

Danville Utilities Director Jason Grey told council members the electric rate increase will be based on consumption. Higher-use customers will see a small decrease in cost and lower-use consumers will experience a slight increase.

Overall, its a 0% effect, Grey Danville Utilities Director Jason Grey said to council. Its just allocating costs where theyre appropriate.

The Danville Utility Commission voted 5-1 in January to propose the adjustments following the results of a biennial rate study that were presented to the commission in December.

The average residential customer should expect a $1.25 bump in water cost per month.

Customer charges cover Danville Utilities internal costs including meter, distribution and staff costs.

Government employees

City Council also unanimously voted to approve an increase in pay ranges for all for city government employees. The adjustment raises the minimum pay as well as maximum pay for positions.

One-third of our workforce would be impacted by raising the minimum, said City Manager Ken Larking.

This is the first time in the history of Danville that starting pay for all positions in the city of Danville is at 100% of the market and, in some cases, more, Vogler said. So this is a big step for our city employees.

Miller said it was imperative to provide good compensation for city employees.

If were going to maintain this city and grow this city, we have to be competitive, Miller said. Wages cant be less ... at the very least, they have to be equal to surrounding areas.

Low pay causes the city to lose employees and to have to train new, less experienced workers, which costs more money, he added.

So actually, over the long run, if you can maintain your workforce, a good workforce, its much more financially stable to raise those salaries, Miller said.

In addition to the pay adjustments, which resulted from a recent pay study, Larking has proposed pay-for-performance increases for city employees as part of the 2023-24 budget and another increase for workers based on the number of years theyve been employed by the city.

Council members get raise

City workers arent the only ones who will see hikes in pay.

City Council also voted unanimously to give themselves an 80% raise during Tuesday nights meeting. The increase will bring members salaries to the maximum allowed for councils in a city of Danvilles size.

Starting July 1, 2025, the mayors annual salary will go from $12,000 to $20,000 and city council members yearly pay from $10,000 to $18,000.

State law requires that any pay increase for council members not be implemented until July 1 after the next regularly scheduled general election for City Council. Danvilles next election for council members will be in November 2024.

It is the first raise for City Council since 2014.

Larkings office researched City Council pay in three other cities in Virginia with similar-sized populations  Charlottesville, Manassas and Harrisonburg.

I find it hard to believe they work any harder than we have, this council, Miller said of those other cities, expressing support for the raise.

All of the local governing bodies for those cities either pay the state-allowed maximum for their councils or have recently voted to. That maximum is $18,000 for council members and $20,000 for the mayor in cities with populations between 35,000 and 74,000, according to state law.

Danvilles population is around 41,000.

Council also voted to approve amended employment agreements with the city manager and city attorney.

The amended agreements raise Larkings annual salary from $210,972.25 to $232,068.38, and City Attorney Clarke Whitefields yearly pay from $161,578.08 to $177,735.89.
Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Richmond on Thursday to tour a small business and celebrate National Small Business Week, while warning against what she terms the economic consequences of a House Republican plan to tie deep spending cuts to raising the debt ceiling to avoid a default in June.

Harris, who traveled to Henrico County last summer for a roundtable on protecting abortion rights, will deliver a speech on investments in small businesses that President Joe Bidens administration has made since taking office more than two years ago.

The White House has not yet released further specifics on the vice presidents Richmond visit.

The vice president spoke on Monday at a White House ceremony with the president that honored small business award winners from 50 states, including Sharon Hamer, president and co-founder of Akiak Technology Alexandria.

You power the ambition and aspirations of our nation, Harris said at the ceremony. And that is why we are fighting every day to make sure you have the resources and the support that you need.

Harris highlighted the Biden administrations efforts to provide more access to capital by small, women- and minority-owned businesses, especially those in economically disadvantaged communities.

Harris recently announced the distribution of $1.7 billion in federal funds for community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions. Three institutions received money in Virginia, including $36.4 million for VCC Bank in Richmond and $10 million for Peoples Advantage Credit Union in Petersburg.

The backdrop of the vice presidents visit to Richmond this week is passage of the Limit, Save, Grow Act by a 217-215 Republican majority in the House of Representatives last week. The bill  supported by all five Republicans and opposed by all six Democrats in Virginias U.S. House delegation  would tie an increase in the nations debt ceiling to a rollback in spending that would cut about $4.2 billion from the federal budget and save $543 million in interest on debt.

On Monday, the White House asserted that House Republicans are holding the economy hostage by refusing to avoid default without slashing billions in funding for vital programs that support small businesses.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, has called on the White House to negotiate, saying: Weve lifted the debt limit. Weve sent it to the Senate. Weve done our job.
765 MSMEs graduate from economic diversification project

Maclean Kwofi Business News May - 03 - 2023 , 17:29

Some 765 micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have graduated from a two-year intensive training programme under the Economic Diversification Building Business Project at Ellembelle in the Western Region.

The project equipped participants made up of women and youth selected from 10 coastal communities with entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and technical skills to enable them start, nurture and manage their own businesses.

It is aimed at reducing poverty and socio-economic challenges in the project's catchment area by creating a number of job opportunities in agriculture, agro-processing, artisanal trade and skilled labour.

It is an initiative of the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) in partnership with Eni Ghana and other stakeholders.

Successful endeavor

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GEA, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, in a speech read on her behalf at the graduation ceremony, observed that the project has been a successful endeavor, providing vital entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and technical skills training to MSMEs in the Ellembelle District.

We are proud to celebrate the graduation of 765 beneficiaries who have completed their apprenticeship and advanced technical skills training.

This project has empowered them with valuable skills to start and manage their own businesses, thereby creating job opportunities and improving their livelihoods, she said.

She noted that enhancing the capacity of MSMEs to improve their quality and productivity for job creation was a priority for the GEA because MSMEs were the backbone of the economy and contribute about 70 per cent to the nations GDP.

She said youth unemployment was one of the biggest challenges of the governments in Africa and Ghana was no exception.

ILO data

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), about 60 per cent of Ghanas youth are underemployed, 12 per cent are unemployed; and the remaining 28 per cent are not in the labour force.

Nearly 58.6 per cent of the unemployed youth are located in urban areas and 41.4 per cent are in rural areas.

The unemployment challenge has been aggravated by the lack of appropriate vocational/technical skills, appropriate technology, access to market, access to relevant business information and start-up capital for young people.

Job opportunities

Mrs Yankey-Ayeh stated that as part of the governments efforts to create job opportunities and reduce unemployment in Ghana the GEA, in partnership with Eni Ghana and its partners in 2020 launched the two-year project.

According to her, the programme adopted an integrated development approach to foster innovation and embraced new skills and technologies to enable beneficiaries start and manage their operations more efficiently through pragmatic entrepreneurial, technical skills and business management.

The implementation of the intervention ensured that participants in 10 targeted coastal communities in the Ellembelle District within the Area of Influence of Eni Ghanas operations.
REIDSVILLE  Federal and local authorities acted Saturday to arrest an 18-year-old man accused of threatening to perform an act of mass violence at Reidsville High School.

Tyquan Strong of 600 Barnes St. in Reidsville and a student at RHS, is in the Rockingham County jail on a $10,000 secured bail on one felony charge of communicating a threat of mass violence on an educational institution via SnapChat, a spokesman for the Reidsville Police Department said in a news release Tuesday.

News of the threat on the 655-pupil school came to the FBI's National Threat Operations Center which received a message about someone creating the social media account and making threats, the release said.

"At April 28 at approximately 9:36 p.m. one of our students communicated a threat toward RHS by means of a social media post,'' said Sean Gladieux, safety and public information officer for Rockingham County Schools.

"On April 29th an RPD sergeant and detective responded to the address and spoke with the student and his family,'' Gladieux said. "Evidence was obtained by law enforcement to charge the student ...''

Strong has no criminal history, according to Reidsville Police.

In response, school officials and local law enforcement bolstered safety around the school over the weekend, Gladieux said.

"Even though there was no additional known safety issues or threats ... to ensure our school, staff, students and attendees of the

"Mean Girls" play (at the RHS Auditorium) on April 29 and 30 were as safe as possible, RPD assigned an officer to the school and requested patrol officers to increase their patrol of the area around RHS,'' Gladieux said.

"We commend our student who heard something and said something to our Reidsville High School staff,'' said RCS Superintendent John Stover.

"This quick action allowed RCS administration and law enforcement to immediately and collaboratively address and safely resolve the incident as quickly as possible. The safety of our students, staff and school community is our greatest responsibility. Rockingham County Schools is committed to providing our students and staff a safe environment so they can focus on student education and development.''

As the nation grapples with an school shootings epidemic, the tallies of victims of the violence are ever more grim.

There have been 18 school shootings so far this year that resulted in injuries or deaths, according to reports from Education Week journal. Since 2018, the nation has seen 162 such shootings. And in 2022, the country counted 51 school shootings with injuries or deaths. The number marked a steep increase in the tragedies. By comparison, Education Week tracked 35 school shootings in 2021, 10 in 2020, and 24 each in 2019 and 2018.

On April 4, one Pitt County School District student in Greenville, N.C., was injured when a 14-year-old allegedly accidentally shot the student while on a school bus.

And Rockingham County Schools dealt with its own gun incident on Thursday when police and school officials, acting on a tip from a student, recovered a loaded handgun from a Reidsville Middle School eighth grader on the schools campus, according to Gladieux.

No students or staff were harmed or threatened during the incident, which happened sometime before 1:20 p.m.

The gun was loaded with a full magazine, though police would not disclose the number of bullets it held. There was no live round in the chamber, Gladieux said Friday via email.

So far, school officials have not found any evidence that the student planned an attack of any kind at the school at 1903 Park Drive, which is home to 626 pupils in the sixth through eighth grade, the spokesman said.

The name of the minor in possession of the weapon was not provided. State juvenile laws protect the identities of young offenders.

The student, who had the gun on his person, was immediately suspended for an undisclosed amount of time, school officials said

An Reidsville Police spokesman said the investigation of Strong is ongoing and asks anyone with information to contact RPD's Sgt. Lingle at 336-347-2338, or leave an anonymous tip Rockingham County Crime Stoppers at 336-349-9683.
Jasper Booth-Hodges stands near the Starbucks he worked at in the Hyde Park neighborhood on Aug. 18, 2022 in Chicago. A judge for the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Tuesday that Starbucks violated labor law last summer when it fired Booth-Hodges, who helped organize a union at the Hyde Park coffee shop. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Starbucks violated labor law last summer when it fired a barista who helped organize a union at his Hyde Park coffee shop, a judge for the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday.

The coffee giant also illegally threatened workers at the Hyde Park cafe and another location in Edgewater last year, administrative law judge Geoffrey Carter ruled. Managers at those stores threatened baristas that they could lose benefits or opportunities for raises as a result of the union campaign, Carter ruled.

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Baristas at the Hyde Park store, at 1174 E. 55th St., voted to unionize last June. Workers at the Edgewater store, at 1070 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., voted to do so last May, weeks after the incident in which Carter found Starbucks had illegally threatened workers there.

The Bryn Mawr Starbucks was one of the first in Chicago to unionize. Starbucks closed the store last fall, a decision it attributed to ongoing safety issues impacting customers and partners. Workers United, the Service Employees International Union affiliate that represents Starbucks employees, blasted the closure as union-busting.

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The labor board judges ruling comes after a hearing held at the NLRB offices in downtown Chicago in February. The Starbucks union first filed the allegations of unfair labor practices between May and August 2022. The labor boards regional director issued complaints in those cases last summer, after which the allegations moved to trial.

Carter dismissed some allegations against Starbucks included in the complaints, including by finding it was not illegal when a manager told a worker at a store in Palmer Square that they could not wear union apparel at work.

The company must offer to reinstate the Hyde Park barista it fired, Jasper Booth-Hodges, to his job or a substantially equivalent one, Carter ruled. The company must also compensate Booth-Hodges for any loss of earnings he suffered as a result of his firing.

In a statement, Starbucks spokesperson Andrew Trull said that company policy strictly prohibits any retaliatory behavior directed toward partners who are interested in a union. Starbucks has created a robust training program to further management adherence to the complex patchwork of labor and employment law, Trull said.

Where partners have been subject to corrective action  including separation  it is because they violated Starbucks established policies and procedures, Trull wrote.

On Tuesday, Carter ruled that Booth-Hodges had been fired because he engaged in union and protected concerted activities.

Starbucks can appeal the judges findings; Trull said the company was exploring options related to potential appeals.

In an interview with the Tribune last summer, Booth-Hodges acknowledged he had sometimes been late to work  the reason Starbucks gave for his termination  but maintained he had been targeted by the company for his union activity.

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They had one thing on me, and it was that I was a full-time student and overslept sometimes, and they used it to get rid of me, Booth-Hodges said at the time.

Booth-Hodges had first started talking to co-workers about forming a union in fall 2021, when he signed a union authorization card and collected cards from fellow baristas, according to Carters decision. He was fired by the company last August.

Kathy Hanshew, the president of the Chicago and Midwest Joint Board of Workers United and the international vice president of Workers United, said in a statement that Tuesdays ruling confirms that Starbucks is willing to break the law through retaliation, intimidation and firing of workers to deny their lawful right to form a union.

Carter ruled Tuesday that Starbucks must cease and desist from threatening employees at the Hyde Park and Bryn Mawr stores and post a notice at each store informing workers of their rights under federal labor law, though the company closed the latter store last year. At the Hyde Park store, Starbucks must hold a meeting during which a manager will read the notice aloud to employees.

Starbucks has pushed back hard against the union campaign brewing in its coffee shops. The company had been ordered by labor board officials or judges to reinstate nearly two dozen employees it has fired across the country, according to the NLRB. Appeals in several of those cases are pending, according to the labor board.

In instances where others have filed claims against Starbucks for alleged violations of labor law, we have continued to defend ourselves where we believe the claims are unfounded, Trull said.

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In October, the labor boards regional director in Chicago alleged the company had fired another area barista in Wilmette for attempting to form a union. Starbucks denies it fired that worker in retaliation for union activity; a hearing in that case is scheduled for August.

As of last week, just over 300 of Starbucks approximately 9,300 U.S. company-owned cafes had unionized, according to the NLRB. There are about a dozen unionized Starbucks in the Chicago area.
GREENSBORO  By a 5-3 vote, the city council approved a resolution Tuesday opposing state legislation that would create a Civil Service Board.

Whenever you craft legislation in the way this bill was crafted, you get bad legislation, Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann said.

House Bill 470 applies only to Greensboro and Winston-Salem and would require the cities to fund their individual boards. The bills primary sponsors are Rep. Jon Hardister, R-Guilford, Jeff Zenger, R-Forsyth and Kyle Hall, R-Stokes  whose district includes part of Winston-Salem.

Neither city requested the bill, which was approved by the House and passed on its first reading in the Senate. Its been referred to the Committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate.

It was done sneakily, Councilwoman Sharon Hightower said. I dont need Raleigh to come down here and tell us how we ought to be doing business.

Councilman Zack Matheny, who voted along with Mayor Nancy Vaughan and Councilwoman Tammi Thurm against the resolution, said the council would be better served by working directly with legislators. Councilman Hugh Holston was not at the meeting.

The bill, sought by unions representing city employees, would require each city to set up its own five-member body. It would have two members elected by city employees, one picked by the city council, one jointly picked by the fire and police chiefs, and a fifth member selected by the other four.

The Civil Service Board would hear appeals from classified city employees who have been discharged, suspended, reduced in rank, transferred against his or her will, or denied any promotion or raise in pay he or she would be entitled to, and determine if the action by city management is justified.

The burden would be borne by the city to prove that the discipline or other action was justified. The Civil Service Board could reinstate an employee or take other actions to bring the complaint to a just conclusion.

The city could appeal a civil service decision to the countys superior court.

Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter said the city should be able to sit down with the employees who are pushing for the bill and hash out any problems.

Bryce Carter, Vice President of UE Local 150, the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, said workers have tried for years to work with the city on its grievance procedure.

Theres no consistency in the punishment, Carter told the council.

He said supervisors have an unfair advantage when reprimanding or firing an employee because they have professional advisors.

Workers dont have any representation, Carter said. They dont have no way of having any witnesses, they dont have any evidence they can present, but they have 10 days  and no guidance on how  to write the letter to the city manager.

Hightower suggested the new board would perpetuate racism.

A five-member board  is it going to be diverse? Is it going to have women? Whos going to have core members? Hightower asked. When you have three union members and two non-union members, guess who wins every time?

Marcus Cox of the Professional Firefighters of Greensboro said the board would cut down on favoritism.

They have been put in place to guard against good ol boy systems and workplace discrimination by offering oversight in the employee grievance process, Cox said.

As for the cost to the city, which would have to provide clerk services and independent legal counsel to the board, Cox suggested the city is already paying a price.

If someone is terminated without due process, all the time, energy and resources that went into funding that position, training that individual and creating that position goes out the window, Cox said.

The swift introduction and approval of the bill by the House took Greensboro council members by surprise, especially since it was not part of the citys legislative agenda.

Matheny blasted City Manager Taiwo Jaiyeoba for not alerting the council members that the bill was being heard last week, even though the citys fire and police chiefs were notified.

But our responsibility  is primarily to whats on our legislative agenda, Jaiyeoba replied. Thats the directive that you gave us.

If the state is pushing through something  it becomes on our list if it affects our body and our employees and your leadership as our manager, Matheny said. We should be involved.
OAK RIDGE  A raccoon found on Hunting Cog Road tested positive for the rabies virus, according to a news release from the Guilford County Public Health Department.

The test came back positive on Tuesday. This is the fifth confirmed case of animal rabies in Guilford County in 2023.

North Carolina law requires that all domestic pets (cats, dogs, and ferrets), whether living inside or outside, aged four months or older be vaccinated for rabies. Animals that are confined in outdoor fenced areas should also have current rabies vaccinations.

Supervising pets when they are outdoors could prevent contact with wild animals and lessen the possibility of rabies exposure. Rabies circulates within our wildlife population throughout the entire year.

Here are some tips to help prevent exposure to the rabies virus:

 Avoid direct contact with wildlife, dead or alive. Do not approach, try to play with, touch, rescue or treat any wildlife. If you find a sick or injured animal, contact Animal Control at 336-641-5990.

 Avoid any animal displaying unnatural behavior. Wild animals are not usually friendly so be very careful if they approach you.

 Do not try to separate fighting animals.

 Feed your pets indoors. Leaving food outside will attract dogs, cats, and other wildlife into your yard.

 Report all stray animals to Animal Control at 336-641-5990 in Greensboro and 336-883-3224 in High Point. Stray animals may not have current rabies vaccinations.

 If a person is bitten by an animal (domestic or stray), wash the bitten area immediately with soap and water, seek medical attention, and report the bite to local Animal Control officers.
GREENSBORO  Steve Arnold, who represented Guilford County residents on the local and state level for more than 25 years, was remembered Monday as a patriotic Christian dedicated to public service.

Arnold, 61, died last Friday at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

According to his obituary, he was trying to overcome another battle with cancer.

Steve was just a genuine man, said High Point City Councilman Britt Moore, who grew up with Arnold in the Oak View Estates area of the city. He was very committed to giving back to the community. He was very smart and well-read, not only on local issues, but state and national as well.

Arnold won his first election, to the High Point City Council, at age 24. He later served in the state House of Representatives and on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. Just last year, Arnold ran for the District 2 commissioners seat, but lost to incumbent Alan Perdue in the Republican primary.

In all the issues Ive been involved in over the years, I have sought to look for principles, to look for truths, that never change, Arnold said in a 1996 interview with the News & Record. Truth is timeless. It never changes.

Arnold worked as general contractor and his calloused hands showed he didnt spurn the physical work himself.

Born in Chicago, he was the oldest of the seven children of Rosalie and Dr. Gordon B. Arnold.

He graduated from Andrews High School in High Point, Capernwray Bible School in England and UNCG.

A born-again Christian, Arnold played the guitar and was a voracious reader.

Melvin Skip Alston, a Democrat who served alongside Arnold on the Board of Commissioners, recalled the two had a very confrontational relationship in the beginning.

He was very aggressive in his political beliefs and political stance, Alston said. Steve and I didnt see eye to eye, but we respected each other.

Alston noted that he and Arnold worked in a bipartisan way, toward the end of their terms together. He said Arnold will be remembered as a conservative Republican that did his job well.

I think he had a lot more to contribute to the community, he said. Its unfortunate that he died at such a young age.

Arnold is survived by his wife, Nicole, and three children.

Services were held Tuesday. Memorial contributions may be made to Hayworth Christian School.
The man who burned himself to death Sunday morning in the middle of a dirt lane on the west end of Billings was Jason Long.

He was 39 years old, and he loved his mother.

A couple of years ago he got enough money to visit his parents in North Carolina at Christmastime. His mother was so thrilled she promised to cook him whatever he asked for. He asked for meatloaf.

Jason would call his mother regularly, and sometimes theyd talk for two or three hours.

He would always tell me he loved me. And I would always say I loved him to Mars and back, said his mother, Phyllis Holloway.

Early on the morning of his death, Jason sent her a text. He had wanted to say goodbye over the phone, but couldnt make himself call.

I just cant keep going on, he told her in the text.

She knew he was having troubles, and could get down on himself. But, she didnt know how bad it was.

She doesnt want him remembered as the man who set himself on fire.

He wasnt just a body. He wasnt just some random guy. He was loved. I loved him so much, she said.

Phyllis had two sons, Jason and his little brother Justin. They were born a year apart. When the boys were age six or so, their mother divorced. She remarried, this time to a good guy named Tim.

For 20 years, the family lived together in Billings and later Bridger where the boys graduated from high school. Tim made a living as a truck driver before he was in a terrible accident while driving in Wyoming. He was hit head on by a man who was speeding home to attend his childs birthday party. The man was killed, and Tim almost was.

After the accident left Tim disabled, they moved to North Carolina where they had family. The brothers stayed in Montana. In 2018, Justin died under mysterious circumstances. If he was murdered, as the family suspects, the police didnt see it that way. They believed he committed suicide.

Nothing ever came of it, Tim said. The cops just kind of werent interested in it. Justin was cremated and his remains are with his parents in North Carolina.

Jason stayed in the Billings area. He worked for an underground utility locating service. When someone called one of those call before you dig phone numbers, it was Jason who answered.

In his text Sunday morning to his mother, which she received at about 4 a.m., he apologized for the pain his death would cause her.

Im so sorry this is happening to you, he told her.

He said he regretted not being able to give her grandkids. He regretted not being more successful professionally and financially.

I wont tell you not to be sad, he said.

He wanted his remains to go to her and Tim. Please, just keep me with Justin, he said.

He promised to send her a picture of himself, a happy photo they could remember him by. And then he signed off with Love you. Good bye.

The text to his mother wasnt the only one Jason sent that morning.

He also sent one to a trusted co-worker, urging him to call police so they could deal with it before someone in the public saw it. He also wanted to shield his friend. Jason had gone to the spot where he killed himself in a company truck. He wanted his friend to pick up the truck, but not until hours later.

I really dont want to (mess) you up, he told his friend. I really, really dont want you to see the results of what Im going to do.

He told the work friend where the truck would be, with the keys in the passenger side tool box.

I love you, man, he told the friend. Im so sorry, you were my best bud, hell, my only bud.

In other texts he sent that morning he said he loved his wife and didn't blame her for his troubles.

Tim and Phyllis got the bad news early Sunday, from a relative of family in the Billings area.

We were both asleep, it was early here, said Tim. I heard the call and then all I heard was her screaming.

When the two married 31 years ago, the two boys were still young enough to bond quickly with Tim, and regard him as their real father.

They were my boys, Tim said. I was the one who taught them how to ride bikes, how to fix cars. I taught them a work ethic.

He also taught them to drive, which at first didnt go well.

Jason, first thing, ran the car right into a tree, right in the front yard, Tim said. He laughs about it now, and he wasnt mad at the time, either.

It wasnt the car or the tree I cared about, it was him. I cared about him, he said.

Tim regrets not knowing how sad Jason was.

If Id have known he was having this kind of trouble, Id have driven to Montana and tied him up if I had to and brought him home with us, he said.

Besides wanting to have Jasons remains returned home to them, theres something else Tim and Phyllis want.

If you see someone going through something like this, say something, do something, Tim said. Dont just sit on your damn hands, do something.

If you or someone you know needs help, call 988 or 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org. You can also text HELLO to 741741 to speak with a trained professional at the Crisis Text Line. Anyone feeling suicidal can also call 911.
A contingent of Superfund-savvy Butte residents took the EPA to the woodshed Monday night.

Speaker after speaker lambasted the agency for its lack of progress in cleaning up the toxic wastes lingering from a legacy of mining and smelting.

EPA officials ranging from K.C. Becker, Denver-based administrator for Region 8, to Nikia Greene, remedial project manager for the Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit, were among EPA employees who received an earful during the meeting at the Butte Emergency Operations Center.

Many of the speakers, including businessman and radio host Ron Davis, have been bird-dogging the Superfund process in Butte for years.

I was very involved in the cleanup of this community for about 25 years, Davis said. And whats happened to me is whats happened to this community. Between the EPA, ARCO, the state of Montana, whoever else you want to add, youve lulled this community to sleep.

Youve done nothing to protect us. Youve done nothing but kill the messengers, he said. I will tell you right now, I have no respect for the EPA.

Most speakers referenced the action level in Butte for lead in soils of 1,200 ppm and its comparison to the 400 ppm action level in Anaconda and many other places. The EPA has previously justified Buttes higher action level, which allows more lead in soils than elsewhere before triggering remediation, by saying the type of lead in Anaconda is more easily absorbed by the body because its source was smelter emissions.

Monday night, Evan Barrett said the EPAs position is based on faulty assumptions.

EPA has acknowledged that smelting and heap roasting of ore occurred in Butte but has generally downplayed smelting as a contributor to lead in soils and attics. There is also evidence that smelter emissions blew into Butte from Anaconda. Becker, who participated virtually, said EPA is engaged in an agency-wide review of soil lead levels. She said she hopes more information will be available by summers end.

Fritz Daily was among the speakers critical of how long the cleanup process has taken. In 1982, EPA proposed that Silver Bow Creek be added to the agencys National Priority List, and it was listed as a Superfund site in 1983. Butte was added to the Silver Bow Creek site in 1987.

Daily, who is 77 years old, said he does not anticipate living long enough to see the cleanup completed.

In June 2020, the signing of the consent decree for the Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit stirred celebration in Butte-Silver Bow County. It seemed a promising milestone, outlining the Atlantic Richfield Co.s remaining responsibilities to addressing historic mining and smelting related pollution in the city-county.

Atlantic Richfield bought the Anaconda Co., the original polluter, in 1977 and is considered liable under Superfund law for the Anaconda Co.s legacy of pollution.

When the consent decree was signed, an op-ed by two top EPA officials, Doug Benevento and Greg Sopkin, expressed optimism about the future.

This agreement will help bring closure to four decades of Superfund in this community, they wrote. Along with actions in an amended record of decision for the site, this agreement will secure human health and create beautiful amenities for all who live in and visit this magnificent part of Montana.

Yet Daily and others who spoke Monday night said little significant remediation has happened since the consent decree was court approved in September 2020. The states Natural Resource Damage Program, not the EPA, tackled cleaning up the Parrot Tailings, Daily noted.

Several speakers commented about the Atlantic Richfield and EPAs consideration of using onsite material, also referred to as grey dirt and dirty dirt, instead of clean fill at remediation sites. The material would be slightly contaminated but not tainted enough to qualify for removal.

Is the EPA removing toxic dirt only to replace it with toxic dirt? asked John Ray.

Mick Ringsak described the potential use of grey dirt as fill as one of the most asinine things Ive ever heard in my life.

There also was discussion about the need for a truly independent study of community health. One speaker referenced the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry as one entity that might complete such a study.

The EPA has recently emphasized a commitment to more transparency and community involvement. The agency got a full dose of the latter Monday.

Butte deserves better, Daily said.
Gov. Greg Gianforte signed into law five bills aimed at restricting abortion access in Montana on Wednesday, triggering a legal request from Planned Parenthood of Montana later in the day to block one of the bills.

Today were protecting the lives of the most vulnerable amongst us  unborn children, Gianforte, a Republican, told a crowd of activists and lawmakers gathered outside the Capitol during a bill-signing ceremony the morning after the 68th Legislature adjourned.

The bills include Senate Bill 154, which attempts to override the Montana Supreme Courts longstanding recognition of abortion rights in the state. Known as the Armstrong decision, it holds that the state Constitutions right to privacy protects access to abortions in Montana up to the point of viability.

Opponents have criticized the proposal as legislative overreach into the courts authority to review the constitutionality of legislative acts. A legal review note attached to SB 154 by legislative staff notes that the bill raises potential conformity issues with the requirements of the Montana Constitution.

The governor also signed into law a bill that grants health care professionals the right to object to providing care they morally disagree with. House Bill 303 gives doctors, nurses and other providers the ability to refuse to perform abortions or prescribe marijuana or opioids, according to bill sponsor Rep. Amy Regier, R-Kalispell.

Freedom to live and work consistent with ones conscience is critical, Regier said during the ceremony. It is at the heart of what motivates many who enter the medical field, a profession full of individuals who dedicate their lives to healing.

Opponents to the bill, including the Montana Hospital Association, had argued that the law would present problems in rural areas for people who need that type of care but dont have other options for providers.

House Bill 575 and House Bill 786, both sponsored by Republican Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway of Great Falls, were also signed by the governor during Wednesdays ceremony. The first would prohibit the abortion of viable fetuses, a point the bill sets at 24 weeks' gestation, and the second requires reporting of adverse effects following medication abortions.

Planned Parenthood of Montana filed documents with Lewis and Clark County District Court late Wednesday seeking to block HB 575, saying it would result in irreparable harm. It is an addition to an earlier lawsuit filed by the organization against a bill the Legislature passed that would ban the most commonly used abortion procedure in the second trimester. A Helena judge previously declared the filing "premature" because the bill has not been signed, and the organization said it would renew the filing when the bill becomes law.

And Gianforte also put his signature on House Bill 625, which requires that an infant born alive following an attempted abortion in an abortion clinic, medical facility, or other facility is entitled to the same protections under the law that would arise for any newborn infant or for any person who comes to a medical facility or other facility for screening or treatment.

Opponents of the bill have pointed out that Montana state law already prohibits causing the death of a premature infant born alive if the infant is viable.

It is similar to legislation from 2021 that put a so-called born-alive infant protection act before voters, who defeated the measure 53% to 47% last year.

Rep. Alice Buckley, D-Bozeman, told reporters Wednesday she was surprised to see Republicans bring nearly a dozen anti-abortion bills following the defeat of that ballot referendum.

This is after an election season where Montanans said that they don't want the Legislature infringing on their right to privacy and their ability to make decisions for themselves with LR-131 (the born-alive ballot measure), and that you can see it as a as a proxy to the ability to make decisions for ourselves, which is just stunning to me.

As was the case for other bills tied to national social issues this session, the anti-abortion bills largely passed the Legislature on party lines. Republicans hold historic two-thirds majorities in both chambers.

I feel extremely proud of the way our team showed up, especially on (the House Judiciary Committee), but then again, on the House floor, for every one of these bills talking about why it's so important for Montanans to make their own decisions, Buckley said. And now we have the backstop of our courts, but I think it just makes me think about what we've been saying, which is that Republicans came in with a supermajority and spent a lot of time stripping away the rights that Montanans have that are enshrined in the Constitution.

The governor also cited several other abortion-related bills that passed the Legislature and said he plans to sign them when they reach his desk. They include:

House Bill 544, to require preauthorizations for abortions covered by Medicaid and tighten what would qualify as a medically necessary procedure.

House Bill 862, to prohibit public funding to be used for abortions except in some limited cases.

House Bill 721, to ban the most commonly used abortion procedure in the second trimester, known as dilation and curettage.

 Holly Michels and Tom Kuglin contributed to this story.
The Montana Legislature adjourned late Tuesday evening in a haphazard way, with the Senate calling it quits hours before the House and by doing so leaving several key pieces of legislation up in the air.

The Montana Senate voted to sine die ahead of the majority's plan Tuesday afternoon, with Democrats leveraging 10 Republican votes to curtain call the upper chamber's 2023 session. The House voted to end the session nearly six hours later.

The Senate move happened before the House had even put the state budget on its agenda for a final set of votes. Lawmakers must constitutionally pass a budget within the 90 days allocated for each session.

The move by the 26 senators who OKd adjournment in the Senate also left the fates of several priority bills briefly in limbo, though the House was later able to save them procedurally. That included $100 million in additional property and income tax rebates paid for with surplus dollars and the last-standing compromise on housing that taps tens of millions in coal trust dollars for projects, a scaled-down version of Republican Gov. Greg Gianfortes original proposal.

The abrupt end in the Senate also left a major bill on how to spend cannabis revenues in an unclear situation. Gianforte vetoed the bill as promised before the Senate wrapped up, but not the House. That means its unclear how the process to attempt an override of the governor would work or even be possible. The bill, Senate Bill 442, had passed the Legislature with broad support.

Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, a Belgrade Democrat, made the motion as soon as procedurally possible Tuesday afternoon. Senate President Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, tried to call the motion out of order, but Flowers persisted the timing was proper.

After the vote, cheers could be heard in the hallway outside the Senate as that chamber's Republicans settled into the reality that their work this session was done.

Republicans held a supermajority this session for the first time in decades, meaning they could pass virtually anything by a two-thirds vote without any Democratic support.

Flowers on Tuesday said the motion was not meant to be retribution for a session of few opportunities for the minority party, but said he enjoyed making the motion.

"I think any opportunity for us to direct opportunities rather than be directed is satisfying," Flowers said. "I just felt like we no longer had anything to gain for Montanans or for our constituents by being here any longer. We've already been here longer than any session I've served in and it was just time to go home and obviously a lot of Republicans felt the same way and voted with us on it."

House Bill 2, the state budget, crossed the final finish line late Tuesday, hours after the Senate adjourned.

Rep. Llew Jones, a Conrad Republican who heads the House Appropriations Committee and carried the budget bill, said while the Senate added $82.2 million in spending, the $14 billion package over two years was still below the inflation rate compared to last sessions budget.

The Senate added $56 million to the state health departments budget to address the cost of using contract labor to operate the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs. The Senate also added $15 million to the already increased rates paid to Medicaid providers, which Jones said brought those rates up to the benchmark proposed in a study done during the interim.

The Senate also upped the Department of Transportations budget by $17.1 million to deal with inflation costs and added $6.1 million to community corrections providers to bring their pay rates in line with raises given to other state employees.

I think it does good work overall for this state, Jones said. It will serve us well over the next biennium.

While saying Medicaid providers are still in a $10 million hole until the second year of the budget, Rep. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, said the rate increases were a major victory. She advocated for those throughout the session.

Its nothing to shake a stick at, Caferro said. I'm very, very happy that we got this far. It took a lot of work and I know it will make a big difference in people's lives.

The budget passed the House on an 88-8 vote.

The Senates abrupt departure threw a wrench into the works for a pair of major spending bills before the House, however.

House Bill 816 ended up mostly as it began, as a proposal to use $135 million of the surplus to supplement $860 million the Legislature previously passed in property and income tax rebates. Prior to Tuesday, it had sprawled into what one Democrat panned as a Frankenstein bill by the time it passed a conference committee Monday night.

That language would have tied its fate to that of at least five other pieces of legislation working through the Legislature, and added $100 million to an account for addressing the states pension needs.

The Senate adjourned without passing that version, however, leaving the House with the choice of passing the Senates version or killing it altogether. The House ultimately voted to pass the other chambers stripped-down version, which puts $100 million toward property tax rebates and $35 million to income tax rebates.

And a $175 million housing proposal was also derailed by the Senates adjournment, which roughly coincided with House Democrats joining a group of fiscally conservative Republicans to initially vote it down. Democrats had objected to the bill that emerged from a conference committee, arguing for the body to vote it down and instead pursue a prior version that had incorporated more ideas from the minority party.

I really wanted to be supporting this bill as the only remaining housing bill we have, said Rep. Alice Buckley, a Bozeman Democrat. But she added that the conference committee version did away with some of the key provisions of this bill that I felt like would make it work for lower-income Montanans.

The bill initially failed to pass on a 49-50 vote, which could have left the possibility of revising that version of the bill. But with the Senates departure, the House was also forced to reverse course and settle with the version that had already passed the upper chamber. A number of House Democrats ultimately voted to accept the Senate version, which passed 58-38.

Several other policies are stuck in the lurch, like a major bill to revise child protective services that the governor issued suggested amendments to. The House could not act on those amendments alone, so the bill goes back to the governor for either an all-out veto or signing.

Similarly, House Bill 29 was also caught up in the amendatory veto scenario. The legislation was perhaps the largest policy bill related to the beleaguered Montana State Hospital, which has languished without permanent staff and standard safety protocol failures that last year resulted in patient deaths and injuries.

The bill sought to divert dementia and Alzheimer's patients from admission to the state hospital, something the hospital's policy already forbids. It would have set up a commission to oversee the transfer of such existing patients to other skilled nursing facilities.

Both bills were from Rep. Jennifer Carlson, R-Churchill.

In action late Tuesday, some representatives in the House voted to kill off Senate bills or not consider them at all, a move one lawmaker acknowledged on the floor was retaliatory.

I dont care about the Senate or what you think they did, said Rep. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis, as he worked to save a study of the wine industry in Montana.

Marking wins, losses and challenges

On the Senate floor after the adjournment motion passed, Majority Leader Sen. Steve Fitzpatrick, of Great Falls, rolled out a list of the supermajority's accomplishments, from rebates, to changes to education and the judicial branch.

"We probably passed some of the most substantive laws I think in terms of the last 14 years I've been here," he said. "Last session was very easy, we had a lot of low-hanging fruit after 16 years of Democratic governors.  This session was harder, but it was more difficult and hopefully I think it was more rewarding, I think we did a great job here."

In his speech after the Senate approved his motion, Flowers acknowledged the tension thats permeated the building the last two weeks.

The House ground the state House to a standstill after a protest April 26 following Speaker of the House Matt Regier preventing Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Missoula Democrat and one of the states first transgender legislators, from speaking on the House floor for several days.

That came after comments when the freshman lawmaker told representatives they should be ashamed for voting in favor of a bill that would ban some gender-affirming care for transgender minors. She also told them they would have blood on your hands for doing so.

The House GOP ultimately voted to block Zephyr from accessing the House floor for the remaining days of the session, leaving her to vote remotely in the hallway.

Flowers said while the Senate had its own dispute over the language used in debates in difficult bills, he was proud of how the Senate operated.

We did not demand silencing or censure and instead honored each other's rights to free speech, while still being considerate of every senator in this room and the folks we represent, Flowers said.

While Flowers said senators were able to find some compromise, he was concerned about social bills that passed with only GOP support to do things like limit access to abortions, ban care for transgender minors, define sex as only male and female and block drag story hours in schools and libraries.

Montanans want freedoms. They want to live and let live  , Flowers said.   Montanans didn't send us here to be their social norms police or their moral police based on our own particular view of the world.

Ellsworth, the Senate president, also praised where the chamber came together, but expressed disappointment at how adjournment came about.

We came together on the issues that we could and when we look at the totality of what we've accomplished for Montana, it was significant, Ellsworth said. Could we have done more? Yes. I'm very disappointed that Montanans sent us here for a period of time and we couldn't find or muster a couple more days to give to the citizens that elected us.

Minority Leader Kim Abbott in the House praised the work of Democrats in the super-minority.

Every single day this group of people came into a difficult environment, we stood up for what we believe in, we stood up for our values, Abbott said.   If you look at the (vote) board, most of the work is bipartisan. The things we disagree on, we seriously disagree on and those are important conversations to have.

Abbott said she wished the House gallery, which has been closed since the protest, was full of people as the House adjourned, acknowledging the bitter dispute at the end of the session.

We had serious disagreements and we had to work through I would say unprecedented hard times and we were able to keep the House working for the people in Montana during that, Abbott said.

House Majority Leader Sue Vinton also alluded to the unprecedented events of the 68th Legislature in praising her caucus and their vote to discipline Zephyr.

"You stood firm in the face of unprecedented and baseless attacks, she said.

Vinton touted legislative wins for Republicans on regulations, budgeting, school choice, personal freedoms, firearms and elections.

This has been a successful session and one that we and all Montanans can be proud of, she said.

Speaker of the House Matt Regier struck a positive tone in his final speech, thanking staff and telling lawmakers that laws may be passed or repealed, but memories will remain.
The octopus dish at the Greek restaurant Nisos Mediterranean, 802 W. Randolph St. in Chicago on Nov. 16, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

Nisos Mediterranean, the enormous West Loop project from Parker Hospitality and chef Avgeria Stapaki, has closed, at least temporarily, along with several other Chicago restaurants.

In a statement, Parker Hospitality announced it has mutually agreed to part ways with Stapaki. But that might not be the end of the restaurant, as it may reevaluate the Nisos brand. This comes less than a year after opening in July 2022.

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Before Nisos opened, Parker Hospitality founder Brad Parker called the restaurant his passion project. Taken with Stapakis cooking in Greece, Parker convinced the chef to move to Chicago to lead the kitchen.

[ Rick Tramonto, legendary chef of Tru, makes Chicago return with Parker Hospitality ]

Stapaki said she will stay in Chicago. I am excited about the future and my plans for building future restaurant projects, she said in the statement. Parker said he and Stapaki remain close friends and are actively discussing possible future business opportunities outside of Parker Hospitality.

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The Tribune awarded Nisos one star in its November review, which found the West Loop spot to be a restaurant with genuine ambition and fascinating creative twists, but one where the substance doesnt quite live up to the premium you pay for the presentation.

The change comes just as Parker Hospitality named Rick Tramonto, whose Chicago restaurant Tru rose to national prominence in the late 1990s, as its executive chef and food and beverage director.

Parker Hospitality said it would make another announcement about Nisos in a few weeks.

More restaurant closings in Chicago:

Nana, Taco E and Ajo

The Fried Chicken at Nana restaurant, 3267 S. Halsted St., in Chicago, in 2013. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)

A three-in-one family-owned concept is closing down, 13 years after Nana set up shop in the Bridgeport neighborhood.

Nana, which opened in 2009 at Halsted and 33rd streets and went on to become a Michelin Bib Gourmand recipient, became known for its organic and sustainable ethos and Mexican-inspired dishes (not to mention its craveworthy avocado fries).

What started as a means to save our childhood home in the midst of the financial crisis became a mission to bring good, clean food rooted in our Mexican heritage and presented in a unique and approachable manner to the community, owner Omar Solis told DNAinfo in 2017.

[ Just opened: Stephanie Izards Little Goat Diner among 7 new restaurants ]

In 2019, Solis and his wife, co-owner Audri Simonelli-Solis, opened Ajo, a fast-casual spot adjoining Nana with a Chipotle-style customizable spread of Caribbean-inspired bowls and jibaritos. They also launched Taco E, a tribute to the familys long-running Taco Erendira. When the pandemic hit, the family combined the three concepts into a one-stop takeout shop.

We evolved and grew so much as a business these last 13 years, the couple said in a statement. It is time now for something new and we are excited for what lies ahead.

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Nana will serve its last brunch Sunday, and Taco E and Ajo will close Saturday.

Masa Madre

Masa Madre co-owners Tamar Fasja Unikel, left, and Elena Vazquez Felgures with their baked goods at The Hatchery, 125 N. Kedzie Ave. in Chicago on Sept. 28, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

After five years of operating the virtual Mexican-Jewish bakery Masa Madre, co-founders Tamar Fasja Unikel and Elena Vazquez Felgueres closed the bakery April 30, and are taking a break to plan their next steps for the project.

From a home-based operation that took orders on Instagram, Vazquez Felgueres and Fasja Unikel built Masa Madre out of The Hatchery in East Garfield Park.

Their team crafted challah, babka, conchas and other baked treats inspired by the flavors and traditions of both cultures, and frequently partnered with other Chicago small businesses. The two co-owners left their previous jobs in 2019 to focus on Masa Madre full time.

Both women say they were heavily influenced by their mothers and grandmothers traditions of baking together and preparing elaborate family meals.

Though their dark chocolate babka will be dearly missed, fans should keep an eye on their social media for announcements.

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nkindelsperger@chicagotribune.com
DECATUR  When Gov. J.B. Pritzker came to Decatur in late March to announce the final piece of funding needed to put the Brush College Road grade separation project out for bid, he made sure to lavish praise upon Soy City's biggest cheerleader: Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe.

"I want you to know there's no better advocate on behalf of this city than this mayor," Pritzker said. "Ever since I came into office and she came into office, she has been a consistent advocate ... and she is well-liked and well-known in Springfield. And so when she asks, people want to deliver for you."

Not that Decatur voters needed to hear this. Less than one week later, they re-elected Moore Wolfe, mayor since 2015, to another four-year term as Decatur's leader. And unlike her first two contests, she ran unopposed.

"I'd like to think it's because I'm doing a really good job, and people are satisfied," Moore Wolfe told Herald & Review in an interview ahead of Monday's meeting. "I do feel like the community is moving in the right direction. And we are getting a lot of things done."

On Monday, Moore Wolfe took the oath of office for a fourth time, setting her on course to become the longest-serving mayor in Decatur history.

Decatur @MayorMooreWolfe is sworn in for a new four-year term. Shes been Decaturs mayor since 2015 and will become the citys longest-serving leader if she serves out this term. #twill pic.twitter.com/1e6oMuMY63  Brenden Moore (@brendenmoore13) May 1, 2023

In her nearly eight years in office, Moore Wolfe can tout progress on economic development and infrastructure investment. But as she begins her new term, challenges remain, including addressing high crime, eradicating blight in the city's urban core and reversing decades of population loss.

"There's always going to be work to do," Moore Wolfe said. "You know, I had to reconcile it myself that I'm not going to fix everything. I'm not. It's not possible. But if you can do the most good and get the most done, that's what matters."

While they did not have a choice once two little-known opponents were knocked off the ballot earlier this year, many community leaders say Moore Wolfe is still the right person to be the captain of "Team Decatur."

When asked why they thought there was such little competition in this year's mayor's race, some pointed to the significant toll public life can take on candidates for office in the digital age. Others pointed generally low civic engagement  just 13% of eligible voters turned out in April's election.

And then there's the incumbency factor. Those who hold public office typically do not lose elections. Moore Wolfe is no exception.

Though her first two contests were heavily contested. In 2017, she defeated challenger John Philips 53% to 47%. And in 2019, she bested Councilman David Horn and Jacob Jenkins with 49% in a three-way contest.

"I think it speaks to the job she's been doing," said former Mayor Paul Osborne, who served from 2003 to 2008. "And if you're doing a good job, people usually don't want to run against you."

Osborne was the last mayor to run unopposed for re-election before Moore Wolfe. The publisher of the Decatur Tribune and an observer of city politics, he credits Moore Wolfe's leadership skills during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moore Wolfe is the executive director of philanthropy, advocacy and community relations at HSHS St. Marys Hospital, a connection to the medical community that helped as she navigated city through the pandemic.

"I think the important aspect to Julie is that she's kind of spent a lot of time in public relations," Osborne said. "And I think that is an important part of the mayor's job. You're projecting, you're the spokesperson for the city of Decatur and you're out there in front."

Her Springfield connections, she served as president of the Illinois Municipal League last year and has the ear of Pritzker and other state leaders, have also helped bring resources back to the community.

"And so I think all around, she's done a great job in some difficult times," Osbourne said.

Moore Wolfe also has a reputation as a collaborator. Though a Democrat, she has strong relationships with Macon County Republicans and often seeks to place the city and county in alignment on key initiatives.

"Tuna and I had a good relationship and I was really concerned  because the city and the county were starting to mend some fences and we were getting along and starting to work well together," said Macon County Board chairman Kevin Greenfield, speaking of his relationship with late Mayor Mike McElroy.

"Julie took off right where he left off and I'm grateful for that," Greenfield said. "... I'm proud to call her my friend."

The two worked closely together through the pandemic, often meeting daily. And they have put their heads together on long-term goals for the region, such as with the Reas Bridge Road project.

The $29 million project includes replacing the pair of 2-lane bridges over Lake Decatur with a new 4-lane structure and revamping the approaching roadways to match the new bridge. This section of roadway is part of the planned Macon County Beltway Project, a 22-mile loop around the eastern and southern edges of Decatur.

"When the city and the county can go to senators and congressmen and state reps and state senators and we both have the same wishlist, it's so much easier for them to give in to us because we're killing two birds with one stone," Greenfield said.

City Councilman David Horn, who decided against challenging Moore Wolfe a second time after "a family matter arose," said Moore Wolfe deserves some credit for recent infrastructure investments and economic developments, but that overall quality-of-life for city residents hasn't improved during her tenure.

"All of that is momentum building for the city. And the mayor has been a leader in that and should be commended for that," Horn said. "With that said, the basic needs that need to be met for every city and by every elected official is to make sure that the water is flowing and the sewer contents are leaving."

Horn characterized this as meeting "the minimal expectation of any city in the United States." He said he worries that key challenges, such as population loss, a higher-than-state-average unemployment rate and high child poverty rate "are going to continue to go unaddressed."

"New jobs in Decatur does not necessarily translate into increased and improved quality of life for the people who currently live here," Horn said. "And until we focus on the people who live here, we're not going to change the trajectory."

Indeed, Decatur lost population again at the 2020 U.S. Census, bringing the city to 70,522, which is about 25% less than its peak in 1980. Crime also remains above pre-pandemic levels and blight continues to spread in the city core.

Horn said Moore Wolfe's easy victory should not be taken as a sign that people are satisfied with the job she's doing, but as a troubling sign that, with 13% turnout, that "people do not feel connected to their local government." He pointed out that Decatur Park Board candidate Shelith Hansbro, also running unopposed, "received more votes than our longstanding mayor did."

Moore Wolfe acknowledged that government often moves slow and that some longstanding problems will not be fixed so easily. But, she believes that the groundwork has been laid in a number of areas.

"I think we'll really start to see a lot of the fruits of that labor come to pass in the next couple of years," Moore Wolfe said. "Infrastructure is always going to be a big deal  we're an old community, we're constantly having to fix sewers and roads and to try and make improvements."

Another area of focus will be workforce development. A challenge has been aligning skills with the jobs available within the community. And to attract those outside Decatur to want to come live here.

"We have the jobs," Moore Wolfe said. "We've got to have the neighborhoods, we've got to have the housing. We've got to have it all. And we'll get there."

Rev. Courtney Carson, vice president of external affairs for Richland Community College, credited Moore Wolfe for "making a diligent effort" around workforce development, a key strategic initiative of the Decatur City Council.

"What's different about Mayor Julie Moore is she's been here for a very long time, so she understands the city," Carson said. "And the things that she (doesnt) understand, she speaks to the experts about it  whether it's work that's outside of our scope or the community at-large, she goes to the source."

"Personally, she's never said something to me and didn't follow through," Carson said.

Gallery: Decatur Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe Pritzker_JB 2 3.21.19 Speed_Dating 1 3.19.19.JPG City Council 6 3.14.19A.JPG Moore Wolf Julie 2 1.21.19.JPG Moore Wolfe_Julie 8.3.18 Rodney Davis and "opportunity zones" Wolfe_Julie_Moore 04.27.18.jpg Moore Wolfe_Julie 10.6.16 Buffett and Moore Wolfe 06.15.16 hood medal1 state of the city ashley pic 2 Moore Wolfe_Julie 3 8.17.15 council pic 1 celebrationmain pic 2 Moore Wolfe_Julie 8.3.15.jpg McElroy pic Moore Wolfe_Julie 7.17.15.jpg 050116-dec-bizj-ycom-foodworks3
The seven, red and white, 36-inch metal letters spelling Decatur and a seven-foot outline of Illinois were unveiled near the Devon Lakeshore Amphitheater in Nelson Park along Decaturs lakefront.
DECATUR  The Decatur Police Department remains in constant BOLO mode  always being on the lookout for new officers  but was very pleased to celebrate the arrival of seven recruits on Wednesday.

A clearly delighted Police Chief Shane Brandel personally welcomed them at a swearing-in ceremony in the city council chambers where they were presented with their shiny new badges.

This, however, is the start of the officers journey to becoming a patrol cop, not the end of it. All except one (a lateral hire from Blue Mound Police Department, hes already had extensive training) are now off to 16 weeks of instruction at the Macon County Law Enforcement Training Center on Decaturs southern edge.

And that will then be followed by 16 weeks of field training with the department: All of which means they wont be protecting and serving in earnest for maybe another eight to 10 months, depending on how well they prosecute their training.

Brandel, however, cant help but like the way his recruitment numbers are trending. Our budgeted strength is 148 and this puts us at 137 with these seven, and we have others in training, he told the Herald & Review.

And so with the numbers we are now seeing in applications, and the trends we have seen over the last year, I feel real confident that we should be at full staff by mid next year.

Brandel said police departments across the country are emerging out the other end of what had been a series of arresting setbacks in trying to hunt up new officers. Bad publicity from high profile disasters like the 2020 caught-on-video murder of George Floyd had helped stoke a negative attitude towards cops reflected in many communities and the political realm.

Then there had been the stresses and strains imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and all of that coincided with a wave of retirements after a big recruiting period in the 1990s.

It was all just the recipe for a perfect storm for this whole staffing issue, not just for the Decatur Police Department but for most police departments across the country, Brandel said.

Now, he says, it feels like that storm has passed and people are more understanding and appreciative of the work done by the majority of cops who do their best to protect and serve.

The political narrative is changing, the media narrative has changed and the community has also rallied around us, Brandel added. I think all those things coming together have really helped us get in the right place.

The new recruits he welcomed Wednesday certainly had no doubts they were in the right place. Officer Jarrod Sikowski, 30, was following in the footsteps of his dad, Randy, a retired sergeant from the city force. I want to help serve and protect the community and, well, it runs in my family, he said with a smile.

I have a lot of friends in law enforcement and I want to be out there doing the same thing and have their back as well.

Fellow new officer Bobby Truong came to Decatur all the way from Providence City, Utah, and had considered becoming a social worker before giving law enforcement a closer look.

I wanted to be in the action in terms of service to my community, he said.

"That service is really important and compassion and empathy are two things I think I bring to the table.

In his address to the recruits, Brandel told them to lean on the support of their families to motivate them to present the community they serve with the best possible version of you.

The chief said they were joining the most honorable of professions and cautioned them that the gleaming badge on their chest is freighted with a heavy responsibility.

But understand when you wear a police officers badge you no longer represent just yourself, he added. That badge represents the hundreds of thousands of police officers around this country that also proudly wear their badges, past, present and future.

And if you tarnish that badge, you dont just tarnish your badge, but all of our badges as well.

A look back at Decatur police through the years  1911 1911 1911 1924 1934 1939 1941 1942 1951 1960 1977 1990
DECATUR  A Decatur store worker who armed himself with a semi-automatic handgun he built from mail-order parts he shopped online has been sentenced to 12 months probation.

Jacob M. Brown, 33, had a FOID card but no concealed carry license when he was caught with the gun on Nov. 4 while at his place of work.

A sworn affidavit from Decatur police said a 45-year-old female manager at the store had seen a bulge on the right hip of Brown that she feared was a gun and had alerted police.

Brown, faced with a weapons pat-down by arriving officers, is quoted as admitting he was armed and police then took the loaded 9mm weapon and a spare magazine.

Brown advised he had purchased the firearm by separate parts online in 2017, and it does not have a serial number, said Officer Griffin Meeker, who signed the affidavit.

Brown said that he knew he had the firearm on him illegally. He stated he had it on him for his protection. Weapons without serial numbers are known as "ghost guns" because they cannot be traced easily. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law a year ago outlawing such weapons in the state.

The defendant appeared in Macon County Circuit Court on April 27 and took a plea deal negotiated by defense attorney Courtney Anderson, admitting a charge of disorderly conduct. A further charge of the aggravated unlawful use of a weapon was dismissed by Judge James Coryell.

In addition to the probation sentence, Coryell also ordered Brown to undergo a mental health evaluation within 90 days and complete any recommended treatment. He was further ordered to forfeit the firearm within nine months of the court hearing.

2023 mugshots from the Herald & Review Lourash Hirstein Phillip Gehrken Joseph A. Williams Jetrevius O. Jarrett Edwards King-Woods Wilson
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Thunderstorms likely. High 79F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms. Low 67F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
In its semiannual statewide survey, the Vanderbilt Poll measured significant bipartisan support for various gun regulations.

The survey was conducted April 1923 among 1,003 registered Tennessee voters, according to a written statement.

Its hopeful that while 58 percent of respondents view Tennesseans as divided, there is a fairly strong agreement on basic next steps in our most politically divisive issues, said John Geer, co-director of the Vanderbilt Poll, dean of the College of Arts and Science and professor of political science at Vanderbilt University. At the same time, 74 percent of registered voters say theyd prefer their elected leaders compromise across the aisle rather than strictly pursue their own values and priorities.

Since May 2012, the Vanderbilt Poll has asked registered voters to rank what issue should be the Tennessee governments top priority. For 20 consecutive surveys, guns ranked last or nearly last. This April, it ranked as the third-most important issue, just 2 percentage points behind education and three points behind the economy.

On April 11, in response to The Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order strengthening background checks for firearm purchases. This action is supported by 82 percent of Tennesseans with only 10 percent opposing it. This support carries through key demographics across the state.

Seventy-two percent of self-described MAGA Republicans and 81 percent of non-MAGA Republicans support the governors executive order, as do 91 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of Independents, according to the poll. Among those who strongly or somewhat favor the National Rifle Association, support for the executive action is also strong at 74 percent and 77 percent, respectively.

An overwhelming majority of registered voters also support a so-called red flag law that would temporarily restrict access to guns for individuals who are at a high risk of harming themselves or others. Such a law would likely be the focus of the special legislative session called for by Lee.

To better understand how opinions are influenced by the March shooting at The Covenant School, the Vanderbilt Poll posed questions about gun laws in two waysone that tied support of a restriction to preventing school shootings and another to more generally preventing gun-related violence.

Seventy-two percent of registered voters polled support a red flag law to prevent general gun-related violence. Support increases to 75 percent when the question associated the law with preventing school shootings.

Its not surprising that support for a red flag law in Tennessee increases when preventing school shootings is mentioned. However, that the baseline of support for such a law only trails by 3 percentage points is an indicator that this support is not a flash in the pan because of The Covenant School shooting, Geer said. This close trend is seen with other proposed gun regulations as well.

Approximately 2 out of 3 of all respondents (67 percent to prevent school shootings; 64 percent to prevent gun-related violence) support laws that would require gun owners to securely store their firearms to protect against unauthorized access or else face penalties. Support is again bipartisan, with 54 percent of all Republicans, 68 percent of Independents and 91 percent of Democrats in favor, according to information provided by Vanderbilt.

Guns are a chief concern among Democrats, but there is wide agreement between the most liberal and most conservative voters in the state on support for the red flag laws that the governor has talked about, said Josh Clinton, co-director of the Vanderbilt Poll. There is strong support for action even from MAGA Republicans and strong supporters of the NRA.

Opinions diverge more about banning so-called assault-style weapons. In the context of school shootings, 50 percent of registered voters polled support such a ban, with 42 percent opposing. The issue cuts deeply across party lines, with 91 percent support among Democrats, 49 percent of Independents, 31 percent of non-MAGA Republicans and 17 percent of MAGA Republicans.
A woman who smashed her friend in the head with a softball bat last year for no apparent reason was ordered Wednesday to spend 12 years in prison.

Kayla Nicole Haley, 30, was sentenced in Fredericksburg Circuit Court to a total of 25 years with 13 years suspended. She had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated malicious wounding.

The conviction stems from a Sept. 11 incident at a home in the 1400 block of Dandridge Street. The resident, Megan Shifflett, had asked Haley the night before to move out of the home, saying she had worn out her welcome.

Evidence presented by prosecutor Steve Eubank showed that Haley went to a motel and returned Sept. 11 to retrieve some belongings. She encountered Shifflett at the home and bashed her in the head with the bat.

Shifflett was taken to Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. She has a metal plate in her head and continues having cognitive issues as the result of the attack.

Shifflett on Wednesday testified that she doesn't remember the attack but is still suffering from various ailments, including migraines and sensitivity to cold. She said she let Haley move into her home in part to help her regain custody of Haley's children, and still considers Haley a good friend.

In a brief statement made just before Judge Gordon Willis pronounced the sentence, a sobbing Haley said, "Megan, you are my best friend and I am so sorry for my actions and the pain I've caused you and your family."

Defense attorney Alex Raymond said there is no excuse for Haley's display of "blind rage," but he said Shifflett's comments show that she "sees something in Haley that [the prosecutor] does not." Raymond asked for an active sentence of three years.

Eubank said that although Shifflett is a "good-hearted" person, that does not negate the fact that Haley deserves severe punishment for her "unprovoked, savage attack." He asked the judge for a sentence above the recommended state sentencing guidelines, which called for a maximum active sentence of just under 13 years in prison.

Willis told Haley that she has already had more chances than most, pointing out that she has a prior assault conviction and was in the regional drug court program at the time due to drug offenses in Stafford County and Fredericksburg.

"You took a bat and assaulted your best friend," Willis said. "You can't just go and attack people and ruin their lives just because you're having a bad day."
With a potential default of the national debt looming as early as June 1, Virginia budget negotiators say they will wait on the outcome of the confrontation between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and a crucial report on state revenues collected in May before deciding on how to bridge a $1 billion gap in revisions to the $177 billion, two-year budget.

A budget deal already was unlikely between House Republicans and Senate Democrats before late June, but the negotiators met on Monday, as the debt ceiling conflict escalated. A letter from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress the United States could reach the limit of its ability to pay existing federal debts on June 1, leading to an unprecedented default that could tank the economy and trigger a recession.

Weve got to look at revenues in May and weve got to look at a wild card in the federal government, said House Appropriations Chairman Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, who is working directly with Senate Finance Co-Chairs Janet Howell and George Barker, both Fairfax County Democrats, on a possible budget compromise.

Monday marked the May 1 deadline for Virginia taxpayers to file their returns and final payments for 2022 income taxes, which account for 70% of the revenues that pay for core government services in the state general fund budget. Sales taxes represent the second largest source of revenue, and those collections weakened in March, the last month for which results are available.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin will release revenue results for April  also a critical month for meeting the states budget forecast  in the next two weeks. Youngkin contends the state will have more than enough money to pay for $1 billion in tax cuts that he has proposed, although he has tied one proposal  a reduction in the top individual income tax rate  to the amount of revenues the state collects by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Senate Democrats have rejected his proposed tax cuts, but they have discussed a potential compromise that could include some tax cuts and rebates. They have balked at proposed reductions in the corporate tax rate or the top individual income tax rate, which would significantly reduce the amount of money the state could spend on priorities such as public education and health care.

We need to get more information to understand where were heading, Barker said Tuesday afternoon.

Knight, in an interview on Tuesday, said he is concerned about the volatility of state revenues and wants more economic certainty before making decisions on tax cuts and additional spending that will shape state finances not only this year, but in the next two-year budget.

From a farmers terminology, I call them ongoing expenses, said Knight, who was a successful hog farmer for decades.

However, the ongoing delay also poses a challenge for local governments, particularly school divisions, which may not know how much state aid they will receive for the budget year that begins on July 1 before this fiscal year ends on June 30.

That is very concerning, to say the least, said Bristol School Superintendent Keith Perrigan, who also is an officer at the Virginia Association of School Superintendents and president of the Coalition of Small and Rural Schools in Virginia.

The uncertainty for school divisions has been compounded by an error that the Virginia Department of Education made in estimates that it provided to local school divisions last year about the basic aid they could expect to receive from the state under the two-year budget adopted in June. As a result, school divisions found out during the General Assembly session this year that they would receive almost $202 million less than they had expected, although the budget itself was correct.

The Senate had proposed the inclusion of $58 million in the first year of the budget to offset the miscalculations, which many school divisions had used for this years budgets without knowing they were wrong. On the final day of the session, the assembly adopted a so-called skinny budget as a stopgap until they reach an agreement on revisions to the budget.

Perrigan said the stopgap budget bill ensured that no school division would receive less in funding for the current fiscal year than the Youngkin administration had estimated, but he said that is not the case in the next fiscal year, especially for small, rural school divisions that did not get the same boost in additional sales tax revenues for education as divisions in larger localities with more taxable sales.

The state already has an adopted budget for the next fiscal year, but Youngkin, the Senate and the House of Delegates all proposed significant increases in K-12 spending that remain in limbo. For example, both the House and Senate supported an additional 2 percent raise for teachers, on top of the 5 percent already included in the adopted budget. The governor did not include money for an additional raise in the budget he introduced in December.

Even though Im very confident that the final conference budget is going to be favorable to public education, the delay in approving that is causing significant distress to local school boards and localities, Perrigan said.

Without knowing how much state aid they will receive in the next fiscal year, we cant effectively hire, we cant effectively retain, we cant effectively negotiate with our localities, he said.

The skinny budget did not satisfy some school divisions, such as Fairfax County Public Schools, the states largest. The division would have received $5.1 million less in state aid this year and $12.7 million next year than it had been told because of the administrative error. The stopgap budget will assure Fairfax of $26.7 million more this year than it would have under the budget approved a year ago and $21.5 million more next year, but that is based primarily on additional sales tax revenues that localities would have received anyway.

We see nothing in the FY24 skinny state budget that addresses the calculation error, Fairfax Schools spokesperson Julie Moult said Tuesday.

Barker, who faces a tough Democratic primary challenge on June 20 from Fairfax School Board member Stella Pekarsky, said the skinny budget ensured that no school division would receive less than it erroneously had been promised in the current fiscal year and updated the state aid allocated for next year.

If (the Department of Education) had not made the miscalculation, you would have still gotten the same amount of money, he said.

Senate Democrats say they are holding the line on tax cuts  which the Republican-controlled House supports  because they want to invest more money in K-12 schools, including an additional $270 million to restore state support for school support positions that had been capped since the Great Recession in 2009.

It all depends on what the revenues are, Barker said.
The Hickory City Council approved up to $1.7 million in new incentives for Merchants Distributors Inc. to support the distribution companys latest development project.

Under the agreement, the city will provide up to $1.37 million in tax incentives for eight years along with a $350,000 infrastructure improvement grant to the company, according to documents in the councils agenda packet.

The company is required to create 125 jobs and invest $35 million in the project. These jobs will pay an average of $59,000 a year, Hickory Business Services Manager Dave Leonetti told the council.

Leonetti said the company will be converting some of its existing space into cold storage space for perishable goods. He said the company expects to begin work within a few months.

The state has estimated the project will add more than $300 million in value to the North Carolina economy over the next 12 years, Leonetti said.

The project has already received other incentives, including more than $1 million from the state and a 10-year tax incentive deal with Caldwell County.

In North Carolina, local governments provide tax incentives by refunding an agreed upon portion of tax revenues. The agreement between Hickory and MDI approved Tuesday caps that total amount around $1.37 million.

The other important thing to know is that we establish the baseline tax value and the incentives are only based on whats created over and above that current tax value, Leonetti said.

Leonetti also discussed the economic importance of MDI to Hickory, saying the company is the citys largest taxpayer with an assessed value of more than $200 million when the rolling stock of vehicles is taken into account.

The company employs more than 1,800 people and owns 480 acres of land in the area.

This is the second time in recent years the city has agreed to provide incentives for MDI.

In 2020, the city agreed to up to $4.4 million in incentives for an MDI expansion which includes $120 million of investment to add 200,000 square feet of space and the creation of 111 jobs. The 2020 expansion involved adding capacity for automation, Leonetti said Tuesday.
Loyola University students who have made a documentary about Bughouse Square, (l-r) Christina Hoffmann, Keagan Hynes, Taylor Evans Ghosal, Lexie Garrett, Marina Donahue and Duncan Hoag on May 1, 2023, in Chicago. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

The author, radio host and life force who was Studs Terkel spent many youthful years listening to a variety of voices in the park that is the three-acre front yard of the Newberry Library at 60 W. Walton St. on the Near North Side. Its formal name is Washington Square Park but it is also known as Bughouse Square.

I doubt whether I learned very much (at the park), Terkel once said. One thing I know: I delighted in it. Perhaps none of it made any sense, save one kind: sense of life.

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Terkel has been dead since Halloween in 2008, and he and his wife Ida, who died on Christmas Eve in 1999, have been buried in this park since 2009. Their ashes were tucked in the ground in a very informal service, since the city does not allow such ceremonies to take place in public spaces, a rule to which Terkel had said before his death, I know its against the law. Let em sue us.

One night earlier this week, six young people gathered in the park. They knew that story. They know almost all there is to know about Bughouse Square since for the last eight months they have been working to create a documentary about the history of this place and the importance of it all.

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They are graduate students  three of them graduating soon  in Loyola Universitys Digital Media and Storytelling program: Marina Donahue (production coordinator and editor), Taylor Evans Ghosal (production coordinator and script supervisor), Lexie Garrett (editor and script supervisor), Duncan Hoag (director of photography), Christina Hoffmann (lead researcher) and Keagan Hynes (art director).

Collectively, they are a lively bunch, their enthusiasm palpable. They make a smart and passionate team and from their documentary, No Permit Necessary: An Oral History of Bughouse Square, has sprouted a new business, a video-making operation called House of Bug Productions.

It all began after Garrett attended an event last summer at the Newberry. It was there that I first learned about this park, she says. I brought up the idea to the others and we all decided to work together to dig into the rich history.

There was plenty to dig into.

We just didnt know the scale, the many sides of the story, says Hoag.

The park is the oldest in the city, deeded in 1842 by developers eager to boost land values in the area. It was at first surrounded by the large homes of the well-to-do, even after the 1871 fire leveled most of the nearby buildings.

Eventually, after the wealthy had moved to the north and east, it became a gathering place for those who lived in nearby rooming houses, hotels and small apartments. And many of those people liked to get on soapboxes and speak their minds. Some famous folks were attracted to this free speech oasis, such people as Carl Sandburg, Emma Goldman and Eugene V. Debs. Others were anonymous anarchists, dreamers, poets, preachers and lunatics.

In The Gold Coast and the Slum, the 1929 landmark sociological study of the Near North Side, author Harvey Warren Zorbaugh wrote of these orators, All their arguments come down to one or the other of two propositions: the economic system is all wrong, or there is no God.

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The park is firmly the main character of the documentary and though the film is only 15 minutes long, it does a remarkably fine job of capturing the various lives of the park, as it reflected its surrounding neighborhood, which has gone from ritzy to seedy and notorious and back to ritzy now.

Using wonderful historical illustrations and photos, and contemporary video and drone shots, the park is vividly captured. I cannot imagine one watching this film not being drawn to the park for a walk.

There is a welcome minimum of talking heads. I have a few things to say in the film, having written about the park since before these filmmakers were born. Mostly I ramble on about Terkel, who followed social historian and author Arthur Weinberg as emcee of the Bughouse Square Debates when they were resurrected in the 1980s, a chore that I have insufficiently handled since his death.

Gary Chichester, an activist and former president of the Chicago Gay Alliance, is particularly moving, talking about the early days of the park as a meeting place for gay men and the beginnings of the pride movement. What would become the annual Gay Pride Parade began in Bughouse Square in June 1970, as a march of about 20 people.

If we lose our history, Chichester says, we lose ourselves.

Mary Lou Sydel, Barbara Clark and Kit Barbaro of the Washington Square Park Advisory Council offer their thoughts about the now stunning park and the many, many dogs that visit and romp daily.

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Providing a strong narrative thread to the film is historian Paul Durica, who used to work for the Newberry before recently becoming the director of exhibitions at the Chicago History Museum. Knowledgeable and compellingly articulate, he is lively and informative, filled with such sublime observations as what was on the entrance sign to the once nearby Dill Pickle Club: Step High, Stoop Low and Leave Your Dignity Outside.

The film has been publicly screened twice, at Mullady Theatre on the Loyola campus and at the Newberry, there for a crowd of people from the advisory council. It was a large crowd and so enthusiastic, said Garrett.

It is important to note that this gang did not make this movie for class credit. We had to fit it into our lives between class work, jobs and, well, our lives, says Donahue.

This was not a school project, says Hoffman. But I got to really devote myself to interviewing and editing, which I love.

They did not make the movie for money. It was a passion project but so satisfying as the six students took what they learned in classrooms and employed those skills in real life.

This enabled me to sharpen my skills, says Hynes. The park used to be a place where I went when skipping class. Now it is so much more.

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The joy has been in working with this team but also making connections with so many other people, says Ghosal. All these connections to my new hometown.

None of the filmmakers are Chicago-born but all are determined to stay here, as they start to look for film festivals they might enter, look for jobs and search for a new project. They tell me there are some ideas on the table. They now know where Studs and Ida Terkel are buried. I hope they know that with No Permit Necessary, they have done them, and the millions of other ghosts that call Bughouse home, proud.

rkogan@chicagotribune.com
" " Vice President Aaron Burr (1756-1836) is well-known as the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, but he lived for another 32 years after that and had quite an eventful life. Bettmann/Getty Images/HowStuffWorks

If you've seen the musical "Hamilton," you know Aaron Burr, who served a term as Thomas Jefferson's vice president, as one of American history's most notorious bad guys  a haughty, soulless figure who advises a young Alexander Hamilton to "talk less ... smile more ... don't let them know what you're against or what you're for." At the end of Act II, after he takes Hamilton's life in a duel, Burr laments, "Now I'm the villain in your history."

But who was Aaron Burr, really? In his time, his fickle loyalties and duplicity earned the enmity of founding fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. And while he's remembered these days mostly as a murderous rogue  the only U.S. vice president ever to kill a man while in office (though Dick Cheney gave it his best shot)  he also has the ignominious distinction of being the only former vice president to be put on trial for treason, due to his role in trying to carve off part of the U.S. and create his own country (more on that later). Last year, yet another unseemly detail was added to his biography, when it was revealed that he'd secretly fathered two children by one of his servants, an Indian immigrant named Mary Emmons, as this Washington Post story details.

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"Burr was a complicated figure  too complicated for his own political reputation then and his historical reputation since," H.W. Brands, a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin and author of "The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr," notes in an email.

"Burr certainly had a lot of promise," says Willard Sterne Randall. He's a professor emeritus of history at Champlain College and author of "Alexander Hamilton: A Life," in addition to numerous other works on early American history. In some ways, Burr was a model of the sort of brazen, self-centered opportunism seen so often in today's politics  and an early practitioner of the sort of conspiratorial suspiciousness that Richard Nixon made famous.

Burr "didn't trust anybody, and it turned out that no one trusted him," Randall says. "He introduced a paranoid style to American politics."

Burr was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1756, the scion of a distinguished colonial family. His maternal grandfather was the famous evangelist Jonathan Edwards, and both he and Burr's father, Aaron Burr, Sr. ascended to the presidency of the College of New Jersey, the institution that eventually became Princeton University. But even in such an elite family, Aaron Burr's intellect stood out. He was accepted to the college at age 13, and graduated in three years with summa cum laude distinction, as his Princeton Cemetery biographical sketch notes.

"Even his detractors conceded his genius," writer Mark F. Bernstein noted in a 2012 biographical essay on Burr for Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Burr's elite background and brainpower also were part of his ultimate undoing, because they imbued him with a haughty sense of superiority.

"He looked down on people who weren't so well born, especially Alexander Hamilton," Randall says. "He couldn't get along with people who weren't as refined as he was."

" " The duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton took place in Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11, 1804. Wikimedia Commons

Additionally, for all his intelligence, Burr wasn't necessarily the most astute judge of people and situations. Throughout his life, he repeatedly made the mistake of choosing the wrong side to be on and had a lot of difficulty getting along with others, according to Randall.

Burr enrolled in law school as a teenager but interrupted his studies to serve in the American forces during the Revolutionary War. As his Senate biography notes, Burr's bravery under fire earned him a coveted job as a top aide to the American commander in chief, General George Washington, who quickly came to loathe his ambitious underling. The feeling was mutual, and Washington eventually got rid of Burr by reassigning him to be an assistant to General Israel Putnam. While in that position, Burr probably saved the life of Hamilton, the man he would kill in a duel decades later, by leading him to safety during the British assault on New York in 1776, as Randall details in this 2003 Smithsonian article. Burr became a sympathizer to the Conway Cabal, the ill-fated plot by American officers to depose Washington in 1777.
In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire reached its territorial and political apex under the 46-year rule of Suleiman I, better known as Suleiman the Magnificent, who was intent on making his Mediterranean kingdom a European superpower.

" " A map of the Ottoman Empire showing its expansion from 1481 to 1683. Andre Koehne/CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia

Militarily, this was the "period of peak Ottoman dominance," says Gratien. Suleiman commanded an elite professional fighting force known as the Janissaries. The fighters were taken by force from Christian families as youth, educated and trained as soldiers and made to convert to Islam. Fearless in battle, the Janissaries were also accompanied by some of the world's first military bands.

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Suleiman's reign also coincided with a period of great wealth for the Ottoman Empire, which controlled some of the most productive agricultural land (Egypt) and most trafficked trade routes in Europe and the Mediterranean.

But Gratien says that the Age of Suleiman was about more than just power and money; it was also about justice. In Turkish, Suleiman's nickname was Kanuni  "the lawgiver"  and he sought to project the image of a just ruler in the Islamic tradition. In larger towns across the empire, citizens could take their disputes to local Islamic courts, the records of which are still around today. Not just Muslims, but Christians and Jews. And not just men, but women.

"These were places where women could go claim their rights in cases of inheritance or divorce, for example," says Gratien.
SALISBURY  The Rowan County Sheriffs Office is in the process of checking for registered sex offenders in Rowan County.

According to a RCSO news release, there are approximately 430 registered sex offenders living in Rowan County. Of those offenders, some are homeless, some live at a residence, assisted living facilities or in the county detention center.

In early March, Sheriff Travis Allen requested that the Criminal Investigations Division physically check on each of these offenders to verify their place of residence and have this updated before summer. The sheriffs office has one full time detective that is assigned to sex offender registration, along with one part time secretary that assists with these duties.

Detective Stoner, who is assigned to this unit, drafted check forms for each offender and they were distributed to several different divisions within the sheriffs office. The SOCAT unit, patrol, civil, and criminal investigations unit were all involved in performing this task. The SOCAT unit, which stands for, Sheriffs Office Criminal Apprehension Team checked over 300 sex offenders in the first several of weeks. The rest were checked on by the other divisions.

If an offender was found to be in violation, Stoner followed up with that offender and charged them accordingly.

The RCSO news release said the following charges were filed:

Brian Harold Cooper: Warrant issued and still active for, Fail to Report New Address

Scott Krimminger: Warrant issued and still active for, Fail to Report New Address

Allen Wayne Fleming: Warrant issued and still active, Fail to Report New Address

Eric Lane Hampton: Warrant issued and still active, Fail to Report New Address

Charles Gilbert Gillespie: Warrant issued and still active, Fail to Report New Address

James William McKeena: Arrested, Fail to Report New Address

Devin Shaughn Gaither: Arrested, Fail to Report New Address

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The numbers charged were much lower than expected, but there may be more charges pending, the RCSO said. State law does not require the sheriffs office to do physical checks on sex offenders but does give the sheriff the option to do them if he wishes. The Rowan County Sheriffs Office tries to physically check each sex offender at their residence at least once a year.

Allen said he is committed to keeping the citizens of Rowan County safe and holding those who break the law, accountable for their actions.

Part of his mission statement says, We strive to provide professional law enforcement to the citizens of Rowan County, North Carolina, through efficient and effective methods.
Property technology startup Bricks and Agent is using AI to enable tenants to submit maintenance requests in under 60 seconds, and saves property managers more than 70% of their time on maintenance-related tasks. The company almost tripled in size last year, and now has more than 1,300,000 users in Australia.

Rafael Niesten and Jon Stul have known each other since they were four years old. The lifelong friends joined forces in 2016 to create Bricks and Agent, a revolutionary platform that improved the way property and strata managers interact with tenants, owners and tradespeople to complete maintenance tasks.

Niesten and Stul had noticed that property maintenance processes in Australia relied on complicated manual processes. Property managers were overwhelmed with the high volume of maintenance requests. Tenants were frustrated that their requests werent being completed. Tradies often struggled to understand vague or incomplete maintenance requests. And property owners often felt like they were in the dark about the maintenance of their investment properties.

Ive got a number of investment properties and I kept noticing that tenants were really frustrated because maintenance wasnt being done, things were being missed or, worse still, that the property manager seemed to be doing every single service just under the [cost] threshold that Id approve, says Niesten.

So I thought, There has to be a better way to fix this manual, mundane and error-prone process.

Niesten had just exited a medical software venture called Clinic to Cloud, which is hosted on Microsoft Azure. Stul had also recently exited his own business venture, so the friends decided to team up to create Bricks and Agent.

Removing complexity in Microsoft Azure

Leveraging Microsofts cloud technology and artificial intelligence capabilities, Bricks and Agent is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution for property managers. It enables tenants to submit maintenance requests with images or videos in less than 60 seconds using Bricks and Agents website or mobile app, or its automated email, phone, SMS, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger services. The platform supports 15 languages for tenants to communicate with their property managers.

Property managers can use Bricks and Agents rules engine, smart dashboard and AI-powered workflows to automate most maintenance-related tasks, making it up to 70 per cent quicker than completing tasks manually. Reminding trades to quote or submit invoices, reminding owners to approve works or assigning urgent after-hours work to trades are just a few of the examples of the automation the platform assists with The PaaS solution also helps property managers quickly find suitable tradies for each job by providing insights into factors such as their skills, availability and fees. It also considers the number of jobs tradies have open and the average time it takes them to complete work.

Its kind of like load balancing  we consistently make smart decisions for them, says Niesten.

We use some containers in Azure to help us determine things like the average cost of a plumber in Sydney, for example. So, were giving insights and data back to people who may have absolutely no idea.

Tradies can keep track of their maintenance quote requests and work orders using the Bricks and Agent platform on their smartphone or computer. They can share their schedules with tenants to organise a convenient time for work to be completed. Bricks and Agents automated communication workflow capability allows tradies to close quotes and invoices just by sending an email as well as ensuring trades of all technical skill levels are able to use the platform.

Property owners have complete transparency over the maintenance process, with Bricks and Agent enabling them to review quotes, notes, comments, photos and videos. They can also approve, discuss or decline maintenance requests from their property manager.

Collaborative partnership leads to rapid growth

Niesten says Microsoft has been instrumental in the growth and success of Bricks and Agent. Weve had five great years and Microsoft is a great partner to us, always willing to help and collaborate, he says.

The Microsoft managed services suite has been a huge competitive differentiation as we dont need to worry about patching for our infrastructure, allowing us to focus on development.

Working with Microsoft has enabled us to easily be PaaS-first, and other vendors cant match the ease of deploying these managed services. It continues to help us innovate with new services [like] AI and machine learning.

In 2018, Bricks and Agent was selected to participate in the Microsoft ScaleUp Program. This enabled the company to save a significant amount of money on infrastructure costs and validate its proof of concept, according to Niesten.

It allowed us to try new things that we wouldnt have otherwise tried because youre so constrained in regard to budget when youre starting up. You want to try and do everything you possibly can, he says.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and lockdowns restricted tradespeople from completing maintenance requests, Bricks and Agent used the downturn in activity to re-architect the entire platform to make it easier for customers to use.

We had all these cool features and options, but the more we built, the more complex the platform became and the more difficult it was to use given the high turnover of property managers during and post covid, where more than 30% of them left the industry, Niesten explains.

We needed to make it as simple as possible, so we focused on using Microsofts machine learning and AI capabilities to do a lot of the heavy lifting for users and make their lives easier. We basically rewrote the entire platform from scratch and that has delivered significant dividends.

Bricks and Agent achieved 185 per cent revenue growth in the FY22 financial year in what was a difficult year with multiple lockdowns and Covid and now has more than 1.300,000 users in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, tripling in the last year.

The company was also recently named Most Innovative Scale-Up in the Property and Facilities Management Category at Proptech Association Australias 2022 Proptech Awards.

According to Niesten, Bricks and Agent processes tens of thousands of maintenance requests every week and has created an online marketplace of more than 50,000 trades through its A$9 million partnership with hipages.

The startups customers now include major real estate and property management companies such as Belle Property, First National, Harcourts, Jones Lang LaSalle, LJ Hooker, Meriton and Raine & Horne.

Bricks and Agent has integrated its platform with those of other property management and inspection software providers such as MRI Softwares Property Tree and Palace (NZ), as well as Property Me, Console Cloud, VaultRe, Reapit and Inspection Manager.

We want to work with other integrated partners in similar verticals, says Niesten. Its about adding further value and not creating all these silos because there are so many different pieces of kit that dont talk to each other.

And obviously Microsoft is constantly releasing new technology and capabilities, so we will look to harness those as they become available.

Pictured: Bricks and Agent co-founder Rafael Niesten and JLL head of investor solutions James Peterson.
GUEST OPINION: Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) was created nearly two decades ago. Back then, organizations already had the means to detect threats and gather relevant information, but they lacked the efficiency in analyzing and responding to these threats. SIEM provided a solution to systematize the handling of security data and events.

Fast forward to today, and cybersecurity demands have changed significantly. The threat landscape is more complex than ever. Traditional SIEM no longer suffices, and there is a need for SIEM alternatives to make up for the weaknesses.

Next Generation SIEM (NG SIEM)

To be clear, SIEM did evolve. The next-generation SIEM (NG SIEM) was introduced around a decade after the birth of traditional SIEM. Eric Parizo, Principal Analyst at tech research and advisory group Omdia, describes it as the cloud and analytics-driven alternative to traditional SIEM. Next-gen SIEM addresses new security challenges that have emerged with the growing use of cloud computing and the need to be more efficient at analyzing huge amounts of security data. NG SIEM also harnesses machine learning and takes advantage of advanced threat analytics.

Next-gen SIEM addresses the deficiencies of conventional SIEM to achieve more effective detection and facilitate efficient threat investigation and response. Many security vendors have started offering NG SIEM solutions to keep up with the growing complexity and aggressiveness of threats. This update to traditional SIEM is also a response to the growing demand for cloud-native security.

Cloud-native NG SIEM delivers important benefits, including more rapid and easier deployment and better systems management. Also, software updates and feature upgrades are quicker and easier to monitor, which is also a boon to software supply chain protection. Moreover, NG SIEM is seen to emphasize security data science, particularly security data fusion. It is important for security information and event management to be proficient at bringing together security data from various disparate sources and ensure that they are effectively analyzed, contextualized, and prioritized.

Next-generation SIEM, however, is not enough to cover all modern cybersecurity concerns. As such, there is still a need for SIEM alternatives. There are other solutions outside the current security information and event management framework that takes on different security management approaches to address SIEM limitations.

Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR)

SOAR is not a standalone security solution but a set of compatible tools that allow organizations to gather security data and respond to security incidents automatically or with minimum human involvement. It has areas where it is comparable to SIEM but more efficient. However, many in the cybersecurity field regard SOAR not as a competitor but as a complement to SIEM.

This complementary nature of SOAR is demonstrated by integrated cybersecurity platforms that combine SIEM and SOAR or use both in a layered approach. While SIEM handles the security collection and analysis, SOAR orchestrates security operations to boost security management efficiency. This orchestration includes the automation of various tasks, including incident response, event ticketing, threat isolation, and case management. These are not present in conventional SIEM, which means the response is time-consuming and prone to errors.

It is worth emphasizing that SOAR is designed to easily work together with other security technologies. It does not only integrate with SIEM, but it can also supplement endpoint detection and response (EDR) and threat intelligence platforms (TIP). SOAR allows organizations to automate advanced threat detection mechanisms and leverage real-time threat intelligence to support security alerts or data correlation, which supports effective prioritization and response.

User Entity Behaviour Analytics (UEBA)

User Entity Behaviour Analytics is another security technology that is often seen as a SIEM alternative. However, in real-world applications, it is usually not used to supplant SIEM. It helps address the weaknesses of conventional SIEM or work with NG SIEM to achieve better threat detection and response.

What makes UEBA different from SIEM is its focus on detecting threats without relying on threat intelligence and rules-based analytics. It can spot threats, including zero-days, even if such threats are still unknown (not profiled in the threat intelligence system). This detection is possible because of UEBAs benchmarking of regular behaviour. It scans an organizations entire IT infrastructure to determine what constitutes normal or safe activity. Based on the benchmark established, UEBA flags actions that do not appear to be in line with what is deemed normal.

UEBA detects anomalous behaviour using a combination of behavioural modelling techniques, advanced analytics, and machine learning. It leverages artificial intelligence to identify zero-day attacks, including insider attacks. It is easy for SIEM and other conventional threat detection systems to overlook insider threats because of their origin. UEBA provides better protection as it does not presume regularity regardless of the source of traffic or the authority of the person requesting access to certain resources and services.

Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)

As the phrase suggests, threat intelligence platforms collect and analyze threats from various sources. These sources include government agencies and private security information firms, vulnerability databases, and open-source intelligence (OSINT) such as Maltego, DarkSearch.io, Intelligence X, SpiderFoot, Recon-ng, Searchcode, and Babel X.

TIPs are not limited to gathering threat intelligence. They undertake advanced analytics and contextualize data by comparing them to relevant information. As such, threat intelligence platforms generate actionable insights for cybersecurity analysts and help ensure that the most crucial threats are prioritized instead of burying them under false positives and tons of irrelevant and benign alerts.

Just like the other security technologies on this list, TIP solutions can be integrated with SIEM to improve threat gathering and analytics in support of more efficient incident response. It significantly enhances the performance of SIEM operations and ensures contextually-accurate detection and response.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Network Detection and Response (NDR)

EDR and NDR are popular security solutions thrown around whenever SIEM alternatives are discussed. EDR is usually invoked as an alternative because of its ability to effectively detect and address fileless malware, ransomware, and other endpoint-targeting threats, including zero days. NDR, in a way, earned its reputation as a SIEM alternative because of its real-time network traffic monitoring and analyzing capabilities, which is a significant handicap for conventional SIEM in the era of cloud computing and the Internet of Things.

SIEM lacks the proficiency to dig deep into endpoint and network threats, so some view tools like EDR and NDR as viable alternatives. These detection and response solutions have more advanced and accurate detection in their fields of specialization. They perform well in dealing with network-focused attacks, such as command-and-control schemes and lateral movement attacks. However, they may not be a full replacement for SIEM.

Alternatives or Complementary Technologies?

This discussion had the original intention of finding good alternatives to conventional SIEM in view of the changing cyber threat situation. However, it makes more sense to say that the future of cybersecurity does not necessarily mean the supplanting of SIEM with SIEM alternatives. Security information and event management continue to be relevant as it evolves and integrates with new solutions to address emerging threats that are beyond SIEMs capabilities. Cybersecurity, going forward, will likely see more platforms that bring together the best security technologies to keep up with the evolution of threats, not standalone do-it-all single solutions.
The telecommunications industry continues to ignore customers facing financial hardship, according to a new report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

In the last 12 months, almost 2.4 million Australians experienced difficulty paying or had concerns with their telco bills, the Financial hardship in the telco sector report found.

Fifty percent of Australians and 64% of those who experienced financial difficulty in the past 12 months were aware they could contact their telco for help managing bills.

ACMA chair Nerida OLoughlin said the research shows telcos still have some way to go to meet the reasonable expectations of consumers facing financial hardship.

With the current cost of living pressures, telcos need to be even more attuned to the needs of customers who may be doing it hard, OLoughlin reminded.

Telecommunications is an essential service. Being connected and having access to a reliable and affordable phone and internet service has become crucial for many people to work and connect to education, health and government services.

The report identifies a range of issues affecting telco consumers who are facing difficult financial circumstances, including that:

1. Younger Australians are less likely to be aware that financial hardship assistance is available from telcos, with only 50% of those aged 18-34 aware they could ask their telco for help.

2. Consumers who reported financial difficulties or concerns with their telco bills reported it was rare for telcos to initiate contact, especially human contact, in relation to potential financial hardship.

3. Telco providers were generally seen as being less well-equipped and with fewer assistance options than water and electricity providers.

4. Telco providers were all seen as less flexible when dealing with customers in financial hardship than other service providers.

5. Direct debit payments could become problematic at times of financial difficulty, adding to stress and incurring extra fees.

The fourth ACMA report on financial hardship includes findings from ACMA consumer and industry research, industry reporting, and audits of 11 telcos.

Compared to previous reports, it takes a more contemporary approach to determining whether safeguards are providing appropriate support to vulnerable consumers, ACMA said.

The research complements the ACMAs Statement of Expectations for telcos when dealing with vulnerable consumers and will inform its input into the industrys review of the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code.

Protecting telco customers experiencing financial hardship is also one of the ACMAs 202223 compliance priorities.
GUEST OPINION: As more and more companies generate and handle large amounts of critical data, the need for secure storage has never been greater. With the rise of cybersecurity threats, secure data storage has become a top priority for businesses of all sizes.

While there are several storage options available, cloud technology has emerged as a game-changer. With its convenient storage, easy access, and remote management capabilities, the cloud has become the go-to option for many businesses. However, it's important to note that the cloud comes with its own set of risks.

To help you make an informed decision, this article outlined several key considerations to keep in mind when storing your data in the cloud.

1. Encrypt Your Data For Enhanced Security

If you store business data in the cloud, one of the essential safety precautions is encryption. An advantage of encryption is that it adds an extra layer of security to the data. Depending on the cloud service provider, some offer local encryption and decryption of files aside from storage and backup.

You also have the option to partner with a managed IT service provider. For businesses utilizing the cloud as part of daily operations, it may be time to get IT support in Charlotte NC, to ensure secure storage of data in the cloud via encryption.

2. Steer Clear Of Storing Sensitive Data In The Cloud

Another safety measure, if you want to safeguard business data, is to avoid storing those that contain sensitive information. If possible, avoid storing such data in the cloud. If a malicious actor happens to obtain your cloud credentials, it's only a matter of time before they gain access to all the data.

The ideal approach is to store files used in daily operations. You should also avoid documents that contain credit card details, passwords, and social security numbers, to name a few.

3. Heighten Security With Two-Factor Or Multi-Factor Authentication

A two-factor or multi-factor authentication feature imparts an extra layer of security. If it's available, make sure to enable it. An advantage of this feature is that it only allows authorized individuals to access cloud storage.

A code is usually sent via SMS or an authentication app every login. The purpose is to verify your identity and block any malicious attempts. If you want to level up security during your company's daily operations, checking out the providers of the best IT service in Ottawa, among others, would be a good starting point.

4. Create Complex And Hard-To-Guess Passwords

If you can't create a solid password, your business is at risk of a data breach. Passwords serve as the initial line of defence for your company's data. Unfortunately, if a malicious actor obtains an employee's password, your company is at risk of being compromised.

The best practice is to create a unique password that makes it difficult to guess. Aside from this precautionary measure, implement frequent updating and avoid repeat use in other online accounts. If you take the necessary measures, it makes it difficult for hackers to infiltrate your data.

5. Closely Monitor Connected Applications And Accounts

If you can thwart hackers from gaining access via conventional methods, they might try other ways. In simple terms, they might infiltrate via an account, app, or even a device connected to your company's cloud storage. Although it's convenient to have connections to your email or calendar apps, it can make your cloud storage vulnerable to breaches.

Make sure to routinely check and determine all third-party applications with access to your cloud storage. Remove those that your company no longer uses actively.

6. Regularly Audit File And Folder-Sharing Options

Cloud technology's sharing and collaboration features truly stand out due to its convenience. Sadly, it can put your data at risk for unauthorized access, especially if a malicious actor infiltrates. It's best to add passwords or expiration dates to the sharing option if these features are available.

Conduct an audit of all sharing permissions that are currently active. Switching to a read-only option may be best if there's no need for the sharing option to stay active. Doing so will minimize unwanted alterations or terminate the sharing option for good.

7. Review Terms Of Service Provided By Cloud Service Providers

Before fully entrusting your business data to a cloud service provider, it's best to take some time to read the terms of service and conditions carefully. Aside from storing data, some providers allow data sharing with others.

For some, it's an appealing feature, but often these services have a catch. If you go through the fine print, you'll know where they store your data and what happens if a breach or other compromise occurs.

Final Thoughts

Cloud technology evolved over the years and made the storage of files convenient for businesses. Unfortunately, it still has its share of risks that can potentially put companies at risk for data breaches. If you want to ensure the security of your business data, consider these insightful cloud storage tips to keep your data safe at all times. By taking the necessary precautions, you can have peace of mind knowing your data stays secure while enjoying the convenience cloud storage offers.
GUEST OPINION: Technology has enhanced how property management operates, benefiting renters and property owners. With the developments of technology, property managers can easily access the tools that aid in the execution of duties efficiently and enhance the tenants' experiences.

It has made it easier for property owners to evaluate its performance, monitor maintenance state, and determine tenants' concerns. With the incorporation of managed it services in Portland, among others, to aid in streamlining property management, here is an insight into the advantages of tech-enabled property management.

Simplified Communication

Technology has made it easier for property managers to communicate with tenants. Back then, the property managers relied on phone calls or face-to-face meetings to pass a message to the tenants, landlord, or maintenance team. But with the revolution of technology, it's easier to communicate. Nowadays, most companiesincluding the best Toronto property management companyuse mass emails or texts to simultaneously pass a message to multiple parties.

Like any other type of business where customers want a quick response, property technology simplifies communication by making sure the tenant's concerns are handled accordingly. Through tech-enabled property management, property managers can use social media platforms to give updates about the developments that have been made on the property. Information about their concerns is quickly and efficiently sent to tenants, offering the best services.

Improved Tenant Experience

Having tech-enabled management enhances the general experience of the tenants. Incorporating technology simplifies the tenants' experience in various ways, like online payment of rent, virtual tours, and online lease signing.

Property managers can also get more tenant information through data analytics. Data analytics can help offer information about the tenants, for instance, their preferences and level of satisfaction. This can be helpful to property managers in making the right decisions on how to improve the property and the tenant's experience.

Automate Routine Tasks

Technology has greatly enhanced property management operations. Hence, routine tasks can be automated. Property managers can use software to remind tenants about the maintenance schedules or the date of paying rent. Considering automation tools minimizes the resources and time needed to perform tasks manually, helping you complete tasks with just a few clicks.

Efficient Maintenance

The other good thing about tech-enabled property management is that it enables efficient property maintenance. With the aid of software programs and mobile apps, property managers can more easily handle various tasks. They can track maintenance requests, schedule repairs, and organize maintenance.

They can also keep tenants informed about the status of their requests. You can use video conferencing tools to address maintenance issues like leaky pipes, which can be addressed promptly.

Offers Improved Screening Process for Applicants

Renting property is not all about filling out an application and signing a lease but also screening. All the applicants have to be screened appropriately, considering fair housing rights. With the use of property technology, it ensures that all the applicants are equally screened with no favouritism. The applicant screening process is also quick. Therefore, the approvals can be made quickly; hence, it doesnt keep the applicants waiting long.

Enhanced Security

Technology has also been beneficial in enhancing the security of the properties. Property managers can use keyless entry systems, motion detectors, and security cameras to ensure the safety of tenants and their belongings. Some properties employ innovative home technology to enhance tenant control over access to their rooms. This technology enables tenants to create temporary codes for guests or maintenance staff, making it easier to manage entry permissions. Which therefore enhances a high level of security and limits theft and break-ins.

Simplifies Accounting

Property managers can have their accounting work simplified using the software. The software generates invoices, calculates interest, and sends monthly property statements. With software, you're sure of accuracy, so you can guarantee that no accounting mistakes are made. Therefore, tech-enabled property management enhances quick and accurate accounting processes.

Offers Accurate Rental Pricing

Pricing the rental property can be challenging. When you price the property inaccurately, it may affect your investments prosperity. That is, high pricing may keep off many potential renters, while low pricing can affect the return on the investment. Therefore, property managers can use software that can accurately price the property. The software provides a range estimate for the pricing.

Conclusion

Tech-enabled property management is very beneficial to both the tenants and the property owners. It simplifies operations, enhances communication, proper security simplifies accounting, and offers efficient maintenance. With the constant changes in technology, property managers keep anticipating new developments in property management. Thus, itll continue improving how properties are managed and the experience of the tenants. Therefore, as a property manager or property owner, investing highly in technology-enabled property management is crucial for easier management and operation.
Sekuro says serial entrepreneur Budderys appointment comes amidst strong company growth, with the team expanding by 30% since July 2022 and hiring a total of 41 new staff across Australia.

Sekuro says that with over 30 years in the tech industry, Buddery is a software engineer by background and founder of multiple software ventures including eServGlobal which he led through VC rounds to an ASX IPO followed by the London Stock Exchange in 2004 - and hHe has also successfully sold companies to major US corporations.

The market opportunity for Australian cyber security organisations ranges far beyond our own borders, and needs to bridge technology challenges with people, and process. Sekuro has been consistently investing in its capabilities to work with CIOs, CISOs, and now Executive Board members to overcome the immediate challenges of building their cyber resilience, and that focus on tangible business outcomes coupled with a focus on international growth is what attracted me to join them on this exciting journey, says Buddery.

Noel Allnutt, Managing Director of Sekuro said: Were only 18 months into our journey as Sekuro, and were incredibly proud of what weve been able to achieve so far. We are confident in our ability to deliver on our strategy to become the most trusted cyber security and digital resilience partner in Australia. Having an industry veteran like Ian onboard is certainly going to help us get there and were delighted to have him join the team as Chairman of the Board.

Sekuro says that demand for cyber security services is ongoing and robust and the company has experienced this trend first-hand, leading to continued growth since forming in October 2021.

Sekuro has expanded its team by more than 30% since the beginning of July 2022, and is currently hiring for roles across all its business units and locations, particularly its offensive security (otherwise known as Sekuro RED) to support in proactively testing the cyber defences of Australian organisations, Sekuro notes.

Sekuros growth trajectory is anticipated to continue, with recent innovations including the Board-Taster, a new program designed to educate Board Directors on the potential impact of cyber threats on their organisations reputation, financial stability, and regulatory compliance via an engaging and interactive workshop.

Allnutt added: As an Australian-founded and grown industry innovator, Sekuro has successfully demonstrated the demand for its services in Australia. Its clear that Sekuro, and the broader cyber industry for that matter, are on their own unique growth trajectory. This has seen our headcount, customer base and service offerings grow rapidly, with our sights now set on strengthening our relationships both locally and globally.

According to Sekuro, as a result of the increased impact of cyber threats, more government agencies and businesses of all sizes are setting higher security and privacy standards for themselves and the organisations they interact with.

Sekuros focus on helping CIOs and CISOs build business resiliency by reducing cyber risk while new technologies are adopted, well-positions it to help local businesses improve their cyber security posture whilst also supporting international firms in their entry and expansion into Australia.

Over the next 12 months, Sekuro plans to extend its presence internationally, including establishing and growing a presence in the UK, and completing the acquisition of Privasec Asia, its Singapore-based subsidiary, allowing it to meet the needs of organisations across Asia Pacific, Sekuro concluded.
Tucker Carlson, host of Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News, speaks during AmericaFest at Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, on Dec. 17, 2022. (Rebecca Noble/The New York Times)

A text message sent by Tucker Carlson that set off a panic at the highest levels of Fox on the eve of its billion-dollar defamation trial showed its most popular host sharing his private, inflammatory views about violence and race.

The discovery of the message contributed to a chain of events that ultimately led to Carlsons firing.

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In the message, sent to one of his producers in the hours after violent Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Carlson described how he had recently watched a video of a group of men  Trump supporters, he said  violently attacking an Antifa kid.

It was three against one, at least, he wrote.

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And then he expressed a sense of dismay that the attackers, like him, were white.

Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously, he wrote.

Its not how white men fight, he said. But he said he found himself for a moment wanting the group to kill the person he had described as the Antifa kid.

For years, Carlson espoused views on his show that amplified the ideology of white nationalism. But the text message revealed more about his views on racial superiority.

The text alarmed the Fox board, which saw the message a day before Fox was set to defend itself against Dominion Voting Systems before a jury. The board grew concerned that the message could become public at trial when Carlson was on the stand, creating a sensational and damaging moment that would raise broader questions about the company.

The day after the discovery, the board told Fox executives it was bringing in an outside law firm to conduct an investigation into Carlsons conduct.

The text message added to a growing number of internal issues involving Carlson that led the companys leadership to conclude he was more of a problem than an asset and had to go, according to several people with knowledge of the decision. In other messages he had referred to women  including a senior Fox executive  in crude and misogynistic terms. The message about the fight also played a role in the companys decision to settle with Dominion for $787.5 million, the highest known payout in a defamation case.

A representative for Carlson said he had no comment.

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The text is part of redacted court filings, and its contents were previously unreported. The contents of the text were disclosed in interviews with several people close to the defamation lawsuit against Fox. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a message that is protected by a court order. In public filings, it remains hidden behind a block of black text.

Carlsons messages were collected as part of the defamation lawsuit filed against Fox by Dominion, which accused the network of knowingly airing falsehoods about election fraud. Many messages shared in the case, including those among Fox executives and hosts, were released publicly. But others, including the one between Carlson and one of his producers in the hours after Jan. 6, 2021, remain redacted.

In that text, Carlson described his own emotions as he watched the video of the violent clash, which he said took place on the streets of Washington. Carlson did not describe the race of the man being attacked.

I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping theyd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it, he wrote. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isnt good for me. Im becoming something I dont want to be.

After all, he wrote, Somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed.

If I dont care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is? he wrote.

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The text message came to the attention of Foxs board of directors and even some senior executives only last month, on the Sunday before the trial was set to begin, according to two people with knowledge of Foxs internal deliberations. At the time, Foxs negotiators were entering discussions about an out-of-court settlement before the swearing in of what was shaping up to be a diverse jury.

The next day, the board told Foxs leadership about its plan to have the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz investigate Carlson. That disclosure set up the possibility that there could be a continuing investigation into what was behind Carlsons messages at the same time as a trial, and as he was serving as its top host in prime time.

Fox has not commented about Carlsons ouster last week beyond an initial statement announcing that they agreed to part ways and thanking him for his service. It did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday on the contents of Carlsons redacted message.

It remains unclear how the text escaped more notice earlier, given that the Fox legal team was aware of it and other offensive texts written by Carlson. Foxs lawyers had produced the text as part of the discovery process and were involved in the redactions. Carlson had even been asked about it during a deposition, according to several people who have read the unredacted transcripts of his deposition.

It was not guaranteed that the text would have been revealed in open court. Dominions lawyers had still not decided whether they would introduce the text in front of the jury, according to people with knowledge of their plans. The two sides disagreed on whether Dominion lawyers could have presented such a redacted message at trial if they had decided to do so, a decision that would have ultimately fallen to the judge. The difference became moot after Fox struck an 11th-hour deal on April 18 to pay Dominion $787.5 million and avoid trial.

How Foxs executives and board handled the case in the months before the trial was scheduled to begin is expected to be at issue in shareholder lawsuits filed against the company in Delaware.

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Though Carlsons show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, was only a small factor in the Dominion suit, his personal texts were drawing outsize scrutiny.

The text about the fight came on top of a damaging chain of messages that had been revealed publicly before trial, and that were shocking in their own right. Writing to one of his producers after the assault on the Capitol, Carlson described the president he championed on his show as a demonic force and a destroyer.

A recurring theme of his show during the six years that it ran in prime time on Fox News was the displacement of white Americans by people of color. Carlson often framed topics in the news as part of a larger struggle between us and them, with immigrants and other marginalized groups steadily and surely taking from whites what had long been theirs: political and cultural power in the United States.

He attacked Black social justice activists and portrayed immigrants from Central America as a blight on the nation. He said in 2018 that immigrants make the country dirtier.

In the aftermath of a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, at the hands of a gunman who cited white supremacist beliefs in his manifesto, Carlson declared on his show that white supremacy was not a real problem, likening it to a conspiracy theory.

On Monday, The New York Times and other news organizations urged the judge overseeing the Dominion case to release some of the messages that were redacted.

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UiPath says Duciurty is reporting to Co-CEO Rob Enslin, and leads all customer operations, customer success and professional services, enablement, incentive design, and global partners to advance the organisations mission to help customers and partners achieve exceptional business outcomes and ongoing value with UiPath.

Ducourty joins UiPath most recently from Google, where she led Go-to-Market Strategy and Operations at Google Cloud and also drove the small-and-medium sized business segment - and played a key part in the global sales organisation and was accountable for driving Google Clouds growth at scale, including geographical expansion into more than 10 markets, focusing on industry-specific approaches and solutions to enable positive customer outcomes, and implementing approaches to enhance sales operations for the organisation.

Prior to joining Google, Ducourty spent over two decades at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) in various sales capacities. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales Excellence where she was responsible for all global sales functions within HPE and was chartered to provide best practices and synergies globally across the organisation.

UiPath says that in that role, she also led the as a service business, and was responsible for large deal business development and the enablement of the companys sales and partners - and prior, she led the companies largest and most strategic accounts spanning five industries.

Thousands of organisations rely on UiPath to transform industries and improve the lives of people around the world, and we are deeply committed to delivering an exceptional customer and partner experience, said Enslin. Kelly is a strategic and transformational leader who has driven real scale while keeping the customer at the center. She brings deep cross-functional expertise to UiPath that will be instrumental in aligning our go-to-market teams and delighting our customers. Im thrilled to welcome Kelly as our new Chief Customer Officer, and I look forward to this next stage of growth under her leadership.

UiPath is helping customers around the world to build pathways to more seamless cross-organisational business solutions, laying the foundation for innovations to scale, said Ducourty. I am looking forward to contributing my expertise and working alongside the UiPath team to build upon their success, and further elevate what I believe to be an already top-notch customer and partner experience.
The Nokia XR21 is drop-, dust- and water-proof. It withstands everything from tumbling out of your trouser pocket and hitting the ground screen first to hiking in torrential rain for 72 hours.

New research conducted by HMD Global to mark the launch of the near-indestructible Nokia XR21 reveals 62% of Australians have dropped their smartphone and smashed the screen in the past, with the average Australian living with a smashed phone screen for up to four months before they get it fixed (Research of 1,001 Australians was conducted by Perspectus Global in April 2023

The research found three quarters of Australians (74%) agree that phones should be built to last longer. Over three quarters say a lasting battery is the most important factor (77%) when looking for a new phone, followed by its durability (69%) and a good camera (67%).

The Nokia XR21 is built around a die-cast 100% recycled aluminum chassis, and is protected by a body made of durable materials and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus display, all designed and certified to withstand impacts.

Key features of the Nokia XR21 include:

Survive being dropped from 1.8m high

Last in 1.5m of water for up to an hour

Withstand a 100-bar pressure water jet at 80C

Operate in temperatures between -20C and +55C

Capture imagery at night due to a double flash camera and advanced low light imaging capabilities

Usable with wet hands and gloves

2-day battery and fast charging

Nokia describes it as the smartphone version of the famous near-indestructible Nokia 3310.

According to Brenden Folitarik, HMD Globals country manager for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, We know Australians love their smartphones and that they go through a lot of wear and tear in their lifetime. From parents of toddlers, to tradies and outdoor adventure-lovers, the Nokia XR21 has been built for every day and for everyone.

Were so confident, you can take the Nokia XR21 anywhere in Australia where you can capture those special moments, and should the worst happen, we offer a one-year screen replacement guarantee,

The deliberate design and high-quality materials used throughout the Nokia XR21  including a super-tough screen and impact-proof back cover  cure peoples phone anxieties from low battery to a cracked screen.

Its been certified for MIL-STD-810H durability, making it drop-proof, dust-proof and waterproof. In addition, during internal testing, the Nokia XR21 survived being dropped from 1.8m, as well as being submerged in 1.5m of water for up to an hour, and hit with the same pressure as a 1450 PSI jet of water with a water temperature of 80C heat.

The Nokia XR21s durability extends to its battery life. It can last two days between charges. Plus, when youre caught in unpleasant or extreme weather, the Nokia XR21 is up to the task.

It can withstand and be used in temperatures between -20C to +55C - the latter is one degree less than the hottest air temperature recorded on Earth, in Californias Death Valley. And the 6.49 screen can be used with wet hands, in the rain, or while wearing gloves. Perfect for lasting through a weekend festival, day-long hike or bike ride, or family trip without a charger.

The Nokia XR21 guarantees four years of monthly security updates, three years of OS upgrades, three years of warranty and a one-year screen replacement guarantee. Protecting you online, as well as your smartphone from what life throws at it.

The new Nokia XR21 will be available in Midnight Black and Pine Green (see the image above) priced from $799 and available at JB-HiFi in mid May, For further information, please visit Nokia or JB-HiFi.
include_once "/home/jwreview/public_html/$theme/includes/sidebar.php"; ?> The empire-building debacle of the nearly 20-year American occupation of Afghanistan is a lesson unlearned by the government.

This disaster began when President George W. Bush  stung deeply by the intelligence that he failed to heed, thus enabling the attacks of 9/11 to take place unimpeded  convinced the American people and Congress and most of our allies that the folks who ran Afghanistan in the early part of this century needed to be taught a lesson, whether they personally enabled or facilitated the 9/11 attacks or not.

This moral monstrosity was executed in the name of retaliation, deterrence and liberation, but in reality, it was American hubris. It is repeating itself in Ukraine.

Here is the backstory.

Bush  knowing days after the 9/11 attacks that they had been perpetrated and paid for by his friends, the Saudis  believed that by blaming the attacks on hapless Afghanistan, destroying much of that country and causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents, he would somehow teach the world that no one could "mess with us" without severe consequences.

His knee-jerk reaction, and exploitation of raw American fear in the weeks following 9/11, set in motion a series of events that culminated in the triumph in Afghanistan of the very mindset Bush and his military, and his 2 trillion borrowed American dollars, tried to destroy.

To amass the international consents needed to produce the invasion he wanted, Bush also vowed  channeling his inner Woodrow Wilson, who killed innocents in World War I in order "to make the world safe for democracy"  to defy history by installing a Western-style democracy in Afghanistan.

Did he not know that tens of thousands of British troops in the 19th century and more than 100,000 Soviet troops in the 20th century had failed to bend the culture and the will of this rugged and wretched country?

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This gambit  born of Bush's incompetence and later nurtured by President Barack Obama's arrogance  was one of the worst foreign policy errors in modern American history.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump split with his own party to denounce the forever war in Afghanistan and vowed to bring the troops home. Trump's heart was in the right place  he was sick and tired of war  but his head was not.

In early 2020, thinking he'd be reelected president later that year, Trump dispatched his secretary of state to negotiate directly with the Taliban for a peaceful withdrawal of nearly all U.S. forces and a total end to the U.S. occupation. Trump's diplomats did not negotiate with the Bush-installed government of Afghanistan but with the government-in-waiting, the Taliban.

The deal they struck required the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters from its jails and the U.S. to complete its military departure by May 2021. By the time Joe Biden became president, he was faced with the May 2021 deadline and the realization that 5,000 Taliban ex-prisoners  more than the number of American troops there  had already been freed and were now armed.

We all know what happened when Biden pulled the plug and the Taliban took control of the government in no time. Biden's head was in the right place, but his heart was not. He knew most Americans were, like Trump, sick and tired of that war, but he failed to comprehend fully the grave situation present in the Afghan streets and triggered by the sudden American departure.

Now, back to the moral monstrosity that Bush created.

When Bush determined to attack Afghanistan, he did not ask Congress for a declaration of war, as even he recognized that the then-existing Afghan government did not attack the U.S. He asked for and received instead a statute called the Authorization for Use of Military Force, or AUMF.

This creature is unknown to the Constitution, as it purported to authorize war without end.

Congressional declarations of war historically established that once the war had been fought and the target destroyed or surrendered, the declaration no longer authorized the war. Not so with the AUMF, as its wording was so expansive and ambiguous, it authorized any president to use military force at any time against any person or entity who perpetrated, facilitated or supported the 9/11 attacks.

Can presidents kill whomever they wish in the name of national security or empire building? In a word: No.

But American presidents have had their hearts set on empire building since Thomas Jefferson engineered the Louisiana Purchase. Yet, unlike Wilson or Bush or Biden, Jefferson did so without violence or bloodshed.

But the modern American empire builders surely think that they can kill any foe  real or imagined. Bush claimed that he had powers from some source other than the Constitution. And he also claimed he could strip Americans of their natural and constitutional rights  all for empire.

Biden is now fighting an undeclared war against Russia  not the Taliban, but a nuclear power  a war Biden's military believes is unwinnable. Without congressional authorization and without a national commitment, American boys in Ukraine are firing American ammunition at Russian boys. The U.S. was unable to defeat a ragtag gaggle of herdsmen in 20 years and now it is challenging the mightiest army on earth, 5,000 miles from Washington, D.C. For what? For empire.

For empire it engineered a coup in Ukraine in 2014. For empire it kills in Ukraine in 2023. Non-defensive killing defies the natural law, which teaches that non-defensive violence is illicit because every person  American or not  enjoys the inviolable right to live.

The lesson of Afghanistan is a warning that Biden has ignored. Like Bush, he doesn't care about spilling blood and wasting assets. He wants to build empire to get reelected. So did Bush, and his reputation is in the dustbin of history. Old Joe is aiming to join him.

(COMMENT, PLEASE, BELOW)

Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, was the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. Judge Napolitano has written seven books on the U.S. Constitution.
Two people exchanged gunfire Wednesday in a parking lot at Forsyth Technical Community College, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

Winston-Salem police and Forsyth Tech campus police responded at 12:39 p.m. to reported gunfire at the colleges Cashpoints ATM in the parking lot near the corner of Oak Grove Road and Martin Street, police said.

Investigators determined that one person was at the ATM when another person approached, and there was an exchange of gunfire, police said.

Both persons then left the school property, police said.

Officers found multiple shell casings on the ground near the ATM, and the ATMs structure was damaged by the gunfire, police said.

It is unclear at this time exactly what led up to the exchange of gunfire, but this appears to be an isolated incident unrelated to the school itself, police said in a statement.

The colleges operations were not affected by the gunfire, said Devin Purgason, a spokesman for Forsyth Technical Community College.

Anyone with information about this incident can call Winston-Salem police at 336-773-7700, Crime Stoppers at 336-727-2800 or its Spanish line at 336-728-3904.

Crime Stoppers of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County is on Facebook.

The Text-A-Tip program at 336-276-1717 allows people to text tips, photos and videos to the police.
A fine Wednesday.

It was only a matter of time before the Legislature  Republicans with a gerrymandered, veto-proof majority, that is - moved to restrict abortion access in North Carolina.

And as surely as absolute power corrupts absolutely, the majority party by weeks end is expected to pass Senate Bill 20, the Care for Women, Children and Families Act.

Party leadership  Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and Speaker of the House Tim Moore specifically will tell us that SB 20 is a common-sense compromise in that it limits abortion at 12 weeks and allows exceptions for victims of rape and incest (up to 20 weeks), fetal abnormalities (24 weeks) and when the life of the mother is at risk (no restrictions.)

(Oh, and they sprinkled in some cash for the foster-care system. Ergo, the bills working title.)

Indeed, in the most technical sense of the word, S.B. 20 is a compromise  a compromise between Republicans, the most extreme who would gladly ban all abortions and those who can read polls.

Democrats and unaffiliated voters who support a womans right to choose didnt have a seat at the table.

Americans, North Carolinians included, consistently have indicated support for womens reproductive rights as reputable polls repeatedly indicate that 61 percent of the public believes abortion should be legal in all or most instances.

The more pragmatic (and Machiavellian) among the GOP leadership  Berger definitely qualifies  are very much aware of polls and growing political backlash elsewhere.

Just dont expect to hear much about that aspect of the compromise during back-slapping news conferences orchestrated by old white guys.

In two ruby red states, Republican legislators last week stopped just shy of approving harsh new restrictions.

Six state senators in South Carolina, where the GOP has an unassailable 2-1 majority, voted against a near-total ban.

One, Sen. Sandy Senn, had the temerity to say it out loud when she accused leadership of taking us off a cliff on abortion.

And in Nebraska, an 80-year-old senator voted against a bill that would have restricted access to abortion to six weeks. His vote, by the way, left his party one vote shy of being able to end a filibuster.

His reason to vote against a bill he sponsored? According to the Associated Press  politics.

Had my opponent had more time, more money, and more name recognition, she could have won. This made the message clear to me how critical abortion will be in 2024," said Sen. Merv Riepe. We must embrace the future of reproductive rights.

And politicians here in North Carolina, through the GOP compromise, clearly recognize it  even if no one actually mentions the political calculus out loud.

Beware snakes in the long grass

GREENSBORO  The last sign of spring finally reared its head this week when wildlife officials issued their annual warning to be wary of snakes lurking in the grass.

If you see a snake, do not be alarmed. Do not kill it. Give it plenty of room, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission said in a news release.

Of the six venomous snake species native to North Carolina, three are rattlesnakes  the timber, the pigmy and the Eastern diamondback. Each is protected by the N.C. Endangered Species Act.

Here in the Triad, the only place anyone is likely to see a rattlesnake is behind glass at a zoo. Unless your neighbor is a nut who illegally collects venomous reptiles.

Copperheads, however, are another story. Theyre all over the place here.

So many, in fact, that emergency room docs (and veterinarians for that matter) are well accustomed to treating copperhead bites to people and pets.

True story: In the early 90s, a family friend named Carl got bit while pruning bushes in the spring. He went to the ER at Moses Cone, reported that a copperhead nicked the meaty part of his hand between his thumb and forefinger.

When a skeptical doc asked if he was sure it was a copperhead, Carl produced a plastic bag containing one very dead copperhead, thereby quashing any remaining doubt.

The moral of the story: Watch your step and where you put your hands. The yard work can wait.
The Daily Minute is the Journal Star's morning news briefing where you can get the latest news in about a minute each weekday. Previous Daily Minute videos are archived here.

Good morning, Lincoln. Here are today's top stories:

Gaylor Baird wins re-election

Incumbent Leirion Gaylor Baird will serve another term as Lincoln's mayor. The Democrat beat out Republican former state Sen. Suzanne Geist last night in the city's general election.

The race for mayor quickly became heated as public safety, Geist's voting record and the record amount of money being spent on the race were three issues that repeatedly rose to the top.

Read about the mayor's race and see what happened in the races for City Council, Airport Authority and Board of Education.

Police-involved shooting shooting details emerge

A Nevada man was identified Tuesday as the person who was shot by investigators with the Lincoln Police Department and Nebraska State Patrol in a west Lincoln parking lot Monday afternoon.

The man, 35-year-old Chace Abney, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries following the shooting, which occurred at about 2:45 p.m. Monday in a parking lot near Northwest 27th and West O streets, according to authorities.

Abney remained in critical condition as of Tuesday, said Sheriff Terry Wagner, whose agency is investigating the shooting.

At least one Lincoln Police officer and one Nebraska State Patrol trooper fired their weapons toward Abney after the 35-year-old fired one round from a 9 mm handgun toward police, Wagner told reporters Tuesday morning.

Abortion vote stands

After a weekend of pressure that included protesters on his lawn, Sen. Merv Riepe said Tuesday he's not budging on his position on abortion. Riepe last week in effect killed a proposal supported by all of his Republican colleagues in the Legislature to sharply limit abortion rights.

LB626 would have reduced the current abortion ban in Nebraska from 20 weeks to about six weeks based on ultrasound detection of embryonic cardiac activity. Riepe, however, is in favor of a 12-week ban, saying I think there is huge support for 12 weeks as being something sustainable and considered to be reasonable.

Thats it for Wednesday, May 3. Well see you back here tomorrow.

Photos: Scenes from Lincoln's May 2 General Election
SACRAMENTO, Calif.  Davis police are hunting a monster. And its highly likely the suspect is a serial killer, experts say.

The person behind three stabbings in the normally quiet college town is likely full of rage and has targeted his victims with no clear connection to one another, criminal experts told The Sacramento Bee. Given Davis relative isolation, 15 miles west of Sacramento and surrounded by farmland, the suspect probably lives in the city.

Its also possible the person responsible is battling mental illness.

The chances that these cases are not linked is very small, said Mark Safarik, a former Davis police detective and investigator with the FBIs behavioral analysis unit. One of the things here is we dont really have a motive. Davis is a relatively small community, and its very likely these cases are linked.

By definition, Sararnik said, two or more homicides separated by time are serial killings.

The nature of the killings added to the gravity of the case. The first two victims died of stab wounds after being attacked in city parks. The third was a homeless woman stabbed multiple times through her tent; she was in critical condition this week.

It could be someone so rageful, so intent on doing harm that hes just seeking out the most vulnerable, said Michael Vitiello, a criminal law scholar at the University of the Pacifics McGeorge School of Law. Think about the violence, the rageness that you have to have.

Law enforcement officials have not definitively linked the three attacks, but have said they share similarities, including the brutal nature of the crimes. Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig said law enforcement agencies in the region are responding with all hands on deck.

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said, to his knowledge, the city has never encountered a wave of stabbings similar to this one in at least the past 40 years.

This is different, he told reporters Tuesday. These attacks were particularly violent and brazen.

Davis police are likely being cautious before labeling the crimes the work of a serial killer.

Once you label someone as being a serial killer, the case takes on a whole other life, Safarik said. He said media attention intensifies and task forces are formed, attracting law enforcement from around the nation.

Its going to change the dynamics of the case, he said. They want to be absolutely certain.

Stabbing murders are not rare, but serial stabbings are uncommon, law enforcement officials said.

Its a completely different kind of crime, former Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said. Its up close and personal. Youve got to feel the force of the weapon as it penetrates the body.

Stabbings are not rare, certainly, but a serial stabbing? Im not thinking of any.

A series of stabbings presents an unusual challenge to law enforcement.

When victims are killed by gunfire, the shots are often heard by others, hastening police response to the scene. In stabbings, however, there may be little audible evidence, giving suspects extra time to flee, experts said. All three of the Davis attacks have also occurred at night, police said.

The first killing occurred last Thursday, when David Henry Breaux, 50, was found dead in the citys Central Park. Breaux, known in the community as the Compassion Guy, was likely killed hours before his body was found, meaning there were no witnesses to the act, Pytel said.

There appeared to be a witness to the killing of UC Davis student Karim Abou Najm, 20, in Sycamore Park on Saturday night. Police said a neighbor heard a disturbance and went outside to find Najm suffering from stab wounds.

People were also nearby when a homeless woman was stabbed late Monday in an encampment near Second and L streets. Police conducted a detailed search of the downtown Davis area, the department said.

Still, after a brief call to shelter in place, an army of officers from multiple jurisdictions ended the manhunt without a suspect.

Police said they were looking for an assailant described as a light-complected male, between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-9. The man had a thin build wearing a black or blue sweatshirt, black Adidas pants with white stripes, black shoes carrying a brown backpack.

Investigating stabbings

If the attacks are connected, the fact that the victims were stabbed may help investigators connect the crimes. There may be evidence, particularly DNA evidence, left at the scene of attacks in which the suspect and victim came into close contact.

Without knowing the facts of a particular case, it is possible DNA is left behind in stabbings, said former Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, whose office helped break the notorious Golden State Killer case using DNA and genealogy. Given the latest technology and advancements in DNA, I would anticipate law enforcement is doing everything it can to identify potential forensic evidence.
A 49-year-old Hickman man has sued Cass County and two sheriff's deputies who he says threw him down and broke his leg when he tried to leave the Luke Bryan concert last September in the middle of a field with an open beer.

Jason Slama is seeking $117,910 for his medical expenses, plus compensation for his pain and suffering.

In the lawsuit, his attorney, Maren Chaloupka, said one deputy "punitively employed an MMA-type technique to severely fracture Slamas leg." Then, another "gripped, twisted, and applied force" to his broken leg, and subjected him to a painful wrist lock while forcing him into a police cruiser with his leg broken in two.

Slama is suing Cass County, as well as the two deputies: Cass County Sheriff's Sgt. Wes Ludlow and Sarpy County Sheriff's Sgt. Kevin Krecklow, who was working at the Sept. 22 concert as part of an interlocal agreement between Cass and Sarpy counties.

Chaloupka said it started when deputies blocked Slama from passing through the gates with the partially consumed can of beer after the concert had ended and told him he needed to finish it or throw it away.

She said Slama asked for legal authority to block him from finishing the beer on the private property outside the gates, which were in the middle of an alfalfa field many feet from any roads or parking.

Though neither deputy could identify a state statute, Slama had tossed his beer before Krecklow approached with a deputy and threatened to arrest him for trespassing.

Believing he hadn't disturbed anyone, Slama asked for the statute number.

In a misdemeanor case where Slama later was fined $500, Slama was described as being "argumentative," and stepping closer to deputies, squaring his shoulders and "staring aggressively" before Krecklow used a leg sweep to put him on the ground.

Chalpoupka described it differently. She said Slama had posed no threat when Krecklow grabbed him, forced him to the ground and stomped on his right leg with enough force to severely break it, then drew a Taser to his back and threatened to shock him.

Slama already was on the ground, face down and in handcuffs with four deputies around him when Ludlow approached.

None activated their body cameras.

Chaloupka said then Ludlow forcibly held Slama to the ground, gripping and applying pressure to his leg that had just been broken by Krecklow's bootheel, and he and another deputy hauled Slama to his feet and to a patrol cruiser.

Slama declined to be medically evaluated that night because he didn't have health insurance. But when the pain grew worse he was evaluated and learned he had broken bones.

Cass County Attorney Chris Perrone told the Omaha World-Herald he couldn't comment on the events of that night, citing pending litigation. But he did say that "none of the law enforcement officers that night had any idea that Mr. Slama had received a broken leg prior to, during, or as a result of his contact with them."

Photos: Luke Bryan plays concert in Nebraska farm field Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert Luke Bryan concert
Barney Blacketer, 74, from left, argues with Madison Thompson, 23, and Ariel Cravens, 23, outside the Robert E. Jones Municipal Building in Danville before members of the City Council voted to approve an ordinance that would ban the mailing or shipping of abortion pills on May 2, 2023. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

DANVILLE  With a wave of recent medication abortion court rulings in the national spotlight, the City Council in downstate Danville on Tuesday narrowly approved a controversial ordinance that bans the mailing and shipping of abortion pills  despite repeated warnings from civil liberties experts and state leaders that the measure violates Illinois law.

The more than four-hour meeting attended by hundreds grew emotional at many points, as residents and council members offered perspectives on moral issues as weighty as when life begins and the range of circumstances surrounding a decision to end a pregnancy.

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Before the ordinances passage the council amended it so that it wouldnt go into effect until the city obtains a declaratory judgment from a court that the ordinance can be enacted and enforced. All court appeals must also be exhausted before the measure can go into effect, city officials said.

Some aldermen seemed to believe adding this language might help protect the city from legal action. In a recent letter to city leaders, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois threatened that passing the ordinance or attempting to enforce it will do nothing other than expose the city to significant legal liability and fees.

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Shortly after the council approved the measure  even with the amendment  the ACLU of Illinois put out a statement calling it an unlawful and unenforceable ordinance to limit access to abortion in the city.

Illinois has explicitly protected the right to abortion in this state, free from governmental interference, and Danvilles vote today is in clear violation of that law, said Ameri Klafeta, director of the Womens and Reproductive Rights Project Director at the ACLU of Illinois, in a written statement. We are evaluating next steps to challenge this unlawful ordinance.

Mark Lee Dickson, a Texas pastor and anti-abortion activist, claps as members of the City Council voted to approve an ordinance that would ban the mailing or shipping of abortion pills on May 2, 2023 in Danville. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

The ordinance claims that federal law imposes felony criminal liability on every person who ships or receives abortion pills or abortion-related paraphernalia in interstate or foreign commerce; it defines abortion as the act of using, prescribing, administering, procuring, or selling of any instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance, device or means, with the purpose of terminating pregnancy.

Its unclear how city leaders in this east central Illinois community of roughly 30,000 just west of the Indiana border intend to enforce the ordinance, which directly conflicts with Illinois law. In 2019, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act, which declared abortion a fundamental right in Illinois.

[ As court battle over abortion drug mifepristone continues, some Illinois clinics have a backup plan ]

Attorney General Kwame Raoul had sent a letter to Danville leaders stating that the abortion restriction would be illegal in Illinois and urged the city to reject the measure. On Wednesday, he noted that the councils last-minute amendment means the ordinance is not in effect and he added that it will not take effect.

Even if the citys ordinance is merely symbolic, I do not want it to instill fear and confusion, he said in a statement. Let me be clear: All residents of Illinois continue to enjoy the fundamental rights guaranteed to them under state law, and my office will continue to ensure that all localities in the state understand that access to reproductive health care is a fundamental right in Illinois.

Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. was the deciding vote as the City Council voted to approve an ordinance that would ban the mailing or shipping of abortion pills. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Pritzker added that the Reproductive Health Act explicitly bars local governments from restricting abortion rights.

If this ordinance ever took effect, it would clearly violate the Reproductive Health Act, he said in a written statement on Wednesday. I will fight for the women of Danville and the surrounding area to ensure they have access to the health care they need and that this ordinance never takes effect.

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The council was sharply divided on the matter, with seven aldermen voting in favor of the ordinance and seven voting against it. The tie was broken by Mayor Rickey Williams Jr., who announced I vote yes, drawing cheers from some in the crowded audience and rancor from others.

One woman shouted, You broke the law, as Williams pounded a gavel and called for decorum.

Demonstrators expressing views on both sides of the abortion debate filled the City Council meeting room and spilled into an overflow area, as well as onto the street.

Some abortion opponents held rosaries outside the building and prayed; some held signs reading Remember the Unborn and Pray to End Abortion.

At the same time, supporters of abortion rights outside chanted 2-4-6-8, separation of church and state and abortion is health care; many held signs with messages such as Abortion Saves Lives.

The ordinance followed news that an Indiana abortion provider recently bought property in Danville. Abortion foes in March protested the purchase, and Illinois Right to Life Executive Director Mary Kate Zander called Danville a conservative, pro-life community.

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Yet residents seemed to have disparate feelings on the citys new abortion pill ordinance. The council vote followed about four hours of public comment reflecting a range of opinions on abortion among the packed crowd.

Britt Cain of Danville opposed the ban, saying it was actively trying to prevent a womans health care clinic from opening.

Mary Catherine Roberson speaks out against the ordinance that would ban the mailing or shipping of abortion pills during a Danville City Council meeting on May 2, 2023. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Its more than just abortion; this is vital, she said. Passing this ordinance will not stop women from seeking out abortion services. It will, however, encourage women to seek unhealthy means to terminate their pregnancies, isolate themselves from those around them due to fear of getting in trouble or pay heavy fines that most people are unable to afford.

She added that the ordinance appears to be driven more by personal beliefs than concern for safety and welfare.

Dr. Bethany Halloran, a local obstetrician and gynecologist, said she was deeply concerned about the unintended, negative impact the ordinance would have on women in the community. She said many of the medications that would fall under the ban are also used for other medical purposes besides inducing abortion.

The seriousness of restricting the availability of these medications cannot be understated, she said. The medications listed in this ordinance have a wide range of applications beyond their relation to medical termination and they need to remain medically available to the people of Danville.

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She added that restricting the delivery of these medications will not allow me to provide the standard of care that these women deserve.

Put simply, it will unnecessarily endanger the lives of women and could very well lead to preventable death, she said.

Yet many in the audience spoke fervently in favor of the ordinance based on moral views, regardless of its potential legal and financial ramifications.

The Rev. Timothy Sick of La Salette Academy in the nearby city of Georgetown said that even if the ordinance brings with it a financial cost, even if the ordinance is overturned for some reason, he urged the council to put our trust in God.

If we put our trust in God, weve got to believe that he will shower His blessings upon us for doing whats right, he said.

The Rev. Timothy Sick speaks during a City Council meeting before members of the council voted to approve an ordinance that would ban the mailing or shipping of abortion pills, May 2, 2023, in Danville. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Nancy Lyman, a registered nurse and Danville resident, said she supported the ordinance and was strongly opposed to having an abortion clinic in the area.

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I believe our community will be better served by focusing on prevention of unplanned pregnancies and providing education and health services to our community, she said. We as a community need to be proactive in assessing barriers to health and health care and providing needed services, instead of simply being reactive to unplanned pregnancies and destroying innocent babies lives. Abortion clinics do not save lives. Abortion destroys lives and harms women and families in so many ways.

Glenna Horner spoke in favor of the ordinance as a mother of four children.

I can tell you that was a life  and it didnt become a life when the child came out of my body, she said. It was a life before that.

She said she doesnt advocate for abortion clinics anywhere, but Danville is a small community.

If you have an abortion clinic in our community, it will be known by all of us, she said, adding that she wants her city to known for good things such as its symphony, community college and community pride.

If we become a community that has an abortion clinic all those other things will take second place to the fact that were an abortion town, she said. Thats what it will become known for. And I dont want that  and I hope that you dont want that.

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City leaders say the ordinance  titled requiring compliance with federal abortion laws  is based on the Comstock Act of 1873, a law that had largely remained dormant when Roe v. Wade upheld federal abortion rights. The 19th century law barred the mailing of contraception, lewd writings, as well as any instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing that could be used in an abortion.

[ 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade: Some pray for end to abortion, while others mourn loss of reproductive rights ]

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe in June, the law has emerged as a cornerstone of many new anti-abortion measures aimed at curbing access to abortifacients.

Activists on both sides of the abortion issue gather outside the Robert E. Jones Municipal Building after members of the Danville City Council voted to approve an ordinance that would ban the mailing or shipping of abortion pills on May 2, 2023. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Danville isnt the first local jurisdiction to consider an ordinance targeting abortion pill access based on the Comstock Act. Several cities and counties in New Mexico, another state with few abortion restrictions, also recently passed anti-abortion ordinances invoking the Comstock Act, though the governor in March signed a bill designed to override those local measures and the New Mexico Supreme Court has blocked the ordinances from being enforced amid court challenges.

Medication abortions account for just over half of all terminated pregnancies in the United States

The heated debate in Danville comes as several high-profile court fights recently erupted over the fate of a common abortion drug, mifepristone, which millions of women have used since it was approved for use in 2000 by the Food and Drug Administration.

A Texas judge in April ordered a hold on federal approval of mifepristone, which threatened to pull the drug from the market.

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The ruling also questioned the legality of mailing abortion pills. The case, which was filed by the conservative organization Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of health care providers, claimed that mailing abortion pills violated the Comstock Act.

The Trump-appointed judge in that case seemed to agree, finding that Plaintiffs have a substantial likelihood of prevailing on their claim that Defendants decision to allow the dispensing of chemical abortion drugs through mail violates unambiguous federal criminal law.

But the U.S. Supreme Court in late April preserved access to mifepristone, pausing lower court restrictions as the legal battle plays out.

Medication abortions  as well as mifepristone  are still legal and available in Illinois. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says medication abortions, including mifepristone, are safe and effective.

Mifepristone is safe, said Molly Meegan, chief legal officer and general counsel with the professional membership organization. It is one of the safest drugs on the market. It has been used for decades.

The Associated Press contributed.

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eleventis@chicagotribune.com
The Lancaster County Sheriffs Office says it found $103,194 in suspected drug money and arrested a 25-year-old North Carolina man in a traffic stop on Interstate 80 west of Lincoln shortly before 10 a.m. Friday.

Capt. Ben Houchin said Brandon Montoya, of Charlotte, was stopped in a westbound Toyota Tundra for following too closely and driving on the shoulder. During the stop, Houchin said, the deputy developed suspicions Montoya was involved in illegal activity. A search turned up the money, which was sealed and in a suitcase, and a ledger.

Houchin said deputies reached out to law enforcement in Charlotte, where Montoya lives and rents a storage unit, believing that there was a strong possibility they would find a large amount of narcotics there.

He said the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department took the information, got search warrants and found 1,290 pounds of marijuana and THC edibles in Montoya's storage unit and at his home, tens of thousands of empty and loaded bottles of THC oil, marijuana cigar tubes and THC vape cartridges, 10 pounds of THC wax, 40 pounds of marijuana, packing materials, a 9mm Glock handgun and $90,000 in cash.

Houchin said the drugs added up to 1,831 pounds.
The Nebraska Attorney General's Office has charged a former Integrated Life Choices employee with abuse of a vulnerable adult for an on-duty incident a year and a half ago that sent a man with disabilities to the hospital.

Douglas Pierce Jr., 47, was set for court Tuesday on the felony charge.

He posted bond on the charge last month.

In the affidavit for Pierce's arrest, Krissa Knopik, an investigator with the Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Unit of the Attorney General's Office, said on Oct. 25, 2021, Pierce, then a direct support professional at Integrated Life Choices, "failed de-escalation" with a client that "resulted in Pierce punching him a few times in the head."

The client, who has intellectual disabilities, was taken to Bryan Medical Center West Campus with bleeding from inside of his mouth and swelling to the bridge of his nose.

Knopik said witnesses described a brief scuffle between the two outside a van they were boarding for an outing, they got tangled up and fell to the ground. After the client threw a punch at Pierce and tried to bite him, Pierce hit him three or four times and held him down, witnesses said.

Pierce was terminated from his job as a result of the incident.
A 25-year-old Lincoln man is in jail after narcotics investigators found an AR-15 and nearly a pound of suspected methamphetamines in his motel room amid a raid there Monday afternoon, police alleged in court filings.

Dylan Johnson was arrested at the Super 8 motel at 2635 W. O St. after investigators with the Lincoln-Lancaster County Narcotics Task Force found the assault rifle and 427 grams of suspected meth while serving a search warrant on his room there Monday afternoon, according to the court filings.

Police believe Johnson  who has a previous felony conviction that prevents him from owning a firearm under state law  purchased the Omni Hybrid AR-15 for $500 the day before authorities searched his room, Lincoln Police Investigator Andrew Barksdale said in the probable cause statement for Johnson's arrest.

The statement does not say where Johnson bought the rifle, nor does it indicate whether he purchased it legally.

Investigators found another 18 grams of meth in three plastic baggies that Johnson allegedly dropped in the motel's parking lot before police detained him, Barksdale said in the probable cause statement.

Police also found 5.1 grams of suspected cocaine and 236 grams of marijuana in Johnson's hotel room, along with a total of $695 in cash on his person and in the room, Barksdale said.

Johnson was arrested at the motel in the immediate aftermath of a police shooting across the street from the Super 8.

That shooting involved two narcotics investigators who were conducting surveillance on the motel moments prior, but Capt. Ryan Dale, who leads the drug task force, declined to say whether the investigation into Johnson is what brought those investigators to the motel.

Johnson was not associated with the Nevada man police shot Monday, who was also a guest of the motel, authorities said.

Prosecutors on Tuesday charged Johnson with five felonies stemming from the raid, including possession of 140+ grams of meth, possession of a firearm while violating a felony drug law and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

He was taken to the Lancaster County jail and must pay $100,000 to be released, a judge ruled Tuesday.

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
Democrats appear likely to retain a 6-1 majority on the City Council after Tuesdays general election, with former police officer Tom Duden replacing Richard Meginnis in southeast Lincolns District 2 as the only Republican.

The closest race  as in the primary  was for northeast Lincolns District 1, where incumbent James Michael Bowers was leading by 820 votes against his two-time opponent Taylor Wyatt in unofficial final results Tuesday night. Bowers, who would be elected to serve a second term, had 8,472 votes to Wyatt's 7,652.

In the primary, Bowers led with 410 votes. Wyatt, a Republican who runs a small real estate business with his wife, Brooke, ran against Bowers, a Democrat and social worker, in 2019.

Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen said there are still about 3,000 early votes to be counted on Wednesday, as well as nearly 700 provisional ballots.

"I am feeling honored that Lincoln is giving me the privilege to represent and fight for them for another four years," Bowers said. "I'm proud of my record. I delivered for northeast Lincoln and I'm excited to fight and deliver for another four years for northeast Lincoln and the city as a whole."

Although council and mayoral races are officially nonpartisan and no party labels appear on the ballot, the parties recruit and support candidates.

And Lincoln just re-elected Leirion Gaylor Baird, who will continue a quarter-century run of Democrats leading the city.

Tom Duden, a Republican who spent 26 years as a Lincoln police officer, beat Bailey Feit, a Democrat and newcomer to politics, to replace Meginnis. Feit is an educator who runs a STEM focus program at Northeast High School.

In the primary, Duden and Feit advanced from a four-candidate slate, with Duden capturing 30% of the vote to Feits 29%. Duden won the seat comfortably in the general election, with 15,106 votes to Feit's 12,351.

In Northwest Lincolns District 4, Brodey Weber, 25, a Democrat and vice president of client relations at Mid American Casing Supply, beat Wayne Reinwald, 64, who is retired from a career in the food and beverage industry.

Weber received 6,365 votes to Reinwald's 4,421.

In the primary, Reinwald, the lone Republican running in the four-candidate primary, beat Weber, but by a slim 319-vote margin. Weber will replace Tammy Ward, who did not run for re-election.

Justin Carlson, a Democrat, handily beat Elina Newman, a registered nonpartisan, for southwest Lincolns District 3 seat held by former Lincoln Public Schools Principal Michelle Suarez.

Carlson tallied 10,957 votes to Newman's 6,979.

Suarez, appointed as interim council member for District 3 after Jane Raybould was elected to the Legislature, did not run for election.

Carlson and Newman both advanced from the primary, where Carlson led Newman 55% to 33%.

Carlson, a development director for the University of Nebraska Foundation, has been an active volunteer and involved in Democratic politics as former chairman of the Lancaster County Democrats and as part of the group that fought against recall efforts of several City Council members and the mayor over the mask mandate and other pandemic health directives.

Newman, an immigrant from Azerbaijan, is a pharmacy technician and small-business owner. She also ran for an at-large seat on the City Council in 2021.

The three at-large council members not up for election this cycle  Tom Beckius, Sandra Washington and Bennie Shobe  are all Democrats.

Unofficial final results of Lincoln 2023 General Election Lincoln Mayor Candidate Party Votes Suzanne Geist Republican 35,404 Leirion Gaylor Baird (I) Democrat 42,072 Lincoln City Council District Candidate Party Votes 1 Taylor Wyatt Republican 7,652 1 James Michael Bowers (I) Democrat 8,472 2 Tom Duden Republican 15,106 2 Bailey Feit Democrat 12,351 3 Elina Newman NP 6,979 3 Justin Carlson Democrat 10,957 4 Brodey B. Weber Democrat 6,365 4 Wayne Reinwald Republican 4,421 Lincoln Airport Authority Candidate Party Votes Chris Stokes Republican 36,022 Chris Hove Republican 28,891 Nathan Janulewicz Democrat 22,068 Vanessa Emlich Democrat 25,066 Lincoln Board of Education District Candidate Party Votes 2 Piyush Srivastav Democrat 7,903 2 Emmy Pollen Republican 5,251 4 Annie Mumgaard (I) Democrat 3,395 4 Alaina Brouillette Republican 2,299 6 Bob Rauner (I) NP 8,016 6 Richard R. Aldag IV Republican 4,959
Voters elected an environmental consultant to fill the lone open seat on the Lincoln Board of Education on Tuesday, while two incumbents won reelection easily.

Piyush Srivastav was elected to his first four-year term on the school board representing District 2, which covers a portion of south-central and southeast Lincoln. Srivastav, a Democrat in the officially nonpartisan race, defeated Republican Emmy Pollen for the seat that opened up when incumbent Connie Duncan declined to run for a third term.

In north Lincoln's District 4, Democrat Annie Mumgaard, a virtual educator at the University of Nebraska State Museum, won a third term handily. She beat Republican challenger Alaina Brouillette, who does billing for CHI Health.

And in District 6, which covers a slice of of central and east Lincoln, local physician Bob Rauner, an independent, easily defeated retired state trooper Richard Aldag, a Republican.

Srivastav said that when he decided to run, he promised he would give "110%" of his time and energy to the race and run a positive campaign.

"And I'm proud to say that's what we have done," said Srivastav, 56. "I know I gave it my all."

Srivastav, who has regularly attended school board meetings in the months leading up to the election, says he plans to do "a lot of listening and learning" in his first year.

"I feel I am ready to be a member of the LPS board and work with my board members to make policy for all students," he said.

Srivastav, a native of India, moved to Lincoln in 1991 for graduate school and later worked as a regulator for the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. In 2003, he founded NAQS Environmental Experts, a consulting firm to advise companies on environmental regulations.

He previously chaired the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools board and was heavily involved in the creation of The Career Academy, LPS' career pathway program at Southeast Community College.

With support from the likes of Duncan and former LPS Superintendent Steve Joel and well-funded campaign coffers, Srivastav soon emerged as the favorite for the District 2 seat. In the April primary, he defeated Pollen by nearly 1,000 votes.

On Tuesday, voters tended to the lean the same way, with Srivastav winning about 60% of ballots cast. Mumgaard, 60, and Rauner, 53, took about 60% of the vote in their races as well.

With Srivastav's election, there are now five Democrats and no Republicans on the seven-member school board. Connie Duncan, who was once a registered Republican, previously changed to independent. Current board member Lanny Boswell, a former Republican, is also an independent now.

Photos: Scenes from Lincoln's May 2 General Election
State lawmakers rejected an amendment that would have stopped a $14 million transfer from the Nebraska Environmental Trust to a cash fund managed by a state agency on Wednesday.

A nonprofit group made up of former state senators and board members of the Trust raised concerns about the constitutionality of the transfer to the Water Resources Cash Fund, which is overseen by the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources.

On Wednesday, the first day of floor debate over the state's biennial budget, Omaha Sen. John Cavanaugh introduced an amendment that sought to strike that transfer from the Appropriations Committee's bill (LB814).

Cavanaugh said funds allocated to the Nebraska Environmental Trust through lottery proceeds were approved by voters in 2004 and that it was improper for the Legislature to raid the fund to support a state agency.

Earlier this week, the Friends of the Nebraska Environmental Trust likened the transfer to stealing from the program, which will result in fewer grants for conservation or enhancement projects across the state.

Members of the Appropriations Committee defended the decision, saying that language in the bill ensured the funds were spent on projects authorized under state statute.

Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, the committee chair, said increased revenue from the Nebraska Lottery had put the Trust in a good financial position and that the transfer was limited to two payments of $7 million each in the next two years.

Likewise, Lincoln Sen. Anna Wishart said she was comfortable with the intent language added by the committee directing how those funds should be spent.

"I do believe our decision is constitutional," Wishart said.

But Cavanaugh said the transfer "would still fundamentally go against what voters decided" and could be subject to a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the move.

If a judge ruled the transfer violated the state constitution, Cavanaugh warned it could toss out the state's whole two-year budget, which is nearly $10 billion.

Ultimately, Cavanaugh's amendment failed to get enough support, failing with only 12 votes.

Reached Wednesday afternoon, Sandy Scofield, president of the Friends of the Nebraska Environmental Trust, said the group was considering what comes next.

Currently, members of the nonprofit are planning to testify at a meeting of the Trust on Thursday about several rules changes for how grants are awarded.

The Friends have raised concerns that the 14-member board of the Trust was awarding projects that were less qualified than others or declining grants to projects that had previously received funding.

Meet the Nebraska state senators making laws in 2023
Advocates for individuals with developmental disabilities say languishing reimbursement rates for care providers who work in community-based settings have created a crisis of care in Nebraska.

Staff shortages and high turnover rates among independent providers have resulted in more than 2,400 people in Nebraska who qualify for a developmental disability waiver under Medicaid to be placed on a wait list, with those individuals waiting nine years on average to begin receiving adequate care.

Low provider rates caused $42.6 million appropriated to the Division of Developmental Disabilities to be left on the table last year, said Edison McDonald, executive director of the Arc of Nebraska, a statewide organization that advocates for individuals with developmental disabilities.

This year, the amount that could remain unspent by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services is on track to exceed $96 million, McDonald added.

Across the nation and here in Nebraska, our system is struggling, McDonald said at a press conference to highlight the issue Wednesday in the Rotunda at the Capitol. We have seen families struggle to get access to care, not to mention a waiting list of thousands.

There is a tremendous staffing shortage because we failed to provide quality provider rates to ensure staff can be paid adequately, he added.

But, there was some good news to share as well.

On Tuesday, Gov. Jim Pillen agreed to make a one-time stabilization payment in June to cover a funding gap for service providers in order to allow them to raise pay and hire more staff this year.

The payment, which is tiered based upon the number of individuals a provider serves and comes with stipulations that the funds must be spent to hire frontline employees, will total between $23 million and $24 million, McDonald said.

Pillen, who said he recognizes the critical need of agencies to attract and retain staff, also agreed to continue conversations about raising rates for community-based providers of developmental disability services in the future.

We need to take care of our most vulnerable citizens and create pathways that allow them to have productive and meaningful lives, Pillen said in a statement. This funding will further that goal and will hold providers responsible for meeting benchmarks in hiring and retaining the staff they need.

Providers, advocates, and the individuals at the center of the developmental disability community celebrated the news on Wednesday and pledged to continue pushing for better pay and outcomes.

Jennifer Meints of Lincoln, whose daughter Grace has a rare medical condition, said her family has experienced the impacts of staff shortages and limited resources over the last three years.

Adequate funding for service providers would help people like Grace live a fully inclusive life and help them reach their full potential, Meints said.

Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, who chairs the Legislatures Health and Human Services Committee, called the one-time payment a step in the right direction, but said there was more work to be done.

The ball needs to keep moving forward, Hansen said, adding the Legislature should put caring for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities among its priorities like infrastructure and public safety.

He said the Legislature should also work to make provider rates more consistent and stable, so independent agencies can have confidence in offering top care.

Patrick Hayes, the chief financial officer of Elite Disability Services of Nebraska, which provides around-the-clock residential services, independent living, respite care and other programs, said the low reimbursement rates mean many of their caregivers have to rely on the state for assistance to meet their basic needs.

These are people with the passion and desire to lift themselves up by the sweat of their brows, Hayes said. But its hard to lift yourself up by your bootstraps when you cant afford the boots.

Competitive provider rates would allow Elite Disability Services and others to recruit and retain employees who are looking for a career as caregivers, he added.

And Alana Schriver, executive director of the Nebraska Association of Service Providers, said staffing levels for developmental disability service providers have gone over the cliff and that it was time to take action.

Its not just in Nebraska  this is a nationwide issue  but the difference is we have the ability and resources in Nebraska right now today to correct this problem, Schriver said.

Schriver and McDonald credited Pillen for listening to parents, advocates and others in coming to the table and being willing to solve the problem.

I think weve got a governor who really cares about people with disabilities, McDonald said. When advocates told him we need this action, he took action.

But, they warned, the crisis is far from over.

Schriver, who pointed out state lawmakers had recently raised the pay of employees at Beatrice State Developmental Center, said more work needs to be done in order to pull Nebraska out of a cycle of struggle.

That will ensure that every family who needs services is able to access it and providers are paid properly to give adequate care, she said.

The rewards people deserve for a job well done are a decent paycheck, work-life balance, and then ongoing training and developmental support.

Top Journal Star photos for May 2023
America is hurtling toward a historic and potentially cataclysmic default  and its best hope for avoiding it may be one of the least popular men in Washington: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Dont mistake passage of a plan to raise the debt ceiling for progress. The bill, passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on a party-line vote, is dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Among the Senate staffers Ive spoken to, the prevailing view is that nobody is going to move unless Wall Street starts panicking. Financial markets, meanwhile, seem confident it will get resolved one way or another.

This sets up a paradoxical interplay: Nobody is panicking because they think there will be a deal, but nobody is trying to make a deal because people arent panicking. The upshot is that a panic is probably going to come one of these days, and then someones going to have to step in and broker a deal quickly.

Enter McConnell. But first, its necessary to understand how House Speaker Kevin McCarthy got the country to this impasse.

The House bill was mainly a way for the speaker to solve a problem in his caucus. Hes spent months calling on the White House to negotiate with him on a package of spending cuts paired with a debt limit increase. President Joe Bidens position, understandably, has been that he deserves the kind of clean debt ceiling increases that his predecessor got on multiple occasions. And from a practical standpoint, it wasnt possible to negotiate with House Republicans  especially since McCarthy had no stated bargaining position and hadnt shown the ability to muster the votes.

Thus began his quest to assemble a package that could pass the House. One of the ironies of this bill is that it puts the country further from, not closer to, a deal.

Failure to pass the bill would have been humiliating for McCarthy. But it also would have left him no choice but to allow a vote on something that would win the support of most Democrats and a handful of Republicans. That would have been either a debt ceiling increase paired with modest discretionary spending cuts, or a suspension of the debt ceiling for long enough to get through the annual appropriations cycle. Allowing a vote on a bill opposed by most Republicans would have left McCarthy vulnerable to an intraparty coup. But it would have left the country in a far better position.

Its true that the resulting legislation gives McCarthy something tangible that he can bring to negotiations with the president. But its less clear what they would talk about, since McCarthy only got his bill passed by making it even more conservative.

In a world with a more functional Republican Party, the caucuss more moderate and vulnerable members would have exerted their influence constructively. They would have told McCarthy that larding up an already right-wing proposal was unacceptable, and that he should shift further to the center. Then they could have explained to their rightist colleagues that if they decided to sink the bill, they would simply be undercutting McCarthys leverage with the White House. A moderate power play might have failed  the Freedom Caucus has a well-earned reputation for obstinacy  but it could have moved things in a constructive direction.

This leads to the big important question: Is McCarthy prepared to jeopardize his speakership and split his caucus by advancing a realistic bill?

Let me answer the question this way: The idea that the U.S. is going to embark on a huge rightward shift in policy with a Democratic White House, a Democratic Senate and a five-seat Republican House majority is fantasy, both politically and mathematically. Republicans took the House in the midterms, so theyre entitled to claim a pound of flesh. But McCarthy is asking to devour the entire body politic.

The man to broker a deal is the Senate minority leader. Because of the filibuster, the Senate is already more amenable to negotiating than the House. The existing discretionary appropriations bills all had to pass with some bipartisan support. These bills tilted toward Democratic priorities because Democrats control the Senate, but Republicans did have some input.

With the GOP running the House, Republican dealmakers in the Senate can claw back some of what theyve given away in the past two years and put forward bills that trim discretionary spending without fundamentally transforming anything. A bipartisan Senate deal  a deal that, like earlier Biden-era spending deals, is passed mostly with Democratic votes  would then set the stage for the House to pass a bill with a similar configuration of votes.

So far, McConnell is demurring and saying that Biden and McCarthy need to work this out. His impulse is understandable. But a speaker whos hostage to the furthest-right members of his caucus isnt going to be able to get a deal done. The Senate minority leader has a more reasonable conference, and he has the experience and savvy to negotiate with the president.

Mitch McConnell, a nation turns its debt-laden eyes to you.
The Supreme Court is doing itself -- and the country -- a terrible and unnecessary disservice with its highhanded dismissal of its homegrown ethics issues.

Actually, dismissal is too charitable a description. The letter by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and an accompanying "Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices" by all the justices don't actually rise to the level of discounting ethical concerns. They simply act as if such concerns don't exist. They are judge-speak for "move along, nothing to see here."

No one should buy this.

My beef is not with the chief's declining to appear before Durbin's committee "on ways to restore confidence in the court's ethical standards," as Durbin phrased it.

I never expected that he'd turn up, or even send a proxy. Testimony by a chief justice is, as Roberts noted, "exceedingly rare," and not on such contentious matters; as with a president, it raises separation of powers concerns.

But Roberts's assertion that he "must respectfully decline your invitation" was anything but respectful. "In regard to the Court's approach to ethics matters," he wrote, "I attach a Statement of Ethics Principles and Practices to which all of the current Members of the Supreme Court subscribe."

That's it. No acknowledgment -- in the letter or the statement -- of the spate of recent news reports raising questions about justices' acceptance of gifts and travel or of lapses in disclosure. No indication that the court saw any need to tighten or improve its ethics rules. No hint that this was an issue with which the justices are grappling.

Instead, he appended a pallid recitation of "foundational ethical principles and practices." As Durbin said in a statement, "I am surprised that the Chief Justice's recounting of existing legal standards of ethics suggests current law is adequate and ignores the obvious."

Four years ago, testifying before the House about the Supreme Court's budget, Justice Elena Kagan said that Roberts "is studying the question of whether to have a code of judicial conduct that's applicable only to the United States Supreme Court ... it's something that is being thought very seriously about."

Since then: Nothing. No action. No update.

Also, since then:

-- Reports about "Operation Higher Court," an effort by an evangelical Christian group that gained astonishing access to conservative justices and, according to the New York Times, obtained advance information about the outcome of a case after having dinner with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and his wife. (Alito said any suggestion that he or his wife had leaked information was "completely false.")

-- Justice Clarence Thomas's decision not to recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, committee despite the fact that his wife, Ginni Thomas, was extensively involved in disputing the election results and was interviewed by the committee.

-- Revelations that Thomas accepted extensive luxury travel and accommodations from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow and failed to disclose Crow's purchase of a home Thomas partially owned, as required by federal law.

I recognize that it's impossible to legislate good judgment, but it's time -- long past time -- for the court, just like any other part of government, to be subject to a code of conduct, including an enforcement mechanism.

The American Bar Association in February urged the Supreme Court to take this step. "The absence of a clearly articulated, binding code of ethics ... imperils the legitimacy of the Court," an accompanying report said.

And this is why the court's refusal to take this step is only hurting itself.

If the court won't act on its own, it may be left with no choice. Durbin backs a proposal by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) that would require the Judicial Conference of the United States, which supervises the lower federal courts, to create a code of conduct for the justices; the measure would also direct the court to appoint an ethics investigations counsel to examine potential violations.

Last Wednesday, the movement gained bipartisan support. Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced a bill that directs the court to adopt a code of conduct and designate an individual to "process complaints" about misconduct.

Maybe Roberts and colleagues figure that lifetime tenure and a Republican House will let them weather this storm. But King, no partisan hothead, had a pointed message for the chief. "I can't believe that John G. Roberts Jr. wants his legacy to be the Dobbs decision and a catastrophic decline in public confidence in the Supreme Court." Me neither, but that's where this is heading.
UNION GROVEUnion Grove High School has found a new leader.

Thomas Johnson was named superintendent of the high school on Tuesday.

Johnson will replace Alan Mollerskov, who is retiring.

Johnson is currently the principal at Union Grove Elementary School. He will take over as UGHS superintendent on July 1.

I am very excited to join the incredible team at Union Grove High School, Johnson said in a news release. It is an honor to have the opportunity to serve the students, families and staff at UGHS, and I look forward to strengthening the positive relationships I have cultivated within this great community. Through my collaborative leadership style, I will work diligently to build on the tradition and culture that has earned Union Grove High School its successful and positive reputation.

The Union Grove High School Board search process included soliciting input from stakeholders and conducting interviews with a pool of highly qualified candidates, according to the release.

The process involved an advisory committee, which included representation from staff and administration.

After a thorough and rigorous search process, we are excited to welcome Thomas Johnson to our district as our new superintendent, Diane Skewes, UGHS Board president, said in a news release. Mr. Johnson stood out as a leader with a strong track record of success in education and a deep commitment to our students and community. We are confident that he will provide strong leadership and direction to our district as we continue to strive for excellence.

Photos: Union Grove library treats kids to a preschool story time and craft activity Sara Grabarec youth services librarian at Graham Public Library in Union Grove Nanny Gaby Perron with Landon and Kinsley Berghuis at library story time Lazarus Miller and brother Ezekiel Miller together at Union Grove library story time Latisha Zeyen and her son, Isaac, 3, at Union Grove library story time and craft activity Lazarus Miller sits front and center during story time at Union Grove library Toddler Kinsley Berghuis snuggles with her nanny during Union Grove library story time Tyler Miller with his son, Ezekiel, 4, at Union Grove library story time Isaac Zeyen, 3, works on a paper truck during craft activity at Union Grove library
WATERFORD  The Waterford Public Library has reduced its hours of operation  closing entirely on Saturdays  in response to $100,000 in lost financial support from the village.

A library board member said officials were anguished over the reductions, but decided that the villages funding cut made it impossible to continue the facilitys previous level of service.

In addition to closing on Saturday, the public library is opening later and closing sooner on weekdays  trimming its total hours of service from 58 hours a week to 44.

It is terrible  absolutely terrible, Library Board member Kelly Klein said. We have agonized over this.

The library records about 52,000 visitors a year, or more than 100 a day on average.

The Village Board in November slashed 2023 funding for the library from $300,000 to $200,000, as part of a $16.5 million spending plan for village government that raised property taxes from $2.6 million to $2.9 million.

Village leaders contend that the library has been overfunded and overstaffed, and that some of the facilitys spending decisions have been questionable.

Village President Don Houston said the librarys budget still amounts to $50,000 a month, on average, and he believes that should be enough to avoid reducing the facilitys hours.

Houston said he is particularly disappointed to see the doors closed on Saturdays.

Asked how the operation could maintain the status quo with $100,000 less in funding, Houston said he has no direct control over how the library spends its money.

Id like the library to be open, and its disappointing, he said. But I dont make those decisions.

Village Board member Tamara Pollnow said village trustees did not intend to reduce the librarys operating hours with the funding cut this year. She acknowledged hearing from library patrons who are disappointed to see the facility closed on Saturdays.

Ideally, we would want to have as many hours as we could, Pollnow said.

Village Board members, however, have resisted calls for reinstating the librarys lost funding in the 2023 budget.

Located at 101 N. River St., the library operates in a village-owned building  next door to Village Hall  but it functions separately and is governed by its own board of directors. The budget of $660,000 includes village and county funding, as well as private support.

Last year, the library opened at 8:30 a.m. six days a week and closed at 8 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at 6 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, and at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

Effective this spring, the library opens at 9 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. Monday and Wednesday, and at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Library Director Heather Kinkade declined to comment, referring questions to members of the Library Board.

Board President Loribeth Isola and others could not be reached for comment.

Board records indicate that the reduced hours of service were approved in March, took effect April 10, and are scheduled to continue through Labor Day.

Library officials also have discussed laying off employees and cutting certain programs in response to the lost financial support from the village.

Klein called the reduced operating hours heartbreaking and said the changes would not be necessary if the Village Board had maintained its funding of the library.

It is absolutely due to the funding, she said.

Library officials consulted with regular patrons and determined that most people would rather see Saturday service ended rather than see even shorter hours during the week.

Cutting back hours to any degree, Klein said, was a painful decision among those who value the library as a community resource and a center of learning.

I cant even tell you how much there was put into agonizing over that, she said.

Pollnow, who also serves on the Library Board, said she has alerted her fellow village trustees to the reduced service levels at the library. She said the librarys hours seem to be set for the summer, but the Village Board may consider the issue after that.

Pollnow initially said there was no chance of restoring the librarys funds until next year. But then she said the subject could move forward after the summer months.

Asked if she favors undoing the funding cut, Pollnow said, As soon as we are able, I am in favor of it.

The most popular book the year you were born The most popular book the year you were born 1920: 'The Man of the Forest' by Zane Grey 1921: 'The Brimming Cup' by Dorothy Canfield 1922: 'If Winter Comes' by A.S.M. Hutchinson 1923: 'Black Oxen' by Gertrude Atherton 1924: 'So Big' by Edna Ferber 1925: 'Soundings' by A. Hamilton Gibbs 1926: 'The Private Life of Helen of Troy' by John Erskine 1927: 'Elmer Gantry' by Sinclair Lewis 1928: 'The Bridge of San Luis Rey' by Thornton Wilder 1929: 'All Quiet on the Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque 1930: 'Cimarron' by Edna Ferber 1931 and 1932: 'The Good Earth' by Pearl S. Buck 1933 and 1934: 'Anthony Adverse' by Hervey Allen 1935: 'Green Light' by Lloyd C. Douglas 1936 and 1937: 'Gone with the Wind' by Margaret Mitchell 1938: 'The Yearling' by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1939: 'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck 1940: 'How Green Was My Valley' by Richard Llewellyn 1941: 'The Keys of the Kingdom' by A.J. Cronin 1942: 'The Song of Bernadette' by Franz Werfel 1943: 'The Robe' by Lloyd C. Douglas 1944: 'Strange Fruit' by Lillian Smith 1945: 'Forever Amber' by Kathleen Winsor 1946: 'The King's General' by Daphne du Maurier 1947: 'The Miracle of the Bells' by Russell Janney 1948: 'The Big Fisherman' by Lloyd C. Douglas 1949: 'The Egyptian' by Mika Waltari 1950: 'The Cardinal' by Henry Morton Robinson 1951: 'From Here to Eternity' by James Jones 1952: 'The Silver Chalice' by Thomas B. Costain 1953: 'The Robe' by Lloyd C. Douglas 1954: 'Not As a Stranger' by Morton Thompson 1955: 'Marjorie Morningstar' by Herman Wouk 1956: 'Don't Go Near the Water' by William Brinkley 1957: 'By Love Possessed' by James Gould Cozzens 1958: 'Doctor Zhivago' by Boris Pasternak 1959: 'Exodus' by Leon Uris 1960: 'Advise and Consent' by Allen Drury 1961: 'The Agony and the Ecstasy' by Irving Stone 1962: 'Ship of Fools' by Katherine Anne Porter 1963: 'The Shoes of the Fisherman' by Morris West 1964: 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' by John le Carre 1965: 'The Source' by James A. Michener 1966: 'Valley of the Dolls' by Jacqueline Susann 1967: 'The Outsiders' by S.E. Hinton 1968: 'Airport' by Arthur Hailey 1969: 'Portnoy's Complaint' by Philip Roth 1970: 'Love Story' by Erich Segal 1971: 'Wheels' by Arthur Hailey 1972 and 1973: 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' by Richard Bach 1974: 'Centennial' by James A. Michener 1975: 'Ragtime' by E.L. Doctorow 1976: 'Trinity' by Leon Uris 1977: 'The Silmarillion' by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien 1978: 'Chesapeake' by James A. Michener 1979: 'The Matarese Circle' by Robert Ludlum 1980: 'The Covenant' by James A. Michener 1981: 'Noble House' by James Clavell 1982: 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' by William Kotzwinkle 1983: 'Return of the Jedi' by James Kahn 1984: 'The Talisman' by Stephen King and Peter Straub 1985: 'The Mammoth Hunters' by Jean M. Auel 1986: 'It' by Stephen King 1987: "The Tommyknockers" by Stephen King 1988: 'The Cardinal of the Kremlin' by Tom Clancy 1989: 'Clear and Present Danger' by Tom Clancy 1990: 'The Plains of Passage' by Jean M. Auel 1991: 'Scarlett' by Alexandra Ripley 1992: 'Dolores Claiborne' by Stephen King 1993: 'The Bridges of Madison County' by Robert James Waller 1994: 'The Chamber' by John Grisham 1995: 'The Rainmaker' by John Grisham 1996: 'The Runaway Jury' by John Grisham 1997: 'The Partner' by John Grisham 1998: 'The Street Lawyer' by John Grisham 1999: 'The Testament' by John Grisham 2000: 'The Brethren' by John Grisham 2001: 'Desecration' by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye 2002: 'The Summons' by John Grisham 2003: 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' by J.K. Rowling 2004: 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown 2005: 'The Broker' by John Grisham 2006: 'For One More Day' by Mitch Albom 2007: 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' by J.K. Rowling 2008: 'The Appeal' by John Grisham 2009: 'The Lost Symbol' by Dan Brown 2010: 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest' by Stieg Larsson 2011: 'The Litigators' by John Grisham 2012: 'Fifty Shades of Grey' by E.L. James 2013: 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck' by Jeff Kinney 2014: 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green 2015: 'Go Set a Watchman' by Harper Lee 2016: 'The Girl on the Train' by Paula Hawkins 2017: 'Diary of a Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway' by Jeff Kinney 2018: 'Becoming' by Michelle Obama 2019: 'Where the Crawdads Sing' by Delia Owens 2020: 'A Promised Land' by Barack Obama 2021: 'Dog Man #10: Mothering Heights' by Dav Pilkey 2022: 'The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times' by Michelle Obama
BURLINGTON  Store owners in the heart of Downtown Burlington are picking up the pieces after vandals with a pellet gun shot and damaged at least eight properties.

The incident early Monday left stores along Pine Street with broken and boarded-up windows, as special Mothers Day shopping promotions are getting started this weekend.

Some store owners said the cleanup and repairs could take weeks.

Police said security camera video helped officers to identify and locate three people suspected in connection to the vandalism, including one Burlington 18-year-old who faces possible charges of criminal damage to property.

Police did not identify the suspects or discuss any motive for the vandalism.

While store owners are happy that police may have solved the case, they said the damage has been done. For some, the recovery could take a long time.

Lauryn Mattila, owner of Luberrys home furnishings, 532 N. Pine St., said she opened her store six months ago, and she was hoping for a strong turnout of Mothers Day shoppers starting this weekend.

Finding her front door shattered by gun pellets, Mattila said, has left her shaken and worried.

In a small city where violence is relatively uncommon, she wonders if shoppers will be scared away.

You dont expect that here, she said. Were hoping people wont have fear, and will still want to come out.

Police said eight properties were damaged by the pellet gun shooting around 1:40 a.m. Monday, primarily in the 300, 400 and 500 blocks of North Pine Street, which is a prime corridor through the center of downtown.

According to police, the other affected businesses were Itzins Shoes & Repair, 436 N. Pine St.; Allison Wonderland Toys, 472 N. Pine St.; Keepm Tickin clock repair, 572 N. Pine St.; Quotes + Cotton clothing, 516 N. Pine St.; Life Choices pregnancy care center, 316 N. Pine St.; and Country Home Center, 408 N. Pine St.

Damage was also reported at the city parking structure at 401 N. Dodge St.

Police received the first reports of damage at 9:26 a.m. Monday, as businesses were opening for the start of a new week.

According to a news release, within five hours of the first damage report, officers were able to identify and locate suspects, secure evidence, and interview suspects who reportedly confessed.

Police Chief Brian Zmudzinski, in a statement, thanked business owners who assisted in the investigation.

I could not be prouder of the collaborative work of our citizens and officers, Zmudzinski said.

Store owners said seeing windows and doors shot up with a gun in the downtown shopping district was a disturbing experience.

Allie Zusan, owner of Quotes + Cotton, said she arrived Monday morning to find her front door shattered and broken glass on the showroom floor inside.

After realizing that several stores were targeted, she became angry.

We were all caught off guard, she said.

Insurance will cover most of the recovery expense, Zusan said, but it could take several weeks to complete the repairs.

The perpetrators of the violence probably do not understand the difficulty of managing a small business, she said.

While they thought they were being funny, she said, its way more than that.

Wayne Swihart, owner of Keepm Tickin clock shop, said he is upset because the vandalism damaged glass windows that cannot be replaced on his historic building.

Crews will have to replace the damaged windows with different glass of a lesser quality, Swihart said.

The store owner, however, is grateful that none of his priceless clocks or other inventory were hit by gun pellets.

After 35 years in business, he can only shake his head about the senseless attack.

We dont normally have any trouble, he said. It is disappointing.

Burlington native singer Rachel Christine Gebel competes on 'The Voice,' in photos Rachel Christine Gebel Rachel Christine Gebel Blind audition Blind audition Blind audition Rachel Christine at rehearsal Kelly Clarkson and Reba McEntire Rachel Christine and JB Somers Rachel Christine and JB Somers Rachel Christine and JB Somers The knockouts Rachel Christine and Holly Brand Blake Shelton team
By NRA-ILA, May 1, 2023

Steven Dettelbach  Joe Bidens appointment to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)  recently appeared twice on Capitol Hill to argue in favor of that agencys funding and to answer questions about its priorities and activities. During those appearances he repeatedly underscored he is not a firearms expert and could not himself define what an assault weapon is. These were remarkable admissions from a man whose job is to oversee an agency that enforces highly technical federal firearm laws. A reasonable person might ask how Dettelbach can possibly be qualified to direct ATF or whether he occupies that post solely as a compliant puppet to execute the White Houses political orders.

The enforcement of federal firearms laws requires a complex understanding of how abstract legal rules apply to concrete technology. Any official tasked with enforcing federal firearm laws should  in addition to a working knowledge of the relevant statutes and regulations  have at least basic competency in using guns, experience with firearm commerce, and some familiarity with what is colloquially known as gun culture.

Dettelbach has admitted that he possesses none of these skills or experience. Indeed, it was established during his confirmation proceedings for ATF director that he has never owned a gun, has never been issued a gun in a professional capacity, and was unsure if he had even shot a gun within the five years preceding his nomination. Not only could Dettelbach not define assault weapon, he was unable to explain how it had been defined under the previous federal ban in effect from 1994 to 2004. .....
1. Yes. Keep Fort Hood Street in recognition of the citys historic connections to the post.

2. Yes. Businesses should keep their current name if its familiar to their customers.

3. No. It would be confusing, especially to newcomers, to have two post names being used.

4. No. It is disrespectful to the memory of Gen. Cavazos to keep using the name Hood.

5. Unsure. It might make sense in some instances, but it could be confusing as well .

Vote

View Results
KEARNEY  A Kearney psychiatrist has taken a plea bargain after being charged with misdemeanor sexual assault.

Reynaldo A. de los Angeles, 77, pleaded no contest in Buffalo County Court to misdemeanor third-degree sexual assault without consent and unlawful possession of a prescription drug. In exchange for his plea, the sexual assault charge was amended to disturbing the peace, and the drug charge was dropped.

A no contest plea is neither an admission nor denial of guilt, but the plea is treated the same as a guilty plea. Sentencing for de los Angeles will be June 15 in Buffalo County Court.

In December, de los Angeles was sentenced in Buffalo County Court to 364 days in jail for misdemeanor third-degree sexual assault without consent in a separate incident. He began his jail sentence Jan. 2 at the Buffalo County Jail, and he was ordered to register as a sex offender.
KEARNEY  To help catch skin cancer early, when its most treatable, CHI Health Good Samaritan is providing a free screening 3-5 p.m. May 18 at the hospitals Cancer Center at 104 W. 33rd St.

Health care providers will inspect skin for signs of cancer. The exam is not private, and only exposed skin will be checked. This event is a rapid screening and should not replace or be a substitute for yearly examinations.

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.S., affecting one in five people, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.

Registration is not required. For more information, call 308-398-8912.
KEARNEY  Cold weather put a damper on Meadowlark Elementary School first graders' mission to raise money for the Salvation Army. But they will have a second chance to ring the bells May 11 at Hilltop Mall in Kearney.

After the students' opportunity to ring bells for the Salvation Army was canceled due to cold weather in December, the class will "Ring in the Spring" to raise funds for the organization.

The Meadowlark first graders will be singing and ringing from 4:30 to 6 p.m. May 11 in front of the Hilltop Mall. The students will sing some of their morning songs, and they may throw in a Christmas carol or two. They will plan to be in front of the main Hilltop Mall doors with the red kettle, some signs explaining their purpose and some tunes blaring.
LINCOLN  Miles Marshall has been inducted into the Nebraska Auctioneers Hall of Fame. The ceremony was Saturday during the NeAA's annual convention at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Lincoln.

Marshall, a seasoned auctioneer with over 45 years of experience in the industry, was recognized for his outstanding contributions to the profession, his unwavering commitment to excellence, and his exceptional leadership skills.

Throughout his career, he has conducted countless successful auctions and has earned a reputation for being one of the most skilled and knowledgeable auctioneers in the state.

"It really is an honor, very humbling," said Marshall. "The association has been very good to our family, over the years and actually over the generations. The auction business is very important to our family, its what we do, its what we do for a living full-time, always have, and that makes this award that much more meaningful.

Marshall's dedication to the auctioneering profession extends beyond the auction block. He has been actively involved in the NeAA, serving on various committees and holding leadership positions, including president, Auctioneer of the Year and past bid-calling champion.

He has also mentored numerous aspiring auctioneers, sharing his expertise and helping them achieve success in the field.

Marshalls career started over 45 years ago after attending Missouri Auction School. He began by helping his dad, Robin Marshall, and uncle, Eugene Marshall, who together operated Kearney Livestock Market. Miles built his business and reputation on honesty and integrity, becoming one of the leaders and innovators of selling real estate at absolute auction. Through his 45 years, Miles has personally sold over 1,000 farms and ranches.

Marshall has been an auctioneer on Kearney Catholics GOLD fundraiser auction since its inception in 1994. He has donated his time and talents to 4-H livestock auctions in numerous counties throughout central Nebraska as well as many other charity auctions.

The Nebraska Auctioneers Hall of Fame was established in 1995 to honor outstanding auctioneers who have made significant contributions to the auction industry in Nebraska. Inductees are recognized for their professional achievements, leadership and community service.
A Kenosha County Board supervisor nominated to serve on a commission advancing racial and ethnic equity was taken to task by colleagues who questioned his political tactics that disparaged a fellow supervisor and military veteran.

By a vote of 16-5, the board approved the nomination of Supervisor Andy Berg, a retired Army National Guard non-commissioned officer, to serve on the countys Racial and Ethnic Equity Commission but not before he apologized to Supervisor John Poole, a thrice decorated U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam.

Supervisor Terry Rose, who opposed the nomination, said he could not understand why Berg, a military veteran himself would create a social media post casting doubt on Pooles military service without simply asking his colleague for proof as Poole was seeking election to the County Board.

I dont quite understand why you didnt have the time to call him up as I asked him myself, `Show me the proof that you were discharged honorably from the United States Marine Corps that you served in Vietnam, said Rose. And, he did so.

Proof of service

Rose made available a copy of Pooles military discharge papers, which Poole showed Rose because he wanted to prove it to me.

I dont understand why you, Andy, just didnt ask him in that election, Rose said. His opponent didnt use that information against him. But you threw out this innuendo, this question about, Why are people saying he didnt serve?

Rose said that serving in Vietnam, at the time was not a popular thing to do.

When you returned from Vietnam, citizens didnt say to you, `Well, thank you for your service, Rose said. You avoided their look because so many people were opposed to the war, they said cruel things to veterans who returned from Vietnam. No thank you for your service.

It was more like, `How many babies did you kill today, Rose said.

Rose said Bergs conduct was pertinent to his nomination because, I dont think we need people (to) bring misinformation, disinformation, or outright lies and falsities to be on that committee.

I think the truth is sufficient here to be a member of that committee and produce a truthful document, Rose said, questioning whether Berg could perform those duties or use his position as an elected official to sell something that isnt true.

At the Executive Committee meeting last week, Poole urged colleagues to oppose Berg because he had lied about Pooles status. During Tuesdays board meeting, Poole, again, urged the same.

We need people who will thoughtfully consider the information presented and make rational decisions and I dont think Supervisor Berg is that person, Poole said.

Nedweski to Nudo: Why Berg?

Supervisor Amanda Nedweski asked County Board Chair Gabe Nudo to explain why he nominated Berg.

I nominated Supervisor Berg because he is very well qualified to be in this position  no matter what anybody is saying right now. That was during elections. There was a lot of things said between other people and it was question between whether it was right or not, Nudo said. (Berg) has been duly elected by his district and if hes good enough to be a County Board supervisor and serve on the committee of the board I think hes well qualified to be serving on a subcommittee.

Nudo noted that he and Berg disagree on mostly everything. Nudo said Bergs nomination, he believed, was not a personal thing.

Berg replaces Supervisor Daniel Gaschke, whose term is up at the end of the month. Gaschke said he did not wish to continue on the panel due to family reasons. Berg represents District 10, the second most diverse district in the county, with needs that are similar to that of District 7, which Gaschke represents.

In addition, Nudo said he asked nearly all members of the board a year ago whether they wanted to be part of the commission and they declined.

When Berg expressed interest in being part of the commission, Nudo nominated him.

Berg said he asked to serve on the commission because he wanted to continue to find ways to better situations where we feel we falter in the community to improve not only his district but the whole county.

Duty to question status

Berg said most people dont have the right to question a veterans service, but between veterans themselves, thats our job, thats our duty in vetting the campaign documents submitted.

Thats part of our integrity, also, he said. Thats our job to question somebody else thats claiming to be a veteran.

Berg admitted that he couldve used another approach.

Was it campaign dirtiness? Maybe. Absolutely. But, there couldve been another approach, he said.

Since then he has acknowledged Pooles veteran status, including in subsequent social media posts, such as one where Poole was photographed saluting the flag at an event at a local eatery. Berg said he posted the photo calling Poole both a veteran and a supervisor.

I will say this as a veteran to a veteran publicly I apologize for putting you in that situation, Berg said.

Berg then invited Poole to join Pleasant Prairie VFW Post 7308, to which Berg belongs, and offered to pay for his lifetime membership out of my pocket as a gesture to you, sir.

Voting in favor of Bergs nomination to the Racial and Ethnic Equity Committee were supervisors William Grady, Jeffrey Gentz, Laura Belsky, Brian Thomas, Ed Kubicki, Gaschke, John ODay, Zach Stock, Nudo, John Franco, David Geertsen, Nedweski, Monica Yuhas, Brian Bashaw, Mark Nordigian and Aaron Karow. Supervisors Rose, Zack Rodriguez, Tim Stocker, Poole and Erin Decker cast dissenting votes. Berg abstained. Supervisor Jeff Wamboldt was absent.

Other commission appointments approved

Earlier, the board approved the three latest appointments of County Executive Samantha Kerkman to the commission. They are: Cortney Marshall, Alayna Arrington and Duane OKeefe, all of Kenosha.

The appointments of Marshall, a local real estate agent, and Arrington, a campus and community recruitment specialist were approved 21-1. In both cases, Stocker cast the dissenting votes.

Stocker called to question Marshalls commitment to the community after reading from a social media post on Sept. 7 that the commission nominee had planned to leave Kenosha and divest from the city.

If thats his position, Im not sure why we would want him on this appointment, Stocker said.

Stocker said he had twice contacted the nominee because he had wanted to meet with Marshall, who he said did not respond to the requests.

Marshall later answered Supervisor Daniel Gaschkes question about whether he believed racism was a public health crisis as was declared by the county in August 2020. Marshall said he did, so much so that, in context, it was why he wrote the post in the first place last fall. At the time, Marshall said he was in a predominantly white area and all of the sudden, the house was surrounded by about eight sheriff deputies because of the color of my skin.

Someone had called and said, `Hey, weve got Black people in our neighborhood and the house was surrounded while I was showing a property to my parents to purchase, Marshall said.

The incident was the impetus for his post, according to Marshall, and was one that made him angry. It caused him to realize that we have to do something about that.

I've been here for 30-plus years. Ive never ever dealt with anything like that before, he said. So, I really do believe we need a change.

Arrington, the daughter of former Supervisor David Arrington and granddaughter of the late Kenosha civil rights leader the Rev. Olen Arrington Jr., also agreed that racism had risen to the level of a public health crisis. She said she was also aware of the multiple, intersecting factors that combine with racism and affect communities.

OKeefe, a local car repair shop owner, was also asked about whether he felt racism was a public health crisis.

I havent felt it personally being from where I come from, said OKeefe, who is a registered member of the Lac Courte Oreilles band of Chippewa and originally from Superior, Wis. Id kinda like to see it, a little more proof on the fact that is actually a crisis. I mean, Im sure there definitely is racism, but I like to see, you know, just a little more proof on it.

The board approved OKeefes nomination by a vote of 20-2. Franco and Gaschke cast the dissenting votes.

With the appointments approved, the Racial and Ethnic Equity Commission will have its full complement of members, or nine, for the first time in nearly a year. Rounding out the commission are A. Brian Gonzales and Xavier Solis, who were confirmed in April, Elizabeth Garcia, Justin Crosby and Supervisor Brian Thomas.

10 terms to know about diversity, equity, and inclusion workplace policies 10 terms to know about diversity, equity, and inclusion workplace policies Diversity Equity Inclusion Race Ethnicity Intersectionality Tolerance Advocacy and allyship Harassment Implicit bias
Natalie Volden is an animal lover, and one of them she loves is the sea turtle.

The 12-year-old, who is a sixth-grader at Westby Area Middle School, is on a mission to help save sea turtles by organizing the 5K Kemps Krawl at Coon Valley Veterans Memorial Parks walking path, Saturday, May 6, at 10 a.m.

This is the second annual walk Volden has organized to benefit Sea Turtle Inc., South Padre Island, Texas. The organization is a 501 (C) (3) nonprofit that rescues, rehabilitates and releases sea turtles throughout the year.

Volden became interested in sea turtles when she and her family visited Sea Turtle, Inc., in the fall of 2021. I saw all of the injuries and suffering and I decided to help and to raise money, she said.

Natalies mother, Ashley Seeley, said the 5K Kemps Krawl is held annually at South Padre Island to benefit Sea Turtle, Inc. She thought since we cant be there she wanted to bring it to Wisconsin.

Volden said some of the turtles at Sea Turtle, Inc., have been hit by propellers, which cut open their shells. They dont always release them, she said. If a turtle ends up there three times, they stay there as a resident.

Last years event raised $750 and had between 70 and 80 walkers. Volden said her goal this year is to raise $1,000 and in 2024 to raise $2,000.

Anyone who participates will walk the parks path four times to reach the 5K mark. There will be a turtle-themed bucket onsite for people to drop their loose change or checks made payable to Sea Turtle, Inc. Donations can also be made at https://www.facebook.com/events/767331871684088 via Venmo. All donations are tax-deductible.

Volden said the walk will raise money for food and medicine, and to help hatchlings.

Registration isnt required. The first 40 children receive a special gift bag.

We made name tags (for kids) to name a turtle and next year well show a picture of the hatchling they adopted, Volden said.

Volden got the idea for the name tags after she adopted Grasshopper, a female Green Sea Turtle who is based off the tip of Florida. Volden can view Grasshoppers journey through the turtles tracker.

So far, Volden has secured eight business sponsors for the walk and will acknowledge them at the event. She has also created posters to share facts about sea turtles.

It (the walk) was new last year, and now Im more familiar with it, she said.
Elaine Rita (Hanley) Sydejko passed into the loving hands of the Lord, Saturday November 12, 2022 at the age of 98.9 years.

A Celebration of her Life will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 13, 2023 at the Stokes, Prock & Mundt, 535 S. Hillcrest Pkwy., Altoona with Deacon Mark Manko officiating with visitation from 9:00 a.m. until time of service. Burial will take place at the Chippewa Catholic Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution to your favorite charity in memory of mom.

Cremation Society of Wisconsin, Altoona is assisting the family. Online condolences may be shared at www.cremationsociety-wi.com.
BNSF Railway crews have officially completed all operations on the De Soto freight train derailment as of 6 a.m. Wednesday

Highway 35 is still closed to traffic and may open by Friday, said Jim Hackett, director of Crawford County Emergency Management.

But it could be longer, Hackett cautioned, depending on if the Wisconsin Department of Transportation finds any significant damages to the highway from the heavy machinery that was present throughout the cleanup and repair.

The freight train derailed Thursday, April 27, with multiple cars plunging into the Mississippi River. Two locomotives and 10 cars carrying paint, lithium batteries and oxygen derailed from the tracks in between De Soto and Ferryville.

The BNSF-owned tracks did sustain some damage. Hackett confirmed damage was done to the rail line itself as well as damage to the integrity of the bank.

Contractors from BNSF Railway repaired the rail line and shored up the banks. The tracks reopened Saturday and trains have been running since then.

The cause of the derailment is still undetermined. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is completing an investigation into the incident. Hackett said the agency said it will take at least 30 days to complete the investigation.

Since the incident, BNSF has set up a temporary command center in the area to monitor the elevated river water. The rail company is doing daily inspections while river levels remain high, which is expected to last for another seven days.

BNSF is performing twice daily inspections at locations that are identified for potential material loss and installing heavy riprap at those locations, Hackett said.

BNSF will also increase the frequency of the geometry car testing through elevated river levels to twice per month to further monitor track stability.

Crawford County Emergency Management is working with the state emergency management to complete an after-action report, detailing what went well in the response and what could be better.

Our response was very good, Hackett said. But even if we thought this went 100% perfect in response, there is always room for growth. So were going to use it as a growing opportunity to better ourselves.

Thirty agencies responded to the initial accident call last Thursday, many of which serve as local volunteer first-responders.

In 2018, Crawford County held a full scale train derailment training in Prairie du Chien. Hackett said that most of the people who responded to the De Soto derailment were at that training.

Its very important to train so you understand what youre doing before the incident happens, Hackett said.
Former Milwaukee County Clerk Joseph Czarnezki has been tapped by Gov. Tony Evers to fill the Wisconsin Elections Commissions Democratic seat formerly held by Julie Glancey.

Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback confirmed Tuesday that Czarnezki will fill the vacant seat. Glancey, 72, announced on Friday she would be stepping down on Monday to allow someone with more recent experience as a clerk to join the bipartisan agency.

Czarnezki will serve the remainder of Glanceys term, which is set to expire in 2026.

Czarnezki told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he plans to lean on his experience as a former county clerk in the new role and hopes to preserve ballot access for all Wisconsin voters.

I think its important that everyone who is eligible to vote in the state of Wisconsin has a chance to register to vote, cast a ballot and have that ballot counted, he told the Journal Sentinel.

Czarnezki earned a bachelors degree in economics and political science, as well as a masters in political science with an emphasis in public administration, from UW-Milwaukee, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He was elected to the state Assembly in 1980 and reelected in 1982. He was later elected to the state Senate in 1983 and reelected twice in 1984 and 1988. Czarnezki was elected Milwaukee County clerk in 2008 and 2012 and served on the Milwaukee County Board from 2020 to 2022.

Glancey was appointed to the commission in 2016 by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker to fill one of the agencys three Democratic seats.

A former Sheboygan County clerk, Glancey was one of the first members of the commission, which Walker and Republican lawmakers created to replace the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board.

The elections commission is made up of three Democratic and three Republican appointees and is tasked with a wide range of election-administration responsibilities, including issuing guidance to local clerks, ensuring election accuracy and maintaining the statewide voter registration database.

Elections 101: Video series explains how elections are carried out in Wisconsin The Wisconsin Elections Commission put together the following series of instructional videos and accompanying lesson plans for use in high school civics classes and the general public. Elections overview An overview of elections administration in Wisconsin. Voting Security Let's take a look at how we maintain security and integrity with all of our elections. Nuts and bolts The ins-and-outs of voter processes like registering to vote and requesting a ballot to vote absentee. A Day at the Polls See what it is like to go to the polls and vote.
Paid family leave, marijuana legalization and Medicaid expansion were some of the more than 500 items stripped from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proposed two-year spending plan by Republicans on the first day of budget deliberations Tuesday.

With a single vote, the GOP-led budget committee removed the items from the nearly $104 billion proposal Evers unveiled in February. As they have done with Evers previous two budgets, GOP lawmakers  who hold strong majorities in the state Assembly and Senate  plan to build their own two-year spending plan to send back to the governor before the end of June.

Were removing policy from this budget, Joint Committee on Finance co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, told reporters Tuesday. This budget is going to be about numbers, not policy.

The committee voted 12-4 to remove the items, with all Democratic members opposed.

These arent fringe ideas, controversial concepts or Republican or Democratic  theyre about doing the right thing, Evers tweeted Tuesday. With a historic surplus comes historic responsibility, and today, when we can afford to do more, this vote is foolish and a wasted opportunity.

As governor, Evers holds partial veto power that hes used in previous budgets to make alterations to the final document before signing it. He used that authority to make dozens of changes, even managing to work in an increase to education spending, in the 2019-21 budget.

Lawmakers enter the budget process with a historic $7 billion projected surplus. Republicans have largely pledged to put a good portion of the surplus toward tax cuts that move the state closer to a flat income tax. Evers proposal to cut income taxes by 10% for individuals earning $100,000 or less a year and married filers making $150,000 or less was one of the items removed from the budget Tuesday.

Democratic members of the committee blasted the removal of items that have been supported by the majority of Wisconsinites, including Medicaid expansion, expanded background checks for firearm purchases and marijuana legalization.

Sen. LaTonya Johnson, D-Milwaukee, said the vote to strip the governors budget back to base without a shadow of a doubt removes the very things our constituents asked for.

One item Republicans removed from Evers budget is the governors call for the creation of a paid family and medical leave program that would provide eligible public- and private-sector workers with 12 weeks of paid leave beginning in 2025.

The program, which would be launched using about $243 million in state funds, would be designed to become self-sustaining by 2026 because it would be funded through payroll contributions from employers and employees.

The committee also stripped out Evers proposals to legalize recreational and medicinal marijuana. Assembly Republicans told The Associated Press that they plan to introduce a limited medical marijuana program this session.

The committee also eliminated provisions authorizing $270 million for additional mental health workers in schools. Evers proposed increasing the number of mental health providers in schools after the state Office of Childrens Mental Health found Wisconsin youth feeling increasingly sad and hopeless, though half of them received no treatment.

Republicans for months have said Evers was unlikely to get as much spending on mental health as he proposed, though they have said they want to address the issue. Theyve introduced legislation to permit family therapists to work in schools, provide loan forgiveness for school psychologists and allow schools to bill for more services.

Another Evers proposal Republicans removed from the budget is spending $290 million to repair the Milwaukee Brewers stadium. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said Evers plan was dead in March, though he added that Republicans plan to release their own proposal to extend the teams lease in Wisconsin.
Health care providers in Wisconsin would have to give consumers access to out-of-pocket cost estimates for common procedures under a Republican proposal released Wednesday.

A leading hospital association said the proposal is unnecessary because it mirrors existing federal legislation, which could confuse hospitals because they wouldnt know which rules to comply with.

But supporters of the measure say most hospitals arent complying with the federal rules that activated in 2021, warranting the separate Wisconsin legislation that would allow the state Department of Health Services to enforce it.

Health care is the only thing Wisconsinites purchase that we dont know the price of beforehand, and that has to change, said bill author Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma.

A draft bill released Wednesday morning states the legislation would require each hospital in the state to make publicly available a digital file containing a list of standard charges for certain items and services provided by that hospital.

Hospitals would also have to provide a consumer-friendly list of standard charges for services that can be scheduled by a health care provider in advance.

Under the measure, the Department of Health Services would be required to provide written notices to hospitals violating the bill and request a correction plan from the hospital. The DHS can also impose escalating penalties for noncompliance  from $600 for each day in which a hospital with 30 or fewer beds isnt compliant to $10,000 each day in which a hospital with more than 550 beds isnt compliant.

The DHS would also have to make public a list of hospitals that violated the price transparency requirements in the bill.

The point of this bill is not to be punitive, Felzkowski said. The intent of this bill is to get the transparency out there and the costs.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association is against the legislation.

Wisconsin hospitals are national leaders in complying with federal transparency law and that is why WHA believes this legislation is unwarranted, said Eric Borgerding, the organizations president and CEO.

Felzkowski said hospitals arent complying with the federal legislation and the government isnt enforcing violations.

A February report from medical transparency group PatientsRightAdvocate.org found that 45% of hospitals in Wisconsin were compliant with the federal rules, better than all but six states.

PatientsRightAdvocates data is faulty because they use incomplete sampling methods from hospitals, said Brian Potter, Wisconsin Hospital Association senior vice president of finance.

A Wisconsin Hospital Association outline appears to paint a brighter picture of compliance.

In a metric analyzing the completeness of hospital information, Wisconsin hospitals average a 90% rating from price transparency company Turquoise Health, the WHA document stated.

The document also stated the federal government is beginning to increase its enforcement of the federal measure.

Further, the legislation creates a new set of state regulations and penalties that will complicate and confuse compliance with existing federal regulations, and penalties being rigorously enforced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Borgerding said.

In response, Felzkowski said complying with the federal legislation would amount to following the proposal, though she said there were slight differences.

Wisconsin has previously passed legislation to promote health care transparency.

Under a measure that became law in 2011, hospitals must release the median charge and estimated payments from private insurers and Medicare for the states top 75 hospitalizations and top 75 outpatient procedures.
Federal authorities have announced racketeering and other charges against 45 members or associates of two major Minneapolis street gangs for crimes including seven homicides, plus numerous drug trafficking and firearms violations. U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said Wednesday that the takedown targeted the Highs, who are based in north Minneapolis, and the Bloods, who operate primarily on the south side. And he says charges are coming against a third gang, the Lows from north Minneapolis. All but two of the suspects are in custody. Around two dozen of them were arrested in recent days, he said, while several were already in custody.
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. May 2, 2023.

Editorial: Bad bills waste Legislatures time

Its apparently silly season in Madison. Nonsensical bills are nothing new, of course, but we encountered a pair this week that are truly wastes of time.

One actually goes further than being a waste. The proposal to allow 14-year-olds to serve alcohol in bars is potentially dangerous.

Wisconsin law allows people to serve alcohol to customers before they hit the legal drinking age. Anyone 18 or older can do so. That makes sense. While 18-year-olds cant legally drink they are most definitely adults.

A 14-year-old? The gulf in physical, mental and emotional terms between someone that age and an 18-year-old is vast. The changes in how one behaves and views the world between those ages are massive. Someone who has reached adulthood can quite reasonably be said to be a different person than they were just four years earlier.

Those four years of maturity are important, and theres no question to us that they make enough of a difference to make putting a 14-year-old in a bar situation a bad idea.

The bill, to be clear, would not mean youd see 14-year-olds behind the bar, pulling the tap. Their service would only be approved for customers who are seated elsewhere. The reality, though, is that such a line is more theory than fact, depending entirely on the willingness of employee and employer to concede there is a difference between someone sitting at the bar and someone sitting five feet away.

The bills two proponents claim the idea is in response to workforce issues due to an establishments underage employees only being able to do part of their job. We dont buy it. Serving alcohol isnt part of their job; it cant be under Wisconsin law. Anyone under age 18 is, in fact, already doing their entire job. Any business owner who hires someone underage knows that restriction from the start and still makes the decision to hire that person.

The legislators behind the proposal are currently looking for cosponsors. We hope they have a difficult time finding any.

The other bill that caught our eye is more reasonable in theory, but probably impossible to enforce. It would require social media companies to verify the ages of Wisconsin users. Children who want accounts would need parental permission.

We agree that social media can be an incredibly toxic place and parents should generally think twice about allowing their children to have accounts. Measures such as this bill wont prevent them from doing so, though, regardless of their parents wishes. Its not as if people have never lied about their age online, after all.

We also question how companies would achieve the instruction to verify the age of every Wisconsin resident who set up an account since 2019 within 21 days. Would it require submitting documents, or just a click promising that youre the age you claim? The former is undesirable  you really think you can trust social media to protect personally identifiable documents  and the latter is unverifiable.

Again, the goal of protecting children online is laudable. But we dont see how this bill is workable or enforceable. As such, its probably a waste of the Legislatures effort.

Theres plenty Wisconsins Legislature needs to get done without spending time on things like these two bills. We understand the urge to take on pet projects. Few legislators avoid falling into that trap at least a few times. We would prefer, though, that legislators resist the temptation and focus on things that are more plausible alterations to state law.

Bad bills like these simply arent worth the time.

Kenosha News. April 30, 2023.

Editorial: GOP should act on red-flag law

Wisconsin doesnt have a red-flag law, which allows for temporary firearm removal from individuals believed to be at risk of harming themselves or others.

It should.

State Republican leaders  like Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochestershould get their heads out of the sand and stop blocking a common-sense measure that would support law enforcement efforts to reduce gun violence and give families and loved ones who fear for the actions of relatives who are dealing with mental health issues a safe path to address those mental health issues and avoid gun violence.

Gov. Tony Evers would likely sign such legislation, but that fact is that red-flag legislation never even got a public hearing in the GOP-controlled state Legislature last year.

Thats despite the fact that more than 80% of Wisconsin voters support a red-flag law, according to a 2022 poll conducted by Marquette University. That percentage is a mirror of national polls which show similar support.

Thats despite the fact that 19 states across the country have already implemented red-flag laws and Michigan is now set to join them with the signature of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Thats despite the fact that U.S. firearm homicide and suicide rates jumped by more than 8% from 2020 to 2021, totaling more than 47,000 lives, according to the Center for Disease Control.

So whats the hold-up? Much of it likely stems from Republican politicians kow-towing to Second Amendment supporters who resist any attempts to infringe on the Constitutional right to bear arms.

None of Wisconsins Republican congressional members voted for the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which contains funding for states to create and implement red-flag laws. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said, This bill provides resources to states to adopt red-flag laws without requiring sufficient due process to those accused  thereby eroding Second Amendment protections. I simply cannot support it.

To the contrary, red-flag laws do require a court process.

They allow family members and law enforcement  along with in some cases health care providers and school officials  to petition a court to temporarily prevent a person from accessing firearms if they are found to be a danger to themselves or others, according to the Department of Justice.

It takes a judges order to implement. And its temporary.

State Republicans are often fond of backing increased funding and legislation for law enforcement saying it gives them another tool in their tool-belt. So give them the tool of a red-flag law to remove guns from the hands of people who show threatening behavior.

More importantly, give that same opportunity to families and loved ones who are often the first to know when a family member or friend is suffering from mental health issues and may pose a danger to themselves or other family members. It would give them time to find mental health assistance for their family member and perhaps avoid a tragedy. It would give them a path to at least do SOMETHING.

The simple fact is that of those 47,000 lives lost each year to gun deaths in America, more than half  54% are gun suicides. Thats a number that needs to drop by giving law enforcement and families a chance to intervene before its too late.

More than 80% of Wisconsin residents agree with that. State Republicans should acknowledge that support and act to fulfill the wishes of their constituents.

Wisconsin State Journal. April 30, 2023.

Editorial: Madison just proved the power of a single vote

Madison just selected a South Side alderman by drawing his name out of a bag.

That might sound random. But it was necessary to break a tie vote, as state law requires. And it proves the old saying is true  every vote counts.

It also highlights how divided many Madisonians are on the future of their city, particularly over how it should grow. The two candidates in this race were from different generations and backgrounds, and they disagreed on housing, transit and more.

The mayor and City Council will need to weigh those divergent views carefully and seek consensus as they lead the city forward.

Noah Lieberman was the unofficial winner in District 14 on April 4 by only two votes: 1,384 to 1,382. Three days later, his winning margin shrank to a single vote when a previously uncounted provisional ballot (one cast by someone who didnt have the proper documentation on Election Day but subsequently provided it within a few days) favored his opponent, Isadore Knox.

Knox then asked for a recount, which resulted in a tie, with each contender collecting 1,384.

That means if any of Knoxs supporters had voted differently  or skipped the election  it would have changed the outcome. And if Lieberman had drawn just one more supporter to the polls, he would have won.

Both candidates had a lot of opportunity to pick up more votes because District 14 had the lowest turnout in the city. Only around 25% of District 14s more than 11,000 eligible voters cast ballots, compared to other city districts with twice as much turnout.

Congratulations to Knox, whom the State Journal editorial board had endorsed for his experience, collegiality and priorities. We also met with Lieberman and liked him, too.

These two candidates contrasted in many ways.

Knox, 67, is Black and worked as a manager for the state and county, encouraging equal opportunities. He has lived on the South Side for three decades and previously served on the City Council. He is skeptical of denser, taller apartment buildings along South Park Street, though hes open to them Downtown. He wants to encourage home ownership and condos to build wealth, supports body cameras on patrol officers, and is excited about turning State Street into a pedestrian mall. He isnt a fan of gentrification.

Lieberman, 28, is white and relatively new to the South Side. He works for Epic Systems, the giant health information company in Verona that has drawn technology workers from across the country  many of whom enjoy living in or near Downtown. Lieberman is part of the rapid growth and change coming to all of Madison and the region. He has a point that this influx of creative people deserves some representation. He sounded more supportive of denser development and the mayors plans for bus rapid transit.

Those residents who actually voted on April 4 had an impact on their community by picking one candidate or the other. And those who didnt vote, well, they shouldnt complain about City Hall in the coming year. If they didnt cast ballots, they missed a great chance to influence local decisions.

A lot of people seem to think that state and national elections are most important. But its your local officials who have the most influence over your streets, parks, schools and community.

So congratulations to the 2,768 good citizens who had their say on Madisons South Side on April 4. Even if your candidate didnt win after a name was drawn out of a bag to break the tie, it was your vote  the very one you cast  that made that random drawing necessary.

Democracy requires some work and involvement. Remember that next spring when city, county, school and judicial candidates seek your support. Each and every vote counts.

END
On the tail of the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court race  costing $45 million - many solutions have been suggested. Only one solution will work.

If we dont pass a constitutional amendment to get the big money out of politics, our democracy will continue to decline. There also have been less publicized, high-cost local elections in city council and school board races. There will come a time when big money will dominate many township races. This sickness must stop.

Most Americans correctly believe that they are no longer represented  not by Congress, or our courts, or our presidents. Many county boards are trending to decisions completely based on party directives. When our local town boards and school boards are fully polarized, well be only one step from some kind of non-democratic, dare I say autocratic, governance.

Unfortunately, most editorials, columns, radio talk shows, and TV news broadcasts never talk about solutions in the works. Yes, they sometimes offer possibilities and we needs and if only reform ideas  but not those active today.

In Wisconsin, and across the nation, there are grassroots and civic groups that are working to get 34 states to call for a constitutional amendment to get big money out of politics. Wisconsin is leading this charge with the most robust effort in the country. And on the federal level, the We the People Amendment, H.J.R.54, has been reintroduced in Congress. Readers can learn about this important work by checking out www.wiuta.org if they are ready to

Pamela Knudtson

La Crosse
Minors in the Village of Williams Bay will now have an extra hour to be out and about on Friday and Saturday nights.

On May 1, the Williams Bay Village Board held a second reading on and approved the passage of Ordinance 2023-03, amending Section 238-1A of the Village Code of Ordinances, which governs curfew hours for minors under 18.

The extension of weekend curfew hours for minors from an 11 p.m. start to a 12:01 a.m. start was prompted by a recent citizen request from 5-year Williams Bay resident Nicole Goy, who sought a later curfew start on Friday and Saturday nights to better match those in place in other Walworth County communities including the City of Elkhorn, midnight; Village of Fontana, 12:01 a.m.; Town of Geneva, midnight; Village of Genoa City, midnight; City of Lake Geneva, midnight for minors age 16 and 17; Town of Lyons, midnight; Town of Linn, midnight for minors age 16 and 17; Village of Sharon, midnight; Walworth County, midnight; and City of Whitewater, midnight.

Curfew hours in the Village of Williams Bay run until 6 a.m. seven days a week. The start of curfew remains unchanged at 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday.

Exceptions to the curfew hours in the ordinance include minors accompanied by a parent, guardian or other adult having care or custody of the minor. Also exempted are minors returing home from public or parochial school or church functions and those returning home from work, provied that they return home by the shortest and most direct route and as fast as is reasonably possible under the circumstances.

Bid package authorization

Williams Bay Village Board trustees approved the adoption of Resolution R-13-23, authorizing Village Engineer Baxter & Woodman, Inc. Consulting Engineers at a not-to-exceed cost of $11,100 to prepare bid packages and administer contracts for dredging Geneva Lake at the Southwick Creek outlet and the removal of spoil materials.

Funding for the bid package agreement will be taken from borrowing.

On April 17, in advance of the May 1 village board meeting, the Williams Bay Parks and Lakefront Committee determed that its in the best interests of the village and its residents to authorize approval of the proposal with Burlington-based Baxter & Woodman, with the village determining that for the ecological health of Geneva Lake and Southwick Creek ... Geneva Lake requires dredging at Southwick Creek.

A floating amphibiious excavator will mechanically remove sediment and load it onto a barge. Prior to the start of the dredging work, a turbidity curtain will be deployed around the project area.

On April 6, the Village of Williams Bay received permitting from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to dredge 450 cubic yards of sediment from a 50x160-foot area at the outlet of Southwick Creek at Geneva Lake. Sediment will be transfered from the barge to a dewatering site at Edgwater Park, adjacent to East Geneva Street. Dewatered dredged sediment spoils will be transported to the Odling Pit in the Town of Delavan.

In an April 6 letter to the town by Baxter & Woodman engineer Douglas R. Snyder, it was felt that the project could be bid as early as June, with dredging work and spoils removal occurring in October.

The plan calls for the dredging of Southwick Creek south of E. Geneva St., as well as an offshore area of Geneva Lake off the Southwick Creek outlet. The lakefront pedestrian footbridge across Southwick Creek would be temporarily removed for the project and replaced with a temporary 22-foot pedestrian bridge.

Project costs are estimated at $150,000.

Appointments approved

Williams Bay trustees approved Board President Bill Duncnan committee appointments:

Appointed Staff: Tina Kolls, Clerk; Lori Peternell, Treasurer; SafeBuilt, Building Inspector; Schaeffer Municipal Services, Zoning Administrator; Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP, Village Auditor; Baxter & Woodman, Village Engineer; Consigny Law Firm S.C., Village Attorney; Municipal Code Enforcement, Weed and Tree Commissioner; and Police Chief Justin P. Timm, Civil Defense Commissioner.

Official Newspapers: Lake Geneva Regional News and Kenosha News.

Geneva Lake Environmental Agency (GLEA): Citizen representative LaMarr Lundberg and village board representative Rob Umans.

Geneva Lake Use Committee: Citizen representative Jay Blincoe and village board representative Jim DAlessandro.

Building, Zoning & Ordinance Standing Committee: Adam Jaramillo, chair; Lowell Wright and Jim DAlessandro.

Finance & Personnel Standing Committee: Lowell Wright, chair; Rob Umans and Jim DAlessandro.

Parks & Lakefront Standing Committee: Steve Russell, chair; Lowell Wright and Rob Umans.

Protective Services Standing Committee: George Vlach, chair; Steve Russell and Adam Jaramillo.

Water & Sewer Standing Committee: Rob Umans, chair; Adam Jaramillo and George Vlach.

Streets & Highways Standing Committee: Jim DAlessandro, chair; Steve Russell and George Vlach.

Civil Defense Commission: Police Chief Justin P. Timm, chair; Rescue Squad Capt. Rich Gluth; Fire Chief Doug Smith; Village Trustee George Vlach; and David H. Burrough, Paul Nicholson and Dale Vavra.

Ethics Board: John P. Marra.

Harbor Commission: Tom Lothian, chair; Village Trustee Lowell Wright: Richard Lamkey and Matt Robbins.

Law Enforcement Committee: Frank Bonifacic.

Parks & Memorial Advisory Committee: Michael Fieweger.

Plan Commission: Village President Bill Duncan, chair; Village Trustee Lowell Wright; Pat Watts and Marianne Klemke.

Library Board: Village Trustee Adam Jaramillo.

Zoning Board of Appeals: Village Trustee George Vlach, chair; Village Trustee Rob Umans; Matt Robbins and Mike Fieweger.

Enhancement Committee: Halina Marra, President; Julie Ann Poplar, Vice President; Rita Pilarski, Treasurer; Connie Gluth, Sharon VanDenBroucke, Pat Grove and Sandy Carlson.

Joint Extraterritorial Zoning Committee: Maggie Gage.

Extraterritorial Zoning Board of Appeals: Michael OBrien, Member; Dennis Costello, 1st Alternate; and Spencer Weber, 2nd Alternate.

Other news

In other developments at the May 1 meeting, the Williams Bay Village Board:

Approved Duncans issuance of a village proclamation marking the 54th annual observance of Professional Municipal Clerks Week from April 30-May 6. Recognizing the time honored and vital office of professional municipal clerk as the oldest among public servants, the proclamation honored Williams Bay Villlage Clerk Tina Kills and all professional municipal clerks for the vital services they perform and their exemplary dedication to the communities they represent.

Approved Duncans issuance of a village proclamation marking the April 30-May 6 observance of Public Service Recognition Week recognizing the generous contributions of time and talend by public employees and the importance of the services they render as integral to the advancement of the quality of life that we enjoy here, feting their commitment to exhibiting the highest standards of professional excellence, creativity, skill and customer service and their exemplary dedication.

Approved Duncans issuance of a proclamation marking the May 15-21 observance of National Police Week in the village, and encouraging all citizens to observe the week with law enforcement officers, past and present, who, by their faithful and loyal devotion to their responsibilities, have rendered a dedicated service, feting Williams Bay Police Department officers who have worked devotedly and unselfishly on behalf of the people of their community, regardless of peril or hazard to themselves in safeguarding the lives and property of all in Williams Bay ... by their service and their dedicated efforts, having earned the gratitude of the Village of Williams Bay.

Approved Duncans issuance of a proclamation observing May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day in the Village of Williams Bay in honor of those law enforcement officers who, through their courageous deeds, have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their community or have become disabled in the performance of duty. National Peace Officers Memorial Day has been observed by presidential proclamation, with Congressional authorizations, since 1962.

Approved operator license applications submitted by Alexander Klotz of Burlington, and Cindy Cohen and Lauren Benkendoft of Williams Bay, all employed by Gage Marine at Pier 290, 1 Leichty Dr., Williams Bay.

IN 18 PHOTOS; Williams Bay Middle School presents "The SpongeBob Musical: Youth Edition" - April 27-28, 2023 Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongeBob SquarePants and his pet snail, Gary! BFF's Patrick Star and SpongeBob SquarePants Bikini Bottom neighbors Patrick Staff, Squidward Q. Tentacles and SpongeBob SquarePants "The Sponge Bob Musical: Youth Edition" cast and crew - Williams Bay Middle School, April 27-28, 2023 Hatching an evil scheme down at The Chum Bucket SpongeBob comforts Pearl Krabs SpongeBob Electric Skates.JPG Dollar signs in Mr. Krabs' eyes: "Daddy Knows Best" Discord in the Krabs Family Ms. Mayor tries to maintain the status quo in Bikini Bottom despite the impending threat of a rumbling undersea volcano The Krusty Krab proprietor Mr. Krabs TV newscaster Perch Perkins reports on breaking news in Bikini Bottom SpongeBob Patrick Groupies.JPG Race to the rescue Scientist squirrel Sandy Cheeks explains her plan for defusing volcano Mt. Humongous "I'm Not a Loser" - Squidward Q. Tentacles dreams of breaking into show business Sandy and SpongeBob prepare to defuse threatening volcano Mt. Humungous Down at The Krusty Krab in "The SpongeBob Musical: Youth Edition" at Williams Bay Middle School
A Bagley man died Monday after a boating incident on the backwaters of the Mississippi River near the River of Lakes Campground in Bagley, according to the Grant County Coroners Office.

According to Grant County Coroner Phyllis Fuerstenberg, a witness reported about 3 p.m. Monday that 68-year-old Michael Coon, of Bagley, had fallen out of his boat and was seen swimming after it.

Bystanders used a canoe in an effort to aid Coon, who was found unconscious in the water and taken to shore, where lifesaving measures were attempted until emergency personnel arrived. Fuerstenberg said Coon was not wearing a personal flotation device at the time.

Coon was taken to Crossing Rivers Health Center in Prairie du Chien, where he was pronounced dead.

West Grant EMS, Bagley First Responders, Glen Haven First Responders, and the Grant County Sheriffs Office assisted at the scene. The incident is being investigated by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Coons death has been ruled as accidental by the Grant County Coroners Office.

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